the erratic epicurean

lord, i was born a ramblin' (wo)man....

2011-11-04T09:42:00.017-04:00

per usual i am being quite erratic with my postings. c'est la vie.
life is for livin' not bloggin'!

in any case, here are some of the things i've been eating and cooking and doing since we last saw each other.

i made grape jam for the first time a few months ago and boy is it delicious!

first we picked a buncha grapes.

then i slipped 'em outta their skins and pureed the skins with a little sugar. then it all went into a pot with some sugar and it cooked for a long, long time.

then i put the jam through the food mill to get rid of all those pesky seeds.

then into the jars for processing so i can eat it all winter long!

oh, and i made some grape juice too. soooooooooooooooooo good!!

and while the tomatoes were still kickin' i roasted, pureed and froze a bunch. now i can take those little containers outta the freezer, defrost 'em, add some stock and voila! roasted tomato soup and sauces! mmm!

here they are right outta the oven. killer! roasted with a little olive oil and salt in a 400 degree oven for like an hour. these were some san marzanos i snagged at the farmers market. i am going to plant like 70 of these suckers next season!

into the food processor. i just pulsed them a bit. you still want to have some chunks.

off to the freezer with these little gems!

oh! i made some chicken tikka masala the other night.
man oh man was it tasty.

check out this MONSTER chicken breast!

we've had meat birds all summer and we could've butchered them back in august but they like pecking around the yard and hanging with the other birds and i don't really like butchering so we've let them live. until recently that is.

this breast weighed 2lbs! fucking crazy!

i marinated the chicken in a really yummy yogurt marinade for about an hour. then i skewered the chunks and broiled them for about 4-5 minutes per side. mmm!

yum!

and even more yum - all finished with a side of naan and coriander chutney.

we picked up a rooster at the county fair and named him sue. and then he had his way with every hen in the coop and we hatched our very first chicks!

let me introduce you (from back to front) to mortimer, billy valentine and randolph. three cheers for anyone who can name our movie inspiration behind those names!

we went to NYC on halloween to see one of the very best bands in the land. we were in the city for 29 hours and managed to stuff our faces with some really good grub.

case in point - park italian gourmet.

that sandwich was hands down the best italian sub this gal has ever consumed. the bread - oh the bread! - it was marvelous. and it was loaded down with prosciutto, capicola and real mozzarella. a little tomato and lettuce and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. i could've eaten ten of those things! we also got a side of calamari salad that was just tops. and they gave us extra bread to dunk in the oily dressing on the salad.

park italian gourmet KICKED TOTAL ASS and if you ever find yourself in midtown you should stop there.

we also snacked on a delicious belgian waffle with nutella and walnuts from a cart in central park and of course we got pizza.

oh NYC pizza you are truly the best in the land. my love for you is a fiery passion and if i was closer to you i would gobble you up every single damn day. i love you NYC pizza. and i would carry your child if you'd let me.

over and out!

can all you can continues....

2011-09-07T09:33:00.009-04:00

tomatoes!

(the can of bug spray is a necessity back at the garden. egads!
the mosquitoes are terrible!)

first on the agenda was something new - tomato paste. i've never made it before but i do love it. sometimes when i'm cooking with tomato paste and i only need a blop or two i finish off the rest of the can with a spoon. mmmm!

anyways, tomato paste. it's a lot of work and a lot of time but it's also a lot of delicious!

first up - wash, core and chop the tomatoes.

next up, cook the chopped 'maters in a little olive oil until tender and bubbly.

then put your cooked tomatoes through the finest plate of your food mill and spread it all out on a big baking sheet.

this baked in a 300 degree oven for like 5 hours or something. i'd fold it and spread it around with a rubber spatula every 30 minutes or so. then once all the water had evaporated and it was a deep red color it was ready to go.

look at that paste! beautiful and very, very tasty!

next up - crushed tomatoes. i use tons of crushed tomatoes - soups, sauces, indian dishes. mmm....palak paneer.....

anyways, these tomatoes gave me 6 pints of crushed which will go to good use.

and for fun - some ground cherry chutney. i am thinking this will be delicious with a pork loin. when all was said and done i had 8 or 9 four ounce jelly jars of chutney. mmm!

and one of my very favorite summer staples - pickled peppers! i just hot packed these hot blocks with a vinegar/water/salt brine and some garlic and dill from the garden. mmm!

we have a lot of tomatoes

2011-08-31T09:30:00.005-04:00

i have crushed 'em. i have jammed 'em. i have BLT'd 'em.
and last night i souped 'em.

i got about 4-5 quarts into the freezer when it was all said and done.
mmm! tasty!

does this blog even work anymore?

2011-08-30T16:38:00.001-04:00

if so - here is what i have been up to lately!

pickles!

a sink full o' tomatoes to canned crushed tomatoes

ground cherries and tomatillos

ground cherry jam

garden tomatoes to spicy tomato jam

our new family of goats! meet patches, little edie and alobar!

oh yea - and i went and got hitched too.

and while honeymooning/road tripping down the east coast (ocean city, MD to jacksonville beach, FL and back) i discovered firefly sweet tea vodka. mmm.....

summer 2011 for the win!

some odds and ends

2011-03-12T09:47:00.019-05:00

hello again!

i am still cooking and we are still eating even though i haven't been keeping this ol' blog up to date. in fact, we've been eating really well as of late!!

let me demonstrate.

a few sundays ago i made an AWESOME cider and onion braised pork shoulder. here's the fixin's for a killer sunday dinner.

the shoulder braised for a few hours and i served it over a cauliflower puree with some braised kale on the side. mmm! tasty!

and look at these beauties!

the days are slowly but surely getting a little longer and the temperature is slowly but surely getting a little warmer so our chickens are laying again. we have 6 birds total now and are getting 4-5 eggs a day.

here's my girls!

my love for eggs is hard to put into words. i think my last meal would be dippy eggs and rye toast. or maybe a scrambled egg and chorizo taco. mmmm....eggs.

just look at these babies!!

and speaking of killer eggs - check out this incredible sandwich i stumbled across the other day - an egg in a hole grilled cheese.

my gawd! dippy eggs AND grilled cheese!! they are like my two favorite foods on the planet! i made them that night and they were HEAVENLY!

here's the supplies.

butter. eggs. cheese. seriously. this is what life is all about man!

sorry. no photo of the finished product due to me gobbling this baby up the second it came out of the pan. this sandwich is pure perfection. totally awesome. i wish i had one right now.

in other news the pork from our meat share arrived.

in addition to the nasty bits we received bacon, steaks, ham, butt roast and this gigantic tub o' lard!

i've got big plans for this lard. namely pie crusts and fried chicken. oh man. i am so pumped! i also ordered pork & sons from the library and am super excited to start researching.

my culinary co-conspirator and i are gonna kick that pig's ass!!

and speaking of my culinary co-conspirator (aka sister-by-choice aka soon-to-be-sister-in-law) check out her butchering skills!

this past weekend we played duck, duck, goose with one of our ducks and a duck and a goose from our meat peeps.

this was the first big butcher for both of us. i have done some plucking with our own birds but mike did all the butchering. i was intimidated and a little scared but NOT anymore!

we propped up our main man's cookbook for guidance and went to town. we each tackled a duck and then since it was my co-conspirator's birthday celebration she tackled the goose.

i think we did a helluva job!

and after the butchering - we cooked!

first of all we bagged up the carcasses and got them in the freezer. they will become stock at some point down the road.

then we rendered all of the fat from the fowl. it slowly bubbled away on the stove top while we tackled our other projects.

one duck breast became duck prosciutto (it's hanging right now and should be done by tomorrow). mmm! once it's ready we will slice it thin, pour ourselves a nice glass of red wine and sit back and talk about how awesome we are (hopefully).

all of the legs, thighs and wings got rubbed down with a salt/oil/pepper/garlic/bay leaf paste and went into a pot to rest for confit.

and then we tackled our dinner.

we seared the goose & duck breasts and then made a sauce using onions and garlic and red wine and fig preserves. mmm! we served the seared breasts over a sweet potato puree alongside some roasted brussel sprouts (sprouts i blanched & froze back in september or october!).

and we feasted!

to top it off - a lemon curd tart with blackberries and homemade whipped cream.

man oh man! this was a killer meal! i was exhausted and drunk on wine and enthusiasm by the end of it all. it was a wonderful day!

but the fowl didn't stop there!

we split up the legs, thighs and wings and the rendered fat and tackled the confit the next day (or was it two days later...) on our own.

i didn't have enough rendered fat to cover the fowl so i used some olive oil too. i should've used some of that darn lard but i didn't think of it till afterwards!

here it is at the beginning.

and here it is at the end (3 1/2 hours later at 300 degrees).

it had shrunk down quite a bit so i transferred it to my single woman's dutch oven and stuck it in the back of the fridge.

we'll revisit this confit in a month or so when my culinary co-conspirator and i regroup and tackle cassoulet. (and i know that ours will look much better than this wikipedia picture. blegh!).

and let's end on a sweet note. creamy, warm rice pudding with pure ohio maple syrup. mmm!!

butter paneer masala

2011-02-23T19:44:00.010-05:00

i have been on a HUGE indian kick as of late and thankfully mike has become quite the enthusiast. (sweet!)

the last time i stopped at the indian store i snagged a big bag of green chilis and a couple packages of paneer so i'd be ready when the mood struck.

tonight it struck. butter paneer masala!

the spices.

dhania (coriander powder), garam masala and red chili powder.

ginger, garlic and cilantro paste.

rough chop your ginger, garlic and cilantro. use your mortar and pestle and make a paste. sometimes i use my mini food processor but that was in the basement and i didn't feel like going down there. plus the mortar and pestle makes it chunkier and thicker. and better. (i think so anyways).

green chilis.

mmm. i found that gnarly one on the left in the very bottom of the crisper. probably past its prime but meh - i chopped it up anyways.

paneer!

paneer is so awesome. so, so delicious. it is probably one of my top ten favorite foods. YUM! i need to start making my own....

i started the onions and chilis in a little oil in a hot pan. these cooked until they were nice and brown.

notice that rice? i have always struggled with rice. it seems so easy but i have continuously fucked it up. until i finally figured it out!!

so my old method was boil the water, add the rice, simmer. this is all wrong.

now i always rinse my rice first. i don't know what this does but two bags of basmati from the indian store and ATK suggest rinsing. and now my rice is finally perfect so i rinse.

i add the water and the rice to a pot and bring it to a boil. then reduce the heat, cover it and let it simmer until the water evaporates - like 8-10 minutes.

then remove the pan from the heat and let it sit (don't touch! keep it covered!) for another 15 minutes or so. perfect!

ok, so back to the onions and chilis. here is where i added my spices and i let this cook for just a minute or two.

then i added a couple blops of tomato paste and cooked it for another minute before adding about 1/2 cup of milk and a few tablespoons of water. i covered the pan and let that cook for about 5 minutes.

then i added some heavy cream (this is americanized butter paneer masala - i'm not going to front) and simmered it for just a few more minutes so the paneer would be heated through. and i finished it with some fresh cilantro.

mmm! and look at that naan! i wish i could tell you that i made this but i didn't. the indian store sells it frozen and you just bake it for like 5 minutes. they also sell little containers of coriander and mint chutney (again, i KNOW i can make this myself but quick week night dining = frozen naan and cups of pre-made chutney).

this was really, really good. delicious!!

pot pie (kinda)

2011-02-02T11:07:00.004-05:00

remember those steak sandwiches? well there was a ton of meat leftover so i decided to make a pot pie. except - i was too lazy to make a pie crust so i opted for a biscuit top instead.

i just made my standard buttermilk biscuit recipe. easy.

but i'd also need some gravy. and since i had no meat drippings i'd need to investigate. i went with the america's test kitchen all purpose gravy. (i got their complete cookbook for christmas a couple of years ago - LOVE it!!)

anyways, the gravy was super easy and while that was simmering/reducing i sauteed some veggies for the pie - carrots, onions, celery, parsnips and turnips - in a little butter. once those were nice and soft i stirred in the cubed beef
just to warm it up.

i stirred in the gravy and then poured it all into my big dutch oven. i topped it with the biscuit and baked it in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes or so.

look at this beauty! (and check out that extra gravy for drizzling. mmm!)

i garnished with a bit of fresh basil (from our sweet aero garden) and i drizzled on a bit of the extra gravy. i decided to wash this down with a nice cold glass of milk.

aren't my new salt & pepper shakers cool? thanks lydia!

steak sandwiches! woohoo!

2011-01-30T21:07:00.010-05:00

yesterday we sampled our first piece of beef from our meat share. i decided to take the sirloin tip roast (aka tri tip) and roast it - maybe make some steak sandwiches.

when i said that mike said, "yes! yes! like those sandwiches with that cheese spread you did that one time!" i think he was referring to these sandwiches.

and when he was done eating - two (!!) sandwiches later - he said, "ahhh....yes. that was exactly what i wanted!"

(side note - he is trying to quit smoking. for real this time he says. this has increased his appetite like 10-fold. he ate an entire box of cinnamon toast crunch in one day. yipes!)

i leafed through my meat cookbooks and then took to the web for inspiration. i stumbled across this recipe for harissa-crusted tri tip and i thought spicy steak sammiches sounded just perfect!

first things first - the beef. mmm!

so, i didn't have any caraway seeds. but i did have cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander seeds. since i'd adding ground cumin later i decided to go with the coriander seeds. i love them. i always put them in my chili and i love the taste. and i'm no dummy - i know that caraway seeds and coriander seeds aren't the same.

so i toasted up those coriander seeds and then added some olive oil and a buncha garlic cloves and covered the pan and removed it from the heat. while that was hanging out i grabbed my mini-food processor and added a few heaping blops of chili garlic paste, some cumin, some chili powder and a few tablespoons of tomato sauce.

i added the coriander-garlicy-oil and pureed it and then seasoned it with just a pinch of salt.

i reserved some of the sauce (to spread on the finished sandwiches) and then schmeared the rest of it all over the tri tip.

i lined a small pan with foil and put one of my cookie-cooling racks inside. the meat went on the rack and roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes or so until it was medium rare.

i also did some oven fries and those were in the oven for about 40 minutes. they were by far the best oven fries i've ever made and i think it was due to the higher oven temperature (400 degrees) rather than the 350-375 i usually use. and while the meat and fries were cooking i slowly sauteed onions, mushrooms and red peppers in a lil' butter and canola oil.

once the meat reached 135 degrees i took it out of the oven, covered it with foil and let it rest for about 10 minutes. during the resting period i toasted the buns under the broiler. once they were golden brown i schmeared them with cheese.

i sliced up the meat and layered them on the cheesey buns with the sauteed veggies and a little of the reserved harissa.

YUM!

you'll notice that the meat on my sammy doesn't look too rare. the ends were cooked much more than the middle which was a little too rare. i'm not sure how to remedy that. and i'd also slice the meat thinner and then maybe cut it into chunks so it's easier to eat. this was a VERY messy sandwich!

er·rat·ic /iˈratik/ adjective: not even or regular in pattern or movement; unpredictable.

2011-01-05T09:22:00.002-05:00

holy cow! i haven't posted anything since november of 2010! rest assured i've been cooking and eating a ton since then. what the heck?
just being erratic i guess.

maybe my new year's resolution should be to blog more than every 2-3 months. but i also dislike commitments so i better not make any promises.

i do have a goose in my freezer from the meat share and my culinary co-conspirator aka sister by choice have some big plans for that sucker. maybe once these plans come to fruition i'll tell you about it.

until then....

fucking perfection

2010-11-23T20:58:00.002-05:00

just finished dinner. sigh....

cast iron seared strip steaks, horseradish creamed leeks (with gruyere this time. mmm.), roasted potatoes and turnips, buttery peas and great lakes christmas ales.

that is what i am fucking talking about!

experiments!

