20 Questions with Jan

Jan Oed is my badass sister in law and joined our family officially 40 years ago when she married my brother, John. She melded with our family when I was so young I hardly know life without her. My brother hit the jackpot! I will never forget Jan inviting me to bake cookies with her mom when I was in second grade. They introduced me to those ‘Magic Cookie Bars’ which were way out of my repertoire of the classic chocolate chip, peanut butter and oatmeal. Though the details of the other recipes we made escape me, I remember thinking I’d be home late for dinner which didn’t matter because I was well nourished with homemade cookies. 

Jan can whip up a five star meal with what’s on hand, assemble a gorgeous charcuterie board for friends stopping by, or cater a feast for hundreds. She catered my wedding! And she recently surprised my mom and me with a beautiful brunch after church, popping up a little canopy in her driveway and serving up eggs benedict with the works, all accompanied by tropical flowers from her backyard. For 12 years and running, she’s been a volunteer chef with The Haven for Children, preparing and delivering dinner once a month.

Her adventure extends beyond the kitchen. You can find her visiting her son in Puerto Rico, wandering the wilds of Morocco, or enjoying her local beach. Her Labor Day trip to the Wine Country is put on hold for a safer date in the future.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? I wanna tell you I tried this really cool quick recipe for boneless chicken thighs. You season them and coat them in fresh herbs and cook them in a little olive oil in a super hot skillet. Five minutes each side, then move them to the edge and make the sauce in the middle. It’s a little quickie thing I did the other day and it made great leftovers! We have a rating system at our house. WOW is the best, then YUM is the second best. GOOD is not worth repeating.

What’s your favorite city? I’m gonna say Barcelona because I love that walking area with all the tapas bars with the chalkboards out front. It’s so fun to peruse. I love the tapas thing!

What’s your Favorite restaurant in your current city? Giggles. Is that a trick question?! Fat Snook in Cocoa Beach. Local seafood, innovative dinners, presentations and desserts. Also they have cool, lesser known wines.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? A chunk of bread from somewhere I’ve traveled. We don’t have a bakery here. I usually bring bread back in my carry-on.

Who taught you to cook? My mom and my home-ec teacher at Mel-Hi, and digging through cookbooks, just jumping in!

What’s your go-to dish for company? The easiest one is Tyler Florence’s pulled pork recipe. Its quickie-easy and everybody loves it!

What’s on your cooking playlist? I put the radio on Jack FM. There’s a big variety, everything from Fleetwood Mac, to Guns N Roses, Maroon 5 and Jazz. You never know what’s coming up next.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? Coffee in the morning, kombucha in the afternoon. I like the green one from GT.

Date night--at home? or out? If we’re gonna call it date night, we’re going out.

Most stained cookbook? Probably my binders collection! I have three big binders all categorized and bulging with recipes I’ve printed off. There are definitely a lot of stained pages in there.

Surf? or Turf? Depends on where I am. I’d probably lean toward a combo. If it was really good fresh seafood, I would go with surf.

What’s your go-to olive oil? I look for the country of origin and the extra virgin part, definitely from Spain or Portugal. I pick them up at TJ Maxx or Home Goods. I keep a varied selection on hand.

Indispensable kitchen tool? Probably a toss up between an immersion blender and a microplane. I couldn’t do without either of those.

Staple childhood comfort food? Maybe my mom’s homemade fudge. That’s such a treat! I have her recipe but I never make it. It is super chocolatey.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? Anthony Bourdain. In the country of his choice. I love that you could transport far away through his travel shows. He always interviewed the most interesting diverse people. 

Favorite pizza topping? Pesto with bacon and either burrata or fresh mozzarella. You cook it with raw kale on top and it gets super crispy. With the cheese, it’s insane. 

Where would you want to take a cooking class? In Spain with Jose Andres. I really want to learn how to make grilled octopus or anything he wants to teach me to cook. He’s so cool! He seems very generous and spirited!

Do you pack any ingredients with you when you travel? Almond flour and vanilla extract, but I can’t put that in a carry-on.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? Explore new recipes, just jump in and have fun cooking! It gives you a broader scope. It’s OK if it doesn’t turn out perfectly.

Three things next to your stove? A selection of oils, a few different salts and a big utensil caddy. All three categories are essential.

Favorite Sports Team? I’m gonna have to go with Miami Dolphins. I’ve been watching them since back in the day when Howard Cosell was the commentator. 

20 minutes? You better believe it! As delicious as it is quick!

Herb Crusted Chicken Thighs with Garlic Glaze

Boneless chicken thighs are a girl’s best friend. They cook quickly without drying out. Break out your biggest/best skillet for this dish and be ready for YUM!

• 1 ½  pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6-8 fillets)

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• ¾  teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

• Heaping half cup of chopped fresh herbs (I used rosemary and thyme, Jan uses oregano and rosemary)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

• ¼ cup white wine

• ½ cup chicken broth

COMBINE the onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl and season the chicken on both sides with the mixture. 

SPRINKLE the mixed herbs over both sides of the chicken and press to adhere.

HEAT the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil ripples, give the skillet a swirl and add the chicken in one layer.

SEAR the chicken for 5 minutes, adjusting the heat so you get a nice sizzle without smoking.

TURN and cook the second side for 5 minutes. Move the chicken to the perimeter of the pan, then melt the butter in the center and add the garlic.

STIR just until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium-high and add the wine and chicken broth, stirring to incorporate browned bits.

REDUCE the heat to medium-low and return the chicken to the center of the pan. Baste with the sauce and let simmer a few minutes until chicken is cooked through.

SERVE with good bread and sauteed spinach.

20 Questions with Tatiana

Tatiana is the daughter of Ignacio, a gregarious Spanish man who lived with my family in coastal Florida during his teen years in the ‘60’s. I met her when we were both little girls, barefoot in our bikinis, racing ahead of the adults from my house down to the beach. When Ignacio first said goodbye, I was an infant on my mother’s hip. He assured my mother he would be back some day and as promised, he brought his wife and his two oldest children for an unforgettable reunion a dozen years later. Then again 20 years after that for my mom’s 70th birthday they extended the invitation “you must come see us in Spain!” And so my husband and I packed up our three girls and ventured to southern Spain to see our extended family.

In the age of international long distance phone calls and air mail, communication was not a constant. Now Tatiana and I keep in touch through Facebook and had a delightful visit on Video Messenger to catch up on life. As I attempted to decipher our relationship, she summed it up beautifully, “we are family!” We reminisced about our in-person visits and a highlight for me was learning to make the classic Spanish omelet from her mom who made enough of the famed tapas dish to serve at my mom’s birthday when they were in town for the festivities. Tatiana said one of her favorite memories was my mom’s angel food cake and said, “I have a lot of memories from the first time we met.”

We aren’t quite sisters or cousins. I cherish our special family friendship and I am grateful technology can keep us connected.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? Something very quick we do here is the Spanish omelet, potatoes and onions softened in olive oil and cooked with beaten eggs. It makes a traditional Spanish tortilla. You can chop the potatoes into small squares or slice them, depending on what you prefer. If I’m in a hurry, I slice them.

What’s your favorite city? Prague. We went last summer. It’s a beautiful beautiful city, just wonderful!

What’s your Favorite restaurant in your current city? La Taverna Alabardero. They have very nice cuisine, modern Spanish cuisine also inspired by French cuisine.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? Pasta de pimiento Choricero, a traditional pepper paste from northern Spain made with Choricero peppers.

