I actually intended to make this last week, but The Wife’s digestive system fell apart (she would probably appreciate that I did not go into any further detail). This meant that my Meatless Monday plans were pushed to Tuesday, and we had a bland dinner of turkey sandwiches. Looking at all of the food I bought, this was the dinner that could get bumped until this week.

My only concern were the shiitake mushrooms, but they were allayed when I read on the Chow.com boards that those will keep up to 3 weeks, if refrigerated.

I have preened over Yasmin Fahr and her recipes before here on this blog, but she put together a really nice recipe here that covers the gamut of salty (pancetta), bitter (greens), earthy (mushrooms) and spicy (serrano peppers). The end product works really nicely together.

WHAT WORKED: Being able to shelve this for a week.

WHAT DIDN’T: My lemon went bad, which was disappointing. The insides were brown and dry, which is not what I would expect for one week old.

WHAT DID THE WIFE SAY: This is really good. There are a lot flavors going on here.

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: Sure. We like mushrooms and greens here.

Pasta with Mushrooms, Pancetta, and Wilted Greens
Adapted lightly from Yasmin Fahr’s original at Serious Eats

• 1/2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 lb. pancetta, diced
• 2 cups shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed and cut into slices
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 1 serrano chile pepper, stemmed, seeded and minced
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 1 lb. dried fusilli or rotini pasta
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups, packed, leafy, bitter greens (such as kale, mustard or collard greens), trimmed, washed and stemmed
• Juice of one fresh lemon (or 2 tbsp. bottled lemon juice)
• Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Add oil to a large saucepan over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the pancetta. Cook to render its fat and brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms to coat in the oil and rendered fat. Let cook until the mushrooms have softened further and browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the shallots and minced serrano, stirring in. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, or until the shallots soften. Remove from heat and transfer the contents to a bowl. Set aside.

Increase the burner to high and add the stock to the pan. Add pasta, cooking for 2 minutes less than the package’s directions for al dente.

Add the greens and stir together. Cook 1 minute to wilt greens and blend with pasta. Add the pancetta-shallot mixture and stir together. Cook an additional minute or two, or until the liquid has reduced and formed a creamy sauce. Adjust flavors with salt and pepper.

Stir in the lemon juice, remove from heat and serve hot with grated cheese.

The first Panini Sunday of Autumn 2014 was actually last week. I made a sopressata, genoa salami and fresh mozzarella panini that turned into a greasy, sloppy mess. Worse, there were spots in the meat that got hotter than others, so in those spaces where the sandwich did hold up, you could incinerate your tongue.

So, we’ll pretend that this was the first week of panini season here and say that last week was like a preseason game.

I actually cheated in terms of the chicken, in that I bought a rotisserie chicken from the store (Side note: Costco roto chicken is far superior to any version sold in Syracuse-area supermarkets. Much juicier, a lot more flavor and not as much waste.). At that point, it was just a matter of breaking the bird down, eating the wings (you’re not going to use the wing meat anyways. Consider it your reward for the hard work on the cutting board.), and making the sandwiches.

The cheese was an easy choice. Mild bries are like the butter version of cheese. It spreads nice, melts well and provides a great contrast to the tangy dijon mustard you will use.

WHAT WORKED: The roto chicken. It’s so much easier and cheaper than prepping your own meat for a sandwich.

WHAT DIDN’T: I broke my panini maker. The clip that holds my 2+ year old DeLonghi-brand press closed snapped right off. The top had enough weight for this sandwich, but for something thicker I might need a pan or something heavy to set on top.

WHAT DID THE WIFE SAY: “Brie? Oooooh. Brie.”

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: Sure. Next time, I might use a grainy dijon.

Chicken and Brie Paninis
By Jared Paventi

• Four slices crusty bread
• Dijon mustard
• 1/4 lb. mild Brie cheese, at room temperature and rind removed
• Meat from a cooked rotisserie chicken
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• Herbes de provence

Preheat your panini maker per the manufacturer’s instructions.

