Yearly Archives: 2008

Two meals for two in El Cerrito

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popovers 2008

My mom and I are on our own, the boys are in Chicago, and we are having a fancified breakfast for two.  I am in the process of roasting chicken sausages, and the popovers just came out of the oven.  Popovers were always around when I was a kid — something my parents made and enjoyed.  They are like Yorkshire pudding in that they are made from a thin egg batter and puff up over the sides of their baking receptacles, resulting in hollow eats.  In fact, they are small, Americanized Yorkshire puddings, originally baked in hot beef fat, but evolved into the sweeter buttery breakfast food we know and love.  This American creation first appeared in the mid-19th century.  Looking in older cookbooks is an easy way to find a good recipe.  Don’t be discouraged if they don’t work out at first – just keep plugging away until you get the hang of it.  Something you may want to have on hand is baking pan spray that has flour in it – in addition to plenty of eggs.

Turkey wings in crock pot

Turkey wings in a slow cooker

Dinner was an American food through and through – braised fresh turkey wings.  If you like chicken wings, you should like these.  Take whole, fresh turkey wings and put them in a Crock-Pot.  Add:  a whole onion, sliced; a few garlic cloves; a little soy sauce; a few scallions; a knob of ginger; salt and pepper.  Pour chicken stock over all of it until the wings are just covered. Crank ‘er up to low.  The wings should be soft after about 5 hours.  I eat this like a soup, adding rice or noodles about 45 minutes before the wings are done.  If you have leftovers, you’ll find the wings suspended in gelatin in the fridge.  I like gelatin, so I pry some of the contents out and eat them cold with a hard roll.  If you have people in your family who would be outraged by turkey wing bones (there is no such person in this house) then you can debone the wings before you serve, but I say to heck with that.  This is a good, honest, casual dish, and anyone who is above making like Fred Flintstone every now and then needs a swift kick in the rear end.

Dudes, please

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Please, someone, spare me from this California nonsense.  While I’m sure it’s a good thing and I’m just being East Coast, take a gander at the June 2008 issue of Sunset, page 20.  Yoga restaurants.  Pu-leeze.  This is not something the world needs.  What about that snappy style that makes you want to, you know?  “…blissed out yogis practice sun salutations in the upstairs studio….”  What?  Don’t get me wrong – I really like Sunset.  My friend Wendy has given me a years-long subscription because she knows I like the recipes.  Plus, if you are in the food game in this area you need to keep up with trends.  That said, you have to have a fairly strong BS filter when reading these kinds of periodicals.  For example, they’ll write about a tiny neighborhood and photograph it as if there’s a real scene there.  I’ve also had my fill of suggestions for transforming my backyard into a bedroom or living room by the use of yards and yards of fabric.  The result always looks great in the photo shoot, but I’d like to see that same festooned yard once it’s gone through a couple of foggy nights in the SF Bay Area – and a bit of actual use.

My parents and the automat

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My Mom in 1965 with a crqazy hairdo while working at the flushing new york horn & hardardt

My Mom working at the Flushing, NY Horn & Hardart in about 1965

We all get older – it’s a fact, and it’s scary to see hip pictures of ourselves from days gone by.  Check out this shot of my mom from around 1965.  This was taken at the Horn & Hardart restaurant in Flushing, where she worked as a server – though she gets mad about that term, asking what might be wrong with “waitress,” which is what she says she was.  Horn & Hardart, or “H&H,” as the employees called it, started out as a chain of East Coast automats that later included sit-down restaurants, like the one in Flushing, once the automats started closing.  My mom worked at the automats in Manhattan first, starting in about 1954.  She was a busser, where she met fellow-busser Frank, whom she married in 1958.  She moved up the ranks and spent the next couple of years filling up the coin-operated food dispensers from the back, with things like beans and franks and cup custards.  Soon she started waitressing (she’d like that).  Cut to the early 1960’s, when she was transferred to Flushing.  I loved the Flushing store and spent time there after school, meeting all the local characters.  The employees all had fun and doted on me, giving me my favorite mashed potatoes and gravy.  I think my love of the restaurant business started there.

Berry’s recovery

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Berry the akita resting at home on his futon after surgery

Berry resting at home on his futon after surgery

We are all exhausted.  Berry proceeded to pace around the house at intervals with the e-collar, trying to jam himself through small spaces.  When we was not doing this, he would stand near the bed staring at us and crying, using tones I have not heard before.  He did this despite the pain pills, so we were worried.  Finally, I decided to give the e-collar a temporary heave-ho in order to see how much of this was about the collar rather than post-surgical pain.  The second it came off he raced to his bed and was snoring in no time.  We felt better.  Screw the e-collar.  I wrapped an Ace bandage around each front paw to cover those insane dew claws and that, as they say, was that.  I don’t care that his Akita single-mindedness got him out of the e-collar.  He was in pain and this was not a time for us to worry about who is in control (he is).  The poor dog just needed to sleep.  He was doped up and slept like a lump for hours.  In the morning I found the bandages on the floor, so I rigged something up for his paws with sock bands.  While he has been incredibly pissed off at me (he won’t look at me), I am trying to explain to him that it’s either those socks or the e-collar.  He groans at me when I put them on, and he is ignoring me and not sleeping by me in general.  I don’t blame him.  It’s not like I was able to let him know in advance what would happen.  I take this responsibility very seriously and I feel bad for him.  How would you like wake up and find that you are missing teeth?  It’ll take a bit before he trusts us again.

Berry’s surgery

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Berry, the actual akitachow of akitachow.com, is having surgery today.  He has two eyelid growths and two masses on his trunk to be removed.  In addition, they will be aspirating something on his stomach to make sure it’s not malignant.  They called after I dropped him off to tell me he also has a really bad tooth (they found this when they were able to give him a complete once-over, meaning when he was out cold).  They said if they left the tooth it would be a major problem in the making, so I told them to go ahead.  I said, “Please tell me this is not one of his big front teeth.  Please tell me we won’t have to add to his sebaceous adenitis-induced mangy look with missing front teeth.”  No, not a front tooth.  Add another $200 for the tooth and we are up to $1k for the works, to include ear cleaning, nail trimming and general delousing.  Cut to 5 p.m. when we pick the poor guy up.  We hear all good news, and are sent home with antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and pain pills.  Berry has been quietly affectionate, sitting by us wanting to be comforted.  He clearly has some pain so we have been on top of the pain pills so he was finally able to lay down for a couple of hours.  He has just had it.  The one problem is proving to be the e-collar, which is as big as a swimming pool for a large dog.  I don’t know how we’ll get through the night, since we have to keep the e-collar on so he doesn’t scratch his eyes.  Why can’t they come up with something better?