Pom-Wonderful Ribs for Memorial Day

I still have several bottles of Pom-Wonderful juice in the fridge waiting to be used in some creative way, and since Memorial Day calls for--yea, demands--barbecue, I thought, why not combine the two? My favorite way to prepare ribs is to forego the grill and follow the Alton Brown low-and-slow oven method. So I just reworked the braising liquid to include some pomegranate goodness, and they turned out GREAT! I served them with a fairly basic macaroni salad based on a recipe from "Big Daddy's House" on the Food Network, corn on the cob (from Florida, but very sweet), and the wonderful Austrian tea cake. A memorable meal for Memorial Day!

What made it even more memorable was what happened when I posted my menu on Facebook and invited people to join me (in jest, as most of my FB friends are long-distance). After posting, I left the computer for a couple of hours to tend to some household chores--a mountain of dishes, a load of laundry, cleaning out both fridges, taking out the trash, and so on. I had just taken a break, gone upstairs to use the restroom and was considering jumping in the shower as I was all sweaty and gross, when I begin to hear a banging and my name being called. I stuck my head out of the upstairs window and said, "Hello?" Then I recognized my friend Vicky's voice and saw her truck in my driveway. Apparently, she had read my posting on Facebook and taken me up on my virtual invitation to dinner! Mind you, this woman lives in a cabin in the woods in the Adirondacks and drove about an HOUR on the spur of the moment! (Come to think of it, that may be the nicest compliment I've ever received for my cooking!) However, I looked like an absolute wreck, and the house hadn't really been cleaned thoroughly since before finals! I was absolutely horrified at being so unprepared to received guests. But I opened a bottle of wine, turned on some music, lit some candles, and Vicky and I ended up having a lovely dinner together. And we both learned some lessons. I learned to be careful in issuing open invitations unless I really mean them, and Vicky learned that if she gives me more advance notice, her hostess would look (and smell) more pleasant, and at least the top layer of pet hair would be removed from the surroundings (it is the shedding season, you know)! Tee hee.

I hope you all had a memorable Memorial Day weekend, too!

Pomegranate-and-Honey-Glazed Ribs

2 slabs pork ribs
1/2 to 1 cup BBQ rub

Braising Liquid:
1 cup Pom-Wonderful pomegranate juice
1/4 cup pomegranate balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons honey
4 cloves garlic, chopped

Coat both sides of the ribs liberally with the BBQ seasoning. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place each slab of ribs on one half of a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down, then fold the other half over and seal both side edges but not the top opening. In a microwavable container, combine all ingredients for the braising liquid. Microwave on high for one minute.

Place the ribs on a baking sheet. Pour half of the braising liquid into each foil packet then seal the top openings. Tilt the baking sheet in order to equally distribute the braising liquid. Braise the ribs in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Transfer the braising liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring the liquid to a simmer and reduce by half or until of a thick syrup consistency. Brush the glaze onto the ribs. Place under the broiler just until the glaze caramelizes lightly. Slice each slab into 2 rib bone portions. Place the remaining hot glaze into a bowl and toss the rib portions in the glaze.

Mega-Egga Macaroni Salad
(adapted from Food Network's Aaron McCargo, Jr. of "Big Daddy's House")

1 pound elbow noodles (I used shells and spirals)
6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and diced (I used only 4, so maybe mine was just super-egga!)
1/4 onion, finely diced (I used 1/4 cup Vidalia onion relish instead)
2 celery stalks, finely diced
1/8 cup pickle relish (I used zucchini relish)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise (mine only seemed to need about a cup)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-cracked black pepper
dash hot sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

In a large pot with salt, boil pasta according to package directions. Stir often. Drain and cool. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a large pot with a dash of salt, add eggs on medium high heat. Bring to a boil. Cover and remove from heat. Let eggs sit for 6 to 7 minutes. Remove eggs and shock in ice water. Once thoroughly cooled, peel eggs and roughly dice.

Place pasta in a large bowl. Add onions, celery, eggs, relish, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Mix until well combined. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled before serving.

Culinary Conquest Completed: Austrian Tea Cake

As you probably already know, I live near a very small city, and in that small city, there is but one real bakery. Ever since I moved here nine years ago, people have been extolling the virtues of said bakery, but I never could understand why. Almost everything I had there was no better than what you could get at the local supermarket, and in fact, the cakes at Price Chopper were better! There were only two things at this local bakery that I thought were excellent—a pecan coffee ring (kind of like a round Danish) and something they called Austrian tea cake. A friend of mine, herself a very talented baker, told me that she worked at this bakery for one day once upon a time, but she quit after her first shift. She was horrified that much of the products that they used were of poor quality, such as those prefab fillings that you buy in long, plastic tubes. And the cakes were all made ahead of time and frozen for months, then defrosted and re-moistened with simple syrup. When I asked her about the pecan coffee ring and the Austrian tea cake, she confirmed that these were some of the very few things there that were homemade from scratch.

Recently, our local bakery that had been run by the same family for generations was sold to another owner, a Polish baker, as I’ve heard the story told. But I am sad to report that the quality does not seemed to have improved, because the new baker’s philosophy (via a quote in the local paper) is along the lines of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But it is indeed broken, and though he promises some changes over time, they can’t come soon enough to suit me! Of course, I bake my own stuff, so I don’t really have the need to frequent a bakery too often. And there is always Montreal with its endless numbers and varieties of European-style delicacies just an hour away. However, I sure would like to be able to be able to make that tea cake for myself at home!

I have searched online many times for something by the name of Austrian tea cake, but I always ended up finding cookie recipes. Then I ran into a posting on some German baking site from someone in Plattsburgh looking for the same recipe. I emailed her to see if she’d had any luck. Interestingly, she had some sort of relation by marriage to the previous owners of the bakery (everyone is someone’s cousin in Plattsburgh!), but even so, they could not be compelled to divulge the secret family recipe. Boo hiss. But she did discover one important clue…that the cake was soaked in a buttermilk and butter glaze. Ah-ha! The Austrian tea cake was always very moist and rich, having clearly been soaked in some magical solution. But I didn’t know what. A buttermilk glaze—of course! The cake has that characteristic tang that I should have recognized as buttermilk.

So with some additional Googling of various similar cakes finished with a soak of buttermilk glaze, I tried to fashion something close the original. Though I produced a couple of very tasty cakes, they weren’t quite right. So I back-burnered that project for (interestingly) almost exactly one year to the day, when out of the blue, the same nice lady emailed me to let me know that she had finally wrangled the recipe out of the original owner of our local bakery. However, the recipe was on a MASSIVE, bakery-sized scale, and it was written in weighted measurements. It also did not include the buttermilk glaze. So I set myself to task, cutting down the recipe for home use, converting the measurements, and adding a glaze that I thought would work well. Moreover, my policy is that everything can be improved with nuts, so I added some, but you can omit them if you want to stay close to the original cake. SUCCESS at last! This tea cake is quick and delicious—in fact, you don’t even need to dirty your big mixer for this, as it can easily be mixed up by hand. Who needs to go to a bakery, anyway?


Buttermilk and Toasted Walnut Tea Cake

For the cake:
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/8 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped (optional, but highly desirable!)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, oil, and eggs until thick and smooth. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the vanilla to the wet mix, then alternate the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in thirds. Toss in the toasted nuts, if using, and mix just enough to combine. (Another option instead of nuts would be to add a good amount of poppy seeds. I may have to try that version next time!)

Spray a 9x13 dish with flour-added baking spray. Pour in the batter, and rap on the counter to remove most of the bubbles. Bake at 375 degrees for fifteen minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes or until the cake is evenly browned all over, the top springs back when touched, and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan.

