Category Archives: NOM

getting back in the groove

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beef stew

making lemonade out of lemons – Julia Child style. 

Slowly…. slowly. Since life is getting in the way (darn public school germs, and broken freezer with 100+ lbs of meat inside, among other things), and I reached that point in the year that I started to resent my tomato plants, I took a little brain break. But today it’s fifty degrees outside, so I am going to plant my garlic and pull out my bean teepee and rake my leaves, dammit. Hold me accountable, please… just after I finish my breakfast.

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One of the perks of all the summer travel I did was that I hung out in Huntington WV for a couple of days… and of course, I wrote about it.

…and in case you didn’t want to read it on the Food Revolution website, you can see it here too.

And if you haven’t seen what I wrote about the Month Without Monsanto challenge in October, take a peek. While I’m disappointed that Prop 37 didn’t pass in California, it came darn close, and awareness about GMOs has increased a lot as a result (check out the Cheerios Facebook protest, for example). It’s heartening to see more people start to question the corporate food model and want to know what’s really in their food. Makes me think that I’m not just shaking my fist at the sky for no reason.

grandma ferguson’s chocolate zucchini cake

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I mentioned zucchini cake on social media last night, and several friends virtually perked up their ears. (I apparently pick my friends based on their good taste in food.) While I’ve inexplicably been on a pie kick this past year, when zucchini season rolls around, my thoughts turn to chocolate cake.

Wait, what?

Strange, I know. But zucchini cake is one of my comfort foods, straight from my grandmother’s kitchen when I was a kid. Moist and delicious, chocolaty but not heavy, with itty-bitty threads of shredded zucchini poking out occasionally, it’s a great summer dessert. Traditionally paired at grandma’s house with mint chocolate chip ice cream in a square, bumpy, clear glass bowl and a glass of skim milk (which I hated when I was a kid, and still do), I recommend serving it warm for best ooey-gooey flavor.

Like the surface of the moon – only better. 

The best part? Your kids will eat it. I promise. This cake has moved *fast* at summer block parties and moves even faster in my house. When I pulled it out of the oven last night and served small portions to my kids, they were gone in minutes. My son, who is not a big vegetable fan, proclaimed excitedly that he ‘can’t even taste the zucchini!’,* asked for seconds, and literally LICKED HIS LIPS when I handed him the second piece. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

The other best part? Two cups of shredded zucchini go into each recipe. So if you’re under a zucchini avalanche this summer, shred to your heart’s content, throw it in two cup portions into the freezer, and make this recipe all year long.

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Grandma Ferguson’s Chocolate Zucchini Cake**

1/2 cup butter

1/2 vegetable oil

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 sour milk (can add one tablespoon vinegar)

2 1/2 cups AP flour

4 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon clove (I usually just omit this and double the cinnamon)

2 cups finely diced or shredded zucchini

1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips (I also use chocolate shavings)

Cream butter, oil, and sugar together, Add eggs. Beat; add vanilla. Alternating, add milk & dry ingredients. beat well. Stir in zucchini. Spoon into 9″x12″ greased and floured pan. Sprinkle top with chips. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Test center with fork for doneness. Can be served warm or cool.

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*It is a Jessica Seinfeld-esque recipe, but it predates her by at least twenty years.

**I’ve only ever seen this recipe on a handwritten card, but it’s conceivable that it came from a cookbook somewhere, so if you recognize it, please let me know so no one sues me.

I may be a holiday card slacker but I still love street food

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I drove to Texas to recover from Christmas.

Well, sort of. Not really. Maybe a little. Hang on, I’ll explain.

Enjoying a gorgeous winter day with Austin street food and a giant Wrigley’s ad. 

