Kitchen Wench

I find the prospect of this blog simultaneously brilliant, fascinating, and horrifying. Some intrepid folks from the Midwest (we are a hearty bunch) have embarked on something called the One Year Project. They will take Rachel Ray’s cookbook, 365: No Repeats A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners and actually…

*gulp*

… eat Rachel Ray’s cooking every day for an entire year.

For Ray-Ray lovers and haters alike, this endeavor will be the ultimate test–is RR totally overrated, or just a easy target for elitist foodie snots? Some of us have already made up our minds, but it will be interesting to see how her recipes stand up to real life testing. Day 58 shows our fearless friends suffering from serious boneless skinless chicken breast overload. I don’t know how they’re going to make it, but I wish them luck.

The February issue of Gourmet has a recipe for risotto which claims to only take 15 minutes to cook the rice. I was rather stunned when I first read the recipe. Risotto is not what comes to mind when I think of quick or easy dishes. Usually it involves careful stirring and monitoring and, if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to burn the bottom layer of rice onto the pan. And, while I’ve never considered risotto a dish that is out of reach for the amateur cook, Gourmet‘s recipe for Red Beet Risotto with Mustard Greens and Goat Cheese is pretty much impossible to mess up. It’s really pretty brilliant.

First of all, I made this dinner in a blistering 28 minutes. Eat that Rachel Ray. Secondly, I subsituted, failed to measure, and/or included ingredients in the wrong proportions. I didn’t have mustard greens, so I used kale instead, which was not a big deal. I just put it in the pot earlier to give it some more time to cook. I also only had half the amount of required goat cheese, but I think I made up for the flavor loss by using chicken stock instead of broth. Finally, I broke a cardinal rule of risotto. This is a little embarrassing, but I’ll admit it: I substituted jasmine rice for arborio.

I know, I know, how can you make risotto without risotto rice?! It’s always made with arborio or sometimes carnaroli rice. Well, Gourmet said I could do it. So, I did. Technically, the dish is probably not risotto anymore, but, you know what? It turned out just fine. Actually, more than fine. It was tasty, incorporated some of my favorite flavors (namely, beet and goat), and I’d definately make it again.

Well. This is kind of embarrassing. My apartment has a Jenn-Air glass top stove, and I’ve been having a hard time getting it as clean as the day I moved in. But, thanks to the power of the internets, I just spent my Saturday night reading the Southern Living message board’s “Cleaning Glass Top Stove” thread.

During this time, southern ladies with handles such as “emptynester” or “2kidsmom” offered their opinions on razor scrapers, discussed the merits of Ceramabryte vs. Weiman cream polishes, comiserated over annoying “MILs” (Southern Living speak for “mother in law”), and recounted tales of scraping off boiled-over hot pepper jelly.

I felt like I entered into a different place… a place where people say “ya’ll”, actually make their own jellies, and are delighted by grandchild-proof burner switches. And, while this has been very educational and will hopefully lead to a cleaner range, I think I might be turning into a 57 year old woman from Texas.

Despite living painfully nearby, I actively avoid shopping at the Columbia Heights Giant supermarket whenever possible. It’s always crowded, the service is poor, and the lines are horrible. But yesterday I forced myself to venture to Giant on my way home from work, mostly because I have become addicted to Special K (I swear it’s laced with coke) and was out of milk.

So, I’m standing in the “Express” line (haha), clutching a basket of eggs, milk, and spring greens mix and contemplating whether I should buy the February edition of Martha Stewart Living when I observe the following conversation:

Mother: [calling out to the lady at the end of my line] Hey, is anyone behind you? No? [walks over and sees the end of the line, then turns to her young daughter] Here, hold my things. Okay, now, stay here with this strange lady.

And then she proceeded to walk away and finish shopping while her daughter shared a very awkward moment with Strange Lady.

Wait, whaaat? Did that just happen? Did she just call that random woman strange to her face (even if it was true)? I never thought I’d see the day when parents would entrust their children to some weird-looking stranger just to hold a place in the check out line. So, if you were wondering if the lines at Giant were really that bad… well… yes, they are.