Fast Food Fridays

What kind of wine snob are you? Must your white wine always be refrigerator cold, and your red wines dry?

Well, I've been around the block, once or twice. And even though my first sip of fermented grape juice was something pink from a jug by Gallo, I believe there's room for lots of different things. Like chilled, slightly bubbly, slightly sweet red wine, called Lambrusco. You can find this particular bottle at Trader Joe's for under $5. It's fruity, deep purple, low alcohol, and just fun. Grape juice for grown ups. Stock up and stash one in the fridge. Then, on that night when you've got nothing ready, swing by your favorite Italian deli for prosciutto, olives, assorted Italian cold cuts, chunks of Pecorino. Display it all fetchingly on a platter and you've got dinner. Fast. And delicious.

Food Rules

Michael Pollan's come out with a new book. Apparently he's got 64 rules for us mortals to follow. Sheesh, God herself limited it to 10. All I can say, Michael, is that's about 61 more than I can follow.

You can read more here.

Eating Crow

Yup. I can pick 'em. TED (Technology Entertainment Design) just awarded Jamie Oliver $100,000 to help him in his pursuit of educating (scolding, although benevolently) Americans in healthy eating. Want to see his 20 minute talk? Well, instead of shelling out $6,000 and heading down to Long Beach, you can watch it right here.

Or, you can click here, then scroll down to find Jamie in a much less dignified role-I think he impersonates all the Village People, in this video promoting his UK series--

How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth...

Posts here here and here got me thinking about children's capacity for inspiring within us tender emotions. My own sweet thing is headed off to college in the fall, and it dawned on me that she would be living on her own.

Our conversation:
"Guess you'll have to learn to cook."
"Yeah! Quick things, healthy things, and not too expensive, either."
"Well, I've got lots of recipes on my blog, and I can post things for you."
"I'm not going to read your blog!" intoned with the scorn only a teenager can produce.

Mud slides? Mud pie!

(No, this is not my photo)

Okay, so the title may be in poor taste, the the dessert is not!
You will need:
20 Oreos, crushed. To that add half a stick of melted butter, and a tablespoon of coffee grounds. Mix well and smear it across the bottom of a buttered glass pie pan, making your cookie crust.

One quart chocolate ice cream ( I do love Breyer's) slightly softened. One tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water, now cooled. Add the coffee mixture to one large container of Cool Whip, or similar synthetic topping. Mix in gently.

Now comes the tricky part: Using a hand mixer, soften further the ice cream, then hand fold in the Cool Whip/coffee mixture. Spread into your pie crust. Top with thick chocolate syrup and chopped walnuts, if you like. Place in freezer until the filling has set (an hour or so). Serves one happy family. (They're all alike, you know).

Reprints

Okay, starving readers, it's been a year. I'm reposting this recipe, because it goes so well

with the cold weather. Enjoy!

My first, and favorite, recipe for brownies was taste-tested, over and over again in a beautiful adobe home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I spent the summer there, between my freshman and sophomore year, and Frances, my friend who dished ice cream cones with me at Swenson's (remember them?) happened to be best friends with Judy Blume's daughter, and staying in their home over the summer. Whew! That was a tortured sentence. I never did meet the famous author, or the daughter, but I did make batch after batch of delicious brownies, during thunder storms, in a kitchen whose color scheme and size matched the Rothko hanging in the dining room.

Years later I found the recipe, Craig Clairborne's, in the New York Time Cook Book.

So, when it threatens to rain, why buy a box mix, complete with that odd preservative aftertaste when you can make them in (almost) as little fuss? I mean, even with a boxed mix you'll have to add at least two more ingredients. For these you will need:

Two eggs beaten into one cup of white sugar.

4 squares (or ounces) unsweetened chocolate.

This is where I'm afraid the foodies in the audience will be advocating Valhrona or Scharffenberger, or some other unpronounceable elite treat, which, come on, is today's declaration of palate and class warfare. I stand by my humble box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate and its homey beginnings.

1/3 cup butter (or 5 tablespoons)

Melt the two gently together. Remove from heat when both ingredients are completely mush.

Swiftly stir in the egg and sugar mixture. Fold in 1/2 cup of flour (yes, that's all, just ONE HALF CUP of flour).

A pinch of salt for contrast, a teaspoon of vanilla for that alcoholic kick. Pour into a greased 8 or 9 inch square pan and bake for 20 minutes at 325 degrees.

Did you know that glass pans bake at 25 degrees hotter? Lower that thermostat!

Warning: these brownies provide quite the caffeine jolt. Devour with a cup of coffee to kick start your morning.

For Local Readers

I've become a great fan of Colorado Wine Company in Eagle Rock. There's a stylish dark room in the back where you can swirl and sip by the glass. Once or twice after work I've stopped by to pick up a bottle, and if it was one of their wines on offered by the glass I was given a sample before purchasing. (Those are the taste tests I appreciate most.) Not to mention the fact their featured wines often run under $10, and on Fridays there's an additional offering of nibbles.

My sister and I recently dropped by to buy a bottle and paid a corkage fee of $5 (waived on Wednesdays). We thought we'd stop at a glass a piece. Instead we worked our way through Cazar's Pinot Noir and left the place suffused with even more sisterly love and devotion.

Ah, humanity

Even if I've never seen him in the buff, I do enjoy the Naked Chef. Imagine my surprise when I read that he was going to proselytize in Huntington, West Virginia. Yes, that's right, white colonialism is a hard habit to kick. He's going to rescue us from ourselves.

Doesn't he realize it's our God given democratic right to waddle to the grave?

Health food?! That's for rabbits and other strangers.

Doesn't he know what happens to people who challenge a society's basic belief system?

The series starts in March, and promises to be fraught. Tell me, who enjoys being told they're wrong, wrong, wrong? Oliver's not a scold, not at all. It's just that none of us enjoy being challenged on our most basic way of living. Not by an outsider, not by a local.