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Archive for December, 2009

Interview with some cool chefs

The author interviews two chefs who run a restaurant in Oakland where very little is wasted.

Stop Feeding Your Garbage Can

I appreciate their feelings about the food (and the farmers!) and found a couple of tips:

“We use a lot of stuff that usually gets thrown away. For example, we make herb jam from the discarded lettuce leaves, fennel, the tougher outer parts of our greens, the lower leaves of an oregano plant; we cook them all down together and add garlic, cumin, and olives and make it into a paste: herb jam. We take quince, apple, and peach cores and peels, and we make our own infusions of brandy.”

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  • apples
  • eggs
  • cheddar cheese! (I’ve been itching to try this for a while.)
  • broccoli
  • celery!
  • oyster mushrooms
  • lettuce
  • herbs: dill, lemon balm, and catnip
  • spinach
  • blueberry oat mini-loaf (consumed immediately, so not pictured)

And here’s what I bought from the store. (more…)

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Sunday night

I’ve never been happy with my stir-fries. In the spring and fall, we get all these wonderful veggies that say, “Stir-fry me!” It seems like such a great way to use fresh vegetables. But mine always end up mushy or burned.

Finally, I had some success Sunday night. The first key was the Annie Chun’s Stir Fry Sauce I splurged on at Kroger. The second key was rereading the stir-fry section of How to Cook Everything more carefully.

It turns out that I wasn’t adding enough liquid as the veggies cooked.

So here’s what I started with Sunday evening:

green onions, broccoli florets, watermelon radish, and onions and garlic

I had planned to have some shrimp, too, but I got forgot to defrost it. And we had a big lunch, so veggies were enough for supper.

Here’s how it turned out. I was very pleased, and we ate it all up.

Monday night

Since we skipped the shrimp Sunday night, I made scampi instead Monday. I started with “The Simplest and Best Shrimp” recipe from How to Cook Everything. It calls for warming the olive oil over low heat before slowing cooking the garlic. It takes so long to warm the olive oil! But at least I was prepared this time and brought a book to the kitchen. The wait was worth it.

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I love fall food. Lettuce, onions, and mushrooms! Oh, my! (more…)

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Thanksgiving was great!

My mom bought a turkey from Nancy and Jacque at Red Hott Tomatoes, and it was sooo good!  I’ve always preferred dark meat, but this white meat was dreamy. All soft and melty and not a bit dry.

Our  contributions to Thanksgiving were sweet potato pie and the butternut squash arugula salad that Natalie recommended. (more…)

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