Ham Sandwich Indicted!

About two weeks ago, my partner-in-crime and I purchased and moved into a our first home...a giant step in relationship building and home ownership.  Our Craftsman-style bungalow was built in 1920 and it's--lots of natural light, a huge yard that next year will hopefully be full of gardens and chickens, a huge front porch, and a cramped, awkward, ugly kitchen. As the kitchen is probably the one place in the house where the P.I.C. and I spend the bulk of our time, we realized that the only option was a remodel, and quickly.  Walls start coming down in a week, and a new stove and hood are waiting for us in the garage.  It's very exciting and we're looking forward to having a more functional and attractive place to work, hang out, and entertain. In the meantime, I've been testing out the old-new kitchen with a few projects as time has permitted...peach cobbler, stuff on the grill, lots of salads.  I've found that it's tricky-but not impossible-adjusting to ...

Drinking vinegars, or shrubs, are all the rage these days. Shrubs are fruit infused vingegars sweetened with sugar, and they are delicious mixed with some soda water or any given liquor. Shrubs have been around on the fancy-cocktail circuit for a while (I had a shrub cocktail at Nopa in San Franciso in 2009, and they're making a splash at Andy Ricker's Thai street food mecca  Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon.  His "Pok Pok Som Drinking Vinegars" are so popular that he's producing them for sale outside of his restaurant, and they're now available at Weiland's in Clintonville.  On the local blog scene, last week the lovely Rachel Tayse chronicled her creation of a rhubarb shrub on her blog Hounds in the Kitchen .  You should check it out. Over at the Ham Sandwich HQ, I had a dozen pounds of strawberries, courtesy of a seriously focused hour of picking at Schacht Family Farms last Saturday.   My freezer is not big enough for twelve pounds of frozen str...

Patience is most definitely not one of my virtues. I tend to want things done yesterday, and nothing makes me happier than finding a more efficient way to do something.  Yet sometimes, as they say, good things come to those who wait...as I've discovered with homebrewing and now, infused alcohols. I stumbled across a recipe for basilchello (like lemonchello, but with basil) a few weeks ago during my schitzophrenic internet wanderings and it seemed to me a good excuse to use some of my ever-proliferating basil and buy some high proof alcohol without looking like a college kid prepping for a Hairy Buffalo party.  ("It's for a classy recipe!") The original recipe ( here ), calls for 190-proof grain alcohol, but since the copper still in my basement is on the fritz, I substituted 151.  If using a lower proof, taste as you go when you're adding the simple syrup, to make sure you don't over-sweeten it. The longer you let the basil infuse the alcohol, the more ...

Clearly, I am a woman possessed. Or bored. Or one with too much cream, strawberries, and basil on her hands. Using the same techniques I used for the Rhubarb-Rosemary Ice Cream, I threw together this batch of deliciousness with my last remaining strawberries and a big handful of basil.  I'm pretty sure this is what summer tastes like. Strawberry-Basil Ice Cream Ingredients : 3 cups or so strawberries, sliced 1 c. sugar (divided--3/4 and 1/4) 1 c. water 1 1/2 c. heavy cream 1 1/2 c. whole milk 10-12 basil leaves 2 tbls. corn starch 2 tbls. cream cheese 1. Combine strawberries, 3/4 c. sugar, and water in a saucepan. Cook on medium-high heat until strawberries are soft, and a syrup is starting to form, skimming off foam. (About 5 minutes.) Puree mix in blender/food processor.  Place strawberry puree in fridge, stirring occasionally until cool--about two hours. (This time around, I popped it in the freezer and stirred occasionally, cutting the cooling time down to about 30 ...

Holy mackerel, this weekend was a food fest if I've ever seen one. I'll get to what's in the lead photo in a minute, since I'm going to try to keep this in chronological order. First up, Friday night was a impromptu Westside taco truck tour with 4-5 friends. We hit Los Potosinos (chorizo tacos), La Super Torta II (for a torta de tasajo con quesillo), Los Gauchos (tacos al pastor), and Otro Rollo (for a huarache). My charming friend Ella vamps in front of La Super Torta II As always, Los Potosinos and Los Gauchos was delicious. Los Potosinos gave us some really great pickled carrots to munch on while we were waiting for a tacos, and while we didn't get the superb chicken al carbon , we did really like the chorizo tacos. (Oh, and we also shared a horchata , the cinnamony, sweetened rice-milk beverage, to drink. Big yum!) The second stop, La Super Torta II, was just down Georgesville Rd. and we stopped on the recommendation of my friend Lauren, an expert in all things...