Cusina
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Posts posted by Cusina
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Oooooo, I almost forgot to tell you all this great thing!
Went to a closeout store today and found a beautiful red le creuset 10" cast iron skillet for $40. Woo hoo! Nothing like a good bargain I tell you. Can't wait to use it.
cusina-cool to see someone else gets excited about discount cookware!! was the store"tuesday morning?" also cool to see that i cook my brats the Lambeau Field way. would love to visit your neck of the woods, but in the summer...i hear that the mosquitoes in wisconsin are some of the biggest around. fact or fiction??
Quinn, My pan did indeed come from a tuesday morning store. That place is like a treasure hunt. So much crap, but every once in a while a serious jewel. As fpr the mosquitos... well, the real title goes to snowangel over there in 'sota. Ours are pesky, it's true, but nothing like the monstrosities they have over there. ;) I think Wisconsin is beautiful in the summer, especially Door County and the Kettle Morraine area. Worth a visit, but I might be biased.
Thanks spaghetti, he is a doll. Those blue eyes get me every time.
Speaking of treasure hunts, I have to set one up for the party. Woo hoo! I think it might be tomorrow before I get back to this blog, but I'll let you all know how it works out.
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It was a tasty thing too, that pie. Like I said though, the crust was a bit too crisp, very cracker-like and it broke easily. Grandma's recipe called for lard and I subbed butter. Must not have made the translation well.
Squeat, I added The Food Taster to my list of books to read. It does sound good. Thanks for the tip!
I'm eating the very last malted milk ball from our trip to the candy store and damn, is it good.
Dinner tonight was at Red Robin. I had their classic cheeseburger and a salad with an apple crisp for dessert. For that genre of dining, it wasn't bad. It is awfully loud in there though. My son was a bit bewildered by the entire staff singing happy birthday to him, but he still seemed to enjoy the sundae they brought him.
Mom and I did the annual thanksgiving dinner plan tonight. The feast is at her house this year so she is doing the bird, stuffing (hers is marvelous), potatoes, gravy and rolls. I'm doing cranberry applesauce, sweet potatoes, a pecan pie and green beans. I think I'm going to do the beans this year with a cheese fondue like sauce and almonds.
I'm wiped out. Quite the busy day today and tomorrow will be even crazier, so I'm off, g'night.
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Does yours have the handy built in flow-bee vac for all that orange fur?
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Making the pie with my son was a good time. It was a great project for us to do together with rolling the dough and he gets a huge kick out of turning the apple gadget. This thing really does save me about an hour in pie making.
Here it is, ready for the top crust.
And the finished product.
Ta dah.
Lunch today was out at a cafe with a few girlfriends and their pre-schoolers. I had a chicken panini with cheese, pesto and bacon, some potato chips and a glass of milk. Very tasty. This place has great atmosphere and the conversation was fun so all in all a good time.
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Mine is a garlic peeler. Little rubber $6 tube that a friend talked me into buying. It's so awkward. I just smash the garlic with my knife or something handy and heavy and get on with it.
And then there was the cheese slicer. Little Y shaped thing with a wire. Egads. Just cut your cheese with a knife! That one bit the dust long ago.
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Good Morning!
Today is my day of eating out. Lunch at a cafe, dinner at Red Robin. I love cooking, but a break from it won't kill me either.
I also need to get ready for the big birthday treasure hunt tomorrow. I've got lots of little gimcracks to hide and have found little plastic buckets with swirly metal handles for them to collect their goodies in. I think we have decided to do photos as clues, so I have to take them as well and get them printed up.
Book group was interesting last night. Everyone but me seemed to like the book. Ah the trials of being discriminating. The dessert table was a little lean this month too. I'm glad I brought the pie. There were some yummy 7 layer bars and a cheesecake that was pretty blah (not homemade, I think). The pie was tasty, though the crust was a bit fragile. Think I like my crust process better than Grandma's.
I'll come back soon and post the pictures.
~Cusina
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Squeat, I'm there with ya.
