folkfood

testing ...

2008-06-22T08:10:00.001-04:00

advice from the US poet laureate, Charles Simic

2008-02-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

In an interview with the New York Times,

What advice would you give to people who are looking to be happy? For starters, learn how to cook.

celebrate February 2nd.

2008-02-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

Advice from the best pizza/calzone maker in town, Frank of Savario's:
eat sausage on Ground Hog Day

Finally, a holiday made just for me.

(for the slow: ground . . . hog . . . = sausage)

Status report

2007-07-09T11:34:00.000-04:00

sooooo . . . . .

things are slow here. They are always slow during the full-time work/grad school season, but summer usually tends to pick up. It hasn't yet, and it may not. Readers of the folkfood blog are from all over the place, but what I really want to write about is hyperlocal - local eating with a whole lotta links to sources of local food. Not super useful or even entertaining for people not from the Seacoast of NH/ME.

A few other folks requested a Seacoast Eat Local blog. This has come to be, and will be a group blog, authored by many folks with different vantage points in the Seacoast (we're actively recruiting contributors if you want to nominate yourself or someone you know). So - that's where I've been blogging of late.

Things that don't fit over there - and these days, that isn't a whole lot since most of my eating is local eating - will still appear here. Not a wholesale abadonment, just an explanation.

making ice cream . . .

2007-06-02T07:50:00.000-04:00

I have a new post up over at Eat Local Challenge.

Fundraiser for Farmland

2007-05-22T18:06:00.001-04:00

The Great Works Regional Land Trust is having a fund raiser to help preserve a large dairy farm in Berwick. It is very easy to participate - just eat flatbread from Flatbread on Tuesday, May 29th between 4 and 9pm. They will also be having an awesome raffle!

That night we will be raffling off a lobster bake for 10 to be served at beautiful Beach Plum Farm in Ogunquit and accompanied by the Great Works Ramblers. (Redeemable Sept. 29th or 30th).Tickets are $5 each.

The Amateur Gourmet gets serious for a minute . . .

2007-05-05T06:09:00.000-04:00

The AG posted an American Food Manifesto, an excellent, thoughtful piece bringing together ideas of how what is wrong with American culture (focus on winning, focus on competition) has influenced American food culture in negative ways. And my favorite part, in which AG makes an interesting point about our extreme desire for anonymity and privacy (all the while becoming less anonymous and less private in online forums, a very very different sort of community that has a lot less responsibility built in) while paying proper homage to Julia:

I'm a recent convert to Julia Child and I am convinced--after only a few DVDs--that she is the best thing that ever happened to food in America. Why? Because she brought her spirit, her energy, her intelligence into American homes and tried to elevate us. She tried to show us that for a dinner to be successful, it needn't be expensive, it needn't be pretentious. It need only capture the chef's enthusiasm, the chef's love.
Americans don't know how to engage with their food anymore. We see boxes in cases and take them home and put them in another box and ZAP dinner is ready. We pick up the phone and punch in numbers and a brown bag arrives. We deal with food in the 21st century the way we deal with people--faceless messages on a computer screen--and with further advances in technology, we retreat further and further into ourselves. For most Americans in the 21st century, a successful dinner is a dinner that requires the least amount of engagement with the outside world. We don't want to know our grocers, our butchers, our bakers. We don't even want to know our delivery boys. We want our privacy, thank you, and that means a lonely dinner in front of the TV is preferred to a party with friends who we'd have to shop for, cook for, and clean up after. We have our Tivos, computers, iPods, and DVD players to keep us company.

America: learn from Julia. Wake up. Engage. Care.

That's the formula for success. We've lowered our standards because we're afraid of failure. Julia's not afraid because she knows it doesn't matter if her Pommes Anna collapses--what matters is that she took the time to make a Pommes Anna. So should you.

Understanding the 2007 Farm Bill so we can do something about it

2007-04-25T09:17:00.000-04:00

Cooking up a story ( a *great* video based food site, btw) has a good bit on the 2007 Farm Bill:

Preserving Fossil Fuels and Nearby Farmland by Eating Locally - New York Times

2007-04-25T08:17:00.000-04:00

Preserving Fossil Fuels and Nearby Farmland by Eating Locally - New York Times

what fun! And I can't wait for Barbara Kingsolver's new book, out in under a week.

Mercury in Seafood

2007-04-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

I *heart* seafood. But it is sooooo complicated - from mercury to sustainability and fishermens' livelihoods in between. On the mercury front, Shaw's supermarkets, as subsidiaries of Albertson's, will start labeling fish in terms of their health risks. Now if only they could be as cool as ecofish and provide only sustainable choices to begin with. And let's not even try to throw local into that mix.

Seacoast Eat Local open meeting - all are welcome!

2007-03-28T08:02:00.000-04:00

Seacoast Eat Local is holding an open meeting for all those interesting in supporting local foods and agriculture at 7pm on Tuesday, April 10th, at the Portsmouth Public Library. Seacoast Eat Local will be hosting the Eat Local Challenge in September and is looking for individuals who would like to help make this year's challenge an overwhelming success. For more information, visit www.seacoasteatlocal.org or email seacoasteatlocal@gmail.com

"Mama's gonna make a chef out of you!"

2007-03-20T16:47:00.000-04:00

for the Nintendo Wii, Cooking Mama: Cook Off

from the press release:

Cooking Mama: Cook Off is a compelling blend of mashing, slicing, chopping and stirring as players create 55 international recipes from 300 different ingredients using the Wii Remote as a master kitchen utensil. A multiplayer mode lets budding chefs cook off in competitive mini-games to determine who can cook the fastest with the fewest mistakes. In addition, real-time effects lend authenticity to creations and help players determine when food is cooked to perfection.

There is just so much to say about this, other than I want, that it is hard to know where to start. So start at the game's website, and make sure to watch some of the gameplay demos.

Competition mode! Did you see how realistic the shrimp were? Heads and legs and all! Will I learn how to prepare squid from a Wii? Is Nintendo going to help bring actual cooking and knowing what to do with raw ingredients to households? Crazier things have happened - rumour has it tons of kids are losing weight from the Nintendo Wii sport games - will this help them pack those pounds back on or help them eat actual food instead of junk?

Time does local foods

2007-03-04T08:47:00.000-05:00

Time Magazine's cover story this week is about eating locally. It is a decidedly mainstream article - for people already waist deep in local eating, it will likely be annoying and a bit bizarre in its viewpoint. But for those without toes wet yet, it is just a good and general introduction to the point.

I suppose I'm just happy to see the mainstream media addressing it - as they have been now in spurts and bits for the past year. A cover story in Time is as mainstreamas it gets - which, I hope, translates into sold out Saturdays for growers all summer long at the farmers' markets.
Here's their press release - with a link to the complete article, available online for free, no login required:

For Immediate Release
On Sale Friday, March 2

TIME COVER
FORGET ORGANIC. EAT LOCAL
The Best Food You Can Eat May Be in Your Own Backyard

(New York, March 2, 2007)In this week's issue, TIME's John Cloud reports, "For food purists, `local' is the new `organic,' the new ideal that promises healthier bodies and a healthier planet Organic adherents take it on faith that the way food is grown affects its nutritional quality. But advocates of local eating are now making another leap, saying what happens after harvesthow food is shipped and handled is perhaps even more important than how it was grown."

Cloud's quest to determine which kind of food is healthier, safer, tastes better and is best for the environment leads him to Whole Foods ceo John Mackey, whose chain grew to prominence, in part, by making organic food accessible to millions of Americans. The chain now has more then 190 locations and sales grew by 19% in 2006. Mackey tells TIME that even he prefers local grown food to organics. "I would probably purchase a local nonorganic tomato before I would purchase an organic one that was shipped from California," he says. Cloud writes that Mackey "called the two tomatoes `an environmental wash' since the California one had petroleum miles on it but the nonorganic one was grown with pesticides. `But the local tomato from outside Austin will be fresher, will just taste better,' he said." Mackey also says that most Americans will never eat a purely local diet. "One of the challenges of being a retailer is you don't want to offend people," he tells TIME. "Some customers want to eat apples [year-round]
, and they're willing to pay more for a New Zealand apple."

Cloud's extensive reportingwhich includes joining a Community Supported Agricultural (csa) program that delivers fresh local food to his house each weekleads him to conclude that he prefers local to organic. He writes, "In matters of digestion, I prefer science over culture. The problem is that science offers no clear guidelines yet on how beneficial organic food is."

"When it comes to my basic ingredientsliterally, my `whole' foods rather than my convenience foodsI would still rather know the person who collects my eggs or grows my lettuce or picks my apples than buy 100% organic eggs or lettuce or apples from an anonymous megafarm at the supermarket. Choosing local when I can makes me feel more rooted,and (in part because of that feeling, no doubt) local food tastes
better."

The March 12, 2007 issue of TIME goes on sale on Friday, March 2.
Read the complete story at TIME.com:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,1595245,00.html
Download this week's cover image at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/current

Media Contacts: TIME PR HOTLINE, (212) 522-4800 Daniel Kile, (212)
522-3640; Betsy Burton, (212) 522-3651; Dara Yaffe, (212) 522-0613

Oh, and speaking of CSAs, there are still plenty of shares left in the Seacoast area for the 2007 season.

Goodbye Lindbergh's . . . .

2007-03-02T08:26:00.000-05:00

Hello Black Trumpet. Evan Mallett is staying put (along with, likely, his awesome support of local growers and producers). Black Trumpet should open later in March, reservations are being accepted starting the 24th, according to our waiter the other night.

Meadow's Mirth CSA

2007-02-10T12:32:00.000-05:00

an announcement for a certified organic CSA on the seacoast of NH/ME for this coming season:

Meadow's Mirth Farm in Stratham, NH will be offering a limited number of Community Supported Agriculture shares for the 2007 growing season.
To learn more about our CSA, details are available on our CSA webpage:
http://www.meadowsmirth.com/csa.html

Contact Jean for more details and pricing information.
603-767-2610
jean AT meadowsmirth DOT com

Think Spring!

local enough

2007-01-30T17:31:00.000-05:00

They won't be anywhere near as amazing as New Roots Farm tomatoes in the summer, but at 129 miles, these hydroponically grown 'maters might make my winter diet a bit healthier - coming to Hannaford soon, Backyard Beauties.

While I'm waiting for someone to do an energy analysis about heating & lighting giant greenhouses in Maine in the winter v. trucking things in from California (though taste has been one of the bigger reasons I just don't eat winter tomatoes) I think I'll defrost some of my summer pesto and pick up some Silvery Moon Creamery fresh mozzerella. Local caprese in NH in the winter. Go figure.

found via the Maine Foods Network

da bears

2007-01-29T17:19:00.000-05:00

me at Soldier Field
I am a lifelong Bears fan. So this coming Sunday is a pretty big deal, the first big deal Superbowl in 21 years.

But it isn't New Orleans or even Chicago I wish I were going to be viewing the game from this Sunday. This Sunday, I'll be wishing I were in Buffalo.

People in Buffalo understand football, but they also understand bar food. Yes, the wings are that much better. The Anchor Bar doesn't rest on its laurels, and its influence is awesome to ingest. The worst wings in Buffalo are better than any I've had in NH. So then you've got your leftover blue cheese dip, and brilliantly they dip the pizza crusts into said blue cheese.

Pizza and wings are really Buffalo's specialties, but there is a healthy bar culture there. A big part of that is the design of the city, with neighborhoods all over the place and thus neighborhood bars.

I'm not sure what I'll be eating this Sunday, but I think I'll take the week off from my never-ending quest for acceptable wings. Maybe some hot dogs.

A couple Seacoast NH restaurant notes -

2007-01-29T16:56:00.000-05:00

Something called "Tavern on the Rocks" will be opening in the old Spuds location on rte 1 in Rye. "Coming Soon!"

AK's opened in Jack Quigley's old space in Portsmouth. We went three days after opening, to a limited menu. Pretty standard bar fare, pretty standard bar overall.

KNR, which was what opened when the owners closed 43 Degrees North last May, closed with about a week's notice. The petty part of me is happy because I really liked 43, and I didn't like KNR. The bigger part of me really wonders what will happen with that space.

2007-01-05T16:11:00.000-05:00

Andy's Greens CSA

Andy's Greens in York Harbour, ME is offering a limited number of shares for a CSA for the 2007 season. Not just greens. Certified organic. Check it out.

2006-12-08T15:52:00.000-05:00

Slow Food Seacoast Fundraiser: A New English Tea Party

Victory96 is hosting a fundraiser tea tasting in honor of the 233rd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party! All proceeds will help support the events and activities of Slow Food Seacoast. White Heron Tea owner Jonathan Blakeslee will conduct a tasting of five tea varieties, paired with "bites" provided by local food artisans including Cacao Chocolates, Mizuna Café, and Victory96.

The event will be held on Saturday, December 16, at Victory96, 96 State Street in Portsmouth, NH, from 1 - 3pm. Please contact (603)867-9819 for reservations. Ticket price is $20 and includes a gift bag with tea, a tea infuser,and information about Slow Food and contributors to the tea party event. Space is limited, so make your reservation early!

2006-11-20T17:43:00.000-05:00

Creperie! Creperie! Creperie!

I got a very nice email today, announcing a new creperie in Dover:

Hi,

Please come check us out some time and tell us what you think . . .

www.silvermooncreperie.com

Thanks!

Chris & Theresa

anyone been yet?

2006-11-10T10:09:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving is coming -

100 Mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change - Talk local turkey

and this might be the perfect time trying out some local-ness if you haven't already. Think about it: the meal is inherently locally source-able because we live where it was invented when most foods were local. Most people spend extra time planning and shopping for this meal.

This sunday (Nov 12th) Seacoast Slow Food is having a demo local Thanksgiving - 5:30pm at the Tyco Center at Strawbery Banke - all are invited.

Some other stores are turning out to be good sources of local foods: The Durham Marketplace (long-standing supporter of local farmers), Portsmouth Health Food Store has a lot of local products, ie butter, eggs, bread, etc. Philbrick's Fresh Market has more than a couple items that have really just surprised me - who knew there was middle eastern yogurt being made out of Sunrise Farms in Exeter? (excellent in mashed potatoes or creamed spinach)

what other sources are there for local foods after the farmers' markets have closed? let me know here or use the wiki: seacoasteatlocal.wikispaces.com

2006-10-15T16:32:00.000-04:00

One fried food door closes, another opens . . .

The sad: I returned to Newmarket to see what became of my beloved Wheelies onion rings when Mama Lena's took over that spot. Alas, the cornmeal encrusted, tender, sweet, hand-made beauties are gone. As is the roast beef. I cannot attest to Mama Lena's, I was only after those onion rings.

