food blog

[marlena spieler]

hallelujah, the red royal mail van with its little yellow crown on the side, her majesty's postal service, a big ER on the side (nothing to do with the television series)........has just pulled up....and we have pounced onto the delivery guy.......his cardboard box is just the right size for the expected bag of coffee.......

open it up........we're sniffing right now. the smell of such fresh dark coffee. i'm in a state of sort of happy whining if there is such a thing. i just want to sniff and sniff and sniff.......but i'm going to force myself into action now: grind the beans and brew the coffee.

before union roasters i always brought coffee back from peets and one morning, having returned with wonderful "major dick" (my affectionate term for peets finest major dickensens) my coffee grinder gave up the ghost. i was desperate and tried grinding the beans in my mortar and pestle (no one sold electric grinders in my neighbourhood at the time, i didn't have a manual grinder, nor did i have the patience to spend a day going out west to buy a grinder. i needed coffee at that minute). it didn't work and beans were flying all over the kitchen. Then i put the beans in a plastic bag and bashed at it with a hammer but the bag broke. finally i put both the beans and the hammer in a double-layer plastic bag and started smacking the floor (concrete floor, we lived in a warehouse). and that was almost okay.

now i always keep two electric grinders in my kitchen at all times, though this past year i've had problems with power outages (nyc and naples, italy). i may need my own generator.

2 cups of dark roast revolution blend with hot steamy milk, coming up.

[John Whiting]

2 cups of dark roast revolution blend with hot steamy milk, coming up.

My morning fix is their Foundation blend, which Jeremy says is the nearest they do to the Major's. It's pretty close in flavor and a lot closer in food miles.

[SobaAddict70]

So, does your slave...er, I mean your husband read eGullet? Or lurk?

heheh

Soba

[marlena spieler]

Friday 20th Feb 2004

LUNCHTIME!

spring being what it is, today is the wintery sort of spring day. cold. grey. so after the pork blowout i thought: warming spicy soup.

started off in the lahlebi direction: i was thinking of a bowl of tender chickpeas in broth with spices etc. that i used to eat in jaffa, israel, but never can quite manage to replicate it........and anyhow, i only had one can of chicpeas (confession: i was using canned chickpeas and anything with chickpeas is really is so much better when cooked from dried).

okay, the chickpeas were simmering in water in the saucepan, then i added cooked brown lentils stashed in my freezer, half a can of kidney beans leftover from a salad a few days ago, tomatoes (canned!) and lots of: sliced garlic, chopped celery inc the leaves, chopped onion, ginger, tumeric, cumin, celery seeds, a little smoked pimenton (spanish paprika) and cardomom. lamb stock from freezer. It was a little anemically thin---lots and lots of lamb stock--so i made a paste of chickpea flour and water and stirred it in. not a lot to make it thick, just to hold it all together,

just before serving, i stirred into each bowlful: a spoonful of homemade green curry paste that I keep in my freezer: cilantro, green chillies, lemon grass, ginger or was it galangal, i do both depending on whats available......

and a big squirt of lime juice.

we're eating our second bowlful now.

[marlena spieler]

So, does your slave...er, I mean your husband read eGullet? Or lurk?

heheh

Soba

hi soba,

my husband is a lurker. with a slightly addictive personality, he's been lurking big time.

right now however he is harmlessly engaged in wandering the aisles of waitrose in search of whatever he can come home with of interest to egulleteers out there who might be eating along.

should be fun to see what we're all eating tonight........

[marlena spieler]

Gotta keep my strength up:

1 little satsuma: i love these! so sweet and tangy and perfumed, all wrapped up into one tiny citrus fruit, and hey: hardly any seeds, and so easy to peel!

and

1 perfect wrinkly black oily salty chewy gorgeous olive. turkish olive.

[Rhea_S]

I'm enjoying your blog. It has good, peppy energy. (That sounds so new wave!)

[marlena spieler]

Thanks, Rhea,

now: slave aka husband, has just come back from food shopping for this blog. here is what he got:

haggis--he's scots. last week we ate vegetarian haggis which was very good and almost as heavy as the original meaty one

rutabaga, some creamy little potatoes, five packages of vacuum packed beetroot (am i going to have to call this the beet-flog?), three logs of fresh perky goats cheese from poiteau-charentes, unsalted butter from a farm in somerset, pecorino, chaorce that has been discounted cause its getting on in age, and......two cucumbers.

just ate a pear.

possible dinner plans: a little moulded timbale of haggis, and rutabaga, but after last nights meaty dinner and this afternoons spicy bean soup, i'm thinking salad and either a tart of goat cheese and spring onions, or mariolle and pear....or spaghetti with goat cheese and basil. On the other hand the temperature has just dipped and i kind of fancy some potatoes with porcini mushrooms......

will let you know as we grow hungrier this evening, and i head into the kitchen.

