Home Made Christmas

Christmas in my family has always been something of a big deal. Even with us kids in our mid to late (ahem) twenties, we still all gather around the tree in our pajamas on Christmas morn to share gifts and empty our stockings. The warmth of my parent's home welcomes us as we travel in from different ends of the state to share the season with each other.

On Christmas Day, extended family and friends arrive to partake in a feast with their own dishes to add to the table. Recently, my dad and I have decided to get a little crafty with the menu, and the meals have turned out, if I do say so myself, simply amazing. And the best part? Nothing came from a box or a can.

In a repeat performance of last year's Christmas dinner, we served a Bourbon and Molasses glazed ham. This glaze alone is enough to get mouths watering, but caramelized onto the ham is just short of heaven. The glaze would be good drizzled over an old Birkenstock, that's just how delicious it is.



Oh, yeah, that ham was good. Not wanting to complicate things too much, the next dish was a menagerie of vegetables, tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted in the oven until the veggies were soft and the balsamic had caramelized. It is such a simple recipe that produces an outstanding result. We combined zucchini, acorn squash, carrots, pearl onions, bell pepper, asparagus, and even a couple of hot peppers into a giant orange bowl and got to work. For anyone wanting to give this a shot for their next dinner party, I advise you to eliminate the hot peppers from the recipe. They permeate the entire dish, and give it unnecessary heat. Unless you're into that sort of thing.



While the veggies were in the oven, my dear sweet mum and sister were busy preparing another holiday favorite: Deviled Eggs. Bless her heart, but this is the only thing my sister knows how to cook. Using our grandmother's secret recipe, she and my mother boiled, shelled, halved, mixed, and filled the eggs that would soon quickly disappear from the egg plate.



And once the egg-prep station had moved off the table, it was time to make the dough for my Angel Biscuits. If you remember, I made these for Thanksgiving dinner as well, and they were a big hit.



Three batches of biscuits were reduced to a half dozen by the time dinner was over. Served with freshly home made pomegranate jam, these light, airy biscuits were perfect with the rest of the meal. And who doesn't want to load up on carbs on Christmas?



This Christmas dinner was fantastic. The best part truly was spending the day in the kitchen with my wife, sister, mom and dad while we put this feast together. The food was amazing, but the company made it perfect. I hope everyone was able to spend this Christmas and holiday season enjoying delicious food with the people that you love. I wish you all a very, very happy new year. Enjoy!



Pictured are me, my lil' sister, and my dad. My mother is off somewhere fussing about the dinnerware. Mrs. Rosewater is behind the camera, as always.

The Delicious South

I'm a Damn Yankee, born and bred, and worse than that, a Californian. I make no apologies for these things; the Left Coast is my home and it probably always will be. Even so, I will take any excuse I can get to head to the South and see how gentile folk live. It is always a chance to see new places, meet great people, and eat amazing food.

So when Mrs. Rosewater and I were invited to take part in my bff's college graduation festivities in Charleston, South Carolina, we didn't waste much time booking our flights and reserving our room at Chez Gump. I'd never been to Charleston, and knew very little about the actual city. Turns out we were about to be impressed. Before we ever got on a plane, we were promised a Lowcountry Boil after the graduation ceremony, so I knew it was going to be a good weekend. But first I had to figure out what a Lowcountry Boil was.



Charleston is an amazing city with a story that dates back to before the beginning of our nation. It is quite simply history we do not have out here on the Pacific. It is where the Civil War began, where early refugees escaping religious persecution sought sanctuary, and owns it's own very unique culinary history. One of the many regional delights to come out of the hundreds of years of South Carolina history is the Lowcountry Boil. A tradition started as a way to feed a large group of people quickly and easily, the boil is quite literally a huge pot of sausage, vegetables, potatoes, and seafood (usually shrimp) seasoned, boiled, and dumped onto a long table covered in newspaper.





The word you are looking for is "yummy". Once the boil was dumped out onto the table, we piled our plates high and tucked in. This is real finger food.

Our gracious hosts treated us to this fantastic meal, coupled with some beer from America's oldest brewery and some grilled linguica to snack on as the party wore into the wee hours.



The boil was a great introduction to South Carolinan cuisine, and a perfect way to celebrate a great friend's special day. (That and the beer. We may have put away a couple of pints of that as well.) The day after the party, it was time to do some sightseeing, at least as much as we could pack into one day. We drove out to Sullivan's Island, a touristy beach community and home to Fort Moultrie, notable mainly because it is where Edgar Allan Poe was once stationed during his stint in the military. (Notable for that reason to me. Probably notable to others for various reasons, some of which may include the Civil War.)



