Things Consumed

 

Wintry Weather!

The rain has come, and my garden is sighing happily. The big stories of the week here in the Bay Area related to the three FEET of snow which blanketed the Sierras, and the many parties of local hikers and climbers who were caught in the storm. Since the Sierras demand preparation for extreme weather in all seasons -- snow can fall in the high elevations at any time, and the nights are frigid and windy even in summer -- I was surprised at the fuss made over the hikers. Most of them were sensible: they had food, they stayed put when they realized the snow was too deep to navigate, and one group was brewing coffee when a rescue helicopter appeared.

It was probably even GOOD coffee.

But others were hiking in shorts and sneakers, which is silly even in July for overnight trips.

My sympathies go out to the families of the climbers visiting from abroad to climb El Capitan, who had no shelter and couldn't survive the exposure. They were one of many parties who risked climbing despite consistently adverse forecasts and the obvious seasonal norms for this time of year. It's a shame they had to pay so dearly for their misjudgment.

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Here in the rain, things are much more cozy for those of us with adequate shelter and warm cups of tea. My oh-so-late planted bean plants are providing gorgeous, tasty purple long beans now. I will be sure to plant many more of these in spring, and protect them with hot pepper spray galore. My lettuce bed is full and happy, even though the sun has dropped behind taller plants for much of the day. Since arugula has been dominating the bed, because it grows faster than the loose head lettuces is the 'mesclun mix' I plant, I am considering switching to some of Seeds of Change's other lovely lettuces, all of which look so leafy and lovely. If I can't choose, I may go with their lettuce heaven mix, which sounds delicious: "Formidana, Red iceberg, Winter Density, Rouge d'Hiver, Bronze Mignonette, Tom Thumb, Red Oak Leaf, Cosmo Savoy, and Ruben's Red Romaine." Doesn't that sound delightful? To be able to serve home-grown salads with hot soup all winter sounds ideal to me.

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I haven't been experimenting with many new recipes, though plentiful sweet potatoes in my potato bin mean more recipe testing in the near future. The only experiment of recent days has been a veganized version of this sweet potato gratin recipe from the BBC Food site. The sweet potatoes were wonderfully tender and flavorful, but even as a garlic lover I found the garlic to be too dominant. I might try it again with lightly fried or baked garlic, so that the potato flavor won't have to fight so hard to come through.

A search at the BBC food site for "sweet potato" leads to all sorts of promising recipes, from a simple sweet potato and spinach salad, to sweet potato ravioli with sage and rocket, to a reader contribution of Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Baby Spinach and Gorgonzola Sauce, which sounds a bit too rich for me.

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Speaking of gnocchi, this recipe for Potato Gnocchi with Ricotta Sauce at the BBC site sounds awfully good. And quick! It's been years since I made gnocchi. Did I ever tell you that story?

I found a gnocchi recipe years ago, when I had three roommates. We thought it would be a fun and fast project to do jointly, since there was a lot of labor involved. So we followed the recipe to the point when we had the mashed potato and flour dough, and started to form the gnocchi.

At this point, two of my roommates who had never made gnocchi before either insisted that the mashed potato dough was too soft, and that they wanted to double the amount of flour in the recipe. Which would obviously be too much flour. But they insisted.

I didn't want them to ruin everything, so we divided the dough in half. They added vast amounts of flour to their dough, until it resembled a firm (hard) breadstick dough. I left mine as the recipe said. We make our individual gnocchi, and followed the boiling and baking instructions that followed.

BUT in the last step, their gnocchi and mine were mixed together. If only I had prevented that!

At the end, we each received a plate of gnocchi. Half were rock hard and chewy. The other half were tender and smooth. But you never knew, before sticking your fork in, which you'd get.

It wasn't a fun dinner. I threw a lot of the chewy, hard gnocchi out.

I haven't spoken to those roommates in years. But not as a result of this! Honest!

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I'll be visiting my parents soon, and will do a report of what is in their cupboards and refrigerators. It should be entertaining. The last time I visited one of my parents vegetable crispers was entirely filled with one of those clear-beer beverages, which appalled me.

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I'll also ask my maternal grandmother what she eats. Her Polish culture has had an enormous influence on her habits. When I last visited her home (now in a rural and swampy area of Florida, very full of scary men with gun racks) more than 20 years ago, her diet consisted entirely of hot dogs (I assume Polish sausages just weren't available in her area at the time), potatoes, margarine, home made tangerine juice, bread, and beer. My sister and I had to plead with my mother to acquire other food during the visit... My grandfather does all the shopping, and doesn't tolerate much variety, so it will be interesting to see what she eats now. I know he buys bread and bananas if she demands it, but am not aware of much else.


My paternal grandfather mostly likes southern food. He fries everything in bacon fat, and eats an amazing number of dishes which contain some form of pork. Potato salad? Made with crumbled bacon. Green salad? Bacon bits. Potatoes? Fried in bacon fat. Pork sausage? Well, that makes its own oil. Greens? Fried in bacon fat. Green beans? Guess. Go ahead.

I will ask him what he eats, but I think that likely covers it.

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I have four distinct memories of foods associated with my mother's family. Back when I was a child and my father worked as a mechanic for a major airline, we would visit both sets of grandparents annually. One set lived in Ohio, the other in Connecticut. It was a long flight and a big deal, and I found the trips very exciting, even the parts where we would have to get up long before dawn to catch underbooked flights or sleep in uncomfortable seats at distant airports during long layovers.

One childhood food memory is of ordering clam chowder at a chain restaurant. My only prior experience with clam chowder had been that Three Stooges scene, with the still-living clams eating the croutons and ultimately attacking Larry. I was sorely disappointed in the real thing. I much preferred the fried fish part of dinner, because that was deep fried and came with tartar sauce, which I thought was the best part of the meal.

I also recall riding in a car with my relatives along the Connecticut Coast. There were little shacks along the road which sold fresh, fried fish. I tried something called "scrod," which is a young cod. It is breaded, deep fried, and served with -- yes! -- tartar sauce. Because it is so fresh, it doesn't really taste like anything, so the breading and tartar sauce dominated, which was fine with me. I enjoyed the entire experience: the fried food smells, the shack, the eating outside at a picnic table - very much. I did not want a T-shirt that said "I got scrod in Cape Cod." Though I got the joke. Sort of.

One of my aunts moved to San Diego for a while. During that visit, my mom took me to a Mexican food place called Roberto's. Roberto's made enormous and inexpensive burritos, and gave LOTS of little salsa containers to you on request. The salsa was so hot, it made us cry. But we LOVED it, and so we poured it on heavily. It was just so great.

Later, when I was in my early-to-mid teens, the same aunt moved back to Connecticut, and hosted a barbecue at her home for a visit. I was actively avoiding meat by then, and so dreaded the BBQ idea. When I arrived, the aunt told me not to worry: she knew I didn't eat meat. So she'd bought something special for me: a swordfish steak. Which is, of course, meat. :-( But it was early enough in my foray to vegetarianism that I was pretty sure I could digest it, and it looked like my only option aside from a paltry green salad, so I went for it. I can still remember what it tasted like! It was surprising dense, and had grill marks on it. I think I can safely say it was the only time I've ever had swordfish, and it was pretty good: mild, rich, grilled-tasting, tender-yet-dense. (I don't want to endorse swordfish-eating to anyone reading, because I don't believe it is sustainably caught. You might want to look that up at the Steinhart Aquarium's Seafood Guide.)

It's odd that I remember these food experiences from childhood visits, especially since I don't really recall much else in such detail. Perhaps this says something about me?
posted by Arlene (Beth)2:32 PM

Friday, October 22, 2004