Who taught you to cook? My mom mostly, and my grandmom. Also a lot of books!

What’s your go-to dish for company? In summer, we do barbecues. I also like to make quiches depending on the ingredients I have. A favorite is Quiche Lorraine.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? Coffee mostly, cafe con leche.

Most stained cookbook? El Menu de Cada Dia by Karlos Arguinano.

Surf? or Turf? Surf definitely.

What’s your go-to olive oil? A virgin olive oil, has to be from Spain! 99% of the olive oil in the supermarkets here are from Spain.

Indispensable kitchen tool? The spatula for cakes, wooden spoon for regular cooking, oh and a good knife.

Staple childhood comfort food? It’s not very common for kids, but I love white rice made with black sauce from squid.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? My dad. We would go out rather than cook at home so we would have more time to focus and talk.

How do you like your toast? Lightly toasted with tomato and olive oil, pan con tomate.

Ideal grilled cheese? Once in England I had a toast spread with lemon curd and a little Emmenthal melted on top. It must have a lot of calories but it was delicious!

Favorite pizza topping? Cherry tomatoes with goat cheese and basil. It’s very nice.

Where would you want to take a cooking class? I would like to go in Provence in France or Tuscany. One of these would be fun!

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? Always get a good base for any dish. Our traditional base for many dishes is sofrito, made with sauteed tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers in olive oil. It’s the base for a lot of seafood and meat dishes.

Favorite Chef? Angel Leon, a chef from Cadiz. His restaurant is Aponiente “cuisine of the unknown seas.” He uses a lot of sea plants and experiments a lot.

Master a traditional Spanish tortilla by starting small. Here I used 1 small potato and 2 eggs in my 5-inch seasoned cast iron skillet. Happy Cooking indeed!

Spanish Potato Omelet (Tortilla)

When you combine potatoes, olive oil and eggs (plus onion if you like, and a bit of salt), you get sunshine in a skillet! Spanish Tortilla = Little Cake and it is love at first bite, virtually transporting you to Spain where the dish is served as an appetizer or main dish almost everywhere you go. Exactly 21 years ago, I had a front row seat to an unforgettable Spanish cooking class when Tatiana’s mom Mireya was preparing skillets full of potato omelet for my mom’s 70th birthday. (Mom turns 91 tomorrow!) 

A few tips: 

• keep your heat low enough that your potatoes get tender without browning.

• start with a small skillet which is much easier to flip and cooks more quickly

• use good olive oil and farm fresh eggs if available 

• slice the potatoes for quicker cooking. A mandoline or similar slicing device helps with speed and uniformity 

• Practice makes perfect, the more you make the quicker you’ll master this classic!

• Approximate ratios: 6-inch skillet- 2 small potatoes, 4 eggs. 8-inch skillet-2 medium potatoes, 6 eggs

• ¼ cup olive oil 

• 2 small potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

• ¼ cup chopped onion

• 4 eggs

• Salt

HEAT the olive oil in a 6-inch skillet, preferably well-seasoned carbon steel or cast iron or nonstick over medium-low heat. Add the potatoes and season with about ¼ teaspoon salt. Keep an eye on potatoes, stirring to keep from browning. Lower the heat if necessary. 

ADD the onion after the potatoes have been cooking for 5 minutes and continue to stir occasionally until potatoes are tender. 

WHISK the eggs in a medium bowl while you wait.

REMOVE the potatoes and onion to a shallow bowl from the skillet using a slotted spoon, keeping the excess oil in the skillet. Let the potatoes cool a minute or two in the shallow bowl, then stir them into the whisked eggs along with another ¼ teaspoon salt.

POUR the mixture back into the skillet and increase the heat to medium.

COOK, undisturbed, until the sides and bottom are set and the top is losing its gloss. Using a spatula, lift/slide the tortilla onto a plate just slightly larger than the skillet. 

PLACE the skillet over the top of the uncooked tortilla and using cooking mitts, FLIP the whole thing over back into the skillet. SMILE!

CONTINUE cooking a few minutes until the center is just cooked through. 

SLIDE the tortilla onto a large plate or cutting board and let cool before cutting into triangles or small squares for tapas.

20 Questions with Ted

Counter Intelligence is the column I founded and wrote for the Charleston Gazette-Mail for three years before I moved to Louisiana. I also wrote a cookbook of the same name and in this 20 Questions blog series, I have loved reconnecting with friends from everywhere and learning their counter intelligence kitchen tips. Ted Boettner probably reads everything within reach, he made it all the way to the back page of the Gazette’s Life&Style section. He emailed me on occasion about something in my column which led to lively debates about butter, sugar and all things kitchen. It was great to engage on cooking topics with a widely published think tank guy! We made a salad during the legislative session in West Virginia and I shared the recipe in my Counter Intelligence column (linked below with Ted’s recipe question). 

I caught up with Ted when I visited Charleston a few years back to visit friends and unveil the Charlie Cart teaching kitchen at the YMCA. He brought his young daughter to the interactive cooking demo and when they made the featured ‘Three Sisters Saute’ last week in their home kitchen, he sent a pic of his now eight-year old daughter chopping zucchini for the dish. He must have read my mind! He was in my cue for 20 Questions. He just switched to a new think tank and now works as a senior researcher with Ohio River Valley Research Institute, focusing in part on sustainable economic development. 

When he’s not being a policy wonk, Ted enjoys a nice whitewater paddle in West Virginia, running marathons, hiking at Dolly Sods, some political theory, and cooking for friends.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? My go-to because of the kids and what they love is Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with onion and butter. I serve it over whole wheat spaghetti. I swear it is so good and simple! With a good can of Italian tomatoes it’s 1-2-3 and done in 20 minutes. I like to make a nice salad to go with it.

What’s your favorite city? There are a couple of places I would move to: Missoula, Bozeman, or Helena, Montana. I went to Missoula a few years ago and after driving across the country, went to a paddle shop and the guy there made some calls and lined up a shuttle and everything for us. Big Sky has some of the best backpacking and not very many people. It’s a playground!

What’s your favorite restaurant in your current city? Cafe Cimino. It’s 50 miles away, kind of old fashioned. The chef comes out and they keep bringing you stuff. It’s all really damn good! It’s the kind of place you order coffee after dinner.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? I have some ramp butter. Also there are some things in life you have to have. I always keep feta in my fridge. It makes everything better

Who taught you to cook? My mom definitely. We had meals at the table at least 5-6 days a week, very ritualistic. We had church at the table, preparing good food and taking time to enjoy it. She taught me to be a good analyst of recipes, reading them from the bottom up. It reminds me of a James Baldwin quote: “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”

What’s your go-to dish for company? That’s a good question. I do the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. I experiment on company. When it works out, it’s a lot of fun. I always make a grain salad in case it doesn’t work out. I got a really nice piece of flank steak from Dickinson Gould the other day and served it to company. It was like, “chimichurri, come to me!” I like to do a large side of salmon and cook it, it’s easy but the people are like ‘how did you do that?!’

What’s on your cooking playlist? I do a very eclectic mix. I’ve been listening to Florence and the Machine. Sturgill Simpson, I really like him a lot. John Prine, too.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? Coffee no doubt. I look forward to my morning coffee when I go to bed at night. I do like kombucha! It helps if I’ve had too much to drink the night before.

