Cusina

Boy, I dream of this. Beautiful lovely dreams wiped to a sparkle. Cupboards of rinse aid induced gleaming glassware greeting me in the mornings. A clean bleachy smell. *sigh* My reality is so not there yet. I have every good intention of cleaning as I go but by the time I've been interruped for the billionth time during supper prep to help with a homework question, add a band-aid to a scraped knee, answer the door and let in the cable guy or to pick up a child from piano lessons I just can't seem to get things together. I'm schlogging through the last hand wash dishes at about 10:30 p.m. on my way to bed if I'm lucky. If not, they greet me in the morning. I'm so glad though, that our current house does not have an eat in, family style kitchen. It's the old fashioned variety that stands alone. Thank god, because I can enforce my one firm rule: nothing in the kitchen that doesn't belong there. Your plastic dinosaurs, your Barbie accessories, your soldering irons, nail polish and stickers are banished from this place forever. Out out! In our last house we had one of those "heart of the home" kitchens that seems so appealing when you are home shopping but was, in reality, a magnet for every damn little thing. It's no fun having to clear the counter of mittens, golf tees, plant food and permission slips before you can even start dinner. And the DESK in there. Which was supposed to be a lovely place for me to rest while making a grocery list, was piled sky high with everything known to suburban momkind. Ridiculous. No more desks in my kitchen, ever. Oop, sorry, I didn't mean to plant my rant in your nice little clean thread...

Lucky you with all that Salmon. I had some wild Coho myself tonight. Yum. I make a "creamy" parmesan orzo. I think I got the idea for the recipe from Cooking Light magazine initially. It's very tasty, subtle enough in flavor not to overwhelm your salmon, and not heavy at all. Melt about 1 T of butter in a saucepan, med. heat, add 1 cup orzo and stir constantly for a minute or three till pasta is well coated. Stir in 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer till orzo is done (maybe 10-15 minutes). Stir in 1/4 c or more of grated parmesan, some chopped basil, a few T of toasted pine nuts and some salt and pepper to taste. In general, this has the texture of a risotto. I think it would be good with flaked salmon.

Small Tangent: I just have to add that this issue is what initially brought me to eGullet via Google search. Strangely enough, cracking cheesecake problems have sentimental value to me now.

Hmm... I think Paella. Though I'm not sure how the logistics of that would work.

I once ran into almost the entire Seattle Seahawks defense in the Starbucks here in my little town. Literally, it was kind of a crowded thing. They're big. I expect travelling athletes just look for anything familiar.

I second the paella suggestion. Heavenly. If you don't happen to have a few hours to spend on the prep., I have a very passable and much quicker recipe from Mark Bittman. PM me if you would like it.

I use a fair number of canned and jarred veggies, now that I think of it, especially in the winter. Wisconsin isn't a great place to look for fresh veggies then. Tomatoes, muir glen fire roasted are good, tomato paste, corn, creamed and regular, pimento, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, olives, red peppers, chilis, beans of many varieties. As long as these things aren't stand alone ingredients in a dish they are fine out of the can. I don't use anything that gets mushy in when canned though. Asparagus, peas, beans, carrots etc... are out.

Ronnie, you're welcome. Anytime. Squeat, your experience does sound like it resembles Toby's. I can see why this book would be one you would revisit now and then. It's funny, but you and Toby almost sound like you are describing a lost love. You should write that book, especially if you take up with one of those older hotel bars again. I'll bet you get some serious characters in those places. I'd also be interested to see the difference between the New York and California scene. At least in CA you wouldn't have to battle the smoke. I hadn't registered the lack of older bartenders before... though one of our favorite haunts has a manager that is over forty, Brian, he is about the only one. Partly, it's our favorite haunt because of him, he's a great conversationalist, smart guy and is always reading a good book that he wants to tell me about. His reading tastes wander well into the twisted, so it's always interesting. I worry about him a bit, though. He is a fairly serious cyclist who is completely without health insurance. I'll bet that is another reason older bartenders are a rarity. Once you hit about 45, being self-insured is outrageously expensive and financially very risky and I can't imagine many bars offer benefits. I'll never forget the golf pro I met in the Oncologist's office I used to work in. He let his insurance lapse after his 50th birthday because the cost went through the roof. Sure enough, by age 52 he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The saddest part of the story was that he had been about to get married at the time of the diagnosis. They cancelled the wedding as he just couldn't saddle her with the healthcare debts after he was gone. It's such a risk, being without insurance, especially in a physically punishing envrironment like a bar. I definitely can see the allure of the industry, but there is a lot going against it too.

