Quick Bites: What I've been up to

Who is the worst blogger in the world? Probably me. I can't even remember the last time I wrote on here! School and work have kept me busy, but the semester is almost done.

Instead of one long blog post, I thought I'd just give you a couple of quick points.

• Thanksgiving was amazing. Jim and I cooked the dinner for his entire family and we managed to share the kitchen pretty well. I think we are the only couple in the world who gets into arguments about who gets to cook what dish. Both of us think the other one hijacks every meal. I really should have taken pictures of our lovely spread but in the midst of scheduling the timing of every dish, I forgot my camera! Recipes included: roasted turkey roulade with sausage and fig stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, roasted butternut squash salad with warm cider vinaigrette and roasted pears with blue cheese. Apple pie and pecan pie for dessert--my favorites!

• I recently celebrated a friend's birthday at Les Bourgeois. It was the first time I've been there since my senior year in high school. It was still just as delicious! If you live in Columbia, I highly recommend you try it. Even though their wine may be so-so, their food most certainly isn't. I had their Brandy Herb Marinated Roasted Pork Tenderloin. The flavor of the pork was ridiculously good. Visit http://www.missouriwine.com/ to look at their full menu.

Happy Birthday Cory! It was a great evening filled with good food and awesome friends. Too bad the boys made silly faces!

Left to right: Cory, Jim, me, Nick, Becca and Rachel.

• I just found out at work that the University Club here at MU is partnering with the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) to hold a Farm to Table event in June. I work at CAFNR as the alumni communications intern, and I cannot wait to help promote and cover this amazing event. It will be a great opportunity!

• And to end my scatter-brained post, my family is having a pot luck dinner on Christmas Eve which has now turned into somewhat of a "dish-off." I must win! Right now I'm considering making Parmesan and Thyme crackers for an appetizer, but I still don't have an idea for a side dish. Any ideas?

The Great Food Debate

The issue of food—where it comes from, who grows it, how they grow it—has been a hotly contested issue over the past couple of years. With books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the recent documentary Food, Inc., many are starting to question the ethics involved in food production.

Growing up, I was exposed to the world of agriculture quite a bit. I remember getting to go to work with my dad, who worked as a consultant for farmers around the state, meant getting to walk around fields and see farms. I lived across the street from a silo and cornfields and practically had cows in my backyard for a couple of years. I was even in 4-H for a brief period of time that ended in my rooster getting its head snapped off by a hawk.

Of course, I’ve had my fair share of the other side of life—dear old suburbia. And while I may not be able to look out my window and see cornfields anymore, I’ve still always been on the periphery of the world of agriculture. My internship doing public relations for the Missouri Soybean Association and Merchandising Council this summer gave me invaluable experience and exposed me to even more. Currently, I’ve got a great internship doing alumni communications for MU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. My days with agriculture are far from over—the other day I wrote up a small story on dairy judging.

And let’s not forget my biggest tie to agriculture: food. I love food so much that I have a blog about it! So when it comes to the much-debated issue on food these days, I find myself torn.

You see, I can’t simply say I’m for sustainable agriculture and only support local, organic foods. It’s not that simple. On the other hand, I also can’t say I completely support our current agricultural system.

I agree that the way most Americans eat is horrendous. A happy meal does not count as a meal more than once a month, if that. The solution is so simple: eat better! Eat fruits and vegetables. Eat whole grains. Eat lean protein. So, if we’ve all heard these suggestions, why don’t more people follow it?

Well, like I’ve mentioned before, I am indeed a college student living on a tight budget. I would love nothing more than to make sure that the meat I purchase is completely hormone free and that the animals were given ample opportunities to play Ring Around the Rosy in the grass while they were alive. But I know that isn’t possible because I can’t afford that.

What I can afford is the frozen chicken that Wal-Mart has, and I know it isn’t exactly excelling in quality, or ethics for that matter. Furthermore, fruits and vegetables are expensive. For a dollar or less, a consumer could get an apple, which will average about 50-60 calories, or get a small bag of potato chips that ring in at around 150 calories. Simply put, to the average consumer, it seems you get more calories for your buck with cheap, processed foods. Expecting the general public to accept a shift to sustainable local agriculture seems pretty ridiculous then.

The problem is that the general public’s attitude toward food does need to shift. Fruits and vegetables should be a higher priority. It was only this summer that I really learned much about the way subsidies work for our country’s farmers, and while I think helping farmers is great, I also think other crops should be more heavily promoted. Corn and soybeans get most of the subsidies because they serve as basic food ingredients and help feed animals that we eventually eat. Why not give more support to farmers that grow the fruits and vegetables we so desperately need better integrated into our daily lives?

Speaking of farmers, I think the issue I have most with this new food movement is the villain-ization of the American farmer. I can’t tell you how many articles I read this past summer about how farms were owned by large companies that pumped their animals full of antibiotics and pretty much ignored the general well-being of the animal.

I’m not saying there aren’t some farms out there that do that, but here’s the thing: the farms are not generally owned by large companies, the animals may be, but the farmer runs it, not the company. Secondly, it would cost a great deal to farmers to give every animal antibiotic cocktails on a regular basis. They simply can’t afford to do that. Farmers are struggling, too.

The most obvious response I have to these claims? If the farmer did not take care of their animals, then they would lose money. It isn’t in their best interest to treat the animals poorly, so they don’t. I’ve been to many farms, and in none of those farms did I see absolutely filthy conditions. Most of them are pretty clean, considering there are animals there.

There is such a large gap between Americans and their food, and making the farmers out to be the bad guy doesn’t make it any better. Americans spend 10% of their income on food—much less than other countries. If we make it more difficult for farmers to farm efficiently, the cost of our food will inevitably go up, not to mention push farmers that we have out of the picture.

