Rhubarb Crumble

My first CSA share was pretty small, comprised of asparagus, green onions, and rhubarb. I had never tried rhubarb before, but my mother-in-law had coincidentally just given me a recipe from a magazine for rhubarb crumble. It was basically chopped rhubarb covered in A LOT of white sugar and a smidge of flour and then topped with a lot of brown sugar, butter, and flour that had been blended together and crumbled over the top. My rhubarb was green instead of the traditional red (the red is not an indicator of ripeness, just the most popular commercial breed of rhubarb) so the whole crumble turned out a kind of caramel color. The color was fitting because the brown sugar and the butter melted into the rhubarb and the whole dish tasted like tangy caramel. It was delicious, and definitely a good use of my first CSA share. The remaining ingredients went into an asparagus and prosciutto risotto that I will be reporting on soon.

The Garden Is Growing

I know we have now quite shaken off the final grasp of winter, but we are definitely getting close. About a month from now, many of us will be taking to our yards to start digging and planting in earnest--finally free of frost worries we can start putting our plants and seeds in the ground. In our house, this process began around mid-March.

My husband came home with a few packets of seeds, some seed starting soil (more peat than soil--a nice mix) and some small plastic trays. He spent the day planting the seeds for his tomato and pepper plants. We also have onion and pumpkin seeds that will go right into the ground in mid-May. Whenever Dan comes come with his seed envelopes and little bag of potting mix I always know that winter won't last too much longer--that we are going to make it through the cold and windy days and enjoy sunshine and Buffalo's incomparable summers soon.

I love watching the sprouts grow on our table before we can plant them outside. It always seems like such a time of hope. Every day they are different. At first, just black soil. Then maybe just the faintest hint of green breaking through the top of the soil. Before you know it, you come home from work one day and there is an explosion of green shoots all climbing toward the sun streaming in your kitchen window. All the plans made in the dark of winter when poring over the Burpee catalog and dreaming of a world turning green and then bursting with life are slowly starting to become reality. I am already looking forward to biting into that first sun-warmed tomato and slicing up that first pepper. This year will be particularly exciting in our house as my husband and I try to learn the lost arts of canning and preserving.

Easter = Polish Food & Springtime!

Every year for Easter, my husband and I host dinner for his family. We don't really celebrate Easter as either a religious or chocolate bunny-oriented holiday, but we do use it as an excuse to have a little feast of Polish food (makes sense, as my husband's family is Polish). My contributions are usually more traditional American fare--ham, some sort of cheesy potato dish, and green bean casserole (I'm from the Midwest--it's practically mandatory). My husband spends two days before Easter making pierogies from scratch--one batch using farmer's cheese as the filling, and one batch stuffed with sauerkraut. I abhor sauerkraut, but adore the cheese stuffing. I have also heard of pierogies stuffed with potatoes, onions, or prunes. Can't say the prune ones sound too appealing.

We serve the American stuff I make along with pierogies, polish sausage, lots of rye bread, and of course a butter lamb. I had never heard of butter lambs before I married a nice Polish boy, but now I can't imagine an Easter table without one. One of these days we may even get around to making our own butter lamb for the table instead of just buying the ones Wegman's sells (which are made by a vendor at the Broadway Market, which we know we should visit in person but the crowds are just too crazy this time of year).

I hope everyone has been enjoying the lovely weather the weekend, and celebrating this weekend's holidays if that is what you do. I think Spring is definitely on the way, and I love Easter as a way to welcome the new season. The world is starting to bloom again, and soon it will be time to start planting the summer garden.

Support Grows for Wilson Street Urban Farm

Check out the following blogs, opinion pieces, and articles for the latest on what is going on with the Stevens family's proposed urban farm on Wilson Street:

http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/634587.html

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/editorials/story/634582.html (This includes information on how you can reach out to City Hall and express your support for both the Wilson Street proposal and the chickens in the city proposal that Councilman Rivera is considering.)

http://www.fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/

http://buffalopundit.wnymedia.net/blogs/archives/8599

http://www.buffalorising.com/2009/04/urban-farm-vs-housing.html#SlideFrame_0

Also, if you are a Facebook user, you can join a group supporting Wilson Street Farm.

It's great to see all this buzz about urban farming in Buffalo. I hope it leads to a real discussion of how we can creatively reuse our vacant parcels of land.

