Estonian Proverb

An empty belly is the best cook.
-Estonian Proverb

M.F.K. Fisher

There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?
-M.F.K. Fisher

The first thing I remember tasting and then wanting to taste again is the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam. I suppose I was about four.
-M.F.K.Fisher

We spent most of our time in a stream under the cottonwoods, or with Old Mary the cook, watching her make butter in a great churn between her mountainous knees. She slapped it into pats, and put them down into the stream where it ran hurriedly through the darkness of the butter-house.
-M.F.K.Fisher

Oretta Zanini De Vita

The nuns taught the girls that their tortellini dough was thin enough only when they held it up to the window and could see the nearby Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca.

For centuries “pasta was a luxury, you ate it only inside vegetable soup,” Ms. Zanini DeVita said. In the southern Basilicata region it was eaten “once or twice a year: for Easter, Christmas and Carnival.” Flour was for the rich. “The poor wouldn’t even see it in paintings,” she said.

- from the New York Times article "So You Think You Know Pasta" by Rachel Donadio

Healthy Crunchy Candy

Take natural peanut butter, raw sunflower seeds, granola, raisins, salt and a splash of orange juice or honey. Mush together with your fingers in a small bowl and eat like a healthy crumbly candy!

Cucumbers

Today I chopped up a bowl full of cucumbers and sprinkled them with raisins. I ate them together with my fingers while I was at my computer! I could really taste the fact that cucumbers are in the melon family. The cucumber tasted like honey dew. Try it!

Potato Poem

Potato

Inside one potato
there are mountains and rivers.

-Shinkichi Takahashi translated by Harold P. Wright

Halloween Candy

Halloween! I love candy corn, real black licorice, and miniature peanut butter cups. I think I'll go get some now!

Southern Style Pot Au Feu

Take dried blackeyed peas, cover with water, add bloops of olive oil, and bring to a boil for ten minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the peas sit for an hour. Come back and simmer the beans for 2 hours without salt (because salt will toughen the beans at this stage).

Then, add a 4-6 stalks celery chopped, add a big chopped onion, 2-4 strips of bacon chopped, a bag of fresh spinach, a green jalapeño pepper, chopped, seeds and all, and four cloves of garlic smashed and chopped coarsely. Add salt, and your favorite spices and a splash of wine if you have it. Let it simmer for a bit. Delicious!

Cumin Garlic Crackers

Cumin Garlic Crackers
with permission from NYC attorney Katy Atlas' food + fashion blog called Sugarlaws

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups 100% whole wheat flour
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
Olive oil, for brushing the top of the dough
2 tbsp fleur du sel
2 tbsp poppy seeds

DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the
ingredients and mix together until the dough comes together and is smooth,
kneading as necessary.

Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out each piece into a 12" by 18" sheet,
which should be very thin. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with
poppy seeds and fleur du sel, and then roll lightly once over the toppings
with a rolling pin to set them into the dough (otherwise the salt will fall
off after the crackers are baked).

Place the sheet of dough on a silipat or parchment-lined baking sheet and
bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack and then break the
sheet of crackers into pieces. Repeat with the other two thirds of the
dough.

Makes about 40 crackers.

Horseradish Bender

Ever since I read that horseradish and vinegar open the lungs I have gone full tilt in my cravings. I am naturally drawn to things that make me take a sharp breath; jumping into ice cold water, sipping hot tea, playing my saxophone, and eating horseradish and pepperoncini with everything!

Savoring the Savory

I still prefer dinner to dessert. My real loves are fresh vegetables, whole grains, and toasted nuts and seeds, but a bit of spice is a fun treat. I even use meat as a spice, like cumin or black pepper. When I was a child my mother would take us out to Cook's for ice cream cones and I would ask if I could order a hamburger instead! Now that I think of it mashed potatoes with garlic and olive oil would be my idea of an ideal dessert, in a garlic cracker cone!

