Move Over Auntie Anne

In addition to eating too much celebratory food last weekend, I also learned how to make pretzels. They were awesome, and I've never even really liked pretzels. They are also a lot of work though. Basically, I had to make the dough, let it rise, cut it into 8 pieces and make those into 24 inch ropes. I created the pretzel shape by making a U, crossing the ends and bringing them back down. Then I boiled them in baking soda and water, brushed them with egg yolks and baked. I did not realize, however, that the maintenance man had installed a new smoke detector in the hallway next to the kitchen. I was quickly introduced to it while the egg yolk burned on the parchment paper, the detector is working well.
So the pretzel making is quite an ordeal, but it's definitely something I would make again and freeze for later. I used Alton Brown's recipe, which always makes me happy--the man is a genius.

Some interesting facts about Pretzels
Pretzels originated in medieval Europe. It is believed that the shape is supposed to look like praying hands or arms crossed over the chest. In Germany, pretzels were traditionally eaten on Good Friday by Catholics. They were a convenient food because the Catholics were forbidden from eating eggs, lard, dairy products, and meat during Lent. Children would look for hidden pretzels on Easter morning, like an egg hunt today.
Pennsylvania is the pretzel capital of America because of the large population with German heritage, the so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" of Southeastern PA began the American pretzel tradition.

Anniversary Weekend

I feel like this title could be longer, "Anniversary Weekend for a couple who have evolved from people who didn't cook to people whose relationship is based around cooking together." Or maybe not...

John and I had our third anniversary last weekend and celebrated true to form--we ate and drank some good food. We also both got each other cookbooks as gifts. (Go figure!) I got "500 Cupcakes" which has recipes like Eggplant Caviar Muffins and Rhubarb and Ginger Cupcakes along with some more conventional ones. I got John, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Bittman has never let us down with How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, so it should be good. He is a food journalist who I respect as much as any chef, you can check out his column in The New York Times and he's also in Spain: On the Road Again on PBS.org.

Saturday we tried a new downtown eatery- the Silk Road Bistro. The name is a clever reflection of the variety of food they offer, Indian, Mediterranean, and Pakistani. I had a samosa, naan, basmati rice, and some vegetable balls..that's the easiest way to describe them, they were like meatballs except they were made out of veggies, and they were excellent. They contained the best paneer I've ever had and it's worth going back just for the sauce. I'm not sure what was in it, but it was spicy and garlicky. This dish is called malai kofta on the menu, described as "mixed vegetable patties, cooked in a creamy gravy sauce." When I go back, I'd like to try their spicy chili naan and their paneer wrap.

Sunday we went back to the place where we had our first date, Trial's Pub. The beer was better than the food, but it was good beer so that's not a terrible thing. We had some Hoegaarden and Stella Artois and had a curry chips appetizer. I love these curry chips. I got the vegetable curry dinner because the Mediterranean plate isn't in season yet. John's dinner was better than mine, he got a shepherd's pie, which to me just seems like meaty gravy with mashed potatoes and cheese on top. I did a little research on shepherd's pie because I was curious about its origins. I figured it was just a peasant food that has retained popularity. That's pretty accurate, its origins are traced back to when potatoes became an affordable crop for the poor. Traditionally, the meat is leftovers that are turned into the base for the pie while the mashed potatoes become the crust.



Finally, we drank good wine all weekend. Saturday, we had some 7 Deadly Zins and Sunday we had Franciscan Cabernet. Good tip--you can get the 2005 Franciscan Cab at Target for $11.99-that's a steal for this caliber of wine. I'm going to get a couple of bottles and save them, it will be excellent through 2013. For dessert, John brought some cheesecake down from North Beach. Stella Pastry and Caffe on Columbus has the best cheesecake I've ever had. It's an event to eat this cheesecake. (It is a party in your mouth!) Saturday we split a piece of blueberry cheesecake and Sunday we had chocolate cheesecake with strawberries.
All in all, good eats and good company.

Coming of Age with Samoas

The title is for anthropology people--it doesn't really make sense but I couldn't resist. (Wiki Coming of Age in Samoa.)
Anyway, the other day I was thinking about how frustrating it is that Girl Scout cookies are only available for a limited time each year, and if you don't know a girl scout, you might miss out on the heavenly cookies completely. Sure enough, other people had the same idea- if you google "homemade girl scout cookie recipes" you'll find several options to keep the deliciousness going year round. I tried one by the woman who runs the "Baking Bites" website:

http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-samoas-bars/#comments

She has come up with an awesome recipe for Caramel deLites (or Samoas, depending on where you're from.) I tried the Samoa Bars recipe because they are less time consuming than the cookie recipe and they are amazing!