City of Buffalo Turns Down Urban Farmers

Please see this article in today's Buffalo News about the recent decision made by the City of Buffalo to reject an application by a family wishing to purchase two acres of land near the Broadway Market to convert 27 vacant lots into a small farm. Two acres in an area that could be described as part of Buffalo's "food desert" no less.

Typical of Buffalo's current "leadership" they have turned down the farm proposal because they hope they'll be able to find someone else who wants to develop the land.

This blog has not been much of a political forum, and I don't intend to turn it into one, but I am going to digress from that for a brief moment because I am outraged. This decision is very typical of the short-sighted way the City of Buffalo is currently being run. Buffalo has approximately 3,200 ACRES of vacant land, many owned by the City itself and poorly kept. I do not understand what is so important about these two acres that they would turn down people with an actual PLAN for productive reuse in favor of potentially having another developer express interest in the future. Commissioner Brian Reilly reasons the decision out by saying that Habitat for Humanity may be interested in building on some of those vacant lots, as if there are no other vacant lots or properties even within that immediate vicinity that would be suitable.

The City of Buffalo seems to be waiting for some goose to lay a golden egg in that neighborhood. A plan for productive use that is workable now should trump any notion of luring some new enterprise (one perceived as likely more profitable and prestigious no doubt). The City of Buffalo doesn't exactly have a set of laurels to rest on in terms of promoting large scale development within City limits so lets turn some of our excess land over to entrepreneurs who have a chance of making this city better street by street and block by block. That is how we will achieve real progress and finally deal with the city's immense vacancy crisis.

People with such a narrow view of what is possible for this city have no business running Buffalo's government.

(Please note that this post reflects my views, and my views alone--I am not speaking on behalf of any of the other four contributors to this blog in any way.)

Get Out, Chickens!

The Buffalo News has a story this morning about a woman on Rhode Island Street who received a visit from animal control asking her to remove her illegal chickens from her backyard. As anyone who has spent a decent amount of time on Buffalo's West Side knows, this is far from the only "illegal" chicken coop in the city. Perhaps this will be the impetus for the City to go back and reconsider the 2004 ordinance that created poultry prohibition. You can read the story here.

Tag Team Spaghetti

My husband makes amazing spaghetti sauce. It has been one of our standard household meals for almost as long as we've been married (9.5 years). I used to pride myself on making good spaghetti sauce, but he has spent years perfecting his and I just can't even try to compete with it (wouldn't want to). He also adds in delicious meatballs that at one point were probably the size of baseballs, but have shrunk a bit since we have become more health conscious. He's been using leaner beef, too.

So, last night was spaghetti night in the Glanowski household but this time we decided to make it a more cooperative effort. Dan started making the sauce around lunchtime and I was put in charge of making the spaghetti noodles from scratch. We had it timed perfectly so the pasta finished just as the sauce reached its simmering peak of perfection.

I have only newly started making pasta from scratch, and I love the process. It is like magic how a mound of flour and a few eggs can turn into ribbons of delicious noodles. It took me about two hours to make a pound of spaghetti noodles, but that is because I had to let the dough rest for an hour after kneading. I am thinking about giving homemade bread a try just because I think kneading is such a fun, stress-relieving activity. The pasta machine does most of the work for the second round of kneading and then making the pasta sheets thinner and thinner until they are just what you want. My pasta machine also has cutting attachments for both fettucine and spaghetti, and it worked beautifully. A few simple cranks of the handle and I had silky, fine heaps of spaghetti noodles. A quick bath in boiling water (less than half the time of dried pasta) and we ended up with smooth, fresh pasta for our sauce. There is such a difference between fresh and dried pasta--the fresh retains some essential softness even when al dente, and has a slightly different, starchier flavor. It is well worth the effort to make your own.

Our dinner was perfect--a delicious example of teamwork.

Flapjack Fun

Yesterday morning, the Growing Green program of the Massachusetts Avenue Project hosted a Flapjacks for the Farm fundraiser at Trinity Church on Delaware. I went around 11am for the second seating of breakfast, and it was a great time. The sausage was provided by Spar's, my favorite local source for sausages (located on Amherst Street, between the Wegman's and Grant Street) and the pancakes were cooked and served by the young adults who are participating in the Growing Green program. They had blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip, and original variety pancakes, as well as fruit and a variety of beverages. It was well-attended and the table I was sitting at (including Assemblyman Sam Hoyt--who also happens to be my boss--Michael Gainer of Buffalo ReUse, Kevin Connors and Aaron Bartley of PUSH Buffalo, and Kelly Ganczarz from the UB School of Urban Planning) had a lot of fun laughing and telling stories, but also talking about Buffalo's potential to really expand and promote urban agriculture. We also discovered that Earl Grey tea looks remarkably like maple syrup. Whoops.

They do great work in their community, and I encourage you to support them however you can. Here is a list of what Growing Green will be growing this year:

Basil, Beets, Roma Tomatoes, Onions, Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Jalapeno peppers, Pickling Cucumbers, Broccoli, Sweet Peppers, Chives, Thyme, Sage, Carrots, Zucchini, Radish, Dill, Spinach, Potatoes, Collards, Blueberries, Strawberries, AND MORE!

White Cow Dairy and Rene Russo at Wegmans

So, fellow Locavore blogger Ann and I went to an event this morning at the McKinley Wegmans today featuring Patrick, the farmer from White Cow Dairy, and Hollywood actress Rene Russo (Major League, The Thomas Crown Affair, etc). As we arrived we ran into Lisa Tucker of Edible Buffalo with whom I'd shared e-mails and a phone conversation, though we'd never met in person. We had a great conversation about some exciting local food things coming up (what I'm most excited about? maple weekend in March--check it out in the winter issue at http://www.ediblebuffalo.com).

Then Ann and I went over to the sampling area where Ms. Russo was greeting people and helping pass out samples of yogurt from White Cow. Apparently, she is a friend of Patrick, the farmer/owner of White Cow, and came out to Buffalo to help him promote the expanded sales of his yogurt at Wegmans. If you are a regular at the Bidwell-Elmwood Farmer's Market you have probably met Patrick before--a rangy, friendly guy who is very enthusiastic about his work at the dairy. Patrick's farm also produces maple syrup, though he is not the maple expert--he has an arrangement with his neighbors where they take on the maple syrup processing.

White Cow Dairy yogurt is delicious. Tangy, almost like Greek yogurt, and made in small batches in a variety of flavors. There is even a new flavor named in honor of President Obama. The yogurt is sold in glass containers, which helps keep the flavor fresher. The yogurt is sweetened with maple syrup from the farm.

Ann and I had the chance to talk with Rene Russo for a few minutes and she seemed truly delighted to be in Buffalo, despite the cold. She said it was a nice break from LA. A really pleasant and lovely woman, and nice to see her putting some star power behind a Buffalo-area product that she believes in.


Here are some pictures from this morning's event:

Patrick, farmer and yogurt genius

Rene Russo

Lisa Tucker and one of the interns from Edible Buffalo

CSA Commitment

Yes, two posts in one day. Trying to make up for my severe lack of posting lately.

Dan and I finally took the plunge. We bought a share in the Promised Land CSA, and I am excited about it. I am looking forward to a summer of trying new vegetables and experiencing firsthand how a CSA works. I think Whitney was a shareholder of Promised Land last year, and I do remember her saying it was a lot of produce for two people, so we may have to start learning our canning and preserving skills right away!! Dan is more nervous than I am about it--he thinks it is going to be a lot of work, especially for two people who have been relative veggie-phobes for so long (not that we don't like our veggies, just that we usually don't stray from a few reliable favorites). I look at it as an exciting food adventure--and it will help me meet my New Year's Resolution of trying one new fruit or vegetable each month (last month it was Forelle pears--okay but not great. This month I tried beets but I think I actually had them once before and they were not fresh so I don't think that counts.)

Grass Fed Beef

While shopping at Wegman's on Friday night I noticed that they now have a more prominent section devoted to organic, free range, and grass fed meats. I was planning to make an asparagus and beef stir fry on Friday night so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to finally try grass fed beef. Up until then, I had not been able to find it in too many places locally without going seriously out of my way (which I usually don't have time to do).

The stir fry recipe I used came from a great new cookbook--Bon Appetit magazine's Fast, Easy, Fresh Cookbook. Loads of simple recipes and the first large, mass-market cookbook I have seen that highlights local food, CSAs, and the importance of eating fresh/seasonally. The section on vegetables is even divided up by season. Basically, the recipe called for toasted sesame seeds, red onion, asparagus (frozen, as it isn't really available fresh this time of year--though it will be soon!!), and thin slices of sirloin in a hoisin sauce. Simple and delicious--probably took me about an hour to make from slicing everything to toasting the sesame seeds to making the brown rice on the side. Both my husband and I agree it was a hit. I only wish I'd taken a picture to post.

