eG Foodblog: Lindacakes - EIK PREWAR

[Lindacakes]

That’s real estate talk for an eat-in kitchen in a pre-war building, and it is from this cultural locus in Brooklyn that I am reporting on my Epicurean exploits. Which are influenced by:

My parents, who loved to play with food.

The changing face of New York City, my beloved melting pot.

The vegetable box, which comes on Thursdays.

Julia Child at 3:00 a.m., and food as succour.

My name is Linda, and I am an Italian-American living in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn with my partner, Lynn, and our parrot, Ernie. The building I live in has a bakery on the ground floor, which was once a bakery of some renown in our neighborhood. My landlady’s father built it in 1930, and bread and pastry were sold at the front of the house. That’s bricked over now, and the coal oven is in the back where the landlady’s nephew still bakes bread for commercial bakeries and one food store on our block that has a sign reading “We sell Caruso bread on Tuesdays.”

Now you wouldn’t know there’s a bakery here unless you witness the weekly coal or flour delivery.

This is us, our only formal portrait. We have been together a long time. I am on your right.

Every morning I am served espresso in bed. This is made in a Bialetti Moka Express pot. The reason why I am served is that I am incapable of movement before my daily injection. At any given point in my adult life, I am in some state of addiction/withdrawal from some form of caffeinated beverage. Right now, I am in withdrawal. This tidy espresso cup, rather large by European standards, and is likely a double, is half my usual dosage. I’m doing well and can sometimes actually get out of bed to make my own espresso if the pot has been prepared the night before and I have to pee really bad.

I use Illy canned coffee in this pot, and I believe that learning how to make it is what got me started on eGullet. I wanted to be able to replicate the espresso I had in Italy, I did some research, and ended up with this. This espresso does not, by any means, taste as good as the espresso in Italy, but it’s low tech and I try to live a simple life, a philosophy often expressed through food.

[Lindacakes]

The Kitchens.

We have two kitchens, by virtue of having two apartments, which happens when you are two artists who require studio space. These kitchens have separated into a savory kitchen and a sweet kitchen, or an everyday kitchen and an entertaining kitchen, or your kitchen and my kitchen, however you choose to look at it.

It took a variety of strategic moves, concluded by the death of our upstairs neighbor, to achieve two apartments on the top floor of our building. We can prop the doors open and pass from one apartment to the other. This assists greatly when complicated cooking, particularly for guests, must be achieved. My common pattern is to serve hors d'oevres from the front kitchen while drinks are being made, enjoy drinks and hors d'oevres in the living room, pass to the back kitchen (which has a larger table) for dinner, and then return to the front living room for dessert, which has been laid out in the front kitchen. It sometimes confuses the guests, but if I remain sober enough, I can remember the configuration of table changes and get them fed in the proper order.

One of the advantages to this is that if something goes wrong (case in point: the Christmas in which my Yorkshire pudding was not rising properly) the guests can sip their drinks in the front apartment, oblivious to the panic and swearing in the back apartment.

What follows are photographs of the front kitchen, which is painted the color of cantaloup. Several pints of Benjamin Moore were bought and demo'd on the walls before this color was settled on. Unbelievably, it seems to tone down the pinkish linoleum and the cheap particle board cabinets.

Note that Ernie's cage is kept in the kitchen. This is against common wisdom for bird cages, as cooking fumes can damage a delicate avian respiratory system. For this reason, I own no non-stick cookware -- the fumes from non-stick cookware can be fatal. I'm also very careful about having Ernie out of the kitchen if there's fumes, and the windows near to the stove are opened.

Later in the week we will visit the back kitchen, when sweets are prepared.

[nakji]

New York! How exciting! Your apartment looks beautiful. My husband's parents also keep their birds in the kitchen, but then, they never use their kitchen for actual cooking, so it's not a big problem for them.

