Category: Bread

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A Mohawk Valley Spring: A New Fence Project

Normally by this time of the year we would be planning a summer vacation and perhaps even a fall trip. However, since we, like the rest of the world, have been sheltering in place and avoiding people like the plague – oh wait, COVID is very much like a plague, our planning sessions are only in our “Dreams.”

While I do like the Irish band, The Cranberries, who perform that song so beautifully, we are extremely fortunate to have very green fields behind our Red House. This, luckily, reminds me of Ireland without having to travel there.

However, as everyone knows, being an “armchair traveler” as well as watching as many travel shows as possible (including StanleyTucci’s show “Searching for Italy” which nearly had me weeping), still doesn’t fill the void of not being able to travel. I miss the thrill of getting on a plane or in a car and having a new adventure. I miss seeing new buildings, visiting museums and above all trying different food!

I have overcompensated for this lack of travel by cooking and baking. Homemade gravlax with some chopped red onions, dill and capers? Yes, please! How about a Yukon Gold potato and goat cheese tart in a puff pastry crust? Absolutely!

I spent most of March promoting my new book, Get In The Car: A Food and Travel Memoir. This entailed pouring through old CD’s, revisiting photo albums and searching through my iCloud account for photographs I could use to advertise the book. The challenge was to find the one or two photographs that would accurately portray what the book was about. More often than not, I simply couldn’t decide which photograph to use so would post a few of the ones I thought worked best on social media.

Besides photographs, we also have a lot of great posters that Lynn and I have collected on our many travels. Promoting the chapter about Vienna, all I needed was to take a photograph of the detailed drawing of the “Post Sparkasse” that is hanging in my dining room. And if you are thinking about Paris, so am I. And London and Venice, too! (You know it’s gotten pretty bad when “House Hunters International” becomes your favorite show to watch on TV. )

By the way, all of these photographs were shot by me. I find looking at photographs (and being a decent photographer) helps me when I’m writing. Not only can I visualize the scene I want to put my characters in, but it helps them interact and “talk” to each other. I’m particularly fond of the night shot I managed to capture of the Eiffel Tower on one of our trips to Paris.

If you look at it closely though, the area seems pretty desolate. Lynn and I had just finished dinner and were attracted by the lights of the Tower so we walked towards it. We ended up in a neighborhood we weren’t that familiar with and since two out of the three times we’ve been to Paris there has been a bombing (1986 and 2017 but not 2003), we quickly walked away. Since Paris is still in “lockdown” until the end of the month, I can only assume that these days much of Paris looks like the scene above.

But gearing up for spring, attention must be paid to the garden and specifically the fence. Back in 2010, we put up what we thought would be a temporary enclosure with the assistance of my father. He claimed since he was a “helper” and most importantly, definitely not the “handy type,” that surely the garden fence should have been on the “National Register of Historic Places.” I actually thought that was pretty funny!

Not so funny though is 11 years later, how truly awful the fence looks. Constructed originally just to keep the deer and the rabbits from eating our vegetables and flowers, I’m amazed it actually didn’t fall down (in spite of Dad’s help) because of our very cold and snowy winters.

Here’s what this “beauty” looks like today- rusted gate hinges and all.

Hiring someone to install a new fence wasn’t even a conversation Lynn and I had. We thought we’d order some of that “no dig” fencing, get a really strong rubber mallet, pound it into the ground and hope it would work. We also hoped it would last as long, if not longer, than the first one.

Of course we gave ourselves a “deadline” to do this project. We have about four weeks or so not only to get the garden into shape (weeding, pruning, raking, etc.), but also get all the vegetables and herbs I had purchased from a CSA farm share I bought in January planted.

To take my mind off all this work and to try out a new kitchen “toy” I had purchased earlier in the year (but never used), I decided to take my dehydrator out for a “test run.” This came about because I love chives, especially dried ones. I found myself getting angrier and angrier every time I had to shell out $5 (or more) on a small bottle of chives just so that I could have scrambled eggs with chives! It must be a European thing, I know, but it just makes a potentially shitty day so much better if you at least have the illusion of a “fancy” breakfast in the morning.

These gorgeous goldenrod-colored eggs are from one of my favorite farmers – Jones Family Farm. We’ve known Peter and Suzie Jones since we bought the house and I’m so honored to be able to not only purchase healthy food from them but am humbled by their back-breaking work.

But first, the barrel that the chives had been growing in for probably 20 years before we got here finally collapsed and we had to get a new one. After much heavy lifting, more splinters in our hands that we care to mention, plus the fact that the new bucket had a “Jack Daniel’s” sticker stapled on the side, should have given me a hint. Yes, the wood did in fact smell like whiskey! Would my chives become whiskey-laced, too? (The answer to that is no.)

I thought for sure when we replanted the chives into their new “home” that they would rebel. Would they “kick the bucket” by dying? (They didn’t, they cooperated.) Which is why even a mere two weeks after lifting up the entire chive “hedge” (really it was so heavy it looked like it was a small hedge) and dumping it into its new Jack Daniel’s “digs,” it began to grow profusely.

So a few days ago I decided to read the manual for the dehydrator not realizing that I would need between six to ten hours to “dry” said chives before they could be properly stored. (Don’t you just hate when you read a recipe and realize whatever you are thinking of making is going to take you 2-3 days?) I actually didn’t think it would work. And now I also know why dried herbs cost so much! The drying time alone has got to be a money loser. Here’s my new toy and the progression of the drying process. As you can see, two large racks in the dehydrator yielded less than half of a small glass jar when all was said and done.

I will definitely cut the chives smaller next time and experiment a bit with drying other herbs, too. But since I have an abundance of chives and time, I relish not having to spend money on herbs I can dry myself.

Meanwhile, it’s been raining so our fence installation project is on hold. I did manage to rake up some dead grass and leaves as well as the remains of last year’s various vegetables. And I am very happy to see the tulips that I planted in a variety of colors are blooming!