In the meantime, add a thin layer of Dijon mustard to two slices of bread so that the bread is a different color, but the nooks of the bread are still visible. With a butter knife, spread the Brie on the other two slices of bread. You can vary how much cheese you use based on preference.

Top the brie sides with chicken, to create an even layer of meat on the bread. Top with the Dijon sides.

In a small bowl, mix together the oil and herbs with a fork or pastry brush. Brush a light coating of the infused oil on the top side of each sandwich.

Add to the preheated panini grill and cook 8 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sandwiches have a caramel brown color.

Is it lunch box or lunchbox? I tend to go with the singular word, as if the box’s sole purpose was to carry lunch. But, I think most people would go with two words, as in a box that happens to have lunch inside of it.

The lunchbox in question during Thursday’s midday forage for sustenance was one that belongs to Laci, or Laura and Cindy, the duo behind the raucously popular Laci’s Tapas Bar on Hawley Avenue. These ladies have earned a reputation as more than mere entrepreneurs and businesswomen, but as community leaders. Laci’s Lunchbox, their newest endeavor, is located near the Tapas Bar where Hawley Avenue and Green Street meet.

The Lunchbox is in a renovated Victorian home that contractors continue to work on. Drills and hammers made themselves known as my co-worker and I walked through the double doors, past the large staircase and to the cafe’s entrance. In another life, this space was a living room, dining and kitchen of a house. Today, seating for about a dozen people is mixed in with a walk-up counter. An iPod and speaker fill the space nicely with mellow modern rock music that doesn’t interrupt conversations.

Eight paninis are described on a menu board behind the counter. Roasted chicken and pot roast make up half of the options, while vegetarian options include tuna and egg salads. Two soups are available daily, and diners can order soup with a half-sandwich for $6.48, the same price as a full panini. The Laci’s salad ($6.94) was ordered to-go by a friend of mine in line behind me. The singular salad on the menu featured almonds, dried cranberries and bleu cheese over a spring mix with balsamic vinaigrette.

Toni and I each ordered a sandwich and soup ($3.74), the latter of which is served in an oversized latte mug. She spoke highly of her corn chowder, describing it as having a nice corn sweetness balanced by the chowder’s cream. The smokey tomato bisque had diced tomatoes in a smooth tomato-cream broth. An earthy smoke, likely the result of a smoked Spanish paprika, rounded out each spoonful.

The Laci’s Lunchbox sandwich is served on focaccia, though wraps and gluten free bread are available upon request. Massive may be the best word to describe the sheer size of the sandwich, which has to be sliced in half and stacked in order to fit in the paper-lined basket. Toni’s Hawley was loaded with pot roast, crispy onions, and topped with cheddar sprouts, tomatoes and horseradish.

I typically eschew hot tuna as a food choice (but not as a band), but opted for the Mulligan, a mix of albacore tuna, capers, and olive oil topped with cheddar, sprouts & tomato. The first three ingredients were mixed together fresh before the sandwich was assembled and grilled. The final product surpassed expectation, as the chewy focaccia kept the sandwich contents from getting too hot on the grill, and kept ingredients from falling out.

Sandwiches are served with carrot chips — 8 to 10 thin-sliced carrots — and a homemade chocolate chip cookie. We agreed that we probably should have only consumed half of the sandwich and brought the other half home, but that they were so good that we simply couldn’t stop. Will power is a quality we apparently eroded by our jobs.

A half-dozen fresh made juice blends round out the menu ($3.94), as do coffee, espresso drinks and cooler of sodas and bottled drinks. A small breakfast menu — the Lunchbox opens at 8 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday — includes bagels, muffins and egg sandwiches.

On-street parking is the only drawback to Laci’s Lunchbox, and a winter full of unpredictable weather and snow removal may keep new customers away on particularly blustery days this winter. But, one thing that Linda and Cindy do well is build loyal fan bases with their concepts. Not snow, nor sleet nor dark of night will keep their followers away.

Okay, maybe the dark of night. Laci’s Lunchbox closes at 3:30 p.m.

