So what are we? Chewish?

Beignets - they are chanting for them

2010-06-27T16:23:00.005-05:00

The girls had beignets at a restaurant here in Chicago with their dad one day a few year ago, and they really really wanted to go to that place and get them again - only this time with me. Well, too complicated - but I did find this recipe in about a dozen places, so I figured it was THE recipe. Why is that making these seemed less complicated than going out to get them?

This beignet recipe makes beignets like we had in New Orleans.

Ingredients:

* 1 TBS or 1 package active dry yeast
* 1 1/2 C warm water (approx 105° to 115° F)
* 1/2 C granulated sugar
* 1 t salt
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1 C (8 oz) evaporated milk
* 7 cups unbleached flour
* 1/4 cup shortening, softened
* oil for deep frying
* powdered sugar - we use a significant amount of this

Preparation:
In large bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm water and maybe 2 tsp of the sugar; stir to dissolve and let proof for 5-10 minutes. It should get foamy. Add the rest of the sugar, salt, beaten eggs, and evaporated milk. Whisk to blend thoroughly. Add 4 cups of the flour; beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add shortening; gradually blend in remaining flour, 1/2C at a time. Chill in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap overnight.

Pinch off a good handful. Roll out on floured board to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into 2 1/2 to 3-inch squares. Fry (I use a cast iron skillet) for 2 to 3 minutes until lightly browned on both sides. If your oil is too hot or they are too thick, they will puff up but not be cooked inside. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. Serve hot with coffee.

Dough can be frozen or refrigerated. It keeps a couple of days before the yeast is spent.

Makes 4 to 5 dozen.

I had a friend from NOLA come over one day to help the girls with some stuff for school and we had made these. She remarked when I offered her one, "Delicious, but I wouldn't have that mess in my kitchen."

I ask you - what is a kitchen for???

Image of Cafe Du Monde Beignets by chuckyeager

Egg count

2010-04-05T12:03:00.002-05:00

Easter-Passover Later Seder egg count

2 dozen - for decorating

18 - for deviled eggs
8 - Sweet noodle kugel
6 - potato kugel
4 - matzoh balls
5 - lemon mousse (4 in the mousse - one yolk looked bad, so I used the white)

Stick of butter count? Less than 1.

Friday: of atlatls and tomahawks and turkey

2009-07-26T14:29:00.004-05:00

Still posting over at the other blog. We cooked up a major food fest. Fifty pounds of turkey and all the family trimmings made dinner amazing. Tim brought 300 ears of sweet corn from the Scattergood Farm and School and that was still delicious this evening.

Here is the travel news from Friday

Thursday: The first full day of food

2009-07-26T13:52:00.003-05:00

I'm still posting over at my travel blog. Today featured delicious foods in beautiful presentations.

Thursday in a nutshell

This was a lunch fruit platter. We just served fruit and sandwiches. For dinner we made lemon/garlic chicken, rice, roasted turnips. It was another amazing day of food.

Moving into Camp

2009-07-26T13:13:00.003-05:00

I'm posting at the travel blog. Find the narrative here:

We Move Into Camp

Shopping for the Big Reunion

2009-07-26T13:01:00.003-05:00

A quick hunting and gathering post at my travel blog.

Hunting and Gathering

Shopping with Liz

2009-07-22T09:51:00.002-05:00

We are busily preparing for the family reunion. The first one that I remember was 40 years ago in 1969 at the Isaak Walton League clubhouse in Madison, SD.

Yesterday Liz and I filled two flatbeds at Sam's Club Warehouse. Now, I have my issues with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, but when you are shopping for 50 people for 5 days, sometimes you just need the big box of whatever!

We have been doing this shopping for a few reunions now, and the excel spreadsheet has become a google docs spreadsheet and now we are able to collaborate around who is bringing what and who will be where and when.

Liz and I purchased 18 loaves of bread, so many rolls and buns, 30 lbs of pork, 25 lbs of chicken pieces, 25 lbs of turkey, dozens of eggs, lbs of cheese and deli meat, flour, sugar, olive oil, bacon, sausage, and tons of other items- my cousin Tim is bringing the produce from the wholesaler that he uses.

So, the tremor of excitement is running through the girls, and my sister stil has a "to-do" list that is impressive. As soon as I can I will post that photo I took of the sky outside of Sioux Falls on our way home from round one of hunting and gathering.

Gorgeous--

21 Things I learned from pie crust

2009-01-11T18:45:00.005-06:00

Paul C over at quotereflections asks:

What is your skill which has been developed through practice and experience? You have respect for this skill and are always open to refinements.

I make pies. And in a nod to Garr Reynolds at Presentation Zen and his reflection on the artistry of jazz, my reflection on Pie Crusts.

Twenty-one things I've learned from pie crust

A good recipe is the best road map.
Never try to double a batch. It makes sense to stay small.
The harder you work it, the worse it tastes.
Enjoy getting messy.
Simple is best, but flashy has its moments.
It's about the fruit.
Create for more than the taste. It should smell and look amazing, too.
Too many pies and they are no longer special.
It's possible to make a classic with a twist.
It doesn't matter if your pie crust isn't perfect; don't be afraid to just roll one out.
Broken pie crust tastes delicious, too.
You have a taste for a pie? Make one!
Sure, it's cool if you don't need a recipe, but those that eat the pie can't tell the difference.
Pretentious pie might as well have come from Baker's Square.
Enjoy the process - eat a slice of apple coated in cinnamon and sugar if you want.
Invite someone to share the pie with you - it tastes better when you share.
Simplicity is supremely delicious; avoid the lure of too many flavors.
Empty pan means a full stomach.
Fruit, sugar, flour, heat.
If you think you have mastered the crust, you've probably begun to compromise.
Bake, bake, bake.
Generosity and curiosity are your greatest gifts; nurture them in yourself and in those who share your table.

