Meals by Marlene Personal Chef Service

Out of Business

2011-01-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

I must start with a cliché, because it's so apt:

It is with mixed emotions that I announce my retirement. Meals by Marlene is no longer in business.

My little personal chef business was the first time I'd ever had free reign to create something from scratch. It has been exciting, up-lifting, and fun. I've learned more than I ever imagined, and amazed at my own capabilities and creativity. I never knew I had it in me.

Yet I am closing my business voluntarily. Yes, clients have been few, but I've have had some work. I am at least covering my expenses, with a little money left over. Perhaps if business were better, I would hang on for a while longer. This is part of why I'm closing.

Mostly though, it's so I can concentrate on other things. My husband has retired, and we have many plans for our time. I'm teaching natural childbirth classes, and I am writing. Both of these endeavors take a lot of time and effort, especially the writing. I want to be published, and that means working it for all I can.

I haven't decided whether to stop this blog. I haven't been posting lately, but my interest in food will never fade, and there is still a lot to talk about. I could post it all on my other blog, at mardott.livejournal.com, but that is mostly for writing-related topics. Still, it's something I'm thinking about.

If you've found me through a search engine, I encourage you to check out the other chefs in the Bay Area. Go to www.hireachef.com to search for a listing. There's a talented group serving the area!

Book Review: A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove

2010-11-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

This book has been on my shelf for a couple of years, but I finally got to it. I'm glad I did, it's a great book. Written by Laura Schenone, the book covers the history of women and cooking. It concentrates on the U.S., but she touches on other cultures, as well, especially at the beginning. After all, the women cooking in this part of the world a thousand years ago, were not - ahem - Americans.

There are lots of pictures and illustrations, bringing to life the clothing, backgrounds, and tools of earlier eras. I love old pictures. I love seeing people of history, going about their daily lives.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of discrimination in our history. Women have rarely been allowed to function to their fullest potential. It almost seems as if the closest culture to come to it, were the hunter/gatherer societies. Once humanity settled into "civilization," women were tied to the service of men.

In ten chapters, Ms. Schenone talks about how women and food figure into creation myths, shows women moving to new lands and learning the plants and animals to use, and always comes back to the female trait of nurturing. Whatever women faced, in a world over which they had little control, they always made it their duty to feed everyone. I wonder if this is an extension of our ability to provide the first and only food, for the first six months of a human being's life.

Cooking in America is covered in detail, and even here (especially here) women do not escape bondage. Subject to political will (or lack thereof), male business greed, pollution, weather, and war, American women always prepared food. They tried to recreate the dishes of their native countries, learned how to prepare the strange plants of their new land, turned over their abilities to "the Experts," and embraced technology in the kitchen.

As with any book about food, I found recipes I wanted to try, especially Grandma Louise's Peach Pie Supreme. Not the Scrapple, though.

Wine Misadventures

2010-11-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

I like everything about Autumn, and this one is no exception. My mood has been iffy, but the weather and color (and pumpkins) are only helping.

We finished the wine yesterday. The learning curve is steep on this undertaking. I'm glad I did it, and I hope to do it again. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this attempt will turn out all right.

We had trouble with our bucket throughout the experiment. The spout leaked the whole time. Just a smidge - but every day, more wine escaped around the rim of the spout. We tried to fix it every time we racked the wine, but it did no good.

Nevertheless, the wine tastes good. It's not great... but I've had worse. It will be really cool if it improves with age.

Bottling wine happens in a series of steps. We had lots of instructions - the book that came with the kit, plus articles I got online - but they all neglected the same step.

How do you get the wine from the bucket... to the bottle?

Siphon, probably. But we could both just picture us holding the hose in the bottle as it fills up, and not being able to stop the flow, and ending up with wine all over the kitchen.

But let me backtrack. First, I've been saving wine bottles, washing them and removing the labels. It turns out we only wanted dark bottles, since our wine is red. In order to sterilize the bottles, I did some dishwasher voodoo, trying to stack as many bottles as possible in positions that would allow them to drain, AND not get hit by the rotating blade.

That was a hassle. But easier than boiling the bottles.

When it came time to fill the bottles, we moved our bucket to the counter, placing it on top of an upside pan, to give us room for the bottles under the spigot (in the sink).

Then I made a mistake - something like the hundredth mistake of the process. I tasted the wine and added sugar to adjust the flavor. It was REALLY tart. It's still tart, but much better. This is very dry wine. But my mistake was that I should have added some potassium sorbate to the wine, before I added sugar.

Once the sugar's in the wine, it's too late to add the potassium. It's purpose is to prevent any further fermentation, but it can't stop it if it's already started. If you add sugar first... well.

So what did I do? Not a damn thing. I'm tired by this time. I'm pretty sure the wine will be a failure anyway. (Perhaps we should refer back to my iffy mood mentioned earlier). So screw it - we're bottling this wine.

We did it the cheating way, by placing the bottles under the spigot and letting the wine run into the bottles. There was no sediment - this wine is lovely and clear. We filled up 13 1/2 bottles. Quite cool.

The next adventure was corking. We had mushroom corks, which came in the wine kit, the kind with a plastic lid attached. Following all the myriad instructions, we boiled some water, removed it from the heat, and soaked the corks for a couple of minutes. Then we began inserting corks into bottles.

The corks came right back out.

Seriously. They just worked their way right up, refusing to STAY in the bottle. Air pressure, y'know. Further research allowed as to how this was quite normal behavior for mushroom corks, and one must apply a "trick". The trick is to place a flexible wire in the bottle (keeping hold of the end), insert the cork, and while holding the cork firmly in place, draw out the wire. This creates a path for the air to escape the bottle, and allows the cork to seal as the air escapes.

Excuse me, but you do realize you can't stick any old wire in your bottle of wine? None of the instructions said so, but I wasn't grabbing a wire from the garage and throwing it in my bottle without sterilizing it first. This meant I had to boil more water and cook the wire for several minutes.

I sure hope that damn thing got sterilized.

But it worked beautifully. Except... you know those plastic lids attached to the corks? You can't let stay in the water too long. Or let the water be too hot. Those lids melt. We lost a few corks to this phenomenon. Some of the corks seemed to work okay, but they look strange.

Anyway. We have thirteen bottles filled and corked. Next step: shrinkwrap around the cork and neck of the bottle. These also came in our kit, and it turned out to be the funnest part of the job. We boiled water (again), and placed the gold wrapper over the top of the bottle. A rubber band is attached from top to bottom of the bottle to hold it in place. Then the bottle is turned upside down and lowered into the water for about 3 seconds.

Lessons Learned here: The water must remain boiling the entire time. Cooler water will not work.
The water must be deep enough to cover the entire wrapping. Submerge it all the way.

After a few more "mistakes," our bottles were all filled, corked, and wrapped. They look almost like real bottles of wine!

Last step: the label. Yes, these also came with the kit. They're hokey, but so what. We fiddled around with the idea of writing out our information and printing it on mailing labels to stick on the fancy labels. I think of things like this because I have awful handwriting. Rick has beautiful handwriting, but I felt bad asking him to write out 13 labels.

But in the end, that's what we did. Here's the result:

The labels say:

It's a Marickal!
Plum Wine
2010

"Marickal" is a combination of our names, and a play on the word miracle, which I'm sure you figured out. We were so surprised to get this far. We have a couple of bottles to use as beta testers. If the wine in those holds up (i.e., doesn't grow mold or something over the next month or so), we'll give the wine out as gifts.

Got any wood to knock on?

Fumbling Garden Witchery

2010-10-14T13:13:00.001-07:00

I took a break from synopsis writing to play in the yard for a while. I pulled some weeds, watered a little, argued a bit with the crab grass. It's so wonderful out there. The weather is perfect these days: warm during the day, with bright sun and clear skies. Nights are getting cool.

I can tell the soil is changing, shifting toward its winter softness. It hasn't rained yet, and the soil is still hard as cement, mind you. But its different than it was a few weeks ago. Like it's breathing. Getting ready to wake up. Around here, summer is a time of hibernation because it's too dry and hot for critters to move through the soil. Spring and autumn are the living times, with flowers popping out, and worms working their way through soft, loamy soil.

Time to reflect and admire and yes, work, since it's cool enough to be out there for a few hours.

But look what I found!

There are THREE limes in this picture! Can you see them all? There are five on the tree, for the first time, ever! They are still hard, so I didn't pick them. I'm not sure how they'll turn out - this poor tree has struggled all its life, due to my neglect. For one thing, I've kept it in a pot, and I've been awful about feeding it. In fact, I haven't fed it at all, other than to occasionally throw some diluted coffee water into the pot. There is no doubt I don't deserve these limes. But I jumped for joy anyway, and told the little tree how lovely it was, and took its picture.

Excitement abounds.

Here's a garden question: we have this tree, a silk tree (also called a mimosa). My husband likes it. Me? I admit it's a gorgeous tree in the spring and early summer. Those flowers can't be beat, and the hummingbirds and bees love them.

But the tree does this:

All that Brown Stuff on the ground? Dried flowers and pods from the tree. This is a BIG tree and its canopy spreads over half the yard. This stuff is everywhere, several inches thick. Good mulch, I suppose, but the problem is that it covers all the other plants. It sticks to the leaves and flowers and branches of everything. It looks awful.

I shake, rake, or brush it off (more like pick it off, it doesn't really do "brush"). But it's such a hassle. And until I get to it, it just sits there looking ugly.

Then there's this:

This is my jasmine. As you can see, it's surrounded by the Brown Stuff. It WAS covered with it, but I just finished shaking and picking. There's still a lot trapped in the inner parts of the plant, but I'm concerned about black widows living in there. Not sticking my hand in.

Anyway, this plant is amazing. It started life in a little pot picked up at Whole Foods. I never water it. It's now about four feet across and three feet tall. It's a spreading plant and would probably be happier on a trellis. I thought it might climb up the fence, but I guess it wants something to wrap around. So it just sits in a tangled clump and grows bigger. Should I go ahead and give it a trellis and try to untangle some of the branches? Or try to get it to spread out along the ground? Should I rake up the Brown Stuff, or leave it there as mulch? It's okay on the ground, I just hate it covering up the plants.

Wine Report

2010-08-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's been three weeks since we racked the plum wine, so it was time to re-rack, and lose some sediment. It was also the Big Check - is it wine, yet?

Oh, yes.

After we siphoned it into a new bucket, we took a taste. It's very dry, which I think is wonderful. I prefer dry wines, and I was afraid this would be too sweet, since it started with plums. But, no. It's VERY dry.

I think it's almost perfect, but Rick wasn't sure. According to the instructions, if we want it sweeter, we can add sugar just before we bottle it. So we'll decide then.

It's also done fermenting. The SG is 1.006, which means there's almost no sugar left. What's the alcohol content? Well, that's an inaccurate guess, due to my faulty record-keeping. We need to know the starting SG, and I forgot to write that down.

But I do know it was in the normal range for starting wine. So we have a range of 7%-12% alcohol. I think it's at a reasonable level, because what we tasted (about a 1/4 cup each) was enough to provide the beginnings of a tipsy feeling.

I'm excited about it. We'll let it sit for a month or two more, to get rid of more sediment. Depending on how clear it looks at that point, we might bottle it.

Next year, I'll make an effort to use all our plums and make a bunch of wine. This is great stuff.

Even Better Pickles

2010-08-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

My pickle kick is continuing unabated. We eat a little bit every day. But I've discovered that I'm not quite on the right track with the pickle thing.

Pickled foods are the right idea, but the REAL idea is fermented food. The vinegar-sugar route is a short-cut.

So I'm trying it the old-fashioned way.

I sliced up some cucumbers, onions, and carrots. These were all mixed together in a bowl with 2 tbsp sea salt, a few cloves of garlic, and some mustard seeds. The idea is to mix and mash for 4 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables have reduced and let off a lot of their juices.

Then I packed them into jars (which I first sterilized). I filled the jars to the top, making sure there was plenty of the liquid covering the veggies.

Aren't they beautiful? The jars are left on the counter for three days, with a loose lid. After that, they can be stored a few more days in a cabinet, then refrigerated.

I really want to be able to store these things in a cabinet, to have veggies throughout the winter. In the past, I think people kept them in their basements or someplace very cool. Perhaps I can keep them in our garage. It stays plenty cold in the winter. But for now, I think the jars have to be refrigerated, which is disappointing.

The quandary is, the vegetables are in season now, so now is the time to ferment them. But I don't have a cool place to keep them.

I'll have to work on that.

Oh, and one tip I found out about: putting a grape leaf in the jar keeps the vegetables crisp. So I "borrowed" a few leaves from our neighbor's vines that grow over our fence. We'll see if it works.

Wind Dancer Ranch

2010-08-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting to write this entry because I wanted to give it the time and attention it deserved. I need to get to it, before I forget everything that happened.

A few weeks ago, I went up to Wind Dancer Ranch in Yolo County, to "cut and wrap" my portion of a pig. I split the hog with two other people from the Bay Area Meat CSA. One person took half, the other half was split between me and one other person.

This was such an incredible experience! I feel bad, because I don't have the pictures I wanted. This is my fault - I've got to learn to be better about that. But I didn't get any pictures of the farm itself, despite the fact that the owners, Lisa and Jim, took us on a grand tour.

These two people are amazing - working regular jobs in addition to fixing up and running this old, abandoned farm. We could see how much they've accomplished, and how much they still have to do! But they just jump in work until its done. These are the real heroes of American life.