Let cool on a rack for a few minutes while you prepare the buttermilk glaze.

For the glaze:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a small saucepan, combine the buttermilk, sugar, butter and baking soda. Bring to a full boil (watch out—it will foam up!), and then turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Using a bamboo skewer, poke the warm cake all over with small holes. Spoon the glaze evenly over the cake (start with about half then see if it will absorb anymore--you won't use it all), then let it cool completely on the rack. The cake can be eaten just like this, or preferably, frost the top with your favorite frosting*. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

*I used about a half a batch of this recipe (without any Cool Whip).

Follow-Up 6/2/13: This recipe works great (maybe even better) as cupcakes! It makes 24 or 25 with the batter filled 3/4 of the way up two cupcake tins lined with individual baking papers. Bake for 15 minutes at 375, then another 20-25 minutes at 250. Prepare only half the buttermilk glaze, and spoon one teaspoon over each cupcake.

Too Much Neufchatel!

I taught two cheesemaking classes within the last month, and though one can easily make ricotta and mozzarella within the span of a three-hour session, Neufchatel takes a couple/few days. So like they do on t.v., I had to prepare batches ahead of time to have swap-outs in class. As you can imagine, that ultimately left me with quite a lot of Neufchatel on my hands...rather, in my fridge. One can only eat so many schmeared bagels, so I needed some other ideas. My first thought was to make a cheesecake out of the lovely, silky, swoopy stuff. Unfortunately, my initial attempt was not particularly successful. I think I needed to pull back the moisture content--particularly the eggs--as the homemade Neufchatel is not as dry or dense as regular cream cheese. I ended up with something tasty, but with an undesirably loose, almost curdled texture. I'll have to keep working on that idea, I guess.

However, I had great success with converting a lemon cream cheese pound cake recipe that someone had posted on Yahoo Answers. The Neufchatel gave the cake a lovely tangy quality, and the texture was sturdy but amazingly tender at the same time. Instead of lemon flavoring, I substituted lemon oil which gave it a deliciously (and naturally) tart flavor. This recipe is terrific, and could only be improved by being served with freshly-whipped cream and some ripe summer berries when they appear at the markets later in the season. Bookmark this one, people! It is a surefire BBQ/potluck/picnic hit!

Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 8 oz. package cream cheese or Neufchatel, softened
3 sticks butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon lemon oil
3 cups cake flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and lightly floured bundt cake pan.

Cream together cream cheese, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs,one and a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon oil. Mix in flour, just enough to combine. Spoon into prepared pan.

Let bake for 45 to 55 minutes, depending on your oven. (Mine took between 70-75 minutes, and I had to cover the top of the cake with tin foil toward the end to prevent over-browning).

POM-Mania!

I started this little blog about three and a half years ago to amuse myself, my friends, and any interested readers that happened to wander along. I never aspired to go commercial with it (though I've had a few offers to place ads on my site), nor did I expect to attract thousands of visitors a day like, say, a couple of my very favorites, Smitten Kitchen or The Pioneer Woman. However, I must admit to a wee bit of jealousy when some of my favorite bloggers received free SWAG from food product companies hoping to get advertising on those blogs. If a product is really good, I always share with my readership--as evidenced by my previous post about my latest food find, Blue Smoke Coffee. But I guess my blog still wasn't high-profile enough for anyone to notice or want to court my attentions to pimp their products. Boo hiss.

But then a couple of weeks ago, an email popped up in my inbox from "The PomBlogger" at Pom Wonderful, the awesome pomegranate juice company, asking if I'd like a free case of Pom Wonderful to enjoy. My mama didn't raise no fool, so of course, I said YES! About a week later, a box arrived with eight bottles of Pom Wonderful, cushioned with little ice packs to keep them fresh until delivery. I was tempted to just crack a couple open and suck them down on the spot, or better yet, make a lovely cocktail with some of the sweet and healthful juice. But I decided to ration them and try to come up with some new pomegranate-based recipes. (It seemed the least I could do to thank Pom Wonderful for the freebies!)

Of course, I have already extolled the virtues of pomegranate-glazed pork, but I wanted to develop my own savory recipe. I got to thinking about pomegranate molasses and how it's a staple in Middle Eastern cooking. I knew I wanted to do a meat dish, so that led me to consider glazing some kibbeh (Lebanese meatloaf of sorts), as we might top American meatloaf with a ketchup-based sauce. But I wanted something I could leave to do its thing in the crock pot all day, so I downshifted from meatloaf to meatballs that were flavored with Middle Eastern spices and then cooked in a sweet glaze comprised of pomegranate juice and some of my honeybell marmalade.

They turned out GREAT, if I do say so myself! The meat was juicy and flavorful and spicy with just a bit of heat that truly complemented the sweet, fruity sauce. And it's nice to have another crock pot meatball recipe to add to the repertoire, something different from Italian, Swedish, Hawaiian, barbecue, or that old standby, chili sauce and grape jelly. These would be terrific for a party, as it made a TON! To serve them as I meal, I whipped up some rice pilaf with toasted almonds, and served it all with fattoush--a green salad with a lemon juice and olive oil dressing and bits of toasted pita bread tossed in. Primary ingredients would usually include lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, onions, and fresh parsley and/or mint and the toasted pita bits. Then you also might choose to add feta cheese, black olives, carrots, bell peppers, and especially with this meal, pomegranate arils! Delish! THANKS, Pom Wonderful!

Mediterranean Meatballs with Citrus-Pomegranate Glaze
Makes about 58 meatballs (though you could easily halve this recipe)

6 sets of (4) crackers (Waverly Wafers or saltines)
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon sriracha or hot sauce (to taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 cup honeybell (or orange) marmalade
8 oz. Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice

Heat the milk in the microwave for a minute or two until hot but not boiling over. Crumble the crackers into the milk, fully submerging them, and set aside to soften. In a very large frying pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and saute the onions until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and saute another minute or two until it has softened.

In a large mixing bowl, place the ground beef and add the sauteed onions and garlic. Mix in herbs, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and spices. Then mix in the cracker and milk mixture. Using your hands, gently combine all the ingredients. Using a regular cookie scoop (2 oz?), scoop out meat mixture into your hands and finish rolling into balls. Fill the large frying pan with the meatballs and brown on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon or spatula and drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, in the bottom of a slow cooker, stir together the marmalade and pomegranate juice. Add the meatballs to the crock pot and stir gently to coat with the glaze. Cook on high for a couple of hours or on low for several hours.

Toasted Almond Rice Pilaf

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cups long-grained white rice
1/3 pound thin pasta (angel hair or vermicelli), broken into fourths
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped finely
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

In a large sauce pan (that has a tight-fitting lid), melt the butter and olive oil together, then saute the diced onion until soft and translucent. Stir in the rice and pasta and cook until they start to turn golden brown. Pour in the chicken stock, mix everything together, and bring to a boil. Cover with the lid, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes.

When the rice has finished steaming, fluff with a large fork, and mix in the parsley and toasted almonds before serving.

*I realized too late that a pinch of saffron thrown in with the broth before steaming the rice would have been the perfect addition. Oh well...next time.