Two weeks of eating and sleeping

2009-01-03T15:36:00.005-06:00

The children are noticeably taller. My husband thinks that this is because they sleep for twelve hours and eat, like sharks, constantly when they are awake. That is what vacation time is for: to give your body time to get caught up. They don't grow like weeds; they grow like a well tended garden.

Thumbprint Cookies - Sonja Heine Cookies

2008-12-21T08:52:00.000-06:00

So it is really cold here in Illinois this morning, so I started the baking. I mixed up a bunch of cookies yesterday, and today I'm going to keep the house warm by baking.

Starting with the smallest batch. This makes only about two dozen.
From Leone Potter

1/2 C butter (recipe says shortening)
1/4 C. Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
1 egg yolk
1/2 t vanilla
1 C sifted flour
1/4 t salt
1 egg white
3/4 C finely chopped pecans
Tart red jelly

Mix butter thoroughly with brown sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla.
Sift flour with salt & stir into butter mixture.
Preheat oven to moderate heat (375°)
Beat egg white slightly.
Roll dough between palms of hands into 1" balls.
Dip balls into egg whites and roll in pecans.
Place 1" apart on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 5 minutes.
Remove from oven and quickly press gently on top of each cookie.
Return to oven and bake 10 more minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.
Before serving, place a bit of red jelly in the thumbprint.

Now, all we have to do is figure out why these are named after a skater?

Holiday Cookies - so many memories

2008-12-14T16:13:00.000-06:00

Okay - now I'm thinking cookies. I bought four pounds of butter today. What can I say? It's a start.

The cookies all have memories attached.

Gingersnaps - made with butter. The recipe says: might as well double. This is my brother's favorite.

Shortbread - Grandma T's recipe. A Cream of Tartar cookie. Rolled out with Grandma D's rolling pin, these are crisp and delicious, often encrusted with impossible colors of frosting. We have a little Scottie dog cookie cutter (Roosevelt era) that is excellent, and makes a nice sized cookie especially when frosted with blue icing.

Rugelach - a recipe my neighbor brought to us. Sour cherry. Worth all the work.

Sugar cookies - Mrs. Juel's recipe, clearly doubled makes millions of cookies. Another Cream of Tartar recipe. There is a certain taste to them that is irresistible and I love them when they are slightly over baked.

Thumb prints (Sonja Heine cookies is what Grandma D always called them) Basically shortbread balls rolled in pecans, pressed as they come out of the oven. Serve with a blob of tart jelly - red currant, plum. Why are these named for a skater?

Krumkaka - my beloved aunt Ann used to labor over these crispy tubes that we filled with whipped cream and strawberries. I'm going to make these this year.

Date Filled - Little pillows of cinnamon dough, plump with cooked dates. Mom loves these. They are an acquired taste in my opinion.

Meringues - Filled with pecans and chocolate chips. Grandma D had Celiac's and couldn't eat gluten - but she LOVED sweets. Meringues went in the heated oven at night, oven was turned off, and they dried out over night.

Candies
Divinity - white, sweet, time consuming.

Penuche Fudge - Brown sugar fudge. Paradise.

Peanut Brittle - made in a cast iron skillet and poured onto the granite counter top. Remember to add a pinch of salt. I especially like watching the candy foam when you add the baking soda.

So, the question now remains: where do we start to bake?

Planning the Cookie Baking!

2008-12-13T11:59:00.000-06:00

Every year we get together with the neighbors to bake cookies - This is the recipe from my grandmother, Frances Potter Tabor - Shortbread

Cream:
1 lb of butter
1 C Brown Sugar

Add:
4 C flour
1/2 t soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Mix well. Chill until it is firm enough to handle.

Roll out to 1/8" or thinner if you prefer. It will handle some additional flour for the board and the pin without getting hard to work or changing the flavor/texture

Cut into shapes - sprinkle with colored sugar or add cinnamon candies or currants as decoration. We do this sparingly as we like to frost them, too.

Bake at 350° until the edges begin to brown. Time will vary depending on thickness and size of cookies. I like the flavor of the cookie when it gets a bit "too" brown, but not everyone does, so watch them.

Cool and frost with way too much colored icing.

Starting to think about Thanksgiving

2008-11-09T11:37:00.000-06:00

Preliminary thoughts of delicious foods are running through my head. Last night Lewis brought over a carrot and daikon salad dressed with celery seed, lemon juice, olive oil, and a Japanese condiment made of Umeboshi Plums. It was excellent and I will add that to the table for Thanksgiving.

What else...

Apple Picking in Indiana

2008-10-11T14:02:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we loaded up the family and drove to our favorite orchards in Laport County Indiana - Michigan City area. It was a lovely day, and although we had a smaller time window than our usual lazy day, we didn't feel time pinched.

We go each year with our neighbors Melissa and Lew and their girls. This year we added Melissa's brother Collins and his family. Traffic was easy and that set the tone for the day.

We started at Radkes. They have had their orchard in the family for over 100 years, and they have a tractor pulled wagon and apple pullers made out of 2 liter soda bottles and PVC pipe. They have lots of younger trees and all the trees were heavy with fruit. We picked mostly golden delicious, golden russets and musta apples at Radkes, because as much as we love the honey candy and the pumpkins, we are really waiting for our favorite fruit farm to open at noon.

Pavolka's Fruit Farm is the grail orchard for us. Owned by Dorothy Pavolka, it's been in the family for over 80 years. They have some younger trees planted, but they also have older varieties that we love. Melissa and I each picked 20# of Wolf River apples for baking. Three apples will fill a towering pie and collapse during baking into a cinnamony mush - I'm not a fan of the crunchy apple pie. We filled bags with our favorite eating apples, but not before enjoying a picnic under the trees.

One hundred pound of apples heavier, we headed home. This week I have been inspired by apples to make and apple pie and apple sauce (2 times). The first batch of apple sauce made me want to make latkes (for how else do you bring two diverse cultures together but through the fried potato?).

Microwave applesauce -
Fill a microwave safe bowl with peeled and sliced apples. We have one of those crank apple peelers that cut the apples into spirals. This uniform thickness makes it easy. I use a white porcelain souffle dish.
Cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap.
Put in the microwave on high for three (3) minutes.
Uncover and stir. The apples should be getting mushy.
Put back in the microwave for 3 more minutes.
Take it out and mash the slices with a fork or a pastry knife (my all purpose mashing tool for avocados, bananas, and applesauce.)
Let it cool a little (it's going to be HOT!) and then check and see if it is sweetenough for you. If it is, you can add cinnamon if you would like. If not, add a bit of sugar to taste.

New Year - Rosh Hashanah 2008

2008-09-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

This is a confusing and emotional new year, with Sam's mom not doing well physically and considering an inpatient physical therapy program that will help (possibly) get her back on her and feet and Sam's dad in Cardiac care at Wyle Cornell hospital in NYC with a 6cm aortic aneurysm.

Liz went to SD to see how Mom is doing post cataract surgery (I guess, quite well with renewed vision like she hasn't had since elementary school) so she is on the road today.

Sam and I shopped this morning, and it was a zoo both at the Marketplace on Oakton and the Jewel on Howard (the one with the big Kosher section that puts the Jew in Jewel). I scored a 4+ lb brisket and the making of a serious kugel. I also pulled out every stale bit of cereal we had in the house and tossed it all together to make a salty, peppery cereal mix.

So, I'm using last year's kugel recipe. We shall see if lightning strikes twice!

Cooking for Mom

2008-08-10T11:48:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to keep a list of all the major comfort/never foods (read that as Beef)that Mom had me make while I was here:

Beef stroganoff - froze three large containers. Just add sour cream.
Chicken soup base - three or four large containers of Chicken soup starter. Just add noodles, pearl onions, and peas for Ann Tabor stew, or make dumplings, or just eat.
Meat loaf - made three small loaves (or is that meats-loaf)
Beef brisket a la Rhoda Staub - Heinz Chili Sauce and onion. - 2 containers
Beef soup - three LARGE containers - just add potatoes
Ground beef with onion- browned and ready for spagetti or what have you - 5 one-plus pound bags.
Lemon and Garlic chicken - two containers with three thighs and one with six.
Twice baked potatos - a dozen; the triple by-pass special with butter, sour cream & cheddar cheese.

Still to mix up: Eleanor Klein's Bran muffins (that live in the fridge until you are ready to bake them) and molten chocolate cakes that do the same (wait for you).

It's good that Mom's issues are pulmonary and not cardiac!

California Eating

2008-08-03T11:04:00.000-05:00

We have returned from Northern California, the Loire Valley of the United States, and we have eaten some amazing things. I thought that I should make a quick list of the area specific foods that we enjoyed:

Drakes Bay Oysters - medium ones were the size of bread plates. We bought five dozen of them at the estuary. Some we ate raw and most Al grilled (lightly). They steam slightly in their shell and only need a squeeze of lemon or a dollop of salza. Salty and delcious. Who knew? I've always hated cooked oysters!

Cowgirl Creamery cheese - Mt. Tam - a triple creme semi soft cheese was AMAZING! Red Hawk, a brine washed triple creme - is amazing but stinky. Once past your nose, you are good to go. Al said he once left it in the refrigerator for a couple weeks and it was even stinkier! You go, Al!

Marin French Cheese Co Brie - Yum. Made in Petluma. Available nationally I think.

Audelssa Estate Winery - only got a tour and a tasting, but Eric's 2005 & 2007 Cabernet blends are amazing. Broke down and bought some. They will arrive in October.

Pamela poured a '61 (you read that right, almost as old as I am) Mouton Rothschild. Pamela says that wines that old have a short window to drink once they are open. So we drank it. Tom made beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, cauliflower with herbs de Provence, and a heirloom tomato salad. Yum again.

The peaches were amazing, like candy. Can hardly wait for Michigan peaches!

Illinois produce is, however, as delicious as the stuff we found. Really.

Why I plant a garden - So Much Depends Upon a Red Wheelbarrow

2008-07-14T08:52:00.001-05:00

I guess this is my Garden Manifesto.

History
We always had a garden up until my freshman year in high school when my family moved to the house at the corner of 16th and 7th where they wasn't space. After we moved, for a while, my mother rented a "community garden" plot at the edge of town, but South Dakota being what it is we needed to carry water to the garden, but the yield was not equivalent to the the effort required.

Those first gardens were amazing. I can picture two. One at the big pink house in Hoven where we had dahlias the size of salad plates and fresh peas that were so sweet you would eat them right there in the garden. My friend lived next door and she had rhubarb that was enormous! We sat under the bushes with mayonnaise jar lids full of sugar, dipping the sour ends of the stalks into the sugar, crunching down on their juicy tartness, and sucking the sweetness in.

At the white house on 9th Avenue where we first lived in Brookings, we had a garden the size of a full lot. After we moved the owners actually put an apartment building where the garden had been - that's how big it was. Peonies, daisies, hosta, hollyhocks, and vegetables! Grandma and Mom planted the vegetables in rows and let the flowers tend to themselves. Rows of beans and tomatoes are what I remember. One year we planted some blue corn that my friend Joan (now a federal judge) and her father gave me along with some potatoes that they had left after planting. At the far end of the garden we had five hill/rows of strawberries. Beyond the berries was a 50 gallon oil drum used for burning refuse and beyond that, the alley.
It was a chore to weed the garden, but we had the space so we hoed and weeded, set the sprinkler, and harvested. All the produce typically came in at once, and we would freeze beans and corn and can tomatoes for the winter. Mom had (until last year) an International Harvester chest freezer that she bought third hand in 1956. We would fill it with produce - double bags for holiday meals and the skinny beans (what Grandma called "company beans") all in a bag. Other produce came from friends - chokecherries, sweet corn, and tomatoes from the Wheelers especially. If we could get green apples they were peeled and frozen as well.

