128 replies to this topic

[sanrensho]

Tomatoes from my very own garden along with cukes from the grocery store, purple garlic from the Ithaca Farmers Market, red onion, fresh lime juice, white pepper, rice salad vinegar, Asian fish sauce (the one with the fat baby on the label) and a bit of nice fruity Sicilian olive oil.  I'll use the same sauce - sans garlic - later this week for a very colorful salad of a different type.

Good call. My "change of pace" salad dressing (as an alternative to standard vinaigrette) is a light drizzle of sesame oil, a few good shots of fish sauce, pepper and freshly squeezed lime juice. And some cilantro if I have some lying around.

[racheld]

This is The FUDGE Stirrer. It gets quite a workout during the weeks leading up to Christmas, and is in constant use the rest of the year, as well. It's so much more effective than a mere spoon for completely clearing the bottom of the heavy-bottom pan (The FUDGE Pan, of course), than just scritching a hairline with a spoontip, no matter how hard or faithfully you stir as it cooks.

I loved the waterfalls, and envy your proximity to a lake---those big guys give the next best thing to a Gulf tide, and I'm SO homesick to hear it.

And by happenstance, our own dinner last night was shredded cabbage stir-fried for a moment in olive oil, then dressed with garlic, a few glugs from the light soy sauce bottle and three drops of sesame oil, then left to steam for about three minutes under a lid. Our pasta inclusion was some tri-color farfalle, bought just this weekend for prospective vegan houseguests (as was the dish planned for them) but they had to leave earlier than planned, and will be back this way end of the month.

This is a lovely, comfort-food dish, and we had ours with a kidney-bean salad with minced Vidalias, three colors of bell pepper, and a splash of juice from the dill-pickle jar. And some of the last tomatoes---our garden, alas, fell prey to the rainless days of August and my own inability to get out there and care for it properly. The guys cleaned and tilled and smoothed it away this past Monday, and this rack of tomatoes (plus lots of green beans, etc., in the freezers) are all that's left til Spring promises.

And your Coffee-Scented Days!!! I could almost smell the screen.

[MelissaH]

Whew!

Today's errands made for a very long day, and it's not over yet.

As I left Oswego, it was raining quite hard. By the time I got to Fulton, 10 miles south, the rain was no longer coming down but the road was covered with puddles. By Phoenix (another 7 miles on), I needed to dig out the sunglasses that live in the car. And in Syracuse, it was actually quite warm in the sun!

My first stop was at Home Depot. Before I left, I measured my oven rack, because I wanted to get quarry tiles to fit. I had some, but they were sized for the oven-before-the-last, which was tiny. Because I'm still not convinced the weather will cooperate for grilling tomorrow's pizzas, I want to be sure I can cook multiple pizzas at a time, which means I need a full rack's worth of tiles. I would have liked to have gotten the tiles locally, but the Lowe's here doesn't have anything unglazed.

I found the tiles, which looked exactly like mine did when they were new and clean. And I discovered that I should be able to fit 4 rows of tiles across, and 2.5 rows of tiles deep, on one rack. Therefore, I needed a total of 10 tiles, two of which needed to be halved. It just so happened that while I was there, the flooring section had one person working and about a dozen groups of people needing her attention. Who knew that a Wednesday morning would be so busy? So instead of scoring and snapping the tiles herself, she sent me to the tool rental area. And the person working there actually got out the tile wetsaw and cut the tiles rather than just snapping them. Total cost, including tax: $3.24. That's hard to beat!

Then some rather boring stuff, not at all related to food, and finally, to lunch! I met Owen at Ponchito's Taqueria, which was in a section of Syracuse I'd never visited before.

I had a burrito, and he got a taco with chips and guacamole. The chips and guac were excellent. My burrito was waaay better than what I can get in Oswego at Fajita Grill (which people here rave about because they don't have much to compare to), but not up to the standard set by Big City Burrito in Fort Collins, CO. The salsa was nice, I could actually taste things other than black pepper or HOT!, and the burrito was nicely stuffed and rolled, and I liked that they used whole chunks of chicken, which they cut into smaller pieces only when I ordered. But I still miss the texture in the corn salsas that Chipotle and Big City make. If I were in the area, I'd go back there, but I don't know that I'd go out of my way to eat there.

Then, I went to the Knitting Connection, another yarn store, because I was in the area and their yarn selection is different from what North Wind typically has. This errand actually became food-related when I looked at their selection of sock yarn: the latest thing is, apparently, a yarn that's made partly from soy and chitin (from shrimp shells!) fibers. It felt nice, but I wasn't in the mood to spend that much on sock yarn that I'm not going to get to for a while because I have too many other projects in the queue.

Finally, my last stop was at Wegman's. The store I went to is the Syracuse area flagship store, but it's been under renovation and expansion for a while, and is not expected to be completed till at least mid-November. Things move around every time I visit, which makes it difficult to find what I'm looking for, but the produce is still nice-looking and beautifully displayed, and they (as always) make a point of labeling things that are grown locally. The workers still look happy to be working there. I bother to go there because it's so much nicer than the local supermarkets in Oswego. But more about them later, when I have more time: maybe Friday?

I got what I went for, and nothing that wasn't on my list other than a Coke Zero to drink as I drove home. And when I got home, this was the view after I unloaded the car:

What a difference a few hours makes!

Tonight's a bit crazy: we have concert tickets! Oswego has a vibrant arts scene, largely due to the college but other groups also help. Tonight is a chamber music concert featuring the music of Francis Poulenc and Benjamin Britten, performed by some of our music professors with some guest artists. I'm looking forward to the music.

If I have enough time before the concert, I'll try to start prepping some of tomorrow's dinner. The grapes from yesterday need to be made into sorbet base and chilled well, and the pizza dough needs to be made either tonight or first thing tomorrow. I forgot to get half-and-half, but fortunately the peanut butter ice cream base doesn't involve eggs and doesn't get cooked, so that can easily be both blended and chilled tomorrow. Once those are done, all that's left will be a bunch of chopping and slicing, which is pretty easy to handle.

MelissaH

Casey just got home, and I hear him loading the dishwasher. This means I need to see what's up. I suspect tonight's dinner will be yummy leftovers. Now that I think about it, I realize the pork and gravy from the crockpot will go nicely with the cabbage and noodles from yesterday!

[MelissaH]

Good morning, and happy new year!

My breakfast this morning actually started last night. I gathered my ingredients:

two cups of water, a pinch of salt, and half a cup of steel-cut oats. The water and salt went on the stove to come to a boil. When that happened, I added the oats (slowly, because if you don't it boils over and you get to clean your stove), stirred everything together well,

and then put the lid on the pot and set it aside overnight. (I'm almost ashamed to admit that I learned this method of oatmeal cooking from Martha Stewart, but I'm not a huge fan of quicker-cooking oatmeal, because the texture goes completely to mush. The steel-cut oats retain some texture and chew, but if you don't start them the night before, they need to simmer for something like half an hour in the morning. I don't know about you, but I'm generally too hungry to wait that long, nor am I awake enough to do that much active cooking before breakfast!)

In the morning, this is what it looks like:


But like any good pet owner, before tending to myself, I fed my animals. Our boys have dry food out all the time. Lyon loves eating dry food.

