to be continueed

Hi,
how are you? Please, do not ask me how I am doing. Though, I do respect your good graciousness and manners. But, please do not ask. Its not like I am suffering from some artistic incantation, its just pure i hate society sh&t. Stay tuned, I'll be back. (yes, i do hope you said that with an ahhnold accennt). Please think of me when you purchase your firsts of the season, ie. asparagus, strawberry, etc.

Spring a Leek

Spring vegetable couscous, lentils, and braised CSA leeks (with a little white wine, woohooo!).

Spring vegetable couscous - a friendly gathering of little pasta pieces, asparagus, and fava. Nice and simple, nothing beats it.


Lentils = bliss. Chef added cumin to the pot, thanks for that Chef!


Now, to the leeks. If I haven't already mentioned this, I am a huge supporter of the leek. I like leeks. It is my favorite onion. And in case you are unfamiliar with the leek, it looks like a giant green onion, as in scallion green onion. The edible part is white and the green stalk is thick and even almost blue. When you buy it, look for it tied to together as a pair with all its green-blue-ery still attached - just a little tip for not getting hustled. Now (April) is the time for leeks, too, by the way. You should be able to find it at the early farmer's markets. We got ours with our weekly CSA basket. Once you get it home, don't clean it until you are ready to cook it up. There might be some grit in between the stalks > just a head's. And as for cooking it up, the first thing you probably think of when you hear 'leek' is potato and leek soup. Sure, go for it. It's great in soup, especially potato soup. You can also roast these onion cousins (see Conquering meat and other tales posted in March), or even eat it raw. The onion flavor is very mild and does not linger on the breath. It is the easiest onion on the breath in that respect! As for the preparation for this particular meal, Chef BRAISED the leeks. Oh yeah, if you want to chomp on a stalk of leek, braise it my friend, braise it. Braise it with white wine and some broth. Braising has been a game changer. A game changer. In fact, I think it has contributed to my leek obsession. I checked the LocalHarvest website in order to provide additional ideas on preparing leeks - they suggest to pair it with potato at all costs, gratins are good. Chef, here's one: potato, leek, chervil, and crouton. Interested?? And the website also says there is a famous Scottish recipe called cock-a-leekie soup. There you go,  I guess you can put it in your chicken soup, too, if you're into souping on chickens..

get your udon on

Udon: a thick, round, filling noodle hailing from the Far East. Udon is made of wheat flour, water, and salt. After mixing the ingredients, the dough is kneaded, takes a break, gets rolled out, and then cut into strips. Udon is usually served as a soup, or at least with a little broth. Haven't had it? It is quite a noodle and I heartily recommend you bump this up on the to-do list.

Tonight's udon was brothed in a spicy miso and joined by quite the array of veg, and included tofu cubes. We're talkin' carrot, edamme, leeks, sa-weet potatoes(!), cilantro, and. AND! et ready. First of the season ASPARAGUS!! Yes, the peepee perfumier! {And, yes, from our CSA, thanks George!} Chef garnished the bowl with a sheet of spicy seaweed. It like disintegrates in your mouth and then zzzing, the burn.  We bought special spoons and chopsticks for our souping pleasure :)

Satur-bee

Today we completed a 6-week short course in beginning beekeeping.  We received handsome certificates with our names on it. It was a proud day.

We also stood among 60,000 + bees buzzing, above our heads, past our heads, next to our bare arms (it was warm today), and sometimes landing on our shoulders to bzzz in our ears. WHOA! A totally new experience for me. I've been out in 'the field' and exposed to insects before, but NOT 60,000 at once! It was totally awesome!

a 'package' of bees = 10,000 bees = 3 lbs

Though we will not be starting a hive this year, it has been an informative 6 weeks and what we have learned will help us plan for when we are settled enough somewhere to get a hobby operation in motion. Especially after seeing the live demo today. The apiarist took a little box of 10,000 bees, squirted them with sugar water, then shook the box so that all the bees fell into a pile, and then poured - literally poured - at least 9,000 of those bees into a hive box. WHOA! They poured in, a stream of bees. It was amazing!

