Cooking with duck fat is a new concept for me. Call me a convert. In my quest for the most perfect and delicious, hot and crunchy potato dishes I have tried corn oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil and bacon fat. I have finally discovered magic in a bottle. (Actually, magic in a jar, delivered courtesy of Amazon, but that is a superfluous detail.) With the Waterfowl Festival taking off this weekend in Easton, now seems like a good time to extoll the wizardry that is duck fat.

The other night I parboiled a peeled Russet potato, which I had cut into wedges. Once they were fork-tender, I drained them in a colander, and patted them dry with paper towels. In the large and heavy cast-iron skillet I melted two tablespoons of duck fat that I had scooped from a glass jar that the UPS guy had delivered that afternoon, in the dark, at 5:30 PM. (It is going to take us all a long time to get used to the clock change, we agreed.)

The fat melted quickly at a lower medium heat, and bubbled and began to fill the kitchen with an enchanted aroma. I dumped the potato wedges into the sizzle, and stood expectantly, watching the transformation begin. I turned the wedges carefully, after I saw the bottom edges turning golden sienna. And after a few more minutes of delicate and obsessive fussing, I scooped the potato wedges out of the fat, and onto another paper towel. A mere dusting of Maldon salt was the only seasoning. And I spooned the perfectly golden brown wedges onto the dinner plates alongside the sausages, peppers, onions and garlic bread. (There was a green salad already on the table as well as a couple of glasses of an inexpensive Cabernet.)

The duck-fried potato wedges were divinely light and crunchy, and absolutely deelish. And best of all, they stayed warm through the meal. They were the soothssayingly crisp foil to the soft and slick peppers and onions. They were magical fried potatoes. Not from a freezer bag, or a store, or a fast-food drive-through. They weren’t doused in chemical preservatives. They were adult fries, with spell-binding panache. (Though no truffles.) Go get some duck fat. Right now.

Through my extensive research into the perfect homemade fried potatoes I have experienced many failures, but I think using duck fat is going to ratchet up my game considerably. There is much pleasure to be derived from homemade culinary triumphs; simple pleasures are indeed the best.

This was the impetus for my duck fat experiment: https://www.myrecipes.com/extracrispy/how-to-cook-with-duck-fat which might give you more practical information than my anecdotal paean.

And because fries are delicious, and necessary for a fulfilled life, but aren’t very photographic, I tried them again for breakfast this morning, topped with beauteous eggs for this week’s illustration. Mr. Friday drove away with a smile on his face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee3hWLMUvD8

Waterfowl Festival goers: you probably know how to do this already, but here is a short video about conjuring up your own duck fat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkWeKp-Elvw

You’ll have more time on the weekend for frying up bacon and tomatoes, and here is an impressive breakfast to prepare before a weekend filled with retriever demonstrations, waterfowl calling, diving dogs, decoy appreciation and beer tasting: https://www.food24.com/Recipes/duck-fat-egg-toastie-20170612

“It is easy to think of potatoes, and fortunately for men who have not much money it is easy to think of them with a certain safety. Potatoes are one of the last things to disappear, in times of war, which is probably why they should not be forgotten in times of peace.”
― M.F.K. Fisher

For all things Waterfowl Festival 2019: https://www.waterfowlfestival.org/

You might need light sweaters and extra calories this weekend if you are going to walk around Chestertown and enjoy the spectacle that is Downrigging Weekend. Your mother was right, and breakfast is still the most important meal of the day, so start it off with something tasty. Keep the pencil shavings and twigs for during the week, and gobble up some hearty apple-sultana cinnamon swirls.

Halloween is over, and you have managed to avoid eating too much chocolate, for which we in the Spy Test Kitchen salute you. I gave out more Snickers bars this year than I inhaled, for once. I think I am still conditioned by my otherwise pleasant childhood. My mother was the strange one on the block who handed out boxes of raisins. Can you imagine the shame? While Mom was imposing her sensible vision of order on the neighborhood, I was dancing from house to house, scarfing up as much exotic candy as I could get. Other households doled out wonderful candy bars unfamiliar in our house: Baby Ruths, Butterfingers, $10,000 bars, Dark Hersey bars, Clark bars, and Three Musketeers. Such loot! And I lived in a home where boxes of Sun-Maid raisins were the Halloween treat. My mother should have just handed out toothbrushes. If she were still alive, she probably would be enthusiastically giving out bags of organic kale chips to all the little ghosts and alligators and Hermione Grangers who would have come knocking on her door.

