The Insomniacs Kitchen

Orange Comfort

2012-02-11T10:49:00.001-05:00

Not many comfort foods are orange but the sweet potato is and it is extremely cheerful on a dark winter's night.

Eating Road Kill

2012-02-10T13:32:00.003-05:00

During the last Great Depression in the 1930’s road kill was considered a table delicacy for many who would otherwise be going without meat. Deer, various birds, rabbit, bear, raccoon, even porcupine and a variety of other animals killed by vehicles and left lying on the side of the road became an important source of protein for many a family.
An important feature of road kill is that the hunting has been done for you. There the animal lay; all you need to do is pick it up, skin it out, and cook it up. A gift from the Gods a hungry man should not pass up!

Road Kill is Good Food
Road kill is traditionally accepted mealtime fare in many areas. In my neck of the woods moose are almost daily hit by motorists speeding through moose country. Referred to as the “bull of the woods”, moose are often afraid of nothing and are frequently encountered crossing roads. Besides totaling the vehicle, a 1000-pound moose is usually severely injured or even killed. As you can imagine a moose of this size has considerable quantities of meat. In some cases these road killed moose are given to poor families, charitable organizations, or even the owner of the vehicle that hit it.

As when you shop for meat at the supermarket, you want to insure your road kill meat is fresh and has not “gone by”. Although obvious signs of potentially spoiled meat include smell and the presence of scavenging insects, maggots, and the like, meat can also be spoiled without these signs. You must cook all meat thoroughly in order to destroy any disease causing organisms or parasites.

If you find road kill on a stretch of road you had just passed over several hours before, then chances are your road kill is reasonably fresh and you are in meat. As in all things, the best survivors are aware of their environment and open to opportunity as it presents itself, however unexpectedly. Road kill meat is a potentially valuable resource in times of need and not to be overlooked by the hungry survivor.

-read

Spiced Popcorn

2012-02-07T16:22:00.001-05:00

Make old fashioned stove top popcorn then add freshly ground black pepper, salt, adobo, and finely-grated extra sharp cheddar!

God's Chocolate

2012-02-07T09:11:00.003-05:00

by Emily Lisker

My grandmother
hid chocolate bars all over
her Brighton Beach apartment.

After she was gone
we found her chocolate bars under the mattress,
above the tall bureau,
in drawers,
tucked away with silky pink lingerie.

Perhaps this is why I love the nuns
of Wrentham, with their own white windmill,
making chocolate in the woods at three a.m.
for God.

Histamine Hell

2012-02-07T07:39:00.003-05:00

read here.

Bumpersticker

2012-02-07T07:03:00.001-05:00

Love People
cook them tasty food

-Penzeys

Love and Chocolate

2012-02-06T05:47:00.002-05:00

Baci chocolates are reputed to have been used as a clandestine method for delivering love notes between two confectioners, Giovanni Buitoni and Luisa Spagnoli. Story here.

Dryer Sheet Murders

2012-02-05T10:04:00.004-05:00

Why aren't there murders over dryer sheets? They should be outlawed. As an asthmatic I am enraged when my air is polluted by my neighbors.

In a recent study conducted by UW professor Dr. Anne Steinemann, a research team conducted a small study to understand the effects of fragrances in laundry products (both detergent and dryer sheets). The results found more than 25 VOCs emitted from dryer vents, with highest concentrations of acetaldehyde, acetone, and ethanol (two of which are considered carcinogenic). To put it in context, one of the carcinogenic VOC's, acetaldehyde, had emissions that would represent 3% of total acetaldehyde emissions from automobiles in the study area. That might not seem like a lot, but given how commonplace they are in homes, the findings are significant.

Steinemann states, "this is an interesting source of pollution because emissions from dryer vents are essentially unregulated. If they're coming out of a smokestack or tail pipe, they're regulated, but if they're coming out of a dryer vent, they're not."

The trouble with household products is that companies are not required to list any or all ingredients, making it difficult to decipher how harmful they might be.

Imagine the Angels of Bread

2012-02-05T08:40:00.001-05:00

by Martín Espada

This is the year that squatters evict landlords,
gazing like admirals from the rail
of the roofdeck
or levitating hands in praise
of steam in the shower;

this is the year
that shawled refugees deport judges
who stare at the floor
and their swollen feet
as files are stamped
with their destination;

this is the year that police revolvers,
stove-hot, blister the fingers
of raging cops,
and nightsticks splinter
in their palms;

this is the year
that darkskinned men
lynched a century ago
return to sip coffee quietly
with the apologizing descendants
of their executioners.

This is the year that those
who swim the border's undertow
and shiver in boxcars
are greeted with trumpets and drums
at the first railroad crossing
on the other side;

this is the year that the hands
pulling tomatoes from the vine
uproot the deed to the earth that sprouts the vine,
the hands canning tomatoes
are named in the will
that owns the bedlam of the cannery;

this is the year that the eyes
stinging from the poison that purifies toilets
awaken at last to the sight
of a rooster-loud hillside,
pilgrimage of immigrant birth;

this is the year that cockroaches
become extinct, that no doctor
finds a roach embedded
in the ear of an infant;

this is the year that the food stamps
of adolescent mothers
are auctioned like gold doubloons,
and no coin is given to buy machetes
for the next bouquet of severed heads
in coffee plantation country.
If the abolition of slave-manacles
began as a vision of hands without manacles,

then this is the year;
if the shutdown of extermination camps
began as imagination of a land
without barbed wire or the crematorium,

then this is the year;
if every rebellion begins with the idea
that conquerors on horseback
are not many-legged gods, that they too drown
if plunged in the river,

then this is the year.
So may every humiliated mouth,
teeth like desecrated headstones,
fill with the angels of bread.

The Ultimate Aphrodisiac

2012-02-05T08:28:00.001-05:00

Poets writing on food.

Laurie Colwin on Chocolate

2012-02-05T08:19:00.004-05:00

In the beginning, the Lord created chocolate, and he saw that it was
good. Then he separated the light from the dark, and it was better.
-Unknown

Chocolate

from Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin

My sister, who is in most other ways a perfectly normal person, is so addicted to chocolate that she routinely compromises her expensive dental work by eating something that I believe is called Rose Schaeffer’s Chocolate Lace. This particular confection is made by covering a Jackson-Pollock-looking lattice of sticky, filling-and-bridgework-pulling toffee with chocolate. My sister believes that milk chocolate is for twinks and wimps. She eats bittersweet chocolate by the pound and still remains thin.
There are those who must have chocolate and those who can take it or leave it alone. For the afflicted there are magazines devoted to the subject, choco-late cookbooks, candy-maker’s instruction guides, antique chocolate molds, chocolate dipping courses. There is high-ticket imported chocolate imported chocolate, often in the form of a truffle and often costing only a little less than a real truffle, and novelty chocolate in the form of chocolate arms and legs and telephones. There is weird chocolate*, as in chocolate-covered grasshoppers. And then there are candy bars, which those in need of a fix can find almost anywhere.
I like chocolate but I don’t love it. I think it is nice every once in a while. I am however a sucker for fudge, which, in my opinion, is chocolate in its most sublime form. On the other hand, I do not like chocolate cake or ice cream and I find the taste of chocolate mixed with liquor just plain awful except in the case of the chocolate-covered cherry, which is the food of my childhood.
In some form or another, chocolate figures in every American’s childhood.
I remember walking home from school with a candy bar in the days when Three Musketeers really had three pieces. I remember my first taste of Rocky Road ice cream, which my sister adored and I hated. To this day my idea of a perfect dessert
is a slightly undercooked chocolate chip cookie made from the recipe on
the back of the chocolate morsels’ bag. I remember the kind of chocolate pudding that formed a tough skin on top, and the instant kind that did not.
We did not have chocolate cakes for our birthdays but chocolate played an important role in the cakes we ordered. They were always the same: yellow cake with split layers, the layers alternatingly spread with mocha and apricot jam. The middle layer was marzipan, and the whole thing was covered with bittersweet chocolate icing and decorated with sugar roses, not buttercream, because my mother believes that buttercream turns in the hot weather, when all of our birthdays take place. We always found bakers to make this cake, which would have been insipid without that dark, not too sweet icing.
The world is full of chocolate lovers and I have come to rely on three recipes to help those who invite them for dinner: flourless chocolate cake, steamed chocolate pudding, and chocolate bread pudding, which when it bubbles over fills the house with what Mary McCarthy describes in ‘The Groves of Academe’ as ‘a rich smell of burning.’ The smell of chocolate bubbling over and slightly burning is one of the most beautiful smells in the world. It is subtle and comforting and it is rich. One tiny drop perfumes a room as nothing else...
Steamed chocolate pudding is a throwback to a cozier time in American life and is definitely worth making. The 1964 edition of ‘The Joy of Cooking’
has one recipe for it – an elaborate one containing six eggs and nuts, not my
idea of a good time. But the 1943 edition (the one with the recipe for gum-drop cookies which begins: ‘Good for soldiers’ boxes as they keep fresh
and do not crumble’) contains the real winner – a plain, easy and sincere
steamed pudding, made as follows:

