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 ...

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 thos...