marlena spieler

I almost forgot to mention! Egullet is thanked in my new Macaroni and Cheese book! Egullet: for always being there, any time of the day or night. thank you, all.

Pamela F and Biovatrix: you guys were the ones the book was so totally written for: all about getting to know the ingredients and using them creatively, about getting away from the slavery of recipes (though that is very hard when you are writing recipes!). I really do believe that its all about feeling good about the ingredients and enjoying putting them together, and of course, loving the whole thing: the people you feed even if its no one other than yourself, loving the eating, loving the whole progression of the thing! and biovatrix, those flageolets: i remember thinking: no one writes about flageolets, i wouldn't know what to do with them if i wasn't living in europe! i just know that someone is going to be happy to get a recipe using flageolets! makes me happy that you guys 1. bought the book,and 2. have happy memories and good food from using it. and irish cream: molletes! they really are delish aren't they! did you ever read the christmas roll in Like Water for Chocolate? they have a recipe for molletes there, too. i think it includes pickled jalapenos. i too like the fact that these are basically hot refried bean sandwiches! The whole Superfood article came about because I wanted to do a piece that was positive, and encouraged people to eat good foods--such as the superfoods that are so full of good things, but i think there are a lot of other superfoods out there too. i just hate to see people frightened of their food, and i wanted to encourage adding good things to the diet rather than subtracting bad things. after all, if you have enough good things there is no room for bad things, no? and now that dark chocolate is a good thing, well, say no more! the great thing is that the superfoods article came up number one as the most emailed piece in the chronicle/sfgate on wednesday. bigger than the coal miners......and the other amazing thing is that the ny times told me that mac and cheese was the number one emailed piece in their paper on wednesday too. i didn't ask any details, was just happy to be a part of it. So, on to breakfast: i'm drinking a mug of Malagasy at my computer, black. As much as I love that Greek coffee, i do like it with a little hit of sugar, and it was getting out of hand. i've just eaten two oranges, small little things but with a beautiful flavour; and after days of breakfasting on Tassia's Greek island wholegrain bread, so healthful and nourishing and high-fibre, i have changed gears and pulled a big ol' Ess a Bagel from my freezer. an Everything Bagel,. my fave. I buy a dozen from whichever bagel place i'm closest to whenever i leave new york (either ess a bagel, or h and h, though if anyone has any other suggestions, i always want to know a good bagel place), then pop them in the freezer when i get home to britain. i still have quite a nice stash. So I toasted half, spread it with butter (mmmmm, butter, i'm waiting to hear this one is a superfood!). And am now thinking: do i want the other half? the other half is haunting me, make no mistake. and its calling my name so sweetly. and i'm telling you, that after several months of not eating bagels what with my travelling and i'm very picky about my bagels, this bagel is the most delicious of bagel-dom. well, the most delicious you'll find in Hampshire that is! x Marlena the muncher (yes, beautiful bagel-half, i'm on my way!!!)

ooooooh i love everything about lamb, from its cuteness on the hoof to its deliciousness in the pan. i mean, how talented are those sheep??? cute and delicious too! oh and mutton is equally cute and also very nice though harder to get ahold of. i'm doing the foodblog this week (along with helenjp in japan). the weather broadcast is for snow showers today but i'm telling you: i might have to get my jacket on and trundle on up the hill to get some lamb to cook for my blog! kleftiko is always very good: tender fall apart braised-roasty lamb with greek flavourings. perhaps, perhaps.....we shall see. marlena

gary danko: i recently ate a dish of sauteed foie gras with apples that made me cry with happiness. and eat the good bread of acme, grace, and other good san francisco area bakeries. go to the cowgirl creamery at the ferry building, in fact, if you are there on a market day, go to the market (sat, and ?). go to the mission. i like izalco which is a total dive on 24th street, el salvatorean food. wonderful black beans and fat tortillas. there is a lovely chef at the ritz carlton room service, her name is oh, i forget. i interviewed her, she made me the BEST TAMALES, and great huevos rancheros, she is very inspirational and really loves to prepare special things for 'her guests'. all you need to do to be 'her guest' is to pick up the phone. oh and you gotta be staying at the hotel. marlena

