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That’s all pork, folks

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I feel like I wasted thirty years of my life.

I have a headache.

All those days I drove myself crazy trying to figure out, for one more meal, what protein to cook.  Beef, chicken, fish, eggs, and pork; they’re my usual guest stars.

With pork it was chops, Boston butt, ham, and happily, bacon.

A couple of years ago, I was in the supermarket, checking out the meat that had been marked down, like I always do.  You never know what you’ll find.  That day they had pork tenderloins for about three bucks, down from their usual 6-7 dollars.Pork tenderloin comes from the full loin.  It’s about eight inches long and a couple inches across.  It weighs between 12 and 24 ounces.  The meat is very tender, if it’s cooked correctly.  It’s very easy to overcook and end up with jerky.  But it’s also very easy to cook right—you just need one simple tool (more on that later).

The flavor is extremely mild, so it’s easy for it to come out bland and flavorless.  But again, that’s easy to remedy.  It also gives you an opportunity for lots of fun.

I usually impart flavor in a three-step process.

1.)Dry marinade-I freeze the tenderloin solid.  Then I choose an herb/spice blend, and liberally rub it over the entire surface.  For one piece of meat I’ll use at least a tablespoon.  I then put it into a zip-top bag and let it thaw in the fridge overnight.

2.)Paint-After searing the meat in a smoking-hot pan, I choose a some type of spread and brush it all over.

3.)Crust-Once the tenderloin is covered in something wet, I roll it in something chunky or crusty.  Then I finish it in the oven.

The most difficult, but also the most exciting part of the process is choosing the components for your pork.

The other night I tried a new combination for Petey and me.  It came out beautiful and delicious.  The spice comes from the Middle East, the dressing and pecans from the Southern US.

 Globetrotting tenderloin

pecan pork loin

One pork tenderloin (approximately 1 pound)

1 tablespoon za’atar; a spice mixture containing thyme, sumac, sesame seeds and other herbs, depending on who makes it.  I purchase mine pre-mixed from Spice Bazaar at 4125 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd, in Durham.

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

2 tablespoons Anne’s “The One Sauce”; this is a rich honey mustard dressing.  If you can’t find it, use your favorite honey mustard, or make your own.

¾ cup raw pecans, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix za’atar, salt and pepper.  Rub the seasoning all over the frozen pork.  Place in bag, refrigerate, and allow to thaw fully.

Put a large frying pan on the stove, and heat until it’s almost smoking.  Pour in 1 tablespoon oil.  Add tenderloin and turning with tongs, sear all over.  Remove from pan, and place on a plate.

Brush a layer of dressing all over the pork.  Roll the meat into the pecans, completely coating it.

Pour the second tablespoon of oil into a baking dish.  Add pork.  Either using a probe thermometer or an instant-read, cook until the internal temp is 145 degrees (for medium).  If you overcook this, it will be dry and tough.  A thermometer is the best tool to easily prevent that.

Once it comes up to temp (about 15-20 minutes), remove from oven and let rest, lightly covered for five minutes or so.

Slice and serve.  Serves 2-3.

There are less than 250 calories in a large serving of tenderloin.  It’s also a lean protein, chockfull of vitamin B6, thiamin, niacin, and riboflavin.  There are healthy amounts of omega (3 & 6) fatty acids, too.

We had ours with scalloped potatoes and some peas and carrots.  It would also be nice served with buttered mushroom rice, and roasted asparagus.  I think it could make a very tasty sandwich on ciabatta, with crispy greens, and another schmear of honey mustard.

I’m glad I finally discovered the wondrousness of pork tenderloin.  It just breaks my heart to think of all the delicious meals I’ve missed out on.

Thanks for your time.

A rye smile

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After inhabiting this planet for more than half a century, I have ceased to be embarrassed by the fact that I have the type of sweet tooth that if I let myself, would make it perfectly feasible for me to eat an entire box of Dolly Madison vanilla zingers.Honestly, I’m not exaggerating.  One of my very favorite foods is birthday cake.  And when I say cake, I mean cake only in the sense that it is the scaffolding for mounds of delicious, delicious frosting.

But I am also a bit of a paradox inside a contradiction stuffed in a jelly donut.

I can’t abide a grain of sugar in my iced tea, I order my lattes half sweet, and I like my soft drinks lots more fizzy than syrupy.