Laci’s Lunchbox is located at 115 Green St. in Syracuse’s historic Hawley-Green neighborhood. Its hours are 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call ahead for pickup at 315-236-1040. A whole sandwich, soup, and a Mexican Coca-Cola was $14.

In most parts of the country, autumn is a transitional season where summer slowly transitions into winter. Leaves turn colors, fields are harvested and turned for the next season, and our sleeves get longer.

Here in Central New York, autumn lasts about three weeks. September gets progressively colder, so much so that you think it is October already. By the time Halloween hits, parents debate whether snowsuits are necessary underneath the costume for trick or treating.

But fret not, weary autumnal Syracusan, we’re mere weeks away from the first of 150 inches of snow to fall. In September 1995, I sat in the backseat of a Honda Civic hatchback, en route to St. Bonaventure University after a weekend home. It snowed the entire way from my driveway in Liverpool to the doors of Shay-Loughlen Hall. People love Syracuse because you get to see all four seasons, sometimes even in the same week.

It’s easy to beat on Syracuse because of the weather. I actually enjoy winter and dislike fall. The transition is lost on me. It’s wasted time between the heat index and windchill. I would just assume have autumn take a week and go right into snowfall. Eliminate all of the pumpkin spice pretext and head straight into a snowbank.

With the cold weather, we bring in more soups and this is one that really stands out. A little earlier in the fall and you might be able to find the end-of-the-season kale harvests at the farmer’s markets in your areas, as well as the carrots and onions that power this soup.

WHAT WORKED: My favorite here was the smell of the mirepoix sauteing at the very beginning. The smell of the carrots, onion and celery fill the kitchen. Someone should make a candle out of that scent. Also, I made this soup a day in advance and refrigerated it. It allowed the veggies to absorb more of the tomato base and the flavors to mingle.

WHAT DIDN’T: The spice profile. Turmeric and hot pepper flakes didn’t really appeal to me. I spun it closer to the more traditional herbs found in minestrone using herbes de provence.

WHAT DID THE WIFE SAY: “This is really good. (Looking in the pan) We are going to have a ton of it left over.”

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: This year? Yes, but as leftovers. We have three quarts in the freezer.

Kale-Quinoa Minestrone
Adapted from MindBodyGreen

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 small or 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 medium to large red bell pepper, diced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 28 oz. crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups water
• 6 cups vegetable stock, divided
• 3/4 cup quinoa
• 15 oz. can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups kale, chopped coarsely and stems removed
• 1 to 2 tsp. herbes de provence

In a large soup or stock pot over medium heat, add the olive oil. When it shimmers, add the carrots, celery and onion. Cook until softened, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Stir in the red pepper and zucchini, season with salt and pepper and cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, water and stock*, increase heat, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the quinoa, reduce heat to medium, and cook, covered, for 20 more minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the beans. Add the kale in bunches, stirring in, and return to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes.

Serve hot with grated parmesan cheese.

*: If you are making this soup in advance, reserve 2 of the 6 cups of stock. When reheating, add the stock, bring the soup to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook 20 minutes, covered. If you are serving this soup immediately, add all six cups of broth and increase the cooking time of the first simmer to 30 minutes.

Once the leaves fall off the trees, so do the choices. Cazenovia moves indoors and becomes a monthly operation. The CNY Regional Market moves to an indoor operation spread out over a few buildings. But, that’s about it until May.

Well, it was until this past weekend.

Farmshed CNY, an organization aimed at connecting the populace with local farmers and purveyors, cut the ribbon on its first winter farmer’s market at Baltimore Woods Nature Center in Marcellus. About 20 vendors crowded into the exhibit room at the center from market stalwarts like Zimmer Bakes and Flour City Pasta to meats from Creekside Meadows Farms to produce from Elderberry Pond. A stand by Farmshed featured produce from throughout the region.

Margaret McCormick of Eat First wrote about the market last week in the Syracuse New Times. She and I met and walked through the market together. Parking was at a premium at the top of the hill, with cars packing the center’s lot and lining either side of Bishop Hill Road. The room itself was wall to wall when we walked in at 10:30 a.m. After making a first pass around the room and talking to the vendors, we each got to work on what we were seeking. I ended up with carrots and broccoli from the Farmshed table, and Swiss chard from Good Karma Garlic in Jordan, as well as cookies from Zimmer’s.

