FfNl: Strawberries

You've got to love strawberry season. On Sunday, I gathered a posse of friends and we headed to a local u-pick organic strawberry farm. I personally picked about six pounds of beautiful, red, juicy berries. Which only took about 30 minutes. There was so much fruit! If only I had a bigger home or more people to feed.

Since then I've been trying to figure out what to do with all of them. I froze some, but my freezer is a bit small, so I don't know that I'll be able to freeze too many more. I ate some, of course. I'm thinking of making some jam, but I just don't eat that much jam and I still have quite a few jars of jam left over from last years jam making adventures. There may be a pie or some strawberry bread in my future, but I've still got a big heap of berries.

I took a look in my handy Preserved cookbook and decided to try my hand at making dried strawberries. It is simple enough: slice up your berries and put in a food dehydrator, low oven or drying box for 12 hours. Of the three, I've only the oven, so last night I gave it a shot. They are great! Chewy, sweet and delicious. I think they'll be incredibly tasty on cereal or in the granola I'm always planning on making. Plus, they take up a lot less space once all that water is gone!

FfNl: Corn Tortillas

One of my unofficial New Year's resolutions (official ones always seem to fail, so I'm going to go with unofficial this time out) is to try to use up the ridiculous amounts of food in my kitchen. I really have more food than any one person should have. I just like trying new things and like little challenges in the kitchen.

On to my story. Last night, after a longer-than-I-wanted day at work which was followed by a brief foray to the pottery studio to finish up the saki set I threw monday night, I peered into my fridge and grabbed things that needed to be used and threw together a mexican-type filling. One problem: I had no tortillas. However, I do have masa harina and a tortilla press that had never seen the light of day. Yes, I'm just that kind of person.

So I grabbed my trusty Rick Bayless Mexican cookbook and tried my hand at them.

Pretty, no? They were surprisingly easy. I may never buy corn tortillas again. Well at least until I make it through my current stock of masa harina. Seriously, you should give it a try. Well, you'll need a tortilla press, but for $12 you can have your very own.

Just think about it.

FfNl: A few of my favorite beers...

Okay, so this evening I went to my favorite grocery store for one simple thing: Ball jars. I am making a tasty treat involving pumpkin and maple syrup from a recent ISIE item (just in case there is any doubt, it is in item #3). Now if you are nice to me you might actually get some of this tasty treat- just something to keep in mind.

Anyway, I got my ball jars, but as I wandered around Wegmans, I came to the sad realization I drank my last beer Monday night. For some reason, recently I have a new-found appreciation for the post-work brew. Maybe it has something to do with 6+ years in grad school? Or perhaps it is the unique thirst-quenching properties of beer? Any guesses?

Now as I stood in the beer section, which incidentally had been expanded in the last year to make it entirely too tempting, I was struck with a horrible quandry. Do I buy the mixed pack of the rather fabulous Great Lakes Brewing's finest or my pet favorite beer, Magic Hat's Roxy Rolles? I have a newish infatuation with Great lakes, but I'll just say that last winter I hunted down all the Magic Hat's Feast of Fools (winter) mixed twelve packs I could find, just for the 3 Roxy Rolles. Most notably, I bought what might have been the last winter twelve pack Easter weekend along with the last stash of Cadbury mini-eggs in a gas station 3 hours from where I live. It was like hitting the jackpot!

Yes. I am crazy. As if there were any doubts.

So what do I pick? Both of course. There isn't anything wrong with storing beer in one's bedroom, is there? I mean, it isn't my fault my kitchen is the size of a bathtub.

What you should take away from this post: Feeling thirsty? Go get either (or both) of these- you won't be sorry. Just don't blame me if you develop a new obsession.

