A Homemade Life

Hello Everyone,

We are going to be spoiled this month with a visit from Molly Wizenberg. Wizenberg's is the author of A Homemade Life and the author of the wildly successful blog Organgette.

I did a little research on the internet and I found a great article that shares a lot about the motivation behind a A Homemade Life as well as Wizenberg's life story. A Homemade Life will be a difficult read much in the same ways Eating Heaven was. Wizenberg details the life and death of her farther in A Homemade Life. Wizenberg also spills the beans about her world wind romance that began Orangette. I have no doubt that we will have lots to talk about when she visits us on Wednesday June 30th at 6:30pm!

Below is bits and pieces from an article I found. I cut and pasted as much as I could. It is a bit long, but well worth the read.

Ballard Blogger Molly Wizenberg Makes Sense of the World Through Food

By Rebekah Denn

We are what we eat, and Molly Wizenberg is French lemon yogurt cake, and buckwheat pancakes, and potato salad, and so much more.

The cake is the recipe that inspired a stranger from New York to introduce himself to Wizenberg via e-mail. (He's now her husband.) Pancakes represented "a strange sort of coming of age," learning at age 15 they could be made without a boxed mix. And the potato salad is all about her late father, Burg, made with ranch dressing and "a ballsy ¾-cup mayonnaise," about a teaspoon for each potato.

Food blogs abound -- as do books from blogs -- but Wizenberg always has stood out as a storyteller as well as a cook, each written entry a jewel box of an essay and an impeccable recipe.

"For me, food is really never just food," she said last week in the small kitchen of her Ballard home, a 3-pound jar of castor sugar on the counter and Polaroid film in the fridge.

The foods she writes about and photographs, she said, help her understand who she is and where she came from, her city and the people in her life. "It's a way of making sense of the world."

Wizenberg's family's life was built around the kitchen table, she wrote, and "I learned to cook because the kitchen was where things happened."

But she did not want to be a chef, she decided, after a kitchen internship at the high-profile Greens restaurant left her unmoved. She drifted through travels and studies in France, degrees in biology and French and cultural anthropology.

Then, as she attended graduate school in Seattle, her father was diagnosed with cancer. Wizenberg was 24 and went home to Oklahoma for his short, vicious battle against the disease. After weeks of pain, he died.

"I won't tell you that it was hard. You already know that," she wrote. "I was so numb sometimes that my hands stopped working, just locked themselves into funny, pinched fists. But then there was the gratitude, a sort of low-grade, queasy gratitude, that he was free."

She was given the standard advice for those in grief: Make no major life decisions for 18 months. As the months came to an end, she made the decision that ultimately changed her life's course. She moved to France, intending to work on a doctorate for a career in cultural anthropology. Within weeks of arriving in Paris, she realized that her life kept coming back to food. It was "what I thought about, what I cared about, what I wrote about, what got me out of bed in the morning."

A writer friend suggested she start a food blog. She returned to Seattle, working in a Pilates studio and then the University of Washington press, and she wrote the first Orangette entry in July 2004.

Orangette's audience steadily grew, and Wizenberg's life inched more into its pages. In April 2005, a young New Yorker named Brandon Pettit wrote her that her writing was exactly how he felt about food and life. Two months later, after an intense cross-country romance, she introduced him to her readers. The next year, they were engaged, and Pettit bought a one-way ticket to Seattle. In spring, he's opening a restaurant, Delancey, in Ballard. Wizenberg will bake the pastries, help develop the menus and otherwise participate -- but she'll mainly continue to write and blog.

Here is the link to her blog http://orangette.blogspot.com/. You can even go back into the archives and see her very first blog entry in July 2004!

The Freak in All of Us

Hello Everyone!

It is that time again! I am really excited to see all of you again. I hope our first look into non-fiction was a fun and interesting experience for you.

I think the issues discussed in Candy Freak will make for really interesting conversation.
These are just a couple of questions that came to my mind that I would love to get your opinion on:

• Did you know that many candy bars existed? Which one would you love to try if you could?
  

• What was your favorite candy factory Almond visited?

• Did you learn anything new about the candy industry?

• Do you think there is anything consumer's can do to help independent candy copies survive?

• Has this book made you realize you may have a freak in you?

I know you all are dying to know what Doug has up his sleeve for this month. In my personal opinion, I think Doug has outdone himself this month. Doug is going to treat us very well on Wednesday! He is not only to make one recipe for us...but he is going to treat us to three different candy and cookie recipes!

He will be making his new and improved version of the Little Debbie Nutty Bars (a favorite from my childhood!). He also has a recipe for Oreo Cookies that Doug swears up and down tastes exactly like Oreo cookies (only better). Last, but definitely not least he will be demonstrating how to make Chocolate Taffy (also known as Tootsie Rolls). Now the best part, believe it or not will not be eating all this delicious goodies, but helping make them. According to Doug, Tootsie Rolls is a fancy name for chocolate taffy. After Doug has demonstrated how to make chocolate taffy we will help pull the taffy into submission. Exciting huh? Unfortunately, we do no have a chocolate robber on hand, but I think this demonstration will help make candy making personal, which is the heart of Almond's message.

