A blog for those who think food should be fun... for those who cook it and those who consume it. Tips, recipes, ideas and suggestions, links to the best ideas in food, best places to find food,and a place to find new ways to make memories with food whether you are a novice or an expert.
Some of the biggest fans of my cooking have been the friends of my children who have eaten at our house over the years. We have always had extra places at our table for dinners, both routine and holiday. One of my daughter Colleen's friends, Hope, came all the way from Florida to visit and ate dinner with us some time ago. Now first I have to say that Hope is a really great woman and I am so jealous since she has my dream job - she is a midwife. Since she visited us, Hope has become one of my Facebook friends and I have to admit I really look forward to reading her updates about the many babies she delivers nearly every day. Hope has become an honorary Dowd, even stopping in to visit my sister in law and niece when she and her husband took her dream trip to Ireland earlier this fall.
When Hope visited, I honestly don't remember what I cooked, but Hope sure does. I made a Pumpkin-Chipotle Soup that she has been begging me for the recipe ever since. I haven't been torturing her , but I made up the recipe, and I wanted to make it again to make sure I didn't give her a recipe for disaster. I actually made it in the interim but each time, I didn't think about writing down the ingredients until I was already halfway through. Well this past weekend when it was rainy and cool, I decided it was a perfect time to make Pumpkin Chipotle Soup and I was determined to capture the recipe so I could give it to Hope to recreate at home.
This is a wonderful soup recipe- a delicious meatless meal that is rich, but not heavy, with a touch of heat from the chipotle. When we serve it, we top it with crumbled bacon, grated monterey jack cheese and french fried onions.It would also be great with a dollop of light sour cream. I hope all of you will try it, but Hope, this one is for you and all the little pumpkins you deliver!! I guess it would be great for Autumn, too (maybe on Glee night!)
Pumpkin-Chipotle Soup
1 small onion chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 quart chicken stock
1 quart fat free half and half (or real half and half if calories are no issue)
1/2-1 chopped chipotle pepper in adobo sauce(add a little at a time until you get the level of heat you want)
Optional garnishes: crumbled bacon, shredded monterey jack cheese, french fried onions
Saute the onion in the olive oil, until transparent. Add chicken stock. Stir in canned pumpkin with whisk until smooth. Add half and half in a slow stream,whisking into pumpkin mixture. Chop chipotle pepper very fine and add a little at a time, stirring and tasting after each addition to get to the heat you want. Heat through but do not bring to a boil. Ladle into bowls and top with garnishes as desired. Serve with bread and a salad for a delicious fall or winter meal.
There are always new food sites popping up - new food blogs, product sites and food communities- just waiting to be discovered, and it is often hard to stay on top of your old favorites while exploring new and exciting sites. But sometimes the old opens up the new and that happened for me today and so I want to share my new find with you as well.. Today, I saw a post update by one of my favorite bloggers, Susan of Food Blogga, asking for votes for her oatmeal topping in the Quaker Oatmeal Challenge for charity as well as her chocolate cookie recipe on food52. As a blogger who is loyally devoted to my fellow blogger, I voted for Susan's topping (Cinnamon Comfort in Round Three for those of you who want to support Susan's charity as well!), and then travelled around until I found food52. The brainchild of Amanda and Merrill, both prolific food writers with the New York Times, the site has as its mission celebrating the best cooks in the world- home cooks, definitely a sentiment I share. Food52 offers a place for cooks to share recipes and tips, and a blog, as well as contests, pulling recipes that will eventually be included in a book. What a great idea!!
With the lofty goal of being the one site on food that you will need, food52 is a fun new site that is worth checking out (and make sure you take a look at my mother-in-law's stuffing recipe which is the cornerstone of the Dowd family Thanksgiving-you won't be sorry). Before you know it, food52 is bound to be an old favorite!
As I have posted recently, I am open to recipes wherever they come from. I particularly love to look in unexpected places for inspiration and recently my inspiration came from a Penzey's Spice catalog. Penzey's is an incredible purveyor of spices, but their catalogs, website and, and magazine, Penzey's One, are all great sources for unique and delicious recipes. So far I haven't made one recipe from them that hasn't been extraordinary, and this one is no exception. As a bonus this dish, Curry Toast, is a quick and easy dinner for those busy nights you get stuck at the office- Add a salad or some fruit and you have a balance meal in minutes. It also uses fairly cheap ingredients making it perfect for a family on a budget.
