Revel & Feast

Almost Thanksgiving. Time to Bake Pies.

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:12:00 +0000

Last week, Avery said she wanted to bake Nutella and cherry handpies for Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house. So here she is, happy with her culinary handiwork and quite pleased to be contributing to the family feast we will enjoy tomorrow. She hardly even needed my help to put it all together. The process was so easy that it feels silly to write a recipe because while setting up the baking station for Ave, I cut corners, cheated and did not make everything from scratch. And I don't feel bad about that at all.

Here's what we did.

I bought 3 packages of Jiffy pie crust mix (whatevs, pie crust purists, I'm a busy working mom and I was tired) and prepared it according to the directions. Hint: use ice water not regular cold water like the package suggests. Oh, and mix one package at a time, not all at once. Then I rolled each portion of dough into a ball, wrapped in plastic and chilled for an hour. And by all means, feel free to skip this step by buying completely premade pie crust. Looking back, I wish I had done that. Jiffy is cheap and easy but the dough stuck to my rolling pin and required some care in rolling out to minimize breakage and to achieve even thickness.

Meanwhile...

She wanted cherries but the store was sold out so I got one pound of frozen strawberries instead and thawed them in the microwave. I threw them in a pan with a big spoonful of sugar, a smaller spoonful of cornstarch and a big splash of water. The berries simmered until softened and the liquid thickened. Then I lightly smooshed the whole berries with the back of a spoon before setting aside to cool while I worked on the dough.

I dusted the counter with flour and rolled out the dough to 1/4" thickness. We used two sizes of round cookie cutters- 3" and 6". (I am totally visually guesstimating the size of the cutters, I might be off by a half inch but no worries.) We had enough dough to make eight 3"ish pies and twelve 6"ish pies. So that would be sixteen 3"ish rounds and twenty four 6"ish rounds of dough you need to cut out.

So then Avery took one round of dough, spread a spoonful of Nutella on that bad boy and topped it off with a spoonful of strawberries before pressing another round of down on top. She used a fork to crimp the edges shut. Some of the strawberry liquid seeped out but no matter- it caramelizes on the edges during baking and makes the pies look like they were made by a human and not a machine.

She brushed them with a bit of egg beaten with water, sprinkled with turbinado sugar and baked them at 375 degrees, about 10-11 minutes for the small pies and 15-16 for the big ones. They're done when they're nicely golden brown. Like this. Yum.

We ended up having quite a bit of Nutella and about a cup and a half of strawberries leftover. But nobody every died from having Nutella and strawberries on hand so I think we're good. Hmmm.... toppings for pancakes tomorrow?

Medium Rare and Back Again

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 01:35:00 +0000

You guys. My college pal Heath Dill had the coolest idea to create a cookbook featuring recipes based on food described in the literature of J.R.R. Tolkien.

I KNOW. RIGHT?

Then Heath had a really smart idea to let other people help this dream come to life through Kickstarter. Check out his submission here. You can also watch this.

And feast your eyes on some of the dishes featured in Medium Rare and Back Again (that's the name of the cookbook). I would totally eat these.

That's some sexy looking tuna. Gollum would say it's ruined. I say it's time to get in my mouth.

Mmm halloumi. Who knew fried cheese could be so fancy? That ain't no mozzarella stick.

Pork pies! These are not the bleak, pathetic pork pies you remember Pip stealing in Great Expectations. Sorry, Dickens. These are awesome Middle Earth pork pies eaten by Bilbo Baggins!

There is a difference, trust me.

Pretty neato stuff, huh? I can't wait to get my hands on this cookbook. I sense a theme birthday party dinner in my daughter's future... She loves The Fellowship of the Ring so this could be perfect.

Oh and before I forget! Here's Heath.

Isn't he darling? I think so. Come on, ladies. You know you love a man in the kitchen. A man who reads in the kitchen.

Fired Up! Ready to Go!

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:48:00 +0000

Hoping for four more years!

Wisdom from Avery, Age 8

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My daughter Avery has a tendency to make hilarious observations about life. Her latest, in response to me saying that I was starving:

"50% of people who eat snacks enjoy a happier lifestyle."

I have no idea if this statement is factually correct but it sounds good to me.

Arugula, Fennel & Blackberry Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:41:00 +0000

We had some new friends and some old friends over for a little dinner party this past weekend. Both sets of friends are parents of our son Jakob's good friends. One set lives across the street so we see them fairly often and our sons are always running back and forth between our houses. The other set were people we would always see in passing at school concerts and the like. Matt and I are usually terrible about reaching out to other parents to hang out so, finally, after two years of saying to each other, "Aren't those people really, really nice? We should invite them to dinner." after every school event, we finally called them up and they said yes! On Saturday night, we hosted six adults and five kids (including my 7 year old daughter Avery and a 5 year old boy also named Avery) so I tried to prepare food that would appeal to a wide range of palates and ages. I thought this salad with peppery arugula and juicy blackberries in a honey vinaigrette would go over well with the kids because blackberries are delicious and honey is sugar, right? No such luck. The Averies refused and hid under the table shrieking when I suggested that maybe they could taste just one tiny lettuce leaf. Oh, well. At least everybody else raved about it so my ego wasn't too bruised.

ARUGULA, FENNEL & BLACKBERRY SALAD
adapted from this recipe
printer friendly recipe

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked white pepper
6 cups of arugula
1 fennel bulb
30 blackberries
12 chives, snipped into 1 inch pieces

Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper.

Finely slice the fennel bulb as thin as you can. (A mandoline can help with this.)

Put the fennel, arugula and chives in a large bowl. Toss with just enough of the dressing to evenly coat. Divide between six plates and garnish with five blackberries per plate.

Serves 6 as a first course or on the side

Compost Cuisine: Amazing Ways to Make Delicious Food Out of Garbage

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:34:00 +0000

Reblogged from AlterNet.com:

Chefs are taking sustainability to new heights by gazing into the depths: that is, at what would otherwise be deemed not fit to eat.

January 11, 2012 |

Photo Credit: Chad Harder

Think you're living the anti-waste life? OK then. Pop quiz:

When you eat dates, do you also eat the pits?