I, honestly, don't have too many cookbooks, maybe 30 or 40 including a few bartender's guides and the Hastings, Nebraska Methodist church cookbook. I culled through them recently and gave a bunch away as I had many I wasn't using and I thought they should go on to better homes. However, other books, we have a whole lot of them. The large back room of the first floor of our house is lined with bookshelves and big windows and is an excellent place to read (one of the reasons we fell for this house). My husband is an artist in his spare time and he finds a lot of inspiration in books, so many of them are art related, but we seem to have a little of everything.
My primary cookbook source is the library. They have a huge selection. Many of them are "diet" books, or recipes where the most challenging technique is opening cans, but there also is a good sized array of serious authors, especially in the global cuisine section. My favorites are those that have technique illustration, conversations about food and recipes. I take out one or two whenever I go. Every once in a great while I find one I feel I have to own and will purchase, but most of them aren't worthy. I just snag a tidbit or two and return them to the library.
Le Creuset - Fi, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I feel like I'm on the cusp of a great love affair. The closest outlet to me is about 3 hours away, but some nice day in January I'm so there. Plus, I'll be scoping out that discount store where I found my skillet much more often and adding a few pieces to my Amazon wish list. They really are amazing.
The pie turned out beautifully, I'll post pictures of our apple adventures tomorrow. Hope my book group enjoys it. I'll report on the dessert spread too. There are usually some pretty yummy things. We'll be having pancakes with homemade applesauce and omlettes for dinner tonight, quick and easy.
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Great morning here. Son and I went to the park, enjoyed the sunshine and went back to the candy store to pick up some things for his birthday party that I should have remembered yesterday. The samples today were white chocolate dipped pretzels, good but nothing that curls my toes. We ended up with great looking popcorn balls, malted milk balls and a bar of 70% cocoa dark chocolate for me. Whoo boy. Love it. It's Spanish and I'm not certain I've ever had chocolate from Spain before.
At lunchtime I had the deep need to try out my new pan.
I was in a veggie state of mind, so after finishing my son's grilled cheese
I threw in some veggies. Zucchini, baby bellas, cherry tomatoes (which looked better than they tasted, unfortunately), red onion, lemon pepper and salt. Finished it off with some grated caraway cheddar. Pretty darn tasty. Had it with some cottage cheese and ice water and some chocolate.
I love my new pan! Now want more of the things of course, in different sizes, maybe a dutch oven. Dang materialism.
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So, today, my son and I will be OUTSIDE because it's beautiful. After all that gloomy talk of winter today is sunny, 50ish, no wind. Yehaw! We also will try to make some applesauce, maybe even a pie if there is time. I'm itching to try Grandma's recipe again.
Tonight is my book group. Total girl thing, 25 women who need an excuse to get together and drink wine and laugh every 6 weeks. Reading the same book and discussing it seems like a good one. There is always interesting conversation. This group varies in age from 20 to 80 and has all kinds of perspectives in it. Some very eloquent people, and some not so much, but it's fun and there is dessert! I'll probably do a pan of bars if I don't have time to make a pie. This month the book was pretty bad, I'll spare you the description. I usually have 4 or 5 books open at once. Two or three of those are food oriented. My non-food book right now is "Life with Picasso" by Francoise Gilot. Very interesting. The author is the mother of Claude and Paloma. It is an extremely good story: intrigue and philosophy and lust plus some beautiful scenery.
Snowangel, I have never been a fisherwoman, though I definitely see the appeal. I love fresh lake fish. Maybe someday... It's great to hear from you though, neighbor. The twin cities are a great place to be. My husband's uncle and family live there and we see them fairly often. He loves to fish too and is always offering lessons. I'll have to take him up on it.
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I want to stop and thank Jon for holding my hand through some of the technical parts of this blog, eGullet rocks! They have been really responsive and helpful in answering my very haphazard questions. Danke!
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Thank you very much Ronnie, that is a great compliment. I sort of think and type at the same speed thanks to a year or so of hellacious secretarial work right out of school while looking for something better. I just finished reading several of the early blogs from this tag series. Wow. I'm in good company here. Maggie, yours was amazing. That Hungarian veal stew sounded wonderful. I'm going to give it a try soon. Can't believe you did the whole darn thing in iambic pentameter! Good thing oranges were out of season.
