On CSAs:
Glory be–I’ve found one! Bull Run Mountain Vegetable Farm, which adheres to organic growing principles and has a DC pick-up location, still has shares.
I like what I’m reading on the website and the email exchange I’ve had with a rep (the grower?). I’m getting a two-person share because it cost just a tad more than the one-person share and I thought it would be fun to split it with someone. So if you live in DC, you may be getting an email about that. Continue reading
It’s the 6th of March (at least for another hour or so), and I’d like to propose a toast.
To a place with waterfalls and highlife music, cities and tiny villages. To a place that, one day at the stroke of midnight soon after independence from British rule, started driving on the right side of the road instead of the left. To a place where mixed drinks are unheard of at most spots (neighborhood bars), so a gin and tonic consists of a shot of gin with a glass bottle of tonic water made the old fashioned way—with malaria-fighting quinine.
Since I’ve already moved onto food, here’s to a place that pounds cassava and plantain mercilessly to make fufu, offers a spectrum of fermented cornmeal treats and okra stew that stretches for a full meter without breaking its mucusy strings. To a place where chop bar customers pay for food by the ladleful and eat side-by-side without any silverware to get in the way of eating. It has oranges that are skinned down to the pith for three American cents and eaten in a way that would make California navels cringe. To the home of rice balls, peanut soup, teeny bananas, giant avocados…. Continue reading
You’ve heard about her. You’ve asked about her. Perhaps you’ve even sampled her.
Somehow, everyone wants her. Is it her stunning appearance, her crisp wit, her slightly tart sense of humor, her ability to get along so famously with lime? What is it that draws revelers to her side? Whatever it is, the Hibiscus Margarita is here with all of her secrets revealed!
Ta da!
This is the first in a series of gourmet (and dare I say “healthy�) cocktails on You are Delicious. What makes them gourmet is the unique and classy ingredients. What makes them healthy is their lack of artificial anything and their ability to put color in your cheeks.
Check out the recipe for Hibiscus Margaritas
That’s all for today. If you were wondering about the mashed cauliflower, I recommend it! But don’t expect it to taste like mashed potatoes. Also be sure to steam or boil it until it’s good and mushy to make the mashing easier.
If you were wondering about Ghanaian recipes, you’re in luck! An upcoming post will commemorate
Ghana’s 50th anniversary of freedom from British rule the best way I know how – through food!
Stay tuned.
I know I promised something about cocktails, but I can’t resist a few words on oral surgery first. I had a tooth extracted today and was reminded of the great pureed and soft foods that we take for granted or overlook.
Being a vegetarian chef type gets you into all kinds of conversations, and I recently learned that my dentists’ two sons are vegetarian. So she expressed interest in trying my food and had some advice for me as a veggie faced with a few days of no chewing. (Dr. Lloyd, if you decided to tune in – hello! You did a magnificent job!)
After she proclaimed that I’d managed very well, especially “for such a small girl†and before she got concerned about my high blood pressure and ghost-pale face, she suggested cauliflower. Mash it up, she told me, and it’s wonderful. Continue reading
Perhaps you’ve seen the phenomenon of ceviche.* It might begin with a happy hour group sipping half-priced margaritas at a Mexican restaurant. Around 7:30, they start eying the menu. One person suggests yucca fries to share, another the spinach quesadilla. Then one gets a mischievous look in her eye and places her finger firmly on the name of a dish. She looks meaningfully at the group, eyebrows lifted. “How about… ceviche?” She says.
Inevitably, it must be explained. A few in the group already know and say that eating raw fish in a sushi restaurant is one thing, but in this place? (At this point, someone may point toward the bartender in his tank top, standing in a puddle of spilled Corona and lime pulp). Then one of the cheap drink revelers begins a rapturous defense of ceviche — what a fresh-tasting delicacy it is, and how he used to eat it all the time when he studied abroad in Latin America somewhere. Some are convinced. Most of those who try it are enraptured; ceviche converts who take a tiny forkful at a time and savor it. Continue reading
The summer after high school graduation, I worked as a cashier in a produce market. (It was Robin’s, for any of you New Paltz-area folks). There, I memorized numeric codes for at least 200 kinds of produce, including about 10 varieties each of apples, onions, and potatoes. Although the precise number that went with the purple potatoes has faded from memory, I distinctly remember one customer. He came in one day when I was bagging and a delightfully truculent co-cashier was ringing people up. This shopper unpacked his basket, revealing a series of goods bought in small quantities.
The co-cashier (let’s call her Lucinda) sized up the package of cherry tomatoes, one lemon, small bag of trail mix, and two pears and said, “Single guy, huh? I could see you a mile away!” She proceeded to tease him good-naturedly and boast about her powers of deduction.
Being the kind of 17-year-old who was only going to comment on an order if the jicama had an enormous worm wriggling out of it, I was embarrassed. But I soon realized Lucinda was very astute. The guy chuckled nervously and nodded. I thanked my lucky stars that I had my family to return to that evening, even if we didn’t always sit down together for a meal.
For the next several years, I cooked and ate with my family, in a student dining co-op, or in a group house. Now I’m cooking just for myself, and I can really feel for that guy. Continue reading
Kids and grown-ups alike just love to see things grow. If you ever watched, fascinated, as your childhood sea monkeys went through their short jig of a lifespan, you know what I mean. If you feel compelled to put seeds in soil every spring, or even if you enjoy seeing a whole bunch of new messages expanding your email inbox, you’ve experienced the grown-up version.
Sadly, right now, everything seems stagnant. It’s consistently cold and icy outside, with just slight variations between you-may-or-may-not-need-a-hat cold and you’ll-die-without-a-ski mask cold. Just a few miles from me as I write this, Congress looked at a resolution that would have nudged the situation in Iraq with the force of a feather and declared it was too much. Best not to upset the status quo. I also swear that my email traffic has gone down, perhaps giving in to the phenomenon of things getting slower in colder temperatures.
Ok, for once I decided not to tackle making a condiment from scratch. I’ve long heard about mole (for those not down with the Spanish, it’s pronounced “MO-layâ€), a Mexican sauce famous for having many, many ingredients. Continue reading
I guess any self-respecting chef-type person needs to offer a Valentine’s Day recipe. I have to admit I like savory stuff. You can’t deny that a cheesy fondue, with gruyere and swiss melting into the hot cunning of garlic-infused white wine, is pretty sexy. Continue reading
You Are Delicious 