Trace Leighton does. As the co-owner of Origen, a "farm-to-fork" restaurant in Berkeley, California, Leighton saves date seeds, then dries them and grinds them into a paste that subtly flavors trifle and honeycake.

"They're high in protein," she says.

She also halves nectarine pits and extracts their kernels, grinding these into pastes or boiling them into delicately flavored syrups.

If milk sours in her kitchen, she bakes with it rather than pour it down the drain. Coffee left over in coffeepots at day's end? Freeze it in ice-cube trays: These babies won't dilute tomorrow's iced-coffee drinks.

Such waste-not ingenuity is part of a new movement among chefs who are taking sustainability to new heights by gazing into the depths: that is, at what would otherwise be deemed not fit to eat. While we've heard of snout-to-tail, "whole-animal" restaurateurship, the practice of creating fabulous dishes from stems, seeds, skins and other usually discarded plant parts gives "bottom of the food chain" a whole new meaning.

Sean Baker, who spearheads this movement, calls it "compost cuisine."

"When you have high respect for how things are raised and produced, you're not going to throw any parts of them away if you can help it," says Baker, who was named Esquire magazine's 2010 Chef of the Year and is the executive chef at Gather restaurant -- also in Berkeley. "If we're using the whole animal, then why not use cauliflower leaves, carrot peels, corncobs and cornsilk?"

At Gather, he turns carrot parings and lemon peel to ash in a hot oven, then uses the ash to flavor sauces and vinaigrettes. Grilled and charred cobs and tough tomato ends become highly concentrated microstock. Deep-fried cornsilk becomes a lacy, spun-sugarish garnish. Squash stems are suvéed and stuffed, canneloni-style. Baker uses watermelon in at least eight different ways -- including pickling its rind and juicing and gelling its peel.

While the many-fingered citron known as a Buddha's hand is typically used only as a decoration or for its zest, Baker pressure-cooks then purées the whole fruit to make a sauce for Dungeness crab, or flavored with pork skin, for pizza.

"It takes extra work to think and cook sustainably. It's tough, because sometimes you aren't able to use it all. I can't save every single beet top," Baker says with a sigh, "although I wish I could."

Gather's popular kale salad "blows through a hundred pounds of kale a week." Because the salad uses only leaves, "I sat down with a notepad trying to think of how to use kale stems."

Solution: Pressure-cook these tough, fibrous rods, braise them in puttanesca broth with anchovies and tomatoes, then serve them with melted burrata on toast.

"They come out almost like noodles."

At the organic farm in Ben Lomond where he buys fresh produce, "sometimes we'll be looking at something and the farmer says, 'Oh, I'm gonna compost that' -- and I say, 'No, I'm gonna cook that.'"

One day, Baker noticed that the farm's Little Gem lettuces were brilliantly, beautifully green -- but bolted. (When leafy vegetables reach the end of their growing cycle, they "bolt" up tough, tree-trunklike seed-bearing stems. Bolted lettuce is typically dismissed as too hard and bitter to eat.)

Baker surprised the farmer by buying the Little Gems.

"We marinated them, suvéed them, sliced them, then finished them on the grill. They ended up not tasting bitter at all. They looked like sushi rolls" -- and went onto Gather's vegan charcuterie plate.

At Origen, Leighton and co-owner Daniel Clayton boil fruit cores and peels into syrups to use in sodas and cocktails. Ditto fennel fronds. Bumpy Brussels-sprout ends, spinach stems and other typically discarded produce parts are boiled into stock, puréed into mousses, diced and sautéed and served au gratin.

"When they're cooked, when they break down, they've got just as much flavor" as the more favored parts of produce. "They just aren't as pretty," Leighton says.

Rather than composting bruised and overripe fruit, she uses it in sauces and spicy-sweet Southeast Asian sambals. Too-soft fuyu persimmons recently went into a butter-tequila-lime sauce, served over striped bass. Mushy tomatoes become house-made ketchup. Squash seeds go into nutty-tasting moles and pipiáns.

"I've been striving to use every little bit of everything for so long that at this point I can hardly even remember how much gets thrown away every day in other commercial kitchens. But say they cut a lime in half. They'll squeeze the juice out of half and toss the rest." By contrast, "we use the juice, the zest and even the pith for pectin."

As a foster child housed with Asian foster families, Leighton was exposed early in life to culinary traditions far less wasteful than Western ones. She learned to cut fish and meat close to the bone and use fishtails, fins and bones in broth. As for eyeballs, "I grew up knowing that people eat those, too. Western society is very rich in many ways, but with very limited resources. Yet most people still act as if our resources are unlimited. We need to wake up. We need to always be asking ourselves: How can I be creative? How can I use this and this and this?"

Sean Baker agrees. Some ideas come to him in the kitchen, others on the farm. But he's always picturing new possibilities.

"The idea is to get your brain really moving so that you can think: This is something that would have ended up in the trash or the compost pile, but now it's a sauce or a salsa or a soup."

About to toss that orange peel? Not so fast, pal.

"I have a huge problem," Baker says, "with people who don't walk the walk."

Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, most recently The Scavenger's Manifesto (Tarcher Press, 2009). Read more of Anneli's writings on scavenging at scavenging.wordpress.com.

Pork Chops with Lemon & Crispy Sage

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:17:00 +0000

This little piggy went to market.

This little piggy went home.

This little piggy jumped into my frying pan.

And I ate him up yum yum yum.

PORK CHOPS WITH LEMON & CRISPY SAGE
printer friendly recipe

4 bone-in pork chops, 1/3-1/2 pound each
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked blacked pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 sage leaves
4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1/2 cup white wine
juice of 1 lemon

Season the meat with the salt and pepper.

Melt the butter over medium high heat in a saute pan that's large enough to hold all of the pork chops in one layer. Add the sage leaves and fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Carefully remove the sage leaves to a paper towel.

Add the garlic and let cook for a few seconds, until fragrant.

Place the pork chops in the pan in one layer and brown deeply, about four minutes per side.