Old-Fashioned Steamed Chocolate Pudding

1. Melt 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. Let cool.
2. Sift 1/2 cup of sugar.
3. Beat one egg until light. Add the sugar to it gradually and beat
until creamy.
4. Add melted chocolate and then add 1 tablespoon melted, cooled
butter.
5. Sift 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Resift with 1/2 teaspoon baking
powder. Add to the egg mixture in three parts, alternating the thirds
with 1/2 cup of milk in three parts. Beat until smooth after
each addition.
6. Pour into a buttered pudding mold. Cover with waxed paper tied
down with a rubber band and steam in a kettle for about one hour.

This pudding tips nicely out of its mold and looks like a baked hat. It is delicious with a raspberry purée, or with whipped cream. Some people
like it sliced with a little jam. Steamed puddings have a wonderful satiny texture: half a pudding, half a cake and the nicer half of each.
As for chocolate bread pudding, there is nothing more consoling on a
horrible cold night. Any standard cookbook has a recipe for bread pud-
ding, to which you simply add chocolate to the milk and egg. The version
I first ate was made of lightly toasted bread spread with sweet butter and
set in a dish. The egg, milk and chocolate were poured over it, and the
whole thing stood soaking for an hour before being baked in a 300-degree
F oven for forty- five minutes.
When it comes to chocolate, I prefer the simplest and plainest. To this end
I have made chocolate meringues, which must be made when the weather
is nice, and chocolate wafers, which taught me a lesson.
These wafers come from ‘The Settlement Cook Book' by Mrs. Simon
Kander (copyright 1926). I have my mother’s copy, which is falling to
pieces and has written on the endpaper the telephone number for Charlie’s vegetable truck service from 1947.

Chocolate Wafers

1. Melt 2 ounces of chocolate.
2. Add 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup melted butter.
3. Add the yolks of two eggs into the beaten egg whites and stir into
the chocolate mixture.
4. Add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
5. Spread on a well-buttered pan. Place in a 350-degree F oven but
gradually decrease the heat to 300 degrees F.
6. This recipe does not tell you how long to bake. I would say about
ten to twelve minutes. Cut into squares while still warm.

I made these cookies to serve with a fruit salad one spring night and was alarmed at how tasteless they were. No one liked them very much but I
could not bear to throw them out, so I put them in a tin and left them for
a couple of days. One afternoon when my blood sugar dropped and it was
time for tea, I remembered the chocolate wafers. ‘Better than nothing,’
I said to myself, biting into one. To my amazement, they were delicious.
They tasted strongly and wonderfully of chocolate and were hard and
crunchy, too. It had taken a couple of days for the taste to bloom and it
was worth the wait. And so I add to Mrs. Simon Kander’s admirable
recipe a seventh step:

7. Let cool, put in a tin and do not eat for at least two days.

And of course, for those of you about to give a dinner party for choco-
late nuts, you know what bakeries are for: so that, at the end of dinner,
you can put your feet up and have the chocolate dessert you didn’t bake.

Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook

2012-02-04T11:20:00.005-05:00

These are strange Gingerbread Cookies

These are so simple! Bake them if you want to remember how lucky we are for sugar and butter!

This cookie recipe from the Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook can add a bit of early-American tradition to your kitchen.

... "Take a teacupful of molasses, a teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in half a cup of boiling water, a teaspoonful of ginger, and flour to make it hard enough to roll. Bake it five minutes."

1/3 cup boiling water 1 tsp. baking soda 3/4 cup molasses 1 tsp. ginger 2-1/4 cups sifted whole-wheat flour

Modern Method: 1. Pour boiling water into a large mixing bowl and add baking soda, then molasses. When mixed, add ginger. 2. Add flour mix well and refrigerate for 15 minutes. When chilled roll out the dough and cut your favorite cookie cutter shapes and bake on baking stone or cast iron skillet for 8 minutes at preheated 350 degree F oven.

Martín Espada

2012-02-03T11:25:00.001-05:00

read.
here too.

A Good Day

2012-02-02T05:40:00.003-05:00

I was in a panic yesterday because the 50 degree weather caused my lungs to react badly to mold. Bill got home and we ran to CVS to refill my emergency inhaler. HURRAY! We got two for the price of one and it was covered on our insurance. AMEN!! As we were getting into the car I looked down and saw a folded up to an inch - 10 dollar bill on the asphalt parking lot. I picked it up and unfolded it. Look! I said to Bill, A gift from my Grandparents in heaven! We raced off to the dairy farm and got a gallon and a half of milk and with the three dollars left we got a quart of Budweiser. We came home and had my Jambalaya soup and Bill had a glass of beer. A good day.

Spicy Breadsticks

2012-02-01T09:54:00.004-05:00

I love savory foods. This morning I ate garlic bread and coleslaw sprinkled with Romano cheese for breakfast - or maybe it was a very early lunch!

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup pecorino Romano cheese (freshly grated)
3/4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)
5 tbsps water
1 tsp olive oil or 4-8 pitted Kalamata olives (freshly chopped)
1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
2 teaspoons of combined fennel, poppy, and or caraway seeds (optional)

1 Preheat oven to 450°.
2 Combine flours, cheese, baking powder, and pepper in a bowl.
3 Add 5 tablespoons water and oil; stir until dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead lightly 4 or 5 times.
4 Divide dough into 10 - 12 equal portions, shaping each portion into an 8-inch rope. Place ropes on a baking stone, large dry cast iron skillet, or oiled baking sheet
5 Bake at 450° for 10 - 15 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack.

adapted from yummily.com

I Started Cooking . . .

2012-01-31T15:25:00.000-05:00

I started cooking and filled the pot, then I poured the contents into a bigger pot and filled that one too! Now it's three gallons of tomato, beef, chicken, sausage, brown rice, and vegetable soup!

My New Favorite Store

2012-01-31T09:38:00.000-05:00

here.

The Largest McVitie's

2012-01-30T10:43:00.001-05:00

Job lot has had these lately and I am hooked on them. They're not too sweet ~ perfect with tea and coffee.

The Largest McVitie's Digestive

The largest digestive biscuit in the world was made by McVitie's in the early eighties - and what a monster it was. Almost a metre across and over 6cm (2.4 in) thick, the holes for this one-off whopper had to be made with a broom handle. It was transported from our factory in Ashby in a special presentation case to London for display at a garden party. There are no reports of a correspondingly large cup of tea waiting for it at the party but we're sure a good time was had by all, nonetheless

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2012-01-24T12:12:00.001-05:00

One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Chinese New Year

2012-01-23T05:41:00.001-05:00

Year of the dragon. Read here.

Turnip Facts

2012-01-22T18:59:00.001-05:00

Like rutabaga, turnip contains bitter cyanoglucosides that release small amounts of cyanide. Sensitivity to the bitterness of these cyanoglucosides is controlled by a paired gene. Subjects who have inherited two copies of the sensitive gene find turnips twice as bitter as those who have two insensitive genes, and thus may find turnips and other cyanoglucoside-containing foods intolerably bitter.
-Wikipedia

Ginger Snap Obsession!

2012-01-19T08:14:00.003-05:00

Okay I'll admit it, I am obsessed with making gingersnaps. I depleted my stash of powdered ginger so at 4AM when my dog woke me up to eat, I decided to make a batch of gingersnaps using freshly grated frozen ginger root and a pinch of cocoa powder. They came out great and I sent my husband off to school with a batch to share.

Chef Lester Esser

2012-01-19T07:34:00.005-05:00

Meet the chef here.

Sewing Soakers for Skaters

2012-01-19T07:15:00.002-05:00

Instructions here.

Dream

2012-01-18T06:45:00.001-05:00

I dreamed I made a birthday quiche for a friend. Popping out of the surface were two hands holding a camera made of carved bread to look like a photographer was taking pictures.

