Girl Detective

I have a few observations after watching the December 6 episode of Top Chef’s holiday special this year. CJ is really funny and charming. Sandee seems great, but I suspect her early elimination from Season 3 was no accident. Marcel is so weaselly and strangely bearded that he looks like a Marvel comics villain to me. Tiffany is a force of nature, and it was fun to watch her cook. I want to try to make that butterscotch pudding. Finally, I was glad to see Tre cook well, and he lost with aplomb. His comment that coming in second to such a talented chef is a huge honor showed a lot of class, I thought. Best wishes to Tre, Tiffany, and the rest of the chefs.

Shepherd’s Way is one of our favorite local cheesemakers. They suffered a tragedy earlier this year and are still struggling to stay afloat. For $100, you can adopt and name one of their sheep. If that’s too expensive, seek out their Friesago, Friesago Reserva, Big Woods Blue, and Shepherd’s Hope cheeses at Twin Cities area grocery stores and coops. I hope we’ll all be buying the cheese from their sheep for a long time.

I made dinner last night, and was rewarded twice. First, it was very good. Since it was a casserole made out of the previous night’s quite unpleasant lamb and cabbage stew, my husband and I were relieved that we didn’t have to choke down bad leftovers. Second, when 4yo Drake sat down, he looked at it and announced, “I don’t like it.” A little while later, he took a bite, then exclaimed, “Mom, you were right! I _do_ like shepherd’s pie!”

One of the most disturbing things I learned from Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma is how dependent as a species we’ve become on corn, and how its production, subsidies, and byproducts have become such facts of life that we barely notice them.

I highly recommend the book. For more on how much corn is in our diets, check out the documentary “King Corn” at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis this week. There will also be a discussion at the Wedge food coop on Friday.

Twin Citians, do you appreciate local treasure, Tea Source? I finally drank my way down to only one black tea in the pantry; I had either ten or twelve as of last mother’s day, when I hosted a tea. We had Thanksgiving at our friend Haddayr’s house, and she extolled the virtues of Tea Source’s Popped Rooibos. It smelled rich like pipe smoke, and tasted toasty and of the popped corn that’s in it. Unable to resist restocking the pantry, I hied myself to Tea Source where 4yo Drake and I sniffed all the tea samples, and got four lovely winter teas:

Popped Rooibos: This delicious and unique blend is very full-bodied and is slightly sweet (almost caramel-like), slightly toasty, and slightly popcorny. Contains rooibos, green tea, almond brittle, roasted rice, flavor.

Genmaicha: A refreshing blend of a high grade Sencha green tea, toasted brown rice, and puffed rice, producing a more full bodied green tea with slightly toasty undertones. Delicious.

Evening in Missoula: Chamomile, rosehips, raspberry, papaya, peppermint, spearmint, strawberry leaf, vanilla, passion flower, red clover, star anise, and wild cherry bark. Absolutely fabulous.

Tea Source ships, and it really is a lovely little shop, if you’re looking for gifts for the tea lover in your life. (I get nothing for this gush; I just want to spread the joy.)

Top Chef info, from Maureen Ryan’s The Watcher:

A “Top Chef” cooking special, which will reunite competitors from various seasons, will air Dec. 6 on Bravo. For all you “Chef”-heads, here’s the lineup, direct from Bravo’s Tuesday press release: “Season 1’s Stephen Asprinio and Tiffani Faison, Season 2’s Betty Fraser, Marcel Vigneron and Josie Smith-Malave and Season 3’s Chris ‘C.J.’ Jacobson, ‘Tre’ Wilcox and Sandee Birdsong.”

Also launching December 6 is Bravo’s new mobile game “Top Chef Challenge.” Designed and developed by leading mobile publisher LimeLife, Inc., the game is set behind-the-scenes of a Tom Colicchio fictional restaurant. Players customize their character and enter the game’s virtual kitchen as an entry-level dishwasher and can advance to “Top Chef,” gain 5-star status and fame along the way with commentary and advice from show host, Padma Lakshmi. A series of mini-games and culinary challenges test reflexes, memory and patience to prove you have what it takes to be the next “Top Chef.” As an added bonus, the Trivia Challenge mini-game lets players demonstrate their culinary knowledge to earn extra points. Top Chef Challenge will be available for a one-time download charge of $6.99 or $2.99 monthly subscription fee (where available) at major U.S. carriers. Consumers should check with their carrier for handset compatibility.

