Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Dear Nopa , Hi. So, it's been just over a week since we last met, and I'm still thinking about you. In fact, I think about you almost daily. I realize that we've only had our one date, but I really think we (well, you) have something special. I knew that our relationship was off to a good start when I called and made reservations a couple of weeks before our date. Your hostess was incredibly nice when we spoke on the phone--I didn't get that "oh, you're not from around here" attitude that you sometimes get from fancy restaurants when they realize you have a non-local phone number and are not famous/powerful/a restaurant critic. She even said she'd do what she could to get us in at the Chef's Table--four seats right there in front of the kitchen, in the middle of the action. When D and I arrived for our date, Nopa, it was immediately clear that you were the coolest kid on the block; your suitors were literally coming out the door. Never mind that, h...

What you are seeing above, my friends, is a quince turnover that I made this weekend. Quince! How exciting! I've never used/bought/tried a quince before! For the unitiated, a whole quince is pictured below: They're a strange little fruit that's described as a cross between a pear and an apple. This might be true, with the exception that they are hard as rocks and must be cooked down before you can do anything with them. Taste wise, they're a little more tart than a pear or an apple--really delicious and really interesting. I was able to enjoy this quince thanks to Jaime at Wayward Seed Farm . When I picked up my share this past weekend, we got to talking about the end of the season (sob!) and what to expect for our last week. One thing led to another and she offered me one of the quince (quinces?) that she had recieved from a friend. (Thanks again, Jaime!!!) After taking the quince home and contemplating it for a few days, I decided what I would do--one quince isn'...

A good therapist can run you about $100 an hour, while a bag of chocolate chips, some flour, sugar, butter, and eggs will cost about $7, and at the end of 60 minutes you'll have delicious chocolate chip cookies... ...If that's not a reason to get in the kitchen when you're stressed/angry/depressed/frustrated, I don't know what is. I remember that I first started baking as a means to relaxation while I was in grad school. Mixing together cookies and brownies was a good way to take a break from paper writing, allow some thoughts to distill and sort themselves out, and, when everything was out of the oven, a little sugar boost was very helpful in pushing through those last few hours of a late night. In law school, baking kept me sane--anchoring me to a former (better?) self that wasn't obsessed with tort cases, legal writing, and journal notes. There's something comforting in the process of mixing disparate ingredients into a cohesive, delicious dough--you may n...

I'm on it!....and yes, it's true, what all the other bloggers, foodies, and Columbus insiders say--it's an awesome ride. Why aren't you on board yet? Last night, DF and I hit up two of the most popular trucks on the West side....Los Potosinos and Los Gauchos. Los Potosinos is in the parking lot of a tiny strip mall, on Lincoln Park Ct., just off of Georgesville Rd. and Broad St. (For maps and more details of many of Columbus' fine taco establishments, check out Taco Trucks Columbus .) At Los Potosinos , we shared an order of the pollo al carbon , juicy, grilled chicken that was deliciously seasoned and accompanied by tortillas, refried beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, and two amazing sauces--a salsa verde with a mild, but noticeable zing, and a thick, creamy, orange-tinted, and super spicy (but also delicious) habanero sauce. Actually, the habanero sauce was so tasty, and we only needed the slightest bit of it, that we took the rest of the container home fo...

My fruit CSA from Wayward Seed Farm has been just prolific over the past few weeks--pears, apples, plums, and melons have been piling up on my dining room table. To cope, I dug out two of my favorite recipes and refitted them for use with my current bounty. First, a plum tart that I modified from a New York Times pear tart recipe: Upside Down Plum Tart 1/4 cup honey 5-6 plums, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cored 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon allspice 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 9-inch ovenproof skillet (not nonstick), simmer honey until it begins to reduce, caramelize and darken in color, 6 to 10 minutes. Don't let it burn! 2. Arrange plums, close together and cut-side down, in a circular pattern in skillet. 3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together sugar and spices. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Fold in flour and salt...