I don’t know what the solution is, and I’m 100% all right with being honest about that. What I do know is that sustainable local agriculture seems a bit too idealistic. We already don’t have enough farmers; where on earth would we find even more to make sustainable local agriculture function properly? But I also know that the way Americans perceive food needs to change. Blame the system, blame commercialization, blame what you will, but blaming American farmers is the last thing we should do.

For now, I will continue to keep educating myself. I will continue to keep balancing my desire for good, fresh food with the reality that I simply cannot afford an organic free-range chicken. But most importantly, I think for now I will continue to have an open mind about this issue.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I always love taking one meal and playing with the leftover ingredients the next night. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For instance, Jim and I made pot roast on a Sunday night a couple of weeks ago and ate it every night until Thursday. Then, we made "pot roast pasta"--basically pot roast veggies and meat mixed in with egg noodles and a cream sauce based off of the jus from the pot roast. I ate it that night because I had to, but it wasn't my favorite, probably because I was really sick of pot roast.

Thank goodness last night's reinvented dinner work wonderfully. On Wednesday, Jim made his delicious pan-fried chicken, which I've posted about before. The next night, we decided to make buffalo chicken pizza with the leftover chicken breast. Yum! It's super easy if you've already got the chicken cooked from the night before and it is quite delicious.

Your favorite pizza dough will work just fine. This can be a mix, canned pizza dough, or a ball of dough from your favorite pizzeria. If you live in Columbia, I recommend stopping by Shakespeare's and asking for a ball of their large pizza dough. It costs less than $1 and it's great crust dough.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Pizza dough

1-15 oz. can tomato purée

2 T. wing sauce

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 T. butter

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

8 oz. fresh mozzarella, sliced (or you can find mozzarella pearls)

1 to 1 1/2 pan-fried chicken breasts, cut into slices or chunks (recipe found here in previous post)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the pizza dough to make a "large" pizza. It's not really technical, just roll out the dough until you like the size and thickness. Take a fork and poke holes throughout the crust to prevent air bubbles. Place the crust in the oven for 10 minutes.

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and cook 1-2 minutes. Add the tomato purée, wing sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Add the chicken.

When crust is done precooking, take out of the oven. Spread the chicken sauce mixture evenly over the crust. Place the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pizza as well. Finally, spread the diced onions and green onions over the pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is starting to brown and bubble.

Missouri Chestnut Roast

A view from the MU Horticulture and Agroforesty Research Center in New Franklin, Mo, at the Missouri Chestnut Roast. How lovely is Missouri in the fall?

This past Saturday was one of the best days I've had in a long time.

After what seemed like two solid weeks of raining and gloomy clouds, the sun finally came out just in time for the 7th Annual Missouri Chestnut Roast. Held at the MU Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center (HARC) in New Franklin, Mo., the event featured, of course, roasted chestnuts. It didn't stop there though. There were many different producers and vendors featuring their own products and tours of the research farm and vineyards.

After trying some chestnuts, which I thought tasted like a nutty potato, we decided to walk around the vendor's tent. Les Bourgeois Winery and Schlafly Beer had tastings of some of their products, and while I didn't really enjoy Schlafly's Pumpkin Spice Beer, I finally got to try Les Bourgeois' Norton wine after studying about it AND picking the grapes! The Norton had a buttery, supple mouthfeel that was surprisingly pleasant.

Goatsbeard Farm also had tastings of their goat cheese. Goat cheese is probably my favorite kind of cheese, so we bought two of their cheeses, Walloon and Missouri Moon. The Walloon is a hard, aged cheese with a delicious bite and the Missouri Moon is a soft cheese similar to Camembert. Considering I get gourmet cheese cravings the same way a normal person might get fast food cravings, I'm glad to be stocked up! If you live in the area, I highly recommend you try Goatsbeard Farm. You can find their products at the Columbia Farmer's Market, Hy-Vee, Root Cellar and Clover's Natural Market.

Other products included: apples, a variety of nuts, chocolate, spa and bath products made from honey and a selection of potted plants from chestnuts to wildflowers. One booth even had edible insects. I must admit, I was a bit of a pansy. Jim threw the chili-flavored mealworms back like a pro while I squirmed and made stupid faces. I regret not trying them!

To end the day, we went on a walking tour of the research vineyards at HARC lead by my Grapes and Wines professor. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the leaves were beautiful colors, and I couldn't have been any happier to be outside!

I'm glad to have a new tradition, because that's exactly what the Missouri Chestnut Roast is perfect for: getting outside on a lovely fall day in Missouri and sampling many local products.

The Missouri Chestnut Roast is held annually to promote agroforestry practices. For more information, you can visit their site here.

Skip It: Broadway Brewery

I am so disappointed.

Last night, Jim and I went to Broadway Brewery. It just opened and we were both very excited to try their food and beer. We even got on their web site and looked at their menu. Locally grown food? Check? Interesting and innovative menu items? Check. What stuck out to me was a Butternut Bacon Pizza: "pureed butternut squash, crumbled bacon, caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese." Yum.

In fact, I looked forward to it all day. When we got to the restaurant, I was impressed. In the same space that Uprise Bakery used to be in, the restaurant was a little loud, but it had a great atmosphere. Not too bright, awesome artwork on the walls and you could see the brewing equipment next to the kitchen through windows in the back.

I looked over the menu, even though I knew what I was going to get. We ordered the Peasant Platter for an appetizer--sausages, local cheese, pickled vegetables, ground mustard and toasted baguette. Sounds good, right? Well, the couple bites I had were good. I just didn't get that many bites. We ate the entire platter in under five minutes there was so little food, and for $12, I was kind of mad.

For dinner, I ordered the Butternut Bacon Pizza. Jim ordered the Pork Burger. When we were served, I was upset again. My pizza looked like cheese melted over a saltine cracker and his burger was very small, considering it was $9. I took a bite of the pizza. My internal dialogue went a little something like this: "Way too salty and cheesy. No butternut squash flavor. Are there even any caramelized onions on it? Where is the bacon? Why does this smell like a Cheez-it?"