The glad: The Coat of Arms now offers all you can eat wings for $5 on Friday nights from 4-7pm. They are not at all spicy. They are, however, very crispy, which is just as, if not more, important. IE, I can eat crispy weak-flavored wings, I cannot eat flabby wings, unless they are incredibly spot on in flavor and spice (and in which case I would probably just lick them, not actually eat them.) They also offer barbecue flavor, sticky sweet and totally good.

Does NOT Contain Spinach

2006-10-10T17:03:00.000-04:00

notspinach
Originally uploaded by plentyo'moxie.

Because it somehow is inherently spinach that is the e. coli problem, right? Erm . . .

This is a camera phone pick from Philbrick's Fresh Market in Portsmouth - all the bagged salad was labeled like this, even though the USDA has given the all clear. [Philbrick's actually does a decent job carrying locally produced goods - today I found tortillas from Brentwood, NH and yogurt from Exeter, NH! They don't do a great job labeling these products as local, or highlighting them. They also don't do a great job buying or selling local produce.]

2006-09-08T20:14:00.000-04:00

from peaches to politics

rightous, right-on outrage, from cindy of food migration, inspired by perfect fruit:

Where exactly do we intend to take this country? Is this really what everybody wants: a long line of chain stores and cookie-cutter housing developments stretching endlessly across the land? It seems like we've made this crazy Faustian bargain with development: give us convenience and low prices, and we'll sacrifice originality, individuality, flavor, passion, specificity. And what does all this bring us? More time to watch bigger televisions and avoid contact with our neighbors?

2006-09-05T16:41:00.000-04:00

Molly's Mint, Portsmouth NH

In the revamped space of Molly Malone's downstairs is now Mint. From the website, "Portsmouth's Newest Ultra Lounge!" and "Cosmopolitan Atmosphere" and "Irish American Food . . . with an Asian Fusion Twist"

I won't knock it 'till I try it, but I'm not putting it high on my list of things to try . . . in fact, several things look interesting, but I need to get over the idea of an Asian Fusion ultra lounge in Molly Malone's.

Here's the rest of the menu.

2006-09-04T08:34:00.000-04:00

Local Harvest Dinner @ UNH

Open to the public. Here's their press release, ver batim:

LOCAL HARVEST DINNER SEPT. 21 CELEBRATES REGION’S
AGRICULTURAL BOUNTY

UNH Dining, Office of Sustainability Partner With Local Producers

DURHAM, N.H. – Pork raised in Barrington glazed with honey from Hudson ... buffalo burgers from Durham Point Road ... stuffed organic tomatoes grown on the University of New Hampshire campus.

This menu is not from a fine dining restaurant but rather from Stillings Marketplace dining hall at UNH, which hosts the second annual Local Harvest Dinner Thursday, Sept. 21, 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. The gourmet meal celebrates the region’s producers as well as its rich agricultural heritage. The Local Harvest Dinner, offered to all students on the UNH meal plan, is open to the public ($11.50 adults; $6.00 youth under 13). Stillings Marketplace is located near the intersection of Garrison Avenue and Stafford Avenue, behind Stoke Hall.

“The dinner offers students a chance to enjoy delicious, fresh food while learning some of the benefits of supporting local agriculture,” says Elisabeth Farrell, a program coordinator for UNH’s Office of Sustainability, which partners with UNH Dining in Local Harvest. Significant among those benefits, she notes, are supporting local economies and maintaining the vibrant agricultural landscape for which New Hampshire is known.

While the food at the Local Harvest Dinner has local roots, many menu items are exotic: mussels provençale (with mussels raised at UNH’s Open Ocean Aquaculture project off the Isles of Shoals); mushroom, cheddar and egg torta (made with cage-free eggs from Pete & Gerry’s of Monroe); and Szechuan broccoli and shiitake mushroom stir-fry. Lasting Legacy Farm of Barrington will provide lamb, beef, chicken, and pork; the latter will be glazed with honey from Bee Rich Apiaries of Hudson. Rochester’s Full Moon Farm will offer goat cheese on pizza and in cream and goat cheese cakes, a popular item at last year’s dinner. Apples from UNH’s Woodman Farm will be baked into tartes, and Portsmouth Tea Company will provide gourmet tea. Roasted free-range chicken (Lasting Legacy Farm), broiled fresh Maine haddock, corn on the cob (Tuttle’s in Dover) and blueberry pie cater to more traditional tastes.

“Diners will see a huge variety of local food,” says Ralph Coughenour, director of culinary services for UNH Dining, noting that given the region’s short growing season – even shorter this cool, rainy year – the range of local food is surprising. Coughenour and his colleagues have collaborated with the Boston-based supplier Costa Produce to bring local foods to the UNH table. “They’re working very closely with us to try to get as much local produce as they can,” he says.

UNH Dining also has forged a strong relationship with the UNH Organic Gardening Club, which grows produce on two acres of certified-organic land on the UNH campus. “We buy just about everything they have,” Coughenour says, adding that he’s worked with the club to tweak their production to better serve UNH Dining’s needs.

Last year’s Local Harvest Dinner, the first, was such a success that the organizers moved it to the larger Stillings Marketplace. The larger space will provide more room for farmers and other producers to meet with diners and educate them about their products and operations.

A partnership of the UNH Office of Sustainability and UNH Dining, the Local Harvest Dinner is part of UNH Dining’s Local Harvest initiative, which brings local food, including cage-free eggs and organic produce, to UNH’s three student dining halls regularly. UNH is the first land-grant university in the nation with an organic research dairy; it is home to an active Organic Gardening Club, a food waste composting program, and the New Hampshire Farm to School Program, which connects state K-12 schools with New Hampshire farms. For more information, go to http://www.unh.edu/dining/localharvest.htm or www.sustainableunh.unh.edu.

The Local Harvest Dinner is supported by the Durham Marketplace, the New Hampshire Farm to Restaurant Connection, New Hampshire Made, and the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture (COLSA) at UNH.

2006-08-20T16:53:00.000-04:00

Fall dinner series @ Flag Hill

[via Kreblog]

Flag Hill, along with chef Ted McCormack, will be introducing a new style of dinners in the Ferguson-Davis Dining Room beginning Thursday, October 5, 2006. These four course dinners will feature a Regional New England Cuisine, the vast majority of the ingredients coming from local farms and producers. As a company, Flag Hill has always strived to feature and support local artisians, products, organizations, agriculture, and business. It is with this idea that together Flag Hill and chef Ted McCormack present a schedule of dinners at the Ferguson-Davis Dining Room that focus on the wonderful and varied flavor of foods that can be procured locally, sometimes right in your own back yard.
Menus and format are soon to follow. Reservations will be accepted once the dinner menu for that date has been posted online. The general schedule through December will be:
October: Every Thursday at 6:00
November: Every Friday and Saturday at 6:00
December: Every Friday and Saturday at 6:00

The added emphasis is mine. One of the big reasons B and I got married there was this very commitment of theirs to supporting other local agricultural businesses where and when they could. I'll be most interested to see how this actually plays out.

2006-08-18T07:18:00.000-04:00

What to Eat, by Marion Nestle

just finished this book, and I found it well worth most of it, despite its 500 page length (600 if you read the notes). Nestle examines food from a nutritional standpoint, separating out what is important to pay attention to from what is not. For example, all the hype around soy - she looks at all the studies, and comes to the conclusion that if you like it, eat it - if not, don't. Either way it isn't necessarily all that great for you, nor is it all that bad for you. She illustrates why we get so many conflicting messages (the industries are sponsoring the studies, and food studies are really really hard to be conclusive about, because you can't feed humans only soy for 5 years, for example). She explains how politically driven it all is, because the USDA doesn't have our health interests at heart, it has the economic interests of the industries at heart. A good find: the Seafood Choice Alliance combines several factors to look at consumer fish buying - I've talked about the Seafood Watch Program cards before, but those look at ecological implications, not health (ie mercury levels) implications - Seafood Choice Alliance does both. And a choice quote:

You eat. Willingly or not you participate in the environment of food choice. The choices you make about food are as much about the kind of world you want to live in as they are about what to have for dinner.

Buy this book from Powell's

2006-08-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Maine is Smart

Maine seems to really get it. It being what a state can do to support and promote food producers. They've got the very successful "Get Real, Get Maine" campaign (with an amazingly informative and user-friendly website). I hear from Mainers that the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is top-notch. There's also the Maine Foods Network.

And now there's "Certified Maine Lobster." To be honest, I don't know enough about lobster to know if there's much difference between a lobster caught in Maine and one caught off of Rhode Island. And I can't believe there's a difference between NH lobster and Maine lobsters caught just a couple miles north, just as the state fisherman's association is quick to point out.

My point here is that our response shouldn't be to downgrade what they are doing by insisting it is meaningless. We should take a page from their playbook - create brand identity where there was none, help producers label and promote their foods in a way that influences consumers. We've got this NH's Own thing, but I just don't see it often enough. Definitely not as often as I see the Get Real, Get Maine label. And the farmers and growers I talk to don't feel very supported by the state in terms of what the state could do to promote NH agriculture/food producers in general, therefore creating a more informed customer, a customer who will take the time to seek local agriculture/food producers out and pay the price they often require.

2006-08-15T10:14:00.000-04:00

New Kid On the Block: Popovers on the Square, Portsmouth

I haven't tried it yet, and won't be able to until the Seacoast Eat Local Challenge is over (though B and I are vaguely considering just keeping on going - I would demand a little relaxation of our rules), but we walked in and looked around a bit anyway.

It's shiny. Very shiny and neat and appealing to masses, totally put together in a polished fashion. It's right next to the church, in the new building, and its got a wide berth of outdoor seating. Which I love.

We picked up a flyer with a menu; there are several things I want to try (here's their website, but at the time of this writing it was their logo and nothing more). The popovers with maple butter, for one. The turkey & bacon terrine also appeals. There's assorted breakfast pastries, salads, sandwiches, a cheese plate. They are part of the John Tinios baby-empire, so serve Galley Hatch desserts.

Also of note: we noticed a full bar. The outdoor seating isn't really sequestered, so I'm not sure about drinking outdoors. The menu also mentions wines.

Anyone tried it out yet?

2006-08-14T10:10:00.000-04:00

Word of the day: Gourmeh

I've been looking for a new word, a word I can use on a daily basis, a word that sums up something trying to be more than what it is and in doing so becomes less that what it was, and in terms of food, gourmeh does it for me.

From the Wired story whence it came:

Croissants become more like dinner rolls. Burger chains talk up their "Angus beef" where "Angus" is apparently Latin for "indistinguishable from the other stuff." You start getting sandwiches where the bread is laced with green speckles and topped with white powder, but these may as well be confetti and sawdust for all they add to the flavor. I have a word for food that tries to look like something you'd get at the queen's birthday dinner but tastes like something you'd poke holes in before you microwave it: gourmeh.

2006-08-02T11:30:00.000-04:00

Columbia County in the New York Times

it's weird when the NYT 'discovers' farms in your home town . . . Welcome to the Country

2006-07-21T09:51:00.002-04:00

Seacoast Eat Local Challenge

baby website is up. I made some good connections, had some good conversations at the New Roots Farm 2006 garlic harvest party. Things are moving forward, and I am feeling good.

2006-07-10T09:55:00.000-04:00

Upcoming Foodie Movies

Eat Drink Make Movie: Hollywood's Next Course - New York Times

The New York Times had an article this week talking about foodie movies in the works, as well as looking at what makes a foodie movie work, and why they're so popular. For me its the fact that I can't *always* be eating or cooking, so things like talking about food, reading about food, and the rare but usually pleasurable watching people eat, cook, and talk about food come into play. And they give proper homage to the best foodie movie, containing the best scene, of all time: Big Night.

Summer Reading: Julia Child's My Life in France

2006-07-07T14:04:00.000-04:00

lifeinfrance
Originally uploaded by plentyo'moxie.

a really wonderful, really sweet read. For hard-core Julia fans, there will not be a lot of new material here, though hearing some of the classic stories about her from her perspective is fun. And although the title is "My Life in France" the text really covers after France, too - what happened after the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and the birth and popularity of The French Chef. I love her personality, which really shines through here.

For me, the overarching highlight running through this book is the detailed descriptions of how Mastering the Art came to be. Extraordinary detail about the lengths she went to to thoroughly test each recipe, and the challenge of collaborating, and the trials of finding the right publisher. Utterly fascinating stuff, and a really good read for anyone who thinks to someday maybe publish a cookbook. Not really a primer on the topic, but the effect is somewhat the same - if you would do it right, you would follow Julia's exacting technique.

Buy this book from Powell's

2006-07-07T12:53:00.000-04:00

Impromptu Mushroom Tofu Burgers (great for the grill)

What follows are my recollections from a throw-together experiment. Peeps were coming to eat 4th leftovers, mostly burger shaped things, and I didn't have anything new for my veggie friend. But I did have some already grilled portabellas, some brand new dried mushrooms from the Oyster Creek Mushroom Company (all from Maine except the morels. absolutely gorgeous dried mushrooms. much much fresher and more fragrant than most others I've worked with), and a block of firm tofu in the fridge. A cursory glance at a couple online recipes gave me the idea to firm it all up with breadcrumbs. There were a lot of suggestions for lentils, beans, shredded carrots, celery, and whatnot, but I wasn't interested. Simple, straight forward, and grill-capable. That's what I was going for.

Makes 5-6 patties, takes about 2 hours total but most of that is non-active marinating time.

1/2 cup chopped grilled portabellas (or, if you're starting without leftovers, start with 3/4 cup fresh)
1/4 cup assorted dried mushrooms (use what you like, if you don't have dried, use 1/2 fresh)
4 shallots
garlic (when I made this recipe, garlic scapes were in season so I used those, about 6, minced. This week I picked some fresh garlic, in which case, I'd use a whole head - to sum up: lots of garlic in whatever form you've got it)
4 tbl Worcestshire sauce, vegetarian variety (Annie's makes a great one)
4 tbl olive oil, another 4 tbl for grilling
1 1/2 to 2 cups bread crumbs

Soak the dried mushrooms for about 30 minutes, reserve the liquid. Drain the tofu and roughly cube, pressing out excess water. Marinate tofu in mushroom liquid and Worcestshire sauce. Meanwhile, rough chop the dried mushrooms and saute in the olive oil over medium heat. Add the portabellas, the shallots, and the garlic after the dried mushrooms have become golden and sauteed, and cook only a few minutes more. Take off the heat and allow to cool while the tofu finishes marinating. The tofu should marinate for at least 30 minutes, preferrably, an hour.

Drain the tofu, reserving 4 tbl of the liquid and throw tofu and reserved liquid into a food processor or heavy-duty blender. Add the mushroom garlic saute, and process until it's totally mushed. Add 1 1/2 cups of the bread crumbs and process some more. Feel the mixture. If it is really wet, add another half cup of bread crumbs. It should be fairly firm and solid, and not really mushy or sticky. Form into patties and grill at your leisure (I made mine 4 hours ahead and they were great.) Right before grilling, brush a little olive oil over each side.