A couple weeks ago, I came across an article by Elie Mystal , the editor of abovethelaw.com , offering some alternative ideas on how to cope with the crushing student loan debt that I (and many of my cohorts) are dealing with right now. Today, Elie was on a clip from FoxNews , making a case for changing the interest rate to 0% for government students loans. The UK just recently made a decision to do this, and Elie argues that it was a good one. By releasing some of the pressure on college/post-college graduates, you're enabling them to help increase the consumer spending needed to jump start the economy. On the front end, knowing that your debt isn't going to include excessive interest will (ideally) motivate more students to consider bettering themselves through higher education. In regards to law school grads, lower loan debt could mean more grads would be willing to take jobs in the public sector--I know from personal experience that some really great public defenders and pr...

One of the random talents of the Ham Sandwich family is salsa making. My mom's mom made jars and jars of salsa every summer with the tomatoes and peppers my grandpa would grow in their backyard garden. Salsa making talent reappeared in my brother, who not only made salsa, but hot sauce as well , AND made a viable company selling spicy condiments to folks that are apparently referred to as "chiliheads." This weekend, I dug deep into my genetic code and tried my hand at making and canning my own salsa...boiling water bath and all. Surprisingly, it was not that hard, and was rather satisfying. The only investment I had to make was a box of mason jars and the canning kit with a funnel, jar and lid grabber, and spatula. (Wal-Mart is good for some things...) I'd already inherited grandma's canning kettle, and the garden supplied me with just about all the ingredients. The most time consuming part of all this is the prep: blanching, peeling and seeding the tomatoes, r...

The rabid jungle expanse that I refer to as le jardin , continues it's inevitable domination of my tiny backyard. The black krim, old German, and marglobe tomato plants have been staked up to the very top edge of the fence, and are planning their escape down the backside and out into the alley. I'm guessing its only a matter of time before I go out there one morning, and having failed to show up for work, my coworkers find me tangled in a viney web with a tomato stuffed in my mouth... In other news, my tomatillo plant finally produced some fruit--tiny, yellow tomatillos that I assumed would be green until I took a second look at the tag in the pot: " Dr. Wyche's Yellow ." Oh. So they're NOT supposed to be green. Due to poor planning/failure to do appropriate research, I planted the tomatillo in too small a pot, which resulted in an explosions of flowers through early August, but culminated in only about 20 or so slightly-smaller-than-a-ping-pong-ball siz...

Five pounds of romas from the garden...made into sauce, of course! I saw that movie "Julie/Julia" the other night, and I've been thinking a lot about it. Or, more accurately, about what some of it's messages might be/are. The obvious one is that both Julia Child and Julie Powell are "saved" through their kitchen experiences--for Julia Child, it begins as a way for her to spend time while her husband is on a diplomatic mission in Paris, for Julie Powell, it gives purpose to her dream of becoming a writer and an escape from life in an office cubicle. For me, my first foray into "real" cooking came when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, and had little to do with keeping myself occupied, or finding myself. One day, while running errands with our mom, my younger sister and I accompanied her to Pier 1 Imports--a great store for everything you want, but not a whole lot that you actually need. For some reason, we were drawn to a shelf of little enameled/...

Not to brag or anything, but I've been incredibly lucky enough to find a completely awesome boyfriend who loves to cook (and eat!) as much as I do. At least one or two evenings a week, we get together and make a dinner that can range from a tomatillo and chicken soup to a potato and chickpea curry. Recipes usually start with the random ingredients we have on hand, and then cookbooks and websites are scoured for inspiration and ideas. Sometimes, however, a simple meat well seasoned and grilled is really all we need, and we recently made what we both agreed was "the best" chicken dinner we've made to date. Roast chicken is one of those dishes that can be pure, juicy heaven when done well, or a tasteless, dry hell if not. The chicken above (and below), was definitely the former. This particular (whole) chicken was purchased at Whole Foods, split in half, and brined for several hours. Then, with some help from the awesome, spice-geniuses at Penzey's, The Grillmaster ...