I then took a bite of Jim's burger. Oh boy. There was a ridiculous amount of salt on the meat. I mean so much, it was almost inedible. He would've sent it back, but we hadn't eaten in a while and were both way too hungry to wait another 15 minutes.

Jim and I looked at each other and started to laugh. For the remainder of our meal we continued to be Tom and Padma from Top Chef and "judge" our food and its appearance. Let's just say we would have asked them to please pack their knives and go home.

The manager came around after a while and asked us what we thought. I glanced at Jim quickly, and we told the manager our honest opinion. After all, we were paying nearly $30 for our meal and we didn't like almost any of it. So the manager took off the price of Jim's beer, which actually was very good.

In the end, the restaurant has a nice atmosphere, but the food is way under par. Most of the items cost right around $9-10, but the taste of the food isn't worth the price. For the sake of this restaurant, I really hope they get someone in the kitchen who knows what their doing.

I really hate having to say something bad about a new restaurant, especially one I looked forward to for such a long time, but they still have a long way to go. Oh well. At least they gave me a great idea for a new pizza recipe to try at home!

Pickin' Grapes and Makin' Wine

Talk about good timing.

Just when I was learning the harvesting and winemaking process in my Grapes and Wines of the World class, I actually got to go pick grapes!

A weekend or so ago, Jim and I went to his family friend's vineyard to help them harvest their grapes. They started the vineyard a couple of years ago to make their own wine.

It was a gorgeous morning--the sun was out, but it was still cool. The vineyard wasn't that big, so the work was easy. That's a good thing when you have to start at 7:30 on a Saturday morning!

Hand harvesting was all that bad. You just have to watch out for the spiders! Grape picking is glamorous, n'est pas?

Here, the grapes are in a machine that de-stems and crushes them. You just turn the hand crank on the side and the drop down into the bucket at the bottom! When we were done, they placed the crushed grapes in big food-grade plastic barrels and covered it. The skins stayed with the juice because that is where red wine gets its color and distinctive characteristic of dryness. Tannins create the "dry" sensation you feel after you drink wine and the skins are where you find the tannins.

At some point (not sure when...guess I should study a bit more, huh?) they will add sulfur dioxide to the grapes to eliminate any unwanted microbes, usually natural yeasts already found on the grapes. These wild yeasts interrupt the desired fermentation process.

Then the grapes ferment until there is no more sugar for the yeast to ferment. At this point, the skins are separated from the juice and then the wine is left to age (for red wines). The aging process helps lower the tannin level to create a more mellow wine flavor.

In this vineyard, Norton grapes are grown. Norton grapes are the state grapes of Missouri. The Columbia Daily Tribune's food section ran an article on Norton grapes and local Missouri wineries a couple of weeks ago. I know I'm excited to try it.

A lot of this information came from my class. Of course, I always want to know more than my teachers tell me, so I've been reading Wine for Dummies, and I really like it. It has a lot of information on individual grapes, wines and regions.

Food Therapy: Pan-Fried Breaded Chicken Cutlets

Let me just start this post by saying one thing:

I hate frying.

It stresses me out, I can never get the temperature of the oil just right, and I usually end up cursing, crying, getting popped with oil or a combination of all three. The problem? Well, I love fried food. I love frying my own taco shells or making my own pork wontons. The solution? Let Jim do it!

He doesn't mind frying food, so when we make it, he takes over (thank God). I already have two scars on my hand from frying something two years ago. I don't need any more.

I've had a terrible day that involved a forgotten calculator and not understanding the shape of a dam for a conversion problem on a chemistry test. I knew nothing could fix my day like some good old fashioned food therapy! Pan-fried breaded chicken cutlets are familiar and comforting, and when served with roasted potatoes and vegetable gravy it's also refined.

Pan-Fried Breaded Chicken Cutlets

Cutlets:

4 chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper

Flour

2 eggs

2 T. water

Bread crumbs

1/2 sprig rosemary

Place one chicken breast in a gallon Ziploc bag. With the flat side of a meat tenderizing mallet, pound out the breast until it is about a 1/2 inch thick. Repeat with all breasts.

Fill a dinner plate or pie dish with flour. In another dinner plate or pie dish, mix together 2 eggs and 4 t. water (2 t. for each egg). Add enough bread crumbs to another pie dish and mix in rosemary.

Dredge one chicken breast in the flour. Shake off excess flour and place breast in the egg mixture. Let excess egg mixture fall back into the pie dish. Place the breast in the bread crumb mixture and coat until bread crumbs cover the whole breast. Repeat with remaining breasts. Let the breasts rest on a plate or pan for 20-30 minutes.

Add enough oil to a heavy 10-12 inch skillet (cast iron if you've got it) to come a little less than halfway up the side of the chicken, about 1/4 of an inch. And it's important that you don't use olive oil here and instead use another oil like canola, which is still very healthy, because olive oil has too low of a smoke point for the temperature you want to aim for with this dish.

Now that you've got the right kind and amount of oil, heat the oil until it reaches 350 degrees (you have a candy/frying thermometer right?).

Once the oil is good and hot put one of the cutlets into the pan and cook evenly on each side until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees (you have a digital instant-read thermometer right?). Once done, remove the cutlet from the pan and place on a cooling rack with paper towels underneath to catch the excess oil.

If the oil has dropped below 330 degrees, wait until it reaches 350 degrees to begin cooking the next chicken cutlet.

Serve with vegetables and gravy on top.

Vegetables and Gravy

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 zucchini, sliced

1 large carrot, sliced

Around 15 stalks of asparagus, bottoms cut off and cut into small pieces

1 T. butter

2 T. flour

1/2 c. chicken stock

While the chicken cutlets are resting before getting cooked, heat a large skillet over high heat. When pan is very hot, coat bottom of the pan with olive oil. Add the carrot and onion and let cook, stirring the whole time, for about 1-2 minutes, or until onion starts to become translucent.