Yah, the field work for this one was rough. The things I do in the name of science and stuff. In fact, I feel the need to recheck my impressions on that Negroni sometime soon. Just to be sure. Has anyone been to Toby's bar? I'd be curious to hear their thoughts. Squeat, did you pour in a restaurant or a bar? What kind of place(s)? How did you get out eventually? It sounds to me from the book that Toby is really struggling with the physical need to quit and lead a "normal life" vs. the desire to stay and do what he does best. Did you feel that too? Is that specific to him and/or the New York scene or is it something that pretty much every bartender faces eventually?

Cosmopolitan: A Bartender’s Life by Toby Cecchini I initially heard about the book in a thread here on eGullet. Thanks for the great tip! My local branch didn’t carry this book. I had to order it all the way from Kaukauna. (No, I’m not making that name up. The proper local pronunciation is kuh-caw-nah.) The cover is arresting. Two drunken people sucking face, one lighting up… a ton of glassware strewn across a bar. It is a late night scene that looks glaringly out of place on the coffee table in my den. Amusingly enough, on the copy I borrowed there is a large white library label stating “Kaukana Public Library Adult Department” pasted along the bottom of the book’s jacket. For a second I wonder if the Kaukana library has a porn section I didn’t know about. I have to think that sticker, which basically shouts, WARNING SMUT INSIDE, bodes well for the book. It’s a welcome change from the crisp, clean aura most books of the food and drink genre give off. It isn’t quite porn, but there are a lot of naked people in this book. Most, though not all, are young and nubile. At one point even Toby himself is caught with his “dick flapping in the breeze” just before falling off the bar with a few strippers. (Don’t worry, no one was hurt.) Despite all the debauchery and dankness that is his world, this book is eloquent and Toby is extremely likeable. In fact, I think it is this contrast that makes the book hard to put down. He is the quintessential protagonist, the honest, slightly too nice but smart enough to figure it out boy from the heartland who comes to find his fortune in the big city. Guys of that genre are a dime a dozen, but this one happens to be able to write his unusual experiences down in a compelling fashion. It’s not just the funky stories I like, it’s also his extensive vocabulary (I just love a man with a large vocabulary. Size does matter.) and his reflective nature. He thinks about where he is and the role that it plays in the greater picture. “It is important to realize that everyone entering a bar is there for something, and seldom is that just a drink. I don’t mean for that to sound as sinister as it might, but a bar is a place for human exchange – of every variety – and a drink, if that’s all you want, is invariably cheaper at home. One thing I feel fairly certain of, having observed for so long this admixture of appetites, is that most people who enter the bar don’t themselves have a clear idea what they want.” You have to appreciate a guy who uses phrases like ‘admixture of appetites’. Toby goes into great detail describing the actual workings of the bar: Staffing, stocking, creating ambience and customer draw, knowing when you are in over your head or need to try something new. I also admire how well he paints a clear picture of the spectrum of his pace. From his early morning solitary walk home and the almost disturbing quiet of an empty bar to the borderline hysteria that the place becomes when it’s packed. “There’s a kind of sickly beauty to these screeching, urgent moments for me, if only because they strip away all the niceties and solicitation of careful bartending and pare what I do down to a simple, brute contest of endurance and production. Locked in that little dugout, when all becomes speed and reflex, I can feel the eyes of all the day-jobbers on me, staring hard even if they don’t mean to. Propped cooling your heels in front of a cross between a donut machine and a carnival sideshow, it’s hard not to watch the crazy, tight spasms of this trained animal churning out refreshments at a hundred miles an hour.” One of my absolute favorite reveries in the book is one that describes his habit of seeking out old world style hotel bars. What a great way to spend a few spare hours, absorbing their character, history, quirks and plushness while sipping something rarefied. Now, of course, I picked up Cosmopolitan in anticipation of a few good drinks. There are a total of five recipes that appear in the appendix: The Cosmopolitan, which he tells the story of perfecting, The Martini, The Margarita, The Sidecar and The Negroni. We chose to replicate The Cosmopolitan and The Negroni. One drink we felt we had never fully appreciated and one we had never tried. We didn’t do them both in one night, however, in fear of not being able to properly describe the later drink. We began our experiments with the Cosmopolitan. (Toby rails against