With all the kale that we have been getting in our CSA, sometimes it’s hard to come up with new things to do with it. I find a simple kale salad is a great, healthy way to use up greens. Plus, it can be done quickly.  One of my favorites is shredded kale tossed with red wine vinegar and mixed with roasted pecans, raw onion, and slivers of a sharp cheddar cheese.

Take one bunch of kale, clean, dry, and cut into thin stipes.  Toss with about a quarter-cup red wine vinegar and let settle for about an hour to three hours. Fill bowls with kale (serves about four to five people) and top with finely sliced onion slices, seven to ten nuts and slivers of cheese. Serve!

For those of you who don’t know, I am now a contributing editor for Tea Magazine. That’s right, it’s a magazine dedicated solely to tea. I love it, though now I have piles and piles of tea. So please, stop over for a cup or 12.

The magazine isn’t online, you have to subscribe, which is a practice I whole-heartedly agree with. Still, I decided to attach a PDF of my big, two-page feature that came out in the last issue, I hope you like it! Also, here are some other pieces I have written about regarding tea.

Tea Magazine: Modern Tea in Tea Magazine

Food Republic: Coffee and Tea, Together at Last

Bites Blog: Celebrate Tea Month With These Eight Unusual Blends

Eat Me Drink Me: Lavender Earl Grey Yogurt

On a related note, want to know the best way to fill up a flask when you are funnel-less? JN Urbanski shares her fool proof method in this article she posted on her blog, which also has many pieces relating to food and the economy and is worth a read.

Pi Pie by Cakespy

Here are some of my latest published pieces. I have been writing for Zagat and MSNBC quite a bit. Check them out!

Celebrate Pi Day With Pie: Who knew math could be so tasty? Today is Pi Day, the time when nerds rejoice because the date, 3-14, lines up to the infinite number pi, otherwise known as 3.14159265… And, just as there are thousands of numbers in pi, there are also thousands of types of pie, and thousands of excuses to eat pie…(continue reading)

NYC Restaurant History: Want to know a secret? That restaurant you are dining in may have a sordid past. A while back, we rounded up some of the sensational histories surrounding New York’s restaurants, bars and markets. Since everyone loves a secret, we decided to dig a little deeper into the Big Apple’s culinary history. This time we delve into the world of New York gangs, communists and even David Letterman…(continue reading)

Game Meat Fun Around the Country: There’s a bit of a stigma that still surrounds the consumption of game meat as some diners have yet to have embrace more “exotic” flavors and textures. But like any ingredient, it’s all about how it’s prepared. Get your game on and click through our slideshow of the most interesting game dishes in the land…(continue reading)

Happy Birthday Oreo: For many people the classic Oreo cookie is synonymous with childhood, whether your memory is of being in elementary school when that cute boy shared his with you, or you dunked them in milk with your grandma. The chocolate cookie with a creamy center has remained iconic, and 100 years after the Oreo’s inception it is still a dessert staple…(continue reading)

Cooking With Ingredients You Hate: Every food lover has at least one ingredient they aren’t particularly fond of, but when it’s your job to cook, serve, and make a dish that you like out of an ingredient you hate, what’s a chef to do? One professional professed he wears gloves when handling pureed pumpkin, another hates shelling sea urchin, and another chef, to ensure he isn’t being biased, gets others to taste and evaluate how a dish comes out…(continue reading)

Have any ideas for me? Feel free to email me at linneacovingtonATyahooDOTcom or let me know in the comments.

Often people ask me where to go for dinner as I have  become the person you go to when going out. Instead of listing off some of my picks willy-nilly, I am going to start posting them in segments.

This one deals with cheap eats and was inspired by my friend Jenny Neal who had me on her WIOX radio show The Economy of…, where we talked about how to eat out on a budget in New York.  I would post it here but can’t seem to get it small enough, so stayed tuned on that front!

Linnea Covington’s Top 10 Cheap Eats in NYC:

1. Zaab Elee: Some of the best, most authentic Thai in the East Village, and super affordable.
2. Caracas: They serve luscious Venezuelan arapas and amazing micheladas in two locations, the East Village and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
3. Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwich Shop: More of a lunch place, but they serve some of the best bahn mi I have ever had. Their pho is good too.
4. Veselka: For solid Ukrainian food (especially late night), this joint serves traditional pierogies, borsht, and potato pancakes.
5. Saraghina: When numerous well-reputed magazines review a place deep in Bed-Stuy, it’s got to be good. They aren’t wrong, this Neapolitan pizza place is great, especially in the summer in their garden sipping the house red.
6. Coppelia: Not only is it surprising that this 24-hour Latin diner in the Flatiron keeps prices low, but owner Julian Medina serves huge portions. You can easily get a dish and an appetizer for two people and be stuffed.
7. Mary’s Fish Camp: This West Village seafood place isn’t cheap, but for the kind of food Mary Redding serves, it’s a great deal. My favorite, her spicy conch chowder.
8. Saravanaa Bhavan: If you want an elegant setting to enjoy this classic South Indian restaurant you can head to the Upper West Side. Or hit up Curry Hill for a more laid back dinner of dosas. Either location is delicious and cheap.
9. Dutch Kills: They don’t serve food at this bar, but in the day of $15 cocktails, it’s nice to find a place that doesn’t charge so much. The only catch, it’s in Queens, but hey, it’s owned by Sasha Petraske so you get points for swank.
10. The Meatball Shop: There are three locations of this amazing spot, which serves an array of meatballs, seasonal salads, roasted veggies, and risotto. My favorite is there original in the Lower East Side, especially for lunch. Check out this Q&A I did with them a few months ago!