I needed a lunch break after all this activity and when I looked outside, who did I see but Mr. Bunny! I’m actually not sure if he is a boy or girl bunny but I like to call “it” Mister just for fun. And where is he sitting? Right in front of the fence gate we are about to remove and replace. I will mention that Mr. Bunny seems to be a lot fatter than he was last year. And his little nose was pointing in the direction of the part of the garden he particularly likes to try and get into – where lots of good things to eat like lettuce and broccoli and sometimes, carrots, too, will be planted.

I tried to photograph him but he is very quick to run away. And like many rabbits you see in illustrated children’s books, he has the most adorable white bottom! And most importantly, he has a tremendous hop! Speaking of children’s books, I started perusing my bookshelves for something new to read. (I have also started to compare my “volumes” with all the talking heads I see nightly on TV but tune out to what they are saying just to see what books they have behind them on their shelves.) I picked up an old copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book The First Four Years and truthfully, even though I was an advanced reader at a young age, I wondered how I got through it.

“For it was June, the roses were in bloom over the prairie lands, and lovers were abroad in the still, sweet evenings which were so quiet after the winds had hushed at sunset.” Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote.

Reading this sentence now, I can see the roses blooming across the prairie and appreciate the winds lessening at sunset, but did I at the age of ten? (The book though written in the late 1940’s wasn’t published until 1971.)

On that note, it would be lovely to be “abroad” – using the word as in visiting a foreign country rather than in the context of lovers walking over a wide area. Hopefully, at least by the end of this year we will be able to at least “hop away” for a while so that we, like “Mr. Bunny,” can see some different pastures.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

My new book Get In The Car: A Food and Travel Memoir is available on Amazon.

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A Very Long Year

I often find myself standing in front of the fridge looking at all the magnets I’ve collected on our travels. Sometimes a memory or two comes back from a city we’ve visited, a noteworthy museum or historic house we were lucky enough to see, or a certain dish at a restaurant that was really good. But the moment is fleeting and once I open the fridge, it’s all about business – planning breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Fridge Door = A Memory Magnet Wall

As my past few blogs this year have revealed, there’s been a lot of cooking and a lot of eating. Lynn has learned how to make soup and pasta and perfected his pizza making. I baked more than I like to and what we didn’t eat, we froze. I finally got around to looking at old cookbooks that had been sitting on my bookshelves for years. And I read new cookbooks as if they were novels. I devoured each page as if it were a dish itself since my days were based on finding “activities” (i.e., making meals) that would not only pass the time but nourish us as well.

All Kinds of Goodies

Memorable Oyster Moments

I discovered my local supermarket carried freshly shucked oysters from Maryland swimming in their natural brine and bought myself a cast iron pan that I hope to eventually use outside on the grill (where it belongs) instead of in the oven. Taking inspiration from Sarah Leah Chase’s recipe in her New England Open House Cookbook, I learned how to put together a decent version of “Oysters Clark Rockefeller.” I made my own creamed spinach (using frozen spinach and half & half) and it came together beautifully with the addition of some grated Jarlsberg on top. Even as I was making this dish, however, I couldn’t help but remember one New Year’s at Leon’s Fine Poultry and Oyster Shop in Charleston, South Carolina. We spent a sunny afternoon there sitting at the bar and eating platters of coal-grilled oysters while sipping Spanish Cava!

It’s About Time For A Hike

In between all the cooking (and eating), we walked as much as we could before the cold weather and the snow started. We found trails in nearby marshes, walked around a few lakes, and into a lot of forests.

There were waterfalls to visit that were close to home and picturesque covered bridges to cross. All of this made me very happy that if we had to “quarantine” any where in the world this is a pretty nice place to do so.

Crackers and Butter, Why Not?

And then I made crackers. It seemed an okay recipe at the time but the dough was a bit dry and even though they came out fine in the end, the sesame seeds didn’t properly adhere to the dough. Guess what, we ate them anyway!

Then I heard about a shop that was making their own butter. I began to follow them on social media and subsequently paid them a visit even though it was a 45-minute drive away. While I thought the concept was unique, I was disappointed with their product. Consequently, a few days later I just whipped up a batch of my own “compounded” butter flavored with pink Himalayan sea salt. Full confession: I over salted my first batch but have containers of heavy cream sitting in the fridge waiting to be whipped into butter again.

Supporting Local Farms and Stocking Up!

Since March 2020, I have tried to support as many local farms and small businesses as possible. When the weather was warmer and we could have lunch outside at a restaurant, we did. Suddenly though, restaurants started closing. Either they weren’t making enough in takeout orders to keep their establishment solvent or unfortunately, they were forced to shut down because one of their employees had tested positive.

One afternoon we were craving a hamburger from a place we had been to before. I called to phone in an order only to listen to a recorded message that said their restaurant was closed “indefinitely.” So, we went home and for dinner that night I made the hamburger and tempura-fried onion rings we both wanted. (No, the burger wasn’t really this tall; I just wanted a dramatic photograph so stacked everything really quickly and hoped it wouldn’t topple over!)

As the weather got colder, we visited many local farms although Lynn gave a thumbs down to buying a pumpkin. Why? Because last year’s was torn to shreds by either a deer or squirrel or both so we bought tons of squash and apples instead.

I also bought a small freezer to stock up on butter and chicken and meat fearing we would face another round of food shortages going into the holiday season. We had absolutely no place to put an extra freezer in our house so it ended up going in the laundry room which works just fine for us.

Golf? Leaf Peeping? Day Trips?

We even bought some old golf clubs hoping to hit a driving range before it closed for the season even though we never did quite make it there. And we drove, sometimes hours, just to look at the leaves changing colors in a state park.

