Tag Archives: food

Family Dinner

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I’m in Seattle, where we are visiting our newly married kids. 

My daughter-in-law’s father occupies the same place in his family as I do in mine: he is the youngest of seven children.  His siblings have an unusual  way of staying connected: Friday nights are “family dinner.”

They meet at a food court in a mall, push tables together, and enjoy a meal together.  Each person gets a plate of food, and the visiting begins.  They have been doing this for decades, the group expanding and contracting with children (and snowbirds) added or absent. 

We arrived in time to join the family dinner on Friday.  Now I’ve been to a few food courts in malls and presupposed the typical choices – Cinnabon, A & W, Orange Julius, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, some noodle place, and McDonalds. 

Hah!

Double Hah!

This is Seattle my friend and this food mall reflected the incredible richness of city cuisine.  Korean, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, American BBQ, sushi — one could debate with oneself for hours.  My husband ended up a large bowl of Korean noodles, and I chose a cabbage roll from the a Russian place called Pierosky (?).  Not one hamburger could be seen!

It was better than an airport for people watching.  Our small community at home is pretty “white bread”; we have to travel to mingle with so many different nationalities. 

It was great getting to know the extended family.  I loved seeing my son so comfortably integrated into this group of people.

Whenever I meet grown friends from large families I usually quiz them on how they stay in touch with their siblings.  The challenge seems more difficult when both parents have passed.  There are pros and cons to a formalized system of newsletters.  One person organizes it and heckles the others into participating. 

Fits and starts would best describe my own method of phone calls and emails.  I reckon it a good season if I’ve touched base with each of my brothers and sisters.  Most of them are better than me at picking up the phone.   Thank God for sisters-in-law!! And we have a Lone Ranger who rarely initiates communication of any kind. 

Any ideas out there?  How often do you connect with your siblings?

A Happy Discovery

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Katie Grace, who must be a muse for all her inspiration,
introduced me to a new food (again!) last week: uncooked tortillas.

She found them at Costco in the refrigerated section.
They look like little circles of dough.

You heat a dry skillet, grill, pan, what-have-you.
Place the tortilla on the medium high heated pan.

After a short time, flip them over to the other side.
Be careful!  The bubbles are pockets of steam.

These are perfect plain, better in burritos, fabulous in fajitas.
One you have fresh tortillas, you will never go back to the ones on the shelf.

The uncooked tortillas freeze well and must be refrigerated until cooked.
It’s not health food, but in moderation they’re not deal breakers (140 cals).

This fits right in with  Mireille Guiliano‘s concept of sensible pleasure. 
One of these puppies filled with grilled onions and peppers,
marinated grilled meat, lettuce and salsa is better than anything
you could possible get at Taco Bell.  Muy bien!

Best Local Restaurants

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Ruthie has tagged me to do the restaurant meme.  All photos in this post are from the restaurant websites.  This food quote is my little addition.

To have conversation at meals involves a special
kind of hunger.  The great French philosopher of
gastronomy Brillat-Savarin made a distinction
between the pleasures of eating
and the pleasures of the table,
the latter meaning convivial talk
about subjects worth talking about.
Shared food can contribute a sense of well-being
and friendliness, but also a great deal more…

Our meals are making us think about the
callousness of our habits.  Cooking has
become part of the visual arts. Shopping
for food is a game of hide-and-seek,
with packagers concealing their secrets
in small print. The time will come, I hope,
when those who influence our ideas
 about food, the writers of newspaper
articles about restaurants, and the
makers of TV cooking shows,will begin
to discuss the quality of conversation
which their delicious meals induce,
and not concentrate only on the decor
of restaurants, or the technicalities of recipes.
We need to invent a new poetry of food,
as our ancestors invented a language of flowers.

~ Theodore Zeldin in Conversation

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Russ McBee (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)
Atomictumor Mrs Eaves (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA)
Oh Really? LissaKay (Oak Ridge, TN, USA)
Mark Steel blogitude.com (Knoxville, TN, USA)
Fracas (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Jersey Chick (Atlanta, GA, USA)

Magistra Mater (NE Oregon, USA)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

Heavenly’s – Home of the Heavenly Hamburger, Enterprise, Oregon

If you want to take a wonderful vacation, plan on a trip to Wallowa Lake.  Go ahead, click on that link; I guarantee you’ll be wishing you were in Eastern Oregon!  When you come, you will drive by this little roadside eatery.  Best hamburger, made from fresh (not frozen) beef.  No, really! Best Philly Cheese Steak sandwich west of the Mississippi. 

