To Thine Own Self, Be Food

I'll be the first to admit...my D and E of the Alphabet Kitchen Challenge were really pathetic.  Dark chocolate and deviled eggs?  360 degrees of lame! And I think today, I redeem myself a bit. Frittatas are not that experimental around Chez Nelson; we've had them often.  I like them over omelets because a.) they're easier to make (IMO) and b.) they lend themselves much more to weeding the leftover out of the fridge. So... Fridge Orphans to be Used: Asparagus and goat cheese New Addition: Farro Farro is a grain, one that been around for centuries, but has recently entered our culinary consciousness in the last few years (no doubt with the go-whole-grains frenzy).  Ironically, my local Walmart did NOT have farro (six kinds of quinoa and one box of barley, yes...farro, no), but the local small-town grocery store DID have it. Huh. The farro needs to be cooked before it's thrown into the frittata, and if you follow the careful directions on the back of the b...

I really thought about trying to work Edamame or Endive into the Thanksgiving menu, but alas, it just didn't happen. I hosted Thanksgiving at my house again this year; we've been here the last three years.  This year's feast was attended by my parents, my in-laws, and my brother-in-law and his new wife.  I usually take my audience into consideration when I'm developing my menu, and there have years where I've tried some unusual, non-traditional foods because of WHO was attending.  And everyone is always very polite when the foods get crazy, but I've found with my parents and in-laws, especially, it's simpler to keep it more traditional. But, not without my usual fiddling around, of course.  Last year (no, two years ago...last year was the all-in-one Thanksgiving casserole), I did an amazing cornbread stuffing and it was excellent...but my dad stomped on my parade a little when he said he didn't care for it, and that he just wanted regular stuffing. ...

Yesterday was one of those glorious Saturday such as our family has not had in some long time. For starters, nobody at Chez Nelson had any engagements: no food truck detritus, no soccer, no Boy Scouts, no Student Council, no friends over...NOTHING. And, we'd just received about six inches of snow the day/night before... It was really just the perfect day to stay home, stay inside, and stay in pajamas. Definitely a comfort food-type of day, right? But, not normal comfort food...because when have you ever known me to be normal?  Normal might be chili and chocolate pudding, but to me, comfort food on this snowy, chilly Saturday becomes: shakshuka and chocolate-pinot noir puddings. Shakshuka is a northern African cuisine that consists mostly of eggs that have been simmered or otherwise cooked in a spicy tomato sauce.  It's also popular in other Eastern countries such as Israel, Tunisia, Morocco, etc. While we had it for dinner, it's definitely a breakfast favorite i...

I seem to be moving along the spice-meat lines here with this alphabet challenge.  Alas. Today's kitchen experimentations involve ingredients which have become more mainstream over the last few years.  One has been recently taken over a big damned fast-food franchise (which shall remain nameless) and one IS the name of another big, damned food franchise. I'm going to set the record straight.  In that relatively ignorant manner in which international foods are talked about by Americans who may or may not know what they're talking about.  Moderation, people, is the key here.  That, and don't believe everything you read. Honestly, try to sort of believe everything you read here.  I try to keep it legit.  It's just, well, chorizo and chipotle are foods native to a culture that I am not...so I won't claim to be an expert.  Long time learner, folks. Here in my hometown, there's a sweet, sweet, sweet, authentic taco truck...and they offer chorizo...

I understand.  This hot mess to the right is hardly discernible as food.  Sometimes (well, a lot of times), I finish a dish, plate it up, sit down with my family for dinner, start eating, and then...ARGH.  I need to take a picture for the blog. By that time, my plate looks like a warzone.  But, everything I do, I do it for you...and there is no other option. Burrata is a cheese.  A fabulous, fun cheese.  It looks like a small, baseball-sized lump of mozzarella...then you cut into it and a creamy, cheesy filling of another sort oozes from the middle.  It's like surprise cheese. And of course, I can't find it around here.  Thus, I traveled to the state capital to purchase.  And then I baked some garlicky, buttery acorn squash and set pieces of this burrata on top of it, hot from the oven. It gets all melty, gooey, and delicious. Gotta have the burrata.

With the more contemplative winter months ahead, my focus shifts from the all-consuming but even-exciting food truck business to this blog and other food-related adventures.  And so, the question is: What goal or challenge can I set? How can I keep myself accountable for continuing to write at Be Food? An ABC Kitchen Challenge!  Are you ready? Several weeks ago, I saw this at my local grocery store.  I don't see this type of thing there very often, so naturally I picked up and put it in my cart.  Somewhere, someday, I would find a way to use this. Achiote is a tree which produces seeds that, when ground, has a very distinct yellow-reddish hue.  Taste-wise, it's not terribly auspicious, which makes it perfect for the food processing industry, because achiote - a.k.a annatto - is a naturally occurring substance that provides a rich color (i.e. for dyeing) and does not alter flavor of the original product all that much.  Score for Kraft, et al. After...

My last post was over a month ago.  In September.  Well. A LOT has happened since then. I opened my food truck business in late September, and most of October was spent working in it, working on it, thinking about it, ordering food for it, etc. I suppose I could put you through your paces and make you read an entire litany of words on how this month went, yada yada yada.  But, I won't.  It's November and that's National Novel Writing Month for me...so I've had enough words for today.  Instead, pictures and brief commentary. For the record, this month of our Grand Opening was simply to just "get our feet wet".  We wanted to see how it went, get our systems and rhythms in place.  To say that October 2015 exceeded my wildest dreams is an understatement.  To better things in 2016! Ham, Swiss, Pickles, Dijon Mustard = The Hamlet (I Am) In addition to Cream of Tomato soup that we offered every week, I made a soup from scratch - and this...