Foodie Must Read

Happy Summer Everyone!

Today's NY Times has a great list by Mark Bittman on 101 Summer Meals to make in 10 minutes or less. Do yourself a favor and read it now, before it goes behind a pay wall. There are too many yummy options in this list to choose a favorite.

G

p.s. Things are hectic these days around Casa Peterson, but I promise I do have a few posts up my sleeve for this site and Paper Palate - please be patient!

food memories of my youth...

i grew up in southwestern connecticut and spent my summers alternately in cape cod and rowayton. my parents were avid sailors so we owned (sometimes) multiple sailboats (catamarans) at once. my brothers sailed too. and me? well, i was a bathing beauty and an all around cutie pie, winning over our fellow beach club members.

roton point was where i learned to swim, where i was hit by the rock that resulted in my first experience with stitches, and where i have my first real food memories.

each night, after a day of sun, we would dress a little warmer and wait for dusk, looking out over the auburn hued water, as the fireflies made their way into the night air. dad would fire up the hibachi, and mom would prepare salade nicoise (it is only now that i realize how 'french chef' that is - all i cared about then was getting to those juicy bits of green beans, eggs, and flaked tuna - yum). the adults (all fairly raucous sailors - holdover hippies really as this was the early seventies) drank their dubonnet on ice in plastic tumblers and the kids had...well, i just don't know what we drank. but i do know what we ate before dinner.

does anyone remember this?


ahhhh port wine cheese spread. cheesy enough for a kid, but with a kick of port to make you think you are being deviant. i don't know if it was this brand, but it sure looks the same. sure i've moved on to affinoise as my cheese of choice, but there is something so satisfying about the bite of this cheese, even now. i keep a container of this in my fridge. my husband doesn't get it, but all i need to do is show it to my mom and i get a nod of approval.

to this day, the sight of port wine cheese sends me back to that little run down beach haven on the long island sound. when i have my bad days, if i'm missing my mum, or feeling down, a slathering of this on a cracker just somehow brings me....up.

Review - Everyday Pasta, Giada De Laurentiis

Cookbook: Everyday Pasta
Author: Giada De Laurentiis
Publisher: Clarkson Potter

Recipe: Linguini with Turkey Meatballs
Page#: 177

Giada De Laurentiis just released her third cookbook, Everyday Pasta. Every time I get a new cookbook, I try at least one recipe within the first day or two, just to gauge the book. I usually try something simple. Why? Because if the simple stuff doesn't work, then the rest of the book is likely to disappoint. So what did I choose? Something easy: Linguini with Turkey Meatballs. It is featured as quick and tasty, and is supposed to leave my guests hungry for more (her words, not mine).

Ahem. Now let's get down to business.

What Worked:
Giada had a brilliant idea to add chopped sun dried tomatoes to the meatballs along with diced pancetta. Brilliant! Those little nuggets were a welcome surprise in the otherwise non brilliant meatballs (see below).

What Didn't:
Putting the recipe together was fairly easy, but the ingredients DID need to be tweaked (specifically more bread-crumbs to hold the meatballs together). Also, adding two eggs to the mixture left you with pretty wet meatballs (even after the addition of more bread-crumbs - but you can only add so much to offset the overabundance of eggs).

But the biggest disappointment was that the flavors of this dish just weren't there. The meatballs were bland (even with pancetta AND sun dried tomatoes) and the sauce lacked spark or depth (or heft for that matter, even after simmering a bit longer). My testing companion commented that even when the sauce is there 'it's just not there - it's just water and tomatoes'.

Verdict:
While it wasn't terrible, I wouldn't make it again. Which isn't to say I've given up on the book. But for spaghetti and meatballs, save your time and use another recipe from another book. How about this one? And I hate to say it, but even this one is better than Giada's. And you really can't go wrong with Mario. Doesn't he have sugo coursing through his bloodstream?

I think this recipe speaks volumes for the way that TV personalities tend to crank out cookbooks one after the other. Much like new rock bands who spend years crafting that first hit record, the second and third installments just fall flat.

Bottom line: this is just one of those recipes that looks great on paper, but just doesn't come through in execution. But I will be stealing the diced pancetta for my next meatball experiment.

All the Guys should look the other way now...

this is a chick post. about boobies. but not in a sexy way. unless you call squishing them between two sheets of plexiglass sexy. uh oh, i do know a few of you who read this blog, so you might...

i wanted to tell all my female readers (all 12 of you) that today i got my first ever mammogram. before you start saying to yourself, 'don't you need to be, like, 40 or something to get one of those?', just stop.

i'll have you know i have quite some time before i get there. at least a year or two.

Ahem. Back to my point.

I had a baseline mammogram (or slammogram as I was referring to it this morning) today. Baseline means it's (hopefully) a photo of your healthy boob. and hopefully the photo wont change over the years, but if it does, your doctor will know immediately.

What I am trying to say is that it really wasn't that bad. A little pinching, a little discomfort. But really not so bad. And it was over before you know it.

So go ahead, schedule one. How about doing that now?

Could save your life, you know.

I'm just saying.

OK boys, chick post is over.

G

the incredible shrinking woman...

i haven't told too many folks about this. ok, who am I kidding?!?! I've been telling puhlenty of folks.

There's less of me to love!

Why, you ask?

Well, I've been on this little thing called a diet (didn't Richard Simmons call it a live-it?) and I've lost.....

(drumroll please....)

18 pounds so far!

Pretty cool, huh?

I still have another 15-20 to go, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself. ok, enough bragging, back to our regularly scheduled lack of posting.

Bliss is...

Booking a relaxing family vacation....in Maui.

And it's in November - all signs point to a diaper free holiday.

Yay.

p.s. Just watch, now I'll get pregnant and it will be a mai tai free holiday too.

Happy New Year

Every new year, I try to come up with fantastic resolutions and goals for the new year. I am always disappointed in myself come December, when I realize that most of them go unfulfilled.

This year instead, I have given myself a manageable resolution:

I just want my life to be different this time next year.

That shouldn't be taken as a statement of current unhappiness, just a desire to do different things in 2007. To take more chances. To make my life instead of following it. Mark and Bella will still be along for the ride. But who knows - maybe we'll move, maybe we'll add to the family. I hope that having this goal in the back of my mind will guide us to some new and exciting (or just different) adventures.

I hope your 2007 is different too. What do you want?