Alaus. alaus duok dieve daugiau...

I owe a few posts on the Supperclub menus, but I need to get home and upload photos and recipes for those...

In the meantime, let's talk beer (alus, in Lithuanian). I recently made my first batch of beer - a red ale from a simple recipe from the brew shop - and it's tasting pretty good! A lighter lager-style beer is currently doing its thing in my chilly basement (Seattle has been very cold for the past few weeks - perfect for lager yeast, which likes cool temperatures for fermentation).

When I cook and bake, I'm not one to get too caught up in the details - I tend to not pre-sift flour, or measure goopy substances like honey or sour cream. I figure it'll work itself out somehow, or I've got enough experience to either fix my sloppiness or live with a failure from time to time and learn something from my mistakes.

When I started baking bread using a natural sourdough starter a few years ago, I found that the attention to detail that professionals put into their baking really pays off - measuring flour by weight instead of volume ensures that your bread is not to dry or to sticky, for example. But mistakes teach you the most about how things are actually working in there; when my original sourdough breads weren't rising properly, some trial-and-error with higher-gluten flours taught me that wild yeast needs a little more help to rise properly.

Making beer seems like a similar enterprise, although the yeasts I'm using are highly specialized creatures that you buy for specific flavor development and brewing characteristics. More experienced brewers warned me that sanitation is the number one issue for home brewers, so I've been scrupulous in that department, and have generally tried to follow the recipes fairly strictly until I'm familiar with the processes. Ruining 5 gallons of beer is a pricey mistake, so I'd rather avoid that if at all possible.

But the urge to experiment and better understand the little organisms that I'm working with is always there for me. Yet homebrewers seem to be a fretful bunch, worried about all the little details (The Art of Homebrewing doesn't dispel this fearfulness, despite its incessant cajoling not to worry and have a homebrew). One person I talked to was almost appalled that I was trying to make lager at home without a dedicated refrigerator; the way I see it, people have been making beer for a long long time in sub-optimal circumstances. Since I'm not doing this professionally, I can afford to mess around a little - no need for strict quality control and repeatable processes (I get enough of that sort of thing at work, thank you very much).

Back in the day (and I'm talking 80+ years ago - because I've been talking to my 94-year-old great-aunt this Christmas season), brewing beer was something you did yourself - along with everything else (growing flax, spinning thread, weaving cloth, making clothes, etc.). My great-aunt and father told me how beer was made in Lithuania "down on the farm." Barley was briefly soaked in warm water, then spread out to start sprouting - this increases the available sugar, as my aunt reminded me. The sprouted grain was then dried thoroughly, then lightly cracked. A barrel with a stopper at the bottom was lined with clean hay (how's that for sanitary?) and then boiling water was added along with grains. Once that cooled down (just like when you make bread), yeast and hops were added and the whole works fermented for a day or two. The barrel was then drained off (the straw worked as a filter to keep the grain in the barrel), and a second (and even a third) batch of beer was made from the same malted barley - decreasing in quality with each batch (my father said they referred to these as the "premium" batch, the "good" batch, and the last which was just "fit for drunks"). The batch of beer was moved to another barrel, aged and rotated in the hayloft (that was my father's job when he was a kid) and tapped for special occasions - like the post-harvest party, when they'd slaughter some sheep, make massive quantities of kugelis (without the modern convenience of the Kugelator), and feed all the people who came to help bring in the rye.

So I guess beer-making is in my blood, at some level - but the genes for sewing clothes were definitely not passed down! I'm going to keep experimenting and see what happens - and keep you posted!

Thanksgiving leftovers

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my brother, Rita and Shane, and Rita's parents - the turkey came out great, despite my lax approach (as in, rub it down with butter and lots of salt and pepper, stuff it lightly, and throw it in the oven for a few hours and forget about it). We also had 4 desserts, thanks to Rita! I contributed an apple pie, but she brought pumpkin and pecan pies, as well a pumpkin chocolate layer cake that was in the NYT a few weeks ago. They were all delicious!

I came down with a stomach flu on Sunday, so we had Supperclub on Wednesday last week, which made the week seem much shorter (especially since I was home sick for 1/2 of it!). By Wednesday I was feeling mostly better, and some friendly Lactobaccilli were helping take care of any residual weirdness... (ok - probably more info that you needed).

The menu was leftover-inspired, with a little extra in the dessert department to celebrate Anne's birthday!

To snack on:
Leftover Cranberry Black Pepper Chutney with a delicious sheep's milk cheese on La Panzanella's Rosemary Croccantini crackers (my favorite)

For dinner:
- Arugula salad with a balsamic vinaigrette (my sister Nida's recipe - squeeze a clove of garlic into a jar, add balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar - screw on the lid and shake to disolve salt and sugar, then add olive oil to match the volume of the vinegar mixture, shake again to emulsify)
- Turkey pot pie with leftover turkey, fennel, peas, pearl onions, carrots and parsnips with tarragon buttermilk biscuits for the crust (this is also a recipe I concocted with Nida years ago when she was visiting for Thanksgiving). I use the Joy of Cooking for the biscuits (use the Buttermilk Biscuit recipe, but increase the liquid to a full cup or so, and add chopped fresh tarragon - they'll be a thinner, drop-biscuit consistency, which means you can just drop large spoonfuls over your pot pie). I made a gravy base with shallots, butter, flour and chicken stock, added a little leftover turkey gravy, and then added a little cream at the end to one of the pot pies. All in all, quite tasty!

