Hello! And welcome to my blog. This is a new project for me, and I'm still working out the kinks in the templates and such (anyone know why blogroll won't work? anyone? bueller?), but over the next few weeks I'll be fixing it up and rolling out some content.

Obviously, the topic of this blog is vegetables, and the always-exciting adventure of using up each week's share from our CSA. But it's also about food, and cooking, and how it's possible to be busy, sometimes exhausted, and occassionally lazy, but still manage to put together some really kick ass meals. However, since it's still only March in Maine, the CSA is just starting its planting, so in the meantime I'll be writing about cooking in general. I'll include my recipes when possible, and Otis's as well. It should be interesting to compare and contrast. (An Otis recipe: start with 1/4 lb of pork fat. A Marya recipe: spray the pan with Pam.)

I'll also post about restaurants we've gone to (I'll soon write about our incredible Shelton Brothers Beer Dinner at Hugo's this past Sunday), and dinner parties, and all sorts of other foodie-type stuff. Thanks for reading!

Easter is traditionally one of those food holidays, probably growing out of its roots and connection to Passover. It's also always been one of my favorites, especially because it usually features ham, one of my favorite meats. (There was some paranoia in my household when I was a child about nitrates or nitrites or something like that, which lead to me being unjustly denied my rightful amount of ham. I've been spending the rest of my life trying to make up for that early disappointment. Sniff.)

Under normal circumstances, Otis and I head to Chicopee, MA, where his Gramma lives. However, this year I just felt spent-- starting a new job, a lot of wedding-related activities coming up for my friend Alysia, and and overall case of the 'spring' blahs-- so I played the bad wife and stayed home. At the last minute, my friend Kendall invited me to an Easter dinner hosted by her BFF, the lovely Leslie of Aurora Provisions.

And what a lucky Easter ducky I was! An incredibly diverse and fascinating group of 20+ folks came together to feast, toast, and chat. A lot of the attendees are active in the Slow Food Portland group. Some were farmers, including John and Stacy of Broadturn Farm and their daughters. Some were restauranteurs, including the couple who are opening Bonobo Pizza, a brick oven pizzeria, in the former Supreme location on the corner of Pine and Brackett. (Otis wants to know the connection between sex-crazed monkeys and pizza. If anyone knows, please advise.) Tom and Sarah Flanagan of Flanagan Fine Art were there, along with their charming children. I also met Karl and Margaret Hathaway Schatz, and got to learn about her upcoming book, the Year of the Goat, and meet their sweet baby Charlotte.

All in all it was a lovely afternoon. Not to mention the delicious, delicious food, most of which was kosher for Passover and chametz-free...morroccan spiced lamb roast, savory matzoh brie, fish balls, roasted asparagus, chicken with preserved lemon, potato kugel, and much more. I rolled on home about 5 with a full belly and the glow of having had a day of great conversation. I still feel a little bit guilty about missing the Baron family Easter, though. I hope they'll forgive me.

Unfortunately, since I didn't do any of the cooking, I have no recipes from Easter. But, Kendall came over for chicken curry on Tuesday, and suggested I share that recipe since she enjoyed it so much.

Here it is!

Karl sent me a link to some great photos of our Easter/Passover party at Aurora. This adorable shot of the babies demonstrates what it's all about. Food. Sharing. Bonnets.

And also, of course... a toast.

Damn you, Norman van Aken.

Saturday night Otis and I were planning on a trip to see Hot Fuzz out at the gloriously comfortable Westbrook Cinemagic theater, but then he started cooking dinner. And he cooked...and cooked...and cooked. We finally sat down to eat at 9:30, after two desperation snacking-moments during the process (snacking moment one: blue corn chips and salsa. snacking moment two: blue corn chips, plain. screw the salsa, I'm starving over here!).

A little background: my friend Sarah spent some time on food writing in her journalism career, and when she got multiple copies of cookbooks, she often gave them to me. The absolute best of these is Norman Van Aken's New World Kitchen, which is his compendium of recipes from throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Everything I've cooked from the book has been incredibly delicious.

But...how shall we say...his recipes tend to be a little fussy. After all, we're talking about a glorified form of home cooking, right? Part of the problem, of course, is that some of the ingredients he uses require a sort of Latin American pantry, which is great if you cook this type of food all the time, but if you're cooking all over the map, you don't really need to keep a cup of annatto oil around all the time, do you? So, a simple recipe, like the Asopao de Arroz con Pollo that Otis made on Saturday, which is a Puerto Rican chicken and rice dish, turns into a marathon because of preparing all of the fiddly bits.

In this case, that included:

• Steeping saffron in warm chicken stock
• Roasting garlic in oil to prepare roasted garlic and garlic oil
• Preparing annatto oil
• Preparing a sofrito of garlic, onion, and poblano

I really shouldn't complain too much, because although it did take four hours to prepare, the dish turned out to be the best damned chicken and rice I've ever had. But boy, was I hungry.

We did make it to Hot Fuzz on Sunday. Just as funny as Shaun of the Dead. See it!

I have been vanquished and ashamed by the extent of my ambition and my abject failure to fulfill it-- vis-a-vis this CSA documenting project. I look back on my original plan to document every CSA vegetable that passes through our kitchen, and realize it was completely ridiculous. Not that I don't have excuses-- lots of work, USM, freelance programming, attempts to have a social summer-- but really, I am ashamed.

Ahem. That said, let's get back to the vegetables. Otis created a delicious new form of casserole this week, which I'll be sharing with you: Portuguese Kale Casserole (based on the soup.)

In the meantime here's the update!

Last week:

2 heads lettuce -- used in salad
0.3 lb. mesclun -- salad-- I made this really yummy steak with onions, marinated and then stir-fried in a mix of lime juice, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and chili garlic paste, and then served on a bed of the mesclun with chopped sugar snaps and baby turnips.. Really great.
Kale-- casserole too!
¾ lb. sugarsnap peas
1 bulb fennel fennel salad-- see below
1 bunch baby turnips -- salad
1 bunch carrots -- salad
10 garlic scapes -- stir-fried in peanut sauce with scallions and pork
1 bunch scallions-- same as above

Week before last:

1 head romaine-- used in salad
1/4 lb mixed greens-- used in salad
1/4 lb lettuce mix-- used in salad
1 bunch parsley-- used in salad
.3 lb sugarsnap peas-- used in egg rolls
2 kohlrabi-- used in Otis's chicken salad
10 garlic scapes-- used in Otis's chicken salad
1 head Chinese cabbage-- used in eggrolls
1 bunch swiss chard-- Isn't it nice that greens last so long? This went into the greens casserole.

Now that I think of it, I might have spoken about fennel salad before. But who cares! Fennel salad is so easy, and so delicious, that everyone should know about it and eat it ALL THE TIME.

1. Slice fennel into the thinnest slices you can. We use a snazzy ceramic slicer.
2. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and s & p to taste.

That's it! Easy and utterly delicious.

This week's share was the following:

1 head red butter lettuce
.35 lb mesclun
1 bunch collards (I swapped for some kohlrabi)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch beets (yay! I cannot express how much I love roasted beets!)
1 summer squash
1 cucumber
1.5 lb wax beans
.5 lb sugar snaps (this has been a bumper crop this yearm which is great. they are really delicious.)
3 lonely little cherry tomatoes

And that is all. I promise to harass Otis more for that kohlrabi salad recipe, and now the greens casserole.

Who wants to go to the great State of Maine Grilling and BBQ Fest with us? It's Aug 3-5.

Last night Otis and I went out to celebrate his pre-birthday. It had been a hot-as-hell day, already cooling somewhat, as we walked over to Caiola's. We're awfully lucky to have such a stellar restaurant right around the corner, especially when you factor in the gorgeous patio.

We started with the most unusual appetizer-- a salad of figs, raspberries, gorgonzola, and fennel. All four ingredients have strong, even overwhelming flavors, but together they really harmonized. The plate was lovely as well:

After that, I had mushroom risotto with red wine reduction, and Otis had blackfish with clams in a nice brothy sauce (I think I would call it a brodo, but maybe I would be being pretentious) and barley and herbs.

