The Bitten Word

Rhubarb Fizz

We're coming to the end of the time in between -- that point in the year when spring has begun stretching into summer, but fresh fruits have yet to show up.

After a winter spent gorging on apples, they've quickly lost their appeal. The apples we're buying have become inconsistent, and we're tiring of carrying them to work, or snacking on them at night. We thank you for your service, apples, but you're dismissed. 

But it's too soon for strawberries -- hopefully, that may change this week -- and we're months away from the delicious stone fruits of August. 

Rhubarb, however, is here. Frankly, it's a fruit* for which we have no great affections. Its raw bitterness can be difficult to handle. To counteract that, most recipes that include rhubarb tend to go overboard on the sugar, and the result is a too-sweet dessert that doesn't really taste like fresh fruit at all.

Nonetheless, we find rhubarb a welcome sight in spring. Tall and red and green, rhubarb is the first fruit soldier to the spring front. 

But still, what to do with it?

Poach it and eat it as dessert?

Use a tiny bit raw or briefly simmered in a salad with a sweet vinaigrette? 

Make a rhubarb compote or jam? Maybe, once the strawberries have come in. 

Martha offers a nice suggestion this month, albeit one that requires ample amounts of sugar and, if you're into it, booze. 

This is a Rhubarb Fizz. 

Dandelion-Lime Cooler

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living (April 2013)

Want to have a big sip of spring in a glass? 

Then mix yourself up a spring tonic, like these Dandelion-Lime Coolers. 

We spied a recipe for Sorrel-Lime Tonics in the latest Martha Stewart Living. They were practically neon in their greenness, and so unusual sounding, that we were eager to whip up a batch. 

The only problem? We couldn't find any sorrel -- the farmers markets were all out and there was none to be found at Whole Foods. So we grabbed something else springy and unusual-sounding -- dandelion greens -- and got to mixing. 

Pork Scaloppine

Martha Stewart Living (March 2013)

It's Sequester time here in our nation's capital.

Since last Friday, this town's been in full-on sequester mode, which means ... well, not a whole lot, really. At least not yet. Most of the cuts won't kick in for a while, and Congress still has plenty of time to retroactively undo everything.

Nobody can agree on exactly how we got here, and there's definitely no agreement about whose fault it is. And there's surely no agreeing on how to fix it.

But in these troubled times, we think there's one thing on which everyone here in D.C. -- and across this great nation -- can agree: You want some Pork Scaloppine.

Moroccan Vegetable Soup

Martha Stewart Living (January 2013)

We're just back from California, where we ate everything in sight in San Francisco. More on that trip within the week, but in the meantime, it's time for us to get back to a bit of sane eating. 

Sanity, in this case, begins with a Moroccan Vegetable Soup. 

It's quick and surprisingly flavorful, just the sort of thing for a cold winter day.  

Making and Using Spice-Infused Milk

Martha Stewart Living (December 2012)

In the front of each issue of Martha Stewart Living, there's always a section called "Good Things." It's just a collection of all sorts of ideas for food, crafting, home decor, organization, repurposing a old car muffler as a festive centerpiece -- you know, typical Martha stuff. 

We always read these with great interest, though we seldom put any of them to use. But who knows! Perhaps someday soon we'll find ourselves wanting to make our own bath sachets or turn a steamer basket into storage for sewing supplies. You never know!

But we loved the idea of this Spice-Infused Milk as soon as we saw it in "Good Things." It screams "DRINK ME THIS WINTER ON A SNOWY DAY!" No? You can't hear it?

Anyhow, we decided to get our spiced milk on....

10 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2012

Plus Two Other Favorite Recipes

Happy New Year!

Before we get started looking forward, we thought we'd take a moment to look back at the past year of everything we cooked. It was a doozy of a year here at The Bitten Word and we did a lot of things that we're really proud of, from the Cupboard Cleanout to The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Challenge. And we took you along everywhere from our junk drawer to a wacky island in the Chesapeake and even all the way to China.

And in between we cooked and shared a lot of dishes that we just really loved. It was hard work narrowing it down to only 10 dishes. (If you want more, there's always the Recipe Index, which is fully updated as of today.) But narrow it down we did. Here are our 10 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2012, followed by a bit about each recipe -- plus two bonus dishes, 'cause like we said, narrowing is hard..  

