Edible Portland Blog

Heidi Yorkshire's recipe file. Photo by Leah Harb

SARAH’S HOT OLIVE CHEESE PUFFS

From Heidi Yorkshire's Recipe File

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 cup (4 oz) grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
3 Tbsp butter, softened
48 medium pimento-stuffed green olives, drained (approximately)

In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt and paprika. In a food processor, blend cheese with butter. Pour flour mixture into processor and pulse a few times until mixed. Pinch off a small amount of dough, flatten between your palms, wrap around olive and roll lightly between your palms to smooth out. (If dough is too soft to handle, chill for at least 30 minutes before using.) Just before serving, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place olives on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until browned on the bottom. Serve hot.

Note: Olives can be wrapped in advance and stored in the refrigerator until ready to bake.

ANDREA'S DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PUDDING

From Heidi Yorkshire's Recipe File

3 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups whole milk, divided
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Sift cornstarch and cocoa powder together and stir into 1/3 cup cold milk. Set aside. In a non-stick saucepan over medium-low heat, bring sugar, 1-2/3 cups milk and salt to a boil, stirring constantly. Add chocolate and continue stirring until melted. Stir cornstarch mixture to re-blend with milk and add slowly to hot chocolate mixture, stirring until the mixture boils gently and thickens. (Be careful not to let this burn or boil over!) Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter in small pieces until it melts. Pour into small custard cups and chill. Serve with whipped cream if you like.

Makes 4-6 servings, depending on size of serving cups

Photo by Zoë Bradbury

Workshops, Clinics & Apprenticeships:
Doc Hammill’s Horsemanship Workshops
www.dochammill.com

Good Farming Apprenticeship Network
www.ruralheritage.com/apprenticeship

Publications & Websites:
Rural Heritage
www.ruralheritage.com

Small Farmer's Journal
www.smallfarmersjournal.com

Photo courtesy of Horse Progress Days

Gatherings & Events:
31st Annual Small Farmer's Journal Draft Horse & Horsedrawn Equipment Auction
April 18 - 20, 2008
Sisters, Oregon

15th Annual Horse Progress Days
July 4 - 5, 2008
Mt. Hope, Ohio

Partial list of horsepowered farms in Oregon:
47th Avenue Farm, Portland
SweetWell Farm, Scio
Greenleaf Farm, Jefferson
Horsepower Organics, Halfway
Ruby & Amber’s Organic Oasis, Dorena

Read Zoë's story on horsefarming in the winter issue of Edible Portland.

MOLE PIPIAN (PUMPKIN SEED MOLE SAUCE)

From Chef Ben Gonzales, Nuestra Cocina

Pumpkin seeds are available in bulk at various markets. Or scoop out a pumpkin and toast your own.

1 cup pumpkin seeds, hulled and raw
2 cloves garlic
2 fresh tomatillos, roasted, or 2 Tbsp tomatillo salsa
2 whole Roma tomatoes, roasted, fresh or canned
1 small white onion, roasted
1/2 bunch of cilantro
2 epazote leaves or a generous pinch of dried epazote (available at Mexican specialty markets and in the bulk herb section of various stores)
2 tsp toasted cumin seed, then ground
2 jalapeño peppers minced

Toast pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet until brown. In a food processor, grind seeds until chopped and then add all other ingredients. Puree until well blended. Salt to taste. Season and thin as necessary with stock or water. This can be used as a salsa to top a dish, like goat cheese baked in banana leaf, or as a mole sauce, spooned onto shredded chicken or a meaty grilled fish.

The story on Gaining Ground Farm marks an important milestone for us at Edible Portland. We've fully entered the digital age. We have teamed up with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living.

Their work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject. Our new partnership begins here, with the story of Michael and Jill Paine. Read the story, then see Michael and Jill's story come to life in video format right here at edibleportland.com: A New Family Farmer.
- Deborah Kane

Michael and Jill Paine planting seeds in their greenhouse. Photo by N. Scott Trimble

MEET THE NEW AMERICAN (ZEN) FARMER
Michael and Jill Paine of Gaining Ground Farm
Written by Ivy Manning
For Winter 2008

In Michael and Jill Paine’s modern split-level farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills of the Chehalem Valley, there’s a picture window with a breathtaking view of the ADEA Vineyard and the wooded hills beyond. Next to this bucolic view hangs a framed piece of calligraphy that reads:

“Until enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.”

