Food city area

A Perfect Description of a Banana

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQHxLlq5sS6IsIVRi6H3UASMaY68avU7G1LlINF4BvQdv78s2Ccf9SmUTzqTPFmkpMfxKl3hTRJmgw03m6xM5TGNm71tZE-UrXSSOMtLhUr51Yh2sAVn7yoLsgfyKJmZe9WNvd7eiBYCZ/s1600/rozchast.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534680146290431698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQHxLlq5sS6IsIVRi6H3UASMaY68avU7G1LlINF4BvQdv78s2Ccf9SmUTzqTPFmkpMfxKl3hTRJmgw03m6xM5TGNm71tZE-UrXSSOMtLhUr51Yh2sAVn7yoLsgfyKJmZe9WNvd7eiBYCZ/s200/rozchast.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 112px;" /></a>Many of you know me personally, and probably therefore know that I hate bananas. Well, in today's New Yorker, I found the most perfect description of bananas that I've ever seen, Roz Chast's article "<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/11/08/101108sh_shouts_chast">Bananas</a>" accompanied by the lovely illustration at right. For example, Chast says: <blockquote>"I am disgusted by bananas’ texture. Compare the texture of a banana—mushy, baby-foodish, almost what you would feed a sick person—with the brisk athletic crispness of an apple. And, please, not one of those bulk apples you buy in a plastic bag. Those are mealy and they give all fruit a bad name. It’s no wonder so many kids don’t like fruit, if that’s the only kind of fruit they’ve ever had. I mean like a really good Macoun or Honeycrisp."</blockquote>This is the best description I've ever heard. Exactly how I feel. And about banana peel. She mentions a person eating a banana, slowly -- <blockquote>"But watch how the peel starts to drape over the hand. Now the banana is halfway eaten. The peel is now draping over the entire hand. Finally, the person finishes the banana and is left holding this disgusting peel, which is quickly turning brown and smelly! It’s not like an apple core, which you could throw out a car window and think, even though you’d be kidding yourself, Maybe an apple orchard will start here. Or an orange peel, which you wouldn’t throw out a car window, but at least it smells nice. ... The banana peel is garbage of the worst sort, the kind you must get rid of right away. You need to walk quickly to the nearest trash receptacle, throw it in, and then nonchalantly walk away, all the while giving off psychic vibes that you know nothing about it, that it’s somebody else’s peel."</blockquote> I recommend reading this if you hate bananas. Or if you love bananas and want to know how a banana hater feels. And now don't tell me I'm the only person in the world who hates bananas except for Ladelle.

A Perfect Description of a Banana

Many of you know me personally, and probably therefore know that I hate bananas. Well, in today's New Yorker, I found the most perfect d...

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13.20

My New Cookbook

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0307267598/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pvuQxddoL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a> Published last week, Joan Nathan's Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France is now number four on amazon.com's French cookbook bestseller list -- behind 2 editions of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and one other book. It's quite beautiful, with many color photos and historic illustrations. I spent quite a bit of time reading the narrative parts of the text and looking over the pictures this afternoon (while simultaneously watching the Jon Stewart rally on streaming video). After also looking at the ingredient lists for the recipes, I expect I'm going to have fun trying the recipes. The background on Jewish life and cooking in France is quite enjoyable, though not very detailed. Nathan's recipes represent a wide collection from Jewish cooks she interviewed. I was a little surprised because she did not seem to search out historical recipes from earlier eras: just to find those that still maintain an active place in the living repertoire. Nathan will be at the Jewish Book Festival in Ann Arbor Monday night to promote the book. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about it, and assume she'll tell some more tales of the people she met and the homes, shops, markets, and restaurants she visited.

My New Cookbook

Published last week, Joan Nathan's Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France is now number four on amazon.c...