 

[click images to visit the original posts and get the recipes]

Black Eyed Pea Salad from Saveur -- If you didn't get your black eyed peas for good luck yesterday, atone by making this spicy fresh salad. 

Spiced Lentils and Poached Eggs from Cooking Light -- Simple, soulful and satisfying. 

Spicy Korean Grilled Pork from Food & Wine -- It's all about the sauce, which we'd slather it on just about anything. 

Quinoa Salad with Asparagus, Edamame and Radish from Fine Cooking -- This dish inspired a hundred other quinoa salads at our house this year. 

Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon and Maple from Bon Appétit -- These potatoes rocked Thanksgiving, and they've already shown up a couple other times at our house. 

Grilled Okra with Red Curry-Lime Dressing from Food & Wine -- Forget about fried okra. We're addicted to this simple grilled okra tossed with red curry. 

Moroccan Carrot Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing from Food & Wine -- We'll never look at carrots the same way again. 

Post-Grill Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak from Cook's Country -- It's more about the technique than the dish, but we fell hard for the idea of marinating meats after they've been cooked. 

New England-Style Baked Beans from Saveur -- Sometimes a pot of beans hit the spot like nothing else. And this is a great pot of beans. 

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens from Martha Stewart Living -- Want to feel virtuous? Make this soup. 

 

And here are two additional recipes that we just couldn't stand to leave off the list. 

 

Chinese Style Eggplant -- We picked up this recipe in China. The eggplant lives up to the memory every time we make it. 

Salty Caramel Ice Cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams -- Jeni is the queen of ice cream, and we worship at her throne. 

 

That's it -- a dozen delicious tastes from 2012. Do you have a favorite recipe of the last year that you picked up somewhere? Let us know in the comments. 

 

Other Favorite Recipes:

10 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2010

11 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2011

 

 

 

Roast Chicken with Fig-and-Pancetta Stuffing

Martha Stewart Living (December 2012)

Stuffing was a much discussed topic at the Thanksgiving dinner we attended. (That dinner, by the way, was an amazing spread prepared by Zach's sister, Cassidy. We didn't cook a thing -- it was glorious.) 

As we expect happens at many Thanksgivings, there was talk of stuffing (cooked inside the bird) versus dressing (cooked separately, in a casserole dish). There wasn't a lot of love for stuffing at the table. Zach's mom said that every stuffing she had prepared had turned out greasy. It didn't help stuffing's case that Cassidy had prepared two fantastic dressings.

But in that moment it occurred to us that while we've made countless dressings, we've never cooked an actual stuffing inside a turkey or chicken. We took this recipe for Roast Chicken with Fig-and-Pancetta Stuffing as a sign that it was time to try it. 

Sorghum-Sweetened Chocolate Pecan Pie

Martha Stewart Living (November 2012)

Ooo, Martha, you had our number with this one. 

We probably would have made this pie, which is part of a great feature on regional Thanksgiving specialties in Martha Stewart Living, even if it were just a chocolate pecan pie.

But we swooned when we saw the sorghum.

Thanksgiving 2012: Creamed Greens with Chestnuts

Martha Stewart Living (November 2012)

Of all the dishes we served at our pre-Thanksgiving Fakesgiving, we never expected Creamed Greens with Chesnuts to be the crowd favorite.

Wilted kale, collards and chard? How could that ever compete with sweet potatoes and stuffing?

Shows what we know.

Thanksgiving 2012 Recipe Index: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending

Now that you're all set on the Thanksgiving trends for 2012, it's time to start planning your menu in earnest. 

As we've done for the past few years, we've gathered all the different Thanksgiving recipes from several different food magazines. This year's index features a full 239 recipes from 11 food magazines: Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated, Cooking Light, Everyday Food, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine, Food Network Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Southern Living and Whole Living. And believe us, they are absolutely packed with great ideas for Thanksgiving. 

We hosted our annual Fakesgiving this past Sunday. As you might remember, that's our yearly meal where we invite a bunch of friends to test-drive several Thanksgiving recipes. This year we had 20 friends and family to sample 19 different dishes, from a pre-dinner snack all the way through to dessert. We'll be posting about the dishes we tried over the next three weeks, in the run-up to Turkey Day.

So dig into our Thanksgiving 2012 Recipe Index! But first, we'll share a few photos from our Fakesgiving meal.