Not Just Another Cooking Blog!

Delicious dinner 5.4.2011

2011-05-04T16:02:00.001-07:00

Turkey bacon swiss sandwiches with salad!

Lovely lunch 5.4.2011

2011-05-04T10:37:00.001-07:00

Black bean burger on fresh baked bread with cheese, red pepper pesto and rum-coffee-soaked cupcake.

First real cookout of the year!

2011-04-30T17:32:00.001-07:00

Delicious dinner at Outback

2011-04-27T10:13:00.001-07:00

Roast pork with chili sauce, garlic taters, and those delicious greenbeans they make there...

Lovely lunch 4.18.2011

2011-04-18T13:12:00.001-07:00

Pasta boiled in tomato-basil stock with carrots and bok choi.

oatzoto again!

2011-03-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is seriously one of my favorite things to make. 1) Because it's super-tasty no matter how I make it. 2) Because it's comforting and filling, and I wish I'd known about it when I was growing up so it could always have been my comfort food. 3) Because it's the epitome of Watcha Got Cooking: literally whatever you have will go well in this wonderfulness.

This time I had Steel Cut Oats, Yellow Onions, Dried Shitake, A can of Peas, Frozen carcass meat* from the last time we roasted a turkey, A chicken stock cube, A Beef stock cube, Nubs of yellow and white cheddar, and some Ching Tsai**. So that's what I used.

Make it like so:
- Soak the mushrooms in warm water for an hour or so.
- Use the mushroom juice as part of the stock-- you'll need about six or seven cups. Boil the stock cubes or measure out the stock ahead of time.
- Chop everything before you start.
- Caramelize the onions in olive oil and about an inch and a half of butter. Don't skimp here: this is where a lot of the flavor comes from, so go ahead and let them get really golden.
- Add more butter, maybe a tablespoon, and throw in a cup to a cup and a quarter of steel-cut oats, and cook them until they start smelling toasty. They might open up a bit, but usually they don't, so don't worry about it.
- Add the stock at about a cup at a time, and cook until it's all absorbed and it stops looking drier as it cooks. You'll see what I mean when you do it. Stir ALL THE TIME. Burnt oats are gross and ruin the whole pan. The first few additions, deglaze the pan by scratching at the bottom before the stock gets absorbed.
- Keep adding stock and stirring.
- Add more stock and stir.
- When the last of the stock goes in, cook a while longer until the oats are not chewy anymore. Add any veggies that need to cook down at this point. This is when I threw in the Ching Tsai and the chopped mushrooms.
- Shred up the meat. Add it to the pot with the cheese and whatever other veggies you're adding.
- Cook until everything is the same temperature and all the cheese is mixed in.
- Eat it all up.

Almost everything in this recipe is trade-out-able. Just stick to these basic proportions and the same style of steps and you're fine:
- Fat: I like butter and olive oil. I've also used bacon fat, and thrown the bacon back in at the end. Duck fat would probably be down right decadent.
- 2 alliums: You want it to equal two whole onions in volume, but it doesn't matter what you choose. I've used onions, garlic, shallots, leeks... they're all good.
- 1 to 1 1/4 c grains: I like oats best, but I've done this with buckwheat groats, rice and brown rice, and it's always great. If you make it with corn, it's polenta. I want to try red winter wheat and millet next.
- 6 to 7 cups of stock: Any kind, real or condensed, home made or store bought.
- 1 to 2 canned veggies: I like peas, but anything you have will do. Diced roasted red pepper is good most of the time.
- 1 to 3 fresh veggies: Anything. If it's hard, cook it first, or add it earlier to the pot. Mushrooms count here.
- 1 cup of cheese: Any kind. Mix it up! Really strong cheeses like blue cheese might need to be cut so it doesn't overpower everything.
- 1-2 cups meat or other protein: Chop it up or shred it, and cook it ahead of time.
- Seasoning: If you use things that have salt in them, you probably won't need to salt it, but add pepper and maybe some herbs-- I wouldn't use more than one or two, because you're adding all sorts of other flavors already.

* I know it doesn't sound all that appetizing, but I can easily get two pounds more meat off a carcass that's been eaten down to the bone. You just have to know where the tasty bits are, and be willing to sift through all the skin and cartilage and week tiny bones to find it.
** I'm guessing on the spelling. It's supposed to be Baby Bok Choi, but it's actually not even cabbage at all, it's baby Collard Greens, and I like calling it by the Chinese name.

link: Meatless Monday Inspiration from Food52

2011-03-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.food52.com/blog/1753_meatless_monday_inspiration?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=New+Feature:+Feed52!+|+Homemade+Yogurt+|+Chocolate+Brownie+Bites+|+Custard+How-To&utm_campaign=food52+newsletter+3_6_+11&utm_term=See+menu+ideas

A list of amazing-looking food with beautiful pictures, all free of meat and most free even of cheese or something meat-related like that.

Ricotta and Chive Gnocchi by The Internet Cooking Princess

today's lunch: stereotypically french potatoes!

2011-02-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

You know what's awkward? Trying to take a picture of your plate with a webcam that's built into your laptop because you can't find your actual camera. But even so, I think it came out pretty well!

Today I had baby red potatoes with caramelized onions, brie and bacon. Seasoned with Herbes de Provence, French grey sea salt, and cracked black pepper. It's 700 calories of awesome, and I'm totally okay with it being half my calorie intake for the day.

Make like so:
Put the potatoes to boil on med-low with sea salt.
Chop the bacon, then cook it slowly on pretty low heat to get all the fat out, until it's crispy and crumbly. Take it out of the pan.
Chop the onions small and cook them in the bacon fat with a pat of butter. Once they're a little clear and juicy, add a pinch of Herbes de Provence. Caramelize slowly for as long as it takes for the potatoes to cook. I like mine pretty soft and sweet.
Drain the cooked potatoes and add a pat of butter, more sea salt and cracked black pepper. Let that sit and absorb while you cut the brie into little rounds or slices.
Dump the taters onto a pretty plate and break them up a little with the back of a fork. Top with the onions, the brie and the bacon bits.
Enjoy deeply.

link: Wednesday Baking | Troubleshooting Yeast Bread

2011-02-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Baking | Troubleshooting Yeast Bread

This is a super-useful page. The other day, I used the last of my flour to make a loaf of bread in the machine, and it turned out flat and hard, so I figured the yeast was dead. This one helped me figure out how to make the next loaf better.

I doubled the yeast, and left it in the warm-water-and-sugar for a while to wake up whichever ones weren't dead, and then made the next loaf with that slurry. It was more successful, edible as bread, though it was still heavy. So I need new yeast. I also need to lower the amount of sugar in the recipe-- it's too sweet for sandwiches. I'll try it with live yeast first, though. Maybe the yeast eat it all up before I do when they're working right?

recipe: african stew

2011-02-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

Last night, while I should have been revising my novel and cretiquing my partners' work, we took time off to make dinner with friends and play some mahjong with the set H brought back from China for us. I can only say that this is one of the most delicious soups I have ever had, and we have firm plans to make it again with different vegetables and different meats to see how it goes. We're thinking orange veggies, like butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, things like that would be good as a blended soup. We're thinking potatoes and carrots. We're thinking beef stew meat, left to cook for several hours, maybe in a crock pot.

We served this in handmade bread bowls (handmade by Publix, but still handmade), and it was perfect.

Ingredients

4 cups water
3 each chicken bouillon cubes
1/3 cup curry paste (or can be dry curry)
2 Tablespoons ground coriander, toasted
2 Tablespoons granulated garlic
4 cups coconut milk
¼ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 pounds beef/pork/chicken, large diced
2 cups mixed red and green peppers, diced
2 cups onions, diced
½ cup whole kernel corn, frozen
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 Tablespoons cornstarch (make slurry)

Method:

1. In kettle, heat water, chicken bouillon cubes, curry paste, ground coriander, and granulated garlic. Let boil and add in sugar and coconut milk.

2. Add in the soy sauce and the diced meat. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Add vegetables, spices, and cook until tender.

4. Bring to a boil and add cornstarch slurry slowly to the mixture and whisk until thickened.

From the Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney.

cookie making day!

2010-12-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

Today, we'll be making cookies. Ostensibly for Christmas, but mostly for us. I'm making Ginger Stars, Lemon Sugar Cookies, Brown Sugar Shortbread, Oatmeal Scotchies, and Oatmeal Jam Bars. I'll be making Sugar Plums on my next paycheck, because all those dates and nuts get expensive, and I'm already making five other cookies. I was going to live-blog the whole thing, but the phone is dead and won't be charged by the time I'll need it, so I'll be taking pictures and videos and I'll up them later. When I'm full of cookies. Mmmmm, cookies.

Cyndy and Ally will also be there, and maybe Chris, so who knows what all cookies we'll get to go home with? Not I! But there will be many. Oh yes.

I need to get one of those cameras that send pics directly to the web...

link: The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook

2010-12-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30bigcity.html?_r=2

So apparently bees in New York are going out of their ways for miles to get at the cherry juice from a marachino cherry factory, and the 'honey' they're producing is bright red-- violently so-- and metalic and too sweet. Ew. Also, Oh Em Gee. Shut your yap, Corn Council of America-- your carefully-created American obsession with HFCS has started compromising honey.

I won't stand for that anymore. No more maraschinos for me!

Turkey!

2010-11-25T13:14:00.001-08:00

Buttered with herbs under the skin and orange, lemon and rosemary inside!

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Candied sweet potatoes!

2010-11-25T12:05:00.001-08:00

Not cooked yet, but it's two cans (drained), half a box of brown sugar, a stick of butter, and some cinnamon, pinch of cloves, salt and pepper. Cook till warm though and top with marshmallows and brown in the oven.

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Empanadas!

2010-11-25T08:05:00.001-08:00

Breakfast is served! Time for blackadder and to get the turkey in!

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Thanksgiving breakfast

2010-11-25T07:36:00.001-08:00

The first empanadas are on to keep away the low bloodsugar grouchies! Next up: the turkey goes in and we star on the sides.

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Acorn squash soup

2010-11-22T12:58:00.001-08:00

Making the best of leftovers.

It's really hard to take a decent picture of soup on a cellphone.

This is basically a different sort of what'cha'got soup. Normally, I'd throw it all into a minestrone sort of deal or maybe into a Gypsy Stew*, but today, I didn't have the right ingredients for either of those things, so I went for the Ally Method of what'cha'got soup making. I had 2 very old acorn squash, one fire-baked potato, one fire-roasted onion, some shallots, some garlic, some milk, some stock cubes, and a selection of spices and herbs**.

The method!
As usual in situations like this, I didn't measure anything, so you'll have to eyeball it.

Cut the acorn squash in half, clean out the seeds and the worst of the fibers, and microwave for about 6 or 8 minutes under damp paper towels until soft enough to scoop out.

While that's nuking, sautee your fire-roasted onions (previously cooked for about a half hour in in tinfoil in the embers of a fire pit), your shallot and your two or so cloves of garlic in a mix of olive oil and butter until everything is sweet and caramelized. The roasted onion gets a jump on that, but if you don't have one, you can caramelize from raw, it'll just take longer.

Put your stock cubes in hot water and make it into stock. I had one each of veggie, beef and chicken, and added five cups of boiling water (which is one cup less than the stock instructions called for, but that's how big by bowl was and it seems fine).

Scoop out all the meat from the squash and just drop it right into the onions. Don't burn yourself too much. Stir it all around and mash it up some with the spoon. Chop up the old baked potato with most of the skin taken off, and throw that in, too.

Add all the broth, stir it up real good, and mash it some more. I used a potato masher. Start seasoning. I have no idea how much I threw in, but it was about two rounds of the following: Fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, thyme, a little saffron (this only went in once because it's expensive and I don't have much), cinnamon, nutmeg, five spice powder, sage, cayenne, bay leaf, . Old squash are apparently not as sweet as fresh, so I added some wildflower honey (local, of course, because I'm a honey snob). Cook it a lot.

While it's cooking, periodically mash it up more and stir it vigorously to get it all breaking down. Check on flavorings. It should be sweet and savory.

Mine started burning on the bottom of the pan, and that really just added to the roasty flavor and gave it a nice orangy-brown color, but I wouldn't let it burn too much.

Once everything starts looking like it's not going to mash up any more without help, you can blenderize it or use one of those motorboat blenders. Our blender was mouldy and we don't have a motorboat, so I ran the whole giant batch through a fine-mesh sieve***, which took way too long and used up, like, three mixing bowls, but came out with a nice texture.

