Potage aux Pommes de Terre et Poireaux

A la Julia Child, avec Bruschetta a la Alton Brown.

Ingredients

For soup:

• 1 leek
• 1 onion (small)
• 3 large potatoes (5 c. potatoes)
• 3 c. water
• 2 bouillon cubes
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 c. Marsala
• 2 tsp olive oil
• about 1/2 c. milk (skim)
• cheese (we used Jarlsberg)
  

For bruschetta:

• 1 small loaf French bread
• a few T. olive oil
• shallot salt

Methodology

1. Wash and cut up all the veg. Cut them fairly small.
   
2. Saute the onion and leek in olive oil until they start to brown, then deglaze the pan with Marsala. When this is done and the water is hot, add the leek and onion mixture and the potatoes.
   
3. Cover pot and let it cook for about 10 min, until the potatoes are tender.
4. Puree some of the soup with a blender or immersion blender.
5. Cut the bread into small slices on the bias and stick under the broiler. Make sure the rack is close to the top, otherwise this will take forever.
6. When the bread has started to brown, flip it and go another 1-1.5 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, brush bread with olive oil, sprinkle with shallot salt.
8. Serving suggestion: put cheese on top of soup, then put a bruschetta on top. Mmm.

Notes

• Quite successful and simple. The onions plus the shallot salt was very nice. Although I overcooked the bruschetta a little (they got a bit overly brown) they were still very tasty.
  

How to Quiche

So. The other week my pal L. dragged me to the film Julie & Julia and I wound up tracking down the original blog The Julie/Julia Project. I can't claim to be that impressed by Ms. Powell's writing - she has some odd quirks which irritate me, although she does have a unique and interesting way of writing about food that doesn't just involve writing down her recipes. A week later I am still dreaming about food (this afternoon, for example, I dreamed of avocados. Weird.) and craving quiche. Mushroom quiche, specifically, until I tracked down this recipe online and decided that mushroom and leek quiche would be the thing.

No, I don't own a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I should probably amend that someday. But my goal for the year is to master Indian cooking, not French, so maybe next year.

Quiche aux Champignons et Poireaux

Ingredients

• Two leeks (white/white-green parts only - see note)
• 6-7 biggish crimini mushrooms
• Pinch salt
• 1 1/2 T. butter
• A few T. Marsala wine
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 c. skim milk (this - more than the vegetarianism or anything - is heresy to Ms. Child. And I apologize.)
• ~1/4 c. grated Jarlesberg cheese (I hated this until very recently - like our date night to a local Scandinavian restaurant last Friday. Apparently it is no longer nasty-strong. When did that happen?)
• A crust of some sort

Methodology

1. Pre-bake the crust. If you are me and using a pre-made pie crust, don't fuck it up, by which I mean, put it far enough up the sides of the pan that it won't shrink back when you bake it.
2. Saute the leeks and mushrooms in butter. Add a splash of Marsala to deglaze the pan. When leeks and mushrooms are tender, put them into the pie crust.
3. Whisk together the milk and eggs, add a bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of cheese. Pour it into the crust. Here is an important tip: if the crust has shrunk, don't add so much milk that it overflows the crust and goes back into the pie pan behind it.
4. Sprinkle the top with cheese.
   
5. Put it in an oven preheated to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes (though our oven runs hot, it actually took this long to start getting brown on top.

Notes

• I always wonder how much of the leek to cut up, so I go to about two inches below the beginning of the first leaf, where it's green-white. Cut off the roots, then slit the leek down the center as far as this point and make a second slit perpendicular to the first. Then slice up the leek to the end of the slit and put the pieces in a colander or bowl. Wash now, because leeks are like the Catholic School girls of the vegetable universe - very dirty.
  
• Was that a poor simile? I've never actually met a Catholic School girl.
  
• Maybe I've met one. And she does have a pretty kinky sex life, but she wasn't at Catholic School for long.
• The quiche was excellent. Next time I'll use port instead of Marsala because it will have a slightly stronger taste. Also more salt.
• This page is about to get all sorts of weird Google hits. Oh dear.
  

Portobello Pepper Wraps

From this recipe on Epicurious, with some alterations.

Ingredients

• 2 T. olive oil
• 3 medium sized portbello mushrooms, washed, caps and stems sliced thinly
• 1 medium sized onion, minced
  
• 1 14 1/2-ounce can stewed tomatoes (originally called for "Mexican style", evidently this doesn't exist or doesn't exist at our supermarket.)
  
