A Savory Recipe: Rosemary Walnut Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

The roasted veggies above consist of
asparagus, carrots, and sweet potatoes

After making this, it looked so pretty and tasted so good I decided to share it with anyone and everyone (who reads this blog, that is). The original rosemary walnut chicken recipe is from Cooking Light magazine, so it's very healthy, but I've adapted it or added notes about substitutions you can make when you don't want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff you don't already have. I paired it with roasted vegetables -- one of the easiest and most delightful ways to get your veggies in -- which is something my mom has perfected and I've taken into my repertoire.

Rosemary Walnut Oven-Fried Chicken

• ¼ c. low-fat buttermilk OR ¼ c. milk with 1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar(stir thoroughly)
• 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 4 6-oz. chicken cutlets (or use bone-in chicken, thighs are a good size but other cuts work too)
• 1/3 c. panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) – substitute saltines if no panko
• 1/3 c. finely chopped walnuts (I ground in coffee grinder) and then leave some larger pieces for good texture
• 2 Tbsp. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Mad Pie Day 2011 Announcement

Hello all! 

It's officially Mad Pie Day 2011 -- celebrated on the first Saturday of March.  I know, I know... pi day is 3.14 (March 14th) you say. Very clever, yes. But that's a math holiday, and math isn't for me. Mad Pie Day is something of a different beast. First off, it's on a Saturday so that everyone can participate (as many people don't work on Saturdays... sorry for those that do, but you can celebrate when you get off work). 

The real point of Mad Pie Day is the pie, as if that wasn't immediately obvious by the name. But don't limit yourself to the concept of just regular old pies. No no, that's not what we're going for. We're going breakfast, lunch, and dinner-- we're doing quiches, fruit pies, tarts, chicken pot pies, to name a few of the regulars. But then there are the truly mad pies. The wacky ones. The margarita pies, the chicken cacciatore pie, the hot tamale pie, spaghetti pies, taco pies, cow pie (don't worry it was only beef), woodchuck pie (made with both the rodent and the hard cider), rutabaga pie, we've even had flaming hula pies that we set on fire and glowed blue flames. There is no end to the possibilities! 

So go forth, and eat pie, and when this pie day is over, you're welcome to share your pie stories here. Til later, when I'll probably be wearing an elastic waistband.

A Feast for the Imagination: Books Full of Food

Molten Lava Cakes = Chocolate Seduction 

I love food, and I love books, but the combination of the two is pure seduction. I've read quite a few books that entwine the two, and every time I do, I'm inspired to bake, cook, or just to savor the tastes that inspire these writers to create these impressive stories. This is a follow up to a previous post about books with food. After realizing how many books I've read that touch on the magics of food and cooking, I decided to create a list of some of the ones I've read, and others that are on my list of books to read.  The first 8 are ones that I've read, and I've reviewed the first 6 to get you started: 

The Food of Love by Anthony Capella

This book was one of those books that can only be described as seductive. Laura is an American student studying art in Rome who meets love-em-and-leave-em Tommaso, a waiter in an upscale Roman restaurant, and Bruno, Tommaso's shy friend and incredible chef working at the same restaurant. Tommaso convinces Laura to come to his house to dinner under the pretense that he is a chef, while Bruno is actually the one doing the cooking, and also has feelings for Laura, who is seduced by Bruno's culinary masterpieces.  The setting of this story, the narrative of how food entices the senses, and the juicy plot that is almost a modern comedy-of-errors, are a winning recipe that had me wanting more. I LOVED this book.

This book also contains recipes toward the back.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

 This book hits on the magic of food and engages in magical realism (a style where magical or extraordinary events or happenings are interwoven with realistic settings to enhance the meaning of the story or bring out the symbolism of the circumstances). The Waverley family is peculiar in their hometown in North Carolina. Claire Waverley is a caterer who weaves her garden's herbs and spices into her foods which can change people's moods and affect their emotions. She's thrown for a loop when her long-lost runaway sister returns home with a child of her own, and a neighbor shows an interest in her, and her world is changed suddenly and drastically. 

