Warming of the Bones

After some time away to sit in the Florida sun, visiting friends and family and sharing in the preparation and enjoyment of the delicious latin meals served by my friend's Colombian wife, I arrived back into a brutally cold and snowy weather front that has decended here in the North East. Leaving behind balmy breezes, days of sunshine and temparatures in the 70's - 80's, I was desperately looking to stay warm. Living alone, without a warm companion by my side, I turned to looking through my website 'bookmarks', then found and  made this more recent recipe as a pseudo subsitute. This very yummy Potato Leek Soup with Italian Sausage came from from another's eating idea posts.

Perfectly fit for the pallet at the end of a very cold and snowy work day, it was well accompanied by a warm roll of crusty, (but soft inside) bread and really did the trick to warm both inside and out. It was simply sauteeing the leeks in the sausage pan until they were reduced, adding rough cut potatoes, butter, milk and some spices and then letting the slow cooker do it's magic.

The Leeks on their way to the pot.

Stir Stir Stir

Attempting to make a stir fry on a standard range is a futile task. If you have ever secretly spied the burners that are found in an actual Asian restaurant while waiting for a take out order, you would notice when the cook lifts the wok, the flames shoot up several feet into the air, giving away the secret of the technique held within the power of the often 20,000 or more btu's being thrown out. A typical home range and especially the one I am consigned to now, has nowhere near that cooking power and can quickly and humbly reduce a 'stir fry' to mush. After recently seeing a post about Pineapple stir fry, I was inspired to make this.

For this meal with an old friend, I precooked my rice (yes white...I do not have the budget to throw out what I already have to use brown just yet) in the morning and cooled/dried it in the fridge to firm it up as much as possible. Before dinner, frying it in an olive/coconut oil mixture, I added a couple of eggs, Cumin and pepper, allowing it to crisp on the pan bottom to get some nice texture first. Then I added the red and yellow peppers, slightly steamed brocolli and snow peas, pineapple chunks along with a tad of juice and a bit more Cumin. Separately, I stirred very thinly slice pork mixed with minced fresh ginger in cocunut oil and then assembled it all together. Not the most visually stimulating dish I have ever made as you can see as it looked much nicer in the pan, but it was very flavorful on several levels, crispy and much enjoyed, as was some company for a change.

A tiny cup of Joe

Recently purchasing a tiny $3.00 expresso making pot, I had my doubts about it's longevity and whether it could, in fact, make a decent cup of coffee. I do not own a coffee maker, but from time to time, do enjoy a strong cup, even if it's robustness is then minimized with cream and sugar.

In coming up with the name for this post, I began to wonder where the name 'Joe' came from and as writing these blogs tends to do, I came up with more questions and being who I am, just need to have the answer. Well... it appears that during World War I, the Secretary of the Navy, a certain Joseph Daniels, sought to cleanse the sailors in his fleet of some less upstanding moral practices (think woman and wine, etc...) and in their place, he vastly increased the purchases of coffee for them to drink. I am not sure of how this odd substitutionary connection actually worked or if his grand plan succeeded, but in my findings, it seems that a "cup of Joe' was not really a endearing term during his tenure of Government service. One thing I do imagine though, is that there were allot of awake sailors with time on their hands and that he single handedly was responsible for a huge increase coffee drinking. Interesting.

So...Setting up this little brewing device was quite simple enough, fill the inside strainer with coffee, put some water in the bottom and set it on the burner, allowing the water to steam up throught the grounds, then a little pipe into the reservoir on the top and voila'...expresso!

It was quite good, but needed more, to where my research then led me to 'how to make a latte' and further onto to steaming and whisking some milk. A bit more effort than I anticipated to have a cup of coffee (Joe), but after really enjoying it, I would gladly do it all again. I did...adding cocoa powder. Remember...it's a process and as my small coffee plant that is happily growning on the windowsill next to my range seems to approve, perhaps someday will even provide me with a bean or two.

All things Pumpkin

It seems now every fall and winter, more and more food items are coming up Pumpkin. As if Jack O Lanterns on front porches and pumpkin pie aren't enough, now I see pumpkin coffee, pumpkin beer (if that is considered a food), pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheescake and this...pumpkin pasta sauce.

