New food

We went to not one but two new restaurants this weekend. Well, technically one of them wasn't new for Dovie but it was new to me. They were both quite good, and we'll be back.

Granite City

On Friday night we headed over to Granite City, which is a chain brewpub. It opened several years ago, but I've always been kind of leery of the place, mainly due to the fact that it's attached to the mall. I didn't know for sure if it was a chain but kind of had that feeling. But, I wanted to hit up Best Buy and Barnes and Noble and they were over there, so we figured we'd check it out. Eating there definitely overcame my prejudices

Our food was great. I ordered their schmancy bacon cheeseburger, which was quite good albeit a little too big. The rest was my lunch today though, so I'm not complaining. It came with some waffle fries, which are always delicious. Dovie ordered a burrito, which she said was good but not particularly memorable. She was super jealous of my burger and will probably order it next time. We also got cups of clam chowder with our meals, which were the real stars of the show. Both of us declared it to be Alien Abduction* clam chowder after our first bite. It came with some decent bread too - nice and chewy in the way I like.

*Alien Abduction X is what we call things that, if Aliens came to Earth and told us that the fate of the entire planet hinged on how good generic thing X is, we would offer them this version of it. The soup was that awesome.

The beer was pretty good too. The only real complaint was when the waitress screwed up our order. I ordered their wheat beer, and Dovie ordered a Mountain Dew. Somehow Mountain Dew was mistranslated into 'Bock', but it wasn't that big a deal since that was the next beer on the list I was going to try anyway. I also finished off dinner with their Stout, which was good but not as much as the first two beers (though to be fair, I wasn't in as much of a Stout-y mood, I just wanted to try theirs). They were a little more beer-snobby than I would like. I enjoy beer, but don't really care that much about things like beer-dish pairing or any description longer than 10 words or so. Maybe I'm just a Philistine. A to Z's review complained that the place was tooting its own horn at every turn, but we didn't feel that way. It could just be that they visited the place not long after it opened. We did get an ad for their weekend brunch on the takeaway box afterwords.

All in all, it was pretty good. The menu and the general ambiance of the place reminded me of Blue Ridge Grill back in VA, which is a mini-chain that my parents are big fans of. I actually like GC better since it's cheaper and has a great beer selection. We'll definitely be back (prob on a friday night again for the chowder).

Post-script to this meal - after I finished off that last beer and was a little tipsy, we headed over to Barnes and Noble, where I basically ignored this post of mine and bought the rest of the Wheel of Tedium books that I don't own.

Manna Cafe

Manna Cafe is a coffee shop/restaurant/bakery in a extremely unassuming strip mall the north side of town. Dovie had lunch there with her on-maternity-leave boss a few weeks ago and loved the place. We headed there for brunch this morning and it was pretty good. I figured it would be a hole-in-the-wall place based on the exterior, but it was quite nice inside and waaay larger than it looked. I think it was recently renovated.

I ordered the french toast with bacon, because I'm a sucker for french toast and their variety was made from cinnamon sticky buns. But as usual I was kind of underwhelmed by it. The strawberries on top were probably the best part. A few years ago the platonic ideal of french toast in my brain must have changed, because since then it has seemed that every time I make/order it I've been disappointed. It was still good, don't get me wrong, but it still felt like kind of a letdown. I thought their bacon was a little too crispy too, so I might get something else on the side next time (i.e. potatoes). Dovie ordered the Wisconsin Omelet, which had Chevre (PURE WIN), caramelized onions (yet more win), basil. tomato, and other things that I'm forgetting, and a side of potatoes. I tried some of both and they were incredible.

I'd love to go back here for lunch. Jennie got their turkey club last time and declared it an Alien Abduction sandwich. The rest of their menu looks pretty intriguing to me too...

Midwinter Grilling

While I was jaunting around southern Wisconsin last weekend, visiting a dog we might adopt, I came across a local meat shop near Darien and popped in to see what they have. I picked up some decent sausage (which became meatballs at dinner that night), but the main thing that caught my eye were their ribs. It was 'warm' that weekend so I was hoping to have an excuse to grill.