I use Illy canned coffee in this pot,

This is my favourite coffee, too. Can I ask what you do with your leftover cans? I have accumulated quite a few of them, and I don't want to throw them away, they seem too pretty. That I've never be able to figure out what category of garbage they belong to.

[lucylou95816]

Looking forward to your blog..what kind of food can we expect this week?

[Lindacakes]

Hello!

Nakji, we have regular recycling in New York, so I put the cans out for recycling. They are really nice cans. If I was to save them, I think I'd put hardware (nails and such) in them. But you can't see inside, which is a drawback. I've already eaten enough Marshmallow Fluff (nice jars with red lids) to take care of this problem. They'd make nice drums and shaking instruments for kid's band.

Lucylou, do you know the artist Liza Lou? She makes entire environments out of beads and she once did a kitchen, just fabulous. What we're going to be eating this week is corned beef for St. Paddy's Day, likely some Italian carry out, organic fruits and vegetables, and something I haven't decided for Easter. It's a big holiday week!

Linda

[lucylou95816]

Hello! 

Nakji, we have regular recycling in New York, so I put the cans out for recycling.  They are really nice cans.  If I was to save them, I think I'd put hardware (nails and such) in them.  But you can't see inside, which is a drawback.  I've already eaten enough Marshmallow Fluff (nice jars with red lids) to take care of this problem.  They'd make nice drums and shaking instruments for kid's band.

Lucylou, do you know the artist Liza Lou?  She makes entire environments out of beads and she once did a kitchen, just fabulous.  What we're going to be eating this week is corned beef for St. Paddy's Day, likely some Italian carry out, organic fruits and vegetables, and something I haven't decided for Easter.  It's a big holiday week!

Linda

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No, I haven't heard of her, I'll have to check her out. My screen name is in honor of my dog.

[Kim Shook]

Linda, I am very excited about this blog! I always enjoy your posts and living in NY is one my fantasies! This is one of those blogs that I will be checking in on every hour! Thanks so much for blogging and bless you for doing it on a holiday week! Are you entertaining on Sunday, or will it just be Lynn and you?

I love your front kitchen. The color is just gorgeous. It looks edible! As always, I'd love some pictures of your neighborhood, please!

[Lindacakes]

Breakfast

You may have noticed the chorus line of grapefruits in the photographs of the kitchen. This is the Lucy-and-Viv-in-the-Candy-Shop factor of my food life. You may recall the episode where Lucy and Viv got a job working in a candy shop, the climax of which was a berserk assembly belt that caused them to jam candies in their mouths, under their hats, etc., to keep up.

I mentioned a certain vegetable box, which comes on Thursday. I signed up for a weekly delivery of organic fruits and vegetables several years ago. Every single Thursday, unless I call and cancel (which I do only when on vacation), a box shows up and it is our goal to eat said fruits and vegetables before the next box arrives. This is a challenge I take up willingly, because otherwise, I would subsist entirely on foods composed of various forms of refined carbohydrate.

Sometimes, the line backs up and we end up with something like the grapefruits you see. They no longer fit in the antique Tanglefoot Flypaper box on the same shelf, and are readied for consumption.

However, this morning I opt to use up four Granny Smith apples for breakfast.

Once cooked until they are soft, to these I add dark brown sugar and cinnamon and blend them with a Bamix immersion blender. This is the one electrical appliance used daily in the kitchen. The yield is the most delicious applesauce -- very smooth, warm, and with a nice bite.

Ernie is offered a variety of bird foods in his cage including pellets, seeds, fresh fruit, various dried fruits and vegetables, and water. Birds are flock animals, of course, and they like to eat with the rest of the flock. They cannot eat chocolate, avocado, caffeine, or alcohol, foods which are poisonous to birds. Ernie is enjoying his apples post cooking, but before sugar and spice have been added.

