A2eatwrite

For anyone who wants to know how to write great literature...

2010-04-06T20:53:00.003-04:00

... especially if you want a movie contract, too:

How to Write a Nicholas Sparks movie

'Nuff said.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Accademia Salad

2010-03-24T09:11:00.005-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

As many of you know, the Eatwrite family just had a marvelous trip to Italy.

This trip was sort of an early graduation present for C, who will be graduating from high school in June of 2011, but we figured that next year, he'll probably be doing the college visit thing or we'll just plain be putting everything into saving for college.

So there it is.

We went to Florence in February, with a brief taste of Venice.

From a culinary standpoint, it was also Tuscan, with a brief taste of Venetian.

On somewhat the spur of the moment, we signed up for a Tuscany day trip, which included stops in Siena, an organic farm and winery (for a spectacular lunch), San Gimignano and Pisa. It was all spectacular, with the exception of Pisa, which is touristy beyond touristy.

C wasn't feeling his best that day, and while he greatly enjoyed the trip, when we got back to Florence, around 6:30 p.m., he was ready to crash. D and I, however, wanted dinner, and the tour guide on our Tuscan trip had suggested one of her favorite restaurants within just a 10 minute walk from our lovely B&B.

Perfect.

So, we set off for the Ristorante Accademia, on Piazza San Marco, and had just a spectacular dinner there. I have to warn folks, that we also had a far-less-than-spectacular dinner there later - it's a restaurant with a split personality - "foreigners" in the front, and Italians in the back, with commensurate service, quality, etc. The food, however, was universally good, and they had a great, local, by-the-glass wine selection both times.

The first dinner we were introduced to the salad below, which was one of our favorite eating experiences in Italy (which is really, really saying something). It's just a great combination of flavors, and while I haven't completely captured the quality of the Accademia salad, I think most of the basics are here, and those who've tried it Stateside have seemed to like it.

Happy What's Cooking Wednesday!

Accademia Salad

Dressing:

1 TBS good quality olive oil
1 tsp good quality honey (if you can get Tuscan honey, so much the better)
2 TBS Looza peach nectar, or the equivalent (I've also made this berry juice - even cider might work)

Salad:

2 large handfuls of watercress (I've been using arugula, since watercress isn't in season. I've also made this with winter spinach, and that worked well, too, but the bite in the arugula is a bit better)
1 large pear (preferably bosch), sliced into thin wedges
2 TBS toasted pine nuts
1 - 2 oz. EITHER pecorino Toscano (if you can find it - this is best, but also price) OR Basque sheep's milk cheese, Parrano or Pecorino Romano all make good substitutes - each has a different feel), shaved thin in strips
pepper to taste

1. Take a large bowl and put in the dressing ingredients and whisk HARD. The honey is just not going to want to emulsify, but persevere! Once you've gotten everything blended, let it sit while you fashion the salad.

2. Wash the greens and dry thoroughly and spread at the bottom of the salad bowl. Slice the pears on top of the bed of greens. Sprinkle the pine nuts on top of the pears. Shave the cheese on top. Sprinkle with freshly cracked pepper to taste, and drizzle the dressing over all.

3. Eat and enjoy!

Nutrition facts:

* Fat: 8.8g
* Carbohydrates: 12.8g
* Calories: 138.4
* Protein: 3.9g

As always, nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com.

Writing

2010-03-21T10:19:00.003-04:00

The dishes are clean. The house is getting aired-out and springified.

The taxes have been sent off - both ours and my mother's.

We are now clearer on goals for our house, for C's future, for our next stage - whatever that is.

My writing group is more active than it's been in years, and I've been absent.

I have full notes on the trip to Florence sitting in e-folders.

I spent from 9 - 1 yesterday playing at a magnificent poetry workshop given by Scott Beal, whom C is also lucky enough to have as his short story workshop leader. Even better, I got to play with Anno at the workshop.

It was the perfect entree to my enforced leave from writing.

Happy Spring.

2009 Year End Meme

2009-12-31T10:26:00.004-05:00

I got this meme from Michelle, at Bleeding Espresso, who first saw it at Sundry Mourning, who originally copied it from Gwen’s Petty, Judgmental, Evil Thoughts back in 2004.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
I became a "professional" food blogger and learned that it's not something I enjoy doing.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I make goals, rather than resolutions. I'm getting close to meeting some of them and haven't touched some of the others.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! Gorgeous Aiden Van Erik Tyler was born!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, sadly.

5. What countries did you visit?
Bermuda, Canada

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A quiet year with no major family traumas.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 20th - the Inauguration - what a day!
March 26th - the day my mother moved to Michigan.
May 26th - the day my mother moved to her new home in Michigan.
July 5th - the day Aiden was born.
September 22nd/23rd - the days Sarah and Amy turned 25, respectively. YIKES.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Starting a yoga practice, as odd as that might sound.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I'm trying not to put things in these terms.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Ugh - let's not even go there.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Three books by four friends: Luisa Perkins's Comfortably Yum, Karen E. Olson's The Missing Ink, and Charity Tahmaseb's and Darcy Vance's The Geek Girls Guide to Cheerleading.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
many ordinary people with their heart in the right place (I'm using Goofball's answer here, because I like it!)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Intolerant people. Those who claim to be one thing, but behave in ways that show they don't stand for what they say they stand for.

14. Where did most of your money go?
The basics.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The local food/artisan food movement in Michigan!

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
"At Last" sung by Beyonce to the new First Couple.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder?  b) thinner or fatter?  c) richer or poorer?
happier, same, same

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
reading books (ditto Goofball again - it's true!)

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Food blogging

20. How will you be spending New Year?
with family at home

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Um... well, continued to be in love?

22. How many one-night stands?
Um....N/A

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Glee

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don't think hate is a useful emotion.

25. What was the best book you read?
Really hard to say - I loved many.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Again, hard to say. I like Owl City at the moment, but only in small doses.

27. What did you want and get?
Some more free time or permission to myself to take it.

28. What did you want and not get?
Enough of that time. Health and life for loved ones of friends who died.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
I can't pin this down, either. Maybe Julie and Julia, just for Meryl Streep/Stanley Tucchi.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
For the big 5-0 I sat in a small ship's cabin waiting for maintenance to do something about the black bilge water coming up through our bathroom pipes. Then we had a nice French dinner in the evening. It wasn't my favorite birthday, despite the French dinner.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Fewer crises for family and friends. More political change in the U.S. than what has actually happened. I'm worried our system is irreparably broken.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Health care.

33. Who did you miss?
Not seeing enough of my exchange daughters/son.

34. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"Eat rhubarb wet from the rain
Beautiful fruits all the same
Pears, oranges, and grapes from the vine
Children it is the earth's time." From "Children Play with Earth" by Arrested Development

35. I wish you all a happy satisfying healthy loving 2010. Have a good celebration and a fun start of the new year. All best wishes to you all!!!!!

I Just Have to Write About How Awesome My Husband Is

2009-12-27T11:37:00.003-05:00

We're not so big on presents at the Haines house. I think all three of us feel that there's too much emphasis on "things" in general in this country, and that most holidays should be celebrated for their spirit, rather than for getting things.

One thing we share with various family members, for example, is sending donations and/or homemade gifts, rather than more traditional presents.

SOMEthing from your spouse, however, is always nice. And this is an area in which Dave has had some problems.

In any marriage, there are things you find just amazing about your spouse, and there are probably some things you wished were just a little bit different.

One things I wish were a little bit different about Dave is that he tries so hard at finding just the "right" present or card that often I've ended up with nothing at all. And yeah, that's created some doghouse moments.

This Christmas, when Dave asked what I wanted, I said, "anything simple, but I want a couple of things to open on Christmas morning - I don't really care what - just see what you think will work and don't spend more than $30 altogether."

I hoped I was making it easy, but maybe that was too directive. You can weigh in on that.

I expected that maybe I'd end up with a couple of paperbacks, and maybe some candy or something.

What I got instead was total awesomeness. Dave showed up and then some. The man is OUT of that doghouse!

First off, for those that know me, know there are few things I love more (well, other than family and friends) than coffee and my guinea pigs. So what does Dave do? He combines them:

Can I just say how much I love my new coffee carrier? I can't imagine anything better. And since Dave is a talented photographer, the pictures he chose are simply wonderful. Unfortunately, I am a horrid photographer, so you'll just have to imagine how great this mug looks.

My second item was Fellini's Amarcord. This is a favorite of mine from way back. And he remembered. As I said, awesome.

The last and maybe best was something he made for both Connor and me, but each was personal. Dave is always coming up with "million dollar ideas". It's a family joke, and every time Dave says he's got another one, Con and I kind of roll our eyes. Most of these ideas are real stinkers. If they were truly million dollar ideas, well, our lives might be different. (Or not).

Anyway, each of us received a booklet by a Dr. Silas Pepperpotdottson of our "unique and personal assortment of $1,000,000 ideas." Connor's were ideas for video games, and mine were ideas for restaurants. They were absolutely hysterical.

Here was my favorite:

"MICROVOR
Motto: The localist food in the universe
Image: A spoon containing grass, ants, leaves and a cute mouse
Target niche: People who really care

Local is in. Microvor is taking the Locavore revolution to its logical end. This "restaurant service" brings you a meal made entirely from food that's found no more than 100 feet from where you live. Make a reservation and the Microvor chefs will arrive at your doorstep with their aprons, attitudes, and nets. They spread out to make creative and unique meals just for you from the food found in your yard, your home, your basement, your attic, your bedsheets. Anything edible is fair game for their knives and their acute and creative minds. No one will ever eat a meal like yours again!

These people are in it for the love of it. If you have a house you get the super-fresh ingredients (grass, spiders, mice, moss) of whatever you have living in or outside of your house. If you live in a leaky, 4th floor walk-up, they'll love the challenge of creating a unique meal from your native flora and fauna before the food inspectors catch up to them.

Microvor is pricey but unique. It's so unique that each franchise comes with a film crew, a slot on the Food Network, and a whole set of liability waivers fully tested in court."

Now, is that a million dollar idea or what?

I'm telling you, my husband is made of awesome.

Happiness and Love and...

2009-12-23T21:39:00.002-05:00

Peace for the New Year.

December has been a challenging month. I miss everyone and am sorry I haven't been around reading or writing. I hope to rectify that in early 2010.

To all those who celebrate - a very Merry Christmas.

Belatedly, Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrated.

Happy New Year to ALL.

And for those who might have expected cards... I still hope they're coming.

I'm so. far. behind.

Again, peace, love and happiness to all readers here and for all the Earth's children everywhere.

Music Monday: "Baby Are You Down, Down, Down?"

2009-11-30T06:09:00.004-05:00

My friend Pat, one of my writing mentors and all around great friends sent me this video clip recently.

I loved the "Where the Hell is Matt" project, and if you haven't seen it, you can find it here.

This is a similar project, but focused on bringing awareness of breast cancer. It was also part of an effort to get Medline to donate a huge amount of money to St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR. They had to get 1,000,000 hits for this on youtube, and the current tally is 1,599,499, so they made their goal and then some.

The folks in this video are Medical Center employees, and as you can see, they were joyous in their participation.

To all our sisters fighting this disease and to all of their loved ones (and a special shout-out to my friend, Linda, who is going through a bone marrow transplant on Friday to fight myelofibrosis):

Happy Music Monday. For more participants, go visit Soccer Mom in Denial.

Could we be slow-slow and not need fatafat?

2009-11-27T11:27:00.002-05:00

Check out this fascinating op-ed piece on slow food and a return to our founding principles:

"Back to the Land"

Thanks to Anno, who pointed it out to me.

Hey, Good Lookin', What you Got Cookin'?

2009-11-26T07:40:00.006-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today.

I'm up making cranberry sauce and steaming summer squash (no, this won't be a locavore feast, although I am serving a local turkey and local potatoes, and probably other things that I'm too tired to think of at the moment), and I started to think about my menu and wondered what my friends are cooking up today?

So, first off, despite my love of cooking and my love of all things locavore, for us Thanksgiving is first and foremost a family holiday, and the menu has been constructed of various family members' favorites over the years. So, yes, it's pedestrian, and somewhat commercial, even, but it's our very, very traditional feast.

We're having a very small crowd this year - just me, Dave, Con, my mother and my father-in-law. We're also having an early dinner (probably 1:30 or so), and then we're planning to see THE BLIND SIDE, which is one of the few movies out there which we'd all be happy seeing (my father-in-law basically only likes to see inspirational movies).

So here are our family favorites:

Turkey - I am trying something new this year - I liked the title of this recipe: World's Simplest Thanksgiving Turkey.

Mashed potatoes - with skins partially on. These are from Tantre and I'll make them with sweet butter and some half and half and salt. That's it. Con likes me to try to imitate the Roadhouse mashed potatoes, which are his favorites. He's the mashed potato king in our brood, so he gets dibs on the type. If it were me and Dave, it would be garlic mashed all the way.

Squash pudding. I've talked about this here, before. This is NOT a sweet squash - it's a summer squash pudding that's decadent and savory. My mother started making this in the 60's and it ain't Thanksgiving without the Squash Pudding (this is a bow to me and to Mom and to Dave).

Cranberry Maple Sauce - this is a recipe from the Silver Palate New Basics cookbook. Bowing here to Dave, who likes the maple, and Mom, who likes the orange zest. It's fabulous and simple - 1 bag of cranberries, rinsed, 1 cup of maple syrup, 1 cup of raspberry juice (but we don't drink juice so I used a bottle of pomegranate cherry juice instead) and the zest off one orange. Boil, bring down to medium, cook for 10 minutes, cool. Add a cup of toasted walnut pieces, if you choose to. We probably won't - I'll take a poll. I'd prefer the walnuts, but I bet, I'll be outvoted.

Katherine's Gravy - this is my sister's recipe that's a bastardization of a Craig Claiborne N. Y. Times vegetarian gravy. I still have the recipe card she gave me, and I commune with her a little every time I take it out. We all love this recipe, although we do a non-vegetarian version (I use chicken stock).

Stuffing. Okay... confession time. It. has. to. be. Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing. A la the package recipe. With my homemade chicken broth. Then baked out of the turkey. So, um, yeah. But that's the way it rolls on the Shikes side of the family. Dave prefers cornbread stuffing, but he gets outvoted here. ;-)

If there were more people, I'd do Tyler Florence's upscale green bean casserole recipe, but we just don't have enough people, and the food we have are the main faves.

Dessert: Another confession here: Costco Pumpkin Pie. It's better than any of the versions I've made over the years. Sigh. At least according to Con, and he's also the Pumpkin Pie king. Mom just wants pumpkin pie. My father-in-law and Dave love Pumpkin Pie, too. If there were more people, I'd also make my mother-in-law's Sour Cream Apple Pie, but there just aren't. Me - I like Mince Pie, but I'm totally outvoted here.

And finally, you have a choice of Calder vanilla ice cream on that pie or whipped cream.

So, what are you all cooking up today? What are special family faves?

Happy Thanksgiving and happy eating!

Tony Bourdain, Alice Waters and that whole Local Food Thing...

2009-11-09T08:09:00.008-05:00

I had a great time Saturday night.

I got to hear one of my heroes, Anthony Bourdain. Now, those of you who know me personally, and even those who know me primarily through this blog, might be shocked to hear me call Bourdain a hero. As he said himself, partway through the evening, "I'm no role model".

Well, not in the traditional sense, no.

If you're offended by language, he's not your man. If the fact that he's made some really poor choices over his lifetime, um, yeah, not a good role model.

The thing I love about Anthony Bourdain, though, is that he always, always, always leaves me thinking. And he's honest. Even brutally so, even maybe over the top for effect sometimes, but the honesty is refreshing in today's world, and maybe especially in the kingdom of upper echelon foodies. He also admits when he's screwed up. I admire that.

Apparently, he's been having an ongoing conversation with Alice Waters in his head.

One of the reasons he's been seen as a bad boy in the food world is that he's picked on Alice and many others who are "doing good". Now, on the other hand, he's also clear that he doesn't have problems with everything about Waters or just about anyone else (except maybe Sandra Lee).

What seems to disturb Bourdain is the "all or nothing" attitude that can exist in the local food movement. He had a conversation with Alice in his head that I've actually had myself: "Easy for you to say everything can be local - you live in Berkeley!"

Bourdain took it one step further and asked her, in his head, "And what are the folks on the Upper Peninsula supposed to eat in the winter?" and answered it, humorously, with Alice responding that there are "lovely rutabagas, turnips, carrots," to which Bourdain responds, "So they should eat like Russian peasants?"

Well, I've lived in Soviet Russia in winter, and yes, that's pretty much what the grocery stores carried. And yes, everyone put up their own vegetables in the summer, and jams and all those things our grandparents did, and it worked, to a great extent, but then there's the person I talked to Saturday morning.

He works in Ann Arbor and commutes to his family farm in Manchester. He's not in the business of farming; he's in the business of feeding his family through this farm. He was very excited to grow many, many tomato plants this year. He had visions of eating his put-up tomatoes throughout the winter.

As anyone in our area can guess, however, that didn't happen.

This was the summer of the tomato blight.

He harvested a whopping 22 tomatoes, all of which his family devoured.

We got on this subject because we were talking about two meals we'd prepared that week with almost all local ingredients, but we'd both ended up using a can of San Marzano tomatoes when it came down to it, because no, we didn't have our own.

Bourdain also talks about the fact that when he was actually at Chez Panisse, one of the co-chefs was in rapture over some beautiful vegetables from a special farm and wanted Bourdain to return the enthusiasm. Bourdain sort of did a double-take, as these vegetables were from a farm in the San Diego area, six hours by truck. As he put it, "How sustainable is that?"

Another of my "local" experiences this week was taking part in a highly-enjoyable and oh-so-delicious cook-off and potluck by Slow Food Huron Valley. Yesterday afternoon about 50 people actually came inside on a gorgeous day to share pasta with toasted pumpkin seeds and butternut squash puree, Three Sisters stew, pumpkin-buttermilk ice cream, John Savanna's famous Lithuanian Rye (which you haven't tried, you REALLY should), fabulous borscht, etc., etc.

I had decided that I'd enter what are usually my (well, if I do say so myself) pretty darned good Apple Maple Corn Muffins, but I was going to go ALL local - no vanilla, no cinnamon, no salt (my exception was a little bit of baking soda, because they call for buttermilk and I needed that for the leavening). Well, those omissions, plus some not very good local maple syrup, which shall remain nameless, turned my usual delightful bites of Sunday morning goodness into dull, chewy "good-for-you" lumps of ... well, let's just say I didn't enter them.

So Bourdain's point? Food is to be enjoyed. The local movement is good, humane animal care is good, organics are good - why? Because things taste better. Because, yes, it's good for the earth. It's good for local economies. It's good for your body. But really? Things TASTE better.

So here's my question for you - are you all or nothing on this? Do you care about local foods/agriculture/sustainable practices? And if so, how do you incorporate these practices in your life?

I know for myself, I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be, and that will be the subject of another post, as this one is already way too long.

Part 2 will concern the art of being a guest and risk-taking: another subject near and dear to my heart.

Also, just cause it's Music Monday, here's a little music for your Monday (see Soccer Mom in Denial to see who else is playing): Arrested Development's "Children Play with Earth" (press on the Lala button at the top of the page).

Slow Food Huron Valley's Local Harvest Cook-Off

2009-11-01T15:32:00.007-05:00

Cook up a soup/stew, main dish, or dessert with local ingredients and you could be a ribbon winner at Slow Food Huron Valley's Local Harvest Cook-Off on Sunday, November 8th from 3 - 5 p.m. at the Chelsea Fairgrounds Community Building.

This family event is a wonderful opportunity to share your cooking prowess and support for all things local, as well as enjoy what will assuredly be a delicious potluck.

Old Pine Farm and Tantre Farm have helped to organize this potluck, contest and recipe swap, and in addition to the food and judging, there will be music, prizes and great, family fun. Alber Orchards is also a sponsor for this event. Chef Alex Young of Zingerman's Roadhouse, Corbett Day, Lenawee County Culinary Arts Dept head/chef, and Natalie Marble, owner of Ann Arbor Cooks cooking school (and fellow annarbor.com contributor) will be the Cook-Off judges, and prizes will include jams and local produce, among other goodies.

You could go home a blue ribbon winner by putting together a dish with as many local ingredients as possible in the following categories:

- Soup/stew
- Meat main dish
- Vegetarian main dish
- Vegetable side dish/salad
- Dessert/bread

Please bring: your dish to pass, your place settings, and 30 copies of your recipe to swap. Slow Food Huron Valley is also making this an opportunity to benefit Food Gatherers - so please consider bringing also nutritious non-perishable food or a check for Food Gatherers (which will be eligible for a Michigan Tax Credit).

Deadline for entry in the cook-off judging: 3:15pm.
Chelsea Fairgrounds location: 20501 Old US 12 (at Old Manchester Rd.)
Questions: leadership@slowfoodhuronvalley.com

All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines.

NOTE: The Slow Food Huron Valley website is having some technical difficulties and, as a result, this event is not listed currently (nor are future events). The information in this article is accurate and comes from the organizing committee. If you have further questions about the event, please contact leadership@slowfoodhuronvalley.com

Copy Cat Recipes: Georgia Grits and Bits Pancakes

2009-10-18T08:50:00.008-04:00

In two short years, Dave and I will be empty nesters. In preparation for that time, we've started taking days off together to rediscover our interests as a couple.

On our most recent day off, we started our morning with a delightful breakfast at the Zingerman's Roadhouse. I'd read Jane and Michael Stern's rave review of their breakfast there, and we were especially dying to taste the Biscuits with Chocolate Gravy and Bacon.

We split that as a starter, and then split the Georgia Grits and Bits Waffle. The biscuits were absolutely delicious - the chocolate "gravy" wasn't overly sweet, and the salty bite of the bacon was a great counterbalance to the chocolate, but what we really flipped over was the Georgia Grits and Bits Waffle.

If you haven't tasted it, the Georgia Grits and Bits Waffle is a creamy, rich, cheesy cloud of grits enclosed by a crisp waffle outside, bits of perfect bacon and sharp cheddar cheese, and covered with some of the best maple syrup I've ever tasted. It is one of those meals where each time we take a bite, we say, "Mmmmmm...."

Now, while there are many reasons to go to the Roadhouse - the fabulous service, the wide menu, the mellow and lovely vibe on an early weekday morning, supporting a great local business - this is not something we can do as a frequent pleasure (both for work and monetary reasons), and waffles are only a pleasure we eat out, as they tend to call for a lot more oil/butter than pancakes do.

But, wow, those waffles were good, and I had a feeling they wouldn't be too hard to copycat.

