Baked (Not Fried) Cheese Puffs & Product Packaging

Just shopping at Fresh and Easy on 19th and Glendale and I was rendered speechless by the packaging on their new Baked (Not Fried) Cheese Puffs. The bag is the EXACT color of the powdery cheesy goodness that covers your fingers. (See photo, case in point). I could not resist. I came home and ate half the bag. I thought I'd research why this happened to me. I came across the following article that made me feel better:

Food Packaging | Packaging gets psyched | Food Processing Shared via AddThis

And a highlight:

Some marketers contend that of all the visual cues a package incorporates, color is the single most important. Consumers have only seconds to make a purchasing decision in the supermarket, and color registers much faster than text or complex graphics.

Colors are associated with various emotional states and need to convey an appropriate mood for the product and/or brand. In some parts of the grocery store, like the cereal aisle, the colors on the packages “are screaming ‘buy me,’ but not all products want to do that,” says Ed Cristman, design director at Axion Design (www.axiondesign.com), San Anselmo, Calif.

Needless to say I am just another victim of some genius kid-marketer at corporate. I love-hate you, kid!

Sweet Tooth - Writing Spaces

Today's undeniably interesting, delicious tidbit comes from the blogosphere.

I found a great blog posting from one of my former colleagues, and I think you'll enjoy it too. The subject is where writers write, and I've always had a great interest in how people "keep house," so to speak, especially where they feel they are the most creative. In a nod to including a photo of her writing space, I've included a shot of mine too.

(And as perhaps a completely circuitous reference, my colleague is responsible for the collaborative arts project on the wall, top left.)

So let's be bold. I invite you to photograph a space in which you feel creative. Perhaps some day I'll dare to show a shot of my 70s remodel kitchen, but I'm hoping we'll have the funds to remodel long before I ever have to share that cave. LOL.

Recipe Revision - Plum & Port Crostata

This recipe for Plum & Port Crostata is compliments of the "Martha Stewart Living." This gorgeous pastry was featured on the last page of the magazine and was just too tempting to resist. A crostata by definition is an Italian baked dessert tart, traditionally prepared by folding the edges of the dough over the top of the jam-like filling (often cherries, peaches, apricots, or berries) creating a more "rough" look, rather than a uniform, circular shape. It can also be filled with pieces of fruit and pastry cream or ricotta. (Yum!)

As always, I followed the recipe, for the most part, and I have my revisions to the recipe.

Original Recipe
Plum & Port Crostata

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt (I use kosher salt)
1/2 tsp. granulated sugar (I use Baker's Sugar)
4 oz. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tbs. ice water
1 1/2 cups ruby port (You can find port in the wine section of any decent grocery. I paid $6 for a bottle)
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 Thai chile, seeded & minced (optional. I used 1/2 a large serrano pepper, from the Farmers' Market)
2 lbs. Italian prune plums, halved and pitted (I used overripe black plums from Fresh and Easy)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon (I always double or triple the spices! I also prefer Saigon cinnamon as it's sweetest.)
1 tsp. heavy cream, for brushing
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling (I used Raw Sugar)

1. Pulse flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, and sugar in a food processor. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, slowly add ice water until dough comes together. Shape into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8" thickness. Fit into an 8-inch pie dish, leaving 1-inch overhang. Freeze for up to 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Simmer port and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add chile if desired (while hot). Cover, and let cool for 10 minutes.

4. Stir together the remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. salt, plums, cornstarch, cinnamon, and port syrup. Transfer to pie shell. Fold in overhang to form a "crust"; brush crust with cream; sprinkle crust with sugar. Bake for 30 minutes; reduce over to 375 degrees. Bake until golden and center is bubbling, about 1 1/2 hours more. Let cool. Enjoy!



As it baked, the kitchen had a great aroma, a cinnamon-sweet earthy smell. This is part of my love of cooking, especially pies and tarts. After I let it cool about 30 minutes, I served the slices a la mode with a good-quality vanilla ice cream.

After the first bite I was hooked. The crust was nice and crumbly, and it stayed dry even on the bottom. The filling was really tart (a bit much for the huge slice I cut myself), but the filling had an amazing texture, jam-like and smooth. The hubby, after sneaking a bite, exclaimed "Unglaublich!" (Translation: "Unbelievable!"). All in all, the Plum & Port Crostata was a hit.

A few things to note in the original recipe:

• Make sure you're using an 8-inch pie dish if you want the pretty fold. My standard 9 1/2 inch version just didn't do the form justice. Plus after loving the crust so much, I can't imagine what the underside of that edge must taste like, having soaked up 2 hours worth of bubbling fruit syrup.
  

• The crostata has a dramatic fold-over for the "crust." Your dough will crack if it's too cold, so my advice is to freeze for no more than 15 minutes (not the recipe's 30), then transfer to fridge to keep cool.

