Purple Onion Breakfast

Slice a big red onion and toss it into a hot iron skillet, stir until crispy, toss in an egg (on top of messy onion pile) to fry while toast is toasting. Splash on Mexican Cholula hot sauce, (the bottle has a maple cap). Enjoy with tea, coffee and the dog and cat sitting nearby.

Cukes and Onion Sandwich

Red onion, and cucumbers, between two slices of whole grain bread or pita pocket with peanut butter.

Judith Jones: Pleasure in Food

I had the honor of working on two books with Judith Jones.

"At the table, one never grows old," she says, quoting an Italian saying. "Isn't that enough reason to come home at the end of the day, roll up one's sleeves, fire up the stove and start smashing the garlic?"

“Learning to like cooking alone is an ongoing process. But the alternative is worse.”
-Judith Jones

from NPR:

The year was 1959, the end of a decade when the food industry's "prevailing message was that the poor little woman didn't have time to cook, and, moreover, it was beneath her dignity," Judith Jones writes in her compact memoir, The Tenth Muse. But Jones, then a young editor at Alfred A. Knopf, viewed food differently. Born with what she calls a "fluke gene" that allowed her to take pleasure in food — even in a household that banned garlic — she was on the hunt for an authentic French cookbook. That's when Julia Child's thick manuscript landed on her desk.

Happy Birthday James Beard

Happy Birthday James Beard. I am grateful to James Beard for corresponding with his former culinary student Marion Cunningham and sharing his letters with editor Judith Jones.

Faith Shearin

Buried

This is my mother turned towards the ocean
and this is my daughter digging a hole

the size of a dinosaur's thigh. Mother pauses
to survey the horizon which is a pair
of thin blue lips. Mavis faces me --

at the center of her circle like a pupil
in an eye. It is always summer

in this photo and everywhere there are lines:
between sand and water, or water
and sky. The shutter opens and closes,

sifts through our family's drifted history.
Why do I love this picture?
Is it the colors that drip

and cry? Or the hole
my daughter digs which is full

of my own shadow? I am
what is found and what is covered up --
part truth, part lie.

- Faith Shearin

Karen Auvenin: The Fox who came to Dinner

Article
Karen Auvinen teaches film and popular culture at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and writes about food and the sensual life at her blog, One Hot Kitchen. She is at work on a memoir.

I Never Thought I'd see this Day

I came home from my swim and had two mugs of hot of tea with milk and honey and old fashioned popcorn sitting at my picnic table as the sun was setting. Stacy's kids next door are having a ball riding skateboards and scooters now that the parking lot belongs to them and not drug dealers and shady chop-shop guys. In 20 years of living here I never thought I'd see this day. Hurray! Now we can start planning the home made ice cream and basketball party.

Cucumber Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Cucumber Noodles with Peanut SauceServes 2-4

This noodle dish is light, fresh, and healthy!
Ingredients:

For the Peanut Sauce:

2/3 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons gluten-free Tamari (or soy sauce)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons agave (or honey)
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
Dash of red pepper flakes, to taste
1/3 cup warm water

For the Cucumber Noodles:
2 large seedless cucumbers
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
1/3 cup chopped peanuts, for garnish
Directions:

1. First, make the peanut sauce. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, rice vinegar, Tamari, sesame oil, agave, and lime juice. Whisk until smooth. Stir in garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Whisk in the warm water until sauce is smooth.

2. Next, make the cucumber noodles. Adjust the julienne blade on a mandoline to the 1/8-inch-thick setting. Carefully run a cucumber down the blade, slicing the cucumber to form noodles. Continue with the other cucumber. If you don't have a mandoline you can use a julienne peeler to make the noodles or a spiralizer.

3. Place cucumber noodles on a plate or in a bowl. Drizzle with peanut sauce and toss gently. Top with cilantro and peanuts. Serve and enjoy!

Note-for gluten-free make sure you use Tamari and for vegan make sure you use agave. You can substitute soy sauce for the Tamari and honey for the agave if you don't need the recipe to be gluten-free or vegan. We also had leftover peanut sauce!

Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwiches

Not kidding. Read

Ocean Energy Wind Farm

NORTH KINGSTOWN — A radio is playing somewhere in the vast warehouse, but the music is drowned out by a noisy symphony of hammering, welding and grinding.

These are the sounds of the first offshore wind farm in the United States being built.

