eG Foodblog: Marlena - Life is Delicious Wherever I am

[marlena spieler]

okay, so i was going to post my very lovely lunch and then the phone rang. interview with the daily mirror (uk) , to run sometime in february.

so i'd better tell you all what i made for lunch, cause soon it will be dinner.

and i don't want you to miss it cause it was yummy.

I took the leftover orzo (little rice shaped pasta) and spread it in a baking pan. Topped it with diced tomatoes (from a tin), shredded graviera cheese (a white cheese somewhat like gruyere but with a stronger character and flavour) from Crete, chopped fresh oregano, chopped garlic, diced feta (my last bit from athens, so creamy and mild), and grated kefalotyri cheese (much like Parmigiana). Drizzled it with olive oil and baked it until the cheese melted.

okay, so now i'm thinking that maybe its appropriate to mention that i'm mentioned in todays New York Times (Julia Moskin's story about Macaroni and Cheese). How excited am i? (very). As I might have mentioned, i have a book about macaroni and cheese hot off the presses.

x marlena

[marlena spieler]

Reading the pudding recipe took me back to my grandmother who often made them for Christmas and served them flaming. Hard Sauce and Brandy Sauce were served with it.

I have tried making it only once and wasn't happy with the result. It wasn't bad but not Grandma's. Perhaps I will try again with your recipe.

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Barbara, does anyone in your family remember how your grandmother made her christmas pudding? sometimes asking around can be a help......its sometimes the least expected person who might be the one who remembers.....

good luck! it means alot to taste the food that a beloved-someone used to make.

x marlena

[crinoidgirl]

Our own Marlena on mac & cheese in today's NY Times:

Marlena Spieler, author of a forthcoming book, "Macaroni and Cheese" (Chronicle), agreed that most recipes simply do not have enough cheese. "I believe in making a cheese sauce and also using shredded cheese," she said.

But she refuses to forgo white sauce altogether. "You need a little goo to keep the pasta and cheese together," she said. Having made a global study of the subject, she ticked off a list of alternative binders: mascarpone, crème fraîche, eggs, heavy cream, egg yolks, cottage cheese, butter and evaporated milk, which she deems a little too sweet but "delightfully trashy."

Like me, Ms. Spieler believes that macaroni and cheese, which is often served alongside fried chicken or barbecue, deserves pride of place as a main dish. "I love it so much that I want to focus on it," she said. A crisp green salad and a glass of wine turn mac and cheese into a meal, she added.

More cheese!

edited to add - oh, shoot! I posted before I saw your post, Marlena

Edited January 4, 2006 by crinoidgirl (log)

[Swisskaese]

Here is the link to the NYT article.

[daniellewiley]

I'm loving this blog!

I'm very excited for your Mac and Cheese book. My four-year-old is a HUGE fan of macaroni and cheese, but sadly, she prefers the instant variety. She will only eat the organic Annie's, which I think is rather good, but I do wish that she'd open up to the homemade versions.

I made her a version from Recipe Gullet (was it Fifi's??) and while I found it delicious, she was horrified.

Any suggestions for a starter homemade version? Maybe one that isn't so rich? I think she was turned off by the sheer decadence of the one I made her.

She is really a very adventurous eater, but sometimes it takes a little nudging. (For example, she always declares that she hates tomatoes, but then adds, "but not in chili. I like them in chili.")

[marlena spieler]

Dinner tonight. since i've been tapping out my heart trying to write whole buncha stuff before i run out of time, i've been a little too harried to devote energy to dinner. also, lunch was so darned filling!

But i finally rose from my computer, and threw together what was turned out to be a yummy little supper.

Husband, ever the bargain-seeker and also stretching that feeling of christmas, brought back cranberry sausages leftover from christmas, from the market.

i browned them up--they got all gooey and sticky from the bits of cranberries inside, which also kept them very moist--and i made a sort of coleslaw: sliced red cabbage, curly endive, shredded carrots, red pepper, green onion, raisins, and a dressing of yogurt with a little bit of mayonaise, sugar and vinegar. It was totally invigorating, just the chewing alone brought us back to life (very crunchy).

dessert we are considering. at the moment we are both crunching a bit of fresh yellow pepper. i always think that yellow pepper is so sweet it should be dessert and luckily husband agrees. he seems to be over his christmas pudding-a-thon, thankfully.

there is a big fat mango i'm going to slice up next.

[SobaAddict70]

Soba, do i get a prize if i guess next weeks blogger correctly?

Marlena

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[marlena spieler]

I'm very excited for your Mac and Cheese book. My four-year-old is a HUGE fan of macaroni and cheese, but sadly, she prefers the instant variety. She will only eat the organic Annie's, which I think is rather good, but I do wish that she'd open up to the homemade versions.

