Flavors 518

Yesterday I asked my intern if we are yuppies, and he looked up from his laptop and the poetry book he was working with, glanced out at the hay bales in the field and said "No, we're yrppies, young rural upwardly mobile professionals." To which I stuck my hand in the air and said, "What? I live in the capital of New York state!"  For the last six months now I've been working out in Hoosick Falls, NY. At its peak in 1900 it had around 7,000 people, and according to the 2010 census its now at half that and continues to decline. Its quite the experience being out there - not like Williamstown, MA which felt like a slice of the Upper West Side of Manhattan magically transplanted to bucolic New England - but rather authentically rural. People raise chickens not because its trendy, and they want to make some sort of fetish out of it, but because thats what their families have always done. Similar to my mother-in-law who grew up with homemade bread not because so...

Yesterday we checked out the Ugly Rooster Cafe in Mechanicville. We tried it once last year too . It is a cute, old school looking place that feels very much like it fits in with the town. People all seem to know each other, a whole big group was huddled around a tv tuned to the local news at the counter, and the employees are all super friendly. They have an extensive menu with a lot of inventive things I'd still like to try, including: the omelette with asparagus, crab, and hollandaise sauce, the BLT with fried green tomatoes, and the southern style breakfast sandwich which sounds over the top (fried egg, cheddar, fried green tomato, on a buttermilk biscuit is what the menu online says but I'm pretty sure the menu there had added bacon and gravy inside the sandwich). Its hard to decide what to eat when so many things sound so good. Scott had the Huevos Rancheros, which were very delicious: I had a chicken sandwich (The Mechanicville Special) with bacon, ranch, and avo...

A couple weeks ago I was at The Berry Patch in Stephentown looking at produce. They had 18 different kinds of delicious looking squash, and the nice farmer lady, Dale, told me I should try them all and blog about my comparisons between all the different types. Well, that was a great idea, but I have to say I'm not sure I can eat enough to keep up. I bought this beautiful Blue Hubbard from them at the farm store and then went on to buy an acorn and a butternut from them at the Troy Farmer's Market a couple weeks later, and just this first one alone created 10 portions of soup. Isn't it a beautiful squash? I had never really heard of a Blue Hubbard before, and it is so delicious. It has a really unique flavor - not too sweet like some other ones. It took me like an entire Saturday night to carve it on up. I was talking on the phone to my mom for a very long time and at the end she said "That must be a whole lot of squash!" It was. I measured it - 6 po...

I love the Gardner Museum Cafe Cookbook , because who doesn't want to cook luncheon pies and party like its 1890? I also love the photos in the book from the archives at the museum taken during many of Gardner's fancy dinner parties. Everyone looks so relaxed in their tight-fitting Victorian outfits. I made the ratatouille pie recipe last night from this cookbook. I have to admit to having felt a bit stressed. I remember when I was in college and reading in the bath a short story in The Atlantic about a doctor who got to Friday night and collapsed and thought to himself "This is professional life?" I remember thinking "That can't be right, clearly you finish all your school assignments and the whole rest of life is easy." Where I got this idea I can't ever recall. When I was a kid it was always all this pressure to do well at each thing so that you could get onto the next thing ("You better be perfect in high school so that you can go to co...

I'm here to say that real life is not as beautiful as Tastespotting . How does that make us all feel? Inferior? Pathetic? Like we don't plan out our meals well enough or make them look beautiful enough? I didn't really want to write a "How Emily Really Eats" post for the From Scratch Club series . Why not, you ask? Because it might be like "I had a hard boiled egg, a Special K Protein shake, and then my husband prepared a beautiful roast chicken dinner, and we had a fabulous Pinot Gris from the Finger Lakes". There are things to be embarrassed about, like eating lunch at your desk . There is even a chick lit novel called "Sad Desk Salad" . This is why I love so much the tumblr Sad Desk Lunch . The reason it is so much fun is because it is honest. I love it. It makes me feel great in a way that Pinterest can make me feel bad (if you haven't read it, check out this great New York Times article on the topic ).

It is an exciting time for me. Detroit Tigers are in the World Series (though playing terribly), the election is coming up, and I'm changing jobs (hooray!). I've been really liking the John Mayer song " The Age of Worry ". Here's some of the lyrics: "Don't be scared to walk alone/ Don't be scared to like it  No, your fight is not within/Yours is with your timing Dream your dreams but don't pretend/ Make friends with what you are Give your heart then change your mind/ You're allowed to do it Cause God knows it's been done to you / And somehow you got through it"  This all makes me reflect on the town I've spent the past three years working in. Of course, I was lucky to get a job when the economy was terrible in 2009 in my chosen field - even one that was temporary, grant-funded, and in a different state around a steep and sometimes snowy mountain. It wasn't always easy though, and I am now even luckier to find ...