I had expected grass fed beef to taste significantly different from corn-fed. It seemed to me that the differences were more subtle, but also delightful. Perhaps it was also because I used sirloin, but the meat was much more tender and had more flavor than the corn fed, but in a subtle way. In an odd way, it actually seemed more like eating actual MEAT, if that makes sense. Dan and I eat a good amount of bison meat (bison tacos are amazing, as are burgers--though the meat is so lean and tender it takes a bit more work to turn them into patties) and I think the grass fed beef was closer to bison meat than to the more typical beef we are used to. It was expensive, but definitely worth it.

Does anyone know of a good local producer of grass fed beef and free range chicken that is easily available? I know there are a few suppliers in Chautauqua County, but are there any closer? Or any retail outlets that offer the locally grown?

Fresh Pasta is Easy and Delicious

As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a pasta machine as a Christmas gift. I have previously tried to make pasta from scratch on two different occasions. The first was when I was in high school and I took a home economics class on regional and international foods. The second attempt was several years ago when I made ravioli from scratch. In my high school class, I had a pasta machine to flatten and cut the dough, but the second time around I had nothing but patience and a marble rolling pin. Back in September one of my food resolutions was to make fresh pasta, and with the help of the right equipment I was able to produce some excellent fettucine.

Making fresh pasta is very easy. I took my noodle recipe from Patricia Wells' excellent cookbook Trattoria. You should be able to find a good fresh pasta recipe in any decent Italian cookbook or online, but Patricia Wells is my personal favorite. It is also the book I used for the sauce recipe, which was essentially crushed tomatoes (a great use for any that you may have canned over the summer) simmered with sauteed garlic and olive oil, and then finished with a pat of butter and freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. It took me about an hour and a half to make the whole dinner, though that includes an hour to let the dough rest (a good time to do the prep work for other dishes).

Pasta is essentially eggs and flour that are kneaded together until smooth. You let them rest for a little while and then you go to work with the pasta machine. The machine helps finish the kneading process in addition to creating the thin sheets that are then cut into noodles. The thin sheets feel soft like silk as they come through the pasta machine, and can then be put through the noodle attachments for fettucine or spaghetti. Some pasta machines have multiple attachments you can use, but you can use a pizza cutter if you want to make ravioli, lasagne, or farfalle. Some cookware stores even have little pasta cutters that look like a cross between pizza wheels and pinking shears.

Fresh pasta takes far less time to cook that dried pasta--between 3 to 5 minutes in boiling water. It has a wonderfully fresh taste that is particularly good with simple sauces.

The picture at the top of this post is my fresh pasta creation served with a skinless, boneless chicken thigh that was sauteed in olive oil with garlic and fresh snipped rosemary (yay for potted herbs).

Trying New Things

To everyone who recently celebrated Christmas or Hanukkah, I hope you had a wonderful celebration. I hosted Christmas dinner at my house for a large group of my in laws, and it was a wonderful day. I wanted to incorporate more local foods into my feast, but I did not plan enough in advance to make it happen. I did, however, try a few new recipes and make everything from scratch.

One of the main dishes was Swiss Chard and Italian Sausage Lasagna. I had never cooked with swiss chard before, and only tested it once before. I thought it looked rather Christmas-y all red and and green as it was. I was able to buy local italian sausage for the dish, which was the only really local component of the meal. It did turn out to be quite tasty. I made it on Christmas Eve and reheated it before the actual feast. It was my first successful attempt at making bechamel sauce (there were several previous disasters years ago that left me with a fear of making it--turns out all you really need is patience and a good whisk).

The second dish that was a bit of successful experimentation was Curried Cauliflower.

Here is the recipe, my own invention:

Curried Cauliflower

Serves 6

1 head of cauliflower, chopped into pieces roughly equal in size--about 1 inch

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp curry powder

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil.

2. Cut the cauliflower as directed and put it in a gallon size plastic bag.

3. Drizzle the oil and shake the curry powder over the cauliflower.

4. Seal the bag and shake it so the curry powder and oil cover each floret.

5. Spread the cauliflower in one layer on the cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through.

It's very fragrant, and even people who usually don't like cauliflower (including me!) will love it.

I also got a pasta maker for Christmas, so you can expect to see some fresh pasta recipes over the next few months. If you have any suggestions, they would be most welcome.

