Flaky crust…and…
Friday, 28 November 2014
Pecan pie is similar to candy in a crust, yet, sheeze’o, I’m still loving the tiny slivers I allow myself.
Musings
Complex (kitchen) systems
Friday, 28 November 2014
Our cleanup crew (thanks, everyone—I was part of the production crew) processed the volume of plates, glassware, pots, and more that you’d expect a dinner for eleven to produce. The dish-drainer was filled and emptied numerous times. The glassware must be the least-preferred type of dirties, and were the last processed, awaiting me when I came down to fire up the coffee pot.
I had coffee with leftover pie. Tough life!
Fruits of the Near East (#6)
Monday, 24 November 2014
I cannot remember the first time I ate pomegranate seeds. I certainly read about the fruit long before I saw it, and more references were of the tree than the fruit. I like the sweet-sour-ish taste very much, although I’m still a novice at the seed-pulp separation process.
Geometric food-to-be
Friday, 21 November 2014
S-l-o-w-l-y, I’m beginning the prep for the coming Feast. These bread cubes (once organic loaves from the groc store) are mostly dried out. I’ll reload them in the bread bags tomorrow I suspect, ready for becoming dressing in a few days.
A riddle 4U
Saturday, 1 November 2014
I saw this and knew I had a goooo-gle session in my future. What the heck is rye flour riddled? What’s the riddled part? Turns out it refers to sieving, but I can’t tell what level of fine/coarse it produces. It’s a Russian term, as near as I can tell….
Bonus photo; already forgot what kind these are….
I’m saying yes
Friday, 17 October 2014
I remember Mom’s explanation of the meaning of the phrase “composed salad.” I just couldn’t fathom the word composed in that context; of course, we were a tossed salad family—sometimes slaw, so our table didn’t have composed salads (and we rarely ate out).
Glazed pecans, crunchy bacon, blue cheese, grape tomato halves—what a tasty version/composition/ of iceberg. Although is it really a composed salad?
Evening menu
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Often, I think up at least a partial menu before I go shopping. Sometimes I have no focus/creativity/ideas.
Today, I was in the latter situation.
I saw the stalks of Brussel-ees were marked down…and thought: gee, temps below normal…I should do an autumnal oven meal.
Sausage, Brussels and cauliflower, a few button mushrooms, some simple stuffing (cornbread, from a box), and a pound of tofu turned into hoisin-slathered “steaks.”
Perked us both up, although we both have vestiges of jet lag dogging us.
Healing zuppa
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Late yesterday, I got whammied by a bad cold. Sniff, blow; repeat. I managed to get plenty of sleep, thankfully, but I spent the day an energy-less lump.
The Great and Wonderful Guru went out for supplies, and discovered the nearby street was a forest of vendors, mostly of used clothing, heavily attended by locals, along with a few tourists. He came back with a fine grocery assortment, including a Bob’s Red Mill soup mixture, an Italian version called zuppa di farro. It has split green peas, lentils, and farro. I found a deep pot (kitchen has a good assortment of tools), loaded it with water and some of the soup mixture, and set it to boil. I figured 50 mins of simmering, and that was about right.
Farro is a type of wheat (Triticum spp.), and WikiPee notes botanical and common names do not always match up. The ones in this soup mixture are longer like “regular” wheat, not stubby like barley. This soup mixture would have been customary to ancient Romans, and peoples of the Levant.
By day’s end, I felt on the mend—fingers crossed.
(Cupping palm to ear)
Friday, 3 October 2014
Is there a clamoring out there for FOOD shots/info/stories?
Okay…a tidbit, an appetizer, you might say. Here on the Liguria coast, one specialty is Tegame, which is a stew/roasted dish of potatoes and anchovies (fresh, mind you), along with tomatoes.
The fish is nothing like anchovies from a can, and quite tasty. (The appetizer version of anchovies with lemon, whew!, very fine!)
I’ve had Tegame from three different restaurants here in Vernazza, and the version pictured is from Trattoria da Sandro (the name varies), up the street from the harbor-square. It is the most carefully formed and stacked of the trio. Potato slices are on the bottom, several layers deep, then the anchovy layer, then tomato slices. Every version is yummy, and I couldn’t pick one as better than the other two; they are just a spectrum.
Today we were bold. We hiked from here to Corneglia (not to be confused with Cornelia, Gee-Ay, although the pronunciation is very, very similar). The route was very up, from sea level here at Vernazza to a high point of 207m, if the sign was right. Since the up and down are not singular, there’s a bit of excess and repeated up/down, so the gained elevation far exceeded 207m…at least that’s the way it felt.
This was the first true trail-day for my Cascadias, which I purchased on the repeated recommendations of my social media friends who’ve recently hiked the AT, PCT, and other fine trails in the USofA.
The CinqueTerre trail materials we saw said to expect to take 1.25 hrs to do the 3.5 km from here to Corneglia. We took breaks, and it took us 3 hrs, maybe a bit more. We may have been slow, but the printed recommendation is shorter than I bet the young hoofers that passed us traversed it. Few of the people we saw made it in that span, I am certain. And, we don’t even know if the 3.5 km distance is close to correct…. Not whining, we had a fine time, and were in the cool morning shadow for much of the trail coming out of Vernazza, which was very very pleasant, despite the elevation gain (pant pant).
Details, details
Sunday, 21 September 2014
We’re in a phase of ordering frizzante, bottled mineral water with bubbles, with our meals. It’s not always Pellegrino, but I have noticed that two times the bottle held 92, and today’s restaurant served us a 75. (I think the units are decilitres/deciliters.)
Haha, we probably even paid more for the 75.
And umph years ago, all the restaurants would have been serving full liter bottles!