donuts

Two bucks for a donut at Whole Foods.  It is just me or does that seem excessive?

pots and pans; what's in my kitchen, part 1

Most people assume since I was a chef in my past life, that I would have the Cadillac collection of cookware.  Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the next few posts, I'll talk about what's in my kitchen.

 

My pots and pans are ratty and cheap. I still love Teflon and would rather replace a modest Teflon skillet every year and have it work really well than buy an expensive uncoated one that everything sticks to. (Cast iron, feh, too much work to keep clean and seasoned - and too heavy.  I dropped one on my toe once and broke the toe.) The rest is just stuff, some old cast aluminum I probably got from my mom or Aunt Ruth. Someone once gave me an All-Clad wok skillet - it took me a decade to get it seasoned, but it's o.k. now.

 

I like having good baking sheets and silpat mats that fit them. You never have baking parchment when you need it and I've had my silpat mats for a decade and they still look pretty good. Heavy baking sheets are a must. I like the kind that have rims all the way around.  You can get the half sheets and quarter sheets at commercial stores that fit in a home oven and will last you forever if you take care of them and keep them clean. (Cleaning is easy if you use your silpats!) The most important thing to remember with heavy aluminum baking sheets is to never put water on them when they are hot. Let them cool for a few minutes before washing them and they will never warp. Otherwise, warp city and then they are no good.

unter den linden

The Linden trees in my neighborhood are at the height of their fragrant glory.  You walk past them and the sweet smell is intoxicating.  Linden, genus Tilia, is an amazing tree.  The honey, made by bees who gather their pollen from its flowers, is considered the most desirable honey in the world by many gourmets.  It can be used as an herbal tea and schnapps or vodka infused with linden is a seasonal treat in some Scandinavian countries.

The most famous pedestrian street in Berlin is called Unter den Linden or Under the Limes.  In the UK, linden trees are called lime trees, though they don't produce the tropical fruit we use in key lime pie or gin and tonic.  In the USA, lindens are sometimes called basswood because of the inner fiber of the bark, known as bast, which can be shredded and woven into material (like the attus made by the Ainu of Japan). Basswood is light, but very strong, and is easily worked, making it a favorite among woodcraft hobbyists.  Best of all, lindens create just about the densest, coolest shade of any deciduous tree.  You should have one shading any big window that admits a lot of heat.

In honor of this great tree, try making your own linden vodka:
1. Clean out a pint mason jar.
2. Fill it with linden blossoms (gently, don't cram).  Make sure the tree hasn't been sprayed for pests.
3. Cover with vodka.
4. Allow to steep for 3 or 4 days, shaking once in a while.
5. Strain off the liquid and chill well before serving.
The Danes drink this with dessert and say it goes especially well with cheesecake.

the rapture?

Last night I took my dog for a walk in the big field behind my house.  It was so still.  No people walking around the neighborhood, no cars driving through.  So quiet, I could hear a train rumbling through town, 6 miles away.  I had been in the basement watching the last episode of Lost (that's for another post) and when I came up, I went out for the walk.  I thought maybe the rapture had finally happened while I was watching Lost, which would have been somewhat apropos.

pizza (sort of)

Thin - undeniably.

Beautiful - perhaps to someone.

Edible - not in the least.

Hard week at work.  Friday night decided to pop a pizza in the oven while we were cleaning house.  Good thing there was some good salami and cheese in the meat drawer to get the taste of this out of our mouths.

This may be someone's favorite pizza, but it isn't mine.  God, it was awful.  Spinach and Artichoke flavored cardboard.  I really expected more from California Pizza Kitchen.  I could have bought a generic grocery store pizza for one-fifth the price and been much happier.

Eating at the Cozy Inn

On my recent trup to Wichita, I stopped for my usual dose of little hamburgers at the Cozy Inn.  The Cozy Inn in Salina, KS has been crankin' out sliders since 1922.  Little hamburgers by the sackful.  As the sign tells you, ALL burgers come with onion, cheese is not available.  The Cozy Inn advertises itself as the "best stinkin' little restaurant in Kansas", a claim that is well founded.  The souvenirs I bought made my car smell like the inside of the restaurant for a week.

