tammylc

The sad thing about common meal is that you have to set the menu in advance. Which means that you can't really take advantage of whatever's fresh and looks good that day, for example. Or, like today, you end up having soup on a beautiful warm day. But at least it was really good soup. Lots of good bits in it - noodles, rice cake, baby corn, bok choy, snow peas, pork. Hot and hearty. It felt a little odd to only have soup - no salad, no side dishes - but I managed to eat my fill, so I guess it was okay. Liam ate some of the soup with us - we chopped up the noodles small, took out the hard bits, and fed him a few spoonfuls of it. We gave him some noodles to eat on his own, but he was mostly just playing with it. He did eat a bunch of Veggie Booty (think cheesies, but with spinach and kale instead), 1/2 c of applesauce, some leftover plain yogurt from last night's kids selection, and he crunched on a couple of crackers. Although I think he was mostly just crunching and not eating by that point. Dessert was a nice assortment of cookies, the kinds that adults like. And that's your last common meal with me. Well, unless you go subscribe to the Dinner for 40 thread I started a long while ago to get feedback and help with planning.

Today for lunch I went to the Produce Station. I realized that anyone reading this blog would think that Zingerman's was the only game in town, when in fact, Ann Arbor has a whole ton of excellent foodie shopping. Big Ten Market has a cheese counter every bit as good as Zingerman's, if not better AND they also sell wine. But alas, no time for a visit there this week. I did make it to Produce Station, though. In addition to the great produce selection you'd expect from the sign and name, they also sell lots of specialty foods, and flowers in the spring and summer. The attraction for me today was their excellent salad bar. A salad and a half pint of chicken avgelemono (sp?) soup made a great lunch on this sunny and warm spring day. Okay. One more big post (tonight's common meal), then I'll answer the lingering questions and it'll be time for the next blogger to step to the plate...

I used English cukes because they were cheaper. Tzatziki is very good - love that stuff, haven't made it in a million years. Thanks for the offer on the Crunchies, but I think I'm better off without the temptation! Don't know if you're time in Ann Arbor is full, but let me know if you'd like to get together for a meal (same goes for anyone else making it to this neck of the woods, of course). They told us the menu at the cheese tasting, but I don't remember what they said and can't offer you a sneak peek.

Speaking of costs, I realized that I forgot to include that information in my earlier post. I spent $117 at Arbor Farms, which included $24 for a 3 L container of EVOO that will be charged to pantry costs rather than my meal. Then another $33 or so at Kroger (I've managed to lose the receipt - doh!). My assistant cook spent $24 on two pans of baklava and four packages of pita bread. Total: $150 for 34 adults and 7 kids (3 under age 6). About the billing - adults get charged a full share, teens 3/4 share, kids 7 and over are half price, and kids 6 and under eat free. Doing the math... 34x + 4x = $150+12%(pantry fee)... or $4.73 per adult and $2.37 per child. Right on target.

I bought a 32 oz container for about $6.50. And that wasn't even at a Middle Eastern market (where I'd expect it to be cheaper), just my local natural foods grocery store.

I'm sorry about that Tammy. It looks pretty good from over here - I would have been happy to sit at your table! ← I think a big part of the problem is that I just ended up not particularly being in the mood to eat what I cooked. Especially after tasting it all afternoon getting the flavors right!

<pout> Sure is lonely around here. </pout> Some random eating over the past week that I never got around to writing about: I promised you that I'd eat something different for breakfast on Sunday, and I did. I intended it to be bacon and eggs, but Eric wasn't up by the time I was hungry. So instead, I sliced the leftover baguette from Saturday's picnic in half, covered one half with 2 yr Remeker, and toasted it in my toaster oven. Later in the day I covered the other half with thinly sliced crespone and cheddar cheese, and toasted that too. Doesn't that look yummy? Funny "raising a baby gourmet" story here - when I was slicing up the baguette for myself, Liam was in his high chair on the other side of the counter and complained *vociferously* at me until I gave him a piece to gnaw on. Since I didn't get any pictures of my picnic, here's a picture of Liam playing with the picnic basket the next morning. And here's one of him and the fork he's adopted as a security blanket. He won't put the darn thing down! (Picture taken after he'd rejected the veggie lentil puree for lunch and I let him feed himself grapes, cheese and toast instead.) Someone earlier mentioned my well fed foodblog kitties. Random and Dara are not as well fed as they'd like, and in the picture in question they were stalking their food bowl a good hour before it was due to be filled. Dara (the black one) did get a special (unintended) treat on Friday. I'd prepped my mise en place for making the risotto, and when I was off attending to Liam, she managed to sneak onto the counter and eat an entire bowl of microplaned parmesan cheese. Which she promptly threw up under the dining room table. Over the course of the week I managed to eat all 3 of the Crunchie bars I had left from my visit to Canada. Most at embarrasing times of the day, like 9 am. Crunchie bars, for those who are unfamiliar, are sponge toffee covered in milk chocolate. I always bring some back with me when I get to Canada to visit (and can occasionally find them in the British import sections of local stores). Yesterday's trip to Arbor Farms for common meal shopping saw me get one of my common indulgences - a package of Newman's Peanut Butter Cups in dark chocolate (yes, I have a chocolate problem). And a pear Izze. Since I've been at work today I've been unable to avoid the snack vortex, and have munched on 3 mini "Midnight" Milky Ways (covered in dark chocolate) and a mini Twix. As well as a bowl of Kettle Chips Crinkle Cut Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper potato chips. If you haven't had them, I only have this to say - BEST POTATO CHIPS EVER! Ahem. All that snacking got me through until 1 pm, when I went to Produce Station for lunch, but I'll write about that later when I can post the pictures. Anybody still reading?

