OpenSky Is Coming

As an avid cook and gardener, I appreciate good tools that make tasks easier and more enjoyable. I look for form and function, and I prefer tools that have multiple capabilities or are so good at a single task that it’s worth buying and using. For example, my santoku chef’s knife from New West Knifeworks is invaluable and does an amazing job, and the wood handles are gorgeous. My KitchenAid mixer is a workhorse in our kitchen, making so many tasks faster and easier. Fiskars garden tools are durable and the soft touch tools make them easy to grip while digging up weeds or harvesting vegetables, and they don’t break the bank. My Oxo cherry pitter does one job, but it makes that important job so much easier and faster that it’s worthwhile to have in the kitchen. (I don’t have the same feeling about avocado slicers.) Read more

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CleverGirls Wine Club Deals

It’s time for some new selections from the CleverGirls Wine Club. These values will only be available for another week, so check them out. And remember, shipping is free if you purchase 3 or more bottles, which saves you even more.

Current Wine Club Selections Read more

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The CleverGirls Wine Club

Yes, that’s right, this website is a founding member of the CleverGirls Wine Club. The club is a group of bloggers who all enjoy wine and share information about special savings on wines from WineTasting.com. The wines are selected by the CleverGirls and aren’t the wines you might typically see in your local grocery stores, which gives you a chance to try something new. As an affiliate of the CleverGirls Wine Club, I earn a small percentage on each purchase made through my blog. Read more

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Good Bite: Everyday Meals with a Twist (Orzo Salad with Pesto)

GoodBite.com has a new video series called Everyday Meals with a Twist sponsored by Heinz 57 sauce, and I shared one of our favorite easy recipes for the series. My dish with a twist is Orzo Salad with Pesto, a simple salad that you can serve warm or cold anytime of the year.

We make basic basil pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto with our homegrown basil, but you can also use purchased pesto. Just toss with the cooked orzo, tomatoes, and kalamata olives, sprinkle a little Parmesan on top, and it’s ready to serve.

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Adopting a Blogger

Meet Anne, who writes about her love of food at http://annacotta.wordpress.com. Anne started blogging after her senior year in high school and says she’s “glad it stuck.” She spent a gap semester in Indonesia and fell in love with the food, and is now a college student spending this summer in a restaurant kitchen learning about technique and how restaurants work. In spite of her busy work and school schedule, she still manages to find time for cooking and baking at home. Her gap semester in Indonesia reminds me of how I wish I had done something like that during my college years, and I highly recommend it. Spending time in another country while working on your degree can be one of the best things you’ll ever do, both for your professional career as well as your world view.

Anne and I are partners for Adopt-a-Blogger, a terrific program founded by Kristen at Dine & Dish which pairs experienced food bloggers with newer bloggers. We get to know each other, help each other with blog stuff, answer questions, and share tips. Anna and I have both been busy this spring: she’s had school and work; I’ve had the kids, the garden, blog duty, life in general. We might have gotten off to a slow start, but we are catching up now.

Anne and I decided to introduce each other with a brief interview, so we chose some mutual questions and picked a few of our own. I hope you enjoy meeting Anne and getting to know her through her blog.

My questions for Anne:

You are working in kitchens now. What are your professional aspirations?

Hm. Well, I like working in the kitchen, but I think my real interest is turning out to be in the broader restaurant business. It’s exciting back in the hot kitchen, but I’m more interested in FOOD as a whole rather than just cooking, if that makes any sense. Making the same thing over and over in the kitchen seems like it could easily become more mechanical and job-ish than inspired and exciting. Plus I just love the idea of having my very own restaurant; the thought of finding a space and designing logos and choosing linens and creating my own menu makes me just squirmy with excitement. The food-love isn’t going to die out though, I can say that for sure. I’ll be involved in the strange world of feeding people in some way, whether I stick in the kitchen or venture out into restaurants or make my own jam and sell it on the side of the road in Kentucky.

Eat out or cook in?

Depends what’s in the fridge. Or where I am. If I’m away from home, I feel the need to eat at as many restaurants as humanly possible, doing a bit of a scavenger hunt meal; apps here, entrée there, dessert at that shiny little bistro around the corner.

You wake up in the middle of the night, starving. What do you make?

Depends how lucid I am. Probably a banana with Nutella.

What’s your favorite dish to order at your favorite restaurant?

Any of their ever-changing pasta dishes, or lamb chops.

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

Breakfast or dinner, lunch is the awkward middle child.

You have to cook in just one style (Italian, Basque, Thai, etc.) forever. What’s it going to be?

American I suppose, because it’s sort of a big grab bag of everything.

Favorite fruit?

A really good mango. But more often, strawberries.

Anything you’ve eaten traveling that you craved for ages but could never re-create just right?

Soto ayam, this deliciously limey and almost-spicy Indonesian chicken soup.

Street food or Michelin starred restaurant?

How sketchy is the street food? How pretentious is the starred-restaurant?

Any guilty pleasure foods? Mac and cheese from the box? Oreos? Orange Fanta?

I love Coke. I wish I didn’t, but I get insane hankerings for the real-sugar Mexican Coke that comes in a bottle.

Summer favorite? Winter favorite?

Winter: our very dear family friend’s Christmas Day coffeecake, I swear it could heal the world’s problems it’s so amazing. Get all the world leaders around this cake and there shall be peace among men. She delivers them on Christmas Eve, I get almost equally excited for “Camie Cake” as the rest of Christmas.

Summer: Raspberries from my mom’s garden… or caprese salad eaten on a deck… or ribs… or corn succotash…

Top three reasons food bloggers rock.

1. Humor. There are some clever ones.

2. Creativity. Always new stuff getting posted.

3. The fact that bloggers often get little glory but do it anyway because they are rad.

Finally, tell us a few things you enjoy besides food.

I like waffles, puppies, dancing poorly and wildly, being on planes, Google, sunshine, warm laundry, sitting in coffee shops, lemon soy yogurt, people who play harmonica, The New Yorker, and my ma and pa.

You can find my interview responses at Anne’s post Little Orphan Annie.

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Good Bite: Real Fast Food

Have you seen the Real Fast Food series at Goodbite.com? The concept is simple: make healthy fast food at home with 5 ingredients or less in 15 minutes or less. There are great ideas to help you eat well in a short time, and I am excited to be a contributor to the series.

Prosciutto Panini

The video is based on a post I did about panini (Panini with Prosciutto, Fontina, Spinach, and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes) a couple years ago, and it’s still one of my favorite sandwiches. Make sure you check out David’s idea for using pesto in the sandwich, which is also in the video.

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