herbes de provence – The Kitchen Illiterate

Winter Vegetable Stew with Rosemary Biscuits

My kitchen has been a bit quiet lately. I’ve been feeling a little down, and often when that happens, I start to rely on those culinary staples that are simple, and basic, and designed to make sadness feel a little lighter: minestrone, pizza, big pots of lentils. Macaroni and cheese is right around the corner, I can feel it.

This root vegetable stew is just right for sad, grey winter days. It’s warming and hearty, and fluffy biscuits are the very definition of comfort food. Plus, it’s easy, and allows for plenty of time to sit on the couch watching re-runs of your favorite television shows while it burbles away on the stove.
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Mushroom and Cipollini Onion Pasta

For Christmas, my partner’s sister gave me a copy of the Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food: A Grocer’s Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community Through Food. Bi-Rite Market is a former convenience store turned gourmet grocery in the heart of the Mission, in San Francisco. I’ve been hearing great things about this place since before we moved to the Bay Area, but we hadn’t taken the time to check it out…until I got this book. This is a beautifully produced book about food: not just cooking it, but sourcing it and growing it and buying it and, well, loving it. The book is broken down into chapters roughly by grocery department (butcher, produce, bakery), and while the author highlights lots of excellent local producers (I love living in the Bay!), he also talks about how to find excellent goods if you live outside of this glorious little foodshed.

After one day of flipping through the book, I knew I had to go check it out, so on our final day off before heading back to work, Sean and I jumped on BART and headed into the Mission for lunch and general food perusal. I am a complete sucker for lovely little markets. Grocery shopping is actually one of my favorite things to do. So this place was kind of like heaven to me, even though it was awfully cramped and crowded. The shelves are stuffed full of lovely goodies like locally produced olive oil, fresh baked bread, crisp cellophane packages of delicate cookies and candies, round tubs of housemade salads, tins of Spanish sardines and bottles of unusual sauces and ketchups. The produce is gorgeous (I couldn’t stay away from the blood oranges), the meats are all thick and deep red and beautiful…the whole place had me swooning.
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Chicken and Dumplings

While a California winter isn’t as wintry as New England, or even Walla Walla, we’ve been getting our fair share of damp chill lately. But unlike the onset of winter in Boston, the Bay Area winter doesn’t fill me with dread. I’m actually loving it: the damp and the fog, the drizzly rain, and the grey chill that suggests a coat, but doesn’t require ankle-length wool overcoats, scarves, and hats. I think it’s just perfect. The best part is that it’s just cool enough to make me crazy cozy winter foods, like chicken and dumplings.
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Wine and Dine Walla Walla: Braised Chicken with Scarlet Runner Beans

This week I explore the world of the slow cooker on Wine and Dine Walla Walla, with Braised Chicken and Scarlet Runner Beans. This chicken makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

And I promise to post some Kitchen Illiterate content later this week: I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I have to share!
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Cauliflower Caper Risotto

Last night I threw together this risotto willy nilly, completely unsure if the random things I pulled out the refrigerator would really taste right together. And boy howdy did they! This risotto blew my mind with awesomeness. The cauliflower became soft and almost silky, the herbes de provence gave this a very Thanksgiving kind of flavor (thyme and fennel will do that), and the capers added a hit of delightful briny saltiness that elevated the whole dish. This was one of those rare kitchen triumphs, the kind that feel even more special because the whole endeavor began under a cloud of doubt. This risotto is one for the records.
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