The Soda-nator

What can you do with a five-gallon corny keg and a 20-pound CO2 tank?

a) make a fierce home brew
b) blow something up
c) carbonate your own seltzer water
d) test the theory of limnic eruptions? (Josh gets the geek credit on the reference)

Answer: c) carbonate your own seltzer water!

Here's how it works:
1) Fill the keg with cold, filtered water (put it in the fridge if need be)
2) Once the water is frigidly cold, attach the CO2 and set to 50psi. Shake the keg while the CO2 is making its way into the water (for about two minutes). This allows the CO2 and H2O to make a bond and thus you get bubbly water.
3) Put the whole operation into the fridge (CO2 still attached) and let it sit for a couple of hours as the CO2 continues to seep into the water.
4) Remove the CO2 tank and enjoy five gallons of sparkling water! You may need to repressurize the tank in order to keep the sparkling water flowing at a good rate.

Here's the best part: IKEA sells Lingonberry and Elderflower concentrates. Tonight I added some to my sparkling water and, man, it was so delicious! Add about 1 ounce per cup of sparkling water.

Any excuse to eat mustard

I am of the opinion that some foodstuffs are merely an excuse to eat condiments. Most of them I could easily spoon straight into my mouth. You know I actually knew a woman who said she didn't eat condiments. What?!? That's like saying you don't like "smells." 

Josh and I went to Casey's here in Ann Arbor and to my elation there was a selection of seven mustards and four hot sauces. OMFG we were in heaven. So we did a taste test.

Zatarin's Creole Mustard - pretty mild but with whole seeds. Note that vinegar was listed as the first ingredient. Good for those who might want to try out a whole-seed mustard but can't necessarily handle a kick.

Delouis Fils moutarde a l'Ancienne - imported from France. Almost straight-up mustard (first ingredient is mustard seeds, unlike our Creole friend with vinegar topping the list). Quite a kick with a smokey, old-timey taste to it.

Honeycup Uniquely Sharp - this was by far the biggest disappointment for me. While it definitely had a zing (from finely ground mustard seeds, or mustard flour), it was a bit too grainy in texture and VERY sweet. Most likely because it listed brown sugar, vinegar, and oil before mustard flour. It was yummy, but more in a honey mustard kind of way.

Speaking of sweet mustards, Mucky Duck Sweet and Tangy fell into the same category, but I forgave it because it claims to be "pub style" and has a British flag on it (I never expect much from British cuisine).

These were the new ones we tried. The other three were: Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard (I still think baguettes are long bready excuses for slathering dijon onto), Gulden's, and French's (best taken on a soft pretzel with huge grains of salt).

***Update:
The day after our mustard taste test, we met an amazing woman selling mustard in Costco (and offering 5 kinds of mustards on pretzels). We got one of each! Just wanted to give a shout-out to Mustard Girl, operating out of Wisconsin and currently hoping Costco will carry her brand. Her story about seeking a sign from God on whether or not to start her business was especially touching and hilarious. Good luck, MG!

Mustard Girl found an easy customer in me :)

Beer-battered fish tacos

Beer-battered fish tacos. Yum!

Any trip to California has a prerequisite fish taco run. This trip was no different! I stayed in Monterey with my foodie friends Alex and Tiffany, and we made a night of it making fish tacos and watching Breaking Bad (seriously, they always get me into a new show whenever I visit).

The perfect fish taco looks something like this:
Two soft corn tortillas, you can tell they are homemade
Fish tenderly cooked (not overcooked, mind you) in some deliciously flavorful marinade
Chopped cilantro
Pico de Gallo

Our version took a slightly different, heavier form. We started by making mayonnaise, rather than using the store-bought version. I'm not sure Alex's exact recipe, but you can find some good ones online. I like to add a bit of lemon juice to mayonnaise to give it some extra zing. He had previously made a chipotle paste by boiling and reducing hot peppers. Alex added that to the mayonnaise, creating a chipotle mayo. For the recipe we based our version on, check out the Barefoot Contessa's site.

