eG Foodblog: suzilightning

[Rehovot]

Wow, that is a pantry to behold!

Thanks for blogging--what a fun week. Thanks for inspiring me to stock up on champagne.

[santo_grace]

Darn, MelissaH beat me to it (note to self: check blogs more than once a day)!  I went to college at SUNY Binghamton and developed a taste for Spiedies - once I had the real thing, not the ones from the dining halls.  The dining hall used Good Seasonings mix.

I was just discussing Beef on Weck with my husband since he had never heard of it.  My first (and only) taste was from Olean.  Not sure how it compares to Buffalo or Fredonia, but it was fun to have a local food.

edited for grammar

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The difference between the Fredonia and Buffalo weck is this:

Buffalo - hot roast beef with au jus

Fredonia - cold roast beef, swiss cheese, lettuce and Thousand Island dressing

Which style did you get in Olean?

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Oh boy, we are going back about 3 years now. I believe it was hot with au jus. I'm not a huge fan of swiss cheese, so I think I would remember that. They seem so different I'm not sure how they could even have the same name.

Edited to add: Happy Birthday!

Edited August 31, 2007 by santo_grace (log)

[suzilightning]

As is the way with all things dealing with Poughkeepsie up until last night John was/wasn't going. Wednesday I figured he probably would be so did a set of Portugese sweet bread for him to bring up. He eats it and his mom likes it as well. Then of course there is the Cookie Monster, his brother Michael, who will eat anything not nailed down.

Since it was going to be pretty hot and humid I got up and got going early.

The wet ingredients.

That's 3/4 cup milk, 1 stick butter(margarine), 2 tsp salt and 1 cup sugar minus 1 Tbsp.

As I was afraid it took all 7 cups of bread flour to get to this condition. I use bread flour for the loafs but that's AP flour in the cup as my bench flour.

Ready for the final rise.

The final cool after what turned out to be 40 minutes at 350F.

[suzilightning]

When I got home from work last night John had the following waiting for me.

We drank the Piper-Heidsieck and I cellared the Roderer for after the Hawkwatch. I particularly like this Brut Divin. It is not as toasty as some others but the mousse is exquisitly fine it is smooth on the palate and at 25.00 USD not a bad value.

There was an incident in our neighborhood last night so we didn't get to open cards and wine till almost 10 pm. Consequently we slept in later than normal(for me) and just right(for John). Since John is off for a 4 day weekend we had breakfast together. I made an old camping standby: eggy potatoes. Now if we were camping I would have used bacon to get the fat to cook everything in but since we were at home I simply cooked the onion in some olive oil then added the potatoes, eggs, some parsley, salt and white pepper. One thing about my eggs. I buy them from a young lady who raises them as her 4-H project. She has had many prize winning fowl at the Sussex County Horse and Farm Show, now the New Jersey State Fair. They are truly free ranging birds and I can tell the difference in the taste. The only problem is I have to keep a few industrial farmed eggs around so I can make hard boiled eggs!

John had his accented with the last of the smoked salmon. I finished off the Westphalian ham.

When we were up in Vermont on vacation last month my I had found Dutch Loaf in a local supermarket deli. That set her off remembering the cold cuts her mother used to get at Karl Ehemer's shop in Poughkeepsie, especially the suelze.

Well, we have a German butcher in our area so I was pretty sure that Schwind's carried it. I told John I would go and get some for him to take up to his mom...along with a few other things for here.

Those are bauerenwurst, weiswurst, chorizo, andouille and quark which I will use to make tzatziki to go with the spiedie later. I also picked up Westphalian ham and Black Forest ham for sandwiches.

[suzilightning]

Since I wasn't sure when John was going to go to visit - Friday night? Saturday?. I put my spiedie plans off until Saturday and decided to serve Chicken Saltimbocca which is one of John's favorites.

