eG Foodblog: suzilightning

[monavano]

Great market! Purple potatoes and purple beans! Who knew?

Being in N. Jersey, do you have a favorite bagel place? My favorite come from Parsippany.

[suzilightning]

Great market! Purple potatoes and purple beans! Who knew?

Being in N. Jersey, do you have a favorite bagel place? My favorite come from Parsippany.

←

Sorry but I don't like bagels. Everyone at the library likes Bagel Station here in town, especially in the fall when they do their pumpkin bagels.

Which place in Parsippany do you like?

[monavano]

Great market! Purple potatoes and purple beans! Who knew?

Being in N. Jersey, do you have a favorite bagel place? My favorite come from Parsippany.

←

Sorry but I don't like bagels. Everyone at the library likes Bagel Station here in town, especially in the fall when they do their pumpkin bagels.

Which place in Parsippany do you like?

←

Not sure of the name. My MIL always had them when we visited them. I know it's on Rt. 46. Maybe an eG'er knows it. It must be in the water, because they are the best bagels!

eta: The Lake Hapatcong area is gorgeous. My DH interviewed for a job in the area and we were scoping out housing a few years back.

Edited August 27, 2007 by monavano (log)

[Priscilla]

Great blog, SuziL. Excellent farmer's marketage.

We love our local birds of prey... just the other day the little kestrel who's been hanging around landed on our fence clutching a juicy rodent in her talons and proceeded to wolf it down. Crunch crunch crunch.

And, my Mother is a retired reference librarian, and I believe my market basket is just like yours, except mine is black & polka-dotted.

Blog on!

[suzilightning]

After we got home yesterday the first order of business was surveying the booty then lunch. We went with a ploughman's lunch of rosemary ollive bread from Everything Home Made, the cheese in the market shot, some great, sweet cherry tomatoes with some balsamic vinegar and tiny pickles. I added some cantaloupe. Then a glass of Arnie Palmer and something to read. I first started reading the columns that make up this book two years ago when they were posted online, steered there through Mayhaw Man's link. The second collection that makes up the last half of the book was new to me. It is a tough book to read but an important one.

The next thing to do is get everything broken down. The melon of the week is dispatched, cut into bite size pieces and put into a container. Beans are tipped and tailed and blanced. Any not used in the next day or two are bundled into servings and frozen. All lettuces are washed well, spun, and put between paper towels in a plastic bag. The onions and potatoes are stowed as are the zucchini. Heirloom tomatoes and cherries are just kept on the counter but there is a different end in store for those jerseys: tomato rice soup.

Here one is nekkid before being cut across the equator and his guts scooped out to be strained for tomato water. I actually use a vegetable peeler a la Marcella Hazan and find it works better for me.

Olive oil, garlic, carrot and onion, risotto rice then the herbs, water, tomatoes and stock.

The finished product ready for the freezer.

After all of that it must be 5 o'clock somewhere so off to sit by the lake for a half hour.

[monavano]

I love Jersey tomatoes. I remember getting them at farmstands along the road when driving back and forth to the Jersey shore (from Philadelphia). But, are the tomatoes "Jersey" tomatoes because they are grown in NJ, or is there actually a variety of tomato called "Jersey"?

I remember them as being big and beefy, like a Big Boy.

I'm currently getting my tomatoes from a farm in Smithburg, Md which is jus south of PA. They have been outstanding this year.

Edited August 27, 2007 by monavano (log)

[suzilightning]

Schedules.

Anyone who works customer service knows we don't keep bankers hours. I have always worked at least one night and on the weekends. Currently I work three nights: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, Saturdays and after Labor Day every other Sunday. I don't get home until after 8 pm on those nights so dinner for me is at work. For John, it's usually at home while watching Mad Money with Cramer.

I also pack breakfast and lunch for John and usually a lunch for me.

On the days that I am off John tries to get home so we can have dinner and time to sit and talk. When I have to work a Sunday many times I leave a meal ready to go into the oven and EXQUISITELY DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS.

