Monday, September 10, 2012

Bags are packed - we're booked and we're bound to go.

No big trip to the Farmers Market this week - Jane is out of town and we're heading out to visit family overseas this weekend.
      In the meantime I just made a run for chick pea flour from our local Indian grocer. They call it besan, I still haven't decided whether I call it farinata or socca. Chi chi beans certainly do have plenty of names!
With that and a bit of sopressata and cheese, along with a few pieces of fruit, I'll make some nice simple meals.

I'll also head in town at some point, to share a drink or so with friends. As much as my relationship with food has been changing, my relationship with alcohol has changed  - once upon a time I stopped in a bar more days than not. Over the years, I've slowed down - and as I've slowed down, my capacity has gone down. These days I have a few drinks, now and again - and the line where the booze makes me behave like an ass seems to grow ever closer. Scary! It may even be the line where I REALIZE that the booze is making me behave like an ass that is coming closer.




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Sunday, September 02, 2012

Hot Bluey

Here's those stewed peppers, in Hot Bluey. (A new La Creuzet pot I expect great things to come out of) The great deal at our local Farmers Market for these past few weeks has been the mixed bag of hot peppers for five bucks. Nothing too hot. There are long, pale Anaheims that look very much like the Italian frying peppers from my Pop Pop's backyard. Or like a pepper they sold outside Turkish shops in London, for that matter. But each of these long, pale green peppers has a different flavor and a different hotness.
Little red cherry peppers that roast up with so much sweetness and have such a nice texture to their roasted flesh. Ancient looking daubs of red with a dark smudge from the oven, really the most beautiful peppers of them all.

There are a few smaller, hotter peppers in the bag as well - last week, I was making a curry goat, so the chillis went into the curry. This week it's chicken soup and on Sunday we had the drumsticks, along with these smaller peppers, gently stewed until the hotness was subdued and the real flavor of the peppers was out front. A few potatoes and some kale - I love rough greens.


For lunch - Farinata, also called Socca, a pancake made with chick pea flour, water,  olive oil, rosemary and salt. Gluten free and delicious.
Looking at my notes on the kitchen from the past year, I notice that Jane sure likes chicken. We've been getting birds from Pine Mountain Ranch, a grass farm near Bend, Oregon that has a table at the Beaverton Farmers Market. http://www.pmrbuffalo.com/index2.htmlWe've also had their Elk and their eggs - Jane is extremely particular about eggs.

Today I'll be stewing a 3 and a half pound chicken, which we'll eat part of tonight. The rest will be the basis for a chicken barley soup that we'll dine on through the coming week -along with roasted peppers, I have a big variety of peppers again this week. The hot little ones I'll stew for tonight.
Chicken barley soup is one I've been making for many years, a variation on my Mom's Thanksgiving turkey use-up dish. Jane enjoys it.

Yesterday we had pints at various and sundry locations around Portland - my first drinks since my birthday back in July -and shared a Pizza at the Mellow Mushroom. We had the perfect post-pub dinner waiting for us at home, a pair of  Sunday Roast Lamb Pies from Pacific Pies. Kind of a heavy day for the processed carbs.