2010-11-15T19:30:00.016-05:00

the other day i had a reeeeeeal craving for some indian food - palak paneer to be specific - but out in the sticks there is nary an indian joint. looks like i'd have to tackle it myself.

luckily the spice corner is just a hop, skip and a jump from my place of employment so the martini and i hit it up one afternoon after work. it rocks! $11 got me several different spices and herbs and paneer! woohoo! $2 for a big, frozen chunk of paneer!

armed with my paneer and new spices and manjula's wisdom i headed home to make my very own indian cuisine for the very first time.

it was easy!! and it turned out amazing!! even skeptical mike who asked, "is this like tofu? is it going to be a real meal?" liked it. woohoo! palak paneer is in the arsenal!

after the first couple of frosts i realized that i needed to complete a final harvest out in the garden. i picked all the onions and they are currently curing in the garage on a tarp. this weekend i'll stuff 'em into some pantyhose and hang 'em in the basement. i've never stored onions before - it's an experiment!

i also picked all the leeks, cut a bunch of kale and pulled all the rosemary.

remember hank? he's growing up so fast. sigh....

i washed and dried the rosemary and cut off the root ends. then i shoved it all into a freezer bag and stuck it in the freezer. sources say it will last and taste close to fresh. we shall see. it's an experiment!

kale.

we have eaten a ton of it this summer/fall and we'll continue to eat it into the winter! i removed the stems, washed, chopped, blanched, shocked and froze this kale in several small freezer bags. plus the kale is still kickin' out there! i'll probably freeze some more!

here's a sink full o' leeks!

with a few of these i tried out a recipe i found for horseradish creamed leeks. i love horseradish. i love cream. and i love leeks. seemed like a winner!

here are the elements - the edmund fitzgerald is key during leek experimentation.

first things first - melt some butter!

while the butter was doing its thing i washed the leeks and cut them down the middle but not all the way through.

mmm...leeks, butter and cream.

another look. mmm....

i removed the leeks from the pan and put them in gratin dishes. i stirred in a big blop of horseradish and some parmesan cheese into the buttery creamy sauce. then i poured the creamy source over the leeks and added a lil' more parmesan on top for good measure.

these went under the broiler for a just a few minutes until they were
brown and bubbly.

man oh man. i wish i had a photo to show you but this looked and smelled so killer that we scarfed 'em down without a thought of capturing an image.

go make this. FANTASTIC!

this weekend i...

2010-10-26T10:23:00.002-04:00

butchered 2 roosters (mike killed/i plucked/he eviscerated)

made chicken scallopini and chipotle chicken tacos

received a delivery from and shared a beer with my meat share friend
(2 ducks, 2 chickens and some goat)

helped cut and split two truck loads of wood for the winter

picked a bushel of brussel sprouts

made and froze 40+ cups of chicken stock

and plotted and planned for my halloween costume

happy fall!!

braised leeks!

2010-10-18T10:25:00.006-04:00

i looooooooove leeks.

early this summer mike's dad gave us some sad lookin' leek starts. very sad. so sad in fact that i didn't think they would make it. but they did! they thrived! and we've had leek and potato soup and i've used leeks in all kinds of dishes and then i discovered braised leeks. mmmm.....

i halved the leeks, washed them really well and seasoned them very liberally with salt and pepper. i also chopped up a couple of small red onions (shallots would be great too) and some fresh thyme (all from the garden!!)

i seared the leeks in a smokin' hot pan with a lil' butter and olive oil until they got nice and brown.

i moved the leeks to a couple of gratin dishes and then added the onions to the hot pan. i cooked them for just a minute and then added some veggie stock and a lil' red wine to deglaze the pan. i let this reduce till it thickened up and then poured it over the leeks and topped it with some thyme.

these went into the oven for about 30-40 minutes and while those were braising in the yummy sauce i worked on the rest of dinner.

final menu: grilled flank steak with chimichurri, sauteed cabbage, braised leeks and roasted brussel sprouts. delicious!!

a time to plant, a time to reap......a time to laugh, a time to weep.

2010-10-12T21:24:00.022-04:00

here are some things from warmer and sunnier days past. don't get me wrong. i do enjoy the fall. i just hate to say good bye to all of the wonderful produce and the fresh herbs and working in the garden and sitting at the farmer's market. sigh.....

c'est la vie.

awww...i remember this. it only happened once. our tomatoes fared pretty poorly. it was really disappointing. i canned some yellow sauce - 3 pints. i canned some crushed tomatoes - maybe like 6 mints and i ate the smaller ones on salads and grilled and as snacks.

i also picked two big bags of "paste tomatoes" from mike's aunt and uncle and roasted them. oh. my. goodness. these are awesome! even the ones i cooked too long that turned black still tasted good. one batch turned out perfectly and i froze a quart of them.

oh! speaking of freezing - we finally got a nice stand up freezer. the entire top shelf is fruit! i am so proud. sour cherries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. cobblers and jams will get a round II. woohoo!

crackers!! easy. and telling people you made your own crackers
makes you look cool.

this is an egg.
we get them every single day(!) now - usually three a day. yesterday, for the first time ever, we had over a dozen in our fridge!

this is
*wait for it*
my future sister-in-law's spicy pulled pork.

delicious. i roasted two big shoulders in a mixture of scallions, garlic, ginger, pineapple juice, spices and several other things that i forget now pretty much all day.

another basket from the garden. the brussel sprouts and kale are still going strong and probably will for a while longer. we also still have some more sweet potatoes to dig up and those have been really tasty.

from baskets of fresh picked vegetables to vats of crisco!

a couple of days ago we dispatched two of our roosters. one went into the freezer and the other became fried chicken and chicken scalloppini.

here's the fried chicken. very tasty.

hard boiled eggs in salads have to be one of my very favorite things. add big, homemade croutons from thick, stale bread and i am fucking set. and look at those yolks! bright orange - not that pale, weird yellow that turns gray. you know what i'm talking about. buy fresh eggs! totally worth every cent and the minor inconvenience of tracking them down.

*hops off soap box*

kale. you've seen it. we still eat it. a lot.

oh. this hot mess became totally awesome seared tomato sauce. very, very good. winey and caramelized. i loved it.

i even spent my toilet-scrubbing-money on a bitchin' food mill and made it a second time (doubled the recipe) and froze a big bag of it. yum!

this was a sunday dinner - braised venison shank. i made an herb bundle of thyme, rosemary and parsley and braised the shank in red wine, veggie stock, carrots and onions for like 3 hours or so.

i don't know. meh. the sauce was better than the meat. i don't know. maybe longer on lower heat and some more liquid. we'll see.

and one of the great joys in life - oysters.

they are usually $7/dozen at klein's so every now and then on the friday of pay week i stop and pick up a dozen - sometimes two.

i've been dying to try drunken sailors since i came across this recipe.

holy cow!! these were killer!!

a lil' hot sauce, some cilantro and some fresh shaved parmesan cheese - grilled in the shell for just a minute. good lord! my $20 grill never ceases to amaze.

and the drunken sailors were just the beginning!

aNw and kMw gave us a bottle of patron as a host/hostess gift for the pig roast. mike hid it that night so no hooligans would see it and then we completely forgot about it until he came across it while cleaning the garage months later. woohoo!

and that is why i stopped and got oysters the next night!

we also enjoyed grilled summer squash and tomatoes and oysters on the half shell with horseradish. yum!!

argh! how i will miss walking outside and grabbing vegetables and herbs to toss on the grill. i will miss it so much.

in the meantime i'll sip oktoberfest and cider and rum and i'll dine on soups and stews and crusty breads and i'll carve pumpkins and eat squash and enjoy my vest.

long lost blog

2010-09-17T09:45:00.003-04:00

hmm...haven't posted anything in quite some time.

why? well, first of all my laptop took a big ol' crap and i can't connect to the interwebs. secondly, mike's laptop sucks and half the keys don't work so you have to use the on-screen keyboard which blows and takes forever.

i'm also busy canning and freezing and drying and reading and writing and planning.

the impending nuptials are planned for next summer and it turns out there is quite a bit to think about.

i'm still cooking and we're still eating i just haven't taken the time to photograph it and document it.

we are enjoying loads of brussel sprouts - the best thing our garden has produced all summer - and tonight we have a date night planned.

and by date night i mean slaughtering and butchering four roosters. man oh man i can't wait to say au revoir to those cocks. i am sick of them crowing and crowing all day and night and i am even more sick of them raping the poor little hens.

speaking of hens - we got our first egg last week.

so far we collected probably 8 or 9 eggs and boy are they delicious. this morning i had a dippy egg breakfast sandwich on wheat bread with swiss cheese. and yesterday i had a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, cheese, leftover flank steak, cilantro and hot sauce. mmm!!

i have a real craving for some good fried chicken. goodbye cocks. hello fried chicken!

can all you can!

2010-08-15T21:10:00.021-04:00

the summer of 2010 is the summer of jamming.

jam. jam. jam. it's what i do. pretty much all the time.

for the last several years i have given jam as christmas gifts but i never really paid attention to the seasonality of the fruit. so, in december i'd go up to the market and load up on strawberries, raspberries and blackberries never even considering that they were shipped in from who knows where. and since the jam tasted good and people liked it i never gave it a second thought.

but jam made with seasonal, delicious ohio fruits....man oh man!
what a difference! i feel better getting fruit from farmers, friends and family close by and the taste is really off the charts.

the only problem - there is a small window of time for each fruit so you gotta get a lot of it and can, can, can all you can while the window is open.

i bought 10 pounds of blueberries. two of these boxes.

i made blueberry jam, blueberry lemon jam and blueberry syrup. i also froze a bunch and we ate them in cobblers, pancakes and by the handful.

blueberries...mmm....

i bought a ten pound bucket of sour cherries in their own juice. i made cherry sauce (soooo good on ice cream!) and cherry jelly. i also made a clafoutis, a cobbler and i froze some for later.

we got blackberries from mike's folks. i made blackberry jam, blackberry syrup and peach blackberry sauce. more cobblers.

here's some blackberry jam from start to finish.

the latest fruit is peaches. mmm! sweet, juicy ohio peaches.

look at these beauties!

this is after i quickly blanched, shocked and peeled them.

the first project i attempted was a peach blackberry jam. i came across a recipe for blackberry apricot on my favorite new blog so i thought i'd adapt it a bit and use some peaches.

first i pureed the peaches.

then i squished some blackberries through a sieve to get rid of some of the seeds.

i cooked the fruit with some pectin and sugar...

...and then into the jars it went.

this was pretty delicious but it still hasn't set up so the tag reads, "peach blackberry sauce" not "peach blackberry jam." i did read (after making this) that you shouldn't puree fruit cuz it messes with their natural pectin. hmm...

i also canned some quartered peaches in a lil' simple syrup.

and i made peach jam.

and of course - more cobbler. peach blackberry...mmm!!

confit de canard

2010-08-08T20:16:00.011-04:00

duck fest 2010 continued with a dish i've read about and eaten a zillion times but never tried myself - duck confit !

it's old school. and delicious!!

i made a rub of salt, pepper, fresh thyme and a couple of bay leaves. i rubbed down the duck legs and wings, wrapped 'em up tight and put in the fridge.

they sat in the "salt cure" for two days and then on the third i rinsed 'em, dried 'em and seared 'em.

mmm! nice, brown and crispy!

then the duck went into my single woman's dutch oven -
nice and snug.

and now for the best part - the fat! i added all that wonderful fat i rendered earlier - enough to cover the duck - and put it in the oven.

and here it is after a couple of hours.

after the duck confit cooled i covered the pot and stuck it in the fridge. the duck, submerged in the fat, will last for quite some time. like months!

we couldn't wait that long but we did manage to wait a whole week!

i took the dutch oven outta the fridge as soon as i got home from work and let it sit on the counter for several hours. once the fat melted enough i removed the duck and rubbed off the salty, fatty goop before roasting it on a rack in the oven for about 20 minutes. this made the skin nice and crispy. mmm.

i served the duck confit straight up with a side of baby potatoes (roasted in duck fat of course!) and a swiss chard gratin.

practice makes perfect so i'll have to give this one another go. it was pretty salty. too salty. my salt cure was either too potent or it sat on the duck for too long. next time - less salt.
another lesson learned.

good thing i have another duck in the freezer!

fat!

2010-08-04T22:01:00.008-04:00

fat! it's delicious!

especially duck fat. mmm!

and since i had fat from a whole duck...

...i hacked it up...

...threw it in a pan with a lil' water...

...and rendered it down on super low heat for several hours.

up next...duck confit!

from coop to table

2010-07-17T17:10:00.018-04:00

back in october i decided to leave the swingin' bachelorette pad and move out to the sticks to be with the boy who has loved me for as long as i can remember. and back in october i said to myself, "self - if you're gonna go out to live in an old farmhouse on two acres you need to go all out." and so we have.

and this week we really went all out and it was fucking delicious.

meet the ducks.

mike found these lil' guys 3 for $10 at the flea market back in may. the ducks eventually made friends with the chickens and we fed them and loved them and raised them all with the thought of duck fat fried potatoes in the back of our heads.

here they are just a few days ago.

pekin ducks are ready to butcher around 8 weeks old. too much longer and they molt and get their pin feathers and from what i've read it's very difficult to pluck them.

i've been trying to mentally prepare for this event for weeks and weeks. i've read and read and read - books, magazines, blogs. but i knew none of them would prepare me for the actual killing.

and i was right.

when mike made the first cut and the duck squirmed - i cried. alot. i have never hunted and i have never raised animals for food before. i've been fishing but this was different. actually killing the duck was difficult. it made me really think about being a carnivore. and i had told myself earlier that if i couldn't do this - kill the ducks and chickens - then i didn't deserve to eat meat.

but i did it. and after the initial shock it was ok. i love eating duck. and i don't want to stop eating duck. and what better duck to eat than my own?

after the throat slitting we dunked the ducks in hot water to loosen up the feathers.

and then we started to pluck. this was insanely time consuming. and it smelled pretty bad too.

mike handled the eviscerating and the butchering. i want to learn and watched and listened intently so when it's time to say goodbye to the cocks i'll be ready. that's right - i said cocks. we were supposed to have six hens but instead we have two hens. and sometime in august we will be saying au revoir to the cocks.

once they were all cleaned up (and after about 30 minutes per bird with some tweezers) one went into the freezer whole and the other was cut up for some good eats.

i'm going to try my hand at confit with the legs and wings (they are rubbed with salt and herbs in the fridge right now!) so i saved every scrap of fat to render down for that.

mmm....duck fat....

and the carcass got bagged up and added to the freezer for some duck stock at a later date.

so for my very first coop to table meal i went with the duck breasts. mmm. i love duck breast. it is such a rich meat. delicious. one of my favorites.

i scored the skin on the breasts and seared them over medium high heat until they were nice and brown.

while the meat was searing i started to saute my green beans. i blanched/shocked these earlier and while they were sauteeing i whipped up mike's favorite butter/lemon/dijon sauce for them.

oh, and well before any of this green beans or duck searing took place i got a potato gratin in the oven.

look at these breasts! luscious!

while the duck rested i started the sauce. i dumped out most of the fat from the pan (don't worry - i saved every drop!) and sauteed a small minced white onion. then i added a lil' chicken stock, some port wine, a lil' honey and some sour cherries. i whisked and whisked while it reduced to a nice glaze.

and here it is - the fruits of our coop!

this. was. awesome.

and i will loudly and proudly toot my own horn on this one.
toot! toot!

mike said i nailed it and it was one of the best meals i have ever made. score!

this whole thing was an incredible experience and i am thrilled that i will be doing it for many, many years to come.

oh, and for good measure - a blueberry cobbler!

is that a spatchcock on the grill,or are you just happy to see me?