I still think it's a little strange that they chose to name the cookie after the Pacific island of Samoa, but I get it because Samoa exports coconut products. I guess Vettaikaranpudurs didn't have the same ring to it. (Vettaikaranpudur is the largest coconut producing region in India, which is the third largest coconut producing country after Indonesia and the Phillipines.)

(Dad, these bars are in the mail for you. Happy Birthday!)

The Margaritic Revolution

I meant to write a blog tonight, but I made margaritas instead.
(Spring break, whoooo!)

I'm going to salvage this by relaying the history of margaritas via Wikipedia, though you can find the same information from the website of a Texas couple who love margaritas.
http://www.margaritatexas.com/aboutus.php

Although the margarita garnered national fame as the Drink of the Month in Esquire in 1953, stories of its origins vary.
It may have originated from one of the following, (but I'd like to think that it's been around much longer among people who appreciate tequila and limes):

--created in the 1930s or 40s in Tijuana by bartenders for Rita Hayworth, whose real name was Margarita Cansino.
--created in 1936 by Daniel Negrete for his sister-in-law, Margarita
--created in Ciudad Juarez in 1942 by bartender Pancho Morales as he struggled to remember what was in a drink called a Magnolia
--created in Galveston, Texas in 1948 by bartender Santos Cruz for singer Peggy Lee
--created in Mexico City by a bartender at a restaurant called Los Dos Republicas for a friend of the owner
--created in Acapulco in 1948 by bartender Margaret Sames based on her interactions with famous people

We may never know who made the first margarita, but it was probably several people in different places around the same time, kind of like the Neolithic Revolution. (I tried to bring this back to relevancy.)
Coincidentally, I just finished Still Life with Woodpecker by one of my favorite fiction writers, Tom Robbins. Here is his characteristically bold take on the subject of beverage origins,

"Champagne was discovered by a Catholic monk," said Bernard. "Took one swallow and burst out of his cellar yelling, 'I'm drinking stars, I'm drinking stars!' Tequila was invented by a bunch of brooding Indians. Into human sacrifice and pyramids. Somewhere between champagne and tequila is the secret history of Mexico, just as somewhere between beef jerky and Hostess Twinkies is the secret history of America."

My Margarita Recipe:
1 pressed lime
1/2 pressed lemon
Splash of OJ or 1/4 pressed orange or splash of Triple Sec
Pinch of sugar or extra OJ
Tequila (amount varies)
Salt optional
--Blend or Stir with ice and enjoy


Spanish lesson for the day: Margarita translates to "daisy"

Irish Cooking with a California Twist

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the online version of my hometown newspaper, the Sioux City Journal (SCJ). Usually, I'm only checking the website to troll the wedding announcements looking for people from high school. On this day I checked out the food section and was pleasantly surprised that they featured a vegetarian option for St. Patrick's Day cooking. The recipe was for colcannon and was written by Cindy Sutter of the Scripps Howard News Service, adapted from something she had seen Rachael Ray make and then printed in the SCJ.

The one thing that was lost in translation is what the dish actually is. I was under the impression that it was a meal. This is not the case. When I attempted to make it on Saturday, sous chef John figured out 5 minutes before it was done that it's not a meal, it's a side dish. That threw a damper on dinner. Basically, colcannon is fancy mashed potatoes. Our version had cabbage, half and half, russet potatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, shallots, nutmeg and veggie stock. We ate it with some organic sour batard, a relatively authentic way to eat this peasant dish.

Still perturbed that I made a side dish for dinner, I ignored the leftovers in the fridge until today. Alright, it's St. Patrick's Day, let's redeem the colcannon. On John's advice, I made the colcannon into patties and put them in a hot pan with oil. This made some nice colcannon cakes that I topped with goat cheese. Adding a California twist to bland Irish food was necessary. Once again, I took John's advice and tried the Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo. MMM MMM good! I rounded out the meal with some organic eggs and it was definitely tasty.

Lesson learned: do some research before making unfamiliar food.

Sidenote...
For SiouxCityans, the SCJ has an article today about the organic farming movement in the area. Let's check this out, eh?
http://siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2009/03/17/news/top/5ae92097c49465c48625757b005413ed.txt

Edit: John wants me to point out that he's not a soy-loving know-it-all, he would have preferred deer meat and am I usually right about all things food related.

Fast Times and Slow Food

In the foreword to Carlo Petrini's book Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair, Alice Waters writes:

"When my friends and I opened the doors of our new restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971, we thought of ourselves as agents of seduction whose mission it was to change the way people ate. We were reacting against the uniformity and blandness of the food of the day. We soon discovered that the best-tasting food came from local farmers, ranchers, foragers, and fishermen who were committed to sound and sustainable practices. Years later, meeting Carlo Petrini for the fist time, I realized that we had been a Slow Food restaurant from the start. Like Carlo, we were trying to connect pleasure and politics--by delighting our customers we could get them to pay attention to the politics of food.
Carlo Petrini is the founder of the Slow Food movement and an astonishing visionary. Unlike me, he grew up in a part of the world with a deeply traditional way of eating and living, where he learned an abiding love for the simple, life-affirming pleasures of the table. When he saw this way of eating in Italy start to disappear, he decided to do something about it. Slow Food began as an ad hoc protest against fast-food restaurants in Rome, but it has grown into an international movement built on the principles he sets forth in these pages."