Dessert was Upside-Down Pear Cardamom Cake, in honor of Anne (who loves seasonal fruit desserts) as well as the almost over-ripe pears sitting on my counter. This was so good I made it again for friends who came over on Friday night! I used Bartlett pears both times, and quartered them since they were on the large side. The second time I made it I pretty much doubled the cardamom - a spice that I love! I've made upside-down cakes before which failed to neatly disengage from the pan, but I think the enormous quantity of butter in this recipe really helps ease the journey from pan to cake plate! On Tuesday, we ate the cake with a little leftover vanilla whipped cream... on Friday we had homemade limoncello that a friend brought - a surprisingly tasty combo!

Pre-Thanksgiving "light" eating

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was designated as "hippie food" week - we thought that something a little lighter and nourishing before the annual overindulgence was in order. I made a multi-grain seeded bread with my sourdough starter - it came out tasty, but the dough was very wet, which made the bread flatten out a little like a ciabbata - not bad, just not quite what I was expecting. I've been using Nancy Silverton's Breads From La Brea Bakery for sourdough starter care and feeding insights, as well as her recipes. I'm generally amazed at the quality and attention to detail of her recipes, and the results have been great!

We also made Anne's Lentil Soup with Kale and Sausage - see her blog for the recipe. It was great, and the Italian sausage made it a little less "good for you" and a little more just plain good... A simple mache salad with walnut oil vinaigrette (just walnut oil and lemon juice and some salt and pepper) and toasted walnuts rounded things out and upped the health quotient.

For dessert we had Butterscotch Pudding - an old favorite from Amanda Hesser. It's a great combo of caramel with just a hint of salt in a rich custard... hmmm - I guess our dinner wasn't so light after all!

Korean night

Last week's supperclub was a Korean food fest:

- Scallion pancakes with dipping sauce
- Broiled kalbi short ribs
- Jap Jae (yam noodles with veggies and mushrooms)
- Rice
- Kimchee and many other side dishes (most store-bought except for bean sprouts blanched and dressed with sesame seeds, sesame oil and scallions - yum!)

We also had a couple Korean beers - OB and Hite - OB won the taste test, but the branding is a little unfortunate...

Dessert was mango gummy candies from Japan!

Lithuanian comfort food

With all the depressing economic news swirling around these days, and the darker days post-daylight-savings, I felt a need to make some serious Lithuanian comfort food for last week's supperclub: soup and cepelinai (aka "zepelins"). We also whipped together an Anarchy Cake with some nice French Prune-Plums from the farmer's market (I love this recipe - it's the easiest and goes with any fruit, pretty much).

A recipe for the soup was requested - I made it up, and it went something like this:

1) Ruin some perfectly good homemade organic beef stock by using super-bitter celery from the farmer's market (I should have tasted it first!) - it tasted like Chinese herbal medicine :-(
2) Fix the stock by making consomme with it using egg whites, ground beef and a can of tomatoes (this totally worked - hooray!)
3) Make the soup using the corrected stock, more or less like this:

1 quart (or so) beef stock
1 large onion, sliced thin
2 kohlrabis, peeled and cubed
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
1 cup leftover soup meat, shredded (from the bones you made the stock with)
a little butter
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onion in a little butter on low heat - let it caramelize a little. Add the rest of the veggies and the stock and the meat - bring back to a boil, then lower heat and let it simmer for about 1/2 hour. Season to taste.

Cepelinai are a Lithuanian delicacy - and a great way to use up leftover soup beef! I talked to my great-aunt over the weekend to make sure I got the proportions right, and here's more or less how it works:

Per person (so 10 lbs. of potatoes will feed about 6-8 people, depending on how Lithuanian they are):
1 1/2 lbs. peeled russet potatoes (keep them whole in cold water while you work)
1/4 cup (or less) leftover cooked soup meat, shredded, that's been sauteed with a little butter and onion
salt to taste

Take about 1/3 of the potatoes, cube them, and boil them in salted water for about 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain and mash the drained potatoes well.

Grate the rest of the potatoes using either the smallest-holed "star" grater you own (the kind you grate lemon zest with - a regular Microplane won't work - it make the potatoes too stringy) OR (preferably) with a Kugelator - an awesome "tarkavimo masina" from Lithuania that my sister found in Chicago and gave everyone for Christmas one year. As you grate the potatoes, a little Vitamin C mixed in (make sure it's not flavored - or use Fruit Fresh) will help keep them from turning black.

