Author Archives: Eric

02.21.08
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One Handed Breakfast

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On Saturday I had brunch with a friend at Namu on Balboa at 6th Avenue — fine place that — and broke into a rant about Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. I really believe in his way of eating and can’t help going on about it.

On the subject of breakfast, Lisa said she would like to eat fresh food but she has two pre-teen daughters and teaches. Mornings are hectic, to say the least. Her first class is at 7:30, so she eats a Trader Joe’s power bar in the car during her commute. “I have to be able to eat with one hand,” she said, “something not messy. I don’t like what I eat for breakfast, but that’s the way it is.”

I don’t have that problem, but was thinking about her plight the next morning. I put together a breakfast that was not messy, and while I ate at the table, what I had could have been eaten in a car with one hand, from a container rather than a dish.

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  • Piccoline olives
  • Anchovy stuffed olives
  • Hard boiled egg, quartered
  • “Mikes” cheese curd (with peppers) from Spring Hill Farm, available at a Farmers Market near you. Continue reading →
02.20.08
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IN DEFENSE OF FOOD

An Eater’s Manifesto

I tacked this onto the end of Super (Bowl) Food, but it’s too important to be hidden there, so I’ve reprinted it here.

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FOOD IN THE AFTERMATH
The day after the Super Bowl, I went to a talk and book signing by Michael Pollan regarding his new book, IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, An Eater’s Manifesto at a local bookstore. His mantra is on the cover: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. I’m reading the book and urge you to do so, as well. Michael Pollan is an engaging speaker and packed the house. He has a lot to say and his talk was peppered with humor. You can see an NPR story on the book here.

Back home, Carol had already eaten dinner. With Pollan’s words in my head, I started my dinner. Leftovers from the Party crudités were in plastic bags in the crisper, and I had saved the trimming scraps from the prep, as well. Yellow and green bell peppers, broccoli stems, and celery sticks, as well as some slices of the Speck ham would make a nice stir-fry.

I sliced an onion and sautéed it in olive oil, added the other vegetables and cooked those with a little white wine until it had nearly evaporated. While that was going on, I sliced the ham into strips and stirred those in along with some beef broth. That cooked down nicely for a few minutes and I had dinner.

Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Yum.

Then Tuesday, for lunch, I mixed the leftover stir-fry with noodles and a touch more broth. Oh, my, Yum!

02.06.08
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Super (Bowl) Food

Food and the Super Bowl

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This year we hosted our XIth Annual Super Bowl Party for Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots. Having lived in Newton, Massachusetts for 24 years while raising our kids, we are dyed-in-the-wool Patriots fans; but not all those invited shared our views.

In years past, we themed the food around the teams playing (Baltimore Crab Cakes, Carolina BBQ, are examples,) but last year we ran up against Indianapolis. What the heck would you do with Indianapolis??? So we punted and did a country ham, because we like country ham.

In any case, this year we had some good theme choices (New England Clam Chowder vs. Manhattan Clam Chowder, Lobster vs. NY Steak,). We recently returned from Europe, and particularly Spain, where we delighted in the Tapas. What great food for a party, finger food, little paper plates are good; eat bites of what you want, when you want, as much as you want, throughout the game. Continue reading →

01.28.08
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Sunday Supper III

Sunday Supper was so good and quick and easy, I just had to share it.

Sunday supper is a time when cooking and eating is an imposition, especially the cooking part. Whether we’ve been watching football, on a day trip, coming home from a Giants game, cooking a soup or stew for later in the week or just vegging out and trying to get through the entire Sunday New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, it’s a time for ordering in Pizza or Chinese. But we can’t do that every Sunday. (We can’t?)

We’ve gone through a few phases:

The ordering in phase,
The leftover phase,
The peel and eat shrimp phase, that was the latest, and frankly, I’m tired of shrimp — or easy substitutes such as squid or scallops.

It’s January and the market is full of roots: beets, carrots, potatoes, and celery root, parsnips, turnips and the like. I scored a few pounds of beets and a couple of fine celery roots. The beets went to Harvard Beets and Pickled Beets and a couple of pounds are left for Borscht. That’s a lot of beets, our pee will flow red for days and days. Continue reading →

01.17.08
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Eats in Europe: Barcelona 1

Here I will account for everything we ate in Europe, well, most everything, well, at least the interesting things.

This installment takes Carol and I through Barcelona on our way from England to France. We hadn’t yet joined up with “the gang.”

Tuesday Dinner
Subway
Sports Bar
Barcelona

Our EasyJet flight arrived in Barcelona well after 9 in the night. By the time we had checked into the Hotel de Quatro Nacionales at #44 Las Ramblas, it was after 11. Carol and I were tired and hungry. Las Ramblas, the sprawling tourist street of Barcelona, was dark and relatively unpopulated and a brief rainstorm was blowing by. We saw no welcoming lights, other than the lights of a SUBWAY sandwich place and a sports bar across the street. Imagine that, our first meal in Barcelona was Subway sandwiches and vodka tonics. They did the job.

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Las Ramblas

Wednesday Breakfast
Hotel de Quatro Nacionales
Barcelona

A continental breakfast was served on the Principal Floor of the hotel. We learned that in Spain, the Principal Floor is the floor above the Ground Floor and below the First Floor. The breakfast room featured one of those coffee machines that spout forth when you push the button for one of 8 coffee or hot chocolate concoctions. None of them are French Press, but the coffee wasn’t bad. Croissants (real ones), rolls, toast, butter, jam, and fruit are available. Life is good. Continue reading →

01.16.08
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Ham Loaf

For Super Bowl XLI We hosted our XIth Annual Super Bowl Party and about ten people showed up, a nice size crowd for our flat. For this, we bought half of a Country Ham and served the ham on small rolls with horseradish mustard. There was lots of other football food, as well as betting and whooping and carrying on, though nobody was really a Colts or Bears fan.

