Foodie Sunday: Snow, Snow and More Snow - Grilled Cheese and Carrot, Dill and Ginger Soup

By Beth Schreibman Gehring It’s been too cold here in Ohio for way to long.  All of us are getting cabin fever and the dogs are quite uncontrollable so I keep having to find ways to keep us all content. Frankly most of these generally involve craft beer and comfort food! Today being no different in terms of weather or emotion, I woke up craving grilled cheese; a food that I truly love. The problem is that lately it doesn’t love me. I’ve given up gluten and I don't regret it because until recently there’s been nothing available to me that could even remotely begin to resemble bread in my book. That is until last Saturday  when I discovered a new and quite magnificent gluten free baker at my local indoor farmers market.  Their name is Uncommon Grains. Watch out for them. They’re a cottage business right now, but I don’t think that they will be for long. Any of you who have tried gluten free bread in the past know that it is essentially way too dry and for the most part a totally tasteless, crumbly and strange substitute for bread .The bread that I bought today is amazing; flavorful and chewy with perfect air pockets and blessed with a crust that would make a Parisian expat weep. Today I went back specifically for their rye loaf, because I was sure that it would make a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Their rye loaf is studded with caraway and has the most amazing rye/pumpernickel bread aroma. I thought that it would be perfect with the artisanal Colby cheese with dill that I’d bought the same day.  We are so lucky in Cleveland; our origins are in farming as well as industry so incredible farm to table products are available all year round. We’ve got inner city farms, year round CSA’s and lots of farmers markets going on all of the time. There’s never a shortage of good fresh food! After picking up some fresh organic whisky scented sausage, young carrots and some chocolate peanut butter hemp seed bars I went home happy and ready to cook! A few drops of neroli , sage and vanilla essential oil rubbed through my hair (in case a special someone came into the kitchen!) and I was ready!  Of course any grilled cheese worthy of the name needs some soup to dunk it in, so I played with the dill theme and came up with a savory fresh buttermilk, carrot, dill and ginger soup. My kitchen smells like a buttery on this perfect midwinter day and all of the dill is scenting the air with its cool, crisp fragrance. The caraway seeds from the bread are smoldering like fine incense and the Colby is melting over the edges of the toasting bread.  There are tall glasses of cold, freshly pressed winter cider.  When I take it all down to Jim, he takes a bite and shuts his eyes, smiles that glorious smile of his and for once, I don’t mind the cold nor the falling snow at all.  What do you like to eat on a cold winters day?  Any thoughts on grilled cheese? If you want my recipes just let me know in the comments and I'll send them straight to you!

Foodie Sunday ~ From my Table to Yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

