Jim Dixon

Here's my mother's recipe: Nan's Pie Crust makes 2 double or 4 single crusts 3 c flour 1.5 c shortening (she told me she's been using 1 c crisco and .5 c butter) 1 T salt mix flour and salt (sifting optional), cut in fat until you get that small crumb consistency (or do it in processor) in a separate bowl beat together 1/3 c water 1 egg 1 T vinegar (plain white) add to flour mix, blend well, and chill let sit out about 15 minutes before rolling out. Mom says if the dough starts to break up while you're rolling, just ball it back up and start over. Jim

I just saw an ad for a kyocera slicer...mandoline-like, but with fixed cutting blade...looks like they make a julienne cutter, too. Just to stay on topic.... John, Do you have a single knife that you keep coming back to, even after using something new? thanks Jim

I never make pie crust because my mother lives three doors down. She loves to bake, so we eat a lot of pie, and her crust is, to me, the perfect balance of tender and flaky. I don't have her recipe, but I know she uses all-puropose flour, crisco, butter (50-50...I'm trying to get her to switch to lard, but she just says, "so you make the damn pie"), water, vinegar, and an egg. Mom claims this is foolproof crust and can be made by hand or in the processor without any noticeable difference. Jim

Make a paste of herbs, salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil and force it under the skin (the breast is easy, but I usually make a small slit to get it under the back...Judith loves the backs). Rub some on the outside, too. Use a lot, more than you think you need. Jim ps...brine chicken first, too...

I actually had this, altho' they called it salsa di noci....is it just pine nuts with heavy cream? Jim

franceso, The place we liked in Rapallo was the trattoria Genovese. It's on a side street just east of the main drag that comes down from the freeway, and closer to the north end of that street. Several people had recommended another spot closer to the old part of town, but it was closed for renovation. We had asked a woman sitting on her scooter about a good place...she looked at the two men she was talking with and they all spontaneously said "genovese." We found it full of what looked like business people eating lunch, and while we were waiting for a seat the same woman stopped by on her scooter and stuck her head inside the door to make sure we made it. We had picked Rapallo because it was about halfway between Chianni (in western Tuscany) and Milano. We arrived mid-day and stayed most of the second day before driving north. Judith had been searching for a pair of red boots (I think I saw the inside of every shoe store between Campania and Liguria), but it wasn't until our very last day in Italy that she found them in Rapallo. I was happy because I found a shop (tiny little cheese shop near the harbor) that could vacuum pack some grana, so I carried several kilos home. Jim

We spent a day and half in Rapallo (east of Genova) on our way up to Milan in October 02. Very nice little town, with a promenade along the bay. Ate well at a small trattoria we found by asking locals, and liked it so much we went back the next day (need to locate notes for name). Salsa di noce, heavy cream with finelt ground walnuts, is a local specialty and good on the stuffed pastas. Jim

and they're carrying 40-pound bags of pepperoni sticks. Jim

We have the very best yogurt containers here in the Pacific Northwest...Nancy's, from Springfield Creamery (just outside of Eugene, Oregon). Beside being made from a durable plastic and having a good, tight-fitting lid, these come with little drawing of a bucolic farm scene that might have been drawn by a flower child in the late '60s. They also are linked to Ken Kesey, whose cows contributed milk and who, along with Ken Babbs, helped get the creamery going. We use both 1 and 2 qt sizes mostly. We call the containers "hippy tupperware." Jim

trillium, Thanks for the promo (your check is in the mail). I have a longer version on my site. last Friday night Ken started his evening hours. I had a nice plate of sausage and lentils, charcuterie, and the flight of butters (as Ken said, "The bread is free, but we charge for the butter."). You get a plain butter (Raven's creamery classique, high butterfat...not sure if it's available retail, but comparable to plugra and fresher) and two compounds...ome with toasted filberts (aka hazelnuts) and salt, the other with herbs...very nice and only $2. Jim

I was engaged in active work-avoidance all day yesterday,so had to sit down and crank out a review to meet deadline (and just finished, so now I can spend time here)... Normandy apple cider bread from Ken's (scroll down the page for description) and plugra butter I've been eating this for breakfast on weekdays before I go to work. The bread isn't really sweet, but has a nice hint of apple. I like it beast with cold butter, sliced off the cube and just laid on the bread (we like to call this "the other white meat"). Jim

When I was working for the Forest Service and living in a bunkhouse with a couple of Mexican-Americans, we kept the crokpot going 24/7. It was always pinto beans, though. We'd start one batch at night so we had beans for breakfast and lunch, the other before we went out so we had beans for dinner. One of my favorite memories of those days is Jerry (Gerardo) waxing poetic about pintos with only salt and pepper, including the memorable phrase, "I just love that bean juice." I've been eyeing the more visually acceptable stainless steel units (like pictured in the NYT), but I know that Judith can pick one up of the old school models at a garage sale for a dollar or two. The cooking technique is basically the same thing I do now in the oven, and I'm betting the crockpot, er, slow cooker is more energy efficient. Jim

