polenta gone wrong.

I saw the recipe and thought it looked like perfection. Polenta mixed with rosemary, garlic and parmesan then pan fried in olive oil. The picture exhibited these adorable little triangles of golden polenta with a light brown crust. And seeing as how it was a Barefoot Contessa recipe, I thought I would follow it to a T. Bad idea! Do not get me wrong, no one, I repeat, NO ONE loves Ina more than me but sometimes she does the unthinkable - she will out-rich me. I mean that her food will call for more butter, more dairy and more olive oil than my stomach can handle. This was certainly one of those cases.

Not to mention the fact that Corey and I somehow missed the serving suggestion - 12 to 18! We were up to our ears in the richest polenta either one of us could ever imagine. To top it all off, we had to take every square, cut it into a triangle (at Corey's insistence) and pan-fry them. The burner that we were working on only half-worked which means that it took twice as long to get every triangle golden brown.

The polenta extravaganza culminated in Corey and I ordering a pizza, freezing half of the polenta and me suffering from indigestion for the rest of the night. Ina, I won't be able to look at you for a little while.

pizza!

For those of you who have a Trader Joe's nearby, go to it and purchase some of their pre-made pizza dough. You can find it in plain, garlic and herb and whole wheat. Corey and I decided to use it last night to make a homemade sausage and meatball pizza (leftovers!). It is truly the easiest thing in the world - bring home the dough, roll it out, sautee some sausage and your leftover meatballs, put on a layer of sauce, the meat and cover in cheese. Voila, "homemade" pizza.

We ate our pizza and watched Elia and Sam get kicked off Top Chef. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed.

pad thai.

I have Thailand on the brain. More specifically, their national dish - Pad Thai. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It is possibly the perfect dish - a little sweet, a little tangy, a little spicy and its base is fried rice noodles. Pad Thai is hard to avoid in this town. The retail strip near my house boasts 4 Thai restaurants within three blocks. So, if you multiply that by the amount of blocks in Seattle, I suppose there are around 350 plates of Pad Thai that I need to try. My friend Sam writes a pizza blog (which you can link to from here) and Corey and I have thought about starting one solely devoted to PT but decided against it because we would get very very fat. The thing is, I could eat PT every day. If given the opportunity or the metabolism, nothing would make me or my stomach happier than a life-long supply of PT. I should note, however, that Pad Thai is just about the hardest thing ever to make at home. I can't figure out if it's the ingredient list which often has the elusive tamarind paste as a major player or the lack of quality woks in homes across the USA (I just read that no wok should actually be non-stick and the cooks of Thailand season their woks with pork fat) but something about PT is hard, near impossible, to recreate. I have a recipe that has been attached to my fridge for months and I will try it. I will brave the cultural gap between me and Asia; I will find tamarind paste and high quality fish sauce; I will unstick the nonstick surface of my wok and I will make the world's first delicious Pad Thai ala WASP.

spaghetti and meatballs.

For the meatballs:
2 pounds of ground turkey
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (4 slices, crusts removed) - soak them in milk
1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:
1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Freshly grated Parmesan

Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs.

Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

This is what Corey and I made last night. We collaborated with Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, but of course added our own signatures. For instance, we used ground turkey instead of Ina's three different kinds of meat. We also used whole wheat spaghetti. And the kicker, a viewing of The Godfather.

cheeseburgers

Two nights ago, I went out for a bit to catch up with my friend Isaac. When I got home, someone had made me a cheeseburger. Corey, the dear man that he is, put together a delicious mixture of ground beef, sauteed onions, mustard powder ( a key ingredient, I found out) and some other unknown ingredients which I should really let him tell you about. Anyway, they were thick, they were juicy, they were cheesy - everything a good burger deserves to be. Isaac joined us and we had an all-out food frenzied conversation about places to wine and dine around Seattle. I realized that there are many restaurants I have yet to try but should start with a list of favorites you just can't miss when in town.

