Rolling in Dough

Cookbooks and History

Amuse Bouche du Jour: Ancient civilizations considered cooks nearly on par with their gods. After all, it was the cooks who brought man from cannibalism to civilization by creating sauces.

Don't you just love cookbooks? I seem to be accumulating quite a pile of them. More than 150 at last count and growing every week. I order them from the cookbook club (actually usually I forget to return the card, so they simply arrive on my door step), big, glossy and filled with mouth-watering pictures. The Gourmet Cookbook and Dorie Greenspan's Baking both came to me this way and I use them all the time. They are always my starting place when I'm envisioning dinner or something sweet. But if the truth be told, my true love is old cookbooks. I look for them at estate sales, garage sales and the library used book store and can usually bring home a pile of them for $1 a piece, a much more affordable way to indulge my habit.

I began this quest many years ago, when I found an old book called Tokology at my Grammie's house. Published in 1909, it is a book that was given to new brides so that they will "be saved the sufferings peculiar to their sex". It includes chapters on hygiene, pregnancy, treating diseases and recipes, including gruel, oysters and how to make jam. Everything you might need to know in the 1900's. I brought it home and began the humble starts of a collection. Since then I have found books on every conceivable food topic, ranging from The Art of Turkish Cooking to a book of paintings of food. I have books on food writing, memoirs, celebrations, history and last week, I found something called the Horizon Cookbook, An Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking Through The Ages. It is full of menus and recipes used throughout history, including what was served by an English lord on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1578. He purchased "a cartload and two horse loads of oysters, 430 pounds of butter and 2,522 eggs" for the event. It's good to be the Queen.

I love cookbooks for the history and culture they contain. How people eat has always been a reflection of their lives and surroundings. Looking at how people cook, eat and live is of unending interest to me. So, if you happen to run into me at a yard sale, I'll be the one with an armload of cookbooks and a big smile. 

Food Blog Event - Meals Abroad

Food lovers travel differently than most other people. We take trips based almost entirely on what we are going to eat, with a few sights thrown in between meals. Meals Abroad is a food blog event celebrating how food lovers travel!

Did you have the best meal of your life at a tiny bistro in Paris? Do the memories of the gelato you had in Rome bring tears to your eyes? I want to know what you ate on vacation that you just can't get out of your head. It could be unusual, unexpected or just a meal or place that spoke to you. If you've got pictures or recipes, even better. Write about it and post it by May 31, 2007. Please include a link back to Meals Abroad in your post. Be sure to send me an email at chelsea@tresbonvivant.com, with Meals Abroad in the subject line. Include your name, the name of your blog and the permalink to your post. I'll compile a scrapbook of everyone's vacation photos and food memories. Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Peanut Butter Brownie Dreams

Is there a better pairing than chocolate and peanut butter? Each one is pretty wonderful on its own, but together they make a taste sensation worth singing about. I have enjoyed this combination of lovely flavors in many forms, chocolate ice cream with peanut butter sauce, peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches and of course, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I have even been known to scrape some peanut butter out of the jar, stick a few chocolate chips to the knife and lick it like a lollipop.

I was looking for something interesting to take to the preschool in honor of Lovie's 5th birthday. I'm so happy she doesn't attend one of those schools where they are scared of sweets and only allow you bring carrot sticks or pencils for your child's birthday. When I was a kid, the moms always brought cupcakes, and it was such a treat. Carrot sticks just don't seem as festive. I was looking for something that the 4 year olds would approve of, as they are a judgemental bunch. A cake seemed like too much, cupcakes are always good, but I don't like frosting them, and pencils are just too dull. I began the cookbook search, looking at the pictures, waiting for an inspiration. In Dorie Greenspan's Baking book, I came across her recipes for Brownies. Fudgy, chewy, the perfect size for small hands and everybody likes them. Plus, they are easy to make. All I need is a mix, 2 eggs and some water. My Mom studied Home Economics in college, where she learned that Brownies are a good thing to make with a mix. You can't make homemade ones as easily or inexpensively (hence the Economics part of the program), and they taste good. I know this advice could apply to lots of things I cook and bake, and usually I ignore it and go the authentic, homemade route. But when I'm making Brownies, I generally use the mix. Also, this makes sense. I can make Brownies out of the cookbook and spend 2 hours melting chocolate and gently mixing, or I can spend a dollar on a mix and be done in 30 minutes. I'm certain the 4 year olds won't mind the shortcut, they will have inhaled them in about 8 seconds anyway.