[marlena spieler]

It seems as if I've neglected to mention the endless cups of tea we drink.

Strong tea, with low fat milk. no sugar for moi. when i lived in america i always made proper tea, in a pot, using loose leaves. when i moved to britain everyone made tea using bags and what happened to my standards! however, if you must use bags, and i think i must, squeeze the teabags well to extract all of the flavourful tea juice.

there is, of course, a raging debate as to which is better: tea in the cup and then milk? or milk in the cup and then tea? it actually changes the chemical composition of the brew: has to do with temperature and milk proteins and colloids forming.

i'm a milk in second person, and only a little milk at that.

[marlena spieler]

20th february 04, evening:

a happy fog has settled around prince of wales close tonight (my home) because this is what the inhabitants inside have dined on:

hot crumbed goats cheese salad: cheese from poiteau-charentes, mild and milky-tangy, coated with homemade garlic crumbs and broiled until hot and just that wee bit melty; leafy salad part: watercress, butter lettuce, paper thin red onion, beetroot, thinly sliced cucumber, extra virgin and white wine vinegar. pinch of thyme.

Potatoes browned in home rendered duck fat, with shallots, garlic, chives, porcini mushrooms and milk which sort of bound it together gratin style. generous grating of nutmeg.

we drank a vin de pays from the languedoc, which was wonderful with the earthy mushroom- potatoes, but with the cheese, it went sweet and berry-ish.....only thing for it was to have another bite of potatoes.

The cheese was a very very ripe chaource and was flogged at a discount because we seem to be the only people within a 70 mile radius who like ripe cheeses (and to think that 4 miles away, the boats sail to france). anyhow, i think this is the best chaource ever. in fact, i meant to just have a teeny bit but have now gone back for more. and i just know that this will not be the end of it.....

dessert is: pears lightly poached with lemongrass with lime........an idea inspired by the ingredients of fridge: pears, lemongrass, limes....... lets have a taste: yummmm.

this is like reality tv, reality egullet, its live folks......what will i eat next? what will you eat next?

excuse me one second.........[ever so genteel burp]......i do beg your pardon.

i'd like to say "see you for breakfast", but there is some ice cream in my freezer. will keep you posted.

[EllenC]

I love your blog. All the descriptions are wonderful. Keep eating!

[Toliver]

Oooh, we're left hanging in suspense!

What flavor ice cream is calling your name from the freezer? And I'm going to guess it's not from a big name-brand company.

[marlena spieler]

What flavor ice cream is calling your name from the freezer?

we don't have a selection of exotic ice creams here, alas, but we do have the excellent hill station ice cream.

tonight it practically flung open the freezer door itself and insinuated itself into my bow: an english company owned by two americans who love ice cream. the chocolate is modelled on paris' bertillon, and its good, the coffee ice cream is wonderful too. (i'm not so fond of the coffee spice flavor) and most of the other flavors are spices: cinnamon, ginger, vanilla bean, and there is a coconut rum i think. anyhow: my favourite: cardomom.

i've got a bowl of cardomom ice cream in my chubby hands as i tap; cardomom ice cream is so exotically fragrant.........good with poached peaches except we don't have any, this being winter and all.....

husband has a bowl of---haagen-dazs, how mainstream can we be? but this is banoffee caramel pie flavour, and he is treating the whole container as if it were an ice cream bar. has he no dignity? he's only small and he's eating the whole bloomin' container!

time for a digestif i think.

[marlena spieler]

Digestif: Cognac Frapin.

[Toliver]

What flavor ice cream is calling your name from the freezer?

we don't have a selection of exotic ice creams here, alas, but we do have the excellent hill station ice cream.

tonight it practically flung open the freezer door itself and insinuated itself into my bow: an english company owned by two americans who love ice cream. the chocolate is modelled on paris' bertillon, and its good, the coffee ice cream is wonderful too. (i'm not so fond of the coffee spice flavor) and most of the other flavors are spices: cinnamon, ginger, vanilla bean, and there is a coconut rum i think. anyhow: my favourite: cardomom.

Cardomom! The jilted spice...often passed over and relegated to the back of the spice cupboard until its container is mistakenly brought forward to the light of day. The ice cream sounds delicious, as does the Ginger flavor!

Sleep well. We're looking forward to breakfast.

edited for spellling

Edited February 20, 2004 by Toliver (log)

[John Whiting]

we don't have a selection of exotic ice creams here, alas, but we do have the excellent hill station ice cream.

Who advertise themselves, quite rightly, as the ice cream for adults; i.e. a lower than usual sugar content.

Edited February 20, 2004 by John Whiting (log)

[rancho_gordo]

The question is:

Do you lick yours?

Sorry to chime in so late on this, but isn't this the reason God created good, fresh 100% corn tortillas?

[SobaAddict70]

It seems as if I've neglected to mention the endless cups of tea we drink.