    I made her a version from Recipe Gullet (was it Fifi's??) and while I found it delicious, she was horrified.

    Any suggestions for a starter homemade version? Maybe one that isn't so rich? I think she was turned off by the sheer decadence of the one I made her.

      She is really a very adventurous eater, but sometimes it takes a little nudging.

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Hi Danielle! I've been thinking about your little girl and her passion for the packaged mac and cheese (i know adults who are passionate about organic Annies, too!). i think you are too right about the richness of the dish that you made from egullet and loved. i bet she would love a bowl of elbow macaroni that you buttered and shredded a bit of cheese on. i'm thinking maybe--horrified fingers as i type this in--american cheese, a little bit, cause it melts so saucily. and then for cheese flavour a bit of the good stuff, a nice sharp proper cheddar. gradually have more good cheese and less processed cheese until you have a convert?

my daughter was born LOVING mac and cheese, so i've never tried to make one that appealed to her--they all seemed to. funnily, i grew up never eating macaroni and cheese, at home we ate macaroni and cottage cheese which we called lochkshen and cheese, lochkshen being yiddish for noodle. its still my favourite dish in the world.

x marlena

[hathor]

Ahh, Marlena, you have a fat mango in January in the UK. You are a lucky woman, indeed!

I haven't had consistent internet access lately so I've missed about a year of blogs, but yours looks to be fun.

Just as a by the way, sage tea is a good gargle for a sore throat.

I have a pudding fascination. We have British and Scottish friends that we quiz mercilessly on the subject of puddings, but I still don't have a handle on them. Not just Christmas ones. Seems puddings is a catch-all phrase for desert, or deserts that need to be eaten with a spoon. What EXACTLY are these 'pooodings' that you speak of??

[marlena spieler]

i made a sort of coleslaw: sliced red cabbage, curly endive, shredded carrots, red pepper, green onion, raisins, and a dressing of yogurt with a little bit of mayonaise, sugar and vinegar. It was totally invigorating, just the chewing alone brought us back to life (very crunchy).

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Two things: one, hubby says not to forget the glass of Ame (herbal fruity drink) that he had after dinner, and also i realize that I forgot to mention that i put diced beetroot into the salad. Turned the salad nice pink colour, and did i mention that coleslaw was a life-enhancer?

[marlena spieler]

Pudding has captured egullet's imagination!

the short of it is that all desserts in Britain are called pudding, as in: 'Whats for pudding?' or shortened to 'whats for pud?' colloquially you might also hear: 'whats for afters?' so ice cream, cake, jelly (ie jello), anything sweet for dessert, would be called pudding. even pudding (ie tapioca, rice, etc).

This is complicated by the fact that i don't know anyplace else, other than countries that were once british, that has a whole category of steamed puddings.

things like bread and butter puddings are desserts of leftover bread and fruit, sweetened and mixed with eggs, milk, and baked. steamed puddings are made from a sort of cake batter, sometimes with stuff in the mix that makes a sauce at the bottom. spotted dick, jam roly poly, queen of puddings (actually that is baked, but has a meringue topping), sussex pond pudding with a whole lemon in it, chocolate pudding that makes its own sauce.

pudding in fact comes from the french, boudin, which these days refers mostly to a savoury sausage such as blood sausage or a white boudin. (black pudding in the UK refers to blood sausage).

the term was helped along the way by mrs hannah glasse and mrs beeton who used it in their books. primarily at that time it was what to do with the leftovers, and a sweet pudding was one way to use up leftover bread and butter, etc, and at the time it still referred to savoury puddings too.

while i always maintain that i don't like steamed puddings, and i don't think there is anyone, including pudding lovers, who doesn't admit that they are heavy, but even i, a confirmed pudding-hater, has a secret love: i adore treacle pudding, which is basically a steamed pudding layer on top of a hot golden syrup lake. You spoon into the warm golden soft steamy cake and scoop up some of the hot golden caramelly syrup, and its so sweet your tongue feels weird, and you feel like shaking all over with pleasure. i a d o r e treacle pudding!

[Zucchini Mama]

Hi Marlena,

I'm a bit homesick for England--can you describe the scene out your windows for us?

My gran used to put grated carrots in her Christmas pud and dose it liberally with rum. I think it was really just a vehicle for the rum. Anyhow, my sister vetoed it this year! I was thinking I'd like a good sticky toffee pudding instead of the traditional one.

I had some little pieces of chocolate covered Christmas pudding this year, the size of truffles which were very good.

