Anthony Rants

Okay, I'll admit that Anna and I are not very adventurous when it comes to trying new vegetables. In fact, this winter I think our staples were potatoes, yams, onions, potatoes, yams, and acorn squash... did I mention potatoes? Acorn squash wouldn't have even made it into our rotation had it not been for Matt and Kate prodding us into trying it when they were here for a visit. Well, Matt and Kate once again came to our rescue from veggie boredom with asparagus. I have always liked asparagus, I can remember when I was younger and visiting my Grandpa and Grandma Benjamin in the summer there was always asparagus you could grab growing wild on the side of the road. Nevertheless, I have never been able to convince Anna that asparagus is indeed good (I think she has had a run in or two with some bad asparagus... dark alleys, gunpoint, over-cooked, you get the idea). A weekend or two ago, Matt and Kate brought some asparagus over to go with our brats. All we did to it was clean it, package it in some foil with some butter, and grilled it... Mmm, it tasted like summer at Grandpa and Grandma's ;) We have since bought and consumed more asparagus, but it doesn't end there! We also became a little more adventurous, inspired by our encounter with the unknown, we tried an eggplant and an artichoke. The eggplant was in a coconut chicken dish and likely was overcooked because it was mushy, consequently, we didn't much care for it. The artichoke however was an entirely different matter. After watching my mom eat artichokes when I was a kid, I have always thought of artichokes as too much work, not enough gain. But I was recently inspired by an article I saw online and later by an older Good Eats episode to give artichokes another try. Tonight I prepared one very simply, cut the bottom off (save and cook the stem!), cut the top off and boiled it for a little over 10 minutes. Then I served it with some lemon butter. It was delicious. When all of the leaves were eaten, I put my Good Eats knowledge to use, cut off the choke, and we ate the heart... mmmm. I think we are both looking forward to many more artichokes in the near future.

So, my advice to you, if there is a vegetable you haven't tried since you were a kid, or maybe a vegetable you have never tried, give it a shot! Tastes change, maybe you just had a badly prepared dish or maybe a bad example of the veggie itself... What's next in our vegetable explorations? I'm thinking we should revisit Peas...

P.S. - Here is my most recent beer label, nothing special, but figured I'd share:

This past weekend Matt & Kate came to visit. On Friday night, we went out for dinner at a bar called Murphy's located downtown in campustown. Its a great greasy burger / Leinenkugel's on tap kind of place. We also scored some great Leine's Oktoberfest mugs and T-Shirts with our beer. On Saturday morning I took a shot at replicating my great pancake success of late, of course, under pressure I cracked and the pancakes weren't very good. They were immensely dense, almost unleavened. I have some theories of what went wrong, but the number one suspect at the moment is an unrelated Murphy. After breakfast, we left Anna to do her homework and we went to the Farmer's Market in Urbana. Lots and lots of good things there, as usual. This time we left with some roma tomatoes and bell peppers (intent on making salsa). We drove around town for a little bit, taking in all of the sights of Chambana and headed home to make salsa and get ready for the Beer tasting / Chili cooking event in Urbana. The salsa I made was alright, overall it was kind of bland, a combination of a short integration time, and somewhat lackluster ingredients I think... (probably more of Murphy poking his head in on my cooking). We had a very nice lunch at a place called Sunsinger Cafe, after Kate requested we find a place that had a pile of vegetables. I think they fit the bill, and everything we had looked and tasted fantastic. I would definitely recommend the place to others looking for a quiet lunch spot... My only complaint would be the somewhat small tables, but other than that, everything was great. After that, we went to a huge wine/beer store called Friar Tuck's and got some beer and bourbon for the weekend. Then we headed off to the festival in Urbana.

First the bad: when we got there, the chili was pretty much gone. There were two places still serving it, so we got in one of the lines. As we got to the very front, the astute Kate noticed they were just serving Hormel chili out of a can! So, we jumped into the other line and had some of their chili instead. It was alright... but overall, the chili experience was a little disappointing. The beer experience was a little more interesting, but I think it was kind of crowded. They had 30+ tables of different beers (each table had 10-12 beers on it) that you paid a ticket or two to get a small cup's worth to taste. We tasted quite a few, including some of the local home brewing club's stuff (it was alright, there were definitely better ones that we tasted, but that doesn't discourage me from starting my own home brew adventure... that is definitely another post!). After we had our fill of beer, we headed home for a night of tolerable mint juleps (dang Murphy! interesting side note: mint juleps don't scale well, just make them one at a time. I think our downfall was trying to make four simultaneously), some beers, and an absolutely awful premier of SNL.

