The Quest Continues ...

In my culinary-themed quest for … uh, well I don’t know what exactly I’m questing for, but I’m building a culinary repertoire that is increasingly appreciative of the [natural] origins of and the creation of [really] good food … I am reading another book, “The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”. The author, Michael Pollan, contemplates the human condition of ‘food choice’ as follows, "Though much has been done to obscure this simple fact, how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world - and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction." I’m only like 20 pages into the book, but I’m looking forward to another [less-witty ] life changing literary experience. Bring on the long plane rides!!

So, I’ve spent some time learning how to making cheese (I’ll graduate to gouda, eventually) and now I’m on to bread – cinnamon buttermilk, wheat and sourdough, more descriptively. I used to reject the idea of baking – it seemed too precise for my messy-chef panache; while delicate pies still aren’t on my horizon, free-form artisan boules are in the oven. This is mostly thanks to a book I picked up a few weeks ago: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day. It teaches you pretty simple recipes for bowlfuls of dough that you can refrigerate and use over the course of 2 weeks. My initial inspiration came from an EatingWell recipe for Honey Oat Quick Bread. The lack of yeast (and the intimidation the ingredient) successfully convinced me to try it out – oh, horrid fear of the unknown! I thought my first loaf was a success, a dense, chewy, slightly-sweet ‘crumb’ and I really liked how the oats seemed to melt into the dough when baked. My co-workers thought it tasted like wheat-flavored sponge – the dish-washing kind.

My appetite was whetted. With a special birthday coming up, I wanted to recreate one of the birthdayee’s favorite baked treats: Once upon a time, when I worked at Starbucks, we served a pastry called a “Cinnamon Mini Loaf”. J was particularly fond of this loaflette, so I used to bring extras to the computer lab for her enjoyment. Unfortunately, good things don’t always last and the product was discontinued (Lord knows why!). I found an attractive recipe online for Cinnamon Buttermilk Bread and gave it (another non-yeast bread) a try. The flavor was much more of a success than the Honey Oat; coworkers, family and landlords enthusiastically agreed. By the time my next trip to Oregon came, I was a Cinnamon [Buttermilk] Mini Loaf pro! The bread isn’t overly sweet and has a great “sour” flavor (like cream cheese) and cakey crumb. While I think the raw batter is the best part, the crunchy crust it has straight out of the oven is pretty great!

This trip to Oregon was a chance to celebrate J’s birthday (and a belated Anniversary) with some really great food and wine. I arrived feeling a bit like Babbette, with a suitcase full of special ingredients and nostalgic treats. Alongside the imported dulce de leche alfajores from Argentina (reminiscent of our post-graduation trip) were the makings of a Port and Porcini Beef Stew. Dried porcinis reconstituted by the Ruby Port would be added to chuck roast braised in one of the two bottles of a special Monstrell/Petit Verdot blend J and I had found at a restaurant in DC last year. The recipe was probably one of the most technical that I had ever followed, requiring the reconstituted porcinis to be made into a paste and for multiple rounds of browning. While I had to shorten the marinating time to 3-4 hours, the beef was still amazingly rich and tender (also likely due to the fact that we picked up the boneless roast from a local meat market early that morning) and with all the time I had waiting for things to rest, I was able to mix a batch of dough for a fresh boule!

In proper birthday celebration (and like a good 50’s housewife) I dolled myself up, donned a makeshift apron and welcomed our guests with wine – how I love to settle into a classic stereotype every once-and-a-while, it’s so romantic! The recipe was enough for 5 HEAPING bowls of stew and the bread was dense and perfect for soaking up the super-rich gravy. The heavy wine paired well, but I almost thought it was a little too fruit-forward at times. No one complained, however. Unfortunately, in writing this, I’m realizing that I forgot the fresh parsley at the end … ugh! Lame.

We finished the meal with a dessert wine that we had bought from Harris Bridge Winery a few months earlier. A call to the winery’s owners that afternoon had given me some dessert-pairing ideas, but after finding my way around Corvallis and Philomath, 4 bakeries and 3 Safeways had left me sans pear-tart and without any imaginative ideas (dessert and breakfast are not really bragging points of my culinary prowess.) As luck would have it, while browsing the unappealing frozen pie section of the last Safeway, I found frozen crème brulee! Stuck under the broiler, the individual ramekins of custard would complement the sweet caramel and apricot notes of the 2002 Pinot Gris. The sweet, weighty wine could have more-than stood on its own, but dessert was had – even if the candles wouldn’t stand up well in the punched-through caramelized sugar topping. Our guests left well-stuffed.

J received a fantastic present that night – a waffle maker!! We had an important football game/pre-game festivities to attend late the next morning, but we made time to run to the supermarket for bananas, raspberries, syrup and Bisquick. Soooo delicious … even if the first round didn’t come out so pretty. Happy Birthday!!

Gosh I Hope This Is A Typical Sunday...

