Dilly Bean Disaster

 This was my first time making anything pickled the "correct" way - i.e. sterilizing jars, using pickling salt, etc. Big mistake. This pickling recipe turned out to be so briny that after eating just one bean I felt like my head might dehydrate. When I looked in the mirror the next morning I was surprised I didn't look like a Polynesian shrunken head. Yup, it really is that bad. If you know of any way of providing disaster control for a huge batch of pickled things, let me know... I rinsed one jar of beans and stuck them in the fridge with a mixture of vinegar and sugar to see if this might mitigate the salt still left in the beans, but I don't know...

Perfect Recipe for End-of-Season Veggies: Ratatoille

It's that time of year when I'm hardly home and all of my veggies are pretty much going into the food processor and then then into the freezer, so cooking (when there has been any) has been rather underwhelming. So I'm going to share some recipes from folks who are actually in the kitchen and producing yummy stuff! In VT it's what I call "scuzzy veggie" season - lots of produce still coming in from farm and garden, but the tomatoes are split, the few surviving summer squashes scarred and scabby looking, and the herbs are about 2" tall and getting a bit brown. Everything tastes just great but it looks pretty gross! Recipes like ratatouille that are all about flavor rather than presentation are perfect.

Recipe and links provided by Fripperie - more great recipes on her blog, by the way!

INGREDIENTS:

2 onion, sliced into thin rings 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 medium eggplant, cubed 2 zucchini, cubed 2 medium yellow squash, cubed 2 green bell peppers, seeded and cubed 1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 chopped red bell pepper 4 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped 1/2 cup olive oil 1 bay leaf 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 4 sprigs fresh thyme salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Heat 1 1/2 tablespoon of the oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft.
2.	In a large skillet, heat 1 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and saute the zucchini in batches until slightly browned on all sides. Remove the zucchini and place in the pot with the onions and garlic.
3.	Saute all the remaining vegetables one batch at a time, adding 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet each time you add a new set of vegetables. Once each batch has been sauteed add them to the large pot as was done in step 2.
4.	Season with salt and pepper. Add the bay leaf and thyme and cover the pot. Cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
5.	Add the chopped tomatoes and parsley to the large pot, cook another 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
6.	Remove the bay leaf and adjust seasoning.

Ratatouille Raptures:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/summer-vegetable-ratatouille/Detail.aspx

http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/rat-a-too-ee-for-you-ee/


CSA Recipes:
http://www.potomacvegetablefarms.com/recipes/all/

Verdict on Baked Beet Chips

The Beet Chip Experiment was a mixed success. Some chips cooked just fine, while others came out rubbery. If you have the option, I'd still say that deep frying is your best bet. If not, in order to use this baking method, slice your beets with a mandoline. I used my food processor and the slices were mostly to thick; also, the processor will slice unevenly. Don't try slicing by hand unless you have near-surgical control with a kitchen knife! Another note on baking beet chips: no way does the baking take 40 minutes to one hour. If your chips are thin enough, it should take only about 20 minutes, and be sure to check them every 5. At 400 degrees some of mine were burning around the edges at about 7 minutes. I may try partially dehydrating the slices first, then baking them...

  

Natural Dyes, Wild Silks

I've been looking through my many unread back-issues of Hand/Eye Magazine and found an article apropos to my new natural dyeing products! "Avani is an Indian non-profit group that specializes in natural dyes and natural fabrics. They generously share some natural recipes that you might adapt at home in Natural Dyes, Wild Silks. "


http://handeyemagazine.com/content/natural-dyes-wild-silk






  

Grammar Freaks Unite: share your wisdom, funny stories, and read-rage on The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar's Blog

Thanks to Fletcher Memorial Library for providing the link to SPOGG's blog!! (How fun is that to say ten times as quickly as you can?) SPOGG on Blogspot is "an online journal in which members of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar document their noble efforts." grammatically.blogspot.com

Check out Things That Make Us [sic] by SPOGG founder Martha Brockenbrough. 10% of royalties are donated to a cause very near and dear to my heart, the National Brain Tumor Society.