Wind Dancer has several animals: the pigs, of course, and chickens, turkeys, sheep, rabbits, horses... I had one of their turkeys for Thanksgiving last year, and it was wonderful.

They also have a garden, of course, but don't grow crops to sell. They do grow feed for the animals.

It was a hot day, which made it difficult for the weak city dwellers to concentrate. I brought my 14-year old grandson with me, and he was very impressed. He'd never been exposed to this kind of thing, but he loved it. He even asked if he could come work with them next summer! He couldn't do it this year, because he has a broken arm.

The highlight of the day, was learning to cut the hog. They had already cut it into quarters, so we dealt with the front and hind quarters of our half. We all gathered in Lisa's kitchen, where she has a marvelous wooden table.

She supplied us with cutting boards and knives, and with Jim helping, we proceeded to trim away the rough, pinkish remainder of skin from the fat areas. This was a very thin layer - you can sort of see it along the edge of the fat in this picture.

Jim gave us lots of direction as we sliced, and helped quite a bit with the hard parts. Strength-wise, I'm a wash.

We made sausage with a lot of the meat, using spices we brought from home. Lisa contributed any extras we needed.

This was an incredible experience. Lisa and Jim are working on a real "butchering room" which will have tables, large sinks, commercial refrigerators, and all the huge equipment this job requires. Including, hopefully, a commercial-grade food wrap machine. The little one we used kept stalling, and stretched things out far longer than we'd planned on. But they're talking about having classes for butchering or canning... whole weekends when people can stay in a guest house at the farm and spend time with others who want to learn these important skills. Or who just want to have fun with others while they work!

I had such a great time up there, and I hope I get back. It will take us a while to use all the meat we got. But I do need variety - some lamb, perhaps, or a rabbit or two. Maybe chickens. Another turkey, for sure! But thank you, Jim and Lisa, for all your hard work and help. Good luck to both of you!

Yum Wine

2010-08-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

The plum wine I started last week has been merrily fizzing and popping away in the guest room, with lovely scum appearing in the mixture. The bacteria are growing!

Yesterday, we washed and sterilized our equipment in preparation for our first racking. Assembly of the wine bucket was not an easy thing. The silly nozzle that goes in the hole near the bottom of the bucket just would not stop leaking. We did all we could, which involved tightening the bolt with pliers, taking it apart and putting it back together, then attacking it with pliers again. All of this required that we sterilize the bucket again, just to be safe.

It still leaks at a very slow rate - maybe a couple of drops a day. I'm not happy about this.

But we went ahead and siphoned the wine into the new bucket. First we lifted out the bag of pulp and squeezed out as much liquid as we could. Then with the new bucket on the floor, we lifted the mixture onto a desk and siphoned away. This went much faster than I thought it would.

The wine is a lovely pink-red color, sort of like punch. We each took a taste and oh... this stuff is gonna be good. It's sweeter than a typical red wine, but it's not too sweet... I'd put in on a level with a dry Riesling, perhaps. We'll see what it's like after several months in the bucket.

For now, we wait about three weeks, then test the specific gravity. If it's where it should be, or whenever it's ready (I don't have the number in front of me right now), then we do a second racking. This will be done about every two months for six months. Then it can be bottled. It should be ready to drink at that point, but aging will only improve it.

Unfortunately, this means it won't be ready for Christmas presents. But if it's good enough, family and friends can look forward to a bottle or a chance to share it. Salud!

For the record: yesterday's SG was 1.020. According to our recipe, it should have been about 1.040. So we let it go a bit too long in the bucket, I guess. It appears I've made nearly every mistake in the book, but if yesterday's taste was an indication, everything is all right. Keepin' the fingers crossed!

Let's Make Pickled Vegetables

2010-07-31T09:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big pickle eater. Loved them when I was a kid - the big, sour dills, and even then I preferred the crunchy kind.

But as I've gotten older, I've found the taste too tart, and mostly I've avoided them. I've considered making them myself, and I did pickle some beets last year. I also made some marinated vegetables for a buffet - spicy ones to go with Mexican food.

Then, last week, I had someone's homemade pickles, both sweet and sour.

Oh, boy. What I've been missing. Like anything else, Industrial Food has ruined our pickles for us. The homemade variety are outstanding.

But I didn't run out and buy a bunch of pickling cucumbers. No, if I can pickle cucumbers, I can pickle anything. And I've got vegetables to use up!

It bears saying that pickled foods are good for you. Pickles used to be served at the beginning of every dinner, as a way to prepare the digestive system for a meal. The bacteria in the vinegar are the kind that do good things for us.

And it's ridiculously easy to make. Follow along.

Step 1: Cut up your vegetables. I used carrots, Armenian cucumbers (didn't have the pickling kind), red and yellow onions, and garlic. They're all tossed together in a big bowl.

Step 2: Stuff the veggies into jars. Really cram them in there. You'll still have lots of unused space.

Step 3: Here's the rest of the ingredients. Simple, right? This is a Cooking Light recipe for pickling zucchini, but I figured it would be good for anything. It's a not-too-sweet and spicy brine. I love the taste.

I'm afraid I can't find the recipe online, but it was in the August issue for this year. For 4 cups of vegetables, boil 1 cup of vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. mustard seeds, 3/4 tsp red pepper flakes, and 3/4 tsp salt. Just bring it to a boil, then pour it into the jars. I had to quadruple the recipe for what I had.

The result: gorgeous, delicious, crunchy vegetables!

I'm Not Lost, I'm Making Wine

2010-07-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Which is a real adventure.

I have to tell you, it's not easy decoding all the instructions for making wine. Maybe it's my age. I just can't comprehend things like I used to.

Anyway, I spent days reading various instructions, including the ones that came with the wine-making kit I ordered. But it took deeper research into the internets to find definitions and instructions. I mean, I need wine-making for dummies. For instance, exactly HOW does the airlock fit into the bucket? They assume I just know this.

I hate to disappoint them, but I've never attached an airlock in my life. Good thing my husband's an engineer.

Anyway, the whole point of this was to use up some of the millions of plums my trees have produced. I pulled twenty pounds from one tree yesterday, which was about all I could reach. But that's enough for five gallons of wine. Perfect!

So I carefully washed the equipment, then washed and pitted the plums. That's when it got fun. Perhaps I should mention that I had to change my blouse three times. And I WAS wearing an apron!

Too many instructions have a downside, and that's contradicitons. So some places said to boil the water, others seemed to indicate the water was cold (room temperature). This may be where I really screwed it up, but I won't know until later. It seemed to me that cold water would never dissolve the sugar, so I went and heated up the water. I put it all in a large bucket, with the addition of things like peptic enzyme, yeast energizer, and other mysterious stuff. Then I faced another challenge.

You're supposed to put the fruit in a mesh bag and submerge in the water mixture. Hey, you know mesh bags have holes in them, right? So how do I pour the (extremely juicy) fruit into the bag and transfer it to the bucket?

Yes, I did think about putting the empty bag in the bucket and pouring the fruit in. But the bag wouldn't stay open - it just wanted to fold over and lay in the water. My bowls of fruit were BIG and HEAVY. And I have arthritis.

The lesson: it's a two-person job. But I managed: I put the bag in my biggest skillet (large, with reasonably high sides), then poured one bowl of fruit into the bag. All the liquid immediately poured out of the bag of course, but the pan (just barely) contained it all. I transfered the bag and liquid to the bucket. With the weight of the fruit in the bag, it stayed upright in the water, and I was able to hold it open and pour in the second bowl. This involved not a little bit of pain in my hands, and just a little bit of spillage.

But it worked. Here it is:

Does this look strange? I hope it doesn't. There's about three or four gallons of water with maybe 4 cups of juice and 7 1/2 pounds of sugar in that bucket. Along with all the pulp in the bag, of course. The big white spot is a reflection of the light in the ceiling.

Right now, the wine is in the guest room, where the temperature can be somewhat controlled. It's covered with a thin towel while the juice is sterilizing. This afternoon, I add the yeast. Then I wait a few days, I think. Back to the instructions!

As usual, I forgot to take pictures of each step. But honestly, this was MESSY! Taking pictures would have been difficult to do. Fun, though. Can't wait to taste the wine.

Crunchy Goodness

2010-07-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

I had a treat for dinner the other night. Fried (as in baked) polenta sticks. Doesn't get much better.

As you can see, I served them with deviled eggs. Also carrot soup, which is one of my favorites. This is all part of my attempt to eat less food. This meal was quite filling and satisfying. I served a crisp Riesling along with it, and felt like I wasn't hurting myself too much.

Saving Money

2010-07-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

I downloaded a few great recipes here. These are delicious Mediterrean meals, healthy and cheap. The idea behind them is to eat fresh, local food for under $2.00 per meal. I'm always looking for ways to cut my food costs without giving up the Real Food, so this is perfect for me.

I will say, that the prices for ingredients probably don't reflect organic prices. I mean, where are you going to find local, organic asparagus for $1.69 a pound?

You aren't.

So in that sense, this isn't useful. Frankly, I don't know where to shop in the Bay Area to find "cheap" organic, local food. Everywhere I look, it costs a fortune, even at my local farmers market. Maybe, especially at my local farmers market.

But that's okay. As Alice Waters has said (paraphasing), "Good food is not supposed to be cheap." It's only in America, in the last 50 years or so, that we've latched onto the idea that food should cost practically nothing. It's another way we bury our heads in the sand and pretend The World According to Us has no problems at all.

Ouch. Didn't mean to jump on the soapbox. It happens so easily! The basic thing is that if we eat Real Food, mostly plants, not too much (thank you, Michael Pollen), and if we cook it ourselves, our meals don't have to break the bank

Frugal is good.

A Low-Cal Meal Jenny Craig Can't Come Close To

2010-07-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a simple, low-calorie dinner that is, nevertheless, amazing. The secret is fresh, local ingredients at their prime. Once again, this meal is a result of needing to use up my CSA veggies, although I confess to buying the tomatoes at Whole Foods.

The carrots are a Moroccan Carrot Salad from my Green's cookbook - just carrot curls tossed with a bit of lemon juice, olive oil (only a teaspoon), sugar (just a bit), and orange peel with a little water. The recipe called for orange flower water, but I had no such thing in the house, so I improvised. These are really good carrots!

The summer squash was sauteed in a little olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. It doesn't get much better than that.

The tomatoes are those heavenly heirloom tomatoes - the kind that are deep red, and heavy with flavor. They make you swoon, they're so good. I just sliced one up, added salt and pepper, and covered them with eggs over easy.

We topped the meal with banana daiquiris - strange perhaps, but I had bananas to use up. It went with the meal just fine.

Whew!

2010-07-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Do you like the new look? I migrated the information from my old website onto my food blog, and changed the template, too. It makes me feel lighter, somehow.

I was perfectly happy with my web host, but I needed to cut costs. Blogger is the right price (free), plus this way, anybody who finds me through search engines gets to see the blog, too. I like that.

I was afraid I'd screwed it up, though, when I tried to point my domain name to the blog. Everything went to the old website and I couldn't access the blog at all! It turned out I just needed to clear my cache.

That's enough technology for me, today. I'm going to take a nap!

Post-Vacation

2010-07-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

I've been home for a week, and you know - it was good to see vegetables again. I always say that.

My first tasks were to clean the frig, go grocery shopping, and pick up my CSA box. I have to confess to being somewhat disappointed with this summer's boxes. Not completely disappointed - I've had asparagus and English peas, and a few baby artichokes. Green beans, occasionally. But where is my corn or squash? When do the melons come in? What about peppers? I see these things in the store and most of them are from local farms. Why didn't my farm grow them?

Probably they'll start showing up in the box and I'll be overwhelmed. Last year, I remember getting so many sweet peppers, that it took me until this March to use them all up. That's pretty cool, actually. And this week, I got several onions, something else I've been waiting for. So hopefully, the summer stuff will start to come in.

The one thing I'm not so crazy about? Cucumbers. They just don't do it, for me. I like putting them in my drinking water, but that's about it. I should try to make pickles. I'm not mad about them, but I bet my husband would love them. I think my older grandchildren would like 'em, too.

Vacation

2010-07-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

A family reunion is currently claiming my time. My days are filled with grandchildren, nephews, in-laws of all kinds, Virginia sun and wind, and hours in the swimming pool or out on the river in the boat.

Well, and food, of course.

This side of the family is solidly devoted to fake industrial food, but even these people have a special dish that gives them pleasure to prepare and share. Breakfast and lunch are on-your-own affairs, with lots of *shudder* pop tarts, toaster strudels, sliced American cheese, crackers and chips for people to grab whatever they want. Also, sodas and energy drinks galore. On the good side, there's a never-ending bowl of fruit.

Each family takes a turn with dinner, and it's these meals that allow everyone to shine. My father-in-law made his favorite stir-fry, with lots of real vegetables: carrots, onions, cauliflower, snow peas, scallions, and the addition of marinated beef and chicken. All served over homemade fried rice. Yumm.

My step-son and his wife made beautiful shish kebabs packed with bell peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, and beef.

My daughter-in-law made a great potato salad, with careful attention to the flavorful dressing.

Their four-year-old daughter, from the first day they arrived, was enamored of the apple tree in the back yard, and picked apples every time she could get someone to lift her up high enough. As soon as her 12 and 15 year old cousins arrived, she had them in the tree, tossing apples into her bucket.

So I made a pie.

