Thanksgiving, Food and the Garden

I have made the traditional cranberry relish..cranberry sauce...I never know exactly what to call it...with fresh cranberries, orange, orange zest, clove and a wee bit of cinnamon...and the house smells great. Just like the holidays have arrived! Which I suppose they have. How did that happen already?

I have also pre-cooked and mixed up the squash casserole with fresh yellow squash and fresh oregano from my garden. We are still enjoying going out to the garden for fresh herbs and some vegetables. Earlier this week we had roasted red peppers on homemade pizzas from the bell peppers that are now starting to turn red...and we have lots of them in various shades of green to red, still on the plants. We have several jalapenos ready to pick, lots of very green tomatoes that survived the cold nights a while back, and we picked two small eggplants several days ago. Wow! Eggplant and jalapenos in late November. My okra is huge, and still has blooms and little baby okra, but the growth of the okra has slowed down a lot in the cool weather, and it takes a long time (especially considering the usual growth rate of okra) for them to get big enough to pick. Even my basil is still surviving, which makes me very happy. I think that is what I miss the most through the winter and early spring...not being able to go outside and get fresh basil in just the amount I need.

Another dish I am making for Thanksgiving tomorrow is buttermilk pie. I have been a big fan and critic of buttermilk pie since we stopped at a small home cooking type restaurant in East Texas after berry and peach picking one summer about 6 years ago. Since then I have sampled and critiqued (right texture? creamy enough? too much nutmeg? no nutmeg? too dry?) many slices of pie from restaurants and cafes all over. But, I have never made a buttermilk pie myself. I know, it's funny, because I bake a lot...maybe I was a little intimidated. (Would I not live up to my own standards?) The recipe I am using we looked up on the internet a few years ago, is titled the "Best Ever" buttermilk pie. I recall that it was part of an article about buttermilk pie, and how a southern girl had to convince her friends where she was then living that the idea of buttermilk pie was not weird or gross but was in fact VERY good. Sounds great; however, this buttermilk pie recipe has no nutmeg...not the slight perfect amount, not any. So, of course I will be adapting that recipe and adding a hint of nutmeg with fresh whole nutmeg and the essential nutmeg grinder that my son Damon gave me.

Of Summer Rain, Fennel, Almost-Butterflies and Italian fried Sage

We had the most wonderful storm in the early morning. Any good rain in Texas in August is cause for celebration, and this was a full out thunderstorm with impressive crashing and lashing during the pre-dawn to dawn hours. I went outside an hour or more after the rain had stopped and smelled the anise-y, ouzo, almost-licorice scent of fennel.

I intended to gather seeds and pull up the remaining overgrown and spent fennel in my garden several days ago, but when I went out to do it, I found a plump little visitor.

Swallowtail caterpillar on fennel

At that moment he was munching on the dried seeds and not the fronds, but the next day he had moved on to the greenery. He is still on a branch today, and this afternoon I finally gathered some of the fennel seeds. We are hoping he makes his cocoon and transforms in our garden.

I now have a little baggy of fennel seeds and am thinking of the lentil and vegetable soup I made several times last summer, fragrant with cumin and fennel seed.

So many of the seeds have already dropped that we're sure to have a jungle of fennel seedlings this fall!


Tonight, though, I'm focusing on another herb in my garden: sage. I am going to make a maiden attempt at an Italian preparation of sage leaves, battered and fried...very simple. I have read about this in a number of books about Italy, and especially in cookbooks and books about food and Italian food festivals, but have never had it. The recipe I plan to use for reference is from Marlena de Blasi's memoir, A Thousand Days in Tuscany. Little more than flour, beer and sea salt, the batter can also be used for squash blossoms and other edilbe flowers and delicate vegetables. I have no idea what Italian beer is like, but Edward's fancy ale will have to do.

Cheese, Bread and Julia Child

Yummy cheese, photo from Zabar

Edward has good cheese karma; I have to start with that. He chose a lovely taleggio he had never tried to take to my mother's in October, and last night he came home from Central Market with this Alta Langa Cravanzina. It is from the Piedmont region of Italy and a lot like a brie, maybe a little earthier, maybe a little tangier...I don't know, it's hard to describe the difference. Very, very soft, very delicious.

From Zabar's in NYC: A delicate and lovely little round from the Italian Piedmonts; in the "paglia" family of cheeses, so named because they are aged on beds of straw (paglia = straw). Covered with a bloomy rind, the voluptuous paste is mild, creamy, buttery, and a little musty. Eat it quickly, otherwise it might run right off the table - not that something this good will be around for that long.

He also brought home a big, lovely pain de campagne, which was almost identical to the rustic bread, with a touch of rye, that I made from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook - still my best home baked bread effort.

My bread, also yummy

I may be thinking about matters of food and cooking more than usual (nahh), because I just finished Julia Child's memoir of her years in France, mostly Paris, (1948-54) and the trials and tribulations of cooking school, testing, writing and publishing her first cookbooks and the (accidental) beginning of her career as a TV chef. She and her husband didn't even have a television when she made her first TV appearances.

I love her absolute enjoyment of food, and the exacting detail that went into her preparation of her recipes - truly hundreds of hours of research and trials to perfect a single recipe that would be foolproof to American cooks and housewives of the 50s and 60s who knew nothing of French cooking but wanted to learn. And her sense of fun.

