The other day I wrote up a post that started out about cranberries, but ended up being a long story about how I lived in Rhode Island when I was about 14-17. In the process I did read a bunch of information about cranberries, and thought I’d share it.

• Cranberries are from a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs. The word derives from “craneberry,” from European settlers who thought the flower of the cranberry resembled the neck, head and bill of a crane.
• They grow in acidic bogs in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Cranberries are pollinated by honey bees and in any form we eat them, they contain good antioxidants.
• Henry Hall, an American Revolutionary war veteran, was credited as the first cranberry farmer on Cape Cod, about 1816. Wisconsin is now the leading producer of cranberries. Nowadays cranberry bogs are constructed with sand and the surface is laser leveled to provide perfectly even drainage. The bogs are frequently drained.
• A misconception is that the beds/bogs remain flooded throughout the year (like in the Ocean Spray commercials). Not so – they’re only flooded during harvest, or when the temps dip very low (the water protects them from completely freezing). If it does freeze, they drive trucks onto the ice to spread a thin layer of sand to control pests and rejuvenate the vines.
• White cranberry juice is made from fully mature cranberries, but done so before they attain the characteristic bright-red color.
• Fresh cranberries should be frozen in a home freezer for no longer than 9 months. Use the fruit directly without thawing.
• Canned cranberries are generally the below-grade fruit. The cream of the crop are the fresh bags we find in November & December.
• There was a scandal in 1959 when that year’s crop was tainted with traces of aminotriazole, an herbicide. The cranberry market collapsed. In years following, the cranberry industry introduced more year-round products (so they weren’t so dependent on a 2-month selling season) like mixed juices, and more currently dried cranberries.
• Ocean Spray (originally a cooperative with the A.D. Makepeace Company) has been in continuous production since the late 1800’s and is still the world’s largest grower of cranberries.

If this has been fascinating, you might want to look at the following:

University of Wisconsin cranberry website
Wikibooks: Cranberry
Wikipedia’s site
OceanSpray (main site)
OceanSpray’s most popular recipes

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Two years ago: Gulliver’s Creamed Corn

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This post started because I took some photos of cranberries just before I made my usual cranberry relish (with oranges and apples, plus ground ginger) just before Thanksgiving. Cranberries make such a pretty photo, don’t you think?

When I was a young teenager my parents and I moved to Newport, Rhode Island from our home in San Diego, California. My dad was in charge of the technical team (of about 8 families who all moved there) that built the first military computer for the Naval War College* there. A computer that was quite a jewel in the Navy’s crown, for performing strategic war games. It was a huge project, and the computer was housed in a building several stories high, about half the size of a city block. This was in 1955. How technology has changed since then, huh? We moved there for about 2 1/2 years, when I was 14. Having never lived on the East Coast, it was a big cultural change. I went from a junior high school here in California (8th grade), to being the youngster in a high school there (also 8th grade). I began wearing plaids. Wools. Heavy wool coats. Woolen socks. Galoshes. Yuk. Boots didn’t exist back then. We attended a Methodist church. We learned the nuances of clam chowder. We visited the first outlet stores from the woolen mills. I wore Daniel Green shoes. Fluffy petticoat lined skirts. We took lots of weekend trips, which didn’t excite me much back then, but now I realize how fun they really were. We went to Boston, into the hinterlands of Vermont, New Hampshire, Cape Cod, and to New York.

Perhaps I’ve told this story before, so pardon me if I repeat myself. My parents leased an apartment, sight unseen, by mail, a couple of months before we drove across the country. We took a nice driving vacation through the South en route. Across Texas. Biloxi. Key West. (No, Disney World wasn’t there at that time. Neither was Cape Canaveral.) Gettysburg. Washington, D.C. for just a day. Finances were a little tight, I think, so we stayed in motels, ate at very moderate restaurants. We did stay in New York City for one night too, and I got to see the Rockettes. We also ate dinner at an automat. I thought that was ever-so cool.

Finally we arrived in Newport. The apartment was one of two in a converted stable/carriage house on a palatial estate called Chastellux, along Newport’s Wellington Avenue of stately homes (built in 1854 by Richard Morris Hunt). The carriage house apartment was up a flight of steep stairs, had 2 bedrooms. Not a particularly attractive apartment, although it did have some character with a few nooks and crannies. No view, but it was a beautiful location. When it snowed, we were virtually captives because the elderly woman/landlady, Mrs. Lorillard Spencer**, who still lived in the palatial home didn’t want to pay for somebody to clear the interior road, although eventually she was forced to. I thought it was so fun to be snowed in. No school, etc. (That year there was a blizzard that left 5 feet of snow on the ground.) I befriended the older woman who was the landlady’s cook. She was from Sweden, and loved to bake. I remember visiting the cook on numerous occasions. She’d make a pot of tea and I’d help her cook. Well, mostly I watched, but we had a convivial conversation and I enjoyed listening to her stories about her homeland. The only thing I truly remember making with her was apple strudel. On the huge marble countertop in the palatial home’s massive kitchen island (back then palatial home kitchens did have islands). The landlady was not a happy person (as years have gone by I’ve realized that, certainly didn’t at the time). She was grouchy; she was a widow, I think, and lived there and in New York with just her and the cook. The cook went with her when she went to NYC. She did have a groundskeeper too, with the upkeep of several acres (probably 10, I’d guess). Occasionally the landlady would pop into the kitchen. And sometimes she didn’t like me even visiting the kitchen. Mostly because she thought if I was there, the cook wasn’t getting her job done as fast as she should. So I knew if there was any flak from the landlady, I was to leave immediately. And eventually the landlady said “no,” I couldn’t come visit the cook anymore. Sad for me.

