A Coconut Comes to Cockeysville

Last weekend my SO and I took a trip to Miami Beach (combination business and pleasure). Saturday it was too rainy for the "swamp critter safari", so we opted to travel down to the Keys. We ran a little short of time to get all the way down to Key West. At the point we decided to turn around, we drove to see both the Gulf side and then the Atlantic side. On the Atlantic side, we spotted a lone, green coconut that had recently fallen off its tree. We tossed him in the car and decided to bring it back to Maryland.

On Monday, we set out to return home and I had the fear that the coconut would not make it through airline security. I wanted to abandon the coconut rather than deal with the dreaded "bag check" at the airport. SO convinced me to forge ahead with the coconut transport.

At the airport, I did endure a short bag check episode related to the coconut. It got swabbed for explosives while SO pointed out that the coconut was tamper-free. With that, all three of us were off for our Baltimore return.

Coconut came home and rested in the fridge for a few days -- the rest as they say is history as evidenced by the following pictorial:

Pre-hacking!

Half-hacked!!


Now we have an almost defenseless coconut...but this part of the shell was pretty hard to hack through.

We've broken through!

Digging for white gold.


The end result.

The final analysis: I love the water inside the coconut and all I got was about a tablespoon. Rats! The meat is very dry. I am going to make coconut milk out of it. At least I now know what the heck is in those big green coconuts!!

Food & Kisses, GiGi

My Hero

See, I could never be this guy, but I want to!!!










It's been a long day. Workout at 6:00 AM this morning. Put away laundry and unloaded dishwasher. Cleaned the litter box and then took a shower and went to work for a board meeting. Conference call scheduled for 5:00 PM didn't start until almost 6:00 PM. Got out of work around 6:30 PM. Returned phone calls on the way home. Finally dinner at 7:30 PM. Not much of a dinner -- I confess it was Lean Cuisine tonight (I do like the Tortilla Crusted Fish). Then, spent a little time cleaning up my desk. Ready to work on my cookbook project when I remembered I really need to get back into the blogging habit. So, here I am with a quick post.

As far as Food & Kisses goes, here's what is on my mind:

(1) I am possessed with my cookbook work. I'm making good progress. Feel focused and directed, BUT it is taking time away from knitting and I have so much knitting backed up.

(2) I am still mourning the passing of Gourmet magazine. Grief washed over me in waves again when I went to my mailbox and got the November issue. Here I thought my October issue was the last one. I guess this is the last one. BUT what is with the little cards advertising for new subscriptions??? Surely, they knew by the time this went to press that the handwriting was on the wall. And, if you read my Gourmet post, you know that I'm still kicking myself over old issues I threw out a ton of years ago...yes, I'm still fretting over that.

(3) What pies should I make for Thanksgiving? Help me out here. I believe there will be only four of us. Right now, we are averaging one pie per person: Pumpkin, Cherry, Pecan, and Coconut.

(4) When will my farm share come to an end? I think it's sometime next month. Even though it creates extra pressure to have to make sure to use everything up, I will miss it. I know that when January comes around and it's time to make the commitment, I will send in my payment and start wishing for June to arrive. And, I think I will do two different farms next year. Yes, I'm crazy like that.

(5) I am the Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde of the vegan world: One minute eating my raw vegan green smoothies and pumpkin seed granola and then chowing down on a ribeye steak (I swear that happened just yesterday).

(6) I haven't had a glass of wine in 2.5 weeks but who is counting? On one hand, I like feeling more alert in the morning, but on the other, I am never going to be like the chap pictured above on the beach.

(7) I love Seven Stars yogurt. Run, do not walk, to your health food store to see if you can get it. The maple flavored one is amazing.

(8) Right now, I am dehydrating celery which I am going to grind into a powder as a salt substitute. I will let you know how that goes.

(9) I'm going to Miami this weekend on a business trip and having dinner with co-workers one night. If I were left to my own devices I would go to a place that specializes in ceviche, but they all want to go to a steak house...I'm sure it will be good, but the ceviche joint would have been more of an adventure.

(10) Why did I have to be born beautiful instead of rich? I mean, really, is it fair that I have to work and can't just play in my kitchen to my heart's delight. There's just never enough time...but...