" If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."   ~Meister Eckhart By Beth Schreibman Gehring I love Thanksgiving … it’s become my favorite meal to cook every year. As a child I loved to wake on the day and sneak into the kitchen to watch my mother who was elbow deep in all of her preparations by 7:00 am. I’d spend the morning on a very tall chair dipping my fingers into the stuffing and doing my favorite of the jobs assigned to me which was to stick the marshmallows on the orange and cinnamon scented sweet potato casserole. One for the pan, one for me and on and so on and so forth. After that, I would set the table with her beautiful Coalport dishes, her wine glasses and her grandmother’s monogrammed sterling. Then she’d send me out to the garden to pick whatever was left of the fall herbs and flowers to put into her napkin rings that were little blocks with holes in them that turned them into vases. I’d arrange them and pull the napkins through. That is still to this day one of my favorite childhood memories. The Thanksgiving after my mother died was the very first time that I’d ever cooked the whole meal myself. It was also the loneliest holiday of my life. I dreaded the day coming and finally decided that I needed to shake it up a bit. I brined the turkey in a homemade maple, spice and salt brine. I made the sausage for the stuffing from scratch. I didn’t make the scalloped oysters; a dish that is traditional at my family’s thanksgiving table yet almost universally disliked!  Instead of serving wine, I served a vast array of delicious hard ciders and artisanal beers ending with some very fine port. In short I allowed myself to be really creative instead of just sticking to the tried and true and it ended up being a really great day! As the years have gone on, I’ve noticed that there are more and more children like me. No matter how old we are, if we’ve lost our parents and there’s no other family in town, we generally feel like orphans at this time of year. I’ve had several Thanksgivings since that first that have been pretty spectacular, but I discovered that I needed to recreate the holiday completely.  I’ve done this is by shedding all of my superstitions and being brave enough to keep only the traditions that I love while adding plenty of new dishes. Instead of the requisite oysters, I made shrimp and spicy cheese grits.   I’m a Yankee girl through and through but I love rich Mexican flavors so instead of rubbing my turkey with plain butter and fine herbs I use a paste of smoky ancho chiles, garlic, butter, smoked salt, cumin and chili powder!  I realize that with this next statement that I am killing off two of the truly sacred cows of the traditional Thanksgiving meal.  I’m taking a deep breath now before I say it. Here goes! I REALLY hated the sweet potatoes with the exception of all of those delicious marshmallows.   I truly dislike most versions of pumpkin pie. Incredibly enough I’m still here! What I do instead is make a puree of cauliflower, carrots, turnips, onion, garlic and sweet potatoes that I season with a browned butter, fig infused balsamic vinegar and sage reduction.  To replace the pumpkin pie that no one eats, I serve a pumpkin and peanut butter soup as a starter and a side dish that is a pumpkin stuffed with a traditional sage, cornbread, sausage and chestnut stuffing and then baked until it’s buttery and tender. Dessert is an exquisite French Canadian maple pie and often latte’s made of chai tea and sweetened pureed pumpkin.    What I’ve kept the same? My mother set the most beautiful Thanksgiving table full of brass candlesticks, autumn fruits and vegetables spilling out of her collection of cornucopias and lots of chocolate turkeys and pilgrims. She always had a beautiful centerpiece on the buffet table that she made herself of mums, sunflowers, rust colored roses and fresh pine. I set the table with her Coalport china and her grandma’s silver. I still walk into my garden regardless of the weather to get the herbs and flowers for the napkin rings.  I serve my mothers nutmeg and garlic infused creamed spinach and never ever will I be able to have a holiday table without a healthy bowlful of her mashed potatoes because Alex would never come for dinner again. I am sworn to secrecy with this recipe but I will say two things- one bag of russet potatoes to three sticks of butter. Alex’s place setting is always set with a bottle of A1 sauce his favorite condiment since childhood and the one thing allowed on her table that wasn’t silver, porcelain or crystal. Such is the strength of a grandmother’s love.  If you are finding yourself in the same position as I did so many years ago I hope to have given you a way to create a holiday of your own that is rich in memories and full of new traditions. It is the only way that I have known to move on while at the same time honoring those who are at the very core   of our memories.   If you are lucky enough to still have all of your loved ones at the table take a look around and cherish every one of them and know that from my table come wishes to you and yours for a fabulous holiday season filled with too much laughter, love and thanks for your continued faith in me and my words. If you would like some of my favorite holiday recipes, I've got 11 of them ready to send to you (Including my fairly famous eggnog and bourbon milk punch!) as my gift! Please leave your email in your comment and I'll mail them right out to you under a subject line called Home for the Holidays! With all my love and many thanks, Beth Schreibman Gehring  Picture of Pumpkin Soup is not mine, but I have no idea who to attribute this lovely image to!

Foodie Thursday: Persimmons

By Tom I have never had a persimmon in my life. Until today. I was having some painting done and the painter, a very nice man in his early 60's came in at the end of his work and offered me what I took to be an almost criminally over-ripe tomato. Being my mother's child I happily accepted it, thanking him thinking I'd just toss it in the disposal if I could get it to the kitchen without it exploding in my hand. Then he mentioned that he and his wife have a tree in the backyard that produces them. Now, my horticultural experience is limited, bur even I know that tomatoes grow on vines and while vines can grow on a trellis, they aren't going to be confused anytime with a tree. That's when it hit me- it's persimmon colored. It must be a persimmon. So upstairs I went and ate it. It was interesting- sweet and pulpy, almost gooey. Looking at Wikipedia, there are several varieties. I believe mine was the Hachiya, which is apparently the most common. While I don't think this will be elbowing apples and blackberries out of the way for the #1 top spot in my personal pantheon of Fruit That I Love, I'll certainly be trying them again. Do you like persimmons? Have any recipes you'd like to share? Please leave a comment. Image: Wikipedia

