It doesn’t take much to convince me that Spring has finally arrived. A couple of days in the 70’s with the sun shining and the flowers starting to bloom completely fooled me into thinking my favorite season was here to stay. I could practically taste the fresh local greens that would be gracing my plate in what seemed like mere moments. I could hear the fresh snap of asparagus, bought from the Farmer’s Market, as I prepped them for a few moments in the steamer. I could feel the warmth of the soil as I planted my tomato starts.
So imagine my dismay when I woke the other day to what basically amounted to a blizzard. It felt like someone had played a cruel joke on me and I had slept through Spring, Summer, and Fall to return, once again, to the snow and cold. I wanted to crawl back under the covers. It wasn’t fair. I was depressed for days.
This is the time of year when all I want is fresh local food. I’ve eaten enough veggies trucked in from god-knows-where that lack flavor, freshness, and life. I want salad greens that last more than two days in the fridge. I want strawberries and tomatoes that actually taste like something and aren’t just red. This snow and cold weather are thwarting my desires.
Instead of giving in to despair since I can’t be with the local food I love, I’m taking Stephen Stills advice and I’m loving the local potatoes I’m with.
Potatoes are an ancient New World food. Scientists believe they first appeared in Peru some 10,000 years ago and spread throughout South and Central America (some wild species have even been found as far north as Texas). They are the most consumed vegetable in the US (sadly, it’s mostly as fries or chips). We eat, on average, a third of a pound per day (mostly Russet Burbanks, the ubiquitous Idaho potato).
There is thought to be over 5000 varieties of potatoes grown world-wide (which mean you could have a very satisfying potato-filled life and never have to eat another Russet). They come with white, yellow, pink or purple flesh with thin or thick skins. Some grow into a perfectly smooth, rounded shape, some look like fingers, and others look like strange warty creatures. The textures range from dry and mealy (this is actually a technical potato texture term) to moist and waxy. The flavors vary from earthy to fruity to flowery. Baking or browning brings out sweet and malty notes.
Your typical grocery store doesn’t offer much variety when it comes to potatoes (certainly nothing like the variety of overly sweetened, strangely colored breakfast cereal). You’d be lucky to find Russets, Reds, and Yukon Golds all on the same day. Luckily, local farmer don’t have to grow their potatoes to be picture perfect or to conform to some preconceived notion of what a potato should look like, they can grow for flavor and variety and for their own pleasure.
Vern Spencer (the Vern in Vern’s Veggies) did just that last year. He grew at least 12 different varieties of spuds and has carefully stored them so we could have at least one local veggie on our plates all winter long.
Vern sells his potatoes through Six Rivers Market (full disclosure: I now work there) and currently has ten varieties for sale. I’ve been buying a couple of different kinds each week. The variation between them is quite surprising. Right away, you notice the physical difference. Some are round with smooth skin, some have a rough purplish outer layer and a day glow purple center, and some are so knobby and warty that it’s a good thing I don’t like to peel my potatoes, I wouldn’t know where to begin.
The distinctive tastes come out when they are boiled side-by-side and dressed with a little salt and butter. You notice the texture first. Those with higher levels of the starch amylose are dry and light due to the fact that amylose starch cells tend to swell and separate from one another as they cook. Their waxy cousins contain more amylopectin starch whose cells tend to stick together even when cooked, giving them a smoother, moister texture.
Each potato variety also has a distinctive flavor. Some are sweet, some have an almost nutty quality, while others have more earthy notes (although the distinctions are definitely subtle).
When it comes to how to cook which potato, the most important consideration is texture. If you want fluffy mashed potatoes or French fries with a crispy outside and a dry interior, start with a “mealy” (I wish they had a better word for this) potato like a Purple Peruvian or Russian Banana (or the Russet Burbank; it’s high amylase content is what makes it the perfect French fry and potato chip potato). If you want your potato to maintain its shape after it’s cooked for gratins or potato salad, use a waxy variety like Desiree or Rose Finn Apple (my personal favorite). Experiment with all the different kinds available here to find your own favorite.
If you are not a member of Six Rivers Market, you can also buy potatoes from Vern at the Farmer’s Market, which starts up again on Saturday. If you’re not much of a cook, the next time you have potatoes at Ivano’s or Spuds, ask them what variety of Vern’s potatoes their serving. But by all means, while you’re waiting for your spring greens to arrive, try something new in the potato world. After all, Russet Burbanks make up only one five-thousandths of the possibilities (even if we do live in Idaho).
Purple Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4
1 head garlic (see below)
Olive oil for drizzling
2 T butter
2 lbs Purple Peruvian potatoes, cut into small (2”dia or less) pieces, peeling is optional
1/2 c milk, warmed
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut the top off the head of garlic to just expose the cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake at 400F until the cloves are soft, about 20 minutes. Let cool and remove cloves from skin and set aside
.
Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook potatoes until a fork pierces them easily, about 15 minutes.
When the potatoes are done, drain them and return them to the pot. Add the garlic and mash the potatoes and garlic thoroughly. Turn the heat on very low and add the butter. Slowly stir in the milk. Mix well until creamy and the butter is melted. Admire the amazing color and serve immediately.
Auntie Har’s Oven Fries
(My aunt showed me how to make these super easy and delicious “fries”. They’re a staple in our house)
Serves 2
4 medium sized Desiree potatoes (these yield a creamier center, use a mealy potato if you want a more traditionally dry French fry center)
2 T olive oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the over to 400F. Cut the potatoes into wedges lengthwise. Place them in a bowl and drizzle with the olive oil. Coarsely chop the rosemary and add it to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Toss all the ingredients together, coating the potatoes thoroughly. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, peel side down if they will stand up. Bake 20 minutes or until brown and crispy. Try and not eat them all before serving.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Doll Collection
I've been collecting dolls from all over the world for 40 years. It's a pretty impressive collection of over 150 dolls. I've been keeping them in a cabinet my parents bought for me years ago. The collection long outgrew the cabinet so when I moved from Moscow to Sagle two years ago, I carefully packed the collection in boxes and resolved to find a bigger better display case to house them.
Fast forward two years and the boxes of dolls were still stacked in a corner of my studio until just the other day when my brand new, hand-made case arrived. It's absolutely beautiful and just what I wanted (which is good because I helped design it).
Jon and I began filling it immediately.
It was so much fun. There were so many cool dolls that I had forgotten about. Like this guy from Argentina
Or these dudes from Africa
It took us several enjoyable evenings of guessing where they came from and then placing them just so. I had to make sure that the coolest ones were up front and the ones with the older, wobbly legs were propped against the back wall.
After so many years of having them all smushed together in the old cabinet, it was amazing to be able to see each and every doll. They have definitely livened up the living room
Fast forward two years and the boxes of dolls were still stacked in a corner of my studio until just the other day when my brand new, hand-made case arrived. It's absolutely beautiful and just what I wanted (which is good because I helped design it).
Jon and I began filling it immediately.
It was so much fun. There were so many cool dolls that I had forgotten about. Like this guy from Argentina
Or these dudes from Africa
It took us several enjoyable evenings of guessing where they came from and then placing them just so. I had to make sure that the coolest ones were up front and the ones with the older, wobbly legs were propped against the back wall.
