I really think food speaks volumes both about us and our lives, and the people in our lives.When a friend is sick: you bring food. When you are sick: you eat homemade chicken soup. When you are really sick: you are sad you cannot eat food. When you are sad: you eat comfort food. When you are comfortable: you make new food. When you are new: you eat familiar food. When you are familiar: you try weird food.

When you are rushed: you eat okay food. When you go to bed: you sneak food. When you are busy: you forget to eat food. When you invite friends over: you make good food. To show you care: you bake food. To help a neighbor: you loan food. To cheer a friend: you bring decadent food.

I was paging through my calendar today, noting each square and the piles of words, eraser marks, changed plans, kids’ school activities, business meetings, friend greets and doctor visits. We have tours scheduled, one on top of another, to decide the next scholastic pit stop for my boys. There are visits from relatives, soccer games, might-happen ski trips and the occasional field trip. Business travels, parent conference, friends’ birthdays and the sketchy remnants of physical activity (I swam last week, didn’t I?). You get the point—you have a calendar too.

But what about this idea: a calendar with only food. What I ate for dinner, or made for dinner. Who did I cook for? What traversed my table-top on a lavish dinner-out or a buzz-by dinner in? What did I shove down the throats of my children on our way out the door? Did I eat leftovers for lunch? Did I create a disguise for the leftovers? Was that meal humming with flavors and balance and ceiling high flavors? Would I ever bother make it again? Was that wine a boring compliment or a meal-maker? Who did I eat with? Was it perhaps you: eating while blogging/online/emailing. I am culprit. So when I look at my calendar it talks of food: the good, the bad, the quick and slow. The friend, the neighbor, the gift to the teacher. The planned for, spontaneous and practical food—or the familiar and not so familiar food. If new, it is rated and marked and, if worthy, its recipe stated.

Yesterday afternoon, a leisurely stay-home Sunday was impetus for me to make orange vanilla ice cream, mint simple syrup, heart shaped cookies, some health bars, sauteed corn, and roasted potatoes with fennel. What story does that tell?

I thought orange ice cream would go beautifully with chocolate brownies—we had just received a gift of brownies. Mint simple syrup serves two purposes: I am experimenting with flavored vodkas—the mint syrup happily joined lime vodka—and my son loves making homemade mint Italian sodas. (Other vodka forays include vanilla grapefruit and lemon thyme). The health bars are part of a product review; my children’s take on them? “squishy without much flavor.” Go figure. Happily: not my recipe. The potatoes, corn and fennel were happy sides to an evening meal. And the heart cookies, well, I made them to say to my family, on a leisurely Sunday afternoon: I heart you! So you can spread some love too:

Heart Cookies
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pink/red food coloring

Heat oven to 375. Mix/beat first 6 ingredients. Mix in flour and salt, then food coloring. Refrigerate dough if desired, for easier shaping. Otherwise, roll dough into log, shaping into heart and slicing in 1/2 inch slices. Bake heart cookies 9 minutes.

And that was just one afternoon! Most days aren’t that industrious, but then again any given week I might be gallivanting through a few new recipes, rushing around from A to B, or planning meals for a family in need. Go ahead, for a week paint your life by the food you eat. What story will the food tell? What busy schedule or sad moment or big event or friendly meal colored your week? What story is woven, and captured, by the food that crosses your table and your palate?

Today my food speaks: I heart cookies. I heart you!

 

Does it get any better? Martha’s January 2007 magazine put my salivary glands in motion with this dessert in her pull-out meal section. I love the idea of serving it with Port at the end of the meal… except even more I wanted to try to make the Banana Tarte Tatin in that same magazine (yum by the way, and not too banana-ey). So, this lovely trio became an appetizer instead. Friends came over, and I served this starter with candied walnuts (I made extra so I could pop them into a salad later in the week), Gorgonzola Dolcetta (huh? It is a sweeter, milder version of Gorgonzola) and pears. I actually served it with red pears, which are firm and delicious. Most pears will do. 

I am increasingly a fan of candied and/or spiced nuts. Often our guests enjoy warmed, spicy, rosemary cashews or gingered sugared pecans to beckon some pre-dinner nibbles. These walnuts are a welcome addition to my nutty repertoire. But beyond pre-meal or post-meal munching, one of my favorite uses for newfangled nuts is their status as a snack in my children’s lunches.

