Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen

Ho-ho-ho-liday Lunch is my favorite lunch of the year!!!

2011-12-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

I should be home right now, sleeping this off:

One Empress Josephine down the hatch...

Another one down the hatch.
Hey, it's Christmas. And Thursday.

If you didn't know, I work for an independent cookbook publisher in the South End. This means we don't go just any old place for lunch.

We go to AWESOME DELICIOUS places for lunch!! Did you know that The Gallows is open for lunch? Oh yes they are, Thursday through Saturday. Totally worth it.

Thanks boss*, for the really great holiday lunch. I know we all quite enjoyed ourselves today.

*For the record, it makes the boss bats when I call him boss. Ergo I must call him boss. Can't help it, it's how I roll.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

2011-12-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

Remnants of Sunday lunch...

I do love Baby's Breath all on its own.

A little cedar to make things a bit festive.

More Baby's Breath in the entryway.

Whatever holiday you choose to celebrate, I hope it is a lovely one.

What's the Swedish word for "super delicious!"?

2011-12-18T22:33:00.001-05:00

I finally, FINALLY, got around to making those Swedish cinnamon rolls ("kanelbullar") that I have been so obsessed with lately.

It was totally worth the effort. I used this recipe from the Scandinavian Kitchen which is a shop over in London because a) the recipe is in English, and b) the measurements are metric. Also partly because the recipe called for fresh yeast which I prefer for no other reason than that I love the texture.

If you have trouble with the measurements, try the converter at Food.com but also keep in mind that most kitchen scales have an option to measure in grams and most measuring cups have milliliter (ml) marks on the opposite side of the cup marks. Lastly, the recipe tells you to bake them at 220 degrees - this is not the Fahrenheit number. You want to cook them at 425F and in my oven it took about 12 - 15 minutes to get them to the lovely golden color.

As for using fresh yeast, well I love it. I was introduced to it years and years ago when I worked at Flour Bakery and have preferred it to dry ever since. It can sometimes be hard to find, but if the supermarket is going to carry it, it will be in the Dairy department, usually by the fake butters and string cheese.

If you can't find it and you are in Boston, send me a message and I will tell you my secret source.

The recipe makes about 30 rolls, a little more if you cut them thinner. Apparently once they are fully baked, you can freeze them. Just defrost and warm them up a little. A freezer packed with kanelbullar ready to go? Why yes, please!

A few observations after making these:

These are not too sweet. I say that because a typical American cinnamon roll is very ooey-gooey sugary sweet and usually the dough is unflavored. These rolls are strongly flavored with cardamom and the filling is a little bit of sugar and lot of cinnamon. If you don't like those flavors then this is probably not the roll for you.

It is totally worth it to use the pearl sugar. I got a giant bag from The King Arthur Flour store because I also plan on using it for other things, like decorating sugar cookies. There are plenty of other places to get it though - Amazon probably carries it, and if you are in the Boston area you can probably get it at Cardullo's or at Whole Foods. The pearl sugar makes for a sweet little crunch that is perfect for these not so sweet rolls.

Also, how adorable are those red stripey muffin papers? Those are from King Arthur also, a total impulse purchase that I wish I'd gotten more of, but then again I am partial to stripes.

If you are feeling a little more ambitious (but not much more) you should check out the rolls at Chez Larsson: Kanelbullar Knots. And while you are there you should check out the rest of her blog because it is terrific. She has a really cool site full of great organizing tips and lovely design ideas. I spent a good chunk of time on it just getting inspired!

Here's to Sweden, and to delicious kanelbullar!

Alone, in the kitchen, with a fruitcake

2011-12-14T20:44:00.001-05:00

I am recipe testing a fruitcake recipe for a friend.

Let me tell you that admitting to liking fruitcake is akin to admitting that you smoke crack twice a day and have a bottle of Hot Damn for breakfast.

No one ever believes it.

And if they do, they pity you. Love for fruitcake is the love that dare not show its face, it is the butt of every cake joke, the JuJube of the cake world, you get the point.

So when a fellow fruitcaker asked me to test out a fruitcake recipe I jumped on it like white on rice. And then I waited two weeks to make the damn thing.

Sometimes I wonder what the heck I am thinking.

Anyway, I think the recipe is a smashing recipe! Well it looks beautiful anyway. I am supposed to wait an hour before I can cut into it and use that hour to saturate it with ~~bourbon~~ cherry bounce.

Hmpf. We'll see how long I last.

Clearly my cellphone is working against me, not with me!

All hail almighty Kale

2011-12-14T18:56:00.000-05:00

I love kale. For the longest time I thought chard was kale and I do not like chard.

Personally I think that this is true for a bunch of people. Between that and the fact that most people think of kale as the limp bit of greenery under the dried up slice of orange that is the garnish on a million diner breakfasts, I can see why so many of my friends are like "eh, meh, kale".

But let me tell you, kale is DELICIOUS. I am convinced it is what Grimm intended for Rapunzel to crave like mad, only the word "rapunzel" was more exotic than the word "kale".

Here is the excerpt from the Grimm story of Rapunzel:

Through the small rear window of these people's house they could see into a splendid garden that was filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared enter, because it belonged to a sorceress who possessed great power and was feared by everyone.
One day the woman was standing at this window, and she saw a bed planted with the most beautiful rapunzel. It looked so fresh and green that she longed for some. It was her greatest desire to eat some of the rapunzel. This desire increased with every day, and not knowing how to get any, she became miserably ill.
Her husband was frightened, and asked her, "What ails you, dear wife?"
"Oh," she answered, "if I do not get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die."
The man, who loved her dearly, thought, "Before you let your wife die, you must get her some of the rapunzel, whatever the cost."
So just as it was getting dark he climbed over the high wall into the sorceress's garden, hastily dug up a handful of rapunzel, and took it to his wife. She immediately made a salad from it, which she devoured eagerly. It tasted so very good to her that by the next day her desire for more had grown threefold.

See, most little girls would be like "ooh let's find a nice man who will go to any lengths to make us happy" whereas I was like "ooh, I want some rapunzel".

I have found my rapunzel and it is kale: fat, juicy, green leaves that can be eaten raw or cooked.

Last night I sauteed it with onion and garlic and then cooked some ground turkey with a can of chickpeas and mixed it all together.

With a splash of vinegar and little salt and pepper, it was so very good.

I had some at lunch, and now I cannot wait for dinner!

Haters gonna hate

2011-12-14T17:37:00.000-05:00

Look what I inherited from La Mamma!

Two Dansk enamel pots.

These are the most versatile pots. Before scoring a maslin pan for short money, I used the big one for making jam. I use it for making soup and stew and pasta sauce. The nice thing is is that it can go from the stovetop to the oven to the table. I've made casseroles in it and it works beautifully.

It also doesn't hurt that I find them really good looking. Probably because I am going through a phase of loving all things Scandinavian.

PS: The minute I buy reindeer jerky is the minute before I need an intervention.

Terrible Tues

2011-12-13T17:45:00.000-05:00

Somedays it's just better to stay in bed and today was one of those kinds of days for me.

For the record, I am completely ignorant when it comes to computers and networks and megabytes per second and subnets and proxies and firewalls.

Which means that three days of trying to straighten out sh*tty, sloooooooow internet service at the office is about the same as taking an immersion class in Russian for three days straight. With a 87 year old teacher who has a big old beard and who mumbles.

I am pooped and confused.

I want something small, sweet, and delicious for dinner. I want affogato.

A simple supper, that is exactly what I need. And a hot bath. And for it to be Friday.

Ol' Timey

2011-12-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

Ol' my gawd I am SO sick of Ol' Timey.

An ol' timey hobo wedding!

Ol' timey subway sign art!

Just as bad as all those "Keep Calm and..." signs

Ol' timey saloons! Opening any minute now in Davis Square!

Don't get me wrong, I am all for people opening new business, but I just don't get this "old timey is the now/new timey" stuff.

The idea of a pre-Prohibition saloon that serves housemade Pork Belly Rye Whiskey and Ploughman's Platters and classic meat pies makes me wonder if the staff is also ol' timey - chaps with sideburns and suspenders and sleeve clips and ladies with rock-a-billy clothing and artful tats. Only because I feel like I have seen this done before. more than once, in real life and you know, in the history books.

If I sound sort of cynical, I am. This kind of carefully "curated" atmosphere makes me think of Plimouth Plantation. Pubbing as a sort of living museum experience.

Honestly I would not want to go back into the past, to pre-Prohibition. Firstly I never have the right outfit on for that sort of scenario and secondly I like my modern freedoms, like being able to vote and stuff.

How about a future bar? But then again the future bar would be something we imagined in the now which would make it retro in the future, like all those atomic themed bars in Vegas.

Well, it doesn't matter really. There are plenty of right now bars to pick from as it is. At least that is what my liver tells me.

Not a Scandinavian bone in my body...

2011-12-12T18:28:00.000-05:00

I am pretty sure that there is nothing far northern European about me, except for being white, that can explain my sudden love of all things Scandinavian. It's borderline creepy. I haven't even BEEN there which sort of makes this obsession a little weird.

Anyhoo, it seems that in Sweden there is this thing called "fika" which seems to be a coffee break, the real kind of coffee break. I am not entirely positive, as I've never been to Sweden nor do I speak Swedish, but the translation is that you take a break with coffee and a treat. Yes please! Let's fika!

I am bored to death of the desultory coffee mug that sits lamely on my desk going cool. I want to have a proper coffee break with friends and kanelbullar! Seriously, that would definitely make the day go a little better! Sadly in the US this sort of thing would be tough to start. Everyone is so busy being busy (or hoping to be seen as being busy) that taking a break to chill and have coffee would be mistaken for slacking off from being busy, real or imagined.

Which means I ought to figure out how to make kanelbullar so that I can get people to join me for fika.

Because people will usually stop for food.

This is what kanelbullar are supposed to look like and the recipe seems pretty straightforward.

Well, except for the part where the recipe is in Swedish, oh and the measurements are possibly metric. I say possibly because the recipe calls for things like "1,5 dl grädde" and "1 msk flytande honung".

Maybe I will get a recipe elsewhere. But I still hope they look EXACTLY like that photo.

Sleeping in & Late Breakfast

2011-10-22T13:48:00.000-04:00

I have gone way over my line of sleep credit this week and resolved to sleep IN today. Usually Saturdays I am up and at 'em to get everything out of the way for a lazy Sunday.

But for some reason I was exhausted last night and decided to make today my sort of lazy day. Let me just say that my idea of sleeping in is usually until 8 or 9am, which is still early to actual sleeper-in-ers, but it's my idea of late.

And what goes amazingly well with a lie-in?

A delicious breakfast.

Today it was french toast with lots of maple syrup and about a gallon of coffee.

The bread is the whole wheat from Red Hen Bakery and the syrup is from the Square Deal Farm, both of which came with the Farmers to You delivery this week.

Fricking delicious.

Greeeeen Acres is the plaaace for me...

2011-10-20T22:19:00.000-04:00

I love the idea of living on a farm and living off the land. Just the idea.

I mean I also love the idea of running a marathon, but the reality means actually running. And anyone who knows me, knows that if they see me running they'd better call the police.

So yeah, me on a farm is probably a bad idea. I would love it for like three days and then I would totally understand why Ma and Pa Ingalls moved everyone off the prairie and back into town.

Which means that I am just going to order in, from the farm.

Yesterday I got my first order from Farmers to You and this is what I got:

Looks good huh?

Let me tell you, so far so damn good. And I would tell you what I made, only I am typing this as I babysit my darling new niece and she wants something to eat RIGHT THE HELL NOWWWWW!

So, more tomorrow.

Farmers to You is coming to me.

2011-10-19T17:30:00.000-04:00

The other day I saw a mention of this program called Farmers to You on Universal Hub. The idea of getting food directly from the farm is something a hungry girl in the city dreams of, so naturally I wanted to sign up immediately.

I've previously signed up for Boston Organics, but I am just so American in that I don't like not having a choice. Farmers to You does ask that you spend $30 a week minimum, about the same as Boston Organics, but you get to pick what you want.

Which means I won't be getting any romaine lettuce. Thank god.

I have to admit, it was tough to get through the whole BO box in a week. I think it was just hard for me to be motivated to eat stuff I didn't particularly care for, like red leaf lettuce. Lettuce isn't terrible, but more than ~~one~~ ~~two~~ three meals of it is.

So I cancelled the service.

This time around, I emailed the folks at Farmers to You and asked them what feedback they had from other people who eat for one and who don't want to get stuck with seven pounds of rutabagas to eat in a week.

The response was quick and friendly and the result is that I have signed up and committed to six weeks. Hopefully this will work out. It's sort of like a farm share in a way except that I get to pick what I want AND have it delivered to my work.

For the next six weeks, starting today, I will have some sort of post relating to this service.

I am cautiously optimistic that it is going to be AWESOME.

Compost Salad

2011-10-19T12:52:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I just have to use everything up or throw it out.

I call these kinds of dishes "compost salad" while La Maman calls them "plat unique".

Last night I found myself in the kitchen with a bag of kale, a pint of cherry tomatoes, and half a container of mozzarella "pearls".

