Corner View: Out of the Car Window

23 September 2009 Filed In: corner view



As a New Yorker, working from home, living in a great neighborhood, and using the subway with abandon, I am hardly ever in a car. So, now I will have to cheat a little bit (you won’t mind, will you?) and show you what we all saw one day last month when we were in an (gasp) actual car driving through Vermont.

“Pull over! Pull over!” I called out to my husband.
Thousands of flowering lotuses. How exquisite to see the bright, flowering beauty lavishing itself upon us. A surprise. As a yogini and a chef, I always, think, too, of what lies beneath. Each and every one of those beauties started down below the water, in the muck. Up they came through it all to show their faces in the light. Sigh. A lotus sutra in rural Vermont.
Go driving around the world:

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Honeyed Baked Apple Stacks

18 September 2009 Filed In: apple, Chanukah, Dairy-free, Desserts, Fall, Gluten-free, Soy-free, Spring, Summer, Thanksgiving, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter



One dank morning this week, the kids and I popped into Bouley Bakery for croissants and coffee. While we were there a new offering caught my eye. There were cinnamon sugar apples, arranged in the French style, half moons, this way then that. Sort of the tarte tatin without the puff pastry.

Lately, since there will be a new class of two year olds in my kitchen in a couple of weeks, I have been thinking about simple snacks to make with them, things that they can take to school, make especially for their classmates when it is their turn to bring a snack, things they can be proud to have helped with, not just a little, but a lot. That’s why these apples drew me in. Since we had already ordered, I am sad to say that I did not get to try them, but they got me thinking.
At home this morning, we tossed local Ginger Gold apples that I had cut up on the mandoline in honey, lemon juice, and a healthy dose of cinnamon. We arranged them artfully but rustically and baked them. Our apartment smells like Fall, that heady mixture of apples and cinnamon melding together.
It is Jewish New Year today, and being in New York, so many people are celebrating with apples and with honey, sweetness for the year ahead. I say amen to that! We all need a little sweetness, don’t we? (And, next year, could someone please teach this shiksa to make a honey cake?)
Honeyed Baked Apple Stacks

*1 lb. apples (choose a good baking apple such as Granny Smith, Ginger Gold, etc.)
*1/4 c. honey
*the juice of one lemon
*1 1/2 t. cinnamon

Big Person: Peel and core the apples. Slice them 1/4-inch thick, making “O” slices. If you do not have a mandoline, slice them with a knife. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Together: Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.

Whisk all your ingredients together and throw in the apples. Have your mini-chef gently swirl the apple slices in the liquid.

Make stack on the parchment lined baking sheet. You can top with a little circle of apple if you like, or even a little leaf or apple you cut out of the sliced apple.

Big Person: Slide into the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the apple is soft and starting to dry out slightly.

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Corner View: September

16 September 2009 Filed In: corner view


Oh, bittersweet September. We are squeezing in all the outside time we can before it is too late. The “Schoolie-G’s”-as my middle brother calls them-head out into the word. And, of course, a new fabulous Fall wardrobe (pictured, in progress, Oliver + S’s new Jump Rope Dress) means that Mama practices her sewing meditation late into the night.
September sneaks in everywhere:

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Tomato Jam

14 September 2009 Filed In: Dairy-free, Fall, Gluten-free, greenmarket, Side Dish, Soy-free, Spring, Summer, tomato, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter



On Saturday morning I rolled my Igloo cooler and all the Yummy Mummy accessories needed to make tomato jam at the green market on Greenwich Street. The wind and the rain were blowing sideways, and a thought came to mind: Well who will come out in this?

I got my answer and how. Lots and lots of Tribecans. Little ones. Seasoned ones. Running ones. Meandering ones. But mostly, ones with questions about tomatoes.

One older gentleman asked what had happened to the Jersey tomatoes over the past 10-15 years. He described having been able to buy the most delicious and cheapest tomatoes from the farmer’s markets years ago, and now?

“They have no taste at all. Well, more taste than those pieces of red Styrofoam they sell at the supermarket.”

