Thanksgiving Reunion

Every other year we head out to Bridgehampton to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom’s side of the family – all of the descendants of Woo Woo and Faddie. This year we gained Jamie back from many years away and Jeremy back from Europe plus the newest arrival, baby Reese, but missed Clara and her clan for a final total of 30 people from age 77 to 11 months.

Growing up, the nine cousins spent every Christmas and Easter together and many, many weeks in the summer. Eva was the cool eldest cousin who we all looked up to and admired awe-struck. For a while I was fortunate enough to inherit her 60's era hand-me-downs. I still remember my 5th grade favorites – a pair of hot pink checked elephant bells - perfect worn with a body suit, my belt with a pattern of doves and peace signs and my Indian beaded hair band. Billy was next and closest to me in age and a great friend – with a personality that was larger than life, he was funny, loyal and unpredictable in an exciting way. Then came the inseparable threesome of Busy, Jean and Jamie, followed by Clara and Johnny and finally Jeremy, the beloved youngest.

Early mornings in the summer I went with Dad to the beach with the dogs. On our way home we would stop to explore new houses under construction before the workers arrived. Rainy days were for going out in the car to look for things to sketch, working on jigsaw puzzles and of course, visiting the whaling museum. Sunny days were spent at the beach club under groupings of yellow and white umbrellas tanning, eating sandwiches and riding waves for hours. When we were older we biked into Bridgehampton to look at nudie magazines at White’s Pharmacy or snuck across the street to explore the “spooky house”, an abandoned Victorian in the swamp that inspired Charles Adams’ Adams Family home. Evenings were for cards and games of “ghost in the graveyard.” Television was not an option until the 80’s.

Thanksgiving dinner started with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the “Big House”. Busy brought a gorgeous crudités platter of peppers, blanched snow peas and asparagus, carrots, cucumbers, and jicama with a good garlicky dip, salsa and guacamole with corn chips, and a platter of huge shrimp with a choice of sauces. Aunt Sara Jane made her famous Gorgonzola cheese ball with crackers. To drink there was sparkling cider, Saranac beer, Italian Prosecco, white Burgundy and Pinot Noir.

At dinner time we headed up to the cottage which had been cleared of all furniture and filled with long rectangular tables decorated with mini pumpkins, rose hips, evergreens and votive candles. Each family brought a turkey and various side dishes. Ours was a simple 25-pound bird filled with onions and herbs and stuffed generously under the skin with sweet butter and sage leaves. Mom made steamed green beans and a carrot-rutabaga purée, and I made my Brussels sprouts with butter, mustard, bacon and pine nuts. Mom and I also made a huge dish of stuffing flavored with sautéed mushrooms, onion, leeks, celery, butter and herbs and two different cranberry relishes. Eva brought her famous spicy and succulent blackened Southwestern turkey, cornbread dressing and roasted vegetables. Jen and John made an incredible southern sweet potato and potato gratin baked in butter, heavy cream and cheese.

For dessert we had three pies from the St. John on the Mountain Youth Group's bake sale (pecan, pumpkin and apple) and three from Breadzilla in Wainscott (mince, pear and cherry). These were accompanied by Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla and Dulce de Leche ice cream. I really didn’t have room for more but felt I should force down a thin slice of pecan and another of pear. Yum! For breakfast I tried the mince (vegetarian version – no suet!) and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked that which I had shunned for half a lifetime.

Now that Woo Woo and Faddie are gone, the cousins are grown and dispersed up and down the East Coast with families of their own, and the summer months are now portioned out equitably, Thanksgiving has become the only time that we gather as one group. The three branches of the family have always been quite different, but each of my cousins has carved out a meaningful life in his or her own way. What we will always share is a deeply-rooted commitment and connection to family.

The Best Brussels Sprouts

As usual, all measurements are approximate and can be adjusted to taste.

Two stalks of Brussels sprouts

3-4 Tbs. sweet butter

2 Tbs. stone ground mustard

5 strips of thick, smoked bacon sliced cross-wise 1/2" wide

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted in a skillet until browned.

Snap the Brussels sprouts off the stalks and soak the guys in a sink or bowl of cold water to remove any grit. Trim the stems and cut a small, shallow "x" in the bottom of the medium and large ones. Boil on the stove in a large pot of salted water to desired doneness. Toast the pine nuts in a skillet until lightly browned and set aside. Cook the bacon until crisp and drain on paper towels. Melt the butter on the stove over low heat, then remove and stir in the mustard. Drain the Brussels sprouts and then return them to the pot with all of the other ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste and serve! Serves ten people who really like the stuff.