Nearly every morning we drink a smoothie composed of non-fat yogurt, various juices, and a foul green powder called Green Vibrance. The Green Vibrance turns everything the same shade of dank green, but the shakes taste good and I carry the belief that the Green Vibrance is more healthful than vitamin pills. I wash down two Omega 3 capsules with it. In this particular shake I’ve put bananas, pomegranate juice and carrot juice. The juice I buy at Costco.

Now that I’ve had some vitamins, I’m going to shower and go into the City, which is how we Brooklynites talk about Manhattan. I’ve taken today and tomorrow as vacation days from my leftover 2007 vacation. Today I’m going to go have lunch with a friend who is a psychotherapist. Sometimes we grab lunch between her appointments. Later in the day I’ll meet Lynn and we’ll go have a corned beef sandwich at an Irish police bar.

[racheld]

What a nice surprise to see you!!! Every time I look at your "black" cake layer, I think of the lovely evening our family spent at the theater with Julie Harris doing Belle of Amherst---just seeing your little picture brings back a fond memory.

Panic and swearing. Yep. I can relate to that.

[Kouign Aman]

because otherwise, I would subsist entirely on foods composed of various forms of refined carbohydrate.

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Amen sister!

I'm looking forward to more of this blog, thank you much!

Birds ...cannot eat chocolate, avocado, caffeine, or alcohol, foods which are poisonous to birds.

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You're the second person I've heard mention avocado as toxic to parrots. Do you know what the toxic component is?

I knew chocolate was toxic to dogs, but hadnt heard that about parrots either. Live and learn.

So far the only thing we dont allow ours is cheese which can ball up in their crop.

Caffeine -hadnt heard it was toxic, but the thought of a wired parrot brings fear to my heart!

[insomniac]

Lindacakes, I think that appleseeds are toxic to parrots but I guess not the flesh...

[gini]

Reading along and looking forward to it!

[CaliPoutine]

How exciting that you're blogging.

Coincindentally I just bought a can of Illy coffee to bring back( I'm currently in Ft. Lauderdale) for my (same sex) spouse Robin. I've heard great things about that coffee and I've wanted her to try it for awhile now.

Ernie is sooooo cute!! I've always wanted a parrot, does he fly around the house?

[hummingbirdkiss]

what a beautiful bird Ernie is! and your kitchen lovely and immaculate!

I have two parrots Flower and Kiwi ..if I kept them in the kitchen they would boss me around so much I would not be able to cook ..they are big time food critics!!! (and thieves)

we are in process of putting a second kitchen in and I love the idea of sweet and savory kitchens ..what a brilliant idea!

Edited March 17, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[SuzySushi]

What a fun blog! I love the Empire State Building espresso cup. That has real character!

[snowangel]

Two kitchens. My, what a lot of cleaning. Who cleans which one, and which one tends to be neater day to day?

[MarketStEl]

Haven't been hanging around the foodblogs lately -- I've been busy penning the occasional essay and singing in front of audiences while holding down the usual job and arguments -- and I see I completely missed a good one from the Far East. I'm glad I caught this one at the beginning, and am looking forward to hearing a voice new to me, as I don't frequent the baking forums on eG at all.

Of course, we are going to see the inside of the Irish police bar, right? You mean to tell me cops in Brooklyn don't go for donut shops?

What Brooklyn neighborhood do you live in exactly? I trust we'll get a tour later in the week?

[heidih]

Already engaged and looking forward to more.

I had a Moluccan cockatoo that ruled the roost in the kitchen and had to taste everything. He turned on me when I got obviously preggo and we had to find him a new home. Hung in there till after child born but he was over the top jealous and getting dangerous. Was however really sweet and goofy and clownish- no dull moments.

Sounds like espresso was an Italian epiphany- did you have other food revelation moments there?

Thanks for blogging!

[helenjp]

OK! I recognize that coffee-maker, my parents had exactly the same type, until they were deemed Not Good and everybody threw them out so that their kids could re-purchase them 20 years later!

I'm looking forward to seeing your vegetable box - that type of service is very popular in Japan, so it will be fascinating to see the Brooklyn equivalent.

