victoria | Ars Culinaria

Cooking up a spring veg storm

victoria — April 25, 2007 — Leave a comment

Ah, we have been eating well at Foodieporn HQ. I’ve been planning out the weekly menus, recipes from clippings or cookbooks I’ve wanted to try with some old favorites thrown in. On Saturday, after the Earth Day festivities, we had J & J over for some Mexican soup from the newish Ina Garten. It was pretty good. I skipped the fried corn tortillas in favor of fried flour ones and swapped out the crushed tomatoes for some fire-roasted Muir Glen chopped tomatoes. They are probably one of my favorite things to have in the kitchen. They make soups taste amazingly good and are a great base for a smoky salsa when tomatoes are out of season and only the scariest of pink plastic tomatoes are available.

My classes at W-S have been heavily spring veg oriented and I have gleaned some recipes for my own repetoire. Last night we made a really good “rustic” pasta dish with broken wide lasagna noodles, grilled zucchini ribbons, baby arugula and some good olive oil and light tomato sauce. It looks beautiful on the platter and tastes incredible. I have now been dreaming up all kinds of things to do with grilled zucchini and eggplant and whatever else I can think to grill. We are really hoping to get the charcoal grill soon. Mostly so I can play grill cook outside. Grilled peaches, grilled pineapple, grilled corn on the cob… I tried grilled tofu once but unless you have absolutely pristine charcoal with no quick light fluid of any sort, it winds up tasting of gasoline fumes as it absorbs everything that comes in contact with it. Tofu is better left to indoor cookery.

I am trying to get all my ducks in a row for when the classes in Murfreesboro start. I want to have my first three lectures, at least, written by this weekend. As I am wont to do, I think I have gone a little overboard in what can logistically be absorbed in one sitting by a non-food geekery obsessed person, so I will inevitably need to scale back. Yes there are myriad types of herbs that have fallen by the wayside, but, unless it is an especially fascinating tidbit of trivia, do most people really care about things like sweet woodruff and chervil? I am guessing no, but it you signed up for an herb cookery class wouldn’t that by definition mean you are interested in them? See, this is my dilemma.

I am also putting the final touches on the housewarming party menu. Authentic(ish) Mexican, tamales and what not. But I do tend to assign myself the labor intensive and will have to start cooking over the weekend as well.

In culinary classes, Housekeeping, recipes

Settling back in to post-move reality

victoria — April 18, 2007 — Leave a comment

The fridge magnets are on the door so I do feel that we are settled to some extent. There are a few boxes lurking in the bedroom (three, I believe) that await unpacking but mostly that task is over. I even unpacked a box that had been lurking since the move from Knoxville (in 2003!).

As far as cooking goes, the classes are going a pace. In fact, some are mostly sold out. I am loving the students and the experience. The curriculum is challenging and varied enough to keep me interested but not so labor-intense or futzy as to put off anyone who just wants to dabble a bit in making a goat cheese salad or something.

Our meals at the house have been a little hit and miss. Mostly hit as I get used to the new oven. I have also made some seriously sleepy and shouldn’t be cooking mistakes. The first Sunday I cooked for just Keifel and I, we had blueberry biscuits because I forgot to put the sugar in the muffin batter. They were good with some butter and jam, but they definitely weren’t muffins. And while getting used to the oven I made popunders this past Sunday, trying to figure out the preheating cycle on the oven which seems to take forever and the batter sat too long, I think, in the pan and cooled. Keifel and Julian ate them, again with more butter and jam. Amazing what some creamy dairy and crushed fruit can cover, isn’t it?

In other news, Foodieporn HQ has joined a CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) and will be getting boxes o’ fresh goodies once a week (we are picking up at the Farmers’ market). I am very excited about all the organic produce and free range eggs and whipping up on-the-fly summer food with whatever’s in the box. I am planning to post CSA box goodies and recipes when the harvesting begins in May.

