Death Of Notes : Simply Recipes Food and Cooking Blog

Let Gorgeous Gluten-Freedom Ring!

The beautiful video you're about to enjoy was produced by friends Diane Cru and Todd Porter, the rock star bloggers behind the extraordinary White on Rice Couple. We met Diane and Todd at Kingsford University, and hit it off instantly. They are simply a force of nature – driven, ultra-talented, and quick to generously share their considerable skills.

KU was also where we met the stars of the video, Shauna James, Daniel, and Lu Ahern. Their blog, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, is considered one of the Internet's top GF resources. I thoroughly enjoyed their company, and it was great fun being able to share a few days in the Sonoma wine country with such kindred souls.

The video highlights their soon-to-be-released cookbook: Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: A Love Story with 100 Tempting Recipes, which will be published on September 28th, 2010.

In addition to calling my GF fans' attention to this amazingly beautiful cookbook, I'm posting this to show you what my videos could, and should, look like. When I see the magic that Diane and Todd, as well as my friend Liza from Food Curated, are doing with digital video, I'm inspired to continue learning and improving my game.

If you're interested in the cookbook, you can pre-order it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Powell's right now. Enjoy!

Video and Cookbook Photo (c) White on Rice Couple

A Summer Scramble – Wet and Wildly Delicious

Cooking isn’t about always doing the right thing, and this summer scramble is a perfect example. Adding juicy, sweet cherry tomatoes to a scramble tastes great, but it's not a common practice since having a pool of liquid under your eggs is considered bad form. I don’t care – I have toast.

I could have used the slow, low-heat scrambling method I've demonstrated before, and tossed in the tomatoes and feta in right at the end, but I don’t feel the tomatoes and cheese really get heated all the way through. Besides, did I mention I had toast? Soaking up all that goodness is a big part of why I love this so much.

Anyway, cherry tomatoes are peaking right now, and the "Sweet 100's" variety I used here are, without a doubt, the sweetest fresh tomato you can buy at a grocery store. In fact, make that the only sweet, fresh tomato you can buy at a grocery store.

As I suggest in the video recipe, make sure you have all your prep done before a pan is placed over the flame. Start to finish, this will only take a minute to cook, and trying to slice and dice while the eggs are in the pan is a recipe for disaster. I hope you give this colorful, summer breakfast a try soon (or you'll have to wait until next year). Enjoy!

Ingredients per portion:
olive oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon basil chiffonade
2 tablespoon crumbled feta cheese (try to find goat's milk feta - it's awesome)
pinch of hot pepper flakes
flaky sea salt to taste

Who Dat Flying Back to San Francisco?

Michele and I will be heading back to San Francisco this evening after a very, very cool (everything except the weather, that is) trip to New Orleans! I'll have some photos to share with y'all, and there will undoubtedly be several NOLA-inspired video recipes to follow.

Thanks to all y'all who emailed and posted comments with suggestions on where to eat and what to do. As usual on these press trips, the schedule was pretty tight, so we didn't have a lot of time to explore them all, but we loved the city and will be back, for sure.

Y'all stay tuned for a brand new video on the blog tomorrow. Wow, I can't believe I've picked up the accent after only 3 days!

Hello from New Orleans! Home of America's Safest Seafood?

Just wanted to say a quick hello from New Orleans. So far everything's been really delicious (like this wonderful gumbo and etouffee trio I enjoyed at M Bistro), and the chefs I've chatted with report no problems keeping up with their customer's Gulf seafood cravings.

Catches are being tracked using GPS to ensure they're coming from unaffected areas, and in addition, random samples are being taken twice a day to add another level of protection. As M Bistro's Chef Matt Murphy said, "We want people to know it's never been safer to eat seafood in New Orleans, than it is right now."

So, ironically, due to the post-spill scrutiny, visitors to New Orleans may actually be enjoying some of the safest seafood in the country. Stay tuned for more information about the trip when I return. Now, it's time to go do some more "investigating."

Having a Hard Time Getting to the Big Easy

Just a quick post to let you know Michele and I are heading to New Orleans for a 3-day press trip to cover the Great American Seafood Cookoff. Unfortunately, we're stuck at LAX enduring a 6-hour delay, but with any luck we will be arrive to NOLA sometime late tonight (well, actually early this morning!) Stay tuned for more!

Sausage, Potato, and Zucchini Stew – Ugly Never Tasted So Good

I've decided to determine the length of my blog posts by the beauty of the recipe displayed therein. It's a very logical system. If a recipe produces a batch of stunningly beautiful photos, then I'll write a long, wordy post (including gratuitous name-dropping and self-serving anecdotes) to give the reader plenty of time to soak it all in.

However, if the recipe looks like this Sausage, Potato, and Zucchini Stew, then the shorter the post, the better – a couple of short sentences and on to the video. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but not in this case. Visually, this is truly dreadful. It's a good thing this vegetable stew is so easy, nutritious, and delicious!

I used a spicy, garlicky andouille sausage here, but any spicy link will do. We've covered the glut of late summer zucchini before on this blog, and this is another great remedy. Well, I've subjected you to this grotesque image long enough, so I'll mercifully end the post. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound spicy smoked sausage
1 onion, chopped
6 zucchini, cut in 2-inch pieces
1 1/2 pound small Yukon gold potatoes, cut same size as zucchini
1 quart vegetable or chicken broth
water as needed
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
few springs of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon sliced fresh chives (and/or any fresh herb)
handful of "sweet 100" cherry tomatoes
*some crusty bread wouldn't be a bad idea

I Now Pronounce You Reader and Soup! – How to Make Italian Wedding Soup

I knew today's video recipe was called Italian Wedding Soup because it's traditionally served at weddings, but I wanted to find out why this soup, with these ingredients in particular, was chosen.

I had a few theories. I figured the greens probably represented money, and symbolized hopes that the bride and groom would enjoy a prosperous union. The soup's signature mini-meatballs were a tougher nut to crack.

How could taking large, virile, normal-size meatballs and shrinking them down to dainty little shriveled dumplings serve as a metaphor for marriage? I just don't see a connection. Well, come to find out (according to two reliable sources; Wikipedia, and my friend and fellow About.com Guide, Kyle) the name has nothing to do with people getting married.

Apparently, what we Italian-Americans from the northeast call Italian Wedding Soup is actually a misinterpretation of an Italian soup called, "minestra maritata," which basically means "married soup." The "married" refers to the delicious pairing of the greens and meat, and not the ritual of marriage.

So, the soup ended up being a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. What better choice for a first course at your Italian-American wedding reception than something called Italian Wedding Soup?

That should give you enough soup-related cocktail party conversation material for a while. Whether you fondly remember this from weddings past, or you've never had it or heard about it before, I really hope you give it a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 quart beef broth
1 quart chicken broth
Note: A little more or little less broth will not affect the recipe
1/3 cup pastina or other tiny pasta
1 bunch kale
salt and pepper to taste
For the meatballs:
1 1/4 pound beef
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup cream
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper