Happy Girl Kitchen’s Party for the Truck

Here’s what I’ll be up to this Saturday:

Happy Girl Kitchen is a local company that produces wickedly delicious pickles, jams, and other canned goodies. They also host a variety of fun and informative canning workshops. Their latest project is raising money to purchase a truck so they can deliver tasty, locally-grown organic produce to venues all around the Bay Area.

This Saturday’s fundraising party should be a blast. There’ll be local bands performing, lots of homemade food and drink, a raffle, and even a canning contest. If you want to learn more about Happy Girl Kitchen, their products, or buy a ticket so you can join in the fun at the “Party for the Truck” fundraiser, click here.

Lending a hand in the Chronicle’s Test Kitchen

Just in case you’re wondering why it’s been so quiet around here, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been back at the San Francisco Chronicle helping out in their test kitchen. The holidays, especially Thanksgiving, are always a busy time for the Food and Wine Section and I’m thrilled to be able to lend a hand. Below are links to two of the recipes I’ve helped test and style which ran in today’s paper. Check back over the next few weeks — I’ll be sure to post links to other stories and recipes that I’ve worked on as they are published.

From the San Francisco Chronicle’s November 8, 2009 issue:

The Cocktailian: A toast to Vermeer’s muse by Gary Regan

• Recipe
• Photo

Homemade mincemeat the only way to go by Georgeanne Brennan

• Recipe*
• Photo

*A quick note about the mincemeat pie — although the recipe requires a lot of time and effort, the resulting pie is a delicious showstopper and totally worth it.

A tour of North Carolina, bite by bite

This past week, Eric and I flew back to North Carolina for a visit with his folks. One of the side benefits to spending time with his family is getting to indulge in some of the region’s incredibly delicious barbecue. Each time we go to North Carolina, barbecue is at the top of my agenda. This trip was no exception.

In case you aren’t familiar with North Carolina barbecue, here’s a very brief overview:

1. It’s all about the pig.
2. North Carolina’s barbecue can be broken down into two regional styles – Eastern and Western. The main differences between the two are that the Eastern-style uses the whole hog and the sauce is made with vinegar and hot chili peppers. Western-style uses pork shoulder and the sauce, also vinegary, incorporates a bit of tomato product.

The sweet, succulent nature of pork, especially when it’s slow-cooked, makes it one of my favorites. Combined with the fact that I crave foods that are on the tart side, it’s no surprise that I’ve taken so strongly to the barbecue found in the Tarheel State. I’ve sampled both Eastern and Western styles, and while the Eastern-style is quite good, I find myself favoring Western, particularly Lexington-style. One of the things that makes Lexington-style barbecue so special is the red coleslaw. Instead of mayonnaise, which is used in the more familiar creamy coleslaw, this version uses ketchup. When I first learned about Lexington’s traditional red slaw, I thought it sounded a bit odd, but now, I can’t imagine chopped barbecue without it.

Of the handful of places I’ve sampled, Lexington Barbecue stands out. Their meat has just the right amount of smokiness. It can be chopped fine, which is how it’s typically served, or, if you prefer, sliced. Their sides, including the tangy red slaw and savory fried cornmeal hush puppies, are perfect. But what I’m most in love with at Lexington Barbecue is their fried pork skin sandwich. The smoky, crackling-crisp skin, nestled in a hamburger bun and topped with a generous scoop of red slaw, is a decadent explosion of texture and flavor.

Lexington Barbecue in Lexington, NC

Where the magic happens - Lexington Barbecue's smokestacks

Chopped barbecue, red slaw, and hushpuppies from Lexington Barbecue

A pork lover's dream - Lexington Barbecue's fried pork skin sandwich with red slaw

Barbecue is such a huge part of the area’s identity that each year, the town of Lexington holds an annual barbecue festival that is attended by tens of thousands of people. Sadly, I missed this year’s festival by one week. It worked out for the best, though, I still got to eat delicious ‘cue, without the hassle of all the crowds.

26th Annual Lexington Barbecue Festival

One of the many decorative pig statues that can be found on the streets of Lexington, NC.

Since man (or in my case, woman) can’t live on barbecue alone, much as I might like to, I sampled a few other treats along my travels.