2010-07-11T23:03:00.010-04:00

i remember loving when we'd have cornish game hens at christmas instead of turkey. each of us got our own lil' bird and i just thought that was the coolest.
and i remember them being pretty darn tasty too.

so when i noticed that one of my favorite local chicken farmers had them available i decided to pick some up.

i didn't want to just roast my cornish hens in the oven for a couple of reasons. 1. it's freakin' hot outside and turning on the oven sucks and 2. grilling is usually a far superior cooking method anyways. i had to do some research and during the course of this research i learned two extremely interesting things.

cornish game hens are NOT game birds! did you know that? i didn't. they are just really young chickens - like 5 weeks old or so. a little misleading huh? they kill 'em really young so they're cute and little and have tender white meat. and all those holidays i thought i was easting something exotic. nope. just baby chicken.

the other thing i learned was the term spatchcock.
spatchcock! haha! i had to try it!

so basically spatchcock is really just a much cooler way of saying "butterfly" though i guess it just pertains to poultry. i don't think you can spatchcock shrimp but you can spatchcock cornish hens and chickens. spatchcock! spatchcock! spatchcock!
i just love saying it!

i consulted my book shelf - specifically steven raichlen for some tips and i went to work.

i took my kitchen shears and cut down the length of the hens from the neck to the ass on both sides of the backbone to remove it. then i flipped 'em over and flattened 'em out. some sources suggested removing the breast bone too but these were tiny little birds and i didn't bother. (note - next time i will bother.)

i rubbed 'em down with some olive oil and a blend of salt, cumin, red pepper flakes, oregano and black pepper.

while the birds were relaxing i started a few other things. first of all i made croutons. homemade croutons are one of the finer things in life. if you're not making your own croutons please start. it's easy and so, so, so delicious.

i use whatever bread i have hangin' around and this time i went with a couple of herb rolls i won in a raffle at the farmer's market on saturday. while i cubed up the rolls i melted about 1/4 stick of butter in the microwave. once the butter was melted i stirred in a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan - you know, "spaghetti cheese" - along with a lil' salt and pepper. i added the cubed rolls to a bowl and poured the buttery mix over top and stirred and tossed. then i baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes or so until golden brown and crusty. mmm....croutons....

i also did some brussel sprouts. no, these are not from our garden BUT we will have some at some point! we planted a whole row for god's sakes!

for the brussels i just halved them and sauteed them in a lil' olive oil and butter and then finished 'em with a nice squeeze of fresh lemon juice. mmm....brussels...

once the brussels were started and the salads were fixed (lettuce & onion from the garden!) i got my spatchcocked birds on the grill. i also took a tip from gin's pseudo-father-in-law and grilled some onions. i selected a couple of smaller ones from the garden, halved them and then tossed them with a lil' olive oil and salt and pepper.

i started the birds skin side down and cooked them for about 10-12 minutes. then i flipped them and cooked them for another 5 minutes or so. by then the onions were finished up too.

here are my birds once they made their way back indoors. mmm!

and here's the whole spread. a delightful sunday feast!

not much to report...

2010-07-01T11:49:00.003-04:00

...so i think i'll i'll post a photograph of our new kitten. his name is hank leroy and he is ridiculously cute. he also likes to play in the garden with me.

[insert "crazy cat lady" comments here.]

yankee bar-b-que

2010-06-28T10:21:00.003-04:00

i was recently in syracuse, new york for the nerdiest of nerd gatherings - the annual cheiron meeting. a rogue group of historians of the social and behavioral sciences took over the le moyne college campus for the weekend and discussed all kinds of pressing historical issues. and by pressing i mean people discuss their own research projects which can be extremely interesting or downright boring. it's often a crap shoot.

friday night was a free night for the cheironians so we decided to travel into downtown syracuse for dinner. per usual i had done my share of culinary research before heading out and had come across the very highly rated and reviewed dinosaur bar-b-que.

well, of course i was skeptical. bbq in syracuse? there's nothin' but yankees* up there! could they really bbq? the cheironians and i were determined to find out!

dinosaur bar-b-que certainly seemed like the real deal. giant smokers behind an outdoor "bone yard" patio full of picnic tables. smoke and the familiar smells of roasting meat drifting above us as we sipped ice cold beers. and it was packed to the gills. hmm....

in order to fully assess the dinosaur's offerings i went with the sample platter - 1/4 bbq chicken (a whole leg); 1/4 slab of ribs and brisket with two sides. i went with greens and coleslaw. i also got some fried green tomatoes and the platter came with some mighty tasty cornbread.

this stuff was good!

my fellow cheironians and i agreed that dinosaur bar-b-que was the perfect ending to a long day of social science history.

i will have to disagree with this "best in the country" business though. the best bbq in the country certainly doesn't reside in syracuse, new york. you know just as well as i do that the best bbq in the country is in the backwoods of north carolina.

however, the yankees in syracuse aren't doing a bad job at all.

*you may be thinking to yourself, "wait a minute! aren't you a yankee yourself ms. erratic epicurean?" yes. yes i am. but i know good bbq when i taste it!

recent developments

2010-06-11T08:17:00.003-04:00

i came home from work on tuesday to find my partner in pork out in the yard alongside a beautiful new raised flower bed.

we had been talking about building a raised bed for some time and the plan was to fill it with herbs but i noticed he had planted flowers. what the heck? i can't use marigolds in the kitchen!

so i went over for a closer look.

HOLY SHIT!

i turned around and he was down on one knee and everything!

i sobbed. i sweated profusely. i nearly vomited and i got so dizzy i had to sit down on the edge of the new flower bed. and i said yes.

flyin' by the seat of my sandwich!

2010-06-07T21:47:00.006-04:00

with a very limited budget i schlepped on out to my local marc's for some groceries. old mother hubbard no more!

hmmm....what did i want for dinner? i walked through the produce section (with its somewhat limited options) and came upon the cheese case. mmmm....boursin cheese. that's it!

when i got home i sauteed some sliced onions, mushrooms and red pepper in a lil' olive oil and butter until they were brown and soft. i also sauteed some spinach in a lil' olive oil and butter till it was nice and wilted.

while the veggies were cooking i worked on my sides and toasted my ciabatta rolls.

side number one - cousin regina's ranch potatoes. so simple. so, so delicious. i just cubed up a couple of potatoes and tossed them with a lil' olive oil and a half packet of ranch dip mix and roasted 'em on a cookie sheet.

side number two - roasted cauliflower with lemon dijon sauce. i came across this recipe in the bon appetit cookbook my gma got me for christmas and it has become a house favorite. the sauce is also killer on broccoli and green beans and really just about anything.

i chopped up the cauliflower and roasted in the oven for just about 10 minutes or so while i made the sauce. for the sauce i melted a half stick of butter over low heat and then added in the juice of two lemons and a few good squeezes of dijon mustard. you just whisk this together and voila! kick ass lemon dijon sauce. i poured the sauce over the cauliflower and then put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so. mmmm.

once my rolls were done baking (underbaked by just a couple of minutes) i took them out and cut them in half. then i put them under the broiler - cut side up - for just a minute so they'd get brown and toasty.

i shmeared both sides with a lil' boursin cheese and then started stacking on my spinach and veggies. along with the sides i also enjoyed a nice glass of zinfandel. not bad for a monday night (and a meatless monday at that!)

and now for a farm update.

here is the garden so far though we are looking to expand it this weekend to put in a few more things. so far we have lettuces, leeks, onions, radishes, peas, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, peppers (red, yellow, green, poblano, jalapeno, chili), kale, collard greens, cabbages, brussel sprouts (a whole row!), cauliflower, broccoli, squash (butternut, acorn, crook neck) and watermelon. whew!

and the poultry. three barred rocks, three delawares, two leg horns, two pekin ducks and one mallard. the mallard (peepers) is a pet and we're hoping to keep the two leg horns as long as they lay eggs (which hasn't started yet - hopefully in a few more weeks) but the rest....well the rest will end up on the dinner table come fall.

i've never butchered anything before although when i was a kid i used to hold the legs of rabbits while my dad skinned them. it's going to be an adventure. i've checked out countless library books and read numerous internet forums but i don't think any of it is going to prepare me for actually killing a chicken.

i am nervous.

BUT - i have come to the conclusion that if i can't do it, if i can't kill these chickens, then i don't deserve to eat chicken at all. or any meat for that matter. i have become very serious about knowing where my food comes from - reading labels, buying locally and only buying meat from farmers (which is difficult and expensive) but i am committed.

and eating the fruits of my labor (or the poultry of my coop as it were) is important to me. stay tuned. i'm sure i'll share all the bloody details.

happy memorial day!

2010-06-03T11:34:00.007-04:00

homemade cinder block "grill"? check.

90+ lbs. charcoal? check.

147 lb. pig? check.

large container of mojo? check.

dollar store mop? check.

good eats? check! check!

my partner in pork and i set our alarm clocks for 4:30am saturday morning. on the way outside i woke up our house guest (my mom) as we would need all the help we could get dealing with our
147lb porker.

i had the butcher butterfly our lil' gal and we kept her wrapped up tight in industrial trash bags covered in ice in a big tub in the garage overnight. before the sun was up saturday morning we managed to get her up onto the table. whew!

i wiped her down with paper towels and my mom and i rubbed her with plenty of mojo while my partner readied the
grilling apparatus.

once he got her strapped in she was ready to transport to the
back yard.

we had lined the bottom of our "grill" with some industrial aluminum foil and started 3 or 4 bags of charcoal right in the center. before we took our lil' gal out to the grill we raked the hot coals into the corners so she would roast over indirect heat.

every 30 minutes or so we would mop her with more mojo and every hour or two we would flip her. we continued to add charcoal as we needed it and i think we used about 9 bags. my mom picked up some buns and i made my standard carolina bbq sauce and we feasted in the late afternoon.

this is our second pig roast and i must say the butterflied/cuban inspired method was far superior to the standard rotating spit (and it was free while a spit rental was $110!). it seemed easier to manage and in my opinion roasted much better as there was more surface area over the smoky coals.

super-mega-ultra memorial day weekend pig roast blowout = success!

in honor of our nation's fallen service men and women - a whole pig!

2010-05-28T08:29:00.002-04:00

nothing says, "thanks for taking one for the team!" like roasting a whole pig. so, this weekend in honor of memorial day we're doing just that. i'm picking up the 150 lb. porker later today and marinating it overnight in a cuban-style mojo. we'll be roasting it tomorrow over charcoal in a homemade
cinder block/rebar/fence contraption.

enjoy your holiday weekend!

i found her trail in memphis, but she just walked up the block....

2010-05-18T19:26:00.022-04:00

memphis. what a city!!

good eats and great people - i LOVE southern hospitality!!

after driving through the night we got into the river city around 10AM and after checking into our hotel (not quite a flea bag but no memphis classic that's for sure) we hit the streets.

we headed to beale street to see what all the fuss was about and the closer we got the stronger the smell of smoky bbq got. we read that before 1pm we could get into tom lee park / the world championship bbq cooking contest for free. excellent!

we walked around in the hottest heat of the day and realized, to our dismay, that you can't do much of anything at the world championship bbq cooking contest without a V.I.P. pass. and there were no V.I.P. passes to be had. none. not for us anyways. we decided that if we want anything to do with this cook off in the future we're gonna need to register with our own
award winning bbq!

walking in the hottest heat of the day really makes ya' hungry. so we hit rendezvous. they don't officially open until 4pm but you can get ribs early on so we did. it's what they're famous for anyways. and they were pretty damn good. as we chugged yuenglings and licked that delightful dry rub off our fingers we couldn't help but notice that two ladies at the next table were washing down their ribs with chardonnay. chardonnay?!
fucking amateurs.

we started out our first full day in memphis at brother juniper's. i had oatmeal with blueberries and cheesy grits. mmm....grits.
i love, love, love grits.

breakfast was followed by a tour of the national civil rights museum. wow. it was one of the most powerful and moving places i have ever been in my life. the museum is actually housed within the lorraine hotel. all i can say is if you're ever in memphis you should definitely check it out. makes you think. and makes you wonder how anyone could possibly hate someone else so much simply for the color of their skin.

after the museum we tooled around the city some more and worked our appetites back up for some of gus's world famous hot and spicy fried chicken.

gus's fried chicken is world famous for good fucking reason. it. was. awesome! we started with some fried green tomatoes which were superb and then the chicken. oh man, the chicken. kp opted for the all white (breast and wing) and i like my meat dark so i went with the thigh and drumstick. the dinners came with baked beans and slaw and it was freakin' heaven on earth. some of the best fried chicken i've ever had. ever.

more tooling around. more beers. and then before we knew it it was time to eat again! for dinner we opted for pearl's oyster house and a dozen oysters on the half shell later and
all was right with the world.

all was even more right with the world when we ended the night (and started the very early morning) at wild bill's. the tunes and the people were fantastic and even the ragin' tin can headache i had saturday morning due to several budweiser 40oz was worth it.

we got a bit of a late start saturday morning (see ragin' tin can budweiser headache) but were still up in time to make it to the farmer's market.

i love farmer's markets.

we were really hungry by this point and though the tell-tale touristy signs of the arcade were blarin' and blastin' the draw of the mystery train was too great. we waited over 30 minutes for a table and 30 more minutes for our food and this would've been ok if the food was worth it but alas it was not. huge disappointment. major strike out. do not bother.

a disappointing breakfast was followed by two really kick ass pieces of music history - the stax museum of american soul music and sun studio.

we were thirsty after all the touring so we headed to boscos. the ed's porter was pretty tasty and if the desire for bbq hadn't been bubblin' up inside of us we probably would've stayed for
another beer.

with the civil rights museum still fresh in our minds we had beers with some locals friday afternoon before dinner. we were discussing bbq and i mentioned i had several places listed but wasn't sure what we should check out. when i mentioned corky's the local gal made a face and said, "it's owned by jews."

now, there are several ways to approach this situation. this blatant ignorance. this rampant anti-semitism. what i wanted to do was punch her in the throat but instead i said, "well i'm sure jews like bbq!" and then she suggested tops bbq where apparently there is nary a jew.

saturday, our last night in memphis, we decided to test the dumb broad's hypothesis. we embarked on the jews vs gentiles memphis bbq showdown.

first we hit tops.

it certainly looked promising. a lil' rickety and billowing smoke and it smelled pretty good. and it even said "best." in italics no less! we ordered the bbq plate (pulled pork, baked beans and slaw) and a cheeseburger to split. the pork was ok. nothing all that special and the sauce certainly left a lil' to be desired. the cheeseburger was very tasty but this is memphis for god's sakes! i wasn't there for the burgers!

it kinda reminded me of hamburger station. it was memphis bbq's answer to northeast ohio's cheapest, grittiest burger joint.

and this corner - the jews!*

corky's ribs and bbq was packed! to the gills! lucky for us we had perfect timing and were able to score two seats at the bar. with mugs of corky's own brew in hand we ordered the house specialty - a slab of dry ribs with (of course) baked beans and slaw. these ribs were fucking delicious. man oh man these ribs were good. sadly, we were half full of mediocre tops bbq so we barely made a dent in the slab. our significant others benefited greatly since we brought along a cooler and some freezer bags.

the jews won the jews vs gentiles memphis bbq showdown
HANDS DOWN. no question.

as for my final bbq opinion - memphis ribs were really tasty but it was no carolina pulled pork. and the sides were always beans and slaw. beans and slaw. there was no mac-n-cheese or collard greens to be seen!

one side dish i did love though was grits. grits are so delicious and the perfect accompaniment to dippy eggs and toast or a good omelet, hell they even compliment a bowl of oatmeal. what the hell is wrong with us up north? no real bbq and no grits.

i may have been born in the wrong region.