All production is done on the same tiny little griddle that has been in use since the place opened. 

The burgers from the Cozy Inn come with chips or soda (or both).  There is no deep-fryer, so no fries and no fountain dispenser, so canned sodas only.  It is a tiny bit of heaven on a bun, stop by when you are cruising through Kansas on I-70.  Just down the street is one of Kansas' best quilt shops, The Quilting Bee.



Mexican Pizza, more or less

Flat bread from El Monte in Fort Collins for lunch yesterday.  A piece of corn-mealy white bread with carne asada and black beans.  Not bad.  I was about halfway through with it when the waitress came over and told me that that one was not for me, and took it away and replaced it with a fresh one, which was nearly identical as far as I could tell.  Very odd.

hot, hot, hot

With apologies to Buster Poindexter, it is hot, hot, hot here in the midwest.  One gets rather spoiled living at 5000 feet in a place with low humidity.  I'm just not used to the sock in the face that the one-two punch of heat and humidity is.  I'll post more later as I am able to wring out my socks and get a perspective on things.

at the Missoula Market

The gang from ASFS (Alice Julier and Jenny Berg) with me at the Missoula Farmers Market.  Here we are with Uncle Bill the Sausage King.  We are buying  Pork Sausages with Morel Mushrooms.

An example of the tidy displays at the market.

The MicroGreens seller at the market

The Mushroom Guys

faux risotto with israeli couscous

Faux risotto with the wild asparagus we picked.  You can pick some up at the grocery store and have this faux-sotto done in a snap.  

Take some Israeli couscous and cook according to the instructions on the package.  I use chicken broth instead of water because I like the taste of it that way.  Taste it and when it seems to be about one minute from being done, toss in your cut up asparagus.  Cook for one minute more and then drain off any liquid that remains in the pan.  Toss in some shredded parmesan and, voila, a fabulous dinner or side dish.  

Danger Alert

Danger alert (at least for me).  The newly opened convenience store across the street from my office is stocking Mexican Coca-Cola (as well as Mexican Sprite and Orange Fanta).  Mexican Coca-Cola is still made with cane sugar.   This stuff is wildly better than the Colorado Coca-Cola made with corn syrup.  This will probably lead  to morbid obesity on my part. 

Langostino Casserole

When I worked at Fifi's Restaurant in Lawrence, Kansas we had a dish on the menu called lobster casserole.  It was really made with Langostino's but it was delightsome.  When I saw a bag of langostino meat at the grocer's it gave me the craving.  We also used these things for a fettucini alfredo with the meat in it that was to die for.  

This dish doesn't really have a recipe, more a procedure, which I show you here.

Step One - fill the bottom of a small gratinee dish with crushed seasoned croutons.

Step Two:

Cover the croutons with the langostino meat.

Step Three:

Pour in some half 'n half or heavy cream that has been seasoned with Louisiana Hot Sauce (better than Tabasco I think), salt and pepper (and dill if you like dill).  Lemon salt is fantastic if your pantry runs to it.  

Step Four

Put in 450F oven until the cream is bubbly.

When the cream is bubbling hot, top with grated Jarlsberg and brown the cheese under the broiler.  Serve hot and enjoy.

morning music

Saturday morning puttering around the house.  It's too early for much input.  The first part of any day should be reserved for silent perusal of the newspaper with coffee.  As one starts to move around a bit, sometimes it is o.k. to add some music to the mix.  One this glorious Saturday morning when I should be outside enjoying the near-perfect weather, I am misanthropically in the basement ironing quilt blocks (more on that in another post someday soon).

As background music I have chosen a disc from this incredible box set from Archiv (a sub-label of Deutsche Grammophon) featuring the Sacred Cantatas of JS Bach.  Perfect music for a Saturday morning sans the outside world.  The more I listen to Bach, I think he is the greatest composer ever.  Mozart is wittier, Beethoven can be more magnificent - there is much to recommend so many other composers, and I listen to many of them.  But Bach is the total package.

