My 2010 Reading List

I do not remember why I started keeping track of my reading list at the beginning of 2010. I think it must have been because I was trying to revive my blog, and it was something trifling, but possibly mildly interesting, that I could add to the sidebar to take up space. At the time, I was also reading voraciously, so I assumed there would be plenty of occasions to update the list. I was right ... for a while. But then spring came, and I found that reading time had to be curtailed to make room for gardening time. The gardening-related lull lasted pretty much all through spring, summer, and fall. At year’s end, I have only read 24 books, a little less than one every two weeks.

So, here is the list:

1. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
2. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
6. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
8. The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. Wish You Well by David Baldacci
10. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
11. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace
12. The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill
13. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
14. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
15. To Serve Them All My Days by R. F. Delderfield
16. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
17. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
18. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
19. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling
20. The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
21. A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
22. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
23. North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
24. Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

The Stats

Books Read	24
Rate	1 book every 15.21 days
Type	96% fiction / 4% memoir
Nationality	71% American / 25% British / 4% French
Re-reads	10 (42%); mostly due to the Little House series
Most Read Author	Laura Ingalls Wilder
Also Saw the Movie	4

The Superlatives

Longest
The Count of Monte Cristo
Also my first iBook! And as an iBook, it was a little difficult to grasp its length; you cannot pick up the book and see its thickness or feel its weight. The “number of pages” varies depending on the font face and size, and also the page orientation (portrait or landscape). As I read it, it was 3278 pages.

Most Surprising
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Of course I had seen the movie before I read the book, so I already knew the basic story. Somehow, though, the book was just not what I was expecting. It was ... really good. To top things off, I found out that Lew Wallace was a Union general during the Civil War. Surprising, indeed. Who would have expected a Civil War general would write such an intriguing book set in the time of Christ? Apparently literary critics find fault with the book, but who cares what they say? I would definitely recommend it, and other readers seem to agree; since its first publication, Ben-Hur has never been out of print.

Funniest
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home
This book was laugh-out-loud funny. I know that does not mean much coming from me, considering I laugh out loud at seemingly nothing. Nonetheless, I am quite sure that others could also appreciate the humor. In particular, other Mennonites are likely to identify with the little tidbits of Mennonite culture throughout the book. And we Mennonites are very good at laughing at ourselves, are we not? We must be, or else the storyline (woman’s husband leaves her for a man; woman returns home to Mennonite family) would not make for a very good comedy.

Most Random
The Sherwood Ring
Yes, I am guilty of judging a book by its cover. How else are you supposed to pick something to buy out of the loads of cheap books at the Green Valley Book Fair? So, this book was chosen at random, where random equals “I like the way it looks.” (Interestingly enough, that is the same way I select bottles of wine.) It was not the best book I have ever read, but it was enjoyable. (Funny ... that’s usually how I feel about random bottles of wine too.)

Most Similar Plots
The Count of Monte Cristo and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Here’s the plot summary for both books:

Man is happy and prosperous.
Man is falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned.
Man escapes.
Man acquires great wealth.
Man exacts revenge on those who wronged him.
Man is reunited with loved ones.

I noticed the similarity of these two books before I read on Wikipedia that Lew Wallace had been inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo. (Aren’t I clever?) Anyway, what’s not to love about a good-versus-evil plot with a happy ending?

Best-represented in Movie
North and South
Actually, in this case, it was a miniseries from the BBC, released in 2004, and starring Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage. I’m not saying that it was the best movie, but that the movie was the most like the book. The other movies/miniseries that I watched all had substantial points of variation. Ben-Hur (1959 version starring Charlton Heston) and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 version starring James Caviezel) both left out major characters and significant parts of the story. To Serve Them All My Days, another miniseries from the BBC (1980, starring John Duttine), was pretty faithful to the book, with very few major deviations. North and South wins this category simply because it had few variations, and they were all minor.

Side Note: I feel somewhat guilty because I watched the North and South miniseries before I read the book. Why? I blame Richard Armitage. If he was not so devilishly handsome, I might have found something else to watch on Netflix. In any case, you should do as I say, and not as I do. Read the book before watching the movie.

Most Tear-jerking
Wish You Well
This was a tough category because there were so many contenders. Either I happen to read lots of happy/sad (yes, I will cry either way) books, or I’m just a waterworks. I decided on Wish You Well because it has such a touching story. Yes, the plot is a teensy bit predictable, but ... Oh, cheeseball! I’m just a sucker for a happy ending.

Most Favoritest
Are you kidding? Picking a favorite book is like picking a favorite flavor of ice cream. It just cannot be done. Even from a list with so few choices!

The Snowy Sidewalks of Harrisonburg

After work last night, I walked to Red Front and then home. The sidewalks were atrocious! I was willing to condone their condition considering it had been snowing nearly all day. Perhaps folks had not yet had time to clear the sidewalks. (Kudos to Waterman Elementary, at least; there was someone working on snow removal as I walked by.)

When I was walking to work this morning, it had been at least 17 hours since the snow had stopped coming down. With that much time to remove approximately four inches of snow, I expected sidewalk conditions to be much better than they were last night.

I was disappointed. Snow removal on sidewalks in Harrisonburg really is quite pathetic. Below are my completely unscientific grades for sidewalk conditions for various downtown locations at 9:00 this morning.

Auto Zone: D
Blue Ridge Florist: A
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church: B+
Colonnade Apartments: F
Court House (53 Court Square): A-
Court House (Old Post Office): A-
Court Square: B+
Fire Station on Rock Street: B-
Jail: A-
Kline's/Post Office/Dollar General Area: C
One Court Square: F
WHSV: A

Other downtown locations that deserve bad grades are not on that list because I did not walk on their sidewalks. I picked the path where sidewalks were clearest. The only two places in the list above where I did not walk are Blue Ridge Florist and One Court Square; they made the list because, from a distance, they stood out as particularly good and bad respectively.

As a frequent walker of the sidewalks of Harrisonburg, I say ... bah!

Post-Work Addendum
The sidewalks have greatly improved since this morning. Below are the revised grades as of 4:00 this afternoon.

Auto Zone: B
Blue Ridge Florist: A
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church: A
Colonnade Apartments: B
Court House (53 Court Square): A
Court House (Old Post Office): A
Court Square: A
Fire Station on Rock Street: A
Jail: A
Kline's/Post Office/Dollar General Area: A-
One Court Square: C
WHSV: A

Wisdom from the Muppets

Today I had The Muppets Take Manhattan playing while I cleaned the house and did the laundry. It's not the best Muppet movie, but it reminded me: I love the Muppets! Here are some snippets I particularly enjoyed ...

Kermit: It's not often that a frog and a bear and a pig and a chicken and a whatever even get accepted into college.

