Ham Sandwich Indicted!

If you're a woman who likes to cook, chances are you've heard of Ree Drummond--a city girl who meets and marries a cattle rancher in Oklahoma, with home-on-the-range adventures ensuing.  She cooks, bakes, home-schools her children and writes about all of it. I've only made one other Pioneer Woman recipe--her buttery, decadent cinnamon rolls--and found this to be a good opportunity to further explore her cooking. For our first foray into Ree Drummond's new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier , my friend and fellow food blogger Shawnie Kelley (of  Manges! Mangi! ) decided to dive in head first with a meal of three dishes and a cocktail.The theme for dinner number one: recipes with alcohol in them. To start, we whipped up a batch of frozen Mango Margaritas, pictured above. As far as frozen cocktails go, these were pretty good...but then, it's hard to mess up tequila and fruit.  They're strong...1.5 cups each of  tequila and triple sec, and...

It apparently was a good year for greens in central Ohio. I say this because every Saturday for the last several weeks (months?) my farmers at the markets have bestowed upon me giant plastic bags of leafy veggies. For a few weeks, it was swiss chard and kale, but we've been transitioning to the tops of turnips as of late. I'm pretty confident that I've consumed more greens in the last 3-4 months than I did in my entire 31 years prior to this summer/fall. Thankfully, they are delicious, incredibly good for you, and amenable to a variety of treatments; to (badly) paraphrase Gordon Gecko, green is good. It's hard to beat my preferred way to eat greens: fry up some chopped bacon, saute some diced onions and garlic in the accumulated bacon fat, add the greens and cook until wilted. Salt, pepper, maybe some hot pepper flakes. Done. Add some soy sauce/ginger if you're feeling Asian. Lately, though, I've grown weary (heresy, I know) of my traditional treatment an...

"I have long believed that it is only right and appropriate that before one sleeps with someone, one should be able--if called upon to do so--to make them a proper omelet in the morning." ...Thus begins Anthony Bourdain's list of Things Everyone Should Know How to Make. I'm just about wrapping up his latest book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook , and you know, I think he's dead on with this one. Chances are, you know Anthony Bourdain. You've most likely watched No Reservations on the Travel Channel, and you possibly also read his first memoir, Kitchen Confidential . Maybe you even saw his lecture when he came through on tour last year. You may or may not agree with a lot of what Bourdain says...he's crass, strongly opinionated, and did manage to annoy at least few Columbus foodies during his recent stop in Columbus for a short No Reservations piece. I, frankly, love the man. I enjoy his self-deprecating humo...

So, this past weekend (Feb 13-14) was the annual Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) conference in Granville, OH. OEFFA defines itself as "a membership-based, grassroots organization, dedicated to promoting and supporting sustainable, ecological, and healthful food systems." Members include farmers, farm markets coordinators, educators, political activists, chefs, educators, and people like myself, who are just interested in finding healthier ways to feed ourselves and our local agricultural community. This was the first year I attended the conference, and was able to go on a discount in exchange for volunteering four hours of my time over the course of the weekend. The volunteering was an interesting experience in and of itself, but first, I want to share a bit about what I did. First up: Cheesemaking!! Saturday morning started off with a class on how to make fresh mozzarella and ricotta in your home--in less than an hour! The class was taught by Angel King of...

Not to brag or anything, but I've been incredibly lucky enough to find a completely awesome boyfriend who loves to cook (and eat!) as much as I do. At least one or two evenings a week, we get together and make a dinner that can range from a tomatillo and chicken soup to a potato and chickpea curry. Recipes usually start with the random ingredients we have on hand, and then cookbooks and websites are scoured for inspiration and ideas. Sometimes, however, a simple meat well seasoned and grilled is really all we need, and we recently made what we both agreed was "the best" chicken dinner we've made to date. Roast chicken is one of those dishes that can be pure, juicy heaven when done well, or a tasteless, dry hell if not. The chicken above (and below), was definitely the former. This particular (whole) chicken was purchased at Whole Foods, split in half, and brined for several hours. Then, with some help from the awesome, spice-geniuses at Penzey's, The Grillmaster ...