Did you notice she has monkeys on her dress?

So, I guess those bi-polar taste buds are the reason why I really enjoy this new treat I discovered last week.

The Kid and I spent the day in Raleigh.  We visited the NC Museum of Art to check out the Da Vinci and Escher shows, and headed over to our favorite capitol city bakery, Boulted (614 W South St, Raleigh).  My child was Jonesing for some of their seeded levain; a crusty, sour loaf perfect for lashings of cultured European butter.  I snagged a bagel-like bialy for breakfast, then spied something called rye shortbread.

We added it to our order.

As soon as we got back to the car, I took a bite of my shortbread.  I was totally expecting a salty, rye/caraway-flavored buttery cracker.  What I got was something entirely different.  It was a lightly sweetened, pecan-studded cookie with the acidic kick of rye.

Once I got over the surprise, I took another bite.  And found that I really enjoyed it.  It would be the perfect thing to accompany a really thick, rich cup of hot chocolate.

I did a little research, and a little experimenting, and came up with this recipe.

Rye-Pecan shortbread

rye shortbread

1½ cups rye flour

½ cup finely chopped toasted pecans

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter (softened)

¼ cup Granulated Sugar

3 tablespoons honey

Whisk together flour, pecans, salt and baking powder.  Set aside.

Cream the butter, sugar and honey until just incorporated.

Add the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix on low until it all comes together, but no longer (there’s gluten in rye flour, and you don’t want it to develop).

Roll the dough to ½-inch thick (if the dough is too soft to roll, shape into a disk or rectangle, wrap in plastic and chill until firm). After rolling, cut into bars, circles or desired shape. Cover and chill until hard; 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place cookies on prepared pan and sprinkle with sugar and more pecans, if desired. Dock the center of each cookie with a fork.  Bake until edges are lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Cool and store, wrapped, at room temperature for up to 1 week.

This recipe makes approximately 20 cookies.

I’m not saying I would regularly pick this cookie over a heavily decorated cupcake, or a Krispy Kreme donut fresh from its honey glazed shower, but this shortbread gets my full confectionary seal of approval.  This new treat definitely has a spot in my rotation.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly feel the urgent need to see if there is a flashing “Hot” sign anywhere in the vicinity.

Thanks for your time.

Meat popcorn

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Better than French fries?Yup.

Better than beer-battered onion rings?

Uh huh.

Better than fresh, hot, homemade hushpuppies?You know it, dude.

It sounds crazy, and hard to believe, but last night I made something that took no time at all, and was crispy, salty, a little fatty, and completely, unrepentantly addictive.

It was deep fried steak.

I know, what the what?  But hear me out. The beef was flap meat.  It comes from a bottom sirloin butt cut.  It’s very, very thin.  Normally you sear or grill it in literally seconds; then slice it against the grain.  It’s delicious, and can be eaten as is or used for sandwiches, tacos, fajitas or salads.

Not much to look at in this state; but what a personality.

I’ve written about it before.  It’s an unsung carnivore’s hero, and the Matthews family could eat it every night (or breakfast) of the week.

 

I decided to use it in Asian-style rice noodles and vegetables.  But I’d never made authentic Chinese food from scratch.  This would be a complete first.

Fortunately, The Kid practically minored in Asian at culinary school, so I had a very handy resource.

At Whole Foods, I picked up rice noodles (I used half a 12 ounce box), broccoli (one large crown), shitake mushrooms (about four ounces), a small piece of ginger, and went home to experiment.

rice noodlesAs tasty as the flap steak is, it’s better when grilling or cooking the meat in a skillet that it is cooked no more than medium-rare.

But stir-fry cooking, which is how I planned to do the meal, is not really conducive to crusty, well-seared, medium-rare beef.  So cooking it, keeping it separate from the rest of the dish, and plating it on top of the noodles, almost like a garnish, was the plan.

Since the meal was Asian-inspired, I decided to try a technique that was new to me.  I sliced the meat into thin strips.  I didn’t pre-season it because there was soy in the sauce, which is quite salty.I took a small, straight-sided skillet and poured in about 1 ½ inches of vegetable oil.  I turned on the burner to get it up to 350 degrees.While it was heating, I put ½ cup or so of cornstarch on top of the meat (about 1 pound), covered the bowl, and shook it vigorously to coat all the meat evenly.  You want to do this right before cooking, so that it doesn’t absorb too much cornstarch, which will make it gummy.