But they also share one can of wet food each day, half a can in the morning and half a can at dinnertime. Their only option nowadays is

Friskies Special Diet, with chicken in sauce. Last year, Lyon had a bout of feline lower urinary tract disease, so we've had to put the boys on food that's specifically formulated to keep urine pH low (meaning acidic). Of the flavors that come in Special Diet, the chicken in sauce is the only one they'll eat. We tried all the others. We consider ourselves fortunate that this brand of food is doing the trick, and we don't need to go to a more expensive or less available cat food. I just wish that something existed for both urinary tract health and hairball reduction!


With the cats both happily eating (or rather, licking off all the sauce for now, and saving most of the chunks to come back for later), I was able to turn my attention to my breakfast. Once the steel-cut oats have sat overnight, they only need to be heated to be ready. I learned the hard way to do this on fairly low heat, because the oats have absorbed enough of the water to be capable of scorching. I also learned that I need to be extra-careful since we got the new range that goes to 11, or something like that: if a recipe says "medium" I start at medium-low. I like having firepower! I heat the oatmeal till it's boiling, because once that happens I know the starch in the oatmeal has been heated enough to become creamy throughout.


Wonderful as this oatmeal is, I like my oatmeal with stuff.

Today's "stuff" is maple syrup (grade B) and yogurt, with a seltzer and OJ chaser. (We're out of limeade.) I got this yogurt yesterday at Wegman's. We'd seen it there before, but this is the first time I'd tried it. It's from a nearby farm. I had my choice of plain or vanilla, and decided to go with plain. There was, in fact, a layer of cream on top of the yogurt when I opened it, but I couldn't get a photo that showed it. The yogurt has a nice flavor, not too sour, and a wonderful creamy texture. I'm thinking of all the wonderful things I can do with this yogurt, besides just eating it with fruit, or honey, or maple syrup and oatmeal. Mango lassi, anyone? Frozen yogurt? Yogurt cake? Dolloped onto pie? Eaten with chocolate graham crackers crumbled into it?


Breakfast is served!


MelissaH

[MelissaH]

Now, back to last night.

I had just enough time before the concert to make up my pizza dough. I started by gathering all my ingredients together: flour (King Arthur all-purpose, in the yellow-lidded container), water (yes, that's the kettle I used to weight the cabbage; I keep water in it so I have room-temperature water available), sugar (in the smaller container in the back), olive oil, yeast (SAF instant, in the blue-green jar), and salt (Diamond Crystal kosher, in the clear jar). My scale is a small Ohaus scientific balance, which does both English and metric measurements. I got it before home cooks weighed much, and therefore before home scales became cheap and readily available. The KitchenAid mixer is dark blue because the year my mom asked me if I wanted one for my birthday, the dark blue one was on sale and much less expensive than the others. I don't mind the dark blue, but it does show every grain of flour. The thing on top of my flour container is a dough whisk. I use it to get everything mixed together before I attach the bowl to the mixer. I like to start this way because when I combine ingredients by hand, I get less flour puffling through the kitchen and onto the mixer. Once wet and dry are combined, I can put the bowl into the mixer and use the dough hook to take care of the rest.

I also got out an apron, because I knew I wouldn't have time to change into "play clothes" to cook, and get back into my nicer clothes again before the concert. I'm not normally an apron-wearer, but I keep some around for dealing with stuff that stains or for clothing challenges. This particular apron was a gift from my mother-in-law, who is well aware of my proclivities for opening my mouth.


This dough was made following the recipe for grilled pizza dough from Peter Reinhard's American Pie. I started by weighing out 1 pound, 6.5 ounces of flour. The cookbook called for 22 1/2 ounces of flour. Does anyone out there actually have a scale that says 22 1/2 ounces of flour, rather than 1 pound 6.5 ounces? The flour is also the only ingredient given by mass, which I find odd.

To the flour, I added the rest of the dry ingredients (1 Tbsp sugar, 3 tsp salt, 1 tsp yeast)

and gave them a stir with the dough whisk to combine. I then added 1.5 tsp olive oil, and the water. The cookbook called for 1 3/4 cups of water. I put the bowl back on my scale, tared it, and added 14 ounces of water. Everything went back in its place after I added it, except the olive oil.

After using the dough whisk to get all the dry stuff wet,

I put the bowl onto the mixer, and mixed at low speed for 4 minutes. The dough got a 15-minute rest, during which I ate the leftover cabbage and noodles for dinner, and then the dough went for another 4 minute spin at a slightly higher speed. While the dough finished mixing, I got out and opened six ziplock sandwich bags and a loaf pan. I also took the cap off the oil bottle.

From here on out, I had a hard time taking pictures because my hands were gunked with dough, and I didn't want to get the camera messy. But at the end of the second mixing period, the dough windowpaned nicely. I took the bowl off the mixer, set my scale to metric, pulled the dough out of the bowl, put the empty bowl onto the scale and hit the tare button, and then put the dough back into the bowl to get the mass of just the dough. I did all this because I wanted to have a decent shot at dividing the dough into 6 equal pieces. I yelled downstairs to my husband to do the arithmetic, because my hands were dough-gunked, and he yelled back that I'd need each piece to have a mass of 178.33333...... grams. I figured that if I got each of the six pieces to be 180 grams, plus or minus 5 grams, that I'd be close enough for a family dinner.

I started by eyeballing the dough and cutting it in half, and then dividing each half in thirds. Each piece then went into the tared bowl on the scale, so I could see which ones were too big and which ones were too small. I made adjustments as necessary. In the end, I got six pieces of dough that were all pretty darn close to the same mass. I rounded them into balls

and then things got really messy as I poured a little oil onto my hand, picked up a dough ball and fondled it to give it an oily coating, slid the oily dough ball into its own ziplock, and then put the ziplock in the loaf pan for easy containment. When all six dough balls were bagged and panned, I washed my hands so I could grab the oil bottle without it slithering free, and poured a little oil over each ball in its bag. Then I could put the oil away. Finally, I sealed each bag, pressing out as much air as I could.

Although the recipe said to leave the dough at room temperature for half an hour, it was time to leave for the concert. So I just slid the pan into the refrigerator, where it quietly reposes still. I took off my apron, put on a jacket, and we walked to campus for some music.

MelissaH

[MelissaH]

The concert was wonderful. We heard music by Poulenc and Britten, for solo piano; horn and piano; tenor, horn, and piano; mezzo-soprano and piano; and mezzo, tenor, and piano. My favorite of the evening was a song by Poulenc, one of a group of poems by Careme that Poulenc found, put together, and set to music. The mezzo told us about the first of the songs being a mother's lament that her child refused to sleep, and the rest of the songs were her version of Scheherazade. By the end of the last song, you could practically hear her quietly leaving the child's room as he finally slept. The song I particularly liked was the sixth in this set, about the Thursday angels who play Mozart on their harps.

The very last song of the evening was somewhat food-related, and very appropriate to these parts at this time of year. Britten took some folk songs, and used the words and tunes to write his own settings. The last of these folk songs was an audience sing-along! The tenor would sing the first part of the verse, and everyone else including the audience added the "Hee haw" part:

Oliver Cromwell lay buried and dead,
Hee-haw, buried and dead,
Thy planted an apple tree over his head,
Hee-haw, over his head.

The apples were ripe and ready to fall,
Hee-haw, ready to fall,
There came an old woman to gather them all,
Hee-haw, gather them all.

Oliver rose and gave her a drop,
Hee-haw, gave her a drop,
Which made the old woman go hippety hop,
Hee-haw, hippety hop.

