Author: TaMara

What's to say? I love to cook and I think families benefit from sitting down together for dinner every night.

It Was A Cold And Blustery Day


Photo by jeffreyW

My mom left us this week. I’m not sure quite yet how to process it all. There were a lot of hugs, tears and laughs as we shared stories and remembered her.  We said goodbye on the coldest, windiest day imaginable, which seemed fitting somehow.

What is most important for you to know is that she is why I cook, why  I share recipes with you. Why the kitchen is a place of joy and warmth and creation. She never met a dish she couldn’t improve on, a recipe that she wouldn’t tackle, or a lesson she couldn’t teach in the kitchen. Success or failure, it didn’t matter, what mattered was you tried. And if was a complete disaster, then you laughed it off and salvaged what you could, but you never let that discourage you from trying again.

 

And just like Julia Child, you never let them know if the chicken falls onto the floor, you just pick it up and dust it off and serve it as if nothing happened.

Never let the ingredients intimidate you.  Cook what you love. Sometimes what looks like a failure turns out to be a completely new creation. And a pie tastes just as good with an ugly crust as it does with beautiful lattice.

Rest in peace, Mom. My best spaghetti sauces will always be the ones you taught me and the sweetest cookies will be the ones I made by myself the first time under your watchful eye.

 

Cross-Posted: Food In Fiction, Underway Recipes

Cross-posted from What’s 4 Dinner Solutions.

One of my favorite things is recipes in fiction novels. I’ve featured quite a few of them here. 

So when I began to write my own fiction, I wanted to include recipes. Run Aground (Book 1 in the TJ Wilde Trilogy – for sale here) featured Smashed Potatoes and Lemon Piccata Chicken

My newest book, Underway (Book 2 in the TJ Wilde Trilogy) features two recipes.  Tahini Walnut Rolls (recipe here) and Sausage and Grapes below.

Underway is on sale now, here. You can read Chapters 1 and 2 here.

From 2015:

…I decided to experiment with flavors I would have never thought of on my own. Facebook and blog friend Michael F, shared a recipe on Facebook from Italy, in Italian no less, and the photo intrigued me. I let google translate the recipe (which was a hoot) and went about putting my touches into it.

It was so unusual, my most reliable recipe testers politely declined my dinner invite. Totally understandable. But I will tell you I was pleasantly surprised how well this turned out. If you like pork and apples, this has a similar flavor palate. It was also quick and easy to prepare. I’m glad I decided to experiment.

All right, if you’re up for something new and different, here you go, tonight’s featured recipe.

Sausage and Grapes

  • 8 links Italian sausage (I used spicy, but you could use any style sausage you favor)
  • 1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 cup green seedless grapes, washed, dried and halved lengthwise
  • 1 cup red seedless grapes, washed, dried and halved lengthwise
  • salt and pepper to taste (I used none, didn’t need it)
  • angel hair pasta
  • freshly grated Parmesan

skillet

Slice sausage links into four pieces each, add to skillet and fry on medium high for about 10 minutes. Add onion and fennel seeds, cook another 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent. Add grapes, stir until well mixed, cover and let simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes while pasta cooks.

Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain well.

You can toss with the sausage mixture, or serve separately. Serve with Parmesan.

The pasta was my addition. When I asked Michael what would be a good side, he suggested eggplant or roasted potatoes. Roasted zucchini spears would probably work well, too.

 

Paris in the Fall: The Food

Rodin Museum

I have so many photos from the trip, but very few are of iconic images – I tried to look for the unusual and eye catching.  Or the occasional T-Rex.

So the food. Much to tell. Most of it good. I loved how fresh everything was, milk, cheese, bread. Oh, the cheeses! Oh, the breads! Nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the breads there. Breakfast was the basic Le petit déjeuner en Français and it made me very happy (and full) each morning :

Photo courtesy of Larilyn, as I took no pictures of food on the trip. :-(

The croissants varied by location, but when they were fresh, they were absolutely delicious. And I had two chocolate croissants (pain au chocolat) that were fabulous.  By far my favorite pastries were the raspberry tart (tarte aux franboises) and the lemon tart (tarte au citron), both of which I want to recreate this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Rodin’s Garden

There were some fun things we tried. One was of course, the Nutella crêpes, the other was a great hot dog  from a street vendor, served in a toasted baguette with cheese. One of  the best  meals we had was in our hotel on Sunday (after a very, very long day we didn’t have it in us to go anywhere else). They have a garden in the courtyard (just beneath our window, btw) and used those fresh ingedients in their kitchen. Magnifique!

Musée d’Orsay – my favorite museum by far

The most interesting and  surprising thing about the food was how little sugar was involved, even in the pastries.  And the ketchup. And the chocolate. You’d be surprised how much more flavorful food is without the over-sweetness we are accustomed to – much more complex flavors are allowed to blossom. I actually brought home 2 boxes (oh, how I wish I’d bought a dozen) of St. Michel’ Galette Salted Butter cookies because they were so perfect with a cup of coffee after dinner.

Walking the Seine

And the coffee…well that’s a post all its own because I came home determined to make the terrific coffee we had there. Even in our hotel room. Yum. I have succeeded.

Walking the Seine, continued..

That’s about it. Nothing in any of the bistros or other restaurants really stood out. We were warned that outside the pastries, cheeses and breads, the food might be disappointing. So we were prepared.  We did sample a little  bit of everything, so I think overall it was a terrific experience.

I have a few more pictures to share, so probably have one more wrap-up post. Until then….