Martha, Martha, Martha!

I cannot believe I forgot to tell you that I saw Martha Stewart.


I mean, I saw Martha Stewart and I saw Martha Stewart. Fortunately it was a food-based episode so it makes perfect sense to tell you about it here, I'm not just namedropping because I was in the same room as Martha Stewart and breathed the same air as Martha Stewart or laughed at Martha Stewart's jokes or anything,

There were other people there. Such as Curtis Granderson. He's one of the New York Yankees! And this guy, Adam Richman, who wrote a book about food and eats lots of it on TV. He's on the Travel Channel like, all the time. His mom was in the audience which was soo cute.

It was a particularly delicious episode: macaroni and cheese was made, discussions of food anthropology took place (see also, Adam Richman's book, which we received copies of but I haven't yet finished reading), and we watched as Martha went on a pretaped "date" with some hilarious MTV News guys I didn't know (they went to the restaurant Daniel.) Also! Excellent swag bags with loads of free stuff!

So yeah, went to see Martha Stewart. It was definitely my favorite TV-taping experience ever. I've previously seen Emeril Live (also about food! The only swag item was a little bag of super spicy potato chips. It was in October or November 2001, their first taping after 9/11, and so there was an awful lot of "Yeah! New York! We love ya! Bam!" that's probably puzzling if that episode still airs), the Daily Show (no swag, forget who the guest was but it was someone funny), and The Late Show with David Letterman (also no swag but pretty sure I heard myself "woo!" on TV and Hootie and the Blowfish played "Let Her Cry.").

Anyway, at Martha, I had the best seats ever. Got to sit on the floor, right next to the fake greenhouse area of the set! (Those are real plants in there.) And oh yes, because you want to know but are too classy to ask: Martha was really pretty and really skinny -- um, not "skinny," exactly, more like "svelte" -- in real life. And was only like, 15 feet away from me when she rolled beeswax candles with the MTV guys, who made jokes with Martha about their mad skillz at rolling things. (It was a pot-smoking joke! OMG! In front of Martha!!)

Office Lunchtime Win

Ramen noodles (without the flavor packet) + Erin’s Peanut Sauce + leftover Golden Sesame Tofu from Whole Foods.

A Hilarious Recipe for Easy Beets

If you know me, you know that I enjoy beets. But long before I realized how much I loved beets, I loved puns. And once, way back when, I decided that one day I would come up with a recipe for something I could call “Block Rockin’ Beets.” Today’s the day!

You’ll need:
• Two cans of canned beets
• olive oil
• freshly ground pepper
• some thyme
• Kosher salt
• a baking sheet

Instructions:
1. Open the cans and drain the beets into a strainer. Be careful if you have a white sink, as I do.
2. Dump the beets onto a baking sheet. Pour some olive oil on them.
3. Sprinkle on some salt, pepper, and thyme.
4. Mix it all together with your hands or a utensil so that they are somewhat evenly coated. Spread the beets out so that there’s as much beet surface area touching the sheet as possible.
5. Bake at 350 degrees until they achieve the desired amount of crusty roastedness. Try and flip them once about halfway through. I usually leave them in for at least 40 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

About My Microwave

I’ve been thinking about my microwave lately. It’s tiny, old, and takes longer than most of us are used to to heat things up. But it’s special.

When I moved here a year and a half ago, I asked my parents to see whether they still had my college microwave somewhere. I was spending money on a lot of other things in order to get settled and thought buying a new microwave was unnecessary.

When they brought it over, I had a good laugh over the fact that it still had a sticker on the back with my college address. I enjoyed the retro-ness of its faux woodgrain sides. (I had forgotten that once upon a time it was thought that microwaves would blend more naturally into a kitchen if they looked as if they were made of wood.) And I remembered that it was older than I had thought; it was actually in my grandmother’s kitchen for a number of years before I took it to college in 1994. I remember when she first got it. She figured everyone else had a microwave so she ought to get one too, even though she rarely used it. It wasn’t until much later, after she gave me this one for college and then bought a replacement microwave, that she got into the swing of reheating soup and Lean Cuisines the modern way.