I thought the big house, the carriage house, the stiff, unsmiling landlady were all very interesting. My parents didn’t. So promptly at 11 months renting, my dad wrote a letter informing the landlady that we’d be leaving in 30 days. We moved to a small 3 bedroom house closer to town. Where the roads were plowed. We lived there until my dad’s project was complete, then we moved back to our family home in San Diego, where I lived until I graduated from college.

I started out this post thinking I was going to write something about cranberries. All this was leading up to the fact that while we lived in Newport we did VISIT a cranberry bog. It think it was in Massachusetts. I found it fascinating – owned by Ocean Spray. So, tomorrow I will give you some info about cranberries.

In case you’re interested, I did a bit of online sleuthing:

* The [Naval War] college’s Center for Naval Warfare Studies is central to the Navy’s research efforts in maritime strategic thinking. One of its departments, War Gaming, introduced at Newport in 1887, allows students, joint and fleet commanders, and representatives of the Department of Defense and various governmental agencies to test operational simulations and advanced strategic concepts more than 60 times a year. Utilizing off-the-shelf technologies of video teleconferencing, computer simulation and World Wide Web capabilities, the Decision Support Center offers users an unparalleled selection of information gathering tools to support critical outcomes. . . .[from the Naval War College’s website]

In 1947, the NWC acquired an existing barracks building and converted it to a secondary war gaming facility, naming it Sims Hall . . . In 1957 Sims Hall became the primary center for the Naval War College’s war gaming department, serving as such until 1999. . .  [also from the Naval War College’s website]

** Mrs. Lorillard Spencer (Katherine Force Spencer) was the 2nd wife of Lorillard Spencer (married 12/7/1922). But they were very much “in” the New York City crowd. The 2nd wife apparently never had children. She was our landlady, I believe. Her sister was married to John Astor at one time, so the family was definitely connected. The 1st Spencer wife divorced her husband “on grounds of neglect and failure to provide,” according to the ancient newspaper clip I found online from the New York Times. Such interesting, wicked webs we weave.

A year ago: Chocolate Almond Saltine Toffee (oh, SO yummy)

Two years ago: New York Special Slices

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Since I’m going to be ultra-busy on Thanksgiving Day, I’m posting a little whimsy for you this morning. I’m not a huge poetry fan, but this one just seems apropos.

The Pumpkin

. . . Ah! On Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! The old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin, our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who traveled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

The thanks for thy present! None sweeter or better
E’re smoked from the oven or circles in platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o’re its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!
. . . John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

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This post is mostly a repeat from last year. I’ve updated it with some new additions (from a year of posts). But just in case you need some ideas for planning Thanksgiving, here are my suggestions.

If you want to see all the recipes on my website, check out the Recipe Index page. It’s huge – maybe too huge. But if you’d like ideas that I think make for a delicious but traditional Thanksgiving dinner, then look no further. Certainly, I return year after year to some favorite recipes, but most likely I introduce something new to the menu equation each year. As I write this I haven’t decided on my menu for Thanksgiving 2009 – yet. We’ll have 6 adults and 3 grandchildren for Thanksgiving dinner itself.

So here’s my roundup of recipes that are sure to please, have been taste-tested and some can even be made ahead:

Appetizers: It’s my opinion that too many appetizers will spoil your appetite for this feast-of-a-meal. Generally I’ll put out some raw vegetables and a dip, or nothing at all. Maybe some nuts. But that’s IT. Besides, if you’re anything like me, I’m buzzing around the kitchen with way too many things to do to take time for appetizers (either preparing, serving or eating). We definitely don’t serve a fancy drink, either. Wine or champagne and soft drinks will be around for anyone who wants them, but that’s it. Maybe some sparkling apple juice for the kids and non-drinkers. But, if you insist on something to serve ahead, here are recipes that would work. The first crostini happen to be a real favorite but they take a bit of fussy work to make them at the last minute – assign the job to one of your guests if possible. And the herb dip (which you’d never know is made with tofu) is relatively light, so serve with fresh veggies to dip or crackers. The onion brushetta – oh my, delish and not all that heavy. And the last crostini is very different, but not particularly light.
Crostini with Apples & Blue Cheese & Honey
Hot & Spicy Tofu Herb Dip – because it’s not heavy or filling
Mahogany Sweet Onion Bruschetta
Gorgonzola, Grape & Pine Nut Crostini