Sunday's breakfast was very good. Sunday's breakfast was eaten out at Merry Ann's diner in Champaign. The food was excellent, the service was quick and polite (as always), and the check was very reasonable. Merry Ann's is definitely our most favorite breakfast spot in town. After breakfast, we dropped Anna off for .. you guessed it.. more homework! And then we set out on our own assignment... Let's find Kate an Erector set. We searched everywhere in Urbana, and nearly everywhere in Champaign... and unfortunately came up empty handed. In the end, we decided some Tapenade would probably be just as satisfying as building something, so we went to Meijer and got the ingredients we needed for that and dinner.

The Tapenade actually came out pretty decent. Suprising enough, Matt, who insists olives are soaked in camel piss, actually ate some of the tapenade and appeared to tolerate.. maybe even like it! While we consumed tapenade in the backyard, I fired up the smoker for some smoked chicken. I butterflied and rubbed down the chicken as I normally do, and smoked it for the rest of the afternoon while we had our libations. We paired the smoked chicken with sautéd green beans and baked acorn squash (ala Matt & Kate). I think the meal was a big hit. The chicken was moist and smoky, the squash was warm and squishy, and the green beans were firm and tasty. Perhaps the most interesting thing was that Anna and I have never really had baked squash (not since we were kids anyways) and were pleasantly suprised to find that we both really liked it.

We had a really nice visit with Matt & Kate, and hope they come back soon. It is nice to visit with friends that you have shared many good times with. Plus Matt & I always seem to have something to jabber about (computers, photography, etc.!)

Well, that's all for now. It seems like I've now promised entries about my Japanese knives (which Matt saw and even got to cut with, so he may have to jump in and comment on them) and my growing plans for home brewing my own ales (and eventually lagers)... those will have to come later.

The day before yesterday I made a batch of Beef & Barley soup. It was something relatively new to our house and I really wouldn't have thought of making it without hearing about it from my parents (whenever they have left over roast or other beef they always mention the possibility of soup). A few weeks ago we purchased a large slab of ribeye from which I cut four or five 1-inch steaks, a couple 3/4 inch steaks, and then there was the left over scraps of meat. There was probably two or three pounds total of pretty high quality scraps, but not enough for anything but stew. So, along with the steaks, it all went into the freezer, waiting for the first cold spell.

Well, this week the weather certainly had its moments so I thought some soup might be nice. So late one evening, I trimmed the meat (my now, somewhat new Japanese knives are another post in and of themselves!) of the large fatty portions. After I trimmed and chopped the meat, I put it in a frying pan with a small amount of oil and sautéd it. While it was cooking, I salted it pretty liberally with some sea salt (nice cause it dissolves) and some pepper. After the meat was somewhat browned, I turned the heat down and got to work on some basic aromatics. In this case, a small white onion and about half of a leek. Then I took out the slow cooker and added one can of beef broth, one can of chopped tomatoes, one small can of tomato paste, the previously browned meat chunks, the onion, and the leek. Then I very finely chopped up some curly parsley and added that to the pot. Finally I covered the pot, turned it on 'low' and went to bed.

The next day I came home from work for lunch, really only to finish adding ingredients to my soup. I added four sliced potatoes, a few stalks of celery, some more onion and some more leek. Then I went back to work. When I came back around 6, I added a bit more liquid in anticipation of adding the barley. Barley is a grain, kind of like Oatmeal, and it soaks up alot of liquid. After I added a bit more broth to my soup, I added two servings worth of barley and cooked the soup for 15 more minutes. Then we finally ate it... mmm, it was a big hit with Anna. The vegetables all had perfect texture, the barley was just right and the flavor was a nice tomato-esque, vegetable flavor. We both had our fill and then froze two more meals worth, I look forward to pulling that out when it gets colder.