I am sad that my big, gay, chef Dale from Season 3 isn’t participating. I hope he’s off being wildly successful somewhere.

For my dad, who didn’t ask for this. I can’t help offering my opinion though. His twice baked potatoes have a glue-y mouth feel to me, since he uses either a blender or a food processor rather than mashing them, and this destroys some science-y molecule that makes them fluffy.

And my dad is used to me telling how to do things he’s been doing for years. He just nods politely, then does his own thing anyway, so we both end up happy.

From Cook’s Illustrated:

Quicker Twice-Baked Stuffed Potatoes with Ham, Peas, and Gruyere 9/2004
Serves 4 as a main dish, 8 as a side

4 russet potatoes , scrubbed and dried
vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melt 2 tablespoons)
3/4 pound deli-style baked ham , sliced 1/4-inch thick and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup frozen peas
6 ounces Gruyère cheese , shredded (2 cups)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
ground black pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees.

1a. Place four potatoes in a shallow baking dish, puncture the skin with a fork, and microwave the spuds, rotating them every three minutes, until a skewer can be inserted and removed with little resistance, nine to 12 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

2. While potatoes are baking, heat 1 tablespoon butter in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until foaming; add ham in even layer and cook, without stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir and cook 30 seconds longer. Off heat, stir in peas; transfer mixture to large plate.

3. Halve each potato lengthwise. Using soup spoon, scoop flesh from each half into bowl, leaving about 3/8-inch thickness of flesh. Place shells cut-sides up on baking sheet and return to oven until dry and slightly crisp, about 10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, mash potato flesh with fork until smooth; stir in melted butter, ham mixture, 1 cup cheese, sour cream, half-and-half, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.

5. Remove shells from oven; heat broiler. Mound filling into shells; sprinkle with remaining cheese and broil until spotty brown, 6 to 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes; serve.

My sister Sydney avoids carbs, but is helpless in the face of these muffins. She also seems unable to hang onto the recipe, which is from Cook’s Illustrated (9/02):

Corn Muffins

Whole-grain cornmeal has a fuller flavor than regular cornmeal milled from degerminated corn. To determine what kind of cornmeal a package contains, look closely at the label.

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
1 cup fine-ground, whole-grain yellow cornmeal (4 1/2 ounces)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar (5 1/4 ounces)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to combine; set aside. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl until well combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar to eggs; whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add melted butter in 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add half the sour cream and half the milk and whisk to combine; whisk in remaining sour cream and milk until combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients; mix gently with rubber spatula until batter is just combined and evenly moistened. Do not over-mix. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide batter evenly among muffin cups, dropping it to form mound. Do not level or flatten surface of mounds.

3. Bake until muffins are light golden brown and skewer inserted into center of muffins comes out clean, about 18 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in tin 5 minutes; invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, cool 5 minutes longer, and serve warm.

A few years ago, my husband G. Grod and I saw a commercial for Chex cereal. A woman rhapsodized how her mom had made it at the holidays, and now SHE was the mom, so she made the Chex mix. I can’t remember what the emphasis was–that becoming a mom allowed her the privilege of making the mix, or if making the mix somehow cemented her identity as a mother, but the commercial strongly tied the two together. Chex Mix pretty much equaled motherhood.

So it was with my tongue in my cheek during last week’s homemaking frenzy that I made cereal snack mix for the first time. I used a different brand of cereal (less expensive and not as ethically challenged as Chex), and a recipe from the Dec/Jan 2008 issue of Cook’s Country for an Asian variation with dried ginger and soy sauce. 4yo Drake promptly nicknamed it Snarf Snacks, after something we’d read about in The Fabulous Bouncing Chowder. But he and young Guppy took offense at the wasabi peas, so G. Grod and I have been happily munching it all week.

