Break-up Soup: Corn, Potato, & Gruyère Deliciousness

“There is logic and order to cooking. What you put into it has everything to do with what you get out of it. With love, it’s not so cut-and-dried.”

–Giulia Melucci, I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir of Good Food and Bad Boyfriends

True story – He broke up with me six days before Christmas, over the phone. He said, “You’re the nicest girl I’ve ever dated, but…” I’ll leave the break-up story there, teetering on the edge of such a backhanded compliment that, at the time, I was left speechless – an event that doesn’t happen often. We had been an item for five months – they were largely fun and relaxing, involving meals of roasted chicken, beer cheese soup, lasagna, spinach-and-ricotta calzones, and his delicious chicken Parmesan. We played a lot of board games, hiked many Saturdays and walked around our neighborhoods on the weekdays, and discussed what 30-somethings do when they’re on the precipice of their potential. He was my rebound, I guess, though I didn’t see him as such until the phone call.

Fried Chicken with Granddad

Cool neon sign, located in Clinton, Mo., where John Hammond lives and fries chicken.

I've written about my favorite guy before (See Fried Zucchini), but he's such a charmer that I had to bring him back. John Dee Hammond is my father's father and my terrific granddad. He's 84, but he'll turn 85 on August 25, 2010. For someone who was born in Warsaw, Missouri in 1925, he's pretty hip.

My granddad has always believed women should be educated long before it was the norm (take that misogynist jerks), never really freaked out when my sister or I came home with tattoos or weird piercings, though he did say, "I survived WWII as an enlisted man in the Navy without getting that crap," and he rolls with the punches (from the Great Depression to losing my grandma to lung and colon cancer in 2003, whom he was married to for over 50 years) by embodying his favorite phrase, "hang in there." Honestly, he's my hero and one of the people in my life who has always loved me as-is, which is pretty damn special. I love my granddad without reservation. He's had my back from day one, even if he didn't want to call me Michaella (he thought I wouldn't be able to spell my name) but Mindy (after the TV show, Mork & Mindy).

So it brings me great pleasure to pass along a family recipe, one he learned from my grandma Anna Lee: Fried chicken. And if you haven't noticed the pattern, Granddad is our go-to man for all things fried.

Caldo de Pollo = Yummy, Healthy, Healing Food

One of my absolute favorite foods is caldo de pollo, Mexican chicken soup. Seriously delicious and definitely my go-to comfort food. Lately I've needed some comforting, so this soup has been on my mind.

Last week I went to my neighborhood Mexican restaurant, and they forgot to put my take-out order in. I waited a very long time for the soup that nurtures all lows and replenishes my spirit, so I thought, "Why not try my hand at this soup?" I'm glad the do-it-yourself ethic is alive and well in this chica as I was inspired to try my hand in making this flavorful dish. Never again will I wait for something I can easily make at home. This recipe takes less than an hour to prepare and is well worth the time you'll invest.

A Girl & Her Stove: Caesar Potato Salad with Snap Peas

I'll admit, some days it's just too hot and too tiring to bake. Today's temperature was in the 80s, a severe thunderstorm whipped through St. Louis and felled a gigantic sweet gum tree limb, which promptly landed on top of my little red truck. All is well, but baking coconut cupcakes is going to wait until tomorrow. I'll post a bonus blog entry tomorrow (Wed., 6/3) after I bake those little, yummy post-modern white-on-white creations, so don't worry. The girl and her oven will make an appearance this week, especially since I promised my good buddy Shane that he would be the lucky recipient of these bad boys.


Yet, Dave and I knew that dinner must go on, regardless of my baking rut and fallen tree limb issues. So, I consulted Epicurious.com (oh, how I love thee) to find a recipe that would use our russet potatoes and sugar snap peas. While Dave grilled chicken thighs in a sesame oil, maple, cilantro, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey glaze, I whipped up a recipe from Bon Appetit's June 2009 issue: Caesar Potato Salad with Snap Peas. I contend that this recipe would be made even better with bits of bacon and perhaps a dollop of honey and cilantro, which I picked fresh from my garden tonight. The storm spared my herbs, thank goodness.

So, after a long, rainy afternoon, Dave and I enjoyed a blissful dinner replete with a crisp, apple-flavored Eve Chardonnay. And as I sipped my wine, forked my potato salad and conversed with my honey, I thought of a quote I read (The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner--thanks, Jenna!) today at lunch on my front stoop: "Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else."

I agree. Happiness, for me, is often found in the everyday going ons of my life and often catches me completely unaware.


Listening to: "It's Coming Down," Cake