The Joy of Cookbooks

Even though I have not been much of a home cook for the last few years, I barely remember a time in my life when I didn't know how to cook. My brother is a professional chef, and both of my parents are great cooks always willing to experiment with new dishes and flavors. I remember canning corn, peas, beans, and tomatoes at my grandmother's house--and being foolish enough to think baking zucchini bread in 100-degree weather was a good idea. Some of my favorite memories from growing up are when we would have family crab rangoon night where all four of us would work together to make the filling, stuff the wontons, and fry up a mountain of crab rangoon for all of us to enjoy or when my Dad and I would work together making lasagna or manicotti for a special dinner.

Through all my growing-up years of cooking, our one go-to source (this being, of course, before the internet) was the Betty Crocker cookbook. I think we were using a version from the 1960s. I can still see the reddish orange cover. We had a few other cookbooks as well, but that was the one we always used. My aunt, a recreational baker and pastry chef, shared with us The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, which is a great resource for everything from cupcake to wedding cake, but is certainly not for the faint of heart!

Today, I have probably a dozen or so cookbooks. My grandmother, who suffered a stroke 8 years ago and can no longer cook as she used to, loves to send cookbooks to her relatives as gifts. I have also picked up a few that I just found appealing for whatever reason--including my own copy of The Cake Bible and Beranbaum's other amazing reference, The Pie and Pastry Bible. Since college, my husband and I have used the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook as our standard reference. My husband has also made some amazing dishes from The Tabasco Cookbook (though I do NOT recommend the beer omelette--disaster).

I do not think that you need a good cookbook, or even a recipe, to create a good meal. Sometimes the creativity and play of just trying to put something together based on ingredients on-hand can create unexpected and delicious results. However, when I have had a long day--or a long week--and want to decompress with some light reading, there is nothing like a cookbook. The best ones share stories as well as meals, and after a hectic day there is something satisfying about the structure and simplicity of recipes. Plus, recipes represent potential. Potential to make something great, to try something new, to push your own limits.

Much to my surprise, I have since learned that the older generations of women in my family--mom, aunt, great aunts, and grandmother--all share this same habit of reading cookbooks as much for recreation as for cooking assistance. I like the continuity of that, though of course it is possible I picked up the habit from all of them over the years without even realizing it.


Does anyone else enjoy reading cookbooks just for the fun of it? If so, what are some of your favorite cookbooks?

One of my new favorites is The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham.

Why New York?

I took a long weekend and drive down to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame with a couple of friends from Pennsylvania. It is about 280 miles from Buffalo, over to Syracuse, down to Binghamton, and then up a little bit toward Albany. What does this have to do with food?

Well, the bulk of the drive goes through rural New York. Particularly on I-88 from Binghamton to Cooperstown, the roadside is dotted with wide acres and picturesque farmhouses. Signs of previous farms are also scattered on hillsides in the form of falling barns and decrepit outbuildings. The Southern Tier has already had their first snow, and some of the structures were dusted with the new snow--it added to a very Halloween-creepy feeling in some areas.

Whenever I drive in rural areas like that I always wonder the same things: if you are not a farmer, where do you work to earn income; how do you do your shopping in the winter if there is a snowstorm and you are running low on the basics like milk; and, do the people who live in these small towns long for the hustle and bustle of city life the same way I often want to trade in my Cape Cod and conveniences for fields and a farmhouse? When I was in college in very rural Allegany County I knew that most non-farmers worked for the local colleges, many residents had big freezers and 4-wheel drive, and escaping to Wellsville or Hornell often filled big city needs. It was an idyllic town, where the colleges brought entertainment to campus and life was very rarely boring. But I wonder how life outside of college towns in rural areas is shaped.

Overall, I will say there was one stunning thing that struck me with every new mile I drove--New York is a beautiful state. I saw a lovely variety of rolling hills painted umber and russet with dots of green and swaths of brown, cows and horses roaming happily on gentle slopes, and many areas that were perfectly suited for picture postcards. I always thought my home state, Missouri, was filled with natural beauty (especially because of the Ozarks), but every time I travel in New York State I am struck anew by how much I love living here. It is often the same for me just driving around Buffalo.

