From Steve
Brisket, steaks, hamburgers ... we are eating apace. I believe the frost is starting to form inside some of the packages, but so far no freezer burn.
Food comes from gardens and today we went to Madison's Garden Expo. It's huge. Lots of people in booths, always closing. Lots of people who are barely tolerating the latest in a seemingly endless series of winter months. The demographic skews way middle aged and elderly. A few people were coping with 12 oz. clear plastic cups of beer by 11 a.m. Major human logjams throughout the exhibition hall, notably around the honey booth, the vinegar booth, the grow-your-own-mushrooms booth.
Elderly female spouse: Do you want to go down this row?
Elderly male spouse: No, it, uh, doesn't look like fun.
Laura mercifully got us out of there and back into the sunshine not long after noon.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Recipe for Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake
Reblogged from McSweeney's (Who knew it was a food blog too?)
1. Allow the angel to reach room temperature. Then kill it.
2. Kill God. Set Him aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. Ecstatically whip, as if possessed by a storm-wind of freedom, 1-1/2 cups of excellent egg whites with 1/4 tsp. salt and 1-1/2 tsp. cream of tartar. Continue until peaks are as if raised to their own heights and given wings in a fine air, a robust air.
5. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, about 3 tbsp. at a time.
6. You are brilliant.
7. Now, add 1 tsp. vanilla and 1/4 tsp. almond extract, and then sift together 1-1/4 cups flour and 3/4 cup sugar.
8. Blend in God and the angel. Emboldened, add the egg mixture.
9. Gaze into the überbatter. The überbatter will gaze into you.
10. While prancing about in a frenzy of self-satisfaction and anticipation, use a rubber scraper to push the überbatter into an ungreased 10" tube pan, for it is destined to be there.
11. Bake on a lower rack until done, usually 35-40 minutes, while reciting to the upper rack a long, convoluted anecdote about your childhood.
12. Invert the tube pan over a bottle for a few hours. Then impetuously rap the pan. Shout, "Aha!" and slide a knife along the pan's insides.
13. Call what tumbles out a cake if you dare. Call it miraculous even.
14. Eat it. It is delicate, morbid, loveable, and you will die depressed, delirious, and overweight.
via Rebecca Coffey
1. Allow the angel to reach room temperature. Then kill it.
2. Kill God. Set Him aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. Ecstatically whip, as if possessed by a storm-wind of freedom, 1-1/2 cups of excellent egg whites with 1/4 tsp. salt and 1-1/2 tsp. cream of tartar. Continue until peaks are as if raised to their own heights and given wings in a fine air, a robust air.
5. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, about 3 tbsp. at a time.
6. You are brilliant.
7. Now, add 1 tsp. vanilla and 1/4 tsp. almond extract, and then sift together 1-1/4 cups flour and 3/4 cup sugar.
8. Blend in God and the angel. Emboldened, add the egg mixture.
9. Gaze into the überbatter. The überbatter will gaze into you.
10. While prancing about in a frenzy of self-satisfaction and anticipation, use a rubber scraper to push the überbatter into an ungreased 10" tube pan, for it is destined to be there.
11. Bake on a lower rack until done, usually 35-40 minutes, while reciting to the upper rack a long, convoluted anecdote about your childhood.
12. Invert the tube pan over a bottle for a few hours. Then impetuously rap the pan. Shout, "Aha!" and slide a knife along the pan's insides.
13. Call what tumbles out a cake if you dare. Call it miraculous even.
14. Eat it. It is delicate, morbid, loveable, and you will die depressed, delirious, and overweight.
via Rebecca Coffey
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Swinging meatballs
We just got back from the last holiday party of the season, a wonderful regifting potluck at the lovely lakeside home of some dear friends, Jan and Roger.
Laura made two sets of meatballs, one glutenous and the other free of gluten.
Both were delicious. I'll leave it to her to detail her recipe.
But I remember feeling a little strange about it when she told me that she'd mixed grocery-store ground pork with ground beef from our quarter cow. Had we cheated again? At the very least it seemed to me to be a sort of carnivorous three-way, but as I've thought it through, I think I was letting my puritanical streak get the best of me. We mix beef with all kinds of other foods without becoming judgmental, and I have come to believe that the same open-mindedness should apply to the mingling of pig and cow.