After so many years of having them all smushed together in the old cabinet, it was amazing to be able to see each and every doll. They have definitely livened up the living room
Earth Day Resolutions
I’m starting to see that bright green color of new growth around town. Blades of grass are starting to poke up through last years’ thatch and even through the piles of sand along the road. Buds are appearing on trees and bulbs are popping up everywhere. I love the fresh colors of Spring, especially that special vibrant green that seems almost surreal after months of brown, grey and white.
April might be my favorite month (although I have a tendency to be in love with whatever month it is, and relish the fact that the Northwest has all four seasons). It is definitely the Month of Green. And it’s green for more reasons than just the multitudes of shades of the color cropping up wherever you look. April is also the month when we celebrate Earth Day and that’s a very green holiday (okay, so the word green is getting overused in the media, but please allow me the segue).
I like to think about Earth Day as a kind of New Years Eve celebration for the planet. I use April 22nd as an excuse to make resolutions to go easier on Mother Earth all year long. There are so many things you can resolve to do to lessen your impact on the planet, but this year my resolutions are all about making more sustainable choices when it comes to food.
Resolution #1: Buy more local food. Buying locally produced food is great for the planet and your taste buds (not to mention the local economy). Most of the food you buy in the supermarket travels an average of 1500 miles. Imagine the amount of pollution caused by trucking all that food across the country and the world. And then imagine how long it takes to get to your table and how much flavor and nutrition is lost along the way.
It just makes sense to buy what you can locally. I know it’s the end of winter and there doesn’t seem to be much local produce right now but there is local beef, lamb, pork, eggs and potatoes and soon the greens and asparagus will start coming in. The Farmer’s Market starts in less than a month. There’s still time to sign up for a share in a local CSA (which is like buying a share in a local farm). And now that Six Rivers Market (the new on-line local food market) is up and running, there’s a place to buy local food all year long. I’m going to give myself extra bonus points for buying local organic food, which goes one step further in eliminating hazardous chemicals from the environment.
Resolution #2: Grow some of my own food. Why stop with buying local? Why not grow your own? We’re starting a serious (at least as serious as you can get when you live in the woods) garden this year so I can have the freshest produce possible and I’m going to make an effort to preserve the food we grow so it will last all winter long. If you don’t have space for a garden where you live, a Community Garden is starting up at Dubs’ Field. Contact the Sandpoint Transition Initiative to find out more.
Resolution #3: Eat less meat and make sure the meat I am eating is grass fed and local. If you’ve read anything about Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) you know they are a nightmare for both the environment and the animals. Industrialized meat production is one of the most disgusting inventions of modern agriculture. Animals are packed together, never seeing a blade of grass, forced to eat a diet of corn and agricultural by-products (including bone meal and chicken poop in the case of beef production), most of which is grown with lots of pesticides and herbicides. Their waste is concentrated in huge lagoons that leach into the water table and occasionally overflow to pollute local streams and lakes. And the gas expelled from all these animals is a leading source of greenhouse gases.
Another problem with consuming lots of animal protein is that it takes about 40 calories of fossil fuel to make 1 calorie of industrially produced meat so it’s very resource intensive. Eating less of it is an easy way to lower your environmental impact.
Eating grass-fed, pasture-raised meat and poultry eliminates most of these environmental hazards (except for the gas thing and that’s where eating less meat comes in). You’re still getting less calories out than you put in, but the calories used to produce grass fed meat come mostly from the sun, not fossil fuels.
Plus it’s much healthier for you with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids (one of the good fats) and lower saturated fats (the bad guys).
Resolution #4: Eat fish only from sustainable fisheries. While we’re on the subject of protein, I might as well make sure the fish I’m eating isn’t causing fisheries to collapse. Too many of the world’s fisheries are on the brink of extinction and our unrelenting desire for more isn’t helping. The Monterey Bay Aquarium puts out a handy wallet-sized guide that shows what fish are being sustainably harvested and which you should avoid. I’ve printed one off and am going to actually look at it before I make my fish purchases.
Resolution #5: Buy in bulk. I’m not sure how much embedded energy is in all the packaging that surrounds our food these days but it’s got to be a significant amount. Buying food without all the bells and whistles and eye catching packaging not only decreases the amount of resources needed transport the food from one place to another, it also decreases the amount of stuff you have to throw away or recycle. An added benefit of food you can by in bulk is it’s most likely less processed than packaged food. Whole foods are healthier for you and take a lot less energy to produce, making them healthier for the planet, too! Both Yokes and Winter Ridge have a good selection of bulk food. I’m also giving myself extra points when I bring reused bags to the store to put all that good food in.
Last year’s resolutions to eat more organic food and to always bring my own shopping bags have been going pretty well, so I think I can handle these five new ones. I hope you’ll join me in adopting one or two of them as well.
Vicki Reich tries to live simply in Sagle and is glad she can start riding her bike to town again. She’s anxiously awaiting fresh local produce and would love to hear if you’re making any Earth Day resolutions. She can be contacted at wordomouth@yahoo.com
While you’re waiting for that fresh local produce to come in, try this delicious potato soup with some of the local potatoes still available from Vern’s Veggies.
Potato Soup with Chives
Serves 4
2 T butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 strips cooked bacon (optional)
2 t. paprika
4 lbs local potatoes, diced
5 c. chicken stock
1-3 pieces Parmesan rind (optional)
½ c sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
3 T fresh chives, finely chopped
Heat butter in a heavy stockpot. Add the onions and sauté over medium heat until they soften. Add the bacon and paprika. Sauté 1 minute. Add the potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil then lower heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the Parmesan rind if you have any. Cook another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Using a slotted spoon, mash some of the potatoes to thicken the soup to the consistency you like. Place the sour cream in a bowl and add about 1 cup of the soup. Stir then gently add the mixture to the pot. Do not allow the soup to boil again. Add half the chives to the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve and sprinkle with remaining chives.
April might be my favorite month (although I have a tendency to be in love with whatever month it is, and relish the fact that the Northwest has all four seasons). It is definitely the Month of Green. And it’s green for more reasons than just the multitudes of shades of the color cropping up wherever you look. April is also the month when we celebrate Earth Day and that’s a very green holiday (okay, so the word green is getting overused in the media, but please allow me the segue).
I like to think about Earth Day as a kind of New Years Eve celebration for the planet. I use April 22nd as an excuse to make resolutions to go easier on Mother Earth all year long. There are so many things you can resolve to do to lessen your impact on the planet, but this year my resolutions are all about making more sustainable choices when it comes to food.
Resolution #1: Buy more local food. Buying locally produced food is great for the planet and your taste buds (not to mention the local economy). Most of the food you buy in the supermarket travels an average of 1500 miles. Imagine the amount of pollution caused by trucking all that food across the country and the world. And then imagine how long it takes to get to your table and how much flavor and nutrition is lost along the way.
