We 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.
Bird Dog gave me some seedlings to try in the garden, warning me that they don't grow like squash, but like gourds. (They are an edible gourd, same as pumpkin.)
Vigorous doesn't describe it. These things are like Jack's beanstalk, and bugs leave them alone. You're supposed to pick them before they get much over a foot long.
Americans may consider them to be an Italian heirloom vegetable, but they are grown all over Asia. You peel them and cook like summer squash. Sometimes people fry them, too.
Photo: A cucuzzi, with an overgrown cucumber for comparison.
We stuck with the Piedmont's local Barbera wines during our Italy trip. Barbera d'Asti and Barbera d'Alba. That same grape has been grown up there at least since the 13th century.
I did not realize that the Barbera grape is the most abundantly-grown grape in Italy. These are basically good table wines, nothing too complicated or fancy, and far down on the wine totem pole from the great Northern Italian wines like Amarone and the Nebbiolo grape-based Barbaresco and Barolo.
In the hilly area around Alba, only vineyards in the hills with suitable slopes and orientations are considered adequate for production. The terrains must be primarily clayey-calcareous or sandy-calcareous in character. DOC recognition is excluded for terrains with northern exposures and the bottoms of valleys that are flat or semi-flat. The colour of the wine is intense ruby red when young with a tendency to garnet after ageing.
The high-in-acid Barbera Grape of north-western Italy is a chameleon-like grape which changes considerably according to yield. As an everyday variety, it is a juicy glugger but it can metamorphose into a concentrated, rich, plumy and cherryish wine with undertones of sweet vanilla and spice when aged in small new casks. In Argentina, it tends to the former style with a little less acidity thanks to plentiful Andean sunshine.
Our regular readers know that I enjoy cooking meat in my smoker. For me, that is real barbecue. Not a grill - a smoker.
Mostly pork, sometimes beef. Unlike some of my pals, I do not believe in smoking game birds because their fine flavor is too subtle to hold up to smoke.
I like to put on the hot rub du jour overnight, then start smoking it in the morning - or whenever I get to it. Pork loin, butt for pulled pork, ribs, beef tips, whatever.
Sometimes I like to finish it off with a store-bought or home-made barbecue sauce on it while it finishes, sometimes during the entire cooking, sometimes on the side. For ribs, you have to cook with the sauce so they don't dry out. In Texas, it's on the side with the brisket - but I don't like brisket.
What's your preference?
Photo is my smoked pork loin. You need to have the sauce on the side for that.
I've never understood the passion for the boiled or steamed Blue Crab on the Atlantic coast. Too much work for too little reward - though they are by far the tastiest crab in the world, and a true Maryland Crab Cake is the best. A lobster rewards effort better, but lobsters do not live in Maryland.
(Sauteed soft-shelled - moulting - Blue Crabs are another matter entirely. Great stuff.) Spelling note: "moult" or "molt" are both acceptable spellings, but apparently "molt" is more American.
In press accounts of two studies on wine psychology, consumers have been portrayed as dupes and twits, subject to the manipulations of marketers, critics and charlatan producers who have cloaked wine in mystique and sham sophistication in hopes of better separating the public from its money.
Is that true? I have tasted some undrinkable wines in my time, very many entirely OK table wines, and some sublime ones. Tasting a wine is like meeting a new person: put your preconceptions away and see who they are. Turning wine into an effete exercise is pure silliness.
A few nifty finds: New York City in Pictures, with "every street and every building in NY"; NewYorkology is a site with depth and detail, with tips for visitors and residents, including the location of the Whispering Gallery in Grand Central Station, which is quite near my favorite spot in the world for oyster stew and a beer, the famous and venerable Oyster Bar & Restaurant, which, along with oysters from all ends of the earth, almost always offers the rarest and very best oyster on earth, Wellfleets , with their subtle nutty flavor derived from the Herring River which flows into the harbor of Bird Dog's favorite town on his native Cape Cod.
Then there's NY Architectural images - cool building photos listed by neighborhood. Oldbars lists - with photos - some of NYC's oldest, including McSorleys, where I have both booted and rallied in youth, back before 1970 when women weren't allowed in; and, since we're on bars, there's the unique The Campbell Apartment, if you can find it; Forgotten New York is a good ramble; and the new Tenement Museum has been getting a lot of attention, but I haven't been there.
Ketchup-lovers like me hate the idea of enriching the wannabe-patricians Theresa Heinz and John Kerry. Plus we like the idea of something with a bit more kick. I am making this one, from the Food Network:
3 tablespoons oil 1/4 cup diced red onion Can of Roma tomatoes, skinned, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill Salt and freshly ground black pepper Pinch allspice Pinch celery salt Pinch mustard seed
In medium saute pan over medium heat, add oil and onions. Cook until brown and caramelized. Add the tomatoes, and garlic and cook for a few minutes, just to soften the vegetables. Then add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.