When I woke I heard the hum of a firetruck engine outside my window. The red lights were flashing the curtains and buildings pink but no sirens. I stood at the window and watched eight firemen carry a young woman away on a stretcher.

Asian Market

2012-01-17T20:28:00.002-05:00

My new source of Napa cabbage, garlic, ginger and Chinese Broccoli, and sesame oil, and more! Located next to the Wooonsocket Harris Public Library.

Asian Market
475 Clinton St, Woonsocket, RI
(401) 766-8163 OPEN 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM every day!!

Lorna Sass

2012-01-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

Fabulous cookbook author. Read all about her!

Chinese Soup and Ice Fishing

2012-01-17T15:10:00.004-05:00

I love the winter. I sharpened my skates last night.

My neighbor Steven was just telling me all about the joys of ice fishing. I want to experience it.

I just found GOLD~ a frozen container of clear golden stock chicken or is it turkey stock in my freezer? It wasn't labeled but it is good. I am making a vat of Asian vegetable soup out of it ~ Napa cabbage, Chinese broccoli, mushrooms, chopped fresh ginger root, fresh garlic, lots of fresh scallions, and simmer. I stopped in at the Asian Market on Clinton Street next to the Harris Public Library. I was able to tie up Lily to the big metal sign post and run in and buy vegetables while keeping my eye on her through the gigantic plate glass windows.

I feel extremely LUCKY in spite of migraine. Wearing sunglasses helps, and making soup helps.

Sharp!

2012-01-16T15:28:00.002-05:00

Lemay's Sharpening
Knives, skates, lawn mower blades etc.
Located in an adorable setting; a very tidy house basement. It's been in operation for 40 years!!
Hours: Mon - Thu, 10am - 9pm; Fri, Sat, 10am - 7pm; Sun, 10am - 5pm
206 Saint Barnabe St, Woonsocket, RI
(401) 769-1095

Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread

2012-01-16T15:26:00.002-05:00

The use of leavening in a cake is first recorded in a recipe for gingerbread from Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796; I guess you could say it is the original great American cake. Early-19th-century cookbooks included as many recipes for this as contemporary cookbooks do for chocolate cake. This recipe, from Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at New York City's Gramercy Tavern, is superlative—wonderfully moist and spicy.

Ingredients

* 1 cup oatmeal stout or Guinness Stout
* 1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 tablespoons ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* Pinch of ground cardamom
* 3 large eggs
* 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* Confectioners sugar for dusting
* a 10-inch (10- to 12-cup) bundt pan

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter bundt pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess.

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda, then cool to room temperature.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in oil, then molasses mixture. Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan and rap pan sharply on counter to eliminate air bubbles. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs adhering, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Serve cake, dusted with confectioners sugar, with whipped cream.

Cooks' notes:
- This recipe was tested with Grandma's brand green-label molasses.
- Like the chocolate decadence cake, the gingerbread is better if made a day ahead. It will keep 3 days, covered, at room temperature.

-Gourmet Magazine

Bread: Quicksand Method

2012-01-16T11:27:00.003-05:00

This week I made my sourdough bread with a ton more water - what I call quicksand style batter. No kneading just a quick stir with a wooden spoon. It rose the same day in my boiler room (80 degrees) and was a complete success. This will become my new method.

Ginger Snaps

2012-01-15T09:52:00.005-05:00

I am addicted to these. I have made four batches in 2 weeks. I love them with a half teaspoon of freshly ground pepper in the recipe and extra ginger. The flavors bloom over days if they last that long.

I am not quite ready to put away the holiday cookie tins. The cold wind and 8 degree forecast had me starting up another batch of cookies. This time it's ginger snaps. Years ago my favorite children's book editor told me that he had heard from an in-law who had worked in a cookie factory, that ginger snaps were made from spicing up all of the leftover cookie dough scraps mixed together at the end of the day, including the bits swept up from the floor! I loved the image and have never forgotten it.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup corn oil
1/2 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-2+ teaspoons ground ginger (or finely grated fresh or frozen ginger root)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; stir into the molasses mixture. Roll dough into 1.5 inch balls before placing them 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets or cast iron skillets or baking stones.
Bake them for 7 minutes in a preheated oven. Cool on wire racks. Store in an air-tight jar or tin. They are delicious with hot tea.

-adapted from Mom's Gingersnaps All Recipes.com

Teaching Cooking and Baking

2012-01-15T09:24:00.001-05:00

My neighbor is wonderful artist Father Onisie Maror from Romania.

See his art here.

I hope to be teaching bread making + cooking in his church kitchen!

C'est la Vie!

2012-01-14T12:40:00.007-05:00

I just pumped up my bike tires and rode my bicycle a few hilly miles in the windy cold sunshine with a tin of my home made gingersnaps. I was traveling to meet a friend. When I arrived, nobody was home. There was a UPS package on the front porch. I rang front and back doors. I thought c'est la vie! I pedaled home. When I arrived our cold house seemed warm compared to outside. I was hungry. I made a peanut butter on toast sandwich and cooked up overripe pears and bruised apples with raisins, cinnamon, grated ginger, and a little honey. It was delicious.

Moonlight Wieners

2012-01-14T08:37:00.006-05:00

My favorite neighborhood joint is Nagla's Moonlight Wiener's on Rathbun Street. Ask anyone in Woonsocket and they know the place. It's open all the time and is popular among the out of towners too. The wieners are superb and the restaurant is adorable, clean, and friendly. We were hosted by Nagla herself and her lovely staff. I had a business meeting luncheon there yesterday and we didn't realize how long we'd been until we looked up and it was dark. Three hours had gone by. Nagla is also a dog lover and runs out to greet Lily nearly every morning when we walk by. She gives Lily a wiener and Lily is in heaven.

Ginger Jitters

2012-01-13T10:23:00.002-05:00

An acute overdose of ginger is usually in excess of about 2 grams of ginger per kilogram of body mass, dependent on level of ginger tolerance, and can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called ginger intoxication or colloquially the "ginger jitters".

-Wikipedia

Lights On, Lights Off

2012-01-10T11:04:00.001-05:00

For some reason I always turn off lights when I enter a room and I find myself turning them on as I leave. Mostly I feel I don't need light so I turn them off to save electricity. When I have a smashing headache it lessens the pain to have dim light or total darkness but then I don't want to leave the house dark for my husband or dog or cat. They need the light to get around so I turn the lights back on as I am leaving.

Glass Mug

2012-01-10T11:00:00.002-05:00

I bought a curved clear glass tea mug for a dollar at Job Lot as consolation while waiting to get paid from a client. I love this mug because when I fill it with cold tea it is cloudy until the tea heats up and then becomes clear. Then I add milk and it forms clouds and I drink it and then the glass is cloudy from use. Then I wash it and it's clear again. So much entertainment from a simple tea mug.

True Story of Bread

2012-01-10T10:40:00.005-05:00

Yesterday morning we were out of bread! I started a two loaf sourdough batch that was so simple:
I used six to seven cups of medium grind whole wheat flour, one tablespoon of kosher salt, and three cups of water and a cup of my sourdough starter. I mixed everything in a bowl with a wooden spoon, covered it with a wooden cutting board, and set it in the boiler room on top of the huge metal boiler box, out of reach of the cat. By nightfall it had risen and had become glutinous. I brought it upstairs to my kitchen and punched it down and mixed it with my hands pulling it out of the bowl in one swoop like a magician's white rabbit trick and divided it in two. I shaped it placing it in two standard greased loaf pans. I then set it to rise in the ice cold kitchen overnight covered with a dish towel. I baked it this morning in a preheated 450 F oven temp for 35-40 minutes. The loaves were done when they sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Rosie's Variety

2012-01-10T08:54:00.004-05:00

Years ago when we fist moved in my friend Merrill from Arizona visited me with her seven year old son Adam. Our urban neighborhood was nothing like where he had ever lived. We had an old guy who ranted from the porch on the top floor across the street. He was rumored to be a Viet Nam Vet who was probably suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Poor guy. We knew him. His name was Normand. He cackled continually shouting things we couldn't fully comprehend. My friend's son, kept awake all night, was fascinated. The next morning he told his mom he wanted to go across the street and order a sandwich from the variety store on the ground floor. They came back an hour later. They loved the place! It's a time warp in there, Adam said.

Are Scented Products Toxic?

