saffron – The Kitchen Illiterate

Saffron Chickpea Stew

The rainy season appears to be underway here in the East Bay. I’m not complaining because it’s still the mildest winter I’ve experienced in over eight years. I’d forgotten how much rain freaks Californians out, though. We get confused by weather. I can’t even tell you how many people in my office this morning said some variation of the phrase, “I thought people moved to California for nice weather,” or “I think we might get washed away in this deluge.” We won’t, we’ll be ok. But the freakouts are happening, nonetheless.
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Rigatoni with Braised Chicken in a Saffron Cream Sauce

I love magazines. I always have. I love the shiny pages and pictures, I even love the ads (yup, natural-born American consumer, right here). I collect them, and have a really hard time letting them go. Just ask my mom about the three years’ worth of Sassy magazines she accidentally got rid of when I was away at college. Right now, I have about five years worth of back issues of Bon Appetit, about a year of Food & Wine, the three issues of Gourmet I received before it went belly up, and a handful of random cooking magazines I’ve picked up over the years at airports and bookstores. A lot of people ask me if I ever actually go back and look at all those magazines, and the truth is, I do. I actually have a system, because, well, I’m a dork.
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Persian Chicken Stew

It is no secret that I’ve been at a real standstill in the kitchen lately. It isn’t just culinary inspiration that’s been lacking, but the writerly inspiration, too. Even when I do cook something fantastic, I can’t seem to find anything interesting to say about it. For example, this stew. It’s great. It’s full of unique flavors, and I got to use some new ingredients, and I found all kinds of delicious things to do with the leftovers. And I’ve been trying now for weeks to sit down and say something that would make you all want to rush into your kitchens to get cooking. How am I doing?
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