Unfortunately, I now want to buy most of her books, particularly From Julia Child's Kitchen, a cookbook that also includes comments and stories, my favorite kind. "Unfortunately", because I know most of these early books are full of recipes that I will NEVER make or eat, eel, tripe, brains, rabbits...crazy foods, foods that I wouldn't have considered cooking or eating even if I had not become a vegetarian and also just a lot of beef and chicken recipes and recipes heavy with absolutely perfected French sauces full of butter and cream. And now, even though the holidays are over, and I am ready to trim back on the cooking and eating and shed a few pounds, I am pretty sure that I will be researching the one or two Julia Child cookbooks that I simply must have.

Thanksgiving in Iowa: Part 1: Clinton, Thai, Veggie Dinner and RiversideTrek

It has been a while since my last post, because the Monday before Thanksgiving we loaded up the car and made the drive from warm, sunny Texas to Iowa. The long way. Through Little Rock, Arkansas (a five hour drive in itself) where we stopped for a quick view of the Clinton Library. Though we only had an hour before the museum closed, it was quite fascinating, entertaining and well worth the trip. And the building itself is very striking, with the second floor stretching out toward the river, invoking the phrase, "Building a bridge to the 21st century."

R and I
in front of the Wm. J. Clinton Presidential Library
photo by Edward McGuire

Several hours later we stopped in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a college town, for some of the best Thai food I have ever put in my mouth, amazing, in the old downtown area. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant, but go there! Really. The town isn't that big; you'll find it. Rowan even devoured hers, ordered mild, one star out of five. My green coconut curry with lots of veggies and tofu, ordered at 3 star heat, was perfect.

After dinner we were lured by hints of shining light to stroll down the street to the town square, which was an amazing Christmas wonderland of lights, festooning every tree, arbor, bench...just everywhere...with carols playing and families and couples walking around in the late night cold, looking up and being as amazed as we were.

As a woman who had never made a complete Thanksgiving dinner in my life, this year I was a little anxious about making two, for other people who are not vegetarians. On Sunday my grown children gathered at my house before our trip and had dinner, with a vegan roast of tofu, wheat gluten and other "weird" veggie stuff, plus traditional seasonal sides. But I knew these guys were going to go to my mom's on Thursday for the full traditional turkey and dressing meal.

My in-laws, however, hadn't really been exposed to vegetarian cooking AND this trip was the first time I'd be cooking for them. In addition to veggie "meat" I made a lot of very traditional things like mashed potatoes, gravy (no giblets), dressing (no giblets), green bean casserole and the fresh cranberry relish that I take to my mom's every year. Edward and R made pumpkin pies (I made the crust but made Edward roll it out. He claimed I was welshing on the deal, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed at that point.) Everything was very well received
and complimented, and they were happy to eat leftovers the next evening before heading to Des Moines for the ballet.

Edward's mom and dad/step-father live outside an Iowa town on a Christmas tree farm. The busy season started up on Friday, and R lent Grandpa Fred a hand and learned how to make wreaths from fresh tree boughs they gathered.

R and Fred intent on their work

Friday Edward, R and I went on a little road trip to the small town of Riverside, Iowa.

Yes, really.


Across from the town park, the Starship Enterprise was parked alongside an equal sized shuttle craft.

Edward did a great job when I looked down the block and yelled, "Quick, you've got to get a picture of this!"

Modes of transportation?
The past and the future meet in the present in Riverside

After picking up our tickets for the ballet in the Civic Center lobby, we were startled by loud cracking sounds and hurried outside...to see a spectacular fireworks display just a few blocks away at the tree lighting. Our spot on the chilly sidewalk was a perfect viewing place. That has to be one of the most delightful joys in life, coming upon unexpected fireworks. Our busy Friday ended with an enchanting performance of The Nutcracker. I love that magical moment when it begins to snow.

And here is our own little worn out princess, dreaming her Christmas dreams.

All photos, except the sleeping beauty, by Edward McGuire.

Baking bread

Last weekend in the midst of kids in tents, visits to area farmers' markets and a surprise water heater emergency (as if there's a such thing as a planned water heater emergency) I decided to bake bread. Not throw the ingredients in the machine and push a button bread, but three different risings and kneading bread. Bread that matured and became more complex and interesting through its longer, cooler rising times and over night stays in the fridge. I started the bread just after noon on Saturday as a half whole wheat and half unbleached white all purpose poolish (a watery starter that sits out and develops), and we ate it at dinner Monday night. Bread is a deceptively simple thing: flour, water, yeast, a little salt (unless you're in Tuscany, but that's a different story, and you can always just throw a few grains on a slice when your host or waiter isn't looking.) Serious bread makers usually have brands and types of flour they prefer, and some recipes very definitely specify bottled or spring water. This time, just by accident (water heater, remember?) I used bottled water in the poolish and in the dough itself. After the first rising of the dough, it was so big I didn't know if it would fit on my pizza stone.

Dough ready to go on hot stone

This is basically the America's Test Kitchen Rustic Country Bread with a little rye flour. The loaf was gorgeous.
Rustic country bread in the oven

However, while the bread was yummy, and made great toast for our artichoke-crab dip later in the week, the crumb was a little dense; it didn't have those big holes I thought it should have. I think I'd add a little more water next time.

To go with the bread...because after 3 days in the making, the bread was really the focus of the meal...I made a very fresh and light lentil and basmati rice soup with diced carrot, cumin and fennel seed, and diced yellow squash, shredded spinach and arugula from the garden. It was even well accepted by the 10 year old, and the cup of it that was left over was even better for lunch the next day.

Lentil spring vegetable soup

And yes, I finally got a hot shower.