January 31, 1922 - January 16, 2012

My Dad passed yesterday just a couple of weeks shy of his 90th birthday. He loved to cook and was not “reluctant” at all to try new ideas in the kitchen. He tried Chinese, Italian, French, but without much success, although his burgers and steaks were terrific.

As a little boy, I loved to stand with him as he started up the grill with charcoal briquettes and a little gasoline, something we would never do today, and watch him cook a steak to perfection. He’s throw a few baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil on the coals and there was our Saturday night meal.

He also loved to make desserts, especially apple pies, and had more variations on Jell-O than anyone I knew. He would make a batch of pudding at night and complain when my brother and I ate most of it the next day when we came home from school.

His had his cooking flaws too especially when it came to seasoning and cooking with wine. If a little was good, a little more was better in his eyes. So a lot of the “experiments” didn’t work out because they were over spiced or tasted too much like wine — and not very good wine I might add.

We worked hard around the yard on weekends and he always made us great lunches of fried bologna sandwiches or mini pizzas made with fresh Jersey tomatoes topped with American or Velveeta cheese on Wonder Bread with a little oregano sprinkled on the top and stuck under the broiler until the cheese melted. I can still taste them just thinking about them.

I can picture him during tomato season with a huge plate of sliced tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, topped with Hellman’s mayonnaise. My Dad could make a meal out of them and often times would.

One of my fondest memories of my Dad in the kitchen was the time we caught a couple of bushels of blue claw crabs down the Jersey shore at my grandfather’s. We brought them home, boiled the lot and started removing the meat. The process was slow especially with a couple of young boys trying to help.

He decided to speed up the process by using a water pic to blow the meat out of the legs and smaller swimming legs. The idea worked but there was crab meat everywhere. When my mom came home and saw small pieces of crab on the ceiling she made him scrub it down and repaint it the following week.

He loved to grow his own vegetables, especially potatoes. When I visited my parents on weekends, he would take me to his garden out back and dig for new potatoes. (In recent years, he carried on this tradition with my two daughters who thought it was like a treasure hunt!)  We would bring them into the house with some other fresh vegetables and fry some fresh flounder or grill some meat and boil the potatoes. This tiny, round, red skinned potatoes were served only with a little butter and salt and pepper. They were incredible!

Somewhere I have on home movies a cooking show he and I produced, directed and starred in on how to make a peppercorn sauce with demi glace. This was years ago, filmed on an old video camera. I think we were imitating the Galloping Gourmet in his early days when he drank wine on the show. We maybe indulged a bit much but we also laughed and laughed while we made one mistake after another. I hope I can find that tape somewhere.

I’ll miss my Dad, heck, I miss him already but I have lots of fine memories of hanging out with him in the kitchen and learning some of my first cooking techniques. Rest in Peace Dad, I love you.

Thanksgiving Pre Game Tips

I say pre-game because Thanksgiving can be complicated cooking match especially if you are cooking for a crowd. The good news is there is plenty of great advice in your favorite cooking magazines (you probably received them in September) and a never-ending supply of ideas on the Internet with the click of your mouse.

I thought I’d share some of the better tips I’ve found in my magazines and favorite websites and blogs for getting ready for what I consider the “biggest cooking day of the year” for home cooks. If you are cooking for a large group, this is as close as you may ever get to understand what it is like for a professional cook who does this every day for a lot more people.

I invite you to share some your own favorite tips that may make it easier for the rest of us home cooks this holiday. The pros offer lots of great advice but I trust everyone who reads this has suggestions of their own from real life experiences. So here we go.

Have a Plan

Sunday morning I listened to my wife and youngest daughter going over all the recipes, creating a shopping list for those items missing. My wife is much more organized than I am so I trust her talents when it comes to holiday cooking. For every day cooking, I like to make stuff up with “what’s on hand” ingredients but when it comes to big parties events, you MUST have a well thought out PLAN.

There is a very cool Thanksgiving Menu Planner at epicurious where they ask you 6 questions and based on your answers offer you some menu ideas. This is a great resource for finding tasty recipes, but what if you already know what you want to cook and are looking for ways to organize your week leading up to Thanksgiving?

My friends at Rouxbe also have a good “Multi-Task” Meal Planner that shows you how to handle multiple recipes with some of the best cooking videos (if not the best) on the Internet. This is a paid tuition site with multiple options but the quality of instruction is as close as going to culinary school as you can get without actually attending. Worth a look.

Daily Planner

There’s plenty you could have done before today like ordering your turkey, making your guest list, reading your back issues of Food and Wine for recipes but now it’s getting near crunch time so lets look at some of the chores you want to take care of this short week.

Many Thanksgiving Planners I’ve seen break tasks down by two weeks before, then one week before, then three – two – one days before, then in the morning and so on, but I’m just going to offer up some ideas and let you figure out how to apply them to your schedule. Everyone has their own style of planning and cooking so here are some ideas to think about before the big day.