This morning John's meal pail looked like this.

Egg sandwich on whole grain bread.

Lunch is leftover meatloaf, salad and a potato and bean salad. Cantaloupe for a snack.

Breakfast is half and apple with a tablespoon of chunky peanut butter, 1/2 a vup of Fage plain and the last of the cantaloupe...as well as the ubiquitous Arnie Palmer.

After feeding and playing with the kitties it was time to make lunch and dinner. Many times I will make a double portion of something and leave it at work for lunch or dinner the next day. That is the case with Waldorf Chicken Salad.

[Smithy]

Green Goddess....ah, the power to make me grovel.  I just started making it recently and there is a recipe in RecipeGullet.  It really also works well as a spread for roast beef on chiabatta bread with some lovely thin sliced red onion, red leaf lettuce and roast beast.  Since I entered it I have upped the vinegar just a bit for my palate.  Course I'm the person saying to the hostess at the Chinese restaurant " Could you please tell them to make the Hot and Sour Soup a bit more sour?"  and then keeps a bottle of rice wine vinegar at work.

←

I just looked at your Green Goddess dressing recipe. It looks really tasty, and - hooray! I grow those herbs in my garden! I'll remember that about adding more vinegar, though. I tend toward the tart/sour end of the taste spectrum myself.

One question, though: I've never heard of Dijon vinegar. What's it like? Is there a good substitute for it, if I can't find it?

Edited to add: your chicken Waldorf salad is beautiful, and it's making me hungry although I just finished lunch.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Smithy (log)

[suzilightning]

Welcome to the kitchen. Unfortunately whoever designed this kitchen was NOT into cooking. Step through the door and behold the stove!

Turn to the left and you will see the sink and about 4 square space of prep area.

When we bought the house there was a bistro table and two chairs here. I bought that 5 foot beast at a restaurant supply house. Reminded me of my workstation at the Chequit Inn on Shelter Island.

Finally the books. These are all the cookbooks I own. Period. Note however the two boxes on the lower right part of the bottom shelf. Those are filled with hand copied recipe cards. It's true. I'm addicted. My addiction is so well known that for my birthday last year Diane, our Assistant Director, made me my own set of recipe cards with a pink flamingo on it. Don't ask. It's another shame I have.

There is kitchen art as well such as The Shrine to the Pig.

It is an old Gourmet cover that hung in a friend's kitchen until she debarked for the U.S. Virgin Islands. Then I inherited it and it has been in my kitchen, wherever I am, since that time in 1979. But that wall paper - hideous.

This was a piece I picked up from a local watercolorist when I worked in Hudson, NY at the Columbia-Greene Community College.

We are planning to renovate. New oven, cooktop and stove, get rid of the wallpaper (paint and a border of wine bottles) and flooring (I'm leaning towards cork). I do love the cabinets. Now if I can find someone to refinish them and new hardware.

[suzilightning]

←

I just looked at your Green Goddess dressing recipe. It looks really tasty, and - hooray! I grow those herbs in my garden! I'll remember that about adding more vinegar, though. I tend toward the tart/sour end of the taste spectrum myself.

One question, though: I've never heard of Dijon vinegar. What's it like? Is there a good substitute for it, if I can't find it?

Edited to add: your chicken Waldorf salad is beautiful, and it's making me hungry although I just finished lunch.

←

[Toliver]

I had a question about the Green Goddess recipe, too. Is it one tarragon leaf, or is the measurement missing? Also, are the measurements missing for the white vinegar, anchovy paste & white pepper, too?

Thanks!

edited to delete quotes that weren't quoting properly.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Toliver (log)

[llc45]

For those of you not in this section of New Jersey or in the Lasagna Belt of the Eastern Catskills to find something other than an Italo-American restaurant is a cause for celebration. Most serve the same thing - lasagne with dry noodles, pizza, salads of mozzarella,basil and tomato in the dead of winter. 

