WCB23 - Be Well Clare

Clare - hope you're home now, eating good food, and feeling better every day! Best wishes to you, Casey and Kiri - Leo and Cathy

(See all the other get well wishes for Clare at Boo's. Boo is pinch-hitting as Weekend Cat Blogging host this weekend for Clare, who is recuperating from her injuries.)

Prune Blogging Thursday - Prune Bread

Yes, that's right - didn't you see the announcement? I couldn't resist participating (even if I am a little late)... such an unfairly maligned little fruit. This one time event was proposed by David Lebovitz and believe it or not, he's already written the round-up. I hesitated to post my homely little entry after seeing David's heroic efforts making chocolate macarons with prune filling (7 batches!), but I must show my support for the prune - however humbly...

I've always liked prunes, but I've never been crazy about prune juice. When I was a kid, my Mom often served a mixture of orange and prune juice at breakfast. I'm not sure if the reason was economy, nutrition, or just plain preference. Since I favored unadulterated orange juice, I always assumed that the orange juice was the scarce commodity and prune juice was her way of stretching it out. These days, with orange essence prunes in every grocery store, I'm thinking maybe she was ahead of her time.

I don't know the origin of this recipe, which uses both prunes and prune juice, but it is one my Mom grew up with. I've turned the tables on her, and have swapped orange juice for some of the prune juice. I also threw in a little orange zest for good measure. With whole wheat flour and prunes, there can be no doubt about the motives behind this recipe!


Prune Bread

The texture of this loaf is surprisingly light for a whole grain bread and the orange really is a nice complement. If I remember right, I believe we sometimes had this with baked beans rather than brown bread.

1 cup pitted prunes (I used bite size and left them whole, but it might be better to cut them up)
1/2 cup prune juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tbs butter
1 egg, beaten slightly
1 cup sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
zest from one orange

Warm the juices and butter together until the butter melts. Put the prunes and juice mixture in a mixing bowl. Add egg and sugar. Add dry ingredients and orange zest. Bake in greased loaf tin for one hour at 350 F.

23rd Post Meme

OK, this one's easy - all I've got to do is count. I was tagged by AG at Grab Your Fork. The instructions are to go into your archives, find your 23rd post, and then find the 5th sentence and post it again.

I can do that. My 23rd post was A Bowlful of Summer and had an unrecipe - mix up some tomatoes, roasted corn and basil. The fifth sentence is sort of telling:

I thought about roasting it – which I’ve never done before – but really didn’t feel like firing up the grill.

I'm so lazy.

By the way, I think I found the origin of this meme. It apparently split off from a Page 23 meme over a year ago. Interestingly, there is what must be a related meme currently making the rounds which instructs you to go to page 123 of a nearby book.

Blog Party 2 - Tiki Tenders with Pineapple Salsa and Asti Tropical Punch

Hey, how are you? Great party, huh? Stephanie really did a nice job. Lots of really great food too. Don't bother with those Tiki Tenders though - they're really blah. The salsa's tasty, but I'd grab some of those tortilla chips over there and dunk them in instead of the tenders. That Asti stuff is nice too, in a bubbly-baby-shower-punch sort of a way. Ohhh, gotta run... looks like some more goodies just arrived, oooh and cake...



I stopped by Stephanie's blog last night with the intention of sending her an apology for not participating in her latest blog party. It had been just a little too busy for me this past week and I never got around to figuring out (let alone cooking) something to go with her Tiki theme. Then I saw that she had extended the deadline to Friday night - a reprieve! I started trying to come up with some ideas, but they didn't start taking shape until today and it wasn't until I was in the grocery store this evening that it finally came together. I sort of had pineapple on the brain... if I'd been able to find pineapple sherbert or sorbet, my punch would have taken a different turn. As luck would have it, though, I found neither and stumbled upon some frozen fruit bars at Whole Foods that worked perfectly. My idea for the chicken tenders didn't really pan out, but maybe some marinated and grilled chicken would be nice with the salsa. I didn't measure anything this time around, but I can tell you what I did...


Pineapple Salsa

Finely dice some fresh pineapple, sweet red pepper, and sweet onion in amounts to your liking. Mince some garlic and cilantro and then throw in some black beans too. (I had planned to add some jalapeno pepper, but it apparently never made it into my grocery bag.) Squeeze in some lime juice and add a little hot sauce and then stir it all up and let it sit while you prepare the chicken.