Add 1 T. butter and lower heat to medium. Add the asparagus and zucchini and cook for about 1-2 minutes. Add the flour and mix together.

Add the chicken stock and deglaze the bottom of the pan. Let simmer until chicken is done. Salt and pepper to taste.

Sometimes Mistakes are Good

Classes are now in full-swing and are keeping me quite busy. I will, of course, try to update the blog as much as possible, but between classes and writing some pieces for the Tribune, I'm quite busy.

So maybe it wasn't such a bad thing I forgot the ricotta cheese in my lasagna--it made wonderful cheesecake!

If you're looking for a light dessert, try this. It's not as dense as cheesecake made with cream cheese, but it's still very good. For added elegance? Make a honey balsamic glaze reduction to drizzle over the cheesecake.

Ricotta Cheesecake

2 lbs ricotta cheese

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

6 eggs

2 oranges, zested

1 t. almond extract

2 tsps vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees. Set rack in the middle of the oven.

Butter and flour a 9 1/2 inch spring form pan and tap out excess flour. Place the ricotta, zest in a large mixing bowl, and beat it until smooth. Add the sugar and the flour and continue mixing until blended. Beat in the eggs at low speed, one at a time. Add the vanilla and almond extract. Add salt.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour, until a light golden color. Make sure the center is fairly firm, and the point of a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. It will sink slightly as it cools. Cover, and chill until serving time.

Honey Balsamic Glaze Reduction

¼ cup balsamic vinegar


1 T. honey

Bring vinegar and honey to a boil then turn down the heat and let it simmer until it’s been reduced to half the original amount, about 10 minutes. It should stick to the back of a wooden spoon and will thicken as it cools.

Don't Forget the Ricotta

After spending close to six or seven hours making lasagna, we were ready to eat it. The table was set, food was on the plates and we were hungry. I cut a piece with my fork excited to finally taste what Jim and I had worked so hard on.

Then it dawned on me. We didn't put the ricotta in the lasagna. Three full tubs of ricotta were sitting our refrigerator, completely unopened, because we forgot it. It seems simple enough, right? Open the tub, spoon some on each layer and you're good. That's why we forgot it.

Let me start at the beginning. Our goal was to make homemade lasagna. All of it homemade--the sauce, the pasta, fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese. The only thing that didn't require some form of work? You guessed it. The ricotta. And that's why it's STILL sitting in my fridge and not layered in my beautiful lasagna.

Good news? The lasagna still tastes amazing. The fresh mozzarella was definitely worth it, the sauce made my apartment smell like heaven for a day and a half AND tasted delicious and making the pasta was quite an experience.

If you're in the mood for a cooking endeavor that takes some time, try making homemade lasagna. You know you'll love it and it tastes so much better after you spend all of that time on it.

Just don't forget the ricotta.

Bolognese Sauce

2 1/2 lbs. ground sirloin/beef

1 large carrot, finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

4/2 14.5 oz. cans of peeled, seeded, and diced tomatoes, drained

1 1/4 c. full-bodied red wine

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

5 sprigs thyme

4 sage leaves

3 bay leaves

4-5 leaves basil

Begin by cooking the beef over medium high heat in a large pot or stock pot. Because there's a lot, you'll probably want to cook it in batches. Remove the meat once cooked and keep in a separate container.

When meat is cooked, start cooking the vegetables in the same pot. You can keep some of the fat from the meat or use olive oil instead to sweat the vegetables, which will take about 10 minutes. Add 1/4 c. of the red wine to the pot and deglaze the pan (scrape up all of the little bits of meat and veggies that are stuck to the pot).

Return the meat to the pot after deglazing. Add the rest of the wine (1 cup) and red wine vinegar. Add the tomatoes. Stir everything together. It will look very thick and like it isn't a sauce at all. Don't worry, though. The juices from the tomatoes will come out when it starts to cook.

Wrap the thyme, sage and bay leaves in the basil leaves. This is called a bouqet garni. Tie it together with kitchen twine or dental floss. Drop this into the pot.

Let sauce simmer, uncovered, for 3 hours. Ideally, refrigerate it overnight. If you do this, reheat it for 30 minutes before using in lasagna.

Homemade Pasta

5-6 eggs

4 c. flour

2 T olive oil

Pasta Machine

Form flour into a ring with a well in the center. Crack 5 eggs into the well and add olive oil.

Stir eggs around with fingers, breaking up the eggs and destroying the wall of flour. Drag more flour from the walls into the eggs.

Continue to pull flour from the walls until dough forms.

Use a sharp edge like the back of a knife to pull up the dough and work it together. If there is still loose flour, add one more egg YOLK and then the white if the dough is still too dry.

Work into a ball. (I ended up using 6 eggs total, but the dough ended up too sticky. Next time I'll use 5.)

Divide the dough into fourths. Set the rollers at the widest setting on the pasta machine. Work a portion through the rollers. Fold the dough over in half and work through the machine again. Fold and roll through again. Continue to do this until the dough feels smooth, like suede or leather.

Adjust the knob to the next smallest setting and pass the dough through. Continue to roll the dough through the machine, decreasing the width on the rollers each time. If it gets to be too long, cut in half. Place finished layers of pasta on wax paper to prevent from sticking.

To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt and some olive oil to prevent from sticking. Place pasta in water. We boiled 1-2 strips at a time to make it less stressful. After 30 seconds, check the pasta. It should be al dente with a bit of a bite to it still.

Hint: We made this whole recipe, and didn't need all of it. For the lasagna, you'll need two strips per layer of lasagna. In the end, we used about 6-8 strips of lasagna pasta. You can store the pasta in the refrigerator for a couple days, or you can dry the pasta for a later date. Or you can just cut this recipe in half.