So last night was my big common meal cooking night. Unfortunately, it was only okay. At least one person missed the falafels from last time (you were right, Rachel). It wasn't bad, just not very exciting for the work required. I ended up taking 8 late signups, so ended up with something like 34 adults and 7 kids. I followed the shopping list up above pretty closely, so I won't go over that again. The menu, to review: I headed into the kitchen around 3 and put the bulgar on to cook, then pierced the skin of the eggplants and through them into the oven to roast. When the bulgar was soft I spread it out on a sheet pan and put it into the fridge to cool. Then I proceeded to hack up the lamb I'd found. Ideally I'd have liked a nice simple boneless loin to work with, but I didn't have time to run all over town to get one. So I just grabbed a 5 1/2 lb leg piece from Kroger and cut the meat off the bone. Trimming it took quite a while, and I'm sure I didn't do the most professional job of it... I made a marinade of garlic, olive oil and oregano and set it aside to soak. I set Keith, one my assistant cooks, to juicing up the 20 lemons I'd bought. They were nice juicy lemons, so we ended up with about 8 cups of juice - more than we needed, but it's nice to have extra. Meanwhile, I tasked Hope with cutting up all of the veggies for the tabouli - parsley, green onions, tomatoes, cucumber. Unfortunately, she cut the parsley a little to course for my preferences, but I didn't realize it until we were mixing it all together and it was too late. Here's the tabouli all plated up and heading out to the tables. I worked on the hummus, giving frequent tastes to Keith and Hope until we got the right balance of flavors, then put it in the fridge and moved on to the next thing. We garnished it with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled it with a little paprika and parsley. Hope scooped out the eggplants and mixed up the baba ganoush. I don't particularly like eggplant, so I wouldn't have been the right person to judge the correct balance of flavors. Speaking of that, we used the cookbook Moosewood Cooks for a Crowd as the starting point for the hummus, baba ganoush and tabouli, mostly to get a sense of proportions, but mostly did it all by taste. Here's Hope's finished product (and some random cooking detritus in the background). We chopped up a whole mess of cucumbers and mixed them with full fat yogurt, salt, cumin, garlic and a bit of lemon juice. This is one of my favorite Middle Eastern side dishes. Keith finished skewering the lamb and went off to set the dining room tables while Hope was finishing the baba ganoush. I waited to cook the skewers until just about 15 minutes before service, so they'd still be hot. They'd have been quite nice on the grill, but firing one up would have been too much work, and they turned out great with just a couple of minutes per side under a hot broiler. There was only one skewer per meat eater (I was approaching the meat as a condiment, not as the center of the meal), so rather than putting a few on each table, I piled them all up on one plate and left them on the counter for the meat eaters to collect. I've done similar things with a special vegetarian item, when it doesn't make sense to spread it out. But I wish I'd made more - they were my favorite part of the meal - juicy, tender, nicely medium rare. Mmmm. I'd do these again, with some different side dishes, but go to a butcher who could cut them up for me. We put out some halved pita bread and bowls of crumbled feta cheese, and we were done. It was never frenzied, but we did have to work steadily to get everything done on time. The nice thing about this meal is that because so much of it was served cold or at room temperature, there was no rush to get everything out to the tables at the last minute. The kids had their choice of the adult foods, as well as some plain yogurt, shredded cheese, and baby carrots. Dessert was store bought baklava, and it was nummy. Liam ate a little bit of the hummus, but this wasn't a particularly Liam-friendly meal, so his dad brought food from home. He actually ate some plain squash, which he's been rejecting for a while now, and went to town on the cottage cheese. He has, however, decided that Veggie Lentil Puree is poison. Which is unfortunate given the big batch of it I cooked up for him earlier this week. Guess I might just be adding cumin, salt and lemon juice and eating it myself. Thanks everyone for your advice and helping me plan the meal. I've still got a few more posts planned for today, so I'll be back in a little while. But right now I need to get some work done.

We don't schedule a common meal for Thanksgiving or Christmas. One of our neighbors has hosted a potluck Thanksgiving dinner in their home for the last two years, and Eric and I hosted a potluck Christmas at our house this year. Both events had about 16 people in attendance, a combination of community members and friends.

Time for another shopping list. With all the excitement of the week, I bet you all forgot that I'm cooking common meal tonight, right? Usually I start planning a couple/few days in advance, but not this time - I haven't had a moment to spare until this morning. I have 17 meat eaters, 10 vegetarians and 5 kids signed up for dinner tonight. I created 6 late sign up slots, so I could potentially have as many as 33 adults. Which, at $5/head, gives me a budget of $165 or so. Could be tight - we'll see how it goes. Here's my shopping list: 2 lbs dried bulgar wheat 4 tsp dried mint 4 bunches of parsley 2 bunches green onion 12 cucumbers 4 tomatoes 8 cans of chick peas (I could save a lot of money by using dried, but it's too late now) 4 c of tahini 8 lbs eggplant 3 lg containers yogurt 4 1/2 lbs lamb or beef for kabobs 1 pkg fresh oregano 4 heads of garlic a bunch of olive oil enough lemons to make 5 cups of lemon juice some feta cheese (how much will depend on how my budgets coming together) 8 packages of pita bread 2 trays of baklava Okay - time to go shopping.

