eGfoodblog: dividend

[dividend]

Do you recall the reasoning behind the "cover with foil" stage? I love oven fries (when the outside temperatures aren't reaching baking levels) but I've never covered them.

Also, how long for each stage and at what temperature?

(Ta very much!)

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The reasoning is that the perfect oven fries have a crisp crust and soft, creamy exterior. Covering them with foil initially traps the natural moisture so they steam themselves in the oven. Then you take the foil off to crisp the outside.

OK, I dug out the issue of Cook's Illustrated. Cook covered at 475 degrees for 5 minutes, uncover and cook 15-20, turning once or twice until evenly browned. It also calls for soaking the wedges in hot tap water for 10 minutes and then patting them dry first. I think the result is a marginal improvement at best, so I normally skip it. But then again, CI recipes are by nature very fiddly, and I am not at all a fiddly cook, so YMMV.

[snowangel]

What varieties of tomatoes? Had any ripe ones yet? I've had one "stray" ripe one up here, but the rest are green. I'm hoping that this heat wave will bring on the red!

[heidih]

" the spiritual aspects of gardening, local eating & bread baking" along with the tomatoes in the patch your Dad used to cultivate- you got me hooked. Love the BBQ aspects. Am also enjoying your connection to food including passing the passion to the youngsters with the bread baking. When my son was having issues with responsibility and self esteem around 6th grade I left for work and handed him Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2 with the bread recipe bookmarked and told him I was looking forward to bread when I got home. Well, toasted, buttered and ate first slice around 9 pm, but it was a big big deal. Blog on!

[moosnsqrl]

I think that even if these plants fare poorly, it's a worthwhile thing to do.  I have a reason to see my grandmother every day, and I feel connected to the memory of my grandfather.  She talks about him some, and not just the sadness of him being gone.  She tells stories I've never heard about their life together, and we've been planning eagerly to share the first perfect tomato in a BLT.  The shared project of these plants has brought us closer.

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That's funny . . . one of our neighbors came over on the 4th of July; we bought our house from his mother and he had helped her a lot after his father died. He walked over and saw all of our tomatoes in the raised beds that his dad built and he actually teared-up! He's not the kind of guy I expected to ever see demonstrate emotion like that, but homegrown tomatoes are powerful things. He said it made him happy to see someone growing them there again, since his mother never had a green thumb.

And every time I'm driving all over the backroads looking for that previously undiscovered old farmer with the sweetest, best old variety for canning (we don't end up with any surplus from our few plants), it's as if my grandmother were in the passenger seat spurring me on. It's a good thing gas wasn't as expensive when she was alive - her habit would have been financially ruinous!

We do oven fries a lot, too, but it never occurred to me to cover them either. I'll have to try that. I do cut mine with a crinkle to improve the crispiness.

[moosnsqrl]

Oh, and moosnsqrl, I might need someone to eat brunch at Bluestem on Sunday - know anyone who'd be interested?

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Div,

I PMd you in reply to this; don't know if you check them regularly but . . .

[dividend]

Div,

I PMd you in reply to this; don't know if you check them regularly but . . .

←

Response sent.

Isn't it wonderful how connected we can feel through through the process of growing things? That's the sort of thing I mean when I talk about the spiritual aspects of gardening. I bet alot of people have similar stories to yours and mine, stories where continuing a tradition connects us richly to our pasts, and to each other. (That's an invitation to share those stories here if you want. )

I went out to work at the farm this morning. I have a whole slew of pics that I'll post later this afternoon. In the meantime, Here's the newsletter for this week. I'm taking suggestions for things to do with my share (and the giant bunch of basil I took home this morning). I'll be working the distribution point tonight at the 39th Street market, so you guys will get to see some of this produce literally farm to table.

More soon!

[mizducky]

Terrific blog!

I'm all into the spiritual aspects of food and cooking--there's so many levels to that, and they're universal, reaching across religious traditions the same way love of food reaches across cultural, national, and political divides. So--right on!

