Estate Sale

I was on my way home from walking a client's dogs, and I saw this sign for an estate sale. I usually don't stop at these events. I"m concerned that Geraldine will kill me if I bring home one more damn thing. " Do we really need another dough scraper?" she might say. My reply would be; "Yes, because you never put the other one back in the same place." If I have 3 of them I can stash them all over the place, and maybe I'll be able to find one when I need it.

Besides that I'm still looking for that half million dollar Native American Indian blanket I saw on Antiques Road Show. Since my client's house is in Piedmont I figured there might be some great treasures, and sure enough there was still plenty to go through. There was so much kitchen stuff that they had to put it into the living room and out on the deck.

First of all, the kitchen, no, the whole house, was right out of the 60's sitcom Leave it to Beaver. I was waiting for June and Ward to show up at any time. Was the Beaver actually a silent sexual code? I mean Beaver Clever?  How about F Troop?  The Fukowee Indians, I mean come on. How that got past the sensors I'll never know.  But, I digress.

There was a  collection in some cabinets in the garage of miniature furniture, and the silverware collection was very impressive. I mean people don't use these silver tea services like that any longer. There was a lot of silver there. The only time I ever see anything like that  these days is if we go to High Tea at the Fairmont Hotel, and we do that about every 20 years. I have tea at our house quite often when I'm high.

The lady of this house was very classy for her time, and  I could tell she could cook. She had some cool cook books on her shelf, one that I was tempted to buy, and another that had at least 30 yellowed strips of paper in it. I know she used these little pieces of paper to mark recipes she was working on. There was no Wolf stove, no convection oven, but I'll bet she made some wonderful meals in that kitchen. A real stay at home Mom who had cookies and milk for you when you got home from school, just like June would for the Beaver.

The estate sale was bustling with people. Some of them shoving you out of the way so they could get to things. There's another reason I don't like to go to these sales besides the fact that my wife is dead set against me being a pack rat, and that is, estate sales make me sad. I don't like the idea of getting a great deal from someone's beloved Mom, Sister, lover, brother.

I know it's not the things that are important, it's the people and the memories, but I have little mementos from my Mom, that make me think of her every time I see them.  I keep them scattered about the house so I'm often reminded of her. I kept her calendar that she had on the kitchen table above the computer in our office at our home in Oakland for the longest time. Mary's kitchen table was her office desk. She crossed off the days of her life on that little calendar. The last one she crossed off was July 15, 2004. She died at that table most likely not long after she crossed out that number.

I've got many of my Mom's things in our kitchen because that's where I am a lot of the time. The kitchen is one of the common bonds that held me and Mom together. Food was our language, and that little kitchen table was where we had many a great meal, and spent untold hours talking about life.  Some of those tiny treasures that I have around the house were her culinary tools, a spatula, a rolling pin, a dish towel, a frosted water pitcher and matching glasses. I've got her clothes pins out in the  backyard with the basket she kept them in to hang dry wash.

In the end I bought a stool for 22 dollars (Not pictured), a beautiful little sauce pan with the lid for 5 bucks,  a metal dough scraper for 2, a citrus squeezer for .50 cents, a cast iron decoration (not shown) that you're supposed to put baby corns in for 5, and a small meat cleaver to remind me of Beaver Clever. When I use those tools I'll think of that house in Piedmont, and June, Ward, Wally and the Beaver.

Just now I went looking one of the two liquid measuring pitchers that we have in the house. Could I find it?  Hell no.  I knew I should have bought that one I saw at the Cleavers.

Estate Sale treasures

Where the hell did she put those?

Peace,

Make Food Not War

new sauce pan put into service

Granola

I made some granola the other day. Everyone associates hippies with foods like granola, or  GORP, (Good Old Raising & Peanuts) and if you follow this  blog you know that I love my protein,  that I'm not the "mellow' hippie. Granola does have protein because of the nuts and coconut. I do love my granola and cold soy milk for breakfast right after, not before, my morning walk with the dogs.