Fall Perfection

When did the whole corn maze thing take off? It has certainly gotten out of hand. We shudder each time we pass Alstede's in Chester where hundreds upon hundreds of cars are parked and many more people are swarming around the moon bounce, the "petting" area where they buy grain to feed to cows, horses and llamas, line up for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch and THE MAZE. That said, it sure is a brilliant source of income for farmers and who can blame them, especially those who choose to farm in the Garden State? Not I.

In Ringoes there is a maze in the form of a train that one gets to by taking a ride on an actual train. Also in Chester, there is an election year maze that spells out VOTE 08. Apparently they hand out election info at various points within. Never mind that the mazes could be spelling out anything they want - the visitor has no way of knowing on the ground. Add that to the list of things that make Amercians just plain stupid. Sorry. I'm a little down on "my fellow Amercians" right now.

The lone exception to this insanity happens to take place right on Mom and Dad's farm in Mendham. "Frank the Farmer" decided to get a piece of the farm maze action a few years back but he does it the old fashioned way (if there is such a thing in where corn mazes are concerned). In the front field he has a big, wide hay bale pyramid for climbing and a long, dark hay tunnel for the little ones. His tractor pulls the hay wagon around and up to the back field all day long arriving at a beautiful corn maze on the top of the hill that doesn't spell anything at all.

Frank does not map out an elaborate route with a computer program resulting in a clever image to be promoted through aerial images on direct mail pieces. When corn maze season arrives, he heads into the field with a machete and starts slicing out a path. He also has impressive pick your own pumkin and gourd patches. We picked up nice goose neck and turban squash, a creamy white pumkin and a cool, green apple-shaped gourd, but he also has long, snaky 3-foot gourds and odd pumkins that look like they have a bad case of leprosy or worse. While we enjoyed the sunny day perusing the gourd patch and chatting with friends, the girls spent over an hour running the maze above.

What does any of this have to do with food you may ask. I could stretch it and describe the caramel apple I watched Joe eating for a while but the real answer is nothing. It was just part of a great fall day at Mom and Dad's that started by dividing and digging plants in Mom's extensive perennial gardens with Clara, followed by a walk through the back field towards the stream. The blue sky, warm sun and brilliant folliage were fall perfection. Then there was lunch! Tomato and mozarella salad, red cabbage cole slaw, the last corn on the cob of the summer and grilled Griggstown turkey burgers and sausages served with Cousin Frannie's Relish and all enjoyed on the terrace. Delicious. For dessert Celia and Maeve had helped Datu make carrot cake in early celebration of Clara's birthday next week. Thibault and Celia took generous charge of the icing. Yum.

My Red Cabbage Slaw (it's just as good with green cabbage)

1 large or 2 small cabbages (about 2 pounds)

3-4 carrots, peeled and grated

1 small sweet red pepper, sliced or diced

3 scallions, sliced

3 Tbs. chopped Italian parsley

Dressing:

1 cup vegetable oil

1/4 granulated sugar (I use natural cane)

1/3 cup white vinegar

1 Tbs. stone ground mustard

1 Tbs. celery seeds

1 tsp. salt

grindings of black pepper to taste

Cut cabbage into quarters lengthwise. Cut out cores and slice as finely as possible crosswise. Place in a large bowl. Prepare and add other veggies.

To make the dressing, combine the remaining ingredients in another bowl. Add to the cabbage and toss with clean hands. Store in fridge. The longer it sits the better it tastes.

http://www.griggstownquailfarm.com/

The Poetry of Pizza

sweet margareta
dreamy taste of summer, smoke
much exclamation!

So I'm no poet. Here's one by Billy Collins who inspired my own attempt. He mentioned that about one in thirty haiku are successful. This is one of his:

Awake in the dark—
so that is how rain sounds
on a magnolia.

It's okay but does it mention Nomad Pizza? No.

Jamie drove down to join me at the Dodge Poetry Festival on Saturday and we spent the afternoon and most of the evening listening to readings (and a storyteller) with hundreds of other pilgrims at Waterloo Village. It was inspiring and exciting to see the breadth and talent of those who practice this art form.

Poetry nourished our souls that afternoon and left us with ravenous appetites for the evening line up under the big top. And we were hungry. Barbara had told of the amazing brick oven pizza truck at the festival this year and we found it, a modified '49 REO Speedwagon (Dad, are you reading this?), shoe-horned between jerk BBQ, deep-fried oreos, funnel cake and corn dogs.