I'd Rather Be BLUE Over You (Than Happy with Somebody Else)

Ok, I have the GREATEST discovery to share with you, dear readers! No, scratch that. Credit must go to my beloved friend, Mike, for this one. When he was here visiting at the end of March, I ran out of coffee, and so we picked some up at one of my favorite specialty shops at the Atwater Market in Montreal, Les Douceurs Du Marché. As I was waiting for my coffee to be ground (as I knew we'd be going through it quickly with my friends in town), Mike started sharing with me about this company that he had been ordering his coffee from of late called Blue Smoke Coffee Roasting Company out of Gatlinburg, TN. (Are you hearing Ronnie Milsap in your head now? Thought so.) Mike spoke highly of their personal customer service and environmentally-conscious policies, and of course, about their delicious coffee blends. I filed this information somewhere deep in my messy little brain, but did not get around to ordering from Blue Smoke until Mike was discussing a coffee drink recipe last week on Facebook, and Kevin Price, the owner/roaster at Blue Smoke, posted a reply. That reminded me that I had been meaning to try some Blue Smoke for myself.

I went onto their website, and I ordered one pound each (whole bean) of two of their most popular blends, Appalachia (medium roast) and Canopy (dark roast). The transaction was easy, completed through PayPal, and I almost immediately got a personal shout-out from Kevin on Facebook, thanking me for my order. The next day, I had an email thanking me again for "the opportunity" to roast my coffee, and also informing me that he would like to throw in an extra half pound for free, recommending one of their newest blends called LeConte. Sure, I said! Whatever the master roaster recommends, I'll drink! I promptly received a confirmation of my order, and by the same evening, I had another email to let me know that Kevin had just finished custom-roasting my coffee, and that it was on its way! People, this was less than 24 hours after I hit "enter" on my order! Is that INCREDIBLE, or what? What is even more amazing to me was receiving another email from Kevin on Saturday saying that, when he checked the tracking information, it said that my package had been cleared through Albany, so he hoped that it had made it onto a northbound postal truck in time for me to enjoy some Blue Smoke over the weekend. Sadly, it did not. (Not his fault that I live WAY UP HERE in the middle of nowhere!) I was haunting the mailbox in my jammies on Saturday morning, and though a Fed Ex truck did a cruelly disappointing u-turn in my driveway, there was no shipment for me. Boo hiss. Still, I was so impressed by his concern and follow-through on the order!

I was sure that the package would arrive Monday morning, and I was looking forward to brewing myself some Blue Smoke to jump start finals week. Again, though I kept an eagle eye on the mailbox, nuthin. When I left for my final late in the afternoon, I did one more check of the mailbox, and lo and behold, the mail carrier must have slipped past me, but left my aromatic package at long last! The box itself was charming, decorated with custom Blue Smoke labels, but that's all I could ascertain at that time, as I was running late to my final (as is my way). When I got home that night, I opened the box, and was immediately enchanted by the delectable aromas within and, it must be said, by the GORGEOUS blue packaging! The coffee had been packed beautifully and with care. When I first opened the box, I was greeted with a Blue Smoke postcard, and under that, a hand-written Post-It Note from Kevin, thanking me once again for giving him the "honor of roasting my coffee." (Um, anybody had personalized customer service like that recently? Like since the 1950's? Didn't think so.)

Pulling back the lovely blue tissue paper, I revealed three stunning (blue, of course) bags of coffee and a pamphlet about their company. By the bye, I could go on all day about Blue Smoke's environmentally-conscious practices. They only buy fair trade, shade-grown, organic beans, supporting indigenous peoples and communities from Latin America (closer to us than Africa, thus further reducing their carbon footprint, though they are already a carbon-neutral company). They also support environmental efforts near home by donating a percentage of sales from certain special blends to local non-profits, including Appalachian Voices, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Riverlink, a group supporting the revitalization of the French Broad River that runs through North Carolina and Tennessee. Finally, Blue Smoke is a member of 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses who donate at least 1% of their annual profits to environmental projects. I am a passionate locavore, as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, but we also know that none of us can source our coffee locally. So it makes me feel a lot better about purchasing coffee from a company like Blue Smoke that is clearly making great efforts to reduce further harms to our planet.
This morning, I got up early to grade papers, and as I was letting the dogs out, I brewed my first pot of the medium-roast LeConte Blend. Oh, friends! It was just lovely stuff! The beans were plump and glossy, the aroma emanating from the bag was heavenly, and the taste was ultra-smooth--bright and sweet, even somewhat fruity. It was the perfect complement to a sunny but brisk spring morning here in the North Country. Well done, Blue Smoke Roasting Company, well done! I can't wait to try the Appalachia* and what I have a sneaking suspicion will be my favorite, the darker Canopy Blend**. I will report back, of course.

In the meantime, I implore you coffee lovers out there to put down the Starbucks, back away from it at once and head directly to your computer to order yourself some Blue Smoke ASAP! Besides being such an environmentally-conscious company run by really cool people offering the most AMAZING customer service, I have neglected to mention that their prices are quite reasonable, It costs more than grocery store coffee (blech!), but they are certainly competitive with Starbucks and the like. I believe that the Appalachia was $12.95/lb. and the Canopy was $11.95/lb. The shipping was about five or six bucks, but as they threw in a free half pound of coffee, I'd say that about evens out! And I would like to remind you once again that they micro-roast your individual order as soon as you place it! Even if you can't afford a butler or chauffeur, you can have your own personal coffee roaster just by ordering from Blue Smoke! (Check out the picture below--how cute, huh?! And such attention to detail!) So competitive prices plus uncommonly personal service? I think it's a heck of a deal! Once you taste Blue Smoke Coffee, I bet you'll agree.

*This commercial for Blue Smoke Coffee has been brought to you by me, and has not been approved by anyone other than me. I hold no stock in the company, and I paid for my own order, thank you very much. I DID get an extra half pound of coffee for free, but you will, too, if you order two pounds at once. I just think they're a fantastic company making a terrific product, and I wanted to share the recommendation with my readers--especially the coffee fiends among you! ;-)

*Mmmmm....had the Appalachia this morning (5/13). It's richer than the LeConte, but maintains a nice amount of acidity. It's a little smoky and a little spicy. Delish!
**(5/14) Oh, Canopy....you had me at "hello." Dark but not the least bit bitter, smooth like Barry White, and dare I say it, more than a bit chocolatey? This is the one.

One Whole Weekend Off Calls for a Special Breakfast!

It may actually have been a couple of MONTHS since I had an entire weekend off with no obligations, so last weekend was SUCH a blessing--especially heading into the final two ugly weeks of the semester. I may have done a few light chores around the house and run a load of laundry, and of course, graded some papers. But mostly, I just took the long-awaited opportunity to catch my breath! I didn't even have the desire or will for any intricate weekend cooking projects. However, a college friend had the indecency and cruelty to mention Cracker Barrel to me recently, though the closest one to me is more than two hours away! Rather than feel sorry for myself, I scoured these internets until I found a recipe for their buttermilk pancakes as published in a Cracker Barrel cookbook. I added some toasted pecans to simulate their delicious pecan pancakes, and....TA-DAH!

They were fluffy and tangy and crunchy, and all the good things that pecan pancakes should be, especially when topped with butter and fresh, local maple syrup. These are going into the regular brunch rotation from now on! I encourage you to make them at your earliest convenience. You won't be sorry.

"Cracker Barrel" Pecan Pancakes
(Source: adapted from Recipezaar)
Serves 4 -5 , 12 -15 pancakes

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (heaping)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1 (generous) cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

oil or butter (for cooking)
butter and maple syrup, for serving

Mix all ingredients together until incorporated, but do not overmix. Heat a griddle or nonstick pan under medium to medium high heat, and grease with a little butter or oil (more if you like a crispy edge). Drop batter using a 1/4 cup measuring cup onto hot pan. Once the bottom side is golden, flip and brown remaining side.

Serve with butter and real maple syrup.