The microwave fit perfectly into an otherwise useless nook of the counter next to the fridge, so I was good to go. I pushed the button to open the door – it required a bit more effort than today’s units – and chuckled. First of all, the interior was basically spotless, presumably because I had given it a thorough once-over sometime in the late ’90s (“Gosh, it is so great that I am such a clean person,” I thought). Aside from one blemish: a brown splotch that could only be a burn. The smell of burnt microwave popcorn somehow popped in my mind. I remembered an “incident” in college when my roommate accidentally set a bag of popcorn to cook too long. Remember how the smell of someone’s overmicrowaved popcorn would linger? God, I hate that smell. It’s kind of like when someone makes an afternoon bag at work but is so psyched to eat it they stand right next to it so there’s no way it would overcook, and then instead of talking about the weather everyone else in the office is like, “Oooh, someone made popcorn!” like just smelling the stuff is the highlight of their horrible day.

And this is why instead of microwave popcorn, now I use my grandmother’s old hot-air popcorn popper. Also, it’s super fun for sleepovers with the nieces and reminds me of being a little kid.

(Well, OK, actually the main reasons I use it are that I love real butter on popcorn and because I’m cheap and prefer to buy a bag of kernels instead of a bag of kernels plus chemicals. Plus it would probably take for-freakin’-ever to pop a bag in this tiny old microwave.)

My Peanut Sauce or, Best Quick Dinner Ever

1. Scoop some chunky peanut butter (about a tablespoon) out of a jar. Plop the PB in a bowl.

2. Pour about two tablespoons’ worth of your favorite orangey/gingerey type salad dressing (I use Price Chopper’s Central Market brand Mandarin Ginger Vinaigrette – has just 2 1/2 grams of fat per serving!) atop the peanut butter.

3. Microwave for about 20 seconds (or less; my microwave is unusually small and old.)

4. Stir together the peanut butter and dressing until they combine. Add more salad dressing until you reach the consistency that works best with whatever food you’re using it on. I usually mix the dressing with freshly cooked (i.e. still warm) noodles: I used to always use soba noodles but recently discovered that you can get much the same effect with – drumroll, please – Great Value* whole wheat thin spaghetti.

*for the uninitiated, Great Value is the Walmart store brand. Holla!

Savor Providence 2010

After skipping last year’s edition because of torrential rain, I was super excited to return to this year’s Savor Providence, a fundraiser for the fabulous Trinity Rep theatre company. (You may recall my attending 2008’s inaugural event.)

The day started off right with Rhode Island wine and cheese – Sakonnet Vineyards and Narragansett Creamery – in the theater’s lobby. Great stuff! I’ve been aware of Sakonnet wine for years, if not decades. I knew of it when I was a kid (my dad being a bit of a consumer of localish wines) and moreso during my R.I. college days when a few times we enjoyed their Eye of the Storm wine (when we were feeling upscale we’d browse the wines at Haxton’s instead of heading straight to the Natty Ice!) whilst reminiscing about Hurricane Gloria, as New England kids our age tend to do. (It was, aside from the Blizzard of ’78 which for most of us was just an opportunity for our toddler selves to be posed next to snow piles, the main weather memory of everyone’s youth. I doubt you want to hear the story of how school was cancelled that day and I was pissed because it was supposed to be my first day of clarinet lessons and I really needed that first day of lessons in order to figure out how to put the darned thing together. Also, one of our apple trees fell down.)

Anyhoo, they had much tastier wines than that one at Savor Providence. I tried two: the “Petite White NV,” a vidal blanc/gewürztraminer blend which actually had detectable levels of the “white grapefruit flavors” the tasting sheet touted; and the 2007 No Oak Chardonnay, which was delicious. I haven’t had a lot of unoaked chardonnays but really enjoy them every time I do.

And I cannot say ENOUGH about the Narragansett Creamery cheese. Their Atwell’s Gold was fantastic, as was the Salty Sea Feta. (UPDATE: Bought a nice slab of Atwell’s Gold at Sandy’s in Westerly in September! Love it!)

This year’s restaurant list was different than the first year’s, which turned out to be a good thing because otherwise we probably would have just returned to some of the same places that we knew were fabulous – we’re still talking about the mac and cheese at Al Forno – instead of trying new ones. And the addition of cooking demo tents was really nice, even though we only made it to one session.

Here’s a rundown of the highlights:
Aspire, 311 Westminster St.: “Unagi shrimp with wakame salad & toasted sesame; spiced nori encrusted scallop with grilled watermelon.” OMG. LOVE. Why am I not encrusting and grilling more things at home?