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16.43

Candy

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FfQuFtDwyaDLgcgHBZXYg-plW8eJXnTMACBoqWAPttlssiNl-FZp-UgMRm4kNqD5XawklJ8xV0R7Qn-0a0tO3oGicugYhibojSEjURM7wHO8uhOVOU92QG6qtjxyNsjNJwSqGNQjChLy/s1600/halloween4481.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533194010944958898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FfQuFtDwyaDLgcgHBZXYg-plW8eJXnTMACBoqWAPttlssiNl-FZp-UgMRm4kNqD5XawklJ8xV0R7Qn-0a0tO3oGicugYhibojSEjURM7wHO8uhOVOU92QG6qtjxyNsjNJwSqGNQjChLy/s320/halloween4481.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a>I always buy Halloween candy that I like, especially little Butterfingers, Snickers, and Hershey's minis. This year I also mixed in some peppermint kisses that are made of that waxy not-even-chocolate white stuff with chips of peppermint. I think they were technically early Christmas candy. To my surprise, several food writers are taking this stuff seriously. Or sort of seriously: examining the calorie content and comparing nutrition in peanut M&Ms to the nutrition facts about other candy that didn't have that nice peanut protein (<a href="http://calorielab.com/news/2010/10/28/halloween-candy-nutritio/">here</a> and <a href="http://calorielab.com/news/2010/10/26/unhealthy-halloween-candy/">here</a>). Or describing the taste of the candy with words like "floral" or "toasty, nutty notes." In <a href="http://www.salon.com/food/sacrificial_lam/index.html?story=/food/francis_lam/2010/10/27/halloween_candy_taste_test">Our taste test of fine and foul Halloween candies,</a> the author, normally a super-serious food writer at Salon.com, vacillates in just how serious he's taking the taste test. I'm going to give a couple pieces of candy each to several hundred kids dressed up in costumes, whose mothers might let them eat it -- or whose mothers might eat it for them. The next block over from us will be closed to car traffic to encourage and protect the trick-or-treaters. This will probably cause even more than the usual hundreds to show up here. I'll be glad to see them. I do not think that the nutritional value of one or another kind of candy is at issue. And if I gave them little boxes of raisins, it would seem mean-spirited. Also, I would miss my minimum annual requirement of Butterfinger bars.

Candy

I always buy Halloween candy that I like, especially little Butterfingers, Snickers, and Hershey's minis. This year I also mixed in some...

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13.17

Do You Like Butter?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5112243153/" title="halloween4399 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="halloween4399" height="481" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1403/5112243153_e5e22ab20c.jpg" width="500" /></a> Miriam and Alice are almost ready for Halloween with their costumes: sticks of butter. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5112841788/" title="halloween4424 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="halloween4424" height="544" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1239/5112841788_996e95602d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5112242721/" title="halloween4452 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="halloween4452" height="498" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5112242721_cd3849717c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a> The Jack-o-Lanterns are also ready to light. A maze made of bales of hay was a fun place to play while we were also picking out all the pumpkins: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5112841642/" title="halloween4430 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="halloween4430" height="508" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1108/5112841642_3eb4c89a6b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>

Do You Like Butter?

Miriam and Alice are almost ready for Halloween with their costumes: sticks of butter. The Jack-o-Lanterns are also ready to light. A maze m...