I do not mean to disparage raisins completely, but every once in a while, it seems perfectly reasonable to enjoy a kid holiday; something extraordinary and special. But Halloween was yesterday. And now it is November. It’s time to sail forward on the healthy and homebaked path to righteousness and good health. And to enjoy the Schooner Sultana and downrigging. http://downrigging.org There will be tall ships and blue grass music, and all that Chestertown has to offer.

I cannot find sultanas in our grocery store, so I substituted golden raisins, but you can use raisins, golden raisins, sultanas or currents in these recipes. https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-raisins-sultanas-and-currants-223285 Do not substitute those leftover Snickers bars. Pass them this way.

Your kitchen will smell wonderful and autumnal while you are baking apples, raisins and cinnamon. This is excellent preparation for Thanksgiving, which is just around the corner. http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/apple-sultana-cinnamon-swirls/ Mary Berry will approve, and if you do a good job, you might even get to stay in the bakeoff tent for another week.

I just love the mechanics of rolling and cutting the dough for these cinnamon rolls. I scarred my children with store-bought Pillsbury cinnamon rolls that popped out of a canister. These are much more delicious, and haven’t been hermetically sealed and are not doused in preservatives. https://www.recipegirl.com/no-yeast-apple-cinnamon-rolls-with-maple-icing/ Mom might approve.

Of course, Food52 always has good ideas: https://food52.com/recipes/24943-grandma-bercher-s-cinnamon-rolls Have a couple of cinnamon rolls, don your sweater, and take to the Chestertown streets. Watch out for the geese.

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.”
-John F. Kennedy

At first I was going to put together my usual compendium of disgusting Halloween-themed cocktails that involved pumpkin flavored vodka, and chocolate martinis, olive and lychee eyeballs, and a lot of dry ice for special effects. Nonsense. I finally came to my senses. Instead I wondered about what we could offer to our favorite dead writers, should they come a-calling this Thursday night. This is a broad survey of some writers I think would be amusing at a ghostly Halloween cocktail party.

Noel Coward said that the perfect martini could be made by “filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy.” Fill your glasses and join me on our ghoulish visit to a moonlit cocktail party. No enchanted cocktail hour would be complete without Ernest Hemingway, who tops every dead-writer-cocktail-survey I encountered. His poor mother. I have been to his house in Key West and skritched some of his cats with their many toes. The house has some admirable verandahs, which shriek out for a séance and Coward’s Madame Arcati inviting our favorite roués and decorous dead to join us once more for some ocean breezes and Bloody Marys. http://www.hemingwayhome.com/

“To make a pitcher of Blood Marys (any smaller amount is worthless) take a good sized pitcher and put in it as big a lump of ice as it will hold. (This to prevent too rapid melting and watering of our product.) Mix a pint of good Russian vodka and an equal amount of chilled tomato juice.Add a tablespoon full of Worcestershire Sauce. Lea and Perrins is usual but you can use A1 or any good beef-steak sauce. Stir. (with two rs) Then add a jigger of fresh squeezed lime juice. Stir. Then add small amounts of celery salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper. Keep on stirring and taste to see how it is doing. If you get it too powerful weaken with more tomato juice. If it lacks authority add more vodka.” https://www.thrillist.com/vice/ernest-hemingway-s-favorite-drinks-with-quotes-whiskey-wine-absinthe-bloody-marys

Bob your hair, rouge your knees, and get out your ropes of pearls. Scott and Zelda have arrived in Key West. The Fitzgeralds were very fond of Gin Rickeys. We can swoop around the porches, imagining our own jazzy music, swaying with the palm tress, drinking these sweet concoctions: http://on.aol.com/video/f–scott-fitzgeralds-gin-rickey-recipe-and-bukowskis-boilermaker-517940317 Whatever gin they have not reserved for their infant daughter’s night time bottle, we can spirit away to make Gin Rickey cocktails.

John Cheever’s specter conjures up a solemn progression of cocktails. Avoid him, because he will want to go swimming. Instead, let’s look for Evelyn Waugh, who is merrily mixing some of his favorite stingers at the bar. I can summon up the image of the angelic Cary Grant, ordering a round of them for the flock of church ladies, crowding his tête-à-tête luncheon with Loretta Young in The Bishop’s Wife. Stingers are deadly. Trust me.

Evelyn Waugh’s Stinger
2 ounces brandy
¾ ounce crème de menthe
½ ounce dry vermouth or bourbon
Directions: Shake with ice. Pour into a chilled martini glass or Old Fashioned glass.
http://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/drink-like-hemingway-5-cocktails-famous-writers-loved.html/?

