Tasting Spoons

- While we were in Idaho I snapped this photo in Sandpoint, the main town in that neck of the woods.

In our B&B room in Portland, we glanced at a book called The Two-Lane Gourmet: Fine Wine Trails, Superb Inns, and Exceptional Dining Through California, Oregon and Washington. In the chapter that talks about the development of wine through the ages, particularly the Etruscans (they were in Italy), it mentions:

By 300 C.E., the Romans were having limited success with corked ceramic bottles (amphora) designed by the Greeks, in which a heavy layer of olive oil - often more than half the container’s contents - was floated on top of the wine as a sealant. Still, you can imagine how that would taste after having been bounced around a bit in a storm, or hauled to market on a wooden cart. The Romans called it wine, but should have been sold as [an Etruscan] vinaigrette salad dressing.

This is another posting in my series about fruits and vegetables, all using information from Russ Parsons’ book, How to Pick a Peach. Cucumbers, although available here in So. California all year around, are at their peak this time of the year.

What I Learned:

• It took centuries of breeding to get what we know today as an edible cucumber.

• Wild cucumbers (from the Himalayan foothills) were impossibly bitter. They’re all part of the Cucurbit family.

• Basically the flesh of all cuke varieties is the same. It’s the skin that’s different, and the fact that one or more varieties are grown with no seeds (the supposedly burpless, hothouse type). They are grown in “cucumber convents,” so that bees can’t pollinate them, which would create seeds.

• News to me is that recent studies have shown that it isn’t the seeds at all that cause indigestion. Actually, it’s the bitterness in cukes that causes the indigestion part. That bitterness is mostly in the skin and around the stem. Remove those and you have mostly a burpless cuke.

• The hotter the weather, the more bitter the cucumber.

• Georgia and Florida grow about half of the cucumbers we eat, followed by Mexico. [Mine were grown here in California.]

How to Choose & Store:

• Moisture loss is the biggest problem for a cucumber, so select ones that aren’t shriveled or wilted. If you buy the greenhouse type, cut off what you need and leave the rest sealed in its plastic cocoon.

• Seal tightly in a plastic bag.

• Use them quickly.

Parsons included two recipes in this chapter: Cucumber Gazpacho (some stale bread, cukes, sorrel, garlic and yogurt) and a Cucumber, Beet and Feta Salad.

I’ve only posted one recipe using cucumbers – a recent one – for Cucumber Soup. And it’s a really good one, given to me by my friend, Jackie. That’s what made me think of this – I have two large hothouse cukes in the refrigerator now and need to make another batch of that soup. It’s so refreshing since we’re having hot weather here in Southern California.

My mother used to make a simple pickled cucumber - in a refrigerator container she’d put in some water (let’s say about 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup), some cider vinegar (maybe 1-2 T.), a sprinkling of sugar (probably about 1 tsp). She’d taste it and adjust it for sweet/sour balance, add some salt and pepper, then pile in the thinly sliced, peeled cucumbers. The liquid needs to cover the cukes. They would sit, refrigerated, for several hours or overnight having been stirred around a couple of times the first several hours.  If you happen to have dill weed (not seed), throw a bit of that in there too. My dad could just about eat his weight in those. My DH adores these, and I forget to make them. Adding Splenda instead of sugar works just fine.

If you’re a foodie, and have an interest in France (and French cooking), you’d likely enjoy reading Patricia & Walter Wells’ new memoir, We’ve Always Had Paris . . . and Provence: A Scrapbook of our Life in France. Now in their 60’s, the Wells have lead a charmed life, in my opinion. Not without a lot of hard work, however. They’ve now been there for over 30 years. Both from journalistic backgrounds (New York Times), they decided to take a risk and move to Paris. Their story doesn’t quite fit the romanticized vision of such a move - I assumed they lived high, in the toniest of digs. But, the reality was a small rented apartment, with minimal space and furniture. However, they managed that way for years and years. Meanwhile, Walter worked hard at the IHT (Int’l Herald Tribune) and Patricia was eventually hired by the New York Times to write a column about Paris/France from a food point of view. Both of them are “driven,” to keep working, to improve, to learn, to grow, but it’s all fueled by their utter love of life.