It was also a chance to interact with some people I knew tangentially and meet a couple of new people that Margaret introduced me to. I also had a chance to catch up with the people from Flour City, whom I have talked to in a while.

We celebrate agriculture in our community, but we do not talk enough about the venues that help farmers connect with consumers. It’s a simple enough undertaking at the outset, getting a group of farmers and producers together for three hours once each month. But, it’s the sum of these actions events that get consumers in touch with the people who make their food that we need to celebrate as well. Farmshed CNY is doing good work here.

The Winter Farmers Market at Baltimore Woods takes place on the second Saturday of the month from November 2014 to April 2015. Hours are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Baltimore Woods Nature Center is located on Bishop Hill Road just south of the village of Marcellus.

Whether or not I write a full-on review of last night’s dinner at Laci’s Tapas Bar (I’ve written about it in the past), it’s worth noting that restaurant’s importance within the dining fabric of Syracuse.

The vast majority of restaurants fail, regardless of how good the food is. A restaurant built into a Victorian home in a gentrifying city neighborhood seems like a dicey venture. Yet, there is Laci’s, packed to the gills on a Saturday night in November.

The phrase “labor of love” seems trite, but I’m not sure what else one would use to describe Laci’s. We went with some friends that had never been before, and found ourselves discussing the importance of a restaurant like Laci’s while waiting for dessert. Each serving hits its mark, but is distinctly different from the other delivery to the table. Very little of the flavors are repeated from dish to dish. Things you wouldn’t expect to like envelope you when you try them. You push yourself to try them, and then find yourself wanting another order. For instance, The Wife ate bacon-wrapped jalepeños last night. Jalepeños. Most days, I can’t get her to eat anything hotter than cayenne pepper, but there she was chowing down. The kitchen is first-rate and that should be noted.

But, it’s not just the back of house that carries a restaurant. Everyone there has a personality. Jordan, our waiter, spent the evening joking with us, and periodically one of the owners (Laura, the La of Laci’s) stopped by to give us a hard time. And, as is so difficult to find in restaurants, there is a very apparent symbiosis between the front and back of house.

As we drove away, The Wife said to me, “We spent $100 on dinner tonight, but I don’t mind that. I feel like I got something for my money. We can’t do that all of the time, but I felt okay signing the slip because, I don’t care if I spent $20 or $60 or $100, I want to feel like I got what I paid for.”

It has me thinking about what is important in our communities as far as food goes. I think the local food thinkers and writers (myself included) talk about about the importance of using local ingredients and supporting local agriculture, but maybe we need to look at things from a more macro level. What is important to Syracuse and Central New York’s food palate? Who are the people shaping that palate? Why is what they are doing important? I would argue that Laura Serway and Cindy Seymour have done more in these areas since Laci’s opened its doors — as entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and community leaders — than some have in their lifetime.

I think it goes beyond a list of what foods or places make Syracuse a good food town, and making people feel good about living and eating here. It’s about the Syracuse’s food legacy and future, and those that hold the key to what’s next.

That is the discussion that we should focus on in this community. People, not actions, dictate the future of any subject or area. Let’s draw the spotlights their way so we can better understand our community, its needs and those that are fulfilling them.

Sometimes you want something light for dinner. I’ve cooked with a lot of cream and butter recently, so this week for dinner I wanted to offer some choices that were not as rich or heavy on the stomach.

Naturally, steak and eggs came to mind.

This Southwest-style steak and eggs dish came from Julia’s Album, a nifty food blog with a fairly large readership. Now, Julia intended this to be a breakfast selection, but I’ve found that there is little that you make for the first meal that you cannot make for your evening sitdown. The Wife is a proponent of the breakfast-for-dinner movement, so this was an easy choice.