A few folks expressed their dislike for lentils over on the mystery basket thread, and mamster asked for "lentils that rock." I think these do, but they require the right ingredients. You must use either the small Italian lentils (often from Castellucio, but grown in other high elevation spots...esperya sells some) or the green lentils sold as French, du Puy, or sometimes "baby." These lentils don't mush up after cooking, so you get a much better texture. The other key ingredient is good olive oil. It has to have a strong flavor, and the more "peppery" flavor the better ("peppery" is a euphemism for bitter, which comes from the polyphenols in the oil...it's that slight burn, albeit pleasant, at the back of the throat). Enough already... lenticchie al Mauro I like to eat these as is, but they also rock if you serve them with sausage (cotechino especially). Sometimes I'll take the already cooked lentils, add a bit of tomato paste, and finish cooking some browned sausages in the lentils. You get a lot of tasty sausage juice (okay, fat). You can also just cook the lentils in water, drain when tender, and make a great salad by tossing with cubed roasted beets (preferably chioggia or golden), splash of vinegar, and good olive oil (Navarre makes this with walnut oil and it is incredible). Jim

Amanda, What do you tell aspiring food writers who want to do what you do? I fell into writing about food. I liked to eat, knew how to cook, and could hammer out complete sentences and meet deadlines (most of the time). I knew an editor who needed copy. I always feel at a loss when I get asked how to become a food writer. I usually tell the questioner to read, eat, and cook. But it sounds kind of lame. Jim

At Paley's Place here in Portland the cheeks were stuffed into cabbage leaves and served alongside braised oxtail...the chef's notion was to pair the stringy fish (the big cheeks are like scallops in texture) with the stringy meat. it was very good... Jim

Matthew, Nice story... Trader Joe's usually has relatively inexpensive sherry vinegar. I make peperonata even simpler...just sweat the onions and peppers in olive oil, finish with some of the good oil. In Tuscany they like to add potatoes, so I'll cube some Yukon golds and add them sometimes. Last week I was in celery root mode so made it with both potato and cubes of celery root. Very good, but not sure if it still qualifies as peperonata. Jim (the spoiler)

There were quite a few things I didn't like when I was a kid, including: fish (except smoked salmon and fried trout, both of which we caught a lot of), onions, mushrooms (they were all canned then, but I had texture issues), and other stuff. I became an omnivore at the end of my junior year in high school. Instead of a prom, our class decided to send 50 randomly chosen juniors to Outward Bound (this was the early '70s in Eugene, Oregon, a hotbed of radical thought). My name came out of the hat and I spent the last 3 weeks of the school year hiking through the snow around the Three Sisters. It was cold and wet, but since I'd been a boy scout the camping and hiking were fine. But we got really hungry. We ate mostly freese-dried backpacking food (early Mt House cuisine) and would argue over who to drink the juice from the cans of Vienna sausage or the grease from the sardine tin. In the cold you crave fats, and everything was drenched in margarine. When I got home I would eat pretty much anything. Jim

I'm not really sure how I started this topic when I meant to post in Matthew's original....anyway, I'm reposting this there. Jim

At home we usually eat around 6 or 6:30. I like to eat earlier not so much to avoid going to bed full but so I can have enough time to eat some kind of dessert around 8 or 9 and then maybe a little cheese and fruit before bed (preferably with some port). Or the other way around. When we're in Italy eating dinner out is always a problem, more for Judith than me since she gets really hungry by 6 or so. Most restaurants don't open until 8 pm, and many times we've been the only people eating then. We learned a better strategy for eating out is to eat a big afternoon meal when everything closes at 1 (most restaurants stay open). Then we'd eat a smaller dinner back at home (we usually rent a house). I prefer to eat lunch a little early, too. If I've brought it from home I eat at my desk around 11 so I can get to the gym before the noon rush...if I'm eating out (and not working out), I like to get in ahead of the lunch rush (or even the line at the food cart...I hate waiting in line for food). I'll often bring some fruit and cheese for an afternoon snack, too. Jim hmmmm...sounds like I eat all the time...not too far from the truth

I had a smallish boned and rolled shoulder roast in the freezer, so that's what I used...the recipe, from Gastronomy of Italy, calls for loin, though. Jim

It's also considered an essential ingredient for arriabata. D'oh, I mean amatriciana. Jim edited for being too quick to type whatever started with 'a'

pork braised in milk...rubbed with cinnamon, clove, garlic, rosemary, salt, cooked stovetop for about 2 hours, served with braising juice gratin of potato, celery root, and cardoon salad Jim