For my turn in the kitchen, I made lasagna, easy to use to feed a crowd:

And a salad with radishes, zucchini, and asparagus, a surprising hit:

Our hosts, my sister-in-law and her husband, prepared a southern meal of barbequed spare ribs, corn on the cob, and a colorful pasta salad. Tonight, my other sister-in-law brings out her family's favorite beef tacos, with lots of veggie toppings. Along with Coronas and lime.

The rumor for tomorrow is crab legs and pizza. THAT one will be interesting!

A Cheese Class

2010-06-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

My youngest gave me a cool birthday present. A class in cheese-making, followed by wine and cheese tasting! Our class was at the Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills.

Gloria helps shake up the milk. We used non-homogenized milk, so the fat had to be loosened.

Curds and whey after heating the milk, and adding citric acid and rennet.

Our mozzarella balls after shaping the curds and dipping them in HOT water. We decorated them with flower petals or herbs.

Gloria and I pose at the door. We also got to visit the farm's goats!

Wild Alaskan salmon: food politics in action

2010-06-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

So who gets the money for all that expensive salmon? Here's another example of Big Ag (in this case, Big Fish) destroying a local economy:

Wild Alaskan salmon: food politics in action

More Greek Weekend

2010-06-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

I had more cooking to do on Saturday. Since I made half the recipe for Copenheim, I wanted to use up the rest of the phyllo dough. But the last thing I needed was more sweets.

Which calls for an appetizer. Oooh - vegetables!

Elaine's cookbook has recipes for cheese puffs and spanokopita. My appetizer became a sort of combo, based on what I had in the frig:

A mixture of kale and beet greens, sauteed with onions and garlic:

To this, I added cottage cheese and dill. Are you wrinkling your nose? You might be surprised to know it tasted darn good!

Using oil on the phyllo, I rolled this mixture up into turnovers:

I haven't baked them, yet. I put the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, then put the turnovers in a plastic bag for storage. They'll be great to just pop in the oven for a quick dinner or appetizers for guests. Perhaps this weekend, when the R. family comes for dinner.

Ah, but now it was time to prepare the marinade for the Arni Souvlakia, aka, shish kebabs (p. 50).

I had a small leg of lamb and roast in the freezer, so I'd thawed them out and cut them into little pieces. I added quartered onion, cherry tomatoes, and mushroom caps (cremini). The recipe called for bell pepper, but I haven't found any locally grown pepper yet, so I left them out.

Sitting in the marinade

But what did I have left after these preparations? Did you guess a lamb bone? With a little meat still on it? What do you think I did with that?

Yep - lamb stew! An excuse to use more vegetables! Sorry, I didn't get a picture of it, but I've got a nice broth with onion and carrots. I'll finish it today - adding a roux and some fresh peas. Can't wait!

The next day (Sunday), was the crowing touch:

We grilled them, along with some corn, and had a marvelous lunch. We had one skewer left over (go figure), and that became this morning's breakfast, chopped up with some leftover asparagus and scrambled with some eggs. Perfect!

Gloria and Bill have no complaints about Elaine's cookbook! They just want more!

A Report and a Review

2010-06-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Greek Weekend! I finally had company, and took advantage of it to try a couple recipes from Elaine Schmitz's Recipes & Recollections of My Greek American Family.

It was done in my usual of-course-I-messed-with-it way of cooking. This usually happens because I refuse to go out and by an ingredient if I have something else that I need to use up, and that just maybe, could substitute without totally screwing up the recipe.

More often that not, this involves vegetables.

So yesterday, I donned an apron and pulled out the pots and pans. The recipes:

Connie's Arni Souvlakia - Shish Kebab p. 50
Minnie's Copenheim p. 125

Then there were the dishes I had to make up on the spot to deal with leftover ingredients:
Veggie-Cheese Turnovers (a weird version of spanakopita, or perhaps Cheese Puffs)
Lamb Stew (sort of)

First, I made the syrup for the Copenheim:

Sugar, water, & lemon juice, simmered for about 45 minutes.

Then I got busy with the phyllo dough. Being me, I found, and used, whole grain phyllo dough. Every little bit helps.

I should probably remind you that I'm not a patient person. It's rare that I make something both delicious AND attractive. I can live with that.

Then I beat the egg yolks, folded in the walnuts and beaten egg whites, and spread it over the phyllo:

This was topped with more buttered phyllo dough and baked for about an hour. The syrup was poured over the top of it.

You know, sometimes it does turn out looking attractive!

I need to get a picture of the inside. The egg/walnut mixture bakes into a fluffy, cake-like center. I never would have imagined it. This tastes wonderful, too. A great dessert. Even though I cut the recipe in half, there is still a huge amount left, so it was divided between the guests to take to their various places of work on Monday. The whole Bay Area gets to play Greek!

I'll post the other recipes in a separate entry, so I don't overdo the picture fairy. But I should add: this recipe is very easy to do! Don't be afraid to try it - just have plenty of people around to help you eat it!

Cooking Club - the Third Day

2010-06-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Pizza!

That's what we did for our third cooking club meeting. Everyone brought their own toppings, I made the dough. We used my lovely pizza stone and made delicious, crispy pizzas, with highly creative toppings! I was impressed!

First up is Barry, who was a little self-conscious to be the first guy at our meetings. But we were delighted to have him! And his Apple/Dubliner Cheese pizza was amazing:

Here's a better look at the pizza:

Corrine, who comes to us from England, via Houston, made a fabulous southwestern affair. Let's see, it had chipotle-dusted, sauteed chicken breast, fire-roasted tomatoes, roasted vegetables, and cilantro. Marvelous!

See?

I made a more typical pepperoni/mushroom/cheese pizza, with the addition of zucchini. Never pass up an opportunity to add vegetables:

It was good, too!

We need more people! Where is everybody?

Prep Work

2010-05-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

What do you do to prepare for an out of town trip? One thing I have to do, is cook!

My weekly box came right on schedule, but we won't be home to eat it.Here's what my kitchen looked like:

Time to get busy! Here's the sauce for a vegetable stew. It used an onion, which was slightly caramelized, along with some broth I had in the freezer, parsley and other herbs.

Here's the stew waiting for it's crusty topping and thirty minutes in the oven. This took care of the asparagus, fennel, garlic, mushrooms, another onion, and more parsley. I had lots of parsley.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:

That's dinner tonight, with a nice Zinfandel. Perfect for the cold, rainy day we had!

But that didn't take care of everything. No, there were still veggies on my counter. So I shelled the fresh English peas (yum!), chopped up another onion, along with a jalapeno, mint, and a tomato, to make Pea Curry:

I'll freeze this and serve it next week with Roti and brown rice. I also blanched a batch of snap peas and tossed them mint leaves. Those are good! I also cooked up another onion (I had a lot of onions), along with lots of garlic, and sauteed them with chard and beet greens. I'll freeze that, and make a main dish out of it by roasting it with white beans and serving it over polenta. I got that idea from the CSA flyer.

Oh, and I roasted the beets. They can go on salads next week.

How about that? I got something done today!

Lovely Salads

2010-05-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting lately with vegetarian offerings. I have Deborah Madison's The Green's Cookbook, based on recipes they use in their restaurant. I've had it for years, but don't use it much, since most of the recipes require a lot of time and patience.

Yeah, that patience thing is a killer.

But the recipes are invariably Worth It, once they are done. I always have such a feeling of accomplishment when I finish one. The food is terrific, too. And I can't deny I enjoy myself while I'm making these dishes - this is Real Cooking, if you know what I mean.

So the other day featured one of Deborah's "Salad Plates".

Black Bean and Pepper Salad (p. 18) with Easy Onion Pickles (p. 49)
Avocado with Sweet Pepper Relish (p. 319)
Sliced radishes
A crumbly white cheese, which I didn't exactly have, so I used Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam, which I did have, and I must say it was a perfect choice.
Homemade tortilla chips, with the full disclosure that no, I did not make the tortillas from scratch. I just cut up some organic, sprouted-corn tortillas, brushed them olive oil, sprinkled them with salt, and baked them in the oven.

Here, see:

Isn't it, indeed, lovely?

Worth every minute.

An Interview with Elaine Schmitz

2010-05-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

How does the old joke go? A science fiction writer walks into a bar...

No, really.

I'm always surprised at the connections in our lives. You never know who you know, until one day, an innocent comment opens up horizons you didn't know were there.

That's what happened a couple of weeks ago, when I met with my writers group at a local restaurant. That's the other part of my life: writing science fiction and fantasy. My writers group consists of three other SF&F writers who, along with me, take great delight in tearing apart each other's novels-in-progress.

Then helping put them back together in a better form, of course.

So what does this have to do with cooking?

That's where the connections come in. One of my friends mentioned someone she knows in another writing group she belongs to, who has just published a cookbook. When you're an unpublished author, like we all are, it's sort of awesome knowing someone who's actually published a book. It's like hero-worship. Maybe with an element of stalking. In a polite way, of course.

When I learned the book is based on the food and memories of the author's Greek-American family, I had to enter stalking mode. I asked my writing friend to introduce us, which she was happy to do.

So now I can introduce her to you.

Be pleased to meet Elaine Schmitz, author of Recipes & Recollections of My Greek-American Family.

Elaine is a writer and editor who lives in the East Bay. She also teaches Greek cooking through San Ramon Parks and Community Services. Her website is at http://www.elaineschmitz-writer.com, which is where you can find out all about her books, business writing, and cooking classes.

Recipes & Recollections of My Greek-American Family is a lot of fun to read, filled as it is with the history of Elaine's family. There are all kinds of gems: Greek courting customs, long-lost French cousins, and the pros and cons of Greek versus American hamburgers. There's even an aunt who really pinched cheeks.

Like any self-respecting cookbook, it's also filled with food: competing recipes from Elaine's grandmothers, holiday meals, everyday meals, Americanized meals, and healthier versions of some of the more dangerous buttery or meat-filled dishes. I promise to post recipe reviews once I've had a chance to try a few.

But for now, Elaine has graciously agreed to answer a few questions about her cookbook and herself. Get to know her, then click on her website and find out more. You can order the book there, too!

1. Welcome Elaine, and thank you for talking with us. Let's start with why you wrote this book. You knew you wanted to write a memoir. What was it about your family that gave you this desire?

For some reason I became the depository of many of my family’s stories. Maybe this was because I love history, and I thought of these stories as a part of my personal history.

Also, in the early 1990’s I was concerned about my parents and how long I would have them with me. My personal coach at the time suggested that I interview them about their fond memories. That was the true start of my memoirs. When they had died, and I began to have grandchildren, I considered my documentation of these tales were an important legacy to pass on to my descendants.

2. Do you keep any of the old family traditions in your own life, now? Which ones, and why?

I cook a lot of the meals and like to share them with my family. That is the primary way the traditions have been passed. This is because it is my home cooking, so that’s what my children remember fondly from their upbringing.

Both my children are Protestants and my husband is not affiliated with a church, so many of the church-related customs are being lost in my family. Mostly it will be the memoirs and other writings about Greece and my gifts from Greece, when I travel there, that will keep the Greek tradition alive.

3. Have you been to Greece? If so, what was your impression? Any memorable experiences about food?

I have been to Greece twice so far. I didn’t travel there until I was 50 – rebelling most of my life against my “foreign” background. I fell in love with it. It has a timeless beauty, and everybody there looks like they could be related to me. I especially like visiting the islands and places that are the origins of my relatives, i.e., Crete and Chios.

I have many experiences about the food. The one I like to tell on myself is when I went to Chios in late 2008. I ordered a dish of okra, stewed in tomato, looking forward to this dish I hadn’t had in so long. The waiter apologized, saying they couldn’t serve it to me. It was out of season. Even though I pride myself in eating seasonally and locally, I wanted it so badly I was momentarily miffed. I thought, “What? Out of season? Why don’t they just import the okra from Israel or someplace else further south” (like we do with Mexico!). Then I laughed at myself and ordered something else. But I’ve had a particular hankering for okra ever since, even though I’ve made it since. We Americans are very spoiled in our ability to eat what we want when we want it. It was a good wake-up call for me.

4. My business, and this blog, are geared toward one of my passions - using local, organic food, and the least amount of processed food possible. How can your book help with this?

See the story above for my unconscious actions. Consciously, I try to maintain very healthy eating habits. I tried to include the healthier foods in the book, regardless of whether they are commonly eaten in America – such as grapefruit peel, dandelions, fresh salads and vegetables. I also provide many alternatives to increase the healthier factors in the recipes. I use bison (buffalo) because it is such a lean, yet tender meat. I provide vegetarian substitutes for several casseroles, other sweetener options for white sugar, even a gluten-free rendition of a vegetarian casserole (so I could eat it). One of the stories explores the cultural influences on the “healthy” Mediterranean diet, and I also add information on the health-improving factors of many ingredients and the fresh foods available to folks, even in my or their own back yard.

5. This question is really a lot of questions at once. Feel free to ramble as you answer: food used to be at the center of family and community, but all of these have lost importance in our modern society. Did you grow up in a large Greek community? Are you associated with one now? How can these societies help busy families have their own sense of place?

I did grow up in a large Greek community and a large Greek family. I still talk to many of them now, but time, distance and our own families have weakened the family connections. The book I published helped me to reconnect with many of my family and to revitalize for them the good times and the background that we share – a real gift.

