Ch-ch-ch-changes

Dear Blog Readers,

I have been wrestling with how to fit in all of my life goals and motherhood and writing and the blog, and I am going to shift things around a little bit and wanted to let you know.

When I started this blog – complete with bad photos and all – I had no clue about blogging. I just knew I wanted to freelance write and thought this would be a good first step. Since then, I have learned how to use the manual settings on my camera (yay) and had more freelance writing work then I can handle, and had a readership that surprised me as it grew. And my family has eaten well, which is what I love the most about running The Humble Onion – leftovers!  So I am going to call this blog a win. Not to mention how much fun it has been to hear from all of you after you make one of the recipes here! I love sharing about food and that is the best part of having a food blog.

But I have this working theory about creativity – if you have a big outlet for it, you sort of have very little left for other creative pursuits. Decorators I love swear by take out for dinner. Artists I know can’t be bothered with putting together cute outfits and just wear black. When I am writing a lot, I don’t decorate my house. When I am not writing as much in the summer, I go gangbusters on interior design.

When I am riding a creative wave about food, it is all I think about, and my creative juices are very committed to it.

But a few years ago, in between babies 3 and 4, I wrote a novel. It was a great experience, and even though it didn’t get published, I got great feed back from a lot of major publishing houses. Some asked if I wanted to write a cookbook.

The thing that is pressing on my heart creatively is writing a food memoir, about growing up in a big family with lots of characters and tragedies and laughter and good food. There will be recipes at the end, so food will still be a part of this project. I feel like it is the perfect place for me to be creatively, and I really want to channel all my time and creative energies to it.

So I will probably be posting here and there on the Humble Onion, but not as regularly as I was. I will try to share my writing journey on the writing blog though so if you are curious about the process or about the publishing journey, feel free to follow along.

Most of all thank you for reading! I feel like this blog has been a conversation with a great friend, and you have been such good company.

Till next time, Happy Eating!

xoxo Katie

 

The Art of Memoir

 

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As you might know from reading this blog I’ve been on a memoir kick, because I am trying to write one, a fact which I hope you’ll forget if I fail miserably. And if you’re a long time reader you know that I was trying to publish a novel with an agent and after a year of trying, no bites. So failing is a definite possibility. But most good writers had the same problem and the same fear each time they started a new work, so I am in good company.

When I recently picked up Mary Karr’s new book on the subject, The Art of Memoir, it was like finding Mecca.

I’m one of those people that thinks everyone could write a memoir. I love hearing people’s stories – seated next to me at a wedding, riding the train, hanging at sports with my kids, the dump. I want to know, basically, what led them to this exact moment, and what was the highlight reel of the stumbling blocks in their way. (Coincidentally, I don’t love small talk. I love big talk, the kind where you let it all hang out.) Then I think about, how would you craft that into a great read?

Well, just ask Mary.

She knows a thing or two since she has written three memoirs herself; The Liar’s Club and Cherry, both about her crazy upbringing in Texas with alcoholic parents and a mother who, during a psychotic break, stood over her with a kitchen knife, as well as some unfortunate run-ins with some pedophiles. She also teaches the subject to Grad Students at Syracuse University.

When I was on the first chapter of The Art of Memoir I put it down and bought Lit, her third memoir, and read it over the course of the next 2 1/2 days. (Thankfully we were on vacation in Maine and I had nap duty.) This book chronicles her going to college, getting married, then becoming a mother, and alcoholic, and a professor, then getting sober, getting divorced, and converting to Catholicism.

If it sounds like a busy ten years, it was. And she writes about it masterfully. Like Anne Lamott, this subject matter of a crazy family, a stumbling coming of age, becoming a mother, and – in discovering how hard and painful all of this is – finding a belief in the spiritual parts of themselves, and in God. Which was a total shock to both of them, having come from non-spiritual homes. (Karr says a year prior, she would have believed that she would be a church goer about as much as a pole dancer or a spy.)

Reading these ladies’ stories shifts something in me, puts something in place that was out of alignment. They’re like spiritual chiropractors. At one of Karr’s lowest points, someone said to her, try to pray for 30 days, and just see if your life gets better. And it does – she gets awarded prize money from a poetry contest she didn’t even enter when she desperately needs the money, someone lends her a car when they go abroad right when she needs one. It is an amazingly hopeful tale. The possibility that we are loved, that there is reason to hope, and that we are our own biggest problem, abound in her book. She writes at the end of Lit:

“For it feels as if I was made – from all the forms a human can take – not to prove myself worthy but to refine the worth I am formed from. To acknowledge it, own it, and spend it on others.”

