eG Foodblog: MelissaH and phaelon56 - Salt Potatoes and Onions, but n

[phaelon56]

And here is today's lunch - partially consisting of leftovers from tonight's (actually yesterday's) dinner.

Most days I eat a better lunch than this but leaving my desk wasn't an option today. The tomato-cuke salad was still really good and very few things are tastier on Triscuits or Wheat Thins than 4X cheddar cheese. This is the Canadian Black Diamond brand - available at our local Sam's Club.

It's not just the increased sharpness that I enjoy in the long aged cheddars - there's a much better texture as well. They get sort of crumbly and have a way of almost melting on your tongue as you eat the little hunks. It's radically different (to me) than 2X cheddar - worth seeking out and worth the nominal extra cost ($10 per pound versus $4 to $7 per pound for lesser domestic cheddars). It even makes vastly superior grilled cheese sandwiches.

[abramer]

A Central New York blog, YAY! My husband and I grew up in the suburbs of Syracuse, but we left almost ten years ago now. Our families are still there, so we get to visit now and then.

Now I'm going to have to trek out to Wegman's for salt potatos, Hoffman hot dogs, and some corn on the cob. Looking forward to seeing what you're both doing this week!

[Sony]

Hooray! I have eGulleter neighbors! Resident of Ithaca, NY for just about a year now.....and frequent traveler around the lovely state of NY (usually for work).

I ALWAYS enjoy the blogs, but especially looking forward to this tag team! Beautiful meals thus far....and of course, let me know if you ever need a local to host you if you're in town!

[Smithy]

Melissa, you are a model of tact. Thank you for an enlightening answer. You're right, it sounds as though our weather and microclimates are similar.

Owen, I've never thought of frying Halloumi cheese, or of adding fish sauce to a tomato-cuke salad. What interesting ideas! The Halloumi is something I've never been able to like - too salty, as you note - so I look forward to trying it this way.

[MelissaH]

Casey came home from work today at about 5:00, and said, "Want to take the canoe over to Sterling?" So that's what we've been doing.

On the way home, we discussed what to make for dinner. Suddenly, Casey snapped his fingers and said, "I've got it!" And after we got home and put the canoe, life vests, and paddles away, he proceeded to put dinner together. I took pictures of the process. It's in the oven, I took a shower to get rid of the DEET I soaked myself in (I'm a mosquito magnet), and if I don't get to post about it tonight, I'll do so tomorrow morning.

I'm starting to put together my shopping list for the pizza party on Thursday. The weather looks like we'll be good to go on the grill. The family we've invited over usually does just pepperoni or bacon, and they generally order from Little Caesar's. We've also been told that as long as there's something that doesn't involve mushrooms, they'll find a pie to suit them. We've already warned them that grilled pizzas need to be lightly topped to come out well.

Are there any pizza toppings I should be sure I have on my shopping list? We already have pepperoni in the house, as well as pineapple. Fresh tomatoes and green peppers too, as it's that time of the year. Are there sweet onions available from somewhere, or should I caramelize some of our local onions beforehand?

MelissaH

[Chris Amirault]

It is the perfect time of year for pizza with fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh garlic -- and if you're feeling zesty, find a can of salt-cured anchovies, clean 'em, chop 'em, and sprinkle 'em.

Blog on!

[phaelon56]

Owen, I've never thought of frying Halloumi cheese, or of adding fish sauce to a tomato-cuke salad.  What interesting ideas!  The Halloumi is something I've never been able to like - too salty, as you note - so I look forward to trying it this way.

←

A dash of the fish sauce does great things for anything resembling a salad dressing or a light sweet/sour sauce.

As for the Halloumi - I really don't care for it plain. It's still rather salty when it's fried but if you slice it thin (not too thin or it falls apart in the pan) it gets an intense flavor in the browned bits. It's nearly as radical a transformation as that which occurs with roasted cauliflower.