I have been a part of several church-related Greek communities. I was in church choirs for most of my adult like, served on charity boards and been an active part of the community. Currently I don’t belong to a congregation, but the people of the Greek community have been very helpful and excited about my book. In many ways, we have shared the same experiences and, of course, similar foods.

I think the Greek community and especially church festivals have done a lot to maintain a connection to the Greek culture and traditions. Although Greeks have melted into the American pot, we still love to dabble in the old country ways (all the way to near immersion). Those who are involved do have a strong identity and pride in their heritage.

The Greeks are a very complex people with a fascinating history, and we are very passionate, vocal survivors. For a writer and novelist, who could ask for a better ethnic background. After all, the Greeks invented comedy AND tragedy.

Thanks Elaine! Good luck with the book!

Easy Mother's Day

2010-05-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Any excuse for a party, right? If "Mother's Day" gets my kids over for a few hours, I'm all for it.

As it turned out, most of the kids didn't make it, but Lydia and the two oldest grandkids DID! We played croquet in between rain showers. I won - but only because we didn't have enough balls and I had to partner with my husband, who is very good at croquet.

I always lose, you see.

But the food was a winner: Chicken Panini and a salad. Now that's easy.

I cooked chicken breasts on my grill pan.

Then I made some secret sauce. But I'll tell you what was in it.

Remember that apricot brandy I made last Fall? Remember that I couldn't bear to throw out the brandy-infused apricots? So I froze them. Those apricots were the base for yesterday's sauce, after I put them through the food processor:

Then I simply added mayonnaise and Dijon mustard and stirred well:

I bought some flat bread for the sandwiches, added cheese, onion slices, and lettuce, then grilled them in my waffle iron:

Mmmm....

Even better (or just as good, anyway) were the Alfajores for dessert. These Peruvian cookies are made with lots of cornstarch, so they're a little weird. The filling is caramelized sweetened condensed milk. The recipe was in the newspaper last weekend and I thought they sounded good.

They were. Easy to eat a lot of those things.

Chicken Two-Ways

2010-05-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

The other day, I coated some chicken breasts with a mixture of breadcrumbs/parmesan/basil/butter, then baked them. We had them with steamed baby artichokes.

I had some fresh oregano to use, so yesterday I made a little marinara sauce, into which I placed the leftover breaded chicken. I let it warm in the pan, then served it over whole wheat spaghetti with a side of roasted asparagus. It softened the bread coating, but that wasn't a problem. It tasted wonderful.

Pictures

2010-05-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

We had leftover pork chops, so I recreated the dinner and TOOK PICTURES:

Lovely Dinner

2010-04-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

Last night's dinner was quite pretty, but you'll have to take my word for it. When I'm hungry, I tend to dig in quickly without thinking about taking a picture first. I'm working on that. I do want pictures for this blog.

Anyway, dinner was one of those "this is what I have, what do I do with it?" kind of meals.

I'd taken pork shoulder steaks out of the freezer, but had no particular inspiration in mind. So about an hour before the dinner bell rang, I figured I best get busy.

Mustard and maple syrup. Oh, that sounded good. So I mixed some up, sprinkled salt and pepper on the steaks and rubbed on the syrup. I browned them over medium-high heat in an oven-proof pan, then covered with a lid and tossed it in the oven.

350 for - about 50 minutes. Good have been in for less time - 40 might have been enough. But they were still tender and juicy.

Then what? Well I put the steaks on a plate (covered to keep warm), leaving lots of juice in the pan. I put the sauce over medium-high heat to reduce. I threw some frozen greens into the microwave, then made a batch of polenta.

I make it a no-fuss way most times, being a sort of impatient person. A cup of broth, 2/3 cup cornmeal, mixed in a bit of water to make a mush. Pour the cornmeal into the boiling broth, stir with a whisk, cover the pan and let it simmer on low for a while. I whisk it once in a while and when it's thick and creamy, it's done.

Then I did something, I don't usually bother with. I plated it.

A mound of polenta went on the plate first. The greens went on top of that, then slices of the tender pork were placed on top of the greens.

It really was very pretty.

Tasted good, too.

But you have to take my word for it.

Cauli-flower

2010-04-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Nicole has a thing for roasted cauliflower. I have tried do this, but never got more than an "eh" reaction. I just can't seem to get into cauliflower, certainly not with Nicole's passion.

Mind you, I've eaten Nicole's roasted cauliflower. Somehow, she manages a sweep of magic that eludes me. Hers was marvelous. Mine is "eh."

I do like it steamed.

Truly. A full head, washed and placed in the steamer basket and cooked to a fork-denting softness. Brush a little olive on it, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper...

It's really quite good.

But I just might have gotten the hang of this roasting thing.

Instead of breaking the head into dozens of tiny florets, I slice it thinly. All the way across. I brush the slivers with olive oil, apply the salt and pepper, and oh... oh... then I sprinkle them with vinegar.

Yeah. Vinegar.

And roast. Until crisp.

Have you ever had those salt-and-vinegar potato chips?

It's kind of like that.

I could nibble away at the entire bowl, except then I'd be doubled over with gas pains.

Yeah, I've learned to make awesome roasted cauliflower.

It just hasn't learned to get along with me.

Organic Foods and Your Unborn Baby

2010-04-08T16:38:00.001-07:00

This video is done by Stonyfield Farms, but it's got a lot of great information.

Stonyfield Farms

Posted using ShareThis

Falling Behind and Ketchup

2010-04-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Our schedule's been off the last couple of weeks. I find myself overwhelmed with uncooked veggies and another box comes today!

Time to get busy.

So at this moment, I have the following roasting in my oven:

Beets
Fennel
Leeks
Celery root

Simmering on the stove are carrots, which I'll probably turn into soup, seeing as how I love carrot soup. But that calls for broth, so also simmering on the stove is BIG pot of leek stems, fennel fronds, beet greens, chard, and cabbage leaves. Odd for broth, I suppose, but it's what I had.

The other day, I made pesto with a bunch of parsely, and tossed it with steamed cauliflower. That was good. I have a little pesto left and I think it will be very nice mixed in with last weeks' leftover sauteed greens.

Now all I have to do is eat everything!

Cooking Club

2010-04-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

My latest venture is a local cooking club I started through Meetup.com. We had our first "meeting" today:

That's Suzi and Evelyn preparing the Margarita Chicken Thighs.

Hi Ladies! You were awesome!

We had a disappointing turnout. It wasn't disappointing to us, mind you - we had a great time! But out of seven people signed up, only three of us were here. And it was my house - so I don't really count.

Evelyn makes sure I whip up the Lemon Vinaigrette the right way.

I love the idea of cooking with others. Not every day, but often enough for meal preparation to be a social event. This was a good start. We have about twenty people signed up for the club, and I hope the turnouts will improve as time goes by.

I should start planning the next one.

Jamie Oliver

2010-04-01T08:02:00.001-07:00

Jamie Oliver’s food revolution. Yes!

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A Spring Breakfast...

2010-03-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Lovely clouds of thick, creamy yogurt and fresh, organic strawberries. The first of the season!

Add a homemade waffle square:

Happy Ostara!

For Your Amusement:

2010-03-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

It's not all that easy making one of those fancy layered drinks. Mine turned out like this:

It's called an Irish Flag, in early honor of St. Patrick's Day (yes, I am half Irish, no, I'm not Catholic. Don't care, either). It's supposed to be lovely, clear layers of green (creme de menthe) on bottom, white in the middle (Bailey's), and "orange" (brandy) on top.

You can see it's a little cloudy. And I made it three times, to try and get it right!

Sure tasted good, though.

Getting My Kicks

2010-03-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

These days, it's pizza.

First, there's the Really Easy Pizza Crust, which I forgot to take a picture of. But you know, it's just yeast in a little warm milk, with olive oil, salt, and flour thrown in. Knead it for a few minutes, and let it rise for about thirty.

6 tbsp warm milk
pinch sugar
1 1/4 tsp yeast

Stir together for a few minutes, so the yeast dissolves (actually, it just gets soft and lumpy. That's good enough).

Then add:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt

Mix it up, knead it, cover it, and let it rise. Thirty minutes is enough, longer if you want.

What do you want to put on it? Tonight was sausage-and-mushroom-and-chard night.

Prep your ingredients. In this case, I browned the sausage:

Then I sauteed the mushrooms and chard:

I also minced some garlic and let it marinate in a tbsp of olive oil:

And I grated the mozzarella. Didn't get a picture of it, though.

Place your pizza stone in the oven (you DO have a pizza stone, don't you? I'll wait while you get one).

Preheat to 500 degrees.

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the pizza paddle (you'll need to get one when you get the pizza stone). Roll out the dough and place it on the paddle. Crimp the edges to make a rim.

Brush on the olive oil and garlic. Then add these:

First the tomato sauce, then the herbs, in whatever amount you're into. I like lots. If it were summer, I'd have fresh herbs.

Sprinkle on the rest of the toppings, saving the cheese for last.

Transfer to the hot stone in the oven. You'll quickly learn the sharp jerk that perfectly slides the uncooked pizza from the paddle to the stone. It's such a feeling of accomplishment.

I was talking to my daughter on the phone while putting the pizza together and sliding it into the oven. So I don't have any pictures of that process.

But here's the finished deal, about ten minutes later:

A lovely dinner, along with the great Argentinian wine - Norton Barrel Select, Malbec 2006.

Vacation Results

2010-02-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

We just returned home from a visit to children and grandchildren in the midwest.

I gained weight.

That's to be expected - these trips invariably involve doing an awful lot of NOTHING. When I'm home, I have my Wii Fit to do, and I guess I do a lot more moving around than I realize. I know this, because when visiting family, I end up in pain from sitting. It's the arthritis - lack of movement causes everything to stiffen up. I sit so much on these trips, that sometimes I end up in tears at night, at just the thought of laying in bed for several hours.

Sleep is out of the question. And the plane ride home is a nightmare.

We did take a walk one day, but with snow, and temps in the teens or lower, outside activities didn't happen much.

But it's over, and I'm on the road to recovery. And back to eating vegetables and other Real Food. I did have some vegetables on this trip, because I ordered a veggie omelet for breakfast twice. That was my vegetable allotment for the day, except for the day I cooked spaghetti for everyone, and steamed a big batch of spinach. When we got home yesterday, we had a bowl of homemade potato soup loaded with greens: spinach and kale torn into little pieces and simmered in the soup.

Then we celebrated a late Valentine's Day by having a bit of chocolate cheesecake, followed by a glass of absinthe, properly diluted with ice water until it was cloudy.

It all works out.

Coca-cola?

2010-02-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

Another entry in the cola wars. I am simply astonished that people actually drink this stuff, and pay a fortune to do it. I don't talk about it much - I figure my attitude is not good and I'll just make people mad.

But anyway, it's an interesting article.

A Low-Cal Dessert

2010-02-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

It's a little weird, but it's good...

Chocolate Cottage Cheese

Look at it this way - it can't hurt, can it?

I put 2 teaspoons of dark cocoa powder (the real stuff, not chocolate milk mix,)

and

1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar in 1/2 cup of lowfat cottage cheese.

I know, I know. Sugar. Is. Bad.

I know. So use the smaller amount. If you're like me, you like your chocolate dark and sort of bitter, anyway.

For fun, throw in some vanilla, or rum extract. Or heck, if it's a fancy dessert, throw in rum. Or Kahlua or Amaretto. Just half a teaspoon or so.

I ran the numbers, and this dessert comes to:

128 calories
16 g. protein
2 g. fat
12 g. carbohydrates
2 g. fiber

I think that's great for a dessert. And a real boost to your protein for the day, if you need that.

If you want to be really good, have just 1/4 cup in a fancy glass. You'll halve the calories.

The Weight Battle Continues

2010-01-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

I spent Saturday lost in the joys of creating a spreadsheet. My husband, the Excel King, was quite helpful with formulas and suggestions, and the thing works splendidly.

I always have trouble keeping track of what I eat, largely because I cook nearly everything from scratch, so I have to look up the nutrition data online and then add it all up. That's a real hassle and I've never been organized about it, so I can never find a recipe when I want it again.

But NOW - ah, now I have a SS where I can figure the nutrition data for a recipe, move the total per serving into a "LIST," and then, in another table, I can LOOKUP the recipe (or food item) from the LIST. And the data is automatically entered into the table where I'm keeping track of what I ate that day!

It adds it up, and I can see where I'm at on calories, fat, protein... all the usual stuff. Best of all, I can use it to plan my day, which just may help me keep within my allotted calories.

So tomorrow, for instance, I can have Oatmeal-with-Peanut-Butter (and a little honey & cream) for breakfast. Lunch is leftover fish, served in a spicy tomato sauce with garlic and capers. Dinner is a carrot soup (carrots from last week's CSA box), with a salad of lettuce, steamed romanesco, and a tablespoon of olive oil over it.

Not only that, but sometime during the day, I also get a few of my favorite whole wheat crackers and an orange. And after dinner, I get dessert - this great chocolate-cottage-cheese thingy I made up. I added that because I'm also tracking my husband's food, and I've discovered that he doesn't get enough protein. So I'm going to work on ways to add it to his diet. Tomorrow, he gets some tuna with his salad, and the cottage cheese for dessert. That brings him up to 98 grams of protein for the day.

My total calories for the day: An even 1100. Protein clocks in at 60, Fat at 38 grams, Carbs are 127, and Fiber is 22.

