Northside Food

Acceptable Chain Restaurants

2011-07-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'm visiting family in Texas right now, and like most people, I struggle finding acceptable places to eat when I'm away from my familiar haunts and dealing with a large crowd of eaters with different tastes. It seems like for every seasoned world traveler who happily eats cold jellyfish salad, there's at least two more that seem to subsist on nothing but chicken fingers with ketchup as a side. If I'm at home, I can easily navigate everyone to a local, independent place. But on the road? I'm pretty much at anyone's mercy.

That's where chains step in. As much as they get a rap for boring, mediocre food, they do serve a very real need on occasional. Sometimes that lowest common denominator is the best everyone can agree on. And the dirty secret of hipster food bloggers like myself? Some of them aren't terrible. In fact, some of them can be good. Here's my list of acceptable chain restaurants that you don't have to twist my arm to get me to.

My go to spot for quick, casual and healthy eating is Panera Bread. Panera has fresh made salads, soups and sandwiches. Best of all, they post the calorie counts right there on the menu board so I never worry that I'll accidentally eat a thousand calorie salad.

If I'm in the mood for a burger, 5 Guys hits the spot. Not nearly as good as the offerings at Oak Street Cafe, or even The Counter, 5 Guys still manages to put together a decent burger and more fries than a human being should really eat. Sure, you can do better. But you can also do much, much worse.

For sit down meals, I'm fond of Chili's. Most of their menu is crap, but every location I've been to can grill a decent steak and I can order a double portion of steamed broccoli to go with it. (I am slightly more like to indulge my weakness for mashed potatoes and gravy though. Okay, not slightly. Very likely.) And my husband and I used to go to Chili's all the time when we were dating. Nostalgia!

For fast food, my favorite is Chik-fil-a. I'm under no illusions that it's healthier for you than any other fast food. But it's much tastier than McDonalds. The chicken is an honest to go chicken breast, not extruded "chicken", which reassures me that I'm eating food and not a chemistry project. On Sundays, when they are closed, Wendy's is my next choice. There I have the option to replace my fries with chili or a side salad, which helps me not be such a fatty mcfatterson.

For other chain dining suggestions, I recommend "Eat This, Not That" from Men's Health. They have comparison guides telling you the worst thing, diet wise on national menus and offering a much more reasonable substitute.

How about you? Any suggestions on where to eat when on the road?

Also, if you like what I post here on the blog, consider following me on Facebook.

What I'm Reading

2011-07-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a new thing for the blog. My Google Reader is crammed full of interesting articles about food, local or otherwise. I've often thought about doing a weekly round up of articles I've read here, but its too easy for me to forget what I've read by the end of the week. Finally, I've found a solution: Facebook.

I've made a Facebook fan page for Northside Food. Every day, I share a couple links to articles focused on the local restaurants, seasonal produce and other related items. If you like the things I've written about here, it's pretty likely you'll be interested in what I share over there. And every week, I'll round up the best of those links and post them here for those who prefer that. We'll experiment with this and see how we like it.

This week on Northside Food, we've got a recipe for blueberry butter, as well as simple instructions for freezing your extra blueberries.

FIGO has a deal for free meatballs. You can read my review of FIGO from 2009 here.

To get these as I find them, along with more great recipes, articles, reviews and more, be sure to "like" Northside Food on Facebook.

Review: Roswell Tap

2011-07-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were in the mood for something new, so we decided to try Roswell Tap. This is a new gastropub that just opened up in Alpharetta Highway in a renovated, historic home. I really enjoyed it and we plan to be back.

The menu is basic pub grub, like wings, burgers, pizzas, etc. But everything is made fresh with carefully sourced ingredients. We tried the "grit chips" appetizer on the advice of our waitress. These are corn chips made of pressed grits and what I guess is masa flour. It's served with a dip made of collard greens and bacon. The effect is somewhat like a spinach artichoke dip, but with a down home twist. It's the kind of dish I love finding at restaurants, a dish that makes me go "Why didn't I think of that?" What I'm saying is you need to go and eat this right now.

My husband, being a man of large appetite ordered a sausage and pepperoni pizza for himself. It was 14", so even he could only eat half of it. The pizza crust was thin and slightly chewy with a little char on the bottom. Good stuff. The toppings were very flavorful and just the right amount.

I ordered the spinach caprese salad for my lunch. This was a large portion of baby spinach leaves topped with marinated mozzarella balls and tomato wedges and a balsamic vinaigrette. I was disappointed in the tomatoes. They were "grocery store" tomatoes without much flavor. But the cheese was excellent. Get better tomatoes and this dish becomes a winner.

I think next time we go, if we don't decide to try the sandwiches, we'll split the pizza and salad together for a slightly more balanced meal. The bar menu looked interesting, with a variety of beer, wine and cocktails. From their website it looks like they've only been open a few weeks, so I encourage you to check them out.

Farmer's Market Season is Upon Us

2011-05-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

With spring comes fresh vegetables and markets to sell them at. The Alpharetta Market is in full swing and we've been shopping there for a few weeks now. The Roswell Market is about to open this weekend. Unfortunately, we have to skip both as my husband is running the Warrior Dash in Mountain City, and my job is to hold his wallet and look admiringly at him when he jumps over the fire pit.

The Alpharetta Market is doing really well this year. Several meat vendors have joined, so you can now purchase grass fed beef, free range pork and free range buffalo. Atlanta Fresh Creamery also has a booth, along with an ice cream lady and a few other goodies. The farmers aren't as plentiful as they can be at the Roswell market, but I've still managed to find broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes and more in the last few weeks.

The Roswell Market? Well, I have no idea. Partly because it hasn't opened yet, but also because the City of Roswell doesn't have any kind of serious web presence for the market. They post announcements on the city's website, but they get buried quickly. And this evening, they posted this video on the city's Facebook page. Sigh. The lack of easy to find, updated information on local markets, farmers and other sustainable, hippy food sources is a BIG pet peeve of mine. Is it really that hard to set up a Facebook for your market/farm?

If you are new to shopping at farmer's markets, you might be interested in this guide I wrote a few years ago.

Easy Leek Potato Soup with Yogurt

2011-05-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

The last few months have seen me ridiculously busy. I've been working two part time jobs, going to grad school and chairing a fantasy literature convention. But as of yesterday, I've finished all my school work for this term (I'm on a self paced program via Western Governors University. I finished approximately two months ahead of schedule according to my pacing guide. I'll just add more classes later this week so I can get my Masters in Special Education just that much faster.), my convention was two weeks ago and for the first time in a long time, I find myself with nothing more pressing this afternoon than reading and updating my sorely out of date blog. It's kinda nice.

After some fitful half starts, spring is truly underway here in Roswell and it is glorious. The awful storms from last week have given way to warm afternoons, low humidity and light breezes. Even the pollen isn't so bad today. I'm typing this on my netbook from the back porch. With spring has also come fresh produce from farm stands and the Alpharetta Farmer's Market. My husband and I have been a little giddy at the prospect of fresh fruit and vegetables, straight from the ground, instead of the limp, pale imitations we've endured all winter.

The primary source of our spring time bounty has been a farm stand run by Floyd Kessler of Moss Hill Farm, in Milton. Every week, Floyd sends out a cheerful email update with pictures of the produce having equal weight with those of his grandchildren. We've been buying from Floyd for several years now, usually through the Roswell Farmers Market. This year, we're ordering from Floyd directly and picking up our vegetables at his charming farm every Saturday.

This week's haul includes two pounds of joi choi, an Asian greens stir fry mix, green onions so large and heavy you could club a man to death with them, and a leek. I could not recall if I'd ever eaten a leek before, so I only ordered one for this week. Today it became a delicious potato leek soup. I liked it. Leeks now have a place at my table.

1 leek, cleaned and chopped, about a cup
1/4 cup spring onion, cleaned and chopped
2 cups potatoes, diced
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1/4 yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in pan. Add leeks, onions, cook until soft and translucent. Add potatoes and enough water to cover. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Add milk and yogurt, use immersion blender to combine and puree ingredients. Add generous pinches of salt and pepper. (I actually salt at every step of this recipe, and still needed to add a big pinch here.) Simmer gently for five minutes to combine flavors, and serve.

This soup is tangy and delicious, and is slightly lighter than the one I converted using whipping cream and buttermilk. The leeks and onions give it a nice flavor, and the potatoes add body. Over all, it's a good soup and one I'd make again. I highly suggest getting on Floyd's mailing list so you can try it yourself.

Gluten Free Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

2011-02-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

For me, "gluten free" always conjures up visions on neurotic suburban housewives knocking cupcakes out their kids' hands in a panic. "Not gluten!" they gasp. Which is unfair of me, because I know that many people have a real sensitivity to gluten. I just think there are many people who don't actually understand food and just hop on the latest nutritional fad.

The other things I think of when I think of "gluten free" is "taste free" and "weird, complicated ingredients". Fortunately, these muffins feature neither. The weirdest thing is oat flour, which is obtained by simply pulsing a few cups of oatmeal in the food processor until fine. Oatmeal is easy! And the flavor on these is amazing. they have a nutty texture, a rich mouthfeel from the yogurt and big apple flavor. You can substitute a cup of any fruit puree for the applesauce and still have a delicious muffin. The original recipe from Cheap Healthy Good that I've tweaked used mashed bananas and I've done it with pumpkin as well. Just make sure it's a full cup, otherwise your muffin will be bland.

The only downside of these muffins is that they are not very pretty. The lack of gluten means they don't rise very well, so you end up with something about the size and shape of a hockey puck, but made of oats and delicious. Never you mind that! Just enjoy your tasty muffin and share it happily with gluten sensitive friends.

1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups oat flour (This can be made by putting two cups of rolled oats in your food processor and pulsing it until fine)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce (or other pureed fruit)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grind oats to make flour. Combine with rolled oats, yogurt and milk. Allow to hydrate for a few minutes. (This step is important! If the oats don't hydrate, they won't cook and it'll be gross. This is usually when I find and measure my other ingredients. ) Combine spices, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, oil and applesauce with the oats. Measure into well greased muffin cups. Bake for about twenty minutes or until a knife point inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Serve and enjoy.

Roswell Neighbor Article

2011-01-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

The Roswell Neighbor did an article on local bloggers this week. I'm one of them. Hooray!

If you're one of the new readers brought here today, welcome! Here's what you need to know about this blog.

I love food. I love trying new recipes and eating new things. I stuffed my face full of Korean BBQ the other day and I loved it. I shop at local farmer's markets when I can. My cooking influences are mostly traditional southern food, with a healthy dash of Asian inspired cuisine. I love to bake, but so far I've been too impatient to manage a decent pie crust. But I do plenty of cakes, cookies and quick breads, along with an assortment of yeasted breads. I love finding hole in the wall places with fabulous food and sharing them. I am not a fan of chains, or fast food (unless it is Chik fil a). My weakness is Chinese take out. I'm a busy lady who is on a budget, but still wants to eat sustainable, healthy food. This is what I write about.

When I'm not cooking or blogging, I'm a fan of science fiction and fantasy. I am best known as a fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I run a programming track for it at Dragon*Con and I chair a convention dedicated to it here in Atlanta. I'm the kind of fan that gets early copies of the manuscript for the next Wheel of Time novel "for feedback". It's finally turned into a part time job doing microblogging and social networking for the publisher. If I disappear from blogging for awhile, it usually means that I'm either getting ready for a convention, or there's a Wheel of Time book coming out. Yes, the whole thing is slightly ridiculous, but its also hella fun.

I hope you enjoy reading.

Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Beet Cake

2011-01-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

I will spare you, dear reader, any of the dozens of beet related puns that spring to mind when I think of this recipe. Forget what you know about beets and chocolate cake. Leave those preconceptions at your oven door. This is an amazing cake that's going straight into my regular circulation.

When I first heard the words "chocolate beet cake", I was intrigued. I like chocolate. I like beets. Who knew they could go together? But they do! The result is a deeply chocolately cake, rich in antioxidants and fiber. Eating vegetables has never been so fun. I adapted this recipe from Fat Free Vegan, just for maximum weirdness.

I made a few changes to the recipe. First, I diced my beets small and roasted them. A boiled vegetable just seems like a wasted opportunity. Roast those beets and give the natural sugars a chance to caramelize. It's worth the extra step. Second, I was short by about a quarter cup of applesauce and I wasn't in the mood to grab another jar from the pantry, so I did end up using an egg. (If you didn't know, pureed fruit will substitute for eggs in most cakes) So this was not an entirely vegan cake. It should work just fine without the egg though. I also used half a cup of brown sugar, where the original calls for only white. I like the flavor of brown sugar. The cinnamon is a fantastic addition to the cake. I think the next time I make this, I will also add a spoonful of chili powder. That, combined with the dark chocolate cocoa powder I used, makes an almost Mexican hot chocolate tasting cake. (Which makes me wonder how a slice would taste with dulce de leche drizzled over the top. I may have to try this. )

2 large beets (diced and roasted until fork tender and the edges are brown)
unsweetened apple sauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Puree roasted beets in your food processor. Add applesauce to make two cups total puree. Add vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and sugars. Pulse to combine. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Combine wet and dry together. Pour into greased, parchment lined cake pan. Give it a few good drops on the counter top to knock all the air bubbles out of the batter. Bake on center rack for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Well, I'm back

2011-01-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

I had to take some time off from blogging. In fact, I disappeared almost entirely from the internet for the month of December. The holidays were part of it, but not entirely.

Back in September, my father in law was diagnosed with the late stages of stomach cancer. When we went to visit the family in east Texas for Thanksgiving, he was being checked into a hospice. There was no way we could go back to Atlanta at that point, so we massively rearranged our lives so we could stay in Texas until the end. Joseph Liang passed away quietly on December 18th. Since then, I've been trying to make up missed school work and get caught up on the rest of my life that I missed. Blogging here did not seem like a priority.

Though I would like to talk about Joseph for a bit. My father in law was a very kind man. He could have been furious that his only son chose to marry a white woman and live with her three states away, rather than marry a good Chinese girl nearby. If he ever disapproved of our choices, he never let on. Instead, he treated me like a daughter from the moment my husband said we were getting married. Oh, he made no secret that he wanted us living closer, but it was never said in a hurtful way.

Joseph came from a long line of professional chefs. My husband is actually the first Liang in several generations to not be a chef. Joseph's own father cooked for Nixon when the President made his historic visit to China. The Liang's settled in Tyler, Texas, and opened the eponymous restaurant they are best know for there. My husband and his sisters grew up in that restaurant, waiting tables, working the register and folding wontons and eggrolls in the kitchen. They sold it just before I met my husband to retire, but got bored and opened a new fast casual place called "Ming's Cafe".

People always ask if I learned how to cook anything from my father in law. I do have some of his recipes. Passing on recipes to me was always problematic. Joseph cooks like me, without a written guide, improvising on the spot. I'd have to watch him several times to get something down and infrequent visits during the holidays were not conducive to learning to cook.

Also, no matter how hard I try, I will never get it right. There was a certain magic to the way Joseph worked, a kind of wizardry I can't replicate. He tried to show me once how to fold a pork dumpling. My clumsy hands couldn't replicate it. My husband can't quite manage it either, but his come much closer to the neat, fluted pleats his father made. So while I do make Chinese at home, I don't say that I make Liang family recipes. Those belong to other people.

One of the Chinese traditions that I like is the ancestor shrine. We have a big framed picture of Joseph in our kitchen now. Jimmy placed an offering of three oranges on a plate in front of him. I gave him a shot of whiskey. The picture is from Jimmy's college graduation party. Joseph is in his kitchen at home, cooking. There's big bowls of mu shu pork around him, and it looks like he's pouring a noodle dish out of his wok and onto a plate. This is how I'll always remember him, in the kitchen, happy.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

2010-11-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

When ever fall happens, it's like a magic switch in my brain flips. Instead of salads and grilled meats, I start craving soup and things that have been braised. Which is really too bad, because the best lettuces are now in season and i just don't want anything to do with them. Oh well.

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I hate squash. It is a vile, tasteless vegetable with a nasty, slimy texture. And then I realized that I'd only had yellow crooknecked squash, usually steamed. Of course I hated it. So I've made it my mission to discover squashes that I like, or at least recipes I can tolerate them in. It seems like butternut squash soup does the trick.

Astute readers will recognize this soup as a riff on the Pumpkin Curry Soup I posted a couple years ago. There's been a dearth of pumpkins at the markets this year, so rather than use canned pumpkin or spend eight bucks for one at Trader Joe's (for reals? Eight bucks for PUMPKIN?), I decided to mess around with butternut squash and see if it did the trick. And you know what? It does.

The trick is to roast everything. And I do mean, EVERYTHING. The squash gets roasted, of course, before being added to the soup. But I found that kind of bland, and so I decided to roast the onions, potatoes and garlic before adding them as well. It makes a huge difference. The onions caramelize and gain a heavy sweetness which is really notable. The potatoes and garlic are also improved. It's really just a better soup altogether.

1/4 cup onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 cups potatoes, diced
1 butternut squash, cooked. (I do this by wrapping it in foil, then throwing it in the oven at 350 for about an hour. It peels right off the skin.)
2 tablespoons of butter
4 cups chicken broth
Curry powder to taste (a couple tablespoons is what I use)

Toss the diced potatoes, onions and garlic with a couple tablespoons of canola oil and spread on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt, then roast at 350 until brown and crispy. The onions will start to smell like oniuon rings. that's how you know you did it right.

In a pot, melt the butter with the curry powder. Add the cooked squash, the roasted potatoes, garlic and onions. Add the chicken broth and simmer for about ten minutes, then puree. I like to use my stick blender for this.

You end up with a savory soup that gets its power from the layers of flavor created by roasting everything. It's not as heavy as other butternut squash soups that get their omph from cream. And it would be pretty easy to convert to vegetarian by using veggie stock, or even vegan by swapping out the butter for olive oil. Give it a shot. It made a squash eater out of me.

Video of the Week: Brokeass Cooking!

2010-10-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd start this up again since I've been a slacker lately.