[Laksa]

Interesting blog... I enjoy your BBQ posts.

There's a KC style BBQ restaurant near where I live (Northern NJ) that has some great food. Despite having dined numerous times at the restaurant, I still have no inkling of what Kansas City is like. So I'm enjoying the armchair travel.

I have a question to which no amount of googling was able to produce a satisfactory answer - what is the association between Kancas City and royalty? Why do so many things have the word "Royal" in their names?

[CaliPoutine]

I'm taking suggestions for things to do with my share (and the giant bunch of basil I took home this morning).  I'll be working the distribution point tonight at the 39th Street market, so you guys will get to see some of this produce literally farm to table.

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Hi Div,

*sigh*, I wish we had CSA's here, but alas we don't. We do have Foodland Ontario and this recipe was published in the London Free Press a few weeks ago. I'm going to make it for my Seniors meal tomorrow.

In my own words of course.

1/2 english cuke

1 carrot thinly sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 sweet pepper, seeded and cut into chunks

1/2 small sweet white onion( I bought red onion)

1 cup mini-mini bocconcini( optional)

2 tomatoes cut into thick wedges

dressing

1/4 cup each olive oil and red wine vinegar

3 tbls prepared basil pesto( here is where you can use your basil)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Combine all dressing ingredients and mix with veggies. Chill for 1hr to let flavors blend. Serves 4-6.

Enjoy!!

[MarketStEl]

Interesting blog... I enjoy your BBQ posts.

There's a KC style BBQ restaurant near where I live (Northern NJ) that has some great food.  Despite having dined numerous times at the restaurant, I still have no inkling of what  Kansas City is like.   So I'm enjoying the armchair travel.

I have a question to which no amount of googling was able to produce a satisfactory answer - what is the association between Kancas City and royalty?  Why do so many things have the word "Royal" in their names?

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Resident historian reporting for duty...

The annual livestock show we now know as the American Royal began in 1899 as the National Hereford Show. Somewhere in its early history, a visitor compared it to the Royal Livestock Show, part of Britain's premier agricultural exhibition, and the exhibition was promptly dubbed "The American Royal." It remains the nation's largest livestock show.

Over the years, a horse show and rodeo were added, but for food lovers and 'que aficionados, the barbecue competition is now the main event. The American Royal has traditionally been one of the big events on the Kansas City social calendar; the Future Farmers of America used to hold its annual national convention to coincide with the show, and there was--still is?--a grand parade to mark the event. The city's American League baseball team takes its name from the show.

American Royal Web site

[srhcb]

.... even if these plants fare poorly, it's a worthwhile thing to do.  I have a reason to see my grandmother every day, and I feel connected to the memory of my grandfather.  She talks about him some, and not just the sadness of him being gone.  She tells stories I've never heard about their life together, and we've been planning eagerly to share the first perfect tomato in a BLT.  The shared project of these plants has brought us closer.

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It seems to me that tomatos ellicit stronger emotional reactions than any other garden plant. Maybe that's because their maturation process is so visual?

SB (or maybe because fresh off the vine tomatos taste so damn good? )

[dockhl]

or both..........

[dividend]

So I had to be out at the farm at 8AM for my work shift. As usual, I was running a little behind in the morning. I at breakfast in my car:

1/2 cup of Bear Naked Peak Protein Granola. I like to make my own, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?

It took me about 45 minutes to drive up to the farm, winding out of the city and up through progressively smaller towns and narrower highways. The first thing I noticed about Fair Share Farm was a sense of idylic contentment that practically smacked me in the face. OK, that's kind of an oxymoron, but the place is beautiful, in a pleasant, agrarian way, and you feel it immediately. Rebecca was in the flower garden picking big, bright, happy sunflowers, and immediately approached me with a pail of them in her hands and a warm greeting.

If you looked at the newsletter link I posted, you'll know what's in our shares this week. This morning we (myself, two other volunteers, Rebecca, Tom, their apprentice, and a visiting student) picked and/or cleaned carrots, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and onions.