Date night--at home? or out? Usually out. We love Secret Sandwich Society in Fayetteville! It’s worth the drive.

Most stained cookbook? Yours, of course! What I end up doing is watching shows and then I google how to make some of the dishes. I got really into this show about Argentinian street food, hence the chimichurri. 

Surf? or Turf? Surf. Fresh caught grouper is really amazing. I’ve had salmon that I caught in Alaska and it was good, but the grouper I caught off the coast of North Carolina was better.

Indispensable kitchen tool? Right now I’d say it’s my new carbon steel pan. There’s nothing that thing won’t do! I keep it out on my stove.

Staple childhood comfort food? Sloppy Joes. My mom used to whip those up all the time. I still make them. I make a really bourgeois version with pickled red onion and a good bun. They make me feel really comfortable.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? My reflexive answer is Christopher Hitchens. He was witty and smart and loved indulgence.

Ideal grilled cheese? Hearty wheat or sourdough with a combo of cheeses. I like something sharp with muenster, I like the way it melts. I’ll add thinly sliced apples and onions.

Favorite pizza topping? My uncle makes this wonderful pizza with pepperoni and blueberries. It’s fabulous!

Where would you want to take a cooking class? I’ve always wanted to go the the King Arthur baking school in Vermont for a weeklong immersion bread course. I would love to do that.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? I’m going back to the feta from before. Also when I’m cooking meats, I use a really good quality garlic powder instead of fresh garlic which tends to burn. I’ll make a rub with garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper.

Three things next to your stove? Tongs, kosher salt in a barn, olive oil.

Favorite Sports Team? New York Mets. The first time I went to New York City my dad took us to a Mets game. I took my daughter to Pittsburgh for three games when the Mets were in playing the Pirates. Also I love watching 30 for 30.

Deliciously simple tomato sauce tossed with whole wheat spaghetti, ready to embellish (or not) and serve .

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

Marcella Hazan, the famed Italian cooking teacher and writer has many styles of tomato sauce to her credit. A super simple version with canned Italian tomatoes, a halved whole onion and a varying number of tablespoons of butter is arguably one of the most popular. For good reason! It is delicious and the marriage of bright tomato and creamy butter with a backstory of onion is hard to beat, especially since you can cheat the suggested 45 minute simmer time and get ‘er done in 20 flat. Ted likes to serve with whole wheat spaghetti and a meatball or two. He also uses the sauce for lasagne. 

• 1 (28 ounce) can good Italian whole tomatoes

• 1 medium onion (about an 8 ouncer) peeled and halved through the shoot and root

• 5 tablespoons good butter, cut into 5 pieces for quick melting

• Salt
  

POUR the tomatoes and their juices into a large deep pot (I used an enameled Dutch oven. The depth keeps the vigorously simmering sauce from spattering everywhere). Crush them with your clean hands (a great job for the kids!) into smallish pieces, or mash them with a wooden spoon once you get the heat going.

ADD the onion halves, the butter and about a teaspoon of salt.

HEAT the sauce over medium high until it boils, stirring occasionally. 

REDUCE the heat to medium or the level of heat that makes you feel like your sauce is conversing with you while you go about cooking your pasta and making your salad.

STIR the sauce from time to time, cooking until the tomato juices have reduced a bit and the butter melted into a glossy perfection. With a lively-simmer/boil, I coaxed mine into done at 20 minutes.

REMOVE the onion from the pot (it’s a great cook’s treat or fun to add to your next morning’s egg scramble), add salt as needed, and serve with your favorite pasta.

This batch generously coats a pound of spaghetti. It also invites embellishment: fresh basil, red pepper flakes, maybe some Parmesan. 

20 Questions with Gus

Dog Days of Summer! Perfect time to introduce Gus, our three year old golden retriever. He’s our unofficial therapy dog and likes to shadow anyone who’s on the move. Putting on your shoes? Gus gets crazy excited, fetches his leash and is ready to bolt out into the world. Trip to the vet? That’s cool with Gus since they always have treats there and the people are over the top nice and professional. Beach? Swim? Lake? Gus is always game! He’s great at making friends wherever he goes. Time to chill? That’s cool, too. 

The Real Golden Gus was born in West Virginia just like our daughters. He adjusted to the move to Louisiana even though it gets HOT! He enjoys naps on the tile floor not too far from the kitchen. The moment he hears the fridge open or some chopping he moves in for a closer look, hoping for a sample of the happenings.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? I’m more of a taster than a test cook. When that peanut butter aroma is in the air, I know mom has made one of my favorite frozen treats, Peanut Butter Pup-cicles. The sound of vegetables chopping really gets my attention, too. I love all the recipes!

What’s your favorite city? Ferriday, Louisiana. My friends Sam and Lola invite me to their lake house and it is such a special place. We can run wild and swim in the lake, then come inside for air conditioning and treats.

What’s your Favorite restaurant in your current city? Cocha. We get a table outside on their new patio and I just love it. I can’t read the menu but everything is always so good and I love all the attention I get.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? The chicken jello. Mom calls it bone broth when it’s hot and consommee when it’s chilled. Whatever. It’s really chicken jello.

Who taught you to cook? I’m still trying to learn, but everyone shouts when I put my paws on the counter.

What’s your go-to dish for company? When Sam and Lola come over I share my Purina kibble. They really like it for something different from their usual brand.

What’s on your cooking playlist? Oh I really love when Mom sings, “Gus, do you want to eat? Eat?” She sings it twice every day, I wish she would sing it all day long.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? I’m more of a water guy. My people make coffee every morning, maybe I’ll try some. They sure seem to love it.

Most stained cookbook? Once I chewed Mom’s new book Jackson & Levine Round to Ours. She was mad.

Surf? or Turf? Crawfish boil!

Indispensable kitchen tool? The cutting board. It’s making music all day long and I just love to catch the vegetable trimmings. Everyone praises me, it’s really something.

Staple childhood comfort food? Ice cubes! I know it sounds silly. 

How do you like your toast? Yes I love toast!

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? My twin sister. She stayed in West Virginia and I moved down to Louisiana. It would be fun to share our stories.

Ideal grilled cheese? Yes I love grilled cheese!

Favorite pizza topping? Sam and Lola’s mom and dad have us over for pizza night a lot, it’s hard to pick just one favorite. They let me eat lots of the crust. Dad calls them pizza bones.

Where would you want to take a cooking class? Maybe at PetSmart? It always smells soooo good in there!

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? When no one is looking you can go counter surfing and really score big. I like to take my treasures over to the rug and enjoy. I usually get caught later, it’s embarrassing but worth it.

Three things next to your stove? Sometimes the butter is there and a spoon to lick and I can see some scraps on the cutting board.

Favorite Sports Team? The LSU Tigers!

Did someone say TREAT?! Is it a cupcake? A popcicle? It’s a Pup-cicle! Look into my eyes and I dare you to say I can’t have another.

Peanut Butter Pup-cicles

Three ingredients, mix, scoop, freeze. Frosty treats are ready for the Dog Days of Summer!

• 1 ripe banana

• ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt

• ¼ cup peanut butter

PEEL the banana into a medium bowl and mash with a fork.

STIR in the yogurt and peanut butter, mixing to combine.

DIVIDE the mixture into 8 small paper cups on a tray that fits your freezer  (I use a silicone muffin pan, no paper liners needed)

POP the tray or muffin pan into the freezer and freeze until solid, several hours or overnight. 