okay, here is my treacle sponge pudding it serves 4, or 2, or 1, if you know what i mean...... its a little overindulgent; the recipe only called for half the amount of syrup originally, placed in the bottom of the bowl. while that was good, i discovered that double the amount of syrup was even better, especially sort of doused on after the baking. 4 ounces/125g softened butter, plus extra for buttering the pudding bowl 4 ounces/125g sugar 2 eggs 4 ounces/125 g self raising flour pinch of salt 1-2 tablespoons milk 8 tablespoons golden syrup 2 tablespoons water butter a 1 pint pudding basin and set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar until they are soft and fluffy. Add one egg, whip it into the mix, then add the other egg together with a tablespoon of the flour and whip them together. Gently mix in the flour, salt, and milk. It should make a thick batter. Spoon half the syrup into the bottom of the pudding bowl and spoon the batter onto the top. Cover with a piece of buttered parchment paper and secure it tightly with string. Set into a large pot of boiling water about half way up the sides of the bowl. Steam for 35-40 minutes. Remove from heat, and remove pudding bowl from steaming pot. Meanwhile, in a saucepan warm through the remaining syrup with the water and bring to the boil. Remove the paper topping from the pudding and discard. Pour the hot syrup over the top of the pudding, loosening the sides so that the syrup trickles down the sides of the pudding and reaches the bottom of the bowl. Dig in with a spoon and serve some of the pudding, some of the hot syrup with each portion.

Well, all this talk of macaroni and cheese, cheese and bread, and i went into a dairy overdrive: that is, i had so much i had to make something different! i've been hunched over my computer all evening, and feeling actually very down trying to make sense of this manuscript i'm pulling together, anyhow, also--on the other side of the world i happened to drop in on helenjp, and knew instantly: I needed something Asian! So I steaped/poached some chicken--i actually had a poussin, or very small chicken not quite a cornish game hen--with star anise and ginger and dried shiitake mushrooms. So here it is, 10.30 at night, and i've just eaten a sort of comforting bowl of chicken, mushrooms, rice noodles, broth, lime juice, cilantro and hot pepper sauce. i wanted to use sracha, but didn't have any. i used tabasco instead, a fantastic all purpose hot sauce which i can really taste the barrel aging in. i visited avery island last year as a guest of paul mcellhaney, watched the harvesting of chillies, etc, and the whole aging thing. until i smelled the barrels i couldn't taste the smoky quality in the tabasco sauce. a sort of toasty oak barrel thing you get in chardonnay and other white barrel aged wines. anyhow i digress: tabasco is good. my bowl of limey-tabasco-cilantro noodles was very comforting. tomorrow i might do something with it and baby bok choy which i have two lovely specimens of. meanwhile........ dessert: i have a big beautiful pineapple. do i want to cut it open, or simply peel an orange. its late--i'll peel the orange now, and wait until the morning for the pineapple. i do love my tropical fruit. good night, my friends, good night. tomorrow i check on the progress of my sauerkraut and olives. more tomorrow. x marlena

So do I! And its a delish ingredient in my summery borsht which is mostly cold cooked beetroot, pickle juice (and a little pickle, too) and creme fraiche. mmmmmm. Marlena

that is one classy snack! x marlena

Yes, Breakstone was the one I was thinking of. I always forget which one I like best, then when i go to new york i figure it out and then forget again. always too distracted in ny to keep the two dairies clear in my mind. but i'm kinda scared: clicked onto the sterling site and: Danielle, I'm one sick puppy! i thought the hot dog looked kinda appealing. i think it was the abundance of pickle relish and the squiggle of mustard (i'm a slut for mustard) but I mean i know that its probably vile. still, here i am in the english countryside thinking: that hot dog looks fine, mighty f i n e !!!!!! x m

