Swiss Chard with Olives and Raisins (Page 542)

• Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 -- 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chefs: Genevieve and Glen
• Dining Companions: Ana, Matty, and Matt
  
• Recipe Rating: C

I picked this recipe to go with dinner last Wednesday, but in retrospect I can't remember why. It wasn't good. Everyone agreed that the raisins were not a good addition. The sweetness of the raisins and the bitterness of the chard did not work well together. The contrast made the dish actually difficult to eat. The pine nuts and olives were tasty though. The dish might have worked well if we had simply omitted the raisins. Genevieve separated out the chard from the raisins and ate the two piles separately, which was probably the best way to go with this one. Definitely not a recipe I would repeat.

I am desperately behind in my blogging, which is mainly a reflection of the fact that I have been cooking like a crazy woman. Cooking is a beautiful distraction from stressing about either job stuff or my thesis. My refrigerator right now is quite a sight. It contains leftover sweet potato and parsnip puree, cream cheese frosting, fermenting mincemeat, preserved (READ: rotting) lemons, in addition to some stuff I didn't make. Open my freezer and you will find kale and white bean soup, escarole and sausage soup, turkey soup, rosemary focaccia, strawberry cheesecake ice cream, etc... Basically, if any of you all get hungry any time soon, feel free to stop by! The mincemeat looks (and smells) a little scary, and I have my hesitations about the lemons, but everything else is definitely edible!

Alex and Gunther had a big potluck dinner at their place tonight with probably 25 people! It was fun -- I met a lot of people and ate a huge amount of extremely tasty cheese fondue. Mmm.... bread and cheese!