Long time cookin

It's been a long time since I've blogged here. I almost forgot it existed.

The feast put together by Lady Elsa, Ros and myself was wonderful. The part I hated was actually the shopping. It wouldn't have been bad except no one had space so many items were brought the week of. Luckily I was off sick and though I should have been resting I was shopping. Needless to say, it all went well and people were well fed. There was a number of issues that I personally won't allow if I ever do it again, but that's not to be broached at this point. I took charge of the dessert buffet which was good but not as good as I had originally planned. Mainly because I decided to do a children's feast in order to stretch the other feast foods. Cream puffs, spiced italian fruit cake, pizzelle, Angel's Food (ricotta with honey and orange), lemon cake, mini cheesecake, lemon tarts, and spiced nuts were on the table. It really looked pretty and tasty.

That said, this weekend saw some great sales on pork and I already had apples so the crock pot was put into use. I made pork with wine sweetened sauerkraut and apples. It was wonderful. The wine takes the bitterness out of the sauerkraut mellowing it and giving it another layer of flavor. I was taught long ago by a friend from Germany to add good wine to the sauerkraut to take the bitter edge off it. I used about 1/4 cup of Fetzer's Gewürztraminer which has an almost honey taste to it.

I love the flavors, smell and color of fall. This week I'm going to make a carmel apple cheesecake in a phyllo crust with crunchies from the spiced nuts I made for the event for my boss's birthday this week. It will be yummy.

This week will be filled with class, work, homework and the weekend will be spent in VA so I won't be cooking. I'll have leftover pork, ravioli & sauce with meatballs, and chicken and brie wraps for dinner. I have all the stuff on hand, no grocery shopping at all for me this week. I have all of the meals covered. With no children or husband at home I spend very little on food. I think I throw away more then I use. A few weeks ago I hadn't been home for dinner for 9 days. I was either at a friends or out to dinner.

Sultry Summer

Summer is well upon us, almost smothering us in it's humid arms, I was camping with over 10k people the first week of August. People dressed and in persona from cave man to 1650. Recreating the middle ages would not suffice for the description of what we do. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsic_War for information.

I got there after friends had set up the our pavillion. Many of my friends, household The Black Dragons had gone out a week earlier. They put up with the rains and muds that many of us who came a week later didn't have to really deal with. While it rained a bit, it was nothing like what they endured a week prior. That said lets get on to FOOD!

I brought a number of things with me but nothing really to cook. I never took the fondue pot out of the tent, just used the poundcake as a finger dessert. For family steak night, traditionally held on Wednesday, my contribution was 2 containers of dill pickles, olives and more chocolate chip cookies.

While at war I don't cook. There was a time when my sons were small that I cooked all the meals. It wasn't much of a vacation to do that and I ended up with all the other kids in my area of camp. I stopped going to the war, that was 12 yrs. ago. I began going again 3 yrs. ago and buy most of my food. This year in camp we also had a gentleman who cooked 2 meals so it was less then I had to purchase.

There are a lot of merchants who sell foods, a green grocer and even ice cream. At the Beast & Boar since I had there special promotional mug, I got coffee, iced tea or lemonade free. The mug cost $25 the first week of the war and $20 the following week. I had a friend purchase mine earlier since they're usually sold out by the time I arrive. Needless to say, being there Saturday through Friday, I got my $25 worth using it for coffee at least 2 times a day and cold drinks throughout the rest of the day.

So now it's a few weeks later and I'm getting things back to normal and will be posting about the food class I attended at the war.

Rainy Sunday Blues

Another rainy day in the 'burg. It's rained everyday for the past 4 days although it's not been steady. Had a wonderful day yard sailing yesterday. Someone had advertised "cake pans" so I got there early and picked up 2- 16" pans, 1- 14", 1- 12", 1- 10", 2 (new) + 1- 6", 3- 4.5" round pans and 1-8x3" square pans for a total of 12 pans for $25. They are all professional Wilton pans used by a women who used to do cakes for a living. Just think, 2 weeks ago all I had were 3- 8" rounds then I got the 4 piece set and the 12" rounds at Michael's with 50% off coupons and gift cards I'd been given. I'd say I have enough that I won't have to use the same pan twice trying to get the cakes done. I'm doing my last non-paid wedding cake in November.

So here we were out yard sailing and I knew there was something else I was looking for and low and behold it just appeared, a large T-Fal deep fryer, $3, which I couldn't pass up. I had made up the mix for zucchini cakes. They're a mock crab cake that are basically vegetarian. They'd be vegan except there's egg in them. In the end I cleaned it up and but didn't use it though I will soon.

I've been experimenting with medieval dough recipes. I found one that was ok, after it baked I poured honey over it and topped it with Cinnamon and sugar. The experiment turned out ok. I also made up a redacted recipe that called for ricotta, rosewater and honey. Having everything other then the ricotta on hand I headed to the store and played with the recipe a bit. LOVE IT! I can't wait to set it out on the dessert table during our October event.

