The Bitten Word

You're Invited: Magazine Club

We've never been good at Book Club, but we think we're going to kill it in Magazine Club.

A friend who works in the magazine industry recently mentioned to us that he and some colleagues have begun gathering once a month to discuss the latest issues of magazines. As magazine-holics, we loved that idea, so we're going to try it with you.

We're proposing that we all -- yes, you! -- read the April issue of Bon Appétit, and then we'll meet back here in a couple weeks to discuss it. We're choosing the April Bon App partly because we haven't received or read it yet (prepare for surprise!). If we all like the inaugural meeting of Magazine Club, we'll try it again another month with a different magazine.

So here's the proposal: Get yourself a copy of the April 2015 issue of Bon Appétit, either from your  mailbox, the newsstand or digital download. We'll all read it -- and we do mean read it -- the stories, the recipes, even the ads.

We'll regroup on Thursday, April 16 to chat and share our impressions and thoughts. Between now and then, we'll figure out how high or low-tech we'll go (if you have suggestions, we'd love to hear them!).

Unlike Book Club, we're afraid you'll have to supply your own wine....

 

[photo from Bon Appétit's Instagram feed]

Crispy Pork Chops with Warm Fennel Salad

Food & Wine (March 2015)

We're on the cusp of spring -- can't you just feel it?

Every time we step out our front door, we see the very beginnings of buds on trees, new daffodils poking the first hint of green out of the ground, and fewer folks in jackets, finally shedding their winter layers.

March is the Jekyll and Hyde of seasons, and it's a funny time for food magazines. Some are full of hearty winter fare; others start to feature lighter, spring-ier dishes.

Us? Our hearts and palates are firmly set on spring. We're craving green, both under our feet and on our plates.

So it perhaps wasn't quite in the right mindset that we started making these Crispy Pork Chops with Warm Fennel Salad.

Charred Cauliflower and Shishito Peppers with Picada Sauce + We're Going to Spain!

Saveur (March 2015)

Bittens, we're going to Spain!

We are so excited! Neither of us has been before, but Spain has long been at the top of our list of destinations to visit. We're hitting three main areas: Barcelona, the Basque Coast (and the Rioja wine region), and Seville. 

We'll also be meeting up for part of the time with our friends Trevor and Owen, who moved to Europe last fall. You've met Trevor and Owen on the blog before: We had them over for Spiced Lentils after they got back from their honeymoon, and we once discovered the joys of Pickled Shrimp at their house on a hot, hot summer night. (And they've been at every Fakesgiving we've had, except the most recent one, when Europe stole them away from us.)

Anyway, España.  We're really looking forward to it. 

Got any recommendations of restaurants, neighborhoods, sites to see?  Please pass them along to us! You can leave a comment here or send us an email. 

With Spain on the brain, we were immediately drawn to this dish of Charred Cauliflower and Shishito Peppers with Picada Sauce.

Let's talk about these ingredients.

Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

From the cookbook Twelve Recipes

We're avoiding new cookbooks these days like Kimmy Schmidt is avoiding her past.

Mostly we're out of the cookbook game because we're waaaay overdue for a cookbook clean-out. Truly, we are running out of places to put them and our shelves are overflowing, with books starting to accumulate on the floor. [#CookbookProblems]

But when a friend, who is paring down her own cookbook collection, offered us a copy of Twelve Recipes, the new cookbook from Chez Panisse chef Cal Peternell, we readily took it off her hands. Twelve Recipes showed up in a number of food magazines last year, and we were eager to check it out.

It wasn't just the Chez Panisse connection that intrigued us, although we do love Chez Panisse.

It was the concept of this book that had us hooked: When his oldest son is about to go off to college, a chef pulls together the 12 basic recipes that are enough to get anyone started in the kitchen.

The book, of course, has far more than 12 recipes, but it does provide 12 basics and then many variations on those (Pasta with Tomato becomes Summer Marinara, Arrabbiata, Puttanesca, and on and on). 

We read through the book this past weekend, and though there are lots of recipes we wanted to make, we decided to start with a Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Caraway Salmon with Rye Berry-and-Beet Salad

Food & Wine (February 2015)

A few weeks ago, our oven died.

It wasn't totally unexpected. The thing was 15 years old. And the digital control panel had long been cracking and falling apart, perhaps hastened a couple months ago by a not-quite-not-our-fault melting situation involving redirected heat trapped under a cookie sheet on the stovetop.

Anyway, just before it broke, we'd decided the oven needed a good cleaning, so we turned on the self-cleaning cycle and hit "start" -- and that's when the incessant beeping began. And the flashing error message. And the locked door that wouldn't open no matter what we tried.

The oven, along with the stovetop, was kaput.

It took us almost a week to get a replacement delivered. Which really wasn't the end of the world, except for one thing: We'd invited our friend Carl over for dinner.

We had planned to make this Caraway Salmon with Rye Berry-and-Beet Salad from Food & Wine. But how to make it without either an oven or a stovetop?

Fortunately, we got by with a little help from our friends.

Flank Steak Peperonata

Cook's Country (February/March 2015)

 

At the end of each year, we write about our favorite recipes we've made over the previous 12 months. (Here's our 10 Favorite Recipes from 2014, and here's the 10 Favorite Recipes from 2013.)

Well, it may only be the beginning of March, but we've already got one dish that is sure to make our year-end list: This Flank Steak Peperonata from Cook's Country.

It is, in a word, fantastic.

Warm Green Beans and Lettuce in Anchovy Butter

Food & Wine (February 2015)

Here's what your vegetables have been missing: butter.

We served this dish of Warm Green Beans and Lettuce in Anchovy Butter the other night when we had our friends Vicky and Amanda over for dinner. At one point Vicky commented that she typically wasn't a huge fan of green vegetables, but that she loved this dish.

"Oh thanks!" we said. "We do too."

But inside we were thinking, Duh! It's all about the butter.

Marinated Beets with Pistachios and Tarragon

Bon Appétit (February 2015)

There's always something that strikes us as summery about golden beets. And can't we all use a bit of summer right now? 

Maybe golden beets remind us of summer because of their sunny hue, or their milder flavor.

Or maybe they just remind us of a beautiful summer beet salad we made years ago, when we first fell in love with golden beets. At any rate, golden beets always bring to mind long, warm days.

This recipe for Marinated Beets with Pistachios and Tarragon says you can use either red or gold beets.

But as winter keeps dragging on, we need all the summer inspiration we can get.