Although I agree with Alice Waters in her praise of Petrini and appreciate her devotion to the Slow Food movement, I was really disappointed in her appearance on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.



I think she had an opportunity to make Slow Food seem more accessible, responsible, and fun, but instead she came across as out of touch with reality. Because I really do support the tenets of Slow Food, I was hoping that she would use the cooking segment to show that anyone can cook meals that are both nutritious and easy. On the contrary, she made an elaborate breakfast which included cooking an egg in the open fire hearth that she has in her kitchen.



If this show of opulence wasn't enough to convince people that Slow Food and eating organic are elitist markers, then the food prices and Waters' rejection of frozen vegetables is enough of a turn-off. My worry is that this segment will likely repulse most Americans--people who don't live in the Bay Area and don't have access to farmer's markets year round.

In the segment, the camera crew also follows Waters as she walks through the Slow Food Festival that was held in San Francisco last summer. I wanted to go to the festival until I realized that tickets for the food pavilion were $45-65.00. With so many Americans struggling to pay bills it seemed untimely to air Alice Waters, owner of a restaurant that charges $60-125.00 for dinner this week, implying that people are buying sneakers instead of good food,

"We make decisions everyday about what we're going to eat," Waters said. "And some people want to buy Nike shoes - two pairs, and other people want to eat Bronx grapes, and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I want to do."

This is definitely true for some people but I think that for most people the choices on the quality of food they consume are much more complex. I guess my point is that rather than being repulsed by frozen vegetables, maybe Alice Waters should realize that it is the best and slowest that some people can eat. Frozen vegetables are actually pretty healthy, often flash frozen at their prime and they can retain great flavor. If you're living in an area where a fresh variety of produce isn't available year round, frozen green beans are the best alternative to canned or pickled for example.

My philosophy is that everyone should do the best that they can. In my day-to-day life, it is often impossible to eat entirely in accordance with a slow food lifestyle, so i can't imagine having a family, a more fixed income, a full-time job, or a harsher climate.
So kudos to anyone who tries!



Thanks Dawn

Adventures in Pasta Making

My Christmas gift to myself this year was a pasta maker. It's a purchase I feel good about because I eat a ton of pasta, and now I know where all of the ingredients came from. Also, I can make pasta in bulk and have it on hand for a 10 minute dinner anytime. I was a little apprehensive at first because I've never made pasta before, but it could not be easier. I got my pasta maker on overstock.com for $36.00 with shipping, which is a pretty good deal for the quality. I've come to the conclusion that it's just a grown up version of the Play-Doh Fun Factory.




Making pasta really is a lot like playing with Play-Doh. Using the flour bowl technique to mix up the ingredients is probably the funnest way to go and it feels more authentic. Basically, you mix your flour (or flours if you're doing whole wheat pasta) with a pinch of salt. Then, make a bowl in the middle with your fingers and throw in a splash of olive oil. Put the eggs in one or two at a time and stir them up.



When they're all in, go to town kneading it all together with your hands. You'll end up with a dough ball that might be kind of ugly, but it will be fine in the end. Cover the dough and let it sit for 30 minutes before cutting it into three pieces. Flatten the pieces out so that they will fit into the pasta maker and roll 'er through. The flattened piece of dough can either be used for making ravioli or for slicing into linguini and spaghetti.

The pasta recipe I've been using calls for 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour. I had an unsuccessful attempt at using 2/3 wheat to 1/3 white and the consistency was like Play-Doh that has been left out over night. Moral of the story, never go full wheat. You can also add beets, spinach, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes to the mix to make colorful flavored pasta.

Once the pasta is all sliced up, it's ready for drying. I think it's unnecessary to buy a drying rack. John and I just rigged up a string in the corner of the kitchen. It's literally just two nails and a piece of wrapping ribbon, but it works.



There are going to be pieces of pasta that either fall off the string and break into little pieces or won't fit on the string to begin with. Throw these ones in a bowl to dry-they're good for things like no chicken noodle soup (or chicken noodle soup if you're into that.)
This pasta maker can also be used to make sugar cookies and fondant, which will come in handy if you're like me and you want to work for Charm City Cakes someday. Also, I think that homemade pasta would be a great gift. Maybe a combination of beet and spinach pasta around the holidays, in a nice basket with a ribbon...
That was my Martha Stewart moment for the day-and yes, everyone's getting homemade pasta from me next Christmas.