P-O-T-L-U-C-K

I always like to create menus. I like to think, What is the perfect meal for this or that occasion? I make, in my mind, each component; I lay it out on the plate, I admire it, I serve it. Once I asked my husband, “What are your favorite foods? What would be your favorite meal?”

In my mind, I had already prepared my favorite: For the meat, Ham. That’s Ham with a capital “H.” The kind that comes with a bone in it and is cooked long and slow and carves loose in big sloppy savory slices. For the bread, sourdough loaves, generously slathered with butter and garlic and baked until it’s a bit crispy at the edges. For the vegetable, corn on the cob, not doubt about it. Buttered until it’s dripping off, and well salted. For my dessert, I chose strawberry shortcake. The whipped cream isn’t all that important, but the good quality vanilla ice-cream is. The shortcake is like my mother always made, a sweet biscuit glazed in sugar, split and served still warm with ice-cream and lots of sugared strawberries inside and on top. In answer to my question, my husband thought a bit and answered, “Roasted lamb, Ham, pork chops, and a great big T-bone steak!”

I think it’s a guy thing.

So recently, I was thinking again about what my favorite menu was. And I came to the conclusion that it was… Potluck! Yes, potluck dinner is my favorite menu. I’ve always thrived on variety, and that’s just what you get. Especially when the instructions are random, like, “Bring what you would want to eat, and we’ll trust that we get a good spread.” Sometimes that works out, but sometimes that means a whole table full of iced lemon cake, brownies, Mrs. Smith’s apple pies, ambrosia, chocolate chip cookies and a lone bucket of fried chicken.

There are some foods that I think were just invented for potlucks. They always show up, but I’m not sure they are real food, since they are never on a regular dinner table. And they taste too good to be real food, sort of like potato chips. I’m thinking of something called “company potatoes.” I ate this at a potluck dinner and could hardly restrain myself. From what I could tell, the main ingredients were grease, starch, and dairy product. Inquiring more closely, I discovered it was composed of frozen hash browns, condensed cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and cheddar cheese. Mmmm….

In a good potluck spread, you’ll see the same beloved friends. Bucket of fried chicken, lasagna, enchilada casserole. Chicken casserole with broccoli and creamy cheese stuff, a crock-pot full of beans. Meatballs. Green salad, potato salad, macaroni salad (at least two versions) and Chinese chicken salad. Rolls and butter. At least one Jello dish. Chips and French onion dip. A veggie tray. For dessert, see above.

Even though a potluck is sort of a chancy thing, you will find a certain predictability. Sometimes a party is held as a potluck. But most of the time, a hostess will want more control over the victuals, and that’s when she plans her own menu. So what would be the perfect menu for a Bluegrass Jam party?

Let’s plan that most of the attendees will be playing and singing. For that reason, I’m going to skip the tortilla chips and nuts. There is nothing worse that trying to sing while little particles of chips and nuts are tickling your throat. Oily finger food is also a no-no. Who wants to get greasy paw-prints on their vintage Gibson Mastertone? Fussy items like soufflés are out. Why would anyone want to spend any more time messing around in the kitchen with something fancy when good music is being enjoyed by other people, and you’re stuck at the oven?

So I think I would put some pulled pork in a crock-pot, a few foil-wrapped sourdough loaves, very lightly buttered and heated, out beside it, accompanied by a veggie tray and a couple of dips. Sodas and beer in a well iced chest, and apple pie at the side.

What’s your perfect menu for your favorite kind of party? Or do you prefer to trust to potluck?

Liverwurst and Ice-cream

Did you know that liverwurst sandwiches and banana splits go together very nicely?

Today Mom and I had lunch with a dear friend and a few of her grandchildren. She took us to Superior Dairy in Hanford, an old-fashion lunch place I had never been to before. High high white embossed ceiling, pink and white striped counter stools and "soda fountain" styling. Big picture windows on all sides gave the place an open, bright, airy feeling. The menu was printed on the paper place mats.

As you would expect from a dairy lunch place in a dairy sort of town, ice cream was the predominant item. Sandwiches were an also-ran. A sandwich sounded good to start with. Hmm, something a little more unusual, something I don't make at home very often, something...

Liverwurst! I don't think I've ever seen liverwurst sandwiches on a restaurant lunch menu before. Not that I'm wild about liverwurst, but I do like it, and don't buy it often because I'm the only one who will touch it.