You can either serve the ketchup chunky or puree it in a blender first and serve it smooth.
At least double the vinegar, in my opinion. If grilling burgers for guests, offer the bottle and the home-made. See which one they prefer.
Right Wing Proflikes this place, and I know I would like it too because it seems like a Maggie's Farm sort of joint. Wonder if they deliver to New England states:
An annual re-post, for our readers with game in their freezers:
A few more Maggie's Farm favorites, but first, remember: always salt and pepper your meat before cooking, never over-cook game, and keep a good supply of gibier sauce in your freezer.
For venison, elk and moose
The filets - tie them up tight, and cook as you do a beef filet mignon
The steaks - marinated overnight in olive oil, garlic, thyme, a little wine, and grilled rare
The stew meat (which is most of it) - Our favorite is to make a Bourguignon, but a Navarin is also excellent. I call these two recipes "savory meats."
Pheasant, duck and goose legs
Our habit, with duck, goose and pheasant, is to cook the breasts and to confit the legs and thighs. When you confit them, the tendons melt and they are a great accompaniment for a salad. A container of confit in the fridge will last for months. Just take 'em out and warm them in the oven and let the duck fat from the confit drip off, and either pick the meat off and toss it with the greens, or just put the warmed leg with thigh on top of the salad. Good idea to mix some warm gibier sauce in with the oil and vinegar dressing.
Pheasant
We like pheasant breast sauteed to pink in the middle, in butter and olive oil, on a bed of red cabbage (braised with bacon, a little vinegar, port), with wild mushrooms and braised and sauteed root vegetables - or mashed potato, on the side. You splash some reduced gibier sauce on top.
Woodcock
We treat the delectable but tiny woodcock with special care. We don't do it like the French (a sauce from all of its guts, and served with a toothpick to eat the brain with). Sautee the tiny breasts for a number of seconds on each side in hot butter and some truffle oil, and place on toast. Squish the livers into the butter and oil to make a sauce with a splash of brandy or something, and pour on top. Amazing first course.
Or, even better: woodcock ravioli. Chop very finely, then sautee shallot, carrot, and a little garlic. Very quickly sautee the woodcock breasts, then cut into small pieces. Mix above together with some truffle oil and spoon into your ravioli pasta or wontons. Serve splashed with gibier sauce with a couple of sauteed porcinis. A nice touch: shave some black truffle over the raviolis on the plate.
Ruffed Grouse
Grouse hunters are a special breed of human - bull-headed and foolish - and the Ruffed Grouse is a special kind of food. Every grouse hunter has his favorite way of preparing this subtle but delicious breast meat, like a dry chicken, but a chicken that has been raised on juniper berries and raspberries and mushrooms and aspen buds and fern fronds. One way we like is to brown the breasts quickly, then wrap in bacon and bake until the middle is pink. Serve on a bed of lentils with chopped shallots and carrots in them, with a splash of gibier sauce on top, root vegetables maybe on the side.
Canada Goose
Pests? Not on your life. They are great food. Marinate those dark meat, steak-like breasts overnight. Some love 'em on the grill, like steak. That's fine, but also good is to sautee them in oil and butter to your degree of done-ness, then serve thinly sliced with a gibier sauce.
Wild Duck
We have more favorite ways of cooking wild duck than I can list here. It's a subject for another day, but I will say three things: in Yankeeland, duck doesn't mean Mallard - it means all sorts of ducks, including the delicious and livery Bluebill. Second: we gave up on cooking the whole bird, stuffed or otherwise. It does not do justice to the bird. We just do happy things with the breasts, and confit the legs and thighs. Third, a piece of orange should never get near a wild duck. Domestic duck, ok, if that's what you like, but not the wild ones - it's criminal.
At the last minute (today), decided to do a little supper for 20 next weekend, and I have decided to do something simple and American with the pheasants: Pheasant smothered in sour cream. Talk about old-fashioned comfort food - a casserole. (This is a famous old "guy cookin'" recipe for Ruffed Grouse.) I'll quarter the peasants, not halve them like grouse.
I like to serve recipes like this on the wide (1") Italian noodles.
Yes, I have some Beach Plum Jelly in the pantry. What old Cape Codder would not? Plus I now grow them myself. The worse the soil, the better the plums.
I was considering a duck salad like this as the first course. One wild duck breast per serving, with the breast cooked rare and sliced thin.
Sweet apple and tangy creme freche combine to make a tasty sauce to complement the subtle gaminess of pheasant breast. I'd guess this would be fine for chicken, too.
2 small Royal Gala apples, peeled, cored and cut into 12 wedges each
2 Cup Chicken Stock
5 tbsp creme fraiche
4 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
Put the oil in a small heavy-based frying pan over a high heat. Season the pheasant breasts well and place in the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until just cooked through and nicely browned. Set aside on a plate to rest for 5 minutes, covering with foil to keep warm.