On Sunday, I did find the strength to wash and groom the two PBGVs and then take them into town for the annual Adirondack Humane Society Pet Walk fundraiser. The rain held off, and it was a lovely event for both humans and canines. When we got back home, I had just enough energy left to throw together a quick batch of muffins to take to work the next day to share with my beleagured colleagues whose grading load at present is (to quote a line from the beautiful French film, I've Loved You So Long) "soul-destroying."

I first saw this recipe for the cheerfully-named Good Morning Muffins on the Pioneer Woman's blog. PW has yet to let me down, and I thought the citrusy muffins might be just the thing to use up some of the honeybell marmalade that I made last year--especially the batch that didn't set up as much as I would have liked. Sure enough, they were sunny-tasting, and the orange flavor was complemented by the crunchy, sugary topping, particularly when I added a bit of ginger to it. Perhaps your co-workers would appreciate it if you baked them some, too? :-)

Good Morning Muffins
(Source: adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!)
Makes 18 muffins

4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cup shortening (can use 1/4 cup shortening with 1/4 cup butter but PW says they bake up higher and lighter with shortening only)
2 cups orange marmalade
1 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten

Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (next time, I will try some finely-chopped candied ginger)
1/4 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder. Place in a mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter to mix in shortening (or butter/shortening if desired). Mix marmalade, orange juice, and vanilla in a small bowl. Pour into dry ingredients. Beat eggs and pour into the bowl. Mix all ingredients together gently, using fewer than 10 large strokes.

In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients. Fill muffin pans with batter (I used cupcake liners). Sprinkle one heaping teaspoon of topping ingredients over each muffin. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes until done. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.

Casserole Queen, C'est Moi!

Being so crazed and on-the-go lately, I haven't been able to enjoy one of my favorite pastimes--just chillaxing on the weekend and watching me some Food Network! But I did manage to get a little Throwdown with Bobby Flay going on this past Sunday. And it was a very fun episode with these two crazy gals dressed in 50's "Leave It to Beaver"-wear, calling themselves the Casserole Queens, and delivering homemade casseroles in person to lucky customers in the greater Austin, TX area. These wacky chicks were challenged to a pot pie throwdown, but unfortunately for them, Bobby was victorious with his typically spicy, chipotle-laced filling and sweet potato biscuit crust (yum!). However, the pot pie that the Queens made looked fabulous, too. It was more traditional, but also more elegant than your mama's pot pie. There were French influences with the addition of white wine and tarragon, and of course, the puff pastry crust fancies it up quite a bit, too. It takes a bit of time to get it all assembled, but it only takes about a half hour to bake, and it makes a TON! Yeah for leftovers! THANKS, Casserole Queens!


Before I post the recipe, I will freely admit that I took a few liberties with it. I found the filling a little bland once it all came together, so I increased the tarragon and spices, and added some garlic powder, for which it seemed to be crying out. And I added an extra potato, because I'm crazy like that! Also, I needed more puff pastry than originally called for to cover my casserole (and it's really the crispy, lacquered puff pastry that MAKES this pot pie so special). And I switched the order of preparation around a little bit so that it made more sense. For example, why add the chicken while sauteeing the shallots, and then continue to cook it as the sauce thickens? It's already cooked--you'd just be drying it out. Moreover, I chose not to blanch my peas. They'll cook enough in the oven. (One doesn't wish mushy peas...unless you're making that British delicacy, mushy peas, I suppose.) The next time I make this, I would consider adding some mushrooms, sauteeing them with the shallots. MMM! But here is tonight's inaugural incarnation...

Casserole Queen Pot Pie
(Source: adapted from Food Network)

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (you'll need 1 1/3 sheets of Pepperidge Farm brand for a 9x13 pan)
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced (my shallots were jumbo-sized!)
1/4 cup chopped red sweet pepper (I used jarred roasted red peppers)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt (I used a vegetable salt blend)
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
pinch of cayenne
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 roasted chicken, bones and skin removed then shredded (save time and use a deli-roasted chicken)
1 1/2 cups green peas
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots, blanched
3 potatoes, peeled, diced, and boiled just until tender
1 egg plus 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash

Thaw puff pastry according to package directions (40 minutes at room temperature), and preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook five minutes, stirring frequently. Add red pepper. Stir in flour, salt, tarragon, and black pepper. Add milk and cream all at once. Cook and whisk until thickened and bubbly. Stir in wine, chicken, peas, carrots and potatoes. Transfer the chicken mixture to a 9x13 Pyrex dish. Place pastry over the chicken mixture in casserole dish (you'll have to fit one-third of a sheet on the end to cover). Brush puff pastry with egg wash, then cut slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes (mine was done at 30 minutes). Let cool and re-thicken for 10 or 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

P.S. Yes, yes...I know that it seems strange to be making such a hearty, rib-sticking casserole as this when it's almost summer for most folks around the country. And though the temperature here inexplicably rose past 90 degrees earlier this week, as of yesterday, I had to close up the windows and turn the heat back on. Even as I type, the wind is howling something fierce, so I guess casserole recipes are still warranted. I'm not sure if this makes me happy or sad--perhaps a bit of both?

Say...CHEESE!

Wow...here we are at the end of April, and I'm almost caught up with my blogging! Ok, I'm still a week behind, but given that I was almost a MONTH behind at one point, I'd say that's fine progress!)

So...masochist that I am, despite the fact that it's the ugliest time of the semester, I signed up to teach another cooking class for Continuing Education last Saturday. Thus far, I have done three canning classes, a pie-baking workshop, and continuing my theme of "lost culinary arts," this time I chose to teach beginning cheesemaking. I certainly could not have taught advanced cheesemaking, because I have not yet myself graduated to the hard cheeses, as I have neither a cheese press nor the refrigerator space to devote to aging the cheese. Moreover, I simply don't have patience to wait weeks or months to eat my cheese! So I stick to soft, fresh cheeses that are really quite easy to make, and that I thought would translate well to a workshop structure. But it sounded a lot easier in my head than it turned out to be in real life. The main thing one must accept in cheesemaking is that, often enough, cheese refuses to be made on a schedule, and it's going to be ready when it's ready, and not when it's convenient for the likes of YOU!

My two cheesemaking mentors are Ricki Carroll, author of Home Cheesemaking (the cheesemaker's bible!) and the website, http://www.cheesemaking.com/, and David B. Fankhauser (yes, that is his real name!), Professor of Chemistry and Biology at University of Cincinatti's Clermont College. Dr. Fankhauser has a marvelous cheesemaking website that is all the beginner really needs to consult, as he offers simple recipes, with clear, step-by-step instuctions and pictures of how to make cheese using everyday ingredients and equipment. As a professor is wont to do, he also offers a beginning cheesemaking syllabus, starting with yogurt and ending with blue cheese. I didn't want to make yogurt--I wanted to make cheese! So I started with his basic neufchatel recipe (that's cream cheese made with whole milk instead of cream). Though I started with what I believed to be plenty of lead time, the resulting cheese was still not completely ready by class time on Saturday! Fankhauser and Carroll agree that it could take as long as 20 hours for the curd to set up, and though my first batch went that long (and the swap-out that I made for class went up to 28!), it still wasn't really firm enough when I had to give up and move onto straining it. And then that was the next disaster--it is supposed to drain overnight, but mine really wasn't dry enough for my tastes until 2-3 days later! But I managed to scrape about a cup off the sides of the cheesecloth (well, flour sack towel, as I prefer to use), which I mixed with lemon zest, garlic, black pepper and fresh herbs from my Aerogarden for the students to sample in class. So it all worked out in the end.

