Lemon Soda

I had a lemon soda in New York City this past weekend. Had I watched the guy make it I could tell you more about it. But I didn't, so all I can do is tell you how perfectly delicious, fizzy, and tart it was, and then tell you where to find it.

156 Tenth Avenue at 20th Street. Cookshop restaurant and bar. Go there on a really hot day. On the sidewalk, there will be a wooden cart with a yellow umbrella and a chalkboard sign with "Lemon Soda" written on it.



In accordance with this citrus memory, I'm making Middle Eastern Lentil Soup tonight. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. I may end up adding more than that in a vain attempt to recreate my lemon soda experience by way of lentils. I think you might know how this will all turn out. But I'm rolling with it because a meal will be made, which is something.

On Blogging and Sodium

I am starting to realize that in the world of blogging sometimes it is necessary to ignore the long-endured principle: "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all." I know that the blogosphere is a world unto itself operating by a totally different set of rules than regular life, but it still takes some getting used to.

Because the blogging world will not wait for you to have a pretty thought or craft the perfect sentence or cook the perfect meal. Nope. The bus blows right on by, leaving you with arms waving to run with all your crap to catch it at the next stop. When you beat it there you are grateful, but you wonder if it was worth it. Well, it is always worth it, but the sprint in between isn't much fun.

That was a digression in its purest form.

There have been several things that I have cooked since I last wrote. Some of them noteworthy, some of them not. The Ramen Noodles (Oriental flavor) are worth a brief mention only because I enjoyed them so much and feel compelled to remind my audience that sodium is an electrolyte that plays a crucial role in maintaining blood pressure (insert footnote here).

The Fettuccine Alfredo that we made recently is definitely worth a mention because it was so good. I know that this dish is on the heart healthy watchdog list, but it is worth enjoying every so often, especially when every so often means every other year or so. Giada adds lemon juice which was my favorite element in this dish. And the Parmesan cheese:



1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I used half and half.)
1/4 fresh lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
6 tablespoons of butter (check)
1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (from about 1 lemon)
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt
9 ounces fresh fettuccine (I used dried.)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

In a large, heavy skillet, stir 1 cup of the cream and the lemon juice to blend. Add the butter and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until the butter melts, about 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and nutmeg. Remove from heat. (My liquid seemed to curdle. I thought about starting over, but forged ahead and everything turned out okay.)

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fettuccine and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 4 minutes. Drain. Add the pasta, the remaining 1/2 cup of cream, the Parmesan, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper to the cream sauce in the skillet. Toss over low heat until the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pasta to wide, shallow serving bowls (if you want) and serve immediately.

Pho Bo and Gazpacho

It is a well known fact that muscles atrophy without regular exercise. The rate of deterioration of one's ingenuity and inspiration in the kitchen after a lapse of regular practice is a much less featured subject.

It is a slippery slope that anyone can find themselves sliding down. It starts with a successful meal, continues with satisfying leftovers, and, oh wait, it stops there. You are lured out of the kitchen. When you come back you can't remember what you ever did there in the first place. That is, if you are like me. And I'm hopeful that you are.

Rest assured, there has been no cooking going on behind your back. I think I would feel a bit better if there had been. No, it has just been the craziness of life and the stark reality that I do not live on the frontier in the early 19th century. Instead I live really close to the most delicious bowl of Pho Bo -Vietnamese beef noodle soup.

Fortunately, Gazpacho doesn't cast judgment. It doesn't ask you where you have been or turn out poorly because you haven't cooked in a while. Its simple flavors speak for themselves and make your first meal back at home a happy one.

And that is where I pick back up. Oh, and you'll need a food processor.

Barefoot Contessa's Gazpacho

2 cucumbers, halved and seeded, but not peeled
3 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
8 plum tomatoes
2 red onions
6 garlic cloves, minced
46 oz. tomato juice (6 cups)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 freshly ground black pepper

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Don't overprocess.

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl.



Then, add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.



Fortunately I had guests to feed, so I made a loaf of french bread to go with it. For dessert: lemon sorbet and gingersnaps!

Anchovies Not Optional

So I'm back from a brief travel hiatus, where I cooked nothing and ate quite a bit.

The object of our first meal back at home was to open the jar of pitted Kalamata olives I picked up a Trader Joe's. The commitment to making this happen was strong enough that I turned to the index in Everday Food's new compilation cookbook, Fresh Flavor Fast, and searched under the letter "O" for olive . Bingo. Spaghetti Puttanesca.

If you are short on time and motivation this is a fast, flavorful dish, as advertised. Read that and then read this: The anchovies are not optional. The recipe says they are, and I guess if you are really really opposed to using them, do what you have to do. But, I don't think the sauce would have been nearly as good without them in it. Plus, the stigma on anchovies has been waning over the past few years anyway.



Spaghetti Puttanesca

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used a tad more)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon, crushed red pepper flakes
6 anchovy fillets (Ours were packed in olive oil and we simply drained them.)
1 can (28 oz.) of whole peeled tomatoes in juice, or crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil; add a generous amount of salt. Cook pasta until al dente according to packaged instructions. Drain pasta; return to pot.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add garlic, red-pepper flakes and anchovies, mashing them with a wooden spoon. Cook stirring until fragrant but not turning brown, about 2 minutes. Break up tomatoes and add them to the pan along with their juice. Stirn in capers and olives. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until tomatoes are softened and sauce is thickened; stirring occasionally, 5-10 minutes.

3. Add sauce to pot, and toss with pasta to combine; season with salt and pepper. Reheat over medium-low if necessary before serving.

Tuesdays

Market day is to Tuesdays like chocolate is to milk. However in this case I get to combine all four ingredients.

Every Tuesday I go to the market. And every Tuesday at the market after my bag is heavy with groceries, I spend my last 75 cents on a styrofoam cup of chocolate milk to sip on my walk home. The cup of milk (I'm sure they use whole), a lid and a straw all for under a dollar. I imagine they came up with this size and container for little children who are likely to spill its contents, but it is also perfect for take away. It is beyond goodness.

Simplicity and Decadence join hands.

I walk home with a bag on each shoulder, my dog's leash in one hand and my chocolate milk in the other. I'm like a yoked cow or a person carrying one of those boards over her neck with a sap bucket hooked to each end. And, I'm happy.

The dog at the end of the leash:

Take Out Fake Out

Pretend this is a twitter update: Aunt Debra's Pickled Eggs Are So Good.

Blog:

So victory came in two forms this weekend. On Friday night we overcame the urge to get take-out and on Saturday night we overcame the urge to get take-out. I don't think that one's goal should always be to fight these cravings, but the meals that resulted from the decision to hold back and head back to the kitchen proved to be worthwhile.