I reveled in the plump and briny locally caught whole shrimp seasoned with Old Bay and a flawlessly silky interpretation of key lime pie at The Kill Devil Grill, located in Kill Devil Hills along the Outer Banks. Popular with both locals and tourists, the restaurant is housed in an old-fashioned diner car that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Kill Devil Grill

Inside the Kill Devil Grill

Locally caught shrimp

Key Lime Pie with a Nilla Wafer crust

I also tried a local variation of the all-American classic cheeseburger at North Carolina drive-in chain, What-a-Burger. Order a burger “all the way” at What-a-Burger and you’ll enjoy a burger topped with a schmear of meaty chili, finely diced onion, coleslaw, and mustard. The gals behind the counter were some of the friendliest food industry folks I’ve met. They initially gave me a razzing for taking so many photos of the place, but by the end we were chatting away like old friends. After ordering, I spied a drink on their menu called a Witchdoctor. When I asked them what was in it, they gave me one on the house to try for myself. By far the most bizarre beverage I’ve ever had, the Witchdoctor consists of a generous spritz of every fountain soda on tap, excluding diet, a splash of pickle juice, and is garnished with pickle slices and a lemon wedge. It was strange, but also quite refreshing, and the perfect companion for my “all the way” cheeseburger.

Old school drive-in What-a-Burger in Kannapolis, NC

What-a-Burger's cheeseburger "all the way" with tater sticks

The Witchdoctor

Some other eats enjoyed along my travels:

Fried chicken, coleslaw, beans, hush puppies, and hidden under the chicken, a mound of Eastern-style barbecue

Brunswick Stew

Biscuits and gravy, or should I say gravy and biscuits?

A plate of North Carolina barbecue would be incomplete without a bottle of Cheerwine, a local soda made in Salisbury, NC

My adventures in North Carolina reminded me of what I love most about traveling — getting the chance to meet new people and experience the tastes and culinary traditions that make a place unique.

Lexington Barbecue
10 Highway 29-70 South
Lexington, NC 27295

The Kill Devil Grill
2008 S Virginia Dare Trail
Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948

What-a-Burger
926 S Main Street
Kannapolis, NC 28081

Muppets, cupcakes, and lessons learned

This past Saturday, my friend Elizabeth celebrated her birthday by hosting a Muppet themed birthday party, complete with cocktails inspired by Muppet characters. At one point during the evening, after a few too many Kermit cocktails (aka, appletinis), there was  even a “Rainbow Connection” sing-a-long.  For those of us who fondly remember the endearing wackiness of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the Muppet gang, it was a fun reminder that although we may be getting older, we’re all still young at heart.

Wanting to contribute something tasty to the party, and at the same time evoke a bit of Muppet whimsy, I decided to make Kermit the Frog cupcakes. I may have watched too many “Ace of Cakes” episodes lately, because in my mind I imagined that I’d be able to reproduce Kermit’s exact likeness via the mediums of cake and frosting with relative ease. In reality, however, this was not the case.

As I was piping frosting onto the cupcakes, I found myself getting increasingly frustrated. While the cupcakes did look frog-like and somewhat Muppetish, I wasn’t able to achieve the exact image I’d set in my mind. Brutal perfectionist that I am, this was a hard pill to swallow. As my frustration grew, I found myself sounding more and more like a certain Muppet drummer, known for his wild outbursts of shouts and grunts. Eric would periodically pop into the kitchen to gently remind me that since this was the first time I’d ever attempted to make cupcakes that look like Kermit the Frog, they were not going to be perfect and that I should just have fun with it.

He was right, of course. It took a bit of effort, and some deep yoga breathing, but I think I was finally able to let go for the most part and simply enjoy the creative process. In the end, the cupcakes actually looked pretty cool and they seemed to capture a little bit of the Muppet spirit. Judging by Elizabeth’s post-party tweet, the birthday girl enjoyed not only her party, but the cupcakes as well.

Making these cupcakes reminded me of some valuable life lessons that I tend to forget when trying something new: be creative, be fearless, be adaptable, embrace failure as a chance to learn from and improve upon your mistakes, and above all, don’t forget to have fun.

It's not easy being a green cupcake...

Stop looking at me!

