Cooking With Ideas

Coming Soon to This Very Blog

What can you expect in the next while here at Cooking with Ideas?

In addition to a restaurant review and an update on ravioli making, there is much much more coming! I have a whole range of requests out for interviews and if they all come in (we can only hope!) you should have the opportunity to read about: 

*A course on food and religion at Davidson College

*A course entitled the Curious Cook taught by a chemist and a writing/rhetoric professor

And more! Watch here for a guest appearance from a fellow blogger just back from Rome! 

What else? Well, I have a whole pile of new (to me) books to comment on -- including Beyond the Great Wall, a new cookbook from my personal faves Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. 

(and thanks to www.twistedtheorysoftware.com for the picture) 

Magical Realism

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the most famous name in "magical realism," right? Yes, he's the guy who wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, among others, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature. But that's not the topic here -- it is a novel called Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. It was a gift -- literally -- and the fun of the book was an extra added lift. The background assumptions of the plot are truly about magic -- the magic of plants and the intentions one can create by the juxtapositions of foods. There is a tiny hint of religion in tension with the magical -- hidden, in some ways, in the magical backyard of the Waverly's home (the main characters) and somewhat obviously (perhaps) in the apple tree in that garden. There is childhood innocence and sisterly division resolved. And the book comes with knowledge (not exactly the knowledge of good and evil) in the form of a final glossary-like segment which links foods to intentions (chive blossom, for example, ensures you will win an argument -- and squash and zucchini blossoms should be served when you wish to be understood -- see pp. 287-290). Yes, the book could be read as about being odd and marginal in a small town --but coming to be loved for exactly that marginality. It can be read as a sort of commentary about how we live ourselves into the destinies others prescribe for us. There is even the importance of women's agency in surviving and, indeed, trouncing [SPOILER ALERT] angry men. All this, though, risks over-reading a fun book. Food + Gardening. Huzzah! 

For me, the best thing about this book was I left the reading of it happy. And that, indeed, is magic. 

magical realism

Sarah Addison Allen 

A Big Disappointment

So, usually when we go to the Rochester Public Market we hit Java Joe's. And this Sunday (yes, it was Mother's Day) we went and bought plants. And we planned to go to Java Joe's for some really good coffee -- and some breakfast. We were utterly shocked. Appalled. Surprised. And we left hungry. The breakfast is definitely changed -- as is the place -- and only paninis and breakfast bagels accompany the coffee. In fact, the place has changed its name to something like Boulder Coffee. And there are a variety of changes to the interior. Utterly disappointing. There is still art. But somehow the old bustle and flow has been interrupted -- and not in a good way. Usually, the disorganized peculiarity makes me a little annoyed but I feel at home. It feels sort of hippy-ish. Not this time. So, we left. We did not even get coffee. We left. That's right.

Do you know what happened? Let us all know! And then maybe next time we can face the change.

Baby Boom Cooking OR Do You Have Kids?

There seems to be a baby boom happening around me. Everywhere I look, there they are. In strollers. In their parents' arms. In grocery store carts. Behind me on airplanes. So, I thought I should finally look at a few of the kids cookbooks that people have given me. Not because I have kids but because you might. And rumor has it the next generations will have to cook -- because they too will have to eat. (Of course, whether they will get to eat anything other than corn products or micro-waved feasts is not easy to predict.) Besides, this is more fun than looking at the books that parents need so they can fit feeding the kids between running them to soccer and choir and school and music lessons and. . . .

So: on my shelves there are the following foodie books for the smaller set:

Kitchen Fun: A Cookbook for Children. This slim little book says on its front: "with 24 easy-to-follow, illustrated recipes" by Louise Price Bell. Bell seems to be a children's book author, having when googled come up as the author of a 1995 book entitled Johnny Tractor and His Pals. But she is also (it seems) author of a book called Budget Bedrooms. Hmmm? Versatile. In any case, Kitchen Fun is, on its inner pages, subtitled "teaches children to cook successfully) and is illustrated (on that page) with a little girl complete in dress and apron, reading away. The first bit to read is "Rules for Little Cooks" and then the table of contents -- where one finds listed breads, cookies, cake, desserts, drinks, eggs, fish, vegetables, salad, and candy. Perhaps a little leaning toward the sugary? Each recipe is one page and the final page is about measurements. Not sure what age this is aimed at -- not my skill to figure that out -- though the list of ingredients and measurements is both written out and pictured. (I admit, I only know what some of the pictures are because of the words -- either I am so word dependent or it is the small size and bifocals?).