Foodie Sunday: Family, Feasts and Fruitcake

By Beth Oh my goodness…how can it be December?  Autumn just flew by and now it’s time for Christmas? I can barely believe it!  I hope that all of you had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving. I did, spending it in Boulder Colorado for the very first time with my husband’s side of my family and of course Alex who came with us.  It was a wonderful trip and of course I spent all of the holiday in the kitchen doing what I love to do best. I had a wonderful time but Thanksgiving this year was made even more memorable by the fact that my mother –in-law (a fabulous cook in her own right) cocked her head and proclaimed my turkey absolutely delicious.  This was truly big deal as she makes it for the family every year and I was very nervous about stepping on her toes.  I got up at 6:00 in the morning and began to cook. By 8:00 am I’d made two pans of Brussels sprouts au gratin, twocasseroles of creamy, garlicky, parmesan laced spinach and a huge stockpot of chestnut, sausage and dried fruit stuffing.  My darling husband spent his time peeling at least 20 of the largest baking potatoes that I’ve ever seen. The man is definitely a keeper; the best sous chef that any woman could ask for… exceptionally good with his hands! Mine is a family that loves them mashed and there had better be plenty of them. Fortunately for me by the time it came to mash them my niece Nicholle had arrived bringing her boyfriend Ian who is a wonderful cook in his own right.  Grateful for the help, I tossed him the hand mixer! We made three kinds; one with lots of butter and sour cream, one with plenty of infused garlic, butter and whipping cream and onewith sour cream, butter and cream cheese. Of course everyone was happy! There were so many left over that the next night my sister- in -law Barbara used them to make homemade pierogies with smoked sausage and sauerkraut. I was reminded all weekend of how much fun it can be to spend time in the kitchen with the people you love. Cooking together is such a wonderfully simple way to enjoy each other’s company.  When Monday came I left Colorado very reluctantly but completely refreshed and soul satisfied.  So now I’m home and I’ve a goal this year starting on December the 1st  (Yikes that’s NOW!) to make some sort of delicious homemade gift at least every other day. I’ve already got a beautiful spiced apple syrup in the refrigerator just waiting for the addition of a few cups of Red Stag bourbon that when bottled will make a lovely addition to any bar. Next week I’ll start making chocolate bark…several different kinds just filled with fruits, nuts and crystallized ginger then drizzled with lots of chocolate, both white and dark! I’ll be making marrons glace’ too and if you’ve never had those delectable morsels you really owe it to yourself to taste them just once. Simply put, they are chestnuts that are boiled in a bath of thick simple syrup over and over again until the water in them has been replaced with sugar. They are crystalline and wonderful; a very French Christmas staple.  I make them almost every year and eat them as quickly as I bottle them. Crumbled over vanilla ice cream and drizzled with a bit of brandy there is almost nothing more luscious, unless of course you take those same chestnuts and layer them amid folds of whipped cream, custard and jam to create a perfect English trifle. I intend to make my own Yule Log this year for my annual Solstice party, covered with dense chocolate frosting, meringue mushrooms, filled with ganache laced with those very same chestnuts, whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar snow! I’ve been working at Williams Sonoma this season and of course for someone like me who’s kitchen obsessed that’s quite a lot of fun but my trip to Colorado actually inspired me to make more presents myself and buy less of what I could actually be creating. These days in America the holiday season is full of built in obsolescence and I’ve begun to grow weary of store after store filled with trendy merchandise blessed with approximately one year of a shelf life. I believe that it’s time to reclaim the traditions that we love instead of allowing a marketing department somewhere far away to dictate our plans for the season. When I was a child we made garlands of popped corn and cranberries and strung ribbon candy with streamers and bows. It was a homemade holiday, butthose are the ones that I loved the most, spending hours with my family creating the beautiful decorations for our tree. I for one am tired of being frantic by the time that I get to Christmas eve and I’m determined this year to take a trip back in time and reclaim the traditions that fill my Christmas season with all of the old fashioned beauty and love that I remember. So to start I’m going to make my mother’s fruitcake!  I already hear your groans, but trust me her fruitcake is really very good, full of fruits, nuts, plenty of spice and very little batter. The loaves smell like heaven when they’re baking, but the fun really comes when I cover them in sherry soaked cheesecloth and spend the next couple of weeks soaking them in spiced rum. My mother taught me to make them one year when I had very little money for gifts. Wrapped in a pretty Christmas towel and bow and gifted with a recipe for hard sauce (brandy, butter and confectioners sugar!) they make a delicious present.  This is the recipe that she used, straight from Southern Living magazine, but as old as the hills. I promise you that it’s delicious! More Fruit and Nuts than Cake Fruitcake 2 cups golden raisins 3/4 cup dry sherry 2 cups chopped candied pineapple (about 1 pound) 1 1/2 cups chopped red candied cherries (about 3/4 pound)  1 1/2 cups chopped green candied cherries (about 3/4 pound)  4 cups chopped pecans  3 cups all-purpose flour, divided  3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 3/4-cup sugar 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 6 large eggs 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground mace (optional) 3/4 cup whipping cream  1 (10-ounce) jar strawberry preserves 3/4 teaspoon almond extract 3/4 teaspoon orange extract 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract Preparation Soak raisins in sherry 8 hours; drain and set aside. Combine pineapple, candied cherries, pecans, and 1 cup flour, tossing to coat. Set aside. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugars, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine remaining 2 cups flour, salt, allspice, cinnamon, and, if desired, mace. Add to butter mixture alternately with whipping cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Add preserves and extracts, beating well. Stir in reserved raisins and fruit mixture. Spoon into a greased and floured 10-inch loaf pan. Bake at 275° for 3 hours or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 20 minutes; remove from pan, and cool completely on wirerack.   Soak cheesecloth in 2/3 cup dry sherry, wrap around cake, and place in an airtight container; refrigerate 7 to 10 days. Every other day, baste the fruitcake with your choice of spiced rum or brandy. My other long-standing holiday tradition? A dab or two of Caron’s gorgeous Nuit de Noel perfume from Thanksgiving til New Years day. A dear friend sent me a bottle of the vintage perfume last year as a special gift and I am so enjoying its loveliness. I know that it’s a cliché, but no other perfume says Christmas to me! So tell me, what are your holiday foodie traditions? What do you do to make the season your veryown?  Next week ? My mother's recipe for Christmas Pears with whipped cream and bittersweet chocolate!