Brokeass Cooking is a video series started by a friend of mine, Mack. In addition to videos, Mack is also a pretty damn funny writer and the inspiration for the title character in the comedy horror novel John Dies at the End. What I'm trying to say is the dude knows how to entertain.

Brokeass Cooking is an occasional web series that he's been working on for about a month. The recipes are pretty basic, meats, pastas and easy veggies. It's not fancy food and Mack relies more on getting a great deal than sourcing ingredients. The intended audience for this isn't the foodie crowd, it's the brokeass kid just out of college, starting a job and trying to figure out how to feed himself on a budget without resorting to fast food and frozen dinners. It does the trick, explaining basics like grocery store discounts, shopping sales and figuring what to do with it all once you get it home. He also encourages experimentation and playing with ingredients. I hope Mack decides to continue the series, because I think there's an audience for stuff like this. Too many people these days view cooking as too hard or expensive and this series helps demystify some of that.

Where I think the series can improve is technique. Mack is pretty much a self taught cook and it shows. But that's a minor quibble on the overall strength of the concept and it's execution.

A Taste of Roswell, Elijay Apple Festival, Cumming Greek Festival and a New Farmers Market

2010-10-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

I need to make a real post here over the weekend, but I thought I'd update quickly with some fun Northside food events this week.

First up is the annual "A Taste of Roswell." I will probably not make it to this, but I do love it. It starts at noon on Saturday in the historic square. Its fun and the food is delicious, but it's always ridiculously crowded. Still, its a great way to sample lots of local restaurants pretty quickly.

The Elijay Apple Festival has it's final weekend. This is a pretty fun mountain crafts festival with an apple theme. The snacks are pretty good too. They do sell plenty of apples and apple themed snacks. I usually go, but I have to skip this weekend.

The Cumming Greek Festival is going on as well. This is far smaller and less crazy than the better known Atlanta Greek Festival that just passed. The food is every bit as good and there's no need to stab someone's grandma to get to it. Give it a shot if you're in the neighborhood.

Finally, my crippling disappointment at the Riverside Market here in Roswell closing early has subsided. Thanks to a hot tip from a user named "Haagen Daaz" over at the 285Foodies community, I found where some of my favorite vendors had migrated to. They are setting up shop at the brand new "Stewards of the Earth" market which will be located at the intersection of Roswell RD and Morgan Falls in Sandy Springs. The hours are 9AM to noon. No word yet on how many vendors will be there, or what kinds, but the word is a good chunk of the farmers from Roswell's market that still had something to bring to market are migrating there. The new market plans to stay open through the winter.

Sounds like a busy weekend. Too bad I'm studying for a test for most of it. =(

Last Weekend for Roswell Farmers Market

2010-10-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

I've been stupidly busy recently. There was a family crisis that necessitated me and my husband traveling to Texas very suddenly for a week. And I'm plugging through grad school and doing some substitute teaching on the side. Hence the lack of recent updates.

But I did want to let everyone know that this weekend will be the last one for the Roswell Farmers Market. The market manager says that attendance is dropping and the farmers aren't producing as much with the wet weather. This makes me sad, as I attend every week and do my primary grocery shopping there. Still, it'll be nice to actually sleep in for once on a Saturday instead of rushing over to try and snag farm fresh eggs before they run out.

Easy Turnip Greens and Poached Egg Recipe

2010-09-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

So I've been a little obsessed with poached eggs lately. We've been eating them in spicy mole sauce over rice, with toasted sourdough bread and over some fresh turnip greens. Yup, over greens.

A blogger that I've been following for awhile (The Slow Cook) eats sauteed greens for breakfast with a fresh poached egg on top. Well, if he can eat that for breakfast, I can eat it for dinner alongside some roasted sweet potatoes, beets and carrots. The turnip greens are so tender right now that they barely require any time in the pan to soften. Just a little bacon and chopped garlic and they are ready.

Fresh eggs poach better than old. I've been using fresh eggs purchased from Little Red Hen Farm in Concord, GA. Chris Wernau collects his the day before he sells them at the Roswell farmers market and labels them with that date. It's hard to get fresher than that.

Fresh Turnip Greens

Two strips bacon

1 pound turnip greens, rinsed, and chopped

two cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup chicken broth

Cook bacon until crispy. Remove from pan to cutting board to cool. Drain excess grease from pan. Add chopped greens and garlic. Add salt to taste. Move it around in the pan to let it wilt a bit. Add chicken broth and then cover the pan. Remove from heat and let greens finish cooking. Chop cooked bacon and then crumble it over greens. To serve, mound it up on a plate and add a poached egg. Garnish with a sprinkle of kosher salt and a couple cracks of fresh pepper.

The greens will soak up the runny egg yolk, which I think we all agree is the best part of a poached egg. But don't let that discourage you from scooping up a bit on a piece of toast too.

What Can I Do With Fifty Six Pounds of Rice?

2010-09-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Publix had their annual sale on rice. It's an incredible deal, a three pound bag for a dollar. They will let you buy four bags at a time. So, being the crazy food horder that I am, me or my husband hit Publix several times that weekend. We ended up with roughly fifty pounds, which when added to the rice that was left from last year's sale, gave us nearly sixty pounds of long grain white rice. I have a plethora of rice.

The first problem with purchasing this much rice is storage. Where do you put it all? And how do you keep the bugs from getting into it? I do two things: First, I emptied two of the bags into a gallon sized plastic milk jug that I'd cleaned out. Those plastic bags rice comes in are messy and fragile. When it's in a milk jug, I can pour it easily and the countainer is a bit sturdier for keeping insects out. Second, I packed the rest into my freezer. The cold will keep the bugs out and it also helps fill up my freezer so it'll run more efficiently. Double win.

The second problem is: What to DO with it? I haven't even mentioned yet the twelve pounds of parboiled rice my husband bought before he realized there was a difference. It's an ungodly amount of rice. Sure, I could just make rice and gravy for every meal from now until Christmas. Or I could steam it up alongside stir fries. Chicken and rice soup will probably happen as the weather cools. But there's more you can do with rice than just let it soak up gravy. It's a very versatile grain that can be the centerpiece of many meals.

One of the first things I did was make vegetarian Korean bibimbap, using this recipe from the New York Times as a guide. I left out the salmon, and I used blanched carrots, green beans and broccoli for the vegetable. Not traditional Korean cooking, I know. But tasty and different. Continuing with the Asian theme, I've also made Thai style fried rice a couple times. Just stir fry already cooked rice with egg, diced vegetables, soy sauce and some Thai basil from my garden. Add a little srirancha sauce for the heat and you've got a fast, tasty meal. I've also got a ton of great curry recipes I've ganked from Smitten Kitchen and other places.

I've been working on a recipe for Arroz Con Pollo, which I'm almost ready to post. This combines chicken thighs, rice, beans and veggies with savory spices for an easy one dish meal. I've started looking at recipes for jambalaya and etouffee as well. I've got a great Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe that has a little rice in it as well. And I haven't even looked into the possibility of finding a rice pudding recipe my husband will actually eat.

Am I worried about the carbs? Not really. I exercise, though not as much as I should. And you've probably noticed a theme to my cooking suggestions here: vegetarian. I find that leaving out meat for a couple of meals helps keep the calorie content down. I'm not worried about the lack of vitamins in white rice, because I eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies in my daily diet. As long as I'm not eating JUST rice, which would be gross, I'm not worried about my nutrition. Sure, there are plenty of more nutritionally dense grains out there, but I doubt I can but them for a dollar for three pounds.

So over the next year, expect more rice recipes from me as I try to whittle down my stockpile before it overwhelms us.

Changing Seasons at the Farmers Market

2010-09-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's easy to tell when the seasons start to change when you eat locally. Yesterday I made my weekly trip to the Riverside Farmers Market (conveniently located a good mile or so from the actual river) here in Roswell. I'd missed the market last weekend due to my annual pilgrimage to Dragon*Con. The change in available produce seemed very abrubt.

Gone were the sacks of crisp, delicious, just picked peaches and baskets of the sweetest blueberries I've ever tasted. Our friends at Moss Hill Farm no longer had pounds and pounds of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes for us to browse either. While many of our summer favorites are still available, like green beans and peppers, we're also starting to see the beginnings of the fall crop. I bought a couple crisp Rome apples yesterday, perfect for slicing up and eating alongside a sharp cheese. Eggplants are still going strong, and we snagged a nice looking cabbage that will be the perfect side for a home made mac and cheese dinner tonight. We also picked up some beets and mustard greens and regretfully put down a head of swiss chard. (It looks beautiful, but neither one of us cares for it)

The summer fruits haven't quite given way to fall yet. Yesterday we picked up the biggest watermelon I have ever seen in my life. It was at least 30 pounds. My husband adores watermelon. It is, along with steamed white rice, his very favorite food. I told him we could buy it only if he promised he would eat watermelon with every meal this week. Even then, I'm not sure if we can eat it all before it goes bad. I took some to my gaming group last night, but I still have a fridge full of diced melon. We'll see how well our war against it will go.

Crockpot Shredded Beef Taco Recipe

2010-08-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

So I've been playing around with tacos recently, trying to create a recipe that's a little easier than my usual shredded pork tacos. I've experimented with chicken, pork and beef and I think I've found something that will work with anything.

You want:

A big piece of meat that'll work well in a crockpot. Either chicken thighs or leg quarters, pork shoulder or "country ribs" or a pot roast. I used a pot roast last night.
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 onion, quartered
4 cloves of garlic
2 healping tablespoons of your favorite chili powder
1 tablespoon coco powder
2 tablespoons red wine (optional)
1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
Salt and pepper to taste

Liberally salt and pepper your meat, and brown on high heat in a frying pan. Place in crockpot. Use canned tomatoes to deglaze the pan, add to crockpot, along with onion, garlic, jalapeno (I included the seeds), chili powder coco powder and red wine. Place lid on crockpot and cook on "low" until meat shreds easily with a fork. Remove any bones, and add corn. Allow corn to cook, then serve.

As I said, the sauce works really well with either beef, chicken or pork. We definitely like it best with the jalapeno cooked in. It's good without, but it's missing that extra spicy kick. My husband ate, like, six of these last night and then cried because he was too full to eat anymore.

I served the beef variety last night with a homemade heirloom tomato salsa and fresh arugula. Just as a note, there's going to be a TON of liquid released when you make these. I've been saving it and using it to poach eggs in, which I then ladle over mexican rice and serve with tortillas the next night. It's pretty awesome.

Video of the Week: Eggs!

2010-08-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

So eggs have been in the news quite a bit lately, what with the salmonella recall and all. Food borne illness is a serious problem in our day and age. With so much of our food now being produced in large, centralized factory farms and distributed nationwide, one farm's sloppy practices can mean serious illness for Americans all over the country. One of the ways you can protect yourself is to never consume raw or undercooked eggs. But where's the fun in that?

Another way you can protect yourself is by purchasing your eggs from a small producer that you know and trust. This is definitely not an option for everyone. These eggs are harder to find and usually at least twice as expensive. Small flocks are less likely to be contaminated with salmonella. I buy farm fresh eggs when I can from different sellers at the Riverside Farmer's Market in Roswell. So far, I haven't had a bad egg from any of the sellers.

And of course, if you live in a place that allows it, you can always try your hand at raising your own laying hens. You'll have to check your local laws about it. And please, think of your neighbors. Chickens can be noisy and smelly. Your neighbors might not appreciate your feathered friends.

And this isn't even getting into the differences between cage free, humanely raised, organic, or omega-3 enhanced eggs, which is a discussion for another time.

There are other benefits to farm raised eggs, which are covered pretty well in today's video link from Simply: Home Cooking. Liza posts a great run down of fresh egg options in her city (Ann Arbor, MI) and gives us a great video that vividly illustrates the differences between conventionally produced eggs and the ones you get from a farmer. So click through to the article and enjoy the video.

Salad Nicoise Recipe

2010-08-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

So when I got back from Raleigh last week, one of the first things we did was head to Publix to grab some fruit and veggies to get us through the week, as we'd missed our usual expedition to the farmer's market. This is how I came to be in possession of a big bag of salad greens that needed to be eaten up before they went bad this week. The solution? Salad Nicoise.

Salad Nicoise also has the advantage of using up some of the produce I'd purchased Saturday morning. It's full of protein and variety and can serve as dinner on a hot summer day. I made a vegetarian version, because I felt like it, but it traditionally includes tuna. I did have a decent picture of it, but my camera decided to delete everything, rather than safely download it to Picasa like i told it to.

The Salad:

1 bag o' salad from the grocery store
3 hard boiled eggs, cut in wedges
1 tomato, cut in wedges
1/4 pound fresh green beans, blanched
4 boiled new potatoes, cut into wedges
cucumber, sliced into rounds (Not traditional, but we like them and they needed to be eaten too)

Mustard vinnegrette

1 tablespoon creamy mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

I think the secret here, which I totally borrowed from this recipe published by the New York Times and inspired this meal, was to flavor the potatoes as they cooked by adding a bay leaf, peppercorns and a generous amount of salt. I cooked the potatoes and eggs, and blanched the green beans while I was kicking around the house, trying to make heads or tails of my first assignment for grad school (My problem? It's too open ended. I've been out of school for six years. Don't tell me to "write a paper on something you're interested in related to education." I need a little direction until the scholarly part of my brain kicks in again.).

So when the husband came home, the only thing I had to do was assemble the ingredients on a platter and drizzle my mustard dressing over the whole thing. I also added a big handful of chopped oregano and basil from my tiny herb garden sprinkled over the top. It actually made a pretty substantial meal by itself, though I could see adding a grilled chicken breast or some fresh baked bread to it.

Video of the Week: Cooking in a Hotel

2010-08-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to Raleigh with the husband for a literature convention. I love attending geek conventions of any ilk. It's nice to not be the nerdiest, most socially awkward person in a given room.

Since this trip coincided with the official beginning of my unemployment, we decided to take a few cost cutting measures this time. Not huge ones, because of one the great joys of travel for us is trying new foods, but enough that we could feel like we were getting the best value from our trip. So we packed a batch of Blueberry Cream Cheese muffins and fresh peaches and bananas to snack on. It made for a good breakfast most days of the convention.

We haven't decided if we're doing this for Dragon*Con in a couple weeks. Since we're staff for the convention, it's harder for us to schedule meals. I might pack more substantial snacks than I usually do, just so I can skip the food court a couple times.

But if you want serious hotel room fine dining, this video is the perfect guide. George Egg makes English muffins, and pasta using just a few simple appliances and easy to get ingredients. I'm awfully tempted by that pasta recipe. It looks something I could live off for four days.

Anyways, check it out.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me...

2010-07-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

It's summer time in Georgia, which means that I have two big mixing bowls sitting in my kitchen, both filled to the brim with beautiful hierloom tomatoes and farm fresh peaches. My husband and I apparently buy so many peaches each week, that even the farmer has commented on it. "Boy, you two really eat your fruit." he said, handing over a paper sack with eight peaches nestled inside. How could we not? The farm fresh Georgia peaches are so crisp and sweet this time of year. I've made cobblers, smoothies, salsas and salads with them. They are delicious sliced into a bowl of homemade oatmeal, or just gobbled fresh in your hand. By the time we have a chance to get sick of them, the season passes and we move onto something else.

The best use for peaches that I have, is this deliciously simple salad from Cheap Healthy Good. Part of why I love it, is that it's two additions and an ingredient swap from peach salsa and who doesn't love peach salsa? Communists, that's who. I don't bother with peeling my peaches or tomatoes. It's an extra step that seems unneccesarily fussy to me. Also, I use lime juice instead of the lemon that CHG uses. That's the magic of this salad, it's so simple, even a tiny change can make it your own.

Just chop peaches, and tomatoes together. Add chopped basil, salt, pepper a squirt of lime juice and a glug of olive oil. Combine together and serve immediately. And if you want salsa? Chop everything a bit finer, suv cilantro for the basil, and add onion and jalapeno. Either way, it's a great way to enjoy summer's fruit.

Food Video of the Week: Grilled Corn on the Cobb

2010-07-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

A new thing I'm going to do here is post a link to a great cooking video I've found during the week. There's tons of great demonstrations on various food websites and scattered across Youtube. Why not draw your attention to the ones I think I especially great?

Today's video is from Mark Bittman's Minimalist column in the New York Times. It's a wonderful recipe for the best grilled corn I've ever had. We stayed in last night and this corn was the star of our dinner, alongside leftover roast chicken and a tomato peach basil salad. The corn is fantastic. Bittman describes it as almost "popcorn like" in flavor, and I agree. The addition of the chili-lime mayo takes the whole thing up a level. It's an incredibly simple combination of ingredients that makes a great summer side dish.

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

2010-07-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I happened to pick up Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as some light beach reading when I was in Florida last month. It was a good book, I enjoyed it. But I was also frustrated by it.

The book is a non-fiction account of how Kingsolver's family moves from Arizona to an old tobacco farm in rural Virginia and decides to eat only what they can grow themselves, or purchase and barter locally. It's a noble experiment and one that I support. However, I felt like Kingsolver made the whole enterprise seem just a bit too neat and easily done. There's no struggle, just thousands of pounds of joyfully harvested summer tomatoes instantly turned into cans with a quick, amusing anecdote.

She tiptoes around the edges of what it means to give up eating from the grocery store. A casual mention of a lack of bananas here, a mournful plea from a daughter for fresh fruit in a snowstorm here. But none of these ever really touch on what it might really mean to give up the convenience of just buying whatever's on the shelf at the grocery store. The closest we get to really seeing a struggle is when the author and her youngest daughter spar briefly over the necessity of slaughtering the occasional rooster from the flock of chickens in the yard.

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with writing something to inspire people to go outside and get some dirt under their nails. I keep a small herb garden in my yard, which I harvest from frequently. But I'm not a freelance writer who works from home. I don't have a small child I can cozen into helping me spread mulch. (I do have a husband, but he sort of melts when left in the sun too long.) I don't live in a farming area. I'd really like to see a more nuanced portrayal of what its like to live off the grid in the 21st century, rather than essays about the joys of making your own cheese.