If my child refuses to eat it, do I still get mom points for having made “Chex” mix?

I’ve been on a home-making tear. Starting Sunday, I weeded our yard and cut down the hostas. I roasted a pumpkin, then toasted the seeds and pureed the flesh. Yesterday I managed to do laundry AND put it away. I made pumpkin chocolate-chip cupcakes with maple cream-cheese frosting* for Drake’s preschool snack today. (He’s getting better at baking: he didn’t sneeze in the batter. I’m getting quicker: I stopped him before licking the frosting utensils at least three times.)

I’m not sure what’s prompted this nesting phase; perhaps it’s the looming of winter. But I’m exhausted. I’m off to make sure those cupcakes turned out well. (Again.)

*Recipe from the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, Deceptively Delicious that all the moms I know are talking about, and which my kind mother-in-law brought me as a gift when she visited. It’s given me minor notoriety among friends: Gasp! “You HAVE it? Can I SEE it?” I’ve tried a few recipes, like sneaking pumpkin into mac and cheese, or sloppy joes, or cupcakes. She goes too far in making the recipes low fat, though, so she’s sacrificed both flavor and texture in the recipes I’ve tried so far. But it’s a lovely, hardcover, spiral bound book with good photography and clever “talking head” illustrations. The art director should be proud.

Today I made cherry chocolate-chip banana bread with 4yo Drake. Here are some things I tried to teach him:

1. Dip and sweep
2. Pour
3. Whisk
4. Fold
5. Sneeze AWAY from the mixing bowl
6. Lick the spatula AFTER the dough is out
7. To lick a bowl, sweep with a finger, then transfer to mouth. Do not stick head in bowl, which results in dough in hair.

Here is something he taught me:

8. Do not plan to serve boy-helped baked goods to guests, only family.

Sigh.

#49 in my 2007 book challenge was Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.

The blessing of the omnivore is that she can eat a great many things in nature. The curse of the omnivore is that when it comes to figuring out which of these things are safe to eat, she’s pretty much on her own.

Pollan’s thoughtful, thorough, and provoking book is one of the best I’ve read all year. In fluid prose that is neither needlessly academically esoteric, or dumbed down for the masses, Pollan examines four food systems, the meals they produce, and their hidden costs and suffering. The four are agricultural industrial, organic industrial, organic sustainable, and hunted/gathered. In the end, it’s not hard to determine where Pollan’s bias lies after all his research and experience. What makes this book so compelling, though, is that he takes effort and time to explore and explain all the alternative views. The cruelty and problems of industrial farming are clearly delineated, but Pollan’s book situates them in time and place to make them understandable, though nonetheless disturbing.

I was surprised and concerned to learn how prevalent corn byproducts are in the North American diet. Another point I especially liked was that eaters must either be ignorant of where their food comes from and how it’s processed, or choose from smaller, more challenging method of eating, like vegetarianism, or a focus on locally farmed and sourced organic food.

To visit a modern Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is to enter a world that for all its technological sophistication is still designed on seventeenth-century Cartesian principles: Animals are treated as machines–”production units”–incapable of feeling pain. Since no thinking person can possibly believe this anymore, industrial animal agriculture depends on a suspension of disbelief on the part of the people who operate it and a willingness to avert one’s eyes on the part of everyone else. Egg operations are the worst,

Pollan quotes Levi-Strauss about the ideal that food should be both good to think and good to eat. According to Pollan, this means that the eater knows how and where her food is produced, and feels good about. There’s another interpretation of the Levi-Strauss, phrase, though, that lends itself less well to Pollan’s text. As Pollan does, though, I find it a useful phrase that will help to guide my food choices. I’m no longer willfully ignorant of the provenance of much of my food. Already I do most of my family’s shopping at our local grocery cooperative. But after the book, I’ve resolved to seek out even more local, organic food, eschew products with high-fructose corn syrup, and cut back on the non-local, non-seasonal organic items that have hidden costs (e.g., petroleum used in transportation) in addition to their high prices.

This book has changed the way I think about food, and will change the way I shop and eat.