I took a small, straight-sided skillet and poured in about 1 ½ inches of vegetable oil.  I turned on the burner to get it up to 350 degrees.  While it was heating, I put ½ cup or so of cornstarch on top of the meat (about 1 pound), covered the bowl, and shook it vigorously to coat all the meat evenly.  You want to do this right before cooking, so that it doesn’t absorb too much cornstarch, which will make it gummy.

When the oil came up to temp, I dropped in one third of the meat and gave it a very gentle stir.  In 20-30 seconds, I removed it with a slotted spoon onto a paper-towel covered plate.  At this point, I gave it a little sprinkle of kosher salt, like you would French fries.This stuff was amazing.  It was crispy on the outside, tender inside, and supernaturally amazing.  I could truly eat this stuff by the handful.  But I set it aside and finished dinner.

When stir frying, everything must be ready to go when you start cooking.  Once it starts, it moves very fast, and you must be prepared.  The rice noodles get pre-cooked, the broccoli blanched, and all the veggies need to be prepped.  My aromatics were three cloves of garlic, ½ teaspoon grated ginger and one large shallot, diced.

I turned on my Dutch oven medium-high, and added about a tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Then I put in the aromatics and cooked them, stirring constantly.  When they were hot and fragrant, I added the mushrooms and cooked them until they were softened.  The broccoli came next and cooked until hot, and finally the noodles.  I then poured in my sauce.

Stir fry sauce

stir fry sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 tablespoon rice wine or red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons sherry

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

I tossed, and when everything was well coated, I plated, adding the flap steak on top.

It turned out really well.  As usual, I made too much for just Petey and me, so we have leftovers.  But they are vegetarian, ‘cause that meat is profoundly gone.

Thanks for your time.

The pitter-patter of tiny resolutions

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I once knew a woman who kept shoes in her oven.

She doesn’t cook, but she has a crock of utensils on the stove-top.  This is a woman for whom appearances are everything.

Don’t get me wrong, I know from shoe storage conundrums.  When I look for a particular pair in my shoe closet, I wade in like I’m entering a flood-swollen river to rescue a bus full of orphans.  Armed with only a flashlight and my plucky, never-say-die attitude, I declare something brave yet memorable, and leap into the fast-moving current.

I don’t retreat until I’ve found the desired footwear, be it purple suede boots or beaded strappy sandals.

Oh God, that’s the stuff, just like that.

This woman not only had misplaced her values, along with her shoes, she was rail-thin, unhappy, and unhealthy.

And I place the blame squarely on her diet.  She ate lots of low-fat, low-cal takeout and frozen meals.  She ate quickly, and alone.  Food to her was fuel.  If she could have had a home without a kitchen, she would have.

Our attitudes about food are formed early in our lives.  Gathering around the table to break bread, celebrating with a special meal, being rewarded with a treat, those are all good things, despite what some would have you believe.  As people (especially women) age, disordered thinking about eating can take hold.

Good foods, bad foods, behaving, being bad; all of those ideas just contribute to stress, guilt, and the loss of enjoyment.

Have you ever watched a dog, or a teenage boy eat?  They don’t sit with calculator or app, torturing themselves—they happily indulge.

I’m convinced that a healthy, joyful relationship to food and our bodies begins as children–in the kitchen.  Eliminate reliance on other people and the processed meals which they produce.

cooking at Granny's

In my grandmother’s Pittsburgh kitchen at age two.  I still get that look on my face if you bug me.

Get kids into the kitchen and cook with them.  You may have to drag them there at first, but not only is cooking a crucial life skill, if little hands take part in preparing, little mouths may be more willing to eat the resulting food, which by its very nature will be healthier.

This recipe is delicious, easy to prepare, and the various tasks can be parceled out depending on age and skill.  Younger kids will be able to help assemble.  Older kids can shred cheese or dice shallots.  As they gain experience, their contributions can grow with them.