Add the wine, lower heat to medium, bring to a simmer and then cover for 10 minutes, until the pork is cooked through.

Place the pork chops on a platter.

Deglaze the pan with the lemon juice and reduce by a quarter.

Pour the pan sauce over the pork and garnish with the sage leaves.

Serves 4 very well.

Chopped Vegetable & Bulgur Wheat Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:09:00 +0000

After a few summers of pining away for an herb garden and completely having the means to create one but being lazy about actually doing it, we finally got our act together and planted an herb container garden on our back porch. Or rather, Matthew planted while I watched and drank cocktails. Mint, oregano, tarragon, laurel basil, Thai holy basil, parsley, chives, scallions, sage and a scotch bonnet pepper for good luck. So far, the herbs are growing nicely even though it looks like some bug is munching on the basil leaves. Should I spray the plants with something to deter bugs? I want to avoid pesticides but I also don't want to feed all the bugs in the neighborhood so there's my dilemma. Gardening tips would be appreciated.

This salad takes advantage of herbs freshly picked from the garden. You can use dried herbs if that's all you've got but it's worth the extra effort to get your hands on fresh. This tastes better the longer it sits in the fridge because the grains soak up all that herby vinaigrette. I like to take a big container with me to work for a week's worth of easy, healthy lunches.

CHOPPED VEGETABLE & BULGUR WHEAT SALAD
printer friendly recipe

1 cup bulgur wheat
1 cup hot, almost boiling water
14 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
12 stalks of raw, thin asparagus, chopped
1 shallot, minced
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 tablespoon chopped basil
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Put the bulgur wheat into a bowl large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Stir in the hot water and cover for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, shallots and salt.

Add all of the chopped vegetables to the bulgur wheat. Pour over the dressing, add the herbs and combine well.

Refrigerate for at least two hours to allow the flavors to come together. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Serves 8.

Almond Sugar Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Today is a good day to bake some cookies. Sure, it's 85 degrees outside but so what? I'm a big believer in baking year round, instead of just during the winter holiday season. On a hot summer day, nothing goes better with a tall glass of lemonade than a freshly baked cookie.

This is a basic sugar recipe that makes soft, chewy cookies. I topped them with some sliced almonds but you can put whatever nuts you like on top. Or leave them naked. Because when it's hot outside, naked might be the way to go. For you and the cookies.

ALMOND SUGAR COOKIES

printer friendly recipe

1 cup plus 1/4 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup softened unsalted butter

1 tablespoon milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

2 1/3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together one cup of the white sugar, the brown sugar and the butter until light and fluffy.

Thoroughly mix in the milk, egg and vanilla extract.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Working in thirds, stir the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture.

Chill dough for 30 minutes.

Roll slightly heaping tablespoons of the dough into balls. Roll the balls in the remaining sugar.

Place balls about two inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Press lightly with the bottom of a drinking glass to flatten a bit.

Gently press a sprinkling of the sliced almonds into the top of each cookie.

Bake for 9-11 minutes until very lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet for five minutes before transferring to wire rack. Cool completely before eating.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Salad Lyonnaise

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:28:00 +0000

And we are back after our unintended spring hiatus....

I meant to take off only a few weeks from blogging because I was really busy with a whole bunch of other stuff but somehow a few weeks turned into a few months. So here we are in June. March, April and May slipped right past me. My bad. It won't happen again.

Salad Lyonnaise is a culinary work of art that is perfect in every way. This salad is not only a personal favorite, it's also a national treasure of French bistro cooking. Originating from the city of Lyon, you can find this dish on menus all across the country. I feel so chic when I eat this salad, like I should be wearing vintage Chanel and sitting in a tucked-away cafe on a cobblestone street on the Riviera with a glass of sauvignon blanc in one hand and a small poodle named Madame FiFi in the other. The way the cool, bitter frisee and crunchy croutons contrast with the warm and gooey poached egg is divine. And the bacon...did I mention there's bacon? Big cubes of bacon called lardons fried up crisp and fatty. All coated in a tangy Dijon vinaigrette. Heaven on a plate.

SALAD LYONNAISE
printer friendly recipe

12 ounces frisee, torn into bite size pieces
4 eggs
2 teaspoons plain white vinegar or rice vinegar
4 strips of thick cut bacon
4 slices of baguette, cut into one inch cubes
2 tablespoons of butter
1 garlic clove, smashed
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Kosher salt
Freshly cracked black pepper

To make the croutons, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add the bread cubes and toast until lightly browned and crisp on the edges, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Remove to a paper towel and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.

To make the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, shallots and mustard. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare the lardons by cutting the bacon into one cubes. Fry in the same pan that you made used for the croutons, over medium high heat until crispy and deeply browned. This will take 5-7 minutes depending on how the thick the bacon is. Remove to a paper towel until ready to use. (Tip: save the bacon fat the accumulates in the pan and use it to scramble eggs or make hash browns for breakfast the next day.)

Toss the frisee, bacon and croutons with just enough salad dressing to lightly coat. Divide among four plates.

For the poached eggs, crack each egg into an individual ramekin or small bowl. Heat a shallow saucepan of water to a boil over medium high heat. The saucepan should be large enough to hold all four eggs at once. Stir in the plain white or rice vinegar and then lower heat to medium low so that the water comes to a slow simmer. Gently slide one egg at a time into the water by dipping the edge of the ramekin below the surface of the water. Use a spoon to push the egg whites around the yolk, forming an oval or ball. Do this for all four eggs as quickly as you can. Cook the eggs in the water for 4-5 minutes, or until the yolk are set the way you like them. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and gently shake off the excess water. Place one egg on top of each salad. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Bon Appetit!

PS: Watch this video for tips on how to poach an egg perfectly.

Mozzarella, Chili & Lemon Crostini

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:26:00 +0000

These little yummies from Jamie Oliver are a cinch to prepare and taste fantastic. I usually don't eat dairy but I make an exception for these crostini. They're just that good. I made a huge platter to serve as appetizers before Christmas dinner and my family gobbled them up in record speed. Don't be put off by the slivers of chili- they're not so spicy hot that you'll burn your mouth if you're not a spice lover. The mozz and lemon cool things down considerably.