Martin Price: You know what? I smell something.
(Everyone sniffs and turns to face Rowlf)
Rowlf: Why does everyone always blame dogs?

Martin Price: Get back, or the chicken gets it.
Police officer: That's a threat?

Rizzo (to Jenny): You can take the weirdos at table four.
Gonzo (at table four): Which one do you think is table four?

Pete: So, peoples is peoples, okay?

Kermit: For the next part of my plan, I have to look older, so I'm going to grow a mustache.

Miss Piggy: Pigs don't have eyebrows.

Fozzie: I love it out here in the woods. It's where a bear should be.

Ronnie Crawford: I told you. I want to do something different.
Bernard Crawford: So put some Jell-O down your pants.

Janice: Look, buddy, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is artistic.

Miss Piggy: You are Kermit the Frog, and you love me. You want to marry me. You want to have children with me.
Kermit: With you? In love with a pig? Ha ha! Wait till I tell the guys in marketing. Ha ha ha! Maybe you expect me to go hog-wild? Ha ha ha! Maybe, perhaps you could bring home the bacon, huh? Ha ha ha! Oh, the sounds of love. Soo-EY! Oink! Oink! Ha ha ha!

(Singing)
Miss Piggy: Somebody get a sweet negligee 'cause somebody's getting married today.
Swedish Chef: Wedding, wedding. Pig and froggy wedding.

Geekery Meets Housework

I was doing pretty good keeping up with my weekly blogging until about two months ago. That’s when spring struck! The grass awoke from its winter slumber. The weeds resumed their vigilant battle to make my yard into an eyesore. The rosebushes made their pleas for attention with leafy new shoots in reds, greens, and greys, and showy flowers in pinks, purples, apricots, and whites. How can I find time to write when there is grass to mow and weeds to pull and roses to prune and vegetables to plant and more weeds to pull and watering to be done and ... ?

So, the food blogging is just going to have to slide a little to make for time for chores.

Ugh. Chores.

For the last few months I’ve been experimenting with a little bit of geekery introduced to me by a friend from work: www.chorewars.com. It’s basically a website that allows a family to track household chores. What’s geeky about it is that it’s done in the style of Dungeons and Dragons, the epitome of geekdom. You set up a party for your house or office, and the characters in your party gain experience points (XP) for completing tasks. As in D&D, characters have a character class (fighter, ranger, wizard, etc.) and level up by gaining more XP. Characters also have ability stats for Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom. If you’re familiar with D&D, you get the picture.

Here’s my character:

I named her Veilchenblau after one of the rosebushes in my yard. If you click on the image you can see my character details, including the chores I've completed recently. You can also check out my entire party.

I suppose the idea is to create competition between members of your household so that everyone is motivated to finish more housework. That doesn’t really apply to me because I’m not really competing with anyone. However, I found Chore Wars to be useful anyway. It’s at least somewhat motivating when I can see that the last time I watered the plants was two weeks ago. In fact, I’ve learned a lot about my housework habits. My most common task is doing the laundry, which is completed, on average, once every 2.5 days. Preparing meals would far surpass laundry except that I have it divided out by meal, and I don’t take credit for meals like cereal or reheated leftovers. Other interesting tidbits:

• I miss trash day every other week. (Monday mornings are so hard!)
• I usually bake about once every 1.9 weeks.
• Mom is most likely to help out in a food-related capacity. Dad usually does outdoor stuff.
• I use the dishwasher 3.9 times more often than I wash dishes by hand.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say about that. Besides, it’s been six days since I did a load of laundry, and that probably means I’m getting behind. Happy housekeeping to you!

Steel Cut Oats

Week: 14
Ingredient: Steel Cut Oats
From: Martin's, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Oatmeal

I am not in to health food. At least, not in the I’m going to eat this food that doesn’t taste good because it provides such and such health benefit sense. That’s why I was a little skeptical of steel cut oats at first. My impression was that they were just another health food fad. However, several of my friends have told me how great steel cut oats are, so I figured it was time to give them a try. An oatmeal taste test, steel cut versus rolled oats, seemed appropriate.

I bought some steel cut oats, and to my surprise, the nutritional information was identical to the nutritional information for the rolled oats I already had at home. Health food? Ha! At least not any more than regular rolled oats (which really are quite good for you). Wikipedia did say that “steel-cut oats may have a lower glycemic index than instant oatmeal,” but I was comparing them to old fashioned oats, not instant, so I’m not sure if that still holds true or not.

I made both oatmeals according to package directions. The only notable difference in the cooking directions was that the steel cut oats needed 10-20 minutes to cook while the rolled oats needed only 5. (Do old fashioned oats really only take 5 minutes to cook? Or is it possible my oats were mislabeled and really were quick oats? Sometimes you can’t be sure when you buy the store brand ...)

Conclusion: It seems to me that the differences between steel cut oats and rolled oats are kind of like the differences between brown rice and white rice: nutrition, cooking time, flavor, and texture. Only, with the oats the variations are smaller than with brown and white rice. The one exception is the texture. While I didn’t note much difference in flavor between the steel cut and rolled oats, the difference in texture was significant. The rolled oats made oatmeal that was ... like oatmeal. (How else can I describe it?) The steel cut oatmeal had a little more bite to it; it could almost be called chewy. It kind of reminded me of buckwheat. Anyway, I liked it. I won’t be replacing all my rolled oats with steel cut oats, but they will find a place in my pantry. And, like brown and white rice, I will find uses for both kinds of oats at different times.

Pearl Sugar

Week: 13
Ingredient: Swedish Pearl Sugar
From: King Arthur Flour
Recipe: Liège Waffles¹

Until about a year ago, I liked waffles. Then I had a life-changing experience. It was one of those fateful days, when a series of circumstances were laid out in front of me such that there were no decisions to be made. All I could do was follow the single course of action as it was revealed. Unaware of the magnitude of the events taking place, I followed that course to its inevitable conclusion: I love waffles.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I was not going to let the waffle iron Danny gave me for Christmas (or was it my birthday?) go to waste. Or was I? In fact, that waffle iron sat untouched for years (no more than three) in my pantry. Then it finally saw the light of day ... when I removed it from the pantry to pack up for the move to my new house. Once unpacked, the waffle iron found a new home in a new closet ... where it sat for a few more years (no less than three).

I still remember the Saturday morning when it happened. I was watching Food Network (as I often do on Saturday mornings), and I was hungry (as I often am when I am watching Food Network). Sometimes all the shows on Saturday morning follow a theme, and the theme that day was breakfast. As I watched the Food Network chefs cook bacon and French toast and hash and eggs and so much more, I lamented the fact that my own kitchen was so poorly stocked—no meat, no potatoes, no bread, no cheese, no fresh fruit—no way to make any of the delicious things I was seeing on TV. I resorted to perusing Joy of Cooking² (another frequent pastime) in the hopes of finding some breakfast food that could be made with only the barest essentials from my pantry and refrigerator. That’s when I discovered waffles.

