That's What Jenni Said

  So this is pretty fascinating. Barigoule once referred to a specific Provençal variety of woodland mushroom. French peasants would stuff fresh artichokes with the barigoules and then braise them in a white wine thyme broth finished with lemon for a bit of tartness. Over time the dish evolved to artichoke hearts braised alongside barigoules along with other vegetables such as onion, carrot, etc. Eventually barigoules fell entirely out of favor and Barigoule came to simply mean a thyme and vegetable braise where the vegetables may vary (except for the artichokes- you must always have artichokes in your Barigoule!) as does the broth (wine, vegetable, or chicken broth). Bon Appetit provided a new twist on the classic in this month’s issue with a Barigoule recipe substituting broccoli for artichokes and featuring the addition of vanilla. Thou shall not take away my beloved artichokes! Accordingly, when I made this for dinner tonight I used artichokes (4 of them) that I hand trimmed...

Made these this morning and they were a big hit. Will never make home fries any other way again. Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated . And as noted in CI, whatever modifications or additions you make, DO NOT leave out the baking soda. It’s what coaxes the perfect texture out of the potatoes. Serves 2   1.5 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and diced 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced kosher salt and pepper Pinch cayenne pepper 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1/2 small onion, diced 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Bring water to boil in Dutch oven or large pot over high heat. Add potatoes and baking soda. Return to boil and cook for 1 minute. Drain potatoes. Return potatoes to pot and shake pot occasionally, until any surface moisture has evaporated, about 1-2 minutes. Add butter, 3/4 teaspoons salt, and cayenne; mix with rubber spatula until potatoes...

  Saturdays are Soup Suppers at our home. We often experiment with new recipes on these days. Tonight we tried our hand at Persian Noodle Soup, or Ash-e Reshteh. I used two differing recipes as inspiration- one from Saveur Magazine and the other from Najmieh Batmanglij’s A Taste of Persia cookbook. My adapted recipe combining the best of both follows below. Serves 4. About 45 minutes to prepare. olive oil 3 small onions, peeled and thinly sliced 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced 1/2 cup white wine 1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed 1 can small white beans, drained and rinsed 1 cup small green lentils, rinsed 6 cups chicken broth 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 T dried dill weed 1 /4 pound ground beef 1/2 tsp cinnamon 2 cups dried egg noodles 1 T dried mint leaves, crushed Plain Greek Yogurt salt and pepper In a large dutch oven heat 2 T oil over medium heat. Add 2/3rds of the sliced onion (salt them lightly) and fry for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and...

On May 13, 2010, NoVA Travelers dashed off to Colorado Springs for an active weekend of  outdoor activities. We flew into Denver and rented a car for the jaunt to Colorado Springs where we bunked down for the night. In the daylight of morning, the city revealed its beauty. Pike’s Peak overshadows the entire city and provides a scenic backdrop for the everyday goings-on of its residents. Views of Pike’s Peak as seen from Colorado Springs We treated ourselves to breakfast at Crepe Francaise downtown. Great little gem nestled among an otherwise run down avenue. Everyone had a little free time to explore on their own before we headed out as a group to Garden of the Gods for hiking. The land was donated to the public in 1909 by the family a local landowner and exhibits several unique geological structures. We took several pictures and tackled a few trails (such as the Siamese Twins) before the rain began to come down and forced an early exit from the park. Panoramic vista o...

Because I had to migrate the google user account associated with my blog, all pictures uploaded under the old user account were erased from google servers during the migration. To correct the corrupted entries, I have to repost (a quick one button sort of job) all my posts to the server. While I am republishing them with the original date so that they stay in sequence on the server and on the blog view, it *may* force a copy of each repost to be sent to the subscribers - I’m really not sure. So this is a public service announcement within which I advise that copious amounts of picture laden emails may be en route to your mailbox if you are a blog subscriber and within which I beg for your patience and understanding (feel free to delete instantly without reading, unless you’d like a good reread or missed an entry the first go-around).

  Here is your entertaining story for the weekend. Hubby and I LOVE Village Inn pies, having been introduced to them while living in Las Cruces. My craving for the caramel pecan silk supreme pie has escalated after returning from a visit to NM (where I saw VI as we passed by but did not have time to stop).  According to google there is a Village Inn in Annapolis (76 miles away). VI pie is ALWAYS worth it, so this morning I convinced husband and friends to piled into a car and make the trip just for pie. Turns out the VI we drove to is a seedy bedbug infested hotel in no way affiliated with the famous pie making Village Inn. Reality: there are no Village Inn restaurants within 150 miles of us, according to the villageinn.com website. We laughed. We laughed a lot. And inside I cried just a little bit, feeling sorry about being deprived pie after working myself into an excited anticipatory frenzy over it. Oh I'd do anything for a slice of caramel pecan silk supreme pie........

  This is an adaptation of a Bobby Flay recipe that I integrated with the recipe from the side of my masa mix bag. Makes perfect, moist, delicious tamales every time. Foulproof! Recipe doubles easily to make 32 tamales. Make extra and freeze the leftovers- you’ll be glad you did. Recipe: 2 cups instant masa 2 cups chicken broth 1 t baking powder ½ t salt 2/3 cup Crisco 2 T butter 1 medium onion 1 cup corn kernels 1.5 t sugar Salt and pepper 36 corn husks 5 or 6 Hatch green chiles, finely diced 1/2 bag shredded Mexican cheese 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or finely chopped Clean and soak the corn husks in hot water for at least an hour before you begin the tamales. Puree the corn, onion, and broth together in blender. Transfer to mixing bowl and cut in butter and shortening. Using your fingers mix in the masa, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until there are no more visible lumps of shortening and dough comes together- DO NOT OVERMIX. Remove the corn husks from...