Friday night we took our leftover turkey chili, added some chopped broccoli, ricotta and mozzarella cheese and made calzones. I worried that they would taste like chili wrapped in pizza dough, which is exactly what it was, but the transformation was successful. Amidst the dough and cheeses the chili lost its distinctive flavor -in the best way possible. And the broccoli was saved from a life ending in the refrigerator.

Saturday night instead of making a sudden, sharp right-hand turn into a strip mall with an ambiguous Chinese restaurant in it, we made shrimp and grits. The recipe came from the Month Of May Everyday Food magazine, although there are lots of ways to make it, of course. This is an easy and tasty version with broiled tomatoes on the side.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Here is our edited version of the recipe for the Shrimp with Grits:

1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned grits
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
4 teaspoons of flour
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup light cream
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
Broiled Tomatoes

1. Cook the grits according to the package instructions
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and scallion whites and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour. Whisk in broth and cream, dissolving lumps from flour and scraping up browned bits from skillet, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Add shrimp and cook, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. To serve, top grits with shrimp mixture and sprinkle with scallion greens. Serve with tomatoes, if desired. We desired.

Broiled Tomatoes
Place 4 halved tomatoes, cut side up on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Broil until lightly charred.

The Best Almost Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

They would have made the Best Ever list, I know it. I can say that because they will never be put to the test. This morning my chocolate chip cookie dough went straight into the trash instead of straight into the Almanac. I don't have a great history with chocolate chip cookies, but I was headed for redemption with this batch. My butter was at room temperature. I had some top shelf vanilla extract on hand. And for the first time my teaspoon of baking soda was not going to come from the box in the refrigerator. It would come from the brand new box in my cupboard reserved for the sole purpose of making these cookies. No longer will my baking soda work double duty as a deodorizer and a rising agent!

I should have been wary, as stars do not generally align in the kitchen (or anywhere). For while so many of my ingredients were in tip top shape, others were not. I pulled out my plastic bag of dark brown sugar and saw a peculiarity. Why would I open the bag on one end with scissors and then turn the bag over and tear a hole in each corner of the other end? The questioned remained unanswered as I went about my business packing my measuring cups with the sugar and emptying them into the mixer.

You may know where this is going, and soon enough I put the pieces together. Unfortunately, it was not me who had opened the bag of brown sugar on both ends.

I thought too long over the fate of the dough. So much waste. But then I pictured the little buggers. And then I flashed back to a rerun of Little House On the Prairie when Pa discovers that the town's supply of cornmeal has been invaded. Here ends the story.

Aunt Debra's Pickled Eggs

This week I decided to put an end to my latest craving and called my Aunt Debra to get her recipe for pickled eggs. I had one of hers a couple summers back and I have yet to forget it. I'm not sure if it is the South Jersey soil where they grew up or the blood in their veins but that side of the family across the board has a hankering for anything sour, anything tart, anything pickled.

All of you who snack on a hard-boiled egg in the afternoon or add one to your lunch bag, Hear Ye Hear Ye. And if you don't, you might after this read.

But first, set up shop. On Monday I went to the grocery store and picked up a jar of sliced jalapenos and a two-litter bottle of distilled white vinegar. Today I went to the market and got a dozen farm fresh jumbo brown eggs. Brown are the Best!



"Pretty much everything but the kitchen sink can go in," she told me, "but the Worcestershire sauce is key." Roger. I selected my mason jars (I'll get to that later). I laid out all my ingredients and went to boiling my eggs.



The task lost a little of its romantic edge when I was peeling the dozen eggs. I learned once how to make this an easy job, I think it has something to do with rinsing them with cold water after you take them out of their boiling bath. But, I remembered that after the fact and was left with little bits and pieces of shell to flake off.

Into the mason jar went the jalapenos, the garlic, eight shakes of Worcestershire sauce, three drops of Melinda's Hot Sauce, one teaspoon of dry mustard powder, several peppercorns, a healthy pinch of salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Then I added enough white vinegar to fill the jar up to the middle knuckle of my thumb. I heated the mixture in the microwave to get the juices flowing and shook it. It was at this point that I noticed my perfect vintage mason jar wasn't quite doing the job. As I sloshed, liquid oozed.

After invigorating the base liquid, I rolled in eight eggs. Over them I poured more vinegar, filling the jar up to its brim and covering the eggs. I gently shook which lead to gentle oozing. But, the job was done. Now we wait. 2-3 days. Preferably three.



While you are waiting, you can make Quinoa Tabbouleh from Thekitchn.com. Delicious. Their picture turned out much better than mine. We added about twice the amount of lemon juice.

(Okay so if you have paid attention to my timeline, you will know that I haven't tried the eggs yet. But, if they are anywhere near Aunt Debra quality, we will be in good shape.)

On the Scone Fence

So, I'm pretty sure the scones I made this morning are better than the scones I delivered to my prospective coffee shop client a while back. This would explain why I haven't heard back from them. I've sent the owner two emails following up and still no word. But we all know that a follow-up email is like no follow up at all. If I really wanted this to happen, I would have stopped by the day after I dropped them off and then stared at him in silence until he succumbed. I didn't do this and the "info@" email account to which I wrote isn't the most sure-fire way to contact someone. I'm not giving up yet. Actually I was intentionally stalling while I tried to figure out how to get my kitchen up to spec. And while I was scanning the incomprehensible PA Department of Health website, a successful baker/sconer suggested that I look into renting a kitchen that is already certified. Brilliant! She went on to say that she wakes up at 2 in the morning or 2 at night rather to bake all 400 scones by 6am for her wholesale clients. I should should have listened to her when she said "You don't want to know." This little tidbit will weed out the faint at heart, including mine. I'm not at that point yet, I realize. But, 2am. So, while no one follows up with me, I'm taking a personal inventory and imagining some grim figure waving his fist in my face asking, "Do you really want to do this or not?!"

I got a little closer to answering YES! to this question when the Blackberry Scones came out of the oven this morning. They were fluffy by all standards and the definite definition of delicious. Another conquest from Everyday Food. May edition.

Here is a picture and here is the recipe:



1 cup raspberries or blackberries
2 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick of cold unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup buttermilk.

In a food processor blend the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter in bits and pieces until is it looks crumble with pea size pieces of the mixture throughout.

Combine the egg yolk and buttermilk in a bowl. Slowly add this liquid until dough sticks together. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Flatten a bit until it is roughly 1 inch thick. Cut or pull out 2x2 inch squares, again roughly, and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 15-18 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Sous Dishwasher?