I read the phrase and looked with bewilderment at my host for an explanation. “It’s a birthday present I got a few years ago,” Michael says with his characteristic wide smile, “to remind me of the Zen of being a farmer.”

It’s suddenly obvious that I’m not chatting with the average American farmer. At a time when small family farms are disappearing and the average age of farmers is 55, this 30-something couple is an anomaly. Led by their passion for working the land, a love of food, and a need to prove the loan officers and big-business agriculture wrong, Michael and Jill Paine have done something very risky: they’ve gone into farming.

Faced with buying property to make good on their dream to farm, Michael and Jill Paine went to the bank for a loan with a solid business plan in hand. First the bank refused. And then upon further consideration, Michael and Jill were counseled to take the word “farm” off the loan application. That’s when Michael and Jill got the money they needed for their “country estate,” now know as Gaining Ground Farm.

This amazing story comes to life below. Michael’s first-hand telling of his experience trying to capitalize his new farm business is truly captivating.

Thanks to a new partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living, we’re able to bring Edible Portland stories to life in video format. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

They are tremendous new allies as we work to spread the word far and wide about the amazing people behind our very best stories. You can look forward to enjoying Cooking Up A Story's great work throughout 2008 at edibleportland.com.

Read Michael and Jill Paine's story as published in the Winter 2008 issue of Edible Portland here: Meet the New American (Zen) Farmer.

- Deborah Kane

SPICY GET WELL BROTH

Created by Rafael Antonio Nazario, Chef
Adapted by Angela Sanders
From Starve a Cold, Feed a Fever

2 qts chicken broth
1 inch ginger, julienned
4 large cloves garlic, slivered
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1/2 jalapeño pepper, chopped finely
1 tsp kosher salt (less if broth is already salty)
3/4 tsp green curry paste
1 small carrot, julienned
Zest of half a lemon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tomato, chopped
2 Tbsp lime or lemon juice

Bring chicken broth to a simmer. Then add all ingredients except the tomato and two tablespoons lime or lemon juice. After simmering for 20 minutes, add the last 2 ingredients. Broth freezes well.

Edible Portland is pleased as persimmons to welcome Kathleen Bauer to the Edible community. Starting with the winter issue, Kathleen is writing the Edible Notes column for one year, now found online here: Edible Notes. Go there to add your comments and suggest future tidbits.

Check out Kathleen's blog, Good Stuff NW, where she features "stuff that is good in the NW" and has a great events listing.

Welcome Kathleen!

Photo courtesy of Tare Panda

PEAR CUSTARD PIE

From Amy Rogol, Pastry Chef, Screen Door
2337 E Burnside, Portland

Pastry
2 1/4 cups cake flour (all-purpose works too)
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
1/3 cup water, ice-cold

Makes enough pastry dough for two 8-inch pie shells.

Combine flour, sugar and salt. Toss in butter and chill for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. Once chilled, use your fingers to smoosh the cubed butter. This action helps to hydrate the flour. Next, add your water to the flour mixture a little at a time and combine using your hand in a scooping motion. Keep adding water until the dough feels completely hydrated but not wet. It should have a shaggy texture with no powdery dry parts.

At this point the dough can be compressed in the bowl. Turn it onto a floured surface and shape it into a rectangle. Use a rolling pin to lengthen the rectangle to 3 times its width. Like you would with a letter, evenly fold up the bottom and the top, one on top of the other, and gently press together. Cut the dough in half and wrap each piece in parchment paper. Let one rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to 2 days before rolling. Save the other half in the freezer for another time.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. After the pastry dough has rested, roll it out on a lightly floured surface into a round approximately 1/8-inch thick. Transfer the dough to an 8-inch diameter glass pie dish. Fold crust edge under and crimp the edges. Line the crust in tinfoil, fill with dried beans, and parbake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, remove the beans (save them for next time) and let cool. This gives you time to prepare your filling.

Change the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Custard
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pears, peeled and mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp bourbon (or whiskey or rum)
1 peeled pear, cored and sliced for garnish

Start with all ingredients at room temperature.

One at a time, in the order listed above, whisk the ingredients (except the sliced pear) together in a medium sized bowl. Place pie shell on a baking sheet. Pour filling into the pie shell and carefully place the pie into the center of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. At this point, remove the pie from the oven and fan the sliced pears around the perimeter of the pie. Return the pie to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the filling is just set with a golden hue.

It will continue to set as it cools. Chill the pie for at least 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream. For a special treat, steep the whipping cream with fresh chopped ginger, strain, and then whip.