The Turkey, the Main Event: Having tried every single solitary type and brand of turkey out there over the years, I’m now totally devoted to Kosher turkeys. They’re brined, you know, already. So you don’t have to do it. Kosher brining is just a salt and water brine, no added herbs or anything, but it’s fine for me. It’s not too salty, either. Sometimes Kosher turkeys are hard to find, but they ARE carried at Trader Joe’s (the turkeys arrived last week here in So. California, and trust me, they’ll be gone fast if you don’t get one soon – they have a long shelf life) and at Whole Foods. I missed out at Trader Joe’s one year, so ended up buying two Kosher birds at Whole Foods. They were outrageously expensive (certainly more than at Trader Joe’s) but they were off-the-charts delicious. Even my husband, who isn’t crazy about turkey but eats it, said it was very, very good. So, get thy self to a market where you can get one of these birds. Know, however, that you may not be able to make the gravy from the drippings – generally the broth is too salty. You can try, though. You also don’t want to stuff a brined bird – too much of the salty brine leaches into the dressing.

The Gravy: Because I use a Kosher bird that is heavily salted, usually I have to make the gravy separately. My friend Stacey sent me a recipe last year for a Turkey Gravy Without the Turkey. It was a great find, as you can make the gravy the day before! How about them apples! Everything I can do ahead is a good thing in my book.
Turkey Gravy without the Turkey

The Stuffing (Dressing): Over the years I must have made dozens of different dressings. I’m not overly committed to any one flavor (like cornbread, or oyster, etc.) but prefer a very moist, flavorful dressing. That’s all I ask. Last year I made an Italian sausage dressing that was one of the best I’ve ever done, so will likely make that one again. I’ve also made a Rachel Ray recipe called Stuffin’ Muffins one year – and they were also very good.
Italian Sausage Dressing
Rachel Ray’s Stuffin’ Muffins (pdf)

The Potatoes: Well, mashed potatoes are a necessity for me. And I was thrilled one year to read a recipe for making them several hours ahead, piling them into my big crockpot where they held very well for the ensuing hours. You do have to doctor-up the recipe a little to make them particularly moist, but otherwise they’re so simple and I like the fact that all the work can be done ahead. If you don’t want mashed, but prefer another type, there are a couple of other scalloped-type suggestions listed below the mashed.
Crockpot Mashed Potatoes
Goat Cheese Potato Gratin
Monterey Scalloped Potatoes with Jack Cheese
Mashed Potatoes with Bacon, Cheddar & Chives

The Sweet Potatoes: You won’t find a single one of those icky sweet potato casseroles here. I can’t stand them. They’re simply too darned sweet. But I do have a couple of sweet potato dishes that would be quite nice. Generally I fix either mashed potatoes OR sweet potatoes, not both.
Sweet Potato Bake
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Yam Slices with Garlic & Rosemary
Yams, Carrots & Ginger

The Vegetables: Over the years I’ve served just about every kind of vegetable. Some to acclaim, and some not. I happen to love Brussels sprouts (steamed, halved and tossed with salt, pepper and butter), but since Thanksgiving is often a family and multi-generational affair, my DH and I have learned to eat our Brussels at another meal. I like peas, but they’re not very exciting, and besides since this is an overly-rich carbohydrate meal, I don’t serve them anymore. Same goes for corn. I used to serve a baked corn casserole nearly every year, but no longer. So what do I serve? The garlic green beans fit well, although some might not like the garlic with this meal. It’s fine with me. Here are some suggestions:
Broccoli Casserole
Garlic Green Beans – may be too garlicky for the subtle turkey
Baked Fennel
Green Beans, Shallots, Balsamic
Ina Garten’s Zucchini Gratin
Baked Onions
Cauliflower, Bacon & Mushrooms
Brussels Sprouts with Cream
Green Beans & Hazelnut Butter
French Green Beans with Pears & Parmesan

Bread: I don’t serve bread at Thanksgiving any longer. I mean, really, with dressing, potatoes and pumpkin pie, you hardly need any more carbs. But if you insist, here are a few recipes that will work:
Herbed Biscuit Ring – made with the canned biscuits – very easy
Drop Biscuits
Goat Cheese Chive Biscuits

The Salads: Since I grew up with Jell-o salads as a staple at the holiday table, I actually like them, as long as they’re not too sweet. Also, I like them because they’re easy and can be made ahead. You can also make them not-so-sweet if you add vegetables instead of fruit and/or whipped cream. I’ve never blogged about them because you, my loyal readers, might cancel your subscription! One of my favorites is a peach flavored gelatin with a waldorf set of ingredients (diced apples, celery and walnuts). Or, in recent years we also make a green salad. We have family members who still love a green salad anytime, anywhere. They’d almost rather eat green salad than the rest of the meal. So, with that one I would add some of my peppered pecans, or walnuts, pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries. Those additions make it more festive and holiday-ish.
Green Salad with Peppered Pecans and add some dried cranberries too
Cranberry (Jell-o) Waldorf Salad – I’ve never blogged about this one, but you can get the PDF recipe by clicking the recipe title
Apple, Cherry & Walnut Green Salad – very rich, but would be perfect for a holiday dinner
Celery, Date, Walnut & Pecorino Salad – green type, but perfect for this meal