You should try to make some of your own. Other than it taking roughly forever, it's all passive time, and it's really easy. And the cheese turns out lovely and swoopy and silky. You can flavor it however you like, or it makes a heavenly, tender cheesecake. Fankhauser likes to fold his into scrambled eggs. Or you can mold it into shapes, and then coat the little logs or rounds with fresh herbs or paprika and/or red or black pepper, etc. Wouldn't that make a delightful appetizer or hostess gift to take to your next dinner party? Ooh, or take that a bit further and try what this Italian fellow did with his...make tomini elettrici sott’olio (or cheese with herbs and pepper preserved in olive oil). How good does THAT sound, as Ina would ask?

Fankhauser's Neufchatel
(Source: Fankhauser's Cheese Page)
Makes 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of cheese

EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES:
5 quart stainless steel pot with lid (sterilized by boiling water in it for 5 minutes prior to use)
thermometer reading in the 50-100°F range
sterile clean handkerchief, cheesecloth or flour sack towel
large strainer or colander 1 gallon fresh whole milk (store-bought may be used, use skimmed milk for low fat but less flavorful cheese)
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk (or 2 ice cubes of frozen buttermilk)
1/4 Junket tablet (or 5 drops of liquid rennet)

1. Assemble ingredients and sterilize the pot by covering and boiling a small amount of water for five minutes.
2. Add buttermilk to milk in the pre-sterilized 5 quart stainless steel pot. If using ice cubed starter, stir until completely melted. Warm with stirring to a final temperature of 65°F.
3. Meanwhile, dissolve 1/4 tablet rennet in 1/4 cup cool water. (If you use liquid rennet, use five drops/gallon of milk, also dissolved in water. Be sure it is not outdated.)
4. Add the dissolved rennet into the 65°F inoculated milk while stirring.
5. Cover and let sit undisturbed overnight at room temperature (65-70°F,
20°C).
6. The next morning, a soft curd should have formed. If not, let it continue to sit and firm up (could be 20 hours or more!). When curd is adequately formed, cut it into 1/2-inch cubes.
7. Ladle cut curds into a clean sterile handkerchief suspended in large strainer or stainless steel colander. Pour the remaining whey through the cloth. If the cloth becomes clogged, lift the cloth back and forth or scrape the forming cheese away from the cloth.
8. Hang the curd in a cool place to allow the whey to drip out: pick up the four corners of the cloth, wrap a heavy rubberband around, and loop one end through the other end. Insert a chopstick through the open end, and suspend the cheese bag over a receiving vessel to catch the whey (I just tie mine with kitchen twine to the shelf above). Let hang overnight (or for a day or two!) until it reaches the desired texture.
9. The next day, open the cloth to reveal the cheese.
10. Sprinkle on 1- 2 teaspoons of salt, according to taste. Inadequately salted cheese will be more bland, and will not keep as well. Work to mix the salt in thoroughly. Store covered in the refrigerator until use. Recycled cottage cheese containers work well for this.
11. If you like, you may pack the cheese into a mold of your choice (a squat tin can with the ends removed works well).

The next cheese on Fankhauser's syllabus is labneh, a Middle Eastern cheese made from yogurt. But we weren't making yogurt, so I moved onto ricotta, which has a very similar method. In fact, I was speaking to my colleague, Mohan, who regularly makes paneer, the Indian cheese, at home. And interestingly, his paneer and the ricotta that I make are pretty much exactly the same, except that he goes on to press his in a mold of some kind, just like the sliceable form of ricotta known as ricotta salata. Of course, the real kind of ricotta (meaning "recooked" in Italian) comes from reheating the whey after making some other kind of cheese until the remaining solids float to the top to be collected and strained. Making ricotta that way as I often do, well, as Forrest Gump's mama would say, you never know what you're gonna get (or more to the point, how much)! If you want a richer product and a larger, more reliable yield, you can make ricotta starting with whole milk, or make it even better with the addition of some heavy cream, as my beloved friends, John and Keith, do when they make theirs. In fact, this is their simple but simply fabulous recipe:

John and Keith’s Whole Milk Ricotta
Makes 2-3 cups

1/2 gallon whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons white vinegar (regular, white wine, or white balsamic)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir milk and cream together in a large, pre-sterilized pot and bring to 185 degrees, then remove from the heat. Gently stir in the vinegar (John and Keith prefer Trader Joe’s White Balsamic) for about 30 seconds, then the salt for another 30 seconds. Let sit at room temperature (ideally, around 70 degrees) for two hours, then strain through cheese cloth/hang until it is the desired consistency.

John says of this cheese: “It is delicious. And it makes a wonderfully generous amount of ricotta…probably a little richer than that made with whey.”

I let the class sample the yummy ricotta on foccacia crackers with either my roasted red pepper spread on top or with my friends, Mike and Kurt's inspired combination of cheese, blackberry Earl Grey jam, and sriracha. (Ok, no one in class was brave enough to try it with the sriracha, I am sad to say! Oh well..their loss.) Lastly, I had to share the magic of the 30-minute mozzarella with my class, which was first introduced to me in Barbara Kingsolver's amazing book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (by way of Ricki Carroll). I made a couple of batches ahead of time, and then we made one in real-time in class. And it was so interesting, because I used three different kinds of milk, and got three different kinds of cheese. The first batch (Byrne Dairy) was so soft and tender, almost like Brie or Camembert. The second batch (Upstate Farms) turned out more like American-style mozzarella, kind of rubbery, but in a good way. And the last batch that we made in class was probably the most perfect, right in the middle texture-wise (Sunoco's brand of milk, called Wilson Farms)--neither too soft, nor too firm--the Goldilocks of cheese, if you will. So we sampled the very soft one with crackers and pepperoni and some of my dilly beans. The firmer one, we shredded to make a pizza alla bismarck at the end of class, which incorporated both the mozzarella and the ricotta that we had made. And the third one I gave to my dear friend, Lee Ann, along with some ricotta and Neufchatel, for loaning me another big stainless steel pot for all of my cheesy prep work. (Thanks, Lee Ann!)

All in all, I think it was a very successful first attempt at teaching basic cheesemaking. I managed to give a mini-lecture on equipment, ingredients and basic methods, complete all three cheeses, AND have time to make the bonus pizza at the end of class, with 10 or 15 minutes to spare! The experience will be very helpful when I teach the class again the weekend after next. Apparently, the idea of making cheese was extremely popular, so they asked me to add another section! Yeah! Blessed are the cheesemakers (and any manufacturers of dairy products)! And here are some would-be cheesemakers from last Saturday, filling out their course evaluations and probably saying, "What does this woman know? Her Neufchatel is still runny!"

Never Too Much Easter!

It was a blessing to have a little extra time off at Easter, because the following week was crazy-busy! Monday night, I had a dress rehearsal for my community choir's spring concert. It was called "Broadway Duos: The Great American Songbook, Vol. II" and featured the wonderful songs of such great pairs as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, and Rodgers and Hart. And I even had a solo this year--scary! (Normally, I'm more of a duet/trio/ensemble kind of gal.) Then Tuesday is trivia night, of course, and Wednesday is my night class. Thursday night was our final dress rehearsal for the concert where I had to sing my solo in front of the whole choir for the first time. YIKES! But they were very kind and supportive, and it went well, I think. (I sang "My Funny Valentine" in the style of Michelle Pfeiffer in "The Fabulous Baker Boys"--but NO, I did NOT slink around on top of the piano, thank you!) Friday night, Lee Ann and her daughter/my friend, K, made our way to the Places des Arts in Montreal to see "Hairspray!" which was SO much fun! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that show! (I wish I had some food news to report, but we walked a half an hour through a very raunchy area of town--with a seven-year-old in tow, mind you--to an Italian place called Da Giovanni that I saw recommended on Chowhound or somewhere, but it was crappy and overpriced. Oh well.)

