The Karmic Kitchen

Battle of the Brands

2012-01-29T15:00:00.000-06:00

Would you make this for your family?

Would you serve this to a guest to your home?

If you've been stuck in a media blackout bunker, trying to hide from the insanity that is the Republican primaries then you might have missed the ongoing bloody Battle of the Culinary Brands.

This current battle really started last August when Tony Bourdain gave an interview to TV Guide. In that interview he slammed Food Network's shiniest stars, Rachel Ray, Sandra Lee, Guy Fieri and Paula Deen. Of Deen he said "the worst, most dangerous person in America … plus, her food sucks”. This is nothing new for Father Tony, he's been bitch slapping Food Network stars for years now but Paula decided to answer back with the tired, old, I'm one with the real people trope. "You know, not everybody can afford to pay $58 for prime rib or $650 for a bottle of wine,” she said. “My friends and I cook for regular families who worry about feeding their kids and paying the bills.” (...and yet I don't see Tony pimping a 3 piece furniture set for $3,600 or a cheapest single ticket to her seven day cruise for $1,500). Frank Bruni, the food critic for the NY Times shoved his way into the conversation, siding with Deen and calling Bourdain elitist which is pretty freaking funny considering the paper he works for and the town he works in. Things settled down for a bit until....

Flash forward to January 17th and Paula Deen is confirming on NBC's Today show that, yes, she has Type 2 Diabetes, yes, she's now the spokesperson for Novo Nordisk and their injectable diabetes drug, Victoza and yes, she's known and has been treating her diabetes for three years. Victoza, which costs something like $500 a month, is not exactly cheap for the common folk Ms. Deen so loudly claims to champion. Mr. Bourdain, looking a bit like a modern day prophet, lobbed this Twitter pie directly at Team Deen's face, "Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later." Bruni, suddenly smelling which way the butter burns, also checked in with NY's opinion on this national story, saying "She had waited three long, greasy years since her diagnosis to come out. During that period, she promoted the deep-fried life without acknowledging her firsthand experience of how a person can be burned by it". Thanks Frank.

Since then it's been a constant tsunami of quotes and public relations web spinning. Paula's longtime publicist left Paula in December over the current direction of Team Deen, thinking she still had a job with her sons. She was quickly released from their employment. Food Network, also sensing bad juju, released their statement that they had no idea whatsoever that Ms. Deen had diabetes. Paula weakly defended herself, blathering something about not being educated enough to reveal her condition. Apparently she also felt a bit hurt that none of her brother and sister celebrity chefs are running to her defense but can you blame them? Actually I'm guessing that the only person happier about this Deen/Diabetes brouhaha is Ina Garten who can now officially come off the Internet Outrage pedestal after having refused a child's Make a Wish request and had her brand ripped up one side and down another.

The most amusing aspect of this whole charade is that those who strongly support Paula Deen's culinary empire (Smithfield Ham, Philadelphia Cream Cheese/Kraft Food, Nebraska Furniture Mart, magazines, restaurant, cookbooks, dvds, cookware and television shows) now claim that her food, her culinary output is only meant to entertain the masses. That she's always preached moderation. That's she's not responsible for what food you choose to put in your mouth. To this we must call Shenanigans! If Paula Deen is only on TV for entertainment purposes I'm guessing companies like Smithfield and Kraft are going to want their advertising and sponsorship dollars back. They are certainly not advertising on her show or on the Food Network as some sort of charitable donation. Hell no, they want Paula's viewers and fans to buy and keep buying their many processed food products. They don't care if Americans get diabetes, they have product to push and now with Victoza, you can keep eating their products and her food and all will be well.

The one thing I agree with out of all this is that no one forces you to eat or cook like a tv chef, food blogger, or newspaper critic. You have to be responsible for your own health and decisions. But there's a reason why the tv show Jackass has huge blazing warnings not to try their stunts on your own....because idiots do. There are thousands and thousands of Paula Deen fans that cook and eat her food with regularity. They find justification in the buzz words used to describe her food: comfort, rib sticking, southern, traditional, country and uncomplicated. Pointing out the unhealthy aspects of her dishes is translated into attacking the emotional resonance that food represents to her devoted fans. C'mon y'all, you'll feel better if you make yourself a big ole pile of my Mac and Cheese and some wonderful fried chicken, just like grandma used to make. That's a pretty powerful pitch. Let's all just remember that above everything thing else it is a pitch. Paula's not your girlfriend and she's not going to invite you into her house to cook you food, Tony's not your buddy, Frank Bruni doesn't really care about your opinions. They all represent Brands that must be fed and cared for. They all have an agenda to push and empires to maintain and salaries to pay. The team you should be most concerned with is YOU and your family. Use the common sense that the good lord gave you and use fresh food in dishes you make yourself, recipes full of vegetables, fruit and whole grains. You can only help yourself build a strong foundation to a healthy lifestyle and in the process make your own wonderful food memories.

How Far Will It Go?

2012-01-23T23:00:00.001-06:00

I have never tasted Atlantic bluefin tuna sushi or sashimi. Actually I don't think I've eaten that species of tuna in any form. I will probably never get the chance to. Not that it's not available, sadly it is. But this fish, a species that has fed the world for thousands of years is in danger of collapsing to unrecoverable levels due to overfishing. Now in years past, Americans would learn about such things by reading the National Geographic magazine. They would have spectacular action color photography of tuna underwater. They might have Jacques Cousteau explain the various migration and mating patterns of this apex predator. I'm sure there would even be a map and graph showing all the different species and habitats of the tunas of the world. Later, when television took off, National Geographic wildlife specials were fascinating and a bit scary. All the drama you could want was right there as you followed what ever creature or life form they were exploring. Little did we know those were the golden years of Nat Geo.

Nat Geo recently announced that they are to air "Wicked Tuna", an unscripted reality show featuring tuna fishermen of Gloucester, Massachusetts has they hunt the Atlantic Bluefin tuna. Now this is sad in just so many ways. First I learned that News Corp and Rupert Murdoch owns 67% of the National Geographic Channel which begins to explain Wicked Tuna. You see, the "fishing reality/competition" reality programs have been done to death. Deadliest Catch has been running on the Discovery Channel since 2005. Then we had Lobstermen but that lasted only one season. Determined to keep cashing in on Deadliest Catch's format for success, sword fishermen (and woman) were next to pop up on the Discovery Channel. But neither the Atlantic Bluefin tuna's precarious fishery levels nor the tired nature of watching men fish will keep Nat/News Corp from promoting and airing Wicked Tuna.

What can you do to help stop promoting the destruction of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna? Well for one thing kill your cable television. I'm not joking. In April of last year I ditched pay tv and haven't looked back. No money will go to Murdoch, no eyes will see whatever advertisers pay for commercial time on Wicked Tuna. I was mad as hell and I didn't want to take it anymore. Isn't it about time for you to stop taking it too?

Putting Up, Not Shutting Up - Okra Pie

2012-01-22T15:00:00.003-06:00

OK, I think I did it. Made an edible okra pie. Will it replace the classic apple pie, the sweet and gooey blueberry or the unending variety of cream pies? No. But if you want to try something completely different and you're an adventurous soul, here's what you do.

First, let's remember that it's the middle of January in the midwest so my access to fresh okra was difficult at first. However plenty of frozen to go around. Actually two kinds of frozen for our purposes. Precut and whole. When I first started out on this project, I thought the precut okra would work great. That was a big no go. Too much chewy okra texture and general bad mouth feel. So I switched to the whole okra and cut it to the size I thought would work best. Since I'm working a nine inch pie, I decided to use two one pound bags of whole okra. Two thirds of this I sliced really thin (while still mostly frozen, cuts better) and the remaining third I cut about a half inch thick.

Why do this? Well the thin slices break down a little bit and make better pie filling and the larger pieces still give the filling the okra texture. So once you've cut up your okra we need to make it just a little less okrery. Put the thin sliced okra in a pan and add enough water to cover. Bring it to a boil. Once it has reached boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the juice of one lemon and let simmer for a couple minutes. Now add 3/4 cup brown sugar and stir to mix. Taste the mixture. You may like it sweeter or more tart according to your taste. Now stir in the remaining thicker slices of okra. Remove from heat and set aside.

Toast 2 cups of pecans halves for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Once toasted and cool enough to handle, roughly chop the nuts and add them to the okra mixture. Add the zest of one lemon and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and mix well. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

As I said in my original Facebook posting, I mentioned a cornmeal crust. None of my numerous pie cookbooks had a recipe I really liked so I resorted to Epicurious, my favorite go to site for fairly decent online recipes. They had just the pie crust I was looking for. They used it for a Apple Cranberry Pie and the only change I made was to leave out the pumpkin pie spice and use an entire top crust, not the leaf cutouts they prepared. Next time I might cut back on the salt. I will be making this crust again, it's almost like a cornmeal shortbread crust but very rustic. It would make a great crust for savory pie. I brushed the top of the pie with some buttermilk and sprinkled a little bit of very fine granulated sugar (caster sugar) on the top. Popped it into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes with aluminum foil strips protecting the edges of the pie. Then another 15 minutes or so without the foil so the top crust can get nicely browned but not burned.

It's not a very pretty pie but I really kinda like the flavors none the less. Boiling away some of that strong okra flavor and then matching with what's left with the hard to beat combo of brown sugar and lemon is fun. What we haven't talked about is the slime, or the snot of the vegetable world as it's generally known. Virginia and I actually corresponded a little bit about developing this recipe and her suggestions on eliminating okra's slickness were valid but I wanted to bend it to my will, not make it disappear all together. By boiling the okra first, adding acidity (the lemon), and then binding the results (the cornstarch) I got a filling that holds together without being gummy or slimy. Earlier experiments involved many more spices to pair with the okra, namely a mild sweet curry however if there's one thing I've learned from watching many people cook food and developing my own cooking style, simple is better. The curry was one step too far. I'm much happier with the what finally developed.

So why do this? Why make a pie out of vegetable that a majority of people hate with a passion? Well there's the whole challenge of it. Think of it as a puzzle game, what fits best with what. Also knowing that you have the flexibility to create something from very little available. When I was doing the research for this project I read a very interesting passage from the Little House Cookbook. Barbara Walker wrote a wonderful book on the foods and cooking methods she believes were used during the frontier time period that was the setting of the Little House on the Prairie series. In the book, The Long Winter, Laura's mother makes a pie out of the only thing she currently had available , green pumpkin. Her ingenuity and cleverness provided a much welcomed treat when normal pie fillings were nowhere in sight. I like knowing that I can do that. The culinary sky's the limit if you can make a good tasting okra pie. You just never know where it will lead.

Putting Up - Okra Pie

2012-01-15T16:00:00.001-06:00

Start with some research.

First try, fail.

Second try, edible but issues.

BUSTED!

2012-01-12T21:00:00.001-06:00

Busted.
I am so totally busted.

It was a simple question.

"Working on a project for summer and this 35° New England weather has me stymied. What's your favorite okra dish?"

Virginia Willis asked this on her Facebook page. It's a good question. I happen to love okra but there's not a whole lot of American recipes outside of deep fried and gumbo. And this is where my smart mouth (or keyboard in this case) got me into trouble. I typed in a response, thinking the saucy Ms. Willis would be too busy to notice my suggestion. But noooo, girlfriend jumped all over it. "Linda - can you pls shoot me the recipe for okra pie w cm crust? That sounds goooooood!"

That's right. Okra pie with cornmeal crust. I've never heard of it, never tasted it, let ALONE made one. Why did I say it? Say it outloud. Okra pie. It makes me laugh. (This alone should tell you why I'm not a stand up comedian). But now the lovely Southern chef and author of two fabulous books would like my recipe for Okra Pie with Cornmeal Crust. Do I put up or shut up? I'm thinking Put Up.

Do you doubt me? Think I lack passion or vision? Oh no, think back. Am I not the woman who gave you Peep Sushi?

Am I not the woman who gave you Crab Pot Pie?

Am I not the woman who put Tom Colicchio's head on the body of a rooster?

(Why....because I could!)

I think I can handle Okra Pie. That's my challenge for the weekend. Make an edible okra pie. What do you think, savory? Sweet? Spices or flavorings? Can the slime be conquered? Watch for either yummy results or a total flaming failure that not even the dog will eat.

Guess What I Got for the Holidays?