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Mysterious and alluring. Single mother Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk move to a small town in France whose activities and characters are dictated by the Catholic church, under the local priest Pere Reynaud. Vianne opens a sweets shop just before Lent, tempting the townsfolk and irritating Reynauld by her uncommon friendliness and defiance of the common town order.

Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer

Julie Mueller is a single mother, whose life has gotten bland. Her mother, feeling guilty and remorseful that she secretly ended her daughter's relationship with a man named Michael (the only one her daughter ever really loved), seeks to bring them together again by enrolling them both in a dessert class. Julie finds the beauty in dessert making and is thoroughly taken out of her comfort zone by seeing Michael again for the first time in years, thinking that he had abandoned her to end their relationship. The book contains recipes at the back, and it's a light, easy read that is a lot of fun.

The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross

Ansley is a Southern sorority girl who gets dumped by her boyfriend, ruining her dreams of living a cushy, comfortable life and being a stay-at-home mom and housewife. Stressed at the prospect of having to actually find a job in the real world, she moves to New York City to live with a grandmother she's never met, and whose reputation at home is a scandalous one. There, she decides to open a cupcake shop as she tries to carve a niche for herself as a baker. This is another light easy, easy read that makes you wonder why you've never started that bakery/coffee shop/bookstore  that you meant to with all your friends that have egged you on over the years. Sorry, maybe that was a little personal. Seriously though, although this book is a little predictable or trite at times, but otherwise, it's fun and the recipes in it are simply delicious (I've tried a few so far, and have it in the cards to try many more!). 

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

A new book by Aimee Bender. I was on hold for this book at the library for over a month, and I thought it would be really similar to Sarah Addison Allen's books (all of which are phenomenal). It's a book about a young girl who can taste food, not just the ingredients, but where they came from, and especially, the feelings of the person who made them. Although this is the synopsis, I'm going to go ahead and warn you that this isn't really a good thing...though it sounds like fun from the outset, she learns secrets about her family through her food.  She has a very interesting perspective, and the writing is absolutely exquisite. It's is dark and brooding, and alive with magical realism, although of a slightly more pessimistic type than Sarah Addison Allen.

Here are some other books along the same lines as the above, most of which are on my list of books to read:

The Owl & Moon Café by Jo-Ann Mapson 
Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella [Great book for coffee connoisseurs, but it does start slowly]

Baking Cakes in Kigali   by  Gaile Parkin [African food]

Belle in the Big Apple: A Novel with Recipes by Brooke Parkhurst [recipes included]

The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

La Cucina: A Novel of Rapture by Lily Prior [Italian food]

How to Cook a Tart by Nina Killham

Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance by Nancy Verde Barr

Last Chinese Chef  by Nicole Mones [Chinese food]

Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran [Iranian food in an Irish setting]

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
Secrets of the Tsil Café  with Recipes by Thomas Fox Averill [recipes included]

Baker’s Apprentice  by Judith Ryan Hendricks

Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks

Reckless Appetites: Romance with Recipes  by Jacqueline Deval

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel [Mexican food; magical realism]

Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray [Baking cakes as stress therapy!]

Under the Cajun Moon by Mindy Starns Clark [Cajun food]

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris [set in France]

The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni [Indian spices; magical realism]

After posting this, I'm starting see how common it is for stories alive with food to be done in magical realism. When you think about it, I guess it's not so strange, since food really can be magical.

Do you smell what the Tarts are cookin?

As a certifiable foodie (and by all means self-certified), I have come to realize how important a good cookbook is. And with an enormous wall of books devoted to just that-- to be found in the non-fiction 641s-- then how do you choose just one?

