This is the last of the jar of fireweed jelly that Michael brought us from his summer in Fairbanks, AK. He harvested the fireweed and made the jelly himself while he was up north. This jar also had some jalapeño in it, so it had a fiery taste as well as color. More please.
Quarter, core, and slice the pears. (I don’t usually peel them unless I am uncertain about their derivation.) Heat in saucepot with the butter, sugar, and powdered cloves for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and combine with tangerines.
Brown, Edward Espé. Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings New York: Riverhead Books, 1997: pg. 68.
Soaking the squid befor grilling
Michael brought over some squid tonight and we grilled them right up. Sort of tricky to keep them from falling through the grate of the grill, but they turned out pretty tasty.
Grilling the squid
Michael making friends with the squid before we cooked it
The final product – Grilled squid with tamarind orange mint sauce
My second attempt at homemade sourdough turned out better, flavorwise, than the first one I made with my starter. The bread rose more, which was good, but still had a very stiff crust. Still working on perfecting this one. I’m trying out the Berkley Sourdough recipe found here. I think the directions could be a bit more exact, however. Like, when it says to cover, does it mean with a towel (what I did the first time) or does it mean with cellophane to keep more moisture in (what I did this time).
Still, a tasty chapter in what will probably be a string of sourdough adventures.
Do you have any recommendations for good sourdough recipes? Leave a comment with a link if you’ve got a tasty suggestion.
Bruce invited Alison and some of her friends over for lunch. We had this tasty fruit salad.
INGREDIENTS:
Serves four.
Scott, David, and Tom Pappas. Three Bowl Cookbook: The Secrets of Enlightened Cooking from the Zen Mountain
Also there was the honey tasting. We’d gone grocery shopping before we started the bread/cookie extravaganza and we bought two new types of honey. So we had to taste them (plus a few others we already had in our pantry) while the bread was rising…
Sweet fire in a jar! I’ve never had anything like it. I love this stuff. I picked this one out, and Gabriel chose the Really Raw Honey below. It’s not ‘blow-your-ears-off’ spicy, but has just enough heat to be exciting. As if eating pieces of fresh bread slathered with honey wasn’t exciting enough…
“Pesticide free – totally unheated and unstrained. This honey still contains pollen, propolis, honeycomb, and live enzymes – all the goodness the bees put in!” All that stuff makes a very complex, full flavor. This was the second new honey we picked up tonight.
It was an addictive counterpoint to the chili honey…spicy, sweet, spicy, sweet…
The anise honey seems like more of a winter honey to me. Maybe that’s because I first ate it with baked pancakes on a surprisingly freezing day in late winter/early spring.
We use this honey as our standard cooking honey. It is made right here in Missouri.
This was actually the first exotic honey I bought. I think it comes from Spain. I used to eat it on toasted bagels, which was one of the few things we could ‘cook’ while the kitchen was under construction. It has a delicious, tropical flavor that reminds me of warm summer evenings, and my first trip to Florida as a little girl.
Our friend Dr. Sally Steindorf came over for dinner this evening, and we found out just how much this beautiful new kitchen has changed us. Especially me. Sally is a vegetarian, so we decided to make penne with fresh tomato sauce. No, not the red, gloppy business that comes in a jar labeled Pragoo, which by the way, is the exact sound you hear as you unscrew the sealed lid and dump the contents into a pan. No sir. We are talking about gorgeous orange cherry tomatoes. (fresh-picked, and still warm and sugary from sitting on the vine in the sun) Fresh basil. You get the idea.
So Gabriel and I actually squabbled about who would get to make the sauce. “My turn!” “You cooked last night!” “Come on, I really want to grill…” Okay fine. I let Gabriel do the sauce because I know how much he likes his grill. And it was a stellar grilled tomato sauce.
This turned out to be a fantastic recipe, one that we’ve since made a number of times. The dish makes excellent leftovers as well, since the flavors continue to meld and turn into a wonderful, delicious dish.
This recipe turned out to be “alchemical,” which is to say that the flavors unite and blend in a surprising way. Dried cranberries (which are somewhat sweetened or they would be really tart) are becoming widely available.
Serves 4 to 6 people.
If you are using sun-dried tomatoes that are not packed in oil, place them in a saucepan, cover with water, and cook several minutes. Add the cranberries for half a minute at the end. Drain and reserve the liquid. Slice the sun-dried tomatoes into narrow strips.
Trim the stems off the beets and place them in a baking dish with the water from the sun-dried tomatoes (or add enough water to fill up the pan 1/4 inch). Cover the pan and bake in a 375- to 400-degree oven for 1 hour or more until they are fork-tender.
Remove beets from pan and allow to cool enough so that you can remove the skins, roots, and stems. Then cut up the beets and put them back in the baking dish with the tomatoes, cranberries, orange peel, and a touch of salt. Reheat in the oven before serving.
Brown, Edward Espé. Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings New York: Riverhead Books, 1997: pg. 174.
MENU:
GUESTS:
One thing I like about our new kitchen, something that keeps the whole thing very exciting, is the spontaneity. Some folks get flustered when they had planned a dinner for four, and six or eight show up. Others make awkward faces when friends conveniently drop in for a visit just an hour before a meal. Not us. So far, it has been a pleasure to share our masterpiece of a kitchen with our friends. And their friends. Let’s face it: you can make a lot of friends with food.
On this particular night, Michael decided to take a break from his professorial duties. He called and wanted to make gazpacho. He would be there in an hour. I fought the horrible back-to-school/Sunday afternoon grocery shopping maddness, and we both got back to the house at about the same time. Unbeknownst to us, Gabriel had invited Austin (our Eagle Scout painter-of-baseboards) and his parents to stay for dinner. (Thankfully, we had just the right amount of food.) This was really the first time the three of us had put on our ‘cooking show’ for real adults. That’s why we put a couch in what most people would call the ‘breakfast nook’. So people could hang out while we made feasts.
(I mean, it’s so easy to impress high school kids with cooking talent. They will eat just about anything, and get mystified & excited when it comes from somewhere other than the microwave.)
🙂
We found that there is plenty of room for all 3 of us to work in the kitchen at the same time, without tripping over each other, or stabbing each other with a chef’s knife. This was also the night that I learned an important practical fact: we needed more dish towels. We had enough dish towels to handle the amount of mess that Gabriel & I typically make in the kitchen, but I don’t think I was really prepared for the tornado that is Michael in the kitchen.
Like it says in the Book of Revelation (12:6-10):
And the woman fled into the kitchen, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was an iron chef war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not against Michael’s mighty gazpacho; neither was their place found any more in the kitchen. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, for heaven’s sake clean up that mess! How did you manage to get tomato on the wall and the floor, and who smeared cream all over the granite countertops?
I’m pretty sure it went something like that. It was wonderful. We amazed the parents, and even convinced Mrs. Lines that she likes gorgonzola. How can you beat that?
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