Memorable Meals

One of my Twitter followers has been diagnosed with tongue cancer and the treatment plan he is facing is nothing more than unthinkable. However we must do what we must to survive but it brings to mind questions of the quality of life and the strength of the human spirit to live.

No matter how bad things get we humans have this deep imperative to survive and nothing sparks that impulse more than food. What do you do when you cannot eat though?

I have been feeling rather down as my nutrition is lacking from of all of the diet restrictions from cross-reactive pollen allergies. In reality there are plenty of foods I can still eat but I mourn the loss of my favorite food items. I can still eat and taste. I am grateful for this.

I have also been really depressed from of all my physical Injuries and the countdown to surgery in 18 days. I am also dealing with the anger that I put off my surgery for 2 weeks to help ease a work deadline, which has now shifted, so now the deadline is right during the week of the surgery. Every day my pain and discomfort grows and my suffering is longer by 2 weeks for nothing.

Perspective is a steadying force too. I know another sweet lady who has breast cancer and is doing chemotherapy before surgery. Her strength and courage moves me. Again, compared to my acquaintances and friends with cancer, I have nothing at all to gripe about. Physical pain is an inconvenience, it’s not good to be in pain and there are health effects but in comparison to cancer it is a drop in the bucket.

I began to think of the healing nature of our food and of meals shared with friends and family. Food is nurturing to our bodies and our shared meals are nurturing to our souls.

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou, beside me singing in the wilderness. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

My last Thanksgiving was with my mOm, my stepdad and my sister. I miss them very much and I hadn’t seen them for months before that holiday and we haven’t visited since. I don’t remember much about the food, only how wonderful it was to hold their hands around the table, have Ken say grace and to eat the food we all prepared together.

Our gathering is limited by geography and the inevitable countdown of time slipping away looms over me until I can’t take a breath but it is also makes our reunions so much sweeter.

My birthday two years ago was the day my exboyfriend was buried. We parted badly and it was just a year after when he died suddenly. The church was filled with our friends and his family and many local people, awash in grief. I couldn’t face the burial service so my dear friend Anna picked me up, took me into her home, her beau poured me champagne and they made me a decadent dinner of lobster mashed potatoes and filet mignon. We didn’t talk a whole lot but it was a night filled with love and caring directed towards me. It made everything better and reminded me the power of enduring through the pain of loss and why we go on to live for the joy of life .

A recent picnic with Anna and Deb was very spontaneous and delightful, it was such a perfect day. Sunshine, cool Spring air, sitting on a lawn filled with tiny daisies and black bees under a cherry blossom tree we celebrated “hamine” in a way only Midwestern, Russian and Californian girls in San Francisco can. We had a lunch of mixed cultures: Californian wine and beers, Japanese onigiri, fried chicken with an Asian twist, French cornichon, local roasted beets in vinaigrette, and the ultimate dessert of rice crispie treats with bacon. We continued on with dinner at Anna’s with the doggies, more wine and laughter and silliness. My back still isn’t right from trying those dance moves on one foot in the living room. Good friends, silly conversations, our park in our town, a mingling of everything in our personal melting pots, we shared the joy of a perfect Saturday. We all work so hard with our jobs, families, school, communities and hobbies, and oftentimes hanging out with friends gets lost in scheduling conflicts and fatigue. But these times replenish our batteries and give us the mental lightness to carry on with our busy lives.

Years ago when Marc was still alive we all trouped up to Lake Tahoe for a ski weekend with about 20 friends. A couple of us didn’t ski that time so we drove over to Emerald Bay for a little hike down to the Vikingsholm. It’s a pleasant walk and most of the way was clear from snow. Marc’s best friend Joe was in training to go to war in the Reserves and it was a nice treat for me and Sharon to spend a little time with him in one of the most beautiful places in California before he faced his challenge and served our Country in Kuwait and Bagram.

We rambled around the mansion and grounds, through the woods and beaches and settled on a sunny spot out of the wind to watch the lake gently lap the stony shore.

Joe said he had lunch for us and pulled out three MREs from his pack. He showed us how to heat up the beef stew and corned beef hash and we ate everything and listened to him talk about what it was like to eat a meal in a ditch or in a hole somewhere, what he and his men liked and didn’t like, and what they talked about during their time on maneuvers.

Joe never really talked much about his Army experiences as he is a very stoic and a very patriotic man; the soldiers I know are all generally very reserved in sharing their experiences and emotions, particularly to civilians and to women. It is a peculiarity but I understand.

There we sat in this glorious place eating very inglorious food, skipping pebbles into the clear water, and imagining what Joe would be doing in a few short weeks and just fully being there , at the Lake, together in the sunshine.