Muffin taters

tater muffins

Vegetable spray

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick (a mandolin is the best tool for this job, so that the spuds are evenly sliced)

½ cup grated Cheddar cheese

2 shallots, finely diced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

¾ cup heavy cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray 8 muffin tins and one side of foil with vegetable spray. Layer potato slice, a tiny bit of cheese, and a couple shallot pieces into muffin cup.  Repeat until cup is full, and move onto the next.  Top each with a pinch of salt and pepper, a little more cheese, and drizzle over a tablespoon or so of cream. Cover with foil (sprayed side down) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, removing the foil halfway through. Invert cakes onto plate and serve.  Serves 4.

Although I say this serves 4, they are horribly addictive, so I always double the recipe.  My petite, dainty mother once put away a dozen of these things in one sitting.

For 2016’s resolution, do something that will vastly improve the quality of life for a child.  And hey, if they become culinarily proficient, you can a get a night off every now and then, and have someone serve you for a change.

Thanks for your time.

Random stuff I discovered and wrote down in 2015 Part 3

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For the past couple weeks, I’ve been relating excerpts of a food log that I kept throughout 2015.  This week will conclude with September through December.

September 14th– The Kid and I braved rush hour traffic and drove over to Cary this afternoon, and finally visited La Farm Bakery (4248 NW Cary Pkwy).

The reason we made the journey is because I really love to go by their stand and grab a loaf of sourdough at the “Got to be NC” festival in the spring.

Boy, am I glad we went.  It’s always nice when something lives of to the hype, and La Farm did not disappoint.  It’s a very French looking space in a generic strip mall.  Not only a bakery, they are a café, and coffee shop.  Everything’s fresh and fragrant.  One of the sides they offer for their menu of hand-crafted sandwiches are house made potato chips.  It was almost worth the trip just for that, but they also have various flavors of French macarons.

October 25th– It’s the fair!

This year I got to go twice, and got in free both times.  At the request of Lisa Prince from the NC Agricultural Department, I judged a couple specialty cooking contests.  It was a crazy amount of fun, and totally new for me.

Lisa Prince and friend.

Even though the novel holds much appeal, I’m delighted that some things never change.

Al’s French Fries: Without a doubt, the best fries at the fair.  Yeah, yeah, your fancy frites and duck fat fries are great, but there’s nothing better than stumbling through the midway, burning your tongue because those salty, crispy pieces of heaven are just too darn good to wait.fair-fudgeAll-American Fudge:  Located in the same spot every year at the end of the hobby and craft building, smiling faces will greet you and weigh out piles of fudge in old-timey cast iron scales.  Whether your first stop on the way in or your last on the way out, nobody anywhere does fudge like these guys.  I’m just grateful they only come around once a year.

Every couple of years the names changes, but the wooden barrels and the delicious root beer doesn’t.  Regardless whether they come as Pappy’s, Max’s, or your great-aunt Helen, those aluminum tankards of icy root beer are always as good as you remember.

November 16th– When I worked at Bosco’s bookstore at Woodcroft Shopping Center back when The Kid was elementary school, I grabbed dinner there every few weeks.  But it’s been years since I enjoyed the food at Hong Kong Restaurant (4711 Hope Valley Rd).  Recently though, after a doctor’s visit Petey and I went in for take-out.

I was hoping that my favorite dish, chicken mei fun was still on the menu.  In another win for stability, they had it.  It’s a sort of fried rice dish, made with veggies and scrambled eggs, only instead of regular rice grains, it’s made with rice noodles.  And although other restaurants will say they have it on the menu, many use regular wheat noodles instead of rice; which is just all kinds of wrong.

Actually, this is beef mei fun…still yummy, though.

Hong Kong makes is right.  It’s really yummy, and you get a take-out box so full it almost won’t close for about six bucks.  It’s enough food for three very filling meals for me.

December 17th– Went up to Greensboro for my mom’s annual Christmas cookie decoration party.  As always, we had lunch at their favorite G’bo eatery, Monterrey Mexican #29 (3724 Battleground Ave, Greensboro).

The first time I ordered tacos there I was very disappointed to get the hard u-shaped grocery store taco shells.  But I was ordering the wrong item.

This time I ordered tacos Mexico style.  Was rewarded with three fresh corn tortillas stuffed with the absolute best carnitas I’ve ever had the pleasure to devour.  The meat was as silky as a prom dress.  I’ve recently decided it will be my final meal.  It’s that good.

