Reminder!

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to send a friendly reminder about the special date and time of our meeting this week. We are meeting Thursday April 1st at 6pm. Remember Erica Bauermesiter will be there so bring lots of questions! Also if you missed the previous blog entry Doug, our resident chef, will be making Helen's fondue!

Seeing as how this will be my last blog entry on The School of Essential Ingredients I thought I would save my favorite character's recipe for last: Tom's Pasta Sauce! I think it will also go well considering the type of weather we have been having!

Tom's Pasta Sauce Recipe

Note: For best results, use Knorr’s extra-large soft chicken bouillon cubes.
Crush the whole tomatoes in a food processor, or chop them finely by hand.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 extra-large soft chicken bouillon cube (see note)
1 cup onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ground Italian sausage
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup red wine
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed (see note)
1 cup tomato sauce (more if you want)
Salt and pepper
1 pound penne pasta
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil on medium-low heat until bubbles form. Crush the half bouillon cube into the oil and mix thoroughly. Add onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until translucent.

2. Add ground sausage, increase heat to medium, and cook until meat is no longer pink. Add milk and simmer until absorbed. (Don’t worry if it looks strange at first; the milk will mellow the wine and make for a wonderful, lush sauce.) Add wine, reduce heat to low, and simmer until wine is absorbed. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil over high heat.

3. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1-3 hours, covered if you want a rich, but slightly thinner sauce, uncovered if you want a thicker sauce and the smell to roam through your house.

4. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook penne pasta according to package directions, until al dente. Drain pasta and place in a large serving bowl. Ladle sauce over pasta; top with grated Parmesan cheese if desired, and serve immediately.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Spring is Here!

Saturday March 20 marked the beginning of Spring and what a day Saturday was! After such beautiful weather I thought it would be fitting to share this Spring recipe from Erica Bauermeister.

Below is a passage from Erica's website:

For a long time I thought of risotto as a winter dish. I love the idea of coming home after a cold and hectic day and standing at the stove, stirring chicken broth into the softly sizzling rice while listening to my children talking at the kitchen table. The dark outside the windows, the lights above the table and the stove. It feels safe and comforting, and the risotto when you eat it feels that way, too.

But then spring comes along, with its crazy combination of hope and green shoots coming up in the yard, but cool weather when you least expect it. I want to get excited and run out there among all that green, but I still want to feel safe and warm.

Which leads us straight to asparagus risotto, and if I can convince you to find the freshest and most local asparagus you can to make this dish, I will sleep easier tonight. Because once you eat asparagus that has been freshly picked, not shipped from who-knows-where until it toughens into spears that yes, indeed, could be used for swords at the table just as every child instinctively wants to do – well, once you eat the good stuff, you will never go back. You will be willing to wait all the rest of the year until asparagus season comes around again. And you will be reminded that waiting and anticipation are not bad things – and that the rewards for doing so can be incredible.

So here’s a recipe for Lillian’s asparagus risotto, with the hope that you will feel inspired to play with it yourself, as Lillian would want you to do. What other fresh vegetables might you use in another season? How about adding some lemon zest? Grilled shrimp? The possibilities are as infinite as spring...

Spring Risotto Recipe

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 lb asparagus
3 T butter
3 T olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
1 1/3 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper (to taste)
lemon zest (optional)
shaved Parmesan

Cut asparagus tips into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cut half of the stocks into finely chopped pieces; cut the other half into 1 inch pieces.

Heat broth in a heavy saucepan. When boiling, add asparagus and cook until just tender (3-5 minutes). Take out asparagus with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. Turn down heat under broth to a low simmer.

In a different heavy saucepan, melt butter and add olive oil. Add chopped onions and saute until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add rice and bay leaf and stir until well coated with the butter. Add wine and cook, stirring, until liquid has evaporated.

Add a ladleful of heated broth to the rice, stirring until liquid is absorbed. Continue adding a ladleful at a time, until broth is gone and rice is creamy but grains are still firm.