All of these meals are like a diamond, a pure, sparkling moment you want to take out, polish up and enjoy in the light, letting the facets reflect the rainbow flash of your memory.

I have many, many memories like this to contemplate as I prepare for my unpleasant experience ahead. I am so lucky to have dear friends who have offered to take me to their home and look after me during the worst of it, and others to bring over food and run errands for me, or take me to appointments or just visit with me. I have loving family to give me moral support and encouragement and to make me laugh even though they are far away.

I am even more lucky that my doctors give me 70-90% chance of a successful outcome. I have an injured ankle, shoulder, back, knees, hand, and more but it is not cancer and I know eventually I will be better, healthy and strong. I think of my friends and acquaintances who are facing a battle for their lives and I think about how brave they are. I will try harder.

The Forest Visits My Kitchen

I came home today to find this in my fridge. What could it be?

Voila! What a haul!

A full pound of black morels from an undisclosed forest in California.

My dear friends Anna and Robert went foraging this weekend for morel and found three pounds – I am one lucky friend to be gifted with so many. They have the magic morel eye.

I wrote about our divine morel dinner last year at Dinners at Anna’s and their haul that year was spectacular – seven pounds I think.

Imagine, walking through the forest and seeing this beauty, perfectly hidden in the duff, but only if you have that eye to recognize what lies delicately underfoot. I cannot wait to have a functioning ankle to join Anna on a foray someday. Someday soon.

Fresh from the forest they were very dirty and probably had “occupants”. I donned my beautiful, hand-sewn 70’s mushroom fabric apron and found my deepest and tallest bowl. I filled it with cool water and a good sprinkle of salt and started halving them and plopping them in the saline bath.

I ignored the pale tiny squirming worms that appeared on the cloth I was cutting them on. Ignore!!!

An incredible aroma filled my head: rich, woodsy, loamy and that unmistakeable morel fragrance. What beauties.

Some were short and squat, others were slim and tall, others were just massive.

They have a texture unlike any mushroom I have played with, full of nooks and crannies, firm and almost bouncy but fragile enough to crack in your hands if pressed too hard. A true, edible morel is hollow inside from tip to stem.  A false morel looks very different.

Not looking at the worm trails, not!

After their soak I pulled them out to heap and fill my largest colander. This is why one must wash wild mushrooms well.

Water so dirty it looked like soup, with about a 1/2 cup of debris

The forest slowly washes away. I lose count on how many changes of water I used but eventually there was a barely imperceptible bit of grit left in the bottom of the bowl. It was time for the morels to drain and relax a bit while I had a glass of wine (and feed the constantly squeaking cat who threatened to trip me as I moved about the kitchen).

I also took a little time to explore Hank Shaw’s amazing and nationally recognized blog for morel recipes, such as his favorite morel sauce for venison.  My pantry is well stocked and I just happened to have some veal demiglace and some good port, so I pulled those out.

I have enough morel to make a batch of this sauce several times over, so I decided to make one batch and then sauté the rest just in butter.

I  used an entire stick of butter in my skillet and when it was melted and a little browned I piled in the morels.  What a fragrance, my entire apartment was filled, it was heady and intoxicating.

After they cooked for about 10 minutes, their liquid evaporated and concentrated into the butter.  I heaped them into a freezer container and let them cool.  The sun had set, I had started drinking the port and I needed to get off my feet.  Farewell little morels, I will play with you soon!  They will rest in the freezer until I am ready.  What riches…

I hope there is no need to tell you that you should never eat wild mushrooms unless you are an expert, or happen to be friends with experts.  Even experts make mistakes which is why my friends limit their foraging to species that are unmistakable – again to an expert.  Eating the wrong mushroom can result in the death of your liver and kidneys and no meal is worth that risk.   If you have any question at all about a mushroom, don’t even touch it, and leave it to the experts such as those at Far West Fungi.  

Honey Heaven

I am a California girl and literally grew up in a land of milk and honey. My mom was conscientious in her grocery shopping from the local co-op and we ate a lot of local products including some of the finest honey that our little bee friends produce.

(Photo courtesy of the National Honey Board)

Most of our honey was orange blossom or clover and occasionally we would be treated to honey in the comb, to be chewed on slowly like gum until little pellets of beeswax were left behind to be genteelly spit out (or not so genteelly, like when my sister and I fought like little animals, bee wax pellets were the perfect sticky projectiles).

As an adult doing my own grocery shopping I became a regular customer at the Marshall’s honey stand at the farmer’s market. There were so many different varieties of honey to sample, including my childhood favorites, and new ones very local to San Francisco, such as star thistle (we knew they had to be good for some purpose), eucalyptus and cappings honey. Cappings honey is the honey cut from the end of the combs which has a naturally thick and creamy texture. I began to use bee propolis which is the royal jelly and pollen, to help my allergies.