The saddle and bridle, they lie on the shelf,
Hee-haw, lie on the shelf,
If you want any more your can sing it yourself,
Hee-haw, sing it yourself.

It was lots of fun. We walked home, and I went back to work because I had sorbet base to prepare! First, though, I changed my clothes because I had grapes to deal with. I also put an apron on, for good measure. First thing was to give the Concord grapes I'd gotten on Tuesday a rinse.

Then, the grapes needed to be pulled off the stem, and because Concord grapes have thick skins I needed to at least nick the skin of each grape. There are a lot of grapes in 3.5 pounds!

I added 40 g of water to the grapes and set them on the stove. They cooked on medium-low heat, covered. The kitchen smelled like a brand-new jar of grape jam while I cooked them, and I periodically got the pleasure of taking the lid off the pot and sticking my nose in to inhale, when I stirred the grapes. Finally, the grapes were all cooked and soft. I took them off the heat and let them cool a little bit as I assembled my food mill.

The food mill is a marvelous invention. I couldn't imagine trying to do push all this through a sieve. But my food mill was just barely large enough to hold all the grapes, and they splashed a little bit as I poured them from pot to mill. Then, as I milled the grapes, they splattered a little more. Before I did anything else, I cleaned the purple splatters off the kitchen before they could set and become permanent purple polkadots. Then I used my spatula to scrape the pulp from the bottom of the food mill disk, took this picture, and cleaned up.


The milled grapes were still pretty warm, so the corn syrup (I started by measuring out 1/4 cup as the recipe prescribed, but I only added half of it to the grapes. I tasted the mixture, and it tasted like it needed more so I added the rest) mixed in nicely. I also added a splash of vodka. I didn't want to put such a hot bowl into my refrigerator, so I stayed up a little while longer waiting for it to cool, and finding more purple splatters to clean up. Finally, shortly after midnight, the outside of the bowl was no longer hot, and I put my silicone trivet on the fridge shelf for the bowl. And now you know why I slept in so late this morning!

Casey's finished cleaning and re-sealing the floor, and I see he's moved the cardboard barrier so I can go back into the kitchen to rinse out my breakfast glass and start caramelizing onions to go on pizza tonight.

MelissaH

[Jensen]

and then put the lid on the pot and set it aside overnight. (I'm almost ashamed to admit that I learned this method of oatmeal cooking from Martha Stewart,

Fortunately, I'll be able to say "Oh, I learned how to cook my oatmeal this way from one of the blogs on eGullet..."

I'll give it a try tonight!

[Pille]

My breakfast this morning actually started last night. I gathered my ingredients:

I LOVE that oatmeal (and its tin ) - that's one of my favourites, too!

[insomniac]

My breakfast this morning actually started last night. I gathered my ingredients:

I LOVE that oatmeal (and its tin ) - that's one of my favourites, too!

my oatmeal too, once tried you will never return to the quick stuff

[MelissaH]

I LOVE that oatmeal (and its tin  ) - that's one of my favourites, too!

I actually don't often buy the brand in the tin, because I've had problems with previous tins costing a fortune and being rancid straight out of the tin for the first serving. When I'm in a city with a Trader Joe's, I get their brand in the cardboard cylinder. It's less expensive and they seem to get decent turnover and therefore no rancidity issues. I got this particular container over Labor Day weekend, when we were up close to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. I was thrilled to be able to find good oatmeal at the Soo, but not thrilled at what I had to pay for it.

MelissaH

[MarketStEl]

Leave it to me to look at this picture:

and get all historical-trivial on everyone.

Products displaying awards and endorsements have been and will always be with us: Britons are long used to seeing royal warrants with the legend "By appointment to HM the Queen" on products, perhaps the ultimate in celebrity endorsements. And there's an organization devoted to bestowing "Best Taste" awards on scores of name-brand commercial products. (I've long wondered who funds this organization: it had to change its name to avoid confusion with one of America's premier culinary schools.)

I guess that with the demise of "World's Fairs" as showcases for global commerce, these sorts of glittering prizes, however contrived, take the place of international trade fair medals as marks of distinction.

But it appears that international trade fair medals have a long shelf life, if that can of oatmeal is any guide: the label still proudly displays the medals the product won at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. By comparison, Campbell Soup Company has all but eliminated its 1900 Paris International Exposition medal from its signature red-and-white labels (more trivia: inspired by Cornell football uniforms), but you can still find it where it's always been on the Tomato and Chicken Noodle varieties.

Maybe someone needs to organize a "World's Fair of Food" solely for the purpose of handing out medals to food processors that they can display on their labels for the next hundred years or so.

Given your post immediately above, perhaps the McCain's folks should give some thought to a new package -- and retire that World's Columbian Exposition copy.

Edited by MarketStEl, 13 September 2007 - 06:11 PM.

[MelissaH]

Here's my chance to show you a couple of new features in my kitchen.

The first is the knife holders we use. We were on a vacation over the summer and had the opportunity to visit the IKEA in Burlington, ON. (Hi, Kerry!) We think these knife holders must be new, because we didn't remember seeing them when we put the kitchen together last summer. The drawer on the left is my husband's, and the drawer on the right is mine. These holders are much easier than the cardboard sheaths we used to use for everything.


And the clock was a gift from my sister. It's over the door leading out to the deck, so you can read it from the living room. It's the only clock readable from the living room.


My husband set the table this afternoon. Here's your chance to see the red chairs again! They're really quite red, although they don't look that way in the pictures. The placemats are bright yellow, to match the Lion of Flanders. We're still keeping our eyes open for other Lions of Flanders, or even things the appropriate yellow color.


My husband also cooked down some onions this afternoon. Here he is, sniffling and crying as he sliced.

The sliced onions went onto the stove, with some olive oil and salt and I don't know what else because I wasn't in the kitchen when he did them.

They cooked down to golden lusciousness, and even had time to cool to room temperature before dinner.

While the onions cooked down, I sliced and chopped some other pizza toppings. The pineapple just needed to be drained.

This knife is my $10 special. Yes, it's cheap. But the handle feels good in my hand, and the blade's holding an edge nicely, especially since we sent it in to be sharpened. I also chopped a little goat cheese, from the Lively Run Goat Dairy.


The last bit of prep work was getting the dough warmed up and out of the bags. I try to remember this a couple of hours before we light the grill. To start, I oiled a half-sheet pan, took each dough ball out of its bag, and flattened it into a disk. The oil coating keeps the dough from crusting over, prevents anything from sticking to the grill, and also helps to carry the heat in and make pretty grill marks.


When our dinner guests arrived, we all helped to carry things downstairs and outside to the grill. When I grill pizzas, I set the outside two burners on my grill to medium, and the middle burner on low. First, I flatten a dough ball and put it on the grill to cook the first side.

Once the underside (facing the burners) is cooked enough to hold its shape, I give it a little twist to get the pretty grill marks, to make sure it isn't sticking to the grate, and to help things cook evenly. When the first side is done enough, I use a spatula and my peel to take it off the grill. I flip it over so the cooked side is up, and then top the pizza away from the heat. Once the pizza is topped, it goes back on the grill.

On the second side, after a few minutes I give it a 180 degree turn, to again be sure nothing's sticking and to make sure both ends cook evenly. I leave it on as long as I dare, to get the crust done without burning and to get the cheese melted and as browned as I can.

