About



Oh, hi.  Hello there. 

Nice to have you around this here blog.  Let me tell you a story...

Why this blog:
This blog came about in January of 2010 because I loved to cook, but I had grown tired of cooking. So, I began the blog to document the ways I have been re-inspired: I cooked page 210, once a week (day of the week variable), for a year. Why 210? Because it was the closest I could get to 2010 without having very thick cookbooks. The next year, I cooked everything in my CSA box from Full Belly Farm and I experienced the heady rush of freedom to cook from whatever page I wanted.

Then, in 2015, I went back to the gimmick of a page number (not surprisingly 215) in order to celebrate the 5th birthday of the blog. From chicken giblets and blood sausage, to eclairs, and lamb shawarma, I cooked things I don't normally cook, but I also included some family favorites (including potato pizza and bolognese sauce).

For 2017 (and possibly beyond?), I have some plans. I took on a new job in 2015, and I (still!) haven't quite figured out my rhythm. So I am cooking when I can, which is mostly the weekend. I pack a lot of lunches. But I have committed myself to a new series here: Cook Your Books.  Here, I am reading at least 15 books with some arbitrarily chosen categories. My hunch in that all of them will connect to food in a meaningful way. Join me. Let's see if my theory is bogus.

My main concerns:
Some highlights include cooking what's in my cookbooks, with lots of nods to the true chefs who came up with these wonderful ideas, eating with the family in a little side project we call "Family Dinner" once a month, and thinking about how food connects to literature (a little addiction I cannot help) and culture and history. With my new series, I have devoted some time and space to cooking what shows up in the books I read. And then there's my CSA box. There's a lot to cook each week. 

Why this blog name:
The blog has also undergone a little overhaul. We used to be "cooking inside the box," but there is another lovely blog out there by this name. Don't be confused. Everything here is still the same, except now I have a real domain name. I am all fancy now. 

And I love morsels and sauces. Given the opportunity to graze on canapes, I jump on it.  I love little bites of this and that. A sense that you can choose from so much bounty. Given a choice of sauces to drizzle atop said canapes--well, that is heaven. I also like the idea of something holding all of that variety together.

Why the photographs:
I am slowly learning to become a better photographer. And lord knows I have a long way to go. However, I am leaving my old photographs from early posts up, in part to honor the journey my cooking and my photography have taken these past seven years. So be kind when looking at those early photographs. 

Other information about me
Well, I am an educator by day, a runner by night (and sometimes very early morning). I am a Midwesterner by birth, but a Westerner at truest heart.

I sometimes eat (just) pickles for dinner. And I am learning how to make small batch kombucha.

By Popular Demand

Ottolenghi's Semolina, Coconut and Marmalade Cake

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"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."  This week I did two very important things: I made Ottolenghi's Semolina, Coconut and Orange Blossom Cake and I rewatched The Outsiders . These two events are not related; however, they were both delightful. Let's start with the cake, shall we? This cake is a light - in - texture - but - heavy - in - flavor take on the ubiquitous Eastern Mediterranean semolina cake. From Greece to Syria, Egypt to Turkey, this cake, well, takes the cake. Call it revani , basbousa , shamali, harisi , mix in yogurt, coconut, rose water instead of orange blossom water--no matter what, you're going to do all right.   Ottolenghi's version adds coconut and marmalade to a large dose of sunflower oil and semolina. He also serves it with a dallop of Greek yogurt freshened with orange blossom water. However, this is the kind of ...
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Whole Roasted Celery Root from NOPI

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Okay.  This almost doesn't qualify as a recipe. But I'll admit, I have never made celeriac this way. Yes, it took Yotam Ottolenghi to convince me to do something simple. And perfect. I am not going to mess around here. I love celery root. I have sung its praises here , here , and here . It is not a pretty little root vegetable, but if you can get beyond its humble, knobby exterior, it smacks of the bright, freshness that one expects from celery (which is, really, just the stalk of the plant) and the nutty, earthiness of something that comes from beneath the ground. This straightforward recipe comes from Ottolenghi's latest cookbook, NOPI , a collection of restaurant-approved recipes from London's powerhouse foodie and his partner and NOPI Head Chef Ramael Scully . Yes, it's true, I am a bit of a fan-girl when it comes to Ottolenghi, and next time I am in London (whew, it has been a long time  since I was last there), you better believe I pla...
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Ottolenghi's Lemon and Eggplant Risotto

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Risotto is such a delightful dish. Comforting, creamy, simple, stable.   And I am a huge fan . As in, I will make me a risotto any chance I get, with any sort of ingredient you can imagine. It doesn't matter--any season.  Spring--lemon and peas;  Summer--tomato and parmesan;  Fall--mushroom;  Winter--butternut squash and pancetta.  If it's in your fridge, you can put it in this Northern Italian rice dish. However, you will want a very specific kind of rice--a high starch, medium- or short-grain rice--in order separate this delicacy from any other rice dish. The high starch means that as you cook it, it releases its starch, making that requisite creamy smoothness to risotto. The most popular risotto rice in the United States is, hands down, Arborio rice. This short-grained rice isn't as starchy as some of its popular Italian counterparts, but it is the most easily procured. However, a...
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Ottolenghi's Lamb Shawarma

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Summer. Summer. Summer. Hello Summer. How I  love you. How I am delighted to meet you again after you have been away for a year. How I have plans for us. Big plans. Most of them involve books and napping, but still big plans. Some of my plans also include cooking. So much cooking. Stay tuned for pasta dishes, peanut butter shakes, ceviche, pastry cream. It looks like's going to have fun together, Summer. One of my first plans was to make Yotam Ottolenghi's Lamb Shawarma. Shawarma is the Arabic fast food of choice that is closely related to the Greek gyro , the Turkish doner  kebab, and the Armenian tarna . It is also big on heavenly goodness and is brought to you from Jerusalem via London from the dear, sweet, culinary mind of Ottolenghi.  What a good man. From the Turkish word  çevirme , which means turning, shawarma can be made from chicken, veal, goat, lamb, even fish. We're going to focus on the lamb--which  Ottolenghi ensures will ge...
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Ottolenghi's Salmon Steaks in Chraimeh Sauce

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Oh, what a sauce this is.   What a glorious, glorious sauce. And it comes from our new Jerusalem cookbook, from one of this blog's favorite chefs and current culinary darling, Yotam Ottolenghi.  I need not detail that this blog has featured recipes from Ottolenghi here and here and here and here ,  but I will anyway because, whoo boy, I love these recipes.  This sauce comes from the Sephardic Jews, who resided on the Iberian peninsula until the Spanish Inquisition.  After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, many Sephardic Jews were folded into the Mizrahi communities in Northern Africa and the Middle East.  Such intermingling of people and cultures has produced some culinary superstars; this being no exception.  Indeed, you can taste the Spanish, Moroccan, and Libyan influence on this sauce. Sephardim pride themselves on their chraimeh recipes, and often serve them at Rosh Hashanah and Passover celebrations (whereas Ashkenazim might serv...
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