As I mentioned last post my friends and I, who gather weekly to share a meal, decided to add some flair to the get-togethers by creating a themed menu around periods in history. Though I hope we can skip out of order later and do a Colonial meal, as well as a Southern Civil War Era one, we began with the first decade of the 1900s. The menu choices were to be inspired by our personal heritages since that period in US history was the age of immigration and we chose Ellis Island as our theme.

So we had German, Irish, Italian, Jewish and Polish all represented in various mixes among us and here is the menu we served; once you read it you will see what I mean about the too many cooks because there was much too much food and way too many carbs, but perhaps that is my 21st Century sensibilities talking.

Drinks: German Beer, Italian Wine

Appetizers: Polish Kielbassa & German Knockwurst served with German Pretzels in a honey mustard dipping sauce. Italian Pizza Rustica, Irish Dubliner Cheese with crackers, Italian Olives

First Course: Jewish Matzoh Ball Soup

Main Course: Irish Shepards Pie, Tossed Green Salad w/ Italian Vinaigrette

Desserts: Jewish Chocolate & Raspberry-filled Rugalah, German Almond Pastry Puffs, Apple Kugel, and Raspberry Tart, and 2 boxes of assorted purchased Italian bakery cookies.

That doesn’t include the hot wings and fried chicken cutlets we also served to the children because they turned their noses up at our fare. So you can imagine the kitchen, every square inch covered in food. If you were one of the 3 people who actually logged in to our live streaming web broadcast you don’t have to imagine!

Anyway, we are going to do this again in spite of the “are you insane?” look I got from my husband last week when he heard it was a “themed dinner”. It will probably be in 2 weeks we’ll do the second decade of the 19th century, the theme being World War I. This time I am hoping we plan a tighter, more contained and less random menu. I have some of my cookbooks and old magazines out looking for popular drinks of the period and researching what foods were rationed because of the war. A book I discovered on my shelves, Vintage Cocktails: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations from 1920-1960,says that in 1914 “As World War I rages, the Martini is America’s number-one cocktail, known throughout the world as the symbol of all things civilized.”

So there you go. Perhaps I’ll pack an overnight bag for this one since we might be drinking martinis. You may want to tune in to the live streaming broadcast.

What is this of which I speak? They decided to each week choose a different decade and plan a meal around the food popular during that time period, and somehow it morphed to also include the drinks of the period and the clothing. I personally think our friend Grace simply wanted an excuse to dress up, but whatever, it’s happening.

Tomorrow we begin with the turn of the century. The age of immigration in this great country of ours when the huddled masses poured through Ellis Island carrying with them their meager belongings, whatever name the overworked immigration official bestowed upon them, and the foods native to their homeland.

This project has taken on a life of its own and tomorrow I’ll be cooking and I suppose looking for some sort of babushka to wear. We’re hoping to get a live cam up and running in the coming weeks so fans can join us for our weekly culinary travels through time. Hell, if nothing else, it should be entertaining!

The clams are barely an hour old when we’d bring them back to the house and throw them in the closed shells on a hot BBQ grill rack. They cook only until they open up, then you take them in hand, shoot just a dash of hot sauce and eat them, all hot and tasty good, right out of the shells. No utensils, no plates. Add an icy cold beer to cool the fire of the hot sauce and you’ve got all you need.

Of course, for the catching this year, since clamming began at low tide which was 8 in the morning, we indulged in Mimosas made right on the boat out of Prosecco and orange juice.

This year we did something a little different. Since we had a professional chef with us, he insisted we not use the bounty up for our little grilling/drinking party. Instead, he brought the clams back to our rental’s kitchen and turned them into incredible home made chowder on the first night, so light and tasty people went back for third helpings. Then on the next night, the rest were made into Linguini and Clam Sauce, with tons of garlic, good olive oil and fresh parsley.

Another summer’s Rhode Island vacation has come and gone, but the memories will last forever and next year we’ll be back. Clams, look out!