Sad wraith Carson McCullers has been hard at it since breakfast. Her tea packs a deadly punch:

Long Island Iced Tea Recipe
1⁄2 ounce gin
1⁄2 ounce vodka
1⁄2 ounce tequila
1⁄2 ounce. light rum
1⁄2 ounce Cointreau
3⁄4 ounce lemon juice
Top with cola
Lemon wedge
Pour all ingredients except cola and garnish into a cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes. Shake, and then strain into a Collins glass filled with ice cubes. Add cola until color of tea. Garnish with lemon wedge. Serve with two straws.
http://www.npr.org/2006/12/15/6624971/great-american-writers-and-their-cocktails

Edna St. Vincent Millay was very fond of the Between the Sheets cocktail. This party could be getting interesting.

Between the Sheets
3/4 ounce brandy
3/4 ounce light rum
3/4 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce lemon juice
Lemon twist for garnish
http://www.thekitchn.com/great-american-writers-and-their-cocktails-170969

Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin set are cackling over a hot Ouija board in the corner. Their Whiskey Sours have been evaporating by the pitcher-ful. “I wish I could drink like a lady. I can take one or two at the most. Three and I’m under the table. Four and I’m under the host.” http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fresh-whiskey-sours-recipe.html

Rushing out from the eternal New Yorker magazine offices in the sky, Mr. E.B. White shares his favorite Martini recipe: “Equal parts lime juice, apricot brandy, honey, and dry vermouth. Stir this all together (you only need a tiny amount of the whole business), then add 4 times the amount of gin. Plenty of ice, stir, and serve.” Wowser. Three martini lunches, indeed! http://paperandsalt.org/2012/03/08/the-cocktail-hour-e-b-white/

There is a whole lot of gin going on at this imaginary party. Since Halloween falls on a Thursday this year, Mr. Friday and I will just have a couple of glasses of cheap white wine with dinner. I hope you are able to join up with the ghostly writers and their little shindig at the cemetery if you’d like to go out and meet them. They are just dying to see you.

“I began to think vodka was my drink at last. It didn’t taste like anything, but it went straight down into my stomach like a sword swallowers’ sword and made me feel powerful and godlike.”
― Sylvia Plath

Suddenly the weather is in sync with the calendar, and we are enjoying a soupçon of cool October weather. I pulled a turtleneck out of the closet to wear when Luke the wonder dog and I went for our first walk this morning. He is feeling a little friskier in the coolth, and tugs on his leash when he thinks he has a good change of catching one of the many squirrels we trot past. To date the squirrels are still winning. But the odds might change, as they are distracted and are concentrating on gathering up acorns and pecans. I found a dozen acorns in one of the window boxes the other day, when I was attempting to tidy up after a long, hot summer of prolific weed cultivation. We now look a little more respectable with window boxes full of cheerful yellow mums and fresh-faced pansies. It is cool enough to be out in the garden again, instead of wistfully looking out at it from the air conditioned house. Soon the spring tulip, daffodil and grape hyacinth bulbs will be delivered. We have lots of gardening to look forward to.

Another pleasant surprise was rediscovering meatloaf. Since I stay as far away from the stove as I can in the summer, there is never a chance that I’m going to wander into the kitchen to whip up a tasty meatloaf meal when it is hot outside. Mr. Friday likes a hefty meatloaf sandwich for lunch, which uses up all the leftovers in a very efficient fashion. We are trying our level best not to waste food.

But still I got a couple of odd reactions when I mentioned that I was going to write about meatloaf this week. My daughter, the former Pesky Pescatarian, was horrified at the thought of covering meatloaf with bacon, until I told her I had found a recipe that used turkey bacon and ground turkey instead of the greasy, but delicious, pork bacon and ground beef of her childhood. And my brother, who speaks for the trees, assured me that he hardly ate beef any more. (Although our discussion reminded him that he hadn’t had a good steak in a long time. I wonder what will be on his grill this weekend?)

The reason I found a recipe with bacon carefully woven over the surface of a meatloaf was purely artistic. A meatloaf is not very visually arresting – it is a dark brown lump, rather like a deflated football. Perhaps I could have added a garnish or two, but I never garnish my meatloaf, do you? I suppose I could have made some radish rosettes, but I do like verisimilitude. And a bowl of mashed potatoes! How inspiring is that? A field of beige blandness, with a glistening golden pat of melting butter! You can see it in your mind’s eye, and it will make you think fondly of a steaming mountain of mashed potatoes with Richard Dreyfuss cackling madly, but if you saw one of my watercolors of mashed potatoes, you would avert your eyes straight away to the Letters to the Editor and not bother to read Food Friday.