December 30th– Tomorrow night make some fun inconsequential resolutions so that it doesn’t matter when you break them.  And try to enjoy 2016.

nye

Thanks for your time.

Random stuff I discovered and wrote down in 2015 Part 2

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.

Last week I shared the beginning of my 2015 food diary.  This is part 2, May through August.

May 23rd- After a few false starts, we finally synched up everyone’s schedule, and had The Kid’s birthday lunch.

The choice was Melting Pot (7011 Fayetteville Rd).  It was my first visit to the famous fondue eatery.  I don’t think it’s for me.

Don’t get me wrong—the food was very good, and the service was excellent.

First, the ordering is a little complicated. When I’m hungry I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.  That’s why I like to check out menus online before I go to a restaurant; so that I don’t have to think too hard while I’m sitting there with and empty stomach.

And secondly, you get the food raw and cook it at the table.  I love to cook, but I am way too impatient to sit and wait while my chicken goes from deadly to delicious in a bubbling pot of stock.

It’s actually a thing–they call it “Pot the question”.

I do think it would make an amazing spot for a leisurely, romantic date though.

June 21st– Ran into a Target with a grocery department for something quick and easy to eat right away.  They have quite a selection of ready-to-eat items like salads and wraps.  Surprisingly, they don’t have nutrition information on the items.  Eating pre-made food is a minefield of calories, fat and sodium; that’s why I usually don’t partake.  Despite some intriguing offerings, I left empty-handed and hungry.

Just ask. B&N will provide values for everything they offer.

June 30th– Was in Barnes and Noble, and went into the café for a coffee.  It was lunch time, and I thought I might grab some grub, but since it’s just a stand in a bookstore figured they wouldn’t have nutrition info available.  I was wrong.

Each location has a notebook listing all the info for all the current choices.

When will every chain get with the program and make the numbers public?  I feel very strongly that customers have an absolute right to know, and a duty to find out.

July 11th– After a trip to the flea market at the State Fairgrounds, went over to Boulted Bread (614 W South St, Raleigh).

As the mother of a classically trained baker, I can attest to the fact that their pastries and breads are authentic.

Levain is a traditional French country loaf.  It’s perfect for toast and sandwiches.  Boulted makes their crusty, tangy version with organic grains milled in-house with a genuine stone mill.

This, my friend, is a bialy.

One of my favorite breakfast breads are bialys.  They kind of look like a bagel, but they aren’t boiled before baking, so they emerge from the oven crispy rather than chewy, and the hole is only a depression which is usually filled with caramelized onions and poppy seeds.  The only place I can find them is Southern Season, in Chapel Hill.  Boulted had them.

And The Kid said their cold-pressed iced coffee is the best.

August 24th– Such sad news; Daisycakes bakery on Foster St is closing.  From my very first visit to their silver Airstream cupcake truck, ‘Sugar’ to my final visit, Daisycakes was my favorite bakery in Durham.  Not only is quality their number one goal, Tanya and the crew always make me feel like I’m their most important customer and are happy to have me stop by, no matter how many dumb questions I ask.

Their whoopee pie is the best whoopee pie that has ever passed my lips.

The cookie/cake part is crispy and chewy that’s not too sweet.  The buttercream is light, delicious, with ever changing variety.  My favorite is the salted caramel.  The first time I ever had one, I almost cried.

Next week I’ll recount my food adventures from September through December.

Allow me to use this remaining space to wish each and every Durham resident a wonderful holiday.  Please be careful if you’re traveling.  And make sure to slow down and be mentally present in each moment of the celebrations.  Nobody will remember or care if everything isn’t perfect; so just enjoy.

To me, this column is my ongoing gift from the Bull City, which I constantly, hugely appreciate.

Thanks for your time.

Diary of a mad woman in a kitchen Part 2

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Last week I related to you excerpts from the food diary that I faithfully kept for the entire year.

Before I continue though, I’d like to explain what a true Christmas miracle these columns are.

I’ve always loved to write, and the number one piece of advice to young writers is to keep a journal.

I’ve owned more diaries than I can count.  No dice.  Not one of them had more than ten or fifteen entries before it was set aside and forgotten.

Each new, pristine book was begun with the best of intentions.  I would be faithful and prolific.  This would be the one which would take.

But sadly, no.  The entries would be forced, stilted, and honestly; dull.