When exactly Patricia arrived on my foodie radar, I don’t recall, but it was a long time ago. She used to free lance articles in Gourmet, I believe, so I knew Patricia was linked to Paris somehow. I read her first Bistro Cooking cookbook, published after she’d lived in Paris for some years. Last year I bought Vegetable Harvest, a lovely book of every imaginable vegetable recipe. With this newest book, though, Patricia and Walter trade off telling the story of their lives, their jobs, learning French, cooking in their small Parisian apartment kitchen, their neighbors, the telephone system, and a lot about restaurants. The difference with them vs. us, the average joe, is that Patricia WAS on an expense account much of the time, so they were able to eat at some of the finest restaurants in that city, night after night, for free. I suppose, given those circumstances, when I might cook at home it would likely be simple food.

Eventually they bought an apartment and there were interesting tidbits about the renovation, which took nearly a year. Then they bought a farmhouse in Provence, and began going from one to the other place nearly every weekend. The Wells know/knew some very impressive people, (like Paul Bocuse, Joel Rubichon, Julia Child, even James Beard), but entertained them with relatively simple food when they visited in Provence. Patricia has a real willingness (and a competitive nature) to learn and make some very difficult food (more than I do, for sure). They raise a varied garden at their Provencal home. Eventually Patricia rented a Paris loft too and outfitted it as an office and cooking school. I’ve always thought it would be great fun to take a class from her. However, her Provence classes are $5,000 for 3 ½ days, not including lodging. Her entire cooking classes schedule for 2009 is full, as of this writing anyway.

With each chapter there are one or two recipes. Sometimes they were related to the chapter subject, or a recipe received from a local chef. The recipes are not particularly complicated except for the ones around foix gras. A few looked interesting: peach wine (homemade), dried cranberry and apricot bread, lemon chicken and scrambled eggs with black truffles. I didn’t buy the book for her recipes, though, but for the charming stories of their lives in France. They love it there and it shows. Highly recommended read.

It’s been six months or so ago that somebody,

on another blog, mentioned Russ Parsons’ most

recent book, “How to Pick a Peach: The Search

for Flavor from Farm to Table.” I always enjoy

reading his columns in the Los Angeles Times,

but hadn’t looked at the book. Visiting the

library recently, it was there and I checked it

out. This isn’t a memoir. It isn’t exactly a

cookbook, either. It is, however, an excellent  

guide and history about the most

popular/common of the produce we eat on a

day-to-day basis. I really expected to be bored

to tears. Wrong. I started reading at the

beginning and read it all the way through.

Parsons has included recipes with every

chapter, his favorites for that particular vegetable or fruit.

The history and story parts about each one are fascinating. Now, I’ll admit, this

isn’t exactly like reading Robert Ludlum, but if you’re a foodie, and you enjoy

choosing and EATING better tasting produce, you might want to read this book.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time - sometimes - choosing the best

produce. Even celery, for goodness’ sake. What IS it with celery lately - seems

like I keep choosing heads that are air and hollow within the stalks. Heavy with

strings. Seems like more than ever. Even lettuce - every 3-4 heads I buy, once I

cut into it, it’s got rust inside. And tomatoes. I adore tomatoes, but rarely do I

buy anything except vine-ripened anymore, or the little tiny ones. And then

there’s apricots. I’ve been so disappointed the last couple of summers with really

poor tasting apricots - mealy flesh and not good to eat. Even peaches and

nectarines are spotty at best. So, that’s why I picked up the book in the first

place. I hoped to find answers. Only time will tell whether the advice is useful

for shopping in a traditional grocery store. Farmers’ markets usually offer better

choices and fresh ones too, but it’s not always convenient.

So after finishing the book I got to thinking about how I could possibly remember

all the advice offered in the book. I can’t exactly carry the book around with me

every time I shop. I thought about using a big yellow pad and writing down the

crux of each one (refrigerate, not refrigerate, picking large vs. small, the coloring

of fruits, why to buy one variety over another). You know, that kind of thing. But

I realized this written thing was going to be quite long and detailed. Not something

I’d haul around with me in my purse when I go to the grocery story or farmer’s

market. What to do, what to do? I could put it into my Palm pilot which goes with

me most places. That actually might work; I’d just have to navigate to that file and

then find the right section describing the produce I’m pondering. And I may just

do that. Or, I could try to write just the barest of details onto 3×5 cards that could

live in my purse. I already carry around 3 such cards with slaps of paint on them

with the wall colors in our home, so adding 2-3 more would not be a big deal.