Cheating on the quarter cow
From Steve
We cheated on our quarter cow.
The whole idea was to buy in bulk, and stop purchasing fast food and grocery store meat.
But on New Years Eve we ate two delicious New York strips from a local grocer.
Blame it on the holidays, I say.
A few days earlier I defrosted and fried some edible ground beef patties. I served them on small plates with an assortment of mustards and some dill pickles. I didn't cook any side dishes, and I got the feeling that Laura felt I hadn't really created a full-fledged meal for the family. But I found it quite satisfying. Kind of like a "lean" meal at a restaurant.
I'm not sure why, but I resist planning ahead when it comes to defrosting meat. (Once again, a quarter cow is not just food. It's a test of character.) It's difficult. How am I supposed to know what I'll want to eat tonight or tomorrow or the next day? Am I a Peter Pan with regards to menu planning?
***
The meat cooks quite badly when it's not fully defrosted. I've always known that you are supposed to fully defrost before cooking, but my recent experience with the burger patties were the first time I've seen why. I can save you the trouble of trying it at home: They tend to blacken on the very outside without cooking at all inside.
The burgers I defrosted in the microwave cooked quite nicely. Laura says she has over-defrosted some of the patties in the microwave, and the results were inedible. I'm not sure if she over-defrosted as the result of inattentiveness or haste. In this blog, as in real life, I will refrain from speculating on any possible character defects in other people.
We cheated on our quarter cow.
The whole idea was to buy in bulk, and stop purchasing fast food and grocery store meat.
But on New Years Eve we ate two delicious New York strips from a local grocer.
Blame it on the holidays, I say.
A few days earlier I defrosted and fried some edible ground beef patties. I served them on small plates with an assortment of mustards and some dill pickles. I didn't cook any side dishes, and I got the feeling that Laura felt I hadn't really created a full-fledged meal for the family. But I found it quite satisfying. Kind of like a "lean" meal at a restaurant.
I'm not sure why, but I resist planning ahead when it comes to defrosting meat. (Once again, a quarter cow is not just food. It's a test of character.) It's difficult. How am I supposed to know what I'll want to eat tonight or tomorrow or the next day? Am I a Peter Pan with regards to menu planning?
***
The meat cooks quite badly when it's not fully defrosted. I've always known that you are supposed to fully defrost before cooking, but my recent experience with the burger patties were the first time I've seen why. I can save you the trouble of trying it at home: They tend to blacken on the very outside without cooking at all inside.
The burgers I defrosted in the microwave cooked quite nicely. Laura says she has over-defrosted some of the patties in the microwave, and the results were inedible. I'm not sure if she over-defrosted as the result of inattentiveness or haste. In this blog, as in real life, I will refrain from speculating on any possible character defects in other people.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Spare Ribs
From Laura:
I have been neglecting my cow. Since the last post we have consumed a huge 4 pound round steak, a couple of patties and an utterly ridiculous amount of beef ribs. The beef ribs are definitely the most interesting story. I had family coming for Thanksgiving, my sister and brother in law with whom we have shared a couple of Famous Dave's dinners. My daughter was also coming home with one of her friends, a student from Mainland China who I have never seen not wearing a suit that is generally 2-3 sizes too big for him. His name is David.
So, with the .25 Cow package we received 3 packages of Beef ribs frozen solid. Each package contained 4 ribs, split in half. I have never eaten Beef ribs before much less cooked them. I thought what I was seeing through the shrink wrap was at least 75% Bone so I defrosted all of it. That's right -all 3 packages. Giving me 12 large Beef ribs. Let me put it this way, I broke out the Nesco to cook all of this.