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After the game and after the last glass of wine and after the last ham roll, a lot of ham was still on that bone. We needed to come up with some way for the two of us to take care of that ham.

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I’m a big fan of meat loaf… why not Ham Loaf. Back at Columbus West High School, lo those many years ago, a couple buddies and I took an elective of Home Economics, Cooking. In the late 50’s this would be described as a girls course, guys took shop and metalwork. I took those too, and hated them. I signed up for Cooking because it seemed interesting, and, oh yes, to meet some girls. Cooking was way better than metalwork. I don’t remember all that we did in that class, but table setting and napkin folding stick in my brain, aside from the cooking. Chopping and baking led to the thing I remember best; our final project, Ham Loaf. I remember it was really good and it wasn’t something that my mother made, so it was new to me. Unlike meat loaf, it was tangy and sweet-and-sour. Continue reading →

01.11.08
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Eats in Europe, England Edition 2

Eats in Europe will account for everything I ate in Europe, well, most everything, well, at least the interesting things.

Our transcontinental transatlantic Virgin Atlantic flight was San Francisco to London, so England was the beginning and ending of our 2007 European odyssey. I addressed our first meals in Stansted Mountfitchet, England in England Edition 1. I’ll address our meals in London, just before flying back to San Francisco, in this installment.

Saturday Dinner
Mela: Indian Cuisine
London

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We ate at Mela on our last trip and it was a new and satisfying experience.

Mela is basically a square, storefront room on the busy Shaftesbury Avenue in SOHO. I would call it undecorated. OK, the sidewall toward the back has a tile pattern, and the lighting is soft and adjustable, thick white tablecloths complete the décor.

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We were seated in the back of the main dining room. As we sat down, Carol said, “I’m glad we’re not near that woman passed out in her own vomit.” I hadn’t noticed, but over to my right, against the wall, a woman sat, sort of sprawled, with her head on the table and a napkin over it. OK, I guess I won’t look that way. The staff seemed to be ignoring her. Continue reading →

01.11.08
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Eats in Europe, England Edition 1

Eats in Europe will account for everything I ate in Europe, well, most everything, well, at least the interesting things.

Our transcontinental transatlantic Virgin Atlantic flight was San Francisco to London, so England was the beginning and ending of our 2007 European odyssey. I’ll address our first meals in Stansted Mountfitchet, England in this installment. For our London experiences, see England Edition 2.
In the spirit of everything, I’ll start with the dining experience on the 10-hour flight:

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Sunday Dinner
Virgin Atlantic Airline
Sunday night on the aeroplane…

I have no idea what time it is and I really don’t care. I know we left SF and we’re not yet in London and dinner is served. We have a choice of chicken with rice or beef with mashed or vegetarian.

Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes

Sliced Roast Beef with dark gravy and mashed potatoes in an oval dish.
Green salad
Cracker and a little wedge of orange cheese
Cheesecake, way too rich
Bottle of water
A real glass of red wine; poured from a bottle and refilled.

Not bad.

Monday Breakfast
Virgin Atlantic Airline

Pierre Creations egg and cheese croissant sandwich. It was hot and came in a cellophane wrapper.
Blueberry Muffin
Salad of 4 red grapes, 3 orange melon cubes, 3 green melon cubes
Orange juice
Coffee

It wasn’t terrible.

Monday Lunch
Dog and Duck Pub
Stansted Mountfitchet, England

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Continue reading →

01.07.08
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SQUASH THREE TIMES

Ravioli to Noodle Soup

We got these humungous winter squash in our Mariquita Farms Mystery Box.

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Mariquita Farm was my go-to for many vegetables at the Farmers Market, but they left the market to concentrate on supplying restaurants and CSA.
Just when I was about over missing them, I got an email from Julia that she would bring vegetable boxes a couple times a month to distribute at one of their restaurants where they deliver. Just make a $25 order by email. They call these deliveries Mysterious Thursdays, as they also offer a “mystery box” made up by Andy.

The squash sat outside for a week or so until one Saturday morning Carol just hacked up one of the big ones and baked it. Now what to do? We weren’t excited about making pie or soup or gratin.

SQUASH ONCE

Well, I hadn’t made pasta for a while, how about Squash Ravioli?

For basic research I tend to consult with Cook’s Illustrated online. We’re sure of finding a basic, proven recipe and we can go from there. Their Pumpkin, Prosciutto, and Parmesan Filling for Pasta looked good, interesting and easy. Just mix your baked squash with a little minced prosciutto and fresh sage leaves, grated Parmesan cheese, an egg yolk and freshly ground nutmeg.

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The already made sheets are under the green towel. Continue reading →

01.07.08
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Soup for Lunch

Bean Vegetable Soup (mine)

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I love beans. I love most any kind of beans, but as with any food I like to know if they’re fresh, and where they come from. The heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo are fresh and clean. For my all purpose needs, I usually get the Marrow beans, but those are out of season just now, so I’ve been using Cranberry Cargamanto, a worthy substitute, lately.

My wife, Carol, does not share my pleasure in beans. Oh, she’ll eat them as a small side accompaniment to a main dish if they are disguised with greens or radicchio or some such. But I will be eating the bulk of the beans, so when I cook up a pot of beans, I need some good ideas on how I’ll be eating them.

I’ve devised a great lunch fall-back of bean and vegetable soup. It doesn’t take long to prepare and tastes really good. Continue reading →