2012-01-08T09:15:00.001-05:00

Articles here.

Readers Comment

2012-01-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

When I traveled in the Netherlands once I was amazed at how healthy the people were, from young childhood to old age. The food quality there was outstanding. It was virtually impossible to find junk food anywhere and in the time I was there I saw only one child with a video device out of hundreds I saw happily playing. The parents were also lean and healthy, outside in all weather, cycling, walking, playing with their kids.
NYT, Young Obese and Getting Weight-Loss Surgery

Judith Jones

2012-01-07T18:27:00.003-05:00

I am reading The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. It's excellent and inspiring! I had the pleasure and honor of working with Judith when she hired me to illustrate Cooking With Children by Marion Cunningham and Easy Family Recipes from a Chinese American Childhood by Ken Hom.

Bob's Apple Cake

2012-01-07T15:48:00.002-05:00

Bob's recipe for the AMAZING apple cake he made at Christmas comes from Martha Day's Complete Baking London, Anness Publishing: 2000. p. 238

He told me It's an easy recipe but the trick is that sugar and flour are measured by weight not volume. I made that mistake once and 8 oz of flour dry measure is not 8 oz by weight! Also the recipe calls for a ring mold but it will make 3 - 4x8 loaf pans. A half recipe would probably fill a 8" round cake pan.

Sue's Pecan Pie

2012-01-07T15:33:00.004-05:00

My sister in law Sue made a magnificent pecan pie this Christmas based on The Joy of Cooking recipe but using barley malt and maple syrup in place of corn syrup. It was amazing!

I found this fun blog about the joy of pecan pie while poking around today.

From Sue:

Here's the recipe, I made it again after Christmas, and I used a cupcake tin to make little one-serving pies. The only thing is, you need more crust than a regular pie.

First, toast 2 cups of chopped pecans.
I just put them on the tray in our toaster oven at 300 degrees for maybe 10 minutes. You can smell when they're done, you don't need them to toast much. You can do this even a week ahead.

Then make or take out of the freezer a store-bought pie crust (that's what I use) and brush the bottom with egg yolk.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Whisk until blended:
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 c maple syrup
- 1/2 c barley malt (warm it up if it was in the fridge)
- 2 Tb. honey
- 5 Tbs melted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla (or 1 tsp of dark rum)
- 1/2 tsp of salt (omit if you use salted butter)

Stir in the nuts.
Warm the pie crust in the oven until it's hot to the touch, then pour in the filling. Bake 35 to 45 minutes, until the edges are firm and the center seems set but quivery, like jello, when the pan is nudged.
Let cool on a rack for at least 1 1/2 hours. Serve with whipped cream.

You can add 6 oz. melted chocolate (decrease the sweetener by half and the butter to only 1 Tb) to make a chocolate pecan pie.

Lauren Agnelli

2012-01-07T13:16:00.001-05:00

Immensely curious about the world, I wasn’t squeamish about trying a dog biscuit, and I kind of liked them. They weren’t as good for snacks as those hard, crunchy Bavarian pretzels that mom sometimes had around the house, but dog biscuits weren’t bad!!
-Lauren Agnelli, Words and Music

Brie

2012-01-07T12:12:00.001-05:00

I would love to find a fabulous brie to go with the bushel of ripe pears we were given.

Gone

2012-01-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

My favorite hole in the wall wholesale produce store in the red light district of Woonsocket is now closed. Where will I get my fresh-off-the-Tourtellot truck at 6 AM cauliflower? I will start scouting the little family-owned Asian Markets.

Refreshing

2012-01-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

A refreshing admission about food.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2012-01-04T12:37:00.005-05:00

It is 20 degrees out and 40 degrees inside! I am wearing my hat and scarf indoors. Even my dog is wearing her coat and scarf indoors. I'm going to make these cookies today for warmth, aroma, and nutrition. I consider these home made power bars.

1/2 cup or corn oil (or butter or margarine)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar (or combined equivalent of molasses and white sugar)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup raisins + chocolate chips + dried cranberries combined.(optional)

Bake at 350 in a preheated oven on a dry cast iron skillet or baking stone or baking sheet for 12 minutes.

Presto Pressure Cookers

2012-01-04T10:31:00.002-05:00

I can't say enough good things about my Presto pressure cooker. I have had mine since 1978. It was the very first kitchen appliance I bought when first living on my own, and it's still going strong! If you love beans or brown rice or beef stew in 17 minutes I urge you to rush out and get one!

Vat of Soup

2012-01-03T19:28:00.004-05:00

I found a bucket labeled lamb and beef stock in my chest freezer and decided to make a soup. I boiled a pound of rinsed and chopped collard greens and I cooked a pound of soaked white beans and I cooked a few pounds of barley and added all of this together in my stock pot and seasoned it with Adobo and olive oil and salt. Delicious!

Ginger Snaps

2012-01-03T11:54:00.017-05:00

I am not quite ready to put away the holiday cookie tins. The cold wind and 8 degree forecast had me starting up another batch of cookies. This time it's ginger snaps. Years ago my favorite children's book editor told me that he had heard from an in-law who had worked in a cookie factory, that ginger snaps were made from spicing up all of the leftover cookie dough scraps mixed together at the end of the day, including the bits swept up from the floor! I loved the image and have never forgotten it.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup corn oil
1/2 cup dark but not blackstrap molasses
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt (less if using white flour)
1 teaspoon freshly ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2.5 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup white sugar for decoration (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; stir into the molasses mixture. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll each ball in white sugar (optional) before placing 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets or cast iron skillets or baking stones.
Bake for 7 minutes in preheated oven. Cool on wire racks. They are delicious with hot tea.

-adapted from Mom's Gingersnaps All Recipes.com

Jon Frankel, poet, food writer

2011-12-30T11:06:00.004-05:00

Reposted with permission from Jon Frankel from his blog The Last Bender

Gravy

We were in the city this weekend packing up the last of my mother’s stuff to bring to Ithaca. While in the city I had meant to go to Xi’an Famous Foods on 8th Street and 2nd Avenue. They have amazing hand-pulled noodles: http://xianfoods.com/ which are served with stewed meats, especially lamb spiced with cumin, as a soup or alone. Some of the dishes are spicy, with chilies and Ma La. They also have an astringent, crunchy salad of cilantro, scallions, celery and fresh red chili dressed in sesame oil and rice vinegar, which haunts me as much as their chewy beautiful noodles. This is rib sticking soul food from western China and I pine for it frequently. Anyway, it was not to be.

On the ride up to Ithaca my oldest son (11) discussed clams, a favorite of his, and he said that what he wanted was clams, sausage, shrimp and calamari cooked in a rich tomato sauce. This is Mediterranean soul food, and we were in harmonic resonance. Monday night we unloaded the truck and I stayed home from work on Tuesday to catch up on things, which meant I had time to prepare some sort of soul food from somewhere. I decided to make a version of the Italian American Sunday dinner staple, gravy, or ragu. A ragu is cooked for hours and hours. I didn’t have hours and hours. What I had was a pound of sausage, 1 pound and a half of ground beef (both from McDonald Farm), two pounds of whole chicken legs and four thick slices of Autumn Harvest’s double smoked bacon. I started by making meatballs out of the ground beef. Normally the proportion for meatballs is 1 egg and one slice of bread (soaked in warm milk) for every pound of beef. I only had one egg, so I used 1 egg, one slice of bread, 1/3 cup finely chopped onion, 2 T of finely chopped garlic, a good pinch of salt (maybe a teaspoon) fresh ground pepper and ¼ chopped parsley, plus a shot of olive oil. I mixed it up thoroughly and rolled the balls. Then I cut up the bacon into ½ inch pieces and browned them in olive oil. Scoop out the bacon and brown the meatballs. Don’t crowd the pan, and don’t worry about doing all the sides, two hemispheres with an unbrowned tropic zone will do. While they are browning (in several batches, in the pot you are going to make the rest of the gravy in) chop about a cup of onion, and ¾ cup each of celery and carrot, and 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. Set them aside. Cut the sausage up into chunks about the size of the meatballs. Separate the chicken leg from the chicken thigh and chop the thigh in half. When the meatballs are brown, brown the sausage and then the chicken. By now the pot is full of smouldering, smoky fat and browned bits of beef, sausage and chicken skin. Pour off some of the fat, but please, leave enough for flavor! Lower the heat to medium and sauté the vegetables (add some salt and pepper to taste), scraping up from the bottom until they are soft, for a few minutes. They shouldn’t be browned. Add chopped fresh sage and some rosemary, stir to release the aroma, and then add 2-1/2 cans of whole peeled Italian plum tomatoes (our tomato plants gave up the ghost last week), crushed in your hands, about 2 cups of red wine, give or take, and a bay leaf. Stir up all the bits, add the meat (it should be covered by the sauce amply) and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat to a strong simmer and cook for at least 45 minutes. Really, it can cook longer. When the sauce is thick enough to coat pasta, the oil separates and it is sweet, it’s ready to serve. Add a ¼ cup chopped parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, a good pinch of oregano, and a splash of red wine vinegar. Check the taste. Does it need salt? More olive oil? Pepper? We may not have had any more fresh tomatoes, but we did have juicy green beans on the vine. I picked a big bowl (the last I’m afraid, tomorrow night will be in the high 20’s) and steamed them until just done. We had the gravy over whole wheat fusilli. Another family would have grated cheese over it. It was like Sunday on Tuesday and made up for the noodle deficit of the weekend. And there are a dozen variations. One of which has clams. But that will be another week.