I have nothing specific to elaborate on, except for why my kitchen has been pretty busy the past 4 hours. After a really lovely trip to Eastern Market with two friends, I got down to [cooking] business:

- 4lbs of bone-in 1/2 turkey breast were roasted with mesquite seasoning (thank you Tupperware),
- gravy and turkey broth are being made from the remnants,
- 'queso fresco' is draining over the sink for later salads and stirfrys,
- roasted beets and blanched string beans are chilling in the fridge for my dinner salad,
- and I just whisked up a mind-numbingly good yolk-based whole grain mustard vinaigrette.


It's so nice to tire yourself out on a Sunday by cooking good food for the coming week. Helps me sleep better :) Although, I must say ... cooking and sleeping with someone else on a Sunday would help me sleep best. 5 days until my love and some Oregon Pinot Noir.

Disembowelling Jack.

A special weekend at my cousin's wedding was additionally enjoyed through the inclusion of various conversations with my extended family pertaining to growing and cooking good [and organic or local] food. Before I headed back to DC this morning, a detour past my uncle's house earned me a pretty orange passenger - I'll call him Jack. The topic of earlier conversation, Jack had been plucked from a pumpkin plant that was currently overtaking my Uncle's backyard. I skipped merrily back to my car and buckled him in safely. I had a date in mind for us later this week...

After stopping at the grocery store (a place I frequent less and less nowadays, thanks to the FarM's that run throughout the week) for some essentials like peanut butter and Kosher salt, I planted some flowers and shrubbery my parents had given to me at the wedding. With no lawn, my garden is rather small at this point of my life. But there are little victories: my parsley will be growing soon. Someday I'll have a decent-sized vegetable garden and some chickens.

Front Door Garden:
My Sunday night plans included making a batch of mozzarella and then some eggplant parmigiana with eggplants and tomatoes from my grandfather's garden, but I had problems with the milk and all of the non-curds had to be trashed (maybe Lucerne is ultra-pasteurized?). Instead of heating up leftovers in my dismay, I decided that tonight was going to be the night to try a recipe from Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal Vegetable Miracle', after all. "Pumpkin Soup in Its Own Shell" seemed pretty straightforward: milk, broth, roasted garlic, salt, pepper and fresh sage baked in a cleaned pumpkin. (While waiting for my garlic to roast on top of the stove, I roasted Jack's seeds in the oven with cayenne and salt!)

Before Jack's Roast:
There was one danger posed by the author: cooked too long, the entire turrine might collapse! I checked on Jack every 10min for his 1hr and 10min roast. I gently scraped the inside walls making sure not to cut too deep with my spoon. What resulted was a deliciously salty and garlicky soup with stringy pumpkin floating at the top.

After Roasting:
To better incorporate the stringy pumpkin insides into their soup, I violated Jack with my immersion blender (I apologize for the vulgarity of this post). Helping only a little, I decided to re-scrape the inside walls. I found them softer at this point and was able to extract a large amount of less-stringy meat. Happy with my final product, I started to ladle my soup into some tupperware for the week. Upon reaching Jack's bottom, I determined the whole base to be loose from the walls. Extracting it, I discovered the most deliciously tender meat to be found on this particular boy.

Bottomless Jack:
At this point, as seen in the picture to the left, Jack had been relieved of his soup and his bottom. Maybe I should have stopped there ... but I went on to disembowel Jack of all the meat he had to offer. As it happens, there was A LOT more to be had. I left him in ruins on my cutting board and confess to even going so far as to sample his bronzed and tender skin.

Oh the shame and horror!














In her book, Barbara Kingsolver speaks of the pumpkin as a true American food source that's history and use we are losing to Halloween and Fall lawn-ornament scenes. Though a bit labor intensive, I will have delicious (and different) lunches, dinners and snacks for the next few days thanks to Jack. It's still hot outside, but I'm very ready for this Fall's bounty of squashes and pumpkins!

Thursday's Bounty

I simply love the idea of the farmer's market. Today I stopped by my near-work FarM to get a bounty before I move on Saturday. And what a bounty it is!!


Included are 3 quarts of gorgeous gorgeous tomatoes .... a mixed quart of these (see above) purple, gold, orange and red multi-shaped minis, a quart of tiny romas, and a quart of these glowing deep-gold paste tomatoes. They asked what I planned to do with all of my tomatoes ... I said eat them! (Lame, yes. But true!) I picked up another dozen of the best eggs I've ever had in my entire life. They have an extraordinarily smooth, creamy yolk and a flavorful white that gently puffs up. I cooked them 5 different ways last week and every time I swooned! I asked the late-20's girl about her hens and she told me about their diet and their acreage and their temperament. They were called "Sweet Georgia Browns" or something, heh, I love heirloom breed names! I also picked up some beautiful white and yellow onions.

The baker gave me another loaf for free (you can see one of the dense, chewy multi-grain loaves in the picture). Because I made a log of homemade mozzarella and prosciutto last night, I had to pick up some basil. Now my parents will be set for lunch tomorrow ... homemade mozzarella, basil, fresh bread and a variety of tomatoes (and wine, of course)! It's the least I can do for their help moving!

For my pleasure? Below you can see a FarM fresh dinner a la Kabri ...

Dessert was a thin slice of the cake-y bread with a smear of creamed raw honey and fresh marscapone :) ... life is good.