*note - i have no idea the race, ethnicity or religious background of the people at corky's.

long distance information, give me memphis tennessee

2010-05-12T08:30:00.002-04:00

in a few short hours i am heading to the bluff city. the home of the blues. the river city. a city near the top my bbq dream list - MEMPHIS, TN!

kp and i are loading up the matrix with raincoats and a cooler of starbucks double shots, turkey sandwiches and trail mix and embarking on an 11-hour drive to gorge ourselves on beers, bbq and the blues.

the lil' notebook that travels with me to far-flung destinations has 2 pages devoted to bbq joints and fried chicken shacks.

man oh man. i can almost smell the hickory smoke....

shakshuka? why not? it's friday!

2010-04-24T22:49:00.010-04:00

i had never heard of shakshuka before but smitten kitchen sure made it look good. so good in fact that i thought, "what the heck? it's friday night - i'll give it a whirl!"

i had everything on hand so after a thrilling happy hour at laundry 101 (stupid busted ass washer. at least i could enjoy a stone levitation ale while i washed, dried and folded.) i headed home to take on the shakshuka.

i started off with some jalapenos and onions.

while those were cooking i sliced up some garlic cloves and sipped on some fat bastard pinot noir.

once the onions were soft and brown i added the garlic along with some cumin, paprika and a lil' crushed red pepper.

i squished up the whole tomatoes and added them to the mix. i let this simmer for about 30 minutes or so and then added the eggs. i covered the pot and the eggs cooked for just about 5 minutes.

i didn't do very well adding the eggs. you're supposed to spread them out on the surface and i kinda just plopped mine in. lesson learned here. next time, greater surface area with the eggs.

i served this with some chopped parsley and feta cheese and some warm, crusty french bread for dipping. mmm. delicious. and something totally new to me. it's in the arsenal!

what would i want to eat if i had just risen from the dead?

2010-04-17T12:27:00.008-04:00

for me, nothing says "welcome back jesus!" like spareribs.

for mike's family's easter dinner i decided to take some spareribs in addition to the hundreds of sauerkraut balls i made with his mom, aunt and cousin.

i brushed some bbq sauce on the ribs and then rubbed 'em down with some cayenne, brown sugar and spices.

i put the ribs on wire baking racks on a foil lined cookie sheets.

these babies slow cooked in a 300 degree oven for like 4 hours. maybe 5.

happy easter jesus! welcome back!

french fries!

2010-04-08T21:53:00.004-04:00

real, homemade french fries are sooooo good. so bad for you though. and they're also a bit of work and messy. i make oven fries quite a bit but sometimes you just need fries. real fries. the other night we needed real fries.

i sliced up two large russet potatoes (skins on) and then soaked the fries in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes to suck out some of the starch. while those were soaking i put some canola oil in my single-woman's dutch oven and heated it over medium low heat to about 250 degrees.

i drained the potatoes on a towel and dried them. once the oil was ready i fried them in batches for about ten minutes. you don't want to cook them through at this point. the key to good fries is frying 'em twice. after the first fry drain them on a wire rack over a cookie sheet.

while they're draining crank up the heat to medium high and bring the oil up to about 350 degrees.

once the oil is ready, fry them in batches until they are nice and golden brown and drain them on your wire rack.

mmmm!!

spring (and the smell of meat) is in the air!

2010-04-03T18:52:00.010-04:00

the perfect accompaniment to sunshine is the scent of searing meat wafting through the air. mmm...steaks.

i seasoned these ribeyes with some salt and pepper and while they were coming up to room temperature i started on my kale.

kale is probably my very favorite green. well, maybe collard greens but kale is a close second. i use it in soups a lot. i like to roast it and i really, really like to braise it.

i started with some shallots in a lil' butter and canola oil.

then i tore up the kale and threw that in and tossed it with the shallots.

after just a minute or so i added about a 1/4 cup veggie stock and some salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. this braised for about 20 minutes or so.

the steaks went on the grill for just about 5 minutes per side.

mmm....

i let these rest while the kale finished braising and the potato in the microwave finished baking. we sat out on the front porch to enjoy this spring feast!

everybody's workin' for/on the weekend!

2010-03-31T22:24:00.008-04:00

i am becoming the side work queen. i guess this is because my real job is so low paying that i am forced to supplement if i want a living wage. sometimes i bake or cook for co-workers. i also like to think i can cater. and now it appears i've resorted to
scrubbing toilets.

saturday kp and i filled up on creme brulee french toast and duck fat potatoes and headed over to my dad's to clean for him. and it's not just my dad that lives there. it is also my 22 year-old-brother and 21-year-old cousin. it is like the supreme bachelor pad and it contained some serious man filth.

luckily the fridge was stocked with high life and the champagne of beers fueled us through 5 1/2 hours of sweeping, scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming. it is a workin' woman's beer after all.

by the time we were done i was exhausted, starving and half drunk. we had roughly 30 minutes until duma's closed and i had a cool $75 burnin' a hole in my pocket. i drove 80 mph and arrived with about 8 minutes to spare.

they were starting to unload the coolers and i had to be quick. $5 pork roast? don't mind if i do! i also snagged two yams and a big yellow onion.

when i got home i had mike fire up the coals on my lil' marc's grill and i got to workin' on my meat. hehe.

i rubbed down my roast with some dijon mustard and then covered it in a blend of cumin seeds, chili powder, pepper, dried oregano, dried parsley and salt. once the coals were ready (partial-indirect heat and some soaked hickory chips) the roast went on and i took a much needed power shower.

once i was all fresh 'n clean i started working on some sides. i cut my yams up into fries and parboiled 'em for just about 5 minutes. i hate waiting on raw potatoes to roast. takes freakin' forever.

then i drained them and dumped them out onto a towel to dry. while those were drying i cut up that big yellow onion into lil' slices and tossed them with some olive oil, salt, pepper and panko bread crumbs.

i put the yam fries on a cookie sheet and drizzled 'em with a lil' olive oil and some of my leftover pork spice. this all went in the oven to roast.

when those were about done and the pork was resting i threw a bag of those steamable veggies in the microwave. hey! i just cleaned up mega-man-filth all day and was even drunker by this time due to some red wine. no time or energy to cut fresh veggies. plus we didn't have any anyways.

mmm! a delightful saturday night spread!

i really liked the crispy roasted onions over the pork. mmm.

doe. a deer. a female deer.

2010-03-27T23:06:00.010-04:00

so i read the omnivore's dilemma a while ago and it was the final push i needed for local meats. i was already trying to buy most of meat at the local meat market and michael pollan really just knocked it home.

now, i only buy meat at the farmer's market or dumas. it turns out that beef and pork are easy to come by but chicken - fucking chicken - is tough. so tough in fact that since january one i've only bought/cooked it twice. i was lucky enough to snag a whole bird from a friend and i also picked up some
frozen thighs at the market.

so when mike said, "you should make the chicken coconut stuff again" (aka chicken and basil coconut curry over rice) i knew that i would need to adapt it. make it work with the what
we had in the freezer.

and what we have in the freezer is deer. venison if you're fancy.

venison coconut curry it was!

back when i took third place at the library cook-off i got a pretty kick ass penzey's curry spice box. nice.

i mixed together some garam masala and some hot curry with a lil' veggie stock to make a paste and i set it aside.

i snagged a tenderloin from the freezer and cut it into medallions. i seasoned them with a lil' salt and pepper and seared 'em off in a hot skillet and removed them to a plate.

i added some chopped broccoli, red pepper, shallot, mushrooms and scallions to the skillet, cooked it for a minute and added my curry paste. i cooked it for another minute or so and then poured in a can of coconut milk and added some veggie stock.

once it thickened up i added the seared venison and some fresh basil. mmm.

i served this over rice and it was delicious!

i don't need no stinkin' fowl.

a lil' of this. a lil' of that.

2010-03-14T21:10:00.023-04:00

i don't really have much to say. on the edge of my seat like everyone else in anticipation of spring. in the meantime, i continue to cook and eat.

valentine's day was lamb shanks with gremolata (which is freakin' delicious by the way on like everything. made it like 5 times since.), white beans and kale, brussel sprouts with pecans and creme brulee.

thank you shaker heights indoor market.

this eventually became the creme brulee. look at those yolks!

making and freezing stock is like my new saturday morning hobby. thanks to high mill park for this fantastic batch of chicken stock!

a co-worker asked if i could make a pie for her.
and i said, "my pleasure!"

and a friend asked me if i could make some bbq sauce for her to take to a party. and i said, "i'd love to!"

and for sunday family dinner my culinary co-conspirator and i looked to julia for inspiration. we kicked it old school and tackled duck l'orange.

*disclaimer - duck l'orange enhanced with chicken leg l'orange. it was a small duck and according to my co-conspirator,
"we have big appetites."

all work and no play makes me glad it's time for the library cook off!

2010-02-21T14:21:00.005-05:00

once again it was president's day observed at the university and that means only one thing - library cook-off! woohoo!

this year we had to make something out of jane snow's latest cookbook.

i flipped through the pages and then a line jumped from the pages and struck a cord, "the best barbecue in the world is the pork barbecue in the back hills and piney woods of the carolinas."

yes jane! yes!

further examination revealed 7 hours of cook time. hmmm. looks like i would have to take monday off.

saturday morning we hit the indoor winter market in shaker square for the pork and i found a kick ass 5 lb. bone-in shoulder from new creation farm. perfect!

jane's version of carolina bbq called for a dry rub of the usual suspects on the pork followed by 4 hours indirect grilling over coals and hickory followed by 3 more hours in a 300 degree oven.

we had to start early.

my trusty partner in pork readied the coals.

and i readied the meat.

and then we waited.

look at that beautiful smokey crust! my word. a crowning achievement for my kick ass marc's grill.

i wrapped the shoulder up tight in foil and roasted it in the oven for 3 more hours while i made my favorite vinegary-mustardy bbq sauce.

this beauty took home third place which got me a sweet curry gift box!

kick ass!

who cares about the super bowl? what have you got to eat?

2010-02-13T16:59:00.005-05:00

for super bowl sunday i wanted a dish that would impress. something that football fans as well as fairweather fans (like myself) would gobble up.

hmmm.....i got it! sauerkraut balls!

my aunt makes THE BEST sauerkraut balls. THE. BEST.

she is known for them and her family recipe is a highly coveted. thankfully, she likes me and was willing to share.

i thought these were going to be a lot of work. and 5+ hours of cooking, rolling, dredging, breading and frying later - my suspicions were confirmed.

this is a two day process. on day one you cook your pork and onions and garlic and you mix it with parsley and spices. then it has to chill over night.

day two is the rolling, dredging, breading and frying.

i set up my station and went to town. i rolled and i dredged and i breaded and i fried. again and again and again and again.

these were a MONSTER hit. delicious!! worth all of the work.

though, i must admit these will not be a regular in my repertoire. these are special occasion only! and next time i'm recruiting an assistant!

stretchin' my tummy to the austin city limits!

2009-08-18T20:10:00.015-04:00

last week marked the yearly nerdy nerd fest i always attend - the society of american archivists annual meeting.

every year we nerds descend upon a random US city to discuss such pressing issues as EAD, mass digitization, archives and web 2.0 capabilities, issues surrounding photographs and film and preservation in general.

throw in a healthy dose of eye glasses, knitting and cat stories and there you have it - an annual meeting of archivists.

i'll be honest - i really dig all that archivist mumbo jumbo. i like hearing what other archives are doing cuz some of 'em have big budgets and a staff that actually adheres to archival best practice.

some repositories are just doing amazing, amazing things - like the brooklyn museum's flickr page and the archives of american art's online collections (digitization of entire manuscript collections! incredible!) and i thought this was a pretty bitchin' idea too!!

and of course, the next best things to all of that is eating and exploring in a new city! i'll be honest, i may like that better that the archivist stuff. but just a lil'.

i've been to texas but that was year's ago and it wasn't austin, which is apparently the coolest, least texan city in texas. and you know what they are famous for in texas? you guessed it....BBQ! brisket to be specific.

friends - you know my heart lies in the mustard and vinegary pulled pork of the carolinas but i also heard that nowhere, NOWHERE, does brisket like texas and i was ready to see what all of the hype was about.

upon arrival in austin i was very hungry and with temperatures over 90 with the sun setting - very, very thirsty.

i hit lamberts.

happy hour meant half off beers and all food on the bar menu. woohoo!

i had a fireman's #4, the broiled gulf oysters (good but raw on the beach is WAY better) and the brisket sammich. it was pretty fuckin' good. (and it was only $15!!) oh, and these guys were playn' - the moonhangers.

(insert contextual clue - i was in austin for 4 1/2 days. i didn't eat bbq every single meal but i did have three incredible bbq experiences that were certainly worth noting.)

so, i rented a bike for 24 hours. it was at least 100 degrees every day and walking miles and miles and miles in that kind of heat was unappealing (and buses are on a schedule AND cost money!). instead i decided to bike miles and miles and miles. it was still oppressive but i could cover more ground in less time.

and because i walked all the way to the bike shop i stumbled across this place.

the green mesquite.

ok, i lied. i didn't stumble upon this place. i am a librarian for christ's sakes. and at a librarian's conference no less. i had 2 pages in my notebook dedicated to bbq joints and other points of interest - addresses, telephone numbers, pros and cons provided by local yelpers.

i pride myself in being an educated traveler (and a gigantic nerd). i don't have to hit all of the spots but i list them all over the city anyways and i guess if i stumble across 'em i might as well stop in.

i had to go for the brisket sandwich.

$3.99 plus a couple of bucks for a dos equis on draft.
man, i like texas.

this was so good. smoked meat on cheap white bread. just a lil' sauce. mmm!

and the servers were wearing shirts that said, "horrifying vegetarians since 1988." that made me chuckle while i stuffed my face with brisket.

and then i had a life changing experience.

i went to the salt lick.

i cannot even begin to explain this place and their amazing bbq. if i believed in a god he was the man behind this grill. this was a fuckin' religious experience. the food, the people, the wooden tables and the iced tea. heaven. better than heaven.

they serve 4 kinds of meat - brisket, pork ribs, sausage and turkey. you can get a plate with 3 meats along with beans, potato salad and cole slaw.

here it is. man oh man. there are no words.

my fellow bbq enthusiast (she drove over from houston to experience the salt lick with me) and i stuffed ourselves to the gills. i sliced up the jalapeno and mixed it into my beans. i ripped off a hunk of bread and made a brisket sammich.

they gave us extra sauce in those little metal pitchers that diners use to serve tea or syrup for pete's sakes!

and of course we had to get dessert! think i'm gonna go all the way to driftwood, texas and not order the peach cobbler with ice cream?

and look at this.

just. look. at. this.

the salt lick has a really cool history and it is one of only a handful of open pit bbq joints left in texas.

that pit, just a few feet from where i ate my dinner, is the most beautiful things these eyes have ever seen.

i saw other sights in austin. the hike and bike trail around the lake is beautiful. the bats were amazing and barton springs was incredibly refreshing. i tooled around the state capital and the university of texas. i had a beer at the driskell and one day i fully intend on returning to austin and actually shacking up there. and of course i made my way up and down 6th sampling beers, margaritas and live music.

austin, texas fucking rules and i can't wait to go back. good people, good bbq, and lonestar for a mere $5.79 a 6-pack.

keep austin weird indeed.

soooooooooooey!

