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Celery Root & Apple Soup with Crispy Pancetta

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Celery Root & Apple Soup with Crispy PancettaThis celery root soup seems like the type of thing a cooking magazine would suggest as an elegant way to begin your family’s Thanksgiving feast.  I can picture it, served tableside out of a gorgeous soup tureen, as a family of beautiful people gather around a beautiful fall table.  The mood is festive, but serene.  They’re all so happy just to be spending the holiday together.

But that’s fantasy-land and your family’s Thanksgiving is probably more like mine (at least that’s what I’m telling myself).  Dogs will be racing around the house, adult siblings will be fighting, wine will be spilled, and someone will be having a nervous breakdown over a turkey that just won’t cook.  As you look around and realize half of the group hasn’t bothered to change out of their pajamas and the opulent table you had imagined is actually covered in dirty mixing bowls, you’ll wish it was just a quiet Monday night and you were sitting down to a bowl of this soup with a hunk of bread and a glass of red wine.

And that’s how I enjoyed my celery root and apple soup.  In perfect family holiday land, it would be a wonderful Thanksgiving first course, but in reality, it’s better appreciated at the kitchen table on a weeknight, garnished with a couple crispy pieces of pancetta and a mess of roasted Brussels sprouts served on the side.

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Grilled Eggplant Agrodolce with Mint & Fresno Pepper

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Sweet & Sour Grilled Eggplant Salad with Mint & Fresno PepperI wasn’t quite sure what to call or how to categorize my grilled eggplant, mint, and pepper concoction.  Is it a salad?  A side dish?  Main course?  I could certainly eat enough of it to push into the realm of dinner main.  And the name…it’s got the whole agrodolce thing going on, could I stretch and call it a caponata?

Before I go on, let me explain what’s happening here.  It’s a heap of grilled eggplant that’s been tossed with sweetened vinegar, olive oil, red chili peppers, and fresh mint.   It’s sweet and sour with a kick of spice and a whisper of smoke.  Hearty, but light and bright at the same time.  Wildly addictive.  Intended as a side, but scarfable enough to become the main event.

Okay, I think I’ve got it!  I’ll name it “Wildly Delicious, Totally Addictive, Spicy, Sweet & Sour Grilled Eggplant Salad” and place it firmly in the “Sides Turned Main” category of the recipe index.

Get what I’m saying?  It’s good.  You’ll make it,  you’ll like it, you’ll eat a lot of it.  Let me show you how it goes together.

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Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Tomato & Olive Relish

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Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Tomato & Olive RelishHave you ever been to a party that starts out really fun but gets destroyed by some camera-toting loony?  You know the type I’m talking about, the person who keeps interrupting the fun to get people to smile for photos to add to his/her scrapbook or facebook page (or blog…) to prove how much fun the event was.

I felt like that person as I snapped pictures of this grilled flank steak.  See, this steak is a party on a plate.  It’s been grilled to rosy perfection, showered with sweet corn confetti, treated to decadent clumps of creamy blue cheese.  There it was, my dinner, having the time of its life, and there I was, the party spoiler, considering rearranging the corn with a pair of tweezers (just kidding–I’m not that far gone) and turning everyone’s happy party smile into a get-me-outta-here grimace.

So I called it a day, dropped the camera, and joined the party.  I wish I had a really stunning picture to illustrate how good this steak was, but often the tastiest food you see on blogs is the worst photographed because the cook/photographer just has to get in there and enjoy it.  You’ll just have to take my word/rambling analogy for it.

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Lemon-Dill Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumbers, Olives & Feta

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Lemon-Dill Orzo Pasta Salad with Feta & Olives

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I feel my most complete when there’s a giant bowl of salad in the fridge.  Whether it’s used as a quick lunch, late morning pick-me-up, dinner side dish, or 2 am snack, I find all sorts of comfort in knowing there’s something tasty and relatively nutritious that’s ready and waiting.

My latest big-batch anytime meal is an orzo pasta salad loaded with cucumbers, black olives, and feta.  Dressed in a light ‘n bright lemon-dill vinaigrette, it’s packed with flavor without being heavy.  It’s perfect on its own or perfectly heavenly served with  grilled salmon.  Delicious eaten at a table with a napkin on your lap or scarfed off of the serving spoon standing over the kitchen sink.  In the backyard.  At a picnic.  Potluck.  Poolside.  Roadside.  You get the idea–it’s good.

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Grilled Garlic Scape Hot Dogs

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Grilled Garlic Scape Hot Dog

If I am remembered for contributing 1 dish to the food world, I’m rooting for my “scape-dog”.  Not only is the name punny and hilarious, it’s an awfully good way to enjoy 2 of summer’s best features: grilled hot dogs and zesty green garlic scapes.

Let’s go over the scape-dog’s history.  Last year was the first time I took the plunge at the farmer’s market and actually bought a bunch of garlic scapes.  I’d seen them, but I had never known exactly what they were or how they could be used.  They’re thin green stalks that grow up from a garlic bulb.  They pop out of the ground, twisting and curling until they end in what looks like a tightly closed, spindly flower.  Garlic scapes get snipped off in early summer so they don’t suck up all nutrients needed for the garlic bulb to grow large and plump.  They then get trucked off to farmer’s markets and end up in the hands of people like me that aren’t completely sure what to do next.

Garlic Scapes

I figured out what to do in a hurry though.  Turns out I liked them.  No, loved them.  I ate them sautéed, grilled, roasted, and raw.  I had them on pizza, with pasta, as a salad, and in eggs.  I bought bunch after bunch and started pushing them on friends and family.  When they were all but coming out my ears, I stumbled upon my favorite application for them: grilled and used as a hot dog garnish.  Oh, yeah, I’m talking a good charred dog with a smear of mustard and a few grilled scapes dancing out of the bun.  Just add a cold beer and a picnic table and it’s easy summer eating at its finest.

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