Cutest 4th Breakfast Ever

2006-07-05T09:37:00.000-04:00

Independence Day Breakfast
Originally uploaded by misterbisson.

by Casey Bisson, misterbisson of flickr and MaisonBisson.com

rhubarb milkshakes

2006-06-05T17:23:00.000-04:00

rhubarb milkshakes
Originally uploaded by plentyo'moxie.

I have found rhubarb's calling in life.

Simmer with a little water and honey for a bit, whir in the blender for a bit, then if you're ready, add ice cream.

I chugged mine.

tomatoes

2006-06-05T17:21:00.000-04:00

tomatoes
Originally uploaded by plentyo'moxie.

The first tomatoes of the year at the farmer's market - and they actually taste like tomatoes - at least to this soul, who hasn't had one since October. We used the last of last year's garlic, bought some buffalo mozz, and with some very non-local basil welcomed at least the thought of summer. Clouds and rain and more rain means its hard to remember its coming.

2006-05-18T07:14:00.000-04:00

Damn you Garen!

clockwise-ish from baguette: peppidews, duck prosciutto, parma, wild boar pate, marinated tomatoes, spanish chorizo, a cheese I remember as Morin which was surprisingly sweet and fresh tasting, and dulce blue

went to a farmer's birthday party

[note to food fans: farmers not only grow great food, they can tell you where to get other great food. And they most always share. J&R of New Roots Farm hooked me up with a bit of the last of last year's garlic - just enough to get me through before we get green garlic - how to become a friend of a farmer in you aren't already? start volunteering. pick peas for hours and hours. Not only will you end up having performed productive exercise and bringing home some perfect peas, they don't forget who their friends are.]

and met the infamous Garen of Back River Farm in Dover, NH

[I know he sells at Portsmouth Farmers Market, Saturdays 8-1 in the parking lot of the city building, I'm sure he does other markets but not sure which]

who started talking about his winter job at Enoteca Italiana on gourmet alley [rte 1a] in Kittery. Not just talking but describing the most interesting meats. Preserved salamis, prociuttos, and others. And then he said the magic words: duck prociutto. We asked further questions about location [across from the lion's club], and set off the next morning through the downpour.

It is a wonderous place, one to be visited infrequently [read: expensive. not overly so for what they are selling, but not everyday eats], but perfect for the day we were having. With 5" of rain in the process of falling, stinky oozy cheeses, assorted meats, little interesting pickly and olivy things, bread, and wine were all on the menu. Last Friday of every month, one of the workers was telling us, they rock out with an intense wine-tasting that starts at 2pm. Definitely my kind of place.

as for the duck prosciutto [read no further meat-squeamish]: it was amazing. The fatty parts simply melted in your mouth. Melted. Like yummy ducky buttah.

2006-05-14T09:07:00.000-04:00

Indian Finds

On a recent trip to the Spice Center in Manchester, I picked up a couple fun, crazy inexpensive things. The highlights were Indian ramen and Indian soda.

Indian ramen is just what it sounds like: ramen, only Indian flavors instead of Asian ones. I chose this 'masala' flavored one because of the line on the packaging: "Now with Taste Bhi and Health Bhi." Because, you know, we all need our daily Bhi.

The taste is pretty indescribable. A bit bitter and sour, the manufacturer's website says "Sosyo is a cider-type fruit type drink made of a heady apple and grape cocktail that packs quite a punch"

I really can't say it tasted like any of those things. Not as strongly flavored as Moxie, it still had that twang, that certain something that I like in my carbonated beverages.

The best part about the Spice Center is that everything is so dang inexpensive that there's no real risk in buying things. Everything I've purchased has been successful, each time I go I get a little more adventurous.

Of course, its all the polar opposite of eating locally. Moderation in all things except gluttony.

2006-05-09T12:43:00.000-04:00

The Cost of Eating Local

Julie keeps track of her eating local food costs for a week, and discovers that in fact, it isn't more expensive than the average American spends anyway.

2006-05-02T19:09:00.000-04:00

Stocking Up

Even though August and my own Eat Local Challenge are a bit off, rhubarb is in season now. And if I learned anything from last year, its that I missed my sour - a little lemon, a little lime - it all goes a long way. Rhubarb can sub for lemon in a bunch of ways: in vinaigrettes, in salsa, anything that needs just a little twang. So I'm stocking up now. Looks like I'm not the only one.

2006-04-30T13:08:00.000-04:00

Eat Local Challenge group blog

Just in time for the Locavores main challenge in May (we're still doing our own in August), a new group blog (of which I am one of a number of authors)

eatlocalchallenge.com

2006-04-28T10:14:00.000-04:00

It ain't food

But it's most definitely folk.

I can't say enough how much I am loving Springsteen's new album of Seeger covers (which are themselves covers of folk songs - gotta love the folk process), created over the course of three days in a house, 1 take per song. Not only the songs themselves, the instrumentals, Springsteen's voice lending itself naturally, the other singers, the styling, but the whole process rocks my party world. Definitely worth it to own. And tour dates have been announced, though tickets for the two places I would go aren't on sale yet.

[Thanks to Dr. G$ for clueing me in that this thing I've heard about in the background noise of NPR and the web is something I may actually want to focus intense intention on.]

2006-04-27T12:31:00.000-04:00

More Local Eating

Although our own effort will really concentrate in August, we buy and eat locally produced foods as much as possible year-round. The Locavores are doing a May challenge this year, and these crazy kids ate within 100 miles for a year in Vancouver. They have a great site with a lot of clear and to the point info, for those wondering what the fuss is all about.

My favorite quick line, "Let's rebuild the family farm, stop burning oil to move our food around, and remember what good eating is all about."

2006-04-25T21:59:00.000-04:00

In which B and SZ make Sushi for the first time.

Eco-fish! Check it out! Takes all the guess work and thought and carrying little cards around out of buying health and environmentally friendly fish.

Sushi rice cooling.

Spicy teka maki ready to be maki-d

rooooolll it, pat it, and mark it with a 'B'

cutting it up was actually the hardest part - I squashed them, B made them very thick.

Yet another successful non-American food experiment brought to you by Lent2006.

2006-04-25T21:44:00.000-04:00

B made eggrolls

this was awhile back, i have some catching up to do. As you can see, he panfried them then baked them off for a bit. They were absolutely delicious - a filling of cabbage, mostly, with some mushrooms and onions.

mmmmmmmm . . .

This was one of the huge successes of Lent2006, in which B and SZ gave up American food.

2006-03-19T13:26:00.000-05:00

Great Hill Maple

It should be sugaring season, but with the weird winter we've had, most all the producers are off. No matter, the sugar shacks are open and in full swing. Although the Cilley family of Newmarket lost most of their trees a few years back, they still offer breakfast in season (and for a bit in the fall) on Sundays from 7-12.

The service is friendly, the atmosphere homey and quaint, what with the wood stoves providing all the heat and the chairs salvaged from a school a while back. But what sets this place apart is how great the food is.

Real maple syrup, plentiful pitchers of it, on every table. I always start with a donut, a homemade cake one served with a side of maple cream to slather on. Also highly recommended are the french toast (plenty moist), pancakes, and the baked beans. I really love these baked beans, with their strong maple flavor. New England breakfast at its best. I get them with kielbasa.

The only thing I don't like about this place is the coffee - it's weak and church-coffee-hour-like. But this is forgivable, because the rest of the experience makes up for it. I just try to drink my coffee before I get there . . .

Great Hill Maple
Hershey Lane
Newmarket
Sundays, 7-12 until Mother's Day

2006-03-13T17:46:00.000-05:00

Rosemary cordial - damn fine.

The backstory: B & I stopped by 43 on our way to dinner to get liquored up (we weren't looking forward to that particular dinner w/ friends - they chose the place). It was a quiet Wednesday night, it was early. We sat at the bar. The bartender was in a good mood, and when we tried one of his special drinks off the menu and loved it, he offered us some other fun stuff he'd been making. Cordials, bitters, and so on. All very good, very fun. But what blew me away was the rosemary cordial. He added pear nectar, a squeeze or two of lime, and crushed juniper berries - zowie.

Fast forward a few months, we're back at 43 because I need more of that rosemary cordial. And he doesn't have any more - he's on to new things, cool things, but they just aren't the same. So I basically start whining about the lack of rosemary cordial, so he tells me how to make it:

steep a bunch of rosemary in vodka (he recommends Cold River vodka, from Maine, a real and wonderful potato vodka, though he definitely endorses using cheaper stuff for the cordials because the taste will be mutated) for a week. Stir in half as much sugar as vodka, let it steep another week. Taste it. Take the rosemary out if you like it. Drink it.

That's it.

So of course we didn't just make rosemary, we made rosemary with honey, regular rosemary, chai spices, and hot pepper - you know those little asian dried hot peppers? We also tried to make cilantro - but after the week it was funk dog so we tossed it.

The chai is amazing - we made an iced cocktail with condensed milk and black tea. I've been drinking the rosemary with pear and lime and crushed juniper berries. The hot pepper - well, the cocktail part eludes us. The cordial is very very very hot. So we're still mulling it over.

2006-03-12T08:24:00.000-05:00

drive-by news . . .Greenland, NH

Ozzy's Farmer's Market is now called Mizuna, and the Breakfast Hill Golf Club is now serving b, l, & d on Fridays, Saturdays, & Sundays. I haven't had a chance yet to check out what these changes mean. Anyone?

2006-02-27T06:58:00.000-05:00

Mary Mac's Tea Room, Atlanta, GA

To make up for wasted lunch, we headed straight for this famous Atlanta spot for supper. B and I initially argued over who got to order the chicken fried steak, and in the end, it was a good thing I lost. I ordered the fried chicken.

Man o' man - this whole time I have been fooling myself and my taste bud memories. *This* is fried chicken. Crunchy, salty, and most of all - juicy. There was chicken juice mixed with chicken grease running all over the place, and what got into my mouth made me estatic. And the collard greens. Just absolutely perfect. The mac & cheese had this custardy-like texture that was all its own and very good. Baked but not baked to death. This is what I came to Atlanta to eat.

a wing, a leg, a thigh, and a breast, with collards and mac&cheese, plus rolls - $11.95

With his chicken friend steak, B got dumplings and fried okra. He loved the dumplings, the fried okra was just meh because it was fairly luke-warm when it arrived and chilled before too long.

chicken fried steak, fried okra, and dumplings

pot likker and more cornbread for soaking it up

The meal started with a basket of bread - cinnamon rolls, yeast rolls, and little cornbread muffins. Their cornbread was much too dense and dry to eat on its own, but it was perfect for sopping up pot likker, a bowl of which they brought us because we were first-timers (this is the bottom of the collard pot, mostly liquid flavored with collards and salt pork). The yeast rolls were amazing - I haven't had one in ages and it was a somewhat revelatory experience - why wasn't I making these? (I say somewhat because I'm always determining to cook things and don't really follow through.)

yeast rolls in the foreground, pepper vinegar in the background

We were much too full for dessert. This was a problem of the south I had anticipated and actually worried over. We'd be too full, except that the south is known for fantastic desserts and pecan pie is right up there with fried chicken in my book. Haven't solved this problem yet.

2006-02-27T06:47:00.000-05:00

First Atlanta Meal

We were starving after the plane. We needed something right away. It was near our inn. B had never eaten there. That's my defense, but it was a total waste of stomach space, as you might have already guessed.

2006-02-27T06:41:00.000-05:00

Overheard at Zoo Atlanta

mom to two kids, ages 3 and 4 maybe, "come on, let's go"

the kids don't respond

mom, "let's go see the next animal"

no response from kids

mom, "ok, pirate's code."

mom walks off and kids, without a second's hesitation, follow.

2006-02-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

Lent, take 5

B and I do lent. We aren't Catholic, but we enjoy the process of focusing on what we do or don't eat and the benefits it gives us mentally, spiritually, and health-wise. Year 1 we gave up potato chips and soda, which was a very big deal at the time and now would be nothing - thanks to lent we changed that habit pretty much forever. Year 2 was red meat, year 3 was all meat. We over-boca'd, but we learned about some new foods and were pretty happy with the results overall. Bacon was hard. Our trip to San Diego last year fell in the middle of lent, and there was no way in hell I was giving up anything that I might potentially possibly eat in San Diego. So we tried adding - 5 fruits and veggies a day. B did well by starting each day with 5 bananas and then continuing to eat whatever for the rest of the day. I pretty much failed, which dissapointed me after 3 years of doing so well.

So - for Year 5 we are giving up American food, except breakfast. There has already been much debate, much dragging out of the Oxford Companion to Food, to determine what is and isn't American. The debates will continue, I'm sure, but thus far: no potato chips, burgers (ow!), hot dogs, soda, pizza, buffalo wings (double ow!). It is more about looking at other cuisines, especially cuisines of developing countries, and experimenting with new ingredients and preparations. No being lazy about food, in other words.

2006-02-19T19:56:00.000-05:00

The French Chef with Julia Child Drinking Game

take a swig:

everytime she says 'butter.' Everytime.
everytime she forgets something in the oven, it burns, and she pretends nothing's wrong.
everytime she makes a flimsy argument about calories or dieting. Like letting you know potatoes have only 70 calories each then adding two cups of cream and 6 tbl of butter to said potato dish
everytime she almost injures herself in demonstrating some safety thing. Like putting her knife over her wrist or waving her arms around boiling pots of oil.

We've had this dvd series on our Netflix queue for a while, but we saw it at the local library so decided to get it there instead.

Please don't get me wrong. I adore the woman. I worship her. And she did what is really never done now - a non-stop cooking show, without even commercial breaks, in one take. Before cooking shows were a dime a dozen. God love her.

Just make sure no one needs to drive home after.

2006-02-18T13:20:00.000-05:00

New Location Open - Joe's New York Pizza

Their fourth location is now open, on Lafayette in Portsmouth, where Seacoast Pizza used to be, next to the cigar store, and not more than a stone's throw from my house. Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

I like Joe's NY pizza - sometimes I am craving other pizza, Gepetto's and Savario's come to mind. But sometimes this exactly hits the spot. Especially if I'm driving home and starving and food has to happen NOW! There's always a good selection of slices ready to go.

This new location is already delivering, though it is still waiting for its fry-o-later. Yep. Once said fry-o-later comes in, there will be wings! Let us all get our hopes up that they will be great and they will be new yorker wings. (On a side note, I ate fairly decent wings at Jack Quigly's in Portsmouth last night. Good. They've moved up to the not-at-all-competative spot of best in the seacoast.)

open 11-9 (later on Friday and Saturday)
2968 Lafayette Road
610-8444

2006-01-14T19:09:00.000-05:00

Adventures in Vegan Gelatine

First, don't get any ideas. This stuff is horrible and evil. It is in no way worth it. Vegetarians and vegans really aren't missing that much when it comes to Jell-o, I mean it's not foie gras or anything (although in related news I was reading stuff today about veg pate and I thought, 'hmmmm'. No, I never learn any lessons. Never).