Ads on the Blog

2010-07-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

My regular readers, who only know me from this blog and not my other social networks, will probably not know this. But I've been laid off. Prior to now, I taught social studies at a small private school here in Roswell. With the economy the way it is, the small school got smaller and they had to cut staff for the upcoming school year. Since about 3000 other teachers were laid off from the public schools at the same time I was, job hunting has been less than fruitful.

Rather than lay on the floor and cry over it though, I've decided to see this as an opportunity to do things I've always wanted to do, but had trouble doing so because of my teaching schedule. The biggest one is getting my Master's degree. I'm also looking at part time jobs with flexible hours, so look for a post with happy news there in the future.

However, despite the best face I can put on things, we're still looking at a drastic cut in our household income after I receive my last paycheck at the end of this month. So I've decided to monetize this blog. I've never really taken the whole blogging thing seriously, which is why Northside Food has a small audience. However, things being what they are, I really can't ignore a potential source of mortgage payments. So you'll be seeing some ads here now and some links to Amazon if I'm talking about a product you can buy there. Don't feel obligated to click on anything (In fact, by my service agreement with AdSense, I'm not allowed to encourage you to click on ads.), but do understand that they are here to support me in my state of underemployment.

The upside of the ads is that now that they are here, I feel sort of obligated to stick to a reliable update schedule and make an effort to build my audience. So you'll be hearing from me more frequently now.

Make mine with yogurt

2010-07-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

I eat lots of yogurt. That's no surprise to long time readers of this blog, who will recall that I occasionally make my own. I usually buy a big tub of plain, organic, cream top yogurt at the beginning of the week and work my way through it. I like the organic, because it has JUST yogurt in it. No fillers or stabilizers.

I usually use it in fruit smoothies, but I'll also use it as a topping for oatmeal, or fresh fruit. Occasionally it get used in a marinade or as the base for a dipping sauce. I also bake with it. Yogurt is surprisingly good in baked goods, especially as a substitute for buttermilk. It'll add that tang with the added benefit that yogurt is easier to keep around than buttermilk. Just remember, it's slightly acidic, so make sure your recipe includes baking soda and baking powder as leaveners. Otherwise, it won't rise and you'll be left with a dense, nasty tasting mess.

This morning I made blueberry waffles for breakfast. I have a lovely repurposed glass jar in my fridge, full of local blueberries I bought at the Green Street market. No, they didn't come in a glass jar. I keep all my berries in glass. For some reason I can't fathom, berries last longer in glass than they do those tiny plastic baskets. I keep old applesauce jars in my cupboard for things like this.

I adapted my recipe from Eat Happy, a blog I found while Googling around for recipes this morning. I liked it because of it's simplicity. I added a big shake of cinnamon to the dry ingredients as I was sifting them together, and of course, a generous double handful of blueberries. I also used plain yogurt, instead of vanilla.

1 c. water
1 c. yogurt
1/2 c. fresh blueberries
2 eggs
2 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

In a medium/large bowl, combine the water, yogurt, and eggs. In a smaller bowl, mix together the remaining (dry) ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet, and stir to combine. Bake in a waffle iron (according to the directions that came with the appliance).

Salad Days

2010-06-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

The heat of summer means I want less hot, filling meals and more stuff that is easy to toss together and doesn't heat up the kitchen. So we eat more salads.

Salad dressing, until recently, was one of the few highly processed foods we were still buying. It was cheap and it was easy. Yeah, I've always known how to make my own dressings, but why get another container dirty? Blah de blah blah. Excuses, excuses.

My husband, who no one will accuse of being a health food fanatic, usually skips the salad when I serve it for dinner. "It's boring." he says. "I am a carnivore. I'm not eating leaves." (Which is ridiculous, because he loves braised greens and sauteed spinach.) But he was right, that bowl of plain chopped romaine lettuce with tomatoes and cucumbers every night IS boring. So I've been playing around with my own salad dressings, with delicious results.

Last night, I made lyonnaise dressing, following the advice of the excellent Mark Bittman. Salad Lyonnaise is usually served over frisee, and topped with a poached egg. I used a mix of arugala and romaine and topped it with chopped cucumbers and tomatoes. I didn't feel like dealing with poached eggs.

The dressing was creamy and tangy, rich with bacon fat. The very lean bacon from BPH Farms leaves less grease than the other kind, so we're only talking about a tablespoon of fat. I used red wine vinegar, because I didn't have sherry and regular yellow mustard. My condiments need an upgrade. All in all, a pretty easy meal that didn't come out of a bottle.

Pasta With Bacon Sauce

2010-06-09T17:28:00.000-07:00

So I don't get this whole bacon obsession that gripes the internet. I mean, yes, bacon tastes good. It's sweet and salty and meaty all at once. If cooked properly, it has a nice crispness to it. But why is it the subject of obsession? I like it and all, but I've never had the urge to tape any to the cat.

My husband though is a bacon festishist. Apparently it wasn't a thing in his house. He told me the other day that he's eaten more bacon in 12 years of knowing me than he did in 24 years of living with his parents. So his is the zeal of the recent convert.

Bacon is one of those things I always have to hand. It's great for cooking along with greens, topping a salad, and yes, eating for breakfast. Recently, we're eating the locally produced bacon from BPH Farms which we obtain at the Riverside Farmers Market here in Roswell. It's a nice, thick cut bacon and far better tasting than what we usually buy at the grocery store.

This traditional Italian recipe (properly known as Pasta Amatriciana) is usually made with pancetta. However, I've discovered that it works just as well with good quality bacon.

Two strips bacon, cooked and reserved
Can of tomatoes
1 cup onion, chopped
Parsley
Parmesan cheese, grated

Cook bacon. Remove from pan and reserve. In the bacon grease, soften onions until just turning clear. Add canned tomatoes, stir. Let it simmer together briefly, then add cooked pasta (I like a whole wheat penne for this). Allow pasta and sauce to cook together for a moment, then add parsely and cheese. Add crumbled bacon back to the pan. Toss together and serve.

This is not a reasonable amount of greens...

2010-05-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

We hit both the Roswell and Alpharetta farmers markets this weekend. I must say, this is the most impressed I've ever been with the Roswell market on a first day. Last year, it was three guys selling cutsey birdhouses and some strawberries that were too ripe. This year, we bought so much food! We bought farm fresh eggs, dinosaur kale, rutabagas, romaine lettuce, strawberries and scallions. We managed to buy a bit from all of our usual farmers and talk to a few new ones as well. Oh and there's now a guy that'll sharpen your knives for you while you shop. I think the Roswell farmers market is finally starting to come together.

We went to the Alpharetta market next to round out our purchases. We got Chinese broccoli, zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli and mustard greens.

Funny story about the mustard greens. The seller said to us. "Two dollars for a sack full" and held up a recycled, plastic grocery sack. We said "Sure!" We like mustard greens, right? And so he filled up the sack all the way to the handles. Woah! So many greens! And then he pushed down, compressing them to the bottom, and filled the sack again! So yeah, definitely got our money's worth on that. We actually have three different kindss of braising greens in our fridge right now. The mustard greens, the dinosaur kale (rawr!) and some collards we bought last week from a grower in Alpharetta.

The plan is to make caldo verde at least once this week. And I have a great recipe for braising greens that I usually do with collards, but I think will go great with any kind of greens. I have a thought of adding greens to a home made tomato sauce and then poaching eggs in it. That's a trick I discovered a couple weeks ago and it's amazing. But other than that, i am wide open as far as meal ideas go. We have so much fresh produce crammed in the fridge right now, the challenge is to eat it all before it rots.

Farmers Market Season

2010-05-09T18:47:00.001-07:00

Miss me? I certainly missed you! Since I am determined that this blog will remain a hobby (I have a bad habit of turning interests into all consuming passions and hobbies into second jobs), I sometimes take extended breaks from blogging. Nothing against you all, sometimes I just don't feel like writing here. For half a year. Ahem.

Moving along! I am breaking my silence today to write about the wonders of Farmers Market shopping. The Alpharetta Farmers Market has been open for two weekends now, and is in a new location in the parking lot behind the Publix on Haynes Bridge Road. The Roswell Farmers Market opens this Saturday in it's new location at City Hall. And a new market in Roswell is opening up this week as well called the Green Street Farmers Market. This one will be located in the parking lot of The Swallow at the Hollow on Thursday afternoons from 3-5 PM.

I went to the Alpharetta market on Saturday was greatly impressed with the early season produce. Obviously the brokers and resellers always have good selection, but a few of the growers were out too. I grabbed strawberries, romaine lettuce and collard greens from growers. I also got tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, green beans and onions from brokers. I know from asking that the broccoli and tomatoes were locally grown. Not sure about the others.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Roswell Market works in its new location. The former spot in Riverside park was much closer to us, but parking was awful. I'm intrigued by the Green Street Market. According to a thread from the 285foodies forum, it's going to have some of my favorite vendors from other local markets. But the hours just don't work for me. There's no way I'll be able to get out of work in time to make it before they close. Granted, I'll be done working in a few weeks (I teach middle school.), but I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem. Here's hoping Caly Road Creamery and Coles Lake Dairy are selling at other markets this year. Otherwise I will be sad.

If you're new to Farmers Markets, I wrote a short guide to them last year. EcoSalon has a list of the top ten mistakes made by Farmers Market N00bs, which is useful. If you like controversy, the Wall Street Journal has an article about brokers verses growers at Farmers Markets. Personally, I prefer to buy directly from growers when I can. But the brokers at the local markets are all small, locally owned and operated businesses, several of which purchase directly from local farms. So I feel no pain at giving them my business.

Well, that should be enough to keep you busy for a few days.

Baked Applesauce Oatmeal

2010-01-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

This cold snap is killing me, you know? I know I used to live in Salt Lake City, and used to walk to school in snow up to my knees every day and loved it, but I'm not that person anymore. I've adapted to Georgia winters, which last two weeks and never drops below 20. So the current cold snap is just murder, you know?

I've been coping by wearing layers, cuddling with my couch blankies (Every one keeps a set of throws in the living room for things like this, right?), and eating lots of hot, filling soups, stews and casseroles. But for those cold, cold mornings when I really need something hot? I turn to oatmeal.

I can't stand microwaved, instant oats. It tastes like overly sweet mush to me. But making a pot of oats every morning? That takes valuable time. Time I can better spend hitting the snooze bar and stealing blankets from my husband. So I make a big casserole dish of baked oats Sunday night, and scoop out a portion to take to work with me. a minute in the microwave, and I have something to fortify me against the day.

I've played around with several recipes for baked oats since I started doing this. This is the one I like best. Some recipes call for the addition of nuts or dried fruit as it as it cooks. I leave those out, preferring to add them after it's heated to preserve their texture. Many recipes add baking powder, I guess because this is supposed to be like a bar cookie? But I find it never quite cooks in, leaving me with a nasty bite of bitter, baking soda goodness lurking somewhere in my bowl. Yuck. I leave it out.

Adapted from Cooking Cache.com

2 cups oatmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chunky or regular applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl, combine the oatmeal and salt. Mix in milk, eggs, applesauce, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir and pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake at 325°F for 45 minutes. I top with pecans and raisins.

New Year's Day Brunch

2009-12-31T14:35:00.000-08:00

So for those you planning to go out for brunch tomorow (I'm not one of you. I just finished assembling a lovely ham, spinach, cheese strata. It looks cold and dreary and I'm not planning to leave the house until spring.), here's a quick guide to area brunch offerings.

First up! Da' Cajun Kitchen!

I like this place, I honestly do. But it's not my favorite breakfast option, no matter how personable and friendly I find the owners. They do an awesome lunch though. But if you want fast and cheap, go for it. They serve authentic New Orleans style breakfast, complete with beignet and cafe au lait. The beignet are beautiful. Soft, pillowy hunks of fried dough mounded high with powdered sugar. Yum. Better than donuts for breakfast in my book.

Next... Artisan Foods!

I've only eaten here once, and that was a quick stop in for a breakfast sandwich on my way elsewhere. But it has rave reviews from others, so I'm comfortable including it. My breakfast sandwich was scrambled eggs, bacon and cheddar cheese on a house made croissant. The eggs were soft, but not mushy. The bacon was thick and crisp, and my cheese was so hot it burned my hand. They must've brought it to me right off the stove. Amazingly delicious.

The Red Hen!

This is a really solid place for breakfast. The service is excellent and the food is great. My favorite is the huevos rancheros, which are crispy tortillas topped with chorizo and eggs. It's a great mix of textures and flavors.

And finally, because I don't plan to be here all night, J. Christophers.

This is a local chain, with locations in both Roswell and Alpharetta. The Roswell is my favorite location, because it's in a historic building that predates the Civil War and is supposedly haunted. Breakfasts here are okay, but nothing special. I tend to end up here if i can't get to one of my other favorites. But the food is delicious. Nothing is standing out to me, but I haven't eaten there in almost a year. But they tend to be fast and they handle groups well.

A Week of Soup

2009-12-29T07:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my husband and I were chatting about dinner plans, and whether we needed to go grocery shopping for the week. We somehow have ended up with an ungodly amount of food in our house, even without hosting any holidays this year. We're also feeling a little bloated after all the holiday cookies and pies. So soup! We will eat soup this week. Lovely, low fat, vegetable laden soup.

And as we are talking, I'm envisioning a great blogging experience for me. I shall make a week of soup! And there will be no repeats! And it will be awesome! Five nights of soup, since we go out on Saturday. Well, four really, because I seldom cook on Friday too. Oh, Thursday is New Years Eve? Well, I don't need to make dinner that night either. Three. Three nights of soup.

Sigh.

Soup #1: Turkey Veggie

We have an enormous smoked turkey taking up half our fridge right now. It needs to be eaten. So, soup! I made an easy soup of chopped carrots, onions, smoked turkey, yellow squash and potatoes in packaged chicken broth. Light, filling, and it used up a good portion of what I had on hand. I served it with fresh baked dinner rolls from my Joy of Cooking.

Soup #2: Turkey Tortilla Soup

I usually make chicken tortilla soup using chicken thighs. I sear the thighs in bacon grease or oil and then poach in water with onions, garlic and celery. After they are cooked, I set them aside to cool, then add chicken broth, canned tomatoes, rice, and carrots and chili powder. Let that cook, then add chopped jalapeno and the shredded chicken. I serve this with tortilla chips.

Soup #3: Spanish Chickpea Soup

I think by Wednesday, I will have had enough of smoked turkey. So something different. This is a new recipe and we're dying to try it. I shall post it later if we like it.

Holiday Links

2009-12-27T11:45:00.001-08:00

I think this nice, in between time between Christmas and New Years is my favorite part of the holidays. I'm off from work, but everything is done. There's no presents to buy, no cookies to bake, nothing that needs decorating. My husband has some time off, so we get to see movies together and have leisurely, late breakfasts of hot rolls and baked oatmeal. Usually I start futzing around for New Year's Eve celebrations at our house right about now, but my friend Diane is taking that on for us. So I get a nice, quiet week to catch up on housework and other projects.

In the spirit of that, here are some holiday appropriate links.

On the subject of brunch, I read two really great articles about preparing easy holiday brunches. Smitten Kitchen writes what I consider to be the definitive guide to holiday brunching. Her thesis? Easy, make ahead recipes that you can prep ahead of time, then throw in the oven the morning of while you shower. Gayle, of Grocery Cart Challenge fame, also submits some breakfast casserole recipes for holiday brunching in her weekly The Daily News column. While her recipe offerings tend to be a little heavy on the processed foods for my taste, two of these rely on fresh or frozen ingredients, which make them winners in my book.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've seen some interesting links about holiday food drives that I thought I'd share. The first was a recent NYT article about the secret preference that food banks won't tell you about: Cash. But if you think about it, it makes sense. What on earth can they do with three cans of pickled artichoke hearts and a cellophane package of ditalini? We feel good taking cans out of our own pantry to give to those in need, but I think too many use it just as an excuse to dump unwanted food guilt free. There's a really good discussion on Chowhound regarding donations to food banks, that I found to be worth skimming.

For myself, I just cleaned out my pantry on Monday and set aside some cans for donating to the North Fulton Community Charities, a non-denominational non-profit that helps families in North Fulton meet their basic needs. What am I donating? Cans of green beans and creamed corn. Our tastes have shifted after eating farm fresh vegetables all summer and canned veggies just taste like mush to us now. So I have about a dozen or so cans bought before, that are neatly boxed up and waiting for a chance to deliver them. Or it may be time to help my students organize another canned food drive.

And to round things out a bit, here's a couple links from online humor site, Cracked.com. First up, is a great discussion of tipping on the Cracked forums. Personally, I always try to tip at least 20 percent when I go out. I have far too many friends and family who work in food service and rely on tips to be comfortable otherwise. And one of today's feature articles is an examination of useless kitchen gadgets, some of which I'm sure were given or received as gifts this year. I've been mercifully gadget free in my kitchen the last few years, but it's only a matter of time before someone decides I just *need* an automatic donut machine. (Though I will say those pizza scissors look pretty sweet...)

Perfect Collard Greens

2009-12-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

I'm going to take a stand here, and say that my last post on chili was my most commented on yet. But most of the comments were on Facebook, instead of here. Way to rob me of precious traffic Facebook friends!

So perhaps I can get a little of that back by courting another controversy with my perfect collard green recipe. (Notice, I say "my" perfect greens. This is what I think is perfect. You may think differently. )

To me, collards need to have a silky texture, a salty, smokey tang, and only a hint of bitterness from the greens. There should also be a copious amount of "pot likker" that runs around your plate and soaks into everything. I've played around with ham hocks, bacon, water, broth, white wine, etc. in varying amounts and this is what I've come up with.

1 bag o pre chopped and washed collards
1 can diced tomatoes
2 slices bacon
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can chicken broth

Fry bacon in pan to render out fat. Mmm...bacon fat. Remove bacon and reserve. Add onion and collards. Smoosh it down. Add tomatoes and chicken broth. Lid it up, and simmer on low heat until tender. Chopped up reserved bacon and add back. Serve.

This gives you a nice mix of textures and flavors in your greens. I especially like the crunch of the crispy bacon against the tender greens. It's also very pretty, with the tomato flecks against the dark green collards. Try it sometime.

