Summer on a plate

My fabulous sister went home to PA last week and brought me back five dozen ears of sweet corn, as they're still in season up there. There's just something about PA sweet corn that makes it superior to NC corn - there might be something about the soil, or temperature, but it's also possible that nostalgia may play a big part for me. Sal promptly boiled a couple of ears, while I fried us up some green Mortgage Lifters from the back yard. The result was heavenly.

Here's how we fry our tomatoes - you can also just be lazy and dip them in cornmeal before frying and call it a day:

Slice green tomatoes into about 1/4 inch thick slices.
Salt and pepper each slice, then dip in:
1. Milk
2. Flour
3. Beaten egg
4. Cornmeal with some spices mixed in

Drop the slices in a deep fryer if you're blessed with such a contraption, or just put about a 1/2 inch of oil in a large saute pan and fry until browned on each side.

Full disclosure: I am from the North. I had never even heard of Fried Green Tomatoes until the book/movie. If your grandma has a much better recipe that you grew up on, let me know!

California dreamin

After writing in my last post about the Green Goddess dressing at Chez Panisse, I realized that I never wrote about Chez Panisse. What a travesty. I've got a couple of minutes to spare, so let's take a walk down Memory Lane, shall we?
I'm sure I have mentioned before that Sal and I lived in the SF Bay Area for 5 years before moving here to Wilmington. We've been back only once since then, so decided to go for Spring Break this year. (Bless the career of Education and it's forced vacations). Here are some of the highlights.

We stayed with a friend who lives on a 44 ft boat instead of a house - because you may have heard that housing is ridiculously expensive there. Hence our move to Wilmington. Anyway, staying on the boat was such a cool experience - getting up in the morning to see the sun rise over the Alameda estuary (thank you, jet lag), falling asleep to the slight rolling of the boat, and having a glass of wine on deck while watching the other sailboats glide across the water. Beats the Hilton.

We saw a lot of old friends and visited some our favorite places from our past life. Wondered more than once why on earth we left such a spectacular place. We also spiced it up by doing a couple of things we hadn't done when we lived there - one of those being dinner at Chez Panisse. If you don't know anything about Alice Waters and her world famous restaurant, please check it out and prepare to drool. She is one of the pioneers of local and seasonal eating, and has made a career of doing it with simplicity and elegance.

We made reservations a month before for the upstairs Cafe. We chose the Cafe over the downstairs prix fixe menu. Since the menu is newly created each week, it's impossible to know what you will be eating a month ahead of time when you make the reservations. I am way too picky an eater to find out that there is squid or some other atrocity on the menu at the last minute, especially at $65 - 85 per person. So - the Cafe it was.
I had:

A gorgeous Butter Lettuce salad with yellow and red beets and the aforementioned to-die-for Green Goddess dressing.
Followed by Rosemary Free Range Chicken with asparagus and fingerling potatoes
Rhubarb Tart with Kumquat ice cream for dessert.

The menu at Chez Panisse mentions all of the local farms who provided the ingredients, as in this week's offering of "Baked Andante Dairy goat cheese with garden lettuces" - sounds delish. I was tempted to take photos of our meals while I was there, but thankfully resisted the urge.

The other new thing we did was to spend two days in wine country instead of our usual one. We used to go up about every 3 months, or whenever anyone came to visit. Normally we'd just drive the hour and half up there, drink ourselves silly, sober up at V. Sattui with some delicious picnic food, and head back home. This time we stayed in Calistoga after all the tasting, sobered up at a great little bed and breakfast called Craftsman Inn (with an emphasis on the breakfast - yum!) and headed back down through Sonoma the next day. We found a couple of great new wineries, and visited some of our favorites. Needless to say, we came home with a case of CA wines. Our plan is to return once we drink through them all.

On the road again.

The month of February is a busy one for us. As you know, I was in Florida last week - Friday we're going to Charleston, and this past weekend we visited the Outer Banks. We were really fortunate to have received a generous gift of a free weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn at Kitty Hawk. We love the Outer Banks, and hadn't been up that way for over 9 years (a travesty!), so it was a great getaway.