Speaking of Jamie, he named his last kid Buddy Bear Maurice. BUDDY BEAR. That is a naming tragedy of epic proportions. I'm a big Jamie fan but, um, uh....what? Poor baby. His life is going to be so hard once he steps foot on a schoolyard.

MOZZARELLA, CHILI & LEMON CROSTINI
from JamieOliver.com
printer friendly recipe

8 slices ciabatta bread
1 clove garlic
extra virgin olive oil
2 small balls of buffalo mozzarella
Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
1 red chili, deseeded and finely sliced
a small handful of fresh basil leaves
1 lemon for zesting

Heat a griddle pan until it’s really smoking hot, then griddle each slice of ciabatta for a couple of minutes on each side until they are nicely charred.

Cut the garlic clove in half, rub each ciabatta slice with garlic and drizzle with a little olive oil. Tear the mozzarella evenly over the 8 crostini. Season well with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the sliced chili and basil leaves and grate over the lemon zest. Finish with another drizzle of olive oil.

Makes 8.

Super Bowl Chili

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:46:00 +0000

I'm going to try something new tonight. I'm going to watch the Super Bowl. Like actually really watch the game instead of surfing the internet or reading a magazine while the teams are on the field and then paying attention only during the commercials. This will be completely out of character for me because I am not a team sports girl. I'm not an any kind of sports girl. (With a slight exception for figure skating. What's up, Johnny Weir! I love you!) I'm definitely more Posh Spice than Sporty Spice. But I started watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix and now I can't stop. I am addicted. (Hey, Tim Riggins! I love you too!) I've watched ten episodes in the past two weeks. I have no idea what's going on in any of the scenes when the Panthers play so I've been trying to learn a bit about the game. So I guess I might like football now.

Clearly, I am no expert on football, let alone the Super Bowl. However, I do know what you want to eat during the Super Bowl. CHILI. Of that I am certain. So here's my chili recipe. I've been working on it for a while now so I hope you like it. The flavor is spicy but not hot, which makes it kid friendly.

Now, vegetarian friends, I know one of you will email and ask, "Can I make this without meat?" Here's the answer. "NO." This is a red-meaty, beefy, not low calorie and not fat free chili. If you want veggie chili, then look at this or this. If you want meat and lots of it, then stay right here.

SUPER BOWL CHILI
printer friendly recipe

3 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, diced
3 green bell peppers, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 bottle beer (I use stout but get whatever you like as long as it's not too hoppy)
2 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 guajillo chilis, soaked and chopped (buy them here)
1 14 ounce can black beans, drained
1/4 cup Ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
cilantro for garnish
shredded cheddar for garnish

Heat oil over medium in a large pot. Add the onions, pepper and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cover the pot with a lid and sweat the vegetables for ten minutes.

Turn the heat to high and add the ground beef. Brown beef completely, removing excess fat with a spoon.

Add garlic and beer. Cook off the alcohol in the beer for about five minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the cans of tomatoes, including all the liquid, the tomato paste, the chilis and the black beans.

Add all of the dry spices and cocoa and stir well

Lower heat back to medium and simmer, partially covered, for two hours. Stir occasionally.

Serve with cilantro and cheese, if desired.

Serves 10-12.

Read Up & Eat Up for January 2-8, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:29:00 +0000

Last week's best in recipes and food news on the web.

SALON
Francis Lam shows us how to make fresh yogurt in eight minutes.

80 BREAKFASTS
Nutella Croissant French Toast. Heaven on a breakfast plate.

THE BITTEN WORD
Two cute guys put their cooking magazines to good use and share their top 10 favorite recipes from 2010.

HUFFINGTON POST
Eat what all the cool kids are eating. Eating Well magazine reveals foods trends and fads for 2011. Looks like bacon's glory days are fading quickly in favor of super fruits and meatless alternatives.

***PICK OF THE WEEK***
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Rising food prices move closer to the crisis levels that provoked riots and shortages in poor countries a few years ago. Retail food prices in the United States are expected to increase 2 to 3%.

Truth Behind the Labels: How Meat Eaters Can Find Out if Their Dinner Was Really Humanely Raised | Food | AlterNet

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:36:00 +0000

EcoSalon / By Vanessa Barrington

So what does humane treatment of animals actually look like? Who defines it? And most important, if you're a meat eater, what is your personal line?

January 7, 2011

This story first appeared on EcoSalon.

A few years ago, on a tour of a small village in Vietnam, we were taken to a small farm compound, where the residents manufactured rice paper wrappers for spring rolls and raised a few farm animals for food. There were chickens clucking around and a few friendly, waddling ducks. There was also an enormous pig housed in a small, concrete enclosure.
As our group approached, the pig rose up on her hind legs, placed her front legs on the ledge of her pen, and looked us all straight in the eyes with a completely charming mixture of intelligence and humor. Without a doubt, that pig was posing. The pen was small, but clean. The pig appeared to have plenty of freedom of movement. The pig was whole, no cropped tail, no sores, nothing amiss. I can’t pretend to know if that pig was a happy pig. But from my limited human perspective, she looked contented.

Every time I think about how we raise animals for food, I think about that expressive pig. That pig represents both my deep ambivalence about eating animals and also what I think of as the ideal way to raise animals for food.

For those of us who do eat meat, who don’t raise our own animals, one at a time, or who cannot afford to pay top dollar to buy direct from a very small farm, that ideal is pretty near unattainable.

For conscious omnivores, who eat meat sparingly and thoughtfully, who avoid meat raised under conditions that we call “factory farming,” what is a reasonable level of animal welfare in farming? And how accurate are our perceptions of what constitutes “good farming”? Farming is a struggle for farmers. There is a delicate balance between the scale and methods that will allow the farmer to stay in business and earn a living, and letting the animals experience life as naturally as possible.

So what does humane treatment of animals actually look like? Who defines it? And most important, if you’re a meat eater, what is your personal line?