There you have it. Let me know if you try any of these and what you would add to the list.

Recently I became a contributing editor for the newly launched Tea: A Magazine (first issue debutes on 3/15). I am beyond excited. One of my jobs for this publication is to review teas simular to how I did for a special MSNBC piece on unusual teas–the best part, I get to try a lot of tea.

This also means people send me samples like Revolution did. Because I am thinking so much about this beverage, it was only natural that some how it would become incorporated into my cooking. Such was the case while I was making yogurt (yes, making yogurt! I got this awesome incubator for it for Christmas). At the same time I was brewing a cup of Revolution’s Earl Grey with lavender tea and on a whim, I threw a tea bag into the pot of milk.

The result is a slightly floral, light brown yogurt that, while it doesn’t taste like a cup of the stuff, has enough hint of black tea to make it unique. For this, the recipe is simple: When you boil the milk for the yogurt drop in three or four tea bags (I am sure this would work with other flavors) and let it seep until you are ready to pour. That’s it!

Corny Squash Soup With Kale Chips

It’s squash and corn season at the farm, and in the last CSA batch I got a three lovely looking acorn and butternut squashes, a couple ears of sweet corn, and a bunch of kale.  As the temperature drops, nothing sounded finer then a rich bowl of soup. So, I combined these three things to make a sweet, salty, and savory brew perfect for the fall.

Ingredients:

• Bundle of kale
• 2 ears of corn Squash: 4 small acorn or 2 small acorn and a butternut, or 2 butternut
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• Dash of cinnamon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil
• Butter or bacon fat
• Greek yogurt (optional)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Peel the corn, wash the kale, and cut the squash in half and de-seed.
Spread a thin layer of olive oil on the flesh of the squash and lightly pepper and salt.
Place in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the flesh yields easily to a fork.

Chop kale into to big chunks, toss with olive oil and sea salt.
Layer kale onto baking sheet; try not to overlap the leaves.
When squash is done place kale in the oven for 15 minutes, then flip over for another 15 minutes.

Scoop squash out of skin and chop up.
Dice onion and brown in soup pot with bacon fat, butter or olive oil.
Once onions are browned, add stock.
Bring to rolling boil.
Add squash to pot.
Simmer for about 15 minutes, then take an immersion blender and puree. You can also do this (carefully) in a blender or food processor.
Add spices to puréed soup.*

Slice the fresh corn off the cob and put kernels in the soup.
Let simmer for about 20 minutes.
Serve with crumpled kale chips on top and optional, a scoop of plain Greek-style yogurt.

*if soup seems thin, make a roux and add to pot.

A Q&A with Hatori in the Village Voice touches on how the duo (with extra memeber here and there including Sean Lennon) started singing about food back in the mid-90s.

“Yuka and I both grew up in Japan and Japan is like that, we just love food. Especially Yuka, I feel like, wow, she is really into food! But me as well. It is almost precious, for both of us. Food and music.” (read the whole thing here)

I wanted to include one of my favorite songs, Artichoke, but couldn’t find a decent version of it so linking you to another fun song (that they also played at the show), Know Your Chicken. I was so glad they decided to tour after years apart. And based on the fun, lively show, it sounded like they still cook well together. My only regret, not getting a T-shirt.

Photo by Brian Everett of EVRT Studio

I know it’s been a while, heck, it’s been over 6 months since I have updated my food blog but I guess that’s how things go sometimes.  Of course I kept meaning to do it, but this article I read in Slate pushed me over the edge–I had to write about the devastating news that pickles might cause cancer.

I know, WTF.  Brian Palmer said this in his piece:

“Doctors have repeatedly attempted to substantiate the connection between pickled vegetables and cancer through clinical studies, with mixed results. But, taken as a whole, there does seem to be an association.”

Does this mean I should now avoid one of my favorite foods? True, pickles tend to be packed with sodium, which doctors have been saying for years that it’s  bad for us, but I have a hard time accepting that an innocent, tart, pickled vegetable could be evil. The most unfortunate part, Palmer suggests homemade pickled goods proved the worst kind, stating that mass produced gherkins don’t actually ferment, hence leaving out the step where microbes eat the vegetables sugar, turning it into alcohol, acids, and some (possible) cancer-causing carcinogens.

Ah! Instead of my life being over I am instead going to share with you my favorite pickles with you, if I’m damned you might as well be too.

Top 5 pickles: Rick’s Picks smokra’, McClure’s spicy pickles, Wheelhouse Pickles, house made pickles at The Vanderbilt and at Buttermilk Channel.