The common denominator here was the fact that they were all within inches of their use-by date. And I cannot bear to throw away food, especially since so many people don't even have enough to eat.

Now a word about chickpeas. Chickpeas are a staple in my kitchen, but they have to be Italian. If you buy ceci at Whole Foods it will cost you about $2.49 a can or something like that. If you go to Stop & Shop or the like you can get them for about a dollar a can. I usually buy 10 cans at a time.

Believe me, you can't go wrong with having a good supply of chickpeas in your pantry.

I began by roasting the kale. It was a GIANT bag of kale but it shrank down to a manageable amount when it cooked.

Rinse the kale, pat it completely dry (or it will steam before it roasts which just takes longer), toss it with a little olive oil, cumin, salt, and pepper then pop it in the oven at 375 for like 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. It will be dried out and crispy/crunchy when it's done.

Then you want to saute a rinsed can of chickpeas with a rinsed pint of little tomatoes in a pan over medium high heat. Use a little olive oil and add in a few clove of crushed garlic if you like. Cook the chickpeas and tomatoes together for about 10 minutes or so - just until the tomatoes soften and wrinkle and the chickpeas start to brown.

In a bowl, whisk together a bit of vinegar with a bit of olive oil. Add salt, pepper, to taste.

Then add in the mozzarella and toss to coat.

Scrape the hot tomatoes and chickpea mixture in over the mozzarella and toss to coat everything with the vinaigrette. The mozzarella will melt a bit and that is a good thing.

Serve it on a bed of roasted kale.

You will have enough for lunch the next day too!

I am glad that I didn't waste anything and that the end result was really delicious. Because sometimes these kinds of inventions really taste like crap.

Homemade Lunch...

2011-10-19T07:30:00.000-04:00

One of the best things about having a functional kitchen again is being able to bring my own lunch to work every day.

Usually it's leftovers and it is typically true that things taste a little better the longer they get to sit around together.

This lunch is leftover polenta I made with gruyere, and toasted quinoa, sweet potato, and golden raisin casserole from the other other day.

It was pretty delicious and I didn't feel like rubbish afterwards from all the preservatives and crap that is in most processed foods.

Sneakety peekety

2011-10-18T22:03:00.002-04:00

The kitchen is functional:

WHOOH YAH!

There are still details to finish:

Oh for the love of &^%#*@!!

Who gives a crapola about the deeeeetails??

I need more wine....

Fine, how does this compound miter saw work again?

Blerrr....g

Seriously, when people tell you that your renovation will take twice as long as you think, my advice is to take THAT number and square it.

And the worst part is that after the hard part comes the fiddly part - fitting in the trim, working the little details, wiring the dishwasher in so the disposal will work, fiddly yet necessary details. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh I am just so ready to be done and also I am ready for the biggest nap ever.

It's getting there. In the meantime here are a couple of sneaky peeks to keep us both going.

Last winter

Insulation and drywall.

Getting ever closer..... Yep those are gold bricks. Swanky!

Stop. Smell the flowers. Sneeze.

Getting there in the kitchen.

So as you can see, the kitchen/dining area is slowly coming together. I tiled the counters myself, my Dad ran the copper flashing through a machine to make it into trim, and I wired in the light over the sink. The backsplash is plastic tin tile that I painted with Krylon Fusion paint in Dover Grey.

I will post more photos when I slog through the fiddly bits.

Running water, where you going?

2011-10-18T21:40:00.002-04:00

It is a lovely privilege to have lots of clean running water from the tap. I will never ever never take running water for granted ever again.

However that is all behind me now. Sort of. The kitchen is getting there and I am now at a point where I can use it. So I did. This weekend.

It was La Maman's birthday on Saturday and since she has everything she needs and more, I made her lunch. Let me just say that my Maman is the best person to cook for, to share a meal with, she makes a table complete. Because of her I will never understand how anyone can simply just eat a meal, without chatter and laughter and joy.

Oh and also she brings wine to the party. The good stuff. This stuff. Me likey, me wanty...

As for the menu, well I am awful about following recipes to.the.very.last.teeny.tiny.boring.detail. I am just not patient enough for that. Except when it comes to desserts. Desserts are math based and I am horrible at ratios, so if it is more complicated than simply dumping hot fudge onto ice cream, I need a recipe.

I made chicken thighs which I first pan-seared and then finished by baking on a bed of shallots, carrots, garlic, fresh cranberries, and a splash of chicken broth.

Then I made polenta into which I grated a bit of gruyere and served with a very delicious mushroom ragu.

These two dishes were made from ingredients that looked good at the market. It's like a puzzle, fitting things together, and it can't just be a random mish-mash of stuff you like otherwise it would just be a casserole of Lucky Charms, hummus, brioche, and sweet potatoes.

Blech.

No, you definitely can't smoosh flavors together willy nilly, you have to braid the flavors together. Something like that.

Anyway, don't worry, I didn't braid anything for dessert. I made apple cake. Really really delicious apple cake. Thank goodness for people like Mr. Lebovitz who posts unf*ckupable recipes. I would have been a real merdeuse to spoil birthday cake!

Click the link for the recipe, since it is his after all.

Two notes for you: one, I used bourbon instead of rum because I was out of rum and the packie wasn't open yet. Two, this is a great recipe for any kind of apple, an apple assortment, or even a mix of apples and pears. It makes me mental when a recipe calls for Pink Lady apples and all I have are a couple of Gingergolds and a few Paula Reds.

Le sigh.....

PS: It is LOVELY to be back. Ahhh.....

Shhhhhh.......

2011-10-14T17:20:00.003-04:00

I am cautiously optimistic that I will be posting about food that I cook in my own kitchen this weekend.

Please standby.

I am still here. I swear.

2011-09-27T21:16:00.000-04:00

If I never eat another bowl of Cheerios for dinner again, that would be fine with me.

Some of you might be aware that I am doing a little work on ye old homestead and said project is crawling along at a glacier pace.

Which is better than nothing I suppose.

Anyway, just before Labor Day the kitchen came apart. All the way down to nothing.

A trained professional came and moved all the pipes and then I patched the wall back together.

Then another trained professional came after Labor Day and put the new cabinets together and hung them.

Getting there....

Anyway, now everything is installed and just waiting to be reconnected.

I cannot wait. I honestly was so excited to not have a kitchen for a little while - I thought I would eat out all the time and try all sorts of places that I wouldn't normal try.

It's just that I found out sort of quickly that eating out every f&%$king night is not my idea of a fun time. I am longing for casserole and crepes and omelets and flan and roasts and pasta that I make for myself with ingredients that I bought myself.

I want to bake bread and bring my own lunch to work each day. I do NOT want to ever have another bowl of cereal for dinner again.

The very minute everything is connected, I will make some thing for dinner. And there will be photos.

See you soon.

Socca to me.

2011-08-03T20:00:00.000-04:00

I made socca the other night. Why? Well the other, other, night I went out drinking and then somehow found myself in a fancy food store buying $30 olive oil and $7 chickpea flour.

I am nothing if not impulsive. And chronically broke.

Anyway, the one reason I buy chickpea flour is to make panisse and socca. As for the very expensive olive oil.... well that was beyond reason. Except for the fact that it is from Nice which is where La Maman is from and that's good enough for me.

Socca is a baked pancake made from chickpea flour. When I was in Nice, I ate it hot with my fingers, dusted with black pepper, sitting outside in the old part of town. I still eat it this way, only now with a glass of red wine.

I used the recipe in Colman Andrews excellent book "Flavors of the Riviera: Discovering Real Mediterranean Cooking", which is a workable version of Jacques Medicin's recipe.

This is all you need to make socca.

2 cups room temp water, 2-1/2 cups chickpea flour, half a cup of olive oil, and a tablespoon of salt.
You will also need a whisk and a heavy pan. I use a heavy steel paella pan.

Sift the flour into the water in small batches and whisk it in. I sift in the flour because I am never good at getting all the lumps whisked in. The important part is to whisk in a bit at a time to help avoid lumps.

Once all the flour is whisked in and the batter is lovely and smooth, whisk in 1/2 a cup of olive oil. Use regular olive oil, NOT $30 Nicoise olive oil. Duh.

The batter will be a lovely shade of yellow. A very Provencal yellow to my mind.
Cover the bowl and let it sit for one hour at room temperature.

After the hour is up, switch on the broiler and get the pan ready.

As you can see I am using a giant heavy paella pan. This pan was a gift from the Evil Twin. Well a re-gift. She got it at work as a sample. Don't ask, I never do. I just say "thank you".

However if you haven't got a sister to give you sample paella pans, you can use a sheet tray. Just line it with foil and make a foil bump-up about halfway or so down. You don't want the batter to be too thinly spread - it should be around half an inch to a quarter inch deep.

Whatever pan you use, oil it lightly but thoroughly. Pour the batter in and set the pan under the broiler.

I have a broiler drawer which I don't love. I would rather have a storage drawer and a broiler in the oven. But I didn't think about that when I got my new stove. Eh tant pis!

Settled into the broiler drawer!

Let it broil for about 4 minutes. I find that I need to turn the pan halfway through.

Then pop it into the oven at 450 for about 6 to 8 minutes. For me it takes the full 8 minutes because my oven and broiler cannot operate at the same time. But using the broiler first gets the oven pretty hot.

Behold the socca!!

As you can see it will pull away from the sides a bit and you really want to get the top nice and brown. I don't mind the burnt bits, when I remember to rotate the pan in the broiler it gets a much prettier shade of toast.

When you pull it out of the oven, slice it up any old which way, sprinkle some very finely ground pepper over it, pour yourself a glass of wine (red!) and eat the socca with your fingers.

A little side note is that cold socca is awful - it's like eating cold thick dry paste. However you can cut up the leftover socca into little bits and saute in hot olive oil. They are briefly delicious, just toss them in the rubbish when they cool. Thrice heated socca isn't worth the effort of keeping.

You know what this is, now what do YOU call it?

2011-07-25T18:41:00.001-04:00

I cannot be the only person who calls these Teenies:

Apparently they are really called Little Hugs.

More like starter kits for toddler alcoholics if you ask me. Who puts a kiddie drink in a beer barrel?

Further more, who markets this non-nutritive crap to kids? Oh wait....

Nevermind.

Someone just threw a TwinkieFunyunFritoDoritoHoHoBigMac at my head. *sigh*

No wonder we're all fat. These Little Hugs are cheaper than milk.

Friday Work Breakfast.

2011-07-08T09:30:00.000-04:00

Remember what I said the other day about food randomly appearing in the office?

Well let me present today's morsel of deliciousness: greek yogurt and almond cake. The lovely person who makes this is a wonderful scratch baker and is so critical of her own handiwork, which is rubbish because everything she makes is excellent.

Rest assured, it is divine!!!

So divine, I had some for breakfast today.

THANK YOU to ***** of the ****** ******* for making this and giving me some.

When life literally hands you a bowl of cherries....

2011-07-06T19:08:00.000-04:00

Eat them before your coworkers do!

These were about the most delicious cherries I have had in a very, very long time. They were sent to the office from ChefShop.com and I am not sure if they were a gift or what (food has a way of turning up in our office randomly) but it certainly made my return to work after the holiday so much better.

Aren't they the most gorgeous color? They tasted like sweet droplets of sunshine.

*sigh*

Tomorrow can only be a let down after this lovely treat.

Ginger "ale" for the rest of us.

2011-07-05T20:58:00.000-04:00

I bought this on impulse the other day and o.m.f.g. this stuff is ambrosia.

I've been drinking it with club soda, a few crushed mint leaves, and lots of ice. It makes up for a lack of a/c.

Breakfast at Toro

2011-07-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

I tried to take my Irish friends to Mike's City Diner for breakfast this weekend and I really just should have known better. The problem at Mike's is that even if it's only 6 people waiting, there is some weird optical illusion in that place that makes it looks like 46 people are waiting.

We didn't want to wait.

And we didn't want to walk.

So we had breakfast at Toro. What an excellent second choice. First off the woman who was working our table was absolutely lovely, and second off the food was a pleasant surprise, in that it was delicious and not a giant huge plate of food.

There are those who feel that more is better and there are those who feel that less is more. I have a foot in both camps. There is never enough french fries but for the most part I prefer a little deliciousness more frequently than a big plate of something I just really need a taste of. Something like that anyway.

I got the huevos rancheros and the corn. Who goes to Toro and doesn't get the corn? I don't know, that's who.

Anyway, sadly this is the only photo I got. I would have taken a photo of the corn but I was too busy chomping it down.

Also, if you go, get the banana milk with a shot of rum. You have to ask for the shot of rum, but it is SO worth it. It will transform your day into a day of glitter and unicorns and rainbows.

Urban foraging

2011-06-15T09:46:00.000-04:00

Looky here, a mulberry tree. Right?

I am not totally positive at what point these can be picked, but if the bird poop that surrounded this tree last year is anything to go by, I need to wait until they are a MUCH darker purple.

Also, I am not entirely sure what to make with them when I pick them.

Maybe jam? Or wine?

Rice Krispie Treats for the rest of us.

2011-06-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

Making Rice Krispie Treats with brown butter is nothing new, it is however, new to me.