Birds in the kitchen...doesn't worry you preparing food close to a bird-cage?

[Rehovot]

Great photos of Ernie and breakfast, especially the first one, which reminds me of how I look with my first cup of coffee in the morning.

Looking forward to your week!

[mizducky]

Digging your style.

Ernie is delightful--I love the shot of him grabbing the bowl.

Always up for some corned beef, nomatter where it leads one. And some serious New York atmosphere.

[Lindacakes]

Well, the parrot owners have come out of the bushes! Maybe we should start a thread about what you feed your parrot(s).

All of your questions will be answered in due time -- I have begun writing for today and realize that I have to stop now because I need to drive to Philadelphia for the Frida Kahlo show. I've seen many Frida Kahlo exhibits, including her house in Mexico City, but this is a retrospective. I need to shower and hit the road.

This evening I will fill in yesterday as well as report on today -- I think we're going to hit the Italian market.

Let me give you this summary report in the meantime:

Lunch was horrible. Bad, bad food.

I did have that corned beef sandwich, sitting at the bar, and you will see NYPD in kilts. Right now, it is difficult for me to think about because a large, lumbering, drunken, styrofoam leprechaun-earred oaf FARTED the most, well, present fart I have ever had the misfortune to witness.

It traveled down the bar about five people wide, it caused the bartender to light not one but two matches and wave them about furiously and it made at least four of us blatantly cover our faces with our clothing. It was that tremendous. This man spent a half hour trying to text an incomprehensible message to a friend, in between nearly passing out on my back. The only thing I could think to do was order more Jameson's, drink it, and flee.

Interesting food-and-drink-related fact: When ladies are drinking at the bar, they are served their shots of Jameson's in glass shot glasses. When oafs in styrofoam leprechaun ears are served their shots of Jameson's, and really, any man I witnessed getting served, they drank out of plastic cups.

Sexism? You decide.

[Lindacakes]

On the neighborhood: I live in Williamsburg. Williamsburg is the hot, hot, hot section of Brooklyn. I have lived here for twelve years and I like it cold, cold, cold. So I am a curmudgeon on these matters. Williamsburg is equal parts Polish, Jewish, Spanish, Italian, and Hip. My quiet little street is turning into the Valley of the Condos. They surround us, and soon, new tennants who know no one will look down on us. Us being people who have lived here for a long time, who speak to each other, who look out for each other. I live amongst old people and I like that. I like the give and take, the comfortableness of it all. If you come home on a summer evening, and by the time you hit the block, you know that your car has a ticket, everyone you pass says, "Hey, I rang your bell to tell you to move the car, but you weren't home." And then the hecklers say, "The mayor would like you to send him a present," you know you belong.

On the kitchens and the cleanliness: Cue the Odd Couple song. I am Felix, she is Oscar. There are fights. You have seen the Oscar kitchen. After Felix went through it with Soft Scrub. Picking little bits of strawberry off the walls, sweeping up the seeds, lining up the grapefruits. Doo doo doo dooooo . . .

It is sometimes a drag to have to clean two apartments. Often, the apartments go uncleaned.

We are being watched right now.

[hummingbirdkiss]

Good morning Linda I am so jealous of your day! enjoy! ( I love Frida Kahlo but I have to admit the last time I saw an exibit I left exhausted and kind of depressed very heart wrenching stuff )

1. I think if I made a list of all the foods my parrots ate it would never end!

2. as far as the sexism ..probably more a safety issue when farty oafs in styrofoam leprechaun ears are served with plastic! very funny I have to say I could see him..or maybe have seen him!

3. hmmm the cleaning of two kitchens had not thought about that ....we are both not quite Oscars but ...we are noooo Felix's either

have a wonderful day sweet lady!

hugs to you,

Heidi

Edited March 18, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Shelby]

OMG you made me laugh with you story about the farter

Enjoying your blog!