RimRock Inn – Dining on the Edge

Oregon Bounty plate

After you’ve had the best hamburger in the USA for lunch, plan on dinner at this fine restaurant sitting on the edge of the Joseph Canyon.  The vista is stunning.  It would be worth the trip just to sit and sip tea and look at the changing light. However, the interior setting is comfortably elegant, the food is exquisite, the staff is friendly and congenial; it has all the elements for a fabulous dining experience. Go to their website and look at the photo collection. Save room for a delectable dessert made by their pastry chef. They also have tipis that you can sleep in overnight. 

Foley Station

As famous for their elegant breakfasts as for their lunches and dinners, this is the restaurant of choice for many friends.  It is a good place to celebrate, to enjoy a  relaxed evening, or to have a treat.  My absolute favorite item is the Ultimate Chicken Salad.  Grilled chicken, avocado, blue cheese, candied pecans, red onions on a bed of greens with a tangy house dressing. I’d rather forego four fast food meals in order to dine here once.

Yia Yia Nikki’s

Whenever my sister picks me up at O’Hare airport (Chicago) she drives me to the closest gyros stand for some messy lamb, tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce cradled in pita.  The problem is, I only get to Chicago every other year or so.  In our rural area, ethnic eating means a few good Mexican restaurants and a handful of American Chinese eateries. Thai? No. Indian? None.  Peruvian? Dream on. Southern? Y’all must be touched. Italian? Go to Italy! Polish? Not a chance. Alas, we offer Denny’s and McDonalds.  Sigh.

So you can imagine my delight when this little stand opened by a Greek relative of a local resident.  Gyros, Greek salads, keftedes, pastichio, baklava and kourabiedes always available?  Here’s the funny thing – right above the door to walk in is a small sign: God.   What does that mean?  I get as much delight from the Greek accent and honest open face of the proprietor as I do from the food.

West of Paris  restaurant français

Canard a l’Orange

I’m including this Moscow, Idaho restaurant because it served me the best meal of my life.  The. Best. Meal. of. My. Life.  Très Bien!  It’s hard to describe what was so wonderful because the flavors were subtle and no one taste jumped out, flashing and screaming. The chef, a native of France, was trained in Lyon. Bite by bite, course by course, it was the culinary experience of my lifetime.  The dessert, Crème brûlée with a berry topping, capped an extraordinary evening. If you love food quotes, check out the link.

3. Tag 5 Others

If you would like to do this meme,  please leave a comment saying so.  If you want to be part of the world wide effort of locals reviewing their own favorites, check out Chronicles of Nicole.

There is a fabulous response from all over the world and categorized by country by Nicole here.

   

Dress It Yourself, Part Two

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I’ve been making salad dressings to have ready in the fridge when the dinner rush arrives.  Last week’s dressings are being consumed with gustatory enthusiasm.

This Ginger Sesame Dressing  from my friend Christi is a little more complicated and has some unusual ingredients.  But  this dressing is the most light, delicate, exquisite addition to a green salad.  The hotter the temperature outside, the more refreshing you will find this dressing.  Oh, my friend, you must try this one at least once!

Ginger Sesame Dressing
2 inches fresh ginger root (2 T minced)
2 T fresh-squeezed orange juice        
3 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice          
2 T dark sesame oil                           
1 T soy sauce                                    
1 T rice vinegar                                 
1 T honey                                        
3 T sesame seeds, toasted                
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions      
      

Do you see in the first photo how the ginger has “fingers”?
I just broke one off and peeled it.
What do you do with the rest of the ginger, you ask.
Store it in the freezer (otherwise it gets moldy) and add it to your chai.

Mince ginger.
Combine all ingredients except sesame seed and green onion in blender.
Process until mixture is well blended and ginger is nearly pureéd.
The dressing will be very thin, very fluid.

If you are making it ahead, stop here.
Otherwise, toast the sesame seeds.

Just before serving salad add the sesame seeds and sliced green onions.
I doubled this recipe, using one orange and two lemons.

Two more quick recipes:

Deyette’s Basil Dressing

2 large cloves garlic
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup basil

I added 1/4 oregano because I had it

Sharon’s Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp finely chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 T poppy seed

Place all ingredients except oil and poppy seed in blender.
With blender running, slowly add oil in a steady stream until thick and smooth.
Then add poppy seeds and process a few more seconds.


From the left: Glorious Green Dressing, Healthy Vinaigrette,
Basil Dressing, Ginger Sesame, and Lemon Poppy Seed.

I’d like to find a nice peanut dressing
similar to the house dressing of a local restaurant.
If you have any dressings that you’d like to share, please do!

Dress It Yourself

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When I grew up we made our own dressing. 
Yep, it was a classic. 
Mayonnaise mixed with ketchup and pickle relish. 
I guess we called it Thousand Island. 