Too cute to eat? Nah!

Sad News in the Food World

Today is a dark day in the world of food.

This morning, The New York Times posted on their Diner’s Journal blog that after 68 years in print, Gourmet magazine will cease publication after their November issue. I’ve been a subscriber to the magazine for years and this news absolutely breaks my heart. The quality of Gourmet’s recipes and their writings about food and travel are unparalleled.

We are losing a true gem.

Helping others, one bite at a time

San Franciscans are as well known for their love of good food as they are for their social consciousness. In response to the recent natural disasters that have bombarded the Pacific Rim, some local street food vendors and “nonstaurants” are using their creativity and Twitter-savvy to not only bring delicious food to the streets of our fair city, but to also raise funds and awareness for disaster relief efforts.

This past Friday night, Little Skillet hosted a street food “happy hour,” where a percentage of the evening’s food sales from Little Skillet and the participating food carts would be donated to relief efforts in the Philippines. A variety of vendors showed up to sell their wares for the cause. The foods dished out were an eclectic sampling of global flavors — shrimp moqueca from Brazil, Mexican pozole, Yucatecan cochinita pibil and panuchos, Filipino lumpia, and American comfort foods like fried chicken, grilled cheese, potato chips, cupcakes, and cheesecake. By the time I left the gathering, my stomach was full from the mouthwatering bites I had sampled. My heart even more so, knowing that in some small way this motley crew of food vendors and the folks enjoying their offerings had come together in the spirit of helping others.

Vendors setting up for the street food "happy hour"

Good food. Great cause.

Flavors from the Yucatan: similar to a taco, a panucho is comprised of a corn tortilla topped with beans, meat, tomato, pickled onion, avocado, and salsa

Grilled ABC (apple, bacon, cheddar) sandwich from the Toasty Melts cart

Sweet Constructions' tempting treats

Proof that bacon really does make everything better: Who's Your Daddy's bacon potato chips

Something for everyone: Wholesome Bakery's vegan chocolate and vanilla-banana "baby cakes"

To learn more about the vendors who participated in Friday night’s event  and find out what they’re up to next, follow them on Twitter:

Brazilian Bites: @brazilianbites
Little Skillet: @LittleSkillet
Lumpia Cart: @LumpiaCart
Soul Cocina: @soulcocina
Sweet Cart: @sweetcart
Sweet Constructions: @sfcookies
Toasty Melts: @Toastymelts
Wholesome Bakery: @WholesomeBakery
Who’s Your Daddy Bacon Potato Chips: @BaconPotatoChip

Putting the “eat” in Seattle

I’m just back from the always beautiful Pacific Northwest. In addition to catching up with good friends, how exactly did I spend my time? Eating, of course! I stayed with my best friend, Tricia, and her boyfriend, Kyle, who have lived in Seattle for nearly two years. Knowing my love of good food and drink, they introduced me to some of their favorite food joints and watering holes. I also managed to stumble upon some fabulous food finds of my own.

Some highlights from my travels:

Wandering the city on Friday afternoon, I happened upon an outrageous and delicious street food find. Just a few months old, Maximus-Minimus is the newest brainchild of Kurt Beecher Dammeier, owner of Beecher’s Handmade Cheese at Pike Place Market.

A simple, yet delicious menu offers pulled pork or vegetarian (roasted onions, fennel, and barley) sandwiches. Sandwiches can be customized by choosing between two styles of sauce, maximus (spicy and savory: made with beer, a blend of six peppers, onions, and fruit juices) or minimus (sweet and tangy: made with tamarind, honey, and molasses.) Sides include two kinds of slaw, maximus (with a chipotle vinaigrette, radish, and cilantro,) minimus (honey mustard vinaigrette, cranberries, fennel, and mint,) or chips (a colorful selection of red beets, potatoes, carrots, green beans, and jalapenos.)

I opted for a maximus pork sandwich and slaw, washing it all down with a refreshing ginger lemonade. No joke, it was the best pulled pork sandwich I’ve had outside of North Carolina. Like the license plate on their custom-made, porcine-shaped catering truck says, that’s “Some Pig!”

Maximus pulled pork sandwich and coleslaw

Dining al fresco at Maximus-Minimus

Some Pig!

