Giving Tuesday, December 2, 2014

I’m proud to be a food blogger. An abundance of wholesome, organic, nutritious foodstuff is at my fingertips or a just a quick trip to the grocer away. If I run out of something, whether basic or artisan, I Just Buy More. Food insecurity, a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food [USDA definition], is not part of my daily reality. I live on a nice street in a nice house with nice neighbors in affluent Fairfax County. But get this: last school year, over 50% of the children in my neighborhood’s elementary school were eligible for free or reduced meals. And in an elementary school whose boundary is adjacent to mine, 78% of the children were eligible for free or reduced meals. Food insecurity is likely a daily reality for those children.

Food insecurity is separate from hunger, although hunger is a very real consequence of food insecurity. According to the USDA, households with food insecurity regularly experience some or all of the following:

Worry that their food would run out before they got money to buy more.
Could not afford to eat balanced meals.
Cut the size of meals or skipped meals, or did not eat for a whole day, because there was not enough money for food.
Were hungry but did not eat because they could not afford enough food.

The Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) is the hub for food sourcing, food distribution, and nutrition education in the Washington metro area, serving those struggling with hunger. Through direct service and a network of 500 nonprofit partners, the CAFB distributes 45 million pounds of food annually, half of which is fresh produce. The CAFB service area includes: Washington DC; Montgomery County, MD; Prince George’s County, MD; Fairfax County, VA; Prince William County, VA; Arlington County, VA; and The City of Alexandria, VA. 92 cents of every $1 donated is used for food distribution, transportation, and programs.

For Giving Tuesday, I am launching a food drive at my office to collect non-perishable food donations and I will personally deliver those to CAFB later this month. The Capital Area Food Bank receives over a million pounds of nourishing food throughout the year from food drives like these. By their calculations, 1.2 pounds of food equals one meal, so I asked my colleagues to let that guide their contribution. The CAFB is committed to providing food to our community that is high in fiber, low in salt, and low in sugar. The “Most Wanted” items include:

Canned Tuna, Salmon, or Chicken
Canned Vegetables (low sodium, no salt added)
Canned Fruits (in light syrup or its own juices)
Canned or Dry Beans
Grains (brown & white rice, pasta, macaroni & cheese)
Hot and Cold Cereal (oatmeal, cheerios, corn-flakes, raisin bran)
Healthy Snacks (apple sauce cups, raisins, granola bars)
Peanut Butter
100% Juice (non-refrigerated, all sizes, including juice boxes)

If you were so moved to make a financial donation, I direct you here: http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/givingtuesday/. For every $1 donated, the CAFB can provide 2.5 meals!

#GivingTuesday
#WEGivesBack

logo source: www.92Y.org

Healthier tweak to some old favorites

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So a blogger I follow, Marisa McClellan over at foodinjars, recently published a cookbook, Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces from the author of Food in Jars. And in that cookbook was a recipe for biscuits made entirely with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. I was skeptical. I’ve worked with whole wheat flour with real mixed results. So I filed this tidbit away for Future Investigation and ended up buying some Whole Wheat Pastry Flour by Hodgson Mill a few grocery trips later. And you know what — no longer a skeptic!

Experiment #1: My old nemesis, pie crust. I decided to go with all-butter (no lard) and sub out half of the all-purpose flour with this whole wheat pastry flour. The dough was a little persnickety upon rollout, perhaps a touch more fragile, but really not so different than the all A/P version. I made a ham-and-cheese quiche with one half, and honestly, the slight grit and nuttiness of the crust was an improvement over the all A/P version! Lots of light flaky layers, too. I froze the other half for later use. I would discourage that — the dough was VERY fragile and tore often upon roll-out. I did a lot of patching but managed to eke out a decent enough crust for an apple pie. Some flakiness lost, but all in all, a decent pie.