Yesterday, after exhausting my will to flip through my own cookbooks for the millionth time, I walked down to the library to see what I inspiration I could find. It was a tried and true Monday, complete with sour mood and grave facial expressions. I had spent the weekend away from my kitchen and my computer and when you do that, you are asking for Monday glum. I walked away with two books and one movie added to my request list (all of which I don't expect to see for some time), and one CD and one cookbook in my bag. I brought home The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook. I miss the days when Martha Stewart's name stood on its own without the word "Living" next to it. Regardless, I checked out Martha S. Living's book for my re-entry day. This volume is clearly her answer to the Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything. So far, I stand in support.

For one is has the clearest explanation I have seen yet for "the Sponge", an intimidating step/ingredient in making sour dough breads and ciabatta loaves. Right now I have a bowl of it sponging away in my refrigerator. Two, it gave me a reason to buy all those vegetables in the above picture. The recipe: Chunky Vegetable Potpie. It was an all day affair. I had to roast the veggies and then saute the shallots and garlic and then pull out the food processor to make the biscuit dough to spread on top of the dish. I don't know that I will make it again for a while, but it served as a delicious and needed reminder that avoiding a messy kitchen should not be your main aim in cooking. And, I admit that this is sometimes my forethought. Endless were the bowls and measuring utensils used.

I think that someone should include at the end of his or her cookbook an acknowledgment of those who washed all the dishes. Or maybe someone will someday include an epilogue as to how many dishes they have washed to get to the point where they don't have to wash any more dishes.

It's equivalent to Project Runway. You have to start your career by sewing your own garments, but by the end it is someone else's job.

Nothing Says Spring Like Barley

I remember my mother's reluctance to turn on our oven when the weather got warm. I remember wondering what we were going to eat for dinner during those summer months and how we were going to cook. The challenge is here again: how to feed yourself and others while avoiding the large appliance that takes up too much space in your kitchen.

Can one eat mangos for breakfast, lunch and dinner and survive? Will avacado smeared toast give your body all it needs?



I've been flipping through my cookbooks, wishing I had remembered to pick up a fennel bulb at the market or another cucumber and some feta cheese to make a nice gazpacho or a greek salad, or this chilled cucumber soup I've been wanting to try. But none of those can help with tonight.

I settled on this "Creamy Barley Salad with Apples" from Real Simple. I have barley on hand from all those wintery soups. I have apples aplenty which is good, but it also means that we have already had apples for lunch and this dish might border on overload. Maybe I will omit the apples. But what I'm really excited about is the Baked Strawberry Custard that is just out of the oven. Yes, I used the oven, but it is turned off now and won't be turned back on for the rest of the day. Maybe the challenge above can be changed to a guideline with a "just do your best, that is all anybody can ask" subtitle.

I'll let you know how the salad goes. The Custard is from Everyday Food, April edition, p. 106.

Update:
The salad was great, as it turned out. Perfect for an unseasonably warm spring evening. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 hefty teaspoon dijon mustard
2 stalks celery sliced (I substituted snow peas)
1 apple, thinly sliced (I used golden delicious)
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
2 bunches arugula (I used red leaf lettuce)

In a medium saucepan, combine the barley, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1/2 tsp. salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until barley is tender and water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, oil, lemon juice, mustard, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Add celery, apple, mint, and mix.

Break up the barley, add to above mixture, and toss to combine.

Serve over lettuce.

Margarine Madeleines

Hello! I hope yous had a nice weekend. Mine was good, thanks. I didn't end up making strawberry shortcake, but my grandmother had all the ingredients on hand for Coconut Madeleines, except for butter, so that was that. Note the pale complexion that is exclusive to products made with this butter substitute. They were still a treat, light and spongy.



They are not hard to make, just hard to get out of the pan. If you are a detail-oriented person you will enjoy the challenge. If you are not, then make sure to butter and flour the pans thoroughly.

This is what came before the cookies and a cup of tea:

-Roasted Pork with Potatoes served with homemade Mustard-Horseradish-Honey sauce
-Succotash (I've never had this dish of lima beans and corn outside of this region and I don't plan to, but it is delicious.)
-Coleslaw with Apples

That was on Sunday. On Saturday night it was dinner at Tony's in Atlantic City. I must have been 12 years old the last time I was out to eat with my grandparents. And I'm pretty sure we went to Tony's Baltimore Grill. You like their food because you are told to like their food, and only then do you grow to like it on your own accord. It's an institution - a place that stood before the casinos came to shoo people off the beaches and usher them inside. Now it caters to the new clientele with a "seat yourself" sign and a bar in the back that is open 24 hours. But, my grandparents still make it in for special occasions. When you are in their company the only thing you are allowed to order is Spaghetti with Red Clam Sauce which is okay because it is probably the only thing worth ordering. Each booth has its own juke box, and if you are as lucky as we were, the booth behind you will play tunes loud enough for you to enjoy for free! Our waitress, Tina, was a nice and abrupt young women with tattoos on her forearms and a tight blond ponytail. She sort of flung the dishes of pasta at us, but in an unoffensive way. She said words like "yous" in reference to our table, and took a cigarette break after our food had arrived. All of these elements added up to a wonderfully quintessential Tony's night.

Stop in next time you're in Atlantic City. Just bring a friend.

Here is the recipe for the Coconut Madeleines:

1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter, to grease the pans
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine, melted and cooled
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Confectioners' sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Thoroughly grease and flour the madeleine pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, (I used the whisk attachments), beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed for 3 minutes, or until light yellow and fluffy. Add the butter and mix. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, and stir into the batter with a rubber spatula. Stir in the coconut.

With a soup spoon, (this is Barefoot Contessa being so exact, not me) drop the batter into the pans, filling each shell almost full. Bake the madeleines for 10 to 12 minutes, until they spring back when pressed. Tap the madeleines out onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper (did not do that) and allow to cool. Dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired.

A New Leaf of Basil

While I do abide by the principle of "the truth shall set you free", upon sober reflection, it would have been best if I had left out the bit about the beefaroni in my last post. Not that this blog's aim is to make me look like a gourmet chef, which clearly I am not, but I still have my pride to contend with and moments like those are best left unmentioned. No harm done, I know, I know. But lesson learned and let's move on.

