Monthly Feature
Lyndi knows what it’s like living without certain foods due to allergies, sensitivities, and conscience.

Everything is about making personal connection these days.  We are living in a remarkable age of technology and networks.  Take twitter for instance. I am amazed how often I casually mention a favorite cookbook author or chef and, lo and behold, they tweet me back.

A fleeting connection, yes, yet still a touching point.

There are days when I open a cupboard and stare at my vast array of cookbooks.  Who will inspire me today?, I ask. Sometimes a vivid photo of a dish or ingredient will capture my heart and inspire me to scribble down a shopping list.  Then there are other times where I am looking to be inspired to prepare chicken a different way or find a unique way to “use up” eggs as the dozens pile up in my refrigerator.  If I have to be honest, 90% of the time I just open a cookbook simple to browse, drool, and dream.

Today was a day like that.

Bill Telepan’s book, Inspired by Ingredients, caught my eye.  It had been awhile since I had browsed its pages.  Purchased on New Years Eve 2010 while visiting NYC, page after page flooded back foodie memories that rank at the top of my favorite eating moments. I stopped for a moment and tweeted a little comment about how this book inspired me today.

Unexpectedly, Bill Telepan tweeted back.

Are we friends? No.  Does he remember me?  No way.  What he doesn’t know is that he made an impression on me that pre-blizzard night. My husband and I scored an OpenTable reservation early that evening in his restaurant on the Upper West Side.  It had an understated, classy, quiet yet not ackwardly-so, and romantic atmosphere.  The menu was clean food, simple ingredients that burst with flavors that were anything put simple.  The staff was personable and treated us as long-lost friends.  From beginning to end, each bite was a revelation.

As we were leaving, I glanced to my right and noticed Bill Telepan sitting down with his wife and kid, enjoying their meal together.  He was dressed in his chef’s coat yet his demeanor was unhurried and relaxed.  He was simply enjoying his family.  As we purchased his cookbook, he noticed and came up to thank us for dining at his restaurant.  He signed my book and went back to his family.  I hesitated leaving and instead asked for an unusual request, would our waitress sign the book, too?  I realized this place wasn’t just his namesake; it was the family of staff who served the patrons, too.  My wonderful dinner memory involved the entire experience, from the water glass to the foie gras.

It wasn’t just that I had a great meal, bought a book, got it signed, and tweeted back and forth. An experience like this reminds me just why there are so many of us that embrace the world of food:  food blogs, food communities, forums, and food trends.

It’s about how food makes us feel.

Happy and connected.

Happy eating, my foodie friends.

Lyndi

www.nwafoodie.blogspot.com

*Images courtesy of NWA Foodie.

Monthly Feature
Lyndi knows what it’s like living without certain foods due to allergies, sensitivities and conscience.

We are in a nostalgic time of year. Acorns have fallen. Hickory nuts are begging to drop. Leaves swirling. Savory soups. Heavenly cinnamon-baked goodies baking in the oven with their beckoning scent wafting in the air.

Are you ever sentimental about certain foods? We are tied to our pasts. Foods have strong connections for us.

As a child, I remember my mother having a stack of vintage cooking pamphlets. Only, they weren’t vintage then. They were just “old.” They came in all types of topics: cooking with aluminum foil, cooking with Diamond almonds, oh, and yes, many of ours had covers that boasted gelatin molds of various concoctions: fruits, meats, and vegetables. Others were filled with page after page of margarine, shortening and ingredients unknown to me with recipes with otherworldly names such as bone marrow on toast.

Vintage cooking pamphlets provide a culinary stroll down memory lane.

As the air turns to crisp and ovens are heating up around the country, now is the time to pull out and dust off your own vintage cooking pamphlets. Raid your mothers or grandmothers cabinets. Not finding any? Do what I do and search out a local used bookstore. Head to the cookbook section and look around. I guarantee you will find them. They’re inexpensive, too. Mine are a quarter each.

Not all have strange and unheard of ingredients. Not all have shortening-laded ingredients. Many of these gems have wonderful comfort foods and forgotten dishes that have fallen out of style.

Here’s an example. This recipe book comes from Chiquita Banana and it is filled to the brim with recipes featuring the humble banana. It was a revelation!

BAKED BANANAS
Serves: 4
Source: United Fruit Company, 1947

Ingredients
4 firm bananas (use all-yellow or slightly green-tipped bananas)
1 ½ tablespoons melted butter (or margarine)
Salt

Instructions
Peel bananas. Place into well-greased baking dish. Brush well with butter or margarine and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees) 15 to 18 minutes, or until bananas are tender… easily pierced with a fork. Serve hot as a vegetable, or as a dessert with cream, syrup or a hot fruit sauce. Important: When browning is desired, place the baked bananas under broiler heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

See what I mean?

Serve hot as a vegetable? Would you have thought of that? Me? No way. And that is exactly why I am obsessed with vintage cooking pamphlets and their unexpected offerings.

These days as you browse blogs, subscribe to newsletters and purchase the latest cookbooks, are you finding the same recipes repeated again and again? That’s one of the joys of these little inexpensive gems. They are a breath of fresh air.

Try something new by going with the old.

Happy Eating!

Lyndi

Please check out Lyndi’s popular food blog NWA Foodie!

Monthly Feature
Lyndi knows what it’s like living without certain foods due to allergies, sensitivities and conscience.

This isn’t your first rodeo. You already know that homemade chicken broth outshines canned or boxed every time.

There is nothing like reaching in and tenderly pulling a chicken out of the oven or opening a crock pot lid and viewing the glistening sparkle of deep, rich, bountiful broth.

Lovely.

Want to take your broth-making to the next level?

Instead of filing a large pot or slow-cooker to the brim and adding a whole fryer chicken, may I suggest leaving out the water?

The other day I was baking chicken for use in recreating Whole Food’s chicken tortilla soup. I purchased cut-up fryer pieces and baked in the oven on low-heat for 2.5 hours.

In went a plethora of seasonings including onions, cilantro, cumin, salsa, and jalapenos. I wanted a subtle imbibing of flavors nestled deep within the muscle of the chicken.

I left out adding water.

The end result yielded an intensely concentrated juice that packed a wow of flavor!

Preparing chicken broth in this manner allows you to customize the flavor. In this case, since I was making Chicken Tortilla Soup, the broth was bursting with subtle salsa undertones. If you are planning to make an Italian soup, change your herbs accordingly by adding oregano, basil, arugula, garlic, okay you’re “feeling it” now, aren’t you?

Another added benefit of this no-water cooking method is that you end up with gorgeous crispy chicken. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Happy Eating!
Lyndi

Editor’s Note: Please check out Lyndi’s popular food blog NWA Foodie!