I'm glad I didn't read those until after a few days of doing this one. I'd have been very intimidated, especially by Nero's. That cute little girl could drink me under the table in a heartbeat!
Speaking of oranges and getting plowed... here is Mr. Cusina's favorite shaker filler.
He calls it the Maiden. I have no idea why. I'll have to ask him when he gets home. On the other hand, maybe I don't want to know.
ice 2 martini glasses, fill the shaker with ice then add
2 parts excellent citrus vodka
1 part contreau
roll a clementine around on the counter to loosen the juices, peel, slice in half crosswise and toss into the shaker. Shake vigorously untill it's so damn cold you can't hang onto it any longer.
Pour into glasses and eat the clementine sections as a snack.
Delicious and effective. G'night!
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O.k. as requested, more pictures.
These first two are of the chicken I roasted yesterday, ready for the oven.
In this one he's got one wing out, waving to you all. A chicken howdy.
Here are my shells, leftovers at this point. They are just large pasta shell shapes stuffed with cheese and spinach and covered in marinara. I left the fork in the picture for scale.
Boy, I'm not going to be a food photographer any time soon. Those dishes both really did look much more appetizing than that. How do they get stuff to look so good in the food porn?
And finally, this is my favorite feature in the kitchen (aside from my dacor... which I LOVE). It's a lighted crystal cherry. A must have for the modern dilettante (did I spell that right yet?).
Enjoy your evening, more tomorrow, ready or not.
~Cusina
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GG Mora, you are SO right about April. Definitely the hardest month to be a northerner. Just want the cold to be OVER by then. I am looking foward to your blog next week, especially after reading your entry to the literary smackdown fantasy grocery list. Brilliantly funny! Everyone else go read it if you haven't yet.
Misgabi, it gets pretty warm here too. At least one week during the summer it is in the 90s. July and August are usually in the 80s, at least. June and September are gorgeous. If you ever plan to travel in this part of the world, come then and let me know, we'll have a drink!
I'm glad you are enjoying the thread so far, it has been fun to write. Brain dump is sometimes theraputic.
This has actually been a good week for me to do this as we all kind of have lingering colds and I've been cooped up inside and cooking alot. Tonight, however, I dropped the ball. I was eagerly planning to make the Peppin Souffle but no. A close friend with a new baby (11 weeks) called tonight to vent and I felt like I had to really listen to him rather than multi-task through the conversation like I usually do. Tough transition, it's their first and that new responsibility hits home fast. Between that and 1st grade homework the souffle just didn't happen. The stock came out beautifully though. Thanks again for the inspiration! You all were so right that it is easy and delicious. I had chicken orzo soup for dinner with fresh broth and the rest of the garlic italian loaf from last night. Very satisfying. I have four dozen chicken cubes freezing their little hearts out in my basement freezer. Yay.
You know, I have been completely ignoring beverages thus far. Gasp. I'm sorry. I am a milk drinker, at least a glass a day, and a fair amount of water and tea too. I don't drink much coffee. I enjoy it when I do, but usually in some sort of $4 lattemochafrappacrappa creation. Wussy, I know, I know, but a girl has to have some faults. Wisconsin is a very wet state; alcohol, especially beer is a big part of the culture here. Our main street has some serious bars on it, and some of them are "family" places. We definitely partake and though I don't personally drink much beer outside of sporting events it is often served with meals here. Some families will go so far as to have a quarter barrel tapped at all times and have the whole bar setup in the basement (not us!). We drink wine with dinner and usually have a cocktail or another glass of wine as a nightcap. My husband makes very good martinis of all sorts on the weekends. That main street full of bars is within walking distance to our house too, which is fun and/or dangerous, depending on the night.
Come to think of it my cocktail habits change quite a bit with the season too. In the summer I'm all about vodka/gin and tonic. In the winter I like whiskey. Even a scotch if I'm really cold. Nothing like scotch to put a little glow in your cheeks and make you happy. I read somewhere that scotch gives a quicker buzz than most alcohols. Something about the way you drink it? Not sure but I like it.
I have some more pictures, I'll post them soon.
~Cusina
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Oooooo, I almost forgot to tell you all this great thing!