I used the recipe in the Penzey's catalog and made some adjustments based on what I had on hand, and every time I have made it it is a bit different based on the cheeses I use. As easy as a grilled cheese sandwich, but better!
Curry Toast
1 package (6 ) English muffins
5 tbsp butter
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (Monterey Jack also works well)
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
1/4-1/3 cup mayonnaise (I used light with great results)
1 bunch green onions chopped (including the green parts)
1 tsp sweet or hot curry powder (your choice, but use Penzey's of course)
1-2 garden tomatoes
Split and toast the muffins, then butter and place on cookie sheet. Mix the cheeses, green onions curry powder and mayonnaise gently until well-combined. Slice the tomatoes in uniform slices and dry off with paper towels,placing a tomato slice on each muffin. Cover the tomato slices with the cheese mixture and broil for 4-8 minutes until brown and bubbly. Now try not to eat all 12 yourself!!
I don't have to travel often for my job and usually it is a short jaunt twice a year but the beginning of October I had occasion (my boss was delivering Congressional testimony, and I was delivering him!) to travel twice within the space of 3 days to Washington DC. Once I drove both ways, but the second time I decided to take the easy way out and took the train. While it was a lot of travelling in a little time, the bonus was that I got to spend two nights with my daughter and son who live in Shirlington.
I grew up in Winchester VA, a town that is now a DC bedroom community, but I still love visiting Washington- there is so much to do and see and the pace is so different from where I live now. And as a foodie, there is all manner of food to experience there. One thing I know- if I lived in DC, I would probably weigh a lot more than I do because with so many choices, I would want to experience (and consume) it all! So, in the land of 1000 restaurants, where did I eat during my visit? The first night, I arrived on a Sunday evening (after making my way through hellatious traffic), and my daughter,her significant other (boyfriend sounds so juvenile) and my son were debating where we should go for dinner. With choices like Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Greek, French, Chinese laid in front of me, I caved in and told them to decide. The guys proposed a Spanish/Latin American Restaurant in Dupont Circle that Gavin had been to and Olu had heard good things about and so we piled into Olu's car and headed for Lauriol Plaza. Even though Gavin told me it was big, I was in no way prepared for the modern urban building that looked like it took up a whole block! And even on a Sunday evening, the place was packed! Inside, the restaurant offered multi-level dining,and just being there gave you feeling of fiesta- laughter, clinking of glasses, conversation and music- it felt like home, only louder. I love Spanish and Latin-American food and the reviews I read while waiting for our table made me anxious to check out the menu. While we got settled, our waitress came and took our drink orders, and delivered salsa and some of the thinnest, crispest chips I have ever had. My son, who is a former sous chef, wanted Ceviche for an appetizer, but they were out so he ordered some mussels instead. Katie and Olu ordered some sweet plantains to split. I didn't try the plantains, but Gavin's mussels were cooked to perfection, and the broth made me want to ask for more crusty bread to soak up its goodness. When it was time to order entrees, I was conflicted- I overcame my overwhelming desire to order mole, which I do almost every time I am in the vicinity of Mexican food they offered a special of lamb fajitas which sounded amazing, but I decided on Enchiladas de Marisco, enchiladas stuffed with shrimp and scallops in a seafood sauce with cheese. I encouraged Olu, who was feeling a bit punk,to order the special that was a shrimp with garlic broth that sounded perfect for someone nursing a cold, but he ordered a pork dish instead. Katie ordered chiles rellenos with cheese, and Gavin ordered the Santa Fe Platter that had a cheese chile relleno, a cheese enchilada and a guacamole taco.
Gavin and I have the best luck- besides the fact that his mussels were an amazing app that easily could have made a dinner itself, his combo was full of cheese and had a complexity of spices that was pleasing even to a former chef. Katie was not very happy with her entree, but mainly because it was not what she expected. It was covered in a tomato-y sauce, but when she told our server she adjusted the bill. My enchiladas were amazing! Since seafood has to be cooked just right I was worried that they might be overcooked, but my fear was misplaced because Lauriol Plaza clearly knows seafood. The seafood sauce was delicately flavored and complemented, rather than smothered the morsels of shrimp and scallops. I would have loved to try dessert but I was stuffed to the gills, so we headed home. A great meal and a real dining experience in the land of 1000 restaurants! If you are in the DC area- check out Lauriol Plaza, you won't be disappointed!