Experiment #2: Classic Toll-House Chocolate Chip Cookies. I went with my melted butter technique but otherwise used the basic recipe, subbing out half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour. I have a stand mixer, so no issues with mixing. My personal taste test of raw dough revealed the merest grit and nuttiness, but an innocent bystander probably wouldn’t have noticed the difference. They baked off consistent with the full A/P version. Final product was given a thumbs-up all around. The slightest change in texture — but everyone said they wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t said something.

Experiment #3: Biscuits. Given the success of the previous two forays into WWPF, I decided to brave a half-batch of biscuits using ONLY the whole wheat pastry flour. I used the proportions and general techniques found at Mommy’s Kitchen, which is based on a Southern Living recipe. I of course doctored it up — this time with some shredded sharp cheddar. I found I had to up the quantity of buttermilk a little — the WWPF really sucked up the liquid. I also did NOT have the usual gloopy dough that I have to turn out on a well-floured board for booking (laminating?), so I formed eight small biscuits by hand, handling the dough as little as possible. Baked them off, keeping an eye on the time, and ended up with crusty-outside-fluffy-inside cheesy biscuits. Awesome alongside a basic fish chowder.

Why choose WWPF over A/P flour? Fiber, baby. One-quarter cup unbleached, all-purpose flour has about 1 gram of fiber. One-quarter cup of whole wheat pastry flour has 4 grams of fiber. For someone who’s trying to be smarter about their carb intake, fiber matters.

So, will I sneak WWPF into every baked good from now on? Probably not. But if I’m making a quiche, I might prefer the half WWPF version. And if I’m making savory biscuits on a weeknight, I might go the WWPF version since it’s less messy and slightly more healthful.

Standard caveat: This is a personal recommendation. I have been provided neither product nor compensation for this endorsement.

Another fall flavor for sippin’

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Sometimes something will catch my fancy at the likker store. This weekend — it was the seasonal apple cider liqueurs. Both Jack Daniels and Evan Williams do one. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not the biggest fan of brown liquors, so I’ve been hesitant to buy these in the past. After a chat with the salesguy, who was a self-described whiskey nut, I decided to give the Evan Williams a try.

Once safely home for the evening, I poured a little in a glass for a taste. Sweet … apple-y … backnotes of fall spices. I imagine it would be tasty warm! But I was thinking more of an iced cocktail (it was pretty warm over the weekend), and I spied two orphan Shock-Tops in the back of the fridge, a Honeycrisp Apple Wheat and a Pumpkin Wheat. I don’t think I’ve ever attempted a beer cocktail, but I knew the Honeycrisp Apple Wheat had definite apple notes, so I said, what the hell. And so this cocktail was born. The two really do complement each other, and the mild bitterness of the ale tempers the sweetness of the liqueur. You’ll get three drinks out of a bottle of beer — so these really are on the milder side. But very refreshing!

As this runs a little under $10/bottle, it’s a nice addition to your fall larder.

When Evan Met Belgium
Serves 1

3 tablespoons Evan Williams Apple Orchard
Splash of lime
4 ounces medium-bodied Belgian-style wheat ale

Put ice in a rocks glass. Add the liqueur and a splash of lime. Top off with ale. Garnish with an apple chunk if you’re feeling fancy.

Standard caveat: This is a personal recommendation. I have been provided neither product nor compensation for this endorsement.

Using up the stash …

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See that picture above? That’s my jam stash. The various jams, jelly, preserves, sauces, and fruit butter I made over the summer. More than 15 jars. It’s crazy. I hardly ever buy jam. But something about the kind I MADE myself — I got a little obsessed. **shrugs** I have been stirring my stuff into cottage cheese and yogurt. The occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Even more rarely scones and biscuits. I’m thinking there will be more biscuits now that the weather’s turned cool. I stumbled on a website that uses jams in cocktails — so I might play around with that a bit too.

I got a bit of a sweet tooth the other night, and got to thinking about making something with one of these jars of loveliness. I considered thumbprint cookies or linzer cookies — but those were hours away, between softening butter, refrigerating dough, and the sheer labor involved in rolling dozens of balls or rolling out and cutting dough. I thought about layered bars. I haven’t made too many of them in the past — the whole crust production followed by filling(s) followed by toppings — just seemed like a lot of work and dirty dishes. And some of those crusts are just dry and tasteless. And the fillings overly sweet. And the toppings overly complicated. I knew I could do better.