Foodie Sunday: The Rain is falling, the house is quiet, and all I want are last night's leftovers!

By Beth Oh my god, what a gorgeous gray morning. It's finally raining in northeast Ohio after a summer that was probably the hottest and driest on record. It's been storming on and off for a week, but last we snuggled up together with our windows open and the ceiling fan spinning and I woke to a cool wet breeze that was absolutely intoxicating. I'm fond of teasing my husband somewhere around the middle of August that I can smell autumn creeping in just around the corner and generally he tosses up his hands and says "NO YOU CAN"T" but having an overly sensitive nose like most of you I definitely CAN and I know that probably all of you can too! But this year I just couldn't and it kept making me sad in a way that only the marrow of my bones can explain. I'm sure that you can imagine my joy at waking up and have the crisp windfall apple breezes of early fall come blasting through my windows! Maple syrup, coffee and pancakes from the neighbors house next door came wafting through as well and that's when I began to get really hungry. We were still snuggling when rather uncharacteristically our son Alex came bounding up the stairs. I say "uncharacteristically" because it was before noon! He lives with us right now while he's going to school. All I wanted to do just then was stay curled up against the yummy warm man in my bed, but Alex definitely had something else on his mind. "Eggs mom?" and when I said I would consider it I was hit with a relentless barrage of requests, designed to force me out of bed and begin cooking. I must have stayed under the covers a little to long because the next comment from both of them was, "Well fine ..if you're not getting up Dad and I will go GET eggs." Now, you have to understand that this was designed to get me to become so jealous that someone else would cook for them that I would instantly jump out of bed and fire up the sauté pan…a rare miscalculation on both their parts. I said rather nonchalantly "Ok, that's fine" and dove back under the covers as I definitely had a plan. So the two of them went off happily in search of crispy bacon and some father - son bonding time and I stayed in bed luxuriating long enough to hear the door slam and then went dashing for the refrigerator where I knew that real treasures awaited. Last nights supper was at a wonderful restaurant in town called RED. RED is a wonderful Cleveland steakhouse and although I love a good cut of meat I generally like the way that I cook it better so I don't order it there. But they have one of the loveliest wine lists in town and the best side dishes to be found anywhere. We sat happily on their patio with a couple of glasses of bloody red zinfandel and Jim had the steak tartare and a well earned cigar. I opted for a plate of their creamed spinach and their incredibly fragrant truffled mash potatoes. In true steak house form they give you easily enough for three meals and that my friends is what was waiting for me to eat this morning! So here I sit all alone listening to Lisa Loeb on Spotify and singing at the tops of my lungs, drinking a hot cup of coffee and enjoying the loveliest plate of spinach and potatoes….truly the best leftovers ever with the exception of my mothers meatloaf , the secrets of which she took with her to the great kitchen beyond the veil. The rain is still falling, the thunder is rumbling, the cats are fed and happy and the windows are all flung open wide and the breezes are so fragrant, smoky sweet and cool. I've got a mountain of perfume samples to sniff and Zoe curled up at my feet. You are all here with me and my life at this moment just couldn't be any better. So tell me….what are your favorite leftovers and how do you like to eat them? Intending that all of you are having a marvelous day, Beth