As usual, we tried to get the local flavor when looking for somewhere to eat. Last time we were there, Sal and I had to search hard to find somewhere to eat during the off-season. On this trip we could have eaten at any one of the fast food places that have unfortunately popped up around town, but of course, we have more sense in our heads than that. We opted for the RunDown Cafe the first night, a cool little place within walking distance of our hotel. Both of us opted for the mahi, which was delish.

The next evening we decided to try the Outer Banks Brewing Station, which had the obvious draw of locally brewed beer. I'm telling you, if the Mack-Daddy Stout wasn't $19 for a growler, I would have brought home a kegful. Sal tried the Compass Rose ‘Secret-Spiced’ Ale. I immediately identified the secret spice, which was confirmed by our waitress, but I won't reveal it here in case you want to solve the mystery on your own. Email me if you're curious.

Okay, so fabulous dinners abounded, but the best meal of all had to have been the breakfast we got from Duck Donuts. Holy goodness. Right across the street from the Hilton is this little, unassuming place that serves made-to-order hot cake donuts that you can have dipped in the icing and coating of your choice. Oh my lordy, you have no idea. I'm actually not a huge donut fan in general, but I could probably eat these every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. I tried to just order one, but the super cool woman who runs the place, Paulique, gave me two (but only charged me for one) because they were "small." Total price: $3.08.

Sal mixed it up by choosing a strawberry icing/chocolate sprinkle combo as well as a chocolate icing/rainbow sprinkles one. I kept it simple and went for a double dose of the chocolate/coconut. You know how I love the coconut. We took them back to our room and ate them on our oceanfront balcony with a cup of coffee. Seriously? These donuts were beyond believable: warm, gooey, sweet and perfect. Mmmmm. We may plan a trip back just to see Paulique.

Local and tropical

This past weekend I went to visit my family in Florida. In addition to spending a much-needed relaxing weekend with some of the people I love most in the world, I also got to snag some of the fruits and veggies that were in season down there. My mom and grandmother and I headed into St. Petersburg for the Saturday Morning Market at the bright and early hour of 10:30. I love sleeping in. The market is always a fun conglomeration of yummy smells, delicious looking produce and odd folks. Not to mention cute dogs.

Anyway, a lot of the produce turned out to be from far, far away, but there was a sampling of local goods. I went straight for the tomatoes; choosing a large, deep red guy destined for a tomato sandwich, and a mixed bag of cherry and grape varieties.

My mom picked up some peppers and heavenly smelling strawberries, while my grammy chose a pineapple that lived up to the sign that boasted it was Super, Super, Super Sweet! Grown in Chile, or somewhere thereabouts, but definitely worth a sample.

The most exciting (and, it turns out, aggravating) find of the day was a local coconut. Say that 5 times fast. We somehow managed not to gorge ourselves on all the delicious baked goods and fudgy things the market had to offer, and headed home to make some lunch from our purchases.

I ended up flying back with a suitcase packed with tomatoes and a coconut, plus a carryon bag of oranges and tangerines. The fruit was a gift from my mom’s friend Nilima, who scaled the trees in her yard to provide me with some real Florida citrus. I do declare that it was the juiciest, most delicious fruit I have ever tasted. My mama made me a fresh squeezed tangerine/orange juice for breakfast on Sunday, and it was so good I could have drank a gallon. Thanks, mom and Nilima!

The coconut ordeal

I loooooove fresh coconut, flaked coconut, and pretty much anything coconutty. So finding this locally grown coconut at the Saturday Morning Market was like hitting the jackpot for me. The coconut proprietor offered to husk it and put a hole in the top so I could drink the coconut milk, but I had bigger plans for it, so declined. Somehow there was a miscommunication and I ended up taking it home unhusked as well. I figured I would get it to my mom’s house, husk it, and take home the inner nut in my luggage. Weeeeellll, easier said than done.

It took three of my loving, patient and skilled family members to crack that coconut. An internet search on how to husk a coconut turned up some pretty hilarious videos, but nothing that was truly helpful. My mom took the first go by using a screwdriver and hammer. That made a pretty good crack, but didn’t really get through the fibers.