Once you've grated all the potatoes, you need to drain all of the liquid off, reserving it and letting the starch sink to the bottom of the bowl. To drain it well, the optimal solution is a bag that you just happen to have around to make cheese with... or, if you're lame like me and foolishly lost the bag that your great-aunt gave you years ago, you can use a clean flour-sack kitchen towel (I decided regular cheesecloth would break on me). The idea is to squeeze all the liquid out until you have a pretty dry, pasty-looking potato mass in your towel... and remembering to save the liquid in a bowl. This should give your hands a work-out - if it's not, you're probably not getting enough liquid out, OR you're losing a lot of potato mass through too-porous a sieve/cloth.

Back to the starch - let the drained potato liquid sit in the bowl for a few minutes (you don't need to get all of it out of the water for 1 recipe - but you could if you wanted to keep it). Drain off most of the liquid, until you are left with just a few tablespoons of water with a white sludge of starch at the bottom of the bowl.

Mix the mashed potatoes, the grated, squeezed dry potatoes and the sludgy starch in a bowl, add a little salt, and you're ready to shape the cepelinai.

The cepelinai should look like little blimps when you're done - hence the name. Actually, they look sortof a lot like potatoes after you're done, which is pretty ironic given the abuse you've just put them through!

To shape, take a small handful of the potato dough and pat it into a thick round in your hand. Put about 2 Tbs. of the meat and onions filling into the center of the round, then bring the sides of the disc together and pinch it shut. Slap it around in your hands a few times until it has a nice, uniform oval shape. So cute! Finish shaping the rest of the cepelinai, lining them up on a lightly floured pan as you work.

In the meantime, boil a lot of water in a big pot with lots of salt, like you would for pasta. Once the water is at a rolling boil, drop the cepelinai in carefully (using a slotted spoon is a good idea), one at a time - you'll have to boil them in batches of about 3-4, most likely. Keep the heat on high until the water comes back to a boil. The cepelinai will slowly start bobbing at the top of the water - turn your timer on for about 5-7 minutes after this happens, and fish them out with a slotted spoon to a waiting serving dish (preferably with some melted butter in it). Finish cooking the rest of the cepelinai, and serve with spirguciai (basically bacon bits with all their grease cooked with onions and finished with sour cream) and sour cream on the side.

Skanaus!

Yes we did!!!

Last week's Supperclub was an extended Election Night version! We featured "Real America" food (because we're real Americans, damn it) with a few liberal elite touches:

• Homemade Corn Dogs, including "New Mexico Swing-State Chorizo," "Vermont Liberal Weenie Tofu Pup," "Ye Olde Nebrasaka All-Beef," "Louisiana Conservative Andouille" and "Pennsylvania Bratwurst"
• Mac-n-Cheese (made by "chefty" Anne - delicious and a huge hit!)
• Arugula Salad with goat cheese, toasted walnuts, cherry tomatoes and asian pear - beets on the side, with Nida's famous dressing
• All-American Apple Pie (thank you Rita!) - with homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (courtesy of pastry-chef extraordaire Heidi!)
• Obama cake - chocolate cake with the Obama "Hope" poster spray-painted on the frosting (how do they do that?? ink-jet printer technology?)

And lots and lots of bubbly beverages and celebration! Given the political leanings of the crowd, the "Liberal Weenies" and Arugula salad were big hits... although the Adouille was quiet tasty!

Here's to a new era!

Indian food

Last week's supperclub was Indian Night - and it happened to occur on the first night of Dewali, almost like I planned it or something! We had:

- mango lassis
- mattar paneer
- red lentil dal with cabbage
- cauliflower with black mustard seeds and cumin
- rice
- raita
- carrot halva
- delicious pear gingerbread cake courtesy of Anne - which went surprisingly well with the halva!

I made the matar paneer ahead of time, so it could sit overnight - everything else came together pretty quickly - we'll have to add more Indian nights to the mix...

This week is Election Tuesday - come on over for Obama cake and "Real America" corn dogs if you're around!

Camping Supperclub

This week for supperclub we had a camping theme, since several of the usual suspects couldn't join the weekend trip.

In honor of the woods, I made Marcella Hazan's Mushroom Lasagna (but with butternut squash rather than ham). It's got porcini mushrooms and lots of regular mushrooms in a lightly tomato-y sauce that you mix with a bechamel. Because there were a few lactose-intolerant folks for dinner, I also made an almost-vegan version with a vegan bechamel that I adapted from the link here (almost vegan because it did have a little butter in it). I was pretty impressed with the vegan version - the mushrooms gave the soy-based sauce a lot of rich flavor! Also, Supperclub regular Anne made a fantastic fall salad - roasted figs, goat cheese, walnuts and prosciutto over mixed greens with a honey vinaigrette - delicious!

We also carved a few pumpkins:

And made s'mores in the fireplace - with regular and chocolate marshmallows, and high-end chocolate - pretty great! As someone said, "it's just like camping, but without the tarps."

Here's a photo of the Supperclub - I think this was roast chicken night... I need to try to remember to take pictures of some of the food, since this is a food blog!

