MAC & CHEESE

Blogiversary

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:48:00 +0000

Gobsmacked at how pillowy soft the gnocchi are at Mr. Joe's.

At about this time each year I do a blogiversary post where I recap my favorite restaurants, as well as favorite dishes, recipes, and various other highlights of the year. I'm not going to do that this year, because 1) I barely wrote any posts last year, and 2) I have a baby now, and who has time for that shit!

I used to wonder who the people were that were so lazy or bereft of time that they bought pre-cut fruit from the grocery store. Now I know. People with children! Who has time to cut fruit? Slice cheese? Eat a hot meal? Cook? Brush your teeth twice a day? Shower more than two or three times a week? Not me!

I have not cooked a single meal - not one! - since my daughter was born back in September. I've diced a couple of onions while my partner was cooking, but that is it.

We do take-out about once or twice a week, which is significantly more than the four of five times per year we used to do.

Jumping up and down for butterbeans at a restaurant in Charleston, SC.

We dine out at restaurants a lot less. A lot, lot less! Maybe twice a month if it's a good month. And we only do brunch and lunch, since bedtime for baby (and me) is 7 o'clock.

We also only do restaurants we are familiar with and know have baby friendly vibes and spaces. We've hit up The Industry, Santucci's, Underdogs, Mr. Joe's, The Khyber, Stella, Resurrection Ale House, Miss Rachel's Pantry, and Cantina los Caballitos. That is it for my dining experiences in Philly for the last five months. All were very accommodating and welcoming of a baby and a stroller during the daytime.

It will probably be a good while before another post goes up. I am a bit busy with a baby, to say the least. If and when I do return, I hope to post in some different format or manner. Honestly, I've had a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with blogging for the past two years. I'm just really tired of offering my opinions (yours may be drastically different, so, really, who cares what I think), ordering more than I would normally eat when I go out (sad, but true, it is harder to stay skinny when you're old), and not truly relaxing and enjoying my meals when out. I think this is about how all food bloggers and reviewers end up feeling.

And the baby is up from her dreadfully short 30 minute nap! Gotta go.

Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Oh, Hi! I'm not dead. Just busy...and tired. When I'm not at work, a doctor's visit, prenatal classes, interviewing daycares and pediatricians, or sitting down with financial advisors, I'm taking a nap (because pregnant women don't sleep at night, and they won't for the next three years).

I also don't get out to eat much anymore (and probably won't for the next three years) due to the fact that I'm taking naps, can't eat large restaurant portions in one sitting, and my dining radius has been drastically reduced since walking more than ten blocks in the summer heat is a challenge.

But I have eaten out a few times, and even occasionally remembered to take phone pictures.

Above is Baltimore's famous Berger Cookie from a weekend getaway a while back. It's a lot of fudgy chocolate icing on a small, soft, cake-like cookie.

Nomad Pizza slid into Horizon's old location, and is cranking out some great pizza and salads.

This ginormous, vegan breakfast plate of tofu scramble, tempeh bacon, potato hash, and biscuit comes from the newly opened Miss Rachel's Cafe on Passyunk Ave. It's pure comfort!

Caught up with Zsa's Gourmet Ice Cream stand at Headhouse Square Market for a delightful little ice cream sandwich.

I ran into Zea May's, a Native American food truck, at Dickinson Square Park Market. The wild rice salad was super fresh with premium ingredients, but I was expecting more rice than lettuce.

Zea May's sweet potato empanada tastes like Thanksgiving. This is a good thing.

On hot, steamy days after work, I have been stopping in at Wilmington's iconic burger diner, Charcoal Pit, for a classic chocolate shake.

Finally hit my first Night Market with it's myriad of food trucks when it came to Washington Ave. last month. I hate waiting in long lines (plus my feet really hurt now that I'm pregnant), so I grabbed some macarons from Sugar Philly Truck and got the hell out of there. (I'm sure the event is much more fun when you can drink alcohol and your feet aren't swollen.)

Individual pies (!) and cupcakes from Flying Monkey Bakery always make me swoon. Everything at Flying Monkey makes me swoon!

There's a good reason the chicken-like Crispy HipCity Ranch sandwich is a best seller at HipCityVeg, an all-vegan sandwich shop in Center City.

HipCityVeg's Ziggy Burger with smoked tempeh and special sauce tastes like a backyard cookout.

Austin Quick Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:09:00 +0000

I flew out to Austin, Texas, for a couple of days last week for a little getaway. My main mission was to take it easy and eat tacos.

With multiple locations in Austin, Dallas, and Houson in store fronts and food carts, Torchy's Tacos came highly recommended. The fried avocado taco with either a flour or corn tortilla (I chose corn) was good, but did not live up to the hype. The crunch of the fried batter surrounding the avocado obscured the fresh avocado taste, and I was disappointed in what appeared to be bagged shredded cheese. A decent taco for sure, just nothing to get worked up over.

Izzoz Tacos (no picture) from a trailer just down the street (Austin is flooded with food trailer parks) was much better than Torchy's.

Lick Ice Creams is worth the hype! Inventive flavors, like beet-mint and blackberry-lemon-basil, churned from organic milk and local ingredients put Lick on par with Philly's Capogiro. The scoop of salted caramel and scoop of goat cheese-honey-thyme was fabulous.

We had no intentions of eating at Juan In A Million, a Mexican restaurant featured on Travel Channels Man vs. Food show, but it was around the corner from where we were staying (tried Airbnb for the first time, and it's pretty awesome), so moseyed over one morning. This huge plate of breakfast migas, beans, rice and tortillas was right on. Those beans definitely had lard in them, though.

Located in a food trailer park, Gourdough's serves huge doughnuts topped with gobs of delicious, sweet, sinful things. These doughnuts are so big and messy, you will need the fork and knife they give you. Above is the Dirty Berry, a crispy edged doughnut topped with buckets of warm chocolate sauce, grilled strawberries, and chocolate chips. Heaven!

I liked Gourdough's so much, I went back the next day (you can only eat one per day, they're so large) for The Puddin. Vanilla pudding, cream cheese frosting, bananas, and Nilla Wafers make this dessert banana pudding's even more sinful cousin.

We classed it up for the boy's birthday and went to Uchiko, a "Japanese farmhouse dining and sushi restaurant" where Top Chef: Texas winner Paul Qui is executive Chef. I left the camera in my bag, but everything was beautiful, the food was great, and the service was top notch. My server even recognized that I was a vegetarian and offered to switch up some ingredients to make more of the menu accessible.

The desserts at Uchiko were the highlight of the evening, though. The tobacco-chocolate-Scotch-hucklyberry dessert blew us away. Cream infused with tobacco and Laphroag Scotch was intense, biting the tongue just like peaty Scotch, but combined with a scoop of chocolate sorbet, hucklyberry sauce, and maple budino it was manly magic.

A few more undocumented eats (more tacos and a pimento cheese sandwich!), and it was time to head back to Philly.

One-Eyed Cats and Other (Good) Excuses

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:12:00 +0000

Posts on this blog went from infrequent at the beginning of the year to just plain absent these past weeks. I have a good excuse. In fact, many good excuses. Mostly, 2012 has been a doozy, and I'm afraid it's going to continue in that fashion.