Nearby, some enterprising restraunteur is cashing in on the name of Fort Moultrie's famous literary resident at Poe's Tavern. Situated in a converted beach house, the casual restaurant is a big draw for tourists during the summer. They serve a pretty simple menu, burgers and sandwiches and the like, but with some tasty little twists that make it much better than your average burger joint. We had a great lunch out on the covered wood porch before heading back into downtown Charleston for a walking tour of the city.



One last thing we discovered while in Charleston: Our friends introduced us to Firefly, a locally made firewater (vodka) infused with the flavor of sweet tea. If you are looking for something new and fun to serve at your next party, this should be it.

This trip was a blast, thanks to some of the best friends anyone could ask for. So to Eric, Amy, and Bryson, thanks for everything. We can't wait to come back.

Thanksgiving Day

I've been away for a while, taking a short respite from blogging to work on some other writing projects. It is also nice to occasionally enjoy cooking and eating without having to document every moment of it. I am sorry if any of you missed me.



But today, also known as "Black Friday", is all about Thanksgiving Day, quite possibly the biggest food day of the year. (At least in the number of calories consumed.) This year, Mrs. Rosewater and I hit the road and traveled to Eureka to visit her side of the family for a Thanksgiving Day feast. With the family gathered at Grandma's house, a team of us converged on the spacious kitchen to prepare the carb-charged delights that are a staple of Thanksgiving.



Each of us grabbed a station, slicing and dicing and mixing, sauteing and baking the enormous volume of foods that will certainly last into the new year. My hope was to make as many dishes as possible from scratch, and minus the roast and the dressing, we succeeded. Oh, did I forget to mention that tryptophan was not on the menu? Yes, we opted to stay away from the cumbersome and difficult bird of the season and went with a smaller, and easier to cook, roast from Harris Ranch. A few words about Harris Ranch: Harris is the large plot of foul-smelling land stocked wall to wall with cattle and their mountains of cow-pies situated on Interstate 5 about an hour south of Fresno. If you have ever driven past it, you know what I am talking about. I typically avoid products from Harris Ranch, as their cattle rearing practices are dubious at best. However, this not being my kitchen, it was not my place to put my politics in front of family.



The Dressing, (Stuffing not cooked within the cavity of a large bird) started with the basic Stove Top stuffing mix, was mixed with sauteed chicken apple sausage, onion, apple, water chestnuts, celery, carrot, ground turkey and chicken stock. We peeled, sliced, boiled and mashed some organic Yukon Gold potatoes, mixed of course with butter and buttermilk. Yeah, super-healthy.

I brought my recipe for garlic & almond green beans to share with everyone, along with a fantastic recipe I found for Angel Biscuits. These biscuits, a favorite in the South, were light and airy and went perfectly with the rest of the meal. They are incredibly easy, making a very strong argument against buying the dry, tasteless pre-made tubes of frozen biscuits.





It was a great evening of food and family. We all had fun working in the kitchen together, creating a fantastic meal for everyone to enjoy. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with whatever delights you prepared and whoever you spent it with. Right now, left over dressing and biscuits are calling my name. Enjoy!

Eat Local Challenge, Weeks 3 & 4

I'm lumping the third and fourth weeks of this Eat Local month because quite frankly I don't have enough to talk about. Whether it is just a lack of motivation over the stretch, or just an inability to make this eating local thing to happen in a practical way, the food entering our bodies has been just shy of "local". Ok, way shy.

I don't want to embark on a long diatribe about how tough the Eat Local Challenge was this year, or how much or how little effort I ended up putting into it. I did what I could, and managed to come out ok, Challenge wise. I certainly earned a new level of respect for those who are diligent and creative enough to source each of their meals from local producers. I didn't believe it would be as difficult as I found it to find locally produced foods for each meal, or even a majority of meals, for each day.

We did manage to end the month on a high note. Thanks to fellow foodie Stacey Snacks, we put together this delicious Autumn Pasta with Butternut Squash & Italian Sausage. I borrowed this recipe from Stacey, and I am sure glad I did. Thanks, Stacey! Here is the recipe, as I found it. All of the ingredients, save the pasta, were locally produced and purchased either at Andronico's Market or were already in my kitchen. Here we go.



Autumn Pasta With Italian Sausage and Butternut Squash
Ingredients:
1 Butternut Squash, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 Italian Sausages, casings removed
2 Cloves of Garlic, Chopped
3 tbsp of chopped, fresh Sage
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup white wine
8 oz. penne pasta (about 1/2 box)

Coat a large, heavy skillet with olive oil. Cook the butternut squash on high, not moving around too much, until edges begin to caramelize, about 5 min. Remove from pan. Now, add your sausage, and break it up in the pan. After that has browned, about 5 mins, add garlic, sage, and white wine and simmer for 3 minutes or until liquid is evaporated.

