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Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Saturday, May 7. 2016Derby Day drink du Jour: Mint Julep for breakfast
A breakfast tonic to tone ye olde brain. Healthy herbs. You can use either homemade sugar syrup or confectioner's sugar. Here's one. Use a chilled julep cup or collins glass. I grow a mint called "Kentucky Mint" which is quite intense, but close to Spearmint, just for this purpose, but I haven't made a batch in years. I should. Unlike Southern families, I do not own any heirloom Julep Cups. I am tempted by these on eBay ($500 for a pair). Nice Sterling cups seem to run between $100 to $1000 apiece. I am not in the market for these right now.
Thursday, May 5. 2016What's for supper? Italian Meatloaf It says ground beef, but we like to mix ground beef with ground pork for meatloaf. Serve with steamed broccoli rabe (rapini) with oil, and roast taters.
Saturday, April 23. 2016An Italian dessert treat If you don't like this, there is something wrong with you. Plus, it combines a sweet, an after-dinner drink, and after-dinner coffee, all-in-one. Last night, friends served us home-made vanilla gelato with a handful of raspberries on top, then sprinkled with mini chocolate chips. Damn simple and tasty. Friday, April 22. 2016A Yankeeland classic: Codfish Cakes Cod, Scrod, or Haddock all work. Like the best crab cakes, codfish cakes are best without any filler like mashed potatoes or dough. Maybe just a dash of flour and egg to hold it together. The ingredients in this recipe are good, but I disagree with putting the meat in a food processor. Best to simply steam the meat a little until it begins to flake, and then stir it around with the mix so it breaks up somewhat. Probably the most classic version is made from dried salt cod, "bacala", but there is no need to use that. Serve with lemon, tartar sauce, or even red seafood sauce. Or best, nothing but salt and a glass of wine. Saturday, April 2. 2016Eating the Arab Roots of Sicilian CuisineI have posted in the past about the food of Sicily. Basically, it is entirely different from that of southern Italy. For one thing, they use more couscous and rice than pasta. For another, the menu is heavy on seafood and grilled meat. Lots of eggplant. Muslim invaders ruled Sicily for long enough to shape their culture. Ruled it wisely and softly, too. Can't say the same for the subsequent Viking rulers who fortunately had little impact on Sicilian cuisine. Arancini is their street food (a fried thing made of rice with tasties in the middle). The local blood oranges are a typical dessert. There is little authentico Sicilian food in the US. Pizza is not Sicilian, and neither is tomato sauce. I know of one decent Sicilian restaurant in NYC: eolo Article here. Friday, March 18. 2016BulldogIt having been St. Patrick's Day, a pal and I went out for Mexican last night. We ordered Bulldogs, aka Bulldog Margueritas, aka Beeritas. Delicious. Related: The Blatant Cultural Appropriation on St. Patrick’s Day Is Not Cool
Saturday, March 5. 20162 more Manhattan restaurants we likeInside Park has taken over the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Church (St. Bart's) on Park Avenue. Inexpensive, good simple food in a cool location. I have had many jolly lunches there. AOC near Bleeker St in the West Village. Mrs. BD and daughter rave about it. They say their steak tartare, assembled at your table by server to your specs, is dynamite. Country French, I'd call it. New York City: Half the fun is eating there. Sunday, February 28. 2016Rabbit is delicious
I'd like to try this Spanish recipe too: Braised Rabbit with garlic. Rabbits are made to be prolific and delicious, the bottom of the food chain to feed everything else.
Saturday, February 27. 2016Gnudi
Gnocchi is boring and I don't really care for pasta. Gnudi is basically a ravioli innards, cooked naked. A fine Primi.
Tuesday, February 23. 2016Fun with coffee Most Maggie's Farmers love coffee. Most Americans love coffee, and do not fuss too much about how good it is as long as it is hot. Or iced. I drink plenty of Dunkin Donuts coffee. It's not very good at all, but it's a familiar routine. Just remember the rule "Friends don't let friends drink Starbucks." My favorite coffees are Espresso (as made in Italy) with sugar. I have yet to find a decent espresso in the US - too watery. I like Iberian Cafe con leche. Also, a cappucino is a good breakfast. What I have enjoyed most, recently, is Arabic (aka Greek, aka Turkish) coffee. Do you remember percolators? They still sell them, can get them on Amazon. They basically boiled the heck out of your Maxwell House coffee, but nobody cared. You put them on the burner, later plugged them in before Mr. Coffee was invented. How do you like to make coffee?