A good portion of Friday night was spent enjoying the tapas at Ocho in Ballard — a warmly intimate and vibrant setting that serves mouthwatering small bites, including sauteed padron peppers with sea salt and olive oil and drunken goat cheese croquettes. They also happen to serve a knock-out Dark and Stormy — made with Gosling’s Dark Rum, Aperol, lime, fresh ginger juice, and ginger beer. Refreshing and light, the fresh ginger juice gave the cocktail a vibrant kick.

After tapas, we wandered across the street to Cupcake Royale for dessert. It was near closing and sadly, they were sold out of their seasonal huckleberry cupcakes. We were, however, able to score the last cupcakes of the day – moist, sweet, and satisfying carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Saturday afternoon included a jaunt to Molly Moon’s Ice Cream in Wallingford. If you enjoy San Francisco’s Bi-Rite Creamery, Molly Moon’s is a must the next time you’re in Seattle. While I was tempted to order their versions of salted caramel and honey-lavender ice creams, the siren song of their blackberry-sage and huckleberry ice creams proved too tempting to resist. Scooped into a freshly made waffle cone, I descended into pure bliss.

In case you’re wondering, Molly Moon really is the owner’s name. Her parents were hippies.

Molly Moon's Ice Cream

The menu at Molly Moon's

Huckleberry and Blackberry-Sage Ice Creams

On Sunday, we strolled through the Ballard Farmers Market, gathering ingredients for an impromptu dinner party and sampling delicious local cheeses, apple ciders, and produce. We even had a random celebrity siting of Dave Matthews.

Apple ciders at the Ballard Farmers Market

Before heading home to cook, we dropped by King’s Hardware for some mid-afternoon refreshment. Bloody Marys are a passion of mine and I’m always on the look out for exceptional renditions of this brunch-time cocktail classic. I’ve always felt that Zeitgeist, here in San Francisco, has the best, but King’s may have them beat by a narrow margin. What puts King’s bloody Mary over the top is that it’s deliciously tomatoey and peppery, and comes with a veritable salad bar of garnishes — celery, olives, pickled green beans, carrots, and asparagus. They also serve another old-school favorite of mine, deviled eggs, as a bar bite. If you’re ever in the Ballard neighborhood, stop by and give both a try.

Bloody Mary & deviled eggs at King's Hardware in Ballard

Sunday night’s dinner party was a convivial gathering of old and new friends. Kyle and I took over the cooking duties for the evening’s menu of oven-roasted cedar plank salmon, sauteed mushrooms and zucchini tossed with fresh basil, macaroni and cheese (Kyle’s mom’s recipe,) a mixed green salad with lemon cucumber and goat cheese (courtesy of Tricia & Kyle’s lovely friends Dani and Tasha,) and a blackberry-apple crisp with vanilla ice cream (made by yours truly.) Good food, good wine, and good friends. All in all, a perfect evening.

Good food, good wine, and good friends

Thanks for showing me a great time, Seattle. You certainly know how to vie for this gal’s affections.

Maximus-Minimus - most often located at the southeast corner of 2nd Avenue and Pike Street. Follow them on Twitter @somepigseattle to find out when they’re on the move.

Ocho – 2325 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA  98107

Cupcake Royale (Ballard location) – 2052 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA  98107

Molly Moon’s Ice Cream (Wallingford location) – 1622 1/2 N 45th Street, Seattle, WA  98103

Ballard Farmers Market – 5330 Ballard Avenue NW, Seattle, WA  98107

King’s Hardware – 5225 Ballard Avenue NW, Seattle, WA 98107

Michelle Obama: First Lady and Food Activist

Check out this post from Obama Foodorama about Michelle Obama’s speech at last week’s grand opening of the White House Farmers Market.

Yet another reason why our First Lady is awesome.

Bread

Inspired by the do-it-yourself spirit that’s possessing kitchens across the country, not to mention looking for ways to save a penny or two, I’ve decided to stop buying bread and bake my own.

I must admit that this challenge, while exciting, is a little intimidating. I may be a professionally trained cook, comfortable with braises, sauces, and sautes, but baking is an entirely different animal. Even if you follow a recipe to the letter, bread dough can still be a temperamental beast. (In culinary school, I once overheard my Intro to Baking and Pastry instructor cooing over a mound of dough that was being particularly difficult, attempting to coax it into doing her bidding.)