Nope - I was just away from the Internet yesterday, having culinary adventures to tell you all about. Nice to know I was missed, though.

It's gonna be a busy, busy day - hard to fit in the blogging, but I'll do my best. Cause there's still a lot to talk about. This turned out to be a really good week for me to blog, because yesterday I went to visit a foodie friend and we had some fine culinary adventures, starting with an (indoor) picnic lunch assembled from Zingerman's and ending with a four course dinner with wine at Emily's in Northville. So that's what's coming up, assuming I manage to write about it. There aren't any pictures - I forgot my camera and besides that, I don't personally feel comfortable taking pictures in high end restaurants. While I went off for mom's day out, Liam and his dad spent the day getting some great guy-to-guy bonding time. After the tasting on Thursday, I used my 20% off coupon to buy some picnic fixings. I got a round of the Creamery's Manchester cheese I wrote about in my tasting notes, a wedge of 2 year Remeker, a crespone salami, and 4 assorted chocolate truffles (rosemary, lemongrass, cardamom and lavender/rose, if memory serves). Yesterday morning I stopped at Arbor Farms and grabbed a baguette, some grapes, and 4 tiny satsuma tangerines. It made a perfectly lovely lunch to snack on while catching up with an old friend. A few hours later we headed out ot Northville for dinner. We went out early, thinking we'd wonder around, maybe visit some shops. But all the little stuff shops on the main street were closed, even though it wasn't even 6 yet. So instead we drove around Northville looking at the lovely, lovely old houses. Lots of gingerbread and great colors. I love houses with odd colored doors - purple, blue, green. Emily's has been around for just over 10 years. It's been on my "to-eat" list for a while, and it lived up to expectations. One of Detroit's highest rated restaurants since it opened, chef/owner Rick Halberg recently brought on a new chef de cuisine, Gabriel Lacouture, formerly of Tribute. We showed up for dinner a little early and were seated right away. Saturday nights Emily's offers a three course dinner with several choices for each course, price based on the entree you choose (and any supplemental pricing from the other courses). We started with an amuse bouche of venison carpaccio, topped with a ceasar-kind of salad of romaine with parmesan and little croutons. I swear our server told us it had a cider vinaigrette, but later the table next to us was told lemon vinaigrette, which was more in keeping with what we tasted. It was a fine amuse. Not as much flavor from the venison as I would have liked, though. As is our usual practice when eating out, we'd order two different items for each course, eat half, and then switch plates. So our first courses were: Smoked sturgeon - Smoked sturgeon on corn and fingerling potato salad with sorrel puree, whole grain mustard-creme fraiche, micro celery and American sturgeon caviar and Mushroom Tart - Sauteed wild mushrooms in a flaky pastry shell with shaved Gruyere and Porcini ceam, micro watercress and fried parsnip These were both very good. I'm not sure that I'd ever had sorrel before, but as soon as I tasted the sturgeon dish I thought "oh, and that must be the sorrel." The texture and flavor of the smoked sturgeon was very nice, and the accompaniments all blended really well together. Very pretty plating, too. I could have used just a smidge more caviar though. The mushroom tart smelled fabulous, and tasted just as good. Next up, the salad course: Emily's Greens - Mixed organic greens, Ricotta Salata, dried cherries, crisp shallots and carmalized shallot vinaigrette and Arugula - Arugula, endive, fresh pear and lemon vinaigrette on a bed of golden bett Carpaccio with Roquefort and spiced walnuts The Emily's Greens was clearly superior. All of the flavors just sung together, and the crisp shallots were absolutely delightful. It being Michigan, you know there are going to be dried cherries in the house salad, but they played nicely and weren't just a cliche in this one. I really wanted to like the arugula salad more, seeing as how I love arugula. And actually, until it was my turn to taste the Emily's Greens, I thought it was pretty good. But the comparison showed it to be a disparate collection of flavors, lacking the harmony that was so nice in the other. For our mains, we chose: Duck - Sauteed Culver Farm breast and brik roll of confit, scallions and carrots on a bed for mixed greens with pear and Roquefort, a lentil and bacon vinaigrette, and fresh herbs. and Kurobuta Pork Chop - Seared Kurobuta pork chop with haricots vert, baby beets, carrots, spaetzle and mixed mushrooms. Served with roasted garlic-mustard game reduction According to our server, Kurobuta is to pork what Kobe or Waygu is to beef. It only takes three words to describe my reaction to this dish - OH MY GOD. I've never had pork so good. It was still a little pink in the middle, as it should be, and certainly the tenderest, juiciest and most flavorful piece of pork I've ever had the (intense) pleasure of eating. The sauce was stunning, enhancing and amplifying the pork. I knew this was going to be good just from the fabulous aromas wafting off the dish as it was set in front of me. It took a strong will to pass this one over at the halfway point. The duck was doomed to be disappointing in comparison. It was a perfectly serviceable dish. The brik roll of confit was really rich and decadent, the breast nicely rare with a good bit of crisp skin on each slice. The accompaniments were fine, although too reminiscent of the earlier arugula salad. I don't know if my impression would be better if I'd had this first, though. We washed all of this lovely food down with a bottle of Burgundy (Chambolle-Musigny, Drouhin 1996). We were disappointed that the restaurant did not have any actual Burgundy glasses, especially given that they've got a bottle of Romanee-Conti on the menu. If I was paying $350 for that wine, I'd want the right glass. Our wine was less expensive than that, and a lovely accompaniment to our food choices. Smooth, lucious, fruity, I drank a little more than I should have and was quite giggly by the end of the meal. We were pretty full by the time the dessert menu was presented, so we opted to split the Dessert Degustation. This was three little sampler portions of dessert (although only one of them was on the menu in full size). These were pretty disappointing and not very interesting. The frozen yogurt souffle with raspberries and vanilla sauce was eh, the trifle of vanilla sponge cake with lemon curd, whipped cream, cape gooseberries, pineapple, kiwi and raspberries was unremarkable (although the lemon curd was tasty) and the Chocolate Marquis with Banana Ice Cream and Creme Anglais was the best of the lot, with the most intensely banana ice cream I've ever tasted. In retrospect, I think we would have been happier splitting the Chocolate Truffle Cake - A chocolate-blood orange truffle cake with blood orange caramel and house made pistachio gelato. Doesn't that sound good? Alas, I was too full at the end to tell her to bring one out. All in all a really nice meal. Service was relaxed and friendly - overly formal service just doesn't fly in Detroit, and we're relaxed and friendly types anyway (*especially* by the end of that bottle of wine...) I love my baby boy, but it was really nice to have a day away and to talk about stuff other than babies, you know? And speaking of my baby boy, he even let me sleep in for an extra half hour today. Given that I didn't get home until midnight (about 2-3 hours after my usual bedtime) that was really mighty nice of him. Not to mention that he's been plyaing happily by himself in the kitchen while I wrote this tome.