You know I love the Whistling Kettle . I once wrote about the tea and another time about the whole experience . Well, I checked it out again today, and it was a lovely lovely lunch. It was quite possibly a little celebratory lunch, so I decided to treat my self. You know how I love the Berkshire s, but if all goes well there could be a lot more buckets of fried chicken in my future. So I say, treat yo self! I got a pot of the lavender Earl Grey because I absolutely love it. This tea is just so elegant. The subtlety of the lavender and the Bergamot oil mix so beautifully with the high quality tea. It is the kind of delicious food item that makes you stop and think. It slows you down, and forces you to just live in the moment. Also, they have reconfigured their seating since last time I was there. Look at these cool, tall, comfortable booths: I ordered a curry chicken salad sandwich with pecans and a side salad. I got the ginger dressing which was amazing. They ...

Today I got a real tour of outer Troy from my lovely new friend and professional cake decorator, Sandy. When I first found out she was a professional cake baker I am pretty sure I mumbled something like "livin' the dream!" even though I worked really hard for and am really lucky to have the job I have. Hoping to learn a thing or two from her, I suggested we check out the Confectionery House in Brunswick. It was way cool. You could make any kind of candy or decorate any kind of cake with the supplies from here. I had fantasies of buying all the candy bar making supplies and coming up with a cool combination called "The Emily Bar" to show up to the food swap with and give as Christmas presents, but I couldn't think of what that bar would be so I gave up on the idea. I bought a cool angled frosting spreader type of tool, brioche molds. and this awesome bear pan. Watch out, everyone I know, I am going to start showing up everywhere with bear shaped cakes! ...

Every year at the museum where I work we take the interns on a field trip. Last year we went to Boston . This year we went down to Chester, CT to see Sol LeWitt's house, studio, and warehouse. We also had a fabulous lunch. LeWitt is great. I loved an exhibit of his work I saw on the roof garden at the Met in NYC in 2005. I loved the one at the Wadsworth Atheneum. I even made LeWitt cookies which depicted the one we have at my work. And I am sure we all love the installation that we be at MassMoca through 2033. He has a way of cheering up dreary spaces and making you think about the ways lines and shapes connect. His pieces make me feel inspired, like a deep breath of cold, fresh air.  It was really a great experience. We arrived at his house, and saw that he has a variety of very interesting outdoor sculpture around the grounds of a regular looking colonial style house in a normal looking neighborhood. Then we went inside. Every room was painted a different bright color on t...

We are crazy for cold soups right now. First off, gazpacho from the French Laundry Cookbook . Oh my goodness. It is about as fabulous as you would expect. So you just combine all the ingredients (tomato - mine were from the Berry Patch , bell pepper, cucumber, red onion, tomato paste, tomato juice, lemon juice, olive oil, cayenne pepper, vinegar, and garlic) in a large bowl. You let the ingredients sit overnight, and something about the lemon juice sitting with the tomatoes overnight makes them taste as if they have been cooked when they haven't been. Then you purée the ingredients and serve.  Then you purée the ingredients and serve. It is amazing and refreshing, and I even had some for breakfast this morning. The recipe said you could also use gazpacho as a sauce or squirt some on your plate next to a salad. Basically, the luxury in Keller's recipes comes a lot from straining and puréeing things really well. There's something about the smooth textures of his r...

Am I going to go ahead and talk about the Walled Lake Big Boy ? Yes, yes I am. So I am in Michigan on a professional development trip. I took the train from Albany to Toledo on Friday night. Who takes the train from Albany to Toledo on a Friday night, you ask? Many people who are from Detroit originally and live out east, but are going to weddings and funerals. It felt we were all kindred spirits. There is something vaguely comforting about overhearing that a bunch of people are from the place you are from and don't live there anymore, but have to go back because of various important relationships. Also, there is something weird about the overnight train in terms of a bunch of strangers who don't know each other at all falling asleep in close proximity. You all feel like you are getting through some long journey together. There is a strong element of trust involved. Will the guy who is yelling at the all the people in his phone in colorful language do anything to me if I fall ...

