Food

Lowndes County Democratic Party Annual BBQ
Start Time:
Jul 7 2008 - 6:00pm

Knights of Columbus Hall
306 N. St. Augustine Road
Valdosta, GA, 31601
United States

Lowndes County Democratic Party Annual Barbecue draws hundreds of Democratic activists from across south Georgia. Lowndes County Democratic Party headquarters is located at 1008 Slater Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. For more information, call LCDP HQ at 229-241-1694 or email lowndesdems_at_bellsouth.net or visit our website at http://campaignwindow.com/lowndescountydemocraticcommittee

Mayor Tom Barrett's Restaurant Roundtable
5/8/2008 at 5:00 PM

Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
325 W Walnut Milwaukee, WI 53212

Featuring more than 20 restaurants

Tickets will be sold at the door. You can RSVP here.

Made a discovery tonight, and it gets the approval of my 13 year old step-daughter: kim chi on a hot dog.

I am not a big hot dog fan, though every now and then they're okay. And my step-daughter and my 3 year old son like them, so every now and then we have chicken or turkey hot dogs. Hell, they're easy and the kids love them.

So I am always trying to find stuff to put on them to make them better, and of course that's half the fun of hot dogs. Good mustard of different kinds. Sauerkraut. Relish made from good sour pickles. Cheese (for real hard arteries). Onion. Etc. It's all good, though under it all it is still a hot dog.

This week I got some kim chi. I like kim chi, the hotter the better. You can't go wrong with pickled vegetables made red with hot chilies. But he kind I got was a milder version. Doesn't have as much kick, but you can better taste the vegetables. My intention was (and is) to make an Asian noodle dish with kim chi and udon. We'll see how that works. My step-daughter is enamoured with all things Japan, so it appeals to her and is an interesting experiment from my point of view.

Well, as I was making my hot dogs, and getting out the usual paraphernalia (mustard, sour relish, saeurkraut...) it dawned on me that the kim chi would be perfect. Never come across the idea before, but man it worked. Might not be as good if it was the real spicy Korean kind, but the slighly spicy, slightly sour combination worked perfectly with the quasimeat that is a hot dog.

I sense there is much campaign journalist fatigue and boredom. First we had Howard Kurtz bemoaning the fact Obama hasn't shown him much love.

Now we have CNN's Peter Hamby writing about Huckabee's trash talking Romney over friend chicken. Not policy, but FRIED CHICKEN.

"I can tell you this," he said, "any Southerner knows if you don’t eat the skin don’t bother calling it fried chicken."

"So that's good. I'm glad that he did that, because that means I'm going to win Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma … all these great Southern states that understand the best part of fried chicken is the skin, if you're going to eat it that way."

This from a guy that supposedly has his stomach stapled due to his past obesity?

Dude.

This is a recipe I have had for more than a decade, though only made it twice...and most recently with considerable modification. It is supposed to be similar to an ancient Roman ham recipe. When I cooked this recently for my department's happy hour (accompanied by egg nog) people loved it. Two people grabbed the remains and divided it up to take it home...and a third person just missed claiming it. The flavor mix of brown sugar, brandy and port in my modified version went perfectly with the ham.

Ingredients:

Precooked ham (I got a spiral cut ham for convenience and for better penetration of the flavors)

1/4 cup (approx) brown sugar

ground cloves

dried figs (or canned figs)

1/4 C. or more of fig juice (I used a combination of pomegranite juice, brandy and port)

Instructions:

1. since I am a big fan of marinating, I soaked the spiral cut ham in whatever liquid I use for cooking. Fig juice is used in the original. I decided to use pomegranite juice...then decided since I had some booze left over from an eggnog recipe, I added brandy and port to the mix. This combination was EXCELLENT with the ham. I soaked the ham for a few hours, but would prefer to do so overnight, turning the ham from time to time.

This eggnog recipe is supposedly from George Washington's day according to many websites (e.g. here). I include some modifications. This was a big hit at my department's recent happy hour even though we weren't able to age it more than 3 days.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup brandy (I used somewhat more)
* 1/2 cup sherry (I used port instead and might try madeira if I tried it again)
* 1/2 cup dark rum
* 1/2 cup whiskey (I used bourbon)
* 12 eggs, separated
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 quart whole milk
* 1 quart heavy cream
* 1 quart vanilla bean ice cream
* 1 tablespoon freshly grated ground nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Mix the brandy, sherry, rum, and whiskey into a bowl. (I used port instead of sherry and I added a extra brandy...Madiera is something else I might try instead of sherry)

2. Separate egg yolks and whites into separate mixing bowls.

3. Beat egg yolks until light and frothy. Gradually beat in the sugar then the booze mixture. Next beat in the milk and heavy cream until thoroughly blended.

4. Using a clean beater, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the yoly/sugar/booze/milk mixture.

5. Ideally you should age in the Refrigerater for 5 to 10 days. When I made it we only had 3 days to age it. Shake the container occasionally to keep the alcohol from separating.

Joy and I are taking a surprise trip to California to visit my family. My mother is getting on in years and has been ailing a bit. She's recovering, but I figure I should make sure she and my son have plenty of chances to interact. My son already has a special place for "Grandma" and I want to encourage that. Hopefully they have years to establish a bond, but they won't if we don't visit when we have the chance.