There’s this guy in a truck I stumbled upon a few years ago. He starts up the smoker in the morning, fills it full of ribs, drives to a parking lot and sits there. When the ribs are properly smoked, he’s open for business. When they’re gone, he’s done for the day. Incredible food and I was happy to find him parked along the road. Extra nice in this day of chain restaurants churning out mass amounts of cookie-cutter food.

Today I was equally as lucky. I stumbled upon a new BBQ place literally in a hole in the wall. The Round Up Texas Texas BBQ is on Rt. 9 in Cold Spring (Putnam County, NY) and is stuck in a parking lot behind Old Post Hardware. If there wasn’t a sign along the road (and smoke billowing out of the smoker) we would have never seen it.

The atmosphere is wooden picnic tables with rolls of paper towels on them, longhorns and indian blankets on the walls, and one huge flatscreen TV tuned to golf, but you are not there for the atmosphere, believe me. You are there for the brisket smoked 18 hours and the fall-off-the-bone ribs. An hour later I can still taste the smokey flavor in the back of my throat. It’s rare to have food that sticks with you–in a good way. The chicken was good (the skin was the best part). The spicy sausage was also good. But the stars were the brisket and ribs in my opinion, along with some wonderful and surprisingly spicy mac and cheese.

Places like that are few and far between in a world populated with Outback Steakhouses and Applebees. I’m making it my personal mission to make sure the little guys stick around.

About a week ago the unthinkable happened. Something that changed the lives of those left behind forever. Two days ago, it happened again. Today, I asked my deployed friend what I could do for him and the platoon. He jokingly said he could use a hug, which of course, half a world away I couldn’t provide. Then he said, “Vienna Sausages. That’s what the guy sitting next to me wants.” I said okay. Anything else? “I’d love a jar of sliced jalepenos. Oh, and maybe some of that Chef Boyardee Ravioli. And chips.”

I guess it’s the simple things in life, the familiar, that we cling to at the most trying times like this. At first you simply go through the motions and try to remember to keep breathing. Exhaustion takes over and your body eventually remembers how to sleep again. And then one day, food becomes more than just a necessity and you find yourself actually hungry again, and craving the things that remind you of better times.

So tomorrow I will go to the grocery store and I will buy vienna sausage, and sliced jalepenos, and canned ravioli and chips, and I will shove as many as I can into a flat rate Priority Mail box because I can’t send a hug through the mail, but perhaps I can send a little comfort, even if it’s only comfort food.

Yes, I’ve been to the farm stands that line Long Island’s Rt. 27 on the drive out to Montauk. But somehow a farm stand and a farmers market are different. I learned that last Thursday when I met my friend at the one in her town. She’s lived there close to 15 years and this is the first I’ve heard of a farmers market taking over the library parking lot in the middle of Armonk, NY supposedly every Thursday of the summer from 3-5 PM. Is it new? Somehow I doubt it. I think it just hit our radar finally now that she is a health nut and is eating all things natural, or organic, or pesticide-free, or whatever you want to call it.

I have to say this, it was an experience and I feel healthier for simply having been there. There was pretty much anything you could want, from fresh fruit and vegetables, to fresh-baked sweets, local wine, honey and even products made from fresh herbs such as lavender sachets. Every booth offered not only nature’s bounties, but also some pretty nice looking, strapping young farm hands peddling their wares–that was a pleasant surprise, I can tell you.

We walked out with the largest head of cauliflower either one of us had ever seen. It must have been the size of a basketball, but after roasting it with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper in the oven, we devoured almost every last ounce. The sunflower sprouts purchased dressed up the garden’s yield of arugula nicely. And the olive and sun-dried tomato tapenade made an excellent appetizer when served with Brie cheese and crackers. For dessert we had ginger cookies sold by Big Girl Baked Goods. Good cookies but worth buying just for the name alone.

All in all I would say a successful trip and one I will happily repeat. Donna now hits a few different farmers markets a week in our area since apparently they travel and set up in different towns each day of the week. With our reusable shopping bag, buying locally grown produce from small farmers rather than supporting the big chain stores with imported goods that travel thousands of miles in big, gas-guzzling, carbon-emitting trucks, I really felt like I was doing something good, on top of getting the freshest possible produce, grown without hormones or chemicals. They also freely and happily give out samples of the food.