The rows of carrots are planted about a quarter mile from the main house and shed/packing building, so we walked past seemingly endless feilds of other crops. I helped to weed the edge of the row we were picking.

Here's a bunch of carrots, fresh out of the ground:

Tom picking some:

We sorted them roughly and trimmed off the tops in the feild:

Once we had around 350, we carted them back to the packing building, where they were dumped into an elevated tub, rinsed, scrubbed clean, sorted, and bundled into the actual shares:

I must say that over the past few years, I've had many food-related revelations (along the lines of "oh, that's what a strawberry should taste like!"), but I didn't expect to have one over a carrot. Suffice it to say that a carrot bitten into four seconds out of the ground is unlike any other carrot. Sweet, crisp, still warm from the dirt...

After a little break, we went back out into the feild to pick cherry tomatoes and green beans.

We picked every non-green cherry tomato from a whole row:

Which yeilded practically a full five gallon bucket.

Once they were sorted and weighed, we had this gorgeous array:

Isn't that one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen? I felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction that I had helped to create such a vivid display.

The green beans were in an adjacent row. I had actually never seen a green bean plant before, so that was cool. You kind of paw through the short leafy plants to find the beans hanging hidden, and then pick the fat ones. A lot of effort for comparatively little volume in our buckets. I'll remember not to take a package of green beans for granted, knowing the effort it takes to hand harvest them.

Our combined cache of green beans was dumped into the tub for a rinse:

before being weighed and bagged for the shares.

Next was cleaning onions that had been picked a week ago and left to partially cure upstairs. We snipped of the stems, trimmed the roots, and peeled off the dirtiest out layer of skin:

To make nice onions for the shares:

We prepped alot of them, and ended up with this:

That was my four hour shift. Afterwards I picked practically an entire bush worth of fragrant basil that was going to be culled anyway, and we had the chance to pick flowers. Then we sat around a picnic table by the house, at zuccini bread that one of the other volunteers had brought, and Tom shared his incredible pickles and homemade potato salad:

This was a wonderful way to spend a morning. I'm so glad I joined a CSA with a work requirement - I feel so much more grounded and connected to where my food comes from. Tom and Rebecca are incredible, warm, generous people, and my life is enriched for having made them and their farm a part of it.

[dividend]

I knew Sandy would have the definative answer. And much better articulated than I would have been able to reply.

[dividend]

Second BBQ of the week. The original Arthur Bryant's at 18th and Brooklyn. I know there's several new outposts, including a hunting lodge-esque one out by the Kansas Speedway, and I don't care. This one is the best.

Menu:

Obligatory shot of the "no tipping" sign mentioned over in the KC BBQ thread in the Heartland forum:

It does indeed appear to be new, shiny, and completely incongruous with the setting.

I tried to order sausage and burnt ends on a sandwich, but, horror of horrors, they were out of sausage! (That's probably because it was 3:30PM, so it's my own damn fault.) Oh well, burnt ends it is:

My friend ordered the same, with fries for us to split.

I'm not crazy about the fries here, because they don't salt them at all when they come out of the fryer. I completely associate fries with salty goodness, so these don't do it for me. Whatever. The burnt ends are astoundling good. (I guess you've realized by now that if you want to see ribs, this is not the blog for that.)

So the restaurant looks like this:

My friend, having never been to this location, had a hilarious exchange with the man behind the counter, which typifies the kind of go-to-hell attitude that helps make this place great:

Friend: (looking right at the open loaf of Wonder Bread in front of him in the window) I want some more bread. (Raps on window.) Hey, can I have some more bread?

Counterman: (Rolls his eyes and walks away)

Friend: (Raps on the window again) Can I please have some more bread?

The counterman proceeds to grab the open loaves of bread, hurl them over his shoulder, plunk down a fresh loaf, tear it open in the middle, thrust it at my friend, and yell "How much bread do you need, man?!?!?!?"

There are three different kinds of sauce on each table:

My preference, if you couldn't guess, is for the Rich and Spicy.