We visited places we had never been (Hamilton College Zen Gardens below). And went to see as many lakes in the Adirondack Park as we could. (And that’s beautiful Bog River Falls at the bottom of Tupper Lake.)

Picnics!

We often brought lunch with us after buying a really cool thermos that we filled with homemade chicken soup. To kick things up a notch, I also tossed in some store-bought tortellini at the last moment which resulted in a pretty decent version of “Tortellini en Brodo.” Lynn was so pleased that I had even packed a tablecloth on one such outing. He probably thought I was trying to be “romantic.” Actually, I was just trying to cover up any bird poop that might be splattered across the picnic table we were eating on.

Suddenly, Winter

And then it snowed. So we shoveled the snow off the deck and hauled the snowblower out of the garage. We just hoped it would start quickly so we could dig out our driveway!

The local kids started to sled down the hill next to our house and every day we would find another pair of discarded gloves or a hat thrown on our lawn.

The cold weather kept us indoors so I made stuffed cabbage and pulled out the sous vide machine to make chicken. I even ate cauliflower even though it has always been my least favorite vegetable. Hint: tossed with pancetta or bacon, some sliced olives, garlic, parsley and Parmesan it actually becomes edible!

TV Time

We started to watch cooking shows in the early evenings (before the grim newscasts about the number of COVID-19 deaths that day) just to get some ideas about different dishes we could make. This resulted in fish baked in parchment on a bed of slow roasted tomatoes with herbs and white beans. Oh and wine, you need lots and lots of white wine for this dish!

I also finally gave in and bought myself a non-stick frying pan just so that I could learn to make a “real” French herb-infused omelette the way I saw Jacques Pépin do on PBS! (It takes a lot longer to make an omelette this way, but I absolutely love the way it just slides out of the pan.)

I even made biscuits!

Then There Was The Meat Slicer

Yes, truly. I grew up in Munich, Germany, where cold cuts are “king” or at least “König-like” so I was comfortable with this new toy. I also wanted to wean Lynn off of unhealthy processed meat lunches and make my own ‘”healthier” protein for him to eat. After this purchase, we started roasting boneless pork roasts, center cuts of beef and huge chicken breasts. Sandwiches were topped with slices of unfortunately tasteless out-of-season tomatoes but spruced up a bit by a homemade mayo and horseradish spread. Salads were lavishly adorned with slices of chicken and ham was cut to order for leisurely and late breakfasts.

And We Talk and Talk (Childhood Stuff Is Frequently Mentioned)

Lynn and I have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time together, now even more so. Luckily, we rarely run out of topics. We find ourselves remembering things that happened to us growing up. Lynn likes to tell me his “baked good” story even though I’ve heard it a thousand times before. Apparently when he was a young lad, a friend would entice him to go to a local shop to buy a “baked good.” Even though Lynn wasn’t quite sure what a “baked good” was, he went along for the adventure. (If you, too, aren’t quite sure what a “baked good” is, it’s simply something that was baked, i.e., a cookie, cake or cinnamon roll.) I decided to share with him a food memory from one of my many “summers in Whiting” stories.

Similar to his quest for a “baked good,” my summers in Whiting, Indiana, often involved a trip to a local supermarket with my maternal grandfather. There he would pick up some Hostess cupcakes and I learned from him the proper cupcake eating etiquette. One had to gently nibble first on the waxy chocolate frosting with the decorative white squiggle on top before digging into the cake portion beneath it.

Of course I overcompensate with all this nostalgic memory stuff by making French toast for breakfast one morning using leftover brioche and topped with some raspberries and local maple syrup. And for lunch? Well, I find a recipe I’ve been wanting to make for an Austrian apple cake and decide why make just one cake when you can make two? (We are not total gluttons, we eat one for lunch and freeze the other.)

These days we try to be upbeat but do worry about our adult children, my parents and other family members. To get out of the house we often visit a local farm. There we buy cheese, chicken livers if available, as well as lamb and veal. We freeze everything for future meals and on the way out, we take pictures of Jones Family Farm goats.

Embracing The Gray and the Holidays, Too

We spend Thanksgiving by ourselves, having decided as a family that it was too dangerous to get together now that we couldn’t totally socially distance or be outdoors. Since there was no need to make a turkey for the two of us (we had homemade lasagna instead), I suddenly had an entire afternoon on Thanksgiving Day with absolutely nothing to do! What did I do to pass the time? I decided to cut my hair!

As a woman of a certain age, I have embraced my gray hair and even more so since it’s actually turning a funky shade of silver! And since a visit to the hairdresser as well as a nail salon are big no-no’s for me, I just snipped off about two inches myself. Here’s the new me right after we put up our Christmas tree.

We celebrated Christmas alone as well which meant it was the first time we had spent a holiday without either of our children. We “make do” by eating platters of deviled eggs topped with salmon roe and some fresh dill. And the pâté? Well, that was tucked into little “nests” that I had crafted from the leftover sesame cracker dough.

See that mother-of-pearl caviar spoon? I was lucky enough to purchase it at a restaurant in Paris one year after a very delicious lunch. Sigh, I do miss our European adventures!

And Last But Not Least, Our Final Bathroom

Since we are home indefinitely, we also decided to tackle another (and hopefully last) big home repair project. Normally, this would not have been an article I would have covered here, but since we are not traveling or dining out, I think the “Let’s Go!” blog can make an exception to my own rule.

For those of you not familiar with my previous blog “The Red House Project,” I wrote about the renovation of our house for nearly nine years. Here’s the link to the story that describes how I tackled this very ugly bathroom by myself one summer. http://theredhouseproject.eathappy.net/the-beginning-of-the-red-house/learning-how-to-play-with-boy-toys/ .

We had put off renovating this final bathroom for reasons we can’t even remember. When the kids and their spouses/partners come to visit, it becomes “their” bathroom. It was functional but old and dated. It was time.