(11) I'm baking a ton of Christmas cookies this year. I've already started thinking about which ones: Iced Gingerbread, Brazil Nut Cookies, Peanut Butter Balls, Double Chocolate Chip, Iced Cutouts for starters.

(12) I found out today that there is an updated Tasajara cookbook. I adore the original so of course, I immediately threw the new one in my Amazon shopping cart. In the next few days, I'm sure I will press the check out button on that. I'm an Edward Espe Brown fan!!

(13) Well, here we are, my last and final food-related thought of the night -- my current death row meal: oysters rockafeller from the Grand Central Oyster Bar, steamed lobster, rack of lamb (in this fantasy I have more stomach capacity), potatoes au gratin, asparagus with hollandaise (and I don't get sick from overly-rich food), grilled romaine caesar salad from Olives in Las Vegas, a bottle of Pauillac, and chocolate mousse.

Food & Kisses, GiGi

Where Have We Been?

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa! Food & Kisses has not been abandoned -- but life did get in the way a lot over the past ten days or so. And, because of that, not much of interest has been going on with cooking/eating/dining. I did have a major food dehydrator problem last week which was then solved rather quickly once I had time to focus on fixing the issue. Then, this morning I sprayed the entire kitchen with soapy water when I sleepily forgot to put the lid on the blender when I went to clean it. Too bad no picture of that debacle!

The farm share is sort of winding down -- it's been lots of greens and a bit of winter squash and eggplant lately. I confess to having been rather uncreative with these items as well.

I do have some pictures of the pizza making at my SO's the weekend before last to share and discuss his process so stay tuned for that.

Food & Kisses, GiGi

Gourmet Magazine, R.I.P.

It’s the end of an institution: Gourmet Magazine will be no more after the November issue. And, I had just re-subscribed two months ago!

It feels like someone has died and I never told them how much they meant to me. True, upon reading the last to issues, I could see this was not the magazine I cut my teeth on way back when. The substance was gone. The pieces seemed puffy. The recipes were uninteresting.

We do have interesting food writing to read – it’s on the internet. But, it’s not the same as that monthly ritual of getting something in the mail and making some time for a nice leisurely pass through the pages – touching and studying the glossy photographs.


There is nothing out there that really fills the space that Gourmet once did – it was a terrific cross-section of what was “happening” on the food scene, what people wanted to cook from their favorite restaurants (“Readers Requests”), and beautiful photography – and not just of prepared food: back in the day, it could have been a photo of some gorgeous radishes (I still have that cover) or a Swiss chalet blanketed by snow (I had that cover framed and gave it as a gift).

When I was first getting into cooking, I clipped tons of recipes from Gourmet and my early experiments were successful. I remember two in particular: Chocolate Chip Meltaways (a shortbread crossed with a chocolate chip cookie recipe) and Pecan Blue Cheese Crackers. The recipes worked even for a novice such as myself.


One of my deepest food-related regrets was that I once had several years of bound copies of Gourmet from the late sixties and early seventies and I discarded them when preparing for one of my relocations. They were unwieldy and took up a lot of space. Plus I’d had them for about twenty years and had hardly looked at them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve regretted that rash decision to discard them. They were so evocative of that time because of the photography and there was some top notch food writing there.





Change is inevitable, of course, but I’m saddened nonetheless.

Sniff, Sniff.

Food & Kisses, GiGi

Cantaloupe Soup Face

A couple months ago, I posted about an evening of cooking at M's that culminated in the serving of a certain Cantaloupe Soup with Blueberries. The Cantaloupe Soup results were directly related to the title of the post: "Disasterville".

The stand out moment of that evening was when M tasted the soup and a look of revulsion immediately came over her face. That facial expression has come to be known as "Cantaloupe Soup Face".

Last night, M and I were out dining at one of Baltimore's best known places that has a reputation for appealing to foodies such as we. It was my first time (not M's) and I had been eagerly looking forward to going. My anticipation was heightened by a recent and very favorable review of this restaurant by a national food publication.