I cobbled together a couple of rub recipes and used salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar, and garlic powder as my rub. The recipe I had called for more or less steaming the ribs in a covered pan with water in the oven for 2 hours before the grill, which I was kind of skeptical of, but the result was just fine. One of the nice things about grilling in winter here is that the snow catches the ambient light so you can see what you're doing a little better when grilling after dark.



Final result:


I also made a loaf of fellow grad student Jason Murcko's excellent Challah bread





I love making braided breads - they look so cool when you take them out of the oven.

The ribs were pure win - this was my first time cooking anything like them. Maybe in the summer sometime (if I'm here...) I'll experiment with full-on smoking and the like in the grill. I'm looking forward to doing these again.

Thanksgiving, the aftermath

Well, here's the spread:


I guess I didn't need to add the leaves to the table (dying laughing). We ended up moving the chairs/place settings so we didn't feel like we were miles apart.

The turkey was delicious, but I overcooked it a bit. I'm not quite as daring as the folks who cook their turkeys to ~155-165, but I made the mistake of following the directions of the package and cooking it for 3 hours, which resulted in 180+. Next time I'll probably pull it out at 170. It was still pretty tasty though - just sayin.

The mashed potatoes and gravy were delicious as usual - thanks Dovie! We made sure to make more gravy this year because it's always the first thing to run out when eating leftovers.

I kind of screwed up the rolls, presentation-wise this year. However, they're more delicious than I ever remember. I decided to experiment and rise them overnight this year rather than doing it on the same day, and after reshaping them I did the second rise while the turkey was cooking. They grew really huge - I probably should have split them into two pans. What I ended up with was a pan-shaped mass of roughly divided (but delicious) bread.




The big new thing was the chestnut dressing. I thought it was good, but I don't think I'd put it above our usual stuffing recipe. This recipe has you shape the stuffing mix into patties and cooking them on a cookie sheet, which I've never seen before. The result was good, but I think I still like our regular recipe better. From a practical perspective shelling all those chestnuts was...interesting. I managed to cut myself under my fingernails on three seperate fingers while shelling them. Chestnuts are delicious though, so it was worth it. Next year I think I'll just add chestnuts to our usual recipe.

I also made some Cranberry daiquiris, courtesy Keith Law and bon appetit. I made them last year to mixed reviews, but I thought they were better this year despite the liberties I took with the recipe. I only use one type of rum, and this year I used the cranberries from canned cranberry sauce (GASP) instead of regular whole cranberries. They imparted more flavor, especially considering I didn't pick up any cranberry juice to dilute it. It was still pretty strong, but very drinkable. Klaw's warning is very important - I drank one glass during dinner but drank the rest while making stock with the carcass afterwords.

Pie-wise, I just made an apple pie, which disappeared rather quickly over the holiday weekend. It's not necessarily my best pie (see: Peach-Blueberry/mixed berry pies for the champ) but it's probably my favorite and one of the easiest. Pie making is so easy now that I've learned how to use my obliterator for makign good pie crusts. I've earned the ire of my mother for trashing her traditional family pie recipe (which IIRC uses Crisco) for being waaaay too dry. I'm glad I've found a butter-based crust I like, and is incredibly easy to make.


Kira, of course, enjoyed Thanksgiving (her favorite holiday). I didn't get any pictures of her confusion about mashed potatoes, sadly. It's a good thing everything smelled so good, as she's pretty much blind now :( she's still hanging in there and is a happy girl, but I think she misses her buddy and is a bit lonely these days.

Final injury tally:
4 cuts (3 below fingernails, one minor one on thumb that I didn't notice until an hour or so later). One minor burn while basting turkey.

Overall: WIN!

Book Review Clearinghouse - The Omnivore's Dilemma and thoughts on food

Since I'm waiting out a hailstorm in a Starbucks here in Los Alamos, I thought I'd finally get to work on clearing out my list of things I've read. Many of these books I read *a year ago* while here at Los Alamos, so I'm shamefully behind.

