rosemary lemon garlic lamb chops grilled with tomatoes and onions/horseradish potato salad/grilled pineapple with vanilla ice cream

This past weekend Nathan's mom and stepmom came to New York to visit, and we spent Saturday battling the storm, only to eventually retreat back to Nathan's grandma's house to prepare an easy, rib sticking dinner to help us warm up from the sleet and snow.

This is not that meal. Instead, I am going to turn back the clock to the dinner that I prepared with Nathan's help the last time I saw Tenli and Marie, back in sunny California this summer. Just as I did when I stayed with Aunt Elise and Uncle Ed at their home, I wanted to prepare a nice meal as a thank you for their hospitality.

really good flatbread, IIRC

So I will be upfront with you and admit that I haven't actually tried these flatbreads since nearly a year ago. However, they were pretty damn good then, when I made them for snacking during a dream weekend out in the Hamptons at my friend Jess's uncle's house. So good in fact, that Jess insisted that I make them again for the Lupus benefit that she and my friend Becky were hosting a couple of weeks ago. Of course, with a jaw wired completely shut, there really wasn't any way for me to taste test, but I think they went over ok.

It was a lovely event, hosted in Becky's empty Sty Town apartment. There was art, and wine, and cheese, and my roommate Laura's brother Paul's improv troop gave a performance. Basically, it was just the sort of classy event that you want to serve a delicious rosemary flatbread at. I found this recipe on only the biggest food blog on the web, and its provenance is none other than the dearly departed Gourmet Magazine, so you should expect great things from this little bugger.



These flatbreads look perfectly rustic and elegant, taste deliciously crispy and wonderful, and they also happen to be incredibly easy to straightforward to make. So basically, there is no excuse not take make these for your Labor Day weekend gatherings. You could serve them with cheese or sundried tomatoes, but they are great just by themselves. Just mix up the dough, roll out, bake and break into messy little shards. You'll be done before you know it.

The only reason this doesn't take ten minutes start to finish is that you split the dough in thirds and bake each flatbread one after the other, which draws things out a bit. Otherwise, you just stir together flour, baking powder, salt, water, olive oil and the rosemary. The recipe calls for fresh, but dried works just fine. Then you roll it out, sprinkle with salt and more rosemary, and bake. Nothing to it.

I've also tried making these with alternate spices, mainly because my mom doesn't like rosemary. I love the woman to death, but this I will never understand. As an alternative, I grated in some cheddar cheese, which was pretty sweet. This time around I added some romano, oregano and red pepper. My friend Grace actually made these with cinnamon sugar in lieu of the spices, which I bet would be pretty great if you swapped olive oil out for vegetable oil. Basically, this is a good base for a crispy cracker flavored with whatever strikes your fancy.

Flatbreads seem so sophisticated and upscale, but they really are a snap. For a snack that's sure to impress and please, give these a shot!

maiale in agrodolce e peperonata

This gorgeous recipe comes from Saveur's April issue, which featured an absolutely inspiring spread on Roman food. Nathan's co-worker turned him on to it, and he insisted we make the cover recipe, and even though it was fantastic we've put off blogging it for quite awhile now.


the classic Roman porkchop

Impressive, no? Well, ours didn't look nearly as picture perfect, but it was still a damn tasty meal. The ones in the photo have been frenched, which looks fancy, but really just means you're cutting off all that tender meat along the bone, which is one of the two best tasting parts of the chop. Therefore, we didn't have any regrets about sacrificing Saveur's dramatic presentation for the sake of MORE MEAT.

To start, we seasoned our chops and drizzled them with olive oil. The recipe called for letting them sit like this for half an hour, but I can't recall if we listened or not. Basically, I'm sure resting the chops with the salt makes then more tender (that's almost like brining, right?), but the agrodolce glaze you're about to make is so good that it probably doesn't matter. Also unnecessary? A grill. We cooked our chops on Nathan's griddle, which has grill ridges on one side, but a regular skillet or pan would be fine.

For the sauce, we reduced ⅓ cup balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons of honey in a small pot. You want the sauce to get nice and syrupy, but don't let it get too thick. If it's getting to the point where it's so viscous that you're scraping, not stirring, you've reduced too much. This happened to us, but we just added more balsamic and it loosened back up. To finish the sauce, melt in a half a stick of butter and the leaves from one sprig of rosemary.

We then cooked the chops on medium high heat, basting with the sauce and turning them over every so often. They should be done after 12 to 14 minutes. The recipe instructs letting them rest for five minutes before serving, but these smell so good that it'd be understandable if you cracked before that.

As you might have expected, these are awesome. The balsamic honey glaze is more sweet than sour, but the rosemary really gives it a depth of flavor. It was my first agrodolce, and it won me over instantaneously. Cooking down the balsamic really mellows it out, and the sauce tastes wonderful with the pork; (I love pork so much and I love finding new ways to cook it).

Saveur's suggested serving these beauties with peperonata, which turned out so good that it rivaled the main dish. The onions and peppers become sweet and delicious, and the red wine vinegar finishes it off with a nice tang. So good, and so simple.

Simply chop up 4 assorted red, yellow and orange bell pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, half and onion, and cook them in a pot with a little hot olive oil. Add a quarter cup water and some salt and pepper, and just let them cook for about an hour, stirring every so often. Stir in 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar at the end, and you're done. Perfection!


hearty Roman fare

rosemary brown butter soda bread

easy soda bread

So when I saw this recipe for a soda bread with black pepper, oats, brown butter, buttermilk and rosemary, I instantly wanted to make it. At the time I had some buttermilk in the fridge leftover from my traditional Irish soda bread, and some rosemary from this amazing Roman pork chop recipe that Nathan needs to blog for y'all. Of course, by the time I got around to making it, I no longer trusted the buttermilk (how do you even tell when that stuff goes bad?), but I just stirred in a tablespoon of white vinegar to some whole milk from the food co-op, and I was good to go. I also used some half white half whole wheat flour from the food co-op, so I wound up with a brown loaf. It was pretty cool.


half white flour from my CSA

This recipe is definitely a keeper. Easy, tasty, and a little bit rustic and different-- what's not to like? It was a bit crumbly, but if you're interested in making bread but don't want to mess around with yeast, a soda bread is a great option. No kneading needed. This one only has a few more ingredients than the traditional Irish one I posted for St. Patrick's day, and is a great every day loaf. The browned butter, the freshly ground pepper, the rosemary, and then oats... And all you have to do is mix the dry ingredients and then add the wet ones! Good stuff. I did worry that my loaf was too wet and sticky, but I added a smidge more flour and it baked up just fine. I initially forgot to brush the tops with egg white, which was definitely unnecessary and kind of became a mess, so I wouldn't fret over that step either.

Mostly I've just been eating it on its own, but tonight we ate some sliced, toasted, and slathered with butter. We also made tortellini with a rosemary tomato sauce with jarred tomatoes from the food co-op, garlic, fresh parsley and a little red pepper for a kick. I was worried it might be too spicy, but Nathan has a deft hand with the spices, and the sauce was great. I also bought some mesclun and made up a salad with scallions and my previously blogged new favorite dressing. It was a good dinner.


soda bread with dinner