The entire month of January was spent taking my cat back and forth from my vet and the Veterinarian Hospital University of Pennsylvania to confirm that my cat had an iris melanoma (she did), and try to determine if cancer had spread to the rest of her body (it appears not!).

After many weeks and vet visits, her left eye was removed. She spent four days recovering on hardcore kitty cat morphine. For those four days when she was completely out of it, she was sequestered in my bathroom for her own safety. I camped out in the bathroom with her 24-hours a day to make sure she was eating and drinking, and to keep her company. I'd do just about anything for my sweet kitty, even sleep with my head next to a toilet.

I'm happy to report that kitty recovered very well. Also, animals are amazingly unselfconscious creatures, and really don't give a hoot if they only have one eye. It's back to normal kitty activities around here, like, napping!

About the same time I started sleeping in the bathroom with my cat, I caught a cold (not from the bathroom, but from my partner). It was the worst cold I can remember having in quite some time. I was sick for three weeks. I then had a four or five day reprieve, and promptly caught another cold. I cried in frustration. From the start of one cold to finish of the next, I was sick for more than a month. That was how I spent February.

How can a normally healthy person's immune system be so amazingly poor? Mine was compromised, because, holy crap, I was pregnant!! (Not by accident, mind you. I'm not an irresponsible teenager.)

The heightened sense of smell that comes with pregnancy seems like an awesome superpower to have, but really it just takes the fun out of eating. There were a couple of months there where food and I did not get along. Thankfully, I completely bypassed the nausea and vomiting part of early pregnancy that afflicts some, but I could only tolerate bland foods. Garlic especially was my nemesis, and, to a lesser extent, onions and herbs.

Just scrolling through my RSS feed with pictures from recipes and restaurant reviews from all the blogs I'm subscribe to was unappetizing, and I most definitely wasn't up to eating out. Try finding food without garlic, onions, or herbs! I painfully squeaked out one last post at the beginning of March that I had been sitting on for a while, and then I couldn't even think about food or blogging.

I am now firmly in my second trimester, and, hooray!, food tastes good again. I may post sporadically, but, honestly, there are a lot of other things on my mind, like, "Why are there so many different kinds of cloth diapers that a seemingly smart person like myself must turn to YouTube videos for answers?" But mostly, my time is occupied with sitting around in a stupor thinking, "Whoa, I'm bringing a little person into the world!"

So, those are my excuses. They are pretty good, don't you think?

Le Virtu

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:55:00 +0000

While I don't go out to eat Italian food that often, I've been making a concerted effort to do it right when I do. This past year I've managed to hit Osteria and Amis, two restaurants from Marc Vetri, Philadelphia's most celebrated Italian restaurant maestro. Most recently, I visited Le Virtu, an Italian restaurant on Passyunk Ave. featuring dishes from the Abruzzi region of Italy. Le Virtu often gets mentioned alongside Vetri restaurants as an example of Philly's finest in Italian cuisine.

All three restaurants — Osteria, Amis, and Le Virtu — were fabulous, but my preference is Le Virtu, despite the fact that Le Virtu has the most limited menu for a vegetarian. Osteria is too large and bustling. Amis is cozy, but the service (similar to Osteria's) is so hawk-eyed and professional that it's hard to relax when you know the second you take your last bite of a dish, a server will swoop in and rearrange your tablescape.

Le Virtu has the coziness you've come to expect from Philly's cramped architecture (although, Le Virtu does have a large, outdoor, off-street seating area when the weather is fair), and a relaxed service that allows for breathing time between courses. The seating at Le Virtu is also well spaced, so you don't have to hear your neighbor's conversation. Le Virtu is comfortable.A basket of chewy, rustic bread is presented to the table alongside a large plate of olive oil for dipping.
The arugula salad with Bartlett pears, shaved Pecorino drizzled with a sweet mostocatto dressing is large enough for two.
The only vegetarian pasta on the menu was macherroni alla mugnaia. The menu described this dish as "hand-pulled, single-strand pasta, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, pepper, Pecorino." We were thinking pepper meant black pepper, and this would be a rather subdued dish. Oh, no! This was the spiciest Italian dish I've ever had. Almost low-level Han Dynasty spicy, which is quite spicy. Pepper here means a fruit from the Capsicum genus. Lovely pasta dish, but there should have been a warning.
Thankfully, there was a vegetarian pasta special of whole wheat pasta with pistachio pesto, so we had more than one pasta option. About as light as a whole wheat pasta can be, these broad, thin noodles were lightened by a bright (citrus?) pistachio sauce. I actually only finished half of this dish, it was so filling. (The large plates make all of the portions seem small in photographs, but I assure you the portions are not tiny.)
The Brodetto, a seafood stew of assorted creatures — shrimp, clams, oysters, octopus, fish — in a roasted red pepper and tomato broth was simple, yet so comforting and perfect.
All of Le Virtu's desserts sounded interesting — chocolate and chestnut-filled raviolis, anise and raisin beignets, apple olive oil cake, fried pastry dough with lemon curd. I was feeling like a classic chocolate semifredo that evening, and the chilled chocolate custard topped with whipped cream and the most delicate almond brittle did the trick. I only wished the puddle of salted caramel sauce the semifredo was stacked upon was more generous.

I will be back, Le Virtu, even though I wish your menu had more vegetarian options.

Le Virtu
1927 East Passyunk Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19148
215-271-5626
BYO (wine only) on Tuesday night

Eat This: Hot Diggity's Tamarind Coconut Wings

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:28:00 +0000

I should have hopped on these tamarind coconut wings, a monthly special from Hot Diggity, a few weeks ago when they debuted, instead of waiting until today. Now that there's only a little more than a week left before they're gone, I'm kicking myself.

Always accommodating us vegetarians and vegans, Hot Diggity's vegan seitan wings (available in real chicken, too) coated in a sweet and mildly spicy tamarind sauce with coconut flakes, cilantro, sesame seeds, tomatoes, and chilis tastes like a blend of Indian and Chinese — an Indo-Chinese General Tso's, if you will.

I liked these wings so much, I put in an extra order to-go. Add rice and broccoli, and it's called dinner. Get on this before it's gone!

Hot Diggity
630 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
267-886-9253

Tasting Party

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:58:00 +0000

A friend of mine held a "tasting" party the other weekend, which was absolutely fabulous and about as much fun as adults can have without partaking in illegal substances.

After devouring a table full of snacks, we moved on to the "tasting" part of the night. The first part of the tasting was a game to test our palates. We were handed cups filled with food items, and ask to determine what the food was without looking.