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

This was a fascinating read, albeit pretty depressing.

The first half of the book is all about industrial farming. I knew that corn is in just about everything, but the stuff he reported on in the book went even above and beyond what I thought about corn's dominance of the food market. The thing that surprised me the most is that a vast majority of the corn we see growing in the fields is not edible as it is grown - most of it goes to huge processing plants where it is broken down into 'corn commodities', like corn syrup and the myriad of corn-derived chemicals that you see on your food labels. I don't remember if it was this book or somewhere else (but probably this book) that pointed out that agriculture is incredibly susceptible to Prisoner's Dilemma-type situations. The price of corn (or whatever) goes down, which entices you to plant more and more crops on your land, which further drives down prices and continues to suck the nutrients out of your land. Smart policymaking *could* fix this, but the dept of agriculture is very much in the hands of big agriculture and is geared for large-scale farming, which is incredibly short-sighted and where monoculture farming fits their profit models much better. Current agricultural policy vastly discourages diversity in farming (unless you consider switching between growing nothing but soybeans and nothing but corn 'diversity'), which is much better for long-term farming outlooks. Pollan didn't mention it much in this book, but the Corn industry's lobbying power is why HFCS is cheaper than sugar in the US.

The other big topic in the first part of the book is where most of our meat comes from. Probably the most interesting fact that I came away with was that the old 'corn-fed beef' cliche that we've been inundated with for years is a fallacy in and of itself. Cow stomachs were evolved to digest grass, and are not able to correctly digest corn. Industrial meat 'growers' use corn as a method to fatten up their cows quickly. It does lead to that nice marbled steak which is the gold standard of the meat industry, but in order to keep the cows healthy while they eat all that corn, they have to pump them full of medicine and antibiotics etc in order to make sure that they stay alive long enough to be slaughtered. It's similar for chickens, though for different reasons. Most industrial chickens are heavily medicated due to their close conditions, as opposed to eating an unnatural diet (corn fattens them up too, but chickens are more versatile). The living and slaughtering conditions are quite disgusting too (lakes of manure = gross), but somehow I don't have quite as much of a problem with it. Maybe because it's not a chemical issue, I don't know, but I think it's something that can be more easily fixed, even if it means more expensive meat. I know that both problems come from large-scale production, but somehow I see the first problem as more fundamentally wrong, while the sanitation stuff is more of a cost-cutting type thing. But I digress.

The rest of the book was about sustainable farming, with a brief final chapter on hunting and foraging (that I didn't find all that interesting). The sustainable farm that he visited (and worked in) was in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and was quite fascinating. Their farm was incredibly integrated with nature and natural patterns, and he had several cool methods for his farm. Probably the coolest was the pest control/sanitation - his chickens moved around in a mobile henhouse (which I think was an old schoolbus, I can't remember) that followed the cows around as they rotated pastures. Eash day he'd let them out and they'd eat all the bugs that inevitably bred in the cow manure that the cows left behind. His chickens laid the most incredible eggs, according to the Charlottesville chefs that bought them, because they ate what chickens evolved to eat - bugs (not grains). There was a long section describing his various battles with the ag department (mainly over his chicken-slaughtering operation), and it was pretty cool all around.

The problem with his farm (and larger scale organic operations), is that they only work because they are so small-scale. They do not scale well and require a lot of manpower to generate the amount of food that people require. In my opinion, though things are getting better as far as awareness goes, nothing will change until there is a FULL change in food culture, which I do not see happening. Due to the economics of industrial agriculture, the cheapest foods are the foods that are most processed and soaked with chemicals. which adds another dimension to the culture wars in this country. It's no surprise that the right jumped all over Obama when he made his infamous 'cost of arugla' comment during the primary season. But until prices get a lot closer, fast and processed food will be a large part of our consumer culture.