Political Supperclub

Meeting with (mostly) the same people every week has been interesting. The conversation rarely repeats itself, and often has themes. Last week turned into Political Supperclub - lots of heated discussion about whether conspiracy theories are true or not - both in general, and several specifics... and why we should care about them either way!

While the debate was animated, the food was a little more sedate: I made a beef ragu from Sunday's pot roast (I felt like an Italian grandma), and we all made fresh orrechiette together. I also served a caesar-esque salad (without the croutons) and for dessert made a Crepe Cake - using the linked recipe, but with a brulee crust on top just for an excuse to use the blowtorch my brother got me for Christmas last year! It was tasty... although the whipped cream kinda melted on the top layer, thanks to the flaming action. I also tried my hand at a Walnut Bread recipe with my pet sourdough starter - I was delicious and dense with rye and whole wheat flour, and a ton of walnuts! Really good toasted with cream cheese for breakfast.

This weekend, I went camping and had a great, if chilly time - more delicious food, less political convo - more about the nature of the universe and life as we know it (that tends to happen in the woods). I made Chicken in Riesling ahead of time to heat up for dinner - a fricassee, basically, with riesling to which I added pearl onions (some from my garden), black kale and butternut squash. We also had a great, hearty camping breakfast that I just got to sit back and enjoy - bacon, eggs and cinnamon-raisin bread french toast!

As my sister keeps saying, "Life is delicious!"

As Emily Dickinson said (I just found this quote on a card): "To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

Thanks to all who are keeping my life startlingly interesting these days!

For Adam

Teta Ole's Lithuanian Rye Bread

The sponge:
2 cups rye flour (T.O. has been using dark rye flour lately, but it's too corse for her tastes, so she's going to try adding light rye flour)
2 cups boiling water
-- pour the boiling water over the flour, mix together, then let cool to room temp--
2 cups warm water (I'd say around 70 degrees)
1/2 cup honey
3 cups rye flour
1 Tbsp. salt
starter (rye is preferable, but T.O. says you can try it with white or whatever you have)
-- mix together and let sit at room temp for 12-14 hours--

The next day...
6 cups rye flour
5 cups white bread flour
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. salt
3 1/2 cups water
1 can evaporated milk
yeast (maybe 1 packet?)
-- mix in to the sponge, then set aside some of the dough as a starter for the next batch before you start kneading --

Then you make it like any other bread... at least that's what the lack of further instructions would imply :-)

If you try this out, let me know how it goes and what other tweaks you made to the recipe!

Also - this makes about 6 standard-loaf-pan-sized loafs - so T.O. advises me not to make the full recipe...

Good luck!

Harvest time makes me happy!

This time of year produce is barely waning, and the cool crisp weather we've been having is so lovely for cooking! Had some great meals this week, including:

Tuesday Supperclub - this week was roast chicken with roasted beets and sauteed black kale, and cupcakes for Rita's birthday. I also made bread for the first time with my new sourdough starter - it came out really well - maybe the best I've ever made! My only tweak would be to work on getting the crust a little crisper/flakier - probably will try to pull it a little tauter when shaping, and try to get a little more moisture in the oven next time... but regardless, it was delicious and otherwise perfect!

I also had a great food day yesterday - started the day getting a winery tour of Baer Winery in Woodinville from a friend who is their cellarmaster - he took a bunch of us around and showed us what happens on a crazy-busy day during the harvest. Really cool to watch grapes getting crushed, helping "punch down" the grapes that are already fermenting (reminds me of bread), and tasting just-fermented wine... all this in the beautiful cold fall sunshine!

Then several of us went up to Whidbey Island to make dinner with our friends Laura and Eric, who live in a great little house perched on a cliff overlooking the Sound. After gathering produce from two competing farmer's markets (you know there's a sad tale of woe in there somewhere), crab from Larry's Crab Truck and a bunch of wine and supplemental groceries, we spent a relaxing afternoon walking on the beach, checking out their renovated beach house, and cooking and eating:

At the beach:
Apple Cider Cocktails
Freshly caught steamed Dungeness crab with lemon butter

"Upstairs" for dinner:
Spinach dip & baguette
Creamy pumpkin soup with fresh crab
Tomato tarte tatin
Beet, goat cheese and lettuce salad
"Father-in-law-caught" king salmon grilled with a porcini mushroom and pepita rub and chantrelle gravy
Roasted brussel sprouts with balsamic reduction
Beet greens sauteed with chantrelle mushrooms
"Neighbor's tree" Apple pie

A fine example of Whidbey Island's harvest!

Supperclub!

Long time no post - but lots of cooking has been happening in the interim! I've been hosting a sort of supperclub on a weekly basis, which started because I was trying to offload some paella leftovers after my birthday - and thought how fun it would be to do this with friends who live in the general vicinity on a regular basis. It's after work, so the menus are fairly straightforward - but we still can't seem to sit down to dinner before 8:30! It's been a lot of fun, and I will be posting our weekly menus here for posterity.

