Scenes from a harvest dessert party here.
buttermilk fried chicken in memory of mama e
My grandmother, Mama E, died this summer. I asked if I could have her electric skillet, because I know that making fried chicken in it will always make me think of her. Mama E was a top-notch cook. I can still taste her chess pie, her fudge, and her pepper jelly. But I think anyone who knew her would say that her fried chicken was the best. It really was.
As a kid who grew up not in the suburbs but with a more or less suburban life, I didn’t always have a lot to talk about with a woman who grew up during the Depression and then worked in a textile mill. But as I got into cooking as an adult, I really enjoyed talking produce and cooking with Mama E. When I married Elizabeth, she loved to talk with Mama E about canning and gardening and baking. I’m glad that I developed my love of cooking and food and that I was able to grow closer to Mama E because of it. [Read more…]
stone barns harvest fest
Living in the city, it’s easy to be taken in by the idea of “getting out of the city for a little while.” Once, we actually drove to the Ikea in Long Island rather than the one in Brooklyn because that constituted “getting out of the city.” That one may not have been totally worth it–a parking lot is pretty much a parking lot and the meatballs taste the same wherever you go.
But this past weekend, we went to the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture for the third time (once for our dinner at Blue Hill, and a farm trip last spring), and it was definitely a trip out of the city we’ll be making again. The occasion this time was Harvest Fest, Stone Barns’ end of season festival. The countryside around Tarrytown is so bucolic and peaceful that it’s easy to forget that you are only 25 miles north of Manhattan. Although it’s technically autumn, the leaves on the trees still hadn’t turned (they hang on a lot longer in the city, so it’s always a surprise when you get out in the country and see that the trees are bare), and the fields were still lush, especially after all the rain we’ve had. [Read more…]
vegan desserts
Brian and I have been cooking a plethora of vegan delights over on Babble’s Family Kitchen. Click through for some delicious and simple vegan recipes.
Vegan Chocolate Cake
Coconut Sorbet
Chocolate Sorbet
And stay tuned for a recap of Harvest Fest at Stone Barns later in the week.
fennel and kohlrabi salad
When fennel and kohlrabi arrive in your CSA, it can be hard to know what to do. As we transition into fall food, I am still really craving the fresh, crisp foods of summer. So I was glad to stumble on a version of this fennel and kohlrabi salad recipe in the awesome Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual. Crispy julienned vegetables, sliced onions, plenty of parsley and a hint of lemon make for a bracing, palate cleansing slaw-type salad. A nice bit of color, bite and crunch to contrast with the season’s golds and oranges. [Read more…]