2011-12-27T20:24:00.001-06:00

The Pumpkin Butchering

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

There's an old saying about curiosity killing the cat. I don't know about cats but curiosity has always served me well. Waiting for a Caesar salad to-go, I pondered out loud about the squash anchoring the festive fall decorations sitting on the bar at Lidia's Kansas City. You see it was rather large for an indoor pumpkin. So I asked the hostess what they were going to do with it once Fall was over. "Well, the chefs will take it back to the kitchen and make pumpkin raviolis out of it." How great was that? So great that I asked if I could watch and by "watch" I meant be the photographic fly on the kitchen wall while they broke down the massive 80 pound pumpkin. After a flurry of emails with busy Chef de Cuisine Cody Hogan and Executive Chef Dan Swinney, I found myself squeezed into some tight kitchen spaces to witness The Pumpkin Butchering.

Now it would be much easier and probably more cost effective to buy a big can of pumpkin at the Restaurant Depot and call it a day. But that's the difference between OK restaurants and great restaurants. They take tremendous pride in their food, from seeking out the best local fresh ingredients to using those ingredients to make simple luscious well seasoned and balanced dishes. I can tell you that the best compliment I could give to the chefs that day was an grateful empty plate.

You would be doing yourself a favor by finding and supporting those restaurants that understand that simple philosophy. I know I'll keep supporting the treasure that is Lidia's Kansas City.

Be Prepared

2011-12-13T21:30:00.001-06:00

I have been known to keep a treat or two in my pockets for my four legged friends that I might run into while going about my daily business. However I was caught completely off guard when leaving my downtown KC workplace the other day.

This would be O'Sullivan and Blaise. I believe that's Officer Mike Mast with O'Sullivan but I didn't get the name of the officer on Blaise. I'll make up for it next time they come walking up the street by having an apple or carrot or two ready for sharing with our hard working police horses.

Are there doughnuts for horses.....?

Sugared Cranberries

2011-12-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

It's fresh Cranberry season and I'm celebrating. Cranberries, much like brussel sprouts, are an acquired taste. Which is fine, just means more for me but I've got to hustle because cranberry season does not last long.

I like the cranberry's flavor. It's got that bitter tang that adds another level of complexity to a dish or your meal. I'll definitely be making the longtime favorite from Epicurious, Cranberry Sauce with Port and Tangerines .
I've always wanted to try my hand at sugared cranberries. They are so pretty when I've seen them online and sugared fruits of all kind are a great food decorating method.

Turns out it's a very easy process. Make a simple syrup, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, simmered until the sugar melts. Let it cool just a bit because you don't want your cranberries to burst from the heat and then pour it over a rinsed, well picked bag of cranberries, coating well. Cover and let that sit in the fridge at least 5 hours or overnight. Once the cranberries have finished their simple syrup soak, drain them from the syrup and place the cranberries on cookie sheet, all in one layer and let them sit out for 1 hour. Then roll them, small batches at a time in sugar.

Now the sugar suggestions range all over the map. Some recipes call for superfine sugar like caster, other call for a first rolling in a larger grained sugar, then re-rolling in regular sugar. You'll have to experiment with what you like best. I went with the really fine grained sugar. After which I proceeded to eat copious amounts of cranberry bombs.

Guess what's coming to work as a snack??

A Chef Walks into a Grocery Store with Ten Dollars....

2011-12-06T18:30:00.002-06:00

Best intentions. I'm sure they had the best of intentions. Who am I talking about? A whole passel of folks in the news recently but mainly I'm talking about the Partnership for a Healthier America. Last week a group of celebrity chefs gathered in Washington DC to stunt cook (but for a good cause). This particular event caught my eye for two reasons: 1) Tom Colicchio and 2) it was a straight up repeat of this challenge...

...where Season 4 chefs' shop at Whole Foods to make dinner for a family of four using a $10 budget. The twist this time? They are not pimping Whole Foods but their supposed challenge was to use SNAP coupons. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the current form of food stamps. So the two teams of chefs were supposedly to use $10 of SNAP money to make their meal. But our long experience with Chef Tom tells us that there's no way he's going to actually take ten bucks into a grocery store and shop for a whole meal. Nope. As typical with restaurant chefs, they've jiggered the numbers again to allow themselves to use restaurant math to make this work for them. They also decided that the recipes that they produced were for two families. So already they've taken a very real situation that many people face today and cheated it into something totally unrealistic all the while giving themselves a big pat on the back for being so philanthropic. If you think I'm being harsh, here is Tom's list of ingredients for his three course meal of Salad, Beef Stir Fry and Panna Cotta with Orange Segments.

1 whole bag carrots, 1/2 cup raisins, 2 apples, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2 T apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper, 1 1/2 pounds beef round, 1 cup broccoli florets, 1 cup snow peas, 1 cup button mushrooms, hot sesame oil AND regular sesame oil, 3/4 cup soy sauce, 1 T oyster sauce, 1 T fresh lime, 1/2 cup green onion, 1/2 cup peanuts, 1 cup onion, 1 T garlic, 1/2 cup cilantro, 3 cups brown rice, 1 packet sugar free orange jello, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk and orange segments.

Now I don't have to go shopping to tell you how crazy that list is for regular folks and I'm not sure just what the rules are for what products are and are not allowed to be purchased using SNAP, but I'm thinking oyster sauce is not included. Here's what I do know. When faced with attempting to make every dollar stretch, every penny count, unemployed parents are going to hard pressed to turn away from a cheap Micky Dee's Happy Meal when faced with this list. Hell Tom's list is not so bad compared to Ming Tsai's list which includes two heads of frisee. But these restaurant chefs are going to have to accept the fact that folks using SNAP are not going to have two kinds of sesame oil in their pantry, if they still have a pantry at all.

So what did they accomplish? Did they raise a lot of money for their non-profit? Probably. Did they raise awareness about healthy eating? Not sure since there were no nutritional values listed in the press releases or on their website where I found their recipes. Did they convince anyone that the meals they made can hit their ten dollar budget? Highly unlikely since again, no monetary values were attached to the recipes. Did Chef Tom get the experience of having someone spit out his creation in front of a live audience? Hella yes! (Read all about it here at the Washington Post article describing the hilarious spit by spit event) But let's just take a cold reality shower and remember that 60 Minutes and CBS News recently had a sobering piece about families living in vehicles because of the economic reality many are currently experiencing.

Arielle Metzger and Austin Metzger

Maybe these two kids should give a seminar on eating healthier on $10. It might be a little more honest.

What the Heck is That?

2011-12-04T16:57:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving Update

2011-11-27T22:00:00.001-06:00

I don't know about you but I had an awesome Thanksgiving holiday. I ate so much that I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to wear my Wonder Sauna Pants for at least a week.

I'm not sure how this will fit in with the office dress code....however knowing my co-workers I doubt I will be the only one wearing a pair. I had the pleasure of not cooking a darned thing for the dinner. Let me tell you it felt mondo weird but my big gay boyfriend Craig had it all covered, including this beautiful table setting with a tablecloth he threw together himself.

BACK OFF LADIES, HE'S MINE.

Craig actually had the dinner catered. I'm not telling you who did the catering because it was so freaking delicious that I don't want the secret to get out.

By the way, if I'm ever in a coma and my mom's gravy is unavailable, this is the 2nd in line turkey gravy to plug into my IV in order to revive me. Even though we had plenty of food, Craig decided to deep fry his own turkey.

He was testing out Butterball's new indoors turkey fryer. He had the small model but it worked so well on this little turkey he went right out and bought the larger version the very next day.

Good food, good friends, children telling embarrassing stories about their parents, and plenty of libations to keep the mood festive. Even the weather had a good time and busted out with the low 60's that allowed us to sit outside and snack before dinner. But the icing on the cake? A soft, adorably cute, 10 week old Brittany puppy named Dusty.

Really, if you want to make your party a total success, rent cute puppies and let them loose on your guests. Especially if you to see me turn into a goobering idiot.

Hi, my name is Dusty and I want to whisper secrets in your ear...

Meanwhile back in the kitchen, a tragedy is about to happen. Turkey carcasses were about to be thrown out. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm fairly certain Craig thought I was crazy but just like making fish stock, meaty carcasses make the best stock. Since I hadn't cooked anything before the meal, I rushed home to cook after the meal. First I cleaned off a lovely pile of meat from the two turkey carcasses I rescued. Next I arranged all the bones into a big roaster and let them get good and brown. Then I hauled out my big blue granite ware canning pot and dumped the hot bones in some water with some onions, celery and carrots and a little bundle of fresh herbs. A couple hours and a lot of skimming later we have turkey stock.

So I've got plenty of white meat, dark meat and stock. What to do? Actually our weather helped me decide. Currently we have been yoyoing between winter-like temps and Indian Summer. The day after Thanksgiving swung back to the cold side so soup seemed like a good idea. I'm not a white meat aficionado so finding a way it more palatable was necessary. Tortilla Soup seemed like a winner.

Since this was basically a leftovers meal, I didn't want anything too complicated. The Pioneer Woman Cooks had just the right Tortilla Soup recipe. I only had a couple of changes to her recipe. First, didn't have to roast any chicken breasts since I had the turkey. I did sprinkle some of the spice mix over it and then stir fried the white meat in a little bit of oil to give it some depth.

Followed the rest of the recipe except that I added some finely diced jalapeno and a can of hominy to the soup. As for the toppings, I went with fresh onion, cilantro, avocado and lime. Many recipes call for sour cream and Monterey Jack cheese but frankly, with the avocado, who needs it?

Oh so the right choice. Earthy flavors of cumin and garlic with the brightness of lime and the crunchy yumminess of corn tortillas. Really this is almost a stew but who's complaining. It's the Thanksgiving that keeps on giving.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you should remember that we had a Pie Off not too long ago. One of the pies in the running was Momofuku's Crack pie. Froggy over at her blog has a Thanksgiving family tradition of making a Mystery Pie and yep, you guessed it, she made Crack Pie. Go on over and look at it's loveliness. By all accounts Crack Pie goes into the win column.

My last duty of Thanksgiving is to give Dani of Gardening Under the Florida Sun her Thanksgiving Holiday turkey.

Mr. Dani should be thankful that I'm only giving her a digital turkey because we all know she wants a real one.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Foodies come in all shapes and sizes

2011-11-23T19:30:00.002-06:00

Jackson and I have a routine. We walk. A lot. We walk because he can jump my backyard fence as easily as he breathes. So at least three daily walks happen. He enjoys it because it allows him to patrol his neighborhood for squirrels, rabbits and crows and I enjoy it because my leaf lard ass sits in this chair entirely too much blog surfing. So we walk. As you can imagine, we see a lot of squirrels. Squirrels in trees, squirrels on the ground, squirrels just being squirrels.

What sometimes scares me is when we don't see any squirrels at all on our walk, as if the world had gone all zombie and the zombies started by eating the squirrels first. (not really a bad thing)

MUST EAT SQUIRREL BRAINS!!!!!

Anyhoo, we were out on one of our mid-afternoon walks when we spied a pair of squirrels in the street. This is not unusual. The fat one in the middle of the street had something that appeared white in it's mouth. I say white because I couldn't really see it and my brain just assumed it was an apple. Of course Jackson saw it and went into his patented super slow silent stalking mode, convinced of his own invisibility. I know this because I get nastiest dirty looks whenever I step on a dry leaf when he's in his stalk. Normally the squirrels feel the deathrays shooting out of his eyes and scamper back up the nearest tree post haste. But this squirrel, he kept coming towards us, heading for a tree on the other side of road, very slowly. Drool puddles started to form beneath Jackson's feet in anticipation of Slow Stupid Squirrel. Me? I'm suddenly worried that the white thing in the squirrel's mouth is foam and that we've found ourselves a rabid squirrel. The situation almost reached the point of leaping dog death teeth when the squirrel, not rabid, not slow nor stupid suddenly dropped what was in it's mouth and turned furry tail and ran back across the street. For all you folks who don't believe animals experience emotions like disappointment, anger or frustration, you needed to see Jackson after the Almost Squirrel Snack.

It wasn't until I comforted the hound at his near miss of having a squirrel actually walk into his mouth that I finally saw what the squirrel was hauling back to his nest.

A full freaking loaf of french bread??? This loaf was longer than the squirrel. No wonder the dumb ass was moving so slow. I'm so sad I didn't get to see him attempt to get it up his tree. Of course my first thought was "Who throws out a whole loaf of french bread?". My second thought was, damn, squirrel's got foodie game! You go Squirrel! Don't forget the brie.

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

2011-11-20T17:30:00.000-06:00

The season of blood has begun. The trees, in one last gasping spasm of summer life, practically bleed from their branches.

It's at if some tragic and bitter massacre has occurred in countless yards and forest floors, some mysterious battle fought and lost....