The Flying Fish - seafood, seafood, seafood. What I love about this place is nothing ruins the flavor of the oh-so-fresh fish. Everything is designed around this one perfect piece of seafood on your plate that is just pure genius.

Monsoon - Up-scale Vietnamese. I can't even express how good duck is when it is prepared correctly. The tender meat pairs perfectly with classic Vietnamese flavors like lemongrass and tamarind. Corey still talks about the prawn soup in a lemongrass broth that was pretty out of this world.

Kingfish - right across the street from Monsoon is the ultimate Southern food joint in Seattle. I think the owners do an excellent job at sustaining classic Southern flavors and dishes (collard greens, jumbalaya, bar-b-que ribs) while showcasing the freshness of Northwest seafood and produce.

Lark - Northwest tapas. Yummy. A crab meat and beurre blanc fondue. This is a memorable meal and one I want to have again and again.

Coastal Kitchen - the best chocolate sundae in the whole wide world. This is just a consistently good place to eat. The menu changes quarterly and features different coastal cuisine. The brunch menu is outstanding and those sundaes...I just can't get enough!

Baguette Box - owned by the same people as Monsoon, this sandwich place never fails to please. Their braised tofu Vietnamese-style sandwich is unbelievable. They fry their perfectly seasoned french fries in your choice of truffle oil or peanut oil. Luxury for lunch is a pretty unbeatable concept.


There are more restaurants to dish about so I'll keep it coming. In the meantime, I've got to figure out who I think is going to win Top Chef. I'm rooting for Elia, that crazy bald perfectionist!

Julie and Julia.

I finished reading Julie and Julia this morning. I am at home due to a snow day which is no big surprise because Seattle shuts everything down if anything white hits the streets. I spent my morning reading underneath my new flannel sheets (Thanks, Mom) and thinking that I would just get so much more done, so much more cooking done, if I didn't have a pesky old job.

That's beside the point.

Julie and Julia is by Julie Powell, a frenetic writer and seemingly even more frenetic cook. She up and decided one day, during her very own quarter-life crisis, to make her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her idea was to cook everyday for a year to complete the book - 524 recipes in 365 days. That's a whole lot of butter. This makes for an interesting plot and should be able to carry the book. Here's the thing: the book is based on her blog and is more about her blog turning into a book deal than the actual process of cooking. Julie does share with us triumphs as well as disasters and what taking on a project of this magnitude can do to a marriage but I didn't get the sense that she actually enjoyed her own culinary endeavor. Perhaps I am missing the point but I was looking forward to reading a book about a woman like me making extraordinary food instead of some fairytale that goes something like this: start blog. cook a whole heck of a lot. have famous food critics over to dinner. get on television. land book deal. Julie, who I actually would love to have over for a cup of coffee or her much talked about vodka tonic, is a funny woman. But instead of feeling encouraged by her story, I felt a little bummed out at the end. There are only so many of us "ordinary" food-loving ladies that will live out that fairy-tale and I couldn't help but feel like Julie got really, amazingly lucky. You should google her blog, though. It has all of the food-centered writing I was missing in the book.

On the menu tonight: Corey will be making us deluxe hamburgers under the broiler. I have a feeling he's going to give it his all. I'll let you know how it turns out.

the fish counter.

I rarely cook fish. I always walk right by the fish counter, never expecting it to offer me anything in my price range. Working at a preschool, how much we don't get paid is often fodder for coffee pot gossip (the Seattle equivalent to the water cooler). It stands to reason that I never consider fish as an option for me unless it is a splurge. Well, was I wrong! It turns out that there are many reasonable options for a lady on a budget and I just need to do my research. What was I thinking? I live in Seattle where salmon is its spirit animal.