And I certainly didn't attempt it because a vegetarian or vegan has requested it. It was a self-assignment inspired by a Christmas Party I was co-hosting. The theme, Classis Holiday Foods of the 50's, in turn inspired by the Sandwich Loaf post over at Food Migration a few months back. (I did make the Sandwich Loaf. I loved the frosting, most people couldn't bring themselves to eat it, but one guy (from Spain if that means anything) ate several slices. Thick slices.) One vegetarian was expected to attend, and I just like to play around with things. So there had to be jello dishes, and they had to be weird and fun, and they had to be vegan.

Now, if you are anything like me, you are right now thinking, "Well, maybe she made it wrong. Maybe I can do it right." And I admit, you could be right, and I would like to hear about it. But I give you fair warning that this is not a worthwhile experiment or experience. Three evenings of failed vegan gelatine making later, I had one successful batch (and several terrible batches that I had to use anyway). It was fine. But ultimately, it was jello. And jello is just not worth it.

A couple trips to some health food stores, and I was the proud owner of some Agar Agar, with is a seaweed substance. You can use some other things, Google my trusty Internet steed led me to Agar Agar. Agar Agar is also responsible for a lot of Asian gummy jelly things. Some of these are very good - some are horrid. But a lot are vegan!

What I was attempting to make is this:

Called broken glass dessert, cut class dessert, stained glass dessert, or crown jewel dessert. Actually, looking at it right now I wish I had a couple boxes of Jello and some Cool Whip to make it for real. It's just so fun looking!

You make two or three different colors of jello, let them cool and solidify, then cut them into teeny little cubes. Then, make a fourth batch, let it cool a bit, mix it up well with Cool Whip, then mix in all those cubes. Press it into a loaf pan or other appropriate container and let that solidify.

In vegan gelatine making, you take fruit juice, simmer it with several tablespoons of Agar Agar for a little while, then treat it like jello. First up, cranberry juice. Wonderful, worked the first time, solidified to a normal texture, tasted like cranberry juice, was a pleasingly clear red, just like jello.

And then everything went terribly terribly wrong.

My plan was to make red and green - for cheesy Christmas effect. For the green, I was going to use white cranberry juice and color it green.

First attempt: never solidified. Put it back on the heat and stirred in a lot more agar agar. Still never solidified.

2nd attempt: started from scratch, used a crap load of agar agar, decided to throw in the green food coloring only when it showed signs of solidifying. It never did.

3rd attempt: decided it might be the white cranberry juice. Decided to use sugar dissolved in water and a crap load of agar agar. Well, it worked. Much much too well.

I made this photo very big but texture is hard to discern from photos. These cubes were solid. I mean very very very solid. You could bite into them and all, and chew them. But who wants to chew jello? It is supposed to just sort of slither down your throat. And the taste was not just sweet sugar as I had planned, but weird Asian gummy x50.

But I had my jello cubes, and no more days and no more agar agar, so I forged ahead.

Here I am mixing the cool whip in (made with the red cranberry juice so a. it would work, b. it would taste better, and c. for happy chrustmas pinkness).

When it was solid, I turned it out, frosted it with more cool whip, and decorated it with red and green marachino cherries.

Here is a slice. Looks great! But don't be fooled . . .

Thus ends the saga of vegan gelatine. No one could eat it at all. As you can see, it would have been worth it because cut glass dessert is the coolest.

I am fine with failure (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't put this stuff on the web), mostly I learn something in the process and turn around and try the dish with modifications again. This time, though, the failure didn't inspire future attempts. Maybe there's a lesson in there about white cranberry juice. But I think the take-away lesson today for all you kids at home - don't bother.

2006-01-02T17:09:00.000-05:00

Responsible Seafood Eatin'

My sis and I picked up these handy dandy little wallet sized guides to environmentally friendly seafood eating a few years back at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and have been blissfully whipping them out in restaurants and fish stores ever since. The fish are organized into three lists: Good, OK, and Avoid, depending on their abundance and the method in which they are caught or farmed.

What we didn't realize, however, is that the Monterey Bay Aquarium is even cooler than we thought because these guides are regional. We picked up new ones at the Naples Zoo and finally noticed. And then we also noticed we could go online and print out ones that are specific to the Northeast. So now we have a little collection - west coast, southeast, and the relevant one: northeast.

So go on, all y'all environmentally conscientious eaters: Monterey Bay Aquarium has taken a lot of the work and research and remembering out of ordering seafood and fish. Also included is a lot of helpful information, about how they reach their conclusions and what it all means.

2005-12-09T13:47:00.000-05:00

Damn good.

Snow day fare: truffle-cheese melted into grits, a couple of eggs over medium. ethereal.

2005-12-09T05:50:00.000-05:00

The Dunaway, Portsmouth NH, first impressions.

The Dunaway, part of the growing empire of Jay McSherry and located at Strawberry Banke, opened for lunch this summer and dinner only a bit later. It's been on my radar, but I both like a restaurant to settle a bit and needed to save up some money and find an occasion - it is that kind of restaurant.

When we finally went this past week, we hadn't really heard much about it. B had checked it out for lunch and liked it. I checked out the menu online and liked that. We knew the chef had at one time worked at 43 degrees north, one of our two favorite fancy-pants places.

We met there, and I arrived first. They have their own parking. Super extra check plus for a Portsmouth restaurant. I was immidiately enchanted, charmed, by the interior. Warm, cozy but not home-y, soft lighting with candles on all sorts of surfaces (but not so many you worry about the place burning down). There is a nice cozy area for sitting and having a drink, a nice little bar, a nice little fireplace. They took my coat, offered me a drink (which I didn't get so I don't know if they have special bar drinks) and I waited by the fireplace.

We had asked for a 7pm reservation, which they didn't give us. "How about 6:30 or 7:30?" Umm, ok. We took 6:30. The place was dead. I have no understanding of why they did that. It's not like they had less staff on duty that night, and needed to worry about 1 waitress handling all 4 tables (all two-tops). Anyway.

There's a downstairs seating area near the semi-open kitchen (also very charming - I really really wanted to love this place based on its decor. Really. So I guess I am giving away the ending here) but everyone there was seated upstairs, above the kitchen, which is also where they sat us.

The wine list is a decent size, not too big, but with enough various and interesting selections to be a good list, if you are not faint of wallet and have a thing for wine. A decent number of wines by the glass, but if you are two people who will each drink at least two glasses, there are financial reasons to explore the bottles. The wine list is disproportionately expensive, but the food is expensive, so it sort of matches.

So, the food.

I'm reminded of that episode of the Simpson's, where Marge is trying to talk with Bart and Lisa, they are all in the car, and Bart and Lisa reply, "meh" to everything she asks or suggests, until by the end of the scene Lisa sort of yells, "We said 'meh'!"

The food is ok. And it should be way better than ok if you have to splurge for it. (Believe me, I do not mind at all paying good money for good food, and am not a stranger to this. It's just if I spend the meal sighing in dissapointment, and then get that check . . .)

I started with oysters and then got the fois gras appetizer as my meal. The oysters were good, how can they not be? Very northern atlantic tasting. For $8 I had expected maybe 5, I got 3.

Yep, it's that type of place. My friend had assumed it was going to be. But there are plenty of fancy restaurants that give you more than enough food. Lindbergh's Crossing, for one. We spent part of the meal discussing where we'd go after for burritos, Dos Amigos (owned by the same people as the very restaurant we were sitting in and complaining about - hah!) or Los Cocos Tacos. Never a good sign to be plotting an after dinner meal.

I can certainly be blamed for my choice of two appetizers for a meal when it comes to quantity, but my companions did not make these same poor decisions and were very hungry. Anyway.

The fois gras was ok. It's accompanying salad had an amazing dressing that I meant to ask about then didn't.

B had the chicken with sweet potato risotto. This risotto was also amazing. There, we have covered the highlights of the meal. At least for me. The chicken, I thought, was ok. B said the skin was good, but he didn't share any skin.

Friend A started with a 'taste' of rabbit wrapped in bacon. I asked him how it was and he made a dinner plate size circle with his hands, "I wish it had been this big." He had the bevette of beef with mushrooms and carrots and sauce bordelais. He liked the mushrooms and carrots very much, also the beef but he surprised himself with how much he liked the mushrooms and carrots.

Friend B, a vegetarian, had one option and took it. The Wild Mushroom & Ricotta Canneloni. It was good, but small.

Since we were still hungry we all got dessert. Friends A & B got the warm chocolate cake, which was so bitterly dissapointing. It was nothing special at all. B got the cider doughnuts and warm mulled cider. The doughnuts were actually two munchkins. The warm mulled cider was tasty. I got the almond butter cake with poached pears and brandy fig sauce. It was a pretty poor example of something I have fairly low standards for.

Our service was great, after dinner we hung out there so long we missed our burrito eating opportunity, and they didn't rush us or make us feel like we should move along, so that was nice. Atmosphere is wonderful.

But the food? Meh.

Normally, I would give any restaurant a second chance. Wait a few months and see. But for the price, I'm gonna have to hear someone tell me personally of some serious changes in quality, flavor, and interestingness. Going out to a nice restaurant is just too big of a treat to knowingly go into a place that is just ok again.

2005-10-16T11:29:00.000-04:00

Turkey time in October

In August we ordered a turkey from Kellie Brook Farm here in Stratham, NH. Yesterday we went to pick it up at the farmer's market. A huge 24-pounder.

This is my first fresh turkey every (as in, never frozen) and it is happily brining away in the fridge. And impromptu Mexican influenced brine: salt and sugar, of course, tellicherry peppercorns, cumin and coriander, various dried peppers, tequila, vegetable stock, bay leaves.

Later we will cook it. Makes me wish I had thought of the Mexican flavors earlier when planning the stuffing - coulda been cornbread and chorizo sausage based. Instead it will be sourdough baguette, mushrooms, leek and sausage based. With fresh sage from the farm market.

I love turkey.

2005-09-27T21:05:00.000-04:00

Gaga for Gaga's

I know it's been a month (grad school) and this is gonna be wicked short.

I have fallen head over heels in love with a particular sherbet. Or sherbetter, as the package proclaims.

Gaga's out of Warwick, Rhode Island.

I've been a believer in the lemon for months now, and on my most recent trip to my supplier (Philbrick's Fresh Market here in Portsmouth, NH) I saw that there is now raspberry.

Just why is this so good? Clean, sweet, light, creamy, true to its respective fruit with actual but small and unobtrusive pieces of said fruit - the taste is amazing. And compared to ice cream, not all that bad for you, but just as satisfying.

2005-08-28T11:30:00.000-04:00

Eat Local Challenge: Ricotta on the brain

'Tis the season of faux Italian cooking. Tomatoes, basil, garlic, eggplant and/or zucchini, throw in some non-local (exempted through the pantry rule) but real and genuine Italian fruity green olive oil brought back for us from Italy in precious carry-on space, and you've got dinner in a myriad of ways. Except for one thing.

Cheese.

I've been living off goat cheese from oodles of local places, but all of it chevre. Which is close and good enough for most applications. Mozzarella will have to wait for the arrival of my cheesemaking kit from New England Cheesemaking Supply (30 minutes! Fresh mozz!). Parmesan in all its glorious forms will have to wait till September. But ricotta, with recipe via Heidi and proof positive from Clotide, was only some buttermilk away.

I got a half gallon of goat's milk (goat's milk ricotta, doesn't that sound yummy?) from Full Moon Farm in Rochester, NH. The buttermilk was from Oakhurst, so it may technically come from further away than 100 miles, as some farmers are way up in Maine, but a lot are closer, too. Law of averages or something.

Milk warming.

All of a sudden, the action.

Draining.

Forgot about it for too long so it dried out more than regular ricotta.

More like a ricotta salata than anything. Which is totally good and fine.

It melts like a dream - perfect for those melty cheesy pesto tomato dishes I've been thinking about. Layers of eggplant, globbed onto grilled zucchini, tossed with roasted tomatoes and pasta (pasta? where'd you get locally sourced pasta? well, it's made by a local company and ummm . . ) for the quickest satisfying dinner.

Hurrah!

2005-08-24T11:45:00.000-04:00

Eat Local Challenge: Reference Reading

Upon mention by a couple sources (including Cindy of Food Migration, and what a migration she's undertaken of late! Read all about her adventures starting cooking school in Paris.), I excitedly interlibrary loaned Gary Paul Nabhan's Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods.

Here is the short story, for those too excited that there exists a whole book about the issue of local foods that they want to rush right over to their local library or independant bookstore before reading the rest of this post: it sucks.

I do hope people of differing opinions will weigh in, and maybe temper my opinion. I am very easily persuaded, especially when I really really wanted to like something, and am dissapointed to find that I don't like it after all.

My complaints:

it is tedious. I am a seriously fast and furious reader. Seriously. But it took me multiple weeks to slog through this thing, and its only 300 pages. The writing is not engaging. It is repetetive. I read a lot of non-fiction, it doesn't have to be like this. I think he could have distilled it down to 150 pages, which is about where I started an internal argument with myself over finishing it:

"Just put it down. You are wasting your life on this book."
" But something might happen! Or he might teach me something about something! I'm willing to learn anything!"
"That hasn't happened yet, has it? It never will. Give up and cut your losses."
(After finishing the book)"You were right."

it is heavy on hippie-styly preachy faux spirituality and slim on facts. I definitely 'get' our connection to the earth through the food we eat. I don't need it 500 times over. What I need is stuff that will make me an informed consumer and help me communicate the importance of all this eat local business to people who aren't similarly minded.

he is a brat. So he and his friends go on a river rafting trip. The first night out, his friend starts to cook paella, using lots of canned stuff and totally non-local stuff. He goes over to the guy and complains! Sez how dissapointed he is that everyone isn't buying into the foraging for local stuff in the desert deal. So the next day, ok, everybody's ready to forage. Turns out Nabhan didn't do his homework, there is nothing to forage for! If everyone had gone along with him, they would have been miserable and hungry. Come on, who complains when their friends cook them dinner? Who does that?

the guy drives a Blazer. And harps on it. "I got into my Blazer" "The Blazer was hot" stuff like that. Never refers to it as a car or SUV or anything else. They get 13 miles to a gallon. 13! Sure, he lives in the desert and drives around alot. But he never talks about hauling large amounts of stuff, and is usually driving around by himself on foraging missions. There are more fuel efficient desert friendly vehicles. And if you harp on everyone else about environmental issues and own an suv, the least you could do is be embarrassed or hide it. A BLAZER!

This guy appears to be at least a semi-big-wig, in the circuit of agricultural politics, and I don't want to downplay too much that aspect - there is a lot of stuff in the book about how and why genetically modified foods are making it so quickly into our food supply without the general public really knowing it - that is some good stuff but it is really diluted, not really in focus.