From Greg Mistell, Owner/Head Baker, Fleur de Lis Bakery and Cafe

3930 NE Hancock, Portland

Brown Butter Streusel
1/4 vanilla bean
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups muscovado sugar (brown sugar can be substituted)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or hazelnuts (optional)

Slice the vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and put the bean and the seeds along with the butter into a small saucepan over low heat. Cook the butter until it bubbles, stir until it bubbles again and the mixture has a brownish hue and a nutty smell. Discard the bean and set the mixture aside. Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and nuts. Add the brown butter and combine until crumbly. Set aside.

Buttermilk Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unrefined raw sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
2 cups apples, or any other firm ripe fruit, sliced

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs and the yolk one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Alternate adding the flour with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour. Do not overmix.

Prepare a 9-inch springform pan with butter and a light coating of flour. Scrape half the batter into the pan. Sprinkle half the streusel evenly over the batter. Layer the fruit on top of the streusel. Scrape the remaining batter on top of the fruit and sprinkle on the remaining streusel. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean. Wait 10 minutes and remove the outside of the pan. Serve the cake while still warm with whipped cream if desired.

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH CARAMELIZED SHALLOTS AND PEARS

From David Machado, Chef/Owner, Lauro Kitchen
3377 SE Division, Portland

8 Oregon lamb shanks, 16-20 oz each
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
1/8 cup garlic, chopped
1/4 cup fresh ginger, chopped
Chicken stock to cover
1 Tbsp saffron
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp dry ginger
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
8 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup whole hazelnuts
1 cup dried cranberries
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
16 whole shallots
4 Bosc pears, sliced into eighths
1/2 cup sugar

Liberally season lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Brown lamb shanks in hot oil until golden on all sides. Remove meat and add onions, garlic, and ginger to pan for 5 minutes. Place shanks in deep casserole or roasting pan, making sure to leave room at the top for stock.

Cover lamb shanks with the chicken stock and all of the seasonings. Cover tightly and braise in a 350-degree oven for 3.5 hours or until lamb pulls easily away from the bone. In the last half hour add hazelnuts and dried cranberries.

In a sauté pan, place 4 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of oil. Over medium heat, gently sauté the whole shallots and pear slices until golden brown. Add the sugar, which will help this process. Add some chicken stock if the pan gets too thick or dark in color.

Remove lamb shanks from braising liquid. In a separate pan reduce the braising liquid with the pears and shallots. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. While sauce is reducing, place lamb shanks on top of a bed of couscous. Garnish with the shallots and pears. Pour reduced sauce over top. Garnish lamb with a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprinkle of parsley.

MESS O' GREENS

From Diane Santucci, Chef, Russell Street Bar-B-Que
325 NE Russell St., Portland

3 Tbsp oil
1 cup onions, diced
1 Tbsp garlic, chopped
2-3 cups broth (we use vegetable)
2 bunches kale, ribs removed, washed and torn or cut up
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Heat oil in a lidded, heavy-bottomed pot (6 quarts or more). Add onions, sauté for 2 minutes, then add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Add broth of choice and then add most of the kale, pushing down to really cram it in the pot. It may not all fit. Cover and bring to a boil until steam is escaping from the lid.

After 3-4 minutes, remove lid carefully (steam is the hottest form of heat). Use tongs to turn the greens. Add remaining kale and replace lid. Cook for 3 minutes more and turn the greens again. They should have wilted down and be simmering in the juice. You can cook them longer if you like them quite tender. We tend to leave them with a bit of “chew” to them.

OREGON DUNGENESS CRAB AND PICKLED PEPPERS

Adapted from Charlie Branford, Local Ocean Seafoods, Newport

16 pickled cherry peppers (in a jar or from a deli counter)
1 lemon
1 Tbsp parsley, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 scallion, minced
Extra virgin olive oil
16 oz (1 lb or 1 loosely packed cup) Oregon Dungeness crabmeat
1 bunch parsley, minced
1 oz queso fresco or feta, crumbled
Lemon juice

One day before serving the dish, cut off the stems of the cherry peppers and de-seed them. Set aside in a mixing bowl. Cut one lemon into quarters, squeeze juice onto the peppers, and then add 1 tablespoon parsley, garlic, shallot, and scallion. Cover with extra virgin olive oil and let marinate for 8 to 24 hours.