The waitress came.

"Liverwurst." And then, because I felt sort of dangerous just by ordering liverwurst, I topped it off. "On white bread, please."

And then our friend Mona topped us all.

"I'll have a banana split for lunch."

Eek! Skewered! I might have done that if I'd thought about it, instead of saving ice cream for dessert. But as it turned out, it was for the best. As we saw when the banana split arrived.

It was vertical. It had to be because the banana boat was too small to fit it all in horizontally. It stood up about 12 inches into the air, when you take into account the pile of whipped cream on top. A strawberry flavored Mt. Whitney rose up in the middle of the dish, flanked by a vanilla Mt. Shasta and a chocolate Mt. Lassen. Juicy strawberry sauce studded with chunks of pineapple cascaded down the steep sides. Luckily the banana boat sailed on a safety saucer to capture the runoff.

The waitress only brought one spoon! What was she thinking? I don't know if it was my complimentary comments or my wistful looks that caused Mona to tell me to "dig in, I can't eat it all!"

A bite of liverwurst, a spoon of strawberry ice cream, a nibble of potato chips and then start over. Yum yum! I recommend it. My friend ran out of gas before I did. I made the last bite of liverwurst, chips and ice cream come out even.

On the way out the door, I saw other folks with an "S.O.S." parked in front of them. That stands for Super Oversize Sunday, or something like that. The name is descriptive. Think of a punch bowl on a stem, ice cream and sauce rising up to about eye level, topped by the ubiquitous cloud of whipped cream and a cherry.

That will be just right when I go back with another half-dozen friends to help me with it!

Now We're Smokin'!

I don’t think we have hickory trees in this part of the country, but you can buy shreds and chunks of the stuff in bags, which is good, since hickory smoke is wonderful to flavor meat with.

I started experimenting long, indirect cooking in the Weber Barbecue with country style ribs and turkeys a couple years ago. Lately, I’ve been trying out some smoking techniques. Basically, you just keep the heat low, and periodically throw pieces of soaked wood pieces on the hot briquettes. I have just finished doing a couple of huge pork butts for CHAS’ CAV 101 weekend in a week and a half. Here’s what I did:

I realized there are lots of types of “barbecue,” depending on the region. So far, I really think I like the North Carolina style. It is one of the earliest styles, back in the Colonial days. They used sauces they called “ketchup,” but they were not the tomato ketchups we are familiar with. They were thin and vinegar based, flavored with mushrooms and other vegetables and spices. Remember, tomatoes at that time were considered by many to be poisonous. The predominant flavors of North Carolina style are apple cider vinegar, salt, a little heat from cayenne pepper, and smoke.

I tried this barbecue twice previously, but this time I took the advice of Tom “Big Heat” Solomon from Gun Mountain Virginia and did not mop, rub, or marinate the meat first. Before, it seemed like the long time over the heat made the rub particles become a little gritty. With this method, the “infusion” technique, the seasoning goes into the meat after it’s all done.

I bought 2 – 8 pound pork butts, and cut off most of the thin layer of fat on the one side. Believe me, there is plenty of fat in the meat- you won’t miss it! I set up the Weber with about 3 or 4 dozen briquettes (Kingsford, Mesquite) divided on each side. I set a pan of water under the rack between them (for moisture) and put the roasts, fat side down, on the top rack. They barely fit. I stuck a Pampered Chef digital thermometer down in the vent hole to monitor the air temperature. My goal was to keep it between 225 and 260 degrees. I carefully placed some pieces of soaked hickory chips on the coals. If you don’t put them on carefully, they’ll throw up ash which gets on the meat.

I started at 9 a.m. Every hour I added about 7 briquettes on each side along with a few pieces of soaked hickory. After 2 hours, I turned the roasts over to fat side up. It was surprisingly easy to keep the temperature constant. It dipped down to 206 briefly, and spent some of the time at 268. I kept this up until 7 p.m. Tom says to smoke the meat from 10 to 12 hours. At 7, when I would have taken it out, I decided to let it stay in until 8, but not add more coals. Well, the existing coals took on new life and when I went to take the meat out, it was still chugging along at 265 degrees.

Oh my goodness! They were perfect! Dark, dark brown, smoky, falling off the bone, but not disintegrated. I could hardly keep a certain person’s paws off the meat.