We carefully considered many options on the menu. There were many tempting choices. Finally we settled on oysters (raw for M, roasted for me), a flatbread pizza with lamb, olives, feta cheese, etc., a short ribs dish and a chicken dish. As the food arrived, we found some of it to be good and some rather disappointing.

The chicken dish, in particular, was a let down. But, we pressed onto the desserts. There were numerous flavors of homemade ice cream to select from, but we instead opted for a slice of sweet potato pie and a slice of carrot cake. Both came with an ice cream so my love of the frozen concoction was being addressed.

When the desserts arrived, again, we experienced inconsistency. The major faux pas was the DRY little squares of carrot cake. I thought the crust of the pie too salty but M liked it. When the waitress came to the table, we gave her our feedback on the food. She was especially concerned about the cake issue.

We waited for the check but then a waitstaff appeared and set out more flatwear and told us that the kitchen was sending out something special for us. Oh, yes, it turned out to be special...

Out came the owner bearing a plate of two additional desserts: a pannacotta with figs and a poached pear perched on an almond tea cake with a scoop of ice cream. I got a shot with my thumb:



You will notice that only a small portion has been eaten and, in fact, no more was consumed after each of us initially tasted this thing because...it was the return of CANTALOUPE SOUP FACE for BOTH OF US!!!

This creature was inedible and I'm not sure if it was a case of a bad ingredient or the wrong ingredient or BOTH! It was gagging to both of us. I choked it down and M cleaverly snuck her bite out of her mouth and dropped it on the floor (our napkins were long gone from the clearing of the table). I could not go back in for a second bite to determine what the problem was.

In my whole entire life I've never tasted anything worse in a restaurant.

We thanked the waitress for the gift from the kitchen, but in good conscience, I had to tell the truth: that tea cake must not be served to anyone.

Because I believe that the kitchen had the best of intentions, I'm not publishing the name of the restaurant. We did the right thing by letting them know of the problem and I'm sure it will be corrected.

While we were dining, M said that when the place first opened it was truly smashing. Now that some time has passed and some local fame has been acquired, it seems they are losing their way. M observed that they seem to be aiming for more sophisticated presentation and intellectualizing the food and thus, the loss of taste. I, not having a prior experience to draw upon, was just disappointed -- although I was quite amused by the dual return of Cantaloupe Soup Face.

In this day and age, I want value. I don't mind spending my whole entire grocery store budget on one dinner if it's worth it. I truly don't mind that. But, at that price point, I want something that tastes terrific. I am regularly satisfied at the low end -- I can go to the BBQ joint around the corner from my house and spend $25 for two people and I'm quite happy with the quality and quantity at that price point. I can buy a slice of pizza at a festival for $3 and again be satisfied.

It's at the upper end where there are usually problems. I could start ranting now about how can someone send food out to a table for $15 a dessert and not know that it tastes so terrible. People should be ashamed that with all of their high end education, etc. that they can't or won't do better than the local diner.

The end result is that I'm careful with my restaurant dollars. I've gotten to the point where I don't experiment on the high end -- I stick to tried and true if it's a time that warrants an upscale restaurant experience.

So, it's back to the kitchen for us when we re-convene in two weeks. In the meantime, I'm going to beat a path back to my own kitchen. I have an eggplant and a head of bok choy that need to be addressed before tomorrow's farm share comes on the scene.

Sorry, folks, I would have loved to have posted about a wonderful, over the top, outrageously good dining experience.

Food & Kisses, GiGi

10 Men in Kilts and counting...

Since our Apple Festival plans were re-arranged, great and adorable SO and I opted for the Mother Earth Harvest Fair at the Spoutwood Farm on Sunday -- See poster below:





















For some odd reason, I'm fascinated by men sporting kilts who (a) do not live in Scotland and/or (b) are not attending a Scottish event. I guess it's the boldness of the whole fashion statement that captivates me. Well, I really got an eyeful of men in kilts at this fair -- at least ten! However, I have to qualify this by saying that the featured band was a kilt-wearing clan named, Albannach:





They were actually pretty entertaining!









Also, entertaining were some other folks in the crowd. My favorites were the two guys who were wearing some type of swamp monster outfit (sorry, no picture) and the lady wearing the fairy dress that was made out of plastic grocery bags (picture courtesy of my SO):

























But, you ask, what about the food???

