07 Mar 2014
by scolgin
in Observations, Recipes
Tags: barramundi, food, gluten free cooking, humor, Italian cooking, polenta, recipes, shrimp, Trader Joe's, Tuscan kale
Even the best cooks get into ruts.
Tomato saffron scampi with polenta and sautéed Tuscan kale
For all the diversity in my weekly menus, I often find myself bored with my cooking. What sounds like an unimaginably exciting and exotic week of dinners to most — for example: Venetian cecchiti with hand-tossed pizza on Monday, sushi and tempura on Tuesday, Wednesday queso fundido and Mexico City-style tacos, Thursday tea-smoked duck and lo mien, and so on — can seem like “same old, same old” to me. More
04 Mar 2014
by scolgin
in Pork, Recipes, Video
Tags: food, Mexican cooking, Mexican pizzas, Mexico, Oaxaca, recipes, Rick Bayless, street food, Tlayuda
It was a Saturday afternoon, I had a bit of a cold. So I settled into my bed to watch cooking shows on PBS. One of my favorites is “Mexico One Plate at a Time,” with Rick Bayless spotlighting a different region of Mexican cooking each season. This season, he’s in Oaxaca, which is a part of Mexico I’ve never had the privilege to visit.
I often get inspired to cook by things I see Rick talking about on his show — last season he was in Baja, and I found myself trying out air-dried machaca beef, shrimp tacos folded in fried cheese and even an avante garde foamy sea urchin ceviche. And now, lying in bed, I watched as Rick, visiting a sustainable farm in the Oaxacan mountains, dug into something called a tlayuda. More
17 Jan 2014
by scolgin
in On the Road, Recipes, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories)
Tags: eggplant, Kusadasi, Mediterranean, Mehmet, meze, recipes, Turkey, Turkish cooking, şakşuka
It is a noteworthy thing when, having gone your entire life never meeting anyone named “Mehmet,” you meet two at the same time. Of course, it is less remarkable if you are in Turkey — as we were — were every third guy is named “Mehmet.” (The Turkish version of “Mohammed.”)
Cats in the Grand Bazaar
It was more than a decade ago, in the seaside town of Kusadasi, to be precise. Our honeymoon — a friend with a cruise line that I did a lot of work with had arranged the gift of a voyage through Italy, Croatia, the Greek Isles and Turkey. On a day in port, we had gone to see the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, and were en route back to our ship when we stopped in a bar for a beer and a bite to eat. More
14 Jan 2014
by scolgin
in Recipes, Sensational Salads
Tags: arugula, DASH diet, Harry Potter, Mark Bittman, pumpkin, quinoa, recipes, salad, tzatziki, Voldemort
Somewhere in Heaven or on Mt. Olympus or wherever divine beings congregate, the Food Gods and the Irony Gods are toasting and laughing at me. Because, as I write these very words, I am eating quinoa.
Arugula & quinoa salad with roasted pumpkin, walnuts and yogurt cucumbers
They (those gods) had barely just gotten over their amusement at my new jogging regimen (after years of declaring that I only ran if something was chasing me), and now they had this to entertain them! More
22 Nov 2013
by scolgin
in Recipes
Tags: food, guanciale, Italian cooking, pasta, penne, recipes, swiss chard, whole wheat penne, yoga
I love Swiss chard, it’s one of the best greens in my opinion. It cooks up velvety and has a beautiful earthy flavor.
Rainbow chard from Malibu (more glamorous than other rainbow chard)
So I was thrilled at the Friday farmer’s market here in Topanga to discover bags overstuffed with leaves of rainbow chard — white, golden and red. The chard was grown in Malibu, so they were charging $5 for it. (Usually I have rainbow chard growing in my own garden for free, but things have lately gone fallow.) Smitten, I bought the chard anyway. More
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