Until this year.  I decided to keep a culinary log with an eye to doing a column at the end of the year.  Maybe this is what kept me honest, and kept me coming back with new entries.

Whatever the reason, it worked:

July 2nd– It seems like every supermarket has all the fixings for a cook-out on sale.  Meat, condiments, chips, buns, and sodas are all reduced.  I am definitely stocking up the freezer.  It might be October before I have to buy hamburger or Kaiser rolls.

That lemon chicken is perfect.

July 11th– Petey, The Kid and I went over to Crabtree Valley Mall for lunch after a morning at the flea market.  We ate at Kabobi, in the food court.  When I haven’t visited for a while I tend to forget just how good their food is.  Lemon chicken, lentils and rice, grape leaves; it’s a Mediterranean wonderland.

July 23rd– Major bummer!  My favorite guilty pleasure while shopping at Brier Creek is to get a salted caramel milk chocolate candy at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company.  Stopped by today and was terribly disappointed to find they had changed the recipe.  The caramel is stiffer and much larger, which since each piece is sold by weight makes it about twice the price.

August 8th– Dined at Golden Corral.  They now have breakfast on the buffet all day.  And…they have cotton candy on the dessert bar.  Woo Hoo!

September 7th– Had a sample of Panera’s new green passion power smoothie.  Even though I think mango tastes like baby food, I really liked it.  And at only 200 calories, it’s an awesome lunch on the go.

September 28th– Lowes had a new brand (Promised Land) chocolate milk on sale.  I picked up the 2%.  It’s rich, yummy, and less than 150 calories per serving.

October 17th– Went to the wedding of one of my oldest, closest friends.  The reception was held upstairs at The Pit, in Durham (321 Geer St).  There was a gorgeous view of downtown, and the finger food served was delicious.

Later on the 17th– Swung be Mickey D’s on the way home.  The order was wrong and the fries were left out.  Joe Pesci was right in Lethal Weapon.  They will make you most displeased at the drive-thru.

November 3rd– Halloween candy is 75% off and Boo Berry cereal is half price.  I knew I loved the fall.

December 16th– Made Salisbury steak from scratch.  It was really easy, and very tasty.  Serve it in a divided aluminum tray in front of the TV and you’re six years old all over again.  All you need is footy pajamas.

December 23rd– I hope all the readers of the Henderson Daily Dispatch have the very happiest of holidays.

Thanks for your time.

Random stuff I discovered and wrote down in 2015 Part 1

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Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

I have a diary with a padded blue silk cover.  I got it as a gift in high school.  For some reason, it resides in a bookshelf in my living room.

I pulled it down today and took a look at it.

It has about 200 lined pages.  I have filled a grand total of eleven pages; with seven entries from 1982, and one from 1991.  Each sentence is more forced and stilted than the last.

Yeah, I’m really bad at keeping up with that kind of thing.  But I think that my non-stop internal monologue and the fact that I endlessly overthink every decision; no matter if it is picking lunch off a menu, a plumber to repair a leak, or a retirement plan counts as examination.  I just stink at manually archiving it.

But this year I did something I’ve never been able to do before.  I kept a log of all culinary episodes, experiences, and epiphanies.

I was faithful to this project, and have an entire year’s worth of ruminations.

For the next few weeks, I will share them with you, gentle reader, in this space.

January 3rd– Picked up some clearance items today.  No matter what color or shape they are in, Reese’s cups and M&M’s are just as yummy.  But it seems like they taste a little bit better when they’re 75% off.

January 11th– It may be cheap, but egg nog just tastes sad in late January.  And nobody wants another dessert made from it.

January 21st– Nobody makes better eggplant in garlic sauce than Grace’s Café (downstairs at Trent Hall, 331 Trent Dr.).  But even better, they offer brown rice, and for the toddler (mine) taste buds, they will make a version with no spicy heat.  Also, they have a club sandwich that makes Petey’s day.

February 2nd– Cooking black rice takes just as much time as brown rice.  I probably should have checked that before I put a large pot of it on—we wouldn’t have had to eat dinner at 10:30.

February 9th– Parts and Labor is the restaurant at Durham music venue Motorco (723 Rigsbee Ave).  They have an imaginative scratch-made menu of finger foods and munchies.  The Kid and I had six or seven items and almost everything was really tasty.  The sliders are not to be missed.  The artichoke fritters while a great idea, and much anticipated, were a little greasy.  But because of that they would have made stellar drunk food.