• Depending on your stove top, the port reduction can take longer than just 25 minutes. Be prepared (and watch your freezing crust) during this step. The recipe doesn't really alert you to keep multiple timers going.
  

• Plum peels are distinctly tart. I think my variety, the same that most of you could find at the grocery, is particularly tart. In a second version, I'd use cherries and blackberries, as I think they would be sweeter and still maintain the tartness that makes this a crisp summer dessert.

Recipe Revision:
Plum & Port Crostata

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
3/4 tsp. granulated sugar (I wanted it a bit sweeter.)
4 oz. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tbs. ice water
1 1/2 cups ruby port
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 Serrano or other pepper, seeded & minced
1 1/5 lb. cherries, pitted
8 oz. blackberries
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. heavy cream, for brushing
Raw sugar, for sprinkling

1. Pulse flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, and sugar in a food processor. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, slowly add ice water until dough comes together. Shape into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8" thickness. Fit into an 8-inch pie dish, leaving 1-inch overhang. Freeze for up to 15 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Simmer port and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add chile if desired (while hot). Cover, and let cool for 10 minutes.

4. Stir together the remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. salt, plums, cornstarch, cinnamon, and port syrup. Transfer to pie shell. Fold in overhang to form a "crust"; brush crust with cream; sprinkle crust with sugar. Bake for 30 minutes; reduce over to 375 degrees. Bake until golden and center is bubbling, about 1 hour more. Let cool. Serve with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!



I think this recipe a great way to use up any summer fruits that are turning a bit past their prime. All that extra sweetness is transformed into thick, syrup goodness. Here's to recycling fruit that might look past it's prime!

Food, Inc., Lesson Plans, & Special Offers

I had the opportunity this weekend to see the new film Food, Inc.

While I have to say the "cast" involves many of my favorite "major players" in the local, non-industrialized food movement, I can't say the movie was much more than, well, preaching to the choir.



The movie brings up this issue, that the viewers of the film are people who are worried about our food supply. The viewers are NOT like the limited-income family shown in the film, who buy from the McDonald's Dollar Menu since you can get a burger for the price of a pear or two. I'm afraid of my food. That's why I try to frequent the Phoenix Farmer's Market, actually telling my restaurant employer I don't want to work Saturdays so I can visit the market. (Not surprisingly, they continue to buy, oh, 99% of their offerings from distant, commercial, and thus industrialized sources. This is not uncommon, even among restaurants of the highest quality and price point.

I don't want to watch a movie with questions. I want one with answers. About as close as it got was the final, word based call-to-action about "what you can do to support this movement." The rest was more shots of sad animals in slaughter houses, contrasted with Joel Salatin's happy little pigs in rural Virginia. I grew up near rural Virginia. I saw "free-range cows" that my uncle raised. Also not surprisingly, he farmed tobacco, too, but now these fancy cows are worth more than the former cash crop.

I was very interested in this movie, though, as a possible teaching tool. I've really considered trying to put together a freshman composition course about food. Not as in, "I want to teach you about food writing," but as in "I want to teach your about food, and I want you to write about what you learn." I think that this film could be an interesting entree into some of the "key players" I discuss. I also think it can give the graphic imagery that, were I to show on slides, would look like proselytizing. Something about the fact that it's a mass media movie makes it so much more believable. Geez. (Yeah. That's what I'm up against in comp class!)



Assignment Idea #1

Pick a processed food you love. It can be from the grocery store or fast food chain. Just make sure you didn't make it, and that it came to you ready to eat (i.e., no heating necessary). Find the list of ingredients on the packaging or at the chain's website. Make a numbered list of these ingredients, in order of appearance. For each ingredient give a brief 100 word description of what the ingredient is, what it does, where it comes from, and additional information that shocks or delights you. After creating this "annotated ingredients list," write a short introduction (1st paragraph) that describes the product as you FIRST saw it as just a consumer (literally, an eater) and a short conclusion (last paragraph) that describes the produce as you NOW see it, based on what it's ACTUALLY made of as an "informed consumer" (what the label is SUPPOSED to communicate to you, but probably didn't, since you had to look up most of the ingredients). You will need to do outside research for this assignment for any terminology/ingredient that is unfamiliar to you.

Try this with your favorite guilty pleasure and get back to me. Anyone who posts a response, I'll trade you a handmade baked good of your choosing, made with ingredients you can recognize, many of which will be locally produced.

Starbucks, anyone?

And now I know...

Brand Eating: Eating Out and In in a Consumer Culture: Starbuck's Coffee Demystified... Sorta

Sweet Tooth - Cork Cutting Board

Sweet Tooth: a colloquial term used to describe the common psychological condition in which subjects feel an unnaturally strong urge for foods which are sweet. I'm about to pirate the term for anything that I find "toooootally sweeeeet, dude." Here's to sharing the good stuff!