I love RKTs, always have. They are ridiculously fast to make and I've made them with Trix, Fruity Pebbles, Coco Puffs, Fruit Loops... if it's a totally non-nutritive sugary cereal, I will combine it with butter and marshmallows melted together and basically eat it out of hand for the next day or so.

Oh and also, all the ingredients can be found easily - my bodega carries them even.

So when someone's Facebook status referenced making RKTs with brown butter my mouth watered immediately. And this weekend I made two batches.

To one batch I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla bean paste. To the other batch I added vanilla bean paste, extra vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. To both batches I added rainbow nonpareils for fun.

And oh my my my, are they ever delicious! SO much better with brown butter! And have one very vanilla-ey and the other a little spiced makes them even more tasty.

Cute right?

Yeahhh I REALLY need to find my camera cord. Cellphone photos probably give my food cancer or something.

I would give you a recipe, but just easier to tell you to Google it. I recommend the Smitten Kitchen.

Yogurt IS alive!!! RAWR!!!!

2011-06-10T16:11:00.000-04:00

Yogurzilla killed the Strawberry and is on the march looking for YOU!

These fun tote bags are a collaboration between yours truly and the ridiculously talented Jesse at South End Textiles.

We've got a couple of other designs in the works to be unveiled in the next few weeks. However once the purple Yogurzilla is gone, it's gone like Donkey Kong.

Maybe it will come back in yellow or green or Bedazzled (TM), but if you have your little heart set on purple you will want to get it now as there are only 25 24 23 of these limited edition bad boys.

Yep.

Already sold two.

Shoot me an email, bangbang, if you are interested. I am happy to mail them for free in the US and yep, I take PayPal.

Otherwise come by the SoWa market on June 19th and get one yo'self.

RAWR!

Summer Salad of Deliciousness

2011-06-01T20:35:00.001-04:00

I am hopeless at making American-style salads, totally and utterly useless at it.

In my entire life I have never had success at combining lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery, etc into a bowl with dressing to produce something palatable. Everything is badly proportioned - too chunky, too leafy, too dressed, too vinegary, and it is the same at a salad bar. My salad bar salads end up being little sections of this and that - a glop of cottage cheese here, a sad pile of pinto beans there, jalapenos strewn over the top.

I ask you, does any of that sound appealing? No, the word you want is appalling.

Fortunately I am half French and that half knows how to make European-style salads. This basically means tossing things with a very nice vinaigrette. My two basic salads in this style would be the shredded carrot with raisins (or dried cranberries) and the chickpea, tomato, and mozzarella salad, with pesto.

This is that salad and I have pretty much eaten it every day this week:

Oops, crap cell photo because I cannot find my camera cord...

Anyway this is DELICIOUS stuff.

Basically you just chop up a tomato and a 4oz ball of fresh mozzarella. Toss with a little vinegar (I use white balsamic), a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper, and few finely chopped leaves of basil.

Then you saute a rinsed can of chickpeas in some olive oil with some chopped garlic. I love garlic so I put in a couple of cloves.

Saute the chickpeas until just golden, usually less than ten minutes. Then dump them on top of the tomato and mozzarella mixture.

Toss until everything is well mixed and coated with the vinaigrette. Eat it with a fork and a hunk of bread if you are so inclined.

And that is what I call a salad!

Monday morning and I am not in purgatory, as originally expected.

2011-05-23T10:08:00.000-04:00

This morning I took the bus to work because it was raining. The back half of the bus was jammers with school kids being loud and obnoxious which, as I seem to recall, is exactly what teenagers do on the bus. However it made conditions on the bus sort of grody - noisy, humid, smelly, and crowded.

Usually I get on the bus and there are about five other passengers, so you can't blame me for thinking "oh sh*t, so THIS is purgatory! I didn't make the rapture. F*ck!"

Because being stuck on a noisy, humid, smelly, and crowded bus full of teenagers is exactly what I imagine purgatory to be.

However, I managed to get off the bus at the right stop and when I got to work, look what a co-worker brought in:

Doughboy Donuts.

Purgatory averted.

I love menu mistakes.

2011-05-22T13:00:00.000-04:00

Especially when "pankakes" are involved.

Happy Mother's Day to La Maman!!!

2011-05-08T10:44:00.000-04:00

Come to think about it, I am really lucky to have La Maman that I do. Seriously, she is the bomb.

When Dad was traveling for work, which he would do for long stretches at a time, La Maman had to be Le Papa also and she did it with aplomb.

Once, when I was really in the throes of Laura Ingalls-itis, La Maman took my sister and I to Edaville Railroad in Carver to go fishing. I seem to remember we took the little train to the "Fishing Area" and La Maman rented us all the appropriate gear, namely a rod and couple of dirty worms. Quite calmly she jammed a worm on a hook and we cast the line as well as we could for a couple of novices. I was totally in awe even if there was no chance of us catching anything in four inches of water. She had hooked the worm, with her BARE HANDS just to give us a chance to go fishin'.

My mother was not like the other mothers I knew: French, gorgeous, smart, and independent, she never catered to my whims of sameness. I got homemade lunches - sandwiches on bread she made weekly, rather than on store bought bread. Our underthings came from France in brown paper wrapped parcels, all Petit Bateau before it was de rigeur. She never wanted to do the things that everyone else was doing, she did what she wanted to do.

In short, she was the most annoying Mom to have as a kid trying to fit it, but the absolute best kind of Mom to teach a girl how to be a strong, independent woman.

La Maman, j'adore! Thank you for being my mother, not my friend, when I was a kid, and for now being my mother AND my friend. You are a wonderful human being and the world is better for having you in it.

Super fast lunch

2011-05-06T18:10:00.000-04:00

I took the day off today to get some stuff done and one of those things was tiling the master bathroom floor.

Great day in the morning, tiling is HARD!!!

Anyway, I didn't want to break for lunch for too long or I would have abandoned the dumb thing. So I emptied a can of chickpeas in to a pan of hot olive oil and sauteed them with basil and garlic.

Then I tossed the whole thing with a little cheese, and done.

OMFG so delicious!!!!

Curried Cauliflower, Kale, Carrot, Onion, Garlic Soup - in photos

2011-04-17T21:50:00.000-04:00

I mostly just make up recipes as I go along. Like anything else in the whole world, cooking stuff you want to actually eat takes practice.

Some people need recipes, some people (me!) just wing it, and all 100% of us will make something so revolting that it can't even be saved with ketchup and rice, or ice cream and maple syrup. But about 96% of what we make will be edible, I promise you that.

Which brings me to the soup I made today. I have a friend who is about to go through 35 days of radiation and I promised that I would make them some food. The only requirement is that it is vegetarian. My only requirement is that it does taste like crap, because radiation is going to be bad enough as it is without having to choke down crap.

Also, soup is always easy to make and eat and this turned out to be delicious AND easy.

Without further ado and adon't, here you are, the recipe in pictures! Oh wait, one small ado: it will make everything so much less stressful if you take the time to get everything ready before starting to cook. And when I say chopped I mean to a size that will fit on a soup spoon. Use your noggin on that one.

Take one of these (or your version of it):

Put a little olive oil in it and heat over medium heat.

Then add 3 of these, chopped:

And a few cloves of these, minced:

Saute the whole magilla over a medium heat until the onion is translucent. About 10 minutes or so, just look at it.

Peel and dice a few of these, about five thin ones or three fat ones, and add to the pot:

At this point the onions might need a little water. It's fine to add some vegetable broth or water to keep the onions from scorching. Which you will really only need to do if you didn't heed my advice above to get everything ready beforehand. So if you are chopping carrots while the onions cook, yeah, you will need a little water.

Ok next add in some spices. I added curry, turmeric (to make it really vivid yellow), cumin, ground black pepper, a few flakes of red pepper, and a little salt. This is just a guide, you can use what you want or have on hand. You could add herbes de Provence, and a little splash of dry white vermouth if you don't like curry. Don't go crazy here, if you add rosemary, mint, and lime, it will taste like sh*t.

So now you are spiced up and at this point add a quart of this:

I will say/brag that I usually have homemade vegetable broth on hand, but I ran out and never bothered to replenish my stash. Eh, sh*t happens. You could also just use water if you want, but you'd probably want to bump up the seasoning.

Next add in a stemmed and floretted head of these:

And a couple of chopped leaves of this:

In case you aren't familiar with those green leaves, that's kale. Kale is wonderful stuff, very tasty in soup and when it cooks it turns a gorgeous green color. I cut out the rib, stack and roll the leaves, then slice them into long strips. If you're fancy, you call this "chiffonade".

Lastly add in a rinsed can of these:

Simmer this concoction over medium heat until the cauliflower is just tender. Hmmm, I think in my case it might have been half an hour.

If you make with curry and turmeric and cumin it will be a lovely vivid yellow, as well as a little spicy. Also, this will make quite a bit of soup. You might want to add a little more liquid the longer you keep it.

Not only that, but some garlicky croutons, or even some naan would make this soup perfect.

Enjoy!

This just in: Pretentious Foodyism Reaches New Low.

2011-03-31T11:34:00.000-04:00

The April/May 2011 issue of the James Beard Foundation member newsletter has compiled a list of food lovers Then and Now, which appears on page 6.

The eighth item down on the Now list is: Menu Curating.

OMFG MENU F*CKING CURATING!!!

That's it.

I am having chicken McNuggets* for lunch.

(The real kind from factory farms and which are made out of ground up chicken beaks and feet and sawdust. F*ck you foodies and the precious free-range, grass-fed, undyed chicken we rode in on! Harumph!)

Ugh. I am SO glad you can't see what my diet has been like lately.

2011-03-30T18:51:00.001-04:00

The renovation HAS to be finished by Labor Day. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Which means that the last project to be finished will be the kitchen. You would think that with all the no-cooking I am not doing, the weight would fall off.

But no. I am now a scavenger eater. It's pathetic. I have nothing in my fridge, and I've eaten almost everything out of the freezer, and almost everything I've canned.

I will some nights have popcorn for dinner, or pasta with garlic and Dutch vegetable seasoning I found in Aruba. (No, not a narcotic. I am pretty sure.)

Although I did discover that a dinner of plain yogurt, maple syrup, and a kiwi will tide you over until the next morning.

Also, thank heavens for eggs. I will pretty much eat eggs with everything, on anything.

Just thought you'd like to know why there are no lovely food photos lately.

Eff you Girl Scouts of America. Eff you.

2011-03-29T23:00:00.001-04:00

I now believe, nay, know that the Girl Scouts of America bake crack into Thin Mints.

It is the only explanation as to why, when I get within 10 feet of a box of them, I lose all sense of reason and attempt to cram them all into my mouth at once. I truly cannot be trusted anywhere near them.

Which in turn explains why a certain someone's phfffts smell a little minty at present. Whoops!

Another Birthday Month comes to a close.

2011-03-29T18:41:00.000-04:00

The only thing I didn't do this month is have dinner with my birthday twin (yes Ennairda, I am talking to YOU!).

Otherwise this has been the most fantastic birthday month ever.

I got my NASCAR/Showtunes Fantasy League Champion trophy which was awesome. The Evil Twin and BiL had martini night at their house. My Dad got me a NASCAR Monopoly game, because you know, face it - I like NASCAR. I've gone out with friends and had enough fun and drinks and laughs to power me through April!

On the actual night of my birthday though, La Maman took me out and indulged me in the most delicious oyster feast this year. Let me just say that I don't love seafood however oysters and salmon sashimi are the most delicious things a person can eat from the ocean.

I suspect that the real reason I love oysters is because I read Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher, the same writer who got me to go have a nice dinner at a nicer restaurant on my own, without a book. Anyone who can read that book and STILL not like oysters is illiterate. Oysters truly are the briny pearls of the ocean and I love them.

Delicious Happy Birthday Oysters!

Oh and in case you were wondering how I feel about salmon sashimi, let me tell you that to me raw salmon tastes like butter (buttah! yum!) but cooked salmon makes me gag. Weird, right?

Delicious homemade lunch in a jar

2011-02-24T18:28:00.002-05:00

I love glass jars and use them in place of plastic as much as possible. They are perfect for bringing lunch to the office, which I am all about doing these days, now that I am trying to get ready for beach season - which IS coming at some point this year!

The best thing is that I make one big delicious dish at the beginning of the week and then fill up the fridge with ready to go lunches in cute little glass jars. It makes stumbling out of the house a few minutes shorter everyday.

Last night I made corn-quinoa rotelle with a delicious veggie packed tomato sauce.

For the sauce:

- one onion, chopped
- garlic, chopped (I like it so I used a few cloves)
Saute the garlic and onion in a little olive oil over a medium flame, until soft and translucent.
Remove from heat and scrape into a mixing bowl or similar.

- one box of mushrooms (about a pound or so), coarsely chopped
- one red pepper, deseeded and chopped
Add a little olive oil to the pan you sauteed the onions in and let the oil get hot.
Add the mushrooms and red pepper
Saute until the mushrooms are brown and the pepper is soft.

- kale, a small bunch, washed and chopped into small bits
Add this to the mushroom and red pepper saute with a little sprinkle of water
Stir until wilted.
Add all this to the bowl with the onions and return pan to heat.

