The Cooking Life: Is our Goose "Cooked," Michael Pollan?

Of course I can jump on Michael Pollan's "Cooked" bandwagon. I love this seat. I love the view. The hills rolling by, the breads, the delicious controversy and necessary banter. On his FB page was a blog post about Paying People to Cook at Home. Really?

And then last week there was a blog by Mark Bittman in the NY Times about the health benefits of teaching children to cook.

Please, pass a portion of health and control over our choices, YOUR choices -it's all very good, great-good reasons to get back to the kitchen. The argument over payment for housework? I mean, I think we are all getting a little distracted. I could launch into a large political discussion of the food chains, the huge conglomerates, the bureaucracy,  the Monsanto iceberg, and all. I read about the extraordinary science of orchestrating tastes to hook us - to sugar, salt and fat. Do you think these people care? Are they going to cook for you? They ARE. Don't let them near your mouth. It's sacred territory.

And here's what makes me angry. These points; important all - but still they are sidesteps.

To me - as much as cooking is about techniques and factories and farms and daily menus and health and having something delicious and organic and wholesome and local and green and fresh to eat, it's about the experience, the joy - the heat, the frenzy, the mess, the dishes, and the companionship around the table, and making memories.

After many years of writing and cooking and teaching I think this is what it boils down to.


Story.

What stories are you going to be able to tell if you're not in the kitchen having your journey?

Does the story of Stouffer's lasagna withdrawn from the microwave and set on the table have quite the resonance that you and your friends need? And when you push back from the table, will you sigh to remember this night? This night when the moon was full and the door of May was open - it was a long hard week of studying and working, and now after dinner, nothing has changed, but somehow it just feels better.

Make a memory bank rich with experiences, kitchen time, invest in it, to draw on later.

And even more vital -- build a memory bank your family/children will pass on. A legacy.

It's true. For me cooking is a blessing - cooking saved me. Taught me so many things. And I teach cooking to children and to teens and to adults. And have been for years. I see people who are afraid to touch a chicken, afraid to make a pie crust. What can happen I ask them. Let's do this. Lots of times these fears are born out of a lack of experience. Often the anxiety is over the unknown, and expectations of perfection. Whatever that is. We can't make a cake as good as the one on the cover of that Cake Bible Book. It took untold hours of orchestrating that photo. In short, that idea, that image - ideal, whatever you want to call it  - its not real! It's to sell THAT dream. In that regard I don't think Food TV and all the other channels and Media are doing us any favors. Just saying. There's a lot of talk, but not a lot of heat or chopping being heard at home.

I am lucky to know a handful of  generous folks who we regularly invite and who in turn invite us to their house. We cook. They cook. These people are not in the "business." Most of the time they are just hooked by the simple and old-fashioned notion to share around the table. They came from a background where this was important. Not because someone else told them it was, not because it was fashionable or the latest, status driven bucket list accomplishment. It was a refuge, a passion, and deliciously human to need other people. And to cook something simple, divine in itself. And share the potatoes of life. A little butter. What is really going on with you? I want to help you to make the simplest soup, unceremonious, but true. Flavor that sings.

Great stuff.

A story.

Your story.

Send it to me! I would love to hear it.

The Writing Life: Imagination's Child at Play and a Tart

Can your mind transport you to a place you are thinking about? Close your eyes and your childhood friend/yard/playground/bedroom/kitchen appears. Of course, what a silly question, that's child's play for your imagination.  

But can just the opposite be true? Can the power of the mind transform the place outside you to resemble the place within? 

If you know what I mean, then you understand. Or you might think I am being totally ridiculous - but perhaps there is something to this. 

My recent readings include Guy de Maupassant's story, La Horla, in which he slowly comes to the belief that he is being occupied by a spirit that drifted by him earlier in the week on a ship. The story doesn't have an altogether happy ending, but it IS fascinating. And also the spectacular work of Henry James "The Turn of the Screw," in which a small boy also is occupied by a spirit while none around him can lend a hand. Or understand. A happy ending? Not so much. 

These experiences coupled with an outing at a local cafe got me wondering if this has ever happened to you? Is it possible for your mind to transform Carrboro into just for an instant, Nice, the Nice in France? 

Has this ever happened to you? 

As a writer I often wander out to a cafe to be among people, and be a silent observer as it clarifies the world within. 

Among these ponderings at a café on a warmish day in Carrboro, I looked up as someone from the place within, the place I was writing about, rushed by.

He wore a pink shirt, straw hat, Peter Maile-style, stout and tan, walking quickly towards a woman, waiting. His white shoes met her golden sandals. He spoke in French. 