abbreviating the name to Cosmo.) It is decidedly different than the “Cosmo” that I’ve been served previously. The common style is roughly 2 oz. vodka 2 oz. triple sec and 1 oz. cranberry cocktail. It’s o.k., if you are in the mood for a sweet drink, but has become passé even here in the Midwest. Toby’s recipe calls for 2 oz. Citrus Vodka, 2 oz. triple sec or Contreau, 1 ¾ oz. fresh squeezed lime juice and a dash of cranberry, just enough to blush it pink. Yes, you read that correctly, almost an entire jigger of lime. His mixing instructions are great, worthwhile reading on their own. Basically he instructs you to shake the mixture vigorously until it’s painful and then strain into chilled martini stemware. These instructions, by the way, are for shaking two drinks at a time. I didn’t have cranberry juice (which around here is the sweet Ocean Spray variety) and so used a local brand of unsweetened dark cherry juice instead. It is a very dry mixer, similar to real cranberry juice in character. I think the substitution made absolutely no difference in the finished product. I used Ketel One Citron vodka and Contreau as well as half of a large, juicy lime. Toby’s Cosmopolitan, in appearance, is femminine. It is blush pink and slightly cloudy due to the lime pulp. In flavor it isn’t girly at all. It is pungent and extremely acidic, like very potent limeade. The cherry juice and the flavors of the alcohol were completely lost in the lime. Toby states in his text that he can’t imagine anyone being able to tell the difference between Cointreau and much less expensive triple sec in this drink and I expect he is right. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not. I, personally, found the drink to be refreshing almost to the point of overload. It reminded me of those “curiously strong” breath mints in that way. It successfully wiped every trace of my dinner right off my palate. It would be a good summertime after dinner cocktail. While enjoyable, it isn’t a drink I’d ever order a second of. One was plenty for an evening. For the second round my husband took over with the shaker and reversed the proportions of the lime juice and the cherry juice (2 oz. vodka, 2 oz. Cointreau, 1 ¾ oz. cherry juice to a dash of lime). This was more to my taste. Reducing the acid, I could appreciate the blending of the sweet/citrus/bitter of the Cointreau with the vodka and the darkness of the flavor in the cherry juice. It was quite smooth, a nice balance between Toby’s version of the Cosmopolitan and the overly sweet version I’ve been served at parties. It’s also visually beautiful, a nice clear rosy glow with a bright green lime twist. This is cheesy, but in homage to the Cosmopolitan and its subsequent reputation, we put in the 1st season DVD of Sex and the City and watched a few episodes while sipping our drinks. It was a late nineties retro night at our house. To try the Negroni, we took a field trip to our local martini bar. The menu is lengthy and I had noticed it buried among things like “appletinis” and “blue moons”. The Negroni, for those who haven’t had the pleasure, is a mixture composed primarily of Gin, with a shot each of Campari and Sweet Vermouth. Our bar’s menu listed the drink as made with dry vermouth and we asked the bartender to make it with sweet, which, I’m sure, makes it very different in character. She poured us a beautiful pale caramel colored drink. It was tremendously smooth and palatable and an excellent finisher for our night out. During a quiet spell at the bar, the bartender came over to our table and asked how we liked our Negronis. She said that she has made literally thousands of martinis, but this was her first order for that particular drink. I’ll bet she will make a few more now that she has tried it. It really is an excellent and sophisticated cocktail. Cheers to Toby for the selection. I came away from this book having learned a lot about Toby’s underappreciated industry. There is a passion for this work that isn’t explainable by love or money. He makes it sound like dancing with the devil. Hot, intense, full of temptation, and one hell of a ride if you can manage to hang on. I would recommend this read highly as both entertainment and liquid refreshment.

Hannah, what did you serve the puree with? Is it more of a soupy texture or a light mashed potato kind of thing?

The Julia Child chapter, roquefort balls, daube du boef and charlotte basque, looks amazing. I'd love to try the whole menu sometime. I love pouring over Julia's work, but haven't made much of it. And the chapter about Elizabeth (her mother-in-law). It starts with Dories Red Lion cocktail (which sounds girly and fun, I might make it for a night with friends). Then there is ginger duck and rice cooked in it's broth, shredded carrots and parsnips and it finishes with an almond cake. This whole meal sounds great to me too. I think it would be fun to make for my parents as a treat sometime. My mom loves duck. Both menus are rich enough to be real celebration dinners though. I need to wait for the appropriate situation.