So here was my goal — come up with a single concoction that would serve as BOTH crust and topping. I wanted something that was a cross between shortbread and cookie. As for the filling — oh my word — my own blackberry preserves! Not nearly as sweet as a commercial jam, and a bit looser — so it could firm up as it cooked. Because my blackberry jam was made with cinnamon and star anise, I thought a little anise seed in the dough might be nice. The food processor made short work of this dough — it all came together lickety-split. And the CGP thoroughly approved.

Blackberry Jam Layer Bars
Makes 16 tiny squares

1/3 cup white sugar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons anise seed (optional)
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg, separated
1/2 pint loose jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare an 8″ by 8″ baking pan with overlapping foil pieces to make a sling — spray well with baking spray.

Put the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and anise seed into a food processor and pulse a few times until combined. Drop in the cubed butter and egg yolk. Pulse a few times until it looks like fine damp sand. Add the egg white. Pulse a few times until it looks like coarse wet sand.

Loosely scoop out about one cup of these crumbs and set aside. Press the remainder into the bottom of your prepared pan, pressing into the corners and making it as smooth as possible. Bake this about 10 to 12 minutes just until set.

Spread the jam or preserves over the bottom crust (try to remember that the pan is hot and not burn yourself). Loosely sow the remaining cup of crumbs across the top.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the preserves are all bubbly at the edges and the top is light golden brown. Here’s the tough part — you gotta let them cool to room temp before you can lift them out and cut them into little squares!

My take on a Hurricane

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So last Date Night, I threw together a little gumbo. Yeah, on a weeknight — I’m a bit of an over-achiever that way. This was NOT an all-day gumbo with land, sea, and air represented. Rather, I started with a peanut butter-colored roux, cod and squid I’d pulled from the freezer earlier that day, and a variety of non-traditional veggies from my produce box – like corn and green beans (I know someone’s mamere is rolling over in her grave). And okra. Gotta have okra. It was a respectable gumbo.

So I wanted to serve the CGP a New Orleans-inspired cocktail, and a Hurricane comes to mind. I google around for the ingredients, and one of them had equal parts of white rum, black rum, grenadine syrup, orange juice, and sour mix. I couldn’t even fathom that much grenadine. Another one added 151 and pineapple juice, but ratcheted back the grenadine. Pat O’Brien’s version has some passion-fruit syrup in there. But still not sure about that color — I’m thinking alot of food coloring too. I’ve got black and white rum. I’ve got Pama liqueur and a pomegranate. I’m not opposed to a little grenadine. So I throw together a lightened-up version, with a little fizz at the end from ginger-ale. This is a balanced drink — not too sweet — not too acidic. And not too red.

Hurricane-Lite
Serves 1

1 tablespoon black rum
1 tablespoon white rum
1 tablespoon Pama liqueur
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 to 1 teaspoon grenadine syrup
Pomegranate seeds
Ginger ale

Stir the rums, liqueur, lime juice, and grenadine syrup together in an old-fashioned glass. Add ice. Top off with ginger ale and some pomegranate seeds. Serve with N’Awlins-inspired entree of your choice.

A Taste of the Stary Kraj (Old Country)

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So this weekend, I took a field trip with a dozen like-minded ChoWhounds to Orchid Cellar Meadery and Winery, just outside Frederick, Md. Our goal? To sample as many small-batch meads as the mazer (mead brewer) would pour!

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey. It is one of the oldest beverages — appearing to pre-date both beer and vinifera wine. In Poland, mead was made at home for many generations. Even my husband has made it in the past (I really should dig around that dark closet in the beach shack just in case there’s a bottle still hiding in the far corners!). The folks at Orchid Cellar are fourth-generation Polish mead brewers. They rely on traditional low-technology methods of fermentation and aging, with no artificial flavorings or preservatives added.