Then the finished pizza gets rushed upstairs and onto either a rack so it doesn't get soggy, or into a warm oven until all the other pies are cooked. One pizza makes a nice dinner for one person.

We each had our own pizza for dinner. I topped mine with caramelized onions, goat cheese, and tomato slices. No sauce, but I was the only one not to use sauce. I think everything I prepared went onto at least one pizza.

Our guests brought us some corn, which we steamed and ate with butter and salt. And we had salad: romaine and tomatoes. Good food, good company.

MelissaH

[eskay]

So, uh...three guesses what I cooked for breakfast this morning. And its a good thing I had lots of time, because I wasn't yet aware of this magical make-it-the-night-before technique. Oh well, learning new things is fun!

[MelissaH]

Dessert followed dinner. I actually started prepping the other half of dessert just after I finished chopping pizza toppings. As always, I first gathered my ingredients and equipment:


I then put things into the blender container: 180 g peanut butter (the book says to use something emulsified, and I chose one with less sugar because I know the recipes in David Lebovitz's book have a tendency to be over-sweet), 160 g sugar (down 20 g from what the recipe says to use), 2 2/3 cups of half-and-half, a pinch of salt, and a smidge of vanilla extract. The actual prep is really easy: buzz it all together in the blender. Then get it good and cold before freezing in the ice cream maker.


After dinner, I got out the ice cream makers. Yes, I have two. They're identical Cuisinart models. We'd gotten the first one at Williams-Sonoma, for a pretty good price considering that it came with two freezer bowls. A year or so later, we were at our local warehouse club and saw the same maker with the extra bowl, and picked it up thinking that we'd have more bowls and a complete set of extra parts if anything happened. All four bowls live in the freezer, so they're always ready. This is the first time I've used both motors at once.

First, I grabbed a spoon and tasted the grape sorbet base. It was still pretty tangy, but I really didn't want to add any extra sugar. I put the first machine together, turned it on, and added the sorbet base.


Then I put the second maker together, whisked the peanut butter ice cream base together because it had somehow separated into a tan top layer and a white bottom layer, turned on the motor, and added the base.


Both machines churned away for a while, during which conversation was difficult due to the noise level. As I watched, the sorbet apparently got some air incorporated, as I kept on seeing a purple mountain rise up and up and up. (I'd had quite a lot of sorbet base, not so much ice cream base.) When the sorbet started to peek up and out of the top, I decided that everything had gone long enough and it was time to eat dessert. I was able to remove the tops and dashers from both ice cream makers without incident, and without dumping any cold goodness on the floor or countertop.


My husband doesn't like peanut butter in his ice cream, so he went with just sorbet. The rest of us did a mixture. And oh, what a combination! The grape sorbet was on the tangy-tart side, and the peanut butter ice cream was definitely a little too sweet by itself. But put the two of them together and you have what every school lunch dreams of! I definitely need to come up with an appropriate cookie for an ice cream sandwich base, because this combination is a winner.


After we finished dessert, I packed the remaining sorbet and ice cream into their own rubbermaid containers. I pressed a covering of plastic wrap directly onto the surface before putting the lids on the containers. And these leftovers went into the freezer. My plan is to load them into a cooler with some cold packs and bring them downtown to the local bookstore tomorrow when I run errands. The backstory: I ordered the ice cream book, and when I picked it up, one of the employees commented that I'd have to start bringing ice cream in now. (I'll often bring in something that I've baked.) The first time, I brought some pear sorbet. I'm guessing this will blow their socks off!

Time to head towards bed. The dishwasher is running, and although Casey did a drainerful of stuff by hand, there's still plenty more waiting for me in the morning. Tomorrow's a school day, but it will be interesting to hear whether people take tomorrow off to make a four-day weekend.

Good night!

MelissaH

[docsconz]

I have enjoyed the varied aspects of this blog as I finally have had a few minutes to catch up with it. Though I live in NY State, I live on the other side near a city that can be spotted on the weather map Melissa posted above. That being said I am embarrassed to say that I have never really spent any time int he region of the blog. Cornell is the one Ivy School I have never visited. I did interview and was accepted at U of Rochester School of Medicine, but had the unfortunate experience of arriving to an empty campus in bleak December and so ultimately matriculated elsewhere. The closest that I have been to that region for any length of time has been Cooperstown, a marvelous town in its own right and home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a fantastic farm museum amongst other delights.


Nevertheless, it is apparent that these two regions of NY State share a lot in common, especially when it comes to food and agriculture with both areas seemingly experiencing a renaissance of agricultural quality.

[Peter the eater]

This is a great read, thanks for your efforts. Handsome food, enticing coffee. His and hers knife drawers and ice cream machines! Nice.

I still need to know if the Moosewood in Ithaca is still going strong. And do you have an opinion about the creation of "thousand islands salad dressing"?

I figure anything close to the middle of your weather map is fair game.

[bergerka]

The concert was wonderful. We heard music by Poulenc and Britten, for solo piano; horn and piano; tenor, horn, and piano; mezzo-soprano and piano; and mezzo, tenor, and piano. My favorite of the evening was a song by Poulenc, one of a group of poems by Careme that Poulenc found, put together, and set to music. The mezzo told us about the first of the songs being a mother's lament that her child refused to sleep, and the rest of the songs were her version of Scheherazade. By the end of the last song, you could practically hear her quietly leaving the child's room as he finally slept. The song I particularly liked was the sixth in this set, about the Thursday angels who play Mozart on their harps.

Oh my gosh! totally not food related, for which I apologize, but this set is called La courte paille (the short straw), and has been included on every recital I have given since I was 19 years old and first found it. I LOVE this set!

Sorry. Nothing to see here. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

K

[MelissaH]

I have enjoyed the varied aspects of this blog as I finally have had a few minutes to catch up with it. Though I live in NY State, I live on the other side near a city that can be spotted on the weather map Melissa posted above. That being said I am embarrassed to say that I have never really spent any time int he region of the blog. Cornell is the one Ivy School I have never visited. I did interview and was accepted at U of Rochester School of Medicine, but had the unfortunate experience of arriving to an empty campus in bleak December and so ultimately matriculated elsewhere. The closest that I have been to that region for any length of time has been Cooperstown, a marvelous town in its own right and home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a fantastic farm museum amongst other delights.

Nevertheless, it is apparent that these two regions of NY State share a lot in common, especially when it comes to food and agriculture with both areas seemingly experiencing a renaissance of agricultural quality.

We visited Cooperstown a few years back, and docsconz is right that it's marvelous. At the time, we hadn't yet been able to sell our house in Ohio and therefore had an aversion to vacations that were more expensive than they absolutely needed to be. I was surprised that we were able to find a campground to take us and our tent for a couple of nights in early October. My main motivation in visiting Cooperstown was to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, but the Fenimore Art Museum was a gem, and the Farmers' Museum turned out to be the real highlight of the trip for me. I grew up in suburbia, and the only thing in the area resembling a farm was a rather industrial dairy. I didn't attend the junior high school in our area, but friends who did always complained vociferously about the aroma at milking time!

We need to get back to Cooperstown. I hadn't realized it before our visit to the Farmers' Museum, but before 1900, central New York was a leading hop-growing area. (Production moved to the Pacific Northwest later, because it's dryer and therefore less prone to disease.) The Farmers' Museum still grows hops, so we need to find out when they'll be planting in the spring, and then harvesting in the fall, to watch the process. I suspect most or all of the hops they grow find their way to Brewery Ommegang, another Cooperstown sight worth a tour. Even if you've seen other breweries, this is a Belgian-style brewery so it's a little different.