WHAT WORKED: A thin-sliced (1/2-inch thick) top round steak in lieu of Julia’s choice of flank steak. Why? There’s a $4 per pound difference between the cuts at Wegmans. The popular and sexy flank tips in at $9.79 per, while top round goes at $5.59. Both cook easily on a stovetop and though the top round less tender than the flank, you don’t really notice it.

WHAT DIDN’T: Other than the store-bought guacamole being on the verge of passing its shelf life, everything here was fine.

WHAT DID THE WIFE SAY: It was different. I don’t know if I want to eat that all of the time, but you know how I feel about breakfast.

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: Not soon, but I think it’s a worthy Sunday dinner later this winter.

Steak and Eggs
Adapted from Julia’s Kitchen

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp.  cumin
• 1 packet Goya Sazon (I used the variety with annatto and culantro)
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. herbes de provence
• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. top round steak, no more than 3/4-inch thick
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 4 small corn or flour tortillas
• guacamole, good-quality store-bought or homemade
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Combine the first six ingredients in a small bowl using a spoon. Lay the flank steak on a clean work surface and rub the spices into the both sides of the steak. Set aside and let stand until you are ready to use it.

Heat oil in a large skillet over a high flame until it shimmers. Add the steak and cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side to medium rare. You should have a nice browning on either side. Transfer the cooked steak to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

In a clean skillet, heat a nonstick pan over high until it is too hot for you to hold your hand over the surface of the pan. Crack two eggs and cook them sunnyside up until the whites have cooked through. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining eggs.

Wipe the pan clean and return to the high heat. Cook tortillas, one by one, in the pan until the bubble up. Remove and transfer to clean dinner plates.

Slice steak on the grain and discard as much of the exposed fat as possible.

Add a spoonful of guacamole to each tortilla and spread a small circle of it in the middle of the disc. Set 3 to 4 pieces of steak on each tortilla, and top them with 2 tbsp. each of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. Top each with two eggs. Serve with salsa on the side, if you choose.

Some months ago I asked you, dear reader, to help me create a Syracuse centric food box that I could send to my friend Allison in Arkansas.

Time passed, Allison went through a job change, summer became fall and at some point, my brain fell out of my head. I totally forgot about this until one day and envelope with Cavender’s Greek Seasoning and a bag of fish fry coating, suitable for shrimp, catfish, Jacques Cousteau and other ocean creatures, arrived in the mail. I’ve documented the Cavender’s. I’m going to use the fish fry at some point when I set up a better deep-fry situation outside. I’m not allowed to deep fry things inside of the house and I’m actually okay with that fact.

So, in return I finally got off my butt and assembled my return offering. The Upstate New York box, I decided, left things too wide open. No, it needed to reflect Syracuse. After all, Upstate can mean at least three different types of hot dogs (Hoffmans, Zweigel’s, Sahlen’s for starters) Croghan Bologna, Buffalo Wings and Rochester Inferiority (or whatever they are noted for). Central New York can involve Utica greens, speedies and Grandma Brown’s baked beans. It needed to be narrowed to the four walls of the space I know best.

We’ve covered why Syracuse is a great food town in the past and I appreciate everyone’s suggestions. So, here’s what I finally settled on:

****

Allison:

This is the best of Syracuse that did not require overnight shipping, a ton of packing material or dry ice, and would not tip off drug-sniffing dogs. That meant that Hoffman’s hot dogs, Stewart’s Ice Cream, and Cafe Kubal coffees are off the table. It’s also illegal to ship beer to your state (imagine that…damn Baptists), so no luck there. Given my luck with shipping glass lately, Salamida’s State Fair Barbecue sauce was also off the table. So, what do we have:

Buckwheat honey: Buckwheat flowers grow at higher elevations in New York and the honey generated from their pollination is pretty tasty. It has a flavor and consistency closer to molasses. It also has antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties, so if one of the boys is a pain in the ass, you can squeeze some on them and it should take care of things. I got this from a local Mennonite farmer at the Central New York Regional Market who grows tomatoes the size of my daughter’s head.