Tiki Tenders

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend you make these, but just in case you're curious what I did... I whizzed up a handful of macadamia nuts in the jar attachment on my stick blender and then mixed them with a similar amount of coconut powder. I dunked each tender in some seasoned flour, then in beaten egg, and then in the macadamia nut/coconut mixture and fried them in some canola oil (just enough to form a thin layer on the bottom of the pan) for a few minutes on each side. Oh so bland.


Asti Tropical Punch

My stemmed glasses are quite small so one fruit bar made about two drinks, but I'd recommend larger glasses and using one fruit bar per serving. The fruit bars that I used were very good - they're 365 Brand Caribbean Mix Frozen Fruit Bars and they have strawberries, pineapple, mango, passion fruit, and coconut in them. Leave the fruit bars in the refrigerator to soften up slightly so you can easily remove the sticks. Take them for a spin in the blender until they're nicely mushed up and then add a little Asti (or another light, fruity, sparkling wine) and pulse a few more times. Pour some of this into a glass and then top with some more bubbly and a little lime zest.

Childhood Meme-ories

Nupur at One Hot Stove recently tagged me for this latest meme. Out of curiosity I decided to trace the thing back as far as I could. Lo and behold, I found the instigator of this on-line chain letter - Brad Warbiany. The original post, dated June 1st of this year, was titled Time to Unleash a Plague and his blog (actually a group blog) is aptly called The Unrepentant Individual. So now that everyone is feeling warm and fuzzy, on to my childhood memories...

In tracing this back I discovered that it took a slightly different bent once it hit the food blog world. As the book meme was transformed into a cookbook meme, so did "The Five Things I Miss From My Childhood" become "Childhood Food Memories". I've decided to go with the original theme, "Five Things I Miss From My Childhood", rather than the food-centric theme. Also, I've dropped the "The" because I sort of doubt my list will be the only or even the top five things I miss from childhood.

OK, so here we go...

I miss devouring books the way I did when I was a kid. Now, there never seems to be enough time and, well, I can't stay awake.

I miss family vacations, especially our camping trips along the Skyline Drive. Maybe it was the relaxed pace, the crazy double-solitaire games under the gas lantern, eating outdoors every night, the black bear sightings, buying penny candy and souvenirs at the camp store, the nature talks at the amphitheatre, hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows... oh who am I kidding? It was all wonderful... well, except maybe for the coin-operated showers that cut off after 5 minutes!

I miss the feeling I used to get when we would eat at McDonald's - and it wasn't guilt! Back then, there really were golden arches, they actually posted the number (in millions) of burgers sold, and you didn't enter the restaurant - you made your purchases at a counter and sat on a yellow and white tiled bench on the side of the building, ate at home, or ate in the car. I liked it best when we ate in the car. My sister, brothers, and I would sit on the tailgate of the station wagon and watch for a train to go by as we consumed our burgers, fries and shakes. It didn't matter that the pathetic burger couldn't be tasted under the pickles and ketchup - it was all about the fries and chocolate shakes!

I miss that last-day-of-school elation. I've occasionally felt it in the more recent past as I left work just before a vacation, but it doesn't come often enough these days!

I miss Saturday mornings watching cartoons and playing with blocks. I know you probably think I'm reaching back into my infancy for this one, but my sister, brothers and I "played blocks" for years. It was engineering, role-playing, and creative play all rolled into one. Perhaps best of all it was a shared tradition. Our block collection, which resided in a large basket, started as a purchased set or two, but grew over the years thanks to my Dad's many carpentry projects. Over time, certain structures evolved and made regular appearances (most notably the pancake factory). In addition, certain blocks took on certain functions and heaven help the visiting friend who didn't conform!

Well, that was fun - thanks Nupur! I'm going to break the rules and not list the links and not tag anyone. I invite you to share what you miss from childhood in the comments of this post or feel free to tag yourself - I just don't want to be the bad guy!

The Cook Next Door

Two memes converged on my little kitchen this week. I'm finally getting around to the second, "The Cook Next Door", which was created by Nicky of delicious days and sent to me by way of Zarah at Food and Thoughts. OK, so let's see...

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?
I have a few of vague memories that I'll share, but I don't remember when it was that I first cooked something entirely on my own. My mom was really good about letting us help in the kitchen and often set us to work chopping or prepping things for the freezer. I remember sitting around the kitchen table shelling walnuts and chopping green peppers, and standing over the sink hulling strawberries. I remember that I had a cookbook intended for children, but can't remember anything I made out of it. I was briefly in the Girl Scouts and earned one merit badge - in cooking. Most of the work for that badge was done in a marathon session at a friend's house with her mom officiating (bless her heart). I remember one of the things we had to make was a white sauce. Most likely the first time I cooked without assistance from my parents was some occasion when I (or we) got up early to make breakfast in bed for them. I do remember a time when we made some sort of omelet which as I recall involved jelly or jam. After we served up the first one, my Dad came downstairs to assist with the second (which I think did not involve jelly or jam!).