It just makes sense to buy what you can locally. I know it’s the end of winter and there doesn’t seem to be much local produce right now but there is local beef, lamb, pork, eggs and potatoes and soon the greens and asparagus will start coming in. The Farmer’s Market starts in less than a month. There’s still time to sign up for a share in a local CSA (which is like buying a share in a local farm). And now that Six Rivers Market (the new on-line local food market) is up and running, there’s a place to buy local food all year long. I’m going to give myself extra bonus points for buying local organic food, which goes one step further in eliminating hazardous chemicals from the environment.
Resolution #2: Grow some of my own food. Why stop with buying local? Why not grow your own? We’re starting a serious (at least as serious as you can get when you live in the woods) garden this year so I can have the freshest produce possible and I’m going to make an effort to preserve the food we grow so it will last all winter long. If you don’t have space for a garden where you live, a Community Garden is starting up at Dubs’ Field. Contact the Sandpoint Transition Initiative to find out more.
Resolution #3: Eat less meat and make sure the meat I am eating is grass fed and local. If you’ve read anything about Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) you know they are a nightmare for both the environment and the animals. Industrialized meat production is one of the most disgusting inventions of modern agriculture. Animals are packed together, never seeing a blade of grass, forced to eat a diet of corn and agricultural by-products (including bone meal and chicken poop in the case of beef production), most of which is grown with lots of pesticides and herbicides. Their waste is concentrated in huge lagoons that leach into the water table and occasionally overflow to pollute local streams and lakes. And the gas expelled from all these animals is a leading source of greenhouse gases.
Another problem with consuming lots of animal protein is that it takes about 40 calories of fossil fuel to make 1 calorie of industrially produced meat so it’s very resource intensive. Eating less of it is an easy way to lower your environmental impact.
Eating grass-fed, pasture-raised meat and poultry eliminates most of these environmental hazards (except for the gas thing and that’s where eating less meat comes in). You’re still getting less calories out than you put in, but the calories used to produce grass fed meat come mostly from the sun, not fossil fuels.
Plus it’s much healthier for you with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids (one of the good fats) and lower saturated fats (the bad guys).
Resolution #4: Eat fish only from sustainable fisheries. While we’re on the subject of protein, I might as well make sure the fish I’m eating isn’t causing fisheries to collapse. Too many of the world’s fisheries are on the brink of extinction and our unrelenting desire for more isn’t helping. The Monterey Bay Aquarium puts out a handy wallet-sized guide that shows what fish are being sustainably harvested and which you should avoid. I’ve printed one off and am going to actually look at it before I make my fish purchases.
Resolution #5: Buy in bulk. I’m not sure how much embedded energy is in all the packaging that surrounds our food these days but it’s got to be a significant amount. Buying food without all the bells and whistles and eye catching packaging not only decreases the amount of resources needed transport the food from one place to another, it also decreases the amount of stuff you have to throw away or recycle. An added benefit of food you can by in bulk is it’s most likely less processed than packaged food. Whole foods are healthier for you and take a lot less energy to produce, making them healthier for the planet, too! Both Yokes and Winter Ridge have a good selection of bulk food. I’m also giving myself extra points when I bring reused bags to the store to put all that good food in.
Last year’s resolutions to eat more organic food and to always bring my own shopping bags have been going pretty well, so I think I can handle these five new ones. I hope you’ll join me in adopting one or two of them as well.
Vicki Reich tries to live simply in Sagle and is glad she can start riding her bike to town again. She’s anxiously awaiting fresh local produce and would love to hear if you’re making any Earth Day resolutions. She can be contacted at wordomouth@yahoo.com
While you’re waiting for that fresh local produce to come in, try this delicious potato soup with some of the local potatoes still available from Vern’s Veggies.
Potato Soup with Chives
Serves 4
2 T butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 strips cooked bacon (optional)
2 t. paprika
4 lbs local potatoes, diced
5 c. chicken stock
1-3 pieces Parmesan rind (optional)
½ c sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
3 T fresh chives, finely chopped
Heat butter in a heavy stockpot. Add the onions and sauté over medium heat until they soften. Add the bacon and paprika. Sauté 1 minute. Add the potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil then lower heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the Parmesan rind if you have any. Cook another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Using a slotted spoon, mash some of the potatoes to thicken the soup to the consistency you like. Place the sour cream in a bowl and add about 1 cup of the soup. Stir then gently add the mixture to the pot. Do not allow the soup to boil again. Add half the chives to the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve and sprinkle with remaining chives.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Cookies While it Rains
Is there anything better to do on a cold rainy Sunday than bake a batch of cookies? Not only does the hot oven warm you up, but the glorious smells that emanate from it perfume the house all day, making it bearable to stay inside for one more wintry day. Plus cookies make everyone happy (especially my partner, Jon).
The biggest decision on a cookie baking day is just which of the thousands of recipes out there to make. There are hundreds of cookbooks dedicated solely to cookies and if you search for cookie recipes on-line, you might be looking through the list so long you’ll run out of time to bake.
I try to cut down on my choices before looking for the perfect recipe by deciding how much time I want to spend in the kitchen. Of the six general categories of cookie, some definitely take more time than others. Drop cookies like chocolate chip and oatmeal and bar cookies like brownies are the quickest to make. Refrigerator or rolled cookies like butter and sugar cookies require some patience while you wait for the dough to firm up in the fridge. Hand formed cookies like Mexican wedding cookies and pressed cookies like spritz take a bit more time and effort (and in the case of pressed cookies, need some extra equipment you might not have laying around the house).
Next I look to see what ingredients are in my house. Cookies can be made from just three ingredients (nuts, eggs and sugar make a great macaroon) or you can get very extravagant and add such hard to come by ingredients as rose geranium jam or parched benne seeds. Most of the time you can come up with a pretty tasty treat if you have butter, flour, sugar and eggs.
As I stared into my cabinets, trying to decide between ginger shortbread or coconut huckleberry bars (or, as my stomach growled in anticipation, both), I thought back to past batches and wondered what made some of them soft and cake-like, some crisp and crunchy, and still others chewy and dense. There was only one place to find the answer, so I headed to my bookshelf and pulled out On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. Sure enough, he had the answer.
Much of the texture of cookies can be found in the flour. The type of flour, the ratio of flour to water, and how much you “work” the dough all affect the consistency. Interestingly, both bread flour (high gluten content) and cake flour (low gluten content) help keep cookies from spreading, but for different reasons: the first because of its high gluten content and strong protein network and the second because its starch is more absorbent, removing some of the moisture from the dough. All purpose and pastry flour tend to allow the dough to spread more.
More flour than water makes a crumblier cookie, like a shortbread. More water than flour, as in drop cookies, makes cookies more cake-like if they are slightly undercooked and more crispy and crunchy if they are slightly overcooked.
Sugar also plays an important textural role. When creamed together with butter and beaten in with eggs, it helps incorporate air into the batter making the cookies lighter. When the proportion of sugar to liquid rises, only some of the sugar dissolves in the dough. However, as the cookie bakes, more of the sugar dissolves, liquefying the dough and causing it to soften and spread. Then when the sugar cools after baking, it re-solidifies and gives the cookie a candy-like snap.
Other sweeteners, like honey and molasses, cause the dough to spread more and then firm as it cools. This leads to a moister, chewier cookie.