Well, first of all, you don't. I feel like to get a really good balance of awesome food recipes, you have to get a variety. I mean, Paula Deen might know her stuff on Southern cooking (use excesses of fats and cream), but I wouldn't trust her to enliven my tastebuds with traditional Italian cooking. On top of that, I am extremely attracted to some cookbooks are narrow in subject, and therefore, you know exactly what you'll find when you go looking in them.

Like a book all about breads. There are so many different kinds of breads, and most books have little snippets on how to make bread, but if you really want the best kind of bread-- find the best bread book. That's where you find the kind of bread that you set out on the counter to cool, and when you come back an hour later, half of it has been demolished by hands too impatient to even use a proper bread knife (which is serated, btw-- I'm always amazed when people don't know that). Then there are the specialty breads: pannetone, stollen, cinnamon buns, sticky buns, and even the infamous bread sculptures -- such as our world-famous bread elephant. (For the record, the best bread book I've run across is Ultimate Bread by Eric Treuille).


But as far as standard cookbooks go, here are a few of my favorites:

The New Doubleday Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna
This pretty much has everything you need to know about cooking in it-- how long to cook various cuts of meat per pound, what seasonings go well with different meats, an encyclopedia of herbs, and an insane amount of recipes in general. Pretty much comprehensive, and has great as well as simple recipes.

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
A good back-up manual to the Doubleday, just in case.

Betty Crocker's Cookbook by Betty Crocker
Ah, good old Betty Crocker. This is a great book for people just beginning because it's so easy to follow and has awesomely traditional recipes. On top of that, old Betty's got great tips on baking, which is definitely where she comes in handy in my kitchen. An old standard, Betty is not someone to overlook.


Now, I'm a traditionalist when it comes to food sometimes. I don't feel drawn to food simply because it's gourmet, or because it's expensive, or because it's designed to look like it has the crowning headdress of a cockatoo. I'm into the taste, the texture, and the feel. This said, I must say, I'm not a huge fan of Rachel Ray's cookbooks. She means well, she really does, and she's cute as a button. But she has a knack for fancying up a recipe that could be simplified very easily with all kinds of food-stuffs that you won't have unless you only cook by her book (which I'm sure would get pretty tedious after a while). I'm sorry that veal, pancetta, arugula, Italian tuna, saffron powder, piquillo peppers, Swiss green chard, and capocollo hot ham are not regulars in my kitchen. I actually am. These are ingredients directly from her book. Clearly there are some that I make substitutions for if not readily available or out of my meager price range (bacon subs for pancetta, spinach for arugula, etc)-- but for others like piquillo peppers, although I could look them up, it's much more likely that I will skip over that recipe involving them entirely.

As far as a series of books which verge on gourmet, but still have a reality check and also have incredibly mouthwatering pictures (another key factor in specialty cookbooks), I say you can always count on Williams-Sonoma. In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't need another dessert book after Williams-Sonoma's Desserts by Abigail Johnson Dodge. I have been fascinated by just about all of the Williams-Sonoma series books and have yet to be disappointed. They are simply written, with informative side-bars on special ingredients (and their substitutes!) or how to make something incredibly simple but absolutely delicious. My favorite thing that's come out of that dessert is on the cover-- flourless chocolate torte topped with chocolate ganache and raspberry coulis. Mmmmm... and all you needed to hear from that was "smooth chocolately goodness with raspberry topping". Yum!

Then there are magazines-- like Cooking Light and Gourmet and all that. But I think the best by far (and I think many library users would back me up on this one), is Cook's Illustrated. It's just awesome. Their spiel is that they have a test kitchen where some lucky cook gets to test the hell out of a traditional recipe for something, such as say German chocolate cake or meatloaf. They find out everything that could possibly be wrong with it, deduce how to make it the best through scientific methods, and then come out with an awesome product. In the meatloaf article, they actually made 110 meatloaves and used 260 pounds of beef... talk about dedication to perfection. Plus, they explain the whole process in a well-written way. They also have user tips that weren't written by morons, and the writers of this magazine actually take into consideration both the time it takes to make a dish and the availability of the products they are using, which is pretty refereshing. They also rate kitchen supplies, telling you which ones they recommend and which they don't, and take price into account when deciding what the best is for your money. Awesome!... oh and did I mention that they don't have any ads at all?

