January 2017 Archives | The Taste Tourist

Taste Five – Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes

January 29, 2017 by Kimberly 2 Comments

Slow Cooker Pho

LAYERS

This week I made my first pho, a dish that I’ve never contemplated making at home before… one full of diverse ingredients, each of which lends a special note to the final product.

Roasting an onion and ginger until slightly charred. Adding a layer of rich beef broth and short ribs. Infusing the broth with star anise, cinnamon, and cloves. Topping it off with fresh basil, mint, cilantro, jalapeno, and lime. Eating the final product and reflecting on the dimensionality of all these layers of flavor.

It occurred to me as I was cooking this week’s recipes – rich with so many complex flavors – that the same is true, not just of recipes, but of people and cultures as well.

It’s the layers that make them all so interesting.

Here is this week’s Taste Five. …

Cookbook of the Week – Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes

January 23, 2017 by Kimberly 2 Comments

Traditions

I love traditions – personal traditions, family traditions, cultural traditions…there’s a comforting security in carrying the past forward. But as much as I love traditions, I’m also drawn to the new – to change, to variety, to learning and growth.

The Chinese New Year, occurring this week, celebrates both of these – valuing the past and looking forward to the future.

Also known as The Lunar New Year, as it occurs during the second new moon of the winter solstice, it’s celebrated not just in China, but in many communities and countries around the world. I’ve always been intrigued by its unique customs and traditions…the ritual cleaning prior to the New Year, firecrackers, red envelopes filled with money for the children, lion dances, spring couplets decorating doors, drumming competitions, joss sticks burning in the temples, the lucky colors of red and gold, and the Lantern Festival marking its conclusion.

One of the most revered traditions is the New Year’s Eve reunion dinner…rich with symbolism and food. It’s a time when family members typically travel great distances in order to come together, pay homage to their ancestors, and celebrate with an abundance of food. Many of the dishes served have special symbolic meaning, their names and ingredients conveying shapes or sounds similar to the Chinese wishes for the new year. Good fortune fruit – tangerines, oranges, and pomeloes, noodles – a symbol of longevity, fish – served whole with some left over to ensure abundance, and dumplings at midnight symbolizing good wishes for the year ahead.

Beautiful food. Beautiful traditions.

In honor of the Chinese New Year, this week’s Cookbook of the Week is Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes. …

Taste Five – Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook

January 22, 2017 by Kimberly 4 Comments

The Process

I have a tendency to focus on results, to work hard toward meeting a goal, to want to get to the finish line. But this week reminded me of an essential truth…that sometimes the most significant moments are to be found, not just in the end result, but in the process as well.

As I started thumbing through the pages of this week’s cookbook, I was intrigued to read that the Macrina Bakery and Café was named, not for its founder Leslie Mackie, but rather for Saint Macrina – a fourth century nun who was known for “working to improve the life of her community.” That resonated with me, as I’m fortunate to work with an incredibly talented and passionate group of educators, who are absolutely committed to making a difference in the lives of our students.

I liked the idea of baking for my colleagues this week, of giving back a bit…especially as this is also National Baking Month. With that in mind, I spent last weekend immersed in a sea of butter, sugar, flour, and a myriad of ingredients that transform the simple into the sublime…dried cherries, almonds, golden raisins, dark chocolate, fresh ginger, orange zest, and molasses.

As I packed up all my creations on Sunday night, exhausted and yet excited to share them, I reflected on what a gift this weekend of baking had been…

It was the physicality, the pleasure of touch…the seesaw of the knife as I chopped roasted almonds, the gentle give of a cookie cutter sinking into shortbread, the rhythmic kneading of scone dough – oddly meditative in its own way.

It was the sights…dried dark cherries plumping up in a bowl of warm water, pale yellow ribbons of butter and sugar swirling together in the mixer, shimmering sugar crystals topping golden-toned scones.

It was the smells emanating from the kitchen… bright notes of orange zest, bittersweet chocolate melting into butter, hints of spicy ginger and molasses.

It was the process of baking – the creativity, the serenity, the sensory engagement – that was every bit as special as the end result.