We took the codfish (we got it super fresh from the fish market in New Monterey) and coated it in beer batter (see the recipe). I was on salsa duty. Here's what I made for a yummy red cabbage version:


1/2 red cabbage, sliced thinly
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
3-4 tomatoes, diced
3-4 jalepeno peppers, sliced (seeds out unless you want a bite of hotness!)
2-3 garlic cloves, smooshed
1 lemon or lime juice, squeezed fresh
1/4 cup, or as much as you want, cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper

Drinks on a plane

Things people do on a flight:

• Knit
• Share upcoming vacation plans with complete strangers 
• Queue for the bathroom 
• Wriggle annoyingly in the seat in front of you
• Drink

The middle-aged mother, accompanied by her husband and bride-to-be daughter, had a vodka cranberry. The angry aging hipster in ochre skinny jeans had a mini-bottle of white wine by Hacienda. The DC wonk behind me having his ear yapped off by a Midwest housewife ordered a red wine (which I assumed was also in a cute little bottle). 

Why is it okay to drink "alone" only when on a flight? I mean I always feel kind of strange being the only one ordering a drink with dinner (though I have done it on several occasions). And drinking alone at home just makes me feel like a total loser (and hasn't always stopped me either).
I state: there is rarely any excuse to drink bad wine, but here go my best guesses at why people feel no shame for being on the bottle while in air. Is it to kill the nervousness of flying (as I suspect the angry hipster suffered from, what with all the twitching and bitching)? Is it to deal with your yippy seatmate, as in the case of the policy wonk? Is it because you rarely have an excuse, and, what the hell, might as well throw one down the hatch? This was my best prediction for the family woman. I am all for a stiff drink to calm the nerves, but I just didn't feel like being off my game when the plane landed. Plus I had to drive. Cheers!

Eggs Bene-biscuits

My last post about brunch spurred a renewed dedication to brunch... so I made a variation on my all-time favorite eggs benedict. I used a recipe for biscuits instead of English muffins. I poached some eggs and covered them in Hollandaise sauce, and served them with spinach or smoked salmon.

Biscuits (10 biscuits):

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup butter, cut up into little pieces (1/2 stick)
1 cup cold milk
1 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 salt

Mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder
Use a pastry cutter to cut in the butter
Mix in the milk until it is in little crumbs
Knead the dough together
Roll dough out or flatten it to 1/2 inch thick
Cut out or flatten to 2 1/2 inch biscuits (around 10)

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown


Hollandaise sauce 

Break 3 egg yolks into a bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons cold water, and whisk together.
Put the mixture over steaming water (in a double boiler, or put some aluminum foil over an inch of boiling water), and whisk for around 5 minutes, until it's pretty thick.
Add in chunks of butter (around 1/2 to 3/4 stick) and melt in.
Take the mixture off and add in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh).

Add sauteed spinach or smoked salmon.

YUM.

The soup from Andalucía

It is summer, and I've had no less than four samplings of gazpacho from different places. The cool cucumber and tomato soup screams 'seasonal' and is best enjoyed on a summer evening with some crostini or bread. There are different characteristics to consider when embarking or making your own gazpacho. I recommend you do some research to determine which kind of gazpacho you like best (read: taste test!).

How smooth or grainy you like it?
How much tomato do you want? Mostly tomato, or a good portion of cucumbers and other ingredients? (bell peppers, herbs such as parsley, cilantro)
Some recipes call for bread in the soup
How much vinegar?

Last night I used our Magic Bullet to make this Spanish soup (which I think is the most useless kitchen tool next to the ice tea maker, I mean get a food processor!) So, after I pureed my delicious heirloom tomatoes bought from the Amish stand at the Kerrytown Farmer's Market and local cucumbers in two separate bullets, I poured them into the serving bowl. Tomatoes went in first, followed by the cukes, which gave me a cute surprise! Awwww... a little green heart!

