Liquids Posts
Guinness Stew with Sage and Ginger
I love slow cooking because your food almost cooks itself. You do a little work, then the stove or oven coaxes complex flavor out of simple ingredients. Guinness stew is traditional cold-weather fare and a staple at most good Irish pubs. There are a million versions of the recipe. This is mine, with a few [...]
Tea Tasting, Part I
One of my fondest—and most vivid—childhood memories is going to the tobacco shop with my father, who smoked a pipe.* Bear with me, I’ll get to the tea in a sec. Pipe-shop adventures Now, Dad has long since quit smoking and tobacco shops are getting harder and harder to find. When you do happen upon [...]
Garlicky White Beans, Two Ways: Dip & Creamy Soup
I have a great—and relatively newfound—love for white beans. (See? I do eat more than meat.) Here are two of my favorite ways to prepare them. The first recipe is for a thick dip that’s fragrant with garlic and lemon. The second is a creamy, spinach-laden soup that uses the dip as a base. A [...]
Garlic and Ginger Infused Chicken Broth
Everyone has their own cold remedy. This is mine. Make the sniffles stop! I’ve had a savage cold for the last three days. Since The Angry Chef is catching it, too, neither of us was in the mood to destroy the kitchen with a full-blown chicken soup production. No matter, though. This is the chicken [...]
Maple Fireside Nightcap
Last week, our dear friends the Lady Otter and D. Bunnyhunter brought us a little jar of Macallan’s Amber Liqueur to sample. Made by Scotland’s The Macallan, this is an amazing whiskey liqueur with notes of maple and pecan. Talk about a great thing to drink in New England in the fall. I’m not usually [...]
Quick Meat Ragout with Orecchiette
This is a rich and hearty sauce that you can make in just about the amount of time it takes to boil a pound of orecchiette. Honest. Italian for “little ears,” orecchiette are those nickel-sized round noodles that look like tiny hats or flying saucers. Just because it’s a quick sauce doesn’t mean it’s short [...]
Nutty Spiked Cider for Two
This is my kind of cold-weather drink. I’ve had a savage case of the sniffles the last few days, and I asked The Angry Chef if he might oblige me with some kind of apple cider hot toddy. He kindly whipped up this Nutty Spiked Cider. He’s worked as a Boston bartender on and off [...]
Lentil Soup & Friday Night in the South of France
It’s just about 9 o’clock on Friday night and it’s 53 degrees in Boston—which is officially soup weather in my book. It’s late to be starting a pot of soup, but somehow that’s not stopping me. Now, let me take a step back. Inadvertently, tonight’s dinner has a theme of sorts. Normally, this is kind [...]
Sweet Pork Ciderhouse Stew
This is one of my ultimate comfort foods. It’s got a lovely balance of sweet and savory flavors from the combination of apple cider, cinnamon, chicken stock, browned meat, and a smidge of apricot preserves. A warm bowl of it with a cup of strong tea really hits the spot on a chilly autumn night. [...]
Brown-Sugar Cranberry Sauce
Ever since I was a kid, cranberry sauce has always been one of my favorite things about the fall. Most of the time, my mom made homemade cranberry sauce. Now, she’s an amazing cook. Sometimes, though, if I was lucky and she didn’t have time, she’d bust out that ubiquitous canned cranberry sauce log. (Come [...]
