We Are in Culinary End Times

When I ride the bus to work, I go past a little storefront in downtown Seattle that calls itself the Grilled Cheese Experience. Really? Are people so culinarily challenged that they have to get grilled cheese sandwiches at a restaurant?

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/31/we-are-in-culinary-end-times/

The Joy of Gemisch

Last night’s French dinner left us with a variety of leftovers. So what to do? Make a casserole from the odds and ends. This is what we call a gemisch.

I got out the leftover brown rice, chicken thighs, cooked leeks, and chicken broth out of the refrigerator. I also got a partial bottle of piquillo peppers and a small Spanish chorizo sausage out of the fridge and a partial bag of artichoke hearts out of the freezer. I microwaved the artichoke hearts, then stirred in the rice, chicken, chorizo, peppers, and leeks. For seasoning I added some thyme and marjoram. I moistened the mixture with a little chicken broth, covered the casserole with foil, and baked it at 375° for 30 minutes. It wasn’t quite up to 160° yet, so I microwaved it for 3 minutes. I served it with some Middle Eastern chopped salad that one of the revelers left behind.

Not bad. It could have used a bit more seasoning.

Last night in review.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/27/the-joy-of-gemisch/

Medieval Night

Last night was our 2019 French dinner. Since many of the churches we saw during our December trip to Paris were built in the Middle Ages (Saint-Denis, Notre Dame, Chartres, Sainte-Chapelle), we declared that this dinner would hew to the Medieval Diet.

So what is the Medieval Diet? We eliminated ingredients that French folk would not have had access to during the Middle Ages, as they were from the Western Hemisphere. A few examples of forbidden foods:

  • Tomatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Corn
  • Peppers
  • Squash

Fortunately, our friends were up to the task. Julian made a stewed chicken dish with leeks, cinnamon, ginger, and grains of paradise. He also made an appetizer of chicken livers over greens with a red wine vinaigrette. I made rice and two Medieval apple tarts out of The Silver Palate Cookbook. I had some leftover apples, so I poached them in red wine with raisins and prunes. Because great minds think alike, our next door neighbor made red-wine-poached pears. Others brought beans, vegetables, wine, pâté, and cheeses.

Some folks took the Medieval theme beyond food. The aforementioned next door neighbor wore a Medieval-ish purple velvet dress and read tarot cards. The two youngest revelers also came in costume. The Known Teenager came in an outfit suitable for Joan of Arc. We showed photos of the trip and gave out door prizes to those who correctly counted the number of dogs (real or marble) in the slideshow. It was a festive evening.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/27/medieval-night/

Counter Intuitive

Does anyone ever have enough counter space? The answer rumbles from galleys to Architectural Digest-worthy kitchens: HELL, NO!

I hypothesize that stuff expands to fit the amount of counter space in any given kitchen. People in tiny apartments are forced to store their countertop appliances under beds or in closets. A friend of mine in Manhattan collected cereal sets (turn of the 20th-century canister sets, often with Yiddish labels). Most of them had to stay in storage until she moved into her current co-op apartment. Now that my sister has downsized, her cookie jar collection is all over her flat. As kitchens get bigger, people feel freer to buy bigger things. The two-person rice cooker is traded for a larger, neuro-fuzzy-logic model. A small blender is replaced by a Vita Mix that barely fits under the upper cabinets. The single utensil crock turns into two utensil crocks. (We plead guilty to this last offense.)

I can count two homes where I had enough counter space. My first apartment in Dallas had plenty for one reason: I was poor and I only had a blender and a Moulinex La Machine. I also only had about 15 cookbooks at the time, but that’s another story. The house we rented during my postdoc in Dallas had a decent amount of counter space. This was because the kitchen had ample cupboards into which we could stuff things we didn’t use on a daily basis. It also had an antique European stove where we set the toaster oven. The second runner up was the house we rented in Seattle. While it was a glorified galley kitchen, the countertops were deep enough so the heavy-duty mixer and Cuisinart were out of the way.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my main criterion for considering a new electric kitchen toy is if it deserves a place of honor on my counter. Most new things don’t pass the counter space test.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/26/counter-intuitive/

In Search of Pastrami

David Sax, in his 2009 book Save the Deli, bemoaned the loss of traditional Jewish delis. Here is a list of delis that are of blessed memory :

Ithaca, NY – Hal’s

Dallas – Phil’s

Miami – Wolfie’s, Corky’s, The Rascal House

Since we’ve lived in the Seattle area, several delis have gone extinct. The I Love New York Deli started out at Pike Place Market, then moved to the University District. Stopsky’s was on Mercer Island. We never made it there. In the last few months, Goldberg’s Deli closed. This leaves Julian and me with one question:

What do we have to do to get a decent pastrami sandwich or whitefish salad in this town?!?