Throw it all back into the pot, stir it until it's smooth and check on seasoning. Add about 2/3 to a whole cup of milk (less if you have cream) and some more butter, and heat it back up until the butter is totally melted.

Gobble it all up like woah. Perfect fall soup, and would likely work with almost any squash, or sweet potatoes, or root veggies. Ally frequently makes her's curried, and that would have been nice here, too, except I unaccountably couldn't find the curry powder, so I went for thanksgivingy seasonings instead.

*Gypsy Stew is defined by old room mates as anything you can beg, borrow or steal, thrown into a soup pot. In practice, it's usually chicken or veggie broth based, and almost always thickened with rice and beans, and usually eaten communally out of small cups with many servings.
**I think you can judge how much people like cooking and eating by how many spices they have. Our collection outgrew anything as simple as a spice rack and now resides in the entire knife drawer beside the stove. We have literally dozens of distinct herbs and spices, almost all bought individually for specific meals we've been making over the last few years, not as kits or anything like that.
***Someone should buy me a hand-powered food mill for Christmas. Or an immersion blender, but I kind of like the freedom of old-fashioned tools.

This is how we'll cook dinner tonight.

2010-11-13T15:31:00.001-08:00

Potatoes and onions and yum.

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Lunch

2010-11-11T12:38:00.001-08:00

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This is Mi Goreng original flavored Asian-Market good ramen
+
Peas, Broccoli, 2 sheets of laver (sesame and salt flavor), 1 egg (soft boiled and crumbled since it fell apart when I peeled it), 1 chicken and pork hot dog, a little say sauce, and black pepper.

Yummy, meets the 5x5x5* requirements, there's lots of food here, and it comes in at a grand total of 364 calories if I did my math right. Probably tons of salt, but I drink so much tea, I should be able to flush it.

*5x5x5= Five colors, five flavors, five textures. A Japanese way to be sure you get a well-rounded meal.

Tea heals all wounds

2010-11-11T09:41:00.001-08:00

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Especially when I'm sick and especially especially when I'm sick in the winter (and this is about as wintery as FL gets, usually (even if this year seems to be trending more like a real winter)), I crave tea. To quote my ninth grade piano teacher Ms Perrette, "My tea cup looks like the inside of a smoker's lung" because it's never empty long enough to bother scrubbing it out. Well, I crave tea all the time no matter what, but in the summer, it's more alone the lines of iced tea* or barley tea**/ mugicha. In the winter, I crave hot, black tea. I rarely sweeten my tea, but I tend to like the ones that go well with sugar and milk in case I decide I want to: this is Rose Black Tea from Butterfly Brand***, the one that comes in an almost-plain box at the Asian Market, for, like, two dollars. It's the best and most rosy black tea I've ever had, less floral than the British rose-flavored teas, but more authentic-rose flavored and scented. It tastes like summer in places where roses grow easily and bloom all through the sunny months. I don't drink it in the summer because it's too... too summery for that. It's distilled summer. Summer for winter days.

* Brewed as black as coffee on the stove for a long time-- like, 45 minutes-- uncut until you pour it over ice, very sweet, and spiked with a fresh lime wedge or two. This is how my mom makes it. The closest I've found out in the wild, strangely enough, is McDonalds or Wendy's; Wendy's tends to be too sweet but is usually dark enough, and McD tends to be too light, but is properly sweet. And ours is about half the time gross with oldness, so I usually go for the too sweet Wendy's.
** Get yer teabag and boil it for a few minutes, then chill the tea in the fridge and it's delicious. I tried the cold-brew kind before and found it both watery and bitter in an unpleasant way.
*** http://steepster.com/teas/butterfly-brand/4141-rose-black-tea?post=56632

basic what'cha'got italian soup

2010-10-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is a canned-food based soup, just so you're warned. Because that's what I got this week.

1 can condensed tomato soup + 1/2 can water and 1/2 can milk
1 can ham-flavored green beans and potatoes
1 can peas
drizzle of olive oil
few tablespoons of fried onions
some italian herbs with extra oregano and basil
1 bay leaf
cracked black pepper
1/4 c shaky-cheese-- we had a parm-romano-asiago blend
1 beef bullion cube

Throw everything in a pan, stir well and heat until cooked.

Modifications:
- I think any ham-or-bacon-flavored thing could go in instead of the greenbeans-- maybe bacony beans? Bean with bacon soup? Hoppin' John? Something like that. Maybe even bacon-or-ham-cooked greens, and then add the potatoes separately.
- Peas could be subbed with anything sweet to cut the acidity of the tomato soup.
- More flavor could be added by using broth instead of the water.
- Garlic could go in stead of onions-- or both.
- Any sort of leftover meat, veg and/or most starch could be thrown in to make it more of a meal, I think.
- I might add a can of condensed veggie soup next time to add more vegetables and the flavor that comes from them.
- Could add extra liquid, and then cook pasta right in there-- or cook the pasta separately and add it, but then there's two dirty pots to clean afterward.

Review:
- I think next time, I'll use a higher quality tomato base-- this way-off-brand stuff is too acidic AND too sweet
- I'll plan for it next time and have protein to throw in.
- Overall, a good experiement, though, a sort of creamy tomato-bisque based minestrone.

link: wendy's calorie counter!

2010-10-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.wendys.com/food/Nutrition.jsp
How neat is this? Wendy's doesn't just tell you what their food's calories are, but they also tell you what's in everything and let you build a meal to get a total count! Apparently, my meal was about 700 cals, which is higher than I'd like, but about what I expected, since I had it with a sweet tea, even though I'm supposed to be avoiding caffeine and sugar. Which I mostly am, but I refuse to give it up entirely because I love my tea. So I just make sure I drink it before 5, when it's less likely to keep me up and make me worry.

Anyway. I had the BLT Cobb, and it was really good. Bacon, Eggs, Chicken, Blue Cheese and Tomatoes on Mixed Baby Greens with Avocado Ranch. Now, I thought I didn't like blue cheese or ranch, but something about the way they do it here, they're both awesome. The half salad is generous enough for lunch, and if you get the PIck Two thing, and make your second item the snack wrap thing, you get extra chicken (protein!) for your salad! It's 340 cals including the dressing, minus the additional chicken, and that's really pretty amazing for fast food. I mean, the McDonald's yogurt and apple thing has as many calories as the chicken nuggets!

It's almost what I would do if I were making it myself. I'd probably add corn or beans (or both) and olives, maybe some banana peppers. I'd definitely add more chicken. But then, I've always been more about the stuff that goes on a salad than the salad itself!

I've also had the Pecan-Apple salad, and it's also pretty amazing. Next, I think I'll try the baja one.

foodpickle question: decaf tea

2010-10-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Quick! Your favorite non-gross decaf teas that are actually made with tea!

asked by Sami about 24 hours ago
Category: Technique

7 Answers

45 Views

3 Likes

lavenderblue says: I like Stash decaf black chai tea. This would be a cozy nighttime treat with a little sugar and milk.

Answered about 23 hours ago

1 Like

Ophelia says: I like Twinings decaf English Breakfast and Earl Grey (except bergamot gives me leg cramps). They have a slightly richer flavor than the Stash equivalents.

Answered about 20 hours ago

1 Like

mrslarkin says: Twinings.

Answered about 20 hours ago

1 Like

pierino says: What's next? Dericeified Rice? Green tea is pretty low caf to begin with. I like to begin my day with genmaicha, which is green tea with toasted brown rice. Lovely aroma. But could we just stop taking the good parts out of everything?

Answered about 15 hours ago

0 Likes

Sami says: pierino: I totally agree-- except that even small amounts of caffeine have been setting off my panic attacks and keeping me from sleeping since I started grad school, and I needed someone to point out actual tea that doesn't taste like crud that's lacking in that stimulant!

Answered about 14 hours ago

0 Likes

mtrelaun says: Are you looking for a decaf version of some type of Builder's tea? I love PG Tips decaf. When I can't get my hands on that, I drink Barry's decaf, Typhoo decaf or Tetley's decaf (though this is a last resort tea as it's a tad toothless in the taste department.)

Answered about 3 hours ago

0 Likes

ninadora says: i love decaf layt gray, its my favorite. All the Twinings decaf teas are good. I also love Yogi teas decaf chai, its a real treat with milk and sugar.

Answered about 2 hours ago

Read more: http://www.food52.com/foodpickle/543-quick-your-favorite-non-g#ixzz11K8o003r

foodpickle question

2010-10-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

Is there a non-HFCS equivalent to Del Monte's Fruit Chillers? Are they just frozen, sweetened puree? They're really tasty, but I've given up HFCS and I miss them!

asked by Sami 1 day ago
Category: Substitutions

4 Answers

24 Views

0 Likes

Savorykitchen says: According to the Del Monte website Fruit Chillers don't contain HFCS at all.

They don't publish ingredient lists online, but maybe they contain "regular" corn syrup and not high fructose corn syrup. They are actually different products (HFCS is corn syrup that's been processed to change its composition so that it contains more fructose). Corn syrup hasn't been linked to same issues as HFCS.

Answered about 24 hours ago

0 Likes

Sami says: Well, that's good news! I looked up the ingredients on a non-delmonte website because it wasn't listed officially and I didn't have the box, and they said there was HFCS; I guess I'll look for myself when I get to the grocery store next!

Answered about 24 hours ago

0 Likes

Savorykitchen says: oh yeah - I meant to give you the link to their website: http://www.delmontefruitchillers.com/faqs.aspx

Answered about 23 hours ago

0 Likes

drbabs says: Sami, do you have freezer space? If you do, I'd suggest you get an ice cream maker (The Cuisinart one is decent for around $50.) and make your own sorbets so you can control the ingredients. Making sorbet is really easy and using fresh ingredients makes it very tasty.

Answered about 23 hours ago

Read more: http://www.food52.com/foodpickle/542-is-there-a-non-hfcs-equiva#ixzz11K8MCWQ5

link: free cook books!

2010-09-25T10:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.preparedpantry.com/Free-cooking-baking-recipe-e-books.htm
A long, long list of free cooking ebooks to download! Also a pretty nifty baking website.

Fwd: Tea Eggs

2010-09-20T09:50:00.001-07:00

H just send me this from China, and now I want to try it out. I think I'll have to get some eggs at some point this week...

http://eatingchina.com/recipes/tea-egg.htm

Hayden :-)

Best lunch ever

2010-09-15T10:34:00.001-07:00

Baked potato with butter, fresh cracked pepper, sharp cheddar, green onion, sour cream, and baco fried onions, s (because we didn't have real bacon on hand)

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wishlist: super-bright cupcakes

2010-09-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know if these are even actually possible, but I found this picture somewhere and HAD to share. Look how fun they are!

I would frost them in white, fluffy frosting like clouds, and maybe throw some glitter on top for good measure.

link: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com: betty boza lifestyle - Google Search

2010-08-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com: betty boza lifestyle - Google Search

When I was a kid, I remember watching Aunt Betty's show on afternoon TV somewhere in the vicinity of the news (part of it? after it?), and I remember sometimes getting to try out new food if she happened to be testing recipes when we were around. And even when there aren't any recipes to test or shows to film, she always has good, hearty, mostly healthy food to eat and scads of recipes to share.

I like the reminder, too, that there aren't just people like Rachael Ray and Giada around-- there are tons of local cooks and tv stars around, and they all have something to say, too.

link: Corndog Maker

2010-07-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here

I do believe I need this thing. Sure, it's a unitasker, and sure, corndogs are really bad for me, but I love them and I would adore the ability to make them myself all the time always. Until I die of a heart attack.

man, i love classic ads: sugar

2010-07-21T22:45:00.001-07:00

Crubiscuits!

2010-07-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

An attack of the midnight munchies with no real food on the house led to me wAnting biscuits, and since I'm lazy, drop biscuits. I found a recipe, mixed it up, cooked it, and whAt I got was not drop biscuits, but was tasty. They looked like big cookies and tasted like really moist cookies, or biscuity bread, they stuck to the pan like cement, and they were exactly whAt I wanted. We've dubbed them crubiscuits because they seem to be somewhere between a crumpet and an American biscuit-- if crumpets were made of biscuits.

Recipe!