REMOVE the treats from their molds and freeze them in a container.

SERVE with a smile to your lucky dog.

Makes 8 (Gus servings) or 12 (Sam and Lola servings)

NOTE: some yogurts and peanut butters can contain xylitol which is dangerous for dogs. Choose brands that do not contain xylitol

20 Questions with Emma

Cooking with my kids is a life highlight. I will never forget the time my youngest daughter Emma pulled the step stool over to the stove and started pouring up the pancake batter onto the hot griddle. I told her she was making the circles a little too close. Ha! She had the situation under control all along--she was making Mickey Mouse pancakes. I think she was three.

Emma still loves kicking around in the kitchen and adores the great outdoors. She recently did a car camping trip mostly on her own, driving along the Natchez Trace from Mississippi to the Great Smoky Mountains, then on to North Carolina and back home to the country roads of West Virginia, then back to Baton Rouge. We uprooted her four years ago and she has been a great sport about the big move. She loves getting back to the mountains to visit her forever friends. We are thrilled she chose to be an LSU Tiger so close to our new home.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? Mediterranean turkey burgers. I like it with a Greek salad on the side. You can use ground turkey or leaner all-breast meat. Feta cheese is critical. I love feta cheese! I add crushed garlic or garlic powder, chopped fresh spinach and red onion and bind it together with a beaten egg. I like to add sundried tomatoes if I have them on hand. Salt and pepper, mix it all together gently and make it into roughly 4 inch patties. I cook as many as I need for dinner and freeze the rest raw to cook for later. 

What’s your favorite city? Galway, Ireland. 

What’s your favorite restaurant in your current city? Parrain’s. I love their chargrilled oysters and Louisiana seafood dishes.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? Cane’s sauce. It’s good on everything! I like it when I find homemade garlic aioli, too. 

Who taught you to cook? My mom.

What’s your go-to dish for company? I like to make espresso brownies for people. They are always a favorite.

What’s on your cooking playlist? Tyler Childers. And I like to listen to my Spotify Discover playlist. 

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? The occasional iced latte.

Most stained cookbook? My copy of Counter Intelligence.

Surf? or Turf? Probably depends on where I am. If I’m on the coast I’m gonna pick surf. If it’s not fresh, turf.

Indispensable kitchen tool? Cheese grater. You can use it for slices, grated cheese, or for carrots for salad.

Staple childhood comfort food? Pot roast and mashed potatoes. 

How do you like your toast? Slightly tan with a little bit of crunch, but not too much. With butter and coarse salt. Sometimes I put garlic salt on it.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? My friend Khairat. We met at summer camp in West Virginia. She lives in Dublin, Ireland so I don’t get to see her very often. I spent 2 ½ hours on Facetime with her last night. I’d really love to sit down and have a meal with her.

Ideal grilled cheese? On Blue Monday bread (from Charleston Bread). Sharp white cheddar. Tomato slices are nice. I like to put mayonnaise on the outside and sprinkle that with some parmesan. It makes it really crispy. 

Favorite pizza topping? The Louisiana culture comes out in our neighborhood pizza parties. I like the muffaletta pizza with salami, olive salad and provolone. I didn’t know what a muffaletta was until we moved here. 

Where would you want to take a cooking class? Sicily. Italian food is my favorite type of food.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? As a college student with limited time and funds, I like to make ramen noodles and instead of making it with the broth, I drain them and stir fry them in a skillet with soy sauce and veggies. The noodles get a little crisp. I learned this from my friend Rob. He says the secret ingredient is Worcestershire but I don’t keep that in my college fridge.

Three things next to your stove? Salt, pepper, soft butter.

Favorite Sports Team? The LSU Tigers!

A few embellishments jazz up the humble turkey burger. Here we go with a dollop of Greek yogurt, some red onion and cucumber slices

Mediterranean Turkey Burgers

Say goodbye to boring turkey burgers and hello to this flavorful twist! Riff on this with what you have on hand (as Emma says, feta is critical! It’s a staple in all our fridges. Oh and preferably the whole block of feta, not the powdery crumbles). Green onion instead of red. Sundried tomatoes or not (easy to keep on hand). A handful of this and that converts the lean turkey into something delicious. Cook them all or save some wrapped in the freezer to cook later (best to ‘defrost’ these overnight in the fridge, or cook frozen on low heat).

• 1 egg

• 2 cups fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped

• ½ small red onion, finely chopped

• 1 clove garlic, minced or crushed

• 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped sundried tomatoes

• ⅓-½ cup crumbled feta

• Salt and pepper 

• A little oil for the skillet

• 1 pound ground turkey (I used the whole package, 20 ounces)

• Leaf lettuce, sliced cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, and plain Greek yogurt for serving

CRACK the egg into a large bowl and whisk with a fork to blend. Add the spinach, red onion, garlic, sundried tomatoes, feta and season with about ½ teaspoon salt and as much pepper as you like. Whisk together with the fork.

HEAT a large cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat while you shape the burgers.

CRUMBLE the raw ground turkey into the egg-veggie mixture. With clean hands or a rubber scraper, gently mix it all together to evenly distribute the ingredients. 

SHAPE into 6 or 8 patties.

COOK until golden brown, turning after 4 or 5 minutes to cook the other side. 

SERVE each turkey burger inside a lettuce leaf, garnished as desired.

20 Questions with Alden

A quick ten years ago, Jamie Oliver and his crew landed in Huntington, West Virginia to attempt to improve the eating habits of the most unhealthy city (at the time) in the United States and film the process for television. Jamie hired Sustainable Food Systems from New England to work with the child nutrition office and the cafeteria staff in each of that county’s 26 schools, teaching them to prepare real food, mostly from scratch, to help build a foundation of better health. 

Having worked with the wellness teams at my daughters’ schools, I was head over heels with the whole project. When my friend Carol encountered a guy wearing a Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution hat on a flight from Boston to West Virginia, she stopped him in his tracks. So began my friendship with Alden Cadwell and his boss John Turenne, founder of SFS.

Alden is an expert at feeding healthy meals to schoolchildren and has worked his way through multiple programs that specialize in the fine art of delicious nutritious school food. He now works as the Director Of Business Development-New England at Revolution Foods. He is a father of two young kale eaters and when we chatted for this interview, they were en route to a weekend campout in New Hampshire.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? Because we have a garden, the kids love kale! They’ll run by and grab a fistful to eat. It warms my heart. A couple times a week we make a simple kale salad with carrots and peppers and make chicken wings in the oven. I roast them in a cast iron pan at 425. They get really nice and crispy. It’s super quick and a super happy dinner.

What’s your favorite city? San Francisco. I LOVE San Francisco! I can visit and get all the best parts: water, mountains, friends and family. The food is so incredible year round. I love the seasons of Boston. I love the ubiquitous produce that comes with California.

What’s your Favorite restaurant in your current city? I LOVE Sofra in Cambridge. It’s a Mediterranean Turkish inspired breakfast and brunch spot. The flatbreads and pastries are phenomenal! They’ve done a great job pivoting during the pandemic.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? Pepper jelly. I love a hot and sweet jam. It can kick up anything I’m cooking. I pick them up at farmer’s markets. It’s great on my morning eggs or chicken wings at dinner.