Here's the basic recipe I used for the soup:

•  4-5 heirloom tomatoes (never, NEVER put them in the fridge, it will ruin them) 
• 2 medium-sized cucumbers 
• about 4 TBSP olive oil 
• about 1 1/2 - 2 tsp salt (to taste) 
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I actually used rice vinegar, which also works) 

Garnish: diced red pepper mango
Serve with toast or crostini
(Josh and I picked up some cheddar and chili bread from Zingerman's and ate it with the soup... yum!)

Brunch: Breakfast for boozers!

This pretty much sums up how I feel about breakfast:

 Lucille: Get me a vodka rocks.
 Michael: Mom, it's breakfast.
 Lucille: And a piece of toast.

Brunch, on the other hand, is all kinds of wonderful. If I could choose one thing to eat for the rest of my life, it would be brunch. Here are some of the rules of engagement (or lack thereof) for brunch:

• Most commonly enjoyed on a Saturday or Sunday morning (aka "The Breakfast for Lazy People"). You can have brunch between 10 and 3 on weekends and holidays. Only exception for weekday brunch is if there are four or more people present, and nobody has to work that day. That would just spoil all the fun.
• Drinks can be anywhere from mundane to gourmet to spiked (the only acceptable way to have booze before noon). In order of fun, here are your typical brunch drinks: mimosas, bloody marys, Irish coffee, regular coffee, orange juice (or other citrus juice), iced tea, water. 
• Eggs must somehow be involved -- eggs benedict being the best choice, followed by omelets (smoked salmon/cream cheese/spinach = yum), fried eggs (over easy, or over medium for wusses), and lastly, only if you order it by mistake, scrambled eggs.
• You CANNOT have brunch alone; it's a team endeavor. A minimum of two people are required, with no maximum. Josh thinks you can have brunch alone if you are staying at a hotel, but I disagree.

Most memorable brunches:

1. Scottish Hotel in Tiberias, Israel: The typical Israeli breakfast comes with a heaping portion of Israeli salad, 2 fried eggs, fresh bread and yogurt or labneh. This brunch spread included a wide selection of breads, from raisin walnut to sourdough, milky delights including fresh yogurt, creamy cottage cheese and labneh (the dairy products in Israel are the best I've ever had) and fresh, flavorful tomatoes.  
2. Bongo Room in Chicago: You can essentially eat a whole red velvet cake under the auspices of brunch and pancakes. Their pancakes come stacked 4 or 5 high and have icing on top! 
3. Perry's in Washington, DC: OK, the food here was good, but even better was the fact that a fabulous drag queen was grinding on my friend the whole time! 
4. Easter brunch at my dad's house: French toast with melted Brie and fruit salad.
5. Scandanavian Scramble: this was at Domku in Petworth (DC). It involved potatoes, salmon, eggs, dill, and perhaps some other spices. Winning! I also had a delish brunch in Tel Aviv of a similar ilk: double-strained yogurt, boiled potatoes, grilled salmon and dill. 

Provence Food and Wine: a culinary adventure

Throw your diet out the window if you plan to travel to southern France. Life would not be enjoyed properly here without trying some regional favorites--over and over again.

We started our food-venture in Aix-en-Provence, where our first meal was steak tartare (me) and beef carpaccio (Josh). The meal certainly didn't help fight jetlag, but we went to bed early at least enjoying one delight France does decidedly better than the US (not overcooking meat!).

The next memorable meal was at a local brasserie in Place Verdun. Here, we ate lamb (also delightfully rare), served with a sampling of fresh, sauteed produce from that morning's market (carrots, onions, eggplant).

