Pre-Blogging

This will be supper tomorrow.
Homegrown leeks and potatoes.
It's easy to forget about the humble produce in the yard in the summer when it's cascading with more urgent bounty.
Tomatoes! Pattypan squash! Cucumbers! Riveting, and demanding.
Then, in winter, there are the leisurely, patient vegetables. They've been in the ground for a long time, but they will wait. So kind. So calm.
Of course, I'm planning on making a leek and potato soup.
But I had an idea.
I'm going to stir in a knob of blue cheese.

Steak Tartare. As If.

What a sad tale.
We wanted a little steak tartare to eat on Valentine's Day. It so happens the oysters done us in that day, and we didn't crave the beef, so we popped it into the freezer for a while.
We got this meat from a really great butcher. I love the guy. A couple of years ago, he sold us a trimming of aged Chateaubriand to make our steak tartare; it was too small for anything else. And he offered to grind it. (Non, monsieur! We will knife it at home, primally and perfectly, and we don't want that spurt of ground turkey that's lurking in your machine.)
It was really good. Really.
This time, Cranky asked if there were any such luxury items in the "too small" case.
The butcher got a little testy! "I will not sell you Chateaubriand for steak tartare! Take this sirloin tip; it's traditional. You want me to grind it?"
Sigh. No, thanks. We'll take it, but no grindy.
We were in love with our knifing technique. So much, that I wouldn't even let Cranky do it; I had to have the honors.
But I couldn't do it. The meat was too tough.
Cranky got in there and made mincemeat of the meat, and I stepped up and blended in the chopped capers, shallot, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and a bit of egg yolk. Black pepper. And then I tasted it, for taste.
Tasted fine. Couldn't chew it.
Damn!
Cranky tasted it, and immediately said, we are cooking this.
It made pretty decent hamburgers, but they fell apart because of all the junk in there.

Need. Pretty. Food.

Just because it's winter doesn't mean your food can't look like spring. Bright, contrasting colors that the eye seems to crave during these dark days. And, yes, it is winter food. But pretty. And heartening.
This is nothing more than a braise/fry-up of delicata squash, cooked beans (plus a little bean water), shallots and spinach. Seasonings as you like. Add the items to the pan in order of how long they'll need the heat.
I find myself looking at my cooking vessels and wondering what they want cooked in them. Really. I have several shapes and configurations, and it gives me naughty pleasure to single out one or another for something special that belongs only in that dish. A swanky ceramic casserole with a lid. A sleek iron pot with a lid. Clever little individual ramekins.
And then I just ended up using a skillet.

Yumbo

We happened to have all the ingredients in the house for a decent gumbo. This one wouldn't have any okra, which was fine with Cranky. I only buy okra for one or two reasons, and he was happy with no reason.
Nothing special, except I want to share two new things.
One, I made the roux from Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour. I might not have celiac disease, but my gut is a lot happier without gluten. (Besides, I had eaten a little wheat in this morning's dim sum.) The roux came out great! I will do this again, for sure. A nice flavor, good thickening, colored up real dandy.
Two, I have some beautiful butternut squashes from last summer's backyard harvest to use. I cubed half a little one and stirred it in with the Cajun Trinity (the celery, onion and green pepper, though I confess my pepper was a poblano pepper for more flavor). It was like sneaking in extra shrimp (with the real shrimp and andouille sausage). What's not to like? Nutrients, bulk, eating up the pantry... Nice.
OK, all right, Three. We had a little dipping sauce left over from the Chinese dumplings. Tamari, a dribble of chili oil, and a petite splurt of rice vinegar. That went into the gumbo too. Now you know. Awesome.

