Perfect Picnic — Potatoes Gribiche

With the weather getting warmer, my thoughts start straying in the direction of picnics. Picnics, according to my personal definition which I have just made up, can be eaten indoors or out, at a table, on the ground or even in the car. There are certain parameters, however. The setting must be nice and the company good, but above all, what defines a picnic is the food. Picnic food must be casual and even a bit louche. Foods like cold fried chicken, that maybe challenge the boundaries of decorum to eat. Bread torn from the loaf, with a nugget of cheese. Food that is maybe unbeautiful, or unchic, but undeniably delicious. And the king of picnic food might just be potato salad.

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Tsumami – Sautéed Mushrooms

When I was a little girl, like most children, I had a whole laundry list of things I would not eat. Mustard. Onions. Cucumbers. Bell Peppers. But the things that disgusted me most, that bore the fullest brunt of my childhood disdain, that I would not touch with a ten foot fork, were mushrooms.

What the heck was I thinking?

OK, I know what I was thinking – mushrooms aren’t even in the same kingdom as other food, being neither animal nor vegetable, and the fungal kingdom needs a serious rebranding, because fungi? Just don’t sound appetizing. Also, I’m just old enough that most of the mushrooms available were those flavorless white button mushrooms.

All I can say is thank goodness for the 90’s and the Portobello mushroom explosion, because without that I might never have tried a mushroom and discovered their greatness. Because mushrooms? Are delicious. Sure, the texture’s a little funky, a little … fungal, but you get used to that, and even grow to love it because the flavor is just so flavorful and savoury. Mushrooms are what food is supposed to taste like, and if you want good mushroom, this is the way to prepare them.

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Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin

I suspect that the time for writing posts about butternut squash and eating things made with butternut squash is quickly drawing to a close. You all want asparagus and rhubarb and meyer lemons and things that taste like spring and warm weather. I understand this impetus, I really do, but I could not sleep at night thinking that you all would have to live another six to nine months without this recipe in your lives. It is just that delicious. It is more than the sum of its parts. It is what food is supposed to taste like. What this means, of course, is that you should make this right now. Well, you can finish reading this post, if you REALLY need to, but then run to the oven. Chop chop!

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Grilled Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

My grandmother belongs to that certain generation that came of cooking age in the 1950’s and embraced the introduction of convenience foods with fervor.   This means that Cool Whip is in her freezer, Jello is in her salads, and every dinner party starts with crackers and spreadable cheese — a lurid orange concoction with unpronounceable ingredients that conveniently comes in a tub, or, for more elegant occasions, a ball rolled in pecans.  (To be fair, my grandmother is otherwise a very good cook, and it is entirely possible that my grandchildren will find my ca. 2009 obsession with sriracha and pico de gallo to be equally quaint.)

When I was asked one time to bring hors d’oeuvres to a family party (all parties in our family are potlucks) I cast about for something new besides the regular old brie and crackers, and remembered a program I had seen on the Food Network.  On this program, someone had been exploring the food traditions of this exotic land they called the American South, and had set forth at length about a cornerstone of this food tradition — pimento cheese.  Bingo!  I thought, homemade spreadable cheese.  I figured my grandmother, at least would appreciate it.

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Pasta Redeemed – Tortellini with Potatoes and Mint Pesto

I’ve never been the biggest fan of pasta (cue screams of horror from right-thinking people everywhere.) Oh sure, I’ll eat it if Mario Batali is preparing it, but the standard home pasta dish of noodles and red sauce is a total snoozefest for me. I think it’s a texture thing – too much sameness, and it’s almost never my first choice of what to have for dinner.

I’ll make an exception though, for some good ravioli or tortellini, particularly if they’re sauced in something a bit saucier than tomato sauce from a jar, like this unusual pesto, and even more particularly if they’re tarted up with some crispy roasted potatoes to add a little flavor and texture variation. And if you think that potatoes and pasta together is an absolutely decadent carbfest then you would be correct.

Savour Fare has moved! For the rest of the post and the recipe, please visit Savour-Fare.com