And to turkey tacos we go; slowly chipping away from the mass amount of meat I bought this week. They were a triumph. And the secret ingredient: basil. The pound or so meat was seasoned with 4 teaspoons of chili powder, one teaspoon of salt, half teaspoons each of paprika, cumin, dry mustard, sugar. First, brown the meat, drain the meat and return in to the stovetop. Add a cup of water and those spices. Simmer for 20 minutes or so. Then get all your toppings together. We chose tomatoes, chopped spinach, onions, cheese, salsa and sour cream. And basil. Don't forget the basil.

Large flour tortillas were all we had on hand, and I could barely make it through one.

Off to New Gretna today. I'm hoping my grandmother will allow me to make strawberry shortcake for Easter!

P.S. No word from the bakery. Must follow up with vigor next week.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

So I've spent some eventful albeit repetitive days in the kitchen recently. Make coffee, make dinner. Decide which coffee to drink, decide which page of Everyday Food to use. Is it the dark and deliciously roasted Stumptown beans from Brooklyn thank you Ans, or is it the Orange Cappuccino flavored beans from Wegman's? Is it p. 75 or p. 77? Today it was Stumptown and tonight it will be page 75, Zucchini Pasta with Ricotta. Of course, these decisions will not always be before me. Soon I will run out of these precious coffees and soon I will work my way through the magazine. And then I will slowly move on.

There are the moments in between, of course. Like, today at the market,


I bought a six pound bag of ground dark turkey meat for $12. And last night I ate a can of Beefaroni. I popped the lid, emptied it into a bowl, stuck it in the microwave and then I ate it. I'm pretty embarrassed about that one. And I'm sure my readership will fall off sharply after this post. But, in my defense, I was on my own for dinner, I was really hungry and I was in a hurry. The can was intended for my nephew, not that he has ever eaten a can of it or expressed an interest in it, but I had thrown in in the cart just in case. I'm still surprised at myself. It wasn't all that gross and the nutritional content isn't as horrifying as you might think. But still. I've got to come back strong from that one.

Herbs!

The herbs are in the ground! After visiting two different garden centers and one hardware store that was closed (on Saturday?), we returned not with a large galvanized bucket big enough to serve as a planter, but a coconut italian ice from Rita's and a wooden-handled trowel. I was pretty set on having an herb bucket, but settled on a corner of our backyard that showed signs of ancient plant life. All that remained were two ill-positioned lifeless looking plants with long grass-like leaves of no vibrant color. But, we tilled the ground, spread some fresh soil, and left the moppish plants to serve as herb dividers, in case the mint and sage flourish as people have lead me to hope.





They look promising, don't they?

By the way, have you bought April's Everyday Food yet?

We are working on Beef and Tomato Stew (p. 84) at present.

Homage to Tupelo and Hybrid Fruits

Hello! It’s been way too long since I have last posted. And while I feel like an apology for the lag is a little presumptuous at this point, I want to at least acknowledge it and have you know that I carried around sufficient guilt for the recent pause. In the future I will do my best not to be deterred by swaying buses or turbulent flight patterns.

Anyway, I arrived in Boston's South Station Wednesday night and walked as fast as my Sanitas would carry me on to the Red Line to Central Square and down Prospect Street to Tupelo in Inman Square. The hurry to this restaurant was not only to see my sister, but also to make it there before the kitchen closed. Lucky for me, I made it in time to have the best Moules Frites ever. The mussels were plump and piping hot sitting in a white wine broth with fries piled high and some amazing aioli sauce drizzled over it all. For those of you that find this information of no use because you either do not eat shellfish and/or do not live close enough to said restaurant to go there this very evening and try them for yourself, please forgive the indulgence and read on.

Because I need to tell you to go out and get the April issue of Everyday Food by Martha Stewart. So far I can give the Red Rice with Sausage and Peppers two thumbs up. And while I find the Bites section –tips, information, and news, from our kitchen to yours- a little annoying, I’m happy to skip those pages because it has a lot of things in it I want to try. I just wish I knew how many times they have informed their readers that buying a whole chicken is more cost effective than buying boneless chicken breasts.

Also, have you discovered the power of mineolas yet? It is a hybrid between a grapefruit and a tangerine and whoever first crossed these two fruits deserves a blue ribbon. I hope it was a farmer and not a lab tech. One day I will find out, but in the meantime their juicy, tangy flavor remains untarnished.

Here they are with strawberry friends waiting to be dipped in chocolate.



The chocolate sauce comes from Barefoot Contessa’s Back to Basics, although I tweaked it:
7oz semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons of half and half
2 tablespoons of light corn syrup
1 teaspoon mineola zest (optional)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the half and half (or heavy cream) over a very low flame, or double boiler if you wish. Add the chocolate and stir until it melts. Just lift the saucepan from the heat if you are worried about it burning. Add the corn syrup and the zest. Stir until combined and transfer to a ramekin.

Pizza Pizza

Last I left you with scone delivery pending. They were indeed delivered; twelve of them piled high though looking smaller than I hoped. While I waited nervously to hand off my plate to the owner, I noticed that some of the competing scones were no longer suffocating under plastic wrap but had been unwrapped and placed in an attractive glass cake stand. I can’t help but think that this scone movement was inspired by my inquiries of several days ago. And though this pleased me, it may end up hurting my chances of become their next scone artisan.

“Do you have a price sheet?” the owner asked me just as I was leaving. The correct answer was: No, I did not. The given answer was, “ Yes, I will email it to you.” And so a price sheet was made on Saturday evening, other scone and biscotti varieties were decided upon, our “bakery” was given a name and we began to hunt around for information on the permits needed to certify our kitchen.

And with the fate of the scones out my hands, it was on to Wegman's grocery store, returning with a two pound bag of mussels for five dollars, which we ate for dinner, followed by a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

We pulled the recipe for the mussels from JC's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Score! And the chocolate cake recipe came from the Hubbs' kitchen in Cambridge, MA by way of the Hershey's Cocoa Powder box. J. Hubbs uses Ghiradelli cocoa powder instead of the Hershey's, and his finished product is incredible. Mine was not incredible because when halving the recipe, I added the full cup of milk instead of half a cup. But if you are baking a cake for more than two people and you do not halve the recipe it really is a wonderful chocolate cake.

I'll post that recipe when I get back. Get back from Florida. Beautiful Orlando is where I write you from. Last night we ate at Le Rain Forest Cafe, (located in 'Downtown Disney') or "RFC" as embroidered on their sweatpants and flip flops and mugs and choker necklaces.

Tonight it is Little Caesar's Pizza.

Scone Angst

Ever since the scone incident, I have been very preoccupied in the kitchen -thinking of scones, wondering why all of the sudden I am not in the mood to make scones, and other sconey thoughts. But this is what happens right? You make a half-way commitment and then you lose motivation for executing your once romantic notion of becoming a baker-on-the-side.

