winter is coming...

... our Caesar salad has more and more "works" in it. It feels like it's morphing into an Salade Olivier.

I'm a winter cook. I like cooked salads, soups, stews and whatever can be cooked in the terra cotta pot in the oven. And I start craving home baked cookies. Does your menu change with seasons? Is there a name for this phenomena?

When we make soups, we use croutons as a garnish. So, we decided to make our own. Now, every time we plan on using the oven - we make a batch of croutons.

How to make croutons:
go to the food store that has a fresh bakery. Find "Yesterday's bread" sale shelf. Look for baguette or sliced bruschetta bread or actually any bread that you like (garlic bread should be nice). Usually, it's about .50-1.50$/bag, which is much cheaper than buying readymade croutons! Slice the bread into cubes (it's also is much easier to cut not-so-fresh bread), put on the baking sheet, [season to taste -optional], bake for 10-15 min at 300-350F, turning once.

The other recipe from the childhood is - Cheesy toast. Crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle. Oh so great with a cup of soup! Slice the bread, spread some butter on one side, put hard cheese on top, arrange on the baking sheet, bake until the cheese is melted - about 5-10 min. You probably can make it in the toaster oven too.

Stay warm.

Summer dinners... so quick and light. Easy to make and colorful. There should be an explanation on why do different weather make you crave different foods. Why do winter salads have mayo and cooked veggies (potato salad,  Salade Olivier and such) and summer salads have mixed greens with oil and lemon juice?! While chili is a great comfort food on a cold winter night; in the midst of summer I'd rather have a bowl of gazpacho or okroshka (cold kvass soup), though I'm not a big fan of the latter. There should be a perfectly simple explanation, wish I knew what it was...

For now, I present you with a basic recipe for boiled corn on the cob.

1) in a pot large enough for the corn you want to cook, boil water (we have an electric kettle, and we boil the water there to save time)

2) shuck the corn cobs, rinse

3) put the corn in the boiling water. NEVER ADD SALT TO THE WATER!

4) add dill, fresh or dried. It adds a touch of flavor to the corn. You can't put too much!

5) boil for 5-10 min (*based on how many cobs you have)

6) carefully remove from the water with tongs.

7) let cool for a couple of minutes.

8) serve. We like to sprinkle it with salt. Others like butter, pepper.

There are many other ways to cook corn: grill, microwave, steam, etc.