Michelle

Popcorn balls

October 26, 2010 by Michelle

Starting in the 1930s, Michelle’s 96-year-old grandmother cooked many a farm meal, and legions of farmhands claim she cooked them well—homemade and from scratch. But with the advent of “modern” convenience foods, by the Sixties (the time Michelle was a kid), Mamo felt it was quite forward-looking to seek out shortcuts. Soup mix, pie crust mix, whatever—if it came in a box or a can, it had to be better than “from scratch.” But one thing Mamo always did make […]

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

France, Southern style

September 8, 2010 by Michelle

We invited our British neighbors-for-the-week over for drinks and hors d’oeuvres this evening, a reciprocation for their including us in poolside drinks on Monday. Initially, we planned on an assortment of sausages, cheeses and perhaps a tapenade to accompany bottles of local wines. Then Michelle had a moment of genius. Instead of serving French food to British people vacationing in France, why not instead serve them Southeast U.S. classics made with Southwest French ingredients? Thus were born two marvelous appetizers: […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cheese, Cooking, Duck, Food, France, Recipes

Strawberries in September

September 7, 2010 by Michelle

As Gourmandistan has for the moment relocated to Gascony, we’ve been exploring the markets of our temporary territory, discovering once again the delights offered by French farmers. Some of the nicer things we’ve enjoyed have been fresh strawberries. In America, our usual home, we would shun strawberries at this time of year, since they would most likely be chemical-laden imports with gargantuan carbon footprints. But in Europe, things are different. Everbearing strawberries have been cultivated for centuries here—pumping out sweet, […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, France, Fruit Desserts, Strawberries, Vegetarian

Good night, ladies.

August 29, 2010 by Michelle

Dawn on Saturday found Steve rattling by his alma mater with a truckload of sleepy, mildly-protesting chickens, on his way to Marksbury Farm Market’s new Garrard County processing facility. As we neared Gourmandistan’s temporary relocation to Gascony, it was deemed time to retire the flock. We (OK, Steve) had winnowed a few from the flock earlier this year—but after dealing with four in one day, Steve decided he was no match for nineteen. Michelle was drowsily dragged from her bed […]

Categories: Chicken keeping, Food

Butter: I can’t believe it’s not harder

July 24, 2010 by Michelle

Butter churning had been in the back of our minds for several years, but we’d never taken the plunge. Steve read an article in the New York Times around the same time that genius baker Bob Hancock (of Blue Dog Bakery) told us he’d made his own butter using his mixer and a lot of plastic wrap. We came close when our Hazelfield Farm friends Raphe and Teresa gave us fresh milk, but that never had enough cream to skim. […]

Categories: Butter, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Baby artichoke walk

July 21, 2010 by Michelle

On Sunday, we finally took a road trip to Cincinnati to check out the Hyde Park Farmers’ Market. Our curiosity had been whetted by stories from farmer friends (met at our local market but now exclusively appearing in Hyde Park). The farmers spun tales of Cincinnatians’ bigger appetite for delicacies such as zucchini blossoms and other fare that Louisvillians find “too exotic” (read: afraid to buy). So, GPS engaged, we buzzed up I-71 and wended our way through Columbia Parkway […]

Categories: Artichokes, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

Herb shortbread cookies

June 29, 2010 by Michelle

Several months back, seeking a nice finish for a “ladies lunch,” Michelle made Martha Stewart’s Rosemary Butter Cookies. Served with sliced oranges in rosemary-steeped honey (it was still citrus season), the cookies were a great success. Michelle’s friend Ruth deemed them “the best possible mixture of sweet and savory.” The cookie dough is sweet and rich, yet the flavors are subdued enough to let the herb through. Since then, Michelle has been wondering what other herbs might be good in […]

Categories: Cookies, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

Damn hippies sure do know how to cook

June 23, 2010 by Michelle

The Summer of 1989 found us in San Francisco with Michelle’s mom, Jean. In that pre-Gourmandistan era, we weren’t really aware of the downsides of industrial food—instead, we were crazy for Asian. The San Francisco dining guide we bought before the trip had so many Asian restaurants marked we realized we’d have to eat about six meals a day to try all that we wanted. Not that we didn’t try to hit every one. We were enjoying siu mai, chicken […]

Categories: Cooking, Fennel, Food, Pasta, Recipes, Restaurants, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

Black raspberry jam

June 11, 2010 by Michelle

Black raspberries are the RuPaul of brambly drupelets. While they are raspberries, they have the sass and presence of a really good blackberry. The difference? It’s the core. Both blackberries and raspberries are collections of little seed-bearing fruits (called “drupelets”) attached to a central structure. In a blackberry, these drupelets remain attached, so the fruit has a “core.” Raspberry drupelets stick to each other instead of the structure, leaving them hollow. Michelle turned our recent find of farmers’ market black […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Jams & Preserves, Raspberries, Recipes, Vegetarian