hathor
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Posts posted by hathor
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ARRRGGGHHH!!! Our server has been down the whole day, some little red wire decided it just didn't want to connect any more!!
Our office is in the Garment Center, or to be more polictically correct as the Garment Center is shrinking, I think we are now considered Times Sq. South, anyway, its pretty much a culinary wasteland, and we usually need to eat pretty quickly, so we order up. Today was panini day: portobello mushroom, tomato and mozzeralla, and another one that was a chicken combination. Both were pretty good, but not at all photogenic. Lunch discussion was about what flowers can we possibly plant that deer won't eat. It's pretty much a rhetorical discussion because...deer will eat anything!!!! They are so brazen they climb up on the deck to see what's for lunch. I'm waiting for the day they knock on the door and ask for some salad dressing....
This deli espresso is pretty much rock bottom, but its still better than Starbucks... and I needed to get up here to the office to post the photos. Taking one for the blog, sort of.
The Savu Smoker bag looks interesting, not sure I understand how it works, but I guess the Finns would have a handle on how to make a smoker.
Jake, our house in Umbria in a very small borgo called Montone. Its a medival walled city that really is like stepping back in time. Except of course that the town has a website! But...if you live there you have to contend with nearly medieval dial up connections and you never be able to see the website at all!! Here's the link, I think there is a way to translate it into English. Montone
Umbria is in the center of Italy, the 'green heart', and it gets very little notice from the culinary world, which is very undeserved. Cooking here is very clean and simple, so you better have outstanding ingredients. Within the walls, there are only about 600 inhabitants, but 3 excellent restaurants, and one great pizza/pasta joint just outside the walls. I have a significant crush on the butcher in town...hmm, I think I see a pattern here. People come from all over for his sausage. Occasionally he will make a sausage that is just meant to be stewed with lentils. Its fattier than usual, and makes an incredible winter meal.
Speaking of fattier, I need to get to the gym. So, I'm off to Brooklyn for a workout.
'later!
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hathor, this is a lovely blog. I am envious of your wild turkey and eagerly awaiting your description of its awaiting culinary adventure. Pond Scum. It reminds of that drink Rene Russo's character chugs for breakfast in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.
How often are you a "there" cook in Italy?
Good morning Miss V! I know I thought the same thing when I saw the Thomas Crown Affair, who knows, the cult of Pond Scum may be spreading...
As for being 'there' in Italy, the last few years we've been there about 6 times a year, with some long holiday weeks for Christmas and in August for the town's big festa. Christmas holiday the past few years has been especially wonderful because lots of family comes, both from my side and my husbands. We all are very different, but have a great time when we come together. There have been some amazing ravioli fests in that kitchen! I am supremely blessed and lucky to have such a great family, and every single one of us loves to EAT!!! There is a thread on eG for the past few days about the worst cook in your family. I can honestly say, of the ones that do cook (some are designated eaters and washer uppers), they are all great cooks. Some of my favorite memories are gatherings of the clan in the kitchen, chopping, dicing and chattering. To me, the kitchen is the heart of the house.
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i was kind of hoping i wouldn't be excused. i quite enjoyed this past week. thank you all, i'm looking forward to hathor's blog and i'm really glad to be here.
You're not excused! I'm fully expecting lots of participation from you!! No slacking off...jump in!
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OH, do I just love Monday mornings. Sarcasm intended. Actually, its a lovely, mid-60's slight haze kind of morning, not bad at all.
No time to eat breakfast at home, so I fed the cats. Here's Bella relaxing.
I drink a sort of health food, vitamin drink first thing in the morning. I call it Pond Scum, but its made by a company in Utah called Synergy, its a mix of algae and mushrooms and Chinese herbs and god knows what else. Its gets mixed with some blueberry juice, which anti's any oxidants I may have. I have no idea what anti-oxidant means, but its supposed to be good for keeping your skin looking good, and I like blueberries, so its all good. The only other household member that will touch the stuff is Bella.
My SO was already out the door, he was off to yoga class. I squeezed him some OJ, grapefruit juice for myself, and I biked up to the office to try and upload some of these photos. Now I'm drinking deli espresso and a yukky corn muffin, which believe me, does not warrant any photo at all!
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Do you have a smoker?
Click for the pocket coffee thread in the Italy Forum. Apparently these are to be had in New York as well.
No, sadly I don't have a smoker, and I would want to do a lot of experimenting before I worked on this bird. Getting a smoker is on the Things to Do List, but I haven't gotten there yet.
Pocket Coffees sound wonderful...but, I have a problem. I can't eat chocolate. I can hear the groans of sympathy, and dis-belief. I've suffered from migraines since I was little, and chocolate is a major trigger for them. Could be worse, could be red wine. Now, that would be tragic!