...leaving behind dry brittle bones and blood stained images tattooed into hard surfaces. It's not just the trees that bleed.

It's the season when men and women take to the woods in sturdy fashions of swirling brown and green. Sitting in trees, crouching in high grass, waiting. Little lies are told of past hunts and if the waiting goes on long enough, bigger truths are examined and revealed.

Hunting is woven deeply into our shared dna, whether immigrant or native born. Protein kept us alive when this country was so very young. Hunters today heed the call of their dna, their blood. They return home with sweat sculptured hair, all angles and waves. They return with cheeks and noses ruddy from exposure, padding around like giant camouflaged ducks with thick grey wool-webbed feet. They nap and dream of big bucks and racing blood.

Most home cooks today only know meat as something vacuum sealed in plastic and styrofoam, waiting in a refrigerated case, only to be thrown in a grocery cart, practically bloodless and sterile.

The blood, if any, to be instantly cleaned from the kitchen with anti-bacterial sprays for fear of "cross contamination". Death by chicken blood.

We are lucky to still have a season of blood. That the deer and the antelope still play in such numbers that we can enjoy and appreciate nature's bounty.

I am lucky enough to be the recipient of such bountiful gifts of venison and now, antelope and I am always grateful, especially since I am not a hunter. I always try to do right by the beast that fed me.

This wonderful and tender antelope roast was prepared by using a recipe I found at Texas Hunt Works. It was delicate and juicy and I can't wait to try more recipes for the rest of the antelope I have in my freezer. Thank you Tim and Chris, it's good eatin'.

Because Foodies Travel

2011-11-15T18:30:00.003-06:00

Thirteen spices and herbs, all packed up and ready to go. Think your mother in law's cooking lacks a little umphf? Slip in a little wasabi powder and you're good to go. A great stocking stuffer.

Carving

2011-11-09T19:51:00.005-06:00

You may think you can carve a pumpkin...

...but in reality? No, not so much.

Mapril is only a few months away

2011-11-09T19:29:00.002-06:00

Oh my....I want to go there.....

Hit and Miss

2011-10-31T21:00:00.000-05:00

Do you have a lot of cookbooks? Does your bookshelf runneth over? What makes you buy a particular cookbook over another? Is it one recipe that catches your eye? Is it the subject matter or focus? Or is it the photography? I recently borrowed a new cookbook from a friend and I'm kinda picking and choosing some recipes to try. The first two didn't go so well. It being October, I thought I'd try making a pumpkin muffin from this cookbook.

I'm pretty good at following recipes as written. I try and give the author a chance to make the recipe as she or he intended the first time around. This recipe is a basic muffin recipe with a crumb topping. Now I had a choice to use paper liners or just grease the muffin tin. Not having liners, I went with the grease.

That may have been one of my issues since the crumb topping adhered more to the pan instead of settling into the muffin. However the delicacy of the topping made it nearly impossible to eat all at the same time.

The topping basically came off in one piece. That's no damn fun. Not to mention the muffin itself is pretty dense. Do I try making this recipe again with the liners? Or do I move onto the next recipe in the cookbook and give it one more chance?

Romanesco Broccoli

2011-10-28T21:55:00.003-05:00

I give you...the Romanesco broccoli. Captain Obvious was right, this was tiny but it was the largest one they had at Whole Foods. It's an absolutely fascinating vegetable. Math geeks love it for it's logarithmic spirals. I love it because it's just so pretty.

Here's hoping that one day they grow a head of this broccoli as large as the giant pumpkins.

What the Heck is That?

2011-10-26T17:32:00.001-05:00

Basics to Brilliant Y'all.

2011-10-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

I don't cheer on too many teams. My days of watching and supporting professional sports have faded into the misty fanaticism of my youth (a certain cross country Winnebago trip to feed the Washington Redskins ribs as they prepared for the Super Bowl fixed that). These days my cheerleading is reserved for the health and well being for our country as a whole. GO USA. However there is one team that I am wholeheartedly on the Winnebago for. That's Team Willis. It's pretty easy to figure out why. Whether getting quoted in the NY Times about wistfully hoping for gay marriage rights in Georgia, coming to terms with being "a big gal", pulling the curtain back on making of a cookbook or sharing her love of all things seafood, Virginia is a kindred spirit that I love seeing success rain down on her self described offensive lineman's shoulders.

Photo by Angie Mosier

If you've followed this blog at all you know I've been casually cooking my way through Virginia's most excellent first cookbook, Bon Appetit Y'all. It's not just beautiful and graphically amazing, I have not yet found a bad recipe. But you just knew that Virginia had more than one delicious cookbook's worth of recipes tucked away in the nooks and crannies of her chef's jacket. Now comes Basic to Brilliant Y'all, her second stunning offering.

Right off the bat I have one minor issue. Really, just a little one. It's this recipe right here....

Photo by Helene Dujardin

...and the fall release date of this book. You see, to prepare a dish the best way you sometimes have to cook seasonally. This recipe of grilled soft shell crabs with lemon gremolata really only should be prepared with fresh soft shell crabs. Which for yours truly, will not be available until the next spring. Let's just say it's going to be a long, cold winter before I can satisfy my hunger for that particular tidbit. But that's OK because when digging into a new cookbook, I like to make the very first recipe the author lists and since the theme of this cookbook is basics, it's only appropriate that we start with chicken stock (and participate in Virginia's Virtual Potluck). Now again, if you readers have been following along you also know I jibe pretty closely with the Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen crowd. I've been using their basic chicken stock recipe and have not been disappointed in the flavor. But then again, they don't use chicken feet.

That's right, Virginia suggests that two pounds of well washed chicken feet would make an excellent chicken stock. I just happen to frequent a grocery store that has a well stocked meat counter with big piles of chicken feet. Which brings us to the weirdness factor of your basic American cook. Why am I a little skeeved out handling chicken feet? I know why.....the fact that we (mostly) are generations removed from killing and butchering our own meat. My grandmother made a mean fried chicken but that meant starting the process of the meal by chopping the head off a chicken. Attending yearly hog butcherings at an early age keeps you from being squeamish about meat but still, chicken feet are skeevy. Of course that didn't stop me from making the stock.

Liquid gold, baby. I'll probably make Virginia's Meme's Chicken and Rice.

You will be sad because you won't be able to just drop in to see what I'm cooking.

Kitchen Space

2011-10-11T22:15:00.004-05:00

So I was in the mood for some Rosemary Pork ribs. Cut up a mess of ribs.

However I'm having a bit of an issue with the newest member of the Karmic Kitchen.

Seems that somebody doesn't understand exactly where he belongs in the kitchen. Prior canine members understood that loud, scary, clangy things would fall from sky if one got too close to She Who Must Be Obeyed when she was in the kitchen. Unfortunately Action Jackson is not at all flustered by banging pots and pans.

He does pout like no other dog I've known when I relocate him to a safe zone, little bastid. Actually that's his indoor face, he's so laid back. However when we're outside....

...he's all about getting one of these into his jaws. We are the squirrel stalking fools. I think he's part cat because any moment he's going to try climbing a tree.

Coming soon....squirrel jerky!

Happy Birthdays

2011-10-07T00:18:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday Dani of Gardening Under the Florida Sun!

Happy Birthday MS of Making Space!

Remember, you're not getting older, you're getting better.

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Figgy Piggy Cornish Hens

2011-09-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

Still had some figs left.

And some bacon and garlic. Add one Cornish Hen and a recipe from Epicurious....

...and you've got Figgy Piggy Cornish Hens. Even better, Virginia Willis' Rice Pilaf to sop up the juice from the hen and figs. Be jealous....like my good dog Jackson.

Fall Figs

2011-09-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

Fall has landed in the Midwest with a pumpkinny thump. Halloween is still over a month away but every sort of pumpkin, squash and gourd has arrived at the grocery stores and farmer's markets like some sort of freakish, lumpy orange flood. Plenty of time to play with pumpkins, this week was meant to enjoy another fall favorite, the fig. Now if you're like me, the only memory you have of figs was this:

Fig Newton cookies. You know, the depressing cookie you got instead of the fun cookies like Oreos or Chips Ahoy. Some sort of weird cake thing with supposedly fruit filling except it had little crunchy bits that had a mouth feel like beetle carcasses. So no generational fig dish recipes for me to dig through. Luckily the internet and Epicurious had a lot of great choices for what to do with figs.

First, of course, was to caress them with my camera. They are incredibly beautiful. There were three types of fig available at least in my neck of the woods. The black Mission figs were the most abundant. Why called Mission figs? They were cultivated by Franciscan monks in San Diego back in 1768. There are also the brown turkey figs and white figs (actually more green than white) but for the recipe today the Mission figs will do.

The recipe I chose was very much in the theme of the traditional salty/sweet treatment of figs. Fresh Figs with Bacon and Goat Cheese. Really very simple, fry some bacon, cut your figs, brush with a good quality balsamic vinegar, put little chunks of bacon on top of the fig and then add a nugget of goat cheese and pop them in the oven so the figs roast just a bit and the cheese gets toasty. This recipe suggests the herb infused goat cheese but I got the plain and mixed up a little clover honey to add a little more sweetness to the layering of this recipe.

Sweet ripe fig with savory smoky bacon and sweet goat cheese make a great quick appetizer for a crisp fall evening.

Presidential Brew Pub

2011-09-20T20:30:00.000-05:00

Did you know they are small batch brewing their own beer in the White House? I didn't. What's more surprising? That this is the first time that beer has been actually brewed in the White House.

*Photo by Pete Souza/White House

Think about it. I would have thought for sure Thomas Jefferson would have had a little ale going somewhere in the early White House.

Dude was a culinary dynamo. While in Italy in 1787 he's introduced to pasta and comes back to America and designs his own pasta machine.

But alas, no hint of beer brewing. What about this president, Chester Arthur?

History tells us that our twenty first President enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink. Two of his favorites? Turtle Steak and Macaroni Pie with Oysters. But no brewery in the basement.

Actually the only other president that seems to have actually made his own ale or in this case, Porter, was George Washington. He even wrote down the recipe.
But good old George never lived in the building we know as the White House. He did all his brewing at Mount Vernon in Virginia. So here's to you Barack Obama, the first White House Brew Master.

Basics

2011-09-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I have been in a major food funk. I didn't want to make food, I didn't want to shoot food and I really didn't want to put too much thought into what food I did want to eat. I needed a kick in the culinary pants. So I decided to do something basic. Really basic. I wanted to make butter.

Butter is really easy to make. I've made butter before....in kindergarten. I thought it was the most awesome thing, making butter and putting it on saltine crackers. I don't remember if we used an actual churn but the devices used to churn butter range from incredibly simple to modern day mixers and food processors. But it all begins with the cream.

My heavy whipping cream came from the wonderful local dairy, Shatto Farms. Now put that cream in a stand mixer or food processor (or anything that blends the cream) and turn it on.

The cream is going to go through various stages of whipping. In the stand mixer it took about 5 minutes to get to the point where the liquid started separating from the solids. You want to drain that liquid through a strainer, thus making buttermilk. Once you've strained the liquid you need to wash your butter in cold water until the wash water runs clear.

Once it reached that stage, I put it back in the mixer and added a little salt and whipped to a nice smooth consistency.

Now it's ready to fry a farm fresh egg or slathered onto a freshly baked loaf of bread.

But really, it's destined to go on my favorite salty snack because nothing kicks my butt out of the food doldrums more than a bowl of hot, buttered popcorn.

2011-09-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you just need a little reminder.

If you too need a reminder Best Made CO can help you out.

JMG 9/11

2011-09-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

For Julie Geis

For all the victims of 9/11/01

May we all find peace from the events of that horrible day

Food Styling 2011

2011-09-10T19:36:00.001-05:00

P.W.D. from Armstrong Pitts Studios on Vimeo.

Day Job

2011-09-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

You know, as much as I would love to cook and shoot food all day, it's only a hobby. My skills as a photographer usually involve construction sites. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes just a pile a dirt. Every once in a while you get to see something grand rise up out of a mere pile of dirt. This weekend the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will open to the public. This iconic building is steps away from where I work and let me tell you folks, it's a beautiful thing.

Of course I'm torn between wanting a backstage, crawl around the flyspace and loading rails tour or checking out the kitchen space. I've already been inside for a general tour and as a performance space it's absolutely gorgeous. I know many folks are lucky enough to have opening night tickets but in my soul, my fingers itch to working behind the wings. That would be fun. Of course it would also bring back the nightmares of arriving at the theater late and only having minutes to set up my prop table. Yes, I know, total techie geek.

Enjoy the gift Kansas City, it's better than barbecue.