The next day, prepare the stuffing. Sift through the crabmeat, removing all of the shell pieces and breaking up the larger pieces of crab. Add a handful of parsley, a good dash of olive oil, queso fresco or feta, and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

For a fancy appetizer, strain the peppers, reserving the infused oil. Stuff the peppers with the crab mixture—don’t be shy. Drizzle peppers with the infused oil, garnish with crumbled feta and parsley, and serve. For a simpler dish, chop the peppers into ribbons and toss with the crab mixture. Spoon over salad greens, drizzle in oil, and serve.

I about fell out of my chair when I read this excerpt from Ellen Jackson’s essay on brussels sprouts: “Sometimes I peel each tightly curled leaf from its compact globe.” Peel each leaf!? That reminds me of the time my friend (at the suggestion of Martha Stewart, a woman with lots of helpers I’m sure) hand sliced open and then stuffed 100 snow pea pods for a dinner party she hosted.

I love brussels sprouts so maybe I’ll try Ellen’s suggestion, but more likely I’ll dive into the recipe for Brussels Sprouts & Bacon we share below.

–Deborah Kane

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Written by Ellen Jackson
For Winter 2008

Is there a vegetable more despised, condemned for its lack of subtlety, its imposing perfume? Brussels sprouts are like cilantro. People don’t have mixed feelings about them. They either love them or hate them.

Though smaller than their cousin the head cabbage, brussels sprouts pose an equal threat of overwhelming with their off-putting flavor and slimy texture. Pile on a host of indignities from being picked too large (they should be no larger than a small plum), stored too long (get them on the trunk, at the farmers’ market) and cooked to death, and you get a vegetable that’s never chosen, begrudgingly accepted, and no one’s favorite. For some, the only positive thing about it is that it’s over in one hold-your-nose bite. Cabbage, however, can go on forever!

Photo by Christine Hyatt

CANNELLINI BEANS WITH CHANTERELLES, SAGE AND DELICATA SQUASH

From Cory Schreiber

See Cory's story on cooking shell beans here: Winter's Bounty in a Bean Shell

Serves 4-6

1 cup cannellini beans or other medium-size dried white beans
2 Tbsp kosher salt
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 thyme sprigs
1 clove garlic, whole
2 shallots
1 bay leaf
1 firm, sweet apple (Gala, Braeburn, Cameo, Golden Delicious)
1/2 small delicata or sweet dumpling squash
2 oz dried or 6-8 oz fresh chanterelle mushrooms
1 cup fresh apple cider
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
6 fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
16 leaves Italian flat-leaf parsley

1. Follow directions for cooking dried beans, adding 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme, garlic, 1 whole shallot, and bay leaf. When beans are done, remove the thyme, garlic, shallot and bay leaf. Let the beans sit in the cooking liquid.

2. Peel and thinly slice the remaining shallot. Peel, core and dice the apple into half-inch pieces. Peel the squash and then cut it in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and thinly slice it crosswise into half rings.

3. Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium-size sauté pan. Add the sliced shallot, apple, and squash with 1/2 cup of the bean water and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes to soften and release the flavors.

4. Meanwhile, soak the dried mushrooms by submerging them in water. Let stand for 10 minutes. Rinse and re-soak. If using fresh mushrooms, brush clean and thinly slice. To the sauté pan, add mushrooms, apple cider, 2 cups of beans, and 2 tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Stir. Cover and cook over medium heat until warm, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with remaining salt and freshly ground black pepper.

5. Add the apple cider vinegar, sage and butter. Bring to a simmer. Turn off heat and let beans stand for a few minutes. Spoon beans into bowls, garnish with parsley and serve with sliced bread.

You have until December 24th to catch an Oregon Ballet Theatre performance of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. If you're lucky, Gavin Larsen will be dancing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Photo by Andy Batt

BALLERINA GAVIN LARSEN: Our Sugar Plum Fairy in the Land of Sweets
By Luther Cave
For Winter 2008

Gavin has a few hours before she’ll head across town to rehearsal. She leads me into her upstairs apartment in John’s Landing, between downtown and the Willamette River. The Portland Aerial Tram glides directly overhead.

Laughing warmly while she strides, Gavin assures me that she’s become a less picky eater than when she was a little girl. For an entire year, she ate mainly vanilla and lemon-flavored yogurts, she proclaims. Inside her bright, red and yellow kitchen, she stands perfectly straight, her shoulders still, her feet slightly out-turned in what resembles fifth position.

