food museum blog

Leader of the Free World Free to Gobble Cheeseburger Pizza

How did I miss this news item from last week re the Prez' dietary faves?! 

Apparently the current White House chef revealed at an international cheffery gathering that GWB loves cheeseburger pizza for supper. For those not in the know, this is a margarita pizza, topped with hamburger, cheese ( more,) bacon, pickle, ketchup.....relish?  Sort of a complete cholesterol party whammo right in the kisser.

For lunch, the Prez is said to favor p.b. and honey on cinnamon bread, with p. chips and pickles.

Ok-- at first I thought, he's preggers, there can be no other explanation.

Guardian columnist Zoe Williams pondered the fact that the WHouse went to great lengths to emphasize Bush's exercise program and that the p. chips were "homemade."  ( She also asked this question: " How come a grown man eats like a child?" ) 

She went on to note that " Domino's in the US admits ( it) has the highest cholesterol of any of its pizzas, and a calorie count of 1,600. Now, I just recreated this pizza, at home, with ingredient guidance from the Sun, and I don't see how they could possibly have kept the calories so low. I'm not kidding.

A large cheese and tomato base is 1,200, before you even start to heap upon it the glistening animal products. Minced beef, 500 calories, onion fried in oil, another 150, four tablespoons of ketchup, 60, four rashers of bacon, 224, more cheese, 240, and some gherkins. This pizza is a magnificent 2,374 calories and, unlike Domino's, I don't have access to industrial fats, which we all know are more calorie-dense than olive oil."

She admitted it smelled good, mind you. But then,  she is a self-described "pregnant person."

Anyway-- the Prez enjoys his foods. A fella's got to be fueled, after all.

( Pizza pic of Domino's Cheeseburger Pizza from http://www.cheese-burger.net/stories/cheeseburger-pizza.html )

Mrs. Beeton Couldn't Cook?

Public Television's Masterpiece Theatre debuts The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton this Sunday, and the writeup on line sounds more like an upcoming series on Mystery. 

We will be glued to the tale of the Victorian era young woman, Isabella Mary Mayson, who did not cook, yet is famous still as the author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, often considered the most famous English cookery book. She died young, after giving birth to her fourth child---as yet we have no clue as to her "secret life."

Here's her recipe for, of all things, "Pineapple Chips."

PINEAPPLE CHIPS.

1577. INGREDIENTS. -- Pineapples; sugar to taste.

Mode. -- Pare and slice the fruit thinly, put it on dishes, and strew over it plenty of pounded sugar. Keep it in a hot closet, or very slow oven, 8 or 10 days, and turn the fruit every day until dry; then put the pieces of pine on tins, and place them in a quick oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool, and store them away in dry boxes, with paper between each layer.

Time. -- 8 to 10 days.

Seasonable. -- Foreign pines, in July and August.

Easter for Grownups

A substantive Easter basket is filled with foods with which to break your fast on Easter morning. In Ukraine these would include the garlicky sausage, kovbasa, hard-boiled eggs, baked cheese, paska or yeasty Easter bread, along with cinnamon babka, butter, horseradish and beet relish. ( A macchiato, too, please!)

The egg as pagan symbol of the life-giving sun ( see yolk) somehow became enmeshed with the blood of Christ ( red), and the tears of Mary ( many colors.)

The Ukrainian eggs or pysanka shown here are the work of artist Sofia Zielyk.

I Like You, Too, Amy Sedaris

Confession: Once again, I, Foodie, have a pile of food books stacked up next to my desk, all sent by perfectly nice folks for me to review. The latest is Jane Butel's tome, Real Women Love Chiles. I have met Jane, she's a southwest cooking guruette who lives here in NM, obviously, as she spells "chiles" correctly...And I will get to her book. ( Among others.)

But right now, I am blogging about a LIBRARY BOOK. ( Gawd, the guilt.)

Yesterday, the sirens called to me from the "new non fiction" rack. Actually, it was Amy Sedaris' wacky , colorful book on hospitality called I Like You--Hospitality Under the Influence ( Warner Books, 2006.) Born in 1961, Amy apparently would have preferred being an adult in the rickrack and jello salad-infested 1950's, stylistically and recipe-wise. ( Druggily speaking, no.)  Her Lil' Smoky Cheese Ball ! Her Meatloaf Wreath!  Her Band-Aid Cake!