Went to a closeout store today and found a beautiful red le creuset 10" cast iron skillet for $40. Woo hoo! Nothing like a good bargain I tell you. Can't wait to use it.
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I have some time this afternoon to go back into Grandma's recipe box. Let me give you a little background on her. I realize that you are probably picturing her as this nice homespun Wisconsin lady. Not quite, she was born and raised in Nebraska, then went to graduate school for Vocal Performance in Iowa where she met my grandfather, a new Physics Phd. He became a professor and they moved to New York city where my father was born. Shortly after they moved to Port Washington on Long Island where she lived out the rest of her life. She, however, was very attached to her parents and to Nebraska so they travelled there by train every summer. My Grandfather retired quite early, in his 50s I think, and they took up travelling the world to see the sights. My Grandfather took almost all the pictures on these trips and so we have albums full of my Grandma waving in front of famous things. Here she is waving in front of the Great Wall of China, here in front of an Egyptian pyramid, here in front of a Dutch windmill, here in front of the Berlin Wall... you get the idea. She was always incredibly social, very easy to talk to, so they met interesting people wherever they went and had many of them come to visit them in NY. All this is reflected in her recipe box, if you know where to look.
She went through the decades with the rest of America, so some of her stuff is pretty dated. Here is one labeled "Jackie Kennedy & Grace" Grace is her double first cousin who is within 2 weeks of her age, so they were like sisters. I sincerely doubt Jackie actually made it to Lincoln to give this to Grace, but who knows.
Baked Chicken Breasts
4 Chicken Breasts
1 can (3oz) drained mushrooms
1 can (10 oz) cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream mixed with
1 cup sherry wine
Paprika
Arrange chicken in baking dish, don't overlap. Cover with mushrooms and liquids (mix other ingredients and pour over) Dust with paprika. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with rice. Serves 4.
Here is another Jackie Kennedy recipe for how to make a turkey... hmm. Something tells me this isn't the famous Jackie Kennedy. I can't really imagine her breaking out the cream of mushroom soup in the White House kitchen.
I don't want to make it sound like all Grandma did was open cans and boxes. She did cook from scratch quite a bit. The souffle recipe that Maggie sent me is here, almost exatly the same. Lots of her scratch cooking was baking. I especially remember her pies and bars. Lemon bars were her absolute favorite but mine were Missisipi Mud Cake. Rich cake on the bottom, marshmallow center and chocolate icing. Yum. I'll bet this one is copywritten somewhere so if you want it just PM me.
I can remember my grandfather going on a serious pinapple pie baking mission as only an ex-physicist can. I don't know what the criterion were for "perfect" but it was intense and much fervor and humor went into finding the perfect recipe. There are several here as testament to the journey. I think this one was the winner as it seems to be the most used looking and is in the front of the stack.
"Combine large can of undrained crushed pineapple with mixture of 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook untill thick and clear, stirring constantly. Add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Pour into pastry-lined 8-inch pie pan. Add top crust. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes." I don't remember ever eating a piece though. I think he consumed most of the efforts.
She has a pretty wide variety of pies here. Ranging from the very typical to some rather unusual ones. Apple, cherry, pineapple, pumpkin, Lemon Meringue, Rhubarb, German Sweet Chocolate (coconut and pecans), Jello Ice cream pie that was obviously a favorite of my Uncle's, Chocolate Marshmallow, Chocolate graham cracker delight, Praline Pie, Chocolate cream, Heavenly Pie (which appears to be a custard), Cooky Sundae Pie, Mile High Strawberry Pie, Cracker Pie (made with Ritz crackers? um, o.k.), Peach Parfait Pie, Key Lime, Shamrock Chiffon Pie (I think my great-grandmother was very fond of jello), Sweet Potato Pie (mmm, need to try this one), ButterScotch Pie, Baked Alaska Pie, Pumpkin Praline, and Pecan. Whew. Lotta Pie. Plus about 10 variations on pie crusts including my mother's and her own "good" pie crust.
Here is the frontrunner of the pies. I DO remember this one as being very good.
My Apple Pie
Applet to fill pie shell - tart apples
3/4 to 1 C sugar
2 rounded T flour
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Oleo
lemon juice
Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Put small amount in bottom of shell.