Here is this week’s Taste Five. …

Cookbook of the Week – Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook

January 16, 2017 by Kimberly 2 Comments

Cookbook of the Week January 16

Serendipity

Serendipity – one of my favorite words. I remember when I first looked up its meaning; I was in Venice on a boat transporting me back to the mainland, when I spotted it spray-painted on a lagoon seawall. I had heard the word before, loved the way it looked and sounded, but honestly, I wasn’t sure what it meant. Back at my hotel, I went online…serendipity: the act of finding interesting or valuable things by chance.

I had this week’s Cookbook of the Week selection and posts all planned out; today I was supposed to be taking a British baking class in Seattle – and I had chosen a cookbook that connected to that experience. But last night I received an email letting me know that the class was cancelled. I went to bed wondering what new cookbook to select…unsure, debating my options, not able to decide on one that felt “just right.”

This morning I woke up later than usual, off work for the MLK holiday, indecision still looming. Lazing in bed, stalling, I started thumbing through Instagram. The first post I saw was by Macrina Bakery and Café…a picture of a white plate filled with cookies labeled Olivia’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and tagged simply “comfort food.”

I know that recipe, and I know how good it is, because I’ve made it before…and I have that cookbook. I love those serendipitous moments…decision made.

This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Leslie Mackie’s Macrina Bakery and Café Cookbook. …

Taste Five – The Can’t Cook Book

January 15, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Strawberries and Ice Cream

Back To Basics

There’s this incessant urge that hits me after the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over. As reality sinks in, I’m drawn toward getting back to the basics…eating a little healthier, taking care of neglected tasks, resuming everyday routines. After the frantic pace of the holidays, it feels good to focus on the fundamentals – to keep it simple.

Cooking from Jessica Seinfeld’s The Can’t Cook Book was the perfect fit this week. As the original cookbook that started off my kitchen journey, revisiting it was a poignant reminder that cooking – just like life – doesn’t always have to be extravagant or complicated.

Here is this week’s Taste Five.
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Cookbook of the Week – The Can’t Cook Book

January 9, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Week Two - Cookbook of the Week

Foundations

For a good part of my life, I’ve been what you might call an “armchair cook” – and in fact, there’s nothing wrong with that; I still love getting lost in the pages of a cookbook or watching chefs battle it out on television. However, a few years ago I started yearning to actually create some of the dishes that I’d been observing from the sidelines.

As a teacher, I know that you learn by “doing” – so, in the winter of 2013 I made the move off the “couch” and into the kitchen.

I’d been collecting cookbooks for years and had amassed a pretty large collection (enough to require moving one car out of the garage and into the driveway – priorities!), but I still found myself at the bookstore looking for just the right cookbook to begin with.

It was the title that drew me to that first selection – echoing my interest in, but lack of comfort, when it came to the kitchen. Thumbing through it, I knew it was the right one to kick off my cooking journey, and I spent the month of January immersed in it – building skills, building confidence, and ultimately building a love of cooking.

This week I look forward to revisiting that foundational cookbook – The Can’t Cook Book by Jessica Seinfeld.
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Taste Five – The Silver Palate

January 8, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Celebrations

This has been a week of celebrations – first day of the new year, first blog post, and first Cookbook of the Week! There were several significant “firsts” for me, but as I reflect back over the last seven days, what resonates most are the small moments – the everyday gifts, the unexpected, the simple pleasures.

One of the reasons I love to travel is for the opportunity to experience new places. But over time, I’ve come to realize that it’s never really about the “place” itself. Instead, it’s the small moments – a memorable interaction with a stranger, a new taste that excites your senses, a paradigm shift – that truly makes a destination memorable.

Earlier this week, I wrote about my commitment to trying five new recipes (Taste Five) from each Cookbook of the Week, in essence “visiting” a new kitchen each week, looking for and celebrating those small but memorable moments that enrich our lives.

Here is this week’s Taste Five……

Cookbook of the Week – The Silver Palate

January 2, 2017 by Kimberly 13 Comments

Firsts

There are many significant and memorable “firsts” in our lives – first love, first home, first child.

Today is a first for me as well – introducing my first “Cookbook of the Week” selection. While some decisions can be more challenging than others, choosing this week’s title was actually fairly simple.

It had to be The Silver Palate.

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