I looked up some Beef Rib Dry Rub recipes on the internet, rubbed my ribs and let them sit overnight. I lined them all up in the Nesco, laid down some steaming liquids -- cheap red wine, water and beef stock -- and cooked them for about 4.5 hours at 225. The recipe mentioned that I should cook them long and at low temperature so that the Beef Fat could be "rendered" ( How appetizing!). In the last hour or so I slathered all of it with my favorite Bar-b-que sauce. I produced about 8 pounds of cooked meat, at least 60% fat. I have to say that the meaty parts were very full of juicy goodness... but the fatty parts were so unappetizing just thinking about it engages my gag reflex just a tiny bit. I am not sure if I will ever bother to cook beef ribs again. I have recently perfected my Pork ribs, so I really have no incentive. I have a satisfactory bar-b-que sauce delivery system. There was a definite Fred Flintstone type of appeal to the whole thing, It seemed like I should be scratching myself in odd places while eating, or grunting something primitive. My guests at dinner made polite noises, but I could tell that the two dogs in attendance were the only ones that were really excited. I ended up tossing about four ribs, the most "waste" we have had so far.
About the round steak- I will say this: PRESSURE COOKER. I split the steak and did two separate recipes over the course of a couple days. One involved red wine and vegetables, the other - UBA (Universal Binding Agent i.e. Cream of Mushroom soup). The UBA-enhanced round steak was clearly the better choice, but it brought back memories of my Mom's pressure cooking artistry, which is generally not a great thing. I think she used to buy round steak that had seen better days to put it delicately. At some point she would cook it up in a gravy/soup type sauce in the pressure cooker, maybe throw in a can of peas, or mushrooms if she was feeling "fancy" and serve it over toast or bread for supper. Both my round steak dinners kind of tasted like that. Not good eating, but you weren't going hungry either.
Tomorrow: Flatty burgers...
I have been neglecting my cow. Since the last post we have consumed a huge 4 pound round steak, a couple of patties and an utterly ridiculous amount of beef ribs. The beef ribs are definitely the most interesting story. I had family coming for Thanksgiving, my sister and brother in law with whom we have shared a couple of Famous Dave's dinners. My daughter was also coming home with one of her friends, a student from Mainland China who I have never seen not wearing a suit that is generally 2-3 sizes too big for him. His name is David.
So, with the .25 Cow package we received 3 packages of Beef ribs frozen solid. Each package contained 4 ribs, split in half. I have never eaten Beef ribs before much less cooked them. I thought what I was seeing through the shrink wrap was at least 75% Bone so I defrosted all of it. That's right -all 3 packages. Giving me 12 large Beef ribs. Let me put it this way, I broke out the Nesco to cook all of this.
I looked up some Beef Rib Dry Rub recipes on the internet, rubbed my ribs and let them sit overnight. I lined them all up in the Nesco, laid down some steaming liquids -- cheap red wine, water and beef stock -- and cooked them for about 4.5 hours at 225. The recipe mentioned that I should cook them long and at low temperature so that the Beef Fat could be "rendered" ( How appetizing!). In the last hour or so I slathered all of it with my favorite Bar-b-que sauce. I produced about 8 pounds of cooked meat, at least 60% fat. I have to say that the meaty parts were very full of juicy goodness... but the fatty parts were so unappetizing just thinking about it engages my gag reflex just a tiny bit. I am not sure if I will ever bother to cook beef ribs again. I have recently perfected my Pork ribs, so I really have no incentive. I have a satisfactory bar-b-que sauce delivery system. There was a definite Fred Flintstone type of appeal to the whole thing, It seemed like I should be scratching myself in odd places while eating, or grunting something primitive. My guests at dinner made polite noises, but I could tell that the two dogs in attendance were the only ones that were really excited. I ended up tossing about four ribs, the most "waste" we have had so far.
About the round steak- I will say this: PRESSURE COOKER. I split the steak and did two separate recipes over the course of a couple days. One involved red wine and vegetables, the other - UBA (Universal Binding Agent i.e. Cream of Mushroom soup). The UBA-enhanced round steak was clearly the better choice, but it brought back memories of my Mom's pressure cooking artistry, which is generally not a great thing. I think she used to buy round steak that had seen better days to put it delicately. At some point she would cook it up in a gravy/soup type sauce in the pressure cooker, maybe throw in a can of peas, or mushrooms if she was feeling "fancy" and serve it over toast or bread for supper. Both my round steak dinners kind of tasted like that. Not good eating, but you weren't going hungry either.
Tomorrow: Flatty burgers...
Sunday, November 22, 2009
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