Blog de Puree » Cooking

Our first Arrowhead Farm CSA meal

paul — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:30:16 +0000

We picked up our first share of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce from Arrowhead Family Farm in Newburyport, Mass today and consequently cooked our first, delicious meal from locally grown food.

A bird’s eye view of the Arrowhead Family Farm along the
Merrimack River in Newburyport, Mass.

Take that big chain markets and national (and international) food distribution conglomerates who spend stupid money on resources, pollute the Earth and provide sub-quality food! (I mean c’mon, how pathetic is it that Stop & Shop and Shaws markets provide apples from Washington State in the fall when they are literally falling off the trees here in New England!)

(Green tirade over, Randye reminded me of a wonderful quote from Nigella Lawson in her book “How to Eat” where she states, “Don’t believe everything you’re told about the greater good of eating foods only when they are in season. The purists may be right, but being right isn’t everything. If you live in the Tuscan Hills, you may find different lovely things to eat every month of the year, but for us it would mean having to subsist half the time on a diet of tubers and cabbage, so why shouldn’t we be grateful that we live in the age of jet-transport and extensive culinary imports? (Nigella lives in England and the same applies to New England.)) (Check out her books on her website. And buy them!)

It was early in the season for New England, so the bounty was a bit light, but we picked up one pound of rhubarb, a pint of strawberries, a head of red lettuce, a head of dark green lettuce, and a generous bunch of sweet pea shoots. We could have gotten chives, but our personal garden runneth over with them. The added bonus of our pickup was that my 8+ month-old son was able to meet and pet a friendly Hereford cow named Delilah who is a resident at Arrowhead Farm. (Young boys + animals = smiles. Usually.)

This week’s bounty.

So, tonight’s meal was a light and delightful, Vietnamese inspired shrimp and rice noodle salad with the CSA lettuces and pea shoots, some leftover parsley from a previous market purchase, plus fresh mint and chives from our own herb garden, rice noodles, frozen shrimp and a chili lime dressing that Randye adapted from a spring roll dipping sauce recipe. To wash down the meal, we imbibed in a sweet, buttery Gewurztraminer wine from Gundlach Bundschu (2003 vintage).

Not bad for coming home at 5:15 p.m. and sitting down to eat at 6:00.

Protected: Sweet Potato Facial

randye — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:16:59 +0000

How to make peanut butter suet

paul — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:34:45 +0000

A birding blog I follow called 10,000 Birds had a great blog post recently about making peanut butter suet.

In the post, the author’s parents know what Randye and I also discovered not too long ago—peanut butter suet is world’s better than that fatty, industrial made stuff you can get at the supermarket. During our last foray into homemade bird foods, we made pine cone feeders, two with Crisco and two with peanut better. The peanut butter feeders were wildly popular and were devoured within two days, attracting a wide array of bird species. The Crisco feeders? Not so much. They took about two weeks.

I’m including this recipe from the 10,000 Birds blog. It’s perfect for making cake sized batches that fit nicely in those square suet feeders.

Homemade Peanut Butter Suet

Melt 1 cup shortening (crisco or bacon fat). Add 16-20 ounces of crunchy peanut butter. Heat and stir until melted.
Add 1 cup of raisins, 1 cup of black oil sunflower seeds, 6 cups of cornmeal and 4 cups of flour.
Spoon into a 13X9 pan. Chill until it is hard. Cut into chunks for suet feeders (or stuff into cracks and crevices in logs).

Now If I can just get Randye to let me use of one her baking pans…

Homemade fruit smoothies

paul — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:40:35 +0000

Rather than going to a market, health food store or local coffee shops for fruit smoothies that cost upwards of $4 to $5 dollars, we’ve started making them at home.

Even better, for the price of a smoothie out in the world, we can buy enough ingredients to make at least eight to ten smoothies at home.

Here is what you need to start making home-made smoothies:

One bag of assorted frozen fruit. We like bags with assorted strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
Some pre-frozen sliced banana chunks. The perfect use for bananas that are starting to brown, and which you may not want to eat whole anymore. Just cut them up and stow them in the freezer in a Ziploc bag.
Orange juice–brand and style of your choice.
An immersion blender. You can get a decent one for under $20 and it will pay for itself within a month or two.
A tall plastic container, such as a juice container to mix it all together.

Directions for two: Take the frozen fruit and dump a goodly handful from each bag into a bowl. Defrost the fruit for a minute or so in the microwave. Take the partially defrosted fruit and put it in the container and blend as desired. Pour in 1 cup of orange juice. Mix with the immersion blender until all the fruit is ground to a smoothie-like consistency. Add more orange juice to ensure enough for your two servings. Mix again briefly, pour and serve.

These smoothies are great if you’re fighting a cold and need some extra nutrients, want a healthy drink alternative or if you’re looking to add some fruit to your diet.