So Saturday I did some research and found this recipe on Wuthering Bites, which in turn was taken from The Rustic Table Cookbook. The recipe itself had a bit too much (okay, way too much) fat, and it also was missing the cheesy and bacony goodness of the Zingerman's Georgia Grits and Bits Waffles, so here was my final product:

Jen's Copycat Georgia Grits and Bits Pancakes (Waffles)

Ingredients:

2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup quick-cooking (not instant) grits
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 chunks
3/4 cup cold lowfat buttermilk
2 large eggs, separated
2 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, cut into small pieces
1 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
4 slices of good bacon (I used Ernst Farms bacon) cooked to taste, chopped into small pieces

Maple syrup for serving

Directions:

1. Combine the water and the salt in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the grits; reduce the heat as low as possible and cook, stirring occasionally, until the grits are very soft and creamy, 10 minutes

2. Meanwhile, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cold butter to the hot grits, stirring until it is melted and well incorporated. Stir in the buttermilk, then the egg yolks. Transfer the grits mixture to the well of the dry ingredients and stir lightly, just until incorporated.

4. Stir in the chopped cheese and half the chopped bacon.

5. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, and then fold the egg whites into the batter until just incorporated. This will help to make the pancakes (or waffles) lighter.

6. Preheat a griddle or frying pan to medium/medium high and grease with either neutral oil (such as canola), butter or cooking spray. If you're making waffles, preheat your waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions.

7. For pancakes, cook about 3 minutes on each side, then top with bacon crumbles and the shredded cheddar. For waffles, cook according to manufacturer's directions, and then top with the bacon crumbles and shredded cheddar.

Serve with maple syrup (and butter, if you must). Makes 18, 1/4 cup pancakes or 6 waffles. Serves 6.

Nutrition Info:

Servings Per Recipe: 6
Serving Size: 1 serving

Amount Per Serving
Calories 320.7
Total Fat 16.4 g
Saturated Fat 9.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.2 g
Cholesterol 111.0 mg
Sodium 433.0 mg
Potassium 147.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 30.3 g
Dietary Fiber 0.8 g
Sugars 3.7 g
Protein 12.4 g

Nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com.

All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines.

Do We Have, Like, Nothing to Say?

2009-10-08T07:41:00.002-04:00

Well, this says it all:

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

"O" Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month: TomatO, TomatillO, Onion and Pepper Stew

2009-09-26T12:05:00.010-04:00

Michelle of Bleeding Espresso and Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy have been getting the word out on this insidious, silent killer. They've put together an O Foods Contest, and Michelle is also involved with Teal Toes for Ovarian Cancer Awareness.

For the "O" Foods Contest, I wanted to provide a recipe that is really healthy and contains several foods that fight cancer. A wonderful blog that highlights foods and nutrition that help in the fight against cancer is Diana Dyer, MS RD. Diana is a cancer survivor and nutritionist and she has helped many other cancer patients fight their battles through better nutrition. While my recipe does not use her beloved kale (she also has a blog called 365 Days of Kale, which she considers the ultimate "super food"), I do have plenty of other cancer-fighting elements in this dish: tomatoes, tomatillos, and four different types of peppers, plus three types of beans. It also has chicken, but that was mostly for taste.

From The Cancer Cure Foundation:

"Chili peppers and jalapenos contain a chemical, capsaicin, which may neutralize certain cancer-causing substances (nitrosamines) and may help prevent cancers such as stomach cancer.

Tomatoes contain lycopene, an antioxidant that attacks roaming oxygen molecules, known as free radicals, that are suspected of triggering cancer. It appears that the hotter the weather, the more lycopene tomatoes produce. They also have vitamin C, an antioxidant which can prevent cellular damage that leads to cancer. Watermelons, carrots, and red peppers also contain these substances, but in lesser quantities. It is concentrated by cooking tomatoes. Scientists in Israel have shown that lycopene can kill mouth cancer cells. An increased intake of lycopene has already been linked to a reduced risk of breast, prostate, pancreas and colorectal cancer. (Note: Recent studies indicate that for proper absorption, the body also needs some oil along with lycopene.)"

And general information:

Beans are high in folate, which helps against mutations in our DNA.

This recipe is very simple and very adaptive. I made it mostly to use up various items from this past week's farm share, so feel free to substitute at will:

TomatO, TomatillO, Onion and Pepper Stew

Ingredients:

1/4 - 1/2 onion, chopped
any combination of peppers you like - I used 2 chocolate peppers, 1/2 red pepper, 1 poblano pepper, 1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped (except I chopped fine the jalapeno)
1 large tomatillo, chopped
1 28 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes
1 TBS olive oil
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded
1 can beans of choice, rinsed (I used a black bean, pinto bean and cannellini bean mix)
salt to taste
chili powder to taste (I probably used 1/2 TBS)

For serving:

sour cream
shredded cheddar
tortilla chips

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in the stockpot or soup pot over medium/medium high heat.

2. Add onions and peppers and cook five minutes or so until the onions start to turn translucent.

3. Add tomatillo and can of tomatoes. Heat until bubbling.

4. Turn heat to a simmer, and add the chicken and the beans, the chili powder and the salt. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Taste for seasoning, add chili and/or salt if you want to, and let simmer until dinner time (hopefully at least 20 more minutes).

6. Serve with sour cream (I used reduced fat), shredded cheddar (ditto), and tortilla chips for either crushing into the stew, or to eat as a carb with the stew. Some chopped, fresh cilantro can be a nice addition, too.

For more information about Ovarian Cancer and the O Foods Contest:

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

* 1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;

* 2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);

* 3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

* One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.

———

From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

* Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
* The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
* There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
* In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
* When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at Michelle and Sara's page through FirstGiving!
Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.
Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Southern Comfort Supper

2009-09-15T19:02:00.006-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

We're having warmer weather at the moment, but last week things were still on the chilly side.

Con and I were also still adjusting to the new school year - papers to write, papers to grade, a new theater schedule, homework, homework, homework, lesson planning, etc.

It seemed like a good time to pull out another comfort food meal.

This summer, I wanted a recipe for corn pudding, and as I perused various sites, I found a highly rated recipe for "Corn Casserole" by Paula Deen. I'm not usually a fan of Deen's cooking, due to the copious amounts of butter, etc., but I decided to try this one and then figure out how to make it reasonable.

Deen's version was extremely rich. Too rich for me on every single level.

What I wanted was something that was doable nutritionally and that had a bit of spice to go with Deen's overly-sweet version. The changes below worked beautifully, and a delicious dinner was had by all. I also had some kale and tatsoi from my last farm share that I wanted to use, so I took 2 strips of Ernst Farm bacon, cut them into small pieces, and sauteed them, adding the greens (chopped) when the bacon rendered. The smoky taste of the bacon was a great complement to the greens, and we had a perfect side in about 7 minutes. This was definitely a supper of Southern-style comfort foods.

Jen's Corn Pudding

Ingredients

Corn kernels from 4 ears of corn, or 4 cups frozen kernels
1 package of Jiffy Mix corn muffin mix
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar
2 links Amy Lu chicken Andouille sausage, sliced in half lengthwise, and then chopped into pieces
1/2 tsp Frank's Redhot or other hot sauce (Clancy's might be good here)
oil or cooking spray for greasing casserole dish.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a casserole dish (I used an 8X12 dish that was just the right size - 13X9 makes things a bit thin and 9X9 is too thick, and the pudding won't set as easily).

2. In a large bowl, stir together the corn, the corn muffin mix, sour cream, buttermilk, melted butter, sausage pieces and hot sauce.

4. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch. Take out of the oven and top with the shredded cheddar cheese.

5. Bake for another 5 - 10 minutes until cheese is just melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 6.

Variations:

Sweet version - leave out the hot sauce and use Amy Lu's Apple Maple Sausage.

Vegetarian - leave out the sausage - it still tastes great. You could also put in some sauteed, chopped summer squash for added nutritional boost.

Note: The reason I'm promoting the Amy Lu sausages is only because their fat and calorie counts are much lower than other chicken sausages. That's only important in terms of the nutrition info here.

Nutrition Facts

Servings Per Recipe: 6
Serving Size: 1 serving

Amount Per Serving:

Calories 364.9
Total Fat 18.9 g
Saturated Fat 10.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.6 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.2 g
Cholesterol 55.1 mg
Sodium 639.7 mg
Potassium 223.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 40.4 g
Dietary Fiber 1.6 g
Sugars 10.7 g
Protein 11.9 g

As always, nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com.

PSA Tuesday: Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

2009-09-15T15:27:00.004-04:00

Notice my new look?

I'm teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Michelle of Bleeding Espresso and Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy have been getting the word out on this insidious, silent killer. They've put together an O Foods Contest, and Michelle is also involved with Teal Toes for Ovarian Cancer Awareness.

Ovarian cancer is a silent killer. It's often diagnosed when the disease is advanced. There is no simple test that can be used for screening. If you have any of the following symptoms - bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; or urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency) - please get checked out right away. When ovarian cancer is caught early, it's generally very treatable.

Here is the info for the O Foods Contest:

CONTEST RULES

O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

* 1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;

* 2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);

* 3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

* One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.

———

From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

* Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
* The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
* There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
* In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
* When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!
Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.
Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.

What I Learned on my Summer Vacation, pt. 1

2009-09-12T13:06:00.004-04:00

Monday school starts.

It already started for C; he's part of the local public school system, and he started the day after Labor Day. In fact, he's in the middle of his first bout of Junior homework as I write this - a large chunk of math, historical analysis, English essay, science reading and project, studying for his first Spanish test of the year.

My first day papers are all printed out and ready to go. My copies of Beowulf and Romeo and Juliet and Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage are stacked in my wheeled crate. The lunch box has been cleaned and aired. Tomorrow I go to pick out folders and a new water bottle (mine started inexplicably leaking which is not good when you're carrying student essays in the same crate with said water bottle).

The fact that school was about to start hit me hard about two weeks ago. It didn't hit me hard because I didn't want to go back to teaching - I love teaching and I'm always excited, rather than distressed.

What hit me hard was how much time I was spending on the annarbor.com job. How many hours I was putting in each week making sure I had the right number of food posts, what I would write about, how to fit in interviews and photo sessions with businesses, making sure I read the other food articles on the site. Making sure I commented. Making sure I commented here, and there, and that I read many, many other food blogs every. single. day.

I always wanted to be a food writer. Much of my freelance work has been in the education field or special projects for the University or the U. of M. Hospital, and I've always wanted to write about food instead.

But here's what I learned on my summer vacation: I really don't.

I really don't want to be a food writer.

But don't get me wrong: I love writing about food.

So, now it's time to go, "Huh? But I thought she just said..."

Yeah, I did. But what I really mean is that I don't *just* want to be a food writer. I want to keep being a teacher. I need and want to be the best mom and daughter (and wife, although hopefully D is less in need of caretaking than C and my mom) I can be, and take the proper time for those whom I love and who need my care. I want time to volunteer for the causes I believe in. And oh, yeah, I want my word count to go up on my WIP.

I don't want to keep posting my food posts on Facebook or tweeting my own posts.

I'm happy to post yours - I love connecting friends to the writing of other friends, but tooting my own horn? Not so much.

It's just not in my comfort zone.

So, Friday, I tendered my e-mail of resignation. I can still post there; I'll just go to being one of the unpaid bloggers. Now, before you get all in my face about writing for no pay, I'll cover that in another post soon.

But for now, here's what I plan to do:

Talk about the need for healthcare reform.

Write about more than food businesses for Local Love Fridays.

Write about ovarian cancer awareness and other upcoming events.

Write about sustainability issues.

Oh... and lest I get too serious, post some funny videos and keep posting recipes.

I'm baaaaaaccccckkkkkkk.

And there's nowhere you need to leave comments other than right here. On a2eatwrite.

It's good to be home.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Corn Potato Chowder with Sausage

2009-09-08T19:25:00.009-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

As many of us are only too aware, yesterday was the first day of school in Michigan. And like many other moms, I wanted the dinner after the first day to be something I knew my son would enjoy, as well as something that would be healthy and filling.

Being a teacher, I know just how exhausting that first day can be, and comfort food at the end of it can be a blessing.

C is a carb boy, and when I saw this recipe in this month's Cooking Light, I knew it had his name on it.

The recipe, however, had some issues that don't work quite as well for my family. One, I knew C would like it much better if it had meat. The rest of the recipe seemed to be a great match for sausage, and C loves the chicken apple-gouda sausages by AmyLu. At only 110 calories and 5 grams of fat per link, it's a luxury I can afford (calorie-wise) as well, but I wanted to bring the calories down a bit to both add the sausages and suit my own needs.

I removed the red pepper (which C only likes raw), cut back a bit on the onions (again, for C's tastes), cut back a bit on the butter and switched to 1% milk (which didn't hurt the consistency in the least). I also changed the proportions of the corn in terms of plain kernels to pureed kernels, and I added a bit of shredded cheddar to C's portion, since he's a huge fan of shredded cheddar. I also dispensed with the grilling and earlier Cooking Light recipe steps because a. I'm sure the taste is wonderful, but it was kind of fussy, and b. I wanted to get dinner on the table in a reasonable amount of time. The final product was rich and delicious, and we've all decided this one is a "keeper".

Serve it with a fresh salad and some bread, if you feel the need (D and C felt the need).

To make this vegetarian, just remove the sausage or use something like this - I don't think the recipe would suffer - the sausage just adds a nice, smokey flavor.

Corn Potato Chowder with Sausage

Ingredients

6 medium russet or 12 small (red or new or purple) potatoes (a variety of types works best here), cut into 2" - 3" inch chunks (roughly cut - size is just to get them to cook a bit more quickly)
1TBS butter
kernels from 4 large ears of corn
4 chicken sausages, halved and sliced (I used apple-gouda sausages by Amy Lu)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 cup half and half
3 cups 1% milk
sprigs of thyme (optional) or 1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
chopped chives (optional)
shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions
1. Cook the potatoes in salted, boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool them.
2. While potatoes are cooking, strip the kernels off the corn, process 2 cups of the kernels in a food processor until they are completely pureed. Chop onions and cut up the sausages.
3. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. Saute the onions for a minute or so, and add the sausages. Cook another two minutes. Add the corn kernels. Add the 1/2 and 1/2, milk, corn puree, salt to taste and the thyme. Bring to a simmer.
4. While the soup is coming to a simmer, cut the potatoes into small pieces. Add them to the soup.
5. Simmer the soup for 20 minutes stirring from time to time so that it doesn't skim over. Remove the thyme sprigs when the chowder is finished.
6. Serve with lots of freshly ground pepper, and either the chopped chives, shredded cheddar, or both.

Serves 6 generously.

Nutrition Facts:

Amount Per Serving

Calories 370.0
Total Fat 14.3 g
Saturated Fat 7.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.0 g
Cholesterol 61.2 mg
Sodium 478.2 mg
Potassium 969.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 45.0 g
Dietary Fiber 5.2 g
Sugars 11.1 g
Protein 19.1 g

As always, nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com.

Photos: Corn Potato Chowder with Sausage. All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines.

If you don't mind leaving your comments/votes for this piece at my other gig, it would be greatly appreciated!

A Vegetarian Labor Day or Harvest Dinner

2009-09-07T07:30:00.005-04:00

Labor Day can be a very social time or not so much.

We have a mix this weekend - we had a dinner with friends last night, I had friends over for breakfast this morning, but the rest of the weekend will be spent at Dancing in the Streets, Radio Free Bacon and with some good books.

Last night’s guests included a vegetarian, and since all of us love vegetarian cooking, I decided to go that route.

We had a truly great, if non-traditional, “Labor Day” dinner, that didn’t involve a grill in any way, shape or form.

Pasta with Basil-Pistachio Pesto, Roasted Tomatoes and Kale

Ingredients

For the slow roasted tomatoes and kale:

1 pint cherry tomatoes, rinsed and dried
1 1/2 cups washed, torn kale
1/2 TBS kosher salt
1 TBS olive oil

For the pasta and pesto:

4 cups fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried
1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano (domestic or other parmesan can be substituted, but it's best with the real thing)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup roasted, salted pistachios, shelled
1/3 cup olive oil minus 1 TBS

6 oz. of whole wheat fettucine
1 cup pasta water

Directions

1. About 4 1/2 - 5 hours prior to serving, preheat the oven to 225. Toss the kale and tomatoes with 1 TBS olive oil and 1/2 TBS kosher salt. Spread in roasting pan. Stick in oven and roast for 4 - 5 hours, stirring every hour and a half or so.
2. Bring pasta pot to a boil. Cook fettucine according to instructions.
3. While pasta is cooking, process pesto ingredients in a food processor or blender. Start with the garlic, cheese and nuts until ground fine, then process/blend basil, and finally process in the olive oil. There are recipes which will tell you to use the feed tube for the olive oil, but I go ahead and process the whole thing together and it's worked just fine.
4. When pasta is done, reserve a cup of the pasta water and drain and rinse the pasta with cold water to stop it from cooking and to remove some of the starch. Get a big bowl and toss the pasta with the pesto and pasta water until the pasta is well coated and the texture is how you like it. (You don't need to use all the pasta water - I usually use between 1/2 a cup and 2/3). Lastly, toss with the roasted tomatoes and crush and sprinkle the kale over all (when kale slow roasts, it becomes crisp).

Serve with lots of freshly ground pepper and grated parmesan to taste.

Serves 6.

Nutrition Facts

Servings Per Recipe: 6
Serving Size: 1 serving

Amount Per Serving
Calories 403.1
Total Fat 20.2 g
Saturated Fat 3.9 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 12.1 g
Cholesterol 6.6 mg
Sodium 172.8 mg
Potassium 500.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 46.2 g
Dietary Fiber 9.7 g
Sugars 1.3 g
Protein 14.9 g

Note: While this is not a low calorie or low fat dish, keep in mind that saturated fats are very low and monosaturated (the good fats) are high. This also has a whopping 9.7 grams of fiber and 14.9 grams of protein.

We served this with Scaletta Green Bean Salad, Kalamata Olive Twists from Mill Pond Bread and Calder vanilla ice cream with this Peach Rum Sauce.

All the vegetables are at perfect ripeness and the dinner was a snap to prepare, even if I had to be home due to the slow roasted tomatoes and kale.

Enjoy your Labor Day festivities!

Photos: Vegetarian Labor Day dinner: Basil-Pistachio Pesto with Roasted Tomatoes and Kale, Scaletta Green Bean Salad and Olive Kalamata Twists; pan of tomatoes and kale ready to go into the oven; close-up of Basil-Pistachio Pesto with Roasted Tomatoes and Kale, vanilla ice cream with Peach Rum Sauce. All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines.

If you don't mind leaving your comments/votes for this piece at my other gig, it would be greatly appreciated!

Local Love Fridays: A Splendid Feast at Sparrow Market

2009-09-04T10:39:00.012-04:00

For over a year, Dave and I have been intrigued by the flyers that went up around the fourth week of the month at Sparrow Market - various "feasts" were to be had on third Sundays. Often they were Italian; always, they reflected the season.

As so often happens in this busy-ness that can be Ann Arbor life, we never made it. When our staycation came up, we were delighted to see that it corresponded with the August "feast" and that the menu was one that made our mouths water in anticipation.

So Dave and I attended the August 23rd South American Market Feast. We walked in to a transformation of the market space performed by head server Sydney Liepshutz and her crew; tables were set up where the vegetable and cheese cases usually are, and Sweetwaters had also been taken over with tablecloths and lovely settings. A variety of eclectic favorites was being rocked by the father/son duo of Douglas and Andrew Brown, and while the music was a bit loud, it just added to the festive atmosphere. We settled in at a table four six, joining another couple and later having a third couple join our group. There are some four-seat tables in the Sweetwaters area, but most of the seating is family-style. We quickly found common ground with our table mates and shared a wonderful Voignier made by John Schafer, one of our tablemates. (All Sparrow Feasts are strictly BYOB affairs).

Soon the food began flowing, and I use that term because the plates seemed to magically appear and disappear as the courses wore on. This is a five-course meal, and while the portions are perfect - large enough to be satisfying but small enough so that you don't feel you have to stagger out at the evening's end, the dinner has to have a certain rhythm or we would have been there for hours. The friendly servers were efficient and helpful - and most were familiar faces from the Kerrytown market businesses.

Chef Ricco Decola and his sous chef Casey Pennisi put together a simply fabulous menu. Our first course was a "baby greens salad with hearts of palm, mango, and a citrus vinaigrette". The salad was light and refreshing - a perfect palate teaser for the rest of the meal. I loved the balance of the mangoes and the hearts of palm.

The second course was one of my favorites - "a selection of fresh, cured and smoked chorizos accompanied by fresh pears and berries". Again, the balance was what made this work - each chorizo had a very different mouth feel and flavor, and the berries and pear were perfect counterparts. I especially loved the fresh chorizo, it was subtle and had a simply fabulous texture.

The third course tied as my favorite - a "lime marinaded Chilean shrimp over calasparra rice". The shrimp was succulent and flavorful, no easy feat when served simultaneously to a large group. The rice was perfect - a saffron-infused dish that was reminiscent of paella rice. My tablemate, Liz Salley, who wasn't a newbie, left some of her rice, knowing that more good things were to come. I didn't leave any, because it was so delicious, but I regretted it later, just because... she was right. While I said the portions were perfect, they were, but five courses is five courses.

The fourth course was an "Argentinean chimichurri beef over spiced squash puree," slices of superb Sparrow Market beef, cooked medium, with a really bright, flavorful chimichurri sauce and a sweet counterpart of spiced squash. I wondered how this would fare when I read the description, but again, Chef Decola struck just the right note. My only quibble with the entire dinner is that I would have preferred the beef to be served more authentically rare, but again, for this kind of family-style setting and delivery, a compromise (as well as consideration of food safety issues) was probably necessary.

The dinner was topped off by "fresh (sic) prepared rice pudding and plantains with hot rum sauce." Again, this was superbly delicious - the rice pudding was creamy and light (a necessity after all of the earlier courses) and the plantains seemed to be caramelized and were rich and sweet. The rum sauce was amazing - I was in serious danger of wanting to lick the plate.

One of the couples at our table were pescatarian; they'd let this be known ahead of time, and they had fish sausage for the chorizo course and vegetarian options for the beef. They were also supremely happy with their choices.

Dave and I are saving our restaurant budget for another trip to Sparrow's on Sunday, September 20th, where we'll enjoy a Summer's End Italian Feast consisting of an asparagus, sweet peppers and baby greens salad with lemon vinaigrette; a selection of Italian salamis; penne with tuna, capers and basil in marinara; rosemary chicken over a wild mushroom risotto and fresh cannolis. We can't wait!

For reservations and information, please call 761-8175.