I am hoping to be back to posting in my semi-regular manner as my sickly computer should be home some time this week. Thanks for hanging in there.

In Housekeeping

Please Continue to Stand By

victoria — April 10, 2007 — 2 Comments

I will get back to posting at my semi-regular irregularity. My computer bumped its head during the move and is off now be cared for by men and women in white (or at least I imagine them that way). It’s a pretty major boo boo, so my hard drive is living in a sled attached to Keifel’s monitor array and I have to sneak in when I can.

For those following along, the kitchen is unpacked but for one box and I have been cooking, both for us and prep for my classes which have started.

It’s all been a great adventure and in hind sight it is difficult to imagine why I was such a stress monkey. I love coming home to putter in my kitchen. It is different, when it it’s yours.

In Uncategorized

Please Stand By

victoria — March 30, 2007 — Leave a comment

Foodieporn HQ is moving this weekend. It’s as crazy as one might imagine and I think this whole house thing is giving me an ulcer. I may be on a diet of oatmeal and polenta for the next month to recover, but I’ll try not to inflict a month’s worth of gruel recipes on the world.

Take care and send good moving karma to the Raschke-Agostinis.

In food memories

Happiness is a warm stove (and a window)

victoria — March 14, 2007 — 4 Comments

When the Raschke-Agostinis first moved to Nashville (aside from the fact that the Agostini part was still out of the country) we were amiably sharing a kitchen (and a house) with the Cajun Scorpio Girl. When we rented our own place, I was excited to move back into my own kitchen. I really missed my space in Knoxville. Even though it was tiny, it had a certain kind of charm. I could hang my pots and pans, and best of all there was a big window that poured light into my workspace.

The kitchen I have lived with for the last three years is a derelict 1970s leftover. A drop in stove that is vintage to the structure (1978), crammed into shotgun space with no window to speak of as the kitchens in the duplex are on a facing wall. I have often said that anything successfully prepared is a personal triumph over the cattywampus stove and temperamental oven which could be off as much as 75 degrees either way.

Exhibit A

The kitchen in the house we are buying is a little bigger and much more open. All of the appliances are new and under warranty. I might not have chosen black, but they all match. I would have loved to have gas, but there isn’t a gas line to the house, yet. The cabinets are original to the house and have a 1950s charm. There is also a window over the sink, from which I can see the road and the line of trees beyond. I am so excited, almost giddy, as the best thing about this kitchen is that it is mine all mine.

Exhibit B the day of the open house (the drawer was being repaired and painted)

In dining in

Appearing soon at a kitchen near you

victoria — March 10, 2007 — Leave a comment

Though I have been spending the last three weeks scoring standardized tests, my calling still calls and, I am thankful, my phone is still ringing. We have a small catering gig on the 24th (baby shower, 20 guests). I also have three series of classes coming up at various points around Nashville. If you are in the area and want to take a class with me you have some options.

I will be teaching classes in Green Hills beginning April 3 and following every Tuesday 6-8 PM until the end of May. I will also be teaching a class on cooking with herbs, vinegars and oils at the Tennessee Technological Center in Murfreesboro. I don’t have dates and times for this class yet but it will start in May and be on Monday nights and be a 10 week course. I will also be teaching some stand-alone baking classes at Nashville State Community College. Those will be Saturday mornings beginning in May or June. I will post more specific dates and times for the last two when I get them. If you are interested in any of these classes please call the appropriate establishment or institution, as they handle registration and payment.

I also offer personal lessons in your home, either one-on-one or as cooking parties. You can email me at victoria at foodieporn dot com or at victoria at arsculinaria dot net, depending on how strict your net nanny or firewall service is. Joie de Vivre (the catering side of my life) also offers catering for cocktail or buffet parties up to 50 and personal chef services for dinner parties from 2-16. My personal strong suit is Mediterranean rim but I am happy to do everything from authentic Mexican to Southeast Asian curries. If you are craving something authentic from your far flung childhood, we’ll do our best to hit the mark. JC (again, the catering partner, not the Big Guy) and I are also academic geeks girls and happy to do research for historical recreations and authenticity, if you are dreaming of a Victorian Sunday brunch fully catered and serviced or a chuckwagon-style picnic on the grounds, we’re your new best friends.