What does this have to do with food? Not much (aside from seeing a good number of farms, anyway). However, it did remind me why thinking local is important to me. These are real farms and real lives in our own state that we are supporting every time we choose something that wasn't shipped here from Chile or California. For me, it makes me feel more connected with my fellow New Yorkers, and proud that I live in an area of such bounty. It just gives me one more reason to appreciate the small joys of where I live, and why I have chosen to call this place home.

Organic Gardening Donates to Growing Green

Last week, I attended a unique ribbon cutting in the City of Buffalo. The Massachusetts Avenue Project's Growing Green program received a 1000 gallon cistern/rain barrel from Organic Gardening magazine so they can water their urban farm with what would otherwise have gone down the drain and into the storm sewers. A great addition to a wonderful urban farm. A reception followed the ribbon cutting, and was held in the straw bale greenhouse that growing Green owns. A lovely greenhouse, and good catering from Trudy Stern of Tru-Teas, as well. I love going to Growing Green events because everyone there is always so welcoming. You really get the sense that the people there love what they do, and it is inspiring to be even a little part of that.

As an added bonus, the new Mobile Market was also being painted in front of the farm. It was great getting a peak at this exciting "farmer's market on wheels" that is going to make such a difference in bringing fresh produce to people, like residents of senior centers, who would not otherwise have easy access to fruits and vegetables.

The website for Organic Gardening is here. Their website has some helpful hints for gardeners sorted out by region, so it is worth a look if you have questions about how to get your garden ready for winter or plan for Spring.

I Do Not Like Turnips

On Friday I went on a bit of a cooking frenzy. I'd decided to make roast chicken with mashed turnips, and tarte tatin and have a few of my brothers-in-law over for dinner (they live two blocks away). At the last minute, I changed the tarte tatin to plain old apple pie because the tatin recipe I had looked like it would take hours that I did not have. I also had the popovers to make (pictured above).

First, the popovers. Very easy to make, and they were delicious hot from the oven. I used Marion Cunningham's recipe from The Breakfast Book which suggested adding a dollop of orange marmalade to the muffin tins before adding the popover batter. I think I overdid it a bit with the marmalade, and therefore didn't get as much height for the popovers as I'd hoped. They are not good reheated, so I would only make them again if I was having people over for brunch.

I planned Friday's dinner using the turnips I'd picked up in East Aurora on Wednesday, and I also had about 2 pounds of ginger gold apples. I added peas and rolls (both pre-packaged) just to round everything out. I'd forgotten how easy it is to roast a chicken. I rubbed ground rosemary and minced garlic under the skin before throwing it in the over. Two hours later and we had tender, moist chicken that was nicely seasoned.

The pie was also very easy to put together. I have my own recipe for delicious apple pie filling, which I will be sharing in a future post. I haven't made pie in probably 4-5 years, but once I got my pastry blender and shortening out, it all started coming together (the biggest "secret" is to use water that is absolutely ice cold for the flakiest crust so I fill a measuring cup half full and then drop an ice cube in).

The turnips I diced and boiled, then mashed with milk, butter, salt, pepper, and a few strips of crumbled bacon (figuring that bacon pretty much makes everything better). All of the men (two of my brothers in law and my husband) loved the turnips and went back for seconds. I thought they tasted terrible. A very earthy, almost bitter taste. Of course, everyone in my husband's family loves brussel sprouts but I can't even stand the smell of them. I would be willing to try them again roasted, since that cooking method can change the flavor.

I have really been enjoying trying out the different foods and recipes from my food resolutions. I have been working to incorporate local foods into what I make, but also to get back to why I liked cooking in the first place.

Croissant Manquement

I don't know how bakers do it. Making croissants takes forever (about 11 hours with all the rolling and rising and butter-kneading and such). In my case, I didn't even have any delightfully buttery, flaky pastries at the end as a reward.

I made a huge mistake right from the beginning, when I clearly did not follow (read?) the directions for proofing the yeast properly and I used tepid water instead of the tepid milk the recipe called for. I figured it might still work out okay, and I didn't have another yeast packet so I forged ahead anyway.

I mixed the dough as directed and put it in the fridge to rest. Kneaded the butter with some flour. Folded the dough around the butter like I was wrapping a letter. Went through the 4-part (2 hour) rolling and folding process to incorporate the butter. Everything looked pretty good and the dough was exactly as it should have been based on the recipe.

I finally, after dinner time, take the dough out to roll into the croissant triangles. That was the most fun part of the process. Then I put the uncooked croissants aside for one final rise. Close to ten pm, when they were supposed to be risen, I pulled the covering off and realized that they looked pretty much exactly the same as they had when I'd set them aside two hours before. They had most definitely not doubled in size.