MelissaH

Edited by MelissaH, 14 September 2007 - 06:28 AM.

[phaelon56]

Hello again to all! Sorry for my absence from the blog but I went straight from lunch with Melissa on Wednesday to a prolonged exploration of the wonders of our modern health care system. Having recuperated enough to return to work I'll touch on the meals I have been able to eat or prepare in the past few days.

First - the Moosewood.

I still need to know if the Moosewood in Ithaca is still going strong.

Yes it is still alive, well and thriving. A number of years ago they expanded from their original space and have continued to fill the tables regularly. On occasion I hear some people pooh-pooh it perhaps because they've never made any effort to add "haute" to their simple but delicious cuisine. But Ithaca remains a sort of granola-crunchy-aging-hippie-Birkenstock-wearing-old Volvo-driving town - and the vibe of Moosewood is still a good fit. I'll try to get there for Saturday lunch but no promises as my illness has thrown my schedule off by a few days.

And do you have an opinion about the creation of "thousand islands salad dressing"?

I tend to believe the story about the naming but as with other famous food creations... I'm generally skeptical about whether it was invented by those who named it.

According to John Cletheroe's USA and Canada Holiday Hints:

Thousand Islands salad dressing was named for the islands by the chef of Conrad Boldt, the American millionaire who built and owned the magnificent Boldt Castle on Heart Island (and who owned the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York and the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia, arguably the two most famous U.S. hotels in 1910).

But... speaking of Ithaca.... some recently uncovered evidence appears to back the claim that Ithaca NY was the birthplace of the Ice Cream Sundae in 1892 - despite rival claims to the contrary.

Breakfast: apart from the occasional weekend morning where I make omelets, pancakes or McCann's Irish oatmeal (yes - I love it too and there is no other like it) my breakfasts are uniform and simple.

Fresh baked goods don't arrive at the coffee shop until 7:15 or 7:30 AM - far too late for me when I get up at 4:30 or 5. I bring a banana or an apple from home and thaw out a frozen day-old croissant by propping it up on tongs above the shop's toaster:


Now... back to meals eaten this week. But I forgot to show you where I've been growing my lovely tomatoes - three patio boxes propped up on rocks next to the retaining wall at the back of my yard. They get plenty of sun here and weeding is a cinch but I think I've been losing a few to critters. We have deer and fox in the neighborhood (despite being in a totally developed area) not to mention raccoons and who knows what else.


Tuesday evening I tried to visit our local conveyor style sushi restaurant: Sakana Ya

But they had just resumed their "All Sushi Half Price on Tuesday" special and there was already a 45 minute wait at 6 PM. They've only been open for six months - quality is good and they don't need to discount but it's a marketing strategy that has worked well and brought them a large number of repeat customers on other nights.

I see the owner, Mr. Han, every morning when he stops in for his coffee. In addition to the sushi bar he owns a Korean-Japanese restaurant and an Asian grocery store - and he works in all three places every day. This guy works harder than James Brown ever did (then again.... JB only claimed to be "the hardest workin' main in show business" - and we all know the restaurant biz can be a lot tougher than show biz!)





Tuesday's alternate dinner was some excellent Jamaican takeout from Syracuse's Jerk Hut


Owner Irvin Hanshaw ( aka Bongo) is well respected by and actively involved in the South Side community where the restaurant is located. He and his family have run the place for years and don't tolerate inappropriate behavior or dress on the premises - no mistake about that:


It's a pleasant enough place to eat in but given the option - I take my food home and eat from china plates with real flatware rather than tolerate foam and plastic. To me food is always more satisfying on a real plate.


Their portions are typically generous but this day were exceedingly so. Curry goat, cabbage 'n carrots, rice 'n peas, plantains (maduro style fried - not platanos), a patty as an appetizer and - always - a Ting. If there's a better grapefruit soda on the planet Earth I have yet to try it.

[Kerry Beal]

Melissa,

Loving the 'his' and 'hers' knife drawers. Living in the same town with an Ikea, I think I spend less time there than people from out of town. It always amazes me when people come from far away to go there.

I'm pleased to see you are enjoying the Perfect Scoop so much - it does contain some fabulous recipes.

Can I suggest that you use one of the canisters you use in your cuisinart ice cream machine to transport? Put your ice cream in a yogurt container that is small enough to fit inside, wrap the whole thing in towel, put it in your cooler and off you go. It will stay frozen for hours even on the hottest day.


Owen,

Enjoying your reports. Always wanted to know a bit more about the Moosewood, hope we will get to see pictures.

I see you use the same 'fine china' that I do.

[phaelon56]

Apart from my lunch at Ponchito's with Melissa Wednesday was not much of an eating day. Things were a bit hazy in the evening so I went for my standby of a grilled cheese with extra sharp cheddar and a bowl of cream of tomato soup.

By the standards of some cities Ponchito's would be just another taqueria but here in "the 'cuse" it's the first really decent Mexican food we've had available in about twenty years. And the place that was really good remained that way for less than two years before it changed hands and went downhill fast.

Everything is fresh, cooked on premises, they use their own shredded chicken, excellent slow-roasted pork and real fresh avocados for the guacamole (most places in town use the frozen pulp you can buy at wholesale clubs).

I had a chicken taco, a side of guacamole and chips and a Jaritto's Mexican grapefruit soda. It's good but trust me - Ting is better




Melissa's burrito looks really good - doesn't it?


I.... uhhhh... forgot to snap pictures until my taco was nearly gone. Hungry.

[phaelon56]

Soooo... nothing from me for a few days and now a veritable flood while I catch up. I did manage to get a better rosetta on the morning cappa I made at the coffee shop yesterday (before I went home and collapsed). Today's on my own machine at home was far better but more on that - and why - in a different post.


Did I mention that I love ribs? This past June it became evident that my cheap but trusty Char-Broil H20 electric bullet smoker was finally getting a bit rusty and worn out after ten years of use.

Despite the shortcomings - a bottom that collected water leading to rust and necessitating messy clean-out, a lack of good airflow and thus a lack of adequate smoke flow-through, a heating element that didn't get quite hot enough and no way to add more hot water to the pan except by removing the top cover - it was still good for a cheap smoker.

Good news: over the years the price has risen by about $20 but they eliminated the cupped bottom, created good airflow with a dampered vent, bumped the heating element from 1500 to 1650 watts and added a side door so water can easily be added during the smoking process.

I know you purists will scoff but the new smoker - with the addition of an external Variac (voltage regulator that allows me to precisely bump up the heat) - makes fantastic ribs. have not tried anything else with it but I'll get there eventually.

I used to do St. Louis style prep but now just remove the major pieces of fat, the folded over hunk-o-meat on the back and the membrane and leave the rest of the rack intact. Makes for bigger and meatier ribs even if there is some stuff to work around.

Have been using McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning as my standard dry rub for years. This summer I tried Weber's Chicago Style Steak Rub (might be good on steaks but I did not care for it on ribs) and also a sweet/spicy rub a co-worker made. His had too my brown sugar and again - not to my liking. I typically cook for myself and one guest so a cryo-vac of three racks gets prepped and rubbed on day of purchase with 1/2 to 2/3 of it going into the freezer for future use (that came in handy yesterday - when I really didn't feel up to very much cooking).