American food culture is spreading too, especially as regards to meat, and ingrained food habits are very hard to change. 2 years or so ago I was challenged by a fellow mathematician that I met (who was a vegetarian) to try to go a whole week without eating meat, or even go a whole week only eating meat once a day. It was a lot harder than I thought - it's been ingrained that a meal isn't a meal without some meat in it. It doesn't help that I find most protein substitutes unappetizing, for the most part. I like tofu and other soy stuff *sometimes*, but for the most part, it subtracts from my enjoyment of what I eat. I think I do eat less meat now than I used to, but I'm not too broken up about it. I like most meat, a lot. The biggest thing I (usually) remember to ask myself is when I'm making a meal is whether having meat in/with it really necessary? I've more or less stopped eating meat on the few occasions when I have breakfast (unless I have a bacon jonesing), often omit it from pasta sauces, and usually choose other toppings for pizzas that I make/order for myself. The other key thing that I try to remember is Pollan's mantra from his other book (In Defense of Food): "Eat food, not a lot, mostly plants". I do a pretty good job at the first one, though not as good at the other. I've found that I like vegetables a lot more than I used to, but it's still hard to get over my childhood prejudices against vegetables - they're still too complementary in my head.

Farmers' Market Pasta

This isn't as tasty as Jennie's Community Pasta (made from our CSA ingredients), but is certainly inspired by it. I cruised by the farmers' market here in Los Alamos and bought some squash and fresh pasta, and made this guy:



This contains

• Lemon Fennel Pasta (v tasty!)


• Yellow Squash


• Cippolini onions


• Lots of garlic


• Johnsonville italian sausage


• Pearl-sized Fresh Mozzarella


• Feta cheese


• Buitoni Marinara sauce


• Also some great sourdough bread

Were I making this in real kitchen with actual kitchen supplies and greater access to ingredients, things would be a little better. I had to compromise and get the Johnsonville sausage, since it was either that (it had corn syrup in it) or get the house brand (which had high fructose corn syrup in it). Similarly, if I were back home I would make a real tomato sauce, though I trust the refrigerated sauce a lot more than the bottled stuff you just buy off a shelf. I'd probably throw some creminis in there too, since my obsession with them was rising before I ventured off on this cooking exile. In later cookings I chopped the squash into much bigger chunks and cooked it longer, and it made a HUGE difference (I was kind of picking around it the first time).

All in all this is very tasty, though this (first) one didn't turn out as well as my subsequent makings of this. I found out the other day that, much like lasagna, this tastes even better the next day. I think the key thing is the noodles - fresh pasta keeps much better as leftovers than the dry stuff for some reason.

Beef Stew of Deliciousness +1

Last weekend we picked up some green beans and pearl onions at the farmers market, but never really got around to cooking them. I was thinking of doing a balsamic onion + chicken recipe that I've made before with good success, but wasn't really in the mood for it. Jennie suggested that we get some stew meat and make a beef stew...good suggestion. We went to our new favorite grocery store (the Jenifer St. Market - which has a FANTASTIC meat selection) and picked up some stew meat and a few other things that we had run out of, and I got cooking.

I based this on Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Stew Recipe, with a few changes. First off, I only used 1 1/2 lbs of meat (since I was adding a ton of extra veggies). The recipe called for a ton of flour, but it seemed like a waste as it was only going to lightly coat the meat. I only used 1/2 c as opposed to the 2 cups in the recipe. I used some of our dwindling supply of magic Steak Salt to season it, and I think the meat especially turned out very well. I used the rest of our bottle (3/4 or so) of cheap red wine for the pre-marinade. I know the rule of thumb is that you shouldn't cook with wine you wouldn't drink...but I don't drink wine anyway (especially red wine), and it turned out okay. Some of the people commenting on the recipe thought that the wine made the recipe very bitter...they just probably used the wrong wine. I also left out the grated orange peel, which many people did not like in the recipe either. On top of the potatoes and carrots called for in the recipe, I threw in our bunch of french beans (very tasty), the last of my creminis (my current culinary obsession - thanks Keith!), and half of our big bag of pearl onions. I love the way pearl onions taste, but I'll be damned if they aren't a pain in the ass to prepare their skins are pretty resilient. I forgot to add the peas, but all in all this was quite the tasty dish. Definitely a make again.