Pretty darn good. Add in some exercise (yoga and strength, for sure, and some aerobics, assuming I've slept reasonably well), and my weight is slowly beginning to respond. *crosses fingers*

My Favorite Coleslaw

2010-01-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

Still trying to use up weekly vegetables, and I'm enjoying every minute! Today, I made this:

It's called Fusion Coleslaw. It's a variation on the recipe found in Earthbound Farm's Food to Live By. Too simple for words:

1 head of cabbage, sliced thin (hopefully a small one)
3 scallions, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
2 carrots, grated

The sauce:
3 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chile garlic sauce (or is it garlic chile sauce?)
1/2 tsp salt

whisk the sauce together and pour over the veggies, mixing it all up. Add chopped peanuts before serving, and some golden raisins, if you like them.

This makes a big bowlful, and it tastes so good, I have it for snacks!

Holiday Cooking

2009-12-21T15:27:00.001-08:00

I make a serious rum cake, and I know to stand well back when opening the oven door. But today, I forgot. I still have my eyebrows. But I'll pay a visit to Supercuts, to get all the singed hair trimmed away.

I sit at my desk and occasionally stop and say, "What is that charred smell?"

The Week - The Day

2009-11-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

In two hours, the guests will arrive. The turkey is in the oven, having waited its turn after the pies (2 pecan, 2 pumpkin) and the rolls. I managed to resist tempation and did not eat a roll when they came out of the oven. They are now safely wrapped in foil, ready for reheating later, and thus invisible to me.

We hope. I do know they're there.

This bread recipe is screwy. The first time I made the rolls, I used the temp called for and set the timer for a few minutes less time, to check them.

They burned.

This time, I lowered the heat 50 degrees and set the timer ten minutes less. I had to rescue them a few minutes early, but they're perfect. Sheez!

The potatoes are peeled and cut, ready for boiling and mashing. The giblets are beginning to simmer. The table is set, with side tables set up for appetizers in the living room, and an extra card table in the dining room, for the overflow. I have discovered I no longer have enough wine glasses (I'm a danger to all around me), enough napkin rings, or napkins that go with our nice dishes. I will try to remedy these things before Christmas.

For now, we'll make do. All the people coming over here love each other - no one will be upset by such faux pas.

Here's how things look so far. And yes. I'm having fun!

Day 2's Dinner

2009-11-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

Last night's dinner got lots of raves. I had lots of leftover antipasto veggies: marinated radishes, red potatoes, baby carrots, artichoke hearts, radicchio... but it wasn't enough for three people. But I had cooked a huge batch of wild rice for the Thanksgiving stuffed squashes, and I didn't use it all. So I threw in about a cup of cold wild rice, added the chopped up leftover roast beef, some mizithra cheese I found in the frig, and put it all over a bed of lettuce.

I served it with warm bread and butter.

Not bad. Not bad, at all.

Tonight's dinner? We're getting pizza. And it won't be Zachary's or Cheeseboard, since we don't live in Berkeley.

Darn.

The Week - Day 3

2009-11-25T10:02:00.001-08:00

Well, the last minute Family Thing addition to my schedule fell OFF the schedule about 8 p.m., SO....

Today I think I just need to make the pies. Which I could conceivably do tomorrow morning. But let's see - tomorrow, I will have to peel, cook, and mash the potatoes, roast the turkey for a few hours, make gravy (but that can't be done until the turkey is finished).

The stuffed squashes will have to be baked, but they will go in the oven when the turkey comes out. They only need about half an hour, during which the turkey will be "resting," and then getting carved.

Is that it? Thanksgiving is a potluck, so guests are bringing appetizers and sides. Oh, I have to make the salad, which will mean cutting up a couple of apples, washing and tearing the lettuce, then combining everything. The dressing is already made, just need to toss it with the salad.

There shouldn't be a lot to do tomorrow. Will the pies be better if they're cooked the same day? One advantage to that is that I don't need to find room in the frig for the baked pies. That's a BIG push toward waiting to bake them.

Which means I don't have a darn thing I need to do today, except pick up the CSA box and buy the salad greens. Maybe I'll go shopping...

The Week - Day 2, con't

2009-11-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

I added the stuffed squash to today's prep list. There are Family Things going on, and I'll be lucky to have even a few hours to cook, tomorrow. I think what I've left are the pies (4 of them) and prepping the turkey. I have a couple of last minute items to pick up at the store, and I'll get our CSA box at 4:00.

There's something else... but my list is downstairs. Anyway, I think I'll make it, now that the squashes are done.

They look properly pretty, too!

The Week - Day 2

2009-11-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

I overslept. This is a minor miracle. Weird dream, too, but it was kind of cool.

Today: turkey delivery from Wind Dancer Ranch. I'm babysitting two of the turkeys until their owners can get here to pick them up. I wonder if I need ice to keep them cold?

Do I want to brine my turkey? I haven't decided, but I'm leaning toward doing that.

Food Prep:
Freeze the second batch of pumpkin ice cream
Make cornbread, break it up and toast it until dry and crunchy. Set aside for Friday.
Make the cranberry-zinfandel salad dressing. That's for Thursday.
Make cranberry sauce, for Thursday AND Friday.

Hmm. What's for dinner tonight?

The Week - Day 1, con't

2009-11-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

A successful meal, lots of conversation, and good wine, was had by all. Behold the pasta:

and the lovely veggies:

I forgot to take a picture of the pumpkin ice cream, but that will put in more appearances during the week. Trust me - it was good!

The Week - Day 1

2009-11-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

Today is lunch with out-of-town friends. The menu is

Sun-Dried Tomato Tapanade with Crackers
Antipasto Vegetable Platter
Roasted Pepper, Kalamata Olives Pasta
Pumpkin Ice Cream with Graham Cracker Bits and Whipped Cream

Wine? Dunno yet.

So far, I've steamed the veggies and they are splashing in the marinade.
The peppers have been roasted and are resting in a plastic bag.

I did the breakfast dishes, too.

The Holidays are Here...

2009-11-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to be good, although I know I must face the reality of the holidays. This week alone, I've got three big meals to prepare. I will not deny myself a taste of everything - the real work will be to restrict myself to small amounts. And watch the drinking.

I consider it a good holiday if I don't GAIN anything, but these days, that's how I feel about every day. I love the holiday food, too. Pumpkin and other squashes are just about my best favorite - in any form. I'm serving stuffed acorn squash as a side to the turkey on Thursday, and my kid's favorite sweet potato casserole on Friday. There will be pumpkin pie of course, with whipped cream. And pumpkin ice cream will put in appearance at each of the big meals. I'll be making that today, because the first meal is tomorrow (lunch with some out-of-town friends).

This year, an exciting plan is to give my six-month old grandson his first bite of grown-up food during the festivities: baked sweet potato. The camera will be ready for that!

Last year was the first time in YEARS that I cooked a turkey. It didn't get done in the allotted time - we ended up having to toss some of the carved pieces into the microwave. This year, I'll allow more time, but honestly - I used the time/temperature charts from many sources, and it didn't work! I think it was a 16 pound bird, and I roasted it for 5 hours at 350. By all the charts, it should have been done.

I notice this with nearly all the meat I cook in my oven. Chicken, beef roasts, turkeys, whatever... they take a lot longer to cook. Yet the thermometer in the oven shows the right temperature. And other things, such as the rolls I baked the other day, get done far too soon!

Why can't it just be simple?

Anyway, this year our turkey is a fresh one from Wind Dancer Ranch. I can't wait to taste it - I'm really excited about it.

Using leftovers

2009-11-16T07:34:00.000-08:00

I overcame my food lethargy enough to cook up most of the veggies from last week's CSA box. I baked the Delicata squash and served it with butter and brown sugar - true comfort food. The meal was rounded out with the last of our CSA hog: thick braised pork chops.

This is an example of never throwing away food, because I had some stuffing in my freezer from a meal I'd prepared months ago. I've never learned the art of truly stuffing something - I always have lots of the stuffing mixture left over. It was basically onion, pecans, breadcrumbs, butter, and a bit of bourbon. I had about a cup of it left.

So I sprinkled the chops with salt, pepper, and garam masala, browned them in oil, then removed them from the pan and added the stuffing to the pan. I used more bourbon to scrape the pan, put the chops back in, covered it with a lid and stuck it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Those were really good pork chops.

I sauteed all the greens from the box: there was kale, the tops of the turnips, and leaves from the cauliflower. They were a little bitter - that's something else I need to work on. Anyone have pointers from removing the bitterness from greens?

Anyway, it was a lovely meal. I also steamed the cauliflower and the turnips to put away for another meal. We had the cauliflower last night, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was quite good.

We added some of the leftover squash to our pancakes yesterday. I'll use the rest in my morning oatmeal.

I love winter vegetables.

Lament, continued

2009-11-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

I just remembered another of my diet blockers: crackers and hot sauce.

See, instead of chips, with their high calorie/fat content, I eat crackers with hot sauce. And sometimes, that craving for hot sauce overwhelms me. I like it HOT, and I like a lot of it.

The hot sauce itself is great - low calorie, full of veggies. It's the crackers that are the problem.

I remembered it because I just scarfed about five crackers - large crackers. At least that many. In this case, five crackers are 115 calories. If I had more than that...

I know. I should have counted. Well - I certainly didn't have more than seven crackers.

That may sound like a great snack to you. But see, my allowed calories are so tiny, that 150 extra calories in the day puts fat on my stomach. It really does.

If I exercise - strenuously - I might come out even. But I've got a metabolism that's on ambien or something - it's so slow, it sleeps. And it makes me want to cry.

And give up.

These are the kinds of things that wipe me out, diet-wise. It's not soft drinks or lattes or donuts. It's the usually-healthy-good-for-you food I've got in the house.

Sometimes, I wish I had a soda habit. I wish I drank an 800 calorie coffee drink every day, or bought a Jamba Juice smoothie for every breakfast. It would be easy to lose weight then. But if I'm already not doing any of that stuff - where do I go?

Lament

2009-11-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

Yes. It's been ages since I posted.

Excuse #1: I just got back from vacation. That takes care of the last two weeks.

Before that?

Excuse #2 (and this is the kicker): I'm sort of depressed about food, these days.

I know - that's not good for a personal chef to confess. But still, it's true.

The problem is weight. As in, too much. And it's really getting to me. I've been "trying" for a year to lose weight. I literally wake up every day, determined to keep the calories DOWN today. And practically every day, I fail. I did manage to drop six pounds, with LOTS of discipline and practically no calories. But it's all come back. Maybe a pound or two more.

I cannot be satisfied with my weight. I can't be one of those "happy with my body" people. Besides, with arthritis, iffy knees, and slightly elevated cholesterol (and a family history rampant with heart disease), I NEED to weigh less.

I'm punishing my body to do otherwise.

I've signed up with websites - the community sites with daily food tracking, and exercise trackers, and forums where I can get support from other people. I've kept food dairies until I can tell you without looking how many calories I've consumed. I've tried to exercise - lunges and stretches and dancing to old rock 'n roll. But I always drift away from all of it.

Through it all, I've stayed true to my Real Food desires. No processed food. I won't eat sugar-free anything, but then I don't eat or drink a lot of sweetened things, anyway.

Well, except... I have a super sweet tooth. So, while I don't drink sodas (or even juice), and I don't use jams, and I don't buy smoothies or lattes or boxed cereal or energy bars, or any of that STUFF - I do love sweets.

You know, real sweets. Like homemade cookies or brownies or cake. Chocolate-just-about-anything. And while I don't keep those things around the house, I still crave them, and when I lose it, I really lose it. I make cookies and eat half the dough. Or I'll buy a bag of chocolate chips and eat half a cup, everyday until they're gone. I don't do it often. But I do it often enough. Or I'll mix up a a couple tablespoons of cocoa and sugar, with hot water to make a paste, and I'll eat that. With nuts.

I love nuts. Nuts are really good for you and they're good for your heart. But they have a LOT of calories and fat. So the key is just a little. Say a tablespoon or so every day. Or less. But if I don't have anything else in the house and I'm craving SOMETHING - I'll eat a half a cup of nuts without even thinking about it. And I do keep nuts in the house. All kinds.

And bread. Oh yeah, I LOVE bread. It's something I've been fairly successful at limiting, but it's one of the things that depresses me. I'd love to make a loaf of delicious whole-grain bread and have a slice or two. But I don't dare.

Cheese. Sorry. I've given up butter for the most part (no, I'm not using margarine)- but I'm not giving up the cheese.

And I hate it. Food should not be enemy. But there it is. There is too much food available to me and I don't have the discipline to not indulge.

So this is why I don't post. I don't want to think about food. I whine when I think about food. Yet today for lunch, I made a tomato soup that is practically zero calories (maybe 75 in the 1 1/2 cups I had), and I let myself have a slice of bread with provolone cheese melted on it. Which was probably 250 to 300 calories.

But the meal was pretty and fresh, and it tasted great.

So there.

Is it Brandy Yet?

2009-10-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Yes. It's brandy.

Apricot brandy.

I started it about two months ago, maybe three. All those apricots that filled our CSA box had to be used somehow. So they went into jars with vodka and sugar, for several weeks of turning up and down.

Now it's brandy*.

And very good, if I do say so, myself.

What happened to the apricots? Those luscious little gems were simmered with a little butter and tucked away to use as a topping for cakes or ice cream. They are potent buggers!

*Well, more like a fruit liqueur, but why quibble?

