Will the unwashed go grass-fed?

Posted on by

The other day, I brought up the new food movement I see emerging with the likes of Michael Pollan and Sally Fallon Morell with my mom. I mentioned that trailing their keystrokes and bean soaks is a sense that meat is okay.

“Really?” she said. “But how can they say that, when meat eating is responsible for so many problems?”

Although still a staunch vegetarian, I felt compelled to defend them. I explained that the new thinking about food advocates small amounts of meat and dairy, and stresses local, grass-fed products. The animals should be treated well, raised on small farms close by, and fed a healthy diet. And raw dairy rocks.

My mom had trouble with this. This is a woman who inspired my love of vegetables, introduced me to CSAs, and hinted that artificial coloring can be fatal. She eats small amounts of quality, sustainable chicken and fish, and occasionally other kosher meaty things. But I guess she didn’t think the Great Unwashed should get the go ahead to eat meat at all. They couldn’t be trusted. Continue reading →

Guest Post: Cooking Indian with Jane

Posted on by

Indian food

Thank you to graphic designer, painter, and cook Ellen Cornett  for helping me kick off the new year with this story. Stay tuned for more on resolutions.

All last week I was asking people about their New Year’s resolutions. It was a mix of idle curiosity and looking for some suggestions. I hadn’t yet finalized my own.

As I was thinking about this, my daughter, Jane, and I spent much of a Sunday morning and all afternoon crafting an Indian dinner. We both love Indian food—I think it’s our favorite. We set out to make coriander almond chicken, cabbage with split peas, raita (a yogurt condiment), basmati rice, and naan. Some of the ingredients were difficult to locate and it was tricky finding an Indian grocery store that was open on Sunday afternoon. But perhaps the biggest issue turned out to be my apparent inability to understand what I am reading.

The cookbook we worked from was an impulse purchase from Costco—big and lovely with gorgeous photos of India, of the food and of preparation steps. But it would seem that one photo of a chicken dish looks pretty much like any other. We had decided on this coriander almond chicken, but I managed to read and direct us through the many step preparation of a marinade for cardamom chicken before Jane figured out I was on the wrong page. I hit my head several times, we rinsed off the chicken, and went ahead with the coriander almond recipe.  Continue reading →

Rejuvenating holiday dregs

Posted on by

 

Not everyone suffers from this problem, but I personally have leftover holiday candy. Mine is a half bag of Sunspire chocolate drops, which I bought as dreidel game gelt. It turns out you don’t need an entire 10-ounce bag of M&M wannabes to play a good game of dreidel, and being one of the only women on the planet who does not require a daily intake of chocolate (some kind of hormonal imbalance, I’m sure), I had these things sitting around for the past two weeks.

Then last night, I hit on a way to use the candy — and any other holiday chocolate dregs you may have lying around. It’s hot chocolate! Considering how Starbucks, ACKC, and even the wacky frozen yogurt people over at Mr. Yogato are getting into it, I’m shocked that I didn’t think of it sooner. Maybe it took walking by Max Brenner’s in NYC, which set my mind on the lava-like hot chocolate I tried at their Herzaliya branch. Yes indeed.

While I’m not that into crunching down on pure sugar candy shells and the room temperature chocolate inside, I can definitely get down with a hot and chocolately beverage — especially if I can add a few embellishments. Continue reading →

A growing spirit of change

Posted on by

WhoFarm bus

As the JibJab look back at 2008 quips, “McCain has many houses, but none of them are white.” Obama does (or will) have a White House, and with great real estate comes great responsibility. Or so says an organization urging Obama to take the presidential residence on a left turn (notice the traffic signal) into the world of organic gardening. As heard on NPR, the WhoFarm project–which drives around this nifty bus with a garden on the top–is one of the groups encouraging Number 44 to go organic. They started even before we knew who would get the office, taking a cross-country tour and ending up in D.C. just before the election.