Fill with apples, sliced (and peeled presumably)
Add rest of dry ingredients
Dot with oleo and lemon juice.
Add top crust - slitting here and there
Bake at 400 for about 50 min.
Well, enough for now. I'll leave you to ponder pie for a while.
~Cusina
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Hi stringcheese, welcome to eGullet. Hope you stick around for a while and enjoy the show. I'm finding it to be a very interesting place. My food and drink learning curve has gotten much steeper since discovering this BB.
Tolliver, I live in the Fox Valley area, which is south of Green Bay and one hour west of Lake Michigan.
Lunch was leftover shells from last night for me. Grilled cheese and apples with PB for my son. I love that shell dish partly because it makes lots of leftovers. My stock is bubbling on the stove as we speak. You all were very right, it couldn't be easier to make stock. Took the carcas and leftover meat from the chicken last night, added carrots, celery, garlic and rosemary. Covered with water in the pot and will simmer for about 3 or 4 hours, seive and cool, then skim the fat and freeze. Thanks for getting me in gear to do it.
I also had a little treat this morning. Wen't to a local candy shop to buy a hostess gift for next week and enjoyed a chocolate pecan caramel. Yum! This place is kind of a throwback to the 1950s, though in a much cleaner, more nostalgic way than the butcher. And the chocolate is great. The best in the place, in my mind, are their butter creams. Absolutely taste like fresh sweet butter in the middle. They also have great malted milk balls. They are about 1/2 inch malted balls with at least 3/4 inch milk chocolate coating. Huge and delicious.
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How much I clean as I go along depends on my state of franticness. If things are going smoothly and I have plenty of time, I clean as I go, if not, whatever... just get out of my way!
We moved this year. Our last house was an 80s "open style" house with a big eat in kitchen right smack dab in the center of it. It was awful. My kitchen was a magnet for everything from kid craft projects to paperwork to coats to tools waiting to be put away in the basement. Now we have a colonial style house built in the 20s with a good sized but separate kitchen. So much better. I've banned anything that doesn't have to do with cooking or eating from the room. I have my own uncluttered cooking space now and I love it.
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Hi Herbicidal! Glad you are enjoying this too.
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Hi Fi~ (hmmm, that makes hi-fi)
Our menus are almost completely different summer to winter. Summer is all about grilled meats and fish, salads, fruits and veggies from the farmer's market. Winter is much heavier. I start baking quite a bit and I also make quite a bit of soup. Still do salads but they are more vegetable based rather than fruit or pasta salads. You are getting a taste of my late fall/winter menu in this blog.
As far as making it through the cold it's not that bad really, but I'm used to it. I actually look forward a bit to the dark cold months because our social calendar is much lighter and I'm kind of a closet introvert. I love to sleep more and read alot by the fireplace without feeling like I should be outside doing something else. Plus on the great days that you can get outside and do things like sledding, hiking, skating and skiing it is fabulous! Ask my brother in law the same question in February and you might get a very different answer. He moved here (well, chicago actually, but north) from Atlanta in May.
I think someone, maybe Tolliver, asked if I do a garden. I live on a medium sized city lot with a big honkin' old house on it and quite a few trees, so I don't have much space that is condusive. I like to do tomatoes and herbs, but that is about all I have space for. The house has consumed most of my energy. We bought it just a year ago and it had been pretty neglected. Nothing was wrong structurally, but it was UGLY. This year we have done a tremendous amount of restoration and updating. The results have been great, but lots of effort.
Later on today I'll get back to Grandma's recipe box. Lots of fun stuff in there.
~Cusina
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Oh, yeah, and for dinner, we really enjoyed the roast chicken and shells. The shells were stuffed with spinach, ricotta and feta. Delicious. The stockpot is full of bones and gooey chicken goodness waiting to be boiled down into stock tomorrow. Chicken soup and cheese souffle sounds mighty good to me!
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Thanks for the encouragement!