Honey is an ancient food,l and a natural preservative. Archeologists have found preserved honey in Egyptian tombs that albeit rather petrified was still edible after thousands of years. Honey in its natural state stays perfectly well for a long time, and if it crystalizes one can re-melt it and it will be no worse for the wear. In itself honey is a perfect food.

(Photo courtesy of the National Honey Board)

I was so delighted to be invited to a cooking demonstration and honey tasting party by the National Honey Board. The amazing New Orleans born pastry chef David Guas has his own cafe and bakery in Virginia, the Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery. He is on a tour for the National Honey Board to share the versatility and varieties of honey and a few local writers, media and bloggers were treated to a lovely event at the fabulous Ketchum test kitchens. Chef David is honey collector and advocate and is so impassioned and enthusiastic about honey that despite my inherent love for honey I was motivated to expand my honey collection even more.

Isn’t he a honey?

It was an intimate, casual event, and Chef David visited with us as we sampled some of his signature recipes prepared for the National Honey Board, such as a Tropical Honey Coconut Water Cooler made with tropical fruits, coconut water and toasted coconut on top. We had little bites of walnut bread topped with slim slices of blue cheese and drizzled with buckwheat honey, and Chef David’s “Crunchy” Honey Toasted Almond Spread on celery sticks.

After catching up with our friends and getting to know Chef David we proceeded into the Ketchum test kitchen, my how I wish I could just move right into that glorious room!

Chef David had six pots of honey laid out on a counter and we were given a chance to sample each type of honey in a blind tasting. What a challenge this was to apply a wine tasting lexicon to the subtleties of honey, but it turned out to be a revelatory experience. The range of flavors, textures and aromas in each honey sample was so different, and between sips of water we tried to guess the varietal of the source pollen based on the flavor profiles. Very few of us had accurate guesses and it was fascinating to hear how each of us interpreted the flavors of the honey.

(Photo courtesy of National Honey Board)

Here are some more unusual varietals of honeys from the United States, some of which I had never tried before:

AVOCADO
Primarily produced in California, avocado honey is gathered from avocado blossoms. It is a well-rounded honey with a rich, buttery flavor and a flowery aftertaste.

BASSWOOD
Basswood honey has a fresh taste suggestive of green, ripening fruit. It is often characterized by its distinctive lingering flavor.

BLUEBERRY
Taken from the tiny white flowers of the blueberry bush, the nectar makes a light, amber-colored honey with a moderate fruity flavor and the aroma of green leaves. It is produced in New England and Michigan.

BUCKWHEAT
Typically produced in Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as Eastern Canada, buckwheat honey is dark and full-bodied. It has been found to contain more antioxidant compounds than some lighter honeys.

CLOVER
Clovers contribute more to honey production in the United States than any other group of plants, with Red clover, Alsike clover, and the white and yellow sweet clovers the most important for honey production. Clover honey varies in color from clear to light amber and has a sweet, flowery flavor and a pleasing, mild taste.

EUCALYPTUS
There are over 500 varieties of eucalyptus plants with the majority found in Australia and Canada. Eucalyptus honey varies greatly in color and flavor but tends to be a stronger flavored honey. Some eucalyptus honeys have a slight menthol flavor and scent.

FIREWEED
Fireweed honey is light in color and comes from fireweed, a perennial herb that grows immediately following a forest fire. Primarily produced in the Northern Pacific states and Canada, fireweed honey is a delicate, sweet honey with subtle, tea-like notes.

ORANGE BLOSSOM
Orange Blossom honey, often from a combination of citrus sources, is usually light in color and mild in flavor with a fresh scent and light citrus taste. Orange blossom honey is produced in Florida, Southern California and parts of Texas.

SAGE
Sage honey, primarily produced in California, is light in color and heavy-bodied, with a mild but delightful flavor. It is extremely slow to granulate, making it a favorite among honey packers for blending with other honeys to slow down granulation.

SOURWOOD
Sourwood trees can be found in the Appalachian Mountains from Southern Pennsylvania to Northern Georgia. Sourwood honey has a sweet, spicy, anise aroma and flavor with a pleasant lingering aftertaste.

TUPELO
Tupelo honey is a premium honey produced in northwest Florida. It is heavy-bodied with a mild, distinctive taste, and is usually light golden amber with a greenish cast. Because of the high fructose content in Tupelo honey, it granulates very slowly.

WILDFLOWER
Wildflower honey is often used to describe honey from undefined sources.