Meanwhile, place the apple wedges in the pan and cook for 1 minute on each side or until golden brown. Add the chicken stock and cook for 5 minutes or until the sauce reduces by about two thirds and the apple is tender. Turn the heat down then stir in the creme fraiche and parsley. Option: add a splash of cider or Calvados to the sauce for a more complex flavor. Season to taste.
Cut the pheasant breasts into 4 or five diagonal slices and return to the pan, with any juices, to warm through.
Serve with mushroom wild rice or lightly steamed cabbage - or both.
Some fun facts about coffee. These are from CocoaJava, who has many more (h/t, Grow a Brain):
The first coffee advertisement was a handbill distributed in 1651. It read: "The Virtue of the coffee drink first publicly made and sold in England, by Pasqua Rosee...in St. Michael's Alley Cornhill...at the Signe of his own head." It is now housed in the British Museum.
Mr. Jacobs opened England's first coffee house in Oxford in 1650. It was two years later that another coffee house was opened in London by a Greek, Pasqua Rosee, in partnership with Daniel Edwards, an Englishman. By 1700 some two thousand such coffee shops were established.
The word "tip" dates back to the old London coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed brass boxes etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness," encouraged customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting acronym, TIP, has become a byword.
I also learned on that site that the darker roasts contain less caffeine, and that the coffee tree was introduced to Hawaii as an ornamental plant - not for production.
We recently mentioned that the Three Basic Food-groups consist of Chips, Dip, and Beer. Mr. Free Market reminds us of the competing paradigm: Alcohol, Nicotine, and Coffee.
"Pick your poison," says I. And If I followed the Federal government's Food Pyramid (image), I would weigh 300 lbs.
"6-11 servings of bread, cereal, wheat, rice or pasta"? Sheesh.
The post yesterday with the photo of Brooklyn reminded me that I have wanted to post a free plug for Peter Luger's Steakhouse.
Manhattan has the best steak houses in the world, and many of them. I have been to all of the great ones over the years, but Peter Luger's in Brooklyn - a short cab ride from midtown Manhattan, is my favorite - the best and the most fun. They select and age their beef themselves.
T-bone for me, please.
The same wait staff has been there since 1887, it would seem: serious men. And Luger's now has valet parking for the "bridge and tunnel" crowd.
At $5.39/lb at Costco, their Dubliner Irish Cheese is the best cheddar-type cheese I have ever had. It is a great cheese, and I don't even like cheddar (I prefer the stronger cheeses). This one has a strong flavor (tangy, very sharp, with a touch of sweetness), a graininess similar to Parmesan, and it is hard - unlike those rubbery and bland American cheddars which look, feel and taste like processed cheese and are only good for melting on top of a cheeseburger.
Thus far, the Bird Dog clan has found it to be excellent eaten plain, on a cracker or baguette, in scrambled eggs, with slices of apples and pears, with cabernet and port, and in a cheese omelet.
Worth a trip to Costco just for that Dubliner cheese. (Speaking of Costco, we will someday offer a free Maggie's Farm t-shirt to the first person in history who can prove that they walked down every aisle and still got out of Costco without spending over $350.)
For those who believe that the three basic food groups are beer, chips and dip: A real cowboy breakfast from B&G Cowboy Chef Chuck Green. Here's his recipe for 24 servings of this delicious and supremely healthful breakfast - or lunch, or night-time snack. (Thanks, reader)
We have written about that disgusting Hot Dog Gravy they like to make in eastern Kentucky. This recipe is a better idea.
Learn all about them, 
Fall is coming. 
Bird Dog gave me some seedlings to try in the garden, warning me that they don't grow like squash, but like gourds. (They are an edible gourd, same as pumpkin.)
We stuck with the Piedmont's local 
Our regular readers know that I enjoy cooking meat in my smoker. For me, that is real barbecue. Not a grill - a smoker.
I've never understood the passion for the boiled or steamed Blue Crab on the Atlantic coast. Too much work for too little reward - though they are by far the tastiest crab in the world, and a true Maryland Crab Cake is the best. A lobster rewards effort better, but lobsters do not live in Maryland.
Well, the world's largest turkey in Frazee, MN (photo on right) 
For venison, elk and moose
Pheasant
Ruffed Grouse
Wild Duck
At the last minute (today), decided to do a little supper for 20 next weekend, and I have decided to do something simple and American with the pheasants: 
Pheasant Breast with Apples and Creme Fraiche
I also learned on that site that the darker roasts contain less caffeine, and that the coffee tree was introduced to Hawaii as an ornamental plant - not for production.
We recently mentioned that the Three Basic Food-groups consist of Chips, Dip, and Beer. Mr. Free Market 
The post yesterday with the photo of Brooklyn reminded me that I have wanted to post a free plug for 
For those who believe that the three basic food groups are beer, chips and dip: A real cowboy breakfast from B&G Cowboy Chef 
Scientificalistical proof 
This is not a way to mess up a good Martini: it's a whole different thing. This makes two: