I’ve seen tricks for quickly peeling a clove at a time, but never for peeling an entire head of garlic at once. When I’ve made Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, I follow Ina Garten’s suggestion of quickly placing the cloves into boiling water to loosen up the skins, which works, but unless you have asbestos hands, you’re still dealing with a lot of work. I may have to try this method next time… after I find two appropriate bowls, that is.

‘Kitchen’ is probably one of the most evocative words in the English language. Yes, it is a noun denoting a room and its purpose, but more than that, it is a word resonant with symbolism. It conjures up warmth and welcome, safety and security, in short, the very notion of home.

If a kitchen is not comfortable nor will you be. So make it suit you, and not the universal customer. Make it an extension of your personality. Above all give yourself, and it, over to the chaotic coziness that in a cold universe is the kitchen’s soul-saving grace.

She goes on to mention some of her kitchen essentials, a knife magnet block and her favorite tool, the mezzaluna–which she actually uses regularly on her televised segments. Unfortunately for many cooks and food lovers I know, she also mentions customizing a kitchen which is not an option available to that many people though we’d love it!

And even though Nigella doesn’t believe in a kitchen full of the latest gadgets, I admit to buying up more than a few and then throwing out the ones I barely use. Ok… trying to throw them out. Thank goodness for my recent move encouraging me to lighten the load of kitchen equipment. But one gadget-laden thing I have bought recently is this poster from Pop Chart Lab which reads like an intervention for Kitchen Gadgets Anonymous.

I’m not going to admit to how many items on that list I already own or have owned at one point. But I will say that I’ve never owned a melon baller or pie weights. No comment on the rest of them, but at least I’ll have a guide gracing my kitchen to keep score–I mean track. And if I have any food neophytes over for a visit, they’ll have this handy chart providing a visual reference when I ask them to hand me something instead of staring blankly and handing me a pairing knife when I demanded for a shrimp deveiner.

Ice Brigade is a new show airing in March on Food Network. When I first heard the title, I thought it would be a new show on either History or Discovery Channel, but no, it’s a “food” show:

Ice Brigade follows Michigan-based chef Randy Finch and his team of renegade ice artists as they blow the lid off ice sculpting by developing original designs that defy the imagination. To these frozen outlaws, the standard wedding swans are simply huge ice cubes. The real thrill of their bone-chilling craft is to make life-sized and interactive creations like pool tables, bowling lanes, grand pianos, carousels and putt-putt courses. Armed with chain saws, chisels and sledge hammers, each episode features Randy and crew sculpting rock-solid ice blocks into out-of-this world art and delivering them to awestruck clients. No matter the job or locale, the mission remains the same: get the job done, before it all melts away.

I dunno about you, but that picture of a guy with snappy headwear, a chainsaw and a sledgehammer just screams “I have a new show on Food Network”… right? And I don’t discount the attractive inexpensive quality of a “documentary/reality show” but watching an ice sculpture company’s trials, tribulations and triumphs doesn’t exactly shout “food television” to me. Yes, ice sculpting is considered a culinary art, but I fear the direction things are going when a programming executive says, “Hey, you know ‘Ace of Cakes’? Why don’t we just make a bunch more shows like that?” picking the businesses to follow at random just like Bewitched‘s writers would choose what Endora would turn Darrin into on that week’s episode.

It isn’t that I don’t like reality shows–as it happens, I can’t stand them–but when Food Network still owns the rights to show their entire back catalog starring actual chefs and noted food writers it seems silly that, in an effort to maintain a “full” programming slate, they’d seek out new and loosely-food-related shows to put on instead. I suppose this falls under the category of “guy programming” which many networks–who were made popular by their female viewing demographic–are now trying to appeal to for… truck ads? I have no idea. But I suppose it’s a good thing that this show is airing just as Winter is over, otherwise we’d probably be hearing about a bunch of emergency room visits due to chainsaw slippage and sledgehammer bruises!

