Food Writing Workshop with Dianne Jacob

Last weekend I spent the day with food blogging friends new and old. We ate (of course!) but really, we came together to hear Dianne Jacob lecture on food writing, from restaurant reviews to blogging to cookbooks, using her book Will Write for Food. Even her prompts were fun! I’m going to share with you the piece I wrote from Dianne’s prompt to use the senses.

Quick Write

Growing up as a picky eater is like wearing black t-shirts all the time. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either scenario, but there’s nothing terribly exciting, either. Color is chaos, it’s fireworks any day but the fourth of July. Now, a few days into eating without gluten, I’m beginning to wonder what else is out there for girls like me who have a sweet tooth in the morning. Out goes cereal dancing with berries, oatmeal crowding out a banana, wheat toast smothered in almond butter and draped with apples.

Consider instead a bright fruit salad, one all the more delicious because I didn’t have to peel the grapefruit or source the ripe avocados. But what almost stopped me in my tracks were the kumquats: I don’t even know what those are. Sure, I’ve heard of kumquats, but if you handed one to me I’d hand it back with a faint smile, assuring us both that I have no clue what I’m doing.

The tang of the grapefruit I recognize from when my mother would serve them with crystals of sugar sparkling in the morning light. Against that sourness the creamy texture of the avocados is welcome – to have both in one bite is why I live in California, where seasons are seasonless and I’m only just beginning to understand that the rest of the world doesn’t have our fruits year round like we do.

The kumquats are smaller than grapes; at first I thought they were cherry tomatoes (other than the fact that they’re as bright as tangerines). Unlike the grapefruit, they’re not peeled, and that’s a texture I’m not used to. It’s how I imagine an orange peel would taste if I were to ever eat one, the way I see some men suck on lemon rinds.

More tips

For more pictures and writing tips, please visit these lovely blogs:

  • Gorgeous food photography from Averie at Love Veggies & Yoga
  • The recipe for this salad from Stephanie at Recipe Renovator; Stephanie was also kind enough to share my essay in this post
  • Ani from Confessions of a Foodie shares both glorious photography and a recipe for her to-die-for Brunch Casserole with Spinach, Ham, Egg, Bread & Cheese (rich, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth amazingness)

Lunch is served

Naturally there was lots of food! I didn’t contribute a thing thanks to the nine-hour SDG&E blackout the night before which would have rendered my (planned) Chicken & Bulgur Wheat Salad unsafe for human consumption. Luckily, my fellow bloggers were more than generous with their dishes! In addition to Stephanie’s gorgeous salad and Ani’s strata, there was a cheese plate, Russian tea cakes, brownies with Oreo centers, a rustic beet salad, a refreshing strawberry sorbet, and a hearty lentil soup.

You can see from the broken binding and forest of Post-it notes that this is a well-read book!

Dianne worked with us on blogging, reviews, cookbooks, ethics, and more.

I’m never far from my iPad and iPhone … and can’t help wishing those cameras in the background belonged to me.

Lunch is served.

If you live in Southern California be sure to check out Dianne’s upcoming workshop; details here.

Cottage Cheese Guacamole

I have a confession to make: I had absolutely no clue about who was playing whom in the Super Bowl yesterday. (Although I was jazzed to see Madonna perform! See, I knew that much at least.) What I was excited about was spending the afternoon with friends. After all, the Super Bowl is nothing if not a legitimate reason to enjoy a beer or two before the more civilized hour of 5:00.

My friend Jessica had a Mexican theme going with fajitas on the grill and margaritas by the pitcher. So naturally my thoughts turned to chips and guacamole. And while I didn’t have time for a run to my favorite farmer’s market for my fave chips and guac, I did have a passel of fresh avocados ripening on my counter.

The caveat? I only had five, not nearly enough to make guacamole for a block party. However, I also had a Costco-sized container of cottage cheese. Armed with a recipe from my favorite vegetarian cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites: Flavorful Recipes for Healthful Meals, I made enough low-fat, high-protein guacamole for an army. All with only five avocados. Not bad for a girl who doesn’t know her Patriots from her Giants.

