Just one more book!

We have plans to build a library wall with a rolling ladder to accomodate the books we've collected over the years.While I admit the majority are cookbooks, I have tomes of all kinds. Many were inherited, precious volumes of ancient cookbooks from Mom and Mother in law. I cherish these, they have terms like, a pinch, a peck, a scant spoonful. My mom's have bits marginalia, secrets passed down, omit this, add that in her beautifully scrolled secretary handwriting.

My love of books came from my father who recently passed away. We spent many hours together reading and I grew to love it and was never without a book. My father loved mysteries and read 5 or 6 books a week. He read right up to his last few days of life. He had the presence of mind  to chose  'What's So Amazing About Grace' by Phillip Yancy as his last book rather than a mystery although I don't think he probably finished it.

My daughter has a kindle and she loves it but still has a foot locker and several boxes full of books downstairs that she can't live without. They make up such a big part of our lives, like old friends. They're spines crack, they have a certain scent, they're reliable and always give you what you need when you need it, without question. One should never be without a book.

Recently I've  taken to checking cookbooks out of the library and trying out a few recipes before I buy them. I end up leaving with 10 or 12 cookbooks and a few cd books for listening to while I work. Mostly I renew everything until I can't anymore and then there's the inevitable trip to the bookstore.

Here are my new favorites:

Cookbooks

Blue Ribbon Cookbook by Bruce Bromberg and Eric Bromberg

        I made the lamb chops pictured here using their recipe and it was fantastic. Recipes are easy to understand and everything tastes great.

Sustainably Delicious by Michel Nischan

        His macaroni and cheese recipe is amazing, definately not lowfat fare but do you want your macaroni and cheese to be delicious or healthy? Walk an extra mile and go for it you won't regret it. 

Books on CD

Final Witnes by Simon Tolkien

The Inheritance by Simon Tolkien

        These are mysteries set in England. He narrates his own works and has a lovely voice that one can just relax into as one is taken on a journey of twists and turns of intrigue and murder. His grandfather is JRR Tolkien.

Books I Love

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel

         This is one of the most romantic books ever written and it's impossible to put down, There are recipes too.

The Bread of Angels by Stephanie Saldana

          I'm reading this now. It's a beautifully written autobiography about a young woman who moves to Syria on a fellowship to learn Arabic so she can study the Quran and Jesus in Islam. It's a story about life, faith and love.

Henry IV by Shakespeare

          My daughter gave it to me in play form and it's a great way to read it. After you read it watch the movie. My favorite version features Kenneth Branagh.

I like the witten word and I have to thank my parents, Dad who introduced me to books and Mom who sat by my bed each night when I was little and read to me. Heidi was a favorite. My father in law too who will read anything, even the back of a soup can if it's the only thing available.

Happy reading! ( and listening) All the best, Kate

Haricots Vert, I just like saying it!

I'm a green bean lover and Haricots Vert, the thinner French green bean is the quintessential green bean in my book and it's fun to say. If Gordon Ramsay were here to pronounce Haricots Vert for me in his hunky English accent I'd be happy to step out of my dreamy trekkie reverie into any nightmarish kitchen he could dream up, for a little while anyway.  


They're easy to prepare. After washing and snipping off the ends, I blanch them for for about 4 minutes, give or take, and plunge them in cold water. The ice cold water deepens the emerald green color of the beans and keeps them crisp. Caramelize a thinly sliced shallot in a little butter and then add the beans and toss them to coat. Sprinkle a few red pepper flakes on the beans for a little heat. I ate my lovely leftover beans for breakfast with a hard boiled egg and it was so tasty. 


Everyone has their own way to boil an egg but this is how I do it. Place the eggs in a pan and cover with water. Bring the water to boil, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 16 minutes. Flush with cold water until the eggs are cold.

I could eat Haricots Vert everyday but that's the way I am sometimes. I find something that gives me a sense of joie de vivre and I stick with it for a little while playing around with different recipes, seeing where it takes me. I bought a ridiculous quantity of beautiful Haricots Vert at Costco today. I've come to equate certain times of year with fruits or vegetables that are readily available then and only then and so look forward like a child waiting for Santa with favorite recipes in hand to those bountiful weeks.

