Waxhaw Farmer's Market Finds

I wish that I could do justice in photographing the beautiful fruits and veggies that I found at the Waxhaw Farmer's Market this morning.

We have a lady who grows organic veggies, makes her own soap, and is always ready with a suggested recipe. The carrots and beets in the picture came from her.

Bill and Donna Makuch, who started this farmer's market, provided the tomatoes and baby pattypan squash, and their neighbor went the whole way to McBee (pronounced Mac'-bee) and probably to McLeod Farm to bring back these giant, aromatic peaches. I'll have some photos over the next few days to share what I transformed these veggies into. Lyndsey (daughter) is going to make healthy, whole grain pancakes in the morning and has laid claim to the peaches for slicing over those. Of course, I'll take pictures of those, too!

At my farmer's market, I can find organic, TRULY free range chicken eggs, small-batch delicious goat cheese (chevre), pickles and fruit preserves, whole grain and organic pita and other breads, all the veggies I would want, herbs and even flowers far more beautiful that any local florist has.

If you haven't been to your local farmer's market and maybe don't even know where it is, go to Local Harvest to find a market near you and take advantage of it. You will be getting produce cut and pulled that morning, eggs freshly plucked from the nests, and will be able to shake the hand of the farmer that is providing the food for your table.

Chicken Vegetable Soup with Tortellini

Do you make your own chicken stock or do you have a favorite boxed stock? I do both depending on what I'm making. There is no substitute for homemade stock for some dishes, such as Southern Style Chicken & Dumplings and Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup, but there is great boxed stock and broth being made for our convenience now and since low-sodium and low-fat varieties are available, they are also much healthier than they used to be.

Price-wise, two boxes of really good quality stock (8 cups) will run you about $8.00 and the time it takes to open and pour them into your stock pot. Yesterday I made "from scratch" stock and it cost me $12 to make 8 cups, but then I had the bonus of the chicken to use and my house smelled fabulous all afternoon. So it was a wash as far as the price, but it also took about 3 hours to make and most days I just don't have that much time.

I made a great soup with my stock and vegetables from my daughter's garden. I've streamlined this recipe so you won't have to spend 3 hours making the stock before you even begin to make the soup. Using rotisserie chicken speeds up the process even more and you'll have a delicious, healthy and colorful meal in about 30 minutes!

Chicken Vegetable Soup with Tortellini

2 boxes good chicken broth or chicken stock (8 cups)
1 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped
1 medium yellow squash, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bag (9-16 oz.) frozen tri-color cheese tortellini
4 Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 T. fresh basil (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 T. tsp. fresh oregano (or 1 tsp. dried)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 rotisserie chicken, skinned and boned

• Pour broth or stock into stock pot.
• Add zucchini, yellow squash, onion, celery, carrots and garlic; cover and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
• Add tortellini and tomotoes. Run your knife through the fresh herbs to roughly chop them and add them to the pot. Cover and bring to boil; reduce heat to simmer for 3 minutes.
• Remove pot from heat and stir in the chicken. Adjust seasoning. Cover and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Cookies for Care Packages

Sending home-baked goodies to troops in the Middle East is tricky right now because of the intense heat there. Our son-in-law, who is in the Air Force in Iraq, says not to send chocolate because it will melt. Of course, that was a challenge that I couldn't ignore.

Once when I was in the American Southwest desert, we were hiking and when we returned to the Jeep, we found that we had left a zippy bag full of white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies lying in the sun. To our delight, the white chocolate chips were soft but intact and the cookies had that just-out-of-the-oven taste and texture! Wow....the heat could actually be to my advantage because he would be getting cookies that would be as good as if he were in my kitchen!

The next consideration besides affects of heat is the texture itself. They have to stand up to being thrown around in transit; what I didn't want was for him to open a box to find nothing but crumbs. The cookies would have to be dense but still tender and a bit crisp but not too delicate. And I did want to use real dark chocolate because, well, there is just nothing like chocolate to give you that sense of well-being! Here is the recipe I came up with. I sent them yesterday packaged in disposable plastic bins in a box full of magazines, and I doubled the recipe so that he can share both the magazines and the cookies with his troops. I'll let you know what he says when they arrive.

Death by Chocolate Cookies

1 pkg. (8 squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
1/2 – 3/4 c. all-purpose flour (start with 1/2 c. and add more as needed)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped nuts (pecans, macadamias, walnuts, almonds, etc.)
1/2 c. dried cherries or cranberries

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a large microwavable bowl in microwave for 2 minutes on high. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
• Stir in the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended.
• Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and then stir in the white chocolate, fruit and nuts. (The batter will stiffen as it sits.)
• Drop by spoonfuls (I use a one-ounce scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheets or preheated baking stones (that's what I use).
• Bake for 14 minutes or so until just firm on the edges but slightly soft on the top. These cookies are very dark so make sure you don't burn them.
• Remove from oven and cool cookies on wire racks.
• Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size spoon you use.