Meatloaf is prosaic stuff. And deeply personal. Mr. Friday didn’t care for my mother’s recipe, which is the game I brought to the marriage. And I didn’t like his mother’s meatloaf, which called for ground veal and ketchup. My word! We eventually fashioned our own meatloaf formula, and all is good. But he did enjoy the novelty of the basket-woven bacon version for dinner one night, and then for his next three lunches. Experimentation is good. And as we are not flying in private jets to go on a royal tour, I feel secure in having a little beef every once in a while this fall, since it warms our souls for dinner, and for so many lunches.

https://www.markbittman.com/recipes-1/bacon-wrapped-chipotle-meat-loaf-on-the-grill

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/meat-loaf-recipe-1921718

https://emilybites.com/2013/05/bacon-wrapped-bbq-meatloaf.html

“We even talked like Hemingway characters, though in travesty, as if to deny our discipleship: That is your bed, and it is a good bed, and you must make it and you must make it well. Or: Today is the day of the meatloaf. The meatloaf is swell. It is swell but when it is gone the not-having meatloaf will be tragic and the meatloaf man will not come anymore.”
-Tobias Wolff

You really should go visit a local pumpkin patch. Don’t get lazy and just buy one at the grocery store. I had a charming morning encounter with a couple of sprightly old men when I walked into the Episcopal church pumpkin sale in our town. The pumpkins were grouped by size and shape on several of the flat gravestones in the 18th century churchyard. I wandered around, enjoying the views of exotic gourds and enormous pumpkins before I bought a couple of decorative white pumpkins to put on the kitchen table, and a small pumpkin for making my own pumpkin purée. I’m sorry, Libby’s, but we are going full homemade for baking this week.

Pumpkins are not just for Halloween decorations and Thanksgiving pie. It’s time to expand our repertoires and use some of our local produce with seasonal gusto. I love a nice spicy pumpkin cake, and even though I have it all gussied up as a fancy cupcake in this week’s illo, it tastes just as deelish when baked as a utilitarian sheet cake, slathered with un-photogenic swathes of cream cheese icing. Behind-the-scenes homely sheet cakes are every bit as wonderful as the fancy shop cupcakes, and easier to pack in lunches, too.

You will need to make pumpkin purée. It is messy and fun, and for your first batch you can employ child labor. After that they will be wise to your ways, so enjoy yourselves for an afternoon. It is an early lesson in farm-to-table. They can pick out the pumpkin, bring it home, carve it up, bake it, purée it, and bake a pumpkin cake. So artisanal! So Union Square Greenmarket!

Be sure to choose smaller pumpkins, weighing 2 to 4 pounds, for making purée. Larger pumpkins tend to be dry and stringy. An ice cream scoop is a handy tool for removing the seeds and membrane from inside the pumpkin – but I once used an electric jig saw for jack-o-lantern carving, so use whatever makes you happy. You can store the purée in bags or in freezer-proof dishes, which means you can whip out homemade purée for almost any occasion. I know some people use it for making homemade dog treats, but Luke the wonder dog is just going to have to be happy with store-bought kibble!

The Pioneer Woman has a nice and easy step-by-step post about making pumpkin purée: https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/make-your-own-pumpkin-puree/

Pumpkin Cake from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups pumpkin purée
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus an extra 1/4 cup if needed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. I always use this glass pan.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the oil, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a mixer or whisk until completely combined. Batter will be thick.

Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-36 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you find the top or edges of the cake is/are browning too quickly in the oven, loosely cover it with aluminum foil.

Remove the cake from the oven and set the entire pan on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely. After about 45 minutes, I usually place the cake in the refrigerator to speed things up.

Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (I add it). Spread the frosting on the cooled cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. This helps sets the frosting and makes cutting easier.

Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for 5 days. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-pumpkin-cake/

Pumpkin cake from Martha – she calls for canned pumpkin purée: https://www.marthastewart.com/1128115/pumpkin-bars

Grown-up pumpkin bundt cake (no frosting!):
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/moist-pumpkin-tube-cake/

Pumpkin cupcakes: https://beyondfrosting.com/2018/09/17/moist-pumpkin-cupcakes/

Luke insists that I include this recipe for dog treats: https://www.spendwithpennies.com/pumpkin-dog-treat-recipe/

I found this recipe at the Redman Farms Facebook page: https://www.cookingwithmaryandfriends.com/2012/09/oooo-i-just-love-fall-and-all-yummy.html?