Making Bread

2011-09-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

My good friend Craig, otherwise known as my big gay in-town boyfriend, sent me a link to a blog that got his tastebuds chattering. It was for a recipe for cinnamon sugar pull apart bread. It did look pretty tasty and easy. So I got out the big pastry board.

Forgetting that it was still a bread, which meant rising and proofing and all the stuff that goes along with making bread.

Still who can resist hot cinnamon bread straight out of the oven? Actually I backtracked on the links and the original recipe wasn't even a cinnamon bread but a lemon pull apart bread with icing that if I'd had lemons in the house would have also made. That recipe will have to wait for another weekend.

Now the thing I love about the internet and recipes is that you get the benefit of someone else making the recipe and posting comments about their successes, failures and hints. One of the hints on all these pull apart blog postings is that just because the top of the bread might be golden brown, the interior might not be done enough. Hence my well done top.

Damn, that looks very much like a Shar Pei's ass.

I'm thinking I could have pulled it out ten minutes sooner to give it a prettier top but it's still a lovely, warm, cinnamony thing of decadence.

Breakfast for Dinner

2011-08-29T23:27:00.003-05:00

Ever feel like eating breakfast for dinner? I do all the time.

Biscuits and sausage gravy hits the right spot.

Dim Sum Sunday - Pie

2011-08-28T13:30:00.000-05:00

Wow. Despite this photo, I have to rate this recipe a fail. How sad it that?

I don't have a lot of experience making cream pies so I followed this recipe to the letter. You start out making your own graham cracker crust which I have never had much luck to begin with. It's not hard to make, it's just I've never had success getting it to slice easily or release from the pie pan. Still I gave it my best shot. Next I went ahead and made the honeycomb candy. I had major doubts about this component of the pie. I wasn't really sure what it added to the whole dish?

Don't get me wrong, it's a great chemistry experiment for making a lighter airy version of peanut brittle without the peanuts but as a topping for a cream pie, I just wasn't feeling it. Onto the filling. It seemed to be going well, seemed firm after spending the night in the fridge. All that was left was to add the topping. Spread out little melted bittersweet chocolate on the top of the pie, pieces of honeycomb and then more chocolate. Here's where I went all Sandra Lee stupid by not realizing that I had just put hot topping on a cold pie thus making the cold pie very loose. Yet despite a couple of hours in the freezer, the pie was only slightly less soupy and totally unfit for human consumption. The middle was soft, the crust was impossible to cut, and the topping needed a chisel to get through. Even if the filling had that nice firm texture I'm not sure it would have worked that with candy topping. Could the recipe be fixed? I consulted with the folks who have much more experience fixing recipe disasters than I do, the chefs at Cook's Illustrated. Their section on cream pies described exactly the problem I was having. Their answer is cornstarch and some evaporated milk. They had no answer for the bizarre topping.

Sad to say, the folks at the office won't get to try this pie...at least this week. I may attempt it again in the future or I may just visit everyone else's kitchens to sample their pies. That is, if there's any left.

Sad Dim Sum Sunday.

Prepare

2011-08-26T12:00:00.005-05:00

To all my friends, family and readers in the path of Irene, please keep yourselves out of harm's way and prepare as best you can for this destructive storm.

Don't forget your emergency bucket of food.

(seriously....evacuate yourself and your pets)

No Food Weekend

2011-08-22T10:18:00.005-05:00

I'm sorry to report that this was a No Food weekend. No cooking, barely any eating unless you count a Five Hour Energy drink. I pulled a Dog Adoption Mission road trip. Ten hours one way to a little town in Kentucky to pick up this guy.

Smokey...then

...Jackson now.

Action Jackson as it turns out. Ridding the world of evil squirrels and no fence or gate will stop him. He's a good boy but we will be in serious training mode for the next few months because counter surfing in the kitchen is a NO GO!

Dim Sum Sunday - Pie - a - Pooluza

2011-08-19T07:45:00.003-05:00

A little late putting this up but exciting things happening off blog. Stay Tuned.

In the meantime, let us celebrate all things Pie with our next Dim Sum Sunday. On August 28th, show us your pie. Fancy, plain, sweet or savory, all are welcome. I'll be making bon appétit's Peanut Butter Honeycomb pie (thanks to some self involved voting by the folks in my office) but you can make any of the other entrees or your own family favorite. Come back on the 28th, leave a comment that says "I'm up" and we'll all go and eww and ahhh and have a big slice of pie.

The Shrimp Boat Ginny

2011-08-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what's going on down in Atlanta but I suspect the recent heat wave had some unintended affects. I think it scrambled part of Chef Willis' brain because she posted not one, not three, not five but TEN recipes for her readers to try. Ten shrimp recipes.

Not just shrimp recipes but also NOAA graphics to better illustrate the lunar tidal changes and shrimp harvesting. Let's face it, the woman is a shrimp lovin' fool.

Bubba-Gin Shrimp can't be far behind.

So which of her many recipes did I decide to make? Actually I did a riff on her Shrimp Cakes. I was house sitting and was lucky enough to dig into the CSA offering this week and found these tender little baby eggplants.

My mind immediately went to a popular dim sum dish of eggplant stuffed with shrimp and covered with a soy/hosin sauce. I'd use the shrimp cake as a stuffing.

Trimmed off some of the skin, split the eggplant down the middle and filled it with the shrimp paste. Then I gave it a quick fry in some canola oil.

At this point, the dim sum version would be steamed to complete the cooking process. Instead I felt like I needed to add a sauce to counterbalance the slightly spicy bite of the hot sauce and white pepper in the shrimp paste. I wanted something a little sweeter than the soy sauce. I decided to brush the eggplant with the sweet miso sauce used in Nobu's popular white miso marinated black cod dish.

A little time under the broiler to meld the sauce into the eggplant and shrimp and there you have it, Shrimp Stuffed Baby Eggplant with Miso.

Still had plenty of shrimp so I thought I'd give the Savannah Marinated Shrimp a try.

Because what's not to like about having a jar of marinated shrimp hiding out in your fridge?

Now I'm sure you're thinking, did you really follow the recipe to the letter and use half a red bell pepper? Hella NO! Just couldn't do it. Instead I thinly sliced a preserved lemon and layered that in with the shrimp instead.

Hello my little bright tasting shrimp. No peppers for you. What Virginia is saying with her 10 Pounds of Shrimp post is that shrimp is a fantastic canvas protein. You can begin with shrimp and paint it with so many different flavors and cooking methods. Lightly fried shrimp cakes with a back bite of hot sauce and smokey white pepper and marinated shrimp with the subtle flavors of lemon, bay leaves and apple cider vinegar. Playing with tastes you like and exploring more unfamiliar flavors is half the fun. And remember, you don't always need a full moon to go crazy with shrimp.

Parade of Pies

2011-08-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

REMINDER: Voting ends tomorrow morning so only a day left to vote for your favorite pie. Right now it's a dogfight between Italian Meringue and Honeycomb Peanut Butter with Strawberry Pie as a dark horse. VOTE NOW!

Seems we touched a bit of a nerve with all the pie talk of the previous post and since we're never one to let a good nerve remain unpoked, I give you the August Parade of Pies. You'll see at the bottom a poll. You can vote once a day and I'll leave the poll up for a week. At the end of the week, the pie with the most votes will be made here in the Karmic Kitchen. Let the voting begin.

The first of bon appétit's six pies for August, the luscious Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie. (how the heck do you cut that?)

Your basic Stone Fruit Lattice Pie.

The No Bake Chocolate Raspberry Cream Pie.

Momofuku's interestingly named Crack Pie.

The Rhubarb Gingersnap Icebox Pie.

Not just a big pile of strawberries but the Strawberry Pie with Chamomile and Currant Glaze.

The beautiful and amazing Lime and Blackberry Italian Meringue Pie.

And not to leave out Food and Wine's August issue with Minny's Chocolate Pie.

RELEASE THE PIE CRACK MONKEYS!!!!

Summer Harvest Continues

2011-08-14T23:00:00.000-05:00

The Blast Furnace that has been the Summer of 2011 has finally broken here in the Midwest. Sadly drastic damage has been and continues to be done to America's breadbasket. It's a bizarre mix of disasters, receding flood waters and bone dry crops. Don't be surprised if you see higher beef and bread prices come this fall. Tomato picking has been slim. Luckily for me, house sitting duties include cashing in on the weekly CSA. There were just enough tomatoes to make the second of bon appétit's tomato recipes, Tomato and Cheddar Pie.

I was looking forward to making this dish. Tomatoes and sharp cheddar cheese all melty and warm nestled deep in a pie crust?

Fairly easy to make as long as you let your tomatoes drain well enough. If not, you'll end up tomato soup pie. However there was a little hitch in this addition to Pie-A-Pooluza and that would be the herb dill. Dill is not an herb I use as frequently as say, basil or rosemary so I didn't really think about the fact that the recipe called for two tablespoons worth of dill.

Nor did I realize how jarring the taste of sharp cheddar cheese and dill would be together. It's like putting cilantro in a dish and serving it to someone who is virulently anti-cilantro. You know it has to be bad if I suffer through one slice and immediately start planning on company fridge for the rest of the pie's final resting place.

If you're a big fan of dill, I know where you can get a big ole heaping serving, gratis. I hate to see this go to waste.

OK, That was too Easy

2011-08-14T09:13:00.001-05:00

What the Heck is That?

2011-08-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

Summer's Bounty

2011-08-08T22:00:00.001-05:00

I had been doing really well with my struggle with Food Magazine Addiction (Foozing for short) but bon appétit crushed my will power with this August issue cover. Holy mac and cheese, look at that pie!! Pie and a blt? You know I couldn't resist.

The pies (peanut butter honeycomb or lime & blackberry Italian meringue) will have to wait until sufficient time has passed for me to recover from peach soufflés and peach ice cream before I crank up another sweet dessert. No, what really caught my eye was the article about tomatoes. It contained at least three recipes I just had to make. The first was the Tomato Terrine. If you've been overrun by your garden's tomato plants, this is the recipe for you.

Of course it involved peeling six pounds of tomatoes so if you're tomato boiling and peeling adverse, maybe not. Then there's the filleting of the six pounds of tomatoes. And the straining of the seeds, making the broth, chilling and layering the tomatoes.

I will admit, it is work intensive. But for me, it was worth it. Now I'm sure some good folks out there are reaching for the queasy button because historically, gelatin has resulted in some interesting creations.

See, this is why I could never get a man, my inability to make gelatin desserts with nipples or...

...agree to gelatin Quickies.

Still I would give this recipe a chance. The stock is incredibly flavorful and the resulting dish is a wonderfully cool accompaniment to grilled fish.

I will say that I might change up the recipe a bit next time. I would probably use a loaf pan that's a little tall than wider and make a little bit more stock and use 2 tablespoons of gelatin. When cutting my layers split apart but with more gelatin stock and chilling after each layer might fix that. Other than that the flavor is a knockout.

Do we all scream for Ice Cream?

2011-08-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

Did you know that Americans, on average, eat about 20 quarts of ice cream a year. They eat it, they buy it and they make it themselves either by the old hand crank/rock salt method or they have a fancy schmancy machine that does all the churning and hard work for them. They also roll it around in a ball that doesn't look much different than a dog toy.

I, however, am not the typical ice cream consuming American. There is no bucket of ice cream in my freezer, no late night cravings for a scoop or two of Moose Tracks. No drowning my sorrows in a bowl of Chunky Monkey. But this does make me the perfect roommate because I will never eat the last spoonful of your precious hidden behind the frozen peas. Even the bacon ice cream is all yours.

So it was with a skeptical eye that I looked at Virginia Willis' cooking challenge this week. Not one or two but FIVE different ice creams. I considered taking a pass. Not only am I not a big fan of ice cream, I have no machine with which to make it in. But then I got to googling and found David Liebovitz's method for making ice cream without a machine. Hmmmmmm. I do happen to like peach ice cream. Could I make this work and take a decent picture of the results? (As if last week's souffle challenge wasn't enough???)

So I took Virginia's recipe for peach ice cream, halved it (because I'm not going to eat 7 cups of ice cream by myself) and took some suggestions from David Liebovitz's blog on making ice cream at home, mainly by adding a bit of alcohol to keep the ice cream from freezing rock hard. So in went a smidgen of peach brandy to soften it up. Making ice cream involves making a custard. Or it means making scrambled eggs if you don't temper your egg yolk mixture carefully enough. Yes, I speak from experience but it is a learning experience. It's also an exercise in getting the right consistency. David's method could easily lapse into into the ice crystal zone if you don't have a creamy enough custard to begin with and if you don't mix the ice cream enough in the freezing process. As for the photography process, ice cream is one of those items that old school professional food photographers use quite a bit of cheats. Things like substituting mashed potatoes for ice cream. The one trick I did use was to pre-scoop my ice cream and cover a sheet pan with plastic wrap and re-freeze the scoops. I think that's an old Martha Stewart trick but you can ask Virginia since she actually worked for Martha.