The Humane Society of the United States has been actively documenting the worst abuses of factory farming in a series of undercover investigations. In December, a video showing atrocities at a Smithfield pig breeding facility in Virginia was released. The pigs were kept in gestation crates barely large enough for their bodies for their entire lives, live pigs were thrown in dumpsters, and baby piglets were left to die in manure pits after falling through the slats of the crates that their mothers spent their entire lives in.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, a video documenting the routine mutilation of turkey poults at the nation’s largest turkey hatching facility was released. Fifty percent of the turkeys available in typical grocery stores came from that particular hatchery.

How can you be sure that you are not contributing to such practices? Find out what humane treatment is, study the certifications, and then buy meat that you can feel good about.
At a glance, here are the various certifications, their affiliations, and their logos:

Animal Welfare Approved: Animal Welfare Institute (non-profit)

Humane Farm Animal Care: Humane Society of the United States (non-profit)

Global Animal Partnership: Non-profit, but partially funded by and affiliated with Whole Foods

USDA Organic: Govt agency (the National Organic Program includes animal welfare standards into its rules)

American Humane Certified: The American Humane Association (not-for-profit corporation)
All these standards are summarized here. Download the pdf chart to see a chart of side-by-side comparisons.

It’s a complex issue so here’s my take on it:

Best of the Best:
If you have plenty of money and access to small farms, go for the strictest certification, which in most cases is Animal Welfare Approved. This certification seems to cover mostly very small family farms. Some of the small family farms from which you buy might more than meet the requirements, but they also might know their customers well enough that they don’t become certified. The lesson here is to know your farmer and visit the farm, if you can. In which case, the certification doesn’t even matter.

Next Best:
Humane Farm Animal Care does a great job of writing standards for operations of different sizes and scales. Some of the commonly available mid-sized regional producers are able to meet these standards, so if you buy your food in a grocery store, not direct from farmers, this is the best certification to look for.

The Rest:
Global Animal Partnership has some good standards on important issues, but doesn’t address a lot of issues that need addressing. If Whole Foods is your store, you can see where they are headed with their certification system that rates producers according to a series of steps.
USDA Organic is better than nothing but doesn’t impose many restrictions on how the animals are treated other than those relating to feed, antibiotics, and hormones.
American Humane Certified is the weakest because it isn’t transparent and doesn’t address many issues. Plus, it allows a lot of common practices none of the others do.
In the end, you have to decide what your personal limits are – both budgetary and ethically.

Summary of Major Requirements Per Species by Certification
Chickens:
Growth Hormones – prohibited by all except not addressed by American Humane Certified
Antibiotics – prohibited by all except allowed by American Humane Certified
Outdoor access – minimum access required by USDA Organic, pasture required by Animal Welfare Approved, not required by other certifications. When provided, there are specific requirements laid out by Humane Farm Animal Care
Space – 6 lb. per square foot required by Humane Farm Animal Care, .67 square foot per bird for roosting, plus range space required by Animal Welfare Approved, 6.2 lb. per square foot required by American Humane Certified, no space requirements from other certifications.
Required dark periods for sleep – 6 to 8 hours required by all except no requirements by USDA Organic or Global Animal Partnership
Beak and toe clipping – Prohibited by Humane Farm Animal Care, Animal Welfare Approved, and Global Animal Partnership, unclear whether allowed by others.

Pigs:
Growth Hormones – Prohibited by all except allowed by American Humane Certified
Antibiotics – Prohibited by all except allowed by American Humane Certified for disease treatment only
Outdoor Access – Pasture required by Animal Welfare Approved, access required by USDA Organic, not required by Global Animal Partnership or American Humane Certified, standards for both indoor and outdoor care by Humane Farm Animal Care
Tail Docking – not allowed by Humane Farm Animal Care, Animal Welfare Approved, Global Animal Partnership, allowed by USDA Organic and American Humane Certified

Cows
Growth Hormones – Prohibited by all except allowed by American Humane Certified
Antibiotics – Prohibited by all except allowed by American Humane Certified
Pasture Range Requirements – Pasture raising and finishing required by Animal Welfare Approved, Feedlot and grass allowed by Global Animal Partnership and USDA Organic (minimum pasture requirement), standards for both pasture and grass written by Humane Farm Animal Care, (feedlots allowed) no requirements by American Humane Certified

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

New Year's Aspirations

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I couldn't be bothered to make any New Year's resolutions because, let's be honest, New Year's resolutions always get broken. So this year, I resolved not to make any resolutions. (And yes I do realize that resolving not to make any resolutions is itself a resolution but you know what I mean.) I'm going to make New Year's aspirations instead- some worthwhile goals to work toward during the upcoming year. Goals that will thrill me if they come into fruition but that won't crush me if they don't happen.

Here are my food related 2011 New Year's Aspirations:

1. Try to make two or three meatless dinners per week. Eating more vegetables and whole grains instead of lots of meat will be healthier for us and better for the planet.

2. Plant a vegetable and herb garden in the back yard. I tend to kill plants with my black thumb so this will be a challenge. I also dislike any sort of outdoor activity that brings me into contact with dirt, rocks, plant matter, bugs, wind, rain or sun so, um, this should be fun. And by fun I mean not so much.

3. Try at least one new food per month. This shouldn't be too hard because I can go to the local Vietnamese supermarket and pick out almost anything on the shelves because I have no idea what 90% of the items are because I can't read the labels, which are often written in Asian languages I don't understand. And the produce section is full of exotic fruits and vegetables that I have never seen before but that I am eager to taste.

4. Start posting cooking videos on R&F. I have been meaning to but I just haven't. I have a video camera, a big kitchen and lots of ideas so I just need to get my act together and DO IT!

5. Host one dinner party per month for friends. I have a pretty dining room and even prettier friends. They should be brought together.

6. Donate food several times per year to the local food pantry, not just when prompted at the holidays.

7. Dine at NYC's Per Se, which I am absolutely certain is the greatest and best restaurant in the whole entire world despite never having been there before. Some things you just know. Thomas Keller is a genius. That is something we all know. Per Se is rather expensive so I probably won't make it there this year but a girl can dream!