After about twenty or so rounds, we tallied our points for correct guesses. I was only slightly upset that I did not win. My downfall, apparently, is identifying cheese and dairy products. Thanks to some second guessing and just plain not knowing, I thought Greek yogurt was sour cream, goat cheese was cream cheese, Cheddar was Gouda, Pecorino Romano was Parmesan, and Cheez Whiz was Velveeta. I am utterly ashamed — apart from the Cheez Whiz / Velveeta mix-up, because who eats that crap!Then we moved on to popping miracle fruit, a small fruit from a tropical shrub that, when eaten, causes sour foods to taste sweet. I've been dying to try miracle fruit for six years now, since I first heard about them, but never actually got around to it. (I did buy the plant about five years ago, and, damn, if it hasn't grown more than an inch since then due to the fact that it's just not hot or humid enough in Philly more than two months out of the year for the plant to truly be happy.)
So, you roll the miracle fruit around your tongue for a bit, so the glycoprotein molecules in the fruit can bind to your taste buds. Then you're off on a taste bud tripping adventure that lasts anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. You'll shove various foods you'd never consume together, or even separately in one evening, into your mouth as fast as you can before the effects wear off. For me, the effects lasted strongly for about 20 minutes, then were greatly diminished. Citrus was my favorite, especially lemons, which taste like lemonade. I must have eaten at least two or three whole lemons! Fruits, like strawberries and blackberries, became the sweetest specimens you've ever had. Besides citrus and fruit, my taste buds were a little apathetic with some of the other samplings. Vinegar was still tangy, beer was still beer, tomato juice was only slightly sweeter. Other people were affected differently, though.

Glad I finally got around to experiencing the miracle berry. Good times all around! Now, I'm off to study up on cheese.

Sixth Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:55:00 +0000

It's the end of January, and that means it's Mac & Cheese's sixth anniversary! Where does the time and calories go? Well, I know where the calories go, and that, my friends, is one of the reasons why I've been taking it easy on the posting front this past year.

Many thanks to all who read the blog. Now, here is a roundup of this past year's highlights.

Favorite Posts It was my first year as a CSA member, and I can't say enough good things about the experience. I've signed up again this year! While the weekly posts of how I used the bountiful CSA produce is admittedly a bit boring to read, you can get a sense of how I really eat. Plus, these posts practically write themselves, and those kinds of posts are every blogger's dream.

Favorite RestaurantsMany of my favorite establishments I reviewed last year aren't really restaurants in the traditional sense. Little Baby's Ice Cream is a tricycle (a brick and mortar store is in the works) that makes irresistibly quirky ice cream flavors. While I don't do the Korean fried chicken at Federal Donuts, I love the donuts at this deservedly hyped corner take-out so much that I've had to set myself some limits. Va La Vinyards has long been my favorite winery in the Brandywine Valley, but I only just got around to telling you about it (maybe for selfish reasons). So happy to see the gourmet hot dog trend take off this past year in Philly, and glad when establishments, like Hot Diggity, include us vegetarians.

Favorite RecipesI can't count how many times we've made this recipe for rosemary roasted cashews in the past year; it's that good! Once you go raw kale, it's hard to go back to cooked. I have a soft spot for quirky and fabulous desserts, and these corn cookies hit both marks.

Most Popular Posts
This is the first year that recipe posts did not take the top three spots as the most viewed posts. Coming in at number one and number two, respectively, are Frankford Hall and El Rey. I explain their victory because they are both restaurants from Philly's most popular restauranteur, Stephen Starr. Coming in third is Memphis Taproom Beer Garden. I explain this ranking because Memphis Taproom's courtyard garden selling gourmet hot dogs (they also have veggie dogs!) and canned craft beer from a truck is simply awesome.

VacationWe kept it stateside this year with trips to Seattle and Portland, two cities I've never been to previously, but have long been on my wish list. Our annual trip to Pawleys Island in South Carolina where high humidity, sweltering temps, and pimento cheese nights always make me long for home.

Corn Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:26:00 +0000

Christina Tosi's decadent desserts, like crack pie and compost cookies, have been all the rage the past couple of years. I've never actually been to Momofuku Milk Bar in New York to eat pastry chef Tosi's desserts, but I jumped at the chance last year to sample five of her cookies when South Philly's Green Aisle Grocery started overnighting Milk Bar cookies in from New York. (Haven't seen a tweet about Milk Bar cookies from Green Aisle in a long time, so not sure if Green Aisle is still getting them in.)

From my taste test, I concluded that Tosi makes great cookies, if not a little too sweet and greasy. The standout cookie from the bunch, though, was the corn cookie. Oh man, is Milk Bar's corn cookie good! It tastes somewhere between a sugar cookie and the sweetest summer corn you've ever had. The secret to getting that sweet corn flavor is corn powder. What's corn powder, you ask? Nothing more than freeze dried corn, that's been pulverized into a powder in a blender or food processor. If you can't find freeze dried corn in the snack section of Whole Foods or some other similar grocery store, you can always order it on Amazon. Tosi unleashed her recipe for corn cookies last year in a issue of David Chang's quarterly magazine Lucky Peach, as well as in Tosi's new cookbook Momofuku Milk Bar. The recipe for corn cookies is even posted on the Amazon page for Tosi's cookbook, so the cat is long out of the bag. I've had this recipe bookmarked for quite a while, but had to 1) procure freeze dried corn, and 2) get over the holiday hump of mega indulgence. The original recipe calls for two sticks of butter, which, really, isn't out of the norm for a batch of cookies, but in recalling how I felt her cookies were way too greasy, I cut out just two tiny tablespoons of butter from the recipe to great results. The cookies are still very buttery, but not sickly so. Next time I bake them, I might try to get the recipe down to one and a half sticks of butter.

I also measured the cookie dough out into uniform sizes, which is something I never do. And, would you believe it, the cookies all came out consistently sized and looking professional! Might have to be more exacting in my baking in the future.
Corn Cookies
adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar
makes about 13 to 15 cookies

14 tablespoons butter, at room temperature (original recipe uses 16 tablespoons)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 cup corn flour (I used fine corn meal)
2/3 cup freeze-dried corn powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the egg and beat for 7-8 minutes.
In another bowl, add all of the remaining ingredients and stir until just mixed. (I used my hands to mix the rather thick dough together.)
Measure out uniform scoops of cookie dough (I measured 1/4 cup scoops, but original recipe calls for 1/3 cup scoops), pressing the tops of the dough balls down slightly, and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Wrap baking sheet with cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour, and up to a week before baking. It's very important to start with chilled dough when baking these cookies!
Place chilled dough about 4 inches apart on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 18 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven, or until the edges are slightly browned.
Cool cookies on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Birra

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:37:00 +0000

A few weeks ago we stopped into Birra, a pizza and beer restaurant right in the heart of bustling E. Passyunk Avenue. Open for only a few months now, Birra has had no problem finding it's stride.

The tight restaurant and bar was packed when we arrived, and since they don't take reservations (too casual and small for such a thing), we put our name on the list, were given a thirty minute estimate on the wait, the host took our phone number, and we scooted a block up the road for drinks at Salt and Pepper's more sedate bar. Thirty minutes later our phone rang, and a table was waiting for us when we walked in Birra.

Birra means beer in Italian, so of course Birra has a strong beer list to match it's name. I was a bit concerned that Birra did not offer wine, since it's not listed on the online menu, but fear not; they have wine!
We hit most of the vegetarian items on the menu that came recommended by our server, although there are plenty more veggie dishes to hit, even though the menu is short and sweet.