To catch you up on the action - here's what we've been eating:

7/1 - Paella and other party leftovers (canapés, cake)
7/8 - Vietnamese salad bowls with caramel pork and chicken, dessert (that Anne made?)
7/15 - Syrian beef kebabs with Lemony Cucumber Salad & Cilantro Mint Chutney; strawberry brown sugar sour cream swirl ice cream
7/22 - Fish tacos (grilled fish with chipotle sour cream, shredded cabbage and cilantro in fresh corn tortillas)
8/12 - Grilled pizza (toppings included sausage, grilled zucchini, arugula & prosciutto)
8/19 - BBQ Pork (and tofu) burgers with cole slaw, grilled veggies
8/26 - “Green Egg” grill-roasted chicken on beer cans, jicama cole slaw, blueberry almond green salad, peach pie
9/2 - Homemade pickles & Danish pickled herring; grilled spice-rubbed pork tenderloin with grilled peaches and radicchio; peach-brandy ice cream
9/9 - Savory pistachio/chorizo “cake,” garden veggie lasagna, ice creams
9/16 - Spice-rubbed grilled pork tenderloin with peach chutney, walnut-sauce on bruschetta, broccoli salad, Anarchy Cake with figs and plums
9/23 - Minestrone Soup with homemade focaccia
9/30 - “icky” (store bought) shrimp snacks; chicken satay with peanut sauce & cucumber salad; black pepper cauliflower; rice; nectarine basil ice cream with coconut lime cookies

Where I've been able to easily link to recipes, I have.

So anyway - stay tuned for more updates on the Supperclub!

White shoes - no soup - after Memorial Day

Hello! Long time no blog...

I don't think it's appropriate to talk soup after Memorial Day weekend (just like you can now wear white shoes)... although I'll have to dedicate a future blog post to Cold Beet Soup.

Maybe it's time to talk bbq? Tonight, I grilled some:

- baby garlic shoots (they're kindof like mini-leeks) with olive oil, salt & pepper (skewered so they don't disappear into the embers)
- asparagus wrapped in pancetta (on skewers)
- fresh halibut with olive oil, salt and pepper

It was a very "fresh" dinner, onto which I sprinkled a little high-quality Balsamic Vinegar

Eaten with a nice Pinot Noir rose in the backyard to the sound of what I think are starlings making wacky sounds - delicious and simple!

Eulogy for my Grandfather, Stasys Salkauskas

My grandfather died on Wednesday, and I thought I'd share this eulogy that my sister Nida and I wrote:

Our grandfather, Senelis, was the second youngest of 8 children. His strong will and determination were apparent early in life. At the age of three or four, he badgered his mother to let him go to school along with his older brother Olius and sister Ole, and when she couldn’t stand listening to his complaining any more, she told him—just go. So he went, walking by himself for a couple kilometers to the school. Teta Ole (our great-aunt) remembers that day, when the school door opened, but no one could see who or what had opened it. When Senelis finally appeared and demanded to be taught, the teacher offered him a seat, and from then on he began his studies.

He relished learning and knowledge his whole life—he continuously challenged himself and others by engaging them with ongoing debates and discussions about politics, current events and world affairs. He was the only one in our family who actively encouraged Nida to discuss my work with him. And, unlike everyone else, his eyes never glazed over when Nida launched into details about international rule of law initiatives or governance models. He had strong opinions on almost every subject and was eager to discuss almost anything. Yet, the point of these conversations was not necessarily to convince me or others of his point of view, but rather to test the accuracy of his principles to make sure that his arguments were based on accurate information and that they reflected the truth. These principles and convictions were what kept him so deeply rooted, despite the many upheavals in his early life.

Senelis was younger than I am now when he fled Lithuania after the war. I wonder if I would have known how to deal with such a big decision. There was a story he sometimes told about when he was teaching in Giedraiciai. He and his colleagues would gather in the teacher’s lounge to discuss and debate politics, and he often made jokes about Stalin. One day, the phone in the lounge rang—it was a colleague from the high school across the street, calling to warn them that if he could hear their conversation from the telephone, then so could the authorities, and they might not be so amused by his jokes. Senelis needed to live life without fear and in line with his beliefs.

Throughout the decade that followed, in refugee camps and resettling in the United States, Senelis found solace and even joy in the beauty of daily life and in his interactions with the people around him. He learned several languages during his travels, and used them to good end—in Germany, he and his brother talked some German soldiers into giving them a couple old Army accordions that were on top of a big pile of loot. One of the accordions made it all the way to the States, and knowing of my love of music, he gave me the accordion a few years ago. I learned to play it (sortof), and love its old-fashioned, out-of-tune sound. Last Christmas, I brought the accordion back to play for him, since he and I had enjoyed singing together on previous visits. He would sing a few bars of a song, and I would pick it out on the accordion. The old songs brought back so many memories for him, mostly of happier, more carefree times when he was a young man. He sang well and remembered many lyrics, including alternative lyrics to popular and classical songs that he learned during his military training.