By the way, I am not the only nutty one out there: Elise from Simply Recipes made Caramel Walnuts, Bea at La Tartine Gourmand created gorgeous Flourless Walnut Minicakes, a Spicy Port Pecan Shoofly Tart comes from Kirsten’s Home Cooking Adventures, Peabody whips out a Nutty Tart—and I love the idea of Carrot Almond Soup or this recipe from RD for Spiced Nut Mix. And finally, both Almond Gazpacho and Pistachio Ice Cream can be found over at Stone Soup. Why not go nutty!?!

Candied Walnuts, Gorgonzola & Pears
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 T butter
1 T pure maple syrup
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1-2 pears, preferably red, cut into thin wedges
4-8 oz of Gorgonzola

Preheat oven to 375. Stir sugar and salt in small bowl. Boil butter and syrup in large sautee pan, remove from heat. Add nuts, toss to coat. Transfer nuts to baking sheet and bake 7 minutes. Let cool. Serve with sliced pears and Gorgonzola.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter your COTM (Centerpiece of the Month) photo! Just send me a digital photo with your name and blog URL (if you have one). It is a www call for great table top ideas (COTM for January can be submitted through noon Jan 31, all entries will be posted in a roundup one week later: Feb 7). Go create some ambiance!

On top of Spaghetti
All covered with cheese
I lost my poor meatball
When somebody sneezed

It rolled off the table
And onto the floor
And then my poor meatball
Rolled out of the door

It rolled in the garden
And under a bush
And then my poor meatball
Was nothing but mush

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be,
And then the next summer,
It grew into a tree.

The tree was all covered,
All covered with moss,
And on it grew meatballs,
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball,
Whenever you sneeze.

Oh for the love of childhood ditties. I am completely bemused by the fact that these little jingles are revisiting my brain via all this food writing. Seriously, I cannot recall the last time this meatball song whizzed unannounced through my brain. More recently, I have been the audience-in-residence to my children singing the theme song for the upcoming movie Ratatouille. Now there is one movie I will need to see, if not just to laud the “food, glorious food” song.

My sister-in-law has a son whose friend’s father is an Italian chef living in Canada (I couldn’t resist: did you follow?). Upon numerous inquisitions as to what he cooks for dinner, and please give me ideas and recipes and gush, gush, gush, the fine Italian gentleman gave in and worked meatball magic in his kitchen (much to the delight of my sister-in-law and a few other moms). He made spaghetti and meatballs—turkey meatballs to be exact.

So as quickly as possible I embarked on a mission to obtain this recipe and try it and then hold-my-breath serve it to my own Italian husband. Granted, the recipe I finally obtained was shortened short-hand (and to serve 20), which I shortened even further (and only to serve 4-6). So is it exactly the same as it was in his kitchen? Perhaps close… plus the wine I drank tossed into the sauce.

All said and done: I loved it, my opera-esque children loved it, and it happily passed the Italian test—my husband was impressed (insert more top-volume singing). So folks now you and I, and our families have a fine yet simple and very nearly authentic spaghetti and meatball recipe. No sneezing, no yawning, but occasional guffaws are welcome.

Turkey Meatballs
1 LB. ground turkey
1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley (cut into chiffonade using scissors)
1 small leek
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan
1 egg
KS&CP (kosher salt & coarse pepper)
1-2 cups bread crumbs

Red Sauce
1/2 red onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 28 0z cans plum or Italian tomatoes
bay leaf, basil, rosemary (or oregano, dried Italian herbs, etc.)
optional: 1/4 cup red wine

Make meatballs: Sautee garlic and leek in some olive oil, then combine with [uncooked] ground turkey, parsley, Parmesan, egg, KS&CP and bread crumbs. (Use enough bread crumbs for the meatballs to come together and easily maintain their form; I use coarse bread crumbs). Brown meatballs [in olive oil] in skillet, about 5-6 minutes per batch. Set aside and make red sauce: sautee onion and garlic in 1-2 T olive oil, add and smoosh tomatoes (I just used the bottom of the tomato cans to smoosh them right in the pan—I love that word “smoosh”). Add seasonings (and wine if adding) bring to boil, then lower to simmer and toss in the meatballs. Cook 2-3 hours on low simmer. (Serve with spaghetti noodles).