So find a farmers market near you, grab a nice rattan or canvas bag and some cash and make an event of it.  The one we went to even had live music–a singer on guitar. And the hot farmers were pretty nice too.

Until next time, happy marketing.

Cat

I’ve gone through life very happily with my eyes closed, simply selecting something off the grocery store shelf that promised tasty goodness on my tongue without much thought past the pretty picture on the package. I am of the Red Dye #2 generation, where we children saw the complete disappearance of red M&Ms for years because someone, somewhere had decided they would give us cancer. I didn’t much care–the green ones were my favorite anyway.

Yet there I was this morning, whipping up a bowl of 1% milk with the powdered contents of a package of sugar free, instant, artificially-flavored pistachio pudding and as the powder hit the milk, and my whisk hit the powder, it all turned into what looked like an unappetizing bowl full of leprechaun semen. I immediately looked to the packaging and, ridiculously so I know, was shocked to see right on the front the words “artificially flavored”. No kidding! How about “artificially colored”?

I’ve made this name brand dessert many times over the years and I’ve never thought twice about it, but as I’ve said, I’ve been ruined by my friend who is on a new health kick and has forced us all to re-examine our eating habits. Some changes I’ve found easy. Things like using my stainless steel water bottle instead of plastic bottles, or microwaving leftovers only in glass rather than in used, plastic, chinese take-out containers. Other changes I am finding incredibly difficult. I haven’t enjoyed a cup of coffee since she convinced me to give up my artificial sweetener and powdered creamer. I’ve tried half and half, heated and frothed milk, soy milk, sugar, agave, and all combinations in between and I’m still not happy. The worst part is, when I gave up and tried to go back to my old ways, that now tastes funny to me too. Maybe I need to switch to tea…

Anyway, I have no answers for you, only whining. Sorry, my only excuse is that it is early in the morning, my coffee tastes like crap and I have leprechaun sperm in my fridge. Maybe it’s time to get back to the past. The days when my father would harvest his homegrown vegetables (fertilized only with manure and compost) and my mother would preserve them in Ball jars for the winter. When we had our own chickens who roamed the yard eating bugs and laying fresh eggs. I’m not talking Colonial times (I’m only 43 years old after all). This was a decade or two ago. How have things changed so quickly? Maybe it’s time we considered changing back.

Cat

OPERATION BBQ FOR THE TROOPS -Watch the Video on FoodNetwork

Watch barbecuing US Marine style in this Food Network video.

JARHEAD RED WINE

Jarhead Jarhead Red is a wine made by Marines on Californiaís Central Coast. It offers flavors of plum, cassis and black currant with fine tannins on the finish. It is aged in French oak barrels for eight months. Net proceeds from the sale of the wine benefit the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which provides educational assistance to children of U.S. Marines, with special attention given to children of fallen Marines. For more information on the foundation, please visit www.mcsf.org. Visit www.jarheadred.com for more fun facts, info and ordering information.

So I got Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child for Christmas. It’s 684 pages, not counting all the index pages in the back which are numbered with Roman numerals that I can’t decipher because I went to public school. This tome weighs a good ten pounds and though I far outweigh it, it is intimidating the hell out of me.

It’s my own fault, really. When my mother called from the bookstore weeks ago and asked if I would like it for Christmas I said yes. Why? Because I love a good story and the story that surrounds this book of late is a great one.

Julie Powell back in August of 2002 decided to not only cook her way through this book, all 536 recipes in 365 days while holding down a real job, but also to blog about it in what she named ‘The Julie/Julia Project”. But that isn’t the story that gets me, it’s what happens next. She turned that year-long blog into a book, and that book became the Meryl Streep, Amy Adams movie “Julie & Julia” that everyone is talking about. Being a writer, publication stories like that fascinate me. So much so I have googled my tushy off and found the original 2002 blog, and I am reading my way through it, day by day, and totally enjoying it.