Here is one fact from the book that I found very relevant, and spent some time looking for more updated figures but only got as far as 1990:

". . . in 1910, farmers themselves gained forty cents for every dollar consumers spent on food but received less than seven cents per dollar by the time I left college in 1982" (p 73).

We can take heart that this trend seems to be reversing a bit, and our eating local and giving more of our money directly to farmers is helping. There has been huge growth in the number of farmers' markets in the past ten years, further enabling farmers to earn a fair wage. At the same time, we get the bonus of less petroleum used for packaging and transportation.

2005-08-03T16:20:00.000-04:00

Mexican Chocolate Chunk
Zucchini Bread

A couple of weeks ago my farmer-librarian friend Jean said something about chocolate chips in zucchini bread. I was stopped in my tracks. Literally. Never, in all my days, had this occured to me. I know, I know, it's very common. There's even a blog about this combination. A very famous one. That I read regularly. I just took it as two separate things.

Like a revelation, this idea percolated. Stirred in my brain. I've never made zucchini bread before personally, something about a gazillion zucchinis out of the garden when we were kids. I od'd to last me 2o years. But chocolate in zucchini bread . . .

But now we're in August, and the Eat Local Challenge is on. In my personal exemptions, I exempted everything already in my house. This does not include chocolate chips. It does, however, include a pretty full little box of Ibarra, the Mexican chocolate flavored with cinnamon and weirdly crystally in this way that I love.

After some more percolation, and a few glances at Martha's plain jane zucchini bread recipe to get an idea about baking soda and whatnot (although I am a very intuitive cook, the baking intuition is lagging behind.), we came to this:

Totally delicious! I am brilliant!
I amped up the zucchini to rest of stuff ratio. It's zucchini bread, after all! Most recipes seemed way too light on actual zucchini.
The amount of cayenne was right for me and B, not spicey, just . . . warm. That's the only way I can describe the sensation and it was right on. If you don't like your sweets warm, cut back to 1 1/2 tsp, but give it a go. It's good.
Perhaps a little more cinnamon.

Recipe:

Dry:
3 tablets Ibarra chocolate, chopped into chunks with a big knife
(about 9 oz, if you are going to substitute)
1 cup ground almonds
6 cups shredded zucchini
(about 2 1/2 lbs whole. man, I love my food processor.)
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 cups flour
4 tsp cinnamon (I'd up it to two tablespoons)
2 tsp cayenne powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt

Wet:
5 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tbl vanilla extract
1 tbl almond extract

Preheat oven to 400F, mix dry ingredients together, mix wet ones together, blend wet and dry. Divide into four greased bread loaf pans, bake about an hour. Let cool ten minutes or so in pans, then tilt out onto cooling racks for the rest.

Makes four loaves: one to eat right away (very good warm), one to share, two to freeze until zucchini is a distant memory. Yum yum.

Eat Local: eggs from Kelly Brooke farm (5 miles), organic zucchini from New Roots Farm in Stratham (8 miles) paid for in sweat equity, organic butter from Woodstock farms (94 miles), honey from Hampton Falls Apiaries (10 miles). The rest, alas, is from the far-flung nether regions - it was all in the pantry.

2005-08-02T16:03:00.000-04:00

Eat Local Challenge: Dairy

My milk hasn't changed, it's from Harris Farm in Dayton, Maine (about 28 miles). I usually buy this milk because of the environmentally happy packaging - reusable glass bottles take a lot less water to clean than the recycling of plastic jugs - and because of the flavor. This milk is so sweet!

The eggs are from a local farm stand, in this case, Kellie Brook Farm in Greenland, NH on rte 33 (5 miles).

My butter used to be Cabot, which is made by a farmer's cooperative in Montpelier, VT. Just outside my 100 mile range, though many of the farmers are within the range. Then again, many are even further away. So today I am trying Woodstock Farms organic butter, out of Dayville, CT (94 miles).

I also picked out some cheeses while picking up my milk and butter. Lord knows I'm going to miss my smelly european cheeses this month. One is an old favorite, Great Hill Blue, a nice crumbly all purpose blue from Marion, MA (83 miles). The other is new to me, a fresh chevre flavored with roasted garlic from Valley View in Topsfield, MA (25 miles).

I picked up some sausages from Kellie Brook while I was there, and only later did it occur to me that these sausages, made out of homegrown local pigs, contain some far-flung spices. I think that is nit-picking, but it points out for me the kind of depth this project/experiment/challenge can get to.

2005-08-01T12:15:00.000-04:00

Eat Local Challenge: Finding Aides

Made me some maps to help me figure out where farms are in relation to the 100 miles. The one on top is just a really old road map that I did up to get the big picture - it's hard to find New England maps that are just one sided - usually Maine is stuck on the back, as is the case with the bottom one. But I needed that one, too, actually more, because it is detailed in its town name labelling.

This was some old-fashioned string and pencil work on paper maps, and will be very good for taking with me to the store. We are lucky here in New England to have so many small farms that make good stuff, but I am unlucky in that I am not really from here and am not intimately familiar with the geography. I can definitely already see the looks of curiosity I will get when I whip out my maps and unfold them on the floor, desperately seeking the names of towns off of labels.

2005-07-28T16:01:00.000-04:00

Cheese Racing

Yes, folks, cheese racing. The basic concept, if you are as confused as I was: everyone throws down a slice of Kraft wrapped in plastic on the BBQ, whoever's inflates furthest fastest wins. Best explained by this pic:

No, the plastic doesn't melt (!), but CRASS, the Cheese Racing Association, suggests using those cheap-o disposable supermarket bbqs just in case. Also, easier clean-up. Also on their site, entertaining pics, complete rules, tips from the pros and advice on hosting your own racing event.

Start your processed cheese food slices.

2005-07-28T07:42:00.000-04:00

Eat Local Challenge: warm ups

In line with the recommendations of the Locavores, I'm getting mentally ready, and defining my own level of commitment. So far I've got three exceptions:

1. Coffee
2. Everything already in my pantry. Since I have a ton of olive oil, beans, rice, salt, pepper and so on this seems very much cheating. There will be no stocking up, but I am going to use what I already have. It doesn't make any sense to me, or to the mission of this thing, to waste food.
3. Wednesday night secret dinner club meetings. I'd tell you more but then I'd have to kill you.

Since I'm pretty close to eating locally already - all meat, veggies, milk, eggs - I'm not too concerned about my success with this endeavor, except for one very strong anxiety: bread.

A couple bizarrely overlapping resources if you are working on your own challenge:

Local Harvest

Food Routes

The best source of info about the challenge and about eating locally is the blog Life Begins at 30

Small Farms points out this relevant diner, in Barre, Vermont: Farmer's Diner. It's not in my local scene, being 69 miles over the 100 mile limit, but for someone else, I think it certainly counts. I was impressed with this quick clean argument for local eating:

Buying and selling so much local food creates significant social returns. Every $1,000,000 in annual sales at a diner translates into 350 acres of farmland in production, 15 farmers with gross sales of $50,000, 13 new farm jobs, and $1,200,000 in land conservation costs saved. Because of local production and shortened delivery routes each $1 million in sales saves at least 10 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. (Johnson School of Business, Cornell University Social Venture Competition study 2001/2002)

That is, if you find farmland and open spaces desirable in your community, which I do.

2005-07-27T08:58:00.000-04:00

Legit Summer Wines from Slate

I get a little embarrassed as I pull out sweet white after sweet white wine all through the summer. But it's all I want to drink when the weather is fine and summer squash is on the menu. Our wine collection (yo - who amoungst you ever thought you'd have one? Even to just have a couple of extra bottles on hand? Not me, anyway. Seems like only yesterday we were scraping together our dimes to buy Thunderbird) is heavy on heavy reds, so we are often off to the store to stock up on more light whites. We can't seem to get enough of Finger Lakes region Rieslings, Gerwurztraminer from anywhere, and white Riojas for making white Sangria.

From Slate, a nice quick article with some other ideas for summer wines. And no need to be embarrassed.

2005-07-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

Eat locally, think yummy

My librarian skilz failed me. There is a great great great article in this month's Gourmet, Bill McKibben writing about eating food only from his watershed for an entire year. The man lives in Vermont. Not some pansy southern Cal location. Vermont. It is well written and definitely inspiring. I wanted to find an electronic link so you could be inspired, too, but I can't. So you could go to your local library and read it, or something equally lame. It is worth it, and you might discover some other fun things about your local library. Like that they have a million cookbooks you can check out for free. Probably a real librarian could've found the electronic link. I'm only a fake librarian.

On the heels of that inspiring article, I read about the Eat Local Challenge going on for the month of August. For those of us not organized enough for a year of watershed eating, draw a 100 mile radius around yourself, and do the best you can for a month. And August has got to be the easiest month, especially for us New Englanders.

I am definitely inspired to try to do my best this year. I always do, but I'll throw a little more thought into the few mass produced products I buy, such as the bread from my local bakery - just where is that wheat coming from, Ollie? And eating out is going to take a hit (not an entirely bad thing).

I'm up for a more concerted, organized, seacoast-wide sort of thing next year. Get the local food writers on board, the farmer's market association, maybe some chefs will do some special dinners (we have those kind of enthusiastic chefs around here and that's half the fun of their food), get some nice fun maps made up and start researching all that is local.

So to sum up this rambling unfocused post - I am taking the Eat Local Challenge this August, and I hope you consider some level of involvement, too. Maybe by next August we can get as organized as the Locavores of San Francisco and really have a grand old time. Make it a national local thing. Or something.

ps. I didn't really talk about why all this is important. So look here if you need a clue.

2005-07-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

El Mexicano, Jr.

Heaven... I'm in heaven,
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.
And I seem to find the happiness I seek,
When we're out together, eating really great cheap and authentic Mexican food.

My friend Amy and her sister Sara helped me out in a big way today - I needed to drive our old car to Manchester, about an hour away, to the Good News Garage so that we could donate it. And then I needed a ride home - another hour. In the meantime, the chowhounds have been talking this place up, and what do you know, it's two minutes from the Good News Garage. Despite my feeling that I owed them lunch, Sara insisted on paying. And I didn't fight her too hard about it. To be honest, I was so excited about the menu, I was totally distracted.

So it's this little 5 booth place, with the little kids of the owners running around. There's a bulletin board behind the counter, but the counter guy helped us out with an even more extensive printed menu in both english and spanish, after my twentieth question, "What is ____?" Which he helpfully explained, in great english. They have sodas, beers, mexican sodas and mexican beers. And everything is as cheap as we've come to expect from authentic mexican joints like this.

The list of things I want to try is a mile long and includes a lot of things I have never in my life tried: Pata de Puerco (pig's feet), menudo, buche taco (pig's stomache taco), cabeza de rez taco (beef head), milanesa con papas (steak covered with bread and fries) and so on. And so on. Besides these, there are lots of foods I've eaten before but can't wait to try their version: mole, chilaquiles (hurrah! chilaquiles for breakfast!), chile verde, carnitas, posole, and so on. I ate there three hours ago and I cannot wait to go back.

Enough with what I didn't have - here's what I did have:

We were brought some chips and salsa right away, and this salsa in damn good. The flavor made me think it has some dried chiles in it, just really good. I could've taken it hotter, but this is forgivable. And the chips are so homemade.

The deshebrada combination plate. $6.99 for shredded beef seasoned with tomatoes, onions, and peppers, beans and rice, some shredded lettuce with a little cheese on top, and some really stinkin awesome corn tortillas. This was amazingly simple and delicious, with flavors that are spot on. Amy asked the valid question of how it compared to my holy grail of Las Brasas, the place B and I ate virtually all our meals at in San Diego. I said it was pretty comparable, and it was. Las Brasas was slightly better overall because the flavors were fuller, and the beans at Las Brasas were way better. But seeing as how we are in NH, this is amazing.

I also ordered a chorizo taco for $1.29, and I'm going to have a hard time not ordering a dozen the next time we go (tomorrow?). It was perfect. Two corn tortillas, fried together, brilliant! The quality of the chorizo, top notch and cooked to a nice crispy crumbliness. The cilantro, the salsa, just really really well put together.

Amy had the chicken burrito; Sara had the quesadilla. Both really enjoyed theirs. If I hadn't been so distracted by my love for my own food, especially that chorizo taco, I would have been more on the ball about getting tastes.

Vive El Mexicano Jr. Restaurant!

197 Wilson St
Manchester, NH
Sunday - Thursday 10am - 10pm
Friday & Saturday 10am - 1am

2005-07-17T08:40:00.000-04:00

Sorbetiere!

A $20 check-out line impulse buy at Big Lots, and we are now the proud owners of a Rival electric ice cream maker. Once we were the proud owners of a Rival blender, purchased in similar fashion at Walgreen's. So I know this thing isn't going to last. My eyes are wide open this time. But for some hot fun in the summertime, it's perfect. And as Amy pointed out, we can see if we're actually going to use it before investing in a good one.

We busted open the packaging in the parking lot so we could shop for ingredients before heading home - raspberry sherbet. We bought frozen raspberries, though they are in high season here, because of some seriously flawed thinking. We thought we could speed up the process, despite the totally unfrozen freezer gel disc thingie. Unfortunately, frozen raspberries are not easy to push through a sieve. But lesson learned. 10 oz raspberries, 1 cup cream, lots of sugar and some lemon juice. We couldn't make it right away (duh), so we ended up putting most of the contraption in the freezer. It was delicious, a definate do-over.

Butter pecan ice cream was my first test recipe for The Good Home Cookbook(my next two assignments are home-made mayo, ok, and catalina dressing, bleck! two cups of it!). It came out well, and was fairly simple. If I were making it again for myself, I would candy the pecans before adding them. Heighten their flavor, create some nice crunch, break up that homemade ice cream too creamy mouthfeel. Again, a bit of putting the whole contraption in the freezer, but much less of that. There's a lot of down time to ice cream making, so although from start to eating ice cream was about 2 hours, only 30 minutes of that involved doing anything. Easy peasy.

2005-07-12T19:21:00.000-04:00

I have yet another gross food love to confess, although to many of you this is no secret: I love Slush Puppies. With lots and lots of extra syrup. So that they are so acidic-ly sweet you can feel your teeth dissolve. And the color starts to become a purpley brown.

Problem is, you just don't see the ones where you get to add your own syrup (and thus surreptitiously add 8 extra squirts) around here much anymore. They're all premixed at gas stations, or Slurpees at 7-11 (not the same at all. Don't even go there.) It had been many a year since I was able to indulge in this unique treat, so long ago Ace and I were just the other day reminiscing. I was complaining about the lack of Slush Puppies on the Seacoast and he was again making fun of my Slush Puppie eating style. Good times.

So when I saw those magic words, and spotted the magic bottles, at yet another failed attempt to eat at the Surfside Hot Dog Shoppe (another story for another day), I knew I'd be back in a flash - it seemed like fate.