Meads can be on the boozy side — so probably not something you are going to guzzle. The can range from dry to fairly sweet. I wouldn’t call them subtle — they pair beautifully with sausages and cheeses. Andrzej Jr recommends serving them at “castle temp” — I like them chilled in the fridge and sipped in small portions — they warm up to “castle temp” pretty quickly. Unopened, these could keep for years. Opened and refrigerated, they should last for several months.

I purchased four varieties for my own consumption:

Melusine Dry Cyser – a fermented blend of apple juice and honey. Alcohol content ~12%, so more like a dry fruity wine. Versatile accompaniment to pork.

Beekeeper Kiwi Mead – inspired by Polish tradition of using gooseberries in mead. Alcohol content 16% – 18%. Delightful as an apertif with sausage and cheese.

Cobbler White Peach Mead – inspired by the availability of lush white peaches at a friend’s orchard in Pennsylvania. A little deeper flavor than the Beekeeper. Alcohol content 16% – 18%.

Archer Cinnamon and Clove Mead – my personal favorite. Dark and complex in flavor. Something to be savored in front of the fire this winter. Alcohol content 16% – 18%.

Their products can be purchased at the meadery, online, or at a number of retailers throughout Maryland. Please see their website for more details.

Standard caveat: This is a personal recommendation. I have been provided neither product nor compensation for this endorsement.

Good Eating: Golden Isles of Georgia

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[credit: Laura Butler Olsen]

Over the long Columbus Day weekend, I headed south to coastal Georgia to attend my (ahem) 30th high school reunion. That’s my senior portrait on the badge above (last good photo of me) and in the photo to the right, from left to right: baby me, Laura Butler Olsen (provider of photo), and Laura Gray Strickland, at our graduation (girls wore white gowns over white dresses with white shoes and boys wore red gowns over whatever). I attended Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Ga, for 10th through 12th grades (public school despite the name). The school was established in 1788, and the school’s website claims it is the second oldest high school in the State of Georgia and the fifth oldest high school in the nation! One of the still-in-use buildings on campus was originally built in 1889. And these buildings felt like it. No elevators. Not all were air conditioned. Each building had its own unique smell. Fortunately, the reunion was held off-campus.

Our first night’s event was held at Ziggy Mahoney’s, with food provided by Southern Soul Barbecue. Griffin Bufkin, one of the co-owners of this 1940s gas station turned BBQ joint, was also in my graduating class. But I think we ran in different circles, ’cause my memory of him is awfully fuzzy. Hell, my memory of EVERYTHING is awfully fuzzy. His restaurant was just across the traffic circle from my hotel, so I was tormented by the smell of smokin’ meat every time I went in and out. I was pretty excited when I saw the stacks of real hardwood where the gas pumps used to be! The catered spread was good solid barbecue. Well-barked pulled pork that needed but a touch of sauce (I chose his Habanero Peach Hot Sauce). And some awfully good collards.

Went back again on Sunday for lunch with my BFF Laura and her husband David. I stuck with pulled pork since David promised he’d let me sample the brisket. Fried okra and hushpuppies on the side, ’cause I can get french fries at home. Again — the pork was moist and well-seasoned, but I did dab a little of his sweet, tangy, mustardy Sweet Georgia Soul BBQ sauce on there. The brisket was fork tender without falling apart — served unsauced so you could still taste the dry rub (cumin? little cayenne maybe?). Their Brunswick Stew is supposed to be pretty good. I didn’t get offered any by a certain tablemate (sore subject), but you can find their recipe here. Neither Laura nor I could finish our meals — but that’s what a refrigerator is for, right (thank you Hampton Inn SSI!)? So technically I consumed Southern Soul 3 times over the weekend. No complaints from this BGE princess — good Q never gets old!