Flour City Pasta: I lied. This isn’t Syracuse-centric. I make my own rules. Anyhow, it’s made in Rochester but the owner is in Syracuse every Saturday selling pasta. It’s all natural artisan pasta. This is their Rasta Pasta blend. The pasta is made with semolina flour and sweet potatoes, carrots, thyme, limes and cayenne pepper. Grilled chicken over this with some garlic butter, or shrimp and a lime-cilantro cream sauce might be good here.

Pasta’s Hot Tomato Oil: This is a Syracuse institution. They just began bottling this within the past few years. Prior to that, you bought it at the restaurant or bakery in to-go containers. Anyhow, a little goes a long way here because there is a spice here. Serve it straight over pasta, mix it with a good refrigerated marinara or alfredo, or just dunk a baguette into it. Mike might even like a shot in his coffee in the morning. It’s shelf stable so it should keep for a while.

Dinosaur Bar-b-que Cajun Foreplay: If you ever visited Syracuse, I would take you here. It’s the landmark Syracuse restaurant: barbecue stand run by biker turned to-go counter turned biker bar turned full-service restaurant turned national chain. They have two in NYC, one is going to open in Chicago, but why bother. The original is the original. Anyhow, it’s a Memphis-style BBQ joint and this is their dry rub. I throw it on just about everything — meat, eggs, small children.

If I was better at packing boxes or had the extra scratch to throw around, you might have received some barbecue sauce or a Syracuse Crate.

Enjoy it. I’ve never mailed anything, knowingly, to Arkansas.

JP

I also think that Taco Bell had something to do with it. I haven’t run for the border in a long time, but my memories of what’s inside the wax paper wrapper is not pretty. It is usually a sloppy mess of meat, salsa and sour cream with the smell of warm garbage. I don’t know why this was so appealing to me in high school, but I ate it like a champ.

One of my favorite preparations of pork is al pastor. It’s a Mexican-style of delivering pork related to Middle Eastern shawarma (Wikipedia explains it well).  Lupe and the crew at Boom Boom Mex Mex make a life-changing pastor, with a base of pineapple, annatto, and chile peppers. It’s very mild, very flavorful and I find myself wanting to eat it directly from the line.

Take beans, as a for instance. Beans and rice are such a basic foodstuff, but there we go with the bowl of glass again. It’s funny, because The Father talks about eating tripe, head, tongue and other animal pieces, but offer the guy a taco and he locks up like prison.

WHAT WORKED: Black bean soup is necessary here because you need the liquid to cook the beans, and the broth here is certainly better than just adding water.

WHAT DIDN’T: I’m terrible at folding burritos.

WHAT DID THE WIFE SAY: I don’t exactly remember, so I’ll say that she approved?

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: I think that’s likely.

Black Bean Burritos
By Jared Paventi

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp. canola oil
• 14 to 15 oz. can black bean soup
• one packet Goya Sazon (I used the variety with annatto and culantro)
• 1/2 cup cooked rice
• 2 cups Monterey jack cheese, grated
• Two large “burrito-sized” tortillas
• Salsa, sour cream, guacamole for serving side

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat canola oil in a large saucepan over high until it shimmers. Add the onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the black bean soup. Bring to a boil, add the Sazon, and reduce heat to medium-low while you cook your rice or prepare other items. Cook at least 5 to 10 minutes.

Lay a tortilla on a lined baking sheet. Using a slotted spoon, make a line of beans the width of the tortilla near the edge of the tortilla. Add a row of rice next to it, moving away from the edge. Top with a handful of cheese. Pinch the side edges of the tortilla inward and fold the edge of the burrito closest to you over the stuffing. Continue rolling and tucking in the sides until your tortilla is completely rolled. Lay it on the sheet with the tortilla flap underneath, top with grated cheese and repeat with the second burrito. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Serve with the aforementioned condiments and tortilla chips.

My lead-lined stomach has always served me well. It has seen me through 37 years of too much garlic, too much olive oil,  way too much vinegar, far too many meals at McDonalds, and that time when I went to the Indian restaurant and said to the waiter, “I’ve never had Indian food before, so what would you recommend?”

