A New Stone

Late last summer when I tried to remove my old pizza stone from the oven, I ended up with half of it in each hand. Like so many things around here, it was old and getting a replacement turned into such a pain that I just gave up.

The hardest part was finding a stone that fit my shallow oven, one absolutely no deeper than 14 inches. The one I had is no longer made of course, but those I found that were the right size were reviewed with a lot of complaints about breakage in shipping or usage shortly after purchase.

Finally in my most recent effort I stumbled across Breadtopia and their endorsement of FibraMent baking stones. It was pretty much a done deal as soon as I read that FibraMent stones have a ten-year warranty and include a stone for home bakers in a size that fits my oven perfectly.

I only hope I didn't take too many years off my life during the preliminary oven drying of the stone when it off-gased some pretty strange odors.

A Good Year for the Ramps

Excellent ramps this year. They came on early like everything else and then the temps dropped to extend the season. We've had them with homemade spaghetti, mixed into cacio e pepe, in the traditional Appalacian taters n ramps and this weekend I'm going to try a Saveur recipe for Ramp and Buttermilk Biscuits with Cracked Coriander!

Zinio Rocks

I have fallen in love all over again with Saveur, the website and the magazine.

But this time I'm getting the magazine in the digital format and reading it offline with the Zinio reader. It's amazing. Fabulous resolution, easy to navigate and so damn easy to store.

Sittin'

I can identify with the ladies this week. The merry widow in Cleveland is only a few days ahead of Fancy this year and they've both been incubating for almost two weeks.

I'm also sittin'. I seem to have hit the trifecta. I'm experiencing a prolonged recovery from a difficult dental implant, wicked seasonal allergies and what is now clearly an upper respiratory infection. At least this morning I feel less stress because I'm not fighting any of it anymore.

It's also less stressful if I stay home alone and away from people. I am no longer able to be civil when people tell me how wonderful this unseasonably warm weather is. IT'S NOT!!!

Bargain Condimento

A few weeks ago when I went to Maines for the best price on my favorite utilitarian olive oil I checked out their vinegar inventory. There was simply no way I could pass up this jug of balsamic condimento for $12.99. As I checked out I thought the total was less than I'd expected but there have been additional price reductions at the register before and there was a line behind me so it wasn't until I'd lugged everything to the car that I checked the receipt and discovered the vinegar hadn't scanned. I hate to admit it but I did not go back in part because I didn't really expect the vinegar to be very good.

But it is. Very good. If I go back for another jug I will tell someone about the first. But who knows if they'll have it then. It's a 5 liter jug. I use 150ml for a batch of vinaigrette so that's 33 batches and I use only olive oils for the homegrown salad greens.

Some of which have been sown along with the fava beans, rapa and some radishes. I've been reluctant to plant salad greens this year with the memory of the mess the slugs made of last year's crop still painfully fresh. And the slugs are out there now just waiting for something to sprout.

fava Supersette
cime di rapa Centoventina, Novantina, Toscana
radish Easter Egg
lettuce Johnny's Wildfire Lettuce Mix

Mates for 2010

Brandywine
Black Krim
Pineapple (back by popular demand)
Carmello
Paragon Livingston (first time, a nod to my Ohio roots)
Jaune Flammé
Costoluto Fiorentino
San Marzano 3
Golden Mama
cherry tomato: Sugar Sweetie, Mirabell, Isis Candy,
Super Snow White, Green Grape, Chocolate Cherry
eggplant: Nadia, Beatrice, Rosa Bianca, Purple Rain
pepper: Islander, California Wonder

Alright then. After a very strange disorienting week, ending with record-breaking warm temps, I have the tomato-eggplant-pepper flat sown. But NO cardoons! I thought I still had seed. Shoot.

update: I knew I had some...
cardoon: Cordo Pieno Inerme

Shoulda

Guinness Cake

I am so bummed. Everyone in both dental offices made this implant business sound like a piece of cake, so to speak, but it's been 48 hours and I still feel like someone took a 2x4 to my jaw. Yesterday I made another Guinness cake (#3) and now I'm surviving on cake and Fage Total 0% to try to mitigate the effects the damned Clindamycin.

The cake I'm eating this week is the second stab at a recipe attributed to Green & Black's but like the first there's a dense layer at the bottom. I'm beginning to suspect the recipe was meant for a two layer cake instead of one but I'm done experimenting. For now.