The end result was a lovely creamy peach ice cream which would have cost me a fortune in the grocery store if I could find one that carried a decent tasting peach ice cream. So if you've got a ice cream machine or the old hand churn and energetic kids to churn it, definitely try one of Virginia or David's homemade ice cream recipes. Me? I'm going back to making a hearty BLT.

Project Stuffed Peppers

2011-08-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

As long-time Karmic Kitchen readers know, I am not a pepper fan. Not spicy, not mild, not even pickled. The only way my mom could get me to eat them as a kid was to stuff them with meat and then cover with a tomato sauce. Even then there would be pepper carcasses left on my plate. So I got to wondering if I could trick myself into making peppers more palatable ? But how to do that? Stuff them, yes, good idea, but with what? Of course, my go to comfort food, mac and cheese!

So the challenge I set for myself was to make a tasty mac and cheese stuffed pepper. First the pasta. The interior of a pepper is not huge. The pasta I would normally use seemed too large for my purposes. Luckily there are some mini-pastas out there that would work better. The two pieces of pasta in the middle are a normal size while the surrounding are minis. I decided on the mini-shells. Next I had to choose my peppers.

I could of gone normal size but I really like the size of the mini-peppers. They seem sweeter, less pepper-tasting than the full sized. Oh yeah and NO GREEN PEPPERS. Sorry green pepper lovers. Find your pepper porn somewhere else. So I've got my peppers and pasta, time to put it all together. I decided to try Cook's Illustrated Classic Macaroni and Cheese recipe. I've never had the need to test their recipe out because I like my own mac and cheese. However I was intrigued enough to give theirs a twirl. We all know what a CI geek I am but when it comes to mac and cheese, the good folks at the Test Kitchen seem to be lost in a sea of cheese. They can't seem to find their way to a truly classic mac and cheese. It's not their cheese choices or their béchamel sauce but it's their insistence to not bake the final dish, opting only to broil the topping for 3 minutes. What you're left with is a much more soupy dish than the classic pasta casserole. I have no idea what they ate as a kid but it wasn't my momma's mac and cheese.

Still I stuffed my peppers with it because once you get started on a creation, you should finish it. I had par-boiled my peppers to make them a little more pliable in the final dish and topped each with butter toasted Panko crumbs mixed with finely chopped bacon bits. You really didn't think I was going to leave out the bacon did you? Silly rabbits....

The taste was pretty good, the contrast of the rich cheesiness and the distinctly sweet pepper flavor was actually kinda fun. Here's what I discovered with the leftover mac and cheese that didn't go into the peppers. Put it in a baking dish, put on the same crumb topping, put it in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes and it came out much better than the stove top only version. Still needs a little more cheese flavor but I'm still taking it for lunch tomorrow.

Summertime Cooking

2011-08-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

ON SALE, 99 cents a pint, limit 3 pints. Blueberries on sale? A buck a pint? Be still my fruit loving heart. I could make pie again or...I could try something new. I had come across a recipe for blueberry butter prowling around the web. You know, like apple butter but for blueberries. All that you need is a big pile of blueberries, some sugar and spices and your trusty crockpot. The instructions can be found at the Pick Your Own blog.

These were pretty nice blueberries too. From New Jersey I think. Nine pints of fruit slowly cooked in the crockpot resulting in ten little jars of Blueberry Butter.

But what to use it with first? Luckily the culinary godmother has sent me a recipe that seemed to be perfect for the occasion....Bacon-Jalapeño Cornbread.

Lord knows I've got the cast iron skillet and the bacon goes without saying. And yes, I did put the jalapeños in despite my reluctance but I figured the bacon would rule the cornbread.

(OK, so I went really light on the jalapeños, sue me.)

The blueberry butter turned out well, nice and thick but I think next time I'll use one of the lower sugar content versions. I didn't get as much of the blueberry flavor that I wanted but the constituency is just right. It would be great in some thick Greek yogurt or slopped on a biscuit. Or bacon jalapeño cornbread. But if you're going to run the crockpot for twelve hours in the middle of a brutal two week heat wave, set it out in the garage because the ac bill is going to be high enough as it is and no pile of 99 cent blueberries will save you.

Uncle Sam say EAT THIS or else...

2011-08-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

If you happen to be in the DC area, you should check out What's Cooking Uncle Sam, the current exhibit running at the National Archives Building on just how much our government tries to shape how and what we eat and drink.

It might explain a lot ...

...except maybe the fact why Carp Jelly never really caught on.

Happy Birthday

2011-08-01T10:17:00.005-05:00

Sending Happy Birthday wishes out to my brother. If we were in the same state I would make him a HUGE plate of these along with some of his favorite spicy dipping sauce and a very cold beer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD!!

Soufflé Two Ways

2011-07-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

When it comes to making desserts, I fall squarely (and with a ample assed thump) in the homey, fruit pie, cobbler and crisp camp of earthly delights. This results in two reactions....1) It pisses off the gooey chocolate dessert lover fans (why don't you make more chocolate things???) and 2) I don't get around to making the more delicate airy desserts. Virginia Willis challenged the readers on her blog to Rise Up and tackle the delicate soufflé as this weekend's cooking assignment. Actually soufflé was already on my cooking to do list but Virgina naturally assumes there's an audience for the test kitchen soufflés you're about to make. For my kitchen, (which in all honesty, is a food photography blog kitchen) this posed a bit of a problem. Soufflés, once out of the oven, need to eaten immediately. IMMEDIATELY!!! So making six soufflés for just myself is overkill on the egg white consumption. But that's ok because the soufflé I was planning to make before Virginia threw down the Georgia Peach Soufflé gauntlet was a savory Cheese Soufflé from Judith Jones excellent cookbook, The Pleasures of Cooking For One. I've been thinking about making this version ever since I got hooked on Iowa Prairie Breeze Cheddar. I have to say it was fascinating comparing the styles and methods of these two chefs while preparing soufflés from their cookbooks.

Now if you've never made a soufflé before (like me) you might be a little hesitant. I think the general perception is that soufflés are difficult to make. That might have been true back in the day of hand whisking whipped cream or meringue but in the age of the mighty Kitchen Aid stand mixer and the efficient food processor? Not a problem. What is a hurdle is timing. If you plan to make a soufflé for others, say at a dinner party, serving the soufflés at their peak height is a tricky thing. The photo above was taken seconds after emerging from the oven and still you can see the center has started to sink. That's not to say it's not supposed to inevitably sink some but if you haven't whipped your egg whites to the right consistency your soufflé won't rise enough to sink any. The recipe for Judith's cheese soufflé can be found over at Martha's conglomo website. NOT to be confused with Oprah's conglomo website.....where the recipe can also be found. Someday soon they will just merge into the World Dominatrix website Marthoprah and there will be no escaping either one of them....but I digress. Judith's instructions includes adding shredded cheese your buttered soufflé dish but not leveling off the top of the soufflé before it goes into the even, giving you a more rustic looking top. This is a great dish when you've got not much else in the fridge. An egg, some cheese, butter and milk and you can whip up something elegant and delicious in no time.

And then we have Virgina and her peaches. You know she's a good ole Georgia girl when she doesn't have one chocolate souffle in her cookbook but she does have a Georgia Peach soufflé. Sadly there were no Georgia peaches to be found anywhere in the greater Kansas City area so I had to settle for fresh Missouri peaches that I found at the farmer's market. A sacrifice, I know but what can you do? Now, Miss Virginia's recipe serves six so I sorta riffed off of Judith's proportions for Virginia's recipe so I didn't have to make and eat six mini soufflés all my myself.

That's not to say they weren't so wonderfully delicious that I couldn't. Oh no, I could. However I was too busy trying to be all "Karmic Kitchen Artistic", getting just the right shot with a dish that just wasn't destined to cooperate. Seriously, look at the badly out of focus and poorly lit reject photo below....

...to see just how much taller it is from the previous picture. They were taken seconds apart. Seriously this is why cookbook photo shoots have tons of assistants and stylists. To get the perfect soufflé shot at the peak of the rise. Not that it mattered in the end.

Because it was like eating a fluffy peach cloud. It even got a thumbs up from my good buddy Craig who stopped by to drag me away to go a quest for nesting Pyrex bowls. Virginia's recipe is in her cookbook but you really should go to her website for the more detailed lessons on creating the perfect soufflé and some beautiful bonus pictures of Paris. Don't be afraid to making your own soufflés, it anything is will amuse the children watching the incredible shrinking dish collapse right before their eyes.

Because it's not hot enough....

2011-07-29T23:30:00.000-05:00

See what's cooking in the crockpot later on this week.

A Different Kind of Hunter Gatherer

2011-07-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

In what now seems a lifetime ago, yours truly was a theater rat. A prop mistress to be exact, handing off various items to the likes of Alec Baldwin and Dana Delaney long before they were ever Jack Donaghy and a Desperate Housewife. While that part of my life has faded into legendary memories one habit just won't die. Chasing down your prop prey. Currently that means haunting antique malls and poking through thrift stores, always on the lookout for kitchen gadgets, distinctive dishes and colorful bowls. I seem to have a bowl itch that will never stay sufficiently scratched. I have enough bowls to serve the Waltons Christmas dinner on Walton's Mountain. One of the items on the search list stashed in my cranial memory stick was a cookbook. A Betty Crocker cookbook. Normally I don't plunk down cash for vintage Betty Crocker stuff, just not my style. But the Dinner for Two cookbook (circa 1958) was one I always had my eye out for. Why? Certainly not for the recipes but for the illustrator.

The great Charley Harper. His artwork is amazing and beautiful. With a few simple shapes and color he immediately captures the nature of a sparrow. He never shied away from life's brutal nature as illustrated in his portrayal of an owl at night from the perspective of the about to be dinner mouse or the incredibly sad statement he reveals in Backhoeasaurus. So when I saw the metal spiral spine in the pile of books at the estate sale I was rummaging through, I held my breath.

Really? I had it in my hands? In great condition for being fifty three years old, sitting there just waiting for Karma to steer me towards this little tucked away condo?

Even better? It was half priced day at the estate sale. My discovery cost me exactly one dollar. BWHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH.

These are just a few of the fantastic illustrations. There are some food photos. They are classic mid-century food presentation style images. Elaborate table settings with brass candle sticks, copper salt and pepper shakers and visually busy tablecloths. But it's one of the few cookbooks I didn't buy for the photos. If you'd like to see more of the artwork of Charley Harper, check out Charley Harper Prints.

House Guests

2011-07-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

I have quite a few dishes and recipes in the hopper, whirling around waiting to spew forth onto the blog but not this weekend because I forgot that I was hosting some house guests.

I give you the very obedient and extremely well behaved Toby.

I also give you Rudy. Rudy likes runs a lot.

So while I'm entertaining my guests, there will be no cooking or shooting of food, because Goldens can't bear to be less than 6 inches from any human at any time and the Irish Setter believes he's a small lap dog.

Which means it's time for Plan B, better known as What The Heck is All the Love for Trader Joe's???

Kansas City just became home to two brand spanking new Trader Joe's stores. I thought some of the Trader Joe Junkies were going to blockade the city limits from any bbq from going out into the world until their demands for a Trader Joe's of their own were met.

Last week it finally happened, one on the Missouri side of the city and another deep in the Golden Ghetto. And despite a heat wave of pavement parching proportions, the Junkies gathered to battle over parking spots close to the source of their desires.

I decided to venture forth this weekend and investigate all the hubbub and I am back to report that I am thoroughly confused. First of all, when compared to regular grocery stores, TJ's are not very big. Their produce is ok, their dried fruits and nuts are really nice, they have a decent variety of frozen choices and some meat. As I stood in the midst of the milling crowd, suffering from a wee bit of agoraphobia, I realized that it wasn't a store meant for me. By "me" I mean someone who takes the time to buy fresh ingredients and cooks a dish, either from a recipe or totally pulled out from my.....imagination. No, TJ's is a godsend to those folks who want to buy eight different frozen meals to stick in the freezer and not worry about what to make when they get home from a long day at work. I'm guessing that the Trader Joe's line of ready made meals is a step above a Stouffer's Chicken Pot Pie. But is it really better than making it yourself and freezing your own? I decided to give one of their meals a try.