I'm pleased to say that I was successful in invoking the power of cohousing for dinner last night. Within minutes of my post to the email list looking for stock, one person responded telling me about some leftovers in the common house refrigerator. A little while later I got a reply from someone offering chicken, veggie or mushroom varieties. A couple of emails later, followed by a knock on my door, and I had a carton of organic free range chicken stock and a date for dinner! Tammy's Impromptu Bacon, Leek and Babyfood Risotto 3 slices Nueske's applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1/4 inch strips 1 leek, thinly sliced 1/2 onion, finely diced 1 1/4 c arborio rice 3 tbsp vermouth 4 c of stock, simmering 12 cubes of pureed roasted butternut squash (about 1-1/2 cups for those of you without a baby in the house) 2 tbsp butter 1/2 c grated parmesan handful of chopped parsley I sauteed the bacon until it was a little bit crispy and the fat was rendered, then added the leek and the onion and sauteed them until they were soft. Added the rice and toasted it for a couple of minutes. Since I didn't have any leftover wine in the fridge and didn't want to open a bottle from the basement, I substituted a splash of dry vermouth. Then I added the simmering stock in ladleful increments, stirring until absorbed between each ladle (I assume you all know how to make risotto). Meanwhile, I cooked the squash puree in a nonstick pan over medium heat to drive off moisture and concentrate the flavors. When the rice was finished I added the squash, butter and parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper. It was a lacking a certain something, so I went over to the common house looking for some green onions or fresh herbs, and lucked into some parsley which added the hit of freshness it needed. Of course, actually making the risotto was a bit more of a complicated affair than this describes. Liam was being a little fussy and clingy, and it's hard to cook while holding a baby. When I was doing my chopping for my mise en place I put him in the backpack to keep him out of the way of the knife, but he got tired of that pretty quick. While I was sauteeing the bacon I put him into his highchair to play with some toys and munch on cheerios. And when I was just ladling in stock and stirring, I had him in the sling. It's rare that I try to cook all on my own with the baby, and this experience made me even more grateful for common meals! So with Liam in the sling and a bowl of risotto in hand, I walked down to the other end of the community to join Jeff and Kelly for dinner. They have two kids - one three months younger than Liam and another who is 4 year. The 4 year old had already eaten, and two neighborhood boys (5 year old twins) showed up on his doorstep looking to play just as I arrived, so that kept him nicely occupied. Kelly made a nice salad with greens, avocado and sunflower seeds, and cooked up some very tasty turkey smoked sausage, and with the risotto we called that dinner. It was a bit of a haphazard affair, as dinner with babies often is (their little guy wasn't feeling well and was fussing, so some baby juggling was required). But as Kelly said, it's nice to have dinner with people who understand that! Liam thought the risotto was very tasty (and since he's pretty much given up eating squash on its on, this was a good use of 12 cubes of baby food). He also ate a little bit of avocado, some peaches and some pears. Kelly was just starting to whip up a box of brownies when Liam began yawning and I realized it was past his bedtime, so I brought him home to his bed. And then I had to do the dishes - usually that's Eric's job, on the rare occasions when we cook at home. A lot of work, but I do enjoy cooking, so I'm glad it all worked out. And the risotto was exactly what I'd been craving. No pictures for any of this, so here's a cute shot of Liam that I haven't had a chance to use yet.