Nigella Lawson's recipe, on the other hand, seems foolproof. I used Green & Black's Dutched cocoa but I think the next time I'll use Lindt & Sprügli's Ghiradelli or Hershey's Scharffen Berger for a darker, less reddish color and some additional bitterness.

Helleborus Niger

In this neck of the woods it's a treat to see Christmas roses during Lent and Lenten roses before May Day.

Smoked Cherries

This week I put a small stovetop smoker in my Amazon shopping cart. I'm hoping this obsession will pass before I actually order the damn thing but the fact that I went so far as to look for it is a testament to the amazing smoked cherries in a port wine sauce that Phoebe's serves with a seared duck breast on fried polenta accompanied by some lovely crimini mushrooms and their signature sprouts.

To further demonstrate how crazy I am about these cherries, this dish, on Tuesday I dined alone to have it for the second time before I saw "Lookingglass Alice", also alone.

Apparently I'm also currently preoccupied with Alice. Last Friday I did indeed go by myself to see the first showing of 3D "Alice in Wonderland" and enjoyed every minute of it.

Today @ 11:00

I have a very important date.

Our Turn 2010

Record snowfall yesterday. We got all of the 22.4 inches reported for our area. I shoveled the first half in two passes yesterday until The Mister came home and fired up the old Gravely for the first time this winter to deal with the end of the drive where the DOT plows push the snow. He's out there this morning while I cook oats and prepare to snowshoe out to the feeders.

More Arthur Miller

It wasn't really about Valentine's Day – it was about being offered a place to stay for a weekend in NYC – so we ended up spending the holiday seeing some very un-Valentine productions: another Arthur Miller play and "Carmen" at the Met.

I have mixed feelings about big-name film actors being used to drum up business for Broadway but there wasn't anything else we really wanted to see. As it turned out it was one of the best things we've ever seen onstage.

Reflection

My friend lives on what used to be open farmland, what is still wonderful bluebird habitat. She's taken a lot of good photos but this recent one is by far my favorite.

"Broken Embraces"

"Cruz's is a celluloid face in a digital world, and for Almodóvar,
there's nothing so fragile and enduring."
Stephanie Zacharek

Anyone who loves "Cinema Paradiso" should feel the same about "Broken Embraces" ("Los abrazos rotos").

Wicked Winter

When I bought some Green Mountain Wicked Winter™ last week we were still having mild temperatures and rain. This is one of my favorite coffees but I can't help notice that since I've been drinking it our winter has turned wicked cold.

The moon was glorious last night and with the snow-cover everything was bright as day. The price however was a low this morning of -8º/-22º.

Who?

Green Lakes 2008

Everything has frozen again this week. The poor geese haven't been able to raft on the lakes at the park the past few nights because the ice isn't thick enough to support them and they would be in danger of getting frozen-in in the areas of open water.

Despite the cold I went out late yesterday and for the first time in a long time, I heard a great horned owl. I lingered hoping to hear a second voice but I think they may be past the courtship phase if this bird is one of a nesting pair.

Being out in the woods at dusk with the first quarter of the wolf moon, the snow and the call of the owl was a perfect antidote to an otherwise miserable week.

Or is the moon waxing gibbous?

January Thaw

AnneCook

I stepped outside this morning to a chorus of robins and the smell of wet earth.

You have to believe the buds will blow,
believe in the grass in days of snow.
That's the reason a bird can sing,
on his darkest day, he believes in spring. -D.Malloch

Olio Nuovo 2009

My, oh my, oh my. What incredible flavor. I decided to splurge at least one more time for some good olio nuovo and it is fabulous. It even made me go looking for some out-of-season tomatoes and I came across these jewels:

Thank you J.

J. gave me an Italian measuring beaker. I love it.
It's even made of recycled glass.

I'm glad to put up a post that doesn't involve meat. Given the modest amount of meat that we eat it's unsettling to see the previous two posts on my own blog.

It took the better part of an afternoon to hack – and I do mean hack – the damn ham into portions I can cook with beans. I prefer to use smoked hocks without sodium nitrite but I just can't bring myself to throw away all the Virginia ham especially after it made for a very tasty batch of Anasazi beans last week.