Photos: Chimichurri beef with spiced squash puree, diners anticipating the start of the feast, baby greens salad with mangoes and hearts of palm, chorizos with berries and pears, rice pudding with plantains and rum sauce. All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines

If you don't mind leaving your comments/votes for this piece at my other gig, it would be greatly appreciated!

What's Cooking Wednesday: Mushroom-Onion Strudel with Two Paprikas

2009-09-01T20:26:00.012-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

Whether we like it or not, fall is in the air.

From a culinary standpoint, that's not a bad thing; while we'll miss the blueberries and peaches, the temptations of apples and squash are just ahead. The first apples, in fact, have begun to appear at the Farmers Market over the past couple of weeks.

The last day of our staycation I made a blueberry-cream cheese strudel, and had a few phyllo sheets leftover. This was the last of our indulgences; it was time for a return to healthy foods.

Now, it may seem like Mushroom-Onion Strudel wouldn't be that healthy, but with a few shortcuts, it really can be.

What I want from this strudel is a rich, Hungarian mushroom soup quality, but without all the cream and calories. To make this healthier, I cooked the vegetables slowly in a bit of olive oil, used whole wheat phyllo dough (Fillo Factory brand makes organic, whole wheat phyllo dough), and used 3 TBS of reduced fat sour cream, rather than a mixture of full fat sour cream and cream. To get a complex, smokey flavor, I used two types of paprika and some Gruyere. Our family loved this start to the fall. Enjoy!

Mushroom-Onion Strudel with Two Paprikas

Ingredients

5 sheets of whole wheat phyllo dough, thawed (regular phyllo dough will work fine, too)
olive oil cooking spray or olive oil atomizer
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 lb. mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
1 large onion chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
3 TBS reduced fat sour cream
4 oz. Gruyere cheese, grated (if you have a grater with small holes, or a microplane, so much the better as you can spread the cheese more - a light coating on the phyllo is fine)
1 tsp olive oil

Note: If you have only smoked paprika, 3/4 tsp can be used. If you only have sweet paprika, use the 1/2 tsp and add a pinch of cayenne pepper. This will be tastier with the two paprikas, however.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Saute onions in 1 TBS olive oil over medium heat, until onions start to become translucent. Add mushrooms, and continue to cook until they are golden brown - cook slowly. The sauteing should take about 30 minutes. Add salt, pepper, paprika and sour cream. Mix together. Set aside.

3. Spread a clean kitchen towel on a table. Working quickly so the phyllo won't dry out, place a sheet of phyllo dough on the towel. Spray with cooking spray or atomizer. Repeat until all five sheets have been used.

4. Sprinkle Gruyere across surface of the phyllo sheets, reserving 1 TBS. Along one edge, place the mushroom/onion mixture.

5. Using the towel, roll the strudel, jelly-roll style. When the strudel is rolled, brush the remaining tsp of olive oil along the seam and sprinkle with the remaining gruyere.

6. Carefully transfer strudel to baking sheet that is either greased or has a silicone mat or parchment paper covering it. (I'd recommend the latter two choices, if possible).

7. Bake for 25 minutes until strudel is golden brown. Let cool for 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 6

Nutritional Info

* Servings Per Recipe: 6

Amount per serving:

* Calories: 191.1
* Total Fat: 11.2 g
* Cholesterol: 24.7 mg
* Sodium: 147.6 mg
* Total Carbs: 14.5 g
* Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
* Protein: 8.9 g

As always, nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com.

Photos: Plate of Mushroom-Onion Strudel with Two Paprikas and heirloom tomatoes, close-up of Mushroom-Onions Strudel with Two Paprikas, phyllo dough and mushroom mixture ready to be rolled, rolled strudel ready for the oven. All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines.

If you don't mind leaving your comments/votes for this piece at my other gig, it would be greatly appreciated!

What We Did on Our Summer Staycation

2009-08-31T09:13:00.002-04:00

Despite the fact that rain derailed some of our initial plans, the a2eatwrite family had a good staycation last week.

There were a variety of culinary things we wanted to do, but honestly, after fitting in just a few of them, we decided to save others for later, just because we’re not really used to that much rich food.

We always see staycations as a chance to “splurge” in our hometown.

What do we do on staycations that we don’t usually do?

Well, one thing we don’t do frequently is eat out. We had a list of places we wanted to try: Neehee’s in Canton, courtesy of a great post by Kitchen Chick, burgers at The Sidetrack in Ypsi, one of Sparrow Market’s “Feast” dinners, The Grange Kitchen and Bar (see the great post on The Grange Kitchen and Bar by The Farmer's Marketer), and the last German Park Picnic of the season.

Neehee’s was a total delight, but Kitchen Chick gave a fairly comprehensive overview of Neehee’s so I’ll let her speak to that. I will say that our favorites were Papdi Chaat (crunchy puffed rice with potatoes, chilis, yogurt and chutneys) and the cheese Uttapam (a rice pancake with fresh mozzarella cheese, dipped in chutneys. We’d also second Kitchen Chick’s appraisal of the saffron-pistachio (kesar pistachio) ice cream - it was simply out of this world. I’ve included the Neehee’s link here, but while it was working fine a couple of days ago, it’s having problems today - just keep trying.

I still can’t believe that The Sidetrack has been on our radar all these years, and yet we’d never been there. If you love burgers, this is the place to go. Well, actually, we are rich in great burgers in Washtenaw county - I can’t slight Blimpy Burgers on one end of the spectrum nor those at Zingerman's Roadhouse (especially as the Monday night special with a fabulous tossed salad). If you like thick, cooked-to-order burgers, The Sidetrack brings back memories of burgers gone by. I loved my toppings of grilled onions and swiss, my husband loved his sliders with goat cheese and roasted red peppers, my mom followed my lead, but had cheddar instead of swiss, and my son was equally happy with bacon and cheddar. Not only were these burgers voted one of the top twenty in the country by GQ magazine, but there is an insane of topping combinations that can be derived from the menu. We also enjoyed a basket of fried dill pickles, which we thought were loads better than the fries.

German Park was great fun, if a little cold. The lines were apparently longer than they’d ever been, perhaps thanks to notice by German Park Picnic and a review in August's Ann Arbor Observer. Part of my varied ethnic background is Bavarian, and that part of me was delighted with the bratwurst, spatzen and sauerkraut. Music, schuhplatter dances and parades helped the evening, as did the good company of friends and some mean games of Sequence.

After The Sidetrack, we decided to hold off on the Grange Kitchen and Bar for another time, as we’d already decided that the bar menu was more friendly for our sixteen-year-old and our wallets, and we felt like we were done with the rich foods (um… except for that German Park Picnic) by the time late week rolled around.

As for the Sparrow South American Market Feast, it was incredible. In fact, it was so incredible that it merits its own post, which will be up later this week.

Our other culinary experiences were our traditional, staycation cheese and chocolate dinner, courtesy of “cheese ends” from Whole Foods Market (there is a basket of small cheese pieces where you can gain maximum choice for minimal buck right near the “cracker” section in the Washtenaw Whole Foods), daily tomato sandwiches with farmers market tomatoes, and a family sushi-making night.

Our other activities included geocaching, park walks, lots of reading, exploration of the new U. of M. Museum of Art, several rounds of Kill Dr. Lucky, and a viewing of Bride and Prejudice (to accompany our feast from Neehee's), too many episodes of “Angel”.

If you had a staycation this summer, how did you spend it?

Vacation!

2009-08-21T19:15:00.002-04:00

We're off on staycation for the next week, so I won't be hopping over to your places, and I won't be posting anything at mine.

Hope everyone has a lovely, happy, healthy week!

What's Cooking Wednesday: Farmers Market Niçoise

2009-08-18T14:36:00.012-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

I had the farm share of all farm shares last week, as our share partners were out of town, and it is most definitely peak season. Our Tantre box was filled to the brim with corn and lettuce, beets and eggplant, basil, parsley, summer squash, carrots, both green beans and purple beans, tomatoes, potatoes and an orange-fleshed honeydew that tasted deliciously sweet and had a hint of rosewater.

We cooked up the corn the first night, because you just have to eat corn as fresh as can be, and we used much of the other bounty quickly. By the weekend, however, we still had all of the wonderful makings of a Salade Niçoise, plus some corn kernels that had to be used up. With the addition of some hard-boiled eggs, a can of tuna packed in oil (which is what I really need for Niçoise), some olives from Plum Market's olive bar and a loaf of home made bread via Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, it was a delicious, and relatively easy, summer dinner. The ingredients that are starred are all veggies that you can find fresh and local at the Farmers Market (or other area markets) right now.

A2eatwrite's Farmers Market Niçoise

Ingredients

*4 small red-skinned potatoes, quartered, steamed or boiled to fork tender, and cooled
*4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered (better and fresher if you get them from a local farmer)
1 can of tuna packed in olive oil
*2 cups of rinsed, washed lettuce leaves
*2 cups of green beans, steamed briefly (1 minute or less) and chilled ahead of time (OR... 1 cup of green beans, steamed as above and 1 cup of purple beans, raw, so they retain their color)
*fresh corn kernels off of two small cobs (or one large one)
*2 tomatoes, cut into 1/8ths
1/2 cup of niçoise or other small, black olives

For the dressing:

*1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBS red wine vinegar
1 1/2 TBS olive oil

Directions

1. Mash the garlic together with the salt (I find a mortar and pestle works best for this) - scrap mixture into a small bowl and whisk in vinegar. Finally, whisk in olive oil until emulsified. Set aside.
2. Place rinsed lettuce leaves on the bottom of a platter.
3. Place tomatoes and beans around the platter and make sure coverage is complete, ie. you will get beans and tomatoes with each serving.
4. Do the same with the cooled potatoes and egg quarters.
5. Scatter the corn, olives and tuna on top of the salad.
6. Drizzle dressing over the salad. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper.

Serves four.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

4 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 398.3
Total Fat 17.8 g
Saturated Fat 3.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.8 g
Monounsaturated Fat 7.2 g
Cholesterol 219.7 mg
Sodium 609.7 mg
Potassium 1,217.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 37.3 g
Dietary Fiber 5.9 g
Sugars 2.2 g
Protein 24.8 g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

If you'd be so kind, please leave your comments and/or votes here.

Gifts

2009-08-18T10:10:00.002-04:00

On Saturday I had hoped to be at the wedding of a friend's just-turned-21-year-old daughter.

Instead, I was at the memorial for a just-turned-14-year-old gem of a girl who lost her battle with leukemia.

Emma was the daughter of C's simply amazing math teacher. This teacher gives of herself in a way that few teachers are able to. When C, D and I went for the first information night about C's school, there were several students there who were talking about their favorite experiences at the school. This teacher's name came up again and again. I can personally vouch for this woman's extraordinary care and commitment - despite her daughter's illness, she took a special interest in C and tried with everything in her power to help him overcome some real struggles which he had with Algebra 2 last year. It was also evident that she is a superb, dedicated and loving mom. No surprises there.

From what I can tell, the entire family is extraordinary. The young woman who died was someone who grabbed life with both hands - she was always optimistic, never had a bad word to say to anyone, faced her illness and treatments bravely, had straight A+'s in school, many extra-curricular interests, a special fondness for animals, respect and love for all people. Her dad and younger sister are obviously equally loved (I've already spoken of her wonderful mother) - I think the sister's entire class and their parents showed up to lend her support. Her father gave the most touching eulogy I've ever heard, and shared so many details of Emma's life it was clear that this is a family who really listens to each other, who learns the details that makes each person in the family unique.

Then you have to ask yourself, why?

It's the old question of why do bad things happen to good people? Why is another friend of mine losing her 54-year-old husband to brain cancer? Why was this girl, who by all accounts was a true angel on earth, taken so young?

Obviously, none of us have answers to the hard questions. Some of us find solace in various religions; some of us do not.

What I can take from this is that each day is a gift. Each time I can hold a loved one close, it's a gift. Each time I can read an involving book, bite into a sun-warmed tomato, plunge into the ocean, smile across a table at a favorite friend, visit with you all via your blogs and e-mails, it is a gift.

Gifts are unpredictable. Make the most of yours.

Peach Cherry Muffins

2009-08-17T06:58:00.003-04:00

I have Peach Cherry Muffins over at my other gig.

If you'd like the recipe, please click here.

Local Love Fridays: The Sweetest of Sweet Gems

2009-08-12T16:39:00.018-04:00

I don't think Matt Morgan and Tommy York could have planned it better. If they want someone to linger in their shop, what better strategy than to plant a chocolate kitchen by the front entrance?

The delightful odor of chocolate envelops you as you move closer and closer to Nancy Biehn's workspace - the kitchen and main showroom for Sweet Gem Confections, where Nancy is the Chief Executive Chocolatier.

I met Nancy at the end of a long day, and was somewhat mixed about a late-ish afternoon interview. All hesitation disappeared when I walked into her space. I felt like Charlie entering the Chocolate Factory.

Of course, there was also Nancy's wonderful energy and love for her craft, which was evident everywhere: the gorgeous display case, filled with myriad types of her hand-crafted, artisan chocolates, a wall of colorful ribbons, cooling racks filled with groups of the different truffles, crafted recently.

My next question seemed superfluous, surrounded by all this sumptuous glory. "How did you get started with all this?"

Nancy had taken a year in Ovieto, Spain to "find herself" as many of us do at some point or another in our lives. During that year she learned to really look at food for the first time. She grew up on a farm and food was definitely the mainstay of her family's life, but the attitude was always "eat to live". In Spain, influenced by the mother in the family she lived with, food began to take on an almost magical feel. She loved the care that went into cooking, the travel to taste new foods or wines, the different levels of aesthetics that went into each meal. After discovering a favorite chocolate shop in Oviedo, she completely fell in love.

When she came back, she knew she wanted to learn how to make chocolate. She spent the next ten years learning about her craft on her own, and then taking a couple of patisserie classes at Schoolcraft College in Livonia to learn tempering. After making chocolates as gifts for several years, a friend suggested she go into business. The whole Ann Arbor area is richer for her decision to follow that friend's advice.

Nancy's chocolates are as beautiful as they are delicious. They have been a part of special celebrations for our family ever since my husband and I met her at her stall at the Farmers Market on a cool, autumn day last year. Like all good, local food, her chocolates are seasonal, and while some favorites, such as milk chocolate mint ("cream infused with fresh mint leaves, mixed with milk chocolate, dipped in dark chocolate and embellished with a colorful finish") are available year-round, others are dependent on the seasons, such as the current Peach Truffles - tarragon-infused cream and peach puree mixed with Maralumi 45% milk chocolate and then dipped in dark chocolate. Nancy's selections are based on whim and by suggestions from customers; one of the things she loves about running her own business is the flexibility to change and to be spontaneous.

What makes Sweet Gems unique is that Nancy uses a variety of single-origin chocolates and then uses the essence of a particular chocolate, whether it's smoky or fruity, complex with various notes, or more straightforward, and matches it with the very best local ingredients or top-shelf liqueurs. She uses cream and butter from Calder Dairy, raspberries that she picks herself from Makielski's, strawberries from Gibbs Berry Farm and honey from various local sources. Before the demise of Leopold Brothers, she made a fabulous truffle that used their stout. To give you a sense of the range of her truffles, she creates items as basic (but oh so amazing) as my personal favorite, the Strawberry Pate - "Fresh strawberry pectin fruit pate dipped in Michel Cluizel's single origin "Conception" dark chocolate" to one of the most beautiful and complex in her current repertoire - Jasmine Tea w/ Citrus Zest - "Dark chocolate and fresh cream infused with pearl jasmine tea and grapefruit zest, diamond cut, dipped in white chocolate, and finished with a pattern of branches and flowers".

In addition to Nancy's extraordinary truffles, she also makes decadent caramels, chocolate barks of various types, chocolate covered toffee and a lovely, spicy cocoa mix. She also puts together chocolate-making classes for groups of four to six. Upcoming classes will be taking place from 1:00 - 3:30 on the following Saturday afternoons: September 19th, September 26th, October 24th, and November 14th. If you're interested about the experience, local blogger and wedding poet Chloe Miller has a lovely write up on her blog, Wordarrangement's Blog, of a recent class.

If you wish to see Nancy at work, you can watch a video of an interview with Nancy here.

Sweet Gem Confections can be found inside Morgan and York, 1928 Packard Road Ann Arbor, MI 48104. You can get more information from Nancy at 734-929-6513 or by e-mailing info at sweetgemconfections dot com. You can also order Sweet Gem Confections online.

Every week, a small Ann Arbor area business will be featured here. Please feel free to grab the button and highlight special, small businesses from your area and be sure to buy local! If you are able, and would be so kind, please leave comments about this post at my new writing gig here.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Kohlrabi Slaw Redux

2009-08-11T19:28:00.014-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

Well, you may remember that last week I wrote about a recipe gone wrong. One of those recipes that went increasingly wrong as I kept trying to fix it.

I put out a plea for help, and help you delivered! I not only received suggestions from Ann Arbor, but also from Alberta, Canada; New Orleans; Belgium; Boston and several other locales.

I am very grateful for all of the help. Many of the suggestions were similar, which makes sense given that I described what I was looking for. After sorting out the many ideas, and going to local blog, Gastronomical Three, suggested by AnnArbor.com reader Vivienne Armentrout, I decided to try the following variations:

This one was suggested by AnnArbor.com reader Peipei:

1 TBS canola oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 TBS honey
1 tsp fresh, grated ginger
2 TBS rice wine vinegar
1 TBS whole grain mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground fresh pepper

A sauce for hiyashi chuka, the cold Japanese noodle dish, was suggested by my blogging buddy, Thalia's Child, who lives somewhere in Western Canada. After doing a comparison of different variants of hiyashi chuka, I decided on the variant suggested by Thalia's Child, which consisted of this:

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
5 tablespoons chicken stock
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili oil (optional - but I used it)

I then pondered "add-ins". AnnArbor.com reader JG suggested cranberries, both for color and taste, and AnnArbor.com reader Mike Jennings suggested elimination of the sunflower seeds and adding black sesame seeds and toasted sesame seeds instead.

As a tasting panel, we invited over some friends, and we made a lovely Monday night dinner of it, supplementing the kohlrabi slaw taste-testing with grilled chicken sausages, a decadent Paula Deen corn casserole, and an Achatz raspberry pie. (Yeah, I was a bit lazy and opted for store bought dessert).

Before our friends arrived, I made two batches of the kohlrabi slaw with this recipe:

Per batch:
4 cups shredded kohlrabi
2 peeled, shredded carrots
4 shredded radishes

Then I divided the slaw into two bowls and mixed one bowl with Peipei's dressing and one with HALF the hiyashi chuka sauce. The amount of the hiyashi chuka sauce was basically twice the amount of Peipei's dressing, so you can either halve the recipe or save the rest of the sauce for another use (such as actually making hiyashi chuka). I let the batches of slaw marinate while I prepped everything else.

Right before dinner, I divided each batch of slaw into three bowls and topped each bowl with one of the following add-ins:

1. cranberries and toasted sunflower seeds
2. JUST toasted sunflower seeds
3. black sesame seeds and gomasio (dry roasted sesame seeds with sea salt):

We then passed all six bowls around sequentially and tasted each. For our very unscientific poll of four, the winning variant was unanimous:

Hiyashi chuka sauce with cranberries and toasted sesame seeds followed by the hiyashi chuka sauce with black sesame seeds and gomasio.

It needs to be stated, however, that we also really enjoyed those same two variants with Peipei's dressing. The solo sunflower seed variant, however, was just plain boring with either dressing.

Differences between the two dressings: both gave the semi-sweet, Asian feel that I was looking for with my original recipe. I would proudly serve either one at my table. Peipei's dressing was far sweeter than the hiyashi chuka sauce, so if you prefer sweeter tastes, in general, Peipei's dressing would be your choice. Since I used the optional 1/2 tsp hot chili oil in the hiyashi chuka sauce, this sauce gave a bit of heat, something that all four of us enjoyed. If you prefer something with a bit of spice, then the hiyashi chuka variant is for you. The cranberry/sunflower seed option was pretty darned sweet, the black sesame seed/gomasio option was much more savory, especially with the hiyashi chuka sauce.

So mix and match to your own tastes and enjoy! After the wonderful suggestions I received here, I'm hoping to have further misadventures in the kitchen.

Also, if you feel like commenting, comments would be greatly appreciated here.

We Are Family: A Wedding

2009-08-10T07:43:00.002-04:00

Little girl taking me by the hand, sleepy eyes, whispering, "It's time for me to go to bed."

A little girl who loves olives more than any other food.

Little girl creeping in, along with her sister, to the family room, where D and I are sleeping on the pull-out sofa. "Are they awake?"

"Shhhh..."

"I think they're awake."

"Mommy said we're not supposed to wake them."

I lie there, trying not to laugh, getting ready to "wake-up" suddenly and throw them into fits of giggles.

Middle school girl getting ready to move from everything she's ever known in Massachusetts to completely unknown Tennessee for her 8th grade year. It's going to be tough. I know this, as an 8th grade teacher. We discuss social strategies.

Dinner in New York, just moved there with her boyfriend. They're breaking into theater, he's doing tech, she's stage managing. She looks great - sparkling eyes and the same dimpled smile the sleepy girl had.

Last Saturday, a young woman dances, gazing dreamily into the eyes of that same boyfriend, now husband. She is heartbreakingly beautiful, her red hair caught up into a twist with "diamonds", her dress a clinging drape of lace and pearls.

She's currently in San Francisco, enjoying her first week of married life with her longtime love.

And yet, my lovely niece, whom I've seen all too rarely since we both moved from Massachusetts, was not the big surprise this past weekend.

Families are complicated. We all know that. We all know the phrase "You can choose your friends, but..."

Sometimes our own family is challenging, sometimes our significant other has the challenging group, and sometimes you may love both, but there are those particular personalities who just throw you, no matter how hard you try to suck it up and breathe tolerance.

For a variety of reasons, I hadn't seen many of these family members of D's for a long, long time. There wasn't any estrangement, it was more a matter of circumstances - moves, blizzards, illness, elderly parent needs, lack of communication.

Seeing them all again, I was struck how my earlier interpretations of behavior and personality were radically wrong. As I've aged, I see people who are far less powerful, less secure, than I once thought. People I saw as kinder are maybe less so, and those I used to fear a bit, seem more desperate than arrogant.

A wonderful experience was meeting and re-meeting some of my delightful sister-in-law's family members - I enjoyed each and every one of them, and I understand even more why I like her so much.

It was definitely a weekend of new-found knowledge.

What about you? What family (or other) relationships have you managed to see in a new light? Do you see your close relationships as everlasting or everchanging?