• 3-4 burrito-size flour tortillas (we used smaller whole wheat ones)
  
• about 2 oz. crumbled soft fresh goat cheese (we used Montchevre)
  
• 1 large green bell pepper, roughly chopped
  
• fresh spinach leaves, about 2 cups
  

Methodology

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan or wok over medium-high to high heat until it sizzles. Drop in the mushrooms and the onion and saute for about 10 min. until tender.
2. Open the stewed tomatoes and add them (see note below). Add the bell pepper and cook for about 10 more minutes, until some of the juice has cooked off. Season with salt and pepper.
   
3. Drain pinto beans and heat in a pan with cinnamon and other spices (we used Penzy's Turkish seasoning because it is awesome.)
   
4. Heat a tortilla in a pan until pliable, about 15 seconds per side. Put in some spinach and goat cheese, add beans and veg. Roll up. You may overfill them, we did.

Notes

• We didn't drain the tomatoes, but I would suggest draining out about 1/4 - 1/2 the juice.
• Because "Mexican style" was non-existent, we went with store-brand "stewed tomatoes". They were fine.
• Bryan seasoned his with pan-fried pepperoni. He said it added crunch and salt. I felt they were delicious without. But then I would say that.
• We had a definite problem with over-filling the burritos. You probably do want large size ones. But go with whole wheat.

Bagels

After a recent article on Slate about making staples from scratch, I decided to make some bagels.

Bryan: When did bagels turn into staples?
Em: I like bagels.
Bryan: I like bagels too. That's not my point.

I used this recipe, as recommended in the article. It was pretty easy, despite the number of instructions.
Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. flour (I used whole wheat)
• 2 pkgs dry yeast (about 4.5 tsp? Check your yeast container)
• 3 T. sugar (I used brown)
• 1 T. salt
• 1 1/2 c. hot water (between 120-130 degrees F.)
• 3 Quarts water
• 1 1/2 T. sugar
• cornmeal

As you can see, I skipped the egg glaze, because I don't have any eggs in the house. The ingredients are in three colours because the recipe has three parts. Clever, innit?
Methodology

1. Put 3 c. flour and the other dry ingredients (from the part in RED) in a bowl and mix. Add the hot water (also in red) and stir. Add the last half cup of flour a little at a time. Eventually the dough will get thick and heavy and you won't be able to stir it with a spoon anymore, so turn it out onto a floured counter and knead it for about ten minutes, until it is firm and solid as pinched, adding flour as necessary.
2. When the dough is ready, put it in an oiled bowl and cover it. I stuck it in a humid microwave. Leave it to rise for about an hour, until it is doubled.
3. Bring three quarts of water to a boil and add the sugar (this is the orange part). Reduce the water to a very slow simmer.
4. Punch the dough down and divide it into 10 pieces. Make each into a ball (see picture on left). Let them stand for a few minutes to relax, then flatten and make a hole (I cut an "x" in the center with a knife, then opened it up and squished the edges a little). Cover and leave the bagels to rise about 10 min. - this is called a half proofing, I think.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking sheets (probably two of them) and sprinkle with corn meal.
6. Drop bagels 2-3 at a time into the simmering water. I used a stir fry spatula for this, since I don't have any deep frying baskets or nonsense. They will sink and rise again in a few seconds (or if you left them too long, they will not sink). Flip them about 30 seconds after they rise again and let them simmer another 30 seconds (total 1 min.) Scoop out and drain on paper towel, then put on the cookie sheet.
   
7. If you're doing an egg glaze, do it now.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until brown. When the tops are brown (about 12 min in), you can flip them. A long chopstick is ideal for transferring bagels to a cooling rack.

Notes

*That was pretty easy, and the bagels are delicious.
*Difficult to tell when whole wheat bagels are browned, since they are, um, already brown.
*I don't really have any changes to the recipe. Seriously delicious after a long run. Eat them with cream cheese. Mmm.

Cornbread Muffins

Cornbread. We originally made this for Thanksgiving, then I misplaced the recipe. This past weekend, B decided he really wanted more cornbread, so after considerable googling I found it again. From Epicurious, with very few adaptations.

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour
• 1 c. cornmeal (I used half white and half yellow)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used a finely grated Colby/Monterrey Jack mix)
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 3 T. honey
• 1/4 c. melted margarine

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 425.
   
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Add in cheese.
   