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
2 c milk, cold

Mix it all up, drop it on a very well greased pan, bake in the middle rack of a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, and there you go! Aunt Sami's Old Tyme Crubiscuits, just like gramma used to make!

wishlist: 3 Seasonal Blueberry Cocktails For Summer - Planet Green

2010-07-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

3 Seasonal Blueberry Cocktails For Summer - Planet Green: "Blueberry Basil
8 basil leaves
4 mint leaves
1 tsp raw sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
12 local blueberries
1 1/2 oz rum
Top with soda water
Garnish with more blueberries

Method

1. Muddle basil, mint, sugar, and lime juice in base of a shaker glass. Add blueberries and continue to muddle. Add rum and ice and shake. Fill tall glass with ice and strain muddled rum mixture into the glass and top with club soda. Garnish with more blueberries.

Recipe adapted from Art of the Drink.

Blueberry Julep
1 1/2 oz organic vodka
1/2 oz blueberry liqueur
1/2 oz simple syrup
� oz blueberry pur�e
Splash of sparkling wine
Garnish with mint

Method

1. Shake the vodka, liqueur, and simple syrup in a drink mixer. Top with puree and mix with a spoon. Top with champagne and garnish with mint.

Recipe adapted from The Nibble.

Acai Blueberry Mojito
2 oz organic vodka
� oz simple syrup
� oz acai juice
1 oz lime juice
Blueberries and mint leaves for garnish

Method

1. Shake the vodka, simple syrup, acai juice, and lime juice in a drink mixer. Garnish with blueberries and mint leaves."

from the comments on the previous post:

2010-06-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

So it's even more weird to blame him for blaming femininists, and it's really just a trigger-rant because the words were used that would make such a thing happen. And my point that we shouldn't get bogged down in the argument is even more valid. So there.

"Read what Pollan actually wrote, not the absurd rant posted here:

"But the [Food] movement’s interest in such seemingly mundane matters as taste and the other textures of everyday life is also one of its great strengths. Part of the movement’s critique of industrial food is that, with the rise of fast food and the collapse of everyday cooking, it has damaged family life and community by undermining the institution of the shared meal. Sad as it may be to bowl alone, eating alone can be sadder still, not least because it is eroding the civility on which our political culture depends.

That is the argument made by Janet Flammang, a political scientist, in a provocative new book called The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society. “Significant social and political costs have resulted from fast food and convenience foods,” she writes, “grazing and snacking instead of sitting down for leisurely meals, watching television during mealtimes instead of conversing”—40 percent of Americans watch television during meals—”viewing food as fuel rather than sustenance, discarding family recipes and foodways, and denying that eating has social and political dimensions.” The cultural contradictions of capitalism—its tendency to undermine the stabilizing social forms it depends on—are on vivid display at the modern American dinner table.

In a challenge to second-wave feminists who urged women to get out of the kitchen, Flammang suggests that by denigrating “foodwork”—everything involved in putting meals on the family table—we have unthinkingly wrecked one of the nurseries of democracy: the family meal. It is at “the temporary democracy of the table” that children learn the art of conversation and acquire the habits of civility—sharing, listening, taking turns, navigating differences, arguing without offending—and it is these habits that are lost when we eat alone and on the run. “Civility is not needed when one is by oneself.”"

The foodie indictment of feminism - Broadsheet - Salon.com

2010-06-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

The foodie indictment of feminism - Broadsheet - Salon.com

So Michael Pollan is probably some sort of food-loving saint. He's also, it seems, a kind of feminist-hater-- though I haven't personally seen enough evidence to say whether this is true, I can agree that he's, at the least, saying things in a thoughtless way that's calibrated to annoy certain kinds of people, and by stating them that way, makes it sound like he's willfully ignoring the role any men have in how our food culture is today.

I agree that, to some extent, the result of women going into the workforce is the proliferation of ready-made meals and such; it was useful and it was convenient. I also agree that the men involved should have taken up the slack and learned to cook a damn meal for themselves. But on the other hand, I think it's unfair to blame feminism because it wasn't just a choice: a lot of the time, it was a necessity, and suddenly being able to work made supporting a family on your own easier-- and now there's just not the option of being a housewife for many of us. Households at my tax bracket just can't survive on one income, and to still blame feminism for the necessity of working and therefore not making meals seems outdated and ridiculous. And the men in the equation still should have stepped up.

Tangled webs, these gender interactions. And the whole food culture issue is already tangled enough. Maybe we should just agree that stuff happened and as a result everything's all messed up and unbalanced, and now EVERYONE needs to step up and get involved and learn to cook and learn to garden and find local and sustainable sources of things. Men, women, children, governments, everyone. We're all to blame and we're all responsible for fixing it. The feminist / anti-feminist argument has a way of dislocating the arguments it gets drafted for, has a way of polarizing things that would otherwise not be polarized because as soon as someone plays that card, suddenly agreeing with part of the other side makes you a traitor, going along with even a fragment of the other side's option for fixing the problem means you aren't committed, and then nothing happens.

And in the food world, things need to happen. The whole industry needs to be overhauled, and if we're all standing around yelling at each other about whose fault it is, there's no way for us to address the fact that regardless of fault, it's killing our kids and burdening our society and weakening our country. The issue isn't who is to blame, it's how can we fix it, now, with our current resources.

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health, Revised and Expanded Edition (California Studies in Food and Culture)
Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

ETA: This reaction is entirely ignoring the fact that the decline of family togetherness as a whole contributes to the food-chain problems, that people these days seem to lack patience and manners (and since I work retail, I can say that) and therefore willingly choose the easy things, that fast food existed before the Fem Rev, that the government spends / spent a lot of time encouraging farmers to bail out / sell out / stop farming and therefore ruined the balance themselves, that most of the cutting-edge chefs in the world are men and that this sort of cooking is somehow different then women's cooking in or out of the home, the fact that whatever role feminism played in leaving the kitchen, it's really the marketing that got people to give up local, sustainable, healthier food in favor of shiny big-box stores that offer stuff all year round and make it easier to get ahold of pre-packaged stuff that they've been told is 'just as good as home made' when it isn't, that food isn't the only thing that's been impacted by the social changes of that time whether or not they can be directly associated with feminism or it's opposite, the fact that feminism didn't destroy the family so much as a bad set up of how a marriage and a family was supposed to be left millions of women willing to take any chance they got to get out of it as soon as divorce was allowed, and that that led to many households where there was only one breadwinner and so on, and on and on and on.

wishlist: Chai Tea Jello

2010-05-29T14:54:00.001-07:00

Maybe I'll try this one first; I'm much more likely to try something experimental with tea. And I do so love chai... In my head, it tastes like the one from Big Train, which is what my local cafe sells; I wonder if I could make it like a solid Big Train?

From: http://www.bakingaisle.com/2010/04/chai-tea-jello/#more-107

Chai Tea Jello

1/2 cup cold water

4 packets unflavored gelatin

2 cups boiling water

6 chai teabags

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

Thoroughly mix the gelatin with the cold water, and let sit on the counter.

Make the tea - put the tea bags in the boiling water, and let sit for 5-10 minutes. You want very, very strong tea.

Remove the tea bags, and stir the hot tea into the gelatin mixture until completely dissolved. Add the sweetened condensed milk and stir.

Pour into an 8-inch square pan, lightly greased or lined with parchment paper. Chill for 4 hours or until set.

wishlist: Coffee Jello

2010-05-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of Jello (I don't like eating things that dogs bark at), but my love of sweetened condensed milk and the fact that these are denser than regular jello might win out in the end.

From: http://foodlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/04/national-library-week-day-3-coffee.html

Coffee Jello / Coffee Gelatin
1/2 c cold water
2 cups strong coffee, hot. I used two packages of Starbucks Via. The coffee needs to be strong. This isn't the time for Sanka instant. :)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
3 packages of Knox unflavored gelatin

1. Place 1/2 c cold water in a bowl.
2. Sprinkle 3 unflavored gelatin packets over the water. Let sit until the gelatin blooms, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the hot coffee and mix until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
4. Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk.
5. Pour into glass pan. Thickness of finished jello depends on the size of the pan. I used a 7 x 11 pan but a 9 x 13 pan will give you thinner pieces and an 8 x 8 pan will give you thicker pieces.

Note: The combo of coffee and sweetened condensed milk is inspired by Vietnamese coffee. You can probably adapt this to use coffee or espresso, cream and sugar (be sure to dissolve the sugar in the hot coffee and gelatin).

link: Italian-Inspired Summer Supper Menu and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com

2010-05-25T20:46:00.001-07:00

Italian-Inspired Summer Supper Menu and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com

A whole summer meal from Martha

VAN LEEUWEN ARTISAN ICE CREAM

2010-05-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

VAN LEEUWEN ARTISAN ICE CREAM

How can you not love artisan icecream? I need it all.

wishlist: Ruby Press � Snickers Bar

2010-05-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ruby Press � Snickers Ba r

Home-made snickers? I'm there! Click through on this one: you've got to see the pictures.

wishlist: Kalyn's Kitchen: World's Best Tzatziki Sauce Recipe - Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Sauce

2010-05-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

Kalyn's Kitchen: World's Best Tzatziki Sauce Recipe - Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Sauce

We made something very much like this a while ago when we roasted some lamb, and since we had way more than we needed, we ate it on EVERYTHING and it was amazing. I need to make a new batch and just keep in in the fridge: it only gets better with age up to the point when the cukes just go off.

Hmm... shopping list...

Recipe Chimp

2010-05-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Recipe Chimp

A fun recipe search engine where you put in what you have and it tells you what you can make!

current favorite breakfast

2010-05-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Is, simply, fresh strawberries and Stonyfield Farms vanilla yogurt. According to the interwebs, six strawberries is a serving, so I've been chopping six straight from the fridge into a cup of yogurt in a bowl, and it's cool and refreshing, and delicious and perfectly early-summer. We get strawberries in the winter here, but this winter was bad and the local strawberries were bland and white and horrible-- but wherever these are coming from, whether it's local or imported, they're perfect. Ripe all the way through, full of flavor, sweet enough to stand up to yogurt without needing extra sugar, and tart enough to not be cloying.

I wonder if they're still on sale at the store? I'm almost out...

wishlist: honey and riccotta tart

2010-05-06T08:01:00.001-07:00

Ricotta and Honey Tart

By Christine Gallary
Honey and lemon zest flavor this tart made of ricotta cheese. A crisp crust and crunchy almond topping sandwich the creamy filling.
Game plan: Drain the ricotta of excess moisture by placing it in a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, weigh the cheese down with a heavy object, and refrigerate overnight.
TIME/SERVINGS
Total Time: 1 hr 40 mins, plus time to drain the cheese
Active Time: 15 mins
Makes: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS
For the crust:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon loosely packed, finely grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

For the filling:
1 pound ricotta cheese, drained overnight (see “Game plan” note above)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup clover honey
1 tablespoon loosely packed, finely grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
INSTRUCTIONS
For the crust:

Place melted butter, sugar, zest, and salt in a large bowl and stir until combined. Add flour and stir just until a soft dough forms, about 1 minute.
Evenly arrange small pieces of dough over the bottom of a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom. Using a measuring cup or your fingers, press the dough to form an even layer over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, flouring the cup or your fingers as needed.
Cover the tart shell with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
When the shell is chilled, prick it all over with a fork and place it on a baking sheet. Bake until golden brown all over, about 20 to 25 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

For the filling:

Place drained ricotta, eggs, honey, zest, and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Process, stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is smooth and combined, about 1 minute.
Spread the filling in the warm tart shell and evenly sprinkle almonds over top. Bake until the center is just set, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely on a rack before serving.

link: Tea & Cookies: My Summer Secret Weapon: Mugicha

2010-05-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

Tea & Cookies: My Summer Secret Weapon: Mugicha

I'm making the first pot of mugicha of the summer. That's how you can be absolutely sure that it's past spring, no matter what the calendar says.

letters to the aether, food edition

2010-05-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Jamie Oliver,

Sure you can ride one of my personal hobbyhorses. You scare those kids about what's in their food all you want.

Love,
Me

Design*Sponge � Blog Archive � behind the bar: lavender lemonade

2010-05-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

Design*Sponge � Blog Archive � behind the bar: lavender lemonade

This sounds both chic and delicious, as well as being unusual and therefore totally awesome. Must try.

Corn Cakes Recipe - An Easy and Tasty Appetizer Recipe

2010-04-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

Corn Cakes Recipe - An Easy and Tasty Appetizer Recipe

We made these for dinner, topped with sourcream and fresh salsa, took them downtown, and ate them at the tables at work while the sun slid behind the buildings and the light was fresh and just a little yellowed (not anywhere near how burned-golden it'll be when it hits summer), and the birds were coming home to roost. It was lovely. I'm so going to miss the spring when it's good and done-- and it's already feeling like summer in places that have milder summers.