Then Saturday night was the big concert. It was almost a full house, and I think the show was very fun and well-received. And thank you for asking...I think my solo went alright. I can tell you that doing it with a live jazz combo of piano, drums, stand-up bass and trumpet made me feel like I was singing in a smoke-filled cabaret in the 30's or 40's. Loved that! And some of my friends from work came to see me perform, so that made it even more special. Come to think of it, the whole thing was eerily reminiscent of a scene from The Talented Mr. Ripley, though I am not, I repeat NOT, a serial killer! (You believe me, don't you? You better, or you DIE, and I steal your identity! Mwah-ha-ha!)


After such an insane week, all I could think about was vegging out in my big comfy chair all day on Sunday and trying to recuperate before returning to work on Monday. But then I got a call from Janice inviting me to their annual Orthodox Easter Celebration and Mediterranean Buffet. If there was anything that could compel me to rise from my big chair and drive back into town for the eighth day in row, it was Janice's Middle East Feast! Of course, I could not go empty-handed to the party, so I decided to bake an overly-elaborate cake, as is my ridiculous way. You see, I was watching Kathy Griffin's new special, "She'll Cut a Bitch" (tee hee), and she was talking about taking some of her birthday cake over to Cher's house (LOL!). She described it as a marble cake with chocolate-chocolate chip buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. That sounded like some bakery's specialty to me, so I Googled it, and sure enough, it had to be from Hansen's in L.A. I tried to find recipe online to simulate such an animal, but I guess I should have looked harder, because the cake I produced was definitely sub-standard.

I started with the Rose Levy Berenbaum's sour cream butter cake and followed Rose's own instructions on how to convert it into a marble cake. But it was kind of dry and crumbly and wouldn't hold together when cut. Plus, it didn't have much flavor, even though the white part should have been tangy from the sour cream, and the chocolate part had both melted bittersweet chocolate and Special Dark cocoa powder. It's a mystery. And then I made not one, but TWO real, Swiss buttercreams! The chocolate-chocolate chip was DELICIOUS but set up too much, kind of like a truffle filling. (I know, I know, that sounds good, but I wanted it softer and silkier!) The vanilla bean buttercream that I made for the frosting was perhaps the most successful part of the project, but if it's even possible too imagine, I found it...well...too buttery! It was just too rich, and I don't remember ever having made that claim about a baked good before! (Sigh.) So...it's back to the drawing board for this particular cake. Maybe I'll consult my cake wizard friend at school, Keri Denchick, and asked for her advice--note to self.

At least there was an amazing Mediterranean spread at the Padula's! I don't know the proper names for everything, but there were olives and cheeses and little stuffed red peppers, a green salad with feta (fattoush), spanakopita (spinach in puff pastry), lentils, rice and vermicelli (my favorite!), kibbeh and little individual meatloaves, too, green beans with stewed tomatoes, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), stuffed grey squashes, spicy chicken shawarma, various pita-type breads, baba ganoush, hummus, and tzatziki, and I can't remember the rest!

And those were just the savory courses! For dessert(s), in addition to my lackluster cake (pictured, center), there was candy and cookies and phyllo-based desserts of all kinds, including Janice's homemade baklava. There were dates and other dried fruits that her daughter and my pal, Dominica, cut into beautiful shapes and arranged very artfully, and there were the sweetest little pastel-colored petit fours that they found somewhere in Montreal. It was an amazing dessert spread!

The best part of all was when, Janice, in her maternally generous way, sent me home with so many leftovers, that they sustained me for the next three days during a very rough week at work! BLESS HER HEART! All in all, it was definitely worth hauling my tired old bones into town for! YAY for double Easters!

An Easter Miracle! (A Few Days Off!)

I made it back to New York State from Tucson just before midnight, so by the time I drove home from Albany, it was pushing 3am...on a school night! UGH! So as you can imagine, I was dragging that week! But mercifully, I had a three-day weekend at the end of it--Easter Break, as our school seems to pay no nevermind to the separation of church and state schools. ;-) But I bless them for it, because I desperately needed the time off! But as I had been out of town and so busy for several weeks, I was quite keen to get back in the kitchen and do some proper cooking. As it turns out, I had several opportunities to do so.

First, one of my close colleague's elderly father passed away, so I wanted to drop off some food as her family members began to gather. I made the simple but simply scrumptious ham, orzo, and goat cheese casserole of beloved memory, and also a new carrot cake recipe that I made as sheet cake, rather than in fussy layers. I didn't try the cake, of course, but it baked up very nicely and smelled great! Here's that recipe:

Carrot-Pineapple Buttermilk Cake
(Source: adapted from Recipezaar)
Serves 10 -12

2 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups peeled and finely grated carrots
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Set oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

In a bowl beat eggs with sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla for five minutes (no less!). In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; add to the egg mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrots, drained pineapple, and walnuts; mix until combined.

Transfer to prepared baking dish. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover the pan loosley with foil to prevent excess browning. Return to oven and bake for another 12-13 minutes more, or until the cake tests done.

Cool completely in the pan then frost with cream cheese icing (recipe follows).

Extra Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting
(Source: Recipezaar)
Makes 3 cups

1/2 cup butter, room temperature (no substitutions!)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla (if possible, use clear vanilla)
2 tablespoons whipping cream, unwhipped (for the best texture, use only whipping cream)
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (more if needed, must be sifted)
food coloring (optional)
1 to 2 cups Cool Whip frozen whipped topping, thawed (optional)

Cream the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and the whipping cream until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add in the sifted confectioners sugar; beat until frosting consistency, (adding more icing sugar or whipping cream if needed until the right consistency is achieved). Add in food coloring if using.

Optional: Add in one cup of Cool Whip frozen topping and beat on low speed with an electric mixer until just blended (add in more Cool Whip until desired texture is achieved).

After cooking all evening on Good Friday, I had to get up early the next morning and take the old basset hound to the vet. $200's worth of tests later and the diagnosis? She's old. (Thanks--I could have told you that for free! She's 14, for crying out loud!!) After the vet, I ran into town to drop off the casserole and cake at my colleague's house, then it was back home to start preparing more food to take to my friend Lee Ann's house for Easter, as she had invited me to celebrate with her family. My charge was to make a lemony dessert, but when I stopped by Wal-Mart a couple of days earlier, I found the cutest little egg trays, so I felt compelled to take some devilled eggs as well--made extra-devilish with minced jalapeno escabeche thrown in to add some color and zing.
















At Lee Ann's on Easter Sunday, we had quite the feast with ham and all the trimmings. But I'd say the highlights included Lee Ann's husband Steve's creative and spicy Buffalo cheese grits, a terribly cute Easter Bunny cake that the girls, K and E, made with grandma's help, and dare I say, the lemon cream tart that I brought! Oh, it was DIVINE (as well it should be with the OBSCENE amount of butter that it called for)! The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan via Pierre Herme, and it is the most luscious thing I've ever made or tasted. AMAZING! Seriously, friends, if you love lemon, MAKE THIS AT ONCE!


The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart
(Source: Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

1 9-inch tart shell, fully baked and cooled

1 cup sugar
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10-1/2 ounces)
unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

Getting Ready: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F*. As you whisk—you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point—the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in one-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days and, or tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell. Serve the tart, or refrigerate until needed.

