Dinner tonight was pasta and peas in a white wine cream sauce. It was pretty tasty, but mostly an effort to do something with a bottle of wine—a white Bordeaux—that I am not fond of.

The sauce was pretty simple: Melt butter in a pan. Add some flour to make a roux. Add white wine and garlic, and then some milk. Cook until it begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

The sauce came out rather tangy. An interesting surprise, although I have to admit, I generally prefer things not tangy. Still, all in all, not bad.

And now one of my characters is making the same dish, plus prosciutto, in the Werewolf project.

Made from scratch. Next time, I think I’ll use a different variety of potato… probably standard Russetts.

I’ve been reading a lot of interesting news tidbits, and thought I’d share. Today’s edition is mostly about food.

Kraft wants to take over Cadbury.

I also stumbled accross an article saying that high protein, low carb diets may contribute to Alzheimers Disease. It’s intriguing and surprising—but also just one study in mice, so the results should be interpreted with caution.

For a new spin on urban farming, look at Detroit. While I’m not moving to detroit anytime soon, the article is a fascinating read, and some of the arial photos are astounding. [Found via the NYT Idea of the Day Blog.]

The New York Times has an article today on the gardens around Philadelphia. It turns out that there are a lot, and several of them are either free or have fairly cheap admission. Somehow, I haven’t been to any of these, which is really rather sad. Oh, and if you happen to have a SEPTA pass, you can also get a discount at some of the ones that do charge admission.

You probably know that cows are big producers of methane, which tends to trap heat much more efficiently than carbon dioxide. That makes cows rather environmentally unfriendly as far as global warming goes. Well, it turns out that changing cattle feed may help reduce bovine methane—which, it turns out, is actually released as burps. This finding comes from Stoneyfield Farm, whose yogurt is pretty tasty and good in cooking, incidentally.

This post refers to:

Dobrzynski, Judith H. Philadelphia’s Gardens of Delights. New York Times. June 5, 2009.

Kaufman, Leslie. Greening the Herds: A New Diet to Cap Gas. New York Times. June 4, 2009.

Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting by R.J. Ruppenthal

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is a good introductory work for people who want an idea of what’s possible. It certainly won’t tell you everything you need to know, but it’s a good place to start.

I particularly liked the discussions of container edibles, backyard fruit varieties, sprouting, yogurt making, and chickens. The sprouting and yogurt making are of particular interest to me since I learned to sprout mung beans from my mom, and my dad used to make yogurt at home. The book often recommends against using metal containers, but for some reason, I recall both my parents using metal containers for whatever it was they were doing, and I do my sprouting in what is quite possibly the same stainless steel bowl my mom used to use.

The book encouraged me to sprout more and to try self watering containers and other container vegetables besides my leaf lettuce. I’d recommend reading this book to get a taste of what you might be interested in trying should you want to grow/make your own food. At the very least, it’s an informative read.

View all my reviews.

Edible French Garden by Rosalind Creasy

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Like the other books in Creasy’s Edible Garden series, this is a combination cookbook and gardening book. I think of this as a good way to whet one’s appetite, but it’s not a comprehensive reference—except perhaps on how to grow blanched vegetables like Belgian endive and white asparagus. After reading her instructions, I’ve decided that blanching in the gardening sense is not something I plan on trying anytime in the near future. Reading this book did get me interested in learning more about potagers, however, which strike me as having the potential to be both remarkably decorative and appetizing.

The varieties highlighted include French ones and American varieties that are similar to French types. I found at least a few of the recipes to be somewhat interesting, though, and will probably try making some. The braised endives and cherville buttered carrots come to mind. Most of the recipes are fairly simple and suitable for novice cooks. If you’re looking for more elaborate dishes, you’re better off going with a real cookbook.

The resource list is one of the best parts, in my opinion, since finding less common French varieties can be difficult. Likewise, I’ll be looking into many of the volumes she mentions in her bibliography. I also have to say that the photography is wonderful, and it’s worth at least flipping through just for the pictures.

I’ve decided that I want to read the other books in this series, but I know that I’ll be sifting for nuggets rather than considering them regular references.

View all my reviews.

Sunday is often cooking day, which often ends in slightly burned fingers, a few cuts, and usually at least something tasty. Tonight I did some experimental cooking. The results are pictured below.

At the top left is the first experiment: radishes cooked in butter with salt and pepper. It was not bad, but radishes are not going to become my favorite veggie anytime soon.

At the bottom is cooking experiment 2: quiche aux tomates. I’ve never made a quiche with tomatoes before, and I think that either I should have sliced these thinner and laid them on top, or I should have cooked them first. I think the combination of the other ingredients would make this a good base for a quiche aux courgettes (zucchini).

The other quiche ingredients are Pillsbury recipe dough (yeah, yeah—shush!), eggs, shredded 2% mozzarella, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sautéed onions and garlic, yogurt, and basil. The basil is from a plant I got at the grocery store and then re-potted.

This is also the first time I’ve made a quiche with yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farms whole milk yogurt) instead of milk, cream, or half and half. You can’t taste the difference.

Finally, at the top right are mixed salad greens that grew in my window box.

I wanted to clarify and add a few things about previous posts.

First, about my review of Edible Heirloom Gardening, there were two additional pieces of valuable information that the book provides.

First, Creasy explains the importance of attracting good insects, including pollinators. According to Creasy, having flowers growing near your vegetables is not only ornamental, but it can help attract beneficial bugs and pollinators, especially if the flowers are appealing to bees.

Creasy also provides information about related plants and explains how these plants can cross pollinate, perhaps giving you hybrid varieties that are unappealing and making seed saving a wasted effort. She also points out that it’s important to take this into mind when planning beds and rotating crops, so that you aren’t letting pests and soil pathogens establish themselves too firmly. She also lists some good cover crops to use in between edible crop rotations.

I’d also like to clarify my stance regarding vitamins and nutritional supplements. I’m not opposed to them across the board. I think that the added B vitamins in cereals, vitamin D in milk, and iodine in salt are valuable correctives to serious nutrient deficiencies whose absence we in the US now take for granted. (The lack of iodine in salt leads to Cretinism in parts of the developing world.) I just don’t feel like taking even more supplements is useful in the absence of a specific deficiency like iron-related anemia, vitamin D deficiency (which sometimes occurs in exclusively breast fed babies, especially ones with dark skin), etc.

Eating local just got much easier or harder, depending on your point of view. Personally, I’m not too thrilled with the idea of large corporations saying they produce local food, but I do like the idea of transparency in understanding where your food is grown.

I also have become skeptical of the value of taking vitamins, although I have to confess that’s partly because I just hate taking gigantic pills. I just learned that taking vitamins may interfere with the benefits of exercise, though, so perhaps I’ll just continue to not take them.

This post refers to:

Severson, K. When ‘Local’ Makes It Big. New York Times. May 12, 2009.

Wade, N. Vitamins Found to Curb Exercise Benefits. New York Times. May 12, 2009.

I added several new links to the sidebar. I’d particularly like to mention 101cookbooks, though. I made two recipes from the site tonight, and have made a few others as well. Everything I’ve tried from there has turned out delicious. I highly recommend checking it out.