If your mouth is watering at the prospect of Nutty Bars, Oreos, and chocolate taffy then please join us Wednesday May 26th at 6:30 at Garfield Book Company.

Getting Inside Steve Almond's Head

Hi Everyone,

It really is too bad that Steve Almond does not live around here! I think he would have made for one of the most interesting author visits. Since we will not get to pick his brain, I thought I would post this interview about him. He just released a new book called: Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. Apparently rock and roll is another one of his obsessions. Candy and rock and roll...what more could you need :)

Q: If you could make your own candy bar, what ingredients would be in it and what would you call it?

SA: It's hard to limit me to just one. Let me offer a few I've been thinking about:

1. The Huckleberry Hound: a purple huckleberry nougat wrapped in dark chocolate. I'd never tried huckleberry before I visited the Idaho Candy Company. It's incredibly fruity and intense.
2. Just Minted: light cookie wafers stuck together with mint and enrobed in dark chocolate. There's just not enough mint in our candy bars. You need a dark chocolate to balance the mint, which has a strong flavor.
3. Witch Hazel: crushed, roasted hazelnuts on a bed of dark chocolate mousse, surrounded by milk chocolate. Uh-huh.
4. Expresso Yourself: a milk-chocolate bar infused with a buttery, French roast-flavored coffee cream.

I could go on. And on.

Q: You write about "freak fetishes" -- strategies by which people consume candy. What's the most outstanding example you've encountered in your research?

SA: I was at this party last weekend and this woman gave me a great one. Her dad is a huge fan of Peeps, those little marshmallow chicks. But he doesn't like them fresh from the box. He likes to let them get a little stale (I guess this could be thought of as curing them). So she's telling me this, and another guy in our conversation circle says, "Everybody does that. Peeps are only good if you age them a week". Then a third guy says, "Actually, I like to let them age a month". So it turns out that there's this whole culture of people out there who age their Peeps. We're all such freaks.

Q: What defines a candyfreak?

SA: It's definitely not a quantity thing, just eating a lot of candy. It has more to do more with being conscious of what you're putting in your mouth, thinking about the flavors and textures, the mouthfeel, of a particular piece. And I do think that most people have a freak streak in them, some particular candy, or snack thing, or whatever, that haunts them (in a good way).

For the full interview click below:

http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2004/may/interview_steve_almond.html

Almond actually just made an appearance yesterday at Powells in Portland! So close yet so far!

Salt Water Taffy

Hi Everyone,

I was surprised how easy it it to make taffy. Who knows maybe it will be something Doug will make! I thought it would be fun to share this recipe. It seems a lot easier than it actually is. I think the trick is in the pulling. I would really be interested to hear if any of you will try this recipe or have in the past. What is the trick?

Salt Water Taffy

1 cup corn syrup
¾ cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon Argo or Kingsfords Cornstarch
½ tablespoon corn oil
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon desired flavoring, preferably vanilla

1. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt and corn oil.
2. Add the corn syrup and water and stir until the mixture boils rapidly.
3. Boil to 252 degrees For until a little when tried in cold water forms a fairly hard ball.
4. Flavor, pour onto a large platter lightly oiled with corn oil and when cool enough to handle, oiling the hands with a little corn oil, pull into a rope and cut in inch lengths.

Babe Ruth or BabyRuth?

Hi Everyone,

I was floored, no absolutely astonished, that the candy bar Baby Ruth was not named after the Babe Ruth! I know Almond answered the question of who Baby Ruth is name after, but I thought I would share the controversary behind the candy bar's name.

The Baby Ruth dossier presents all sides of the story. According to the National Confectioner's Association, the candy bar was named for Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth -- although she died in 1904, and the candy was not manufactured until 1920, by the Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago. Another source, quoted in Tom Burnham's 1980 book, More Misinformation, suggests that the chocolate, caramel, nougat, and peanut log was first named for the granddaughter of the president of the Williamson Candy Company, where the recipe originated.
Curtiss Candy gave away thousands of Baby Ruths in promotions and priced the product at five cents, half the going rate. In 1921, when children began sending their candy wrappers to ballplayer Babe Ruth for him to autograph, the Yankee slugger demanded royalties for use of his name on the best-selling product. But the business of sports endorsements was in its infancy, and the courts turned him down. (WikiAnswers)

In Love

Hi Everyone,
I am completely and totally, 100%, head over heals, IN LOVE with Candy Freak. It is just so interesting! I am learning so many new things about the chocolate and candy industry that I feel dumb for never understanding what goes into the candy bar I buy at the grocery store. The history that Almond provides is truly eye opening. I am about 100 pages in and I just finished the chapter on Ray Broekel, who let's admit is probably the coolest closet collector of all time. If you were curious about the two books Almond mentions that Broekel wrote they are The Great American Candy Bar Book and The Chocolate Chronicles. These books are out of print but can still be found if you really did some digging. Also, the guy (can't remember his name at the moment) who started the Candy Direct website is still going strong. Here is the Candy Direct website. Who knows you might stumble across a candy from your youth that you can freak about :)
http://www.candydirect.com/?utm_source=GPPC&gclid=CNDKupSPvqECFR16gwodCET2_A&ad=4309359456