4.5 from 2 reviews
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Cottage Cheese Guacamole
 
This recipe makes enough guacamole to serve an entire block party. Consider halving the recipe for smaller groups. Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites.
Ingredients
  • 5 ripe avocados, flesh removed
  • 2 ½ cups low-fat cottage cheese
  • Juice from 3 limes
  • ¼ cup chopped scallions
  • 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • Generous handful of fresh basil leaves
  • 2-3 teaspoons kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon crushed red peppers
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, pulse until smooth.
  2. Serve with tortilla chips or even carrots and celery sticks.
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Pistachio Pesto


I just couldn’t sit still Monday. Do you ever have those days? With the rain I put off talking the dog on our daily two-mile walk but I still wanted to do…something. Something active, not like going to the gym active (which is fine since I don’t belong to one, anyway). Something like spending the entire day chopping, dicing, slicing, shredding, browning, simmering. In a word: nesting.

Continue reading Pistachio Pesto >> “Pistachio Pesto”

Easy Stove-Top Macaroni & Cheese


I didn’t set out to ruin your New Year’s intentions, honestly I didn’t. I actually have a few resolutions myself, one of which is filing all the notes, clippings and recipes I’ve amassed over the past year. Which is how I stumbled upon this little jewel of a recipe.

To sweeten the deal, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: this is the easiest mac and cheese you’ll ever make. And as if that weren’t enough, my picky eater gave it thumbs up. For the kids, it has the color and consistency of a boxed macaroni and cheese, but the taste is sophisticated enough to please adults. Oh, and it’s ridiculously easy and fast to pull together, even on a weeknight. In fact, you’ll barely have enough time to finish that first glass of wine.

I used good old-fashioned sharp cheddar cheese for this, the kind my daughter eats day in and day out. I didn’t want to stray too far from her taste palette. Elbow macaroni proved easier to find than shells, although I’ve got shells on my permanent shopping list as that’s what Little GG expects to see in her mac and cheese. We’re a family of three so I halved the original recipe, from Amanda of Amanda’s Cooking; I also skipped the paprika and dry mustard so as not to alarm Little GG (although I can imagine the spices would only further improve the flavor).

Fast, easy, kid-friendly…almost worth blowing your diet, don’t you think?!

Kid-Friendly Stove-Top Mac & Cheese

½ pound gluten-free pasta, shells or elbows preferred
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose gluten-free flour
1 cup milk (low-fat works fine)
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch freshly ground pepper, optional
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (use regular, not reduced fat)

  1. Prepare the pasta according to package directions.
  2. Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Once the butter has melted, sprinkle in the flour and, using a whisk, stir contantly for one minute.
  3. Gently warm the milk in the microwave, 25 seconds or so on high. Slowly whisk the milk into the butter-flour mixture. Continuing whisking to thicken the sauce. Once the sauce is bubbling, it should be thick enough; just don’t allow the sauce to boil.
  4. Once the sauce has thickened, remove from heat and add the salt, pepper and shredded cheese. Stir gently until the cheese has melted and the sauce is thick.
  5. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add the cheese sauce and gently combine.
  6. Serve hot.

Adapted from a recipe by Amanda’s Cookin’.

Penne alla Vodka

One of my pre-New Year’s goals is to stop wasting so much food. Besides literally throwing money away, spoiled food wastes the efforts of the people, trucks and natural resources used to get that food to me in the first place. So in an effort to clean out my pantry, I’ve started planning meals around what I already have on hand.

Continue reading Penne alla Vodka >> “Penne alla Vodka”

Southern Cornbread


If you want comfort food done right, look no further than my friend Breanne, who grew up in the South surrounded by generations of women known for their Southern charm and secret recipes. This is a family that so closely guards some of its recipes that daughters and granddaughters are shooed out of the kitchen when fried chicken is on the menu, lest anyone pick up on the ingredients or the method and pass it along.