The price of granola is out of this world. Sometimes we purchase granola from the  La Farine Bakery in our little area of Oakland. The quality of their baked goods there is amazing including their granola  Generally speaking good granola runs around 6 dollars a pound. I can eat half a pound of granola as a snack, but it's rolled oats, honey and few other ingredients thrown together, and then baked in the oven. Six bucks a pound seems awfully expensive to me.

The other problem with granola is people say; "Oh granola, healthy, I'll eat a big bowl." Wrong, good yes, but it's also packed with calories. In this recipe I put coconut, honey, raisins, 3 different nuts, cranberries, dried cherries, dried bananas, maple syrup,  and brown sugar. All that sweetness packs a punch on the paunch.  Half a cup will do me or anyone for that matter just fine for breakfast.

So, I decided to make a big batch for Geraldine and myself.  I was multi tasking, and that's something an old man shouldn't be doing especially when he has something in the oven. I overcooked the granola but, Geraldine says it's great so it has to be half decent, and she's right because we both keep eating it. If you follow these direction you'll be just fine, but don't make my mistake. I picked out the overcooked parts around the edges, but I'm still a  little disappointed with myself. It's very rare indeed when I overcook foods.

The recipe is below the photos.

 Make Food, Not War

Oats and fixings 

mix it up

bake it up

finished

                                                     Granola
Ingredients:
6 cups organic old fashion rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup almonds
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 dried cherries
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon  ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crushed dried bananas

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

2) In a plastic zip lock bag and a mallet crush the walnuts, and almonds into bite size pieces and add to the bowl.

3) In a large bowl combine the oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, vegetable oil, coconut, maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and the nuts. Mix well. Use your hands, and make sure everything is incorporated evenly.

4) Spread this mixture out evenly onto two sheet pans, and place in the oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Then take it out, and turn it over, and put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

5) Remove it from the oven, and let it cool, and then mix in the raisins, cranberries, cherries and dried bananas. You're done.

That's it. Enjoy!

Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I  had a discussion with this woman Elizabeth that I work with on the farm every Wednesday, and she called hipsters, pigsters because of their love of pork products.  Well, I went on line and looked for some statistics regarding the consumption of pork in the USA, and this is what I discovered.

First, let's define what a hipster is. Wikipedia says; "Hipsters are a subculture of young, recently settled urban middle class and older teens that first appeared in the 1990's. They are associated with independent/alternative music, varied non-mainstream fashion sensibility, Apple products, liberal or independent politics, alternative spirituality and lifestyles. Hipsters are a mutating trans Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behaviors. Hipsters are the new, post WWII, hippies, punk/grunge rockers of the new millennium."

Sounds a lot like what us hippies were called back in the day with the exception of the computer element. Essentially they are recycling what's already been done, and that's cool with me. We baby boomer hippies from the 1960's were just recycled Bohemians and gypsies that preceded our existence.   I just wish I was skinny enough to get my ass into a pair of those tight fitting britches they all wear. I never liked bell bottoms. You can't run in bell bottom jeans, and you just never know when you're going to need to hit the bricks.

I have discovered that they love their pork products, and pulled pork is at the top of the list. A lot of hipsters here in the Bay Area seem to be from the Midwest, although that might be a generalization. They like to eat, and I like to cook. The hipsters are alright with me. They can't do any worse that we did, since we've made an obvious mess out of this world.

In the Midwest pork consumption is at it's highest, 58 pounds per year, followed by the south at 52 pounds, the West at 42 pounds. People in rural areas eat more pork than us city dwellers, and African Americans eat more than whites or Hispanic Americans.

Surprisingly, Denmark is the top consumer of pork products per-capita. The US ranks number 12 in consumption behind Canada at number 11, Spain is number two, and China is number nine.

