Summer Fresh Peach Pie

Peach Pie

 

You’ve seen the commercials this time of year offering visions of families, apple pies, fireworks, American Flags, summertime parties, grilling burgers and big pickup trucks. Well, to me that’s just not completely right. Apples are a fall fruit … to me, they say Halloween, back-to-school, caramel apples, changing colors and shorter days. To me, summer is the time for Peach Pie. During a few weeks in the summer, there is no finer peach to be found — putting the rest of the year’s mealy offerings to shame.

Personally, I am mesmerized by their sweet fragrance and their beautiful color. My resistance is futile.

So, despite the heat I needed a Peach Pie. Desperately.

[Read more...]

Lady Galantine’s Lover

daphne

I saw her from across the room. She was perfection. Studying her grace, elegance and beauty, I wanted her. Badly. I didn’t care if she was alone and I didn’t care that others wanted her; she would be mine. Mine to ravish.

I reached her side as she quietly sat there, in the coolness of the morning. She was covered in goose bumps as if she were shivering; as if she knew she was out of place. I knew I could help her…I knew I could make her feel more comfortable in her own skin.  Most of all, I knew she and I were meant to be together. It was kismet. [Read more...]

Just Who do I Think I am??

cheftoys.com

 

Maybe you know the feeling. You know, that feeling you get when you feel like someone is going catch on to who you “really” are and scream at the top of their lungs, “FRAUD!” Well, maybe you don’t, but I know it all too well.

I’ve written before about being in Culinary School for the past 10 years. That’s a terribly long time. Since starting, I’ve entirely changed careers. Before getting all too serious about Culinary School, I was a video editor and website administrator. I love, love, love editing videos and hearing exactly what I want to say out of what I edit. It truly makes me happy. So does cooking and all things food-related. Cooking finally edged out all other career choices and that is now what I do to get paid. [Read more...]

School Dazed

Ahhh…school started this past week. You know, that helter-skelter time when all the kids are excited about meeting their new teacher, to show off their new duds and maybe, just maybe, make some new friends. I am not thrilled; school also started for me…again. I’ve been pursuing a degree in Culinary Arts for the past ten years.  More than 20% of my life. This is seriously and ridiculously true. [Read more...]

Vinegar Wars

Last fall, I started a new project. That’s not all that inspiring because I start a lot of projects…not all of them get finished. Actually, more are unfinished, than finished. Hmmm…anyway, I started a new project:  homemade vinegar.

My family had made wine the previous year and I was thinking how vinegar didn’t seem to be very far off from wine. Well, it is a bit more complicated than it looked like it would. But, I moved forward; I bought a starter and began with jug of wine, starter and water on the counter with some cheesecloth tied around the top. It sat there all winter, taking up space. And it was not pretty. Basically, it was a jar with evaporating wine inside that occasionally drew tiny little flies. But, I moved forward.

After the brunt of winter passed, it was actually beginning to smell and even taste like a lovely, although strong, flavorful vinegar. Fruity and smooth, it was showing great and genuine promise. [Read more...]

I Worked My Bananas Off!

I’m tired. I’m also happy.

Yesterday made me very, very tired. I worked my bananas off….really. Have you ever made Gnocchi (nyowk-kee)? You know, that wonderful, pillowy, potato, dumpling-shaped pasta that goes so well with spaghetti sauce? The one we only have at Christmas because it takes all day to make in quantity? The pasta that’s only made for those you love? … that’s the one! I put the potatoes in the oven to bake pretty early since I still had to clean house (natch) and make the sauce.

The potatoes were cool enough to put through the ricer — a unitasker that makes the most wonderful mashed potatoes. Truly indispensible in making gnocchi, but hard to use if your wrists are big babies, like mine. I did get them all riced and piled up on the counter. Made a well in the center and dropped the eggs in the middle. I put the recipe at the bottom of the page for reference.

Riced Potatoes

Using my very best Mario Batali impression, I sprinkled flour over top and swirled it all around making the dough. Adding more flour to make if workable, but not tough, [Read more...]

You’re Asking ME????

I love my job! I manage the cafe’ at my church. By manage, I mean that I am responsible for every aspect of the cafe’ … shopping, cooking, menu planning … whatever it takes to cook for our congregation. By manage, I also mean that I personally cook nearly everything that we serve; that which I don’t cook, I still plan.  It is freshly made — bread, biscuits, gravy and all the rest. Sometimes, it’s very hard — even though I love it!