Another Golden Isles culinary destination is Grandy’s – on Cypress Mill Road in Brunswick proper. I got lost a couple of times, because NOTHING looks the same anymore, and oh about the third time I drove by Grandy’s, I hit the drive-thru for a Grandy’s Famous “Sinnamon” Roll. These are the Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever. Delicate, not-too-sweet dough that tastes of yeast, with plump raisins, a touch of pecans, and an old-fashioned icing. I ate mine in my hotel room after the leftover BBQ, and there was much internal turmoil about going out again at 9 at night to acquire another. I settled instead for picking up a half-dozen on my way out of town and bringing them home on the plane. Fortunately the JAX TSA agents don’t know Grandy’s, so they made it through security unscathed. Keith and I each ate two (at different times) and I gave a couple to my dear next-door-neighbors. And I’m wishing now I bought a dozen. And you know how I KNEW I was in the South? I had a ten minute conversation with the nice boy at the drive-thru window, and the car behind me didn’t honk once. In DC, someone mightta pulled a gun on me.

So even though I had some tasty (if a littly doughy) fried shrimp for lunch Saturday at Barbara Jean’s near the St. Simon’s Island Pier and boiled shrimp at that evening’s Low Country Boil out at Village Creek Landing, I was still itching for more seafood. So I timed things right on fly-home day to hit the Northside outpost of Seafood Express, tucked away in a strip shopping center just a couple of miles from JAX. This was a leap of faith — I found it on the Internet and decided to trust the positive reviews. I was NOT disappointed. A trio of fried seafood (shrimp, scallops, and oysters) plus fried okra and hush puppies — a very generous portion of VERY well-fried Southern Love. Bonus — the oysters were the little tiny sweet ones like what I get at the Fish House in Ruskin, FL.

My last evening, I headed to Jekyll Island for a quick beach walk (1 live sand-dollar, returned to sea; 1 dead sand-dollar, kept; no sharks’ teeth). I was leaving the island just before sunset, so was able to capture a couple of incredible shots of the amazingly beautiful Marshes of Glynn.

Comfortable favorites …

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So if you are flipping through the channels at 10p at night, not really sleepy enough to walk back to the bedroom, but not really awake enough to do anything productive, and it’s between so-called “seasons” so it’s all reruns anyway, what show are you most likely to watch? For me, it’s the Big Bang Theory or Law and Order. I think I’ve seen nearly all episodes of each, but watching one is like putting on a favorite pair of pajamas, comfortable and familiar. I’ve got some blogs I follow the same way:

Heather Christo, Sharing the love of food with friends and family: Her recipe for Lemon Summer Squash Bread is one of the Best Things I’ve Ever Made. I think it’s how I found her blog. She’s recently had a wide and unusual (to me) number of food allergies identified for herself and her kids, so this is a good resource for xxxx-free recipes! And her photos really do qualify as food porn.

The Pioneer Woman, Plowing through life in the country … one calf nut at a time: I think I probably saw her on TV before I realized there was an accompanying blog. Her recipes feel down-to-earth and rely on normal grocery store stuff. She lives out in the country so c’mon, she can’t run over to Wegman’s if she needs some fancy unique ingredient! She has ALOT of good giveways (I’m a sucker for a giveaway). And she’s funny.

Food In Jars: You can blame Marisa for my on-going obsession with canning. I had NO IDEA how easy and fun it was to make my own shelf-stable small-batch jams. She’s very very good at explaining how you can’t kill anyone as long as you stick with high-acid fruits. She’s amazingly good at responding to specific questions in replies to her posts.

Smitten Kitchen: This one is just fun to visit. Deb has been blogging an impressively LOOOONG time. I’ll admit, she uses puff pastry a little more than me (which is like, never). But many of her baked goodies are very approachable. She provided the inspiration for my Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins.

One Week Closer, Steadily gaining on retirement seven days at a time: This one is written by my friend Beverly. She’s blogged Every Single Week this summer about what she’s doing with her CSA share. Broadly, her blog is about moving toward retirement, but the summer series has been great. I try to chime in if I’ve got something to contribute.

What are some of the blogs you find yourself returning to time and time again?