Gavin is an Oregon Ballet Theatre company dancer, and one of five ballerinas who will play the Sugar Plum Fairy in this season’s run of The Nutcracker—twenty-two shows in Portland and six in Anchorage.

For countless Portlanders, The Nutcracker brings tradition and magic into grey, chilly December. For a few hours we live amid childhood fantasies of Mouse Kings and toy soldiers, only to wake into a Land of Sweets. Yet for Gavin, The Nutcracker isn’t a fleeting night’s reverie; it’s a daily fact.

It’s amazing to me how the word "horsepower" has had staying power throughout the ages, but not the actual horses that inspired the word in the first place! To hear Zoë Bradbury tell it, horses are making a comeback on Northwest farms. And she’d know too, for Zoë is headed home to Langlois, Oregon where she’ll “gee, haw, and whoa” with a team of her own.

Read the story below, then check out Zoë's horsefarming resources here.
-Deborah Kane

Eric Pond of Greenleaf Farm works with June Bug, the newest addition to his herd. Photo by Zoë Bradbury

PUTTING THE HORSE BACK INTO HORSEPOWER
Grass-Powered Agriculture
By Zoë Bradbury
For Winter 2008

From a gentle rise overlooking an apron of floodplain along the Santiam River, Greenleaf Farm is laid out in long, straight rows alternating brown and green. Heavy, low-slung clouds drop a cold mist on Eric Pond as he points out the boundaries of his recently-acquired 67 acres, over two-thirds of which he has planted into blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries for the organic processing market.

After years of working for wages managing other farms, including a 1,000-acre Christmas tree operation, this view from the knoll has been a long time coming. “It’s been my dream to have my own farm forever,” he says, nodding out to the fields. “Ever since I was old enough to realize I had dreams.”

Parked behind Eric is a Kubota tractor specially rigged with state-of-the-art hydraulics to cultivate the berries. A little ways off is a computerized moisture monitoring system installed on the farm for precision irrigation.

But Eric has another quiver of tools as well: Next to the Kubota is a string of cherry-red farm implements best described as his two-horsepower collection. The names roll off Eric’s tongue like lyrics: straddle-row cultivator, springtooth harrow, single-bottom plow, and forecart. He gets animated as he describes what is at once the simplicity and versatility of each implement, all of which are pulled around the farm by Josh and Riva—his team of chestnut and buttermilk Belgian draft horses—and made by I & J Manufacturing, an Amish-owned business in Pennsylvania that designs, builds, and sells new horsedrawn equipment.

JAN 5 - 1:30-3:30 p.m. - Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Social
JAN 19 - 5-9 p.m. - Cocktail Chemistry & Appetizer Alchemy reception
JAN 19 - Molecular Dinner & Auction - SOLD OUT

Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you're in a fine dining restaurant or a fish shack, how the lights blink down on you, or who sits at your side. When the food hits your tongue, you lose your rational self. Jarred by something eerily familiar or astonishingly strange, you are suddenly overcome by your senses - you taste and feel and smell instead of think. And after the rush subsides, you remember that life is erratic and full of surprises. For me, in those rare moments, I feel a little more excited to be alive.

This intense sensory experience is one aim of molecular gastronomy, what I once heard someone call "the science of deliciousness." Molecular gastronomy, or "scientific cooking," utilizes techniques, tools, and materials rarely found in the kitchen to create food that challenges our expectations and introduces us to new sensations. Despite its name, scientific cooking does not take creativity and personality out of the kitchen; it does the inverse, offering those with bravado and curiosity the opportunity to challenge culinary norms.

Most famously, scientific chefs wield esoteric contraptions (like the "anti-griddle," which freezes things on contact!) or hazardous chemicals (like liquid nitrogen, which also freezes things on contact!) to create Willy Wonka-like masterpieces. Once these foods reach our tongues, they melt or tingle, wiggle or pop. Always, the results shine light on the endless possibilities of food to please and frustrate us and to stimulate our minds and our memories.

This year, OMSI will challenge our notion of its annual fundraising gala as well. Instead of a predictable auction, with dinner and a wine bar as necessary accessories, the food and chefs will be the entertainment themselves.

Science in the Kitchen: an Evening with the Nation's Top Culinary Alchemists will take place on Saturday January 19th, 2008. First-class chefs from New York and Chicago, along with Portland's creme de la creme, will create an evening of sense-astonishing cocktails, appetizers, and entrees.