Coming up later, I have pictures of the CSA distribution point. I also went to take pictures of my fridge, but discovered that the lightbulb in my kitchen is burnt out, and I don't have any spares. My bad, I'll correct that ASAP.

Edited July 26, 2007 by dividend (log)

[joiei]

So all I have to do is mention that I'm showing off my favorite Kansas City BBQ, and whoever I'm talking to assumes it'll be their favorite.

My coworkers: "So you're going to Jack Stack's?"

My best friend: "Which day are you taking me to Wyandotte BBQ?"

The boy I'm dating: "You have to go eat at BB's!"

<Sigh> This is obviously an issue where I can't make everyone happy. 

And then, driving to work today, I saw an appropriate billboard.  It's for Sprint, so it's got the yellow logo, overlayed with a kettle grill made of neon lights.  The text says "Coverage like sauce on ribs."  I almost took a picture, but at highway speeds could've ended with me being the first person to die during an eGfoodblog.  But it is nice to see a food-related billboard that isn't advertising "FOURTH MEAL!"

On a completely different note - yesterday I went and met with the pastor of my church, who I haven't had a chance to sit down with for a while.  I adore this woman - she's a two time cancer survivor with enough enthusiasm and vigor for about six normal people, and one of the only people with whom I can discuss at length the spiritual aspects of gardening, local eating, and bread baking.  This spring, during a six-part sermon series on the non-human aspects of creation, one her sermons included discussion of community supported agriculture and The Omnivore's Dilemma. 

My church is located in a poorer area, and every summer we do a Healthy Kid's Camp for children in the neighborhood.  They spend a week learning about things like excercise, nutrition, and safety, and meeting people like firemen and dentists.  For the last two years I've taken a day and taught the kids about bread baking.  I have three or four groups of kids for about an hour and a half each.  So I start a few loaves of yeast bread in the morning and show each group a different stage of the process.  Each group also makes a batch of corn muffins so they've accomplished something tangible, and the recipe to be able to recreate it at home.  At the end of the day they come back to the kitchen and taste the bread that's been working all day.  So I get a chance to teach them about the breadmaking process, show them pictures, exlpain some very simplified science, get them thinking about alternatives to Wonder bread, teach them what to look for on labels when they're with their parents in the supermarket, and they get the experience of participating in the creative process of baking.  I love the pride they feel when they take a chunk of homemade bread and show it to their parents with a proud "I made this!"  I feel like I'm able to make a small difference just by sharing something I love with them, and get them thinking about baking/cooking as something they can embrace.   

Wow, I sound really cheesy talking about this.  The camp is in two weeks and I can't wait.

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This sounds like so much fun. If I was in the area, I would try to find time to be there. Kids can be so much fun when you are able to see the lights starting to flicker on and they are suddenly understanding and comprehending.

As to the best bbq, I have a fondness for Jones bbq over in KCK. (note to self - I must take moosnsqrl there as soon as possible, I do owe her and Nic also) As for the judging, yes, I guess I am a chosen one. And can't wait. Two whole days of tasting the best of the best. Competition que is so different from restaurant que. I was thinking this today as I chowed down on my lunch of ribs and hot links from Albert G's in Tulsa. Sides of beans and slaw. white bread, no frigging texas toast. I don't eat the white bread, but just the knowledge that it is there is enough. That plus the sides of kosher dill pickles, sliced red onions and pepperocinis.

So Judy, I hope there will be a party at the kemper. If you need rsvp's consider this mine. I am buying the ticket for friday tomorrow. later gater.

[moosnsqrl]

Resident historian reporting for duty...

Um, I think Sandy means non-resident historian . . .

Seriously, I'm glad the expats are weighing in because I am certainly not a native. Although I did just realize today, over lunch, that I have now called the KC Metro my home longer than my place of birth or the place I went to college for, um, 14 years. Yikes.

[joiei]

SB (or maybe because fresh off the vine tomatos taste so damn good? )

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That works for me. A Good Brandyboy or cherokee purple, a little sea salt and I am in heaven. Of course if you add bacon and bread to the mix, NIRVANA.