Foodie Sunday: Carrots

By Beth I do so love carrots! When I was a pigtailed horse crazy girl, they were my favorite snack and life was a delightful and always present struggle between me and my ponies as to who would get to the carrots that I had stuffed into my pockets first. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned to appreciate them eaten any other way than raw. Carrots were an integral part of many a midwinters eve steaming hot bran mash for my horses at Windesphere, being a root vegetable they are such a superb source of grounding, warming and nutrient dense energy. I loved to walk into my barn on Christmas morning, give each of my horses a flake or two of hay and grab their buckets into which I would ladle a scoop or two of bran and a handful or two of dried beet pulp beforeheading towards my kitchen. Once there I would turn on the Christmas carols and start to chop. Handfuls of sweet apples went into each bucket first as well as a cup of the flax seed which had been simmering in a crockpot all night and turning itself into a nutritious jelly. Several heaping tablespoons of local raw honey were next, as well as a clove or two of pressed garlic and a cup of dried red clover blossoms and a small handful of dried mint. Then I would add the carrots that I’d shred in the Cuisinart, 3 handfuls for each horse filled with sweet, earthy juicy goodness. I'd cover each bucket with about 2 quarts of steaming hot water, stir, let sit for about 3 minutes andserve. Carrots are still a constant source of happiness for me and I try to always have a patch of them growing in sandy spot in my garden. I love the way that they smell when they’re just moments out of the earth, like sugar and sun and cinnamon and dirt. They’re dense, sweet and strong; they tend to be ready to eat at the same time that we’re about to turn inward, away from the cold. I must be honest here and say that the little baby ones that you find in fancy (read FAWNNNcy!) restaurants are not my favorites. I appreciate their cuteness, but they lack the meaty, earthy flavor that I crave. Carrots, like beets, turnips and rutabagas and onions and garlic need their time in the earth to be as potent as I like them. They need to live with their roots buried deep in the dirt through the first crisp snaps of fall, the first frost and the first flutters of snow. That is whenthey firmly anchor themselves to the soil, looking for warmth and producing the generous grounding energies that we use to keep ourselves warm all winter long. I love them in all of their colors, bright yellows, rich warm burgundies and even white and shades of purple! I do not like, nor will you ever see me use those cut up shaved down little ovalorange things that come in bags. By the time you get them, they’ve lost all of their carroty goodness. Don’t waste your money. Even if you think that your child doesn’t like carrots just hand your child a real one someday complete with the leafy fronds and see what happens. If you give him a homemade dip of yogurt sweetened with maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice , you’ll see a complete and total transformation! Carrots are a simple vegetable and they do best either with simple pairings of herbs , spice and fruits or cooked for hours in long slow braises where they infuse their sweetness into the basting juices of a roasted chicken or beef roast. My mother used to cook them simply, quickly sliced and steamed, then sautéed with a knob of fresh butter , salt , pepper and dill. That’s really all they need. I think that most people’s aversion to cooked carrots comes from that hideous (and I apologize in advance if anyone truly loves these) dish called “glazed carrots". I’ve never understood that recipe, carrots being so naturally sweet that they really don’t need a glaze, especially one of thickened orange juice concentrate, sugar and cinnamon. If you’re wanting your carrots sweetened then I think that it’s better to make a Tzimmes, which is a delicious Sephardic stew of carrots, sweet potatoes, onions and dried fruit slowly braised together with a bit afreshly squeezed orange juice and liberally laced with cumin, cardamom and cinnamon. This is actually so delicious that I’ve served it warm over fresh vanilla bean ice cream with a dollop of freshly whipped maple syrup sweetened whipped cream. Yes I know, I’m definitely not the queen of understatement and trust me, don’t be put off by the onion. Onions are sweet by nature so they caramelize and blend beautifully with everything mentioned here. In the late summer or fall, serve it with the ice cream and in the winter serve it over the top of warm rice pudding. Trust me on this. My easiest summertime carrot recipe? Throw several large cut up carrots into the vitamix with 1 quart of chicken or vegetable broth. Add salt and pepper to taste, the juice of one lemon and it’s zest and a handful of fresh dill. Process on high for a few moments and add one large ball of fresh burrata cheese. (Burrata means buttered! Don’t you love that!) Process until smooth and reheat and serve quickly with a drizzle of walnut oil. You can serve this soup chilled by adjusting the seasonings which will need to be a little stronger. A plate of wonderful raw milk cheeses and a chilled Riesling is all you need for company! Well that and a few spritzes of Dior's Escale a Portofino & Pondicherry, my scents for today! How do you like to eat your carrots and what's your favorite eau de toilette for these blistery hot summer days? Recipes and suggestions please! Wishing you all a lazy, yummy Foodie Sunday kind of day! Beth Beet and carrot photograph from the TheLunaCafé.com Burrata photograph origins unknown