What else do you do with your summer and that space in the yard? I don't know. I plant a garden.

So, why now?
I plant a garden because:

It is magical when the children and their friends head out with a large bowl or basket and return with it overflowing with sugar snap peas and strawberries. We wash the peas (I use no pesticides or chemical fertilizer but the city sprays for mosquitoes) and they go on the table, green and crisp. The strawberries have not made it past the sink before being popped into hungry mouths. Shortly thereafter, the peas are gone as well.

It is a real pleasure to eat food that we have grown. The peppery arugula, with a bit of good olive oil and salt, is amazing. Add a bit of feta, and it's perfect.

It is important that my children know that food does not come from the store. We can not grow all our own food, but we can grow some and we can meet the farmers at the market on Saturdays and Wednesdays and know who grows more of the food we eat.

We live more sustainably because we garden. Because we garden, we have a compost pile that receives not only garden and yard clippings but all the vegetable waste from our table (cores, peels, stems and spoilage).

I like having fruit trees. They are my offerings to the squirrel and raccoon gods, and once in a while they let us have some, too. Peaches and pears mostly. The apples they seem to keep for themselves.

I can get away by myself. It's funny how I can work in the garden for an hour and nobody bothers me. Especially when it is wet or cold and muddy. Planting peas around St Patrick's day is usually a solo proposition.

I get to have tools that would make Buffy the Vampire Slayer proud. Wooden stakes and a pair of Japanese shears that look positively medieval.

We get to share. We ALWAYS plant too many tomato plants. The cucumbers go MAD. We plant the basil forest.

My daughters are learning the lessons that I learned. We grow our own food. It tastes better. We know which wild plants (aka weeds) we can eat and which ones will hurt us. It's fun.

First Outdoor Eating 2008

2008-05-05T18:22:00.000-05:00

It has been chilly.
Bonus - keeps the insect life at low ebb.
Deficit - not enough time just sitting out enjoying the weather.

Saturday we got cold and stayed that way. I was able to put on full body armor and attack the creeping raspberries, but still haven't finished planting.
Sunday was beautiful. Hannah & Sophia went biking and canoeing with our neighbors Lew and Cynthia, and they generally had a fine day in the sun. When they got home we celebrated the first really nice day with a pot-luck gathering. Sam had a taste for barbecue sauce - so on the grill went:
1 fresh onion
1 chicken, cut and marinaded in orange juice, onions, & Garlic
new potatoes wrapped in a foil pouch

We added cheesey polenta with roasted garlic (should have been cheese grits, but out of grits - so polenta are grits-like) and some weird broccoli thing that Sam bought.
Lew and Cyn and Ellie added an enormous salad filled with ripe avocado slices.

We ate it all up. Can't say if it was SO delicious or if hunger,as they say, makes the best sauce, but we were all happy.

Long time gone - but it's spring again!

2008-04-12T13:48:00.001-05:00

We have celebrated another delicious Easter festival. This year we hosted a brunch because Liz, Mom, and Abby were heading down to Florida to see Sissy and the kids. Other guests included the Lancasters and the Racine Tabors. So brunch, an ethos shift:

The menu featured -
Bagels from New York Bagel and Bialy in Skokie with cream cheese
Smoked Salmon
"Puffy Pancake" - a Dutch Baby pancake baked in a cast iron skillet and served with lemon slices and powdered sugar. I made three, five-egg pancakes.
Three pounds of bacon
Fruit salad
Deviled eggs (Liz makes these better than I do).
"Monkey bread" - caramel rolls made in a bundt/tube pan
Bloody Marys (yum)
Mimosas

Brunch hypotheses and corollaries:
No matter how much bacon you have, there is never enough.
Canadian bacon is not an adequate substitute.
Bloody Marys are required and are as delicious without the vodka.
It's the horseradish.
Spicy olives on skewers add a little something.
Puffy pancake is easy and delicious.
Wow factor unusually high.
Liz has a way with Rhodes bread.
There are never too many deviled eggs.

YUM - Best Kugel Ever!

2007-09-13T13:33:00.000-05:00

So, I'd say, write that recipe in pen! Yes, it is high calorie, high cholesterol, high carbs - but SO delicious. We ate 2/3 of the pan.
You could taste the orange juice, and the kugel was not so sweet that you got sick of it. The raisins were plump and the corn flake/cinnamon crunchy stuff was like memories of great kid foods. So this is the official sweet new year family kugel recipe - in the style of Craig's grandmother Goldie.

The rest of last night's menu included -
Brisket Barbecue - ala Rhoda - the Heinz Chili Sauce recipe
Roasted potato wedges. I bought some fingerling potatoes at the Wednesday farmers' market from Nichols Farm and Orchard - they had purple streaks in them and they roasted up nicely.
Broccoli with soy and garlic - even Mack liked that.
Goldie's Kugel
A round challah and honey
Slices of Gala apples from Nichols Orchard
Green Salad with fresh mozzarella, pear tomatoes, spicy olives, and cucumber

Our centerpiece had pears, apples, and Niagara grapes that I got at the farmers' market. They looked plastic, but they were delicious!

Ellen, Mark and the kids came bringing a Labat Haut-Medoc and a lovely Pinot.
Liz also celebrated with us. She and I made tons of pesto on Saturday, but that is another post entirely as is the apple pie that I'm planning on making with those Wolf River apples that I bought yesterday.