On the way over we discussed the ridiculousness of the opening of Bonobo Pizza being delayed because the city decided at the last minute that they need an additional hand sink. Because if there are two people working there who dirty their hands at the same time, one certainly can't wait
five minutes for the first to finish washing. Ah, our tax dollars at work.

In other restaurant gossip, Local 188 is re-opening Wednesday! With Caiola's, Bobobo, OhNo, Aurora, Local, my goodness, it's really an embarrassment of riches over here.

Anyway. I wonder if mushroom risotto would be good for breakfast? I'm really hungry and Otis will probably be asleep for a while...

I can't believe I haven't posted anything for almost a month. Time has been just zipping by; I've been working like a dog at USM, freelancing, and getting ready to start school on Tuesday.

We also had a fabulous long weekend in Wellfleet earlier this month, visiting Otis's parents and brother, complete with a fish fry, bbq, a day at the flea market, delicious crab dip, and lobster. And, of course, drinks at the Bomb Shelter.

Whenever we go to Wellfleet we make sure to pick up a tub or two of the crab dip they sell at Hatch's, along with our fish or lobsters or whatever. Ironically, the dip is produced downeast somewhere, and so it theoretically available in Maine; but it is so decadent and delicious, it's probably better for our waistlines and cholesterol levels that it stay a special-occasion food. I don't have a tub here (thank goodness; otherwise I'd be eating it for breakfast), but I think the ingredients include mayo, crab, ketchup, french onion soup mix, and other seemingly random ingredients that, when combined, end up as delicious, addictive, ambrosia.

Our other Wellfleet summer visit tradition is to pick up boiled lobsters from Hatch's and eat them at Jane and Walter's house, along with fresh corn, bread, and the onions in vinegar that Jane's dad used to make.

A word about Hatch's. Otis and Nick (his brother) both worked there, starting at about age 13, for many summers-- about 8 in Otis's case, I believe. The place is fabulous, and Rob, the owner, is a very funny guy who simultaneously takes his job very seriously and not at all. Otis has a host of wonderful stories about providing fish to various demanding New Yorkers-- many of whom were and are eminences of some note. My favorite story is of the day when Diana Trilling first came in, and requested lobsters, "split entirely in half," live o
of course. (There's more to the story, and I am probably mangling it, but the gist is there. Otis is still sleeping so I can't verify.)

Anyway, back to the lobsters. Normally, we get small lobsters, about 1-1 1/2 lbs, one for each person. This trip, however, for some reason smaller lobsters were not available, so we each had half of a 4-ish pounder. During dinner, I realized that this was the largest lobster I had ever eaten! I think that's what comes of growing up in Maine, where they tend to be on the small side.

The flavor and texture was actually a little bit different. Normally, the claw meat is my favorite, but in the larger bugs it evidently tends to get slightly overcooked, so it's not as tender. This time, the tail was outstanding, and better than in the smaller ones, I thought. (I also appreciated the lobster being pre-split, so I didn't have to wrestle with it, or ask Otis or Nick to do so. Yes, I am lame.)

Regardless, it was really a delicious meal, and a wonderful visit, as usual. Otis brought a jar of his dilly beans, which were a big hit. The recipe is from Putting Food By, the classic food-preservation tome. I'm going to include the ingredients but not the recipe because I really recommend you buy the book if you're planning on doing food preservation. (He modified the recipe somewhat-- I don't think the original includes Thai chiles.)

Dilly Beans

Brine:
5 cups vinegar
5 cups water
1/2 cupl + 1 T pickling salt

For each jar:
2 dried thai chiles
A goodly amount of dill
1 clove garlic
1 T mustard seed
1/2 T peppercorns
1/4 T dill seed

Before I go start my homework (yay!) I shoudl give a shout-out to Margaret Hathaway Schatz, author of Year of the Goat...you may remember her from such entries as Passover Eating. Her book just came out, and we had the pleasure of attending the release party: Goatstravaganza! It was great to see such a huge crowd come to celebrate Margaret, and of course, all things goaty. (You can see the back of Otis's head in the top photo on the left.)

The party was held at Rabelais Books, a really wonderful bookstore on Middle Street, and featured a tasty spread from Aurora Provisions, and photos by the talented Karl Schatz (Margaret's husband). And, yours truly won the door prize, an adorable t-shirt.

Good luck on your book tour, Margaret!

(Note, I haven't started the book yet, but it's on the top of my pile. I just finished Heat by Bill Buford, for the Slow Food book group meeting this month.)

I suppose that's all for now. If I can pull it together I'll post my recipe for Law School Ramen Noodles. They'll blow you away!

Oh yeah, vegetables. Well, suffice to say they are delicious. I'm making quiche for dinner tonight, but you already have that recipe, so that's that. Seriously, I haven't been doing that much cooking, since I've been working on The Website that Must Not be Named, and it's always so hard to extract recipes from Otis.

I did make some Artichoke basil pesto, actually, with some of the CSA basil and some from Jane's overflowing planters. So here you go.

Artichoke Basil Pesto

Enough basil to fill a 14-cup cuisinart
A large jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained
1/2- 3/4 cup grated parmesan
4 cloves garlic, minced, sauteed very quickly, and splashed with wine (I don't like the really strong raw garlic flavor)
EVOO as needed
S&P to taste

Put all ingredients in Cuisinart and whir until chopped and very slightly chunky.

No nuts! The artichokes provide that nutty unctuous mouth-feel.

I've added a little list of local food friends on the right-- let me know if you think I am missing anyone.

And happy (belated) birthday, Jenn!!!

Don't Drown Your Food.

All of you who grew up in the 70s know what I'm talking about-- the important PSA exhorting us not to overdo it on the sour cream and ketchup. Even back then, I remember wondering that someone felt ketchup overuse was such a terrible issue that they made a whole cartoon about it. In today's world, of course, where presumably the PSAs during Saturday morning cartoons remind kids not to smoke too much crack or become prostitutes or pimps or ad executives, the late-70s worries about excess condiment use seem incredibly quaint.

But, even in retrospect, I am still not sure what, exactly, was the reason behind the message. Was it health? Or just a general preference for plain baked potatoes?

Regardless, it was, simply, totally ridiculous, in my opinion. Sure, you don't want to destroy your palate with a cup of ketchup. But if someone serves you a pile of steamed, un-buttered, un-salted broccoli, as my parents were wont to do in my childhood-- well, I think pouring a nice splash of vinaigrette over that is perfectly justified.

Not to mention that sauces are the foundation of most world cuisines. Just because 'American' food eschews herbs, spices, rouxs (how do you pluralize that, French speakers?) and all gravies save those served on Thanksgiving or with Salisbury Steak doesn't mean that enhancing the flavor of perfectly lovely ingredients is somehow against God and Nature.

So. There.

Jeez louise, I have been the The Worst Blogger Ever™ lately. In my defense, there were a few family health issues (everyone is fine) and then , suddenly, it was the end of the semester. I try to avoid talking about Real Life in here, under the theory that nobody cares, but I am going to marshal the fact that I work full time and take 10 credits in law school as an excuse for poor blog maintenance. Happily, finals are over (pray for As, everyone!) and I have a little bit more time on my hands. Just a tiny bit, though, because I have to go to work today and then jet out to the Old Port to do some horrifically belated Christmas shopping-- I am leaving tomorrow morning for the holiday trip.

So, although I haven't been writing, I have certainly been eating. Here are a few short takes from the last month and a half.

Japanese Overview

Like Thai restaurants, Portland is 'blessed' with an overabundance of Japanese/sushi restaurants. (Note: these are not necessarily synonymous, although here they seem to be.) These include Miyake, Yosaku, Sapporo, Fuji, Benkay, King of the Roll, and Ginza Town. All of these places have specific strengths and weaknesses (with the exception of Fuji, which has only weaknesses), but for the freshest, most unique uses of 'special' fish, I consistently vote for Benkay. When Otis's parents were here in November, they took us out for a delicious dinner there. We had some incredible toro; delicious tuna; and a few really unusual fish I had never had before. I especially love the appetizer they make with their freshest fish and a soy/yuzu sauce. I've only had noodles from Miyake, once, and I wasn't that impressed, but I have been hearing lately that their sushi and sashimi is phenomenal. Evidently the chef came from Yosaku. Oh, Yosaku. It used to be fabulous but the horrible service and intermittently low quality of their fish (there's no excuse for mushy tuna) have made me resolve never to go there again. King of the Roll is fun-- don't go there for the best fish, but go for the deep-fried tempura-battered spicy tuna roll with wasabi sauce. Mmmm. Be prepared for incompetent waitservice, though, which can sometimes be amusing and sometimes make you want to pull your hair out. Ginza Town is 'eh.' If I were French I would shrug my shoulders eloquently. Sapporo is very good but I never feel thrilled with a meal I have there.

