Bread and Butter Pickles

I got Juice!

I've always been a fan of carrot juice and fresh fruit\veggie juices. We had a 19th century cider press growing up and so I know fresh squeezed when I taste it. At one point I sort of looked at juicers because I thought it would be sort of fun and had the potential to produce some wicked cocktails (note: not how you are supposed to think about your juicer) but good ones are $200 and my old kitchen had a grand total of 2.5 square feet of counter space so I lost interest.

Then yesterday I found a secondhand Waring Pro for $20. Which is perfect. I am exactly $20 worth of interested in juicing. Especially now that I have expansive counter space in my life. The juicer has one of those nice solid motors that you feel will outlive you and a terrifying spinning blade. So, in other words it is hella effective. I've made some carrot ginger juice which was awesome and some pear juice which was lushy.

After fiddling around I also did some internet browsing for juicer recipes. I am glad that I did not spend $200 for my juicer because this would make me a Serious Juicer. And my web searching taught me that Serious Juicers are FREAKS.

Cuke Soup

It's hot and sticky here in Chicago but I have the summer off for the first time since oh...1992 (teaching RAWKS) so I've been thinking about what's for Lunch in different ways as of late. This week, in particular, I've been moderately obsessed with chilled cucumber soup with yogurt. After a couple of experiments I have decided that Kefir is the way forward. It gives a nice sour\tart flavor but avoids the feeling that one is simply slurping down a bowl of taziki which is what happens when you start mucking around with Greek yogurt and milk. Cucumbers used were either traditional or lemon cukes featured in the photo.


Current working recipe:
One large shallot
One clove garlic
Juice of one large lemon
1 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
Small handful of fresh dill
4 lemon cukes or 1 and half traditional cukes
1 quart plain kefir

Finely, finely dice shallot and garlic. Sprinkle with sugar and cover with lemon juice. Let sit for a least an hour. Chop up cuke and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and put in fridge. Go do something else for awhile.

In the large bowl throw in the shallot\lemon\garlic mix which should have mellowed the sharp, weepy sulfur business by now. Grind in a bunch of pepper, throw in the dill and pour the kefir over the lot. (A bit of fresh mint is okay here as well, mostly this is because the mint on the porch is Ginormous and I need an outlet.) Immersion blender, throw in the fridge and you're done. (Part DCCCXCI why immersion blenders are essential equipement).

Chicken Candy?

On Valentine's Day the 8th graders were all enraptured by teddy bears and roses while the little ones buzzed away on sugar highs.

As a third grade class left my room a little girl said "Happy Valentine's Day Ms. Mann" and pressed a piece of candy into my palm. I said "Thank You" while I thought to myself "That's an awfully lumpy lollypop."

As a resource teacher, I thought that the lumpiness was probably due to my low status with the third graders. Clearly, your peers are going to get the choice items followed by your regular teacher followed by the likes of me. So, I thought I'd just gotten a broken or melted and reformed piece of candy.

But no. I pulled it out of my pocket and what to my wondering eyes should appear but picture of a roasted chicken and the word "pollito."

Pollito? Ah, si little chicken.

The cause of the lumpiness was not my low status but instead the chicken form of the candy. This was clearly not what I was expecting.

I'm terrified to sample it. The ingredient list includes high fructose corn syrup AND chili. But I can stop from imagining that the experience would be like sucking on a bullion cube.

The Start of the Annual Tomato Bender

The only really good thing about stupid hot weather is that in Illinois it usually happens at the same time as tomato season. I grew up eating proper tomatoes which means I'm picky about them and only want real ones (real = not well traveled, smells right, possibly dirty and best if hot from sun). However, when they are around it is about all I want to eat.

My first box of cherry tomatoes was purchased at the first sign of availability. They were very cute, but it was little early to get the really full bodied tomatoness. I am happy to report that we seem to have turned the corner though and are in the throes.

Mmm, grillings.

At a yard sale this summer I found a $3 mini Weber and it figured it was meant to be. I realize there are people in the world who insist cooking on a gas grill or under a broiler is the same thing as grilling over charcoal.

They are wrong. So far some of my favorites include:

A Cornish hen split down the center, backbone cut out for broth and flattened. Then done up with a glaze of olive oil, herbs, dijon and black buckwheat honey. The project also taught me my new favorite word "spitchcocked" which means to grill\broil\fry after being split down the middle. It apparently used to refer primarily to the cooking of eels but I would really like to see it enter wider usage.



Salmon marinated Japanese style (soy, marin, sesame oil) and then wrapped in a banana leaf package and thrown on until the leaf dried out.

Happy 4th of July

I'm off for a LONG weekend in rural, internetless places so happy early holiday!

The Dread Eggplant

I really love most veggies, even less popular ones like beets and kale and brussel sprouts. However, I truly loathe eggplant. I find it very pretty but just plain nasty. I don't the taste, the smell or the texture. The only preparation I've found that I will eat is baba ghanoush.

This does not reflect on a growing open mindedness towards this member of the belladonna family on my part but rather the fact that baba ghanoush is pulverized eggplant with other intense flavors thereby obliterating any trace of Satan's veggie's native taste, smell, or texture.

Because I have a new grill and it is hot I decided to make baba ghanoush as a part of my lunch box this week and so yesterday I did something I have never, ever done in my entire life. I bought an eggplant. And took it home. And threw it on the grill as I ate my meal last night.

This morning I made the baba. The process of getting the eggplant into the food processor reaffirmed my dislike (that spongy give is just NASTY) but the end result was pretty rocking. My flavor set was lemon, garlic and a good whallop of chipotle sauce.

Flavored Butter

Tucked away in my notes I found a recipe for a flavored butter. I'm unsure where I got it from but it is easy a nice to have on hand; especially since I picked up a mini-Weber at a garage sale this weekend and am now all into what I can put on the grill. (I do find it sort of hilarious that because grilling is supposed to be all butch, grill accessories are all HUGE. The charcoal aisle at Target is flanked by giant tongs, forks the size of my arm and sauce mops. Gentlemen, face up to the facts: you are cooking. And normal size utensils are going to give you better control. If you can take the heat.)

But I've digressed. This a great on a grilled steak. I've got notes about it working well for sauteeing chicken or fish (although it has a low burn point so you'd probably want an oil splash in there) and this morning I used for huevos ranchero.

• 1 stick butter (softened)
• Zest from two limes
• Juice from one lime
• 1 small shallot, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic. finely diced
• Fresh Herbs (I had chives and tarragon on hand so that's what I used, parsley would also work well)

Throw in the food processor. Scrape out and chill.