installing/pouring of the bees 

The initial installation of a brand new hive with brand new bees is like no worries. You spritz those babies good enough with the sugar water, and they won't bother you. Why: 1. they are fed and 2. they aren't technically a colony or in a hive just yet, so they are not protective. This goes back to bee basics - when bees are full of nectar, pollen, or honey their stingers can't pop out and bees sting when they feel they are being physically threatened or when they are protecting their colony. So check and check on the no stinging criterion ... so far.

On the other hand.... when you check an active hive, its another story. And for new-bees (heehee) like us, checking in on that established hive was a test of our bee tolerance! Yes, you use the smoker thing but its not like a bee tranquilizer. The bees remain active! They will still take to the air and buzz around. I think three people got stung during the demo. One guy had a bee in his hair and then started shaking his head. The apiarist actually picked the bee out of the guy's hair with his bare hands! That part was amusing but the guy was borderline freaking out and that was a little uncomfortable. For the mens, I think this is a time when sparseness of the melon is to your advantage. Please watch the video to the right, you will notice that most of the crazy wackos are not donning the notorious bee suit.

fish delish!

No shrooms tonight, fish instead.

Somedays, I honestly think, "Is this what it was like in the 50's when the mens of the house caught aromas of dinner as they careened up the walkway and into their homes?" I absolutely love it when I catch a nostril full of the Chef at work in the kitchen when I get home from the j-o-b. (Yes, I do know how spoiled I am!) And especially when that smell is garlic in the saute pan - - ooh garlic!

the menu tonight (Wednesday): oven roasted wild Pacific salmon (frozen) with dill. Dill, by the way, is so soothing and flavorful. Sauteed CSA spinach with crunchy garlic slivers and a petit CSA sweet potater. That white dollop atop the spinach: Chef's homemade ricotta. A nice little change-up to the spinach saute :) I know I have been an ultra snob bragging about freshly filet'd fish, but hey! what do we look like? We do what we can, when we can. I still maintain, and Chef agrees, go fresh when you can. In the battle of fresh v. frozen - fresh wins! But the wallet dictates, fresh or frozen...

And as if all that wasn't enough (and it was), Chef tossed an ever amazing salad. Mixed CSA spring lettuces, including some unidentified herbaceous item, sliced CSA radishes, aquacate (mmm), goat cheese dollops, and cherry tomatoes.

A gut buster for sure!

move over mamoun's

ya know what I'm talkin' bbout?? falafel, my friend, falafel!

I had this feeling, that if I had ventured out into Baltimore in search of falafel, the super bad breath that comes from eating this sandwich would be in vain. Plus, I fear the disappointed, ripped off, or hustled feelings that would accompany that 'bouquet'. then again, just to be fair, there is a good falafel stand at the Sunday Farmer's Market, but its 8 bucks, and sometimes its pretty darn chintzy and other times is overflowing. There you go, I rest my case - hustled! I'd much rather wrap my chompers around Chef's falafel anyway! Along with the falafel balls, he stuffed green onion, cukey, and our house-sprouted sprout into pita.

And, yes, he made his own yogurt sauce. In addition to the obvious, Chef added dill, sour cream, homemade garlic powder, and S&P. It was quite flavorful & cotton mouth inducing -- ahh, garlic!  Not only do meals like this remind me of how good I have it, but it also solidifies it for me that we don't have to go out and spend money for a fave like falafel...except if I'm in Cape May, I'm totally going back to that place on the beach, they use fava beans in the falafel. Did you read that, Chef? Fava beans.

the morel of the story...

