Mac and cheese

I discovered that the lone celeriac in our fridge had developed a bad spot—but the rest was fine. I didn’t want to make another puree, so I looked in the pantry and found a bag of green lentils. Somehow the two connected in my mind (imagining the celeriac as a sort of giant, squat carrot) in the form of saucisses-lentilles. Which meant I was in need of some nice sausages, preferably Polish kielbasa. Our local neighborhood market, BiRite, tends to be a little thin in the cured-meats-that-are-bad-for-you category, but they did have a package of four nitr*te-free frankfurters from Let’s Be Frank, a local hot dog maker. Back at home, I diced and roasted the celeriac, I cooked the lentils in a little chicken stock and white wine, and I browned two of the franks in a pan, along with a bunch of kale that I couldn’t bare to pass up while I was at the store. I no longer see the leafy triumvirate of kale/chard/collards as inconvenient filler in our veggie box—I look forward to them. I have a hard time cooking a meal without something green. Preparing the lentils and sausages and celeriac alone, no matter how classic, just seemed wrong. I carried the kale home like a bouquet.

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