The Julia Child chapter, roquefort balls, daube du boef and charlotte basque, looks amazing. I'd love to try the whole menu sometime. I love pouring over Julia's work, but haven't made much of it. And the chapter about Elizabeth (her mother-in-law). It starts with Dories Red Lion cocktail (which sounds girly and fun, I might make it for a night with friends). Then there is ginger duck and rice cooked in it's broth, shredded carrots and parsnips and it finishes with an almond cake. This whole meal sounds great to me too. I think it would be fun to make for my parents as a treat sometime. My mom loves duck. Both menus are rich enough to be real celebration dinners though. I need to wait for the appropriate situation.

This topic is pulled from the Notes from the Librarythread this week, over on the Media board. Do you cook from recipes? If so what kind appeals to you? I do cook with recipes. I kind of like the challenge they present and I like to cook with a lot more variety than I have expertise, so I often turn to them. I don't always follow them religiously, usually have to tweak something here and there. I do fly without them when I have complete confidence, a strange idea I want to try out or the dish is extremely straightforward. I look for recipes that either come from a good source, like an author I trust or recipeGullet, or contain the essence of an idea I've had. I'll often type "almonds and cherries", or whatever I have a taste for, into Google and just see what comes up. It's like a treasure hunt to sift through all the results (some of them interesting only because they are so god awful) and find something that has potential. I know this is dorky, but hey, it's kind fun to see what you come up with. Sometimes I find something that really sparks my imagination. (This, actually, is how I discovered eGullet in the first place. I was looking for cheesecake ideas. Boy, did I get more than I bargained for.) I get the sneaking feeling that this isn't the norm here on eGullet though. Most of you are confident enough not to need the safety net of the step by step. Am I right in my suspicions?

ahhh... that's great. What a cool thing. This topic is a thread unto itself. I definitely can't say the same. I do use recipes, sometimes very faithfully, sometimes not so much. You need to be a fairly accomplished cook to wing it all the time. I like to cook with a lot more variety than I have experience, so I sometimes rely on others to fill in that part. I also enjoy word puzzles and logical challenges. Recipes appeal in that way. They are kind of like puzzles that need to be pieced together with 3D pieces. And that AHA moment can be so delicious.

I tried again with the peach tart. Amanda called on Friday. We talked for about 15 minutes, sorting through the issues I had with the recipe and coming up with a few solutions. I really enjoyed chatting with her. It's obvious that she knows what she's talking about and has an enthusiasm for and knowledge of food in general, peach tart in specific. Plus, you know, it's not every day that I chat it up with a NY Times editor. (My Wisconsin friends were impressed with this story.) I wish I had a personal response like this all the time to recipes. It was like cooking with a coach. I'm so glad I perservered. The final product was outstanding. All around the table, kids and grown ups really enjoyed the tart. I changed a few things at Amanda's suggestion. First, the crust. I think my conceptualization of it was wrong. I wanted it to be a standard pie crust and it just isn't. It's quite rich (made with olive oil and milk, and a little almond extract) and has a pebbled texture to it, almost like a textured shortbread. I think I didn't mix it well enough the first time around and it was too floury in the pan corners. This time I did the mixing in a bowl and then dumped it into the pan with much better results. I also feel that I had initally made the crust too thick. This time, in pressing it out, I was careful to make it thinner and discard the extra. With the peaches, I only ended up using 3, as they were larger than usual and I didn't crowd the pan. I also added a full extra tablespoon of flour to the topping, which helped absorb the extra juice. It was excellent; you should make this. It's simple, unpretentious and delicious. The texture is outstanding. I love the balance of the textured and rich crust with the smoothness and full flavor of the peaches. I do think, however, that the biggest part of the problem my first time around is that I misread her intentions. I made it to travel. She states that this is a good recipe to travel with. That is true, it is an easy recipe to whip up when you are working with limited circumstances. However, the tart itself doesn't travel as well as it might. It is best eaten fresh, still warm even, if you can manage it. _____________ Yes, Jinmyo, I would make more of the recipes in this book, at least some of the ones that suit my life. I probably will take this book out again and try some more. I definitely plan to put the two that I did try into my regular rotation. They were great. It strikes me as interesting that most of the critics of this book haven't actually cooked from it. When you get down to the recipes themselves, they are of good quality. In my opinion at least.