Strong tea, with low fat milk. no sugar for moi. when i lived in america i always made proper tea, in a pot, using loose leaves. when i moved to britain everyone made tea using bags and what happened to my standards! however, if you must use bags, and i think i must, squeeze the teabags well to extract all of the flavourful tea juice.

there is, of course, a raging debate as to which is better: tea in the cup and then milk? or milk in the cup and then tea? it actually changes the chemical composition of the brew: has to do with temperature and milk proteins and colloids forming.

i'm a milk in second person, and only a little milk at that.

When did lemon slices start being offered with hot tea?

I understand that's kind of heresy with respect to tea drinking in Britain.

Nice blog so far, btw.

Soba

[marlena spieler]

When in Greece and Italy friends have teased me (referring to the whole American/British fascination with the mediterranean diet) by describing their "Mediterranean diet breakfast" as : coffee and a fag.

so this morning i had the mediterranean breakfast without the cigarette.

then ate a big fat banana and the sweetest little satsuma ever. i mean, that banana was so fragrant, so firm yet sweet and yielding. same for the satsuma: when the peel just rolls off the flesh, and its juicy with the right balance of sweet and tart and citrus fragrance......then you think about most supermarket produce: so dull and boring.

soba, glad you're enjoying blog. the whole milk in tea thing seems to have taken over tea in britain, not quite sure exactly when though no doubt its there in the miasma of tea literature out there--i'm sure its in one of the many the books on my shelf.

not everyone takes milk in their tea though. sometimes people take nothing at all, and even though you hardly see tea with lemon in general, it is there..... you find it in posh or genteel tea rooms or restaurants, served in nice delicate cup and saucer...... not necessarily in the big hefty mugs that much of britain drinks its tea from. and i think: you know, tea with milk is delicious in a mug, tea with lemon is delicious in a cup and saucer....

...... was awake half the night trying to think of what i was going to serve to you all today........

will report after Lunch!

[marlena spieler]

but before we turn our thoughts to lunch:

a little slice of fresh (French, the kind in a log without any crust, the kind that the welsh do really well, too, except that french was what was in my fridge) goats cheese sprinkled with thyme.

[marlena spieler]

Lunch.

hors d'oeuvre: when no one was looking i stuck the spoon into the jar of pickled cocktail onions and finished it.

A big salad: arugula (rocket)--the wild kind; butter lettuce (green lettuce); green onion (spring onion), a little chopped garlic, thinly sliced cucumber, diced beet (root), wedges of tomato, sliced little salad potatoes (fingerlings), and a big ol' shower of hot browned bacon bits (lardons). Olive oil and vinegar--both white wine vinegar and balsamic. Oh, and because of our surfeit of goats cheese that we are eating our way through, a nice big slice of milky fresh goat cheese on top.

dessert: a degustion of pears: comice, asian apple-pear, and a smaller narrower pear that was sort of cross between comice and bosc. comice pear=sweet, tender, juicy; asian pear=very juicy and utterly crisp, though taste was very subtle with cucumbery-citrussy overtones, and the smaller narrower pear was deliciously pear-scented. Not sure of provenence of the pears, but they were divine, the finest pear tasting ever.

finale: tea with milk, pg tips strong brewed, low fat milk. when i go to america i always bring pg tips with me to give as presents and also just to drink. i was going to say that pg tips are low brow but british husband got a bit aggrevated at that: they're middle brow he insisted. whatever that means.

funnily enough, we have a nice stash of tea for all occasions, and in fact have even taken tea with mr twining and his son, and nicer chaps you'll never hope to meet. and their tea is fabulous of course. but call me low....make that medium....brow......i do like a nice cuppa pg tips.

oh heck, as long as we're drinking the tea, don't you think a sweet nibble is in order? nougat from corsica, redolent of the preserved citron they are so fond of, and also perfumed with a hit of cardomom (do i love cardamom or what).

very nice finish to the salady lunch and the tea.

[marlena spieler]

small bottle (airplane size) vodka.

attempt at self-medicationg. husband driving me insane.

[Jake]

small bottle (airplane size) vodka.

attempt at self-medicationg. husband driving me insane.

Ha, ha. Good for you Marlena -- any olives?

[marlena spieler]

virgin marys: lots of lemon juice (double the usual amount), tomato juice, celery salt, tabasco sauce, worcestershire sauce, and celery sticks (a whole buncha them). no vodka, cause i drank it all earlier. rough afternoon.

we also ate black olives. oily crinkly wrinkly small shiny and very delicious black olives; husband ate three, i ate two, but shall be nibbling on them as the chicken roasts.

guests from the big city tonight.

[Mabelline]

Marlena, do you know what you are planning for tonight? Youall shop everyday,no? Or do you have American sized cold storage? I would love to walk to the markets everyday and shop at leisure. How good is that?