Inside the Apple Tree are three substores: Apple Tree Deli, a sushi area and A & S Meats, my usual butcher. From the deli I pick up Aurrichio Provolone which has a nice somewhat strong taste and Prosciutto de San Danielle which I much prefer to Parma. From A & S I'll get the chicken which is from Pennsylvania. Since Wharton, the town this store is in has quite a large Hispanic population I love to see what things will appear at this market. I have gotten chivo which became a goat curry and gallina to make broth. When I was there there was a beef tongue, pigs trotter and quite a bit of tripe in the case. This is where I usually get my tomatillos and poblanos to make green chili, favas and figs. Quince make their appearance as well as carambola and aloe.

The raw ingredients.

The chicken breast butterflied and pounded; salt and sage leaves on it. Slide into a pan and cover with the prosciutto. After about 3 minutes flip over until the chicken finishes cooking and the prosciutto is crisp. Normally I would lay the provolone on top and let the heat of the meat melt it but John now has a 4 pm golf date with 2 of his brothers and his dad. I slip the cooked chicken into a container, cover it and include the cheese and reheating/finishing directions for his mom - for the microwave.

[suzilightning]

Lately our usual Friday night dinner is one of John's favorites :pizza. I have learned to like pizza and love a few. Where I grew up there was one little Italian-American restaurant, Nettie's, run by Mrs. Gallucio. She made lasagna, cannolis and pizza. Then there were those thick squares of mainly bread with some sauce and cheese on them that the cafeteria served on Friday - if it wasn't fishsticks and french fry day.

When I took my first professional job the department's secretary, Joyce Lissandrello, and I became good friends and I was quickly absorbed into the family. Friday night at the Lissandrello's was pizza, salad and Scrabble. In fact when I recently went to visit on a Friday and Joyce said we were having chicken I felt...deprived? bereaved? all of the above? Conne, Joyce's mom, makes some of the best thin crust pizza I have ever eaten.

I came home and dusted off my Road Food book for this recipe.

Proofing yeast - is there a better smell anywhere than yeast waking up and starting to go to work?, working the dough, onto the board and after two rises.

After the second rise I punch it down, scale it to 8 oz balls then usually bake off two and put two into plastic freezer baggies that I've sprayed with cooking spray. This way I have built up some 20 or so pizza crusts for use this fall. Oh, those odd flecks in the crust aren't dirt. We like to add dried basil and oregano to the crusts.

[Smithy]

I am very, very impressed with your food, your writing, your photography abd tiyr energy! Makes me wish I lived closer!

Unfortunately I think I'm likely to be away from the computer until after your blog closes, so I want to say NOW that I've thoroughly enjoyed this, and I look forward to reading the rest when I get back. Have a great weekend, and thanks for doing such a wonderful blog! You've done yourself proud.

[MarketStEl]

Those are bauerenwurst, weiswurst, chorizo, andouille and quark which I will use to make tzatziki to go with the spiedie later.  I also picked up Westphalian ham and Black Forest ham for sandwiches.

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What flavor quark did you buy? Up, down, top, bottom, strange or charmed?

Seriously: I haven't heard of this outside particle physics before. It looks like a dairy product -- what is it exactly?

Shifting gears and hoping for an answer to this as well: So there is a town as well as a state forest named Wharton in New Jersey, I see. I've never found out whether this Wharton (these Whartons) are related to Joseph, the Philadelphia manufacturer who founded the nation's first collegiate business school in 1881. You're a librarian -- aren't you supposed to know things like this?

[Rehovot]

Seriously:  I haven't heard of this outside particle physics before.  It looks like a dairy product -- what is it exactly?

Quark = topfen = tvaroch = farmer's cheese. It's popular in Europe, but is usually hard to find in the U.S. I think of it as loose cream cheese. It's great for dumplings and cakes. And when you can't find cream cheese in Europe, it makes a decent frosting for carrot cake.

[suzilightning]

Happy Birthday! What a cleaver lady to design and reward yourself with the beautiful ring.

I love your fridge and freezer shots (and all those that came before). Is your husband a guitar player? I noticed guitar magnets on your fridge.

Nice choice of beers: Newcastle Brown is a favourite of the family. (eta: Guiness too )

I remember your mention of pinot grigio vinegar. Is that a commercial vinegar or home-made with the wine? I don't know much about vinegars but I enjoy the wine.

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Yes, John plays guitar and bass. He also composes as well as writing songs.