Jon Frankel, poet

2011-12-30T11:05:00.002-05:00

Reposted with Jon Frankel's permission from his blog The Last Bender

Lamb Shanks

I love to cook and Sunday is the one day of the week I can devote the time and energy to make a good meal without stress. Often on Monday I want to post a recipe for the Sunday meal, since cooking and food are one of my passions, and that’s what this blog is all about, the stuff I love to do that might be of interest to others.

This Sunday we ate lamb shanks with butternut squash, leaks, potatoes and barley. I make lamb shanks a few times a year. They are not terribly expensive, especially compared to veal shanks, and are delicious, with melting fat and tendons and deeply flavoured meat that retains its texture even after a 3 hour braise in the oven.

At the Ithaca farmer’s market there is a wide variety of locally raised, organic meat. Lamb does particularly well up here in our benighted tier of upstate NY. I decided on a whim to get 6 lamb shanks from the McDonald family farm, all they had left. I like to cook extra so we can eat good food with little effort during the week.

Lamb shanks are a tough cut and should be cooked for a long time at a low temperature with liquid. The lower the temperature the more tender the meat, as fat and connective tissue melt rather than toughen at lower temperatures. I cooked them at 325 because we had gone for a long walk and they wouldn’t go into the oven until 3 o’clock. Had I started earlier I would have cooked them at 300 or 275, for an hour or so longer.

Brown the shanks in an iron skillet over high heat. Don’t crowd the skillet. Be sure to season all sides generously with salt and pepper, and be sure the meat is dry. When they are good and brown on all sides transfer to a large roasting pan or Dutch oven. Lower the heat in the skillet and add 4 anchovies. When they dissolve add 2 cups of chopped onions, and 1 cup each of cubed celery and carrots, and 3-4 tablespoons of coarsely chopped garlic. Add a little salt and pepper (remember the anchovies are salty). Sautee over medium heat until soft (not browned) and add one can of whole Italian plum tomatoes, breaking the tomatoes up with your hand. Add ¼ cup fresh sage and a pinch of dried thyme, a bay leaf and half a bottle of red wine. Bring to a boil and pour over the shanks. Add enough water so that the liquid covers 2/3rds of the shanks, and seal with foil. Bake in a 325 oven for 1 hour. Turn the shanks and add diced potatoes and leeks cut into 2 inch pieces. Cover again with foil and bake another hour. Meanwhile make a small pot of barley. I used a cup I think, boiled in 3 cups water with salt until al dente. After the second hour is up remove the foil, add chunks of butternut squash, turn the shanks and add the barley. Stir the barley into the braising liquid, and cook for a 3rd hour uncovered. I served it with steamed green beans and put out rice and pasta for my kids, who wouldn’t eat the barley. Bread would go well with it too. And of course, drink the rest of the wine.

Jon Frankel

2011-12-30T11:01:00.004-05:00

Reposted with Jon Frankel's permission from his blog The Last Bender

NOODLE SOUP

On a fall or winter Sunday there is nothing better than a pot of slow-cooked meat with noodles, greens and root vegetables. Yesterday I made a Chinese version with chicken. It took about two hours total and was perfect after a day of raking leaves, turning the garden beds and chopping a pile of old wood into kindling. Turning the garden beds was particularly gratifying. I have about 150 square feet of vegetable beds in front of my house with an evolving, improvised fence that manages to keep the tame deer out. I had let it go after the cucumbers and squash died. There’s a row of arugula and a few napa cabbages left but mostly it was weeds. I cleared out the old and dead plants, weeded it and turned it and then put in some organic fertilizer, peat moss and last year’s compost. The compost didn’t look like much. It had been cooking for a year though, and as I dug into it it fluffed up beautifully. This is not a great garden bed. There is an enormous white pine nearby, a weedy Norwegian maple on its north side and farther away, a black walnut whose crown is approaching the border. But I manage to eke out enough to eat from it to justify the work. I turned in the compost, fertilizer and peat moss and buried it in leaves. On the first warm day in March we’ll rake the leaves off and fertilize again, and then plant on the next warm weekend, probably after St. Patrick’s Day.

At four I was ready to quit and have a pot of green tea and read Thomas Hardy’s poems in front of the fire. But first the chicken! I chopped a 4.5 lb chicken up into pieces in this way: legs and thighs get cut into two pieces each, breasts into six pieces each (in half lengthwise and then three chops across the width). Freeze the wing tips and backs for stock. It helps to have a sharp meat cleaver. You can use bigger pieces, but this releases more flavor. The bones are important. Then chop two onions, mince 2 T of ginger and chop ¼ C. of garlic. Heat an iron pot or other heavy bottomed pot and add 3-4 T of oil (not Olive oil! Safflower is great, canola will do), then cook the onions, garlic and ginger until soft, over high heat, stir frying constantly so they don’t burn. Add the chicken pieces and cook until it changes color. Add ¼ cup of Shaoxing wine, 3 star anise, a good pinch of salt and ground black pepper, then cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer, covered, over very low heat for an hour and fifteen minutes. Then add two cups of cubed rutabaga, about ten dried shitake mushrooms with the soaking liquid and continue to cook. Put on the pasta water. Make a pound of whole wheat fettuccini. I had some napa cabbage and beet greens lying around, so I used these. Because the pot was crowded I removed the chicken (as best I could) with a slotted spoon and set it aside. I added the roughly chopped greens (any greens will do, but tougher ones need to cook longer, so plan accordingly) and after they were tender, another ¼ cup of Shaoxing wine, 2-3 T coconut vinegar (I like it vinegary, so keep tasting and adding, you can also use lime juice or other kinds of vinegar too), ¼ C fish sauce, black pepper, a small red onion sliced and chopped cilantro. Taste for salt. Serve the soup, the chicken and the noodles with chopped chilies or other hot sauce (chili oil is OK, pickled chilies, any kind of heat is good). Eat with chopsticks and watch 4 Malcolm in the Middles.

Winter's Sensory Delights

2011-12-29T10:31:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I simmered a vat of tomato sauce all day with our garden herbs. We ate it heaped on rye crackers with freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese sprinkled on top. I made wine biscotti with cheap port and stashed them in my collection of cookie tins. They are so good with Lyons Irish breakfast tea and the flavors bloom over the week. This morning I baked the last batch of molasses, pumpkin, cashew, cranberry, raisin, oat, almond, whole wheat, sourdough holiday bread. Whew! For New Years eve I want to make tiramisu and pumpkin eggnog rum raisin ice cream and greens and beans for New Years day good luck, and one more gingerbread!

Caponata

2011-12-28T17:38:00.002-05:00

I grew up eating this at Christmas and it is amazing.

Caponata (Incredible Sicilian Eggplant Stew)
From Jamie's Italy (Hyperion, 2006) Jamie Oliver

This is a fantastic dish from southern Italy that's eaten as a warm vegetable side dish or a cold antipasto. Sicilians are really proud that it's made with produce from their island. All the different methods of making it are more or less the same - the thing that makes it special, though, is the quality of the eggplants, tomatoes, and vinegar. Always try to get hold of nice firm eggplants with very few seeds - have a look down in your local market to see if you can find different colors. You could even ask your produce clerk to cut one open so you can check it out. Don't be tempted to cut the eggplant chunks too small or they will take on so much oil that they will become heavy. If this happens you don't get to admire the lovely creamy flavor and texture. I've eaten caponata that's been swimming in olive oil, but I much prefer mine to be less oily.