But, I have a job to do, I told myself when I didn't have several key scone ingredients, which meant a trip to Giant on this rainy morning. I could be one of those uncommitted scone-lovers who do not follow through on their unprompted offer to make a batch of scones for their local coffee shop. Or, I can just make a batch. Simple enough. So that is what I did.

And here they are pre-icing:





Here they are post-icing:





Here is the link to the Orange-Cranberry Scones recipe I used, in case you have a similarly perplexing coffee shop nearby. I'm dropping a dozen off this afternoon and I will let you know how it goes!

And just in case you were worried that this blog is going to be consumed by scones from here on out, I'll tell you that we made a great batch of pancakes last night for dinner. I know, still on the breakfast theme, but it was the best I could come up with given the circumstances and with skillful pancake flipping (not my own) they were excellent. On the side: cantaloupe sprinkled with salt.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancakes from a back-issue of Everyday Foods:

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for skillet

1. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and 1 cup oats and pulse a few times to coarsely grind oats. In a large bowl whisk together milk, eggs, and oil. Add dry ingredients and 1 cup oats and whisk just until moistened.

2. Heat a large skillet (non-stick or cast-iron) or griddle over medium. Lightly oil skillet. We found the oil unnecessary on our non-stick pan. Using 2 to 3 tablespoons, or 1/4 cup measuring spoon, for each pancake, drop batter in skillet and cook until a few bubbles have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until browned on undersides, 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat. Sorry to bore you will pancake know-how.

3. After eating our fill, we let the rest cool and put them in a freezer, first on a baking sheet and then in a zip lock. Hopefully we can remember they are there.

Scone Dilemma

To satisfy a growing curiosity, I stopped into a coffee shop today to inquire about the origins of the scones they have on display. I say "on display" because they appear to be props. Okay, sorry. I will try to leave exaggeration out of this because we have a very serious matter on our hands. They may not be props, but they are clearly an afterthought. To be fair, their first thought, their baby, their true love is coffee. It's quality. They roast it on site and they have interesting, complicated, upscale coffee drinks to choose from. I haven't ordered one, but they look legit, and they take a really long time to make. What I am trying to say in too many words is that they have a lot going for them. And a cup of coffee is the perfect place to start. To start. You can't stop there unless you have not a baked good in sight.

But they lots of baked goods in sight. The scones. Oh, the scones. It's painful. I'm sure you've seen similar products in your travels. Maybe at a rest stop or 7-eleven? The uniform triangularity, the small precise squiggle of icing on top, the saran wrap. On my first couple of trips in there I wanted to believe they made them on location. If they have a coffee roaster in the back, surely they have someone to throw some dough in the oven. Maybe he or she has a compulsion to make every single scone look exactly the same. It's possible.

I even bought one. And I won't claim that right then and there I knew that they had been shipped in from somewhere far away. It was fine. It was dry, hard, I didn't finish it, but it was fine. And that was in the early morning.

Today was my day to find out the truth. Hoping for the best, I walked up to the counter and asked the cashier where they got their scones. He didn't know but went to the back to pick up the order sheet. He came back and read me the name of a generic-sounding company. I asked if it was a local company and he thought they come from Philadelphia. Philadelphia is approximately 80 miles away. I asked (politely) if there was a manager available. He went to the back again and came back with the actual owner. A good sign and we had a very nice chat.

He told me about the frozen scones they order in bulk about once or twice a month and then thaw before serving, I mean displaying. And then I heard myself tell him about the orange-cranberry scones I make, and the white-chocolate-cranberry scones I have made before and I even heard myself talking about the biscotti that I have made in the past, maybe four times in my life.

He told me that they are shopping around for a new scone supplier and that I should bring some by next time I make a batch. He gave me his card and I said okay. Shoot.

To be continued. Maybe.

Wardrobe Change

I'm stalling. My vision for soup last week carried me through Thursday. Decent run, although I still have an unopened bag of split peas that did not get cooked. The longer I wait and the closer spring gets, the more likely it is that the bag will get pushed to the back of the cabinet or moved to the freezer to be turned into an ice pack. Weak ending to such inspiration. Strawberry tyranny to be blamed.

But nevermind last week, it is the current week that troubles me. No vision, no strawberries, just three lonely potatoes. And it's too beautiful outside to be inspired by potatoes.

It is one of the awkward days when winter isn't officially over and spring is trying to convince you that it has arrived. But I never trust those first days of sun and so they always catch me unprepared and way over-dressed. It seems I'm always the last person to finally stop wearing wool and I constantly find myself in my heaviest and dreariest shoes on those days when flip flops are optimal.

I wasn't prepared for the same quandary to find me in the kitchen. But on this sun-shiny day I'm boiling potatoes and they are not for potato salad. I don't want to run to the store to liven up my refrigerator, so I'm going to cook according to the calendar date and not according to the temperature outside. A moment of principles! I have some spinach to saute and sprinkle with feta cheese. Not too bad. And to those potatoes I'm going to add some diced prosciutto and some sauteed onions. The Wednesday Chef's Austrian Potato Strudel reminded me of my hiding potatoes, though I'm neither buying or making strudel dough today. More With Less has a recipe for a potato casserole that I am going to pull from as well.

In the meantime here is the cup of tea I enjoyed this afternoon. It is fully responsible for today's entry.

Pie is the Thing

Who needs to worry about dinner when they have a big slice of strawberry pie coming to them.

Strawberries Are In Season Somewhere

There are a lot of things to say about soup. Last night we made another winner: Giada De Laurentiis' Hearty Tomato Soup with Lemon and Rosemary. But on this cold and dreary day, I'm lacking in adjectives and enthusiasm and my commentary is as interesting as a letter home from summer camp: "The soup was good. It was really fun to make. You should try it. The rosemary was great. The lemon was great too."

To save us both from more uninspiring remarks, I will change the subject and give you words of hope. Strawberries are in season somewhere. (Thank you sister for the tip.) Even though this third day in March could be mistaken for the third day in any of the past three months, somewhere there is green. Somewhere in Plant City, Florida people are strawberry picking. And, these strawberries have made it all the way to my grocery store, Giant. They are even on sale.

Here is proof:



Right now they are in the oven being turned into a strawberry pie. When I told my husband I was making a strawberry pie he looked at me as if he was waiting for me to add the word rhubarb. But no, it is going to be a straight-up strawberry pie. I'm hoping it is like a strawberry tart, but in a pie pan. I'm really hoping it tastes like this amazing brown-sugared strawberry fruit square I had at The Biscuit in Somverville, MA. I added a brown sugar and butter crumble topping at the last minute upon remembering the experience.