Here is the pinot grigio vinegar and another I am fond of. Believe it or not I get the pinot in the grocery store.

[suzilightning]

Shifting gears and hoping for an answer to this as well:  So there is a town as well as a state forest named Wharton in New Jersey, I see.  I've never found out whether this Wharton (these Whartons) are related to Joseph, the Philadelphia manufacturer who founded the nation's first collegiate business school in 1881.  You're a librarian -- aren't you supposed to know things like this? 

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Wharton in Morris County, New Jersey was originally called Port Oram. It was named after Robert Oram the manager for the New Jersey Iron Company who built the company store and worker's housing. It was renamed Wharton, after Joseph Wharton, who located his blast furnace complex in the town.

Do you know if your Joseph might have been into iron manufacturing?

[suzilightning]

Well, time for one last cocktail.

Gimlet. I know you are supposed to use Rose's Lime Juice but I prefer fresh lime juice and a smidge more sugar.

Spiedies ready to fire.

and plated with slaw and tsziki sauce on a flat bread. You really are supposed to whack a loaf of Italian in half and then wrap it around the skewer and pull them off but I prefer pita or flatbread.

For dessert figs stuffed with Maytag blue and draped with prosciutto de San Danielle then fired in a 400F oven for 5 minutes. Sweet fig, tangy cheese and salty ham. I then put a drop, just a drop of balsamic on each one.

[Dejah]

Thanks for your response on the pinot grigio vinegar.

Your desseet figs look delicious! Wish I had saved some of the fresh figs my sister brought from BC. I was a piggie last week.

[srhcb]

Those are bauerenwurst, weiswurst, chorizo, andouille and quark which I will use to make tzatziki to go with the spiedie later.  I also picked up Westphalian ham and Black Forest ham for sandwiches.

←

What flavor quark did you buy? Up, down, top, bottom, strange or charmed?

Seriously: I haven't heard of this outside particle physics before. It looks like a dairy product -- what is it exactly?

←

Oddly enough, there is a dairy product connection to the use of the word "quark" in physics.

From Wikipedia:

The word was originally coined by Murray Gell-Mann as a nonsense word rhyming with "pork". Later, he found the same word in James Joyce's book Finnegans Wake, where seabirds give "three quarks", akin to three cheers (probably onomatopoeically imitating a seabird call, like "quack" for ducks, as well as making a pun on the relationship between Munster and its provincial capital, Cork) in the passage "Three quarks for Muster Mark!/Sure he has not got much of a bark/And sure any he has it's all beside the mark."

Note: This is in reference to the City of Munster, where Munster Cheese originated, which is completely different than the American Muenster Cheese.

SB (who say physicists have no sense of humor )

Edited September 1, 2007 by srhcb (log)

[suzilightning]

Toast Dope Demo

John has also written The Toast Dope Manifesto which he promptly took up to Poughkeepsie with him so he will have to post that later in the Toast Dope thread.

The finished product properly applied.

Unfortunately I lost the best image which was the bowl filled with the sugar and piles all around of the spices and a labeled diagram of what was what. John is going to be sooooooooo angry with me.

[judiu]

Responding, if I may, to the coffee question posed up-thread: I grew up on Long Island and in northern NJ, and coffee was always served to order; black, black with sugar, regular (with some cream and sugar), light(more cream, no sugar), light and sweet (more cream, more sugar) and so forth. Servers in the south thought I was nuts when I asked for "coffee light and sweet with a toasted hard roll" . To translate this Jerseyism, read "a cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar and a Kaiser roll, split, buttered and toasted on the grill."

Dunno WHY this came about, but it's the accepted way to order, or was when I lived up that way. HTH!

[suzilightning]

Responding, if I may, to the coffee question posed up-thread: I grew up on Long Island and in northern NJ, and coffee was always served to order; black, black with sugar, regular (with some cream and sugar), light(more cream, no sugar), light and sweet (more cream, more sugar) and so forth. Servers in the south thought I was nuts when I asked for "coffee light and sweet with a toasted hard roll" . To translate this Jerseyism, read "a cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar and a Kaiser roll, split, buttered and toasted on the grill."

