Tag Archives: american cuisine

Thanksgiving 2008!

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Thanksgiving at Chez Akitachow in 2008

Thanksgiving at Chez Akitachow in 2008

Thanksgiving Day!  Prepared the usual suspects and had one of Matt’s friends, Chris, over, which made it a nice time.  Matt has a great group of friends – all bright, creative and inquisitive individuals.  We have fun spending time with them because it’s nice to get fresh perspectives on the same old nonsense. 

Thanksgiving turkey in 2008

The meal was topped off by a castle-shaped 7up cake with lemon glaze and a sprinkling of blue sugar. 

Castle pound cake for dinner

Berry and Steve spent some quality time resting on the futon in a tryptophan haze later in the day.  (Yes, I know this tryptophan thing is made much of, when it’s most likely alcohol or blood sugar swings due to the consumption of so many carbs knocking you out). 

Steve and Berry resting after a Thanksgiving meal

Let me add a final bit about the holiday table:  One thing I always do instead of ironing my cloth napkins (to be honest with you I don’t iron anything) is some sort of decorative fold.  If you have a good quality napkin and fold it flat as soon as it comes out of the dryer and then store it flat you’re in good shape to do this.  Use 15-inch napkins, at the smallest.  Old British cookbooks are good sources of information here since napkin folding was immensely popular in Victorian England and through at least the 1930s.  The origin of napkin folding, or napery, is argued.  Some say it actually started in Victorian England  due to the worship of all things ‘Oriental,” which, in the case of napery, sees its antecedent in origami.  Others say it is hundreds of years older than that.  I prefer to use the old folds, like the cockscomb, just for the hell of it.  The Mrs. Beeton’s series of cooking guides has a number of outrageous folds and there is information on the Web if you can’t find them in hard copy.

Grammy Elaine and NY strips

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Warm potato salad in stainless steel bowl

Gramma Elaine is here so we grilled New York strips.  My Mom’s friend, Rita, joined in, as well as Jon, who is spending the weekend, so it was a hoot.  Accompanied by seared fig halves with walnut vinaigrette and warm potato salad a la Chef Erwin Pirolt (one of my cooking school instructors and arguably the most ornery) were the steaks grilled rare by Renate, Sr.  The backyard is a problem, though, in that we just cannot block the sun.  This is a by-product of having a corner house without a real backyard.  We have a couple of market umbrellas rigged up, but to no avail.  I love the space this house has to offer, but I miss my beautiful landscaping at the old Albany house!  We would have been able to eat this meal there in style. 

searing halved figs in skillet

Searing halved figs in skillet

To make the seared figs, just buy Mission figs, gently wash and dry, cut lengthwise and sear in a hot non-stick pan until browned, but not mushy.  Place them on a platter, cut side up.  Prepare a vinaigrette with 1/3 part orange juice, 2/3 part walnut oil, a splash of lemon juice, a dash each of ground rosemary and onion powder and salt and pepper.  Pour over figs.  Shave a bit of hard Italian cheese, like Asiago, on top, if you like.  Note that I include here photos of the warm potato salad in its first phase of construction, and when it has had time to marinate.  If I were you, I would allow it to do the latter.  By the by, sorry about the large quantities in the recipe, but if you are able to divide, you’ll be fine.  I also show the figs in preparation for those who have not worked with figs in the past.

Renate senior and jon at BBQ in summer of 2008

NY style crumb cake, where art thou?

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Half-eaten New York style crumb cake in a sqaure baking dish

New York City has the best crumb cake, often sold in individual squares like brownies, with about two inches of crumb topping.  I used to buy hunks every now and again at Mama Joy’s when I was at Columbia.  I was leafing through the May/June 2007 issue of Cook’s Illustrated, which has a decent recipe, though the crumb is not exactly right.  It’s good, but not spot on.  It tastes too much like brown sugar and is floury so I may try to futz with it.  They do, however, give you the technique for producing professional-level crumbs.  The one thing I discovered is that you need to wrap the cake well and let it sit overnight to get the right texture.  If you have a good recipe then please email it to me so I can once again enjoy one of the few cakes I actually like!

4th of July 2008

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grilled ribeye steaks on a plate

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!  We grilled ribeyes today.  Ribeyes be fatty and flavorful and good.  Since it’s a holiday, we went for the gusto.  I purchased a prime rib and cut the steaks myself.  Stupidly, I waited too long and was not able to find a bone-in cut, which I prefer for steaks.  Coarse salt and pepper and the Weber. 

roast caulifower in a blue speckled dish

We wanted something kind of light for the side dish, so I consulted The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2008, which arrived the other day, and latched onto the roasted cauliflower recipe (p. 12).  One piece of advice:  if you have convection, use if for the last two legs of the roasting process.  The cauliflower turned out great – nice and brown and not bitter.  The yogurt sauce accompaniment was a hit, and would work for many other things – even scrambled eggs, I think.  Just so you know, Cook’s Illustrated is a great bimonthly publication.  It’s part of the America’s Test Kitchen megalopoly, and focuses on perfecting and reinventing classics and popular current dishes.  This is the one food magazine I pay for. 

dip for roast cauliflower

At the end of the year they send you said “best of,” which keeps you from having to clip so many recipes.  I have never been steered wrong by these people.  Matter of fact, yesterday I made the fudge (p. 59) for a party Matt was going to today, since I had on hand several cans of sweetened condensed milk, a couple of pounds of chocolate from my 2007 Christmas candy making, as well as many, many walnuts.  I never much liked fudge, finding it grainy and unpleasant, but I trusted ATK enough to give it a go.  Honestly, this was the best fudge I ever ate.  It was like a lighter ganache – and not so sweet.  The fact that I used a fancy Valrhona varietal helped.  I will be making this again.

the best of america's test kitchen 2008 cover

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.