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Zombie Cooking

Oct 3rd, 2011
by htwollin.
1 comment

Rather than cooking zombies (which, by the way, is easiest during the winter, when they are not moving around and are easier to catch and dispatch. But you knew that already, right?). But in any case, to return to our usual example: You and a bunch of your friends are holed up in a mostly abandoned farmhouse; between you and any form of fast food is a moaning hoard of zombies (and no, it is not January so you can’t just walk out and lop their heads off..that would be cheating). You’ve got plenty of fuel, a stove, a pantry full of canned goods. What to do…what to do? (more…)

Apple Sauce

Oct 1st, 2011
by htwollin.
3 comments

Now, you are asking yourselves, “Why bother making apple sauce? I can buy apple sauce.” That’s true. But making apple sauce is as easy as falling off the proverbial log and this way, you know what’s going into it. If you are a package or jar label reader (and most of us are NOT), and you are looking at what is probably America’s number one basic apple sauce in a jar, you will see this: (more…)

Apples of my eye

Sep 25th, 2011
by htwollin.
4 comments

We tend to take apples pretty much for granted here in the US. We grow a lot of apples here and except for the deep deep South and the southwest, we’ve pretty much got apples covered. And we have our own mythology in terms of the spread of apples in the US – John Chapman, America’s “Johnny Appleseed” (who was literally a legend in his own time) spread nurseries of an apple from Massachusetts called the “Rambo” which probably was brought here from Sweden. Rambo is an ok apple – general purpose, really (which is what would have made it popular in the 18th and 19th century since if you could only afford one apple tree next to your house, you wanted it to be hardy and something you could use to make everything from cider (Colonial America’s #1 drink) to sauce to dried to pies. Which is what Rambo was good for. Not a great shipping apple mind you but when America ate it’s apples, it was not going down to the Safeway(tm) to buy them.

But people have never been able to let well enough alone with apples. (more…)

Flood, Paint, and Honey

Sep 19th, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

OK, we’re back. Actually, Aunt Toby never left, but things both here at Chez Siberia and in our area have been, shall we say, challenging for the past couple of weeks. Hurricane, tropical storm, biggest flood ever recorded (at least locally), and DOG help us, FROST IN THE GARDEN. I’m amazed I’m still standing straight up. (more…)

Anatomy of a Bean Rollup

Aug 20th, 2011
by htwollin.
1 comment

Folks, your Aunt Toby has a batting average on entertaining that hovers pretty far down there (well, I got better at batting when I learned to raise my elbow but that’s a story for another time), which is why the most popular birthday party my kids ever had was ‘let’s go bowling’. High anxiety is pretty much the norm for moi when we invite people to Chez Siberia.
Is the house clean enough? Is it so clean it looks as if we are trying too hard?
Are people lost (this actually happens quite often and I should stop going crazy about it)?
Will people like the food? The DH always says, “It’s free – what’s there to complain about?’
Will I make anyone sick with the food?
Will everyone have a good time?

The list goes on and on. I try to schedule an anxiety attack about an hour before everyone is due so that I have time to take a shower. I really DO sweat the small stuff. (more…)

Saving Garlic For Seed – How to choose

Aug 14th, 2011
by htwollin.
2 comments

Greetings, my little cheeseburgers! Here at Chez Siberia, it’s harvest season and this weekend, your Aunty dug up the garlic that she planted last fall. It’s always fascinating to see how things have done, taking into account the weather over the summer.

To reprise, this summer weather was not the best. Wet early, then hot and dry. Then brain-fryingly hot while the DH and I were away with little rain. Then very rainy when we got back. Not the best Rx for veggies that grow under the ground, which are very dependent on temperatures and steady water. (note to self: take vacations AFTER harvest time – everyone will be much much happier) (more…)

Pepper Cole Slaw

Aug 7th, 2011
by htwollin.
1 comment

Anyone who visits here regularly knows that Aunt Toby is a real fan of all things cabbage. One reason is that cabbage is good for you. Another is, for my money, it’s more texturally interesting than other greens, particularly the lettuces. The third thing is that cabbage, because it has more taste ‘oomph’, can handle stronger tastes in a salad combination and holds its own.