- ground turkey
Cook about a pound in the pan, making small chunks with the end of your spatula.
At this point I seasoned the turkey with salt, black pepper, red chili flakes, and some dried cranberries.
Cook thoroughly then add to the bowl with everything else.

Now, here is the part I should have put in earlier...

I had the pasta already cooked and after draining it, I put it back into the cooking pot and swirled it with a little splash of olive oil and some frozen basil cubes. Then I dumped in a can of diced San Marzano tomatoes and this is what I added all the sauteed stuff to. This is not really a sauce proper, more like a superior pasta salad-y thingy.

If you wanted to make this a casserole, you could stir in some cheese at this point and bake it. But I have been eating casserole like it's candy lately and just wanted a nice pasta dinner.

It was very nice. And then today, it was a delicious lunch. Hooray for delicious lunches on slow moving winter days.

I might not have a kitchen, but I still have a stove.

2011-02-21T16:45:00.000-05:00

Which is important because I am having the worst ever canning jones.

A few weeks back it kicked in while in Aruba. We ate at Madame Janette's, outside in the glorious fresh air, in January - as we kept reminding ourselves. The meal was decent, actually it was quite the meal and I could have gotten away with just having the appetizer and for me to say that.... well you get the drift.

At the start of the meal, we were given a small dish of pickled onions. I am pretty sure that is exactly when the canning craving kicked in. I love a good pickle. Seriously, all penis jokes aside, if it's pickled I will eat it.

These were vinegary, spicy, and peppery - I could not pile them high enough on my bread. At least I think it was for my bread, who knows. I never know what to do with sauce at the table on its own, like in an Indian restaurant - I just smother the crackly bread with the three little sauces you get. The staff is meanwhile smothering their laughter at the girl who is putting jam on the corn-on-the-cob, metaphorically speaking. But I digress.

Oh, well wait, one more thing: whenever I travel outside of my home state, the first thing I want to see is the supermarket. Aruba was no exception. Did you know that most of their supermarkets are Asian? Yep.

Anyway so back to Madame Janettes. Remember? For dinner, and the onions? Right.

So the ET's Hubby also loves the pickled onions and asked if I could replicate them in Boston. I said I would try. The spiciness was hard to pin down, which is where the supermarket near the hotel came into play.

It turns out that the Madame Janette is a hot pepper, not some wild island Madam. And there is a hot sauce made from these same peppers. I figured that that is what gives the pickled onions their piquancy.

So I brought back some of this Madame Janette in a jar and will add it to my next pickled onion batch.

Ahhh hahahahahah Madame Janette in a jar.... I am so funny!

(via www.adjoema.net)

I haven't starved to death....

2011-02-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

...yet anyway.

But seriously, the little house in the big city is STILL under construction. It is ridiculous how long it takes a person to renovate a house! I am totally over my budget and way under budget in the motivation department. It goes in fits and spurts - a lick of paint here, a dollop of joint compound there...

I really thought at this point I would have a lovely new kitchen, but that realistically cannot happen until the top two floors are done as the plaster dust will just overwhelm everything.

Which has already sort of happened, which is why I am not cooking as much. If a recipe needs more than one or two pans, I am out of luck because I have stored everything in boxes because I was thinking I would be a little farther ahead than I am currently. Oh well.

And thank goodness for beef pho, because I really think that is all that is keeping me alive right now.

Honeycomb Candy (or depending: Burnt Sugar Candy)

2010-12-21T13:25:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a Crunchie? I love them and it is utterly pornographic to watch me eat one as I am one of those people who tries to eat it from the middle without getting the chocolate coating involved.

Alas, Crunchies are mostly unavailable in the good old you-ess-of-ay. So when you want one, you have to make it yourself.

Which turns out to be pretty fracking easy akshully.

Take a very large pan. And by large pan, I mean one that is bigger than what you think.

I used the maslin pan.

Combine honey, sugar, Karo syrup, and a little water in the pan and heat it up.

(I went with the recipe found here: Candy with a Crunch - Honeycomb Candy from the Seattlest via the Kitchn)

Let it boil

And boil

(it mixes itself!)

Until it is boiling furiously.

And then watch it until it turns light amber.

Ok so this is where I stopped taking photos because once the sugar starts to turn color, the distance between light amber and burnt was abouthisclose.

I pulled the pan from the heat and added the baking soda, stirred like mad, and the whole shebang foamed right up as described:

Foaming action shot. Mesmerizing!

Then I dumped the whole thing onto a lined & oiled sheet tray and waited for it to cool.

Looks a little like cheese huh.

Ok so this is the pot after just to give you an idea of how HIGH it will foam. Use a stock pot or plan on deep cleaning your stovetop, burners, floor.....

For some reason I was not at all able to saw/cut it with a serrated knife. It just shattered, but the shards were delicious! And coating them in chocolate was even more tasty.

Truth be told, I made two batches. The first one I cooked the sugar too long/dark. It wasn't awful, it tasted like burnt sugar which I secretly like. But that amount of burnt sugar was overwhelming and after a few chunks it made the roof of my mouth ache.

The second batch was miles better. And the nice thing is that the ingredient list is short and cheap (not the chocolate, but there is no waste there).

Anyway. I meant to give it away for Christmas but I ate it.

O well.

Doughboy Donuts

2010-12-16T09:39:00.000-05:00

OMG I love donuts. It is ridiculous how much I love donuts.

I brought donuts to the office today, under the Happy Holidays Clause, and am really hoping I donut embarrass myself by eating them all.

These are from Doughboy in Southie. The Evil Twin raves to me just about everyday how awesome Doughboy is and so I figured I would give it a shot. Plus the people who work there are ridiculously nice. Like normal nice, regular nice, which makes the morning MUCH better.

My vote: sugar raised. Serious YUM.

Aaaaaaand the winner is:

2010-12-15T17:33:00.000-05:00

JILL!

Whoo hoo! You are going to LOVE this book!

(shoot me an email with your address and I will get it right out to you!)

Don't forget - tomorrow is the last day to enter.

2010-12-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

Seriously, you are going to LOVE this book.

One of the little mysteries of life.

2010-12-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

How come the first cup of coffee always tastes SO DANG GOOD but each subsequent cup doesn't?

And those single cup brewers don't do it for me either, so it's not because the coffee sits around disconsolately oxidizing.

I guess I just need a bigger mug.

COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY: Not Your Mother's ?????? (Updated)

2010-12-09T10:12:00.002-05:00

(Editor Update: So the Sales & Marketing Director just put the kibosh on promoting the book as it technically is not supposed to be released until January. So I will just adjust this to a SURPRISE giveway (*wink*wink*) to keep this post alive. If you don't win this "mystery" title this time, I hope you will all pre-order the title over at Amazon. Thank you and sorry for the confusion!)

I am ridiculously excited about this book - a) because I love books, and b) this is one of those books where you go from recipe to recipe, eager to make the next one immediately, and c) the author (~~Faith Durand~~) happens to be a lovely, down-to-earth person who has created a very nice cookbook that is a perfect blend of normal everyday food with just the right amount of fancy. It's a necessary antidote to the Ad Hoc at Home type titles that collect dust ton my bookshelf for most of the year.

How lovely does ~~Beans Baked with Caramelized Onions, Corn, and Cheese~~ sound on a chilly day like today? Or ~~Butternut Squash Pasta Casserole with Gruyere and Pecans~~? It is absurd that at 10am I am already thinking about supper. Well knowing me, not that absurd.

I do know that this weekend I will likely be making ~~Cranberry Cake with Walnut Praline Topping~~. Because THAT sounds like the perfect breakfast on a cold New England morning.

And yes, I DO work for the publisher but that just means I get a copy to give to YOU.

One lucky person will get a copy of this fabulous book just in time for the holidays. Simply leave a comment telling me what YOUR favorite ~~casserole type~~ dish is and on December 15th I will randomly draw a name from the pot.

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of this book and have it mailed to you. Be sure to either check back to see if you won, or email me your contact info, in case YOU win!.

Thanksgiving Food Derby - 2010

2010-12-08T16:56:00.000-05:00

To the person who invented stretchy pants, I give thanks to YOU.

Brandied Cranberry Preserves

from Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Jams & Jellies .

I will NEVER make cranberry sauce any other way. Ever

Mennonite Cheese Bread for the stuffing.

Blanched pearl onions ready for peeling.

Onion and garlic puree. I cooked onions and garlic for ages, slowly, before pureeing it and mixing it with grated cheese to make the sauce for the pearl onions.

Instead of pumpkin pie, I made pumpkin flan. It was pretty and pretty delicious.

Apple Pie.

I love apple pie.

Stuffing.

I could literally eat stuffing EVERY day.

This is turkey sausage, apple, cranberry, and sage.

Infrared turkey cooker.

No oil, no nothing but heat.

As you can see it came out looking good.

It was also the juiciest turkey I ever cooked.

The Thanksgiving Table with my crafty centerpiece.

This is my folks house. I am MUCH messier.

Shredded raw squash with vinaigrette & dried cranberries.

I wanted to like it, but frankly it was a little odd.

The Big Sit Down.

If you look carefully you can see the other dishes I made.

Namely the shredded Brussels sprouts with mustard which was amazing.

Flan.

The only person who HAS to like this is me.

A few of the things I give Thanks for, in random order.

2010-11-23T22:03:00.006-05:00

1. Water: On demand. Out of multiple taps. Hot and/or cold. CLEAN and mostly potable. Seriously, this is NOT a worldwide luxury and year after year I am grateful to have it.

2. Shelter: Yeah, maybe I am in the middle of a tediously slow renovation, but how awesome is it to not be living in a tent, or under a bridge? Pretty fricking AWESOME!

3. Food: I am never hungry. This is a huge luxury in my life and I am grateful beyond measure that I do not feel hunger pangs daily, or ever.

4. Family & Friends: They like me! They really like me! And this year I got a bruthah so all in all I am happy with where things stand in this department.

5. Work: I love my job and feel lucky to have one that I like so much in these difficult economic times.

6. The Showtunes-NASCAR fantasy league: I was invited to join this 3 years ago and saw as a way to see if I could change my opinions about things or if this old dog had learned all the tricks she was going learn. Previously my opinion was that this North American Sport Centered Around Rednecks was just about driving fast and to the left. Well yes to that second part anyway, but it is also more than that. The first year I finished at the very bottom, last year I finished on the podium in third place, and this year I finished first. I am officially the Showtunes-NASCAR 2010 Fantasy League Champion and you know what? Winning first place is AWESOME!!

There is plenty more that I am thankful for but right now I need to concentrate on feeding some folks on Thursday.

Shush, this is our little secret....

2010-11-23T18:00:00.006-05:00

a) This year there was no Turkey Shoot. No Grandpa = No Turkey Shoot. I just could not do Turkey Shoot without the oldest gizzard of all. I miss him and this only makes me miss him more. But we still got ourselves a gorgeous big ole birdy from Diemand Farm because they really do have the best birds, thanks to Dad for picking it up.

and

b) This year there was no insane excel spreadsheet for the Thanksgiving shopping list. I simply went shopping for everything last night and bought stuff that looked good. I have a couple of recipe ideas and basically I am winging it. More or less. At the very least we'll have turkey and gravy and pie. You know what else? I am not even stressed out about it. If I totally f*ck it all up then we're going to have pizza and beer. With a side of turkey and gravy and pie. No sweat, no problem.

But keep this between us. No one else needs to know.

Sunlight in a bottle

2010-11-19T13:19:00.000-05:00

My Greek friends from downstairs are awesome.

Not only are they some of the nicest people in the restaurant business, but they are also incredibly kind and generous.

In the year that I have been working in this building, I have been the happy recipient of many delicious Greek treats - spanakopita, galaktoboureko, Easter bread that my family devoured in seconds. Always a little something that is mouthwatering and which makes my whole day.

Today I hit the jackpot with a bottle of olive oil. Pressed for the family and shipped over from Greece in a giant container, it is pungent and delicious, and I have a precious bottle of it. It tastes the way I imagine sunlight must taste on a hot, dry summer day when the sun is long in the sky and the soporific buzzing of bees is the only sound in the olive grove.

*sigh*

(not the most glamourous bottle, but I have the perfect container at home)

You say poutine, I say fries and fricking GRAVY! Yah!!

2010-11-17T11:49:00.000-05:00

Last night I met up with the lovely Pam of Cave Cibum for a second go at the Gallows.

The reason I say second go is because the first time I went to the Gallows I was completely sh*t-faced. So much so that I couldn't recall if I liked it or not, and that is saying something when fries and gravy are involved. But hey, a bottle of Goslings with your best friend will do that.

Also, I kind of have this prejudice against new South End eateries. My god they can be totally pretentious when they want to be and frankly the Gallows does seem to be hideously pretentious on the surface. The reclaimed barn wood interior, the faintly steampunk decor, the hip lightbulbs.... *eye roll* where are we? Brooklyn? Give me a break.

Well as it turns out I am the one who should have given the Gallows a break. True, the decor grates on my design sensibilities - only because I feel like it has been done, done, and over done. I mean, the big amber ball lamps in the bar area could have come from Linda Mae's circa 1982. You remember Linda Mae's, the stalwart pancake house on Morrissey Boulevard that is now a Chinese restaurant. They had AWESOME chocolate chip pancakes...

