It’s August and I keep seeing mentions of summer being over but the 90+ degree days tell me otherwise. The evenings hint of an impending change. While I still get painful mosquito bites whenever I dare to bare my legs, I can feel a coolness in the air at night. I try to ignore the signs for pumpkin spice treats and the back to school signs, but I know that many changes are coming quickly.
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Sometimes a certain food gets ingrained in my mind to the point of obsession and it doesn’t stop until I finally have had my fill of it. This can lead to certain food catastrophes, such as the Cheesecake Incident of 1998 where I helped myself to large, gluttonous portions of Costco cheesecake until I got sick. I still can’t have more than a few bites of the stuff 17 years later, and I am filled with regret that the teenage version of myself lacked restraint.
Lately I’ve had my mind on pimento cheese, the southern staple that has recently popped up more and more on menus and food blogs. Grated cheese, minced pimento peppers and mayo are typically the foundation. It’s rich and satisfying stuff, whether you eat it on pork rinds or spread it on bread to make a sandwich. I wanted to incorporate it into a scone because I imagined the cheese inside being melted and gooey while the cheese on the outside crisped up on the baking sheet. I think we can agree that the best part of a grilled cheese sandwich is those crispy bits of cheese on the pan….
Yesterday over a groggy brunch with some girlfriends weekend plans were shared. There was talk of getting nails done, some shopping and then I added in my plans of working on a recipe for my blog. They asked me what I would be creating this time.
“I’m going to cook a Dutch baby.”
Silence and a few looks of horror and confusion came from the other side of the table. I was slow to respond because I was still suffering the consequences of a Friday night happy hour that lasted a little too long.
“Oh no! A Dutch baby is a pancake you bake in the oven in a skillet. It gets puffy and then deflates when you take it out, kind of like a popover.”
We laughed and I realized that I need to work on my delivery and not assume that everyone knows what I’m talking about. Not everyone obsessively reads food blogs and does endless Google searches on recipes. Some people like leaving their homes and interacting with other human beings outside of social media.
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Today is Friday the 13th and the day before Valentine’s day. I’m not the biggest fan of this holiday but I do like a reason to do something extra special for someone I love. On the morning of the 14th I’ll be making this egg-in-a-grilled-cheese-basket for my boyfriend, with a special addition of fresh Mexican style chorizo. Why? Because dark chocolate is my food love and chorizo is his. If we are out together at a restaurant and there’s something with chorizo on the menu I know that’s what he’ll order. 95% of the time that’s the case. So here is my special Valentine’s day brunch dedicated to my chorizo obsessed, runny yolk loving boyfriend. <3…
When I attended Fire, Flour and Fork a few weekends ago, I discovered many new food products in their tasting tent. One of my favorite things in that tent was grits from Woodson’s Mill. These are not your instant grits sold in packets in the grocery store. These are stone-ground grits made from the best local corn they can find. Based in Lowesville, Virginia, Woodson’s Mill is a historic business, a working mill since 1794! Their grits are minimally processed and all natural with no preservatives (you have to keep them in the fridge or freezer to keep them fresh longer). They’re freshly ground and you can tell when you taste them. They cook up in 15 minutes and are the creamiest, tastiest, corniest grits I’ve ever had. I was so surprised when they said they added just a touch of butter and cheese to the giant crockpot of grits they were serving us out of. They were so flavorful without any special add ins.
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In the past few days the weather has cooled considerably and I’ve need a light jacket in the mornings and evenings when outside. Fall has arrived! Despite having an unseasonably cool summer here in the DC area I’ve eagerly anticipated the first signs of fall. Fall is my favorite season both here and in Korea. Cooler weather, a more relaxed pace of life, my favorite dishes and the leaves changing are all reasons I love fall. In Korea it was a short sigh of relief after the long and stifling monsoon season filled with unbearable humidity and unrelenting rain and a gentle period before the long winter with cutting Siberian gusts coming off the Han River.
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I feel a bit silly writing about these alliums when every single blog seems to be exploding with their excitement over the appearance of ramps at their local farmers market or Whole Foods. There are so many beautiful recipes out there featuring these signals of spring. I wish there were more than a few weeks in the ramp season so that I could try more preparations of these delicious wild plants with their unique flavor that can be described as a blend of onion and garlic. Unfortunately, like most things this season, they are fleeting (it’s suppose to go up to 90 degrees this week and it snowed last month- spring, where did you go?).
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The first time you cook for someone can be a bit nerve wracking. You hope what you make is to their taste and that it turns out well. You don’t want to make anything too complicated as it presents more opportunities for error but you also don’t want to make anything too simple because you want to impress. The choices are endless and if you’re as indecisive as I am (if you ever dine with me, take away my menu the first time I declare I know what I want) it can be an endless cycle of choosing and doubting. Choosing what to cook for someone I have over is so hard for me! Sometimes I plan weeks in advance so that I can properly prepare and maybe even practice once or twice. I know to some people this seems ridiculous- if someone is over shouldn’t they just appreciate and at least pretend to enjoy what you make for them? Yes, maybe. But I want a guest to think on the meal later and I would like to create a memory with them- I know, so dramatic.
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Before I became interested in cooking, I had no idea how weightless a cranberry would seem in the palm of my hand, or how smooth and glossy the surface of it would be. I didn’t know that once you cut into it with a knife that it was white inside, with the tiniest of seeds inside its four chambers (the hollow pockets hidden inside that allow these berries to float in a flooded bog at harvest time). Having had cranberries only in odd and canned-shaped sauce forms, or as a “juice” that was often used in my college era cocktails, I didn’t know that biting into a fresh cranberry would make my mouth pucker and my whole face react to the extreme tartness.
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One of my favorite aspects of cooking is the opportunity it gives you to be creative and inventive. I didn’t really start getting interested in cooking until I was in college, and even then I was still very timid about venturing outside the limits of recipes. But things like hunger and snowstorms will give you that little push you need to think on your toes when supplies are limited. I attended Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia and being a southern city outside the mountains, you expect a few snow flurries but not snowstorms, but one winter I was stuck in my apartment in the middle of a snowstorm with hardly any provisions, no restaurants open and no take out joint delivering.
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Sometimes I’m a lazy food blogger. Generally, yes, I love to get my hands dirty and I make a big mess in the kitchen happily. But I’m not ambitious enough to make things from scratch every time I want something to eat. I do have a day job and I am prone to watching entire seasons of TV shows in one sitting on the weekend (don’t judge me).
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One of my favorite side dishes to order at a bar or restaurant in Korea is steamed eggs. Steamed eggs at a bar? Yeah, I know it sounds very odd, but it’s a common side dish you can order for a couple of bucks. I love this dish with its light, custard-like texture and savory flavor. Many times it has minced vegetables inside, mostly carrots and scallions, or it can be plain with a scallion garnish on top.
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