22 Nov 2010, Posted by admin in MEET, 0 Comments

Prager Port: For Those After Pie Moments + A Boxed (?!) Cake Doctoring Suggestion From The Pragers

Port is one of those classic holiday digestivos that seems to quietly appear right around the time the last pie has been cut. Or at least in an ideal lingering Thanksgiving meal world. Interesting history, too. But what you were really wondering is whether the Prager’s boxed cake recipe is really any good?. OK fine, I was. I’ve actually never used a box cake mix (very un-American of me), but I might be inclined to pass on the Dream Whip and such. I just liked the idea of adding Port to a boxed mix. You know, for the fun of it all. Turn the page for more from the Napa-based family who have been making Port-style wines for more than thirty years….

19 Nov 2010, Posted by admin in EAT, 1 Comments

Remembering To Remember: Pie Recipes Weren’t Always An Exact Science

Here’s the thing about today’s test kitchen-mandated recipe consumption culture. On busy days, those step-by-step directives can be a dinner-saver, ensuring that slow cooker pot roast hits the table at the stroke of exactly-when-it-was-supposed-to. And taste not half bad, either. But on days like Thanksgiving, when leisurely cooking is the entire point of the day, following every single recipe as it’s dictated takes the impromptu fun out of cooking. And sure, as my husband will tell you, it can be next to impossible to recreate the best version of that meatloaf if you never write anything down. But really, what’s the fun in “perfect” cooking?

15 Nov 2010, Posted by admin in EAT, 0 Comments

History, Reheated: Leftover Cranberry Sauce Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Leftovers are by their second-day nature layered with yesterday’s realizations — those sweet potatoes that were a little better than the ones you ate growing up (half a box of brown sugar really is plenty), the shaved brussel sprouts that even the kids polished off (might not be such a bad idea to add bacon to all green vegetables from now on). And so this week’s recipe is for cranberry frozen yogurt. Because if we don’t figure out what to do with those leftovers this week, they’ll be gone entirely too quickly next week to make such tangy-light second run dishes. Actually, that might not be true with cranberry sauce, which seems to somehow increase in quantity as Thanksgiving dinner unfolds.

09 Nov 2010, Posted by admin in EAT, 1 Comments

Fentimans: Soda With A Side Of Furtlings

Before the pornographic accusations commence, the image before you is a furtling, a little late 19th century Victorian-era British humor (if you don’t like British humor, well then, you probably won’t like my husband’s humor either, so you might want to politely decline any future dinner invitations). You may have seen the furtlings on the Fentimans soda website or gotten one in your mail box randomly as I did several years ago (now that was a fun mail day).

29 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in EAT, 0 Comments

Happy All Hallow’s Eve: A Cookbook Review + Magickal Mushroom Recipe

And now, to dispel your wildest Halloween assumptions (sorry). “No hard and fast rules exist in Wicca,” begins the Introduction to the second edition of The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual and Lore by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt. “It is not based on a degree or a set of beliefs but rather on a practice of aligning oneself with the natural forces of life.” And so perhaps that absence of a set of prescribed just-tell-me-what-to-do beliefs is precisely why we tend to jump to conclusions and call everything labeled “Wicca” that crazy broom and cauldron sort of witchcraft.

28 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in MEET, 1 Comments

Meet The Mendez Family Of La Zamorana Candy, Your Día de los Muertos Sugar Source

All Día de los Muertos candy is not created equal. If you’ve ever actually tasted one of those sugar skulls, you already know that. Yes, they’re awfully cute in that Gene Simmons sort of way, but sugar + cornstarch = not terribly tasty. La Zamorana, owned by third generation candy makers, is the place to go for traditional fresh calabaza (pumpkin squash) and camote (sweet potato) candy. Actually, you can’t walk into the tiny East L.A. factory unless you’re a wholesaler, but you can find their products at Mexican markets throughout California, Arizona and a handful of other places scattered throughout the U.S. They make other traditional Mexican sweets, like jamoncillo (milk fudge), on homemade equipment (that guitar-string slicer at right with adjustable tuning pegs *was* pretty brilliant).

20 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in EAT, 1 Comments

Cooking With Wholegrains Circa 1947 (Or Was It 1952?)

One could presume that Mildred Ellen Orton, founder along with her husband of the Vermont County Store ate a lot of whole grains. Straight up (she died this year at the age of 99 years-old). And so it seems fitting that her 1951 (or 1947, depending on whether you go with the book jacket or Introduction) cookbook — pamphlet, really — Cooking with Wholegrains: The Basic Wholegrain Cookbook, has been re-released this week for those of us who could use a white bread sabbatical.

That whole grain cooking is hardly new in terms of flour’s several thousand year history is obvious enough. But in today’s world of glossy whole grain baking books with the obligatory cacao nib recipe somewhere in the mix, the idea of whole grain cooking before the 1970s conjures up images of Ancient Roman soldiers trekking across Europe with farro biscuits that can only be politely described as hearty.

17 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in MEET, 0 Comments

Gary Traub’s South African Jerky: 17th Century Dutch “Buttock Tongue” And Dried Sausage

Jerky is a curious first bite sort of thing. Or at least those enveloped in airtight pouches and loaded with preservatives. The real deal is a completely different experience, simply meat that’s been air or smoke-dried to the point it doesn’t spoil but still has a satisfying chew. The original preserved food (almost… surely raisins and their leather fruit brethren win that battle?). Maybe that’s why jerky tastes like biting into a different era, satisfying even for the casual indulger, even if today it can be somewhat junk food guilt-ridden. Ironic, as jerky probably saved many a population from starvation back in the day. Potato, potato. Or jerky, jerky (ya, sorry, entirely too tempting).

08 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in MEET, 2 Comments

Meet Chris Kimball: The Cook’s Illustrated Chief Goes Victorian With His New Book, Fannie’s Last Supper

When you have lunch with Chris Kimball, otherwise known as the Executive Chef of America’s Test Kitchen, you expect a little analysis. No, a lot of analysis. After all, the man has managed to transform the rather thankless career of test kitchen research, the food equivalent of a mad research scientist adding a little of this or that in the solitude of a dark, dank kitchen (translation: writers, editors and chefs get all the credit), into a veritable made-for-television publishing empire. His flagship magazine, Cook’s Illustrated, has long since expanded to a multi-million dollar enterprise (America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country, a PBS television series, too many books to count). But don’t mistake those swanky Santa Monica beach bungalow hotel digs for, well, what they really are. Kimball is not a corporate suit type (he prefers bow ties). He is incredibly focused and resolute — and damn it, intelligent.

06 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in EAT, 0 Comments

Food History News Rehashing: George Washington’s Peach Brandy Recreated This Week at Mount Vernon

If Thomas Jefferson happens to be among those on your “if I could invite three people in history to dinner” list, you probably already know to serve the man a nice bottle of French wine (actually, he’d likely appreciate a stateside tasting to sample a few of those American wines he helped sire).

George Washington? That first president thing is trickier, as those fifth grade history lessons conveniently left out any mention of the 2,250 square foot distillery he constructed at Mount Vernon in 1797, one of the largest rye whiskey distilleries in early America. Within two years, our enterprising first president was pumping out as much as 10,000 gallons of whiskey annually, and making quite a pretty penny ($7,500 in 1799, or about $93,000).