theKitchenHelp

Spent brewing grains Earlier this week I dusted off my brewing equipment. Brewing beer is a great hobby but it is not an easy hobby while looking after an infant/toddler . Before the little guy showed up, I brewed everything from dry malt extract kits to my own recipes using specialty grains with unprocessed hops. (Processed hops look like the food for the rabbit in your 3rd grade class.) Brewing like most cooking activities produces organic waste. I have to admit that most of the organic waste either goes to our compost pile or to my worms. (Yes, I really have worms in two medium size bins on the patio. It's incredible what they do with kitchen scraps.) Anyway, with beer the hops go to the compost pile but the spent brewing grains get put in freezer and made into bread. I needed a recipe to use my grains in so I pulled out my favorite bread book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day . This is a great book for making the making of great tasting bread easy! Recipes that make y...

Hurricane Irene had an interesting effect on DC area. People were rushing for last minute shopping, at one of the local  Target 's there were no D size batteries, and my weekly early morning shopping trip found the cashiers struggling to keep up with the unexpected rush.  I tracked the storm on and off as it approached and decided that a few hours housebound would be most productive in the kitchen. As long as there was electricity the only thing to do is make a batch of home brew. Brewing Pot Home brewing is a science and art project which creates beer for personal consumption. The nice thing is that with the right ingredients you can make a darn good beer... the not nice thing is you have to wait! Wait for the water to boil, wait while the wort (wort is jargon for unfermented hop, malted barley water) boils, wait while the wort cools, wait while the wort goes through 2 or 3 fermentation stages. The average amount of time is about a four to five weeks from star...

Few things are as satisfying as those that require us to slow down and take our time! Think back to your first kiss…that first glance, the waiting and wondering, more eye contact before you begin talking, casually at first… then talking endlessly in every free moment. Next perhaps you’re holding hands and talking more. Eventually a moment arrives in quiet embrace and just before your lips touch, you catch your breath! (Savor this moment!) Then BOOM! Fireworks explode as time stands still and you wish the moment would never end.  Slowing cooking pork can be like the build up to your first kiss; only the dinner and lunchtime sandwiches really last longer. I prefer a picnic shoulder over a Boston butt cut. Yeah, both are technically shoulder meat. The store-bought Boston butt (in this area) is over-trimmed leaving too little fat. Consequently, the absence of fat doesn’t allow the meat to maintain the sweet, moistness that should be in every bite of a pulled pork sandwich. Another w...

The challenges for the week a mild considering this week's delivery.  But I'll have to see how I can make it interesting. Squash - Crookneck and paddy pan Beta greens (a mix of swiss chard and beet greens) Tomatoes Red bell peppers Fennel Green beans Onions Garlic Tarragon

Cherry Pie straight from the oven.. the foil prevented the juices from spilling into the oven (thank goodness!) - This was my first attempt at making cherry pie - The recipe for the crust and pie are from Chez Panisse Fruit by Alice Waters - (Our copy is signed by the author thanks to our good friends Liz & Nick at the Blue Room  in Cambridge, Ma.) The Sour Cherry Pie recipe calls for 5 cups sour cherries 1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup) 3 tbs tapioca 1 tsp kirsch 2 pie crusts 2 tbs heavy cream (for brushing the lattice crust) 1 tbs unsalted butter The recipe was surprisingly easy. Mix cherries, kirsch, sugar and tapioca and let stand for 30-45 minutes.  Rollout crust, place in GLASS pie pan (the metal pie apparently react with the fruit juices), load filling into crust and cover with a lattice crust. Unfortunately, I didn't have tapioca and didn't want the chalky mouthfeel that I often get from cornstarch so I skipped the thickener altogether. My pie was a litt...

My father-in-law would say the best raspberries are black raspberries. I would disagree and say the best raspberries are those growing wild in your backyard!  My wife has been nurturing a wild raspberry plant in our backyard and this year it paid off. The cornmeal crust is from Chez Panisse Fruit  made by me but SHE picked the fruit and brought the tart together.  She also made a pint of raspberry jam with fruit picked from this plant. Ingredients: 1 precooked cornmeal tart crust - enough chocolate to line the bottom of the crust and about 100 freshly picked raspberries. Enjoy!

"This week your box includes..." is written on a slip of paper that arrives with our CSA delivery. Our CSA delivery comes with the share we purchased from  Virginia Green Grocer . The program allows us to receive fresh, organic produce. Our participation allows the farmers to offset their costs. The box usually comes with 6 types of vegetables and 2 types of seasonings and provides most of our vegetables for the week. Tomatoes full of flavor and meaty texture, eggplant with an even cream color inside, peppery arugula, spring greens and the basil aroma fills the room before opening the bag. All in all, it is really nice to have this service available. Some say to be successful in business, business needs to be nimble ; to encourage a successful farming community, the community needs to be engaged! CSA is one way to get engaged with your local farmers. Our CSA supplements our local, 6x8 garden... though I really wish we had a big house on 5 acres just down the road where...