What a sight! There actually is a brick oven built into the truck with a roaring wood fire inside. There was a long line but it moved along nicely as pizzas were pushed in and pulled out with surprising speed. Once inside, the thin dough puffed up and baked quickly, emerging lightly charred. These were beautiful pies! Of the two types offered we chose Margareta over pepperoni. Each flavorful bite contained the taste of fresh tomatoes, basil and the woodsy light-as-air crust.

This is pizza that leaves one with the feeling that all is well in the world. Just for a moment.

Artichoke by Robin Robertson

The nubbed leaves

come away

in a tease of green, thinning

down to the membrane:

the quick, purpled

beginnings of the male.

Then the slow hairs of the heart:

the choke that guards its trophy,

its vegetable goblet.

The meat of it lies,

displayed

up-ended, al-dente,

the stub-root aching in its oil.

http://www.dodgepoetry.org/
http://www.nomadpizzaco.com/

Our Favorite Zucchini Bread

In August, in an effort to deal with an excess of squash, Nora and I began trying zucchini bread recipes. I think we tried four in all and the first of those was the best. It was an old favorite from my tattered Green Thumb cookbook. Later in the summer I picked up a recipe at Nora's (the other Nora of Stone's Throw Garden) and tried it out with Thibault with a few key tweaks. I should say that we omitted nuts and raisins in all of the recipes and replaced them with chocolate chips, testing various brands and types of chocolate as well. For the last recipe we used 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 white flour and organic cane sugar (and reduced the amount) instead of refined white. This moved it effectively into the domain of health food.

This fifth and final recipe was the hands down favorite zucchini bread. We've been eating it around the clock and the kids requested that we make even more to freeze. Now they're trying to figure out what other vegetables can be turned into sweet breads and made magically delicious with a heaping cup of choclate chips. Our favorite for zucchini bread by the way are Ghiradelli semi-sweet.

Best of Five Zucchini Bread

1-1/2 cup sugar (organic cane or Florida crystals if you have them)
3 eggs
3 cups flour (1/2 white and 1/2 white whole wheat if possible)
1 cup Safflower Oil
3 cups grated zucchini or summer squash
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (we like Ghiradelli)

Preheat over to 350. Grease and flour two 8"x5" loaf pans. Combine sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and zucchini. Add salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour.

Dinner and a Movie After 17 Years of Marriage

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

-M.F.K. Fisher

Seventeen years! Geez. We did not go out for dinner or even a drink to celebrate. We didn't exchange gifts. I cooked and we ate together at the table where we have shared meals most nights for going on seven years in this house, longer in others. Those meals have ranged from hurried 10 minute yelling-at-bickering-kids affairs to the more leisurely sharing-at-the-end-of-the-day meal that the experts constantly refer to. Either way, nearly every night we eat together around my grandmother Baba's dining room table.

I had picked up a container of Lebanese lebneh at Metropolitan (yogurt cheese balls rolled in herbs, marinated with olive oil and dressed with minced red onion and tomato), some pita bread, a pound and a half of shrimp and the last of the soft shells for the season. I had been thinking about Mark's shrimp all week but once I was there I realised that somehow the entire summer had passed without my eating a single soft shell crab. That needed to be remedied. I also grabbed some store-made Chermoula to marinate the shrimp and dill sauce to serve with the crab. I was excited to see the Chermoula as it is one of my favorite sauces/marinades and I haven't made it or eaten it in a while.

Dinner was a fairly quick production with everything grilled over hardwood except for the salad. Since I starting using hardwood a few years back I really only turn to charcoal as a last resort and though I enjoy the convenience of using the gas grill in Bridgehampton, I haven't been able to sever my close ties to the Weber at home.

The Menu

• Marinated Lebneh with lightly-grilled Pita Bread brushed with olive oil
• Hierloom Tomato, Tomatillo and Cilantro Salad from Stone's Throw Garden
• Variety of Grilled Baby Eggplant from Stone's Throw tossed with olive oil, salt, fresh cilantro and pepper
• Grilled Skewered Shrimp marinated in Chermoula
• Grilled Soft Shell Crabs brushed with olive oil and served with Creamy Dill Sauce and lemon wedges

That's it. Good, simple, and prepared and shared with love.

My Moroccan Chermoula Recipe

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. tomato paste

1/4 tsp. harissa or other hot pepper paste

1 Tbs. paprika

2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk lightly or pulse a couple of times in a food processor. This keeps quite a while in the fridge.