2009-07-29T15:12:00.002-04:00

here she is. we named her sooey. she was 82 pounds of delicious!

we put her on the hot coals around 7:00 am and basted her all day with a mop sauce of cider vinegar, thinly sliced onions and jalapenos, dry mustard and brown sugar. by 6:00 pm our guests were stuffed to the gills and shouting our praises.

woohoo!

how are you celebrating our nation's independence?

2009-06-29T23:09:00.002-04:00

i'm going whole hog.

that's right. an entire pig. slow roasted. all day on a spit. rubbed down and then mopped all day with a vinegary sauce.
buns optional.

back to broken

2009-06-10T21:38:00.002-04:00

sad news for the 2 people out there who read my blog. i took my new camera to nag's head with me last month in order to document good friends, good drinks, good food and good times and the damn thing busted on me.

yep, "lens error" is all i'm getting.

what is it with me and cameras at the beach? camera I died in delaware in october and camera II dies in north carolina in may.

DAMN!!

i didn't mistreat it. i was careful to keep it packed up in my lil' bag while i was actually on the beach to avoid sand infiltration. still, it breaks and once again this blog is image-less and without photos it just isn't the same.

i'm not as excited to tell you about the cream puffs that are cooling on wire racks on my kitchen counter cuz i can't show them to you. it's not as sweet to talk about the different cupcakes and butter cream icings kp and i have tried out in the last week cuz i can't show them to you! (fyi - kp and i got booked to bake someone's wedding cake. how sweet is that? kick ass!)

and the pan seared lamb chop, baked sweet potato and corn on the cob i had for dinner? barely worth mentioning since you can't see it! (although, i guess you're not missing much. i'll admit that the chop was a smidge overcooked).

in any case, i am camera-less once again. and i don't think one is gonna drop outta the sky like last time (thanks aunt deb - sorry i broke your gift) so until i learn how to upload photos from my crappy camera phone or until my wealthy benefactor finally shows up i guess i'm on a bit of a hiatus.

i am erratic after all.

movin' on up!

2009-05-12T18:25:00.007-04:00

a few weeks ago i whipped out the ol' bucket grill for a twin peaks feast of bbq chicken and sausages. i love that grill. i bought it for $10 at world market two summers ago and that lil' guy has treated me right. sure, it's small but it did the trick.
besides, i'm no size queen.

i would've used the bucket this summer too if i hadn't run across the deal of the century at marc's the other day.

for a mere $20 i got this gem.

here she is gettin' nice and warm for that kick ass pork loin i was about to grill!

i picked up two sweet potatoes and the loin at duma's for only $5! i marinated the loin in honey, soy sauce and some minced garlic while i putzed around my apartment cleaning and doing laundry.

i put the coals on the sides and left the middle of the grill coal-free so the loin wouldn't cook on direct heat.

i basted the loin a few times with the leftover marinade and left that baby alone for about an hour. once it reached 160 degrees i took it off the grill and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

while my loin was resting i steamed some brussel sprouts and added a lil' butter, salt and pepper to the sweet potatoes.

man oh man. this was DELICIOUS!

the pork was soooooo juicy and so tender i barely needed a knife. killer!

man, this grill is so sweet. i'm going to be grillin' and cookin' out all summer long!

sprucin' up an old standby

2009-04-30T20:30:00.010-04:00

after lifting weights with the martini and spending 30 minutes on the treadmill i was hungry. lucky for me our special collections librarian hooked me up with a big, beautiful tomato. she said it was a "hot house" (which most are this time of year) but she claimed her mother-in-law brought it from some greenhouse in canada and it was the best "hot house" around.

it did look nice. and it smelled pretty good.

how about a blt?!

first things first - a beer. i'd worked up quite a thirst and brooklyn was there to quench it. today i went with the lager. tasty.

next - the bread. lucky for me i picked up these lil' ciabatta loaves at aldi's for like $1.50. i made chicken salad on sunday night and have been eating it on these mini loaves all week. perfect sammich size. yum!

you bake 'em in a 425 degree oven for like 8 minutes and then they are nice and crusty and yummy.

i also decided i'd roast a few potato wedges. i seasoned them with lawry's season salt and some lemon pepper and then i tossed 'em with some olive oil.

notice that perfect potato alignment? that's called neuroticism.

i cooked my bacon on my stove top cast iron grill and then drained it on paper towels. with nice crispy bacon, a crusty piece of ciabatta and chopped veggies it was time to assemble.

i only like a teeny bit of mayo. whenever i order blt's i always get the mayo on the side. you just need such a small amount - no gross slatherin' here.

next comes the lettuce. usually i'd like a whole leaf but i'd already chopped up my romaine for my lunch salads so chopped it was.

then the bacon.

then to mix things up a bit i added some slices of avocado. mmmm....avocado.

last but not least - the canadian tomato.

and here's my dinner.

who killed laura palmer?! not my bbq chicken!

2009-04-29T18:49:00.008-04:00

first - a disclaimer. i noticed it's been a whole month since i posted last. hence the name, ERRATIC epicurean!

for the last year or so a group of friends and i have been getting together to eat (everyone brings something tasty) and watch twin peaks. you are correct in assuming that since it's taken us over a year to watch a mere two seasons of 1990s television that we were a lil' erratic with our get-togethers.

we got together a few weeks ago to finish up and in honor of the sunshine and the season finale i thought i'd get out my lil' bucket grill.

i stopped by difeo's after work to pick up some whole chicken legs and then some good lookin' sausages wooed me. i picked up some hot italian sausage, some boudin sausage, and some turkey sausage (for the shitetarian of course!).

i already had some of my kick ass bbq sauce in the fridge so when i got home i rinsed and dried the chicken with some paper towels. i seasoned the legs liberally with salt and pepper and then roasted them in the oven on a wire rack over a cookie sheet until they were just about done.

why did i roast them in the oven and not just slap 'em on the grill? you'll see. it's a space issue.

while the chicken was roasting i lit the coals. once those were nice and hot and gray i started my sausages.

oops. maybe a lil' too hot for those lil' turkey links!

the turkey sausages were done pretty quickly so i took them off the grill and wrapped them in foil. the larger links took just a bit longer.

mmm. look at those babies. soooooo goooood.

with the sausages cooked and wrapped in foil it was time to start bbq'ing the chicken. i had 6 chicken legs total but due to my space constraints i had to bbq in batches.

i like to brush the chicken with bbq sauce, let 'em sizzle just about 20-30 seconds and then flip and brush and flip and brush and flip and brush until the skin is nice and crispy and and the sauce is caramelized.

here they are when they were just about finished.

YUM! bbq chicken legs are one of my all time favorite foods to grill. i'll be eating this many more times as the weather turns warm.

as for twin peaks...it did not disappoint. what an ending!

beef brisket part 2

2009-03-29T17:08:00.009-04:00

toot! toot! mutha f'n toot!

i kicked a beef brisket's ass last night!

i let that baby marinate, wrapped up tightly in foil, for almost 2 days before sticking it in a 300 degree oven at 11:00 am on saturday morning. i didn't even peek in or loosen up the foil. i just stuck it in the oven.

it's a good thing i didn't have to do too much prep work. ring of fire (a redonkulous drinking game), dancing at thursday's and a shot of (bad) tequila in honor of a friend's birthday put a real hurtin' on me so most of saturday was spent on my couch watching pbs.

about 5:00 i finally drug my ass off the couch (dinner was scheduled for 7:30) and got started. first i peeked in at my brisket.

this is after 6 totally unattended hours.

my first side dish was mk's baked beans. first things first - i had to fry up some bacon.

once the bacon was crisp i drained it on paper towels, let it cool and then crumbled it. i poured out the drippings and browned 1/2 a chopped onion and a pound of ground chuck. i drained the beef and in a big mixing bowl added the beef, the bacon, butter beans, kidney beans, pork 'n beans and
some ketchup, brown sugar and spices.

i poured all of that into a casserole dish and it baked for about an hour.

i also decided to roast some potato wedges and make some candied carrots. i candied our only vegetable! ha!

i cut the potatoes into wedges and tossed them with olive oil, lemon pepper and sea salt. i just roasted these on a big cookie sheet.

while i was slicing the carrots i melted about 3-4 tablespoons of butter in my skillet. once it was starting to brown i added the carrots and a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar. the carrots cooked over medium heat until they were nice and caramelized. mmmm.

i also whipped up some of my kick ass bbq sauce. this sauce seriously rules. i get a ton of compliments on it. it is worlds away from that sugary sweet ketchup based stuff i grew up with. ick.

the vinegar and mustard gives this sauce real tang and the cayenne is the perfect kick. it's good on anything. delish!

as you can tell from the photograph the brisket was very fatty. roasting it fat side up lets all that goodness soak into the meat but i certainly don't wanna put it on a sandwich!

since the meat was so tender the fat just pulled off with a knife and fork. pioneer woman says to put the meat back into the sauce once you cut the fat off and slice it up but that was a no go. my marinade cooked down pretty far and it was too thick and sticky to put the meat back in. instead i shredded the meat and served it on a platter with the bbq sauce on the side.

here's the whole spread.

aNw brought a really good salad which was very refreshing considering the meat loaded, buttery, saucey mania we were indulging in.

it was so good that towards the end of the evening i walked into the kitchen and saw some peeps dipping the meat right into the sauce. ha!

i did it too though and damn....it was good.

brisket conquered!

toot! toot!

klopek? what is that slavic? NO!

2009-03-28T11:40:00.003-04:00

the tour de lenten fish fries continued last night with a trip to the slovak j club. wow. delicious. i didn't think the poles could be beat but the slav's can really fry!

i went with the fried shrimp cuz i was feeling classy however the fried perch is all you can eat and a snagged a lil' piece for stormin' norman. delicious.

for $7 each we got two big baskets of bread (VERY delicious - the best bread we've had so far according to kp) and i had coleslaw and pierogies for my sides. oh man. the pierogies were so delicious. so very delicious.

the slavs definitely know what the fuck is up with pierogies.

i washed down this fine meal with a $2 labbats. delightful.

the slovak j club gets an A+++!

next friday - i'm not sure yet where we'll end up but the shriners are on our list.

beef brisket part 1

2009-03-26T22:46:00.008-04:00

my brother said he wanted to hang out on saturday. we were planning on getting some super good fish and making homemade sushi but then that plan fell through. i'd been pondering what i could make for him and a few other family members and friends instead when i was inspired by paul lukas's meat bracket.

a friend sent me that link and said, "a tournament bracket you might care about." boy was he right! at first i thought i'd try my hand at the competition favorite - standing rib roast. then i found out how much standing rib roast costs (EGADS!) so i needed an alternative plan.

beef was still on the brain though so i consulted a few of my favorite cooking/recipe websites and blogs and came across a pioneer woman recipe i'd looked at many times before -
beef brisket.

if you know me at all then you know i live (and would die most likely) for good bbq. good smoked brisket is sooooooooooooo good. so, so, so good. but i don't have a smoker. or any other fancy equipment and according to the pioneer woman i don't need one for good brisket.

so, where would i get a big ol' slab of brisket...hmmm..... a while back another friend told me about kirbie's family meats in stow but i hadn't had a chance to get out there yet. this was my chance! i called 'em and they confirmed that they did in fact have beef brisket and lots of it.

i headed there straight from work.

when i got there i saw a bunch of small pieces of trimmed brisket (intended for corned beef i'm sure) in the case for $5.99/lb. what? that wouldn't do at all.

i said, "i need a big ol' slab with lots of fat on it. you got that?" and of course, because kirbie's family meats is a small, family run, locally owned butcher and specialty shop they did. he brought out a big ol' slab and said, "it's $2.50 per pound. this one is 12 1/2 pounds."

i said, "i'll take it!" and here it is.

here are all the fixin's for pioneer woman's marinade.

i mixed all of that (beef consomme, lemon juice, soy sauce, liquid smoke and chopped garlic) together and then added the brisket to the giganto roasting pan i bought a few years back when i hosted thanksgiving.

and again.

then i covered that baby good and tight with a bunch of foil.

i stuck this in the fridge and it's gonna stay there for the next 36 hours.

stay tuned for part 2.

another holiday to cook for. i love it!

2009-03-22T21:34:00.018-04:00

the tour de lenten fish fries 09 continued with a trip to the polish american citizen's club last friday (well, two fridays ago by now).

this one had been talked up quite a bit by my good friend aNw. i trust aNw so i knew we were in for somethin' special....and oh man was it ever special!

first of all, i appreciate any place where beers are $2 and i appreciated this place even more since the bartender was the oldest polish woman i've ever seen.

for roughly $13 i ate one of the best fried fish dinners of my life. we had a large crew for this round - nine people to be exact but the poles hooked us up with a large table in the back and there wasn't a disappointed one among us.

now, you may be thinking $13 is a lot but let me tell you what the poles served up. we got a few baskets of kick ass fresh bread and also a nice size salad. i opted for the 1/2 perch & 1/2 shrimp with fries. i got about 4 or 5 small pieces of fried perch and about a half dozen fried shrimp. it was glorious. GLORIOUS.

and the best part - the poles host a fried fish dinner every single friday of the year. they don't need no stinkin' lent for good eats! polish american citizen's club gets an A++ for sure! they blew the eagles and irish right outta the water.

sadly, this past friday i had to miss a day of the tour. i think the crew - good friends that they are - decided to return to the polish american club so that i wouldn't miss anything. bless them. i think this week we'll be checking out the slovak club so stay tuned.

in other news - last tuesday was st. patrick's day. i decided to celebrate with good friends, good eats and good beer not assholes, bad bar eggs and shitty green beer.

(ps. i ripped that cartoon from the viper. i suppose i can give credit where credit is due.)

sunday night i made the soda bread.

here are some of my supplies - the dry ingredients if you will.