Meet your greens, part 3: Taking the stand against the veggilantes

2009-10-05T08:09:00.001-07:00

These articles over at Ethicurian show the nuts and bolts of food policy as the USDA holds hearings on vegetable marketing. Regulation is important; the problem is that policy is written from the assumption that Great Big Monoculture is the best way to grow food. This approach is a death knell to sustainable farming practices.

The thing is: if we don't learn to live "sustainably," we're heading for a meltdown of civilization, with an environment that's so degraded, the survivors of said meltdown simply might not pull through.

This is part 3 - it would be a good idea to link back to parts 1 and 2. And if you have time, read some of the links.

Meet your greens, part 3: Taking the stand against the veggilantes

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Here It Is:

2009-10-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

The first pumpkin of the season.

I cooked it this morning. What shall I do with it? Pie? Soup? Ravioli?

We had another yummy dinner the other day. Sometimes the simplest things can be done. I had some cod, but didn't want to do the usual fry or bake, and anyway, I was low on veggies to go with it. Shocking, I know, but there it is.

I had some fresh noodles in the frig, so I put on some water to boil them, then sauteed the fish in a skillet until it was just done. I took out the fish and added olive oil and lots of garlic. Oh, and a generous sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Then I added some white wine and let it simmer for a while. After throwing in a splash of lime juice (no lemon), I broke the fish up into pieces and added it to the pan, then the noodles, and the small bit of leftover chard I had in the frig. That wasn't enough green for me, so I went hunting in the freezer and pulled out a bag of peas. A couple of handfuls of those added some good nutrients.

This was so good, served with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and a nice white wine. I'm having the leftovers for lunch!

Chicken and leftovers

2009-09-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

Yummy chicken last night. We were able to get a couple of birds from Soul Food Farm and I cooked one of them for dinner. It's been HOT here, so I did not want to turn on the oven. So I "roasted" it on the stove by browning it in some olive oil and cooking it in a sauce for an hour.

I used some enchilada sauce that was in my freezer. I think my step-daughter-in-law made the sauce when they were here in May. It was great! I served it over polenta - I was going to make spoon bread, but remember about the oven?

Rounded the meal out with steamed chard and a margarita.

Lovely.

Fire at Soul Food Farm

2009-09-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

I love to buy chickens and eggs from this farm, and this is heartbreaking news. I'll be helping them out, for sure!

http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/09/04/soul-food-fire/

Practicing What I Preach

2009-08-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

Connection problems are driving me crazy. I wanted to post this several days ago, but I just now got back on...

I'm always harping on joining a CSA and eating whatever's in your box. A lot of people have a problem with that. They don't like to try new things.

Generally, I'm adventurous enough that I like to try new foods. But I do have a few things I can do without, EVER.

Like black-eyed peas.

They've never done it for me. I don't actively hate them, but I'll walk several blocks to avoid them.

Yep, you guessed it. Last week's box had fresh black-eyed peas.

I figured it wouldn't kill me to eat them. And the information sheet in the box had a nice little recipe, so...

I shelled the peas (that was fun, seeing how patient I am), then chopped up an onion, a bell pepper, a couple of garlic cloves, some tomatoes... that's all I remember.

I sauteed the veggies (except for the tomatoes) for a minute or two, then added the peas and tomatoes. I also threw in a bit of chicken broth to give it enough moisture. At the end, I added some fresh corn. Take a look:

Then I made cornbread:

You know what? This tasted GOOD! Rick thought a little pork would nice, and he's right. I may toss in some sausage when we have the leftovers.

Was it because the peas were fresh, that I liked this? I don't know. But if I'm going to eat black-eyed peas, I'm sticking with this simple recipe.

Bacon Success

2009-08-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

It's bacon!

This stuff is so good, that once again, I'm flummoxed trying to understand why people of a certain bygone generation ever let themselves be seduced away from Real Food.

I truly do not understand it. This was not even very hard to do, although I realize I have a refrigerator and an oven and plastic bags... maybe it was a little harder for our ancestors.

After its day of rest in the frig, getting nice and dry, I put the bacon in the oven, 200 degrees for about 2 1/2 hours. I tested it with a thermometer and took it out when it got to 150 degrees.

Then I started slicing. This takes patience...

Of course, as the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, I had to fry some up and make sure it passed the Taste Test:

Isn't that gorgeous?

Here's the pile of sliced bacon:

I wrapped these in packages of four slices, since two each is the most we can have at one serving (proving I do TRY to show constraint). It all went into the freezer to await Saturday morning pancakes.

The taste was deep and rich. Next time, I will probably use less mixture - less salt and less sugar. I may even leave the sugar out and keep it savory, trying out various herbs. I definitely want to do this again!

The Bacon

2009-08-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

The curing is done (I think) and now the bacon is drying:

The next step would be smoking, but I'm not going to be smoking it. I'm not clear on whether I must roast it to 150 degrees, or if I can just slice it and cook it up, at this point.

Does anyone know?

Since all the instructions I've found have said to either smoke it or roast it, I guess I'll roast it, unless someone can tell me otherwise. That will happen tomorrow.

Bacon Day 3

2009-08-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here's what the bacon looks like after curing for a few days.

I think it's behaving just right, since by now it's supposed to be letting out lots of juice. A few more days of this still to go...

Michigan food processors turn groundwater orange

2009-08-11T10:01:00.001-07:00

Michigan food processors turn groundwater orange

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Making Bacon

2009-08-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Part of my share of the Berkshire hog was a side of bacon. Fresh meat that needs to be cured. I thought I'd chronicle my first attempt at making bacon.

Here's the slab of meat. Sorry, I don't know how much it weighs, but probably about 4 pounds:

Here's a mixture of kosher salt and brown sugar: I used about 1/3 cup of each.

Adding 1/4 cup maple syrup:

Here's the slab with the mixtuer rubbed all over it (showing meat side up):

The slab is placed in a plastic bag (I used a garbage bag since I didn't have anything else big enough). It goes in the frig for seven days, turing it over the first few days.

After that, I dry it and smoke it. Fun, no?

Julie & Julia

2009-08-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

I just saw "Julie & Julia" yesterday. What an inspiration. As it happens, I don't have "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," but I do have "The Way to Cook." I've used it a lot over the years, but I have to admit it's been mostly sitting on the shelf lately.

Time to get it out and remember what's in it. No, I won't be tempted to make every recipe in it. In fact, I'd love to know how Julie Powell did it without gaining fifty pounds. Maybe she did gain that much. And what did she do with all that food? She and her husband couldn't possibly have eaten it all.

Maybe she gained a hundred pounds.

Anyway, I am inspired to try a few things. The first thing I looked up was pork chops, since I just - you know - brought home thirty pounds of various cuts from a Berkshire hog.

But Julia's pork chop section is pretty basic (after all, "The Way to Cook" is about the basics), and lo, I already know how to cook a pork chop, even accoriding to Julia.

So in honor of summer, I'm going to cook them with peaches or plums (probably plums since I already have 'em). Should be good.

By the way - I LOVED the movie. Funny and touching and definitely inspirational. A real keeper.

Food Chores

2009-08-08T14:44:00.001-07:00

Today I made pesto, and roasted a bunch of sweet peppers. I'll use a few of the peppers tonight with potatoes, red onions, and the pesto. Sort of like a pizza without the crust (to save me the calories). I put the rest of the peppers in a jar and covered them with olive oil. Just have to make sure I use them up in a few weeks.

I also cleaned out my freezer since tomorrow we get the 1/7 of a hog I ordered back in April. I don't know why it took so long, but I can't wait to see what I get. And what I do with it all.

What did I take out of the freezer? Vegetables. I usually compost the leavings when I cut veggies for dinner, but a few times I stored everything in plastic bags, with the idea that I'd make broth one day. But we just don't use broth that often. I have a bunch already made up and frozen. Since I need the freezer space, I just gave up and composted everything.

So yay. I've done the weekly CSA box catch-up. Now I just need to go grocery shopping...

A Pretty Meal

2009-07-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

Brunch with my girls before we went to see "Wicked":

That's Melon Soup with Sour Cream in the glass, and the plate holds a summer salad with Butter Lettuce, Raspberries, and Walnuts (I forgot the crumbled goat cheese). We also had Salmon en croute, which didn't make it into the picture, but was a delicious golden brown.

And: a Peach Dutch Baby. So good!

Summer Treats

2009-07-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished a morning snack: Spicy Melon Soup. The recipe was in the newspaper, but it couldn't be simpler: just cut up the melon of your choice (cantaloupe, honeydew, or any of the myriad variations), and blend it up with a teaspoon of tobasco sauce.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

I'm going to eat all my melons this way, from NOW ON.

It's about 54 calories for a half cup, and that includes a teaspoon of sour cream.

Now I'm going to experiment with Paletas (fruit or veggie ice treats).

Food for the Environment

2009-06-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

From the Onion:

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature

Summer Food

2009-06-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

I've had a busy two weeks helping my daughter during the birth of her first child:

But now I'm home, and life returns to normal, including going back to losing weight. In that regard, I found the greatest recipe in the newspaper.

Peachy Tacos with Peach, Jicama, and Tomato Salsa

Oh yeah, these were good. Half a pound each of ground beef and ground pork, cooked with half a peach, a little jalapeno, red onion, jicama, and paprika. Served on a soft corn tortilla, each taco is only 180 calories. I thought the meat needed more flavor - next time, I'll add garlic and use more jalapeno, and maybe some oregano.

But the salsa... wow, what flavor.

Two peaches chopped up with 1/2 cup jicama, half a jalapeno, a little red onion, garlic, and paprika. Oh and the corn from one ear, and one small tomato. A little salt. So, so good.

45 calories for 1/4 cup. With the taco and a little lettuce, this was a complete meal.

Great Baked Beans

2009-06-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm wrestling with my weight, logging my food intake quite faithfully. So I know I'm keeping calories under 1400, most days, under 1200.

Haven't lost a pound. I exercising a bit too, mostly by dancing aroud the family room to Irish music.

You're forgiven if you don't want that image hanging around.

This has all led me to search diligently for interesting, low-cal recipes, that are - wait for it - made with Real Food. So I'm delighted to report on this great recipe for Baked Beans, from www.veggiemealplans.com. I tweaked it a bit, and cooked it in the slow cooker, but these are great - and only 232 calories for a whole cup!

Stove-Top Sweet and Spicy Beer "Baked" Beans

2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 sweet bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves
4 cups cooked navy beans, drained
1 bottle of your favorite beer
4 tbsp cider vinegar
4 tbsp light molasses
4 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 heaping tbsp mustard, any kind (I used Dijon)
1 chipotle pepper, diced
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp allspice

Heat oil in a pot and saute the onions, bell pepper, and garlic until softened. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, or until thickened to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes about 5 cups

Borrowing from Others

2009-05-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

After weeks of not making an entry, I should be ashamed to just give you a link to someone else's blog, but Rebekah Teal over at Rumor Has It, has a great idea for using scapes.

Don't know what scapes are? Neither did I. Go see.

http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/MJFBlog/default.asp?Display=215

Win Some... Lose Some

2009-05-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

My poor husband. He's very good about eating whatever I fix, and generally liking most of it. But the other night he was reduced to complimenting just specific parts: "Great pizza dough..." "Good anchovies..."

His mother must have taught him to not say anything, if you can't find something nice to say. So he pointedly said nothing about the pizza topping (except for the anchovies).

What can I say? I had to use up my veggies, didn't I? And it really wasn't that bad - just different.

First, I sprinkled some grated Manchego cheese on the bread. Then I sauteed the following and spread it on top of the cheese:

2 spring onions
2 green garlic stalks
About 2 cups of sugar snap peas, chopped

I added a little salt, pepper, and thyme. I threw the anchovies on top, 'cause I know DH really likes 'em. I knew he'd need some encouragement.

I thought it tasted pretty good. But yeah. It was a little strange.

2009-04-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

It's almost 7 minutes long, but this video on setting policy for school lunches is worth the time. You'll need to copy and paste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVfAWbitBTs&feature=player_embedded

Keep it mind when the USDA issues standards later this year.

It's the Little Things

2009-04-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Guess what came in my weekly veggie box?

Peas.

Half of them never made it to the fridge. I declared a holiday and shelled one after another, gobbling down the sweet, crunchy peas as fast as I shelled them.

*Happy sigh*

Mexican Night

2009-03-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was craving Mexican. We often go out for it, even though we haven't found a truly decent Mexican restuarant around here. But I have so many vegetables to cook, I can't justify going out. (The CSA has increased the quantity of veggies we get every week and frankly, we can't keep up. I've got loads of cooked veggies stored in the freezer, and more keep coming).

So I did a true frig and pantry clean-out to come up with the recipe below. If you keep canned chilies and jalapenos on hand, along with plenty of spices, you can make some good, spicy food.

Turkey Burritos

From my frig:
1 leek
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch spring onions
2 fennel bulbs
1 bunch spinach
A few sliced jalapeno peppers

From my freezer:
About 2 cups cooked turkey leftover from Thanksgiving (really! It was in a bit of gravy, but so what?)

From my pantry:
2 cans green chiles
1 can diced tomatoes
Cumin
Cinnamon
Oregano
Cilantro
Chili powder
Salt
Pepper

The method:
I diced up all the veggies (except the spinach) and sauteed them over medium heat until sweated. I added the spices, heavy on the cumin and chili powder, but generous with everything. I cooked this for about a minute, stirring constantly. I added the jalapenos, chilies, tomatoes (I drained them a bit, first), and the turkey. Then I washed and cut the spinach, mixing it in.

