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Fried Doughnuts Are Totally Good For You (Psychologically Speaking)

donuts_tight11
September 25, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

Rebecca risked a frying injury to once again make us the kind of home-made treats you almost forget can be made at home. We stayed out of the line of oil and kept our attention on the melting chocolate.

Rebecca adds: These were too good to not try again, with chocolate. Also presented an opportunity for the culinary anthropologist in me to compare recipes old and new: one from the classic 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook handed down to our host Dayna, and one from a recent Better Homes and Gardens, based on a 1953 recipe. Each offers clues to shifting tastes and lifestyles. The 1950 Betty Crocker version calls only for shortening, no mention of butter at all, and has half the cinnamon and nutmeg of the 2010 recipe, real indicators of how we’ve become accustomed to spicier foods and have rejected everyday use of “miracle” space-age foods like hydrogenated shortening for good, old-fashioned butter. Although interesting to see branding at work even in the 1950 cookbook, which specifies Gold Medal flour.

Sorry, Betty. We went with the 2010 BH&G version that had worked so well before, replacing the cinnamon and nutmeg with Penzeys Baking Spice (a mix of nutmeg, two kinds of cinnamon, anise, mace and cardamom—if you don’t know this great mail-order spice company, check it out now!), which added a nice depth of flavor. Double-dipped them with a simple chocolate glaze and celebrated the harvest moon with fall-themed sprinkles from Dayna’s Maryland cupboard.

The results, as pronounced by recently turned two-year-old god-daughter Zora: “Dee-li-shush.” We agreed.

One more time: Best Doughnuts

Good Clean Dirt

eggs
September 22, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

I don’t recall where it came from, but I loved this Alice Waters-ish anecdote I heard about a school kid on a farm visit refusing to eat a carrot pulled from the field because “it touched dirt.” Not that I mean to imply that I’m so much more salt of the earth. My suburban-raised self would have shuddered to feel something soft and feathery on the bottom of an egg while cracking a few open for a quick dinner frittata (making use of my roasted veggie leftovers–you taught me well, Rebecca!). These days, however, farm eggs so fresh they bring a bit of the nest along with them just feel so much cleaner somehow.

Thirty Days Hath September

haul_918101
September 18, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

Where I used to accent my food shopping list with a couple farmers’ market finds, this summer we joined a CSA and I’ve hauled home my allotment (and then some) of produce and dairy from Waverly Market every week. As a result, my daily trips to the Super Fresh have ceased, and we’ve fallen into a happy rhythm of eating whatever treats the harvest brings in each Saturday. Like the grasshopper, however, I have put up no stores for the winter, so we’re either going to endure some very long months of potatoes and cabbage, or endure grocery store tomatoes come January. Luckily, we really like potatoes and cabbage.

It’s the bean stall that really seems to keep you on your seasonal toes, however (I still can’t believe I missed the last week of peas, and therefore my last chance at another batch of crushed peas with smokey sesame dressing!). This week, October Beans showed up (I had no idea what they were, but they were too pretty to resist), and there was another shot at fresh limas. Kate, if I was your hostess, I hope that you’d be a convert after tasting this dip. Cooked limas, a couple garlic cloves, juice of a lemon, handful of fresh dill, some cumin/curry spice combo to taste and a good dollop of  tomatillo salsa to kick in some heat without overpowering the crisp, fresh tastes of the other ingredients. Finish with a good glug of olive oil, process, process, process…and it was very had to put the lid on the dish and safely save it for tomorrow’s picnic.

A Few Thoughts Regarding Seeding a Grape

focaccia1
September 10, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

The problem was this: When I decided to whip up* two of these compact, portable-looking focaccia breads to take along on a road trip as a gift to our hostess, I thought that the grapes I had in the fridge were seedless.

So there I was, reading about how good these are with a nice wine, contemplating how much our friends enjoy wine and hoping the bread would keep all fresh and pretty until tomorrow when we arrived. After setting the dough out to rise on the counter, I read through the comments on the recipe page and felt a little sad for all the people who actually did not buy seedless grapes and had to stand at the kitchen counter for who knows how long** and pick them out with a pairing knife. And then I sliced my first grape…

…and I most definitely spied a seed. Two, actually!

Alas, it seems to have been worth it in the end. I’ve got two lovely looking focaccia drizzled with oil and sprinkled with salt and sugar and grapes and rosemary. The house smells of Italy.*** Now my only issue is how not to devour them both before tomorrow.

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*I have never, ever, in my entire kitchen history, been able to just “whip up” anything. Why I thought this would be my lucky day, I cannot explain.

**Now, I do know: about 20 minutes to leisurely slice and de-seed 1.5 cups.

***Or at least the Italy of my imagination.

Plannedovers, anyone?

leftovers
September 3, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

Dinner was so unexpectedly good I wanted to share, but now that I’m typing I realize a significant issue with this: no sane person would go through the individual processes that I think are what makes this dish rock–the mix of pre-marinated leftovers, i.e. green beans and walnuts in basil dressing, crowder peas in whatever I made those in, tossed with red quinoa and topped with broiled tofu, and left over parsley/scallions. A little white wine vinegar and tomatillo salsa (for him) and cilantro chutney (for me) pulled it all together. Awesomeness without the dishes in 30 minutes or less.

In makes me wonder: has anyone ever written a cookbook where you use yesterday’s dinner in tonight’s masterpiece?

Summertime, and the cooking is easy

simplemeals1
September 3, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

Though I can get a little, um, over-anxious about food when entertaining, my mental energy level last night required a strategy shift for the sake of sanity, so this time I went with a  “let the food do the work” theme. I didn’t even run to the grocery. If I didn’t have it, it wasn’t going in. With 60 minutes to work, what might our fridge produce?

First course was corn soup (blend some corn kernels with a bit of milk and add salt and pepper and fresh chives on top–thank you, garden supply!), the last three carrots in the drawer cut into sticks with the left over basil dressing “artfully” drizzled over top (skip complex preparation and hide beneath the mask of presentation!), and orange tomatoes sliced with oil, vinegar, basil, scallions, and a dash of Hawaiian black salt (knew that would come in handy for something). For the main, I grabbed the left over roasted eggplant and onions (yay, already roasted! oven remains off, house temp remains reasonable), a bunch of swiss chard, and a cup of chick peas and cooked them with some garden garlic (my normal stash was empty and there they were, hanging all nice and dry in the basement!) and some tomato paste and curry powder. Tossed over pasta with a few toasted pine nuts (a little burnt–ooops!), some parsley, and a sprinkle of cheese. Bam!

M brought the wine. We didn’t even get to the leftover birthday cake from Rebecca’s party. Damn.

I have to say that the little backyard garden really helps when it comes to summer cooking, even though it doesn’t seem like much when you look at it. I’m finally figuring out how not to waste the food I get at the market every week, which has been a huge learning curve for me for some reason.  Also, doing dumb things like adding a blue tortilla chip on the side of the soup bowl with a spoon full of that tomatillo salsa gave things a kind of fanciness without much investment.

I’m not working today, so I’m thinking about bottling the wine. Stay dry everyone!

BONUS tip: How to defrost (and probably cook!)  your frozen farmers’ market corn for unexpected dinner guests on a 90 degree day:*

*This method is probably not USDA approved. I’m also pretty sure my mother would faint.