The roasted veggie salad with mixed greens, seasonal vegetables, and balsamic mustard vignette is served with a few triangles of flat bread. Winter squash is in season, but I'm not sure how seasonal the zucchini and cured tomatoes are. Those tomatoes were the best part of the already likeable and sizable salad, so I'm not really complaining. The chewy and concentrated flavors of the cured tomatoes were, again, the best part of the red sauced, roasted vegetable pizza. At twelve inches, Birra's thin crust pizzas are perfect for splitting with another person. The mac and cheese pizza at Birra is not the first time I've had such a doubly carb loaded disk. The concept of such a pizza is not as bad as it sounds, and also not as interesting as it sounds. This menu item didn't come recommended, but I had to give it a go anyway.

Black pepper is about the only stand out flavor on this pizza, and considering that Birra's pizza crust is a bit bland, you really want to order a pizza with more flavor umpf at Birra. I'm thinking the mac and cheese pizza would be better ordered as a "Birra bowl" — any pizza toppings and sauce baked in a bowl with a pizza crust laid on top like a pot pie.
The roasted veggie panini with cured tomatoes, zucchini, basil pesto, and provolone was actually my favorite of the night with big flavors, crusty bread, and small pitcher of their sweet tomato sauce for dipping.

Birra may not have my favorite pizza crust in town (everyone has an opinion about that!), but their vegetable toppings are fresh and flavorful. The atmosphere is casual and lively, making Birra a perfect spot to grab a drink or meal while taking in a game on one of their many sports-tuned televisions, or, you know, just to hang with some friends

Birra
1700 E Passyunk Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19148
267-324-3127

Vacation Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:01:00 +0000

We're already into the second week of January, so I fell like I've missed the window to do a Christmas vacation recap, but, heck, I'm just going to do it anyway. I'm just not ready to write any serious post about a restaurant or recipe.

I had fun going home over the holidays, visited family and friends in two states and four cities, ate some great food, and drank way, way too much.

After twelve hours on the road, we pulled into my Dad's house in South Carolina the day before Christmas Eve, where two kinds of pimento cheese are kept in the fridge. Pimento cheese sandwiches all around!Our Christmas Eve tradition is to eat an assortment of cheese, cured meats, and crackers with chutneys, jams, and honey, and other bits and bobs like marinated Brussels sprouts. We also drink lots of champagne.
My favorite gift I gave was an original drawing from Philly's own Hawk Krall. I've been admiring his artwork on sites like Serious Eats and Hawk's own site for some time, and wanted to get his print of a pimento cheese hot dog from Sandy's, a small chain from my hometown.

Well, Hawk's a super nice dude, and after a few back and forths over email I ended up getting two original Sandy's drawings. Hawk's also so super nice that he agreed to do a custom drawing for me to give my Dad for Christmas, and he did it with only a short notice. I couldn't be happier with his artwork, and my Dad was just thrilled with it, as well.

The story behind the Banana Dog is this: the Banana Dog is similar to the popular (well, it's not unheard of) mayo, peanut butter and banana sandwich, but my Dad claims to have invented the Banana Dog one day when there was no sandwich bread in the house, and he ingeniously improvised with a hot dog bun. His claim to fame is now memorialized thanks to Hawk.
After all the gifts were opened we did a moonshine tasting. What, that's not what every family does for Christmas?

I've tasted some pretty bad moonshine (usually brought to the party by that guy no one really knows), but these two bottles that my Dad got from a friend were absolutely the best I've ever had. The one called Favorite Child was aged in an oak barrel, making it essentially bourbon. The other was called Apple Pie, and it tasted exactly like fresh apple cider with nary a hint of alcohol taste. Apple Pie is dangerous!
Then it's the divorced kid shuffle off to my Mom's house for Christmas Day where the champagne flowed, as well.
Anson Mills is not the only story in South Carolina when it comes to milled grains. It seems that everyone is growing heirloom corn and milling nowadays. We packed our car with grits to bring back home from those who've been milling for over a century (Adluh), and grits from a new kid on the block (Keisler's Mill).
Anyone from Columbia remember back in the late 90's when Ital Island, this crazy, African art-filled, soul food and Caribbean vegan restaurant popped up for about a year or so, then disappeared to leave all us vegans and vegetarians crying? Well, after more than a decade it has reappeared at a new location, and with a new name. Lamb's Bread Vegan Cafe is Ital Island. Same African masks, same incense, same owners, same cook, same food. So glad to have you back!
With all the truly good food I ate, I'm ashamed to say the most memorable and delicious thing I ate was this can of Hapi Spicy Sriracha Peas. Ate the whole can! The combo of sweet, spicy, salty, garlic-y, and crunchy is unstoppable.
This sweet old dog lives at a house near a mountain trail in Hot Springs, NC. She was our guide for the day, expertly walking us to the overlook, then back down. I imagine she does this many times a day, every day, with all the mountain visitors. Not a bad life!Then it was time for a wine and cheese picnic in the hot spring-fed hot tubs in Hot Springs. These outdoor tubs seated at the edge of a river are stupidly cheap. Your skin is so soft afterwards. I was upset that I didn't get any banana pudding from Glass Onion in Charleston (sold out one day, and didn't make the next day), but I did get a pimento cheese omelet and creamed greens for New Year's Eve brunch.
This gorgeous live oak and treehouse is in my brother's Charleston backyard! That picture is pretty much my childhood fantasy.
After an explosive New Year's Eve celebration in Charleston, we awoke a few hours later to get in the car for a long and miserable, hungover car ride back to Philly. I actually thought ahead and bought black eyed peas and collards down South to save myself a trip to the grocery store in Philly when we got back. Ignoring the reveling Mummer's outside my door (remind me to never come back to Philly on New Year's Day), and in a weird hungover/long-car-ride haze, I somehow managed to make collards and hoppin' John for a late dinner before crashing into bed.

Good to be back!

Cookbook Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:21:00 +0000

The winner of the Glass Onion cookbook is commenter Haley, who has this to say about her most memorable Southern food experience:

i went to a small liberal arts college in the middle of connecticut where we rarely left campus. two days before we were about to graduate we decided to take an adventure. our 8 closest friends from college decided to take a road trip to the smokin bbq cafe for some mind blowing pulled pork and okra stew. mmhmm.

Congratulations, Haley! The adventure with your friends, and the pulled pork sounds fabulous. And okra stew is one of my all-time favorite dishes.

Please get in touch with the address to which you'd like to have the book shipped. Email me at: mac.and.cheese.review (at) gmail (dot) com

Cookbook Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Hope y'all had a wonderful holiday! I sure did. In fact, I'm still on holiday vacation, and am down in my home state of South Carolina visiting family and friends.

What? You want more presents? OK.

I am delighted to giveaway a copy of the cookbook Glass Onion Classics: Recipes From a Southern Restaurant to one lucky reader. This new and unused cookbook (I did flip through it, though) comes from Glass Onion, one of my favorite restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina.Glass Onion's "ridiculously good" banana pudding (it is ridiculous!), grilled pimento cheese sandwich, and deviled eggs is my usual. I just might be eating this very same order right now!