What Food is This? by Rosmarie Hausherr was published by Scholastic in 1994. Hausherr is the author of other children's book, including Children and the AIDS Virus: A Book for Children, Parents, & Teachers (1989) and What Instrument is This? (1992). And, she has done the photography for many as well. This book offers photographs and such questions as: What food comes from grass that an animal has eaten? Or: What food looks like colored gravel? And: What food grows standing in water? Each is followed by a page answering the question, in large print, but fairly sophisticated vocabulary. And each is, indeed, very interesting.

What about on the web, you ask? Since these little people will live their lives entirely (barring apocalypse or . . . ) linked to technologies of sorts far different from the book (no, ordinarily one does not "click here"to open a book), it does seem wise to look. Here are a few sites to check out:

Cooking with Kids is a main site, with loads of links to other sites.

Chef Mom (ok, where exactly is Dad in this?) has recipes to cook with your kids. My favorite is anything that says Easy Bake Oven. Somehow I cannot really see baking in the darn things, but hey, maybe Chef Mom is on to something.

Or join Chef Ann in her mission: Lunch Lessons: Changing the Ways We Feed Our Children. (Whose children exactly, I am not so sure.) She's the author of some serious food books -- and her foodie credentials both as a cafeteria lady in schools and much much much more are pretty darn impressive. To be honest, her site is great whether you care about lunch lessons or not.

For a few other sites for foodie kids, try Children's Books that Feature Food, this food museum entry on food and kids, and kids cuisine -- a site subtitled "cooking for kids, cooking with kids."

kids
cooking with kids
baby boom
children's recipes

What's Your Favorite Pizza?

When I first moved to upstate NY, some of the villages seemed to think of pizza as ethnic food. As exotic. Others knew pizza as the food of college students -- or the only solution in terms of food when you wanted to get something delivered. Somehow the combination of cheese-y grease, dough, sauce, and that traditional cardboard box. There were and are national chains -- I am a fan of Pizza Hut now and then -- the personal pan pizza, and even more the very thin crust pizza. As is always the case for me, loading pizza with pepperoni makes it even better. I am not a fan of other chains -- I have, I confess, never eaten Domino's Pizza. I once ate Papa John's because I was trapped in a hotel in Rochester (yes it was, in fact, snowing) and the only available food was a delivery of Papa John's Pizza. (It was so bad that I can remember it even now, years later.) I have eaten frozen pizza on occasion, most recently a Kashi pizza with roasted vegetables on it. It was a thin crust and surprisingly good, though I added loads of parmesan and sprinkled my (purchased-in-an-Indian-grocery) hot pepper powder on it. And never, never ever eat pizza in an airport unless it is a four cheese Wolfgang Puck pizza in O'Hare (Chicago) or Pearson (Toronto) airport.

In Geneva, I have had pizza in way too many places (other than the Pizza Hut to which I have already referred). Of course, the old standby was Cam's New York Pizzeria -- delivered. A little slippery/greasy, and the crust just a little too thick. But predictable, and quite ok when cooking seems, well, impossible. And leaving the house seems, well, even more impossible. And then there is Uncle Joe's -- again, ok, but way too thick. (Actually, though this is touted as the oldest pizzeria in Geneva, the pizza is not the best option when you eat there, in my view.) I have never been to Mark's. And there are, of course, several otehr placesI have never been. (By the way, several of these are local-ish, aka upstate NY chains with joints as far away as Syracuse.) Most recently, I have been a fan of a newer place on Exchange Street: Ciccino's; they sell swell pizza by the slice and they deliver pizza too. As an extra added attraction, they have very good wings -- crispy, hot, and chicken-y. In fact, they have a fairly full menu. Yep, this is the new fave.

But, there is one other worth a mention: Halsey's where I had one of their flat bread pizzas recently with fig, proscuito, and gorgonzola. They vary the pizza every night (or pretty darn often) and each one has a very thin crust and pretty fancy ingredients. Worth it, definitely. But you do have to leave the house. Not that you have to go as far as Tastings in Rochester which has a similar figgish gorgonzola-ish pizza. This one is actually in Geneva.