Maybe “discovered” is not the right word. It is not like this was the first time I had ever eaten a waffle. But this time was different. Somehow the simplest ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and milk) combined into a masterpiece. It was love at first bite. I didn’t even bother with a plate. Or a fork. The only reason I did not eat straight out of the iron was that I put one waffle on a cooling rack just long enough to get the next waffle started. After three waffles, I realized I had eaten the equivalent of half a stick of butter. That almost didn’t stop me, but in the end, prudence won out, and I saved the rest of the waffles for later.

For a few months after that, waffles became regular fare at my house. I experimented with other flours, different recipes, and I even used a plate and fork when I experimented with different fruit toppings.

Of course my waffle pursuits also included some internet research. That is how I learned about Gaufres de Liège (Liège waffles). Liège waffles are yeast-raised waffles with added pearl sugar which caramelizes as the waffles bake. I have never been to Belgium for the real thing, but they pretty much had me at “caramelized sugar.” I had to try them.

Pearl sugar was not the easiest thing to find, but that is only because I did not try the internet first. I ordered some from King Arthur Flour (along with a bunch of other fabulous ingredients), and when it arrived I was surprised at how small the “pearls” were. I do not know where I got this idea, but I was expecting something approximately the size of a peppercorn. It was actually a little smaller and looked a lot like pretzel salt.

Well, I made Liège waffles. As with most yeast-raised dough, they took a while to make, but they were not difficult. I did make a sticky mess because I tried to work the dough by hand. In hindsight, I should have spooned the dough into the waffle iron. Nonetheless, the waffles came out nice and golden-brown. However, I was quite disappointed that the sugar did not caramelize. (That was, after all, the selling point for me to try Liège waffles!) Without the caramelization, they were essentially really sweet waffles. They had a slightly yeasty flavor and a chewy texture—kind of like a soft pretzel but sweet instead of salty. Not quite what I was hoping for, but far from terrible.

Conclusion: Pearl sugar probably needs a higher temperature to caramelize properly. I might be out of luck when it comes to Liège waffles because my waffle iron does not have an adjustable temperature. On the other hand, sugar that does not melt so easily is perfect for sprinkling on top of baked goods. I might try to make Liège waffles again, but if I have similar results, I will save the rest of the pearl sugar for other uses.

¹I found the recipe for Liège Waffles months ago somewhere on the internet and printed it out. I never imagined that I would have cause to use the link again, and, Google as I may, now I cannot find the same recipe. So, my apologies for not citing my source correctly. Thank you, unknown sharer of recipes on the internet.

²Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, & Ethan Becker, Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary ed. (New York: Scribner, 2006), 71, 646-647.

Quail Eggs, Part Two

Week: 12
Ingredient: Quail Eggs
From: Great Wall Supermarket, Falls Church, VA
Recipe: Deviled Quail Eggs

My first quail egg adventure left me with a dozen eggs. After seeing the incredible cuteness of the quail eggs as Lowell Eggs (quite a feat considering the brownish color imparted by the sausage drippings), I wanted to make something even more adorable: a plate full of teeny tiny deviled eggs. I found a recipe online, and whipped up a quick batch.

They looked exactly as I had pictured they would—absolutely darling. I can just imagine a bunch of ladies oooing and ahhing over them at a baby shower. Unfortunately the flavor was a little on the boring side. I was hoping the fresh chives would enhance the flavor, but they turned out flat-tasting. I was a bit disappointed. (Next time I will use my own recipe.)

Conclusion: I do not have much to add to my prior conclusion about quail eggs. As far as I could tell, they tasted pretty much like chicken eggs. To me, the primary reason to use them is presentation. Somehow being miniature equates with being special, and there is an instant wow-factor. Maybe little and cute isn’t your thing, so I will leave you to make what you will of this list of purported benefits, straight from the package:¹

Rejuvenate whole body regardless of age
Depress allergy symptoms
Enhance sexual potential
Improve heart functioning
Lower arterial blood pressure
Improves digestion and gastric acidity
Improve memory
Have positive impact on children’s growth
Lower and stabilize blood sugar level

¹There was very little identification on the package, so I can only cite the distributor: QPL-LLC.

Quail Eggs, Part One

Week: 12
Ingredient: Quail Eggs
From: Great Wall Supermarket, Falls Church, VA
Recipe: Lowell Eggs

As I considered what to do with this week’s ingredient, I thought about all my favorite ways to eat eggs. Of course, eggs are important components in many things—cakes, custards, meatballs, and on and on. But I was thinking about dishes where the egg is the star. It is hard to imagine a place where eggs are more of a star than in their traditional place on an American breakfast plate.

When it comes to your basic breakfast eggs, I typically opt for scrambled. When I was growing up, the rest of my family seemed to prefer fried eggs to scrambled eggs. But not me. In fact, I think I even went through a phase where I did not like fried eggs at all. It was something about the yolk—I didn’t like it firm, I didn’t like it runny, and I didn’t like it anywhere in between either. Fortunately, I grew out of that, but my preference is still for scrambled eggs.

To cook quail eggs for the first time, scrambling just seemed wrong. I did not want to lose the integrity of the egg’s structure; white and yolk should remain separate. So, I decided it would have to be fried eggs. But not just any fried eggs—Lowell Eggs.

Lowell Eggs?

I have many fond memories of trips to North Carolina as a kid. Some of my family lived there, and we would visit from time to time. There was always plenty of good food to eat (especially the barbecue from Parker’s), but one of my most vivid food memories is watching my Great Uncle Lowell cook eggs. He did not cook eggs the way Mom did, and it made an impression on my brother and me. We dubbed them Lowell Eggs, and here is the recipe ...

Lowell Eggs

Ingredients

• Sausage, not low-fat
• Eggs

Preparation

1. Fry the sausage.
2. Remove the sausage from the pan.
3. Fry the eggs in the sausage fat left in the pan.
4. Serve with salt and pepper.

That’s it. I absolutely cannot imagine a better fried egg, so that is the way I decided to fry my quail eggs. For authenticity, it would have been nice to use some of the big, fat, spicy, delicious sausage links we often get in North Carolina. However, there was no time for a road trip, so I settled for some local-ish (made in Virginia) bulk sausage I found at Kroger (which was quite good). As the sausage fried, it filled my house with an oh-so-enticing aroma (which was not-so-enticing when it lingered in my house the next day). The tiny quail eggs cooked very quickly in the hot fat, and took on the savory flavor of the sausage. Classic Lowell Eggs ... in miniature!