My main excuse for not making bread at home was that there was simply no need — the Bay Area has an abundance of talented professional bread makers producing outstanding loaves. Excuses aside, the time has come to conquer my fear of taming the beast. My game plan is to research and make a variety of recipes to see what works best for my kitchen, patience level, schedule, etc. So far I’ve tried two recipes – a basic French bread and a whole wheat Irish soda bread.

Both recipes are straightforward. Between the two, the Irish soda bread is easier and faster to make. (This makes sense considering it’s technically classified as a quick bread.) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a round, and bake. The French bread, while also fairly easy to make, requires a good deal more time to allow the dough to rise properly. It also calls for special equipment — French bread pans. I don’t happen to own French bread pans, but I didn’t let the lack of equipment stop me. I decided to just shape the dough into free-form rounds and bake them on a pizza stone.

The breads that I’ve baked so far may not be as refined as Acme Bakery’s, but the fact that I can enjoy a slice of freshly-baked bread, hot-out-of-the-oven, schmeared with butter and homemade jam, more than makes up for any flaws the loaves might have. My hope is that with each loaf that I bake, I’ll improve my skills, gain more confidence, attempt increasingly challenging recipes, and eventually produce some really awesome breads.

There's nothing quite like fresh, homemade bread

p.s.

Just in case you’re wondering how much money I might actually save by baking my own bread, here’s a rough estimate:

Acme Wheat Bread

• 1 loaf = $4
• $4 x 2 (approx. # of loaves our household uses in a week) = $8
• $8 x 4 (# of weeks in a month) = $32
• $32 x 12 (# of months in a year) = $384
• Total $ spent on Acme bread each year: $384

Homemade Bread (basic recipe)

• One 5-pound bag of flour = $4
• One 5-pound bag of flour contains approximately 20 cups of flour
• 20 cups divided by 4 (# of cups of flour it takes to make 2 loaves according to a basic recipe) = 5 recipes worth of flour per bag
• 5 recipes x 2 (# of loaves each basic recipe yields) = 10 loaves of bread
  
• $4 (cost of one 5-pound bag of flour) divided by 10 (# of loaves each bag of flour yields) = .40 cents of flour per loaf
• 3-pack of Active Dry Yeast = $2.19
• 3-pound box of Kosher Salt = $5 (Let’s just estimate, .01 cents of salt is used per recipe)
• Water = Free
• 1 loaf = $1.14 (.40 cents (flour)+ .73 cents (1 yeast packet) + .01 cents (kosher salt) + 0 cents (water))
• $1.14 x 2 (approx. # of loaves our household uses in a week) = $2.28
• $2.28 x 4 (# of weeks in a month) = $9.12
• $9.12 x 12 (# of months in a year) = $109.44
• Total spent on homemade bread each year: $109.44

So, by baking my own bread, I’m saving approximately $274.56 ($384-109.44) a year. While it’s not a huge amount, in this economy, every little bit helps.

A can-tastic Labor Day weekend

A handful of friends and I spent this past Labor Day weekend up to our elbows in fresh, locally-grown, organic fruits and veggies; hard at work canning and preserving the vibrant flavors of summer. At the first canning party, we made salsa, using sweet and juicy heirloom tomatoes, strawberry-raspberry jam, and nectarines preserved in a honey-ginger syrup.

Prep work for the salsa

Mixing up batches of salsa

Hot water bath

Finished jars of salsa

Washing strawberries for the jam

Cooking the strawberry-raspberry jam

Slices of nectarines and ginger

At the second party, we pickled green beans, yellow wax beans, and cucumbers. We also tackled over 100 pounds of San Marzano tomatoes — canning some whole and making the rest into sauce.

Green and yellow wax beans

Tomato madness

Jars of whole tomatoes

Cooking the sauce

12 hours and over 100 pounds of produce later...

While this may not be some people’s idea of a relaxing holiday weekend, I couldn’t have asked for a more fun and satisfying time. The days may have been long and the work repetitive, but the results were delicious and the fellowship of good friends and food lovers was a real treat.