I love the other white meat, as pork is called, and lately I've been eating my fare share of it. I made this recipe, and I had about 6 sandwiches over a three time span, and froze the rest for the near future. "What's different about my recipe than these other recipes that I read", one might ask?  It's the bread. Virtually every recipe I read said to serve this sandwich with a hamburger bun. Well gag me with a spoon. That's the best you can do, a friggin' hamburger bun? Why not just put it between two pieces of toilet paper, and eat it with chop sticks.

In order for this sandwich to not fall apart in your hands, and make it through the entire process of consumption, it needs a strong foundation.  Get a good rustic baguette, or a sour dough roll, or  chabatta bread, and for God sake, toast it. It's still going to drip and get a little soggy, but it will hold up till the end. I can testify to that.

I also made some French fries, and stuck those on top to add a little crunch and soak up some of the juice from the meat. The other ingredient I might use would be pickled red onion or a nice crispy Cole slaw without the mayo. If you follow this recipe you cannot go wrong. I promise. Man, I love this sandwich.

Hip, Hip, Oink, Oink

Peace,

Make Food, Not War

                                    Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches With French Fries

Ingredients: (Makes a ton of sandwiches...have a party)

6 pound pork shoulder roast
1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
4 cloves of garlic mined
1 tablespoon sage
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 large onion chopped

Directions: For the roast

1) Trim fat off of the roast and cover with it it will sage, paprika, chili powder, black pepper, garlic. and onion.

2) Add the vinegar, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and BBQ sauce to the crock pot and place on the high setting.

3) Put the roast in fat side up. The liquid should cover at least 1/2 of the roast. If not add a little water or more chicken stock. (the roast will release juices that will add to the pot so not too much liquid)

4) Cook for 8 hours turning the roast a couple of times during the process.

5) Once it's finished pull it out, and let it sit for a half hour, and then remove the excess fat, and shoulder bone.

6) Take the juice from the crock pot and let it cool, and then put it in the fridge separate from the meat. The fat will rise to the top, and you can skim this off, and save it to cook with later, or discard it.  Once the fat has been removed keep the meat in the juices. This will keep it from drying out.

For the sandwiches:

1) When reheating the pulled pork for sandwiches get your skillet hot and then put in the pork. Cook till the juices are reduced.

2) Roast the roll and put BBQ sauce on both sides with some pickled red onion or a dry Cole slaw.

For the French Fries:

Ingredients:
Potato
pure corn oil
salt and pepper

Directions: (see below the photos for the rest of the instructions)

1) Julienne a medium sized new potato

Pork should in crock pot with juices

pork shoulder finished

pulled pork meat

Dutch oven French fries in corn oil

reheating pork with juices 

finished julienne French fries

pulled pork sandwich with French fries

2) Put about 4 inches of corn oil in a medium sized Dutch oven, and heat to 375 degrees

3) Add the French fries a handful at a time. (Note: if you add to many fries the oil will cool down too fast and the fries will be soggy.  To cook one medium sized potato I do it in 3 batches.

4) When they are nice and golden brown scoop out with a slotted spoon, add salt and pepper, and place on a paper towels to soak up the excess corn oil.

Place some fries on top of the pulled pork sandwich and around your sandwich. You're done, now EAT!

Seafood Bisque

As we can see the titles of my blogs are taking on the names of food dishes that I feature each week. I cook every week, usually something different so I might as well blog about it . Not only do you get my witty and insightful repartee of life each week, but you get a good recipe out of it. It's sorta like Cracker Jacks, you get the crappy caramel corn (my witty repartee), but it's the little prize that you actually covet i.e., the recipes.

My neighbors are from Boston, Red Socks fans, which I don't hold against them. They're very nice people with three adorable lovely children. They just came back from New Hampshire and mentioned that lobster is $3.50 a pound there. Of course when I heard this my mouth began to water at the sound of lobster, which also brought to mind lobster bisque.

I love soups. They're fairly easy to construct, and they last for days. Since I still had some rock fish left over from the vomit trip outside the Golden Gate, and a can of good crab meat I decided to make a seafood bisque. I procured a pound of jumbo prawns, and using the shells from those, and the bones and leftovers from the rock fish I built my stock for the bisque.

