Guest Chef Henry: Mints Inedible

I will speak for Henry since he cannot speak for himself. I will also tell you that this little scoundrel stole these mints from Connie, who received them in her Christmas stocking from the McNeill family of Portland, Maine.

Although he did not prepare the treats, Henry tried these mints and found them totally inedible. The smelled like food, but, try as he might, he could not chew and devour these mints to his satisfaction. The verdict may have been different had he the insight to open the tin.

Guest Chef Katy! Fancy LA Food

While you're unpacking, thought you might like a guest chef contribution for Edible Inedible... The attached photos are from a party I threw this weekend with another library school student. It was a Fancy Party, aka an excuse to make hors d'ouerves and wear the clothes we never get to wear in grad school.

The pictures are of the entire spread (with fancy dresses in the background - that's me in the black and white, special thanks to Cole Jabaily for the long-term loan of the dress) and then close-ups of the baked brie with onion jam (from the Chez Panisse cookbook, onions and red wine cooked for a very long time), curried chicken in pita pockets (chicken, spices, onions, green apple, grapes, celery), and the farmer's market crudites. These unfortunately lacked for a suitable dip (lack of planning on the part of the librarians), but we ate them the next morning in a frittata.

Fish trial and error

Last night my goal was to get my kitchen unpacked and functioning enough to make a real dinner. I was originally thinking of roast chicken and potatoes with arugula salad, but I replaced the chicken with pan seared fish to save time and dishes. I got a piece of haddock, cut it into two pieces, oiled and seasoned the fish, and seared both sides in a hot skillet. Well, that is what I tried to do! I am not really sure where I messed up, but the fish was completely stuck to the pan and turned into a flaky mess (I did oil the skillet).

So although the final result looks kind of like cat food, it was actually light and very tasty.

I had a simple side salad of arugula tossed with lemon, olive oil, s & p -- exactly what i put on the fish. I was too hungry to wait for the potatoes to finish roasting, so I brought some for lunch today and will have the rest with dinner tonight.

As a side note, I have really been enjoying the Midas Touch beer from Dogfish. It is so tasty and enjoyable, but not cheap - treat yourself, go buy some! Edible! Imbibable!

Guest Chef Maggie : Flan!

Maggie, my friend from high school who now lives in Denver, sent in the following:

Life in colorado is good- i'm dying for farmer's market season to
start, you should see the things they grow out here!!!
The world's best and easist flan- my mom's recipe:

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
6 eggs
one can of water (use the SC milk can)
teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup of sugar (i tried cane sugar once and it was ugly- use nasty
old white sugar)

mix the milks and the water
strain the eggs into the milk mixture (to get the snotty bits out)
add vanilla and stir

melt the 1/2 cup sugar in a pan and carefully pour the molten sugar
into the bottom of a caserole dish and coat the bottom.
once it cools pour in the flan mixture
place the caserole dish in a water bath and put in a 350 degree oven
bake 45-minutes to an hour (until a knife comes out clean)

after it cools run a knife around the edge of the flan. turn it out
onto a serving dish. I like to serve it with toasted pecans but it is
tasty alone.

Thanks, Maggie! Enjoy!

Dregs

I am moving this weekend, and trying not to grocery shop until I get to my new place. I am also trying to use up all the little bits of food that I do not want to pack up or throw away. Last night I made pasta using the end of the packages of fettuccini, linguini, and angel hair (I added them to the water at intervals so nothing would be mushy), and a sauce made from my last can of plum tomatoes with garlic, onions, s&p, various spices, and a pat of butter.

This morning I made oatmeal with milk and dried cranberries. I think the cranberries were purchased in early 2006, but they seemed fine. I always feel better during the day when I take the time to make something like oatmeal instead of pouring a bowl of my usual cereal.

Mystery Pictures!

Last night I checked my email, and I recieved two pictures sent from a verizon phone. This was very confusing to me, as there was no context, follow up email, or phone call. I have a hunch my grandmother sent then to me to answer a question I posed in an earlier post. Maybe my mom? This must be the daisy churn!