Conclusion: The quail variation of Lowell Eggs was delicious, but other than the tiny size, I could not discern much difference from the standard chicken egg version. Maybe that can be blamed on the wonderful sausagey flavor, or perhaps a side-by-side taste test would have made flavor differences more obvious. A slight disadvantage of quail eggs is that you have to cook so many, but the speed at which they cook pretty much makes up for that. In the end, quail eggs have the advantage of being absolutely adorable, and that is enough reason for me to use them again.

The Black Cocoa Experiment

Week: 11
Ingredient: Black Cocoa
From: King Arthur Flour
Recipe: Dark Chocolate Shortbread

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

I always get excited about holidays that give an excuse to eat something special. Therefore, I find it a little strange that I have never celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day with an Irish feast. Mmm ... colcannon and soda bread and ... Guinness? OK. I admit I do not know much about Irish cuisine. Unfortunately Saint Patrick’s Day crept up on me this year, and there was no time to plan an Irish meal. So, I decided to settle for something (at least semi-) Celtic.

The first element of my (at least semi-) Celtic adventure was a shortbread mold decorated with Celtic knots. It arrived last week in a very exciting package from King Arthur Flour. I did not order it with Saint Patrick’s Day in mind, so the Celtic design was a happy coincidence. And what do you do with a shortbread mold but make shortbread? Shortbread is typically regarded as Scottish, and Scotland is a Celtic nation, so that was a happy coincidence as well. But how could I make shortbread adventurous?

The not-so-Celtic part of my adventure also arrived in the very exciting package from King Arthur Flour: black cocoa. According to its package, black cocoa “will make the darkest chocolate cake or cookies you’ve ever seen.” I like dark chocolate, so dark chocolate shortbread seemed like a good idea. And to make a good idea even better, I decided to turn this into an experiment. I would make two batches of shortbread: one with regular cocoa and one with black cocoa. That way I could really see what a difference the black cocoa makes.

See for yourself:

I was pretty astonished at the difference between the two shortbreads. When I looked at the regular cocoa shortbread on its own, it looked very chocolaty, but placed beside the black cocoa shortbread, it looked kind of weak. In addition to the difference in appearance, the shortbreads differed in texture. The black cocoa produced a soft shortbread while the regular cocoa shortbread was crumblier. What was most astonishing, however, was the taste. You would expect something that dark to be intensely chocolaty, but that was not the case. In fact, I would not even say the black cocoa had a stronger flavor; it was just different. The regular cocoa shortbread tasted like chocolate, and the black cocoa shortbread tasted like the cookie part of an Oreo. It pains me a little to compare my homemade confection to a mass-produced cookie, but that is the best way I can think to describe it. You can decide for yourself if an Oreo-like flavor is a good thing or a bad thing.

Conclusion: I really like the color the black cocoa lends, but I am not thrilled with its flavor. Because the black cocoa package warns that using it alone “will produce a very strong-flavored baked good,” I (more or less) heeded its advice and made my black cocoa shortbread with a 2:1 ratio of black cocoa to regular cocoa. In the future when I want the dark color of black cocoa, I will probably try a ratio more like 1:1 or 1:2.

Bonus: If I ever decide to embark on an adventure to unlock the secrets of the Oreo, I have a really good lead on what gives them that black color.

Calabaza Squash

Week: 10
Ingredient: Calabaza Squash
From: Martin's, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Mashed Winter Squash¹

Last time I went to the grocery store, I was in a hurry, so I decided to grab the first unusual thing that I could find. In the produce section, I found what looked like a small, tan-colored pumpkin. It was a calabaza squash. The truth is that I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about it. I made “Mashed Winter Squash,” more or less by the Joy of Cooking recipe,¹ and it was pretty much like any other winter squash. I would say its flavor is somewhere between butternut squash and pumpkin—squashy and slightly sweet. It takes a while to make, but that is only because of the cooking time; the prep is quick and easy. It makes a nice winter vegetable. And I mean “nice” in the completely-generic-positive-adjective kind of way.

After I made the mashed squash, I took the seeds and toasted them (also more or less by the Joy of Cooking recipe¹). They made a nutty, salty, crunchy, and wonderfully addicting snack. Also nice. But this time I mean “nice” in the one-word-phrase-said-with-heart sort of way. (Not quite the way Kevin Malone would say it, but something like that.) And if the delicious snack was not enough, there was also the good feeling I got from being so frugal ... (Mennonite?)

Conclusion: I would not go out of my way to find calabaza squash, but if it was available and priced the same as other squash varieties, I would use it again. My biggest takeaway from this experience is not to throw away squash seeds. If a squash (or more likely a pumpkin) has a good seed yield, it is definitely worth the effort to toast the seeds. What a delicious snack! Supposedly squash seeds are healthy too (but that’s probably before they are coated with oil and salt).

¹Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, & Ethan Becker, Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary ed. (New York: Scribner, 2006), 71, 308-309.

Toasted Coconut Marshmallows

Week: 9
Ingredient: Manischewitz Toasted Coconut Marshmallows
From: Martin's, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Toasted Coconut Rice Krispies Treats

I found this week’s ingredient in one of those seasonal displays at the grocery store. This one was for Passover. Beside the matzo and the gefilte fish, there were bags of Toasted Coconut Marshmallows. As far as I am concerned, marshmallows have approximately three uses:

1. S’mores
2. Hot chocolate
3. Rice Krispies Treats

So what exactly does one do with coconut-covered marshmallows?

And why in the world did I buy them? I must have been disobeying that classic rule (never shop for groceries when you are hungry) because even copious amounts of coconut—which I love—would not make me want to eat marshmallows plain. I see them as little fluffy pillows of sweet blandness. They are not bad—just boring. (Actually, I have heard that homemade marshmallows are unbelievably delicious compared to store-bought ones, but that is not really relevant in this case.) A covering of toasted coconut adds some flavor, but I do not think it is enough to elevate the marshmallow to an eat-out-of-the-bag snack.

Anyway, something made me buy them, and they have been sitting in my pantry taunting me with their mediocrity ever since. I had to do something with them just to get rid of them. Since I could use the whole bag quickly and easily by making Rice Krispies Treats, that is what I decided to do.

Whenever I make Rice Krispies Treats, I never follow a recipe, and I always add peanut butter. Without the peanut butter, I find the treats to be just like marshmallows—sweet and bland. I was hoping Toasted Coconut Rice Krispies Treats would have some flavor ...

... And they did, but I was still disappointed with the results. There just was not enough coconut. Or perhaps they needed an additional flavor, such as nuts or chocolate. That’s it—they needed nuts and chocolate! Oh yeah ... I’m thinking pecans and dark chocolate. Mmm ...

Conclusion: I could have made Toasted Coconut Rice Krispies Treats with regular marshmallows simply by adding toasted coconut. The special marshmallows were not necessary. However, if you have ever avoided marshmallows because you are suspicious of the source of the gelatin in them, Manischewitz marshmallows are for you. It tells you right there in the ingredient list that they are made with kosher fish gelatin. Yummy! Don’t you feel better knowing that?