Homage to Stone's Throw Garden

The highlight of my week in the summer is pick up day at Stone's Throw Garden and I don't mean that I live for a sleazy rural outdoor singles event. We joined this local CSA when we moved to the area years ago, having belonged to others in Morristown, Long Valley and Flemington over the years. I love this one best of all because it suits me somehow in a way that they didn't and elicits a deeper connection. It is about two miles from our house, hidden in a development of large, tasteful new homes. Nora and Mark live in the original old farmhouse on the former farm. The vegetable garden surrounds the house and takes up much of the property. The first things you see as you arrive at the end of the cul de sac are towering 10' sunflowers. Nora usually appears next in one of her practical yet somehow cool, big floppy hats, cut-off overalls, listening to an ipod. She is an amazing gardner, and smart, saavy, and incredibly warm.

The week's picks are stowed in a small stone spring house. Yesterday's selection included Italian parsley, basil, scallions, a choice of greens, five varieties of eggplant, at least six varieties of tomatoes, three kinds of peppers, green and yellow string beans and a choice from the "item bucket" of gigantic beets, and red or green cabbage. How does she do it?! Each week additional items are designated as "pick your own." After I filled my bag with our share of veggies inside, I headed to the garden for beautiful yellow and orange cherry tomatoes and cilantro. Then I made my way to the rows of flowers in the back.

Many things contribute to making this a special place. The first is Nora herself and the incredible bounty that she is able to somehow pull from the earth. The earth! The second is that Stone's Throw is a secret Garden of Eden for the left-leaning in a town and a county where most lean the other way. But for me, it is the "pick your own" option that makes it even more special. Am I ever happier than when I am picking flowers and literally rubbing shoulders and sharing the busy air space with all manner of bees and butterflies?

September is when the weekly pick up is the most generous but in the background is the nagging, bittersweet knowledge that there will be an end to this. That is all the more reason to revel in the precious minutes when time falls away and nothing exists beyond that moment in the garden.

Labor Day Weekend at Home and Away

It could have been a big party. The weather was perfect; both hot and dry with a great breeze in the woods. Throughout the week I kept thinking of more people to include but as the day neared, the list still hadn’t grown beyond its original and ideal occupants – Liz and John and Joe. We started with fresh cream of tomato soup (is there anything better?) and then ate our fill of grilled citrus-marinated chicken on skewers, Japanese eggplant, summer squash and pizza dough with rosemary and sea salt all prepared over a hardwood fire on our old workhorse Weber. Additional flames leapt from the fire pit and sparklers amused the kids. It was a great night to be outside and a melancholy end to summer.

All in all it was a mellow long weekend where time actually seemed to stretch a bit further than usual with an underlying theme of friends and fires. We enjoyed an evening beer with Rachel and Gardner and many girls around a roaring hibachi in Asbury and two kinds of pulled pork with corn on the cob cooked over a hand-built outdoor fireplace with Nancy, Dan, Andy and friends at home in Lebanon Township.

We left local comforts behind for a Sunday evening in the City with my wonderful, crazy-in-a-good-way friend Karen, husband Fran and kids, Annie and Jake, who were visiting from London. After roaming the Village from their hotel on St. Mark’s Place and through SoHo to the west side, we ended up at an old haunt and one of few still standing, the Ear Inn. We sipped wine on the sidewalk with a motley crew on folding chairs and enjoyed the wind off of the Hudson River before heading inside for burgers. The kids loved the seedy place, the tattooed and the pierced and found it “very New York.” Having been forewarned about the potential for conversation to turn to the earth’s demise in 2012, they also loved Karen. Thibault even declared her “cool” when we got in the car that night for the journey home.

It has been suggested that I include some simple recipes with my posts. I can do that, but please know that the measurements are loose and if I have to tighten them up I'll lose interest in this part of the blog entirely.

Marinated Chicken on Skewers adapted from Anna Pump's "Summer on a Plate"

• 4 lbs. boneless chicken thighs (I am way into chicken thighs right now) cut into large chunks
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 2 cloves mashed or minced garlic
• 2 Tbs. dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. harissa or other hot sauce
• 1 tsp. sea salt

Mix all ingredients together for the marinade and pour over skewered chicken 15 mins. before grilling. Once the skewers are on the grill, reduce the marinade by 2/3. Drizzle this sauce over the chicken before serving. Don't ask me about the temperature or cooking time. My use of a grill is pretty intuitive. You'll know when they're done and if they're cooking too fast.

http://earinn.c0m/

http://www.jibjab.com/view/164564