I’m inspired by this kitchen with lots of open shelving, and prominently displayed cookbooks. Also, I love the warmth of the wood contrasting with the cool poured concrete counter.
One very inspiring 5 minute meditation on the fear of failure, from the man who created this:
and this:
I’ve always loved this wine rack. It makes me hopeful for a point in my life where I’ll be able to afford more than one bottle of wine at a time.
Oh my god, will you just look at this beauty?
A wine holster for your bike, made with beautiful thick leather? If only I rode around with enough wine to make it worth something this lovely. Find it for $25 (Canadian) here.
Easter Beans
Yesterday was Easter, which brought a lovely gift from my mom.
Now, I’ve always loved having a big bowl of cornbread and beans, which I attribute to my mother and her strong Texas roots. One of my mom’s favorite stories of her early marraige years with my dad was when she spent all day cooking a pot of pinto beans with a ham hock which was then served atop a piece of homemade cornbread. “This is great!” my dad said, “what else are we having for dinner?”
…
“What do you mean, what else?”
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Lately I’ve been obsessed with a few beans in particular, coming from Rancho Gordo in Napa Valley, California. Steve Sando (the author of the aforementioned book) is a much regaled bean enthusiast who has been literally unearthing nearly lost heirloom varietals from the Americas for the last decade. My favorite varietals are the Christmas Lima, which is red and white zebra striped and has a strong chestnut-ey taste, and the smokey cow-spotted vaquero beans. But the other day I scored a bag of these Borlotti Beans, and I’d been dying to try them out.
After a few hours perusing the Heirloom Bean Cookbook, I found the perfect recipe to highlight the creaminess of the Borlotti Bean.
I cooked the beans the night before, obsessively fallowing Steve’s instructions. Don’t add cold water to the boiling beans, it’ll make the skins tough. Soak the beans for 8 hours, don’t cheat and quick-soak the beans. Use a clay pot to cook the beans; the end result always tastes better. Don’t salt until the end, and when you do, salt with restraint - beans take a long time to absorb the sodium.
I enjoyed a small bowl of beans that with baby spinach and smoked mackerel.
By the time yesterday afternoon hit, I was more than ready to fully appreciate the borlotti beans I had lovingly tended to the night before.
I slowly sauteed a mirepoix of chopped fennel, onion, and garlic with some butter. A can of San Marzano tomatoes were added, and the resulting tomato sauce was allowed to simmer for two hours. Meanwhile, course-ground polenta from the Piedmont region of Italy was whisked with parmigiano reggiano, garlic scapes, and more butter. A fresh sausage from Bob at Sparrow’s meat market was browned in a hot cast iron pan.
The heady smell of sauteed fennel, garlic and tomato, had percolated through the entire house. We were starving by the time it hit the table.
The Tuscan Sangiovese from Everyday Wines was a nice touch on an altogether delicious, and all-too-quickly consumed meal.
