Oh, Canada...

Happy New Year! (For my thoughts on that, see saucylittledish). I spent the past weekend in Toronto (which Canadians seem to pronounce "Tronno") for a wedding, and though there was plenty of drinking and dancing, I had eyes for all the food things that crossed my path.



There were a lot of festive goings on and when everyone crashed the afternoon after the wedding I went to the grocery store for an hour and a half. I could have tortured someone by dragging them along, but it was probably better I went alone. It can be useful to go with someone so I don't look as insane as I go though every aisle in slow motion-and it defends against getting in trouble for taking pictures...Oh well, I had a fine time. I went to an incredibly regular, mainstream neighborhood grocery store, which luckily still gave me plenty of perspective, though I would have loved to visit more kinds of places. Grocery stores give me an idea of what makes a place tick. I had forgotten that they sell milk in bags here, (and are way into recycling) and everyone has a handy oval milk pitcher in their fridge. (I did not see smaller pitchers for cream). I am so tickled by this, I must have really needed to get out of town. Seriously, I am really excited about these minorly different customs.

More dairy: I decided to buy cheese, hoping the pasteurization laws would be less stringent than in the U.S. (I have pined on about this before). I picked some soft, young French cheese too, because I wanted cheese made from milk from French cows...(Meux). All of the cheeses list the milkfat and moisture content on the packaging, and I bought a camembert, a "washed rind" young cheese, and some "pressed cottage cheese". We also had that old standby black pepper Boursin. I honestly am not sure if they were much different than what I can get in New York, but they were meltingly lovely anyway.

This was the best flavored hummus I've ever had. If you examine the photo close-up you will see it includes apricots, almonds, spices and honey. It wasn't overly sweet or over seasoned, just perfectly balanced and interesting. Word.



I couldn't resist this tiniest of pimiento jars that was all the way from, well, Tennessee.

I couldn't get away without throwing some meal together. It was my wedding present. I made a vegetable soup and and a potato leek soup, and a pasta/green salad situation. We had bread with those luscious cheeses and humus and jam alongside.

Real fruit gummies. My favorites are cherry and black currant, and of course there were hardly any of those, darnit.

Popcorn being thrown out behind a movie theater. I was surprised at first, but I suppose if they dumped two of these every day, and they just scattered it on the ground, the street would look like a sandy beach with obese pigeons and black squirrels lolling like walruses freezing to death.

Though this minitrip made me ever hungrier to go farther afield, thank you Canada for adding some depth to my marinade, as it were.

The December Sun Times

Last week was when it really started hitting me about Gourmet being gone. There was a flurry of turkey imagery around, and grocery stores filled with people who were intent on actually cooking food. My last issue arrived in its bodybag and stayed unmoving on the kitchen table, wrapped up with a full piece of paper that appeared to be some kind of wasteful, mean joke. Last chance offer, yes, ha ha.

Is that a bullet hole?


Flipping through the consolation prize Bon Appetit subscription cards I started to get that creeping Sunday-night feeling of...oh no, we are nearing the end of the weekend and there will be no December issue. The cookie issue.

That would have been a special treat for me, since I have a particular interest in cookies, but I realize now that its nearly a new year, and one I am looking forward to. Change is good and moves things around in ways you hadn't expected. I loved the photography in Gourmet, the colors, the cool lighting, the straightforward recipes and text, the eclectic tableware, and the wide range of subjects. I still like a print magazine in general; I can carry it, work from it, file it and return to it later. That one has taught me a lot, and I will miss it.

What a wonderful surprise to see my ironwork cookies this week on the cover of my other favorite magazine, Edible Brooklyn. EB and I arrived in Brooklyn around the same time, and I thought, "man, I really moved to the right place!" I love the photography, the matte finish, the clean high-content layout, the relevant ads, and the quarterly portrait of this diverse place. Community, culture, and visual and physical experience is what drives me to food in the first place (and to Edible Brooklyn). Making cookies is a way for me to contribute, translate and share things that fascinate me and distribute that in something that fits in your hand and doesn't last forever. I made those ironwork cookies because I love looking at the fences everyday in my neighborhood, I love how they were made and that they were made here, and there ended up being a cookie issue after all.

Fine in '09

How many will she eat this year?

Happy New Year! Its time again to eat blackeyed peas for luck and fortune, a superstitious and delicious tradition. Usually I've used canned which works great but I happen to be in New Mexico where the options are broader! Frozen, fresh, dry AND organic? Alright!

Blackeyed Peas For New Years

-Blackeyed Peas, in some form, say two cans, drained (in my case this year, the fresh and frozens needed a lot of liquid to cook in to get done, so the green chile sort of dissolved into a stewy surrounding. There were also some cubes of pork involved.)
-Bacon, a few strips of thick cut, cut crosswise
-1 onion, diced
-1 bell pepper, diced
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-1 bay leaf
-5 roasted, peeled, seeded, chopped green chiles
-Crushed red pepper flakes
-Shake of Sherry
-Chicken stock and/or water
-Lots of S&P

Cook the Bacon, and take it out before it gets crispy. Brown the pork cubes and take them out before they're too done. Saute the onion, garlic, bay leaf and green pepper in the bacon fat till soft and add the peas, chile, stock, sherry and red pepper flakes. Season as you go along, but mostly at the end. Let cook for about 45 minutes, till tender and spicy and come together. Eat each bite knowing that it can only improve your chances this year. Salud!

Superbowl 2008 Chili Cook-Off

(1st photo by Andrei)

Here is the proof I attended and helped judge the 2008 Superbowl Chili Cookoff in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last month. There were three enthusiastic teams, and three cooking areas (assigned by lottery): the stovetop, the firepit, and the...elevated fire pit. The TV was moved to the backyard and it was cold enough to keep the beer outside.

The first team entered with an ambitious "surf and turf" concept. The corn was nice, but the heat was too much and the LOBSTER flavor was startling and detracted from this chili. I also considered the meat served alongside as distracting and a little brown-nosy. The cornbread muffin was good, but there was too much going on altogether in this entry.

The second team had a nice presentation with a simple and tidy fried ball of masa as the starch, which was unfortunately bland. The pork chili was married to a mole, which was a fabulous idea. There was a nice burn and it would have been really complex but it ended up getting bogged down in sweetness from the chocolate.

The third chili was also pork and was spicy and smoky. It reminded me of barbeque and was the most classic of the three. It was nice enough looking with a puff pastry and a drizzle of a cooling herbed something. I was excited about the new approaches to chili, but in this case the winner was the traditional one done just right.