The Holy Grail of Balsamic

Long, long ago....
I remember way back in the 80's, reading about balsamic vinegar and wondering what the heck those Silver Palate girls Julie Rosso and Sheila Lukens were talking about, splashing vinegar on strawberries.  Were they crazy?  At some point I hopped on the balsamic bandwagon, with no going back.  Its tart yet rich kind of ooziness makes practically anything just taste better.  Talk about a flavor bump.  I even love white balsamic for my old-time onion and cucumber mix that I keep in the fridge pretty much all summer.

Speaking of making anything taste better....these balsamic onions are absolutely delicious on a burger, grilled/broiled flank or any kind of steak, creamy polenta, and even just on some french bread for a lazy woman's supper.  Hop on the balsamc bandwagon tonight.

Balsamic Onions

Slice two or three red onions in half, then into 1/4 inch rings.   Throw them on your Pampered Chef bar pan with 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, then a good pour of olive oil. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and black pepper.  Roast at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes or until all soft and glistening, and maybe until a few rings start to have a tiny bit of char on them.  Add a few more splashes of balsamic, and serve.  A new addiction.

Your balsamic back-to-school bonus is a picture of Lucy getting ready for the first day of 11th grade.  I think that look of scorn on her face is for my picture-taking, although it could have been for the whole idea of going back to school yesterday.

Celebrating My Sister on September 6

Are a lot of your childhood memories food-related, or is that just my family?  As far back as I can remember, we've always been pretty foodcentric:  what are we going to eat, who's going to fix what, how are you going to cook that, remember how Grandma used to make it, do you like to eat it this way or that way, what goes good with that, when can we eat, remember when we ate that at (somewhere, anywhere), won't that make great leftovers, do you like the whatever better at this restaurant or that one, blah, blah, blah----it's all about the food.   Because we grew up on a farm, we raised a good amount of our own food, including beef and pork.  Not to mention that on a farm, food is actually the fuel that keeps things going so it's serious business by default.  There was also a bit of wild-game stuff going on, so that may have added to some lifelong food fetishes.

Today is my sister's birthday.  I love saying, "my sister."  Maybe it's because I'm the only person left in this world who can say those words and have it mean Melissa Lynne.

Since we come from the same family, a lot of her memories are also food-related.  Here are two, shared only for illustrative purposes to show how nice she is now, compared to how stinkin' mean she was when we were little.  You think I'm kidding?  Just ask our boy-cousin Dickie, who used to end up crying whenever she was around cause she was so stinkin' mean.  We have a picture somewhere of the two of them at about 2 years of age, with poor Dick crying and Melissa looking triumphant with a "that'll show you to mess with me" look on her face.  Hmmmm....I've definitely seen that face recently, now that I think of it.

Memory #1:  I was a (sweet, precious) toddler asking (Melissa says whining incessently) for a bite of the hot peppers that everyone else at the table was eating.  So what did my mean big sister who was definitely old enough to know better (did I mention that she's my MUCH older sister?!) do?  She stuck a hot pepper in my sweet little baby mouth.  Hey, did you see that woman on the news last week who had to go to court because she used hot pepper sauce to discipline her kid?  I REST MY CASE.  Rather than go to court, Sister had to eat her supper out on the back steps with the dogs...likely a more effective deterrent.

Memory #2:  Sweet Nancy, our middle sister (truth moment:  she really was sweet, whereas I was a spoiled brat) was just little and quite susceptible to suggestions from the big sister.  They each had a candy bar, but was mean Melissa satisfied?  Noooooo, she wanted her candy bar and poor little Nancy's, too.  (Just look at them in the photo above and tell me which one gets your sympathy--do you think maybe she's pinching Nancy while pretending to hold her hand?)  But Melissa knew poor baby Nancy would cry and tattle on her if she stole her candy bar outright, so she instead manipulated the poor girl mercilessly by saying, "Nancy, I don't like this nasty old candy bar.  It's so awful, I'm gonna throw mine away.  Don't you want me to throw yours away, too?"  Like a lamb to the slaughter.

In celebration of my beloved sister's birthday, her always looking out for me,  and some of our shared food memories.

 Melissa.  My sister.  Happy Birthday!

"Put some South in your mouth"

Fresh corn.  Fresh basil.  Butter.  Salt. Pepper.  What's not to like?

I used to make this New Southern Fried Corn recipe sometimes at the Outer Banks beach house shared with Joni, Larry, and friends.  We would always stop at a farm stand or two on the way down, and the fresh corn--among other things--called our name.  The recipe came from Nathalie Dupree's New Southern Cooking.  Although, I guess that name is no longer accurate, since the book was published in 1986 and my friend Lita gave it to me in 1987 with the inscription that titles this post.

We had it late yesterday for an early Labor Day weekend dinner, along with roasted cauliflower, roasted asparagus, and corn muffins.  Why don't you fix it, too?  You'll love it.

New Southern Fried Corn

-10 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob (If you're a purist, don't read this part:  sometimes I mix in some frozen corn; I've also been known to only use frozen corn in the winter)
-6 TBSP butter (I use less, but, hey knock yourself out)
-2 TBSP fresh basil (the recipe says or thyme, but trust me, use the basil)
-freshly grated black pepper
-Kosher salt

Melt the butter in a skillet, and cook the corn in the butter for around 5 minutes---still firm and not soggy, but cooked through.  Add a good plenty of kosher salt, a really good plenty of freshly grated pepper, and take the pan off the heat.  Add your chopped basil, stir, and serve.

