suzilightning

a friend of ours recently clued us into this place: http://www.claudesrestaurant.com/ haven't eaten there yet but am looking forward to it in the spring. she said the food was absolutely wonderful.

Lafayette opened today with most of the usual venders - Pittingers for meat, Windy Brow and DanaRay, as well as an organic farm from Branchville and some alpacas. it was fun to see old friends got some peaches for a bourbon peach cobbler a kielbasa and an aged strip steak from pittingers italian bread, english peas, a small cauliflower, wax beans, greenhouse tomatoes, some yellow squash and fresh raspberries. the italian bread along with smoked salmon and tapenade will be a snack for johnnybird, the english peas will go into a cold noodle salad with grated carrot and sesame oil. i'm thinking about a vegetable curry with the cauliflower, some of the beans, one of the tomatoes and the squash. will definitely blanch some of the beans and freeze in two person serving bundles. There is another market on Saturdays at the fairgrounds in Augusta but, until this week, I worked until 3. summer hours kick in next week and i hope to get uo this one as well.

they are a specialty of the area around Syracuse where, supposedly, the workers would put some small potatoes in the pans concentrating the salt and pull them out for their lunch - this is where Morton's salt comes from. they are really, really good

and as of this week: Closed for renovation

so far the following books have been claimed: Barefoot Contessa Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud

so once more some books that came into the library that weren't added to the collection and i have harvested the recipes i want so.... if anything strikes your fancy pm me and all will be answered in order of receipt Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics - Garten, Ina The Before and...After - NPCA national Precast Concrete Association California Heritage Continues - Junior League of Pasadena Chinese Cooking Class Bookbook - the editors of Consumer Guide Cooking: A Cook's Dictionary - Beard, Henry and Roy McKie Daniel Boulud's Cafe Coulud Cookbook - Boulud, Daniel The German and Viennese Cookbook - Shoprite Our Favorites - The Garden Club of Henderson, KY Papa Rossi's Secrets of Italian Cooking - Bennett, Victor and Antonia Rossi Pol Martin: Easy Cooking for Today - Martin, Pol Pol Martin's Supreme Cuisine - Martin, Pol Portland and Vicinity (PA/NJ) Ambulance Corps Auxiliary Cookbook

pumpkin olive oil bread warmed for 20 seconds in the microwave and spread with a lavendar honey whipped goat cheese

yesterday after a few hours of field work and waiting for johnnybird to get home, tested a recipe for Cooks Illustrated. pork roast that was marinated overnight in a mixture of beer, onions, dijon mustard and honey that was heated then pureed in a blender. reserved the marinade in a saucepan, patted the roast dry then seared in a dutch oven in olive oil. scattered fresh sauerkraut around it, pushed in a few juniper berries and add a dash of the reserved marinade. baked at 375 for 30 minutes, then add a bit more marinade, another 30 minutes and repeat one more time. pass the remaining marinade through a chinois and heat with a beurre marinee. the Cook's Illustrated recipe was for carrots and shallots with thyme and lemon. dead simple and johnnybird really loved it. 1 lb of carrots cut in half then sliced lengthwise into even thickness. microwave on high for 3 minutes with 1 Tbsp water. mix with 1/2 lb shallots sliced in half vertically, 2 Tbsp butter that has been melted and cooled, some pepper and salt and 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves. roast in a 425 oven for 25 minutes, stirring after 15. then some plain jacket potatoes to mix with the gravy

last night: bangers, mash and brown onion gravy. johnnybird was one happy camper

from serious eats: olive oil pumpkin bread http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/10/the-crisper-whisperer-olive-oil-pumpkin-bread.html

day off yesterday so some things for yesterday's dinner and leftovers for while we are at work: coq au vin. one of the best i ever have made - don't know why. ragu bolognese with freshly ground pork and chuck from my butcher. marmalade cake. i will take some of this to my butcher for snack of the day for the crew and my dentist's receptionist. lemon olive oil and rosemary foccacia for johnnybird. when he got home john wanted both the coq au vine and the bolognese so his dinner was a bit of each over the ubiquitious(for him) egg noodles.

i also have just finished this book and took a few recipes from it. also just finished were Judith Jones book and Appetite City by Grimes. the current crop are Death by Pad Thai - i love collections and this is a good one, Will Write for Food - up next, A Thousand Years over a hot Stove and am about halfway through Louisa Edwards second On the Steamy Side. if you like hot, steamy, sex filled romances check out Louisa's writing. all are restaurant/chef related with some recipes at the end.