“Like many indelible family memories, carving a pumpkin begins with someone grabbing a really sharp knife.”
– Dana Gould

No, you do not need to drive to Vermont – although it is probably looking colorful there, and well worth the drive. And you do not need a deep fat fryer. You do not need to be Homer Price with a magic doughnut machine to make your very own baked apple cider doughnuts. Just trot down to the farmers’ market or the corner grocery store and buy a little fresh autumnal apple cider.

We once lived about two blocks away from a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. Luckily, it was in the days before internet hype, and we regarded it as a cute local establishment, and gave it wide berth, because even in our youth we were dimly aware of the addictive qualities of hot sugar-glazed doughnuts. So foolish!

My daughter lives close to another baking emporium, Cinotti’s in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (https://cinottisbakery.com) Cinotti’s has world-famous pumpkin spice doughnuts, available only for a short period of time each year, which are also worth the drive, although my personal faves are their maple and bacon doughnuts. I can’t begin to imagine how many calories there are in maple and bacon doughnuts. But once a year I do indulge. I just cannot imagine why the entire town doesn’t waddle around, jiggling excess doughnut weight, while they go about their usual activities of biking or surfing. They don’t need drink cup holders on their beach cruiser handlebars, just sturdy doughnut poles for transporting Cinotti’s doughnut towers. Such self-restraint is deeply admirable, particularly when you realize how many different kinds of doughnuts Cinotti’s sells: coffee, strawberry, pumpkin, glazed, chocolate glazed, chocolate cake, jelly, cinnamon swirl, red velvet, buttercream filled, zebra glazed, long john, apple fritters and cinnamon knots. And that is just the published list of doughnuts! Imagine what spur-of-the-moment creations suddenly appear in their long glass cases each morning!

But here we are, trying to greet fall even though we have gone back to wearing summer clothes. And being mindful of our waistlines and our lack of surfing opportunities, we have to enjoy ourselves in slightly less bacchanalian ways. Namely homemade, baked doughnuts. Thrifty and wholesome, they will evoke fall. And it will use up the apple cider we buy every year, and forget to drink after we have had a celebratory glass or two.

Though there are many ways in which to enjoy apple cider:Warm family-friendly apple cider: https://www.asweetpeachef.com/hot-apple-cider/

Martha’s is a little more complicated: https://www.marthastewart.com/313105/spiced-apple-cider

Although she does display a little holiday spirit with a spiked version, too: https://www.marthastewart.com/318051/apple-pie-spiced-cider

The recipe I baked I found in the New York Times. I found they were a little too generous with their measurements of butter and cinnamon sugar, but they might just suit you fine.

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup apple cider

Heat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease 2 6-cavity doughnut pans (I have silicon which don’t require extra grease). Or you can make 12 muffins – be sure to use cupcake papers.

Use a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and grate the nutmeg. Set bowl aside.

Now haul out the stand mixer, so you can walk away and empty the dishwasher while mixing, cream 10 tablespoons of butter, brown sugar and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, on medium speed, until the mixture is light and fluffy – 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Beat in vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed. While the mixer is running, add the apple cider.

Spoon the batter into the pans – it is messy. Fill each well about half way. Bake 12 to 15 minutes for doughnuts, 15 to 20 for muffins.

While the doughnut bake, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar with the other teaspoon of cinnamon, in a small bowl. (You will have plenty left over for cinnamon toast.) In another bowl, melt the remaining 6 ounces of butter. I think you can get by with 2 or 3 tablespoons, but that’s me.

Let the doughnuts cool for about 5 minutes after baking, and then unmold, brush with melted butter and dredge them in the cinnamon sugar. Serve warm, or let cool and have a delicious breakfast. I sent 10 to Mr. Friday’s office, along with the jug of cider. Happy fall!

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019593-baked-apple-cider-doughnuts?

Going to hell in a hand basket apple cider doughnuts: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/baked-salted-caramel-apple-cider-doughnuts/

And you can also start your day with apple cider pancakes! What a fabulous concept! https://jeanieandluluskitchen.com/mulled-apple-cider-pancakes/

“I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.”
― Mark Twain

The end of September is an odd transitional time of the year when some mornings it is cool enough for a light jacket, which we will regret wearing along about eleven, when the temperature rises precipitously. The angle of light is changing, the sun is going down earlier, there are some leaves falling, as well as some paint-damaging acorns, and we are about ready for a change. Summer is a grand season, but I am looking forward to sweater weather. It looks like it should feel cooler than it actually is.