Speaking of the Outer Banks, Joni, Larry, and others:  those were some good times.  B.L. (before Lucy) I loved being invited to go spend a week in August with these wonderful folks.  A.L. I loved it even more---there were people there who would actually entertain her and watch her for hours and hours, and those people weren't me.  It was heaven.  The first time I took Lucy, when she was almost 18 months old, was also when I realized I had to get rid of the nanny and send L to a child care center so she could be with other children every day:  she was ecstatically happy with 7 straight days of total interaction with Ander, Maddie, Nikki, Nora and other kids.  Here are a few photos of good times on the Outer Banks.

Winter

Snow. More snow. Lentil soup. Homemade cookies. Blizzard. Snow. Chocolate mousse. Snow. Breakfast potatoes. More snow. Vegetable soup. Ice.

If you give a mousse some cream

The snow forecast lead all the schools in the area to declare today a snow day well in advance, so yesterday I rushed home to make preparations....er, actually, I rushed home to make mousse. Same thing, right? I went to my neighborhood Italian market to pick up ricotta cheese and whipping cream. Let it snow! First, 2 cups part-skim ricotta with 3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa. My addition, which I highly recommend for a BIG flavor bump, is a bit of espresso powder. Throw these things in the food processor until heavenly smooth. Then scoop out every last morsel with your Pampered Chef scraper and put into a big bowl. Put 2 large egg whites (best if they're at room temp, but I couldn't wait), 1/2 cup sugar (I used less), and a pinch of salt into a glass bowl on top of a little pan of simmering water. (Your bowl shouldn't touch the water---and don't boil the water, just let it simmer.) Whisking the whole time, cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is warm---around 3 minutes.

Then, take the glass bowl out and use an electric mixer to beat the egg white mixture until it forms stiff peaks.

To prove they are stiff peaks, hold the bowl upside down over Lucy's head and watch her squirm.

Yep, those are some stiff peaks.

Then FOLD a big dollop of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Ahhhh, folding.....a favorite technique that I could drive into the ground, so will try not to here. If you don't know the technique, google it up and be sure to follow it for best results.

Scoop the mousse into 6 small bowls, like these cute Willow House ramekins my sister sent me. We love ramekins! Now, here comes the hardest part of the recipe: Chill for 3 hours. Harrumph.
When the torturous 3 hours is almost done, drag your daughter into the kitchen to see the delight of whipping real cream (I'm embarrassed that she says she only knows the taste of Cool Whip---really? Granted, we really don't eat much of either at our house, but obviously I've been a most neglectful parent). I taught her the trick of chilling the beaters and stainless steel bowl--I put them in the freezer at the same time I put the mousse in the fridge, a bit of overkill but if I didn't do it then I would forget. Add a couple of tablespoons of confectioners sugar and about 1/2 tsp of vanilla, and let her rip on medium speed for ..... I don't know how long, probably less than 2 minutes, just until decadently soft and luscious. Grab a couple of mousse ramekins out of the fridge, top with big dollops of whipped cream, and sit back and contemplate another snow day.
Here's Lucy eating nachos while waiting for the mousse to chill. Lovely headgear.

Lucy's Roasted Vegetables

Yesterday during a mid-day emergency refresher stop at Starbucks I asked Lucy to name three of her favorite foods. Of course the little high achiever wanted to know how general or specific she should be. After I told her it didn't matter, she named pasta, roasted vegetables, and fruit. Here's what she said about roasted vegetables: "I like the way you do them, but what I really mean is the ones to put on a sandwich." So today I roasted her a bunch of vegs specifically to put on sandwiches this week. I didn't think to take the "before" picture until I had already sliced the eggplant and salted it on paper towels to draw out a lot of the water. The main difference between these and the vegetables I usually roast are how they're cut (these are all done in long, thin slices) and that I used a lot more olive oil than usual.
Eggplant, yellow squash, red and green bell peppers, red onion, and carrots. For Lucy.

Fruit Loops

Last week at my WeWa meeting we reviewed a list of in-season fruits and veg, and I've been hungry for pineapple ever since. SCORE! Today I picked one up at Apple Farm, my fruit and veg market, for $1.99. Big mistake. I should have bought at least 2, probably 3---considering that I had to stop and eat the very first piece I cut, before I could even continue. Sweet, juicy, perfectly ripe...in fact, perfect in every way. I quickly put the rest in the fridge for L and me to nibble on, hopefully for a few days, but I kept thinking how much someone with little fat 3-year-old fingers would love to have one of those rings for a snack. So, if you have some of those little fat fingers at your house (or even if you don't!) look for a fresh pineapple this week, and enjoy.

Since I used to avoid buying whole pineapples because I didn't know how to prepare them, I thought it might be good to throw a visual tutorial in here.

Thank you, Pampered Chef apple corer!

By the way, I have a big pineapple corer/slicer from The Pampered Chef, but I find it easier to just use my big Santoku Chef's Knife.