That's why I was so happy to find egullet when moving here.

One of your other posts mentions peeling tomatoes ala Marcella Hazan. I have been cooking from her book recently and have tried and tried to peel tomatoes but have found it slow and frustrating. Do I just need a sharper peeler or do you actually get better with practice? I have pretty much given up and decided peels are fine.

I had not yet tried the bread or the meat at the Farmer's Market but will definitely do so now. When I tell people where I live in NJ, the running joke among friends from more urban areas is - that's not NJ, that's Ohio - because it is so far removed from what some people envision. It is really neat to see your blog showing the area! Since we moved here, it seems that more and more good food things are becoming available.

[suzilightning]

I had a question about the Green Goddess recipe, too. Is it one tarragon leaf, or is the measurement missing? Also, are the measurements missing for the white vinegar, anchovy paste & white pepper, too?

Thanks!

edited to delete quotes that weren't quoting properly.

←

Toliver,

I'll ask snowangel about that. I had the same problem with another recipe.

[suzilightning]

That's why I was so happy to find egullet when moving here. 

One of your other posts mentions peeling tomatoes ala Marcella Hazan.  I have been cooking from her book recently and have tried and tried to peel tomatoes but have found it slow and frustrating.  Do I just need a sharper peeler or do you actually get better with practice?  I have pretty much given up and decided peels are fine.

I had not yet tried the bread or the meat at the Farmer's Market but will definitely do so now.  When I tell people where I live in NJ, the running joke among friends from more urban areas is -  that's not NJ, that's Ohio  - because it is so far removed from what some people envision.  It is really neat to see your blog showing the area!  Since we moved here, it seems that more and more good food things are becoming available.

←

I did it the old fasioned hot water/ice water way and had the hardest time. Maybe it's just the way for me.

I say I live in the back of beyond. Will hopefully get some pictures tomorrow. I'm going to visit a friend who had surgery in PA. High Point here I come.

[snowangel]

We are planning to renovate.  New oven, cooktop and stove, get rid of the wallpaper (paint and a border of wine bottles) and flooring (I'm leaning towards cork).  I do love the cabinets.  Now if I can find someone to refinish them and new hardware.

←

I've discovered a rule of thumb about renovating a kitchen (keep in mind that we are complete and total DIY'ers). Take it to a point of no return while the husband is away.

So, show us just how awful your kitchen floor is (bet I've got you beat!).

[MarketStEl]

And don't forget the home version of the fridge shot!

[Live It Up]

One of your other posts mentions peeling tomatoes ala Marcella Hazan.  I have been cooking from her book recently and have tried and tried to peel tomatoes but have found it slow and frustrating.  Do I just need a sharper peeler or do you actually get better with practice?  I have pretty much given up and decided peels are fine.

←

I cook from Marcella's books all the time, and the key to her way of peeling is a serrated peeler. I have one from Zyliss that's supposedly made for peeling soft fruits such as tomatoes (soft skin peeler), but OXO and lots of other companies make serrated peelers. Sometimes I forgo the tomatos, but peeling peppers with a peeler really does make a difference.

[suzilightning]

I'm so sorry. We were so busy at work that I didn't get a chance to post. Yes, I could have stayed after work to feed the ravenous maw that is th Blog but... it was MONDAY night. That means only two things: History Detectives and No Reservations. Date night TV.

Anyway...Sunday supper was fresh bicolor corn, grilled steak and sauteed zucchini and onions.

Last night's supper at work was - eh-ok. Golumpki from Schwind's Pig Store and a salad.

Today I had an early doctor's appointment and wasn't that hungry just had my usual morning beverage. I also called my friend, Michelle, who I was supposed to visit but she was just leaving to take her husband to Urgent Care since he was running a 102+ temperature. Not a good thing for a heart patient.

I pulled together John's breakfast and lunch and sent him off to work.

Blueberry peach kuken, chicken salad pita with carrot sticks and a small container of peaches.

