Category Archives: Food

Andy loves the beets. Personally, I was never really into them, eschewing them at every offer, not getting my head around what they really were. My mind wanted to make them into a cross between a radish and a potato, and it never sounded very appetizing.

After a decade of hearing it, I finally relented and tried them – and it was well worth the wait.

In this beet salad, assembled by Andy, there are some greens, cherry tomatoes, beets, goat cheese, and walnuts – all topped with a raspberry vinaigrette. My favorite part, aside from the flavor, is the bit of beet color that bled onto the ruffled edge of the goat cheese as seen below.

Last week I attempted to cook a Filipino dinner ~ adobo, pancit, and baby bok choy. (Inspired partly by an adobo recipe and story that appeared in the New York Times, as well as fond family memories of the dish.) All but the pancit turned out exceptionally well – the pancit was slightly disappointing because I couldn’t find the Chinese sausage that my Mom uses in hers, and the chorizo substitute lent the dish a more smoky flavor.

The kitchens of my aunts, and the crowded houses of extended relatives, always revolved around one thing: food. My favorite childhood memories are of those special gatherings that were crowded with family, crowded with love, and crowded with Filipino food. Several women occupied the kitchen, cutting up vegetables, frying something on the stove-top, shoving dishes into the oven. It was a maelstrom of culinary activity, with insanity and raised voices, and I loved it all.

My own parents would create the same excitement when we had family visiting, whipping the kitchen into its own fun frenzy of food, culminating in dinner each evening, where we would quickly eat then hide under the dining room table or scurry off to play with our Uncle.

Since losing my Aunt and Uncle, cooking Filipino food is one way to keep them close to me. It’s never quite the same, but if I close my eyes, breathe in the steam coming from the dishes, and listen to the sounds of the kitchen, I can almost hear the Tagalog again.

There are few things in life more satisfying than going out into your own garden and harvesting something you can use in the kitchen. Those days are about at an end, so this bunch of sage is probably going to be the last herb harvest we’ll get this year. It was just in time for a turkey dinner I made for Mom and Dad.

I supplemented the sage with rosemary and thyme, tying them all into a rustic bouqet garnis. This, along with the some salt and pepper and olive oil, was all I used to season the bird. (In the past, for a Christmas dinner for instance, I used to get very elaborate with the seasoning, crafting herb butters to slather into every crevice, rubbing garlic cloves over the skin, and other nonsense that probably had little to no effect on the end result.)

With all the talk of contamination, I’ve never stuffed a turkey with stuffing. (Andy makes it in a big pan, which I much prefer – it’s less slimy.) But rather than leave an empty cavity, I stuff the bird with lemon halves, onion quarters, the herb bouquet, and a head of garlic. It’s simple, quick, and easy – and those are the recipes that turn out the best.