New Home!

In an effort to learn a little more about how the (very mysterious) web works, I've switched to Wordpress. You can now find me under a new name at


http://gonetobudapest.wordpress.com/

See you there!

yeah!

Rhubarb Raisin Crisp

So maybe you're still caught in this not-quite-summer weather -- a few local crops are available, but some days still call for something a little bit cozy, a little bit homey. I say: Make this. The rhubarb gives sassy bite, the raisins add texture, and the topping is a double-sweetened chewy crunchy mess of goodness.

 If you are facing a glut of rhubarb, you can wash and chop it and throw it in ziptop bags (the gallon bags hold 8 cups quite nicely) and freeze it. Today I ended up using rhubarb from last year. If you use frozen fruit, don't thaw it first.

 

Rhubarb Raisin Crisp
serves 8 to 10


If you are using frozen rhubarb, here's a hint: Preheat your oven to 400˚, then lower the temp to 375˚ when you put the pan in. The cold of the fruit will bring the oven temp down too much otherwise.



Filling:
8 cups chopped rhubarb (about 2 pounds)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup raisins

Topping:
1 1/4 cup old-fashioned or rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick; 8 tablespoons) butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons honey

Preheat the oven to 375˚/190˚. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. Mix the rhubarb, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and raisins together and distribute evenly in the pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together all topping ingredients except the butter. Add in the butter and mix until evenly moistened. Do not overmix, as you do not want to cream the butter. Distribute evenly across the top of the fruit mixture.

Bake until the topping is golden brown and the edges are bubbling madly, about 55 to 60 minutes.

Oh Canada

Butts!

Three mildly absurd images from my recent trip abroad. Whoo Canada!

I want to live in these.

AB&J Leftover French Toast

Yesterday's uneaten Almond Butter and (Pear-Grape) Jam sandwich becomes today's french toast.

Beat two eggs with some soy milk.

Let the sandwich halves soak a little (longer for sturdy multigrain bread, shorter for fluffy white bread).

Heat some oil in a pan. Oil has a higher smoke point than butter, so it creates a crisper crust. That delicious french toast from the diner? Cooked in oil.

Cook the toast. Sear the edges if you like.

Cook the extra batter if you like.

Eat! No syrup required.

Judgemental

Ever since learning that the Supreme Court has opinions on things like tomatoes, it has been much more interesting and much less stodgy to me.

Here are some Supreme Court cases that, by name alone, sound interesting.

• United States v. American Sheet & Tin Plate Co., 301 U.S. 402 (1937)
• Anheuser-Busch Brewing Assn. v. United States, 207 U.S. 556 (1908)
• National Biscuit Co. v. Pennsylvania, 357 U.S. 571 (1958)
• Transparent-Wrap Machine Corp. v. Stokes & Smith Co., 329 U.S. 637 (1947)

A slightly related story: Once, in a waiting room, I read a magazine that proclaimed "Judge Judy Unrobes!" on the cover. It was some dull magazine too, like Reader's Digest; it certainly was not Matronly Playboy or any such scandalous rag. I turned those pages so cautiously, not wanting to see Judy in her bloomers. Thankfully, it was all just a pun.

Library Round-Up 2

This post is dedicated to my oldest-younger sister Claire, who starts library school in the fall. Her first-quarter classes are 'The Art of Shushing', 'How to Look Stern in Glasses', and 'Book-Cart Maintenance, or, The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease'.

Hooray for the library! I was at my local branch today (soon to re-open in a building bigger than a trailer home -- hooray!) and they were out of plastic bags for the rest of the year (budget issues). Reminder: Bring your own bag, and bring in some extra plastic bags if you have them laying around.

Did you know that you can help your library in it's literary mission? Donate your gently used materials, volunteer, pay your fines, or even save random stickers for their sticker baskets.

A small rabbit-trail story: One of the libraries I frequented as a child had a librarian who always wore a flower in her hair. She had also been my mother's librarian and had worn flowers in her hair every day for as long as anyone knew. In my crazy mind I somehow invented a story that this librarian and her husband had been trapped in a concentration camp together, and he promised her that if they ever got out he would bring her a fresh flower every day. I believed this story until just a few years ago, when some logical inconsistencies began to bother me (namely, that this lady is not old enough to have had a husband and also been in a concentration camp at the same time). I asked my mother, and to my horror (but not total shock; things like this have happened to me before) learned that this whole backstory was false. She wears a flower every day. That much is true. The rest? Courtesy of my brain. Moral of the story: If I tell you something that's too romantic to be true, my brain probably made it up and tricked me into believing it.