Okay... all about Zingerman's. Once up a time (1982) Ari Weinzwig and Paul Saginaw founded Zingerman's Delicatessan. It was a little shop, crammed full of stuff, with a couple of tables in the corner. Fast forward 23 years, and it's become something of a local empire, with several small associate companies making up the Zingerman's Family of Businesses. But it still begins and ends with the deli. Inside, you can order sandwiches. And lots of people do - on summer Saturdays the line stretches out the door and around the corner. And they're good sandwiches, with generous and high quality ingredients. They are also very expensive sandwiches. But that's not all there is to the deli. There's cheese - lots of it. Smoked fish and cured meats, too. Did I mention the olive oil and vinegar? I think you get the gist. It's a veritable cornucopia of the best and the tastiest food from around the world. It's not cheap. You can find some of the same products or their equivalents elsewhere for less money. But it's certainly the only place in my town where you can get it all in one place. And know, when you're buying it, that it's likely been made by a small producer with exacting quality standards, and meets the high bar set by Ari and his crew. The other amazing thing about the deli is its service. Zingerman's is world reknowned for the quality of it's service, and that led to the founding of one of the ZFob's - ZingTrain, which offers training and consulting services and seminars. They've even published a book - the Zingerman's Guide to Good Service. Zingerman's employees will got out of their way to give you a good experience. Like the person at the Roadshow the other day, offering to cut me a piece off of a whole coffee cake because they didn't have any of the scones I wanted. Or the time that a friend and I were building ourselves a picnic from the deli and wanted some D'Artagnan smoked duck breast. But we didn't want an entire breast. "No problem" they said, and sold us just a half of the shrinkwrapped package. The most important thing to know about Zingerman's if you visit (and you really should visit), is that you can sample absolutely everything that they sell. Every wanted to know what real Gold Label Balsalmic Vinegar tastes like? Just ask - they'll be happy to offer you a sample. Looking for the perfect EVOO? Their knowledgeable staff will take you on a guided tasting tour of the shelves until you find just the right one. And of course you can taste as many cheeses as you like before making your final selection. And what would cheese be without bread to go with it? This is where one of my favorite members of the ZFob appears. Zingerman's Bakehouse is where the excellent artisanal loaves that stock the shelves at the deli and other locations around town, as well as various and sundry pastries, are made. It's located in an industrial park not far from where I work, and has an unassuming exterior. As I described early, there's a small retail outlet located there, and the Bakeshop is a great place to pick up a relatively cheap (but extremely tasty) lunch. And don't forget to pick up a loaf of bread or something for later. Recently, they've even started making their own chocolate bars. Ridiculously priced at $4.95 apiece, I still can't help myself from grabbing a ZZang Bar about once a month. Here's a shot of where the real work of the Bakehouse happens. They offer tours, and once a month or so there's the opportunity to sign up for a bread baking class and bring your own loaf home. Zingerman's Creamery, where all last night's delicious cheeses were made, is located right next door to the Bakehouse. They too, offer tours (as annarborfoodie mentioned) and have a small retail outlet. But let's step back to the deli for a moment, shall we? Long gone are the days when two tables stuffed in the corner were enough. So some time ago, they bought and converted the house next door into Zingerman's Next Door. As the sign says, they have desserts, coffee, and seating for the deli. I love sampling the chocolate truffles from a variety of producers. And the Creamery gelatos, of course. Tastings, like the one I attended last night, are held in the upstairs seating area, and they've recently started holding family style dinners there too. In the summer, seating is more than doubled by the patio out back, but it can be hard to find a seat in the winter. At least it *was* - until this year when they covered the patio with a heated tent ("The Big Top") that provides nearly year round comfort. Just about a year ago Zingerman's expanded in a new direction, with the founding of Zingerman's Roadhouse, a full service restaurant serving classic American roadhouse food with Zingerman's famous focus on quality. I was originally unimpressed with the Roadhouse, but have started to come around. I cringe at paying $12 for a hamburger, but it really is a damn good burger. I've had a lot to say about the Roadhouse in the Heartland forum so, for the sake of brevity (ha-ha, says anyone still reading this tome), I'll just point you over there. One thing about the Roadhouse that I am unambiguously pleased about is Zingerman's Roadshow, located in its parking lot. That's right, it's an Airstream trailer doubling as a drive-thru! They have coffee and breakfast pastries, and a variety of lunch foods, as described elsewhere in the blog. It's open Monday through Saturday from 6 am to 2 pm. Theoretically it hits the road on Sundays, but I've never actually seen it move. And of course, it has that same great Zingerman's service. Other members of the FoB include Zingerman's Catering (who catered my picnic and canoe wedding 8 years ago) as well as the newest arrival, Zingerman's Coffee Company, roasting and blending beans for the rest of the FoB. By now you're probably thinking they've put something addictive or compelling in that food. And who knows - you might just be right. Zingerman's is not without its flaws - it's overpriced, and a little full of itself. But its reputation is well earned, and (as is obvious), I'm definitely a fan. And if all of this has made you want to try the Zingerman's experience for yourself, well, you're in luck - they do mail order. Of course. (A really interesting profile of the company can be found online in this Inc. Magazine article entitled "The Coolest Small Company in America.")

So, there's no common meal on Fridays or Saturdays. In addition, my hubbie is out tonight (I had mom's night out last night, he's having a dad's night out tonight), so Liam and I are on our own. What to make for dinner? We cook so rarely that there's not very much food in the house. We'll often try to plan a meal with friends on Friday or Saturday nights, but I'm tired and just want to head to bed early tonight. So I'm attempting a little something we call "invoking the power of cohousing." Here's the email I sent out to the community a few minutes ago: I've got most of the ingredients I need to make the leek and butternut squash risotto I'm craving for dinner tonight, but I don't have any stock. Eric's going to be out for the evening, and Liam is napping - anyone have a can or two of stock they can loan me? You'd be welcome to come for dinner too! Thanks, Tammy So far I've gotten one email tipping me off about some leftover stock in the common house fridge, but no one taking me up on my offer of dinner. I'll let y'all know if anything pans out. We've been able to invoke the power of cohousing for some of the oddest things. Fresh ginger and fresh cilantro at 9 pm at night was notable.

