Yum! Cupcakes from Crumbs are fantastic. Picked them up on 42nd St. yesterday after my classes at NYU. We feasted on them. Snagged the strawberry buttercream for myself - amazing! T0o bad they don’t ship outside Manhattan.

My friend and I met with a nutritionist during a recent chemo session at Memorial Sloan Kettering and had a fascinating discussion. 

During chemo, she was advised to avoid all supplements especially intensive Omega 3 and antioxident rich foods.  Additionally, she only likes calcium as a diet addition and does not permit multivitamins.  All of this is to ensure that cells are maximally vulnerable to the chemo’s destruction.  Makes sense and also validates alot of the claims about antioxidents. 

She also counseled only 7 drinks per week for the longer term as correlated with recurrence of the cancer.  Bummer!

I was so impressed by the hundreds of brave women, many with no hair, who faced their treatment that day.  MSK’s breast cancer only facility was like an upscale apartment building, comfortable and not clinical until you were actually receiving treatment. This disease is affecting so many talented and many young women in their twenties.  Until now, I felt far away from this problem but this day changed my perspective.

Amazing.  A 9 year old boy in the UK hatched a supermarket egg, and the little chick is doing fine. See this link on World Poultry. 

If you are traveling, make a note.  Australia and Europe are both experiencing historically unprecedented levels of salmonella - Aussie eggs and European chickens.  Suggests that safety precautions that we cooks and diners use in the US are well applied when abroad.

Finally, the 2007 US Farm bill will appear as it did in 1907 thanks to the agriculture lobby which is resisting cage free and other standards.  Only consumers can make a difference here!  Buy cage free and look for humane labelling on all you buy.

Celebrated Shakespeare’s 443rd birthday this week at ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) in Chef Cathy Kaufman’s class on English cooking of the Tudor era. We made two tarts (apple/orange + cheese), a rosewater gelee topped with edible silver,  dishes of duck, venison and lamb, salmon in pastry (amazingly moist), trifle cream, and three amazing salads.  The first, a grand sallat, featured greens tossed with candied oranges and lots of other good things crowned by cherries on rosemary spears and garnished by lemons, eggs and other beauties.  I don’t do it justice here.  It really was amazing.  The second, a spinach sallat was in fact, cinnamon toast with spinach and raisins.  Delicious but quite sweet and unexpectedly ginger and cinnamon laced.  The last salad, shaped as a fleur d’lis was made of finely grated parsnips (more like medieval carrots than today’s carrots) with shrimp.  Quite delish.  So much fun to make these dishes, and we all learned tons.

Dinner at Pane Vino in East Hanover was wonderful last evening. Lots of fennel on the menu making my husband’s pizza with sausage, fennel and caramelized onions an absolute delight.  His Caesar salad had an unusual but tasty sweetness about it.  My spinach ravioli was nice;  chef’s special with quite alot of ricotta in the blend but okay.  We like this restaurant especially since one can always get a table without reservations, they have a bar so we aren’t toting wine around, and their food is far more interesting than the more packaged Italian places.  More Tuscan and less southern Italian.

Headed south to North Carolina!

These eggs were great!  I made them with relish to replicate the recipes of the depression era.  Normally, relish was just not my style.  I was wrong.  Try these:

• 12-13 hard cooked eggs (1 extra avoids accidents)
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellmans)
• 2 Tbsp dijon mustard (or ballpark if you prefer)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp celery salt
• 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish

Cut eggs in half lengthwise and remove yolks to food processor.  Add mayonnaise and mustard and pulse gently until reasonably smooth.  Remove to bowl and stir in remaining seasonings.  Taste and adjust as needed.  Fill egg whites with fork and sprinkle tops with paprika.  Refrigerate no longer than overnight before serving.  Makes 24 halves if you restrain yourself from snacking and do not have any egg white casualties (which of course do result in snacks). 