In culinary school, fun with food

Foodieporn HQ may be moving:Update

victoria — March 4, 2007 — 2 Comments

The good husband and I have put a bid in on a house, a house with an amazingly lovely kitchen I might add. We are both nursing a serious case of hippo-sized butterflies and both decided we needed a drink this evening to settle those butterflies into at least a false sleep.

If you are of the school of finger crossing, please consider it for us over the next week.

UPDATE: Foodieporn HQ will be moving at the end of March. We are the proud owners of an adorable little jewel box of a house. Please, bear with us as posts may be even more infrequent than usual.

In Uncategorized

Another red carpet, another buffet table

victoria — February 27, 2007 — 1 Comment

Another amazingly full buffet table, I might add. We had a few less people than we had really expected but we did run through some of the big dishes. The orphan food was rather minimal (and trust me, Keifel and I really wanted there to be leftover paté). Everything turned out exactly as I had imagined and wanted. That always makes me feel wonderful, and we all know that that’s why people (okay, me) become chefs. It’s all about the mmmm factor and the validation.

We followed the menu as planned for the most part. Though I jimmied and tweaked based on time constraints and budgetary considerations, also on having forgotten a couple things in the transit from point A (my teeny kitchen) to point B (J&J’s lovely abode). The champagne flowed though we did manage to get through fewer bottles this year. We held a ballot competition to get everyone involved with fabulous non-cash prizes for the guest with the most right guesses and the guest with the least right guesses. The most winner received a choice of two wines from the cellars of J&J and the least winner received a DVD our choice (the name of the movie will be reserved to protect the not so innocent parties that chewed up the scenery).

A cheese tray with a snaking line of fig salami

Chicken liver and proscuitto paté with pistachios (yum)

My favorite picture of the night: bagna cauda with veg

A little smoky fish with accompaniment

A big smoky fish with accompaniment

Whitefish caviar on blini

Salad cups on J’s lovely basket weave platter

The big buffet in situ

The desserts. The thing you can’t see here is the people in room cheering the brownies and trying to steal them on the way to the table.

All in all I was pleased. Imagine me, Ms. Super Self-critical, saying I’m pleased, could be a breakthrough.

In dining in, food memories

This week in food

victoria — February 17, 2007 — Leave a comment

The coming week is a great one for cooks and eaters alike. Tomorrow (Feb. 18) is Chinese New Year and the first day of the year of the Golden Pig. Tuesday is, of course, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Carnival Tuesday, or Pancake Day. A day for revelry and feasting, originally to use up all the meat, fats and sugar before 40 days of Lenten fasting. Our somewhat planned menus are a weekend of pork dinners (Trini-style stewed pork tonight and Coffee-ancho rubbed pork tomorrow), King Cake, and big, fluffy American-style pancakes on Tuesday. We aren’t Chinese or practising Catholics but these days are a part of our American melting-pot culture. And, you know me, any excuse for a themed menu.

I wish my ability to whip up Trini food was a little more developed as I know my honey is missing all the fun in Port of Spain over the next few days. In that small way I might be able to alleviate a little of the longing for things from home. Holidays have a way of making us nostalgic. It is in fact their purpose, to commemorate, to honor, to remember those people and events important to who we are as culture today. They serve as mile posts for our personal development as well. They aren’t always happy. For every person with a warm memory of a handmade Valentine from a grade school crush and a harmonious family meal, there is a person with a painful memory of a drunken parent on Christmas day or an envious Easter morning with everyone else in new clothes. Most of my holiday memories are happy ones. I’ve been fortunate. I am also married to a man who respects my love of ritual and my need to make those rituals our own and therefore meaningful.