I love steamed chocolate pudding with creme anglaise-gorgeous.

Okay, I've got a roasted chicken, roasted sweet potatoes and Yukon spuds, kale and sauted onions and mushrooms in my fridge. I was thinking I'd make Cornish pasties. Do you ever make them? I googled some recipes, but they all start with raw ingredients. Hmmm...should I make chicken pot pies instead? I'm asking the expert here! My partner is lactose intolerant so I can't use milk.

Zuke

[helenjp]

Cranberry sausages - and I hope, the fat type of British sausage? Such as is never seen here, sad sigh...Sounds like a very good dinner indeed.

I'm all for trying your less-fruity pudding - the smaller range of dried fruits available in Japan makes it easy to end up with oversweet substitutes.

I can almost smell that slice of thin, crisp wholemeal toast you had yesterday too!

[jgarner53]

A whole book about macaroni & cheese? Marlena, I fall and worship at your e-feet! Macncheez is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods, having eaten far more than my weight in it over the course of my lifetime, I'm sure.

Do you have a particular favorite recipe in the book?

Though I do have to disagree with you that it needs salad to be considered a meal. In my world, comfort food meals do not have to be balanced with adequate veg.

[CaliPoutine]

"at home we ate macaroni and cottage cheese which we called lochkshen and cheese, lochkshen being yiddish for noodle. its still my favourite dish in the world. "

OMG, Noodles and cottage cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods( I add a tbls of sour cream for some creaminess). I'm going to take the liberty of speaking for Danielle because I know she loves it too and I think Dylan really likes it.

My mom always put Lochkshen in her matza ball soup. She used the really fine egg noodles. Funny, I never thought about how it was spelled. I just assumed it was spelled Luckshin. LOL

[daniellewiley]

"at home we ate macaroni and cottage cheese which we called lochkshen and cheese, lochkshen being yiddish for noodle. its still my favourite dish in the world. "

OMG,  Noodles and cottage cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods( I add a tbls of sour cream for some creaminess).  I'm going to take the liberty of speaking for Danielle because I know she loves it too and I think Dylan really likes it. 

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Yep, Randi is right - that's a BIG favorite here, especially with Sterling cottage cheese, which is locally made, and absolutely the most delicous cottage cheese I have ever had. (better than the Friendship cheese I grew up with).

I like your ideas Marlena - thank you! I know that cheddar isn't as melty as American, but I do think she'd actually like that better. She is not a fan of mild cheeses for the most part, and always says, "we like stinky cheese, right mom?"

I think the problem with the variety I made was with the bechamel. It was so rich!!

And yum on the mango - sounds delicious.

[Chris Amirault]

Husband, ever the bargain-seeker and also stretching that feeling of christmas, brought back cranberry sausages leftover from christmas, from the market.

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I've never heard of cranberry sausages. Can you say a bit about what's in 'em? Fresh or dried cranberries? Type of meat?

[IrishCream]

My book is  From Pantry to Table, Addison Wesley publishers. i'd like to say that the book was a james beard nominee. i wish i didn't have to say that it sold about ten copies.

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I'm pleased to say that I was one of the ten people who bought the book back when it was first published. It has served me in good stead on days when I felt uninspired and too lazy to go to the grocery store. Very useful cookbook!

I read the Mac N Cheese article in the NYT this morning and guess what's baking in my oven right now? Doesn't it make sense that people who love Grilled Cheese would also adore Mac N Cheese? Works for me!

[Abra]

Just for blog-integration points, I have to say that the dried persimmon in Helenjp's blog (I love those things!) made me think how they would be great in Christmas pudding instead of citron, which I loathe and detest.

Mac and cheese for dinner, sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Now there's unmitigated comfort food!

[marlena spieler]

Hi Marlena,

I'm a bit homesick for England--can you describe the scene out your windows for us?

My gran used to put grated carrots in her Christmas pud and dose it liberally with rum. I think it was really just a vehicle for the rum. Anyhow, my sister vetoed it this year! I was thinking I'd like a good sticky toffee pudding instead of the traditional one.

I had some little pieces of chocolate covered Christmas pudding this year, the size of truffles which were very good.

I love steamed chocolate pudding with creme anglaise-gorgeous.

Okay, I've got a roasted chicken, roasted sweet potatoes and Yukon spuds, kale and sauted onions and mushrooms in my fridge. I was thinking I'd make Cornish pasties. Do you ever make them? I googled some recipes, but they all start with raw ingredients. Hmmm...should I make chicken pot pies instead? I'm asking the expert here! My partner is lactose intolerant so I can't use milk.