A Birthday Cake for Danny ... with Arrowroot

Week: 8
Ingredient: Arrowroot Starch
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: White Chocolate Blueberry Pecan Cake

This week (well, it’s Monday, so actually last week) was very busy, and I nearly forgot about finding something new and different to cook. In fact, when my mom and I decided on Wednesday that I would take care of making a cake for my brother’s birthday party on Sunday, all my culinary scheming became focused on Danny’s cake.

In my family you get to request any kind of cake (or pie or ???) you want for your birthday. So, like a good sister, I texted Danny:

I'm making cake. Tell me what you want or you get surprise!!

Danny replied:

i would like a cake that incorporates blueberries, pecans, and white chocolate, and no cream cheese! unless that's a bad culinary idea.... you're the expert!

Hmmm ... not a combination I would have picked. White chocolate can be a tricky ingredient for blending. In small amounts, it has a delicate flavor that can easily be overwhelmed by other flavors (like regular chocolate). In large amounts, it is so sweet and rich that it needs to be balanced out with something light, fresh, and/or tart (like lemon). When I thought through Danny’s idea, I decided it had merit. There would need to be lots of white chocolate if I wanted its flavor to come through along with the blueberries and pecans. However, the pecans would help cut the sweetness, and the blueberries would add freshness. Piece of cake! Insert groan at bad pun here.

My mind took off, exploring possibilities long before I had a chance to look for recipes. When I finally had time to sit down and do some research, I went straight for The Cake Bible,¹ which has become my go-to resource for all things Cake. (For those of you who are not familiar with Rose Levy Beranbaum’s masterpiece, I will just say that it is not for the casual baker. Read the reviews on Amazon if you want to understand more.) The first component of the cake was obvious: “White Chocolate Whisper Cake.” “White Chocolate Mousseline Buttercream” and “Winter Blueberry Topping” followed close behind. I toyed with the idea of incorporating pecans into the cake batter or using one of the nut cake recipes, but I could not decide on anything that satisfied me. So, I decided to toast the pecans and use them as a garnish. Still, I was missing something. The cake, buttercream, topping, and nuts were not going to come together in perfect balance in the four-layer pièce de résistance I was dreaming up. It needed more ... blueberry.

Enter blueberry curd. A curd is an intensely-flavored fruit spread, topping, or filling. Lemon curd is the canonical curd, but other fruits can be made into curd as well. A four layer cake would require three fillings. Two of blueberry curd and one of white chocolate buttercream would make a lovely balance. None of my trusted recipe sources had recipes for blueberry curd, but I figured I could improvise on another curd recipe. The plan was complete.

The first thing I made was the curd. When it was finished cooking, I set it aside to cool and moved on to the cake itself. I measured carefully (by weight, not volume), painstakingly followed the instructions, monitored the oven temperature closely, and rotated my cake layers midway through cooking. They came out looking perfectly golden and perfectly level. Fantastic, I thought. A short break, and then on to the buttercream.

It was not to be. Before I moved on to the buttercream, I realized something had gone horribly awry. The blueberry curd was not thickening, and the cake layers had both sunk in the middle. There was no way I could make a four-layer cake out of two half-sunken layers and runny filling. Quel dommage!

I was able to salvage the sunken cake layers. I trimmed them into two 1-inch layers. However, I considered the blueberry curd a complete loss, and it is still in my refrigerator (and will probably be used as a pancake topping).

The buttercream came together like a dream, and I used that (mixed with some pecans) to fill the layers. I frosted the (2-layer) cake with buttercream (sans pecans), and coated the sides of the cake with pecans. I piped a border around the top and bottom, and spooned the “Winter Blueberry Topping” (which also came together quite nicely) on top.

It was not the cake I had envisioned, but if I had not told the story, no one would have known anything was amiss. It was quite delicious. There is really nothing like a quality cake, and despite its flaws, this one was top notch (if I may say so myself). All the butter and white chocolate in the cake and icing gave it a wonderful melt-in-your-mouth quality (plus a little crunch from the pecans). The flavors of the white chocolate and blueberries complemented each other. Danny, you chose well!

Conclusion: I have not mentioned arrowroot starch at all so far. It kind of feels like I cheated. “Winter Blueberry Topping” called for arrowroot OR cornstarch. I really could have used cornstarch (which I always have on hand), but I needed a way to fit some new ingredient into this cake adventure; there was no time for something else. So, I used arrowroot. Maybe in a side-by-side comparison I could tell a difference between arrowroot-thickened and cornstarch-thickened blueberry topping, but in this stand-alone instance, all I can say is that it worked. That hardly seems like an adequate synopsis, so I will leave you with Rose Levy Beranbaum’s probably-based-on-actual-experience opinion that “arrowroot is preferable to cornstarch because it adds sparkle.”

¹Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Cake Bible (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1988).

Macadamia Nuts

Week: 7
Ingredient: Macadamia Nuts
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Macadamia Coconut Tart

If you believe my past food experiences, the only way to eat macadamia nuts is in White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies. Of course, that is ridiculous. With the versatility of other nuts—almonds, walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts, to name a few—macadamias must be more than a one-hit wonder. So, when I decided to cook with macadamia nuts this week, my only goal was not to make White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.

My cookbooks were lacking in macadamia recipes, but the internet was quite accommodating. Most of the recipes I found seemed to follow a theme; if they did not include white chocolate, they had some tropical ingredient. Banana, coconut, pineapple, and citrus were all common. However, I did find some interesting oddballs, like Cream of Macadamia Nut Soup. Unfortunately, I did not have all the right ingredients to make that, so I opted for something more mainstream: Macadamia Coconut Tart.

If you took pecan pie, converted it into a tart, replaced the pecans with macadamia nuts, and added coconut, you would have Macadamia Coconut Tart. It is pretty simple—and delicious. Macadamia nuts are buttery on their own, and with all the butter in the tart, I experienced buttery bliss. With the delicate flavor of the nuts and coconut, keeping the ingredients simple was the right thing to do. Some brown sugar and vanilla rounded out the flavors nicely. I would definitely make the tart again.

Conclusion: Macadamia nuts are creamy, mild, and a little sweet. I tend to find lots of uses for different types of nuts, and I am sure macadamias will be the same. They are slightly more expensive than some other varieties, so I will not keep them on hand all the time. Still, I think they deserve a place in my nut repertoire—and not always beside white chocolate or a tropical ingredient.

Prunes

Week: 6
Ingredient: Prunes
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Chicken with Almonds and Prunes¹

Prunes have a bit of a ... reputation. The kind of reputation that makes 9-year-old boys laugh. I have to admit that I laughed quietly to myself when the grocery store worker scanned the big container of prunes I was purchasing. Eighteen ounces of prunes have a lot of fiber—enough fiber to create a potty-humor-worthy situation. I’m buying prunes, I thought to myself, and for a brief moment, I was amused by the type of funny that would normally elicit in me a roll of the eyes (accompanied by laughter, of course).