He was creative in many ways—through music, his clever turns of phrase and jokes, sometimes injecting poems into his conversations, growing beautiful vegetables in his garden in Pittsburg, making his own wine in the basement. He was a master of using his resources to their best purpose, and spared no energy or time to leave a job well done. “Ka darai, daryk gerai” —whatever you do, do it well —was a common aphorism he would relentlessly repeat to us as children. He would also tell us “nepasiduok” —don’t give up—whether it was learning how to sew from Teta Ole (hopeless in my case), or finding my way through my career. He and Teta Ole would send us care packages when we went away to college—lasiniuociai and cookies from Teta Ole, and an encouraging “Nepasiduok” in a card from Senelis.

There is no single grand narrative that would do justice to the life he lived. In his last years, we often contemplated the many twists and turns together. From one perspective, we would be astounded at all the pain that people can cause one another. At another moment he would proudly boast about his daughter’s PhD or that our sister Lile’s children speak perfect Lithuanian, even with such a tenuous connection to his homeland. He respected our brother Tadas for the long hours of hard work he has put into pursuing his goals. He had strong opinions, but in the end he was humble about insisting on his way, as he himself knew that it is better to reserve judgment, that the right answer is elusive, that all the careful plans that we make can be swiftly and easily undone, leaving us to use our remaining resources to rebuild. His love of life and family have taught us all to cherish every moment, each individual task, of this precious and short life.

He loved poetry a much as music, and he found meaning in this one by Marcelijus Martinaitis, which speaks of the ambiguity of life:


Is trumpo gyvenimo
mokaus ilgai gyventi.
Juokiuos - vargdamas,
Verkiu per svente.

Toli gyvenu,
arti vaziuoju
ir nemoku dainos,
kuria dainuoju.

Rough - very rough - translation:

From this short life
I learned to live long
I laugh - while suffering
Cry through a holiday

I live far away
I travel close
And I don't know the song
Which I am singing

Back to chicken noodle...

Having roasted a chicken the other night (using my favorite recipe from the NYT -  Mark Bittman's "30 minute" high-heat version), I've come full circle to chicken noodle. Normally (as in, before last month) I would have just made plain old chicken noodle, but the pressure/pleasure of sharing the results in a blog got me thinking about other variations. Also, I had a very satisfying bowl of wonton soup at Thaiku (in Ballard) yesterday, which made me think about Asian noodle soups, which led me to concoct the following variation on a theme:

1/2 med onion, sliced thinly
1/2 Tbs. butter or vegetable oil
3-4 slices of fresh ginger, peeled
1 bunch black kale (or any green, really), thinly sliced
2/3 of a leftover chicken, bones used for stock, sliced
1 1/2 qts (or so) chicken stock
1/3 lb. (or so) udon noodles or fettucine, cooked according to package instructions, drained and rinsed with cold water
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
Salt to taste

In a large pot, saute onion in the butter until it's slightly carmelized. Add ginger and kale, saute for a few minutes, then fill pot about 1/2 full with stock. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for about 10 minutes (time this step to coincide with cooking the noodles). Add chicken and let soup come back to a simmer. Add noodles, cook for a few minutes to re-warm, then stir in sesame oil. Check for salt. Serve in a big bowl with chopsticks to slurp up the noodles with!

Random funny things...

This blog is hilarious - very Seattle - um, very me :-)
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

AND - the McCain spoof on the preachy-but-inspiring Obama video (watch the Obama first for best effect):
Obama - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
McCain - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzd5nLzZjcc

More blogging this weekend - promise!

Beet red

I had a craving for beets yesterday - probably because my stomach has been bugging me in the last few days, and beets usually help balance my digestion...

Oddly enough, I don't remember eating borscht at home as a kid - at least not hot borscht. We often had saltibarsciai - cold beet soup - in the summer, a pepto-bismal-pink, buttermilk-based soup that's delicious and refreshing when you don't want to turn the stove on. That said, I never ate it when I was younger because I hated beets. Now they're one of my favorite vegetables - I love their earthy sweetness. I think they taste like dirt, but in a good way!

So I wanted to make barsciai (to use the Lithuanian) yesterday, and poked around in various cookbooks and online to find a recipe that looked good. A lot of recipes called for beef broth - either canned or homemade - which I didn't have, nor did it make sense to me to make broth outside of the soup-making process, especially since I had time to invest in cooking. I wound up following this recipe for Ukranian borscht, more or less: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/6008 - key differences being: adding the meat back in with the potatoes (the recipe leaves it cooling on the counter) and swapping out the raw garlic for sauteed. I also was agressive about skimming the fat - I put the broth in the freezer until the fat had solidified. I find fatty broth totally unappetizing.

The results were great! Sweet, meaty, tangy from the lemon juice - and plentiful leftovers. The allspice in the broth reminds me of my great-aunt's soups...

Yum!