It was so dream-like - so out of place that I blinked. There is a French restaurant right down the street, Provence. Perhaps they were headed there soon. And so I continued writing, and at the same time, smiled and remembered another time. 

A time when I was crossing the Promenade des Anglais on a bright day in Nice as this jovial couple walked by.

Steps led down to the beach and a restaurant. Our first evening in Nice, France, would be so very Nice. Pretty and magical to dine on the beach. I shooed away the thoughts of a commonly held notion. Good view, lousy food. Could this be true in France? 

I gently pulled my husband's arm down as he was getting ready to rudely signal to someone that we were ready to be waited on, and now. 

"Don't be so... American..."

But no sooner than these words were out, did the French waiters buzz by, and our hair whoosh'ed in the Mediterranean night. They were in a hurry, and they did not stop to look or consider that we  were ready for a table. Not one  glance!

That night, our first night in Nice - it took time, over an hour to get a table, l’eau and menus. The boys were so tired, hungry.

Night was falling and all around us the candles were being lit, at other tables.

Another thirty minutes passed till finally ours was lit too, and gave us light to read the menus.

The boys laid their heads down for a moment, it was just a moment. But when they woke our dinner appeared.

"Bonjour, ca va?" I heard the voice as if nearby. 

I looked up. My friend, Aileen, stood at my table, she also had been part of the whole French experience. 

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Only a minute. Or two," she smiled.  

With nary any jet lag, I was back to the not-Nice world. 

And now to our just desserts.

almond and honey tart with pomegranate sauce

makes 1 (9) inch tart, or 1-8 servings (!)

almonds

1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped

semolina shortbread crust

1 tsp. vanilla bean paste

¼ cup sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup semolina flour

1 pinch salt

4 oz. (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

honey filling

¾ cup honey

4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

½ cup heavy cream

1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk

pomegranate sauce

2/3 cup pomegranate sauce

½ c sugar

¼ cup water

grated orange zest

2 tbs. orange juice

1 ½ tablespoons arrowroot

first chop almonds in food processor, set aside.

make shortbread crust:

combine vanilla paste, sugar, flours, and salt in food processor. add butter; pulse until mixture becomes a dough and comes together in large chunks. shape into round disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill 2 hours, or overnight.

(place crust in fridge and use already prepared crust)

preheat oven to 350°f. roll crust into 10-inch circle on lightly floured work surface. press into 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, trimming any excess. set tart pan on baking sheet, and bake 30 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant. cool.

  

make filling:

bring honey, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil in saucepan, whisking to dissolve sugar. remove from heat, and cool slightly. whisk together cream, egg, and egg yolk in bowl. whisk warm honey mixture into egg mixture.

spread almonds over crust in single layer so no crust is visible. carefully pour filling over almonds, making sure almonds stay in place and filling doesn’t overflow. bake 45 minutes, or until tart is golden brown and filling is set but slightly jiggles when tapped. cool.

make sauce.

mix sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and cook till desired consistency is reached.

serve tart with sauce.

The Cooking Life: The Garden and Stories at C’est si Bon!

           Is gardening like writing and revising? You prepare the soil, throw out some seeds, pray for rain..or sun as the case is now. Muse the muse. 

I like to weed. Like? Actually I must confess. Its a love. So early in the morning when the quiet is fierce and loud, you might find me kneeling in the basil, pulling up weeds and tossing them into the valley between the rows. Weeding helps me relax, and often I wonder if pulling out weeds, helps weed my thoughts ... 

When it was still quite cold we took down a white oak tree to let in more sun. Drilled logs and inserted plugs of shitake spores, brushed wax over the holes. 

As a change to past years, we actually didn't plant a lot of seeds in the garden this spring. Instead, I planted seeds for stories and books. 

I took a marvelous writing prompt class with Carol Henderson in Chapel Hill. 

Then I did the unthinkable and went to Hood River, Oregon for a BONI - Break Out Novel Intensive with Donald Maass (who it turns out had a crazy Aunt Sarah who got married in Reading, Pennsylvania) and a host of other cool professionals. 

Roman White, director

Jason Sitzes, editor

Brenda Windberg, editor

Lorin Oberweger, editor

I learned from all their critiques (I suspect a conspiracy) that what I thought I had in the story, wasn't there, and that what I have been doing, I should stop. Its part of the process, and there's a LOT of talk that novels should be presented as if a movie, but there is more resonance to have your MC react to what is it that they want, and that they are not getting, and never will. Well, haha. Not if I have any say in the matter. It goes against my grain to have things not work out, the cake fall, the bread get burned, etc.. make a dish unservable. But all that tension is needed when a novel is involved. Good lord with all the tension in my life in the last year you'd think that would be easy. Readers don't read because things are working out, they read to keep hope alive and to see, well, now what is she going to do?  How is it all possibly going to work?  