From Amazon.com:

This book is for people who experience heartbreak over love notes with subject-verb disagreements...for anyone who’s ever considered hanging up the phone on people who pepper their speech with such gems as “irregardless,” “expresso,” or “disorientated”...and for the earnest souls who wonder if it’s “Woe is Me,” or “Woe is I,” or even “Woe am I.” Martha Brockenbrough’s Things That Make Us (Sic) is a laugh-out-loud guide to grammar and language, a snarkier American answer to Lynn Truss’s runaway success, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Brockenbrough is the founder of National Grammar Day and SPOGG -- the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar -- and as serious as she is about proper usage, her voice is funny, irreverent, and never condescending. Things That Make Us (Sic) addresses common language stumbling stones such as evil twins, clichés, jargon, and flab, and offers all the spelling tips, hints, and rules that are fit to print. It’s also hugely entertaining, with letters to high-profile language abusers, including David Hasselhoff, George W. Bush, and Canada’s Maple Leafs [sic], as well as a letter to --and a reply from -- Her Majesty, the Queen of England. Brockenbrough has written a unique compendium combining letters, pop culture references, handy cheat sheets, rants, and historical references that is as helpful as it is hilarious. 

Barbarians henceforth to do Cooks and Books in the same blog

"The Horde Board" has now officially been rolled into Barbarian Cooks and will no longer exist as an independent blog. Why? It's simple. I have to cook at least 2 meals a day, whereas with my limited reading time I get through about a book a month. So, a whole separate blog devoted entirely to bookish stuff began to seem kinda silly. So now you can get grog for both yer noggins* in one place!


* in case ya didn't get the joke:
nog·gin   /ˈnɒgən/
–noun

1. a small cup or mug.
2. Informal . a person's head.
3. If you're Zaphod Beeblebrox, you have 4 of them at a bare minimum.

Reviews, Blogs, and all-around excellent content on Booklist Online

Most of us can't afford Booklist's $295 individual subscription price, so it's a blessing that so many of the reviews can be accessed online. To be honest, SO much is available, I'm not sure what that hefty sum and the Booklist password account gives you in addition to the free stuff. In any case, I love what they do put out for free. In addition to a plethora of reviews and articles, they have a great selection of topic-specific blogs.

www.booklistonline.com/

Beet Chips

It's too hot for roasted beets this week, so I decided to try this snack recipe instead. Most recipes call for deep frying the suckers and removing the peels, so I'm interested to see how this works...
Beet Chips

•4 beets, scrubbed -- do not peel
•1 Tbsp. olive oil
•Sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Using the slicing blade of your food processor, a mandoline or a sharp knife, slice beets thinly. You want them to be the thickness of a potato chip. Toss with olive oil and salt. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour (turn halfway through) until crisp. Check often to make sure they don't burn.

Camera Obscura: Ethan Jackson's Visual Art Installations in Woodstock

From Jackson's Polyopticon Series

Went to see Ethan Jackson's installations at MABI today. Fascinating! I've always been drawn to ephemeral and metamorphosing visual art (Navajo sand paintings, John Luther Adams' "The Place" in Fairbanks, AK). The camera obscura images, interwoven across multiple screens both flat and curved, are serene and poetic. I'd like to see the images during a storm - I expect the effects would be far different!

"Ethan is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park in Woodstock, Vermont. He is installing a series of optical works in historic and contemporary buildings and working with the art collection of the park."

ethanjackson.net
MABI Artist-in-Residence Program

End of Summer Sippin'

Labor Day fast approaches and the trees started changing color a couple of weeks ago, but we still have some summer-like weather ahead of us here in Vermont. Here are a couple of refreshing drinks to make with the last of your garden's mint to keep you cool through outdoor work and play on hot Indian Summer days.

Sassy Water
Friends trying out Prevention's "Flat Belly Diet" had raves for this daily drink. I like to add a 1/2 tsp turmeric for extra anti-inflammatory power and a tiny bit of stevia or agave nectar for sweetening.
2 quarts water
A couple of handfuls of fresh mint (about 12 leaves)
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp powdered)
1 sliced lemon (or about 1/4 cup lemon juice)

Add all the ingredients to the water and refrigerate overnight. Serve chilled. Sweeten with agave nectar if it's too tart.


Cuban Mojitos & "Fauxjitos"

A delicious and easy cocktail! Just omit the rum for a non-alcoholic version. This recipe is from Taste of Cuba.

1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves
2 ounces white rum
2 ounces club soda

Place the mint leaves into a long mojito glass (often called a "collins" glass) and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. You'll want about two ounces of lime juice, so it may not require all of the juice from a single lime. Add the powdered sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long wooden device pictured below, though you can also use the back of a fork or spoon if one isn't available). Add ice (preferably crushed) then add the rum and stir, and top off with the club soda (you can also stir the club soda in as per your taste). Garnish with a mint sprig.