Now for the “infusion” part. I pulled and cut it up in “thumb-sized” (more or less) pieces, as my directions called for, and then packed it in 3 cast iron skillets. I poured a salt water solution over the top, then poured about a cup of apple cider vinegar over each one. I sprinkled just a bit of cayenne pepper on top. If it was for us, I would have put more, but these were for folks who might not appreciate the heat! Then I just cooked it down until the liquid was gone, adding vinegar to taste until I felt it was done just right.

It doesn’t sound too fancy, just these few ingredients. But it is really a wonderful combination when you take the time to pump in all that smoke. There are no shortcuts, even if you have Wright’s Liquid Smoke in the cupboard!

New Flavor Sensations

A couple weeks ago I bought my first ipod. Or is it Ipod? I’m not sure of the capitalization rules that Apple has claimed. Although I have been shoving a lot of my music onto it, one of my real interests is podcasts. As spring, ever so slowly, approaches, I’m looking forward to shaking off my hibernation and beginning to walk and run for fitness. (Ok, so maybe it’s what most people regard as “jogging,” but I am trying to follow Melinda’s terminology, “There’s no such thing as jogging, only walking and running.”) When I have to go back and forth on the same old terrain, I want to have some educational, thoughtful, provocative, scintillating and possibly titillating words to listen to.

So I took 2 days to learn how to work the whole computer (laptop at a fast connection spot like Starbucks)/ device/ download/ sync/ rip/ copy cd/ playlist/ i-store/ thingy. If I had not had Tristan helping me, I’m sure it would have taken longer! But I think I’ve got it now, by George!

One of the first things I did was to take a shopping spree (technically not "shopping," since I only got the free podcasts) at the i-store. I subscribed to:

Grammar Girl: Oh the lovely anticipations of pronouns and dangling participles. I can feel myself salivating. Watch out, you poor recipients of my Grammar Evangelism Fervor!

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History: I love to have a history lesson that offers more questions than answers! Did the original labor-saving device, slavery, stall technological innovation in societies? and more on the subject…

Medical Matters: What is bullying? Has the definition gone so far that even the normal learning experiences of childhood are avoided?

Persiflagers Infectious Disease Puscast: Chock full of wonderful tidbits relating to the world of fascinating disease elements. Alert! Family dinner conversation is about to get very interesting.

Stuff You Missed in History Class: Haven’t listened to this one yet, but queued up is “Zenobia, Warrior Queen.”

And the last, the one that finally will get me to a food subject…

Brain Stuff: 2-4 minute episodes in which the guy, Marshall Brain (I assume the name is a happy coincidence) answers the kinds of questions that everybody has but didn’t know it until they saw it answered. The episode that caught my attention was, “How do artificial flavors work?”

I would have to listen to it again to give all the correct details such as the esters, volatile chemicals, sensory cells, etc. but what intrigued me was how hard people work, using trial and error and chemical analysis to get flavor agents that taste like something real. It only takes one chemical to get banana flavor, or orange flavor, or grape. But if they want it to be more real, then they start toying with the mixture, adding a little more acetate and butyl aggregate etc. But what is rare is to make a flavor that DOESN’T TASTE LIKE ANYTHING ELSE!

Think about it, all those fruit flavors we grew up with: Cherry, Strawberry, Lemon, Grape, Orange, Lime, and Watermelon (courtesy of Jolly Rancher). They are all very distinct. Yes, I know that the fake flavor may not taste a whole lot like the real flavor, but it’s the fake flavor we are talking about right now. You could shut your eyes and know what color and flavor it was. Strawberry and Cherry were always problematic, since they are both red. But the industry seems to have handled that by making Strawberry more pinkish. Pineapple, while distinctive, curiously didn’t seem to be in use much back then in gum, suckers, chews, KoolAid, Jello, fondant creams… In the past few years, a few more flavors have crept up. But honestly, they aren’t especially distinctive. Kiwi, Mango, papaya, tangerine, yeah yeah…

Can you imagine how exciting it would be to see a new color that had never been noticed before? Would it be the same to experience a new fruit flavor that had never been tasted before? Something intense and distinct, like a big wad of Sour Grape Mouthful Gum? (If you lived back in the late 60’s you might remember the birth of sour candy and Mouthful Gum, a solid package of gum the size of a deck of playing cards.)