Ok - it worked! The roasted cauliflower soup turned out quite well - very tasty with a some crusty bread from Macrina on the side... here's the recipe:

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

1 med. head cauliflower
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced in half
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt & pepper

3 med. leeks, green parts removed, rinsed well and sliced crosswise
1 Tbs. butter
1 Qt. (or so) vegetable stock (not a tomato-y one)
1/2 lb. yellow potatoes (I used Russian fingerlings), cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup cream
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F. Remove leaves and tough bottom stem of the cauliflower - slice the cauliflower lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices, then break up the florets. Spread the cauliflower in one layer on a baking sheet - scatter garlic, and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper. 
Roast for about 15 minutes, then flip the cauliflower and roast for another 15-20 minutes. Cauliflower should be tender and browned in spots.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium-sized pot over med-high heat - add leeks and saute until wilted and slightly browned. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then add potatoes. Cook until potatoes are done (about 15 minutes). Let cool for at least 10 minutes.

When cauliflower and potatoes are done and slightly cooled, put all into a food processor or blender - carefully (use a potholder or dish towel) pulse/blend until failry smooth (it will have some texture, since you didn't peel the potatoes). Return soup to pot and add cream (more, or less, or milk, or none to taste). Bring to barely a simmer, check for salt & pepper, and serve!

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This was inspired by Nida's "leftover soup" recipe that she posted a few weeks ago, as well as by a description of a pasta served at How to Cook a Wolf (new restaurant on top of Queen Anne, not the MFK Fisher book, although must have been inspired by it) - which I thought sounded good but was too full to try.

making it up...

Long time no post! It's been busy in these parts, and although I cooked up a storm last weekend, I just didn't feel like soup. I made Indian food one night, and lasagna another - both good, the Indian food a little more on the soup side, fortunately!

But it's Sunday night, and I'm concocting a roasted cauliflower soup with leeks and potatoes and a little cream - so far, the cauliflower is roasting with some garlic and olive oil (and salt & pepper), the leeks have wilted in a little butter on the stovetop, and I'm waiting for the vegetable stock-cicle to melt before I put in the potatoes. Stay tuned - I'll post later with the results!

Pizza is kindof like soup(?)

So, I know you've all been waiting anxiously to hear what kind of soup I made Sunday night - the emails and phone calls have been non-stop since my last post (haha)... well, Sunday night I actually opted out of cooking altogether and after going for a lovely walk in Discovery Park in the late afternoon, I went to IKEA where I spent more money than I thought I would (as always) and then came home all excited to construct my new end tables and watch Jane Austen on PBS... so I ordered a pizza! Zagi's Pizza is my personal favorite for local delivery and yummy New York style pizza with great toppings like carmelized onions and really good sausage, etc.

Anyway, I did wind up making the Bean/Barley/Swiss Chard soup last night (after finishing all my pizza leftovers - finally) - here's the recipe, adapted from one I found in a magazine by Marcella Hazan:

Bean/Barley/Chard Soup

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, diced
1-2 carrots, peeled (or not) and diced
1 bunch Swiss Chard (or red Chard), washed and thinly sliced

1/3 cup canned chopped tomatoes (or more, if you have a whole can and don't want it lingering in your fridge)

1 19 oz. can canellini beans
2/3 cups barley
5 cups water (or so)
salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot, saute onions for a few minutes, then add the celery and carrots. Saute until slightly soft (about 5-8 minutes), then add the tomatoes - lower heat slightly and let all simmer together for about 10 minutes. Stir in the chard and 1 tsp. salt, then cover and lower heat to barely a simmer. Simmer with lid on for 40 minutes (check and stir occassionally).

In a separate pot (and this is good to start while you're waiting on the tomatoes), boil the 5 cups of water with lots of salt (as if you were making pasta). Once it reaches a boil, add the barley (which you may want to rinse - when I made it last night it was a little dusty/silty). Boil barley for 35 minutes. Skim any floaty stuff off if needed, then drain the barley, reserving the cooking water (or scoop the barley out of the water directly into the soup pot with a holey spoon or small sieve).

Once barley and veggies are both done, combine all in the veggie pot and add the can of beans. Add about 2 or so cups of the reserved barley water (or more or less based on your desired soupy-ness). Bring to a low simmer, add more salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with grated parmesan on top!

This should last me a few days... anyone up for cooking stew or Indian food or cassoulet (yikes!) this weekend?

a few brief comments

Guilty pleasure: Campbell's tomato soup made with milk and a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch on a cold day... ideally after playing in the snow, but we have to imagine that part in the NW. I picked up this kid-food in college, since my mother was partial to Bean with Bacon soup when we were growing up... either way, the cans themselves are such classics!

Miso mystery: Anyone have a good recipe for miso soup? I was having a nice Japanese lunch on Friday, and was reminded of how good miso soup is, and also of all my failed attempts to make it taste that good. I usually get the wrong kind of miso and/or the proportions all wrong and/or a huge vat of soup that I never finish. Please post!

Sunday night supper: is either going to be a quick bean/barley/chard soup or some sort of garlic "cooked water" soup, depending on how much time I feel like spending inside today - it's actually sunny in Seattle today!