Lasagna

Cooked lasagna strips

3-15 oz. containers of ricotta cheese

1 1/2 lbs of fresh mozzarella, sliced

Quick Tip: Put the mozzarella in the freezer 15-20 minutes before you want to slice it. It helps firm the cheese and makes it much easier to cut it.

Bolognese sauce

1 lb Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Grease a 10 x 14 baking dish. Place 2-3 strips of the pasta in the bottom of the pan. Layer the first noodles with one third of each of the ricotta, mozzarella, sauce and parmesan cheese. Repeat for second and third layers.

Finish the lasagna with a layer of sauce, mozzarella and parmesan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes.

I Lied, My Heart Actually Belongs to Sycamore

This past Thursday Jim and I went to Sycamore to celebrate. What were we celebrating? I recently had an article on fair food published in the food section of the Columbia Daily Tribune. It was my first published article, so we celebrated in true foodie style--we went out to dinner. And since Sycamore is my favorite restaurant, I had to go there.

Every time I go, I get the spinach salad to start. It's got warm and salty pancetta, spicy red onions and big leafy spinach with balsamic vinaigrette. Jim got the heirloom tomatoes, which was equally tasty.

I normally get a beef or pork entree at really nice restaurants like Sycamore. Last time we went, I got their short ribs that had been braised in ale. The meat was so tender and rich with flavor from the ale I was beside myself. Time before that? I got a pork chop with pineapple black bean salsa served on top.

This time, however, I wasn't really in the mood for a large entree, so I sampled two of their small plates: gnocchi with shitake mushrooms and asparagus, and their 3-cheese platter. The gnocchi was incredible. Gnocchi is basically potato pasta, which sounds a little odd until you actually try it. I normally don't enjoy mushrooms too much, but they gave the pasta such a deep and earthy flavor I didn't mind.

The cheese platter? Omg. That's all I can say. A slice of blue cheese, brie cheese and some goat cheese with poppyseed and sesame seed crackers, smoked almonds AND fig compote. I love goat cheese, but the big hunk of blue cheese definitely gave it a run for its money. I didn't finish the whole plate; it was intended for several people to share it. So I boxed it right up and had a very gourmet lunch at work the next day!

Jim always, always, always gets seafood. It's a little annoying because it means I can't really try his food since I don't like it all that much. He got scallops this time, monk fish cheeks last time and a tuna dish the time before that. I envy how much he likes seafood. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on so much!

Dessert? Cantaloupe sorbet. It had a pleasant consistency and subtle sweetness. They always have a cheesecake dish (my fave), a chocolate cake dish, and about four more. It's the hardest decision of the evening trying to pick a dessert from Sycamore.

Sycamore is an outstanding restaurant. The focus is on fresh, good quality ingredients prepared in ways that highlight the ingredient and not so much the technique behind it. Mike Odette, the chef at Sycamore, should sleep on my couch and be my personal chef. That's how much I love his food. The restaurant itself has a warm, elegant atmosphere, perfect for a romantic date or nice lunch. The waiters are friendly and well-informed.

It's really just about the perfect restaurant.

If you'd like to take a look at my article, just click here. It's exciting to have been given the opportunity to get published in a food section I like!

Ingredient of the Month: Peaches

I've always loved growing up in Missouri in the summertime. While the heat and humidity make me go crazy, the produce more than makes up for it, especially the peaches. They're sweet and tart at the same time and when you eat one, you need a paper towel because juice gets everywhere. It makes them the perfect Ingredient of the Month for August.

Peaches shouldn't be stored in the refrigerator because it lessens their taste. Look for peaches that have a gold-orange hue to them. If the only peaches available have a greenish color around the stem, let them ripen at room temperature for a day or two.

Canned Peaches

This past weekend, Jim and I went out to his parents' house to can peaches. I helped last year, too, but this year the peaches we were canning were for us, making it even more fun and worth it! Canning isn't really that difficult of a process, and I hope to learn how to do it well enough so that I can do it on my own someday.

Jim peeling and slicing the peaches into quarters.

After you peel and slice them, you have to let them soak in a cold saltwater bath before placing them in the jars.

When you fill the jars with peaches and syrup, you have to run a knife down the side of the jar and its contents to get all of the air bubbles out of the jar.

When the jars are covered, that's when you place them in the pot of boiling water to allow the jars to seal.

If you want a recipe for canning peaches with instructions, let me know in the comments and I'll get the instructions posted on here later.

Peach Pie Filling

We had extra peaches left over when we finished canning peaches, so we decided to freeze them. I like peaches in the fall and winter too! A simple trick anyone can use for a quick and easy peach pie, though, is to go ahead and mix the peaches with the other ingredients for peach pie filling. That way, when you want a peach pie, all you need is a pie shell.

6 cups sliced, peeled peaches
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. Fruit Fresh or lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Transfer to a gallon-sized freezer bag. Make sure to get as much of the air out of the bag when closing it as possible. Put bag in freezer, and whenever you want to bake the pie, pull it out and thaw it. Prepare the pie using any pie recipe you like. How easy is that?

Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Glaze and Cream

While peaches can scream "comfort food," they can also be a very refined and elegant ingredient, especially if left simple. Try grilling your peaches for a sweet and classy dessert.

1 peach per person, cut in half and pitted

2 t. brown sugar

1/2 c. balsamic vinegar

Oil for cooking surface

Whipped cream

Heat grill or grill pan to high and coat the surface with oil or cooking spray so the peaches don't stick. Place peaches cut side down and cook 3-4 minutes until thoroughly warmed and evenly marked.

Heat the balsamic and brown sugar in small pot over medium-high heat. Let sauce reduce until it becomes syrupy. This should take about a minute. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon and reduces by half, remove from heat and drizzle over grilled peaches. Top with whipped cream.

My Heart Belongs to the Pear Tree

While I love local Columbia restaurants (don't get me started on Sycamore), nothing can beat the Pear Tree in Bevier, MO. Even though it's about an hour away, I am more than willing to take the time to drive there. Even better if someone else is paying, which Jim's parents did this past Saturday (thanks!).