The best part? It cost less than 10$ and was entirely vegetarian (though nowhere near vegan), and we didn't even mind that we were too lazy to cook chicken for it. It's definitely going into the Make This Again File and in the Good basic Recipe To Know File.

ETA: Here's the recipe, and some pictures:

"Makes 10-15 (depending on the size).
Ingredients
1 cup fresh Corn kernels
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup plain flour
1 Tbsp Baking powder
Salt to taste
1-1/2 cups water
1 bunch Spring onions (greens only, chopped)
Pepper to taste
Oil to shallow fry
4 Tbsp melted Butter
Method
Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt, in a large bowl. Slowly, add the water until the mixture is the consistency of a thick cake batter.
Stir in the corn, spring onions and black pepper.
In a large frying pan/skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp full of batter into the skillet to make a 2-inch cake. Make the cakes in batches of 4-5 or less, without over crowding the pan. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden on the bottom. Turn and cook the other side 3 to 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat and brush with melted butter.
Refill the oil as needed.
Recipe contributed by Amy from Los Angeles (U.S). "

Berry Tart Recipe With Picture - Joyofbaking.com Tested Recipe

2010-04-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

Berry Tart Recipe With Picture - Joyofbaking.com *Tested Recipe*

I spent an hour this morning finding new and inventive ways to knock the higher-up mulberries down (still leaving the top of the tree for the birds), and gathered another two baggies full, then filled up the bag of the white ones, which seem to be catching up to the black ones now that they're almost done. That brings us to a total of ten bags, nine black and one white, which is more than enough for a batch of mulberry jam, and about half enough for white mulberry jam.

I'd sort of intended to make a mulberry pie today, but I found blackberries on a steep sale at WinnDixie-- three packs for five dollars!!!-- and so I'm using the recipe above to make little individual blackberry tarts instead. I have no idea how big they'll be, but the ball of dough that's chilling in the fridge isn't very big... Maybe I'll just make one big one after all. Then we get a better fruit-to-crust ratio each.

Time to go check on the dough. I'll let you know how the pie goes, and maybe I'll even have pictures, since I finally remembered to recharge my camera!

Tasty Treats to Make With Mulberries | Wise Bread

2010-04-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Tasty Treats to Make With Mulberries | Wise Bread

Muffins and syrup and pies, Oh my!

mulberries!

2010-04-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of living in Florida is that our stupidly-hot summers mean we get really early springs and therefore I get mulberries before anyone else on my flist (on any of the profiles, of which there are many). Last year, all spring long I got a grand total of one ziploc bag full of berries; this year, maybe because the winter was more... winterly... or because Jay cut a bunch of the branches off last fall, we're having a massive bumpercrop. They're literally falling out of the tree. All over the car* and where we park the bikes, all over the stairs and parts of the porch, there are little black gems glistening in the sunshine and slowly turning to a beautiful purple mash on every surface.

So for the last week, D and I have been spending a half hour or so each at different times of the day to gather the berries, mostly off the ground since the branches are all high like woah now that the low ones were cut, and it's been literally pounds of fruit. Half and hour twice a day for the last three days, and we've got seven or eight stuffed full ziplocs in the freezer just waiting for the fruit-rain to stop so I know no more will be coming and I can make jam**. Sweet, delicious, red-purple jam, using my new canning tools that I bought when we were wandering around walmart and found the corner of kitchen goods devoted to canning.

This isn't my picture, but it's exactly what our berries look like (only, you know, more Florida-ish):

And, like, absolutely encrusted with berries. Black and red like those blackberry-raspberry gummy things H likes. And on the other side of the driveway, there's this shrub that I swear was a hibiscus last year, a big red one, but this year grows back and happens to be a mulberry too, only as the big one is getting dark and juicy, this one keeps staying green, and I'm all 'WTF mulberry?' I was poking around on it today, and it turns out that it's different-- it's a white mulberry!

It was literally getting just as ripe, but neither I nor the birds could see it, because they look almost the same ripe as they do unripe-- they just get glossier and barely tinged pink instead of yellow-green. They're sweeter and lighter in flavor, and not as prolific, and seem to be later ripeners, since most of them aren't dropping while the black ones are all over the ground and my hands and my feet, but the tree has tons of berry action happening, and I've started a baggie of white ones, so maybe I'll make a batch of white mulberry jam, too, if I produces at least three pounds of fruit***.

I don't know about anyone else, but when I'm harvesting, I leave some of the low ones for the crawling animals, and I don't even try to get the high ones, but leave them for the flying animals, and I totally claim all the ones in between for myself. Sustainable and delicious. And later, after all the fruit has gone to dirt and the seeds have started sprouting, I'll go looking in the corners of the yard for babies, and pot them up and protect them. I had a few before the Killing Summer****, and I think it's time to get more.

So! In a week or two, I'll be making jam, and I'll share the recipe with pictures and all, and then I'll probably make a tea cake, because I absolutely love a nice dense British sponge cake with jam between the layers. We'll have High Tea on the back porch before it gets too hot and / or buggy.

ETA:
Apparently, mulberries are superfoods. I went back and did a quick google and came up with all sorts of info on how full of antioxidants they are, and what to do with them.

*The car is quite colorful now, what with the yellow and brown pollen and the purple-red berries...
**And waiting for me to get new jars, since most of the old ones have been thrown out with the dregs of various old leftovers that got pushed to the back of the fridge and became unidentifiable.
***Because that's the recipe I use. I could cut it, I guess, if I really want white jam...
****You know, it was the spring before the Killing Summer, now that I think about it, that made so many berries before; maybe lots of mulberries = rough summer; we'll have to keep track of that.

It's Ready! - David Lebovitz

2010-04-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's Ready! - David

I love a cookbook with a lot of pictures-- I'm very visual, and the more I know what something is supposed to look like, the easier it is to figure out how the recipe is supposed to go. And this one looks gorgeous. I've been reading David Lebovitz's blog for a year or two now, and it's always amazing. Beautiful and decadent and, best of all, honest about when things go wrong and what he did about them.

I think I need to find this book...

a food origins map

2010-03-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

Free, pretty and printable! (in pdf form)

http://www.chewonthis.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/FoodOriginsMap.pdf

oh, interwebs, what interesting things you bring me...

2010-03-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

I was blog-hopping through links the other day, and I wound up on TLC's Cooking pages, and found the following really interesting lists:

12 items at a feast for Henry the Eighth: I'm especially amazed by facts like this "Historians estimate that 600,000 gallons of ale (enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool) and around 75,000 gallons of wine (enough to fill 1,500 bathtubs) were drunk every year at Hampton Court Palace. "

7 Banned foods: Maggot Cheese anyone?

The world's most expensive foods: Diamond-encrusted fruitcake? Really?

45 common foods and their calories: A little scary sometimes, but a useful resource to keep around.

Favorite pizza toppings in 10 countries: Russia's favorite seems especially vile, but a Curry Pizza actually sounds really good.

20 things you don't know about popcorn: Makes me want some popcorn now...

dietary requirements

2010-03-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

I have so much food to post. I need a better way to get it from my camera to my computer since the dog likes to steal the transfer cable and chew it into submission...

But right now, I want to take a few moments to talk about diet. Not a diet, but diet. Lately, we've been eating horrifically because we've all been working so much-- there have been a few wonderful breaks from that, but mostly we-- and especially I-- have been giving in to the Fast Food Fairy and eating far too much of it. And recently, H and I gave up High Fructose Corn Syrup. I gave it up pretty successfully a few years ago and dropped ten pounds without trouble, but it's everywhere, and my love of sweet bbq sauce, sweet and sour sauce and rootbeer combined to let it back in.

Shame on me. Especially since the problems with it have been proven, and I knew all of them* beforehand**.

So I haven't been losing weight, my stomach's been a mess, and I can feel gall-bladder issues coming on. And it's really all my own fault.

So I'm trying to clean it up again. It's classic entropy-- you get a collection of meals you like and can easily make and they're healthy and lovely, and then you get busy at work and eat a burrito from Taco Bell or whatever, and the next thing you know, it's two months later and you're hardly eating any real food at all. After I get to the bank, I'm portioning out monies for staples. We're way low on the sorts of things that make good food, and I, personally, haven't gone grocery shopping in ages. I wish we had a real grocery (not just a boutique over-priced grocery) closer to home so I could just bike down each day and shop European-style. I hate having to plan a week or two in advance; how am I supposed to know what I'm going to want to eat a half-month from now? Or waht veggies and fruits will be perfect then? Or what my schedule will be like?***

I think I've lost the point of this post.

So I'll try to salvage something out of it:

I want more veggies, and the time to turn them into good, wholesome food without having to only eat it raw because I don't have time to cook. I'm craving a salad like woah. Seriously like woah. That's a real level of measurement.

I want to make my own bread. It's not hard, it just feels like a lot of work because of the whole rise for three hours thing.

I want to shop as much at real markets as I can, and I'm sad that the farmer's markets are only open twice a week, and that it's almost impossible to get to one of them because of foodtail's need of weekend work.

I'm going to wean myself back off the fast food and up the activity level. The weather's great, and I need more exercize anyway, especially since it will be almost impossible to move once the heat sets in. D's necks cut is hydrogenated oils, which pretty much leaves us with home-made food only. We'll have to set up, like, days for cooking ahead-- days when we can make a whole bunch of granola bars or prosperity-cake breakfast bars (that's one of the posts I need to post!) or cook up chicken and freeze it so we can just thaw and toss it into a salad or something.

I still have tons of miso. That stuff really doesn't go bad, and, actually, it sort of ages into something with more complexity of flavor. Best of all, it's super-healthy. Even the salt is better than regular salt (it's been fermented, and it breaks down better in the system. And I'm pretty sure I could use a little higher blood pressure anyway).

So yeah. That's where I'm at.

*They are the following:
- HFCS makes you fatter, faster
- The specific forms of fat are the worst kind to have
- It's technically like table sugar, but by breaking it up, it absorbs into the body faster and it doesn't trigger the 'full' feeling, making you eat more
- It damages the organs, either through direct action or through secondary action
** I looked them up when D went off the HFCS and I read some frothing-at-the-mouth crazies blaming it for the fall of western civilization to see what was truth and what wasn't. I try to stay what you call grounded in fact, especially with info I get off forums on the interwebs.
*** These are more things that are to be addressed in my Life Makeover as I look for a better job out of the retail / hospitality / foodtail business. Fixes to them count as part of a good job.

proof in the hfcs debate

2010-03-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

From Princeton, no less. Read here.

Results:

The first experiment — male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.

The second experiment — the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals — monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds.

wishlist: country captain

2010-03-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

I've had curry in styles from India, Japan, England, China, Vietnam, Canada, and probably more, but I had no idea that the south, only a few hours from here, has a version of curry, too. Apparently, Savannah was a major stop on the spice trade, and people stationed in India brought the recipe back with them, and it's since mutated into southern cooking to become Country Captain. I'm so very curious about this.

Country Captain
adapted from The Lee Brothers

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1/4 pound slab bacon or fatty country ham, chopped
12 chicken thighs, skin on, trimmed of excess skin and fat
1 large flavorful dried chile, such as guajillo or pasilla, split, seeds removed
2 1/3 cups peeled and sliced carrots (1/4-inch thick rounds), about 1 1/4 pound bunch weighed with tops
2 cups diced yellow bell peppers, about 2 peppers
2 cups diced yellow onions, about 2 medium onions
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with juice
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
4 cups cooked white rice
2/3 cup slivered toasted almonds, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Pour the broth into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Put the currants in a small bowl and pour enough broth over them to cover. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine the curry powder, garam masala, salt, and black pepper and reserve.

3. Scatter the bacon in a 4 to 6 quart enameled cast-iron pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir the pieces around occasionally until the bacon is firm and just golden brown, about 5 minutes. With the slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a small bowl and reserve.

4. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot, reserving the excess fat in a small bowl. Brown the chicken thighs in batches over medium-high heat, taking care not to crowd them in the pot, until they are golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Add the reserved bacon fat, 1 teaspoon at a time, if the pot becomes too dry. Remove the chicken and reserve in a medium bowl.

5. Add 2 teaspoons reserved bacon fat to the pot (if there is none left, use 2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil). Add the chile and toast the chile in the fat, about 30 seconds per side, until very fragrant.