So, soon we'll be checking out Miyake. But in the meantime if I want great sashimi I'll go to Benkay and ask what's fresh.

The Eternal Dinner Made Short

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember the Eternal Dinner: a Puerto-Rican style chicken and rice dish Otis made from the New World Kitchen cookbook by Norman Van Aken, which took hours and hours to prepare. Well, I was craving those deliciously complex flavors, so I set out to simplify the dish. It came out incredibly well, and only took about an hour. Here you go:

Marya's Stewed Pork and Rice, Van Aken Style

Ingredients:
Pinch Saffron
About 6 Cups chicken stock (we use Imagine foods organic when we don't have homemade)
About 1 T each dried oregano, cumin
S&P
Annatto oil (if you have it. Since the eternal dinner, we usually do have some prepared.)
2 lbs pork chops, cut into large cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 head garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cups white rice (long grain)
1 1/4 cups grated parmesan
1/2 large can chopped tomatoes (we use Muir Glen fire-roasted)
1/4 cup capers
1 cup green olives with pimentos, roughly chopped
1 small bag frozen peas

1. Heat the annatto oil on medium in a large Dutch oven, and add the garlic and onion, cumin, oregano, s&p, bay leaf. Saute for a bit, and add the pork. Get it brown on the outside.

2. Add the rice and mix well.

3. Add the saffron and chicken broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low.

4. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add more stock if it seems low.

5. Add the parmesan, tomatoes, capers, and olives. Stir well. Cook over low for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more stock if necessary, until rice is tender. (You'll want to make sure the pork is cooked through too, obviously.)

6. Add the peas, stir.

7. Serve, with an array of hot sauces. Cholula goes especially well.

That's it! Now, isn't that easy?

I hereby make a vow that I will be a better blogger in the future. We're going to Fore Street soon, so I will report back on that. And of course, the holiday meals...oysters rockefeller, baked bread, ham, pierogis, etc....I can't wait.

A shout-out of thanks to the Portland Phoenix for including my blog in their story on our online food culture. (Although I do disagree with the characterization of Mr. or Ms. Portland Psst, whose blog I find consistently amusing, if not always enlightening.

I'm about to leave for Boston, and then Wellfleet, in about 45 minutes. In Boston I'll be having brunch with my mom and some friends at Acquitaine, and then attending a play that has something to do with Jewish mothers. I can't remember the title.

Then, off to Wellfleet for the Christmas festivities. Only the strong (stomachs) survive: Sunday night is prime rib, Monday is Oysters Rockefeller, hot wings, cheese and crackers, and much more; Tuesday is baked bread casserole on Christmas morning and lots of other stuff. All seasoned liberally with shots of Crown Royal.

I'm very much looking forward to it! On our return, it's back to work, and then the weekend preparing for our New Year's Day party-- I think we might make a deep-fried turkey. Yes, we do have a turkey-frying kit. Of course, doesn't everyone?

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to everyone. If you have the time, make these cookies. They're delicious. And from Martha Stewart, so you know they're good!

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 t ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1 T cocoa powder (use Dutched if you can get it)
1 stick butter
1 T freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t boiling water
7 oz semisweet chocalate chips
granulated sugar

1. Sift together first set of dry ingredients (through cocoa in the list)
2. Beat together butter and fresh ginger in bowl of mixer until light and smooth
3. Add brown sugar; mix
4. Add molasses; mix.
5. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water.
6. Add 1/2 flour mixture to bowl of mixer; beat; add soda mixture; beat; add rest of flour mixture; beat until combined.
7. Add chocolate chips.
8. Wrap dough ball in plastic, flatten to 1 inch thick, and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
9. Form into 1 inch balls; roll in granulated sugar; place on cookie sheet and chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
10. Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until surfaces of cookies begin to crack.
11. Cool on wire rack.

When people come to our house for the first time, they often don't notice the fact that there are two refrigerator-shaped items in the kitchen-- it's only when they go to put their beer in the freezer that they realize that there is, in fact, a full-size standup freezer where there used to be a closet. It's not a very big kitchen, at all, so I attribute this to people's preexisting expectations for kitchen appliances.

And boy, do we love our freezer. Not only does it allow us to easily preserve much of our annual CSA bounty (aside from the stuff Otis cans), but we also have a ton of leftovers preserved for emergencies of laziness. (Or just to use when appropriate. This Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin pie with pie filling I had made from our CSA pumpkin and frozen two years before. It was delicious.)

Right now, this is what's in our freezer:

baked rigatoni
puerto rican pork and rice
pureed tomatoes
shucked oysters
chicken tikka
beef stew
beef stock
bbq sauce (otis's secret recipe)
more pumpkin pie filling
pureed squash
pesto

plus an assortment of purchased items:
whole grain english muffins
pitas
frozen chicken and vegetable dumplings
whole wheat tortillas
a frozen spinach pizza
fake breakfast sausage
linguica
chicken sausage
chicken thighs
bags of innards from chickens (for making stock)
handle of vodka
ice

and probably more stuff... I didn't want to keep the door open too long. I'd say we're fairly prepared. For lazy Sundays, at least.

Otis and I took an extra day off MLK weekend and jetted off to San Francisco. It's was a fairly long trip for such a short visit, but due to our schedules (school started for me on Jan 22) it was really the only viable time we could go; plus, my mom was visiting at the same time, and it turned into a big family weekend.

My grandfather, Moe Haber, lives in SF, in the Jewish Home for the Aged. He just turned 93, and I hadn't seen him in 2 and a half years. (The actual birthdate is a matter of some internal family debate, since he always said his birthday was Dec 25. It now seems that was a dramatization, and his real birthday is Dec 29. Part of this also stemmed from the fact that his parents were named Mary and Josef. He is a character.)

So, we flew out of Boston early Friday morning (6:10) and had a whirlwind weekend visiting the city and my family. We had gorgeous, sunny weather, and had the chance to see my grandpa, my cousins Leila and Damon and their respective spouses and adorable children, my uncle Merrill and aunt Nancy, and my mom. We also got to visit Otis's old high school friend Seton, his wife Patty, and their adorable little toddler Eva.

Part of what makes spending time with my family amusing is the constant food-related talk. (Hey, I come by it honestly!!) This is a group of people who plan their dinner while eating breakfast. We basically arrived, went to visit my grandpa in the home, and then went out to dim sum, without a pause.

So, there was a lot of delicious food to report on:

- Friday dim sum at Mayflower Seafood
- Friday dinner at my cousin Leila's house, which featured a delicious warm shrimp salad which was prepared from a recipe Merrill and Nancy learned at a cooking school during their recent trip to Vietnam
- Irish breakfast at O'Reilly's in North Beach
- Burritos at a restaurant in Alameda with Seton (I forget the name of this one, I'll have to check with Otis!)
- Pastry and coffee at Caffe Trieste
- Sunday brunch with bagels, lox, some insanely cheesy hash brown casserole, and mimosas at Leila's house
- Dinner at Cafe de la Presse

I think that's it! A lot of food in one short weekend! It was a wonderful time, and if I have a chance I will post restaurant reviews. And, as a special treat, here is the warm salad recipe from Vietnam. The recipe calls for squid, but you can make it with anything, really.

Also, there are comments written on my copy by my uncle Merrill... but I can't read them, his handwriting is so bad. Hopefully there's nothing important! (This recipe is from the Red Bridge Cooking School in Hoi An, Vietnam. If you're ever there, it sounds like a fabulous day of cooking and eating!)