Eggs, fat and leavening each play a smaller role in cookie texture. The more eggs, the more cake-like the final product will be. Butter tends to make cookies spread more than margarine or shortening (but you will never catch me using anything but butter in my cookies, I don’t care if they spread to Montana, they will still taste better). Leavening, which can simply be incorporating air bubbles into your sugar-butter-egg mixture, allows cookies to rise slightly, giving them a lighter, cakier texture.
Armed with this information, I decided to try an old stand-by: Oatmeal Raisin with Coconut and Chocolate Chips, which are quite delicious but often come out too cake-like for my taste, and see if I could make the recipe a bit chewier.
Now a good scientist would change one ingredient and see what happens, then change another one until she got the desired results. I am not a good scientist and I wanted to achieve a chewy cookie right away (and not do the dishes from 5 batches of “experiments”), so I changed the whole dang recipe.
I substituted honey for some of the brown sugar. I reduced the number of eggs. I didn’t beat the sugar, butter and eggs for as long as I usually do. And I didn’t use any baking powder. The batter tasted delicious.
Then I waited. Twelve minutes seems like an awfully long time when you’re waiting for the results of such an important experiment.
The buzzer finally sounded and the cookies looked like delicious golden mounds but still I waited and let them cool just a bit (no need to burn the roof of my mouth just for the sake of journalism).
At last, they were the perfect temperature. The chocolate chips were still melted but my mouth was safe from second degree burns. I broke one in half and it looked good, denser than the original recipe, but not crumbly or hard. I took a bite. They were perfect (okay, maybe not perfect but it was a warm fresh baked cookie; you can’t get much better than that). I tried another one just to make sure. Yes, I had achieved what I set out to do. I now had a chewier, but still completely delicious version of my old stand-by. I also had two dozen fresh baked cookies to keep my spirits up as I impatiently wait for Spring.
Vicki Reich cooks and bakes and longs for Spring in Sagle, ID. She’s much rather be riding her bike to work off all the cookies she ate than going to the gym, so she’s somewhat thankful that the rain is quickly melting the snow.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Coconut and Chocolate Chips
Makes 2-3 dozen
8 T. butter, softened
½ c. sugar
¼ c. packed brown sugar
¼ c. honey
1 egg
1 c. all purpose flour
2 c. rolled oats
½ t. cinnamon
Pinch of salt
½ c. shredded unsweetened coconut (optional)
¼ c milk
½ t almond extract
½ c. raisins
½ c. chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375F
Cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and honey (I use an electric mixer). Add the egg and beat until just blended.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, oats, cinnamon and coconut. Alternately add half the dry mixture and half the milk to the butter mixture, blending after each addition. Add the almond extract. Stir in the raisins and the chocolate chips by hand.
Drop by the teaspoon onto an ungreased baking sheet (or better yet, make the investment in a silicone baking sheet like a Silpat (you won’t regret it) and drop the dough onto this miracle of modern cookware). Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the edges. Cool for 2 minutes on the pan then transfer to a cooling rack.
Eat while watching the snow melt.
The biggest decision on a cookie baking day is just which of the thousands of recipes out there to make. There are hundreds of cookbooks dedicated solely to cookies and if you search for cookie recipes on-line, you might be looking through the list so long you’ll run out of time to bake.
I try to cut down on my choices before looking for the perfect recipe by deciding how much time I want to spend in the kitchen. Of the six general categories of cookie, some definitely take more time than others. Drop cookies like chocolate chip and oatmeal and bar cookies like brownies are the quickest to make. Refrigerator or rolled cookies like butter and sugar cookies require some patience while you wait for the dough to firm up in the fridge. Hand formed cookies like Mexican wedding cookies and pressed cookies like spritz take a bit more time and effort (and in the case of pressed cookies, need some extra equipment you might not have laying around the house).
Next I look to see what ingredients are in my house. Cookies can be made from just three ingredients (nuts, eggs and sugar make a great macaroon) or you can get very extravagant and add such hard to come by ingredients as rose geranium jam or parched benne seeds. Most of the time you can come up with a pretty tasty treat if you have butter, flour, sugar and eggs.
As I stared into my cabinets, trying to decide between ginger shortbread or coconut huckleberry bars (or, as my stomach growled in anticipation, both), I thought back to past batches and wondered what made some of them soft and cake-like, some crisp and crunchy, and still others chewy and dense. There was only one place to find the answer, so I headed to my bookshelf and pulled out On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. Sure enough, he had the answer.
Much of the texture of cookies can be found in the flour. The type of flour, the ratio of flour to water, and how much you “work” the dough all affect the consistency. Interestingly, both bread flour (high gluten content) and cake flour (low gluten content) help keep cookies from spreading, but for different reasons: the first because of its high gluten content and strong protein network and the second because its starch is more absorbent, removing some of the moisture from the dough. All purpose and pastry flour tend to allow the dough to spread more.
More flour than water makes a crumblier cookie, like a shortbread. More water than flour, as in drop cookies, makes cookies more cake-like if they are slightly undercooked and more crispy and crunchy if they are slightly overcooked.
Sugar also plays an important textural role. When creamed together with butter and beaten in with eggs, it helps incorporate air into the batter making the cookies lighter. When the proportion of sugar to liquid rises, only some of the sugar dissolves in the dough. However, as the cookie bakes, more of the sugar dissolves, liquefying the dough and causing it to soften and spread. Then when the sugar cools after baking, it re-solidifies and gives the cookie a candy-like snap.
Other sweeteners, like honey and molasses, cause the dough to spread more and then firm as it cools. This leads to a moister, chewier cookie.
Eggs, fat and leavening each play a smaller role in cookie texture. The more eggs, the more cake-like the final product will be. Butter tends to make cookies spread more than margarine or shortening (but you will never catch me using anything but butter in my cookies, I don’t care if they spread to Montana, they will still taste better). Leavening, which can simply be incorporating air bubbles into your sugar-butter-egg mixture, allows cookies to rise slightly, giving them a lighter, cakier texture.
Armed with this information, I decided to try an old stand-by: Oatmeal Raisin with Coconut and Chocolate Chips, which are quite delicious but often come out too cake-like for my taste, and see if I could make the recipe a bit chewier.
Now a good scientist would change one ingredient and see what happens, then change another one until she got the desired results. I am not a good scientist and I wanted to achieve a chewy cookie right away (and not do the dishes from 5 batches of “experiments”), so I changed the whole dang recipe.
I substituted honey for some of the brown sugar. I reduced the number of eggs. I didn’t beat the sugar, butter and eggs for as long as I usually do. And I didn’t use any baking powder. The batter tasted delicious.
Then I waited. Twelve minutes seems like an awfully long time when you’re waiting for the results of such an important experiment.
The buzzer finally sounded and the cookies looked like delicious golden mounds but still I waited and let them cool just a bit (no need to burn the roof of my mouth just for the sake of journalism).
At last, they were the perfect temperature. The chocolate chips were still melted but my mouth was safe from second degree burns. I broke one in half and it looked good, denser than the original recipe, but not crumbly or hard. I took a bite. They were perfect (okay, maybe not perfect but it was a warm fresh baked cookie; you can’t get much better than that). I tried another one just to make sure. Yes, I had achieved what I set out to do. I now had a chewier, but still completely delicious version of my old stand-by. I also had two dozen fresh baked cookies to keep my spirits up as I impatiently wait for Spring.