Clean Out the Refrigerator

I don’t mean scrub it down but you are going to need a lot of room for Thanksgiving ingredients so now’s the time to use up some of those leftovers and while you’re at it, make some room in your freezer too.

Plan Your Menu

I mentioned earlier about the importance of a plan so figure out what you are going to serve and breakdown the recipes so you know how much of each ingredient you’ll need.  Everybody asks me how much of this or how much of that should I figure for 16 people? My answer is, “it depends on who the 16 people are.”

Are they young or old, football players or ballerinas, on a diet or ready to overindulge?  There are so many factors; it’s just impossible to give an exact answer. So think of whom you are inviting and plan accordingly.

Shop Early

My wife and I did a lot of our shopping this Saturday at the Farmers Market. We picked up a lot of fresh local produce, fresh eggs and I picked up a bunch of cheeses to serve before dinner. Yesterday my wife went to the supermarket very early to beat the rush. Don’t wait until Wednesday to shop unless you enjoy shopping with a crowd.

Defrosting Frozen Turkeys

Turkeys are big and frozen turkeys take a while to defrost in the refrigerator. Depending on the size, I would give it 3 to 4 days to defrost in the fridge. If you bought a fresh turkey, you won’t have this situation. You can also defrost your turkey in your beer cooler. Just make sure you purchase enough ice to keep the bird at 40°F or less to prevent harmful bacteria growing.

Here are some rough estimates that might help:

(Whole turkey)

• 8 to 12 pounds……….1 to 2 days
• 12 to 16 pounds……….2 to 3 days
• 16 to 20 pounds……….3 to 4 days
• 20 to 24 pounds……….4 to 5 days

If, once Thanksgiving eve has arrived, your turkey is still on the frosty side (its wings and/or legs do not move freely), you can finish defrosting it in a deep sink.  Just plug the drain and run cool water in a very thin stream over the turkey.  Make sure that any overflow water has a way to drain since this process could take an hour, two or even more.  While this works well, it can be pretty stressful on the cook who is facing a still-frozen turkey, so plan accordingly and use this option as a last resort.

Brining The Turkey

Lots of home cooks are brining their turkeys these days. I’m not so sure if it’s worth the fuss. Food scientist Harold McGee says, “You’ve got a nice turkey with lots of turkey flavor. When you brine it, you’re basically diluting that flavor with salty tap water…. A better route may be salting the bird for a couple nights. It gets some of moisture retention qualities of brining, without diluting flavor.”

He also suggests that if you are going to brine your turkey, do it for at least two days in your refrigerator or ice chest and be sure the water temperature stays below 40°F.

Prep and Make What You Can Early

Go over your menu and see if there is anything you can prep or prepare before Thursday. My wife made the cranberry sauce on Saturday and we made soup yesterday.

You can make pie dough the day before or wash the salad greens or cut the bread into cubes for homemade stuffing.  How about chopping vegetables or peeling potatoes and storing in water the night before? You’d be surprised at how much you can do beforehand so you can relax just a little on Thanksgiving Day.

Wine & Other Beverages

Figure out who’s going to be drinking what before, during and after dinner.  Do the adults drink beer or wine or some other adult beverage? What about the kids? Do you need extra milk and juice.

If serving wine, do a little research on what wine goes best with turkey. Me, I like a pinot noir and recently read on another web site, “the grape that the comic movie Sideways made famous. Smooth, complex and balanced, with flavors of red fruit and earth and a texture that makes you think of velvet, an excellent Pinot Noir”

If serving white wine, be sure to get it in the refrigerator to chill in plenty of time.  But remember, optimal serving temperature for white wine is between 48°F - 55°F and 58°F - 64°F for red wine, so don’t go overboard and serve your wine at refrigerator temperature.

Flowers

It’s not as bad as Valentines Day, but again try to buy flowers and centerpiece decorations early this week rather than wait.  If you are going to make something unique for the centerpiece, now’s the time to make it.  You don’t want to be messing with crafts on Thanksgiving Day.

Set the Table Early

If you know how many family and friends are coming to dinner, why not get the table set today or tomorrow. Just one less thing to think about.

And if you are going to use the good silver handed down or received as wedding gifts, you might want to see if it needs a little polish. You don’t get to use it that often so why not make it shine?

Recruit the Kids

Thanksgiving prep is a great way to get the kids involved with sharing some of the responsibilities in the kitchen. There are plenty of tasks that your children can help with no matter what their age. Check your recipes and make a note of what can be handed over to each of your children. It can be a big help to you and most kids love to mess around in the kitchen with their mom and dad.