I put off buying Halloween candy till today. Bad decision. Though the aisles of Target were stocked, the good candy was gone. There were no bags of Take 5, not even combination bags that included it. There were no more Hershey’s Special Dark bags or mixes. There were no dark-chocolate M & Ms. It was terribly hard to decide. I didn’t want to do those cheapie grab bags that have high ratio of crappy candy. I decided I wanted to avoid peanuts and peanut butter (in revenge for the Take 5, but also because so many kids have peanut issues these days). And though I really wanted to avoid milk chocolate, because I don’t believe in it, in the end I decided on M & M minis, because they’re cute and the packets are small. Next year I’m shopping early, for the good candy.

I really liked the final episode, but I really hated the live intermissions. Yes, it was nice that the contestants got to have family and friends there, but still. Waiting this long seems cruel to them, and gimmicky to me. Bravo, do not condescend to me.

Loved the celebrity sous-chefs. Todd English looks even more suspiciously even-featured than Rocco DiSprito, though Rocco looked awfully cute, I thought. Wished they’d brought back Tre and Lia; best of luck to you two. You went before your time, I thought. All the eliminated chefs seemed to do a good job of backing up their Exec. I felt very bad for Casey. The editors highlighted her trouble with the altitude, showing her gasping a few times. And the fact that the only dish they liked of hers was actually executed by Howie had to be a tough blow. But that emphasizes what was so exciting about both the series and the finale–as in any creative endeavor, a combination of inspiration and good fortune can trump technical skill.

I think Hung deserved to win. Two excellent dishes and two good ones is an impressive feat. And while the judges belittled his molten chocolate cake, he was the only contestant this season to be able to pull off a better-than-OK dessert.

I was thrilled by Dale’s strong finish, and hope he’s not out of the chef business much longer.

Season 4 of Top Chef has begun to film in Chicago. (Link thanks to The Watcher)

I thought last night’s finale part 1 of Top Chef was very satisfying. The least talented chef was eliminated for making some poor choices, while nice-guy, hanger-on Dale finally stepped up and won a challenge. Best of all, he did it by learning from past successes and mistakes.

I’m out of time, but for more commentary, see Anthony Bourdain and ALoTT5MA.

“Manhattan Project” SPOILERS AHEAD: Like Anthony Bourdain, I thought last night’s Top Chef ep was the best of the season thus far. Phil at ALoTT5MA also liked it a lot, and has good commentary. The contrasts between Casey and Hung were well highlighted, in both the quickfire and elimination challenges. Hung is the most cutthroat of the remaining competitors. He is classically trained, as he often snottily reminds us. Casey is not classically trained, but does a good job of executing modern dishes with classic influences. She is much more likeable than Hung, and she’s demonstrated over the past several episodes that she’s a talented chef.

The contrasts between the two of them and the other three were also well depicted. Brian clearly could have been either at the bottom of the tops, or the top of the bottoms, but he was squarely in the middle. And no matter how likeable Dale is–”I’m a big, gay chef, and I’m gonna outcook your a$$!”–that doesn’t account for the significant lapses he’s had, like forgetting a plate on the plane, and forgetting the sauce on his duo. Also, was he present earlier in the season when the judges derided one of the candidates for doing duets? And didn’t he learn a lesson from the boat episode, that one simple item is better than two complicated ones. To his credit, though, I don’t doubt that it’s hard, and I’m in a comfy viewing spot the day after the show and on my couch, not in a kitchen with professional chefs staring at me, and the most illustrious judging panel waiting for the dish.

I was relieved to see Sara eliminated rather than Dale, if only because he’s such a gigantic personality. Her dish looked good but sounded terrible, though I wondered if the couscous was good; I only heard it called underseasoned.

I very much enjoyed Casey’s comment on being a woman in what has been, and still largely is, a men’s club. Nowhere was this more evident than in the quickfire judge, Sirio Maccioni, saying that he’d like to pick her instead of Hung as the winner, because her dish was good AND she was pretty. Yet she faced down the stony-visaged kitchen chefs and stepped up to do a great job in both challenges. That indicated to me that she deserves to be there.

