Michelle

Birthday and brittle

March 14, 2011 by Michelle

In 1911, Amundsen’s expedition reached the South Pole, Hiram Bingham “discovered” Machu Picchu and the first Indianapolis 500 took off at the Brickyard. That same year in Paradise, Kentucky, Brucie and Coza Dee Smith welcomed a little brother—Michelle’s grandfather, R.T. Smith, born 100 years ago today. 21 years later, R.T. eloped with the daughter of a wealthy neighbor. The young couple started out sharecropping on a few acres in Hopkins County known as “The Switch Place” (as it was near […]

Categories: Candy, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Family, Food, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Paella and surviving the Gourmandistan cookbook gauntlet

March 10, 2011 by Michelle

Hundreds, if not thousands, of cookbooks have seen their way in and out of Gourmandistan. The kitchen’s multiple shelves are nearly full, even though scores upon scores of volumes have been given away to friends and charities over the years and at least 50 others currently sit in an upstairs bookshelf purgatory, waiting for a decision on whether they stay or go. (We’re looking at you, Lee Brothers.) Gourmandistan’s general cookbook-keeping metric is simple: to keep a place in our […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Peas, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants, Rice, Spain

Puff pastry meat pies and a mountain of lamb

March 2, 2011 by Michelle

We received delivery of our second annual lamb from our neighbors, Gary and Joyce Keibler, of Hemmer Hill Farm. This year the Keiblers wisely chose Marksbury Farm as the processor (where Steve took our chickens on their last day last Fall, chronicled here and here), avoiding our awkward acceptance of many strange bits and chunks along with the usual legs and chops. This year’s lamb could have leapt from an illustrated chart, with clearly identifiable shoulders, ribs and shanks. No […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Lamb, Meat Pies, Recipes • Tags: Locavore

Research and risotto cakes

February 22, 2011 by Michelle

Gourmandistan is planning to temporarily plant its flag in a new land this Fall, inside the province of Padua in northeastern Italy. We’ve begun preparing for our trip already—Michelle furiously researching the sites, transportation options and cultural habits of the Veneto; Steve rambling around Google Earth looking for towns named for sausages and cheeses he’s heard of. In addition, we’ve predictably started exploring Italian recipes. We’re not huge fans of risotto-making here in Gourmandistan. Steve’s weak wrists and fidgetiness resent […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Italy, Peas, Recipes, Rice

Pantry-cleaning farro and quinoa soups

February 10, 2011 by Michelle

In Gourmandistan we’ve become much better at enforcing a “first in, first out” rule for food in our various storage areas. (Steve, especially, often manifests squirrel-like tendencies, hoarding things like apples, rice and garlic as cold weather sets in.) One of our new rules is dating every jar and package using marker and masking tape, which will hopefully prevent such awkward questions as “Do you remember buying this?” and “How long has this been here?” as well as the dreaded […]

Categories: Cooking, Farro, Food, Quinoa, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Vegetarian

Madeleines, Madisonville and Medrich’s Praline Bars

February 4, 2011 by Michelle

In pre-just-about-anything-interesting early-1970s Western Kentucky, Michelle spent lots of preteen time at “The Youth Center,” hanging out after school and at weekend parties. The Youth Center was across the street from Michelle’s junior high school, which had lunch offerings of heavily processed items like pre-made pizza, frozen corn, potato chips or a cold “hamburger” with painted-on grill marks. Readers will not be shocked to learn that Michelle often skipped her school lunch, instead waiting for one of her favorite things: […]

Categories: Brownies, Chocolate, Cooking, Food, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Lentil soup, Le Puy and a lesson in geology

January 29, 2011 by Michelle

Millennia ago, when volcanoes were spewing up pretty much all of modern France, part of the magma that eventually became the Auvergne was composed of pure basalt, one of the hardest minerals on Earth. (Steve once did advertising for a basalt-slurry-based corn-chute lining company, where he learned vital facts about the igneous rock.) One of these ancient basalt pillars pokes up over Le Puy-en-Velay and hosts an 11th century chapel accessible only by climbing 268 steps—something the acrophobic Michelle can […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Food, France, Recipes, Soups & Stews

English muffins kick pancake ass

January 26, 2011 by Michelle

We’ve always enjoyed English muffins in Gourmandistan, but have long been dissatisfied with what can be found in our grocery. Years ago we bought some muffin rings and tried the recipe inside, but the oven-baked muffins were dense and not at all like the nook-and-cranny nirvana we sought. So we abandoned our muffins for other breads, occasionally buying a package of Bays for hamburger buns, only to find their freezer-burned corpses littering the Sub-Zero’s floor after we forgot about them. […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian, Yeast breads

Modernity vs. nostalgia vs. pot pie

January 16, 2011 by Michelle

While Gourmandistan’s borders are stuffed full of scanners, digital cameras, electronic readers and other delightful devices of our electronic age, our population still clings to print, especially when it comes to cooking. Shopping lists are usually written on scraps of paper (although Steve sometimes transcribes them to his iPhone). Our shelves groan with heavy cookbooks, which Michelle recently reorganized to make room for more. As we had a lot of leftover poultry flesh from Steve’s recent rescue of the little […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Meat Pies, Old cookbooks, Recipes