Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 72

A Home Cook’s Take on Mozza’s Orecchiette with Fennel Sausage and Swiss Chard

If you know your pasta, you know that the image and the title here don’t match; that’s because, for some reason, they weren’t selling orecchiette the day I went to Gelson’s. I almost threw in the towel but then I thought, “Why don’t I find another pasta shape that’s kind of like orecchiette?” Which is how I wound up with the shells you see in the above photo. And the shells worked really nicely in this pretty phenomenal, though decidedly unhealthy, pasta dinner from Nancy Silverton’s Mozza Cookbook.

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Planning A Dinner Menu

Good morning! Like my bed-head? That’s me at this very moment trying to plan tonight’s dinner menu. I’m having a few friends over this evening and I’m in Phase One of the process: figuring out what I’m going to make. Usually I keep this process to myself but today I’ve decided to share it with you in the hopes that maybe you’ll get something out of it. By the end of this post, I’ll have my menu set.

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I Made This Smoothie

Yes, I made this smoothie. I didn’t really use a recipe; though, if you shuffle through the contents of my brain, you’ll probably realize I memorized a recipe out of Mad Hungry that I blogged about once here. The key to it all is: instead of using ice? You use frozen berries. And the rest sort of happens willy-nilly.

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Chicken Caesar Fit For The Gods

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Warm Me Up, Cool Me Down (Your Serving Dishes, That Is)

There’s an eye-rolling threshold for home cooks when it comes to chef tricks. At some point, a chef will tell the home cook to do something that causes them (at least internally) to roll their eyes. “You want me to peel chickpeas before making hummus? REALLY?” That sort of thing. And I have to confess, even though the large majority of chefs I met writing my cookbook advised me to warm my serving dishes before serving hot food and chilling my dishes before serving cold food (like a salad), I secretly rolled my eyes at the idea. “I’ll never really do that,” I told myself.

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Do You Feed Your Pets At The Table?

You may think you like chicken, but you should see my cat. When that roast chicken comes out of the oven, Lolita goes nuts. She starts mewling in the kitchen, where I throw her a few scraps, but then–when we’re eating at the table–she sidles up next to me and looks up at me with those adorable, sweet kitty eyes you see in the above photo. This leads to the question proposed in the title of this post: “Do you feed your pets at the table?” I have to confess: I do.

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I Can Cook Too

I’m about to make dinner, but after discovering “On The Town” on Spotify this morning I found myself Googling the show (it’s one of Leonard Bernstein’s first musicals) and reading about Lea Delaria’s scene-stealing performance of the song “I Can Cook Too” in the 1998 revival. There it is above and I liked it so much, I had to share it here. Also: I think it’d make a swell theme song for a cooking show.

Cauliflower Gratin with Gruyère and Goat Cheese

Call me a freak, but I get excited about cauliflower. It’s got great texture and, when cooked properly, can yield lots of big flavor. Most often I roast it in the oven or I caramelize it in a pan; not very often do I boil it, but even boiled cauliflower can hold its own.

On Sunday, I was asked to bring a “vegetable side” to Craig’s aunt and uncle’s Easter brunch. I imagine most people, when presented with this request, would make a crowd-pleaser like mashed potatoes or roasted carrots or mashed potatoes with roasted carrots mashed up in there too which actually sounds kind of good but no one really makes that. Me? I went for a cauliflower gratin.

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Frozen Yogurt Toppings Are Worse For You Than Ice Cream

An observation!

The other day we were in West Hollywood, walking after eating sushi at Jinpachi. I saw a frozen yogurt place and I said, “Oooh let’s get some frozen yogurt.” That’s not something I often say; in fact, I’m much more likely to say, “Oooh let’s get some ice cream.” Only, this being West Hollywood, ice cream isn’t really an option. Frozen yogurt is where it’s at because frozen yogurt, presumably, keeps everyone trim and muscular and sexually attractive.

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Sandra Lee’s Fake Tan

This is not an April Fool’s Joke. The other day I was at my friends’ Jim and Jess’s place and Jess was like, “Oh my God, you guys have to see this.” She loaded up an episode of Sandra Lee’s new show (the one where she recreates fancy restaurant dishes at home, if you consider a $69 hot dog from Serendipity a fancy restaurant dish) and froze the screen on the shot you see above. What became immediately clear is that Sandra Lee either has the same DNA as a black-and-white cookie or the fake tan she paid for earlier that day had only been applied to the backs of her arms and hands. When she turned her arms the other way they were stark white. The lesson here is obvious: if you fake tan before you cook (and who doesn’t?) be sure they spray you on all sides.