Bone Marrow on Toast

I must admit, I was averse to this dish from the beginning, as the idea of bone marrow is slightly horrifying to me, but my husband swears that when done correctly, it can be delicious. As I am used to indulging him, I bought a few pieces and let him do the prep.

4 pieces beef marrow bones
slices of baguette
1/4 cup capers
juice of 2 lemons
1 cup chopped parsley


Place bones in a roasting pan lined with tin foil. Roast uncovered at 400 for about 20 - 25 minutes. While marrow is cooking, mix in a bowl the dressing. Combine capers, lemon juice, parsley, and a bit of water to taste. Dressing will be quite strong and pungent but very pleasing.


Toast the baguette slices, scrape out the marrow and spread it on the bread. Top with a small spoonful of the dressing and voila! Meaty appetizers.

To be honest, I thought the marrow was mostly flavorless with a soft, slightly oily texture, and I am not inclined to eat this again. But my husband swears that if you get the shank bone it tastes better. I think we bought the thigh bone... So if you like marrow, this is one way to make it. The dressing does kick ass, however, and I liked it with a bit of goat cheese instead!

Better Flank Steak Marinade

Dare I improve on my grandmother's recipe? Indeed, I do. And with impressive results, methinks.

3 oz. soy sauce
3 oz. rice wine vinegar
1 oz. orange juice
1 inch grated fresh ginger
2 heaping teaspoons honey
3 cloves garlic, pushed thru press

Combine all ingredients in a jar and microwave for 25 seconds on high to melt the honey and to help flavors blend. Seal tightly (I like to use old, clean jam jars for this purpose) and shake vigorously. Let sit in refrigerator overnight.

When ready to marinate meat, shake marinade again. Rub meat with olive oil, then sprinkle lightly with salt and black pepper. Place meat in a pan, pour marinade over, cover with foil, and let sit on counter four hours. If marinating overnight, place in fridge.

This is less salty and less overwhelming than my other recipe.

Bolognese a la Sianessa

I had a craving for bolognese sauce tonight, something I rarely eat, but when I do, it's so satisfying and tasty. This recipe combines my toddler-fooling veggie puree with roasted garlic and red bell pepper to make a reasonably healthy and flavor-packed meat sauce.

1 lb ground chuck or sirloin

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I like Classico sweet basil)

2/3 cup veggie puree

2 red bell peppers

3 cloves garlic

spray olive oil

1/4 cup red wine (syrah is nice)

1 small can tomato paste

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes or more to taste

salt & black pepper to taste

1/2 box elbow noodles, cooked according to pkg directions

On a cookie sheet, place peeled garlic cloves, and halved and seeded peppers with the skin side up. Spray liberally with olive oil, and sprinkle a bit of salt on top. Broil about 5 minutes, watching carefully. The pepper skins should blister and get a bit blackened, but not totally charred. The garlic will brown deeply. Remove from oven and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel skin from peppers -- it should come off easily. Then chop the pepper into 1/2 inch pieces, and mince the garlic. Refrigeration will help the garlic to solidify enough to allow chopping -- if it's too warm it's still mushy. But mushy is ok too.

Next, break up the meat into a deep saute pan. The one I use has sides that are about 3 inches high and is about 10 inches wide, which is a perfect size for thick sauces like spaghetti sauce. Brown the meat in its own fat until no pink is left. While sauteing, add the wine, and sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper, then add the roasted garlic and red bell pepper.

When all ingredients are hot, add the veggie puree and the jar of spaghetti sauce. When all that is incorporated, add the tomato paste, the crushed red pepper and stir until fully incorporated. Simmer, letting all flavors meld, about 5-10 minutes. If the sauce is too dry for your taste, add a bit of water.

Ladle out over pasta of your choice and serve with grated parmesan cheese and more of the red wine. Voila!

Poor Little Vegetarian Girl

So there was this blog entry on the New York Times the other day written by a college student who is taking her junior year abroad in Paris. Lucky duck! I wish I'd done that. She explains that she has been a lacto-ovo vegetarian from the age of 8 for ethical reasons. She goes on to say that while in Paris, she has learned that due to the strong adherence to tradition in France, French livestock are slaughtered humanely, do not spend their short lives trapped in miserable feedlots, and aren't treated abominably as they are on giant American industrial farms. So she decided to try eating some flesh.

What shocked me was not that she started eating meat, it was not her ultimate return to vegetarianism, and it was not even the fact that someone's meat vacation was considered newsworthy. It was the vitriol spewing from people leaving comments on her blog! My god, people, don't you have anything better to do than castigate some woman who is simply reconsidering a decision she had made 12 years ago? Don't you ever change your minds?

At one point in her post, the author says, “meat-eating facilitates a sense of connection with other people that tempeh just doesn’t. Taking the life of an animal for food is a morbid, ironic affirmation that we are alive.” This makes sense to me, and I do like to eat meat. I have never gotten excited or nostalgic about a slab of tempeh the way I (and plenty of my friends) will wax rhapsodic over delicate lobster tail dripping with melted butter, a hamburger oozing melty cheddar, or a tender, rare steak. And it's simply the truth that as omnivores, in order to live we must kill. That is by definition a morbid irony. Life = death. Get it?

However, one loser said in response to this that he "cannot express how deeply I disagree with both these statements, and how profoundly offensive I find them." This you find offensive? Wow. I guess you live in a large community of people who have tempeh traditions (where DO you live?), and are incapable of seeing irony. Maybe you should get out more. Or get therapy.

Nonetheless, I found her blog post to be entertaining and, shall we say, food for thought.