Prepped ribs


The Variac ($120 new on eBay - made in China. Where else?). I live in an old house in a neighborhood served by an aging substation. My 110V AC power is often less than that and the smoker sans Variac couldn't get much above 200 degrees F - especially if it was a cool day. Now I can get a true 120v or even 130V if I need it. I start out hot for an hour to get good smoke going, back off to cooler for the next three hours and then goose it back to hotter for the final thirty minutes.


The flat plate below the heating element is now the bottom of the unit and allows plenty of airflow as well as water drainage. Note the pre-soaked wood chips (hickory) already in position.




Side door for adding water to the pan during cooking




You'll notice a foil pan underneath. greases and water drippings tend to slide down the inside surface and drip off the lower edge below the door. I put a small foil pan of water there to catch that and keep the deck and the concrete pad clean.


Weber used to make this great black "porcelain" heavy duty rib rack for standing multiple slabs on their sides. Now Weber, Char-Broil and everyone else seem to offer only a cheesy chrome one that's not heavy duty. Where can I get another one of these? Help!




Halfway to completion


Do any of you recall my mention of another use for fish sauce? Here we go.....

Peel some yams: the orange sweet type - do not use "white sweet potatoes" (in some stores both types are labeled as sweet potatoes). If the yams are big and old like mine were you need to are the touch white coating if that's underneath the skin to expose the good orange part. Dice and boil - do NOT overcook! It's very easy to do - they go from firm to mushy in a flash.


Dice a bunch of colorful stuff that looks good contrasting with orange - I use red, yellow and green pepper, scallions and a small bit of finely minced celery:


As we did previously in this same blog, make a dressing from plenty of fresh lime juice, some white pepper, a touch of salt, a tsp or tbsp of fish sauce, some seasoned rice vinegar and some fruity olive oil and... this time add some fresh ginger. It tastes better if you use a really cool miniature grater lie mine but I can't bear to part with it. You have to get your own (I jest but not really - no other grater I own including my microplane can come close to grating ginger the way this little baby does). Be generous with the ginger. Very generous.


Toss the diced ingredients with the cooled potatoes but add the dressing to each portion only at time of serving. Sweet potatoes seem to get soggy more easily than white potatoes. I make extra and store the "dry" ingredients separately from the dressing. Keeps for about three to four days that way.

The final touch is to sprinkle on a few things for extra color, flavor and contrasting texture. I use chopped pecans because there are nearly always some pecan halves in my freeze left over from the past winter's pecan pie making. This time I uncovered a bag of black sesame seeds in the pantry (have no clue when or why I bought them!). Looks good and tastes even better.


And the sweet potato salad taste might good with a big hunk of pork rib. By the way - I never cook or baste with BBQ sauce. I keep Dino's Sensuous Slathering Sauce and Wango Tango in the fridge and mix about 4 parts of the former with one part of the latter for a respectable and reasonably hot pre-made sauce. I don't use the sauce myself but my guests are welcome to put their own on at the table.


And yes - they taste as good as they look

[phaelon56]

I see you use the same 'fine china' that I do.

Not sure if it's identical. Mine is "seconds" - usually with a small inclusion in the glaze - from the Syracuse China factory store. They have the same overpriced not-such-a-deal type things that most "outlets" have but also have a back room (and an outdoor tent in summer) with bins and carts and shelves full of overstocks, seconds and discontinued lines from their restaurant china division. The round 10" plates were 75 cents each on sale.

[MarketStEl]

Nice looking ribs there, Owen! Still, I am just a bit disappointed that you use electricity, especially since you have outdoor space (I don't), but hey, whatever works for you.

Of course, you wouldn't expect me to comment on ribs without touting Gates' Bar-B-Q Sauce, would you? If you prefer, rather than buy it, you could always make your own.

But tell me: How did Syracuse get so many different ethnic restaurants? I'll wager Syracuse University has something to do with that. I wouldn't expect to see such variety in Central New York otherwise, as I don't think the region is an immigrant magnet.

Forgive me, Melissa: I'm dense. I'm reading your prose and it's only gradually soaking in that I'm reading another professional writer (the tone and pacing stand out -- not to say that Mark doesn't do well in this regard too). You state you're a hired gun; is that "hired gun" in the sense I'm one (I refer to public relations as "journalism's hired-gun cousin") or in the sense of writing books for a client, company or organization? Do you also do freelance work?

I assume you posted fridge shots in your earlier foodblogs. Guess I should read them.

[MelissaH]

But tell me:  How did Syracuse get so many different ethnic restaurants?  I'll wager Syracuse University has something to do with that.  I wouldn't expect to see such variety in Central New York otherwise, as I don't think the region is an immigrant magnet.

Syracuse is a very different restaurant town from Oswego. We have bars a-plenty, but our choice in restaurants is limited.

We have three Subways, two McD's, a BK and a Wendy's, and a combined KFC/A&W, if you're looking for junk. The newest addition to that roster is a Ruby Tuesday's.

For nicer fare, we have two Italian restaurants, Vona's and Canale's. It seems that just about every family in town goes to one or the other, but since we're relatively new here we have no loyalties. I stay out of discussions about whose red sauce is better.

Another nicer restaurant, Avanti Bistro, has gone downhill since they changed hands a couple of years ago, to the point where the cost/benefit ratio is no longer favorable in my mind. It's tough to be a nice non–red sauce Italian restaurant in this town.

Another place east of town seemed like they were positioning themseves to make a run for the nicer-dining crowd. But they completely lost me as a potential customer when they started to advertise such specials as a giant steak and five bottles of Labatt's, buckets of crabs and Coronas, and "Cans & Clams" night. Not my thing, and not in our definition of a "nice" restaurant.

There's a restaurant right on the river, Patz, but we haven't actually gone there specifically for a meal. Most of the social events associated with the men's hockey team are held there, and that's the only context we've been there. The food we've had is neither superb nor offensive. Casey says that their offerings on tap are among the best in town, and they're reasonably priced. I'll take his word for it. They do Coke rather than Pepsi, which is what I look for.

We have a brewpub downtown, but I'm not impressed by their food. I was really surprised to realize that they're actually a brewpub and make their own beer, because they have neon signs for commercial beers in their windows. I guess they feel that they won't survive without offering up the familiar stuff that's available everywhere, and the law here permits brewpubs to sell stuff other than what they make. (The owner of the brewpub, who would know, says this is a Molson town.) I'm not a beer drinker, but my husband says the beer they make ranges from OK to good, and they apparently do a good job keeping their tap lines clean. The best thing about the brewpub is their bar. Or rather, my favorite thing about the bar is the music on Wednesday nights. Several of the music professors, and some students, get together and play jazz at King Arthur's bar every Wednesday night there isn't another music department event. (This last Wednesday, jazz was pre-empted by the chamber music concert.) The only cost is whatever you order, and of course everyone who goes feels obligated to get at least a little something. We've been unimpressed by the menu offerings, but they make their own potato chips. If you can catch them just out of the fryer when they're still hot, they're fantastic. My husband usually gets one of the beers brewed there, and I tend to go with club soda with a big wedge of lime.
If you have a suggestion for another non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverage that isn't loaded with sugar, doesn't look like a kiddie drink, and doesn't take a whole lot of talent to put together, please let me know!
We'll generally stay for the first set and maybe the beginning of the second, since it is a weeknight. And because, dare I say it, we're getting older and don't stay up late as well as we used to. But mainly because it's a weeknight.

