Tag: cooking
A Magical Hobbit Banquet
Six months ago, I cooked up a multi-course Hobbit feast to accompany a viewing party of the extended-cut Lord of the Rings trilogy. So it seemed fitting to close out the year by traveling to Hobbiton in New Zealand, the idyllic setting of the Shire where Peter Jackson filmed his movies. After the immersive tour, we stopped at the Green Dragon Inn for a dinner … Continue reading A Magical Hobbit Banquet
Bon Appetit, Part Two
I got a subscription to Bon Appétit this year for some new dinner ideas. Some of them were immediate favorites and are now in regular rotation. So here are the recipes from the second half of 2024 with notes on modifications and whether the effort is worth it or not – plus a list of the recipes that I liked so much, I made them multiple times!
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Bon Appetit, Part One
“What do you want to do for dinner?” I haven’t had to think about that since I got a subscription to Bon Appétit as a gift this year. Here’s are my favorite recipes for the first six months of 2024, with notes on modifications and whether the effort is worth it or not.
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The Long-Expected Party
“We’ve had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?”
If you’re going to have a Lord of the Rings marathon with the extended versions of the movies, you need to figure out what to eat for an entire day (11 hours and 36 minutes, to be exact). With the help of a few friends, I planned, prepped, and cooked an all-day feast to accompany this gathering.
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Another Ottolenghi Feast
The first Ottolenghi dinner in June was such a success that we decided to host another feast to showcase more recipes by the renowned chef. Even though the dishes we chose were all from different cuisines and cookbooks, the flavors all worked together to create another memorable dinner party.
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An Ottolenghi Feast
Yotam Ottolenghi is a chef, restaurateur, and food writer who is a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine. He has authored nine bestselling cookbooks, including Plenty (2010) and Simple (2018). With the exception of Simple, many of his original recipes are quite involved, although they are all incredibly delicious. My friends and I are no strangers to combining efforts to make and eat elaborate feasts together – like our Greek Feast in 2019 or the Christmas Quarantine BBQ of 2020. So it’s not surprising that a group of similarly food-obsessed friends got together and pooled our various Ottolenghi cookbooks together.
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2022 Reading List
Forgot to post my reading list from last year! I can’t tell you the number of times I can’t tell you the number of times I will start reading a book, and make it all the way through the intro or first chapter to discover that yes, I’ve read it before. So these lists are helpful, not only to discover personal reading trends and figure out what to read next, but to keep me from rereading the same things over and over.
2022 had lots of great books about history, science fiction, music, social justice, essays – and of course, FOOD! I can’t stop reading cooking memoirs and similar books because of how differently people remember specific dishes and how they are tied to memories (also a lot of them contain recipes too). Pretty proud of myself for averaging 4 books per month for the entire year, and I’m already making great headway on my 2023 list.
Get the full list
A Full Season of Sandwiches
The second installment of sandwiches contained secrets like how to make perfectly fluffy chickpea and herb falafels, and how to make a 100% vegetarian meatball sub that is so good your Italian friend asks for the recipe. And lots of fresh and grilled vegetables from around the Mediterranean resulted in some excellent summertime dinners. Although the “Summer of Sandwiches” extended through Fall, many of these recipes will reappear at the table in the future. Includes links to recipes and notes about how to make them vegetarian and vegan friendly.
Part 3 of 3 features 11 sandwiches from Argentina, Trinidad, and across Mexico and the United States.
Scores of Sandwiches
The first 10 sandwiches of this delicious endeavor featured vegetarian favorites like banh mi with marinated tofu and avocado toast topped with an egg. But it also included new recipes like homemade plant-based sausages with lemongrass, green onions, ginger, and garlic for Laotian khao jee. Let’s continue the sandwich quest in a new region of the world. Includes links to recipes and notes about how to make them vegetarian and vegan.
Part 2 of 3 features 9 sandwiches from Senegal, Israel, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Greece, England, and Italy.
Louisa Gaylord 