The Cranberry Thing: Some of our family members still like the canned stuff. (They have to bring it if they want it at my table.) No canned stuff for me. So I always, I mean always, make my favorite cranberry relish that has ginger, apples and oranges ground up in it. Make it a week or so in advance then you don’t have to worry about it except to put it out in a serving bowl.
Cranberry Relish – made in the food processor and oh-so easy

Dessert: Well, what can I tell you but we always have traditional pumpkin pie. As far as I’m concerned that’s all that’s needed, but generally somebody else brings the pies at our family get-togethers, and they bring both pumpkin and apple. With real whipped cream, thank you. And the pumpkin usually is Libby’s recipe, Libby’s pumpkin. That’s it. End of story. But, if you don’t really want pumpkin, here’s a really special dessert that will put your carb count into overdrive.
Cinnamon Raisin Apple Bread Pudding

Leftovers: Well, other than reheating the different components of Thanksgiving dinner, I generally make soup.

THE STOCK: I remove most of the turkey meat from the carcass after the big feast. The bones go into a large, deep soup pot (you may have to break them up some), cover with water and add an onion, some celery, a bay leaf, maybe a garlic clove or two (no salt), put a lid on it and put it in the oven overnight at about 225F. In the morning you’ll have a wonderful turkey stock from which to make soups. Strain everything through a colander and cool and chill. The only down side for me is that on Friday morning the whole house smells like turkey, and sometimes that’s not so appealing at 7:00 in the morning. But, that doesn’t ever keep me from doing it because making that stock is just so easy.

Go from there . . . Here are my leftover favorites:
White Chicken Turkey Chili
Chicken Turkey Posole
Turkey (free form) Tortilla Soup
(Another) Chicken Turkey Chili
Southwestern Turkey Chili
White Turkey Chili (what I did with the leftovers last year – maybe my best turkey chili)
Roasted Sweet Potato & Black Bean Salad (if you have plain sweet potatoes left over)

SANDWICH BREAD: And then, last but not least, I’m telling you about a bread – a bread that you should use for turkey sandwiches. I’ve been making this bread for years and years and years. It’s not difficult (easier if you have a stand mixer), although it IS a yeast bread, not a tea bread. It’s a pumpkin flavored bread, with some raisins and chopped walnuts in it, but it’s more a savory bread and goes just great with leftover turkey sandwiches, especially spread with just a little bit of cranberry relish, crisp lettuce and nice slices of turkey.
Pumpkin Raisin Yeast Bread for Sandwiches

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All the information below comes from Russ Parsons’ book, How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table. It’s a book I refer to over and over. It’s such a treasure-trove of veggie and fruit information I can’t begin to remember it all. Like whether a fruit should be allowed to sit at room temp, or refrigerated, or whether to choose a firm unripe fruit, or a perfectly ripe one, how many days pears need to ripen, or which fig varieties are the best. And in this case, whether kabocha squash requires a different kind of cooking method than, say, a butternut.

It was news to me that winter squashes are grown around the world, but there are over 350 varieties of North American squash. Seems like I know – maybe – about 10. Or 12. But no more than that! When you see a display of winter squashes at a farm stand or farmer’s market, you’ll likely see about 4 or 5. But actually, there are three different types: Cucurbita pepo (stems are angular and flared where they attach to the squash); Cucurbita maxima (stems are round); and Cucurbita moschata (stems are smooth and grooved). Each of those is like a family. Within each there are lots of varieties.

Actually, winter squash is a vining fruit (have seeds? it’s fruit). Meaning that the Cucurbit family also contains cucumbers, melons and all types of squash, winter and summer. Winter squashes are allowed to mature on the vine, which gives them time to develop a hard shell. That’s one of the differences from summer squash. The hard shell allows it to keep in cold storage. Think Grandmother’s root cellar . . . she harvested the squashes and stored them in the cold cellar where they’d be quite content for months and months, clear into mid-winter.

Parsons talks specifically about pumpkin. Since I’m a real fan of pumpkin anything, I found this interesting. Most of the pumpkin used for canned pumpkin (think Libby’s) comes from a different variety altogether – something more similar to butternut squash. You may know already that the only variety, just about, that can be used for baking and desserts is a “sugar pumpkin.” The pumpkins we know so well that sit in mounds in our grocery stores is not an eating pumpkin. It’s grown just for decoration and carving.  Definitely not for eating.

The book recommends that, for all intents and purposes, there are really only four major types of winter squash that we eat – at least here in North America:

ACORN: Likely the most familiar type (after pumpkin). Parsons calls it a middle-of-the-road squash. Skin is dark green with blushes of orange; flesh is pale to medium orange, texture semi smooth and rich, moderately sweet. Table Queen is a good variety.