Here, inside a hangar-size building tucked in a corner of the Quonset Business Park, workers with Specialty Diving Services are making parts of the massive steel foundations for the five wind turbines that Providence-based Deepwater Wind plans to install in ocean waters off Block Island.

The work marks the start of construction in Rhode Island on a project that has been years in the making and will take another year and a half to complete.

The main pieces of the latticework foundations are being built in Louisiana by a company with long experience in the Gulf of Mexico's offshore oil and gas industry. No business in Rhode Island has that type of ability, but Specialty Diving, a Quonset-based marine construction firm that builds bridges and piers, is more than capable of fabricating the custom-made, heavy-duty ladders, rails and platforms that will be attached to the foundations.

The job is not especially difficult for the company's workers, but they are playing a key role in a much larger project that is far from routine.

On a recent morning, amid wisps of smoke and the oddly pleasant smell of burning metal, iron worker Don Rosbotton uses an arc welder to join together two pieces of a circular "flange access platform" that other construction workers will stand on when they bolt Deepwater's turbines in place sometime in 2016. When he finishes the bead, the 55-year-old from South Kingstown wields a pick to knock slag out of the joint and then finishes it off with an electric grinder.

With 29 years in the trade, Rosbotton has worked on the Newport and Jamestown bridges and was a foreman on the project to build the new transportation hub at T.F. Green Airport a few years ago, but the significance of this job is not lost on him.

"I've been on some great projects," he says, "but this is different."Article

Salad Crazy

Grate a bunch of carrots, add raw almonds, raw sunflower seeds, raisins, spinach, sliced red onions, sliced green olives, a splash of toasted sesame oil, red wine vinegar. Toss it all and enjoy with chop sticks preferably outside in the shade.

The Pariah

I often feel like a pariah because women are trained to be alike and I don't conform. I just ran into two women one of whom I've known for 25 years. I was walking my dog and they were having a 'fitness walk' just ahead of me in matching black yoga slacks and white shirts. I said hello but it was clear the woman I know was terrified and couldn't stop even for a split second although I had seen her stop twice to retie her new fitness shoes. I decided to continue on my mission: picking up trash, walking Lily. On my ay home I saw the two ladies again at the fitness center parking lot but this time I didn't desire to stop.

Be Smart

We have a lot of absentee slum-landlords in this neighborhood and every spring, summer and fall someone decides this would be a great time to have a campfire. Today is a fire-alert day it will be 80 degrees and windy and dry.

FIRED UP: Safety, legality are key concerns when using fire pits or fireworks
By
JOSEPH FITZGERALD
jfitzgerald@woonsocketcall.com
Russell Jennings, of Woonsocket, looks over the large variety of fireworks for sale at the fireworks tent in the Rite-Aid parking lot on Social Street in Woonsocket Thursday.

WOONSOCKET – Nothing says summer like sitting around the fire pit, sipping a cold brew and shooting off a bottle rocket or two.

But city homeowners who like a good backyard fire with their pyrotechnics should know there are specific rules and regulations when it comes to fireworks and fire pits.

According to Woonsocket Fire Chief Gary Lataille, fire pits and chimineas are legal in the city, as long as certain rules are followed.

“Fire pits are legal to have and there is a city ordinance that outlines these rules and guidelines,” says Lataille.

First of all, fire pits must be vented through a flue or chimney and they must have a screen or spark arrestor that covers it.

Fire pits also need to be a minimum of 15 feet from the nearest combustible, including the house and shed, and they need to be placed on a non-combustible surface like concrete or grass.

And that’s not all.

The city ordinance says backyard fire pits must be attended at all times by a person who has an available water supply – a connected hose – and fuel sources must be limited to clean, dry corded wood. In other words, you can’t burn leaves, brush or construction debris.

“The ordinance also says that the fire chief or the deputy fire chief can put out any fire at their discretion,” says Lataille.

But just because you can have a backyard fire in a fire pit doesn’t mean you can toss a match to that big pile of leaves and brush sitting in the corner of the backyard.

Unlike North Smithfield and other communities, Woonsocket does not allow open burning throughout the year. An open fire, Lataille says, is defined as any fire within which the products of combustion are emitted into the open air and are not directed through a stack or chimney.

“We get calls and complaints throughout the spring, summer and fall burning season,” says the chief. “I typically tell people who call after the fact that if they have a complaint that their neighbor is burning illegally or it’s out of control, they need to call us when it’s happening.”