I love a good eggplant parm but already I was having some misgivings. They grilled the eggplant? Really? My skepticism comes not from the fact that it's a healthy way to cook the eggplant, it's that the flavor has to be really pronounced for it to come through the tomato sauce and the cheese. However the label is a bit misleading. Unless in Trader Joe's land, grilling means hold over a weak flame for 15 seconds because the eggplant I got was floppy and full of liquid. No grill marks were evident after my CSI-like examination. I appreciate that there were no preservatives or artificial flavors but c'mon people, a flavorful eggplant parmesan is not that hard to make. It's also not like Kansas City isn't home to some incredible shopping options. We have a Dean and Deluca. We have Whole Foods. We have a ton of other organic full featured grocery stores popping up. Not to mention some excellent home grown regular grocery stores who buy and promote local produce and proteins. So while the Junkies are happy (and still fighting over that parking spot 10 feet away from the front door) I'll be hitting the farmer's markets and enjoying the Karmic Kitchen line of fresh and frozen foods.

That's not to say I didn't also pick up some dark chocolate covered cherries to stash back home. If there was a silver lining to the my little dark TJ cloud it was THIS!!!

A store of just Le Creuset. Next to the Apple Store, across from the parking lot of the Crate and Barrel. This shopping center would be perfect if they would just open up a Nikon Store and the Just Bacon Butcher.

When Fiction...

2011-07-19T08:30:00.000-05:00

...becomes Reality.

Cheesy Poofs, coming to a Walmart near you for a limited time.

Poached Salmon

2011-07-17T20:00:00.000-05:00

Virginia Willis had a good idea. The latest post on her blog is about sustainability and oceans fisheries, which I heartily endorse. But more importantly she gave us a cold dish to make for dinner. Because short of sucking on a Coke Slurpee in one hand and a fat watermelon slice in the other while lounging in a kiddie pool full of crushed ice, cooking in a hot kitchen is the last thing I really want to do.

If you'd like to try your hand at court-bouillon, poaching and even making your own mayonnaise, check out Virginia's recipe. As for me, when faced with a weather forecast calling for a week's worth of 99 degree heat and humidity, I'm ready to hide out in the cool darkness for an all day movie theater marathon. Here's hoping everyone stays safe during the heatwave.

If you roll it, they will grow....

2011-07-14T18:00:00.000-05:00

Kinda loving this for those small spaces that you could use to grow veggies and fruit. Available at FoodMap Design.

Playing with your Food

2011-07-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Some folks take the off the cookie of their Oreos to eat the icing....

...and some folks take off the cookie to make cameos out of the filling.
See more of Judith G. Klausner playing with her food.

Sunday Supper

2011-07-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm on an email list with Cook's Illustrated. Each week I receive a missive from the good folks at the Test Kitchen with recipes and tips. This past week the featured recipe was for Beer Can Chicken. I've avoided this preparation in the past because I thought it was an overly complicated and precarious way to cook chicken. I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Beer can chicken requires a chicken, some of your favorite rub, a can of beer, a heat source and some wood chips for smoking. Nothing more than that. Bring both the beer and the chicken to room temperature. Next rinse your chicken thoroughly and pat it dry. Cover the body of the chicken with a dry spice rub. You can make your own or purchase the many, many spice rubs that can be found at your grocery store. Put some into the cavity of the bird and even tuck some between the skin and the breast meat. Don't forget to pierce the fat parts of the body of the chicken to allow the fat to render out more easily. Your chicken is now ready, time to prepare the beer. First, either pour our or drink a 1/4 of a cup of the beer. You don't want your beer boiling over during the cooking time. You'll need to open two more holes in the top of can to allow more steam to escape up into the cavity of the chicken and...bonus.... you'll get to use the weirdly named tool, the Churchkey.

As to the quality of the beer, cheap or expensive, it doesn't seem to matter. Actually you can use soda, lemonade or any other flavorful liquid you can put in a can. Cook's Illustrated tried other liquids and suggests beer first, then soda or lemonade. They also suggest breaking up a couple of bay leaves into the beer.

Before we turn the heat on, we've got to get our other flavor element prepared. Wood chunks or chips to help smoke our bird. I'm using apple wood chips in two little smoker pans. I'm using a gas grill that has three burner elements. You can see above I've got smoker pans on each side of the chicken. I also have a drip pan directly beneath the bird to catch any fat or juices. We're cooking chicken with indirect heat so the middle burner is turned off and the surrounding burners are set to medium. Place the can of beer in the middle and carefully insert the can into the cavity of the chicken. Use the legs and the tail nub as a tripod to balance out the chicken. Shut the lid and let it cook at roughly 300 degrees for a little more than an hour depending on the size of your bird. Mine was over four pounds and it went about an hour and fifteen minutes. Test the temperature of the thigh meat. When it reaches 170 to 175, it's done. Here's the trickiest part of the whole deal. You need to remove both the chicken with the can still inside so you'll need a good sturdy set of tongs and something that is heat resistant so you can take chicken off the heat to rest. Fifteen minutes to allow the juices to resettle in the bird and again, mindful of the hot can, remove the beer can from the chicken. Serve immediately.

What you'll be serving is incredibly moist chicken with deliciously crispy skin with tons of flavor. It's that simple and so good they will think you are a grill master. Plus all the kids can brag about having had Ass Can Chicken.

Happy Birthday

2011-07-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to our dear blog friend in the Great White North, Susan Black of the blog 29 Black Street.

Susan is an artist and graphic designer extraordinaire.

She's a prolific and talented photographer

She also loves good food and knows how to make us all want to come to her house for dinner.

Happy Birthday Susan, please enjoy some Namaimo Bars on us.

Red, White and Blueberries

2011-07-04T22:30:00.000-05:00

I don't know why but whenever the Fourth of July rolls around, I feel like making pie. This is rather counter-intuitive because making pie dough and cranking up the oven in the sweltering humidity that is July in the Midwest is just plain crazy. However when I get the whiff of a ripe peach or taste the juicy sweetness of a plump blueberry, hot kitchen be damned, I reach for the rolling pin.

Sad to say the peaches available in our area have not been very pie inspiring. The blueberries, on the other hand, have been excellent, sweet and full of juice. But it's that juice that causes many a soupy pie. Too much juice ruins your bottom crust and makes your slice a drippy mess to eat. The other problem is getting just the right amount of thickener so your pie sets up. However too much and you've almost got Jello pie. Would Cook's Illustrated have the answer?

Their version of pie crust and filling tries to address the perfect jelling blueberry filling. Quick cooking tapioca and shredded Granny Smith apple are part of their solutions along with cooking down some of your blueberries.

The results? Looks good in the pie pan but still I have a bit of a slump on my slice. And in an attempt to balance out the sweetness of the berries and the added sugar, they include a measure of lemon zest and juice. Personally, next time, I'd go half the amount of both since it seemed just a bit too much citrus for me.

The crust was excellent and despite the citrus, the blueberry filling was sweet and fragrant. All that was missing was some fresh, hand cranked, cold vanilla ice cream.

Happy Fourth of July, Everyone!

Progress

2011-06-29T20:00:00.003-05:00

At the end of April I cut the cable cord. I'm proud to announce that I'm still cable free. Another round of Top Chef Masters happened without me. I'm pretty sure out of the three finalists (Traci Des Jardins, Mary Sue Milliken, and Floyd Cardoz) you can guess who were not the winners. But that's OK because sometime you catch something that's pretty amazing that you might have missed before. If you want to see insane pressure and a lot of French men crying you might want to check out the documentary Kings of Pastry over on PBS.

This is Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer. He is one of three chefs that the documentary follows as they compete in the M.O.F., or the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France). The M.O.F. finals for pastry chefs is an excruciating three day competition where sixteen chefs compete, not with each other but against themselves. All sixteen could win but I doubt that's ever happened. Not only is there no cash prize but once you get past the semifinal and are selected as one of the sixteen to compete at the finals, you spend a great deal of time and money preparing, practicing and honing your skills. Skills like glass blowing. The object above? That's not a piece of art glass, that's sugar.

Looks like botany also helps. All recipes are prepared at the site of the competition in that three day stretch. It's a brutal exercise these chefs put themselves through.

This is Chef Philippe Rigollot as a normal person...

...and this is Phillipe's brain after the M.O.F.

I highly suggest you see why poor Phillipe ends up looking like this and just how many of the competitors end up wearing the red, white and blue collar. One suggestion though....

...eat a huge meal before watching or at the very least, have easy access to a good pastry shop.

Cauliflower Gratin

2011-06-27T13:00:00.000-05:00

As we know from earlier blog postings, I like cauliflower. Not everyone shares my love and that's a shame. One who is not shy with her cauliflower affections is Dorie Greenspan. If you're not familiar with her excellent cookbook work or her website, I highly suggest you visit. Her latest posting is a Cauliflower Gratin. With bacon. And cheese. You know what's coming next.

This is the cauliflower I purchased. It is an orange cauliflower. I didn't buy it because it was orange, I bought it because it was on sale for over a dollar less than the normal white cauliflower. Why did they develop an orange cauliflower? Apparently we can blame Canada for that. An orange breed of cauliflower was discovered in a Canadian marsh and the smart Canadians realized that Americans, being the doofuses that we are, would just love to have orange cauliflower for dinner. It was like striking orange gold for those wily Canucks. There's also a purple cauliflower. I don't know if the Canadians had anything to do with that variety. If the scientists combine the two into some freaky purple and orange combination then I'll know they are just messing with us.

Back to Dorie's recipe. She's not only making a gratin but she's expanding her use of a Bram, which is a large clay baker. I do not have a Bram but I do have a clay baker I bought for five bucks at an antique store. The clay baker was not an antique but for five bucks I didn't care. The two major differences between Dorie's Bram and my clay baker is that her Bram is large and upright and more importantly is glazed inside. I mention the glazing because much like a wok imparting a flavor of wok hei on your food, so will a an unglazed clay baker impart a flavor (let's call it clay bak-hei) on food.

Still it's bacon, cheese and cream oozing throughout tender chunks of cauliflower. What's not to like?

Weenie Summer Fun

2011-06-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

Who knew Weenies would be such a hot topic this summer??? How do you handle your weenies? (no emails...please) Maybe you're a classic sort of Weenie guy?

Or maybe you enjoy a more realistic approach?

Perhaps you favor chaps and Stetson?

Maybe your like your Weenies with a more Asian flair?

(Don't forget the Hot Cock Sauce)

Don't go for the whole Weenie Scene? Could I interest you in something a little sweeter?

The Mud Flap version?

Which ever way you like to roast 'em or toast 'em, let's be safe out there.

WARNING: ANY MEAT TWEETS FROM ANY AND ALL CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES WILL BE TURNED OVER IMMEDIATELY TO THE NEWS OUTLET WITH THE LARGEST CAPACITY TO DISTRIBUTE THEM IN THE MOST EMBARRASSING MANNER POSSIBLE.

PS WARNING: THAT GOES FOR YOUR BUNS TOO!

Sunday Supper

2011-06-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

Beautiful whole wild mackerel on sale at Whole Foods today. Thought I'd steam it in a salt crust.

Once it was all steamed and released from it's salt oven, made a little sauce of olives, tomatoes and capers.

Enjoy.

Maryland is for Crabs

2011-06-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

As some of you may have noticed, I was absent last week. It was for a good cause, I assure you. I was celebrating my roots. I was in the bosom of my family, bringing the hammer down on a righteous pile of Maryland's finest hard shell blue crabs.

I was in crab heaven. I can't remember the last time I got high from inhaling copious amounts of Old Bay but don't you know, eating crabs is like riding a bike. Once you learn the rhythm and the tricks, you never forget. Your hands know what to do without even thinking. I'm betting I could be in a coma and if someone put a pile of steamed hard shells on my hospital bed, my hands would pick up a knife and start popping off legs.
I worry about the Chesapeake Bay and the crab population. Every spring I ask my mother for the crab forecast. Will it be a good year, a rebound year or will it be another depressing year as the mighty blue crab follow the oysters into the lore of yesteryear, where old timers speak of both as never ending. Even I can remember there being four sizes of crabs available in the crabhouses, small, medium, large and jumbo and you didn't need to run down to the payday loan with your car title to pay for two dozen jumbo. Those days are long gone.

As are the days when I could easily eat a dozen crabs in one sitting. Still the picking was good and the meat was sweet. There were even enough left over to bring home some lump meat. Couldn't let that go to waste. But what to make with my precious half pound of meat.