I’ve had stomach viruses in the past, but they have generally manifested themselves as…how can I explain this…as sitting stomach viruses.

Friday night brought on  something new. I noticed that while handing out candy on Friday night for Halloween that I could not get warm. What I thought were fever chills were proven wrong after the thermometer said 98.3 degrees. At this point, I’ll could eliminate from the possible illness list was Ebola.

At 7:30 p.m., The Kid and The Wife were home and I turned off the lights (Side Note: It was an awful night. Our neighborhood is usually a six bagger, or I need six bags of candy to get through the night. This year, I had three unopened bags left plus a bunch of loose M&Ms.), covered myself in a blanket and fell asleep on the couch.

Now, conventional wisdom says that if you get the urge to vomit, that you should. Release the poison, right? I spent the better part of Friday night into Saturday morning fighting this urge. All the telltale signs were there. Salivating. Your throat expand. The feeling that everything you have consumed for the past 15 years was now collected in your esophagus ready to be reintroduced to the world through the same orifice that it entered. Depending on how you look at it, I bravely or stupidly fought it off. The resulting loss of Saturday, where I spent the day huddled in a blanket and consuming only Pepto-Bismol and Cheerios (though not necessarily at the same time), was more than a little annoying.

It’s Sunday and I feel human, though strong food smells are still throwing me off. The samples station at Trader Joe’s was doing “Szechuan Beef and…” I don’t know what. I saw the those three words on the chalkboard and immediately went the other way.

One of the things I learned early on about The Wife is that she really liked carbonara. It’s a great sauce, and for a long time, I thought it got its name from the black pepper, resembling coal loaded into charcoal burning carbonari.

Apparently,  I was wrong. According to Dr. Jeremy Parzen, a food historian, Italian translator and proprietor of the Do Bianco blog. He mentions the historical significance of the carbonari — a secret society of Italian revolutionaries — and the fact that alla carbonara is a Sicilian cooking style that uses cuttlefish cooked in its ink. So, the coal miner thing is out.

Parzen writes that in his research the earliest mention of the traditional spaghetti alla carbonara comes from a 1957 travel guide. More from Parzen:

In it, (author Richard Hammond) includes carbonara in his shortlist of pan-Italian dishes and omits it from his chapter devoted to Rome.

“[Spaghetti] alla Carbonara: in a sauce made with egg, cheese and bacon, or prosciutto (ham).”

The gloss is significant: not only is it the first known description of the dish (1957) but it also reveals that it was commonly prepared with different types of cured pork (not just bacon or pancetta); and the fact that it is included in the general overview (and omitted from the Roman overview) also gives us an indication that the dish was already popular in other major urban centers in Italy by the mid-1950s.

So Parzen thinks that the adoption of cured pork is what separates carbonara from a popular 19th century pasta preparation. I’m okay with that. Pancetta, speck and prosciutto are okay by me.

Back to The Wife. I have made this a few times for her over the years and I have never been happy with the final product. It was either too salty or too greasy. The addition of the Brussels sprouts tonight made for a nice extra and presentation, but I really liked the sauce base developed by Philip Krajeck of Rolf and Daughters in Nashville. It’s a nice mix of butter, cheese, pasta liquid and eggs that was surprisingly light.

WHAT WORKED: I think that using only egg yolks, as opposed to the whole egg, keeps it light. You get the creaminess of the yolk without the volume and slime of the white.

WHAT DIDN’T: I should have let the Brussels sprouts char more. They browned in spots but I would have liked them to blacken more.

WHAT DID THE WIFE SAY: It was carbonara, so naturally she approved.

WILL IT MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: Yes and I think that I have my new standby carbonara sauce without the sprouts.

Orecchiette Carbonara with Charred Brussels Sprouts
Adapted lightly from the original from Bon Appetit, September 2013 edition

• 8 oz. Brussels sprouts, trimmed, leaves separated and cores discarded
• 16 oz. orecchiette
• Kosher salt
• 2 oz. diced pancetta, guanciale or speck (NOTE: I used more because…I wanted to.)
• 1/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
• 4 tbsp. butter, separated
• 1/3 cup grated Pecorino romano
• 2 large egg yolks, beaten well
• 2 tbsp. olive oil

NOTE: Consuming raw eggs could lead to a bunch of nasty stuff. Eat at your own risk, but love every forkful.