(notice those super cute and sturdy measuring spoons? those were the prize for my third place finish in the library soup cook-off.)

here is me adding the wet ingredients (buttermilk & eggs) to the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & baking soda).

and here's some of the good stuff. melted butter. mmm!

and because i'm crazy i baked 5 loaves.

once these were done (you can check for doneness by popping them out of the pan and "knocking" on the bottom of the loaf. if it makes a thud it's done) i let them cool on a wire wrack and then wrapped them up tight in plastic wrap.

one went to the martini's house for his annual "state of grace" party. one went to aNw. why? she has a bun in the oven so i feel compelled to bake/cook things for her and her bun.
one loaf went to work with me to buy the praise of my co-workers, one loaf was served with some kick ass irish stew and the fifth one was just for kicks.

traditional irish stew is made with lamb but lamb is expensive and i am broke. plus i had two pounds of stew beef in my fridge that i got from my dad. free beef or costly lamb? hmmm....

first i chopped up all my veggies - potatoes, onions, carrots and parsnips.

then i layered the veggies and the beef in my kick ass new dutch oven (which is definitely the best investment i've made in quite some time!) and seasoned it with some salt, pepper and a couple of bay leaves.

then i added the guinness. mmmm....guinness.

because i'm poor and i wanted to drink more of the guinness than i was willing to put in the stew i finished it off with a lil' beef stock.

i put the lid on and let this simmer over low heat for about 2 hours.

a while back my fellow blogger, xenia inquired about good coleslaw.

here is what i came up with.

first, you chop up some cabbage. i used red and green cuz it looks pretty.

then i added a few heaping tablespoons of sugar and some cider vinegar.

then i realized that i forgot to add the carrots so i julienned a couple of those and added them to the mix. i also added about a tablespoon of keith's homemade hot vinegar just for a lil' extra zip.

i covered the slaw with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge so the cabbage could soak up all the goodness. yum!

when my friend mk and i were in ireland a few years ago we ate at a lil' pub that served their stew over mashed potatoes. i thought that was one of the best ideas ever in the world so i did i decided to do it myself.

i peeled and boiled the taters and then smashed 'em with some butter, chopped green onions, salt, pepper, a lil' milk and a couple of tablespoons of cream cheese.

i sliced one of my loaves of soda bread and invited in the crowd.

some friends and i gobbled up this goodness and slugged down a few beers and enjoyed our st. patrick's day.

maybe it was the stew or the beers or the beginnings of "darby o'gill and the little people" or gasp! dare i say the fact that we are all growing up but the party dispersed rather early.

however, we all slept with full bellies and we all made it to work on time the next day without feeling like death.

happy st. patrick's day!

hangover soup

2009-03-09T21:53:00.006-04:00

saturday was my brother's birthday. we started out not-so-slow with sushi and sake and then headed out for an evening of unbridled partying. the time change and one more hour at the bar didn't hurt anything either.

i had a great time and went all night. but sunday i felt like death.

and i was starving.

so i made hangover soup (aka potato and leek soup) a la julia.

this is probably one of the easiest and most delicious soups to make. it's fancy name is potage parmentier and i've made it before.

it was perfect for the amount of energy i was willing to expel and for the ingredients i had in my fridge.

first - i cut up some potatoes. any kind. i leave the skins on cuz i think they taste delicious.

then i cut up some leeks.

then i put the veggies in a pot with water and salt.

this simmer for about 40 minutes or so until the potatoes are tender. i mashed it all up with a potato masher and put in about a tablespoon of butter.

yum. yum. yum.

and i only had to leave the couch for like 15 minutes.

tour de lenten fish fry 2009

2009-03-07T07:52:00.006-05:00

i am not catholic and i certainly did not give up anything for lent. i do LOVE fish fries though so some friends and i are touring the local clubs and bars and trying to eat as much fried fish as possible in the next few weeks.

churches are out as they do not serve beer but lil' ethnic clubs and VFWs are right up our alley!

last friday we tried out the fraternal order of eagles medina aerie #2224 because stormin' norman's dad is a member.
and a past president!

the eagles charged $9 and did it all-you-can-eat buffet style. delicious! there was a lil' salad bar, breaded (not battered) cod fillets, fries, cheesy potatoes, green beans (eh, i can always pass on canned green bean. blegh.), bread and chocolate pudding.

good eats (and a lot of 'em!), cheap beer and fantastic conversation with stormin' norman's folks leads me to grant the eagles high marks. a B+ for the eagles!!

last night the crew tried out the ancient order of the hibernians on brown street in akron. a few of my friends have become members and really have been talkin' this joint up.
i was stoked to give it a whirl.

for $7 you got one piece of fried cod and two sides - i went with cole slaw (nice and vinegary - none of the mayonnaise-y shit. blegh!) and mac-n-cheese (delish! but such a teeny lil' bowl of it). we each got a lil' ticket and college girls came along and took 'em back to the kitchen.

and then we fell of the radar apparently. luckily the $3.25 guinness kept my hunger at bay. when the food finally came out (an hour and a half later!) it was pretty darn tasty. however, the service was so poor and the set up so wobberjawed that i cannot in good faith give them marks as high as the eagles.

i think the hibernians were a fine crowd - just very unorganized and ill equipped in the kitchen (order some more fryers hibernians!). i'd love to go there for cheap beers but i don't think another fish fry is in my future.

good friends and guinness on draft are definite bonuses and helped the score however it wasn't enough to overcome an hour and a half wait for one piece of cod. the hibernians get a C+.

next week the polish american club is on the agenda.
i've heard a lot about this place. it's a lil' more pricey ($9.25-$12.75) but their menu seems pretty fancy - perch, orange roughy, scallops and shrimp!

i'll report back.

oh, and if you're interested in local akron fish fries check out this list that the beacon printed on ash wednesday.

and the tour continues......

some things never get old

2009-03-02T14:55:00.016-05:00

i am super close with my two brothers and two cousins. i was the only girl growing up but the five of us are thick as thieves - probably due to the fact we spent damn near every waking moment together! for birthdays i like to host a cousin's dinner at my place and make a big spread. last friday was my cousin's birthday and then my brother's is this coming saturday so i figured i could kill two birds with one stone. we decided to expand the guest list a lil' and we moved the location to my cousins' in order to accommodate the crowd.

saturday my cousin bill and i hit the west side market for provisions.

then i took him out to lunch for his birthday. we tried out le petit triangle - a lil' french cafe in ohio city. we tried escargot which i thought were delicious. (bill rated them as a B but later claimed, "that escargot escar-went right through me!" ha!) i ordered the croque madame (DELICIOUS!) and bill went with a smoked trout salad.

that evening i rocked out to my cousin and brother aka one half of the ravenna arsenal and managed to work up quite an appetite for sunday family dinner. (i believe this near starvation is classified as "hangover hungry.")

so the menu. i would need some hearty eats to fill up this crowd. i decided to go with a family favorite which you have seen before - cioppino and some gumbo. a nice caesar salad and some crusty french bread would round it out.

i decided to go with the gumbo shop's recipe for chicken and andouille gumbo (i went there when i was in new orleans a few years ago and i remember that it was tops!) and pioneer woman's caesar salad.

first things first - the roux. 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup vegetable oil stirred continuously until it gets a deep, dark brown color.

here is it when i first started.

and here are my gumbo fixin's (with the exception of the okra which i had already fried and set aside).

and here is the roux again later.

in an ideal world i would have let this get even browner but i had time constraints. c'est la vie.

while i stirred and stirred and stirred the roux until my arm hurt my sous chefs worked on the appetizer - another family favorite a la pioneer women.

once the roux was as brown as i was gonna let it get i added the veggies - chopped onions, green peppers, red peppers, garlic and celery. this cooked in the roux until they were tender.

then i added a can of stewed tomatoes, the sauteed okra and the sliced andouille and cooked it for about 15 more minutes.

once that was lookin' good i added some fresh basil and some salt, pepper and cayenne. i also added the chicken stock. oh, the stock. i forgot. the very first thing i did before the roux and before cleaning all my seafood was to start the chicken stock.

i picked up a whole fryer at the market and had them hack it into 8 pieces. i covered the chicken with cold water in a large stock pot and simmered it for about 2 hours. i strained the liquid twice and then let the chicken cool on a plate. god bless my fabulous sous chef colleen who did the very dirty job of pulling all the chicken meat from the bone.

and here is my fabulous sous chef again chopping two onions for the cioppino.

so at this point the gumbo is simmering on the stove over low heat and it was time to start the cioppino.

i melted a stick of butter and then added two chopped onions, some minced garlic and a bunch of chopped parsley. once the onions were soft i added a big can of stewed tomatoes, a lil' tomato paste (thanks for the kick ass tip about paste removal aunt aggie!), the rest of my chicken stock, two bay leaves and a bottle of white wine. i stirred this all up and simmered it over low heat.

while my soups were simmering i started the caesar dressing. i showed up to the cousins' house sans appliances and inquired about a blender or a food processor. bill went to the attic to investigate and came back with a real gem. once it was cleaned up it worked like a champ.

so the dressing was 4 anchovies, two cloves of garlic, a few tablespoons of dijon mustard, a teaspoon of worcestershire, one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and the juice of a lemon.

the pioneer woman says to slowly pulse this mix but we learned that the ancient food processor only had one speed - super f'n fast. and it was loud. oh man was it loud! so i super f'n fast pulsed the ingredients and then after scraping the sides slowly drizzled in the olive oil while the processor was ragin'.

you're also supposed to add some grated parmesan to this but i forgot. oops.

i washed and chopped some romaine lettuce and used a vegetable peeler to shave some nice pieces of good parmesan onto the salad. i also added some croutons. (i totally cheated and bought them but i was overextended as it was and homemade croutons damn well could've thrown me into a tail spin!).

i forgot to take a picture when it was first assembled but here it is after we tore through it.

and here is the gumbo. i made rice to serve it over.

and here is the cioppino.

this was my crowning achievement of the night. my cousin dave looked skeptically into the pot and made some weird faces early on but by the end of the evening he admitted that although he never thought he'd be eating clams or mussels he was loving 'em! woohoo! another convert!

i asked aunt aggie to bring dessert and boy am i glad she did. you can tell we loved these fancy brownies by the fact that this platter was completely full only a few hours before. i even took some home in a sandwich bag!

another successful family dinner. cooking for my family is one of my very favorite things to do in the whole wide world and the fact that they all tried my homemade caesar dressing despite the fact of being totally grossed out by anchovies and some people were trying certain shellfish for the very first time in their lives and loved it - well, that just makes it all the better.

later on after it was just the five of us again - six counting mike who may as well be part of our crew - my brother kenny had the quote of the night, "you know, some shit just never gets old. like you guys!"

a classic french dish cooked to impress

2009-02-22T20:34:00.019-05:00

in my last post i mentioned the coq au vin. i realize it was kinda pointless to post that lil' blurb but the smell was just so kick ass and i was alone in my apartment and didn't have anyone else to share it with!

so now, here it is. another classic french dish attempted. another smashing success. (toot! toot!)

although i now own mastering the art of french cooking i decided to go with a recipe i found in bon apetit.

first things first. check out this kick ass new dutch oven i treated myself to.

although i adore my single woman's dutch oven (thanks what's for dinner!!) and have put it to good use it was time for an upgrade. i picked up this 5 3/4 quart chantal talavera at tj maxx. yes, le creuset is my dream and they even had some at tj maxx (marked WAY down from their original price) but i had to ask myself, why spend $120 when you can spend $50? someday i'll own a le creuset. just not yet.

so into the delightful new single woman but cookin' for a crowd's dutch oven went 4 whole chicken legs, chopped carrots, celery, onions, some fresh thyme and a couple of bay leaves.

then i added a bottle of cheap red wine to the mix.

then i stuck it in the fridge to marinate over night. look at those chocolate stouts. mmmmm.

here is something else sweet. a friend helped me set up a new bank account and as a promotion they offered $50 in free groceries. woohoo! i stocked up on some pantry essentials!

after marinating all night i took the dutch oven outta the fridge and let it come up to temperature on the counter before sticking it on a hot stove.

in the meantime i tackled the pearl onions. whew. what a pain in the neck! i boiled some water and dumped the onions in for about 2-3 minutes. then i drained them and dumped them right into a bowl of cold water. i cut off the root end and according to various sources the onions should just pop right out when you squeeze 'em. some popped right out. others did not. this took a few minutes.

next i quartered some 'shrooms.

i set aside the onions and the mushrooms and pulled the chicken out of the pot.

i patted the chicken dry with paper towels, seasoned them with a lil' salt and pepper and then set them aside. i put the dutch oven on the stove top over medium low heat to heat it through.

i sauteed the onions and mushrooms in a lil' butter over medium heat.

once they were tender (about 7 minutes or so) i took them out and then fried up my bacon.

once the bacon was brown i removed it from the pan, crumbled it up and added it to the bowl of 'shrooms and onions. then i wiped out my skillet and browned the chicken over medium-high heat.

this smelled SO good. really, really good.

once the chicken was nice and brown i added it back to the
pot o' goodness.

now it was time to just walk away and let it simmer uncovered.

here it is when it just started simmering.

and here it is again after about an hour and a half.

at this point i removed the chicken to a plate and drained the entire pot over a big bowl. i added the chicken and the liquid back to the single woman but cookin' for a crowd's dutch oven. what of the other trimmings? they went down the disposal. they left their flavors in the liquid and it was time for them to say goodbye.

i added the mushrooms, onions and crumbled bacon to the mix and warmed it through over medium heat.

then i packed it up and headed over to my dad's. my secret boyfriend eric ripert suggests serving coq au vin over noodles and julia and company suggest serving it with parsley potatoes and buttered peas. i decided to serve it over garlic smashed potatoes.

i roasted a bulb of garlic with a lil' olive oil and some salt and pepper for about 40 minutes or so. then i squeezed the cloves out of their skins and roughly chopped them.

i made pretty traditional smashed potatoes (butter, milk, salt and pepper) and then smashed in the chopped roasted garlic for that lil' something extra.

and here is my coq au vin over garlic mashed potatoes.

this was really, really good. the chicken just came right off the bone and we lapped up the sauce with a nice crusty hunk of french bread.

mmm. mmm. mmm.

man, french cooking is tops!!

wish you were here

2009-02-21T15:01:00.002-05:00

man oh man. i wish you all could smell the wonderful smells that have taken over my entire apartment. as i post this update a big pot of coq au vin is simmering on my stove.

it smells sooooooooooo good.

i am making it to take out to someone i love very much for a celebratory dinner.

i'll let you know how it turns out!

homecookin' for librarians

2009-02-16T23:04:00.016-05:00

every year the university library i work for hosts a chili and soup cook-off. last year i entered for the first time and served up my kale, chorizo & potato soup. i love that soup and i got a ton of compliments but apparently the namby pamby judges thought it was "too hot." ppppfffftttt!!!!

so this year i wanted to tone down the spice and serve up something a lil' more homestyle. some real homecookin' that would stick to the librarians' ribs.

i went with my grandma's tried and true ham pot pie. this is a time honored tradition in our family. any time there is some leftover ham my gma will make a big pot and the whole crew gathers and slurps it up.

last year i decided to start collecting family recipes so i asked gma for the ham pot pie recipe. she told me that there was no recipe and i should just come over and watch her make it. so i watched and i took notes and i decided to try it out for the first time on the librarians.

here are my notes.

saturday i headed up to the west side market for provisions. i picked up half of a smoked bone-in ham that was about 7 pounds. now, this is way too much ham. my gma usually just uses holiday leftovers but this was the smallest one i could get and besides bigger is usually better!

once i got home i chopped a large yellow onion into thick slices. i put the onions and the ham into my big stock pot and covered it with cold water. i put it on the stove and simmered it for about 7 hours until the ham was falling off the bone.

here it is after a few hours. it doesn't look like much now but just wait!

once it was falling off the bone i took it off the heat, let it come to room temperature and then stuck it in the fridge for 2 days.

monday night after work i skimmed the layer of fat of the top and pulled the ham out.

i chopped the ham against the grain into big chunks then i added it back to the stock. actually i added about 2/3 of it back to the stock and froze the rest. i put it on the stove on medium heat and got to work on the rest of the elements.

homemade noodles seemed a little intimidating. i suggest a breckenridge vanilla porter to help with that.

the notes i made said, "3 eggs - beat to very light." hmmmm. i took this as, "beat the hell out of the eggs." so i did.

then i added a lil' salt and a couple of tablespoons of ice water and whipped it some more. i added 2 cups of sifted flour and "worked it with my hands."

this was the stickiest stuff ever!

with my clean hand i called gma. she said, "add some more flour. you need a lot of flour."

after i figured out the dough i kneaded and rolled and then laid it out on cookie sheets. i used a pizza cutter to cut the noodles.

when the soup was hot (but not boiling) i added the noodles a few at a time - stirring constantly so they wouldn't stick. i cooked these for a while and in the meantime sliced and peeled five big russet potatoes. then i added those to the soup.

this simmered some more until the noodles were all plumped and floating and the potatoes were cooked through and just starting to fall apart.

so this was my library chili and soup cook-off entry. i took third place. actually fourth since there was a tie for second. more importantly though - i got a TON of compliments and i took home an empty crock pot. one woman even told me that the noodles were just like her mom used to make! woohoo! apparently my co-workers have better palates than the panel of judges!

what can i say? sometimes i like to toot my own horn.

playin' ketchupor is it catsup?