Unfortunately, I was sober tonight.

March 8th– Took a trip to Crabtree Valley Mall with the whole family.  Had brunch at an eatery named Red Monkey Tavern.

red monkey

The food was really good—they have duck mac and cheese, for goodness sake.  Had the avocado BLT.  The bacon was thick, tasty, and crispy.  The avocado was perfectly ripe and creamy.

But they are, in my opinion, much too fond of the spicy.  Lots of chorizos, and a really hot chipotle mayo.  Even their tarragon mayo had quite a kick to it.

But their truffle Parmigiano fries are worth the trip to Raleigh.

April 9th– Made some brownies, and have about 10 pounds of M&M’s from Easter.  I threw caution to the wind and mixed a couple cups into the batter, and sprinkled a handful over the top.  They were really good.  You get all the creamy chocolate of chips, but the bonus is the snap of that candy shell.

Ooh, I’ll bet they would rock in some blondies.

April 29th– Petey and I went to the opening Wednesday of the Durham farmers market.  It’s one of my favorite days of the year.  In addition to some quite tasty Honeygirl Mead, I scored some pea shoots.  They were delicious on a cold sandwich.  I enjoyed them so much I decided to see what else they would work on.

And salads, and risotto, and…

Scrambled eggs, pasta, burgers, cream soup, and avocado toast all work great.  I’m guessing ice cream is a no go.

Next week I’ll dish on May, June, July, and August.

   Thanks for your time.

Diary of a madwoman in the kitchen Part 1

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Throughout the entire year of 2015, I kept a kind of journal.

It wasn’t full of my social activities—one must have a social life for that.

It wasn’t recounting my travel to exotic locales—You need go further away from home than Costco for it to count as travel.

And it sure wasn’t kept online.  I have less social media presence than a 17th century monk.

This guy writes with a feather–there’s no way he’s on Facebook.

But it was a log of food, cooking, and eating in which I’d taken part during the year, and what I’d learned.

January 17th-Spent a few days as a patient at Duke Hospital.  Haven’t spent much time there since Petey was released in the spring of 2014.  When we were there, they were trying out a new program for patients to order off a menu.

It was fully in place during my stay.

I had a big problem with it—I wanted everything.  Not only were there hundreds of possible combinations, the food that I did order was well-cooked and tasty.

Hospital linens may resemble sand paper, and there’s no water pressure, but at least the grub won’t make you want to gather up all those scratchy sheets and weave a rope to make a break for it.

February 17th-You’d think I’d learn.  It is never ever a good idea to go shopping on an empty stomach.  But, every time I open the cabinet, and see that unopened jar of pickled gummy bears, maybe I’ll remember.

Oh yeah baby, that’s the stuff.  Come to Mama with your frosted self.

March 3rd-After years of searching out and traveling to Great American Cookie Companies across this nation to get one of my favorite treats–their delicious, utterly decadent, overly stuffed double doozie cookies, I discover that Mrs. Fields cookies stores makes as good, if not better frosting-stuffed chocolate cookies.

To paraphrase Judy Garland, “Every cookie I was looking for was right there at Mrs. Fields all along.”

April 13th- Mom sent me a box of cookies for my birthday.  Now I have definitive proof that no matter whether they’re green frosted with red sprinkles for Christmas, or lilac with pink sugar for Easter, as long as there is a 50/50 icing to cookie ratio, Mom’s homemade sugar cookies are almost magical in their yumminess.

Happy Mother’s Day!  What’s your co-pay at the ER?

May 10th– Hooters is offering free meals to mom on Mothers’ day.  Yeah, don’t care.  I’d rather pay to eat egg salad sandwiches from a vending machine.  They might be awful, unhealthy, and possibly packed with exotic, disease-causing microbes, but after I recuperated, I could look myself in the mirror.

May 23rd, and 30th– Marshmallows are actually really easy, and very quick to make, but creates a huge sticky mess.

Short bread is easy and quick to make but makes a huge, buttery mess.

June 19th– It’s cherry season!  Fresh cherries are really nutritious.  They go great in sweet or savory foods, smoothies, or just eaten all by themselves.