Serving: It's a particular pleasure to have this tart when the cream is cold and the crust is at room temperature. A raspberry or other fruit coulis is nice, but not necessary; so is a little crème fraîche. I know it sounds odd to offer something as rich as crème fraîche with a tart like this, but it works because the lemon cream is so light and so intensely citric, it doesn't taste or feel rich. (I served mine with a sidecar of whipped faux crème fraîche--half a cup of sour cream lightened with a cup of lightly sweetened whipped cream.)

Storing: While you can make the lemon cream ahead, once the tart is constructed, it's best to eat it the day it is made.

*Note: I whisked and whisked and whisked, and my cream never did get up to 180 degrees! I consulted Dorie's website, and many others seemed to have the same problem. But Dorie says 170 is sufficient.

I hope you all had a peaceful and satisfying Easter!

Trippin' to Tucson

Chapter 1: Midterms. Chapter 2: Spring Break in New Orleans. Chapter 3: Old Friends Come to Visit. And that brings us to chapter 4 of "Where Has Gina Been Since March?" and that is Tucson, AZ for the PBGV Regional and National Specialties. Two days after my out-of-town guests left, I was on a plane again, heading west to my annual "dog thing," as my co-workers refer to it each spring. It's a little hard to explain to the uninitiated, but it is the annual gathering of our national breed club, incorporating two specialty (conformation) shows, performance events like some or all of the following--obedience, rally, agility, tracking, freestyle dancing, and also workshops, demonstrations, lectures, health screenings, club meetings, banquets, annual awards, and so on. In short, it's the biggest gathering of our breed fanciers each year, and it rotates from east to central to west each time. Last year was Orlando (east), the year before that, it was Nashville (central), and so this year, it was west to sunny Tucson.

Normally, I would be thrilled to leave the chilly, brown, late winter scene that is Plattsburgh, NY in early April for the warmer climes of the southwest. However, I was just EXHAUSTED from everything that I had going on, and it was SO far to travel (driving down to Albany, then making two connections to AZ=15 hours of travel time to get there). Plus, the sad thing about these conferences is that you're so busy attending all of the events, that you rarely leave the hotel! I can confirm that the weather was balmy and lovely as I crossed from my room past the pool to conference rooms several times a day, but I didn't even have enough exposure to warrant sunscreen. Furthermore, I thought I might get a chance to visit nearby Nogales, just to be able to say that I'd been to Mexico. But again, federal warnings to spring breakers near border towns notwithstanding, time did not allow for international crossings. Boo hiss.

At least I was able to escape for one evening and get some great Mexican food, which we have a terrible dearth of here in the North Country. My friend Jo, the show chair, suggested a place called El Charro, which Gourmet Magazine named one of the "21 Legendary American Restaurants You Must Visit." So a gang of us went there Thursday night in lieu of attending a dog grooming workshop. This restaurant lays (a doubtful) claim to inventing the chimichanga, and I tried one filled with the house specialty, "carne seca" or sun-dried beef cured with lime juice and spices. This was named one of the "50 Top Plates in America" by USA Today, and though the one I had was ginormous, they make an even bigger one in honor of the USA Today, and is reported to be the same size as that newspaper when rolled up! In any case, my carne seca chimi was very good, but I think the highlight of the evening was when my friend Karen, whose veteran bitch (sorry--but that's the lingo in the dog show world) Hazel won Best Veteran and Best of Opposite in the regional specialty that day, started buying celebratory prickly pear margaritas for any takers at the table. Man, were they good! I rarely drink, but once or twice a year, I will have a margarita, and I like them on the sweet side, usually rounded out with a good glug of orange juice. But this one was sweetened with prickly pear juice, which also tinted it a lovely pink. Yum!

I wish I had more southwestern cuisine reviews for you, but it was pretty much yucky banquet food and snacks from the gift shop for the rest of my time in Tucson. :-( I did grab some deliciously spicy Popeye's chicken during a layover on my way back, but that's about all I have to report, food-wise. Oh, but I do have a couple of product recommendations for you. First, you know those wonderful speculaas-type spice cookies that you get as a snack on Delta and I think American Airlines? I LOVE them!
They are called Biscoff, and they are available for order online. Not only does this company make an excellent product, they also have terrific customer service. My order of cookies was delivered with one end of the box opened and some of the cookies got crushed. I called their customer service, and I had a second box shipped to me straightaway, with no questions asked! I highly recommend doing business with these pleasant folks.

Secondly, though it was my great misfortune to have the WORST Mexican food EVER at one of the banquets at my conference in Tucson, I had an uncharacteristic stroke of luck that night when I won a beautiful basket of gourmet goodies in a health foundation raffle! Of course, I'd never be able to get it home intact, so my friends and I opened it up and ate most of the snacks in our hotel room. It contained pretzels sticks and a teeny jar of honey mustard, summer sausage, pepper cheese, Manzanita olives, flavored almonds, two nice bottles of wine, a corkscrew, and two lovely glasses with a PBGV etched on each. But the BEST thing included in the basket may have been a box of cheese crisps which we quickly devoured, and then both my friend, Lynn, and I went online and ordered more. They have four different flavors, including Smoked Jalapeno, White Onion, and Melting Romano, but the best is their basic Cheddar & Asiago. Another highly recommended commercial product, and another company with great service, as my cheese crisps arrived at my remote home a mere 30 hours after I clicked "enter" to submit my order! Wow!

In Which My Gays Come to Visit

As you may have gathered from my prolonged absence, my life has been INSANELY BUSY of late! But I swear I haven't forgotten you, dear readers, and I am going to do my best to catch up--I promise! I owe you a long one, so here goes. Now where was I? Oh yes...there were the midterm grades that I had to complete before leaving for spring break, then I was was in New Orleans for a week, and then I was back for just a few days before I was invaded by guests from out of town, so there was MUCH spring cleaning to do to prepare for their arrival! My long-lost roommate, Cyd--BLESS HER HEART--arrived a couple of days ahead of the others (late Wednesday night) and helped me get things ready. Then my boys arrived late Friday afternoon, up from NYC for a whirlwind tour of the North Country. Oh, can I just tell you what bliss it was to see my beloved friends, all in the same room together for the first time in something like eight years?? How I've missed them! (And how my face hurt from all the laughing!)

We started with a late lunch/early dinner at the excellent Thai place in town, Sawatdee. Even my big-city, cosmopolitan friends seemed impressed. (But in the big cities, would a restaurant open a half an hour early just to accommodate one little party? Didn't think so! THANKS, nice folks at Sawatdee!) After linner, we toured Plattsburgh and its scenic environs (yes, there are some!) before heading north to the homestead. It was my intention to take them just across the border to the little pub in Hemmingford for a later supper, but by the time we got settled at home, drank a bunch of wine, and had some snacks (including a deliciously garlicky and cumin-spiked hummus that I whipped up with my friend Mike's collaboration), we decided that we were in for the night.

Saturday morning, we began our adventures with a stop at Parker's Maple Farm for all-you-can-eat pancakes and freshly-made maple syrup. My friends may have chosen to visit at the UGLIEST time of year, but at least they got to enjoy this pivotal (and tasty!) rite of spring.















After brunch, we hit the road north for a day in Montreal (despite some of us not having the proper documentation...um, CYD!). We visited the beloved Atwater Market (where we bought more local maple products) and my favorite bakery (Patisserie Belge). Then I took them up to the majestic overlook of the city from Mount Royal, then to Old Montreal to poke around and, of course, to view the Notre-Dame Basilica (where Celine was married, natch!). We ended our day with a special dinner at Au Pied de Cochon, which was just MARVELOUS! We got there an hour early, but they seated us within 15 minutes of our arrival. We had a cute and delightfully theatrical waiter (pictured below, center, between Rob on the right, and Kurt--inexplicably dressed as a Brokeback Cowpoke--on the left) who answered our many questions and made excellent suggestions, and promptly served us enormous and very flavorful portions of food.




