feather bread

On a calm morning at the end of the boardwalk, I stood amidst the reeds squinting into my binoculars. The hum of military planes flying overhead mixed with the intermittent squawks of various shore birds and long-legged waders.

a stalking wonder

blueberry slump

It was positively summer-like this weekend and the allure of blueberries on sale at the store was too much to pass up. I was inspired to bake a slump when I saw this recipe in the Saveur 100 issue.

this slump’s no slouch!

smoked beef brisket: third time’s the charm

The saying is true. Like most techniques, you don’t start out a master. Luckily you learn and grow as you go along, each time a little closer to your ideal. And when you’re talking smoked brisket, there’s a pretty steep learning curve.

nothing beats the smell of wood smoke at 6 am

The first brisket we didn’t prep the meat before smoking, and also didn’t smoke it long enough, which gave us a flabby, fatty, mostly inedible slab of meat. I hate to say, but the majority ended up in the trash. The bites we ate were out of pity because we couldn’t bear wasting so much meat and money.

The second attempt we bought a small piece of brisket with the fat pared off. The flavor was there, but it gave our jaws an excellent workout. We salvaged the rest by grinding it in the food processor, then lightly sautéeing with tomatillo salsa, cumin, garlic, and oregano. We piled the warm brisket mixture into fresh corn tortillas and topped with cabbage-carrot slaw, cilantro, avocado and sour cream. A C- meal became an A, but still there was room to improve.

So what was different the third time? How did we finally get a melt-in-your-mouth, fork-shreddable brisket? Read on.

method: breaded, shallow-fried chicken cutlets

I struggle to look back and find a week where chicken doesn’t appear on the menu once, twice, maybe even three times. It’s ubiquitous in most of our everyday lives, and while we love our chicken around here, sometimes it can get a little monotonous.

Monotony no more. I’m rebelling against invariable chicken meals. Actually I put my foot down a long time ago, only now thinking to post about it. So on to it. One of our favorite methods of preparing chicken is pounding the breasts to a 1/4″ thickness and shallow-frying them up with a breadcrumb and herb coating.

breading assembly line set-up back in Minneapolis [Oct 2007]

Even with this one preparation, the variations are endless: before dredging, dip the chicken in buttermilk or egg wash, or brush with honey or a combination of butter and mustard; homemade breadcrumbs for a rougher texture, Panko for a crispy crust or store-bought fine crumbs for a lighter coating; add a variety of fresh or dry herbs, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino or dried red chilli flakes to the breadcrumbs. Another option we really enjoyed in the past is rubbing some grated onion into both sides of the just-pounded meat, and then go about with the flour, egg wash and dredging.

squirrel bread turns one

This all started a year ago last Friday. Amidst the hullabaloo of defending, him soloing, and both of us being positively exhausted and stress-worn, I missed squirrel bread’s one year anniversary. What began on a whim — thanks to the nudging of a certain someone — has evolved into a grand adventure, and 368 days, 225 posts, 3 digital cameras* and 1 digital SLR, 3 states of residence, 1 Masters degree, a flurry of new faces and places, and beginning a relationship with a handsome man, here we are. Oooo-weee! Where does the time go?!

The past year would’ve been less sweet, less savory and much less interesting without my little blog, and — more importantly — without all of your encouragement, curiosity, and lust for good food and drinks.

Thank you for sharing it with me!

And now some photos from an unseasonably warm January afternoon.

Sunset Lake Park

a squat Little Blue Heron stalking fish

always take advantage of a nice day

Corpus Christi in the distance; a lovely Citgo refinery on the far right

For my own benefit, and because you’ve been here for the good postsand the bad posts: any recommendations to make squirrel bread better?

*I’m not a camera killer, promise! It was a transition period between two cameras, plus once I moved in with him, I started playing with his camera.