So what did I do? Well, I haven’t written it up for my Palm yet, but I will. Nor have

I written up the 3×5 cards, either. But first I went out and bought the paperback

edition of this book so I can mark up the pages however I wish. There were 8-10

recipes in the book that I wanted to keep anyway of the 100 in the entire book. 

What I did decide to do, though, is share some of the information with you. And

in the process, I’ll synopsize each chapter with the shortest of details you and I

will need to buy the best stuff. And I’ll include some of the interesting facts about

the different fruits and vegetables in Parsons’ book. You’ll learn something, and

I’ll maybe retain more of the information in my brain if I have to write it up! That’s

my plan. I’ll need to take my camera with me to the grocery store next time to take

photos of lots of different kinds of vegetables and fruits. Especially the summer

fruits that we only see some months of the year anyway. So, stay tuned.

Did you know  . . . according to Prevention Magazine (December ‘07) . . .

• “Cozying up with a good book shields your brain from decline. Baltimore’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology studied 112 factory workers with similar blood levels of lead, a known mental health hazard, and those with an 11th grade reading level or lower did half as well on cognitive tests as better readers. Researchers theorize that bookworms develop a brainpower reservoir that’s tapped when disease or aging threatens their gray matter.” And, the article also says:

• “The average number of books a person has read in the last year . . . 4.”

I read waaaay more books than that. I read a lot - not just books, but also magazines and a variety of things online. Puzzle type games are supposed to be good for our brains too. Well, considering how many solitaire games I play, the amount of reading I do, and the fact that I also graduated from college, with those statistics, I’m likely to live to at least 120 or more.

Once a year my AAUW Evening Books group (American Association of University Women - you have to be a college grad from an accredited school to be a member) gathers at my home for an annual potluck dinner. Other months of the year we trade around what house we visit. But December. Well, it’s always at my house. I have a big kitchen and this enormous 12 foot square island which makes easy work for a buffet dinner. And a dining room table that seats 12 with ease. And a view of the twinkly lights looking towards Newport Beach and Palos Verdes. I enjoy the Christmas decorating too. Everybody brings a salad, vegetable or salad, and a few people sign up for desserts (otherwise we’d have too many) and I provide the beverages (red and white wine, soft drinks, etc.) and an urn of coffee.

We enjoy our dinner - always lots of raves all around - we have some very good cooks in our group - and the desserts with coffee, then we gather in the living room, around the fireplace and tell stories. Or read a passage from a book, about Christmas. We don’t read a designated book in December. Nor do we do our normal sharing of other books we’ve read. This is just a time for reading aloud an article or very short story about the Christmas season. Some years people don’t have much to share; other years we have several who do. In many of the past seasons I’ve not shared because I didn’t have anything I thought appropriate. But this year I found a new book - A Family Christmas. See the red covered book below. I can’t say enough nice things about it. It’s an anthology compiled by Caroline Kennedy, with chapters divided up by aspects of the season: Santa Claus, Deck the Halls, the Christmas Feast, Winter Wonderland, with related poems, the words from Christmas carols, that pertain to these subjects. There are stories that could be read to children, others that are more complex, some almost academic in nature, about the history of Christmas, and lovely illustrations too. I have read about half the book so far and have pink stickies poking out of it in many places. All possible reads for the book group in coming years.
Speaking of Christmas books, I must share another book I own. Valerie in our book group brought this one December, and I had to have it. Seasons Greetings from the White House. It’s an absolutely charming book about the history of Christmas cards sent from the White House. Lovely photographs, fascinating history, and a nice coffee table book to put out in December. We’ve received 3 or 4 White House Christmas cards and I keep them in this book.

Ever since reading that book I’ve watched the Christmas special on HGTV, the one that shows the frantic decorating that goes on at the White House starting a few days after Thanksgiving. And it usually includes a segment about this year’s Christmas card. The White House Christmas 2007. Hundreds and hundreds of workers come in, working 24 hours a day, to get the White House completely decorated before the first Christmas celebration held at the White House every year, usually on December 1st. My Tivo has been programmed for a couple of weeks for this show - it’s on Sunday night, the 16th at 8:30 pm.

