Life's Savory Moments
Inspired by cookbooks and cooking from the garden.
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Hello Everyone.
In the days leading up to the end of summer, I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen than in the garden. This means more time with my cookbooks. Most of the time I memorize favorites, such as the Sharlotka cake I make each fall from tart green apples. It’s a recipe adapted from a Darra Goldstein cookbook, a simple cake of Russian origins made with ingredients easily on hand.
I’ve made this cake often, yet it only really works with a truly flavorful cooking apple or the wild ones from my heirloom tree which are too tart for eating. Like many cookbook readers, I enjoy the stories behind the food as much as cooking the recipe. While I admit that I am not always the most adventurous cook, once I find a favorite, the cookbook sits right next to my stove.
My own first cookbook started this way, as a way to tell my story. It started by gathering all my favorite recipes together in one place; my own, my mother’s and those gleaned from magazines and cookbooks began to shape the table of contents. As I typed up the recipes, following a prescribed format dictated by my publisher HarperCollins, I was often sidetracked by telling the stories of our family farm, the seasonal harvest and events taking place in our kitchen garden.
Like a painter who seeks inspiration from other artists, or a songwriter who catches a riff and takes the notes in a new direction, I learned that there is no such thing as an original recipe. I like to think that my recipe for blueberry-zucchini bread was original, as I created it from my ‘what grows together, goes together’ philosophy that is behind all of my recipes. Yet alas, the original recipe was adapted from a classic pound cake that goes back decades, if not centuries.
When I write a cookbook, I always hire outside help to test the recipes. For my first cookbook, I placed a small ad in the local paper that read, “cookbook writer seeks recipe testers” and received over a hundred applicants. I interviewed each, asking three questions.
What is your cooking experience?
What are your favorite cookbooks?
Do you follow a recipe?
This led to that age-old question “what defines a good cook?” In this case, it was not just anyone who loves to cook, but what was defined by their cookbook shelf. Since I had a certain cooking style, the type of food they considered to be good had to resonate.
Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Vegetarian Epicure, and Chez Panisse were all acceptable. Betty Crocker, Fast and Easy Casseroles, and anything with a microwave was not. (Following a recipe was a trick question because most experienced cooks will read a recipe and shut the book, while a recipe tester needs to follow it precisely in order to be accurate.)
Over the years, and five cookbooks later, I have found the perfect qualities of a recipe tester is someone who also enjoys lingering around the table talking about food. This often starts young, with parents who encouraged family meals and cooking time together.
Family recipes and telling stories is at the heart of the cookbook writing class I teach each fall because it is fun to talk about food with other cooks. Before I wrote cookbooks, I kept notebooks filled with recipes and notes. Inside one of my earliest notebooks is an op-ed gem from the NYT titled Life’s Savory Moments. Here’s a photo:
Preparing a memorable meal from leftovers is a reminder that no matter how well we plan, “…the most savory moments often come unbidden and can be so cloaked in ordinariness we barely notice them at the time. Improvisation in the kitchen it turns out is a kind of metaphor for life.”
As the kitchen garden begins to slow down, start your next meal by simmering onions and garlic on the stove, and while the kitchen fills with that heavenly aroma dash to the garden to see what you can add for a meal. Improvise, and embrace the last of the summer garden season. Share your favorite cookbooks in the comments below.
From my garden to yours,
Ellen O.
Ellen Ecker Ogden is a food and garden writer and author of six books. Follow the year-round progress of her Vermont garden on Instagram or sign up for a writing or design workshop on her website.
p.s. Early bird enrollment for class starts this week - save $50. Follow this link.
The photo of the treasure newspaper piece made me want to cry. " But the most savory moments often come unbidden and can be so cloaked in ordinariness we barely notice them at the time." This is so true. May we look for and treasure savory moments always. Thank you, Ellen, for this.
Such a wonderful piece about cooking with what you have at hand and it will inspire me to use what I have growing in the garden right now. Thank you Ellen!