Smorgasbite

Today marks the release of the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau.

Many oenophiles say the quality of the 3rd-Thursday-of-November-spectacle doesn’t measure up to the hype.  And this year’s crop is particularly weak.

Nonetheless, I’m planning to buy a bottle. The labels are pretty.  It’s a fun way to celebrate the beginning of the end of the year.  Also, I enjoy tracking where I’ve been when I’ve tasted past vintages of Beaujolais Nouveau.  The first was in college.

A trivet for hot items going from the kitchen to the dining table.

I think this would be perfect for brunch table setting, holding a cheesy egg casserole or baked fruit.

Crocheted by Easton, Pennsylvania-based artist ErikaM77 on Etsy.

I bought a bunch of fresh tarragon at the market because I don’t think I’d ever bought fresh tarragon before.

Then it sat in my fridge for a while, making me feel guilty.

In the nick of time I used it in a delicious homemade salad dressing.

Now I can buy fresh tarragon again!

Fresh Tarragon Vinaigrette

Adapted from Wasabi Bratwurst’s Everyone’s Favorite Fresh Herb Salad Dressing

What I Changed and Why: Kept the fresh herb to tarragon only to highlight its flavor; Kept the vinegar to just balsamic for simplicity; Adjusted other spices to taste.

1. Shake all of the ingredients together in a jar with a tight fitting lid. (If you do not have such a jar then first whisk together all ingredients, adding the fresh herbs at the very end.)

2. Toss the greens & the dressing in a large bowl and plate it.

This deep orange cloth would be a simple but rich foundation for a Thanksgiving table setting.

From Bellingham, Washington-based artist margotbianca on Etsy.

Gourmet Thanksgiving in Advance (described here) Recipe #4

Quite possibly the best sweet potato recipe ever.

Tri-Color Garlic Sweet Potato Stacks

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine’s Roasted Sweet-Potato Rounds with Garlic Oil and Fried Sage

What I changed and why: Didn’t puree garlic with oil because I didn’t want the mess; Used pre-chopped jarred garlic because I’m lazy; Used three kinds of sweet potatoes because they all looked so good in the store (the flavors melded beautifully, and the various colors looked pretty); Didn’t peel the sweet potatoes out of laziness and for added nutrition; Made the olive oil extra virgin since its flavor is paramount in the final dish; Increased cooking time since tenderness is important; Changed presentation to stacks just for fun.

I can only imagine my disappointment, as a child, finding these in my Christmas stocking.  I probably would have burst out crying.

For those of us who chop onions almost daily, though… they spare tears.

I wish they looked a little chicer, though.  Guess it’s hard to make foam-cushioned plastic fashionable.

It’s hard to decide when pumpkins are most prominent: Halloween as jack o’ lanterns or Thanksgiving as pie filling.  I use pumpkin all season long in a variety of recipes.  It’s exceptionally healthy (arguably more nutritious than squash) and can be combined with complementary flavors in both sweet and savory dishes.

I love fresh, raw produce as much as any other cook.  But, for certain foods I swear by frozen or canned versions.  Pumpkin is one of them.  Farmer’s Market Organic makes cooking with pumpkin fast, convenient, simple and perhaps best of all: no stringy slime, no gobby gook on every surface, no mess.

Unless it’s time to eat my centerpieces, or, I don’t know, test out a new kitchen mop, canned pumpkin it is and will be.

Gourmet Thanksgiving in Advance (described here) Recipe #3

Gorgeous, easy to make, and ridiculously delicious. Be sure to make these! Bet you can’t eat just six.

Pecan-Crusted Goat Cheese Balls

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine’s Pecan and Goat-Cheese Marbles

1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in upper third. Toss pecans with butter, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, then toast in a 4-sided sheet pan until fragrant and a shade darker, 8 to 10 minutes. (Watch them very closely. If some happen to get a little burnt/dark, don’t worry- I thought it added a “smokey” taste and we still gobbled them up.) Transfer to a plate and cool completely.

2. Chop pecans rather finely, then transfer to a wide shallow bowl.

3. Stir together goat cheese, rosemary, coriander, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until combined well. Form teaspoons of cheese mixture into marbles between your palms, then roll in pecans to coat and roll between your palms again briefly. Transfer to a plate.

4. Put a parsley leaf under each cheese marble and spear together with a wooden pick.

It’s been a while since I didn’t blog all over myself.

Kokblog to the rescue!  Johanna Kindvall’s cooking blog: great sketches, recipes, and Scandinavian simplicity.

You know it’s a great blog with the above illustration leads into to a recipe for pear marmalade.

Today I happened upon some Tostitos Baked! SCOOPS! at work.

Being a sucker for any food product with not only one but two exclamation points in its name, I scarfed down a personal-sized bag. Apparently that was equivalent, dietary fat-wise, to scarfing down just half of a bag of “regular tortilla chips.”

The texture is unmistakably Baked! in its bland and slightly cardboard-like flavor. Thankfully they did taste a bit saltier than the flat Baked! Tostitos I tried a few years ago.

What’s more, the Scoops!–pardon me, forgot to use Caps Lock–SCOOPS! come in a shell shape perfect for, you guessed it, SCOOPing. Filling ‘em with salsa, green pea thyme dip, or pretty much anything else with flavor is almost certain to add some legitimacy to all those exclamation points.