Who had the most influence on your cooking?
Definitely my Mom. As I said before, she was really good about involving us with activities in the kitchen. That included the fun stuff - decorating the gingerbread cookies at Christmas, helping make dinner, etc., and the not so fun stuff - setting the table and cleaning the kitchen after dinner. I think I've probably acquired both her fears and biases in the kitchen. I've never asked her, but I suspect the cooking she enjoyed most was baking, as is the case with me. (See below for the fears!)

Do you have an old photo as evidence of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?
I'm sure there is a picture somewhere of me eating, but I doubt there is a picture of me cooking. I've looked around though, and haven't been able to locate one - sorry!

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?
My cooking fears are not about failure - I'm used to that - they're about burning the house down. I'm pretty sure I came by them naturally too (i.e. I inherited them from my Mom). I have never done any deep fat frying and only recently made a feeble attempt at flambéing. I don't think my Mom ever flambéed anything, but I do remember her frying chicken once. She prepared for that occasion by laying down newspaper over half the kitchen floor. Actually, as I think about it, I'd say her fear of deep fat frying had more to do with the potential for a mess than with the potential for a fire.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?
This may be a little too big to qualify as a gadget, but my Kitchenaid mixer is my most valued tool in the kitchen. I can't think of a really big letdown, but I do remember a little gadget I bought with high hopes and few years back which turned out to be an utter failure. It was sort of like a tiny mandoline for slicing a garlic clove. It wasn't very expensive, so it was no great loss, but it didn't work at all.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!
Neither of these is something I eat these days, but both were things I relished growing up. (If it weren't for all the bad press fat gets now, I'd be eating them still.) When we would have roast beef, we used to cut a thin crispy layer of fat from the roast while it rested and eat it on saltines or white bread. It was beautifully browned and seasoned with salt and pepper and just scrumptious! We also made onion sandwiches - thin slices of raw onion sandwiched between slices of heavily buttered white bread and seasoned with salt and pepper. Yum!

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don't want to live without?
Baked Beans
Chocolate
Bread

Any question you missed in this meme, that you would have loved to answer? Well then, feel free to add one!

Three quickies:
Your favorite ice-cream?
Can't list just one: Chocolate, Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, and Butter Pecan

You will probably never eat?
Probably many things, but most certainly Steak tartare

Your own signature dish?
I only have a few recipes that are my very own and I've never served most of them to anyone else. But if signature dish means my own creation, I would have to say my Beans and Greens Soup. If signature dish just means something that I'm known for making, I would say Chocolate Pecan Bars.

Question added by Zarah: On average, how many times a week would you cook something to satisfy your sweet tooth?
Well, I have my regular weekly cookie making session, does that count? Most weeks those are the only sweets I make. Actually, I'm currently trying to clear out some of the things that have accumulated in my freezer like chocolate gingerbread and pumpkin cornmeal muffins, so I have quite a stockpile of sweets to work on!

Question added by Cathy: What do you usually eat for breakfast?
A bowl of cereal with fruit (usually banana, blueberries right now, and as soon as they're in season - peaches!) and skim milk and a glass of orange juice.

And, last but not least:Tag three people!
OK, now it's your turn!
Alice at My Adventures in the Breadbox
Nic at Bakingsheet
Rowena at Rubber Slippers in Italy

That Cookbook Meme

It finally found it's way here thanks to Alice, so here goes...

Total number of (cook/food) books I've owned: I really have no idea. Because of limited space, I occasionally thin out my books, so who knows how many have passed through here. At the moment there are somewhere around 115. That's what I came up with when I took a count just a little while ago, but I'm sure there are more in hiding. The bookcase pictured above holds most of my cookbooks, but I also have a small shelf in the kitchen with my current favorites and some overflow in another bookcase.

Last (cook/food) book(s) bought: That would be Sicilian Cookery by Eufemia Azzolina Pupella, a cookbook that is available in a number of different languages and which is ubiquitous in souvenir shops in Sicily. I've looked through it a couple of times, but haven't yet cooked anything from it.

