Brush Valley Brewer

Of 14 potential lunches and dinners a week, New Yorkers cook less than half — 5.4, according to the 2004 Zagat Survey — skipping the rest, or turning to restaurants for dine-in or takeout. National statistics are no more encouraging. According to the NPD Group, which surveys eating patterns, less than a third of main dishes are made from scratch, down 16 percent in the last decade. Little more than half of all suppers require use of a stove top, a 21 percent drop since 1985. And dinner parties are on the wane — we garnered 16 invitations on average in 1990; 12, in 2003. If dinner parties do happen, takeout tins often litter the kitchen.

It seems a bizarre paradox. The popularity of food porn — TV programs presenting not-always-realistic recipes and cooking techniques — continues to grow while most of us remain whiskless. And it’s not only an American trend. According to a recent survey published in the London Times, the British are also suffering a bit of fry-pan phobia, with restaurant spending there up more than a third in the last five years. [Amodio]

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Amodio, Joseph V. “Celebrity-Chef Backlash.” The New York Times. 28 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/magazine/magazinespecial/SECELEBCT.html> (3 April 2004).

I thought that this was a little wierd, but Amazon.com has some really good Tips for Entertaining and of course, that means food.

I have not had a chance to explore it fully, but it looks like Purdue University has a nice Guide to Medicinal and Aromatic Plants at their Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture site.

We are making refried beans (frijoles refritos) today.

Frijoles Refritos

• 1 pound dried Pinto Beans
• 2 strips Bacon
• 1 large Yellow Onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons Chili Powder
• 1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
• ½ teaspoon Salt

1. Pick over and rinse the pinto beans. Place them in a large pot. Add enough water to cover the beans and bring to a boil over a high heat. Remove from heat and let stand for an hour.
2. Cook the bacon in a skillet. When done, remove the bacon and drain on paper towel, reserving the rendered bacon fat.
3. In the reserved bacon fat, sauté the onion until translucent, then add the garlic and continue sautéing until lightly browned.
4. Add the sautéed onions and garlic, along with any remaining bacon fat to the bean pot, along with the chili powder, cumin, and salt. Cover the bean pot and bring it back to a boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer until the beans are tender — about an hour. Keeping track of the beans and add more water if you need to to keep them from scorching.
5. Eat the bacon.
6. When the beans are tender, drain off any remaining liquid, then mash them with a potato masher.

These freeze really well. Form about a cup of the beans into a patty and stack them, separated by wax paper, in a zip-lock bag in the freezer.

• In honor of April Fool’s Day, Wired News has an interesting article about net hoaxes. One of them is a link to Proline Computers and West Peak Gear that purports to be the purveyor of Dehydrated Water — Revolutionary! Just add water and drink!.

• I have no idea whether this is a hoax, but Richard L. Eldredge in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, reports:

  On Page 154 of [Southern Living magazine’s April issue], the first line of the recipe reads: “Bring one cup of water and ½ cup shortening to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat; boil 5 minutes.”

  It’s a safe bet that even Jessica Simpson could figure out that combining water, fat and high heat is not conducive to the continued well-being of your kitchen.

  When the magazine began receiving complaints, it retested the recipe and rushed out a media advisory this week: “Combining the water and shortening as described in the recipe may cause the mixture to ignite, is extremely dangerous, and could result in fire and safety hazards.”

Quartering a cabbage offers an easy solution to removing the core. To do this, cut the cabbage vertically in half through the core with a large knife. Then cut each piece again through the core. Cut out the portion of the core from all four pieces by slicing around it.

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Donna Pierce. “From the Test Kitchen.” Chicago Tribune. 31 March 2004. <www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-0403310118mar31,1,7528414.story> (31 March 2004).

I have decided to try to reduce the noise level in this blog a little bit. I still want to log what I eat, but I realize it is not the most exciting stuff in the world. So, I have decide to change the format of the food logs to cover a week at a time, rather than a day at a time. In my blogging tool, I will maintain this as a running draft and post it once the week is complete. As a result, you will not have to see this week’s food log until next Sunday Saturday.

Gretchen ordered some plants and seeds for our garden a few days ago.

• Winter Squash Cornells Bush Delicata
• Mesclun Classic Mix
• Lettuce Gourmet Blend (Looseleaf)
• Lettuce Little Caesar (Romaine)
• Corn Country Gentleman (Heirloom)
• Corn Golden Bantam (Heirloom)
• Bush Bean Tenderpick
• Spinach Baby’s Leaf Hybrid
• Blueberry – Collection
• Raspberry – Killarney (Standard Red)

Breakfast was two toasted slices of Gretchen’s Italian bread with homemade strawberry jam and a cup of coffee.

After breakfast, Gretchen and I went out to survey Winter’s damage. Along the way, I noticed that our crocus had finally opened.

Gretchen had gone postal on some volunteer Poplar trees that got away from a screen growing in our front pasture yesterday. We cut down the last few this morning.

After that, we thought we had earned a cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which we drank sitting on the porch and enjoying the view.

It was lunch time by then, so we went ahead and made three bean and cheese quesadilla’s and split them along with another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

After lunch, I went back out and edged the West side of the driveway (photo left). It does not sound like much, but it was more than 200 yards — far enough to wear through the skin on my hands. I will do the other side after my hands heal.

I just thought I would get another shot of the crocus.

We just had chips and salsa and another couple of Sierra Nevada Pale Ales for dinner.

I only had a cup of coffee this morning.

Of course, I had that coffee and biscotti at Starbucks this morning, also.

Lunch was the Panda Express kung pao chicken with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, a small sierra mist and a fortune cookie.

Grant yourself a wish this year;

only you can do it.

Lucky Numbers 10, 16, 24, 27, 30, 32

It was a beautiful evening… well, it was gray and threatening to rain, but it was 70°F out, and I had just bought a case of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, so this was the first time that Gretchen and I got a chance to sit on the porch after work and drink a beer and watch the world go by in a long time… and we liked it.

For dinner, Gretchen and I made Rachael Ray’s Smoked Turkey Baked Chimichangas again. Gretchen got a pound of smoked turkey from Honeybaked Ham Company and we used half of it. We washed it down with another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.