6. Add the carrots, bell peppers, onions, and garlic and cook until slightly softened, about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes, spice mixture, ginger, and the currants and their broth. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the tomatoes have cooked down to a puree and the sauce has thickened around the vegetables, about 8 minutes.

7. Nest the chicken thighs gently in the vegetable sauce so that the skin side faces up and is above the surface of the gravy. Tent the pot loosely with foil and transfer to the middle rack of the oven. Bake until the country captain resembles a roiling stew around the chicken thighs, about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the sauce has thickened further and the chicken skin is just beginning to crisp, about 15 minutes more.

8. Remove from the oven, skim any excess fat from the surface, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard the chile. With tongs, transfer 3 thighs to each of 4 wide, deep bowls filled with 1 cup hot white rice. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and the rice and garnish with the reserved bacon, almonds, and parsley.

FROM: Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy.

wishlist: compost cookies

2010-03-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

Oh Em Gee, this is about the sexiest idea I ever did see. Next day off (if I'm not adopting my friend's cat that day), I'm totally cleaning out the pantry and making these cookies. From David Lebovitz, from the Amateur Gourmet.

The Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie
recipe by Christina Tosi
(Courtesy of Regis & Kelly's website)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (that's two sticks, unsalted)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 Tbsp corn syrup [Note: I left this out; not because I'm against corn syrup, I just didn't have it. The cookies came out fine, though may have had a nicer sheen with the syrup.]
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsps Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups your favorite baking ingredients (options: chocolate chips, Raisenettes, Rollos, Cocoa Krispies)
1 1/2 cups your favorite snack foods (chips, pretzels, etc.)

Note: as said above, I used chopped up bittersweet chocolate and crushed pretzels. Next time I'd definitely add potato chips.

1. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugars and corn syrup on medium high for two to three minutes until fluffy and pale yellow in color. Scrape down the sides with a spatula.

2. On a lower speed, add eggs and vanilla to incorporate.

Increase mixing speed to medium-high and start a timer for 10 minutes. During this time the sugar granules will fully dissolve, the mixture will become an almost pale white color and your creamed mixture will double in size.

3. When time is up, on a lower speed, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Mix 45 - 60 seconds just until your dough comes together and all remnants of dry ingredients have incorporated. Do not walk away from your mixer during this time or you will risk over mixing the dough. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula.

4. On the same low speed, add in the hodgepodge of your favorite baking ingredients and mix for 30 - 45 seconds until they evenly mix into the dough. Add in your favorite snack foods last, paddling again on low speed until they are just incorporated.

[Note: eating this cookie dough raw is dangerously good.]

5. Using a 6 oz. ice cream scoop (I'm not sure how many ounces mine is, but it worked well), portion cookie dough onto a parchment lined sheetpan.

6. Wrap scooped cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour or up to 1 week.

DO NOT BAKE your cookies from room temperature or they will not hold their shape.

7. Heat the oven to 400 F. Take the plastic off your cookies and bake 9 to 11 minutes. While in the oven, the cookies will puff, crackle and spread.

At 9 minutes, the cookies should be browned on the edges and just beginning to brown towards the center. Leave the cookies in the oven for the additional minutes if these colors don't match up and your cookies still seem pale and doughy on the surface.

8. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pan (good luck!) before transferring to a plate or an airtight container or tin for storage. At room temp, they'll keep five days.

wishlist: samoa cheese tart

2010-03-06T09:54:00.001-08:00

Something like a cheese cake and something like a samoa and something like heaven in my mouth. Must make it, like, now. And every day hereafter.

1 box Samoa cookies 3 Tbsp. butter, melted 8 oz. cold cream cheese (one package) 8 oz. cold mascarpone cheese 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 cups dulce de leche, divided (you can make your own or buy it premade) 1 cup flaked coconut 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted. Put cookies into a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Combine with butter and press into 9 or 10 inch tart pan, preferably one with a removable bottom. In another bowl, combine cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar, and dulce de leche (and try not to lick the bowl clean). Beat on medium-speed until blended, about two minutes. Pour filling into tart shell and refrigerate for at least two hours. Toast coconut in a skillet on medium heat until it browns, being careful not to let it burn. When tart is thoroughly chilled, spoon remaining dulce de leche onto top. Sprinkle coconut on and drizzle melted chocolate over top.

the paleolithic diet

2010-03-06T08:54:00.001-08:00

... no, really, what people in paleolithic times ate.

A group of scientists over at the University of Canada have discovered extensive use of grains centuries before farming, which kind of puts a crimp in the whole 'paleolithic diet' idea, and it means that we're cleverer and more ingenious and more omnivorous as a species that people ever thought. Also, it maybe explains my deep-seated love of 'drates; I never went on the South Beach Diet or the Atkins Diet because they restrict the carbs I'm allowed to have, and I just can't live without bread. I can stand shifting what kinds of bread I have, but not the very existence of it.

I'd rather be fat, thank you.

Anyway, the study shows that wild sorghum and other grass grains were gathered and processed in bulk in a manner equivalent to how it was done after the advent of farming, and since all these grains were found with bones of things we already know they ate, we can assume they were eating the grains too (although it would be awesome if there was some totally unbeknownst use for ground and boiled grains that didn't involve eating...). It doesn't say in the article, but the forum I found the link in points out that the simplest and most 'primitive' way to eat grains is just to crack or crush them, boil them, and eat them like porridge. Which sounds awesome to me.

I've had oat porridge, of course (as well as oatzoto, oats prepared like risotto), and I've had cream of wheat and grits / corn pudding / polenta, but I'm woefully illiterate in the wider array of grains cooked this way. It's one of the things I meant to get to when I was eating strictly seasonally last year, but we never had the money for a real investment in grains; without a Whole Foods or a decent bulk grocery around here, they're expensive and hard to find, and online shops sell them for, like, seventy-seven million dollars an ounce (this may be exaggeration).

Still, if it was good enough for cave men...

bread: home made pretzels

2010-02-19T11:37:00.001-08:00

Homemade Pretzels
Combine in a large bowl:

½ cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast

Allow the yeast to fully dissolve (about 5 minutes).

Add:

1 ½ cups organic all purpose flour
1 ½ cups organic bread flour
2 tbsp local butter, melted
1 tbsp raw sugar

Mix by hand while slowly adding:

½ cup warm water

Method

1. Stir ingredients until it comes out to a smooth, moist dough. Knead for about 10 minutes, but do not over knead so that the dough becomes rubbery.

2. Transfer dough to a bowl coated with olive oil. Turn the dough until it becomes lightly coated with olive oil. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and place in the oven (makes sure it's off) to rise for about 1 ½ hours.

3. Punch down the dough using a closed fist to release some of the gases created by the fermentation process. Then divide into 12 pieces. Each piece should be about 2 ounces. Roll each into a ball. Brush each with olive oil and let rest under a clean cloth for ten minutes.

4. Roll each ball out into an 18-inch rope. Form into pretzels by pulling the ends towards you to create an oval, but do not join the ends.

5. Cross the ends, twist, and connect an end at 3 o'clock and the other at 7 o'clock. Lightly press each end into the dough to create the classic pretzel shape.

6. Place the pretzels on a greased baking sheet and let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fill a large pot half full with water (8 cups) and bring to boil. Add 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp of baking soda.

8. Turn the water down to a simmer. Gently add each pretzel into the mixture and cook for about 30 seconds. Flip and cook on the other side for about 30 seconds, until puffed.

9. Transfer to a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.

10. Bake until pretzels begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Brush with melted butter and allow to bake until golden brown.

bread: traditional tuscan loaf

2010-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

I want to try this so bad. I love, love, LOVE making bread, and the more rustic, the better as far as I'm concerned. And there's more bread recipes here.

Traditional Tuscan Loaf
2 cups lukewarm water
3 1/4 cup organic all-purpose flour
1 cup organic whole wheat flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Using the dough hook tool on a large mixing bowl (you could also do this by hand) combine water, 3/4 cup organic all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 package dry yeast for 1 minute.

2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours. The dough will ferment into a bubbly, doughy mixture.

3. Slowly add the remainder of the flour and the olive oil gradually until the dough forms. The dough will be a bit sticky and pretty elastic. This should take about 15 minutes.

4. Coat a large bowl with olive oil and add the dough ball, turning so that the dough is lightly coated with olive oil. Allow to rise for about 2 hours, until it's doubled in size.

5. Punch down the dough and shape into a round loaf by working in a downward movement underneath the bread.

6. Transfer the dough to a greased baking sheet and lightly cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in an oven that's turned off for about 1 1/2 hours.

7. Score the bread in a hatching manner.

8. Place a baking sheet onto the bottom rack of the oven.

9. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

10. Place the greased baking sheet holding the dough onto the middle oven rack and fill the empty baking sheet with a cup of very hot water.

11. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown.

12. Allow to cool completely on a rack.

Recipe: The Joy of Cooking

news: more from planet green

2010-02-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

Apparently, turmeric can kill cancer cells in the gullet in under 24 hours, which means there's more reason than ever to eat curry. And other turmeric things. And I think you can buy the whole root as an Asian medicine and make tea from it... I think. It was a while ago that I was reading up on intestinal things, and I may be remembering wrong.

Anyway, here's another lovely-sounding recipe, from Akasha Richmond:

Turmeric Seared Pears with Arugula with Goat Cheese, Goji Berries & Pine Nuts

A recipe from Chef Akasha Richmond

Tue Nov 11, 2008 09:45 AM ET

Planet Green

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For the salad:
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 small-medium Bosc pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons wildflower honey
4 ounces arugula, washed and dried
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
4 teaspoons goji berries
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

For the vinaigrette:
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons wildflower honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:
Heat the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

When the butter is melted and sizzling, add the turmeric, let sizzle for 5-10 seconds, (turmeric should darken), then add the honey.

Add the pear slices in a single layer, season with a pinch of salt, and cook turning once, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Transfer the pears to a plate.

Make the vinaigrette by combining the vinegar, honey, and salt. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, season with freshly ground black pepper.

Toss the mache with some of the vinaigrette and the goat cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Top with the pears, pine nuts, and goji berries.

news: planet green wants to make sure we get all our vitamin d

2010-02-19T11:09:00.000-08:00

And it offers this delicious-sounding smoothie recipe:

Stress Reducing Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
2 organic bananas
1 tbsp organic creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp local raw honey
6 oz organic vanilla soy milk
4 cubes ice

Blend until smooth and combined. Enjoy.

ingredient spotlight: asian-market fried red onions

2010-02-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

Picture from http://celiac-disease.com because I'm too busy eating them to take my own picture when the Interwebs are right there with the very picture I need.

Anyway.

Somewhere along the line, I developed a severe addiction to fried onions. It started with some crispy little morsels from the salad isle of WalMart, and progressed to the big ol' jar you see above from the Asian Market, because it's a bigger jar for cheaper, and it has no weird stabilizers or anything. And because they're awesome.

See, a serving is a tablespoon, and they've got, like, 30 or 40 calories per serving, and they're loaded with flavor-- crispy, crunchy, sweet, oniony, fried-food flavor.

I throw them into everything. My Good Ramen (the kind from the Asian Market with, like, five seasoning packs that contain real soy sauce and little veggies and flavored oil as well as MSG-powder). My miso soup (which also has wakame, bonito, sesame and nori in it most days). On salads. On casseroles. Out of my hand. On savory sandwiches. On rice, with furikake of various flavors. On potatoes with butter, cheese, salt and pepper. On quiche.

I bet they'd be good in crackers or savory cookies and muffins.

They're so delicious, so much flavor for so little stuff!

dear friends

2010-01-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

We just got an icecream maker from a friend who was moving. Expect the occasional weird ice cream recipe / experiment in the coming months. I'm continuing my seasonal eating to get all my research done before I write the book, so they should be really weird on occasion. But when they happen depends entirely on when I have decent days off and how well I manage to get myself organized again.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

Orange-chocolate

Lemon

Lemon-lavender

Rose petal

Thai Tea

Violet

Caramelized white-chocolate

Green tea

Green-tea and rose

Persimmon

Apple pie

... I don't even know what all. I made a list of fudges I'd like to try once, and I think most of those flavors would do well for ice cream, too, but I can't find the scrap of register paper I had it all written on just now. I'm sure it's in one of the five or so catch-all boxes around my space...

Love,

Updates of updatiness!