Soups, stocks, and sauces are the foundation of classic culinary cuisine. If anyone is serious about cooking these skills must be mastered.  I've said this a thousand times if I've said it once; "If I can do it, anyone can." I've also said that cooking is not easy, it's hard work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. I once asked a chef in this restaurant  that I was working at if I could go home after having worked for 12 hours, and he looked at me a bit disgusted, his head tilted back, and in his best American/French accent said; "That's only half a day Marcel, get back to work." I worked 15 hours that day.

Cooking is the most elementary form of chemistry that we know. You put ingredients together, chill, add heat, let it sit at room temperature,  add yeast, whatever, and see how these ingredients and forces react to one another. I feel if you can keep it simple, and let the natural flavor of the foods be front and center instead of the letting the spices, herbs and marinades dominate the primary food then you've got it made.

Most of the people you see cooking on TV, that's not real. The English guy, chef Ramsey, who yells at people, if he did that to me I'd have to kick his ass. I've never actually seen an episode of that show. I can't even watch the trailers. You don't get the best out of people by yelling at them. Not only is it not reality TV, it's not in the real world.

It seem like everyone is trying to outdo everyone else these days. For me it will always be the basics with some twists and turns, a little fusion of this with that, but the basics rule. If I have to have another bowl, another bite, if I pick up the crumbs with my fingers, ask for seconds and have to have more, then I know I hit a home run. Those are the only recipes I will post on this blog. If I haven't got anything good for the week I won't do a blog.

So, here's my recipe for seafood bisque. It goes well with nice crisp salad, a fresh rustic baguette, and maybe a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

           
Peace,

Make Food, Not War


                                                                 Seafood Bisque

Ingredients:

1 cup of onion minced
1 medium carrot minced
2 stalks of celery minced
1 quart of fish stock
4 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup parsley chopped fine
8 oz. crab meat
1 pound white fish 1/2" cubes
1 lb. jumbo shrimp, shelled and devained
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper
olive oil for cooking
1 cup white wine (optional)

1) In a medium sauce pan with a quart and one cup of water place the shrimp shells and any fish bones or scraps you have for your stock. Bring to a boil and then let simmer. About 15 minutes. Strain the mixture in a bowl and put aside.

2) In your cast iron Dutch oven add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and saute your carrots, onions and celery till they are soft.

2) Once the above is done put the carrots, onions and celery and two cups of  the fish stock in a blender and pulse on high till everything is incorporated.

3) In the Dutch oven melt the butter and add the flour slowly and make a roux.

4) Add the heavy cream slowly to the roux and whisk making sure no lumps form.

5) Then add the fish stock, the shrimp, the fish, the crab meat and all the other ingredients.

6) Bring to a boil and cut the heat to simmer. Add the white wine and let cook for 45 minutes stirring the bottom occasionally to make sure it doesn't burn.

7) Rapid cool and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Note: Soups always taste better the day after. It need time to sit, chill, and let the ingredients marry together.

Reheat slowly and serve with sour dough bread or a rustic baguette.

shrimp shells and fish stock

mirepoix

 

mirepoix and stock blended

butter/fat + flour = roux

roux

roux, mirepoix and fish

seafood bisque finished product

Crogue Monsieur

This weekly blog is going to be a short one. This week is extremely tight. I have to paint the west side, also the hot side, of our house for my summer vacation. Being a grown-up sucks.

I decided to do a blog on the sandwich crogue monsieur for several different reasons. First and foremost it's in the top ten sandwiches of all time in you ask me, and since it's my blog I can declare that it is. Secondly, I just made  mac and cheese again for our national night out bloc party tonight, and reserved some the m & c sauce so I can make a couple of crogue monsieurs. Thirdly, I just did the mac and cheese blog two weeks ago, and coming to the idiotic realization that all I needed to do to fix my crappy mac and cheese was to grate my cheese (not cut the cheese), and to make a morney sauce and hey, why not check out some recipes while you'e at it there Geroges Escoffier.  Fourth, when we were in Paris this spring I had two crogue monsieurs sandwiches at two different establishments, and I was sorely disappointed both times.  Fifth, and lastly, overall I've been unhappy here in the Bay Area, the foodie capital of America, with the crogue monsieurs I have ordered.

