This weekend when we go to the farmer’s market, we will have Tubetti Pasta with Asparagus, Morels and Fava Beans from Sally’s award-winning cookbook A New Way to Cookin mind. It the perfect spring-into-summer pasta recipe because it lends itself to endless improvisation, depending on what look’s best in the market, or how much energy we have.
It plays on an essential principle of improvisational cooking: most foods harvested in the same season — in this case asparagus, morel mushrooms, and various members of the pea family— have an affinity for one another.
The recipe is built on a basic technique: braising the vegetables in a flavorful fat and a little water, then tossing them together with small tubetti pasta and fresh herbs. If you’re pressed for time, use the essential method as a foundation and use only one or two of the vegetables or whatever else looks good in the market. Or swap out like vegetables: use other firm mushrooms like maitake instead of morels.
Shucking fava beans or peas can be a delight when done with friends, but if you’re pressed for time, frozen peas are a fine stand-in.
For those who want to improvise, here’s the basic approach: read more…
Desire to Inspire recently posted a reader’s mid century-style renovation. The kitchen’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures were not side-by-side and we found ourselves moving the cursor up and down to really understand the clever transformation. Ahh, we get it: Beth, who’d masterminded the kitchen’s update, thought carefully about what REALLY needed to be taken out of the kitchen, and what could be revamped a bit to give it a new look.
She replaced the upper cabinets with sleek white modern ones, and replaced the doors on the far left cabinet to match them. She left the lower cornball-paneled oak cabinets in place, painting them a dark black/blue/gray and changing the hardware to make them virtually disappear. (These uniquitous cabinets are the bane of many a homeowner. It’s heartening to know that it is possible to shift their look.) Beth also replaced the counter and backsplash wall and, it seems, left the sink in place, swapping out the faucet to give it more modern look.
She saved a pile of money doing this and got and a great looking, functional kitchen to boot. A girl after our own heart: we used similar principles in the new Laboratory’s kitchen. Story to come soon.
Two images in a recent Remodelista post illustrate an essential principal that just might let you off-the-hook over the holidays: linen table cloths don’t need to be ironed to be beautiful, nor do they even have to be hemmed. We offer proof below, in the lovely tables set ‘au natural’.
But if prefer an ironed look but are short on time and energy (and don’t need more stress), here’s a way of making linen LOOK pressed without having to iron it; we heard about it from a reader named Joan who learned it from her sister-in-law: read more…
The wind has picked up in the huge trees in the park across the way. TV news is reporting mandatory evacuations around the city, as the confluence of full moon, the jet stream and hurricane Sandy’s massive size threatens major flooding and power outages. The sky is straight our of a Ghostbuster’s movie; we’re waiting for the storm to hit.
We spent the morning walking around Harlem gathering supplies, as others did…prescriptions, cash, batteries. We stopped to listen to the joyous gospel that spilled from the windows of a church. As we wandered, we planned our supplies and strategy should the power go out. We’re definitely not into Powerbars; but into REAL as long as we can maintain it.
As we’ve mentioned, ‘the improvised life’s laboratory is something of an homage to plywood. We’ve used it for many things, from window sills to cabinets to floors. We love the stuff, and are constantly hatching plots in our head for furniture, housewares, endless inventions. So we are smitten with carpenter and author Philip Schmidt new book PlyDesign which presents 73 ideas for sleek, smart home furnishings that you can make from off-the-shelf sheet materials using only basic hand and power tools. It features designs contributed by more than 50 creative builders across North America for tables, stools, workstations, benches, laptop stands, shelves, art panels, organizers, headboards, and more.
Each project includes photographs, designs and lists of tools you’ll need. One of our favorites: Barnaby Gunning‘s 8 x 2 tables: read more…
We recently stumpled upon a wonderful post from 2 or 3 Things I Know that we bookmarked AGES AGO (1/3/09!); it is a divinely minimalist place setting with a philosphy to boot:
The key is to not turn to magazines for design advice. buy buy
It’s all about the placement of (just a few) objects.
and resourcing cheap, found, basic elements /materials
Cerre gives a little how-to and her favorite sources for creating a setting like this. read more…
Lush, fragrant summer strawberries are in their last week or two at farm stands. We bought some home and were inspired to serve them in the giant horn spoon Maria Robledo had given us, for an unexpected presentation. We ate them right off the stems, no powdered sugar necessary. It reminded us that there are all kinds of charming and unexpected vessels you could use for serving summer berries. We imagined an our collection of big odd serving spoons filled with berries and arrayed on the table.
If you decide to remove the hulls before serving the berries or cooking with them, don’t throw them away: they can make a great instant flavoring for balsamic vinegar. read more…
Time’s almost up for our current book giveaway! Tonight at midnight, we’ll be picking a commenter at random to receive a signed, first edition copy of Sally’s A New Way to Cook. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been posting seasonal recipes from the book, like Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce, Classic Coleslaw, and three simple summer fruit desserts. But there’s more to be found buried away on ‘the improvised life’, over at The Splendid Table, and at Sally’s personal website. Below you’ll find a round-up of recipes to be had for free (just a fraction in the books 750+ pages.) Remember, all you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment! Good luck! Here now, our recipe extravaganza: read more…
Before picking the winner of our latest book giveaway on June 19 (a signed, first edition copy of Sally’s A New Way to Cook), we’ve been posting recipes from the book that fit the season. With summer fast approaching, slaws are the inevitable – and perfect – accompaniment to barbeques, picnics, and porch suppers. We serve this recipe for Classic Coleslaw all summer long. It rolls several Southern slaws into one, while fudging the overrich ingredients. read more…
Last week we posted a recipe for Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce from Sally’s A New Way to Cook, and thought: what better way to kick-off the summer than to give the book away?! And a signed first-edition copy at that. These hardcover editions with the jazzy stripe-ed covers are now out of print and hard to find.