Add chicken stock and butternut squash and simmer for 10 minutes, until squash is tender. While the squash is simmering, boil your pasta in salted water and drain. Add squash to pasta and serve. For a nice finish, add some shredded Parmesan cheese over the top.

Enjoy!

Eat Local Challenge, Week 2

Ok, so here is where we are at so far: Lunch during the work week is still a struggle. When you only have two eateries nearby your office, one that serves up reliably good sandwiches and chicken teriyaki, and the other who's cleaning regimen is rather suspect, you are not left with many choices. Subway? No thanks.

This week did afford us a beautiful day to visit the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market, where we gathered some great local produce like organic fingerling potatoes and some late season Early Girl tomatoes courtesy of Dirty Girl Farms. We even found some amazing white cheddar cheese from the people at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company. Lunch on those off days is pretty simple: A good baguette from Acme Bread, those incomparable Early Girls, and maybe some buffalo mozzarella Cowgirl Creamery.






The search for local food gets a little harder when you step into your grocery store. We managed pretty well on our last visit to Andronico's in the Sunset, walking out with Strauss Family Creamery non-fat milk, chicken breasts from Petaluma Poultry, and California-grown green beans. With a few other ingredients purchased at the Rainbow Coop earlier in the week, we fixed up a Tiny Kitchen favorite that has yet to make it onto this blog, until now. (I can't give away all of my secrets, at least not all at once, right?)






Rosemary-Garlic Chicken with Sauteed Almond & Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 head of garlic
1 Lb. organic green beans, washed with stems removed
2 handfuls of sliced almonds
1 tsp. fresh rosemary leaves, chopped fine
3 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
Pinch of dried Red Pepper Flakes
Salt & Pepper to taste



In a medium bowl, crush two garlic cloves using a garlic press. Mix 2 Tbs. of olive oil and chopped rosemary with the garlic. Add chicken breasts, pushing them around the bowl until they are covered with the olive oil mixture. Cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

After the chicken has marinated, heat a skillet on medium-high heat and pre-heat the oven to 375 deg. Add the chicken to the skillet to sear. After a couple of minutes, flip the chicken breasts to sear the other side. Pour in the wine to loosen up the yummy bits stuck to the pan. Once the breasts are browned on both sides, remove from heat and move to a oven-safe dish lined with foil. If there are still bits of rosemary-garlicky goodness stuck to the pan, add a little more wine to loosen them, allowing time for the alcohol to burn off. Pour remaining juices over chicken, cover with foil, and put in the oven for about 30 - 40 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, peel about 6 - 8 cloves of garlic. Using a vegetable peeler, cut thin slices of garlic so they resemble the almond slices. When the chicken is about 5 minutes from being done, heat about 1 Tbs. of olive oil in a wide skillet, and add red pepper flakes. Once the oil is hot, add the sliced almonds and sliced garlic. Stirring constantly with kitchen tongs, cook almonds and garlic until they start to brown.



Add the green beans. Stir the beans into the almonds and garlic so they are coated with oil and are sizzling. The almonds and garlic should still be browning, but not burning. After about 2 - 3 minutes of stirring steadily, remove from heat. The beans should be cooked, bright green, and not burnt at all.



Empty the skillet onto a plate covered with a paper towel to help soak up left over oil. Serve up the beans making sure to get plenty of the sauteed almonds and garlic into the mix.



These green beans have been one of our favorites for a while now, and the chicken was nice addition to an already great dish. Even better, it is a quick and easy dish for those of you out there without a lot of time left in your day for cooking.

Enjoy!

California, Vote Yes On Proposition 2

If you are a resident of California, then you have probably heard amongst all of the election-day hype that there is a measure on the November 4th ballot that calls for the ethical treatment of our farm animals. Proposition 2 effectively demands that all farm animals are given enough space to move around and stretch their limbs/wings, instead of being confined to small cages, sometimes a half dozen at a time.

The language of the ballot initiative is pretty basic, and it is a wonder that this hasn't been a standard in California for a long time. Essentially, it states that animals must be given room to move around and stretch their limbs for most if not all of the day. The massive corporate interests opposing the measure state that except for a few isolated incidents, farms adhere to the regulations set forth by their industry in regards to the confinement of their animals. Another argument against Prop. 2 is that it will drive most animal farmers, and in particular egg farmers, out of California because it will increase the cost of caring for the animals and cut into their profit.