It's Not Chili, Alright

2009-12-13T15:37:00.000-08:00

Oddly enough, most of the arguments between me and my husband seem to center around food. Our first one was over chili. See, I married a Texan. Sure, he's Chinese, but that's just on the outside. Inside, he's a Texan. He cheers for the Cowboys and the Longhorns. He says "y'all". And he has firm ideas on chili.

To me, raised in the mid-west, chili is ground beef, onions, and kidney beans in a tomato broth. It's mild and you top it with sour cream and cheese. To my husband, chili is chunks of beef in a spicy red sauce. He likes his four alarm. I like mine no alarm. He's come along way so far as allowing beans in his chili and adding his own hot sauce. But there is one thing he will not allow: Vegetarian Chili.

So when I saw this great Veggie Chili recipe on Chow last night, that just happens to use up some old produce in my fridge, I knew I was in for a fight. And I was right. He moped around, claiming he's a carnivore, not an omnivore. That he just ran a 5K and needs protein to rebuild his muscles. And then, he finally admitted that chili without meat just isn't chili.

"What if I make a Spicy Vegetable Stew instead?"

"I think that will be okay."

Sigh.

It's Not Chili

(Adapted from Chow recipe linked above. Apologies again for not measuring anything.)

Green Bell Pepper, chopped
Carrots, chopped
Celery, chopped
Onion, chopped
Chili powder
Cumin
Cocoa powder
Rice
Canned Tomatoes
Garlic
Bottle of Beer (I used New Moon, because it was there)
Kidney beans
Yellow Squash, sliced

Melt about a tablespoon of bacon grease in bottom of pan (Like I said, not vegetarian chili anymore). Add chopped bell pepper, onion, carrot and celery. When onions are soft, add chili powder, cumin and cocoa powder. Add can of tomatoes, chopped garlic, a half cup of rice or so, and a tomato can of water. Simmer together for about ten minutes. Add beer and kidney beans. Simmer for another ten, check salt, etc. Add yellow squash, cook until tender. Top with chopped parsley and chopped green onion. (Like I said, I'm cleaning out my fridge here.)

What Should I Make For Dinner?

2009-12-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what to make tonight. This usually means ordering pizza. I do not want to eat pizza. I need something fast, because I'll be coaching a late game tonight and won't be home until close to six.

I have...

Kidney beans soaking
Cauliflower
Yellow squash
Corn chips
Rice
Bacon
Green beans
Shredded cheese
Sour cream

And assume I have pantry items like olive oil, canned tomatoes, etc. What should I make?

I have a though of making nachos with the corn chips, cheese, beans and bacon. But I really want a vegetable tonight. Maybe a curry? Or a soup?

Tell me what to eat.

Riverside Market & Dragonfly Farms

2009-12-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

I just got a VERY welcome email from Sunni at Dragonfly Farms, one of my favorite sellers at the Riverside Farmer's Market here in Roswell.

Hello All!

Hope you have had a great Thanksgiving and holiday season so far. Riverside Farmer's Market will be having a holiday market on Saturday, December 12th, from 9am until 1pm. I'll let you know what produce we'll have closer to the date. We will be selling our nature photography: some matted photos, some unmatted, some framed, as well as packs of notecards and bookmarks. There will be a cooking demonstration as well as live music. It should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there!

Sunni Williams
Dragonfly Farm, LLC

I plan to be there nice and early so I can get my pick of seasonal produce. I can't wait to see what's been growing.

To get on the Dragonfly Farms email distribution list, send an email to dragonflyfarmga@gmail.com and they'll put you down for their latest updates.

Figo

2009-11-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

I think I've mentioned before, that the more often I visit a restaurant, the less likely it is I'll post about it here. I have no idea why. But I'm trying to break that habit by posting about one of my current favorites.

Figo is a locally owned chain of made to order pasta. You walk up to the counter and select your choice of noodle and freshly made sauce. The variety is good and all sauces are from fresh ingredients, so far as I can tell. They've also got a great selection of fresh salads. I frequently go there and just order the caprese salad for my meal. My husband's favorite appetizer is a platter of fried seafood and zucchini with a tangy dip. The batter on the seafood is light and crunchy, not greasy.

My only complaint, is that the service at the Alpharetta location is frequently inattentive, bordering on nonexistent. I've poured ice water in my lap, and had to go searching for my own napkins when I was seated next to the service station. On our last visit, our drinks arrived at the table barely moments before our food. But when you can get their attention, the staff is friendly, polite, and willing to answer almost any question. And the food is tasty enough that I'm willing to put up with their inattention. I can't be the only one that thinks so, since they are busy almost every night of the week.

If you go, I highly recommend the Amatriciana sauce, which is a freshly made tomato sauce laced with smokey pancetta. Or try the rich, meaty Ragu’ alla Bolognese over whole wheat penne, for a very filling meal. My husband swears by the sausage and peppers over linguini. the gnocchi are a little gummy for my taste, but the ravioli are delicious with any sauce. This is a place where it really pays to explore the menu and mix and match.

Good morning!

2009-11-27T07:31:00.000-08:00

I never mean to be away long when I decide to take a break from here. A week at most is what I promise myself. And then it turns into seven. As you might have guessed, I've been busy. My all consuming second job as a ~~meth dealer,~~, Big Name Fan of the Wheel of Time series kicked into high gear with the release of the latest book in the series. It's a good book. If you are a fan of the series, you should read it. Anyways, I've still been eating and cooking and reading about food, if perhaps not quite with the dedication my other hobby is getting these days.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, which my parents hosted. It was a very traditional affair and I ate three desserts. My sister, Allison, is an incredible baker. No one can resist her treats.

My contribution was a sweet potato casserole. My family was never big on sweet potatoes growing up, until we realized they didn't HAVE to be boiled to death, then slathered with marshmallow. I think I'm the only one that eats them with regularity, but they are not foreign objects on the dinner table for my parents and siblings.

This casserole recipe is adapted from one given to me by a student. In my Food Appreciation class this month, we've been focusing on Thanksgiving foods. So we've made pie from scratch, this casserole, pumpkin cookies, etc. When I let the students know we'd be making sweet potato casserole, he brought this recipe and I liked it better than my usual one. So we made it, I liked it and now it's mine.

The adaptions are mainly just to lighten it up a bit. The original called for a crazy amount of butter, eggs and sugar, which I have reduced greatly. Sweet potatoes are naturally delicious and really don't require much gussying up to be presentable.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups mashed, cooked sweet potato (I roast mine in the oven, I think it tastes better)
1 egg
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 orange juice
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Combine sweet potatoes, egg, butter and orange juice in a casserole dish. Top with pecans and and brown sugar. Bake at 350 for thirty minutes and serve warm.

The magic ingredient in this, as far as I'm concerned is the orange juice. Citrus and sweet potatoes go surprisingly well with each other. The acidity brings out the natural sweetness of the potato. I'll probably make this again in a few days when we need another Thanksgiving fix.

The Mexican Aisle

2009-10-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

From blog

Recently, I've started to become acquainted with the section of my Publix that houses the Hispanic ingredients. The bit that I particularly like right now is the selection of Hispanic spices. They come packaged in clear plastic baggies, which isn't the greatest thing in the world for freshness, but if you only need a couple tablespoons of something, it can be just what you're looking for. The variety is pretty good, and many of them come whole, like star anise, cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. I bought a little bag of pine nuts to make Lebanese stuffed eggplant this week. I only need a few tablespoons for the recipe. Why waste the money on a bottle?

And check out the difference on prices:

From blog

These are the sesame seeds I bought to top an Asian coleslaw a few months ago.

From blog

And these are the ones I didn't buy. Holy cow. What a difference. And sure, you get more with the bottle. But how often do I use sesame seeds? They'd go to waste. And I don't have to traipsing all over town to find a place that sells high quality spices. It's amazing what you can find in your neighborhood grocery store these days.

Learning to Eat More Veggies

2009-09-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

One of my projects this summer has been learning to eat more vegetables than I did before. Don't get me wrong, I eat my veggies. I love green beans, corn, carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach and more. I think I do pretty well on eating a variety of vegetables. However, there's always room for improvement. I was especially motivated to improve my palate when I realized I was passing up so much of the beautiful, freshly grown produce at the local farmers market. I feel like I missed out on some great stuff, just because I was too picky to try it.

For some things, the problem was that of exposure. I've always said I didn't like beets, but I'd really never tried them. My mom never cooked with them. They only time I ever saw them was when they were quivering on my school cafeteria tray, oozing an unappetizing pink juice. Yuck. But I saw a couple slices on a tapas plate at Veranda in the spring and impulsively decided to try it. It was...not poison. Still wasn't sure I liked it, but I was willing to try again. It turns out I do like beets. Raw beets in a salad are delicious, but I especially like them roasted in the oven with olive oil and salt. Yum.

Zucchini...Not a success. My mom loves it, so it was on the table frequently as a kid, usually steamed. I cannot stand it steamed. Recently, I tried it grilled at home and breaded and deep fried at Figo. No good. There's something...not food about it. The flavor is too mild, the texture too soft. My brain rejects it. I think I'll try it again as zucchini bread, but then I'm done. It's too bad, because my husband loves it, but he doesn't want me to make it just for him.

Next up is eggplant, which I'm working on currently. I bought one last week and turned it into home made eggplant Parmesan. I did like it, but not as much as I thought I would. I don't think the fault was the vegetable, but the breading. It was a little bland for me. The actual eggplant wasn't terrible, just unfamiliar. I'm going to try it again, stir fried with garlic sauce. My husband loves ordering this at Chinese restaurants, so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it too.

Next summer, I may tackle the most terrifying of all vegetables: okra.

Rainy Day Links

2009-09-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but rain like we've had this week makes me sluggish and sleepy. I did manage to hit the Alpharetta Farmers Market and host a bridal shower yesterday, but today has been spent either reading or surfing the internet. I didn't even have to cook yesterday, as there were ample leftover finger sandwiches and mini-quiches for all. When I finally rouse myself this evening to cook, it'll be a nice hearty bowl of chicken veggie soup.

Anyways, since I'm trying to keep a regular update schedule around here again, I thought I'd share some of what I've been reading.

Eat Me Daily recently posted some of the ads for the Sydney International Food Festival. These really appeal to the social studies teacher in me, as it's food shaped like flags. Seriously, check them out. And in a related note of coolness, a friend showed me The United Steaks of America, which is a gallery of steaks cut to resemble...you guessed it, the United States.

Gale over at Grocery Cart Challenge posted her incredibly easy looking cheesecake recipe this week. I'm tempted to try it, as I've got all the ingredients sans the graham crackers in my kitchen already. But if I did that, then I'd be missing out on this also incredible looking cheese cake marbled brownies that Smitten Kitchen posted. Both of these sound OMG amazing. Maybe its a good thing I'm knee deep in purple frosted butter cookies right now. Otherwise I'd be happily smeared in chocolate right now and my husband frowning over the mess I've made of the kitchen again.

Here's an interesting article from TIME about the social aspect of obesity. Apparently you eat more with friends or with other overweight people. I believe it. I'm always catching myself thinking "I should order a salad now, so these people won't think I'm fat." Completely ignoring that they can just LOOK at me and see I'm fat. My ordering habits won't change their opinion.

Speaking of ordering the salad, Creative Loafing reposted an article claiming that the presence of salads and other healthy sounding options on menus makes you more likely to order the unhealthy options. Interesting. I haven't noticed that behavior in myself, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Woah!

2009-08-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

I just checked my referral logs and realized that I've been named Site of the Week by the ladies over at Atlanta Dish. I'm very flattered! In case you're curious, this is what they have to say about me:

Click on Northside Food and see what’s waiting for you on the up-side of Atlanta’s perimeter. This blog knows its demographics. For locavores -- farmers markets and local produce drop-off spots, specialty food shops and local products. For hurried parents -- links to recipes for “A Year of Crockpotting” and packing vegan lunch boxes. For nights out -- restaurant review sites and personal favorites on the top side of town. And for staying home -- book suggestions and info on how to write your congressional rep about food safety issues. Link, look, grab the GPS and go!

Thanks Atlanta Dish!

Bits and Bites

2009-08-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of small stuff to say today, so I'm rolling it all together to make a longer post.

First, the bad news. Poster "Secret Chef" reports on Atlanta Cuisine that Slice has closed. Slice has been a favorite of mine for about a year, I think. So I am very sad to see it go. It does seem like some of the food has migrated over to Durty Kelly's Irish Pub, which has the same owners. So I know where to go when I feel nostalgic.

I ran across this article on Mother Jones this morning about Fiji Water, which made me REALLY glad I gave up drinking bottled water last year. It makes me sad that a bottled water company can somehow convince everyone that it's environmentally friendly. Its all smoke and mirrors, unfortunately. And I had no idea that Fiji itself was run by a dictatorship that relies on sales of Fiji Water to bolster its image overseas. Really interesting article.

In the New York Times, Michael Pollan explores the difference between Julia Child's TV show and the celebrity chefs on the Food Network. In short? Julia encouraged us (Yes, I'm old enough to have watched her on TV. Barely.) to get into the kitchen and take risks. The Food Network wants us to sit back and watch them perform culinary feats impossible for mere mortals, then assemble a meal made of branded products sold by their sponsors. I think he's got a point here. I quit watching the Food Network years ago, when I realized I wasn't learning anything from it.

My new favorite recipe this week is Peach Tomato Salad, courtesy of Cheap Healthy Good, one of my favorite blogs. Its nothing I ever would have thought to put together on my own, but now that I've had it, I don't know how I lived without. I had it for lunch on Friday and I'm serving it again tonight as a side dish alongside grilled bratwurst. I don't bother with peeling my fruit like the recipe calls for. That's far too fussy for me. I just chop it, dress it, and serve.

Book Review: A History of the World in Six Glasses

2009-08-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

During my recent summer vacation, I whiled away an idle few afternoons reading a very nice bit of pop history by Tom Standage, A History of the World in Six Glasses. This book examines the impact of six beveridges on human development. The drinks considered are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca Cola.

I love books like this that make me consider history in a different light. The section on Coca Cola was fascinating. Since I live in Atlanta, I know the Coca Cola company has tried to align itself with Americana as much as possible. But I hadn't realized how well it succeeded, especially during World War II, when Coke was exempted from sugar rationing so that production of the brown, fizzy liquid wouldn't be jeopardized. In fact, Coke was considered so necessary for the war effort that factories were built all over the world for American servicemen, hastening the global spread.

But I'm skipping ahead. Reading the origins of beer as an ancient method of preserving grain was enlightening. Learning about the impact of wine on the ancient greeks and Romans provides great context for studying those cultures. Any school child (especially if you've been in my US History class) can tell you about the rum trade in the colonies and how it especially affected the African slave trade. Coffee is connected to the rise of the financial markets and insurance business. Tea was a way of sanitizing water, especially in the filthy, plague ridden society of 18th Century London. And the thumbnail sketch of the British East India Company's engineering of the Opium Wars to ensure a steady and cheap supply for their monopoly is fascinating, especially as it connects to the origins of the American Revolution.

Standage's book is full of engaging details that illustrate the big picture point he makes regarding the development and use of each drink. I was strongly reminded of the old PBS series "Connections" while reading it. I highly recommend this to anyone interesting in learning a little bit more about how what we drink shapes who we are.

I am of the opinion...

2009-08-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

That when I bring my own bags to a grocery store, I should get a discount. Not a huge discount. No more than the cost of the bags they would have used to bag my groceries. But I'm saving them money when I bring my own bags, in addition to making less waste. And I'd like to be rewarded for my extra efforts. I'm always seeing people say that we should let market forces find us the best solution to our problems. So why not a monetary incentive to bring your own bags?

Some stores already have incentives in place. IKEA started charging for bags a few years ago. Trader Joes puts your name in a drawing for free groceries. Even more recently, Whole Foods stopped offering thin plastic bags and now only provides reusable bags you buy at the check out line. I still do the majority of my grocery shopping at Publix, but I'd like to see them shave a few cents off my grocery bill for bringing my own bags each week.

A real update coming soon, I promise...

2009-07-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

In the mean time, one of my friends, who is a local food producer herself, forwarded this me. It also went out on the Moore's Family Farm mailing list this week as well. If you're passionate about locally produced, non-industry food, it would be a good idea to read up on this issue and make your opinion known to your representative. The representative for the 30076 ZIP code is Tom Price.

I rarely send political messages, but there’s a bill that went to the floor of the house today that will directly affect Athens Locally Grown, to the point of possibly making us stop what we do. -eric

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!
URGE THEM TO SUPPORT THE
KAPTUR-FARR FOOD SAFETY PROPOSAL

There is no question: our food system needs to be safer. But Congress is currently debating food safety legislation (Food Safety Enhancement Act – H.R. 2749) that could hinder beginning, sustainable, and organic farmers’ access to markets, require expensive fees, and lead to the dismantling of important conservation practices and wildlife habitat.

HR 2749 is scheduled to go to the floor of the House TODAY under a suspension vote, which means limited debate and no amendments, but a requirement for a two-thirds majority for passage. With negotiations still underway, however, it seems reasonably likely that a vote could be pushed to Thursday.

Representatives Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Sam Farr (CA-17), Maurice Hinchey (NY-22), Jesse Jackson Jr. (IL-2), Peter Welch (VT-at large), Chellie Pingree (ME-1) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) last week submitted a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee with specific proposed changes to HR 2749 that addresses many of the concerns raised by the sustainable and organic agriculture community.

At the same time, the House Agriculture Committee majority concluded negotiations with the sponsors of HR 2749 that secured one of the changes proposed in the Kaptur-Farr et al request – namely, a greater role for USDA in all the farm-related portions of the bill. That was helpful as far as it went, but it did not directly address other critical concerns.

It is important that you call your Representative TODAY and ask them to join the effort to protect small and mid-sized family farmers, the environment, and consumer choice by supporting the provisions in the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY!

It’s easy to call. Please call or fax your Representative’s office and ask to speak with the aide that works on agriculture. If you don’t know your Representative’s name, please click here http://www.house.gov and enter your zip code in the top left-hand corner of the screen. Then call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Representative’s office: 202-224-3121.