[joiei]

So I had to be out at the farm at 8AM for my work shift.  As usual, I was running a little behind in the morning.  I at breakfast in my car:

1/2 cup of Bear Naked Peak Protein Granola.  I like to make my own, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?

It took me about 45 minutes to drive up to the farm, winding out of the city and up through progressively smaller towns and narrower highways.  The first thing I noticed about Fair Share Farm was a sense of idylic contentment that practically smacked me in the face.  OK, that's kind of an oxymoron, but the place is beautiful, in a pleasant, agrarian way, and you feel it immediately.  Rebecca was in the flower garden picking big, bright, happy sunflowers, and immediately approached me with a pail of them in her hands and a warm greeting. 

If you looked at the newsletter link I posted, you'll know what's in our shares this week.  This morning we (myself, two other volunteers, Rebecca, Tom, their apprentice, and a visiting student) picked and/or cleaned carrots, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and onions. 

The rows of carrots are planted about a quarter mile from the main house and shed/packing building, so we walked past seemingly endless feilds of other crops.  I helped to weed the edge of the row we were picking.

Here's a bunch of carrots, fresh out of the ground:

Tom picking some:

We sorted them roughly and trimmed off the tops in the feild:

Once we had around 350, we carted them back to the packing building, where they were dumped into an elevated tub, rinsed, scrubbed clean, sorted, and bundled into the actual shares:

I must say that over the past few years, I've had many food-related revelations (along the lines of "oh, that's what a strawberry should taste like!"), but I didn't expect to have one over a carrot.  Suffice it to say that a carrot bitten into four seconds out of the ground is unlike any other carrot.  Sweet, crisp, still warm from the dirt...

After a little break, we went back out into the feild to pick cherry tomatoes and green beans.

We picked every non-green cherry tomato from a whole row:

Which yeilded practically a full five gallon bucket.

Once they were sorted and weighed, we had this gorgeous array:

Isn't that one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen?  I felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction that I had helped to create such a vivid display.

The green beans were in an adjacent row.  I had actually never seen a green bean plant before, so that was cool.  You kind of paw through the short leafy plants to find the beans hanging hidden, and then pick the fat ones.  A lot of effort for comparatively little volume in our buckets.  I'll remember not to take a package of green beans for granted, knowing the effort it takes to hand harvest them. 

Our combined cache of green beans was dumped into the tub for a rinse:

before being weighed and bagged for the shares.

Next was cleaning onions that had been picked a week ago and left to partially cure upstairs.  We snipped of the stems, trimmed the roots, and peeled off the dirtiest out layer of skin:

To make nice onions for the shares:

We prepped alot of them, and ended up with this:

That was my four hour shift.  Afterwards I picked practically an entire bush worth of fragrant basil that was going to be culled anyway, and we had the chance to pick flowers.  Then we sat around a picnic table by the house, at zuccini bread that one of the other volunteers had brought, and Tom shared his incredible pickles and homemade potato salad:

This was a wonderful way to spend a morning.  I'm so glad I joined a CSA with a work requirement - I feel so much more grounded and connected to where my food comes from.  Tom and Rebecca are incredible, warm, generous people, and my life is enriched for having made them and their farm a part of it.

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The pictures of the carrots made my mouth water. And I just finished dinner of chicken tikka masala and am stuffed.

[joiei]

I am not local nor am I native. But I do love spending time in Kansas City. Both of them, and all three if you throw in the northland. I do need to explore more of the east side of the metro at some time.

I have enjoyed reading this blog, seeking out new places to spend my hard earned (at least to me) monies and my time.

Rock on, sweet river, rock on.

[dividend]

I went to the 39th Street Farmer's Market to do the second part of my CSA work requirement. Since the farm itself is pretty far north of the city, in addition to distributing shares at the farm itself, they come down to this market on Wednesdays and those of us who pick up at this location take turns staffing the tent.