Chez Nino, a small Italian restaurant recommended to us by a friend living in Aix, proved to be quite an experience. Josh switched to Italian when speaking with the owner, which triggered the owner's elderly Sicilian father to wander over and speak to the whole party in Italian, who politely smiled and nodded as Josh frantically tried to translate some story about the Black Madonna. (We later googled it to figure out what the hell the lovely old man was talking about!) I had the softest gnocchi I've ever had, smothered in a pesto gratin. The little potato puree nuggets melted in my mouth.


By far, the best meal of the trip and candidate for "Best Meal of All Time" was at Maisouneta in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the town famous for the prestigious wine of the same name. This wine had been somewhat of a family inside joke for some time because every time Josh pronounced it, he did so with the most serious attempt at a French accent. This trip gave him great practice hearing the locals pronounce the name, and the family just couldn't wait to go to the town of repute. Maisouneta is a small restaurant off a side street in the center of town. When we arrived, we preferred to wait a few minutes until two small parties cleared out of the outdoor seating. One of these couples, upon leaving, made sure to tell how incredible the food was--already a good sign. The true winner of the meal, and a testament to local dishes and flavors, was the duck in honey, lavender, and other Provencal herbs. The lavender flavor was pronounced but surprisingly not overbearing (I wonder if locals ever get sick of the smell of lavender, considering it is everywhere!).

I'll end on two notes: worst meal of the trip and surprising (and unsurprising) favorites. By far, with epic proportions, the worst meal of the trip was at a restaurant with pictures of the food on the menu (never a good sign) in the middle of the most touristy strip of Avignon (also not a good sign). The "Caesar Salad" was described in the menu as having tomatoes and mozzarella, and came with the worst tomatoes France has to offer; it would take hard work to find tomatoes this bad! The cheese looked more like provolone, and the whole thing was inedible. The fish ordered smelled seriously funky, and was dry as a dessert. We motioned the waiter over to try to describe the state of the food in our limited French, and finally said "C'est terrible!" Not only did he try to argue the quality of the fish, but he charged us for it, along with the dessert that never came!


Not to leave it on a bad note, I will end by saying my surprising find, and my unsurprising (but delish) find. Pizza, surely influenced by the region's proximity to Italy, is amazingly good in Provence. Try the quatre frommages (four cheese) pizza from basically any self respecting pizza joint. Unsurprisingly, macarons are friggin' amazing. They are so good, I could eat them every day for the rest of my life. I want to die and go to macaron heaven (was practically there in France). They are made with almond flour and a little goop of creamy goodness inside. They come in almost any flavor, from noisette (hazelnut) to all kinds of fruit. They even come as decadent as truffle with fois gras inside. Don't try it, it's gross.

The last time I'll ever move

Friends and family, I know you've heard this before: "I'm moving!"

But seriously, this time it's for real. I guess all of the my previous moves have been for good reasons (graduate school, moving to Israel -- that was fun, moving back to Israel -- not so much fun), but this is the best of any reason: to join my love in Ann Arbor.

It's with a kind of nervous excitement that embark on this new adventure. In my immediate past, I leave behind a wonderful job working with some of the cutest and smartest kiddos on Planet Earth, my fabulous friends, who I can muster up in a few days' notice to go hiking with me, a unique (if frequently sketchy) 'hood, where I set up a group house with friends (shout out to J and H), and the very important-feeling city--our nation's capital. In my immediate future, I can look forward to lots of nature, a river that I plan to float down with some frequency, the love of my life (and the man I most admire and respect in this world among non-blood relatives) in a lovely, wooded home, and a gigantic question mark of a future. What fun!

Maybe I'll continue my education career (though Michigan's economy is not the most promising for educators), or maybe I will go back to my writing roots and sprinkle the world with my intelligent insights.

As my dear friend may be able to attest, one of the hidden benefits (or perhaps side effects) of having too much damn time on your hands is the leisure of writing. I have decided to polish up a few pieces (Eggs with Legs - a story for children and eggs, All the Odds - my novel), and I am rededicating myself to the J-life! (Why J? Jewish, journalist, dunno, just really like the letter J. That's why I'm marrying one!)