Ground Hogs and Super Bowls

The Super Bowl is upon us, as is Ground Hog Day. Appropriately enough, the recipe in this week's Called to the Table column highlights ground pork (and beef) in a meatball fit for a Super Day slider.  

The rest of my weekend will be spent hanging out at the Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference. Thanks to the Minnesota Food Association and dozens of awesome sponsors, hundreds of new farmers attend the conference free and learn about everything from hoop houses and organics, co-ops and marketing.

Hashing It Out

Hash is a perfect food for any time of the day. Replace potatoes with sweet potatoes, add some chipotle and beef, and you've got a meal fit for an (urban) cowboy. Serve in tortillas with cheese, salsa, cilantro and avocado. Add an egg for drama.
 
Sweet Potato Chipotle Beef Hash
2 pounds chuck, cubed
1/3 cup dry rub (chipotle chili powder, cumin, garlic, Mexican oregano, brown sugar)
Vegetable oil for frying
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
3 chili peppers, diced
1 clove garlic, minced

Toss meat in dry rub; in batches sear cubes on all sides in vegetable oil over medium high heat. Place cubes in roasting pan, add about 1/3 cup water, cover tightly and cook in preheated 300 degree oven until tender, about 2 1/2 hours. Shred and set aside.

Saute vegetables over medium high heat in vegetable oil until tender and beginning to caramelize; add garlic during final few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Toss beef into mixture.

Cat Blogging: Cat Show

While dog shows are a full contact sport where sniffing and mingling are part of the event, at cat shows the competitors are continually separated and shared surfaces are disinfected. Dogs roam freely albeit tethered to their handlers, while cats sit behind plastic or nylon like feline versions of John Trovolta's Boy in the Plastic Bubble. At dog shows breeds, then groups, then best-ofs trot together in a ring before approving audiences. At cat shows there is a stage placed in front of crates where each feline waits to be lifted from its cage by a judge who explains to admirers what traits the puss possesses that are indicative of its breed. Dogs shows are like soccer, and cat shows are ballet or perhaps modern dance mixed with fashion.

The Saintly City Cat Show in St. Paul was the first cat show T and I have ever attended. We wandered through the vendors (and purchased too many cat toys for Olive and Oskar), talked to owners (I was delighted when the Birman breeder who spoke with me at length won a breed championship with her male, and was pleased with my ability to pick a winner when I learned that the Persian kitty I fell in love with was sold to an Arab prince), and watched the judging. At one stage a judge exhibited his own animals, and he was the most entertaining part of the day, which is a difficult feat considering our surroundings. An article about him appeared in Friday's local Pioneer Press.

 

Chilly Chili Weekends

During this weekend that just passed nearly every female member of my family headed to her own kitchen and cooked up some version of chili. My daughter made vegetarian, my mom made mild, and my sisters toyed with heat. I spent a few hours on Saturday experimenting with the best flavors of traditional Cincinnati chili for a Called to the Table column. Maybe we have some sort of cooking ESP and channeled one another, or maybe it was just a perfect weekend for chili.

One of the first scholarly articles most foodways students (should) read is Timothy Lloyd's The Cincinnati Chili Culinary Complex. He explores the history of Cincinnati chili and explains how it came to define the region and provide identity to the city and her neighborhoods. Lloyd got me excited about studying not just food, but how food and region and rituals and identity and culture and all that good stuff interact.

Maple Syrup Effect

T teaches AP Econ to about 60 high school seniors. During a discussion on the Substitution Effect (phenomenon when prices of particular products and services rise - or when incomes decrease - consumers will replace pricier products and services with cheaper alternatives) T used maple syrup as an example. This goofy winter had maple trees across our region producing sap much too early and spawned predictions that the price of maple is going sky high this spring.

Of T's students, about sixty percent hadn't ever tasted maple syrup. Never missing an opportunity for the experiential moment, T immediately set up a syrup tasting for the kids. He pitted the local brand we typically purchase against Mrs. Butterworth and had students taste spoonfuls of each syrup. The results: both sets of kids (those familiar with maple syrup and those who never tasted it before) overwhelmingly chose pure maple as their favorite, although there were a few outliers, or "individuals" as T refers to them, who maintained that the fake stuff is superior.

"That other syrup is so sticky. The kids could hardly lick it off the spoon," T told me, describing Mrs. B. "These long strings of syrup stuck to the bottle, the spoon, everything." Mmm, appetizing! In honor of T's taste test we had a lovely salad last night topped with Cara Cara Maple vinaigrette. The salad and vinaigrette were inspired by Cossetta's Spinach Cranberry salad (spinach, candied pecans, dried cranberries, and cubed Parrano tossed with a sweet maple vinaigrette) although I went in a more savory direction and combined spinach, red onion, figs, avocado, Trugole cheese.

Cara Cara Maple Vinaigrette
Zest and juice from Cara Cara orange (about 1/4 cup juice)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small shallot, diced (about 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Shake all ingredients together until maple and mustard are well blended. If dressing is too thick, add a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or water until it becomes a good consistency.

Celebration Cookies

Waking up the morning after my birthday and two days after T's birthday always makes me a little sad. How can it be over with so quickly? How can a day of donuts and Cheetos and birthday cards and well wishes be done? Just like that. I long to do it all over again. Which is probably why I like to celebrate throughout the entire month of January rather than limiting myself to just a 24 hour blowout. I remind myself that the best is yet to come. Later this week I'll join friend at my favorite restaurant, and there is still a full week of January revelry! What a perfect time to bake cookies.

At Christmas my mom presented a beautiful cookie tray that included cookies made by her friend. The recipe was so simple, too simple... I tweaked it just a little bit and cut the original by 3/4 (because really, how many cookies does one house need?) and came up with Four Cs. T liked them well enough to eat the entire batch while it was cooling.

Four Cs Cookies
Makes 20

1 stick butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/3 cup craisins
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup coconut flakes
1/3 cup cashews

Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, and salt; stir until dough forms. Add remaining ingredients.

Roll tablespoon-sized balls and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated 325 degree oven 10 to 14 minutes, or until edges are just crisping and turning golden brown. Carefully remove from sheet and cool on flat surface. Cookies will be quite fragile until cool.

Birthday Bars

Happy Birthday to my dear T! Lucky for me he is as fun to please as he is easy. Favorite girl: me! Favorite breakfast: pancakes. Favorite cake: any kind of lemon bars. I've many times admitted that I am a disaster when it comes to baking bars. However... although Rustic Lemon Bars are not be the prettiest girls at the dance, they are popular (they have great personalities).

Rustic Lemon Bars
Makes 20 bars

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup melted butter

Combine ingredients well and spread in buttered 8x8 pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven about 20 minutes or until crust is firm and beginning to brown.

Lemon Curd Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs plus 1 yolk
zest from 2 lemons
Juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk together ingredients. Pour over hot crust and return pan to oven. Bake additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until knife comes out clean.

Cool. Cut into squares. Garnish with powdered sugar and lemon zest.