Hamms...grilled then held in the warmed beer/broth/onions.

ohhh.... my favorite topic. i try to go out to local places for lunch once a week. last week on wednesday i called up my neighbor, Carol, and invited her to go with me for some last minute errands before we got clobbered with snow. i threw lunch into the deal and off we went to Lafayette Village for cheese and lunch. i had teh fun of introducing her to Maria and Everything Homemade. we both had the same thing: chicken pot pie with a crust that was incredibly flaky. menu here: http://www.everythinghomemade.com/lunch_menu.html. then off to the cheese store where i picked up some roquefort, cheddar with carmelized onion and some lambchopper cypress as well as a bottle of Westfall Nebbiolo wine.

cool, catdaddy. years ago Susan in FL and i were trying to come up with some cocktails using the dope. i put together one that blended the dope into the eggnog itself and then rimmed the glass. i also put one together with some ginger liqueur, bourbon and made a simple syrup using the dope.

well, i haven't been posting since it seems i am finally, ALMOST done. i have had cravings but that is in relation to my oral surgery. having been living on extremely soft foods(mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, meatloaf, chicken noodle soup) i crave CRUNCH!! when all my appliances are done i want a salad of iceberg lettuce with blue cheese, bacon and red french dressing and either a piece of fried chicken or fish and chips. carry on young 'uns.

last night was bangers and mash with onion gravy and some zucchini. tonight was a pork roast that had spent 24 hours in a marinade of beer, honey, dijon mustard and onion. removed the roast and browned it then it spent about 1.5 hours in the oven being bathed every 20 minutes or so with the marinade. deglazed the pan with the leftover marinade then thickened it with a beurre mainiere and strained through a chinoise. served with some roasted butternut squash, german potato salad and homemade applesauce. dessert was an orange tea cake.

two words for y'all - juniper berries. johnnybird made a new set of dope over the weekend using freshly grated and dried lemon and orange rind as well as some commercially purchased and crushed up juniper berries. i'm missing about 1/3 of my new jar from penzey's so probably about 20 berries for 1 lb of demerara sugar. he said he took the pit out of the berry then chopped the berries up fine. all i can say is WOW! i've been cooking a bit with the berries since i've been doing a lot with game but this gives a pop to the toast dope.

colds here - the first for john in 3 years, the first in 4 for me. made a pot of chicken noodle soup for our dinner last night. homemade chicken veg stock that i poached chicken tenders in. thin egg noodles cooked in some salted water. carrots and some garlic, ginger and shallots that were minced/grated. lots of hot tea, gatorade and some sweet and sour meatballs in the oven right now. creamy eggs with toast and some elderberry jam for breakfast.

twoshoes you have made my day. they are a western/southwestern chain and the nearest one to us in the frozen state of new jersey is texas. not that i wouldn't like to go back to Hooks and revisit my first marital home - and two bedroom single wide trailer across from Lone Star Army Ammunition plant and down the road from Red River Army Depot and some of the best open pit BBQ in Texarkana.....mmmmmm, brisket.

exactly, judiu. i much prefer the 80/20 fresh ground from Sussex Meat or the 75/25 special mix from Pittingers if i am doing a burger.

tracey, unless i buy the frozen meat from Pittingers at Lafayette Farmers market in the summer(only way he can supply) i've been buying the fresh ground at Sussex Meat in Wharton. it is truly one of the best tasting meats i've had in ages...unless i can get buffalo but that's no good for a cheeseburger.

maybe when i am post recovery we should see if we can have a group dinner at alices?

Bickford is a bit off the beaten track. you could do Harold's in Morris Plains or one of the places just off the Green in Morristown or go the other way into Madison. you could also revisit high school days as the turn to go to Morris Museum off of old 24 has one of the last Friendly's in the state. have a Fribble for old times sake. (actually of all the chain restaurants i think Friendly's is one of the better ones especially for fish).

a bit of cooking but not much for me - major oral surgery. thursday - leftovers for john and an inspiration for me for some of my first solid food. pork snitzel and egg noodles for johnnybird and some stewed tomatoes with honey cooked until almost a paste for me. got the craving while reading the book What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison. Along with Judith Jones' memoir and her newest book Cooking for One a great read. yesterday - bangers with mash and brown gravy for john, soft scrambled eggs and mash with gravy for me. today - got out and resupplied myself with apples to make applesauce. for john's breakfast the first pancakes came out super thin - more crepe like than pancake like so i rolled it with some of the applesauce, added a few blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. he loved them. more leftovers for him for dinner and a pureed veg soup for me. thinking about actually buying some ramekins so i can make individual cheese souffles or flans. haven't done those since the restaurant days.