Frank Bruni's "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater" tells how he went from adult bulimic to New York Times food critic.
Restaurants: Bastille Cafe & Bar in Ballard is on its way to prime French fare, Greenwood's Aloha Ramen dishes "satisfyingly chewy" noodles and Lola sizzles with Mediterranean meals.
Grilled eggplant and olive oil pizza. Photo: Smitten Kitchen.
A slew of youngsters are heading back to school this week, lugging backpacks, breaking in new shoes, sharpening pencils and, if they're lucky (at least a few days out of the year), forgoing the brown-bag lunch in favor of a pizza party. It's enough to make us nearly jealous, except that one of the many joys of adulthood is that we can have pizza whenever we please -- and booze to wash it down with -- no matter the circumstances (or caloric consequences).
For example, when Deb from Smitten Kitchen was craving grilled pizza and the weather didn't agree with her plans for dinner al fresco, she still found a way to make it happen, "Weather be damned!" She busted out a cast-iron panini pan, doused the dough with garlicky extra-virgin olive oil, and piled on the grilled eggplant, olives and provolone. The result, reports the cook, was "hearty, smoky and delicious."
So how'd she get those beautiful cheesy bubbles with her indoor "grill?" Well, since she was "grilling" inside anyway, she put it in the oven for a few minutes. They don't teach that in school.
Eggplants. They just hang out in the farmer's market like they own the joint. Big, fat, smug and kingly purple.
And we can't resist them. In an attempt to partake of their charms without heating the heck out of muggy apartments, we were pleased to stumble upon this recipe for Tortang Talong, a traditional Filipino recipe that brings egg and pork into the eggplantian universe.
Yup, egg. No big surprise to see it sneak into the equation, since it's had cross-cultural starring roles in pork-vegetable dishes from Japanese ramen to Korean bibimbap. But watching this video somehow still floored us: "Tortang Talong!" Who doesn't want to brag to her friends that she's whipping that up for dinner? Check it out and let us know if you give it a go.
Bastille Day occurs at the height of summer, when summer vegetables are clamoring for attention from rows and stakes in the garden and tumbling out of bushel baskets in the marketplace. The shiny, waxen skins of eggplant and zucchini beckon the home cook to the pleasures of vegetables fresh from the embrace of sunshine and soil. Fat, juicy tomatoes are plentiful, as are fragrant bundles of leeks and fresh herbs.
Provençal cooking celebrates the earthy traditions of the French countryside and southern France in general, with food as simple and good as bread, wine, cheese. A tian -- a layered, baked vegetable dish that originated in Provence but is also common to city kitchens -- is the perfect complement to this French holiday. Unlike a gratin, a tian does not include bread crumbs or cheese, which allows the juices in the vegetables to evaporate in the oven's dry heat, concentrating their flavors.
Beyond the jump is an original recipe for tian of summer vegetables, which has been streamlined for the home cook while retaining fidelity to the original French dish. Serve this with your Bastille Day poulet, boeuf or pouisson, and watch as wine glasses around the table clink and diners agree: "Vive la France!"
I'm not sure that there is anything as tantalizing as Greek food. While most culinary regions tap into my moods at certain times, I am always itching to go for Greek. From flaming Opa! to Ouzo, it's all good. How can you not love meals that always starts with garlic bread or pita with delicious, feta-laden salad? It's the type of food that makes diets irrelevant.
To give you a quick taste of Greek flavor at home, try out the above recipe for melitzanosalata, or eggplant salad. The preparation is pretty simple, and in a flash you can have a rich and smokey dip that would be perfect with your Greek-themed meal, or as a creamy side to toasted chunks of pita. Unfortunately, the recipe requires a gas stove. If you're like me and sadly gas-free, try broiling, or grilling the eggplant either on a stovetop grill or bbq grill.
I'm always looking for new ways to make chicken and/or vegetables. Chicken is incredibly versatile, and I find myself eating chicken and vegetables a lot, no matter what season it is. Veggies are good for you and chicken has a lot of protein (and I usually have it skinless).
I also like rosemary more than a human being should like rosemary, so this recipe for Roasted Rosemary Chicken and Vegetables is one I'm going to try this week. I don't think I've ever marinated chicken or meat in a rosemary marinade. Full recipe after the jump.
I'm beginning to believe that there's something special about the eggplants that grow in Pennsylvania. About a month ago, I posted about a suburban Philadelphia woman who discovered that the seed pattern in her eggplant looked like it was spelling out the word God. Last night, as I was slicing my own white eggplant for a broiled eggplant dish, I took a closer look and don't you know, but it resembles the that same divine word. Now, I realize that it's sort of a hard sell. It does look a little more like Gob than God. But it leads me to wonder if I shouldn't look more closely at my future eggplants. Maybe they've been trying to speak to me for years, and I just haven't been paying attention!
Recently, I mentioned to my mom that I had an eggplant in my fridge that needed to be used. She started telling me about a recipe that a friend had given her back when she was first married for broiled eggplant. She remembered it being delicious. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention when she told me about it, because if it had been that good, why was it not part of the menu rotation when I was growing up?
The original eggplant got put to other purposes, but this weekend I picked up two nice, firm, white eggplants this weekend at the farmers market, and so this recipe started niggling away at my consciousness again. I put it together tonight and nearly wept at my first bite as it was tender and sweet and crunchy and wonderful. I called my mother up as soon as my plate was clean to ask her how it was possible that she had known of this preparation for nearly 40 years and I was only eating it tonight. In some sense, I'm grateful for her recipe amnesia, if only because it contributed to a fun recipe discovery tonight. If you like eggplant, don't wait 40 years to make this dish.
Sunday night I pulled together an improvised baked veggie dish that took inspiration from ratatouille and the lasagna that my mom used to make when I was little. I thinly sliced half of a sizable zucchini, along with an eggplant that had been withering away in my fridge for the last week. I threw together a quick tomato sauce with several bruised tomatoes (I inadvertently squished half of my farmers market haul on the way home), a can of San Marzano tomatoes, a bunch of crushed garlic and a few minced shallots. Oh, and at the last minute I tossed a handful of chopped basil in to give it another hit of flavor and aroma.
I put down one layer of the sliced zucchini and eggplant on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Then spooned a layer of ricotta cheese down and poured half the tomato sauce down on top of that. A second layer of zucchini and eggplant when down, along with the other half of the sauce. This was the moment at which I dearly wished I had used a slightly deeper baking dish, as I was right at the edge. I covered it with tin foil and baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Today while pimping Slashfood for the Blogger's Choice Awards, I came across what seems like a whole sub-blogosphere of vegan food blogs. I knew there were some, but who knew there were enough to fill an entire page of nominations!
Now I ate vegan for about six months for no good reason other than "just to try it." It was hard. I had to cook all the time, and after a while, because I'm not very innovative in the kitchen, I was eating the same things all the time. However, had I had access to something as gorgeously delicious as this Eggplant Napoleon as prepared by food blog Vegan Yum Yum, I might have eaten vegan out a little bit longer (but not forever - I do need to taste a rare steak every once in a while).
I'm always looking for new ways to make chicken and/or vegetables. Chicken is incredibly versatile, and I find myself eating chicken and vegetables a lot, no matter what season it is. Veggies are good for you and chicken has a lot of protein (and I usually have it skinless).
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Let them eat cake! 
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