When A New Way to Cook was first published in 2001, it completely turned the idea of “healthy eating,” on its head. Instead of telling you what you can and can’t eat, and what foods are “good” and “bad,” the book explores how to use “taboo” ingredients like butter, oil, and animal fats in often radical new ways to make healthy and satisfying dishes. It’s also the book where Sally started to play with improvising in the kitchen, years before The Improvisational Cook hit the shelves. In 2009, A New Way to Cook was voted one of the best food books of the decade by the Guardian. We know a lot of people who use it as their “basic” cookbook. read more…
May offers a brief window when the markets are flush with fragrant local strawberries. We’ve been given a couple of cartons by friends who actually had time to get to the greenmarket: sublime little sweet bites perfect as is. But we were reminded of a recipe for Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce from Sally’s A New Way to Cook that would be the perfect way to use up what remains of the spring’s strawberry harvest.
It’s a versatile sauce/stew that can be served hot or cold, and alongside or over any number of plain cakes and desserts, as well pancakes, french toast, and especially a fine vanilla ice cream. (We like to eat it by the spoonful as a midnight snack). It’s simple to make, and the flavors of beaujolais (or other fruity young red wines) and strawberries marry beautifully; it’s an excellent way to use up an open bottle of wine. read more…
Valentine’s Day is next week, which leaves us thinking about gifts that break the chocolate-and-flowers mold. We were suddenly reminded of an email we received from Virginia Del Giudice, a reader in Argentina, who used my simple Lemon Olive Oil recipe from A New Way to Cook to make Christmas presents. We thought this would be a lovely homemade Valentine’s gift as well, especially for someone who likes to cook.
Virginia went the extra mile and made beautiful labels for the bottles:
“I designed the labels with my computer and printed at home on a thin green paper I kept a long time in a drawer. It had some wrinkles but I found that nice and didn’t want to correct it! It has a feeling of old times. In small text I wrote your suggestions for usage.”
Virginia was kind enough to share her labels, which you can find here. They’re in Spanish, but you can always fill in your own English text (or keep the Spanish, which is lovely and adds some flair). I was thinking that all dressed up like this, this oil would make a lovely untraditional Valentine’s Day gift for someone who loves to cook. Chocolate is always great, but who doesn’t love something a little different. read more…
One of the biggest rewards of writing recipes is discovering the pleasure they’ve given people, or how folks have taken the recipes and made them their own. I was delighted last month to hear from reader/blogger Lucinda Keller of Cobalt Violet, who has been making my Chicken, Corn and Pumpkin Soup in Chipotle Lime Broth since she first cut the recipe out of Food and Wine Magazine in 1999. She wrote:
“It is my hearty, go-to soup for fall and winter. You can substitute pumpkin for butternut or another sweet squash. It is also hearty enough to skip the chicken (I usually do) or even make it vegan/vegetarian soup with vegetable stock.” Lucinda adds extra garlic and avocado.
It’s a great winter soup so I’m glad to hear it’s resonated over the years. The chipotle lime broth is a fine thing unto itself; you can use it as a base for improvising other soups – say leftover roast pork, spareribs or chicken with grilled onions… or shrimp with fine egg noodles. I’ve been known to poach an egg in it. Here’s the original recipe and the story behind it: read more…
(Video link here.) This inspiring TED Talk by Britta Riley recently introduced us to the world of Windowfarms. These vertical hydroponic gardens allow city-dwellers to grow vegetables, herbs and fruits in the windows of their otherwise cramped apartments, all year long. Think ‘strawberries’!
But what’s most intriguing about Windowfarms is the community behind them, constantly refining the product and experimenting with new possibilities. This isn’t a community of traditional scientists or farmers–it’s just a bunch of folks who are passionate about an idea.
Riley describes the process of what goes on at our.Windowfarms–the Windowfarms open source community platform–as “R&D-I-Y” (research-and-develop-it-yourself). read more…
We switched over to homemade food gifts for the holidays many, many years ago, and each year we find ourselves in the kitchen with the same tried-and-true recipes. But the repetition doesn’t come from a laziness or a lack of inspiration—over the years we’ve found that our friends and family look forward to these gifts, enjoying the tradition rather than hungering for something new. We’re getting ready to make this year’s batch, and hope some of these recipes and ideas serve you (and your loved ones) well, starting with our favorite: alt-malted milk balls (above)… read more…
which presents 73 ideas for sleek, smart home furnishings that you can make from off-the-shelf sheet materials using only basic hand and power tools. It features designs contributed by more than 50 creative builders across North America for tables, stools, workstations, benches, laptop stands, shelves, art panels, organizers, headboards, and more.
hit the shelves. In 2009, A New Way to Cook was 
