Rack of Lamb, Dried Apricot, Prunes and Garlic Tagine

Cooking Time: 6 1/2 hours, 280 degrees, covered. Preparation/Process: Place pat-dried meat in an olive oiled iron skillet and sprinkle both sides with rock sea salt, fresh-cracked black peppers and dried mint. Drizzle olive oil to lather, and add a pinch of red chili flakes. Arrange a mix of...

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Green Sour Plum, Green Squash, Converted Rice, Normandy Brie and Amish Gongonzola Spicy Egg Shakshuka

PROCESS: (Traditionally, tomatoes and onions are used. But I don't have those, so I substituted plums and squash, respectively.) Cut up the flesh of the fruit on four sides and toss in the pan with olive oil; simmer them down covered until breaking soft. Add squash, salt around, then add up...

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Whole Wheat Berries, Brown Rice, Salted Herring, Pickled Turnip Mustard Cheese, Chives Omelet Bowl

PROCESS: Cook grains together, when cooked set aside, keep warm. In a small bowl, pour *homemade vinegar and add strips of the fish (buy herring from a specialty food store, like Sahadi's in Brooklyn) and stir in a teaspoon of good wine mustard; set aside in fridge. Now cook the eggs - butter/olive...

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About the Blog "Cook-i.e."

"COOK-i.e." (pronounced cook-I. E., saying the letters) is a term I coined (hopefully it's original; I didn't check a list of blog site names related to the "foodie" culture) so, referentially: I'm a home cook-foodie entwined - a foodie who can cook - thus the onomatopoeic name of my blog, writing from Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY. (I'm originally from Portland, Oregon!)

I'm developing-designing-archiving my current and past home recipes and food-making processes to "cultivate" my food-writing skills, as this field is new to me, albeit I have a background in teaching creative writing and poetry. More important: I'm eyeing on my future return to home Oregon and opening a restaurant on my (and my partner's) small, fallowing land-farm in the wine country surrounded by cherry, pear and almond trees, and next door to a bio-dynamic viticulturist winemaker neighbors, their namesake winery, Carlo and Julian. (Behind our farm is their pinot noir grape sprawling vineyard.)

Here in New York is where I'm getting my "ingredients" to this future life, where one day I will grow and raise my own food, where interdependently would I be living with my land and animals, and writing.

You are all invited when that day comes...

In the mean time, New York is the perfect place to dream about my terrestrial life kitchen. I can't reach it without New York in my basket.

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