Well, let me give you a little geography lesson on the part of the world where I live as it isn't the most highly published subject. It's damn cold up here, most of the year at least. Therefore all the European settlers who were used to milder climates stayed as far away as possible, which was probably a smart move. Therefore, a lot of the people in Northeastern Wisconsin have German, Polish, Swedish and Norwegian ancestors who originally settled the land in the 1850-1870s, about 4 or 5 generations ago. The cuisine reflects those cultures in a general sense. So do the people. This is one spot in the country where they grow 'em big. Not just waistlines either. I'm 5'11" (178cm) and not considered to be outrageously tall, just the tall side of average.
The food here leans toward the fried and the bloody. Lots of meat and potatoes going on as well as fish. There are many, many freshwater lakes close by including Lake Michigan, which is huge. Much of the fish served by the locals here is beer battered and fried, like the recipe described yesterday and Varmint slathered over. Fried cheese also tops the local regular menu. (Real healthy huh?) There is also a serious grill culture here. When the weather is nice, and even when it's not, there will be coals going all over town. Brats, burgers, dogs, steaks, chicken and ke-babs are the most popular grilling items.
I live downtown in a medium sized city with a population just under 100,000. Land isn't terribly expensive so the cost of living is pretty low. Your average 3 bedroom ranch house here is about $125,000 new and you can get a perfectly nice "used" place for $80,000. Or on the other end of the scale, you can buy the 12,000 sq. ft. riverfront manor (about circa 1925) that is accross the way from us for 1.8 million. The town has blue collar roots, primarily in the paper industry and the surrounding dairy farms, but is becoming more white collar. The local accent here is funny. Think halfway between SNLs the Superfans and the characters in Fargo. No, I don't talk that way!
The groceries here are big, plentiful and clean, but they are all the same. I really wish we would get a whole foods or a Trader Joes or something along those lines. There is one store with a pretty good sized natural foods department and a few small mom & pop health food stores. Also in town you have the usual sams club, wal-mart superstore and etc... which I almost never enter unless really desperate.
I'm trying, tolliver, to think what was at the last potluck I went to. I think there was a BBQ beef on buns entree (exotic that, usually it's sliced ham) and then things like potato salad, veggies and dip, fruit salad, three bean salad, jello, "asian" peanut noodles, lots of bars and cookies and a coconut cake and somebody brought some really, really good little tartlets, lemon or lime I think, yum. I brought a green salad with blue cheese, strawberries and walnuts tossed with a sweet poppyseed dressing. My neighbor accross the street ate almost the whole bowl, shamelessly. My particular neighborhood has a lot of 'imports' though. Most of us are people who have moved here from elsewhere. (I grew up in Wisconsin with New York parents, then moved to Chicago and moved back in 1998.)
So there you have it. Pretty nice place to live, if you don't mind freezing your tail off for a few months of the year.
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Ron Jeremy:
heavy cream
Dannon's La Créme
Pop Tarts
Milky Way
Butterfinger
Mounds
Polish Sausage
Bulk Cheese
Bulk Shampoo
Peaches
Melons
Cherries
Kumquats
Passion Fruit
Clam juice (ew sorry)
Oysters
Tuna
Taco mix
Lays
lotus root
I saw something at the grocery the other day for Ron Jeremy's list (which is great, btw!). Beefamato juice. gack!
And If I get a vote, GG Mora should win. Wow.
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And yes, that is a dumptruck full of money being poured into a hole on the front of my son's Boston sweatshirt. My father-in-law has a twisted sense of humor. I like that about him actually.
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AHA, Figured out the picture thing.
Here you go. The first two are gratuitous cute pet pictures. Sorry.
This is the older cat Ollie.
Here is Rosie, our kitten, investigating the bag from the butcher shop. Nothing like a fresh chicken to get a cat's attention.
The next two are scone baking pictures. First, obviously, is the patting them out stage. And the next one is my son watching them bake.
There you go, a few visuals, gotta love technology.
Food Blog: Cusina
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Whew, success! Everyone seemed to have a good time.
Lunch was great pizza from a local pizzaria. I had two slices of the gourmet vegetarian which had olives, peppers, onions, artichoke hearts, zucchini and some other really good stuff on it. The meal rounded out with fruit salad, baby carrots and of course, birthday cake. Thomas the tank engine from the local bakery.
Whee ha!