My favorite potato soup is made with sweet potatoes (mashed) and butternut squash puree, add chicken or vegetable stock untill it is the right consistency. Add a little cream, cinnamon or ginger, or some adobo sauce if you want a little heat. Garnish with chopped chipotle if you went the spicy route or chopped fresh tarragon and a swirl of cream if it is more savory. This is really beautiful for a cold evening. Otherwise, if using white or yellow potatoes, I'll make a clam chowder. Edited to say, welcome to eGullet Hersch. And thanks for the chorizo information.

Strangely enough, just about the only time I watch Food TV, is in our favorite watering hole. A pretty typical Wisconsin bar. They have it on in the "regulars" section of the bar all the time. It's kind of a funny contrast. Bright Rachel Rae or whomever on the screen in the eternally clean and sparkly kitchen putting together wholesome feasts vs. the rather dank and smoky bar that we end up in sometimes. I can guarantee that none of those customers, including me, are running home to try out that veal parmesan recipe.

Well, Amanda does. I was suprised to get an e-mail from her this morning. She was wondering about the peach tart failure. In the interest of due dilligence I'm planning to make it again for a small dinner we are having on Friday night (for eight, four adults, four children). Hopefully, having learned from my mistakes the last time, it will come out well. I'll let you know how it goes. You know, that's a pretty darn cool thing. She obviously does care about her reader's experiences with her material. I appreciate that tremendously.

Jinmyo. I know, I almost hate to put this bit out there for fear of getting a "hesserlover" label here in the land of cynics. And I did say at the very beginning that if you can't stomach a little schmaltz, don't even bother picking this up. After reading other reviews of this book I didn't expect to find value here, but did anyways. The real thing that hit me is that she obviously put a LOT of herself into this piece. I have to admire that, it does take cojones, even though she is a bit egotistical in thinking that her day to day escapades would be fascinating to your average reader and not just her shrink. So many cookbooks are just tossed together by some editor to make a few bucks. This book, while too sweet and fluffy for my personal taste, still had real effort and life in it. Perhaps part of my reaction is that I'm fairly close, age and genderwise at least, to her target audience. Who knows? And I really didn't give it a glowing review. Honestly, there is that whole bit in there about her gratuitous name dropping. Ugh. That was a serious turn off. Jeffrey Steingarten's name gets dropped enough in this book to give him a concussion. Carrot Top, you'll have to add in your 2 cents if you read it. Tell me how delusional I am.

Good questions carrot top... hmm. I do think it is her style and the appeal to a young urban crowd that has sold it as a book rather than the actual content. It is a cookbook and a story (of the non-fictional variety), and it succeeds as a combination of those two things. However, it is not a really great example of either, in my estimation at least. I would never, for example, suggest this to a friend who is trying to learn more about cooking or one who is looking for a great biography. It's really just beach reading for the food minded. The recipes were an ecclectic variety from classic Julia Child Daube du Boeuf to trendy Beet and Ginger Soup with Cucumber. I would say that I'd consider making about 40% of them, which is a fairly high number. Not all of them were simple variations, in fact many were just plain out of my time limit. I can't spend all day baking a tart or making my own lunch. I liked the book for it's variety, though, and the fact that she puts a lot of emphasis on selecting the right dishes and menu parameters for each situation. Daube du Boeuf is marvelous, but not for a summer celebration supper.

woah... those photos look terrible. Sorry, I'll try to enlarge them.