The main issue with it (also mentioned in the comments for the recipe) is that it doesn't thicken the way that the recipe suggests (or really, at all). Maybe if the full 2c of flour worked their way into the pot it might, but if it's just being used to coat the meat there's no way you can get all of it in (I had tons extra and I only used 1/2 c). I ended up adding some slurry as it went on to thicken it up a little, but it was still a little soupy when it was ready to be served.

Tex Tubbs and a classic pie

We hit up Tex Tubbs mexican restaurant on University Ave last night (after another disappointing aparment showing on the east side). It's a local mini-chain in Madison (it has only 2 locations) that serves american-style mexican food...though a lot closer to authentic than, say, Pedro's (or, ugh, Taco Bell, which I am proud to say I have still never eaten an actual meal from).

Tex Tubbs was pretty good - the chances of us going back to Pedro's again is pretty small between this restaurant and Pasquals (both delicious). Their menu was pretty varied - there were at least 5 or 6 things I could have ordered and been quite happy with. Jennie got some Fajitas (her usual) which she enjoyed, though she thinks she'll try something else next time, given the variety. I got the 'El Pastor' burrito, which was quite tasty. It had a mixture of smoked pulled pork (very tender!) marinated in some red chili sauce with pineapples, and beans, etc. Everything came with some pico de gallo, which I usually do not like (given my aversion to tomatoes, which I am slowly getting over), but I had no problem with it this time (the cilantro in it tasted fresh, which was big).

My only complaint was that they were out of tortilla chips (what mexican restaurant runs out of chips?!), so instead of chips and salsa we ordered a Frito Pie, which we've read about but never eaten. It came in a opened frito bag (big plus) and tasted pretty good, though I don't think it would qualify as legit by Frito Pie snobs. I think I liked this better anyway.

Anyway, after that we headed home, and I made a Peach Blueberry pie, which was delicious. I put the crust in for a few minutes before filling it, which was a good move. I think the bottom crust wasn't cooked enough last time, and it made it a pain in the ass to cut up. We could get slices out of it just fine ~30 mins after baking this time, which really surprised me. I really had to make this tonight before our blueberries went bad. I've had crummy luck with fresh fruit lately (courtesy of shopping at Woodmans) - we got some INCREDIBLE blueberries a few weeks ago but since then they haven't been as good (or lasted as long). Same with the blueberries I got this time - they went bad in only a few days. Strangely enough though the strawberries have been keeping well though (I always have bad luck with them).

Spaghetti with Sausage + Mushroom Marinara sauce

I went to the Farmers' Market last week (yay!), and while I was glad that it was finally back on the square, it's really too early in the season to get many vegetables. This is what I saw:

• Meats


• Cheese


• Honey


• Baked goods


• Garden Stuff

Granted, I got there a little late (yay sleeping in), but the only vegetables I saw were some beautiful greenhouse tomatoes. I picked up some bacon from my favorite meat stand, and some italian sausage caught my eye. I decided that I would combine these in some sort of pasta sauce. Here's what I made

Spaghetti with sausage + mushroom marinara sauce
1 pound italian sausage
olive oil
6-7 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 big delicious tomatoes, chopped
1 can tomato paste
1 tsp mustard
1/2 c sherry
salt
pepper
chopped basil
grated parmesean and romano cheese

In a pot, brown sausage in the olive oil, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. If you're not as scatterbrained as I am, you should add the onions and mushrooms at this point to get some of the good sausage flavor (I forgot, and grilled them up separately and added them later). Add the sherry and let it cook down until most of the wine is gone. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 45 minutes or so, until it thickens. Add some basil and add to the pasta of your choice (we used some RP's egg angel hair pasta). Serve with garlic bread and a tossed salad.

Review:
I liked it a lot, Jennie seemed to like it too. I think she likes her grandmother's spaghetti sauce recipe better though, which is pretty similar but has hambuger instead of sausage and no sherry. This recipe was pretty sweet, probably due to the sherry (not sure - italian sausage is sweeter than regular sausage). I might try making it with some red wine next time. Definitely a make-again.