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

I'm now on CookEatShare, hob-nobbing with all the chefs! Come visit me.

d food: trout with sundried-tomato tapanade and orange-walnut salad

2010-01-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

None of us had ever had trout before, but since it was in season and cheaper than salmon, which we all know we like, D decided to get it and cook it up. He left the skin on and oven-baked it with orange juice, olive oil, and a blenderized mix of sun-dried tomatoes, a few olives, toasted walnuts, and Mediterranean seasonings, salt and pepper. For the side, he mixed baby spinach, orange wedges, more spinach, and a home-made citrus vinaigrette. There was crusty Italian bread from the bakery.

And it was awesome.

A little sweet, a little salty, very rich and flavorful, and different than anything else we've eaten-- and therefore outside the realm of our standards. D doesn't really use recipes, and doesn't really take notes as he cooks, but this is easily replicable.

revving of the engines

2010-01-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hello! It's been far too long, hasn't it? I got into sort of a horrible funk compounded of poorness and bad health and a steep slide into unsatisfactory food at the end of last year, but there were glimmers of good, and I'll be posting them this week and next week to catch you all up-- and I'm back to paying attention to what I'm eating, and therefore I'll be taking pictures of the food, and that means I'll be posting more again! Yay!

So stay tuned!

oh, the lack of decent food!

2009-12-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

You'd think that working two jobs would give me more money to get food with, but you'd inexplicably be wrong. The reason I haven't posted anything in so long is because we've been soooooooooooo poor that we haven't even been able to buy groceries, and therefore we haven't made anything in ages (well, we made fried chicken last night, but I forgot to take pictures because I was so unused to the idea by now).

I plan to scrape up money for the holiday baking I didn't get to before Christmas, but who knows if I'll be able to-- I also planned to make preserves and didn't.*

I want to bake cookies. This has been such a crappy year that I'm craving all things normal and traditional that will assure me that life is moving on and that things still flow as they should. ::sigh:: I want my mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sugar cookies and Peanut Butter Cookies. And I want sugarplums, which I managed to make three years in a row, but couldn't afford this year. And I want to try new things, like fruit candies and new flavors of cookies.

So we'll see how the new year goes. I've got to save up for School and a Laptop and ICFA and running shoes and school loans and paying off the backlog of bills I owe my room mates, but maybe I can manage it... Flour and sugar are cheap, right? And I've still got all those acorns to make into flour, and there's going to be rowan berries as soon as the frost makes them edible...

* This is why I'm extending my Year of Living Seasonally-- to fill in the gaps I couldn't make work this time, and the hardness will work into the text. Also, I need to get all my research and interviewing done.

carribbean mash

2009-12-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

Last night, we had porkchops cooked with one of those ready-made seasonings-- the citrus one-- in a roasting bag, and for a side, we had this amazing and original mash that D discovered in a dream:

He took red potatoes and boiled them with green plantains, to start, adding the plantains a few minutes after the potatoes because they don't take as long to cook. He said that they boil nicely, but they make weird black bubbles that are kind of alarming, though they drain away like any other boiling water.

While they were cooking, he sautéed peppers, onions and garlic.

Once everything was done, he mashed it all together with salt and pepper, and it was really amazing. The red potatoes already make a pretty smooth mash, but the plantains made it almost creamy, and gave it a little tang like they'd been made with buttermilk. The slight fruityness of it went really well with the citrus porkchops, and mellowed the onions and garlic so that all the flavors blended better than they do with just potatoes. And they tasted excellent with the citrusy meat-juice left in the roasting bag.

Keeper!

crisis food

2009-11-04T07:56:00.001-08:00

You know how when things get really tough and then something breaks and you have the whole world tumbling down around you, all you want to do is eat? Well, I do. I'm totally a stress-eater, which is even worse of an idea than otherwise, because I pretty much lose my appetite and forget to eat when I'm lingering around hospitals and propping up others' wellbeing and not sleeping.

But last night, we had a lovely, hearty and sleep-inducing meal of rotisserie chicken, potato salad and mac and cheese, provided by the lovely E and her generous trip to the Publix Deli-- because she didn't have time to bake a casserole, and food is what you bring to a house with Bad Things Happening. And before that, it was midnight Steak-and-Shake with lots of fries and extra fat and salt. Does stress use up your electrolytes the way being sick does? Salt was the main reason for eating that night.

When I was living at home with my sister and my mom, crisis food was crepes with Nutella and strawberries. I've been craving it since we came home that day when Bad Things Started, and if I ever have free time again (or if I just can't handle trying to get the editing or the writing done between my two jobs), I think I'm going to plunder the fridge for some eggs and see what we can do... Strawberries aren't seasonal, but neither is crisis, and it's better to break an eating habit than to die because I forgot to eat or couldn't have the only thing I wanted.

seasonality for wk 42: second week of october

2009-10-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hello my lovelies! It's been ages, I know, but I've got a series of posts about the Epcot Food and Wine Fest that we went to last weekend that should make up for it. But now, Seasonality:

It's definitely getting Fall-ish here on the List. Citruses are slipping, and berries are all but gone, except for Rowan, Juniper and Elder, which are coming on. Persimmons, Pomegranates, Figs and Dates are all in season, so it's starting to feel pretty exotic around the produce aisles. Stone fruits are still around, but they're not so common on the lists, and will probably be gone soon, so make your peach jam while you can; I'm seeing if I can manage it in the super-tight budget. Squash and Zucchini are still around, but they're more likely to be the huge monsters that happen when you can't eat them as fast as they grow, and Winter Squash is moving in-- I think I'm going to try to make pumpkin butter this year, and when we carve the halloween pumpkins, I'm making more of the pumpkin broth we made from the scraps last year, because it was awesome with sage and thyme as a soup base.

What else? Herbs are still going strong, but the tenderer ones are giving way to the hardier ones like Sage and Rosemary. Nuts are coming in, and I couldn't be happier; alot of my protein comes from them anyway. I'm keeping an eye out for Chestnuts, and I wish I had the ability to grow the seeds here, so that I could have them all the time (in fall) for free. Meats are almost all in season now, and the hunting seasons are all on; I should see if there's somewhere around here where I can get rabbit or venison or something exotic to the city like that. Tomatoes are moving down the list, but will likely stay available here in Florida until, like, Christmas. Yay mild winters! Boo continued oppressive heat!

seasonality for wk36: first week of september

2009-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

New:Cranberries!, Pears for sure now, Partridge, Turkey, Celeriac is back, Pumpkins and Quince are coming in, Rutabegas, Elderberries, Juniper Berries, Durians, Endive, Acorn Squash, Diakon, Ginger, Huckelberries are on more than just the one list now, Kumquats (even though I think they've been in people's yards here for a few weeks), Persimmons, Pomegranates!, Jujubes, Guajes (the pods of a leguminous tree), Soybeans and Edamame, Lemongrass, Spiny Lobster, Broccoli Raab, Escarole

Out:

Nectarines are sliding off a few of the lists, Sharlyn Melons, Chioggia Beets, Shallots, Samphire, Watermelon except here in the far south, Dab, Longans, Key Lime (and I didn't even make one pie), Ackee, Cherries, Whitecurrants, Elderflowers

All and all, it's starting to look like fall, but the list is still growing more than it's losing.

My 100th Post!

2009-08-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

And what am I going to do to commemorate it? I'm going to tell you about our Ethnic Market haul.

At the Indian Market:

- Rose water

- Ribena

- Rose petal spread

- Smarties

- Bueno Bar

Total: 14.50

At the Asian Market:

- Six different Mi Goreng meals

- A box of oolong

- Soba noodles

- A bakery-fresh bean bun

- A bakery-fresh pork bun

- A bakery-fresh purple yam bun

- Two different kinds of aloe drink

- Young coconut juice

- Roasted coconut juice

- A huge tub of miso

Total: 20$

Excellent.

And we ate at India's Restaurant, and tonight we're eating home-made beuff bourgignon, and I'll have posts of those excellent meals later. Now, I'm exhausted and I need a nap.

Happy 100th Post!

loaded yellow rice

2009-08-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

Start by boiling a whole chicken, then use that broth to cook the rice-- adding chopped tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic, a can of drained corn and a can of drained black beans. When it's ready, sred up the chicken you made and mix that in with about a cup of shredded cheddar and pepper to taste.

Delicious!

tandoori chicken

2009-08-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

We had these packs of tandoori sauce mix that H had picked up at the Indian market, and we were low on foods, so he decided to make them. I slivered the chicken-- a few boneless breasts-- and he marinated them in the mix, lemon and lime juice and some cider vinegar (because we didn't have as much juice as the recipe called for), and sour cream (because we didn't have the plain yogurt the recipe called for). An hour or so later, he made little tandoors out of tin foil, and baked the chicken in the packets. Then he steamed edamame, and made rice with a bullion cube, black pepper and cilantro, and we ate it all together.

It was delicious. Spicy, but not too hot to eat, filling in small amounts, and good for us.

experiments: home-made rose tea

2009-08-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

I've randomly found a good spot that my rose plant likes, and it's been putting out one or two roses all summer. Not quite the profusion our friends E and D around the corner have with their roses, but enough for me, who wants them, but has never been able to grow them. So this most recent round, I let them bloom, then when they started looking too-open, I clipped the rose, pulled off the petals, and layered them in a jar with China Black tea that I'd bought in bulk a while ago.

The first infusion seems to have been a success; when I added the second-rose's worth of petals, i dumped the whole thing into a bowl and all teh petals were dried and curled, not gross, which I'd almost feared they would be. I treated the old flowers like tea leaves and re-layed the tea in the jar. I figured I'll do this a few more times, let it mellow a bit, and then see how well it worked.

I'll keep you updated!

spagetti and meatballs!

2009-08-17T12:12:00.001-07:00

Classic, all the way.

H made the sauce, and I made the meatballs, and then we had a lovely get-together. The sauce was a crock-pot deal: the night before, H sauteed onions, garlic, minced celery and carrots, and minced mushrooms, and then food-processored them for ultra-fineness and dropped them in the crockpot. Then it was a few cans of dixed tomatoes, at least one of which was fire-roasted, some more garlic, a little red pepper, salt, pepper, and the dry herbs-- basil, oregano and chili powder. Then it was hours of taunting me because the kitchen is next to my room. The next day, sometime before dinner, he got fresh basil and rosemary from the yard and threw them in, and adjusted the seasoning.

Meanwhile, about three hours before dinner, I made the meatballs, much the way I make them for Swedish Meatballs, like so: The meat, about two pounds, went into the bowl, while a cup of Italian breadcrumbs soaked in about as much milk, and I sauteed minced onions and garlic-- then both go in with the milk, an egg, salt, pepper, basil and oregano, and get all mushed together by hand until they're blended evenly. I made the meatballs pretty big and out them on a cookie sheet and left them in the fridge to firm up ( I think the milky breadcrumbs AND the egg were too moist, but they turned out fine after I let them sit ). Preheated the oven to 350, then baked the meatballs until they were done through, and dropped them into the sauce to mingle while the noodles and garlic bread cooked.

Then there was much nomming. Om nom nom all over the place.

The meatballs were done that day, but the sauce lasted for three days as leftovers, and was great as a dipping sauce for the leftover bread. Plus, we jarred some to use later. Brilliant!

Taco Night!

2009-08-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

We are big fans of Taco Night. Every few months, we get that urge to get together a bunch of people and a bunch of food, and make ourselves fat with much noshing. This time, we had the following: picadillo-seasoned beef, refried beans, yellow rice, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, lime wedges, sour cream, guacamole, freah home-made salsa, taco sauce, Tobasco chipotle sauce, cheese, onions, green olives, soft flour tortillas, hard corn tortillas, and nacho cheese sauce. Lookit this spread.

This was taco #1 and 2: beef, rice, sour cream, guac, cheese, salsa and olives. After that, it became sort of a blur of refilling my plate. I think I had another soft taco, and then abandoned the shells and just ate piles of filling with a fork like a delicious salad.

Toward the end of the feeding frenzy, H started making Tiny Taco Salads, which I love and wanted to make, too, but I'd burned the roof of my mouth earlier that day, and it made it hard to eat crunchy things, so I just took pictures of his, instead. Mmmmm, taco variations.

Most of the stuff was store-bought, which is fine for Taco Night, because you're building your own food from the pieces provided. We cooked the meat at home, of course, and A thinned the sour cream with some milk so that it was easier to glop onto a taco and closer to how it is at Chipotle's. We'll probably thin it more next time. I'd like to add chicken to the meat selection, and H wants to make carnitas for next time. We talked about having thinly sliced cabbage instead of lettuce, and going for more of a baja feel next time, which I'm all for.

seasonality list for wk33, aug 9 to 15

2009-08-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

The lists are starting to drift into Fall produce. New Potatoes are out on all lists except one. Lots of tropical fruits are ready for eating-- and alot of them are ones I've never seen in person, but I'm totally going to keep an eye out for at the farmer's market!