Notes on Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser c 2003 W. W. Norton & Company How much do you enjoy Emma by Jane Austen? A. I loved it, have read and re-read the book. I’ve seen the movie several times and have named my first born Emma even though he might not grow into the name. B. Nice girl, sweet story, enjoyed it. I love a happy ending. C. Eh… chick flick/lit, didn’t love it didn’t hate it. I went for the popcorn/read it in high school because I had to. D. Made me regurgitate profusely, ugh, incredibly annoying. By the end of the story I wanted to throttle Emma and toss Mr. Knightly (and possibly his horse) off the next ivy covered bridge. E. Emma who? If you answered c, d or e to the question above, you had better leave Mr. Latte on the library shelf. Ms. Hesser writes her autobiographical cookbook in a fairy tale style. It follows her journey from first date to marriage with a good amount of girlish self doubt and idealism. The writing is a combination of Jane Austen and Bridget Jones Diary. This is not meant to be serious criticism; I just believe that it isn’t what some readers would embrace. On some levels I can relate to Amanda. She, like me, feels that you are what you eat, but even more so, you are what you COOK. Food is a strong symbol for her, and what others cook for her and vice versa tells her a lot about herself. In this writing, Amanda is journaling a major transition in her life. It is very much a story of self definition. I also liked reading about the relationship she has with her grandmother, who is a very self assured woman and cook. My grandmother was much the same. I feel badly for poor Mr. New Husband, however, who will now go through his life trying to think of witty responses to “Ohhh, so you’re Mr. Latte.” I also felt the illustrations were awful, not so much for their artistic merit (sort of New Yorker cartoon) but for their subject matter. Each and every one features a doe eyed, size two, urban chic brunette looking befuddled, winsome or smirky. Enough narcissism already, show us the food! There are also times in the book I felt myself getting annoyed with her pretensions. There is a fair amount of name dropping going on in there and the chapter about what she makes for dinner on airplane trips is just, well, silly. It seems ridiculous to be that persnickety. Bringing along bread, cheese and fruit is one thing. Packing along a four course feast that would take you at least an hour or two to prepare is excessive. When most people travel they just don’t have time or energy for that. I like her writing more when she drops all that “young chic New Yorker foodie” stuff and just says what is in her head. On the positive side, I suspect, unlike some other cookbooks, each recipe in this book was very carefully selected and tested. Ms. Hesser expects these recipes to be with her for a lifetime and they represent a lot of her relationships. They should be good if they hold that kind of personal importance. The book is readable, if you aren’t too much of a cynic, and the recipes have merit, though I did think that many are written for narrative value rather than instructive clarity. I like the concept of her struggling to define who she is in her role as a wife by studying those around her and the food they prepare. It is a love story, so if you have stomach for those, I’d suggest it as an interesting, light read. I selected two recipes to try. We were planning to spend a weekend at a resort style condo with a small kitchen (and a great view) so the recipes needed to be made with simple ingredients that travel well and don’t require a whole lot of equipment but still could seem special. This just happened to be our anniversary dinner. Ms. Hesser’s book is divided by menu and by setting, so I thought it was a good way to try them out. Appetizers were simple chopped tomato, basil and smoked mozzarella bruschetta (no recipe). For the main course I chose Rigatoni with White Bolognese on pg. 161 served with broccolini. As this is a heavy meal, and the peaches were beautiful at the market this week, I selected the Peach Tart on pg. 198 for dessert using her suggestion for Crème Fraiche Whipped Cream on pg. 199. I made the peach tart first, at home. The recipe is a bit strange as it mixes the crust in the pan and pats it in place rather than rolling it out. Not a usual technique and as it turns out, not a recommended one. I found mixing the crust in the pan to be odd and a waste of time. It would have been much more straightforward to make it in the usual manner by rolling it out. Here is a photo of the tart assembly. Unfortunately, this whole recipe turned into a soupy mess. The tart topping directions were very vague. She suggests “if the fruit is especially juicy add a little more flour”. I did add more flour, but obviously not enough as I had about a cup of excess liquid, and my peaches didn’t seem that juicy to begin with. We ended up tossing the crust in the garbage and eating stewed peaches with Crème Fraiche Whipped Cream. They were delicious, but not the pretty tart I’d hoped for. I discovered exactly how much effort it takes to whip heavy cream with a fork, as the electric mixer in our kitchenette was missing. Adding the Crème Fraiche was great. I loved the flavor and consistency, which like very light buttercream. This is an idea I intend to use in the future. While the Peach Tart was definitely disappointing, the Rigatoni with White Bolognese was absolutely brilliant. We loved this dish and it was redemption plus some for the book in my eyes. The sauce uses both ground beef and Italian sausage, incorporates porcini mushrooms, and is reduced three times: first with dry white wine, then with beef broth and finally with a mushroom broth. A bit of cream is stirred in at the end and it is served with parmesan reggiano at the table. It’s very homey looking, as you can see by the picture, but the flavors were complex and rich. I’ll make this one again for certain. It would be a great mid-winter dish. All in all, this was not a bad book to check out. It was enjoyable light reading. It gave me a little reflection about how food mirrors life and relationships and a few good take away recipes. I won’t mind returning it to the library though. It’s not one I would want to have in my permanent collection.

Thanks Rachel, sorry, should have done that link myself.

My brother bought me one of these things. Think he got tired of my handing jars off to him in the kitchen. It really does work well. Leverage is a beautiful thing.