08.02.07
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Flank Steak = Six Meals

Grits and Flank Steak

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The remains of a grilled flank steak chill out in the meat drawer of the fridge. A flank steak runs a little under two pounds — way too much for a meal for two. It was a dear purchase from Marin Sun Farms, but it has already provided four meals.

My leftover flank steak generally goes into a steak salad, but I wanted something different for this last remaining hunk of steak.

Carol mentioned that at her conference at Westerbeke Ranch, they were served creamed chipped beef on toast, a humble dish in such a resort setting. But she said it was very special, more like toast points with a creamy, beefy dipping sauce. That’s one idea, but maybe I could come up with something other than toast as a partner for the beef. Continue reading →

07.31.07
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A Chicken's Liver

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a one-liver pate;

When you poach a chicken, there are these giblets in the cavity of the beast. What does one do with those? And why am I ”Eats – for – One – guy” poaching a whole chicken?

Second question first:
In this case, I’m using the chicken meat and the broth that the poaching creates in Brunswick Stew. If I weren’t doing that, poached chicken meat can be used in chicken noodle soup, for chicken salad, for chicken hash, for chicken sandwiches, to fill tacos or quesadillas, to throw into canned soups or to add to leftover, already-made soups to make them more interesting and hearty. And you’ve got the chicken broth, for free, as a bonus. I freeze mine in stackable quart containers. Continue reading →

07.27.07
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Earth’s Ten Commandments

My Engagement Calendar

Just before the New Year, I went shopping for a new engagement calendar. This was never a problem when I had the bookstore, because I could just pick one out from those I ordered for sale. I use my engagement calendar primarily to record what I’m doing day-to-day. This is good for my journal writing and also handy at tax time.

I went to three or four bookstores before I found the perfect engagement calendar, cloth bound no less!

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Chez Panisse
35th Anniversary
2007 Engagement Calendar
Poster art by David Lance Goines
Introduction by Alice Waters
Ten Speed Press

It is a treasure. I’ve used weekly engagement calendars for years, always insisting on an engagement calendar with an illustration for each week. It all started back when my former sister-in-law used to work at a Williams Sonoma store in Orange County. Every year she would send me a Frank Lloyd Wright engagement calendar for Christmas. For a couple years I loved it, before getting really tired of Frank Lloyd Wright. She switched to M. C. Escher, one can tire easily of M. C. Escher. I was spared years of Escher’s when my brother remarried. That was in 1992, the year we moved to San Francisco, and I had to start buying my own engagement calendars. I’ve had everything from the SI Swimsuit engagement calendars to Mapplethorpe to the Taschen series, All American Ads of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s. My favorite for the last five years or so has been the Redstone Diary, published by Chronicle Books. They have a theme every year, so one doesn’t get tired of it, and rather bizarre drawings and photographs. A Redstone Diary was not to be found in this year’s quest. Continue reading →

07.26.07
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The Reach of a Chef, a Review

The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen
By Michael Ruhlman

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As an avid home cook, I’m a sucker for behind-the-scenes in-a-professional-kitchen books, ever since reading Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page in the early 90’s. Since then I’ve devoured Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Heat by Bill Buford, The Seasoning of a Chef by Doug Psaltis with Michael Psaltis, and The Perfectionist, Life and Death in Haute Cuisine by Rudolph Chelminski, among others. It’s not surprising that I would latch onto The Reach of a Chef shortly after its publication. Continue reading →

07.13.07
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Mariquita Box

My Ladybug Letter arrived July 3, including this announcement:
Thursday Padron and Pesto Night at Zuppa July 5th

Hello: I’m going to be a Zuppa on Thursday, July 5th from 5:00pm to 7pm (at least). You can make orders by Tuesday afternoon and I’ll bring them on Thursday. Minimum order = $25. I did this once last month at Nopa and it was a success!

I’ll be ‘hanging out’ and dining at Zuppa and Joseph and Mary (the owners) will make sure I have a large table so anyone who wants to stay and have some food and or a drink of any persuasion is welcome.

Zuppa is at 564 Fourth Street (between Brannan & Bryant)

When you make your order I’ll confirm it by email, (you can make your order by phone or email), and I’ll give you my cell phone number in case you don’t want to hassle with parking and looking for me in the restaurant. You can call me and I’ll meet you outside and load your car for you!

The website is here. Some of the vegetables you can buy include: padron peppers, friarelli peppers, flats of strawberries (from High Ground, they’re really good!), BASIL for pesto of course, carrots, nepitella, Erbette Chard, beets three colors, onions, and more. See the website.