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18.04

Sunset Memories

Today's New York Times has a great review of the century or more of Sunset Magazine. See this: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/dining/20sunset.html">The Original California Cuisine, Courtesy of Sunset Magazine</a>. In my early days of cooking, I lived first in Berkeley, then La Jolla, and tried many recipes from Sunset. For a year, I worked in an office with a number of clerks and nurses who talked cooking all the time, and they recommended it. I've always regretted that its focus is so totally on the West, while I live here in Michigan. Reading it makes me too sad -- though I continued to subscribe and use the Sunset cookbooks for many years after I moved away from its region. I think my favorite recipe was for a cheesecake with a swirl of chocolate on top. It's been decades since I made that cheesecake. Sunset was especially my frequent source of Thanksgiving ideas. Since it's coming up, here's one recipe: <style>@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }h4 { margin: 4pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 18pt; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.Heading4Char { font-family: Times; font-weight: bold; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <h4>Wild Rice and Sourdough Stuffing with Almonds</h4> (Sunset, Nov. 92: for a 17 lb. turkey or a smaller turkey with some in a pan) 1/2 loaf of sourdough bread (1.5 LB loaf) 1/2 c. sliced almonds (1/4 LB by wt) 1 lb. Italian turkey sausage 2 large onions, chopped 1 TB. each rosemary and sage 1 and 1/2 c. wild rice, rinsed and drained 6 c. turkey stock, made the night before from turkey neck etc. (see below) Night before: cook rice in 4 c. broth: bring to boil in 3 qt. pan, turn down, simmer 60 min, stirring occasionally. Leave in pan overnight on back of stove. Rice will absorb liquid. (When we didn't have enough time, we did this just before making the turkey, with less liquid, and it was not bad.) Just before stuffing bird: spread bread cubes on rimmed cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 min; set aside. Then bake almonds on same sheet for 10 min; set aside with bread. Crumble sausage onto pan and mix with onion and herbs. Cook for 1/2 to 3/4 hr. Discard any fat. Pour remaining 2 c. broth over bread, allow to absorb. Mix all ingredients together, stuff and truss turkey immediately. Original suggests baking dressing in a separate pan, but I stuffed a 17 lb.. turkey, including much stuffing between the skin and the breast and cooked for 5 hours with an aluminum foil tent, first half hour at 425 degrees, remaining at 325. This is as I made it, with adaptations to published recipe. If made in a pan, should have some butter added. Here are some other recipes that I saved: <style>@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }h4 { margin: 4pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 18pt; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.Heading4Char { font-family: Times; font-weight: bold; }p.Hangingindent, li.Hangingindent, div.Hangingindent { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 12pt; text-indent: -12pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <h4>Sunset Green Chile Strata</h4> A Sunday Brunch dish. 3/4 LB cheddar, Swiss, or mozzarella 1 LB bulk sausage or ground pork 5-6 slices white bread, buttered & cubed 4 oz can Old El Paso green chilies 4-6 eggs 1-2 cups milk Salt, pepper, Chile powder Brown and drain sausage. Shred cheese. Layer half the bread- sausage-chilies-cheese in buttered casserole dish. Repeat layers. Pour mixture of eggs, milk, and spices over all, and let stand over night. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. <style>@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }h4 { margin: 4pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 18pt; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.Heading4Char { font-family: Times; font-weight: bold; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <h4>Italian Pickled Vegetables</h4> Made for Evelyn's Recital, 1986 and Evelyn & Tom's Wedding, 2000; these are Evelyn's instructions for making it in 2000, as I long ago gave her the edition of the Sunset Italian Cookbook in which it appears. 12-18 small carrots, about 3/4 in in diameter 1 small bunch celery 2 large red bell peppers 1 large (about 2 lbs) cauliflower 1 cup salt 4 quarts cold water 1 pound onions peeled (calls for pickling or tiny white, but we cut regular) 2 quarts white vinegar 1/4 cup mustard seeds 2 tablespoons celery seeds 1 small dried hot red chile 2 1/2 cups sugar Peel carrots; cut in half lengthwise and then into 1 1/2-inch lengths; measure 4 cups. Remove strings from celery; slice lengthwise and then into 1 1/2-inch lengths; measure 3 cups. Remove seeds and stems from peppers and cut into 1-in-wide strips. Break cauliflower into 1 1/2-in-thick flowerets and trim stems. Stir salt into the cold water until dissolved. Add measured carrots and celery, peppers, cauliflowerets, and onions. Let stand, covered, in refrigerator for 12 to 18 hours; then drain, rinse in cold water, and drain again. In a 6-quart pot, combine vinegar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, chile, and sugar. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 3 minutes. Add vegetables and boil until vegetables are almost tender (10 minutes); discard chile. Store in refrigerator in jars. (They have instructions on canning. We didn't do that though.) I made it two weeks in advance.