I used Mark Bittman's recipe for berry pies in How To Cook Everything, but I ended up simplifying it a good deal.

Update: The pie turned out really well. Sweet and tart. I almost missed the rhubarb, but after a couple more bites enjoyed the simplicity of the berry on its own.

Strawberry Pie:

For the filling:
5 cups or 2 pound (by weight) container of strawberries hulled and halved.
2 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of cornstarch

Crust:
1 1/8 all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 stick of butter, cold, unsalted and cut into about 8 pieces.
3 tablespoons of ice water

Combine dry ingredients in food processor. Pulse for a moment. Add butter slices and process until flour and butter are blended (about 10 seconds). It will look like cornmeal.

Place the mixture in a bowl and then sprinkle 3 tablespoons of water. Add another 1/2 tablespoon if it looks dry. I ended up using that extra 1/2 tablespoon. Flatten dough into a small disc. Wrap in plastic and chill. Just roll out when you are ready to make your crust.

Once crust is rolled out. Place filling into pie dish. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and cook for another 45 minutes. Definitely let it sit out a while, and it will firm up nicely.

Loose Ends

I have several slightly tedious but important updates for you today. First, back to the Pilgrim's Progress Bread -it was amazing. Amazing in the sense that I am still shocked at how well it came out. So well, in fact, that it would tempt the most devout pilgrim to remain in Vanity Fair. I'm not sure why it was so good. It could have been the switch from McArthur's All-Purpose Flour to McArthur's Bread Flour. It could have been me kneading the dough by hand instead of using the Kitchen Aid's mechanical arm. Or it could have simply been the recipe. I can't say for sure, but it was the best loaf of bread we've made yet. As advertised it was "a light bread with a lovely blend of flavors".

Here's another shot, this time sliced:



Before I give you the recipe for bread, I want to tell you quickly about the additions we made to Peter Berley's Leek Soup with Peas and Sauerkraut from The Wednesday Chef's blog. Just as she said, the soup was a wonderful surprise. Adding a fennel bulb, a small head of bok choy cabbage, both chopped, and two more cups of chicken broth to stretch it for more hearty portions was an even nicer surprise. After sitting in refrigerated broth for close to 24 hours the peas, though still nice, had lost their luster and their tiny pop. The bright green skin had faded to a shade of army fatigue and the leeks were barely noticeable. So in went the fennel and the cabbage and the soup was revived.

It doesn't really look revived in this picture, but it was.



Here's the recipe for the Pilgrim's Bread:

Combine in a bowl:
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt

Stir gradually into:
2 cups boiling water

Add:
1/4 cup oil

Cool to lukewarm.
Dissolve:
2 pkg. or 2 tablespoon dry yeast in
1/2 cup warm water

Add yeast to cornmeal mixture.
Beat in:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour

By hand stir in:
4 1/4 - 4 1/2 cups of unbleached white flour

Turn onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and let rise in warm place until double. Punch dough down; turn out onto lightly floured surface. Divide in half and knead a second time for 3 minutes. Shape dough into 2 loaves and place in greased pans. Cover and let rise again in warm place until double in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees about 45 minutes. (My bake time was 38 minutes.)

If like me you only have one bread pan, More With Less instructs you to place the remaining portion of dough (before the second kneading process) in a greased bowl covered with a damp cloth. Store in refrigerator up to 3 days. Punch down as necessary.

enter camera

I've started posting pictures. I'm not sure what this blog will turn out to be, other than a blog, but after clicking on countless food blogs complete with a link to Amazon to view their recently published book, pictures seem to be a must. I'm a little hesitant to bring my camera into the kitchen. Good pictures mean good natural light which I do not have. Okay, I have some and if I can take all pictures by noon, I'm set. But, I foresee that time-line to be challenging. Once the afternoon begins to wane, I have to rely on florescent lights stuck underneath the upper cabinets that flicker several times before they settle into a hummed glow.

Kitchen pictures are also enhanced by nice countertops. Soapstone, granite, Corian -any of these would do. I think we have a laminated plastic. And lately, I've been using a collection of plastic, nonskid mixing bowls, instead of beautiful, heavy ceramic ones, or cool vintage Pyrex.

I do not file these as complaints. They are simply reasons not to bring a camera into the kitchen. But I have to give "the people" what they want. And they want pictures, don't they?

I'll ensure you don't see any of those unsightly things I mentioned above. Instead I will strategically place items I like in the background. Like my bread box, my dutch oven, or my Vietri canisters. Instead of seeing a picture of my rising dough, maybe I will give you a picture of the rising dough, in a bowl that is covered by my favorite dish towel.

And really, when you have gorgeous leeks with their lime greens and whites and curly cues, maybe natural lighting, and beautiful counter tops don't matter (as much).

Pilgrim's Progress

It's going to be a good week. For one I bought two boxes of girl scout cookies at church this morning -samoas and thin mints. The samoas get smaller and smaller every year, don't they? They are tiny and you are only allowed two per serving. Oh, but they are so good. Thin mints allow you a whopping four per serving, which I have already had today. The rest are in the freezer. Don't worry, I don't always check the serving content, but I'm trying not to be a glutton with every sweet item I buy and I've already checked that box for the cadbury mini eggs.

Second, I've decided that Sundays are bread making days. At least this week. This works out well because I just made a loaf of bread, called Pilgrim's Bread from More with Less. Granted I wanted it to be ready to eat with dinner and it is just now coming out of the oven at 10pm, so I don't have a review for you yet, but I do have a picture of it!



And it smells delicious.

Thirdly, I've decided to make soup this week. It's a week of soup, a soup of week. This quest should have probably come earlier in the winter season, but with more snow predicted for Lancaster this week, it is never too late.

I still haven't told you about the wonderful ginger-scallion broth we made on Thursday. But, I will give you the recipe very soon! And tonight, I have another soup recipe to share, this one is from a (another) great food blog that you probably already know about, The Wednesday Chef, but since I'm late coming to the food blogging scene, I'm still enthralled by it. Mine actually looked just like her picture too. At first it didn't, and in my head I already had started to blog about how it looked nothing like it, but I'm glad I waited. Here's a picture of the sauteed leeks part since her picture of the finished product is quite sufficient.

breakfast bruschetta

It's cold outside and it looks like it might snow. Our kitchen is about 10 degrees cooler than any other room in the house. If it was actually snowing it might sound inviting to go back there and cook something delicious, or try at least, but since it only looks like it might snow it is simply a room I want to avoid. I'll make it in there at some point today because I have a great little recipe for scallion-ginger broth. It calls for 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and since I bought my first-ever bottle of it this week I'm very excited to give it a go.