Warm Squid Salad in Half a Pineapple

100 grams sliced squid
2 t vegetable oil
1 t garlic, chopped
1 t ginger, chopped
1/2 t sugar
1 t light fish sauce
1 T tomato puree or tomato sauce
1 T sweet and sour chilli sauce (recipe below)
1/2 cup chopped hot pepper
1/2 cup chopped pineapple
1/2 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 T water
Few pieces cilantro

Add vegetable oil to wok with ginger and garlic. Add squid, fish sauce, and sugar, and stirfry 1 min. Add vegetables and tomato puree, and stirfry 3 minutes. Add water. Serve in hollowed-out pineapple sauce and top with cilantro and hot pepper.

Sweet & Sour Chilli Sauce

1 T water
1/2 t sour chilli sauce (super sour sriracha is probably what they mean here)
1/2 t tomato puree
1/2 T finely chopped white onion
1/2 T finely chopped pineapple
1/2 T finely chopped tomato
1/2 t crushed ginger
1/2 t veg oil

Heat oil in wok and add all ingredients except water, sour chilli, and tomato puree. Fry for a few seconds, then add reserved ingredients. Bring to simmer, simmer until cooked.

I've been spending the week crunching numbers, which makes a girl crave something a little more crunchy and tasty. How about...bacon cups? What a brilliant idea. There is a 100% chance I will make these for our next party. The possibilities for filling are endless!

In other news, the continued battering from Ye Olde Man Winter is starting to get me down. However, last week I invented a speedy way to make creamy and delicious chicken pot pie in a remarkably short period of time.

Short-Cut Chicken Pot Pie

1 grocery-store rotisserie chicken (I got the herb-rubbed chicken from Whole Foods)
1 bag frozen peas
1 bag frozen carrots, or whatever other veg you want. (I used mixed carrots & green and wax beans, which Otis didn't like that much. I thought the beans were tasty.)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
Splash white wine
1/2 cup half-and-half
s&p and herbs and spices (I used thyme and marjoram)
Drop biscuit dough

a. Preheat oven to 350.
1. Make a roux with the flour and butter. add the garlic. Sautée in heavy pot until brown.
2. Slowly add chicken broth, stirring, so as not to form lumps
3. Add herbs, spices, s&p, any other seasoning you desire
4. Add wine
4. Simmer on med-low for 5 minutes
5. In the meantime, pull all the meat off the chicken and put it in a bowl.
6. Pour the drippings from the chicken into the sauce.
7. Snack on some of the chicken skin. Give some to the dog. Give some to Otis.
8. Add the half-and-half to the sauce, simmer for another 5-10 minutes until it seems the right creamy texture. Remember to stir once in a while!
9. Remove from heat, stir in chicken and frozen vegetables
10. Pour into large flat pyrex pan.
11. Make biscuit dough* and drop in large spoonfuls onto top of pot pie mixture
12. Bake in oven until biscuits are nice and brown and pot pie mixture is bubbly and hot, about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. In the meantime, catch up on your law school reading while drinking a Pabst.

* A note on biscuits. There is no need for bisquick. Seriously, people. Cut 1/4 cup butter into 2 cups flour, 1 T baking powder, and 1 t salt, add a cup of milk, mix with a fork. Ta dah!!

That's it! A nice cozy dinner requiring less than half an hour of prep time. I wonder if chicken pot pie would be good in bacon cups. I guess the filling would run out the holes...

We had a wonderful weekend last weekend, as Otis's parents Jane and Walter came up for the Maine Boatbuilders Show, some delicious eating, and lovely conversation.

Friday night we went to Local 188 for fancy old-timey cocktails, and then headed over to Caiola's for dinner; as usual everything was delish (channeling Rachael Ray, sorry), especially our deep-fried sardine appetizer.

It's always nice to have Walter and Jane here, although they do tend to bring pretty crappy weather with them-- what's up with that?

Anyway, my fingers are sore from all the typing I've been doing on the big paper I have due Tuesday, so I hope everyone will forgive me for a short-but-sweet entry. Happy Easter!

I've been battling a hideous cold all week and can barely sit still without coughing, but I remembered I wanted to make a point about service. I do frequently bitch about waiters so I wanted to make sure I called out what I consider to be outstanding service.

Last week when Otis's parents were here we went to breakfast at Hot Suppa. I was starving, and I ordered biscuits and sausage gravy, with eggs over medium. When the plate arrived I noticed the eggs were undercooked (more like over easy, which makes me a little queasy). I told the waitress, who promptly whisked my plate away, returned it without the eggs so I could eat my biscuits while waiting for the refire, and then took $2 off our bill without being asked.

I was so impressed! Good service doesn't require fine dining, or snobbery. It just requires someone who cares about his or her job. Thanks Hot Suppa waitress whose name I don't know! You've restored my faith in Portland waitstaff!

(Plus the food was tasty, as usual!)

I'm a creature of ridiculously boring habits. Until this week when I vowed to give up soy products I've been eating the same breakfast every day. Now, unfortunately, I'm going to need to find a replacement for my much-beloved Morningstar Farms fake sausage patties. It's fairly tragic. If anyone has any suggestions I would much appreciate it!

Breakfast is such a balancing act. I want to have enough food to keep me satiated until lunch, but not too much-- I'm often just a touch queasy before 8 a.m., but since that's when I get to the office I need to eat around 7. I've been trying cereal (Barbara's hippie brand) but I start getting hungry at 11, which is inconvenient. I love eggs on the weekend, but I don't have the energy or time to cook in the morning. For a while I had wasa with peanut butter and cottage cheese on the side, but for some reason that's just not satisfying me lately either.

If I could afford it I would get a breakfast sandwich from the OhNo every morning on the way to work, but the cost would add up quickly, and I would feel too guilty about being extravagant.

Weekends are another story. There are so many options for a breakfast out in Portland it's crazy! (Erin of TypeA is doing a poll at the moment-- head over there and vote for your favorite.)

Depending on how we feel and what we're in the mood for, Otis and I will head to Ruski's, Local 188, the Porthole, the Bayou Kitchen, Hot Suppa, or the Front Room. All of these are great for what they are-- obviously you can't expect gourmet food at Ruski's but it's always well cooked and yummy. (Note; I like weird fake hollandaise sauce. If you don't, don't order the benedict.)

One restaurant I don't enjoy is Bintliff's. When we first moved here about four years ago we went there frequently... but the quality of the food was very inconsistent, and the prices are astronomical. The last straw came when I ordered huevos rancheros and got a pile of unseasoned canned black beans and white rice with eggs on top and a teaspoon of bland salsa. It was so nasty I sent it back to the kitchen...and still got charged the $12.95 or however much it cost. It's just not worth it, especially when you factor in the long waits for a table.

I'm excited to try a new option Mothers' Day weekend-- Caiola's is opening for weekend brunch! It will be wonderful, I'm sure, and once the sun warms us up again we'll be able to sit outside on their lovely patio. When I was growing up the West End Cafe was in that location and I loved going to brunch there with my parents.

The one restaurant that developed my love of brunch, though, was the Magic Muffin on Congress Street. When I was in high school I'd go there with friends all the time. They had the best little glass/ceramic coffee mugs that they'd eternally fill with coffee, and the coffee cake muffins were phenomenal. It was a long time ago, but I think the special breakfast, which included 2 eggs, coffee, meat, and a giant muffin, was around $4. I loved that place. The waiters were always great to a bunch of degenerate teenagers, and let us nurse our coffees forever.

I wasn't living in Maine when it closed. I wonder what happened to it?

Edited: As I was posting this, evidently Erin was posting the results from her poll. Bad timing. Regardless, I think it's interesting that her results, and opinion, diverge so dramatically from mine. That's why there are practically as many restaurants as people in Portland, I suppose.

Edited again: The Breakfast Club (which I was not aware of and just added to the blogroll; I found them courtesty of the Portland Food Map) just re-reviewed Bintliff's.

The sun is shining, the bees are buzzing around the garden, and it's time to grill.

Around our house, there's a shamefully sexist division of labor-- Otis does all the grilling and barbecuing while I make salads and such. Or sometimes, just stand idly by and drink beer. Regardless, he is a master of the Weber, so I am happy to leave it up to him.

This being Memorial Day weekend, we were invited to our friends Jenn & Matt's for dinner last night, and were treated to some lovely jerk chicken by Matt. We and the rest of the guest brought side dishes, and without any discussion managed to overlap perfectly: Zeynep made rice salad, Trent and Rebecca made pasta salad, and I made potato salad.

