use real butter

My local hill got five inches of powder last night, so I grabbed my teles and headed out this morning. There’s no more powder, because I skied it all up. Powder feels like silk - except when you biff (and I did one very nice skis-over-head tumbler), but even then it’s a lovely way to wipe out.

dude in front better not track up my freshies

it snowed the whole morning

That was tiring (but fun), pushing powder around. I mean more tiring than usual because I haven’t been able to eat much solid food lately so I’ve been rather low on the blood sugar. My body’s weak after the last cycle’s myriad of side-effects anyway. I’m on the front end of that period when my body is sort of returning to normal and I desperately work out to bring it up to speed before the next dose. Consider it the inflection point of the sinusoid. It’s good to get the tele legs back. More snow in the forecast. More tele.

There’s nothing quite like a steaming hot bowl of soup or stew after skiing. Well, there wasn’t any to be had since I hadn’t made it. Easy enough to fix. Brunswick stew is a local specialty where I grew up. It’s simple to make and all of the ingredients are easy to get your hands on. I find it surprisingly delightful every time I make it because for some reason the recipe looks dull to me. I think it’s the sugar.

the veggies

The recipe I have comes from The Williamsburg Cookbook which lists a lot of traditional recipes, as in from the Colonial Days. Brunswick stew was originally made with squirrel, not chicken. I have never had squirrel before and I have no desire to trap any of the ones twitching in our trees. Organic chicken works for me.

chicken

I like to make my stew in two steps. First I boil the chicken in water and when the chicken is ready, I remove the skin and bones and shred the chicken. Then I strain the broth and refrigerate it until the fat has solidified (organic chicken fat is less solid) and remove the fat. That’s the first step.

some tomatoes

Yeah, no fresh tomatoes right now. I like this brand of organic toms. I also substitute zucchini for okra, and I typically like to use baby lima beans instead of standard limas. But my local store didn’t have baby limas, so I had to settle for adults this time around.

into the pot

The second step resumes the recipe by heating the broth and adding the vegetables. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

add the chickie

Then add the meat and spices (salt, pepper, and sugar - I told you it was simple) and the instructions just end there. I like to let it simmer for another 30 minutes at least. What you end up with is a satisfying hearty soup or sort of thin stew. Good and hot.

brunswick stew - desquirrelized

Chowning’s Tavern Brunswick Stew
The Williamsburg Cookbook

1 stewing hen (6 pounds), or 2 broiler-fryers (3 pounds each)
2 large onions, chopped
2 cups okra, cut (I subbed zucchini)
4 cups fresh or 2 cans (1 pound each) tomatoes
2 cups lima beans
3 medium potatoes, diced
4 cups corn cut from cob or 2 cans (1 pound each) corn
3 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp sugar

Cut chicken into pieces and simmer in 3 quarts water for thin stew, or 2 quarts for thick stew, until meat can easily be removed from the bones, about 2 1/4 hours. Add raw vegetables to broth and simmer, uncovered, until the beans and potatoes are tender. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching. Add chicken, boned and diced if desired, and the seasonings. The book notes that Brunswick stew benefits from long, slow cooking, and that some people believe the flavor improves if the stew is left overnight and reheated the following day. 8-10 servings.

I am finally getting to that ubiquitous meme that has been floating about the fblogosphere. I was tagged by the very popular Jaime of Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats, and I do mean popular, because she was tagged five times. There are actual rules to this meme:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Okay, five things about me… Let’s get on it:

1) I have an engagement mountain bike. I don’t own an engagement ring, nor do I ever want to. My mountain bike is faster, better, AND cheaper! Jeremy has an engagement mountaineering expedition pack.

2) I will take cold weather over warm weather. You may have figured that out from the ski whore photos, but you probably don’t know that I can’t stand the beach. There’s all that *sand* everywhere and it’s hot and there’s no shade. In case you think me a close-minded grump, I spent nearly every waking moment of my youth on the water or the waterfront. Warm weather puts me in a foul mood of sorts, especially if it is humid. Give me a snow-mantled mountain any day.

3) I think men look ridiculous naked.

4) I can’t stand relaxing - you can relax when you’re dead.

5) When I see a shooting star, I like to imagine my sister is saying she loves me.