However, figuring that cooking is an adventure, I put them in the oven following the cooking directions. Well, apparently cooking French pastry is like watching a 2-year old--you turn your back for a minute and anything can happen. One minute the kitchen was filled with the warm and yeasty smell of fresh bread. I walked to the other end of my small house to put something in my office, and my husband starts yelling from the kitchen, "It's burning!" Yep. It was that fast.

My husband also pointed out, rather accurately, that the burnt croissants looked like little crabs laid out on the pans with their fat bodies and the way the sides curved in. There was one with a top still golden so I pinched of a piece and it did taste pretty flaky and buttery. Almost too buttery, actually. But they definitely would have been edible if I hadn't scorched them to my pans.

At least I went through the whole process and learned what really goes into croissants. Gives me a new appreciation for bakers and pastry chefs everywhere. I used the recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible.

Resolutions I am still working on this week: popovers, tarte tatin, roast chicken, and those turnips I bought on Wednesday.

Resolution #1 - Clafoutis

So, ten days ago I posted a list of food resolutions. I thought I would tackle a few early on so I would feel more motivated moving forward. Today, Clafoutis. Tomorrow, Popovers.

Clafoutis is a French dessert that is essentially a custard with fruit that is baked and then served cold. It is definitely better cold, because then the custard is firmer and tastes more complete. I chose local peaches (Wegmans has had an outstanding selection of local peaches for weeks) as the fruit, and this was probably a miscalculation on my part. Traditionally, clafoutis is made with cherries, apricots, apples, or pears. As delicious as peaches are, clafoutis needs something with a more defined, possibly more tart, taste to balance out the delicate flavor of the custard.

I also mistakenly thought my springform pan would suffice as a tart pan. Disaster. The liquid that becomes custard once baked seeped out through the bottom of the pan, which created a huge, drippy mess in the oven before the burning smell made me run in from the living room. I had to think fast and grab a dish from the cabinet that had upright sides. This unfortunately meant that my layering of peach slices on the bottom and custard on top went completely awry.

Side tip: it makes it MUCH easier to clean drips up in the oven if you sprinkle a little salt on burny messes. Scrapes right out with a spatula when your oven is cold again.

As you can see from the picture, it did at least look pretty when it was done. Tasted okay, too, though I think I can do better. I used the clafoutis recipe in the French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis as my guideline, but clafoutis recipes can be found in practically any French cookbook.

September Resolutions

All of us at Buffalo Locavore have been a little light with our posting for the last few weeks because this happens to be the absolute busiest work time of the year for all five of us, even though we have a variety of different jobs. Posting should become more frequent in the next few weeks, and we will get back to more of our editorial goals including interviews with local farmers, restaurant reviews, and experimenting with new or different local foods. With the change in the seasons, the change in available foods should be interesting blog fodder as well.

For me, September has always been a month about new beginnings. This is possibly the product of 13 years of public school K-12 and 4 years of college, but even though I have not had to think about "back to school" in 10 years, whenever Labor Day hits it feels more to me like time to re-evaluate and set goals for the upcoming months. Perhaps part of this is that September begins colder nights and that first tickling feeling that we are about to embark on yet another winter's long hibernation. Let other people have their January 1 resolutions when the calendar changes, I am sticking with September.

In the spirit of this blog, I have made a handful of food resolutions that I plan to keep within the next six months. Hopefully, knowing that I have made this promise publicly and plan on reporting back to our faithful readers on my progress will really help me stick to it. I welcome all suggestions and tips, including referrals to local suppliers.

My food resolutions are :

1. to learn to make the following from scratch:

croissants
popovers
cannoli (even the shells)
marinara sauce (hopefully from our backyard tomatoes)
mozzarella cheese
clafoutis
tarte tatin
pumpkin pie (from our backyard pumpkins)
one Indian dish (exactly what is undecided)

2. to re-learn how to make:

pie crust
pasta
yeast bread
roast chicken

3. to try the following vegetables at least once:

rutabaga
parsnip
turnip
(Maybe all three at once using Whitney's root bake recipe from an earlier post?)
spaghetti squash

Keep checking in to see how far I get or if my resolutions fall by the wayside, as so many do. If you make any resolutions of your own, please share and we will cheer you on as you progress.

Happy September!