Oddly, I have never made potato salad before. I'm not sure why. Partly I suppose it's because of my historic but now abandoned refusal to eat mayonnaise. But I did feel inspired yesterday and came up with this recipe. It was actually quite delicious, if I say so myself!

Made-Up Potato Salad

2 lbs potatoes, cut in cubes
2 onions, chopped or thinly sliced, whichever you prefer
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup dill relish
1/3 cup mustard (I used Otis's homemade beer mustard. It's grainy.)
1 t celery salt
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 garlic powder
s & p

1. Boil the potatoes with some salt for about 12-15 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Whisk together the mayo and the other dressing ingredients.

3. Add the onions and potatoes and stir.

We're leaving in about an hour for the cape. Too bad the weather is so dreary, but regardless I am looking forward to a wonderful 5 days of food and drink and relatives and relaxation. Evidently there is some fresh-caught cod awaiting us, thanks to a friend of my brother-in-law, and a plan for dinner out Friday night.

Mostly I'm thinking about sitting on the Baron family deck with the dog, reading a book, and eating crab dip.

When we come back I have high hopes: I am planning to do a blog redesign by the end of the summer. I'm also done with school, so I'll be back in the kitchen and posting CSA-veg-related recipes, which after all was the whole point of this project!

There's also a possibility that my friend Ravinder will become a guest writer, focusing on cocktails. If we can ever sit down and talk about how to work that!

Otis and I had a fabulous and relaxing trip to Wellfleet, which of course included lots of good food and enjoyable visits with friends and family.

We drove up late Wednesday and had a terrible time with the weather-- we arrived, starving, around 9 p.m. Happily the Wicked Oyster was still serving so we popped over there for some burgers and drinks. Our burgers were perfectly cooked, and everything was lovely except the weird drink I had, which as Otis points out, was kind of predictable, given that it had vodka, coconut, and ginger.

The next day we slept super late, and then ran down to the Bookstore Restaurant for brunch. Otis is still talking about the enormous amount of lobster that he had on his Lobster Benedict, which was a reasonable $14.95 and had at least half a pound of meat, including three claws (my favorite part). My regular benedict was creamy and tasty, and the bloody mary's were truly delicious, especially accented as they were with pepperoncini. Nice touch!

After breakfast we drove down to Eastham to visit Gramma, and then came home for a rest. When it stopped raining we set out on the short walk to town, with Zeke in tow, in an effort to get some fish for dinner. As always, Hatch's fish market didn't disappoint, with some super-fresh swordfish and, of course, my favorite crab dip. That evening Otis prepared a lovely dinner and we had a nice quiet night.

Not so much Friday night-- Otis's parents came home Friday, and took us out to dinner at the new hip spot in Wellfleet, Sol. Sol is a Hawaiian-influenced restaurant which specializes in poke, a simple raw or lightly cooked fish dish. And wow, was the food at Sol delicious! We had two types of poke, both of which were incredibly fresh and perfectly seasoned. For my entree I chose fish tacos, which were simple and delicious with an avocado crema and cilantro, served with cabbage salad and white rice on the side. Also noteworthy was Walter's entree, a pulled Kahlua pork that was tender and richly flavored. Sol is BYOB, so we had a couple of bottles of wine, and Walter brought a 1/2 pint of Jack Daniels, which he enjoyed toasting to the wonderful staff. It was quite a lovely meal, with delicious food and great company. (Besides Walter and Jane, Otis's Aunt Joan and Uncle Jim came along.)

After dinner we stopped by Mac's Shack for a drink at the bar, where Otis's old friend Ethan is a bartender. Mac's has a great outdoor seating area, in addition to an expansive menu including a raw bar and sushi.

And of course no visit to Wellfleet is complete without a visit to the Bomb Shelter. Enough said there, we had a lovely evening, and I was reminded anew about how amazing the stars can be in a sky with minimal light pollution.

The next day we enjoyed more lovely walking with the doggie, and then a nice visit from the other side of Otis's family.

All in all it was a wonderful vacation, except much too short. Driving back on Sunday we both agreed that five days is simply inadequate to become fully relaxed!

We appear to be growing a squash plant under our porch. Anyone recognize it?

EDITED to add the news that it's a pumpkin! Someone threw a partially rotted pumpkin under the porch last fall and it has bloomed into a lovely plant. I am hoping I can preserve it until we get some little pumpkins this fall.

I spent all day customizing the design portfolio for Otis's website. There are still a couple of things I would like to change but I am pretty happy with it for now. I'm still planning on redesigning this site too, but of course all of this has to happen before September when I go back to school.

We hit the Allagash fundraiser for MOFGA last Monday night and had a lovely time, visiting with our friend Katey, chatting with our buddy Sean, saying hi to Rob, and meeting some of our neighbors. Allagash donates $1 from each bottle of its Hugh Malone beef to MOFGA, plus this event raised almost $5000. Very cool!

It was also really generous of Evangeline's chef Erik Desjarlais to donate his space and his time, plus lots of delicious food, including steak frites, my favorite. The staff also helped by giving their time for free.

One of the things I love about the Portland area is how the restaurant owners and servers and everyone, really, all work together to make the community better.

There's another fundraiser from Allagash this weekend, the 23rd from 2-4 at Vignola, to benefit the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Med. If you want to go call (207) 772-1330.

He's French! He has a chin cleft! He cooks gourmet meals in his toaster oven! I give you... Eric Ripert!

Life as a student has its perks, especially if you're friends with the guy who bids on cool items at the law student auction, such as 'Dinner with the Profs." Last weekend I receive the undeniable benefit of a fabulous dinner at a gorgeous location in Topsham provided by three law professors in an undeniably gracious manner-- and I didn't even have to attend the auction, let alone do any pesky bidding or layout of funds.

Thanks Joe, for the invitation. And thanks Professors 1, 2, and 3, whose names I am withholding under the theory that they may prefer to remain anonymous.

The theme of the evening was 'Greek Grill,' inspired by one of the professors whose mother, a native Greek woman, trained him in the mysterious and wonderful ways of feta cheese and lamb. And boy, was everything delicious-- although I do have to admit I didn't eat the lamb, since it doesn't agree with me. The other 4 students Joe invited seemed to adore it (Joe himself is a chicken-a-tarian).

The rest of the meal included:

- a unique and delicious salad made with sheep's milk feta. The whole point of this salad was to 'overdress' the greens so that they became somewhat limp. It sounds odd but it was truly wonderful.

- mixed grilled vegetables. very tasty. (OK, there's a point after which it's impossible to wax rhapsodic about grilled vegetables. Seriously, they were very good. But what more can I say about them?)

- a truly glorious pan of spanakopita. [beware of Greek music.] This is one of my favorite foods. When I worked at The Last Egyptian in Grinnell I ate the variation on it, which was prepare in phyllo triangles, every night I worked. Yum. The particular version we had last week was seriously one of the best I have ever had, including in Greece. The balance of spinach and cheese and phyllo was, quite literally, perfect.

- ice cream with an assortment of toppings, including hot fudge. Hot fudge is so delicious, I could eat it with a spoon. Instead, so as not to embarrass myself, I opted for a 1:1 ratio of coffee ice cream to hot fudge.

So, thanks to the professors for delicious food and wonderful company, and to Joe for the invite, and to the other students for being fabulous as well, just on general principles. Opa.

As I lazed on the couch last night, half-watching The Replacement Killers and half-reading National Geographic, I was surprised to learn that many grocery stores will soon unveil an implementation of a 100-point scale for assessing the nutritional quality of foods, in yet another effort to get recalcitrant Americans to eat better.

This scale, called the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (patent pending), supposedly takes 30+ different factors into account in its calculations, including positive items like nutrients, and negative aspects such as high sodium. The theory behind this system is that it will enable the "average" consumer (verbiage from the ONQI website) to better assess the myriad of (supposedly) overwhelming items available in the supermarket.

I was certainly surprised to learn that a fried egg scores an 18, just under instant chocolate pudding at 20. Or that sodium-free club soda scores a 56. (Is that even a food?)