But when I walked through the garden gate, it turns out the garden has been busy too. I think when you're always busy taking care of things, its both a relief and a disappointment to see life go on without you. But I am getting used to it. And thankful!!!   

The rhubarb has a huge beautiful flower about to burst, and so I have no idea what to do with the possible rhubarb seeds. Anyone?  

 Black mission and brown turkey fig trees are coming back, our Arkansas black apple tree has gulp, apples, and the thornless blackberries have little green fruits.  

The green and plain and bronze fennel are all bulbing up after what, six years?
Marjoram, oregano, onion chives, purple sage, tarragon, horseradish wintered over and looking very strong!

Even the arugula planted from Italian seeds from seven years ago has a new plant.

We lost the French Sorrel. 

I've put in the blue and corrola gold potatoes that I brought back from Oregon. 

And both the garden and the stories are way due for more sun!

The Cooking Life: Let It Be Peeps, Charleston, and Vietnamese

With all this talk of Peeps I can't help but take this little jaunt down Memory Lane with some VIP Peeps. 

It involves the sticky business of marshmallows, Market Street Books and Maps, Charleston, and Vietnam. It's not easy to combine these ingredients successfully, so allow me to explain as best I can. 

I wrote the "Let it Be Peeps" Poem commemorating Peeps in 2007 for a contest at  Market Street Books and Maps in Southern Village. 

First  I must say that the title of the poem was a tribute to Trevor Dolan who was obsessed with the Beatles song, Let it Be. A few weeks before the Peeps Festival at MSB & M C'est si Bon! had taken a road trip to take part in the Children's Village at the Charleston Food and Wine Festival with Trevor and Chandler Knott, another intern, and Renee Burger (my assistant at the time) In addition to inviting folks to make a Summer Roll of their very own in the Children's Village we met Nathalie Dupree and Tyler Florence - getting a glimpse of the Food World on the Adult Side of the festival. 

Now it was no secret that Renee did not share the same affection for that Beatles' song  - and so it was a real moment, I guess you could say,  when as we walked into a restaurant on Isle of Palms for breakfast, Let It Be was playing loud and clear.

 Chandler Knott, Renee Ramage Burger, and Trevor Dolan

 Vietnamese Summer Roll Ingredients

Chandler Knott and Trevor Dolan Getting Ready To Roll

Dorette Snover, Chandler Knott, and Trevor Dolan

But leap a few weeks forward from Charleston and we're back to Market Street Books and Maps on Peep Day ~ in addition to the Poem Contest there was a Cooking Contest where folks brought in their most audacious and delicious Peeps Dishes. Along with Marilyn, the manger of Weaver Street Market in Southern Village, Sheila Neal of Neal's Deli in Carrboro and Sheri Castle, author of The New Southern Garden Cookbook, we dipped out forks into the various dishes to judge and taste.  

Umm, Peeps Barbecue

Sheri Castle, Sheila Neil, and Dorette Snover

After all that there also was a demo on making homemade marshmallows with assistant Cary Simpson  who worked  with Trevor occasionally at the shop and also with him as an intern at C'est si Bon! in those years.  

 Gently Lifting Out the Marshmallow..

Cary Simpson is an excellent Assistant!

Let It Be Peeps – Dedicated to the Crew at C’est si Bon!

The First Peeps Ever Served

Were Roasted with Sage

Stuffed Into Swans

In the Medieval Age

Since then, Peeps have a following

Their path is Legion

Specialties of Peeps

Depend on their Region

Organic peeps - far as the eye can see

Slow Peeps with Depth

From Terre Madre, Italy

Wolfgang Puck Peeps from the Province of Chinois

Charlie Trotter serves Roasted Quail Peeps - with Toasted Quinoa

.

Peeps studded with Pepper

Awashed with Chipotle

Then quickly Poached

And Stuffed in a Chayote

Tahini’ed and Gyroed,

Stuffed in a Peepsa

Flanked by Ricotta

From the Milk of a Sheepsa. 

Low Fat, low Carb

Peeps Smoked over Wood.

Why don’t Farmers Raise Peeps?

They certainly Should.

Meatball Peeps,

All Piled in a Heap

Goodness said the Peep-Chef

How can I Sleep?

