Keeping up with a blog on a regular basis is apparently kind of hard. It gets even harder when you buy a house, move into that new house, plan a wedding, and successfully carry out that wedding. Between not having a lot of time to cook, and even less time to write, blogging—especially food blogging—can easily fall by the wayside. And it has. I will strive to do better.
Tag Archives: Recipe
More Pie! — Bananas Foster Cream Pie
12 Jul
A few weeks ago, I got an automated email. My domain registration for www.pieareround.com was about to renew itself. At that point, I was faced with a decision: should I let the registration expire or should I re-commit myself to this blogging project. After all, it had been quite a while since I last written anything for this blog. My heart just hadn’t been in writing for the blog lately; the joy had kind of gone out of it. Combined with the time it took to document and write each post, I seriously considered abandoning the whole thing. But a funny thing happened. Just as I was contemplating giving it all up, I had several people ask me, unprompted, what happened to the blog and whether I was working on anything new. Coincidental timing, but it at least inspired me to give it another go. Continue reading
Biscuits and Gravy — Harder Than it Looks
29 Oct
It must have been arrogance. There is no other explanation. I had read countless discussions of why biscuits had fallen flat—literally. But I didn’t think it would happen to me, even though it was my first attempt at biscuits. No, I thought I had beaten the game. I had acquired White Lily flour you see, the supposed secret to perfect biscuits. All I had to do was follow the recipe on the back of the bag, and my biscuits would be wonderful.
Not so much.
Purple Peruvian Goo — Mazamorra Morada
22 JunA while ago, it was requested that I include more vegetarian recipes here on my blog. My best intentions to the contrary, I have utterly failed to do so. (I suppose it’s easy enough to make my Chicago-style pizza vegetarian; just leave off the sausage.) That request has caused me to realize just how central meat is to my cooking—at least to the cooking that I’m excited enough to write about. Regardless of the meal or course, meat seems to factor into my recipes fairly frequently.
There is one course though into which you’d really really have to try to incorporate meat. That course is dessert. So, that is what I will write about today: dessert.
This is not just any dessert mind you, this is a Peruvian dessert. At Tania’s urging, we’ve been doing a fair bit of Peruvian cooking. And this time, we made a dish called mazamorra morada. Mazamorra is…well, it’s a purple goo. With fruit in it. It’s a purple goo with fruit in it. I can’t really think of how better to describe it. It’s kind of like a pudding I guess, and kinda sorta like Jello—but not really. (Incidentally, they really like Jello in Peru. Maybe sometime I’ll get around to writing about torta helada, or Jello cake.)
A Peruvian Staple — Lomo Saltado (a.k.a. “Jumping Beef”)
10 May
I was torn as I sat down to finally write this blog post: Should I begin writing as if two months hadn’t past since my last post? Should I offer an apology and explanation for why it hasn’t been updated recently? And if it was option #2, what exactly to say? Honestly, I haven’t written mainly because I haven’t been inspired. Before I started blogging, I never realized how much time actually goes into writing an (ideally) interesting and insightful post. It’s enough effort that when you stop doing it, when you get out of the habit, it’s hard to start up again. (Incidentally, the same thing happened with my gym membership. It took the closure of the gym to finally force the choice between going again on a regular basis or actually admitting defeat and cancelling my membership. And I can’t really claim credit for acting—it was entirely out of my control.)
But, unlike my efforts at self-improvement, I wasn’t going to give up on this blog so easily. I especially wasn’t going to give up when there have been so many good things coming out of my kitchen over the past few months. There’s enough built up content that deciding where to begin again has been difficult. I’ve finally settled on an international favorite of both mine and Tania’s: the Peruvian dish known as lomo saltado.
Thin Chops, Thick Flavor — Pork Chops with Ancho Chile Rub and Raspberry Glaze
4 MarFor whatever reason, probably related to meals I ate growing up, whenever I think of pork chops, I think of thick center cut ones. Ones that are thick enough to actual exhibit differing levels of doneness and can actually be cooked to a nice “medium.” It was rare, if ever, that I ate thinner cuts of pork. For whatever reason, to me they always seemed to be associated with an overcooked and dried out chop.
So, when I came into a wondrous bounty of pork from local Davidson Farms, which included thinner cuts, I was left without any go-to recipes in which to use them. I knew I’d have to work on discovering how best to prepare them. And this being winter, I’d have to cook at least some of them without the benefit of my trusty grill.
