Cocoa Beans.

Food is good.

Food is so good.

I recently went a day without.  

Longer than a day, even.  36 hours.  I was aiming for 48.

Why?  Lots of reasons.

We are in a precarious life-stage and fasting helps me think clearly.

I've had a recent resurgence of a health issue that makes certain delicious and beloved food groups off-limits (sugar, bread, dairy).  Makes me want to pout and throw the towel in on all food.

Mireille says it's good for you.

But in those last hours, somewhere between the headache and the full-body weakness I thought, 'Why am I doing this again?'

My kid drew a face in the nib bowl with his finger and said, 'look mom it's me made out of chocolate!'

So I had some potato chips.  And, like the return of the Nile flooding the farmland of Egypt, all my faculties were back again.

Food is good.  It just is.  All food is.  Vegetables and fats and meats and cheese and fruit, sweet, fresh fruit.  Just get the best quality you can and trust your body.

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

I am experimenting with bean-to-bar chocolate now.  It's quite a process.  The beans need to be fermented, roasted, hulled, cracked (that's where these pictures are at), and processed.  Squished down and their fat/juice squeezed out of them (delicious cocoa butter), then added back until you get the flavor and texture you want.

I think I'm going to like mine rough.

More on this project to come.  It will be good news, the remainder of my quickly evaporating, fast-induced intuition is telling me so.

Ingredient of the Week: Pie*

There are two old ladies that live in my head.

They wear aprons, dispense wisdom, and cluck at me when I'm going out drenched in perfume like a streetwalker.

They are helpful ladies.  When my son was young and I had no idea what was going on, they reassured me that he was normal and I was normal and everything was normal, and women have been having babies since the dawn of time, so what makes you so special? 

Followed up by some affectionate hand pats.

But they also disapprove of my housekeeping, think I go too easy on my kid, and definitely frown on my pie.

Why?

Well, I don't make pretty pies.

Have you ever seen a pretty pie?  One those old ladies used to do?  Making a pie to these ladies was like making a sandwich.  And damned if their crust wasn't perfectly crimped.  Uncrimped crust would not do.

Like letting your husband go to work with a dark stain around his collar.  Slatternly.

Well, I don't make very pretty pies.  No cute cut-outs, no latticing.  Hardly even any crimping.

But I'll tell you this, bloggy friends and imaginary old ladies:  I make a tasty pie.

And it is that time of year.  Blueberry.  Raspberry.  Plum.  Apple.

Pick 'em while they're ripe and full of sun, and stuff them in a crust.  Quick!

Soon it'll be all hazelnuts and sweet potatoes, and where will we be then?

I have a feeling the old ladies will help me through it.

They always do.

Here is my favorite crust.

What pies are you making this year?  Do you make pretty pies?  

*Okay so pie isn't necessarily an ingredient.  Or is it? 

Ingredient of the Week: Tomatoes

 
I had big plans for tonight.

I wanted to write a love letter.

A love letter to Oregon.

I wanted to say something about the glistening fruits dropping off trees and bushes everywhere I go.

Persimmons, anyone?  Walnuts, apples, grapes, blackberries?  Don't leave home without a canvas bag.

I wanted to say something about the ocean in one direction, sending up billowing clouds every evening that turn pink and fluffy by the time they get to the Willamette Valley...

And towering Cascades in the opposite direction, those emerald peaks punctuated by startling, sky-high, snow-white volcanoes.

The time I saw a ruby red crawdad in the crystal clear black and green water of a mountain creek and thought it was a toy, until it shook its claw at me.

The ginormous, swirling, tornado mobs of swifts that sleep in the chimney of the local university for a few days only, every fall and spring.

The steam-punk accordion players at the Farmer's Market playing a Calliope version of Bad Romance.

Oregon is some good juju, y'all.  I moved here two years ago, and I'm totally in love.

But I don't have time for a love letter.  Maybe you should just come and visit.

Meanwhile, let's talk about tomatoes!  I didn't grow these, unfortunately, although I do have some purple ones out there that please me enormously.

Unusually colored fruits and veggies still do that for me.

What do you do with your late summer, early fall 'maters?  (Where I grew up they were called 'maters).  Tarts?  Soups?  Preserves?  Salsas? 

All of the above are acceptable.

Ingredient of the Week: Truffle Oil

 
So, when I come into contact with a delicious, rare, unique, or otherwise special ingredient I sometimes get a little stage fright.

I freeze up.

I've been known to let things go completely bad because I was too excited and nervous to figure out how to use them.

Quince, I'm looking in your direction.

This may look like ordinary grilled cheese

On a completely unrelated note, do you guys remember in the springtime when I bought those black truffles at the farmer's market?

...