Cute, Little, Adorable, Cute Food

Doesn't this picture just warm the cockles of your heart? (What is a cockle?)
I love it for so many reasons. First of all, I'm crazy about small dishes. It must be because I never played with dolls as a kid. (Although I do recall buying a miniature ceramic tea set with my own money when I was about 10. Very fine quality, it was.)
Second, this little meal was prepared and stored in the freezer, with the pastry top unbaked. I'm in love with my chest freezer, and it never mistreats my food as long as it's wrapped very well. So along comes a day when I don't know what to eat, but I remember that little pot on ice... Convenient.
Finally, I love this food because the filling was actually leftovers from a previous meal. Stewed chickpeas with Moroccan flavors.
The frozen goodie sat out in a sunbeam (on top of the freezer) to thaw for a little while, then went into the oven to warm and brown up.
Bean pie. Funny.

Bartlett Update

See that little white badge on the back of her neck? I guess it gets her into all sorts of cool clubs. It's very special.
We didn't even know it was there when we adopted her; the Humane Society's temporary collar covered it up. So when the collar came off, we thought it was just one more degree of how cool this dog is.
What we never expected was that there would be any negatives to bringing this puppy home. She's pretty, smart, small, friendly. What's not to like?
Well, she's half Jack Russell. We knew that, but we had no idea exactly what "energetic" meant in describing this breed.
It means running around in a frenzy for so long that she plops into a coma on the grass (don't worry; we are correcting this). It means "I am UP and ready to play" first thing in the morning, when I'd just rather drink my tea and read the paper.
She happens to have grown to, oh, about Jack Russell size. But she is only six months old. So we will have a bigger dog than we expected.
Sometimes I get so frustrated in our training sessions that I lose it (and the dog wins). But Cranky gave me a soothing talk the other day. Do I want to return the dog to the pound? Am I willing to be the assertive human in the training? The next day I was a cool customer, and Bartlett was a most wonderful student.
Today was the best. Really good weather, so she got a lot of outdoors. We did "wait" and "sit" and "stay." We did leash walks. We did "leave it," and she leaves it! The hardest has been "come," but Cranky and I think we're darn close to nailing it.
Right now she is completely conked out in a wicker dog basket I inherited from my parents, from when we had my childhood doggie, Pepper. The basket is 50 years old, and has cradled five lucky animals. I believe there is still some of their dog hair, all of them, stuck in the wicker.

Bivalventine's Day

How trite. Oysters for Valentine's Day.
Well, don't worry. Cranky wasn't trying to get lucky. These were cooked oysters. The magic doesn't work if they're cooked, does it? Never mind, I'll tell you in a few hours.
It has become our fallback oyster: West Marin style.
Last time we cooked them in the smoker while our bacon came to perfection (shame to waste all that heat and smoke, eh?).
This time we used the Smokey Joe, a tiny Weber grill you can buy at the drugstore for pretty cheap, and when your household is two people, little Joe is all we need. (Had to perch the grill up on a table to keep the young puppy away; she was six months old two days ago.)
Oh, they were delicious, and I don't have any true Marin heritage. I just know what I like.
A couple of years ago, up in Marshall, we chatted with the grill guy at Tony's while he cooked our bivalves. He was generous with the tips: Put the oysters on the grill. When the top shell loosens, wrench it off and apply a little bordelaise sauce. As soon as the oysters shrink away from the shell, dab on the barbecue sauce. Eat.
I've talked with locals who prefer a mignonette to a bordelaise, but I like the butter. As for the BBQ sauce, I make my own terribly simple version from homemade tomato sauce, salt, several drops of bottled hot sauce, and a pinch of ground cardamom.
...
OK, I'm back. It worked.

Does Paul McCartney Eat Wings?