The message is simple. “I am a constituent of Representative___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to support the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. I am also asking him/her to vote against HR 2749 unless the proposals included in the Kaptur-Farr letter are included in the final bill.”

Shopping the Farmers Markets

2009-06-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

I have a friend, who is interested in shopping the farmer's markets this year. So we took him with us on our weekly prowl, and I thought I'd post some of my strategies here as well. There was also great article in the Chicago Tribune that I found recently, that has some great ideas too.

From blog

First, get there early. Remember in "Ratatouille" when Collette is yelling about the first pick of the day? This is how you get it. It's not like Publix where they've got another hundred cases in the back, once they run out, they run out. At the Riverside market in Roswell, I've only managed to buy fresh eggs once, because he's always out by the time I make it there. Last year, I missed out on Georgia blueberries several times because I couldn't get there fast enough. I like to walk through the market once, before buying anything, looking for the best deals and at what's in today.

From blog

Next, bring bags. Most of the vendors will have thin plastic bags. Some of them are reused bags, some are new. However, it lowers their costs if you provide your own packaging. So I bring my own cloth bags. Also, you want to bring cash. none of the vendors in Roswell or Alpharetta are set up to take debit cards. We usually bring $40 and we spend it all. And you'll make them very happy if you can bring some fives or some singles.

From blog

Don't be afraid to ask what something is, or how to prepare it. I've learned alot of new ways to prepare vegetables since e started going to the markets. I as an infrequent consumer of collards, for example, and beets never made it into my bag. I only knew to simmer collards with onion and ham. And god knows what you did with a beet. Now I know a couple different ways to prepare both of these, because I asked.

Also, you'll want to spend some time prepping your veggies when you get home. We're all used to the convenience of pre-washed and chopped bag o' salad at the grocery store. You have to make this yourself. So right now I have a colander of sorrel rinsed and draining in my sink. Later on, I'll put it in a container, or bag and store it in the fridge, ready to throw in a salad or stir fry. It also helps them fit in the fridge a bit better. I always have trouble with that. Everything will last longer than you'd think. Its fresh from the ground, instead of being hauled across the country on a truck for a week, or flown in from South America. But if you don't get it into a form you'll use, then it doesn't matter how fresh it is.

From blog

You really have to embrace vegetables if you're going to shop at the Farmers Market. They become the star of the show, rather than the accompaniment. We're eating alot of salads and veggie stir fries right now, and grilling squash and peppers outdoors.

If you want an idea of when certain things will be available, you can always ask the vendors, or you can check out this very handy interactive map by Epicurious that will give you an idea of what's available this month. It also includes links to recipes, which can be very helpful when dealing with a glut of unfamilar veggies.

From blog

The Riverside Farmers Market in Roswell will be closed next weekend for the holiday. However, the Alpharetta Farmers Market will be open for business.

Neslte is the very best...e. coli

2009-06-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot to post about this one, since I haven't bought packaged cookie dough in ages, but Nestle is voluntarily recalling their cookie and brownie dough products after some consumers became ill from eating the products raw. It was bound to happen eventually, given how contaminated our industrial food supply is and the forbidden pleasures of eating raw cookie doigh. (Which I happily confess to have doing.) You can read the complete release from Nestle, along with the list of products affected, here.

Why can't every day be a vacation?

2009-06-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

In my readings today, I found this old article from the AJC on buying a second home in Serenbe. Serenbe, for those of you from out of town, is a sustainable community developed just south of Atlanta. The community is centered around an organic farm, that feeds the residents and the excess is sold off at area farmers markets. It's a model community in many ways.

So here's my question: Why is this a vacation spot?

A very good critique of the farm to table movement is that it's elitest. "Oh sure, it's easy to have an organice vegetable garden, Mrs. Obama. You have an army of gardeners to take care of it for you." That kind of thing. And sure, good fresh food and living sustainably takes a bit more thought, planning and effort than just microwaving yourself a corndog for dinner, but not so much that it should be considered an occasional effort.

There's just something about the idea of buying a second home in a sustainable community that strikes me as Just Not Getting It.

I'll never hear the end of this now...

2009-06-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

I made yogurt.

From blog

It's a PERFECTLY reasonable thing to do. I swear.

See, I had almost an entire gallon of milk that, for some reason, we hadn't finished before the sell by date. And even though I know that it's still good for a few days after that, it doesn't taste as fresh to me and I don't like to drink it straight. I'll use it to cook with though. But I had almost a full gallon this time. There was no way I could cook with all of it before it really went bad, so I decided that it was time I made yogurt.

I've been dithering over making yogurt for months now. My co workers make fun of me for talking about it all the time, but not doing it. So I decided to suck it up and go for broke. The milk was already wasted, why not experiment? So I made yogurt.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the process, since I didn't think it would really work. I'll take pictures next time, I promise.

The recipe I used comes from "A Year of Crockpotting", which is a really simple and easy recipe. Others I've read call for turning on the oven, or putting heating pads in a cooler or other silly things. I just heated the milk in the crockpot, added some store bought Stoneyfield Farms plain whole milk yogurt as a starter and let it do its thing.

Mine made a CRAZY amount of whey and it was very grainy. So I strained it using coffee filters and ended up with something similar in consistency to ricotta cheese, but very tangy. I like it. It's different, but I like it. I ended up with about three cups of whey, which I added to bread dough in place of water.

Sooo...I guess I'm a hippy now.

It's Carrot Tops, but without the 'roid rage.

2009-06-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

From blog

Tonight's salad? Tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, arugala, swiss chard and ...carrot tops.

GAH!! Not that kind! Not that kind!

I bought my carrots this week from Floyd Keisler at Moss Hill Farms, in Milton. While I was selecting my bunch, Floyd was nice enough to explain some other uses of carrots for me. Not only can you eat the root, like we all know and love, but apparently the stems and leaves are also edible. Chop the leaves up fine and add them to salads. They taste just like carrots. Apparently, the stems also have nutritional value if you decide to chew them, but they are too woody to actually eat. That sounds rather gross to me, so I'm sticking to just the roots and leaves for now.

If you're interested in buying organic produce from Moss Hill Farm, you can find them each Saturday at the Riverside Farmers Market in Roswell. Or you can email him to arrange a pick up at his farm in Milton during the week.

Mmm....we're having ramen!

2009-06-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

So my husband seems to come down with some kind of cross between swine flu and SARS this week. I dunno, I'm not good with dieseases. All I know, is that he's more pathetic and useless than he usually is. So when he got home from work today, and immediately took a two hour nap, I decided to make him one of his favorite foods: Ramen.

Ramen is one of the few highly processed foods that I still bring home. I figure we all need a few vices and ramen isn't that terrible in the grand scheme of things. Yes, sodium wise, it'll kill you if you eat it every day. But as an occasional thing? Not so bad. Also, most of the sodium is the mysterious foil flavor packet, so if you're really worried (and if you are, why are you eating ramen?) you can always adjust.

As terrifying as it sounds, I've actually gone to resturants and ordered ramen. Everyone always looks at me like I've gone insane when I mention this. I mean, sure, I don't think ramen is considered gourmet food even in Japan, but Asian street food is kind of awesome. There used to be a great noodle house on Buford Highway where you could get a giant bowl of freshly made ramen and a side of crispy bottomed goyza for hella cheap. I used to make my husband take me there on dates, back when we were first dating. I've always been a cheap date.

From Northside Food

Anyways, I made ramen for dinner tonight. It's very easy and it always goes over well. I added sliced, hard boiled egg to mine, along with some sauteed turnip greens. I always add veggies to mine, either from a bag in the freezer, leftovers from last night's dinner, or fresh ones I've chopped small. Fresh baby spinach leaves are great stirred into a bowl. So is asparagus, chopped small. I also like to add protein, either in the form of a chopped egg or left over roasted meat. When I was a kid, I used to add chopped up deli meat. I suppose I could still do that, but why?

Adding the additional veggies and protein makes it a bit more of a complete meal and spreads the crazy hit of sodium out a bit. It's still not the healthiest thing I could be eating, but it's sure better than frozen pizza.

You're Doing It All Wrong

2009-06-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've fallen in love with the video section at Chow. They've got a variety of video clips demonstrating how to wash strawberries, pour champagne, cook oatmeal, etc. All professionally produced and hosted by real chefs. Some of their tips are a little too "gourmand" for my tastes (the burger video in particular is too fussy for me), but most give great suggestions and I get inspired watching them. Which I think is the point. They want us to get out and cook.

I've chosen to link you to their bit on properly saucing pasta. I love this. I grew up in house with a sister who hates tomato sauce, so we always served it on the side. I hated how I never could seem to put enough sauce on my pasta to get rid of that gummy pasta taste. I started mixing them together in the pan when I started cooking for myself, mainly to save on getting the colander dirty. (My husband is convinced I destroy kitchens on purpose when I cook.) But the resulting pasta tasted much better, so I kept doing it. I haven't tried adding the butter and olive oil. It looks delicious, but I don't know if I can afford the extra fat and calories in my diet at this point. Oh well.

Enjoy the videos.

Oh, and...

2009-05-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

The Taste of Sandy Springs is tomorrow. I'm probably going to be a bad foodie blogger and skip it. I'm going to Nashville to promote one of my Wheel of Time fandom events, so I'm pretty busy. It looks like some really good resturants will be represented, like Eclipse di Luna, Alon's, Wild Ginger. Hmm. I really want to try Alon's. I may have to make time to get there.

Anyways, details on the website. http://www.tasteofsandysprings.org/ Tickets are five dollars, plus "taste tickets". Enjoy your weekend.

"I love rooster sauce!"

2009-05-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

This is a fascinating article about the history of sriracha sauce in the United States. I had always assumed it was some traditional Vietnamese sauce and only recently available in the United States. But according to this, it's a Thai sauce, produced in the United States by an ethnic Chinese man, who immigrated here from Vietnam in the 80's.

I first encountered it abour eight or nine years ago, when I was first dating my husband and he was living in Chamblee. I'd go visit him and we'd go to the Ranch 99 Market on Buford HWY and I'd gawk at all the crazy Asian stuff and he'd mutter under his breath at the other chinese and pretend he didn't speak Mandarin. The Ranch 99 Market is a crazy place, yo. We'd pick up frozen dumplings, various sauces and serious curry powder there.

Sriracha is the only hot sauce I use at home, other than the odd jar of harissa purchased at a Persian market. I don't say this because I am some kind of hot sauce conniseur, turning up my nose at inferior bottles of fire. I'm not a huge fan of spicy food. I like to taste my meals, not sweat them out. I like sriracha because it has a tolerable level of heat and a well developed flavor of its own. I like to add a little squirt to stir fries or marinades, or fried rice when I cook at home. I'm not terribly creative with it. Apparently there are tons of recipes using sriracha that I never knew about. I'm fine with that. Like I said, not really a hot sauce person. These garlic hot wings sound pretty awesome though.

I do find it very interesting that it's become so wide spread, from something I had to make a special trip for, to something I can grab at the local Publix. That's pretty cool.

Northside Farmer's Markets Up and Running

2009-05-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

The Roswell and Alpharetta Farmer's Markets have been up and running now for a couple weeks. I have pictures of both, but I can't find the USB cable that goes with my camera, so you'll have to wait to see to them.

The Alpharetta market has been open for about a month now, and has plenty of produce available. Not all the vendors I recall from last summer are there yet, but a good many are. It's not all locally produced, but it's fresh and great quality. I've also picked up some local honey and some very tasty jams.

The Roswell Market is more of a growers market, and therin lies the problem with it. The growers aren't there yet. I've managed to buy fresh strawberries two weeks in a row, and fresh herbs, but there's really nothing else available, produce wise. There are some adorable arts and crafts though, and Emily G's Jam of Love is there every weekend. If last year's pattern holds, it'll be like this until later in the season, when the real harvest season starts.

Doing more with less

2009-05-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

We're trying to cut our budget right now to increase our savings. We don't have what I'd consider an extravagant lifestyle. Our only car is a paid for, beat to hell pick up truck, for example. So we've been looking for creative ways to live more frugally, without making us feel deprived of something we enjoy.

One of the blogs I've become a fan of recently, is Cheap Healthy Good, which is, as it says, about cooking that combines all three elements. A few month's ago, they had a great post about roasting one chicken and using the leftover meat for the rest of the week. I'm a fan of that approach. I've done this before with chickens and turkeys, and even hams. This week, I used a pork roast. Here's the menu for the week:

Sunday:
Dinner- Roasted pork with fingerling potatoes and a salad.

Monday:
Lunch- Left over pork, potatoes and salad
Dinner- Veggie lo mein, with chopped, leftover pork added

Tuesday:
Lunch- Left over lo mein (my husband), salad of romaine lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and chopped roast pork (me)
Dinner- I had a banquet to attend for work, so the husband was on his own. He had more left over noodles.

Wednesday:
Lunch- Salads for both of us, witch chopped roast pork.
Dinner- Loaded baked potatoes, using roast pork as the protein.

So, not nearly as inventive or nutritional as CHG, but not a bad way to use up eight dollars worth of meat. I shall continue playing with this concept.

Ingredients Matter

2009-05-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

One of the things that's so easy to forget, is that ingredients matter. I mean, sure, it's really easy to open a box, add water, then stir and call it dinner. And if you're mindlessly wolfing down food while watching TV, or driving, I suppose that's alright. I prefer to taste my food though.

Even though I know ingredients matter, I still have meals that remind me of it rather forcefully. Last night, for dinner, we had BLTs. Very simple, very basic, nothing to get excited over, right? But made with freshly baked bread from Artisan Foods, fresh salad greens and tomatoes from the Roswell and Alpharetta Farmer's Markets, and a good quality swiss cheese from Trader Joe's, it's more than just a sandwich, it's a dinner worth blogging about.

So ingredients DO matter.

And I'm back

2009-05-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the long delay between posts. I didn't mean to go on hiatus that long. As some of you know, I'm really, really into the late Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. Probably more than is healthy for me. Anyways, as I'm wont to do with anything I enjoy, I went completely overboard and founded a genre literature convention for Robert Jordan fans. We had about 250 people here in Alpharetta for the event, including the new author of series, the publisher, and Jordan's wife/ editor. It was a pretty fun weekend all in all.

Anyways, you aren't here to watch me nerd out everywhere. You're here for the food. I got too busy to really cook much for awhile, and I managed to put on 15 pounds (Just in time for bathing suit season!), so I need to ease myself back into my usual diet and cooking habits.

To that end, I made cake today.

Yes, I know that seems counter intuitive. Most people do not consider cake to be an essential part of a healthy diet. But we're both dedicated snackers here, and I'd rather us eating a little sliver of something I made from scratch, from good ingredients, than something full of nasty preservatives and chemicals. So today I made Orangette's "Every Day Cake", which turned out beautifully.

I had to adapt it slightly, owing to not having any white whole wheat flour on hand, or nutmeg. So I doubled the amount of all purpose and I used a sprinkling of cinnamon instead. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Perfect for afternoon snacks, as advertised. But I think it would also be an excellent addition to Sunday brunch, topped with whipped cream and fresh berries. The yogurt makes it tangy and rich, and the edges are crispy and brown.

This is a good start.

Slice

2009-02-22T17:11:00.000-08:00

A group of us went out to Slice on Friday, where I got more practice with my camera.

From blog

Seared tuna appetizer that the table shared. This was my favorite of the three we passed around. The tuna was rich and buttery and perfectly seared. I really love how it's plated too, with drizzles of ponzu dipping sauce and siracha hot sauce.

We also ordered fritters stuffed lump crab meat and risotto rice, which were very good. I loved the contrast between the crunch of the outside and the soft interior. There was a red pepper hummus as well, which I didn't like that much. It was oddly flavorless to me. I suspect I'm spoiled by the intensly garlicky hummus I get at Veranda.

From blog

A salad of greens, with Asian pears, walnuts and goat cheese. This belonged to someone else, so no first hand experience with it. However, the owner of that plate said it was delicious.

From blog

My husband ordered this one. Spinach salad with chopped hard boiled egg, panchetta, tomatoes, red onions and balsamic vinaigrette. This is a classic and almost impossible to screw up. I love the "bacon wheel" of the panchetta. Since his food is my food, I got a bite of this and immediately wished I'd ordered one too.

From blog

Gah. I hate how blurry this is. Anyways, it's the meatloaf. It's HUGE. The beef is locally raised, grass fed and so full of flavor. There's red bell pepper in this too, which I don't do in my meatloaf, but was pretty tasty.

From blog

Didn't order this one, so no report on taste. It's scallops and risotto. My eating buddy Jeff said it was delicious though. I think I'll order this next time.

From blog

This is what I ordered. Have I mentioned I'm on a diet? I didn't feel left out though, as I love French onion soup. It was very rich and smooth, one of the best I've had. And I got to order dessert guilt free. (Please, no one post in the comments about French onion soup is 98% lard or anything like that. I like my illusions.)

Speaking of dessert...

From blog

Chocolate Crunch Cake. Yum.

From blog

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake. Drool.

From blog

Coca Cola Cake. All the desserts come from Lulu's Bakery in Alpharetta, and I always consider this their signiture dessert. It seems like every place around here that carries Lulu's desserts has this one. And oddly enough, I've never tried it. I'll need to address that at some point.

From blog

Snickers Cheesecake. Yes, those are real chunks of Snicker bar on top.

From blog

And this is mine, Andes mint cheesecake. Well worth skipping the meatloaf and prime rib everyone else was swilling.

Slice also has a great wine and beer list. I had a fantastic red with my meal that I'd recomend if I could recall it's name. It was a varietal I hadn't had before, which is why I chose it. The atmosphere is great as well. The downstairs is like swanky club, with blue lights and a large bar dominating. Upstairs is a quiet dining room, full of warm colors and subdued lighting. It's quite cozy. When the weather gets nice again, I like to eat out in the gazebo next to the koi pond.

I highly recomend this place for an evening out for good food and good drinks.

Picture Dump... Again.

2009-02-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

I got a new camera for Christmas and I've slowly been getting the hang of it. Here's a couple things I've been working on.

