Tasty Side: Potato, Bacon and Garlic Scape Hash

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Tuesday, I wrote to you about Monkfish Wrapped in Bacon and today I want to share my new favorite starchy side dish, which I rediscovered on Monkfish day: hash. On weekends when my mom was out and Dad was in charge, he'd fry up a can of corned beef hash and eggs. It was one of my favorite things to eat. My brother and I would fight over the crunchy bits that Dad did his best to scrape up from the bottom, salty chitling type bites that, like the bottom of a paella, is the absolute best part.

Easy Dinner: Bacon Wrapped Monkfish Fillets

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As I've written before (Panko Flounder anyone?), I didn't come easy to fish, but nowadays I try to eat it at least twice a week. Most often I buy flounder or scallops or clams or porgies from the fish stand or a bit of salmon from the grocer. In the cooking of fish, I've found it hard to branch out beyond the pan fry. However, last Friday I saw a headline in the most recent issue of Saveur magazine: Bluefish Wrapped in Bacon. Of course we all know bacon makes everything better so I decided that's what we'd have for dinner that night. I didn't read the recipe. I just knew bacon and bluefish would be involved and I'd take it from there.

Tasty Treat: Rhubarb Scones

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I am obsessed with afternoon tea. I love the sandwiches, the tea, the scones and devonshire cream, which I could eat straight with a spoon! Afternoon tea is supposed to be a leisurely event intended for relaxing and recharging, kind of like a siesta, but with food. Most afternoons, tea time includes a warm mug of earl grey and a homemade scone if I'm lucky or even just toast with butter and jam. By myself, I stare off into space and meditate on my life while the steam gently massages my face. Other days, I sit down with a friend to chat and giggle because tea, when taken in the company of others, inevitably generates the giggles.

Classic Meals: Korean Bulgogi

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Until recently, I didn't have the guts to experiment with Asian cuisine. Big ingredient lists, unique spices, and alternative cooking techniques all seemed too complicated for my limited time in the kitchen. But then I tried Steamy Kitchen's Beef Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup. It was flavorful and, despite the seeming long ingredient list, not too involved. Bolstered by my success, I made Pork Potstickers. Um, they were so very good, a little time consuming, but, happily they are meant to be made in big batches and frozen for future lazy dinner days. I've still got some in the freezer.

Roasted Pork Butt with Rhubarb Compote

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In high school there was a group of us, four of us. We did everything together and oftentimes everything meant breaking the rules. Of course, I went to convent school where the rules were so strict and pretty silly that breaking them, though highly offensive to the administration, was mostly innocent. There's the time I ripped my coat in half while scaling the walls to escape. For a split second or two I just hung there with my coat still attached on one side of the fence and my body on the other. My alma mater, Georgetown Visitation is connected to Georgetown University so the older, cooler students just walked by and poked fun of the poor little Catholic school escapee. Other hijinks include but are not limited to the weekly skirt exchanges where the dean called us to her office, ripped off our short skirts that we'd fringed and decorated in studio art and gave us new to-our-knees version, the day I smuggled my best friend out of school in the trunk my car because I had a note to leave early and she didn't, and the time a couple of us, after months of hiding out in the parking lot to avoid chapel were finally found out by a nine months pregnant dean who gave birth the next day.

Breakfast: Poached Eggs over Polenta

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Until ohhh six months ago I thought poaching an egg was the most difficult thing in the world. Every time I'd tried, the egg always burst apart and was an inedible mess. Turns out, poaching a delicate egg on a rapid boil isn't a good idea. Too bad it took me twenty years to figure out that a gentle simmer will yield perfectly poached eggs time and time and time again. Seriously, it's now my go-to method for eggs - easier than scrambling, I sah-wear!

Easy Dinner: Panko Flounder

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I didn't grow up eating fish. My mother had been traumatized by my grandmother's cod cakes which were forced upon her each and every Friday 'cause that's what us Catholics had to do until Vatican 2. My father, on the other hand, loved it and always grilled a swordfish steak when my mother was out. Dad would offer my brother and I a taste, but remembering my mother's severe hatred of it, we'd refuse. Such a shame it took me until I was 14 to finally try it and realize it was pretty good. That first taste lead to deep experimentation with all sorts of fish and the many many ways to cook them.