Since I unexpectedly had a freeish day I decided to treat myself to breakfast then go home and make several pans of fudgy bourbon brownies.

Since this is Jersey I went to

Jefferson Diner

The food here is pretty good diner food. I decided to try something other than my usual corned beef hash and two eggs scrambled dry. It was the Ranchero Omelette.

It was packed with nicely sauteed veges and the potatoes were crispy like I like them but I can't eat that much food. I do wish that they could make these specialty items in half portions.

[suzilightning]

Someone admired my market basket. This is the story about the lady who surprised me with it one day. Her name is Maria Weingrad. She said that the picture here

is better. She is a patron at our library and about three years ago she began borrowing everything we had on baking and making use of our Inter-Library Loan service. Two years ago she began selling her baking at the Lafayette Farmer's Market. She also became the library's baker when we needed cakes or cookies for a function. Sour cream pound cakes with chocolate frosting, apple cakes, chocolate blackout cakes with chocolate frosting...

Earlier this year she was approached by the management at Lafayette Village to see if she was interested in taking over the cafe. She said yes and the new, physical location of Everything HomeMade came into existance this summer.

They are on the ground floor and there is outdoor seating. Seating inside as well.

This week's menu.

Savory and sweets

I hope you enjoyed the tour. As for me I think I'll have the tomato cheddar pie.

[racheld]

Lovely traipsing around the countryside with you---wish it were next week, so you could perhaps capture one of your birds on camera. (Not that they aren't THERE, even though your term hasn't started---I sounded like the silly lady who asked the highway dept. to move the "Deer Crossing" sign on down the road from her house, so those pesky critters would stay off her lawn).

And the charming Bakeshop/Lunch place!!! Perfect in every way---the quiche especially caught my eye.

(And perhaps you might, in the role of librarian to the owner, mention that you think the word she wants is "mesclun"---unless those are SOME out-of sight sandwiches and salads).

Or have I blundered into a definition I'm not familiar with?

[suzilightning]

As I was leaving the doctor's office on my way to breakfast I decided to introduce you to some of the interesting places around here.

While you can't get to the Ringling Mansion itself anymore since it is a Friary you can see some of the outbuildings.

The elephant house

This was supposedly the monkey house. It now is an artist's gallery/workshop.

The story goes that this place that is now Sonny's nee Labi D nee something else nee The Water's Edge was a speakeasy and the upstairs was a brothel. It was where Max Schmeling trained for at least one of his fights.

On the way home some of the wee houses on islands in the main lake.

One of the float up establishments on the lake.

[llc45]

I cook from Marcella's books all the time, and the key to her way of peeling is a serrated peeler. I have one from Zyliss that's supposedly made for peeling soft fruits such as tomatoes

Thank you - will definitely go out and find one of these.

Suzilightning - I only learned about the blogging section of this site in the last few weeks - lucky me.

[mizducky]

Chiming in here belatedly to say that, as a child of the Greater New York metro area, I'm totally enjoying your blog, and the Jersey vibe. Especially that Jefferson Diner--boy do I ever miss those Jersey diners out here on the Left Coast!

Edited August 28, 2007 by mizducky (log)

[Toliver]

The food here is pretty good diner food.  I decided to try something other than my usual corned beef hash and two eggs scrambled dry.  It was the Ranchero Omelette.

It was packed with nicely sauteed veges and the potatoes were crispy like I like them but I can't eat that much food.  I do wish that they could make these specialty items in half portions.

←

Thanks for posting a link to their website. It's one of the first 18-page menus I've ever seen! I can't imagine them being able to offer such a variety out of a diner. And now I'm jonesing for Greek food.

[StInGeR]

Vicky and I always leave early when we're heading to Sparta to see the "outlaws', oops inlaws, just for breakfast at the Jefferson Diner. The corned beef hash is awesome. The Gyros are great for dinner and they have great burgers.

Cheers

Tom