Does anyone else wonder how Lia and Tre would be doing, if they were still around? They seemed the most talented previous eliminations, to me.

So far this year, I’ve had the dubious honor of helping to boot off the show an extremely likeable, open-hearted orphan with a lilting Southern accent, and now, last night, I got to be part of the hunting party who smashed the hopes and dreams of a cancer survivor. Short of biting the heads off kittens while dressed up as a storm trooper, I don’t think I could look any less sympathetic.

Anthony Bourdain continues to win my affection with funny, incisive commentary both on Top Chef and on his blog.

“Snacks on a Plane” Heh, heh. GREAT title, I thought. The chefs were awakened by Padma, who got in bed and tussled with Casey, but was more prim in the boys room. What IS with Brian and that hat he wears to sleep in? CJ, though, seemed quite happy to see Padma, and continued his flirtatious banter. They were challenged to make her breakfast, and it sounded like everyone did a good job, though Brian got dinged for blackberry seeds in the smoothie. Spazzy Hung broke a bottle of oil so there was glass and oil on the floor, then he denied it; badly done, but he pulled out the win anyway by adding Grand Marnier to his smoothie and making a simple but exquisite steak and eggs. They then received plane tickets to Newark NJ. Upon arrival they were told their next challenge would be about plane food. The next day, they were tasked with creating a dish for first-class passengers. They had a tough time in an unfamiliar kitchen. CJ faltered badly with the timing of his dish, and early finisher Hung looked selfish for not volunteering to help him catch up, though other chefs did, as they’ve picked up that working with each other rather than for themselves succeeds all around.

This episode spawned some of the nastiest comments I’ve heard.

On Sara’s salmon: “So overcooked it’s like catfood! (Bourdain) Also, “It’s not an afterthought, it’s a fourth or fifth thought.”
On Brian’s hash: “It was disgusting,” stated flatly by Colicchio
And the death knell: “The worst dish we’ve had in three seasons” by Colicchio about CJ’s broccolini.

Padma looked down and then up with tears in her eyes (?!) before telling CJ to pack his knives.

For the second week, Casey took top spot, and earned a sweet prize. I have to take back what I wrote about her not making it to the end. What I’m now enjoying about Top Chef is that it is so variable. Great chefs can make terrible decisions, or even just bad choices, that spiral out of control. I have no idea which of the final five are going to be the final three, but I really enjoyed seeing the camaraderie and support of all the chefs but Hung, who seems to be the only cut-throat thinking contender left.

Wednesdays are new comic days. We usually go to a certain pizza place for a quick dinner, then to the comic shop to pick up the new titles. G. Grod wanted to do something different from pizza, though, so he drove to another nearby restaurant. As he pulled in, 4yo Drake’s voice rose in a shout, “NO! Pizza!” Surprised at the immediate vehemence, G. tried to reason with him. Then he pulled out of the parking lot, drove to the usual place, and as we pulled in the parking lot 19mo Guppy grinned, clapped his hands, and said, “Yay! Pees-ah!” over and over. Children love routine, and we learned not to mess with it last night. And we got a free pepperoni kids pizza when the kitchen had an oops, G. and I tried a very good salame e funghi pizza with LOTS of garlic, so things turned out well.

At the comic shop, Guppy insisted on being put down, not carried, and proceeded to run four laps around an aisle. I picked him up again before damage occurred, but he lunged toward a plush character, grabbed it and began yelling “Muh-tee!” (Monkey) He clutched it to his heart, then pronounced “My muh-tee” and was so absurdly cute that we could hardly deny him the toy.

Meanwhile, I tried to interest Drake in the very nice and inexpensive first volume of the graphic novel starring Guppy’s “monkey”, but he was having none of it. Instead, he picked out and insisted on the second volume of a teen girl’s manga title; we grudgingly bought him the first volume a few weeks ago. “Let the kid get what he wants,” laughed the owner, as I grumbled and wrote out the check.

Yes, we could have protested, but why? Guppy clearly was enamored with the toy, as Drake was with the book. And all of us enjoyed the pizza. It is more clear than ever to G. Grod and me who is in charge at our house. The animals are running the zoo.