I am always on the hunt for lunch ideas to eat at the office . My last idea was wrap sandwiches and that worked out great for a while. On our plane back from D.C. this week, I bought a Martha Stewart publication "Whole Living" . It is like "Living" but without the crafts and with more of a focus on health. I read in the magazine about quinoa and kidney beans veggie burgers. I am always looking for ways to use up things in our pantry, and if I can turn things we just have sitting around into healthy and readily available lunches, than my week is all the better. I didn't follow the recipe exactly. After a bit of Googling I found this recipe , and it seemed a bit like making meatballs only with vegetarian ingredients. I cooked up some red quinoa we purchased at the NutBox in Brooklyn (love that place). I cooked up some kidney beans we got way back from our CSA in the fall. I cut off some scallions from my totally awesome scallion plant I got from my friend ...

Now I have talked before about not having good breakfast ideas (I'll still maintain that cold pizza is the king of breakfasts), and the slightly depressing thing we all do which is eat lunch at our desks . I quickly learned at my first Archives internship working at the show Democracy Now! how prohibitively expensive it was to go out to Quizno's for a sandwich everyday. You really want something cheap, healthy, and tasty that won't make a mess. Now some of you out there may offer up a sandwich, but a whole slew of not very exciting elementary school sandwiches with soggy bread ruined that option for me. Let's revisit breakfast first. I listened to an interview with the woman who runs Tastespotting on Homefries.com, and I got really into Tastespotting this weekend. It is so much better than Pinterest because it is carefully curated. Tastespotting can give you some great ideas. Have you ever thought of eating a breakfast salad? Have you thought about eating quinoa...

My friend at work was telling me about the baby animals at Hancock Shaker Village . She also said the cafe was amazing, so I really wanted to go. I loved seeing the baby animals in past years at Indian Ladder Farms , but my husband was not as impressed (though he may deny it now - in his defense it was a cold and rainy day that I wanted him to stand around and listen to me say "look how cute the little baby ducks are!!"). So it was good my friend Elizabeth agreed to go with me. Here is the part where I say to you "Look how cute the animals are!!" Here is the Round Stone Barn that holds the animals:  Then we went to the Village Harvest Cafe. My friend really recommended it, and they grow their own vegetables so it sounded like a great choice. Here is the menu . I had the "Open Faced Roast Beef on Grilled Farmers Bread with Shaker Mushroom Sauce, and Crispy Shallots", and lots of hazelnut coffee that I really enjoyed. The mushroom sauce was ...

Now, it is well established in the 518 blogosphere that All Good Bakers is delicious. We've got derryX , the From Scratch Club gals, Albany Jane , Jen is Green , DelSo , Capital to Capital - just to name a handful. Scott and I also tried their foods before at the Albany Wine & Dine Festival . From my point of view, I'm not so much in the market for baked goods as I am usually looking for friends who I can drop off rugelach or cakepops at their houses because I have made too many of something that sounded interesting. It is funny that baking things has pretty much become my hobby considering that I'd probably be fine with a diet of oatmeal, chicken noodle soup, penne alla vodka and BLTs. Most nights I'd rather have a small bit of sherry before bed than a slice of anything sweet. But, my interest in baking has grown so much in recent years that I have a couple of times read Dorie Greenspan in the bathtub. I think that says it all right there. Baking things m...

 I have previously made art history cookies. I even mentioned to my boss about making art history inspired cake pops for when our new director starts ( she suggested something more like this ). But now, check out these art history sandwiches! Very cool.

Recently, I stumbled onto the White House Food Blog . It is really interesting because it includes a lot of information about recent discussions about school lunches. Also, apparently steak is big in the Obama white house . I also stumbled on the online portion of an exhibit at the National Archives about Uncle Sam's influence on the diets of the American people . I love all the historical photos. Also, cool images like this one: They also have a tumblr about the exhibit . It is all very interesting. All I know is that pizza is my favorite vegetable. Although, my second favorite is french fries.

The winter holidays obviously can cause a whole range of emotions in people - they are weighed down with memories of past Christmases, especially if people or things are now gone. Also, places that mean one thing on other days of the year can have other connotations on Christmas. They are weighed down with expectations, pressures, and comparisons. The sentence "But its Christmas!" seems so much of a stronger thing to say than "But it is President's Day!" It seems a bit like weddings - what other thing has such strong expectations attached to it because it happens to be a certain day on the calender? That being said, most other Christmas breaks I have had I have traveled farther than this year. The college where I work does a campus shut down during this week to save money with energy costs. It is the sort of thing where you don't want to know what day it is, because you don't want to know how fast it is going by ( like our honeymoon ). It makes me thin...