Oh wait, the Gallows. Right.

I was wrong about them. The staff was really nice, the drinks were subtle, and the "poutine" was delicious. Thank goodness for second chances, eh.

As for "poutine", well you know what, it's fries with gravy and cheese curds. Pretentious, precious, food snobs have given this lowly dish a dreadful reputation. And anyway anyone who has been drunk late at night knows that the only cure is fries with gravy and cheese bits - a universal drunken yen for carbohydrates, grease, and some variety of sauce.

We also had bacon & caramel popcorn and those of you who know, know I cannot eat enough popcorn. The folks at the Gallows know how to make this the right way. I could have, and would have, eaten ten pounds of the stuff if I had more money.

I am pretty sure I will go back, to the bar anyway!

Thanks Gallows!

So what did YOU have for breakfast today???

2010-11-15T18:29:00.002-05:00

Great Monday in the morning! This is the kind of buffet you don't usually see in the city.

I think this is the very same bird that my Mom caught checking out my sister's little puppy.

We all had a big laugh at the idea of Mom trying to explain what happened to little Coco. Not so funny now.

That bird sure enjoyed the breast of pigeon it caught for itself this morning. Shortly after I made this clip, it flew away with the rest of the chest cavity in its claws.

RAWWWWWR!!!!! Now THAT is the way to bring nature to the masses!

If you don't know where your petard is, you are probably hanging by it....

2010-11-12T10:20:00.002-05:00

I am not at all surprised that Don Otto's has gone out of business.

When they first opened I was looking forward to a place within walking distance that carried local produce. I went in exactly once and never went again.

The guy behind the counter was really rude and tried to get me to buy the whole 5 pound piece of turkey when all I wanted was enough for one. He said that I had asked for a piece of turkey and if I didn't take the whole piece then he'd be stuck trying to sell the rest of it. He then banged the smaller piece on to the scale, and basically let it be known that I was really just being an annoying customer. I also bought a shallot that turned out to be shriveled up inside and some greens that wilted and got soggy on the 15 minute walk home.

Thirty dollars later (yes, the most expensive turkey I have ever bought and I still regret not just literally running away from the whole situation) I walked home wondering how exactly I let myself get suckered into buying such pricey turkey and have just chalked it up to being a big wimp.

Oh well. At least I still have Russo's, Verrill Farm, and Diemand's Farm - where the produce is fresh and the people are friendly.

Also a snide aside: Don Otto's was the wrong name to follow Lionette's. People thought it was a bodega. Well, at least if it HAD been a bodega, it would still be IN business. Harumpf.

Oh yeah, I scored BIG!

2010-10-29T19:00:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you just have to brag about a particularly fantastic find. Unfortunately for me, no one in my immediate circle shares in my total thrillation with this particular item, so I am taking it to the masses.

Looky what I found!!:

A MASLIN PAN!!!

Hmmm, doesn't seem so exciting huh! But what if I told you I got it for a twenty. Brand new, twenty bucks.

Oh yeaaahhhhh!

Usually these pans can run between $50 and $100 so finding one (new! in box!) was fricking thrilling I tell you.

No more scorched caramelly jam for me thanks.

Happy Birthday GPP!!

2010-10-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

My dear old Grand-Pa-Pa passed away around this time last year and today would have been his 95th....., no, 96th birthday.

I think.

I am really bad at math and also at remembering dates.

He really wanted to live to see 100. I am not sure why exactly 100 was his goal, but I suppose after 85 your goals start to change. Yep, so 100 - he bought the book and everything. He was on track!

But then last spring and summer he had some health issues and the first thing to go was the 5pm martini. Bad move Gramps. I think that the alcohol was keeping him in a state of pickle. Take away the preservative and *phhhft!* he just shriveled up like a Wicked Witch in a rainstorm.

All joking aside, for all his faults and fabulousnesses I miss the old gizzard tremendously. He was a pretty alright guy and I plan to have a VERY large martini in his honor today.

Who is with me?

Me & Grandpa
a long time ago in a land far, far away...

Cluck Cluck!

2010-10-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend I made the roast chicken from Simon Hopkinson's book Roast Chicken and Other Recipes.

I picked this book up during my annual schlep to the New England Mobile Book Fair and while at first I liked it mostly for the lovely pages (ooh shiny paper! ooh pretty illustrations!) I have to confess that I cooked NOTHING out of it until now.

Whoops.

The roast chicken was fantastic. And not just because it came from Diemand Farm. Slathering the birdy with lots of butter, a squeeze of lemon, and a smashed garlic clove is so simple that it almost seems TOO simple to be so delicious, but it really was the best roast chicken I've had in a very long time.

Now I am thinking to try my hand at the chicken cooked in vinegar recipe.

It's interesting to me how I just have to cook one recipe from a book to know whether or not I will ever use it again.

Photos later. Maybe.

Gobble Gobble

2010-10-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

Great googly-moogly! I am a bad, bad, blogger! Bad!

Eh, oh well. Sometimes being bad feels pretty good.... I digress.

It is almost turkey bird eating time, although from the displays that having been popping up all over town like union stickers you'd think retailers had forsaken Thanksgiving as the insensitive white man's holiday that, kind of, it is. I suspect however that the more likely scenario is that Thanksgiving doesn't rake in the dough quite like Christmas and its attendant pressie-giving pressures.

Personally I cannot handle Christmas displays before Thanksgiving. It's like having a martini with dinner, not before. Somethings just have to be savored in their appropriate sequence. I cannot get into my visions of sugarplums until I have first blasted at a turkey with ye olde blunderbuss.

As is often the case, someone else has put this conundrum into words better than I ever could - Jim at Suldog has written about this for a few years now (I think... last year for sure anyway) and you can read what he says about it here: Thanksgiving Comes First

I have already ordered my big tasty bird from the fabulous Diemand Farm in Wendell, MA and I resolutely refuse to entertain any Christmassy notions until at least November 27th.

As they used to say in ye olde days of yore:

Thanks for the country!

Sorry about the smallpox!

Kitchen antics

2010-10-15T10:56:00.000-04:00

Other than popcorn, which I make REALLY well, I haven't cooked for myself much lately. This is mostly due to the fact that I am crawling through the slowest renovation in history.

I get home and change into my joint compound crusted jeans and work for a few hours each night and most weekends. The last thing I want to do is cook. Let's just say that after popcorn, crackers are the second staple of my current diet.

The other thing is that at some point the kitchen will also be renovated so I've got all my pots and pans in boxes and anyway the place is in no state to entertain.

On the nights I literally cannot do anything construction related, I do something fun. Like painting the kitchen chairs bright red (not so fun in the end) and the kitchen table a calming blue (yay the color came out better than I thought!). This set came from a house my parents had when I was little. I remember that my Meme came from France and brought an orange oil cloth to cover it. On the underside of the table there is still some writing my sister and I put up. Some folks can't abide by painting wood, or keeping it original condition, but in this case the paint was discolored and sticky, so I just did what I wanted.

The chairs were a major pain in the bum to sand, prime, paint, and poly. I cussed pretty much through the entire process. The table was easier. MUCH easier. And I appreciate that blue and red isn't everyone's cuppa tea, but tough titties, I happen to love it.

So here you go, table and chairs.

Once I poly it I will post a better picture. Man, my house is a mess. Oh well.

Gobble! Gobble!

2010-10-08T18:35:00.000-04:00

Aside from Columbus Day marking the beginning of the demise of the Native American nation as we know it (thanks for the land! sorry about the smallpox!), this weekend is Time to Order The Turkey Weekend!!!

Whoo hoooo!!!!

Every year I get disproportionately excited about ordering a giant dead bird that tastes DELICIOUS!!!

Diemand Farm, I am talking about YOU!!

What I say I eat versus what I in fact eat.

2010-10-08T17:13:00.001-04:00

I would like to think that I am the kind of gal who likes to eat steamed veg, baked fish, and plenty of fresh fruit, as a lifestyle choice.

But the truth is I am more likely to have chowder, tea, and a KitKat for lunch. Like I did today. And probably having popcorn for dinner last night wasn't the ideal healthy dinner, but it was freaking delicious.

*sigh*

I am not likely to ever be a skinny minny, although on the bright side I am not terribly likely to ever be cranky from hunger pangs!

Ah well.... Oooh here are some pretty pictures I took on my walk to and from work yesterday to distract you...

I eat here.

2010-10-07T17:18:00.000-04:00

Quite possibly Maria, Nick, and Jose at the Hidden Kitchen are the nicest people in the food business.

And it is worth the trip for the chicken parm alone.

Win it on a Wednesday

2010-10-06T14:20:00.000-04:00

If you go over to the Harvard Common Press blog (HCP Dishes) and check out the most recent post for BBQ week, you can leave a comment for a chance to win a BBQ cookbook.

I know that we are going into the cooler months and maybe BBQ isn't the first thing on your mind, but frankly BBQ is a great way to warm up the house in the winter. I've often made a very slow cooked BBQ recipe that I got from a neighbor when I first moved in that I will occasionally make on the weekends and let me tell you there is NOTHING better in this world than a slow cooked BBQ on a cold and snowy winter day.

You can even cook it overnight with a pot of beans. Ooh delicious!! I am still struggling with the fact that I won't have another beach weekend for a few months but this train of thought is giving me something to look forward to!

Delicious North End dinner - made at home!

2010-10-05T17:15:00.006-04:00

After wandering around the Local Food Fest on Saturday with Tammy, we wandered over to the North End where our last stop - after Bova's, Polcari's, and gelato - was DePasquale's on Cross Street.

I just could not resist the insistent tug of the ravioli and wound up going home with two kinds: roasted garlic, and mushroom. I also picked up a pint of their ragu alla bolognese and chunk of cheese for grating.

Most of the time I don't love bolognese, usually it's far to wet and tomatoey for my tastes, and made with hamburger. The stuff I got at DePasquale's was just right - dry, meaty, and delicious.

Much to the horror of Italians everywhere I am sure, I had it over the garlic raviolis last night for dinner and it was so good. So, SO good.

I guess that means mushroom raviolis are on tap for tonight!

Shazaamrag: What REALLY makes me bats

2010-10-05T10:29:00.000-04:00

Ok you know what, I can live with the folks who pay for the $10 truffled fries, and the $15 aperitif, and the Uggs, and the Longchamp bags, and the pale pink manicures because sometimes that is me, sad but true.

But what I cannot handle are the ladies who wear Hunter wellington boots. I have never ever wanted to smack someone so silly for conspicuous consumption so badly in my life as I do when I see a woman sporting a pair of Hunters.

If you don't know about Hunters, let me tell you that they are very expensive rubber boots.

A pair of green wellies with the Hunter tag will set you back about $100 unless they are knock offs. And just so that everyone knows that you are wearing Hunters you have to wear them with your pants tucked in just so or you have to wear a skirt. But to look reasonably ok with tucked in pants, you have to make sure they are form fitting and frankly who wants to wear a skirt on a day you have to wear wellies?

These are the kind of boot that tall, blonde, actresses/models wear to music festivals in England. Along with Barbour coats and Range Rovers, Hunters only serve to tell the world that the wearer is NOT a tall blonde actress or model but rather someone who spent a hundred smackaroos on rubber boots.

Two things I am bad at. Like, REALLY, bad.

2010-10-04T23:05:00.000-04:00

I cannot order a sandwich freestyle and I cannot make a good salad.

Everytime I stand in front of a sandwich menu I lose my mind a little. "Oooh pickles, I like pickles! And onions, ooh and smoked turkey, ahh yes I also like ham, olives - why not? Mustard? Chutney? Delicious! Add some provolone and cheddar please! Oh yes, toast it too!"

Grody.

This is why sandwiches disappointment me A LOT. Like today I ordered a roast beef with mustard, mayo, lettuce, onions, on a toasted bulkie roll. While that doesn't sound bad, let me tell you the toasted bulkie was all kinds of wrong wrapped around cold, rare meat. Blech!

I have a similar approach to salads: a little bit of everything, only nothing that goes together. Just stuff I know that I like - hard boiled eggs and dried cranberries and cottage cheese and beans and chicken and cold pasta and sliced beets and feta cheese and chickpeas and shredded carrots and broccoli florets.

Then I panic because it's a salad bar and I don't have any lettuce on my salad. So I will lump some chopped romaine on top which I will later just push to the side to get to the olives and the croutons and bacon bits and sunflower seeds.

I know that this says something deep about my psyche but I don't care. I am pretty sure that I can get by on only knowing how to make a peanut butter & Fluff sandwich and as for salads, well as everyone knows, you don't win friends with salad!

Oh hello!

2010-10-02T21:42:00.000-04:00

Yes, it is true, if this blog was a child I would be in jail right now.

I am the most neglectful blogger.

Eh, really it can't be helped though. So much has happened in the past year or so that has really changed my life in unexpected ways, all for the better so far.

One big thing has been that I have been renovating my house which eats into most of my free time. I totally underestimated how long and how much this project was going to take, but when it's done it will be awesome. I just know it.