As a "foodie" (I really don't like that word!), I am always on the search for new recipes. Outside my collection of cookbooks, and fellow bloggers, as well as sites such as Epicurious (which I use several times a week) and Food Network, there are numerous places, both usual and unusual I have been looking for and finding great recipes that I'd like to share.
I am not sure how I found the site, but I subscribe to My Recipes.com, and they send me a new recipe everyday and so far, every one I have made has turned out great. It is a great site to explore, but I actually love getting the daily email recipe- it has often helped me break that "whadda you want for dinner" deadlock that happens in my house. And the price is right - you can sign up for free!
Looking into other people's family recipes isn't something you usually get to do, but I am fortunate that a coworker had a very fastidious cousin who wrote on recipe cards every recipe she ever tried. When she passed away, this collection passed its way through her family, where relatives took the recipes they remembered most fondly out of the collection. Since my friend knew I loved cooking, once family was done she gave the cards to me to peruse, and I am making my way through them . I have to admit I am taking my time browsing through them. First of all, it is quite an experience to think of the time she devoted to writing these recipes down by hand and the effort put into developing a collection that she could share with her friends and relatives. In the today of copy and paste, and computerized recipe boxes, there is something really special about this and I actually want to savor this experience, since it is unlikely that I will have many such opportunities again.
Recently a Fresh Market opened across from Jefferson Lab (now there's a triple threat- one stop across from your work with a Costco, a World Market and a new Fresh Market!!), and while I do not buy my regular groceries there I do shop their specials and to look for unique items I can't find anywhere else (it is Newport News, by the way!) After trying a few of their prepared foods (including a very good shrimp and grits cake) it occurred to me to check their website to see if they had recipes there, and what a treasure trove! From appetizers to desserts, there are some amazing recipes just waiting to be tried and some have already found themselves into my menu planning. Whether you are lucky enough to have a Fresh Market near you, you can enjoy the recipes and other great tips on their website, and they even offer shopping online!
Writing this post made me curious. What places do you go to search for a good recipe or inspiration? How many of you still have an old-fashioned recipe box or binder where you keep recipe favorites? Sharing of recipes is a great way to share your heritage, your ethnicity, your unique tastes, and your love... of food and friends!
My family and I are addicted to the new musical show Glee on Fox. It is so different from everything else onTV, and of course, I want to make a food event around it. I mean if people can have Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy-themed dinners, I can have a Glee-inspired tapas. But what to serve? Classic favorites from the cafeteria-meatloaf, mac and cheese, corndogs, etc.? What about having food made with beans? They are, after all, the musical fruit. Dishes inspired by songs or singers whose songs have been performed on the series? You see my dilemma!
So I am taking suggestions-how would you celebrate the fun, the music that is Glee, in food?
Maybe you have traded in your gas-guzzling clunker for a more fuel efficient model or maybe you are sick of government give-aways. Either way, there is a new clunker program that won't raise your taxes or increase the deficit sponsored by Laura's Lean Beef. I only recently heard of this company that produces hormone-free, humanely-raised beef, but have been really impressed with their commitment to sustainable farming.
Their Grill Replacement Initiative from Laura's Lean (G.R.I.L.L.) invites website visitors, Facebook fans and Twitter followers to submit pictures and descriptions of their rusty, old, last-gasp grills for a chance to win brand new, stainless-steel, propane-powered replacements. Over three weeks, August 19 through September 8, LLB will be giving away three new grills. Contest details are available at www.laurasleanbeef.com/grill, and while you are there, you can check out tips and recipes that will make the most of your food dollar. If you want to see the competition, look at LLB's Facebook site where they will be posting the entries. It might even inspire you to use that broken down grill!
The contest made me think about what you need to have to make a good grill- is it charcoal, is it gas? Do you need a rotisserie or a side burner? What about smokers- do you need one of those too? What would your dream grill be?
Get those spider nests out of your grill and send Laura your pictures-maybe she will make your dreams come true!!
