cooking in my underwear

Wednesday night is usually omelet night at our house, but I was really in the mood to step things up with a frittata.  I'd been wanting to do this for a while, but I've never been very keen on trying things that involve the oven, as it usually requires: Unloading all the pots and pans I usually store in the oven and piling them on the living room floor Making a roasting hot apartment even more roasting hot (I don't mind this so much, but the man complains) Losing sight of my food for more than a few minutes - I'm a bit of a kitchen control freak At any rate, I put those concerns aside and got to the business of making this lovely frittata.  As far as instructions go, Alton Brown has never failed me, so I followed the method outlined  here , and substituted the following fillings: grated parmesan baby kale and chopped tomatoes, sauteed shredded mozzarella (added right before placing the pan under the broiler) The result was a wonderful mix o

I guess Mother Nature wasn't content to abuse us with mere chilly winds, so she is now dousing the city with relentless rain as well.   Time for more soup! This one I kind of made up on the fly, using most of the ingredients I'd planned to put into tonight's dinner omelette.  It came together pretty quickly, even with aching, half-frozen hands: I toasted a couple handfuls of pepitas in a heavy pot over medium high heat, then set them aside to cool.  To the same pot, I then added the following: Olive oil diced onion diced pumpkin diced carrot chopped kale canned black beans, rinsed and drained diced chorizo chicken stock/water in equal amounts salt to taste I would have added garlic and celery as well, but I was chilled to the bone and desperately needed a hot shower.  Near-hypothermia is a valid reason for cutting the cooking process short. While the soup bubbled away for about 20 minutes, I grated a few ounces of cheddar (and took a hot s

Fall has barely arrived in NYC and already winter has decided to poke an icy finger into the mix.  With abnormally chilly temps and blustery winds assaulting the city today, I decided to seek refuge in what is perhaps the most comforting of all the comfort foods I know, sancoche (pronounced sang koch ) However, I was rather reluctant to post this recipe, because if you were to ask 10 sancoche aficionados exactly how it's made, you'd get about 15 different answers.  It is essentially a preparation that varies widely, depending on what's at hand.  But in the interest of side-stepping anyone who might challenge the authenticity of my recipe (at least, the way I decided to prepare it today), I am going to describe this soup as semi-sancoche. Most traditional versions include split-peas and quite a few starchy root vegetables (yams, eddoes and the like) which I have not included today, as I wanted to keep the meal somewhat light.  But even without all those yummy