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As soon as we get home, I head to Dom's on Lafayette St. Its an Italian market with Chinese butchers. The owners are two brother from Napoli, although I haven't seen the older brother in awhile. Its the only real, true butcher shop that's left in the area. I'm sure that's open to debate, but the owners are very careful about their sources, and its the only place that will cut the meat exactly the way I want it. I got some wonderful homemade sausage, and thinly sliced leg of lamb.
Uh-huh. Wonderful home-made sausage. I was waiting for that paragraph to end that way. I don't imagine you'll be seeing that other brother again....
I think I need more coffee in me this morning... at first I thought you knew about the brother, now I realize you mean he's may gone on to serve a higher purpose!
Actually I do worry about him. He was the older brother, and cantankerous to dowright crabby. Dom's is right across the street from a firehouse that lost quite a few members during 9/11, and it took the wind out of him. He was a wonderful butcher, and I chose to think he just decided to retire. -
Ciao...would have been here sooner..but we got delayed coming back into the city, because we had to go and visit the turkey. Its huge...a 23 pounder. I've had the good fortune to cook a few of these precious birds, and this one is a bit intimidating. I'll try and post the photo in the morning.
Here is the lovely and large bird:
Wild turkeys are nothing like a commercially raised bird, for one thing they have a huge V shaped breastbone. I've rotisseried 2 of these birds, and the result was fantastic. The hard part was busting and then getting out the breast bone, glove bone style. Its amazingly tough. But this bird is too big to put on our rotis, the motor won't handle it, so I'm going to have to give it some thought. But the flavor, is so delicate and so, well, flavorful it barely seems a distant cousin to a Butterball. Balmagowry, thanks for the heads up on the deep fry as I giving that some thought.
Hunting and gathering turned into a bigger chore than I expected. Plan A was paella. I went into town and got some chicken which I set it up in a rosemary, thyme, lemon juice marindade. Then we went to visit the turkey, and toast its demise.... had to hear the whole hunting story...so, by now we are late heading back into the city.
We decide to stop at Chelsea Market, 9th Ave and 15th St...or thereabouts. Its a great market in the old Nabisco factory, there are separate shops: flowers, breads, wines, bakery, fish store, butcher, great Italian products, good vegetables, and some Saturday afternoons there are gatherings for tango dancing. Now, that is one stop shopping. Anyway, I'm late, husband in the car with 2 cats...and I now know that one of our dinner guests is allergic to seafood, so Plan B, is mixed grill, and the butcher at the market has....nothing. I mean half a sausage. Quick side trip to the vegetable store for zucchini, eggplant, red pepper and lots of herbs.
As soon as we get home, I head to Dom's on Lafayette St. Its an Italian market with Chinese butchers. The owners are two brother from Napoli, although I haven't seen the older brother in awhile. Its the only real, true butcher shop that's left in the area. I'm sure that's open to debate, but the owners are very careful about their sources, and its the only place that will cut the meat exactly the way I want it. I got some wonderful homemade sausage, and thinly sliced leg of lamb.
I now had about 1 hour and 15 minutes before everyone arrived, tonight was 8 for dinner. Come on, you know this routine, you've all been there! To make a long tale shorter, I pan fried thin strips of the vegetables, sprinkled with a little salt, and a few drops of balsamic. The chicken and sausage were roasted. Potatoes with fresh rosemary, thyme, parsely and garlic were roasted. The lamb cutlets were treated to a little wash with some eggs, and then pressed into a cozy parmigiano herb crust before being pan sauted. And as I was wiping down the counter...the buzzer rang and it was time for some Proseco with our friends.
We ate well, and laughed loud...desert we spent with the Sopranos. Some things are best watched with a crowd. So we watched Tony self-destruct as we ate pastries from Arthur Ave, and fresh berries and great key lime pie.
But, a few questions before retiring:
Bleudauvergne: what on earth is Pocket Coffee? No, I don't eat it. Should I?
Squeat Mungry: Hepburn rode a bike? who knew? I feel more like Pac Man fighting my way thru some video game, than Ms.Hepburn riding in high style.
Mayhaw: I'll take all the suggestions on turkey that you throw my way. This is a serious honor and responsibilty, and I cannot f*ck it up.
And most of all, thanks for the support...yes, this does take a bit more time than anticpated, but, watcha gonna do?
Sleep well. Tommorow's another day.
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Did I say I didn't have a glass of wine?? Actually, no its too soon even for me to have a sip of wine.
How do those older European men do it? The ones who come into the bar tabac, get an espresso, and some sweet wine. I would have to go right back to bed.