There are two choices for Mexican, without having to drive 45+ minutes: Azteca and Fajita Grill. Of the two, Azteca's better. They're a sit-down restaurant, and if you order the right things from their menu, you'll get a tasty meal. My big knock against them is the lack of vegetables: it's hard to find them, other than the tomatoes (always canned) in their salsa, and maybe a sprinkle of lettuce if you order something that comes with a sprinkle of lettuce. Fajita Grill is a Chipotle wannabe. We don't care for it, but we'll occasionally go there if there's a fundraiser. A week from next Tuesday, the university's baseball club will get some percent of the night's proceeds, and because a former student who's house- and cat-sat for us a few times is involved with the baseball club and specifically invited us to come, we'll probably go for dinner. If we want serious Mexican, we'll drive to Sodus (about halfway between here and Rochester) and eat at El Rincon if it's Thursday through Sunday and we don't mind a drive, or we'll make it ourselves. (We actually try to plan our trips to Rochester for days that El Rincon is open, so we can have a meal there.) Casey makes killer mole colorado, and since we got a range hood that sucks, we can make it any time of the year without suffocating ourselves on chile fumes. We make large batches, and keep it in our freezer so it's easy to whip up a good and quick Mexican meal when the mood strikes.

There are a couple of "Chinese" buffets. We don't like either one. The newer of the two started out decently, but we noticed that every time we went back, the number of vegetables on offer got smaller and smaller, to the point where about the only green stuff you can be sure of finding are green beans. There are other Chinese restaurants, but we can do better at home. Casey has a mongo burner that he uses outside when he brews beer, and it does great things with a wok.

One of our favorite places to eat is Thai Garden. I haven't been to Thailand so I can't speak for its authenticity, but the food tastes good to me. I like that they can make the food spicy-hot but still flavorful, something other restaurants here have trouble doing. We like it best for lunch, but dinners are good there also.

Another favorite, especially for lunch, is the Port City Cafe. They're right downtown, and they do a very brisk midday business of soups, sandwiches, and salads. They've recently hired the best bread baker in town, and he's getting things set up to bake bread for them right there. I'm expecting something good to get even better once that's up and running. They also have ice cream, coffee and espresso, and pastries. I wind up there about once a week, usually to meet with my knitting mentor Esther so she can solve my technical problems over a beverage and pastry. They don't mind if we stay for a few hours, and they have big windows that let lots of light in.

No discussion of Oswego restaurants would be complete without two institutions: Wade's and Rudy's. Wade's is the greasy-spoon diner on the east side of town. If you like raisin toast, theirs is supposed to be great: they slice it thickly, and toast it on the griddle. I'm not a raisin person, so this doesn't float my boat. I'd just as soon go to Port City for breakfast...or make myself a nice bowl of cereal with milk. And Rudy's you can see in my last foodblog. I'm hoping to get there again during this blog, because it's a seasonal restaurant. This summer is their 61st season, and it's coming to an end.

Forgive me, Melissa: I'm dense.  I'm reading your prose and it's only gradually soaking in that I'm reading another professional writer (the tone and pacing stand out -- not to say that Mark doesn't do well in this regard too).  You state you're a hired gun; is that "hired gun" in the sense I'm one (I refer to public relations as "journalism's hired-gun cousin") or in the sense of writing books for a client, company or organization?  Do you also do freelance work?

I do all kinds of things. When the university finds themselves short a warm body, I'll teach. This semester, they didn't need me, so I'm freelancing, as well as working on a few little things on my own. I'm always looking for projects!

MelissaH

[rooftop1000]

Melissa my non-drink is cranberry and club with lime, any bartender with a clue will serve it in a Collins glass with a stirrer instead of a straw

tracey

but I live and breath diet pepsi

[phaelon56]

Nice looking ribs there, Owen!  Still, I am just a bit disappointed that you use electricity, especially since you have outdoor space (I don't), but hey, whatever works for you.

Sandy - you're far from being the only person who's commented with surprise about my use of an electric smoker. But it's cheap, easy, convenient, takes up minimal storage space in the winter and requires very little waiting time for cooking to commence. The ribs it produces are better than any I can buy locally in restaurants (far better than Dinosaur BBQ) and at least as good as what our local rib king John-John offers from his cart. I like convenience, ease of use and saving time - especially as I am out the door most days at 5 AM or 5:30 AM and don't get home until after 6 PM - that makes for a long day.

Of course, you wouldn't expect me to comment on ribs without touting Gates' Bar-B-Q Sauce, would you? If you prefer, rather than buy it, you could always make your own.

Another point well taken but I don't use sauce on my own ribs and the few guests that I have seem to use very little of it. But I will try that recipe sometime - just for fun (when I actually get time!)

Minor point of personal interest: my best friend's family is from a small town near Tuscaloosa Alabama and his late mom (who was a Mills) had a cousin named John "Big Daddy" Bishop. He'd mentioned "Uncle" John's sauce to me a few times but it wasn't until I heard an audio piece on NPR about Southern BBQ that I made the connection - John Bishop was the founder of Dreamland. And I've still never had a chance to try the sauce! (I'm guessing that I have to go to Alabama for that but I think his family sold off their interest some time after he passed on).

But tell me:  How did Syracuse get so many different ethnic restaurants?  I'll wager Syracuse University has something to do with that.  I wouldn't expect to see such variety in Central New York otherwise, as I don't think the region is an immigrant magnet.

The university has had very little to do with it - apart from a handful of ethnic restaurants immediately adjacent to the campus (none of which I have mentioned here). Several factors have been at play over the years. As a traditional heavy industry / manufacturing city we had some industrial concerns in which a handful of immigrants from a given area would be hired and subsequently bring relatives over for the burgeoning job opportunities.

This accounted for significant portions of our German, Polish, Ukrainian, Italian and Tyrolean communities. With a relatively low cost of living (at least back then), moderate housing prices, good public schools (back then) and no major metro area nearby to lure people away with higher wages - these have been stable communities.

We have never had a large number of Latino families here but in more recent years the sum total of new arrivals in the area from Dominican Republic, Cuba, Central America and the Caribbean have bolstered the small existing Puerto Rican community to the extent that we haver an annual and well attended Latino day festival. We have a Puerto Rican restaurant in town (mediocre), a two location Dominican place (okay but not great) and one small neighborhood Dominican joint (Casa del Te) that is stellar.

Years ago, not long after the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War, a local inter-religious council became actively involved in a resettlement program for Hmong refugees. That program expanded over the years on both a formal and informal basis resulting in a sizable (relative to the size of our city) population of Hmong, Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants. That community continues to grow and at one time supported three Vietnamese restaurants - two of which remain open and I visit one of those regularly.

Another factor that may be significant is the fact the people of limited means CAN open a restaurant here if they work hard. By today's national standards the city of Syracuse has remarkably low real estate prices and is economically depressed. The cost barriers to opening a small food business are lower than in many cities. We also have many people, including both people of the specific ethnic communities and "regular" folks like me (i.e. people who are acculturated and whose families have been here for many generations - regardless of race or ethnicity), who appreciate good food, want moderate prices and are quite comfortable eating in humble surroundings.

