Cherry Amaretto

Last year, I went a little crazy during cherry season, and so when faced with one last, large bag of cherries I did the only rational thing and soaked them in amaretto in a jar in the fridge.

A few months after that, I strained out the cherries, and put the now bright red liqueur back in the jar in the fridge.

A year later, I am still taking the occasional sips of bright red, incredibly sweet, intensely flavored cherry infused amaretto on those times when I can't decide if I want candy or I want alcohol.

On Deciding Whether I Should Cook with Coke

The other day, we got some fast food, which included what seemed to be unusually large fountain drinks.  So large that we didn't come close to finishing it.  And because I sometimes have these irrational hoarder tendencies, I saved the leftover Coke.   It was almost a quart!

Of course, one doesn't drink leftover flat Coke.  So I wondered if if I could cook with it.  And the Internet said I could!

The Coke website, as it turns out, has a whole section of recipes that uses Coke or other soft drinks.  And there's this Cooking with Coke site. I had no idea you could incorporate soft drinks into your appetizers, side dishes, AND main courses!  Not to mention desserts!  

Should I make the Coca-Cola meatloaf?  The Coca-Cola cranberry chutney?  The Hungarian goulash spiked with Coke?  The Coca-Cola Italian minestrone?

I had almost settled on the Coca-Cola cherry salad (it also calls for a tub of whipped topping!) when I started to ask myself some questions. 

Do I even like the taste of Coke?  

•  Answer:  Actually, not really.  I like cold Coke on a hot day, but I kind of like anything cold and fizzy and sweet on a hot day.

Do I need anything contained in Coke?

• Answer: No, it is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, caffeine, and a whole lot of other chemicals that are not only nutritionally empty but potentially harmful.

But the question that really made a difference to me:

Didn't the Coke come with ice?  

• Answer: Yes, it did, and fast food ice machines are notoriously filthy.  FILTHY.  Those ice machines and soda fountain nozzles are rarely cleaned correctly. 

Conclusion:  

I decided that this was going down the path of madness, and so I dumped the leftover Coke and didn't cook anything with it.  And just thinking about Coke so much made me wish I didn't drink it in the first place.  

But  I'm bookmarking that Coca-Cola Rice recipe, for future reference. 

My First Potato Crop

This year, I decided to grow potatoes.  I got myself some organic German Butterball seed potatoes, a Smart Pot, and a big bag of soil, and crossed my fingers.

It grew well, until I went on vacation in July, and came home to a potato plant that looked like it had been trampled by the deer. It was still alive, but never quite recovered the thriving look it once had.  

So last week we just dug it all up to see if there was anything there.  

There was, but so tiny!  The entire crop fit into one bowl, and all the potatoes were the size of cherry tomatoes. 

I was so disappointed.

But then Foodgoat decided to make mashed potatoes out of them. 

We tasted the potatoes just after boiling them, and my friends, it was the BEST POTATO I HAVE EVER TASTED.

It was incredibly flavorful.  I don't normally think of potatoes as having a pronounced flavor - I usually think of them, frankly, as a carrier for other flavors, like sour cream or cheese or bacon - but this potato was truly delicious.  I had no idea potatoes could taste like that. 

And when Foodgoat finished turning them into mashed potatoes, it was the best mashed potatoes I've ever had. 

So yes, next year, I'll be growing potatoes again.

Corn Stock

We finished up the last of the corn from our CSA.  Last year, there was so much I ended up freezing a lot of it; this year, we just ate it all.  All except the ones that had caterpillars inside.  2013 was the year I learned to always check the corn for caterpillars.

I did, however, freeze some of the corn cobs after the corn had been cut off.   Why?  To make corn stock!  

This is the part where Foodgoat rolls his eyes, because no vegetable stock can hold a candle to homemade chicken stock, and because I am taking up limited freezer space with something he would thrown away.

But corn stock is so easy it seems a shame not to get that extra use out of corn cobs. 

All you do is put corn cobs in a pot of water and simmer it for an hour or so along with whatever you have on hand, like carrots or celery or parsley or peppercorns or bay leaves.  You can use the mild, light stock for corn dished like corn chowder to get that extra corny flavor, or wherever you might use vegetable broth, like soup or rice, or you can make corn cob jelly.

And now that you've eked out two uses from the corn cobs, you can throw them out.  Or you can compost them.  Or you save them for next year's garden, to see if an old corn cob really does act like a sponge when placed underneath a tomato plant to help it grow.  Hmmmm.

Only in Cleveland

 

... would the grocery store have an aisle dedicated to pierogies.

I never even heard of pierogies when I lived in California.  

Of course, trying to find wonton wrappers in a Cleveland grocery store is a whole other thing.