Quick pickled beets

I love quick pickles - I don't do the whole canning thing as I don't have room for a large enough pot to have a proper canning system, and frankly, my tiny refrigerator gets filled up and cluttered up enough without having jars of pickles everywhere.

But quick pickles I love - pickles that are ready in a few hours or overnight and can be eaten up within a few days.  Though it's not summer anymore, beets, radishes, carrots, cauliflower are all great options for making pickles through the fall and winter.  Put some out for your holiday spreads!

Canal House Cooking Volume #5 - The Good Life

I've been drooling over the most recent edition of Canal  House Cooking, titled "The Good Life," ever since it arrived in the mail.  If you haven't checked out the Canal House Cooking books by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton yet, you should check them out. The pictures are gorgeous, and all the recipes have a very no-nonsense approach to them.  I love that they start out every edition with a section on cocktails and drinks called "it's always five o'clock somewhere."  They put out three editions a year and are up to volume 5, and you can purchase a subscription to have each volume sent as they are published.  I've loved every volume and even when they just talk about easy snacky kinds of things they like to eat and throw together, I always think they sound fantastic.  The quick and easy recipes that are barely recipes are terrific too - frying eggs in pimenton, or Spanish smoked paprika is delicious and was the first thing I did after receiving this volume.

In "The Good Life," there are lot of just fun special occasion dishes, blinis, fried oysters, holiday roasts, a section on homemade sausages, and even some holiday cookies and treats. I can't wait to try the goose liver and pork terrine, the duck sausage with quatre epices, and the fresh ham with Madeira sauce sounds like something fun to make. And maybe, just maybe, I'll try the broiled pig feet crepes sometime - they sound so interesting and I actually love pig feet, and love that the authors describe this dish by saying "They are gutsy and completely delicious, but you have to love big flavors, like we do, to enjoy them."

This volume also opens with a short piece called "Christmas Eve" by Gabrielle Hamilton, Melissa Hamilton's sister and the owner and chef of Prune in New York - she's coming out with a book this year too, a memoir titled "Blood, Bones and Butter - The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef."  In "Christmas Eve," she talks about making grilled cheese sandwiches and serving them with champagne - how fun!  She also gives her tip to spread a thin layer of Hellman's mayonnaise on each slice of bread instead of butter as your cooking fat to make your grilled cheese sandwiches - I had never heard that before, and yes, it is amazing so give it a try if you haven't before.  Pictured above is a delicious grilled cheese I made with the Hellmann's mayo trick, and filled with grated gouda and cheddar, a little country style dijon mustard, and some caramelized onions - so good!

So, check out these books sometime if you haven't yet, and if you're still looking for holiday gifts, they'd be great for anyone that loves cookbooks.

World AIDS Day and a recipe for coconut yellow pea soup

December 1 is World AIDS Day and I just wanted to do a little public education before getting to today's recipe.

Many people here in the US don't think about HIV/AIDS as a domestic issue but it's still very much here with new HIV infection rates increasing in low-income communities, in women, young people, and still increasing in the gay, bisexual men and men who have sex with men (MSM) population.

Over 1.1 million people in the US are living with HIV.  People between the ages of 13-29 account for 1/3 of new HIV infections.  1 in 4 people living with HIV are women.  AIDS continues to be the leading cause of death among black women ages 25 -34.  In this country.

Globally, 33.3 million people are living with HIV.  More than half of all those people are women. Young people between 15 and 24 account for over 40% of new infections.  And 2.5 million children throughout the world are living with HIV.

Do you know your HIV status?  To find out where you can get tested, go to www.hivtest.org.  And please educate the people in your lives to practice safe sex!

So on to today's recipe:

I've been on a bit of a tear making soups lately - this is a pretty simple one with a few pantry staples and some cabbage, cauliflower, and a piece of ginger, and you could even make this without the veggies if you like and make it straight from the pantry. You can put it together pretty quickly after coming home from a long day at work - just get it going and kind of forget about it for a while.  And a little while later, you can sit down to a nice, comforting hot bowl of soup!  This has a  pretty light curry flavor to it - if you want a stronger curry, go ahead and add more curry powder.