New: Brill, Pilchard, Goose, Longan, Summer Savory, Tamarillo, Daikon, Choko, Fairy Ring Champignon Mushroom, Soybeans, Mustard Greens, Local Honey, Buddha's Hand Citrus, Burdock Root, Cactus Pads (which have probably been in for a while, but are new to the list), Cardoon, Key Lime, Lavendar, Ackee, Guinep, Breadfruit, June Plum, Soursop.

It's starting to get really loooonnnng. And I've found so many new lists to consult for the Master List that I need to go back and fill in the old weeklies to show what new info I've found before I finalize the lists for the book. It's getting pretty awesome.

Choko = Chayote

Fairy Ring Champignon =

Buddha's Hand Citrus =

Burdock Root =

Cardoon =

Ackee =

Guinep =

Breadfruit =

June Plum =

Soursop =

Farmer's Market Haul, last week of July

2009-07-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

I went in with 25 dollars, and that's all I had to spend, and I came out with the following:

A masssive mango

A bunch of celery

Three big carrots from the lady before who had the best carrots I've ever had

Three fat little prickly pears

A bunch of seedless red grapes

A pint of little concord grapes that really do taste like Welch's

A pint of red pear tomatoes

A pint of sugar snap peas

A pint of rainier cherries, even though I have red cherries still in the house, because I really love them

A pound to two of the tiniest little baby white potatoes ever

Eight oranges

Five sweet peppers

And four honey sticks

Not a bad haul, if I do say so myself. I'm loving that there's a honey stand there now, and I hope they're still there next time I go back. And the same lady with the prickly pears and the wonder-carrots had longans! I didn't have the money to spare to get them, but they were lovely-looking, and maybe they'll be there when we get back too!

Nut Butters into Nut Milks!

2009-07-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of cow milk. I'm allergic to it, for one, and I think it tastes bad for another (I think part of the allergy is an aversion; I can't tell the difference between fresh milk and bad milk by smell-- it all smells bad to me), plus, it's full of unhealthy things that I'd rather not attack my thyroid with.

Soymilk is tasty, especially the asian beverage kinds, but it's soy, and soy is full of estrogens that my body gest way-too-easily hooked on. Almond is good, but sometimes hard to find and / or expensive, and rice milk tastes watery, and like the bowl after you've had Rice Krispies.

So when I read that you can take pretty much any nut butter and make it into milk, I was thrilled! We've got a scratch and dent grocery here, and there's always leftover health-food-store nutbutters at, like, 1.50 instead of 5.99, so I got myself some cashew butter and some sunbutter (made of sunflower seeds, which I actually like better than peanut butter these days).

Here's how it goes:

2 cups of water

1/4 cup of nutbutter, all natural and not emulsified-- so look for the kind that separates, and stir it up before you use it

1-2 tbsp sugar

a pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

You're supposed to blenderize it here, but ours was on a shelf I couldn't reach and it was during a thunderstorm anyway, so I put it all in a jar and shook it like I was making butter out of milk. In the blender, it's, like, two minutes or something until it's a milk-- the color lightens and the solids are mostly dissolved. In the jar, it's more like fifteen or twenty minutes of vigorous shaking, which is good exercize and kind of zone-out and zen time. It won't lighten so much, and it won't be as thick, but it's prefectly drinkable and just as tasty. Either way, there'll be sediment-- all the fibers that are fine on a sandwich, but kind of gross to drink. If you let it sit for a minute, they'll settle out, and you can pour off the tasty tasty drinkables. The fiber is good for the compost heap.

Cashew milk tastes alot like soymilk, but without that cardoboardy after taste that soymilk tends to have, and without that feeling of dryness in your mouth. Roasted cashew butter is nuttier, but still mild. It's harder to mix by hand, though, because there's more solids in it. Sunmilk smells a little odd, but tastes great, creamy and smooth and like a sunflower seed, but also with that milkiness you're looking for, and after you sip it, the smell isn't even an issue-- it just smells like sunbutter.

Next trip to the scratch and dent, I'm going to pick up some tahini and try sesame milk-- I think it'll be awesome, and starting from a smaller, softer source, it should be easier to mix. And I really want to try hazelnut milk-- or even just hazelnut butter-- but it's usually expensive, even at the discount grocery, and it's not always there. I might also try peanut milk if I can find some good, natural peanut butter-- Jiff and PeterPan just have too much hydrogentated veggie oil these days, and don't even taste like much to me anymore. And they won't blend well.

linky links: food edition wk26

2009-06-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

This week's fun food things, all in one place, and now with 57.2% more of my own personal ramblings!

An Edible History of Humanity-- I love food and I love Anthropology, and this one covers both bases! I love the idea of a book all about the persuit of food and how it shapes history. I haven't managed to get it yet, what with being so friggen poor, but I hope there's a sizable discussion of paleogastronomy. I want to be a food historian / nutritional anthrolologist.

A discussion of crops fro flavoring Gin. Personally, I dispise gin, can't stand it, but the discussion talks about flavoring vodka to taste like gin (bleh) and from there, goes into neat-sounding herbal vodkas that I now want to try out. After I make appertifs and digestifs. After I have the money to buy vast quanitites of cheap vodka.

Home Made Irish Cream: Now this, I do like. Alot. And it's so expensive to buy. I wonder if I could fake it with soymilk or almond or cashew milk?

Raspberry tart-things that sound awesome: They include pumpkinseed-marscapone mousse.

Did you know you can eat cherry pits? Neither did I, but apparently they're like tiny, very intense almonds, and here's a recipe using them in icecream. I really really really need an icecream maker.

Pates de fruits: Some of the first candy! And they look way better and more intense than gummies ever were. Plus, they appeal to the same parts of my brain that like making jam (which I haven't done this year at all yet), and even though they're time-consuming, they look pretty easy. Think of it: solid fruit ones (strawberry, raspberry, apple, grape, apricot), mixed fruit ones (strawberry-rhubarb, cranberry-cherry, plum-apricot), herb-scented ones (strawberry-rose, plum-thyme, starwberry-basil, apple-rose, peach-ginger)...

This lovely lady makes sweet white ceramic icecream cones. Which is both awesome and a little sad-making, but probably better for making cupcake-cones in than real ones.

yay linkies!

What To Do With Leftover Punch

2009-06-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

We like our easy punch: rum, sprite and sherbet, the cheaper the better. This time it was raspberry. But after the party (Memorial Day), there was still most of the second bowl left. What's a group of eaters to do? A, brilliantly, poured the whole thing into a freezer box, and kept it for several weeks, until we were over for Game Night and decided we wanted something boozy to drink, but there was nothing in the house with which to make our usual Lolly Holloways (like a banana daquiry, but cooler). So we pulled out the frozen old punch, blended it with fresh ice, and had probably the best mixed icy drink ever. It tasted like pink lemonade and still had enough punch that the one cup each of us got was more than enough.

Yay summer and frozen drinks!

Birthday Dinner: Portuguese

2009-06-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Since I was sixteen, on the day of my birthday-- or as close to it as we can manage, since my b-day tends to fall very close to Memorial Day and that sometimes gets in the way-- I go out with everyone I can get together, and we find a new ethnic food that I've never had before. last year it was more traditiona Japanese than just sushi at a place called Kokoro (there was ggoey rice!), the year before that was a new Indian place where I had tandoori goat, and this year it was Portuguese. A place called Taste of Portugal in Palm Coast.

The meal started with this lovely lentil soup: carrots, celery and onion in what I think was a beef broth with bacon or salt pork or something to flavor it. It tasted like bean with bacon soup like I grew up with, only better, and obviously home-made.

A and D ordered red snapper, L ordered this pork and mussel dish that seemed really interesting and had an amazing gravy, Auds ordered a red almost-curry with rice and C ordered paella that came with literally half a lobster as well as whole shrimp and clams and mussels. I ordered bacalao, because big white fish are in season, and I usually order chicken or salmon and I wanted something new. The fish was preserved, which I think is standard for the dish, so it had a different, firmer texture than usual fish, and it still had bones in, which the waitress was worried would bother me, and showed me how to get the meat out around them. It was sitting in garlic olive-oil with the mildest onions I've ever had, and amazing little roasted new potatoes and green peppers. It was pretty good-- the flavors were simpler and milder than Spanish cooking tends to be (at least that I've had over here), and I think it was meant for a higher-quality olive-oil, but overall it was very good and remarkably filling.

And it finished up with flan, because my Cuban genes do not allow me to not eat flan when it's available, as those flan-selling Hogar Boys know. As you can see, there wasn't even time to take a picture before I ate it all. It was amazing. Much thicker and denser than any flan I've ever had (and I've had LOTS of flans), but still somehow as creamy and amazing as it should be, and none of that grainyness that happens when parts of it cook faster than others, with both the cooked-on-the-bottom burnt sugar crust and this separate sauce that she spooned over it that I could live off of like a hummingbird with nectar-- it was the single best sugar-sauce I've ever had. I'd go back to this place just for that flan.

Japanese-Syle Fish Stew

2009-06-27T13:57:00.001-07:00

Sonetimes, I get really tired of the same thing all the time, so I change things up. Sometimes, I come out with something different then I thought I'd have. This was supposed to be braised veggies, but I put too much liquid in, and it wound up being stew. Oh well.

The basic recipe comes from Maki over on Just Hungry:

Potatoes stewed with fried tofu and green beans

I did it this way:

Sautee an onion in a mix of olive oil and a teeny bit, less than a teaspoon of sesame oil, then trow in the potatoes, and sautee them a bit. The recipe calls for fresh greenbeans, which I didn't have, so I used leftover roasted asparagus that was in the freezer and some stirfry-intended brocoli. I should have added them in closer to the end, though; as you can see, the asparagus kind of melted. Tasted fine, but left it sort of... unpretty.

Then top with the water, which I topped too high, and throw in two tablespoons of sake (we always seem to have sake, even though none of us drink it), 3tbsp soy sauce (I added extra, because I like it), 2 tbsp maple syrup and some pepper. Boil it until the potatoes are starting to get edible.

Then I added the fish, which was already fillet-ed and frozen (you can get it packaged like that, and that's awesome), dropping it in whole and cooking is about half way, and mixed in some red miso for extra measure. Continue cooking until the fish is done, leaving the lid off so it'll evaporate some and thicken up, and then nom nom!

It tasted pretty authentic to what I remember Japanese cooking tasting, and I didn't change the recipe too much from Maki's, so I'm assuming it's pretty close. And it was delish. The leftovers were good cold for about two days (after that, the potatoes melted and the fishiness got overwhelming). Definitely a keeper.

Late Spring / Early Summer Pasta

2009-06-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

This really should have been posted weeks ago, but there you are. This is C-Food! Which is always quick and honest and lovely. Cooked pasta mixed with garlic-sauteed broccoli, asparagus, onions and olives, shredded up smoked salmon, and tons of grated parmesan. No sauce but what the veggies and the fish make for themselves, and most of the flavoring is already there because of that. A little pepper, and there you go! Quick, easy, and really flavorful. And pretty healthy, too!

Summer Food

2009-06-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

The best thing about summer is the absolute abundance of fresh, wonderful foods. It's just amazing. The worst part about summer, at least here in the South that's further south than the Deep South, is that there's just so damned much heat. So I tend to use the one to deal with the other.

I've switched to my Summer Diet, which in days before my metabolism slowed, would help me drop 15 lbs every summer; we'll see if it works this year. See, teh heat makes me not want to eat. It doesn't just kill my appetite, it kills my desire even to have an appetite, adn if I'm not careful, I tend to forget to eat at all, which isn't healthy. So to get myself through the day, I eat a raw veggie diet, then at night, a few hours after dark (ie: somewhere around nine-thirty), I'll eat something full of protein and the day's starches. Salads, yes, of course, but when I say 'salad', what I really mean is this:

Not the pile of anemic lettuce that people try to tell me is a salad these days. No way. I much prefer a pile of veggies, and if they're really good veggies, I don't even need the dressing. If there's lettuce at all, It'll probably be a single wedge of something interesting, eaten with my fingers the same way.

And for breakfast, I switch to Sami Snadard Breakfast #1: fresh fruit and yogurt. Mmmm, yogurt. And I've missed peaches, plums and necatarines to an obscene degree since I started this Year Of Depriving Myself Of Out-Of-Season Foods.