Local Love Fridays: What's Cooking Ann Arbor

2009-08-05T06:39:00.026-04:00

You have a toddler. Or maybe you have two strapping teenagers. You and your significant other both work. You believe in great nutrition for your family, as well as the restorative power of dinners at home. Maybe you're single, busy and want to eat a healthy meal without major hassle or expense.

Oh, wait.

You really don't have the time/energy/interest to cook.

Stacy Williams, of What's Cooking Ann Arbor, saw that need and went on a mission to fill it.

When you talk with Stacy, you can't help but be carried away with her enthusiasm for what she does. She's also very community-oriented: she wants people to eat good, healthy meals (she uses organic ingredients as often as possible, and she uses no ingredients that contain msg, high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated [trans] fats); she wants people to enjoy their family/evening time; and she wants to facilitate this. She's also reaches out to the community in other ways - creating fundraising opportunities and renting out her commercial kitchen space to like-minded Locavorious owner, Rena Basch.

Her customers are equally enthusiastic. Marietta Van Buhler, mother of the two strapping (6'4") teens mentioned above, has this to say about her experience as a What's Cooking Ann Arbor customer: "I was feeling bad with the amount of fast food supplementing that I was relying on to feed my family - and when I saw Stacy's 'What's Cooking' advertised with fresh and healthy whole grains and great taste... I gave it a try... it was everything she promised and then some. She cooks the way I would for my family if I had time." Jennifer Waljee, a surgery resident at University of Michigan Hospital, concurs: "Stacy's service provides healthy and delicious food with a lot of variety. We all have different tastes (my husband is a big meat-eater and I lean towards the vegetarian options), and there is always something for each of us. The convenience is hard to beat, and it has been a lifesaver for us. I recommend her to people all the time!"

In addition to being the primary chef, Stacy has hired eight people part-time as her business has grown over the past three years. One of her cooks is a former customer. Becky Smith loved being able to use Stacy's services at a time when she needed that flexibility in her life, and now she's delighted to help Stacy make that convenience available for many more people. "I always tell people about the different options, the fact that this can work for many kinds of people, and that the ingredients are all fresh and healthy."

Even in the Michigan economy, Stacy hasn't seen a drop-off in customers, and that's probably due to keeping prices reasonable. Her weekly menus are varied, and you can order something as simple as "Lunch Pals" for $5 (which include a variety of spreads or other protein, fruit, vegetables, crackers and a homemade [nut free] cookie), or take part in her salad "bar", or order adult-sized main dishes for $10.

This week's offerings include a summer vegetable pasta, sweet and sour stir fry with chicken or tofu with a choice of quinoa or rice, thai noodles with shredded beef, roasted cod, and chicken with black bean salsa. Sides include steamed broccoli, her salad bar options, spinach balls and tabbouleh. An order of four lemon-blueberry scones is available for $5, and for the summer time, there is a "Picnic Pals" option, including a variety of healthy sandwiches, cut-up veggies, a piece of fruit, a half-side of this week's specialty salad, and two of the homemade cookies. Once your weekly order is placed, there are many pick-up points around Ann Arbor and for orders over $50, your order will be delivered to your door.

Stacy Williams started her business after a long odyssey in dental hygienics and sales, followed by health care sales. She's always liked helping people and that's been a constant. Working with a big pharmaceutical was a less comfortable fit, and she'd always had a yen to turn her love of cooking into something she could do full-time. After falling into a job cooking for a friend's party (where the friend didn't want to cook), she received so many compliments that she conducted an informal marketing survey and one respondent said, "Call me. I'll be your first customer."

While it was challenging to figure out quality cooking in mass quantities at the beginning, it's now become second nature - she easily pulls out three hundred meals per week on average. Her customer base is broad - parents, singles, elderly parents whose sons/daughters live far away, tax accountants during tax season, other professionals during "crunch" times - all have been customers at one time or another.

Helping people has never been in doubt - it's what Stacy Williams loves and what she does best. The fact that she can now do this by helping many people eat delicious food and have more relaxed evenings? The best of all worlds. And from everyone I've talked to, it shows in her cooking.

Let's eat!

What's Cooking Ann Arbor can be reached here, by phone 734-645-5287 or by e-mail info at whatscookinga2 dot com. Information on how to get started is here, and you can see the full repertoire of dishes here.

If you would be so kind, please leave your comments here.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Summer Squash Pancakes

2009-08-05T05:57:00.001-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

We used to have a tradition for Hanukkah that's fallen by the wayside - different pancakes for each night. It made sense to me since cooking in oil is traditional, latkes are traditional, and C just loved it.

Plus pancakes are easy and delicious. What's not to love?

As our mixed family has moved on to other traditions over the years, we no longer honor this one, but we still love pancakes of all kinds.

I had a lot of summer squash to use up. My Tantre Farm share partner's family doesn't love it, so we've been the recipients of their share of the squash, as well. As I stared in my fridge at the eight, large summer squash that needed to be used up, a lightbulb went off and I thought: "Pancakes!"

Now, zucchini/feta/mint pancakes are kind of a standard, but summer squash has a really different taste - sweeter - and somehow I didn't think that mint or feta would be the right blend.

Instead, this is what I came up with, and it seemed to be a hit, because D had thirds:

A2eatwrite's Summer Squash Pancakes

Ingredients

3 large summer squash, shredded
1 piece of whole wheat bread, ground into bread crumbs (I used a food processor for this, but a blender should work, too, or just use about 1/4 cup commercial bread crumbs)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 container part skim ricotta cheese
4 TBS grated Parmigiano Reggiano (yes, you can use any parmesan here, but the real thing will taste so much better)
2 cloves of garlic, minced fine
salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp fresh, ground pepper)
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
4 TBS reduced-fat sour cream (you can also use any type of sour cream, but this is what I used in terms of the nutritional information below).

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450. Set two oven racks at about the middle of the oven (one just above, one just below).
2. Brush two baking sheets with olive oil.
3. Wash and either grate or shred the summer squash. Mix all the ingredients together.
4. Using a 1/4 cup measure, place pancake mixture on prepared baking sheets and flatten with your hand. Drizzle pancakes with 1 TBS olive oil.
5. Bake at 450 for 13 minutes or until the tops look browned around the edges.
6. Take the pancakes from the oven, flip them and reverse the baking sheets in the oven (place the one from the top on the bottom, and vice versa).
7. Bake for another 10 minutes.

Note: Baking, rather than frying, is important, so that the garlic has a chance to mellow. A fried version of these would need to have the garlic cooked first.

Makes 16 pancakes.

Serve with a TBS of sour cream and a fresh salad. Serves 4.

Nutrition Facts (including the sour cream)

4 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 255.2
Total Fat 15.2 g
Saturated Fat 6.4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 6.2 g
Cholesterol 83.9 mg
Sodium 251.5 mg
Potassium 743.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 16.4 g
Dietary Fiber 3.2 g
Sugars 1.6 g
Protein 15.1 g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

If you'd be willing to, please leave your comments here.

Misadventures in the Kitchen: Kohlrabi Slaw

2009-08-03T09:55:00.007-04:00

A few days ago, I mentioned that I'd recently made kohlrabi slaw. This seemed to be a recipe of interest, and to be honest, the slaw I made that night was simply shredded kohlrabi tossed with Marzetti's Lite Slaw Dressing, salt and pepper. It was pretty darned good, but it wasn't the slaw of my dreams.

See, I had this recipe floating around in my head. I wanted an Asian slaw, using kohlrabi, apples, and carrots. This is the perfect time of year, as all three are fresh at the Farmers Market and in area groceries.

I'd also promised some people to have it up for this week's What's Cooking Wednesday article.

So, I got out all my imagined ingredients, worked away yesterday making the recipe, and failed. Miserably.

I know. It happens to all of us. Nevertheless, I'm still thinking this recipe can work. There's something just ... off about the dressing. So, dear readers, I'm throwing this out to you to get your ideas and opinions. What would make this better? Where did I go wrong? Here is the current recipe:

Kohlrabi Slaw

Ingredients
3 cups raw, peeled kohlrabi, shredded (about one large)
2 medium, peeled carrots, shredded
1 large apple, preferably tart and firm, like a Granny Smith, peeled, cored and shredded
4 TBS toasted (or dry roasted) sunflower seeds
juice from 1/2 lemon (or 1 tsp bottled lemon juice)

Dressing:
1 TBS canola oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp low sodium tamari
1 TBS mirin
2 tsp honey
1 tsp fresh, grated ginger
juice from 1/2 lime (or 1 tsp bottled lime juice)
1 good squirt Sriracha sauce (or other hot sauce) - to taste
2 TBS mayonnaise (Hellman's Light Mayonnaise was used here and that's reflected in the nutrition information)
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground fresh pepper
Directions
1. Whisk together dressing ingredients. Set aside.
2. Toast the sunflower seeds long enough to release a toasty smell. Don't let them brown, just turn a slight color. Set aside.
3. Combine shredded kohlrabi, carrots and apples. Toss with lemon juice. Add cooled sunflower seeds.
4. Toss with dressing.
5. Chill for at least two hours, adjust for seasoning before serving.

Serves 8

Now, to even make this edible, I added a tsp of sugar and another TBS of mayonnaise to what I've listed above. Um... really not what I wanted originally.

Here are things I know I would do differently next time:

a. Throw out the tamari - it left an unpleasant, too-salty taste.
b. Leave out the apples - you can't distinguish them from the kohlrabi. I was thinking of adding shredded beets for color, but I think they'd add that salty flavor that I'm trying to avoid.
c. Get rid of the Chinese 5 spice - it made the slaw too spicy. What do you think might be a good substitute?
d. I'm not sure I want the mayonnaise at all.
e. Get rid of the lemon juice - I really only used it to prevent the apples from discoloration, but since I'm throwing out the apples, that's a moot point.
f. Add raisins?

Okay, cooking friends, what would you do to this to make it better? I'm going to take your suggestions, play around, and hopefully post a great slaw recipe next week. Cheers!

Also, if you wanted to do me a really huge favor, you could leave your comments on this version of this post. Thanks!

Local Love Fridays: Our Family Farm

2009-07-30T21:52:00.012-04:00

Here is a puzzle:

What are these two objects, and what do they have to do with baking?

To find out, Local Love Fridays is over here at my writing gig today. Please come by and say hello.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Fish Tacos with Kohlrabi and Summer Squash

2009-07-29T06:46:00.009-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

Tuesdays are always a bit of an interesting challenge around my house.

It's end of the week for our Tantre Farm share, and I never know what goodies I'll have to use up. Last Tuesday, these were some things I pulled out of the fridge early in the day:

What was I going to do with kohlrabi and summer squash, onions and cilantro? Well, having discovered a wonderful kohlrabi slaw recently, this seemed like a great base for fish tacos.

Fish tacos are one of my summer favorites, because they are so light and the textures can be so varied. I'm sure that actual Mexican cooks would cringe at some of my filling choices, but I love the versatility that tacos provide in terms of tying various ingredients together.

Obviously, I didn't have the fish, so I ran to Monahan's later that morning and got a beautiful piece of pollack.

When dinner time rolled around, I had an easy dish prepared in about 20 minutes.

Jen's Fish Tacos with Kohlrabi and Summer Squash

Ingredients:

1 lb. pollack, or other firm, white, fish fillet, cut into 1 1/2" pieces
8 small flour tortillas
3 medium summer squash, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 medium kohlrabi, shredded or grated
kernels scraped off of 2 ears of corn
1 cup of salsa, prepared or homemade
a few stalks of cilantro, chopped, plus a few sprigs for garnish
juice from 1 lime
1 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute the onion and summer squash over medium high heat in a 1/2 TBS olive oil until tender, but not overcooked. Stir in the corn kernels and the salsa. Set aside and cover to leave warm.

2. In another pan, heat a little olive oil (1/2 TBS or so) over medium high heat. Saute fish until the pieces start to be opaque. Add the lime juice. Cook until fish is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Heat tortillas. The easiest way that I find to do this is to wrap them in a stack in paper towels and microwave them for 30 - 45 seconds.

4. Assemble the tortillas: place a tortilla on a plate, spoon the vegetables over the tortilla, spoon some fish over the veggies and sprinkle some of the grated kolhrabi on top. Garnish with a sprig or two of cilantro. Also garnish with sour cream, if desired.

Serves 4 - 2 tacos each.

4 Servings

Nutrition Info:

Amount Per Serving
Calories 413.7
Total Fat 6.4 g
Saturated Fat 1.2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.4 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.3 g
Cholesterol 102.7 mg
Sodium 694.3 mg
Potassium 746.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate 52.7 g
Dietary Fiber 7.3 g
Sugars 5.6 g
Protein 37.8 g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

Wedding Mania

2009-07-26T09:53:00.003-04:00

Two weeks from yesterday, I will be in the Nashville area celebrating the wedding of my niece, Amanda, to her long-time love, Nickalaus. I'm sure it will be lovely, and I know I will be emotional.

But I kind of wish I would be at this wedding instead:

I have to admit, I got teary at the end. What absolute joy and mania, and isn't that what weddings should be about?

What's the most unusual wedding you've ever attended?

P.S. thanks to my lovely Swedish daughter, Mikaela, for sending me this.

Local Love Fridays: A Walk on the Deliciously Wild Side - Taste Our Goods

2009-07-23T20:08:00.025-04:00

Fun.

That's the first thing that strikes you about Taste Our Goods - the breakfast and lunch counter run by Nora Feldhusen and Suzanne Lipton. The food is absolutely delicious and the baked goods are decadent, but what hits you first is the face of the counter:

Get Baked. Taste Our Goods.

These are tees designed by a friend who's started his own, small business: Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company.

A gorgeous red velvet cake sits between tchotkes and specials signs on the counter.

Above, the sign lists sandwiches such as Kat's an Adult (prosciutto, arugula and aged provolone on a buttered baguette), Foley's Steak Sandwich (butt-rubbed steak, caramelized onions, Amish blue cheese and arugula drizzled with cherry vinaigrette on sourdough), and Judy's a Punk (grilled portabello, pesto, tomato and goat cheese). The names are even more fun when you learn that they are homages to friends and to those who work around the market, and that there are inside jokes, such as Foley is actually a vegetarian and the eponymous sandwich is designed to razz her.

I went to breakfast at Taste Our Goods and enjoyed a perfectly made "Caprese" omelette bursting with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, accompanied by freshly toasted slices of Mill Pond Bakery's excellent multigrain bread and a fresh strawberry/watermelon/mint fruit salad. The serving was large enough that a friend and I split everything and still felt full.

And all of this for seven bucks.

Nora and Suzanne both graduated from U. of M. in May; Nora in Organizational Studies and Suzanne in the History of Art, and they started the baked goods business here a week later at Bob Sparrow's request. Soon after they were happily coerced into starting the lunch counter, and that expanded to breakfast, and now that has expanded to hiring more of their just-graduated friends, and...

They are having a really good time.

Everything other than breads (Mill Pond and Zingerman's breads are used) is made from scratch, and this means that you may have to wait a few minutes for your order. This isn't fast food in any way, shape or form, but it is completely worth the wait. The recipes are all their own or are from family and friends: the lemon caesar dressing is the recipe of K-ron (Karen, Suzanne's mother) and the special on Thursday, "Georgian Cheesy Bread," (otherwise known as Khachapuri) was given to Suzanne by the Georgian mother of a friend. They have outdoor seating, which is simply lovely in the summer, but you can also order a beverage at next-door Sweetwater's and relax and enjoy your food there when it's ready.

This is the newest member of what is, in my opinion, quickly becoming the hottest lunch spot in Ann Arbor - Kerrytown. Taste Our Goods serves up wonderful sandwiches and salads, Monahan's Seafood has a large and delicious variety of seafood options for lunch (which will be the subject of another post), A Knife's Work, out of Everyday Wines, provides artisan take-away created from local produce, meats and goods, and there is, as there always has been, the venerable Kosmo Deli.

The next time you visit the Hands-On Museum, peruse the shops on North Fourth, or even go to Town Hall to pay a parking ticket (well, maybe not that), stop by Kerrytown and meet one of the newest entrepreneurial teams in town and Taste Their Goods.

Taste Our Goods, located in Sparrow Market, Kerrytown, 407 N. Fifth, Ann Arbor, 769-2725. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, lunch from 10 a.m. til 3 p.m. and breakfast from 8 a.m. til 11 a.m., as well as all day on Saturday.

In other news, my new gig started officially today. You can find this post, among a variety of others, at AnnArbor.com which went live this morning. I can be found under the Food and Drink section. Please come by and say hello!

What's Cooking Wednesday - Blueberry/Lemon/Cornmeal Muffins

2009-07-21T20:56:00.008-04:00

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman (or man) lounging about on a lazy summer afternoon must be in want of a good book, lovely sunshine and some fine refreshment.*

And so I found myself, back from vacation, ready to embrace the pleasures of Ann Arbor summer. I was also in "want" of returning to healthy eating, after a week of cruise ship cuisine (the less said about that, the better).

After about 10 minutes of prep and 25 minutes of cooking time, I was ready to move out to the porch with Shannon Hale's Austenland, my muffin and a cold glass of lemonade.

*apologies to Jane Austen

A2eatwrite's Blueberry/Lemon/Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries, preferably fresh
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup ww pastry flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
zest from one small lemon
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon extract
lemon juice from half a small lemon
1 tsp granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Spray a 12-muffin pan with cooking spray or an oil atomizer.

3. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients, through the lemon zest.

4. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, then whisk in the buttermilk, the lemon juice and the lemon extract.

5. Blend the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, being careful not to over stir.

6. Stir in the washed blueberries.

7. Using a melon baller or other scoop, fill the muffin pan openings as completely as possible.

8. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown on top.

9. Cool in pan on wire rack for 3 or so minutes, then remove, loosening muffins with butter knife, and continue to cool on rack out of the pan.

Nutritional Info

* Servings Per Recipe: 12
* Amount Per Serving
* Calories: 102.2
* Total Fat: 1.5 g
* Cholesterol: 38.0 mg
* Sodium: 141.7 mg
* Total Carbs: 20.6 g
* Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
* Protein: 3.9 g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

THE MISSING INK CONTEST WINNER!

THE MISSING INK contest winner was Momisodes, as selected by the Random.org. Momisodes, please drop me an e-mail at jenshaines at gmail dot com and send me your information so I can get this wonderful book to you!

On Turning Fifty, part 1: Some special food experiences

2009-07-20T13:18:00.007-04:00

Last Monday I was blissfully floating across the North Atlantic on the way to Bermuda. I also turned 50 that day.

For many people, this might seem like a huge landmark. For me, last year was the landmark (surpassing the age of my sister). This year is simply a triumph, kind of like "See, I made it this far. Now, what comes next?"

I could be ambitious and make a list of fifty things I still want to do, or talk about the fifty greatest books I've ever read, or the fifty best experiences of my life, but I've chosen to talk about fifty food experiences, which I'll share from time to time throughout the year.

Today, in the spirit of just having returned from Bermuda, I'm going to talk about a few, memorable, international, food experiences:

1. I was three or so. We'd been to Ireland to visit my relatives there and were now having a beach vacation in Forte dei Marmi, Italy (which was very different in the early 60s than the chic resort it's become today). We were in a very small hotel, and I ate separately in our little cottage each night, before my parents would go eat in the dining room. I was a fussy eater at that age, and I longed for more American-tasting food. There was a lovely waiter who would bring supper down from the main building each night, and one night, with a great flourish, he presented me with a true prize: a hot dog! It was plain, no bun, but I was thrilled, and thanked him profusely. It was clearly a gift from one of those Italians who will do anything for bambini. I remember throwing my arms around his neck and saying "Grazie!" over and over again. Once he'd left, I dug into that lovely, pink specimen, only to find out that it was nothing like anything I'd had in the States. It was sweet in flavor, and the texture was all wrong. But it was perfect. It was a present from a friend, and this may have been my first true lesson in cultural exchange. I ate everything that was offered to me for the rest of my visit.

2. I was six or seven. I was back to my fussy eating ways and we were somewhere in France (probably Paris). I was at a restaurant with my parents, and I had something plain and simple in front of me. My mother had a full meal, and her appetizer was quiche. She implored me to try some, stating it was "the French version of pizza". I tried a bite and almost swooned. It was delicious. I tried bites of other things that meal and discovered, especially at the cheese course, that food could be a delightful adventure.

3. I was nine. We were in Guadalupe. There was a huge buffet set out for lunch on the beach. The Caribbean sun had been relentless, and we all enjoyed loading our plates and finding a shaded place to sit and enjoy. The food at this place was wonderful. My mother and I especially loved this one dish - was it fried fish? Fried chicken? Somewhat spongy and delicate that tasted astonishing - soft inside and crisp outside and beautifully spiced. After several helpings each, we found out that we were eating fish brain fritters.

4. I leap forward to 22. My father and I were in Paris for one of his research trips on Camille Pissarro. From what I remember, it was Victory in Europe Day - May 8th, and everything was closed. Since we were staying in a hotel, we'd had a minimal breakfast and nothing since. We'd spent the day traipsing the empty streets of Paris and by evening we were ravenous. We were invited to a French friend's home for dinner that evening, and when we arrived there, our hostess explained that she was terribly sorry, but she'd really had no time to put anything together. We sat down in her living room, making polite conversation and trying to quiet our rumbling stomachs. Finally, our friend served us some saucisson (which I abhorred) and a bit of baguette. My father and I tucked in, and I tried to swallow while barely chewing, as I was starving, but unhappy with the thin slices of soft sausage glimmering with chunks of fat. We both noticed that our hostess ate next to nothing, and we tried, somewhat, to follow suit. After twenty minutes or so, the saucisson and baguette were cleared, and our hostess invited us into the dining room, where she proceeded to serve us classic dish after French classic dish. I don't remember every course, but I do remember that we had Duck a l'Orange and Mousse au Chocolat and that the entire meal and company remains with me as one of the best dining experiences of my life.

5. Age 23: sitting at the famous Sacher Cafe at the Sacher Hotel, Wien. In front of me sat a rich cup of coffee and one of these:

Original Sacher Torte. For a history of this confection, click here.

I was in the middle of a "Cultural European History" tour, which had been a marvelously economic way to see much of Western (and a bit of Eastern) Europe in eight weeks, and while the cultural treats had been many, traveling with a group of college kids, whose general idea of a good time was a kegger, had made the trip somewhat enervating. This escape, on a rainy afternoon, was a lovely respite. I can still taste the undercurrent of the apricot jam, the bitterness of the chocolate, and the somewhat surprising dry texture of the cake. I can hear the rain and feel the warmth of the hot coffee.

Now, please share - what are some of your favorite, international, food experiences?