It wasn't the first time I'd bought truffles.  There is a fantastic mushroom man who sells all kinds of fungal delights at the local farmer's market.  Having been raised in a place where hardly any mushrooms grow at all (great for your feet, bad for your salads), it blew my mind to have a person actually selling fresh truffles.

In the market.  To normies.  He didn't even ask for ID.

But it hides a delicious secret...

But when I bought some, I had my freezing up syndrome, and they went completely bad before I ever figured out something good enough to do with them.  They went from world's greatest ingredient to mini botulism bombs, and I just looked on, slack-jawed.

But good news, everyone!  This time I was smart enough to ask the mushroom man, who I could only assume was an expert, just what I should do to help those pungent, wrinkled babies reach their potential.

His answer?

Truffle oil.  And truffle butter.  You want to extend your truffles' shelf life?  You want to spread that delicious flavor through as many dishes as possible?  Truffle oil and butter.

It's insanely simple.  Just lock your truffles into an airtight container with however much butter you want flavored and however much oil.  Leave overnight.  Ta da!

I cut the truffles in half first, to really release that truffly goodness.

Once you have truffle fats, you can use them in anything that calls for butter or oil.  I put mine in pesto.  I spread it over grilled cheese (let me tell you that was some crazy delicious).

Or you can just go to your local bakery, get a fat, crusty loaf of sourdough, and slice it thickly.  Add a splash of balsamic and dunk, dunk, dunk.

This I recommend most highly.

Ingredient of the week: Berreeez

 Guys!  Guys.  Guise.

Did you see the news?

Don't watch it!  Oh wait, you already did.

Quick turn it off!

Now shut your eyes and think about your childhood dog.

Your grandma's kitchen.

Your wedding day (real or imagined).

This is something that I just...can't.  Can you?

(I hope not.)

Don't obsess.

Don't try to grasp it.

Above all, don't try to understand why.  Because you can't.  And you shouldn't.

Say a prayer for people that are hurting.

Think of something nice to do for someone you know.

Yes, that is a walla walla onion as big as a baby's head.

Find someone's hand to hold, and have a nice weekend.

The Best Ingredients of All

And lo, there were ten ingredients that were most precious above all things.

Chocolate was given unto them.

And red pepper chili flakes also, and there was much rejoicing.

Lemons and limes, and the responsibility to know the difference.

(Limes are better.  Lemon lovers, you've been duped.)

And behold the tastiest of all, avocado, was presented unto them, to be wed with its brethren, lime and salt.

And eaten atop tortilla-ified corn, a close runner-up.

There was garlic, brown sugar, and bone broth.

Pasilla chili powder, superior to its lowly brother, the plain kind. 

These gifts were given unto them, to be combined in every thinkable way and to be used with thanksgiving (and on Thanksgiving).

And there was much rejoicing.

Ingredient of the Week: Rainbow Chard

It's here.

I see, I see, I spy with my little eye...

A blue sky with distant, penciled-in clouds.

A row of ducklings all a-trundle.

A huddle on the lawn of shirtless frat boys, dangling a love-song played on a guitar as bait.

Not for me, of course; I'm respectable, married, and babied now.  I'd get an 'afternoon, ma'am, can I help you with your groceries' before a 'hey baby' from those fellas.

And that suits me just fine.

I see rows and rows at the supermarket of shiny, precious things. 

Peaches and nectarines.  Cherries and apricots.  Rhubarb and asparagus.

And greens, greens, glorious greens, with stems colored like fish scales.

I'll cook them up like my daddy taught me, sauteed in water til they go limp.  Then sprinkled with vinegar and salt.

Simple.  It's time for simple meals.  They don't need much dressing up, because there's so little you can do to improve them.

Summertime.

Just enjoy it.

Ingredient of the Week: Sweet Limes

I went to the fancy store today to get some fancy food.

Namely, Meyer lemons.

Alas nay!  Meyer lemons were not to be found.

But there were...sweet limes.

Whaaaaat is a sweet lime, you ask?

I 'unno.

Gonna eat some and find out!

I cut one open, as you can see, and licked it.

It was sweet!

Tomorrow I'm going to make an ade of some sort out of them, or maybe just a juice if they're so sweet they don't require ade-ing.

Only experimentation of the highest scientific order can tell us.

Have you had these mysterious little citrus before?  Did they blow your mind?  Do they make a fine ade?  Tell me what you know!

Ingredient of the Week: Nori

Ugh, better hurry tonight folks.

I've got a crying baby in the other room, and a frazzled husband doing his best to hold the fort until I come in.

I just wanted to tell you about seaweed, though.

Have you had it?

It's green.  And healthy.  And salty (at least this kind is...the nice man at the Asian market directed me which kind was good for direct snacking [as opposed to, you know, sushi rolling or some such], but you can buy it unseasoned too).

I think, if I can pull this off, it's going to be my new chips.  It's snacky and crunchy and really scratches that itch for salt.

