Last year around this time, I was regaling you all with my Christmastime sausage habits. Don’t worry, the sausage addiction is very much alive and well – I made kale and sausage stew on Sunday night and I have several varieties in the freezer, ready to be broken out at a moment’s notice.
When my parents moved away from New Jersey, I was sad for a few different reasons. No more quick weekend trips home whenever I was feeling needy, no more easy access to a car, having to find a new dentist, like an adult. Ya know, just some truly devastating inconveniences. But one thing I’m really missing in this cool, fall weather that’s finally arrived, is my favorite soup from Market Basket in Franklin Lakes, NJ – creamy tomato soup with ravioli.
There is perhaps nothing more luxurious than being a lady (or fella) who lunches. An LWL, if you will.
You’re probably thinking, “Welp, Tory’s off the blogging again, what a flake. In the summer she travels, in the fall she travels, and I guess in the winter, she travels. What she doesn’t do is blog. This blog is dead. I’m over it.”
When your Instagram and SnapChat feeds are full of images of rosé and beach shots from the French Riviera, there is nothing to do but get yourself to a similar locale as soon as possible. So, this past weekend when several of my coworkers were traipsing along the Mediterranean downing pretty pink wines, I returned to LBI for a weekend of bike building, yacht club cocktail hours, and as always, more grilling.
Looking back at all my previous blog posts, I realize that I can come across as a little one-dimensional. This post will both reinforce that idea while also dispelling it. I can be a bit of a Vermont-loving, comfort food-makin’ one trick pony. I can’t help but be inspired by Vermont and I can’t help loving warm, comforting food. But I do, in fact, branch out. With the arrival of spring (or so I’m told. It’s currently snowing in NYC), comes my craving for fresh and healthy foods. What better way to welcome the spring than by making a big ole salad inspired by my trip to Vermont last weekend (is anyone really surprised)?
This right here is a perfect leftover dish. You can use almost any leftovers you have in a quiche, and quiche itself makes for great, no-fuss leftovers. I went so far as to use a leftover store-bought, pre-made pie crust (we’re not getting super fancy here – we’re cooking with what we have on a weeknight). Or, at least, I tried to use a leftover pre-made crust. It was from a year and a half ago (from that French week of cooking that I somehow keep talking about) and when I unrolled it, it crumbled everywhere. UGH. What I had hoped would be an easy evening was, like the pie crust, crumbling around me.
Let me begin at the beginning.
What feels like a month ago forever ago, I took a cooking class with my dad, good ole Chris, at the Brooklyn Kitchen (otherwise known as that place that takes all my money every time I go in). I took him there as a Christmas present, so the class choice was all his to make. Brooklyn Kitchen has so many different classes to choose from and they’re constantly changing. Some stay the same due to popularity, like the Roberta’s pizza making class. Chris didn’t feel the need to attend that one because the recipe is online and he’s already mastered it, so he doesn’t need anyone to teach it to him. (I’ll back him up – my dad makes mad good pizzas, y’all.) If you’ve ever met him, you’ll probably know that he loves Rome from that one time he visited. And you’ll probably also know that on that visit, he had the best pasta alla carbonara ever at this small, hole-in-the-wall, local place. So when we saw there was a February Taste of Rome class in which we would make carbonara (as well as amatriciana* and cacio e pepe), my dad was sold. We were going.
What kind of food do you make when you want to appear virtuous and wholesome after a rather hedonistic start to the weekend? You make panzanella. “What is panzanella?” some of you may be asking. It’s bread salad. A salad…based around bread. Um, YOU’RE WELCOME, EVERYONE.
A Pinch of This 