I've been telling everyone about it when I take their pictures. I figured I'd send out a link at the end of the week.

Breakfast today was the usual - by now you should know to expect that. I promise to eat something else for breakfast on Sunday. After Liam woke up from his morning nap we headed over to my friend Sue's for our weekly Friday playdate. Her son Alex is 6 months older than Liam and they've known each other since they were born. Today Sue did the cooking for babies, making "cheesy pasta blend" with pasta shapes, tomato, and lots of carrots. Liam wasn't quite up for the chunkier texture that Alex likes (being older and more sophisticated) so mostly he just ate tofu. Alex opened right up for his mom's home cooking, though. Meanwhile, Sue and I had soups that I'd picked up at Zingerman's Roadshow. It's a drive thru, which is great with a baby, because getting in and out of the car is a pain (pictures of the Roadshow and the rest of the Zing empire coming real soon now, I promise). She had the cream of wild mushroom, while I had the ancho beef chili. This is a lovely, moderately spicy deep dark chili with black beans and big chunks of Niman Ranch beef chuck, cooked until luscious and tender. I also had a garlic bagel and a lemonade. I tried giving Liam some honeydew melon - one of Alex's favorites - but he was not at all impressed. But he absolutely went to town on some red grapes. He's had grapes a couple times before, but this was the first time in any quantity, and he ate them right up. And yes, opening your own mouth wide while feeding a baby does seem to be obligatory (and completely unconscious). About midafternoon Liam started getting cranky, but we had one more errand to run before coming home. So we bid Sue and Alex goodbye and headed to Village Corner (VC). You'd never guess that the best wine store in town is hidden inside this grungy looking corner store in the student ghetto, would you? Great selection, and helpful and knowledgeable staff - as long as you're there during wine staff hours. Go after 5, and you're faced with pierced and tattooed college students selling beer, cigarettes and munchies... VC has a 5 minute parking space out back - a boon in this area of town. Since I knew exactly what I wanted (two bottles of Simonet Blanc de Blanc Brut, the best $7 Alsation sparkling wine you're likely to come across), I parked there and just dashed in. And then home, so Liam could get a nap.

Of the cheeses we tasted, the only one I bought was the Manchester. Which is strange, because I'm usually a huge goat cheese fan. Guess I got my fill last night. I also bought a two year old Dutch Remeker. I'll be taking them (along with some other goodies) as a picnic lunch of sorts when I get together with a foodie friend tomorrow. More on that later, of course. And the tasting sheets are really handy for writing up the experience after, that's for sure!