Vicki Reich cooks and bakes and longs for Spring in Sagle, ID. She’s much rather be riding her bike to work off all the cookies she ate than going to the gym, so she’s somewhat thankful that the rain is quickly melting the snow.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Coconut and Chocolate Chips
Makes 2-3 dozen
8 T. butter, softened
½ c. sugar
¼ c. packed brown sugar
¼ c. honey
1 egg
1 c. all purpose flour
2 c. rolled oats
½ t. cinnamon
Pinch of salt
½ c. shredded unsweetened coconut (optional)
¼ c milk
½ t almond extract
½ c. raisins
½ c. chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375F
Cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and honey (I use an electric mixer). Add the egg and beat until just blended.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, oats, cinnamon and coconut. Alternately add half the dry mixture and half the milk to the butter mixture, blending after each addition. Add the almond extract. Stir in the raisins and the chocolate chips by hand.
Drop by the teaspoon onto an ungreased baking sheet (or better yet, make the investment in a silicone baking sheet like a Silpat (you won’t regret it) and drop the dough onto this miracle of modern cookware). Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the edges. Cool for 2 minutes on the pan then transfer to a cooling rack.
Eat while watching the snow melt.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Potluck Fever
Jon and I went to two potlucks this past weekend. We ate some amazing food. The first one was a small gathering for dinner at a friend’s home. There were only about eight different dishes but they went together well and there was more than enough to go back for a plate full of seconds. The second potluck was the Kick-Off party for Six Rivers Market (Six Rivers Market is the new on-line local products market just starting in town. I’ll come clean and tell you I’m the market manager and you can learn more about it at our website www.sixriversmarket.org). Let me tell you, people who are interested in local food sure know how to cook. The magnitude and variety of food on that table was mind-boggling. It was like going to an international smorgasbord. Plates were piled high and I don’t think anyone left hungry.
After digesting all those delicious meals, I started thinking about where and when the idea of potlucks started. I’d always thought the word originated from the Native American word potlatch but Wikipedia set me straight. The word is actually of English origins and appeared as early as the 1500s. Back then, it was used to refer to what guests at inns would have to contend with if they wanted a meal. They’d get whatever was cooking in the large stew pot. Sometimes they’d get lucky and get something that hadn’t been cooking for too many days and had some meat in it. Sometimes they’d just get gruel.
Potluck parties, like the ones we just attended are a newer use of the word. Parties where each guest is asked to contribute something to the meal began at the end of the 19th century. They’ve gone in and out of fashion ever since. Personally, I never tire of them.
I love the fact that I can spend time making just one dish and yet share in a diverse and delicious meal with friends and community and not spend very much money doing it. Sure, we could all go out to a restaurant and share food around the table but then you might never learn that Ronnie makes the most amazing cheesecake or your perpetual bachelor friend makes some mean guacamole.
I must admit that I like to show off my cooking skills as well. For some reason, making something that takes all day for a potluck is doable, making it just for me and Jon doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Potlucks can be as simple or complex as you want. You can throw a potluck and tell guests to bring whatever they like without any structure to the meal. However, you are more likely to end up with all chips or all dessert if you don’t give any specifics. A friend of mine actually pulled a practical joke on a host that wasn’t willing to specify what to bring. She called all the guests and told everyone to bring brownies. When the host started getting nervous, they went back out to their cars and brought in the real dishes they’d made.
You can assert a bit more control and rest easier by telling guests what type of dish to bring: a main dish, drinks, or dessert. Or you can do what my mom and her friends have been doing for over 30 years. They don’t call it potluck (and might be offended to hear me call it that), they call it a gourmet group. Everyone brings one dish to share but the host exerts some control over the meal by assigning dishes, and often times recipes, to each participant. The dishes are quite a bit more elegant than chips and salsa or green bean casserole and the table is set with fancy plates. Still, it depends on each guest to supply some of the meal, and in my mind, that makes it a potluck.
Potlucks have been getting more imaginative lately. You can have a potluck with a theme. I’ve been to a potluck where the dishes related to the movie we watched after dinner. You can involve a whole neighborhood by having a progressive potluck where each course is served at another persons house (which I’m not totally in favor of; too many dishes to do afterwards). There’s even a website (www.luckypotluck.com) where you can invite people on-line and they can list the dishes they are going to bring (that would definitely take care of the multiple batches of brownies).
The potluck we just had for Six Rivers Market is my favorite kind. What better way to bring together the community than through the sharing of food. Now if I could just figure out who made the enchilada pie so I could get the recipe.
Vicki Reich lives in Sagle with her partner Jon. They always plan and cook their potluck contributions together, and love to attend any and all food related events. Vicki can be contacted at wordomouth@yahoo.com
My friend Laura is always invited to my potlucks because I can count on her to bring a platter of stuffed mushrooms. They never last long. Here’s my tribute to her.
Stuffed Mushrooms
Makes at least 6 servings
1 lb large button mushrooms (either white or brown)
3 T. butter
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ c shallot, finely chopped
1 egg
½ c fresh bread crumbs
2 T. fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 t. fresh thyme, finely chopped
½ c. + 2 T. Parmesan, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400F. Carefully remove the stems from the mushroom cap. If the caps need cleaning, use a damp towel to carefully rub the dirt off. Set the caps aside and finely chop the stems
Heat the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the garlic and shallot and cook 2 minutes. Add the chopped mushroom stems and cook for 8 minutes. Place the mixture in a bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (reserving the 2T of cheese). Season to taste. Stuff each cap full. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Arrange on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until cheese begins to brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
After digesting all those delicious meals, I started thinking about where and when the idea of potlucks started. I’d always thought the word originated from the Native American word potlatch but Wikipedia set me straight. The word is actually of English origins and appeared as early as the 1500s. Back then, it was used to refer to what guests at inns would have to contend with if they wanted a meal. They’d get whatever was cooking in the large stew pot. Sometimes they’d get lucky and get something that hadn’t been cooking for too many days and had some meat in it. Sometimes they’d just get gruel.
Potluck parties, like the ones we just attended are a newer use of the word. Parties where each guest is asked to contribute something to the meal began at the end of the 19th century. They’ve gone in and out of fashion ever since. Personally, I never tire of them.
I love the fact that I can spend time making just one dish and yet share in a diverse and delicious meal with friends and community and not spend very much money doing it. Sure, we could all go out to a restaurant and share food around the table but then you might never learn that Ronnie makes the most amazing cheesecake or your perpetual bachelor friend makes some mean guacamole.
I must admit that I like to show off my cooking skills as well. For some reason, making something that takes all day for a potluck is doable, making it just for me and Jon doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Potlucks can be as simple or complex as you want. You can throw a potluck and tell guests to bring whatever they like without any structure to the meal. However, you are more likely to end up with all chips or all dessert if you don’t give any specifics. A friend of mine actually pulled a practical joke on a host that wasn’t willing to specify what to bring. She called all the guests and told everyone to bring brownies. When the host started getting nervous, they went back out to their cars and brought in the real dishes they’d made.