Gotta run, or we all starve tonight. Thanks for the welcome!
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The weekend sounds mighty yummy. Our own son, when he was a boychick, liked pancakes with fresh blueberries and bacon all rolled together, I think its a variation on the bacon/jelly sandwich of your boychick!
Nothing is better than lots of family, friends, tradition and food, thanks for sharing your week with us! I know I look forward to more news of all of you!
Since the torch has been passed to me...yikes!!... here is the link to I what I hope will be an interesting week: Big Apple Blog
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Good morning and thank you Ms. Victoria, I hope I can do justice to the blog tradition! But first, a shout out to all of us Mothers, mommies, moms, mas, mammys, and mahs: Happy Mother’s Day!!
I’m a "here and there" home chef. Right now, here is NY, and there is Italy. My husband and I have spent a quiet weekend at our house in Northern Westchester, we’ve been getting the house ready for spring and summer, planting flowers, cleaning up the outdoor plants…and we’ve been eating rather well.
A quick bio: married, 1 son, 2 cats. We’ve been married a long time…20 years…and lived together for a few years before that. Our son is just finishing his first year in college, he can’t make it home for Mother’s Day because he’s working away finishing his last project of the semester. We are going to Philadelphia on Tues to bring him (and his mountain of stuff) home, I’ll still be his mother on Tues, so we’ll celebrate then. Most of the week we live in a loft in Soho, which is in downtown NYC; weekends we try to head up here to Westchester.
I’ve had some formal training with cooking, I graduated from an accelerated program at the NY Restaurant school (the school has since merged with some other school, I’m not sure of the name anymore). I thought I wanted to become a caterer, but as this was an early mid-life career change, I found I could make more money working in the garment center, and have weekends off; so now I just cook for family and friends.
Some of the high points in my life have been very literally high points: I’ve climbed and stood on some of the world’s highest peaks with my husband and son. We climbed Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elbrus and some peaks in Bolivia to mention the really high points. We are avid downhill skiers. Anyone want to talk about the trials of cooking at altitude?? Now that’s a real pain.
I commute to work in the city by bike, which is an adventure in its own right.
Hold on: we just got some great news!! Our friend who is an avid hunter, just called to say he finally got a wild turkey!!! Its been a long, dry spell since he’s been successful. Our deal is, he hunts, I cook. He just called from upstate on a scratchy cellphone connection to let us know the good news. Oh boy!!
Enough bio. Onto the food.
We left work a little early on Friday, so we were able to eat to come up here to the house, and have dinner at home, which is a rarity on Fridays, as we usually have to leave the city late, after the traffic has abated. Friday night was grilled artic char and shrimp, served on a nest of cappelini with a parsley brown butter sauce, and some grilled baby fennel. Need to work on the baby fennel part, it would be great if you had very sharp teeth and were in need of fiber…maybe this is one vegetable that needs to come to maturity before eating. We opened a 98 bottle of Haynes vineyard Turley that was magnificent. A bit overboard for the fish, but it was delicious. And it was Friday night, after all!
Saturday lunch was a warm white bean and shrimp salad. Is there any more symbiotic relationship than parsley and garlic? This was served with a Tavel rose that worked perfectly with the bright flavors of the salad. I’ll post photos later, right now, I’m working off a really s l o w dialup connection, but I can post when we get back to the city.
Saturday dinner was a TV dinner. That means the temperature dropped, it started to rain, so we had to eat inside. So dinner was served while we watched Sling Blade. Remember, that old Billy Bob Thorton film? It had some serious story flaws, but overall it has held up and is still interesting to watch. We had grilled quail for dinner. The quail had spent the afternoon relaxing in a ginger, garlic, and lemongrass bath. So they were simply grilled and served on a bed of rice, along with some white asparagus, and a terrific watercress salad. The watercress was a type I had never seen before: very thin stalks with oversized leaves. It was firm, crunchy and very peppery. I tossed it with some sliced red onions, micro-planed some orange zest on top, and made a simple vinegarette with EVOO and orange juice. The oranges are very, very, very tart.
Sunday morning I made my favorite Sunday brunch breakfast. It has a number of names: salade du pays, survival salad, but it’s a frisee and lardon salad. I’m able to get some nitrate free, applewood smoked bacon in a slab. That gets sliced up into cubes and cooked, frisee salad gets a very light simple vinegarette. This all gets tossed, 2 poached eggs on top, a little toast and you have the perfect meal. We had some fresh squeezed orange juice (need to find some sweeter oranges to mix in with these babies!), and grapefruit juice. Coffee is illy brand coffee, made in the mokka with the foam coming from the chuga-chuga. I honestly don’t know what its real name is, we bought it in Italy, and I just made the motion and chuga-chuga sound to the man at the store, and he instantly produced exactly what I wanted. Anyway, the chuga-chuga is a metal cylinder, heavy bottomed container that you heat the milk up with, the top has a plunger with a mesh screen attached. When the milk is warm, you pump the plunger a few times, and voila! You have perfect foam for the cappuccino. Low tech perfection.