Zingerman's has spun off a number of businesses in the region over the years, and one of the newest is Zingerman's Creamery, which makes a variety of cheeses that are sold at the deli and elsewhere. Last night's tasting was presented by the managing partner and cheesemaker, John Loomis. Zingerman's runs about one tasting a week. They usually cost $20, and all but one that I've attended have been good. The ones that are run by Zingerman's staff tend to be the best, and the ones where they bring in an outside producer or distributor can either be really good, or really, really bad. I wrote about the recent bacon tasting here. Last night's tasting was quite good. We got to try 11 different items over the course of an hour and a half, and hear all of John's stories about how the cheeses came to be (which basically boiled down to - cheesemakers are cheap, and never throw anything away unless they're sure it's gone bad). Here's a shot of most of the cheeses we tasted. As you can tell from the picture, at this point they're pretty much entirely focused on fresh and lightly aged cheeses, although they are looking to move into producing hard cheeses sometime this year - they just need to get the details worked out to be able to produce raw milk cheeses. All of the current products are made with pastuerized milk, and John says that he refuses to waste his time making hard cheese with pastuerized milk. The tasting was really well attended, with about 30 people in the small upstairs room where tastings are held. And now, on to the tasting notes. Tasting sheets are handed out, with four columns for each sample: Know It, Look At It, Smell It, and Taste It. Cream Cheese (both goat and cow milk varieties) The two different cream cheeses were presented side by side for comparing and contrasting. Both of these cheese are made with just rennet, salt and cream - no vegetable gums or preservatives. The goat cream cheese was noticeably whiter than the cow's milk, and John informed us that it's because goats can't digest certain components of grass the provide the yellow color in cow's mlk. The goat was also notiecably moister and creamier than the cow. I asked John if this was a result of choices he'd made as cheesemaker, or the nature of the milk. He expressed that he didn't like the result when the goat cream cheese got too dry, so tended to err on the side of less draining time, since it would continue to dry out some after being packaged. The cow's milk version was drier and slightly crumbly in texture, but both were very smooth on the palate and put that packaged Philly stuff to shame! The cow was sweet, while the goat was tangy, with just a hint of that characteristic goat cheese flavor. Both could top my bagel anytime. Bridgewater These are the ball-shaped cheeses to the far right of the picture above. This double cream cow's milk cheese is studded with ground Tellicherry peppercorns and has a mold rind. John grinds the pepper immediately before adding it to the cheese, maximizing the peppery flavor. The rind was slightly yellow and dusty looking, with a white middle studded with black pepper specks. The flavor is tangy and spicy with a strong pepper flavor. John loves pepper, and uses it to flavor four different cheeses from the Creamery. Manchester (fresh and aged versions) The fresh Manchester is in the middle of the right hand basket, above. This is the original double cream that led to the development of the Bridgewater. In its fresh form, it's incredibly creamy, smooth and rich - I wrote the word "creamy" three times in my tasting notes, it made such an impression. Buttery, too. John harkens back to the days before only asceptic white rinds were considered acceptable on soft cheese like brie and camembert, and this one has spots of lovely blue and green molds dotting the exterior of the edible rind. The aged version is quite a different beast. Invented by letting as surplus of Manchester run wild, this is left to age at 50 degrees for three months. In the first part of the aging process the molds are allowed to go crazy, entirely covering the cheese. Then it is rinsed in a brine and left to age on wood boards. This is the yellow hockey puck shaped cheese next to the fresh Manchester. Inside the hard yellow exterior is a light yellow cheese that's fairly hard and a little flaky. The flavor is extremely sharp and strong, although the cheese still melts into creaminess on your tongue, evoking a hint of the fresh variety. I found the finish/aftertaste too bitter for my preferences, but many people in the room really liked this cheese. It reminded me strongly of something I'd had before, but John was unaware of any other aged double cream. Sharon Hollow (Garlic and Chive) This is a fresh cow's milk cheese, made in the same way as fresh goat goat cheese. It's very milky, creamy and mild. We tasted the garlic and chive version, but there are also Tellicherry Pepper and Plain versions. John recommended serving the plain topped with some roasted almonds and honey. Moving away from the cow's milk cheeses and heading into the goats, we started by tasting a sample of goat's milk, from that morning's milking. John is incredibly particular about the freshness of his milk. All of the milks start becoming cheese with about 8 hours of arriving at the Creamery. The cow's milk come from Calder Dairy, a local dairy whose milk is from a mixed herd of Jersey's, Brown Swiss, Holstein and Gurnsey cows, rather than the exclusive Holstein herds that produce most of America's milk with high volume but low fat content and flavor. You can get their milk at Arbor Farms, and it's sold in glass bottles. And I've just heard that Calder Dairy will deliver, and I'm going to investigate a bulk buying option for Great Oak, since I'm sure other people would be interested in getting fresh local milk delivered. But I digress... The goat's milk comes from a goat farmer cooperative in Michigan. John described the considerable difficulty in maintaining a steady supply of goat's milk, because it's very difficult to encourage goat's to kid off season. Goat Milk The milk we tasted was whole and unhomogonized, although it had been pastuerized (John pastuerizes his own milk at the lowest temperature allowable, which takes longer, but maintains as much flavor as possible). If I hadn't been told it was goat's milk, I would have guessed, I don't think. The only hint of that goatiness was in the lingering finish. According to John, this is how all goat's milk should be, and if it's otherwise, it's a sign of poor cleanliness of the goats. Male goats like to spray a lot, so it's important to wash the goats regularly and keep the milkers away from the males. Little Napolean This is the small, light yellow round on the front left of the picture. This has the strongest rind of all the cheeses, and it had an interesting stretchy texture. While the rind is noticeably yellow, the interior of the cheese was a creamy white. The taste was mild and smooth, with a little bit of a drying effect on the tongue. The cheese we were eating were about 10 days old - letting them age a little longer would bring out different flavors. For both these and the Manchester (above), the Deli generally has a variety of ages available at any one time, so you can get one that's too your liking. Lincoln Log This is one of the newest cheeses being produced at the Creamery, and is based on the classic goat's cheese, Boucheron. It's the large wrinkly ovals behind the Little Napolean's. The larger diameter means a smaller percentage of rind to cheese, so less of a mold flavor in the cheese. John likes a fairly thin rind on this, so after it reaches the thickness he's looking for, he moves the cheese to extra cold storage to continue aging while retarding rind thickening. The wrinkly, dry, dusty rind has a very distinctive texture and flavor that was not unpleasant - kind of chewy and maybe vegetal in flavor. The Boucheron inspiration was obvious in the flavor of the cheese, which had the tang and texture of a nice, lightly aged goat cheese. Detroit St. Brick This is the rectangle next to the Lincoln Log. In fact, this is made in essentially the same way as the Lincoln Log, except for the addition of ground, cracked and whole green peppercorns. The texture was a little crumblier than the Lincoln Log, and the green peppercorns gave the cheese a bright bit. Burnt Sugar Gelato In addition to cheese, the Creamery produces 14 different flavors of gelato, and this is my favorite flavor, with a deep carmely flavor and just a hint of burnt sugar bitterness to counter the sweet. Oooh la la. A note on the names - all of the Creamery's cheese are named after small towns in this area of Michigan. The sample above represents most of the Creamery's selection, although there are a few that we did not try. All tasting attendees receive a coupon for 20% off their purchases that evening, and I spent enough to earn back about $12 of my $20 investment, but that's another post...

So much to write about today! But I'll start with last night's dinner. Tim (on the left) was the head cook, ably assisted by Jim. Tim is another great cook, and I always look forward to his meals. He's the one who met his wife while they were Peace Corp volunteers in Senegal, and about once every couple of months he makes a Senegalese feast for dinner. But not last night. The chili was good. Served very mild, with an assortment of hot sauces on the side to spice it up. While I don't avoid heat entirely, I try to never make anything hotter than medium, and give people ways to add some heat if they'd like. The coolest thing about dinner was that the only thing we had to bring for Liam was a kiwi! He ate chili with the rest of us, and happily fed himself bits of the shredded cheese, tortillas and pasta. We were at the baby table. Liam was at one end (out of view). Sawyer is the little tiny head at the other end. And Becky - with baby still on board for another month - is sitting closest to the camera. I just had a very small portion of chili before running out the door to head down to Zingerman's for the Creamery cheese tasting, but that will be the subject of my *next* post...