2009-02-06T22:56:00.010-05:00

the fancy french eggs have really come a long way. man oh man. i think i have eaten them every sunday morning for the last month. ha! delicious!

so good in fact i had to show them off for a few of my friends. a couple of weeks ago we had a giganto snow storm. giganto.
here's proof:

(thankfully this is not my car but it was just a few blocks away.)

the day before the giganto snow storm everyone at my work was buzzin' about a possible snow day. the university rarely grants us snow days so i didn't want to get my hopes up too high. but then the news was calling for it and everyone was talking about it and i couldn't help but be sold.

after work i went to acme for provisions.

i picked up eggs, heavy cream, maple sausage links, OJ, beer (mmmm.....) and wine - the essentials. then i sent out the message, "yo! if it's a snow day and you are within walking distance come over. i'm making breakfast!"

i was sad when i went to bed cuz it didn't seem too bad out but then bright and early at 6:30 am i got the emergency text with those precious, magical words, "the university will be closed today."

woohoo!!

i got into the kitchen after going back to sleep for a while and by 11:00 served up fancy french eggs, cheesy scrambled eggs, toast with strawberry jam, sausage links, pancakes, duck fat potatoes and vegan potatoes.

i put on the coffee and some friends brought over their flasks (jamison [thanks stormin' norman] and tullamore dew [thanks viper]). and when those ran out we took a step down and poured jim beam into our coffee.

six brave, hungry souls took on the elements and we pigged out, said again and again how we couldn't believe how much fucking snow there was, watched a boy named charlie brown and played buzzword and uno.

it was a pretty fucking kick ass snow day!

in other cooking news i pulled out an old standby for super bowl sunday.

pulled pork.

mmmmm. this is after about 5 hours at 300 degrees. i reduced the juice by half and added it to my trusty mustard/cider vinegar sauce. i served it on super cheap white buns and it was a hit. of course. slow roasted pork slathered in a vinegary sauce? come on. it's a no brainer.

here are some cool photos.

this is mike and jeff's super meat party aka venison jerky makin' party. i tasted the finished product. mmmmm.

here are some of the fixin's for the cioppino i made the other night. man oh man. i LOVE this stew. you can use just about whatever seafood you can find and it is super, super easy. and delicious of course.

gentle ben had the day off so he headed to the west side market and later some crazy latin fish market for the sea creatures. he couldn't get little neck clams so he got those gigantic ones. he also picked up some bay scallops, shrimp and mussels. one of my dearest old friends and his red headed lady friend brought the last essential item - the wine.

when ben got to my house the mussels were all opened. this kinda freaked me out. i consulted the joy of cooking and they said to stick 'em in the freezer. if they closed up they were good to go. if they stayed open they were deadly! well, not deadly but not good either. not a single one of those damn things closed. rats. no go on the mussels for safety's sake.

and here it is. mmmmmm. so good. so very, very good.

ben also picked up a baguette which i stuck in the oven so it could get nice and warm and crusty. we slathered butter on chunks of bread and sopped up the broth between bites of clams and shrimps and scallops. yum.

and now for a side note - a bit of vanity. lots of friends and family say, "i love your blog!" yet no one ever leaves comments except my fellow bloggers, the viper, the shitetarian and xenia.

you can leave a comment every now and then. it would sure make me feel nice and maybe give me some kind of reason to continue this blog other than my own nerdom.

that is all.

fancy french eggs and simple french soup

2009-01-28T15:21:00.016-05:00

i am obsessed with all things french right now - especially cooking. i am reading two books about french cooking and i just ordered julia child's famous cookbook
"mastering the art of french cooking."

in honor of one of my childhood heroes - hell, present day hero - i attempted two of julia's recipes recently. (did you know she didn't even start cooking, like at all, until she was 36?! f'n amazing.)

anyways, two frenchy recipes a la julia child: oeufs en crocotte and potage parmentier.
aka, fancy french eggs and simple french soup.

first, the eggs.

to start i buttered four ramekins and layered a lil' cheese on the bottom. now, since it was not yet payday and i was low on provisions i didn't have any fancy cheese. all i had was this:

a weight watchers cheese stick that kp left for me a few days back.

it's not gruyere (which i have since used and is absolutely heavenly) but hey - ya' work with what ya' got. so instead of foregoing cheese i cut up a cheese stick. i'm not too proud.

then i cracked an egg right into each ramekin.

then i topped each one with about 1 1/2 TBLs of heavy cream, a lil salt and pepper and the rest of the cheese stick.

i put them in a baking dish and poured boiling water into the dish until it reached about halfway up the ramekins.
a water bath if you will.

then i cooked them in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

man oh man. mmmm. mmmm. mmmm.

again, due to the low provisions i only had two pieces of (almost stale) bread and one was the heel. i gave my guest the whole slice and i took the heel. this was fucking killer. really, really killer. i have made these like 4 times since this virgin voyage. i have used gruyere, blue cheese and i hope to use spinach in the bottom one of these days.

make these eggs now. right now.

on to the soup - potage (not "portage." sheesh!) pamentier.

it's a combo of like the simplest ingredients but it is pretty kick ass when they come together. all you need is potatoes, leeks, water, salt and pepper and a lil' heavy cream. no joke.

so i chopped the potatoes into cubes (skins on) and washed and chopped the leeks.

then they went into my stock pot with like 3 or 4 cups of water and salt and pepper.

this simmered about 45 minutes or so until the potatoes were fork tender. this is at about twenty-five minutes.

once the pots are tender you mash everything in the stock pot with a fork or potato masher. then right before serving you stir in a lil' heavy cream.

i topped the soup with a lil' shredded gruyere and some fresh chopped parsley. we also had some goat cheese so we spread it on some toasted french bread as an accompaniment. délicieux!

since you can't fill up on potage parmentier alone (and the eggs were long gone since we ate them around 9am) we also had a rump roast.

oh man. look at this baby. dumas never disappoints.

mike was in charge of the entree and side dishes (my sole responsibility was the soup) and he rubbed the roast down with salt and pepper and then poked a few garlic cloves into slits all around it.

this went into a 275 oven to roast for several hours. in the meantime he made an awesome sauce with chopped mushrooms and pearl onions.

i'm not sure what all was in there but it cooked on really low heat for a really long time and was freakin' delicious.

we also had a lil' braised cabbage to round the meal out.

all in all last saturday was a culinary delight!

what baby wants baby gets

2009-01-24T16:30:00.013-05:00

i have a friend with a bun in the oven. i wanted to make dinner for her and her lil' bun.

i told her i had two russet potatoes and a bag of frozen peas but it was up to her to pick the protein.

her response, "i can do whatever, though i am shying away from anything that is cooked rare or medium rare right now as i find it unappealing. i'm also a little on the fence with fish, unless it is deep fried, in which case, i'm all fucking over it."

how's about fish 'n chips?

her response, "god i love you. fried fish is my passion right now."

hahaha! fish 'n chips it was!

i spent a few minutes surfing the interwebs since i'd never made fish 'n chips before and in the end went (mostly) with alton brown's recipe.

i stopped by klein's seafood after work and grabbed some cod. through my research i learned cod was the number one choice but haddock would've been the second choice. since klein's is tops they had delightful fresh cod.
here it is after i cut it into smaller pieces.

i rinsed and dried the fish, wrapped it in plastic wrap and kept in the fridge until i was ready to bread and fry. i whipped up the beer batter using a whole bottle of left hand brewing's sawtooth ale. alton suggested a "brown beer" but i thought a nice ale would be good. plus i wanted to drink the other five!

alton suggested safflower oil for frying but i didn't have any of that. i did have some butter flavored crisco though so i melted it down in the single woman's dutch oven. here it is coming up to temperature
(i was waiting for 350 degrees before starting the chips).

alton said to fry the chips in batches just for a few minutes until they were "pale and floppy." yikes! my preggo friend and i agreed that nothing pale and floppy sounded very good but we trusted alton so pale and floppy it was.

i drained the chips and let them cool to room temperature before bringing the oil up to 375 degrees and frying them again. once they were nice and brown i put them on a wire rack/cookie sheet in the oven at 200 degrees to stay warm.

next - the fish. here is my set-up.

i brought the oil back up to 350 degrees. i dredged the cod in flour before submerging it in the beer batter and then it went right in the single woman's dutch oven.

i turned the fillets often to be sure they were nice and brown on all sides. i drained the finished pieces on a wire rack before serving.

and here it is. my first go at fish 'n chips.

see those weird lumpy things to the left of the peas? those were my attempt at hush puppies. although the fish 'n chips were a major victory the hush puppies failed. i don't know. too corn-mealy. better luck next time on those i guess.

me, my friend and her lil' bun enjoyed this dinner while watching ninotchka. what a movie!! great garbo is my latest old hollywood crush. seriously, watch this film. it was excellent!

je vais tres bien, merci!

2009-01-20T20:10:00.007-05:00

we all know that french cuisine is pretty much where it's at. book after book i come across french techniques and dishes that likely taste as beautiful as they sound. the two very best restaurants i ate at in san francisco were french bistros.

portage parmentier, bifteck saute au beurre, puree de pommes de terre a l'ail, boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin. don't all of those sound absolutely amazing? they probably taste wonderful but i have no idea what they are!

well, that is not entirely true. i can use the ol' context clues and photographs and descriptions help as well. but that isn't good enough. i want to KNOW what all of these dishes are just by reading the name.

so, i signed up for a french class. beginning french 101.

so far i can tell you who i am, (je m'appelle erratic epicurean), how i'm doing (je vais tres bien, merci!) and what time it is (il est neuf heure moins le quart).

whew. learning french is difficult. a friend suggested i practice speaking it with fluidity and to avoid sounding guttural. i told her i was guttural by nature but i'd do my best.

now onto something that isn't french but rather italian. spaghetti and meatballs. well, maybe that is more an american spin a la chef boyardee but i'm rolling with it.

i've been eating a lot of spaghetti. why? it is cheap. very cheap. i can cook up some noodles and make my sauce from scratch for less that $5 and eat it all week. do i enjoy doing this all the time? no. of course not. but frugality is climbing higher and higher up on my list of priorities.

so, spaghetti it is. i thought to spice things up a little i'd make some meatballs. mmmmm. i had some ground beef and i picked up some ground pork as well.

some saturday mornings i tune into america's test kitchen on PBS and i learned a little trick regarding moist, delicious hamburgers. i thought i would employ it with meatballs and after surfing the interwebs for a few recipes i discovered that several others were onto this trick - milk.

i mixed up about 1/2 c. milk and 1/2 c. breadcrumbs and put it aside while i chopped some onions and parsley. i added the chopped veggies, the meat and some salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to the thick milky bread mix. then i rolled lil' meatballs.

some recipes fried the meatballs on the stove top in a lil' oil and others baked them in the oven. i decided to try both ways.

i quickly learned that like all frying this caused a mess. a mess i did not feel like dealing with. i stuck the remaining meatballs in the oven.

i made my sauce - you've seen it before - and added about 7 or 8 meatballs to it once they had cooked about 30 minutes in the oven. i kept them in the sauce on low for about 10 more minutes.

then i boiled some acme brand angel hair pasta and toasted a lil' bread and voila!

old news

2009-01-18T20:06:00.009-05:00

i have a lot of catching up to do. for all this remembering i think i'll enjoy the coal porter that old man viper left in my fridge the other night. mmmm.

first things first - short ribs 2.0 part II.

now, you'll remember i braised the short ribs the day before the mini-dinner party for about 2 1/2 hours or so. i took them out of the oven and let them cool before covering them with foil and putting 'em in the fridge overnight.

this is what they looked like the next day.

i skimmed the fat off and cooked them over low heat on my stove top until about 15 minutes before serving them.

in 2.0 - part I i mentioned the pumpkin puree. i decided a pumpkin roll was way too time consuming and way too fattening and a nice soup would be a much better way to use the puree.

in the fall when szalay's was kickin' i picked up some baking pumpkins and roasted them and then put 'em in the food processor to make puree. i froze it in 2 cup increments and they have just been hangin' out ever since.

first i melted a lil' butter and sauteed half of an onion. once they were soft but not brown i added some vegetable broth and brought it to a light simmer. then i got to use my handy, dandy, new immersion blender. (thanks barb!)

once the soup was nice and smooth i put it back on the stove over low heat and added the pumpkin puree, about 1/2 can of coconut milk, more veggie stock and some black pepper. curry would've been pretty kick ass here but i didn't have any. such is life.

right before serving i wanted to stir in some heavy cream to thicken it up and make it really smooth and creamy. but i didn't have any heavy cream and i didn't feel like spending any money so i checked out some substitutes. bless the internets. the substitute of milk and melted butter actually worked pretty well.

here's everything going at once.

i transferred all of the ribs to the dutch oven and strained the sauce from the cast iron skillet. i added the strained liquid back to the skillet and made some gravy.

i put a couple of tablespoons of flour and a lil' milk into a plastic container and shook it up. i added it to the skillet with a lil' beef stock and black pepper and whisked and whisked until it was nice and thick. mmmmmm.

i also grilled some asparagus but those weren't anything to write home about. another lesson learned.

ok. catch-up #1 is done and i need another beverage. this time i'll go with an old standard that just happened to be on sale at acme last week - dogfish head's 60 min IPA.

one of my very favorite friends to eat and drink wine with and discuss food and drink just recently denounced her vegetarianism. i honestly never thought i'd see the day but apparently her love of good food overpowered her veggie spirit. one bite of bacon at breakfast and she was full throttle. woohoo!!

to celebrate her new label-ess eating habits and the sweet bouchon cookbook j. got her for christmas she decided to roast a whole chicken a la thomas keller.

i was so super thrilled to be invited. it was an amazing experience and for her first roasted chicken - pretty damn delicious!!

i was so proud!!

after letting it rest for a while she rubbed that baby down with a stick of butter. now THAT is what i'm talking about. full throttle!

after all this delicious reminiscing the dinner i ate before beginning this post seems a little lackluster.

a pseudo tuna melt, rosalie's leftover cucumber dip and some fresh cauliflower.

still tasty though and i am excited about the ground pork and beef and fresh parsley in my fridge that tomorrow will become what i hope is some delightful meatballs. a big heapin' plate of spaghetti and meatballs with some good toasted bread and a bottle of $3. red wine. mmmmm. perfect comfort food for the arctic zone.

farewell to a friend

2009-01-12T03:24:00.017-05:00

i love cooking. i love cooking because i love eating and i love eating because really good food tastes sooooo good. and i know about the good stuff because i have had people in my life who were there to cook good food and teach me how to cook it for myself.

someone who taught me a lot about cooking, eating, grilling and just enjoying good food and drink is my uncle stu-hoo.

i spent a lot of time at my aj and uncle stu-hoo's when i was kid and i remember him cooking. i remember the "kitchen's open dad's cookin'." i remember the tall slender salt and pepper shakers and the molly mcbutter and the "what good happened to you today" dinners. i remember the 'bon apetit' magazines beside his recliner.

he always brought the turkey and stuffing to thanksgiving and as we all grew older he and aj started having monthly sunday family dinners. i casually mentioned pulled pork and one sunday he got up early to slowly grill a pork shoulder all day. a few months ago he dropped off a box of cooking magazines on my porch after i mentioned one day i was thinking about getting a subscription
to one.

i will miss my uncle stu-hoo more than i can even express in words. he was an inspiration and i love that he read and enjoyed this blog.

he was amazing cook and an amazing person and i loved him a great deal, rain

or shine.

good bye stu-hoo.

short ribs 2.0 - part I

2009-01-06T21:22:00.011-05:00

i am having a small psuedo dinner party tomorrow and i'm serving short ribs. i snagged said short ribs from my dad's meat freezer. he bought a 1/2 a cow at the county fair which resulted in a big deep freeze full of beef. for my birthday he said i could raid it and raid it i did. i grabbed three packs of hamburger, a pack of ribeye steaks, shanks, a roast and a pack of short ribs. mmmmmm.

i've made short ribs before but this time i tried a new method based on this recipe and some tips from michael ruhlman's book 'the elements of cooking' (great xmas gift - thanks aunt aggie!).

so i seasoned the short ribs with salt and pepper.

and then i seared them over high heat in a lil' olive oil.

since i have the single woman's dutch oven (which i LOVE but isn't up to snuff for braising seven short ribs. this is my dream oven. sigh....) anyways, i had to use two pans.

before i started any of what i already said i chopped up carrots, celery and an onion. one thing i learned this year - FINALLY - is that is best to have everything you need ready to go before you start.