As far as I could tell, there were very few downsides to dining at Au Pied de Cochon, except that the restaurant is very cramped, and it's the only place in the area that isn't BYOB, so they really gouge you on the price of wine. And given Quebec's ongoing love affair with game and offal, you have to have an adventurous spirit and a strong stomach just to endure the recitation of the specials. I have blocked most of it out as it was too psychologically painful for me, but there was something about salmon head soup (um, I'd rather have the rest of the fish involved in my soup, thanks), a green salad topped with sliced veal heart (I am on the verge of tears now remembering it), and the one that pushed us all over the edge with horror followed by uncontrolled fits of laughter was the Rabbit Royale, which involved disemboweling the poor animal, sauteeing its innards and perhaps combining it with foie gras (the key ingredient in most APdC dishes), stuffing it back in, then pan-frying the back legs and preparing the front legs in a confit. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH...the humanity! Here are some of the things in which we did happily indulge (click on the smaller pics to enlarge, photo credits on this next batch go to my dear friend, Rob):

This is a traditional Quebecois snack called "oreilles de crisse," irreverently translated as "Christ's Ears," or the Quebecois version of fried pork rinds. They taste like the fatty part of bacon, and some pieces almost break your teeth!



Mike, had duck carpaccio for his appetizer. He said it was a bit bland.







Cyd I shared a crock of French onion soup that had ham in it and a pork broth base, so it tasted like a cross between French onion and ham and bean soup (Kurt had this for his appetizer, too). And then Cyd and I also shared a WONDERFUL endive, apple, and blue cheese salad. There may have been walnuts or something, too. DELISH!


Kurt also had one of these little creatures--a square of foie gras, deep fried until crispy and molten inside, then allowed to cool for just two minutes before the waiter instructed him to "pop" it whole into his mouth. I myself couldn't see the appeal, but Kurt literally wept with joy when he tasted it, and then insisted that Cyd order one. She confirmed the ecstasy of the experience.

It was wrong, but we had to order this for the table to share...poutine topped with foie gras (just in case poutine doesn't kill you fast enough)! Our verdict: fresh-cut potatoes fried in duck fat and topped with house-made pork gravy and local cheese curds doesn't need a topping of foie gras (or the $23 price tag).

Mike ordered some mystery pot of varied sausages and vegetables. The blood sausage was the most intriguing, black in color and heavily spiced.





I have no idea what possessed me to take a semi-vegetarian to the pig restaurant, but Rob happily ordered himself the catch of the day, which was a DELICIOUS haddock dish with fresh veggies and gnocchi served atop the most gloriously savory mashed potatoes.


For our entree, Cyd and I shared the restaurant's signature dish, Pied de Cochon (that's the pig's foot to you Americanos, but NOT the version stuffed with foie gras, mind you!). This was a wonderfully flavorful and succulent dish, with the most tender pork and stewed vegetables served over those same awesome mashed potatoes. And I was SO glad that we decided to split it, as the serving was HUGE! The only thing I didn't like was the leftover cartilaginous bits being breaded and fried and served with a drizzle of spicy mustard. Eww.

For his entree, Kurt went a lighter route with a beautiful and tasty tomato tart on puff pastry, which was very good, but would be out-of-this-world come September with seasonal tomatoes!




Lastly, Kurt chose the lighter entree so that he could save room for dessert (though I had a fabulous homemade cherry pie waiting back at home!). He selected the baked apple that was stuffed with cranberries and served in a puddle of something akin to Creme Anglaise. He was very happy.

Sunday morning, we were up and out early, as we had to take Cyd back to the airport in Burlington. After dropping her off, my boys insisted that we take in the local brew pub culture (as is their way no matter what city they visit!). So we enjoyed a long lunch at The Vermont Pub and Brewery where the boys sampled each house brew, including one that we drank in honor of Mike called Handsome Mick's Stout, which tasted to me like someone dumped a used ash tray into a pint of beer. Blech! Then again, I don't drink beer, so what do I know? But I did enjoy my luncheon dish of Toad in the Hole--local maple sausages and Vermont cheddar wrapped in puff pastry and served with house-made apple chutney. Yum! By the time we finished our leisurely lunch, we had a phone call from Cyd that her flight had been cancelled due to inclement weather in the midwest. So we fetched her, forewent shopping on Church Street as it was pouring down rain, and instead headed down to Stowe for some more touristy sightseeing adventures.

First, we toured Ben and Jerry's headquarters and factory (of course we did--and see how Mike looks so very pleased with himself about it). And we sampled the most incredible ice creams there! Unfortunately, the first one is sold exclusively in their scoop shops, so it won't be accessible to most of you around the country*. It's called Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road, in honor of Elton John playing Vermont for the very first time last summer. It has a rich chocolate base, peanut butter cookie dough chunks, white chocolate pieces, and butter brickle bits. YUM!!!
However, I have one more recommendation that can be found in your local grocery stores--Triple Caramel Chunk. It's caramel ice cream with a soft caramel swirl and chocolate-covered caramel chunks. TO. DIE. FOR. (Yes, they kind of ripped off Haagen-Dazs' Fleur de Sel Caramel, but so what? It's awesome!)



*FOLLOW-UP: STOP THE PRESSES! I lied to you good people! When I went grocery shopping after work this evening, I spied a few "Limited Batch" containers of Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road stuck in among the other Ben and Jerry's offerings! And the package says that the proceeds go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation...as if we needed another reason to buy it! So RUN do not walk to your nearest grocery outlet and get some while it lasts in the stores!

After B&J's, we had to head up the road to see the Von Trapps, just so my friends could say that they did. Then we finally made our way back to New York State to relax and enjoy each other's company for one last evening. Since we got back later than we'd hoped, I pulled together a strange smorgasbord of pre-function nibbles, including cornichons from the Atwater Market, little toasted baguette slices topped with either the leftover hummus or some goat cheese and marinated eggplant (also acquired at Atwater), chips and homemade salsa and/or escabeche, or the most creative combination of all (Kurt and Mike put this strange one together): the toasted baguette pieces with goat cheese, a dollop of my blackberry Earl Grey jam, and a squeeze of fiery sriracha. A truly inspired snack! Sweet, spicy, creamy, crunchy--what more do you need in a nosh?!

For dinner, I made the venerable sweet-and-shiny roasted chicken, sprinkled with the house BBQ rub, roasted on top of a half-full beer can with a couple of garlic cloves inside at a scorching hot temp for an hour, then lacquered with homemade apricot pepper jelly and roasted for about 15 minutes more (so flavorful and juicy, both sweet and spicy!), roasted root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, and parsnips), steamed asparagus with butter and lemon (which I overcooked, unfortunately), and a green salad which included some herbs and lettuce from my faithful Aerogarden. The wine and laughter flowed freely, in partial thanks to my old college buddy, Don Wood, of Icicle Ridge Winery in Washington State, who sent me a very timely sample of his wares, including a nice Cabernet Sauvignon and a truly special "Three Blondes" Gewürztraminer--a "must try wine," says Seattle Magazine, and confirmed by my dinner guests. (THANKS, Don!)

Somehow, Cyd managed to convince the airline to change her point of departure to JFK, so she and the boys rolled out at the crack of dawn the next morning, as I stood alone in the driveway, waving goodbye in my jammies, and praying that it wouldn't be ANOTHER eight years before I saw them all together again. :-( Sniff.