So, what the f__k is a crougue monsieur, (and if you do, you'll clean it up), one might ask?  Crouge in French means crunch. Monsieur means mister. So, it's Mr. Crunch which I think it's a good name for a punk band. They could throw toasted cheese sandwiches at the audience. The crouque monsieur is the original toasted cheese sandwich. I make mine with jambon, or as we say here in America,  ham. You put ham and cheese together and you cannot go wrong, well.

Here it is complete with photos. If it does not crunch, you did something wrong. Making a great crougue monsieur is a matter of heat, or temperature control, and timing. If it's undercooked the bread is soggy.  You can just as easily overcook it, burn it, and it will taste like charcoal. If you cook it just right it's crunchy on both sides of the bread, and on the inside, the cheese is melted, and the ham is warm.

Of course mine always come out perfect. So does my mac and cheese now, I"m very happy to say.

Have a beautiful week.

Peace.......Make Food, Not War

                                                       Croque Monsieur With Jambon (Mr. Crunch)

1 1/2 cups half and half
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
pinch nutmeg
pinch cayenne
big twist fresh crushed black pepper
pinch white pepper
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 pound Swiss ementhaler cheese grated
1/4 pound smoked Gouda cheese grated
1/4 pound sharp Irish cheddar cheese grated
3 tablespoons Pecornio Romano cheese
2 ounces boiled French or Italian ham
fresh center cut sweet Batard loaf cut on the bias 3/4 inch thick
Good French Djon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped parsley




1) Grate the Gouda, Irish cheddar and Ementhaler cheeses, and put aside.

2) In a small sauce pan on medium heat melt the butter, and flour, cayenne, black pepper, white pepper, mustard powder, and nutmeg and stir to you have a blonde roux, about a minute.

3) Whisk in the milk slowly. Be careful not to burn or scald, but bring to a light boil, and cut the heat. Add 1/3 the grated Swiss, 1/3 the grated cheddar, and 1/3 the grated Gouda cheese and all the Pecorino Romano cheese. Stir till you have a nice smooth mornay sauce, no lumps, and let cool to room temperature.

4) I a large non stick skillet with medium heat place the two slices of sweet batard bread slices down with a weight on them, and toast till golden brown and crunchy, both sides.

5) Brush both sides of the inside pieces of bread with Dijon mustard, and place 1/3 cheddar and 1/3 Gouda and 1/33 the Ementhaler, equally on both sides, and the 2 ounce of boiled ham in the middle.

6) With the snadwich in one hand and a soup spoon in the other lather on some mornay sauce, eonough to cover the bread equally and add the three cheese and flip it into the hot skillet.

7) While the first side is cooking, later the other side, and add the remaining cheese. Don't let the cheese burn. When it's nice and crusty, do the flip, and cook the second side for another minute or so.

See the photos for more details.

Note: Mornay sauce will last in the fridge for 4 or 5 days covered with plastic wrap. Put it in a double boiler to reheat it.

You're done. Cut it and eat it. Serve with thin julienne cut French fries and a cold Ale,  IPA, or a  dry white wine.

                                                   NATIONAL NIGHT OUT PHOTOS

Michelle BBQ ing

Alberto and Sister

Mike and Newborn Baby girl

Tito 75 and Jack 91

insides toasted

mustard and cheeses applied to insides

toasting the insides

bread, mornay sauce, ham, mustard and cheeses

jambon added

mornay and extra cheese added side #1

side #1 cooking

splatter wire on top to heat insides

side #2 constructed

side #1 complete, side #2 cooking

finished 

finished product/ crunch crunch