The example they gave was Juicy Fruit Gum, that it was a made-up flavor. I was a little disappointed in that example. I remembered Juicy Fruit from a long time ago as being a nicely mellow, sweet and gently fruity grayish stick of Wrigleys. Recently I had a nostalgic turn and bought a pack. It was very yellow (I guess they got the hang of artificial colors) and it reminded me mostly of banana punch.

So, please, someone out there take the challenge and invent a new fruit flavor! And when you do, give it a color and a shape so we can visualize the mysterious new vegetable and wonder what the real flavor of it is.

I Scream, You Scream...

Somewhere in the process of eating most of a carton of Dreyer's Drumstick flavor ice cream, the last of it right out of the box with a long handled ice-tea spoon, I started thinking about how very many flavors of ice cream there are out there. Dare I say, almost too many?

If the purpose of having so many flavors out there is to make it easier to find just the right one you want, it has dismally failed. It is far harder to make a decision on a carton of ice cream than it ever was back in the 60's and 70's when I was a kid.

In grammar school, the 8th grade class sold ice-cream cones at lunch time to raise money for their annual school trip. They served chocolate (what I always got) strawberry (now that is just strange!) and vanilla (why anyone would choose a non-flavor like white vanilla when they could have chocolate was beyond me!) for a nickel a scoop. I didn't even have to think about it.

At the stores, there were only a couple of brands to look at. And the flavors were pretty straighforward. Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry, and then what we usually got, Neopolitan, which was vanilla, chocolate and strawberry all in one carton. You could carefully scoop the flavors separately and make a banana split look like the ones from Woolworth's.

My grandmother always had Maple-Nut in her freezer. I wasn't crazy about it; if I had a choice I always picked a piece of one of her ice-cream pies she kept in there. Then along came an exotic flavor: Butter Brickle. It was a buttery flavor with little pieces of toffee things floating around in it. When it was fresh it was great. When it was old and had been partially melted at the grocers a time or two, it wasn't so great...

My aunt introduced us to something called Burgundy Cherry. We were already familiar with Cherry Vanilla, which my mom seemed to really like, but this was different. Not that it tasted especially spectacular, but it was very beautiful. Purplish pink with soft burgundy colored cherries in it. Two other flavors that were a staple at our house were Rocky Road and Chocolate Marble.

I think it was the Mint Chip ice cream that heralded a new era of flavors in the grocers case. Cookie Dough followed, and then Strawberry Cheese Cake. Tin Roof Sundae and Mocha Almond Fudge came up close behind. Then it seemed like a free-for-all. Every candy bar made now came in an ice cream version, every combination of chocolate, carmel, nuts, crumbs, peanut butter and coffee you could put together were made and named after various curious phenomena.

It's a proven scientific fact that having more choices makes decision-making harder, not easier, that people are more dissatisfied with their final choice than if they only had a few to pick from.

So now I stand at the frozen section staring at all the brands, all the flavors, and cannot for the life of me pick one. So I pick two. Or three. Just in case I decide the first one wasn't the one I really wanted after all. So maybe they know what they are doing after all.

Wine and Chocolate in Lodi

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This weekend, Feb 13 and 14 the Lodi Wineries are holding their annual “Wine and Chocolate” tour. My daughter, Melinda and I, having absolutely nothing better to do than go wine and chocolate tasting, ordered our tickets. Can you really think of very much nicer a way to spend a beautiful sunny Saturday than tooling around the rural vineyards and orchards, stopping at posh little wineries nibbling brownies and sipping good Zinfandel?

The first stop was the Lodi Wine Center. Kathleen, my gps, was not behaving well and tried to send us on a wild goose chase, but we wrestled her down and found the place in good time. We collected our wristbands, wine tasting glasses and tin of chocolates. Our designated driver collected his wristband so that he could have cookies and stuff, no wine, but lots of compliments from the servers during the day for his sacrifice. We had an event map that we had highlighted the wineries we didn’t want to miss. This was important, as there were about 40 wineries involved, and none of us really thought we could manage the whole gang in only 5 hours. Since we weren’t local, it was a one day shot for us.

I didn’t know much about Lodi wines, but now I know how important Zinfandel grapes are to the region. Zinfandel seemed to be the predominant wine, followed by Cabernet, Chardonnay, a little Merlot, and some other Spanish grapes that I can’t remember the names of right now. I think I like Zinfandel second only to Cabernet Sauvignon, at least from my limited experiences. We tasted a LOT of Zinfandel, and I was looking for a bottle to buy.