So, we went to the “Big Box” store one more time, bought some tile and a new vanity and toilet that will be installed by some subcontractors. When we approached one subcontractor about also updating our bath/shower combo and asked him for an estimate, he responded with a number that was astronomically high. (His fee for this small bathroom redo was about the price of a used car!) Obviously we said no and started to plan to demolish and renovate the bathroom ourselves. After a few false starts and a couple of returns (vanity faucets to be precise), we tallied up the receipts and have spent a little under $300!

The fake marble paneling on the walls came down, and after much trial-and-error we managed to remove the bathtub faucets, too. Hint: white wine vinegar and a special $9 tool! What to see the “Pro Puller?”

To this day I still marvel at Lynn’s drawings and am really truly thankful he can do most of this renovation with a little help from me. This approach also saves us a ton of money!

In the meantime since I’m a trooper, I’m outside in the freezing cold helping him saw pieces of wood so we can build a wall.

Which we did!

Eventually the old drywall will come down around the tub but we needed to put up the wall before the new floor is laid.

Would I rather be traveling and eating oysters at a bar somewhere rather than renovating a bathroom? You betcha! Do I need a few more magnets to add to the “memory wall” on the fridge? Absolutely! As a matter of fact, I hope in the years to come that we can add more than a few to our collection.

Here’s to a happy, peaceful, and most of all healthy New Year everyone.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Cooking, Baking and Some Reflections on Family Life During COVID-19

Since we have been sheltering in place since March 10 (the school district on Long Island that I work for was the first to close because of a confirmed Coronavirus case), it has given me ample time to reflect on the many things I’m grateful for.

First and foremost that the house I live in now is the biggest house we’ve ever owned. There are lots of rooms to wander in and out of, plus a choice of where not only to work but read as well. I also, finally, have a kitchen that’s really big. This means that when I’m cooking, it’s perfectly okay for people to hang out and watch me do so. (Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a family party/feast right about now? I think so.)

There’s been a lot of cooking. There’s been a lot of eating. I have discovered cookbooks that I bought or were gifted to me over 30 years ago. I now have the time to read through them and I have even attempted to make some of the recipes. After all, who wouldn’t want to at least leaf through this giant “coffee table” book of Provence, especially when you can’t go there anytime soon!

There’s also been a lot of baking. Since I don’t particularly like baking and reluctantly do it around the Christmas season, this has become a revelation for me. Now I’ve finally come to understand why I originally hated it; it just takes way too much time to bake things. Suddenly, I’ve come to appreciate it! Why? Because all those steps that are necessary to get dough to rise or butter to soften, well, are actually perfect to follow now when all one has is time. So far I’ve made muffins and bread and a fairly simple Dorie Greenspan apple galette.

I even made my first tray of baklava! I remember years ago trying to work with phyllo and not understanding the concept. What do you mean I had to brush this very fragile dough with melted butter while keeping the sheets of dough I was not using under a “damp” cloth. Now I get it. Note to self: see you can teach an old dog new tricks!

I’ve also been making dishes that are labor-intensive. I’m not going so far as to pretend I’m Julie Powell cooking every single recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook (remember she wrote a cooking blog during the aftermath of 9/11 that became a book that morphed into a movie). I have, however, been attempting to cook things I don’t normally make – like challah. I mean come on braiding strands of dough? I could barely braid my daughter’s hair when she was little let alone some dough.

All this cooking by the way, if anyone has been married as long as I have, has made my husband very happy. Apparently, even though I’m a very good cook, he likes the fact that I’m making things I’ve never made or haven’t made in years. Most of which is not very good for him (or me). Case in point: Tempura Fried Shrimp.

And then I spent an entire Sunday afternoon (not that it really matters what day it is anymore) making a new meatball recipe. I know, I know, I don’t like meatballs very much either. But I opened a cookbook, Italian Regional Cooking, (seen here among many others on the shelf above my stove) that Ada Boni wrote in 1969 and I couldn’t resist trying her

Polpetta di Carne also known as “Meatballs in Tomato Sauce Neapolitan Style.” Why? Because I was interested in how combining chopped meat with golden raisins and nuts coupled with bread crumbs, parsley, garlic and “lard” (note: I substituted 2 slices of bacon) would taste. Dare I reveal you have to fry the meatballs and then simmer the whole thing in a big batch of tomato sauce? PS: They were good!

Besides the cooking I’m also working from home. This turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be primarily because our outside IT company was able to get me up and running very quickly. While there are certain components to the job that take 3x as long to do remotely, overall everything is getting done. And ultimately, that’s all that matters.

But working at home has also given me time to reflect on what it would be like if our kids were still young. When I worked at FIT in New York City (and before flex-time was even a concept), I managed to negotiate a four day work week so I could stay home when both our son and daughter were little. I would spend the extra day off (usually Friday) with our first born and sometimes we would go feed the ducks at a small pond in the neighborhood. Other times we’d visit a local amusement park (Nunley’s on Long Island before they tore it down to build a Pep Boys) so he could ride around in a little car.

After lunch and a nap (his not mine), we would color and read and sing songs. Later he would watch me make dinner and when he got older (like around the ripe old age of 3), he was able to make a sandwich on his own or at least pretend he could.

When our daughter arrived five years later, we would walk on the boardwalk in Long Beach, NY. Since my braiding skills even then were lousy, at least I managed to pull her hair back into what I consider a very posh pony tail.

And when she got older, she and I would walk on the sand, often slowly, so she could stop to pick up pretty shells and colorful rocks.

Today during this state of “PAUSE” in New York, I think about parents who are at home with their school-age children and the very many demands that are put upon them. If the parents are trying to work remotely and the kids have school work to complete, too, well say no more. With probably limited outdoor activity and no fun excursions to a beach or boardwalk or local park, I can only imagine the high levels of stress for everyone in that household.