Foodie Sunday: Memories of my Father

By Beth   Happy Foodie Sunday my friends and Happy Fathers Day ……Two weeks ago on Memorial Day , my own father finally succumbed to a ripe old age of 93 and a horrific bout of pneumonia. I miss him terribly, but I do not miss the last 10 years of his life, a period of time where the complications of nursing home living began to shape his life and ours. They do not call this period of time “The long goodbye “ for nothing, for it truly is the longest goodbye that you’ll ever experience. That being said, the strangest thing has happened in my life. Ihave the feeling of being shot from a cannon , of relaxation that I didn’t know could exist anymore. My time is once again mine and so are my memories and as I look back over my life, I realized that it was my father as much as my mother who I need to thank for this ever passionate, totally consuming interest that I have always had in food!   My father taught me many things that I have found useful throughout my life. One of my earliest memories of my dad was a trip that we took to Seattle where every morning my mother would eat oysters but daddy and I would gorge ourselves on huge, warm , just baked oozy runny pieces of the local fresh blackberry pie. Now I don’t think anyone would find this unusual, but my mother (always the definition of appropriate!) was perturbed. It actually wasn’t the pie that she objected to, it was our choice of the dark chocolate ice cream that topped that pie. It was absolutely delicious, a combination of fruit and flower and earthy chocolate yumminess. I missed that taste for what seemed like centuries until 7 years ago when one of our wonderful local icecream companies created a flavor called Black Raspberry Chip. Daddy and I were completely entranced. If you’ve never tried this combination, it is the essence of alchemy.  My father taught me many other good things, such as how to make May Wine when the Sweet Woodruff has flowered, what healthy soil smelled like (his gardens were always gorgeous!) , that cheese wasn’t ready to eat until it smelled like the bottom of my horses hooves and that Laphroaig was the only single malt that I’d ever find worth drinking. He loved fancy restaurants and continental service. I think that wasone of the things that drew him to my mother because she’d been raised in family where white gloves and polished silver were the standards, unlike his family where his father ate the same thing every day of his life (broiled lamb chops and melba toast with mint jelly) because my grandmother was an absolutely abysmal cook. My mother was an exceptional cook as were her mother and grandmother before her. My father was crazy about that grandmother to the point of really irritating his own wife. Who could blame him? I’m to understand that her floating island pudding was the stuff of gossamer dreams and her leg of lamb stuffed with garlic and rubbedwith curry and mustard is a recipe that I use to this day as well as the stuffed peppers that I make in her enormous stock pot…a pot that’s been well seasoned for over a hundred years.   Daddy ate sweetbreads and tripe and truffles and all kinds of things that would make the normal man run panicked towards the nearest barbecue, coincidentally a type of cooking that he gave up over 40 years ago when he read that charcoal grilling produced fumes which were carcinogenic. He did live to a ripe old age, ate red meat meat like a hound, fromage like a Frenchman, enjoyed steak and kidney pie with plenty of ale and never had one day in his life except when he was hospitalized without some form of sugar, most always something chocolate. The day that he died I found myself with one more memory from long ago, quite a precious one. On a trip over 40 years ago through the English countryside, we left my mother reading her Gourmet in the hotel while we went off in search of my father’s afternoon sugar fix . The streets were cobblestone and my father held my hand the entire time as I skipped down the twisting lanes. We found a bakery full of warmth , sugar and chocolate. We bought two lacey burnt sugar covered cookie cones that were filled with chocolate ganache (way before it was even popular to know what that was let alone how to spell it!) and covered with sweetened dark chocolate. Hand in hand we walked slowly back, quietly munching and just enjoying the soft sounds and luscious smells of the British countryside. Just me and my dad and chocolate….. this little girls Holy Trinity.  Godspeed daddy…if there’s great food in heaven I’m sure that you’ve found it. Kiss mom for me and by the way thanks…my gardens are gorgeous this year and my vegetables are abundant even with the lack of rain. I could swear that I see you in them everyday pruning and watering with an ice cream cone in your other hand and your dog by your side. Happy fathers day…I love you.

Foodie Suday: Garden Fantasies & Grilled Dinners

By Beth Happy Foodie Sunday everyone! What are you planning for this lovely long weekend? I’m spending today out in my garden, which has been an utter symphony of scent for several weeks now due to the crazy warm breezes that have been blowing for months now. Indeed spring came early and I’ve enjoyed it and this year I’ve even planted artichokes to go along with my fairly ebullient state of mind.  This year I decided to try and keep everything manageable  (right!) and I’ve planted my vegetables in containers. This keeps everything nice , weed free and very controllable.   Pretty too…because the containers can double in an instant as fabulous centerpieces for an impromptu evening on the patio with a few friends ! It’s fun to garden this way…I can control the soil and the light and even the finicky eggplants seem happy! I’ve got shallots, lettuces and swiss chard, several types of tomatoes and so many herbs that when the southern breezes are blowing I can lay in the hammock with a Campari and soda and pretend that I’m  relaxing somewhere in Italy with the olive scented breezes blowing through my hair and a luscious dinner of oozing burrata cheese  nestled on a bed of fresh tomatoes and basil and perhaps a luscious Bistecca that’s been marinating for hours in olive oil, rosemary , garlic and lemon waiting for me on the veranda.  My husband’s usually there in my fantasies cooking it for me, a real plus because the man has really learned how to use his grill and wield his tools! His recipe for roasted mussels in white wine can bring me to my knees. He uses just a touch of olive oil, a bit of garlic and rosemary and a tablespoon of white wine and then roasts them slowly and tenderly in a cast iron pan over the open flames. Served over a bed of juicy braised fennel, with lots of crusty grilled bread I can promise that you have never tasted anything better.  If you want the recipe write me and I'll send it to you. I can't promise you though that they'll turn out as well…Himself has a wee bit of magic about him!  One needs a perfume for such an occasion and today I’m wearing one of my favorites, Eau d’ Italie’s utterly gorgeous Jardin du Poete. To say that I adore this  would be an understatement. Jardin du Poete is really a perfect perfume for me. It’s a Medieval herbalists materia medica and a wiccan grimoire all wrapped up in a bottle, juicy, peppery , green and full of all of the things that I love in a fragrance like bitter grapefruits and oranges, angelica ,basil and pink peppercorns.  A bit of vetiver and a touch of musk is the final bit of magic that brings Pan himself dancing into the garden to play devilishly with all of your senses  that mixed with my husbands mussels and a perfectly chilled Viognier are destined to create an absolutely delightful and delicious evening….. Learn more about the luscious Eau d' Italie from eauditalie.com. Photo of the burrata salad courtesy of  winestainedcloth.wordpress.com