FfNl: Seared Feta

I bet you thought I forgot all about FfNl. I didn't I swear. It turns out I have this little thing called work that occupies a bit of time, perhaps you've heard of it? Also I didn't want you to worry overmuch about my food obsession. Anyway, today's edition of FfNl concerns the delicious looking item below:

What you see there is tasty, salty, delicious seared feta cheese. I made it for redemption. My first run-in with this species ended not so wonderfully. It may surprise you, but I am a rather temperamental chef. My first attempt at feta searing involved a pretty Donna Hay recipe, a sticky non-stick pan, not enough heat from an electric element, and a bit of over-ambition. The result was me throwing cheese, insulting my mother and generally ruining an otherwise lovely evening. Luckily for me, my mom is a forgiving soul, and she still speaks to me, even if I can be a really sucky daughter.

So earlier this week I bought more feta. It was a chance to face my newest cooking nemesis (my oldest is perhaps tapioca pudding, which is rather ironic, given how much I love it). If it works, searing feta is a pretty simple thing that tastes divine and makes for an incredibly attractive salad. Lucky for me it worked this time.

I grabbed a non-stick pan and put it on high heat on my gas stove. And I waited until it was hot, really hot. Then I placed slices of feta, slices that had been blotted to remove excess water and brushed lightly with olive oil, on that hot, hot pan. Sure enough it started sizzling and not melting into a heap! It is perhaps possible that my smoke detector might have gone off at this point, causing me to run like an idiot into my bedroom to get it to stop beeping (just maybe). The tricky part was flipping the pieces- it definitely required my sharpish, metal, definitely not recommend for non-stick pans spatula to keep the crispy seared goodness attached to the rest of the cheese. But I was careful, I swear, so that the non-stick remained as such. And Viola! Lovely seared feta.

I put it on top of some balsamic sautéed zucchini with tomatoes, which honestly, was a little lackluster. That seared feta, though? That was a work of art. Maybe in a decade or so I'll try making it again for my mother.

FfNl: CSA adventure

So, my good friend Alice is out of town for the month of July, and kindly offered me the opportunity to pick up her CSA share at West Haven Farm. I love CSAs, they are a great opportunity to get really good food and support local agriculture! Maybe some year I'll actually get around to signing up for one. Anyway, yesterday was my first pick-up. Now you would think after 10 years in Ithaca I could find almost anything in a 30 mile radius without getting lost. Unfortunately that is not the case. For some unknown reason I always seem to get routes 96, 79 and 89 all hopelessly confused in my tiny little head. So after what we'll call a senic tour of the area, I finally made it to the pick-up place- a cool little barn where you sign in and then pick out your produce (they have a white board to tell you what your share is). This week I got a huge heap of veggies: kohlrabi, turnips (two kinds), kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, red cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, summer squash, basil, parsley, dill and garlic. I also got to cut a few other herbs in the plot next to the barn. I love fresh produce (Thanks again, Alice)!

So last night for dinner I made up a tasty little dish of brown rice, chick peas, fresh steamed broccoli and kohlrabi with feta cheese. Yum.

FfNl*: Brigadeiro

So who doesn't like chocolate? If you said,"Yes that is me, I'm a chocolate hater", I warn you now, you should leave this post. Now, to whoever remains (which can only assume must be 99% of you- because if you don't like chocolate, I think you are a little crazy and I'm not sure we can be friends), I will now introduce you to brigadeiro:

This is a delicious, yet simple dessert to make... it has only 3 (I know crazy, right?) ingredients: cocoa (or Nesquick), butter and condensed milk. You cook it until thick, make little balls and roll them in chocolate sprinkles. Now if that all seems like too much work, you can make a cohler (spoon) version with the addition of a little milk. Ana Maria, in my lab, made this version:

Then you just grab a spoon and dig in. Yum.

*programming note: I'm a lazy person and typing Food from Norahland is just too much work. Also my father has trained me that a geeky acronym is always better, so henceforth, Food from Norahland shall be known as FfNl. Any questions?

Food from Norahland... The Tapioca Edition

Okay.

So I know you are all thinking, "I know what tapioca is- why is Norah wasting her time with this silly post?"

The tapioca you and I know is something like this: The floaty, chewy balls in bubble tea, maybe a the thickener used in pies, or that yummy pudding you eat with raspberries every summer. Maybe you even remember my previous post on biscoito.