New Year's Resolutions

It looks like my sister's friends in DC are not really following their resolution about eating only soup in January... but then again, I can't blame them - I'm not a big fan of resolutions in general, especially the kind that restrict something you like :-)

My sister started to give things up for Lent in the past few years, but they've been things like, "give up feeling sorry for yourself" - much more to my taste! So this year, I've come up with a New Year's resolution that will be both hard to follow at times, and always make me feel better when I do it (unlike those delayed-gratification things like "don't eat cheese")... and so my resolution this year is to Play More - as in "be more playful," not "play video games" (although that would still be in the spirit of things).

This all started to come to fruition in my head over the past few months, during which I've been taking things WAAAYYY too seriously - at work, at home, with friends, family, etc. (hmmm - I think maybe I've been a pain in the ass in the process!).

Then something in my head insisted that I do a few key silly things that have started to make me less serious - like buy a "One Laptop Per Child" computer (and donate one to a kid in the developing world at the same time with their G1G1 program), and read "kids" books (the Golden Compass movie started that), and start a silly blog about soup... And so I'm going to just try to think of life as Play and see where that takes me...

Playing has it's pros and cons, of course, as anyone who was ever a kid remembers (so does the cute "baby laptop", btw - Linux is kindof fun but also kindof time-sucking!). Playing may "waste time" - but on the other hand, you discover real things when you play, like what it's like to be on Battlestar Gallactica (or could morph into animals), or what's actually interesting about a piece of music that you're noodling with (what a grown-up example). Playing shows you who the bullies are, who the fun kids are, what you might like doing more (be a mermaid) or less (play dodgeball).

Ok - enough philosophizing... talk amongst yourselves...

This weekend - more soup!

Leftovers!

Boy, this is just about the most exciting blog ever! Soup! Leftovers! woo-hoo!

So, let me tell you about the Sunday soup - the cinnamon/pork one... it came out great,and I'm have that for dinner tonight. Also had the last of the chicken noodle for lunch, so it's an all-soup day. This I see as the biggest drawback of soup, unless you're cooking for a crowd - the leftover situation an get a little out of control.

That said, the bowl of soup from last night is sure looking and smelling good, sitting next to me to cool down a little as I write this.

A few notes on the recipe, since I'd never made it before - the broth and pork turned out fantastic, and made the whole house smell good! That said, you need to skim a LOT of fat off - made me wish I had one of those fat-skimmers - would have saved me some time. But once that was done, the soup came together quickly - I just threw in about 1/2 bag of spinach, and used rice stick noodles that I happened to have in the cupboard (although cellophane or those cool Korean yam noodles would be even better). So, this is definately a keeper recipe.

And there's more in the pot! I'll have think of other topics until I eat this all up and make the next pot of soup...

Sunday soup

Sunday soup should take several hours to make - simmering away on the stove while you putter around the house... I think I'm going to try this one today - come on over for dinner around 7-ish if you're in the neighborhood! I'll probably add spinach or chard...

pork noodle soup with cinnamon and anise
Gourmet | December 2007

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Last Touch

Maggie Ruggiero

2 1/2 pounds country-style pork ribs
6 cups water
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup Chinese Shaoxing wine or medium-dry Sherry
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
3 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 whole star anise
5 1/2 ounces bean thread (cellophane) noodles

Garnish: chopped cilantro; sliced scallions

Gently simmer all ingredients except noodles in a 6-quart heavy pot, covered, skimming as needed, until pork is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Transfer pork to a bowl. Discard bones, spices, and garlic. Coarsely shred meat. Skim fat from broth, then return meat and bring to a simmer. Rinse noodles, then stir into broth and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until noodles are translucent and tender, about 6 minutes.

The post-holiday 'diet'

Hi all - now, an actual diet is not my style, but after multiple conversations in the last few years with friends and family about the restorative power of soup in the bleak midwinter (especially in Seattle - having just returned from 'sunny' Cleveland and DC, I can't believe how DARK it is here), I thought it might be nice to talk soup.

Most recently, my sister's DC 'family's' resolution to stick to soup (or was it no snacks?) plus a really annoying cold+sinus infection led me to thinking - chicken soup!

So - here's my recipe for chicken soup:

1-2 qts. chicken broth (I usually use homemade frozen)
1-2 qts. water (use more water if you don't have enough stock)
1.5 lbs. cooked & diced/shredded chicken  (leftover roast chicken is best - or poach some in the stock/water+salt)
2 Tbs. butter or olive oil
1/2 onion, choppped
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 bulb celeriac, peeled and diced
1 bunch (lb.) black kale (aka Tuscan/dino kale) sliced in thin strips (chiffonade?)
salt & pepper to taste
1/3 lb. slightly under-cooked egg noodles or pasta (take it out 1-2 minutes early)

In a large pot (5-6 qt) over med-high heat, melt butter and add onion. Saute until golden, then add carrots and celeriac. Saute a few minutes, then add kale. Saute a few more minutes, then add broth and water. Let simmer together (lower heat as needed) for about 10 minutes, until all veggies are soft. Add the chicken and noodles, and let it all come to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper - season to your taste. 

That's it! It's good for what ails ya'.  

So, I'm new to  blogging, but I think it might be nice to share soup recipes - what have you been making?