Amy, an actor, writer, performer, etc., etc,, is Martha Stewart high, with a sense of humor, Martha nurturing and unleashing her inner tackiness.  The recipes are real, though this might be hard to believe, given their surroundings. So are the pix of Amy's fake food collection scattered throughout .

( Incidentally, while leafing through a half shredded copy of an entertainment mag while biking at the gym, I read a blurb about Meryl Streep--she said that in order to prepare to play the Devil in The Devil Wears Prada she gave up drinking wine with dinner and lost a few pounds--but more crucially, she lost her sense of humor, an absolute prerequisite for playing the silver-haired glam-0-harridan....)

(OK, that was extraordinarily "incidental.")

Feeling dull? Take a look at this book---the photospread detailing how Amy puts on pantyhose will  remind you why you gave them up eons ago but also whet your appetite for leaving the crafts section of the book, and trying out some of her (genuine) Greek-American recipes.

I know--this book isn't even "new." ( Sigh.)

How to Roast a Duck--plus--What to do When the Chickens Come Home to, err... Roost

Here's a decent recipe from Cooks.com , for those of you exploring what to do with that poor, sad, lame duck quacking away miserably in the bushes down by the pond.

ROAST DUCK

Salt and pepper the duck the day before you cook it. Prick the skin to let the juice out. Put flour and paprika on the skin. Stuff the duck with sauerkraut and caraway seed and skewer the opening. put the duck in a roasting pan with the cover off. Cook in a 500 degree oven until well brown; about 35-45 minutes. Turn down to 350 degrees; cover; baste often with stock. Cook about 2 1/2 hours (or more) until done. NOTE: This recipe can also be used with capon. In that case, turn the oven to 450 degrees for browning and finish at 350 degrees.

Now for those worn out old birds charging back to the hen house, maybe one of these recipes will do the trick. Bon appetit.

For Those Who Are About To Eat Large Black Birds

It is typical for losers of elections, particularly poor losers, to "eat crow." We thought that those persons in such a position might find these recipe hints and links of interest.

Pan Fried Crow

Ingredients 

2 eggs
seasoned bread crumbs or flour
oil or bacon grease

Preparation
Remove breast meat from as many crows as desired. Beat with meat mallet (for tenderizing). Dip pieces in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs or flour. Fry in oil in hot skillet. Bacon grease can be substituted by can smoke. Leave inside a tad pink.

http://www.crowbusters.com/recipes.htm

http://www.thecrowroost.com/RECIPES.htm

( Thanks to http://aviary.owls.com/ for the crow pic.)

Punkin Pizazz from All Over

"Ric Griffith is crazy about pumpkins. He has 2,400 in his yard, with 600 still to be delivered, " according to a brief note in The Washington Post. The neighbors look forward to the  Kenova, West Virginia punkin pasha's work every year, and probably partake of the pumpkin "meat" that results.

For all things pumpkin from The FOOD Museum, click here.

( Left)  Don't try this at home--the "cannibal pumpkin" from extremepumpkins.com

Best Ever Pumpkin Pie? Try this recipe from The Spice House. And for our vegan friends, this one.

Worst P.Pie ever? According to one blogger it's this one from epicurious.com, normally not the recipe source from hell.

And finally...According to consumeraffairs.com, Target stores is recalling $5 kits of Mr. Potato Head-type ( I assume these are not real licensed Mr. PH items)  stick-in ears, noses, eyes, etc., for use with PUMPKINS, a sacrilege right there, with the usual concerns about small children ingesting the parts.  Take the kits back to Target while your kids stay busy ingesting raw pumpkin seeds and wielding sharp knives.

Cloud Carrot Cake

Carrot cake has never been high on Foodie's dessert list--gummy frosting, the bunny food innards riddled with the dreaded raisin--until two days ago. On Wednesday a young swain staying here on the Hudson tackled Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, as offered up in The Gourmet (Magazine) Cookbook edited by Ruth Reichl. (The recipe had been recommended by our hostess who had been lusting after "decent" carrot cake for weeks.)