Jim took me there the first summer we were dating after going on and on about how amazing the food was. "You have to eat the onion rings. You haven't had onion rings until you've eaten at the Pear Tree," he would tell me. Needless to say, I was more than excited to try the onion rings, which were heaven. The batter is perfectly crisp - not soggy at all. Usually, I use ketchup when I eat onion rings, but there was so much onion flavor that I didn't even need it.

I'm a big steak girl. I couldn't be vegetarian if I tried because a good, medium steak can make my heart sing like nobody's business. So, unsurprisingly, I got the 6 oz. filet mignon the first time I went. It was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life, it was THAT good. The beef tasted unlike any other I've tasted. It was tender, perfectly juicy, and well-seasoned. When we went last Saturday, I got the same thing. It was still just as wonderful.

I like to pride myself on being somewhat of a cheesecake conoisseur. It is my favorite dessert. Lucky for me, then, that the Pear Tree makes their cheesecake in-house. While it isn't my top choice for cheesecake, it's pretty high up there. The cake itself is creamy and not too sweet so when you eat it with fruit toppings like strawberries it isn't over-the-top sweet.

The Pear Tree also specializes in batter-dipped lobster tail, which Jim raves about constantly, and prime rib. Other items on the menu include grilled pork chops, broiled Alaskan salmon in butter sauce and golden fried chicken. They also serve homemade ice cream, which can be served as is or in a very yummy after-dinner drink.

If you're looking for traditional American fare with above quality ingredients, try Pear Tree. It may be pricier (an entree runs anywhere from $17 for fried chicken to $43 for the lobster tail with steak) than other restaurants, but it is totally worth it for a special dinner. The ambiance is just as nice, with dim lighting and waiters and waitresses wearing white button-up shirts and black bow ties.

Visit http://thepeartreerestaurant.com/ for a full menu and contact information.

Hit the Cookbooks: Mustard Roasted Fish

In an effort to expand my culinary knowledge and skill, I'm going to try and use cookbooks for some of my recipes to try new ingredients and techniques. Nothing like having food splotches all over the pages of a recipe book to make you feel like a real cook!

I recently decided I was going to try fish to test whether or not I still hate it. I chose to find a recipe from Ina Garten's Back to Basics, which has beautifully simple and refined recipes anyone can cook. I hoped her recipe would be so exquisite I wouldn't even notice that it was fish I was eating.

I've never really liked seafood. I can't stand the fishy smell or taste. However, I love fried fish. Catfish, walleye, small-mouth bass - really anything with mild fish flavor and tons of fried breading. My friends and family affectionately tell me I like "pond food." I would take more offense, but pond food is delicious.

This time though, I skipped the breading. Although it took me a while to actually put the bite of fish in my mouth when I sat down to eat, it wasn't too bad. The sauce was great and helped cut through any unwanted fish flavor. It was creamy but not too heavy, which complemented the fish well.

I changed the recipe to accomodate the fact that I can't afford some of the stuff she uses. I also served this fish with parmesan roasted potatoes, and the combination was pretty good.

Hopefully I'll be getting a digital camera soon so I can take better pictures of the food I make. Until then, my built-in computer camera will have to do!

Roasted Fish with Mustard Cream Sauce
4 fish fillets (I used tilapia, but you could really use anything light)
1/4 c. sour cream
1/4 c. heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon course ground mustard
1/4 c. minced onion

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and place the fish fillets in the pan. Salt and pepper the fillets well.

Whip the heavy whipping cream until it starts to look like whipped cream. Fold in the sour cream. Add both mustards and the onion. Spoon the sauce over the fish fillets, covering completely. Bake the fish 10 minutes or until the center starts to flake easily.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
8-10 small red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Italian seasoning
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the potatoes with olive oil until all pieces are coated. Season with as much Italian seasoning and salt and pepper as you like. Add the Parmesan cheese.

Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until potato pieces are tender. Half-way through cooking, toss the potatoes around to make sure the potatoes don't stick.

Dinner on a Budget: Sloppy Joes

Remember how I'm a poor college student? Yeah, well I'm always looking for cheap and healthy dinner ideas (like most everyone else). On the menu this past week? A kick back to the good ol' days of childhood: sloppy joes. Of course, I've made it a little more grown up with the sides and the ingredients.

Sloppy joes + seasoned zucchini and summer squash + sweet potato fries

Sloppy Joes

I always use ground turkey instead of ground beef. For one thing, it's cheaper where I shop, and it's healthier. But ground beef works too. Just brown a pound of ground meat (for 4 people) with 1/2 diced onion and 1/2 diced green bell pepper. When the meat is cooked, add sloppy joe sauce and let it simmer. I use whole wheat buns or bread if I don't feel like spending money on buns. White buns and bread works too, though.

Store-brand sauce: $1

Ground turkey: $2

Onion: about $1

Pepper: about $1

Sloppy Joes: $5

Zucchini and Summer Squash

Slice the zucchini and squash and quarter the slices. Depending on the size of the squash and zucchini, you'll need about 1 for 1-2 people. Saute them in a little bit of oil over medium high heat. Season with salt, pepper and any other spices you like. I used Mrs. Dash. Let them cook until browned.

Veggies: > $2

Baked Sweet Potato Fries:

1-2 sweet potatoes (1 sweet potato for 2-3 people)

Olive oil

1/2 T. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel and slice the potatoes into fry-sized pieces. Toss with a little bit of olive oil (only a little) and spices. Spread fries in even layer on cooking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes. When they're tender and starting to brown a little, they're done. Granted, they're not as stiff as regular fries, but they taste sooooo much better and they're a lot better for you. I like eating them with fry sauce (even parts ketchup and mayo).

Sweet Potatoes: > $2

Total price: Around $10

If you have bread, oil, and spices already, then the price is pretty unbeatable for a meal for 4 or dinner for 2 nights for 2 people.