Are there any pizza toppings I should be sure I have on my shopping list? We already have pepperoni in the house,

Thin sliced chorizo sausage that has been briefly browned first and blotted free of oil before adding to the pie. And caramelized onions. Yum.

Price Chopper (at least the one in Cicero at the Marketplace near Lowe's) carries a good brand of both cured chorizo and linguica from a purveyor based in Rhode Island - home to a large Portuguese population. It's not with the regular sausages - look in a separate section - maybe near slab bacon. or ask the butcher. It's worth looking for.

I'll be using some later this week but I don't want to spill the beans just yet on what it's being used for.

[JTravel]

Owen, I've never thought of frying Halloumi cheese

I just tried this with a Mexican Frying cheese (Frier?) that I found in Super Wal-mart. It was sort of squeeky between the teeth....like cheese curds. It gets a crispy litttle crust on it and gets soft through the slice. Kids and grandkids ate every bit of it. Seems it would be great with that salad. Hate to see the end of real tomatoes.

[heidih]

←

Enjoying you both. I noticed your wooden flat "spoon" serving the fish with its well used dark end. Is this your favorite, or do you have several? Special history? I am a wooden cooking spoon devotee from childhood and am always interested. Thank you.

[purplewiz]

Work constraints will have most of my posting done in the evening hours but for those of you with fond memories of late night beer swilling and greasy carb loading back when you were Cornell undergrads....  I give you....  Chapter House and "truck". Some things really never change.

←

Oh my goodness, they're still there! Good to know some things never change.

I'm really looking forward to this blog - it's such a beautiful area and the food pictures are already making my mouth water!

Marcia.

Cornell Engineering, Class of '86

[snowangel]

So it was time for Plan B. And on sale this week was what the wrapper called a "boneless shoulder butt roast." These were more reasonably sized, so I got one. My husband cooked it last night, and we discovered that "roast" was a misnomer; if you roasted it, you wound up with something that required a very sharp knife and teeth to eat.

Melissa,

The only thing to do with that is to smoke it. Done on your WSM it will be perfect, but you are more than right, a roast it ain't. Smoked or not, that hunk of meat needs a a long slow cook.

←

Begging pardon to Mike (smokemaster), I think should you not be willing to commit untold time to something you might not regularly do, how about Carnitas?

More about the knitting, please! I've just found a stash of yarn that reeks felted trivets...

[Sony]

Owen (or anyone), any reason one might hit up Hot Truck instead of Louie's Lunch (Another truck mainstay on Cornell's campus)?

More about the 2 trucks: http://cornellsun.com/node/23636

[emilyr]

Isn't it funny how things just seem to pop up when you need them? When suzilightning mentioned spiedies in her blog the other week, I recieved the invitiation to my friend's rehearsal dinner the same night, and she promised us mid-westerners a specialty of spiedies. When I called her and told her about the coincidence, she was a bit preturbed (only not really ) that she hadn't picked something I'd never heard of!

I'm heading off to Syracuse for the wedding next week (actually Syracuse, Ithaca and Lodi), so this thread comes at exactly the right time! I hate going to new cities without research, so i'll consider this background material.

One quick question: is the Ithaca Farmers Market only open on Saturday? I'm flying in Tuesday morning, and the bachelorette party is on Thursday. We don't have firm plans and thought about cooking together before we went out dancing, and a Wednesday trip to the market might be perfect for this. So I guess a follow up question is: if it's not, where would you send a bunch of post-college age girls (and law/grad/med school students) out for dinner in the greater-Syracuse area?

Looking forward to the week! Keep up the good work!

[mizducky]

I've only spent a little time in Central NY (visiting kid sister when she was attending SU), but I really liked what little I got to see. Looking forward to reading along, and would especially love to hear more about the local Cambodian/Vietnamese/Hmong community you mentioned.

[MelissaH]

More about the knitting, please!  I've just found a stash of yarn that reeks felted trivets...