The above is what I've picked from my run-amok garden in the last two days. So far, I've not felt too overwhelmed, as I've been pawning off tomatoes on my coworkers, boyfriends, and eating a lot of tomato salads. My newest favorite dish I've made with them is a Corn and Tomato Pie from Gourmet Magazine. It sounds a little weird, but trust me, it is sooooo delicious (and a great way to use up some big beefsteaks or marglobes). The crust really makes the pie, and I found that it's great at room temp, or heated up. (NB: I didn't chop up the corn at all, and I used a mix of cheddar and a "Mexican mix" that I had on hand.) Corn and Tomato Pie serves 6 (light lunch or brunch) Active time:40 min Start to finish:2 hr (includes cooling) 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 3/4 teaspoons salt, divided 3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus 2 teaspoons melted 3/4 cup whole milk 1 3/4 lb beefsteak tomatoes 1/3 cup mayonnais...

Round one of tomato season is a go! Recently picked: Black Krims, Green Zebras, Cherries, Romas, and one Marglobe. Also, The jalapenos are kicking it into high gear as well. Currently, my go to, too-lazy-to-do-anything-else summer dinner has been B.B.T.M sandwiches--bacon, basil, tomato, mozzarella. Pressed and grilled on multigrain bread with some mayo, it's like summer in your hand. Enjoy on your porch with the Sam Adams Summer (or another of your favorite summer brews), and it's seventh heaven.

I realized a little late that I probably should have been keeping a garden journal this season--the kind that details when things went in the ground, when they started blooming, fruiting, how many of each thing I planted, etc. Since I failed to do that, this blog will have to serve as the next best thing. Above is the start of a tomatillo growing. The plant has been covered in little yellow flowers for the better part of a month now, and they're finally morphing into actual tomatillos. Very exciting. The tomatoes are going like gangbusters, this is the pink tomato plant (exact species escapes me), listing a bit from the weight (and my jerry-rigged support system--I was apparently too lazy to get some cages. Eh.). The red cabbages have provided me with the most drama this year, as they were attacked by worms in late June. Since showering them with that Sevin dust (it kills everything under the sun and is ok to use on plants), the worms have not returned. Bastards. Their impa...

I really like it when a recipe describes something as "rustic." It's an immediate signal that whatever I'm about to produce can be casual in appearance, with flavor being a more important concern. Don't get me wrong, a skillfully latticed cherry pie (for example) is great, but sometimes, it's 8:30 at night on a Thursday and you just have to do something with those berries otherwise they're going to meet a tragic demise wasting away in your refrigerator. The NYTimes had a recipe in June for a Foraged Fruit Tart , that I had printed out for the specific reason that it was "rustic" in the best way a pie/tart recipe can be: make the dough, roll it into a circle, dump the fruit in the middle, and fold up the edges. Bake. Eat. Technically, this style of tart is called a galette, but that just seems to be fancying up something that is really quite casual. I took the tart pictured above to my coworkers, and it was very well received--it apparently made ...

So, I posted a message on Columbus Underground about urban foraging and was surprised at the size of the response I got. As a result of the discussion, I created a google map, here , so that people can mark and share their locations--although I realize that some may want to keep their spots secret. ;) Happy Hunting!

After seeing an uptick in information ( NY times article here , and a website here ) about folks in California and Oregon engaging in urban foraging projects, I'm curious if anyone in Columbus has any thoughts or experience on the idea. For those of you who are wondering, urban foraging is nothing more than finding edible fruits es growing wild or in public spaces (or, in some cases, trees in private yards with branches over public sidewalks). The various urban foraging programs in other, more fruit-prolific cities have organized groups that coordinate distribution of the bounty provided by these trees, enabling someone with a lemon loaded tree to swap fruit with someone that may have an abundance of cherries in their yard. (See the NYTimes article above about Asiya Wadud and her creation of the fruit exchange Forage Oakland.) While I didn't refer to it as urban foraging, I was thinking about this a bit last year, when I noticed that a house one block down from mine had an appl...

