@skod

Ya can't beat a good Bolognese. I learned how to make this lovely sauce while I was living in Florence from a woman who came from a small town near Bologna. The key, she told me, was to brown the meat, giving the sauce it's rich flavor. She accomplished this by cooking it in small batches to avoid boiling it when the meat released all those juices as it warmed. Worked like a charm.

Your weekend of cooking sounds very similar to mine. Lots of leftovers!

We made my wife's wonderful Bolognese and homemade tagliatelle over the weekend and had it last night, after doing Osso Bucco and a lemon risotto for easter dinner. Life as we know it would not be possible without pasta, arborio rice, and maybe 15 or 20 other pantry staples. Oh, and alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

@detroitmechworks

Improvising in cooking is the way I've always discovered new things. Sounds like you've figured out what works.

My Mom did the same thing when she'd make Mac n' Cheese from "the box" starting first with an onion based bechamel sauce and then turning it into a Mornay sauce as she added cheese.

So, I always took my cues from her in the kitchen and it's worked out pretty good for me.

Happy cooking!

From my copy of "Joy of Cooking".

It's actually kinda fun to whip up something decent from the end of the month leftovers. Hell, I've recently even been making Hamburger Helper taste good. These are the kinds of things I wish I'd been taught in school. How to ignore a manufacturer's instructions if you can do it better.

Take Hamburger Helper for example. The instructions want it all made in a single pan, and it's designed for that. I ignore that, use two pans, and prepare the sauce and noodles separately before combining. I also completely ignore their portion suggestions and method for making sauce. Half the time I only end up using HALF the spices they suggest, and cutting it with real cheese, milk and butter. Because I have this thing about food... I like it to be real.

Scratch cooking does take longer, I admit, but I wish I'd been offered the chance to take Home Ec in high school. Wouldn't have been READY for it, looking back, but wish I'd had the chance. The societal insistence on "Marketable" skills has been around forever, but I'm amazed how useful skills have been abandoned because "It's so much EASIER" to do things quickly and cheaply.

I always wished that Star Trek would do an episode where people who were obsessed with doing things the Easy way were put into a situation where all their vaulted knowledge is useless. Yes, I would rewrite "Arena". ("Got him! Hit him with a bunch of rocks!") Sometimes the simple and hard solution is the best one. All that time hunting for cannon parts could have avoided with a simple deadfall or some Punji sticks. (Yes, I know they're banned. I find that most of the "Rules" of warfare tend to favor the rich.)

WOW. Long digression on doing things the old fashioned way.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoaAb5MnKtY]

@enhydra lutris

Your chicken sounds amazing! Wine is a wonderful addition to most anything, but I never thought to use port. Brilliant!

A friend of mine has used my chicken soup recipe in her insta-pot, adjusting the times a little. I think the first time you may have to play it by ear, but after that, it should work fine.

Buon Appetito, my friend!

somewhere, though I'll probably modify them. We went to and enjoyed San Gimignana, but I don't recall what we ate or where. We might've even picnicked, which we do a lot on the road - local foodstuffs, some local wine, a good knife and someplace to sit makes for many a wonderful lunch.

The chicken is interesting, I always use a rub of my own devise and roast whole on an old weber kettle. I mke things self basting by using a wok half-full of cheap wine mixed with water for a drip pan and load fresh picked herbs from the garden on the coals so that everything is bathed in smoke. Body cavity of fowl is usually filled with cheap port. I spatchcock birds in order to do them on a small portable gas grill, which is rare, but I like the idea of doing spatchcocked chicken in the oven - that'll work for rainy or very cold days. The marinade is intriguing because we have a lemon tree.

The soup looks pretty interesting even though it does have cauliflower - worth at least one try. I usually make my own stock but do keep some packaged for emergencies when I'm out or using a lot of it (making risotto). Can't help but wonder how that would adapt to an instant pot for the first one or two stages.

making me hungry.

Have a great one.

@Lookout

I watched Julia and met Jacques Pepin, who is the most fun to watch cook.

Oh, gosh you made me smile reading that! How marvelous for you!

I too enjoy watching him cook. Years ago he did a show with Julia, and I can't remember enjoying anything more in the way of cooking shows than watching those two collaborate. In fact I bought the book they did together. Some fantastic recipe and beautiful pictures.

Ah, yes. Julia and Jacques. Clearly a cooking duo who enjoyed working together. Even the affectionate banter between them on their cooking show was a sheer joy to watch.

Thanks for that lovely memory.

...both I guess would be the way to go. Just returned from trade day and I usually go grocerying while in town (15 miles away). They had an organic chicken on sale. I have it in the pan simmering now. Destined for soup. My Mom was a package and can cook. I started cooking as a scout. I watched Julia and met Jacques Pepin, who is the most fun to watch cook. Anyway over the years I've learned to cook simply and inexpensively. When you live in the boonies, going out to eat isn't the quick option. And I like my own cooking better than most meals I eat out.