←

I started knitting at the beginning of the year. I was looking for a way to generate hats quickly and cheaply (we have two college hockey teams, with prolific scorers) and something to keep my hands busy at the same time, beccause when my hands are busy I can't chew on my fingernails or stuff food in my face. Somehow, knitting clicked in my brain. I love trying new techniques and figuring out solutions to problems, to see what I can come up with. It's kind of like cooking for me, in that way.

Last night's knitting did not end so well. I had both cat

(Leo) and knitting on my lap. After a while, they co-existed in uneasy peace. The problem was not the yarn so much as the knitting needles: Leo finds them irresistible to chew on, both the bamboo of the needles and the nylon cord connecting them. (I prefer to use circular needles for everything, as I find them more ergonomic and easier to deal with than straight needles. And it keeps my total needle count down as well.) As a result of Leo's proclivities, the size 8 (5.0 mm for those of you in other parts of the world) 16-inch needle I've been using has tooth marks in one point, and I'm going to have to take some sandpaper to it and hope the whole thing doesn't splinter.

But the real problem came at dinnertime last night. I was working on a cabled band to become part of a hat, loosely based on this hat from the on-line magazine knitty.com, got the cabled band long enough to go around my head, and decided to at least undo the provisional cast-on at the bottom to get ready to try and graft the beast together this morning. (For those of you who don't knit, a provisional cast-on is a way to start knitting that can easily be taken out later, so you are left with loops that you slip onto a knitting needle and can then knit. And grafting is a way to join two sets of "live" loops such that the join is seamless and invisible—it looks just like another row of knitting—but can be fiendishly difficult to accomplish.) When I undid the provisional cast-on, I somehow only wound up with 15 loops on my needle, not the 17 loops that were supposed to be there. I looked and looked and looked, and never did figure out what happened to my two missing loops, but I think the problem came in because this is the first time I've used a provisional cast-on with both knitting and purling in the same row. Matters went from bad to worse when I managed to drop a stitch, and it laddered back all the way through the cable down to the start because I didn't realize I'd dropped it at the other end of the needle. At that point, Casey was calling me to get my food, so I ate, spent a few minutes ripping out the entire piece, and started over.

The second time through, I got smart, and after only knitting one inch or so, I tried undoing the provisional cast-on again. And again, I managed to lose stitches without figuring out where they'd gone. Rip out again. But I did figure out that things were apparently supposed to be tangled: where I switched from knitting to purling and vice-versa, the cotton I'd used for my provisional cast-on was woven through the real working yarn, just like it had been before.

The third time, I knitted an inch or so, and then wove a stitch holder into my work before taking out the provisional cast-on. Cumbersome, yes; but no dropped loops this time. I hope to get this band done (for real!) today, in between all the other things I have to do.

When I'm not working on something little like a hat, I have a knitted top in progress. I'm using a split-neck top-down pattern with 3/4 length sleeves, just like all the female TV chefs wear nowadays, and this one's knitted from the top down so I can try it on as I work on it, and so there's nothing to seam up afterwards. It's made from cotton, a little lighter color than navy blue but darker than royal blue.

This winter, I'm going to figure out socks. I know how it's supposed to work, and I have some yarn that I got in the Czech Republic that should make very nice socks. I just need to put it all into practice.

MelissaH

[MelissaH]

Dinner last night, post-paddle:

Casey started by taking some of the meat from the pork anti-roast that I'd finished off in the crockpot, and putting a portion in each of two ramekins:

He then peeled and chunked up a carrot (surprise!)

and added half to each ramekin, along with some frozen corn. We'd eaten all our fresh corn from the market long ago. He then added some of the sauce

along with a splash of water to thin it out a tad, and then gave the ramekins a stir

to combine the contents. The leftover mashed potatoes went on top

and then both ramekins went onto a baking sheet and into the oven

until the top was browned and the instant-read thermometer beeped that the inside was up to temperature.

Dinner is served! Pigherder's pie, with salad made of romaine, yellow pear tomatoes, and thin radish slices.

Now, it's time to clean up the kitchen.