Wine with WHAT???

We all know the old "red wine with meat and white wine with chicken or fish" rule, right? Pretty simple thing to remember, don't you agree? But it's no longer as simple as it was in the '70s when our wine choices at most restaurants were simply "Burgundy" and "Chablis."

One of the most enjoyable things about exploring wine is doing it in the context of food. It's like creating a third dimension. For example, at a recent wine tasting at Global restaurant in Charlotte, NC, Chef Bernard Brunet offered a delicious New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that was quite everything that grape offers from New Zealand, bright acid and lots of vibrant, flowery and green flavors on the palate.

Now, we know that Sauvignon Blanc is generally a perfect pairing for salads with vinaigrette, seafood, Thai food, etc., but the server placed a neat shot of cold, sweet, cinnamony pureed acorn squash soup on my plate. My interest was peaked! I took a sip of the fresh, light and perfectly balanced soup, rolled it over my tongue and then, with a tiny bit of the soup still upon my tongue, sipped the wine. Amazing! The wine's acidity dropped and the vegetal qualities disappeared! The soup tasted less sweet and the squash flavor became more pure. They became the sum of each other's parts and in my mouth joined into harmonious balance. That, my friends, was a perfect example of a brilliant pairing of food with wine!

Albert W. A. Schmid, a renowned expert on wine and spirits and author of manuals for the hospitality industry advises, "If all else fails answer these three questions: Do you like the food you are eating? Do you like the wine that you are drinking? Why does this have to change? Perhaps you have stumbled on the perfect pairing between food and wine…for you. Trust yourself!"

So go out and have fun playing with your food....and wine. And don't worry if you think you might be breaking "the rules." Explore, experiment, and trust your own palate!

30 days to a New Habit

I've been doing some serious introspection lately...thanks to my fellow personal chef and buddy Debbie Spangler of Yummy~Issimo! Personal Chef Service. And she doesn't even know that she was the catalyst here.

I mean, just look at the last time I posted to this blog! And every day I get a post from Debbie, true to her commitment to naploblamo or whatever the heck it is! The key here is the commitment, whether to naplobano or your accountant or yourself.

There are so many positive things that we can do to improve our lifestyle/business/health/spirituality simply by doing away with negative habits and creating new, positive and beneficial ones.

There's a great blog called ZenHabits that I want you all to visit for inspiration. Scott Young posted 20 Tricks to Nuke a Bad Habit and I'm sure that in those 20 tricks you can find YOUR key to give you the strength to create that new good habit. Mine is #8: Make it an Experiment. Be a scientist. Just try the new habit to see what it will be like, rather than a great emotional struggle. This will help keep you focused on conditioning the trial and allow you to view results with less bias.

So, I joined NaBloPoMo because #1 of Scott's Tricks is : Commit for a Month. Thirty days is all you need to make a habit change permanent. Less time than that and the new alternative might not be hardwired into your brain. More time and any failures to last are usually a failure of strategy, not duration. Joining NaBloPoMo is a commitment to blog every day for a month.

Symbolic, I know, but maybe that will inspire me to do other positive things every day....such as exercise, filing, housework, laundry.....well....one thing at a time. After all, Scott's Trick #3 is: Start Small . Changing habits isn’t a matter of willpower, but patience and strategy. Don’t expect to overhaul your diet, exercise or thinking patterns in a day. Tackle one habit at a time.

See you here tomorrow!

Chinese Take-Out Party

I love Chinese food. Not the Chinese mega-buffets (we have two in our little town in South Carolina) but the Chinese food that I create in my own kitchen. Start with the basic cooking methods and flavors and just have a ball. I'm sure I've served up creations that a purist probably wouldn't recognize, but cooking IS an art, after all, and every cook should feel free to take artistic license with her creations. In fact, I insist on it!

Mochachocolata-Rita is hosting a Chinese Take-Out Party & Lucky Draw on her blog; be sure to pull out your favorite Chinese-inspired recipe and join the party! Here's mine; I have no idea where I found the original as it's been in my recipe files for a long time without credits, and I've made some changes in the meantime. Don't be afraid to try it, even if you think you don't like tofu. Even my tofu-less hubby loves this.