Zuke

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Dear Zuke, I feel sad that I let you down on the dinner front last night--time difference and all, I was tucked up in my bed reading by then and once i've upstairs on a cold night it takes a whole lot to get me down! (whereas in the summer i'm trotting down to check the email at all hours). Anyhow, I love to play 'What to make with whats in the fridge'! my fave game. did you make the chicken pie? thats what i would have done. Pasty recipes that I have come across also start with raw ingredients, and to tell you the truth the recipes all look boring. but the pasties i've eaten have been really good. i don't know how they get raw stewing tasty meat to go so tender, or the potatoes for that matter, i mean, how long can a little pastry bake?

surprisingly, there is a good pasty shop in sacramento, california, on....lets see, maybe 'J' street (or H?). there is a traditional Cornish community up in the foothills because the mines brought Cornish people to work them, and they stayed on bringing with them the legacy of pasties. oh they have some california-influenced pasties, too, though i can't remember exact details. i've been once or twice, and they were good, but when i'm in california i go a little mexican food mad and always think: hey i can get good pasties at home. but when i'm back in Britain i always seem to forget about pasties!

I think your Gran's idea of shredded carrot in the pud sounds perfection! sort of like a carrot cake pudding! she's right about it being a vehicle for the booze, though. this year when i tried to stand up after the christmas cake and christmas pudding, my head was swimming. but maybe it was just dried fruit overload.

Omigod, how on earth did I forget to mention STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING? i mean, its sticky its caramelly it rich rich rich. it's a relatively recent invention, but i think its the best of the puds, right after steamed treacle pudding that is.

Here is the view from my window: out the back window where i wake up, I see my back garden which is pretty wild right now, it being winter and all. there is grass and a lot of plants that aren't looking too full-bodied at the moment. the garden is enclosed by a delightfully old brick wall, which hides most of the other houses in the area, but not the trees. there is a vine that crawls along the wall and follows the seasons; right now its just spindly strands of branch but in the summer its leafy and lush; come autumn it turns the most vibrant orange-red-ochre-rust colours imaginable. its like a light show every morning when i wake up. Over the wall i see huge tree tops; i like to watch their progression through the seasons too. Right now there are no leaves, but soon little shoots should start popping up and the birdsong returning. (actually i hear a little bird right this minute) I feel as if i know each and every branch in these trees and each bird family who nests there.

In the front of my house is a winding road; we live on a close, 1 Prince of Wales Close to be exact. We're on a hillside about half the way up the hill. Our side of the road is very sort of little brick house suburban, but across the road is a wild area which is wonderful for walking; climb down the hillside and you're in a world away from civilization. it feels like a jungle with overgrown vines and such. a favourite place for dog walking, and i like the winding creek that twists around through the trees for about a half mile. then you climb back up into a sort of suburbia again. I am convinced that my little area is the blackberry capital of the world--as soon as the season hits there is no stopping them; come to our house for dinner during that time and its blackberries for every course! the sweetest, tangiest,most flavourful blackberries ever. Buying them after picking them wild just doesn't seem or taste right.

on the other side of the road the other way is a field of sheep. I love sheep, no make it I LOVE sheep! There is also a round-about with traffic heading up to London, about a five minute walk from here. In the other direction is the centre of village/town. its a dreary boring place with no good shops except for the largest Waitrose in the land.

About 6 kilometers away is the village/town Emmsworth which has recently garnered a reputation as a foodie village a la ludlow. Emmsworth has a michellin starred restaurant (which i haven't been to, but Pres Clinton has) and also a gastro pub-wine bar which i reviewed for the portsmouth newspaper (it was rather good; fabulous gazpacho and a weird burger, very marin county california decor, but dissappointing wine-by-the-glass list. i mean, what is the point of a wine bar if you don't have the wines?).

Out my window at the moment I see the postman riding up to the house on his red bicycle. Postmen/women on their red bikes just melt my heart. He's just passing the woman across the street who makes everyone mad; recently she built a big brick very very ugly fence around the front of her house which looks awful the rest of us agree, but since no one wants to look at the woman and absorb her bad vibes, no one is complaining.

Oh the weather: you can't have a description of Britain without discussing the weather: its very grey. the temperature has been mild the past few days but there is supposed to be a chill coming; it looks as if it could snow. I love snow and felt cheated, because last week when it snowed we were in Greece. oh course everyone said that as beautiful as it was, it was a mess with train and other services not working. So perhaps i was better off after all.

Bye for now,

Marlena

ps: chocolate-covered christmas pudding sounds yummy: depends on the pudding and the chocolate i guess: how were they? It sounds like something that would be fun to make for Christmas season entertaining actually!