And another fun option: Let Andy pack a mystery box for you! for $25 you’re guaranteed to get even more value, and a mix of the above items, depending on what Andy feels like harvesting and putting in the box. This was popular when I did Thursday Basil Night (should I call it Thursday Padron Night??)
Julia

How could I resist? I have missed the Mariquita stand — not to mention Andy and Julia — at the Farmers Market on Saturdays. They have stuff others don’t have. So I quick sent off an order by email: Continue reading →

07.06.07
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Sunday Supper

Peel ‘n’ Eat Shrimp
Leftover Potato Salad

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While waiting for dinner at Brophy Bros Fish Restaurant in Santa Barbara on Thursday, we had a mess of Peel ‘n’ Eat Shrimp. Yum. Carol said, “We should have Peel ‘n’ Eat shrimp for dinner every Sunday night.”

Our Sunday night dinners are usually planned, and then when the time rolls around to cook, one of us says, “who’s cooking?” and the other says “How about (Chinese) (Pizza) (Leftovers).” Our Sundays are rarely structured; we’ve been out or whatever, and we neither are inclined to get it up for a nice meal.

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On this particular Sunday, we were just back from a trip to Santa Barbara to attend the beach wedding of Amber — one of Carol’s head teachers — and Will, a fine young Italian. We wrapped extra days around the Friday afternoon wedding to create a nice “foodie getaway.” Continue reading →

07.03.07
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Pittsburgh Eats 1

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We spent five days in the Pittsburgh environs while Carol attended her NAEYC conference June 9 — 13, 2007. Due to the fact that it was the week of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, we were obliged to stay in the sticks at the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree, in the Borough of Green Tree, about four miles from Downtown. This is about the eats.

Our Saturday flight to Pittsburgh left at a civilized hour, elevenish. We were on U.S. Air with a United ticket. The flight was smooth, the crew handsome. We shared an empty middle seat and I had all the legroom I needed.

S M O O T H.

Trouble is, we landed. The baggage claim was a congested, crunched-up mess with five flights on one carosel and the combination of Midwestern-sized people and their like-sized bags.

We called the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree for a shuttle pickup,

wait
wait
wait
wait

wait,

At least the waiting was in beautiful weather, 72 degrees and sunny.

Our hotel turned out to be a very large hotel in a suburban setting — or one might say, the middle of nowhere. Walk anywhere? Fagidaboutit. Nearby restaurants? Well, there’s the Olive Garden about a mile away, but the roads are narrow and have no sidewalks or shoulders to walk on. It was nearly 9pm local time and we needed food and drink, not necessarily in that order. Continue reading →

06.27.07
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Pittsburgh Eats Part 2

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We spent five days in the Pittsburgh environs while Carol attended her NAEYC conference June 9 — 13, 2007. Due to the fact that it was the week of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, we were obliged to stay in the sticks at the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree, in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Green Tree, about four miles from Downtown. This is about the eats Tuesday and Wednesday, our last two days.

Tuesday Breakfast
Radisson River Restaurant Buffet
In the Radisson Green Tree, without a car, there are no choices. You do what’s in the hotel, or do without. I didn’t bother with the morning bus into Pittsburgh, nothing much to do there, and I wanted to write My US Open. But I did want breakfast, so I chanced their Breakfast Buffet. I perused the layout and, whoa! The scrambled eggs were fresh and hot, properly cooked, and had some cheese in them. The hash brown potatoes were little wedges fried with onions, hot and brown, the breakfast sausages saw a skillet and were browned, the pineapple and melon were fresh and hand cut and there were grapes, strawberries, blueberries and cottage cheese. Coffee and juice come with the buffet and they even had V8! And there was dry cereal and granola and yogurt and milk and cream for those who are into that. What’s got into them?

Tuesday Lunch
The 1889 Café, Southside Pittsburgh

By noon or so, I was thinking about lunch and thinking about Pittsburgh. Continue reading →

06.18.07
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Big Pasta

Emeril cooks with Lidia Bastianich

Carol was channel flipping as I walked through the room. “There’s Lidia,” she exclaimed. Lidia is Lidia Bastianich, an Italian cook of a certain age, who has a show on PBS. Here she was cooking with Emeril on the Food Channel. Her mantra is “keep it simple,” and indeed, the dishes she presented were simple but enticing. We learned that she had recently opened Lidia’s Pittsburgh, and we would be going there soon.

I sprung into action. First, to download the recipes from this show, and second, to make reservations at Lidia’s for the time when we’re in Pittsburgh. That’s another story, to appear in this space after our trip.

The cooking was to follow.

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mise en place: bucatini, oil packed tuna, calamata olives, tomato paste and red pepper flakes, onions and garlic, parsley. Continue reading →

06.18.07
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A Little Dab'll Do Ya

Sand Dabs, carrots, turnips and turnip greens

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I’ve been diligently cooking from recipes, albeit with adaptations and fitting to suit, for years. Well over a year’s worth are recorded on this site. On this occasion, I cooked with what came out of the refrigerator, and from suggestions.

This week, the Shogun stall at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market had Sand Dabs. I love Sand Dabs, little bitty things, two to three for a serving. But these were big fellas, seven or eight inches long. Wonderful. Continue reading →