Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Welcome to Bon App Y'all!

I set the heavy, steaming saucepan on a cork trivet in the middle of the bright pink linoleum tablecloth. We start to spoon out generous servings of this aromatic and hearty dish, made from ingredients that humans have consumed since nearly 10,000 B.C. Upon first taste, my friends all rejoice in its utter deliciousness—so many textures, tastes and colors contributing to such a flavorful and substantial dish. We are eating mujadarra, a popular Middle Eastern dish made with rice, lentils, cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper. That’s it! This dish took just 5 minutes of active prep time to make and another 40 minutes of nothing (email reading, TV watching, laundry, homework, etc.) This one-pot meal that’s so tasty and healthy (virtually no fat, loads of protein) is so simple and inexpensive to make.

Hello and welcome to Bon App Y’all! My hopes with this blog are to promote the cooking and enjoyment of delicious and beautiful, yet simple and affordable dishes. I believe that far too few people today cook at home. America’s health and obesity problems can in large part be traced to the rise of eating out and the consumption of greater quantities of processed foods as opposed to natural, fresh, often raw ingredients.

I also believe that cooking is easier than most might think. People often fret over exact measurements and specific ingredients, when, in reality, precision is not terribly crucial. In fact, I usually improvise when cooking; I very rarely measure, and I frequently substitute, add and/or omit ingredients according to my personal taste, what I do or don’t have in my kitchen, or any produce that’s about to go bad and needs to be used).

Finally, cooking yourself is much more economical and healthful than eating out or ordering in. It is often tastier and usually even quicker than traveling to and eating at a restaurant. I feel that we as Americans could benefit from an increase in home cooking, providing us with more nutritious, cheaper and more enjoyable meals overall.

I plan to regularly include recipes and pictures of what I’ve been cooking recently, including many foods (i.e. breads, gratins, soufflĂ©s, etc.) that sound and have connotations of being difficult, but in reality are quite simple and quick to make! Thank you for your interest, comments and suggestions! Bon App Y'all!
Geoffrey

12 comments:

  1. It is a great honor to be a bloggie, but even more so to see the first recipe having blossomed from my esteemed colleague. Aren't you that new food writer for Le Monde?

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  2. Looking forward to reading/commenting on your blog Geoffrey! ....along with the amazing smells that will fill the Mod ... this sorta reminds me of the blog that the girl in the movie Julie & Julia kept when she made a recipe from Julia Child's cookbook every day.

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  3. nice idea ! I totally dig it :-p

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  4. I hope this is practice for your eventual cookbook! I look forward to participating in and taste-testing recipes.

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  5. Yum! I am so making that for dinner tomorrow night. Of course I would gladly cede the kitchen to you anytime! Can't wait for your next posting...

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  6. Well Geoffrey. We look forward to your delicious recipes. We have a pear tree which blesses us with many pears which we usually end up giving away. We now have a recipe that may give us the opportunity to use more pears. Bon chance! - Mr. P

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  7. Fantastic first post. I completely agree. Far too many people choose the easy way out, and it's a shame. We're getting lazier and we're missing the personal connections that food can provide. I'll certainly be following your work.

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  8. What a nice blog! I saw your comment on Bitten and followed you here. I'm wondering if you've ever made this recipe you commented on with either spelt noodles, or eggplant strips in place of noodles, and if so how it turned out.

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  9. No, I haven't littlem. Sounds intriguing though. Often I put roasted eggplant in lasagna though, which is great!

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  10. Thank you for getting back to me, Geoffrey!

    The reason I ask is because I'm low-complex-carb and, as you say, cooking is experimenting, but I'm one of those chemical-reaction-precision types (you, OTOH, sound like you cook more like my mom XD) that hates to mess stuff up because I've been fiddling with it.

    If I were to make such substitutions, do you think anything else would have to be tweaked for it to work?

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  11. Seems to me like it'd work just fine.... if using eggplant you could use less tomato sauce as it wouldn't be needed to cook the noodles. Let me know how it turns out!

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