I just ordered this fabulous Cork Cutting Board from Crate and Barrel. I have a love affair with recycled cork, since it's renewable, it's beautiful, it's self-healing (i.e. won't look all scratchy after one good minced clove of garlic), oh yeah, and did anyone ever tell you cork is NATURALLY ANTIMICROBIAL?

Why is this not already in my kitchen?

Give me 5-7 business days and I'll let you know how it functions on its maiden voyage. Online pricing is now $19.95 (reg. $26.95). Go. Now.

Teachable Moment - American English Dialects

I wanted to introduce another recurring post I'm planning, called "Teachable Moments." I love teaching 18 to twenty-somethings, because they are old enough to ask the real questions. I hear little kids do this took, since they don't have the internal censor/sensor yet, but I feel that after you leave home for the first time as an "Adult," for a little bit of time the censor/sensor shorts out, too. I love this. And I love answering the questions, since they often change the nature of my student-teacher relationship to learner-mentor, which I think is vastly more productive (and I end up learning just as much in the process!).

A current student in a ENG 102 (second-semester freshman comp. course), who happens to be an international student, AND happens to be taking my class via the Internet from Jordan (oh, how I love technology!!), asked the following:


Today, me and my Jordanian co-worker were talking about dialects and accents and he has asked me the following (while trying copy my American accent, haha): "When the Americans who were originally British came to America along with Pres. Washington, they spoke English with a British accent of course. How then did the American accent come to be? And how did you (talking to me--meaning Americans) get used to it?" Now as an American I'm supposed to know this lol. Sadly, I don't. I wanted to give him a good answer, so please give me your thoughts if you can and want.


I thought I'd try to find an academic article from the library (but the ones I found were so entrenched and overwrought with detail), then looked around on Google for awhile. I stumbled across some class notes from an Intro to Linguistics class that fit the bill perfectly. I also sent the following response:

This site seems to be a pretty good description of the reasons for American dialects and differences in Brit. and Amer. English. Mainly the thing to remember is that the first Americans did have British accents, but pilgrims and immigrants from different parts of Britain, so brought slightly different accents. All languages always change over time, but since their was an Atlantic ocean between the 2 countries, they changed in different ways. Also there were Native American influences here, as well as immigrants from other non-English speaking nations, who brought other words that American English "swallowed."

I love the study of dialects since I come from the South, northeast Tennessee, to be exact, so I heard both "southern coastal" and the "Appalachian" dialects mentioned. In fact, much of the slang is common to me, as in I might actually use it in conversation. I don't have the "accent" per se, but I know the dialect. Arizona is pretty bland, as it's newer as a state and never got the same type of influx of European immigrants, but the Spanish influence will change things in 150 years, 200 years, eventually perhaps creating a Spanglish language like Creole, which the site mentions is French/English. It won't be a joke language, it'll be far more important and you won't be anybody if you don't speak that hybrid language (like a form of bilingualism but the best words for both languages in one single language, no repeats).


I ask for his thoughts and I'll ask for all y'all's responses as well (dialectal variation intended.)

Recipe Revision - (Green Chile) Meatloaf

Quick summary of my cooking strategy:
1) Learn/build on basic techniques.
2) Try new recipes, constantly.
3) Improve, in equal measure, skills and recipes.

I feel like I've made enough dishes to know what I like, and I pride myself on the ability to tweak a recipe before I've started cooking. While this might be considered blasphemy by some recipe-purists, I make it a benchmark of my personal cooking style.

One small consequence of knowing a recipe's "faults" (at least for my own palate) is that I often make a recipe one time, and one time only. I get bored with the flavor by the end of my plate, and the leftovers just drive home how this particular dish isn't going to decidedly change the course of my cooking repertoire the first, or the second, time around.

But sometimes I make a gem. And it falls into the routine of my meal planning, a comfort food that I dream of afternoons before hitting the grocery. So I make it again (GASP!). But true to my nature, I tweak. I play. I "proof" in the more literary sense of the word.

Last night's revision: Meatloaf.

Now I also have to disclaimer this entry, because I have a slight culinary handicap. I don't eat red meat. Yep. No beef, no pork. As I have to simply describe it, "I don't eat anything that started out on 4 legs." It has been this way since 2000, and shall remain into the foreseeable future. Now I'll taste almost anything I can stomach, but I don't as a rule, cook or ingest meals based on aforementioned 4-legged protein repositories.