Add the asparagus and a pinch of lemon zest (optional). Add salt and pepper to taste. Put in a serving bowl and top with Parmesan shavings.

Prep time: 45-50 minutes (with much contemplative stirring)
Serves 6.

This recipe seems like something I would cook! Has anyone tried Abuelita's hot chocolate? Sunday's weather would have been good for that.

Remember Thursday April 1st at 6:00pm we will be meeting with Erica Bauermeister!

Doug Says Fondue!

Hi Everyone,

Those of you who attended our first meeting know very well who Doug is. For those of you who did not, Doug is a sous chef at Pacific Lutheran University and he is awesome! Last month he demonstrated how to clean, De-beard, and cook mussels. In my opinion what was so great about Doug's cooking demonstration is how much knowledge he had about the ins and outs of cooking. For example, did you know that garlic and onions are consider "aromatics." That is what I learned at the last meeting.

In The School of Essential Ingredients Erica Bauermeister has assigned a recipe for every character in her book. Although they are not included in the book physically, she has the recipes posted on her website at: http://www.ericabauermeister.com/recipes.html

Doug carefully looked over the recipes and he decided the best one would be Helen's fondue.

Helen's Fondue Recipe

garlic clove, cut in half
1 1/2 cup white wine
2-3 T kirsch
1/2 lb Emmenthaler
1/2 lb Gruyere
1-2 T cornstarch
pinch of nutmeg

-Rub fondue pot with garlic clove.
-Add white wine and kirsch and heat.
-Grate cheese and put in plastic bag with cornstarch; shake until cornstarch covers cheese.
-Add cheese slowly to pot, stirring in a figure-8 motion.
-Add a small pinch of nutmeg at the end...

What shall you dip in your fondue?
Try:
crusty french bread, cut in cubes

If that is not a reason to join us at our next meeting then I don't know what it is! Remember Thursday April 1st at 6:00pm. Also Erica Bauemeister will be there to share fondue with us.

Lillian

Hi All!

I absolutely loved the chapter on Lillian and her mother. How is your reading coming along? Do you have a favorite character yet? In the spirit of Lillian's chapter and her relationship with her mother I thought I would include the recipe for the hot chocolate that brought Lillian's mother out of books. Below is Erica Bauermeister's thoughts on hot chocolate and her process in finding the perfect hot chocolate:


We’re moving deeply into winter, Thanksgiving handing the holiday baton over to the festivities of December. Kitchens are filled with the smells of rosemary and turkey, pumpkin and cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. And hot chocolate, the way that luxurious smell comes floating up to your nose, the first sensation of whipped cream meeting your lips as you sip your way to the molten chocolate underneath.

It’s magic, really, which makes it only natural that Lillian used hot chocolate to tempt her mother back into the real world in The School of Essential Ingredients. But I realized pretty quickly when I was writing Lillian’s story that it couldn’t be just any hot chocolate. It had to be a version that would remind you of the hot chocolate you drank after playing all day in the snow, yet would also be full of the sensuality that only comes with adulthood. A recipe that would remind Lillian’s mother of the world she had given up.

As I was writing Lillian’s story I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, playing with ingredients. I loved the idea of adding orange and cinnamon, the combination of summer and autumn they create. Coffee and chocolate played off each other in an equally satisfactory way. But something was missing, and I couldn’t think of what it would be.

I went to the Mexican grocery store in the Pike Place market in Seattle and I asked the woman there for something special. She humored me, suggesting cinnamon, and sent me on my way. But as I was going up to the counter with a red and yellow box of Mexican chocolate in my hands, she came around the end of the aisle, a small bag in her hands.

“Perhaps a bit of anise,” she said.

It’s in there, with the proviso that a little bit of anise goes a very long way….

Hot chocolate and coffee

1 cup milk
5 curls orange rind
1/2 stick cinnamon
4 T Mexican chocolate
Anise
1 cup coffee
whipping cream

Put milk, orange rind, cinnamon and chocolate in a saucepan and warm through. Add a touch of anise. Add to coffee and top with whipping cream.