Foodies have their obsessions: foods they are prisoner to, enchanted with and cannot stray from… though I doubt any of us try. Clotilda from Chocolate & Zucchini loves, well, chocolate and zucchini. Deb over at Smitten Kitchen has a ‘thing’ for artichokes. And if you are thoroughly enthralled with a particular food or food genre: your blog is named for and equally dedicated to a singular culinary passion or adventure. So we hail blogs like Cheryl’s Cupcake Bakeshop, Anita’s Dessert First and Iheartbacon.

It made me wonder: what is my food passion? What foods do I get a royal kick out of, time and again? I am taken with olive oil and a sucker for coarse/herbed/interesting salt. And it goes without saying that TOMATOES will waltz their way into one dish after another, cloaked in any variety of personality, style or vogue endeavor. No doubt prosciutto thinks it owns my kitchen, is king and has no challenger. I am passionate about many foods though a most regular, familiar visitor to my kitchen is roasted vegetables. This will not be the only time you will hear from me on the enchantment of roasted vegetables. Be certain you will see numerous variations of roasted veggies pop across your computer screen, begging to adorn your oven.

Just the other night friends came to dinner and I roasted carrots and turnips; often I roast new potatoes with shallots and wedges of fennel. You will see me lube up squash with olive oil, cut beets into uniform chunks and find thyme and fancy salts to sprinkle all over tomatoes, cauliflower or long, thick wedges of rustic potatoes. Roasting veggies often gives them a certain sweetness that my children adore. In summer I may turn off my oven just as soon as I turn on the grill—and then it is one big oil-lubing, salt-smattering veggie fest once again. Here is the first of many ideas for quick, easy, delicious roastable veggies:

Spicy Sweet Potatoes
2-3 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks (I use 16 oz bag from Trader Joes already in uniform chunks)
2 T olive oil or enough to just coat
1 T chopped, fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Kosher salt & coarse pepper (KS&CP)
2 tsp coarse sugar

Place potatoes on cookie sheet or in baking dish, aiming for single layer. Lube with olive oil, sprinkle with remaining ingredients. Mix up again if necessary. Roast at 350 for 40 minutes or 400 for 30 minutes, depending on your timing/oven needs.

COTM: Centerpiece of the month. Lets be real: if you are a foodie, in the kitchen and attending the artistic side of culinary with great intent, there is a good chance you will spend a few moments creating some semblance of ambiance. In fact, even when I take photographs of food—which happens now almost daily—it is quite often that my camera moves to the right or veers to the left to take a photo of the vase full of flowers, a row of plated tea lights or piles of pears tilted ‘just so’ on a square, white plate.

Our passion is about food, but it extends itself to taking pause to enjoy life, to creating a space and ambiance of good-feelings, of reaching not just one or two, but as many of the five senses as possible. So when I cook, I drink a glass of wine and listen to some mood-setting music. I dim the lights and place a flame on top of the nearest candle. I smell the rosemary in my hand, after moving my fingers lovingly up the stem.

Many food magazines or television-made chefs will spend time on food, then make recommendations for ambiance: what music to play, how to create a fruit and nut or pine cone studded centerpiece, tips on setting an Asian or Italian theme—a Mexican table. Food bloggers are suspect: we don’t create all these amazing dishes day after day, without giving a thought to the mood our table inspires. And for me, it is not a daily affair, but week after week I put my mind to creating certain colors—adjusting the candles and wreathes and rocks and branches ‘just so.’ My table is the stage, and the centerpiece is in the spotlight. Herein is the platform where my fine food dishes and hand-crafted culinary monuments will be displayed, consumed and ultimately appreciated.

With a New Year comes resolutions, new goals and new ideas pushed into fruition. Puns intended, COTM is my blogs way of saying: lets generate a plethora of possibilities for mood-setting, table-gracing, stage-grabbing centerpieces. Not just from my singular humble mind, but from the minds and hearts of food bloggers all over. What is your best idea this month? How did you make your home more homey and give your table more presence? What was your inspiration?

Rules for January 2007 COTM:
1. Send entry to my email janelle@talkoftomatoes.com
(Subject title: COTM)
2. Include photo URL and blog post if applicable
(should be posted or photoed during Jan)
(If no blog post goes with photo, please include 1-2 sentence description of your COTM)
3. Include your name
4. Include your Blog URL/Title
5. Deadline noon January 31

Process for January 2007 COTM:
(sorry this COTM will be a little short due to the fact we are mid-January)
January COTM entries will be posted February 7.
February COTM can be entered starting February 1.
February COTM deadline is February 28.
February COTM entries will be posted March 7.

You get the idea…