My first thought was that these chops would be perfect for frying. Being thin, you wouldn’t need as much oil to fry them, and it’d be easy to do in my shallow cast iron skillet. My second thought was: Tania eats way more healthfully than I do, so unless I wanted to fry up a mess of chops all for myself I’d have to 1) find at least some other ways to prepare them and 2) find someone to eat fried pork chops with me at a later date.
Classic Italian — Spaghetti and Meatballs
30 JanI was on a roll for a while, turning out regular blog posts to keep my nascent audience entertained. And while I write this blog for the dual joys of cooking and writing, the ever growing number of hits showed that all my effort was not for nothing. Then came the past few weeks and…silence. It’s not that there’s nothing to write about; I’ve been busy. It’s just that there hasn’t been time to write is all. So, traveling in the way-back machine, let me tell you about an awesome dinner Tania and I had several Sundays past.
My ancestry is Swedish-German. Somewhere along the way though, and I’m not sure where, a really good recipe for spaghetti and meatballs worked itself into my family’s repertoire. (Is it just me, or is the word spaghetti hard to remember how to spell? It’s definitely one of those words that I misspell just about every time I write it.) Lest you be confused, these are meatballs of the Italian—not Swedish—variety.
Spaghetti and meatballs, at least as my family prepares them, is not a weekday sort of dish. It’s one that requires several hours of simmering on the stove. And while it can simmer largely untouched once you get started, you still have to stir the concoction every so often to prevent the bottom from burning. (Which inevitably still happens to me anyway.)
Breakfast Rising — Apple Pancake or Puff Pancake or Dutch Baby
10 JanI know that everyone says “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” And some people write entire books and blogs, just about breakfast. But I must confess: I’m not a regular breakfast eater. I have nothing against the meal mind you. It’s just that I’m really not that hungry until a few hours after I wake up, and by that time, I’m at work and it’s easier to wait for lunch time to roll around. Someone once suggested that I just wake up earlier. That suggestion was a non-starter; as much as I love food, I love sleeping more.
In stark contrast to myself, Tania is a breakfast lover. She eats breakfast pretty much every day, and it’s usually the same thing: oatmeal with bananas, cinnamon, Splenda, and vanilla. Woe is it to the one who gets between her and her oatmeal; there are very few things that could tear her away from a bowl of hot oats. If there is one thing that could do it however, it’s a dish that she calls “apple pancake.”
I’ve written at length about my own family food traditions. Apple pancake is one of Tania’s. Most commonly referred to as a Dutch Baby, sometimes as a puff pancake, and occasionally as an oven pancake, the apple pancake is akin to a large popover. If done properly, it will tower above the pan in which it is cooked.
Warm and Hearty — Crock-Pot Moroccan Chicken Stew
3 DecIt’s winter time, which means ‘tis the season for hearty meals—like soups and stews. Actually, apparently Mother Nature has made a liar out of me. The calendar may read December, but here in Ohio it feels like anything but. With the warm, rainy, days we’ve had recently it feels more like April than anything else.
This past weekend, pretending that it was winter, I hauled out the Crock-Pot. Crock-Pots (or slow cooker for those of you with models from other brands) seem to be perfectly designed for winter meals. You can get them started, head out into the cold for some exercise or other event, and then return to a ready and waiting meal.
Quick and Comforting — Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms and White Wine
30 Oct
I’ve discovered a bit of a silver lining to the early winter, when winter rolls in and the days get shorter and the nights get colder. That is, because the dark and cold conspire to keep me inside, I’m forced to look elsewhere for evening entertainment and ways to pass the time. While spring and summer is often filled happy hours, patios, and outside activities, I’m not nearly as motivated or willing to leave home on the weekdays after I’ve returned from work.
The result? I end up spending more time in my kitchen preparing evening meals. (If this were the NY Times or another form of modern journalism then I would have used the word “upshot.” For whatever reason, “upshot” is everywhere the past couple of years. Has anyone else noticed the proliferation of the word? Better yet, can anyone explain it? It kind of annoys me to be honest.)
I digress.
The fall here in Columbus ended in traditional style. Which is to say, schizophrenically. Less than a week ago, the high was 80 degrees. This morning, there was snow. And so it was, as much of the east-coast hunkered down at home, involuntarily sheltering in place, I did the same. But unlike them, it was of my own volition.
Not too long ago, I came across a fantastic sounding recipe for Chicken Thighs and Mushrooms. Not only did the picture make it look incredibly appetizing, but the instructions also made clear that it was relatively easy and quick to make. I love elaborate cooking as much as the next guy, but when it’s a cold Monday night, sometimes you just want something that will come together without much effort. If it looks and tastes like it required greater work and skill? That’s just icing on the cake. (Or sauce on the chicken?)
Pie are Round 