I'm also not in a hurry to get back there because I'm still savoring memories of this morning's breakfast. I sliced about 10 or so pieces of the baguette leftover from last night and popped them in the toaster oven that I've been trying to get rid of for months now, but oh so glad I still had it today! (Although they could have been easily broiled.)

Toppings:

-Nutella
-peanut butter
-Amish farm butter
-mixed berry preserves
-creamed honey

Don't they all sound so good? My favorite combination was a base layer of peanut butter topped with a swirl of nutella. The runner up was a generous smear of butter topped by a dollop of preserves.

I'm definitely doing that again.

the bourguignon's final stand

So when I left you last I was headed for bed with a belly full of red meat and red wine. Not the most terrible state to be in, but one that did not elicit the same amount of praise the dish has enjoyed in recent years.

It was a hard place to be -unenthusiastic about this French classic and standing against Julia Child, the Contessa, and the editors (and chefs?) of Everyday Food magazine. (I don't feel as bad about the standoff with the latter.)

Fortunately, my moment of reconciliation came on Monday night. I opened the fridge and there it was -the Dutch oven filled with boeuf and broth waiting for its final stand. Sigh. I turn on the gas burner. Click Click Click. I get out the match to light the gas burner. A poof of fire quickly shrinks to a low flame and I place the pot on the oven. I turn on another burner for the rice and lean against the counter.

And thought crosses my mind. Fennel. I have a bulb of fennel. This is not an original thought. But it is a thought that I was too tired to turn into actuality the night before. This is the beauty of leftovers. Leftovers really means that you have leftover energy, not leftover food. And leftover energy for me translates to a side dish.

As you probably know, fennel is a licorice-flavored vegetable. Its popularity is on the rise, and for good reasons. In my mind it is the perfect salad.

I cut off the stalks, took out the hard inner core and the tough outside layer, chopped it up, and threw in some flat-leaf parsley. The vinaigrette was just fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

And you are done. And it is delicious.

So, with our fennel bulb as the extended olive branch, our beef stew was enjoyed in all its richness. White rice was the needed starch and refreshing salad the perfect supporting dish.

The End.

Cadbury mini eggs and Velveeta

I bought my first bag of Cadbury mini eggs yesterday. Solid milk chocolate with a crisp sugar shell. Every year they get better and better, or maybe I just grow to appreciate them more and more. They were my mother's favorite Easter candy which allows me to eat almost an entire 8 oz bag in one day and not feel guilty. I think this candy is the sole reason why I will never be able to give up sweets for Lent. It's just not worth it.

I will say that the Cadbury experience will be different in future years because these eggs, the Crunchie (if you haven't had one, you must), and other treats will no longer be coming from jolly old England. I'm sure you saw the headlines several weeks ago, but the reality of the sale suddenly hit home as I bit into my first pastel pink mini egg. Now the Confectioners will be manufactured by the same people who bring you Velveeta. The same people who manage California Pizza Kitchen microwavable pizzas will soon have the rights to this legendary chocolate company. I'm sure we won't be able to taste the difference, and the packaging will most likely remain the same. But it won't be the same.

As of now Kraft has no plans to close the Cadbury plants in England and relocate them to the U.S. But my guess is that it is only a matter of time.

Read all about it.

excusez moi

Okay, I've been informed that there is a big scene in the movie, Julia and Julia involving beouf bourguignon. I have not seen the movie, but I guess I should now.

To do: watch all blockbuster hits before heading to the kitchen.

All I can say is that I hope hers turned our better than mine. Our stew was tasty no doubt, and the meat was really tender, but it was way too heavy --too rich to be eaten on its own. I'm not looking forward to leftover beef tonight, but hopefully adding some egg noodles or rice will entice me.

Can someone tell me if Amy Adams also made Rye bread to go with her beef? How uncanny would that be? Actually it was this loaf of bread that saved the meal. It also saved us from certain life as vegetarians.

Here is the recipe in case you want to try it! It is from More-With-Less.

Ruggenbrot
(Rye Bread)

Dissolve in large bowl:
1 tablespoon dry yeast in
1 cup warm water

Add:
1 cup scalded milk, cooled
1 tablespoon salt
2 Tablespoons melted fat or oil
2 Tablespoons molasses or brown sugar
2 cups fine rye flour

Beat until smooth. Slowly blend in:
4 1/2 cups white flour (I only used about 4 cups)

Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead 5-10 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes. Punch down and divide dough into 2 equal portions; shape into loaves. Place in greased bread pans, cover and let rise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Butter tops after removing from oven.

boeuf bourguignon

Any recipe that uses almost a full bottle of wine is worth a try. This beef stew no longer needs to be kept on the pages of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In fact, the March issue of Everyday Food features the dish as a simple French meal perfect for a weekend dinner. It's true!

First I had to learn to pronounce it and then I learned to cook it. Bourguignon = Bore-gin-yawh

Lots of people list this recipe, but we chose to follow Barefoot Contessa's version in her cookbook, Barefoot In Paris, which gives a cooking time of 1 1/4 hours, as opposed to the traditional 3 hours. Yikes!

Below is the exact recipe. We tweaked it by using:
-2 pounds of stewing beef instead of 2 1/2 pounds
-3 slices of bacon instead of 8 oz. and it was not applewood smoked
-We didn't have any cognac or brandy. Note to self: Get some!
-We used shameful McCormick ground pepper. Note to self: Find lost pepper grinder!
-Chicken broth instead of beef broth
-1 onion instead of 2, and eliminated the frozen pearl onions
-dried thyme instead of fresh

Perk: Sunday blues are dulled by foresight of delicious Monday leftovers to start the week.

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon good olive oil
* 8 ounces dry cured center cut applewood smoked bacon, diced
* 2 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into 1-inch cubes
* Kosher salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks
* 2 yellow onions, sliced
* 2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)
* 1/2 cup Cognac
* 1 (750 ml.) bottle good dry red wine such as Cote du Rhone or Pinot Noir
* 1 can (2 cups) beef broth
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste
* 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 pound frozen whole onions
* 1 pound fresh mushrooms stems discarded, caps thickly sliced

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is lightly browned. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.

Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the seared cubes to the plate with the bacon and continue searing until all the beef is browned. Set aside.

Toss the carrots, and onions, 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper in the fat in the pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol. Put the meat and bacon back into the pot with the juices. Add the bottle of wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat. Add the tomato paste and thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and vegetables are very tender when pierced with a fork.