After stirring it well, I covered with a lid and let simmer for about 20 minutes, adjusting the seasoning to taste. It made a moist, meaty filling.

I served it wrapped in flour tortillas, with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese, and a sliced avocado, and margaritas.

The mozzarella might sound strange. I would have used cheddar, but remember, I'm cleaning out my fridge. I used what I had, and it all tasted great!

You could do this with any mixture of items: don't be afraid to use whatever vegetables you have available. Any leftover meat will work - pork, chicken, beef. There are a variety of chili peppers out there, and they all lend a distinctive flavor to your meals.

Experiment!

2009-03-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Last night's dinner was a treat:

Potato and Green Garlic Tart with Goat Cheese and Mozzarella. I added the chard 'cause you know I have to serve green vegetables.

It was really, really good. Here's the recipe:

1 recipe pizza dough
1 1/2 lbs fingerling potatoes
2 stalks green garlic
3 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, grated
1 bunch chard or other leafy green
thyme, salt, and pepper

Slice the potatoes 1/8" thick and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in 400 oven until tender, but not brown.

Sautee the sliced garlic and greens in 1 tbsp olive oil until soft. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Place a pizza stone in the oven and heat to 450 degrees. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza paddle.

Roll out the pizza dough and place on the paddle. Crimp the edges and brush with olive oil. Spread grated mozzarella over the dough, then layer the potatoes and greens over the cheese. Sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese over the everything, then sprinkle with thyme.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until crust is brown.

This will be a favorite!

The White House Garden

2009-03-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

This just has me doing cartwheels:

Contact:
Roger Doiron
roger@kitchengardeners.org
phone: (207) 883-5341
cell: (207) 807-6364

100,000 Applaud Announcement of a New White House Food Garden
Environment, Nation’s Food System and People's Health Stand to Benefit

(Scarborough, Maine) –100,000 people signed a petition asking the Obamas to replant a Victory Garden at the White House, and recent news reports indicate that they are about to reap what they sowed.

For advocates of sustainable and healthy foods, this harvest of good news was as welcome as the summer’s first red-ripe tomato. “I’m thrilled for the Obama family and for all who will be inspired by their example to grow gardens of their own this year,” said Roger Doiron, founder of the nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International and leader of the successful petition campaign, “Eat the View.”

Launched in February 2008, Eat the View proposed that the Obamas replant a White House Victory Garden while planting a few extra rows for the hungry. The campaign used viral videos and social networking technologies like Facebook to grow a large support base, attract international media attention and help inspire a larger grassroots effort. In January, 2009, Eat the View won the “On Day One” contest sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, beating out 4,000 other entries and resulting in thousands of messages being sent to the White House in support of its proposal.

Over the course of the past month, the Eat the View campaign has touted the economic benefits of home gardens as part of its pitch to White House staff members. As proof, Doiron and his wife spent nine months weighing and recording each vegetable they pulled from their 1,600-square-foot garden outside Portland, Maine. After counting the final winter leaves of salad, they found that they had saved about $2,150 by growing produce for their family of five instead of buying it. “If you consider that there are millions of American families who could be making similar, home-grown savings, those are no small potatoes,” Doiron said.

Although the White House garden campaign is now winding down, Doiron says the Eat the View campaign is just getting warmed up. “Now that the Obamas are on board, we’re going to be reaching out to other people and identifying other high-profile pieces of land that could be transformed into edible landscapes. Sprawling lawns around governors’ residences, schoolyards, vacant urban lots: those are all views that should be eaten.”

History of Harvest at the White House
While the Obamas’ garden and the online technologies that campaigned for it might be new, the idea of an edible landscape at the White House is not. Throughout its history, the White House has been home to food gardens of different shapes and sizes and even to a lawn-mowing herd of sheep in 1918. The appeal of the White House garden project, Doiron asserts, is that it serves as a bridge between the country’s past and its future. “The last time food was grown on the White House lawn was in 1943, when the country was at war, the economy was struggling and people were looking to the First Family for leadership. It made sense before and it makes sense again as we try to live within our own means and those of the planet.”

Additional info:

Eat the View campaign website:
http://www.eattheview.org/

History the White House as an edible landscape from 1800 to the present:
http://www.eattheview.org/page/history-1

Eat the View artwork:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42913695@N00/sets/72157608739986075/

Testimonials on behalf of the Eat the View campaign from noted national and international figures:
http://www.eattheview.org/page/testimonials-1

Eat the View campaign videos:
http://www.eattheview.org/videos

Bio and photos of Roger Doiron:
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2005/10/about_roger_doiron.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42913695@N00/sets/72157608739762927/

Writing When I'm Not Cooking

2009-03-17T09:29:00.001-07:00

I'm listing it everywhere. My novel is a quarterfinalist in the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. See the details on my writer's blog: ABNA Quarterfinalist!

And if you are so inclined, PLEASE follow the link to Amazon and leave a review for my novel's excerpt. I need reviews to actually win the contest!

Ending Hunger

2009-03-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a successful way to end hunger on a local scale:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3330

We aren't doing anything close to this in the Bay Area, yet. We have lots of Farmers Markets, a few co-ops, and a couple of urban gardens that supply the poor. We have lots of farms around here. But the poor have inadequate access to transporation, so we need to bring the food to them.

We could do it.

Farm Break

2009-02-26T12:10:00.001-08:00

This is too much fun: my CSA has a blog. This is the farm from which I get a box of vegetables every week.

Wait - they have two blogs, and here are the links:

http://riverdogfarm.blogspot.com

http://riverdoghog.blogspot.com

I realize it's probably not as exciting to you as it is to me, but I wanted to share anyway. Everybody needs a farm break once in a while.

Winter Smoothies

2009-02-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

My CSA box has included a bunch of oranges or tangerines lately. I may have mentioned (once or twice) that I'm not real big on citrus. I like to cook with it - it lends a "mmm" flavor to so many dishes, or can add gorgeous color and flavor to a salad with walnuts sprinkled on. And I insist that my margaritas be made with real limes.

But peel and eat an orange? Dipped in chocolate, maybe.

So what am I going to do with all these oranges every week?

Make smoothies. Oh yeah, that works.

It also gives me something to keep me eating yogurt most days. I tend to alternate with the seasons - in spring and summer, I eat my yogurt with granola and fruit for breakfast. But when the weather turns cool, I long for hot, comforting oatmeal made with whole milk. The yogurt gets ignored.

But I like to eat yogurt as a defense against yeast infections. The idea of going all winter without having any just doesn't seem right. Plus, with the smoothie, I'm also eating some fruit every day, another thing that falls by wayside in winter.

My Winter Smoothie:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 large orange or 1 tangerine
1/2 banana
1/4 cup crushed ice

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix.

This makes one glassful, maybe a little more. Calories? About 100, since I use whole milk yogurt.

Chinese Night

2009-02-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

Last night's dinner used nearly all my vegetables. I made egg rolls and hot & sour soup.

The egg rolls were a hodge-podge of cabbage, carrots, smoked bacon, ginger, garlic, and scallions, all pulsed in the food processor until they were minced. This was all sauteed with a sauce of cornstarch, sesame oil, and soy sauce, then wrapped in egg roll wrappers. A quick spray of oil on the rolls, and then they were baked until golden brown.

We ate them with easy, at-hand sauces - mustard & horseradish, or rice vinegar & hot chili oil.

The soup - oh goddess, I love this soup. I've had the recipe for a few years, but lost it, somehow. I finally found it again, online here.

I used oyster mushrooms (all I could find except for crimini and button), and the rest of my CSA cabbage instead of bok choy. I also quadrupled the soy sauce, vinegar, and chili oil. I guess I like a lot of punch in my hot & sour soup.

Anyway, it was good. I love the addition of spinach to this soup. It just seems to add the perfect touch of color and nutrition. There's nothing better if you have a cold (which I don't, but the soup was perfect, anyway).

Leftovers? Plenty of both soup and egg rolls. That meal will feed us for a while.

Tonight's Dinner

2009-02-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

It's a Leek-Gruyere Tart, based on a recipe from Fine Cooking Magazine. I added beet greens to mine, in the spirit of using up my CSA vegetables.

Using Those Veggies

2009-01-14T08:01:00.001-08:00

So what did I do with my CSA veggies?

While rummaging through the freezer, I found a couple of bratwurst and I remembered a popular dish I made a few months ago. So I sliced the batch of carrots, chopped the leeks, minced some garlic, sauteed them with the bratwurst. Then I added the head of cabbage (chopped), a little water, and let it steam until the cabbage was tender. I served it with a dollop of mustard and horseradish on the side.

We have leftovers, but I can freeze those for later use.

This left me with a batch of Tokyo Turnips and the chard, which I used yesterday. I had a lot of lamb in the freezer. I'd roasted a leg of lamb back in November and frozen the leftover slices of meat. I got it all out and braised it in a ginger-garlic sauce with lots of Indian spices. I steamed the chard and added it to the stew, serving it with whole wheat naan and the steamed turnips on the side.

I've got leftovers of that, too. Back into the freezer for another easy meal when I don't have time to cook!

Just in time, too. I've got another CSA box coming today.

Cooking at Home

2009-01-12T08:02:00.001-08:00

Today was a waffle day.

The batch in the freezer was getting low, and I had some baked butternut squash that really needed to be used. So into the waffle batter it went, along with walnuts and cinnamon and cloves. I had two squares for breakfast, with a bit of butter, powdered sugar, and half a Meyer's lemon squeezed over it all.

A very nice breakfast.

Yesterday, I made a batch of yogurt, which I'll probably mix with the applesauce I made a few days ago, or top with tangerine sections. That will be good over future waffles, or as a light lunch one day.

My crisper drawers are full of good CSA vegetables, and I must decide what to do with them before I get another box on Wednesday. I've got a cabbage, a bunch of carrots, two leeks, broccoli and chard. I already used the spinach, serving it sauteed with olive oil and salt, along with leftover turkey pot pie. And of course, the tangerines were in the box, too. And it's also where I got the lemon.

I'm tempted to serve simple vegetarian meals for a couple of nights, to use everything up. I need broth, too, so I'll probably use the leeks, cabbage, and some carrots to do that. My freezer is actually brothless, at the moment. I'll wander back downstairs to figure things out, eventually. I have writing to do, first.

An Idea I've Endorsed

2009-01-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

Did you see the "Victory Gardens" logo off to the left? I think this is a great idea and I've given my official endorsement for it. We need an organic garden at the White House - one that is used by the First Family for their own meals and also for state dinners. Beyond that, we need these gardens in cities and towns all across America.

It doesn't get more American than that!

Here's the link to official idea. Or just click on the logo. Please go vote!

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/green_the_white_house

Food? What Food?

2009-01-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

After weeks of holiday eating (and drinking),vacations, and an upcoming writing deadline, food has become a side thought around here. I know - I'm having a hard time dealing with that, myself. But I literally have not had the time or desire to think about food.

We're still eating, of course. You know all those extra meals I prepare and freeze? They sure have come in handy.

My meal planning has dropped down to figuring out what to take out of the freezer. Because of dental work, one of us is relegated to soft food for the week, so I'm pulling out things like soups (potato, turkey), rice and broth, baked butternut squash, etc.

I still have a full freezer, but I've managed to use up all my homemade broth - it's time to make more! Today, I pick up our CSA box for the first time in three weeks. I know I'll have to do something about all those veggies. So even in down times, the cooking doesn't go away completely.

Amazing Fact: I did not gain any weight this holiday season. Didn't lose any, mind you. But I didn't gain any either, and I'm happy about that! Last year, from November 07 to - say May 07 , I gained about 15 pounds. I still have to lose that. So I'm relieved to know I didn't add to the problem this year.

Happy Yule!

2008-12-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

Busy day, wasn't it?
Here are a couple of pictures showing part of the bounty:

the cookies

The kids (the brunch is there, too)

Happy Yule to All!

2008-12-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

As promised, I made the mushroom galette for Solstice dinner (courtesy of Nicole and her wonderful mother). Oh my. It was so good. Even the crust turned out well, and that's always hit or miss for me. I baked it on my pizza stone, and it was flaky and olive-oily and light. It blended perfectly with the earthy mushrooms and spinach and guyere cheese.

It will be a regular addtion to my menus, methinks. Such a lovely thing to do with mushrooms.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, the special night my husband and I share together. I have a light dinner all ready (it's wrapped and stuffed in our stockings - except for the champagne, which is in the fridge), We'll light a fire (I hope) and have our meal, then we'll take our champagne to the living room and open our gifts to each other. It's always a fun and magical time.

In our next house, I hope we have one room that we can have both fireplace AND Yule tree together. That will make it perfect.

Tomorrow my kids come over and we have brunch-that-lasts-all-day. Baked ham, beef brisket, oat scones, peanutbutter coffeecake, scrambled eggs, country-fried potatoes with roasted peppers and onions...

Eggnog, mimosas, tea... and of course all those cookies and cakes. We'll open presents with them and play lots of games. In good years, we always take a long walk, but this year, a slow recovery from surgery means it's not a good idea. And there are no dogs to walk with us, either.

But we have two pregnant couples this year, although only one will be here for Yule. And the best news of all: my stepson is home from Iraq, safely with his family in Honolulu. Life is good, and I know we're lucky.

So Merry whatever holiday you celebrate, and Happy New Year, too! On to 2009!