“We really don’t have any right to go on to someone’s property when there is no fire. So, if someone sees an event at their neighbor’s house on a Friday night and they call us on Monday, we really don’t have the ability to go on to that property and say ‘hey, you can’t do that,” he added. “If you consider what you’re seeing is an emergency, call 911 and we will send a truck and make a determination. And if it’s illegal, we’ll extinguish it. That’s our response to that type of call.”

As for fireworks, Lataille says even though Rhode Island legalized the sale of fireworks in 2010, some fireworks remain illegal in the state. They include any fireworks that travel more than six feet into the air, or those that explode and make a loud bang sound.

Only sparklers and ground devices such as cylindrical fountains, cone fountains, illuminating torches, ground spinners and toy smoke devices are legal for consumer purchase in Rhode Island.

According to state law, a person must be 16 years of age to purchase and possess fireworks in Rhode Island.

“The General Assembly legalized some fireworks, which are non-aerial and non-exploding fireworks,” he said. “What is being sold is not supposed to explode. They may sizzle and pop, but they’re non-exploding and not meant to be projected into the air.”

With the Fourth of July just about a week away, there's no shortage of places in the city to buy fireworks for the big backyard celebrations. Drive down Social Street or up Diamond Hill Road over the next week and you’ll see temporary fireworks retail tents dedicated solely to selling the fireworks.

But these aren’t fly-by-night businesses looking to make a quick buck. Setting up these tents requires an application process, a state sales permit and a fireworks sales permit from City Hall. The vendors must also complete inspections by the Fire Department and city Inspector’s office. Signs prohibiting smoking in the tent are required as are signs notifying customers that I.Ds are checked.

“Our fire marshal does inspect the temporary tents because they are code restricted,” Lataille says. “For example, they need to have fire extinguishers and they can only have some much combined product powder at a location. They are also constantly monitored.”

“I can say that over the last couple of years the tent folks have been phenomenal,” he says. “These aren’t fly-by-nights. They are good stakeholders, neighbors and partners.”

Lataille says it’s harder to monitor what’s being sold in retail stores, many of which now carry a display stand of some sort offering ground sparklers of varying styles.

“The harder things are the stores that are just starting to get these products,” he said. “We’ve had some issues like a gas station taking in small deliveries and then storing them too close to a flammable source.”

Lataille says consumer fireworks, such as handheld and ground-based sparklers, still need to be used responsibly.

“We had one event last year that was attributed to fireworks where some kids were shooting these things from a window and before you know it the house caught fire. The bottom line is, be smart,” he said.

Today is the birthday of Agnes Fay Morgan

Today is the birthday of Agnes Fay Morgan, born in Peoria, Illinois (1884). She studied chemistry in college, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. But job prospects for female chemists were bleak, so she took a position in the Home Economics department at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1915. She was an associate professor of “household science,” specifically nutrition. She made it her mission to bring the element of science into the program, which was typically dismissed as “women’s work.” When she was made chair of the department, she increased the rigor of the program and worked to have it taken seriously. While other home economics programs were little more than instruction on the art of gracious living, Morgan required all of her students to have a solid foundation in physical and biological science. In 1960 — six years after Morgan retired — the Home Economics Department was renamed the Nutritional Sciences Department, and a year after that, their building was renamed Agnes Fay Morgan Hall. Even after she officially retired, she never gave up her research, and continued to show up to her Berkeley office on a regular basis until her death in 1968.

Morgan, with her background in chemistry applied to the field of nutrition, wrote more than 250 scientific papers. She was responsible for much of what we know about the vitamins in food. She also proved the link between vitamin deficiencies and poor health conditions; showed certain vitamins’ effect on hormones; and analyzed the effects of heat and processing on the stability of vitamins and proteins.

I Love Faith Shearin's Poems

My Grandparents' Generation
by Faith Shearin

They are taking so many things with them:
their sewing machines and fine china,

their ability to fold a newspaper
with one hand and swat a fly.

They are taking their rotary telephones,
and fat televisions, and knitting needles,

their cast iron frying pans, and Tupperware.
They are packing away the picnics

and perambulators, the wagons
and church socials. They are wrapped in

lipstick and big band music, dressed
in recipes. Buried with them: bathtubs

with feet, front porches, dogs without leashes.
These are the people who raised me

and now I am left behind in
a world without paper letters,

a place where the phone
has grown as eager as a weed.

I am going to miss their attics,
their ordinary coffee, their chicken

fried in lard. I would give anything
to be ten again, up late with them

in that cottage by the river, buying
Marvin Gardens and passing go,

collecting two hundred dollars.