Who taught you to cook? I just get one?! It’s a combo of my dad and my grandmother. I fell in love with the smell and taste of baking from her, she really piqued my interest. We lived in Italy for a year when I was 11. That sort of blew my mind! We left school for an hour and a half for lunch. On Sundays we went out to the country for four to five hour lunches. Parmigiano-Reggiano, Balsamico and Prosciutto all come from the area where we lived. It opened my eyes to what food could be. Also I did a NOLS semester in Patagonia and learned to make great meals outdoors with simple ingredients.

What’s your go-to dish for company? I have a pizza oven in my backyard and I love doing pizza. I also love making the summer strawberry cake from Smitten Kitchen. Amazing, impressive recipe you can do with all the summer fruits.

What’s on your cooking playlist? I will listen to anything from Al Green to Old Crow Medicine Show, all the way to Jay-Z. That’s my range.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? YES.

Most stained cookbook? Probably Joy of Cooking.

Surf? or Turf? Again I have to say yes. I will crush a ribeye and I can eat my weight in oysters.

Indispensable kitchen tool? Cast iron pan.

Staple childhood comfort food? Mac and cheese.

Go-to olive oil? My parents get a case of olive oil every year from where we lived in Italy. I keep a few bottles for special uses and try to stretch it for the whole year, but it never lasts for the whole year. Berio is my everyday.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? Michelle Obama. I’d really like to talk to her about her time in the White House. She’s a role model of mine for a lot of reasons.

Ideal grilled cheese? Sourdough bread, Vermont cheddar, Parmigiano and a couple slices of good melty American cheese. Definitely with butter.

Favorite pizza topping? We have some great local cheesemakers in Boston. I love burrata with squash blossoms and basil.

Where would you want to take a cooking class? In Jamie’s kitchen in England. I’d love to throw down with him.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? I always keep a jar of homemade preserved lemons in the fridge. You cut off one end of the lemon and slice it, keeping it together at the other end and stuff kosher salt between the slices and put it in a mason jar. In three weeks it’s ready to add to anything. It’s a salty, syrupy, citrus deal. So good.

Three things next to your stove? Salt, pepper, olive oil.

Favorite Sports Team? Red Sox.

Crispy wings + colorful salad=a delicious weeknight meal. Per Alden’s suggestion, I served mine with some spicy-sweet jalapeño ‘jam’ on the side.

Alden’s Crispy Chicken Wings with Kale Salad

Cooking the separate pieces of chicken wings in a hot oven in a cast iron skillet makes for a super quick happy dinner in the Cadwell’s kitchen. Total time is more than 20 minutes, but it’s mostly hands off. All told, 8 ingredients and 40 minutes and you have a delicious family feast!

HEAT the oven to 425. Separate the wings into flat and drum pieces. Toss them with a little olive oil (I used a tablespoon for a pound and a half of wing pieces) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange them skin-side down in a single layer in a cast iron skillet (alternatively use a rimmed baking sheet). BAKE for 30 minutes, then turn and bake until deep golden and crisp, about 10 minutes longer.

While the wings are baking, prepare the kale salad.

Strip the tough stalks from a large bunch of kale and tear the leaves into bite sized pieces. Chop a rainbow of bell peppers and thinly slice a large peeled carrot. Drizzle with good olive oil and a splash of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. With squeaky clean hands (or tongs if you’d rather), toss the salad well to coat with the dressing. Set aside until your wings are ready (pop it in the fridge if your kitchen is summer hot).

Serve with a smile.

20 Questions with Doug

Doug Toliver can pinpoint the exact circumstances of when we first met. “It was your espresso brownies, I’ll never forget it! I ate so many that I couldn’t sleep that night. I’m obsessed.” We catered hundreds of parties together with our friend Luisa, Charleston’s caterer to the stars. When one of Luisa’s clients was in search of a private chef, she sent Doug in to interview. He worked for them for 12 years and recently switched gears to cheffing at the Saint John XXIII Pastoral Center. 

Cooking is a second language to Doug. He grew up in the kitchen and recalls picking lettuce from the backyard garden to make the salad right before dinner. Tonight he is bringing dinner to the home of a mutual friend whose wife is going through cancer treatment. Rather than drop off a covered dish, Doug offered to cook in their kitchen and have the kids play along. He’s a gem!

What’s your 20 minute recipe? Chicken Marsala with mushrooms, garlic and Marsala wine or Chicken Piccata with white wine, lemon and caper sauce. It’s quick and easy, boom boom boom and I’m eating.

What’s your favorite city? I’m gonna say Frederick, Maryland in the Allegheny Mountains. It has great food with an eclectic restaurant scene. I have friends there who I visit regularly. It’s 17th century old, really fascinating. with great shops. 

What’s your Favorite restaurant in your current city? It was the South Hills Market and Cafe. It’s no longer open. It’s where I always took my friends from Maryland. I haven’t been going out much lately.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? Buttermilk. I’m in this buttermilk phase now. I soak chicken in it, make cornbread.

Who taught you to cook? My mother. I was Spanky in the Little Rascals. I was ALWAYS in the kitchen! My family can’t tell my cooking apart from my mother’s. I was in charge of Sunday dinner. We always had a garden growing up. After the summer harvest, we planted all the greens.

Surf? or Turf? SURF! I can’t tell you the last time I ate a steak.

What’s on your cooking playlist? 80’s R&B. I love my 80’s R&B!

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? Coffee, French roast. I love a strong intense smoky brew.

Most stained cookbook? I download a lot of recipes, mostly from the Food Network. I’m amazed that I can print from my phone! I love the Neely’s potato salad recipe. It’s better than my mama’s!

 Indispensable kitchen tool? A Spurtle, it’s a ladle and spatula in one. I can flip, stir or mix with it.

Staple childhood comfort food? There’s so many! I remember having chicken noodle soup and PB&J when I wasn’t feeling well. When I have that now, it takes me right back to my mom.

What’s your go-to dish for company? When my friend group gets together they say, “Doug, you’ve gotta make your kale and collard greens.”

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? I would love to sit down with Patti LaBelle. I would love to cook with her and then sit down and eat with her. I would thoroughly enjoy that!

Best thing you’ve ever eaten in an airport? I had a great breakfast on the way back from San Francisco.

Ideal grilled cheese? I just made one the other day. I like Muenster and double up with another cheese. I like a big ol’ slice of tomato with a little dollop of Duke’s. Butter on the outside. 

Favorite pizza topping? Caramelized onions and roasted whole garlic cloves.

Where would you want to take a cooking class? Your kitchen. I LOVE April’s kitchen! I want to learn those broth recipes and red beans and rice, dirty rice, too! You are my sensei! 

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? Keep your knives sharp and clean as you go.

Three things next to your stove? Butter dish, olive oil, pepper grinder.

Favorite Sports Team? I’m a tennis fan. I like Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria. Wimbledon is my favorite tournament. The grass, the lawn, the prestige!

Chicken Piccata over a bed of linguine and broccoli in twenty minutes flat.

Chicken Piccata

Doug likes to serve this with linguine. Start your pasta water, gather your ingredients and in 20 minutes you’re ready to feast. I add broccoli to the pasta cooking water a few minutes before the al dente timer.

• 8 ounces linguine

• 2 cups fresh broccoli florets

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 4 boneless chicken breast cutlets

• 1/3 cup white wine

• 1/2 cup chicken stock

• zest and juice of 1 lemon

• 1 tablespoon butter at cool room temp

• 1 tablespoon drained capers

• thin lemon slices for serving

BRING a pot of salted water to boil and cook the linguine until al dente, adding the broccoli 3 to 5 minutes before the pasta’s finished cooking time. Drain and set aside until the sauce is ready.