Rosh Hashanah

2007-09-11T21:17:00.000-05:00

So tomorrow night we celebrate the new year. I've got a delicious brisket ready for the last 30 minutes of baking. And there is a kugel in the oven. Big shift from the kugel recipe before. Here are the highlights. The recipe as it stood was like this:

12 ounces wide egg noodles
1/2 to 1 cup raisins (depending on how much you like them!)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
2 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup oil (plus a bit for the pan)

Here is what is in the 9x13 pyrex baker.
12 oz package Manishevitz egg noodles - cooked
3/4 C raisins - that's all I had
1C brown sugar
1C OJ
8 whole eggs - yes - I can hear your arteries clogging
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla

The topping of 3 TBSP melted butter, 1/2 C white sugar, and 2 cups crushed corn flakes says the same. Will update tomorrow on what the flavor and texture are like. It's gotta be like bread pudding, I hope. Now if I can remember the prayers.

Reunion Food - Saturday

2007-08-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

Five turkeys - no waiting

Delicious, and you should have seen the BBQ circle around the Weber grills and the troughs making charcoal.

We had not anticipated as much grilling as was necessary, so we decided to use the firewood in the de-commissioned shower house to make our own coals. The trough grills were hauled around to the east side of the building, and the making of coals was set to in earnest.

Way too much fun was had sitting in a circle in a favorite lawn chair, sipping a beer, telling a story, stoking the coal troughs, and occaisonally poking the birds. Three of the turkeys cooked in the Webers and two in the finally repaired oven. This gave the birds a lovely, smoked taste and they were moist and delicious. They birds were liberally rubbed with garlic, salt and olive oil before roasting. A hit all around with traditional mashed potatoes and gravy, green salad, rolls and butter, sweet corn, and favorite beans (the soy/garlic treatment).

Must make this meal again!

Pickle Postscript

2007-08-12T08:47:00.000-05:00

They are great already. Garlicky and salty like the pickles I used to get in the pickle buckets on the tables at that Deli (whose name escapes me) in the Loop when I worked down there 25 years ago. Sam said they reminded him of the pickles at the Madison-Pine Restuarant in Perth Amboy (used to be across from the store).

NB - remove all the big seeds, even if it looks like they'll be okay. They got slimy, but the rest of the pickle is perfect.

Pickles & Produce

2007-08-11T07:50:00.000-05:00

Last night I dealt with the cucumber revolt of 2007 - or were they merely revolting!?

Huge cucumbers, left too long on the vine, needed a purpose - so I made pickles - half-sour chunks - and we'll see in a couple of days if they need anything besides throwing away. I'm not cooking pickles - down to the refrigerator they go.

In looking for a good recipe I found one from the Lower East Side that wanted me to get a barrel that had held olives and put in 50 lbs of cucumbers and 3# of salt with other brine making ingredients.

I ended up using:
20C water
7C Vinegar
1-3/4C Pickling Salt

5 Half Gallon Mason jars full of cucumber chunks
Garlic
Fresh Dill (Picked by moonlight last night. I wonder if that will do anything?)

Packed the pickles, garlic and dill in clean jars.
Poured boiling brine into jars
Let them sit overnight on the counter.
Took 'em down to the refrigerator this morning.

We'll wait and see (tasted one as I put lids on them - half-sour and salty like the deli - yum!)

I tackled some of the weeds in the rose garden - and in the process pulled up a hunk of mint - so, I'll use some of the Roma tomatoes from the garden and make tabbouleh.

7.5 inches of rain in August! Things are jungly out there!

Friday addendum - two things

2007-08-09T09:43:00.000-05:00

We had two guacamoles this reunion because Tim procured a case of ready right now avocados that made meal times bliss (think salads, chicken salad and avocado, avocados plain - well, you get the idea).

Guacamole - Katie style (as opposed to Katy style which was Saturday) is generally these proportions -

4 ready right now avocados
1 medium tomato - seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lemon
two medium garlic cloves - squished through a squisher or chopped
ground cumin
salt and pepper

I like to use a pastry blender to mix all this, but a fork will do just fine. Mash it, mix it, taste it, (correct the lemon, cumin, salt balance) and serve.

And another thing -
Steve's daughter Melinda delivered three Weber grills to the camp on Friday. These became the site for the "men (and a few women) around the grill" storytelling and generally enjoying a beer or two while tending to the pork loins. A peak reunion moment for some, I'm sure ('cause I'm one). Wait until the Saturday installment to get the full "make your own coals" excitement. Wait for it. It's worth it.

Reunion Food - Friday

2007-08-09T08:41:00.000-05:00

Friday was our first cooked breakfast and another day of improvisation on the grills. Fortunately the flattop worked as did the six burner on the other stove.

As there was a lot of delicious grilled chicken left over from day one - and a load of gorgeous organic green grapes - Susan suggested a chicken salad with grapes and walnuts. Delish! Because we had all this fab grilled meat there was less eating of sliced lunch meat (except for salami which was very popular). My theory on the salami and chips flying out the door has to do with the incredible heat and humidity that had plagued us up until just before dinner on Thursday when it rained like you read about. It took until Friday for the front to fully move through, but it had stopped raining by campfire time Thursday and we were able to enjoy pies and s'mores.

Friday dinner was pork loin, grilled after it had been coated with a killer crust of fresh ginger, garlic and spices. Sushi rice, fraternal twin cabbage salads (the fabulous ramen soup almond cabbage salad and a spicy thai-style cabbage salad), broccoli with garlic and soy, and another amazing green salad. Fortune cookies and red plastic tablecloths to complete the Chinese theme. Appetizers that day were not theme based - but the classic chips and salsa and a bowl of killer guacamole-Katie style. Oh yeah, we made popcorn, too.