Combine 2 tablespoons of butter and the flour with a fork and stir into the stew. Add the frozen onions. Saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then add to the stew. Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

believing in bologna

If you woke up this morning and wished you had something more than a bowl of cereal and a banana on tap for your Saturday morning breakfast, but did not have the energy to whip up some pancake batter, all is not lost.

Turn your attention to lunch. Your standard cold-cut sandwich can be made so much more interesting by adding a second meat. Try bologna.

Yes, bologna. No, not Oscar Myers. Next time you buy deli meat, supplement your purchase with a 1/4 pound of bologna. Even just a couple of slices will do. There are lots of different types of bologna so don't forget to ask to sample them. Last week I got sweet Farm style, this week it is Lebanon.

Perk: No lingering pancake fatigue.

to market to market to buy a fat pig

It's Friday and for me that means a trip to Central Market in downtown Lancaster. My title is misleading though, because i will not be buying a pig from the Amish butcher this trip. No, I don't think I will be eating pork for a very long time due to an uncomfortable bout with food poisoning last week. The pig was not the culprit, but it remains in the contaminated category -guilty by association.

On a tastier note, I want to share a great recipe for Pizza Dough in case, like us, you are without a good pizza place nearby. We adapted a recipe from a cookbook classic, "More-With-Less" by adding cornmeal as suggested by Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything."

Combine in large bowl:
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon or 1 package of yeast

When dissolved, add and beat until smooth:
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon vegetable oil (or olive oil)
1 1/4 cup flour

If you are using a kitchen aid mixer, attach your bread hook at this point, or if you are doing this by hand, then knead away and add:

1/2 cup of cornmeal
1 1/2 cups of flour

Once you've added the cornmeal, started kneading in the additional flour 1/2 cup at a time. Allow time in between each scoop to make sure the dough needs the full amount. You may also add more flour if it is needed. The dough should be fairly smooth and elastic to the touch and should separate from the sides of the metal bowl. This should take between 5 to 10 minutes of kneading.

Place dough ball in greased bowl (I use olive oil), and let rise until doubled. Place in warmer place for a faster rise and in a cooler place for a slower one. On average allow 45 minutes to an hour.

Then, take dough and divide to form two dough balls. Pat and stretch to fill 2 greased pizza pans. For me, this is the most difficult part. Let rise 10 minutes.

Now you can move on to your toppings. The cheesier and the saucier the better!

To cook pizza, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes. Just check the bottom to see if it is as brown as your desire.

molasses for dessert

This posting is for those of you who did not check out the "Martha Stewart's Favorite Cookies" DVD from your local library.

With leftover lentils on the docket for this eve, here is a great and fast cookie recipe. They are legitimately chewy and surprisingly delicious.

Perk: You only have to dirty one mixing bowl bowl.

Preheat oven to 375

Combine and sift with fork:
1.5 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir in with wooden spoon:
1/2 cup shortening melted and cooled
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup rolled oats

(The dough will be thick and clumpy, but keep stirring a bit longer and it will smooth out.)

Scoop out dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I used a coffee bean scooper.
Press them down with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar.

Bake for 12 minutes

* Optional: Give half or more of the batch to neighbor unless you have lots of kids

learning to love lentils

I've had a couple of bad run-ins with lentils, but I'm not quite ready to give up on them. Part of the problem was that I began to expect too much out of them. I wanted my lentil burgers to be moist, and they weren't. I wanted my lentil soup to be interesting and it was dull.

I'm sharing this recipe with you because it is a delicious way to give lentils another try. It was one of the first times I remember enjoying them and I want to get back to those days. My friend Rebecca Trego shared this recipe with me and its worth a try. Let me know what you think.

"Lebanese Lentils"

1 cup lentils
6 cups water
2-3 boullion cubes, depending on your taste
3/4 cup long-grain white rice

3 large onions, slivered
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
dried thyme (optional)

Cover lentils with water, add salt and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat. Stir in rice and cook for 20 minutes. Saute onions in oil over medium heat until golden brown. Drain oil from onions into lentils and rice and set onions aside. Continue cooking lentils and rice until moisture is absorbed. To serve, arrange lentils on a platter and spoon onions over top. Individual servings of Lebanese Lentils are traditionally topped with Salata.

"Salata"

Toss salad ingredients in a large salad bowl. Whisk dressing ingredients until well blended. Pour dressing over salad and toss. Place over the Lebanese Lentils.

Ingredients:

1 small head romaine lettuce, torn
1 small head iceberg lettuce, torn (I’ve also substituted spinach or arugula for one or both of the lettuces above)
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 small onion, thinly sliced
5 green onions, thinly sliced (I usually don’t put onions in the salad since there are already a ton of onions put on the lentils)

5 sprigs parsley, minced
3 sprigs mint, minced
2 small cucumbers, peeled and sliced (sometimes I don’t put the cucs in since they aren’t always in season)

Dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon balsalmic vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Poor Man's Polenta

So last night we needed something to supplement the not-quite-enough leftover chili portions from the weekend and the "simple" salad, or side dish of lettuce we had on hand. Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian has a creamy polenta dish that looks amazing, but it is not quite appropriate in terms of caloric content for a monday night side serving.

I flipped through Barefoot Contessa's newest cookbook, Back to Basics, and found her recipe for Creamy Cheddar Grits. Perfect! We cut her proportions in half, mimicked the flavors but used just a hand-full of cheddar cheese (probably about 1/4 of a cup), 1 tablespoon of butter, and just 2 tablespoons of half-and-half. 1 teaspoon salt and a generous sprinkling of pepper added just the right flavor. They ended up cooking for about 10-12 minutes, instead of 45 minutes. And most importantly, they were creamy and flavorful and satisfying.

I thought maybe this dish would conjure up unwanted breakfast nostalgia, but instead it was an easy starch alternative!

Recipe:
(simplified Creamy Cheddar Grits from Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics)

Bring 2 cups water to a brisk boil
add 1 teaspoon salt
pour in 1/2 cup old-fashioned grits while stirring

lower heat and cook 5-7 minutes stirring occasionally. keep lid on when not stirring.
Add hand-full of cheddar cheese (about 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons of half-and-half
Stir until creamy and cheese has melted
Add pepper to taste

365 Days to Eat

What: Food Blog
Where: East Chestnut Street, Lancaster, PA
Who: Mulsa and Eric Baldwin
Why: To build a recipe and cookbook review --the ones to be tried and the ones to be avoided.

*Disclaimer: All cooking errors will be hereby blamed on severely limited counter-space.