All of those things sound doable, right? I better get started. Only 362 days left in the year to get them all done.

Spinach Balls

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:40:00 +0000

Happy New Year!! Did you party hard this weekend or lay low around the house? We hung out at home on New Year's Eve, drinking prosecco for the adults and sparkling grape juice for the kiddos. Then we went to New York to visit Matt's family on 1/1/11, the most propitious day of the new year. My mother-in-law has a New Year's Day tradition of preparing dishes that are purported to bring you good luck for the upcoming year. We ate roasted pork shoulder because the pig symbolizes abundance and prosperity, kale for wealth because it's green like money, long noodles for a long life, Hoppin' John for good luck and whole red snapper with head (and teeth!) and tail intact, which is "a fish that swims forward" which means that we will continue moving forward with our lives into the New Year. Had I planned ahead, I would have taken some pictures for you but alas! I did not. So you'll just have to take my word for it that the food was cooked to perfection and a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.

Now that we've covered New Year's, let's rewind back to Christmas. I cooked up a storm and will be posting some of the recipes over the next few weeks. Check out these spinach balls, which were served as an appetizer while we unwrapped gifts. They were a huge hit. The spinach balls were great for the holiday but I think they'd be even better for a retro themed cocktail party Mad Men style because they're a total throwback to the 1950s and 60s. Serve them up with pigs in a blanket, rumaki and a cheese ball. Put on your best wiggle dress, blast some Elvis Presley and toss back a dirty martini or two. Or three.

SPINACH BALLS
adapted from Simple Comfort Food
printer friendly recipe

2 10 ounce packages of frozen chopped spinach
1 1/2 cups dry Italian style breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups soft breadcrumbs made from white bread
1 large onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, melted and cooled to room temperature
4 eggs, well beaten
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, basil or chives
1/2 cup grated parmesan or pecorino roman cheese

Put the frozen spinach in a large bowl and add enough water to just cover the spinach. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Break up the spinach with a fork and put back in the microwave for another 5 minutes. Drain thoroughly in a sieve and cool for ten minutes. Then squeeze out as much water as possible.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put the drained spinach into a large bowl and break up with a fork so that it isn't one big clump.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.

Form heaping tablespoons into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Put as many as you can one baking sheet. You should be able to fit all of the balls on one standard sized baking sheet.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These can also be made ahead of time. After baking, allow the spinach balls to cool completely. Freeze until ready to use. To reheat, bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 36 spinach balls.

A Christmas Letter

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:54:00 +0000

Dear Santa,

Please bring me a maid this year. I've been cooking all day for tomorrow's Christmas dinner for my family and now my entire kitchen looks like this:

And I want a pony too.

Love,

Janee

Ginger Spice Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 15:46:00 +0000

We didn't do a lot yesterday, mostly hung around the house watching tv and sitting in front of the fireplace. We were still stuffed from the huge Thanksgiving dinner that my mother-in-law cooked the night before. The table was loaded with turkey and gravy, sausage stuffing, brussels sprouts, green beans almondine, roasted leeks and carrots, salad, two kinds of cranberry sauce, bread and butter. And just when we thought the table might collapse under the weight of all that deliciousness, my mother-in-law walked into the dining room carrying a bowl of mashed potatoes. And not a little bowl, but a huge bowl with enough potatoes piled high to feed a small army. Oh and I forgot to mention that all this came after champagne, red wine and a generous selection of hors d'oeuvres, including a knockout edamame hummus that is definitely a contender for the best hummus I've ever tasted. And then we finished off with apple pie and homemade ice cream.

Thus, yesterday was spent recovering from the excess of Thanksgiving and family togetherness but I still wanted to cook something fun for the kids so I baked these cookies. I've been trying to perfect a recipe for thin, chewy spice cookies for a while now and I think I've finally got it. There's enough ginger to be pronounced but not so much that you can't taste the molasses or other spices. These are pretty darn good. I hope you try them.

GINGER SPICE COOKIES
printer friendly recipe

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
1 egg
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour (buy it here)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon dried orange peel
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream together the butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar and the molasses.

Beat in the egg until well combined.

Sift together all the remaining dry ingredients, except for the remaining sugar.

Add half of the dry ingredient to the butter mixture and stir well. Repeat with the other half.

Chill in the fridge for two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll tablespoons of dough into small balls. Roll each cookie dough ball in the remaining sugar until coated.

Place the cookie dough balls on a nonstick baking sheet about two inches apart.

Use the bottom of a glass to gently flatten each ball into a small circle, about 1/3 inch thick.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until deep golden brown.

Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

One Pot Meal: Spatchcock Chicken with Brussels Sprouts & Potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:32:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving!

I roasted a spatchcocked chicken a few weeks ago along with some brussels sprouts and potatoes. It occurred to me this morning that this dish would be perfect for a casual Thanksgiving meal for a small group of people, if roasting a big turkey isn't part of the game plan. Turkey is great but it's a bit much if you don't have a dozen people to help you eat it. And you don't have to dirty up a lot of pots and pans to cook this chicken. One roomy roasting pan is all you need.

Don't know how to spatchcock a chicken? It's pretty easy to do. Watch this:

And now I am off to the in-laws' house for our Thanksgiving dinner with the family. I'm not cooking a damn thing this year and I am a-okay with that. But I have big plans for Christmas dinner...

SPATCHCOCK CHICKEN with BRUSSELS SPROUTS & POTATOES
printer friendly recipe

4 pound whole chicken, spatchcocked
1 pint brussels sprouts, cleaned and root ends trimmed
4 potatoes, cut into two inch chunks
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon rosemary
2 teaspoons savory leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Spread the brussels sprouts, potatoes and garlic in an even layer in the bottom of your roasting pan.

Lay the spatchcocked chicken on top.

Drizzle with the olive oil.

Halve the lemons and squeeze over the entire pan. Tuck the lemon pieces into the vegetables.

Sprinkle the chicken and vegetables with the rosemary, savory, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

Roast for 50-55 minutes.

Serves 4.