 

All the best,

Kate

'the appetizer'

I pace in front of the tv, clicker in hand, skimming the channels for Star Trek. Blindly I reach for the trick or treat bowl. How many reeses peanut butter cups have I downed? Glancing at the floor I see it's littered with wrappers, orange and black, a gold and red one peeks out...ah my beloved Twix. If the Earth were made of Twix I'd be halfway to China by now. My mom was right I do need to have my head examined.

Not by Drs. Phil or Oz, too Hollywood. Not Crusher from TNG, her hair is too perfectly coiffured and she pronounces croissant like Charlie Brown's teacher (cwa wa) it makes me crazy.

I need Dr. Leonard McCoy, Bones from Classic Star Trek to cure what ails me. Bones with his quityourbellyaching bed side manner who so often cocks his eyebrow and will assess a situation and then comment in a honey covered cornbread drawl.

'Damn it man, put down the trick or treat bowl and eat an appetizer for pity's sake!'

Sound medical advice and I can think of nothing better than a little pseudo antipasti, (there's no meat) a glass of wine and a cuddle on the couch while Kirk, Spock and Bones venture into the final frontier.

This appetizer doesn't have a name and we've lovingly come to refer to it as 'the appetizer' because we've made it so often.

The Appetizer

Mini French Bread Loaf
Oil Cured Olives- remove seed and dice large
Goat Cheese ( I like Chevre for this)
Grape Tomatoes

Place the Goat Cheese in a Ramekin and let it sit on top of the stove so it warms up a little while you're preparing the tomatoes and french bread.

Roasted Tomatoes

Heat oven or toaster over to 400*

Line a baking sheet with foil
Wash and cut grape tomatoes in half lengthwise
Spritz with Olive oil
Sprinkle with Kosher Salt and Pepper
Bake until tomatoes collapse

French Bread
Same 400* oven
Slice bread thinly and brush each piece with olive oil on both sides
Bake until crispy

Place the components in ramekins with the bread placed decoratively around.

To assemble spread a little of the goat cheese on a piece of bread

Top with tomatoes and olives. Enjoy!

Are we there yet?

 

It takes a long time to wind down when one goes somewhere to relax and though the body may go through the motions I think my mind is a full two days behind.

It's cold and still up North, and during walks down these roads the smell of wood burn and cinder  brushed my nose. The crackle of  twigs underfoot and echo of  trailing leaves and birdwing caught my ear for more than just a second and was gone, like the wisp of a kite tail caught in an updraft.

My thoughts came to rest on a single leaf, color of pumpkin, army green and red as it caught on my sweater sleeve on it's way to the ground. I held it up to the sun to look through it as if it were a pirate's spy glass and turned it over and again, vowing to press it between two sheets of wax and preserve it for all time before letting it drop to my shoe.

Such things cannot be preserved, I thought, they come and they go with little knowledge that they ever existed but for the unimaginable odds that this very leaf landed on my sleeve at the very moment I walked through the woods.

I came upon an Inn where I feasted  on a salad of Romaine lettuce, gorgonzola and craisins with a rich dressing I can only imagine to be a derivation of something balsamic and nutty. It was delicious, chilly and warm at the same time and filled a void in me.

I continued on my path and came upon three strangers relaxing in adirondack chairs who seemed to be enjoying the weather and delighted in cajoling strangers, calling out ' there's a Berry Picker' in hushed tones and giggling to themselves. A couple of stuffed shirts I thought, not letting them ruin my melancholy.

I continued on my way, kicking up leaves and tiny rocks until the sun came down, a window shade over the lake and it was bed time. A train whistle signaled last call and the stars began their first dance, first one, then another, falling, shooting, while I wished.

All the best, 

Kate

On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese....

Didn't you sing that when you were a kid? I did and I used to regale my parents  after dinner with crazy songs and wild stories of the goings on in our neighborhood which wasn't really all that wild, but for my own imagination. I was lucky enough to have not one but 2 haunted houses on the block, a large hill to skate down, a  public pool on the corner, a park with high swings and a sand pit, a couple of nosy neighbors, a sort of scary farmer with a Peter Rabbit garden, an avuncular Mr. Green Jeans who made dandelion wine in the basement, a neighborhood bully, hopscotch chalk, roller skates, a brother with girlfriends  and working parents so the world was my oyster.  It was a kids paradise. I spent my childhood barefoot and freckle faced and didn't go in until supper time. Really though, I only remember one time that my Mother made spaghetti and it was an all day affair but I truly loved it and thought it was a delicacy. Now it's a staple.