From blog

This is a lentil and kale soup I made last month. I got the recipe from Adam at The Amateur Gourmet. This was a great soup, a little spicy, a little sweet. Perfect for a cold night.

From blog

Hot cocoa with a homemade marshmellow. Cute mug, right? It was a gift from one of the girls in my homeroom this year. It's just the right size for when I need a sweet drink, but don't want to feel too gluttonous.

From blog

This is a cheese spread I made using the leftovers from my New Year's Eve cheese plate. It's called "fromage fort" and this version comes from Alton Brown. The gist of it is leftover cheese in a food processor, with white wine, garlic and parsley. I think I actually took this intending to use it in a "Grow Your Own" post, but it sat too long on my camera. It's awesome on those little whole wheat Kashi crackers you see there, or you can smear it on fresh apple slices for a slightly healthier treat.

From blog

I came home late one night from a basketball game last month and I needed a fast dinner, so I made pizza. The crust is the Olive Oil Dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The sauce was a quick amalgamation of canned tomatoes, rosemary, red wine, onions and garlic. It should have reduced a bit more. It was thinner than I like. The Italian sausage was leftover from something else. This was really, really good. I need to smoosh the crust thinner though.

From blog

Another Olive Oil Dough creation. This was a stromboli that I whipped up. It's stuffed with cheese, more italian sausage, garlic and thawed, frozen spinach. I must make this again. Soon.

From blog

This is a Chicken Tortilla Soup that ended up being so spicy I couldn't eat it. I froze the leftovers and I'm waiting for a victim to foist it off on. I added the chopped chiles too early, so they had too long to infect the broth. Even my husband thought it was too spicy. It had a great flavor under it though, just spicy.

Lunch at Shallots

2009-02-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

I've been busy lately. But not too busy to pay for my lunch in gold doubloons.

I had to break a twenty to ride MARTA last weekend. Did you know MARTA gives your change back to you as... change? I used them to pay for lunch out with my co workers on a teacher work day.

I felt like a pirate.

Emily G's Jam of Love

2009-01-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

Things have been crazy busy here lately, so I haven't had much time to sit and write a proper post.

However, I do want to take a moment and point you in the direction of this great profile the AJC did last Thursday about Emily G's Jam of Love, a local home based jam company. We picked up several jars of their jam this summer when they were at the Roswell Farmers Market. Our favorites were the Triple Berry and Watermelon jam. In fact, I think we still have some Watermelon in the fridge...Yum.

I've had a link up on my site to them for awhile, just because I think their jams are so tasty. Definitely pick up a jar if you can.

I made fudge

2009-01-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

I had today off, and the heat wasn't working for the better part of the day. What could I cook to stave off the inevitable frostbite? Fudge. Not just any fudge though. Delicious fudge.

Adapted from the recipe on the back of a can of Eagle sweetened condensed milk.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 package chocolate chips
1 cup broken dark chocolate pieces
1 tsp vanilla
dash salt
1/2 cup dried cherries and cranberries

In double boiler, combine chocolate, vanilla, salt and sweetened condensed milk. Stir over low heat until smooth. Add dried fruit. Spread in a container lined with waxed paper or parchment. Cool for several hours until firm.

I cut mine into tiny pieces. And the combination of dried cranberries and cherries with the dark chocolate means this treat packs quite an antioxidant wallop. Why, it's practically health food! Sadly, neither my husband or I will enjoy this fudge. I plan to mail it to a friend in Florida that I owe a box of Christmas cookies to.

To make up for it, I made Darling Clementine Cake for our dessert this week. Oh Clementines, is there anything you CAN'T make tasty?

Baked Potato Soup

2009-01-18T17:38:00.000-08:00

My husband and I love soup, especially on a cold winter night when the heater on is on the fritz. So tonight, we curled up with steaming bowls of loaded baked potato soup.

3 cups white potatoes. Any waxy potato like Yukon gold or red will work too. I'd steer away from russets, just because they crumble into mush when you boil them. Obviously, if these were REAL loaded baked potatoes, you should ignore that advice.
2 cups chicken broth
2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup white wine
4 strips bacon
three cloves garlic
1/2c cup cheese (I had a mix of cheddar and swiss on hand. )
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

You should also add an onion. My last onion has gone all sprouty, so I left it out.

Fry bacon until crispy in your soup pot. Remove from pan and drain. Lightly fry your chopped, white potatoes in the grease. They won't get cooked all the way, but you'll add a little color. If you have an onion, it goes in here. Add the garlic, then add the chicken broth, milk and wine. Bring to a boil, then simmer until potatoes are tender. Melt in the cheese, then use an immersion blender to blend all the potatoes together. The last time I made a potato soup, I didn't do this and my husband got all pouty faced over it. He likes his soup slurpy. You can skip doing this if you prefer a chunkier soup or don't a have an immersion blender. Wisk in the sour cream and add the crumbled bacon. Add salt and pepper and serve. I think green onions or chives on top would be very pretty.

This dish, like so many I make these days, comes from me looking at my kitchen and thinking "What can I make with what I've got?" The potatoes needed to be eaten up before they went sprouty. I always have bacon. The sour cream and cheese were leftover from a Battlestar Frak Party chili Diane brought us on Friday. There was brief discussion of spaghetti tonight, but I don't have all the things I like to have with spaghetti. That's one of the things I like about scratch cooking. You can be endlessly creative with what you have in the pantry.

Tricking Kids Into Eating Vegetables

2009-01-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

This semester, I am teaching a "Food Appreciation Class". This will either be the best thing I've ever done professionally, or it will be cited in the newspaper report about why I shot up that shopping mall.

Teaching kids to cook can be immensely rewarding and insanely frustrating all at the same time. And I'm not teaching just any kids, I'm teaching a gaggle of middle school kids with mild to moderate special needs. Lots of impulsivity issues and poor decision making skills, even for young adolescents. So the highs are much higher and the lows are much lower.

Take today for example, I'm currently teaching a unit on how to pack a sack lunch that doesn't make me want to gag when I look at it. The lunches they bring range from Hot Pockets, to Spaghetti Os to entire frozen pizzas. One of my students downs a 20 ounce bottle of Mountain Dew each morning while he munches a fast food breakfast in the car on his way to school. My #1 goal this semester is to help them shake off these poor eating habits the parents have allowed them to develop.

Our recipes were two simple sandwiches that they can make themselves at home with minimal assistance. In fact, I want them to be able to do it themselves. No fancy ingredients or weird looking tools. We did Alton Brown's Roasted Veggie Cream Cheese Spread, which is delicious, and we did a simple tuna salad sandwich mixed with roasted red peppers and baby spinach. That turned out amazingly good.

The comments from the kids as we made these amused me greatly. "I don't like tuna fish!" "Are red peppers spicy?" "Will the zucchini make it slimy?"

Afterwards, all the comments became "You gave me a copy of the recipe right?" "You must have bought some fancy tuna, because this was GOOD!" "I'm going to ask my mom if I can start eating dairy again, that smells great."

I hope they bring some of these to school with them in the coming weeks. If nothing else they ate a vegetable today.

Tuna Salad with Veggies

2 cans tuna
3/4 c mayo
1/2 c roasted red peppers (You can find these in little glass jars at the grocery store if you don't want to roast your own)
1 c baby spinach, chopped or torn into bite sized pieces
Toasted whole wheat bread or crackers

Combine all ingredients, then spread on the toasted bread. Eat.

ZOMG!

2009-01-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

I’ve assembled a blogroll of the best local food and dining blogs from regular folks, irregular media and a couple of public relations firms that do more than just promote their clients.

Check out John Kessler's blog roll. The Kes is linking to me. For those of you reading this outside of Atlanta, Kessler was the local fishwrapper's restaurant critic for many years, followed by a weekly column that I read religiously until it ended a few weeks ago. I have enormus respect for him as both a writer and foodie.

I suppose I better update this more than once a week now.

It's my wine in a box, yo

2009-01-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

So we bought two Target "Wine Cubes" for New Year's Eve. That's the equal of eight bottles of wine. And wouldn't you know it, but no one did much drinking that night. I think I did the most, drinking most of the mulled wine on my own. So now I'm stuck with a considerable amount of wine. (And also beer, because my husband decided on his way home that what our party needed was a 12 pack of Budweiser, even though only one of our invited guests drinks that. And he got stuck on the way back from the airport with his wife and didn't make the party anyways. But that will be another posting.) I do cook with wine, but in moderation. My husband does not like the taste of white wine in his food, so I can't use more than a half glass or so of that at a time.

Now, I'm not a wine expert by any means. I drink what I like and what I can afford. Usually, that means I'm shopping at Trader Joe's, which has a nice selection that overs over quickly at a price that means I can enjoy a glass of wine with dinner more than occasionally.

The Chardonnay I am drinking right now, for example, is fairly good. Not great, but I don't think I've had a great Chardonnay. But it's light and refreshing and citrusy just like a good Chard should be. I would buy this wine again or serve it to family without being embarrassed. I recall the Shiraz I used for the mulled wine to be good as well, but since I adulterated it so much, I can't say fairly until I have a glass of it alone.

New Year's Eve Menu

2008-12-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

My husband and I don't like crowds. We don't like cold weather and we don't like spending tons of money on things we could just as easily make at home. What we do like is spending quiet evenings at home, with good quality food and good friends. To that end, we've been throwing a New Year's Eve party for our friends for the last several years.

Our parties are always pretty casual. We put out some finger foods, some drinks, and expect everyone to entertain themselves. Our menu this year is pretty similar to what we've put out in the past. We've got some old war horses, but I also like to try new things and mix it up a little.

This year includes:

A cheese plate (gouda, cheddar, and blue cheese)
Fruit (grapes, apples, oranges, pomegranates)
Pizza Margarita (fresh roma tomatoes, on home made pizza crust, with shredded cheese and basil)
A baked ham and rolls for sandwiches
Assorted chocolates
Veggies, with hummus for dipping
Crackers, to go either with cheese or the hummus
Assorted pickles and olives
Brie baked with apricots and rosemary

Drinks will be red and white wine. (We're experimenting with Target's wine cubes this year. I've heard from reliable sources that they are comparable to the Three Buck Chuck I usually put out for parties. ) We'll also have soda, and I'll put out sweet tea and water with limes. I'm considering mulling some of that red wine in my crockpot and having hot water out for tea.

People tend to bring more food or drinks too, so this list will expand in ways I can't predict.

It's time to make the donuts...

2008-12-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

Breakfast this weekend was homemade beignets, made using the brioche recipe from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes book.

From blog

These are the ones I made yesterday. Pretty, aren't they? And yeah, they really do only take a few minutes. The dough was already in the fridge, because I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Roll it out, cut it into squares, let it rest while the oil heats up. I don't deep fry things often, but when I do, I make sure to drain things properly. A cookie sheet, layered with paper towels, the topped with a wire cooling rack. It keeps the food from reabsorbing the grease from the paper towels while it cools. Then just sprinkle with powdered sugar while they are still warm and serve.

I had to finish off the dough today, so we made a very large batch. If they last until tomorrow, my husband will take them to work to share with his office. He will be the most popular actuary ever.

Taste Test

2008-12-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

Jezebel Magazine last month had a scoop about a new resturant coming to Historic Roswell.

Taste Test

Those living OTP will be thrilled when Carla Dent, owner of Pastis in Roswell, opens the doors to her newest venture. Taste Restaurant and Wine Shop is located in a charming house in historic Roswell that Dent completely gutted and renovated into a wine bar and restaurant, plus retail wine shop. Taste is going to be the first of its kind in Roswell because the city’s laws make it extremely difficult to have this type of concept. Dent lucked out and found two available properties next to each other and actually has two separate leases. The two spaces are joined by a 1,000-square-foot stone patio that will seat between 75 and 90 guests. Restaurant patrons will be able to taste any of the 150 to 200 wines stocked in the retail store, even if they aren’t on the wine list, and both sides will keep memory cards detailing which wines the customers prefer. “We want people to come in and be able to taste just about anything,” Dent says. “And if you like it, you can buy it.” 1132 Canton St., Roswell, 770.817.0202.

A quick Google search confirms what I suspected, Taste is taking over the space vacated by the late, lamented Coffee Buy the Book. It was a cute little independent store that also served coffee and pastries. I never went there for the food though. Sadly, it was one of the first things to go when the economy started to sink this year. Taste should be a fun and interesting addition to the neighborhood though. Here's hoping it's a bit more affordable than Pastis though.

Flip

2008-12-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

We went downtown today to the High to see the terracotta warriors. It's a very exhibit. I'm glad I got a chance to see it before I take my students in March. I never get to enjoy museums when I take students. Either I'm too busy keeping them from touching everything in their excitement, or they are bored out of their minds and racing through to get to the gift shop. The joys of teaching middle school. Anyways, if you are interested in Chinese history, make time to see this exhibit before it goes away in April.

Since we were downtown, we decided to do lunch there. And I'm going to amend my rule of "Only Northside restaurants will be reviewed here" to "Only Northside restaurants, unless they have Richard Blais". I'm just fascinated by that guy and what he does to food. I may blog about my opinions of the guy later when I get a chance.

So anyways, we ended up at Flip, Blais's new burger joint, for lunch. Flip is part of that growing trend of taking something incredibly common and making it with premium ingredients and attention to detail. Blais is the "creative consultant", which means he designed the menu, but someone else executes it. From what I understand (and also from what I witnessed today), he's pretty hands on about making sure that vision is accurately represented.

Flip is cool. Very, very cool. We were seated in the back at a bar where we could see the kitchen and watch them put the finishing touches on each plate before serving. There's another bar, with mirrors and HD TVs and plush stools as well. The booths look very comfortable and plush as well. Next time I'm bringing a big group so we can snag one. The colors are bright and busy. It's almost a bit TOO busy for my tastes, but then I spend my working day trying to get people to calm down, not jazz up.

Our attention was immediately attracted by the barman whiping a batch of toasted marshmallow with liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is a Blais trademark, so it was pretty cool to see it in action. In fact, we were so impressed, we ordered a couple Krispy Kreme shakes ourselves, which were still smoking when they were brought to us.

From blog

These were perfect. The ratio of ice cream and milk was just right. The donut had been pulverized, so other than that yummy sweetness, the only sign of it was a faint gritty texture. And due to the super cooling, it stayed chill and firm all through out our meal.

I was going to order a plain Flip burger initially (classic burger, with lettuce, tomato, etc.), but was sorely tempted by the more adventersome choices. I ended up choosing a Po Boyger, a patty made of ground shrimp, topped with Old Bay mayo, shredded lettuce, and a fried lemon.

From blog

This was pretty tasty. The fried lemon was a bit strong though. I'd order it again. I also got a side of fries, which were crispy and airy, and lightly seasoned with salt and chives. Not much potato flavor to them, but not bad either.

My husband got a real winner though. He ordered the Philly cheesesteak burger.

From blog

It's a beef patty smothered with green bell peppers and onions, and a dollop of Cheeze Whiz. It came out like canned whipped cream. That's awesome. The beef was cooked medium rare and was tender and juicy and full of big, beefy flavor. He ordered the vodka battered onion rings with his. I'm not a big fan of onion rings, but I took a nibble of the breading. It was light and crunchy, much like my French Fries.

While we were eating, Richard Blais came in and worked the room a bit, saying hello to other guests and allowing people to take pictures with him. I didn't speak to him, but in the small dining space, it was easy to see that he was a nice guy who enjoyed meeting his fans. In fact, the first person he made a beeline for, was a middle school aged girl out for lunch with her mother. Blais spent the longest talking to them of everyone. It was very cute seeing how star struck the girl was by her encounter with him.

Soo...Flip. I would definitely come back to this one. The shakes alone are worth the drive down. I really want to try some of their other burgers too.

Will Obama Change Food Policy?

2008-12-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

Not only does he seem to possess a more-sophisticated palate than some of his recent predecessors, but he will also take office in an age when organic food is mainstream, cooking competitions are among the top-rated TV shows and books calling for an overhaul in the American food system are best sellers.

Is a New Food Policy on Obama's List?

The New York Times explores what changes, if any, Obama might make to our agricultural policies, and towards food in general. I think it's safe to say, this is an area he definitely lead by example.

Relish

2008-12-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but my favorite restaurants are the ones I never seem to get around to reviewing. So since I haven't done one in awhile, and one of my students mentioned it the other day, I thought I'd talk about Relish.

Relish is another offering from Andy Badgett, the chef/ owner of my hands down favorite resturant in Roswell, The Fickle Pickle. While Relish is the "nicer" of the two, I still prefer Fickle Pickle. Anyways. Relish specializes in modern twists on southern staples. The location is prime, right in the middle of the Roswell Historic district. I often find myself there when I've planned an evening at a nearby attraction, like the Roswell Ghost Tour, or Bard in the Yard at Barrington Hall.

While there's no real standout on the dinner menu, I do find myself enjoying the spicy shrimp and grits. I am not usually a fan of grits, but theses are creamy and full of flavor from the tasso ham gravy. The bacon wrapped trout is a bit salty for my taste, but the sweet potato hash it comes with is excellent. I usually find myself ordering the roasted chicken or the hanger steak. The macaroni and cheese side is creamy and cheesy and decadent.

With no real star on the dinner menu, I find myself coming back for the peripherals. A starter of pimento cheese fritters served with jalapeño jelly is worth coming back for. Hot, gooey pimento cheese is breaded and deep fried. I think this is probably what cemented my love affair with pimento cheese. The dessert menu offers a bread pudding made from Krispy Kreme donuts. My hands down favorite, though is the cucumber lemonade drink. I like mine spiked with a little bit of Jack, but it's just fine without. It's a wonderful, cooling drink on a hot summer day.

Come to think of it, that's probably why I haven't been back. It's been a bit too chilly lately to sit on the front porch of this converted funeral parlor, sipping lemonade and enjoying the views of the gorgeous Barrington Hall across the street. So while this is a flawed restaurant in many ways, I always find a reason to be in the neighborhood and make my way here.

The Emotional Rollercoster of Candy Making

2008-12-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

For years, I have coveted the "homemade" marshmallows peddled each Christmas in the Williams-Sonoma catalog. But 12 dollars for 15 marshmallows? I'm sure they'd be the best marshmallows ever, but I'm too cheap to buy them. So I've been wanting for years to make my own, just to see what the difference between homemade and Mr. Staypuff is.