Recipes - we made most of this stuff "out of our fist" as my old baby sitter, Margaret Schmidt of Hoven, SD, would say. Here are general proportions and ingredients for the food preparations -
Pork loin for 45:
We had about 20# of pork. The loins were cut in half and rubbed with a mixture of:
salt (preferably kosher - funny, right?)
pepper (preferred fresh ground)
minced fresh ginger
minced fresh garlic
olive oil (a bit)

There was probably 1 1/2 to 2 cups of "rub" in that bowl that Katy made. I'll ask her what other spices went in.
If you have a mortar and pestle that would work too to smash everything up.

We had about half a loin left and it was eaten at lunches the next two days. Not one slice was left to toss out.

Thai-style dressing - this one works for raw vegans:
five fresh plums - pitted
2 jalapeños, seeds but no stems
juice of 5 to 6 limes
10 oz of coconut oil
agave nectar to taste (depends on how sweet the plums are)
salt

put fruit and peppers in the blender with the lime juice. Blend it - if it's not juicy enough to blend up, add more lime juice.
With the blender on, pour in the coconut oil slowly. Now remember, we were in a non air conditioned building and it was in the 80's so the oil was liquid. It will be solid at room temp with temps in the 70s, so I suggest that you have it hanging out in the warmest corner of the room. Taste the dressing on a piece of cabbage. It's spicy, but the sweet should come through. If your plums need a little help, add some agave. [In the winter, substitute dried plums (that's prunes to y'all. Maybe 10 dried ones. They will be plenty sweet.] Adjust the seasoning - maybe it needs a smidge of salt. Up to you. It's a pretty pink, and it tints the edges of the cabbage as it sits.

Broccoli -
Saute/stir fry broccoli. Use enough oil. No, this is not a lo-fat dish.
Add chopped garlic about half way through the stir fry process.
Add soy sauce and let it all simmer - steam in the juice. It's done when it reaches your preferred al dente-ness on the broccoli. Some folks really like to chew; some don't. If you don't like it so salty (?) you can substitute tea. I always have a pot going, so it's easy for me. The smoky teas add a nice flavor.

The Continuing Saga of the Stove.
Sam continued his persistent search for someone who could officially declare the stove DOA or in the immortal words of Miracle Max only "mostly dead." Sam tracked down the Zen-master through the magic of the phone directory and Mr. Zen came and declared one stove in need of the dreaded part, but the other (and thankfully the bigger) stove he returned to the land of the functioning. Huzzah! Hooray!

So, happy, sated, and with one working oven, we retired to the campfire to hear Grandpa Tom sing the Bear Song and to witness the teens taking charge of the pie making. Quite an amazing day all around.

Reunion Food - Day 2

2007-08-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Thursday became a day of invention as we took stock of the supplies that we had and the tools to cook them. While the raw vegan set in the family would have been happy, what the heck were we going to do with all that chicken?

Lunch was a weird repeat of the flat top pizza - this time the meat lovers and the left over veg pizza were on the flat top cooking. Salty cheese I have to say.

So we fired up the barrel (trough) grills that had these intense rebar-like racks. Katy and I marinated the chicken in lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic. We tossed in fresh oregano and salt and pepper and let the stuff hang out for a while. We had to grill up a ton of the Scattergood baby eggplants. After we grilled them (actually Matt, Sam and Pirc did most of the grilling) we cubed the eggplant and mixed it with sauteed onion and garlic, more lemon juice and olive oil, salt, fresh mint, and basil. It's our version of the Silver Palette Summer Eggplant. Serve it room temperature and even non-eggplant lovers will love it.

We had lots of grilled veggies and another amazing salad. Our appetizers on Thursday were quantites if hummos and baba ganoug from the Pita Inn carried in a cooler from Skokie by my husband. He managed to have a "driving on a permit" student driver hit the car in an ice stop somewhere in Minnesota, so we enjoyed and appreciated each delicious bite.

All Thursday, Sam was on the phone - to the appliance guy and then to every Propane dealer in the area to find the folks who would service the ovens. Lots of not much luck. The guys from Swish's Hardware (not kidding) a store that used to be owned by a guy named Zen (a name that gave us hope that all would work out) came out and declared, "It's broken. We don't do commercial machines." The propane guy said almost surely it would need a part that wouldn't arrive before Monday - and we kept hoping that someone would make the oven's work. We had 5 turkeys thawing in the walk-in.

Sam continued with the persistance for which he is renouned. More on Friday. Think Swish- Zen -accio part - ovenus repairo.

Reunion Food Part Two

2007-07-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

Once again the Potter family managed four days of amazing foods cooked under less than optimal circumstances.

Liz's menus had many more options for improvising and for vegetables many ways. This worked. Tim bought the produce and brought amazing eggplant, onions, beets, garlic, and other delicious stuff from the Scattergood School and Farm. Tuesday, Liz and I went shopping for most of the grocery items and she finished up the rest on Wednesday.

We got to the camp and one of the two ovens was eviscerated, a disappointment for sure.

Wednesday night was supposed to be pizza and I made my favorite pizza dough recipe from Anna Thomas's The New Vegetarian Epicure.
1/2 C Milk
3/4 C Warm Water
1 T yeast
1/2 t salt
1t sugar
3 C flour
a bit of olive oil -

I quadrupled the recipe and it made 3 full sheet pans of pizza - I put the cheese only - kid friendly - one in at 500+° oven and then after about 10 minutes when the sausage pepperoni carnivores pizza and the crimini mushroom, sweet pepper, onion, and olive pizza were ready to go in, it occurred to me that the cheese pizza was not almost done (as it should have been). Oven two - out of commission. So we cooked the cheese and vegetable pizzas on the flat top. This was creative, cooked the bottom of the crust nicely, but left the middle of the crust chewier than I love. All in all it worked just fine. That along with cold meat planned for lunches and an enormous, delicious salad by Tim and Duon made the meal late but tasty. We crashed into our tents - tired and full - even though it was still hot and humid and we were feeling cranky.