Crabcakes were a given but I have to thank Patrick O'Connell for idea of using fried green tomatoes as the "bread" of my crabcake sandwich. Frankly I'm pissed for not thinking this up myself. That particular recipe is in his cookbook, Patrick O'Connell's Refined American Cuisine. There you'll find a beautiful refined dish with pickled okra, a sweet corn relish with a tomato vinaigrette. Here, instead, you'll find my barbarian's offering of a crabcake slider cradled in the tangy, crunchy grasp of panko green fried tomatoes.

This was almost a photo optional post because fried green tomatoes are best right out the fry pan and crabcakes? Let's just say I'm like Daffy Duck in Ali Baba Bunny....

...MINE, MINE, ALL MINE!!!!

The Cheese Does Not Stand Alone

2011-06-12T20:00:00.001-05:00

It is a happy time. Happy because it's not snowing, the temperatures are above fifty and I can walk around my neighborhood without fear of falling and fracturing a bone or two due to icy precipatation. However that was never really a bonified fear since years of sitting on my ample ass in front of a computer has given me enough cushion to ward off any serious injury from slip and falls. Still having reached the half century mark amongst the living, I still enjoy a walkabout around the paved pathways that intertwine around the village of Prairie. For one thing, my neighbors are much better gardeners than I am. I drag my camera along to copy their successes in the hopes of planting their inspirations.

The walk isn't just about the floral bounties. It's about exercise and rewards. It's getting out of the house and back into the world. You can't bring back the dead by ignoring the living. So I walk. Although for me, there's still got to be a purpose. Hence the destination.

The Better Cheddar is a just a smidge over a mile from my front door on foot. Is anyone surprised that I set up a domicile a 30 minutes' walk from a well stocked cheese shop that gives out liberal samples of all their cheeses? We won't even talk about all the other goodies they carry. The only thing that would make it a perfect foodie treasure trove is if they sold blue crabs by the bushel out back.

But since they don't I'll have to settle for a cold bottle of Cheerwine soda. There's just something about drinking a cold soda out of a glass bottle on a hot summer's day that's extremely satisfying. Lately the sample I've been hitting on the most is this delicious Iowa cheddar. It's the kind of cheese that makes you want to run home for your cookbooks and recipes. Mac and cheese would sing, eat it out of hand with a crisp pear or maybe a souffle if you've got the time and patience.

Yes, some of that found it's way into my messenger bag for the trip home. Luckily Oreo only wanted a belly rub from me and not a little nibble on my cheese. No time, Oreo, got to get home and fire up the stove.

I decided on something I could snack on while at work. Cheese straws. Virginia Willis' Cheese Straws to be exact.

Rewards. Hard work, exercise and fresh air deserve rewards. Simple cheese straws works for me.

Inferno Sauce

2011-06-01T19:43:00.004-05:00

Time for another entry into the hot and spicy sauce arena. This one comes from an unexpected corner of the world....IRELAND???

Mic's Chili , as far as I know is not available in this country. However if you're in Kilcoole, County Wicklow, go crazy.

Going Too Far

2011-05-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

What is wrong with people these days? What makes them think they can improve on a wonderfully simple thing? I present to you today the stupidly named S'More To Love STL-600 S'More Maker. This, people, THIS is why America is going to hell in a handbasket. Because big corporate companies like the maker of the S'More To Love STL-600 S'More Maker hates the Girl Scouts of America!

There are certain memories and rituals you just don't mess with. If you've ever been a Boy or Girl Scout, more than likely you went camping. You got to sleep in a tent. You got to swim in a lake. You got a cool knife.

OK, maybe it wasn't exactly the knife you really wanted...

...but the point is that you learned how to safely use a knife without slicing off any important digits you might need later in life. You also learned how to whittle down sharp ends of a long stick to roast marshmallows and build the fire to roast those marshmallows.

These are important character building exercises. It's important to know if you will you be a whiny, smoke gets in your eyes, crybaby, or will you be a campfire warrior who will accept nothing less than a smoking char of a marshmallow, who would really rather be off practicing her knife throwing skills in the dark? (Apparently some of us were more suited to Xena, Warrior Princess Camp)

S'More were messy. Your marshmallow might have bits of burned bark embedded in it, it might have dirt on it but you still smashed it between a layer of Hershey's chocolate and two graham crackers and enjoyed every bite of it's charred goodness. You were camping in the great dirty outdoors. You were supposed to get filthy. You were supposed to go home dirty and grime encrusted, so much so that your mother could read the hieroglyphics of whether you had a good time by the grunge stains in your clothes. She could wonder at the your bloody knees, not that you hurt yourself but that you could still draw blood through the thick scars from all the knee scraps that came before. But now the makers of STL-600 want to take that all away.

"No more dirty campfires and burnt marshmallows - this innovative treat-maker allows you to make 6 tasty S'mores in just minutes."

Heathens!!! Dirty campfires and burnt marshmallows are American as apple pie and fried chicken. It's like spitting on the flag....and not just any flag...

...but like spitting on the Star Spangled Banner Flag. So take your cheap geegaw and melt it down into something useful, like a cast iron skillet.

We can never have too many of those.

Still Here

2011-05-22T23:00:00.000-05:00

I'm still here. I pretty much expected to still be here despite Rapture Fever. No way a heathen like me was going anywhere but to work on Monday morning. Still it's always good to be prepared. I thought a Post-Rapture dish was in order. Something hot and spicy for those of us left behind...to prepare us for a possible spicy afterlife. Beef Short Ribs with Red Chili Sauce seemed appropriate with not just one but two devilishly spicy dried chili varieties.

It makes my eyes burn just to look at them. Actually if I squint hard enough I think I can see the face of El Diablo in that ancho chili. Even worse? The extracted liquid after you soak and pulverize the chilies.

I'm sure this is some pretty tame stuff for most heat loving folks but for me it's an adventure in eating. Yet mixed with the meaty juices of the short ribs, it's not as spicy as I thought it would be.

Nice thick meaty short ribs with a mule kicking sauce is pretty good heathen eating. I even have enough sauce leftover to try broiling some sliced eggplant with it. Now if I can just find some peach ice cream for dessert? Wonder if the Raptured took it all with them?

Stirring Memories

2011-05-18T20:50:00.006-05:00

Spring, traditionally, is the season of rebirth. Where living things, whether they be animal or plant, shake off the cold gray dregs of winter and bask in sunlight. They turn their faces or their leaves and soak. It's not normally a cruel season but for this spring, for me, it certainly is.

Before I was cook or foodie, before I ever snapped my first picture, I was a dog person. I'm not sure how it happened. Maybe it was the Ribsy character in the Beverly Cleary books that I first proudly checked out at the library. It could have been Jack London's Buck who finally yielded to The Call of the Wild. Maybe it was our own wild beagle Skipper, who made our lives as adventurous children much easier by getting into so much trouble we looked like angels in comparison. Or maybe it was the neighborhood mutt who really belonged to no one but appreciated the love of a small girl who would pick nasty ticks from his blond coat. Or the smiling little Schnauzer Cindy who even went to the beach with us. All I know is that having a dog in my life is natural and right. There is a price to pay though. We all know it, we dog people, that the moment you sign those adoption papers or pick up that stray, that the moment comes when you have to say goodbye. That moment came recently for me as I said goodbye to not one, but two members of my little pack in the space of two months, ending a journey that spanned sixteen years. Winter may have been long and cold but my spring is bitter and dark. I need the comfort of routine.

I need activities to busy my brain and my hands. Judith Jones, the woman with the legendary eye for plucking diamonds from the pile of rejected manuscripts, has written her own cookbook. Following the passing of her husband, she finds herself adjusting to a new life of cooking just for herself. I need something intensive yet comforting. Mushroom risotto with it's close attention to the stirring details should help. I have yet to achieve that creamy, spreading plate of risotto. So it begins, with the mincing of some shallots and heating them in a pan with some olive oil and dehydrating whatever dried mushrooms you'd like to use with your risotto. Don't throw out the mushroom soaking liquid, it's good stuff that you'll heat up with your stock. Once your shallots have cooked about 4 minutes and before they get browned, add your rice. Just a little glaze in the pan for the rice, about a minute. Next a bit of wine, cooked until it's absorbed. Now begins the process of adding hot liquid and stirring and moving your rice around. It's here that the memories crowd out the present.

Sarah
We had a dog. That dog was Bear. But as most dog people will tell you, while most dogs enjoy the company of people, they much prefer the company of other dogs. That is what dog people will tell you to your face. What they fail to mention is that this Dog Truth also allows dog people to stuff their homes with more dogs without having to admit that you're getting another dog for you, not your poor, lonely, pining away for a companion, dog. Thus it was decided that Bear would enjoy the company of a sister dog. This is how my partner and I ended up standing on the cold concrete floor of a windowless garage where a small, sable colored German Shepherd cowered in abject fear in a corner. I'm not sure what the man's purpose was in buying this Backyard Breeder special, all I know is that she needed someone with a huge soft heart. I could feel my partner's NO in her mouth even with my back to her. I told the man Yes, even before she had a chance to speak. The man asked if we wanted the tiny towel he had given the dog to sleep on in that cold garage. I couldn't get her in the SUV fast enough. Even in the truck, my partner still tried to comprehend what had just happened, how the "just going to look" trip turned into an adoption so quickly. All I know is that Sarah owned my heart from the moment she rested her head on the cushion between the front seats as if to say, I'm ok now, I'm with my right forever family.

While she may have owned my heart, she tried my patience to boundaries I didn't even know I possessed. She was a submissive urinator. People terrified her. Luckily none of these traits turned into aggression. Plus she was great for the economy and the local dog trainers. We went to many classes and cowered under many chairs in a long fought battle to socialize with the world in general. The world of people may have been something she avoided at all costs, it was the world of dogs was where she was happiest.

She loved the Beardog, certainly more than Bear loved her. They ran and played and eventually Sarah settled into a truce with the world of people as long as she could be safe with her own little family. I, on the other hand, was convinced that she was some sort of freakish DNA, species splicing experiment let loose in the Heartland. You see, I believe that Sarah was part goat, part beaver and part owl all stuffed into the body of a German Shepherd.

See, she would do this thing with her head. I swear she could put Linda Blair to shame. You ask her the right questions and she would swivel that head so much trying to figure out an answer for you that you couldn't help but love her. That was important because Miss Sarah had some powerful bad habits. The top of the list was the chewing. Now before you think that Sarah chewed for lack of dog appropriate objects to chew on....you would be right but only because in Sarah World there is never enough to chew on. Most dog toys were merely an amuse bouche to Sarah. A warm up, a teaser to the grand feast that was the world in general. Sticks, logs, wind ripped branches were fun. Dog bones were good. Paper was particularly tasty. Grandma's knitting projects. Rugs, throws, pillows, comforters, dog beds, hats, socks, t-shirts all fell under her grinding jaws. The dog gnawed on the corner of a wall. How does one decide that a wall would taste good to chew on? And yet despite all the crap and junk she chewed up, it always came back out. Her stomach capacity and intestinal tract were legendary.

Her conscious? Uncluttered by guilt. She had other weaknesses, such as being easily manipulated by her love of peanut butter.

A little dab behind the ears of a willing participant and dog kisses will flow like honey. Could life get any better than this? Depends on that big soft heart tripping all over itself again.

Jacob
Our friends were out puppy searching. Finally they had found exactly what they wanted. Poloroids were whipped out and it was love at first sight. Two pairs of enormous ears sitting on little blond shepherd bodies. "Somebody dropped these two brother puppies in a dumpster and we're taking one, you want the other?" Der! Does Paula Deen love butter? Do Americans love cheap gas? I was the easy one of the couple when it came to dogs. I tried a little reverse psychology on Bear and Sarah's other mommy. "Don't look at that picture" I warned. "Not if don't want to get another dog, you will NOT look at that picture." Of course she looked.

There's just no fighting the incredible cuteness of the brothers, Jacob and Tucker. I mean, c'mon on, look at those ears?? Jacob was the last puzzle piece that easily fit into our wicked little tribe.

Big sister Sarah taught him the ropes of the ways of the house. Which direction the car comes from when someone comes home from work. Of not being allowed in the kitchen, when it's time to eat and when it's time to wake the humans for the important dog duties they are in charge of. Jacob took it all in stride. He was smart and quick and was the only one of the three to earn his Good Citizen award. He did have a style all his own when forced to live in a house full of females.

It was this laid back attitude that made him a favorite of his cousins. Yes, Jakers, somehow vaulted into the familial hierarchy with alarming ease, writing letters, learning to read and generally becoming the dog equivalent of a Rock Star.

