The school play opened this Friday, which means this entire past week has been tech week. I have seen my 14 and (nearly) 18 year olds for a total of 10 minutes in the morning and another 10-20 at night, and hardly any time all day Saturday. I did have something new to blog about on Friday and today, but didn’t get around to writing up either post because of the ridiculous schedule the family has kept for the past week.
The only thing I was up to putting out to the blogosphere is the new wine I popped open right now.
Feudo Maccari Nero d’Avola
This is from one of the bottles we won in the school’s raffle last month. It is nice, but I think it needs more time in the bottle. If anyone knows about Sicilian red “Feudo Maccari Nero d’Avola,” please share!
This is a beautiful garnet colored red Italian table wine. Fruity but on the dry side, it will do nicely to help lull me to sleep after a busy, busy week.
While buying apples for tomorrow’s taste testing with the techies (teen techies, technically… I’ll stop the alliteration now), I found Purple Artichokes. I would have just walked past, but I’m on the lookout for the novel, new or unknown so, into the cart they went! With tech week going on and no kids to cook for, I’m much more willing to try something new with no teens saying “Ew, what’s that?!?”
Purple Artichokes, ready to prep.Trimmed, top and bottom.
I grew up eating artichokes and wondered if these tasted different. After a wash and trim, they were ready for a 30-40 minute steam. I didn’t trim the thorny top from each leaf… ain’t nobody got time for that. I highly recommend sticking around the kitchen to ensure your pot doesn’t boil dry (read: don’t go start writing your blog post for the night) . We can testify that your home and the outermost leaves will smell something reminiscent of an ashtray… yep. Once past the first three or four leaves, though, it was all a happy, butter-drenched extravaganza. Let’s admit it, artichokes taste great but are really just an excuse to eat more butter.
Purple Artichoke, Butter, Shrimp, Butter, and Butter
The Purple Artichokes were just as delicious as a regular Globe Artichoke. No notable difference in flavor or texture.
I remember EONS ago when I was in college but still living at home. This was when I started to cook- really cook, not just bake cookies. A produce company Frieda’s provided new, exotic fruits and vegetables to our local grocery stores that I had never noticed before. Frieda’s reminds me how I couldn’t wait to start shopping and cooking for myself. I still love finding bargains and cooking for our family. Frieda’s Inc. is still around and will you look at one of their feature photos from their site? It is the same purple artichoke that is on our menu tonight:
The month is halfway over. I am more than halfway through my book, but failing at this running challenge. I won’t give up, though. I have friends who have gone back to college and set far higher fitness goals than I have- out of respect for them, and myself, I’ll keep plugging away. They truly inspire me!
Need a reason to challenge yourself with new projects, plays, and books, recipes, etc.? Go online, look up “neural plasticity” and follow links on reputable websites. (here’s some!) Even better, enter “neural plasticity” into the search bar on Pinterest… now sit back, and start reading. In a nutshell: when you experience new things your brain is energized.
Doing something new every day and going out on a limb is my way to help get over years of anxiety.
If I also end up expanding my cognitive abilities, broaden my perspectives and become more creative, even better!
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” Steve Jobs
P…and that is no more apparent than in our kitchens, right? How many of you are not Irish, but have a corned beef in the slow cooker? My mom’s father was half Irish, so in his honor, we are having Irish Soda Bread with our Corned Beef and Cabbage.
French bread, cracked wheat sandwich bread, English muffins… Pretzels, pita bread, sourdough (that was a disaster), quick breads of all kinds. If it is a bread, I have probably made it. The Cinnamon Roll count is somewhere in the hundreds of dozens, now, I can make that recipe in my sleep, but Ive never made Irish Soda Bread.
For this Soda Bread, I followed their recipe, sans caraway seeds since I HATE them. Always have, always will. Blech.
Look how pretty this loaf of bread is! I’ve turned out nice looking baked goods… but not today. I think I actually left out a whole cup of flour- my dough really spread out. It kind of turned out like a giant scone, which could be delicious, nonetheless.
I should turn in my Official Baker’s Card, if I had one.
Here’s the ingredients-
Flour, sugar, leaveners, salt, egg, butter, buttermilk, raisins, and a combo of crème fraîche, yogurt, and sour cream went into this mix.
The yogurt is from this incredible dairy where we used to shop. Traders Point Creamery is a grass fed, organic farm located right outside of Indianapolis.
Have a Whole Foods Market near you? Whine to the dairy buyer that you, too, would like your store to carry this yogurt that is so good, even people who don’t like yogurt will eat Traders Point. Like The Husband.
They also host a year round farmers market, and have one of the best farm-to-table restaurants. I miss this place something fierce.
End commercial.
U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly. One ugly loaf!
This is one ugly loaf. It looks nothing like the photo from The Chew! But the taste and texture suggest that I did NOT forget that third cup of flour.
The Salt Ewok approves. (can you see him in the back?) It really DOES taste like a giant scone! Very good, actually.
Whew. I get to keep my Official Baker’s Card. Looking forward to making this again, it was great!
This hip image as well as the Firestone Walker logo above are from the Firestone Walker site- clic this pic for the link
Is there something like a sommelier for beer- a beer steward? That’s The Husband’s job. He’s my beer steward. The kids are working the all-consuming Tech Week for the high school’s musical, so we took off for a beer this evening. And between him and the bartender, they found a good beer for me to try- the loser was Guinness Blond, which was also good. I’ll save the Guinness for Saint Patrick’s Day tomorrow.
Firestone 805- click the pic for more info on this nice brew…
I have no idea how to describe beers, except to say that it wasn’t watery or weak, and not overpoweringly citrusy or floral (I really don’t care for hops!). I’m not well versed enough to know how to match beer with foods, but can say this non-hoppy happy brew went well with my fries!
Firestone Walker Brewing Company is located up in Paso Robles, California, an area well known for its wines. I’m a BIG fan of wine, but with places like Firestone Walker putting out something other than quadruple IPAs, thankyouverymuch, they finally give me something of a choice- and a FAR tastier option than the basic Mega Corporate American Beer Companies.
branching out... on a limb 