Here's a bit of advice (from some buddies)...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs2_rEQriP4]

Thanks for the delicious OT Zoe, Bon Appetit

@randtntx

Beautiful soup.

I remember coming home from school and finding drying pasta noodles on the backs of all the kitchen chairs and every surface was covered with homemade drying noodles...

What a visual. What a memory. It's true about the place those special dishes our Mothers made have in our hearts. They never leave us. Thanks for sharing your sweet memory with us randtntx.

how small things remain in our memory and can be recalled so vividly, like a bowl of soup. I love the story about your mom and the picture of the three of you picnicking. You make me want to pull out some of the old pictures I have. My mom was also a wonderful cook and relished making recipes from all over the world. I remember coming home from school and finding drying pasta noodles on the backs of all the kitchen chairs and every surface was covered with homemade drying noodles. Those meals were so good. My mother used to make an Italian almond cookie for desert with this meal. I'll see if I can scare that recipe up and post it here.

Your description of your Italy trips are wonderful. I would so enjoy eating at O Parrucchiano's amongst the wraparound garden and most especially the vines and lemon tree trellis.

I think Julia would approve.

@Pluto's Republic

I've been getting ruthless with ingredients, lately. I make them audition again in recipes and prove their value

I just thought of a waiting room filled with vegetables trying to remember their lines. Lol. Thanks for that!

Your recipes are fantastic, Zoe. I mean it. I love your rustic approach, and your ingredients that tend toward the absolutely essential and specific. That's what gives them an authentic edge.

Very good advice at the top:

The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.
In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude

The chicken reminds me of "chicken under a brick." Similar ingredients, except for the brick. One of my favorites. I've been getting ruthless with ingredients, lately. I make them audition again in recipes and prove their value — or I cross them off for the sake of simplicity. lol. Also learning to cook with spices. (Herbs I know.) Spices are intoxicating, hence the Spice Road, which transformed global civilizations. I want to know spices intuitively, like a painter knows colors, and then be able to go all Yosemite Sam with them in the kitchen. Spicy recipes tend to have A LOT of ingredients — (perhaps from tradition or sentimentality) so my work is cut out for me. I want to learn to cook the way a musician plays — all instinct — no sheet music; no recipes.

@wendy davis

Wonderful recipe! I especially love the Orange twist to the cornbread. I like using citrus not only in my cooking, but my baking as well.

Italy. I was lucky. Decided to go there when I was young and had no responsibilities. There are still places I'd like to go, but that's for another essay....

Btw, I think anyone who cooks, is a foodie. And I'm glad you enjoyed the stories

Thanks for stopping by!

but i do cook a hella lot. traditional mexican, puerto rican, chinese and italian are my go-to's most often, but i've ben branching out into thai and east indian (for the healthy as hell indian spices).

iirc, i learned this from lidia bastianich first, but rather than copy from my recipe card i grabbed and modified this online link for:

italian orange cornmeal cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (slut) olive oil plus more for pan
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (or orange juice)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange (a microplane zester makes it easy)
• mandarin oranges
• 1 c. sugar
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with oil; line bottom with a round of parchment paper, and brush paper with oil.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, 1 cup sugar, and wine until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and orange zest; beat on low speed gently to combine.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
4. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert cake gently onto a plate, and remove parchment paper. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Garnish with canned mandarin oranges and some the juice. i make three at a time so i can gift a couple...

so many of you have been to italy, i'm both a bit envious and surprised, although my only desire was to got to florence...totally for the art. i have books and books of italian artists and art...

nice vignettes, zobear. but as to your julia child quote? here's another of her chicken recipes: ; )

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSxv6IGBgFQ]

@laurel

So good to "see" you here. Glad you enjoyed the Italian memories. I do so enjoy telling them! Lol.

Thanks for the feedback. I've received similar sentiments about these OT's from different people here which encourages me. Not just because I like hearing people say nice stuff about my writing, (I mean, ok, I like that too, lol) but bc taking a break sometimes and getting to know people in a different light can be a very welcome treat. We have such a wonderful collection of interesting people here with quirky sense of humors that always lightens the mood. Glad it lightened your mood too!

Have a great day, Lauren.

Wonderful thread, like a little journey unto itself. What a great way to get away from the world's worries for a while. Zoebear, your chicken recipes look absolutely delicious and doable, especially with the enthusiasm and care you put into sharing them. And it's nice to glimpse other sides to people whose political intelligence I've long admired. So many foodies here, who would have guessed?

Thank you for putting all this together, Zoebear. Beautiful job.

@mimi

Thanks for the very sweet and funny video. Italians do take their lunches seriously!

I think it might be Rome nod not you. When I stayed there, I was a bit lonely too.

I never really had a lot of money while in Italy. I was going to school there and lived with a family. I did have a boyfriend who wasn't hurting for money, but I wouldn't call him wealthy either. I just got real lucky with some of my eating experiences. Which is where I'd spend what money I had.

Thanks for stopping by dear Mimi!