I’m also wondering how Lynn and I would cope with raising teenagers during this time. Both our son and daughter were very independent. Could we conceivably have asked them not to leave the house during this time to go hang out and visit their friends? If we had tried to make them stay home would they have listened to us? I think probably not.

In the meantime, my parents, now in their 80’s, are home on Long Island. Our daughter lives close by with her boyfriend and she does check in with them via phone and an occasional drive-by. Our son and his wife are in Astoria. They run every day to break up the monotony of being at home and trying to work from home. They not only call the grandparents but Facetime us frequently, too. For that I’m very happy. And while I love the tremendous amount of space and property we have at the Red House, I miss our children during these very trying times.

For now, I will keep cooking and baking and working from home. And for all the kids out there, the young ones in particular who are pretend doctors and bakers and carnival-makers (like the two you see below), you never know, some of them might actually remember this time fondly.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Teaching Myself To Cook One Pot Meals

Last weekend I challenged myself in the cooking arena. I pretended I didn’t know how to cook and found three New York Times recipes and one recipe from Food & Wine that I thought I would “try” to make. These were supposed to be simple one-pot meals, which as many working families know, is a blessing if you are trying to put together a quick dinner.

When we were living on Long Island, I would spend a good portion of every Sunday afternoon cooking for the kids (and us) to make sure there were at least a couple of decent meals I could simply warm up in the oven during the week. As a full-time working mother, I often wouldn’t be home until 6 p.m. and Lynn (when he was lucky) wouldn’t be home until nearly 7:30 p.m. In other words, I needed all the ready-to-go meal help I could get!

Over the years, I had developed a few simple meals that I would make repeatedly. Chili, roast chicken, meat sauce for pasta, and schnitzel. I was able to rotate these simple dishes for quite a few years until the kids grew up. Luckily for me, they both got after school jobs at an early age and often just ate whatever they could grab on the run.

I had learned to cook at an early age. I was not even a teen (12 to be precise) when cooking was an activity I really enjoyed. Even back then I could be trusted to put together some sort of chicken or pork dish in a mushroom cream sauce, make crepes (sweet and savory) and even dessert (usually cookies or a cake). Living in Munich, Germany, also had a lot to do with it. I wasn’t into sports, television didn’t come on until after 6 p.m., and there are only so many books a young girl could read!

To set myself up for this weekend challenge I decided I would try to follow the recipes exactly as they were written. This was a bit difficult for me because as I read through some of them, I knew not only was there a better way to do it, but sometimes even a better ingredient could have been included in the dish. Plus, since I’ve been cooking so long (over 46 years at this point – gulp!), I only follow a recipe when I have to bake.

First Dish – Shrimp Scampi With Orzo

I always have a bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer. This may have something to do with me always hoping for “unexpected” guests and being able to whip up some sort of shrimp dish in a hurry if I have to. The fact that I’ve never once in my entire life had an “unexpected” guest visit anyplace I’ve lived is irrelevant. Therefore, since I had the shrimp already, the only thing I would need to purchase for this first dish was a box of orzo. Everything else was already in my pantry, too.

I cleaned the shrimp and cooked the orzo. Luckily the night before I had watched a Jamie Olivier cooking show where he added raw shrimp to a dish of pasta he was cooking. I usually like to cook shrimp before I add it to any other ingredient that’s already cooked. The fact that he was so nonchalant about adding raw shrimp to the pasta gave me the courage I needed to do the recipe exactly as written.

The orzo cooked up very quickly as did the shrimp. When it was done, I thought there was a bit too much liquid. Yes, there was lots of parsley and white wine which I love but I found even the spritz of lemon at the end was overwhelming. I’ve made my own version of this dish in the past, adding some roasted tomatoes and chunks of feta which gives it the creaminess I think this dish was lacking. Here’s a picture of The New York Times version, followed by mine.

Second Dish – Cheesy Baked Pasta with Radicchio

The next night I put together a baked pasta with radicchio that I had seen in Food & Wine. The challenge here was two-fold. First, where the hell was I going to find radicchio in upstate New York without driving an hour east to a Whole Foods or an hour west to Wegmans?

Luckily, a 10 minute drive to the over-priced Hannaford supermarket in the next town proved they could sometimes surprise you. They did in fact carry radicchio and low and behold they actually had three whole heads for a mere $4.99 a pound! (Note the sarcasm here, please.)

I picked up the radicchio that looked the least wilted and was actually bizarrely happy that I found it so close to home. I mean really, look at the color of this vegetable! Yep, I did play around with this image courtesy of Instagram but it shows the layers really well this way.

The supermarket also had prosciutto on sale which was a plus since I needed it for the dish, too. I sauteed the red onions, sliced the radicchio into ribbons as instructed and added the garlic and red wine vinegar. I cooked the pasta and then poured it into a buttered baking dish. Normally, I don’t like any pasta (other than lasagna) that’s baked, particularly macaroni and cheese. I could never understand why cooks insist on putting a breadcrumb topping on such a classic American dish. To me, the whole point of mac and cheese is to eat creamy mac and cheese not breadcrumb-dry mac and cheese. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I mixed together the goat cheese but substituted gouda for the fontina cheese because fontina was nowhere to be found. I also omitted the nutmeg because I simply don’t like nutmeg. As I made my way through the steps of this dish, I thought cooking all of these ingredients separately was just WAY TOO TIME CONSUMING. I thought about how quickly I can usually put together a simple cheese and veggie pasta dish (which is basically what this dish consisted of). Had I not been doing this “cooking exercise,” I don’t think I would have baked this dish either.

Was it cheesy? Yes and it actually tasted better the second day because all the flavors had time to sit and simply blend together.

Here’s a picture of Food & Wine’s version, followed by mine.