So, California is on my mind and, inevitably with me, where we plan on eating is on my mind. Which may lead to a few restaurant reviews...

Tito's Tacos
11222 Washington Pl
Culver City, CA 90230
(cross st. Sepulveda)

Cheap, delicious Mexican fast food.

When I first took my wife to meet my family in Los Angeles (her first time in California ever...for the record, everyone I have shown around Los Angeles likes it...) I explained there were certain things I just HAD to do, certain places I HAD to eat. Among them was an early trip to Tito's Tacos. This is a place that is on the way from the airport if you are heading into the bulk of the city, so it was high the list for first stop off the plane. She seemed a bit unclear why a stop at a random taco stand was a MUST for visting Los Angeles, but she took my word for it.

The second time she visited Los Angeles, I hadn't even mentioned what we should or shouldn't do. Our goal was organizing our wedding and all other considerations were pushed aside in my mind. As we got to our rental car and started the engines, Joy turned to me and said, "Tito's Tacos, right?" It had become HER first MUST do in Los Angeles. All it had taken was that first introduction and she was as hooked as I had been from years of addiction.

Meant to do my final thoughts on Thankgsgiving either Thursday or Friday. But between cooking, eating, a computer outage, a couple of temper tantrums by my 3 year old and some much needed cleaning of our apartment, only getting to it now.

Thanksgiving is one of America's foundation myths. Every culture has them. And, as with most foundation myths, there is much hidden behind the myth. When Augustus hired Virgil to write the Aeniad, truth had almost nothing to do with the bargain. It was all about giving Rome a myth to be proud of so they could comfortably forget the military coup Augustus had carried out. In our case the happy shiny myth of thanksgiving hides our history of genocide against Native Americans and our establishment as a slave nation. Most Americans prefer the shiny happy myth to the reality. But I believe that if we don't face the skeletons in our closet we can never overcome the consequences of those skeletons. You don't grow and improve through denial.

This is a theme I have explored every year on both Thanksgiving and Columbus Day. I always find myself torn among the holiday as a foundation myth like any other foundation myth; the genocide behind the myth; and the very real meaning that America has to the grandson of an immigrant who escaped pogroms in the old country.

I will not dwell so much on it this year. Others have written about the myth of Thanksgiving on Culture Kitchen this year and if people want to read my thoughts they can click here and read on.

Last entry I described my technique of treating poultry with concentrated tea to give it extra moistness and flavor. I soaked the capon we are having for Thanksgiving for over 24 hours in the tea, turning it over mid way through to expose both sides.

Today I transferred the capon to a more traditional pre-cooking treatment: a salty broth. In its basic form, brining means to soak a bird in salt water for at least 6 hours (I usually do it 12-24 hours). The brine adds flavor and moisture to the meat. I first heard about this method from Alton Brown on the Food Network. I was impressed with the results. As a white meat fan, dryness is an issue. Brining definitely helps.

But I am never content to follow a recipe. So I immediately decided to use a salty broth instead of brine. So I usually take salt, pepper, poultry seasoning (one of my grandmother's favorite seasonings) and some sort of dry soup mix. Then I pour hot water over it to make the broth. Why a mix? Laziness. Making my own broth is more work than I feel like doing and even mediocre dry mixes can add a good underflavor to the meat. I soak the bird in this broth overnight or longer turning the bird midway through.

For brothing (my version of brining) for our Thanksgiving capon, I chose an Osem mushroom soup dry mix. This is a good base for many soups, stews and stuff I make. It isn't anything spectacular, but for an easy way to add some good, earthy, mushroom flavor, it's good. I wouldn't use it as a dominant flavor, but as an underlying flavor it works well. So right now the bird is in the broth.

Last entry I discussed our choice of bird this year: a capon.

Today I immersed the bird into concentrated cherry tea.

Why cherry tea? Because it made sense last year, it worked and people loved it. Sometimes my cooking instincts jump out and give me an idea that is off the wall. About 90% of the time they work very well...we won't talk about the other 10%. Those suck.

For example, the first time I sat around watching Iron Chef (a Food Network show we obsessed over for about a year then got tired of), the idea popped into my mind to bread a meatloaf. Meatloaf often sucks. But there are ways to make a meatloaf wonderful. One is to marinate the hell out of it in something very flavorful. I have done that successfully. Another, which I picked up from a former landlady in Los Angeles, is to wrap the meatloaf in bacon. The bacon fat saturates the meatloaf and you KNOW (assuming you aren't Kosher or Hallal) that tastes good. I came up with the idea of breading the meatloaf as a way of making it moist and delicious. It works. And it was an inspiration that came out of nowhere while watching some really good chefs get creative.

Last year, as I was contemplating a horde descending on our house for Thanksgiving and feeling the need to do something notable, my taste instincts went into overdrive. I have a knack of being able to imagine how flavors will go together. And something about a particular tea blend we had seemed to go well with turkey...or other poultry. I extrapolated on the idea of brining a bird (soaking it in a flavorful, salty solution for a day to add flavor and moisture) and came up with the idea of "teaing" a bird.