Special thanks to my friend Michael for forwarding me the following two websites. They detail (or, at least outline) two new programs going into effect starting July 1, 2009. The College Cost Reduction & Access Act has two parts that will be of interest to public interest lawyers. One, after making loan payments for 10 years on government-backed loans, the government will forgive the loan balance for qualifying borrowers. And two, there's a new, income-based repayment system in place: monthly loan payments will be capped at an amount relative to the borrower's income and after 25 years, the federal government will forgive any remaining loan debt. For further info check out the following: Student Loan Relief on the Way for Law Grads and The National Law Journal

I found a batch of wild poppies in an alley behind my house this weekend. I never cease to be surprised by what's hiding in the neighborhood! My Fruit CSA with Wayward Seed Farms has finally started (yay!), and my first delivery was 3 quarts of some of the most gorgeous strawberries I've ever seen: I froze some, turned some into a strawberry vinaigrette (pureed strawberries, fig balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, a little sugar, garlic, and oil), and put some into a strawberry tart for my dad for Father's Day: The pastry cream recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe Cookbook . I received it as a gift for my birthday one year, and it is a staple in my kitchen. I find it's a great resource for ideas when you're looking at a random ingredient and not sure how you want to use it. Also, they've done tons of leg work and have figured out the best methods and ingredients for making almost every classic/basic dish out there. Also, I harvested my first bat...

My friend Dan lives in the country about an hour north of Columbus, and a few of us had dinner there this past weekend. His home is a two-story brick, Federal-style house built around the turn of the century, with a huge backyard, a garden, and a large fire pit. It's a great place to go for a mini-vacation, and escape from the city for a weekend. As evidenced by the above picture above, it's also a great oportunity to run into some nature. We grilled up some locally raised, grass fed hamburgers, made roasted potatoes grown in his wife's garden, and feasted on assorted snacks made from recent forays to the farmer's market at the North Market. Among those snacks were stuffed zucchini blossoms, filled with goat cheese and herbs, then battered and fried. Eaten hot out of the pan, these tasty morsels ooze with warm, melty goat cheese, and carry the slightest floral essence (for lack of a better word) from the blossom itself. Also on the menu were my girlfriend Betsy's (D...

For those of you that watch Saturday Night Live, there was this Weekend Update segment that Amy Poehler and Seth Myers would do called "Really!?! With Seth and Amy." They used it as their opportunity to skewer the inanity of all sorts of topics, politicians and the economy being the most popular. We've had two "Really!?!" moments in our office in the last two days: a jaywalking ticket filed against a--wait for it--three-year-old and a felony charge for a juvenile for stabbing a tree with a knife. I'll give you a moment to let that sink in. And yes, you read that correctly--a three-year-old. As in, probably not potty-trained yet. As in, really limited verbal skills. As in, he probably doesn't understand that the State has to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. To add insult to injury, the kid was HIT BY A CAR when he darted into traffic. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but for some godforsaken reason, the cop issued a ticket to the kid. Real...

Last week, I was out staking up the tomatoes in my tiny GV patio garden and discovered the little guy pictured above--the first tomato of the season! Hooray! He's on one of the three roma tomato plants I put in the ground in early May. This is the overview of my tomato/pepper/carrot/onion patch. There's 5 heirloom tomatoes crammed in there, along with the 3 romas, 2 jalapenos, and a green pepper. It's probably a little crowded, but I'm hoping that attentive pruning of the plants will allow for enough sun to get through. I realize the root systems might be a bit close as well, and will learn my lesson if the plants don't grow fruit due to being smushed. That's a tomatillo in the planter next to the bed. It's growing like crazy and, having never grown a tomatillo before, I'm thrilled. I see lots of salsa verde in mine (and my friends') futures. In the other corner, I've got more onions and three red cabbages. The cabbages have grown like ...