So, why prunes? As with many culinary adventures, it started with a recipe. In any cookbook, there is bound to be at least one recipe that catches my eye. In Classic Kosher Cooking, it was “Chicken with Almonds and Prunes.”¹ I cannot explain my draw to this dish unless it was its uniqueness; it was unlike anything I had ever cooked or eaten. The ingredients were all familiar but in a combination I do not think my mind would have ever dreamed up on its own. Prunes, to me, were the defining ingredient. I have childhood memories of eating prunes, but always straight from the container, never cooked. I guess I was intrigued (and probably hungry).

I followed the recipe to the letter. The chicken was seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, salt, and pepper. After sautéing some onions, I added the chicken and browned it. Prunes, orange juice, honey, and lemon juice were added, and then the dish was simmered until the chicken was cooked. Roasted almonds topped it, and I served it with plain white rice. In the end, I thought the dish was unremarkable. I liked the combination of flavors, but I found it to be too sweet. If I was going to make it again, I would replace some of the orange juice with chicken stock and cut back on the honey.

Mediocrity aside, I am so glad I tried this dish. The absolute best part of this whole thing was the fragrance that filled my kitchen while the chicken was browning. The aroma of onions and cinnamon cooking together was intoxicating. It reminded me of some strange cross between fresh, hot cinnamon rolls and Mom’s chicken and dumplings. Maybe that sounds gross, but I do not know how else to describe it. I can only tell you that the curious scent had me salivating and daydreaming of onions and cinnamon. In my mind, the flavors blended sublimely into dishes savory and delectable. There is no doubt that I will be pursuing this enticing flavor combination in cooking endeavors in the near future.

Conclusion: “Chicken with Almonds and Prunes” was not a huge hit, but that will not stop me from eating or cooking with prunes in the future. On the contrary, I feel like I have rediscovered an incredible food. I sampled a few uncooked prunes while I was preparing the dish, and they have a sweet, rich, fruity flavor. Delicious! Also, prunes are incredibly healthy; they are full of fiber, nutrients, and antioxidants. They make a far better snack than so many other foods I could keep in my pantry or desk drawer. It is no wonder that marketers have been trying to win back the public with an alternate moniker: dried plums. I wholly recommend prunes to anyone who is not deterred by the prune stigma. Just be sure to eat them in moderation lest you become the object of little boy humor.

¹Sara Finkel, Classic Kosher Cooking (Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press Inc., 1989), 80.

Chorizo

Week: 5
Ingredient: Chorizo
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Jalapeño Chorizo Tacos (improvised)

I have to confess that I was totally unprepared to try something new this week. I would have gone to the grocery store yesterday, but the approximately two feet of snow we got between Friday and Saturday thoroughly ruined any weekend plans I may have had. So, I was forced to get creative with what I had on hand.

Fortunately, a couple weeks ago I bought some chorizo. I have had chorizo a few times at Mexican restaurants, but I had never tried it at home. I remember that I did not really know what I was looking for when I bought this chorizo. If I had read the Wikipedia article on chorizo beforehand, I might have been prepared to face the many kinds of chorizo they had at the grocery store. Without that knowledge, I opted for the chorizo that looked the most natural. That ruled out the ones that looked like red hot dogs and the ones with less appealing ingredient lists. In the end I selected a smoked chorizo that came in two long links.

I do not remember why I had nearly a pound of fresh jalapeños in my refrigerator, but that was also fortunate. With some leftover tortillas, it was clear to me that I would make jalapeño chorizo tacos. And so I did.

You have heard those stories where someone asks her grandmother for a special recipe, right? And, of course, there is no recipe. Grandma just throws a little of this and a little of that together, does her magic, and it comes out right. Well, that is how it was with my jalapeño chorizo tacos. I cannot tell you how I did it, but they came out great. I promise I am not trying to brag here. I am no professional chef, and I make absolutely no claims that my tacos were authentic Mexican cuisine. No, what I am saying is that it was like I was on autopilot, and at the end, there were delicious tacos. I think that means, according to the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition, I am competent, and maybe even proficient, in at least some aspects of cooking. (Sorry. I just had to throw in a little geekery!)

Conclusion: Chorizo is full of fat, but what good sausage is not? It added a nice smokiness to my tacos, but its other flavors were somewhat masked by all the jalapeños and other seasonings I used. Nonetheless, I am sure it could add great flavor to many other dishes. I will definitely use chorizo again.

Pancetta

Week: 4
Ingredient: Pancetta
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Spicy Spaghetti with Fennel and Herbs

Food Network is the main reason I have cable. It is not the only channel I watch, but it is the one I would miss the most if it were gone. I do not regret all those hours—mouth-watering, hunger-inducing, experiment-inspiring hours—spent watching Alton Brown, Rachael Ray, and the others. I have learned so much about cooking and about food from them. How else would I ever have been inspired to try pancetta? Sure, maybe I would have stumbled across a recipe calling for pancetta someday, and maybe I would have cared enough to find out what it was and where to find it. But even then, would I have been willing to fork up $12 a pound for “Italian bacon,” as it is frequently described?

I have made recipes calling for pancetta before, but bacon always seemed like a reasonable substitute. I was not even sure I would be able to find pancetta in Harrisonburg. After all, the first time I went looking for hazelnuts, I tried at least three different stores before finally finding them (at Sharp Shopper, of all places!). Since Martin’s came to town, certain ingredients have been easier to find, and I have known for a while now that they carry pancetta in the deli.

When I found a recipe recently that was (1) spicy and (2) called for fennel, I was immediately attracted. I love both those things! I did not even notice the recipe called for pancetta until a week or so later when I was making my grocery list. The Food Network chefs must finally have gotten through to me because this time I decided to go for it. I came home from Martin’s with a fatty little spiral of pork (and a little bit of sticker shock), and I set out to cook ...

The Spicy Spaghetti with Fennel and Herbs recipe started with sautéing the pancetta. It is hard to beat the smell and taste of sautéed bacon, but the renown of the Italian meat, the high price tag, and the fat that would soon render its succulent gift—they all told me that I was about to experience some gastronomic phenomenon. The aroma of the sautéing pancetta did not disappoint. Though not smoky like bacon, the pancetta filled my house with a lovely scent—meaty with hints of spice.

I could not wait for the dish to be complete before sampling the pancetta. Once sautéed, I stole a little tidbit from the pan. It tasted ... salty. So salty, in fact, that I could discern little other flavor. However, the pancetta was for flavoring, not for eating alone, so I was unperturbed, and I finished up the recipe more or less as written, changing the amount of hot peppers (more for more spiciness!) and substituting Parmigiano-Reggiano for the Romano cheese.