THE MISSING INK Blog Tour with Karen E. Olson

2009-07-10T15:12:00.007-04:00

Karen E. Olson, author of the Annie Seymour mysteries, has just released the first of her new, Tattoo Shop Mysteries series - THE MISSING INK. I was lucky enough to be able to read an advance copy, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was very different for me, because I'd really grown to love Annie, who is a very different character from Brett Cavanaugh, Karen's new protagonist, but Brett grew on me quickly. She's very creative and whimsical, but she's also tenacious and, in some ways, much more sure of herself than Annie, from my point of view.

But who cares about my point of view when we've got Karen?

1. What did you enjoy the most about starting the new series?

I had so much fun coming up with new characters, new voices, a new setting. While I was sorry to be leaving Annie and New Haven behind, it was a real challenge and a pleasure to discover that I had more characters in my head than just the ones in the Annie series. It made me realize that I can write outside my comfort zone and be comfortable with it.

2. I know you had to take a trip to Vegas for “research” (just joking about putting it in quotation marks). Tell us about some interesting experiences from your research. Also, did you choose the inspiration for Versailles, etc., based on your trip, or were some of your locations, like the Venetian, set in place ahead of time?

I was in Vegas about 12 years ago for a couple of days, so I had a little bit of experience with it! But in the middle of writing THE MISSING INK I realized I needed to go there again, to see what had changed, to get a little more of the ambiance. We stayed at the MGM and spent a lot of time at the Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes. I’d already decided that Brett’s shop should be there, so I took a lot of pictures and notes. I added some foodie stuff, especially after having the fabulous crepes in Paris. Versailles sprouted from visiting all the crazy, themed resorts. I needed to create a resort, though, because I couldn’t have crimes occurring in real places! One place I hadn’t been to before was Red Rock Canyon, which is stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately it was 110 degrees in June and we couldn’t hike.

3. How was it to write more of an ensemble piece? While there was certainly a wonderful cast of characters in the Annie Seymour series, this series seems to put almost as much emphasis on secondary characters as on Brett. I thought the secondaries were a total hoot, by the way!

Annie is a loner, basically. She doesn’t have a huge circle of friends and that’s okay with her. But Brett is different in that she’s befriended her employees and has good relationships with them. I had great fun with Bitsy and Joel, and you’ll see more of Ace in PRETTY IN INK. I wanted to create more of a world with more characters this time around.

4. Did you go through withdrawal switching from a hard-swearing, hard-boiled reporter character to a Catholic schoolgirl tattooist who calls on her memories of Sister Mary Eucharista for behavior guidelines?

I love Annie, because I know her. I know people like her, and I’ve been like her at times. And I grew to love Brett, who is sort of the anti-Annie, except that she has the same tenacity. I wanted to create a character who was not a stereotype but still had an edge to her. And she’s happy with her life. She’s not grumpy. It’s been so great writing a character who has no angst!

5. They say that all artists paint self-portraits within each portrait they paint of others, and the same can be said for writers and their protagonists. Who is more “you” – Annie or Brett?

Annie started out more me, but grew away from me with each book as I found out more about her. I suppose she is more “me,” in that she’s got the career I had. But Brett is the good girl with a twist, and I’ve always wanted to be more of a rebel. Is that vague enough for you?

6. What are you enjoying most about setting the new series in a place you haven’t lived as opposed to writing about a place where you’re currently living?

Everyone loves Vegas. It’s so over the top, and I feel like my plots and characters can be over the top, too. I don’t have to stick with real locations if I don’t want to, which is fun, and when I was there last year I met a Vegas native who said that the landscape there changes every six months so don’t worry about being true to streets or hotels or restaurants or anything else. It was very freeing. In New Haven, I was locked in and felt an obligation to be as true to the city as I could. Vegas doesn’t care.

7. What is the one, key thing that people should know about Brett?

She is just a nice person with a job she loves that pays the bills and she just happens to get mixed up in solving crimes. As long as people suspend their disbelief about a tattooist turned crime solver, then I’m happy.

8. Are we going to see more of Simon? And do we really have to wait to April 2010 for PRETTY IN INK? Can we get a sneak preview of what Brett will be facing in PRETTY IN INK (other than hilarious names for cross-dressing strippers)?

Simon is not back in the next book. He was going to break her heart, and she knows that. But there is a new guy in PRETTY IN INK, which actually is now scheduled to come out in March. In PRETTY IN INK, Brett gets all caught up in the deaths of two drag queens.

Thanks so much for having me here today!

You can buy a signed copy of Karen's book, THE MISSING INK, by clicking here (Mystery Lovers Bookshop is an independent bookstore in Oakmont, PA), or for regular copies, go to your local, independent bookstore, or get it from any of the usual online or commercial outlets. In our area, it's carried at Nicola's Books, Aunt Agatha's and the big box stores.

Or...

You can WIN a copy of THE MISSING INK just by leaving a comment at the end of this post. You have until Sunday, July 19th at 10 p.m., E.D.T. to leave your comments. Cheers!

Local Love Fridays: Integration for a Deeper Life - Gateway Chiropractic

2009-07-10T07:07:00.001-04:00

Last fall, I managed to do "something" to my back. I'm sure many of you have experienced that "something" - you're just not sure what you did, but all of a sudden there's quite a lot of pain, and you can feel a ridge of muscles that wasn't there before, but you can't seem to get the muscles to behave, and the pain is just... well, taking over your life.

When I went to the doctor, she gave me the requisite icing/Advil instructions, and also said that she really, really wanted me to see a massage therapist.

I went to the wonderful massage therapist, Lisa McVety of Massageworks, and felt much, much better. I worked with Lisa several times, and from the first time I visited her, Lisa said, "I really think you would benefit from my chiropractor. She's really different. You'll either like her approach or not - but it's worth trying."

Well, at first, I chose the "not". Fifteen years earlier I'd had a very bad, single experience with a chiropractor, and it had actually left my neck damaged for quite some time. No one was going to "crack" me.

Over time, however, there were certain areas that even Lisa couldn't seem to help, and then I had secondary problems come up that were related to my ongoing struggles with both fibromyalgia and some sort of hard-to-diagnose rheumatological arthritis.

By January, I was ready to try anything that might mitigate my fairly constant level of pain.

And that's when I met Dr. Diane Babalas of Gateway Chiropractic.

Dr. Diane's BGI (Bio-Geometric Integration) method is, indeed, different.

As Dr. Diane describes it: "The philosophy is what makes it different, because the philosophy of chiropractic is that the body has an innate wisdom. The chiropractor’s job is to remove any interference to the expression of that wisdom. Bio-Geometric Integration – BGI – is a method that allows us to read what the body is saying so that we can very effectively release the tensions and stresses that are stored not only in the bones but in the soft tissues and muscles and organs. So that’s different in that traditional chiropractic medicine would basically be limited to the bony structures of the body and tends to look at the body more mechanistically."

How this translates for us, is that since this model looks at the entire body, it helps Diane analyze where tension is stored and it also gives her tactile tools to help the body learn to release that stored tension. The experience, as a patient, is a series of touches and pressures - no snapping, nothing sudden.

And then you get up off the table and feel much, much better.

A great part of what Diane does is to teach her patients how to listen and react physically to the needs of their bodies over time. To help us to tap into our own body's intelligence.

I know that for me, this has translated into different ways of sitting and breathing, and that pain, which had been my fairly constant companion for six years, has pretty much faded into the distance. It's translated in other directions, as well.

Helping you to get "unstuck" helps in other ways. In terms of Diane's patients, and what she wants people to experience when they come under her care is expressed in the following way: "I’ve adjusted babies just born – a few hours old - and our oldest person is 99, so this is really something that can help anybody, as well as animals – Even though it (BGI) is gentle, it’s actually extremely powerful and the gentleness of it allows for greater depth. The depth of the adjustments is what allows for the effects to be life-changing. So more than people just being out of pain, which in and of itself is a wonderful thing, people feel that they can get a new job, or leave a bad relationship or move and people don’t even really think of it having anything to do with this, and it does and it doesn’t actually. I’m helping the body to move its own energy that’s been stuck and stored."

There's no doubt that, for me, my work with Diane has helped me in all areas of my life - I tend to "live in my head" and the work with Diane has helped me to deal more honestly with my emotions - to allow me to have responses, and keep those responses more positive and useful. All I can say is that I'm "learning" more from my emotions, and learning is always a good thing in my book.

The patient experience itself is friendly and warm. Diane adjusts people in groups - doing this allows for people's bodies to rest and learn during the process, and it also allows for a greater amount of flexibility in creating your own treatment schedule. There is a separate room for private adjustments if you are uncomfortable with the group setting.

The outer lobby is child-friendly and filled with soft colors. Kelly, the office manager, is a delight to work with, and she quickly gets to know each patient. The treatment area is filled with sensual pleasures - soft colors, lovely music (a mix of many different types of gentle pieces, including a great number of Celtic and worldbeat tunes) and pretty lights decorate a corner of the room, natural sunlight filling in the other areas.

There is nothing I haven't loved about this journey.

I'm hoping it may be helpful for some of you, too.

Gateway Chiropractic, 210 Collingwood Road, Suite 100 (Collingwood is across from Westgate, perpendicular to N. Maple/Stadium - parking is just behind Fawzi's Westgate Auto Repair. Here is a maplink). (734) 239 - 6060. Hours are Mon., Wed., and Fri.: 3:30 - 6:00, Tuesdays from 8:15 - 10:30 and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Tuesdays switch back to 9 - 11 in the fall).

Bookmark July 15th: The Missing Ink Blog Tour

2009-07-09T15:35:00.007-04:00

On Saturday, the Eatwrite family is taking a long awaited, much anticipated, vacation.

This means I will not be around much next week.

Tomorrow there will be a Local Love Friday - my wonderful, miracle-working chiropractor will be highlighted.

Then... silence.

Until - and this is very important news - JULY 15th.

Karen E. Olson, of Shot Girl fame, will be visiting us again to talk about her new book, The Missing Ink. It's wonderful, and very possibly the perfect beach read.

And then, again, Karen is wonderful, and chatting with her is always a hoot. (Plus, there will be a giveaway - natch).

Then... more silence - no What's Cooking Wednesday next week (except for cooking up discussion about The Missing Ink), no Local Love Friday for next week.

Maybe some beautiful pictures at some point... but we'll see.

See you tomorrow, and after that, happy week!

What's Cooking Wednesday: Another Radical Radish Adventure

2009-07-07T16:40:00.008-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

I still had radishes.

I was also about to make a lunch for some very special friends of mine: Amy, who was just days from giving birth, and her mom, Jane, who is a dear friend and who now lives in Kansas City. I don't get to see either of them often enough. Jane was in town for the big event, and Amy was just... well, passing time until little Aden was ready to grace us with his presence, which he did at 2:03 a.m. on Sunday, July 5th.

I wanted something healthy and easy on the stomach, and I also know a bit about Amy's tastes, since she's been one of my "adopted" daughters over the years (she's the best friend of my German daughter, Sarah), and she and I share a variety of recipes that we both love.

So here was the menu:

Springtime Strawberry-Radish-Mint Salad (which will be a post in and of itself).
Pepper Bacon Bread, which was a special bake from Zingerman's that day.
Cherry Walnut Whole Wheat Sourdough, from Mill Pond Bakery.
Strawberry Shortcakes (which are Amy's favorite).
And this rather unusual main, which used up my radishes and which we all found delicious - sweet, but covered with cheesy/eggy goodness:

Radish-Apple-Onion Frittata

Ingredients:

5 - 6 large radishes, cut in half and then sliced thin
1 small onion, again cut in half and sliced thin
1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced (with the slices cut in half - an apple peeler/corer is perfect for this, and then just cut the rounds in half)
1 TBS salted butter
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp kosher salt (or sea salt)
6 eggs
3 egg whites
lowfat buttermilk - a splash or two
kosher salt (or sea salt)
1 1/2 cups shredded or grated gruyere

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Prep the veggies and apples and grated the gruyere.
2. Heat an oven-proof large saucepan over medium heat and melt the butter in it.
3. When butter is just starting to bubble, add the onions and cook for a minute or two until they start to soften.
4. Add the radishes and apples and cook until they are really soft and somewhat caramelized. Turn the heat up a bit towards the end if they're not caramelizing at all.
5. When they are done, remove the saucepan from the heat and add the 1/2 tsp. salt and the maple syrup and coat the veggies thoroughly.
6. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and a pinch of the kosher salt (this softens the eggs. Beat a bit, but not too much. Set your burner to medium/medium high.
7. Place veggies back on the burner and pour the eggs over them. Stir the eggs just a bit to help the frittata set.
8. When eggs have just started to set, add the grated gruyere on top and place the saucepan in the oven.
9. Bake for 10 minutes. Cut into six wedges and serve.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutritional Info:

Calories 233.6
Total Fat 15.8 g
Saturated Fat 7.9 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.1 g
Cholesterol 247.3 mg
Sodium 392.0 mg
Potassium 174.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 6.3 g
Dietary Fiber 1.0 g
Sugars 0.9 g
Protein 17.0 g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

A Question for You

2009-07-06T08:19:00.003-04:00

Some changes are coming to a2eatwrite.

I am happy and proud to announce that I'm going to be the lead food blogger for annarbor.com, the new electronic entity that will replace the Ann Arbor News when its print edition folds on July 26th (although it will still appear in print form on Thursdays and Sundays - I know... that doesn't quite make sense, but it's all in the name of moving onward and upward).

I'm excited because I've wanted to do more exploration in the field of online media and because any gig that is professional in terms of food writing is, well, very exciting to me.

This blog, however, has always been a mix of things - food blog, yes, in some ways, but certainly also a blog that has covered writing/books topics, politics, and sometimes just plain silliness.

The best part of blogging for me? Meeting all of you.

So, I'd like to ask a couple of questions as I ponder what all this is going to mean. (BTW... annarbor.com isn't really live yet, which is why I haven't posted the link).

1. I only link the blog to the paper - I will be producing 3 - 5 pieces on food and food-related topics each week, but I only link the posts that are food related, so I could leave a2eatwrite intact. BUT...

I could also split it off - food and non-food. I've always had a mix of readers. I have folks who show up predominantly on Wednesdays, and folks who show up predominantly on other days, and folks who show up almost every post.

Is it clearer to split off the other topics, or to keep the blog whole in terms of ease of using RSS feeds, etc.?

2. 3 - 5 posts on food. I'm thinking less is more. I finally updated my blogrolls, and as you can see, I read a lot of blogs. I know that in general, I'm more tempted by fewer posts than every day posts - it gives me something to look forward to. I also, though, don't think there should be any "rules" about posting - it should be up to the individual blogger. What do YOU think about this? What are your preferences?

I guess that's it for now. I hate to impose on you, but I figured you're the experts on what you like/don't like about this blog. Please feel free to write me privately about this, if you prefer - jenshaines at gmail dot com.

I want to thank Jenn, of The Leftover Queen, who already gave me some invaluable input on these topics.

And so begins the adventure...

When you put your mind to it...

2009-07-05T14:57:00.003-04:00

Tonight is, sadly, the end of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. For the free portion, Top of the Park, in addition to local favorites Madcat and Kane and George Bedard and the Kingpins, there will be a sing along screening of The Sound of Music. In honor of the last night of the festival, I give you this clip from Belgium:

This was apparently prepared during a whopping two rehearsals, and the passersby were totally unprepared for 200 dancers to show up in the middle of their daily commute.

Local Love Fridays: Finding Good Books at Motte and Bailey Booksellers

2009-07-02T15:51:00.028-04:00

"Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered." - W. H. Auden.

This is one of several, pithy phrases that are posted across large planks in the feast of visuals that is Motte and Bailey Booksellers.

I think this phrase sums up why this is a very special bookstore. It also speaks to the sensibilities of managing partner/owner, Gene Alloway.

Gene and I had a wonderful time talking books on Wednesday, and his boundless enthusiasm for his trade and his shop was evident in each new topic we covered.

I had to ask my usual question of "what is the one thing that my readers should know about" Motte and Bailey, and he had two things to say:

"There’s the business thing and the true thing – the business thing is that we want people to come in to see books they haven’t seen before. The true thing – we’re not done yet – we’re never going to be done – that’s the true thing about the shop. The community changes, the book environment changes, new books come out."

This seems to encompass two themes I heard from Gene consistently - one - he's in the business of wanting his customers to see books they haven't seen before. Books they won't see in new book stores and especially in new, "big box" bookstores. Two, he sees the bookselling (versus bookslogging, but more about that later) business as fluid and ever-changing, and that's one of the things he so dearly loves about being a bookseller.

What does this mean for the customers who wander into his shop? It means this:

Gene knows his community, and his neck of the woods is an area of foodie heaven - the PFC, the Farmers Market and Zingerman's are all within a couple of blocks. He wants to make his shop friendly to browsing - make yourself at home. Respect the books, but enjoy your browse time. Support the Co-op, and support us. Stop by the Co-op, and with the discount, maybe you can afford that extra book you've had your eye on.

When I walk into Gene's shop, the first place I go is here:

This is the place, right next to the entrance, where the collection of cookbooks are housed. A typical experience would be last February, when I went in to ask Gene to display a poster for my son's high school theater group, and I found Italian Festival Foods* by Anne Bianchi, a book I hadn't heard of before, and one that's been absolutely invaluable for my fiction research. The books on this shelf are even harder for me to resist than my favorite espresso con panna.

What does Gene mean when he says the bookstore is "never going to be done"? It's a place that not only changes in terms of stock and possible genre or theme emphasis, but it's a physically changing environment as well, and one that always has wonderful delights for the eye. Here are just a couple of details from Gene's and partner Paul Hare's wonderful collections:

Motte and Bailey grew out of an abandoned board-game business founded by Gene and his friends Paul Hare and John Murphy (who left to go on to law school), and it's now grown into a true book community. Gene's Culinary History book club will be starting this July 15th, there's an ongoing History of Books and Printing club and a history reading group, led by Professor Mike Homel of EMU.

What Gene and Paul sell are not just books, but knowledge - they know most of the books in their stock, and each has his own specialty areas. He or Paul has personally selected the books sitting on the shelves, and they've selected them because they know them to be good. In Gene's case, he's taken the time after years of working as a librarian in places as diverse as the U. of M. Undergraduate Engineering Library and the School of Information, and by learning dumpster diving for rare print editions from Don Kramb, an amateur book scout, and the more refined particulars of the used and rare book business from Jay Platt, of the Westside Book Shop. When you go on Amazon or walk into a Barnes and Noble, you're going to find booksloggers - folks who are good at pushing the NYT bestsellers list, but their knowledge of books may be non-existent.

This is truly what you're buying at Motte and Bailey - a guarantee that this is a good book, a book that will (hopefully) not be undeservedly forgotten.

If you love books, I dare you to wander through Gene's world and not find something totally new, out of your ken, and something that you just know you need to own.

Happy reading!

Motte and Bailey Booksellers, 212 N. 4th Avenue (right next to the People's Food Co-op), 734-669-0451. Hours are Mon -Sat 10-8 p.m., Sunday 11-4 p.m. To learn more about books and the business of bookselling, as well as reading a delightful work-in-progress, Myles of Books, go to Gene's blog: Bookman's Folly.

*(Amazon.com Sales Rank: #799,054 in Books - like I would have found it by browsing Amazon!)

What's Cooking Wednesday: Spaghetti-os for Grown-ups: An Uber-Frugal Farmers Market Dinner

2009-06-30T18:21:00.010-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

Okay, so my title had everything to do with how many hyphens I could fit into one sentence.

But it also had a lot to do with the Michigan economy, cutting back, and eating local. Oh, and the dinner itself was delicious.

So here's what I had to start with:

In case my photography isn't crystal clear (and when is it?), this is a picture of lovely Farmers Market radishes and baby yellow squash and the end of some almost-done garlic. I also had a bag of $.99 anelletti and some grated Parmigiano Reggiano from Trader Joe's. Oh and, as always, olive oil.

And bacon. Mmmmmmm.... bacon.

Truly, though, this was it, and here's how the cash flow broke down:

1/2 box of organic baby yellow squash from Frog Holler: $1.50
3 radishes from bunch of 12 $ .37
three pieces of bacon from Ernst Farm: $1.00
1/4 bag of anelletti: $ .25
1/7 tub of parmigiano reggiano $ .71
3 cloves garlic, pinch sea salt, 1 TBS olive oil $ .20 (approx.)
Grand total....... $4.03
Divided by 2 (serves 2) $2.02/serving

And filling... did I mention filling? It also sends me back to my childhood, because this dish combines the taste of bacon/mac and cheese with the texture of those little round things that came in the can with tomato sauce, and it manages to be mostly veggies, so - win-win, right?

Oh. Yeah.

Here is the finished product:

Added bonus? 20 minutes to prep and cook, start to finish. I kid you not. Oh, Jen is feeling pleased with herself tonight.

Spaghetti-os for Grown-ups

Ingredients:

3 large radishes, cut in half and sliced thin
3 baby summer squash, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
3 pieces of bacon
about 1 TBS olive oil
a pinch of kosher salt (or any favorite salt)
parmesan to taste (I used a TBS, D used about 3 TBS) - I recommend splurging for real parmigiano reggiano because it tastes so much better and with this little, it's not going to break your budget.
1/4 package of pasta of choice (but can't really be spaghetti-os without anelletti, which are little round "o's" of pasta)

Directions:

1. Put water on to boil. Prep veggies. Heat olive oil in pan at medium heat.
NOTE: Bacon can be done two ways - you can chop it up and put it in with the veggies and use FAR less olive oil, or you can place it between two sheets of paper toweling and microwave it, 1 1/2 minutes on each side (the second method is less eco-friendly, but probably healthier in terms of removing saturated fat, etc.). I used the second method. If you do the first method, chop your bacon, too. If you use the second method, just set up your bacon and wait for a later step.
2. When water is boiling pour in pasta and set timer. It will take 13 minutes to cook the pasta, give or take. Put garlic and radishes in pan to saute. (And add the bacon, too, if you're going to put it in the pan with the veggies).
3. After about a minute, add in the baby summer squash slices to the saute and put the bacon in the microwave (and cook it, as described above).
4. Stir veggies from time to time, and stir the pasta, so it doesn't stick to your pasta pot (the anelletti do tend to stick).
5. When the timer sounds, drain the pasta and rinse with cold water. Turn off the saute pan (the veggies should be a lovely, caramelized brown). Take the bacon out of the microwave and crumble it. (If you cooked the bacon in with the veggies, then drain the pan of oil before adding everything together in the next step).
6. Toss all ingredients together in a large pasta bowl and sprinkle with a dash of salt.
7. Serve with parmesan to taste.

Nutritional Info

* Servings Per Recipe: 2
* Amount Per Serving
* Calories: 289.1

* Total Fat: 10.5 g
* Cholesterol: 12.0 mg
* Sodium: 257.1 mg
* Total Carbs: 37.1 g
* Dietary Fiber: 4.2 g
* Protein: 12.4 g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

Enjoy! More radical radish adventures next week.