Luckily, their cornbread recipe isn’t under lock and key, and it’s the best I’ve ever had. This recipe comes together in a pinch and requires a basic piece of kitchen equipment found in every Southern kitchen: a well-seasoned cast iron pan. Breanne’s cornbread complements everything from soup to chili to your morning coffee. Just be sure to have lots of butter on hand.

Southern Cornbread

1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup enriched corn meal, plus a few tablespoons for the skillet
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
1 cup skim milk
1 egg
¼ cup vegetable oil, plus 2 tablespoons

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then fold in the milk, egg and a ¼ cup oil.
  3. Mix dry ingredients first, than add oil, milk, and egg.
  4. Prepare a 10” skillet by swirling 2 tablespoons oil in the blottom then sprinkling the skillet with about 1 tablespoon corn meal. Heat in the oven until hot and the corn meal begins to brown; don’t let it burn.
  5. Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and add the batter. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown on top.
  6. Serve immediately with plenty of butter.

 

Domino Potatoes


I’m a sucker for anything that involves potatoes: chips, fries, mashed, baked, in soups, as a side, as a main course. (Not stews though, wouldn’t want to mislead you.) So when I saw this blog post by Bon Appétit about domino potatoes and the bloggers who made them, I felt dizzy. Yet another method for baking potatoes? Get out.

Initially I felt a sense of “oh, no, this looks complicated” descend upon me as I read through the recipe. After all, the mandoline I’d bought in July of 2010 had never seen the light of day. I only remembered I owned it because I’d organized my kitchen a few weeks back. But since my dad the engineer was visiting for the afternoon, I figured if I couldn’t make heads or tails of the mandolin, then certainly he could. Which he did, although I also sliced one potato with a knife and you know what? It tasted just as good as those fancy-schmancy mandoline-sliced potatoes.

In theory, the recipe called for inserting a bay leaf between each potato slice. That sounded like medieval torture to me so I instead threw a few sprigs of fresh rosemary into the baking dish and hoped for the best.

Which is exactly what I got: the best potatoes I’ve had in ages. Simplified here for your cooking pleasure.

Domino Potatoes

1 large Idaho potato per person
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
6-7 sprigs fresh rosemary
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

  1. Preheat oven to 425°.
  2. Peel potatoes and trim sides to form a rectangular cube. Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, slice the potatoes into ¼” slices.
  3. Rub a baking dish with a tablespoon or two of butter. Stack the potato slices on their sides, mimicking the shape of the potato. Dollop small pats of butter on each potato. Place rosemary sprigs around the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Bake for 50-60 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Adapted from a recipe by Bon Appétit.

Lentil & Bruschetta Dip

basil lentil dip

This is one of those tried and true, too-easy-to-believe dips that’s more an assembly than a recipe. If you shop at Trader Joe’s, you’ve most likely seen these items but perhaps didn’t think to toss them together in a bowl for one of the most unusual dips you’ve ever tried.

If you’re a light eater, it’s perfect for dinner with your favorite cracker (I love Trader Joe’s pita crackers). And if your friends are vegetarians, they will love you for this fiber and protein packed dip. With the rustic flavor of the lentils, the hint of Italy in the bruschetta, the creaminess of the goat cheese and the freshness of the basil, chances are you’ll love it, too.

As much as I’d like to claim ownership of this tasty treat, this comes from my friend Skye, who patiently sat on the phone helping me find the ingredients at Trader Joe’s, even directing me to the right section of the refrigerator aisle. Is she a great friend or what?!

Lentil Bruschetta Dip

1 package steamed lentils
1 container bruschetta sauce
1 container crumbled goat cheese
1 handful basil leaves, chopped
2 boxes pita crackers

  1. Combine all ingredients but the crackers in a bowl.
  2. Serve with the pita crackers.