Foodie Sunday: Happy Easter , Happy Spring and a Bountiful Bevy of Beautifully Sugar Spun Bonnets!

By Beth Every now and then you've got to have a real treat (after all what's the sense of dieting if you can't!)…Last weekend in San Diego was such an event and found my husband, sister and darling brother in law enjoying a wonderful dinner in San Diego's abundantly blossoming Little Italy. After much deliberation we landed in a wonderful new Italian restaurant named Devanti Enoteca, where we were assaulted by the decadent aroma of truffles as soon as we walked through the door. The meal that followed was fabulous, perfect plates of luscious antipasti, fresh asparagus and egg, a chicken liver terrine to die for, roasted beets and fresh caponata, a truffled leek and mushroom pizza that was delightful and a truffled pasta that was every bit as exceptional as the one that we'd enjoyed at Nello only months before (san's the 250.00 dollars ostentatious price tag!) All was farm fresh, all was organic and trust me , it was all delicious ! After enjoying some pretty wonderful wine and food and the always good company of my hilarious foodie family we were just about to drive home when my brother in law Peter decided that it might be time for a wee bit of dessert and for that impulse there was absolutely no other choice but to walk to the absolutely astonishing Extraordinary Desserts, the restaurant owned by the talented Karen Krasne who I'm convinced is the incarnation of my long departed grandmother on my mothers side, a woman who I am told could drive men to pledge undying devotion after just one bite of her Oeufs a la Neige , a treat more commonly known as Floating Island Pudding. If you're sadly not familiar with Floating Island Pudding , it's a very old fashioned dessert, a soft and silky vanilla custard topped with clouds of perfect meringue. I'd only been to Extraordinary Desserts once before but remembered all too fondly a delicious Pavlova that I'd encountered there covered with fresh berries and just a bit of perfect chocolate layered between the meringue and drizzled with caramel laced with fresh passion fruit and guava sauce. Jim had never been , but my husband has blood plasma made of spun sugar so I knew he'd be game. We walked the 12 long blocks to get there and were greeted by a crowd of laughing people who'd obviously had the same idea. We walked in and I though that Jim was going to pass out. I knew that I was. Extraordianry Desserts is always a beautiful restaurant, but this evening it was dressed for spring , Easter in particular. Trust me when I say that you've probably never seen desserts this gorgeous. Karen Krasne's recipes are indulgent, gorgeous and delicious; perusal through the cookbook of hers that I bought that evening shows mostly no less than 5 fairly complex parts that go into creating each of her amazing confections. But I think that you talented bakers out there might love the challenge so I've included here the link to the restaurant where you can buy the book. http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com/ We circled the display cases for a few minutes and settled on several pieces that we purchased , took home and ate with absolute abandon. Truthfully, if you ever wanted to see the literal definition of joy, you'd have to look no further than my brother- in- laws face when he is eating something like this.Watching him eat a bite of each of these was hilarious and incredibly satisfying! A textbook vegetarian and serial meditator , Peters life is usually filled with my sisters absolutely delicious yet completely healthy cooking , however when the woman makes desserts watch out, because hers are absolutely as good as these, so much so that I bought her the cookbook in the hopes that she would make me the Yule Log next year at Christmas time. Truthfully, she's the only person I know of with the patience to do so! No words that I write could ever do these justice so without further adieu please let me present to you this years showcase of incredible Easter desserts. No more elegant parade of confectionary bonnets will be found anywhere! IF you decide to buy the cookbook and get inspired please let me know. I can easily be on the next plane for a tasting! Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it and for those of you that don't, Happy Spring! It's sprung here with abandon on the North Coast , so much so that I'm going out today to lay out my gardens. My asparagus bed is providing me me all of the fresh asparagus that I could ever want to eat, so todays meal is simple, hard boiled eggs and pickled beets, fresh asparagus, some steamed baby potatoes dressed with parmesan and truffle oil and a sweet pea soup laced with mint. Dessert? Of course but it will be my favorite….spiced jelly beans , marshmallow peeps and one dark chocolate Cadbury egg! So share with me some of your favorite Easter or springtime foods and please wherever you are and whatever you celebrate, have a blessed day! The winner of the draw for the March 11th Foodie Sunday is Kareng! Please send Marina your snail mail addy and I will send you your delicious prize!

