Toasted amber sides of bread bookend piles of thick crispy bacon, butter leaf lettuce, and beefsteak tomato slices. Fresh pepper added to mayonaise combines with just a tad of the bacon drippings, creating a smokey accented bite. A light drizzle of red wine vinegar on the lettuce cleans the mouth. Creamy avocado and nutty Swiss Cheese complete the sandwich. Crisp, fresh, and delicious.

Quite possibly one of my favorite sandwiches is the BLAST. Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Swiss, and Tomato. I made a couple tonight with a friend of mine and they turned out great. One of the secrets is to find the packages of end pieces and trim. These "discards" are possibly the best parts as they are the smokiest and saltiest parts of the slab of bacon. A must for this classic. As we took each bite, the old fashioned white bread melded with each component. I haven't had a sandwich that good in a while. Served with some plain Ruffles and a glass of Crown, it was a damn good dinner.

Food Coma

A perfect fall meal starts with butternut squash pureed with onions, garlic and carrots added to rich chicken stock and a touch of cream. Crispy fried leeks adds a texture contrast to the slightly curried taste of the sweet soup. Warming and inviting, it is perfect while watching maple leaves drop as fleeting summer memories fade away.

Last night I gave lot of love. I tried my hand at that simple roasted chicken and the butternut squash soup for some of my friends last night and they both came out great. The chicken was seasoned with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme and was a great contrast to the complexities of the curried butternut squash soup.

What I really like about cooking though is the community created through a shared meal. While I was carving up the chicken, someone said that it was like Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. At the end of the meal, I sat just looking at the contented smiles everyone made as they lay back in their seats. It felt really good to be able to take care of people.

Ravioli Date

Three eggs, their golden yolks lighting up like minature suns. Add a pinch of salt, dash of water, and a glug of olive oil to top off the well in the unbleached flour. The dry and the wet wait, anxious to become more than the sum of their parts. The stirring of a fork leads to mixing with fingers, soon becoming a pale yellow mass wanting to be kneaded with palms. With arms. With backs. Finally coalescing into a versatile dough. Flour surrounds the culinary miracle.

I made the raviolis last night using fresh pasta with the help of my date. I didn't know where my pasta crank went so we set up a system where I flattened out the ravioli rounds while she spooned them with the filling and sealed them with an egg wash. Neatness counts so we cut them with the rim of a Red Hook tasting glass (totally MacGyver'd that one). Boiled in salt water, lightly fried in browned butter and sage, and finished with fresh grated parmesean cheese and parsley. The picture tells it all.

The food came out exactly as I imagined it. Each component played its part. Some subtle, some distinct, but all working together. Along with steamed broccoli and a delicious salad kit, we enjoyed the rest of our date.

So did I impress? I'm hopeful, but I do know we both had a good time making and eating the food.

Blue Box

Not gourmet, not refined, hell, not even that good. But with each fork full, there are few foods that are capable of bringing up feelings of innocence and simplicity while being an edible reminder of childhood accomplishments. Boxed Mac 'n' Cheese.

I admit it. I like boxed Mac 'n' Cheese. There I said it. Happy? I said it.

There are a couple skeletons that I keep in my culinary closet and well, you can't doubt that this boxed meal has some sentimental value. It is one of the earliest memories I have of being in the kitchen, and I honestly can't remember how long I've been eating the stuff. And by stuff I really do mean "stuff." The bright orange powder, oddly shaped pasta, and the margarine used to make it are products of intense focus groups, lab work, and marketing campaigns. It is the antithesis to a baked Macaroni and Cheese made for me just the other day. That meal was far superior in every possible aspect: creamy texture with perfectly al dente macaroni, cheese sauce seasoned with precision to create layers of nuttiness and salt beyond comprehension, and a brightness contributed by a spot of tomato sauce added to the mix. It was uniquely delicious, yet familiar because there was an amount of love in this dish that could only come from something with heritage (the recipe was at least 3 generations old!). By all counts I should be fully embracing this original dish.

Yet, I can't disown the blue/red/white/green/generic branded box.

Boxed Mac 'n' Cheese has a special place in my heart next to the Happy Meal and Otter Pop. All are guilty pleasures because they helped form my food identity at a young age. Please help me get through my admission and tell me what are your guilty food pleasures?

We have a winner

I just finished the filling for the raviolis and its pretty damn good. Every aspect comes out perfectly. Doesn't look like much now, but the finished product should be amazing.

Tomorrow I'm going to make the pasta fresh, fill them, and finish them off with the brown butter and sage. The flavors are definitely there, and if my pasta skills hold up, the texture will come through too. ::crossed fingers::

Simply stands out

Roasted Chicken seasoned simply with salt and pepper. So moist that there is almost no difference between the dark and light meat. The Dijon mixed with a bit of the drippings makes for an excellent sauce to enhance a perfectly cooked piece of chicken. Salt, earthiness, a bit of sour, and the slight piquancy of the mustard all plays a role...I now understand why the French call mustard the King of Condiments.

I went to Cafe Presse for the first time last night for my friend's birthday, and I was really happy with the food. Doesn't surprise me though since she graduated from the CIA and has always had a keen palette. Amongst the steak tartare, fries, mussels, squash soup, pate and oysters stood a dish apart from the rest. The roasted chicken served with fries and mustard. It was unabashedly chicken, and the jus was its soul, distilled and concentrated just for my consumption. It's good to know that simple food can shine so brightly if done right.

I'll have pictures up from my adventures up in later posts. iPhone doesn't really do justice.

Hearing is eating

The chewiness of the fresh pasta should go well with the smooth squash puree, make sure its thicker than before. Accented with the firmness of the toasted walnuts and fried bacon should be a nice contrast. The chopped chicken thighs in there should give it that meaty texture that no combination of nuts/vegetables could ever create, and the broccoli should be a way to reset the mouth for another bite.

Sweetness from the onions, squash, and brown sugar. Saltiness from the Bacon, Chicken Broth, and parmesan cheese. Herbal from the fresh thyme and sage, and earthy from the walnuts. The cream and gelatin should keep the flavors lingering. Simple Broccoli to finish.

Make sense? If I can think about what it should be like, then I can focus the meal on those aspects. We'll see how it goes. This is going to be for a dinner date after all...

Welcome

I decided to put up this blog because I had 5 responses in 10 mins to an IM status message today:

"Walnut, bacon, chicken, butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter and steamed broccoli."

This wasn't something I had at lunch, nor was it even something I had eaten in the past 6 months. I was just thinking about what I wanted to make, and I got these unexpected responses. Of course, this isn't really a surprise. If you ask anybody who knows me at all, you'll find out that food plays a large part of who I am and this is my way of sharing with you.