Although I'm sure the developers of this scale mean well, I simply don't see that this new approach will be any more helpful to decreasing American obesity or increasing healthy eating than any of the other food crazes that have swept our country. Moreover, this supposedly simple scale is utterly confusing, given some of the ratings (condensed split-pea soup, with ham-- 32; whole chicken with skin--28. Maybe this shows my bias, but a home-cooked chicken, skin or no, is simply better for you to eat than a can of industrially processed peas,pork, and salt.)

The fact is, the best lesson for anyone looking to eat better is simple: eat from the edges of the supermarket (produce, dairy, meat) and avoid processed or packaged foods.

Unfortunately, I guess, that's not patentable.

Or, in the immortal words of Michael Pollan: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I'm afraid this semester has come swinging at me like a ton of bricks, affecting my ability to feed myself, let alone write amusing and pithy blog entries. Regardless, I do feel like I am finally catching up, as I sloooowly develop a thesis for my Comment (think legal research, but hopefully more perky than usual) and getting used to 7-day weeks. No complaints, though, really-- when possible we've been having a blast, spending time with our friends Seth and Jenner who just moved up to our lovely home from the wilds of Connecticut, and hanging with my mom who similarly found a (retirement, in her case) haven away from Boston.

Last Saturday was my first totally free day since Labor Day, and Otis and I drove up to the Common Ground Fair with his parents, who came up from the Cape from the occasion. I've heard some complaints about the food, but we dined quite well, with crisp cider from Androscoggin Apple Company (full disclosure-- Allen and his family are clients of Otis's, but that does not create any bias, honest-- it's damn good cider), and burgers cooked to order by Caldwell Farms.

We also got to see a woman spinning angora yarn directly from the bunny, who didn't seem to mind, and some very talented dogs herding both sheep and ducks.

Other fun meals have involved a visit to the new location for Beale Street BBQ, which was yummy and quite generous (2.5 meals from my portion), and a tasty working lunch at Chef et. al. with my friend Stacy from USM. (Although the darned font used in the logotype still irritates me, the flatbread with chicken Caesar did win me over.)

This upcoming weekend Otis's brother and his girlfriend are coming up for the weekend, and I have high hopes for a lovely time, including lots of tasty fare...although I will probably have to abandon them on Saturday to spend some time in the library.

As I've mentioned before, I worked at Jimbo's Pizza in Grinnell Iowa for a couple of years during college. I mostly worked in the kitchen making pizza and prepping for the other stuff on the menu.

I've been nostalgic about the whole Jimbo's experience recently because there's a new group on Facebook dedicated to the restaurant. It was a really fun place to work, with lots of yummy fatty foods to enjoy; but one of my favorite flavor combos is one I've been making at home ever since-- the Angry Samoan. This was a pizza (not on the menu) invented by one of the mangers there, a riff on the Hawaiian pizza-- it featured pineapple, ham, pickled jalapenos, and crushed red pepper flakes. It's best hot with each bit dipped in a dab of ranch dressing (the ranch is one of those weird Iowa foodways I picked up in my four years there).

I used to make my own dough, but for the past few years I've taken to buying the pizza dough at the grocery store. It's really easy to make your own pie, even if you don't know how to throw. And then you can make your own ridiculously spicy pizza, and load it up with as many toppings as you like.

I have a pizza stone, which I highly recommend.

Heat the stone in a very hot oven (450+). Meanwhile, lay down some flour on a large surface. Place the dough down and punch it down into a circular shape, and then push it slightly apart with your fists. Lift it up on your two fists underneath and move around slowly, pulling your hands slowly apart but mostly letting gravity do the work. Once the stone has been in the oven for 20 minutes or so, remove it (carefully) and dust with cornmeal. Place the dough down once it is the right size. Top it with canned crushed tomatoes, shredded mozzarella, and the toppings of your choice. Put it into the oven and bake until it's slightly brown and bubbly.

In addition to the above, I love to top with crushed raw garlic and chopped onions, or sundried tomatoes and fresh spinach (in the case of spinach, put it under the cheese). Easy as pie. Heh.

Hello folks. Well, as you can see, I have been awfully industrious...redesigning the blog, scouring the city for guest bloggers, and... well, I guess that's all.

I hope you enjoy Ravinder's cocktail columns, which will be appearing periodically. He's also bringing some much-needed photography to the site. I am making a vow to start taking more photos. It might help if I had a digital camera. Hmmm, my birthday is coming up...

I'm preparing a lobster-related entry as well; now would be a good time to support the Maine lobster industry, which has been encountering some difficult times with depressed demand and thus lowered prices. Plus, lobster is yummy.

Drop me a note and let me know what you think of the new look and the new guest blogger!

PS Hold down the shift key and hit refresh if the display looks weird.

It's late November... a chill is in the air... and the student loans are running out. In honor of my hungry and fiscally challenged friends, I give you a ramen noodle recipe that is guaranteed to be warming, tasty, and most importantly, cheap.

Law School Ramen Noodles

Ingredients

1 package ramen noodles. I use Koyo Mushroom Flavor, which costs about 95 cents at Hannaford, but if you're really feeling the pinch go for one of the non-organic brands. Seeing as how ramen's not tax-deductible, even for food bloggers, I frequently hit the Hong Kong Market for cheap options as well.)
1 T peanut butter (smooth, any brand is fine. I like Teddie.)
1/6 of a lime
2-3 scallions, chopped
1 T cilantro chopped (if you have it. If not, not a big deal. The scallions are crucial though. Seriously.)
1-2 T soy sauce, to taste
Sriracha or chili garlic hot sauce, to taste (OK, fine, you can choose your own hot sauce. But what could be better than those two?)

Preparation

1. Prepare the ramen noodles according to the directions on the package.

2. Drain out almost (but not quite) all the water.

3. Add 1/2 of the sauce packet, and all of the other ingredients.

4. Stir well. If the peanut butter isn't distributing, put the pot back on the heat for 30 seconds or so to get it to melt.

5. Eat & enjoy.

I must admit that I am a serial pie crust philanderer. I'm never quite satisfied with the crust I've made in the past, and always feel the need to experiment with a new recipe, just in time for the holidays. This year, I found an overly complicated recipe that went along with another pie recipe in Saveur Magazine. Boy, was it horrible. It turned out to be the toughest pie crust I've ever had. Poor Walter, who was serving the pies at our otherwise flawless family Thanksgiving, had to saw, saw, saw just to cut off slices. Just awful.

Happily, however, the pumpkin pie filling I made was so delicious, so sublime, that it almost made up for the hideousness of the crust. I combined a few ideas and recipes I found on the web and those that were sent to me by friends, notably one recipe that featured fresh ginger. Yum.

Another fun thing to mention is that the pumpkin I used for the pie was a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, an heirloom variety that's excellent for baking, which we got from our CSA over a year ago. It's been sitting on our kitchen table ever since. I was somewhat apprehensive to use it, but once I cut it open it was clearly fresh and ready to eat. I guess that's why squashes are considered storage vegetables!

The below recipe will make enough filling for two pies. Use a store-bought crust.

Ecstatic Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

1 medium sized baking pumpkin, or 2 small [or 2 cans-- I think-- pumpkin puree]. Should be about 4 cups.
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
4 T white flour
1 t salt
4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
3/4 t ground ginger
3 T ginger, pureed or minced very fine in a garlic press (for reference, I used about 2" worth of ginger root to get that much)
2 T molasses
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
6 eggs
1 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Cut the pumpkin in half or thirds and scoop out the seeds.
3. Lightly oil a baking sheet and put the pumpkin parts on it, with the skin side up.
4. Bake for abut 40 minutes, or until the flesh is very soft.
5. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
6. Scoop out the flesh into your food processor (if you don't have one you could use a blender. You want the pumpkin to be well-pureed and smooth. I made the whole recipe in the food processor but you could easily just do the pumpkin in batches in the blender and then do the rest in a large bowl.)
7. Pulse in food processor until smooth.
8. Add the sugars, flour, and salt, and pulse until well blended.
9. Add the spices, including the ginger, and the vanilla, and pulse until well blended.
10. Add the eggs 2 at a time and pulse until well blended.
11. Transfer to a large bowl and add the cream, and stir well.