Lunch, oh lunch, lunch, lunch! my favourite midday meal! Well, I have alluded to a project that i'm working on, which is basically the front matter for a book on mexican food. i've written most of the recipes and there will be recipes from another food writer as well. So, to get us in the mood for Mexico, I've made some sort of cross between a torta and a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. i had: French bread which I hollowed out, brushed with olive oil and toasted. I filled them open-faced with simmered-mashed-spiced with cumin and fresh oregano beans (and cooked with onion and garlic). I used Rancho Gordo beans, the best beans I know. well the best New World beans, he only grows New World beans. These were Red Nightfall, little round pinto-like beans with a round pinto-like flavour. mmmmmmm. i still have a nice batch left, several portions, so not sure what i'll do with it. anyone has any ideas? I have about a cup of beans in their liquid. So I added the leftover sausage cut into small bits, and heaped it into the toasted rolls then covered it with slabs of white Cheddar (its all white here) and gave it a melt under the broiler. I served it with: handfuls of cilantro, a handful of lettucey salad mix, and a few gluggs of chipotle salsa, buffalo brand from a bottle. mmmmm. the frost on the window is melting. i think its the heat that we're giving off from our bodies after eating all the chile, beans and cheese. oh oh mochihead: newsflash about sheep: it seems as if there is a problem in the moors of north yorkshire and the sheep numbers are dwindling. there is a worry that by the year 2023 there may be no sheep left there! if anyone else has details out there, pass it along. Should we be worried? it does seem as if there are enough sheep to go around, and i could share some of the ones we have here with our friends to the north.....still, i always want to know when to start worrying. If worrying were an olympic sport, i might be in for silver. not the gold--the gold goes to my husband! x m

Thank you so much, Lucy. It means a lot to me, as you know that I hold your taste and writing in very high esteem! x Marlena

Mochihead: I couldn't have said it better myself! Add that line to the list of lines I wish I HAD said!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the blog and on the other side of the world, my husband just pointed to your dinner photo in your blog and said: I WANT THAT!!!!! x marlena

Yay, sister! x marlena ps: perhaps i'll bore you all with the torture i went through recently cooking for my parents and how i was forced to cook everything in the microwave, and how they stood over me and lectured me on the right way to cook. (for instance, one of the only things they allowed me to do without the microwave was grilled cheese and i had to follow the lecture exactly: first you spread the bread with margarine (!), then lay a slice of american cheese, then another piece of margarine spread bread, can you do that, repeat after me so you understand!). it broke my heart to be feeding them such stuff, also i wondered: do you folks know that i wrote a book on grilled cheese sandwiches????? anyhow, back to the microwaves, they were having me cook everything in it, cover with the paper towel, do vegetables one at a time and then they would cool off while the other stuff cooked, and then frozen stuff would be hot in spots and frozen in other spots and anyhow it was awful stuff to begin with. and while they loved the awful stuff, they didnt like my holishkes? i made them with such love, the meat filling just like i remembered my grandmother making them, the cabbage blanched just so for wrapping, the tomato sauce with enough sweet sour flavour to taste just like my grandmothers. but oy, they didn't like them. they left them in the fridge. i had to eat them myself. whats wrong with my holishkes? i gave some to my other friends and family and they all loved them, but my parents didn't like my holishkes. i'm still trying to figure out where i went wrong? at least they loved my vegetables. is there a psychiatrist in the house? now where were we, oh yes, i'm so glad Swisskaese, that you don't have a microwave either!

Breakfast! I don't want to forget to log this in, what kind of a foodblogger would I be? In fact, I ate breakfast hours ago but have been answering the blog and my other emails, and doing, well not really doing, some work on this project whose deadline is nearing every moment. I made the usual French press, very very strong, i kinda like my bones to rattle when i sip it. but alas, i was out of Union Roasters, my very favourite British coffee of which I've already written. But husband went to a malagasy (from Madagascar) dinner with lots of exotic goodies, and he bought a box of malagasy coffee (they were doing a fund raising thing). So I made the Malagasy coffee. Then i toasted two hand-cut slices of Tassia's wonderful wholegrain sourdough bread from Greece. I thought: do i want jam? do I want butter? no, i am sticking with the whole greek theme until it just evaporates. on top of the bread i had: thin slices of feta, tufts of fresh dill, a couple of green onions, whole, to munch on in bites inbetween the cheese and herbs, and a few slices of cucumber. I LOVE breakfast. My husband refuses to eat breakfast. He loves to start the morning with caffeine in all its forms: hot chocolate, coffee, tea. But i just can't get him to eat that fibre, those oats, or wholegrain bread, yogurt, or any of those things that are good to start the day with. he doesn't eat breakfast but then gets hungry like a wolf......around this time of day (its just after noon). (we both work from home) x m