Some Bloggy Stuff

2009-06-29T06:46:00.007-04:00

Summer, for me, is clean-up time. During the school year, my house slowly grows into a whirlwind of marked papers, well-worn books, assignments never quite brought to fruition, household projects that eventually get marked for "summer", etc.

Anno speaks of the massive summer projects she undertakes with her husband - planting 400 trees, putting in a vegetable garden, building a new heating element.

I'm proud when I get my desk cleaned off.

Part of this summer clean out is working on all things blog. Learning about new blogs, thinking about my own.

Each summer I feel I'm going to overhaul the site. Um... we'll see.

What I have been doing is finding out about some wonderful new blogs, and trying to update both my reader and my blogroll.

I have one major frustration:

I absolutely can't comment on some of my favorite new blogs. I'm not the only one in this boat. There is a major bug via Blogger and some of us are just plain blocked when we try to comment in Blogger comment formats where the blog owner has chosen the "embedded below post" option in their comment settings. I've been all over bulletin boards, etc., about this topic and there only seems to be one "fix" - switch to pop-up or full page comments. Once this happens, the stupid "user id" thing disappears and then folks can comment again.

I know, I know, you blog owners are already getting comments - yes, but you might be getting even MORE comments if we could all actually access your blog!

(And, of course, these are bloggers who don't include e-mail contacts on their profile and/or their e-mail contacts don't seem to work).

It's your choice, obviously, but just sayin'.

There are three blogs, in particular, that I read every. day. but can't comment on, so if any of my regular readers know a way to bring this to these folks' attention, I would be very grateful:

WaystationOne - Brian shares his frequently brilliant writing and thoughtful comments on raising his sons and on life in general.

Hungry Like the Wolf Rita and Lola cook up San Francisco delights in their tiny, NYC dorm kitchens. These young women can seriously cook, and they provide great commentary as well.

Tales from the Fairy Blogmother So this is the most ridiculous - I can't even comment on Shan's blog - and she's the host for What's Cooking Wednesday! She's also a bang-up cook, wonderful craftswoman and has many interesting insights and all I can add to her blog is my Mr. Linky links.

Okay... enough of that. And if anyone can help me in terms of those of us with the "Blogger bug" or who can contact these three bloggers and let them know of this dilemma, I would be extremely grateful.

Secondly: generosity.

Lola of
Aglio, Olio and Peperoncino has graciously bestowed the following lovely award on me:

The Splash Award is given to "alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs".

I'd like to bestow this award on some of my recent new finds in the blogging world:

I'm skipping
WaystationOne, because Brian already received this from Lola. I'd certainly send it Lola's way, but obviously, she already has one, too.

To Lola and Rita of Hungry Like the Wolf for all the reasons listed above.

To Jackie of Pham Fatale. Jackie is a French-Vietnamese, Paris-raised, San Franciscan who lives with her Indian husband. Just looking at her pedigree, you know her recipes are out of this world. Her blog is also beautifully designed, and she really takes you through each recipe step-by-step.

To Michele of My Italian Grandmother. Michele started her blog as a tribute to her Italian grandmother, who passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 98. She taught many cooking secrets to Michele, but she never measured nor wrote down her recipes, so this is Michele's attempt to recreate those recipes, as well as add many of her own. Michele's on a trip right now, so if you visit, just check previous entries.

To Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums. I think many of you already know Rosa, but I was only recently able to find the time to go check her out thoroughly, and what a lovely blog she has! Fabulous recipes, adorable cat pictures and extraordinary photography, both of her cooking projects and of her Geneva, Switzerland surroundings. I feel like I get to take a vacation every time I visit her.

To Laura of Lolalina: Find Your Sweet Life. Given this time of great difficulty worldwide, isn't it nice to find a little corner where everything is lovely? Laura dedicates herself to finding the sweetness in life, and she has a beautiful aesthetic sense, as well. Another great "vacation" spot for me.

To Myra Klarman of Relish: Life. Work. Pictures. Myra is an extremely talented professional photographer from Ann Arbor. Myra gives her unique visual take on various events in and around Ann Arbor, and I am in awe of her ability to capture our city and our people with such clarity and love.

To Noelle of Simmer Down (a food lover's blog). Noelle is a musician who loves food and loves sharing her passion for food through the beautiful recipes and events captured in her blog. She also hosts a virtual culinary book club called "Chew on This!".

I hope that you all enjoy these blogs as much as I do. Happy reading!

Local Love Fridays: The Coffee House Creamery Family

2009-06-26T02:00:00.004-04:00

Talus, Natalie, Sophie and Toren Park

I sat down with Natalie Park, owner of the Coffee House Creamery, and talked about family.

Family permeates everything about the Coffee House Creamery, and that's one of the reasons I love it so. It is truly a spot, as the old Cheers theme song goes, "Where everybody knows your name".

"One thing that sets us apart is the service – the staff is really good. I just got a really nice compliment from a former business owner who talked about how great the service is and I passed it via e-mail to all my employees – we have really good coffee, really good food, really good ice cream, but it’s the face at the counter that brings people in." This was Natalie's response when I asked her what makes Coffee House Creamery different from the myriad other coffeehouses in Ann Arbor, and what she said couldn't be more true.

The thing is, Coffee House Creamery does have great coffee, fresh, local baked goods, and lovely ice cream - there's no stinting on quality here, but it is the fact that the Park family opens up their hearts to the community that really makes this place special.

One of the points of starting Coffee House Creamery was so that Natalie, a former teacher, would be more available to her children, Sophie, 8 and Toren, 10. What she ended up with was extended family through her group of very loyal customers. This week her husband, Talus, was out of town, and she ended up going out to dinner with a seventy-six-year-old regular who's become an extended part of the Park family, and spent the evening with a couple of her employees on another night. How many folks do you know who like to hang out with their boss outside of work hours?

In addition to the warm family atmosphere, this place has serious coffee drink chops. I was delighted to see my favorite drink from Italy, espresso con panna, on the menu. This is the only place I've found it other than North Beach in S.F. or Little Italy in NYC. And it completely rocks - perfect, smooth, European-style espresso with freshly made whipped cream.

Natalie and Talus went to Barista school to perfect their technique, Talus, an engineer, designed and built their coffee filtration system, which is perfectly balanced so that the coffee is soft, but not flat, and they have their own custom roast espresso by Magnum roasters of Nunica, Michigan. Another coffee treat that has become a huge hit with the regulars is their special "Blueberry Crumble" blend from Magnum.

For those of you with less caffeine-generated tastes (and possibly with a gaggle of small children), the 24 flavors of Hershey's premium ice cream are certainly enticing after a night at the movies (Coffee House Creamery is just opposite Quality 16 at the edge of the parking lot there). Natalie and Talus picked out Hershey's as their store brand because, for them, the taste takes them back to their childhoods in West Virginia. With Hershey, Pennsylvania being just a short distance over the border, this is truly a taste from the past. There are some amazing flavors here - D and I are particularly addicted to the Gold Medal, and recent special flavors have included Red Velvet and Mint Moose Tracks (which is to die for, truly). And what six-year-old can't be coaxed into a smile at the thought of a Superman cone?

There are also wonderful baked goods, made by Natalie, as well as Barry Bagels, home cooked oatmeal, several sandwiches, and a soup of the day.

And you can always play a game or two.

So the next time you need a cooling off from the summer's heat, or just want to get to know one of the friendliest places in Ann Arbor, I'd recommend my favorite hangout.

Cheers!
Coffee House Creamery, 3780 Jackson Road, Located directly in front of the Quality 16 Movie Theater. 734-222-0555 - M - Th - 7:00 - 10:00, Fri. 7:00 - 11:00, Sat. 8:00 - 11:00, Sun 10:30 - 9:00.

Also, for a fascinating look at Superman ice cream and its Michigan connections, see the wonderful new blog The Mitten.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Summertime and the Living is Easy...

2009-06-24T06:32:00.009-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

We're finally having gorgeous weather in Michigan - 85 degree days, few clouds in the sky, and the humidity hasn't really kicked in yet.

Bliss.

It's also that time of year, when each night Ann Arbor turns into one giant block party on the Ingalls Mall. It's the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and for those of us on a tight budget, it's Top of the Park time. Top of the Park deserves its own post - it's a great combination of local acts and some from farther reaches and each night, two bands and a movie or other later night entertainment are all provided for FREE. Yeah, take THAT, Michigan economy!

Since most TOP programs start at 7, the Eatwrite family wants to race through dinner and get down to where the action is. And that means dinner has to be quick.

These are two meals we've had this week that we've loved, and have been easy as the proverbial pie. They were also delicious, mostly due to the fact that the Ann Arbor Farmers market is starting to burst with local foods.

Both nights used many of the same ingredients and each dinner was prepared in under 30 minutes. No kidding. (Um, it does help that I'm a fast one with the chopping board). So... here they are:

Pasta with Chicken, Asparagus, Fresh Tomatoes and Basil

Ingredients:

Leftover cooked chicken - about 1 split breast's worth, cut into bite-sized pieces
one large, in season tomato (we got ours from Carpenter's, which already has their wonderful organic tomatoes at the market)
a handful of Michigan asparagus, chopped into bite-sized pieces
a large, lovely organic Carpenter Farms tomato (or tomato of choice)
3 - 4 cloves of garlic sliced thin
a handful of Frog Holler basil, torn
olive oil
Pasta of choice
kosher salt and pepper to taste
parmigiano reggiano to taste for serving

Directions:

1. Start the water for making the pasta.
2. Prep your veggies and chicken, while heating about a TBS olive oil in a pan at medium heat.
3. When the oil is hot, drop the garlic in for about 30 seconds until it releases wonderful aroma. Toss the pasta in the pasta pot (the water should be ready by now).
4. Toss in the asparagus with the garlic.
5. About a minute after that, toss in the fresh tomatoes and cooked chicken. Toss and coat well with the asparagus and garlic. Turn the heat up to medium high for the last 30 seconds or so.
6. Take pan off the heat and place chicken/asparagus/tomato mixture in a large bowl. Add basil, kosher salt and lots of pepper. Toss.
7. Drain pasta and run under cold water. Usually I could combine the pasta with the "sauce" at this point, but I don't for this.
8. Take your plate, pile it with as much pasta as you'd like, top that with a generous dollop of the sauce and top that with shaved parmigiano reggiano to taste.

Serves 2 hungry people. Can easily be doubled or stretched to serve three.

Eat, and run out the door for good music and dancing!

The next night, we had a great, grass fed flank steak to use up from TMZ Farm. I decided to make open-faced steak sandwiches and a corn/tomato/lime salad. We had leftover Florida corn from Father's Day, so it was perfect. Again, we used some Carpenter tomatoes and organic basil from Frog Holler.

Open-Faced Steak Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 - 2 slices of 1/2" thick sourdough per person
olive oil
garlic salt
dried parsley
12 - 16 oz flank steak
2 - 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
crimini mushrooms - about 2 cups
kosher salt
pepper

Marinade:
1 TBS canola oil
1/4 cup low sodium tamari soy sauce
1 cup black currant juice or something similar
4 - 6 cloves crushed garlic (to taste)

EARLY IN THE DAY:

1. Whisk together marinade ingredients. Place steak in marinade, let it marinate 4 - 12 hours.
2. When ready for dinner: wash and slice mushrooms, prep garlic. Preheat broiler. Slice bread and brush olive oil on top side of each piece. Sprinkle with garlic salt and parsley. Set aside.
3. Heat about 1/2 - 1 TBS oil in saute pan over medium heat. When hot, saute garlic for 30 seconds or so, until aroma is released. Add mushrooms. When the mushrooms are really well cooked, take off heat and sprinkle some kosher salt and lots of pepper over them.
4. While heating the pan for the saute, heat a grill plan to smoking. When you put in the garlic, put the steak on the pan. NOTE: Steak will stick, so if you have a way to brush your grill pan with some oil, please do. This can also be done on the grill over high, direct heat. Cook steak 3 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other for medium rare.
5. Take meat off the grill pan and let rest 5 minutes. Mushrooms will soon be ready. When you remove the meat from the grill, put the garlic toast under the broiler for about 2 minutes.
6. After toast is ready and meat has rested, slice the meat VERY THINLY against the grain. Pile meat on each slice of bread. Pile mushrooms on top of meat. Serve with Corn/Tomato/Lime salad.

Corn/Tomato/Lime Salad

Ingredients:

kernels scraped off of two medium ears of corn
1 large tomato
1/4 fresh avocado, chopped (optional - I had this, D, who is allergic to avocadoes, did not - I added it separately)
fresh basil - a small handful, torn into pieces
1 tsp canola oil
juice from 1/2 largish lime
kosher salt to taste
pepper
a dash or two of chili powder or cumin

1. Before you do your other meal prep for the evening, combine all ingredients, stir a few times and let marinate while you do your other cooking.
2. Just before serving, stir a bit and taste for seasoning. Adjust seasoning. Enjoy!

This meal serves about 3 people. (I had one slice of the steak sandwich and a large serving of the salad, D and C both had two slices and some of the salad).

A Bit of This and That: Stratford, some really good coffee, and a great local book club

2009-06-22T08:27:00.009-04:00

Stratford was wonderful. I'd highly recommend either of the performances we saw, both Cyrano de Bergerac and The Importance of Being Earnest. Colm Feore was brilliant as Cyrano, and I actually cried during the last scene, which is extremely unusual for me in a live theater setting. This was especially impressive, as the director chose not to cut one word of the final scene, and as those of you who are familiar with Cyrano know, it is probably the longest death scene in theater history. It could easily become a parody if not handled in the subtlest manner, and Mr. Feore did that beautifully.

Earnest was hysterical as always. The revelation here was the performance by Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell. He was spot on, and several of the students we went with (and my own German daughter, S) didn't even realize she was being played by a male actor until the first intermission, when we told them. Ha! It was also fascinating to watch Mike Shara transform from the somewhat dull Christian of the day before to the sparkling, witty Algernon. I'm not saying he gave a dull performance, but again, he did justice to Christian's role.

I also have to acknowledge the fact that given my theater design roots, I was able to see the work of three of my design heroes: Santo Loquasto's sets and Alan Brodie's lighting for Cyrano, and Desmond Heeley's sets and costumes for Earnest. As per their reputations, Loquasto's set was as functional and brilliant as Heeley's work was over-the-top and simply gorgeous. What a total treat with the addition of being able to discuss it competently with C, who now understands the ins and outs of theater design. D has had to listen to me babble about it for years, and he smiles, but has no idea what I'm talking about.

Again, a brilliant time, and if you live nearby and want tickets, go here.

We also enjoyed our sojourn to Stratford. It's a charming town and the walk along the river is lovely. We also found Cafe Balzac, on Ontario Street between Downie and Waterloo, a place after my own heart. It's a fair trade coffee bar, with Mapleton's Organic Ice Cream (the maple crunch was to die for), local baked goods and sandwiches from Sirkel Foods - another local Stratford institution. All I can say was that everything there was wonderful (we returned twice in one day - for coffee and baked goods for breakfast and for ice cream before Earnest), and these lovely pictures by S can give you a sense of the place:

Lastly, a bit of local (Ann Arbor) love:

Gene Alloway, of Motte and Bailey Booksellers (which will surely be a Local Love Friday business, if he's interested - it's a wonderful, independent bookshop), wrote me and asked me to let people know about a culinary book club that will be taking place there (and it's right next to the PFC, so you can stop by there, first). This is what he wrote to me:

The first book is CURRY : TALE OF COOKS & CONQUERORS by Lizzie Collingham. Future books will be Jennifer Lee's FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES and Ian Kelly's COOKING FOR KINGS : THE LIFE OF ANTONIN CAREME, THE FIRST CELEBRITY CHEF. Thereafter the group will have a chance to choose what is next.

The first meeting will be July 15th at 7:30 p.m. here at Motte & Bailey, 212 N. 4th Ave. I will have used copies in nice shape for sale here at the shop, and in selecting the first books I made sure inexpensive used copies were available online for those wishing to buy for themselves as well.

Since the second two books are on my list in any case, I'm very excited about this venture. I know that Kitchen Chick gave a shout out about this in her wonderful blog, as well.

Road Trip!

2009-06-15T17:08:00.003-04:00

I'll be off to the Stratford Festival and just playing, while my German daughter visits over the next few days.

We'll be seeing two of my all-time favorite plays: Cyrano de Bergerac and The Importance of Being Earnest.

I'll be back next week with play reviews, What's Cooking Wednesday and a Local Love Friday edition.

Ciao and have a lovely week!

Local Love Fridays: Own Your Own Business - Become a Member of the People's Food Co-op

2009-06-12T06:26:00.016-04:00

Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp

My own experiences with Ann Arbor's People's Food Co-op started back in my student days, as they do for many Ann Arborites. First off, I'd come to Ann Arbor from Berkeley, CA, and secondly, it was still a whisper of the 70s (early 1980 to be exact), so the idea that a food co-op was one of the first things I'd seek out was a natural.

I spent the first couple of years as a co-op member cutting the cheese. I kid you not. And it was one of the stinkiest jobs imaginable, but it earned me my extra 5% discount, so it was worth every wire through every block of Jarlsburg.

These days, The Ann Arbor People's Food Co-op is in one location, rather than two. It has a gorgeous cafe that sells a huge variety of coffee drinks, sandwiches, juices and baked goods, and it has a full, delicious hot bar and salad bar. (Also, the volunteer discount program is discontinued, much to the chagrin of cheese-cutters everywhere).

And we now have a bright, shiny store with a large variety of local, national and international products, all natural, all carefully selected under co-op guidelines:

Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp

And I'm still a member. Why?

Because we own the place. All of us. Every single member. All 6000 of us.

We get to make business decisions through our democratically-elected board members, and we have excellent professionals running our business for us. And we get to buy delicious, natural, local (when possible) foods and products. Who wouldn't want to be a share owner of that?

I sat down with Kevin Sharp, Outreach Director at the PFC, to get his take on what makes the People's Food Co-op unique, and Kevin's response was this: each co-op is designed to uniquely serve its members, so our co-op is a reflection of our community. While the Hyde Park co-op in Chicago carries Heinz Ketchup and Coca Cola because the members demand it, our co-op has a completely Fair Trade coffee bar and an emphasis on locally grown products.

Ah, yes - locally grown. Music to my ears.

The Co-op has long been in partnership with many of the area's farmers, and has actually had a symbiotic relationship with some local organic farmers for two generations now:

"They helped us get going and we helped them get going and this is the second generation of local organic growers, and hopefully we’ll be here 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, we’re in an area that’s now producing more of our local foods, but that’s changing and growing and we’ll sell those things as much as possible."

Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp

One of the great things about the Co-op is the solidity and the longevity. Even in Michigan's economy, the Co-op is solid, solid financially, and it will be around to serve us even as larger ventures tumble. And that means I can get food I trust from people I trust.

And that's the reason to be a member - to help to provide that stability for the local economy and to ensure that the Co-op will be here for generations to come. Plus, you receive many wonderful benefits.

As Kevin said it, "The local aspect is one of our core issues. It will stick with us long after the bigbox stores move on. Our business is really stable, even in this economy. With all the other options in town people still come down to this little storefront."

Besides, you can get wonderful things like these blueberry bars (Photo Credit: ©2009 Kevin Sharp)and a cup of great Roos Roast Free Speech Roospresso at the Co-op's Cafe Verde:

For more on our Co-op, see the wonderful video below by Zana Networks:

Are you a member of your local Co-op? Why or why not?

What's Cooking Wednesday: Dinner for a Crowd: Super Simple Grilled Chicken

2009-06-10T06:21:00.005-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

I've had a wonderful group of teens that I've worked with on writing for the past couple of years. Last year, they had a class on writing short stories with me, and this year, basically the same group took a course in advanced creative writing, where they worked on projects of their own choice. Next year, however, I start with a new crop for a "tasting" class in all aspects of creative writing, and most of these folks will be moving on to other things: one has just graduated, two are leaving for different schooling environments, etc.

Each semester, we put together a group project, based on a movie. The first semester we saw Once Upon a Mattress and the students came in the next day and wrote a movie musical script collaboratively, and this semester they did the same thing with a Noir piece after watching To Have and Have Not(okay, so To Have and Have Not is not exactly Noir, but they still managed Noir after seeing it). What was rejected this semester was screwball comedy, although the votes between screwball and noir were just about split, so I promised them a post school-year evening of screwball and dinner.

So we watched Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and if you haven't seen it, you really should. It's hysterical. Truly.

Then there was the issue of what to serve: if you've got a bunch of teenage boys coming over, it's easy - meat and carbs and sugar - and lots of all three. This, however, was a group of girls. So I reached back into my memories for favorites of my exchange daughters over the years and this is what we had: Super Simple Grilled Chicken, Caprese Salad, Garlic Bread and homemade Strawberry Shortcake. I think it's safe to say that the menu was a hit, and I was happy to entertain these students whose writing and personalities I had so enjoyed over the past couple of years.

The chicken recipe has been a "go-to" for me this spring; I love the melding of flavors and the simplicity of the whole thing. I really took a page from Italian cuisine in terms of some of the 3-4 ingredient pasta dishes that I so love.

I meant to get a photo of all the chicken cooking on the grill, but I was too busy cooking at that point, and forgot. Needless to say, this can feed a CROWD. We ended up with about 1/3 of it left over, but that's just fine, because there are myriad uses for leftover chicken. You can also cut this recipe way down, by using just one lb. of chicken and halving the marinade.

Super Simple Grilled Chicken

To get an idea of just how simple, here are the ingredients:

4 - 6 lbs of a mixture of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and drumsticks (I find these are the two most popular cuts for a crowd)
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 big, honking lemons
4 - 6 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 TBS kosher salt
1 hefty sprig of rosemary

Directions:

1. About 6 - 8 hours before cooking, wash and pat dry chicken pieces and cut each breast half in half again, so that you have portions of about 3-4 oz. Place all pieces in one, quart-size freezer bag. (Yes, you can be more ecological and place these in a pan, but I didn't have enough room in the fridge, and I actually think the bag method works better for marinating - I almost never use these, but for this recipe, I do).
2. Whisk together all the other ingredients (well, in the case of the lemons, the juice of those lemons), and carefully pour the marinade into the bag with the chicken.
3. Seal the bag and squeeze everything to distribute the marinade.
4. Place bag in the fridge and every time you open the fridge that day, change the position of the bag, to make sure every morsel of chicken gets marinated.
5. About 40 minutes before serving time (because usually you have to cook the chicken in batches) prep your grill for direct, high heat.
6. Watching for flare-ups, place chicken on the grill. The breast pieces will need 4 - 6 minutes on each side, and the drumsticks will need 8 - 10. If you're using a gas grill, cook these with the lid ON.