Okay, back to libraries and how awesome they are. Instead of highlighting specific titles, today I'll mention some fabulous amenities.

1. So many books about (insert random subject)!

Use the Dewey Decimal System chart to find the area where books related to your area of interest are shelved. Go to that area. Get really excited to find all these great sources! Calm down and remember you need to haul them all home by your own power. Pick and choose, and give your arms a good workout. Repeat at will.

2. Free printing!

Obviously this varies from system to system, but my library offers free printing, up to 70 pages a week. It's all black and white, and text-only documents work best, but this saved me a bundle in college.

3. Books for sale! 

Many libraries have a shelf of materials for sale at low, low prices, and the proceeds go to the library foundation (see above re; budget issues). Recently I picked up another cookbook, one I've long had on that mental list of "would be nice to own", for fifty cents. What desired tome is this? Why, it's the vegetarian classic, The Moosewood Cookbook! A first edition! For fifty cents!

In summary (sounds like I'm a 5th grader writing a report here), your local library has so much more than just the latest issue of Seventeen. There are seminars (home-brewing, anyone?), classes, services, community resources, and of course, stern librarians. So keep it "quiet so the pages can be heard, and do it for the love of the word".

Play With Your Food

Several years ago I packed all my possessions into my car and moved to Missouri. Once I'd arrived and somewhat settled in, I roasted a chicken. This chicken had oil-rubbed skin that became crispy, and juicy flesh, and lemon and herbs inside. Delicious.

In the spirit of adventure and friendship, I offered to share with one of my new roommates. She replied that she would be happy to partake of my proffered fare, provided I removed the meat from the bones and kept the offending carcass away from the dining room. She informed me that she was unable to eat chicken or any other animal product if she could see and thus "know" that there were bones associated with the meat. It "grossed her out" to think about that. She would eat it, but not if she had to think about where it came from.

I'm no foodie preacher, I try but consistently fail to grow something, anything, to eat, and I maintain few dietary restrictions. The reasons I cook are many, but I think the most important reason is this: When I cook my food, I know my food. I feel the vegetables and fruits, the fish and meats and fowl, I can reasonably judge a bread dough by its moisture, and I know exactly what I'm sustaining my body with.

My hope for you is that you are comfortable enough with what you eat that you can think about where it might have come from. I hope you have comfort foods you cook, and new dishes to stretch your skills. Spring is here today! Play with your food.

Gingersnaps

 

Have you ever had a go-to recipe that suddenly flopped?

These are my most famous cookies. I've had the recipe for years and they always came out great, and then suddenly a few years ago they just didn't. The greatness of this cookie is that they're not really snaps, or ginger, but more like chewy spice cookies. Not chewy like a certain Wookie, but 'crisp on the edges, firm in the middle like a proper cookie should be' chewy. Not that I have Opinions on cookies or anything, ahem.

Awesome!

So, my beloved cookies were weird. Flat, spread-y, weird. I tried a few more times, and they seemed to have gone loco. Then I abandoned the recipe. Last week, though, I decided to apply a little research to the problem. Preliminary findings seemed to indicate that the proportion of molasses was too high. I tweaked the recipe everysogently and tada! Back in the glory zone.

Weird.

Alberta Bound

My AB experience in 3 pictures.

Sadness

So yes, I spent time in Canada, which was wonderful and full of mixed emotions and so hard to leave in so many ways. My flight from Calgary was supposed to be Monday night, but then it was cancelled and I spent four! hours! in lines! waiting for some answers. I flew out the next morning, via Victoria. Victoria has a tiny little airport, and we flew in right at sunrise into a sunny day. The next day it snowed 24 cm there. Today, back home, it's been snowing for the past three days. Only a very compelling reason would send me north, not south, on a winter vacation. (For clarity's sake: The following is not that reason.)

She looks so lonely. Our other dog, Bella, was put to sleep yesterday. I've never been much of a dog person, and lord were they annoying sometimes, but she was our dog for six years. All the emotions and exhaustion of the weekend caught up with me, and I held her and cried. She is buried in our backyard under a tree.