SO many times i have been a step or two behind but tonight i finally had my shit straight and was able to pay total attention to searing my ribs.

and then all hell broke loose.

i started sauteing the veggies in one pan and still had ribs searin' in the other - the rest of the ribs were over on a platter. after about 7 minutes of sauteing i added half a bottle of wine to each pan. i deglazed the pans and reduced the wine by about half. then i put the ribs back in and added enough beef stock to just reach the top of the meat.

for multi-tasking like this you'll need a nice cold beer. i suggest a christmas ale before it is all gone.

which leads me to my latest idea - i've decided that the holidays aren't over until i can't get christmas ale anymore. i mean, could you part with this tree? i can't.

the recipe i was using said to bring everything to a boil and then put it in a 350 degree oven. but when i consulted "the elements of cooking" i discovered that you should never boil - just gently simmer - and you should not braise in an oven over 300 degrees.

i trusted the latter and put the two pans - covered - into a 300 degree oven and let them go totally unattended for 2 1/2 hours.

this is 2 1/2 hours later.

mmmmmmmmm.

these babies are cooling on my counter and before i go to bed i'm gonna cover them and put 'em in my fridge. then tomorrow i'm going to skim off the fat and braise 'em for another hour or so.

i'll also be serving some grilled asparagus and a chicken breast which is currently marinating in some fresh rosemary, garlic, a lil' olive oil and the juice of half a lemon for the shitetarian. she is bringing along her new roommate (wink. wink.). those two will be bringing smashed potatoes and homemade tapioca and aNw and kMw will be bringing a lovely salad.

i may attempt a pumpkin roll for dessert since i have some homemade pumpkin puree a la pioneer woman hangin' out in my freezer and a package of unnecessary cream cheese. we'll see.

holidays are done. i'm still bakin' cookies. a baker wannabe's work is never done.

2009-01-05T20:43:00.007-05:00

since i have a camera now i figured i'd write a blog. then i realized that this evening was no epicurean delight and really not worth blogging about. but...since i'm not doing anything else....

so, i ran to acme after work for supplies for wednesday and i also grabbed some stuff for my lunch. lettuce mostly. and some carrots (which can also be used on wednesday) and one tiny scoop of dried cranberries. the fixin's for some fabulous salads.

i hate bagged lettuce. it is TOTALLY OVERPRICED and it consists of the crappiest of the greens. the ones that are hanging off and broken and the outermost layers. boo hiss. convenience, perhaps but taste a value, FAIL. it goes bad super fast and if one piece is slimy they all go slimy!

[hops off soap box.]

so i bought this romaine for $1.56.

i rinsed it and then spun it in my salad spinner and dried it on the counter. then i chopped it up and put it in a freezer bag. while doing this i enjoyed a brooklyn black chocolate stout. mmmmmmm. (thanks martini!)

i made myself a salad and i ate the other half of the chicken sandwich i got from lockview earlier in the day at the "the holidays are officially over" luncheon.

then i baked more cookies. cookies. cookies. cookies. i swear i have baked more cookies in the last three months than i have in my entire life.

you! you're going to be the death of me!

these babies are minnesota bound. watch out land of 10,000 lakes. these kick ass cookies are headed your way!

should old acquaintance be forgot....

2009-01-01T20:20:00.003-05:00

well, it's all over. good bye christmas. good bye 2008. on the food front the holidays appear to have been a huge success. my jams, sauces and cookies seemed to go over very well. i made parmesan toasts for my christmas eve appetizer and those were a mega hit (they always are. thanks diane!). then i hooked my family up with a sheet pan of duck fat potatoes and homemade irish cream for their coffee on christmas morning. then today the mother of all holiday dishes - pork and sauerkraut. mmmmmm.

i LOVE pork and sauerkraut. pork, big surprise huh? i woke up several new year's mornings at the barton household to the smell of diane's killer pork and sauerkraut. oh, it was soooooo good. i remember my dad used to make it to but since he doesn't read this i'll go ahead and admit that the barton pork and sauerkraut was much, much better. this year i attempted to recreate it and i think i was pretty damn close.

i headed out to duma's the other day to pick up a kick ass pork roast. man, i love that place. i got a 7 1/2 lb. custom cut pork shoulder for $12. $12!!! they sell t-shirts now that say, "friends don't let friends buy grocery store meat" and my god it is the truth. please, make the drive. pick up some homemade sausage and bacon while you're out there. mmmmmmm.

so the pork roast. big. fantastic looking. i also grabbed two packs of sauerkraut and a 5 lb. bag of russet potatoes and then i had all the elements for what i knew was going to be a killer new year's dinner.

this morning i put salt and pepper on the roast and laid it fat side up in a lovely bed of kraut. i covered it in foil and it cooked at 300 degrees from about 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. my apartment smelled soooooooooooooooooooo good. and the pork just fell apart. happy new year's indeed!

since i had damn near 8 lbs. of pork and 5 lbs. of mashed potatoes i invited some peeps over. we sipped champagne, beers and super potent french roast and pigged out on pork to "the bad news bears" and the mother of all new year's movies, "four rooms." ("there's a big fat needle from god knows where, stuck in my leg, infecting me with god knows what....")

the large salad that aNw brought was just the icing on the cake. the cool, crisp finish to a huge plate of new year's tradition. i like to make a potato volcano and then fill it up with the pork and the sauerkraut and then i stir it all up. oh, that is the only way to eat it. mmmmm.

so i didn't catch the meal early on but i did snap a photo after we all mauled it.

happy new year's! i hope your 2009 is a good one!

'tis the season for lost arts

2008-12-16T19:46:00.003-05:00

i like to give homemade gifts at christmas. i think this is due partly to the fact that i am broke but also because making something from scratch and giving something delicious to a person you love is the bees knees.

over the last few years i have crafted a select trio of the perfect christmas gifts. number one on the list is jam. growing up my maternal grandmother used to have the BEST strawberry jam. i loved it. loved, loved, loved it. she kept it in little plastic containers in the freezer. at some point i asked my grandma how she made such amazing strawberry jam. "sure-gel. the recipe is right on the box." what?! i couldn't believe it was so easy.

a few years later my paternal grandmother offered me her water bath canner and i snapped up the offer. then i made jam and i have made jam every christmas since.

i don't make the freezer kind like my grandma used to. i like to actually cook and can it. i do this so it last longer but also cuz it is fun and little mason jars are cute.

this year i made two batches of strawberry and one batch of triple berry (strawberry, raspberry and blackberry) - about 20 jars or so. now, i love giving people jam. i LOVE it cuz it really does taste awesome and it is a fantastic homemade gift. but i'll tell ya' it is a real labor of love. canning is a lost art probably for good reason. it is time consuming. very time consuming. but spreading homemade jam on toast or on one of kp's biscuits is just so kick ass that i sweated and toiled all day sunday in order to deliver.

i've also started canning pasta sauce. i used my trusted and true recipe of crushed tomatoes, olive oil, garlic (lots of garlic), salt, red pepper flakes (lots of read pepper flakes) and lemon zest. i canned the sauce is cute lil' pint jars. they are just darling......and delicious!!

so jam and pasta are the canned duo of my trifecta of perfect homemade gifts. the third of course is cookies. this year i am doing two. another trusted and true recipe - oatmeal, dried cranberries or cherries and chopped pecans. mmmm. mmmm. mmmm. i think i'm going to do some sugar cookies as well.

you better keep your fingers crossed that you're lucky enough to get one of my holiday delights!

and check this out. kp found this gem for me. she's definitely getting some christmas delights!

slow cooked cheap hunks of meat. mmmm.

2008-11-05T22:46:00.004-05:00

hello again. still here. and tonight i finally discovered what the hell everyone has been talking about when it comes to short ribs. i've had 'em before. here. my friend gentle ben and i decided to check it out some time ago after reading about it in the free times. oh hey - it's even on beer advocate's website.

the short ribs were the special - braised with carrots, tomatoes and those lil' onions and it was spooned over mashed potatoes. i was just getting into magic hat then and it was one of the only places i knew with no. 9 on tap besides the lizard. huh - guess that was a while ago.

anyways - they kicked ass. soooooo good. and then i was inspired by this kid and i decided to try my hand at braised short ribs.

he braised his short ribs in beer but i opted for wine. (beer braise next time). it was a lil' like the faux osso bucco. i seasoned two short ribs with salt and pepper and browned them in my dutch oven in some oil on all sides. i took out the short ribs and browned some chopped onions, carrots and celery. i added about 1 1/2 cups of red wine and really reduced it. then i put the short ribs back in and added some beef stock just to cover them. i brought it to a boil and then put 'em in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

while those were braising i decided to make some cookies. i was inspired earlier by some dried cherries i picked up at the peanut shoppe. i've also been wanting to try out pioneer woman's pecan crispies so i thought i'd combine 'em. i made the dough and chilled it in the fridge while the short ribs continued to braise.

i made some mashed potatoes and topped 'em with one of the short ribs. then i spooned the yummy reduced sauce over everything. oh man oh man. soooooo good. the meat just pulled apart with my fork and taking a big bite of all the different things was sooooo good!!

then i started baking the cookies. these are pretty damn good but i think next time i'll use butter instead of crisco. like with these cookies. butter is just so much better. and i think i'll use more pecans next time too.

so yea. tonight was pretty delicious.

pork! pork! pork!

2008-10-29T22:50:00.004-04:00

so yea....no new updates. no camera still has me unmotivated. i'm still cooking of course. i mean, i have to eat. like tonight. tonight i baked some chicken and made some twice baked potatoes for my friends kp and mk and we watched, "mr. smith goes to washington." fabulous movie. i love jimmy stewart. so cute. so honest. so genuine. sigh....... they don't make 'em like they used to.

so the chicken. i picked up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs and pounded them out. then i marinated them for about 1 1/2 hours in fresh squeezed lemon juice and minced garlic. i melted some butter and olive oil in a small pan and then let it cool. i brushed the chicken with the butter/olive oil and then dredged it in a mix of breadcrumbs, fresh thyme (from my garden! the herbs are still kickin'!), salt and pepper. then i baked the chicken on a cookie sheet for about 25 minutes.

in the meantime i baked two potatoes in the microwave. then i scooped 'em out and put the hollowed out skins back in the oven to crisp up. while those were crisping (and the chicken was bakin') i smashed together the scooped out potato, some chopped green onions, sharp cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and some sour cream. i re-stuffed the skins and then put 'em back in the oven. mmmmmm....it smelled good in my kitchen. when everything was done i topped the potatoes with a lil' more cheese and some chopped chives (also from the garden!).

kp, mk and myself enjoyed this dinner with some red wine (me) and some cider and rum (kp and mk) while we watched jimmy stewart as a young idealistic junior senator take washington by storm!

oh! and last night i was feeling like i could accomplish things so i finally set up the printer/scanner/copier that my aj and uncle stu-hoo gave me months ago. and since i can scan now i scanned the following photo:

i took this photo months - maybe years - ago up at the west side market. man, i love that place. and i love pig. next time kp, mk and i get together to watch an old timey film i'm cookin' up a pork dish!

nothin' you haven't seen before

2008-10-15T08:46:00.003-04:00

i am still without a digital camera. this sucks so badly. i think i'm going to try to finagle one outta my parents for either christmas or my birthday. my friend gentle ben offered to sell me his for $30 but at that price i'm not so sure. is it busted? does it suck? i think i'm just gonna go ahead and shoot for a new one.

last night i made myself a fine meal but it's nothing new to you. i acquired a ton of collard greens last week and i've been keeping 'em fresh in a bowl of water in my fridge. i also had the other key ingredient handy - bacon. i've taken to freezing it now so i almost always have some on hand. i whipped up some greens and a yummy half of an acorn squash.

i ate this delightful dinner while drinking a few guinness and watching some like it hot.

i guess this movie is a classic. i liked marilyn monroe cuz she is nice to look at and she had a great line, "i'm not a drunk. i can quit drinking any time i want to. i just don't want to." ha! however i decided that i don't really like tony curtis. he just isn't very good looking or much of a leading man. and the ending of this movie.....gimme a break. at least i was comforted by collard greens and squash.

bad news on the blog front

2008-10-07T23:42:00.006-04:00

last weekend the shitetarian and i headed out to the beautiful beaches of delaware. bethany beach to be exact and it was
fucking awesome.

the seafood feasts we cooked in our tiny condo kitchen were remarkable. outta this world. i'm talking mind blowing, buzz inducing seafood feasts (or was that the vodka......)

the bad news in this otherwise heartwarming tale of good eats, good friends and good booze is that my digital camera bit the dust while we were out there!

i captured day one's dinner (grilled shrimp two ways [a chipotle, lime marinade and a simple olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt mix], steamed clams in white wine and garlic, and steamed hard shell crabs with melted butter) but that was it. i attempted to capture the remaining dinners with my 35mm but who knows if those photos will end up being blog quality or not (that might have something to do with the vodka......)

so yea. i can't get the few digital pics i was able to take off of my camera and i am flat broke (from the seafood....and maybe the vodka....) so i can't afford to develop my film, let alone pick up a new digital camera.

it is a sad, sad miserable time for the erratic epicurean (so sad in fact i am talking in the third person. christ. maybe that was caused by the debate beers - MY FRIENDS, my friends, mY fRiEnDs - the viper knows what i'm talking about). so yea. no digital camera. it makes blogging much less fun.

what do you care if i made a kick ass pot roast with carrots and onions and mashed potatoes and pan gravy tonight?
you can't see it.

man, this totally blows.

northeast ohio tomatoes. yummmmmm......

2008-10-01T21:36:00.003-04:00

so the other day i came across this recipe for tomato soup. it sounded so delightful i couldn't resit. i had an onion and peppers and i decided to hit szalay's after work for a couple of big, homegrown tomatoes.

i cut up some tomatoes, a red pepper, an onion and a couple of yellow peppers. the recipe called for NO yellow peppers but it did call for three yellow onions. hmmmm. well, i only had one onion and i picked some peppers just cuz they were yellow and spicy and i threw in a few extra garlic cloves to make up for the lost onions.

i poured olive oil over everything and then sprinkled it with some salt. i left the garlic in the peel cuz the recipe told me too and also because roasted garlic is one of the best things ever.

i roasted the veggies in the oven for about an hour.

once they were brown and tasty looking i took 'em out of the oven and started scooping them into my food processor. when garlic is roasted just right you can just squeeze ir right outta the peel. mmmmmmm. squeeze this out on to some triscuits - that shit is tops!!

i scooped in the roasted veggies and i slowly added some vegetable broth. i seasoned it with some salt and red pepper flakes and i just pulsed away.

mmmmm. it smelled so good in my apartment. those roasting veggies - yum!

soup's on. here it is. roasted tomato soup.

i picked up a really yummy lil' block of parmesan cheese up at the market last week. you know you have the good stuff when it just crumbles between your fingers. so i crumbled some into my soup. i paired this soup with a tasty mojito cuz i had all the fixin's and they just taste so damn good. roasted ohio tomato soup and mojitos with my own garden mint. yum. yum. yum.