I’m very excited that my wife showed me how to make these. In essence, she succeeded not in feeding me, but taught me how to fish. Thanks, sweetie! [Glug, glug] Mmmmm, fruity goodness.

End-of-year brunch

paul — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:36:24 +0000

As usual, Randye dazzled our friends with her hostessing with the mostessing. From 11 to 3, we had friends from various parts of our lives all mingling pleasantly.

The highlight of the day was the food, of course. We served two baked omelets, upside down apple banana French toast, baked ziti, salad, our friend Melissa’s brilliant fruit salad, pastries and various brunch-like libations. We’re fairly sure that nobody left feeling hungry.

It was also nice to have many of our friends by to see the new kitchen. Randye noticed that the flow between the kitchen, dining room and living room was just as she had hoped. Our friends hung out in all three rooms comfortably and there were no issues with people moving about. The design is a success, as was the brunch.

Now, why didn’t I think of that? Or an ode to the perfect brownie.

randye — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:52:43 +0000

Brownies. They may be the world’s perfect food. Well, maybe not. But I love, love, love them. (Oh, but don’t dare taint them with nuts of any kind. Just pure, pure chocolate-y goodnes.) And while any morsel is good, the edges, with their chewy, dense lusciousness are the holy grail of bakery heaven.

So imagine my delight when I happened upon this fabulous, new kitchen gadget. It’s called The Baker’s Edge and it may just change my life. It’s patented space-age design creates more edges per square inch of brownie! Edges, edges and more glorious edges.

Consider it added to my Wists List, aka my new social bookmarking Wish List (which has also changed my life, but that’s a post for a different time).

Cooking potato latkes for Hanukkah

paul — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 01:51:44 +0000

Randye and I cooked potato latkes from scratch tonight in preparation for Hanukkah, which starts this Friday evening. It was also the first opportunity we had to cook together in the layout of the new kitchen–one of the major factors in the design we chose. As we had hoped, things went quite smoothly. We weren’t bumping into one another, we each had our own work area, and it was a very pleasant experience.

I was the sous chef, naturally, and my first task was to peel the potatoes. Then I cut the onions. Then I cleaned. Randye, as the head chef, prepped the spices and scallions, worked the blender and massaged the entire bowl of raw latke goodness. When that was all complete, we cooked the latkes in hot vegetable oil, in two Circulon stir-fry skillets.

The recipe we used is from Grandma Doralee Patinkin’s Jewish Family Cookbook and is a big hit with our family. For anyone unfamiliar, Grandma Doralee is the grandmother of Mandy Patinkin, of Broadway and The Princess Bride fame (“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”).

I’ve found a link to the actual recipe on foodnetwork.com in case anyone is interested in giving these a try.

Together, the prepping process of all the ingredients took no longer than 20 minutes. The cooking part takes a quite a bit longer, depending on how many pans and range burners you have. And make sure your kitchen is well ventilated with a good fan or open windows or your home will smell like fried latkes for a few days when you’re finished cooking.

And make sure there’s someone with a strong back available to clean the range top when the cooking is finished.

Oh, and Bouche wasn’t sure of what to make of the whole latke mishegas, but he hung out anyhow.

Arts and Crafts

randye — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:26:34 +0000

I inherited my Nana’s The New American Cook Book (circa 1941). The hard cover and spine had ripped off with age and use. I wanted to preserve it because of its obvious sentimental value, but it’s also a damn handy cookbook. (If I want a good basic recipe, such as a fruit compote, this book has it — including some interesting recipes for possum and squirrel pot pie. Hey, you never know!) Plus, it offers these nuggets of home economic wisdom.

“The clever homemaker knows that her meals do more for her family than satisfy hunger and please tastes. She has full understanding that the bodies of all members of her family are composed of many chemicals, combined together in such a manner as to form skin, blood, muscles, bones, hair, and all of the other components of the human frame.”

Anyhow . . .

Knowing that bookmaking is a hot new hobby, I figured this would be an easy project. Armed with this Online Book Repair Tutorial, I went in search (and search and search) of project materials.

First I went to Joann’s Fabrics, but they only had s-crap-booking kits. Another shopper suggested an actual scrapbooking store down the way. Onward I went.

Unfortunately, they had ONLY scrabooking supplies. They suggested a paper store, All About Paper, right up the road. Onward I went.

It was a Paper Source wannnabe (a Boston-area paper mecca), but they DID have bookbinding supplies! I found everything I needed. Unfortunately, their variety of bookcloth colors was pretty weak — and nothing neutral.

Since I’d come this far, I wasn’t leaving without making this project happen. So I decided to go for the sassy red bookcloth for the spine, because heck, it’s a sassy cookbook.

So, despite not being particularly crafty, (I’m the messiest gluer on the planet) I now have a rebound volume that will withstand the ages. It ain’t pretty, but it’s preserved!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Almost good as new and it sure beats the rubberband that had been holding it all together.