BUTTERNUT: Choose ones that have a FAT neck and smallest bulb (meaning it will have a smaller seed cavity and the most squash meat). This happens to be Parsons’ favorite squash.

CARNIVAL: Looks like a harlequin acorn squash with a patchwork of dark green and bright orange. Flesh is dark orange, slightly fibrous, complex flavor, rich, sweet, earthy note. [Gee, almost sounds like I’m describing wine . . .]

KABOCHA: Round, flattened, dark green skin with delicate gray-blue tracing, or all-green and all-orange); flesh is pale to medium orange, very dense, smooth, sweet, nice green squashy edge (Parson’ words) backbone.

Choosing Squash: Here’s news to me . . . examine the STEM . . . it should always be present on the squash AND it should be dry and corky, which tells you it stayed on the vine until it was almost ready to fall off. Color deep and vibrant. Matte, not shiny skin. Cure it for up to two weeks – out on your kitchen counter. Acorn, carnival types should be refrigerated. Once squash is “cured,” it should be stored at about 50 degrees. Refrigerating will deaden the flavor.

Cooking Squash: Cooked with moisture (some moisture, not covered) the flavor is subtle with a delicate texture. Baking will bring out the caramelization, the natural sugars. Pan sautéing winter squash may be the best option – it caramelizes on the outside and stays sweet and subtle on the inside. You get the best of both cooking methods.

Recipes: Parsons includes three variations with winter squash – Winter Squash Risotto with Walnuts and Fried Sage Leaves; Mushroom & Spaghetti Squash Gratin and Parmesan Bread Crumbs; and Caramelized Winter Squash with Rosemary Gremolata.

Here on my blog you’ll find the following recipes utilizing some kind of winter squash: Butternut Squash Risotto with Pancetta (oh yea, fabulous), Thai Pumpkin Curry Soup, Crockpot Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger & Jalapeno,  Yams, Carrots & Ginger,  Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Pancetta, Garlic & Sage , Butternut Cube Fries, Roasted Butternut Squash Soup,  Butternut Squash Soup with Zippy Jalapeno & Ginger (a favorite).

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I’m just tickled pink. I won/got an award. No, it’s not an Emmy, or an Oscar, or anything near so glamorous. But it’s meaningful to me. It’s a blogger to blogger award, called an Over the Top Award. From one blogger to another blogger, giving her/him some recognition for good work. In this case, Ninette, over at Big, Bold Beautiful Food, has been interested in my photos, particularly the close-ups. The ones that make you want to reach right into the monitor and grab a bite.

So, what’s the big deal about an Over the Top award? Well, from your end, probably nothing. And maybe from my end nothing I can hold or put on my mantel. I just get to give a big cheesy grin and say thank you. But I’m asked to answer these questions below with one-word answers. That’s a whole lot harder than you might think. Lots of these kinds of blog quizzes are inane; this one among them. But oh well . . . here goes. If you want recipes, skip this and wait until tomorrow. If you’re interested, scroll down to the bottom and see the other bloggers I’m awarding the Over the Top Award.

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your hair? RealBlonde
3. Your mother? Heaven-land
4. Your father? Heaven-land
5. Your favorite food? Everything
6. Your dream last night? Uhm. . .
7. Your favorite drink? Champagne
8. Your dream/goal? Centenarian
9. What room are you in? Kitchen
10. Your hobby? Watercoloring
11. Your fear? Drowning
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Healthy
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Atheist
15. Muffins? Chocolate
16. Wish list item? Camera lens
17. Where did you grow up? California
18. Last thing you did? ApplePie
19. What are you wearing? Sandals
20. Your TV? HDTV w/Tivo
21. Your pets? None
22. Friends? Dear
23. Your life? Busy
24. Your mood? Calm
25. Missing someone? Hubby
26. Vehicle? BMW
27. Something you’re not wearing? Watch
28. Your favorite store? Trader Joe’s
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Last week
32. Your best friend? Cherrie
33. One place that I go to over and over? Peet’s
34. One person who emails me regularly? Jerry
35. Favorite place to eat? Jalapeno’s

The bloggers I’d like to recognize . . . ARE (cue dramatic music and drumroll):

Cheryl from 5 Second Rule – Cheryl is a professional food writer living in Northern California. Since she IS a pro at this writing game and well-connected in her field, you can guess her blog posts are exceptional. She composes essays and informational posts about a broad range of food-oriented subjects, and shares some very different recipes. She also takes great pains to compose striking photographs.

Marie’s blog, A Year From Oak Cottage – Marie lives in the country in England. She’s a very spiritual person, is madly in love with her husband and is not bashful about broadcasting it. She is also a professional cook who has an unlimited number of recipes she unearths from her old, but precious “blue notebook.” Marie also writes a second food-only blog called The English Kitchen. Even though she’s from Canada, she has embraced English food with a vigor.