As I am sure many of you are aware and happful for, Spring has arrived! And for food-minded people such as ourselves, Chef and I anxiously await the arrival of Spring for the goodies of the Forest. Morels being the prime target. And while many children may have been hunting gifts from the Easter bunny this past weekend, Chef and I were hunting goodies of our own. As another 'hunter' put, the "natural" Easter egg - the famed morel mushroom.

Behold! The morel: Sneaky little devils 

that hide behind vegetation and

pop up from below the leaf litter.

But in case you weren't aware, mushroom foragers, or hunters, are a secretive bunch. So don't expect me to blurb too much about these fungi... other than the basics ... Morels are edible wild mushrooms found in the woods. They are so prized and so tasty, they are referred to as a choice edible. That's high acclaim in the world of fungi. Finally, morels are only 'out there' for 4-6 weeks in the early Spring. So people get ramped up and hot and bothered and such when it comes time to forage. And, yes, we are guilty of that as well, but to a lesser degree...or so I think :)

If you are thinking, "Are you nuts! Wild mushrooms are poisonous! You're going to die! But there might be bugs on them!", I say to you - pssh! And just to test that dying theory, I started typing this entry Sunday night, after I ate some of our find, then went to bed. Guess what? I'm still alive, and there was no weird bathroom experiences. And no, no bug parts stuck to my teeth. By the way, I did dream of morels, and I liked it!

A few more morel facts for those of you whose panties may have slipped up into an uncomfortable position. The morel is a distinctive mushroom period; there really isn't any other mushroom out there that you can mistake for this choice edible.  Albeit, there is a mushroom called the false morel and it is poisonous, but it really doesn't look anything like the tasty ones. The false morel is all blobby looking, and there are none of the pockets or pits and ridges that the 'literature' refers to that the choice morel boasts. (heehee, literature, don't I sound like such an expert? i'm making up for the use of the word blobby).  Another quick and easy field test is cutting your morel in half, lengthwise. The good ones will be totally hollow inside. The ones you don't want will not be hollow: you will see little compartments as well as a cottony-type filling. Additionally, there are several species of the edible variety, varying in color and often depending on habitat. And the most important fact about morels: it is fun as heck to go out and collect these things. It can be hard work, but totally rewarding!

And here they are, cooked up. Chef took an ol' timer's recommendation and cooked them up with heavy cream. Sherry was also recommended with the cream, but we did not have any sherry in the house so we just stuck with cream and parsley. These little gems topped el pierogie and were joined by chived mashed potatoes and sauteed cabbage with caraway. You might also see another tasty wild fungi in the photos above, the oyster mushroom. I will restate, I am still alive and have not had any sudden dashes to the bathroom.

And the morel of the story is .... don't be an un- fun-guy and scoff at people who eat wild mushrooms! Let me try that again .. if you are going to eat wild mushrooms, do your homework! Nah, that's too authoritarian. And the morel of the story is ... there ain't nothing like freely foraged food!  I'm going with that.

whole lotta ricotta!

Chef used some leftover milk and made ricotta cheese. How resourceful! And how else is a pasta-loving pair like us to eat ricotta? That's right, with pasta. If you can't tell, that photo on is of shells, ricotta, and parsley. And a bit of sauce, too.

Ricotta means re-cooked en Italiano. Chef put milk in a pot and on the stove, added salt, and let it reach 190 degrees. After that he added lemon juice and let it sit for 10 minutes. Final step: separate curds from whey by straining. The final product: a smooth, creamy ricotta. Very different than the tubs of the conventional stuff you find in the grocery shop. And the flavor, very smooth, none of that gritty nonsense.

Ricotta Day 2: on a cracker with a little tom.

Snap-fu

fish night!
the Chef went to the local re-vibed fish market over dere on Broadway. He's trying to get in with the guys and get the scoops on the fishes and such. Chef's selection this trip, a fresh and freshly fileted Red Snapper*. Snapper's got a nice, firm texture and takes to seasoning nicely, ie. not fishy.