Here you can see my dear old Caloric stove. The clock has worked in years, but the burner space is large, the oven is large, its truly an old reliable friend.
We have a bunch of people coming for dinner, its Sunday Soprano Supper. Something that has become sort of a tradition, we eat dinner and watch the Sopranos. Of course, we start with the Simpsons, because you just have to love the Simpsons. And for the Sopranos, you need a bunch of people around to keep you up to date on the plot. I need to go and get some groceries, so we’ll be back…!
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Hello Ms. Victoria, Keifel and Boychick! Happy Mothers Day to you, and hope all is well at Doris's. Look forward to hearing what Doris is cooking. Hope you are not having computer headaches!!! Ciao!
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My sister tells a great story about when she had a young slave working for her in a resort kitchen. He was making a large cake for some VIP, and thought that if you threw the whole eggs into the mix, with their shells, and then really turned up the mixmaster that the shells would just pulverize into nothingness. After the VIP tasted the cake, my sister contemplated pulverizing the young slave.
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Hello mommydearest!! You sound a lot like my mom!
Happy Mothers day to you!
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Do you see the ad at the top of the page for Banana Nut Bread Wash??
I haven't made banana nut bread in years...now I'm hungry for it!
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Does anyone remember the story about Craig Claiborne and Jacques Lepin (I think)...and an obscenely priced meal that they had? It started some sort of uproar about how could they possibly justify spending that much on a meal.
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We break out the Lillet when the weather gets warm, I've always been a rocks and maybe slice of orange girl, but the strawberry/mint drinks sounds wonderful, as does the rose/lillet kir.
Quick anecdote: I was in Paris alone, dining at restaurant on the Place des Vosges, and asked for a Lillet as an aperitif. The waiter seemed very puzzled, then asked how I would like it, so in my best French, I asked for it on ice. By now, I'm as puzzled as the waiter. Then he brings me a large glass of milk, on ice, as is "lait"...we both had a good laugh, but he had honestly never heard of Lillet!
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Add another dead freezer to the list - my weapon of choice was a hammer and a screwdriver........
Geez, that is a LOT of dead freezers.... does freon have anything to do with the ozone layer???
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I've also spent a lot of time in the Far East, and was always very polite, and ate whatever was put in front of me. Duck tongues, jelly fish, snake 3 ways...whatever, thanks god I never had to down a scorpion! I'm not sure I could have pulled that off.
But I wished I had known the Mongo Jones 3-step 'get out of this' program when I had to eat birds nest soup with coconut milk. The vilest taste and texture I have EVER put in my mouth. Think slimy, warm milk of magnesia. mmmm....
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I have some very old cast iron pans, that I use all the time. Embrace the appearance of the outside of the pan, it just means it's been loved and used.
Oh course...there are always other opinions on the subject.
And, welcome eGullet!
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Your wish:
Leftovers are a fact of life at our house. That's usually what's for lunch. Which reminds me that I have a great deal of leftover baked beans from an experiment last week that need to be addressed. (Insert "Dear Baked Beans" corny joke here.)
You are very quick, Ms. V!!
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Leftovers with flair should be a thread onto itself. I have a thing about leftovers...I just don't like them, unless I can turn them into something completely different. My family loves leftovers...its just me. Oh well.
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Just to let you know...I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures! (and I love your name, Mr. Evilcartman!!)
thanks for the compliment, but it's actually Ms. Evilcartman. I'm a huge fan of South Park and have been told that i do a spot on impersonation of little Eric Cartman. My boyfriend has my digital cam as soon as he brings it back i'll post a pic of my spoon hook. I have one left...most of them were given as christmas presents.
Sorry Ms. Evilcartman. Please, do not kick my butt!!
(I have a Kenny hat that I wear all the time!
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I absolutely think its a classic! I also love quiche. So there!
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I just went to your website...very nice!! Not to mention that I think deviled eggs are divine... wonder what the cliche/classic thread would have to say about deviled eggs! Embrace a cliche
Blood, or meat juice?
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
After reading thru this thread, I'm more confused. It seems as if the blood is drained from beef regardless of kosher processing or not, and what exactly is myoglobin, as I can't find it in my dictionary, then that would make the stuff that runs out of beef, just plain juice, right? I hope so, as it certainly tastes good. I'm with the 'might recover crew'!