So, when Corey's mom made us cod, lightly coated in parmesan cheese and served with red chilies, avocado and lemon, I knew I was going to have to eat it again. I headed out, in the 28 degree weather, to the massive grocery store with the gigantic fish counter in search of my ingredients. After buying a nice fillet of cod that would easily feed myself, Corey and Sonya (our lovely roommate), I did a little recreational shopping. This means wandering down the chocolate aisle. Our neighborhood grocery store has a sizable selection of "gourmet" chocolate. I wasn't the only one with dark chocolate on the brain - there were about 20 people crowding the aisle, looking for the highest percentage of cacao and throwing chocolate everywhere. It dawned on me that dark chocolate is a major food trend of the new millennium. With all of this talk of anti-oxidants, how French women eat, low carb, natural, organic, shade-grown, and free-trade, dark chocolate has had a rebirth as the must-have dessert. There are chocolate tasting parties and FoodNetwork specials devoted to cacao. The range of choices I had in front of me was mind boggling. Anything from 59% cacao to 88% (I totally bought it!). I spotted chocolate "infused with mint and a hint of rosemary," chocolate that "explored the essence of hazelnut and currant." These are only the tip of the iceberg. I looked down the aisle, towards the more pedestrian candy and spotted Hershey's getting a piece of the pie with their Special Dark Chocolate. It's everywhere, totally unavoidable and awesomely delicious.

I walked home, weighed down by cod and chocolate. My dinner was a success. I arranged three bowls in a line - one filled with seasoned flour (salt and pepper), the second with a beaten egg and the third with grated parmesan. I dipped the pieces of fish in each bowl and seared them in a hot pan for just a couple of minutes on each side. I served the fish on a bed of lettuce tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and avocado. I'm pretty sure the three of us ate in 7 minutes or less.

After dinner, Corey and I ate two different types of dark chocolate - one that was 88% cacao and another that was a mere 70% (but had espresso beans in it!) and watched Manhattan. Not bad, not bad at all.

obsession.

There are tons of people who truly love food. This is by far an unoriginal passion but a passion of mine nonetheless. The passion. And I just had this realization that all day, everyday, my life is consumed by thoughts of food. I eat breakfast, usually in some hurried fashion, throwing an egg into a pan and then into my stomach. When I get to school (I work as a preschool assistant), I eye my children's snack and then their lunch looking for quality and inspiration from the parents packing these lunchboxes. If I pack my own lunch, I think about it until my break, demanding a quiet spot to eat it. My chest swells with pride if someone compliments my sandwich or the leftovers I brought from the night before.

And then there is dinner. My first question to Corey, my man, is always, "So, what do you want for dinner?" Of course a more considerate question would be something along the lines of "How was your day?" But no, I have my eye on the prize. He humors me by pretending to mull it over. Sometimes he is certain of what he wants but more often than not (and this is just a testament to how wonderful he is), Corey will pretend to be a part of my decision making process, making me feel like I've included him but ultimately understanding that this is my show. Don't get me wrong, the man is no push-over. I think he just gets, maybe even more than I do, how much I truly love food and specifically, dinner.

Okay. I am surrounded by wonderful and amazing cooks. Shout-outs should now go out to my sister (Ellen), my aunt (Sally), Corey's mom (Diane), my best friend (Mary Stuart), my Vassar ladies (Caroline-vegetarian cooking is her passion and Katy-a truly inspired baker), my next door neighbor (Bethany), my Seattle homie (Sue) and even-though-she-strongly-disagrees, my mother (Shirley). My father is gifted as well and can certainly give you a tip or two on when to hit up the grocery store for well-stocked aisles. Lastly, there is the all-time inspiration, my late grandmother, GRANDMAMA (aka Miss Edith). This woman was a powerhouse and you will hear of her extensively throughout this blog, I am sure of it. So, I grew up not knowing that later in life, when left to my own devices, I would actually learn to cook for myself. I moved all the way to Seattle to learn how to cook all of the things I grew up eating. And I have been winning people over with baked grits, tomato pie and collard greens ever since.

So, it seems only fitting that I should start writing about food. Corey is going to help me out with this one and I hope to put up pictures of my/our creations as well as honest critiques of meals eaten out all over this town (Seattle) and possible future towns I will call home. This blog is all things food, all of the time.