« July 2012 | Main | September 2012 »
Food & Wine (August 2012)
So.
A mocktail.
It's like...a cocktail, but...like...without booze?
Huh?
Oh, we kid, we kid. Sometimes a boozeless cocktail (otherwise known as, you know, a beverage) is just the thing for a refreshing sip on a hot afternoon.
We really enjoyed this Cucumber-Lemonade Mocktail, but we think the name is burying the lede.
| |
|
Reflections on Canning Tomatoes, A Year Later
Canning season is upon us. We can tell because every time around this year, we start getting comments and notes from readers who are gearing up for their own canning projects. That's one of the things that thrills us most about sharing kitchen stories with you -- when you in turn tell us about your own experiences.
Last year we canned tomatoes. It was our third time to do full-scale tomato canning, yielding about 30 quarts in one (very long) night's worth of work. We followed the same hot-packing method that we outlined in a 2010 video we think is pretty humorous.
Well it looks like the timing of everything worked out pretty well: Just as canning season has come back around, we also happen to have eaten through almost all of the jars we canned last year. In fact, there are only 3 small pints left, the rest lost to soups, sauces, stews and any number of dishes that called for canned tomatoes. If a recipe this year called for tomatoes, we reached for a jar of our own handiwork.
We often look at cooking in terms of, "Was this worth it?" We don't mean in terms of expense (though we try to watch that, too). We mean whether the end result justifies the time and effort involved. And just as we do with everything else, we think it's fair to ask: Is canning tomatoes worth it?
| |
|
Food & Wine (August 2012)
The latest issue of Food & Wine has a little feature in the front, presented not as a recipe, but as a little tidbit, about how to make a traditional fish sauce. It goes something like this: Pack anchovies in a barrel, let them sit in the sun for a year, and voila! Fish sauce! (Don't worry, neighbors, we're not about to start fish sauce production in the backyard.)
We suspect that we've already lost a good portion of readers with this headline, due to the presence of the dreaded anchovy in the recipe title.
Are you team anchovy, or do you flee in horror at the mere sound of their name?
If you're the latter, we think you should buck up and give this recipe a go. Here's why.
Continue reading "Heirloom Tomato Salad with Anchovy Vinaigrette" »
| |
|
Earlier this summer, Spenser Magazine sent us on a little excursion with an assignment: Go to Tangier Island, Va., to write about the heritage and crabbing traditions on the tiny island in the Chesapeake Bay. We'd been wanting to visit Tangier for a long time, so saying yes was a no-brainer. We packed up and made the four-hour drive down to Crisfield, Md., where we caught the U.S. mail boat to the island.
From the moment we stepped on that mail boat, we knew we were heading to a unique place. Tangier is a minuscule dot of land in the middle of the bay, a tight-knit, workaday community of about 450 people who either fish for crabs or support the men who do. The only way to access the island is by private plane or one of the infrequent ferries from the mainland.
Standing on the deck of that slightly beaten-up mail boat, we found ourselves surrounded by piles of all the stuff you can't buy on the island, bound for Tangier residents -- crates of groceries marked with family names, dog food, garden stones, Gatorade, potting soil and paint. (Tangier has only one tiny general store.)
With us on the boat were a few residents who had gone over to the mainland to shop. Naturally, we eavesdropped. Not because of what they were talking about, which was the shrinking population of Tangier, and how they had watched school classes of 20 shrink to 10 or fewer (this year's high school graduating class was made up of three students). No, the reason we were listening in was because of the women's accents. Thanks to Tangier's extreme isolation, the residents' accents are unique from anywhere else in the world. They're unlike any we've ever heard -- sort of a honking blend of Irish and coastal Southern U.S. If you want to hear for yourself, you can sample them in this video, from a documentary about American dialects.
To hear about all about the island, and to read about experience out on the water with Tangier's mayor, James "Ooker" Eskridge, check out our story in Spenser. You'll learn about what it takes to fish for soft shell crabs, and about Tangier's fascinating history, as well as its threatened, uncertain future.
As a bonus to the article, we want to share a few of the photos we snapped while on Tangier, to give you a sense of what it's like to visit there.
And of course we want to show you what we ate.
| |
|
Whole Living (July/August 2012)
There are a few specific times when we make a frittata:
We're craving eggs but are a bit bored with our routine of scrambled or fried...
It's after work and we're ready to eat but haven't gone to the supermarket and have very little on hand...
We find ourselves with an overflowing crisper drawer and need a quick way to use up a bunch of vegetables...
And often, it's a combination of all three.
The frittata (or FRRREEE-TAH-TAH if you're Giada) is a handy, simple recipe to have in your back pocket when hunger comes calling.
And you can't find a more basic template for creating your own frittata than this version from Whole Living that combines ingredients that are in their prime time right now: zucchini and corn.
| |
|
