November 23, 2009
Music: Spoon – I Summon You
A few years ago, while I was in graduate school in San Francisco, I couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving. I decided to have a small gathering of friends and my cousin Tom (who made a terrific turkey) over my apartment to celebrate the holiday. Orphan Thanksgiving included Tom, my friend Casey, his brother Evan, their friends and a celebrity animal whisperer. It was my first attempt at hosting Thanksgiving and I really enjoyed it. There won’t be pictures yet because I haven’t made the food this year, but once I do I will post. I have no idea where these recipes came from and I wish I could pay homage to their origins. What you’ll find here are a bunch of suggestions for great sides to serve 8-10 people. Enjoy!
Keep reading →
November 16, 2009
Music: Elvis Perkins – Doomsday
Hooray for the first Sunday night dinner! It was a success (hopefully!) and we sure ate well. We had Melissa and Shannon (from Charlottesville) over to share this dinner and it was good to start this tradition with such good friends. I wanted to christen the Sunday Night Dinners with a proper fall meal but it was 67 degrees out today, defeating the purpose of soup entirely. Since I was making Vichyssoise (potato leek soup – just really wanted to use that word somewhere) I could have served it cold…but that just seemed wrong.
Keep reading →
November 13, 2009
Music: Phoenix – Love Like a Sunset Part 2
Does anyone know where all the basil was this summer?? We couldn’t find it anywhere. So when James came home with 3 brilliant bushels of fragrant basil I promptly began a pesto production line.
Keep reading →
November 11, 2009
Music: Honky Tonk Women – The Rolling Stones
This weekend we went to Connecticut to see my family. My mom invited her sister and my cousins over for dinner on Sunday night. It’s been a long time since we’ve all been together and we spent most of the afternoon preparing the meal as a family. It was a fairly traditional Sunday Night Dinner; pasta with meatballs, red sauce and ricotta but we had some noteworthy starters and sides.
Keep reading →
November 8, 2009
Music: Indochine – L’aventurier
This was inspired by Ashley’s suggestion Casserole Crazy by Emily Harris (yay, Brooklyn!) and a recipe my friend Melissa had. I was really in the mood for some good ol’ mac and cheese with a twist. I basically used an Ina Garten recipe (Ina, if you’re out there, I want to be BFF and hang out in the Hamptons with you year round!). Warning: This might cause cardiac arrest and is most definitely a diet buster (that means nothing to me and it’s so yummy I don’t care). And in honor of my pal Mallory, I wanted to make sure this was “all white/beige-colored food” approved. I used white cheeses that I had in my fridge but you can use any cheese that you’d like.
Keep reading →
November 4, 2009
Music: Pa Pa Power – Dead Man’s Bones
We had Matt and Rosa over for Halloween. We wanted to make something hearty and harvesty before heading over to 313 Clinton Avenue (thank you Reclaimed Home!) to check out the Halloween Carnival of Carnage. We look forward to their productions every year.
I love Butternut Squash and come fall I make up ways to use it. This was a pretty simple way to make a fall soup that’s hearty enough to be its own meal. I used The Big Book of Soups and Stews as a basis, but, you know, I changed a lot of it. The shallot thing I borrowed from In. Here’s what I did.
Keep reading →
November 1, 2009
Music: Piggies – The Beatles
Last year around this time Cia, Melissa and I went to The Jakewalk in Carroll Gardens for dinner and drinks. Known for its extensive collection of “spirits and brown stuff”, we wanted to check it out. What we didn’t expect was a fabulous, cozy dinner of duck rillettes, fondue and chicken pot pie. Recently, James and I went back for our friend Heather’s birthday party and sadly, the chicken pot pie was not on the menu. I had such a hankering for it I decided to recreate it at home. I am pretty certain The Jakewalk didn’t use milk in theirs, which was what made it really unique.
Keep reading →
October 29, 2009
Music: Angel from Montgomery – Bonnie Raitt
A few days ago James brought home some heirloom tomatoes and basil from The Green Grape. It seemed a bit late in the season for them but they sure did look pretty in a bowl…
There weren’t enough to make a sauce so we used the tomatoes to make Bruschetta… Keep reading →
October 28, 2009
Oh, hello there! Thank you for stopping by. “Plated” is a long time coming and we are happy to officially kick if off!
This blog will be many things, but mostly, it will be about our love of food, cooking and most importantly – EATING! We believe in the healing power of a home cooked meal and that food somehow tastes better when shared with friends and family. We are fortunate to know great eaters who appreciate all kinds of food and we love to share meals with them. This is our opportunity to share our food with you!
Heath. We serve all our meals on Heath-ware. I suppose it is responsible for the title of this blog. It is also the inspiration for our entire home. One little blue plate helped us create our own oasis. We aren’t much for food presentation but anything looks good plated on piece of Heath. This blog will also occasionally feature kitcheny things we love and want to share with you. What’s your favorite plate?
To start, this is our kitchen:
Small you say? Fooey. Those of you living in NYC understand what we’re working with here (ok ok, I didn’t do the dishes and yes, that is an Obama action figure on the fridge). Granted, it’s not the most ideal space but we still manage to produce great meals made with love. We’ll show you how you can too.
We love cookbooks. We often buy them and forget to use them but they have a great home on the island shelf. If there are cookbooks you love please comment and let us know about them. We are curious about what inspires your meals.
These are our five fave’s. The little red notebook on the bottom right is “Sita’s Best”. It’s filled with wonderful delights (my mother-in-laws recipes). If you’re lucky, she’ll let us share a few. Where is my mother’s recipe book you ask? In her head…the sneaky broad! I’ll try to get a few on paper though.
We travel as much as we can and we gravitate towards gastronomical destinations. We’ve spent some time in Paris – which really influenced our cooking – and we miss the Bastille Market like we miss parts of our childhood.
What you’ll find here:
- Recipes inspired by restaurants we love
- Recipes we make up
- Recipes our family/friends tried out on us
- Cookbook recommendations
- Food inspired by our travels
- Pretty food(ish) pictures
- Kitchen tools we enjoy
- Lots of parenthetical statements
What you won’t find here:
- The recipe for Jessica’s red sauce. Don’t even think about it. Her grandmother would come after her from the grave…if her mother didn’t beat her to it. You’ll just have to come over for dinner to try it…
We’ll begin to post recipes, restaurants and interesting food things next week. Check out the “About Us” section for more info. Thanks for reading and see you next Wednesday!