MelissaH

[MelissaH]

Thin sliced chorizo sausage that has been briefly browned first and blotted free of oil before adding to the pie.  And caramelized onions. Yum.

Price Chopper (at least the one in Cicero at the Marketplace near Lowe's) carries a good brand of both cured chorizo and linguica from a purveyor based in Rhode Island - home to a large Portuguese population.  It's not with the regular sausages - look in a separate section - maybe near slab bacon. or ask the butcher. It's worth looking for.

←

Is that the brand that comes in a plastic package, with kind of scripty writing on it? We see that brand at the Price Chopper in Oswego. That does sound good with caramelized onions!

I need to get more onions today. But the skies are gray and it's sprinkling, so I'll be taking the car out on my errands. But I'd planned to do that anyway: enough trash and recyclables have built up over the last couple of weeks that I need to do a run to the transfer station sometime this week, and I might as well do it today when I'm not wishing I were on the bike. We do not have municipal trash pickup here. Either you pay a small fortune to one of the private companies, or you buy a pass for the transfer station (we buy a year pass every January, but some people prefer to get punchcards and pay as they go) and bring it in yourself. Recycling paper and cardboard, cans, and #1 and #2 plastic is included in any kind of punchpass.

Breakfast this morning was cereal and milk from my new container. But it looks about the same as yesterday's, so I didn't take a picture. I ate more than I did yesterday morning, so I shouldn't be starving at 11:00 like I was yesterday.

MelissaH

[cakewalk]

Now, it's time to clean up the kitchen.

←

Ay, there's the rub.

Great blog, looking forward to more.

(And patiently waiting for my coffee!! )

[Kouign Aman]

Its really nice to see your kitchen as a working kitchen! Is there a chance we could get another shot that includes the yummy red dining chairs?

Thanks for blogging, both of you. I spent one week in Syracuse in the early'80s for a sports festival. Enough time to know that the east and west coast of the US are indeed different. 'Twas fun. We stayed in the SU dorms. Underground dorm facilities (tunnels, sundry shop, laundry) were a revelation to a California kid. As were the covered stairs down the hill. All I can remember of the food (served in the cafeteria) is that my partner was hugely disappointed by the salad bar, and I was tickled pink to see apple butter every day. We did enjoy going 'in to town' as we thought of it, to get frozen custard.

[Peter the eater]

Any chance you could take us to the Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca? I went once in 1992 after meeting Carl Sagan at a Cornell wine & cheese - both experiences were very memorable. If its not in the cards this week then maybe you could relate any thoughts or experiences you've had with this unique institution?

[racheld]

←

Grumpy, in-curled tomatoes

We didn't have a single one this year, just round ones.

I like this twin-blog thing---two viewpoints, and views of lots of things.

[Smithy]

←

Grumpy, in-curled tomatoes

We didn't have a single one this year, just round ones.

I like this twin-blog thing---two viewpoints, and views of lots of things.

←

When I first read this, I registered it as "grumpy, the tomatoes are going away for the season" which is how I'm feeling in Minnesota. They're just about done in my part of the state, and I'm grumpy about it.

I too like the dual approach!

[Smithy]

The pigherder's pie is ingenious. Somehow I rarely think to combine leftovers that way. Thanks for the idea.

Melissa, you just started knitting THIS YEAR? I'm impressed. Maybe I'll try to get Mom to teach me how after all. I figured you'd have to be at it for years before producing anything wearable.

Leo is lovely!

Great blogging, both of yez. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing more!

[MelissaH]

I'm back from my errands. I'm hungry, so I'm eating a few Trader Joe's 50%-less-salt roasted cashews. These things are good! We'll have to get some more, next time we're at a TJ's. The closest stores to here are all about a six-hour drive away.