Reunion Food

2007-07-18T13:22:00.000-05:00

Liz has crafted a delicious menu this year - and no tacos! Not that I don't love tacos, but they are a lot of prep time. This year this is what Liz (and I) have come up with:
Wednesday - Pizza and potluck

Thursday -- Mediterranean in feel
Lemon garlic chicken
rice
Grilled vegetables
Salad with feta and olives on the side
Roast eggplant and onions with lemon, basil, and mint

Friday - We are celebrating the year of the Pig!
Grilled Pork Loin with oriental/style rub
Chinese Cabbage Salad
Broccoli with Garlic & Soy
Sushi Rice
Fortune Cookies
Green salad

Saturday - A family Thanksgiving
Turkey & all the fixings
Mashed Potatoes
Durkee Green Bean Delish
Salad
Cranberry Orange Salad Raw style

More later - I'll post recipes as we go.

July food

2007-07-05T14:12:00.000-05:00

There is very little cultural blending of food in July except when we hit the July 4th weekend and then head to the shore in August. Summer foods are more regional than cultural I've found. Yesterday we had our annual July 4th food fest. It featured the traditional Tabor foods:
Fried Chicken
Yellow mustard/mayo potato salad
Bing! Cherries
Chips and Lipton Onion Soup Chip Dip

Added to the list this year were:
Salsa and Guacamole with El Milagro Chips
A green bean/new potato salad that is like a niçoise salad without the tuna (a nod to my need to lower cholesteral for those I love.)

Missing this year - I had the stuff but lacked the mo-
Homemade ice cream

New beverage of choice for the summer has become the Vodka Tonic with a generous splash of pomegranate juice. Sqeeze of lime. Fruity without being sweet.

We head to the Jersey shore in August. Clam strips and raw bar and bloody marys. Must take the V & T recipe to the shore.

Our family reunion is in three weeks. We spend four days hanging out on the shores of Lake Shetek. Food is a central part of that event. More to come about that.

The Easter food fest

2007-05-05T11:25:00.000-05:00

We had the big Easter Egg hunt and Ham Feed on Easter. Shopping at the Marketplace was wild - with the convergence of Greek Orthodox and Western Easters, I had to elbow all the little Korean ladies at the produce aisle. The ham that I got was delicious and is now in the freezer awaiting a big pot of bean soup.

Small crowd this year. Liz made deviled eggs (better than mine from Seder) and we had ham, baked potatoes, beans - delish - but the potatoes took forever!!!! to bake. What was the deal with that?

Julie and Emma came over to fill out the ranks of the egg hunters and I (thank the good G-d) had chicken pot stickers (not pork - they don't do pork) and matzoh to eat with the SDSU cheddar that was fabulous!

Excellent Bloody Marys. Just enough horseradish (our Pesach nod) to make them irresistible.

I made a bunch of teeny crispy meringues (see previous post) with no chocolate chips. Ellen made fabulous macaroons that I must get the recipe for you.

The other desert option (besides the chocolate eggs) was Ella's famous lemon meringue pie. I'll post the recipe when I'm home and I have it in my hand. - and here it is:

Lemon Pie
1 C Sugar
2 TBS Cornstarch
2 TBS Flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 C boiling water

2 egg yolks
juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
1 TBS butter

Place dry ingredients in the top of a double boiler and add boiling water slowly, stirring. Cook until mixture begins to thicken. Add lightly beateb egg yolks, lemon juice, and rind. Cook 1 min [this has to be a mis-print unless you like lemon soup - it often takes 10 minutes until the mixture coats the back of a spoon nicely- keep stirring]. Add butter and remove from heat.

Pour hot filling into a prebaked 9 inch pie crust. Top with merengue made with the reserves egg whites [I often add a third], sugar, and cream of tartar [if you must]. Spread merengue all the way to the crust. This makes it less weepy somehow. Put in a moderate to high oven until the merengue browns (not too long - really).

From Passover to Easter

2007-04-04T20:05:00.001-05:00

So, we sedered. Monday at our home, Tuesday at Anny's. I find that Maxwell House Hagaddah sexist, old fashioned, dry, and lifeless.

We had wonderful homemade macaroons that I will get the recipe for. They were amazing!
Menus -
Monday - 1st night
Haroset
Deviled Eggs
Chicken Soup with Matzoh balls
Token gefilte fish with lots of really amazing horseradish
Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy (yes, leaven)
Sauteed green beans
Merengues
Macaroons
Fresh strawberries

Tuesday Night - 2nd night
Haroset
Hard boiled eggs in salt water
Lots of gefilte fish
Chicken Soup with Matzoh balls
Leg of lamb
Asparagus
Beet and Fennel Salad (yum! A meal highlight!)
Boiled new potatoes
Macaroons
Chocolate Covered Matzoh from Piron Chocolateer

So now, on to the Easter ham feed - We'll have those deviled eggs again because they are universally loved. Liz makes them better than I do.
Ham and baked potatoes
Mixed green salad
Maybe I'll work that beet and fennel salad out. This recipe looks promising!

Cook for two hours

2007-03-26T20:55:00.001-05:00

Check out the Joy of Cooking's recipe for Gefilte Fish!! Cook for two hours. Yes, seriously!

I've finally found someone who like gefilte fish. My friend Ellen! She and her family are joining us for Seder. They are also a blended family. She says that she is Jewish, the kids are diluted, and her husband is deluded. Anyway. She likes gefilte fish, so I guess we'll be having it for seder. I like it with enough horseradish. My daughter tells me that I'll eat almost anything with enough horseradish

She's making coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate and the chicken soup with matzoh balls. Yum. I'm going to make merengues. So - Here's the recipe:

2 egg whites - beat slowly until stiff
add 2/3 cup sugar - 1 Tbs at a time
add a pinch of salt
1 t vanilla
1 C chopped pecans (optional at my house - not everyone is a pecan fan and this recipe came from a sister of my - Catholic - grandmother from Enid, Oklahoma
1 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven t 350º. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Drop cookies onto sheet. Place ain the oven and turn off the heat! Leave them in all night.
Do Not Open Oven! (Double underlined and two exclamation points from my grandmother!)

