One seriously lucky dork

Because during the past few weeks I’ve been blown away by the attention and kind words heaped on my new book.

Because between running around making sure my son is ready for first grade, doing the daily grunt work of my job, changing the cat’s litter, negotiating with the exterminator to win back control of the house from the mice, and all the other glamorous moments of my life… It’s easy to forget that I’ve got this book coming out that I’m asking people to trust me enough to spend their money on.

It makes me stop and think, “Oh crap! People are actually paying attention. I really hope I didn’t mess it up!”

Because after 15 years in journalism, I’ve learned one thing. People get unhappy if you mess up the facts in a story. But people get downright angry if you mess up their dinner.

Because at the end of it all, I’m really just a dorky dad living in rural New Hampshire, trying to keep his head above the daily chaos and hellbent on putting great food on the table. Some days I do better than others.

So it really humbles me when I see wonderful bloggers like Monica Bhide write so nicely about my book on her site “A Life of Spice”. Or when I see it praised in magazines like Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens (check out the September issue on stands now) and in newspapers like the Miami Herald.

And when people like Art Smith, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Rocco DiSpirito and Jamie Oliver pile on the praise.

And I try not to think about the fact that next Monday I’ll be on Good Morning America showing off my skill at the grill. Because if I think too hard about it I’ll probably vomit.

If I wasn’t such a dork, I’d let it go to my head.

And then tonight my son said to me:

“Daddy, let’s go to the bookstore. I want to get a cookbook that has a cover and pages inside, but no recipes on them.”

“I’m not sure they sell that sort of book. Why?”

“So I can write a cookbook.”

And that’s when I knew I was doing an OK job. And that I am very lucky.

Lesson Learned… Don’t kill Pac-Man.

Not all ideas are good ones.

A friend recently told me about devouring fresh figs and blue cheese. Which inspired me to consider other cheese that could be paired with fresh figs.

And since I already had the grill going for some corn on the cob, marinated mushrooms and a little garlic bread, why not do them as grilled figs?

And since I already had some fresh rosemary finely chopped, why not sprinkle them with a bit of that, too?

Because it wasn’t any good. Should have just eaten the figs as-is.

All I did was trim the stems of the figs, make a slit, insert a chunk of Parmesan, sprinkle them with the rosemary, then toss them on the grill.

All of the components were wonderful. And I love the salty, savory goodness of Parmesan paired with sweet fruits and jams.

But for whatever reason, figs and Parm just didn’t mesh.

This is what it looked like when I started.

This is what it looked like after.

That’s right. Pac-Men who died horrible deaths.

Next time I’ll stick with the blue cheese.

Wine makes kids love you more

At least mine.

Had about six pears that had been in the produce drawer too long. And so I decided to make the most of them by setting them to poach in a spicy red wine mixture at the back of the stove while I made dinner.

The result was a dessert that had my son making strange, almost troubling happy noises, yet would be totally appropriate for serving company. Here’s what I did.

Parker and I peeled the pears, then I used a melon baller to scoop out the core from the bottom up. The result is a semi-hollow pear. I left the stem intact, as this would make it easy to pick them up later.

In a large saucepan I then combined the remnants of three open bottles of red wine, a cinnamon stick, a couple cloves and about 1 cup of sugar. I added the pears and brought it to a gentle simmer. Then I walked away and went on with my life. Or at least with the rest of dinner prep.

About an hour later, I checked on the pears. They were perfect. So I carefully lifted them out of the pot and set them on a plate to cool.

Parker was dubious. He’d seen a lot of wine go into that pot. And while he was happy to sip Daddy’s cab when he was 2, he lost his taste for it more recently.

Then he tried a bite.

“Yum! Daddy, I love you! You are the best cook ever.”

We ate two of them.

“I’m having another one for breakfast,” he announced.

For company, I’d probably serve them with a dollop of plain Greek-style yogurt or creme fraiche and maybe a sprinkle of lemon zest. But even that is unnecessary.

Total labor: About 10 minutes active.

Dinner Scrounge: Leftover Fusion

I’m a big believer in clashing cultures at the dinner table. Because if a food truck can pull off a Korean-Mexican blend, I sure as heck can meld anything in my refrigerator.

This time the components were all leftovers. I had some raw ground beef I wanted to use, but I also had some leftover cooked hamburgers I knew I needed to use. The latter won.

The burgers happened to be leftovers of Rachael Ray’s awesome sliders (recipe here), which were mighty fine on there own. But without the buns and Rachael’s pickles and slaw to top them, they seemed to need a little something.

So I chopped them up and dumped them in a skillet with a bit of olive oil. Then I grabbed three or four strips of cooked bacon leftover from breakfast. Those got chopped and added, too.

Just as things started sizzling in the pan, I added about 2 to 3 tablespoons of tomato paste and a splash of water. When that was good and mixed in, I added a small saucepan (how do you like that for a standard measurement?) of leftover mac and cheese we’d had for lunch.

The best part about the mac and cheese is that it also had been made from remnants — various pastas and at least five different chunks of cheese.

Once everything was heated and cohesive, I had an American chop suey-like dish. I could have kept dressing it up, adding more cheese or chopped peppers. But I decided it was quitting time. I spooned the mixture into warm corn tortillas.

And so we had sort-of-American chop suey tacos. And they were pretty delicious. And strange.

Dinner Scrounge: The moving picture edition

Because when we created the crazy knife promo video with my son, we decided we should do something more serious, too.

And so we tried to capture the insanity of my dinner scrounges and turn them into a video. Because that’s what this site and my book are all about — the need to get great food on the table at the end of a crazy day.

And if I look hot, cranky and exhausted, it’s because I was. We needed to close all the windows for sound reasons. And this was shot during the hottest days of summer. Not fun.

And so here is the Dinner Scrounge: Video Edition.

And in case you missed it, here’s the one in which I give my young son a 5-inch chef’s knife.