[Swisskaese]

and swisskaese aka michelle: greek gods, italian gods, great mediterranean food, are we one and the same? except i only dreamed of living with greek gods and italian gods, you lived the dream.  i would be very interested i hearing about your greek meat and  potatoes by the way, esp the lemon and oregano part........if that is part of it.

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I make lemon chicken by taking a whole chicken and filling the cavity with quartered lemons and several springs of rosemary or oregano. I also juice a couple of lemons and pour it over the chicken and break up a whole head of garlic, place some of the garlic and rosemary or oregano under the breast skin (garlic skin off) and some (garlic skin off) in the cavity and some (garlic skin on) around the perimeter of the chicken. Drizzle a little olive oil and bake at 180 for 1 hour or until done.

If I am using cut-up chicken, I sprinkle everything on top and strategically place the lemon quarters under the chicken parts. Cover with tin foil for 30 minutes at 180 and then remove foil and cook for another 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Another variation is to make a marinade of lemon juice, oregano, chopped garlic and olive oil. Marinate the boneless breast of chicken overnight and then grill them.

[marlena spieler]

Cranberry sausages - and I hope, the fat type of British sausage? Such as is never seen here, sad sigh...Sounds like a very good dinner indeed.

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The cranberry sausages were ordinary though very nice ordinary pork chipolatas, aka bangers if you're serving them with mash. I looked at them raw to get a handle on the cranberries before the sausages cooked, and it looked like chunks of them here and there, quite a lot of them, inside the sausage. When the sausage cooked up, they shrank quite a bit, and the cranberry helped make a sticky pan-juice-goo that is so yummy with sausages. You couldn't see the cranberries any longer, just the burnished sausage. They were really good! The cranberries may have been mixed with a bit of sugar because there was a slight sweetness to the tanginess of the cranberry.

i would mail you some if I could!

helen, you should start a British Sausage company in Japan!

[marlena spieler]

Though I do have to disagree with you that it needs salad to be considered a meal. In my world, comfort food meals do not have to be balanced with adequate veg.

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Jennifer, between you and me, I don't think that was an exact quote, but i was happy to be included in the article so you know, who's quibbling. and you never know, i MIGHT have said it when i wasn't thinking, cause I'm with you: who says that comfort foods need to be balanced meals? Part of the comfort is just feeling like eating what you just feel like eating!

we should have a big egullet mac and cheese-a-thon!

x marlena

ps tried to get the publisher to let me write another book about something cheesey, but they said no. they did commission me to write about something else that is also comforting, and i shall include a lot of melty cheese in that. in fact, thats going to be yummy and comforting too. but mac and cheese, well it doesn't get better than that.

though husband is still into grilled cheese sandwich mode. whenver there is bread and cheese in the house, he gets all puppydog looking and says: grilled cheese!!!!!!! i'd say he does this once a day.

[mochihead]

Sheep! Sheep's milk, sheep's cheese... ok, I'm a bit one-track minded when it comes to your blog. By the way, do your sheep have the same problem as the ones here in Hilo? It rains all the time here, so the "white" sheep's wool start turning green from alga/moss growing on them.

What's the difference between toffee pudding and treacle pudding? I'm starting to get confused with all of the different puddings, and am wondering if I'm going to have a pudding fest in the next week with all the different recipes!

[marlena spieler]

Danielle (and Dylan), and Calipoutine,

Wonderful to meet fellow lochshen/luckshin and cheese mavens, it is my favourite without a doubt comfort food. whenver i land in san francisco and arrive all jet-lagged and bedraggled at my step daughters house, she says,before i even take off my coat: should i put the water on to boil?

A dab of sour cream was what some of my relatives did with it. my mother hated all dairy products except for cottage cheese so i guess i was lucky that we had it! sometimes i toss the noodles with butter, sometimes with olive oil, and i also add garlic to mine. i love garlic so much. my daughter and step daughter add peas to their luckshin and cheese. and an italian friend eats the same thing, only with ricotta and thinly sliced green onion!

you're right that lukshin/lochshen and cheese is all about the quality of the cottage cheese! i haven't found a british cottage cheese i like though i do try each and every one i find; in san francisco i usually like knudsens, or....hmmm what was the other one. then i found the cottage cheese of my dreams that tastes the way cottage cheese did when i was a child: Cowgirl Creamery! Those Cowgirls are making some mighty fine cottage cheese!

tell me about the brand that is better than friendship. in new york, lets see, it wasn't friendship but the other one, i forget its name, that i think i liked the cottage cheese.

x your sister in luckshin/lockshen,

Marlena