at the farmers market: peppers

Dear land from the giant speakers of all man

Time from the swollen mountain tops

The stolen sun thoughts the solar wind chimes

To ring the morning the morning up

O ring the morning the morning up

O I heard your voice in Dresden

And now it follows me everywhere

“I Heard Your Voice in Dresden” by Elvis Perkins

Some of my favorite blogs do peppers:

Beetses: Spicy Pork Goulash

Smitten Kitchen: Couscous and Feta-Stuffed Peppers

Closet Cooking: White Bean and Red Pepper Dip

house vinaigrette

My mom would give me twenty and say “stay out till dawn”

When her boyfriend was over and they wanted me gone

I would walk through the woods to the old graveyard

And roll my own Tops and think two kinds of thoughts

Are we high enough to clear these trees

I don’t know

“Pittsburgh” by Mason Jennings

This is my final recipe for chopped salad week…

When I chop up my salad on Sunday afternoon I also prepare a nice big jar of vinaigrette.  I love making my own salad dressing for a number of reasons.  First, it’s cheap, making a big jar of your own vinaigrette probably costs about seventy percent less than buying something from your local megamart.  Second, it’s better, you will never find a vinaigrette from the grocery store that tastes better than your own. Last, it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, sometimes my vinaigrette may have four ingredients (including salt), sometimes it may have over ten (fresh or dried herbs, spices, champagne vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, etc.), it all depends what you feel like doing.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
2 medium shallots, minced
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey

Directions:

1. Place all of the ingredients in a large mason jar
2. Shake
3. Season with salt and pepper

cheese curds

All you gangsters and rude clowns

Who were shooting up the town

When you should have found someone to put the blame on

Though the fury’s hot and hard

I still see that cold graveyard

There’s a solitary stone that’s got your name on

“Complicated Shadows” by Elvis Costello

I miss Wisconsin cheese curds dearly. I miss the cheddar flavor, I miss the off-of-the-farm freshness, and I miss the squeakiness, oh how I miss the squeakiness.  My readers from Wisconsin know what I am talking about! Fresh Wisconsin cheese curds will actually squeak between your teeth when you bite into them.

My local cheese source is the Spring Hill Cheese Company a vendor from Petaluma that shows up, rain or shine, at the Temescal Farmers Market every Sunday.  These guys have all sorts of wonderful cheeses, spreads, and curds.  My favorite item is the spicy cheese curds, which are white curds that are coated with spicy peppers.  While these curds don’t squeak when I bite into them, they definitely have great flavor and are a great addition to my chopped salad.

I am also thinking they would be a great canidate for fried cheese curds…thoughts?

chopped salad

The only girl I’ve ever loved was born with roses in her eyes

But then they buried her alive one evening 1945

With just her sister at her side and only weeks before the guns

All came and rained on everyone now she’s a little boy in Spain

Playing pianos filled with flames on empty rings around the sun

All sing to say my dream has come

“Holland 1945″ by Neutral Milk Hotel

I had a spectacular chopped salad last month from the recently opened Marzano restaurant, which is less than a block away from my apartment. I liked the salad so much that I have been recreating it every week since I’ve had it.

I know what you’re thinking “salad, really???“. Yes, salad, and it kicked ass.

I usually cut up all of the vegetables and make the vinaigrette on Sunday and make salads throughout the week.  I keep the heartier “chopped” items in a separate bowl in the fridge and cut up the leaf lettuce as needed (this prevents it from getting limp).  All of the items should be about the same size, around 1/4 inch-ish squares (except the leaf lettuce and cheese).  I will be featuring my favorite item in the salad (spicy cheese curds) and my go-to vinaigrette in posts later this week. Marzano’s chopped salad was probably better than mine, I think it’s mainly because I don’t feel like cooking pancetta everytime I eat a salad…

Marzano’s Chopped Salad:

Corn, broccoli, fontina, crispy pancetta, radicchio, ice berg lettuce, hard boiled egg, and red wine vinaigrette ~ $11

My Chopped Salad:

Corn, broccoli, spicy cheese curds, red pepper, mushrooms, carrots, raddichio, leaf lettuce and house vinaigrette ~ Not $11

pickled jalapenos

The dancin’ in the valley, the moons the mirror ball

Blew open my mind now it’s an empty room

Swingin’ in the hammock, dogs are walkin’ cross the roof

I watch you braid your hair, you’re from another time

When the earth wasn’t so angry, and god was on our side

“Temazcal” by Monsters of Folk

They go well with nachos, tacos, hot dogs, and countless other bar cuisine.  If pickling stuff intimidates you, this would be a good place to start, you can literally complete pickling jalapenos using this recipe in under fifteen minutes.

Ingredients:

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
10 jalapenos, cut into 1/4 inch rings
1 small carrot, cut into 1/4 inch discs
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
2 bay leaves

Directions:

1. Place jalapenos, carrots, garlic, and bay leaves in a 1 pint canning jar
2. In a small pot, bring salt, vinegar, and water to a boil
3. Fill the jar to the brim with the warm liquid
4. Allow to cool before placing the lid on the jar
5. Keep in the refrigerator for at least a week before eating

at the farmers market: jalapenos

A kitten on fire

A baby in a blender

Both sound as sweet as a night of surrender

I know it ain’t easy but you do what you can

If your livin’ gets weezy you can follow this plan

“Into the Woods” by My Morning Jacket

Well, not really at the farmers market but from the front yard garden.  We had a bountiful harvest from our jalapeno plant this year, my only complaint was they were not very spicy. Anyone know why?

