The Lure of a Great Recipe

It's really sad when you want to steal a magazine from your mechanic, and even sadder when it's a cooking magazine and you already have subscriptions to two other cooking magazines. Maybe it was because I had to skip lunch to get a flat tire fixed, and I was flipping through Food & Wine's Thanksgiving issue while munching on a granola bar, but suddenly everything in the magazine looked delicious. Cassoulet with Duck Confit. Goat Cheese-Edamame Dip. Mixed Green Salad with Fig-Yogurt Dressing. Smoky Red Pepper Spread. I salivated. I poured through the recipes. I tried to memorize the spices in Spiced Catfish with Avocado. And then I considered stealing the magazine.
No one else was in the shop at the time. The mechanics were working in the garage, there were no other customers in the waiting area. It was just me and a table full of magazines about home decor, sports, and cars. No one would miss a silly little issue of Food & Wine.
Then I flipped it over and saw who it was addressed to. Firestone. It was not the name of some random customer who had kindly left it in the waiting area like a discarded newspaper with the crossword filled in. It was not a store bought copy which I could claim I had purchased myself. Firestone had a subscription to a somewhat sophisticated food magazine, and even if I was the only customer interested in it, I could not steal it.
It should be noted that I didn't want to steal the magazine because I didn't want to pay for it. I just wanted those recipes and would do anything to acquire them. No one can resist the lure of a great recipe.
Luckily Food & Wine, like Cooking Light, Bon Appetit, and Gourmet, make all their recipes accessible through their website, and I was able to find the entire set of November 2008 recipes online as soon as I got home.
To save you the trouble, here's the one for Goat Cheese-Edamame dip:

Ingredients
DIP

1. 1 1/2 pounds shelled edamame
2. 1 cup sour cream
3. 5 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
4. 3 chipotles in adobo, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons of adobo sauce from the can
5. 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6. 1 small garlic clove, chopped
7. 2 teaspoons kosher salt
8. 1 tablespoon chopped oregano
9.

PEPITAS

1. 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
2. 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
4. 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
5. 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
6. 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
7. 1 teaspoon chopped oregano


Directions

1. Make the dip: In a medium pot of boiling salted water, simmer the edamame until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well and transfer to a food processor. Add the sour cream, goat cheese, chipotles, adobo sauce, lemon juice, garlic and salt and puree until smooth, scraping down the side of the bowl. Stir in the oregano and transfer the dip to a serving bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
2. Make the pepitas: Preheat the oven to 375°. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the pumpkin seeds with the olive oil, salt, coriander and crushed red pepper. Bake for 7 minutes, until the seeds begin to brown. Transfer the pepitas to a bowl and toss with the lemon zest and oregano.
3. Serve the dip at room temperature, topped with the spiced pepitas.


Make Ahead

The goat cheese–edamame dip can be refrigerated overnight; bring to room temperature before serving. The spiced pepitas can be kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days.


Serve With

Pita crisps.