There wasn't a dry eye in the office the day this story was filed. See if it doesn't remind you of cherished memories and friends with whom you've shared a meal.
-Deborah Kane

Heidi Yorkshire's recipe file. Photo by Leah Harb

IN MY LIFE I LOVED THEM ALL
Recipe File Holds Memories
By Heidi Yorkshire
For Winter 2008

When the weather turned wet and the days got short, I turned my attention to indoor projects that I’d been ignoring while the sun seduced me into the garden, like cleaning out my old recipe file. It isn’t a real file, just a bulging folder held together with rubber bands, filled with recipes from here and there. When the folder was crisp and new, more than 25 years ago, it was a mottled cantaloupe color. Now, scuffed and worn, it’s got naked spots where bare buff cardboard shows through. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d opened it.

I eased off the crumbling rubber bands: A jumble of cards, clippings and scraps of paper tumbled onto the table, some stained and dog-eared with use, others fresh, barely touched. It should be easy to toss out some of this stuff, shouldn’t it?

Here’s a piece of pale blue note paper with a typed recipe from Sarah for Hot Olive Cheese Puffs, one of those retro appetizers she did so well. I haven’t seen Sarah in years, but the recipe transported me to the kitchen of her 19th-century townhouse in Savannah, where I once spent a few days helping with her catering business.

We stuffed shrimp salad into snow peas, wrapped bacon around chicken livers, and talked non-stop, searching, in our thirties, for new pathways in life. My career was going fine, but I’d just ended yet another relationship with a man not exciting enough to spend a weekend with, let alone the rest of my days. “Is reliable always a synonym for boring?” I wondered out loud.

This drink will make your whole weekend. Find more seasonal recipes for the holidays here.

Sahagún's mocha. Photo by Macerating Shallots

OREGON CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT MILK

From Elizabeth Montes, Sahagún Handmade Chocolates
10 NW 16th Ave., Portland

Use your favorite dark chocolate. I used Bolivian 68% Cru Sauvage. Although this is a water-based chocolate drink, it allows for a sharper chocolate edge while the roasted hazelnuts provide a buttery richness that non-milk drinkers will have the opportunity to appreciate.

1 1/2 oz high quality bittersweet chocolate 68%, chopped finely
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts
2 1/2 cups water

Blend hazelnuts with water until the mixture looks smooth. Pour through a medium/fine strainer or cheesecloth twice. Reserve 3/8 cup at room temperature and store the rest of nut milk in refrigerator for other uses.

Put chocolate in a small mixing bowl. Put this bowl into a larger bowl that is partially filled with hot water. Carefully stir the chocolate until it melts. Lift the bowl containing chocolate out of the larger bowl and discard the hot water. Add 1 tablespoon of hazelnut milk to the melted chocolate. With a spoon, stir continuously until the mixture looks like pudding. Add 1 tablespoon more of the nut milk and stir again. Add the remaining nut milk and stir until the mixture is a thick chocolate drink.

Drink at room temperature or warm up for hot chocolate. Add honey to taste.

The last time I visited my parents, my father was sick enough that my mother boiled a chicken carcass to make a very bland version of chicken noodle soup. In the process, she noted that chicken soup is sometimes referred to as “a Jewish mother’s penicillin.” I’d never heard that expression before, but Angela Sanders’ story on "invalid cookery" suggests my mother was spot on. -Deborah Kane

Calumet Cookbook's "Cooking for Invalids" chapter offered remedies for wintertime illnesses.

STARVE A COLD, FEED A FEVER
A Brief History of Invalid Cookery
By Angela Sanders
For Winter 2008

About this time of year, many of us will wake up with achy muscles, a sore throat, or a stuffy nose. We’ll call in sick to work, and we’ll settle on the couch with a quilt to watch reruns of Perry Mason. At some point, if our stomachs can handle it, we might think about food.

Food for a sick person today usually means chicken soup and orange juice. But until around World War II, cooking for sick people—then called “invalid cookery”—was an important part of a housewife’s repertoire. Food for invalids was meant to be easy to digest, nutritious, and appetizing. But to someone with today’s sensibilities, invalid cookery looks less like sustenance and more like a purgative.

In classic invalid cookery, the sickest of the sick were fed a liquid diet. Some popular liquid options were beef broth; barley water (strain the water from cooked barley, add lemon); toast water (soak toast in water, strain, add cream and sugar); Irish moss (simmer moss in milk, strain, add cream, sugar, and vanilla); raw egg white in milk, water, broth, or juice; and buttermilk stew (simmered buttermilk with butter, ginger, and honey).