Source: http://www.Honey.com | http://www.Honey Locator.com

Chef David fired up the glorious Viking range and started his cooking demonstration to illustrate the incredible diversity honey has in the kitchen, beyond spreading on hot buttered biscuits or stirring into tea.

We perched convivially on stools around the capacious islands in the test kitchen, our attention rapt as Chef David toasted slivered almonds and then whirred them into a creamy almond butter spread. He used copious amounts of honey to caramelize more toasted almonds in a saute pan with a little butter then mixed quickly with corn flakes for a super crunchy tasty almond crunch to sprinkle on top of the almond butter filled celery boats.

He confessed the almond and cornflake crunch doesn’t last for very long in his house because of his voracious little boys, but it would keep quite well and crunchily for over a week.

Chef David then whisked together a quick creamy salad dressing with honey and tossed this with halved flame grapes and slivered almonds and peppery baby rocket for a refreshing and delicious salad. I imagined adding chunks of leftover roasted chicken or turkey for a faux Waldorf salad for a fast summer supper.

His next demonstration made me feel he was near and dear to my heart. Chef David honey glazed bacon slices in the oven, and turned them into crispy-chewy honey glazed BLTs. Holy cow, was this ever fantastic. The honey flavor really showed well against the smoked bacon flavor and I mentally kicked myself for not trying this sooner with my pig candy experiments.

Chef David then showed us his simple yet scrumptious honey brined pork chop with a honey whole-grain mustard sauce. Brining pork chops is a standard for many, including myself, but brining chops using honey instead of sugar imparts all the complexities of the honey into the pork and obviates the need to add additional flavorings such as fruits, herbs and aromatics.

The brined chop was seared in a pan and finished in the oven and removed to a platter to rest. The pan drippings, or fond, were dissolved in water and dollops of honey and whole grained mustard were added to reduce for a quick pan sauce. I don’t think even Wordsworth could describe the sweet, savory and meaty nuances this pork had in each juice bite. Pure heaven.

Honey has been used largely for desserts and Chef David gave us his favorite and show stopping honey lemon cheesecake dessert pops. Imagine an eggless cheesecake with Meyer lemon zest but in a popsicle form, resting on a huge platter of buttery crispy honey graham cracker crumb crunch. One picks up the creamy, glistening pop half coated in crunchy crumbs and nibbles this confection slowly off the popsicle stick. His sentiment, “Everything tastes better on a stick” is something I have said for years and it was such a playful and friendly dessert, so very charming in its simplicity and the flavor of honey was perfectly highlighted. I may never eat regular cheesecake again.

The combination of honey and almonds in the demonstration recipes is not a coincidence. Besides producing honey the honey bee has an enormous role in California and the world’s agriculture by pollination. Almond trees, for example, are solely pollinated by bees, so if the bees did not exist we would never have an almond.

The news has been filled with the collapse of bee hives throughout the world and the scientists are still trying to figure out the cause and how to prevent this tragedy from continuing, for the sake of our bees and for the future of agriculture. Some speculate is it due to a mite infection in the hive, others blame pesticides and genetically modified crops (GMO) such as those created by Monsanto. There is an interesting article about Monsanto buying the world’s largest bee research firm here, one wonders what this means about their future veracity.

This is an important issue to stay informed on and I hope as you enjoy your next bite of something in the kitchen with honey, or try some honey in the comb you think about the magic that our bees produce and what we as responsible consumers need to do to help preserve our bee population. Please support your local honey producers and buy directly from them whenever possible.

Chef David Guas’s Recipes:

Tropical Honey Coconut Water Cooler

“Crunchy” Honey Toasted Almond Spread

Grape and Almond Salad with Honey Yogurt Dressing

Honey-Candied Bacon & Lettuce Sandwich

Honey and Whole Grain Mustard-Glazed Pork Chop

Honey BBQ Pulled Chicken on Buttermilk Biscuits

Honey BBQ Sauce

Buttermilk Biscuits

Honey-Lemon Cheesecake Pops

Resources:

For more information about honey, honey bees and recipes, please visit the National Honey Board

To learn more about the different varieties of honey and what is harvested near you, visit the Honey Locator

Quick and Zesty: Panko Chicken Bites with Sriracha

Today I’ve been feeling snacky and yet I just can’t get to the grocery store so I dove into my pantry and came up with everything I needed for my favorite quick chicken dish.

I am almost embarrassed to share this recipe because it falls under the category of Stupidly Simple. It is so toothsome and quick that it would be almost criminal not to share it though.

Boneless chicken is tossed with Sriracha and coated in Panko, baked quickly until browned and crispy, and eaten as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

This little tray won’t last long!

Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!