It's much less communal than a kibbutz, at least as far as my understanding goes. Not in the slightest. In many ways, we are the developer. We worked with a development company mostly composed of people who lived in cohousing themselves. They purchased the land, but after that, the future residents worked directly with planners and architects to design the community. Everything from the site plan, common house and individual unit design was created with significant direction and input from the us, the co-owners. Touchstone, the cohousing community under construction on the plot adjacent to ours, is higher density. They have 47 units compared to our 37, on the same size plot of land (6 acres). The residents decidd to do that in order to lower the per unit cost of the shared expenses (common house, land, etc) and make it slightly more affordable.

If anyone would like more information about cohousing, visit http://www.cohousing.org/ for information and a list of communities across the country. As someone I met recently said - the best way to think of cohousing is as condos with soul. I head cook twice each month. Each head cook shift is worth 4 hours. In addition, I facilitate community meetings twice each work season (so far seasons are either 3 or 4 months - we're still working on figuring out how best to align them with the seasons. That counts for another 4 hours across the season, for an average of 9 hours each month. Each season there's a work survey we all fill out online, where you rate all the various jobs in the community according to your preference. A computer program makes the first draft of assignments, and then a committee meets to finalize everything. Over half of all our community work hours are for the meal program, but we think it's worth it. There's a pretty regular core of head cooks, and anyone who expresses even a neutral preference for cleaning will end up with at least one cleaning shift per month - those are our hardest shifts to fill, despite getting 2 hours credit for what's usually at most a 90 minute job. The most flux is probably in the groundskeeping jobs, as it's different groups of people who are interested in gardening in the summer vs. shoveling and snowplowing in the winter. Different communities arrange their work programs differently. Sunward, just across the pond from us, has a separate meal program, and only people who cook or clean are able to eat. Because of that, they have much lower participation in their meal program than we do. But they only have 4 hours of community work per month. We felt that sharing meals was at the heart of building a happy and healthy community, so we chose to prioritize that in our planning.

Luckily, no one in our community is allergic to peanuts, the big food allergy everyone thinks about. But we do have some people with life threatening allergies to shellfish, particularly shrimp. Because of that, we're not allowed to cook any shellfish in common house pots and pans. You could cook it at home, but then you're supposed to serve it on paper plates. A while back I was cooking a marinated pork loin and realized that we'd used oyster sauce, and that oyster sauce would count as shellfish. But I figured out who the allergic people were, made some calls, and determined that I wasn't going to poison anyone coming to dinner that night - they were only worried about shrimp. And since I got my oyster sauce from the half empty open jar in the refrigerator, clearly I wasn't the only person to have made that mistake! We have a member with a non-life threatening allergy to eggplant, but residue isn't an issue, so we just have to carefully label things containing it. There are a couple people who can't eat dairy, so that's another labeling issue, and sometimes cooks will make special efforts to accomodate them. I've gotten really positive feedback for most of my meals. The Tortilla Soup I made at the end of February got raves at the time, and is the only meal where I've had someone request that I make it again. So probably that one. (Link goes to my description over in the Dinner for 40 thread I started back when I first started cooking common meal.) Or did you mean most popular in general? Our largest attendance has been for a couple of special events - both happening to pertain to the Jewish faith, despite the fact that we're not at all overwhelmingly Jewish. Both the Passover Seder and the Hannukah Latke feast had over 70 people attending. Can you imagine making latkes for 70 people?!

Thanks! I'm really having a lot of fun blogging, glad people are enjoying reading it. I can't take credit for the ingenuity of baby food cubes - I just got it from a book. But it sure is handy. 1 cube takes about 20 seconds to defrost in the microwave - you don't want the food hot, just room temperature. 4 cubes takes about a minute or longer, depending on what it is. It's important to stir well to distribute the heat and avoid hot spots. Leaving cubes in the refrigerator overnight would also do it. When I have to plan for lunch out in a couple of hours, like today, I'll partially defrost the cubes at home, and let them finish defrosting in the diaper bag. While he might like to teeth on a cube, it would be awfully messy, I think. And I've never had a problem with defrosting or oozing in the bag - but it just stays in the freezer all the time, except when I'm grabbing cubes out of it.

Thanks for asking, Ellen - I love my kitchen and was hoping to get a chance to show it off. Our house has an open floor plan, with the square footage of the kitchen, dining room and living room combined at about 400 sq ft. The ceiling is slanted and goes from 8 ft at the outside to 14 ft at the peak, for a nice airy room. Here's some pictures: It's a great kitchen to work in. The long penninsula counter makes it easy for many people to work at the same time, or makes a great buffet table for serving that way. The undercounter shelf with the toys on it used to hold cookbooks before Liam came along, and will again someday! The potrack over the window was a great find - exactly the right size, and we happened to have a stud in exactly the right place to securely mount it. There's not a lot of cabinet space. Some people chose to add an additional base cab, but I felt that cut the kitchen off too much from the rest of the room. We have an unused short hallway leading to the third bedroom (which we made into a den, cutting a hole in the wall to connect it to the living room), so right now we have an shelf unit in there acting as a pantry. Eventually we're planning to build a floor-to-ceiling pantry into that space. One of the corner base cabs is a lazy susan. The other opens from the dining room side of the penninsula, and it's where I store all my serving pieces. That left us with a perfect narrow cabinet next to the stove for storing cookie sheets, etc. Liam loves to play in there, and pull things out all over the floor. Our favorite game is when he gets behind the door and opens and closes it to play peekaboo with us.