I had no idea what Anise was upon reading this recipe so I looked it up! Anise is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. It is known for it flavor, which resembles liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.

Just a friendly reminder that our next meeting is April 1st at 6pm and don't forgot Erica Bauermeister will be there!

Its the Oscar's! Recipes that will make your Oscar party the talk of the town

Hello all! It's Oscar weekend and we all know what that means! Beautiful people and beautiful dresses, but what about the food? The Oscars are more fun to watch when you have someone to say "oh god that is an ugly dress" or bicker that that wrong movie won. So what better way to celebrate the Oscars and your friends than with Oscar related party food! Below is food inspired from actors and the movies they star in. I got the recipes from ivillage.com. They have a ton of other Oscar related articles and recipes if you want to check it out!


Movie: Julie & Julia
Recipe: Amy Adam's guacamole

3 avocados
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper with seeds removed, finely chopped
1 tomato, husked and chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped into 1/4-inch cubes
Handful of cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Blue tortilla chips (or cut-up veggies), for serving

Mash avocados in a bowl; stir in remaining ingredients. Serve with something crunchy




Movie: The Blind Side
Recipe: Sandra Bullock’s Coconut Macaroons
It’s the year of Sandra Bullock, Oscar nominee and dedicated baker. The famous Bullock family recipe for macaroons is a closely guarded secret, but here’s a macaroon recipe as found on Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker, a blog by Bullock's pastry chef sis. I’m not usually a macaroon girl, but The Blind Side and The Proposal were unexpected delights—these probably are, too!

4 egg whites
3 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Combine all ingredients in a metal/heatproof bowl.

Set the bowl on a pan or saucepan of simmering water and stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning.

Make sure mixture is hot and has thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. With a medium-sized cookie scoop, drop batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges are dark golden brown.


Since we are going to be reading Julie and Julia in the upcoming months I thought I would share a recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.


Movie: Julie and Julia
Recipe: Julia Child's Mini Quiches Lorraine

6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 cup half-and-half
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Flour, for work surface

Coat a 24-cup mini-muffin tin with cooking spray and heat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, yolk, and half-and-half. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, use a 2 1/2-inch round cutter to cut 24 rounds out of the piecrust. (If you do not have a round cutter, the mouth of a standard-size canning jar works fine.)

Gently press rounds into muffin cups. Divide crumbled bacon evenly between the lined cups, then divide egg mixture between cups.

Bake until quiche crusts are golden brown and the egg mixture is puffed and completely set in the center, about 25 minutes. Transfer quiches to a cooling rack and serve warm.

Hope you enjoy your weekend and maybe even make one of these recipes for the Oscar's! I am starting the School of Essential Ingredients this weekend so I will have more to report to you next week.

Sustainable Living, Culinary Arts, and Literary Genius

Have you ever felt like the trip to the store to buy dinner was a huge inconvenience? Unfortunately, we have become so in-tuned with instant gratification we have forgotten the value of a home cooked meal. This is exactly what local author Langdon Cook is trying to address in his book Fat of the Lang: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager. However, Langdon takes home cooked meals a little bit further by foraging for his food! That's right he goes out in the woods, ocean, lake, etc and finds his dinner from the land! Who has that kind of time anymore right? Wrong! In his book Langdon explains how the art of foraging and living off the land is not as hard and time consuming as it may seem to be. Not to mention that is healthier and more sustainable then what we go buy in boxes at the grocery store.

Are you curious yet? We sure hope so because Langdon Cook will be making an appearance at Garfield Book Company on Thursday March 4th at 7pm. You don't need to be comptemplating foraging in your future to enjoy an author event like this. Langdon Cook's stories on foraging alone will be entertaining enough so please step outside your box and join us for an interesting and intriguing night that will make you think twice before buying that frozen food for dinner.

Landgon Cook has a blog just like this one in which he details his foraging expeditions. Check it out at http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com/

Literary Spotlight Series: Langdon Cook
Thursday, March 4th, 7pm
Garfield Book Company
208 Garfield St., Suite 101
Tacoma, WA 98444