Julie is normal. She screws up the recipes, and then tells us about how when that happens, she just adds more butter and cream to try and fix it. She drops the f-word liberally, as anyone would while taking on such a monumental challenge. She calls it like she sees it, wondering at the craziness around her, such as the raw food movement that hits during her cooking experiment, or that she couldn’t find swiss cheese in her regular food store in Brooklyn but she could buy imported Fontina.

I anticipate I will enjoy her real-life blog musings far more than what I am sure is a sanitized for mainstream publishing, edited version that hit the bookshelves. She already hinted at that in the comment that the book title (Julie & Julia) is boring, the result of an editorial battle lost. And don’t we authors know all about that–choose your battles.

No, I have no plans what so ever in this lifetime to repeat Julie’s project, but I do hope to challenge myself with a few of these recipes. Looking through the book, the first thing to cross my mind was how outdated it seemed to my modern cook’s eye. I learned to cook during the dawn of olive oil, and microwaves. Julia Child wrote this book in 1961, and it is more than obvious her two favorite ingredients are butter and heavy cream.

Yet a lot of what Julia Child writes makes sense, such as when she warns against the temptation to use the food processor to blend your potato leek soup. She’s right, that one appliance means the difference between what ends up being more like runny mashed potatoes rather than a hearty soup where the potatoes and leeks are still recognizable.

I suppose if I take away a few techniques and basics, it will only help me in everything I cook. If nothing else, it will be a lesson in humility. Let’s just hope I am strong enough to withstand such a lesson. I have to wonder about that as I ignore daily the container full of cookies that I screwed up but still refuse to throw away. Who I think is going to eat them is beyond me, they taste bad and look worse, but there they sit, waiting on the counter. Perhaps humility is what both Julie and Julia are meant to teach me.

I will keep you informed of both the failures and the successes.

Humbly,

Cat

Being Italian/Catholic, Donna’s family does it up big, with the meal of the 7 Fishes and all. Sigh, now I need to go Google the significance of the 7 fishes…hang on…okay, looks like you can’t eat meat so you had to eat fish, and the reason for the 7 is not confirmed but it could relate to the 7 days of creation or possibly the number of Sacraments. Thank you, Wikipedia. Moving on…

Anyway, the trip to Arthur Avenue signals I have very little time to finish my gift shopping. Yes, that was a confession, I’m not done yet. Luckily I am down to just a few gift certificates and a quick trip to the liquor store and I will be done, but for those of you in a tighter bind, here are a few suggestions of some of my favorite gifts to give.

FOOD- Who doesn’t love a big basket packed full with tasty treats? And unlike the unattractive sweater that you have to wear or risk insulting the giver, food gifts can be easily eaten, donated, or re-gifted at one of the many holiday parties you’ll be attending. I personally like a theme. I’ve put together a ’spicy’ basket with various fun hot sauces, chocolates I found online that contained hot pepper, and even beer made with chili peppers. Throw in an attractive bottle opener, perhaps a tree ornament or cute cocktail napkins or bowl and Viola! Fun, unique, done! With not much time left for shipping, you procrastinators will have to go to a local gourmet shop or beer importer and buy your basket purchases there.

BOOKS- I’m an author, of course I love books and bookstores are open late during this season and the larger chains even email you 30% off coupons if you sign up. Children on my list have gotten the Eloise books since I LOVE The Plaza Hotel in NY. My nieces have also received a fun book I found “Auntie Claus” about a child who finds out her aunt is Santa. For adults, cookbooks are fun. Amy’s Fork Me, Spoon Me Aphrodisiac cookbook is a great gift, wrapped up with a serving fork and spoon perhaps?

WINE – It’s no secret I buy wine by the name and the label. I’ve gifted wines by the name of Bitch, Fat Bastard, Il Bastardo, Menage e Trios, Old Fart, Seven Deadly Zins, Daddy’s Day Off, Mad Housewife, even Big House (with a sketch of a prison on the label for my lawyer friend)… you get the picture.

Use your imagination, connect it specifically to the person you’re giving it to and wrap it attractively, and even a last minute gift won’t look like it.

As I plot out my day and its errands, I wish you all a wonderful holiday.

Cat

]]> http://eatsomethingsexy.com/blogs/catjohnson/2009/12/22/tis-the-season/feed/ 2