Entree: Red Snapper filets pan roasted (in the oven) with salt and pepper. served with lemon wedge.  MAN (!) does fish taste great when it is fresh and like freshly fileted, as in right in front of your eyes! Woo-wee, if you are one of those people who desperately wants to like fish but doesn't, splurge and get something fresh and not frozen. It makes a big diff.

side 1: roasted CSA red potatoes with from our back stoop rosemary.
side 2: sauteed CSA mustard greens with roasted mushrooms. mustard greens = bitter bitter goodness.

And just when I was getting a little sad that the meal had almost been eaten, I glanced down and spied a glorious salad awaiting. We're talkin' that heirloom blend of lettuces, radish, carrots, roasted slices of CSA beets and dollops of goat cheese (i ate them all mooshed together), black eyed peas, and Chef's blend emulsed O&V.

*though the dinner was thoroughly delightful: Chef selected an "Avoid" (in red) rated fish from the sustainable seafood watch. <GASP!!> But that's ok, its a mere opportunity to provide a brief blurb on the Seafood Watch movement. I believe there are several groups out there who have issued Seafood Lists, but I usually refer to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's list. No reason in particular, other than the aquarium is on my "to go to" places - they have a kelp forest!! Back to the subject and to our Red Snapper. And on the seafood watch thing - Fish to Avoid include fish that are just plain ol' overfished, or over-harvested, making their numbers dwindle. Also in consideration for the Avoid category, is the method in which the fish is harvested; for instance, sea floor trawling sort of rakes up the sea floor and also is often guilty of a little "crime" called by-catch.  By-catch is the stuff the fisherman is not targeting during a haul: immature fish (fish not large enough to harvest according to regulations), mammals like dolphins, or even the majestic sea turtle - a sad reality is that it is possible for by-catch to die while entangled in nets or brought on ship. Sorry to get so dark. I highly recommend you look into Monterey's website for more information and neat apps for your phone when you are food shopping! Upon consulting the site, we found a good alternative to Red Snapper is Silk Snapper, from the Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico, or U.S. Southern Atlantic, or Red Snapper from Hawaii (ours was from the Gulf of Mexico). Where the fish is harvested is important too: consider that the U.S. has water quality standards and some other places do not. :P (that's a smily with a sick tongue sticking out.)

eatalian weekend

if you haven't read my intro on the right side of the blog page, please read one of the last sentences...the one about not judging me on my calorie intake. <I am pausing so that you may do so>
did you read it? because i really need you to put aside "that type" of bias. why?

I ate an 8ish course meal last night. that's why. And even though I thought I'd wake up still feeling full, I wasn't. Finding myself in NYC, I nearly sprinted, ok more like briskly walked to and ate/devoured/scarfed a NY-bagel with schmear in less than 2 minutes. anyway, Back to that MEAL.

Chef and I were invited to a top secret location, and exclusive Italian rifle club in (to keep in top secret) NXC. No neon pizza signs in the window at this joint. The few "field markings": a plain red awning, the house number/address, a sole 3' X 3' bronze-like plaque adorning the image of two crossed rifles next to the front door, and a buzzer. And, no, the password was not a gabbygoal (hee hee that's my joke in reference to the sopranos..not sure if there will be more...)

We were greeted by our host, a member of the club (to be a member, you have to prove a high percentage of Italiannish on both sides of the familia to rise to such stature. Guests, on the other hand, doesn't matter apparently because they let us mutts in; and the other members of the party were Asian). Anyway, upon arrival, we went into a lounge-like room - low ceiling, five or six small tables, built-in wooden bookshelves, somewhat not bright/not dark lighting. And in this room we were served wine, a plate of salumi and cheese, and another plate of focaccia bread. Nice little snackies- for some people of the party, this was their first bite of the day because they knew the onslaught that awaited, but only some people...