Café Noir, 125 N. Main St. They offered steak frites and a “goat cheese tart with sexy greens.” Sexy greens! Say no more. (They actually looked like ordinary greens to me but if you’re gonna stick tiny flowers in ’em and call them “sexy greens” I’m game.) And I’ve certainly never met a goat cheese tart I didn’t like.

Trinity Brewhouse, 186 Fountain St.: We started off here for lunch with the lobster mac and cheese, which I enjoyed with the suggested pint of Rhode Island IPA. Then at the end of the day we finished things off with dessert of “stout brownie sundaes.” Tasty! And a trip to Trinity is not complete without me reminding people that this is where we went for my 21st birthday. It was always my favorite bar in Providence. Still is now that I know they make brownies out of beer.

OK, this isn't a food highlight, but was super excited to learn that as Savor attendees we were entitled to 10 percent off at Craftland. I love love love Craftland. Go! Visit their website! Become a fan of them on Facebook!

Finally, new this year, I tweeted the event. (I know! I just used “tweeted” as a verb!) At one restaurant we were sitting next to someone checking people’s tweets to see what others were saying about the day. (I later figured out it was the ProJo’s food editor; I’ve still got my reporting chops!) So I logged on to Twitter using my mobile phone (for like, the first time ever, I might add) and unleashed one weak tweet about where we went and where we were going next. (I also spelled a word wrong and forgot to add the appropriate hashtag.) My bad. Next year I promise to tweet the event properly.

No Two Wheys About It

Curds!

Whey!

Queso fresco!!

“My Name Is Erin, and I Am a Home Cheesemaker.”

Best daughter ever? I just might be.

I decided recently that, instead of giving people presents of items they don’t need, I’d prefer to give people gifts of “experiences.” So for my father’s birthday, I presented him with plans for the two of us to spend a day at the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company’s Cheesemaking 101 workshop.

Located in Ashfield, Mass., the company is housed in the adorable old home of its proprietress, Ricki Carroll, the Cheese Queen. (If you’ve read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, you may remember the family visited here when they went north. If you haven’t read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I urge you to. it was great, dare I say, life-changing. In fact, that’s how I heard about it myself: from the book.)

I’m not going to bore you too much with the details right now (because one thing I’ve learned since attending the workshop is that, like sausagemaking and lawmaking, most people also don’t want to know the details of cheesemaking) but suffice it to say it was awesome. Plus, as I mentioned above, better writers than I have described the workshop already.

Long story short: We made cheese. A LOT of cheese. And ate a lot of cheese. And bought things with which to make cheese (and yogurt!). And met other people who enjoy cheese. A fantastic day was had by all.

Stay tuned, however, as I will surely bore you with more stories about cheese (and yogurt!) in the future.

[This is me and my dad with the cheese our table (above left) made together. Pretty much everyone at our table posed for a photo with the cheese. My kind of people! My face is a little swollen still because I had my wisdom teeth out earlier that week.]

Cupcake kebabs

Cupcake kebabs? Cupcake kebabs.

Beets!

I am so proud of my beets. Sure, they took quite a beating from our wet, wet summer. Lost a few good ones in the rains. Planted some others in a spot where they didn't get enough sun, as you can see from the moss growing on the north side of the house in the July 3 photo at left. But overall I think it was a pretty good first effort.

I planted two types: Regular old Chicago hybrid beets, for the taste, and some nifty organic Chioggia beets I bought in recyclable plastic pouches at Whole Foods, for the red-and-white stripes you see when you cut into one.

I learned, aside from the fact that they need more sun and less rain, that I ought to have planted them a bit deeper (I think too much of the tops were sticking out of the ground and got too dry). I also learned that beet greens are delicious, and so much more of a bonus than my longtime favorite leafy green, Swiss chard, in that you can also eat the root of the beet. They took excellent care of themselves, first, when they quickly grew tall enough for me to easily distinguish them from weeds, and later, when they grew strong enough to overtake the weeds, hence allowing me to avoid weeding altogether.

I also learned that I should have planted more of them. But next year I certainly will. My compost pile is already cooking in anticipation. I picked up two packets of the Chioggias, just in case, only using half of one packet this year because they don't expire till after next summer. But the regular old red hybrids were actually a bit tastier, sweeter and more robust, even creamier, be that an appropriate beet descriptive.


Pictured above is what I think is the take-home message. From start to finish! I couldn't be prouder.