My first food-related (sort of) stop was the transfer station, which was busier than I would have expected. They're closed on Mondays, so Tuesday mornings are often crazy, but not quite as crazy as Saturday mornings. Things usually quiet down by afternoon on Tuesdays, but I must have timed it just right to be there when a bunch of other people were there. So it took me longer than it should have, because I couldn't park right inside the recycling shed, and I had to make a bunch of trips back and forth to the car to get everything where it needed to be. On the bright side, by the time I was done with the recycling, the crowd had cleared out and I was able to get right into the rubbish area. I didn't take pictures here, because it's not a beautiful place unless you're Oscar the Grouch, and because I didn't want to make people nervous.

My next food-related stop was much prettier. Have you ever visited an apple orchard in the fall? The trees are heavily loaded with apples, red orbs against the green foliage, and you sometimes have to wonder at the strength of the branches to hold up under all that apple-weight. Apples on trees are not shiny like apples in stores, because they haven't been waxed. The air smells of cider! I disturbed a few bees in the flax blossoms between rows of trees, but fortunately for me, they didn't mind too much and buzzed off elsewhere.

There's not much left to harvest this year, but there are still lots of apples to be picked! These trees are part of Fruit Valley Orchard (Web site still being built), one of our many local orchards but one I particularly like. They're owned by the Torrice family. Those of you who shop the Union Square Greenmarket may have seen them, as they'll travel downstate to sell their produce. They're probably best known around here for having raspberry bushes in greenhouses, so they'll have fresh raspberries available on Valentine's Day. They sell for an outrageous amount of money, but I'm told they're quite tasty, especially when your sweetie gets them for you.

In addition to apples, they grow and sell other produce. At the Fruit Valley farmstand, I got:

Concord grapes, Green Zebra tomatoes, and Paula Red Apples. The grapes weigh about 3.5 pounds, exactly the amount called for in David Lebovitz's recipe for Grape Sorbet. (Guess I need to add the ingredients for Peanut Butter Ice Cream to my shopping list also!) The tomatoes were the last green zebras they had. They probably won't last long, but they'll look nice in a salad next to the yellow pears and regular old big red tomatoes we have, perhaps with a touch of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of cheese. And this kind of apple is a good pie apple for an early season variety. We're lucky to live in an area that still grows many of the old apple varieties. Way back in July, I made my first apple pie of the year, using Yellow Transparent apples. They're a little softer than I generally prefer, but they have a terrific and unique flavor that I only get to enjoy for one or two pies every summer. I like including at least some Northern Spies when I make apple pie, but they won't be harvested for another month or more.

Fruit Valley doesn't grow cabbages or onions, but the Ouellette family does. Or at least, they grow cabbages, and they find other area farmers who grow onions that they sell at their orchard store. I showed you pictures inside in my last blog. So I was able to get

a giant cabbage and a bag of onions. Can you believe I ran out of onions?

In the interest of fair treatment, I should include a picture of the guy who's been keeping me company for most of today.

This is Lyon, our other cat and Leo's littermate. They're actually quite easy to tell apart, once you've spent a little time around them. To us, anyway, they look completely different. Lyon spends many hours here, on the stand over my computer monitor, particularly when I'm sitting in front of the computer. Sometimes he's awake, but since he's a cat he'll also spend time dozing. He snores! Fortunately, his snoring is quiet enough to get lost under the hum of the computer fan, and rubbing his head gets him to wake up and move just enough to sleep more quietly. Lyon's not much of a lap kitty—he leaves most of that to Leo—but he does want to be in a room where there are people. So today, when I've been on the computer, he's been on top of the monitor. Better on top of the monitor than pacing back and forth so I can't see the screen!

MelissaH

[bergerka]

I am LOVING this blog, this is an area of NY I never got to in my ten years there (yes, I am ashamed, it's a verguenza for the neighbors).

Owen, I think you just got some crap hake. I eat it often on this side of the pond (merluza) and while it is a lightly flavored fish, it usually has SOME flavor and a pleasant texture. It's great for poaching, flaking, mixing with a bechamel and stuffing into roasted pimientos de piquillo (small, slightly spicy red peppers).

K