We like cole slaws at any time of the year (and it’s one way to get salad even during the winter when traditionally you can’t get other greens, although hydroponics and high tunnels are putting pay to that, even up here in Upstate New York), but I especially like them in the summer, when other veggies are available to change them up a bit. We very much like red pepper slaw, and here is a version that a) makes a lot so if you need a bunch for a ‘dish to pass’, this is your go-to that is different than pasta salad, and b) has grown up flavors in it, is not sweet so it is memorable and can hold its own with other dishes. (more…)

Grow Bag: Proof in the Pudding

Jul 31st, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

About a month ago, we discussed the fact that a) we’d gone past any growing space in the garden, b) I had huge numbers of basil plants that needed to go someplace, and c) what to do. The DH created ‘grow bags’ (which is a product which seemed to exist about 20 years ago but is not out there now) out of old chicken feed bags and really good compost. After I transplanted the little plants, things looked like the picture at the top.

Today, things look very different. The bags were a complete success, but they could have been a disaster, given the horrible hot and dry weather the Mid-Atlantic states had while we were away. Like any container planting, these needed attention, which was provided by our intrepid son, who stayed at home to work, take care of the chickens and turkeys, interface with Septic System Man and his evil minion, Electrical Pump Person, and water what needed watering.

He watered the basil-in-a-bag every couple of days during the hot spell, and saved it all. Thank goodness for him.

Now, I have to admit that the first thing I had to do was pinch back the incipient flowers at the tops of the plants when we got back, but I will be able to start harvesting very soon, and turning this into dried and frozen herbs and also pesto. Also, another advantage we had in saving this was that the bags were located in an area which gets shade from a maple tree during the hottest part of the day, which helped keep the contents of the bags cooler.

So, next year, if you buy the super-gigantic-hugey-anything larger and it’s going into a truck size of bagged grow mix or peat moss or even chicken feed, save…the….bags. Just roll them up and tuck them away so that if you end up in the same situation we did (too many seedlings and no place to put them), then you can get some compost and turn your bags into grow bags.

This works.

Busy Summer Days

Jul 3rd, 2011
by htwollin.
5 comments

Well, like everyone else in the summer, we tend to throw the household into ‘overdrive’ because so many things need to be done and can only get done when a) they are in season and b) the weather is warm and dry enough to do them. So, this week has been super busy, starting out mid-week when our eldest daughter called me when I was coming home from work to announce that a local apple grower also had sweet cherries and they were ready to pick and would I like to come along (Would I?!). In Upstate New York, the fruit schedule goes strawberries (and we are just about done with that), then sweet cherries and raspberries, then pie cherries, then early blue berries, then maincrop blues and black berries and early apples, then late blues and early peaches and plums and more apples and on it goes through the fall with apples until nearly November, when all we basically can go out and do ‘you pick’ for is Northern Spy apples which are great for baking. (more…)

Lightweight Cheesecake, Courtesy of My Dad

Jun 25th, 2011
by htwollin.
3 comments

My father was a first generation American; his father came from (depending on what period you are referring to) Austria/Russia/the Ukraine, and married a woman whose parents were basically from the same area as he was from (when you come to a new country, marrying someone who’s a ‘landsman’ is sort of a piece of security, I guess), so the selection of family dishes was pretty consistent: lots of dairy food, lots of onions, cabbage and potatoes, chicken or fish, and when the family got a little bit ahead, ‘gedempte fleisch’ (boiled meat – what is referred to now in that chic way as ‘brisket’ because the back end of the cow can never be Kosher, no matter what you do). Eating cheap was basically all my dad knew how to do — even after he became a doctor, his favorite meal was cottage cheese with pepper and onions. (more…)

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