Last (cook/food) book I read: I finally got around to reading Bitter Almonds by Mary Taylor Simeti & Maria Grammatico, the story of a woman who spent much of her youth in sort of a convent in Erice (her mother sent her there after her father died so that she would be assured of having enough to eat). Her time there wasn't exactly happy, but while there she learned to make the almond pastries that later became the specialty of her own bakery. The second half of the book contains all the recipes for these traditional almond pastries. It's a quick read and fascinating. I thought it was really interesting how the nuns used everything. For example, the almond shells fueled the fire and leftover or burned pastries were ground up and reborn as new confections.

Five cookbooks that mean a lot to me: I've carefully browsed through most of my cookbooks page by page at least once, and there is a smaller set of books that have one or more recipes that I use on a regular basis. But I can only think of two or maybe three books that I would say mean a lot to me. One would be Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. So many of the recipes in here appeal to me - they really are recipes for people who love vegetables as much as for vegetarians. The second one (these are in no particular order) is the obvious one - Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies. One of my very first cookbooks and still my favorite cookie book. Maida Heatter is great - I love all her books - but this is my sentimental favorite. I wouldn't say my third book "means a lot to me" quite yet, but it has gradually become my #1 basic cookbook, having replaced an early edition of The New York Times Cookbook in that role. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is the book I refer to first when I have a question about how to do something or if I'm looking for a basic recipe.

Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog? I think this meme has had a good run, so I will let this little branch of it say good night.

Music in My Kitchen

There’s a little meme going around. If you follow food blogs you couldn’t have missed it – it’s been popping up everywhere. I was hoping it would somehow bypass me, but Zarah tagged me earlier today. So here goes…

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?

Less then 3MB – not counting the sample music files that were on the PC when I got it. There are just three songs: the Amateur Gourmet’s “Meow Mix” to the tune of Memory (which is hysterical and makes me laugh out loud – but perhaps you have to be a cat owner to fully appreciate it), the music for the Maine state song, and (ahem) me singing the Maine state song (it’s a long story).

The CD you last bought?

I haven’t bought any for myself in years. I filled up my CD rack and stopped. Since my interests are primarily in classical and opera, it doesn’t really seem necessary to keep buying more. The last CDs I bought were for my mom for Christmas – they were Josh Groban and Cobalt Blue (Paul Spaeth).

What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

Gosh, I don’t remember. Sadly, music is not a big a part of my life these days, though it was at one time. Maybe I need to do something about that!

Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

1. L’improvviso from Andrea Chenier – (Umberto Giordano, sung by José Carreras) this and the rest of the Three Tenors concert turned me on to opera back in 1990. It was a gradual thing, but over the course of the next couple of years I became immersed in it. I subscribed to and also became a volunteer at the Washington Opera. There I got to work in the costume studio, assist with auditions, work in the business office, and get a fantastic behind-the-scenes view of the opera world.
2. Ride On, King Jesus – (Traditional, sung by Denyce Graves) I attended a vocal competition in the early 1990’s in which Denyce Graves was competing. In an early round of the competition I had a seat just a couple rows from the stage and Ms. Graves sang this spiritual. It was a performance I’ll never forget.
3. Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Samuel Barber, sung by Dawn Upshaw) – this is somewhat arbitrary. I wanted to include something sung by Dawn Upshaw since she is another performer that made a huge impression on me when I saw her in recital. She has a beautiful, clear voice and an extremely warm presence. She sang mostly German lieder in the recital in which I saw her, but this song is on a CD I have and is one I’ve always liked. The text (from James Agee’s writing) and music go so well together and both are incredibly beautiful…“…it has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently…”
4. West Side Story – (Leonard Bernstein) I know, this isn’t a song, but I can’t pick just one.
5. Yesterday – (The Beatles) I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved this song.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

The first person that came to mind was Renee, since I miss her so badly at Shiokadelicious, but Alberto has already asked her. So begging their forgiveness in advance, here’s my list…

1. Alice – because she was one of my first friends in the food blogging world and I’d love to hear her answers.
2. Adam – because he’s so funny and I really enjoy his blog and he was such a good sport when it took me forever to get to his IMBB entry. I’m sure he will put an amusing spin on this.
3. Laura – because she leads such an interesting life – I expect her answers will be fascinating (either that or she has no time for music!)

Welcome to Maryland #3!

Guess what just came in the mail...