Barring that, there's always Alternative #1: fruit and cream. I use Nestle Table Cream (comes in a little half-size can and costs less than half a dollar in the same section as the other canned milk-products) mixed with a quarter cup of powdered sugar, which is just enough that it testes like something other than thickened milk. And it's processed enough that I don't get all lactose-intollerant-y over it, which is awesome, and allows me to continue to get a little protein and calcium during the day.

And the rest of my diet consists of shaved ice and beach sand and more water than would take to water our lawn.

experiment: perfect puff pan

2009-06-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, A got me a Perfect Puff Pan, which I've been wanting for AGES, and I set about to make it work, because as I've mentioned before, Everything Is Better In Bun Form.

Experiment 1 was made with Manichevitz Brownie Mix, because it was on sale for 50c at the Scratch And Dent. Lemme just say, this is the most amazing brownie mix ever. It's rich and uber-fudgy and even when it's cooked into charcoal briquettes, it's amazingly chocolatey. I should have just eaten it with a spoon, because, as you can see, the mix did not like the Puff Pan, no matter what the poorly-worded flier says about being able to use any mix. They burned before they were cooked enough to flip, the little flip-stick didn't work, and I had to flip them with a spoon, which scratched the pan and managed to knock half the batter out of each puff. but they were still tasty.

Experiment 2 went much better. I decided brownies were too ambitious, and I scaled it back to the pancakes that were in the title-- just a normal bisquick pancake mix. I turned down the heat one notch, oiled it with butter instead of spray, and I didn't fill the little wells as high, and voila! Almost-Perfect Pancake Puffs!

I want to try it with eggs, and with little pellets of potatoes stuffed with cheese, and maybe with cookie dough, and I have a muffin mix I want to try, too. I'll keep you posted.

The main problem, once I figured out how not to make charcoal, is that they don't cook very fast; there's only seven at a time, and by the time numbers 8 through 14 are done, numbers 1 through 7 are either nibbled away or stone cold. So I wouldn't recommend this for anything requiring a hot meal, but pancakes are reheatable, and other baked goods are just as tasty at room temp, and I think it'll be okay.

School Lunches in Other Countries

2009-06-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1709/what-do-other-countries-eat-for-school-lunch

Okay, any of us who have had school lunches here in American schools know that the food is crap. Half my elementary school years were in Scotland, and while the UK has notoriously bad food in their schools (at least until Jamie Oliver fixed it in the last few years), I can tell you from experience that the American schools I went to right after had much worse food. Squishy flat pizzas that taste like plastic and ketchup? Cardboardy hamburgers? Slimy salads that do nothing at all to convince kids to eat veggies? No thanks!

And then, there are articles like the one listed above that talk about food in other countries, and it just pisses me off. I'm glad I don't have kids, because I don't have the time to devote to making them have better food and organizing a school garden, and if I did have kids eating school lunches, that's exactly what I would have to do, because I just can't allow my kids to have heart attacks at age ten because of school making them fat.

Did you know that in Italy, France and Japan, lunch is part of the curriculum, teaching kids about good manners, nutrition, local produce, local foodways, food history, food production, organic growing, civil responsibility, and any of a number of other things Americans could use some schooling on? I didn't. And now I'm really upset.

Update

2009-05-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've been sick lately-- stomach sort of sick, and we haven't been cooking much. I've got a few pictures, but I'm tired now, so they'll have to wait a bit. Maybe later today...

Warning Labels

2009-05-17T12:20:00.001-07:00

So, I’ve been out of work for two weeks as of yesterday. Amongst other things, it means I’ve been baking. It’s like my go-to for filling time and burning off anxiety. And what that means is that I’ve been reading a lot of labels, and nothing gets my goat-shaped-cookie like stupid warning labels on food. I mean, seriously. Are you really so dumb, so disconnected from your foodsources that you don’t know that butter contains milk? That peanut butter has peanuts in it? That whole wheat bread contains wheat?

Here’s where my social Darwinism tendencies start showing: If you’re a full grown person and you don’t know these things and you have the sort of allergy where you should know them, maybe you aren’t meant to be alive. How can you be that helpless? Who was already that helpless that someone got sued and had to add these superfluous warnings?

/rant.

I just had to vent. Because it’s stupid.

review: georgie’s diner

2009-05-13T08:19:00.001-07:00

We used to have this little silver diner. It was good basic diner food, and they’d let me have the kids meal pb&j when I was sick or poor. And then they got bought out by a Greek restaurant, and I hadn’t been back.

I really should have tried sooner.

Because what they did was combine the diner food with the Greek food, and it resulted in this excellent breakfast you see here: Gyro Omelet with Feta. They don’t skimp on the gyro meat, and the egg is nice and fluffy and well-browned, and the feta is creamy and strong, but not overpowering. The hashbrowns are excellent (you can judge the quality of a breakfast plate on the quality of their hashbrowns), and the biscuit is light and very buttery and perfectly toasted.

They’ve also got a spanikopita omelet, and the more usual breakfast items and some sandwiches, but I’m glad I picked this one: it was exactly something different, and that’s what I was wanting.

Fennel and Sausage Pizza

2009-05-11T15:27:00.001-07:00

My friend L is a whiz with home-made pizza. It’s never less than amazing, but this most recent time, we tried something new: Italian sausage, fresh fennel sauteed in butter, and roasted red pepper paste mixed into the sauce. It was delicious. The cheese was the moderate-quality mozzarella, the kind that stretches when you try to cut it and shreds when you use one of those cheese-slicer things. And it’s my new favorite fancy pizza.

Honey Taste Test

2009-05-11T15:06:00.001-07:00

It’s always amazing to me how different honeys can taste when you taste them back to back. I mean, I grew up with Clover Honey and when we moved to Florida, I sort of knew that Orange Blossom Honey was different, but I never really thought about it until I went to the South Florida Renaissance Festival a few years ago and devoted my whole attention to tasting the different honeys back to back. I bought a bunch, and then I didn’t think about it again.

Until lately, when I’ve been riddled with allergies and balancing on the edge of a sore throat.

Our last food drop gave me a bottle of Tupelo Honey, I bought my usual North Florida Wildflower Honey downtown, and when we cleaned out the kitchen recently, we found all the tail ends we had lying around: standard Clover in the little bear jars, Killer Bee and Heather from the Bee Folk, Buckwheat from the Scratch and Dent, and a little bit of West Virginia Wildflower from our trip through to Ohio. Here’s a not very pretty picture of all the honeys we have:

(that’s, from top and the crystallized one and moving clockwise: Clover, Tupelo, Buckwheat, Local Wildflower, WV Wildflower, Killer Bee and Heather in the center.)

My personal opinions: Clover is standard honey, but in comparison to the others, it’s not as complex, and it’s kind of… acidic? Something in the range of too sharp. It burns the back of my throat, and always has. Tupelo is very sweet and very light, almost floral, a little acidic. It’s got that song claiming it’s the sweetest, but that’s not true. And it’s supposed to be rare, but as it’s from this basic area, it’s not all that rare for me. Buckwheat tastes roasted, almost like molasses, but much smoother. I like it on whole wheat pancakes, but it’s too strong for yogurt. Local Wildflower is a good, well-balanced honey, rich and deep, but nowhere near as deep as the Buckwheat, moderately floral, and not very acidic, though it does sort of make the top of my mouth feel tingly and crawly the way good live-culture yogurt does. WV Wildflower is lighter than ours, and there were walnuts in this one, so maybe that’s why it’s a little bitterer. It’s also a little more… honey-like? Closer to Clover, I guess, so maybe they have more clover than we do. It’s definitely greener there, and it tastes ever so vaguely more herbal than ours. Killer Bee honey seems… zingier than regular or common honeys, and that might be just knowing where it comes from, but at the Rennfaire, we tasted them blind and it still seemed zingier, tarter, but not really sour at all, and not with the burning of Clover. It has bite, maybe. And Heather honey is very floral, very rich, and much more bitter than honey usually is, sharp in a non-acidic way, with a definite woody taste in the background. It immediately makes me think of summer in Scotland, with the flowers blooming and the cold stone and peat still underneath. It tastes like the air there.

Out of the honeys I don’t have on hand, Gallberry is my favorite. It’s exactly how honey should taste, smooth and rich and not throat-burny at all, and on the thicker side, but never crystallizing. And I’m also a fan of Arrowleaf honey, which is white and solid at room temperature, and as mellow as turbinado sugar, prefect for tea and for holding together things like peanut-butter balls and sugarplums. Mint Honey is on the darker side, a shade darker than Wildflower, and tastes like mint; I guess the pollen has the same menthols in it. I’m allergic to Radish honey because it’s got the same allergens as radishes have, and it burns a little in that same peppery way, but it’s tasty. Orange Blosson Honey has a definite citrus quality to it, but it’s more like the flowers and less like the fruit: pretty floral and a little acidic. I haven’t managed to get my hands on Lavendar Honey or that Hawaiian White Honey, but they’re on my list.

Here’s a prettier picture that I didn’t take:

Dandelions!

2009-05-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

I knew you could make dandelion wine (which I mean to look into this year if I can afford it), but here's a post about making dandelion breat and muffins that I seriously want to try out!

Over at Fat of the Land...

Leftovers: Fishpocket Miso Soup

2009-04-30T10:51:00.001-07:00

Remember the fishpockets from the grill? Even after D made the stirfry, there was enough leftover for one little packed lunch: Miso soup with the leftovers.

I get my Miso from J-List (which I’ve probably mentioned before). It’s a moist instant, not a powder*, and all you need is hot water. It lasts for ages and doesn’t need refrigeration, too, so it’s perfect for lunches.

I added sesame seeds, Kastuo bonito furikake and alfalfa sprouts, then mixed the miso and added the grilled veggies and catfish, and there you go! Lovely lunch!

*Here’s what it looks like:

Search For The Perfect Rootbeer: Boylan’s

2009-04-30T10:42:00.001-07:00

I had to give up soda about… something like fifteen years ago when I first realized my stomach didn’t work right (it’s since been diagnosed as a malfunctioning stomach valve, after previously being diagnosed as IBS and realizing it was much higher than that. the two sides of my upper stomach valve get out of whack and pull against each other instead of working together, and fizzy drinks are a good way to set it off). But I miss rootbeer, and I let myself have one once in a while when the urge strikes me and my stomach is not too upset about whatever I’m doing lately. But see, not having had rootbeer in almost a decade before I started drinking it again, I have this idea of what it should taste like, and most rootbeers don’t taste like that, so I’ve decided to try all of them and find the best one.

This is Boylan’s, and it’s pretty close. It’s all natural cane sugar, not HFCS or anything (which I try to avoid because it’s bad for you, no matter what the Corn Council says, it tastes too sweet, and it’s a risk factor for other health problems I have). It’s sweet in that creamy way that rootbeer should have, and it tastes like rootbeer, not like licorice or like artificial rootbeer flavoring, which is flat and goes too far. I hate the idea that rootbeer should have ‘bite’—it shouldn’t. It just shouldn’t bee so freakishly sweet that you feel the need to add acid to balance it (poorly and lazily).

It comes in a glass bottle, which I think makes for a purer taste, and a brown one at that, so there’s no chance light can damage it (I know that happens to milk; I have no idea if it happens to soda, but I wouldn’t be surprised). And best of all, it’s not desperately fizzy like so many mainstream sodas! It’s got the sparkle, but it doesn’t overpower, and it doesn’t cause a lot of gas in my broken stomach, so I can drink this one entirely while it’s still cool, instead of waiting for it to de-fizz, and therefore having to drink warm soda.

That’s my shop in the background, where all my pack lunches are eaten.

Sponch!

2009-04-30T10:30:00.001-07:00

(imagine the upside-down ! there at the beginning)

Every time I hear the name Sponch, my brain drops it into the Flash Gorden theme song (Sponch! Aww-wwww! He’ll save every one of us!); must be the exclamations…

Anyway, we found this on a display of Hispanic snack foods, and with a name like that, we just had to try it. It’s a cookie, like a Maria cookie, but softer, with marshmallow, strawberry jelly and coconut. There is nothing not to love about this snack. You get six in a pack and diabetes on the side, but who cares! It’s like a Snowball on a cookie, with jelly!

And then we found out that it came in grape, too…

… and were sad that it isn’t as good. The grape flavor is overwhelmed by the other flavors, as the strawberry is not, and it’s almost too sweet, as opposed to just sweet enough.

But it’s still pretty.