There were a nice selection of vendors selling hand-crafted items -- homemade bread, raw milk cheese, fruits and vegetables, and honey. The fruit and veggie stand was getting lots of traffic because they were giving away free chunks of watermelon which was pretty tasty. We missed getting the homemade bread as it was gone by the time we went back to buy it. We did get some artisan cheese and the honey. In addition, to buying the honey, we went to a cool demonstration given by the bee keeper -- He's been keeping bees for 30 years and says he is still learning! Here's a pic of the bees in the hive:






















Since I'm a knitter, I was keenly interested in the two ladies that were spinning wool. One spinner is actually starting a wool collective next year where you buy into a share of the animals and then as the wool becomes available she spins it and sends it to you! You get to meet the animals and even pick which ones you want the wool from. I can't wait!

Spoutwood Farm (click here for the website), where the event was held, is a 100 member Community Supported Agriculture ("CSA") farm. I checked into the program to see how it compares to mine and their medium share is comparable in price to what I'm paying with an additional 10 hour work requirement. It could be interesting next year to do both -- I believe I would get a different selection. Since it's a smaller operation, I suspect they may be growing more heirloom varieties.

Spoutwood Farm also hosts a Fairie festival in May and is having a big Halloween bash this year that looks intriguing...


One last thing before I sign off today: Last week I mentioned that in a speed cooking session I made a sweet potato pie with a gingersnap crust. Lord, it was good! Here's a pic:







Food & Kisses, GiGi

Battle Gingersnap!!!

Oh, I'm so happy tonight! I just finished a mini-marathon of cooking in anticipation of my SO's return home after a long business trip. I'm sorry there are no photos -- I was speed-cooking and couldn't take the time to stage the shots, etc. The mini-marathon included a Sweet Potato Pie with a gingersnap crust, a meatloaf, mashed potatoes and Cream of Portobello Mushroom soup. All the recipes are what I think of as "Frankensteins" where I take pieces and parts of recipes and adapt what I've seen to what I have on hand, what I'm willing to buy and what I know I like.

BUT, the title of this post is "Battle Gingersnap" and without further ado, let's get on with it.

It's October and I will be headed to the Apple Festival this weekend. For me, a special treat is an apple with a couple of gingersnaps. But, oh, not just any gingersnap...of course, I have a favorite. In fact, it's a very particular favorite and it is the Ivins Spiced Wafer.

Ah, the Ivins Spiced Wafer: indigeneous to area where Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania intersect. Legend has it that they are made somewhere near York, Pennsylvania. Legend further has it that Acme Supermarkets have the corner on selling them.

If you go to Giant at this time of year, you will see Spiced Wafers, but if you pay attention, you will see they are Sweetzels and not Ivins. Do not be fooled! They are not the same. Notice how closely the packages resemble one another:



What's the difference? Ivins tastes a bit more of cloves and molasses, I believe.

Now, what to do with those Sweetzels? Suspiciously, both boxes have two recipes on them -- one for Spiced Squares (a cakey-brownie like thing with chocolate chips) and a Spiced Wafer Crust. Well, the aforementioned Sweet Potato Pie got the Spiced Wafer Crust treatment a la Sweetzels. Now, I'm down to just a few Sweetzels.

When I finally tracked down an Acme this year that had my Ivins, I found them perched atop the meat counter! I knew I would buy at least six boxes. I checked the expiration and found that they would be good till March. I stood in the store calculating my projected consumption. At least a box a month, I thought. Then, I factored in two more boxes to stash at my SO's. I have a dear friend in Florida that's hooked so two boxes to send to her at some point. I started piling boxes into my cart and when I got to ten, I figured I might as well go to twelve. When I got home, the bags of cookies did look a little crazy and I wondered if this is how people get started that end up on an episode of "Hoarders".

Truth be told, the Spiced Wafer quest is just the first phase of a cool-weather journey through the land of gingerbread delights. On my list of Christmas cookies I routinely bake is a wonderful, soft gingerbread cookie with icing...:-)
Food & Kisses, GiGi