Serves 4

olive oil
2 nice large purple eggplants, cut into large chunks
1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and stems finely chopped
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed, soaked,and drained
a handful of green olives, pits removed
2-3 tablespoons best-quality herb vinegar
5 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
optional: 2 tablespoons slivered almonds, lightly toasted

Get yourself a large pan, pour in a couple of glugs of olive oil, and place on the heat. Add your eggplant chunks and oregano, season with a little salt, and toss around so the eggplant is evenly coated by the oil. Cook on a high heat for around 4 or 5 minutes, giving the pan a shake every now and then. (Depending on the size of your pan you may need to cook the eggplant in batches.)

When the eggplants are nice and golden on each side, add the onion, garlic, and parsley stems and continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Feel free to add a little more oil to the pan if you feel it's getting too dry.

Throw in the drained capers and the olives and drizzle over the herb vinegar. When all the vinegar has evaporated, add the tomatoes and simmer for around 15 minutes or until tender.

Taste before serving and season if you need to with salt, pepper, and a little more vinegar. Drizzle with some good olive oil and serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley leaves and the almonds if you like.

Boxing Day

2011-12-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

Lily has a brand-new red coat she got for Christmas. She is wearing it because it's so nice and cold in the house! At bedtime I'll slip between the covers wearing my big black furry Russian hat and thick wool oatmeal socks and striped Indian pajamas until the electric blanket kicks in.

For supper we sipped hot cabbage, ham, and bean soup and for dessert we ate chocolate mints with our hot black coffee. After the meal we stared at our flickering votive candles on the table. I love the bloody magical martyrs and saints. I grew up with Freud and Jung, but wrinkly old men smoking cigars are not as much fun as colorful saints.

Boxing Day Soup

2011-12-26T18:19:00.002-05:00

Making a cabbage, carrot, yam, ham, garbanzo bean Boxing Day soup. I really love vegetables more than life itself! Lily is happy and exhausted from having been in the center of the universe.

Winter Holiday Loaves

2011-12-23T13:28:00.004-05:00

I've mixed up a whole wheat sourdough bread batter and thown in dried cranberries, Job Lot's bargain cashew pieces, pumpkin puree, dark molasses, rolled oats, and kosher salt. The dough looks great. It will probably need 30 hours of slow cold rising before it is baked.

Jamie Sullivan at Shaw's Meats

2011-12-22T10:48:00.005-05:00

Jamie Sullivan's home-made sausages from Shaw's Meats on North Main Street in Woonsocket are so good you'll want them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each week Jamie makes a few varieties but they sell out fast. I recommend them all! A simple supper of toasted sourdough bread slathered with mustard with a grilled Sullivan sausage is divine.

Green Tea, Black Tea, White Tea, and Black Coffee

2011-12-22T10:44:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been wanting my tea or coffee with nothing in it!

James Beard

2011-12-20T18:07:00.003-05:00

In the beginning there was James Beard . . .
-Nora Ephron.

Designing hors d’oeuvres is not different from designing sets and costumes . . . Food is very much theater.
-James Beard

We’re Americans and can do as we please.
-James Beard

When I walk into a market I may see a different cut of meat or an unusual vegetable and think, ‘I wonder how it would be if I took the recipe for that sauce I had in Provence and put the two together?’ So I go home and try it out. Sometimes my idea is a success and sometimes it is a flop, but that is how recipes are born. There really are not recipes, only millions of variations sparked by someone’s imagination and desire to be a little creative and different. American cooking is built, after all, on variations of old recipes from around the world.
-James Beard

A cookbook should reflect the personality of the author along with his or her kitchen technique. Some cookbooks are put together like paper dolls. There is no feeling of humanness in them. I write about things I like and the way I like them.
-James Beard

Hands are our earliest tools. Cooking starts with the hands which are so sensitive that when they touch something they transmit messages to your brain about texture and temperature.
-James Beard

Freshness in vegetables is more important than anything else.
-James Beard

Loving Leftovers

2011-12-19T09:05:00.004-05:00

I am eating my beans and greens soup with yesterday's cornbread warmed. I'm enjoying hot green tea, inspired by the trip to New England Bonsai.

Wake Up!

2011-12-19T06:03:00.003-05:00

Bill's alarm went off at 4:30 and Lily jumped on me! We woke to the smell of the breads I had baked before going to bed. I don't always get up with Bill and Lily but this morning I got up and went out in to the yard with Lily. I spotted the waning crescent moon overhead tilting on its back, and the three stars of Orion's belt were directly overhead.

I am trying to catch up with my zooming days. I am dreaming of taking my friends from Puerto Rico to Jamie's butcher shop, Fernandes' produce market, and the River Island Park ice skating rink.

Soup's On

2011-12-18T10:37:00.010-05:00

This morning it was 20 degrees when I got up. I heard the downstairs office radiators clanking. It has to get very cold for the heat to come on by itself. We keep the thermostat at 50 all winter. We are used to being wrapped up head to toe, wearing hats, scarves, layers of colorful vests, thick wool socks, blankets and robes, looking like we live in outer Mongolia.

I decided I was ready to make a pot of oatmeal in my baby cast iron pot. I boiled the salted water and added the oats with a handful of raisins - they plump up! The oats practically cook themselves in this sturdy iron pan. I added milk and a sprinkle of salt and ate it for breakfast. I noticed when scooping out the oats from the 50 pound bag that it's almost empty. It's been occupying major real estate in our chest freezer for 11 years. I spotted a frozen gallon-container labeled Lamb Stock Feb 3, 2011. So I defrosted it and am now simmering it with a pound of freshly chopped collard greens, a pound of cooked black beans, a pound of cooked garbanzo beans, and yesterday's (burnt) jasmine basmati brown rice. I baked a big double batch of yellow cornbread in my square cast iron skillet. Bill had it for breakfast with his tea.

I am fantasizing about buying one of the small spiral-cut hams on sale at the supermarket today. Perhaps Bill and I will walk Lily over to the store and I will run in. They're only 12 dollars. I tell my friends, we use meat as a spice! A little bit of sliced ham sprinkled in my simmering soup would be just the right thing to spruce it up.

Today is our last chance to get apples this season from our favorite orchard, the Big Apple orchard in Wrentham. While we're on the road, we'll also stop by the New England Bonsai nursery before it closes for January.

A sweet Sunday.

Breakfast Corn Tortillas

2011-12-17T10:28:00.005-05:00

I get cravings for corn! I just made corn tortillas for breakfast. They are so simple and so fast. I buy instant masa, at Stop and Shop, and keep it in the fridge for times like this. I scoop out a cup, add 3/4 cup of water, and sprinkle it with kosher salt. I form the dough into golf ball sized blobs, roll them out between 2 pieces of waxed paper or cellophane, gently scoop them with a spatula and cook them on a hot dry cast iron pan for a few minutes on each side. Butter and enjoy!

Sasha Kaplan

2011-12-17T10:16:00.000-05:00

Caterer.

Local Adventure

2011-12-16T06:27:00.004-05:00

Yesterday my pal Teddi, who runs New England Bonsai, took me on an adventure. We set out to get mat board from the lovely folks at Woodshed Gallery in Franklin. We took a detour to visit the Trappist Nuns who have their own windmill for generating electricity, and who make their own chocolate. There's a little shop on the premises filled with books and chocolate. Then we drove over to the Woodshed Gallery and admired the paintings and hand-painted silk scarves, and picked up the mat board. On the way home we stopped and had a peek into the Shire Bookshop in Franklin to browse and say howdy to Teddi's pals Jean and Jack. The whole bookshop was divinely aromatic. Jean was baking cinnamon buns in the kitchen in back. Bookstores coincidentally always make me hungry. Jean fed us warm cinnamon buns painted with Nutella, and we drank piping hot Earl Grey tea. There was even a well-loved upright piano right in the middle of the room overflowing with sheet music, ready to be played. They had a collection of big black cast-iron book presses scattered about and kitchen implements in amongst the books. I felt like I was in Heaven. This environment couldn't have been closer to my heart. I recommend a visit to all of these great spots.
Shire Bookshop
Trappist Candy
Woodshed Gallery
New England Bonsai

Texas Pecan-Filled Fruitcake

2011-12-15T08:40:00.005-05:00

My parents sent me a surprise - a Texas pecan-filled fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. We've had a bite of Texas and it is mighty delicious! It is so amazingly good that it is nearly all gone after two days, eaten by just the two of us. It comes in a fun red tin that I will keep and refill with our home made wine biscotti.