Because of all of this, I am merging Shamrag and Calamity Shazaam into one and this too will be awesome. I just cannot manage both but I don't really want to give either up because I am funny and I eat and I think I can do both all in one place.

Perhaps I will call this Calamity Shazaamrag In the Kitchen....

How much is TOO much?

2010-07-27T17:40:00.001-04:00

In the past few days I have had an awful lot of Snapple Diet Peach tea.

More than I care to admit to, but I will just say that I am beginning to smell suspiciously peachy.

Better than lemon iced tea I guess.

Folks, do NOT try this yourselves...

2010-07-27T09:31:00.001-04:00

I am pretty adept at negotiating my way through this world. I suspect this is owing to a healthy curiosity coupled with a peculiar irrationality with regard to my actual abilities.

If I can think it, I think I could do it. Although most of the time my imagination far outstrips the execution.

Like last night when I figured I could speak Vietnamese. Frankly I have eaten enough Vietnamese food to be able to say that at this point I am a quarter Vietnamese.

But as I found out last night none of that quarter is linguistic.

Evil Twin and I went to Anh Hong last night. She wanted the spring rolls with crispy wonton skin and grilled ham. Do they have that on the menu? No. Did I let that stop me? No.

My friend T-Man is Vietnamese and he orders them all the time. I figured at the very least I could couple the right words together. I know the word for Vietnamese grilled ham is "nem" and the word for spring roll is "cuon". So I figured if I ordered "nem cuon" I would get what I wanted. The Evil Twin was totally impressed.

Unfortunately what I didn't know was that there is a word for crispy wonton skin which I don't know. And yet another word for the pickle that makes the extra delicious that I also don't know.

Which means that what we got were these flaccid spring rolls filled with vermicelli, shredded cabbage, and hunks of grilled ham. Exactly what I ordered.

Seriously, these rolls looked like fat guy pee-pees. It was really hard to eat them, but also because we were just laughing so hard.

O well, live and learn how to ask for ALL the ingredients. Besides, deep down I know that I could speak Vietnamese if I really had to.

Monday morning blues

2010-07-26T18:45:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning with the most revolting hangover you can imagine.

That's what two bottles of sh*tty white wine between you and a friend will do to a person.

I do NOT know what I was thinking. Clearly I was not and I know she wasn't either because she was the one wearing a salad bowl on her head and pretending to drive a chair around the kitchen.

You know it is bad when you wake up wondering if you are still drunk...

I was a complete wasteoid today. I will have to do better tomorrow.

Luckily I had this:

Yep, it took three before I could think straight.

And this:

Coco helping me get my work done.

I got to dogsit!!

And I am thinking that either a hamburger or a pasta dinner is in my immediate future.

The bartender at Gaslight

2010-07-23T17:30:00.005-04:00

There is a very nice bartender who works at Gaslight. His name is Henry and he is going to be a salt seller one of these days in the near future.

The reason I am telling you this is a) everyone should go to Gaslight, sit at the bar, have a side of fries, and enjoy one of their delicious cocktails (except for the Pimms Cup which they don't make properly, imho) and b) Henry might let you taste some of his salt.

You REALLY want some of this salt. It is really, REALLY good stuff. It looks like giant crystalline chunks, but you can easily pulverize it with your fingertips. And the salt tastes like a splash of the ocean on a brilliant blue and sunny yellow summer afternoon.

I am begging him to make a smoky version because I think smoked salt over french fries would be incredible. It is destined to be the next truffle salt.

Mark my words. And buy lots of salt.

Ravioli Review

2010-07-23T13:03:00.001-04:00

The short rib ravioli at Picco are unbelievably delicious.

You should go RIGHT NOW and order them.

Baby it's cold out there... in there... uh....

2010-07-23T07:30:00.002-04:00

My newest obsession is cold-brewed coffee.

If you don't know what it is, Google it.

Basically it is 10 cups of water mixed with 1 pound of coffee, cover, and let sit for 12 hours.

Strain this sludge through a fine sieve but don't press on the grinds (makes it dusty) and then strain again through a paper filter. Store in the fridge in a glass container.

That's what I did anyway.

It makes this sort of coffee concentrate and I am totally addicted now. Something about this process makes it smoother tasting and a lot less acidic. I literally have to tape the fridge shut at night so I won't drink it absentmindedly at 10pm.

Because it is a concentrate, I don't use too much. Maybe one part concentrate, two parts water, some milk, and a little sugar.

Yumma yum yum!

Summertime Eats

2010-07-22T19:00:00.002-04:00

For some reason I get zero cross ventilation in my little house in the big city. I have tried several different ways to catch the breeze and all I succeed in doing is making myself hotter.

And when I am hot and sweaty and covered with lint like a powdered donut, I cannot imagine cooking anything more strenuous than ramen noodles or popcorn.

In my opinion the best way to eat ramen noodles (and by ramen noodles I mean the kind you get in the flat rectangle at the corner store for .69 cents) is to break them up, boil them for 3 minutes, drain almost completely, add a knob of butter, and then add the seasoning packet. Stir to coat and enjoy with a soda, preferably while slobbed out on the couch in a tank top watching re-runs of the A-Team.

This sort of treat is just that, a treat. Ramen noodles are ridiculously high in fat and sodium, which is why they are so delicious. Adding butter and couch-potatoing certainly doesn't help.

Which is why popcorn fills in on the other six nights.

I have a very large cast iron pot with a glass lid that is pretty much only useful for popping popcorn.

I heat up a little olive oil, throw in about a cup, a cup and a quarter of popcorn and shake it every few minutes or so to prevent scorching.

Once it's all popped, I pour my special mixture all over it. This special mixture is a blend of olive oil, butter, garlic powder, chili powder, Old Bay, lots of freshly ground pepper, salt, and a little curry powder - sounds gross, tastes F*CKING AWESOME! I heat it all up together to melt the butter and pour it over the popcorn in stages - pour, shake to distribute, pour, shake to distribute....

I have decided that super savory popcorn is a perfectly adequate supper in the summer. Especially when you finish it with chocolate ice cream slathered in marshmallow topping.

So what do YOU eat in the heat?

Ooooh another GIVEAWAY!

2010-07-22T17:00:00.001-04:00

Because I have been perfectly dreadful about posting this summer (hey, I am hot and tired just like everyone else, ok) I am making it up to you, dear reader, with a giveaway.

As it is clearly far to hot to cook, you might as well drink your calories and so I present to you Party Drinks! by the lovely Mr. A.J. Rathbun and Cool Waters by the talented Mr. Brian Preston-Campbell.

(Yes, shameless promotion of the company I work for, but I kind of don't care. I really like the books that we publish and I want YOU to like them too!)

One winner will get a copy of Party Drinks!

The other will get a copy of Cool Waters.

You know the drill, leave me a comment and tell me which one you'd like. And remember to check back to see if you won so I can get your address.

Let's see... I will pick winners on Monday. After the crazy hot weekend we're expecting, I am SURE you will be ready for a beverage or twenty!

Oooh I got a recipe!!

2010-07-21T21:00:00.001-04:00

I got a recipe for Greek Easter Bread.

I promised not to blog about the person, nor am I going to post the recipe (I am still in negotiations about that part tho) but let me just say that this recipe might as well be for cooking crack since the end result is delicious and positively addictive.

Let's see... Easter was back in April. That was one, two, one hundred and eight days ago - I still want another slice.

When the heatwave/summer breaks I will make it. Maybe sooner. We'll see.

In the meantime, where do I get mahleb and mastic....

Yes, I think I WILL have s'more...

2010-07-21T18:00:00.002-04:00

It is no joke, I love chocolate and marshmallow. Separately, together, on foggy nights, and on hot days, I will eat one or the other or both pretty much anytime.

When I saw a recipe over on The Kitchn for Marshmallow Brownies... well let's just say the feeling was was similar to the first time I ate a Peanut Butter cup. As in "duh! delicious! me wanty!"

But then I couldn't help but think how much MORE delicious they'd be with a graham cracker crust. As in a big ooey-gooey deliscrumptious S'MORES brownie.

Yes please!

I made a GIANT pan of them for the Fourth of July holiday and they lasted about 8 minutes. Everyone was stumbling about the place, murmuring through sticky teeth that they urgently needed another one in their mouth immediately. I tried to snap a photo, but someone bit my hand.

O well.

What this means for you dear reader is that I will simply have to make another batch and take a few pictures for you.

And then you will just have to make them for yourself because you will not be able to resist the deliciousness!

This make me bonkers.

2010-06-07T22:53:00.000-04:00

I watch WAY too much tv. Any tv is too much tv. Our spongey little pea-brains get bombarded with all sorts of crapola via the tv. The best thing my Dad ever taught me was that all advertising is bullsh*t and that little lesson has served me well.

Currently the ad I find particularly appalling in terms of sheer bullcrappery is this one:

I understand that high fructose corn syrup isn't as blatantly harmful as say cigarettes are, but it is harmful in a less obvious, more insidious way. High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener that is used as a filler and as a food preservative, and is in almost everything edible found on supermarket shelves. If you are eating a natural, whole food diet, you aren't eating high fructose corn syrup.

Just like margarine or saccharine, high fructose corn syrup is a substance not found in nature. And like margarine and saccharine it is ok in moderation. Moderation! Moderation is at the most 12 teaspoons (about 48g) of added sugar per day for a 2000 calorie diet, according to the WHO. Added sugar is any sugar not naturally present in food, such as.... high fructose corn syrup.

This ad makes me bonkers when it comes on. It implies that having the instinct to not want to gum up your system with food additives is somehow wrong, not to mention insulting if you don't have a snappy answer for the annoying know-it-all mom pouring generous helpings of a chemically colored liquid out for the kids.

Anyway, there is something about it all that reminds me of this:

Until they died from lung cancer anyway....

What?! No cake?!? Encroyable!

2010-06-07T20:49:00.000-04:00

Let me just say that I know that I have been totally neglecting this wee blog, but it is really remarkable how much time a wedding can vacuum out of a person's time! It wasn't even MY wedding!

Yep, the Evil Twin is all grown up and married as of Saturday. My newly minted brother-in-law is a really great guy, they are totally suited to each other right down to the ground, and they are going to be happy together for a very, very long time.

It was an absolutely beautiful ceremony and a fantastically fun reception.

The highlight of the night was when my Dad ended his toast to my sister by surprising her by serenading her with a song by Tim McGraw, My Little Girl. There was not one single dry eye in the entire hall. It was something he had been working on for months and months and he pulled it off perfectly. My sister was blown away. Everyone was blown away.

It is a fact that I danced for hours straight and when I couldn't find my groove I simply switched over to an aerobic workout routine, complete with jumping jacks and cross cuts, much to the amusement to my two little cousins (5 & 8) who then imitated me to the total amusement of everyone else. There is nothing like doing jumping jacks to the Humpty Dance to get attention.

It is also a fact that in my toast to my sister I referenced my underpants. Total class, right?

Sooooo with all the dancing, gabbing, laughing, and toasting I somehow managed to NOT get a bite of cake! How terrible is that? Pretty awful. It is my only regret.

Well now I am back to business. And I really sense that there is some cake in my immediate future.

Dinner on the new stove

2010-05-09T23:09:00.002-04:00

So after 12 years I finally got a new stove. Which was pretty exciting considering my old stove was already about 10 years old by the time I got it.

While I might be nostalgic for the old wheezy beast, more specifically the two hot spots that are perfect for yogurt making, I will not miss the uneven cooking, the tippy grates, and the burnt insulation smell that filled the house when the oven was going full blast.

When I was shopping for a stove I only had two requirements: it had to be gas, and it could not have a "chicken nugget" button. Stoves with a chicken nugget button make me crazy, don't ask me why.

And when I say I was shopping for a stove, what I really mean is that I was at Sears buying washers - clothes and dish (hooray rebates!)- and the stove happened to be on sale and since the delivery fee was for one appliance or ten, I figured why not.

Let me just say that the difference between the old stove and the new stove is like the difference between a typewriter and a laptop.

Water set to boil for pasta? Old stove: 30 minutes. New stove: 10 minutes.

Tonight I made a very nice baked fish, with sauted zucchini and pureed cauliflower and was able to get everything the table hot. Incredible!

It was one of the top ten most satisfying moments in my home cooking career.

Baked Fish
Pre-heat oven to 350
Take a piece of white fish, trim to fit in one layer in baking dish.
Salt and pepper it and let it set out about 30 minutes.
Dip it in melted butter mixed with a little lemon juice.
Roll it in panko
(Japanese bread crumbs. You can use plain crumbs instead.)
Lay it in baking dish and sprinkle a few more crumbs on top.
Place in oven and bake about 15-20 minutes.The fish will flake when done.

Sauteed Zucchini
Take however many zucchini you want to cook.
Wash and dry them.
Line a strainer with a clean cloth (dish or cheese will work).
Shred zucchini into cloth lined strainer. A box grater works perfectly.
Sprinkle shredded zucchini with salt and let sit for about 30 minutes.
Gather up the edges of the cloth and squeeze the zucchini.
This will produce quite a bit of liquid but it will not mush the shreds.
In an appropriately sized pan, heat up a healthy splash of olive oil.
When the oil is hot, but not too hot, add in a bit of garlic and cook a little.
Add in the shredded zucchini and some finely chopped basil.
You can also use those little frozen cubes of basil from Trader Joes.
Stir the zucchini occasionally.
Cook for about 10 minutes or so.
What you want to do is to cook the zucchini and dry it out a bit.
Serve hot. Reheats beautifully.