One Pot Meal: Lamb & Lentil Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 01:55:00 +0000

Dried leaves falling from the trees, gray clouds in the sky and a blustery wind beating against my door. You what that means... soup! Really, what's better on a miserable day than a bowl of steamy hot, meaty soup?

I had some beautiful lamb bones stored in the freezer, leftover from a fantastic piece of lamb that I cooked for a back porch dinner party this summer with a couple of our friends. (Which was amazing by the way, butterflied leg of lamb with mint and basil pesto, YUM!) Waste not, want not is a kitchen credo I try to incorporate whenever possible so I saved those raw lamb bones, which still had a good amount of meat on them, to serve as the basis for another meal. I'm not made of money and it's always good to stretch a buck with the groceries. I already had the lamb bones from another meal but you can always ask the butcher at the supermarket if you can buy a few bones. They're usually cheap, generally not more than a few dollars per pound, so don't feel like you have to splurge on a pricey leg of lamb before you can make this soup.

If you don't have lamb bones then beef bones will work too. And if you don't have bones, well, then I feel a bit sorry for you but don't worry, the lentil soup will be tasty all on its own if you skip the bone parts. In lieu of bones, you can add in some chopped cooked leftover meat near the end of cooking, whatever you happen to have.

Oh and I have to mention that my kids, ages six and eleven, loved this soup. They ate a few bowls each. Inexpensive and kid approved. Score!

LAMB & LENTIL SOUP
printer friendly recipe

2 pounds meaty lamb bones
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, diced small
2 celery stalks, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced small
2 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/2 cup dried lentils (any color you like)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 quarts low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the bones and cook on all sides until deeply browned.

Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic and potatoes. Add all of the herbs and spices. Mix well.

Cover and sweat the vegetables for 15 minutes.

Add the lentils, tomato paste and broth. Raise heat to high and bring to a boil.

Lower heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 2 hours.

Remove bones and pick off any meat. Add meat to pot.

Makes 8 very generous servings.

Tomato Sauce with Chorizo & Peas

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:53:00 +0000

I've been meaning to post this recipe for, like, forever. Or at least since the beginning of September, which feels like such a long time ago even though it wasn't. It's funny when time plays tricks on you like that. Another funny thing is that usually I dislike peas because I don't like the way they sort of smoosh in my mouth when I eat them but, for some reason, they're really quite yummy in this tomato sauce. You'd think I have the same problem with blueberries. But I don't. It's strictly a pea thing. Don't know why.

TOMATO SAUCE with CHORIZO & PEAS
printer friendly recipe

28 ounce tin plain tomato sauce (make sure it's plain, not seasoned with basil or anything like that)
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces fresh chorizo, removed from casings and crumbled
1 small onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup frozen peas
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat.

Add the chorizo and saute until no longer pink, stirring frequently

Add the onions and garlic. Saute for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until the chorizo starts to brown.

Add the smoked paprika, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomato sauce and bay leaf. Stir thoroughly.

Simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes.

Add the peas. Simmer for 5 more minutes.

Sauces one pound of pasta, whatever shape you like.

The Vegetable Express: A Way to Sell Produce to Those in Need | Food | AlterNet

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:58:00 +0000

By Barry Estabrook, The Atlantic

Posted on October 3, 2010, Printed on October 9, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148392/

"Vegetables for sale!" Hilary Martin hollered. "Sweet corn, watermelons, leeks, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, carrots, rutabagas, herbs!" Last Wednesday, with storm clouds threatening, Martin cruised slowly down a Burlington, Vermont side street in a 1988 GMC delivery truck. The aged vehicle served two decades in New York City with the United States Postal Service before she picked it up at a dealership in the Bronx a couple of years ago and drove it 250 miles north, where it began a second career as a delivery truck for Diggers' Mirth, a collective farm in Burlington's Intervale area that she operates with four partners.

This summer, the truck added a third title to its resume: roving vegetable stand. One evening a week, members of the cooperative drive the aging vehicle around Burlington's Old North End and peddle organic produce. Vermont may be a hotbed of all things local/sustainable/organic, but the trend bypassed the Old North End, where the median family income in 2000 was only $27,500, and fully one-third of the residents lived in poverty. Like hardscrabble neighborhoods everywhere in the United States, the area has no supermarkets, leaving residents the choice between traveling great distances on less-than-convenient public transportation or paying high prices for shabby-looking produce at local convenience stores—if they can find it.

Martin and her fellow Diggers saw an irony in that situation. Burlington's Intervale, a 350-acre zone of organic farms, compost projects, and walking trails that sprang out of a junk-strewn floodplain adjacent to the Winooski River in the late 1980s, borders the Old North End. All of the members of the collective live in the neighborhood. And although they sell their crops at a weekly farmers' market in the area (in addition to one in central Burlington), that clearly wasn't enough to satisfy residents' appetite for fresh produce. "We are aware that a lot of social movements can be elitist," Martin (who is the daughter of the woman I live with) said. "So we're trying to bring fresh vegetables to where people are at home and where they are going to use the produce."

When the collective initiated the truck service this past July, they didn't expect immediate profit. Prices were set lower than the going rates at the farmers' markets (a chalkboard on the side of truck offers carrots and tomatoes at $1.50 per pound, watermelon at 50 cents per pound, and herbs at $1.00 a bunch). "You have to build awareness among your customers," Martin said. "It took us a while to make the farmers' market in this neighborhood take off. Now it's great. Besides, we thought it would be fun."

They certainly succeeded on that front. As a riff on the ice-cream-truck jingle, they picked up a used guitar amp at a second hand shop, strapped it to the front bumper with a bungee cord, and broadcast their approach with disco music. "We wanted to do something a little weird," she said. "Make people happy and excited that we are around."

Her first two "customers" of the evening were certainly happy and excited. "Hey," she called to two grade-school-aged boys on their bikes. "Want a slice of watermelon? It's free," she said.