Michael Pollan is in on it, as is Kitchen Gardeners International. According to former White House executive chef Walter Scheib, previous presidents did grow and eat organic. Continue reading →

Christmas cookies…

Posted on by

cookies

…the breakfast of champions! Coffee and buttery, sugary goodness… yes, I’ve been living the good life over the past few days.

Actually, I’ve watched with interest over the past few weeks as my sugar threshold has risen. While I don’t seek out sweet things during most of the year, around the holidays I’m inundated with chocolate Hanukkah gelt, candy canes, cookies, and all sorts of other stuff–and I eat it! And then, as the major sweet-related holiday, Christmas, approaches, I start getting into it. “Yeah,” my body says on T-minus two weeks (or around the time Hanukkah starts, whichever comes first), “I could manage another Elite coin.”

A little later, it’s thinking cookies for breakfast is a pretty fine idea. “It’s tasty! And festive! Why not?”

By December 24, things have gotten a little ugly. My inner appetite meter has morphed into something hulking and dark, grabbing at any White Elephant gift with even the faintest whiff of sugar emanating from its wrappings, shouting “More! More! You think Santa NEEDS a head? No way! He can get along fine without it. [munch munch] And the body, too. Why do they make these damn things hollow, anyway? [glomp glomp slurp] Why??” And then a deep rumble begins in my stomach and gurgles up in my throat, eventually emerging: “MORE.”

Ah yes.

Happy holidays, everyone! Eat well, and be happy.

Butter, sugar, spices, rum

Posted on by

Turns out what you see in the title is all there is to it when it comes to making hot buttered rum, a popular drink this time of year. Plus a little hot water or apple cider. I haven’t tried it yet, and admit I’m a little resistant (A sort of butter tea? Oil and water? It seems unnatural) but I hope to soon. You should, too!

Emeril has a good recipe that cooks saturated with positive reviews. My favorite:

“Whoa, mamma!! This was better than the flu shot. I got the flu anyway but after sipping on this, I didn’t care…”

-Marilyn, Jacksonville, FL

Here’s one that uses ice cream. Nummers!

What do you think of buttered rum?

Image from Diana’s Desserts.

Latkes! [Updated]

Posted on by

Regular and sweet potato latkes

To get you ready for the start of Hanukah (lighting its first candle the night of December 21 this year), here are some latke recipes for you!

Traditional Potato Latkes (adapted from a recipe by Barry Tunkel, a.k.a. the Latke King, a mighty maker of latkes in my synagogue when I was growing up)

Ingredients:
4-5 medium potatoes, grated
2 eggs
1 onion, grated
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
Canola, corn, peanut, or olive oil
3 heaping Tbs. matzo meal (or flour)
1 –2 Tbs. fresh parsley

More oil

Continue reading →

The renaissance pastry blender

Posted on by

patry blender

I’ve always detested chopping up eggs for egg salad. There’s something tedious and unsatisfying about slicing into egg after egg, getting the powdery yellow yolk on your knife, wiping it off, starting again. So I was thrilled yesterday when I came across a solution! The key is a pastry blender. You know ’em if you’ve got one — a horseshoe-shaped implement with wires and a handle. I use mine to cut butter into a flour mixture for baked goods. But now I’ll be taking it out of the cabinet more often to slice up my eggs! Continue reading →

Gourmet meals on a (space) budget

Posted on by

No, this post is not about inexpensive freeze-dried Apollo chili. While NASA’s working on innovative space food and recycled pee, I’m dealing with my own space challenge–cooking small.

When I first laid eyes on my current kitchen, the first word that came to mind was “mini.” I noted how the stove crowded four gas burners onto a range the size of a place mat, and that the cabinets looked like something you’d see in a fun house “skinny” mirror. The rest of the apartment proceeded to charm the pants off me, though, and I started to think of the kitchen as cute and livable. (At least it had actual cabinets with doors, which is more than I can say for my last one-person place). Once I moved in, I started thinking about how to continue to do the cooking I love in a smaller venue. With a little thought and a lot of trial and error, the kitchen really is becoming livable and cookable. I thought I’d share some of my space-saving fixes here. Continue reading →