HEAT 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

COMBINE the flour with the salt and pepper in a large shallow plate. Dip the chicken into the flour mixture and press lightly to coat on both sides, shaking off the excess flour. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the flour for the finishing sauce.

COOK the chicken in the hot oil until golden brown and turn to just cook through, about 4 minutes per side. Cook in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the skillet. Transfer the chicken as it’s cooked to a plate and repeat with remaining olive oil and chicken if working in batches.

POUR the wine into the skillet and scrape up any brown bits. Reduce the wine for a minute or so, then add the stock and lemon zest and juice.

MASH the butter with the reserved tablespoon of flour and roll it into 5 or 6 small marble sized balls. One at a time, whisk the butter-flour balls into the sauce in the skillet, then stir in the capers.

LIFT the cooked linguine/broccoli into the sauce in the skillet and toss well to coat. Lay the cooked chicken breasts on top and place a lemon slice on each.

SERVE a twirl of linguine/broccoli onto each plate and top with a chicken breast. Drizzle any extra sauce over each serving.

20 Questions with Judy

My post last week introduced one of the friends I met through Molly O’Neill’s Cook N Scribble online food writing course. And this week I am overjoyed to reconnect with Judy Allen who I met on the same call and again in person at Molly’s Food Media Bootcamp. This experience introduced me to a roster of glorious new friends and with each of us otherwise engaged, it is an absolute delight to keep in touch!

Judy Allen and I partnered on the barn kitchen cooking assignment: go pick out some stuff at the farmer’s market and pair it with the pasta that Alicia is teaching, then photograph it and write it into a formatted recipe. We went with a Summer Carbonara--tiny cubes of yellow and green summer squash sautéed with green garlic, and tossed with some steaming pasta water and golden egg yolks in the style of a classic Carbonara minus the pancetta. We garnished with a delicate shower of Parmesan and buds from the green garlic, styled some photos, then savored every bite.

Judy’s credentials set her up to ace this exercise. After graduating from culinary school, she interned at Martha Stewart Living Magazine. She moved up in the ranks from recipe tester to senior food editor. After six years she left New York and returned home to Tulsa, Oklahoma. She’s written for ‘pretty much every publication’ in Tulsa and currently writes a weekly column in Tulsa World. With life in limbo, Judy describes her status as being on extended vacation while emergency homeschooling a sixth grader. She has a cookbook in mind to scrapbook her life as a keepsake for her family.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? Refrigerator pickles. I keep a giant Ball jar going in my fridge.

What’s your favorite city? It’s like asking me what my favorite restaurant is! It depends. I love Breckenridge where I can go and put my feet up, looking at the mountains and simply do nothing. Also I love New York City, I lived there and there’s no other place like it that I’ve ever experienced. It’s the polar opposite of the Colorado experience. Right now I would LOVE to go to New York!! 

What’s your favorite restaurant in your current city? One thing that I really miss about New York is the pizza. We have a place here called Andolini’s, we go there a lot, and have been getting take out a lot. They even have make your own pizza kits which we have enjoyed doing recently, I also love Oren with a chef from Tulsa who worked in New York. He does smaller plates and gets really creative with everything he does. It’s the most creative restaurant in town. What’s happening now just kills me. We had a growing vibrant food scene and now there is so much uncertainty.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? You can always find a hunk of cheese lurking! It might or might not be good...I also love to pickle things, so there’s always a jar of something pickled, I recycle the brine like a sourdough starter and keep adding new veggies to it. 

Who taught you to cook? Initially my dad. He’s always been a really good cook! I was always watching Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet with him. I was raised in the Time Life cooking era. He spurred my interest in food. I went to culinary school to learn to do the editorial work. I wanted to know more about who makes these magazines. My dad went to culinary school when he retired from surgery at 75. He loves to help prep in the restaurants in town. He’ll work for free. The chemist in him focuses on the science of bread formulas.

Surf? or Turf? I live smack dab in the land of turf and I do have half a cow in my freezer. I do love a good surf though! Some sort of shellfish. Clam pasta, lobster. I will take a lobster roll over anything. And I love crab!! A good bone in rib eye, medium rare with butter, that’s what I live for 

What’s on your cooking playlist? Usually what my son is watching on TV. I’d say, Marvel, Star Wars or XBox. I love the Tom Petty Channel. The band Pink Martini takes me back to my New York days, throwing dinner parties. Or I binge watch HGTV in the background while I’m cooking.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? I am definitely a coffee girl. It’s my morning ritual, making coffee. One of my good friends from New York opened a tea shop in Brooklyn. Bellocq. She has the most amazing teas! They are so beautiful. One of these days I’m gonna say that I’m tea, but for now I’m coffee. I’ve always been a little bit curious about kombucha. A friend was making some in his home and the whole container exploded! I’m a little concerned about drinking something explosive.

Date night—at home? or out? We’re homebodies, we enjoy grilling steaks and salmon for my son. Pastas and smashburgers. I don’t fry at home. Fried chicken is one of my favorite foods on the planet but I don’t want to make it at home. The clean up isn’t really worth it when you can get really great fried chicken from Celebrity Club.

Most stained cookbook? Let me turn around here. I have a wall of cookbooks, I have sort of a problem. I have a JOY of Cooking from 1931. It is so dog eared and taped together. There are notes in it and it is definitely stained. I got it at a vintage cookbook store, maybe Bonnie Slotnick’s in New York? You can find some treasures if you visit these little shops. I have a Mastering the Art of French Cooking signed by Julia Child. I don’t even open it. It is on the top shelf all by itself. I use cookbooks mostly for ideas. I have a major cookbook hoarding problem. You know, I might need this someday.

Indispensable kitchen tool? The thing I use the most is the lemon squeezer, or a Microplane zester. I mean besides knives. Knives are a given. Or my onion goggles. I can’t chop onions without crying, so onion goggles to the rescue! Basically I need all these 3 things in my drawer. And I do love my Vitamix! I would never give that away. It is so versatile! I recently made ice cream and sorbet in it, I just froze the purees in a loaf pan. It was good! 

Staple childhood comfort food? Probably mac and cheese. My mom always made homemade mac and cheese. She baked it in a Corningware bowl. The middle sized bowl in the set is her mac and cheese bowl. She still uses it! You get a wide layer of crunch and it’s deep so you get a lot of creamy. Also my mom always made lamb shoulder chops which are hard to find. Whenever I have them it reminds me of my childhood.

What’s your go-to dish for company? Depends on who’s coming! If it’s my sister and her family, yes mac and cheese. I love to do the ‘what can I put on a platter that’s really pretty’ type salad. Watermelon, peaches, burrata, something with the season. I also love to do taco nights which are great for do-ahead. In the winter I like to do a short rib braise with polenta.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? I would love to share a meal with Julia. I wish that Nigella and I were friends. I love her style, I love her personality. I’d love to have her over. I’d love to have Amy Schumer over for cocktails. I wish I had gotten more information out of my grandparents while they were still alive. 

Best thing you’ve ever eaten in an airport? You know, there is a place in the Denver airport. Root Down. You’re usually in line at Starbucks or grabbing something at Chick Fil A. I had some time to sit down for a change and it was really good! It’s not a vegetarian place but they do have a lot of vegetable-heavy stuff. We had the lamb sliders and sweet potato fries! Mint-garlic slaw and harissa aioli. 