Britt-Arnhild at Britt-Arnhild’s House in the Woods (not all blogs I read are about food) – This one comes from Trondheim, Norway. Britt-Arnhild is an avid photographer, travels often all over Europe for her job, loves lattes, her family and Venice, not necessarily in that order! She’s a published author, but you’ll learn a lot about her through her very soul-sharing blog. She writes five blogs (at least one of them written in Norwegian, her native language), one being a photo-blog about her home town of Trondheim.

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Every time I pop my package of frozen bacon out of the freezer, and somebody happens to be here, they usually ask “what’s that?” And I explain that these are my bacon rolls. “Bacon rolls? What are bacon rolls?” I’ve mentioned them here before, and I don’t recall where I heard this suggestion. Probably at a cooking class. When I buy bacon, usually I buy the uncured nitrate- and nitrite-free Niman Ranch thick bacon (carried at our local Trader Joe’s, and some upscale markets). It’s a rare morning when we eat bacon and eggs, so a package of bacon lasts a long time at our house. This uncured bacon doesn’t have a long shelf life, so the best thing for me is to freeze it. Mostly I use it in cooking, to flavor things. Like a stews, soups, green beans, or sprinkled on a salad even.

So, the above picture shows you what I do with them. I let the bacon package sit out at room temp for about 10 minutes. Otherwise when you try to pull off the first bacon strip, it almost tears, and it’s hard to roll, almost cracking in the process. Once it’s warmed a bit, the slices are easy to pull apart and roll up. So, I carefully peel off each strip of bacon, roll it up in a tight little ball and place it on a foil-lined baking sheet, with the end edge down. Just press the roll down a bit and it will stay firmly in place. The tray you see above was before freezing . . . I just pop that tray into a flat place in the freezer, loosely covered with another sheet of foil, until they’re frozen solid, then the whole batch is wrapped in heavy-duty foil and placed in a heavy-duty freezer bag. The bacon keeps for months. Then, whenever I need bacon, I just pull out ONE roll/strip. Or, I may even cut one of the rolls in half and use just that. Cutting frozen bacon is very easy because the fat doesn’t freeze very hard – a good butcher knife will sink right through. I find chopping frozen bacon far easier than crumbling or chopping it up later.

So, there’s one of my pantry secrets, if you can call it that!

A year ago: “Divorce” salad dressing (the story was better than the dressing, but it’s good for a laugh)

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Every time I open Russ Parsons’ book, ‘>How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table, I learn something. His book is so informative without being pedantic (too wordy, drivel type or preachy). He gives you the facts in a couple of different forms, as well as a few recipes, his favorites for that particular fruit or veggie. So it was that I learned we Americans are quite proprietary about our apples. Parsons thinks it’s because of our pioneer heritage – we hold hardiness and plain goodness as really important. We used to dominate the apple market worldwide, but no more. Bet you’d never guess who’s moved into first and second place, would you? (1) China; and (2) Chile. Those were surprises to me.

China barely knew apples 30 years ago, but they now harvest a third of all the apples grown in the world. But, there’s a bit of trouble in river city . . . the Chinese haven’t worked out storage very well, nor have they excelled with apple quality either, so they haven’t totally controlled the market. Yet.

It used to be that Golden & Red Delicious were the “IT” apples here in the U.S. But they’ve slid way down the desirable scale (more on that story below). So varieties like Gala, Fuji, Honey Crisp and Pink Lady have slid up into top types. Apparently Golden Delicious apples used to be a really superior apple – but only when it was allowed to mature on the tree to a golden hue. But the farmers and producers were lured into harvesting and shipping early, when they were still green, and the apples suffered. That’s still the case, unfortunately.

Then there’s the Red Delicious. I can recall that being one of the few eating apples I ever bought from about 1965 to 1995. But something happened to the red variety farming. Because we consumers wanted redder varieties, the farmers began pushing the producers of tree seedlings to bring out redder skinned apples. Guess what? The taste suffered because when skin darkens it becomes more bitter. Now we see red delicious that are almost black in color. Not good. We continued to buy them, because we trusted the variety. I stopped buying them some years ago when I couldn’t seem to find a really crisp one anymore. Every Red Delicious I bought was soft and mealy. We consumers buy fruit too much on color and may not realize the blacker the skin the more bitter the finish.

Finally, apple eaters began complaining, but the farmers didn’t want to hear it. They thought they had a lion by the tail and weren’t about to change their ongoing success. Eventually we did stop buying this old favorite. So the farmers began selling their product abroad. No, they weren’t going to change the breeding. They found exporters, instead. Then, as Parsons puts it, the sleeping giant (China) woke up and began producing big time, so American farmers suddenly lost business. Big time. During the last 15-20 years thousands of apple farmers went out of business. Trees and orchards were upended and farms sold. Some apple farmers had begun growing Pacific varieties (Fuji from Japan and Gala from New Zealand) and when they couldn’t sell them abroad they began selling them here. Voila! We started seeing them in our markets. Now they’re fairly standard issue.

