A Classic Cookie Makes a Comeback
Given the choice between Hyrdrox and Oreos as a kid I chose Hydrox—I preferred the texture of the latter. I’m in luck, the Hydrox is back, for a limited time only. Kellogg’s, which owns the Sunshine brand, has resurrected the cookie that originally debuted in 1908, several years before the Oreo.

Another Candy Contest
Folks, you’ve got five more days to vote for the new JellyBelly flavor. The finalist flavors include: Honey, Sublime Chili Lime, Thai Ice Tea, Mojito and Acai Berry. I’m no candy expert, but it seems odd to make an artificial honey flavored jelly bean. Wouldn’t it be tastier to eat real honey?

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Even better than finding old cookbooks at garage sales and books stores, is finding clippings and handwritten recipes inside those books. Luckily, most of the books I’ve picked up over the years have notes and tidbits hidden inside the pages.

Mexican Fudge handwritten inside of The Betty Furness Westinghouse Cook Book, 1954. I either picked this book up in New Orleans or Austin, I can’t remember.

This NY Times article was tucked inside the Ladies’ Home Journal Cookbook from 1960 that I picked up at a garage sale in Providence. The article, dated Jan. 1, 1970 takes a look back at The 1960’s: Haute Cuisine in America. The author, Craig Claiborne looks back at the trends of the last decade including, French cuisine, the influence of the Kennedy’s in the White House, the abundance of new restaurants in NYC and Julia Child.

“The most astonishing part of the nineteen-sixties on the New York restaurant scene was the awesome debut of restaurants of numerous nationalities.”

The caption below the photo of the beef Wellington notes, “The most sought-after entree towards the end of the nineteen-sixties was the difficult-to-prepare beef Wellington, above. Fondues of all varieties–cheese, meat chocolate–were also popular for dinner parties.

What I found most odd about this clipping was that there were not attached recipes, the previous owner simply folded up the article and tucked it into her cookbook

Even funnier is that the reverse side of the paper is the sports section–hockey headline to be exact: Gilbert Returns to Action as Rangers Take on Black Hawks on Garden Ice. Even in adulthood I can’t seem to escape my childhood of Upstate NY full of food and hockey.

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Thought I’d roast a turkey breast for sandwiches instead of buying the deli stuff.  Made a batch of rice stuffing to bake underneath the turkey.

Drizzle turkey with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.

Rice Dressing
3c cooked rice
1/2 c chopped celery
1/3 c grated pecorino romano or parmasean cheese
1egg, beaten
1/4 c chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all dressing ingredients and place in the bottom of a baking dish. Top with seasoned turkey breast and bake at 350 until internal temp. reaches 160. This was a fairly large turkey breast so cooking time was nearly 50 minutes. Take out of oven and let turkey rest–it should reach a temp of 165.

I left the skin on for cooking but removed before slicing. I also bought the breast still on the bone so I could remove the meat for roasting and use the rib bones for making stock.

Had a few slices of the the meat and some stuffing for dinner and will use the rest for sandwiches this week. I’ll use some of those super-fresh tomatoes from the market along with a crusty slice of sourdough bread, no mayo needed.

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I’m afraid I finally met a candy I don’t like. The problem with Violet Crumble is the texture. The inside ‘honeycomb’ is the texture of those crispy, baked meringues. To me that gritty feeling in the mouth is like eating chalk–not to mention the sensation. I simply can’t get past the texture to even talk about taste.

Clearly I was the kid in school that cringed in actual pain when teachers dragged chalk down the chalkboard. OUCH.

There are a few other, not so biased, reviews out there:
Candy Blog
Candy Addict

Btw, I found this at Long’s Drugs on Shattuck Ave in Berkeley.

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Inspired by my recent Thai cooking class, I stopped by the local Asian food mart in search of galangal, shrimp paste and fish sauce for green curry sauce. As I stood in line to pay I spotted a big bin of freeze dried durian. Normally I only make last minute impulse purchases when chocolate is involved, but having recently seen and read so much about the much-maligned fruit, I quickly grabbed a bag and added it to my basket.

Ok, so while I was excited to tear into the package, it wasn’t in the same way that I might anticipate a creamy chocolate bar or moist cake snack. Instead, I was eager to taste this indescribable king of fruits. What does it taste like? Indeed, it is indescribable. The best I can do is to say that, the freeze dried version anway, tastes like very strong, stale Japanese rice cracker snack mix with a fishy, salty aftertaste.

After doing some research, it seems that the gasses the fruit emits is likely to contribute to the intense flavor. Since there’s no gas in the freeze dried form, I’m guessing it’s much milder than taking a bite out of the fresh, chewy flesh.