I think I will start looking up a lot of the old candy bars that Almond mentions. Below is Fat Emma and Pie Face.
This is a salesman advance card printed on a U. S. government postal card. Fat Emma, made by the Pendergast Candy Company of Minneapolis in the 1920s, was one of the classic American Candy bars of the past. Pie Face was her male companion. Fat Emma is included on a list of "Ten Immortals" by Ray Broekel (a candy bar historian) in his article "Land of the Candy Bar." It was the first candy bar to use the type of nougat center later used by Mars in Milky Way. This nougat resulted from using too much egg white in the recipe which made it fluffy and thicker than expected (thus making Emma "fat"). The nougat became known as Minnesota or Minneapolis nougat.

I hope you are enjoying Candy Freak as much as I am. Please feel free to post comments about the candy you remember from your youth. It truly is fascinating stuff!

Recipes for Pie and Crust

Hi Everyone,

I really should have thought about distributing the recipe for the apple and lemon meringue pie at our last meeting! Doug was kind enough to e-mail me the recipes! I hope this inspires you to try the pie crust. Jennie Shortridge did! She made rhubarb pie using Doug's pie crust recipe. I think we should all follow suit and do the same.

Doug’s Apple Pie

9” deep dish pie pan
1 prepared pie crust (1 batch of given recipe)

4 pink lady or honey crisp apples, peeled and sliced 1/4” thick
2 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced ¼” thick
2 Tbsp tapioca starch
½ cup sugar
2 tsp fresh ground cinnamon
2 ground cloves
2 oz butter
1 egg and 2 Tbsp water for wash
1 Tbsp apricot jelly and 1 Tbsp hot water for shine

1. In a large bowl, toss together the apples, tapioca starch, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.
2. Roll out large piece of dough to cover the bottom of the pie pan with at least 1” overhang.
3. With scissors, trim the edges of the crust so that they have a uniform overhang, and then tuck this excess under the top edge of the crust.
4. Fill the crust with the apple mix.
5. Roll out the smaller piece of dough enough to cover the top of the pie.
6. Place dough on the pie, trim away excess, and crimp the edges with the side of your thumb.
7. Vent pie by slashing the top crust with a small knife.
8. Brush the egg wash over the top crust, and then cover the edge of the crust with a pie collar or aluminum foil.
9. Bake pie at 350 for 45- 55 minutes. Turn pie to even out the browning if necessary. Pie is ready when a knife inserted through the vents meets little resistance from the apples.
10. Brush pie shine onto the top crust as soon as pie is removed from the oven, and cool for 1 hour.

Lemon Meringue Pie
(strongly based on the recipe given in the On Baking textbook)

10 oz granulated sugar
1.5 oz cornstarch
Pinch of salt
12 fl oz cold water
5 egg yolks
4 fl oz lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest
0.5 oz unsalted butter
1 crust from given recipe
4 egg whites

4 oz sugar

1. whisk together the 10 oz sugar, cornstarch, salt, and water in a 2 qt pot.
2. Cook mixture over a medium high heat until thick and almost clear, then temper in the egg yolks.
3. Return the mixture to the heat and continue cooking until mixture is thick and smooth, whisking frequently.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat, and whip in the lemon juice, zest, and butter. Cool.
5. Roll out the pie dough, and blind bake the bottom crust at 350 degrees for approx. 25 minutes (or until well browned), remembering to fill first with parchment paper and weights. Cool.
6. Fill cooled crust with cooled filling.
7. To make the meringue, whip the egg whites until they reach soft peaks, then add the 4 oz sugar, and continue whipping until glossy, firm peaks form.
8. Top the pie with a 1 ½” thick pile of meringue, taking care to extend it all the way to the outer crust.
9. Bake the pie in a 400 degree oven for 5-8 minutes to brown meringue.
10. Cool pie at room temp, and then refrigerate for 2 hours.
11. Enjoy.

Doug’s Basic Pie Crust

10.5 oz all purpose flour
5.5 oz cake flour
2 tsp salt
8 oz unsalted butter, cold, cut into 12-18 pieces.
Water as needed (approx ¼ cup)

1. Mix together both flours and the salt.
2. Rub the butter into the flour until the largest pieces are the size of nickels, but most pieces are the size of dimes.
3. Gradually toss the water (in small increments) into the flour/ butter mix until it becomes a shaggy mess. [warning: you may need more or less than the recommended amount of water]
4. Pour the contents of the bowl onto a work surface, and knead just until a single dough ball forms.
5. Cut the dough into a large segment (approx 2/3 of dough ball), and a small section (approx. 1/3 of dough ball).
6. Shape both dough balls into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2-6 hours before working.