Also remember, that most cookbooks are just guidelines and can help you think about what you might want to make, but tweaking a recipe is what makes it unique to your own tastes. However, in baking, this is a horrible horrible idea. Don't do it in baking unless making very minor changes, because that seems to make a huge difference in the chemistry of baking.

My best advice, however, is: get yourself a 3-ring binder and copy recipes like a madman/woman. Write down your favorites that you use all the time, and record the changes you make so you can make it again the same way if it was good. Make sure that you've tabbed it so things are easy to find. I call mine the Tried-and-True cookbook. I save up recipes to try, and put them in a separate folder. Then once I've tried them, they get put into THE PAGES. If I'm good enough and if the end result is pretty enough, I sometimes take my own picture as a sort of trophy. Since I scimp on ink though, this tends to lead to a build-up of pictures on my computer that don't get printed out and put in the pages. But maybe when I'm a rich and famous librarian I will have the means to do that... haha.

Til then, bon apetit!

Also-- minor note: Mad Pie Day is officially March 6th this year (it occurs on the first Saturday of March every year since 2008). Go eat pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Quiches, fruit pies, chicken pot pies, and then get creative! This year I think I'm going to try the asparagus-parmesan quiche. There will probably be coverage of this event in the aftermath, so I'll keep you posted. In 2008, we had about 15 people throughout the day, and 12 pies. 2009 showed growth with 19 people and 18 pies. This year it's expected to grow beyond the bounds of our own house. It's up to you, dear citizens, to take this Mad Pie Day and embrace it with all your might. Invite all your friends, make each party bring a pie, and let the madness begin!

Calories don't count when you're reading a book

I have always been a big fan of cooking food (and naturally eating it, too) but after working at the library with literally a wall of cookbooks, I know now that my food interest borders on obsession.

I noticed and accepted this when I realized that in addition to checking out multitudes of cookbooks, I have also begun checking out novels written about food.

A while back, I read a book by Sarah Addison Allen called Garden Spells. In addition to being beautifully written, having well-developed characters, and being absolutely addictive, I found myself drawn to the magical realism in it. The story takes place in a small town in North Carolina, where every family has their own unique gift. The Waverly sisters are known for their magical gardens, and Claire Waverly is at the core of it, weaving her home-grown herbs, spices, fruits, and vegetables into recipes which can change the way people feel, see, and understand things.

Some time later, I read Chocolat by Joanne Harris. Pretty good (although, I'm sorry to say I liked the movie with Johnny Depp which develops a romance between the main character Vianne and the gypsy Roux). It incorporates some magical realism into it also, with the idea that her delicate candies and pastries are able to touch people.

The next I read was Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer, about a middle aged woman who meets up with her teenage crush while enrolled in a dessert class. The things they cooked sounded so delectable that all I could think about was making desserts.

Now onto Anthony Capella, my new hero, and the reason I decided to write this today. He's my new hero. Well, okay, I only read one book of his, The Food of Love, but I'm about to read his other two: The Wedding Officer and The Various Flavors of Coffee. I absolutely loved the Food of Love (his first novel!), a story about a girl Laura studying art history abroad in Rome (le sigh!), and this guy Tommaso who pretends to be a chef to woo her, while his friend Bruno, also in love with Laura, actually cooks the food that she goes nuts over. On top of the way Capella talks about food, recipes, and the way food makes people feel in this book-- he includes beautiful snippets of art and culture, and delightfully crude Roman remarks, which had me cracking up the entire time. This guy really REALLY knows his stuff. Oh... and there are recipes in the back. Did I say that Anthony Capella is my hero? I really meant it.

I sure am glad that reading about food doesn't make you pack on the pounds like eating it does.