Enjoy!

Note: To those watching your waistlines - don't worry about the massive quantities of olive oil - almost all of the marinade comes off as you take the chicken from the bag, so you end up with about 1/2 tsp olive oil per piece of chicken.

Some Book Fun: Books that Stay with You

2009-06-08T06:53:00.006-04:00

I found this great idea from CARE, via OH's blog: Books that Stay with You, also known as "sticky" books. Sticky Books are books that stick with you over time. The books you can't put down. The books you go to over and over again.

Since I'm of the "so many books, so little time" philosophy, there are not that many sticky books on my list. I am, however, going to include some that I will return to, should I have that kind of time. (Probably during my dotage).

My List:

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - need I say more?
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen - this touched me on many levels. The writing is brilliant and the storyline compelling
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle - this gave me hope when I was a very lonely, eight-year-old.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - ditto - and I wasn't nearly as much of a fan of the other books - that first book was the one that grabbed me.
The Godfather - Mario Puzo - and I still think it's better than the movie.
The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - again, I'm a major fan of this one, less so of the rest of the series.
The Jane Eyre Affaire - Jasper Fforde - ditto on the series thing. See a pattern?
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris - yup... same deal on the series.
Dune - Frank Herbert - DUDE! I know... but I still loved it. Again, just the first book.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - I actually pretty much liked the whole series.
On the Road - Jack Kerouac - and yes, I did hit the road at one point, thanks to this book.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan - such 60s poetry, but so much part of my teen years.
Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey - Isabel Fonseca - a brilliant piece of qualitative research, beautifully told.
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (this one keeps popping into my brain as I write the list, so it should be there, right?)
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
The entire Annie Seymour series, by Karen E. Olson.

While this is probably long enough, I still have to include two more categories:

Even though I firmly believe that plays are meant to be seen and not read, given all my years in and around theater I just had to include these:

Richard III by William Shakespeare - yes, I love Hamlet, Midsummer, Macbeth, and Much Ado (among others) more, but this was the play that started a more than thirty-year love affair with Shakespeare.
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde - this never fails to make me laugh and laugh and laugh.
Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand - I truly think Rostand gives Shakespeare a run for his money with this brilliant, funny and heartbreaking play.
A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen
Pretty much anything by Bertolt Brecht

And my favorite cookbooks of all time:

The New Basics Cookbook - Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
Elegant but Easy - Marian Burros and Lois Levine
New York Cookbook - Molly O'Neill
A La Russe - Darra Goldstein
How to Cook Everything - Mark Bittman
and my new favorite - Comfortably Yum by Luisa Perkins.

And speaking of Comfortably Yum, the winner of our giveaway contest is Goofball of Goofballsworld! This was a fitting win, as Goofball just got married on Saturday (congratulations!), and now she can join her hubby in helping more with the cooking.

Now, what are your "books that stay with you"?

Local Love Fridays: "Return to Your Senses" - RoosRoast Free Speech Coffee

2009-06-04T18:47:00.016-04:00

"Make your own version of things." This was John Roos trying to sum up the philosophy of University of Michigan's School of Art and Design, but it might as well have been John Roos speaking about himself.

This is why I wanted to feature John Roos of RoosRoast Free Speech Coffee in my debut piece of Local Love Fridays.

Each Friday, I will be highlighting another local business.

Why am I doing this? Well, for a few reasons:

a. I think if we lose our creative diversity and each location looks the same due to corporate globalization, then we will have a very sad, same world.

b. I live in Michigan. We have a GREAT state with a lot to offer. I want to share that with everyone non-Michigan.

c. I want to share all our great products with Michiganders. I want all of us living here to patronize our local Michigan businesses. I want us to help each other pull out of this economic hole we've been in. I want us to realize that there is life beyond automobiles.

I'd love it if other bloggers, Michigan and otherwise, posted their own versions of "local love" and we can learn from each other just how many wonderful, creative, brave, small-business owners are out there - everywhere. Feel free to grab the button and join right in!

Okay... so enough about the feature. On to our featured business:

Photo Credit: ©2009 Stephen Kinnard photography

"Return to your senses."

That's what John Roos tells students in his coffee roasting classes. John Roos loves his coffee. You can see, smell and taste the love in every cup. (There's literally love in every cup as John's chief taster is his wife, Kath, whom John says has a "simply amazing palate" and John, with 20 years as a professional chef, should know amazing palates). You can see it in his commitment to only use Fair Trade beans.

John would like everyone to really get down and dirty with their coffee - smell it, run their fingers through it, look at the different textures of the beans. Coffee should be a sensual experience, and he takes the monikker of "Free Speech" coffee seriously.

In John Roos's eyes, coffee may just have created the Industrial Revolution and certainly helped The Age of Enlightenment along. "Before coffee, everyone drank grog. Coffee houses allowed people to really start playing with ideas." He went on to discuss his other ideas behind "Free Speech" coffee: homage to his Ann Arbor hippie-background upbringing and to the fact that people talk more when they have coffee.

John's odyssey to the coffee business has taken him through careers and side trips as a professional chef, artist, poet, and more recently, as a Subaru salesman. The Subarus led him, more fully, to the coffee. He arrived back in Ann Arbor in 2002 needing a break from restaurants, but obsessed with coffee: an obsession that began with a perfect cup of coffee at "Grandma's House" in Maui in 1990. The Subaru job was more of a challenge/joke to himself, but he enjoyed it, and began giving his home-roasted brews to folks who bought cars. Soon folks were coming in for coffee, rather than the cars, and John decided he could take this full time.

Here he is in used car salesman regalia at the Farmers Market this past Saturday (John is the one in the middle):

The artistry and love from John Roos is in every RoosRoast bag: John's art is on each and every bag, his love of words is clear from his use of batch names such as Lobster Butter Love or Rich French Neighbor, and the proof of his love of coffee is in every, addicting, delicious cup.

I know.

I'm an addict.

At the moment, I'm particularly addicted to a batch of Fair Trade (like all of John's coffee) Rwandan beans roasted on May 29th.

To learn more about RoosRoast Free Speech Coffee go here.

For those lucky enough to live in our area, you can find RoosRoast Free Speech Coffee and John at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market on Saturdays, and you can find the coffee sold at the People's Food Co-op (it's sold in Cafe Verde, next to the pastry case), Sparrow Meat Market, The Produce Station and at the 777 Building in the 777's Cafe (where they brew it). For those who don't live in the area, you can still order RoosRoast here.

Stephen Kinnard is a local photographer whose portfolio work can be found here, and whose photo of the day can be found here. I am greatly indebted to him for the use of his wonderful photo today.

What's Cooking Wednesday: Variations on a Theme - Rhubarb, Part Deux

2009-06-03T05:46:00.005-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

I love leafing through cooking magazines. I have to admit, I don't use many of the recipes anymore, but I like using them to improvise. In looking through this month's Gourmet, I found this lovely-looking recipe for
Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.

The only trouble was, there was way too much sugar and white flour for my tastes, and I had a few raspberries, but what I really needed to use was my rhubarb from last week's Tantre Farm share.

So since we all know that invention is a Mother, I decided to play with what was on hand and make my own variant. I had the bonus of having a couple of duck eggs from Our Family Farm that I ~~needed~~ wanted to use up. If you've never baked with duck eggs, you're missing a real treat. Yes, things do bake up higher and happier with the egg of the duck.

A little bit of change here; a little bit of change there, and I ended up with just what my tastebuds (and waistline) preferred: a less sweet, rhubarb-infused, pan cake with a slightly heftier texture. Once again, it got the D seal of approval.

Caveat: We don't like our desserts overly sweet at our house, so if you are a sugarholic, you might want to adjust accordingly.

Raspberry-Rhubarb Buttermilk Cake

Raspberry-Rhubarb Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients

1 cup raspberries
1 1/2 cups diced rhubarb
2 TBS cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, minus 2 TBS
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 TBS butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tsp for sprinkling on top
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 extra large egg (or duck egg, if you have one!)
2/3 cup lowfat buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400. Place rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Pre-cook rhubarb for 1 minute in the microwave in a microwavable dish.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients. (For the flour mixture, measure the 2 TBS of cornmeal into a 1 cup measure, and then fill the rest of that cup with the whole wheat pastry flour).
4. With an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat well.
5. On low speed, add in dry ingredients and buttermilk alternating (3 portions of flour/2 buttermilk). Mix until just combined. Do NOT overwork.
6. Pour into cake pan greased with cooking spray or a little canola oil.
7. Scatter rhubarb and raspberries on top and sprinkle whole thing with 1 tsp sugar.
8. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until set. Cool on rack for 10 minutes, and then turn out of pan and cool further. (Or if you're a chicken like me, just cool it in the pan).

Serves 12

Enjoy!

Nutritional Info
Fat: 3.8g
Carbohydrates: 15.5g
Calories:102.1
Protein: 2.5g

As always, nutrition info supplied by the recipe calculator function at Sparkrecipes.com.

Book Review: Comfortably Yum by Luisa Perkins

2009-06-01T08:20:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure when I first became aware that Luisa was going to put together a cookbook, but I absolutely knew I would buy it.

Luisa has shared many recipes via her blog, Novembrance, and some of her family's favorites have become the favorites of my family, as well. (Her "Brookies" are to die for, and if I make them, it's an easy way for me to get D or C to do just about anything for me).

You can imagine my excitement as I tore through my copy of Comfortably Yum and found that my all-time favorite food quote (the description of breakfast from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy) was Luisa's pick for the intro. to her Breakfast section. I knew that my keen anticipation had not been in vain.

What I love about Luisa's philosophy about food is that it is a gift to be enjoyed, and that if people have "food issues" that's about other things and choices they make, not about recipes prepared well. She doesn't stint in the use of butter or sugar, and she has this marvelous story about her mother-in-law:

"Last Thanksgiving, my friend Tina Fairweather asked her (Luisa's mother-in-law) how to make it(cream of vegetable soup); my mother-in-law began giving instructions in response.When she came to the cup of milk and the cup of heavy cream, Tina asked, 'So you could use half-and-half, then?'
My mother-in-law replied in gracious but firm tones, 'Oh, no. I find there is no substitute for heavy cream.' Amen, Mother, amen."

Luisa also manages to convey her patience and kind heart via her writing: she presents an extremely useful ingredients/tools section at the beginning, which will certainly help in re-creating the recipes to their best advantage.

This book is actually a love letter to her family and friends, and she has beautiful commentary throughout, including humorous "Prelude" and "Postlude" sections. The Prelude concerns Luisa's personal history with food, and the Postlude contains some of her philosophy about food and enjoyment. Luisa is also an active member of her church, and she shares LDS traditions and philosophy along with her comments on family rituals and fun. Her comments are never heavy-handed or proselytizing, however - her views on these areas simply add to the points she's making about a particular recipe or section.

The recipes themselves are everything one could wish for - practical and delicious. Most of the recipes are fairly straightforward, but whether a recipe is as simple as her "Lynyrd Skynyrd" dip or is somewhat more complex, such as her Fondue recipe, her directions are crystal clear and feature humor and heart. Drinking peppermint tea is part of the Fondue ritual, for example, and listening to Los Fabulosos Cadillacs or The Gypsy Kings on low is a secret for making the Chicken Enchiladas the best they can be. While many of the recipes could define home-cooked "comfort food" - creamed tuna, a truly fabulous granola recipe, lemon squares, chocolate cake, and the previously mentioned enchiladas (which apparently elicited her wedding proposal), there are also a wonderful smattering of international recipes, especially Canadian (including poutine - for which I praise Luisa forever) and many Swiss recipes, reflecting her mother-in-law's heritage.

The sections themselves cover the gamut: breakfast, soups, main dishes, accompaniments, desserts and "snacks and pantry food".

I've had a tradition of giving Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything to newlyweds, college grads, and those who are just, plain starting new lives: for me, it is the modern version of The Joy of Cooking. I love the book, but it's somewhat overwhelming, and there are some things that Bittman does far better than others (his bread section, for example, is fairly abysmal, IMHO). I've decided to switch, however, to Comfortably Yum.

While it is on a smaller scale, Comfortably Yum is everything a new cook (or an experienced one) could wish for, and in addition to the fabulous culinary recipes, a wonderful recipe for living life with heart and humor is woven throughout. Who could ask for more?

I loved this book so much that I want to share it with one of my readers. If you'd like to win your own copy of Comfortably Yum, simply leave a comment by midnight, June 5th, and tell me why you need a copy of this book. It can be a need for yourself or for someone you know. I will probably determine the winner via random selection, just because I like being random like that.

This is my first real book review, but I need some way of rating this, so I'm going to give it 5 out of 5 "local love points".

Inspiration

2009-05-29T05:05:00.005-04:00

I find that both things great and small can be an inspiration.

Two people who inspire me are Luisa Perkins and John Roos.

I'll be lucky enough to have both of them visit here sometime in the near future - I'll be reviewing Luisa's amazing cookbook, Comfortably Yum, and John will be the launch for a new feature here: Local Love Fridays. Local Love Fridays will focus on small, independent business owners in the Ann Arbor/Southeast Michigan area, and our first feature will be RoosRoast Coffee. I'm hoping that some of you who are farther afield will take up this challenge, too, and help us to learn about your communities through those who are trying to make a difference in this crazy world economy.

I'm not yet sure if my debut piece will be next week or on June 12th. Stay tuned for that one.

In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with some of my favorite quotes. These quotations inspire me on a daily basis, but, you know, I'm kind of word-driven like that.

Ray Bradbury:

"To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.

You must write every single day of your life.

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in glorious fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next.

You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats on your crazy heads.

I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime.

I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.

May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories - science fiction and otherwise.

Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And, out of that love, remake a world."

Sai Baba:

"Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve upon the silence?"

Eleanor Roosevelt:

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."

Horace:

"Carpe diem."

What makes you "seize the day"? What inspires you?

What's Cooking Wednesday: POM Wonderful: Wonderfully Decadent and Wonderfully Wholesome

2009-05-26T19:18:00.008-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

The first time I had pomegranate juice was in a Soviet "buffet" at a Moscow movie theater in 1987.

It was also the first time my friend Tanya had had grapefruit juice.

We were both stunned by the other's lack of culinary experience.

Pomegranate juice was rare in the States in those days, but certainly not so now. Touted as the ultimate antioxidant, and reportedly contributing to heart health and prostate health, pomegranates are enjoying a popularity here like never before.

I've been a fan of all things pomegranate since that frigid, December night in Moskva all those years ago. So when I was e-mailed by POM Wonderful and asked if I'd like to receive a free case of POM Wonderful and blog about it, I was delighted.

I get these offers fairly frequently. This is the first one I've accepted, though, because I won't. promote. stuff. with. junk. When someone e-mails me, the first thing I ask for is nutrition info. and ingredients.

All I can say is that this is the first product I've been offered that is pure. 100% pomegranate juice and nothing else. I could deal with that.

Very quickly, six, cute, little bottles arrived in a cold pack. Then I started to think about what might be fun to cook.

Well, raspberries to that.

I mean literally. I thought that raspberries in a Pomegranate reduction sauce, maybe without any sugar, would be interesting. And it was:

Here's the super-duper easy recipe, and it's so good. It's so good that D said, "Tell them it's so good that I licked the plate." And he did. Okay, so I didn't marry him for his table manners. But here it is:

Raspberries in Pomegranate Reduction

1 pint of raspberries
8 oz. of POM Wonderful
1 tsp. sugar (yeah, I did need a little)
1/2 tsp rose flower water

Heat raspberries and POM Wonderful to a simmer. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until the liquid reduces by half. Take off the burner and stir in the sugar and rose flower water. Chill. You're done.

Now, I thought, what should I do with this divine sauce? Well, I happened to have some chocolate cake and some local vanilla ice cream (Calder Dairy - YUM), and this is what we came up with (the decadent part of this post):

Oh. Yeah.

But what I'd originally been thinking was something a whole lot more... wholesome. So, today, I made the Wonderfully Wholesome dessert. And I think it was even better. D didn't lick the plate, but he did have two helpings. So I give you a "real" recipe:

Spring Fruit Cobbler with Cornmeal Crust

Ingredients:

1 recipe Raspberries in Pomegranate Reduction (or a bit less than one recipe, if you happened to use some with chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream the night before)
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup blackberries
4 oz. POM Wonderful

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup stone ground cornmeal (I used Jennings Brothers heritage Bloody Butcher cornmeal)
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
2 1/2 TBS unsalted butter
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 tsp sugar, for sprinkling on crust

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Simmer the rhubarb in the POM Wonderful until tender. Add berries and cook about a minute more.
3. Pour fruit mixture into 8X8 baking dish.
4. Whisk dry ingredients together. Cut in butter with knives, a food processor or what have you.
5. Pour in buttermilk and stir just until the dough comes together. Do NOT overwork it.
6. Pretend you are in preschool again, stick your fingers into that dough and drop it in clumps all over the fruit. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp granulated sugar.
7. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. It looks done before 30 minutes, but trust me - leave it in. Otherwise the crust might be soggy underneath.

Enjoy the house smelling like... spring.

Eat hot, cold or in between.

Thanks, POM Wonderful.

Music Monday: Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T09:05:00.005-04:00

A day of rest.

A day to honor the men and women who've paid the ultimate price for being Americans.

A day to remember loved ones whom we've lost while they served us.

There are so many ways to consider Memorial Day. I know that for me, I've been very focused on life and family and death lately. Not in terms of the sadness of death, or the loss, but just in terms of age and the fact that we never know how long we'll have someone in our lives.

I'm a fan of Nickelback, and I really love the sentiments in this song. Some of the images are dark at first, but stick with it:

For my Memorial Day, I know I'll be doing some reflecting, but mostly I'll be enjoying my family.

Finestkind.

What about you? How will you be spending this precious day?

Brought to you by:

For other tales of musical adventure, please visit Soccer Mom in Denial.

In Which I am no Longer Cinderella at the Ball

2009-05-22T06:45:00.002-04:00

This is not a maudlin post.

My life is GOOD. I'm very lucky in so, so many ways.

I do, however, have a continuing battle with a combination of fibromyalgia and what appears to be something akin to psoriatic arthritis. They strike separately, and they strike together, sometimes far worse than at other times.

I've tried to keep both at bay for 7 years using a combination of moderate exercise, tons of water, as few processed foods as possible and, when the pain gets really bad, a mega course of advil for a couple of weeks until things get better.

Starting in January of this year, however, things didn't get better. And the usual routines weren't working. And my rheumatologist had been dangling other, stronger, things in front of my face (he tends to be very conservative on drug usage, but he also doesn't want permanent joint damage). I tried other things, too. But this isn't a post about my health, and if anyone's really interested because they're going through a similar struggle, please just e-mail me.

Okay, so the long and the short of it is that after months of other therapies and constant pain (part of the reason for my hiatus), I tried the very mildest of the dangled drugs. And this drug came along with what's known as a steroid "burst" (a short course of steroids, to sort of "jump start" the other stuff).

And I was Cinderella at the Ball.

And what this is really about is that steroids cheat.

Within 24 hours, I was close to myself again. My energy was back; my pain all but gone. I was sure that the new drug was going to be helping far earlier than my doctor had anticipated.

For 18 days, I lived a blissfully pain-free life. Then the pain started creeping back. Now, it's returned.

I'm back to my natural therapies (along with the mild drugs). I'm still on a teeny dose of steroids that I continue on for a few more days (I've "tapered down"). I'm determined to stay away from the advil, if I can, because it wreaks havoc with other things.

But this whole incident got me very, very sad for our world.

Why?

Well, I'm all for drugs to be used when they can help with diseases, be those diseases mental or physical.

But how many athletes have been involved in steroid scandals over the years? How many folks now are taking Adderall and Ritalin not because they need either one, but because they can stay up later, study harder, get better grades.

You know what, y'all? That's cheating.

If a closing-in-on-fifty, fat, high school English teacher can end up feeling like frigging Cinderella at the Ball and waltzes through more to-do lists than any human being should when on steroids, what is the 20-something, athletically-gifted batter doing? The cyclist, who can now ace the Tour de France? The football player who bulked up over the summer?

What about the kid who just got into Columbia or Harvard or Princeton and probably doesn't deserve that spot? What about the kid who didn't cheat and lost that spot that they actually did deserve?

C has been doing a project on Malcolm X this week. We've both been immersed in all things X, because I've long been fascinated with his life story and it was interesting to watch Spike Lee's "X" with C, and to have access to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the reader of pieces on and about Malcolm X, and the other research materials we've had lying around the house. Malcolm X spoke a great deal about keeping the "white man's poisons" out of one's system. A lot of this is Islam - not about your skin color, but about the fact that there are substances that should not be ingested. They make you impure.

Steroids and stimulants make you impure. They kick you up a notch. We weren't made to be kicked up that notch and it's not fair to your body or to others when you take this crap just to be "better".

Have you had any experiences where you've been Cinderella at the Ball? Know folks who've gotten themselves in trouble with steroids or stimulants? What's your take on all this?

What's Cooking Wednesday: Chive Eggs - the Perfect Spring Lunch

2009-05-20T07:11:00.004-04:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

We have some critter problems. Oh, they're lovely critters - when you look at my backyard, bunnies and deer abound. Ground hogs stop to warm themselves in the sun. Chipmunks and squirrels scamper harmoniously, and we are fixed for lovely birdsong. Yup, we're straight out of a Disney movie.

And I love it. Don't get me wrong.

It has, however, made gardening a bit of a challenge. And yes, I know we could put up cyclone fences, electric fences, pee on bushes, hang softener sheets, and even, maybe, buy a hoop house, but we haven't. Because we also suck at gardening.

So here's what I do grow: herbs. In containers. On our balcony. Lots of them.

My first perennials that come up every spring are healthy crops of chives. So this is what I've been having for lunch quite frequently:

Chive Eggs

Sometimes simplest is best. And this is so very, very simple.

Ingredients:

1 egg and 2 egg whites (local eggs, as fresh as possible, really improves on this)
a small handful of fresh chives, chopped fine
a splash or three of buttermilk
a good pinch of kosher salt
pepper
either canola cooking spray, or if you're feeling decadent, butter

Now, there's a technique to making really good scrambled eggs. First off, add the salt before cooking the eggs. This tenderizes them, apparently. Second, beat your egg mixture well, but not too much. Third, and this is most important, cook them at medium low. My burners have multiple settings between 1 and "P" (10) and I use a 5 or 5.5. To saute, I'd use a 7, and that would be way too high for this dish. Just saying.

So, while your pan is heating (and heat your fat element from the beginning), pop in some toast. My toast of choice yesterday was local raisin pumpernickel, but in the photos, it just looked burnt, so you don't get a picture of it.