So: what's your favorite pizza? Let us all know. And, if you need to try some, here are a few options:

Here are some of the locations:

Ciccino's
401 Exchange Street
Geneva, NY 14456
315-789-4613

Cam's New York Pizzeria
476 Exchange Street
Geneva, NY 14456
315-789-6297

Halsey's
106 Seneca Street
Geneva, NY 14456
315-789-4070

Uncle Joe's
99 North Genesee Street
Geneva, NY 14456
315-789-1199

pizza

Old Cookbooks

Piles upon piles of old cookbooks -- arrived in the mail, bought at sales in various places, heaped up to look at. They are fascinating in many ways. I paid 25 cents here, a dollar there. Tales of their era -- aimed at radio listeners, mentioning mechanical refrigerators, or taped together by someone who is long gone. Victory cookbooks, anticipating the end of war but living carefully while enduring it. 1939. 1962. 1944. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. Even our own brand spanking new cookbooks, bought in the first blush of fascination with a new cuisine (or arriving in the mail), emerge from history and will, one day, become nostalgia and historical data for others in another era when we are long gone. They are hard to find in pristine condition; yes, I too spill on the pages, drip an occasional drop of blood after a small slice into my finger, bend the spine to make sure I can read the darn recipe while juggling ingredients.

Here are two (chosen at random but both from the 1930s) that are in my heaps and heaps of old cookbooks:

The Common Sense Cookbook, published in 1939 by Whitman Publishing Company in Racine, Wisconsin. (For some background on Whitman Publishing, click here.) It is a small blue hardback, a sort of homage to table settings as a cover. The pages are a bit brittle and yellowed. Several aspects of it are interesting to read. I particularly like the 100 puzzling food questions and their answers"which are sprinkled throughout (actually appearing regularly between sections). The range of questions? Well, here are a few:

How can cheese be kept fresh and free from mould? The answer: "Place in a dish. Set the dish in turn in a plate containing a little vinegar. Then cover closely, plate and all." (page 44) How can the smell of boiling cauliflower and onions be controlled? The answer: "Put a two or three inch cube of wood charcoal in the cooking water." (p. 80)

Some questions -- and answers -- are less startling. But these certainly illustrate something. What? Hmmm.

Another cookbook on my shelf: Round-the-World Cookbook by Ida Bailey Allen. Another hardback, this one was published in 1934 by "The Best Foods, Inc. makers of NUCOA the double purpose food." It has a lovely cover -- with various chef-like figures walking (I think) around the globe. Bailey, in addition to writing 50 or so cookbooks, worked with the National Food Association during what she called the "Great War" (known to us alas, as WWI - since it was followed by another great war, if by great we mean devastating). What the heck is NUCOA? A very quick perusal of the book led me to think it might be a form of margarine or other cooking fat substitute. And, when I then google-d (when did that become the verb of choice? aha, I was right. Turns out it is a lactose free margarine. Called oleo-margarine at the time. So now I know what to use when I come to 1/2 cup nucoa in the recipes! (Ok, I am unlikely too cook from all these old cookbooks. They are really for my reading/browsing pleasure.) Anyway, Bailey's introduction turns out to have a lot to say about nucoa "which is not only suitable for every table use but fills give major cooking needs: A rich shortening for cakes, pies, breads, and pastries; A delicious seasoning for vegetables; A basis for sweet and savory sauces, soups and gravies; A basis for candies and icings; A medium for all pan and Simplified French Frying" (p. 4) New Nucoa, it turns out is inexpensive, nutritious, and easily digested. It is, indeed, advertised thoroughly!

The premise of the book is that the author (Ida Bailey Allen) and "Franz , the International Chef" went on an adventure to sail the "High Seas of Cookery" (aka test kitchens) to identify the "world's best recipes" (p. 3) -- with the unstated-but-obvious proviso that they are meant to incorporate Nucoa. Among the nations Bailey lists in her introduction as part of that search: Russia, China, Japan, India, Norway, and more. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bailey writes: "And to the surprise of Captain and Crew alike, some of the most interesting of all were those of our own America" (p. 3)

One of the bits of history that reached out --beyond the mystery of Nucoa -- was the use of the phrase "top creme" in the recipes. When was the last time you found creme on the top of a bottle of milk (ah -- for the days when milk was delivered to your home in beautiful glass bottles.) Another occasional ingredient is something called "meat sauce."Here I am -- and remain -- clueless.