Dunno WHY this came about, but it's the accepted way to order, or was when I lived up that way. HTH!

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Thanks, Judy. All the people I spoke with at work, in a coffee house and in a few delis looked at me like I was speaking Greek. It seems that now adays you are given coffee and get to accessorize it to your taste.

[Jensen]

Seriously:  I haven't heard of this outside particle physics before.  It looks like a dairy product -- what is it exactly?

Quark = topfen = tvaroch = farmer's cheese. It's popular in Europe, but is usually hard to find in the U.S. I think of it as loose cream cheese. It's great for dumplings and cakes. And when you can't find cream cheese in Europe, it makes a decent frosting for carrot cake.

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I'll add that it is an acid cheese, like yogurt cheese. If you make yogurt at home, then you can easily adapt your routine to make quark by substituting buttermilk for the milk (or using a mixture of buttermilk and milk, if you like sweeter quark) and then straining the finished product.

[suzilightning]

A few miscellaneous pictures. First the pocky shot.

Some cookbooks. Do you think I've used the Fanny Farmer enough?

Several of my mom's recipes are in the Shelter Island cookbook. Jacqueline Pell Tuttle taught home ec and was a friend of my mom's. I still refer to this cookbook occasionally.

[insomniac]

Those are bauerenwurst, weiswurst, chorizo, andouille and quark which I will use to make tzatziki to go with the spiedie later.  I also picked up Westphalian ham and Black Forest ham for sandwiches.

←

What flavor quark did you buy? Up, down, top, bottom, strange or charmed?

Seriously: I haven't heard of this outside particle physics before. It looks like a dairy product -- what is it exactly?

←

Oddly enough, there is a dairy product connection to the use of the word "quark" in physics.

From Wikipedia:

The word was originally coined by Murray Gell-Mann as a nonsense word rhyming with "pork". Later, he found the same word in James Joyce's book Finnegans Wake, where seabirds give "three quarks", akin to three cheers (probably onomatopoeically imitating a seabird call, like "quack" for ducks, as well as making a pun on the relationship between Munster and its provincial capital, Cork) in the passage "Three quarks for Muster Mark!/Sure he has not got much of a bark/And sure any he has it's all beside the mark."

Note: This is in reference to the City of Munster, where Munster Cheese originated, which is completely different than the American Muenster Cheese.

SB (who say physicists have no sense of humor )

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you have just eductated me, thanks and I always thought quark rhymed with shark (the physics sort I mean) maybe it's an American accent

[suzilightning]

For those of you not in the northeastern United States, this is what some of the trees are looking like.

It is 1 September and it is time to pick up my instruments and put on the uniform.

Load the snack box into the back of the car fudgy boubon brownies and all.

Pull together lunch.

[Kouign Aman]

I hope the birding is grand this year.

Its been fun to read your blog. Thank you!

[Marigene]

Thank you for the interesting blog!

[suzilightning]

I  hope the birding is grand this year.

Its been fun to read your blog. Thank you!

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Well it started out ok. 4.5 hours, 16 birds including an adult Bald Eagle that went first north then finally south so I could count him/her. Since raptors are an indicator species I just count what I see but as I said earlier, being a Red Sox fan helps with that patience thing.

A few more pictures to post late tomorrow before the next blogger takes over. The kitties people got home and brought me a present (thought they usually don't - the kids leave me a bottle of Korbel,usually). I made a macaroni cheese with some quinoa pasta and had that for dinner with more tomatoes and slaw. For dinner tomorrow I pulled a frozen meatloaf from the freezer. Will serve it with beans and some smashed potatoes. The leftover loaf will become sandwiches for Monday.

Alton is on.... gotta go.

Edited September 2, 2007 by suzilightning (log)

[racheld]

What flavor quark did you buy?  Up, down, top, bottom, strange or charmed?

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Sandy, you Smarty-Pants!!! Gotta love a man who can name quarks

Suzi---I'm enjoying this no end---not replying much (you know why)---but love hearing all about your life. Happy First HawkDay!!

Edited September 2, 2007 by racheld (log)