Found as a link from a Potato Leek soup source, this somehow caught my eye and I thought to take a chance on pumpkin overload. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a delicious, hearty, savory and perfect dish for a winter's night. As time is sparse on most evenings after work, I simply just placed it over a bed of Penne topped with (yes preground) Parmesan cheese. To start, I used a sweet Italian sausage that was browned before sauteeing in the creamy pumpkin sauce with a hint of ginger.

Although we were a tad hesitant to think of pumkin and pasta in the same dish, it was quite tasty and I would gladly do it again, perhaps substituting something more healthy in place of the noodles. 

NomNomPaleo

A web site that I found when researching alternative foods Choices/sources. If you too are interested in healthier alternatives, you should too. The seems to be this whole world of foods, such as coconut oil, which I never really paid attention to. Yesterday, at the market...I found it and am using it already. Fantastic!

This wonderful Cabbage soup I made last night was the perfect compliment to the sweet potato fries (also found there) that I made for a snowing, very cold, winter's night. It was hearty, satifying and warm. It called for kidney beans, but I added garbonzo beans (grabbed the wrong can off the store shelf), but and then ended up finding Kidneys in my pantry, so I put them both in. As with most every meal when cooking for two, I end up with extras that I can save for another time. It was simply browning organic, grass fed beef in the coconut oil, adding the cabbage and sauteeing it down, then I tossed in cellery, tomatoes, some spice and after simmering it for an hour, we were set. Hayden was happy...which makes me happy.

A thought, or two, or three...

This is true I think.

In reflecting on the above quote, I don't think I have done any of these things very well for too long a time now...not that anyone would have noticed that is, but for at least some of them, it is time to start and dining well, is a good place to. I have always enjoyed food... the aromas, the sight, texture and of course, the taste. There are some things that enliven my pallet more than others... lobster of course, chocolate is another and fruits of many kinds...great bread or cheese, but I am blessed with the ability to really enjoy and thus appreciate good food. I have heard others tell me here and there that eating to them was mostly about gaining sustenance...filling their belly so to speak and that makes me sad...both for them and for whomever might have the misfortune to have to cook for them, for in my opinion they are really missing out on a large and meaningful part of life. As I mentioned in the post linking to this on my other blog, whether it is a fine meal received in a good restaurant, or enjoying a lovingly home cooked dinner, a special picnic, or even a box of strawberries shared in the car, eating is one of life's great experiences and however it is that one shares a meal with another, is so much more than just simply putting food into your mouth. It has to be. Yes, there are times when 'grabbing a quick bite' has to be done, but those times should be rare and it breaks me to see families or couples at a table, sitting staring at their phones or some other distraction as if they exist in different worlds, ignoring what is possible. I have certainly found that no matter how good the food is or how carefully it was prepared, that there is no more of a solitary act, than sitting by oneself, eating alone...

As long as I can remember, I have always wanted a home based food structure...a place to grow my own food...vegetables and livestock to eat. Natural, wholesome. Nothing elaborate, but enough to share with friends and those around me and the idea of having a co op of some sort has been appealing for years. When I was young, we had a small, city type of yard, but in my teen years moved to a more suburban location that afforded my  father with space for a large garden and greenhouse and I always enjoyed my time in either of them. I remember with fondness the tasks of growing, gather and preserving our own food. As an adult, the idea of sharing raising chickens and eggs and other animals along with a suitable orchard and garden seemed like a good one. There could be nothing better than to fellowship with such a purpose. Going out myself to hunt and intentionally gather my 'sustenance' has in the past been a privilege that I have enjoyed and all of this should all be part of the process of eating. I think in modern times, we have removed ourselves too much from the perhaps unsavory, but necessary acts of sourcing our food ourselves and are denied the awareness to the history of things that find themselves on our plates. I think it diminishes the whole experience. Dining well should encompass all of these things.

Now in a place where it is impossible to do what I would dream and in a period where work alone, captures the vast majority of my time, I have had to give up some of these home grown ideals. I can only but hope now at least that I can still engage with good culinary choices to source and prepare a table and when I might have the rare opportunity to share dinner with another, that it is healthy, tasty and enjoyable. I hope that by doing so, perhaps some of these other things spoken by Virginia Woolf above can fall into line as well. I still believe all of them should be essential to life.