She stopped the truck and offered them a red plastic bowl full of wedges. Each grabbed two. An elderly woman materialized behind the truck, saying that she needed a half pound of fresh spinach. Within minutes, Martin, attired in dusty jeans and a stained Johnny's Selected Seeds cap, was surrounded by a scrum of customers who were buying tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and carrots as quickly as she could bag them and make change. Others stopped by to grab a free piece of melon. A large woman wearing a billowy black T-shirt came down the sidewalk dancing to "Eye of the Tiger," saying to no one in particular, "These guys always have the coolest jams," as she collected a bunch of radishes and paid, without missing a beat. A jogger in full-Spandex regalia trotted up, purchased an eight-pound watermelon, tucked in under her arm like a football player, and continued on her way.

And that pretty much set the tone for the next two hours. Rolling along the streets, Martin hollering her sales prattle out the window, stopping a couple of times on each block to deal with customers.

"People are really psyched to see fresh vegetables," Martin said. "Even if they don't buy, they like the presence of the truck. They smile and laugh."

As if on cue, a young man sporting an impressive tableau of tattoos came out of a house. "Do you guys take food stamps?" he asked. Martin had to explain that they did not have the necessary machine. "But we will next year," she said.

The vegetable truck will make it last run of the year this week as the cooperative's crops thin out and potential customers begin to spend their evenings indoors. To the surprise of the Diggers, it actually turned a modest profit this summer, assuring it another season on the streets of the Old North End.

"When next year?" the foiled food-stamp customer asked.

"In July," said Martin. "As soon as we get the first ripe tomatoes."

Judging by the smile on his face, I'll wager that he will be waiting by the curbside eagerly when the vegetable truck returns.

Barry Estabrook is a former contributing editor at Gourmet magazine. His work on a dairy farm and fishing boat taught him that writing about food was easier than producing it.

One Pot Meal: Sausage & White Bean Cassoulet Topped with Biscuits

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:57:00 +0000

Oh, boy, have I got a fantastic recipe for you today. A really hearty, comforting cassoulet that screams Welcome Fall! It's not quite cool enough outside yet to break out the chunky knit sweaters and hot apple cider but this dish is so tasty you just might start making it year round. I would not object.

This is what it looks like when it comes out of the oven, golden brown and bubbly hot around the edges.

I know. Beautiful. Food like this reminds you that life is good. Very good. This recipe makes enough for a crowd so invite your best friends over and eat that good life together.

SAUSAGE & WHITE BEAN CASSOULET TOPPED WITH BISCUITS
printer friendly recipe

For the cassoulet:

1 pound sweet or spicy sausage (pork, chicken, turkey or duck, your choice)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small carrots, sliced thinly
2 celery stalks, sliced thinly
3 cups sliced leeks
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons thyme
1 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 cans white beans, drained well
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place a heavy 9x13 baking pan on the largest burner of your stove. Add olive oil and heat over medium.

Add the carrots and celery. Saute for five minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften.

Remove the sausage from its casings and break into bite size pieces. Add to pan and saute for 5 minutes, unless the sausage starts to lose its pinkness around the edges.

Add the leeks, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, sage and mustard. Saute for ten minutes.

Add the flour and stir well. Saute for another couple of minutes.

Add the beans and chicken broth. Stir well. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the cassoulet is simmering, prepare the biscuits.

For the biscuits:

4 cups flour, sifted
5 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/3 - 1 1/2 cups milk

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add the milk a little at a time, stirring with a fork. Add enough milk so that the dough comes together in a soft mass but isn't too sticky.

Turn out the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Pat out the dough into a 9x13 rectangle. Cut out twelve 2 1/2 inch wide biscuits.

Turn off the heat under the cassoulet.

Arrange the biscuits in a single layer over the top of the cassoulet.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown.

Serves 8.

Birthday Cake!

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:03:00 +0000

I made this cake for my darling daughter's birthday party, which was held at a local bowling alley this afternoon. Overall, I am pretty proud of myself considering that this was my first time making a tiered cake. Transporting the cake from my house to the party location all the way across town resulted in the layers settling a bit but I am okay with that. The cake still looked pretty and the kids loved it!

Gemelli with Ground Pork & Green Beans

noreply@blogger.com (Janée) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:42:00 +0000

In all my years of cooking, I never thought before to combine ground pork, green beans and pasta. And then, all of a sudden, while sitting in my office yesterday contemplating the bag of green beans in the fridge that had to be used immediately before they spoiled and wondering what I could cook for dinner that would be new and exciting (or at the very least not ordinary and blah), this recipe came to me. Juicy morsels of ground pork and fresh green beans with lots of garlic and fresh herbs over short pasta. This combination was quite tasty- meaty and herby in a very comforting but not too heavy way that is perfect for a summer dinner.

If you don't like pork then substitute ground turkey instead. Any kind of short pasta will do so don't feel like you must use gemelli if you have a different shape on hand. Ziti, penne or rotini would be just as good.

GEMELLI with GROUND PORK & GREEN BEANS
printer friendly recipe

one pound gemelli
one pound ground pork
1/2 pound of green beans, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped shallots
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram, or one teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh savory, or one teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, or one teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon dried orange peel
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup white wine
1 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1-2 tablespoons prepared bread crumbs, plain or Italian style

Cook the gemelli in lots of boiling salted water according to the package directions. Start preparing the sauce as soon you put the pot of water on to boil before you add the pasta.

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large heavy bottomed saute pan with high sides. Add the ground pork and saute until browned and most of the pink color has disappeared, about 6-7 minutes.

Add the shallots, garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for a few more minutes until the shallots soften and become translucent.

Add the tomato, marjoram, savory, thyme, orange peel and Dijon mustard. Stir thoroughly.

Pour over the white wine and allow the wine to cook out for three or four minutes.

Spread the green beans on top of the pork. Add the chicken broth and tomato paste. Stir to combine.

Cover, bring to a simmer for a couple of minutes and then lower heat to low. Cook for 7 or so minutes, or until the green beans are tender but not mushy.

Uncover and stir in the breadcrumbs to thicken the sauce. Cook for a couple more minutes.

Cover the pan and remove from the heat until the pasta is ready.

When the pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly. Mix together with the pork and green beans. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 generously.