[video:https://youtu.be/IQIWZtqlLwg]

One day I will cook by cookbook and recipes. Until then I just throw in all things I have left in the fridge and make it spicy. So you just taste the spiciness and not the poor quality food.... Sigh. So far me and my co-eaters survived.

Thanks Zoebear, I bow down to your wonderful write.up of all the recipes. I lived for a good year in Rome and was poor over there. Seldom I enjoyed the good stuff in restaurants like the so-called richer touristy folks. But I found tasty little stuff everywhere, which I just could bite into on the go. Always a joy.

My son was the only one who picked up Italian as a child. Me nada. Husband English and French only, So we wasted our time in Italy not getting out of it what we were supposed to.It was also the place I met American and Canadians, who felt very lonely in Rome and were quite homesick to the US.

So, every person has his own stories.

This is for you from me for your recipes.

PS Can't embed with sound. Don't know why. Sigh.

@mhagle

Farfalle in Italian means butterfly. Italians frequently name their pasta after their shape. Hence, in pasta lingo, the shape looks like a butterfly. Americans, being less lyrically minded in their language than Italians, call that pasta "Bow-Tie" because, I guess, it looks like a bow tie to them.

Langostino. Actually, langostino is both Spanish and Italian for “little lobster.” Although langostino’s taste and texture are similar to lobster meat, langostino is not the crustacean Americans typically refer to as “lobster” — American, or Maine, lobster and spiny lobster.

But for the recipe, you can substitute shrimp instead if you're not near a Trader Joe's where they sell Langostino cooked and frozen.

Read the OT quickly this morning and now not much of a comment. Definitely will try the first. Not familiar with all of the ingredients in the second, but it sounds yummy.

Thank you!

@Unabashed Liberal

Its always interesting discovering new things about people here. So you play a musical instrument? How lovely! Which one? And what a great talent to have. So while we are cooking in the kitchen, you can serenade us!

Thanks so much for the lovely complements. It does my heart good to hear you enjoy my scribblings and my recipes.

As always, Mollie, a joy talking to you.

Mangiare bene! (eat well)

back by to more carefully read this essay, but, from a glance, find it to be delightful. (BTW, big lover of Italian food, here--although, a lousy cook! )

Very much agree with QMS and Bob--you have a super talent for weaving a narrative, and, for writing, period. Bob nailed it--your 'foodie' column/essay is professional grade.

Heck, I'd say that if you ever need another day job--you've got one, no problem!

Gotta run Kaity out, now, but, look forward to settling in for a good read, and, to passing the recipes on to my 'better half.'

Have a good one!

Mollie

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.
~~Gilda Radner, Comedienne

@janis b

Will definitely be trying this one. Thank you Janis!

I think it’s actually the process of imagining ingredients together, and then the preparation involved that I enjoy the most

Oh, yes. You summed up the feeling so well. Case in point: I was so excited the other day imagining some flavor combination I came up with for a dessert that I blurted them out to a customer at work, who happened to be a chef at one of the hotels here in town. And guess what? She was as excited about the flavor combinations as I was! Lol.

Now I can't wait to get started making it, taking pictures of it, and writing about it!

Gosh, I wish those of us who like to cook could get together, have some wine, nibble on some chesse, and create one helluva meal together

Salud!

and Italian landscapes of food.

The enjoyment of food and cooking for me has continually grown over time. Naturally, the first years were experimental in ways that involved simply learning how to cook and were very hit-or-miss. In the beginning I especially enjoyed experimenting with Chinese food, later it was Vegetarian and Japanese. Now it’s anything that I’ve loved the taste of and try to replicate, or dishes made from reading recipes and taking bits from here and there to prepare something with the ingredients I have, or just winging it. It’s still hit-or-miss, but generally closer to satisfying. I think it’s actually the process of imagining ingredients together, and then the preparation involved that I enjoy the most, plus the pleasure of sharing delectable conversations around the table. It must be a treat to work at a market full of appetising ingredients.

Sometimes I find a recipe that I think is going to be perfect just the way it is, and in reality it is, like this one …

Baked Maple Lime Chicken Legs

INGREDIENTS
* 2 lbs whole chicken legs, bone in skin on
* 2 tablespoons lime zest
* Juice of 2 limes
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
* ½ cup maple syrup
* 1 cup olive oil
* 1 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
* 1 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
* 1 teaspoons soy sauce
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together lime zest, juice, garlic, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, olive oil, thyme, ginger and soy sauce. Add chicken legs to a gallon sized ziplock bag, and pour marinade over it. Seal the bag and leave in refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
2. Pre-heat oven to 400F (200C).
3. Transfer chicken legs to a baking pan and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a thermometer inserted reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74C) and juices run clear.
5. Serve hot.

- the only thing I sometimes change is adding other chicken parts.

Chef’s Table on netflix was the first cooking series I watched and loved. I enjoyed the individual chefs and their life stories as much as the food preparation. I also loved watching Feed Phil and Ugly Delicious. I haven’t watched the competitions because there are so many other fascinating cooking series and films.