Pot Au Feu

I rarely have a plan when I cook. I just start doing stuff when I am hungry and see where it leads. Today I sauteed two chopped onions in olive oil in my Dutch oven and added a cup of Israeli cous cous. I added the two jars of leftover bean stock I had in the fridge and I chopped up three stalks of celery and added sprinkles of red chili pepper flakes. Then I added salt and my leftover beet, potato, and cabbage salad. I chopped up a few strips of frozen bacon and dropped them into the hot pot. It simmered, bubbling gently for 30 minutes, thick and pink from the beets. I have had three small bowls of it while waiting for my husband to arrive home. It's the best pot au feu I have ever made.

Cucumber Yogurt Soup

I copied this recipe by Martha Rose Shulman from the New York Times because I love to make meals with homemade yogurt and fresh cukes! Enjoy!

Bulgarian Cucumber Soup With Walnuts

Before the weather becomes too chilly for cold soups, try this one. Bulgaria once was well known for the number of centenarians in its population, which some scientists attributed to the daily consumption of Bulgarian yogurt. Now, both the yogurt and eating culture in this mountainous country have changed for the worse, and so have local lifespans.

2 to 4 garlic cloves (to taste), peeled, green shoots removed
Salt to taste
2 cups thick plain yogurt (Greek style, or drained)
2 tablespoons walnut or olive oil, or 1 tablespoon each
2/3 cup (2 ounces) shelled walnuts, finely chopped
1 European cucumber, about 10 inches long, or 3 Persian cucumbers, cut in very small dice
1/2 cup ice-cold water, preferably spring water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Freshly ground pepper

For the garnish:
Ice cubes (optional)
Finely chopped walnuts
Extra virgin olive oil
Finely chopped fresh dill or mint

1. Place the garlic in a mortar with 1/2 teaspoon salt, and mash to a paste.
2. Place the yogurt in a large bowl. Stir in the oil, garlic and walnuts. Whisk in the water and the lemon juice. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Chill for one hour or longer.
3. Meanwhile, season the cucumbers lightly with salt, and allow to drain in a colander for 15 minutes. Add to the yogurt mixture and stir together.
4. If you wish, place an ice cube in each bowl, and ladle in the soup. Top with chopped walnuts, a drizzle of olive oil if desired, and a sprinkling of dill or mint.
Yield: Serves four.

Advance preparation: You can make this several hours before serving it. Keep the soup base and the cucumbers separately refrigerated. The longer the soup sits, the more pungent it will become.

-Martha Rose Shulman

Variations

Recently I made caponata with beets in place of tomatoes! It was great. I also made my pressure-cooker potato salad adding beets + cabbage into the mix. Both dishes were delicious and very colorful.

Israeli Cous Cous

Last night our friend toasted Israeli cous cous in a pot with sliced onions and olive oil, blackening the onions. Then he added chicken broth and simmered until completely cooked. Fabulous! I believe the path to world peace is through shared food + music!

Roasted Cauliflower

Last night our friend took two heads of cauliflower and chopped them into small florets and then chopped up a bunch of fresh garlic. He placed the florets in two oblong Pyrex dishes with the fresh garlic and some olive oil sprinkled over them and roasted it all under the broiler, stirring every ten minutes, until slightly blackened. We enjoyed them sprinkled with salt. It was outstanding!

Accidental Sorbet

I panicked because our ripe chopped-up peaches had started to ferment, so I put them in the blender with some orange juice, frozen ripe bananas, prunes (that had been stewed in Earl Grey tea) and slivers of lemon with the rind and buzzed it all. It was instant sorbet thanks to the frozen bananas! Fabulous.

Spinach Salad

Spinach and mushroom salad with hardboiled eggs and artichoke hearts and chic peas with turkey bacon is so good. I cooked the turkey bacon in a skillet (with a big fan blowing smoke out the window) and crumbled it onto the salad. You don't even need a dressing!