Baking Bread

2008-12-21T14:17:00.000-08:00

I love bread, and making my own is still a big thrill. I try to do it as often as possible. I like knowing exactly what's in my bread, and I like knowing there are just a few ingredients there. I don't mind kneading, either.

My ongoing problem with bread is getting the loaf to rise to the right height. My bread always ends up just a few inches high. Considering that our bread is used mostly for sandwiches, this is a drawback.

I can't say that this method has solved that problem, but I found a great idea in a recent copy of Mother Earth News. The idea is to make a big batch of dough and let it sit in the frig until you're ready to tear off a chunk and bake it. The dough doesn't require kneading, and it keeps for at least a couple of weeks. I made the whole wheat version and I'm sold. This is great bread!

I'm experimenting with pan sizes and the amount of dough to use. The second loaf I made rose a bit higher than the first, but I used more dough. Next time I'll use more dough and a smaller pan. I really want a 6 inch high sandwich loaf!

Holiday Cooking

2008-12-18T12:50:00.001-08:00

My Kitchen Aid is getting a workout as I fill the counters with rum cakes, bourbon balls, and cookies. I love to bake, and although I've reached an age when one cookie has to be enough (well, one cookie a day), I still have to fill the urge. So the goodies become gifts to friends and kids, which is just plain, simple fun.

Of course, my friends are doing the same thing, so I still end up with a decent supply of forbidden goods. I'm the master of freezing and eating a small amount at a time.

I'm planning a winter solstice feast for the 21st - just my husband and me. If the goddess will be merciful, it won't be a Spare the Air Day, so we can have a fire. Wouldn't it be sad if our overpopulation and pollution prevents us from celebrating the lengthening of days with firelight? If it does, I'll light a few candles and be content.

But the feast: I'm making Nicole Spiridakis' Mushroom and Spinach Galette, which recipe you will find here, on NPR. Nicole's version sounds wonderful, but I'm following her Mom's advice and adding Gruyere cheese to mine.

I will also cook up a kale salad: just saute some shallots and minced jalapeno in olive oil, add torn kale leaves and toss until the leaves wilt. Add a little salt and you've got a bright green and slightly spicy addition to the meal.

I think the galette calls for a Zinfandel or maybe even a Cab.

Dessert will be Viennese Crescents, a cookie from my childhood that I simply adore. Nicole has that recipe on her blog, but I'll add it here, too. These are perfect representations of the crescent moon.

Viennese Crescents

1 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup ground (unblanched) almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla
Confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 300 F. Cream the butter and then add the sugar, flour, almonds, and vanilla. Mix well.

Shape with fingers in crescents about 3 inches by 1 inch and 1/2 inch thick. Roll in confectioner’s sugar.

Place on cookie sheets. Bake 35 minutes. Cool. Roll in sugar again.

They store best in an airtight container with an inch or so of confectioner's sugar in the bottom.

Makes 36.

Yes - my friends will find some of these in their gift baskets, too.

Turkey Pot Pie with Pumpkin Biscuit Topping

2008-12-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

We had this last night, as another way to use Thanksgiving leftovers.

I had the turkey broth, with loads of meat, already cooked and frozen. I used one jar of it, with some added water, carrots, onions, and peas. I mixed in a little cornstarch to thicken it.

Very simple. Classic taste.

It was the pumpkin biscuits that took it over the edge.

They were butternut-squash biscuits actually, using some squash leftover and also in the freezer. Here's the recipe:

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup squash (I think I had a little more than that)
Milk to consistency

Mix the dry ingredients, cut in the butter until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add the squash and mix, adding milk as needed to make the dough pliable.

Knead for a few strokes, pat out and cut into biscuits.

For regular biscuits, you can bake these on a greased cookie sheet at 400 for about 15 minutes.

I placed them on top of the turkey filling, which I'd poured into a greased baking pan. I baked the whole thing, uncovered, at 400 for about 25 minutes,until the buscuits were golden brown.

This was simply delicious. We have enough for two more meals!

Using aioli

2008-12-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

Anybody know if aioli can be frozen?

I just made a batch of this delicious sauce, but good grief. We'll never use it up. I'm thinking of freezing it in tablespoon-sized batches, so I can use it as needed.

Can't hurt. I'll have to throw it out anyway, but this gives me a chance to save it.

Back for the Holidays

2008-12-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

I've missed a couple of months of entries and I feel quite bad about that. I've been distracted by an illness in the family, which has taken a lot of my time and attention. But things are slowly on the mend and I'm going to try and be back.

Yes, I did cook for Thanksgiving. We had ten people all together. Usually, we do a potluck, but this year, for one reason or another, I elected (and was elected) to do all the cooking, except for the appetizer and dessert.

I'm out of practice cooking turkeys. It was a fumble - not quite done at the time it should have been. I cooked it for five hours! But there you have it. It was necessary to toss the thing in the microwave and maybe not cut to close too the bone.

What a mess. But it tasted great and the rest of the meal turned out fine: Sweet Potato Casserole, Cornbread Stuffing (that wasn't stuffed into the turkey), Mashed Potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish, and a yummy salad with greens, cranberries, toasted pecans, apples, and a cranberry-pinot dressing.

Yum. And did that carcass make a great broth when I cooked it the next day!

The next day, all the kids came over and I made stuffed pizzas - one sausage/mushroom, and one pesto/cheese. That one was the big winner and I must make it again!

We had cookies and ice cream and blueberry pie for dessert. Lots of wine. Due to my husband's illness, my son had gallantly pulled all our Chrismtas decorations out of the garage and set up our tree. So the kids helped decorate it after dinner. That's the earliest I've had it up, but what a great help it all was! Thanks kids!

The turkey soup I made was a big hit a few days later. I used the broth and meat from the carcass and added extra carrots and celery and broccoli (including the leaves). I didn't have potatoes, so I made a batch of spaetzle to simmer in the pot as noodles. Great soup!

So the food juggling continues. I'm still trying hard to not let anything go to waste. I even put the leftover whipped cream in little mounds and froze them. These are great for a quick dessert.

I won't promise to post everyday, but I will promise to try. I haven't been working, either and probably won't start up again until the new year. So this is a strange time for me, but I expect things to return to some form of normal.

Soon!

The Use of Lard

2008-09-21T10:40:00.001-07:00

I found some good news to write about: lard is making a comeback.

Here's a link:

I've got a jar of rendered lard in my refrigerator. It really does make flaky pie crusts and crisp, clean fried potatoes.

Did you know it's healthier than butter?

Lard from a free-range pig - NOT a feedlot pig! - has less saturated fat than butter and it has omega-3's. In other words, not only is it not as bad as you thought it was, it actually provides needed nutrients.

Our hate-affair with lard can be traced to the industrialization of food. As our great-parents let industrial centers take charge of their food, the quality dropped precipitously. Not just the taste, either. These were the days of "The Jungle" and no regulation, leading to heaps of abuse - of both animal and human worker.

So when shortening was invented, and hyped as the latest, most sophisticated, "scientific" food, people flocked to it. Lard was dropped like a hot potato (a dry one).

But some people have caught on. We now know that shortening is a slow killer, while lard provides nutrients. And remember, in the interest of moderation, we shouldn't be eating gallons of any fat. It should be a small part of our diet.

To me, it's a no-brainer.

I haven't cooked with shortening for over 20 years, but neither did I cook with lard. For a long time, I used margarine and butter; for the last several years, I've just used butter. But since my CSA provided a slab of pig fat, with instructions on how to render it in to lard, I've been adding it to things.

It's all part of my desire to live more sustainably. To learn to use all of an animal that can be used - though yes, I'm still leery of the head. I've had beef tongue, but that's the extent of that experiment. (It's not bad, actually.)

We need to approach food industry claims with cautious thoughtfulness and a modicum of disbelief. In fact, I recommend a huge amount of disbelief and researching all the claims. I'm a scientist and I trust the scientific method. But I don't trust people with a stake in the results.

And remember that most claims are nothing more than the marketing department doing their job.

And go find some lard from a free-range pig and make a pie.

White House Lawn Sale

2008-09-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

This goofy idea is sponsored by Kitchen Gardeners. The idea is to donate funds and send a message to the next president that we want a kitchen garden in OUR White House lawn!

Click on the link to the left if you want to donate. I'm sorry the gadget doesn't all show up. Don't know how to fix that!

Eating Out

2008-07-30T16:34:00.001-07:00

This is what my kitchen looks like.

I haven't cooked all week, and let me tell you, that's a weird feeling.

One or two more days methinks. Then I'll post a FINISHED picture!

Farm to Fork

2008-07-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

The Local Harvest newsletter had a piece about this article in the New York Times, talking about the need for the government to establish a detailed tracking system for food. The Times editorial was written a couple of weeks ago at the height of the tomato scare. The author is pushing for this program, saying it's a good idea and the government needs to declare an emergency and get it set up immediately.

It's a lousy idea. It's worse than lousy. It's stupid.

The answer is not more consolidation, more paperwork, or RFID tags and barcodes on everything. The answer is decentralization. The answer is small community farms that feed the people around them. Most of the food in a grocery store is grown on large (huge!), monoculture farms, with fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides. The animals live in feedlots, are strictly confined, are fed corn (no matter what kind of animal they are) and are left to stand in their own feces until finally hauled away for slaughter. The food is shipped all over the country to central warehouses and processing plants where it is mixed with food from everywhere else, and from there to the kitchens of huge food conglomerates. It's prepped and processed and packaged and shipped again to supermarkets all over the country. Then to your kitchen.

By the time you get it, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what you have or where it came from. This is why misguided people are agitating for a strict tracking system. As if that will solve the problem.

I buy my meat from a CSA that is supplied by the ranches just over the hill. I buy my vegetables from a farm about forty miles from here. I buy milk from a local dairy that bottles it themselves without sending it to a central factory in Nebraska, someplace. If we get sick, it will be a simple matter to trace the problem.

No, I don't get everything from local producers. I know that's impossible. Humans have always traded for the things they need, but can't produce themselves. That will never end and I'm not suggesting it should. But our food system is a ridiculous example of carrying trade to the extreme. We need to rig a wrecking ball and tear it down.

A tracking system will fall heaviest on the small farmer, and be one more nail in the coffin for the hard-working people who are trying to grow healthy food for a local market. As usual, the conglomerates will just hire someone to take care of the paperwork and raise prices to cover the cost. The small farmer will go out of business because he can't afford to file all that paperwork or buy the electronic IDs to put in the food. It's all unnecessary for him - he can tell you in ten minutes where his product goes because he's supplying local restaurants and residents. There's no reason for a federal agency to track his food.

Farm to Fork is a terrible idea. It won't keep thousands of people from getting sick. We need to stop shipping our food to central plants and mixing it with food from everywhere else. If people get sick, the illness will stay localized and the source can be traced quickly.

Why is this so hard for people to understand?

How to Eat Local and Make it Work

2008-07-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

Eating local is for the rich, but what about the rest of us?

If we want to eat fresh, locally-grown food, we need one of two things: a lot of time, or a lot of money to pay someone else for their time.

Because, let's face it: the reason processed foods are so popular is because they are cheap and fast.

Granted, they aren't as cheap as they used to be, and I've always maintained that it's possible to eat much more cheaply by buying the ingredients and making it yourself. As long as you buy what's in season and aren't trying to get the strawberries from Chili in January.

The article cited above is in the New York Times today, and tells us about people who can afford to pay someone to not just cook their food (hello Personal Chefs), but also to plant a garden for them and do all the work of maintaining it.

See, that's what I need. Not because I don't have time, but just because I can't seem to get the hang of making food grow.

But I can't afford to pay someone. And processing food takes time.

I spent a while this morning doing it again. I had five cucumbers from the CSA and what am I going to do with them? It's just me and my husband. I suppose I could use one cucumber a day on a salad for us, but really - we just don't eat that much. So I made cucumber soup. One jar in the frig for consumption this week, the other in the freezer for later.

Then there were those 3 big ears of corn from CSA. Darn - I was going to cook those last week, but I forgot about them. And back to my first dilemna, it's just the two of us. We can't eat 3 ears of corn at one sitting.

So I cut the corn off and froze it. Now I have a bag of corn I can toss into a soup or salad whenever I'm ready.

A week or two ago, I made yogurt, waffles, and carrot soup. Last night, I chopped up several of the red onions from the CSA and made onion soup. I steamed the pretty purple carrots and froze them for another meal. And don't forget all the plum things (preserves, sauce, pies...) I've been making and canning and freezing lately.

This is what is takes to buy food from our local farmers. Time and effort. I love doing it and I would do it even if I was working a full-time job. But most people don't feel that way about it. So they keep eating the cheap, convenient, lousy processed food.

We need co-ops. I'm giving this a lot of thought and I'm going to come up with a business plan. Sure, I can add it to my services as a Personal Chef. I'll be available to work for a group of people who want someone to process their food. But the real winning idea is for people to do it themselves.

Form co-ops and share the tasks. It could be done in several different ways - people working all week could have weekend work days where each member commits to work an hour or two. They could do it in shifts until all the food is processed, then everyone takes home their share. Or have a few people do it all one week, and different people do it all the next week. Whatever will work for that group.

I think it's essential that we come up with a way to do this. We cannot survive if we stay dependent on the Food Industry. I'll keep working on the idea and I'll write more about it as it develops. Once I have a plan in place, I want to get the word out. I'd love to help coordinate these groups. Give people ideas on how to do it, and pitch in and help, too.

Because eating local, organic food is NOT just for the rich. It's for all of us.