So Meatloaf is "meat" in the animal sense, but not the beef-based sense. I use ground turkey, generally, but the other caveat is that I've never actually tried the real "meat" meatloaf. My mother despised it. She never cooked it. I only discovered it after working at a restaurant that built it's reputation on a particularly indulgent version. "I can do that!" I said. So I did, but I based my first impression off of the Better Homes & Gardens' New Cookbook (14th ed.). This single volume is the holy-grail of my cookbook collection. I believe that because of it's low-brow status, it provides what is the most standard, American "home-cooking" version of many classic dishes. I had an earlier version in college, which gave me many evenings of good eats. I upgraded to a fancy-shmancy three ringed version, an act I equated with my childhood, baking cookies during the holidays based on recipes in my mother's own greasy-fingerprint-smudged edition. God only knows how old it was. (I still use it when I go home in December, and it's getting awfully yellow and maybe even a bit crinkly. It's amazing.)

So...finally now to the revision part. Ha.

I've made the same basic recipe about half a dozen times, mainly just adding garlic and other seasonings. Last night, a true revision. My husband and I love green chiles, as any good Southwesterner. I've been dying to makeover a meatloaf into its spicier self. Like a gratutious teen movie where the dorky math girl gets va-vavoom hair and a sexy red tube dress. Here goes:

Original Ingredients:

2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbs snipped fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried herbs (basil, sage, oregano), crushed
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/1 lbs lean ground beef, lamb, or pork
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbs packed brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard

Mix the first 8 ingredients, add meat to mix, pat mixture into loaf pan, and bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes. Spoon off fat. Mix last 3 ingredients. Top loaf with mixture and bake 10 minutes more to 160 degrees. Let stand for 10 minutes to cool and firm up.

Recipe Revision:

1/4 cup finely chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz. container of frozen "extra hot" green chiles, thawed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
2 tbs snipped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 tbs ground cumin
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/1 lbs lean ground turkey
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbs honey
2 tbs red chili powder
1 tbs green chili powder
generous dash of Tapatio

Saute first 3 ingredients over low heat until softened. Set off heat to cool. In a bowl, mix the next 8 ingredients, add cooled chile mix and ground turkey, pat mixture into loaf pan (I HIGHLY recommend Williams-Sonoma's special meatloaf pan as it does WONDERS removing fat, keeping it off the top of your loaf), and bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes. Spoon off fat. Mix last 5 ingredients. Top loaf with mixture and bake 10 minutes more to 165 degrees** (higher temp. for ground poultry). Let stand for 10 minutes to cool and firm up. I served this with steamed french green beans and cilantro mashed potatoes (made with lots of butter, sour cream for the dairy, a turn of olive oil, and a boiling and mashing a parsnip with the potatoes for a bit of extra earthy spice). Good pairing, I'd have to say. I was full and the hubby was in a food coma by 8 pm.

Revisions to the Revision (or What I'd Change Next Time):

1.) The loaf was a bit too moist, even after the firming time. I'd probably substitute 1/4 cup heavy cream for the 3/4 cup milk as a way to get flavor and eliminate half a cup of extra moisture. I also believe that ground turkey has a higher water content anyway, so this fix serves two purposes.

2.) I don't' know about you, but I love, I mean love the sweet-spicy combo with hearty foods. I'd probably make even more of the ketchup mixture. I debated using a salsa last night, so I might actually try a half-ketchup, half-red chile salsa mix. Extra spicy, extra saucy. (Sounds like a sequel!)

What's in a Name? - Note on the title of this blog

As a developing writer and poet, I was obsessed with metaphors. And etymologies. But most especially homophones.

Trying to name a blog is like trying to name a new puppy. What can I imagine saying out loud that won't make me gag in 2 years time. Or alternatively, what doesn't sound like a generic dog-name, or in this case, blog-name, but still works as a functional title.

I ran the gamut of boring titles and overly-syrupy metaphors. Why? Because I have a thing for threes. I built a collaborative arts project around the number three, and I realized my blog needs to cover three near-and-dear topics:

1) Composition
2) Marketing
3) Food

Now, pick any two (like a lunch-counter combo) and you're fine for titles. But "adding on" makes the title buffet get awfully picked-over, awfully fast. Food metaphors aside, I've spent a lot of time working over the title in my mind, like dough, and I finally turned to an old standby--the Wikipedia disambiguation pages--and stumbled upon what is the linguistic equivalent to a slap in the face: PROOF.

I teach students to do this, I've made a living fixing colleagues' errors on junk mail, and I've had a hankering to learn how to make a really good artisan loaf. Let's face it, my past, present, and future are all based on this little word. PROOF, to save you the lengthy definition, serves my blog in, let's see, three ways.

3) It's the process of leavening, it's the "rising" that makes bread a food of texture, not just taste.
2) It's the process of copyediting and of revision, it's half of the time you spend creating a written piece.
1) It's the process of establishing of the truth of anything, it's the demonstration that leads others to knowledge.

It's the PROOF, the action, that gives meaning and fullness to the SHAPE, the original form and the idea(l).