I laughed. Now, I am going to say right up front that one of the only things that I cannot eat, all food philosophy and ethic aside, is a raw tomato. Having to turn them down amongst foodies always gets me the stink eye. But, people, I can’t. I would if I could. But.

However, my dad, a Georgia-born man who grew up with very, very little except, it seems, a real richness in his mother’s homegrown tomatoes becomes a poet when talking about the tomatoes of his childhood. He talks about fried green tomatoes and slicing up a raw red tomato, sprinkling on a little pinch of salt, and biting in. At this point he goes into a sort of altered state remembering that bite of long ago.

He is in good company. People are passionate about their tomatoes. Their questions and, above all, their sheer interest in the fruit completely made my day. Meanwhile, Avery, the green market manager, and I fed them up with the buttermilk biscuits I had made, fresh, local cheddar cheese, and a hearty dollop of tomato jam on top.

P.S. I used mostly Jersey Golds to make my jam at no detriment to the jam whatsoever. In fact, I used the most pedestrian tomatoes at the green market on purpose. They transform when cooked. For eating raw, go for the heirlooms, my friends. Even without biting into one, I can tell with my nose. They’re like a complex perfume with many notes. The flavor must be heavenly.

Tomato Jam


*3 c. (about 2 lbs.) tomatoes, diced (plum or heirlooms work well here)
*2T. olive oil
*1/2 c. chopped sweet onion (e.g. shallots, red, etc.)
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*2 t. ground ginger
*1/2 t. ground cinnamon
*1 t. dried thyme
*1/2 t. dried basil
*1/3 c. honey

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion until translucent. Add in the garlic and saute a minute longer. Then, throw in the ginger, thyme, and basil and stir for a few seconds. Finally, add the tomatoes and the honey and cook for 10-15 minutes over medium-high heat until most of the water evaporates and the jam thickens.

Store for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container, refrigerated.


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Cranberry Beans Baked in Tomato

11 September 2009 Filed In: beans, cranberry beans, Dairy-free, Fall, Gluten-free, lunchbox, Main Dish, Side Dish, Soy-free, Spring, Summer, tomato, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter


It’s another 9/11 here in New York City. Every year this day rolls around, the crazy quiet and the horrific smells and sights of that day are felt all over again. I hold my husband and my children a little closer and inwardly fall on my knees.

All of this leads me to making comfort food. This baked cranberry bean dish is my family’s sort of comfort food. While we have fresh beans at the market, they get put into a lot of our cooking around here. You can use Italian white beans, dried beans that you will cook or canned beans. You’ll just leave off the first part of the recipe where you tightly cover your beans and go on with the steaming off of the water. Dried basil and canned tomatoes can be substituted for the fresh when they are out of season. This is a dish that can ride out the winter.
I called them “pizza beans” for my Yummies. They eyed the larger pieces of shallots and picked them out, but the rest seemed to pass muster.
Have a wonderful weekend. I have not said it before, but I am very grateful to those of you who leave such lovely comments. It totally makes my day, my week, and really my year. Thank you!
Cranberry Beans Baked in Tomato

*3 c. fresh cranberry beans (or substitute dried+cooked or canned white beans)
*4 lbs. tomatoes, chopped
*4 shallots (or 1 c. onion), minced
*3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed with back of your knife
*a slosh of olive oil
*1 t. salt
*two handfuls of parsley, chopped
*a large handful of basil, chopped
*black pepper, to taste
*optional: grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

With your Yummy, shell the cranberry beans and place in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, garlic, shallots, olive oil, parsley and basil and toss everything together. This the time for your mini-chef to use his or her hands!

Together, slowly pour the mixture into an oven-safe casserole or two glass baking pans.

Have your mini-chef pour in 2-3 cups of water very slowly, just till the water tops the bean mixture by 1/2-inch. Cover the beans with a heavy lid if using a casserole or tightly wrap the top with tin foil so that no water can escape during the first part of the cooking.

Big Person: Slide the beans into the oven. Bake 1 hour, covered and then uncover and bake another 45 minutes-1 hour (or a little less if you are using two pans). 90% of the water should steam off and the beans should be very tender when this is done.

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