"My Grandparents' Generation" by Faith Shearin from Telling the Bees. © Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2015.

Lazy Cold Suppers

We had cucumber sandwiches with grated carrots spinach red onions and mushrooms tucked into whole wheat pockets lined with mustard and mayo. We ate oil cured olives. Life is good.

Grad School Widows Anonymous

Blog

Lemonade Tea

We like Black Tetley tea brewed with peach tea, then cooled and diluted with fruit juice: pear juice, or lemonade as our summer cocktail.

Straw Hat, Flip-Flops, Vest, and Black Khaki's

My summer wardrobe is so simple: Straw Hat, Flip-Flops, Vest and Black Khaki's

Cabbage, Pickles and Beets

I could live on vinegar! I love acidity and seem to crave it. A friend gave me a pickle making kit. It's time to try it.

Pita Bread Made two Ways

I love pocket bread sandwiches, especially whole wheat. Read

Cucumber Red Onion Sandwich

I made a cucumber red onion sandwich with Cholula hot sauce, mayo and mustard in a whole wheat pocket bread. Delicious.

Marissa Bagget

Marisa Baggett’s passion for food led her to an early career in culinary arts. At the age of 22, she opened The Chocolate Giraffe, a restaurant and catering company in her hometown of Starkville, MS that specialized in Southern fare with a global twist as well as provided desserts for special occasions. One year later, Baggett expanded with The Chocolate Giraffe Coffeehouse. But it was the special request of a dinner party client that Baggett’s passion for food would truly be expanded. Due to a lack of nearby sushi bars, Baggett was asked to host a sushi dinner. She accepted the challenge and soon became fascinated by the art. Her fascination prompted her to add sushi to her regular menu at the restaurant and it became a quick hit.

Baggett soon realized that she wanted to pursue becoming a sushi chef. Though it was a difficult decision, she chose to close The Chocolate Giraffe and The Chocolate Giraffe Coffeehouse to leave Starkville in pursuit of her dream. Before heading off to California, Baggett made a culinary pit stop in Memphis, TN and worked as a pastry cook at Tsunami Restaurant. Surrounded by the fresh abundance of seafood and the Asian-inspired cuisine of Chef Ben Smith, her dream of becoming a sushi chef intensified. She left her position at Tsunami and enrolled in the professional sushi chef program at the California Sushi Academy.

At the California Sushi Academy, Baggett studied the delicate arts of sashimi, nigiri-zushi, makimono, and kaiseki under the critical eyes of restaurateur, sushi master and sake sommelier Toshi Sugiura as well as respected sushi master Nobuo Kishimoto. In addition to classroom time, Baggett assisted with recreational sushi classes, helped cater sushi for high profile Los Angeles events and spent time observing as well as assisting head sushi chefs in Venice Beach and Hermosa Beach. Upon completing her training, Baggett became the first African American female graduate of the school.

Baggett returned to the South and shared her knowledge of sushi with Memphians as the sushi chef of Do Sushi Bar and Lounge. During her time there, Baggett gained local, national and international recognition for her Southern twist on sushi. After three years, Baggett decided to leave Do Sushi and focus on sharing the art of sushi as a traveling itamae, teaching sushi classes at various gourmet food markets and private homes, creating “tsushi” for Tsunami Restaurant in Memphis, TN.

Currently, Baggett is a freelance writer, sushi consultant, sushi event chef, and an advocate for sustainable seafood use for sushi. Her first book, Sushi Secrets: Easy Recipes for the Home Cook, can be purchased from on-line booksellers or in bookstores.

recipes

Vinegar, Pickles and Ice Cream

I love vinegar and I go through a quart of it in a month. I recently discovered that canned tuna with vinegar and green olives is more delicious as a meal than with mayo.Article This article suggests trying vanilla ice cream with balsamic vinegar on top! Hilarious. Pickles and ice cream? I'll have to ask my niece Paula...she's going to have a baby girl in September. Strawberries and balsamic vinegar are excellent.

Fashion Du Jour

Yesterday on my downtown stroll with Lily, I saw my neighbor from the pea green soup colored 'happy house' wearing Grinch pajama lounge pants He was walking towards me having been sent on a mission. He was carrying a tray of iced and hot coffees from the local DD franchise back to his extended family. "It's going to be 70's all week" he said. "Great" I said feeling a little worried that anything over 60 degrees is too hot.
I worry about my hair if it is not combed but in my neighborhood pajamas and slippers are the fashion du jour.