You can assert a bit more control and rest easier by telling guests what type of dish to bring: a main dish, drinks, or dessert. Or you can do what my mom and her friends have been doing for over 30 years. They don’t call it potluck (and might be offended to hear me call it that), they call it a gourmet group. Everyone brings one dish to share but the host exerts some control over the meal by assigning dishes, and often times recipes, to each participant. The dishes are quite a bit more elegant than chips and salsa or green bean casserole and the table is set with fancy plates. Still, it depends on each guest to supply some of the meal, and in my mind, that makes it a potluck.
Potlucks have been getting more imaginative lately. You can have a potluck with a theme. I’ve been to a potluck where the dishes related to the movie we watched after dinner. You can involve a whole neighborhood by having a progressive potluck where each course is served at another persons house (which I’m not totally in favor of; too many dishes to do afterwards). There’s even a website (www.luckypotluck.com) where you can invite people on-line and they can list the dishes they are going to bring (that would definitely take care of the multiple batches of brownies).
The potluck we just had for Six Rivers Market is my favorite kind. What better way to bring together the community than through the sharing of food. Now if I could just figure out who made the enchilada pie so I could get the recipe.
Vicki Reich lives in Sagle with her partner Jon. They always plan and cook their potluck contributions together, and love to attend any and all food related events. Vicki can be contacted at wordomouth@yahoo.com
My friend Laura is always invited to my potlucks because I can count on her to bring a platter of stuffed mushrooms. They never last long. Here’s my tribute to her.
Stuffed Mushrooms
Makes at least 6 servings
1 lb large button mushrooms (either white or brown)
3 T. butter
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ c shallot, finely chopped
1 egg
½ c fresh bread crumbs
2 T. fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 t. fresh thyme, finely chopped
½ c. + 2 T. Parmesan, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400F. Carefully remove the stems from the mushroom cap. If the caps need cleaning, use a damp towel to carefully rub the dirt off. Set the caps aside and finely chop the stems
Heat the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the garlic and shallot and cook 2 minutes. Add the chopped mushroom stems and cook for 8 minutes. Place the mixture in a bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (reserving the 2T of cheese). Season to taste. Stuff each cap full. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Arrange on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until cheese begins to brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Monday, February 16, 2009
What the World Eats
The library did it to me again. That shelf of new books, just as you walk in, beckons me every time I enter the building. There is always some book that I can’t pass up. Never mind that I have ten books checked out already and will never get them read before they’re due; I must stop and browse. Last week was no exception and, of course, there was a book I couldn’t leave without.
“What the World Eats” written by Faith D’Aluisio and photographed by Peter Menzel is a look into the kitchens of the world (and a kid-focused follow-up to their 2005 book “Hungry Planet”). Twenty-five families from twenty-one countries share with readers a glimpse of what a weeks worth of food looks like for each household.
The families are photographed with all the food they eat in a week displayed before them. These portraits are fascinating on so many levels. The meager rations of a family in a Chad refugee camp compared to the calorie-rich but nutritionally deficient fast food diets of the US are startling. Fresh fruits and vegetables take up much of the photos from countries where the majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day. Those colorful photos look so much more appealing than the boxes and bags of processed food on the tables of developed countries.
The kitchens themselves command attention, from a rug laid on the ground next to small cooking fires in Chad, Mali and Ecuador to the large modern kitchen complete with stove, refrigerator, microwave, and servants in Kuwait.
And let’s not forget about the people. The families range in size from four to fifteen, many of them dressed in traditional clothing. Some are photographed in front of the family shrine whether it is a true place of worship or just their TV sets. Some are smiling and proud of the food they provide for their families while some look a bit embarrassed by how much of their food doesn’t really look like food.
On the page opposite these portraits is a list of the foods pictured and their cost (in US dollars), what if anything was raised by the family, and a list of facts about the community and country in which the family lives.
The facts include information such as how much residents of each country spends on health care (Mali spends $11/person, the US spends $6,096/person) and what the rate of diabetes is (Mali’s rate is 2.9% while the US is 8.8%), how many people in the country live on less than $2 a day, and in some cases, the ratio of animals to humans.
Once you can tear your eyes away from the portraits, there are short biographies of each family, describing daily food gathering and preparation (plus more good photos). You’re taken along on a seal hunt in Greenland and the three mile hike down a steep hill to the weekly market in Ecuador (and the even harder hike back home up hill with the week’s groceries). You can see the struggle of the older generations to hold onto their food traditions while the youngest generation begs for what the authors refer to as global marketplace food, i.e. McDonalds, KFC, and Coke.
There are even recipes for things like Greenlandic Seal Stew and Pigskin Jelly (which I probably won’t be making anytime soon), all of which use simple techniques and local available ingredients. For those of us who don’t have a ready source for quandong, pig’s knuckles or pimento berries, there’s a note in the beginning of the book with substitutions.
Interspersed throughout the book are charts and graphs relating to global food consumption. These are laid out on two-page spreads, one chart per page, and are obviously selected for the interesting comparisons they make. For example, the chart that shows the number of McDonald’s restaurant in each country is opposite one showing the percentage of overweight and obese populations in those same countries. The take-home message is subtle but powerful.
This book fascinated me from beginning to end. I had never really thought about the fact that Greenland is below freezing 336 days of the year or what people might eat there to survive. I was amazed that 98% of the food in Kuwait is imported. I hadn’t realized how all pervasive corn flakes, ketchup and instant coffee are. I wanted to know more about each family; the brief peek into their lives was not enough.
As I read, I tried to imagine what my week’s worth of food would look like. I wanted to believe it was like the family in Guatemala, brimming with fresh fruits and vegetables with very little packaged fare, and not like Australia and Greenland which was predominated by meat and packaged refined foods. I’m guessing it would more closely match the family from France with its wide variety of mostly healthful food, some of packaged or prepared but with a good amount of fresh ingredients.
Once I found out there was another book to this series, I got on the library website and put a hold on it. I can’t wait to read more about the food lives of these families. Now I just have to make it past that first bookshelf without bringing too many other books home.
Vicki Reich reads and cooks in Sagle, Idaho. She wonders if she could bring herself to eat pig’s knuckles, fried seahorses, or cicadas on a stick, all of which were pictured in this book. She thinks she probably could if she was hunger enough. Could you? Let her know at wordomouth@yahoo.com.
“What the World Eats” written by Faith D’Aluisio and photographed by Peter Menzel is a look into the kitchens of the world (and a kid-focused follow-up to their 2005 book “Hungry Planet”). Twenty-five families from twenty-one countries share with readers a glimpse of what a weeks worth of food looks like for each household.
The families are photographed with all the food they eat in a week displayed before them. These portraits are fascinating on so many levels. The meager rations of a family in a Chad refugee camp compared to the calorie-rich but nutritionally deficient fast food diets of the US are startling. Fresh fruits and vegetables take up much of the photos from countries where the majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day. Those colorful photos look so much more appealing than the boxes and bags of processed food on the tables of developed countries.