Dried Peeps and Aged Ones,

Fresh never Frozen

Artisanal Peeps, Local Ones

Baked by the Dozen

Peep Latte’s and Latke’s

Lamb Peeps of Miss Bo

Flaxen Seed Peeps

Make it easy to Go

Peep Butter

Peep Fudge

Peep Artichoke Salad

Peeps however served,

Are, well ~ they are Valid.

Tenderloin Peeps that never are raw

Peeps pulled from the ground are easy to gnaw.

Sushi Peeps, if you can listen,

Would much rather Be Food 

Than Sea Food

That glistens.

Onioned and livered Peeps drive you to drink

Peep Sammies with tomatoes, eaten over the sink.

Multivitamin Peeps

with Gingko Bilboa

Polynesian Peeps

From the Island of Koa

Peeps on my Fish

Peeps on My Toast

Peeps of Falafel

From the Red Sea Coast.

Poi Peeps and Goil Peeps

Grilled up for the Crowd

Stuffed Burrito’s with Peeps

Are Exceedingly Loud.

Peepy Paneer

Very Spicy and Fried

Pared Parsnip Peeps Appeal

Never Has Died

High Fiber Peeps,

Tough to Chew

Peep Roast

And Pineapple Pepperoni Peepsa

Brunswick Peeps

Make quite the Stewpsa

Vegetarian Peeps

Made of Tofurky

Blazing Peeps Ride the Range

Eating Leathered Peep Jerky

Homemade Peeps

Pink, Yellow and Green

Peeps of Huge Portions

With a Caramel Sheen

Roquefort Peeps,

Blue and Quite Salty

Genetically Modified Peeps

With Ears that are Faulty

Said the She-Chef

Peeps are my business

While she pushed back her toque

To lock in Peeps’ juices, she never did poke.

Only One Thing is Better

Than Peeps of All Kinds

Is Peeps who Persist

And Have Open Minds.

homemade marshmallows from the c’est si bon! kitchen

cocoa cinnamon, coconut/mango, almond apricot, pepper/lime,

orange/anise, saffron/ginger

3 packages unflavored gelatin

½ cup water, or orange or lime juice or other flavored liquid

2 cups raw organic sugar
2/3 cup honey  

1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

flavorings - we’ve used anise seeds, candied ginger, saffron, cocoa, crushed red pepper, and cinnamon

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or other extract (almond is great)

toppings - dried mango, coconut, apricot

butter

confectioners' sugar, for dusting

combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.

meanwhile, combine the sugar, honey, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees f on a candy thermometer. remove from the heat.

with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. add the vanilla or other flavorings and mix thoroughly.

butter an 8 by 12-inch glass pan. dust liberally with confectioner’s sugar as you might a cake pan with flour. using a well-buttered spatula pour or scrape the marshmallow batter in the pan and smooth the top of the mixture with buttered hands. sprinkle on any remaining chopped toppings. allow to dry uncovered at room temperature overnight.

remove the marshmallows from the pan and cut into squares using a buttered scissors. coat each piece in confectioners' sugar.

store in a covered container at room temperature. 

The Writing Life: The Shadows of Past Manuscripts

Sometimes I hear them at night, as they softly fog around, and float over me. 

They, the early lines that came in the dark. Back in the Ulysses era of my writing 

life, they skirted around like a siren, called me from my stove, then. 

I am too late. That must have been the last. But wait. Is that another hoot? 

Before they drift ~ I hurry. 

The curtain in the style of Laura Ashley has hung at the bedroom window for twenty some 

years. Since the day my friend, Peg, gave it to me. Like a bouquet thrown out at a wedding it

billows its sweetness across the gray moonlight lawn, the magnolia, and the Arkansas black

apple tree. 

I drape the curtain over the nail stuck in the window frame. The window is stuck, refuses to budge, intrude on the owl. Please. But finally the bathroom window pushes up. 

Was I not reverent enough for the bird to stay? 

My phone moves from 2:33 to 2:34. 

Oh, owl in the thickest of trees. Where do you live in the forest? 

Won't you stay for tea, and talk to me?

William Morris - His first Cabbage and Vine Tapestry from 1879.

The Writing Life: Getting Ready to Write..

Does this happen to you? Getting ready to write is a lengthy process in and of itself. I approach the time with  both joy and trepidation. Almost as if Richard Parker one of the stars of Life of Pi, in case you didn't see the film, is in my boat. Within a minute of opening up the document of my NIP (novel in progress) I switch over to Blogger to write a post about this curiosity of "getting ready to write not writing." Here are a few ways and  whys of writing today.