1000 Recipes

If you haven't already, take a look at Santos' proposal for travelling journals called 1000 Recipes. She has 3 journals ready to head out into the world, and I assume based on the project title that she is prepared to send out a few more as soon as there are enough takers. The idea is that when the journal comes to you, you enter one or more of your own recipes (with whatever artistic embellishments you're inclined to make) and then send it off to the next person in line. Ultimately, Santos intends to auction the journals and donate the proceeds to charity. Sounds like another fun way to connect with food lovers all over the world!

WWWBW - New World Merlot

the winner - Reynolds Vineyard 2001 Merlot

Today is World Wide Wine Blogging Wednesday – at least for the next 37 minutes. This is Lenn of LennDevours idea – another communal blogging event modeled after Alberto’s IMBB. The theme for this first WWWBW is new world Merlots (excluding those from the US). I wasn’t going to bother to post, because I have been so busy and was having trouble mustering up some enthusiasm to write this up, but I started reading some of the others and now I’m really curious if someone else tried the same ones I did and what they thought…

I bought two Merlots to try. I didn’t like the first one I tried at all, so I decided to get another and compare them. I know nothing about wine and in fact have fairly limited experience drinking it. I rarely drink any wine and up until a couple of years ago I had hardly ever had red wine. That changed when I went to Tuscany last October. We opened one, two and sometimes three different bottles of red wine each evening with dinner. I didn’t relish them all, but many I did, and I finally came to appreciate red wine.

I am still very much a wine novice, though, and am totally flummoxed by the vocabulary used to describe the experience of it. In fact, I can’t quite understand how people smell and taste the things they claim to smell and taste in wine – cedar, leather, tar!?

I approached this originally with quite a bit of enthusiasm. I invited friends over for dinner and explained that I would be serving Merlot (which they would have to taste) and later writing about it for WWWBW. Unfortunately, a family emergency called my friends out of town and I was left on my own for the tasting. I found a site that had a so called wine tasting course. I decided to sit down at the computer with my wine as I read through the course and take notes with the hopes that the course would enlighten me and allow me to talk the talk. No such luck – the course was about as disappointing as my first Merlot.

The first Merlot that I tried was a Montes Merlot Special Cuvée 2003 from the Colchagua Valley in Chile. I found this review: “87 PTS WILFRED WONG. Smooth and textured, the pleasing '03 Montes Special Cuvee Merlot is a dandy of a wine; ripe and easy with a hint of wood; excellent with charred broiled pork chops.” The label described it as “An elegant and refined wine with a marked fruitiness almost irresistible to Merlot lovers. Strong, spicy black pepper full of harmony and soft on the palate. Aging in American oak gives structure and finesse that will also permit short term cellaring.”

The wine was deeply colored and almost opaque. I sniffed it and groped for words to describe its aroma. All I could come up with was “smells like red wine”. To me the wine was sharply flavored and unpleasant. When I later sipped it alongside the second Merlot, I could tell there was a big difference but struggled to describe it. The other was obviously fruity in comparison, but what was this one? The word I came up with – perhaps totally inappropriate, and according to my spell checker, not even a word – was “resiny”. Maybe in wine-speak this would be pine.

The second bottle I tried was a Reynolds Vineyards 2001 Merlot from New South Wales, Australia. The bottle says “This velvety Merlot offers enticing cherry, vanilla, and toasted herb aromas with plush cherry and plum flavours.” This wine was a much more attractive color and had a definite fruity (but still dry) taste. While the other Merlot left my tongue tingling, this one left my throat feeling warm – which I much prefer! While I would probably still gravitate to an Italian wine over a Merlot, I think I will enjoy the rest of this second bottle.

Must run – I’ve got to catch my forty winks before another long day tomorrow!


the also-ran - Montes Merlot Special Cuvée 2003

rFAFi – Reader’s Funky Appliance Fiesta

Today is Reader’s Funky Appliance Fiesta hosted by umami. The idea is that you post a photo of an appliance or kitchen gadget that you own and that is unusual in design (i.e. funky).

Fortunately for me, the original concept of funky appliances was expanded to include other kitchen gadgets used in the preparation of food. I do have an old blender – but it is not nearly as colorful as umami’s. My other appliances are pretty standard. I do have a few unusual gadgets, though, one of which I’ve posted a photo of before. I’m still not sure what it is or how to use it.

For today, though, I decided to show you my lovely Pinocchio funnel given to me by my brother. He was purchased at shop near the Mercato Centrale in Florence, but he is made by Alessi, so I imagine he can be found in many other places.

I haven’t really put him to good use yet. I tried to use him recently when I was ladling jam into jars, but he got a stuffy nose.