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It’s no surprise individuals tend to surround themselves with people who have similar interests.  I am no exception.  One of my best friends went to pastry school and now writes here, another good friend organizes food tours in NY.  I was also fortunate enough to have landed in a summer sublet with 4 med-students who enjoy giant dinners and red wine (thank you craigslist)!  [If you didn't know already, I'm living and working in California for the summer]

Anyway, back to people with similar interests.  My friend Leah lives out here and in January I had the opportunity to stay with her and her family.  Best. Decision. Ever.  Her mom is a fantastic cook and Leah is quite the baker (their kitchen makes me swoon whenever I think about it).  So of course when I got an invite to Sunday dinner, I jumped at the chance (speaking of which, Leah, please send me your mom’s potato salad recipe!).  There was potato salad (duh), flank steak (yum!), corn on the cob (a summer staple) PLUS berry pie (are you starting to see why I like going to their house?).

Well post-dinner, we were teaching another friend how to make Ina Garten’s Fleur De Sel Caramels.  We had made them six months prior, so it was definitely time to break out the recipe again AND our signature logo.   Yes, we individually wrapped the caramels and put our initials on them too (they do teach us branding in business school). These caramels are delicious and everyone who has encountered them usually can’t stop at just one.

Ina Garten’s Fleur De Sel Caramels

(with some minor modifications)

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp Fleur De Sel + extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan (or loaf pan) with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over 2 sides.

In a deep saucepan combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil until the caramel is a warm golden brown color. Swirl the pan to mix.

In the meantime, bring the cream, butter, and 1 teaspoon fleur de sel to a simmer in a small pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat, set aside and keep warm.

When the caramelized sugar is the right color, slowly add the cream mixture to the caramel (it boils “violently” and is fun to watch). Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 °F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Very carefully pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate until firm.

When the caramels are cool, use the parchment paper to pry the sheet from the pan onto a cutting board.  Another differentiation.  They are too big if you roll them like Ina, so just cut into 1-inch squares, individually wrap in parchment and they are perfect to share with good company, provided they last that long.

Note: This post is not for the faint of heart.

There has been a lot of talk (some might call it hype) about Hungry Mother in Cambridge.  It was ranked #7 in Boston Magazine’s Best Restaurants Issue.  It has an impressive 4.5 stars (out of 5) on Yelp and a ranking of 92 (out of 100) on The Phantom Gourmet.  Well I am here to tell you, it is well deserved.  Go make your reservations now because you’ll need them and by the time you finish this post you’ll be wishing you were there now.

We arrived for our dinner and were promptly seated on time.  After a quick perusal of the menu (that’s all you need, it’s not a huge menu), we ordered our drinks and food in one shot.  The appetizers included fried oysters, squid and cornbread.  Now it was difficult to get my head wrapped about the oysters.  I always get them raw with horseradish and cocktail sauce and throw them back like candy.  Well, I’m a convert.  They were delicious.  Warm and crunchy without being overcooked and the remoulade was the perfect amount of tang to counter the Tabasco sauce drizzled on top.  The cornbread was good (pretty standard to be honest).  The squid was also delicious, not chewy and the accompaniments made the plate in my opinion.

Then there was the beer.  My friends had ordered a beer recommended by the waitress.  They loved it.  So she recommended two of their bottles (they’re 22oz each, so we split them). Well, I would like everyone to know, the Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project is going to blow up and take over the craft beer scene.  One sip of the Jack D’Or and I was sold.  Two sips and it might have taken over the #1 favorite beer spot.  Our friend who doesn’t even drink beer liked it.  We were so impressed my friends took the bottles home with them (which apparently according to one of the owners is a fairly frequent occurrence).

Ok…back to the food.  For dinner I ordered the Cornmeal Catfish, which came with andouille sausage and rice (which was clearly cooked in the wonderful wonderful sausage grease).  It was perfect.  The fried crust of the catfish was the right about of crunch, I can still taste it in my mouth.  We also got the collard greens side (nothing exciting) and the grits.  I love grits, and these were no exception.  Grits with ham and cheddar raised the bar.  Although the real winner of this meal was the chicken.  I know, I know.  Chicken?  I have no idea how it was cooked or with what, but I wish I could replicate it.  The inside was juicy and the roasted skin was one of the best things I’ve ever tried.  Plus, it was served with fiddleheads, which are baby ferns.  I had never had them (or knew one could have them) before.  They were really tasty (and form super cute little rings when cooked).

For dessert, we ordered the fig and pecan galette and the honey & buttermilk panna cotta.  The panna cotta was ok (not spectacular to be honest), but the galette, oh the galette.  I would compare it to a fancy, warm fig newton with ice cream.  Swoon.

I also think one of nicest parts of the meal was having one of the owners come over to our table.  The restaurant is over a year old at this point and clearly doing well, but he took the time to come over, make sure everything was alright and chat with us for a few minutes.  It showed the level of commitment and love for their place, which is always appreciated.

And finally, for the record, I did not eat again until 3 pm the following day.

A whole roasted chicken always makes me think of Sunday family dinners.  Perhaps I’ve been affected by Normal Rockwell’s idea of family and grand meals.  Since I don’t have a large family to cook for every week, I never really gave much thought to making a whole bird for myself, until this week.  I start classes again on Tuesday and things are bound to get pretty busy.  I had time this morning, so I figured I should roast up the chicken and eat it later this week for lunch and/or dinner.

This recipe is super easy and really good, although, I really really need to practice carving.  I didn’t think it was possible to kill a chicken twice until I attempted to slice this one.

Roasted Chicken

Adapted from Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Few springs of rosemary
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 5-6 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 4-6 russet potatoes, cut into 2-inch cubes
• Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 °F.

Remove the chicken giblets, clean out the inside of the chicken (make sure to check both side because sometimes innards end up inside the neck-end as well) and rinse well with cold water.

Stuff the cavity with the rosemary, lemon halves, garlic, salt and pepper.  Then brush the outside of the chicken with butter and salt and pepper it.  Ina recommends tying the legs together, but I still don’t own any kitchen twine, so I skipped this step.

Next, put the chopped veggies into a roasting pan and toss with salt, pepper, olive oil and some the rosemary (I removed it from the stems in the pan).  Then mix around and spread evenly over the pan before putting the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours (approx 20 minutes per pound), or until the juices run clear.  Cover with aluminum foil and let it stand for at least 20 minutes.  Then have someone else carve it.

So I figured it was finally time to devote an entire post to (as you probably already guessed), Bacon!

I’m starting with one of my favorite commercials of all time, it still cracks me up every time I see it.

Of course the love of bacon can go far beyond a typical breakfast accompaniment. . .

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Tartine Bakery.  I went in April while in San Fransisco with my best friend.  I went again earlier this month while visiting Silicon Valley.  I own the cookbook.  I love it.  (well I love the bakery…some of the items in the cookbook are complicated and/or require making multiple items, which I don’t usually have time for).

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