Ice cream season isn't over...

...at least, it won't be when you try this. I saw this at the very cool Star Provisions and finally tried it yesterday: vanilla soft-serve ice cream topped with olive oil (small drizzle) and sea salt (a sprinkle.)

Whoa. Buttery, salty-sweet goodness and the feeling of trying something that the less adventurous would dismiss with a "gross" and a grimace. Easy enough to replicate at home also...I'd bring home the soft serve and garnish since I lack the patience to fire up the ice cream maker when a craving strikes.

Polish pleasure

To piggy-back on the last post (or chicken-back, as the case may be),roast chicken is a wondrous thing. Not only cheap and tasty, but bones for stock and soup the next day. Plus, it's getting very close to that time of year (in the North) when you don't mind turning on the oven for an hour or so.
I read an article in Food and Wine about comfort foods by the Chicago wunder-chef Grant Achatz where he served Roast chicken with homemade pierogies (polish potato dumplings). I made them, and they are great. Plus it solves the "should we have potatoes or pasta?" dilemma. Try this link for the recipe: www.foodandwine.com/recipes/mustardy-potato-pierogies

Tasty Stories

I'll admit, my slender cookbook collection doesn't get nearly the use of the righteously food-spattered library that belongs to my sister. But I do like to read them...the ones that have really good stories instead of an overload of glossy pictures (those can get depressing.) I just heard about this one that has just become available in the US: a British hit called ROAST CHICKEN AND OTHER STORIES. Head Butler quoted the following passage, which made me drool a little even though I am sitting in Florida in the exact opposite of this kind of weather:

My mother makes really good potato cakes. They are sort of misshapen, soft, gooey, and floury. They are at their best eaten on a Sunday afternoon, melting in front of the fire in their pool of butter. It should be winter, about 5 PM, dark outside, and a Marx Brothers film has just finished on the television.

Maybe it's just that butter. What little nugget of a setting could you give your favorite recipe? Bring 'em on!

If you're making cookies, please stick it in the fridge

I recently forgot that I had promised to bring cookies to a baby shower at work. This was at around 9:30pm on the night before the shower. Thoughts of the Vietnamese bakery down the street swirled in my head, but my pride wouldn't let me: I will stay true to the Homespun, readers.
The solution? Refrigerator cookies. Flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, rolled up in a tube shape and thrown in the fridge. The next morning, I turned on the oven when I got up, sliced those lil' buggers, threw an almond on top and baked for 6 min. By the time I was done with my coffee,the whole batch was done. I had lined the trays with parchment paper, so there was no clean up, and I was actually on time for work.
I had a vision of myself in 10 years, finding the crumpled note in the kid's backpack at 11 at night saying "bring cookies tomorrow" and I knew: No bake sale will EVER bring me down.

Sweet and Lowdown

For stylish ladies with a bit of an edge, Locher's is worth a visit. One could even take inspiration from these designs and get stitching oneself...Warning: if you are one of those readers who are sensitive to swearing (or, as our Mother would say, if you didn't work summers in a restaurant like we did and come home with Trucker Mouth for life,) this might not tickle you.

Feeling isolated? Get knocked up (or a beach ball)

If you've ever felt alone...cut off from the people you pass every day...or that you just don't get to talk to strangers enough, having a pregnant form gives you a pass to be everyone's friend. It's downright homespun how, even in the middle of a huge city, people you have never met will drop what they are doing to offer you a greeting, commentary, or 'advice.' I've been keeping a little list of some of the most memorable quips I've gotten, and here are a few:

"How many do you have in there?" (One, it just looks like a litter)
"Wow, I'll be you'll be good at breastfeeding." (Or maybe a career in adult films)
"You don't mind if I touch it, do you?) (Now that you are, it would be rude to slap you.)
"Have all the coffee you want, but don't go bowling" (And let the league down?)
"Have you ordered your epidural yet?" (I'll order it along with your tact medicine)

Any of you in homespun land made similar connections?

Shrimp-tastic

Why should a shrimp be just for 'special occasions?' They're delicious, low-cal, and give any meal a touch of Classiness. If you can get the local variety, so much the tastier.

My sister has devised the ultimate preparation method, used to great success at my wedding (actual guest quote: "We had our reception at the Four Seasons and the food wasn't half as good as this. Especially that shrimp. Mmm.")

Go to it.

Take the shells off fresh shrimp and boil them in water and some white wine, beer and spices for 20 min. Strain the shells out and keep the water. Bring this to a boil, then add the peeled uncooked shrimp, and immediately turn off the heat and cover. Let them sit for 8 min., then drain and chill.

Best shrimp ever- the shells have all the sea taste, but it takes them 20 min. to release their flavah. If you cook the shrimp that long, you’re eating pencil rubbers. This is the best of both worlds.

Homespun vs. Heat Wave

It's no news that it pretty much feels like living on the surface of Mars for much of us this summer (take that, those who thought Al Gore was exaggerating!) I have never been so thankful for air conditioning in my life, especially following a recent outage that made me wonder how in the world anyone kept their sanity without it. But, if you have to do without, or just want to try to keep cool on the eco-friendly and frugal side, what do you do?

Here are some of my favorites:

1) Tons and tons of water, jazzed up with lime, mint, fruit pieces, splashes of juice
2) Powder - unscented baby or your favorite fragrance, Bumble and Bumble Hair Powder gives a pretty good lift to your 'do as well.
3) Hide in movie theater or head to generally avoided shopping mall with iPod and good book to read in the food court.
4) Run ice cold water over your wrists at your pulse point, or dab said area with ice cube. Oooh!
5) Put away the black clothes for a bit, as painful and challenging as this may be to your style.
6) Put your sheets in a plastic bag and toss them in the freezer for a couple hours before bed. Works especially well with cotton.
7) Live like professional heat-beaters of extreme climates: get up super-early, do everything outside before 9, stay hidden indoors with blinds drawn until after 5.

What are you doing to Cool It Now?

Start your day on the airy side

Meet my new breakfast obsession: The huevos Emilia. Warm one side of a corn torilla in a dry skillet, flip it over and throw on some black bean dip and cheese (this one happens to feature Velveeta-my guilty pleasure). In the same pan on the side, fry up an egg and throw it on top of the torilla. Add salsa (mine is just cut up cherry tomatoes and parsley). Prepare to be awed, satisfied and relatively virtuous feeling: upon researching this blog, that bean dip is only 20 calories, and you know what that means- MORE VELVEETA. Mmmmmm.

Can Jam'07

Some readers have pointed out to me that the pickling onions concept sounds hard. Au contraire, mon frere (et mes soeurs). Pickling is just shoving the vegetables in a jar, mixing up vinegar and spices, pouring into said jar, and boiling it for 10 min or so. You don't even need special equipment, although like a jog-bra with dry-wick fabric, it does make the experience a little nicer. And it's not too expensive- on amazon.com they have the complete kit for $35.00 or so, and that's everything. You could get by with just the tongs that lift the jars out of the water.

Don't be afraid.....come to the canning world....don't be afraid.....resistance is futile.....