So here are the different varieties he discusses (when I mention below about storage, it’s mostly the cold storage at harvest, not our home refrigerator chilling):

FUJI: a Japanese-bred cross between Red Delicious and Ralls Janet. Holds its shape during cooking, good sauce apple, buttery flavor. Stores well, but don’t buy them past mid-summer.

GALA: Cross between Cox’s Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious. A tart apple, golden with pinkish orange strips. Good for cooking, sauce, buttery flavor with a hint of spice. One of the earliest harvests. Does NOT keep well once purchased, so eat them up right away and stop buying in early Spring.

BRAEBURN: one of the first Southern Hemisphere apples to become popular. Probably a chance seedling from cross-pollination between Lady Hamilton and a Granny Smith. Spicy, tart bite, juicy crisp texture. Good for cooking, stores well and okay to buy into early summer.

JONAGOLD: New York apple, an offspring of Golden Delicious and Jonathan. Tangy, slightly soft, though, when eating out of hand. Not good for storing and don’t buy them after Spring.

EMPIRE: Also a New York apple, mostly available on the East Coast [I’ve never seen an Empire apple here in California]. A cross between McIntosh and Red Delicious. Good flavor, holds its shape in cooking, but buy before the end of Spring.

PINK LADY: From Australia. Crisp and honeyed, pinkish cast, a champagne tartness, and one of the last apples harvested, usually starting in late September. Stores well.

CAMEO: A chance mutation in Washington State from a Red Delicious. Bright red-striped with unique white spots. Good flavor, sweet and mildly tart. Lots of crispness and staying power. Because of its dense flesh, Cameos take longer to cook than most apples.

HONEYCRISP: Crisp and sweet, holds its shape during cooking, red with a golden background [our Costco has them right now in a 12-pack]. Developed at the University of Minnesota, mostly grown in northern Midwest. Remarkable storage characteristics, i.e. does well in long storage. Interesting to me is that scientists have done DNA testing on apples (yes, really) and have discovered the Honeycrisp is not a cross between a Macoun and Honeygold, and they still don’t know its heritage.

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Grown: Washington State, New York, Michigan, California and Pennsylvania

Choosing: look for smooth skins, deep color; yellow apples should be golden, striped apples have a background that’s golden. Look for heavy apples that are firm.

Storing: In the refrigerator, as close to 32 degrees as possible; lots of humidity – best in a perforated plastic bag that will retain water, but not collect it. Your crisper drawer is best. Red Delicious apples are the first ones that turn brown once they’re cut – but all apples will keep for awhile if you put them in acidulated water – lots of water plus fresh lemon juice.

Recipes: Parsons included his favorite baked apple recipe (brown sugar and butter only); also an applesauce made with bourbon, sour cherries and hazelnuts; and a gratin of apples and dried cranberries.

Here on my blog you’ll find apple recipes for the following:

Escarole, Belgian Endive & Apple Salad
Bombay Cheese Ball (best served with apple slices)
Cinnamon & Apple Bread Pudding
Baked Brie & Apples
Caramelized Apple Gingerbread
Grandgirl’s Fresh Apple Cake
Crisp Apple Pudding (my all-time favorite apple dessert)
Apple Buttermilk Scone Round
Applesauce Spice Cake with Caramel Glaze (a real favorite)
Apple Pear Upside Down Cake
Apple & Parsnip Soup
Cranberry Relish with a Zip (I make this, without fail, every Thanksgiving)
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (includes roasted apples and onions)
Apple, Dried Cherry & Walnut Green Salad
Crostini with Apples, Watercress & Blue Cheese (one of my very favorite appetizers)

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A few years ago my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class (at a wonderful venue in San Juan Capistrano that is no longer a cooking school) where the subject was apples. No ordinary apples however, but mostly heirloom ones. About 15 years or so ago my DH and I were with good friends, Jerry & Judy, on a driving trip in New England – in September when the leaves were just beginning to turn – and the first farm stand I saw with a big sign announcing “Fresh Apples,” I yelled and asked if we could stop. Back here in California it was in the high 90’s, but that Fall day in Vermont or New Hampshire, it was c-o-l-d, misting with rain. So East Coast Fall. I promptly bought about a dozen apples, of three varieties. I know one of them was Northern Spy. Another had “black” in the name, but I don’t recall it. The flavors were sublime. Different.

You see, where we live in Southern California, we can get nothing – and I mean nothing – except Golden, Pippin, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, McIntosh, Jonathan, Fuji, Braeburn (my DH’s favorite), and now the new Honey Crisp. Occasionally we can find Gala too. As I’m writing this I’m thinking that for many people that’s a LOT of types. But after years and years of those, and knowing there are others out there that offer very different flavor and texture, I’m in an apple-want state of mind. Actually most of those don’t come from California, but from Washington State. We have no heirlooms at all in our neck of the woods. I don’t believe they’d grow here even if we tried since our climate is only good for a couple of unique varieties (Anna, for one). We had an Anna apple in the backyard of our last house. The new owners tore down all of our gorgeous fruit trees (about 5) and put in an expansive cement-lined dog run. Makes me sad just thinking about it because the Anna tree produced some really nice apples.