So when I said tapioca to my brazilian friends they said (looking rather amazed), "You know what tapioca is?"

I said yes, and then tried to describe all those tapioca-y things familiar in the US. The amazed looks turned to confused, and they said "that's not tapioca...". This is tapioca:

The tapioca known to brazil is a kind of empanada/omelet-y/crepe like item that is (I am told) common in northern brazil. I was lucky enough to try one at a market in Curítiba. They take coarse tapioca flour, which I am coming to appreciate as a great ingredient (I sure hope there is a source in Ithaca, as I'm not sure how much will actually fit in my suitcase), and put it a hot pan. With a little water, this makes the base of the tapioca- a chewy crepe type circle. Then it gets filled with whatever you want, salgado (salty) or doce (sweet), in my case it was mozzarella, coconut and butter. Then the round gets folded ,empanada or omelet style, and sealed together. Eat it hot or at room temp- it is delicious!

And so my love affair with tapioca continues...

Rock n' Roll and Biscioto

Good Monday morning! I had a great weekend, and you? It went something like this: sleeping, beer, food, sleeping, food, snooker, ice cream, sleeping, beer, classic rock, more beer, snooker, more beer, more music, food, sleeping, food, successful skype downloading (finally), food, and finally more sleeping. The perceptive of you may have noticed a small imbalance in the quantity of each events listed above....

Now for a few more details.

By the end of last week I was pretty tired, and so were my roomates, so even though we had planned on going out friday night, we ended up just doing a lot of sleeping interspersed with a beer or two and some pizza frigideira.

Saturday started out another relaxing day involving a nice place to eat where I had feijoada (a classic brazilian dish of black beans and pork), more food, and really, really good fresh fruit juices. Next it was on to counting votes at USP. Vanessa had to count votes for student elections, so I tagged along and practiced my portuguese listening- I swear everyone here must think I'm a mute (which I'm sure is amusing to those of you who know me). Then I proved, in case there was any doubt, how god-awful I am playing pool in a fun game of snooker. This was followed by some really good ice cream- the place was amazing- an ice cream buffet where you get whatever kind of ice creams you want with all the imaginable toppings. Oh man was it good! Then it was time for a little nap... you see we had to rest up for a night of rock n' roll. We met up with my friend Marcela and some of her friends at a bar in downtown Ribeirão Preto called Vila Dionísio where they serve up cervejas & rock n' roll. I, being more scatterbrained than usual, forgot my passport for identification. Luckily I was able to cob together appropriate identification to prove my advancing age. It was a great bar and a great time, I recommend it if you are ever here. They had two live acts which mostly played classic american rock- think a lot of Beatles and other classics- they were great! I talked to some people, and had consumed enough alcohol that I was less embarrassed about trying out my Portuguese. We were out until nearly 4am- ending with a late night stop for Kibe and some other tasty middle eastern fare whose name escapes me at the moment (it might have something to do with the advanced hour or the few cervejas I consumed). Then sleep.... a lot of sleep.

Sunday was a very relaxed day of which the highlight was good lasagna and, finally, a successful download of Skype on my computer. For some reason, it has been very difficult for me to get it. I decided that maybe I should try to download it from the Brazilian version of the site instead of US, in case the downloading server was different. I don't know if that was the reason, but it worked. The amusing part is I now get emails from Skype in Portuguese, so I guess I'll get some reading practice in.

And now for the section I will christen Food from Norahland... today, Biscioto:

Friday afternoon concluded with a fun and entertaining discussion of biscioto. Now I though biscioto meant cookie in Portuguese, but after a lot of discussion and some helpful diagrams from my fellow labmates- and taste testing, of course- I learned about this delicious snack. These biscioto are rather like cheesy poofs minus the cheese, and these in particular are made of polvilho, a flour made from mandioca (which I believe is yucca). They taste amazing and totally addictive- finally I had to have Marcela take them away from me so I would stop eating them!