Some of my favorite blogs do jalapenos:

Beetses: Jambalaya

Closet Cooking: Cranberry Chutney

Food Loves Writing: Homemade Ketchup

best present ever

It always seems like you’re going somewhere

Better than you’ve been before

While I go to sleep and I dream all night

Of you knocking on my door

“That Look You Give That Guy” by The Eels

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes.

This sausage log, a two pound thirteen ounce bundle of cured meat goodness was sent by my parents who still reside in the fatherland (Wisconsin)…I love my parents.

bread pudding with bourbon sauce

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco

This ain’t no fooling around

No time for dancing, or lovey dovey

I ain’t got time for that now

“Life During Wartime” by The Talking Heads

The first time I remember having bread pudding was in college…ahhhh yes college…

I went to school in La Crosse, WI at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.  The draw for me to La Crosse was the beauty of the bluffs surrounding the Mississippi river, the friendly small-town atmosphere, the lower standards for getting accepted, and the beer. Yes, La Crosse is known as quite the party town,  most activities center around everyone’s favorite adult beverage.

Some beer-centric activities that I can think of off the top of my head:

1. The Oktoberfest celebration, the two weekend festival is kicked off by the tapping of the golden keg and a parade in which it is completely legal to drink anywhere you please along the parade route
2. Blatz vs. Old Style, a party that centers around, duh, the two best cheap beers in the world
3. “The World’s Largest Six Pack”
4. Every Wednesday-Sunday, is the time when college kids (or at least me and my friends) would go to the bars.  Downtown La Crosse is home to over 1 million bars…ok I’m exaggerating, it’s like 900,000.

This list literally took me less than one minute to compile, the beer-tivities in La Crosse are endless…

So where was I going with this? Oh yeah, bread pudding!

Due to the fact that La Crosse is so beer-centric, most of the decent food you will find is at the wonderful watering holes.  The first bread pudding I had was at a bar/restaurant called Buzzard Billy’s, which served up Cajun inspired food. My college years were my formative years for food and cooking so I really didn’t know what bread pudding was yet, to me it sounded nasty.  I was wrong, Buzzard Billy’s served their bread pudding with a wonderful sweet glaze, the pudding was served warm with a side of ice cream.  While I think I only had the bread pudding there three times, it had a lasting impact on my collective dessert memory.

This recipe is adapted from my home girl’s cookbook (Betty Crocker).  If anyone is going to attempt this recipe, you must honor my roots and crack a cheap can of beer while preparing it.

For bread pudding:

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
¾ cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
2 ½ cups milk
2 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon plus ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 oz. Challah bead loaf cut into ½ inch slices then 1 ½ inch pieces (about 10 cups)
1 cup of raisins (if desired)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter

For bourbon sauce:

Ingredients:

½ cup butter
2 tablespoons water
1 large egg
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons bourbon

Directions:

1.    Preheat oven to 325° F
2.    Grease 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray or butter
3.    In a large bowl, whisk 4 eggs, egg yolk, ¾ cup sugar until well-blended
4.    Beat in milk, whipping cream, vanilla, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon
5.    Mix in 7 cups of the bread pieces and the raisins, let sit for 20 minutes
6.    Pour bread mix into baking dish, press remaining 3 cups of bread pieces on top
7.    In a small bowl, stir 2 tablespoons sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon until blended
8.    Brush top of bread mixture with 2 tablespoons melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture
9.    Bake for about 1 hour until top is puffed and golden brown
10.    Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt ½ cup butter over low heat, remove heat and let cool for 10 minutes
11.    In a small bowl, mix water and 1 egg, stir into butter until blended (which is still in small saucepan)
12.    Stir in 1 cup sugar, cook over medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture begins to boil, remove from heat
13.    Stir in bourbon, let cool before serving

zuppa toscana

Ain’t nothing cool bout carryin’ a strap

Bout worryin’ your moms and buryin’ your best cat

Talkin’ bout revenge while carryin’ his casket

All teary-eyed bout to take it to a mattress

I’m talkin’ bout music I ain’t talkin’ bout rap

“What We Talkin’ About” by Jay-Z

I’m not really sure how authentically Tuscan this soup is because I don’t know squat about Italian food (I’d assume not very Tuscan at all).  I, like most flag-waving Americans, associate this soup with Olive Garden. Easy there fouchebags***, anyone out there who has tried and not liked the soup, salad and bread stick special is no food friend of mine (although I would agree that most everything else on the menu is garbage).

This is a wonderfully spicy, creamy, meaty soup and would be great on a nice cool autumn afternoon.

***this is a word my friend Arjun came up with as an alternative to the newly coined foodiot…we just thought this sounded cooler…thanks to Amanda for the heads up on the “actual” urban dictionary fouchebag term

Ingredients:

1 pound bulk hot Italian sausage
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (plus more, if you want spicy soup)
4 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, small chop
3 garlic cloves, minced
64 oz. chicken broth
1 pound baby Dutch yellow potatoes, cut into 1/8 inch disks
1 pint heavy cream
3 oz. spinach leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat
2. Add sausage and red pepper flakes, cook until brown and crumbly, drain and set aside
3. In the same pot, cook bacon until crisp, about ten minutes
4. Stir in onion and garlic, cook until onions are translucent
5. Add chicken broth into pot (with onions, garlic, and bacon), set heat to high and bring to a boil
6. Add the potatoes, cook for about 20 minutes
7. Reduce heat to medium, add heavy cream, sausage, and spinach
8. Season with salt and pepper (and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes if you like damn spicy)