Saturday, February 6. 2016What to buy for the bar?A pal and I have been volunteered to run the bar for a formally-informal Valentine's Day party that our wives' club is putting on. They expect 40 women plus their husbands - all friendly Indians. It's what is termed "heavy cocktails", not dinner. We decided to keep it simple with just red and white wine, a few interesting beers, bubbly water, and coke. Lemons and limes, and plenty of ice. I used this site to estimate amounts. Figured a case of red, a case of white, 5 cases of beer. Then we just learned that the venue for the party (an art museum) does not permit red wine on the premises. Apparently many places have that rule. So I am thinking maybe we should have whiskey, Bourbon, rum, and vodka too - but no mixed drinks other than rum and coke. We don't want to have to be real bartenders because we like to schmooze with all our friends. What's your opinion? Friday, January 29. 2016Cottage Pie
Winter peasant food. Moussaka is great too, same idea. A friend served us antelope moussaka a while ago. Delicious. Tuesday, January 26. 2016Cooking text It's a cooking textbook and a cookbook. Unlike a recipe book, it teaches the fundamentals and the theory along with the recipe. It's the one text almost every professional and serious hobbyist has on the shelf or, more likely, in the kitchen covered with stains. A reference book. If I had the time, I would take some serious cooking classes because I love to do justice to the earth's bounty. I know Mrs. BD and I would enjoy one of those 5-day courses in Amalfi or Florence. Or better yet, in some village in France. French country food is the best. Saturday, January 23. 2016Life in America: A Winter Stew
Mountain of sauteed onions, garlic, and celery in bacon fat and butter, all the bacon bits, big browned chunks of pork, chicken, and venison shoulder from the freezer. Lots of carrot chunks. A quart of my frozen gibier jus and a half bottle of cabernet. Half cup of crushed tomato, a few bay leaves, and some herbs. Tablespoon or 2 of raspberry jam and a couple of handfuls of frozen blueberries. A few twigs of snowy thyme from the frozen garden. Porcinis if I had any dried ones in the pantry, but their flavor is thick in my special jus anyway. A little thickening if needed. 6-8 hrs in the crock pot to tenderize the meats, then served on Pappardelle with some of my peach preserve on the side. Better yet - just in a bowl with that rich sauce concentrated instead of being spread around on noodles. Tuesday, January 19. 2016Real coffeeHow to make Moroccan/Turkish/Greek/Arabian coffee. Delicious stuff even without any spices - just sugar. I prefer it to espresso. You need a dallah or ibrik or whatever it's called to make it properly. Alas, not available at Dunkin or Starbucks. Why not? A machine can not make it. I think it could become more popular, for sure, than the crappy, watery espresso one is typically served in the US. Friday, January 15. 2016Jianbings for breakfast I like roll-up "sandwiches" for lunch of supper Especially with apple butter, turkey, mayo, tomato, lettuce. If I were a breakfast-eater, I'd try a jianbing any time. Saturday, January 9. 2016Murray's Cheese - with Maggie's Rules of Cheese
The best cheese shop, by far, in the New World is the famed Murray's. The US has plenty of cheese shops, but Murray's is the big cheese. Since I enjoy discovering obscure stinky cheeses, a daughter and her boyfriend picked some out for me at Christmastime: - Ossau-Trate Vieille That's cheese heaven for Bird Dog. Murray's main shop is on Bleecker St., but they now have a handy outpost in Grand Central Station in that like totally cool Grand Central Market. Even better, they take online orders. Problem with that is that they have so many varieties to taste that it's difficult to select from a distance. However, you can talk to their cheesemongers on the phone. Remember the...
Tuesday, December 22. 2015Life in America: Christmas Menu at the HQ
Crown roast of pork with apple stuffing Buche de Noel and homemade Christmas cookies. Somebody will probably bring a Struffoli. What's on your menu? Wednesday, December 16. 2015Baked Sea Scallops, Italian-styleBy religious tradition, Christmas Eve food is fish. That is called "fasting." This is good: Baked Sea Scallops, Italian-style Related, The Top Ten Most Famous Venetian Dishes. That's Italian. Monday, December 14. 2015Regional Slang
For several years, she insisted this was a saying that was distinctly Philadelphian in nature. This seems to have been confirmed when we were speaking with several friends of ours who were from Philly and she asked "do you know what the back way means?" They all nodded and the conversation then revolved around how "the back way" is defined. Every region has some kind of slang. In California, it seems every highway has "the" in front of it. "The 405 to the 10 to the 110" was one set of directions I used whenever I was visiting clients. Visiting Boston College, I learned not to order milkshakes or subs, but frappes and grinders. Being from Philadelphia, it took me years to stop asking for hoagies and asking after "youse guys", but I still go "down the shore" (another phrase which drives my wife nuts - living on Long Island, she always went to the beach and despite the beach being south of her, she "went to the beach"), and "Yo" is still part of my vocabulary. For my wife, the torture of the regional slang is only made worse by the fact I've managed to convince both my boys to enjoy certain foodstuffs, like the Philly Cheesesteak (we take ours 'wit' - never 'witout') and Taylor Pork Roll (technically a NJ thing, but a staple down the shore). Of course, neither has succumbed to my great longing for Habbersett's Scrapple, the mere mention of which causes her nose to wrinkle in disgust. What slang and/or foods do our readers enjoy wherever they are?
Posted by Bulldog
in Food and Drink, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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Thursday, November 26. 2015Have A Happy Thanksgiving. I Guess. Whatever Reposted, but still terrible Saturday, November 21. 2015How to sharpen knivesSunday, November 15. 2015Cooking Tourism
Many of the schools run from around noon or 1 through suppertime, when the students eat their creations together. The meal planning and local shopping are part of most courses except for the ones sited on farms. People have told me that these have been the most fun they have ever had while traveling because it gets you into the culture and away from the "sights." Here's a small sample. Just for fun, you can google "tourist cooking schools near Paris," or "in Provence", or "in Italy," etc. As you know, each region of Italy has its own cuisine and its own different produce.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Food and Drink, Travelogues and Travel Ideas
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