3. Mix buttermilk, eggs, margarine, honey in another bowl.
   
4. Add wet into dry and stir to combine. Don't over-stir.
5. Measure in 1/4 cupfuls into a (greased) muffin pan. Bake ~10 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Notes

• Maybe cook 9 minutes instead? It was a little overdone. I guess 8 minutes and then let it sit and finish with residual heat, that would be ideal.
  
• Otherwise, very tasty; not too dry, quite dense. Goes well with chili.
• Needs a trifle more salt, maybe more honey? B says he remembers them being sweeter last time.
• Makes 12 muffins.
  

Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

Well this was delicious, but a little too liquid. It dripped down all the cupcakes it was applied to. But it was very tasty, and after I was done frosting the cupcakes, I put some on some matzo, and that was good too.

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. margarine
• 8 oz. cream cheese (I used fat free, I think this was a mistake on my part)
• 3 1/3 c. powdered sugar
• 1 T. rum
• 1 tsp white chocolate Godiva

Methodology

1. Mix margarine and cream cheese.
2. Add sugar slowly. If you want it less sweet, add less sugar.
3. Add the liquor.
4. If it is too soft, try refrigerating it.

Notes

This goes on chocolate cupcakes, of course.

I refrigerated this and it didn't actually help, I think because I used fat free cream cheese and margarine instead of butter. Even after having been in the freezer overnight, it is still not going to go in a piping bag. But it is delicious, I cannot help but stick my fingers in. Which brings up another point - do not drive under the influence of this frosting. I kept adding rum, trying to get a bit of a "kick", and finally added the Godiva for that (it was Meyer's rum, so pretty high quality stuff). And then all of a sudden it was almost too much.

Almost is the operative word here, I guess.

I can't think of any really good ways to fix it when your frosting is too runny. Maybe cornstarch, if I'd had any (I didn't) would have thickened it. Anyway it worked pretty well if you didn't mind getting frosting all over your fingers. So the moral of the story is that if you want decent frosting, don't try to skimp on calories.

Book Review: One Perfect Day

One Perfect Day: the Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead

A survey conducted by the wedding website The Knot in 2008 found that the average wedding cost about $28,000. With something like 2.3 million weddings in America each year, this amounts to an absurd amount of cash changing hands - $160 billion annually as of 2006 (when Mead was writing). Each year, more articles on the attendant craziness and "bridezilla" culture appear - brides who spend $5,000 on a Vera Wang wedding gown, who ask their bridesmaids to get botox, plastic surgery, or worse. And each year, the rate of divorce seems to go up.

How did we get here? What prompts this sort of behavior and why is it culturally acceptable? In fact, in a world where women make as much as men and are as likely to keep working afterwards, where we enjoy the ability to live with our significant others before marriage, why get married at all?

These are the questions that Rebecca Mead sets out to answer in One Perfect Day. And what she finds is very interesting to anyone who has been to a wedding or had thoughts of getting married herself.

The story Mead puts together is one of a fairly secular public with no particular institutions to turn to for guidance in putting together a wedding - with the exception of the bridal industry. Where traditional practices have been rejected for disallowing the sort of personalization that those about to be married demand for their ceremonies, the "traditionalesque" has sprung up to replace it, replete with bits of ceremony stripped from other religions, or even from TV shows or films that sound good. Huge industries have sprung up to allow the bride to find exactly the right meringue, which is then sewn for her by four hundred Chinese laborers making $0.50 per hour, or to remind her that her invitations match her shoes.

If family and culture dictate tradition, Mead says, traditionalesque is dictated by industry and driven by profit. Even the idea of a diamond engagement ring is a relatively new one, developed by the DeBeers company in 1938.

So does this hollowing of tradition lead inevitably to the hollowing of a culturally significant turning point in a person's life? Not necessarily. Mead attends numerous weddings over the course of the book, some of which seem especially poignant (for example, a wedding by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas) and some of which seem perfunctory or disappointing (including a tiny wedding in a church in Hebron, WI). In a world with no set bodies to prescribe what is meaningful, meaning is where you make it.

The one complaint I have about this book is that gay weddings and the question of "Why marry?" are addressed only in the epilogue. She does have some poignant things to say about the former (for example, addressing the way that every gay marriage seems like a triumph), but though she raises the latter, even asking a handful of brides, she never offers a good explanation. Perhaps, like the rest of a wedding, the reason must be created by the couple to suit themselves.