Glass Onion serves up non-stuffy, fresh and local, classic Southern food in a casual storefront located on the busy Savannah Highway just a stone's throw from the Charleston peninsula (the touristy part). This means that while Glass Onion is always busy with people in the know (I once giddily dined across from Southern cookbook author Ted Lee), it's not overrun with tourists like made-popular-by-television Hominy Grill and Jestine's Kitchen. The Glass Onion's cookbook is NOT vegetarian, but any crafty vegetarian can adapt almost any recipe. This 168-page cookbook covers all the Southern basics, like pimento cheese, buttermilk fried chicken, grits, and red velvet cake, with brief stories before each recipe, and a few black and white drawings here and there. Peppered throughout the book are profiles of Southern food farmers and friends, like Allan Benton (Benton's Bacon) and Glenn Roberts (Anson Mills).

To enter to win:
Please leave one comment on this blog post telling me the most memorable Southern food you cooked at home, or ate at a restaurant. The contest will end January 3, 2012 at 8pm EST. One winner will be picked randomly. Be sure to check back for an announcement of the winner, so I can get your mailing information. Sorry, but I will only ship to US addresses.

The cookbook and giveaway are provided by me (because I like Glass Onion so much), and all opinions are my own.

Red Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the first day of winter, and that means those of us up North are settling into many months of cold and seasonal depression. And in my case, bitching about how cold and depressing it is. It also means that any fresh tomato you buy sucks. Ah, another thing to complain about.

What's a girl or boy who has resigned to eat seasonally, or just committed to flavor to do? And, now that we're all avoiding commercially canned goods because of their BPA lining, canned tomatoes are out of the picture. It's looking pretty grim for all those winter hearty pastas, stews, and casseroles that call for tomatoes, that's for sure.My solution for getting around crappy tomatoes in the off-season is to make what we've been calling around here "red sauce." Red sauce is nothing more than carrots, beets, onions, and garlic that, when cooked and pureed, come together into a vibrant, savory, red sauce with a hint of sweetness. If you didn't tell anyone that they weren't eating tomato sauce, they might not even second guess red sauce.

To be honest, we don't make red sauce just in the winter; we like it so much we make it year round. Red sauce can be used almost anywhere you would tomato sauce. We slather it on pasta, pizza, meatballs, and sloppy joes.

I'm posting this recipe for mostly selfish reasons (I'm tired of looking it up in a book), but I encourage you all to give this recipe a go. Especially in godforsaken, tomato-less winter.
Pizza loves red sauce!

Red Sauce
adapted from Yoga Kitchen

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
4 cups peeled and chopped carrots
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups vegetable stock
1 medium beet, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Melt butter in a large skillet. Add carrots, onion, and garlic. Cover and saute, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan, boil beets until tender. Drain.
Transfer beets and carrots to a blender. Add all remaining ingredients and puree until smooth.

Shane Confectionery

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:10:00 +0000

It's been nearly two years since the Berley brothers, Eric and Ryan, bought Shane Candies in Center City. You may know the Berley brothers from The Franklin Fountain, their old-timey ice cream parlor complete with period costumes on Market St. just down the block from Shane's.Since buying Shane Candies in early 2010, the Berley brothers have been hard at work restoring the fusty candy store to it's former glory. Just a few of the many endeavors include pulling up linoleum floors to reveal old pine boards, uncovering and restoring original architectural elements, and repairing antique candy making equipment to put back into use. The store's new reincarnation under the Berley brothers was opened this December 5 (just in time for Christmas!) as Shane Confectionery, making this 110 Market St. location the oldest candy shop in America that still makes most of its own candy. When you funnel through the curved glass storefront windows to the store, be sure to notice the candy store timeline printed on the door. The sugary shop at 110 Market St. has been a candy store since 1863, and in the Shane family from 1911 to 2010.Almost all of the chocolates are made in-house, many from original Shane recipes, including the beloved buttercreams. And don't miss the hard candies made from their collection of over 300 Clear Toy Candy molds, a Christmas gift tradition brought over by the Germans.Those candies that aren't made in house are retro candies like Teaberry gum, Wilbur Buds (a Pennsylvania candy and precursor to Hershey's Kiss) , and Jawbreakers, in keeping with the period theme of the store. And, yes, you'll find the Berley brothers and their shopkeepers in period garb at Shane Confectionery.With attention to historical details both in architecture and candy making, and a wide but not overwhelming selection of sumptuous candies (get a salted chocolate-covered caramel!), Shane Confectionery should be on every tourist's list, especially if you have children. After a long, excruciating day of looking at, yet, another Ben Franklin statue, Shane Confectionery will win any parent back into their child's favor.

Locals can skip the sightseeing, and head straight to the chocolate case, kid or no kid.

Shane Confectionery
110 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-922-1048

Artichoke Relish

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:52:00 +0000

The chronological nature of a blog means that, inevitably, posts roll off the screen to be forgotten in the archives. Occasionally, I resurrect a favorite recipe for those who missed it the first go around. What I have in my hand above is a Jerusalem artichoke (or sunchoke), which is the tuber of a sunflower. It's crunchy, sweet, nutty, and absolutely delicious! These were dug the other day at our friend's farm, but you can maybe find some now (autumn and winter) at farmers' markets and better, local grocery stores. My favorite way to prepare Jerusalem artichokes is as a sweet and tangy relish. Every year, my friend and I get together to can 18 or so pints of the stuff (one year we made 40 pints!). It's become a lovely tradition.Where do all of those jars of relish go? In deviled eggs, tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, and chickpea "tuna" salad. On top of burgers, sandwiches, and hotdogs. Next to butter beans and black-eyed peas. On a cracker with cheese. We use it on and in every thing!

Having just made our annual 18 pints of artichoke relish this past weekend, I thought I'd pull the recipe back up to the top of the blog for all y'all that missed it the first time, which was nearly 4 years ago! I'd like to think I've gotten just a tad better at blogging since then.Artichoke Relish

Adapted from A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South

Makes 17 or 18 pints

5 quarts Jerusalem artichokes, chopped
2 gallons water
2 cups non-iodized salt
3 pounds green cabbage, chopped
1 1/2 pounds onions, chopped
6 large green and red bell peppers, chopped
3/4 cup flour
1 (24-ounce) jar prepared mustard
2 quarts apple cider vinegar
3 pounds sugar
3 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons celery seed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon hot sauce

Soak artichokes overnight in 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of salt. In another container, soak the cabbage, onion, and bell peppers in the remaining 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of salt.
The next day, drain the artichokes and vegetables. Spread the artichokes on one towel, and the vegetables on a separate towel.
Combine the flour and prepared mustard in a bowl, avoiding lumps.
In a 10-quart or larger pot, add the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, then add the cabbage, onion, and bell peppers. Bring back to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
Reduce heat to low. Add and mix about a cup of the cooking liquid to the flour and mustard mixture, then add the thinned mixture to the pot of cooking vegetables, and stir.
Add the hot sauce and artichokes. Raise the heat and stir until almost boiling (about 5 minutes).
Remove pot from heat, and ladle hot relish into sterilized jars, wipe rims of jars, apply sterilized lids and bands, and process for 15 minutes in a hot water bath.

Santucci's Square Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:45:00 +0000

We ordered a mushroom and onion pizza for delivery from Santucci's Square Pizza the other week, and, yep, it really is as good as people say.

A small, local pizza chain with six location in Philly, Santucci's is known for it's square pizza with cheese on the bottom and sauce on the top. Not spending time north of the city where five of their original venues are located, I had never heard of Santucci's until they decided to open up shop near the Italian Market, and every person squealed with joy from print and social media.

A Santucci's square pizza starts with seasoned cast iron pan, which cooks up a sturdy and chewy crust. The crust is topped with mozzarella cheese, then the pizza is crowned with a deep red, thick, perfectly seasoned, herb-flecked sauce.

Santucci's makes a damn fine pizza. No, really. Every one at the table actually took a moment after eating the first slice to comment on how good it was. From crust, cheese, sauce, and toppings, there was not a thing to complain about.

As far as classic pizzas go, it's one of the best eat-in-front-of-the-tv pizzas I've had. They even managed to thoroughly cook, but not dry out the mushrooms!

Not sure I'll ever make it into their casual restaurant for a sit-down dinner, but I'm hoping for more rushed days to come around as an excuse to order another pizza from Santucci's.

They also do soups, salads, sandwiches, strombolis, pastas, flatbreads, and wings. If there are standouts on the menu other than the pizza, please let me know, and we might add it to a future delivery.

Santucci's Square Pizza
901 S. 10th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-825-5304

Desi Chaat House

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:38:00 +0000

Sitting here in November with freezing toes and fingers, it's hard to believe that it was 100-degrees the day I visited Desi Chaat House in University City, but it takes extreme situations to get me to cross the Schuykill River into the western regions of the city. We were looking for a reason to get out of our un-air-conditioned house, so savory Indian snacks it was!

Desi Chaat House's searingly bright orange corner store is set up for take-out, although there are are a few seats at a window counter and a small table wedged near the door. A few outdoor tables along the sidewalk are available, too.
The affordable menu has odds and ends like wraps, soups, biryani, lassis, ice cream, and shakes, but the main draw at Desi Chaat House is obviously the chaats. Chaats are savory snacks made of various crispy little bits of fried dough combined with all sorts or toppings and mix ins like onions, chickpeas, yogurt, chutneys, and spices. There are twenty or so chaats at Desi Chaat House to choose from. I'm only familiar with about five chaats on the menu, so after choosing my favorite, we just pointed and hoped for the best.

Behind the counter are canisters containing all the different crispies, bottles of sauces, and pans of vegetable add-ins. Once you place your order, they get to assembling your chaat in a to-go container, reaching here and there, going down the line until the masterpiece is assembled.
I'm ashamed to say I do not remember which one of the specialty chaats this is. Bengali, Mumbai, Punjabi? Either way, what you have is a salty, sweet, spicy, tangy potpourri of many different crispy bits, accented with potatoes, onions, radishes, lentils, nuts, cilantro, yogurt, tamarind sauce, and spicy chutney. It's a profoundly delicious textural playground of intense flavors that cover any Indian cravings you might have.
As a special, Desi Chaat House had my favorite Indian chaat, dahi puri — crispy fried semolina puffs filled with potatoes (and sometimes curds or chickpeas), then topped with yogurt, sweet chutney, spices and sev. Unlike any place I've ever eaten dahi puri, Desi Chaat House gives you the makings of dahi puri, and has you assemble your own. This involves breaking out the top of each individual puri puff (not too easy with a plastic fork), then filling and garnishing them. I'd much rather they made them for me. These dahi puri were great, but there was so much more going on ingredient-wise in the filling than I'm used to. I have a feeling that the chaat artists at Desi Chaat House lack restraint when it comes to ingredients. I also missed the finishing sprinkling of spicy chili powder that usually comes with dahi puri when they are made in a kitchen.
The vegetable samosas comes sitting on a vibrant bed of chickpeas, onions, yogurt, cilantro, and sweet and spicy chutneys. Unfortunately, the yogurt makes the already soft, pre-made and cold samosas even soggier. Perhaps one needs to request freshly made samosas. Service is definitely friendly at Desi Chaat House, and if the guys behind the counter have a moment, they will chat with you, and perhaps offer you a free dessert, like they did for us. I wish I could recommend the pistachio and almond-topped Lahori-style rice pudding from Desi Chaat House's grab-and-go fridge, but it is impossibly thick and sweet. Imagine rice mixed in sweetened condensed milk. This Pakistani take on rice pudding is not my favorite style.

While not printed on their paper menu or on their chalkboard menu, there is a 8.5x11-inch piece of paper posted listing which chaats are gluten free or nut free. Also, you can request any chaat be made vegan by simply leaving off the yogurt.

Despite a soggy samosa, having to assemble my own dahi puri (it's not really that hard), and a too sweet dessert, I'm in love with Desi Chaat House, and their vast array of chaats. I happen to love chaats more than curries, but If you love Indian food and Indian flavors, you are also going to love Desi Chaat House.

Desi Chaat House
501 S. 42nd St., Philadelphia, PA 19143
215-386-1999

Miss Rachel's Vegan Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:59:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Don't let the thought of long hours in the kitchen stress you out. Have Miss Rachel prepare your vegan Thanksgiving meal this year!

Miss Rachel kindly dropped me off a sneak peek of her delivered Thanksgiving platter (it was delectable, comforting, and generously portioned). Each $22 individual dish includes:

'Turkey’-style seitan with mushroom-red wine gravy (or herbed tofu if you are gluten free)
Garlicky mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole
Rosemary-thyme stuffing with cranberries (or rice stuffing if you are gluten free)

Plus, you can add an individual size homemade pumpkin pie to any order for just $8.

Deliveries will take place on the evening of Tuesday, November 22 and all day/evening on Wednesday, November 23. Pickup is also available from 2-6pm on Tuesday, November 22 at Greensgrow Farm Market.

The Deadline for ordering is Sunday, November 20.

For more details, and to place an order, visit Miss Rachel's site. Orders can also be placed by emailing missrachelspantry@gmail.com, or calling 215-285-7622.

CSA Next Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:19:00 +0000

Week 24: bok choy, turnips, broccoli, crimini mushrooms, onions, daikon radishes, and sweet potatoes.

Well, that's it! The Lancaster Farm Fresh spring and summer CSA has come to an end. Instead of showing you what I did with the bounty (you've probably seen it before, since I tend to eat the same things over and over), I thought I'd run through some positive an negative observations from my first CSA experience.

POSITIVES

You know you're getting local, organic vegetables if you buy from a CSA. Sure, you can buy organic produce at even the big box grocery stores, but they aren't necessarily local.

You're eating what's in season right now. This means you're getting vegetables when they are freshest and taste their best.

I would rather pick up a CSA share than go to the grocery store or farmers' market. This is where having a convenient CSA pickup time and location is very important. Fortunately, mine was very convenient. There are many different CSAs out there, and if you're thinking about signing up for one, I highly suggest picking one with a location and pickup time that fits with your schedule and routines.

Having fresh vegetables every week cuts down on grocery trips. With so many vegetables in the house (and more coming every week), you really have to work at eating your veggies, and this means making meals centered around vegetables. With a well stocked pantry of basics, and vegetables galore, there was rarely any missing ingredient I needed to go to the store for.

A CSA is a good way to get more vegetables in your diet. If you are trying to cut down on meat consumption, a CSA subscription might force you to forgo meat a few nights a week, because there's just no other way to get through all those veggies. Even if you don't eat meat, you're still likely to increase your veggie intake, and that's never a bad thing!

Getting local, organic vegetables through a CSA is cheaper than the grocery store or farmers' market. This I'm not sure of (I only compared prices here and there), but I'm going to put the price of CSAs in the "positive" category. My half share at $17 per week for 4-9 vegetable portions per week, could be cheaper or more expensive depending on where you shop, how many vegetable portions were in each share, and what kind of vegetables you received each week. Cheaper than shopping at Headhouse Farmers' Market? For sure! Cheaper than other not-so-pricy farmers' markets and roadside stands? Sometimes. Cheaper than Whole Foods? Most of the time. Cheaper than the big box grocery store? Sometimes. In the end, I think $17 for the quality and amount of vegetables I received was fair.
Week 25: cabbage, crimini mushrooms, broccoli, buttercrunch lettuce, Japanese sweet potatoes, onions, and butternut squash.

NEGATIVES

If you tire easily of repeats, a CSA might not be for you. Certain vegetables can be in season for weeks, if not months, meaning that you'll receive some vegetables week after week after week.

You cannot pick and choose your vegetables with a CSA. If you hate X and Y, it will seem like every week X and Y is in your share. You will feel resentful that you spent money for vegetables you hate and will not eat. If you refuse to eat more than a couple kinds of vegetables — or dislike an entire vegetable family, like brassicas, which include kale, Brussels sprouts, collards, and broccoli, just to name a few — you'll be happier picking out your own vegetables at the store or market.

It takes dedication to cooking at home to eat through a week's share before the next one comes. If you eat out a lot, it will be almost impossible to keep on top of a CSA share. With a two-person household and a half share, if we ate dinner out more than once a week, we struggled with clearing out the fridge before the next pickup.Will I sign up for a CSA next year? Yes!

Fortunately, I like all vegetables, don't tire easily of repeats, and cook at home frequently, so the potential negatives of a CSA (or at least the negatives that I could think of; perhaps you have other thoughts) aren't really negatives for me.

Will you continue with a CSA next year? Why did you love (or hate) your CSA?

Sweet Pickled Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:24:00 +0000

This past weekend was a pretty nasty one if you lived in the Northeast. Freezing rain, sleet, snow, oh my! Yes, snow is a bit out of the ordinary in October around these parts, but it's not unusual to have a first frost in October where temperatures dip down below freezing.

If you keep a garden (container gardens count!), those chilly temperatures mean it's time to put the garden to bed, and bring in any plants that can't handle the cold, as well as harvest the vegetable garden's last fruits. All I had left in the raised veggie bed were a few peppers and eggplants, so they came in the evening before the inclimate weather arrived.
These small, rounded, red peppers are actually Mini Belle peppers, but their color and size remind me of spicy peppadew peppers. Don't think I've ever had a fresh pepadew pepper, but I absolutely adore the sweet and spicy pickled peppadew peppers you get at cheese shops and olive bars (I was getting them at Claudio's in the Italian Market, but Superfresh on Columbus Blvd. has them for almost half the price of Claudio's). Goat cheese-stuffed pickled peppadews are the perfect pop-in-your-mouth snack! Mini Belles aren't spicy like peppadews, but I decided to pickle them anyway, since all summer long I've been gazing at the 5-foot tall pepper plant dreaming of cute, red pickled peppers. Feel free to use any pepper you like — sweet or spicy.Sweet Pickled Peppers
makes 1 pint

8 ounces small peppers (or enough to fit in a pint jar)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 bay leaf
4 allspice seeds
4 whole cloves
8 peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon mustard seed

Insert tip of a pairing knife into the top of the pepper, and working the knife around the top at an angle, cut out a cone. Using your fingers or some other small instrument (I used the handle of a spoon), scrape out the seeds. Wash cored peppers in water to remove any seeds stuck to the inside or outside of the peppers. Dry peppers.
Put bay leaf, allspice, cloves, peppercorns, coriander, and mustard seed in the bottom of a sterilized mason jar. Fill jar with peppers, arranging them tightly without breaking the peppers.
In a small saucepan, combine the water, vinegar, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer until sugar has dissolved.
While the syrup is still hot, pour the syrup into the jar, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace. Use a chopstick or some other slim instrument to run around the edges of the inside of the jar, jiggling a bit, to release any trapped air bubbles. There will be lots of trapped air bubbles if you are using whole peppers.
Wipe the rim of the jar, and apply sterilized lid and ring. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water, and let cool on the counter for at least 2 hours. Check lids for a proper seal.

How I Used My CSA: Weeks 22 & 23

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:30:00 +0000

Week 22: red kuri squash, portobello mushrooms, romaine lettuce, red onions, red gold potatoes, and bok choy.

Swapped out escarole (reason later) and Cajun peppers (grow our own peppers) for extra red kuri squash and portobellos.

As the CSA season comes to an end, we've found that eating through a week's share before the next one arrives is impossible. I just can't burn through winter squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, and beets like I can the tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers of summer.

Thankfully, a lot of the produce that comes in during fall stores well. Our refrigerator is ridiculously full after weeks of stashing produce away to eat at a later date. It will be months before we get through all our our CSA haul.

I'm very glad that we waited until the end of the 25 week CSA subscription (this week is our last pickup, but I'm a bit behind on posts) to see if we wanted to extend four extra weeks into December. We are set. No need for more squash or potatoes!This escarole goes back to week 20 of the CSA, but it took a couple weeks and a couple unsuccessful tries of eating the very bitter escarole raw until I just braised in it vegetable stock like I would collards or mustard greens. It was still bitter, but now palatable. Escarole is not one of my favorite greens!
That's not just a perfectly round mound of stir fried rice studded with bok choy; it's a stir fried rice-stuffed portobello. Because why not?
Week 23: crimini mushrooms, broccoli, Flashy Troutsback romaine lettuce, radishes, cilantro, and spaqhetti squash.

Swapped out butternut squash (still have some) for extra mushrooms (we've really enjoyed having mushroom almost every week).
Steamed broccoli with seitan and mushroom stroganoff. I've been using the vegan seitan and portobello stroganoff recipe from Post Punk Kitchen for years now, and it's fabulous. Make it!
We reached back into our produce-stuffed fridge for beets, and sweet potatoes from previous CSA weeks to combine with radishes from week 23 for roasted vegetables to top wheat berries. Collards from a few weeks back were also rescued from near death to become a side.
Butternut squash from a few weeks back was used to make this veggie version of sopa de lima from the Yucatan. The recipe comes from Passionate Vegetarian, a crazy, voluminous, over 1000-page cookbook (some great recipes for sure, but many could have been culled) that the boy brought into the relationship. Cilantro and lime juice really make this soup refreshing, and different than most squash soups you've had.
Back into the fridge for previous weeks' produce to bake sweet potato muffins studded with chocolate chips. I've made these twice already! Maybe a recipe post at some point?