When I got home, I started going through the book looking for something easy to make. I haven’t made a recipe from a cookbook in a long while, choosing to go the internet route far too often. It isn’t that I don’t like cookbooks, but before having some books on my iPad of late, I just don’t have them at the office when I’m thinking of what to grab from the store and cook that night or that weekend. And while a certain Food Network hostess can go on all she likes about a 30-minute meal, I’m sure that’s a lot easier to accomplish when you have a staff that heads out to the store for you, cutting out that 1-2 hour post-work chore. But her recipe for weeknight bolognese seemed like an easy enough shopping trip and I was able to pick up the ingredients while taking a midday break to the store to get ingredients for mulled cider for an office potluck.

weeknight bolognese (serves 4 to 5)

• 2 tbsp “good olive oil” plus extra to cook the pasta
• 1 lb lean ground sirloin
• 4 tsp minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• ¹⁄₄ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 ¹⁄₄ cups dry red wine, divided
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
• ³⁄₄ lb dried pasta, such as orecchiette or small shells
• ¹⁄₄ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¹⁄₄ cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
• ¹⁄₄ cup heavy cream
• ¹⁄₂ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground sirloin and cook, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the meat has lost its pink color and has started to brown. Stir in the garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 more minute. Pour 1 cup of the wine into the skillet and stir to scrape up any browned bits. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper, stirring until combined. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a tablespoon of salt, a splash of oil, and the pasta, and cook according to the directions on the box.

While the pasta cooks, finish the sauce. Add the nutmeg, basil, cream, and the remaining 1/4 cup wine to the sauce and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. When the pasta is cooked, drain and pour into a large serving bowl. Add the sauce and 1/2 cup Parmesan and toss well. Serve hot with Parmesan on the side.

Easy enough, right? So simple that I figured it would be easy to grab everything at the store, drop it off at home and get back to the office in no time. I wrote a quick list of ingredients, even took a picture of the page in the book with my iPhone. I even found the oreccheitte pasta at the store, which I took great pleasure in over-pronouncing as if I were yet another Food Network hostess fond of deep v-neck shirts. I strode through the store with the confidence of someone that’s got his act together. I had my list, my cart full of groceries and I was all set.

Fast forward to the next evening and everything was proceeding apace. I didn’t do a mise en place due to the low number of ingredients and my carried-over confidence. I had the meat browning in the pan, added the spices and when it came time to add the tomatoes, I tossed in the can of tomatoes, looked at the recipe and reached for the tomato paste… which I had completely neglected to buy.

Um… oops?

Not one to panic, I turned down the heat and went to the internet for that Google search that almost every home cook has had to use at one time or another: Substitutions. Tomato paste isn’t one of those things that’s easy to substitute, but after reading all the suggestions I settled on reducing/thickening a bit of ketchup in a small saucepan. A small setback with a rather elaborate–some might say unnecessary–fix, but I pressed on.

Crisis averted, the rest of the recipe was simple. It’s just heat, add and stir. Compared to a usual bolognese ragu that includes at least beef, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste and broth this was nothing major and very easy to turn out in under an hour. As Ina would say, “How easy is that?” And I was clearly so into the relaxed and easy vibe of this recipe that I wasn’t paying attention when I opened the box of pasta. There was something on TV and I was talking and before I knew it, all of my “little ears” were flying all over the kitchen and onto the floor.

Cue the kitchen freakout.

No, seriously, hysterical laughter, screams of “You have GOT to be kidding me”, frantic searches of the cabinets for a suitable replacement pasta… all to no result. While my friend was able to clean up the floor for me, I headed out to CVS thinking that I’d just have to settle for spaghetti and cope. It happened to be an unseasonably warm day for late October so I could walk outside and across the street in my Ina-inspired black button down shirt, some shorts and my chucks. I wasn’t hopeful, but I spied some familiar blue boxes–no, not Kraft–above the words “New Item” and managed to snag some Barilla penne pasta!

Crisis averted once more, peace of mind regained, pasta tossed with sauce and then cheese and a glass of red wine thrown for good measure. And then another glass just because.

How Easy Is That? is a good cookbook with emphasis on the easy. Not every recipe will feel simple to the average cook, but there’s nothing in here that anyone wouldn’t be able to make with a bit of preparation and a little bit of patience… hopefully at least a bit more than I had last week.