Today was that day. Today I saw the open sign, and went for it. This was a big risk - the machine and syrups are inside the place, the customers are outside looking in through window screening. There was no way I could surreptitiously add 8 extra squirts.

I went for it anyway, so strong was my desire for a Slush Puppie. "What flavor?" the twit asked. "Blue and green mixed," I answered. The twit didn't bat an eyelash. Maybe that was because she wasn't paying any attention to me, engaged in full conversation with two other co-workers. But in a minute one of these said co-workers handed me my Slushie, and I knew I was in.

Just from the color I could tell they gave me full strength of each flavor. That's double the amount of flavor syrup it should have. It was glowing. And the taste? Just as good as I remember.

Damn it feels great to be nostalgic about something, be able to recreate that thing, and have it be as good as you remember.

Surfside Hot Dog Shoppe, I am still confused about your open v closed-ness, and when you cook hotdogs v only having ice cream. But from now on, whenever I drive by (which is really often, this is actually the closest business to my house, only 2 minutes), or bike by, or walk by, I will be hardpressed not to stop and get a double, or maybe a triple-flavored Slush Puppie.

Good times.

2005-07-11T11:44:00.000-04:00

Pickle-palooza

I thought I didn't like pickles. Then my sis and I went to the East Coast Grill in Cambridge. On the way there she mostly talked about the pickles. So when they plopped a little dish down, we went at it.

Now I know I love pickles. Just not any found in grocery stores.

When sis and I discovered that the recipe for the revelation pickles is to be found in the little (and inexpensive) Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes with Big Flavor, by none other than Chris Schlesinger, John Willoughby, and Dan George, we promptly checked it out from the library. (I really might aquire this one-which is saying a whole lot.)(In fact, I might be forced to buy it, because I've used the one from the library so often the pages and the spine have become more than a bit separated.)

This book is chock-full o' interesting and varied pickled what-have-you recipes, and the vast majority are refrigerator pickles. You make 'em, stick 'em in the fridge for a bit, then eat 'em. Key absent word: canning. There are some fun fermented recipes in the back, but I haven't attempted any of those (yet).

For the 4th of July menu - lots and lots of pickled things, and meat. Pickles and different sausages go particularly well together, I think.

So did the friends we had over. Fun people interested in food and not minding that I hadn't pre-tested any of these recipes, including the ones I just totally made up, except the Back Eddy East Coast Grill ones.

The Award for Overall Best Eating Pickle goes to:

Back Eddy Pickles (on right), made with cucumbers, carrots, and culiflower, and pretty much following the Quick Pickles recipe. They are sweet, crunchy, have a distinct allspice-y effect to them. Perfect general pickle for most cook-out occasions.

Award for pickle most likely to please non-pickle eaters (so basically pickle least resembling pickles in flavor) and best eaten on or with other foods:

El Salvadorean Pineapple-Pickled Cabbage (on left and also below). The recipe (from Quick Pickles, here-to-fore known as QuickPick), calls for green cabbage but I love the red because it is brilliantly purple. I left out the carrot the recipe called for, so it is basically cabbage, red onion, fresh pineapple, garlic and hot pepper, pineapple juice, and white vinegar. I can definitely see this pickle on fish tacos.

Most interesting use of ingredients, most unique pickle, and 2nd runner up in prettiest pickle catagory:

Citrus-pickled Turnip Wafers with Gin and Juniper Berries (back right). I loved these pickles. Others who either didn't love citrus or didn't love gin appreciated them, but didn't love them. There isn't a lot of gin, but it rounds out the flavor. These turnips are young spring ones from the farm market. I love baby turnips. LOVE THEM. (Recipe also from QuickPick.)

Prettiest: The pickled radishes on the left. Let's get a glamour close-up, shall we?

Aren't those babies beautiful? This is a totally made up recipe, and I think I did a great job considering my lack of pickling experience. I don't really remember the details, though. B sliced them fine (mad props to B for all the slicing and dicing for pickle-palooza. If only we had the OXO Good Grips Mandoline, (about $50, Santa)), we salted them, rinsed them (common pickling technique), ingredients included mirin, rice vinegar, and mebbe some wine vinegar. Some white sugar. They really mellowed, but retained their crunch and just a bit of their heat. Everyone loves radishes when they're pickled! And the color is all them. They just leached out their pink. Almost glow in the dark brilliance.

Least yummy but still maintaining potential for serious recipe tweaking:

Crunchy Orange-Pickled Red Onions with Chipotles and Tequila. Also green apples. From QuickPicks. Just way too much chipotle. Until I reread the recipe right now to post, I forgot all about the orange.

Best Dessert Pickles & Easiest Pickle to Make:

Balsamic-Pickles Peaches.

White balsamic vinegar, sweet vermouth, pineapple juice, and peaches. Yum yum yum.

Pickle without a recipe with most potential for improvement:

Remember those most improved awards from athletic or school kind of things? Doesn't that inherently imply that you sucked before? Well, this pickles don't suck, but my lack of pickle making therefore recipe inventing experience is very evident here. They are garlic scapes, and very mellow, not very garlickly. Adorable curling around the jar. I think I have a good base of the right vinegars, but am going to be working on the flavors. Or the lack thereof.

One last pic:

all the vinegar from the start of pickle-palooza.

All in all, it was a tremendous success and delicious. I love learning about cooking techniques and types of foods unfamiliar to me. Good thing most of the pickles last weeks, if not months, in the fridge, 'cuz we're going to be eating them for a while yet!

2005-07-10T10:53:00.000-04:00

Space Meat

ya know, kind of like space ice cream.

Edible meat grown in labs. For human consumption.

And we thought genetically modified tomatoes were scary . . .

My favorite quote:

"The challenge is getting the texture right," says Matheny. "We have to figure out how to 'exercise' the muscle cells. For the right texture, you have to stretch the tissue, like a live animal would."

New Harvest is the non-profit that is hoping this will solve world hunger. I love the pic of rolling fields of grain.

Sketch-o-rama.

2005-07-09T08:45:00.000-04:00

First Favas . . .

Over at a different farm (Meadow's Mirth, out of Kensington), we got a little too anxious with the favas and picked a couple small to test them out. Although they were insanely delicious, we need to just sit on our hands and wait for them to grow.

grow favas! grow!

2005-07-08T10:40:00.000-04:00

New Food Review: Wolfgang Puck's Gourmet French Vanilla Latte in the New Self Heating Can!

Addendum: Over at MAKE, they tore one of these apart - see fun pics are read about science-y stuff and their ideas for hacks of the self heating can. Most fun trivia: R&D on the can took 7 years and $24 million.

Because we never learn our lessons, even the hard way, B and I are suckers for new foods. I probably could have passed this one by, but since it was a food that also included a gizmo, and involved really complicated instructions for opening, B stuck it in the cart.

I'll give you the taste review first, further on is the play by play in pics:

(intone cheezy announcer voice)
If you like Starbuck's Frappuccino Coffee Drinks, but wish they were luke warm, you'll LOVE Wolfgang Puck's self heated latte thingies.

They taste pretty much exactly the same. Which is to say, not very good. Unless you like sugary milk with a shot of coffee syrup. In which case you'll love this.

And with a price tag of $2.99 for 10 oz, I won't be purchasing another one ever. Not even for novelty value while phony camping.

Over at Wolfgang Puck's site, a movie about how it works! (140F my butt.)

Here is B reading the really long and complicated instructions
(steps 1 through 3 are handily written upside down on the can.)

Here B is activating the chemical reaction:

The spot on the can turns from pink to white when it is hot.

Here B is reading all the warnings, which take up a full 1" column down the entire side of the can, and include such mysteries as "Consume beverage from container. DO NOT POUR OUT." As well as the standard and expected, "IN CASE OF ACCIDENTAL CONTACT FLUSH WITH WATER FOR 15 MINTUES" (capitalization theirs, not mine."

The spot is white! Time to face the music.

Here B is reacting to his first sip. That is his expression bemused disgust.

2005-07-06T17:17:00.000-04:00

Die folkie, die!

So there's been a couple questions about my posting name change. Basically, it's all me, the same person. folkie was an alternate persona from when I was first setting up a blogger account for my work blog and needed to do some experimentation with multiple users, etc. So I have finally straightened that out, and I am plentyo'moxie all over the web. (meant to conjure up both meanings of the word)

ps. moxiefest is this weekend! moxie ice cream! moxie chugging contests! small town fun galore!

2005-07-06T16:23:00.000-04:00

To meme, or not to meme . . .

That is the question.

I kill chain mail. On purpose. I go out of my way to stop the crappy forwarding of nonsense. I even threatened to sue my dad when he was forwarding so many stupid email chain jokes. I got a cease and desist order. So when Food Migration tagged me a couple days ago, I said, as my father would say, "Thanks a rot, Cindy."

But here I am. Seems unsporting not to play. And there is a bit of flattery in being tagged. Also, somebody's been bugging me for a mission statement like thing, maybe I can get away with this instead. So:

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own? 

Actually, with my sister. We were alone for hours, and hungry. We somehow made these little blueberry cheesecake like things. Very small, totally improvised. Now I am proud of this age 10ish adventure. At the time, we got in trouble when mom got home - for potentially wasting food (we didn't, they came out great), and for using the oven unsupervised.

Who had the most influence on your cooking? 

My cooking really comes out of a desire to eat well. My desire to eat well was a direct product of going out to dinner with a wealthy family to the L'Hostellerie Bressane in Hillsdale, NY. I think that the restaurant is now closed, but at the time I was about 14, and had never been anywhere fancy at all. The family was grateful to me because I bullied the kids who bullied their son, I was grateful to them for introducing me to a world of food I hadn't known existed. I always loved to eat, but I didn't know there was much beyond well-done meat and potatoes lavished in mayo or butter, with some white-trash mexican thrown in. My mother made me a jumper for the occasion, it was a white on white flower pattern. I was horrified to find I matched the tablecloths and linens, and spent the meal obsessing and worrying everyone would notice. The menu was in French, I naively ordered sweetbreads, and they let me. And I loved the sweetbreads. I loved the food, even more I loved being around people who ate for hours, talking about the food, talking about other great meals while eating a great meal. It was a revelation.

Do you have an old photo as 'evidence' of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it? 

No.

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat? 

I get nervous with fish, more because of not cooking it enough to be totally comfortable than anything else.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest let down? 

I love my knives, two Henckles Pros. I also adore the pineapple corer, which B got in his work Yankee Swap. The veggie shredder attachment to the Kitchen Aide was the biggest let down. Too much work for the end result.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else! 

Man, my family is going to be embarrassed by this. I love liverwurst, cream cheese, and peanut butter - together, on white bread. Granma took care of me when I was little, and every day would give me Ritz crackers with one of the above. Pretty soon I had convinced her to give me a variety pack. Then I would scrape the topping together. In all honesty, I haven't had this in years. Besides the fat factor, I don't often have all three in the house at one time. But now that I'm thinking about it, a trip to the grocery store sounds good . . .

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don't want to live without? 

Chicken tikka masala & nan; real heirloom tomatoes in August, warm from the sun, with a little good salt; garlic

(this was the hardest one! the list could go on! oysters! polenta! grits! cheeses (all of them)! really great hamburgers! did I say oysters?)

Any question you missed in this meme, that you would have loved to answer? Well then, feel free to add one!  

Your favorite ice-cream...

mint oreo (or rainbow sherbet)

You will probably never eat...

I will never try uni again. Enough said about that experience.

Your own signature dish...

I say its my gumbo, which is mind-blowingly good, and which I learned to make in New Orleans. While many people agree with me, my deviled eggs get me invites. I once pulled up to a barbecue to have two people run up to meet my car, at which time they demanded I hand over the eggs (through the car window), and then they kind of left me there.

A common ingredient you just can't bring yourself to stomach...

I am working hard on learning to love olives. I have achieved tolerance. And like of very good black olives. I don't like bell peppers, though I can stomach them. I am also working hard on pickles. I learned in the past month that I love homemade pickles. A la Jeffrey Steingarten, I really want to like everything.

Which one culture's food would you most like to sample on its home turf?

Mexican. No doubts, no debates, hands-down.

The people I am tagging are:

I thought long and hard about this. I just can't. I can't keep the chain going. If anyone is out there, wishing and hoping and praying to be tagged, please email me. Or tag yourself or something. Otherwise, I'm sorry.

2005-07-04T09:07:00.000-04:00

Downhill Alert: Hap's Roast Beef, Rte 1 Portsmouth

Having lived just north of Boston for a while, I was trained into conosourship of roast beef, specifically Super Beefs. So after some searching, I was happy to find Hap's, especially due to its very good sides. Specifically, their caesar salad. Perfectly dressed, with good cheese, great croutons, and sublime proportions, without being overly fussy or fancy pants.

Now there is an "under new management" sign out front and our recent experience with said new management was a disaster. The Super Beefs were ok. Over sauced, but that's forgivable. Not at all rare roast beef, but it happens (though it never happened before). A couple favorites taken off the menu altogether, nothing redeeming added on. Unforgivable, though, was the caesar salad.

"Is that a cucumber?" I yelled at B as I looked over his shoulder through the lid of the plastic take out container. Yes indeed, accompanied by tomatoes and onions (lots and lots of red onions). Nary a strand of parmesan to be found. The dressing came in a packet - crappy Ken's, not creamy white but creamy brown. I am ok with non creamy caesar. But if it is creamy, it should be white. And the most disgusting croutons ever. This was as much a caesar salad as I am a circus acrobat. That is, we'd both like to be something we can't even pretend to be.

Sigh. It is very sad to lose a quick and close take-out place. It's like breaking up with a friend. You remember why you were friends, you have that history. But so much has changed between you. You're different people. It doesn't make it any easier. I know we'll give it another try. Like calling up that friend and meeting for coffee, just dragging the whole thing out. It'd be better just to never call her again, pretend you never got her messages, but there's the guilt. There's also the hope the relationship can be saved. Sigh.

2005-06-29T16:14:00.000-04:00

Duck fat

You know that weird thing where you hear about something for the (seemingly) first time and it strikes you as odd/interesting/worth paying attention to? And then suddenly you are seeing/hearing/talking about said thing over and over and it seems more than coincidence? Almost freaky? Like said thing is either stalking you or you have been subconsciously stalking it?

This is what happened to me and duck fat. (For the non foodies, yes, that is the fat rendered from ducks, and used as a distinct ingredient.)

First it was that New York Times Magazine spread on chef's tattoos from way back in March. I love chefs. I love tattoos. I loved this spread. And even though the pork tattoo is ballsy, it was the duck fat tattoo that stuck with me.

I mean, listen to this woman wax eloquent about why she would have such a gorgeous, old school tattoo of the word duckfat on her arm:

''I love duck fat,'' said Jill Barron, the executive chef at De Cero, a Mexican restaurant in Chicago. ''I love cooking with it; I love rendering it. It's my favorite fat.''