So, two old cookbooks -- with beautiful covers, interesting reading, and nostalgia and history written all over them.

nucoa
Ida Bailey Allen
old cookbook

Eating Across Denver

I was in Denver recently and truly ate my way across the city. I began with a visit to my favorite spice shop, the Savory Spice Shop (listed to the left for a long time at Cooking with Ideas!) and a chocolate place right next door. Both are wonderful; I got green chili powder (among other things) at the spice shop and some treats for home at the chocolate place (which has beautiful brown bags with pink polka dots). Then I did my work in Denver, visited with friends, and ate -- yes, I ate a lot. Here are the places:

Lucille's -- is a creole cafe with three locations in Boulder (303-442-4743), Denver ( 303-282-6258), and Longmont (303-774-9814). I ate immediately upon arrival (ok, after those first two stops I noted above!) at Lucille's where I had the Farmer's Breakfast (which includes some swell sausage) and a biscuit. I was warned not to eat the whole biscuit (it was huge) because though incredibly tasty, I would then never be able to eat the whole meal. I must say this: the Farmer's breakfast was huge, wonderful and I took loads of it away to put in a refrigerator (I did not eat the rest, alas). I considered the red beans and rice, the gumbo and loads of other possibilities which I am sure I would try as a regular. But on this visit, the Farmer's breakfast was perfect(though I should have shared it with 5 other people). 

Potager  (for a google list of 51 diner reviews, click here), located at 1109 Ogden Street in Denver (303-832-5788), is a delightful restaurant where I could have eaten repeatedly. Featuring local and seasonal foods, the menu changes regularly. It always ncludes loads of nice starters (the top half of the menu) and then is followed by mains. I had pork shoulder on braised turnips with cream and a bit of spinach; the turnips were sliced like a sort of creamy gratin. The vegetables made the dish; the pork shoulder was fine -- but the veggies were great. As an appetizer, I shared a small spinach souffle which was presented well and tasted even better. The menu also features wine pairings with every food option; I had a nice velaquez (how does one spell that?)  The ambience is swell -- the walls are rough and make you feel like you are inside an antique while the tables are modern-ish and covered in white --though the atmosphere is a sort of studied casual. One notable dish for the people I was with: a salad of greens with a little olive oil and salt --simple but delightful.  --Vegetarians and meat eaters alike will be happy here. The name means "kitchen garden" -- and the restaurant both lives up to its name -- and reaches beyond. For a Denver Post review, click here. 

Benny's Restaurant is a Mexican place in the Capitol Hill district of Denver at 301 E. 7th Avenue between Logan and Grant (303-894-0788).   I had the chicken enchiladas with red mole and hot green sauce on the side. Tasty. Preceded, as usual in such places, with chips and salsa, I also had a margarita. The place takes (I think) no reservations -- but we were seated easily -- and it was packed. The owner ran by several times -- and seemed pleased with the hustle and flow. The acoustics here (and in fact everywhere I was in Denver) were swell - very high ceilings but the noise somehow got damped down and everyone was audible at my table.

Spanky's Roadhouse at 1800 East Evans Avenue is in the University of Denver neighborhood. I confess, I had been there before -- and that they do a great (to my mind) burger. Spanky's is sort of a cross between a bar and a joint -- and their  burger with blue cheese and bacon is perfection incarnate. It is big, comes with ok fries, and is called the bleu moon. I had iced tea with it. One thing: don't get the nachos. They looked dull and really, there are other places to get good nachos. For a Denver Post review with picture, click here. 

Rio Grande seems to be well known by people in Denver for its margaritas. I was repeatedly told not to have more than one; I did not. Their official limit is two.. The food, friends say, is NOT the reason to go there. Yes, I ate anyway -- adequate enchiladas de queso which came with unusually good black beans and ok rice. The margarita I had came in a martini shaker -- and was both tasty and lethal. The Rio as people call it, has multiple locations; in denver it is at 1525 Blake Street in LoDo. It did verge on noisy and I was there for lunch (ostensibly). 