In a large skillet over high heat, add 1 tbsp. of olive oil. Add half of the Brussels sprouts leaves, tossing in the oil. When they reduce slightly, add the remaining sprouts. Cook until well charred, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil, salt well, and cook pasta until 1 minute short of al dente and drain.

In the meantime, heat the remaining oil in your skillet over medium. Add the pancetta and cook until the fat renders and the meat is browned thoroughly, 4 to 5 minutes. Add pepper, stirring, until fragrant. Add 1/2 cup of the pasta liquid to the skillet, as the pepper will burn (NOTE: I didn’t know that could happen.).

Reduce heat to low and add butter tablespoon by tablespoon. Stir in and swirl the skillet, adding additional pasta water if you need it. Transfer your drained pasta to the skillet and toss to coat with the butter sauce. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and toss. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving bowl. Toss with the egg yolks, then add in the Brussels sprouts before giving one last toss. Serve hot with additional grated cheese.

I’ve never met Dave Gadlin, but he seems like a good egg. His company, the aptly named Dave’s Meat and Nuts, launches a Kickstarter campaign on Saturday in order to raise capital and capacity.

Dave, who identifies himself as the Chief Executive Jerk of Dave’s Meat and Nuts, a CIA-trained chef that spent years working in New York City restaurants. He got out of the Big Apple and relocated to California’s Napa Valley, where he may have been seen recently in newspapers nationwide cleaning up after an earthquake. Surrounded by quality ingredients and great partners, he set out to make Dave’s Meat and Nuts a full-time business.

His issue comes with capacity. Commercial smokehouses are built to smoke large quantities of meat (think 50 or 100 lbs.). Dave has a relationship with a smoker who does his 10-pound jobs, but he finds himself a low priority. By establishing himself and building a base, he can get a better place in line. Money talks, right?

Dave sent along an assortment of goodies. Right now, he is concentrating on four styles of jerky — dry classic, dry cinammon jerk, moist root beer habanero and moist ghost pepper — and four flavors of roasted almonds.

To The Wife’s dismay, I inhaled the butter toffee nuts. You really can’t go wrong with toffee, right? The citrus chili had me intrigued as well. The oils from the citrus zest penetrate the nut, while the  chili flavor is a nice punch. I’ve left the honey cinnamon and honey raspberry for The Wife to try.

Dave sent along all but the classic jerky. I’ve only tried the root beer habanero, because ghost pepper scares me and cinnamon jerk will be a treat for another time. His jerkys are cut from the pectoral muscle of grass-fed cows from the West coast. The root beer extract had that earthy sweetness that you would expect, while the habanero waits a minute or two before punching you in the face and letting you know who is boss. Everything I have tasted so far is of exceptional quality.

Dave’s Kickstarter levels include shipping and are not far off from what you might pay for gourmet jerky or nuts.

I don’t like doing endorsements, but I’ll say this: Dave believes strongly in his nuts and works hard to get his meat out there. You could spend $8 on worse things — all of the ingredients you would need to make your own flavored roasted almonds, the new Taylor Swift album, two packages of gas station jerky — but why would you, when you can let Dave do all of the work?

• Visit Dave’s Meat and Nuts’ website
• Bookmark his Kickstarter and join the campaign on November 1,  2014.
• Follow Dave’s Meat and Nuts on Facebook or Twitter

NOTE: I received free product, but no monetary compensation, to review for this post. I have no stake in Dave’s company or its success, other than he seems nice and sent me free food. He promises coupon codes and products to giveaway after the  Kickstarter ends. In the meantime, if you want the ghost pepper (I keep it in the envelope because it really does scare me) let me know in the comments below or via Twitter and I’ll send it your way. All you have to do is let me know, so I can let Dave know, what you think.