Things to come

here's some things that may happen on this blog this week:

tofu pumpkin pie (done!)

vegetable stock

meatless loaf (done!)

cherry almond chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

10 grain muffins (done!)

zucchini lemon egg soup (done!)

vegetarian barbeque baked beans

kinpira gobo

Kinpira Gobo Preview

I am just going to dive right into whatever meals I have been preparing and eating lately...

So tonight's dinner is going to be my first post.

Tonight I am making a simple traditional Japanese recipe that is one of my very favorite dishes to prepare and eat: Kinpira Gobo.

Kinpira is a style of Japanese cooking where you braise the food in a hot oiled pan and after the food is partially cooked you add some water, cover it, and let is steam and simmer until the food is finished cooking. It is a wonderful way to lock in flavor and makes for a wonderful base style for many ingredient combinations.

Gobo is called "Bardana" in Italian. In English we call it Burdock root. It is a long root, with a sweet, deep, earthy flavor. I tell people that it is like a cross between a carrot and a potato. It is related to globe artichokes, lettuce, chicory root, and a south america root vegetable called "yacon."

RECIPE to follow...

Grandma Upstairs

Today I am starting something that I have thought about doing for a long time, blogging about my adventures in, what is possibly my most cherished creative space, the kitchen.

A key motivator in my creative process as a ceramic artist is the intense hands-on process pottery making involves. In many ways, the major I chose to pursue at RISD (Textiles), and my choice to move on to an even more hands on medium as an artist: pottery, were I believe, in hindsight, fated to happen. I think my deep connection to process came from my early introduction to the inner workings of my grandmother's kitchen.

I don't remember a time when I was too young to help my grandmother Nancy prepare a meal. My brother and I called her "grandma upstairs," since she lived with my grandfather, Angelo, in the apartment above ours in our two family house in Brooklyn.

My cooking has come a long way from what my grandmother taught me: early learnings about making "gravy," (what Italian-Americans call pasta sauce), steaming mussels, cleaning shrimp, cooking pasta, or making eggplant parmigiana. I owe so much of my creativity to my grandma "upstairs." After all, she planted the initial seeds of cooking in me, from which sprouted the creativity that has simply taken over my life!

So as we said at our Sunday dinners... Salute! (Cheers!) Salute a mia nonna!