The feminist cooking blog To Serve Woman has a guest post today extolling the virtues of Nigella and I absolutely agree:

Nigella stands out from these for the following reasons:

1. She’s beautiful.
2. She’s not as skinny as a twig.
3. She takes an almost orgasmic pleasure in food.
4. She uses stock cubes.
5. She advocates the use of frozen peas.
6. She doesn’t seem to have anything to do with a supermarket chain.
7. She makes cooking risotto look almost worthwhile (why anyone should want to stand around stirring a pot continuously for about half an hour to produce a generally tasteless yet savoury version of a rice pudding, has always been beyond me).
8. She comes down to the kitchen at midnight and wolfs down huge slices of chocolate cake.
9. She has a body that looks as though she comes down to the kitchen at midnight and wolfs down huge slices of chocolate cake (although not on a daily basis).

Those last two points are what won me over. Not that it ever speaks to excess, but there’s nothing wrong with a midnight snack! If you’re a Nigella lover, check out the full article and the rest of their blog.

I got ALL of that beat. Way way back in the Summer of 2003, the guy I was dating had gotten me to sit down and watch Office Space for the first time ever. Everything I’d heard before had not prepared me for how little I would be impressed by the film. Sure it was funny, but as I’ve said before, my “office” movie is Nine to Five. The things I remember most from Office Space are Gary Cole and “my O face”.

After I called the Superman III scheme a few seconds before a character mentioned it, he realized the viewing was quickly going downhill, so he shook up a batch of cosmos but the only snack he had was a jar of pickles. We weren’t proud, we were short on funds and we weren’t putting on pants, so pickles it was.

Lemme tell ya, the best ideas are born of desperation! And as it so happens that today is another day when I’m not proud and happen to have a pickle handy, I’m takin’ it back to ’03! Unfortunately, supermarket jar dills work much better than the deli variety, it relies more on salty than sour, but if you’re a homemade pickle person you can easily make them to your taste. So don’t bother with pickle juice with your cocktails, think more about a pickle pairing!

I’m a bit excited about this year’s new offering, the Toffee Mocha Latté. Even though I don’t normally go for their candy-like drinks, something about that chocolaty toffee sauce just sounded so good! So far, it hasn’t disappointed. I ordered one this morning while they set out a sample tray and it’s not quite like a candy bar dunked into a coffee, but has just enough sweetness in the opposite direction from my usual Vanilla Latté to make it a viable option. I hope other customers like it as I wouldn’t mind seeing it stick around even after the colder months. There have been more than a few seasonal drinks at the ‘bucks that I’ve loved, but have never been seen again.

So here I sit, in my air-conditioned office, sipping my espresso drink while the sun’s already ramping up for a hot day out there and yet… life is good. Happy September, everyone, and here’s to cooler days!

After surviving a birthday happy hour last night for Thrifty DC Cook and the subsequent 2-for-1 cocktails at Halo, I was sort of slugging through the day with a serious craving for pizza. So I thought I might knock off over to Matchbox on Barracks Row for lunch. Since I’m following their twitter account: @MatchboxDC, I noticed their daily posted soup and pizza specials and there was no question I’d be heading over. After a failed plan to meet up with some friends, I aimed to head out on my own, but some co-workers decided to come along with.

We split their Steak and their Serrano Ham/Pecorino Romano pizzas–and 6 mini-burgers–and were completely satisfied. Generally my team doesn’t take long lunches, so getting out of the office is a treat for us. The service at the Barracks Row Matchbox is always friendly and patient with us even when we have a larger group. My only complaint about Matchbox and it isn’t severe is that it sometimes seems like the food can take a little while to get to the table. On the few occasions that we haven’t gotten appetizers, our stay seems like it’s much longer than just the hour we’re there. But overall, it’s a great choice for lunch. They also tweet their nightly dinner and weekend brunch specials. They really get how twitter can help their business.

So as we’re in the office and post-lunch full & sleepy, I catch up with friends on twitter making them jealous with my pizza pics. I got the heads up that Curbside Cupcakes is heading down near my office. I confess to a wee bit of teasing them as I’ve seen them posting their locations to twitter and Facebook and I was a bit vocal on twitter asking why they never visited my part of the city. Ok, I pouted, I ain’t too proud about it, but it worked!