Besides the pasta that day I also whipped together a “simple crusty bread” recipe that I hadn’t made in years. Originally, I thought it was the same recipe my Dad uses when he makes bread but alas, I was incorrect. This New York Times recipe got a ton of press when it came out in 2007 because it had four simple ingredients (yeast, kosher salt, water and all-purpose flour) that you just mix together. How could you go wrong?

As I was trying to maneuver the dough into the pan I was using, I remembered why I hated this recipe. The dough was so wet it was physically impossible to pick up! Plus, more than one-quarter of it kept sticking to my fingers, my hands and the countertop. Also, I really like kneading dough and this recipe omits that step.

The dough did rise however and I took it out of the oven when I “thought” it was done. Looking back it should have cooked about 10 more minutes to get a crispier crust and not have such a dense interior.

Meanwhile back on the farm (just kidding), it was really cold outside. So cold in fact that there were these really long icicles that were hanging off the roof of the house! In addition to the cold, the wind was howling outside, truly sounding like a freight train. When we woke up in the morning (after getting a nice glimpse of a crescent moon and Venus the night before), I opened the fridge and almost everything was frozen! What had happened overnight?

The only thing I can figure out is that the fridge is right next to a window and perhaps the cold air just kept blowing into that area all evening? This meant that the potatoes I had bought to make that night’s adventure in cooking dish had frozen, too! I tried to salvage some of them but just found myself getting angry that I had spent money on food I then couldn’t eat.

Want to see the icicles?

Third Dish – Salmon With Potatoes and Horseradish-Tarragon Sauce

At one point I owned Chef George Lang’s cookbook “The Cuisine of Hungary” but alas I think I lost it in the last move! That said, the fact that this was his recipe intrigued me especially since 1) I love salmon, 2) I love horseradish and 3) I love sour cream! (After all my great-grandmother was from Hungary.)

I sliced the few potatoes that didn’t have “frost bite” as paper thin as I could without the aid of a mandoline. (I’m terrified of mandolines.) I put them in a baking dish as instructed and added some shallots. This is what they looked like after cooking for about 20 minutes.

Then I mixed together some sour cream, tarragon and horseradish. I was supposed to “brush” the sauce on top of the salmon that would then be placed on top of the potatoes. When I did this, however, the sauce ended up looking like frosting and even after the salmon had cooked, it still looked that way! Which was really kind of weird.

See what I mean?

The salmon was very moist prepared this way though and I loved the sauce and the potatoes. Bottom line: I would make this dish again.

Fourth Dish – Dijon Chicken With Shallots and White Wine

Holy Moly. This recipe called for 12-15 medium shallots! I had bought six, used one for the above-mentioned salmon dish which meant I had five left. I thought five would be more than enough, after all these were kind of big anyway.

I melted some butter in a frying pan and sauteed the chicken as instructed. First problem was that the chicken thighs didn’t get as brown as I thought they should. Since I didn’t want to “cheat” by putting them in the oven (which would have given them the brown color I was looking for), I just left them on the stove and added the rest of the ingredients.

This recipe had a lot of wine, almost too much I thought. Ditto for the tomatoes. But the sauce, when it reduced, was really good and ultimately even though the bread didn’t turn out as planned, I grilled up a couple of slices and we ate it with the chicken. If I make this dish again though, it’s definitely going in the oven!

Ultimately, I liked making all of these dishes. It was actually kind of fun to pretend not to know how to cook and follow a recipe pretty much exactly. I do think, however, they might have been too difficult for your average person who doesn’t know their way around a kitchen or even how to shop for some of the ingredients. Luckily for me, this adventure was motivated by the cold weather outside and me wanting to stay inside. After all, we only turn the TV on at night and there really is only so much even this “older” girl can read.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Twelve Courses: Backhouse

We had been to Backhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake for lunch last fall. The restaurant, set in a non-descript row of shops away from the main tourist scene, was a definite find. We enjoyed our lunch so much that October afternoon that I was determined to return for dinner, and so we did two weeks ago.

Backhouse, with Chef Ryan Crawford at the helm, focuses primarily on wood-fired cooking. This means if you have the opportunity to sit at the “kitchen bar” you will get a first-hand look at everything that is being prepared, sliced, roasted, grilled and plated. It’s basically like getting a front row seat to see your favorite rock band.

Cooking on the line that night was a young woman who answered by the name of Chef Ashley. She was very busy making pasta, checking to make sure the fire in front of us was at the right temperature and adding more chunks of wood when it wasn’t. She was also stirring soups, tasting the dishes she was preparing and plating, too! It was fun watching her focus so intently on her craft.

The Beginning

I will admit I do read TripAdvisor reviews before I visit a restaurant. I also discount the ones that many people write when they complain about portions being small, a menu being “weird” and dishes too expensive. I figure those people shouldn’t be at that restaurant in the first place. (I will confess I am both a restaurant and food snob.)

After we had decided we were going to do the chef’s tasting menu of yes, twelve courses, two gorgeous silk cutlery rolls were placed before us.

The fact that we were given numerous utensils to choose from (big and small spoons, knifes, forks and even chopsticks) made such incredible sense to me. Not only could we, as diners, choose how we wanted to eat a certain dish, but it freed up the servers from having to run back and forth to replace our silverware after every course.

While some people I have read complained about this “gimmick,” I actually thought it was brilliant. Plus I loved the Asian feel of the roll and I can’t say that I’ve ever eaten with brass-colored silverware!

First Course

We started with an amuse bouche of a single gougère stuffed with duck liver mousse. Not only was this bite a delicious savory treat but I loved the vessel it was served in. Look at the feet!

Second Course

Lynn had eaten this dish before – a creamy egg mousse concoction nestled in an eggshell and topped with gorgeous hunter green kale “pearls.” It was a melt in your mouth treat and we both wanted more of it.

See what good eaters we are?

In between courses we got to look around at the restaurant decor. There was lots of wood. And wine. And the roaring fire in front of us.