I'd been planning to make this meal since Thanksgiving. It was to be my alternative to turkey.
Buffalo chicken wings.
But on Thanksgiving I wasn't feeling very eaty. We did get some nice food in us, but the chicken wings ended up in stock (and the meat in bags in the freezer).
Cranky did not want to give up. He bought a tidy number of drumettes the other day (our first purchase was at Whole Foods, where they always sell you too much meat; this time it was elsewhere, and manageable). We had that bottle of Frank's hot sauce in the house, and always, always, butter and the makings for blue cheese dressing.
God, it's easy. You just roast the wings for an hour, then toss them with a 60-40 mixture of Frank's and melted butter. Ridonkulicious.
The dressing is a cinch too: equal portions of mayo and sour cream, thinned with buttermilk until you like the texture. Crumble in some cheese. You will not need any other seasonings.
Now, I know you know this is traditionally served with celery sticks. We are growing celery in the garden, but it's hard and harsh, and has rather put us off celery, even store-bought.
So we cut big wedges of iceberg lettuce and put the dressing on them. So corny! We loved it, of course.
But we did pay homage to the celery. See that rummage-sale dish the wings are piled on? Yeah.

Lazy Nourishment

Cold, rainy, sad weather. I should be in the kitchen braising lamb shanks, but sometimes my mood keeps me planted in the soft chair in front of the fire.
It's not even hunger that leads me to finally eat; it's need for nourishment.
I could probably just slop out some Campbell's soup, but who needs all that sodium? I don't HAVE Campbell's soup in the house.
A couple of weeks ago I came up with this marvelous meal, and we've eaten about three variations on it already.
It's fast, as long as you have cooked rice in the fridge (which turns out to be a really good idea; make extra and store the rest). And you'll need some broth, preferably homemade. We've used both chicken and vegetable stocks (and if you keep it in the freezer, just pop some into the microwave). Optional is a little cooked chicken. We had that, too, and it's a nice addition. Not optional is some vegetables. Broccoli florets, chopped onion, mushrooms, what have you.
OK, easy-peasy: Cook the vegetables in a pan with some oil or butter, or even just water. Heat the broth.
Layer some rice in the bottom of your bowls, top with vegetables (and chicken bits), and pour in the broth, just enough to become visible but not enough to drown the food. If the rice was stone cold, microwave each bowl for a minute to get the heat up.
What you want is just a slightly wet meal. It's almost soup, but not.
It's already got a family nickname around here.
We call it "Slurry."

Why Winter Is OK

You can cry about all the rain. (And I do.) You can sit in front of the blazing fireplace and pray for July. (And I do.) You can yearn for lettuce and tomatoes and summer squash. (And... yes.)
But, jeepers, woman, it's folly not to love the seasonal fare. (And I DO!)
These potatoes came out of the ground in our yard the other day. We had left them in the dirt, as an experiment in "cold storage" without digging. Well, some of the taters decided to grow eyes and send up leaves. That's fine. We'll leave them there. They'll be next spring's carbs. And some of the taters just sat there, nicely, waiting to be harvested. We pulled up a handful, peeled them and boiled them. Such pleasure: your homegrown nutrifications.
I am overly fond of this method for making raclette. Grate the cheese (we used Gruyère) and strew it over the cooked potatoes. Run the plates under the broiler to melt the cheese. The potatoes hold a lot of heat and keep the cheese soft. Dreamy.
Accompany with the usual cornichons, cocktail onions and rolls of Spanish jamón serrano (which... next time? Nah.).

Martian Food from Venus

I don't even know what this is a picture of! But I know I took the picture, because that's my pink glass plate, and the photo miraculously turned up on my computer — my NEW computer — today, after the lovely techs at the Mac store transferred all the crap from my old hard drive. Wow. They even found photos I was afraid I'd thrown away.
See, Zoomie thought she could take the ugliest food photo, but she's wrong. She's challenged us to enter our worst pics of edibles (oh, and I can't tell you how many of those I have shot). She's even giving away prizes!
Sadly, this picture of mine looks like I carefully framed and focussed it. To very little avail. Some post-op editing. No cropping, I don't think, because I almost never crop. But.
What are we looking at and why did I think it was even photo-worthy?
Honestly, I think it might be a Chinese dumpling.
Oh wait! It's not a dumpling.
It's a roasted pig's ear.
Can't make a silk purse out of that.