But they needed to be special, too. Finally, an inspiration! I made one huge Brownie and frosted it with fluffy Peanut Butter frosting (that I really did make from scratch). I cut it into slices and served it like a pizza. Delicious! Way better than a plain Brownie, the peanut butter was not too sweet and was a great contrast to the rich chocolate. If only we had milk. Maybe next year.

Peanut Butter Brownie Pizza

Brownie mix, prepared according to directions, or homemade, if you are an overacheiver, baked and cooled

1 cup Peanut Butter

1/2 cup Butter, softened

2 cups Powdered Sugar

Splash of Milk

Mix the peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar together. Add milk as needed to make a fluffy, speadable frosting. Spread over Brownies. Enjoy!

The Food Stamp Diet

I was reading the newspaper the other day, when I came across an article about The Food Stamp Diet. Apparently, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and his wife had been challenged to try to eat for a week on the same budget food stamp recipients in their state live on. In Oregon, this works out to $42 per week for a family of two. The Gov. and Mrs. were lamenting the difficulty of this project, designed to foster empathy for the families receiving food stamps, and wondering how they were going to make the money go far enough. I decided I would also take up the challenge, and immediately began planning - if I eat beans and rice, can I still afford a bottle of wine?

I looked up my own state, Colorado, to ensure that I was using accurate numbers. I was amazed to see that the USDA expects me to use 30% of my gross income on food! And that if my family of three qualified for assistance, I would receive $408 per month for groceries! We are not spending anywhere near $408 per month for groceries, even if you add in the wine. I was going to have to increase my grocery bill dramatically if we were going to spend what we would receive in food stamps. I could afford to shop at the Whole Foods every week. We eat well, buying wholesome fresh ingredients, fruit, veggies, and meat, and I bake my own bread. I buy Parm-Reggiano and drink wine. We aren't scraping by. But while I certainly have empathy for people who need food stamps to feed their families, maybe the USDA could make that money go a little further by teaching people in their programs how to buy and prepare better quality food that costs less overall. Something to ponder...      

Homemade Soft Cheese

I came back from Normandy with an unbelievable hunger for Mediterranean foods. After a week of eating cream, butter and cheese, I was starving for lighter fare - fruits, veggies, olive oil and herbs. So to this end, I checked out Patricia Wells' fabulous Provence Cookbook from the library. Open the book and the stories and pictures bring Provence wafting right into your kitchen. I can almost smell the lavender and rosemary, and I am right there with her, carrying my basket through the local market, collecting ingredients for the evening meal.

In St-Mere-Eglise, I bought some Gruyere and Comte cheese from a man who herds sheep in the Pyrenees. I've been enjoying a small piece with a chunk of baguette each morning while I pretend that I am still on vacation. But since I have been eating the fragrant, sheepy cheese, the cheddar cheese I bought at the grocery store just seems flat, lifeless and without taste. So when I read Patricia's recipe for Homemade Fresh Cheese, I was intrigued. She writes that making your own fresh cheese is the most clear and simple process of food creation, and swears that once you've created your own fresh cheese, you''ll never want store bought again, which is where I am already. So I got right to work. I poured the milk into the pan, added some vinegar and waited patiently as the the mixture bubbled and frothed. The kitchen filled with the clean aroma of vinegar and I was amazed to see foamy curds forming. I strained the cheese and sprinkled it with sea salt. Amazing! In a little over 30 minutes, I had created my own creamy, white cheese! It was even good! A little like mozzerella, it squeaked on my teeth as I bit into it. I sprinkled it on salads, mixed it into hot pasta, rolled it in a tortilla with some hummus, made burritos with it and smothered it with green chile. I'm hooked and will now be making my own cheese on a regular basis!

As a footnote, I tried this yesterday with balsamic vinegar, imagining that I was going to marinate the balsalmic cheese in Italian dressing and make tomato salads with it. Don't do it. The cheese came out this weird pinkish brown color, and when I added the dressing, the cheese soaked up it all up, making it purple and grainy. It tastes good, but looks terrible. I guess I will be eating all of it myself, no one else will come near it. Bon Appetit!