So anyway, back to that cooking class. We tasted apples of a plethora of types. All very different. And from that class I still make two of the recipes – the Apple, Blue Cheese, Watercress & Honey Crostini, and the Caramelized Apple Gingerbread. There were another 5 or 6 recipes from that class, but they weren’t as memorable as the above.

The cooking class included information from the apple supplier, Applesource in Chapin, Illinois. You can order all their products online. We sampled 12 varieties that day. I made notes that the Calville Blanc was a French dessert apple (soft, good for Tarte Tatin), that Jonalicious is soft, juicy, high sugar, though. And that I liked the Macoun (like a McIntosh). And I knew I liked Northern Spy. The quote included about that apple was: “There’s no pie like a Spy Pie.”  But there were other types: Matsu, Pink Pearl, Ashmead’s Kernel (tart, firm), Cox’s Orange Pippin (very popular in the U.K., crisp, special aftertaste, but also soft, unlike our American Pippins), Esopus Spitzenberg (supposedly the parent apple of a Jonathan).

So recently I suggested to my friend Cherrie that we share an apple purchase from Applesource. The boxes arrived about 2+ weeks ago, and they’ve been stored in our wine cellar ever since. Every few days I pop down there and pick out a new variety to try. All heirlooms. Many different types than the ones we sampled at the class. All enjoyable. We’re only had four of the 12 so far. And they were on the pricey side, what with shipping and all. The idea (I thought) was that if we found some we really, really liked, maybe I’d order a bigger box of one or more of them. I might still do that, but I must remember that the shipping takes the price way up there in the stratosphere. You really want to be an apple connoisseur to do that. What we ordered was an “Antique Sampler.” They also have a (regular) Sampler of 12 too. The types change with whatever varieties happen to be ripe at the time you order or they ship.

We also ordered their cookbook. I haven’t yet made anything from it, but it’s a nice book and full of many different kinds of dishes, all using apples in one way or another. On Monday I’m going to write up a different kind of apple post – more info about apples in general. So stay tuned if you are an apple lover like I am.

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Actually, I’m very blessed to have a husband who LIKES grocery shopping. In fact, he will always do my shopping for me if I just tell him what I need. (For those of you who are new to my blog, my hubby’s parents used to own a gourmet grocery market in Ocean City, New Jersey, when he was growing up, so his interest in food started way back.) Anyway, we’re having a big dinner party here at our house tomorrow (more recipes will be coming up), so I created the grocery list a couple of days ago, and he happily went off to about 4 different stores to buy everything I needed. Yesterday morning I started working on some of the menu items – to get them done ahead of time – so I’m not so stressed tomorrow.

But, we always have a discussion about the list before he leaves. I’ve learned to be VERY specific. With brand names, ounce-sized cans or bottles, shapes, colors or labels, with basil or without, tubes. It’s taken some years to “train” him. Yes, it’s true. But I luv him and am very appreciative that he does this chore for me, week after week. (I’ve told you before, I have a wonderful husband – he even does all the dishes too.) But there are mistakes. Maybe not every week, but often enough. Some have been funny. Mostly he’s good about taking something back. Sometimes not very, especially if I haven’t been specific ENOUGH.

A couple of weeks ago I asked him to find some cans of shoe peg corn (for the Corn & Black Bean Salad we had at our friends’ home in Oregon). He couldn’t find it. Nor did he know what it was (I did explain about it before he left, and he phoned at least twice to ask more questions about it). Three stores didn’t have it. (I finally found it at an independent grocery store the following week – it is a little elusive – but now I have two cans on the pantry shelf.) Last week I made Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins, and discovered I had no canned pumpkin. Therefore canned pumpkin (2 cans) was on my grocery list. Without calling me, Dave made a management decision and bought the only thing he could find – Pumpkin Pie Mix. Oh, dear. I really hated to tell him I couldn’t use that.

He actually paid me a huge compliment when he said “honey, you’re such a whiz at baking, I knew you could make this work, since this is all I could find.” But when it comes to the chemistry of baking, I decided no, I couldn’t adapt it. Maybe I could have researched on the ‘net to find some kind of alterations to adapt a pumpkin pie (using pie mix vs.. canned pumpkin) but for muffins I didn’t want to take that chance. Besides, the spices were wrong in the pie mix. So, those had to go back. I phoned our local independent market; sure enough, they had it, thankfully. Dave happily went to pick it up for me. He paid me an even greater compliment this morning when he said he’s learned an enormous amount about food and cooking from having to do the shopping.

So if you watch the video, I mean no disparity against male grocery shoppers, or readers of grocery lists. Just some good humored jibing. I laughed out loud. Thanks to my friend Chris H, who sent me the link to the YouTube video.

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