Food Sections Worth the Read

Newspapers can have amazing food sections. While the larger papers have amazing recipes and spotlights on trendy city restaurants, local papers aren't something to be ignored.

My favorite food section would have to be The New York Times' section. Mark Bittman's blog, Bitten, is really good with a lot of great recipes and interesting personal stories related to food.

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/?ref=dining

Recently, having combed through much of the NYT's food section, I looked around for other good ones. On a whim, I decided to look at the Los Angeles Times' section and there was a phenomenal guide to buying fresh produce at the market. It included the regulars, like carrots and berries, but it also featured produce like figs and zucchini flowers. In total, there were 32 types of produce featured. Not too shabby.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-seasonal-cooking-pg,0,5765260.photogallery

And of course, I love my hometown newspaper's food section. The Columbia Daily Tribune always has tasty, simple recipes. Featured this week are turmeric and curry powder, corn and eating well in the recession.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/lifestyle/food/

Sunday Dinner

Boy did my tiny kitchen get hot yesterday. Corn chowder AND tomato and bacon jam? Whew. I had to kick up my AC, that's for sure.

As a college student living on a very tight budget, I've been missing Sunday dinner. Growing up, my family always had dinner on Sunday evening after church. We would have pot roast or homemade chicken pot pie--you know, the usual delicious home cooking. I missed being in the kitchen for the better part of the day and then enjoying what you make in the evening. Working full time doesn't really allow for much of that.

That's why I decided yesterday that I was going to make a Sunday dinner, and I would do it cheaply. I found a great recipe in my hometown newspaper for tomato and bacon jam. It sounded quite tasty, so I gave it a shot. It only called for one relatively expensive thing: bacon. It wouldn't be expensive if I found a recipe for Sunday dinner that called for bacon too, so I tried to find one. There was a recipe for corn chowder in the newspaper and well, I had to. Let me just say how much I love soup. I love soup. There. Now you know how much I love soup.

I thought a corn chowder would be a good compromise for soup in the summer. It would still be soup, but the corn would help make it taste summery. It was an easy recipe, but I changed it quite a bit. I added potatoes and chicken, and I used more chicken stock then it called for. The only hassle was frying bacon (which I hate doing). When I made the bacon for the jam, I just went ahead and fried up the bacon for the chowder too and got both starting at the same time. Hence the air conditioning.

The corn chowder was delicious, hearty, and everything a Sunday dinner is supposed to be. The brownies I made while dinner was cooking didn't hurt!

When I was done eating dinner, I poured the cooled jam into little jars and stuck them in the fridge. This morning, I made a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and spread some of the jam on top. It was pure heaven.

Sunday dinner and an awesome Monday morning breakfast? This week HAS to be good!

Tomato and Bacon Jam (recipe originally printed in The Columbia Daily Tribune on July 22, 2009)

2 lbs very ripe tomatoes, chopped and cored
1/2 lb bacon
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 T. cider vinegar
Salt and pepper.

In a large skillet over medium-high, cook the bacon until crispy, about five minutes. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain excess fat, blotting it dry with additional towels as needed.

In a large saucepan, combine the tomatoes, onion, sugar, cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring often, then reduce heat to medium. Crumble the bacon into the tomato mixture.

Simmer until very thick, about one hour. Season with salt and pepper, as needed.

Let the jam cool, then ladle into jars. Can be refrigerated for three to four days, or frozen for as long as two months. If freezing, divide the jam among several small jars. When ready to use, let a jar thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

Corn Chowder

6 strips crispy bacon
1 small onion, chopped
1 diced red bell pepper
1 diced green bell pepper
6-7 small red potatoes, chopped
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken breast tenderloins, cooked and cut into small chunks
1 T. ground cumin
1/2 T. cayenne pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2-2 1/2 cups chicken stock (use for desired consistency)
1 cup milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
1 16- to 17-ounce can whole-kernel corn, drained, liquid reserved
Salt and pepper to taste

In stockpot, fry up the bacon. Remove the bacon and leave the fat. Sauté onion, peppers, potatoes, cumin and cayenne until veggies are soft. Add in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring the whole time. Stir in chicken stock, milk, and reserved corn liquid. Let mixture come to a boil and whisk until smooth. Stir in corn and chicken chunks. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When ready to serve, crumble bacon into chowder. Serve with shredded cheese on top if desired.

"Catching Fire" Update

So, I'm probably a third of the way through Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. It's a very insightful and well-written book. Some things I noticed or that stuck out to me:

1. The expensive tissue theory is really cool. Basically, Wrangham is saying that because of cooked food, which contains way more energy than raw food, our digestive systems were able to decrease in size, taking less energy. This then left energy for our brains, which then grew in size, leading to higher levels of intelligence and larger brains. I didn't know this, but apparently our brains consume 20% of all the food we eat--significantly more than any other animal. This probably explains why we have created amazing things like cars, planes and twinkies.
   
2. Wrangham uses a lot of studies, which is helpful. It also makes the book more of a "smart read" instead of a relaxing read. Probably my favorite study that he cites is one on raw food diets. He pretty much says that raw food diets are BS and there is no way humans could ever survive on such a diet. I want to say that more than 50% of the woman in the study completely stopped having their periods (you should read the book instead of quoting me on that).
   
3. Also, he mentions something about instinctual raw foodists. I know--just when you thought raw foodists were already crazy, here come even crazier ones. Basically, they "let" their stomachs decide what they will eat. They will smell all of the fruit in a bowl, for instance, and then instinctually pick what to eat.
   

Those are just a few thoughts. I still have a while to go before I finish the book. I'm actually pretty excited, though, because he's getting ready to talk about the gender roles that evolved from cooking. We'll see what amazing and brilliant things he has to say!

Note: I may or may not have a slight crush on this man.