Now for the fun part *rubbing hands together*. It wasn’t easy, but I decided to tag the following folks because I want to learn a little more about them:

Christine at Hot.Sour.Salty.Sweet. And Umami, aka HolyBasil. She maintains one gorgeous food blog and has demystified one of my favorite ethnic cuisines that I was too scared to explore until now.

Chuck at Sunday Nite Dinner because I fancy young men who cook beautiful food!

Cindy at Figs, Lavender, and Cheese. I just discovered her blog and the woman is friggin’ hilarious to read.

Kathryn at the beautiful diabetic. She is beautiful and incredible and inspiring.

Susan at StickyGooeyCreamyChewy. An absolute sweetheart of a woman who cranks out first rate treats as easily as she doles out the good vibes.

It’s snowing outside. That’s good news. Pup and I went out onto the deck to survey the flakes. Nice and fluffy.

the storm track is just getting started

watching little birdies in the yard

did u sed treetz?!

Whew, that was a long hiatus. While the weekend was a miserable slog, I knew things were on an upswing yesterday when I began to contemplate what recipes to try next. That and the fact that I was checking the snow forecasts for the big mountains, anxiously counting down the days to when I could clean the house (14 days after the lunar new year!), and following the news again. I am hoping this is the start of a solid good 2 weeks for me. Thanks to all for your very sweet wishes.

But there is some unfinished business from dinner last week. I never got around to posting what we had for our Valentine’s Day dessert. Crème brûlée is, in my mind, one of the most elegant, simple, and delightful ways to finish a meal. And it’s really not that hard to make! As long as you are competent enough to implement a water bath and not burn your house down with a propane torch (or you could use a broiler, but where is the fun in that?) you’re good as gold.

egg yolks and sugar

The ingredients list is ridiculously short and easy: egg yolks, sugar, cream, and vanilla. For some reason I whisked this by hand instead of using my stand mixer. That was annoying, but doable. Use the mixer, you will be happier for it. I would have been.

add cream

Once I mixed in the cream and vanilla, I strained the entire liquid because I find little bits of cooked egg in my crème brûlée to be disconcerting.

ladle the strained liquid into ramekins

You don’t have to use ramekins. You can use cute little tea cups or bowls or glasses - whatever you like or have on hand that is ovenproof. I like to use my ramekins because I don’t want to screw around looking for dainty tea cups that I don’t own and because I have a not so secret fear of heating some nice dishware unevenly with my torch resulting in a huge crack down the side. Anyway, set the ramekins in a large baking pan so they aren’t touching. The important part here is to bake the crème brûlées in a water bath - gentle heat. I have found the best method is to boil water in a kettle and when the oven is ready, set the pan with the ramekins into the oven and then carefully pour the hot water into the pan (making sure not to get water into the ramekins).

when done cooking, let cool to room temperature

Do yourself a favor and don’t rush the cooling. I bake my crème brûlée to just barely done. It is still jiggling when I take it out of the oven. When it cools to room temp, it should be just set - this yields a most silky and creamy texture. Pop them in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap.

before serving, sprinkle sugar on top and torch

I’ve tried sprinkling regular sugar, fine granulated sugar, and turbinado sugar on my crème brûlées. The turbinado lends the best caramelized crust for me, sort of holding its place. The finer grained sugars just run into a puddle in the center, which vexes me. If you must broil, go ahead, but the fun really is in the torching… not to mention it is always good to learn about phase changes and properties of sugar. Take care that the dish will be hot either way. Garnish with fruit or just dig in.

the satisfying snap of breaking through the sugar

Classic Crème Brûlée
from Elegantly Easy Crème Brûlée and Other Custard Desserts by Debbie Puente

8 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar (for the tops - I prefer turbinado)

Preheat oven to 300F. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in large bowl until sugar is dissolved and mixture is thick and pale yellow. Add cream and vanilla. Strain into a large bowl. Divide mixture into 6 ramekins or custard cups. Place in a water bath and bake until set around the edges, but still loose in the center, about 40 to 50 minutes (I needed 60 minutes). Remove from oven and leave in water bath until cooled. Remove cups from water bath and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. When ready to serve, sprinkle 2 tsp of sugar over each custard. Torch or broil the sugar until caramelized and serve.