Then my uncle Steve took a saw to it, and created a pretty good incision all the way around. My grammy finished off the job by tearing away all the husk and leaving the cute little coconut inside. And, last, but not least, Sal cracked the nut when I brought it home. Grammy suggested maybe going for the Baker’s shredded coconut next time I get a hankering.


All of their hard work was truly appreciated though. I ate a bunch of fresh coconut pieces when I got home, put some in my oatmeal, and Sal shredded the rest for drying. I’m thinking coconut chicken, Polynesian salad, toasted coconut ice cream…ooh, the list is endless! My family is awesome.

State Fair

On Saturday, Sal and I made our annual trek up to Raleigh for the North Carolina State Fair. We decided to make this a tradition when we first moved here, and have looked forward to it every year since.

I looove the State Fair for lots of reasons, but mostly because its a giant, messy, conglomeration of all things great and disturbing about North Carolina. It's supposed to be a celebration of NC Agriculture, and really is, despite the amount of commercialized junk that prevails there. I love seeing the craft and food entries; cases and cases of displayed jam, pickles, preserves, and even cakes, diligently created by folks all over the state and submitted with the hopes of winning the $8 or so first prize. I also love the art show, the produce competitions, cow judging, flower and garden displays, and all of the animal shows.

For all of the wonderful opportunities at the fair, here are some things I pretty easily managed to restrain myself from doing:

• Buying an airbrushed sweatshirt with my own name on it
• Joining the military
• Eating a deep fried anything

Here are some things I couldn't help myself from:

• Eating a scoop of NC State creamery ice cream as big as my head
• Rubbing the heads of some cute animals even though the signs clearly said NO!
• Pocketing a banana at the hotel buffet

Another fun year celebrating the varied agriculture of NC, and all the weird people who enjoy it.

Seriously, could you resist these guys?

Up North again

I was away again this past weekend - one last hurrah before the year gets really crazy. I got to see some longtime friends, which was fabulous. Amidst all of the catching up, I managed to fit in some local eating, which as I've mentioned before, is really easy to do in Pennsylvania. Among this weekend's bounty was some (okay, a lot of) locally produced wine - including some made by the parents of a friend, tomatoes from my friend Laura's garden, some seriously delicious raspberries from a roadside stand, and of course, the must have - sweet corn. I also got to bring home some Amish-produced cow's milk cheddar cheese as a gift for Sal, which he used in the Zucchini Quiche recipe below. Oh, and also...I stocked up on a regional (though of course, not really local) delicacy that my sisters love: Tastykakes. Lord above those things are delicious and nostalgia inspiring. My great grandmother always had Butterscotch Krimpets on hand, and I pretty much ate a pack of Kandy Kakes every day in 7th and 8th grade. Charming, I know. Anyway, it was an excellent weekend overall - here are some photos to prove it.

Roadside produce stand


Some PA produce offerings


I couldn't resist this anatomically correct eggplant! :)


Laura's yummy tomatoes

The 'burgh

We're back settling in to NC, but I wanted to give a quick recap of our Pittsburgh visit:

On Saturday we went down to the Strip District, one of my favorite areas in the heart of Pittsburgh. The Strip is a glorious mish mash of cheap Steelers merchandise, handcrafted art, flowers, panhandlers, and tons of ethnic and local foods. First stop for us, as always, was to pick up a couple of Mung Bean pancakes from the stand outside Sam-Bok. Those guys are out there year round - in the winter you can warm your hands on the little foil packaging.

This summer was somehow the first time in all my years that I've gone to the Farmers' Market there. I was like a kid in a candy store - people definitely looked at me weird when I was like "OOOOH, Cauliflower!" at the first stand. There was just such a variety of produce that we either can't get in Wilmington or is out of season: dill, cauliflower, broccoli, apples, portabello mushrooms, shallots, and greenhouse-grown lemongrass of all things. Slow Food had a stand there and were giving out some tasty bite sized portions of a salmon panzanilla type salad, and a sausage something-or-other - honestly with all the little samples and tidbits you can pick up in a stroll through the Strip, there's really no reason to get lunch - but with all the delicious options, who could pass it up? We somehow resisted Primanti's and opted instead for pizza at Sunseri's Bella Notte. We finished our Strip visit by picking up 20 ears of perfect peak-season corn for $5.00 from the Amish farmers down by Wholeys.