I love the simplicity of summer cooking, but you know that my summertime philosophy is to send as much of the cooking outside to Mr. Friday and his grill as I possibly can, without looking too churlish. I need to figure out what dishes I can bring inside, without compromising said philosophy. And that is why I looked into what the cast-iron frying pan can do for me.

And instead of wandering freely (translation:lazily) around the internet, and relying on my favorite crutches of Food52 or Bon Appétit websites, I trolled some of my actual cookbooks for some ideas. One of my beloved cookbooks provides me with hours of entertainment: The Southerner’s Cookbook: Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories From the Editors of Garden & Gun. These are well-researched recipes, which are kitchen-tested, as well as being traditional, and reliable.

I want to enjoy corn for another few weeks, or as long as our farmers’ market sells it. Here is a great recipe from Garden & Gun for Cast-Iron Charred Corn:

8 ears of corn, husks and silk removed
1/4 cup finely diced bacon
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup minced Vidalia onion
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh chives

To removed the corn kernels, cut off the ends of each ear to make flat surfaces. One at a time, stand the ears in a wide casserole dish and carefully cut down the sides with a sharp knife. Next, hold each cob over a bowl and scrape the back edge of the knife to remove the “milk”. Discard the milked ears and set liquid aside.

Place a cast-iron skillet over medium-high eat. Add the cut corn kernels to the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing occasionally. Add the bacon and continue to cook until the kernels are slightly charred and the bacon begins to crisp, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the corn “milk”, the charred corn and bacon mixture, and the cream. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the chives and serve hot.
And now you will never need to read the recipe again. You can add this to your summer side dish rotation, but it can also ease you into fall.

Oh, look! It’s also available online: https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/cast-iron-charred-corn/

Another beautifully designed southern cooking book is Vivian Howard’s Deep Run Roots. Like Garden & Gun, Howard’s preparation is simple and the end result is satisfying. You will need to read this recipe just once before you commit it to your memory and your dinner repertoire.

Corn and Snap Bean Succotash with Basil and Jalapeño
Makes 5 cups

1 cup leeks, sliced into 1/3-inch rounds
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
3 cups corn, cut from 6 – 7 ears
2 cups snap beans (we call them string beans), cut into 1/3-inch pieces
1 tablespoon minced jalapeño, seeds removed, if you like
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water or corn stock
1/3 cup whole basil leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter

In a 10- or 12-inch skillet or sauté pan, sweat the leeks and ginger in the vegetable oil for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, corn, beans, jalapeño, salt and water. Bring it up to a simmer and cook until all but 1/4 cup of the water has evaporated. I know that is impossible to measure, so just eyeball it. Stir in the basil leaves, lemon juice, and the butter. Serve warm.

And here is a link to the recipe, which is not as lovely as the cookbook version: https://books.google.com/books?id=jRTyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT382&lpg=PT382&dq=Vivian+Howard+corn+and+snap+bean+succotash&source=bl&ots=XA8rrzHHPR&sig=ACfU3U1TYhuieMzHB8tT9HqbiCZrFe12bA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiozZup9u7kAhUCA6wKHWvUDlwQ6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Vivian%20Howard%20corn%20and%20snap%20bean%20succotash&f=false

We must give the Food52 city slickers their due: https://food52.com/recipes/28514-granddaddy-s-skillet-fried-corn-with-bacon

And while we wait for the weather to catch up with the calendar let’s move out to the back porch for a glass of wine. It’s almost dinnertime. I can hear geese some afternoons, and I watch the squirrel hunting parties rustling around while they are checking on this year’s pecan harvest. Luke the wonder dog is quite grateful for the extra exercise.

“On September twentieth every year, I got to choose my menu – meatloaf, corn niblets, and rice were followed by candles on chocolate cake with vanilla icing and a scoop of Brock-Hall ice cream.”
-Donald Hall

All my helpful kitchen assistants evaporate shortly after meals have finished. Even Luke the wonder dog knows that the show is over, and there won’t be any more tasty tidbits falling from the cutting board. He has taken up his sentry post by the pantry door, waiting anxiously for his postprandial rawhide chewy. No loyalty.

Everyone deserts the hapless cook and the aprés dinner dish washing. But I am learning to fool those casual diners, by using fewer cooking pans. One of our favorite chicken dishes is what we call Chicken Schnitzel. Usually we flour the flattened chicken breast, dip it in egg, then slather it with Panko bread crumbs before putting frying the chicken in a skillet of hot oil. That means we usually employ three fancy Sur la Table metal pans for the flour, egg and bread crumbs, and the skillet. With this new recipe we eliminated a step or two, a couple of pans, and some calories, I hope!