Ideal grilled cheese? You know, I’ve had many grilled cheeses in my life. It’s hard to beat the classic white bread with American cheese slices. It’s not broken, why try to fix it? For this reason I always have Kraft singles on hand. I’ll even melt a slice on a flour tortilla if I can’t be bothered with buttering a slice of bread. I watched Padma Lakshmi make a griddled cheese on tortilla in Mexico and they flipped it cheese side down and it got all burnt like frico. I thought I’m gonna have to try that! We might be having that for dinner. People think I’m a cheese snob but I’m really not. I am a snob when It comes to martinis. I stuff my own olives with bleu cheese.

Favorite pizza topping? Fresh mozzarella. I could take it or leave it with anything else. There’s nothing like a good charred crust with fresh mozzarella. I like anchovies too! I learned that at John’s Pizza in New York

Where would you want to take a cooking class? I would like to take a cooking class from some pasta nonnas in Italy. Or with Thomas Keller at The French Laundry. (I ask if she’s been. She says, I have! It was epic! It was a long time ago, I’m due for a revisit).

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? For me it’s about prep. Make sure you have all your stuff, whether it’s prepped or measured. Just make sure you have what you need before you start the recipe. Get everything out before you get started.

Three things next to your stove? Crock full of spatulas, giant thing of salt and room temperature butter.

Favorite Sports Team? Yankees. I got into baseball when I moved to New York. When I signed up for Cook N Scribble and realized Molly is Paul O’Neill’s sister, that put her up another rung!!

Summer pickles, a versatile recipe from Judy Allen’s extensive scrapbook. Photo credit Judy Allen

Gran Jan’s Refrigerator Pickles

Note from Judy: My dear friend Valarie’s mom, known as Gran Jan, makes these quick and easy pickles throughout the summer. We love them as cucumber pickles, but feel free to use the pickling liquid over other vegetables – green tomatoes, zucchini, beets and even sweet potatoes are willing candidates.

• A dozen or so smallish pickling cucumbers

• 1 medium Vidalia or other sweet white onion

• 2 fresh jalapeño peppers

• Kosher salt for sprinkling

• 2 cups sugar

• 1 quart Apple cider vinegar

• 2 cups water

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1-2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

SLICE cucumbers, onions and jalapenos thinly on a mandolin or with a knife. They should be very thin - between 1/16th and 1/8th inch.

PLACE vegetables in a large paper towel-lined colander. Salt the vegetables liberally and let sit for at least 30 minutes to allow any liquid to drain off. Rinse well and set aside to drain again.

HEAT sugar, vinegar, water, soy sauce and red pepper flakes in a saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.

ADD cucumbers to canning jars or plastic containers. Pour vinegar mixture over them and refrigerate at least a couple of hours before eating.

Makes about 4 quarts

NOTE: Pickles will last for several months if kept refrigerated. Feel free to follow canning instructions to keep pickles longer at room temperature.

20 Questions with Cosima

Half a dozen women convened on the phone for Molly O’Neill’s Cook N Scribble, an online food writing workshop. A chime announced someone new on the line. “HI! It’s Molly! Did everyone get their pieces done?” For this inaugural call, the assignment was a taste memory, one single taste. A voice said, “this is Cosima” (the ‘s’ sounding like a soft ‘z’) and she read her piece, describing a melon she ate in Italy every summer when she visited her relatives, honey sweet and not available in any grocery store in the U.S. 

When the six-week session ended, Molly hosted an in-person food media bootcamp and I cleared my calendar to attend. Thrilled to meet my idol, I wasn’t sure who else would be there. It was the phone calls coming to life! Cosima Amelang, Judy Allen, Kim Dolan, Cathy Branciaroli and me.  Molly ushered us around her upstate New York town, visiting the who’s who of farmers, beekeepers and potters. Then the experts arrived at Molly’s barn-turned-kitchen to teach us photography, food styling, recipe formatting and cooking with the season’s bounty. it was a blissful weekend for food lovers and aspiring bloggers. Cosima and I dream about perpetuating the writing, gathering and inimitable networking that Molly initiated.

Visit her blog for more of Cosima in the kitchen and beyond.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? My go-to is sort of spaghetti with pantry sauce. Extra virgin olive oil, smashed garlic, red pepper flakes, capers, canned tomatoes/crushed or whatever I have in the pantry. Cook that super simple sauce and boil the spaghetti, that’s my kind of comfort food when I don’t want to think. It hits the spot! I don’t even strain it, just pick it up with a pasta fork with some of that salty water clinging to the spaghetti and put it over in the sauce. Maybe if I have some parsley I’ll put it on top. If you like cheese and you have it, grate some Pecorino or Parmigiano. 

What’s your favorite city? This is so hard! I’m gonna say Montreal. I went to McGill for four years. Those were some of the best years. If Minneapolis and Paris had a baby, it would be Montreal. It was cool before other places became cool. Tons of good music and tons of good bars. I love the history of the city! It’s very diverse, all the layers upon layers. It’s a great three day weekend spot. 

What’s your favorite restaurant in your current city? These are all hard! That’s tricky, I don’t know if I can pick a favorite. I haven’t even gotten takeout at all lately except for this one place. Lucy in Silver Spring, Maryland. I love Ethiopian food! I love how tasty it is and no nonsense. I got the vegetarian combination because I can’t decide on just one thing. It is so good! They make this really fresh salad with tomato, cucumber, onion and jalapeno. It packs really well for takeout. I miss going in person, too.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? Laughing! Good question! Capers are definitely one of them, and miso. Anchovy, miso and capers. I’m more of a salty girl than a sweet girl.

Who taught you to cook? My mom for sure. You cannot take the Italian out of her. She’s a good effortless cook. Oh and the relatives in Italy! Growing up we went every year to see my grandpa. A lot of my food memories are attached to him. A lot of my love of food comes from him. It was really great to have a male presence in the kitchen. His gnocchi alla bava (translates to ‘drool gnocchi’) with tomato sauce and Fontina cheese!

Surf? or Turf? SURF! I do love blue crabs, I’m from Maryland. I also love octopus and squid, all that fun stuff.

What’s on your cooking playlist? I love listening to soul music. The Staple Singers, Otis Redding. I just see where Spotify takes me. 

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? I definitely need a coffee to get started in the morning. I make an espresso on the stove in my Moka pot.

Date night—at home? or out? Depends. Half and half.

Most stained cookbook? The Silver Spoon, one of the Phaidon books. It’s one of the Italian bibles, sort of. The recipes are written in paragraph form. And do you remember Ian Knauer who we met at Molly’s? I LOVE his cookbook The Farm.

Indispensable kitchen tool? My big skillets, I have a big All Clad nonstick and a cast iron. I would be lost without them.

Staple childhood comfort food? Gnocchi, with peas, tomato sauce and Fontina cheese.

What’s your go-to dish for company? Depends on the season. Risotto is a fun one. It’s special and luxurious. You can do it while your guests are there having a glass of wine. Serve it with a nice salad or fresh vegetable side.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? There’s so many people! I’ll say Padma Lakshmi. I’d love to just chat with her. Have you seen her new show Taste the Nation? It’s fascinating!

Best thing you’ve ever eaten in an airport? You know what I eat at airports? Caesar salad. I crave something healthy when I travel and it’s not really healthy food, but it makes me feel like I’m being healthy.