Next it was reading restaurant reviews and generic Bon Appetit-Gourmet-yada yada that was not particularly memorable, except that duck fat was popping up all over the place. So when we ventured to York, Maine to check out the new gourmet foodie store Trillium, and saw a tub of duck fat, I knew I was taking it home. $5 for the tub, which seems fair and good.

(By the by, Trillium has some fun cheeses, dried goods, dairy stuff, smoked meats and sausages, etc. I also brought home a healthy serving of the most delicious Parma ham I have ever had. Mmmmm . . . Parma . . .)

I used the duck fat to saute some new potatoes I had gotten at the farm market a few hours before. Wondrous. (This is also some fore-shadowing. The combination of duck fat and potatoes proves to be the star again and again in this chronicle of fowl fat.) I also tried spreading it on toasty good quality bread, much to B's horror, although he gamely tried it and pronounced it too gamey. I thought it was ok, but would've been better if I were making grilled cheese, very savory style, with the bread. It should be noted here that B did not like the truffle cheese we had on our scrambled eggs that we ate with our potatoes and toast (for dinner). So his opinions about such things should almost be discarded.

The duck fat has the quality and consistency of room temperature butter, even very cold. It is white, and very clean. It didn't brown when cooking the potatoes - more experimentation is in order.

Finally, a friend told me about and then the next day I read about, a restaurant in Portland, Maine, called Duckfat. So we went.

We ordered the Belgian frites, of course, and of course they are fried in duck fat and come with a sauce, of which there are many choices. If you are tired of reading this post, you can stop here because this was the highlight of Duckfat. Not that the rest wasn't very good, it was. It's just that these are the best damn fries in the world. If you are anywhere near Portland, and are not afflicted with vegetarianism, you need to get thee to Duckfat and get thee some frites. I loved loved loved these.

Those wooden things sticking out are little forks. I loved my cute little frite fork.

B and I each ordered a panini, and they were real and not trendy so much. His was the BTC, with very good bacon, a tomato reduction that was very good. I will say I could've used much more cheese. Mine was the duck confit panini with plum chutney and boursin. Too much chutney. I wish I had tried the fig and port sweet panini. I got a black and white milk shake that was delicious. Next time I will order a vanilla one because mine melted together too quickly but the vanilla part I did taste was amazing. B got a home made ginger brew which he hated. He likes Jamaican style ginger beer and this wasn't. It tasted like ginger powder.

I very much liked the food, and am happy to try other things. Duckfat has definite service issues. It is counter service, but at the same time you are in line you're trying to gage if you are going to have a table when you get your food, because there aren't very many tables (in fact, I don't know if you can tell from the photos, but we are really sitting at a 2 foot by 12 inch slab up against a wall). It worked, at one point two different parties behind us staked claims to tables before food, leaving us and the people in front of us a little hurt and confused, but it all worked out. Also many other people got their drinks before us, so we had our nice hot salty fries and no refreshing beverage. I think the best thing might be to order ahead, and take your food out on a picnic.

In the end (is this finally the end of the duck fat saga? I still have some left in the fridge . . .) I do love duck fat. Especially when potatoes are fried in it. But not enough to obsess over it, and not enough to tattoo the word on my body. Though it really is wonderful, and I've been itching for another tattoo . . .

2005-06-18T08:33:00.000-04:00

Barone's Steak Shack, round 1

Driving home trying to think what to cook for dinner on an already growly stomach, I passed by this shack. It has been recently erected, sometime in the past couple weeks, and we have been tracking its progress in regards to being open. So slamming on the brakes and causing a near accident when I saw the open flag out was a no brainer - dinner's done.

They have quite an expansive steak menu, and the prices are great. $6 for a regular 8" steak and cheese, $7 for a 10". No sides to speak of, some bags of chips. They do offer fountain sodas. Also on their menu (which we have yet to try) are things called chicken steaks, with the same vast topping offerings. I'll report back when I know more, but that will be a couple trips hence as next time we will definitely be sampling the Italian sausages. Things I probably won't try for a while to come but which are also offered are hot dogs and hamburgers. Back to the steak -

I got a nacho jalepeno steak sandwich for myself and a MegaLoaded for B, which turned out to be mushrooms, peppers, and onions with cheese. They have cheese choices, which I like. Their peppers are actually red and sweet, not green bell, which I really really like but B could've gone for the more authentic green bell. The cheese is ample, the steak shaved. When I picked my sandwiches up off the shack's counter, the kid behind it said, "You're going to need a lot of napkins" and handed me an inch thick stack. Grease was already leaking through the paper wrapping and paper sleave. Fortunately, we didn't eat right away and I let them sit on paper, which seemed to drain away at least the surface grease. Not that I don't enjoy a little grease with my cheese steak.

These are very good cheese steaks. They don't shove me over the edge into cheese steak ecstasy, but they are the best in this area.

Barone's Steak Shack
Rte 1, Rye (just north of Breakfast Hill Road)
open 11am - 7pm Sun - Thurs, 11am - 9pm Friday and Saturday

2005-06-15T21:36:00.000-04:00

Kitchen Myths

Most of these are old news, but I post the link here because of a recent discussion with Watty over screaming lobsters - scroll down for the truth about said screams.

2005-06-13T18:17:00.000-04:00

SARS tomato

I heard this story on NPR on my way home - tomatoes grown with SARS vaccine built in. I had previously heard about bananas made into vaccine vehicles.

People who know me know I don't like food fucked with. Most especially tomatoes. Can't emphasize how much I don't want my tomatoes messed with. (Sorry, some tomato angst going on here - haven't eaten one not out of a can since late October last year because I just don't buy them at the store. And with the weather so hot, all I can think about is tomatoes. My desert island food.)

But people who know me know I also don't do needles. At all. Not like I need vaccines or anything, but people keep bugging me about my ten years over-due tetanus situation.

For now, the no messing with tomatoes principal wins out over the no needles principal.

When I come down with lockjaw and can't eat tomatoes, we'll talk.

2005-06-05T10:57:00.000-04:00

Ruhlman Reading

Inspired by the Amateur Gourmet, I inter-library loaned Michael Ruhlman's books The Soul of a Chef, and since it came up in my search, The Making of a Chef.

I'll have to say up front that although I read non-stop, and therefore read a lot of crap, I am still very picky about the quality of writing I enjoy. I don't enjoy Michael Ruhlman's style. BUT, the information contained within is good enough to keep me reading, and to inspire me to pick up and finish off the second book just as quickly.

The Soul of a Chef is divided into three sections: the master certified chef exam at the Culinary Institute of America, following a friendly fun chef on the rise in Ruhlman's hometown Cleveland, and chronicling his work with Thomas Keller, of the French Laundry (and now, Per Se). This last section held my interest far more than the others, and I will be checking out The French Laundry Cookbook in the very near future. Keller hired Ruhlman to help him with this book, thus Ruhlman's getting to write the last section of Soul of a Chef.

I feel like kicking myself in the ass after reading this. Not that's it's easy to get reservations at the French Laundry, but there were a couple supreme dining occassions in San Fran when I could have at least tried. I don't regret my meals at Chez Panisse, or the Zuni Cafe, and so on - but. But -

The descriptions of the food, the meals, the experience. The French Laundry. From reading this book alone, it is worthy of its reputation. Sigh.

I definately learned a lot from Making of a Chef. Not what Ruhlman tried to hammer home, obvious stuff about the personality of people who cook for a living, but the details. I've never attempted, and so have never learned, classic cookery. Mother sauces, browning of bones, stuff like that. Good read which added a lot to my base of food knowledge, without having to put hours and days in, in the kitchen.

2005-05-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

Candied Rhubarb, take 1

In the midst of my all-rhubarb, all-the-time fest, Cindy at Food Migration mentioned some delicious and unique candied rhubarb she had at dinner recently. So of course I pounced. She helpfully found a recipe (see her comment section), and between a cursory glance at the recipe and her description of said candied rhubarb, I went for it.

rhubarb slices on parchment, pre-cooking

Maybe I should have looked before I leapt.

post cooking, pre trying to peel them off the parchment, thinking, "maybe I
should pop them back in the oven so they'll soften again" thus pre-browing.
Sticking them back in the oven did nothing to free them. It just hurt my cause.

All is not lost.

Positive lessons learned:

Candied rhubarb is delicious. It is like those sour gummy candies, only not so sour, and tasting like something that actually exists in the world. This is a food-stuff worth working on. Some of my pieces were gummy (the thicker ones). Most were too crispy, though.
It is not going to take 8 hours, despite what the recipe says. This trial run lasted 3 1/2, which was too long for the thickness of slices I made. If I retain the super-thin slices, maybe 2, if I go thicker, maybe 3.
There is some potential to create a sort of rhubarb syrup and make hard candy, that would also be unbelievably delicious. As the sprinkled sugar melted and mixed with the rhubarb juices, there was opportunity for some finger-lickin' sampling. Huge untapped potential there.

Negative lessons learned:

Parchment paper + too thin slices of rhubarb + melted then hardened sugar + too long cooking = parchment paper coated rhubarb. I lost a lot of the candy this way. Very sad.
Not really a lesson learned, more a question for further experimentation. I'm not sure what texture I want the candy to be. Crispy is fun. Crispy is yum. Crispy is hard to achieve. I used a veggie peeler and made the thin strips, but this left the last pieces as thick - these ones came out well, but a bit chewy gummy stick to your teeth-y.
Check the oven more often. Even though rhubarb is super watery, even though the oven was only 180F, it dried out quickly and started to brown. I don't want brown candy.

2005-05-15T07:32:00.000-04:00

Rhubarb Margaritas
. . . and other adventures with rhubarb juice

yeah, that's chococat

I love rhubarb. Not just in pies, but in all manner of foods. After my great success with rhubarb salsa, I was inspired to think about canning it so I could eat more of it and more often. I was looking around for recipes on canning rhubarb and kept coming across recipes for canning the juice, especially in old-timey canning and recipe books. Most of these books said that while rhubarb is easy to can, it just isn't worth it. If you want to keep it, you should freeze it, said the most modern. I don't have the freezer space, but by then I was totally distracted by this idea of rhubarb juice.

What I love about rhubarb is the sour tartness. And since it is summer, tequila is on the brain. (I am particularly loving my Don Julio Anejo. It wasn't that expensive, but it wasn't cheap either. Good tequila is worth it, in my opinion.) Voila, rhubarb margaritas.

The basic premise is that you chop it up, boil it for a bit, then strain it. One recipe suggested letting it steep for a while, which I did. I have a chinois, which helps a lot (though mine isn't as pricey as the linked one). I also used a lot more water than most recipes out there, mostly for lack of actually reading the other recipes. I thought the rhubarb should be covered in water, so that's what I did.

I used: 3 lb of rhubarb, 8 tbl honey, and 8 cups water. After bringing it to a boil, I turned the heat way down and let it simmer for ten minutes. Then I turned the heat off and let it steep for 2 hours. The rhubarb totally broke down into a pulpy mass. I strained it through my chinois, mashing on the rhubarb to make it release the juice. I got 2 quarts and 16 oz out of the whole things, and the resulting rhubarb mush was only about a cup and a half's worth. Fun how that works.

For my margarita, I used good tequila, triple sec, rhubarb juice and half a lime. Absolutely wonderful. I had been worried that the tequila and lime would overpower the rhubarb, but not so. The rhubarb fit right in.

Some recipes mentioned food coloring to make it pinker. I'm ok with the peachy color, but if you wanted pink you could mash a strawberry through the chinois. Strawberries aren't in season yet here, and I don't buy strawberries at the supermarket except in extreme emergencies. But I think that would make it very pink.

This version came out very very sour. Most recipes call for a lot of sugar, but I want the sour, and I knew I could add more sugar later if needed. But now that it is sour, it is inspiring me to mix it up with all sorts of other fun things.

My next fun thing will be to mix it with some of that Choya Umeshu I got at the Red Ginger wine tasting. The plum liquor is super sweet and viscous, while the rhubarb is sour and thin, more refreshing. And then perhaps I'll break open a bottle of my precious Toad Hollow Risque, which is a sparkling wine from California, with a bit of sweetness. I suppose any sweet-ish sparkling wine will do, although if you can find it, Toad Hollow's is the greatest. On second thought, no, don't try to find it. It is terrible, you wouldn't like it. I will make the great sacrifice and drink it all.

All of these drinks speak of that perfect spring-time. When the sun is shining and warm, when the heat of summer is still a myth from last year, when the days are already long and everything is freshly green. It holds a certain decadence of fine cocktails mixed with the down-hominess of a beverage that comes out of your neighbor's back yard. As long as the rhubarb holds, through late June here in NH, I will be making rhubarb juice.

2005-05-07T20:18:00.000-04:00

Pink Tacos with Rhubarb Salsa

No pics 'cuz it wasn't until halfway through the meal, when we took a moment to breath after devouring the goodness, that we realized dinner was blog-worthy. So no pics.

I hadn't even set out to make pink tacos, but when I laid the stuff out on the table, I realized how fun it was. Cute. Haven't used the word cute to describe food much, I have to admit, but cute it was.

Pink tacos consisted of:

flour tortillas, taco size. Normally I use corn, but I knew my fillings and knew corn would be too much for these babies.

turkey. I bought a couple already roasted slices of breast from my fancy-pants prepared food to go counter, then chopped them up. Favorite food cheat ever.

red cabbage, sliced fine like for coleslaw or fish tacos, about half of the smallest one I could find, tossed with 2 slim tbl of mayo and the juice of 1/2 lime. Heavily salted, and prepped first so the cabbage could soften and wilt a bit while the rest of dinner was made.

pink beans, the canned Goya variety, sauted with a white jalapeno and half a red onion, then smashed a bit to break them open, but not too much to turn them into canned refried texture.

rhubarb salsa. Slice five stalks of rhubarb down the center, then chop into half inch pieces. In a heavy saucepan over medium low heat, cook the rhubarb with 2 tbl of good honey, covered. It'll get soft in a few minutes, check it so it doesn't turn to mush. You want your salsa to have texture. Combine with the juice of 1/2 lime, 1 minced white jalapeno (or other favorite pepper, these just happen to be overwhelmingly present in our stores right now and have some good, but mild heat), and the other half of the minced red onion.

a couple grated radishes

a log o' chevre. I love a bit of cheese on tacos, and I love experimenting with the ingredients and carefully choosing an interesting cheese to match. While chevre is not that unique, it was perfect in combination.

I served slices of fresh pineapple and avocado alongside, and we made an impromptu sangria. If I had been planning the pink theme, a sangria made from rose would've been too cute.

Appearances aside, these tacos were totally delicious.

2005-05-03T19:56:00.000-04:00

Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl

Just finished this delicious romp of a book - tore through it in a couple quick sittings.