Tofu and Broccoli in Garlic Sauce

Sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Sauvignon Blanc wine
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground dried ginger
6 to 8 cloves garlic, crushed with a cleaver
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Beat all the sauce ingredients together in a small saucepan until peanut butter is emulsified. If necessary, heat very gently.

1 large head broccoli, cut into florets
2 yellow onions, sliced thin
16 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into 1 1/2-inch square blocks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Marinate tofu in the 1/4 cup soy sauce for about 15 minutes. Put all but 2 tablespoons of the oil into a large fry pan and heat until very hot. Fry the tofu cubes in the hot oil just until browned on each side. Remove them to a plate and pour off any excess oil. Put remaining 2 tablespoons oil in the pan. Reduce heat to medium. Stir fry the onion slices until they are soft and transparent and a tiny bit caramelized, about 5 minutes.
In a large stew pot, steam the broccoli pieces, covered, in 3/4 cup water for about 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Do not cook the broccoli for more than 5 minutes total. It should be slightly crunchy. Add the sautéed onions and sauce mix; blend together and heat through for about 1 more minute.
Taste the sauce - it should be very slightly sweet and "hot" from the red pepper, and extremely garlicky. Add another 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and/or a bit more red pepper flakes if necessary.
Just before serving, gently stir in the tofu cubes with a large spatula, being careful not to break them up. I serve this over brown rice.

Sugar Magnolia Not So Sweet

Last evening I went out to dinner with friends to try a new restaurant. First, I must come clean and tell you that this dinner group was comprised entirely of personal chefs. Yes, we are food snobs...just can't help it. We spend most days cooking and honing our craft for the enjoyment of our clients, so we really enjoy going out and having someone else do the cooking and serving.

Sugar Magnolia has a great online menu and I spotted a favorite wine on the wine list, so I was totally prepared with anticipation for a great evening at this new restaurant that touts itself as one of the "Top 10 new restaurants in Charlotte."

The waitress can set the stage from the get-go, and after sitting at the table for 15 minutes, I had to get her attention to come over and take our wine orders. Strike 1. I ordered a glass of the Pighin Friulli Pinot Grigio...., " May I please have a glass of the Pighin ("pigeon")?" She corrected me, "A glass of the "Pig-in." How irritating and unneccessary as she then informed me that they had just run out of the "Pig-in." My ruffled feathers were smoothed, however, when she brought out baskets full of the best cornbread and hushpuppies that I have had in years. I nearly melted with pleasure as I tasted the maple-butter on the cornbread! All was forgiven!!!!

The special for the evening sounded just wonderful, an 8-ounce mackerel steak sauteed with scallops and shrimp in a sauce of fresh cherry tomatoes and vegetables. Yum! The plating was beautiful and I was sorry that I hadn't remembered to bring my camera. (I always take pictures of food.)

My friend sitting next to me ordered the same special and we were ooo-ing and ahhhhh-ing and then we both tasted the sauce. "Hmmm....this needs something," she said. "Something flavorful," I agreed. "Capers and some hot pepper flakes." "Pass me the salt," she said.

First bite of the mackerel....1/4 oz. of fish and 1/4 ounce of big flat fish bones. The waitress happened by and asked how everything was, and I told her that there seemed to be a lot of bones in the mackerel on my plate. "I'm sorry," she looked down the length of her nose,"You must understand that this is a fish steak and not a fillet, so there will be bones and the chef leaves them in there to improve presentation. Try eating around the edges and not the center." Hmmmm. Who begins eating a steak of any kind in the middle?

Three more tries from different areas of the steak and the pile of bones on the edge of my plate threatened to spill onto the tablecloth. I took a tiny fourth mouthful of bones with a morsel of mackerel clinging to them and my stomach lurched and I just pushed my plate away.

I won't bore you with the details of what followed, but the waitress tried to force me to order something else, the manager blamed the waitress for not making it clear there would be bones in the fish, and finally the waitress came back with the check, apologized and told me there had been other complaints. Fine time to start to worry about a tip, honey.

Now, I must tell you that if there is one bad meal served in a hundred, it will surely come to me. It's a curse I've dealt with all my life. A flat fly resting under the slice of pizza when I lift it from my plate, raw ribs hidden under bbq sauce (see last post!), tuna cooked to dry wall consistency...oh...so many disasters. I'm used to it by now, but the consensus of opinion at the table last night was that everything was just so-so. Definitely not a good enough experience for me to either revisit or recommend. Not when there are so many other restaurants for us to try.

Here are some restaurants that I will return to again and again. There are many, but I'm just going to mention a few here. And in the meantime, we'll keep exploring!

Miro's Spanish Grille
Global Restaurant
Ilios-Noche
Firebird's Rocky Mountain Grill