Yes, Prop. 2 will increase the cost of caring for the animals, because farmers will have to invest in larger cages to give the animals more room. And yes, Prop. 2 will probably cut into their profit margins because they will not be able to keep as many animals confined in one space, and will therefore lose production. But prop. 2 isn't making farmers let their animals sleep in the farmhouse with them or frolic in the sunshine all day; all it does it allow these animals the freedom to move around in their cages.

Prop. 2 by no means intends to put farmers out of business or take food off of anyones table. It is a small step to changing those "industry regulations" that the farms adhere to that allow them to confine chickens 4 or 5 to a cage or pigs to a tiny wire enclosure. So to take that small step, to tell the massive industrial farming complex that we're paying attention now and we don't like what we see, vote YES on Proposition 2. And if you won't do it for me, do it for this little guy:






I know. Heartstrings. Being. Tugged. It came as a huge shock to yours truly that our esteemed news outlet, the San Francisco Chronicle, endorses a NO vote on Prop. 2. C'mon guys, really? To help everyone realize what is actually at stake here, please watch this report from ABC 7 aired on Monday, October 13th. It is hard to watch, as it should be, and demonstrates rather harshly why this bill needs to pass.

Thanks for voting!

Stuffed & Starved: A Conversation With Raj Patel

Friday night, the Litquake festival brought us to the newly rebuild California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park to sit in on a conversation with Raj Patel, food activist and author of "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle For The World Food System". Patel was in conversation with Molly Watson, a contributing editor to Sunset Magazine and local foods editor for about.com.

The event could not have been held in a better place; the design of the new Cal. Academy is not only green, but was built using revolutionary sustainable technology and know how, a centerpiece of ecologically friendly building. The conversation focused on Patel's findings as he has researched the dire state of the global food system, and what should be done to fix it for his book, Stuffed and Starved.

According to Patel, one of the biggest culprits in the global food crisis are the mega grocery chains such as Safeway, Costco, and of course WalMart. To wit: Farmers grow and bring their produce to market in order to earn a living selling their goods at stores both locally and around the country. When those stores are so large as to be able to dictate what price a farmer is paid for his goods on the open market, like WalMart, they force those farmers to cut those prices so low that they are barely able to scrape by. The price, it seems, is based not on the value of the product or the labor involved in producing it, but on a farmer's ability to produce large volumes of goods quickly, cheaply, and year round. This in turn demands that the farmer find ways to cheaply produce his goods in order to stay competitive and have any shot at making a living. (As a side note, WalMart, the worlds largest grocer, owns the worlds second largest computer used to process the vast mountains of information that flows in from around the world. The first largest computer? It belongs to the Pentagon.)



The biggest question many of us had for Patel was "What can we do?". It is not as though we all can live on farming communes in an idyllic existence where food grows in harmony with nature and is planted, grown, harvested and enjoyed by everyone equally. While such an egalitarian existence might sound perfect to some, it is not exactly practical for the rest of us. Patel suggests that while most of us make our statement with our pocket books, this tactic will not be enough. Joining food activism groups and letter writing campaigns to policy makers, according to Patel, will be the most effective way to institute change in the way our country deals with the global food system. Here, at least I slightly disagree, however naively, with Patel. While voting by how and where we shop, we may not affect political policy, but will certainly affect what ends up on the shelves of our stores. If enough of us refuse to buy feedlot beef or asparagus from Chile, those massive grocery chains will no longer make a profit on it and remove it from their stock orders.

But the point, I suppose, should be not to stop those grocery chains from selling unsustainable food, but to take the power away from these chains all together, and put it back into the hands of the farmers and the consumers who want real, wholesome food on their table.

Patel is brilliant, and the conversation with Molly Watson got my outrage boiling again about the state of the global food system and what should be done to turn it around. More important than Patel's book, his research or his ongoing work is continuing the dialogue about creating a sustainable food system that is better for the environment, for the farmers who produce the food, and ultimately for all of us who find the food on our plates.

Raj Patel's book "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle For The World Food System" is available from Amazon.com.

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, the magnanimous, bodacious, and omnivorous people at Foodbuzz have officially launched their Publisher Community. It has been nothing but sheer delight to work with these folks over the last few months to help build Foodbuzz into the premier foodie blogging community on the Web. I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with this community, and if you still haven't checked us out, well here is your big chance. Read on for the official press release.





Contact: Allison Costello
Ketchum
allison.costello@ketchum.com

Doug Collister
Foodbuzz
doug@foodbuzz.com

LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY
LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event
Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

· Mid-Autumn Festival Banquest (New York, NY)
· The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
· Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
· The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
· Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
· From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
· A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”

About Foodbuzz, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.