You gotta go to Greece and pick it wild from the hillsides! it makes the best tea! I also have it growing my my herb garden, and agree with your quote completely. I mean, with fresh sage i can make saltimbocca in any of a zillion guises. And I can also make fried sage leaves, or my all time, and time-consuming fave, fried stuffed sage leaves like that make at craftbar restaurant! (two sage leaves sandwiching a savoury sausage mixture, then deep fried and serve with a bit of chopped preserved lemon). I would so send you a bouquet of dried sage if i could. i don't think it would make it through customs. if it will, i'll send it! x x m

Dear Anzu and Adam Balic, well the mysteries of pudding grow more complicated with each posting. Anzu, i was thinking about the whole dumpling thing (my family comes from eastern europe), and yes, Adam, the cloutie dumpling (husband is a Scot). So who knows, who knows. But I've never eaten a light steamed pudding. you're right about it being a cake batter, but the truth is that there are heavy cakes, too. And i think that the process of steaming gives the cake batter a certain density which baking doesn't necessarily do. Also, most steamed puddings are quite sweet, or come with a sweet sauce. I'm not a fan of sweets that combine both lots of sweet and also lots of heft--for instance, i'd probably never eat a piece of cake for dessert. thats probably because i am very greedy for the rest of the meal and don't care much for dessert unless its very light. but again, as i have said, no matter how i might joke about the whole steamed pudding thing, there are a few that i love very very much. and i mean LOVE. almost unaturally. treacle sponge is one of those. gotta run my recipe. x m

What is it with Brits and Birds Custard and Ambrosia in tins? I mean, i go away to california for a month, i come back and there are two packages of birds custard, and three tins of ambrosia waiting for me. I think that despite having lived here for 18 years, this is where I draw the line between me and my adopted fellow country-people. I make my own custard thank you. with real egg yolks and cream. (of course, i'm not adverse to a few of my own culinary icons, too. for instance, fire roasted marshmallows, iced tea.......these are but two things that make my British husband feel sick). Anyhow, thanks mucho, Jackal10, for posting the sticky toffee pudding recipe! i was actually meaning to make one in the near future. Sticky toffee pudding is the stuff that convinced me to love dates. until that time i didn't see the point; after sticky toffee pudding entered my life, i appreciated the rich, earthy-sweet, mealy texture of dates. now, i'm a bit of a date afficionado, especially when there are fresh ones around! Will post my recipe for treacle pudding: no suet! I use butter, for its rich buttery taste which i like far better than suet. ditto for the Christmas pudding too! if if its heavier than that made with suet, butter just has the nicer taste. now, just for the record: i don't have a microwave. i know this separates me from the rest of the world, and especially from readers of the publications that i write for who do have microwaves, but everything i hear about microwaves dismays me. for instance, the recent studies that show they destroy the vitamins in vegetables. oh i don't know, i've had one before, and they are good for warming the cat's milk and for defrosting, and for reheating leftovers, but at this moment in time, i don't want one in my home. my parents, aunt and uncle, cook everything in their microwave and i think that it is a soul-less way of cooking. and not easier when you start with all the opening and closing of door, punching of buttons etc. no stirring required and no delicious aromas wafting. x marlena, on a slightly manic rant against microwaves. perhaps i need more coffee?

Swisskaese, thank you for the chicken and lemon recipes; they sound wonderful. i always think that any cavity in a poultry for roasting should be filled with a lemon. in fact, thinking about all this lemon and chicken has me drooling. do you ever add potatoes? x m oh no, GREEN SHEEP!!!!! those poor little poppets, getting covered with moss. Perhaps they do have that problem here, but as I mostly admire sheep from a distance, I haven't noticed any green-crusted sheep. they are still nice and creamy white. in fact, once i was on the phone with hubby and he was here in britain, i was in california and we actually had an argument about whose sheep were creamiest, california sheep or british sheep. man, what married people argue about, i ask you! meanwhile, back in pudding land: treacle pudding actually doesn't have treacle in it; treacle is a dark molasses substance. treacle pudding actually has golden syrup which is a sweet dreamy honey-like thing. divine. toffee pudding is stick toffee pudding, and its based on dates and brown sugar. treacle pudding is steamed, and sticky toffee pudding is usually baked like a bread pudding, at least the ones i've had. another pudding we've missed out mentioning is banoffee pie, which is a piecrust filled with a layer of toffee-ish stuff, more like a dulce de leche, and a layer of sliced bananas, then a layer of whipped cream. is it good? omigod is it! after i finish some work, i may post the steamed treacle pudding recipe. as for the sticky toffee pudding, i don't have one i regularly use, but can ferret one out. or perhaps someone else out there has a good one? x marlena who never thought she'd be a pudding-guru, but right now would KILL for some treacle sponge (it must be the cold weather)