Generally, when a person comes up to the counter at the cafe’, they’ve decided what they want. We have a menu board that is easily seen and we put the menu up on the web and text it out to those who choose that delivery. Everyone once in awhile, though, someone falters; it’s kinda like that commercial where everyone’s paying with their debit card and then someone has cash. Really bolluxes up the whole works.

When this happens, sometimes they’re just looking for a bit of direction. Knowing a lot of people’s food likes and dislikes helps. I might be able to tell someone that maybe they’d be better off with another dish, or I know for a fact that they’re going to like that week’s dinner. But, there’s always someone…”Is that Stuff Pork Loin any good?,” “Is that homemade Minestrone Soup any good??” Really??? You’re asking me???

Something you should know about me:  I have a very low threshold for idiocracy. Low mercy, it’s my gift.  I know this and embrace it. I do have patience, but some things really tick me off. One of those things happens to be the question, “Is that any good?”

How am I supposed to answer that, truly? It just stops me in my tracks. It happens enough that it shouldn’t take me by surprise, but it always does. It takes me a few seconds to reply in a kind manner, “I’m not sure I can answer that…I made it so, I do think it tastes good.” The few minutes are required for me to not scream, “No, it tastes like crap!”

Now, I could understand [Read more...]

That Burger Could Kill You!

Don’t let it happen to you; that lovely, juicy hamburger sizzling away on the grill could actually be fatal. I’m not talking about cholesterol or fat. Rather, I’m talking about the safety of our food in America.

On October 3, 2009, the New York Times printed an article detailing their investigation into American food safety, mostly in relation to a pretty nasty strain of E. coli known as O157:H7, first recognized as a pathogen in 1982.  The article chronicles the illness and ongoing recovery of a 22-year old woman who contracted O157:H7 after eating a severely tainted hamburger. She is now paralyzed. Her case is particularly rare, but it does happen. Death happens. Severe illness happens. All because commercial meat processors refuse to take food safety seriously.

O157:H7 only gets in your food from the feces of cattle during the slaughtering process. Commercially produced hamburger can contain meat from 400 different animals! 400 different animals that are grown all around the contry and even other nations, such as Uruguay. That’s up to 400 possible avenues for our food to be tainted. It only takes a few cells to contaminate the entire batch of ground meat. It is nearly impossible to trace and our meat producers, so they turn a blind eye — depending upon their suppliers to test. The suppliers don’t test, that would be economically foolish and the federal government doesn’t even have standards for testing for this pathogen.

Many books have been written and will be written on this subject, so I won’t go into too much detail here. What I will do, though, is suggest one way to keep your family’s hamburgers a little bit safer…grind your own!

It’s a simple concept – the less meat has been processed, the less likely it’s contaminated. [Read more...]

100 Years and Counting!

100 years ago this fall,  my husband’s family was established in America. Coming from Northern Italy, Big Nonna arrived with her husband, two daughters and her newborn son (also my husband’s Grandpa) Tony. Grandpa Tony was not yet 3 months old when they arrived on December 12, 1909. That was the day the ship,  ”La Lorraine” deposited the small family at Ellis Island.  They were headed to Bingham Canyon, Utah; a mining community near Salt Lake City where many Italian immigrants lived.

It was here that Big Nonna began operating a boarding house. She was a pretty tough woman Big Nonna-  her husband died in the early 1930′s and she eventually remarried one of her boarders, but still ran the boarding house. She cooked, cleaned and worked hard every day of her life. She made wine, which she stored in the basement and she cooked huge family dinners. She died before I met my husband’s family, but stories of her are still recounted often; especially when we all gather for a special Italian meal or event. It’s almost as if I had met her; she is in my thoughts, too.

Every year around Columbus Day, our family participates in the “Great Italian Festival,” hosted in Downtown Reno by the Eldorado Casino. Families are invited to participate, based on authentic recipes for spaghetti sauce, and a great many regions in Italy are represented. Both Saturday and Sunday, families prepare the sauce their grandparents and great-grandparents made for their own families. Gallons and gallons of sauce simmers all morning; each pot as different as each name hanging above the booths. White sauce, pesto sauce, red sauce, chicken, pork, beef, mushroom, garlic, onions, herbs … the smells are incredible. Just like home, for so many people.

We, of course, make Big Nonna’s sauce. Each one of us has added our own touches to it over the years, but it has stayed basically the same. [Read more...]