Guest Chef Connie !

I'm honored to be a guest chef on this worthy blog.

Matt and I made dinner, and Mary Cat, Jess and Alison joined us.

Matt wanted to make macaroni and cheese with white sauce, so he consulted his mother, Mary Lou, who is reported to make "a bitchin mac and cheese." Matt explained that a previous attempt left him with a congealed lump of cheese floating in a pan of white liquid, a fate we wished to avoid.

We used cheddar, gouda, emanthaler and parmesean. I think we did a pretty good job following Mary Lou's instructions because the sauce was lump-free. We skipped the bread crumbs on top, however.

Matt can tell you about the mac and cheese process. I made the tofu marinade with olive oil, honey, salt, pepper, 2 or 3 cloves of roughly chopped garlic, and vermouth.

For the salad, we toasted pumpkin seeds with olive oil and a little salt and pepper in the toaster oven, and made long carrot curls with a peeler. We peeled the outside skins of the carrots directly onto the floor and got a free floor cleaning courtesey of Henry. I think we put some oil and vinager on top (of the salad, not the dog.)

Mary Cat can tell you if it was edible or not.

Just in! New baby cow pics!

Kelly says this baby cow and I can achieve world peace. Don't worry, he's not destined to be veal, he is the new baby-daddy at Misty Brook Farm! The pace of food pictures has been slower lately, I promise it will pick back up within a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more guest chefs!

Baby making

I tried to make the dutch-baby that I remember from weekend brunches in my childhood. I am not sure if i went about this the right way, but I made a popover recipe, added sauteed veggies and grated cheese, and poured it all in a hot skillet, and followed pop over directions (I upped the cooking time a little). It was much more moist than individual popovers, but overall tasted really good - kind of like savory bread pudding, but less rich. It would be perfect with a salad.

New Feature !

Here on Edible, Inedible, I have decided to start a guest chef feature. This way, when I am being slow about posting, I will still have fresh and exciting posts for you. So, if you would like to be a guest chef email me a picture of something you or yours cooked or prepared recently and text to go along. Carla is kicking off this new series, see below:

Guest chef Carla : Granola !

Hello Mary Cat blog readers! Hi Mom and Dad! This is guest editor Carla. After making yogurt earlier this week, I decided to make some homemade granola. I put on my new Jay-Z mix CD and got busy with the oats. I do have a history with granola making. It was my first co-op job during my freshman year of college. On that note, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the granola eaters in Asia House Co-op Spring Semester in 1999. You all silently suffered through much burnt granola at my hands. I'm sorry. Never Again!

This granola was much easier (and tastier!) to make than any of the crazy things I came up with in college. I simply mixed 1 part canola oil to 3 parts maple syrup, stirred in some nutmeg and cinnamon and poured it over the oats and chopped up cashews and almonds. I cooked it (no burning these days!) at 300 degrees on a cookie sheet for about 30 mins. I added the golden raisins. It is delicious with yogurt.

dead batteries

I need to get rechargeable batteries for my camera. Lots of dishes went undocumented over the last week or so, until I made it to Target to buy batteries. The theme of the week was salads! Warm potato salads with vinegar and mustard dressing, arugula salads with thin slices of steak and green beans, etc.

There have been requests for documentation of food declared inedible. Maybe I will start taking pictures of really mealy apples and the like. If you have a picture of something inedible (that you prepared to eat, not random debris from the sidewalk) send it to me!

Pop overs!

Pop overs make me think of Maine, and tea with friends. I credit Carla with bringing pop overs into my life. They are very easy to make, and exciting!

I think growing up my mom made a similar thing she called a dutch-baby, and was sort of one giant pop over in a skillet with fruit or sausage and cheese. Mom?

Speaking of my mom, I really enjoyed her comment about milk (under Milk Mania!). But what is a daisy churn?