Beef Stew Improvisation

2011-12-10T10:31:00.007-05:00

Last night I came in the door with 2 lbs of gorgeous stew beef from Jamie Sullivan's butcher shop. I threw it in my pressure cooker and added a can of pureed tomatoes, an equal amount of water (to rinse the can), olive oil, Adobo seasoning, coarsely chopped carrots, 2 onions, 4 ribs of celery, a dash of Southern Comfort, smoky hot chipotle sauce, a few bay leaves, 2 star anise pods, salt, and a bloop of dark molasses. This was my improvisation, my animal-hunger-frenzy-in-winter-joy, dictated by memories of past stews and influenced by the full moon.

I made a pot of millet in my little cast iron pot and dinner was ready in 25 minutes just as Bill arrived home from work. The stew was unbelievable. We both ate second helpings and then leftovers as 'dessert' before bed. We slept well.

This stew can be cooked slowly all day in a 250 degree oven in a heavy iron pot with fitted lid, which is a favorite method when I am at home, or you can safely simmer it at 225 in an electric crock pot while you are out for the day.

Shaving Mug

2011-12-05T20:49:00.002-05:00

I just found out my favorite porcelain mug was originally a shaving mug! This is exceptionally funny since my husband looks like Santa Clause --no shaving going on here.

Smoked Turkey

2011-12-03T17:01:00.006-05:00

We cooked a 21 pound turkey on the Weber grill over 2 banked mounds of smoldering hardwood charcoal. We threw in a few hickory pieces that we had soaked in water, to add even more flavor. We basted the turkey in a solution of molasses, Vietnamese hot sauce, soy sauce, Armand's fresh oregano and rosemary, and an illegal amount of freshly chopped garlic. The turkey took three and a half hours to cook. It was so delicious because the flavors permeated the whole bird. We made sandwiches on whole wheat sourdough with sliced pepperoncini and mayo and mustard. We made a stock from the carcass that retained all of the smoky flavors. For the soup, I added 2 heads of collard greens chopped up and a pound of cooked chick peas. It was a magnificent soup.

Mint Mocha

2011-12-03T16:59:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been having hot cocoa spiked with 2 ounces of black coffee. A perfect winter treat. I discovered backyard spearmint growing in the woodpile! I brew it and add a few ounces to the mocha mixture. Delightful!

Coffee with Molasses

2011-11-28T09:14:00.002-05:00

Try a teaspoon of molasses in hot coffee with milk or cream. It's is a Creole tradition and very tasty! I use half milk, half coffee and it's like hot chocolate.

Nigel Slater

2011-11-28T08:57:00.001-05:00

From The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

Right food, right place, right time. It is my belief--and the point of this book--that this is the best recipe of all. A crab sandwich by the sea on a June afternoon; a slice of goose with apple sauce and roast potatoes on Christmas Day; hot sausages and a chunk of roast pumpkin on a frost-sparkling night in November. These are meals whose success relies not on the expertise of the cook but more on the basic premise that this is the food of the moment--something eaten at a time when it is most appropriate, when the ingredients are at their peak of perfection, when the food, the cook, and the time of year are at one with each other.

There is something deeply, unshakeably right about eating food in season: fresh runner beans in July, grilled sardines on a blisteringly hot August evening, a bowl of gently aromatic stew on a rainy day in February. Yes, it is about the quality of the ingredients too, their provenance and the way they are cooked, but the very best eating is also about the feeling that the time is right.

I do believe, for instance, that a cold Saturday in January is a good time to make gingerbread. It is when I made it and we had a good time with it. It felt right. So I offer it to you as a suggestion, just as I offer a cheesecake at Easter, a curry for a cold night in April and a pale gooseberry fool for a June afternoon. It is about seasonality, certainly, but also about going with the flow, cooking with the natural rhythm of the earth.

Learning to eat with the ebb and flow of the seasons is the single thing that has made my eating more enjoyable. Our culinary seasons have been blurred by commerce, and in particular by the supermarkets' much vaunted idea that consumers want all things to be available all year round. I don't believe this is true. I have honestly never met anyone who wants to eat a slice of watermelon on a cold March evening, or a plate of asparagus in January. It is a myth put about by the giant supermarkets. I worry that today it is all too easy to lose sight of food's natural timing and, worse, to miss it when it is at its sublime best. Hence my attempt at writing a book about rebuilding a cook's relationship with nature.

-Nigel Slater, The Kitchen Diaries

John Thorne

2011-11-28T08:55:00.002-05:00

When I first read about this dish in Nigel Slater's rather hypnotic Kitchen Diaries, I thought, "Where have you been all my life?" I love fresh peas as fresh from the garden as I can get them and often eat a whole bowlful at night just before going to bed. Who thought I could have them for breakfast, too? You might point out that Nigel hadn’t meant this as a breakfast dish, which is true but irrelevant. I love fresh asparagus on toast for breakfast — heat minced garlic in butter in a small skillet until softened, add half a cup of water and bring it to a boil, put in asparagus cut into short lengths, cover, and cook for 7 or 8 minutes. Make toast, butter it if you’re in a luxuriant mood, and pour over the contents of the skillet. What are you waiting for? Eat.
-John Thorne, NYT

Festive Cranberry Almond Kale

2011-11-25T17:45:00.003-05:00

Steam two heads of washed and chopped kale in a big pot (takes about 15 minutes). Then add freshly chopped garlic to a skillet of hot olive oil and throw in the steamed kale. Then add sliced toasted almonds, soy sauce, dried cranberries and a sprinkle of kosher salt. You won't be disappointed!

Polka Dotted Cornbread

2011-11-25T17:43:00.002-05:00

Try your favorite cornbread recipe with dried cranberries. It's colorful and delicious.

Here's my small recipe. Double it if you'd like.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup corn oil
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup of dried cranberries

Mix up batter in a big bowl with whisk, fork or wooden spoon and pour into greased cast iron skillet and bake for 30 minutes.

Jamaican Ginger beer

2011-11-25T17:38:00.001-05:00

Goya Jamaican Style Ginger Beer is fabulous.

INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup 55, Ginger Flavorings, Oil Of Ginger, Caramel Color, Capsicum, Citric Acid.

Try it on ice with a twist of lime! You can also add a splash of Meyer's brand dark rum.

Chipotle and Sriracha Hot Sauces

2011-10-23T15:12:00.001-04:00

See previous post. I made this meat loaf again last night.I didn't have any Worcestershire sauce or pepperoncini on hand so I used dashes of Buffalo brand Mexican Chipotle hot sauce and Sriracha hot chili sauce. It was excellent. I will definitely season it this way again.

Meat Loaf

2011-10-16T09:16:00.007-04:00

Last night I made a one pan meatloaf that was so good I want to write down exactly what I did. I used my big 12" cast-iron frying pan for cooking, mixing, and eventual baking.

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I chopped four large carrots, three stalks of celery and one large onion and sauteed them on high heat in olive oil for about ten minutes, stirring often until softened. Then I added 1/2 cup of cold water to deglaze the pan. I let it all cool off and added a half pound of ground pork and one pound of ground beef and 6 slices whole wheat bread, cubed. Then I spontaneously added a quarter cup of sliced pepperoncini and 3 cloves of garlic, chopped. I seasoned the mix with my usual sprinkles of black pepper, salt, six to eight dashes of Worcestershire sauce, sprinkles of Adobo seasoning, and 1/4 cup of ketchup. I mixed it all with my hands (fun!) and gently shaped it into a football-shaped mound in the center of the skillet, and baked it for fifty minutes. The meatloaf was so good I ate it for dinner and dessert and then for breakfast this morning.

A Little Bit

2011-10-15T11:53:00.006-04:00

I think it's interesting that four ounces of coffee was considered a serving in the fifties. Sometimes a little bit of something is the right thing, and a lot more fun.

Chic Pea Spaghetti Sauce

2011-10-12T07:48:00.004-04:00

Chic peas (garbanzos) are like little meatballs in this tomato sauce.

First I rinse and soak a pound of dry chic peas overnight then I cook them either in my pressure cooker for 20 minutes or simmer them in my crock pot for 2-3 hours with a few tablespoons of olive oil.