Pureed Cauliflower
Clean and cut up a whole head of cauliflower.
Steam until very soft.
Blitz in a food processor.
Add in a little olive oil to help blend it together smoothly.
Season with salt, pepper, and a little roasted garlic if you like.

Easiest dinner ever. Pictures possibly coming later.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T09:58:00.000-04:00

Dear Mom,

Thank you for not giving me to the rubbish man when I was a screaming baby. Thank you for not seeming to mind when I came home from kindergarten with a banana mooshed in my pants pocket along with a handful of sand. Thank you for thinking I was the prettiest girl in the 6th grade when all evidence pointed to the contrary. Thank you for putting 6,250 dinners on the table at 7:30 every night for the whole family and for making us talk to each other. Thank you for making me go to the museum, to the library, to the symphony, to the theater, and to the opera. Thank you for making sure I was well fed, more or less appropriately dressed, housed, and educated. Thank you for laughing at me and more often with me. Thank you for "fly me to the mooooon" and "te la la!". Thank you for teaching me how to eat and which fork to use. Thank you for encouraging me to read and write. Thank you for being my Valentine every year and for putting a little heart shaped present in my mailbox each year. Thank you for knowing when to batten down the hatches in bad weather. Thank you for all the times you've done something nice for me when I was feeling a little low, like bringing me a giant branch of lilacs that one time. Thank you for almost always having a little piece of chocolate somewhere in the house. Thank you for being an independent woman who taught me the value of work and how to balance it with home life. Thank you for not letting me watch too much television. Thank you for letting me go and for letting me know I was always welcome back. Thank you for for making stuff from scratch and for showing me how. Thank you for listening and listening and then listening some more. Thank you for always being yourself, and being true to who you are. Thank you for never losing your sense of humor. Thank you for never giving up on any of us, even when we've given you plenty of reason!

Pretty much I think this all the time, but it's good to articulate it at least once a year.

xo
Your daughter.

One hungry & thirsty girl

2010-05-02T20:12:00.000-04:00

Last night was the Evil Twin's bachelorette party and it was a blast. Literally. We showed just enough cleavage to burst a water main, but we weren't slutty enough to cause an earthquake.... Appropriate head wear was provided, along with inappropriate chocolates, there was a show, lots of drinks, and a couple of Pedicabs.

I think that is all that I am allowed to say about the night.

As a result I am dragging today. Like SERIOUSLY dragging. I am not hungover, but I did drink tequila and as everyone knows, tequila is the vampire of alcohol. It doesn't make me sick, but it literally sucks the life out of me.

When I woke up this morning, all I wanted was a cup of coffee and a glass of water to revive myself. Alas, no water, therefore no coffee so I had to make do with an ice cold Diet Coke which wasn't bad but which wasn't the same.

I should also mention that I am still in the process of fixing up the old homestead, a project that is about as slow moving as molasses in a blizzard. New appliances are coming on Wednesday, but the stove was disconnected on Saturday.

Hmmm what to cook when you've been bitten by the Tequilampire and you can't use water or a stove...

Well luckily this was the week I signed up for Boston Organics. I am convinced that the only way that I am going to stop buying packets of cookies is to avoid the supermarket altogether.I've eaten up most of it except for two little squashes and a bag of baby carrots.

I decided that a carrot salad was the best option since it didn't require water or a stove. Plus a juicy carrot salad appealed to to my dessicated insides. I don't know why I don't make this salad more often, it really is easy and delicious.

Carrot Salad

Shred one bag of baby carrots, or a bag of big carrots - peel them first. I used the Cuisnart for baby carrots, but a box grater works perfectly for big carrots.

Make a vinaigrette. Whisk together big spoonful of Dijon mustard, a few grind of pepper, a pinch of salt, and one tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon juice. Whisk in about three tablespoons of olive oil. You really don't need a lot of dressing for carrot salad, but this recipe is easily scaled up.

Eat it straight away, but this will keep in the fridge for a few days getting more and more delicious with time.

Definitely helps with the dried out innards.

Me wanty

2010-03-25T13:03:00.009-04:00

Sometimes I get obsessed with one particular dish/food item.

Past obsessions have included:

--- Sponge cake (age 10 to 12 - until Mom secretly tore the recipe out from the Junior League of Athens, GA cookbook, which she still denies doing... But really there is only so much sponge cake people can eat in life and I was churning them out at probably 2 per week.)

--- Thin Mints (age 0 to present - and let me tell you everything they say about mint oil and the digestive tract is completely true. Do I really care? No, not so much - I live by myself.)

--- Pizza (age 11 to present - I will do anything for the #16 - hold the tomatos - from Emma's. Anything.)

--- Anything that involves a potato. Since I was born.

Currently I am in the throes of a full-on claypot crisis. I want it for dinner every NIGHT. Ohhhh, why am I even lying, I want it for every MEAL.

How delicious does this look?

(photo from Stephen OB)

Basically this is a pot lined with crispy rice and then filled with all manner of deliciousness - veg, chicken, beef, shrimp, cilantro, black pepper...

YUMDROOL

Personally I prefer the version at Sunrise over in Dorchester, but in fairness I only can compare it to the claypot at Anh Hong which was not the same at all (but their wonton soup is terrific!). Because when I am going crazy for claypot, I want what I know.

This week I am trying to curb the claypot craving, but I am not sure how much longer I can last.

Drumroll please.........

2010-03-22T10:07:00.002-04:00

And the winner is:

MerceditaA

Congratulations!!! Please send me an email with your address and I will send this out to you today.

Thanks to everyone who commented to win and I am actually sorry that I can't send you all a copy.

Stay tuned for the next Big Giveaway!

Check, check, check it out - Double Take giveaway!

2010-03-17T12:21:00.002-04:00

GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!! GIVEAWAY!!

There are a lot of things I love about my job and this is one: our office has a full kitchen and we are encouraged to cook whenever we want. The kitchen happens to be next to the stockroom that is filled with our cookbooks AND there is a grocery store just down the street.

How awesome is that? Pretty awesome!

So today at work we are cooking out of one of the cookbooks we publish, Double Take by Jeremy Holt and AJ Rathbun. What I love about this book is that the recipes are pretty straightforward - whatever you make will turn out as expected.

Which seems a trivial point, but I own a LOT of cookbooks and believe me there are plenty of recipes out there that just don't ever work out. Which is completely frustrating at 8:30pm when you are hungry and just spend $20 on groceries and are otherwise out of things to eat in the house....

The other thing I like about this book is that each recipe has a vegetarian or meatatarian option. Considering that I am a part-time meatatarian this is ideal for me.

My co-worker J and I made the Tortilla Pie both ways. Melted cheese, beans, corn, chili powder, enchilada sauce, and chorizo - yes please! But you can make it with Soyrizo (which are sold in the Boston area at Trader Joes, but we ended up using spicy Tofettes because that was what was available and it tasted fine) and it looks about as delicious.

So now I have an extra copy of Double Take to give to one lucky person. I hope that it is you!!

Just leave a comment below - more than five words please so I know you've read this far, and there'll be a random drawing on Friday.

Good luck!

All I can say is quiche

2010-03-08T23:14:00.004-05:00

Sometimes dinner just has to make itself because I am too fricking tired.

This is why having frozen stuff on hand is, well, handy. Dinner, and lunch today, consists of a quiche made from Chip-in Farm eggs, a little milk, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, basil, and garlic. In a frozen pie shell from Whole Foods.

I love the Whole Foods ready made pie shells and having a package on hand is just never a bad idea.

I had made a large batch of caramelized onions a while ago and then froze them in batches. The roasted red peppers came from a jar I'd canned in the fall, and the basil and garlic I just had on hand.

The basic recipe to fill the pie shell was about 6 eggs, about a cup of milk, about a cup of onions, around a cup of red pepper, and then season to taste. I just whisked it all together, dumped it all into the frozen shell and baked it in a 350 or so oven for about 35 minutes. Just to the point where it didn't wobble in the middle anymore.

It came out pretty delicious. And now for lunch today I am having a slice with a side of salad.

Hooray for freezing and canning!

Canning season CANNOT come soon enough

2010-03-07T21:38:00.004-05:00

Get it?

Can not... hahahah!

Anyway.

Are you familiar with this magical place?

It is the extremely nondescript exterior of China Fair. And frankly if you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't.

This is the one in Needham/Newton (I never remember, but it is just down from the New England Mobile Book Fair) and I love it. You really never know what you are going to find.

They really have the weirdest mix of everything you need and stuff you don't really. I bought a set of flat bottom glasses at Marshalls ages ago and finally got around to smashing one to bits. Of course I walk into China Fair and see a near replica right there in front of me. No matter that it was a teeny tiny bit different and that it had a stamp on the bottom saying that it had been made in West Germany...

That just about sums up every China Fair experience I've had.

Also they do have a TON of canning jars for sale:

These are the jars that involve the orange rubber gasket - I am not positive how to use them for canning, but I do know that they are GREAT for food storage. The ones at China Fair are way cheaper than anywhere else.

But as you can see, they have plenty of Ball jars. In couple of sizes.

And they also have bottles. Lots of bottles.

It's totally worth the trip.

Spice Rack Part One

2010-02-25T15:20:00.003-05:00

This is my spice rack. It is a seltzer bottle holder tipped over onto its side.

I really like it, and I've been trying to sort out to get all the same bottles to fit inside.

The silver capped ones come from Whole Foods, and while I like it, it looks very.... something. Like something lots of other people might have. And while I think mass-produced items are awesome, I didn't want them for my spice jars.

Oh and also I could not afford 40 jars at the Whole Foods price. $80. Gulp!

So I bought a whole bunch (40) plain glass jars with white caps at China Fair and personalized them. They're the ones in the right hand compartments. They were .69 cents each. Not too bad.

I took an old cookbook and cut out the index pages (because I can't actually defile the cookbook part). Then I made a few pages of spice labels on pretty blue paper (blue is always fashionable!) and pasted a round cut from the index to the jar lid. Then I affixed the spice name and sprayed the whole gamilla with polycrylic. I LOVE polycrylic in satin finish, I might need to have that taken away from me before things get out of hand.

Here is how it all came together:

As soon as I get all the tops done and fitted into the rack I will post another picture. But from right now I am pretty pleased with how they are turning out.

Well you know, it IS still winter...

2010-02-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

Snowfall in February is a lot less intimidating than a snowfall in November but it makes up for it by being more depressing.

This long slow crawl t'ward green is not helped out by the white fluffy stuff. I am ready for spring, dammit!

Yes, yes, I know, I know. Just wait until the summer when I complain about the heat and the humidity.

And if THIS post sounds alot like an earlier post, it's because pretty much I do the same thing every time it snows: come home, dry off, get warm, make shepherds pie, complain about the weather, blog, make some hot chocolate, hop into my fleecy bed, read, and fall asleep. So it stands to reason that I am going to start repeating myself at some point.

Wait, what?

Oh yeah, shepherds pie.

I call it that, but really my way is any kind of ground - pork, beef, lamb, turkey, textured vegetable protein - which I saute together with garlic, onions, peas, corn, carrots, a little broth/plain water to moisten, some tomato paste, season with Worcestershire sauce, salt/pepper, top with mashed potato (sweet potato, pureed cauliflower also work) and bake in a 375 degree oven until bubbling hot, ~35 to 40 minutes or so.

Tonight I made some with ground turkey and topped it with mashed sweet potato. Personally I think I prefer it made with turkey over beef. It took no time at all to get it together and into the oven - while it baked, I changed out of my soggy clothes (it was a slushy walk home!), dried my hair, and got on my fuzzy socks. There is no reason not to make this every night, especially if you bake a few potatoes early in the week and have them on hand.

I am pretty sure I could eat this meal every night. Until the green gets here anyway.

February Food

2010-02-09T22:48:00.003-05:00

I am not going to lie, February is one tough cookie of a month.

Winter seems to have already gone on forever with seemingly no end in sight, and frankly March is just going to be more of the same.

I go to bed chilly, wake up chilly, the sun is bright and cold, I've ceased to care that I look like a molten chocolate cake on legs in my coat and hat as long as I am warmish, and then there is the nagging thought that snow can blast in on us at anytime. Woof.

You have to be prepared for anything in February, and you have to be prepared to tough it out until April. Maybe May.

My coping skills include a deliciously easy shepherds pie and a hearty cranberry-carrot cake. Anything that involves turning on the oven for a while.

Shepherd's pie made in the perfect pot. It makes just enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Cranberry-carrot cake I usually make in a loaf pan unless I need it for a birthday cake. Or sometimes I make muffins. This is the only "cake" recipe I have that can be used as a loaf, round, or muffin without adjustment.

Even if you think you don't like carrot cake, you would like this cake.

I cannot wait until the salad days of summer. Although probably then I will moan about how it is too hot to can.