One place we went to, Michael David, was festive; they had souvenirs of Mardi Gras beads and shiny masks. There, I had what was probably the nicest wine up to that point. It was a Zinfandel named “Gluttony,” part of a line-up of their “Seven Deadly Zins.” I would have paid about $25 for it, but unfortunately, it was $60. So I took another taste of it and moved on.

(At this point you might want to read my post about cheap wines, if you haven’t already!)

Sometime during the first few stops on our route, we had the nagging feeling that we had gotten in with the wolf pack and might have to break loose. The limousines were showing up just ahead of us. You know that sinking feeling when you are on a trip, and you need a restroom, burger and drink in that order, but you see that 3 school buses and a tour bus have pulled in the McDonalds just ahead of you? Thankfully, our next stop was a near miss as we had to make an awkward turnaround to go down the poorly marked road. No limo could have made that maneuver, so we were able to drop out of that pack. After that, we had more breathing space.

We really enjoyed seeing how the different winery owners were able to express their other passions within the winery setting. D’art is owned by Dave and Helen Dart. Because he wanted to showcase his beautiful artistic talents as well, he arranged his framed paintings, decorated the facility, and named it D’art, “of the Art.” Harmony Vineyards featured a magnificent built in pipe organ, played live during the day.

Our last stop of the day was a vineyard plaza. About a half dozen wineries had located at a central area in the Lodi area to make a sort of outdoor wine mall. It was there at the Watts winery where I bought my 2cnd bottle of wine. The server was a knowledgeable, very personable young man who was very good at what he did. It made me really understand how important it is for a winery to not just have a warm body to stand there and tip the sip into your glass, but to interact, to tell you with his words and body language, “Isn’t this a great wine?”

We had a great time. A person could probably better do serious wine tasting by limiting the number of wineries and tastes during one day, but for fun, this couldn’t be beat. And I did get 2 bottles of great wine to set aside for the next special occasion!

Chile Relleno, Carumba!

If you like chile relleno casserole (and you know who you are), give this a read.

Chile relleno casserole is a great dish to whip up when you are serving a crowd. Layered in a 9 inch square or a 9x13 dish, it is easy to prepare and when it’s done, you have a mellow, cheesy, nutritious meal with most of the food groups represented. But for the single, or the couple, it requires a commitment in the baking, with the amount of cheese to shred and the cooking time, and a commitment to how many days you plan on eating it until it’s gone. You may not know how easy, convenient, and really delectable the original chile relleno really is.

My mother used to make chile rellenos occasionally, though I had never tried to copy them myself. But I remembered what she did when I tried to make them myself the other day. You can make up exactly how many you want at a time. And you can also make extra—they are also nice heated up the next day.

First, you need Ortega chiles. (Ok ok, if you really wanted to do this right, you would buy fresh chiles and fire roast them over flame, sweat them in a bag and rub the blackened skin off. But we are going to live conveniently this time) I just buy the big can in the Mexican food aisle, use them in all kinds of things until the rest go bad and then toss them. I’d rather do that than use those dinky little cans. Pull how many you want out, pour out the liquid from the peppers and lay them on a paper towel to dry off a little. Don’t worry about seeds. When they prepare them for canning, most of the seeds are removed.

Next you need eggs, separated. Here is the best way to handle that. Separate them when they are cold, and then leave them out for a little while until they get closer to room temperature. Cold eggs don’t whip as nicely as tepid ones do. I used 3 eggs for 5 chiles, but you can change those proportions however you like. You can use a mixer, but I prefer to just use a whisk. It feels more homey and organic. Whip the whites until they are in soft peaks. Then whisk the yolks in another little bowl. Fold the yolks into the whites. One thing I like to do is also fold in about a tablespoon of masa flour or fine cornmeal.

Poke cheese into the chiles. Don’t worry if the sides split.

Heat up a well-seasoned cast iron skillet as if you were cooking an omelet. Spread in half the egg mixture; lay the stuffed chiles on the egg layer, and then spread the remainder of the egg mixture over the top.

My mother used to dip the chiles in the eggs and then put them in the skillet, but it’s just as easy to just lay it down in layers.

Cook at a low temperature. You might want to cover it for a little while if you are worried that the egg mixture won’t cook through and the cheese melt before it all gets too brown. When the bottom is lightly browned, flip them over, either all at once or a few at a time.

When you plate them, put a splash of warmed salsa across the middles.

They are sooo good!