I hung around the office, tracking their updates and waiting for them to announce their location. It was right on my way home! When I left the office, I could see the pink mini-van in the distance and what most surprised me was the number of people walking right past them to the metro. However we did talk for a while after I bought my dozen cupcakes, and it really wasn’t the best time for them to be there. At that time of day, most people were thinking of heading home and as we know, WMATA frowns upon eating on Metro trains!

I picked up a nice assortment of cupcakes, and they insisted I taste one since I’d never had one before. WOW! With the icing they’re yummy, but I purposely avoided it on my second bite and the cupcake itself was moist, tasty and sweet. Everything you’d expect from hand-mixed, homemade cupcakes. Yeah, they don’t machine mass-produce these and it’s apparent from the look and taste–in a good way!

As delicious as the cupcakes were, just as much fun was talking to them about what they do and it’s really apparent that they love it. Another customer drove up to the van and they recognized her from yesterday–she’s stalking them! And not to toot my own horn, but they totally called me out as the reason they came to that part of town. I’m not saying pouting always works, but… don’t discount it!

So the lesson is that if you have favorite local restaurants, check out their social media accounts. A lot of newer restaurants are on twitter, but others maintain Facebook pages while others prefer to monitor their Yelp pages. Check out the places’ websites to see if they’ve embraced the social web. The people making the updates are usually very friendly and responsive and it’s a great way to let places know how much you enjoy their food and service.

It’s also a great way to keep yourself stuffed throughout the day. No complaints!

Herewith is a modest list of dos and don’ts for servers at the seafood restaurant I am building. Veteran waiters, moonlighting actresses, libertarians and baristas will no doubt protest some or most of what follows. They will claim it homogenizes them or stifles their true nature. And yet, if 100 different actors play Hamlet, hitting all the same marks, reciting all the same lines, cannot each one bring something unique to that role?

Even though he only seems to mention servers in his introduction, I would note that some of these items aren’t solely the server’s responsibility even if the customers are inclined to only blame the server for them. Still there are a lot of good points and it makes you wonder when our expectations as diners are either too high or when they’ve become too low.

Some of my favorites:

• Do not make a singleton feel bad. Do not say, “Are you waiting for someone?” Ask for a reservation. Ask if he or she would like to sit at the bar.
• Do not recite the specials too fast or robotically or dramatically. It is not a soliloquy. This is not an audition.
• Do not bring judgment with the ketchup. Or mustard. Or hot sauce. Or whatever condiment is requested.
• Do not serve salad on a freezing cold plate; it usually advertises the fact that it has not been freshly prepared.
• Do not ask if a guest needs change. Just bring the change.

I’m usually never a fan of “blog entries” that just consist of lists, but these two articles seem fairly well thought out, if a bit heavily weighted on the side of the patron. And 100 items does seem a lot, though after reading them through, there’s a lot of common sense mixed in with general hospitality rules. Still, I’m not going to keep this list in my pocket and judge my dining server experiences by it!

Seriously though, with all of the geeky things I do in life, it has always seemed odd–especially to my family–why food seemed to emerge as and eventually match many of my other hobbies in terms of importance. When I was a kid, my main concern was that we never ran out of peanut butter and jelly, but the potato chips always had to be Lay’s. In high school, I took cues from my mother who–bless her–wasn’t always the greatest cook. She has her standards, and some items she excels at, many things picked up from her mother, but realistically she had the “working mother/wife” role, so churning out 5-star meals wasn’t high on her list of priorities. When I went to college, I was all about Top Ramen at first, but slowly started to notice other things in the store–canned items, mostly, but it was a start. My roommates were most impressed when I added real shredded cheese to the blue box Kraft mix.

I can’t really say when the food bug bit me after college, but before I tackled proper recipes, most of the dishes were just applied knowledge of what goes with what. Not a very impressive statement for someone who’s “top dish” at that point was oatmeal, but you have to start somewhere. Along the way I tried more things, usually just for myself, though I noticed that everyone loves baked goods! Many people say that once they realize they can make bacon at home, there’s no need to leave the house again. For me that food item would be cheesecake. Well… steak too. In any case, enough about my cooking history. If you’ve read my other blog, you know that my cooking experiments have their measures of success and failure, but they’re all fun.

That’s what I’m hoping you’ll most find here: an appreciation of the fun of cooking, the joy that we all find in food, pictures and reviews of my food and that of others, and you might just learn something along the way!