SPINNING FOR YOUR SUPPER

                                              Raiding the Pantry

Our pantry resides in a double high lazy susan, conveniently disguised as a kitchen cabinet.  When the snow's a foot deep and the fridge is on a quarter tank,  it's time to spin for dinner.  Inventory can be frighteningly dismal - blueberry hoisin jam, what-was-I-thinking, grapefruit-spiked mopping sauce, and pomegranate cactus salsa.  I recently unearthed a can of hominy, a few handfuls of shiitake, and a half bag of faro.   After my usual beginning - an onion saute - the right brain kicked in. The resulting meal was a heart-warming and heart-healthy main course.  Faro is tossed with shiitake, hominy, nicoise olives and orange, and perfumed with Mediterranean spices.  

                                 Mediterranean-Spiced Faro with Hominy and Shiitake

Did Someone Say Chocolate?

Find out how it all began

                     How We Got Here and What We Ate

Valentine's Day used to be a sweet, sticky, family celebration, with red construction paper hearts, bits of cut-out doilies, and candy hearts ground into the carpet. Gone are those days, with the endearments of chocolate-smudged fridge handles, heart-shaped cookie cutters, and homemade bead bracelets. With older kids presumably attending to their own romantic notions, the menu can move front and forward.

Our easiest recipe is not the Mediterranean Chicken en papillotte, although it is a close runner up.  No, the Baked Potato with White or Black Truffle Butter wins that prize.  Both recipes are do-ahead.  On Valentine's Day, just slide the foil packets into the oven, alongside the self-baking spuds. 

Before kids, Food and Wine featured us in a Cupid's Kitchen piece, with some easy-to-prepare recipes sure to get lovers into the kitchen.  Our Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches may have started something, with their cool, creamy centers and crispy bookends.  And it's not likely to stop any time soon.

Rabbit Recipes for Chinese New Year

                            A GOURMAND'S TAKE ON THE LUNAR NEW YEAR

While Asians celebrate with feasts and parades, we're thinking about rabbit.  The word just keeps popping up this week.  Of course, when you enjoy cooking and eating, guess what comes to mind when you hear "rabbit" or "bunny".

We used to watch cottontails charging around the yard and start dreaming of rich, dark sauces with prunes and falling-apart meat of unparalleled tenderness.   Quick, while it's still winter, get out the recipes!   Here are a traditional French recipe, and a solid, American one.  

Traditional Lapin a la Chausseur from the French countryside

Tom Colicchio's Rabbit Ragout

Bon App!

Dinner tonight: Braised Groundhog or French Crepes?

                              Geez, we all have tough decisions to make.

Today's Times ran a story about, basically, road kill for dinner.  If groundhog or muskrat don't appeal, here's an excuse to eat crepes today. 

The French have been eating crepes since the 14th century, when subsistence farmers stirred milk into buckwheat.  These lace-patterned, super-thin pancakes are versatile.  Savory foods are tucked into square buckwheat crepes; sweet always into round ones made with white flours. 

Crepes can be made ahead.  The operation goes faster if you use 2 slope-sided saute pans side by side - or a griddle large enough for 2 6-inch rounds.  Or get one of your kids to do it.

Try these fillings.