Help Lines

The New York Times Thanksgiving Questions & Answers – here you’ll find great questions and answers like :

• Can I Reheat My Turkey Without Drying It Out?
• What Do I Need to Know to Make Delicious, Not Lumpy Mashed Potatoes?
(be sure to check out my post on Perfect Mashed Potatoes)
• How Far in Advance Can I Buy a Fresh Turkey?
• What Are Some Easy Side Dishes That Will Break Up the Monotony?
• And then some like this one: Is It Safe to Cook a Reagan-Era Frozen Turkey? Hmmm!

Butterball Turkey Talk Line – 800- Butterball – call Monday thru Friday from 8am to 6pm CST and all day starting at 6am on Thanksgiving day.

USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline – 888-674-6854 – weekdays from 9am to 3pm CST where you can get answers on food safety, handling and turkey preparation.

Perdue Farms – 888-674-6854 – known more for their chickens, Purdue will help you your cook your turkey and what to do with leftovers.

Ocean Spray – 800-662-3263 – Cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving is a must so if you need help with your cranberries, call these guys from 9am – 4pm EST and 9am to 3pm on Thanksgiving day.

US Department of Agriculture – 888-674-6854 – have a safety question? – check out their meat and poultry hotline between 8am to 2pm on Thanksgiving.

Baking Questions Hotlines

Fleishmann’s Yeast Baker’s Help Line – 800-777-4959 – call Monday thru Friday from 9am – 7pm for help with your Thanksgiving breads and rolls.

Libby Consumer Hot Line – 800-854-0374 – Call Monday thru Friday between 8am – 8pm EST if you need help with your pumpkin pie. These are the guys to call.

King Arthur Flour – 802-649-3717 – Need help with your baking questions, call them Monday thru Friday between 8am to 9pm but not on Thanksgiving, they are closed.

Share Some Of Your Favorite Thanksgiving Tips Below and Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving

I knew very little about the Slow Food movement and nothing about the Ark of Taste so I was pleasantly surprised when I learned my neighbor’s daughter and new food friend, Margot, was involved with both and started her own web site selling some of the Ark of Taste products. I asked her to explain to me and you what these two movements are all about and she was kind enough to write this very informative article.

I trust if you didn’t know much about Slow Food and thought it was a way to cook food like I did, you’ll learn a lot from Margot’s article. If you want to learn more about some of the ingredients Margot talks about and even purchase some, I suggest you check out her web site at Heirloom Table.  - RG

A Little Introduction to Slow Food and the Ark of Taste
by Margot Weber

What is Slow Food?

First things first, Slow Food is not about “slow-cooked food” it’s a movement and a non-profit organization dedicated to helping make our food systems more full of food that is “good, clean, and fair”. It’s about better taste, better health, better communities, and better care for the environment.

For me, learning about the Slow Food movement was like finding my long lost food religion. I grew up in a family in which three generations get just as excited about summer’s first juicy, ripe local peach as we do about an eight-course meal in the Swiss Alps. Combine this with lessons from an early age about taking care of the environment and family nostalgia for the days when the green grocer knew my great-grandmother by name, and you can see how the menu at Mccy D’s left me feeling that something was missing.

The name “Slow Food” comes from its goal to be the opposite of “fast food” and it may sound like another buzzword, but it’s absolutely a good thing, and something delicious to get excited about. Slow Food is both a grassroots movement and a non-profit organization that takes action on the premise that food should be GOOD, CLEAN, and FAIR. Let’s break that down:

-    GOOD - It has to taste deeeeelicious, otherwise, what’s the point? Plus, it has to be nutritious and devoid of harmful preservatives or additives.
-    CLEAN – The food must come from farming and production practices that are dedicated to minimizing their impact on the environment and avoiding waste.
-    FAIR – The Slow Food organization and the grassroots movement participants are care deeply about making nutritious, delicious, local food available to everyone, throughout the world.

To summarize, Slow Food is about connecting the pleasure of food with responsibility to the environment and connection to the community. I want in, don’t you?!

Where Slow Food Originated

Slow Food originated in one of the bedrocks of fantastic cuisine, Italy. It all started in 1989 when Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food International. The inspiration to act came because fast food joints were popping up everywhere (even near the Vatican!!) and so many young people were consuming fast food, it was feared that the high-quality food traditions that bring pride, health, and personal connection were being lost. On top of these fears, Petrini and his supporters pointed out that fast food production greatly increases food waste and damages the environment.

Since 1989 Slow Food has expanded to have national chapters in over 150 countries with more than 100,000 members internationally. Thanks to increasing awareness about food production and the desire to create healthy communities, Slow Food membership continues to grow. Many supporters also include notable food professionals such as Chef Mario Batali, Chef Daniel Boulud, Jean Georges Vongereichten, and Rachel Ray.