And good food nearly always wins out. There have been any number of ethnic restaurants that have come and gone but the best ones (with a few notable exceptions) seem to endure. I am sad to report however that my very long time lady friend's daughter had to close her soul food take-out operation when her business partner threw in the towel. They were under-capitalized and hadn't figured out the right way to market to a larger audience. Given time and money I believe they could have done very well.

[MelissaH]

This is as good a time as any to discuss the supermarket situation in Oswego.

When I last foodblogged, we had three supermarkets in town (Tops, P&C, and Price Chopper), as well as a smaller grocery store (Mike's Big M), and Ontario Orchards outside of town. And during my last blog, it was officially announced that Tops would be pulling out of CNY, and that Price Chopper would be moving into the Tops store. Their reasoning was that the new store is bigger, and had better parking. Sure enough, that November, they closed the old store at 6 PM one night, and reopened in the new location the next morning.

We are not impressed. The new Price Chopper store may be bigger, but the aisles are still so narrow it's hard to get two carts to pass. They may have more shelf space, but it's just more of the same old same old. The produce department still has the same suppliers as always, andd they still run out of cilantro and flat-leaf parsley regularly. The meat counter is staffed with cooperative people, but most of their stuff now comes pre-cut, and they seem to do less of their own butchering. The fish counter reeks of the chlorine bleach they use to clean, and I won't buy fish from them because it tastes like chlorine bleach. The pharmacy got axed in the changeover. Yet, we continue to shop there because it's the best we have.

The new location is also much less convenient, not just for me but for a lot of people. The old store was pretty much right downtown. It was a walk away from much of the senior housing. The new store is out east of town, a mile and a half from the old store. It's now in a location that almost nobody can walk to. If you don't drive, your only options are to ride the bus (if you're near a stop), hire a taxi, or get a ride.

Our other remaining supermarket, P&C, is generally more expensive for everything. It's in the shopping center next door to the Price Chopper shopping center. We'll go there only rarely, usually when Price Chopper's run out of cilantro.

Our next-door neighbor, who does some catering, likes the meat from Big M, the smaller grocery store. Another friend says that the people there steered one of her neighbors to exactly the right cut of beef for his stew recipe. But everyone in town agrees that the produce is horrendous. Nonetheless, Big M is now the only place to get groceries close to downtown, and it's the only grocery store on the west side of the river in Oswego.

Ontario Orchards does a nice job with produce. They also have some frozen meat (which we haven't tried), birdseed and pet supplies (but nothing our boys can have), a few baked goods (ehhh, I make better), and other grocery odds and ends. But they aren't open year-round. Once apple season ends, they'll scale back their hours pretty dramatically. After Christmas, they'll only be open on weekends until planting season starts up in March. They're not within a walk of anything and they're five miles from the nearest bus stop, but they're also on the west side of the river.

Why the big deal about east and west sides of the river? Because Oswego, like many river towns, has bridges. Here's a link to a Google map of our area; look at the satellite photo for the full story. The two parallel bridges are the two road bridges; the one to the north is the one in the photo below. We also have an old railroad bridge that's been turned into a pedestrian bridge; this is the one at an angle across the river.

This isn't a great picture, but it lets you see at least the shadow of the Bridge Street bridge, which is the more-used of the two in town. (For one thing, Bridge Street is NY-104, which you can take east to I-81 and beyond, or west to Buffalo and the Lewiston-Queenston bridge. The Utica Street bridge is not a state route, and Utica Street doesn't go through to anywhere.) The Bridge Street bridge is now 40 years old, and the engineers say that the cracks showing up in the sidewalk mean that there are structural issues with the bridge. So, starting next March, the bridge will be removed and completely replaced from the ground up. The bridge is scheduled to be closed for 8 months. The entire area is shuddering with fear of what's going to happen with the traffic.

There are elementary schools and fire stations on both sides of the river. But the hospital, junior high, high school, and university are all on the west side. The predictions for traffic flow say that during peak periods, there could be half-hour delays to get across the remaining bridge on Utica Street. The school district is wondering whether the school buses will be able to finish their routes for the high school and junior high in time to start the routes for the elementary schools. The city is discussing options for dealing with pedestrians—one idea I've heard is a shuttle bus, to take people from one side of the bridge to the other. (While I'm glad they're considering such options, it's only an extra three blocks of walking to use the pedestrian bridge instead. If the traffic issues are as bad as they're prognosticating, it'll take far less time to go around than it would to take a shuttle bus. The people who really will need help are those with mobility issues, and those are the people who are less likely to walk anyway.)

We live on the west side of town, very close to the university. And for us, the big deal is that both supermarkets are on the east side, as is the nearest transfer station for rubbish and recyclables. Getting to the Big M won't be fun by car or bicycle, because they're right across the street from the Utica Street Bridge. (On the satellite photo, it's the longish building with a cupola, just to the right of the green arrow.) And Ontario Orchards is not really a viable option for everyday shopping because of the goods they stock and don't stock.

What to do?

We've already started to explore our options. We've discovered another of the county's transfer stations, in Hannibal. We can get to it on back roads, so we won't need to go near the bridge snarls. We've already checked it out, so we know the traffic patterns there. And we've learned that it's an easy trip from the Hannibal transfer station to the Price Chopper store in Fulton (the next town south), as long as you don't mind driving around with your garbage containers in your car. (We use a rectangular Rubbermaid bin that can hold a 55-gallon plastic liner. When the bin is full, we pull the bag up. When the bag's nearly full, it's time to go to the transfer station.)

But the Fulton Price Chopper store has all the same failings of the Oswego Price Chopper. (The Fulton store still has a pharmacy, though.) It, too, was a Tops before the pullout. And while it's nice to know that we can get to a full-service supermarket without having to deal with a bridge nightmare, it's depressing to know that we're driving 20 minutes for something mediocre. Fortunately, there's something else we can do.

Once you've driven from Oswego to Fulton, you're halfway to the nearest Wegman's. From Fulton, the rest of the way there is on highway except for the very last bit. And even though this is a smaller and older Wegman's without all the bells and whistles of their newer, bigger, better stores, it's still a Wegman's, with beautiful produce, an unstinky fish counter, and employees who seem happy to talk with you and help you get what you want. It might be a bit more expensive than Price Chopper, but I'm willing to pay a bit of a premium for a more pleasant shopping experience. I foresee that we'll be making more frequent trips to this Wegman's. We'll get what we can at Ontario Orchards, we'll plan our meals better than we do currently, we'll make a point of thinking ahead if we'll need to defrost something from the freezer, and we'll make Wegman's runs when we need to. I have the luxury of being able to go in the middle of a weekday when it's less crowded, but Casey and I have always gone food shopping together because we both cook, we both enjoy the shopping process, and it's more fun to shop together.

The bridge closure will certainly present a challenge, but one that will force us to think carefully about how we shop and therefore how we eat. We're fortunate that we are both good cooks. I don't know how badly it will hurt other people, especially the students who live off-campus and those less mobile.

MelissaH
edited to fix a minor typographical problem that nobody but me would probably notice anyway

Edited by MelissaH, 15 September 2007 - 10:32 AM.

[llc45]

Thank you so much for the wonderful oatmeal tip. We reserve that version for weekends only and use the quick cooking during the week. Can't wait to the overnight method!

[eskay]

Good luck with the grocery store dilemma. I used to live in an apartment where the closest grocery store was a not-particularly frequent bus ride away. And then another place where there was one a 5 minute walk away. Let me tell you, I prefer the latter, but like you said it's mostly a matter of being organized :)