Two fairly raw thoughts:

The book is fantastic. More than her others, it focuses on food and restaurants. There are delicious and inspiring descriptions of dishes eaten in the big restaurants of NYC, from her time at the New York Times food critic. There are the details of being a critic, the details of food writing ethics, the details of the tricks of the trade. There are the details of eating, of taking food in her mouth and being so amazed she stops breathing, and can only describe the experience afterward as psychedelic. I love details. Especially when these details are describing food.

She also describes some wretched meals, eaten with wretched people. Actually, there are a lot of wretched meals. And reprinted are many of her reviews from the New York Times, so that you have the whole experience of multiple visits to a restaurant, and then you get to see it boiled down.

The 2nd thought:

Ruth is a bit whacked. In order not to be recognized, she disguised herself. We're not talking simply a wig - we're talking full blown characters that she "became." I guess I appreciate that she recognizes that, after a while, this is a bit extreme. Her friend hates her as one person, her husband and son actually prefer her as another! I understand, because she explains it well, that it is critical for her not to be recognized. I really respect that. But dressing up as someone else and becoming that character in some weird little restaurant-dining drama are two different things. But I respect her for letting her freak-flag fly.

So, in a nutshell: her best book yet; really great foodie book, because of the focus on fancy-pants NYC restaurants; bit of weirdness with the disguises but this is more than made up for with great descriptions of food. Reminds you of why the pros get paid the big bucks.

2005-05-02T18:55:00.000-04:00

Sausage with peppers and onions, Southwest-style

While eating a really great Philly cheesesteak at the Neptune Diner outside Oneonta, NY, B & I started thinking about how great it would be with mellow spicy peppers instead of bell peppers, then we went on to think about taking the Italian sausage sub and transforming it. So we did. And it was friggin' awesome.

For the two of us, one sub each, we used one very large poblano, two heirloom variety white jalepenos (milder than regular jalepenos, so 1 regular one), 2 fresh chorizo sausages, 2 yellow onions, and 2 sub rolls. B even found sub rolls that had pictures of philly cheese steaks on them and were labelled "steak" rolls. I had no idea such a thing existed.

The whole meal was made in our cast iron pan - first we blacked the peppers, then set them aside while we cooked the onions. Peeled the peppers, removed the seeds and sliced them.

Put the onions and peppers in a bowl on the side, and started cooking the sausage, at the end, added everything back together. We used vegetable oil as needed, mostly for the onions. Piled it all on the buns. Firey, but not too. Mostly roasty smoky and everything you want a good sausage sub to be.

2005-05-01T08:29:00.000-04:00

Diana Kennedy's From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients

I just got this book yesterday, having re-found an old gift certificate to Borders (thanks BJ and Kristen!)

Because my love affair with Mexican cuisine seems eternal, it is surprising to me I don't already own her books. But they are pricey, and I tend to check most things out of the library, anyway.

Despite the somewhat unappealing cover, the inside is gorgeous. It lies flat when open. This is so basic for cookbooks, but you don't often see it. The pictures illustrate techniques, tools, and most importantly to me, ingredients. I've seen epazote and culantro so often called for in recipes that I ordered seeds so I could grow them, that seeming to be the only way I was going to get my hands on them - now I see what they are supposed to look like for harvest. Good pictures of peppers, which I like because Shaw's throws them together in a basket labeled "hot peppers." And so on. I am very excited about this book.

2005-04-20T21:33:00.000-04:00

McSweeny's New Food Reviews

From the site that reminds us of all that is good and true on the 'net:

Colorless M&Ms

Submitted by Michael de Leeuw

In the midst of the grayest, coldest winter in thirty-seven years, the candy man has taken the last pigment from my bleak existence. I commute, I work, I eat lunch, I work late, I go home. Daylight wakes me up but does not sustain me and does not figure into the rest of my life. My office building is a tower of ugliness in lower Manhattan, and I spend far too much of my life—my prime—here. Somewhere outside, there is a nineteen-year-old film student drawing on her cigarette and getting used to the mouth-feel of her new tongue stud. I will never meet her. Somewhere outside, there is an ignored old man on a park bench with a head full of stories that would captivate anyone who would dare to listen. I won't dare to listen.

And now Colorless M&Ms. They are white, black, and shades of gray. I try them after lunch. They disappoint. I know I am losing my mind: it's the same candy! I work on a brief and distractedly reach for more. Again, they are not the same. I have lost my mind. I walk down the hall and everything is black and white and gray. I feel panic set in. I duck into a conference room to compose myself. I lean my face against the cool window and look out on the chunks of ice floating in the Hudson River. They are gray. The snow in Battery Park is gray. Tomorrow, I will buy Skittles.

2005-04-14T20:05:00.000-04:00

Maroon Carrots

In Market Basket, of all places, I spied some maroon carrots, and though I had seen pictures and heard tales, I'd never seen them up close and personal before. So I decided to make friends and take them home.

These are Little Bear Brand Beta Sweet Maroon Carrots, with a Plant Variety Protection Certificate pending by the Texas A & M University System. When I first brought them home, B asked, "are they heirloom carrots?" Genetically modified to pretend they are heirloom, I had to answer. I hadn't really examined them in the store, and I wish I had. I'm not usually into foods with patents. Nonetheless, I had a good time with the maroon carrots, and I have insider knowledge that there will be some genuine heirloom variety organic maroon carrots at the farmer's market this summer. And I won't have to feel doubly bad that I inadvertently supported the Texas economy.

I had thought they were maroon through and through, so I was going to matchstick them, saute them just a moment, then make a sort of lime-ginger-dressing, a bit of a warmed through dish, but with fresh, bright flavors.

But they aren't maroon through and through, so I knew julienne would be dissapointing. Oh for a mandoline! But I managed to slice them, then I decided to steam them just a bit, and so on . . .

Very very yummy, and I'm sure it would be a good quick dish with just plain carrots, though not nearly as fun. When I was imagining this dish, I imagined radishes into it, and when I make it again this summer, I will add them. Hopefully by then a mandoline will appear in my house, because a few paper thin radish slices are just the oomph this dish wants, just that bit of bright crispy summer.

Carrots Yummy Enough To Be Called Dinner
enough for two for a light dinner, or four as a side

4 maroon carrots
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbl seasoned rice vinegar
2 tsp light soy sauce
heavy pinch o' salt
1 tbl cilantro, minced

Slice the carrots on the bias into discs, then steam for a brief but intense 3 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining ingredients together. Drain carrots, and toss with dressing.

2005-03-20T09:46:00.000-05:00

Baked egg cups, with sausage and home-made chevre grits

About a week ago I made a recipe from the April 2005 Bon Appetit that I thought had great potential but sucked. Actually, it was the first of two recipes I made from that issue that both sucked. I am not normally a recipe follower, more of an inspiration stealer (the folk process as we experience it), but for some reason I was feeling sheep-y. And it got me nowhere.

The original recipe is for Bacon-Wrapped Baked Eggs with Polenta (p 117), the end result being cute little cups you can turn out. But the recipe calls for a killer amount of parmesan in the polenta, the bacon ends up rubbery (that's 3 strikes in and of itself), and overall it is too messy and time consuming for breakfast. I hated it so much I only ate three bites, even after all the mess and time consumption.

This version tastes fantastic, is less fussy (but still intensive enough to be weekend breakfast/brunch material), but doesn't solidify so don't plan on turning them out. If you don't own souffle cups/ramekins, here's a good excuse! They only cost $3 each for good ones at my local store, Artichokes, or 6 for $10 at chef's catalog. No, seriously, if you don't own them you can bake each portion up in an oversized muffin tin, and then scoop it out onto a plate, but you might as well just cook everything separately and pile it together when you plate it. You could just fry the sausage, set it aside, make the grits and warm them in the microwave, then fry the eggs. Still a weekend breakfast, but not as cute, and not as fun to eat. With this version, as you dig down through the souffle cup, all the flavors mix and its like digging for treasure (sausage, of course).

Baked Egg Cups
enough for a good breakfast for six people if served with a bit of fruit

tube of fresh breakfast sausage
2 cans white hominy (yellow is ok, too)
1/3 cup cream cheese, room temperature
6 oz chevre, room temperature
1 tsp fresh thyme
good salt
fresh pepper
6 large eggs
Spanish smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 400F. Unwrap the sausage, then cut it into six slices. Flatten each slice a bit so they will nicely cover the bottom of the ramekins. In a skillet over medium heat, brown the sausages on both sides, and err on the side of underdone rather than overdone. Meanwhile, drain the hominy. In a food processor, grind into small bits to resemble grits. Add the cream cheese, chevre, thyme, salt and pepper and pulse to combine.

Assemble the cups: put the sausage patties in the bottom, then divide the grit mixture between the cups, press it in and it should come to a bit under the lip of the cup. Make an indentation with the back of a large spoon, and crack an egg into each indentation. Bake for about 18 minutes, until the egg whites have just set. Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

just before they go into the oven
you can see I improvised because I only have 4 ramekins

2005-03-19T16:06:00.000-05:00

Wine tastings are dangerous.

I've just come home from a wine tasting at The Red Ginger in Rye. Instead of putting a couple wines out once a week, they get a couple distributors together and have many wines once in a while. You can get on their email list, which only sends out info on when things are happening, by stopping by the store. Today they had twelve wines, five came home with me. They do a nice job of having snackies out, and the wines are almost all around $20.

I like wine tastings because I really don't know much about wine. I love wine, but for some reason, I can't remember very much about specific bottles I've loved (ok, maybe there is a very clear and obvious reason for this), except for what the label looks like. But I'm working on it, and wine tastings help me learn a lot about different wines and the places they are grown and the grapes they are made from. Plus, you get to sample before you buy. I have no problem picking up a bottle and taking a chance on it, but it's even more fun to get to take home a bunch of bottles that I know I really like. And, it's just plain fun to stand around and drink wine for free.

First impressions:

Cave de Turckheim 2002 Tokay Pinot Gris (France)
Light and sweet. A perfect summer afternoon wine.

2001 Lamborghini Trescone Umbria (Italy)
Only slightly tannin-y, a really great food wine.

Marietta California Old Vine Red
A blend of mostly Zin, also Sirah, Carignane, and Gamay. Wholesome and toothy, but not overly so. Barbeque.

2001 Innocento Tramonti (Italy)
This wine totally surprised me with its sweetness and rich berry action. No tannin at all.

Choy Umeshu (Japan)
(the one in the funky bottle all the way on the right in the picture)
It's no secret I love the dessert wines, and this syrupy (that's a positive adjective in my book) plum wine/liquor definitely has danger written all over it. Lazy late summer evening, drinking icy sips down to the plums at the bottom.

If you follow the Choy link, you'll find a page with all sorts of information about Choy Umeshu including recipes for cocktails, under the "how to use" section - my favorite being a summer drink of Umeshu and and your favorite sports drink. Under the "History of Umeshu" section, they are selling Choy Umeshu as a health food. I'm sold.

2005-03-17T17:01:00.000-05:00

Second Sunday Supper Club, April

Apologies to those who read this from afar, we are starting a pot-luck supper club, eventually you will reap the benefit with pictures and recipes.

The idea for the supper club has been kickin' around for awhile, and the time feels right to get the show on the road. We thought we'd start out using this blog as home-base, see how that works for awhile for a communication medium.

So the concept: a once a month pot-luck, always on the second sunday, faily early start (4ish? 5ish?) to just have a relaxing end to the weekend. With themes. There must be themes.

The inaugural theme for April 10th is "Spring." Fairly vague, a bit mundane, but we're going to have to work up to things like (my pet theme) "Classic Foods of the '50s," and, (thanks Amy Roy) "Picnic on the Beach" (my house is 1 block from the ocean).

Everyone's invited, I'm hoping for some general idea of numbers from the posts on the blog, but a few more or less a month shouldn't be any big deal. So bring your out of town guests, and if you come down with sickness at the last minute, don't worry.

Pot-lucks can be a little too heavy on the luck factor - so the idea is that each person will generally post what they are bringing. Like, "I'm bringing some greens!" or "I'll bring wine." That kind of stuff.

With that in mind, there are plenty of non-food things that the supper club will need, so if you enjoy food but can't cook or buy worth a darn (yes, purchased food-stuffs are ok), here are some ideas:
- music
- offer to help with dishes
- non-alcoholic drinks
- alcoholic ones
- digital camera
etc.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Snide remarks?

Think Spring.

2005-03-15T19:10:00.000-05:00

The Helmand and Amazon in the restaurant biz

When my sister suggested we check out this Afghan restaurant in Cambridge, I was all for it. I'd never tried Afghan food before, though I am a big fan of the cuisines of countries surrounding Afghanistan.

My sis was vague in her initial email so I did a brief google search for Afghan restaurants in Cambridge and came up with this link at the top of the results. I am both excited and confused to find Amazon scanning in menus and making them available on the web. Excited because I got to study the menu in advance and refer back to it later, confused because I can't figure out what Amazon is getting out of the deal. I guess they figure they got you to the site, maybe soon they'll be giving you suggestion of what to buy based on what restaurants you eat at. I did like the handy link to driving directions from Mapquest.

When sis and I confirmed the place, she mentioned the brother of the president of Afghanistan is the owner. No political celebrity sightings, though.

The food:

was wonderful. We lucked out and got a seat right away, though the hostess told us up front we could only have it for an hour and a half. Our waiter was great, attentive but not pushy, even fought off a crazy demanding lady to give us decent service.

We ordered a Riesling, though in hindsight this wasn't the best choice. The food turned out to be fairly sweet, and the wine was verry sweet - a medium red would've done well. Although we didn't really know what the food would be like upfront, so we were just guessing. Their wine list is pretty good - enough variety to please most people's tastes, and a good variety of prices to boot.

Bread was brought right away, along with three sauces. The bread was a bit like foccacia, a little thinner, but with the same general flavor, texture, and look. Yogurt sauce with mint and lemon, a red pepper sauce with some balsamic vinegar and honey, and what my sister dubbed "Afghan salsa." It contained cilantro and hot peppers, but had a deliciously definitely Indian flavor to it.

Our entrees were all fabulous. I had the vegetarian special, which was a bit of a sampler plate: baked pumpkin, pan-fried eggplant, spinach, okra with tomatoes, and rice. I adored every bite. I would eat eggplant everyday if it was flavored like that. Spinach, too. It was creamy but not creamed with dairy. B's lamb was so tender it melted in my mouth. Words to describe the flavors aren't coming. Well seasoned, Middle Eastern but definitely Indian, too.

In fact, the whole menu reflected the effect of the physical location of Afghanistan, with such things as kourma and koufta alongside curried cauliflower. There was plenty of lamb, plenty of chickpeas and lentils, and a whole lotta pumpkin. I love pumpkin.

Our desserts were fabulous, especially my bucklawa (baklava) which was heavy on the rosewater, cardamom, and pistachios. And wonderfully, they offered Turkish coffee.