Ok, before I left, I had brunch at Watercourse Food which is a veggie (if you count eggs as veggie) restaurant which somehow made me feel like I was in a small neighborhood  despite being pretty large place. Unlike Lucille's the biscuits were not huge and made with white flour and lighter than air -- but they were pretty darn good -- though healthier -- at least if carrot bits and whole grains mean healthy to you. I had breakfast: eggs with feta and related things and a biscuit. And lots and lots of coffee. All in all a good brunch -- in fact a more reasonable size than Lucille's and the eggs were cooked perfectly.I'd be in danger,  if either Lucille's or Watercourse became my local -- or even scarier,if they were both within driving distance. The location for Watercourse: 837 E. 17th Avenue, Unit 103, 17th and Emerson, Denver CO 80218 phone 303-832-7313; web address www.watercoursefoods.com

So, yes, I ate my way across Denver. The food was good -- the company wonderful. The sky -- well, not as blue as one would hope for a visit, but I admit it freely:  I love Denver. 

Perverse Foodie Paradises

Ok, I do not equate queer and perverse. Nor do I equate perverse with immoral -- and certainly not with a fondness for food. Perhaps there is more to this unconsciously, but I just thought I was not writing enough for the section of Cooking with Ideas focused on Que(e)rying Food. So, I started cruising the web. Wow. So, I thought I would share some sites to tickle your delight. Let me know what you think?

So, what is queer food? For David Mehnert's answer, subtitled "Notes on Camp Cuisine," which opens with the sentence: "You can pick out fags in a diner because they always order BLTs." click here. Did you know that the NY Times has asked: "Does Queer Food Make Queer People?" The subtitle, "An Hour with the Vegetarians," reminds me of an old joke about the 1970s lesbian and the vegetarian potluck. The connection only made sense when I realized that google had led me into the past: the article was from the New York Times Archives and the article's date is Sunday, March 11, 1906. Yes, the ways we use words definitely has changed. (On this, if you have not read it, see George Chauncey's article on 1920s court cases in Newport, Rhode Island published, among other places, in Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology. The title: "Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion? Homosexual Identities and the Construction of Sexual Boundaries in the World War I Era.")

So what about lesbian food? Is it all healthy and potlucky? If you google "lesbian food," the first thing that comes up is this site on, you guessed it, "lesbian food joke." (click away. It's a classic.) You have to go a bit further down to actually get to anything that is truly about food and/or drink. First: a video on how to make a lesbian joy cocktail and then, immediately thereafter, lebanese food is different from lesbian food. No -- the second one has no recipes; yes, it is about that obvious problem of confusion. Somehow the google-ing of "lesbian food" is not entirely what I expected. Ok, I did find a fascinating article entitled "'Lesbian Appetites': Food, Sexuality and Community in Feminist Autobiography." Then I added quotation marks. I googled "lesbian food" instead of lesbian food. I could spend hours on this.

One historical note: I was reminded in the midst of googling of the comment on something called The New York Lesbian Food Conspiracy in the history written by Lillian Faderman and entitled Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. So what was it? According to Faderman, lesbian-feminists of certain sorts had a goal of self-sufficiency and so the NY Lesbian Food Conspiracy was a food coop "where food was sold at cost..." (p. 236) Who knew?

And gay food? Turns out about.com has a whole page devoted to gay food and drink. Yes, this includes gay cocktails. Lots of them. And No Milk Please blogged on restaurants in NYC (yes, Soho) under the rubric "gay food porn." Wait. Wait. Wait. There is even a site called gayfood.com. Who knew? Did you ? Do you have more to share?

gay food
lesbian food
queer food

Slice, Dice and Spice NY Update: A Guest Blog With Pictures

Our mystery guest blogger reports from her wonderful time at the Slice, Dice and Spice NY finals in Canandaigua -- complete with beautiful photographs of the action (copyright to the guest blogger -- please do not use these photographs without permission!). They give a real sense of the "heat" of the action on May 15th.