This recipe eliminates the flour, and calls for a sheet of parchment paper lining a baking sheet. We are cooking the chicken in the oven, instead of frying. So no oil to dispose of, and no greasy pan to wash up afterwards. And no grease-splattered stovetop. Genius! https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/sheet-pan-chicken-parmesan (I would suggest tossing everything on the cookie sheet at the same time, instead of in the suggested stages. By the time our chicken was ready, the garlic had self-immolated.) This was a great way to use up the last handful of garden cherry tomatoes, too. The chicken was hot and crispy, without the looming specter of fried food hanging over the meal and our clogging heart vessels.

You can use sheet pans for more than cookies or Sunday bacon. The single sheet pan mindset allows for relaxing breathing space, instead of the wizardry called for in simultaneously cooking and coordinating separate frying pans and saucepans. You can cook chicken, asparagus and potatoes on one sheet, and laugh your way through clean up. Plus you can sit down at the counter and read another chapter of Fleishman Is in Trouble instead of standing and stirring, and timing. Why, a glass of cheap white wine is an excellent idea for the frazzled cook! Pour away!

Chicken, Asparagus and Potatoes:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sheet_pan_chicken_with_asparagus_and_potatoes/

Food52 always has excellent ideas for sheet pan meals: https://food52.com/blog/23683-best-sheet-pan-dinner-recipes-chicken-eggs-vegetables

You can plan a whole week of sheet pan meals thanks to Epicurious: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/weekly-meal-plan-sheet-pan-dinners-back-to-school-article

And some more! Thanks, Damn Delicious! https://damndelicious.net/2017/04/29/10-sheet-pan-dinners/

What will you do with your new-found time?

“The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”
–Agatha Christie

School has started and our young are out of the house, learning and thriving and growing by leaps and bounds. They are ravenous and insatiable, devouring books, videos and after-school snacks like a cloud of locust. As a matter of fact, I’m feeling a little peckish right now, too.

Michale Pollen, the great and powerful, said if you are hungry, then eat an apple. If you don’t want to eat an apple, you are probably not actually hungry. That has become my new mantra. It works fine for me, because I have decades of guilt and insecurities, but it is not a popular theory with the young folks. They can be snappy and irritable after school, and would prefer something crunchy and sweet and salty – nothing so banal and clichéd (or available – look at that bowl full of fruit sitting on your counter!) as a simple apple.

We don’t want to load up or lard up before dinner, but sometimes a little taste treat is the answer to everyone’s general crankiness. And a moment spent lingering together in the kitchen, or chatting while driving to the next practice is the only quality conversation we will have some days.

Luckily, with the miracle of the internet, there are so many expert snacking tips floating around the ether – ideas coming from folks who understand the science of nutrition, who aren’t just trying to silence the shrieks of desperation from bored and cranky children. They have answers that fill our new re-usable silicon snack bags and adorable Bento boxes. (If we shouldn’t be using single use straws or shopping bags, should we actually be using plastic baggies? We are trying to wean ourselves off the soul-crushing dependence on plastic bags. That’s why the fridge looks so tidy these days.)

Food52, always our favorite place to start food and meal research, has lots of tasty aprés school snacks. They will also feed the self-employed, who wander into the kitchen at all hours, seeking sustenance and a short diversion from one’s own dull and repetitive thoughts. Here is a no-recipe recipe for a Chex-y snack mix. It will use up a lot of half bags of pretzels, and boxes of cereal. (It is also excellent when served with beer.) https://food52.com/blog/9403-how-to-make-snack-mix-without-a-recipe-savory-or-sweet

Martha has a simple recipe for oatmeal cookies, that you can prepare with the children. Or not. I always enjoyed baking with our children. There is nothing quite so wonderful as learning how to measure flour, and then getting it all over the kitchen – life as a science fair project. https://www.marthastewart.com/315977/healthy-oatmeal-cookies

Obviously, I am a salty fatty snack person. Which is why Luke the wonder dog and I walk for an hour every day, to atone for my fatty snack sins. But I have never understood why people buy microwave popcorn. You might just as well plunk $5 down for pre-popped corn. I love cooking popcorn on the stove, with oil and generous lashings of melted butter. But that is when we are having a tear-jerk movie marathon, not trying to fill the after school furnaces that need stoking. And so I pass along a very simple, and a healthy alternative to chemical laced commercial popcorn:
DIY Microwave Popcorn:
1/3 cup popcorn kernels
1 medium brown paper lunch bag
1 staple
Melted butter and salt or other seasonings to taste

Pour the popcorn kernels into the paper bag and fold the top over, and staple once, in the middle. No more staples or the microwave will explode!
Microwave on high until the popping slows, about 90 seconds. You do not want to burn the popcorn! Never!