The last few years I’ve been working
towards making my own salad dressings. 
It really goads my oldest son when he comes for dinner
 and there’s no ranch dressing in the fridge.

My SIL Valeri gave this recipe to me when we were putting
together the rehearsal dinner for Carson’s wedding.
It is originally from The French Laundry, an upscale restaurant in SF.
Simple, classic, lovely!!!  And good, good, good!!

Healthy Vinaigrette

1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup Red Wine vinegar
1 ½ cup Canola oil

Blend mustard and vinegar on medium speed for 15 seconds.
With machine running, slowly drizzle 1/2 cup Canola oil.
Don’t be tempted to add all oil in blender.

In a bowl wisk by hand the remaining cup of oil.

This dressing has tang!
I have used this on sandwiches (instead of mayo)
and also on roasted vegetables.

~     ~    ~

When it comes to cilantro one either loves it or loathes it.
Depending on which one you are, use cilantro or Italian parsley in this recipe.

Glorious Green Dressing

Jucie from one lemon
A heaping teaspoon of salt
5 (or more) garlic cloves, peeled
A bunch of cilantro (Italian parsley) washed and chopped
1 cup sour cream

Put lemon juice, salt and garlic in blender or food processor.  Liquify.

Add chopped cilantro.  Blend.

Finally, add sour cream and blend!  Oo-la-lá!!
The first time I had this, it was a side sauce for dipping grilled salmon.
But it is very happy when coupled with greens.
Zesty, zingy, zippy – you gotta love it.

You really can dress yourself.

Vegetable Stir Fry

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This is for you, Dana.  I can never repay you for the most delicious black bean salad ever, but here’s a down payment.

Put one glug (~ 1 T) of olive oil to a heated pan. Add chopped onions.
Red onions give a lovely color, but sweet Walla Wallas or Vidalias work just as well.

 

While the onions cook are cooking, chop up a pepper or two.
Any color is great: I love red.

These two jars are staples at my house.  I get them from Costco.
They are on the splurgy side of life, but my husband just loves both.
It’s quite an easy way to make my man happy. 
And since he keeps me warm (in many ways) I love to keep him happy.

This isn’t looking real purty right now,
 but those sun dried tomatoes are bursting with flavor.
At this point last night I went to get the ingredient that makes a difference:
frozen sugar snap peas.
Horrors!! 
What I thought was peas was lima beans!! 
Do I substitute limas and hope no one notices?  Yikes!
What’s this?  Oh, frozen cubes of pesto  from the garden: let’s try them.

 

At this point I added some cooked morel mushrooms, which are very dark.
While it tasted divine, I refused to take a picture.
Fortunately I had taken a picture last week so let’s substitute it:

Isn’t that a beauty?

I only add salt for seasoning.
If it’s a special day you could add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

I vary this according to what veggies are in the house.

You could add:

Cubed potatoes (add them first and cook them well)
Broccoli or Cauliflower
Fresh tomatoes in place of the sun-dried tomatoes
Zucchini
Thinly sliced carrots
Green beans
Corn
Mushrooms
Asparagus

Eat Drink Man Woman

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                                                                    HT: Sweetbriar Patch    

Eat Drink Man Woman directed by Ang Lee, the director of Sense and Sensibility, is a foreign film about family and food set in Taiwan.  The opening scenes are sumptious shots of food preparation.  

Mr. Chu, a senior chef, fixes an abundant feast each Sunday for his three grown daughters.  There is no connectedness between them and the weekly meal is a hodge-podge of clipped communication, random announcements, and dutiful picking at the food.  The daughters dread the “Sunday torture” as they call it and we all mourn the wasted opportunity, the wasted effort of Mr. Chu, the senseless charade.  The girls want to break away, seeking a romantic liason to provide their ticket out of the family.  

Even Mr. Chu realizes that life is adrift:  “Eat, drink, man, woman. Basic human desires. Can’t avoid them. All my
life, that’s all I’ve ever done. It pisses me off. Is that all there is
to life?”   As the family structure changes, we learn more about each one’s relationship to food and eating.  I anticipated the movie ending with a final feast of reconciled relationships.  It does end with a small feast, a poignant inversion of the opening scene.

I’m quite taken with foreign films, especially ones set in modern
times.  They offer slices of daily life in the local culture.  The
opening sequence begins with motorcycles roaring down a highway and
pans to the quiet serenity of the kitchen, with its small, satisfying sounds of a knife on wood.  The home is a quiet sanctuary from the bustling, urban milieu outside. An interesting twist in the culture of Taiwan is the role of Christianity in the life of the eldest daughter. She prays aloud before each feast while her family waits, tolerant, indifferent and silent.  