I ate one piece and stored the rest away in a sealed bag–if anyone has a hankering, let me know. I don’t intend to finish the bag!

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My Sunday dinner was Paella made from the December 2003 issue of Everyday Food. I made a few changes to the recipe: I added a pinch of saffron to the spice mixture and left out the turmeric. I also used pork chorizo instead of chicken sausage. I would have added clams, but neither the supermarket nor the fish store had any. I wonder if clams are unpopular here in San Francisco.

The recipe is tasty and quick, but next time I make it I’ll likely add clam juice as a cooking liquid for the rice, along with the chicken stock and tomatoes, as I really wanted a bit more of a seafood flavor.

The first time I ever tasted paella was nearly 20 years ago when I spent a summer in France. The family I was staying with went on August holiday, to visit family, to the village of Uzes. There I visited the nearby cities of Nimes and Avignon and went to my first farmer’s market where I still remember the pungent smell of lavender wafting from sellers’ booths.

In fact, it was a summer of many culinary firsts including; goat cheese, beignets, pain au chocolat and of course, paella. I don’t remember the details, but the family was having a large party just outside the village, somewhere in the Cevennes, and to my surprise out came a giant pan of rice and seafood. I remember the family wanted to be sure I had a chance to taste all the seafood–including the head-on shrimp. I was a little horrified. At 15 I was much more squeamish about food than I am now. I think I passed along the little shrimp to another diner and then took delight in the rest of the savory dish full of bold and new flavors.

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Everyday Food editor Sandy Gluck yesterday posted a tweet asking followers about kitchen gadget collections. That post got me thinking about my cookbook collection which is composed of mostly vintage editions procured at garage sales, online and used bookstores. I’ve been fascinated with the books since I was a kid. I was that odd child people talk about. On weekends when my peers were watching cartoons I would watch Julia Child on PBS. And in between the Nancy Drew novels I would peruse my mother’s cookbooks.

The first, and most often used, was Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, the 1972 edition with the ‘red pie’ on the cover (1). I remember pulling out the book one day when my mom was out running errands and deciding I would make an apple pie—I believe it was around 4^th or 5^th grade. I can’t remember how it tasted—let’s hope it was tasty.

We used the cookbook mostly for baking; cookies, cakes, brownies and quick breads. Many weekends were spent in the kitchen fighting with my brothers over who would lick the mixer paddles. I actually can’t recall any ‘meal’ made from the book. Instead, most dinners at our house were put together from family recipes long stored in our heads.

And this is how I thought about cooking—Italian family recipes mixed with some ‘Americanized’ deserts—until I was a Jr. in High School. I spent the summer between 10^th and 11^th grade in an exchange program in France, and when I returned I was enamored of all things French. I wanted to be French, speak better French, live in France and most importantly eat like the French. It was upon my return back home that I discovered a strange cookbook that I had never touched before. It had been sitting there on the kitchen bookshelf my entire life with its Fleur de Lys, the roast beef on the cover and the black and white picture of chefs on the back. Of course I’m talking about Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. And even though Julia mesmerized me on TV, it had never occurred to me to open the book and actually cook those dishes.

But there it was full of foods I had never heard of and ingredients we never stocked in our house. My first conquest was Mousseline au Chocolat-chocolate mouse. Pages 604-605 are forever blemished with my chocolate fingerprints. I’ve since taken the book off my mother’s shelf and it now lives with me.

I made the mousse for a French class project–filled my mother’s mustard yellow Tupperware bowl with the mouse, boarded the bus and brought it to class. Mind you this was 1990/1991. The cool kids were certainly not reading French cookbooks, instead they were discovering Seattle grunge and skateboarding. Just another reason why I was very happy when high school was over. And while both Julia and Kurt Cobain are gone, I still have my chocolate mousse, onion soup and boeuf bourguignon recipes.

(1) Mom, it was the 1972 edition, right?

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My nod to the tofu chicken fingers from Buddha’s Delight in Boston. Lance and I ate there all the time when we lived in Boston, in fact it was the location of our first date.

1 brick firm or extra firm tofu
Tempura batter
Salt, pepper, onion powder & chili powder to taste
Oil for frying

Drain tofu, trying to get out as much water as possible and cut into 10 strips. Then freeze tofu, at least overnight. Thaw and drain again by patting dry with towels. Season tofu with salt, pepper, onion powder and a dash of chili pepper. Dip in tempura batter then fry in 350-375 degree oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt while still hot.

Serve with duck or plum sauce.

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