But, back to Caroline Kennedy’s book: if you’re still looking for something for someone on your Christmas list, this might just be the perfect answer:

So, I’ll close this particular posting with the first page in this book. It’s a letter found in the Kennedy family archives. Kennedy finds it “really embarrassing, but everyone else insisted we use it in the book.” It was Caroline Kennedy’s letter to Santa, December 19, 1962. She was just 5 - not old enough to write it herself, but dictated it to her mother, Jacqueline. It was to be her last Christmas at the White House.

Dear Santa:
I would like a pair of silver
skates - and one of those horse
wagons with lucky dips - and Susie Smart and
Candy Fashion dolls and a real pet
reindeer and a clock to tell time and a
covered wagon & a farm and you
decide anything else -
And interesting planes or bumpy thing he can ride in or some
noisy thing or something he can push or pull for John.
Love from Caroline
PS I would like a basket for my bicycle

I can hardly say enough good things about this book. I either heard or read an interview with the author, who was the White House main chef for 8 years - 4 years with the Clintons and 4 years with the Bushes. In the interview, he was very well spoken, and extremely entertaining, and I knew I needed - had to have - coveted - this book. Amazon loves me because this kind of thing happens to me often. Here’s the link on Amazon for The White House Chef, by Walter Scheib. Prior, he’d been the chef at the Greenbrier, that exquisite country hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, which gave him lots of credentials to fill the chef shoes at the White House. He already knew how to serve private parties of 8 and dinners for 1000. That place has always been on my want-to-go list, but it’s pricey. Very pricey.

So, now we go to last night. Since my dear hubby is sailing on the East Coast with our friends Jerry & Judy (I get seasick, so I don’t do small boats in the ocean; I rarely do big boats in the ocean), I made a vegetable dinner for myself and started reading. I kept reading. Did the dishes. Kept reading. Made myself some ginger-gensing tea and kept reading. Yes! This morning I made breakfast and started reading again. But then I got anxious to share this with you. So I haven’t finished it yet. I need to put flags in the book on interesting recipes to try.

Maybe this book wouldn’t appeal to just everyone. I enjoy reading about the behind-the-scenes stories of chefs. And what more interesting than at the White House, I ask? I have read Bourdain (eh, not so thrilled with his tyrannical nature), and recently read Heat, by Bill Buford (I liked this one a lot - it was almost a page turner). Then I saw an interview with Julia Child’s nephew, regarding the book about his aunt’s early years in France, My Life in France. I just loved that book. So much so that I bought one of her cookbooks because of it. (See, I told you I have a problem.)

So having gotten the White House Chef, here are my comments. It isn’t gossipy in the least. He’s very ethical and respectful of his position, and it didn’t go to his head, either. He honors the friendships with the First Families to not tell tales. But he does tell interesting stories - like the cooking lessons he gave Chelsea, teaching her to cook before she went off to Stanford, for instance. The most engrossing were the details of his job interviews and the luncheon for 10 people that was his interview with Hillary. Apparently he clinched the deal with lamb, which Hillary loves, but he didn’t know that little fact! Sadly, one small story - he arrived his first day of work with 25 knives, in his knife case, all personally monogrammed, and within two months all but two of them had disappeared. Amazingly hard to believe. Reading about the White House kitchen was also interesting, about the table settings, the flowers, the protocol issues, the food allergy issues for big dinners. All fascinating to me.

His recipes are do-able. They’re not pretentious or all that complicated. They’re not 30-minute meals, however. For the book he adjusted the recipes for the home cook, which is helpful. Hillary Clinton had a plan - she wanted him to showcase American homegrown products, and he celebrates them throughout the book. I like that. What better place than at the White House with State Dinners and hundreds of fancy events, to highlight America’s bountiful harvests.

I expect I’ll try some of the recipes soon. And I’ll post them when I do. The book is at least half stories and the remainder recipes, some photographs, and facts about the White House and staff. So if you have someone who loves reading these kinds of things (maybe you?), I highly recommend this book. Would make a lovely Christmas or birthday present too. It’s $16.47 at Amazon. But if you order several books the shipping is free. See how my logic goes?*

*My secret is that I keep a wish list on Amazon, so when I have enough there to qualify for free shipping, my wish list books can easily be dropped into my shopping cart. Yippee.