But a few words of advice: Be choosy.  You don’t have to buy that whole zip-top bag.  In some stores that sack can run you more than $25.  Just get the amount you want.  Always make sure they have stem attached. Without a stem, they have the shelf life of a Hollywood marriage.

They are also crazy expensive.  Shop the sales.  The money you save for a really good mark-down will more than make up for a little drive to that particular store.  And the closer they get to the end of the season (around the fourth of July), the cheaper they get.

Next week: July through December.

Thanks for your time.

Tray’d up

/ momsequitur / Leave a comment

Unbelievably, it was $7.25.

You’ve probably got this much under your couch cushions…

That’s right, just seven dollars, and twenty-five measly cents.

The Kid had to work on Thanksgiving, so on Wednesday we had our dinner.  I made a big pot of my pink sauce.  Petey and The Kid chose our menu.

This was ok by me, because other than the post-turkey day sammich of leftover white meat, too much mayo and salt on spongy white bread, I’m no fan of gobblers.  But Petey likes turkey, and even more, he loves dressing drenched in gravy.  So without roasting a bird, neither of us would get to partake of our nostalgic faves.

This is exactly what Thanksgiving was like when I was a child.  Dad’s a dead ringer for Ken,  Mom is Barbie’s double, and all our food was plastic.

Well, Lowes Food roasts turkey breasts and sells it by the slice in their deli.  I got them to slice it nice and thick for me and took some home.  I picked up a loaf of white/wheat Sara Lee sandwich bread at Big Lots for $1.40.  I was all set.

But poor old Petey was still left out in the cold.

That is until I opened up the Herald Sun and saw multiple ads for Thanksgiving dinner at C&H cafeteria at Northgate Mall.  Since we had no other plans, we decided to go.  Petey could get his turkey and dressing, and I could get anything but.

This is the ad that started it all.

That evening I scored with another childhood favorite.  My mom is Italian, but we didn’t always have the funds to buy veal scaloppini, which is a pretty expensive cut.  So, in order to make veal parmesan, she would buy ground veal and make patties, which she would bread and fry, then spoon on marinara, cover in mozzarella, and bake.

C&H had it.  So I ordered it, along with a broccoli/cauliflower salad, Harvard beets, and some really yummy potatoes, which were chunked and cooked on the flat top.  I was barely able to resist the Siren song of the various breads and rolls on offer, but succumbed to dessert and snatched a ginormous slab of pecan pie (which I had to take home because I was so stuffed from dinner).

It was really good, almost, but not quite as delicious as my mom’s famous pie.  It’s based on the classic Karo syrup recipe, but tweaked just a bit (by me).

Mom’s and Debbie’s irresistible salted pecan pie

pecan pie

You can use your own, homemade crust, but mom uses Pillsbury refrigerated crust.  She’s never had any complaints.  I think it’s pretty darn close to scratch-made.

1 cup light corn syrup

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooked until caramel-colored and nutty smelling

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon Bourbon or brandy

1-1/2 cups pecans

½-1 teaspoon large flake sea salt (according to taste)

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, and Bourbon or brandy using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie crust.  Sprinkle salt on top.

Bake on center rack of oven for 60 to 70 minutes. Cool for 2 hours on wire rack before serving.

*You can pour in filling without pecans, and before baking arrange them on the top of the pie in a decorative fashion, if you wish.

To me, this needs nothing but a fork.  But some heathens may like to top it with fresh whipped cream.

West Indian whipped cream

whip

2 cups heavy cream

1/3 cup light brown sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Small pinch of salt

Right before service pour cream into a large bowl.  Using a hand mixer, or immersion blender, begin mixing.  When the cream just starts to thicken, add sugar and nutmeg.  Continue mixing.  When the cream is thick, add salt, and whip until stiff peaks form.  Fold in zest. 

Use immediately.  Makes about 4 cups.

And the $7.25?

That was the price of Petey’s dinner.  For that paltry sum he had turkey with dressing, mashed potatoes, absolutely amazing fried okra, a roll, a drink, and another huge slab of pie, only for him, coconut cream.

Thanksgiving dinner for two.

Since I ordered ala carte, mine was a little more expensive, but for $20 we had a terrific Thanksgiving dinner.  My heart wants us all to be together, but my belly’s kind of hoping The Kid has to work on Christmas Eve.

Thanks for your time.