Pour the popped popcorn into a large bowl and season as desired. Some people add seasoning salt, ranch dressing mix, cinnamon sugar, olive oil and sea salt, or sautéd garlic butter.

Smoothies – cool and refreshing, noisy and messy. If you are alone in the kitchen you can sneak in some kale! Something to appeal to everyone: https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-make-a-basic-smoothie-2506858

And then there is always the basic peanut butter on whole wheat bread, or if you have exhausted every possible food avenue, eat an orange.

“Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”
– Some Dad, Somewhere

We are anticipating a little squall this week, and ask your indulgence as we repeat a Food Friday from last year.

It’s time for all the kiddos to go back to school. Everyone gets back into the comforting routine of an academic year, and the frightening reality of daily lunch obligations and responsibilities. Lunch is my favorite meal to have in a restaurant; I love a good turkey sandwich and please can I have some crispy, hot French fries? But that is my fantasy life – the one where I also live in a cozy little pied-à-terre in London, and get invited to paint watercolors with Prince Charles a couple of times a year. But I digress. Lunch.

Lunch can be a wonderful treat, or the slough of despair. You can take all sorts of time and imagination stuffing little bento boxes with cleverly crafted Where the Wild Things Are broccoli-based creatures, or you can assemble lunches using the items from Columns A through F. These are practical, nutritious and will make you life easier. Because then you can spend more time reading with your own Wild Things, and less time in the kitchen. Print this list and keep it handy whenever you troll the grocery store.

This is the time-honored Spy Test Kitchens Back to School Sandwich Ingredients List. Enjoy!

It is just as timely today:

Column A
Let’s start with bread:
Ciabatta bread
Rye bread
Whole grain breads
Hard rolls
Portuguese rolls
French baguette
Italian bread
Brioche
Flour tortillas
Croissants
Bagels
Challah bread
Crostini
Cornbread
Naan bread
Focaccia bread
Pita bread
(If storing overnight, top bread with lettuce first, then the spreads, to keep sandwich from getting soggy.)

Column B
Next, the spread:
Mayo
Sriracha
Ketchup
Dijon mustard
Honey mustard
Italian dressing
Russian dressing
Cranberry sauce
Pesto sauce
Hummus
Tapenade
Sour cream
Mango chutney
Butter
Hot sauce
Salsa

Column C
Cheeses:
Swiss cheese
American cheese
Mozzarella
Blue cheese
Cream cheese
Havarti cheese
Ricotta cheese
Cheddar cheese
Provolone cheese
Brie cheese
Cottage cheese
Goat cheese

Column D
The main ingredient:
Meatloaf
Turkey
Chicken
Corned beef
Bacon
Crumbled hard boiled eggs
Scrambled eggs
Corned beef
Salami
Italian sausage
Ham
Roast beef
Egg salad
Tuna salad
Ham salad
Crab salad
Chicken salad
Turkey salad
Lobster salad
Tofu

Column E
The decorative (and tasty) elements:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Basil
Onion
Avocado
Cucumber
Cilantro
Shredded carrots
Jalapenos
Cole slaw
Sliced apples
Sliced red peppers
Arugula
Sprouts
Radicchio
Watercress
Sliced pears
Apricots
Pickles
Spinach
Artichoke hearts
Grapes
Strawberries
Figs

Column F
Finger foods:
Cherries
Carrots
Strawberries
Green Beans
Broccoli
Celery
Edemame
Granola
Rice cakes
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Melon balls
Raisins
Broccoli

Be sure to check with your school about peanut policies.

Nobody will ever complain about lunch again if you can remember to jazz it up a little. My son, who lived for at least an entire year on (requested) white bread, bologna and yellow mustard sandwiches, is now a strapping 6 feet 4 inches tall. Imagine how far into the clouds he would stretch if we had thought to make him fig, goat cheese and caramelized onion sandwiches.

From the people who have time to recreate literary masterpieces: https://www.chron.com/living/article/TK-amazing-lunch-box-ideas-for-back-to-school-11947764.php#photo-10833935

And don’t forget dessert!

“A party without cake is just a meeting”
― Julia Child