Ideal grilled cheese? Very simple. Sourdough with Gruyere. I don’t want much in it and then I love to dunk it in tomato soup.

Favorite pizza topping? Mozzarella. The fresh fresh kind. It’s so good!

Where would you want to take a cooking class? I would love to learn more about Japanese knife skills, so maybe I’ll say Tokyo. Everything is so well executed and intentional.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? Maybe people know this already? I don’t really drain my pasta. I don’t use a colander with pasta at all. I have a horrible memory and I never remember to save this bit of pasta water you need to thin out your sauce. I just lift the pasta out and the water is clinging to the noodles when I add them to the sauce.

Three things next to your stove? A hand painted fish plate from Italy, it’s my spoon rest. I have a catch all vase thing for all my utensils and I have a quartet of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.

Pasta sauce so simple you hardly need a knife.

Cosima’s Super Simple Spaghetti with Pantry Sauce

A recipe in paragraph form. Freestyle for your taste and number of diners.

Boil a pot of salty water for your spaghetti. Heat some good olive oil in a skillet large enough to hold the sauce and cooked spaghetti. Add a couple of anchovies, as many smashed fresh garlic cloves and red pepper flakes as you like. When the garlic is just golden, stir in some canned tomatoes and a spoonful or so of drained capers. Let this sauce simmer enthusiastically while the spaghetti cooks to al dente. Lift the cooked noodles from the pot with some of the salty water still clinging and add to the sauce. Give it a nice stir and serve with chopped fresh Italian parsley and/or fresh grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano.

20 Questions with Sara

How do you feed five hungry boys and a husband during a pandemic? Just ask Sara Martinez, a chef, writer, teacher and mom to five school aged boys. While everyone has been home, Sara describes the scene as cook, clean up. Cook, clean up. And lots of groceries. She continues her work remotely with Wellness in the Schools, teaching cooking and nutrition in South Florida schools, the perfect blend of her chef training and degree in nutrition.

Sara and I met in an online food writing class, Cook N Scribble, led by the late great Molly O’Neill. We furthered our friendship at O’Neill’s Longhouse Food Revival, an annual themed gathering at a barn turned kitchen, cafe and classroom in Rensselaerville, New York. The following year, O’Neill set up a dream trip for our writing group to do our cooking and scribbling at Julia Child’s home in the South of France. Sadly O’Neill became critically ill and insisted that the show must go on without her. Cue Sara who filled Molly’s shoes to help feed and entertain a group of hungry writers. We are eager to return.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? Tutti Quanti, an acidic type of condimentI. It’s Italian for ‘a lot of people or a lot of things.’ I interpret it as anything you have, pretty much anything you have in your fridge you can use. It’s a salt, fat, acid type recipe. It doesn’t have the heat element because you don’t cook it, here the heat is the spice which boosts the flavor. You don’t really feel it tasting spicy. Where I’m from in Venezuela we use an acidic sauce on our root vegetables and meats. It helps cut the richness. It’s really really versatile. For Father’s Day we did a type of Argentinian barbecue with picanha and sausages and served it with the Tutti Quanti.

What’s your favorite city? New York, definitely. I really like southern France, and I love Washington, D.C.

What’s your favorite restaurant in your current city? There’s a special sushi place that I like, Sushi Song. It’s tiny and their sushi is amazing! They have a really really really good roll, the Spiderman roll. It’s salty, sweet, crunchy all in one! 

Treasured find in the back of your fridge? My homemade vanilla extract. I use a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, make it in a big mason jar. I got a bunch of vanilla beans from Restaurant Depot and made a batch with white rum. I put some of the pods in a clamp jar for vanilla sugar for a treasured find in my pantry.

Who taught you to cook? In my childhood, we had a housekeeper, Augustina. She’s from Colombia and part of our family. I owe it to her! She cooked for us and always made this special rice. I still make it her way. You wash long grain rice to remove the starch, then parch it in a little oil in the pot to get the rice grains coated with oil. Don’t let them brown. Add water, salt and a clove of garlic, then let the water reduce off until you see little holes. Turn it down and cover and cook low low on the stove for 10 to 15 minutes.

Surf? or Turf? I like them equally, I’m 50-50. Mar y Tierra. Though after watching the Netflix documentary Game Changer, I think we should all go plant-based. It’s a must must must see!

What’s on your cooking playlist? Lately I put some dance-y Latin music/Merengue/Reggaetón on Pandora.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? I love tea! Cold tea with lemon. Lately I’ve been drinking more coffee, cafe con leche from the Nespresso.

Date night—at home? or out? Out!

Most stained cookbook? Actually it’s a Venezuelan cookbook, Comida Criolla. I want to cook what I can’t have, so I crave the food of my country. Recently we made Pastel de Chucha. It’s layers of poached sea skate which has the flavor of lobster and the texture of soft cod. You layer it with sweet mashed plantains, sofrito with raisins, bechamel and salty white cheese. 

Indispensable kitchen tool? My offset spatula. It’s great for everything!

Staple childhood comfort food? Oh gosh, I have so many! I guess an empanada.

What’s your go-to dish for company? Lasagne/Pasticcio with flan or tres leches for dessert.

Go-to olive oil? We have an Arabic store and they have a great Lebanese olive oil at a great price. I love fruity olive oil! Also Portuguese olive oil is amazing.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? Definitely my paternal grandfather. I never got to meet him, seemed like an extraordinary person.

Ideal grilled cheese? Hmmmm. Sharp cheddar. Has to be sharp cheddar! My ideal grilled cheese is from the Penn State Creamery with the tangy cheddar. It’s the best ever.

Favorite pizza topping? I love hearts of palm. It’s awesome on pizza! Mushrooms, artichoke hearts and hearts of palm. Try it, it’s really great!

Where would you want to take a cooking class? In Tuscany.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? Always undercook things a little bit. The carryover heat will finish the cooking. Also, cook with all your senses. Look, smell, listen, taste and feel. It’s alchemy, it encompasses everything. When you’re so focused on a recipe, you’re not paying attention to the sensory clues. Use your senses when you write, also.

Three things next to your stove? Crocks with wooden spoons and spatulas, cruet of olive oil, salt and pepper. My kitchen is small so the Nespresso is there, too, because it doesn’t have a choice.

Ready to blend!

Tutti Quanti

Sara’s go-to condiment is so versatile, build and blend to suit your taste. The cilantro and onion are non-negotiable.

• 1 bunch cilantro, including stems, rinsed and spun dry

• 1 small onion, peeled and halved or a fist-sized equivalent of green onion or shallot

• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled

• 1 ripe tomato OR blend of fresh bell pepper for sweetness and an aji dulce* pepper if you can find one

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• good splash of vinegar/you just want to taste it (can use lemon but gives the sauce a different profile)

• 1 to 2 teaspoons hot sauce (Sara likes Sriracha or Tabasco)

• Salt and pepper to taste

PUT the cilantro, onion, garlic, and tomato or pepper(s) in a blender or food processor.
POUR the olive oil over and add a good splash of vinegar and a teaspoon of hot sauce.

BLEND until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper, adding additional hot sauce for a little more spice and adjust vinegar if you like it more tart.

SERVE with a platter of grilled meats or roasted vegetables.

STORE extras in a mason jar in the fridge.

*aji dulce peppers are a quintessential component of Venezuelan cooking. Sara recommends seeking them.