All of this, of course, is why a memoir is so compelling to write, and read. In The Art of Memoir, she holds your hand in the really hard work of finding your truth, finding your voice, and finding a way to tell your story, with the best parts of your heart and mind. She cites a close friend, who asked her when she was struggling to finish Lit, “what would you write if you weren’t afraid?”

Karr acts as midwife to our stories coming into the light. Because all of this must be cloaked in flesh and blood, and be as concrete as the smell of your mother’s perfume. So what would we all write if we weren’t afraid? Because we need it. We need art to touch the parts of ourselves that others can’t. That therapy can’t, or our families.

Preach, Mary. The world needs your work. It needs the best from all of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sausage Kale and Lentil Stew

 

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So, this might be the yummiest recipe I have ever posted.

It starts with bacon. Then a ton of good for you veggies softened in the bacon fat.

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Then add kale….

imageandouille sausage…(you can totally substitute a less spicy smoked kielbasa or sausage if you are making this for kids).

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and French lentils…(from Target no less)

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Add chicken broth and whole tomatoes and simmer it all for an hour.

Can I just explain how the flavors of the spicy smokey andouille sausage and the bacon drippings flavor the whole dish? Such a great combo of textures and flavors.

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I adore lentils and kale and soup, so if you do too it is pretty hard not to love this dish. Oh, and don’t forget the shredded asiago cheese and bacon crumbles on top – the totally make this dish.

This is the exact kind of thing a crave when I go into a sandwich shop in cold weather and having it in my house (while I am still in my sweats) makes me feel like a lucky, lucky girl.

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So consider yourself armed for the cold weather months ahead. Happy Eating! Katie

Sausage, Kale and Lentil Stew (printer version here):

3 slices thick-cut bacon, diced (about 4 ounces)
1 large yellow onion, diced (about 1½ cups)
3 large carrots, diced (about 1¼ cups)
3 celery stalks, diced (about 1 cup)
2 bay leaves
8 ounces French lentils
1 pound andouille sausage, cut into ¼-inch-thick diagonal slices (or other sausage)
2 cups fresh kale, coarsely chopped
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes with juice
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Asiago or Parmesan cheese, grated

In a large heavy pot, cook the bacon over medium heat until fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp, about 7 minutes. Remove the bacon pieces and drain on paper towels. Reserve for garnishing.

Add the onion, carrots, celery, and bay leaves to the bacon fat. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook the vegetables, stirring frequently until very tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the lentils, sausage, and kale. Add the tomatoes, crushing the tomatoes with your fingers as you add them to the pot. Add the chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, covered, until lentils are tender. Stir and add more salt and pepper to taste, as desired.

Ladle into bowls and top with the reserved bacon bits and some grated cheese. Serve immediately. (Recipe from Katie Lee’s The Comfort Table)

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

 

Spinach and Pancetta Stuffed Shells

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This is one of my favorite dinners to make.

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It is from Giada De Laurentiis, and is one of her viewers most requested recipes. No wonder – the asiago cheese and garlic give the spinach the most perfect, fragrant flavor. And the salty chewy pancetta bites round out the dish.

I love it just for a family dinner but I have made if for company it is that easy and that good. I also love that this dish uses mostly pantry and fridge staples. If you call pancetta, asiago and ricotta staples, which I do now after this dinner made it into our rotation. I like to cook my shells ahead of time with lots of oil so they don’t stick, since that is really the only step on the stove. Everything else is just mix it together and slide in the oven.

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And the hint of nutmeg in here makes this somehow a taste that you keep wanting to go back to. So you may want to make double.

The way the garlic simmers in the cream sauce (I used milk by the way but cream is the way to go if you have it) fills the whole dish with such a subtle flavor.  And I ran out of asiago so the last layer I used was mozzarella.

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Every time I start stuffing these shells, I always dream about other combinations of flavors I could put in them. But then I take a bite:

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And I promise myself to make these again exactly like Giada does because…yum.

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Shells with Crispy Pancetta and Spinach (printer version found on Food Network here) –

Ingredients:
Shells:
1 (12-ounce) package jumbo shells pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound thick-cut pancetta, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 pounds frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta
1 cup grated asiago cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup cream (or milk)
2 cups grated asiago cheese, plus 1/4 cup
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

For the shells:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta.

Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Remove the pancetta from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large bowl. Add the spinach, ricotta cheese, asiago cheese, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Stuff the shells with about 2 tablespoons of the spinach mixture each and place the stuffed shells in a large, buttered baking dish.

For the sauce:

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the cream and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to very low and add the 2 cups asiago cheese, parsley, and pepper. Stir until the cheese is dissolved. Pour the sauce over the shells. Top with the remaining 1/4 cup asiago cheese. Bake until golden on top, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Recipe by Giada De Laurentiis at foodnetwork.com