Now, a short digression about fennel ... If you have never cooked with it, you really should give it a try. It is an aromatic vegetable with a pleasant anise- or licorice-like flavor. Do not be dismayed, all you haters of black jellybeans! I am with you there. However, I find that fennel as a vegetable has a much more subtle flavor than the licorice candy I eschew. Also, I think that fennel or anise is much more appealing as a savory flavor than a sweet one. If variety is the spice of life, having fennel in the arsenal is a great way to spice up that thing we all need more of in our diets: vegetables. Well, that is my two cents. You will have to decide for yourself.

Now, back to the dish at hand ... First impression: it did not look as pretty as the picture from the recipe. It was a little too dark in color. Maybe I over-browned the pancetta. Maybe my homemade chicken stock was too dark to use as the broth. Maybe the dish in the picture was prepared by a food stylist and was completely inedible. In any case, it smelled delicious, and I was not serving it for company, so the appearance was merely disappointing, not a disaster.

And what of the taste? It is hard to say what the predominant flavor was. They all complemented each other so well. The pasta was a perfect backdrop for all the other strong flavors. The fennel lent its aromatic punch. The chiles gave it a spicy kick. The cheese gave it a nice tang. The lemon and parsley balanced it out with some freshness. Oh yeah, and the pancetta ... The pancetta gave it a meaty richness. I don’t even know how to describe it. Pancetta tastes like it smells—meaty with hints of spice. So rich ... and porky ... and delicious. Insert contented sigh here.

Conclusion: Pancetta is certainly delicious, but it is not more delicious than bacon. I will use pancetta again in the future, but considering the price tag, I will stick with bacon for everyday use.

Capon

Week: 3
Ingredient: Capon
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Roast Capon (improvised)

Since I already described my failure to roast a capon, there is not much adventure left to relate. My actual capon roasting experience turned out to be just like roasting a hen, only bigger. So, here are my observations about roasting poultry in general …

1. I like my new roasting pan. It is heavy-duty and spacious enough for a big turkey. I especially like the sturdy handles; they make it easy to move the heavy pan + bird from the counter to oven and back. I can also use it on the stove—perfect for getting all the flavorful brown bits left in the pan into my gravy.
2. Rack ’em up. A roasting rack keeps the bird off the bottom of the pan and out of the juices. No more soggy bottom!
3. Rubbing a chicken with butter is weird. I know butter makes everything better, but how is rubbing a raw chicken with butter a good idea? Seriously! It never works right for me. I end up with as much butter on my hands as on the chicken, and the butter is spread over the chicken in randomly-placed lumps rather than an even coat. There are so many things that can go wrong: butter too cold, chicken too cold, hands too warm, chicken too wet, cook too impatient …. I do not want to stop buttering my chickens, but there must be a better way. Maybe brushing melted butter on the chicken is the way to go. Another option would be to make a lovely compound butter, chill it well, slice it thinly, and tuck it under the skin. I think I will try that next time.
4. Turkey basters are not just strange kitchen tools with no purpose. I do not have a baster. I tried to baste the capon by tilting the pan to pool the juices and spooning the juices over the meat. The rack got in the way, and it was hard to get much juice on the spoon. I also burnt my hand because I was using a short-handled spoon. Clearly a baster was designed to solve this problem. I am pretty sure I could still live without one, but now I am actually thinking about getting one. Crazy!
5. Meat thermometers are smarter than me. At least when it comes to knowing when poultry is done. When I roasted the capon, the meat was a beautiful brown color at least 30 minutes before the “thickest part of the thigh” reached the right temperature. So, appearance is not a good indicator for doneness. Maybe I am crazy, but I think finding the “thickest part of the thigh” is a bit tricky; it is hard to tell exactly where the end of the thermometer is. I have tried a few different thermometers, and now I have settled on the instant-read kind. With an instant-read thermometer, I can quickly check two different places in the thigh and hope that one of them is the thickest part. The only drawback I see with instant-read thermometers is that you have to guess at some of the timing. If your chicken needs to be 3 degrees warmer, how many minutes will that take? I ended up taking my capon out of the oven to check the temperature quite a few times near the end of cooking.
6. Turkey lifters are helpful. There have been many times when I tried to move a roasted chicken from the pan to a platter without lifters, and it has always been precarious. I inevitably end up burning myself, making a mess, and/or marring the chicken’s appearance in some way. Lifters make moving hot poultry stress-free.
7. I always have leftover chicken at the wrong time. You know how lots of recipes call for cooked, chopped or shredded chicken? Well, whenever I want to make one of those recipes, I never have cooked chicken on hand. Whenever I have cooked chicken on hand, I cannot find any of those recipes. Murphy’s Law, I guess.

Conclusion: The first thing that struck me when I took the capon out of its packaging was how much fat there was. All that fat led to great results! With no special treatment, the capon turned out beautifully. The skin was brown and crispy, and the meat was flavorful, tender, and moist. I highly recommend roast capon for the mouth-watering aroma that fills your kitchen while you are cooking, the succulent meal it provides, and the leftover bones which can be used to make delicious, homemade stock. I do not know how readily available capons are most of the time, but I would definitely opt for one over a roasting hen if I had the choice.

Turnips

Week: 2
Ingredient: Turnips
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Mashed Turnips

Last night was a disaster! No, not the turnips; they turned out fine (more on that later). I am more interested in sharing about the conflict and resolution that played out in my little dinner party drama last night.

If you have read a few of my previous posts, you know that I have been planning to cook a capon. My new roasting pan arrived a little over a week ago, so I started making real plans. I invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday night. All week, I made my preparations: picking recipes, cleaning house, grocery shopping, advance prep work, etc.

Saturday afternoon, everything was in order so that I could start cooking. I pulled my capon out of the refrigerator to sit at room temperature for thirty minutes before going into the oven. I softened a stick of butter in the microwave, peeled some garlic cloves, and washed my fresh herbs. I adjusted my oven racks to fit the shiny, new roasting pan. I put a clean tablecloth on the kitchen table. I spent some time reviewing recipes, and I turned on the oven to preheat. I took the capon out of its packaging, and removed the giblets ...

Well, the perfect dinner party ended right there because I did not actually remove the giblets. I tried to remove the giblets. After getting past the thick wire that bound the legs together, I found the giblets were frozen solid in the cavity of the fat, castrated rooster that was supposed to be my dinner. Blargh!

Apparently four days in my refrigerator was not enough time to thaw the frozen 9-pound bird. When I discovered my dilemma, it was too late even to think of trying the cold water method to thaw the capon quickly. There was really no wiggle room in my schedule. Besides, Cris was already at my house doing some electrical work. (Thanks, Cris!) I could not push dinner back to who knows when. I needed a plan B.