-- here's where I popped it in the refrigerator overnight and made the pie in the morning after letting the mixture come up to room temp. Or you could just proceed directly to the next step.--

12. Turn the oven up to 450 and put a baking sheet in to preheat.
13. Once up to temp, fill the pie crust ((sigh)) and place onto the sheet in the oven.
14. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temp to 350 and bake for 45ish minutes, until the center is set and it's a bit puffy.
15. Cool on a cooling rack and serve with fresh whipped cream.

Here's a photo of my father-in-law, Walter, just before his heroic pie-cutting efforts.

The past few weeks have been exhausting; finals time is here, which means my brain has been taken over by an alien reciting all of the important Commerce Clause cases in a row. Gibbons...EC Knight...Shreveport Rate Case...and no, Commerce is not Santa's argumentative little brother.

What? This is a food blog? Right. Sorry about that. Anyway, if it wasn't for Otis I would probably be eating frozen pizza for every meal, so I appreciate his efforts to feed me vegetables and stuff. However, even in the midst of studying, the holiday season is time for baking. I haven't had the time to make any of the overly complicated cookies from my Martha Stewart Holiday Cookie Magazine, but these gingerbread cupcakes were a snap to make and quite delicious. I can't say I like the lemon icing, though-- I think they would be better with a nice cream cheese frosting. They were tasty icingless, actually, and they're not too sweet, which enabled me to justify having one for breakfast. (Just like a muffin!)

I'm done with finals on Friday, which also happens to be my birthday. Wish me luck.

One of the very cool gifts we received this holiday season was an Earth Box. It's perfect, since we have essentially no land, and the dirt we do have is probably wholly saturated with lead paint. In past years we've grown a variety of herbs in pots, including mint(s), savory, and basil. But we've generally had terrible luck with hot peppers, and the hope is that the Earth Box will improve yield.

It's the dead of winter, but it's not too early to plan! We also need to figure out what to do about the "CSA situation"-- Wolf Pine is terminating Portland delivery this year, and Alfred is just too far to drive. We have a couple of options for CSA, but we've also been discussing making a commitment to visiting the farmer's market more frequently. It's a tough call.

An article in the Portland Press Herald today shows how many people misunderstand how to eat inexpensively. Granted, the current hard economic times warrant a lot of cutting back-- but when that is equated with buying pancake mix, Spam, Kool-Aid and Velveeta, we have a problem. The couple pictured are purchasing what appears to be nothing but cans and boxes of food. And who can blame them? This is what has been taught to Americans as "cheap eats." I remember in my home ec class in the 7th grade being taught to cook with canned biscuits and other prepared foods, which I found utterly baffling (and yet somewhat enthralling as a kid unused to such "glamorous" foods!) since I had been taught to cook years before with fresh ingredients. And then there's Sandra Lee and her horrific semi-homemade cult.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using frozen green beans instead of fresh, but in general cooking from scratch is significantly cheaper than buying boxes of crap, period. A box of pancake mix costs more per serving than buying a bag of flour, a tin of baking powder, and a dozen eggs. And, the same ingredients can be used for scrambled eggs, fried eggs, quiche, biscuits, etc...

Amy Preston, interviewed at the end of the article, has the right idea. Grow what you can, buy in bulk, and buy or trade locally. Instead of a steak, buy cheap stew beef and Maine potatoes, and you can eat many meals. Chicken thighs are delicious, and really inexpensive! Go to the winter farmer's market and buy root vegetables-- they are inexpensive and stretch a long way.

Shop the sales-- on Sunday I roasted the last of the whole chickens I bought for 99 cents a pound earlier this year and froze, with some delicious red potatoes from Houlton. The whole dish cost about $15, including the dried porcini mushrooms I added to the gravy, the sprigs of fresh thyme, and the salad. And it made two meals for two people. That's significantly cheaper than McDonald's and a world away in terms of value and nutrition.

I don't want to be on my high horse, because I don't blame those folks pictured and the millions of other Americans who are buying Velveeta to "save money" for making the choices they're making-- they just don't know any better. And I don't know whose fault that is. But as a society or a culture or a country, or whatever we are, we have got to do something about it.

You Know You've Arrived When...

You're an option in the Portland Phoenix "Best Of" poll!

Vote for Accidental Vegetables as Best Food Blog!

So, unless you've been living underneath a foodie rock, you're probably aware that March 1-10 is Maine Restaurant Week (or Maine Restaurant Ten Days if you want to get pedantic.)

I'm going to be in France for most of the week (whoo hooo! you may expect much rejoicing over omelets and salads with goat cheese upon my return), so I won't be attending. BUT if I was here and ready to party like it's 1999 I would go to the Maine Mead Works event at Local 188 on March 3-- for $22.50 you'll get yummy Spanish food prepared by Jay Villani, Local's chef, and delish honey wine from the Mead Works boys.

Check it out!

March 3, 2009 | Tuesday | "Mead Me @ Local 188"
4:30pm-6:00pm | $22.50
At Local 188, 685 Congress St., Portland
No one under 21 years old will be admitted.

I returned on Sunday night from a lovely week in France. We visited Paris, Le Mans, Nantes, and Rennes. I'm utterly jet-lagged and exhausted, and I have a cold. Bleh.

But it was all worth it.

I promise I will write more later. For now, I'll share that one of my favorite things about French food is its simplicity and the stellar quality of the ingredients. The photo below is a salad I had in a random brasserie in Paris-- it had greens, including radicchio and frisee, tomatoes and cucumbers, fried potatoes, warm chevre, and a perfect country ham. Simply delicious.

When I am feeling better I'll put together a more comprehensive report.

It was very nice of the Portland Phoenix folks to nominate me for best food blog. If you are so inclined, vote for me!

In other news, I am still sickly. Now I have a fever. It's affecting my dining proclivities terribly-- Otis's parents are here visiting for the weekend and he made seared sirloin with a red wine reduction and my favorite brussels sprout salad and I couldn't even stay awake long enough to eat it. I had some Maine shrimp ceviche and smoked bluefish, a couple of girl scout cookies, and went to bed by 8.

So, please be patient with my slowness in providing an update on my French dining!

Perhaps it was the grey, overcast skies, or the chill in the air yesterday, but I suddenly had the urge to make Jamaican Beef Patties. (Perhaps I was secretly nostalgic about my years at Sweetwater's in the 90s?)

Anyway, these are a curry-tasty treat that's basically a turnover. Very easy to make-- don't be thrown off that you have to make dough, it's a very simple recipe!

Semi-Authentic Jamaican Beef Patties

Ingredients

-- for the dough --
2 c flour
1 t curry powder
1 t turmeric
1/4 t salt
1/4 cup butter (cold, cut in pieces)
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 c ice-cold water

--for the filling --
1 medium onion, chopped fine (you can also add scallion in addition or instead)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground beef
1/2 t salt
1/2 t curry powder
1/2 t turmeric
1/2 t ground allspice
1/2 t dried crushed thyme
1/2 t ground black pepper
1 t ground aleppo or other hot pepper (I would like to note here that you should probably use a fresh scotch bonnet and add it to the onion mixture at the front end. However, I have a lot of aleppo that I got as a Christmas present so I am trying to use it!)
Chopped parsley, if you like green stuff
1/3 c beef stock
1/4-1/3 c panko breadcrumbs (or other breadcrumbs without seasoning)

Also, 1 egg, beaten, for assembly.

To Prepare

Make the dough:

1. Whirl the dry ingredients in your food processor to mix.
2. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until crumbly.
3. Add the ice water and pulse until mixed. (Will still appear somewhat crumbly.)
4. Turn onto floured surface and press to mix together, then roll out to about 1/8" thick.
5. Let rest until the filling is done.

Make the filling:

1. Add the chopped onion and garlic to a hot pan with some fat (1 T butter, whatever)-- fry at medium-high until soft. Don't brown.
2. Add the beef and spices through the parsley (if you're using it)and mix well; allow beef to brown slightly on the outside.
3. Add the bread crumbs and stock and mix well.
4. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, until reduced to the point where there is just a small amount of "sauce."
5. Remove from heat and set aside for 15 or so minutes to cool. Now might be a good time to open a beer.

Assemble:

Preheat oven to 375 and cover baking sheet with parchment paper (or silpat).

