Bon Appetit: Fast Easy Fresh

I went to Books to Cooks last night for a demo by Barbara Fairchild, editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit magazine. She was talking about her latest book, The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook. The book is organized around key shopping ingredients (turkey, pasta, potatoes) so that you can use it at the last minute. Most recipes use between 6-10 ingredients, so it’s definitely designed to be used when you don’t have much time to cook.

While she talked, an assistant prepared a roast chicken with gremolata butter, bacon-wrapped dates, and mushrooms en croute. I had to leave before the chicken came out of the oven, but it smelled delicious. The mushrooms en croute were really tasty, with meaty mushrooms and a kick of lemon zest on a baguette chip, with melted parmesan cheese on top.

But oh, the bacon-wrapped dates were delicious. It was a juicy pitted date stuffed with smoked bacon, with the whole thing wrapped in bacon and baked until it was crispy, smoky, salty perfection. I had to exercise serious restraint, but I still ate three of them.

There were also wine tastings from Farmstead wines and Barrel Select. Tasty.

It was a perfect way to spend a snowy evening: in a cookbook store, listening to Barbara Fairchild talk about food while eating delicious food and tasting lovely wine. Life doesn’t get much better.

4 Responses to Bon Appetit: Fast Easy Fresh

  1. there are such things as cookbook stores? entire stores full of cookbooks? (clearly i don’t cook)

  2. congrats on the blog win!

    i love your mention of bacon-wrapped dates. i did a google search for “bacon wrapped” and it gave me 637,000 hits.

    included in the google-sphere of things people wrap in bacon: tator tots, water chestnuts, crab-meat logs and the worlds-colliding combo of bacon-wrapped tofu.

    if you want to talk art auctions, gimme a shout. i’m in the office again regularly as of jan 5.

    - kb

  3. e, there are wonderful stores full of nothing but cookbooks. One of these days I’ll take you.

    Karen – how about bacon-wrapped bacon? I know a lot of people who would be into that.

  4. Mmmm. Bacon wrapped bacon.

    I have a recipe for dates stuffed with chorizo sausage and then wrapped in bacon. I’ve never tried it, but I’ve always thought it would be the tastiest thing ever. Salty, spicy and sweet all at once.

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