Sunset Memories

Today's New York Times has a great review of the century or more of Sunset Magazine . See this: The Original California Cuisine, Courtes...

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04.47

"Four Meals"

The novel Four Meals by Meir Shalev portrays several strong-minded characters living in Israel before and soon after Israeli independence. The book is very sensual, describing tastes, smells, the beauty of the landscape, and deep feelings among the characters. It's hard to describe the technique of writing -- reading is almost like looking close up at an impressionist painting and then stepping back and seeing a street scene or a row of trees or a grain field. Each section of the book describes a meal served to the narrator by Jacob, one of his three possible fathers. The meals take place at very long intervals and different stages of their lives. The food at each meal includes a delicious dessert, a foamy combination of wine, sugar, and eggs that the father learned once from an Italian POW during the war -- a man who made a big impression on him. Tastes and smells echo throughout the book, gathering significance. The book begins: <blockquote>"On warm days, a soft smell of milk rises from the walls of my house. The walls are plastered and whitewashed, tiles cover the ground, but from the pores of the walls and the cracks of the floor, the smell rises to me, persists, steals in like the sweat of an ancient love. "Once my house was a cowshed... And a woman lived in the cowshed, she worked and slept in it, dreamed and wept. And on a bed of sacks she gave birth to her son." </blockquote>Much is hinted in these initial words, along with a glimpse of the mother's eccentric nature. As the novel proceeds, more and more tastes, smells, and complex Israeli experiences merge into an overall impression of life in that long-ago time. One taste that recurs is salt. A character named Judith may have been the narrator's half-sister. Or not. But she made cheese and pickles "salty-spicy little cucumbers she pickled in jars in the window of the cowshed ... Many times I have tried to make pickles like hers, and didn't succeed, but I can evoke the memory of their smell in my nose and then I slide my tongue over my teeth... salty salty salty salty salty salty salty ytlas ytlas ytlas ytlas ytlas ytlas ytlas..." (p. 132) Jacob, who cooks the four meals, says "cooking salt is better than table salt that dissolves altogether. But in the soul, love with worry and with hate should be mixed together, and anger with longing with fear with a little joy should be mixed together. Otherwise it cuts you up in pieces." (p. 164) Much later at another meal Jacob describes how he felt very sorry for Italian who taught him the key recipe: "Not because he escaped from the POW camp... But because he sat down at the table and three fingers he put into the bowl of salt and put some for himself on the palm of his other hand and from there he licked the salt with his tongue just like a cow from her stone in the trough." (p. 262) Each meal ends with the key dessert: "Jacob boiled a pot of water on the fire, cracked an egg into the palm of his had, slipped the white between his spread fingers, and put the yolk into the bowl. A little wine, a little sugar, and the whisk was gleaming in his had, steam rose, and the warmth emitted the smell of wine in the air." (p. 248) Finally, the narrator makes the dish for himself "and all at once the rich fragrance of zabaglione rose in the air. ... I stood up and slid my tongue over my top teeth from right to left and from left to right sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet teews teews teews teews teews teews teews teews teews teews teews teews teews" (p. 282) The aromas and tastes that support this story, which is at the same time realistic and fairy-tale-like, are presented in a very special way, making it a quite imaginative book.

"Four Meals"

The novel Four Meals by Meir Shalev portrays several strong-minded characters living in Israel before and soon after Israeli independence. ...

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13.23

Buying Honey

Buying Honey

Elaine and Larry at the Lafayette Farmers' Market.

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13.45

Food city area

A Perfect Description of a Banana

My New Cookbook

Candy

Do You Like Butter?

Sunset Memories

"Four Meals"

Buying Honey

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