Organizing with people who share your views is all fine and dandy, but the important part is what these Slow Food members DO. Slow Food has many wonderful programs aimed at preserving natural food diversity, educating adults and children about food, and most fantastically - helping people in developing countries improve nutrition through better farming practices. Here are a few examples of top programs:

• Terra Madre - a network of farmers, food producers, NGOs, cooks, academics, and students that come together each year to share Slow Food best practices and discuss how to further improve their ability to create foods that are Good, Clean, and Fair
• Slow Food Presidia – projects where the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity gets directly involved with helping artisanal food producers improve their businesses and thrive
• Earth Markets – community-run markets throughout Europe that embody the Slow Food philosophy
• 1000 Gardens in Africa – a project to create community fruit and vegetable gardens throughout 25 countries in Africa that will yield more nutritious food, income opportunities, and local pride
• Ark of Taste – (which I’ll explain in more detail below) is a catalog of delicious traditional foods from different countries throughout the world that are in danger of being lost due to industrial farming practices

What is the Slow Food Ark of Taste?

One thing I’ve heard friends and family say over and over again this summer was, “remember how red and juicy the tomatoes at the farm stand were a couple years ago?  The ones this summer were flavorless and white inside!”.

What’s going on with the world – are tomatoes reacting to hard times too? Isn’t a jersey tomato a jersey tomato?

Something we may not realize is that that there are many different varieties of every fruit, vegetable, meat, grain, and farm animal. Some we’ve heard about like Golden Delicious apples or Black Angus cattle, but for more delicate fruits like strawberries and tomatoes, large corporations create new “improved” varieties every few years. Now, you would think taste and nutritional value are top priorities in breeding these new varieties, but higher value is often placed on resistance to pesticides and durability during shipping. Might be good for your stockholders, but it doesn’t sound very delicious or nutritious at all!

This is where the Slow Food Ark of Taste comes in. It is quite similar to an “endangered species watch list” for notable foods. The foods on the Ark of Taste are there because they are extremely delicious, a rich part of local history, and are in danger of being lost due to large-scale industrial farming practices. Foods on the Ark of Taste can be nominated by anyone and submitted to the Slow Food USA Biodiversity Committee, which is made up of Slow Food members from across the country. By learning about and eating these tasty foods we help make American food culture something to be proud of. If you ask me, eating something flavorful in order to save it for future generations sounds right up my alley!

The food varieties on the Slow Food Ark of Taste are similar in concept to heirloom tomatoes (i.e. breeds like Purple Cherokee, Green Zebra, etc.), but applied to all types of foods.  All the foods on the US Slow Food Ark of Taste are considered heirloom varieties or food traditions that were developed in the US from about eighty to several hundred years ago. There are over 70 other countries that have their own Ark of Taste that you can check out as well. Here are some examples of foods on the US Ark of Taste:

• Meyer Lemons – these made their debut in the US around 1908 when mandarin oranges were brought here by the USDA and crossed with a standard lemon; the result is a lemon that is much juicier and slightly sweeter than your typical lemon
• Mission Olives – a variety introduced to California in the 1700’s; it was nearly lost to years of co-mingling with other varieties until several untouched groves were discovered on the grounds of Catholic missions in California
• Colonial Shrub – the Tait Farms family revived what was nearly a dead colonial tradition when they started to make fruit shrubs  (cordials traditionally added to water for a sweet and tart drink) from a combination of fresh fruit-derived vinegar, cane sugar, honey, and spices

So this is all great, but what does it mean for you? Give yourself a chance to taste America’s gourmet heritage and seek out these products! This is our main focus at Heirloom Table (www.HeirloomTable.com), where you can buy delicious Slow Food Ark of Taste foods at fair prices and have them shipped to your door. Find your local Slow Food chapter by going to www.SlowFoodUSA.org and find out which restaurants, stores, and green markets they recommend as places that uphold the values of providing the most flavorful local food, getting involved in the community, and using eco-friendly practices.

Try it! One bite and we think your head, heart, and taste buds will be hooked on the pleasure of good food and a clear conscience.

Useful Links:

Heirloom Table – an ecommerce site dedicated to the Slow Food Ark of Taste
Slow Food USA – where you can find Slow Food-focused local businesses and learn how to get involved
Slow Food International – information on Slow Foods international programs
Slow Food USA Ark of Taste – a full listing and descriptions of all the foods on the USA Ark of Taste,

Information Sources:

The background information in this article was sourced from the Slow Food International and Slow Food USA websites and an article by Miguel A. Altieri, Associate Professor at UC Berkeley, all accessed in September of 2011.
http://www.slowfood.com/
http://slowfoodfoundation.com/.
http://slowfoodusa.org/
Altieri, Miguel A., Ecological impacts and the possibilities for truly sustainable farming. http://nature.berkeley.edu/~agroeco3/modern_agriculture.html