Other note: I just read my post on the Farmer's Market. Boy was it sappy and generic. I guess that's what happens when you've been surrounded by fresh, amazing produce and food for an hour!

And just one final note: We went to CJ's last night. They have the absolute best chicken wings in all of this grand nation. I ate way too many and felt the grease monster to its full effect this morning. Totally worth it.

Goats Hopping on the Roof

A month or two ago, I was reading the Food and Wine section of The New York Times. I tend to do that a lot when I am bored, in case you haven't noticed. There was a pretty interesting article on goat meat that convinced me I had to try it. The article touted numerous benefits--more protein than beef and less fat than lamb. And wouldn't it be stupid not to try the source of meat that most of the world actually eats on a regular basis? Of course it would.

But when I was little, my mom used to tell me about a pet goat she had growing up. Apparently this goat climbed the barn's roof and ignited quite some anger within my grandpa. Curses were cast. Expletives were muttered under his frustrated breath. And this quirky, lovable portrait of goats was all I really had to go off of when I thought of goats.

At the farmer's market a week or so ago, though, one of the farmers was selling goat meat. Because I'd made Jim read the article, he too was swayed to give it a try. So we went for it and bought four goat chops for $10, which was a little bit pricey given the size of the chops (which were a lot tinier than I'd expected). Adventure in cooking, however, has no price.

And finally, on Sunday, we cooked them. Jim's brother gave us a recipe for Goat Curry that would take about 4 hours, which is exactly what's needed to make the meat as tender as possible. Our apartment smelled delicious for the better part of the day. Nothing like smelling something all day to make you crave it.

Or so I thought. The entire time Jim was making the curry, I kept thinking about a cute and friendly goat hopping all over a roof. I knew that the curry would be amazing, but I was nervous to try it. When Jim pulled a chop out of the curry to check its tenderness, he pulled a little piece off for me to try. I went to take the piece, then changed my mind and squealed. "A goat??? I'm going to eat goat?" I thought. But it looked and smelled great, so I ate it. And it was great. It tasted just like spicy pot roast, honestly.

The added effect of imagining a goat climbing up a barn only made it taste better!

Goat Curry

4 goat chops
3 large yellow onions
2-3 tablespoons oriental curry
1 tablespoon chili powder
2-3 potatoes
2 carrots
2 tablespoons Canola oil

Chop up onions very finely. If you have a food processor, put them in there to make a paste. Heat the oil in a stock pot. When oil is hot, put onions in pot. Cook until they are golden brown and smell slightly nutty. Add the curry and chili powder to the onions and stir.

Salt and pepper the goat chops. In a separate skillet, sear the goat chops until brown crust develops. Put seared chops in with the onions. Add water until the chops are covered. Cover the stock pot and let simmer for three hours, stirring occasionally.

After three hours, cut up potatoes and carrots and put in the pot. While vegetables cook, make rice and serve curry over the rice. When vegetables are cooked, you can take the chops out to pull the meat off of the bone and put back in the pot.

Note: When eating the curry, watch out for bones. Because goat meat isn't very popular, they don't butcher it very well. We found a couple bones in the curry even after we took the meat off the bones. If you'd rather, and what I'll do next time, is to take the meat off of the bones before I sear the meat.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

From Lauren:

I was reading the New York Times Food and Wine section at work today--yes, I know, but I was bored. Anyway, there was a post on their Bitten Blog about Richard Wranham's book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Wrangham's book suggests that cooking, and not anything else, separates us from animals.

Wrangham writes that cooking influenced our evolutionary progress and development in many ways. Most importantly, our ability to obtain and conserve more energy from cooked food than uncooked food led to a change in our physical bodies and mental capacity. Stomachs took less energy to process the food, leaving our brain open to receiving the excess energy and attention. It also promoted more refined social practices. The act of cooking food brought people around a fire, and this simple act of gathering could have calmed the nature and disposition of humans.

While I have yet to read the book, I know I will probably love it. He dismisses vegetarianism and the raw food diet, which I always love because I think both food movements can be harmful and don't make much sense.

The review brought up a lot of other interesting and valid points as well. One, for example, was especially striking to me. Wrangham suggests that the emergence of cooking started gender roles because females needed protection from being exploited as cooks while men did the hunting. Can't wait to read more on that.

Wrangham is a primatologist and biological anthropology professor at Harvard. Most markedly, he studied under Jane Goodall and wrote another fascinating book, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origin of Human Violence. It too, is now on my list of books to read. He writes with such a conversational and personable tone that it's hard not to love it. And I've only read excerpts!

So, I'm going to go buy this book. Hopefully within the next week or so because I really cannot wait to start reading. As I read, I'll write about the book and my comments.
Note: The picture of Wrangham was published in NYT's Bitten Blog and was taken by Rick Friedman.

Sidenote: The 63 Diner is now open again. We went last night, and it was delicious. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuit, and vanilla milkshake. Perfect for a date night...except for the grease dribbling down my chin. I don't think Jim minded though!

Columbia's Farmer Market

The start of the Columbia's Farmer's Market is a perfect reason for me to start writing again.

What I love about the Farmer's Market is how community-oriented it is. The grocery store is an errand. You want to get in there, get what you need (and you know exactly what that is and where it is), and get out. At the Farmer's Market, it's a conversation. You ask the woman selling cute jade plants how to care for it, and she tells you. She tells you that it is the hardest plant to kill. It doesn't even matter if that isn't true. What matters is that you are actually conversing with the person who is providing what you want to buy.

And, when you're done talking to her, you talk to the guy selling homemade pasta, which starts a conversation about how people cook pasta wrong more times than not. Too little water. Not enough salt. Way too overcooked. It's refreshing.

And the breezy air and sunshine can't even begin to compete with supermarket lighting and stuffy air.

Needless to say, I'm more than excited that the Farmer's Market is open for the season. I plan on visiting more than I should, considering there is a stand with homemade mini pies that are delicious.