A few important tips: Don't add salt until the peas have cooked because it can prevent them from becoming tender. Adding the oil prevents foaming in the pressure cooker which can clog the vent.

After the chic peas are cooked I pour them and the liquid into a large pot. I add a can of pureed tomatoes, a can of tomato paste if I have it, chopped fresh garlic, fresh or dried basil, fresh or dried parsley, oregano, and a few bay leaves. I also add a few chopped carrots, a few stalks of chopped celery, chopped onions, and chopped pitted olives. I love to use Kalamata Greek olives (from Job Lot) because they have a strong flavor. I usually then add some more olive oil and some red wine (cheap burgundy is fine). The sauce can simmer for hours and when it's done it is excellent served over whole wheat spaghetti with freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese which is nice and salty. (I prefer it to Parmesan.) This sauce is also good as a fast lunch on a slice of toast with grated cheese on top.

Bill's Chicken Wings

2011-09-01T08:04:00.003-04:00

We buy Jamie Sullivan's chicken wings at Shaw Meat's on North Main Street in Woonsocket RI when they have a sale.

We brush the wings with a blend of: our favorite Rooster brand Asian hot sauce, molasses, soy sauce, prepared mustard (Gulden's), and freshly chopped garlic. Then we grill them over hardwood charcoal. The sweet, hot, and saltiness of this sauce can be blended to suit your taste.

Enjoy!

Storm Supper

2011-08-28T16:14:00.001-04:00

This afternoon the trees were down everywhere, from the hurricane. Even the dairy farm was deserted. The corrugated metal roof of their utility barn was ripped open and flapping in the wind. Down the road the Super Stop and Shop supermarket had lost power hours ago. Their lights were dim, there was no milk, fish, meat, vegetables or frozen items on the shelves. Very weird. We bought a big bag of pretzels and then went to the beer store and bought a pint bottle of Beck's beer.

Raisin-Sized Bites

2011-08-26T12:16:00.003-04:00

I have baked my Bundt cake each week for the whole summer, using bananas or carrots. It is a terrific breakfast or snack with iced or hot coffee. When I am out of raisins, I snip prunes with scissors into raisin-sized bites. Nobody notices!

Julia's Home Made Cottage Cheese

2011-08-26T10:17:00.003-04:00

For cottage cheese, I buy Hood buttermilk 1/2 % fat cartons, I use 4-6 of them. The lazy version is to place them upright in a big pot with water. Open cartons to see what is going on. Place on very low heat and start watching the coagulation process. The water should never start boiling. The trick is not to let it over-coagulate or under-coagulate, not easy and comes with practice, so buy less buttermilk in the first few times. I normally sit and watch TV with timer in my hands and go see what's up every 10-12 min. It is ready when you clearly see appearance of the clear liquid on top of each carton. The white mass collects mostly at the lower part of the carton with a "crater" of clear liquid in the middle. Sorry, I cannot describe it better. Depending on how old is the buttermilk and the heat, it can take
40-55 min total.

After I see it is done, I turn it off and leave to cool down till morning. In the morning, I take a really big strainer, line it with double layer of cheese cloth and pour the coagulated buttermilk. The clear liquid goes through and the cottage cheese remains. You may have to let your first portion drain, then keep adding the mix. Once it is all there, I place the strainer over the pot to let it drain till the evening (put it in the fridge if it fits) or next day. The cottage cheese is ready, just take it out of the cheese cloth into a plastic container. It should be very soft, but keeps the shape if placed on a flat plate.

Julia's Borscht

2011-08-26T10:14:00.004-04:00

I do not have written recipes. I cook borsch similar to the way my grandma and my mom did it, with my modern modifications to cut on time and work. So here is what I do:

I use the following ingredients:

2 cans of beets, cut or sliced
1 can of green peas
3-4 potatoes
A package of shredded carrots (About two cups I think)
A package of shredded cabbage (sometimes I use only half of it when I do not want too much cabbage)
0.5-1 lbs of beef cut in small 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 of onion, chopped
Salt - by taste
Sugar - two packets
Lemon juice - 1-2 table spoons

In a big pot, I boil beef for about 30-40 min. Normally I get it to boil, boil for a few minutes, then discard the liquid and wash the beef (and the pot) real well. Then use new water to start over. This way you get rid of most of the nasty cholesterol.

After the beef is ready, I add potatoes, cabbage and carrots and boil another 20 min until cooked. In the meantime, I fry onion in olive oil. Then I add a can of green peas and beets (if I bought sliced beets, I cut then in smaller pieces), get to boil and turn the heat off. At this point, I add the fried onion, salt, sugar and lemon juice. Done!

If you really want to follow the correct recipe, buy real beets, peel and boil the WHOLE beets together with beef, starting in the second water. My grandma's recipe: always cook whole beets, then after they are fully cooked pull out of the soup and shred. This is to retain the bright red color. This works for the simple beet soup as well: this is a much easier summer version that is normally done with just beets and potatoes, nothing else, but with sugar/lemon juice eat the end. You eat it cold, right from the fridge, adding sour cream and scallions. I do not bother with this and use canned beets, shame on me :-)

On My Way to the Library

2011-08-24T08:32:00.001-04:00

On my way to the library everyone was out milling about in parking lots. Some people were wearing scrubs, holding clipboards. There were fire trucks and police and blocked off roads. I asked some people sitting outside on the benches at Kennedy Manor what was happening. They said there was an earthquake and now they're checking the buildings. The mood was festive because it was a beautiful afternoon and everyone was chatting. Most people knew they would probably have the rest of the day off.

At the community garden I picked my fresh basil and flat leaf Italian parsley. A big black lady came in with her daughter and a little white poodle. I held onto Lily so the dogs wouldn't start wrestling. She had a basket of okra. I love okra, I said and ate it when I lived in North Carolina but nobody seems to know about it around here. The woman said she finds it for sale at Price Right. She said she was born in South Carolina. She gave me all of her freshly picked okra. They look like shooting stars, to me. I said. I told her that what I thought was going to be cucumbers has turned out to be little watermelons the size of party balloons, growing in my plot.

I came home and made a partial pesto out of the pile of basil using olive oil and salt and garlic because I didn't have walnuts and cheese. Then I sliced the okra into disks and sauteed them in olive oil and onions and mushrooms and pea pods. Then I added some leftover water from steaming carrots (for my carrot cake) and I added corn that I cut off the cob. I sprinkled it all with soy sauce. It was a spectacular supper.

Apollonia Poilâne

2011-08-23T08:44:00.001-04:00

Bread!

Fast Ears

2011-08-22T14:40:00.002-04:00

I love corn on the cob. Today I peeled the husk off an ear I had in the fridge and I rinsed it and then popped it in the microwave for 4 minutes and voila!

Speedy Weenie

2011-08-16T06:11:00.000-04:00

George Devol Inventor of the "Speedy Weeny" dies at 99.

Mr. Devol said that new technology should be simple and practical.

We should take refuge in the fact that very crude systems can accomplish an awful lot, he once said. Elegant capabilities are nice, but often unnecessary.

-New York Times

Speedy Weenie

Hard Pressed Coffee

2011-08-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

Recently I tried to make cold press coffee to see what all the fuss was about and I was astounded at how dreadful it was. There was no taste! Perhaps I did it wrong. Nonetheless this quote came to mind.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
-Abraham Lincoln

Almonds

2011-08-10T08:30:00.002-04:00

My local source for baking supplies has only 25 pound boxes of almonds. I need to find four people to share a box!

Backyard Tourist

2011-08-10T07:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I went to Purgatory Chasm in Sutton MA for the fist time. I felt like I was inside an Ansel Adams photograph. I was awed by the gorgeous rock formations and loved the cool air that collected in the valley. There were lots of young kids in brightly colored clothing having fun clambering around with their parents. A number of courageous chipmunks were scurrying along the rocks everywhere, as if greeting us with "Welcome to Massachusetts." Then we went to Whittier Farm and saw the view from the hilltop. We pet the two ponies out back and bought some fresh tomatoes and corn and a bottle of root beer.

William Shakespeare

2011-08-09T08:58:00.000-04:00

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

-William Shakespeare

Greens Goats and Soap

2011-08-09T08:02:00.002-04:00

http://www.greensandgoats.com/

Pedal Pusher

2011-08-09T06:59:00.002-04:00

I'd like to be pedaling one of these around the state all year. I could bring my dog. I could decorate it!

http://www.pedicab.com/