I finally broke down this week and made some.

To your left, you see three packets of plain, unflavored gelatine "blooming" in my stand mixer bowl. I have no idea what that means, as a quick Google search tells me gelatin bloom is a way of measuring strength. I am not measuring anything here, just soaking it in cold water. In this recipe, the gelatin will provide the structure and stability my marshmallows will need to hold their shape and not be a sticky, sugary mess.

That was the idea anyways.

In a heavy sauce pan, I started heating a mixture of sugar, water, salt and honey. Why honey? Because I forgot to buy corn syrup. It does change the flavor of the mix, I'm not sure if it changed how it behaved. I'm still doing my reading on this one.

This was heated on low heat, until the sugar was dissolved. Basically, you are using the heat to create a super saturated sugar soltion. We all remember that from high school chemistry, right?

This was by FAR the most annoying, and time consuming part of the recipe. My Joy of Cooking lead me to believe it would take about 20 minutes to take this from you see here, to boiling. No dice. It took a little over an hour. And of course, it boils when I'm not looking, so it boiled over and made a sticky, sugar mess on my stove. At this point, I began to swear off marshmallows in all theur forms and curse them as the devil's confection.

Eventually, I got it to boil, and then to something approximating the "firm ball stage". If you have not made candy before, then you have no idea what that is. I'm still not exactly sure what it is. However, I do know that sugar molecules rearrange themselves in strange, and wonderful ways as you heat them. Sugar will have different properties, depending on what temperture it has been heated to. At 244 degrees, a sugar syrup like mine, should form a firm ball when dropped in cold water, that flattens when you press it. This isn't the most precise method of determing tempurature, but it seems to work okay. If I get seriously into candy making (which I just might), I'll invest in a candy thermometer to get accurate readings.

This is, by the way, the point at which I swore to never make another marshmallow again. I wasn't sure if I had judged my temperature correctly, but I was terrified of over cooking due to understated warnings of "toughness" in my cookbook if I allowed my sugar to over heat. Candy making is not for the faint of heart.

The sugar mix then gets dumped into my stand mixer and beat for 15 minutes. Yes, fifteen minutes. It gave me time to scrape the burned sugar off my stove, I guess. At this point, you are incoroparating air into your mix. Marshmallows are mostly air. I've seen some recipes that omit the gelatin and use egg whites to hold the trapped air bubbles in place. But I have as much luck with getting egg whites to stand up, as I do with not letting the stove boil over, so I steered clear of those.

One of the best tips, I ever learned from Alton Brown's shows, was to always consider your food's "final destination" when cooking, and get it ready before you need it. It saves you the "ZOMG! Where do I put this? What do I do?" freak out dance that I'm sure my family can tell you about from my days cooking at home. So after I cleaned my stove, but before I was done whipping air into my marshmallows, I got this ready. I took out my largest Corningware, lightly greased it with butter, then dusted the whole thing with powdered sugar. This will keep your marshmallow from sticking--a critical component.
See how white and fluffy it is now? At this point I allowed myself to feel a tiny spark of hope. Hope that I haven't made a giant sticky mess of my kitchen for nothing. Hope that I can make a decent marshmallow at home.

And now you see it in it's finished state. It's traquility belies how messy it was trying to get this out of the bowl. This stuff is STICKY. It stick to the paddle, my hands, the bowl, the spoon, everything. The only thing it didn't stick to? The dish I'm trying to put it in. Stupid powdered sugar.

At this point, I made the mistake of licking the paddle before I put it in the sink. Oh. My. God. I honestly don't like marshmallows that much. They tend to taste very chemically to me. But this tastes fantastic. There's definitely a different flavor from the honey. It's sweet, without being over powering.

My marshmallows will need to "dry" for at least 12 hours before I cut them into cubes, roll them in more powdered sugar, then transfer them to a air tight container for storage. I plan to bring some of these to my parents' house for Christmas Eve. I know my brother, who's first complete sentance was "More mini-marshmallows, Mom!" will want to try them. I also have some vague thoughts about dipping a few in melted chocolate, then topping them with crushed candy canes to make a holiday candy. But honestly, that may be gilding the lily.

Will I make these again? Maybe. It was a huge pain in the neck. It took far longer than I thought it would, and made a big mess. The fluff alone is pretty darn tasty though. I may try again once I have a candy thermometer to help me through the scary parts.

I try to explain this to people, and words fail me...

2008-12-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

Sandra Lee makes a Kwanzaa cake.

Rustic Pork and Bean Soup

2008-12-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

As of Friday afternoon, I'm on vacation until January. Sometimes I think the best part about teaching is the schedule. You know, right after all that crap about touching kids' lives, yada yada.

Now, with two full weeks of school, you'd think I'd have plenty of time to cook and make awesome, gourmet meals all the time. No, I will probably spend most of it playing Civilization IV in my jammies and not showering. So with that incredibly attractive image in your mind, you will understand why I decided to make a big pot of soup tonight. We'll be eating this for a couple of days, saving me any effort greater than microwaving leftovers.

This is one of my "Hey, what do I have in my house that I can make into dinner?" soups. The only thing I actually bought to go in it was a can of green chiles.

1 1/2 pounds of dry beans. I had half a pound of navy beans and a pound of pinto beans. I had originally bought them to make freezer beans with, but never got around to it.
1 can green chiles
Some leftover pork bones I'd been saving in the freezer
4 country style pork ribs. These are really pieces of pork shoulder, cut into strips. They are great for braising.
2 onions, quartered
Cumin to taste
Salt to taste

I combined all these in my crockpot, with enough water to cover, until the meat was fork tender and shredded easily. If I had to do it over again, I'd sear the meat before putting it in the pot to add more flavor. I started with frozen meat, so that wasn't an option. I'd also add more aromatics, like garlic and celery, and perhaps some carrots for a different texture and color. It definitely could use more chiles and cumin. I was looking for something similar to white bean chili, but I think I missed something flavorwise. Don't get me wrong, this was pretty good and we'll definitely enjoy the leftovers this week, especially since I made some rosemary-onion focaccia to go with it. It just needed more to it, especially after how great and full of flavor the potato and lentil soups were earlier.

Gah!

2008-12-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the calender year. I had meant to sneak a batch of cookies into my boss's mailbox this morning as a treat. It was meant to be delicious brown butter sugar shorties from a post Smitten Kitchen made a few weeks ago. Click on the link to see how gorgeous these babies are supposed to be. However, instead of slicing cleanly, my chilled dough crumbled into that decidedly unlovely mess you see above. And while I'm sure they will taste fine, they certainly aren't suitable as a gift for my foodie boss. Oh well. I'm sure he has MORE than enough holiday cookies at his house right now. I'll hit him with something a little more tested after the break.

Potato Soup

2008-12-14T19:48:00.000-08:00

Winter means soup in my house. There is nothing better on a cold, rainy December night, than a bowl of hot soup. I usually pair it with good bread, or biscuits fresh from the oven. That's all I really need for a complete meal.

I haven't done my weekly shopping trip yet and nothing was thawed, so I was short on dinner ideas tonight. Then it struck me, something I haven't made in years, something I had right in my pantry. Potato soup. My mom used to make this when I was a kid. I love potatoes in all their forms, so it was always a hit with me. I made an updated version of it tonight.

4 cups chopped white potatoes. Or any kind of waxy potato will do. Don't use russets, They'll just turn to mush on you. I left the (well scrubbed) peels on, but you can peel yours if you want to.
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups milk (I use whole)
1/2 stick butter
2 sprigs rosemary
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbls sherry
salt, to taste

Melt butter in the bottom of suitably sized pot. Add onions and garlic, let 'em sweat a bit. Add chopped potatoes and let them absorb some of the onion garlic butter flavor. Then add chicken broth, simmer the potatoes in it until almost fork tender. About ten minutes. Add milk, rosemary and salt. Bring it back up to a simmer and let the potatoes finish cooking. Pull out the rosemary and discard. Stir in the sherry. Serve. The sherry is optional. It's pretty good without it. However, it's amazing with it.

Hear! Hear!

2008-12-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

I also beg to differ with the premise that a healthy cookie is "an untenable paradox." Who said that cookies are inherently unhealthy, anyway? I think folks should re-examine what "healthy" is. Is a low-fat cookie packed with sugar and hydrogenated fat better for you than a gingersnap made with butter and freshly ground spices? For that matter, I don't think a sweet treat made with real butter, eggs, and chocolate is all that bad for you. People should be selective about what they eat and go for quality over quantity, which is ultimately more satisfying.

--David Leibovitz

Slate is hosting a conversation between several food writers this month on the state of the modern cookie. That quote is a snippet of the conversation posted on Monday. I absolutely agree with his sentiments. I do tons of baking. We always have fresh baked cookies, or bread, or cake around. Ever since I switched to real butter and real sugar in my baking, I've been losing weight and feeling healthier. Granted, I've been doing better portion control this year too, but isn't it easier to say "I've had enough" when the smaller treat satisfies your taste buds?

Enjoy food. Stop avoiding it.

It crackles even as we speak.

2008-12-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

This is my third loaf of bread this week. We, uh, really like it. According to the recipe, the longer the pre-made dough sits in the fridge, the more the flavor develops. When I pulled this out of the oven, I was immediately hit with a waft of fresh sourdough and the sound of the crust crackling. While I will never call any of the loaves I attempted this week bad, this one is undoubtedly the best.

I have mixed up a second batch of dough, this time using a few cups of whole wheat flavor. I've done so much baking recently, I've run out of regular all purpose.

I got in a discussion about making your own bread with a co worker this week. With the economic downturn, we're all feeling the pinch and finding places we can save money. He's interested in making bread at home to save on groceries, which is an area many of us have been hit by rising costs.

So let's break it down. That loaf of bread, which could easily cost five dollars at a store was made from:

3 cups water Water
6 cups Flour
Salt
1 1/2 packs Yeast

Yeast costs about $3 for three packets. My recipe uses 1 and 1/2.
A 5 pound bag of flour costs about $3 as well. That's about 19 cups.

Salt and water are so cheap that the price is negligible.

My ability to do the math is breaking down now, but that recipe made three loaves this week. And my house smells awesome. If that doesn't inspire you to try it, I don't know what will.

First bread!

2008-12-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I got the cookbook Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for my birthday. I'm playing with recipes. I apologize for the quality of the photos. My camera is giving me some sort of Blue Screen of Death, so I'm forced to use my phone.

Haven't tasted it yet, as it needs to cool first, but it sure was easy enough. Here is a picture of my dough, fresh from the fridge:

You can see the corner where I removed a bit to make tonight's dinner loaf.

Their instructions recommend letting it rise on a pizza peel, then transferring it to a baking stone inside a very hot oven for cooking. I have neither of those things, so I just let it rise on a cookie sheet, covered with my silicon baking mat. I do think I will invest in those bread baking tools if I find I like this process. (Psst. An unglazed terracotta tile and a large wooden cutting board will easily take the place of those high falutin' gadgets. And they cost considerably less. )

The finished product. The top was slashed with a serrated knife to help it expand during cooking. The crust isn't as pretty as I'd like, but I think that's because I didn't do one of the steps correctly. You're supposed to put an empty pan in the bottom of your oven while it heats. When the bread goes in, you add a cup of water to that pan and shut the door. The steam helps build that beautiful, glossy, crackling crust every one ooohs and ahhs over. I put the pan and water in at the same time and then kept opening the door to peek. So I don't think it got much steam action. Oh well. Next time.

Last night while poking around, I find a great video by the authors of the book. They are showing their method off on a TV morning show. It gives a pretty good idea of how it works.

Bread and Soup

2008-12-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

I'm coaching girls basketball this season. It's a testament to how great this country is, that someone like me, who barely knows anything about the sport (the ball goes in the hoop, right?) can become a coach. The girls are actually not that bad. We lost our first game last week, but I chalk that up to inexperience. They can only get better, right?

Anyways, with all the late hours I've been putting in at work recently, I haven't had as much time to cook as I normally do. Some of my meals have been downright pitiful (My lunch on Friday was peanut smeared on a bagel, and a handful of "baby" carrots.) since I haven't really made time to think of alternatives.

That changes this week. I'm making a giant (and I do mean GIANT) batch of curried lentil soup for dinner tomorrow. Hopefully, the leftovers will last for lunch and dinner for several days. To go with it, I'm making bread.

My birthday was last week. My parents gave me a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which is the hot cookbook tearing up all the foodie blogs this year. The premise is simple. Make a large amount of bread dough ahead of time, store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Pull off a chunk and bake with it whenever you feel like it. They give you five or six (I didn't really count them) base doughs to work with, and directions on how to turn them into anything from rye, to challah, to focaccia. I made a batch of French "boule" dough this afternoon, that could potentially be pizza dough, french bread, or pita, depending on what I do with the dough. That's pretty cool.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to blog a bit about how the bread turns out. It seems like a pretty easy system, and the storage in the fridge will bring out a nice, sourdough-ish flavor. The book's authors keep emphasizing how fool proof this recipe is. Indeed, there are a few places where I thought the directions were a bit vague, presumably because they didn't want to limit my inclination to do what feels natural.

And since I probably won't get a chance to blog about it later, here's my recipe for lentil soup.

1 ham bone, preferably with meat still on it.
2 pounds of lentils, sorted and rinsed
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Curry powder

All of this will go in my giant Crockpot o' Doom with enough water to fill it two thirds full and will cook until I get home.

Roast Chicken

2008-12-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

From blog

A few weeks ago, Publix had some incredibly good deals on chicken leg quarters. So naturally, we filled our freezer. I know some of you will recoil in horror at the thought of eating-gasp- DARK MEAT, but bear with me.

First off, because of the demand for breast meat, poultry legs of any kind are a great value. They are always priced lower than breasts. The legs have more flavor, more nutritional value, and are easier to cook. They don't dry out as easily as breast meat does.

I first started cooking with chicken thighs when we got married. I'd grown up in a white meat family. My husband, though, was a dark meat guy. At Thanksgiving, he quickly claimed both legs for himself and ignored the rest of the turkey. I was also working part time and going to school full time, so I was beginning my love affair with the Crockpot. I learned pretty fast that thighs stood up to braising better than breasts, and that it saved us money, and that if I made them, my husband would be happy. So over time, I have grown to appreciate dark meat and actually do prefer it now.

I love chicken quarters in particular because of the beautiful way they present. Really, what could be prettier on your plate than an elegantly bent leg, covered in a brown and crackling skin, and surrounded by rice or couscous to soak up the tasty pan drippings? Not a whole lot, right?

I managed to get a few pictures of some of the things I've done with all the leg quarters I've collected before my camera died. One of them is the pretty picture gracing the top of this post. It's roasted chicken on a bed of mixed potato wedges. It's a very simple thing to do. Cut the white and sweet potatoes into wedges, toss with your choice of seasoning, and olive oil. I also add big cloves of garlic and chunks of onion. Place the chicken quarters on top, rub with a little oil, then season. I used Green Street Grill Rub from the Alpharetta Spice Company on these. Roast them at 350 until done.

From blog

This one is my easy Coq au Vin recipe. Coq au Vin is another marvelous invention of the French peasants, created to make an old rooster past his prime into a tasty treat. My version doesn't rely quite so much on stewing, but is still rich and satisfying.

First, fry up some bacon bits. I do this by cutting my bacon into bits, then frying. Once they are brown, pull out the bits and drain them. Liberally salt and pepper your chicken legs. Place them skin side down in the pan, and let them brown. You aren't trying to cook them all the way through, just get the skin brown. After they reach satisfactory brownness, flip them over and brown the other side. Remove from pan. I put mine into a big casserole dish, which I intended to cook the final dish in.

Deglaze the pan with a decent quality red wine. I can't recall what I used here. Probably a Three Buck Chuck Pinot Noir, or Merlot. We tend to have that lying around. Add chopped carrots and onions. Use the veggies to scrap up the brown bits of bacon and chicken stuck to the bottom of the pan. You want those in your final product. After the veggies are softened, pour them over the chicken legs. Lid it up, and put it in the oven. Cook it on 350 until done.

I served this alongside some egg noodles, because those are awesome with the red wine sauce.

Farmers Market Comeback

2008-12-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

The local farmer's markets are rallying for a brief comeback this month.

First up this weekend, the Riverside Farmers market will be back for Saturday only. I'm unsure of the times, because I've lost my flyer with the information and Google is no help to me. But if I find out, I'll be sure to let you know. Sadly, I don't think I can make it. I have tickets to see King Tut at the Civic Center for my birthday.

Next weekend, the Alpharetta Farmer's Market (who has their own, updated website. Just sayin') will do a special "holiday market" from noon to 5PM. I'm pretty sure I can make that, despite a crazy full holiday schedule creeping up on me.

Homemade Bacon?

2008-11-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

I frequent several forums, on a variety of topics. Some of the most interesting food conversations actually pop up on the non-food forums. This happened a few weeks ago on the forums at Cracked.com, when someone started a thread detailing how to make your own bacon. Yes, your own, home smoked bacon. I love making things from scratch that other people think only come out of a can, but I admit bacon never popped into my head as something to try. But after seeing this detailed tutorial, complete with pictures, I'm tempted to give it a shot.

So with the permission of the mysterious man known only as "The Iron Colonel", I bring you The Bacon Chronicles: Legend of the Homemade Bacon My comments in that thread are posted under the handle "Kathana" if you're looking for me. There's several other bloggers posting in that thread too, but since I'm unsure of whether or not they'd like their Cracked identities too closely linked to their blogs, I'll leave it alone.

I should also warn you. It's, uh, Cracked. It's a comedy site. Humor is subjective and occasionally offensive. They recently put up an article called "Five Astounding Advances in the Science of Getting Drunk". I only say this so none of you can come back to me later and complain that I forced you to read swears against your will.

Waitaminute... Why is my fridge still full?