It’s 4:10 p.m., Thursday, May 15th, and all’s anticipation at the New York Wine and Culinary Center’s (NYWCC) cook-off for crown chef of the inaugural Slice, Dice and Spice. It’s New York’s version of the Iron Chef with one major spin – all ingredients and wines are local! Winning teams from the previous three night cook-offs (click here) and teams of onlookers jostled eagerly to peer through the kitchen windows to catch a glimpse of the Market Baskets whose ingredients had been carefully secreted away under a white linen cover. You could feel the culinary energy being channeled into the countdown to the baskets’ great unveiling. But, this was not just any unveiling, as each team knew. Once the covers were lifted, it became each team’s time to reveal their culinary imagination and talent. Teams had but a few minutes to create a menu, and then but an hour to bring their menu to the judges’ table.

4:20 p.m. was marked with the great anticipation. All was quiet as the Market Baskets were unveiled and teams’ culinary imaginations set afire with the featured ingredient of Hartmann’s Old World Sausage Andouille Sausage, the surprise ingredient of Arbor Hill Sherry Wine Syrup, three wine selections (Arbor Hill Traminette, Casa Larga Oak Chardonnay and Brickstone Cabernet France), and an array of other ingredients, including mustard, jalapeno pepper jam, apples chili sauce, kasha, fresh greens, fruit and bread.

And then it was: Let the slicing, dicing and spicing begin!

Teams were shepherded by highly collaborative chefs and as the slicing, dicing and spicing went on over the hour, you could not help but be struck by each team’s intense but clearly happy focus on the competition. Once inside the kitchen (and I was allowed a few seconds to visit to take some photographs) the entire event was transformed for me by the wonderful smells and pleasurable sounds of chopping, sautéing, mixing, and grilling – wow! Now that’s where the action is – in our senses! It felt all too removed watching the teams’ cook from the other side of the glass windows or on the large projection screens mounted throughout the NYWCC and trying to hear what was going on over speakers whose volume ranged from faint to screechy loud. Of course, clearly one cannot welcome an audience into the traffic of the kitchen so the organizers did create many ways to watch – and to enjoy other culinary and wine delights while doing so.

With but a few minutes of cooking time left, teams are plating and once done let out a cheer and move away from their cooking island. Judges begin to circle the islands, and the audible broadcast was turned off to allow judges the privacy they needed. They tasted, tasted again, wrote notes and moved to the next team. Then judges came into the adjoining room (Demonstration room at NYWCC) where those of us who had been following the events over the television screen had been ushered out to make way for judges and teams. Alas, we were ushered out during chefs’ presentations of what they had prepared! I was in the middle of hearing the list of courses designed by each chef when out we went. Maybe there is another way to feature the dishes? Judges deliberated here for quite a while as crowds gathered outside the room waiting to grab a spot to hear the announcement. At last, the doors opened and those first in line grabbed a seat.

Then the teams entered to rounds of cheers and applause, and pictured here is the winning team (the wild card team) led by Chef Eric Mueller of Warfield's entering before they heard the good news.

According to the judges, the decision was indeed a difficult one - they had to slice and dice quality, presentation, pairing with wine, use of wine in cooking, use of the featured and secret ingredient, and, last, but certainly not least, taste. What stood out for this team was their dessert of fritters and gelato, all sumptuously prepared in under 45 minutes. Brava!

With that, the inaugural Slice, Dice and Spice wound down. But don’t think you will have to wait another year to enter yourself or to enjoy the event from the sidelines as I did. Slice, Dice and Spice has brought local restaurants, wines, and produce to our attention, and the ripple effects of this event can be enjoyed throughout the year. The chef’s cook-off was a fabulous event but what really made this event sing were the ingredients of intelligence, wit and know-how, whether cooks, organizers, producers or restaurateurs. I absolutely love how they networked so many local parts for gourmets and gourmands alike.

Stay tuned for more on how Slice, Dice and Spice does local unlike anyone before and for menus from the events.

Upcoming Excitement

If you missed the excitement in person, you have a chance to learn what happened Thursday at the Finals of Slice, Dice and Spice NY at the New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua! Watch here for a special guest blogger's description of an exciting night of food, food, food -- as amateurs and pros chefs did their best with Upstate NY ingredients and more!

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, click here for the pre-competition interview!