Well, fellow foodies, this carrot cake was so luscious you would have thought it was made of Belgian chocolate. It was light, moist, the frosting perfectly appropriate,and the textures visually appealing. Maybe the pineapple keeps it moist, maybe the coconut that goes practically untasted is somehow a major part of this cake's success. We must stress, however, the prowess of the cake maker. A young engineer put all the well-considered ingredients together meticulously--we think engineers are especially suited to the go-by-the-rules-aspect of baking, don't you?

If you have on hand 3/4 lbs of ( organic) carrots, one 8 oz can of pineapple and 1 c. flaked coconut, you will be well on your way to creating this cake. ( Raisins are listed as "optional," which in our book means never ever ruin this cake with them.  )  ( Page 726, edition 2004.)

( Thanks to www.girlsclubworldwide.org for the carrot pic.)

Musings on Mullet

Today, children, we turn our attention to the magnificent leaping mullet, the mostly-vegetarian fish with a gizzard ( tastes like flying chicken?) and the focus both of a kiddie book, The Wise Mullet of Cook Bayou, and an October event in Florida's northwest panhandle with the enticing name Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival.

The book was written by journalist and native Floridian Timothy Weeks. It tells the strong simple  story of three mullet in a Florida bayou who choose different life paths, with the "wise" one making out the best. Weeks says his book is based on a story by the Persian Sufi mystic Rumi, a philospher and poet who inspired the "whirling dervishes," those for whom dance was a pathway to the Divine.  Many old hand Floridians say the mullet "leaps for joy," as often as it leaps to avoid danger, so the Rumi connection is fitting.

Weeks' children's book project became a family affair. His mother, Jeanne, did the illustrations. His sister, Kimberly Bryant did the editing, and his Dad, David inspired his early interest in mullet. Crazy as it may sound, this shiny, tidy book laid out with a combo of hand drawings and computer graphics, smells terrific, sort of a petroleum and printing press melange. The odor does not from the two recipes by Jeanne at the back  for Golden Brown Mullet and Cheese Grits, staple foods of the denizens of Cook Bayou.  ( Contact Weeks directly for the book-- educators can obtain a teaching packet as well. )

Once we saw the mighty leap of one of these fish in Florida, we decided perhaps we harbored a mullet-within, and became loathe to eat them. Before the infamous net ban of 1995, mullet was the least expensive fish in local Florida markets. Today it's harder to find, though the smoked mullet at South Pasadena's( St. Petersburg) Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish is a favorite.

For more things mullet, visit the B.B. Mullet Festival in Niceville, named Boggy Bayou until the citizenry wanted a more Up Town name. You and 100,000 other visitors will eat 10 tons of mullet ( we know, mullet doesn't sound scarce) during three days, October 20, 21 and 22.

(For exhaustive info on fishing mullet in the UK, click here. Seems they will bite at flakes of white bread..)

As for the fabled "do," known as The Mullet, no mullet possibly could leap to the notion that its arrangement of fins (?) ( see the mullet pic up top) would spawn an entire culture. Wikipedia says the mullet --short everywhere, but long in the back, was sported by fishermen in the 19th c to keep the backs of their heads warm.

A Peek at Florida Recipes

The Cuban sandwich was invented in Tampa, Florida, not Cuba, though the town does claim America's third largest Cuban-origin community. The guava-eating tradition did come to Florida from Cuba but the name The Big Guava did not really take hold in Tampa. Still,  its cafes and bakeries usually feature flaky guava pastry, one version of which involves cream cheese and generous amounts of guava paste.

The Cuban sandwich is centered on the soft baguette-like white bread, usually made with lard, that squishes nicely when the sandwich is "pressed." Always include mustard mixed with mayo and some hot sauce, and layer with any filling desired.  While pressing machines abound in Florida, you can also place a heavy iron skillet on top of your creation--some wrap the sandwich in foil first. The one Foodie ate in a small cafe in Lake Wales, Florida was uncharacteristically made with Swiss cheese--lovely-- and the hottest of jalapeno hot sauces.

These Florida offerings and many more are spelled out in a nicely focussed new cookbook, Florida Bounty, just out from Pineapple Press, Sarasota. The authors, Sandra and Eric Jacobs, are Florida natives who met as students while working in the restaurant biz.