And there were knives!

Third Course

This course amused me. It was essentially a potato on a plate with some spicy crumbled sausage on the side. In concept it looked like a variation of a hasselback potato but these were cut in the shape of a mille feuille. Hence, when you cut into it, you could see the very thin layers of this perfectly cooked potato. I took two shots of this dish; the first one as it was served to us. The second one I tore apart briefly with my fork to show you the layers.

Fourth Course

Next up was bread and butter. Now normally this isn’t even considered a “course” in most restaurants since most places will bring a basket of bread to the table once you’ve sat down. But at Backhouse both the bread and the butter are homemade and of course baked in the wood oven. I think we ate ALL of the sourdough bread before I remembered to take a picture. Luckily, I managed to snap a photograph of the three butters served that evening before being devoured as well.

Fifth Course

I love soup. I especially love root vegetable purées. Tonight’s featured soup special was a squash purée that was topped with some crispy prosciutto, a few cubes of roasted squash and what looked like a sage leaf but might have been a piece of crispy kale. The fact that we watched one of the chefs slice the prosciutto on a handy Italian slicer, then crisp it in a pan to be used in the soup was mouth-watering. (I also on occasion have fried up some prosciutto for breakfast instead of bacon. I prefer the taste and try to tell myself it’s a “healthier” option.)

Look at this gorgeous slicer! It’s sharp! It’s red! There was a trend in Munich in the 1970’s where it was considered perfectly normal to have a meat slicer in your home kitchen. There you could buy large quantities of smoked meats (salami, ham, bologna) and slice them up to feed cold cuts to your family. Since Germans ate a lot of cold cuts this struck me as being both practical and economical. We never had a meat slicer but it was probably a good kitchen gadget to have if one was so inclined to eat that way.

Sixth Course

A play on words describes our next course which was a salad. In “Leaf it to Ashley,” the chef noted above who was cooking for us that evening, it contained some greens (including frisée which I love), croutons, more prosciutto and a couple of other items that are beyond my description.

I need to divert here a bit and talk about the greenhouses in this area of Ontario. Crossing over the border near Buffalo and/or Niagara Falls we see a lot of land and trees. Once however we drive closer to St. Catherine and Hamilton, we see greenhouses. Massive greenhouses. The bulk of many of the vegetables I’m buying these days seem to come from these big greenhouses. Case in point, at my local Price Chopper, a good 75% of the produce (Boston lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, green onions and tomatoes) have a “Product of Canada” sticker on them. Since we are closer to Canada now, I actually prefer buying these food items rather than an avocado that comes from California or an orange from Costa Rica.

Seventh Course

Before this course was served to us, we got to observe another chef who was rolling out dough to make what looked like handmade penne. I won’t have to tell you that pasta is one of my favorite things to eat – macaroni and cheese in particular. (And yes, I do believe it’s a cardinal sin to bake said dish in the oven and top it with breadcrumbs!)

Imagine my delight then when we were served some thick rigatoni-like noodles tossed in a kale and walnut pesto with some shards of cheese on top. While I’m not a big kale fan (I find the stuff tasteless and cardboard-like), this absolutely worked in this dish. I know kale is supposed to be healthy, but hey, a girl can’t like everything!

Eighth Course

Even though it was a prix fixe set menu, our server let me switch out the guinea hen course (aka “chicken”) and have the spring trout instead. Lynn’s chicken, I mean guinea hen, came with some lovely beets. It was perfectly roasted but truthfully my trout with more kale (!) and some grainy mustard and horseradish was better.

Ninth Course

I’m tired of seeing “pork belly” on a menu. First of all, you can swear up and down about how good eating “fat” is. It’s not. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with more than the occasional fatty piece of meat at the dinner table that I could barely choke down and inevitably would try to get rid of whatever I was chewing by doing the cough-in-the-napkin-thing. This is why to this day I always prefer to order fish rather than meat when dining out. This was the only course so far that was just okay. Don’t get me wrong I love pork and ham and anything pork-like that is pulled or barbecued. It’s just that me and pork belly, well, I just don’t get it..

Tenth Course

And then when asked what type of cheese was available, I was told they had over 25 varieties! We were brought out a selection of three firm cheeses (including an amazing cheddar) and one soft. Where’s the cheese you ask? Apparently I forgot to take a photograph BEFORE we started to dig in and all that was left were a few slices of sourdough walnut and raisin bread and the remnants of the cheese slate.

Eleventh Course

In this part of Ontario, ice wine is a big deal. Since I detest sweet wines (and any type of dessert wine for that matter), ice wine and I are never going to be a couple. The ice wine “float” that they brought to the counter reminded me of the old school lemon sorbets certain “fancy” restaurants used to bring to you between courses. This was supposed to “cleanse your palate” – or prepare it so to speak – for the next course. Luckily, this “float” wasn’t terribly sweet, and I loved the bit of fun this course brought to the bar.

Ice wine was poured into a champagne glass holding a dollop of sorbet and some carbonated water was spritzed out of a soda siphon into the glass right in front of you. It worked.

Twelfth and Final Courses!

Beet Cake and Roasted Squash Crumble

Besides switching out my entree, I was also allowed to choose a different dessert. I usually get away with this because I say something along the lines of “wow, I’ve never had (insert name of dish here) before and I would really like to try it.” This kind of menu enthusiasm has never failed me.

Let me talk about one review about the beet cake that I read on TripAdvisor. Someone absolutely hated it which is why I so desperately wanted to try it. In fairness, you have to like beets and be okay with the fact that sometimes dessert doesn’t have to be sugary, sweet or have chocolate in it. The beet cake they brought out that evening had the consistency of a pound cake but with an intense savory beet topping. Was it the best dessert I’ve ever had? No. Was it the most creative? Yes.

Lynn’s dessert was a slice of roasted squash with some crumble and a mousse-like cream. I had some of his, too.

