My Vegetable Blog

Fooding n. the planning, cooking, talking about, eating and enjoying of food, preferably while in the company of good friends. At least, that's what my friends and I came to call our eating adventures over the past week while on vacation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I think it might stick. 

I've been watching quite a bit of hockey lately, what with the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs and all. And as it usually goes when I start watching a lot of sports, it somehow makes it into my food – really, really geeky food. 

In the world of salads, the chopped salad is one of the more labor-intensive varieties. The ingredients are usually simple enough, most if not all of them raw. But as the name suggests, it requires spending some quality time with your knife. Do it right, though, and the payoff is big. 

I don't usually go for impulse buys at the grocery store. Trader Joe's has certainly gotten me a few times with some sort of dark chocolate treat, but mini cookbooks of 100 Jello recipes and the "extreme values" that Jewel cashiers mumble about (like a crumpled bag of Teddy Grahams) are pretty easy to pass up. Sometimes, though, a totally random item will catch my eye and I have to have it. Like today, when I went to Gene's Sausage Shop for eggs and yogurt and came home with a giant $10 horseradish root.

The jibarito (pronounced “hee-bah-ree-toe”) is a very Chicago-style Puerto Rican sandwich. Instead of bread, the sandwich is held together with plantains. Traditionally, the plantains are deep-fried, not once but twice. That’s a little much for my home cooking – or at least a little too smelly for my kitchen. So for this version, the plantains are roasted, flattened and then pan-fried into a sandwich. The result isn’t quite as crispy as the original, but it’s a lot less mess and a bit lighter. This jibarito-style grilled cheese is filled with Monterey Jack that’s flecked with spicy habanero peppers and sweet, tangy guava paste.

I wrote about this soup two years ago when I first found the recipe in the New York Times. Since then, I've made it many times, making a few tweaks here and there. It's definitely remained a favorite – in fact, it's one of two soups that I constantly go back to. You know, the ones I know I can really nail.

That's why I decided to take this soup to The Hideout's Soup & Bread night this week. If I was going to be manning a Crock-Pot next to other food bloggers and even some professional chefs, I didn't want to mess around with something untested.

Brie-style cheese might not come to mind when you think about macaroni and cheese. I often reach for the sharpest variety when making a batch, but a soft-ripened cheese like Crave Brothers Les Frères is a great, super-creamy alternative. Especially when it’s paired with earthy mushrooms and a little white wine.

Think about eating a Brie-style cheese on its own – it’s great with white wine, and its flavor is accentuated by walnuts and mushrooms. On a cheese board, I might pair it with a sharper cheese to add some variety.