*sigh*

Chicken Soup for the Canning Soul

2010-02-07T21:34:00.005-05:00

I haven't been doing a whole lot of blogging lately. Sorry, my bad.

Even though I have been cooking for survival lately - mostly to feed myself nightly - canning and other sorts of food preservation methods haven't been far from my mind.

I would like to get to a point where I make all the food I eat. Not knowing where my food comes from is something that is often on my mind, and not always in a positive way. Mostly I try to block out the truth, which frankly is not a terrific solution.

When I start thinking like this is when I start trawling the home canning and urban homesteading sites for inspiration. Right now my house is on its ear, but at some point it will be put back together again and then watch out because I will be a canning machine!!

In the meantime, to tide me over, I made home canned chicken soup. Let me just also say that I did a whole bunch of canning in the fall, and with the exception of the jam, I have eaten up almost everything, which is why I continue to can stuff.

So yes, home canned chicken. This was sort of a practice run. Which sounds far more dangerous than it actually was.

One suggestion was to put all the raw ingredients in the jars, including the chicken, fill with hot water, then process in the pressure canner for the appropriate time & pressure.

Which I will try one day, but I wanted something different for today. I wanted a chickeny chicken soup. A rich golden broth with chunks of chicken and veg that had a very chickeny taste to it. Not some pale chickenish water in a can.

Rich. Golden. Chicken.

I started by browning a small whole chicken in a stock pot. I added a couple of cut up carrots and onions, some whole peeled garlic, a few herbs, a couple of peppercorns, some stalks of celery, and cooked that up a little bit until nice and slick and browned. Then I added water until the chicken was covered and floating about just under the surface.

This simmered on the stove for about an hour and a half. Then I turned off the heat, let it cool, separated the stock from the chicken and veg, and put everything in the fridge until the next morning.

The next day I skimmed the clear chicken fat off the stock and picked the meat off the bird. Then I heated up a few spoonfuls of golden chicken fat and sauteed the chicken carcass in that. And boy did that ever smell delicious! After that cooked up a bit I added the stock to cover everything and let that simmer for a bit before straining out all the bones, chicken bits, and the little odds of peppercorn and thyme.

While the strained stock was simmering gently, I readied the jars.

I chopped up a few raw carrots, a couple of stalks of celery, and the cooked chicken I'd picked off the carcass and added it to the jars.

Then I ladled in the hot stock.

I wiped the lids, capped them with hot lids, screwed on the bands, and then put them in the canner.

Here is where things went wrong: I cooked them at 15 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes, but really I could have used less pressure. So while these will be perfectly safe to eat, they might be overcooked a little.

Eh well. Next time I will be sure to double check the weighted gauge twice!

The end result: rich, golden, chicken soup!

Typically I won't eat meat in a can, but since I put it there, I think this time I will.

Temporary Leave of my Senses

2010-01-25T17:23:00.002-05:00

So where I have been is renovating my house. A plan that was clearly hatched while my rational sense was on Christmas break.

And by "renovating" I mean "making a big mess".

Why do this? Oh, because why not - right? And because I read Katy Elliots blog one too many times.

This project so far has entailed me packing up all my stuff & putting it in the basement, moving myself into my guest room, and basically gutting every room.

GAH!

Thankfully I have a fantastic foreman on the job who kicks my ass when I slack off. And in an effort to perhaps get yet MORE work done after my regular work, I gave her my computer in an attempt to not couch flop and surf all night.

Which is why I am currently staying late and posting this, so I can go home and get back to work.

My house better effing rock SO hard after this!!!!

I will post some pictures of the kitchen so you can really appreciate the job I am facing!

Fancy Food Round Up

2010-01-16T18:17:00.013-05:00

And by fancy food I mean the opposite of that.

All the foods below, as well as the liver sausage and curry powder above, are available for sale on Amazon.com - believe it or not, there is very little NOT for sale on that site. It's incredible really and I can't stop staring. ..

One thing that seems to be quite popular are foods that taste like other foods. Not in the crazy genetically modified way where a strawberry tastes like flounder but in the regular way where all the natural flavor is sucked out and replaced with a chemical replica of an entirely other flavor.

Frankly this amazin' packaging reminds me of something I would have really wanted to have in my lunchbox.... back in 6th grade. In the eighties. When claymation California raisins swept the nation. And Cabbage Patch Kids ruled the world.

Oh, ok, I am back. Up next...

Personally I love cherries and I will also confess to a secret love for maraschino cherries. So naturally I am drawn to these very UN-natural cherries. However what you are looking at are four pound jars. 4 POUNDS.

Yep, you know you secretly want a four pound (FOUR POUND) jar of phony flavored cherries.

I have a headache just thinking about it.

Right, right, moving RIGHT along.

Ok, so, there is no time (except once - see below) when I am drawn to meat in a can.

Even when it's fake meat in a can.

It would be safe to say that I am completely repelled by meat in a can. And if you know me, you know that I barely even deal with frozen meat in a box. This might be because of one time being given a microwaved strip of chicken meat that had been pried out of a Lean Cuisine by a well-meaning adult in my life.

And probably also because one time, out of curiosity, I ate a whole can of Vienna wieners while sitting on the roof of my grandparents house. Well tried to anyway, I ate about 4 of them before tossing the can into the bushes. Ugh, revolting.

Insert *shudder* here and behold the variation on the canned meat theme:

Moving along, nothing to see.

Did you know that there are the many different flavorings available? I mean other than vanilla or anise. Which makes sense since re-flavoring everything is all the rage these day. "Re-flavoring"... that is my contribution to the English language in 2010. You are very welcome.

I would suggest that salt water taffy is on the fast track for being THE flavor of 2010. I am pretty sure that everyone is over cotton candy flavor. And plain old peppermint doesn't have the summery beachy-ness that salt water taffy does.

Right? Right? Salt water taffy flavored cherries anyone?

Ok, so ever since my lovely ex-coworker and I discover the magical transformational properties of Hot Salt, I have been trying to find it on supermarket shelves since.

It has to be Hot Salt. We've tried the alternatives, the designer impostors if you will, and they are NOT the same as the original Hot Salt. End of story.

But in all that time scanning the spice shelves of every supermarket I shop in, I have never seen spaghetti sauce mix. It must be a regional thing or something. This is something I would eat with baby carrots. Or sprinkled on a piece of buttered toast. True story.

And Anna, if you are reading this, you are probably saying "oh yeaaaahhh" with me right now...

And finally let me present my two favorite finds from the virtual shelves of Amazon:

Firstly I cannot believe that there is a product out there called "Suddenly Salad". Which is really is un-sudden pasta in a box. At least I think that is what it is.

It's possible I was distracted by the fact that it is flavored with both ranch AND bacon. That to me is AWESOME but the AWESOMENESS of ranch AND bacon is canceled by the sudden part.

I half expect something to suddenly burst out of the box when I open it. That sh*t is scary!

And secondly:

I can't exactly put my finger on exactly why this packaging irritates me so much, but it sure does. And how can anyone possibly think that they'd be committing a sin by eating full calorie instant pudding? Seriously!

Well, so there you are. I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of freaky foods. Hopefully I haven't completely offended anyone by dissing their beloved potted meat food product. Like they say, there is a foot for every shoe... something like that.

Also, I had a lot of fun playing with the photos and I hope you liked them too!

Sometimes things just present themselves...

2010-01-11T13:03:00.001-05:00

I smell.......

2010-01-09T22:52:00.002-05:00

BACON!

And lots of it.

The other night I was burrowing into my lovely fleece sheets and I thought I caught a whiff of bacon. And not because I farted under the sheets but rather the sheets sort of smelled like bacon. I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed because my sense of smell is for crap and I kept thinking to myself "what is that smell" since I was positive it wasn't a fart.

I poked my head out of under the sheets and sniffed the pillows, and the wall, and the bathrobe hanging on the hook... yep BACON! My whole room, including my pyjamas, smelled like bacon.

Seems that my neighbors had a bacon party. Their exhaust runs along their kitchen ceiling which puts it at the base of my guest bedroom where I am currently camping out while doing some home renovations.

Which is fine with me since I love bacon. I just wish I'd been invited to the bacon party.

Food Truth Time

2010-01-02T23:46:00.002-05:00

Two things about food I have realized over the past two weeks.

One: I need to eat food at mealtimes. When I am left to my own devices I lack food structure, among other things.

For example today I didn't eat until about 1pm even though I was up at 8:30am. I ate some spoonfuls of vegetarian chili and drank half a pot of coffee. Then I had an Emergen-C. Later on I ate a slice of carrot cake, and then I made bread because I was too lazy to go out to get some. While the bread was rising, I tried to make panisse with a new recipe, which was a failure. I ended up frying chickpea paste in too much olive oil until it was brown and crispy on the outside and sort of pasty on the inside. Yuck/yum/fail.

Once the bread was baked and cooled I cut a couple of slices and ate them with a smear of boursin and, get this, topped with sauteed kale and mushrooms.

And then to finish the day I had a big cup of peppermint hot cocoa with marshmallows.

This is why I need to go back to work. For meal structure.

Two: I have come to the decision that I am not an adventurous food person. I was watching this show today on PBS where this food person went to Thailand and ate fried silkworms and drank silkworm poo tea. With gusto.

This is not something I want to do.

Turns out that I can't seem to get appropriatedly excited about offal buffets, using toasted grasshoppers on salad instead of croutons, eating teeny tiny tastes of one bite of the most exquisite amuse-bouche ever invented, or anything other than milk that is served foamed or jelled (yes, I know that is so seven years ago).

Staying in just seems to be more fun to me right now. I just want a moderately priced roast beef - with roasted potatoes, a green salad, and La Mamans delicious pan gravy. With perhaps a dessert of plain sponge cake and jam. Made from scratch. By me. In my kitchen.

Ok, so maybe this is more of a post-holiday food blurg. But seriously, how awesome does a roast beef with gravy sound right now? Pretty awesome.

Better than bread topped with boursin, cooked kale, and mushrooms, that is for sure.

Don't worry, I'm not starving. Yet.

2010-01-01T15:24:00.002-05:00

Phew! 2009 was quite the year. And it ended with me going from one job to another with a convenient two week holiday in between.

So you know, I could have gone on a tropical holiday. Or on an eating tour. Or just rented a bunch of movies and flopped out on the couch.

But noooooooooo.

I decided to do some "work" on the old homestead.

Let me explain about that: it's like when you have a little tiny thread hanging out at the end of your sweater sleeve and you give it a light tug and suddenly your whole sweater unravels and you are standing there nekkid with a pile of yarn at your feet.

Yeah. So I really thought I would just be caulking up a couple of windows and throwing down a little laminate. Haha.

Currently I am camping out in my guest room, and last night I stayed in to insulate and caulk up the back exterior door. Whoot!!

No one got presents this year because I am investing the last bits of my savings into caulking. Can you tell I inappropriate love the word 'caulk'. Ahhh who doesn't love the silent 'L'. That's right, I put the 'ass' in class.

Which probably means that any posts I put up in the coming weeks/months will be related to food you can easily make when the kitchen is a wreck around you.

Stay tuned for grilled cheese and salad recipes. Thrilling, I know.

Happy new year!

New Year's Eve 2009

2009-12-31T21:28:00.002-05:00

Ok you know what? I am glad to be rid of 2009.

It was a horrible year* and frankly I am surprised that anyone is left alive or employed.

Seriously.

I am so ready for the new year that instead of my traditional Chinese food & trashy movie on the couch extravaganza, I made breakfast for dinner this year. That is how eager I am to get to tomorrow.

Yep, buttermilk crepes with lemon and sugar. And a big pot of coffee.

And now I am about ready to go to bed because I am really ready for the new year.

*Let me just say that there were a few good things that happened this year, but only because the universe clearly needed to throw us a couple of bones to prevent everyone from collectively jumping off the cliff.

Oh how I love the holiday of thanks!

2009-12-14T21:41:00.005-05:00

Can you believe that this teeny weeny kitchen....

Produced the food for this Thanksgiving table?!
Yep, me neither! But it did.

And it was delicious.

First Annual Memorial Turkey Shoot

2009-12-12T12:47:00.008-05:00

This year's Turkey Shoot was a bittersweet one for me. My trusty sidekick and blunderbuss operator, Grandpapa, passed away in late October - a few days short of his 94th birthday.

To be honest, I was really dreading Turkey Shoot without him. But I wasn't about to get a turkey from anywhere other than Diemand Farm.

So off we went. Except for we went on the Monday before Thanksgiving, not the Sunday. And we didn't eat at the Old Mill, because it happens to be closed on Mondays. Which I am sort of relieved about because I don't think I could have handled it.

We took two cars because it was me, Kimmie, Amanda, Tammy, the FBiL, and Dad and we were on a mission to get turkey. Lots of turkey.

Oh and deviled eggs and turkey sausage and turkey stock and whole chickens and chicken parts and pot pies and lots of other deliciousness.

And deliciousness certainly helped make everything feel better.

So here is to the First Annual Memorial Turkey Shoot 2009 and to many more to come.

Banana Essence - 1oz Cock

2009-11-15T17:23:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I just can't explain it myself.