I hope my son looks back at his childhood holidays (those widely celebrate and those, perhaps oddly, honored by our small family) with fondness. I know there have been times when we didn’t have the money to do things in a big way but we have always tried to make it special. I think those things may mean more to an adult looking back than to a child immediately wishing for that big birthday or Christmas gift that wasn’t there.

Right now in our little corner of the world, snow is falling very softly outside and our house smells of cinnamon and nutmeg from the King Cake in the oven. Keifel is on his way home from work and we will make dinner together in our tiny kitchen, as he is the better “stewer.” We’ll sit at our small table, a family hand-me-down, and eat together. Not to be too cheesy, though I expect it is too late for that, but I think that is a celebration in itself. We have each other, this place, this food, this moment to be together.

In dining in, food memories

Happy Valentine’s Day

victoria — February 14, 2007 — Leave a comment

Ah, a day for lovers and friends, or something mushy like that. I am a romantic at heart, anyone who knows me knows I can be a little silly about love though Valentine’s Day still tends to rub me the wrong way. It’s the greeting-card hype of it, the diamonds are the only way to really say I love you of it, the single rose at the gas station check out of it. Granted, all the major holidays in our consumer culture have been eaten alive by the spending-money-is-the-only-way-to-say-you-care beast. Whatever. I love the sweetness of a hand made card and a home cooked meal (don’t make the mistake of trying to eat out on Valentine’s Day). I also think that books (though, yes, they are purchased for the most part) are always appropriate. Buying a book for someone is a very intimate endeavor, or should be. I’m not suggesting you run to your local book megamart and purchase the most interestingly clad read on the New Arrivals table. When you give someone a book you are saying a great deal about yourself, what you think of that person and what your relationship means to you. If you give the love of your life Sex for Dummies for Valentine’s Day, I can guarantee a statement is being made loudly and clearly.

All this talk of books and love brings me to my real topic at hand today. Ten years ago I bought Intercourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook at my favorite bookstore haunt in Knoxville. I was 25, a grad student and, perhaps most importantly, a single mother with a toddler. I am probably still paying for it, considering I am certain to have paid for it with student loan money. I didn’t have anyone to make sexy food for. I was a fairly accomplished cook though with a much smaller repetoire than I have now. I bought it for the photographs and the stories of the recipe testers enjoying the food and each other. Let’s just be honest here and say when you are a 25-year-old single mom, no one, but no one, is interested in getting frisky with you. I recall more polite “ohs” about the kid factor than actual running away screaming moments, but… still. I poured over this lovely book and dreamed of having someone with whom to share all these delectable goodies and my charms.

Flash forward 9 1/2 years. The daily output of 27 Niagara Falls has passed under my particular bridge and I am a happily married woman with a tween son and culinary school project due. During his daily internet wanderings, Keifel stumbled over a blurb on a website asking for volunteers to test recipes for a new, tenth anniversary edition of Intercourses. I, of course, dashed off an email to the author and crossed my fingers. The reply to my email came quickly and Keifel and I received three recipes to test: black bean empanadas with mango salsa, fish tacos and coffee meringues. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, though the meringues wouldn’t set in our then sticky clime.

We dashed off our testing and tasting notes and waited. Last week a box arrived with copies of the new book, our gifts for having tested and tasted. And there we were in black and white above the recipes for the empanadas and the tacos. In some small way, it was completing a circle for that lonely 25-year-old. There is also the joy of having shared something fun and meaningful with someone who understands you and what makes you tic in the deepest possible way. Now that we have the new edition, I am certain there will be more cooking from it. It isn’t just a novelty idea, the recipes are for some amazingly sophisticated food and for some especially simple carbohydrate-filled snacks to replenish a tired, but still willing, body.

If you’d like to purchase The New Intercourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook for your very own library click on through and give foodieporn 2 cents in the process. I can guarantee you will enjoy the photography, the recipes and, very probably, yourself.

In food porn, fun with food, reviews

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