How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?

Federal Donuts

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:05:00 +0000

With Federal Donuts' Pennsport location right in my 'hood, I could have easily been first in line this Monday at 7am for their opening day, but I patiently waited until their third day of business to pay a visit.
The small corner takeout store specializing in donuts, coffee, and Korean fried chicken, opened by Steven Cook and Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Percy Street), Thomas Henneman and Bob Logue (BODHi Coffee), and Felicia D’Ambrosio, may seem like a odd food pairing catering to a niche market of food lovers, but from the turnout of people at Federal Donuts clamoring to get their hands on the long anticipated vittles, it seems the niche market of 'nuts and chix ain't so small.
Federal Donuts has been selling out of doughnuts within hours of opening, and chicken, which doesn't take the stage until noon, within the hour.

Things should calm down at some point — they just opened after long anticipation and much fanfare from the media, after all — so don't get discouraged if you have not had a chance to try Federal Donuts' chicken or doughnuts.
There was only one way for me to tackle Federal Donuts, and that was to order all the doughnuts! Flavors of both the Fancies and Sugared will vary, so I didn't really try all of the doughnuts; just those offered that day.

Six Fancy doughnuts ($2 each), which are filled and glazed in advance. And...
Three Sugared doughnuts ($1.25 each), which are hot, made to order.

Of course, there's also the Korean fried chicken, which I obviously won't be posting about unless they start frying seitan (do it!). Whole ($15) and half ($8) birds are available glazed (traditional Korean style, chili-garlic, honey-ginger) or crispy and sprinkled with seasoned salts (Za'atar, buttermilk ranch, harissa).

A Federal Donuts custom blend of Stumptown Roasters PT's Coffee Roasting Co. beans is served using the single-cup Chemex method.
First things first...I was curious as to how the round cake doughnuts with a hole in the middle that are plopped out by a Donut Robot into a vat of hot oil were going to be filled, since I think of filled doughnuts as yeasted and without a hole. Were they going to fill the hole and seal in the filling somehow?

Nope. Filling is piped into the center of the cake itself, with the filling going all the way around — more or less — the tube of cake. Brilliant!

All doughnuts are made with the same cake base, which is neutral in flavor, so plays well with all the different flavored toppings and filling. I'm happy to report that the cake is light and fluffy. Still crossing my fingers that Federal Donuts will roll out some yeasted doughnuts in the future, though.
Oh, my! The Key Lime Fancy doughnut piped full of lime curd, then dipped in a sweet lime glaze and topped with graham cracker crumbs is my favorite of the bunch, and the most decadent. Put this on a plate with a fork at your next dinner party, and don't even bother whipping up a homemade dessert!
At first bite, I wasn't too keen on the Nutella-Tahina-Pomegranate Fancy doughnut filled with tahini Nutella, dipped in a pomegranate glaze and sprinkled with sesame seeds (sesame reads savory to me, and the tahini diminished the perfection that is Nutella), but this doughnut grew on me and developed into a sophisticated twist on peanut butter and jelly.
For those who like plainer flavors, the Honey-Almond Fancy with a delicate honey flavor is for you. Even though the Honey-Almond doughnut is a Fancy, this did not seem to be filled. Perhaps the filling just seeped into the cake. There has to be a chocolate covered doughnut! The Chocolate-Raspberry Fancy piped with raspberry jelly, glazed with chocolate and topped with dried raspberries is just a classic flavor combination that cannot be messed with. One of my favorites in the bunch!Another favorite is the Coconut-Pineapple Fancy. Filled with pineapple jelly and dipped in a coconut glaze with sweet coconut flakes, this doughnut is tropical with a capital "T." The coconut and pineapple flavors are so fresh and clear, it's like ambrosia (the fresh fruit salad dessert) made into doughnut form. Do not miss, if you like coconut!
The Orange Blossom-Pistachio Fancy is the only doughnut I would not order again. It's me, not you, Federal Donuts. The smell of the orange blossom glaze (isolated, it's a lovely fragrance) mixed with nuts and cake reminds me of the sometimes funky mixed smells in greenhouses. Those who don't spend lots of time around plants like I do, may find this floral-scented, curd filled doughnut just heavenly. The Vanilla-Lavender Sugar doughnut is going to be your plainest option. The lavender is so light it is barely detectable, making this, basically, a plain sugared doughnut.
I had no idea what flavor the Apollonia Sugar doughnut would be. When I asked my boyfriend what he suspected, he replied, "Prince's girlfriend in Purple Rain?" Ha.

Turns out, Apollonia is a spice blend of bitter cocoa powder and dried orange blossoms from La Boite a Epice. Here, orange blossom is not so in your face, and can be enjoyed without greenhouse flashbacks.
The Indian Cinnamon Sugar doughnut has an enchanting spice mix — is that cardamom? — that brings intrigue to a cinnamon sugar doughnut.

Fabulous job all around, Federal Doughnuts! You have done with cake doughnuts what I had hoped for from The Fractured Prune, but did not get: exciting and inventive flavors. Still gonna hold out hope for yeasted doughnuts, though.

Federal Donuts
1219 S. 2nd St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
267-687-8258

Winner: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:50:00 +0000

And the winner of a pair of tickets to An Evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert at Merriam Theater is deleahrium with the comment: Sucked fingernail through straw in mimosa. Congratulations! Please email me at mac.and.cheese.review (at) gmail (dot) com.

There were some real doozies in the comments about bad restaurant experiences (hairy hush puppies, bloody pizzas, chicken tumors, strippers, bad breath), but only one comment elicited an audible response from me. It took a split second to wrap my head around what actually happened in deleahrium's comment, but, when I did, I gasped at the computer and scrunched my face.

There are only a few things that make me squeamish, and unsavory acts involving fingernails is one of them. The velocity of the sharp fingernail traveling up the straw. The moment of unknowing when the fingernail shrapnel hits the tongue. Pulling out the unknown object to discover it's a fingernail. The horror!

For those that didn’t win, tickets can be purchased here. Enter password “RESERVATION” to receive $5 off the ticket price.

Ticket Giveaway: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:13:00 +0000

Thanks to Mills Entertainment, I have a pair of tickets to An Evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert at Merriam Theater Wednesday, November 2, 7:30pm to give away to one lucky winner.

From the event's page:

Selling out across the nation, mater chefs Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert share an evening of storytelling, providing the audience with a provocative back-and-forth about what really goes on behind the kitchen doors.

To enter to win, leave a six-word comment describing your worst restaurant experience.

Contest ends Wednesday, October 19 at 6pm. Be sure to check back for a blog post announcing the winner, to see if you won.

For those who don't win, you can receive $5 off tickets online, by calling (215-893-1999), or by visiting the box office with the password: RESERVATION.