Finally, we are not gluttons. Each of the twelve plates served was truly a small plate, think tapas. It takes a long time to get through this meal (3 hours!) but it doesn’t drag on. There’s a lot to take in visually since the chefs are working right in front of you. Plus, there’s lots and lots of good Niagara escarpment wine to drink. And to that we say Cheers!

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Adjusting

It’s been nearly seven weeks (but who’s counting!) since we moved permanently to the Red House. It has taken some time to get used to the fact that now, for the first time, we have no “home” to go back to on Long Island. That means we no longer lose half a Sunday (inevitably a beautiful Sunday afternoon) to get to Long Island so one, or both of us, could go to work Monday morning. Yeah!

I will still be working on Long Island and this week was the start of my Monday morning commute (much better than Sunday afternoons!) I will be staying with my parents (Thanks Mom and Dad!) 1-2 nights a week. Since I’ve been doing this “commute” nearly every weekend for 9 years, it’s actually pretty easy. Now it’s just different days of the week!

In the meantime, we are still hanging pictures (we have a lot of pictures). We even have frames that don’t have pictures!

Plus we’ve already started moving pictures around that we hung up a few years ago and decided we wanted something else in their place.

Although I do like the top drawing by my Uncle John, I prefer the drawing our daughter Rachel made of the Eiffel Tower juxtaposed with Edvard Munch’s The Scream. In her rendition, the “screamer” is in miniature form and floating on a cloud. (She was very young when she did that picture, so rule out any extracurricular party drugs, please.)

Closets? What Closets?

Trying to find room for everything (mostly clothes) in a house that has ONE walk-in closet downstairs (for coats originally but now housing all of Lynn’s hammers and drills and screwdrivers and nails, etc., etc.) is nearly impossible. There is also a small closet in the master bathroom but eventually it will be made into a linen closet.

That means, we have clothes stuck on rolling racks that are more suited for fashion shows. Meaning they should only be holding a couple of designer outfits and not the shirts and pants and dresses and coats we’ve hung on them.

We already broke one such rack when it crumbled from the weight of too many sweaters and jeans. Just look at it!

Garden Update

In the midst of all the unpacking and arranging and rearranging, I’ve tried to tend to the garden and am happy to report that for the first time in many years, I have zucchini! They are still little but I have hope they won’t be eaten by birds or insects or a bunny if he or she manages to get inside the fence.

We also have peas growing quite well, broad beans that are doing okay, and tomatoes that are coming along quite nicely.

Then there’s the lettuce. When our son Nicholas came up to visit, he thinks the lettuce we grow is the best he’s ever had. Glad he likes it and the simple salads I make too!

And look at all the flowers.! We have day lily’s in a brilliant orange, and Stella D’Oro ones in a gorgeous yellow. I really love flowers and those growing in the garden right now not only add a welcome splash of color against all the green fields but they just bring the garden to life.

I’ve also put up what Lynn refers to as the “cemetery fence” and since he has a sense of humor, he will start humming an appropriate cemetery “dirge,” usually something along the lines of Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend.”

This is due to the fact that the last three summers I planted roses, the deer have taken it upon themselves to eat them – thorns at all. I was tired of spending the money (rose bushes are expensive!) and taking the time to plant them, only to have the deer “help themselves” so to speak.

As you can see, the deer love to wander not only on the back 4+ acres, but in the front lot, too close to the street for their own good which makes me very nervous for them and the drivers! We have a lot of big trucks (think milk!) and RV’s and campers that roll up and down the steep street especially since there are a lot of farms further north and a very desirable campground about 15 minutes from us.

A New Neighbor

In the meantime, we’ve finally learned the name of an elderly neighbor (Helen) who I would always wave to coming up from Long Island because she was usually sitting on her porch (at least in the summer). Helen told us she had been a dressmaker in the day when there were not one (!) but at least four dress shops in town. (Now we have zero.) She also said she had lived in her current home for about 20 years since she had taken care of her mother-in-law. She is now by herself but even in the winter I see her with a little shovel pushing the snow off the sidewalk onto the street.

“Do you know how old I am,” she asked us as we were walking into town to partake in the town’s annual cheese festival.” I hesitated thinking she was probably in her 90’s but before I could answer she blurted out, “I’m 89!” Followed by “do you want to see the inside of my house?”

We did not but assured her it was kind of her to invite us in. In the meantime, she pointed out the three garages she had (at least one of which she rented out) and the fact that no one could “do” stucco anymore. “See those cracks on the side of my house?” she asked. “That was from the earthquake.” I looked at Lynn but didn’t say a word.

As it turns out, he later told me that there was in fact an earthquake in upstate New York, sometime in the early 1980’s. He says he remembers “feeling it,” when he was living in Rome, New York. I had already moved from Syracuse and was working in New York City, where the only rumbling I was experiencing was from the subway.

Little Falls Cheese Festival

Although this has been an ongoing event for the last five years, it was only our third time attending the festival. The city shuts down a good chunk of Main Street so vendors can set up booths selling anything and everything cheese-related plus other items, too.

Luckily, the weather cooperated so the turnout was nice. We bought some cheese (how couldn’t we?) and visited with people we knew from nearby farmer’s markets.

This year’s winners included (once again) great goat cheese from Jones Family Farm.

As well as a new guy out of Troy, New York, (R&G Cheese Makers) making some pretty amazing mozzarella. (Little to no salt plus lots of flavors = a very good product.)

And last but not least a goat cheese from Cochran Farm 1790 that is appropriately called “Mohawk Mist” which was pretty darn good.

Best of all, after all this cheese and meeting new neighbors, it’s lovely to be able to walk along the pathway by the Eric Canal (yes, that Erie Canal). It’s very peaceful by the water and being able to spend time outdoors on a beautiful sunny day is a gift.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.