Heartland Cinnamon Rolls

My Favorite Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Heartland Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:

¼ cup granulated sugar

1½ cups warm water

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tsp salt

1 cup milk, warmed to about 100F

up to 7 cups a.p. flour, but you’ll need less  (Hudson Cream Flour is the best)

Filling:

2 Tbsp softened butter

2 Tbsp milk

¾ cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

to taste – ground cinnamon (I use about 2 Tbsp fresh ground for best flavor)

[a note on cinnamon – you can grind cinnamon sticks in a coffee grinder to get amazing fresh ground cinnamon, try it.]

Frosting:

¼ cup softened butter

½ tsp vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar

2 Tbsp. milk

Make the Dough

In a small bowl, combine the first measure of sugar, the warm water and the yeast.  Stir briefly, set aside to proof.

In a mixing bowl (best done in the bowl of a standing mixer if you have one, but can be done by hand) combine the vegetable oil, the second measure of sugar, and the salt.  Then add the yeast mixture and milk.  Add 2 or 3 cups of flour and mix to blend the ingredients.  Start adding more flour.  Start by adding enough more flour that you have about 5 cups in the bowl.  Mix well and start adding more flour about a third of a cup at a time until you have achieved a moist, smooth, pliable dough.  How much more you add will depend on the brand of flour you use and the humidity where you are making the dough.  Resist the temptation to add too much flour.  I find the ideal is to get the dough to where you think one more addition of a quarter-cup will make it perfect and stop before actually doing so.   The dough should feel somewhat sticky. [I find it usually takes me just about 6 cups of flour to make a nice dough.] When all the flour has been incorporated, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead a few quick times to make the dough smooth.  Return it to the mixing bowl and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes.  Clean up your mess while the dough rests.

Take the rested dough and cut it into 2 pieces.  Roll out the pieces on a lightly floured work surface.  You want to wind up with rectangles of dough that are about 9 x 13 and is about a third to a half-of-an-inch thick. 

Filling the Dough

Use a pastry brush and spread the softened butter all over the rolled out dough.  Drizzle the milk over the dough and smear it around with the pastry brush.  Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the dough and repeat with the granulated sugar.  Then sprinkle with the cinnamon. 

Roll up the dough starting at one of the 13-inch sides, so you have a cylinder that is 13 inches long.  Place seam side down on the work surface and slice.  You can slice as many as 12 or 14 rolls out of this, but I cut it into 9 slices and have big puffy rolls.  [9 rolls fit nicely into a 10 x 13 baking dish.] 

Place the rolls into a well-greased baking dish, cover and let rise until they fill the pan, 1 to 2 hours.  Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 25 - 35 minutes, you want a well-browned roll but is not over-cooked. 

Frosting

Mix the butter, vanilla, confectioners sugar and milk in a bowl until you have a smooth creamy frosting.  Spread over the cooled rolls.

[This recipe is adapted from the Wheatland Café in Hudson, Kansas.  Hudson is home of the Stafford County Flour Mill, makers of Hudson Cream Flour, and a truly superior flour for making yeasted baked goods like these rolls.  Have your friends in Kansas smuggle you back a bag next time they drive out.]

America's seed library

Yesterday, I got to go on a tour of the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, which is the largest seed library (or germplasm storage facility, as they like to say) in the world.  It is much more comprehensive than the Norwegian one that was featured in the New Yorker and the National Geographic a while back.  In fact, they are the back up facility for that one, having samples of everything they have, plus a bunch more.

They preserve over 750,000 unique specimens of plant and animal matter against natural disaster, Armageddon, etc.  it was all quite interesting.  They get donations, test for viability, store seeds, etc.  Some are stored in freezers and others are stored in liquid nitrogen.  The big vaults are all password protected and have various redundant systems and are waterproof, etc.  We got to go in the big zero degree safe and see the liquid nitrogen storage area, which looked much like a giant micro-brewery with kettle after kettle of liquid nitrogen storage.

Preserving such a large selection of seeds is critical to the protection of the biodiversity of the planet.  What a cool place.  What an excellent mission.

Why I chose this name

Why is this blog called "the soybean lows"?
I had a dream recently where I was in Italy and hanging out in a book store that had a selection of material from the American Beats - Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsburg, etc.  In that section of the store there was a little booklet with a green cover called 'the soybean lows'.  I looked around on the 'net and found nothing with that name, so I truly dreamt it up, hence the name of this blog.