My real introduction to this sauciers dream came with marriage when I learned how to make it for the first time using my  Mother in Law's recipe and then finally I learned how to experiment and came up with my own way of making spaghetti. I think it's one of those things that you just do. Everyone cooks in their own fashion. Some people measure, others throw, I use my senses. I taste, smell and listen. It's probably just a matter of practice and tweaking to get it how you want it to taste. I don't think I've ever made spaghetti the same way twice which is part of the fun. It's adventure cooking! You need a couple of standards:

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

-  1- #10 Can of Tomato Sauce- get the good kind, it really does make a difference

-  2-3 cans of diced tomatoes- I like the extra oomph of garlic and basil so I that's what I use

-  Onion and Garlic and Vegetables of your choosing and seasonings/spices

   Basil, oregano, parsley, sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg, bay leaf

I add what ever I have available. Peppers add sweetness to your sauce, garlic adds depth, mushrooms add a meaty flavor and squashes round it all out. I like them all so if I have them I add them in with a small dice. If you're adding carrots and peppers you probably won't need to add sugar but these are things you work out with your palate when you're tasting as you cook.  Sugar takes away some of the tartness of the tomatoes if you're not using sweet vegetables. If you taste it after awhile and feel that there's an emptiness there try a little nutmeg or perhaps a little more garlic. Sometimes that's all is takes to fill up that space.

                            

I saute the vegetables together starting with the onions, I give them a little time alone to meditate in olive oil before I add anything else. I suppose I like some of the principles of Chinese cooking and tend to cook in stages starting with the harder vegetables first and sweat them in stages. I add the spices too at this point. When I have a ton of veggies I put the lid on and really sweat them for 15 minutes or so before adding garlic. Add the garlic at the end, cooking just long enough  so that you can smell it, 30 seconds or so, it's delicate and is easily burned. Such a princess.

                               

When the veggies are ready I add the diced tomatoes and sauce and swish the cans out with a little water and add that too. I just let it do it's thing for awhile and mix the meatballs.

                           

I have a couple of different ways to make meatballs. I'm on a veggie kick right now so I buy vegan meatballs because I have yet to make a decent veggie meatball that doesn't resemble tar, asphalt, the stuff on the road at the end of my driveway. There are many varieties of fake meat that one can use to make meat balls and I haven't made a delicious one yet but the frozen ones are tasty so I just drop those sauce that I've set aside for myself.

Homemade Real Meatballs

- 1/2 # of each: ground pork, veal, sirloin

- 2 eggs

- whole wheat bread crumbs- about 2 cups

- grated cheese- Parmesan, asiago, mozzarella, romano, pecorino

- oregano, basil, salt , pepper

- milk

- Worcestershire sauce- 2 count sprinkle-  I can't spell or pronounce that but you get it    right?

- garlic and onion finely diced and gently sauteed in olive oil

Mix it all up and form giant meatballs

Bake at 350* for 30 minutes or so, they'll cook longer in the sauce but you want to make sure they'll hold up.

I think my husband shuddered a little bit when he saw me using whole wheat bread crumbs in the meatballs but trust me it adds a moistness that can't be beat. After baking those meatballs drop them in the sauce and let the sauce finish off the cooking.  The flavors develop over time so a couple of hours on the stove is a good thing and your house will smell so great. When you spoon it over the pasta whoever gets the bay leaf has good luck ! We have 4 kids so I always put 4 leaves in the sauce just for good measure.

If you make it they will come!

All the best!  Kate



Stone Lake, Cranberry Festival and Pie

One of the most beautiful spots that I have ever seen is just at the edge of the lake in Stone Lake, Wisconsin. It's up in the northwest part of the state about 90 miles north of Eau Claire and deep in the heart of G-d's country. My gentleman husband and his 6 siblings were lucky enough to grow up here as children, swimming and bathing in the lake, cooking hot dogs over campfires and picking berries fresh off the vines when they're oh so ripe and juicy. This is the view from the boat landing. The water is so clear you can see through it, and at this time of year, it's a little chilly.

