Sunday, September 30, 2012


Wow my list ....is too long
My current reserve list at the library

DeGrace, Anne
Dark diversions : a traveller's tale
Saul, John Ralston
Big book of slow cooking : 200 fresh, wholesome recipes--ready and waiting
Ray, Susan Hernandez
Get rich with dividends : a proven system for earning double-digit returns
Lichtenfeld, Marc
The Taliban don't wave
Semrau, Rob
Weelicious : 140 fast, fresh, and easy recipes
McCord, Catherine
My Berlin kitchen : a love story, with recipes
Weiss, Luisa
Díaz, Junot
A nation worth ranting about
Mercer, Rick
And I shall have some peace there : trading in the fast lane for my own dirt road
Roach, Margaret
Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
Baldwin, Rosecrans
Jasmine And Fire
Abdelnour, Salma
The Age of Doubt : an Inspector Montalbano mystery
Camilleri, Andrea 
A Good Man : rediscovering my father, Sargent Shriver
Shriver, Mark 
Paris, My Sweet
Thomas, Amy 
Barefoot Contessa Foolproof : recipes you can trust
Garten, Ina 
The Good Nurse : the life and times of Charles Cullen, serial killer
Graeber, Charles
The Backyard Parables
Roach, Margaret 
Glick, Judie
Dolci : Italy's sweets
Segan, Francine
Urban farms
Rich, Sarah
Grow cook eat
 : a food lover's guide to vegetable gardening, including 50 recipes, plus harvesting and storage tips
Galloway, Willi
Weiner, Eric
The kitchen daughter : a novel
McHenry, Jael
The tenth muse : my life in food
Jones, Judith
Atonement
McEwan, Ian
Culture rebel: because the world has enough desperate housewives
Jakab, Connie
Apron anxiety : my messy affairs in and out of the kitchen
Shelasky, Alyssa
Fast flavours : 110 simple speedy recipes
Smith, Michael
Kitchen Chinese : [a novel about food, family, and finding yourself]
Mah, Ann
Brewing up a damn good story
Minhas, Manji
Writer's digest presents writer's workbook
Petit, Zachary
INSIDE THE OTHER SIDE 
: SOUL CONTRACTS, LIFE LESSONS, AND HOW DEAD PEOPLE HELP US, BETWEEN HERE AND HEAVEN
Bertoldi, Concetta
The truck food cookbook : 150 recipes and ramblings from America's best restaurants on wheels
Edge, John T
Great gluten-free vegan eats
 : cut out the gluten and enjoy an even healthier vegan diet with recipes for fabulous, allergy-free fare
Kramer, Allyson
The homemade pantry
Chernila, Alana
Hanna, Sharon
Eat to live : the amazing nutrient-rich program for fast and sustained weight loss
Fuhrman, Joe
Beautiful ruins : a novel
Walter, Jess

The naptime chef : fitting great food into family life
Banfield, Kelsey.
No Easy Day
Owen, Mark
Into The Fire
Meyer, Dakota 
I heart London 
Kelk, Lindsey
Masala Farm : stories and recipes from an uncommon life in the country
Saran, Suvir
Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society : a novel
Hearth, Amy Hill
Daniel fights a hurricane : a novel
Jones, Shane
Hill, Mirand
A rich spot of earth : Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary garden at Monticello
Hatch, Peter J
The cookbook library : four centuries of the cooks, writers, and recipes that made the modern cookbook
Willan, Anne

Black dahlia & white rose : [stories]
Oates, Joyce Carol
Hunter's way
Hill, Gerri
MARIE CURIE and Her DAUGHTERS : THE PRIVATE LIVES OF SCIENCE'S FIRST FAMILY
Emling, Shelley
Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe
McLean, Stuart

Roasted Tomato Soup


On Thursday I met my daughter for lunch and the beer (grapefruit beer) was good, the salad was greek, the steak sandwich (hers) was too rare (in light of the ecoli meat packer plant shut down---should have been returned), the lobster roll was soggy and had no flavor....but the soup was to die for.

Its Sunday and it's all I can do not to think about that soup.  And I rarely order the soup, I don't know why I did this time, but it was soooo good.   I'm thinking of phoneing them to get the recipe or if nothing else just the ingredient list.  I tried.....but failed to duplicate it











I roasted two batches of seeded mixed heirloom tomatoes, the second batch almost burned but it was roasted nicer than the first batch.  After putting both batches through a food mill.

I tasted it...too sweat for my liking so I added about a tsp apple cider vinegar.  I don't know why, but that's the first thing I saw when I opened the cupboard ( (already added some balsamic between the milling of both batches.) I also stuck a few basil leaves between the tomatoes in the second batch.
I added a shot of cumin and corriander, again....cause I spotted it when I opened the cupboard.  And also I just spent about $50 refreshing my spices, so I figured why not. (just as I'm sitting here writing this, I'm thinking maybe I should add a pinch of curry paste)

But nothing was really improving it..I should add, that I also added about 3/4 of a carton of veg stock cause it was just too thick, and also somewhere during the whole process I also wizzed it with an imertion blender.

Nothing was really working ....it just didn't taste the same - tooooo tomatoey hmmm.
I was talking with my mother after I finished all the clean up and she suggested some bragg's , but since I don't use the stuff, I added a shot of soya sauce.  That and a shot of lemon juice.
By now I couldn't duplicate what I added to this sorry ass excuse of a soup if I wanted to. I poured it off into a jar and it is currently sitting in the fridge waiting for some intervention.
It's still way too tomatoeyyyy, maybe I will purchase some more veg stock and thin it out.  Maybe I should buy some bragg's

I gave some to my husband for a late dinner and he "raved" about it.  I don't know what's wrong with his taste buds, but clearly something is wrong with him.

I can't remember the name of the restaurant...And since we paid cash there's no record of the name anywhere....

Maybe I will just have to drive down and have another bowl of....

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Plum Ketchup

Plum Ketchup

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lb (late) Italian prune plums (about 52 plums), halved
3 cloves garlic, quartered
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon ground roasted ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:
Prep your jars/lids. Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed nonreactive pot (I used my enameled cast iron Dutch oven). Bring to a rolling boil and cook until the plums are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Use an immersion blender or ladle in a regular blender to pulse until smooth. Return to a rolling boil and cook until thickened to ketchup consistency*, about 20 minutes. Ladle into pint jars leaving 1/4 inch headroom. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Yield: about 4 8-oz jars

So I woke up this morning...I couldn't get this recipe out of my mind, since seeing it on pinterest.com yesterday.  And I just so happened to have 25 plums sitting in a bag overrippening, not italian plum but - the other variety. So I halfed the recipe

...and since I am dire need of spice shopping, I had to substitute a few things. I just was not in the mood to go to the grocery store today.

I didn't have any ground roasted ginger...so I sub'd fresh ginger
I didn't have any allspice...so I sub'd chinese five spice
I didn't have any cloves...so I sub'd pumpkin pie spice
and I didn't have any cardamom....so I sub'd nutmet, don't ask me why though just threw something in that I had, I figured, what the hell

I ended up with three jars, don't ask me amnt exactly..

I even did the water bath thing, i usually just stick them in the oven for about 15 min @ 250, but I decided maybe I should do the water bath as per the recipe.