The grand ballroom, I mean dining room - a much larger room, more tables, brighter lighting, and the good ol' push carts and hailed dessert cart in the front of the room. Wait staff in jackets and ties. Which reminds me, it was a dress up occasion and Chef did wear his suit. He looked handsome. We were seated, and then our wines from the lounge arrived separately, take that applebees. And then in instant, more food arrives! Plates of peppers, olives, celery, bread, butter. And they push the specials board over and an old italiano goes over the specials of the night first in italian and then a description in english but with an italian accent. The menu only showed a three course selection - appetizer, pasta, and entree - but on my accounting system we were up to 2 courses so far. Chef ordered a scungilli soup that was served with tomato broth and white beans. A little spicy, he said, but the scungilli was tender not rubbery like you most people are probably used to. Me, I ordered the farro salad that was tossed in olive oil and had little balls of mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. Our fellow diners did not know of the farro so i got to strut my food-nerdiness. "Farro is a grain, and resembles barley, except it is slightly larger,"I said something like that. And a note to my readers, do not buy it in Whole Foods in the packaged section because they totally mark the carp out it and sell it for like $7/lb but you can get it for less. Back to the meal, pasta - Chef chose the orcchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage. THe broc rabe was done right. Another note to my readers, if you don't like broccoli rabe its probably because who ever made it for you, didn't make it correctly. Additionally, sometimes when I eat it out in a restaurant, I nearly choke on it. bad, bad, bad, obviously. Orcchiette pasta by the way, is a cute little UFO shape pasta (no filling). Moi, I had fusilli (fusilli jerry, remember?? from seinfeld, fusilli jerry gets lodged in George's...you know, c'mon!) with cauliflower and bread crumbs in olive oil a few chunks of garlic. This was good, nice and simple. We were told all the pasta was made in-house. Pretty good. And then the entrees: Chef had some panchetta (pork) special and I had salmon with lemon and herbs. By this time, ugg the entree was somewhat gratuitous especially since they uncorked the second bottle of wine.

and, then, as a break in the feasting and with stained red teeth, off we went to the basement, where i fired my first firearm. a 22 rifle. and i even got one bull's; not the exact center, but in that sector. (will update with photo soon.) <<I am hoping that this blog is never taken out of context or used against me to defame my character ... I just hit the delete button in order to comply with my intentions of keeping this blog food-centric, but that doesn't mean you can't use your imagination :D >>

Back to the eating, after target practice, but as an aside: the club only allows the use of the club's 22 rifles in the basement, no personal firearms allowed. shooting practice is also proctored by an nypd type person or u.s. marshall. this all stems from an incident when a member's own firearm dislodged and he was shot himself in the foot upon ascending the stairs. And even though there is a sign that says no alcoholic beverages beyond this point at the top of the stairs, you are still allowed to fire a weapon if you have wine stains on your teeth and lips. phew! my dreams would have been crushed otherwise!

So, now back to the eating. Where were we? Cheese course! The cheeses, a half wheel of hard parmigiana (cow's milk) and lesser sized chunk of pecorino (sheep's milk) were placed on a cart on wheeled over the table. The waiter plated up a hunk of the parm and a sliver of the pec and we thoroughly enjoyed it after we busted caps down range.  The parmigiana had little nuggets of flavor crystals and the soft pecorino was v. nice and authentico! Cheese was followed by a plate of cookies and biscotti for the table and an actual fruit bowl. Like your at your friend's house on any day of the week fruit bowl. Name it, and it was probably in there as well as a prickly pear cactus. The fruit was a nice little pick me up.

Out came some coffees/espressos and then the maggiore dessert cart wheeled its way over. Nothing fancy, but good homestyle treats. We had one of each and shared it amongst the five of us. I had ricotta cheesecake for the first time, pretty fluffy and light I think I like it. We also had some berries soaked in booze, rice puddin (none for me), an apple tart, and an orangey-jam filled tart. Finally, the meal was over. Helluvalotta food. And did you hear about the mega millions>

Wow. Anyone have any tips for me for fasting?