The kitchens themselves command attention, from a rug laid on the ground next to small cooking fires in Chad, Mali and Ecuador to the large modern kitchen complete with stove, refrigerator, microwave, and servants in Kuwait.
And let’s not forget about the people. The families range in size from four to fifteen, many of them dressed in traditional clothing. Some are photographed in front of the family shrine whether it is a true place of worship or just their TV sets. Some are smiling and proud of the food they provide for their families while some look a bit embarrassed by how much of their food doesn’t really look like food.
On the page opposite these portraits is a list of the foods pictured and their cost (in US dollars), what if anything was raised by the family, and a list of facts about the community and country in which the family lives.
The facts include information such as how much residents of each country spends on health care (Mali spends $11/person, the US spends $6,096/person) and what the rate of diabetes is (Mali’s rate is 2.9% while the US is 8.8%), how many people in the country live on less than $2 a day, and in some cases, the ratio of animals to humans.
Once you can tear your eyes away from the portraits, there are short biographies of each family, describing daily food gathering and preparation (plus more good photos). You’re taken along on a seal hunt in Greenland and the three mile hike down a steep hill to the weekly market in Ecuador (and the even harder hike back home up hill with the week’s groceries). You can see the struggle of the older generations to hold onto their food traditions while the youngest generation begs for what the authors refer to as global marketplace food, i.e. McDonalds, KFC, and Coke.
There are even recipes for things like Greenlandic Seal Stew and Pigskin Jelly (which I probably won’t be making anytime soon), all of which use simple techniques and local available ingredients. For those of us who don’t have a ready source for quandong, pig’s knuckles or pimento berries, there’s a note in the beginning of the book with substitutions.
Interspersed throughout the book are charts and graphs relating to global food consumption. These are laid out on two-page spreads, one chart per page, and are obviously selected for the interesting comparisons they make. For example, the chart that shows the number of McDonald’s restaurant in each country is opposite one showing the percentage of overweight and obese populations in those same countries. The take-home message is subtle but powerful.
This book fascinated me from beginning to end. I had never really thought about the fact that Greenland is below freezing 336 days of the year or what people might eat there to survive. I was amazed that 98% of the food in Kuwait is imported. I hadn’t realized how all pervasive corn flakes, ketchup and instant coffee are. I wanted to know more about each family; the brief peek into their lives was not enough.
As I read, I tried to imagine what my week’s worth of food would look like. I wanted to believe it was like the family in Guatemala, brimming with fresh fruits and vegetables with very little packaged fare, and not like Australia and Greenland which was predominated by meat and packaged refined foods. I’m guessing it would more closely match the family from France with its wide variety of mostly healthful food, some of packaged or prepared but with a good amount of fresh ingredients.
Once I found out there was another book to this series, I got on the library website and put a hold on it. I can’t wait to read more about the food lives of these families. Now I just have to make it past that first bookshelf without bringing too many other books home.
Vicki Reich reads and cooks in Sagle, Idaho. She wonders if she could bring herself to eat pig’s knuckles, fried seahorses, or cicadas on a stick, all of which were pictured in this book. She thinks she probably could if she was hunger enough. Could you? Let her know at wordomouth@yahoo.com.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
25 Random Things
I joined Facebook about a month ago (if you are not yet on it beware; it is the biggest time sucker since computer solitaire). It’s been fun and weird to see what has become of all my old high school and college friends. Lately, there’s been this flurry of notes, kind of like a chain letter. A friend sends you (and 24 other friends) a list of 25 random things you might not know about them. You’re supposed to compose your own list and send it back to them (plus sending it to 24 more friends). They are mostly fun to read; finding out your hippie friend was once a cheerleader is always entertaining.
I’ve wanted to send out my own list but can’t think of enough interesting things about myself that I haven’t already revealed to anyone who’d listen. However, while trying to think of a topic for this week’s article, it hit me that I know at least 25 random and interesting things about food, so here’s my list:
1. The two most expensive spices come from flowers. Saffron is the stigma of a crocus and is by far the most expensive and labor-intensive spice out there. It takes 70,000 flowers to make 1 lb of the fine dried threads. They are used for both their flavor and color, both of which diminish in the presence of light and heat, so store them in an airtight container in the freezer. The second most expensive spice is vanilla, which is the dried fruit pod of an orchid. The orchids are hand pollinated and the pods go through a lengthy processing and cure for months before they taste anything like vanilla. It takes 5 lbs of green pods to make 1 lb of vanilla beans.
2. The reasons the edges of blueberries turn green in muffins is because there was too much baking soda added to the mix. The alkaline environment reacts with pigments in the skin turning them green.
3. Cream of tartar is “harvested” from the inside of wine vats, or at least the tartaric acid comes from there and is then mixed with potassium hydroxide to make this slightly acidic baking aid. Add it to egg whites to get better volume when whipping up some meringue or use it the next time you make candy for a creamier mouth feel.
4. Honey never goes bad. It might crystallize (which you can fix by warming it slightly until the crystals dissolve) but it will stay sweet and tasty as long as you live. Archeologists found edible honey in Tut’s tomb.
5. There are over 15,000 varieties of rice.
6. There are three plants referred to as Bergamot (mentha citrate, monarda didyma, Citrus aurantium ssp. Bergamia). All three are used in making tea but only the oil from the citrus fruit Bergamot Orange is used to flavor Earl Grey tea.
7. Caffeine can kill you. That is, if you drink 100 cups of coffee in less than 4 hours (I’m not sure I could get that much down between all those trips to the bathroom).
8. The grossest part of drinking milk from cows treated with the genetically engineered hormone rBST isn’t the fact that you’re consuming the hormone or extra antibiotics but the fact that treated cows are very prone to mastitis which results in lots of extra pus in the milk. Yuck. Drink and eat organic dairy products to avoid this.
9. Tomatoes got a rough start in the culinary world. Before humans started to cultivate them, they were small and bitter, not the juicy, red orbs we know and love today. When they were brought to Europe, tomatoes were considered poisonous and it took about 500 years for them to gain acceptance and only if they were boiled for hours. Luckily we came to our senses. In the US alone, we eat 22 pounds per person per year. Unfortunately, it’s mostly in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce, not fresh and warm from the garden.
10. The first soup was thought to be made 6000 years ago out of hippo bones
11. The best thing to put out the fire of hot chili peppers is milk or some kind of dairy product. Just make sure it’s organic (see #8). And it’s really only a temporary relief; you may just have to wait the fire out.
12. Hop plants are related to marijuana and hemp.
13. When eating spaghetti, if you wind the strands all the way onto your fork, you’re more likely to get sauce on your shirt. Sauce on the last four inches of the strand can accelerate up to 9ft/sec as those ends come out of the sauce and onto your fork.
14. Mussels can live to be 50 years old, but most of the ones we eat are much younger.
15. Eating cheese at the end of a meal may help prevent tooth decay. Plus it’s a delicious dessert.
16. Back in the days that soldiers carried shields, they used them as cooking implements when they weren’t being used to deflecting body blows. They would even bake flat bread in them.
17. Some psychologists believe we eat hot chilies not because we enjoy the burn but for the pleasure we get from chemicals our brain produces to relieve the pain.