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/13/in-search-of-pastrami/

Lyrics to Live By

The service at my church today was about immigration and the current situation. Verses two and four of the opening hymn were highly resonant to the congregation. Here they are:

Our world is one world. The thoughts we think affect us all. The way we build our attitudes, with love or hate, we build a bridge or wall.

Our world is one world. Just like a ship that bears us all. Where fear and greed make many holes, but where our hearts can hear a different call.

Cecily Taylor

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/13/lyrics-to-live-by/

Vacancies at University Village

University Village is a major shopping center in Seattle, just north of the University of Washington. In recent days two businesses within close proximity of each other have closed.

Mrs. Cook’s closed January 6 because the owner retired. It had a great selection of appliances and utensils, along with a small cookbook section. We’ve bought numerous pots, pans, and other supplies there over the years. I went on a spree there before Christmas for Julian’s gifts to take advantage of their clearance prices.

This week Blue C Sushi shuttered its doors. Blue C specialized in “conveyor-belt sushi.” This is similar to the dim sum concept, although customers grab their desired items off a conveyor belt as they go past. The plates were color-coded by cost, so the wait staff could calculate your bill by the number of empty blue, yellow, red, or green plates you had in front of you. The whole chain suddenly closed without explanation. Employees were advised to cash their final checks immediately, according to the Seattle Times. I suspect they expanded too far too fast and the rents in their various locations got too damn high.

If you’re looking to start a business, there are two high-profile sites at University Village available. I’m sure the conveyor belt at the old Blue C Sushi could be repurposed to display other items – cute shoes, perhaps? Just don’t choke when you see the monthly rents on these locations.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/13/vacancies-at-university-village/

The Spice Cull

From time to time one has to get rid of herbs and spices that have long outlived their usefulness. I confess that some of those bottles predated our move to Casa Sammamish six years ago. Julian complained that he was unable to find anything in the spice cabinet. So on New Year’s Day I went on a take-no-prisoners tear. I got a small compostable trash bag and emptied numerous bottles and bags of old herbs and spices into it. So much was discarded that the bag was nearly full.

When Julian surveyed my work, he was amazed. “I can actually find stuff in here!” Of course, that didn’t prevent him from calling me yesterday and asking if we had any five-spice powder in the house. He eventually found it hiding in plain sight.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/12/the-spice-cull/

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/05/worst-day-run/

A Bittersweet New Year

We attended the traditional New Year’s Eve gathering in the old neighborhood. Our host made soup with black-eyed peas, spinach, and sausage. (In the Southern US and in Northeast Seattle, eating black-eyed peas and greens foretell a good year.) Julian brought herring, which he considers a good luck food for the New Year. (Personally, I think this superstition was promoted by the North Sea Herring-Fishers’ Association.) The party broke up before midnight, as this farm girl and several others ran out of wakefulness. I did stay awake long enough to watch the fireworks from the Space Needle on TV at home. We also had some fireworks in the neighborhood.

While every new year is a beginning, it can also be an end.  Just after we left the party, one of the revelers got the call that her husband had died. He was in hospice care due to dementia and aspiration pneumonia. We took fixings for Rachel sandwiches (rye bread, pastrami, Jarlsberg cheese, sauerkraut, and homemade Russian dressing) over to her house for dinner. Her husband passed peacefully. His children and one grandchild had visited earlier in the day. He was in a warm and comfortable room at an adult family home in Kent, south of Seattle. We swapped memories about him, including the time he rolled his recumbent bike and broke some ribs on the Burke-Gilman Trail. The only reason she knew about the injury was that he somehow rode back to his Jeep, but couldn’t lift the bike in to drive home and had to call her for help.

Our friend’s death will probably not be the last end in 2019. I can only hope that other endings are happier.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/05/a-bittersweet-new-year/

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