Foodie Sunday: Oh what a night!ŠMy favorite Hangover Remedy and a Spicy Prize draw!

By Beth Oh my….it WAS one of THOSE nights! By yesterday Jim and I were definitely ready for a serious night of partying. One of the delightful parts of our new diet regimen is a once a week splurge, so after my evening of volunteering down at Severance Hall we decided that venturing downtown to meet our friends Steve and Freida for drinks was the perfect remedy for what had truly been a very long week! We found ourselves in the middle of a very hip, trendy sushi bar where my pal was holding court , charming anyone within 30 feet, with her admiring husband Steve just watching her with a huge grin on his face. That's my friend Freida though…she's fairly irresistible and makes friends wherever she goes, many of them being serious "A" listers that she's never heard of until someone lets her know who they actually are. We met the two of them when our kids were dating, and we hit it off immediately much to the dismay of our children. We've traveled together , shared many a meal , share the same wedding anniversary, lived through the breakup of our children , demanded custody rights of each other and have vowed to never be separated. The four of us just have a ball together. Freida is the ultimate girl-power friend. I've written about her before but one of the many reasons that I love her is that she refuses to have fun alone. She's fiercely competitive in all of the right ways, but not with her women friends, with us she has a heart as huge as Everest. Going shopping with her is wonderful because even though she's a stunning and petite 5'3, bombshell blonde who works out obsessively and has the body to prove it, she wants you to have as much fun trying on clothes as she does. She dresses me and I teach her about perfume and porcelain…it's a fabulous trade. She does have a wicked side though and If she's having a blast she wants you to be having it too, which is how I found myself last night around midnight with at least one too many drinks in my hand cornered by perhaps the most obnoxiously fascinating faux power couple that I've ever met and being regaled with tales of their status and lifestyle, finding out way more than I ever wanted to know about anyone. Freida had met them while she was waiting for us and was obviously fascinated by their newly minted pretentiousness, so she drew me into the conversation where I learned among other things that her husband was "The Viagra Doctor" who keeps her up every night until 3:00 in the morning and then takes the kiddo's to school for her. More Belvedere and Ice please….It was absolutely hilarious but required more than a bit of liquid courage to tolerate. When they finally left the four of us kicked back , had more sushi, more Belvedere and more than a few good laughs unashamedly at their expense. It was then I found out that Freida had been sharing with her tales of my entertaining and personal shopping prowess and customer list, also giving her my retainer fee and at the same time letting her know that I probably wouldn't have time for a few months to take her on as a client. It was then that I realized why I had been feeling like cougar bait for the last hour or so. Did I mention that I adore my friend Freida? She's utterly fabulous! About an hour later we headed off to the Velvet Tango Room , snagged a table and a few gorgeous martinis, a cigarette or two (yes, I had one!) and Freida announced that she was ravenous and we headed towards the nearest Denny's…yes you heard me right, Denny's! Two plates of onion rings , a few egg, cheese and ham sandwiches and a breakfast burrito, french fries and many diet pepsi's later we kissed, laughed and parted company. It was fabulous..the kind of evening that you can only have with true comrades. Now though, some hair of the dog is absolutely necessary so it's time for a Bloody Mary. I make mine with clam juice, tomato juice, some Penzeys crab seasoning a bit of brown sugar, fresh horseradish, a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of celery salt, garlic, minced onion and a really good dill pickle spear and oh yes..some Bakon vodka. Pour all the ingredients over ice, stir with the pickle and add two strips of smoky , thick bacon, a skewer of smoked mussels and lay back under the covers with some cucumber slices over your eyes and the covers pulled high. So what's your favorite hangover remedy? Leave it for me in the comments and I'll send you my favorite bloody mary spice mix and a few scented surprises! Happy Foodie Sunday my friends…Enjoy the sunshine and the Bloody Mary's. You don't need a hangover, but it helps:) Photo of sushi bar from http://beegan-ad.com Photo of Bakon Vodka from Bakon Vodka