1. Not enough time to write again today. There's only an hour till my hair appointment which I sorely need to look good at the upcoming Break Out Novel Intensive in Hood River Oregon. At least when my scenes don't hold hold together I can smile and dazzle them with my hair.

2. Good Lord, I have to test recipes for macaroons and croissants and puff pastry to be sure they are correct for a one to one pastry class next week. Pastry is not something I do every day. Bake or eat.

3. Decide if we will have our next class due to low enrollment.

4. Turn right at Seawell School Road to go back home and send the postcard file from the mainframe to Staples to get more postcards printed and take them around town. I'll stop at the last one and grab a cuppa and write a scene.  Perfect perfect plan.

5. While at home sending the postcard file, I will quickly send out another enticing newsletter to boost enrollment. I didn't quite hit the nail on the head with the last one a few days ago. 12 people untethered themselves from receiving it.

6. Decide that what I really need in order to increase the verisimilitude in the NIP is to make a food film and submit it to a food film festival. Excellent, this is really exciting.

7. Start a meet up group to have people over to discuss. to cook and watch a food film. 1 person signs up.

8. Make flight reservations to Portland.

9. On my way to Staples for postcards ~ stop by Whole Foods and get refills on my B-complex vitamins and COQ-10 - so I can have the mental capacity and stamina to remember all the details I want to put in my scenes. Discuss my supplement choices with the nice health saleslady. Fill out an application to work at Whole Foods.

10. With only 15 minutes left to write, I begin. Damn. I can't read my pages scrawled with handwritten notes and arrows.

11. Just one more thing. it will only take a minute. Complete the income spreadsheet to work on taxes.

12. Realize it's crazy to make a food film of my own. I have no experience. Also crazy to form a group to cook and watch films. It's a time waster.

13. Join a meet up group working on a film. Volunteer to be on the production crew. Now, that is exactly right.

14. 10 minutes left.

15. Down to work. Look at the the time! Going great guns. Words are flowing like the mighty Ganges River.

16. Cancel hair appointment. Really getting somewhere now.

17. Never going to stop.

18. Come visit me at.....(no way, no how!)

Merging the Cooking and Writing Life: Avant Garde Food Films, Part Trois

And now for Part Trois of Avant Garde Food Films. 

(Bonjour, but before we delve into the post, I am looking for a few folks with either video cameras, experience, and the desire to be in our own avant garde film, a.k.a. exciting if not slightly disorganized, project. I am interested, okay, craving to learn how to make a short video. And you know what they say, the only way to learn is to do. Ta da! Not just a recording of dining and cooking action, but making an actual and artful kitchen tale. Maaaaybe, enter it in the upcoming Charleston Food Film Festival in May. But it could just be a fun project. Promo for C'est si Bon! Or? Let me know if you're interested to join in. We'll be having a Salon to discuss.) 

But on another note, a Spanish flamenco note, consider the great Documentary Feature Length Film, “Cooking in Progress”  directed by Gereon Wetzel who studied archeology at Heidelberg University and filmed El Bulli’s “Cooking in Progress” in 2011. The film spins around the process of the menu and the El Bulli Team as they create the next year’s 35 courses all served in a 3 hour window, a dinner service at El Bulli.

I love El Bulli’s trailer, “We Must Function Like Clockwork” for it is a great view into this element of precision so paramount to El Bulli. Precision is loaded with drama and tension; but isn’t that why we watch? To see mistakes being made? Adria’s El Bulli Foundation has just begun breaking ground on the new physical structure that will house his new “operation.” I am not sure if it can or should be called a restaurant? Of course even when it was operating, there were not MANY restaurants like El Bulli. Though there are many protégé. But that my hungry friends, along with Adria’s plan to have cooks wear sensors designed to follow every step of a dish's creation and "analyse the process of serendipity to see if it can be replicated" is a topic for another time.

But since we’re talking El Bulli, it would be a crime (and thus maybe a future Bulli film?) if we didn’t mention Bob Noto, an Italian photographer who has dined more than 90 times at El Bulli and is considered one of the world’s consummate photographers of avant garde food.

Here is a Bob film, Grand Chef di Spagna. 

And another Bob film; Cracco, Sapori in Movimento, is a very pretty photo montage of avant garde food; a promo trailer for Bob’s book of the same name.

But let’s put promo trailers and Adrian cuisine, carefully, on the back burner and enter the entree course of Food Film Festivals. 

Next Time. 

Remember, let me know if you want to be a part of the film project.  

And also if you're interested: our Mediterranean Spring Class on March 22 - along with the delectable menu on the website we'll be rolling grape leaves. This is your chance - and the last adult-chefs class till the fall.