"orangette" news and stories

'A Homemade Life - Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table'
Recipes by Molly Wizenberg
Simon & Schuster -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Molly Wizenberg, the woman behind award-winning blog Orangette, has become a literary heroine of the food blogosphere, with a writing voice suffused with a clear-eyed intelligence about -- and tender affection for -- food. Her fans adore her simple and complicated recipes alike, since they come with a side of her lush but earthbound prose: "Lately, I've been thinking a lot about cake. This is not an unusual condition for me, but it happens particularly often when I'm feeling frazzled or tired or harried, right around the same time that I start listening to the easy listening station on the car radio and feeling genuinely soothed by it."

Since Molly (whose old-timey photos we also admire) just announced a break from blogging to help her husband start his new restaurant, those seeking a fix could do worse than her new book, 'A Homemade Life.' A memoir shot through with recipes, it tells how she fell in love via her blog (with a New Yorker, and she lives in Seattle, but we won't go there), chronicles the food-loving life of her late father, and has all the hallmarks of a bang-up cooking memoir.

See what we tested, whether you should buy it, and Molly's incredible French toast recipe after the jump.

Is it possible that the most satisfying meals are those that are not meals at all?

Thick-sliced charcuterie and slabs of cheese pressed into rough-hewn bread gnawed porchside; three spoonfuls of warm leftover risotto punchy with mushrooms; the last drumstick of the chicken drowned in a slick of pan-swirled gravy. It's messy, it's everywhere and man is it good.

Orangette takes us there -- to a long-ago Sunday supper and a cook over the moon about the arrival of new potatoes at the market. Garlic aioli was whipped up in a flurry. Friends were called. Wine was chilled. Potatoes were dished up just warm, sparkling with sea salt and ready for dunking: an astonishing triumvirate of starch, fat and salt. Molly Wizenberg applied her sauce gribiche (a glorified homemade mayo) with a liberal hand to cold chicken, asparagus and anything else within reach. In an era when the thought of a dinner party can provoke a gourmand-sized headache, it's hard not to love the notion of one sauce for all, and the most un-meal-like of meals.

[Via Orangette]

It's Monday morning, and we're right there with you. While propping your eyes open waiting for the coffee to kick in, do sneak a look at Orangette. It's the literary equivalent of falling asleep curled around a novel or sipping hot milk to stave off insomnia. Strangely comforting and nostalgia-inducing at once, it leaves one poised between appetites, unsure whether to roast a rack of lamb for dinner or ride a two-seater bicycle through the French Quarter taking snapshots while drinking gin lemonade.

That's how disorienting Orangette's (aka Molly Wizenberg) prose is. If you find her beautiful polaroids, winding tales and dreamy recipes (like this adapted dish of asparagus with pecorino and pooled walnut crema) insufficient, you might pop out and buy her new book. Now back to work.

[Via Orangette]

A few days ago, I ran a post in which I explored some of the nastiest-sounding, yet oddly enticing foods that I could find on the internet. At the end of the piece, I challenged my readers to come up with the most repulsive foods that they had ever had or seen on a menu. As expected, Slashfood readers came through, offering a wide selection of delectable, detestable taste treats. Over the next few days or weeks (depending on how many responses I get), I will offer up a few posts exploring some of the strange suggestions that YOU sent in.

In my original piece, I briefly mentioned my narrow experience with Guinness floats; this, in turn, inspired a fair bit of commentary on the various ice cream/beer combinations that are available out there. One reader suggested combining orange juice and Guinness in a 1:3 ratio. Similarly, another reader offered up the idea of a Rogue Chocolate Stout float or a Hazelnut Brown float.

Overhead shots of food have really been getting me lately, especially ones that are composed to look like a meal is currently taking place (I always love the ones that Molly posts on Orangette). I especially like the color of the preserves here, which are made from sweet onion and purple peppers.

Thanks to Dayna for adding this picture to the Slashfood Flickr pool!

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