It's also good crumbled up and sprinkled on an avocado salad I'm going to show you soon...SOON!

But for now, well, I'd better go attend to mah precious child.

Tell me what you think about seaweed!

Ingredient of the Week? Red Pepper Flakes?

I am at a loss tonight, guys.  A loss.

I just don't have any original ingredients in my house right now.  The best I could come up with were red pepper flakes.

You know, those things they have at pizza restaurants that you sprinkle on your pizza?  Those.  Everyone knows what those are though.  Boring.

Yum, though.  They have actually replaced black pepper at my table.

But I don' t have any pictures of them.  Cause it's late and I'm tired, and it's night and the light is terrible.

I think I'm going to go watch this on netflix, due to my vague yet persistent interest in the non-scientific side of paleontology.  Like Ross from friends!



But do - do eat red pepper flakes.  They're the best.

Back on Tuesday with some baked-licious goodies.

Churs!

Ingredient of the Week: Molasses

Here 'tis!  Ingredient of the week.  Sweet, sticky, dark, bitter molasses.

What do you think?  Do you like it?

When I think of molasses, there is a voice that says it in my head like, "Mohhh lasss ehhhhssssssss..."  It's a very deep voice, probably with a southern twang.

And when I think of molasses, I think of southern food.  And guess what!  There's a reason for that.

Molasses is a byproduct of (white) sugar production.  When the sugar cane is refined, all the delicious, earthy, strong stuff is stripped off so the weak and dainty can be bleached and sold to the masses (no judgments here, I have a big bag of the white stuff too).

In the past though, that earthy stuff was sold for cheap.  Which means poor people bought it.

And poor people in the old South = sharecroppers, freed slaves, essentially the makers of all the best soul food.

I love the history of molasses, the way an oppressed people took something that had been cast off as worthless, and made it a treasure.  They saw its value when no one else did.

And did you know there are health benefits to molasses?

Sort of like when wheat is stripped of its bran, it loses a lot of its nutrition, so with sugar cane - and molasses is that nutritious part.

It's loaded with minerals like manganese, copper, and iron.  It is even high in calcium.

It can also help with a sick stomach.  Because of its stomach-soothing properties and high mineral count, it's often recommended to pregnant women.  It was one of the few things I could eat when I was so so so sick in those early days.

I love it in candy.

I love it in cookies.

I love it in and on pancakes.

How do you love it?

Ingredient of the Week: Rose Water

Flowers, my friends.

It always comes back to flowers.

They're like vegetables, but tastier.

They're like fruits, but prettier.

They are the superior food.

Have you had anything rose flavored before?  If you like how it smells in perfume/lotion, you'll like how it tastes too, I just bet.

Rose water is used primarily in Indian cooking, although I believe some farther eastern cultures use it too.

It's good in sweets, especially the yogurt drink, lassi.

I've put it into shortbread.

Lately my favorite is a very easy milkshake made with rice milk, about a teaspoon of rose water, a scoop of soy ice cream, and a pinch of cardamom.

You should try it.

So rose water.  What do you think?  Have you used it?  What do you think and/or recommend?  I'd love to find a savory use for it, if anyone has any suggestions.

p.s. the keen-eyed observer may notice that these are camellias in my photos, and not, actually, roses.  Fooled you!  Unless you noticed.  But you know.  Roses are out of season.  So let's just use our imaginations, m'kay?

Ingredient of the Week: Marshmallows

Happy Easter everyone!  I think Peeps may have inspired this week's ingredient of the week.

I'm not going so far as making my own this year, but tell me.

What do you think about marshmallows?

I love them.  All kinds.  Always have.

Peeps.  S'mores.  Rice Krispy Treats.  Sheep-y cupcakes with marshmallows for wool (saw that on a food blog this week...neat!).

Even the semi-nasty semi-delicious ice cream sauce.  I will choose it over chocolate, every time.  Unless there's butterscotch (I completely just wrote butterscrotch...I probably don't want that on my ice cream).

Have you ever had homemade marshmallows?  I've made them before with varying degrees of success.  I think it's too damp here in Oregon for them to dry out properly.  Mine stayed sticky, no matter how much I drenched them in corn starch and powdered sugar.  But they tasted great.  Also they're gluten-free!

If you can find fresh ones that are well done, they are so worth it.  Or make your own!  They aren't hard, at least if you live in a dry climate (or are a better chef than I...now now, no need to brag).

I'm also enjoying lately this roasted mallow milkshake, made with vanilla soy ice cream and rice milk (but the real stuff would do just fine), all blent up together with a couple of roasted marshmallows.  Inspired by Joy, of course.

How do you like your mallows?  What do you think of them, classy or trashy?  Chic or kiddie?  And what is your favorite mallow-based dish, if you have one?