Glasses and reading aren't so scary when your best dog bud is doing the same. Sarah adored him too, finding a more energetic playmate to help divert her chewing energies.

Whether it was playing in the snow or peeing on the big fish, we had a blast. The giant dog park had to be our most favorite activity in the whole wide world.

The dog park was our heaven for so many reasons. Freedom, adventure and drama, not to mention fantastic exercise for all of us. It was where we all got in touch with our inner dog and if a deer happened to cross our path, well, we all might take off running after it. ALL of us. Some of us usually didn't make it far but we did get our heart pumping.

We never "caught" a deer. There was even one time when they (they being the three dogs with incredibly sensitive canine noses) didn't even know the deer was close enough that I got the picture above. Let's face it, that deer wasn't worried at all, he knew he could outrun all of us with a flick of his tail. Descendants of mighty hunting wolves my ass.

This was about as close as Jake got to a real deer.

I've stirred all of my hot liquid into the rice and I have failed again. Perhaps I've cooked it at too high a heat or maybe my hearts' just not into it. It's not loose enough and now I hear Tom Colicchio's voice in my head berating my risotto. However because it's my head, I tell Tom to shove it. Maybe I should have made the dog's favorite, Beef Barley soup. I was the rock star whenever I made that, especially searing all the oxtails. But now the house is too quiet. There's no click of nails on hardwood floors. There's no constant lapping of water from the dog bowl. A dog bowl that sits there still because I don't have the heart to take it up. I taste the risotto.

It sits like ashes in my mouth and is quickly disposed of into the trash. There is no handbook, no instruction manual to deal with grief. It is just something that must be endured. Slogged through. I realize that Jake and Sarah and Bear's suffering was quickly over with a little needle prick and sleep. Whatever pain they had is over. My pain exists because I'm left behind. My selfish need to have them, touch them, just to scratch their big silly ears. For now I must be content with my photos and my memories.

If there's a heaven where there are dogs (because it's not going to be much fun if there's not) then I wish to be hiding behind a big tree in the dog park and just wait for the inevitable pounding down the trail of twelve dog paws, sniffing me out of my hiding place, just like they always did in real life, quickly planting dog kisses on my face before urging me back down the path to our new adventures. That my friends, is a heaven I look forward to.

A Chicken Noodle Soup by any other Name

2011-05-11T19:30:00.000-05:00

How did you do on your guesstimates on Campbell's Chicken Noodle soups? Let's read some labels. Starting with the granddaddy of the condensed soup line, your basic chicken noodle soup.

This is the cheapo of the bunch. Usually found on sale, this week it was 65¢ for a 10 3/4 oz can of soup at one of the larger grocery store chains in Kansas City. But yikes, it's full of sodium. For a half cup serving of condensed soup you'll be eating a whopping 890mg of salt. The American Heart Association recommends 1,500 mg a day so if you consumed a whole can of this soup you will have wiped out your sodium intake for the whole day. 65¢ is a cheap lunch but hypertension is not.

Our next noodlely entry is the Less Sodium version. Less than what you may ask....and that would be the sodium packed basic version. So instead of 890mg you only get 660mg. Not a whole lot better. You'd also think it would be cheaper since it has less sodium probably because you're a normal adult with lots of common sense. But no, because not only did they take away sodium, they replaced it with fancy smancy sea salt. So there. That's why they feel like they can charge $1.37 a can.

Want "healthier" still? How about the Healthy Request version. It has the same amount of fat and saturated fat as the first one, 5% less cholesterol and even less sodium than the second one (410mg) but still not great. It also goes for a buck thirty seven a can.

Last but certainly not least in price, the Healthy Request, Home Style chicken noodle soup. I haven't a clue what makes it home style. It's still in a can, you still have to add water, and sodium and fat-wise, it's the same as the other Healthy Request. However you will pay $1.75 to discover if it's style is like your home. By the way, each of these four soups have the same amount of calories per serving. 60. Go figure.

These are just four versions of chicken soup with some sort of noodle. There's a whole line of more kid oriented versions, and double noodles but you know what. You can your own soup. I don't think you can make it with the noodles, I suspect they dissolve in the canning process but you can make your own chicken soup to can. Or you can just enjoy Warhol's soup cans.

Hmmm, hmmmm Confusing

2011-05-10T21:00:00.004-05:00

What kind of shopper are you? A grabber and go? Carry a magnifying glass to analyze every label detail in depth? Send the spouse with a list? How about a little quiz? Behold the four cans of Campbell Chicken Noodle Soup.

Can you tell me, without googling, which is the most expensive, which is the least expensive, which has the most sodium, and which has the least sodium. Which has the most calories and the least calories based on a 1/2 cup serving. Better yet, if the regular chicken noodle soup wasn't based on a homestyle recipe....what have we been eating all these years? Institutional soup? Lastly, if you were standing in the soup aisle, staring at the rows upon rows of soup trying to decide which chicken noodle soup to buy, based on the cans above, which one would you choose? Inquiring minds want to dig nosily into your shopping bidness.

Southern Saturdays with Virginia - Vidalia Onion Quiche

2011-05-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

Southern Saturdays with Virginia is back just in time for Mother's Day. This Saturday we're making quiche using sweet Vidalia onions. Virginia, being a good Georgia girl, loves her sweet onions. They are the Official State Vegetable of Georgia so I don't want to hear anything about those faux sweet Texas onions. Growing up on the East Coast, Vidalia onions were one of those things you could get once during the season when they were sold out of the back of a semi trailer much like Florida oranges and grapefruits. My mother would fry up delicate little onions straws out of those Vidalias, making me some kind of viscious fried onion junkie. Today, however, we'll be making a Vidalia Onion Confit as a filling to quiche.

Virginia's recipe calls for 5 - 6 onions or 1 1/2 pounds but I don't know if they had a spectacular growing season or they are feeding these onions steroids because they were huge!! I only needed two and they were two of the small ones.

A little blind baking of the quiche crust with parchment paper lining the crust and then a layer of dried beans as weight to keep the crust level while it bakes.

The sweet onion confit goes into the bottom and then the custard mixture is ladled on top. Baked in the oven until set and voila....

...a quiche fit for Mom. Happy Southern Saturdays and Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there and especially my mom. Can you make me some of those onion straws the next time I'm home? I promise not to whine too loudly.

Appy to See You

2011-04-28T20:30:00.001-05:00

"What do you want for dinner?" I don't know how it was at your house growing up but in mine, this was a question I heard a lot. Finding meals that children and spouses will eat. Usually I hoped it wasn't something that involved plumbing the depths of our chest freezer to find just the right package of meat. Cold hardy my fingers were not.

While I was suffering from freezer burn, my mother was scouring cookbooks, women's magazines and the food section of the newspaper for new and exciting ways to get food into our gullets.

Flash forward to 2011 and parents have a treasure trove of recipe ideas to choose from. The food sections of newspapers are much better, more magazines are devoted to cooking, you've got tons of TV offerings from PBS to all the crap on the Food Network. And Then....there's the Internet. For better or for worse, it's a wild west show for food on the web. But it gets better for Mom because now there are cooking apps she can pull up a specific recipe on her Iphone while she's shopping at the grocery store.

Can't leave Martha home? She's got an app too.

And if Martha's got an app, the rest of the Celebrity Chefs can't be far behind.

Now I don't know about you but I'm not sure I want Gordon Ramsay or Mario Batali in my pocket.

Nigella Lawson on the other hand? Houston we have a GO!

So tell me my little crack monkeys, do you have cooking apps on your various electronic doodads? Would you pay ten bucks to have Mario at your beck and call?

Cutting the Cord

2011-04-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Remember this? I don't. I still haven't watched the finale. Just downloaded the episode off of ITunes today but only because I downloaded an app called Finger Cut for my ITouch (an app that let's you be a cutter without the pain, infection or scars). I'll probably never watch that episode. However my disgust with TV went even further than that. I'm not only done with Top Chef, I'm done with Masters, Bravo, hell I chucked cable all together.

It was a long time coming but the DouchToad Finalists of Top Chef All Stars were the straws that broke my TV's back. No more. No more Swamp People. No more Housewives. Paula Deen and her Ten Tons of Buttery Fun will have to seek elsewhere to find buyers for her wares. My cable representative was not happy. It wasn't like I was a huge customer anyway. I never bought into the HD hype because again, do I really want to see Swamp People in HD? I think not. So my package was fairly meager to begin with but that didn't stop the cable pimper from trying her darnedest. "Well, if it's a matter of money you could get our most basic lineup..." This pissed me off because you can get over the air HD basic if you buy an antenna from Radio Shack and pay once instead of paying the cable company twenty bucks a month for those "free" channels which wouldn't be in HD anyway. She tried another tact, "Perhaps if you upgraded to the HD package?" So now she wants me to pay more for even more crap shows and box rentals? I politely declined. Finally I convinced her that I was a heretic and quite serious about no longer paying them any of my hard earned money.

Of course it didn't stop the Cable Company representatives from calling my house every day, sometimes twice a day for the next week (thank you caller ID) to try and lure me back. But here's the other thing. TV made me a zombie. I have a ton of cookbooks I want to read and explore. There are some fantastic restaurants here in KC I want to visit. It's Year Two of the Backyard Garden Experiment which in reality will only work if I break out the lumberjack flannel and cut down half a tree to get more sunlight to my garden plot.

That's not to say there won't be some things I'll miss from Pay TV.

NCIS marathons.

Robot Chicken

Aqua Teen Hunger Force
(Holy crap, am I a twenty one year old computer nerd trapped in a 50 year old lesbian's body???)

So what am I watching instead? Apparently I've gone back in time. It's a happy place that I suspect many in our country would like to go back to...

...when people had maids who wore sensible shoes and were named Hazel. A time and place where Sally Field did more than pimp Boniva....

...she rode a beach board and called herself Gidget only to follow that up by...

...by riding a nun's habit into the skies of Puerto Rico.

A time when kids played outside and had lots of energy without being labeled hyperactive.

This does not mean I've given up foodie tv, it's just limited to PBS. Or until certain folks decide that killing the Muppets on Sesame Street is in the best interests of the country.

I think I'll be ok.

Spring Rituals

2011-04-23T21:00:00.001-05:00

It's springtime and that means enjoying one of my most favorite spring rituals. The watching of the Ten Commandments. I love this epic. Filmed in 1956, it was Cecil B. DeMille's last directorial effort and a film of epic proportions. Costumes, sets, music and design, all were colorful and amazingly detailed. It also had an amazing amount of men in skirts.

No offense to the Heston fans, he just doesn't fill out a skirt the same way Yul Brynner did.

Yul Brynner was one sexy beast.

I don't know what Nefertari was thinking, Moses was kinda of doofus.

And then there's the casting. Edward G. Robinson as Jewish slave? Really?

Yvonne De Carlo as Moses' shepherdess wife. Don't recognize her?

Recognize her now?

So in honor of Passover, Easter and the Ten Commandments, I decided to try my hand at making matzo ball soup. But not any old matzo balls, Technicolor Matzo Ball Soup. Well....that's what I'm calling it. Susie Fishbein, whose recipe it is, calls it Tricolor Matzo Ball Soup.

A little spinach, a little turmeric and a little tomato paste spice up the matzo balls of old, adding both flavor and color.

Believe me, you need a big hearty bowl of soup to get through four hours of some unintentionally hilarious dialogue. My most favorite line? Heston's "Thou didst blow with thy winds..." Does it get any better than that?

Enjoy the goodness of spring.

Chocoholics Anonymous Alert

2011-04-21T20:00:00.000-05:00

We've all done the chocolate fondue thing. It was bound to happen that it would grow into something larger...

I've never been to an event that had one of these but I bet they are very popular. So it was only a matter of time before this happened.

An actual chocolate waterfall. 12,000 liters per hour. As far as I can tell, no one has jumped in but then again, it's in London. I wouldn't be surprised if the American version included a Chocolate Shower.

What the Heck is a Jumblee?

2011-04-19T20:00:00.003-05:00

Chow has a fascinating look at a very old, handwritten cookbook. Ever wonder what people used to eat, what kind of ingredients were available and what people's favorite treats were? My question is will anyone be able to read your handwriting in 120 years from now?

Which Pie Would You Like to See Made?
	Food and Wine Minny's Chocolate Pie
	bon appetit lime blackberry italian meringue pie
	bon appetit strawberry pie with chamomile currant glaze
	bon appetit rhubarb gingersnap icebox pie
	bon appetit peanut butter honeycomb pie
	bon appetit stone fruit lattice pie
	bon appetit no bake chocolate raspberry cream pie
	momofuke crack pie

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