2008-11-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

Well, all the guests are gone and the meal is done except for the snacks. Sadly, with my camera still borked (my birthday is on Wednesday, if anyone loves me), I have no pictures. However, my kitchen is much cleaner than when I started cooking, thanks to my mom and youngest sister managing to slop turkey drippings all over my stove in their quest to have gravy.

A quick run down of all the dishes prepared:

The brie and apricot appetizer seemed to be a hit. My husband enjoyed it anyways. He's currently snacking on the leftovers. This one will reappear at New Years.

My sister made a fantastic antipasto tray, with three types of salami, cheese, olives and marinated artichoke hearts.

The cornbread dressing needed more salt. Other than that, it was fine. Nothing special, but then I make this all the time.

The green bean casserole had too much bechemel sauce on it. It was glopy, but tasty. Less sauce next time. My sisters nearly mutinied when they saw no cans of French's or Campbell's in my pantry.

The roasted broccoli was a hit. I make it all the time, but I don't think my family has ever tried it. We ended up putting grated cheese on it and my sisters got to use the mini-food processor attachment to my stick blender to do it. I had meant to hand them Parmesan, but I think they ended up with my last couple pieces of kefitiri greek cheese. However, it has a similar flavor profile to parm, so it ended up really well.

The roasted potatoes were also a hit. I had debated all morning about what seasonings to use. I ended up using kosher salt, black pepper and a generous helping of Green Street grill rub. It was a mix of yams, white potatoes and a couple carrots. I also used a few chunks of red onion leftover from the salad.

Speaking of salad, this was also a hit. I didn't use true spinach. I used komatsuna, which is an Asian green. So it's like Asian spinach. It tastes much like spinach, just a little tougher. The spinach was topped with hard boiled eggs, red onion, bacon bits, white mushroom slices and carrot shreds. This is a classic that I make frequently.

The biscuits proved to be logistically difficult to make (read: I ran out of cookie sheets), so I made a loaf of beer bread instead. I think it'll be excellent tomorrow toasted up for an open face turkey sandwich.

As for the turkey, it came out beautifully. It was slightly drier than I like. However, the flavor was good and it made more than enough for everyone. I stuffed the cavity with chopped apples, oranges and onions. A liberal application of vegetable oil to the skin before roasting made sure that it came out crispy and with a rich, caramel color. No one else noticed the dryness. As one of my sisters pointed out, home cooked turkeys for us trend towards underdone, not over, so this was considered perfectly done by many.

For desserts, my youngest sister made a pumpkin cheesecake and a Tollhouse pie. Tollhouse pie is basically just melted chocolate chips in a pie shell and it is awesome. They took the cheesecake home with them, but left me the pie. Hooray!

I have a ton of cranberry sauce left. I hate cranberries. I don't think my husband can eat it all himself.

2008-11-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Twelve hours from now, I'll be hip deep in turkey and potatoes, so I thought I'd share this now.

Almost there...

2008-11-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

My real camera is well and truly borked. Hopefully, I can still pull off all the pictures I've taken recently. So until I get a new one, you are stuck with phone pictures like the one to your right.

As you can see, my fridge is overflowing tonight with food. In fact, it's so full, we thought that was the reason it wouldn't close yesterday. No dice. It appears our gasket (that rubbery strip around the edge of the door) has lost whatever ever mojo that makes it work. So stepping heavily near it, slamming the freezer door, looking at it cross eyed, all these things cause it to swing open slightly.

Inside, washed out by the fridge light, you can see our turkey. All 17 pounds of it. A baby, I know, by most standards. But I'm only feeding seven tomorrow. I pre-made the cornbread stuffing and the spinach salad. I've also pre-made the brie with apricots appetizer. There's two containers of cranberry-orange relish hiding behind a casserole dish somewhere. I wanted to make the biscuit dough ahead too, but I think I ran out of room in my fridge for it. Oh well. Biscuits only take me a minute to prepare.

Still left...

-Making the green bean casserole
-Chopping and roasting the mixed potatoes
- Adding the rest of the ingredients to the salad.
-Chopping and roasting the broccoli
-Roasting the turkey

When I know I have a big cooking and entertaining day ahead of me, I like to make as much as possible ahead of time. It makes less stress on me and makes my poor ADHD addled brain less likely forget to make something. I also have a master list written on notebook paper of everything I plan to do tomorow. I'll have to share my party planning list making system in a future post. But not tonight. Tonight I have to finish cleaning the bathrooms.

And while I'm here...

2008-11-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

I'd like to thank Suzanne Taylor at Examiner.com who recently reviewed my blog. It's nice to know someone besides my mom is reading this.

Gobble, Gobble

2008-11-23T19:02:00.001-08:00

The turkey, she is taking up my fridge.

My camera is on the fritz, so no pictures of the beast occupying most of my fridge space this week. And it's only 17 pounds. That's practically a baby as Thanksgiving turkeys go. I know I have never cooked one so big before. I've also managed to finish all of my shopping. The only flaw so far? The bagger at Publix put my bag of cranberries in the same bag as two cans of chicken stock. Yeah, slightly crushed. Still usable, but they made a sticky mess on my counter.

My sisters finally settled on their desserts. They'll be bringing me (I mean us...) a Tollhouse Chocolate Pecan Pie and a pumpkin cheesecake. Pumpkin cheese cake seems like the hot trendy thing this year. Someone brought a beautiful one to the staff potluck at work last week, and I've been inundated with recipes from some of my forums and blogs. I'm not quite brave enough yet to make my own cheesecake, so I'll leave it to them.

Thanksgiving Local Logistics

2008-11-19T18:10:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is next week. I'll be hosting my first one in my own home for my parents, siblings and, oh yeah, the husband this year. Since I am a food hippie, I have to do things the hard way.

Our turkey has been pre-ordered via Moore's Farm & Friends. I usually cannot justify to myself paying that kind of price for meat, even if I try. However, it's a special occasion. Our turkey is coming from Westwind Farms, about 90 miles outside of Knoxville, TN. It'll be freshly processed (meaning, just killed) and certified organic. We'll be picking it up at the Peachtree Road Farmer's market this Saturday.

Speaking of Peachtree Road, I've made an effort to select recipes that reflect what's seasonal in Georgia this time of year. Luckily, we've got a long growing season down here, so gives us a wide variety. I'm hoping to find most of the fresh ingredients I'll need at the farmer's market this week, and keep Thanksgiving local. We haven't been to a farmer's market since the ones up here closed and I think we're a little over excited by it.

There's been a flurry of emails back and forth from my mother and I this week. As is our wont, my sisters are contributing a few things to the meal. Allison does desserts particularly well. I'm not sure if she's settled on exactly what she's bringing yet, but it'll be some sort of pie. Kim does appetizers and drinks. Mom and I both nixed "Pumpkintinis". Instead, I suggested either Cape Cods or Pomegranate Martinis. While not really local (Where do cranberries come from anyways? Since I hate them, I'm going to say "Straight from hell"), both flavors are seasonal. Mom is handling wine. It's impossible to find a single wine to go with Thanksgiving, so I suggested a pinot noir. I've recently become a fan of pinots. They've got a subtle sophistication to them, but also a nice, robust flavor that can stand up to any meal. Kim is also planning a traditional antipasto tray, which is something I will probably blog about later.

Wednesday is going to be my big baking day since I have the day off from school. I'm off pie duty this year, thanks to my sister, so I'm going to prep the corn bread stuffing, and get the biscuits ready. My husband has requested that I make a batch of White Lily biscuits (Just follow the recipe on the back of the bag. It never fails). I'll make that dough ahead of time too. Any other prep work I can do a day ahead I'll do then too, like fry bacon and hard boil eggs to top the spinach salad with. I can also make the cranberry-orange relish the night before as well. Thanksgiving is a big meal, and I've no doubt that SOMEONE will get under my feet before the end of the day.

I'll try to remember to take pictures this time.

Yes, people really eat those things down here...

2008-11-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

I recall when I was growing up in Utah hearing about fried green tomatoes, and being horrified that someone would actually eat something like that. I dislike the mushy, slimy texture of cooked tomatoes, so the thought of eating a cooked tomato that's not even ripe yet? Disgusting. How can you eat something like that?

Very easily I've discovered.

I made my first attempt at fried green tomatoes about a week ago. I had tried them before at resturants, and while they weren't disgusting, neither were they something I wanted to seek out. However, I'm very committed right now to local, seasonal eating, and there is nothing that says "late October in Georgia" more than a plate of fried green tomatoes.

Green tomato anything is a great way to use up those late season tomatoes that just will not ripen now that it's cooler. I made these using the last tiny tomatoes from my yard and a few other things I'd been saving. This is a perfect example of poverty food.

First, I sliced my tomatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. The salt will dry out the tomato, which makes the breading stick. Leave them on the counter for about ten minutes. Breading is very simple. The technique for a tomato is the same as a piece of meat. First, you roll in flour. I used unseasoned all purpose. Remember, the tomatoes are already seasoned. Then I dipped them in an egg and milk mixture. Then you roll them in bread crumbs. I ran a slice of home made beer bread through my food processor to get my bread crumbs. The flour gives the egg something to stick to, the egg gives the bread crumbs something to stick to. If you've ever bitten into something fried and had the crispy outside come away from the inside bit, they didn't use flour first.

While I was mucking about with the breading, I melted some saved bacon fat in a pan. Bacon fat is great. It's full of flavor and it comes free with your breakfast. After I finished breading, the tomatoes went in the pan.

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Notice, I'm only cooking a few at a time. Crowding the pan means they take longer to cook and soak up more grease. I like bacon fat, but I like my arteries more.

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As they reach doneness, pull them out and lay them on paper towels to drain. If you're super concerned about the grease, you can lay them on a cooling rack. Since I only had a few tomatoes, I wasn't too worried about them reabsorbing the grease.

And thus concludes the saga of my first attempt at growing my own tomatoes.

Submitted to Grow Your Own.

Apple Crisp

2008-10-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

I have a gaming group that meets on Saturdays. Usually it's straight up Dungeons and Dragons, but lately its been Werewolf. Though someone bought a 4th ed handbook, so as of this weekend we're back to DnD. Anyways, the hosts usually do the cooking or we order take out for dinner. I've started making a habit to bring a dessert or side dish along. The big hits this year have been peach salsa and peach cobbler. Since I am currently swimming in apples from the Apple Festival, I thought I'd do a little apple crisp.

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We start with apples. These are Black Arkansas varieties. They are very firm and sweet, perfect for baking.

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I bought a new Oxo grip peeler for this. I've been using the same peeler since before we were married, it was quite dull. I usually hate peeling things, but I actually liked it with this one. Except for the part where I nicked my finger because I didn't get resistance when I expected it.

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Apples, sliced and mixed with orange juice. Yes, I know it's supposed to be lemon juice. I'm out. Deal with it.

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The finished Apple Crisp, fresh from the oven. Not as pretty as I would like, but I can work on that.

Ingredients

2 cups-ish of sliced apples
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Peel and slice apples and toss with lemon (or orange) juice. In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and cut in the butter. You can use a fancy pastry cutter for this, or you can just squish it up with your hands like I do. Mix about a quarter of the topping with the apples, then spread in a baking dish. Spread the rest around on top and bake for 50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Picture Dump

2008-10-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm behind on posts, so I'm going to do my classic "Post a bunch of pictures that I planned to do posts about, but didn't" thing. You know you love it.

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Ham sandwich. I pack my husband's lunch for him every morning. He likes the most boring sandwiches ever. White bread, mayo, turkey and processed cheese. I have slowly managed to coax him into more interesting sandwiches. This one is ham and swiss on wheat bread (from a bakery) with arugula. He still likes plain mayo, but I feel a little better about it.

As an aside, he used to complain about my "gourmet" taste in lunch meat. I like to get the fresh Boar's Head from the deli counter, where he would buy Oscar Meyer if left to his own devices. But then I pointed out that the cost of a half pound each of meat and cheese (a week's worth) is still not quite equal to the cost of him going out for one meal.

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Some Pumpkin Curry Soup I made. I'm almost out of my pumpkin puree now. This makes me very sad.

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I'm doing a Day of the Dead party/ project with my International Studies elective class. The kids have done a ton of research about this holiday and Mexican culture in general. They are particularly taken with the cheerful and colorful skull imagery that predominates. Gotta love middle school. Anyways, these are "Skullipops". Pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate and decorated with black gel frosting. A very simple and easy project to do with kids. They are currently hiding in a corner of my office, otherwise I'm afraid my co workers will steal them.

I'll conclude with some shots from the Cumming Greek Festival a few weeks ago. This was way better than the Atlanta Greek Festival.

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Lamb cooking on the spit.

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Crowd shot. See how not crowded everything is?

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Greek salad, roast lamb and potatoes with lemon and herbs. Delicious.

Tomato Sauce

2008-10-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

I always seem to get behind on posts here, don't I? Let me reward your patience with some marinara sauce!

Tomato season is starting to wind down here. A few weeks ago, I had the half assed idea of making tomato sauce to freeze, so I could still enjoy locally grown food over the winter. Great idea, misses something in the execution. You'll see.

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The tomatoes. A combination of from my garden and the farmers market.

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Onion, garlic, green bell pepper and carrots. Yes, carrots. My mom made a recipe for Bolognase sauce a few years ago that used carrots as part of the base. Ever since then I've used them in tomato sauce and tomato soup. They add a different dimension of flavor to your dish.

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With the tomatoes added. I used the box grater method, which is why it looks pureed.

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After I added parsley and basil from my garden.

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Pureed using my immersion blender.

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LOOK AT THE SAUCE! LOOK AT IT!!!

The more astute of you have figured out why there is none in my freezer currently.

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It turns out I made just enough for one lasagna. It was a great one. Feta cheese mixed with the ricotta, freshly made sauce, Italian sausage. We had leftovers for three days.

But it's gone now.

And I am sad.

Submitted to Grow Your Own.

Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-10-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Due to the vagaries of the economy, we're skipping this year's annual trek to Texas for Thanksgiving with my in laws. I'm still ambivalent about skipping it, my family lives here in Georgia, so we see them pretty frequently. My husband's family can't travel to us, because they own a restaurant and can never take time off. Our Thanksgiving visit is really the only time we see them. But we're decided now and my mother in law, surprisingly, is cool with it.

My own mother (who will do anything to weasel out of cooking Thanksgiving) told me last weekend that they won't be spending Thanksgiving in Florida on the beach. My sister just got a new job and doesn't have the time off to travel, my other sister and my brother both have finals that week. So rather than attempt to get everyone down to Florida, they planned to stay home. And since I'm home, I offered to make dinner this year.

So now I get the challenge of making Thanksgiving for my picky siblings and my diabetic father. After some emailing back and forth with Mom, I seem to have worked out a menu.

Dinner...
Roast turkey with Cranberry Orange relish
Corn bread dressing
Roasted mixed potatoes (mix of different kinds, including sweet potatoes)
Green bean casserole
Spinach salad (baby spinach topped with red onion, bacon bits, chopped hard
boiled egg and silvered almonds)
Roasted broccoli

Snacks before dinner...
Raw veggies and dip
Baked brie with warm fruit compote

Dessert...
Applesauce cake (made with Splenda for Dad, since this is his favorite cake.)
Pumpkin pie

The heavy baking doesn't bother me. I've got the Wednesday off from school and I'll probably be home early on Tuesday. I may leave off the pumpkin pie if my sister decides to bring a pumpkin cheese cake. She's still deciding if she wants to do that or a pecan pie.

So even though it's a little early, I've got my plan. I'll be looking for sales on the ingredients I need, or searching out local/ organic sources for the next few weeks.

Elijay Apple Festival

2008-10-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Today marked my first visit to the Georgia Apple Festival in Elijay. I've been curious about this one for years, but had never managed a visit before. Luckily, I discovered that my eating buddy, Diane, wanted to visit too, so we made the trip up today.

Since neither one of us had been before, we planned to be early. We stopped by Katie's for a quick breakfast (They are decently fast if you get there before the brunch crowd starts) and then headed up. That turned out to be a good idea. When we left around noon, the festival was starting to become very crowded. So if we go again next year, we'll plan for another early trip.

I was so full from breakfast (I always stuff my face at Katie's. I'm a sucker for anything fresh baked.) that I didn't sample any of the festival food. I think if I had been there much longer, I would have had to buy one of the lunch plates the Lions Club was peddling. Fried chicken, turnip greens, pinto beans and corn bread. It smelled divine. There were also booths selling the requisite funnel cakes and apple fritters, as well as hot cider, hot chocolate and hot tea. Perfect fare for a cool, late October morning.

I also foolishly did not bring my camera. Diane snapped a few pictures on hers, but all I took was this one on my phone. Looks delicious right? Don't eat it. It's really a candle. Seriously. They had all sorts of beautiful hand crafted candles made to look like cakes and pies. They were scented too. They had tons of great crafts like this for sale. I had a hard time not spending all my money.

Of course, we bought apples there. We had promised a friend we'd get her some fresh apple cider. We also bought locally grown apples. Diane got a half peck of Red Delicious. I got a half peck of Granny Smith and a half peck of Black Arkansas. The picture at the top of this post is about half of what I bought. After a bit of googling, I have discovered that Black Arkansas apples are perfect for pies, along with Granny Smith's. So you'll probably see a post about that next weekend.

All in all, I considered this to be a great trip. I bought some apples. I did some Christmas shopping. I enjoyed some time in the north Georgia mountains. I'd do it again.

I'll probably eat a fritter though. That is my one regret.

Well, I finally decided...

2008-10-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

I'm skipping the Taste of Roswell this weekend. I'll be at the Elijay Apple Festival Saturday and the Cumming Greek Festival on Sunday.

I know everyone was breathlessly awaiting this decision.

In other news, we finally finished off the collard greens for dinner tonight. The recipe I used came from someone I know on a forum. It's very simple and made some of the tastiest greens you can imagine.

A couple slices of bacon
Chopped onion
Greens
Chicken broth

Fry the bacon in a pan with a lid. Throw in your onions. Add greens, then enough chicken broth to cover. Cover with lid, then simmer until greens are tender. The bacon adds great flavor to the greens.

I served it alongside fried potatoes. My husband was iffy about a meal without a big, meaty centerpiece, but even he admitted that it was very filling.