Food Nanny Valentine's French Menu (Option #2), and Roasted Beets

I know what you're thinking. Beets? For Valentine's Day? And to you I say, What better occasion,? The colors and flavors are rich, they look sexy on a plate, and they're unexpected! My guess is that 90% of you have never had roasted beets, so not only does it become a lovely visual, it becomes a new experience which will add a little excitement (and dare I say "spark"?) to your celebration. There are a few foods that I don't care for unless they're roasted, and beets are one of them. The reason is because that high dry heat of roasting brings out optimal texture and flavor in so many foods. It crisps them on the outside while trapping moisture in the middle making the center soft, creating that wonderful contrast of textures in your mouth.

Chocolate Ganache Cake

"It tastes as good as any top-tier restaurant cake." -Liz Edmunds

The finale to Valentine's Menu (Option #1)! It tastes even better than it looks. The cake part itself is insanely moist, dense but still smooth, and has a wonderfully full flavor all its own. And the ganache... Well, it's rich chocolate mixed with heavy cream, vanilla, and a teeny bit of cinnamon, so, you use your imagination on that one.

Basic Italian Salad and a BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Yes, this photo has chocolate and a cookbook aaaaall in one. If I could, I'd give you pillows and slippers as well, but you'll have to come up with that part on your own. Tomorrow you'll be getting that chocolatey recipe to complete the menu. For now we're going to make this juicy classic "Basic Salad #1" as Liz calls it. You probably know it as a Caprese Salad.

I improvised with the ingredients available at my local market. Just get as close as you can to the right ingredients. Also, don't be afraid to play with your food. Caprese's are easy to style, so go to town!

Food Nanny Valentine's Italian Menu (Option #1)

After a wonderful holiday season with my family, and a nice, long vacation to Utah for a wedding this month, I'm back and getting ready for all of our favorite heartsy fartsy holiday. Valentine's Day is the time of glue, chocolate, red construction paper hearts, chocolate, pink love notes, chocolate, and white doilies that would be heinously tacky at any other time of year.

My First Go Around with Turmeric

                      

So last week was a big one for my family, in particular for my mom who went to the altar, (or rather the gazebo,) with her fiance and tied the knot! By the way, did you know that fiance with one "e" refers to the man, and fiancee with two refers to the woman? Anyway, one of the great advantages to being married to this particular gent is that he loves to cook and is apparently great at it. Way to nab a good one, Mama!

A couple of weeks ago they sent me a recipe for lentil soup that called for two ingredients I'd never worked with: garam masala and turmeric.

Finding My Cooking Mojo

I was thinking yesterday about people who don't like to cook, wondering what potential there might be for them to love creating food. At least to some small extent I can relate to these people; even though I have a serious passion for cooking, I don't always enjoy the process. Imagine the way Anne Shirley loves lakes of shining waters and puff sleeves. If she were to come across a murky pond or deflated sleeves, she'd feel pretty uninspired. That's how I feel when I come across a throw-together recipe or a counter of dirty dishes: completely uninspired.

I don't just want to cook for the sake of having something to eat. I want there to be some romance to it! When I step into the kitchen I want to be wooed by a new man or rendezvous with an old favorite depending on my mood. Then I want to tie on my apron, take Gerard (Dutch cocoa,) Alejandro (poblano peppers,) or Tom (applewood-smoked cheddar) in my grips and show them what I've got.

Ya hear??

So, for those of you seeking inspiration, here are some of my favorite practices that keep me passionate:

2 Ways to Make Stovetop Garlic Bread

One of the easiest ways to spruce up that "darn Dutch Oven Bread that's all over Pinterest" is simply to turn it into garlic bread. There are about 40 ways to do this. Really. You can use a grill, your broiler, a toaster, a frying pan, or, if you live in Colombia you can just slap on the garlic butter and hold your bread under the sun for a few minutes. (This works for all countries along the Equator.) You can use fresh minced garlic, roasted garlic, or go super easy with garlic salt.

For the sake of my readership, I'm only going to show you two of the ways I like to make garlic bread, both using fresh garlic and both on the stovetop.

That Darn Dutch-Oven Bread That's All Over Pinterest... And What to Do With It

You've seen her many times. Crackling golden perfection nesting inside a fancy-pants Dutch oven.  She looks effortless, timeless, and unaware of how radiant she is. If she were a human she'd be this girl:

I bet she goes home and makes cupcakes and eats only one. Pssh!. Source

In actuality, she's a loaf of gorgeously unkempt artisan bread.

Pretty darn impressive, right? Well, everyone and their mailman has been making this and posting it over the past several months, so, even though I'm a bread novice, I thought I'd take a whack at it. And, look how it turned out! It really makes you look like you know your stuff!

Ina's Capellini with Tomatoes and Basil

At the beginning of September some of your gardens are still donning several lovely cherry tomatoes. If your gardens aren't wearing these sweet little polka dots, the grocery stores certainly are! For those of you who're done turning them into gazpacho or throwing them over your salads, I have a recipe for you that will give the 'matoes new life while helping you soak up these last weeks of Summer with gusto.

If it's possible for a recipe to be light and indulgent at the same time, Ina Garten's Capellini with Tomatoes and Basil has it nailed. It's one of my all-time favorite main dishes for its freshness, deep flavor, ease of preparation, and capacity to satisfy. Salty, sweet, savory, mildy tart, and the juicy pops as you bite into each ready-to-burst tomato... mlup, mlup, mlup. I have all the ingredients on hand, so I think I'm going to be making this tonight for the fifth time this Summer.

Our "Arranged" Marriage (In Honor of our Five Year Anniversary)

Be fairly warned: This post has no mention of food of any kind.

Tevye and Golde sing a charming song about their arranged marriage in Fiddler on the Roof called "Do You Love Me?" in which they list all the humdrummy things they've done for one another over the years. Ultimately, they conclude that anyone who does those tasks day in and day out for 25 years must love each other. While their relationship is not my personal ideal, there are aspects of their marriage I find admirable and even inspiring. Namely, their dedication and lack of boo-hooing over what's less than optimal..

Shawn and I got married quickly. It was five months from meeting to marriage. Sometimes I like to joke about how we were out of our minds, but the truth is that we were fully aware of how speedy it was. We'd both been in long relationships and understood the benefits of a prolonged dating experience. We were under no illusion that we knew every meaningful thing about one another. We just believed we'd be really happy together and didn't want to wait.