18. It makes no sense to call food grown with the aid of manmade chemicals “conventional” food. Growing food with manmade pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer has certainly not been the convention for very long. It’s been less than 100 years that we’ve used chemicals to grow our food. Before that everything was “organic”. Why isn’t organic food the convention?
19. The botanical definition of fruits and vegetables is much different from the culinary definition. Not only are tomatoes considered a fruit in the botanical world but so are green beans, eggplant, cucumbers and corn. Botanists consider anything that develops from a flower’s ovaries and surrounds the plant’s seeds a fruit. The culinary definition is based on taste and when in the meal we eat them. If it’s sweet and we usually eat it for dessert, it’s a fruit. If it’s usually a side dish or main course, it’s a vegetable.
20. We use herbs and spices because 10,000 years ago we got really bored with our new agrarian diet. As hunter gatherers, we were used to keeping track of hundreds of different tastes and smells so we wouldn’t eat anything that might kill us. When we started living off of wheat, barley, rice and corn our taste buds and olfactory senses missed the diversity, so we started experimenting with herbs and spices to make food more interesting. We’re still at it.
21. The blue color of poppy seeds is an optical illusion. The seed casing is actually brown but there is a coating of tiny crystals of calcium oxalate over the casing that acts as prisms, reflecting blue wavelengths to our eye.
22. The word pumpernickel derives from two German dialect words meaning fart and devil. Not surprising. It is a high fiber bread after all.
23. Less than 4% of salt produced each year goes into food; hard to believe after eating a bowl of canned soup.
And for dessert:
24. Ice cream headaches are caused when a nerve center in the roof of your mouth overreacts to the cold of the ice cream and causes blood vessels to quickly dilate in your head in an effort to warm up your brain.
25. And lastly this bit of personal trivia: I eat at least a small bite of dark chocolate everyday. For health reasons, of course.
I’ve wanted to send out my own list but can’t think of enough interesting things about myself that I haven’t already revealed to anyone who’d listen. However, while trying to think of a topic for this week’s article, it hit me that I know at least 25 random and interesting things about food, so here’s my list:
1. The two most expensive spices come from flowers. Saffron is the stigma of a crocus and is by far the most expensive and labor-intensive spice out there. It takes 70,000 flowers to make 1 lb of the fine dried threads. They are used for both their flavor and color, both of which diminish in the presence of light and heat, so store them in an airtight container in the freezer. The second most expensive spice is vanilla, which is the dried fruit pod of an orchid. The orchids are hand pollinated and the pods go through a lengthy processing and cure for months before they taste anything like vanilla. It takes 5 lbs of green pods to make 1 lb of vanilla beans.
2. The reasons the edges of blueberries turn green in muffins is because there was too much baking soda added to the mix. The alkaline environment reacts with pigments in the skin turning them green.
3. Cream of tartar is “harvested” from the inside of wine vats, or at least the tartaric acid comes from there and is then mixed with potassium hydroxide to make this slightly acidic baking aid. Add it to egg whites to get better volume when whipping up some meringue or use it the next time you make candy for a creamier mouth feel.
4. Honey never goes bad. It might crystallize (which you can fix by warming it slightly until the crystals dissolve) but it will stay sweet and tasty as long as you live. Archeologists found edible honey in Tut’s tomb.
5. There are over 15,000 varieties of rice.
6. There are three plants referred to as Bergamot (mentha citrate, monarda didyma, Citrus aurantium ssp. Bergamia). All three are used in making tea but only the oil from the citrus fruit Bergamot Orange is used to flavor Earl Grey tea.
7. Caffeine can kill you. That is, if you drink 100 cups of coffee in less than 4 hours (I’m not sure I could get that much down between all those trips to the bathroom).
8. The grossest part of drinking milk from cows treated with the genetically engineered hormone rBST isn’t the fact that you’re consuming the hormone or extra antibiotics but the fact that treated cows are very prone to mastitis which results in lots of extra pus in the milk. Yuck. Drink and eat organic dairy products to avoid this.
9. Tomatoes got a rough start in the culinary world. Before humans started to cultivate them, they were small and bitter, not the juicy, red orbs we know and love today. When they were brought to Europe, tomatoes were considered poisonous and it took about 500 years for them to gain acceptance and only if they were boiled for hours. Luckily we came to our senses. In the US alone, we eat 22 pounds per person per year. Unfortunately, it’s mostly in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce, not fresh and warm from the garden.
10. The first soup was thought to be made 6000 years ago out of hippo bones
11. The best thing to put out the fire of hot chili peppers is milk or some kind of dairy product. Just make sure it’s organic (see #8). And it’s really only a temporary relief; you may just have to wait the fire out.
12. Hop plants are related to marijuana and hemp.
13. When eating spaghetti, if you wind the strands all the way onto your fork, you’re more likely to get sauce on your shirt. Sauce on the last four inches of the strand can accelerate up to 9ft/sec as those ends come out of the sauce and onto your fork.
14. Mussels can live to be 50 years old, but most of the ones we eat are much younger.
15. Eating cheese at the end of a meal may help prevent tooth decay. Plus it’s a delicious dessert.
16. Back in the days that soldiers carried shields, they used them as cooking implements when they weren’t being used to deflecting body blows. They would even bake flat bread in them.
17. Some psychologists believe we eat hot chilies not because we enjoy the burn but for the pleasure we get from chemicals our brain produces to relieve the pain.
18. It makes no sense to call food grown with the aid of manmade chemicals “conventional” food. Growing food with manmade pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer has certainly not been the convention for very long. It’s been less than 100 years that we’ve used chemicals to grow our food. Before that everything was “organic”. Why isn’t organic food the convention?
19. The botanical definition of fruits and vegetables is much different from the culinary definition. Not only are tomatoes considered a fruit in the botanical world but so are green beans, eggplant, cucumbers and corn. Botanists consider anything that develops from a flower’s ovaries and surrounds the plant’s seeds a fruit. The culinary definition is based on taste and when in the meal we eat them. If it’s sweet and we usually eat it for dessert, it’s a fruit. If it’s usually a side dish or main course, it’s a vegetable.
20. We use herbs and spices because 10,000 years ago we got really bored with our new agrarian diet. As hunter gatherers, we were used to keeping track of hundreds of different tastes and smells so we wouldn’t eat anything that might kill us. When we started living off of wheat, barley, rice and corn our taste buds and olfactory senses missed the diversity, so we started experimenting with herbs and spices to make food more interesting. We’re still at it.
21. The blue color of poppy seeds is an optical illusion. The seed casing is actually brown but there is a coating of tiny crystals of calcium oxalate over the casing that acts as prisms, reflecting blue wavelengths to our eye.
22. The word pumpernickel derives from two German dialect words meaning fart and devil. Not surprising. It is a high fiber bread after all.
23. Less than 4% of salt produced each year goes into food; hard to believe after eating a bowl of canned soup.
And for dessert:
24. Ice cream headaches are caused when a nerve center in the roof of your mouth overreacts to the cold of the ice cream and causes blood vessels to quickly dilate in your head in an effort to warm up your brain.
25. And lastly this bit of personal trivia: I eat at least a small bite of dark chocolate everyday. For health reasons, of course.
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