I whipped up fourteen dozen deviled eggs for today’s America Eats conference at ICE.  We had a great crowd and our dinner of foods from the Depression and WWII era was terrific.  Ham, barbecued beef and salmon loaf were accompanied by potato salad, cole slaw, deviled eggs, spiced peaches and hot biscuits.  We even had the requisite hot biscuits made from scratch along with watercress sandwiches, green tomato pickles and chow chow.  Desserts were great with devil’s food cake frosted with coconut seven minute frosting and stack cakes with apple filling.  Ambrosia and bean fudge made the dinner perfect!

Most importantly, we learned so much about this incredible effort to document the food at large gatherings across the 48 states.  Finding this info will be fun and great learning.  In the meantime, stay tuned for recipes for the wonderful food we enjoyed today!

For those of you out west, watch those burgers!  Check this link for info on a hamburger recall in five western states.  A bunch of little leaguers and their fans were the first to be contaminated. 

I am glad to see that the poultry industry is figuring out that they have to do the right thing or consumers will bite back.  We have all thought the government would look out for food safety and standards but check out this article from WorldPoultry.net on the FDA’s proposal to hide Irradiated Food.   These guys have figured out that the market won’t put up with deception but of course in Europe, people spend more on their food and are more concerned about quality (per survey data not just my opinion).  Check out this article from the same edition on “How animal welfare affects shopping in Europe.”

The EU bans caged egg production in 2012 and is very far ahead of us in establishing humane standards for animal care.  Given the recent pet food crisis and lack of accountability within our own government, we need to ask more questions and be more engaged anyway!  Of course, you vote with your purse, and next election, have the opportunity to consider this issue as a voter! 

Delicious meat laden spaghetti makes this rainy day tolerable! 

Yesterday, I made a huge pot of tomato based pasta sauce or ragu.  I have been trying these recipes for a while and think this is perfect for the rainy, chilly weather we are all cocooning from today in the Northeast US.  Since you won’t want to go out in the cold, I would suggest you look in your fridge and freezer taking a meat inventory; this sauce will benefit from your combinations.  Hopefully, you can turn up some tomato products from your pantry.  I think big meatballs are wonderful, but as suggested below, don’t care to fry them too long.

Meaty Pasta Sauce (Remember that quantities are flexible - the idea is to stay in the house and avoid a grocery store excursion!)

• 2 pounds any if these in total: Italian sausages, beef round or chuck, pork loin or stew, veal stew
• Meatballs (below)
• 1 1/2 cups onions
• 1/2 cup green peppers (optional too)
• optional:  1/2 cup each chopped celery and carrots
• 2 cloves garlic (no garlic?  try the powder - better than without!)
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 35 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 16 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups water or red wine
• olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning or combination of oregano and basil
• red pepper flakes to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

If using meats, season with salt and pepper.  Cut sausages into 1 inch lengths or remove from casings.  Heat oil in heavy bottomed kettle, and brown meats in batches removing to plate when no longer pink.  Add onions and other vegetables and stir until translucent.  Stir in garlic and remaining ingredients and simmer for 2 hours.   Taste and correct seasonings at end of cooking time.  Add meatballs and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or until heated through.  Serve over cooked pasta such as linquini, spaghetti or perciatelli with freshly grated parmesan available.

Meatballs

• 1 lbs ground beef (ideally grain fed, organic with no hormones or antibiotics)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or combination of oregano and/or basil & parsley 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg (preferably cage free)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and form into meatballs (big ones or small - your choice.  Saute in nonstick skillet then bake at 350 degrees until done, about 15 minutes for smaller ones.  Cool meatballs in secure area where housemates cannot steal them before the meal (Good luck with that!).

Slow simmered sauce fills your house with delicious memories, and hungry people will begin sniffing in your kitchen hours before you want them there!   

Come and learn about regional American food during the Depression and WWII at this all day event on April 21.   Organized by the Culinary Historians of NY it will focus on the WPA project that documented eating during the Depression.  It will be delicious with a luncheon of foods from the project including Deviled Eggs made by yours truly! 

 This will be wonderfully informative and you MUST be there as a foodie!