yes, if you can still move. x m

Irish Cream! So you're one of the purchasers of From Pantry to Table! I loved writing that book, love the fact that you love it. Thank you! I always say to myself that i'd like to do a revamp. the idea is still good, and so many products we have on our shelves weren't available then. i love looking at an item and thinking: i can do this, and i can do that. its one of the funnest aspects of cooking. for instance, i see that there is a bowl of limes and oranges in my fruit bowl that are starting to go a little limp. i'm thinking is tonight the night for sopa de lima? or is it tomorrow. one of these nights thats for sure. x marlena

Danielle (and Dylan), and Calipoutine, Wonderful to meet fellow lochshen/luckshin and cheese mavens, it is my favourite without a doubt comfort food. whenver i land in san francisco and arrive all jet-lagged and bedraggled at my step daughters house, she says,before i even take off my coat: should i put the water on to boil? A dab of sour cream was what some of my relatives did with it. my mother hated all dairy products except for cottage cheese so i guess i was lucky that we had it! sometimes i toss the noodles with butter, sometimes with olive oil, and i also add garlic to mine. i love garlic so much. my daughter and step daughter add peas to their luckshin and cheese. and an italian friend eats the same thing, only with ricotta and thinly sliced green onion! you're right that lukshin/lochshen and cheese is all about the quality of the cottage cheese! i haven't found a british cottage cheese i like though i do try each and every one i find; in san francisco i usually like knudsens, or....hmmm what was the other one. then i found the cottage cheese of my dreams that tastes the way cottage cheese did when i was a child: Cowgirl Creamery! Those Cowgirls are making some mighty fine cottage cheese! tell me about the brand that is better than friendship. in new york, lets see, it wasn't friendship but the other one, i forget its name, that i think i liked the cottage cheese. x your sister in luckshin/lockshen, Marlena

Jennifer, between you and me, I don't think that was an exact quote, but i was happy to be included in the article so you know, who's quibbling. and you never know, i MIGHT have said it when i wasn't thinking, cause I'm with you: who says that comfort foods need to be balanced meals? Part of the comfort is just feeling like eating what you just feel like eating! we should have a big egullet mac and cheese-a-thon! x marlena ps tried to get the publisher to let me write another book about something cheesey, but they said no. they did commission me to write about something else that is also comforting, and i shall include a lot of melty cheese in that. in fact, thats going to be yummy and comforting too. but mac and cheese, well it doesn't get better than that. though husband is still into grilled cheese sandwich mode. whenver there is bread and cheese in the house, he gets all puppydog looking and says: grilled cheese!!!!!!! i'd say he does this once a day.

The cranberry sausages were ordinary though very nice ordinary pork chipolatas, aka bangers if you're serving them with mash. I looked at them raw to get a handle on the cranberries before the sausages cooked, and it looked like chunks of them here and there, quite a lot of them, inside the sausage. When the sausage cooked up, they shrank quite a bit, and the cranberry helped make a sticky pan-juice-goo that is so yummy with sausages. You couldn't see the cranberries any longer, just the burnished sausage. They were really good! The cranberries may have been mixed with a bit of sugar because there was a slight sweetness to the tanginess of the cranberry. i would mail you some if I could! helen, you should start a British Sausage company in Japan!