1. Cut a piece of dough into an about 6" circular piece.
2. Put about 1/4 c filling onto the middle. Brush edges with beaten egg, and close up.
3. Use a fork to close the edges.
4. Brush the outside with beaten egg.
5. Repeat.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes, until outsides are slightly brown.

I have to admit, it is very hard to get the dough into the right size, and the right amount of filling, so as not to have the patties leak a little, or have too much dough at the edges. I also didn't really cut circles, more like ovals. It doesn't really matter, honestly, so don't stress. You can see from my photo:

Serve these with some hot sauce. They're also good with beans and rice on the side. I made salad.

Sometimes I realize it's ridiculous that we subscribe to Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, and Saveur. And sometimes I wonder if it might be time to add an additional food magazine to the arsenal...

It's not like we frequently actually use the recipes-- but there's something so wonderful and calming about sitting down on the couch to learn about which brand of canned tomatoes is the tastiest (Muir Glen, according to Cook's Illustrated) or how to make authentic Hawaiian poi.

I've learned my lesson about trying to implement new pie crust recipes, though.

The holiday weekend has come and gone; the leftovers are eaten; and it's now time for me to start studying for finals.

Overall we had a fabulous (and delicious!) Passover and Easter. Saturday night we dined with the Melnick family, and enjoyed a seriously abridged seder. My favorite part was singing "Dayenu" and clapping, which completely freaked out their adorable Newfoundland so that he started barking along. Very cute.

Otis and I brought a faux chopped liver, which is essentially a veggie pate that visually mimics chopped liver, but (thankfully, to me at least) doesn't taste like it.

On Sunday we enjoyed another wonderful meal hosted by Leslie. The group was amazing, and the food was fabulous. The babies are all grown up-- welll, at least walking around and not really interested in being held-- but happily there are now smaller babies to hold, although the minute I got hold of Bea she started crying. Sorry I forgot to take photos!

There was also a lovely family with the most adorably hip pre-teen boys-- one of them modestly told us that he met David Bowie! So cool.

I made a very complicated but insanely delicious potato kugel recipe-- except I used non-dairy spread instead of schmaltz for kosher-related reasons. I really cannot say enough about the recipe-- everyone loved it. A++++ I would make again!

Here's the veggie chopped liver. It's a little different from the one my friend Jamie makes.

Faux Chopped Liver

Olive oil
3 large onions, chopped medium
3 cloves garlic
1 cup green beans
1 large can lentils, drained
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 matzah
2-3 t salt (depending on saltiness of can of lentils)
1-2 t black pepepr
2 hard boiled eggs
Splash balsamic vinegar (I swear!)

1. heat the oil in a pan; fry the onions and garlic until soft and light brown.
2. In the meantime, steam the green beans until soft but not too soft. (You'll know it when you see it.)
3. Place the matzah in the food processor with chopping blade and pulse to break up.
4. Add the green beans, onion & garlic mixture, lentils, walnuts, salt & pepper.
5. Pulse until well chopped. How chopped will be your preference.
6. Turn into large bowl. Add splash balsamic to taste to bring up acidity. (Seriously, just a little. You won't taste the balsamic, it will just heighten the dimension of the flavors.)
7. Chop the hard-boiled egg and fold in.

Enjoy!

Rob Evans from Hugo's was named the Best Chef in the Northeast at last night's James Beard Awards.

So, it's Otis and my wedding anniversary this weekend, and we're having a difficult time deciding where to go for dinner. So, my loyal readers... where should we go?

Wow, it's hard to get back on this horse (or whatever the saying is)... I've been thinking a lot about what to say here.

When I was growing up, family meals and food were an important part of our lives. I don't remember a time when I didn't hang out in the kitchen with my parents and help them prepare dinner. There was always some miraculous alchemy in cooking that appealed to my artistic side, I think... and then something about writing down a recipe to preserve it was sort of scientific.

My mom had among her things decades worth of recipes clipped out from magazines and newspapers, some of which I don't remember her or my dad ever making, and some which one of them made over and over. She also had a copy of the first recipe I ever wrote down, when I was about 7-- it is for Lo Mein. My dad was really into cooking Chinese food when I was growing up, and I must have been inspired by that.

I was always a bit of a picky eater as a kid... never really liked fruit, didn't start to eat fish or seafood until I was 11 or 12 (I think it was a result of my revulsion with canned tuna, which I still maintain to this day-- Otis only eats it when I am out of the house, which is sweet of him), hated fat on meat. Instead of making special meals for me my parents would just push me off into the kitchen to cook for myself, which I think was a great model.

We ate a lot of hippie and vegetarian food when I was growing up, which was great (although my dad cooked more meat than we would probably have eaten if my mom was exclusively in charge of cooking). My mom went through lots of different experimental phases, including macrobiotic, make-your-own-yogurt, only whole grains, and much more. But regardless she was always fundamentally into the idea that food is more than simply something you eat... it's inherently important, and transformative.

My mom loved to bake bread from the Tassajara Bread Book, and I would stand on a stool and help her knead on the counter. And of course I helped her make her famous quiche (included here), which I made a week or so before she died... I brought her a piece while she was staying in hospice. She didn't have much of an appetite but she wolfed down the whole slice and then told me it had too much garlic in it.

Anyway, this is coming out as a whole bunch of babbling, but my point has been, thanks, Mom, for refusing to bring me up on crap fast food and boxed meals. Learning to cook as a kid, and appreciating what really good food is, was an amazing gift.

(Also thanks Dad. Especially for bringing your love for Asian flavors to the conversation.)

Otis and I bid a fond farewell to our fiscal year 2009 pig on Sunday, with a delicious sendoff of pork roast barbecued on the grill with a Cuban-style mojo, yellow rice and black beans, tostones, and the richest chocolate pudding in the world for dessert. It really was simply phenomenal. Joe and Jon came over for dinner, and contributed a really large amount of wine and their winning personalities, as always.

It was really a wonderful meal. The recipe for the pork came from Cook's Illustrated... the pork was brined overnight and then rubbed, and then cooked on the grill for about 6 hours. I made the tostones, which are super easy, just google any recipe. The most important thing is to make sure the plantains are not ripe... they should taste much more starchy than sweet. Sprinkle with a fair amount of salt; I like to add some hot pepper powder (I used the aleppo pepper we have in the pantry).

This upcoming weekend we're picking up our fiscal year 2010 pig from Alder Brook Farm up in Athens. Last year we got 1/8 of a cow and 1/2 of a pig, and discovered that we appreciated the pork so much more than the beef that we're just getting the 1/2 pig. This round will include all sorts of the funny bits so Otis and do his curing and smoking thing... for example he is planning some guanciale with the jowls.

Now that we're moving into the later fall (even though it doesn't feel like it-- we're expecting record high temps today, in the mid 60s!), Sunday will probably be our last grilling day. But we have lots of roasting and braising indoors to look forward to... including all of the delicious traditional holiday meals. I love those heritage turkeys, and homemade stuffing, and my mother-in-law's delicious cranberry-horseradish sauce. Mmmm.

But for now, I am just going to appreciate the unseasonably warm weather and the anticipation of a freezer newly filled with pork.

Hi all! Wow, what a fall. I've been, quite simply, exhausted. Now that my finals are over I have a little more room to breathe, thankfully.

Over the weekend I got to a little of the holiday prep I've been dreaming of... in this case, I made some lovely jars of pecans to give as gifts. This was the first time I made these-- I cobbled together some recipes I found online with my own ideas, and they came out great. Be careful, they are kind of addictive.

Candied and Spiced Pecans

Ingredients

4 cups raw pecans
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 t salt
1 t ground cumin
1 1/2 t ground aleppo pepper
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
ground chipotle pepper, to taste (I used about 1/4 t in deference to those who don't like spicy, like Otis's grandmother)

Preparation

1. Mix the nuts, maple syrup, and brown sugar together in a large cast iron pan over medium high heat on the stove. Stir constantly as the sugars melt and cover the nuts.

2. After about two minutes, add the spices, stirring constantly.

3. Continue stirring over medium high heat for about 6 minutes.

4. Spread onto prepared sheets of wax or parchment paper and let cool completely before placing in bags or jars.