During the first weekend in October each year the little town of Stone Lake,  population a few hundred, grows exponentially to several thousand as it hosts  the Stone Lake Cranberry Festival the quintessential festival of Wisconsin festivals. 

It's a wonderful time, complete with a pancake breakfast at the Firehouse, where burly firemen serve up cranberry and potato pancakess,  a parade, boxcar race, hundreds of crafters, delicious food, brats, ya hey, specialty wines and a pie and bake sale at the Lutheran church.  I can personally attest to the deliciousness of the mixed berry pie which I savored with delight, every morsel, not a crumb left on my plate.

There are little shops in the town which I will elaborate on another time and plenty of things to keep a pastry girl busy for a few days. I spent a lot of time reading and a lot of time carrying a dead cell phone around with me. There's no reception in G-d's country for an ill fated Blackberry which upset me greatly for the first 24 hours. My husband diagnosed me with cellphone-aphobia for which there is no cure.

This type of disease has to be dealt with cold turkey, or with wild turkey whichever seems most appropriate at the time but since I'm a fan of neither I opted for a nice Riesling, and some veggie chips at the little wine shop, after which I purchased a few bottles of wine for home. My favorite was called 'Bitch Bubbly' a nice sparkling wine that I am looking forward to trying. I also purchased a Moscato D'Asti my favorite of the sweet wines and a Cranberry wine.

We talked alot, and walked a lot enjoyed the colors.  The best part by far was my gentlemen husband, it was nice just to relax and spend time with him and he humored me in my quest for pie and coffee, bakeries and book stores.

There was sadness too, it's fall and in some respects things are coming to their final end and nothing reminds me more of that than falling leaves.

All the best,

Kate

I was born into a family with a history of heart disease and farming. My father is blessed with a green thumb but that gene didn't pass to me, the butter gene did. I will never be caught trading plant secrets unless I'm on the phone at 1-800 flowers, however I do know the butter fat content of a guernsey cow, it's 5%.  

I am afflicted with the opposite disease, black thumb, and thanks to my children,  the place where the plants reside in my home is called the corner of death. One day I heard my gentleman husband whispering, and I use that term loosely, ( I suppose you could take that two ways, but I only meant it one)  to one of them on the phone,

"your mother has plants, 15 of them" but he said it like he was informing them I had some sort of exotic incurable disease, like something you'd have to look up on the internet and then convince your doctor you have.

"She's going to purify the air in the house and you need 15 plants, not 14 or 16. Gotta be 15. It's that Dr. Oz, gotta be, he's making my life, a living...well you know"  Then the conversation was over.

I took photos of the plants to prove they were still living and emailed them to all the kids and it was good for awhile, and then the trouble started. First it was a shriveled leaf here, a yellow leaf there. Then the dirt started to get matted down. I repotted, got different dirt and different pots. I called in experts, learned how to dead head but my little plant family started to dwindle and went from 15 to 13. I started taking plants to my Dad for hospitalization and special care.

All my fears were starting to come true and I  started sneaking out after my husband went to work to replace the dead plants with new ones out of desperation but it didn't work. I was now down to 10 plants and beginning to panic. Nothing seemed to help despite all my efforts, I couldn't sleep, the plants were taking over my life and all they did was sit there. How on earth did I manage to raise 4 children?

"I just don't understand this!" I declared outloud to absolutely no one at all and the truth is I don't have a clue. It did occur to me that some of the plants might be seasonal or sick, or depressed. Maybe there's a plant whisperer out there or the water in our town is sub par or the dirt is undernourished because it couldn't be that I took on more than I could handle. That would be nonsensical! 

I hope to get a handle on it before the last leaf falls, which on a side note is my favorite O'Henry story. The Last Leaf. If you haven't read it, do so. If you're afflicted with the same plant problems as me take a page from the Pastry Girl, plant guide. Water your plants with bottled water, play songs for your plants by Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin and leave dishes of planters peanuts on the counter so they won't feel lonely. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

I am off to do something I know how to do. Bake!

All the best, Kate