There are plenty of options when a dinner fails: go out, order in, make do with what you have ... Somehow, all those options were so unsatisfying when what I was looking forward to was a good, home-cooked meal shared with friends. In the end, I stuck with my original menu but with one substitution: pan-fried pork chops instead of roast capon. Not bad for plan B (although it did require a quick trip to Red Front). The pork chops were quick and easy, but very tasty. I served them with a bottle of wine that I bought because the label was pretty (Juan Gil Jumilla 2003—beautiful dark color, soft and smooth, deep, rich flavor, slightly sweet, with a little spice—delicious!). We also had a green salad with apples, walnuts and a maple vinaigrette. The cauliflower gratin was to-die-for (probably literally with all that butter, cream, and Gruyère). And Andrea’s desserts—eggnog cheesecake and butterscotch pudding with bananas—were outstanding served with French pressed coffee.

I really cannot complain about the meal. The only problem is that now I will have to cook the capon mid-week, and I have no dinner guests lined up. However, I am sure I will manage. Now on to the turnips ...

There is not much to say about the turnips. I consulted a few cookbooks, and they said you could prepare turnips in basically any way you would prepare potatoes. So, I boiled them, drained them, mashed them, and added a little butter, salt, and pepper. Voilà—mashed turnips, a simple preparation that allows the flavor of the turnips to shine through. The flavor was pleasantly pungent, and the texture was slightly stringy. Not bad, but I think I prefer mashed potatoes. I might experiment sometime with adding a few turnips to my mashed potatoes to give them a subtle pungency without losing the superior texture of the potatoes.

Conclusion: I probably did not give turnips a fair shot. So soon after the disappointment of the semi-frozen capon and the jubilation of the cauliflower gratin, mashed turnips were too mundane to excite more than passive acceptance. Sorry, turnips. Better luck next time.

Chipped Beef

Week: 1
Ingredient: Esskay Chipped Beef
From: Red Front Supermarket, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Creamed Chipped Beef (from the package)

I made a quick stop at Red Front this week to pick up a few ingredients for a salad I was supposed to take to a dinner the next evening. While I was there, I decided to see what unusual things Red Front carried. Certainly there would be something interesting in the small grocery store I have always thought was very ... Mennonite. The first thing that caught my eye was a small jar of “Dried Beef.” Immediately, I was reminded of my grandmother—not the Mennonite one, but the the Baptist one. I had seen such a jar in her kitchen many times. I always thought the little rounds of red-brown meat in an otherwise-empty jar were funny. Seriously, who buys meat that way?

Nonetheless, it seemed perfect. The weather was so cold outside, exactly the kind of weather that makes one want to sit down to a hot, fattening, oh-so-comforting meal. And chipped beef gravy, the only thing I knew to do with dried beef, was all of these things. I added the little jar to my cart and continued through the store.

When I passed through the refrigerated meat section, I noticed a small, plastic package labeled “Chipped Beef.” But if that was chipped beef, what was this dried beef I had found amongst the SPAM and Vienna sausages? I was anxious to get home, out of the cold, so I added the similar-looking, but sooner-expiring, thinly-sliced beef to my cart, and hurried through the rest of my shopping trip.

Back at home, with the groceries unloaded, I set out to find out the difference between dried beef and chipped beef. Food Lover's Companion did not let me down: “Chipped beef is also referred to simply as dried beef.”¹ It was not surprising that the two dried beef products I purchased varied only in packaging. “Dried Beef” had a longer shelf life because it was sealed in a jar; “Chipped Beef” was packaged more like a fresh lunch meat and would spoil without refrigeration. Oh well. One can never have too much dried meat, right? (Yeah ... right.)

On Saturday I made chipped beef gravy. Butter + dried beef + flour + milk + pepper. That is really all there is to it—so easy! And just as comforting as I expected it would be. I had no bread at home, so I made biscuits to go with it. Unnecessary richness! In the future, I will serve it on toast. Also, chipped beef is quite salty, so next time I may start by parboiling the meat and draining the water. I can always add salt, if needed.

Conclusion: Chipped beef is pretty much what I expected: dry, salty meat. But not so very long ago dry, salty meat was a staple, right? I should probably branch out and try something else with chipped beef sometime. But I will always know that a classic like chipped beef gravy—with toast—is an excellent comfort food for a cold, winter morning.

¹Sharon Tyler Herbst, Food Lover's Companion, 3rd ed. (Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 2001), 133.

Buckwheat

Week: 0
Ingredient: Wolff's Kasha (buckwheat groats)
From: Martin’s, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Creamy Kasha (Buckwheat) Cereal¹

My best friend recently discovered she has a gluten allergy. I bought her The Gluten-free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods for Christmas, but she already had it. So, I kept it for myself, and I will have a reference for cooking gluten-free when she comes to visit in the future. I browsed through the cookbook, and that's where I found “Creamy Kasha Cereal.”

The recipe was perfect for a blog post because (1) I have never cooked buckwheat, and (2) I had all the ingredients on hand. So, why did I have buckwheat on hand if I never use it? I had actually had a box of buckwheat sitting in my pantry, untouched, for quite a long time. I bought it after a trip to Ukraine, where I first ate this form of buckwheat. The plan was to try to recreate some of the Ukrainian food I ate, but I never got around to it. Fortunately, buckwheat has a long shelf life!

The buckwheat I ate in Ukraine was served with vegetables and a little meat, quite unlike this sweet breakfast dish. I prepared the recipe as written with one substitution: dried cherries instead of dried cranberries. While it was cooking, I was a little skeptical. The chocolaty aroma was nice enough, but it just did not look appealing. It was brown, lumpy, and watery. Despite cooking it longer than the recipe indicated, the wateriness did not go away. (Maybe I measured wrong?) Adding the cream at the end improved the appearance, but it was still a rather homely dish.

But, all's well that ends well. It was actually very tasty, like oatmeal but with a slightly different taste (buckwheat-y!) and texture (groat-y!). In fact, the texture was quite pleasant—not at all pasty like oatmeal can sometimes be. It was quick and easy too.

Conclusion: Buckwheat is an ingredient worth using. I won't be serving “Creamy Kasha” for company any time soon, but it is certainly good enough for a family breakfast. The recipe leaves plenty of room for variation—change up the fruit, add some nuts, use honey instead of brown sugar, etc. Next time I cook buckwheat, I'll probably try it in something savory—a pilaf, perhaps. If nothing else, buckwheat is a nice alternative to oatmeal once in a while.

If you are wondering why this post is not about capon, it is because I decided I wanted a proper roasting pan before cooking my Capon. I ordered one, and it should arrive soon. The capon was frozen when I bought it, so it won't hurt to keep it in the freezer another week or two. :)

¹Bette Hagman, The Gluten-free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004), 127.