So here's how pick-up works. Members come and check their names off the sign-in sheet, and move down the line marked either full or partial:

Each box is labeled with instructions as to how much of what to take, and most boxes have choices. Like today, they could either have lettuce or a "salsa pack". The newsletter listed okra as one of the choices, but there were only about three portions of that.

Here's some of those carrots I pulled out of the ground in the morning:

Onions, zucchini, and tomatoes (they got a pint of cherry tomatoes and several of the different large varieties):

Dried herbs, requiring a 25 cent deposit for the tin:

Everyone got one of those gorgeous sunflowers Rebecca was picking when I got to the farm:

The market itself is in a small parking lot next to a coffee shop.

There were about eight different vendors, and this market has more of a hippy contingent than some of the other markets. The lady with the booth directly adjacent to ours is trying to start a raw vegan restaurant, and one of the stalls features macrobiotic live culture drinks in ball jars. There was also a guy dressed up in a tomato costume, who alternated between dancing around on the edge of the street as a live advertisement, and a tomato tossing game with some of the young kids, and then brought paper wrapped smashed tomatoes to our booth in case someone wanted them for their compost bin.

This was a fun experience. I think it's neat when the farmers who grow the food you eat every week greet you by name (as they did with nearly every member who came by), and then you help distribute food that you personally pulled from the feilds that morning.

Tons of people brought their young children. Alot of them got involved in crafts or tomato tossing, but my favorite was this little guy:

He was content to just toddle around, taking bites out of one of the sweet peppers from his mom's share.

By the time we were done with distribution, I was physically exhausted, but mentally invigorated. I'd spent most of the day in the midwestern sunshine, and gotten a chance to really dig in and be a part of my food chain.

I had taken my share early and set it aside. When we were done, the other volunteer and I got to pick from the leftovers and take anything extra we wanted. As I was putting my share items in the beautiful cloth tote bag I bought at the CSA orientation, for some reason I was thinking it wasn't as much as we normally get. I think I was mentally comparing it to the first few weeks, when big, bulky, leafy things overflowed the bags. But I got home and spread it all out, and it's quite a spread:

Green beans, "salsa pack" containing small onions, tomatillos and a hot pepper, eggplants, onions, tomatoes (and a pint of cherry tomatoes not pictured), carrots, basil, and sunflowers. Yum!

[Kim Shook]

Jen, I've been out of town for a few days, so I am just catching up on your blog! I am enjoying it so much! I loved the CSA and wish I ate more types of vegetables, so that it would make sense to participate in one.

Kim

[srhcb]

Tons of people brought their young children.  Alot of them got involved in crafts or tomato tossing, but my favorite was this little guy:

He was content to just toddle around, taking bites out of one of the sweet peppers from his mom's share.

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Perfect!

What's toddler-speak for allez cuisine?

[dividend]

Yet another quick breakfast:

Plain 1% yogurt, mixed berries, lemon marmalade I made in January, granola. I'm looking forward to the weekend when I eat real substantive breakfasts, instead of just fortifying for my ten hour workdays.

Lunch was better:

(I think I may have taken the worst picture ever here, but oh well. It's actually a kind of neat looking building, with the radio spire on top.) I love Winstead's - old fashioned steakburgers and diner ambiance, been around for over sixty years. There are a few of them scattered around the Kansas City metro area, and I'm glad there's one close to my office.

Inside, you seat yourself:

The menu:

Note the "Tiny Tot Treat" - a scaled down meal designed for little kids. I was very sad when I realized that I had outgrown ordering that. It's ok because the grown up stuff on the menu is great. I opt for a single Winstead, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonaise, and grilled onions, with a side of Fifty-Fifty - half fries and half onion rings (which may just be the greatest idea ever):

And a diet cherry coke, which came with four maraschino cherries in it!

[rooftop1000]

I was already lost over the Pibb on the menu then you say fifty fifty fries and onion rings and Cherries in a cherry coke

our original vacation plans included Kansas city but now its only the jersey shore...oh well there are giant pizza slices and orange custard in my future

tracey