Here's my entry. I deviated from the list a couple of times but tried to stay close. I used a few pantry items (eggs, flour, olive oil, butter, white wine) and aromatic vegetables (onion, garlic, carrot, celery). I cooked these over the course of a few days,and while they could be combined together in a single meal, I'm not sure that a couple of things wouldn't clash a bit, or at least seem out of character with another dish. But it all tasted pretty good, not bad since I had never cooked any of thses dishes before. squash and potato fritters I first saw Alton Garcia, formerly of Genoa and now at Navarre, make something similar with cooked pumpkin at a Farmers Mkt demo this year, and they serve them at Navarre. Since I already had delicata squash, that’s what I used. Combine about 1 cup each cooked squash and potato (I microwaved the squash and scooped out flesh, steamed the spud, then peeled and coarsely mashed it) with an egg, 1 t salt, and about 1 T flour. Mix well, then drop small spoonfuls into 1-inch deep hot olive oil (use 2 teaspoons to shape each fritter as you drop it into the oil). Fry until brown, drain, sprinkle with good salt and eat right away. lentils and potatoes stewed with bacon Cut a couple of slices of thick bacon into half-inch pieces and cook until starting to crisp up. Add 1 cup lentils (the small green French lentils are, I think, now grown in Eastern Washington), 3 cups water, and 1-2 potatoes, peeled and cubed. Bring to boil, cover, and simmer about 20 minutes or until lentils are done. Drizzle with generous amount of good olive oil at the table. Napa cabbage stuffed with chicken Poach two chicken thighs (I used skinless, boned thighs) in water to cover until cooked, about 25 minutes. Remove meat and reduce stock to about 1 cup, reserve. Remove about 10 outer leaves from cabbage. Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook whole cabbage leaves until soft and pliable, about 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Saute about 1 T each finely diced onion, carrot, and celery in 1 T butter for a couple of minutes, add about 1 1/2 cups finely chopped mushrooms. Shred the chicken and add, along with any chicken fat you can skim from the reserved stock (easiest to cook the chicken early, cool the stock in the reefer). Starting at the top end of the cabbage leaf (Napa cabbage has a wide central stalk with softer, frilly edges at the top), roll a walnut-sized scoop of the chicken-mushroom mix in the leaf, folding the softer edges inward as you roll down toward the base (like rolling a burrito). Arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves in a lightly oiled casserole, pour the remaining chicken stock over them, and bake, covered, at 350 until the edges of the cabbage browns slightly. nut-crusted tuna with pepper-lemon butter sauce I had a bag of roasted peppers, a jalapeno hybrid that tastes more like an Italian frying pepper, in the freezer. I also had some filberts (aka hazelnuts), so I deviated from the list more for this dish. With real jalapenos the sauce would be much hotter. Combine 2 roasted, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped jalapenos with 1 clove chopped garlic and saute in mixture of butter and olive oil (about 1 T each) until garlic is translucent. Add 1/4 cup white wine, 2 T lemon juice, pinch of salt, and zest from small lemon (or lime... I used a Meyer lemon). Cook until the liquids are reduced by half, let cool, and puree (I used a stick blender). Return to heat briefly, and when hot remove and swirl in 2-3 T butter. Lightly coat each side of a 1-inch thick tuna filet with a few drops of olive oil, then press chopped filberts into the fish. Sear in hot, dry skillet (cast iron works best) for about 1-2 minutes each side (depending on how rare you like it). Serve immediately with sauce. The only thing I really missed was cheese...next time add Parmigiano to the list. Jim

I'd split the no-opener methods into two general categories: 1. Prying use a screwdriver, key (I have broken them, a pain when it's the only car key), knife tip, or almost anything that fits between the bottle and cap and pry the crown away a bit at a time until it pops off. 2. Popping (for lack of a better term...maybe whacking works) rest the edge of the cap (bottle pointing up is safest) on a suitable edge...car bumber, strikeplate of door, edge of table...the main thing is that you want something hard, preferably metal, and at a 90 degree or so angle so it catches the cap. Hold the bottle firmly and sharply strike downward on the cap...it should pop off...I opened a Brooklyn Brewery IPA while waiting for a plane home at La Guardia like this, using the steel base of the seats in the concourse. Jim

The cities themselves never made it into the story, and I'm sure my notes are long gone...but it seemed like there were a couple in Texas and maybe one in the NE somewhere...one persistent claim is that they were first served (in the US) at the St Louis World's Fair in 1904. In my story I wrote that "it was the penchant for ground meat among the poor in Hamburg, Germany, that gave the patties their name." I also made reference to the Tartars, who apparently shredded tough Mongolian beef to make it edible. I've never really been much of a steak eater, and I've also thought a good burger was the highest expression of beef. Jim