As I babbled on to Curt about this movie, he asked the best question (he excels at good questions):  What would this film be like if it were redeemed?   I pondered and experienced a brief moment of clarity: the food stuff was exquisite.  It inspired me to take more care with my meals, menus and presentations.  But it was not done for the glory of God.  The most delicious food, prepared with love, presented in glorious array is not enough.

It was strange to be processing my thoughts about this movie I watched on Saturday as we enjoyed a four-generation family feast at my son’s house on Sunday.  The smells of garlic and salmon wafted through the house as we talked, lingered, and then gathered around the table.  That there was no occasion to celebrate gave an even richer significance to the evening.   
   

What I’m Learning This Week

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Whenever, WHEN-EV-AH, my  brother and lovely sister-in-law come for a visit we learn something new. 

How to make sausage.
How to make upscale, gourmet homemade pizza.
How to make a killer green salad.
How to make bread dough in a food processor. (That was then; we don’t do that one anymore.)
How to make Esther Cunningham’s Orange Marmalade Cake.
How to make prime rib that sits in the fridge for three days unwrapped and forms a crust.
How to make healthy mushroom soup.
How to grill red peppers and skin them.

I used to think my brother was a genius.

Then he gave me a decade of Cook’s Illustrated yearbooks.  As I browsed through them, I recognized familiar recipes and procedures.  Ha!!  He’s just a good reader – always has been.  Naw, seriously, he’d make a great baker if he wasn’t busy earning a living singing.

But this year, my friend……this year he’s outdone himself.  Loaf after loaf after loaf.  Hungry sons scoop it up!

Elegant simplicity.
Outrageously easy. 
Incredible presentation. 
Melt in your mouth taste. 

No-Knead Bread

You need:
A cast-iron Dutch Oven
Flour
Salt
Water
SAF Instant Yeast
12-18 hours

You don’t need:
To knead

Recipe is here.

   

 

Eating with Augustine

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There can be no hope for me except in your great mercy.  Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!  You command us to control our bodily desires.  And, as we are told, when I knew that no man can be master of himself, except of God’s bounty, I was wise enough already to know whence the gift came. [quote from Apocrypha – Wisdom 8:21]  Truly it is by continence [moderation] that we are made as one and regain than unity of self which we lost by falling apart in the search for a variety of pleasures. (p.233)

For the process itself [eating] is a pleasure and there is no other means of satisfying hunger except the one which we are obliged to take.  And although the purpose of eating and drinking is to preserve health, in its train there follows an ominous kind of enjoyment, which often tries to outstrip it, so that it is really for the sake of pleasure that I do what I claim to do and mean to do for the sake of my health.  Moreover, health and enjoyment have not the same requirements, for what is sufficient for health is not enough for enjoyment, and it is often hard to tell whether the body, which must be cared for, requires further nourishment, or whether we are being deceived by the allurements of greed demanding to be gratified.  My unhappy soul welcomes this uncertainty, using it to vindicate and excuse itself. (p.235)

Every day I try my hardest to resist these temptations.  I call for your helping hand and tell you of my difficulties, because this is a problem which I have not yet resolved. … Drunkenness is far from me. By your grace may you prevent it from coming hear! But there have been times when overeating has stolen upon your servant.  By your mercy may you keep it far from me!

Give me strength, O Lord, so that I may do all things.  Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!

How do you respond to these quotes?  Do you agree that we are hopeless without God’s mercy?  Is enjoyment of food ominous?  Is it wrong to eat for any other reason than to preserve health?  Does his struggle strike a chord with you?

I find Augustine’s grasp of the heart issues involved with overeating very helpful.  Dependence on God’s mercy, grace and strength is essential to controlling bodily desires.  The second quote reminds me of the maxim “Do you eat to live or live to eat?”  While I don’t view enjoyment of food as a menace, I know that the enjoyment factor is often the reason why overeating has stolen upon this servant. 

I would love to come to a place where I eat in moderation six days a week (it is work in my mind – you know, being moderate) and feast on the Lord’s Day, celebrating His deliverance. 

There is a lot to process in these words of Augustine.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.
   


A Favorite Find

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Our strawberries are coming on strong and the raspberries are abundant for the first time since we planted them two years ago.  I have experimented with many different pectin products and this, dear reader, is my favorite.  Don’t you just love the fresh, sassy taste of freezer jam?  What I love about Ball’s Fruit Jell is its low proportion of sugar to fruit: 1 1/2 cups sugar to 4 cups fruit.  That’s the best I’ve found so far.  One small spoonful of jam mixed into a dish of plain yogurt….heaven!  It’s on sale this week for 99 cents. (doing cartwheels in my mind…)