Remember that crazy table full of food at Thanksgiving? This one, with four different pies? Yeah, that lovely locavore Thanksgiving was the harbinger of crazy and madness that was the month of December. I have two kids – one who is young enough to fully believe in the magic of Santa, and the other who is on the fence about maintaining a belief in Santa (and who I swear asked for an expensive electronic device so that he could test Santa’s existence because his parents would never get said device for him). Also, Christmas was on a Sunday this year. The combined pressure of managing correspondence with Mr. Claus to ensure maximum rapture on Christmas morning while also NOT having the weekend right before Christmas to run around like a madwoman threw me off completely. Case in point: I had the photos we used for our holiday cards since Halloween, and didn’t get around to ordering said cards until five days before Christmas. And I’ve maybe sent out 10 of the 50+ I need to ship out. I’m totally counting Martin Luther King Day as part of the larger holiday season so no one can say my cards are late.

Craziness aside, we had a lovely Christmas Eve and Day, with fresh chocolate chip cookies made for Santa and a small group of people sharing a much simpler meal. It was perhaps the most stress-free holiday I’ve had since I was a kid.

And then we drove to Texas the next day (well, started to, anyway). Yes, we’re nuts. But we needed to meet our niece, who was her mama and daddy’s slightly belated Christmas present last year, and frankly, I desperately needed a vacation away from my office and my glowering piles of laundry at home.

Thankfully, my in-laws live relatively close to Austin, though we had never straggled over to the state capitol on previous trips to the Lone Star State. Since we tend to lean towards la rive gauche, as does Austin, we’ve wanted to check it out for a while now. Little did we know it is one of the best places in the country for what is, quite possibly, my husband’s and my favorite food type – street food.

We’ve both been suckers for street food at least since college. Pop the Greek first introduced me to tzatziki sauce with his little cart and umbrella, and the Thai roach coach in front of Hillman Library had green curry sauce and bamboo shoots and other culinary wonders never before experienced by this wonder bread-raised suburban white girl. Studying abroad in Europe introduced me to jacket potatoes and crepes and my husband to döner – and we introduced each other to these mobile delicacies on our honeymoon in Ireland. (How a man addicted to Nutella had never had a Nutella/banana crepe is beyond me.) We’ve been known to detour to a taco stand for lunch many times – lime juice dribbling down our chins, enjoying the simple flavors, good quality ingredients, and affordable price that keeps us coming back.

But, man, Austin kicks it up a notch. I had done some research before we left – mainly on sites like Austin Food Carts and Food Trailers Austin – and was, frankly, amazed at the options. Here in urban Appalachia, there are a few carts near the universities, and maybe a small scattering downtown. In Austin, there are literally hundreds. Like, over 1,600 by the end of 2011. Does Pittsburgh even have that many brick and mortar restaurants?

A couple of innovative trucks caught my eye. Sadly, VERTS mobile kebaps (served out of the back of a Smart car) was on winter break when we were there. But Chi’lantro – Korean BBQ/Mexican fusion – looked intriguing. And as you may have already seen, we tracked it down. 

Hummina, hummina, hummina. I may drive to Texas again just for the pork quesadilla with kimchi. The food was fresh, flavorful, spicy, and delicious. My kids even ate things they probably would have pooh-poohed elsewhere, because they got to eat outside out of a truck. Though I couldn’t convince them to put the fried egg on the chicken sandwich.

Hello, lover. The Korean chicken hamburger with spicy fries.

We also struck gold at Kebabalicious, with a fantastic kebab, but Chi’lantro’s food came up first and I couldn’t put it down long enough to grab a picture. Sorry, Kebabalicious, it’s nothing personal. Just didn’t want to get kimchi on the camera.

We topped the afternoon off by wandering through Zilker Park, feeding swans, running like idiots through the grass, watching kayakers and fishermen, and feeling very odd being exposed to so much sunshine in one place. Austin, you and your food trucks charmed the pants off us, and helped us recover from Christmas madness. Now I’m off to read the city’s Mobile Food Establishment Ordinance. Yes, seriously.

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We found Chi’lantro and Kebabalicious at 2nd and Congress in downtown Austin. We highly recommend paying attention to their website and/or twitter feeds since they, being food trucks and trailers, are mobile and, you know, can actually move.