Frozen

I spent the week in Alberta, and this is how I felt.

Sunny Day BLT's

First of all, I was unsure how to pluralize BLT. Thankfully the internet has the answer to many things, although this is an old-school actual dictionary page. (One recent question the internet could not answer for me: Who does the U.S. military's commission come from?)

Secondly, everyone and their mother feels really smart for knowing "botanically, the tomato is a fruit, NOT a vegetable". Come on. Everyone and their mother knows it. Let's move on.


EXCEPT!


The Supreme Court has an opinion on this! A Supreme Opinion! In Nix v. Hedden, 1893, it was decided that "the tomato should be classified under customs regulations as a vegetable rather than a fruit." (Quote and fascinating info via Wikipedia.) There are Dickens references! There's a cabbage! 


CONTEST: Find a more amusing Supreme Court ruling than this one. GO!


And now a Segway into the title meal... (but don't fall off a cliff):

On Thursday I really wanted a BLT, but a little different. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.


You will need:


Corn tortillas, warmed (just throw them on a hot burner for about 40 seconds per side)
Pepper bacon, cooked to your liking (chewier is better)
Lettuce
Green tomato, cut into thin wedges
Avocado, cut in half and cut into thin wedges
Salsa verde


Assemble thusly:


Corn tortilla
  Lettuce
    Bacon
       Green tomato slices
          Avocado slices
            Salsa verde


Sit in the sunshine and enjoy.
       

(Sorry about the segue pun. RIP, James W. Heselden.)

Steak and Veggie Chili

Let's take a moment to talk about mise en place. Mise en place is a fancy-chef way of saying: Prep everything before you begin, and put in all in little bowls. There's a lot of positive things to be said about this method, my personal favorite being that you won't be stressing out as you create a dish or meal, frantically chopping things or discovering you're out of something you thought you had once you've begun. Everything is ready to go, right there in plain sight.

However, I don't always practice this very rigourously, and I'm here to tell you that's okay. Pete Wells of the New York Time's "Cooking with Dexter" column wrote a funny piece about the impracticality of rigid mise en place. And here's an interview with Mark Bittman that touches on the same subject. Both men mention television as a culprit. Many cooking shows show us the pretty picture (things in tiny bowls!) without much discussion about how necessary those tiny bowls are. 

Wintertime Jam

I've had this all ready to post for days, minus any witty content. January is a rough month for me, traditionally, and twenty-ten was sort of one of those years that knocked me around a bit. That may be a bit depressing to read on a blog, but this jam is very very good and might cheer you up. If you need cheering up. If not, you might want to make this jam anyways, and think of it as your morning sunshine, and hum a happy little morning song. You could leave out the spices, but I like using these spices in the winter, and they certainly do not belong in the summer. This is your chance.


Wintertime Jam

adapted from Food in Jar's Apple Cranberry Jam

4 cups peeled and diced soft apples
4 cups peeled and diced pears
4 cups cranberries
1 cup water
5 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
zest and juice of 2 lemons
zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Prepare the jars in the canning pot, along with the rings. Put the lids in a bowl of hot water to soften the seals.

In a seperate large pot, combine the apples, pears, cranberries, water, and sugars. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam that comes up to the surface. I just use a wide flat spoon for this. Skimming off foam helps the jam to be clearer once it's cooked. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the cranberries begin to pop and the apples and pears begin to soften. You may want to use a big wooden spoon to smush up the apples on the side of the pot, especially if you diced them too big (not that I did that…).

Add the citrus zests and juices and cook over medium-high heat until the mixture reaches 220˚/104˚ (but see this for info on high-altitude gel points: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/01-06-03.html). Right before the gel point is reaches, stir in the cinnamon and ground cloves.

Remove the jam from the heat and ladle into your prepared jars. Wipe the rims, place on the lids and screw on the rings. Process in the boiling-water canning pot for 10 minutes (remember: don't start the timer until the pot has come back to a boil).

Remove from the water, let cool completely, remove the rings and wipe down the jars, and check the seals. Label and date and eat!

Makes 5 pints (I did 3 pints and 4 half-pints, same processing time for both)

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Ta-da!