Food of Renaissance Italy

I'm planning a feast with some friends that will take place in Oct. 09. I recieved this awesome book that I ordered from Amazon yesterday entitled "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine", love it!

I've already tried one of the recipes in it. All it called for was Honey, ricotta, and rosewater. I had the rosewater, bought the small container of ricotta on my way to my friend's house and with her honey we tested the recipe. She had some pizzelles that I had brought over a few weeks ago, still in their package and we enjoyed a wonderful little dessert.

I'm not sure if it's something I'll make for the dessert table, but it's an option.

So it's not only Monday that's hectic

Weekends can be just as bad, although the weekend holds more promise, especially the markets. The produce available, abundance of time and so many ideas. Cooking on the weekend takes motivation, and I'm not sure how many people are interested in slaving away in the kitchen during the summer. Personally, I haven't put in the AC units so unless I open windows and turn on fans there's not much air circulating.

It's 8:30 AM on Saturday and I've already wilted down some fresh kale that a friend brought me and have a chicken carcass in a pot to cook down. I plan on making Italian Wedding Soup for dinner and to freeze. It's a good meal on a hot summer day. I know, I know you're thinking "SOUP in the summer that's not cold? What's wrong with Gazpacho?" Nothing is wrong with it, I just choose to use what I have available and one can never go wrong with soup. It's the basis for a love affair with ones stomach. I also have a bunch of basil so I'll make a pesto. Maybe pick up some Pillsbury bread sticks, smear them with a little bit of the pesto and bake them to go with the soup.

I belong to The SCA (http://www.sca.org/) which is a Renaissance group. We're doing a feast for an event in October, and need candied mint leaves. My friend also brought me some chocolate mint so I'll dip and dry that, then bag and freeze. In doing that it will free up time to do other stuff.

Off the market. My shopping list is short today as I went to the store yesterday. Carrots, celery, and ground beef are on the list. Of course there may be a lot of other items available.

Monday morning dinner blues

Monday mornings are usually spent taking refigerator inventory, making my grocery list in my head and getting ready for work. I like shopping on Monday since there are less people in the stores.

I have a lot of fresh vegatables left from the farmer's markets and stuff a friend gave me from her CSA (community supported agriculture) pick up at the Wilson College. That's where I got the garlic snakes (scrape) from.

I used some of the snakes by cutting off the ends, cut out the bulbous part and chopped them up. I then washed and cut up some little new potatoes and boiled them with the garlic snakes then mashed it all up using butter, skim milk and my emersion blender. It was very yummy. I also chopped up some snakes along with a green pepper, and onion, adding it all to some ground turkey I got at the farmer's market. I added a bit of salt and pepper and made it into patties. The potatoes, turkey patty and small salad was what I had for dinner last night. For lunch I brought a left over patty, red leaf lettuce and vined ripened tomato. Everything on my plate last night and for this lunch are totally local ingredients. I'm proud of myself!

I don't think there's much I need from the store so my list will be short. Anyone who says eating organic and local is expensive hasn't done their homework. It's less expensive for me and I feel good supporting the farm families in my area.

Garlic Snake

No, not a real snake! It's the tops before that pop up as the bulb is forming that wonderful fruit. Anyway, I have these beautiful snake like garlic tops and was clueless as to what they're used for. I asked friends and almost all of them said "stir fry". I don't want stir fry I want something that will taste a bit different from the usual use of the product. While surfing the net I found some wonderful choices, from pesto to grilled pizza, YUM! I'm looking forward to the experiments.

I went to both of the local farmers markets today. What's good about having them around is that I know where my food's coming from. I can interact with those who grow my food. One of the markets has produce from Wilson College's Sustainable Living Program. It's all organic and priced much better then the old food labeled organic in the grocery store. Becoming a Locovore isn't difficult if you live in a rural area like mine.

The sad part was that I didn't have time to cook today. I was too busy running around all over town and down to MD. I plan on making the grilled pesto shrimp pizza using a whole wheat dough tomorrow. I'm going to put one of my pizza stones on the grill too to see which pizza tastes better. I think it'll go really well with Shock Top beer.

Kitchen Time

Being in my kitchen’s like spending time on the Internet. I begin one place and end up in another. The recipe calls for 3 eggs and I decide it's too much and change it to 2 whole eggs and 1 egg white, then decide the cake needs to be cupcakes with poured fondant and embellishments. Not to be forgotten is the shopping that was done for one menu item that has suddenly taken on a life of its own; transforming the ingredients from a simple side salad to lettuce wrapped tuna or chicken salad with sliced tomatoes and cheese, so much for simple.

That said, cooking is a time warp if I'm not rushed. There's no telling what will happen once I enter the zone. Foods can from sweet to savory, simple to over the top. No matter what comes out of the kitchen it’ll taste wonderful, or you wouldn't know I was there. Experiments that fail would be thrown out and the kitchen would be cleaned so no one would be the wiser.

Maybe it's just an A.D.D.er in the kitchen. The T-shirt reads "They say I have A.D.D., but they just don't understand...oh look a chicken!" I can hatch a lot of chickens during my kitchen time… cluck, cluck, cluck.