Then beat your eggs, buttermilk and salt. Then add the chives directly into the liquid eggs.

Get out your butter for buttering the toast.

Pour the eggs into the pan and render gently.

Butter your toast when it pops up.

Remove finished eggs from the pan, add them to your plate of toast, and grind a little pepper over the eggs.

Take the plate out into the spring sunshine and enjoy.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a bibliophile must be in want of great summer reading...

2009-05-18T06:53:00.004-04:00

It was probably my third or fourth year homeschooling C. I remember sitting on the floor of the old Ann Arbor Y, while C was in taking a gymnastics class.

I had my laptop with me and I was really, really involved with what I was reading.

It was the inklings of a book about a cheerleader.

I'm kind of the anti-cheerleader type. I was never a "girly-girl". I preferred bare feet and jeans, baseball to Barbie, and by high school, many of my friends were guys, because hey, I got them. You get mad at someone, you punch them, it's over.

On top of that, I'm not even sure that my high school had cheerleaders. If we did, they certainly weren't part of a power crowd. We didn't have a prom. We were the class of '77 and we wore our alternative existence proudly.

Nevertheless, this cheerleader book had me hooked. You see the protag, Bethany, was not a cheerleader type - she was a well - my type. Maybe not the baseball part, but she was anything but a cheerleader type, and had been dared to try out. And she made it.

And her world turned upside down.

What did I like about this book? I liked the strong female protag (natch). I liked the humor. I liked the voice.

It was written by the most prolific writer in my writers group. She's also enormously talented and we all hoped the publication world would come to their senses and publish her - sooner rather than later.

I never got to read the entire cheerleader book. There were other projects and other passions from my writing friend.

Then, about two years ago, the son of another of my (brilliant and talented) writing friends was diagnosed with cancer, and the wonderful cheerleader book became an even more wonderful cheerleader book, as Charity generously distracted Darcy by giving her a project that had nothing to do with hospitals, cell counts or being a mom.

And magic happened.

And the gist of it is that Saturday, although the release date is officially tomorrow, I was able to walk into my local Barnes and Noble and pick up that pretty book in the center of that photo up there.

That's right.

The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance.

And then I got to spend the last two days inhaling it.

If you have teens - get it for them - teens always need good books. If you're an adult - get it - it's billed by Simon Pulse, their label, as a good beach read. And it's perfect for that, but it's also deeper and that makes it all the better.

I inhaled it. It's that much fun.

What a lovely weekend.

P.S. You can find out more about The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, and all things geek, here.

The Return of the Return

2009-05-16T06:55:00.002-04:00

Hey Everyone!

I hope that you all had a wonderful start to spring. Michigan has been doing its regular weather thing - there are days when you want to have both the heat and the air on (but of course we wouldn't do that to the environment now, would we?).

Oh, and the cougar thing - no, not that kind of cougar - was up there because I kept getting all these "strong leader" thingies on quizzes - for those Joss Whedon fans, I was both Buffy and Mal - and actually, I guess all of that served me well in the past couple of months, but no, I'm not going to write about that.

Thanks for the well-wishes. All has been fine, just insanely busy. I'll catch you up later in terms of what I did on my spring vacay, so to speak.

In the meantime, I've missed all of you AND your blogs and I'm so looking forward to being BACK.

There are also all kinds of things to tell you about - book releases, experiments with my first ever blog freebie (POM Wonderful - and it's pretty wonderful, I gotta admit), changes in MI in terms of weather, living, politics and all that good stuff, why my Blessed meter hasn't been moving (but it's sure going to now), and cooking, cooking, cooking.

Life is good.

Hope yours is, too.

More about this later...

2009-04-16T08:54:00.001-04:00

You Are a Cougar

You have more strength than most people, and with it, the ability to inflict a lot of harm.

Your power gives you confidence, and you find leading others to be easy.

You believe that you need to the best, and you are very driven to excel.

Most people immediately admire you, but some people feel very envious of your abilities.

What Big Cat Are You?

Off Guest Posting...

2009-04-13T09:58:00.002-04:00

I'm over at Lilac Colored Glasses today, waxing philosophic on Belgium.

There's a New Blog in Town

2009-04-09T07:02:00.005-04:00

My friends, Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance will be releasing their fabulous new YA book: The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading on May 23rd. I saw the beginnings of this book in another incarnation, and I can't wait to read the final version.

Charity and Darcy are both extremely talented writers and have fabulous senses of humor, so for anyone who loves a good YA, you should be as excited as I am.

They also have a supporting blog that's great fun, and one of the items on that blog is this quiz, complete with cool give away. Here were my results - no surprise!

Your result for The What Kind of Geek Are You Test...

You are: BETHANY, a WORD NERD

What kind of Geek Girl (or Guy) are you?

"My Heart is with You"

2009-04-07T07:15:00.002-04:00

Prayers are tricky things.

I never know what it really means to say to someone, "My prayers are with you". I know it means that the person wants to share love and concern with you and to provide support.

All of that is well and good and beautiful and is the way we should treat each other.

We live in such a diverse world, however, and how do we share that feeling when we don't really know what the recipient thinks of prayer?

My very secular friend has recently lost her secular mother and within days after her mother's death to cancer found out that her secular, 94-year-old father has esophageal cancer. Giving prayers to someone who doesn't believe in prayer becomes a sticky wicket.

I remember a time long ago when D and I received a letter from one of his cousins who was going off to do "mission" work. She was asking for money from all, and prayers from "good Christians". We were very involved with Judaism at the time; I even worked at one of the local synagogues. Her decision that my prayers weren't "good enough" was one of the most offensive things I've ever encountered.

Life can be capricious and random; on a global scale, my heart goes out the victims of the terrible earthquake in Italy, and especially to those who have not only lost their homes and loved ones, but in fact, their entire village and way of life. This is beyond imagining to me. On a local scale, a close relative in his 50s almost died this week when his bowel ruptured - despite the dire predictions of his medical team, he pulled through and is expected to go home in a few days. At the same time, within the same family, a beloved father is battling severe heart disease, maybe for the last time.

Life on my own end continues to be somewhat challenging if not dramatic - we're still getting my mother settled, I'm still trying to catch up with everything, and given a particularly nasty attack of arthritis, I'm moving slower than molasses. A good friend has been writing me back and forth and in her last e-mail she said, "My heart is with you".

"My heart is with you."

I loved that. There's no interpretation necessary. It doesn't need to be viewed with a religious lens. It doesn't need a cultural explanation. It's simple and it does the job beautifully.

So for all my friends and relatives facing challenges right now (and yes, there are sadly too many currently): my heart is with you.

Have a peaceful Tuesday.

April Fools! It's April 2nd

2009-04-02T04:31:00.003-04:00

I can't express how touched I was by all of the lovely messages about my hiatus.

I've spent the past month on the following things:

Moving my mother from NYC after she's spent 63 years of her life there. During 48 of those years she lived in the same apartment building. She still has many, many friends from her building, her block, the neighborhood; during her going away party she had neighbors, long time work friends, shopkeepers from the neighborhood, waiters and waitresses from a favorite neighborhood restaurant, grandchildren of friends.

An eighteen-year-old friend of hers came down from the Bronx, where she's now moved, and brought her homemade cupcakes the day the packers came.

At her last dinner out at her favorite neighborhood restaurant, she received impromptu tulips from a waiter who ran out to get them, a special dessert with a good luck message from the chef/owner and our whole meal on his partner brother.

The folks who worked in my mom's building are amazing. It's this lovely crew of guys we've known for years. One has a son exactly C's age (to the day) - we've compared pics, and our boys, over the years and passed on advice. A doorman in our building is a classically trained musician, was reading about Caravaggio as we left a week ago today, and we've exchanged facebook info, so we can keep in touch - he's going to pass my facebook stuff onto any of the other folks there, who I don't already have "friended". Everyone wants to keep in touch.

Mom's new place is great. The staff are wonderful - friendly, kind and so, so helpful. She's met some new friends and is happy to have a group to have dinner with. She loves seeing her tall, gangly grandson. She's getting used to actually living here in Ann Arbor.

And she still misses her friends all the time, I think.

On another note, I helped run an annual benefit to raise money for my son's high school theater program. It was an insane amount of work, and in the Michigan economy, we managed to clear $2000, but given the hundreds of ours a few of us spent, I'm not sure at this point I feel it was worth it. We have some new ideas for next year, and hopefully we'll have more than the skeleton crew we have this year. Is anyone else finding that it's hard to meet other volunteers these days?

I know we're all busy, but this country was founded on folks helping each other out - I think we need to start really looking at that.

It was also the planning period for where I teach, and believe it or not, my school year is also winding down. My students are checking in constantly with questions about last essays and creative projects, how to do better on tests in prep for the final exam. My classes are set for next year as long as I get the numbers: British Literature, Shakespeare and "Creative Writing 101" - a class for those who might like to write to try things out (everyone else welcome, too, of course).

And I owe some folks a recipe.

Well, this post was much longer than I'd planned. I'll be catching up on both reading and posting slowly - my mother's still very much in transition, I need to really FINISH some writing projects, and life just keeps rolling, rolling, rolling.

What have you all been up to over the past month? I hope it's been a good one.

Hiatus until April

2009-03-09T09:41:00.002-04:00

To my dear bloggy buds,

I'm throwing up my hands. It's a good thing - I just have too much going on this month and I recognize when I need to say "uncle".

I'll miss you all, but I'll be back April 1st.

Just think of it as my April Fool's joke.

Happy March!

Blogger Aid Week: Some of my Favorite Blogger Aid Bloggers!

2009-02-26T10:47:00.010-05:00

I went through the Blogger Aid member pages today, as I knew that many of my food blogging friends are Blogger Aid members and being of "a certain age" I sometimes just forget who is doing what in the blogging world. Of the many talented food bloggers who have joined Blogger Aid, I was delighted to find many old friends and old favorites. I'd like to share these wonderful blogs with you - I know that some of you know all of them, but if there are any that are new to you, I highly recommend that you go stop by and see what wonders they have to offer:

Jenn of The Leftover Queen. Jenn truly runs a foodie empire (in a good way). She runs, among other things, the Foodie Blogroll, which has just reached over 3000 members. She also is a use-things-up chef extraordinaire and a great educator in terms of sustainable/local foods. On Fridays she hosts "Finest Foodie Fridays" which showcases various food blogs, and she also runs the ever-popular, monthly Royal Foodie Joust - there's always something fun going on at Jenn's place.

Peter G. of Souvlaki for the Soul Okay, so even if you're the most selfish person on the planet, you NEED to buy the Children Are the Future Cookbook for a totally selfish reason - Peter G. is submitting his souvlaki recipe. From the pictures I saw, it is justifiably famous and from all of his creativity and superb photographs, I have a Down Under vacation every time I visit Peter's blog. And for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's such fun to go over to Peter's and see his beautiful photographic eye capture goodies from the opposite season. His posts this winter have gotten me through the worst of Michigan doldrums.

Bren of Bren's Flanboyant Eats. Bren has chosen the best title for her blog, because she is indeed flamboyance in essence, and I mean that in a totally rockin' good way. B shares her Cuban heritage, family gatherings and up and coming food and entertainment career. B has got to live one of the most interesting lives anywhere, and when you combine that with her extraordinary creativity in the kitchen, you know it will be a party. View her blog with mojito in hand!

Maggie of Dog Hill Kitchen
. What can I say about Maggie? Well, she's one of those folks who makes me proud to live in Michigan (she does, too). Maggie cooks dairy-free and includes many vegan recipes that are simply spectacular. The combinations she puts together astonish me on a daily basis. I've also been lucky enough to taste Maggie's cooking, and I'll tell you, she is "da bomb"! Truly. I've heard something about a plan for cherry cupcakes for the cookbook, and if that rumor is true, I know they're going to be outstanding, because nobody does cupcakes like Maggie.

Marye of Baking Delights. Okay, so I can't be grateful enough to Marye, because basically, she taught me to get over my fear of baking. I never would have thought I could learn baking in Michigan via a teacher in Texas, but through Marye's entries, I did just that. My family would bow down to her if they could. Seriously. Who knows, she may even have strengthened my marriage. And if you want to talk food porn, just see the shots of Marye's luscious desserts. Visit Marye's blog early and often, just throw your calorie counter to the wind when you do so!

Susan of Sticky Gooey Creamy
. Okay, Susan has been my other baking tutor. Susan does up EVERYTHING well, from what I can see, but from a personal standpoint, she introduced me to Dorie Greenspan through Tuesdays with Dorie. After several months of drooling over Susan's blog, D bought me my own copy of "Baking: From My House to Yours" for Christmas. We've all been having fun ever since. The other thing that astonishes me about Susan is that whatever recipe I'm most thinking of trying from the book, she seems to have just written about - beautifully. Also, her photographs are such that I'm sure she has a secret career in a bakery.

Michelle of Bleeding Espresso. Bleeding Espresso was one of my first "regular" blog visits. I don't even remember the way I found it, but it continues to be one of my favorite stops. Michelle's warmth and heart come across in everything she does, and her fine writing skills never fail to satisfy. She was the one who introduced me to What's Cooking Wednesdays, and she also has a marvelous feature called "Love Thursdays" where she gathers images of hearts and love from all over. Michelle also has run her share of food events, including from the silly (but fun) World Nutella Day, to a wonderful event that brought awareness to ovarian cancer. Michelle is also a crackerjack cook, and her What's Cooking Wednesday entries are always mouthwatering, but generally in reach, which make them all the better.

Ben of What's Cooking. Ben was another early food blogging buddy - Ben's enthusiasm and love of food and people are contagious. Additionally, he has waged his own campaigns for healthier food, for educating U.S. folks to the fresh cuisine that is true Mexican cuisine, and to creating wonderful meals on a budget. Ben is also a wonderful networker, and like Jenn, has pulled many people in through his projects and challenges. In the kitchen, Ben always puts a new spin on old favorites, whether they be Mexican or more traditional "American." I simply can not read Ben's blog if meal time is coming up, because I know I'm not going to come near what he's created and it just. makes. me. sad. His entry for the cookbook are avocado-corn muffins - how delicious do THEY sound? I can't wait!

Nuria of Spanish Recipes pic by pic. Nuria - huge heart and even greater talents. Nuria will teach you about Spanish cooking and Catalonia in depth and in beauty, and then she'll throw in a dash of humor and often a twist of some wonderful music. Nuria's joy in life and in cooking is completely infectious and her generosity with her posts and patience in answering our questions (she is definitely the go-to lady about squid and some other things that we narrow Americans might not use regularly) and I never fail to learn something wonderful when I go to visit. Like Peter G., I always feel like I'm on vacation when I visit Nuria's blog, and in this economy, with my lack of REAL ability to go on vacation, this is a rare gift. So turn up the tunes and wander over to Spanish Recipes!

Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast is another food blogger of huge heart and huge talents. Now, I have to also say, that I'm persistently in a fit of jealousy when I visit her blog because she lives in NW Canada, which is my dream place to live, and the photo montage in her banner leaves me almost in tears every time I see it. But, putting jealousy aside, I've noticed over time that whenever there's a good cause to be supported, Val is right on it. She also has impeccable taste, is a fabulous "seasonal/local" cook, a fan of Ina Garten and has Greek background, so could there be any better combination? I think not. We can learn all sorts of cross-cultural references, find the freshest of recipes, and learn about anything that's happening to help others via blogging by visiting Val's site. She's truly a treasure of the food blogging world, and it's no surprise that she'd be a founder of Blogger Aid.

Now, I have a confession for the last two blogs. These are NEW favorite bloggers, not old ones. Having said that, both Ivy of Kopiaste and Giz and Psychgrad, her daughter, of Equal Opportunity Kitchen have long been known in the food blogging world. I'm ashamed to say that although I would see their names frequently on blogs I visited, I did not visit theirs... why? Well, honestly, time constraints. Sometimes, I think we all get caught up in our regular "groups" and the idea of adding new visits is overwhelming, but again, how could I resist exploring the blogs of the other two founders of Blogger Aid?

Ivy of Kopiaste. Ivy greets us with "kopiaste" a Greek term used to invite you to share food. She even shares her kitchen via a lovely photo on her "about" page. (And Ivy, I'm so envious of your housekeeping skills!) Ivy set out to record her Greek and Cypriot recipes, and not surprisingly, she is absolutely as talented as this entire community of food bloggers that I've gathered here. Ivy is also all about using fresh, unprocessed ingredients and she is also a wonderful teacher about Greek and Cypriot culture and life. Her photography is lovely, and her recipes even lovelier (maybe?) Also, not surprisingly, Ivy's blog is wall-to-wall badges and buttons of events and projects that she's involved in. It's also another wonderful "vacation" blog. Pour yourself some crisp white Greek wine and join her for a wonderful tour of the Mediterranean.

Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen. One look at the banner of Giz and Psychgrad's blog, and you know you've come to a good place. In fact, I will really, really need to go eat something after I finish this post, because yikes, I'm so hungry now after looking at everyone's amazing recipes and photos! It's clear that this is another "heart" blog with all kinds of events and ideas showcased on the sidebars, along with wonderful recipes and photos in the center. There's also a wonderful dash of humor, and Giz and Psychgrad both write in a wonderfully entertaining manner. Additionally, Giz has donated some of her fine jewelry-making skills as a fundraiser for Blogger Aid, and you can see her work through her site as well.

So enjoy, read and cook!

What's Cooking Wednesday: Blogger Aid Cookbook Recipe - You Decide!

2009-02-25T09:38:00.010-05:00

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

So... there's this cookbook:

If you don't know what this is all about, just check out yesterday's post.

The rules for submission are that you can post ABOUT the recipe on the blog, but you can't post the recipe.

I really struggled with what to choose. First of all, I've been sick, sick, sick with one thing or another since early January and my cooking production is not what it usually is. Second, for a whole variety of foods, there are other bloggers who would blow me out of the water - not that this is a competition, but I just would feel... out of my league. Entirely. And I'm going to write about those bloggers tomorrow.

Finally, I realized that desserts would work. Especially healthy desserts that are low in calories and fat, but big on flavor. I do those well.

So I leave you with two choices:

The first is Bittersweet-Banana Power Muffins:

Imagine your house smelling of melted chocolate and rich banana. Imagine cheating on your diet for breakfast (or dessert). Imagine a complete meal of whole grains, fruit and protein and anti-oxidants in a delicious, chocolate muffin. Imagine the whole thing coming in at under 150 calories and under 5 grams of fat.

Imagine... Bittersweet-Banana Power Muffins.

The second, though, is actually my favorite - Orange-Pistachio-Apricot Biscotti:

Imagine biting into a burst of Middle Eastern flavors. Imagine the delicate smell of orange flower water and the tart goodness of dried apricots mixed with the salty goodness of pistachios. Imagine the delicate crunch of this biscotto, which uses a secret ingredient for a slightly different, more delicate texture. Imagine a perfect accompaniment to that morning cup of coffee that won't even put a scratch in your calorie budget. Imagine biting into Spring.

Imagine... Orange-Pistachio-Apricot Biscotti.

Okay, gang, what I submit is up to you. Please just leave a comment below, and that recipe will (hopefully) become part of the history that is Children Are The Future Cookbook. Please leave your votes in the comments section.

And while you're at it, don't forget my Blogger Aid Give-away. Do a good deed and be entered to win a good book!

Blogger Aid Week: The Cookbook "Children Are The Future"

2009-02-24T12:00:00.011-05:00

Isn't this a lovely cover?

This is the current major initiative of Blogger Aid. I think it will be no surprise to my readers that anything that promotes children and education is something that I love to support.

And what a lovely challenge to support this through creativity.

This cookbook will include recipes from many of your favorite food bloggers. Over 100 people have pledged to participate so far, and the numbers are rising.

You have until March 31st to submit your recipe, and all the details are here. 100% of the profits will go to School Meals, a program of the World Food Programme. You can learn more about it here, but if you don't want to click over to the site, here are some facts:

• 75 million primary school-aged children do not go to school
• 97 percent of them are in developing countries
• 57 percent of them are girls
• 150 million children drop out of school before attaining basic primary education

The School Meals program is designed to keep students in school, to provide a nutritional safety net for the poorest families, and to keep girls in school (as they will receive food to bring home when they attend school).

To participate, you do NOT need to be a member of Blogger Aid. You do NOT need to be a food blogger. You just need to have a recipe and a blog that's yours and to follow the guidelines posted here.

So, now... a little giveaway. For everyone who joins blogger aid between now and Friday with the intention of helping this project, just leave a comment on this blog, (AFTER you've joined Blogger Aid), and I will enter you to win one of these two incredibly important books about food, culture and the future of our planet:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Paperback) by Michael Pollan

or

The Earth Knows My Name : Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst

To join Blogger Aid, go here.

Tomorrow? A poll. You get to choose my recipe for Children are the Future.

Music Monday: Blogger Aid - "Imagine"

2009-02-23T09:47:00.002-05:00

For other tales of musical adventure, please visit Soccer Mom in Denial.

So, just what is Blogger Aid? Blogger Aid is the brain child of Ivy, Giz and Val and has been set up to raise money for the United Nations' World Food Programme, which helps children all over the globe. Since this is an international group, the World Food Programme was a wonderful choice. Blogger Aid is primarily a group of food bloggers, and the major fundraiser will be the Blogger Aid cookbook. I'll have more about the cookbook in future posts. It's not too late to join and help - join the Blogger Aid ning group and you can learn more. Just click on the link below.

There's a meme going around Facebook that asks for your 20 most influential albums. This is definitely up my alley, and I'm planning to play for real next week here. It got me thinking, however, about which "inspirational" songs have hit me most over the years. I'm not talking about spiritually inspirational - that would be a whole 'nother post, but more the banner songs that have been written for causes: Band Aid, Farm Aid, One.org, Melissa Etheridge's "I Run for Life". I've loved various pieces that have been written for these causes over the years, and I've loved the compilation projects that have come out of these fundraisers.

As I thought and thought about what to include on a "list", however, I realized that I indiscriminately love many of these songs - they're filled with great hope and joy and cooperation.

But then one song kept coming back to me as the granddaddy of them all. Yes, I know there was great protest music long before this song was written, but there's something about this one song that seemed, for me, to turn the world on its proverbial ear, and to give hope for a generation and beyond.

So for this, and for so many brilliant songs, I turn to John Lennon:

Flu

2009-02-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

Yup, that's where I've been this week. Not a pretty place to visit.

Plans for this week?

Catch up on blog reading (but not all of it, sorry). Also, this will be a special week on a2eatwrite. This week will be all about:

More will be explained tomorrow.

How was your week?

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T17:57:00.001-05:00

And remember... love the one(s) you're with!

For those on your own - to you, especially, love the one you're with.