Fruit Smoothies

Take your over ripe bananas and peel them and then freeze them! You can buzz them at your convenience with ice cubes, orange juice and over ripe peaches! Even better when you use home made yogurt!

Purple Plum Pie

3 cups fresh purple plums
3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter
Whole wheat oil pastry for double crust pie

Preheat oven to 425. Then, rinse and halve or quarter the plums, discarding the pits! Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon (I like to use my hands!) and sprinkle mixture over the fruit. Make a pie crust pastry and line your favorite pie plate. Fill with sugared + spiced plums. Sprinkle with lemon juice and dot with butter. Roll out and place top crust. Seal edges with fork and poke a decorative vent in the top. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown.
This is delicious, and simple. You can even increase the plums to 4 cups and adjust the rest of the ingredients by 1/4 too, if you have a mathematician nearby to help! Use a large pie tin.

Fruit Soup

We had over-ripe bananas and peaches and a few prune plums and we buzzed them with ice and orange juice and home made yogurt in the blender. Delicious as a meal or a snack.

Asian Delight

Cube a brick of extra firm tofu slicing three times on each side. Then add sprinkles of soy sauce and apple cider vinegar (equal amounts) and toss and set aside. Heat wok or skillet with olive oil and sesame oil and freshly chopped garlic and freshly grated ginger and red chili flakes. Add chopped cauliflower, chopped green beans and chopped red peppers or any chopped vegetables you choose. Then add the marinated tofu with the marinade. Cook until tender stirring occasionally. Enjoy!

Rainbow Chard +Tofu

We made this last night. We copied recipe from the New York Times food page this week. It was fabulous. Our market didn't have red chard so we used rainbow chard with one cubed beet!

Stir-Fried Tofu With Red or Rainbow Chard from NYT-Martha Rose Schulman

I love the pink color that tofu takes on when cooked with red chard. Beet greens would also do the trick. In this recipe, blanching the greens is part of the prep.

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped or grated fresh ginger

3/4 pound firm tofu, sliced 1/2 inch thick, into 1- by 2-inch dominoes

1 large bunch or 2 smaller bunches red chard (about 1 1/2 pounds), stemmed and thoroughly cleaned (retain the stems)

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1. Mix together the soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of the ginger and the sugar. Toss with the tofu in a bowl, and set aside. Marinate for 15 minutes or longer. Refrigerate if not using right away. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water.

2. When the water comes to a boil, salt generously and add the red chard leaves. Cook the chard 1 to 2 minutes, until just tender, and transfer with a slotted spoon or deep-fry skimmer to the ice water. Drain and squeeze out the water (you don’t have to squeeze it completely dry). Chop coarsely and set aside.

3. Trim the ends of the chard stalks, clean them well and slice crosswise, about 1/4 inch thick.

4. Heat a large, heavy nonstick skillet or wok over high heat until hot enough to evaporate a drop of water on contact. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil, swirl to coat the pan and reduce the heat to medium-high. Lift the tofu from the marinade, and add to the pan. Stir-fry for two to three minutes, until lightly colored. Add the chard stalks, and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and the garlic and remaining ginger, and stir together for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Stir in the blanched red chard, and stir-fry with the tofu for one minute. Add the tofu marinade and cook, stirring, for another minute or two, until heated through and fragrant. Remove from the heat and serve, with rice or noodles.

Pesto Hummus

I just took pesto I made and added it to a bunch of freshly cooked chic peas and buzzed them in the food processor. Pesto hummus! Delicious with raw vegetables cauliflower, string beans, cukes, carrots and delicious on bread or pasta!

Local Festival

St. John's Baptist Church located at 501 East School Street at the corner of Elbow Street is having their annual outdoor festival picnic Sunday Sept 20th at noon until dusk. This morning while walking Lily I saw a group of men putting up the big white tent which will become the outdoor dining room. We go every year to say hello to everyone and eat the amazing food. It's a lot of fun and we love the home made spinach pies, lamb kabobs, big shiny black olives, feta cheese, coffee, pastries, and music!