Almost Seder - time to look for the Haggadah

2007-03-21T17:48:00.000-05:00

It's almost Seder again. I am trying to figure out what to do with this particular meal. As always I lean to turkey, but seder with just the five of us feels like a ton of bird and not that many eaters. I'd invite the neighbors, but they are all away for spring break. So that leaves me with a big pot of chicken soup.

Which brings me to chicken soup. Again, my mother-in-law gave me the great soup hint of putting a sweet potato in the soup pot. This improves the color and flavor, especially if you are souping a chicken that doesn't bring a lot to the pot. And remember - cook for two hours!

Chicken soup -

Into the pot goes -
1 Whole chicken - skin, bones - the whole meghilla (that's Purim I know - but hey)
2 ribs of celery, cleaned and chopped as small as you would like.
2 whole carrots - ditto
1 peeled sweet potato - cut it in half if you want to fish it out
1 large or two small onions - peeled and diced.
Salt
Cover with water.
Cook for two hours.

Cool and pull out the bones and anything you don't want in the bowls on the table. It's delish. Really.

The first seder - Taj the dog batting clean up

2007-03-10T13:58:00.000-06:00

I remember the first Passover, long before any of us were married or thinking of kids. We had seder at the boys apartment on Simpson street - so that would have been Craig and Sam and John. The attendant girlfriends would have been Melinda, why do I think Daryl was there, and me. So two blonde non-jews, two Jewish boys. Craig called his grandmother for her noodle kugel recipe which she reminded him that he couldn't make for Passover because the noodles were flour. He lied and told her that he just wanted to know how to make it. It was delicious - like a bread pudding with noodles insead of day old bread. Yum.

I always think of this as the training seder. From here it was seders at Claire and Bob's (Schiksas come to seder aka the all blonde seder; the seder where Marjorie made it clear where her sexual preferences were), seder with Craig and Melinda after they were married with Craig's mother and father ("Did you count the silver? You should always count the silver.") seders at our home, the sorta seders where Sam was the lone Jew - to last year's Seder in Orlando - the Mickey Mouse Seder.

The menu that first night was turkey, asparagus, some kind of potato I am sure. Craig povided the hagaddah, and we avoided gefilte fish though we had deviled eggs and chicken soup with matzoh balls.

I'm going to promise to put the noodle kugel recipe here. I need to test out my bread pudding theory. The recipe included orange juice and the whole deal was topped off with crushed corn flakes tossed with butter and cinnamon and suger. What's not to like?

Craig's Bubbe's Sweet Kugle Recipe - recreated:

12 ounces wide egg noodles
1/2 to 1 cup raisins (depending on how much you like them!)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
2 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup oil (plus a bit for the pan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Oil a 13" X 9" baking dish.

Cook egg noodles according to package directions.

While they are cooking, pour hot water over the raisins to plump them up.

Mix the oil, brown sugar, orange juice, cinnamon, vanilla, eggs and egg whites together. Mix well.

Drain the noodles, put them in the baking dish. Drain the raisins. Add them, too. Stir in the sugar/egg/oj mixture.

Topping:
2 C crushed corn flakes
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 TBS melted butter

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Srpinkle on top of noodle mixture.

Bake for 40 minutes or until nicely browned and cooked in the center.

Now - this is a recreation and I have not tried it yet, but it seems like all the right ingredients in the right order, with the one cholesteral lowering nod of substituting 3 egg whites for 2 whole eggs although in a big pan like this, a serving of kugel will have about 1/4 of an egg in it anyway if you made it with 4 whole eggs. I'll try it out and update the post if it doesn't seem right.

First Food

2007-02-28T12:52:00.000-06:00

I think that the first dish that I learned to appreciate and make was the classic beef brisket. I figured out that there are two basic brisket recipies; the tomato - chili sauce - Jewish BBQ style and the Lipton onion soup mix, pot roast style. One of my daughters LOVES the chili sauce version. She wanted a brisket sandwich for lunch today. If you run out of conversation at a wedding, you can always ask the lady to your left about her brisket recipe. This is the recipe that I learned from my mother-in-law, who got it from her friend Rhoda.

2-4 lbs of brisket
1 large onion
1 12 oz bottle of chili sauce
a dutch oven or ovenproof roasting pan.

Chop the onion (as small as you would like)
Sautee the onion in a small amount of oil in a sauté pan or in the dutch oven until they begin to become translucent.
Trim as much of the fat off the brisket as you would like. Brown the beef. I brown fatty side up first, then turn it over so that it cooks with the fat side down.
Pour on the chili sauce and refill the bottle with water and add that to the pot.

Bake at 325º for two hours.
Take it out, slice off the rest of the fat, and slice the brisket against the grain of the meat.
Bake for two more hours, or store to finish later.

Jewish cooking equals cook for two hours. So my husband tells me was his experince of his bubbe's cooking.

From Hypothetical to Theoretical to Real

2007-01-13T17:51:00.000-06:00

First it was just hypothetical. So if we get married and we have children, how would we raise them? Jewish? Catholic? What do you think?

Well, we thought that we would just do both. Yeah. Great idea. Let's do both.

Then it was theoretical. The first child is here. A daughter. That's good, no urgent bris or not to bris questions. But now what? Well, she can't talk, so there's still time...

Not any more. Three girls and many Hanukah candles later we are in the thick of it. But what to do? So I'm starting this blog to keep a record of what we do, but mostly - WHAT WE EAT! Because, as far as I can tell, when push comes to shove, it all comes down to the food.

So, it's a start. Let's see where this takes us.