Dear Zuke, I feel sad that I let you down on the dinner front last night--time difference and all, I was tucked up in my bed reading by then and once i've upstairs on a cold night it takes a whole lot to get me down! (whereas in the summer i'm trotting down to check the email at all hours). Anyhow, I love to play 'What to make with whats in the fridge'! my fave game. did you make the chicken pie? thats what i would have done. Pasty recipes that I have come across also start with raw ingredients, and to tell you the truth the recipes all look boring. but the pasties i've eaten have been really good. i don't know how they get raw stewing tasty meat to go so tender, or the potatoes for that matter, i mean, how long can a little pastry bake? surprisingly, there is a good pasty shop in sacramento, california, on....lets see, maybe 'J' street (or H?). there is a traditional Cornish community up in the foothills because the mines brought Cornish people to work them, and they stayed on bringing with them the legacy of pasties. oh they have some california-influenced pasties, too, though i can't remember exact details. i've been once or twice, and they were good, but when i'm in california i go a little mexican food mad and always think: hey i can get good pasties at home. but when i'm back in Britain i always seem to forget about pasties! I think your Gran's idea of shredded carrot in the pud sounds perfection! sort of like a carrot cake pudding! she's right about it being a vehicle for the booze, though. this year when i tried to stand up after the christmas cake and christmas pudding, my head was swimming. but maybe it was just dried fruit overload. Omigod, how on earth did I forget to mention STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING? i mean, its sticky its caramelly it rich rich rich. it's a relatively recent invention, but i think its the best of the puds, right after steamed treacle pudding that is. Here is the view from my window: out the back window where i wake up, I see my back garden which is pretty wild right now, it being winter and all. there is grass and a lot of plants that aren't looking too full-bodied at the moment. the garden is enclosed by a delightfully old brick wall, which hides most of the other houses in the area, but not the trees. there is a vine that crawls along the wall and follows the seasons; right now its just spindly strands of branch but in the summer its leafy and lush; come autumn it turns the most vibrant orange-red-ochre-rust colours imaginable. its like a light show every morning when i wake up. Over the wall i see huge tree tops; i like to watch their progression through the seasons too. Right now there are no leaves, but soon little shoots should start popping up and the birdsong returning. (actually i hear a little bird right this minute) I feel as if i know each and every branch in these trees and each bird family who nests there. In the front of my house is a winding road; we live on a close, 1 Prince of Wales Close to be exact. We're on a hillside about half the way up the hill. Our side of the road is very sort of little brick house suburban, but across the road is a wild area which is wonderful for walking; climb down the hillside and you're in a world away from civilization. it feels like a jungle with overgrown vines and such. a favourite place for dog walking, and i like the winding creek that twists around through the trees for about a half mile. then you climb back up into a sort of suburbia again. I am convinced that my little area is the blackberry capital of the world--as soon as the season hits there is no stopping them; come to our house for dinner during that time and its blackberries for every course! the sweetest, tangiest,most flavourful blackberries ever. Buying them after picking them wild just doesn't seem or taste right. on the other side of the road the other way is a field of sheep. I love sheep, no make it I LOVE sheep! There is also a round-about with traffic heading up to London, about a five minute walk from here. In the other direction is the centre of village/town. its a dreary boring place with no good shops except for the largest Waitrose in the land. About 6 kilometers away is the village/town Emmsworth which has recently garnered a reputation as a foodie village a la ludlow. Emmsworth has a michellin starred restaurant (which i haven't been to, but Pres Clinton has) and also a gastro pub-wine bar which i reviewed for the portsmouth newspaper (it was rather good; fabulous gazpacho and a weird burger, very marin county california decor, but dissappointing wine-by-the-glass list. i mean, what is the point of a wine bar if you don't have the wines?). Out my window at the moment I see the postman riding up to the house on his red bicycle. Postmen/women on their red bikes just melt my heart. He's just passing the woman across the street who makes everyone mad; recently she built a big brick very very ugly fence around the front of her house which looks awful the rest of us agree, but since no one wants to look at the woman and absorb her bad vibes, no one is complaining. Oh the weather: you can't have a description of Britain without discussing the weather: its very grey. the temperature has been mild the past few days but there is supposed to be a chill coming; it looks as if it could snow. I love snow and felt cheated, because last week when it snowed we were in Greece. oh course everyone said that as beautiful as it was, it was a mess with train and other services not working. So perhaps i was better off after all. Bye for now, Marlena ps: chocolate-covered christmas pudding sounds yummy: depends on the pudding and the chocolate i guess: how were they? It sounds like something that would be fun to make for Christmas season entertaining actually!