From there we headed to a farm owned by Mike, a friend of my father-in-law. My F.I.L works for him during the winter, helping out in the greenhouses and whatnot, so Mike gives him produce and plants in the summer. He was generous enough to extend his free-picking offer to us, so we went off into the fields to stock up on eggplant, squash, zucchini and banana peppers. Mike sells most of his vegetables wholesale to grocery stores around Pittsburgh. I was actually extremely impressed with how much local produce you could get in the grocery stores around there - they put us to shame. We ended up getting 20 lbs. of local tomatoes from Kuhn's for .89/pound - are you kidding me? No way you're getting that deal at Harris Teeter.

When it was all said and done, we came home from Pennsylvania with shallots, apples, cauliflower, dill, corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, eggplant, banana peppers, peaches, blueberries, potatoes, jam and venison. It was fun to shop local somewhere other than Wilmington, and even better to be able to pick a lot of it ourselves.

Some photos from Pittsburgh:

The Strip District

The Farmers' Market


Slow Food Pittsburgh


Sal and Sal go picking


Mike's farm

One of the fruits of our labor

Dreaming of Creamery

We left Elimsport this morning with our car packed full of local veggies and our sights set on Pittsburgh. We left ourselves enough time to stop by Sal's alma mater, Penn State, to see how it's changed since he was there last. Honestly, my main goal was just to get to the Berkey Creamery on campus.

The Creamery has been a Penn State tradition since 1865. According to their website, approximately 4.5 million pounds of milk pass through the Creamery's stainless steel holding tanks each year . About half comes from a 225-cow herd at the University's Dairy Production Research Center, and the rest is purchased from an independent milk producer.

Either way, the result is heavenly. I had my first Creamery cone back in 4th grade on a field trip, and have taken the opportunity to devour one whenever I get the chance - which luckily for my waistline is only once every couple of years. Today's Wicked Caramel Sundae was just the ticket.

Photo: Sal enjoys his "Peach Paterno" cone.

The view

What you can see from my house in PA:

Family trees

Monday:
We had what I consider to be a perfect day today. I got up before the sun to have some coffee with my dad before he headed off to work, then got busy planning what to do with the next 15 hours or so.

First on the agenda was a little tour of my hometown. It takes all of about 5 minutes to drive the whole thing, but I wanted to see what was new - and whether we could find any Amish farmstands open. No luck on the fresh produce, but we did see an old friend working on his farm and stopped to chat for a couple of minutes.

From there we headed on to my grandparents house for some quality time, and picked up some juicy yellow plums at a farmstand on the way. Then to my cousin's new farmhouse just outside town - which was like hitting the local food jackpot. My cousin Mikey was able to purchase the circa 1930s house and 2 acres from his grandparents about a year ago, and he and his family got busy planting a couple gardens. They were generous enough to send us off loaded down with fruit and vegetables: blueberries off the wild trees behind the house, tomatoes, peaches from the farmer next door, onions and potatoes from their garden, some homemade blackberry jam, and most notably, canned venison from last hunting season, courtesy of my cousin Marc.

We left with our arms and hearts overflowing with the fruits of my family's kindness. Not a bad way to spend a day.

A couple of photos from Monday...

Energy efficient Amish clothesline

Farmstand plums

Michel picking blueberries

Homeward bound

I'm heading home for the first time in about three years. Home is a somewhat fluid term for me, since most of my family, myself included, leans slightly to the nomadic side. Home for me, though, is where I spent the first 18 years of my life - in a tiny town in north-central PA.

I've got several reasons for being northbound, and just as many for having stayed away so long. It wasn't until recently that I really began to appreciate the beauty and bounty of where I was raised. Growing up, I couldn't wait to escape - I had much bigger plans for my life, which in my teenage mind, could not possibly be achieved in the little podunk town to which I was confined.

In some ways I was right - and also incredibly wrong. In becoming a city girl, I've also realized what a country girl I am, and how much my little town had to offer in terms of community and agriculture. As I seek to simplify more and more aspects of my life, I find myself nostalgic for the little town I call home.

So, Elimsport, here I come. I'm looking forward to catching up.