A couple years ago, I'd found a couscous pilaf recipe to use at Pennsic, and it's been so tasty that I've done variations on it a few times since then.

The markets around here are pretty fantastic for local produce, and I recently found organic wholewheat couscous for about half the price of the boxes in the supermarket, as well as local spinach, leeks, and grape tomatoes. I made up the couscous with some of the chicken stock I'd made last week, roasted the halved tomatoes in olive oil, caramelized the leek and wilted the spinach. Served it with a bit of plain yoghurt seasoned with garlic and pepper. Tasty.

derangedferret's Guinness brownies have an amazing bittersweet flavour and a lovely texture different to that of many brownies I've eaten. Delicious. You all should try making some! Reposted here with permission

Brownies v2.0:
5 oz bakers chocolate
1/2 C brewed coffee
6 tbsp butter (unsalted)
1 3/4 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 C flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder

In a large heavy sauce pan simmer 1/2 cup coffee. Turn down heat to low and add 5 ounces bakers chocolate, chopped. When smooth, add 6 tablespoons butter, stirring until completely combined. Remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes.

Stir in 1 3/4 cups sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until combined. Stir in 3 eggs, beaten, until combined. Add 3/4 cup flour and 2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder and stir until combined . Pour into pan and bake at 350F for 25-28 minutes.

Experimented a little tonight with the matzoh ball soup. My verdict is that while snipped rosemary is a welcome addition to the knaydelach, gumbo file in the stock darkens the flavour more than I'd like.

Just for the record, chocolate-covered bacon is made of win and yum.

Evidently, Charles Darwin's wife's cookbook is to be published by Cambridge, with sales to fund Darwin historical research.

Because I know several of you gentle readers would be happy to see this, which I have from liadethornegge: "Mises et Receptes," a project to translate a 16th cen French "daily book," is going on over at gouberville, now with daily entries.

For those of you interested in food history, archaeologists have recovered 8000 year old instant cereal in Bulgaria, and they even describe how it was processed.

It goes well with the buckwheat pancakes we had for breakfast today. :)

You wanted from scratch? Here's some real scratch.

The lady from whom I got them really, really wanted to get rid of as many as she could, so I ended up bringing home more black walnuts than I think I'll need.

I'm doing a dye demo for the students of the living history club over at the college. The hulls I'd obtained illicitly weren't quite enough for as much yarn as I'm coming to anticipate dyeing for them, so I went out looking for someone with black walnuts so that I might be able to procure enough hulls for dye. She had thousands, and they were the right price.

I've a few bushels, now, and have been processing them when I could stand to be outside with those little thieving bastard squirrels. The unprocessed nuts are sitting in our HVAC cupboard, away from mooching rodents, since I don't want them associating our patio with food (even though they've been digging through my pots for well over a month, now). My hands are slowly going brown from the juglone, but that can only really by helped by not doing it.

In case you're curious, walnuts are ripe when the hulls go from lime green to a yellow-green, and turn slightly squashy. My preferred method of hulling is to score longitudinally with a knife in the same way I'd open up a peach, but I hear lots of people run over them with their cars on a gravel drive for a few days. Am going to give the nuts a go, since I have so many--I've washed and dried them, and they're going to cure for a couple weeks so that the flavour can develop. If they're good, I may send them out as seasonal pressies.

Still, though, I have way more than I need. A few bushels may end up being tossed into the wooded area at the end of our cul-de-sac, but I have plenty to trade, in case any of you would like hulls for ink or dye, or walnuts for whatever culinary purposes you might have.

A 2 kg bird is plenty for the two of us, it seems. I'm a weird critter about using things up, so I rubbed this chicken with the salt from the bottom of the pretzel bag (and cracked peppercorns) after I stuffed it. I think it turned out well.

I saved the schmaltz and dismantled the rest of the chicken before putting the carcass in for stock. I'm thinking matzoh ball soup might be in order.

It looks like eating both locally and seasonally is going to be very easy. Having found a mention in one of the local papers, we tracked down Raab's Fruit Farm, which is just 3 miles from where we live. They're growers with a store on-site, with all kinds of fruit and veg, as well as random other local products like desserts and pretzels, and some imports. Last week, we got a quart of peaches, a pint of plums, a half-dozen ears of corn, a huge courgette, two desserts, a bunch of bananas, a couple onions and a melon for $18. This week's haul, shown in the photo, was $13 and change. They also do pick-your-own, currently doing summer Rambo apples and peaches, with pumpkins to come in the autumn.

I ought to get bushels of apples and make applesauce. Or plum butter. Or peach pie. Oh, the ideas.

Have made another batch of squash butter, similar to last year's. I love making it spicy, and the sense of accomplishment that comes with tucking laid-up jars into the pantry (even if it's into a box to transport them during the move) is so satisfying.

All jars from this batch are spoken for. I'll have to make another one. :)

I served these tonight with a rice/vermicelli risotto. smarriveurr actually seems to have liked this fish.

Blackened Tilapia, vaguely following advice from the Bass on Hook Fishing Resource Center

3 tilapia fillets
tbsp Paprika
tsp salt
0.25 tsp ground pepper
clove garlic, minced
0.5 tsp chilli powder
tsp dried basil
0.5 tsp thyme
tbsp butter, melted
tbsp lemon juice

Mix seasonings in a bowl. Brush fillets with melted butter and coat with seasonings. Heat tbsp olive oil in large saute pan until shimmering. Place fillets in hot skillet and cook 2 minutes on each side, or until opaque.

Eggplant-Tomato Stacks, inspired by Sara Moulton

medium eggplant, sliced into rounds*
large tomato, sliced*
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried basil
parmesan cheese

* I sliced such that I had equal numbers of slices of eggplant and tomato. You may want different ratios--just plan accordingly. In hindsight, I probably also should have peeled the eggplant. You are forewarned.

Lay down a slice of eggplant, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with basil. Lay a slice of tomato on top. Splash with balsamic vinegar. Add two more layers, thusly, of eggplant and tomato. Top with parmesan and basil. Broil about 15 minutes, or until the cheese has toasted.

A while ago, thirteen_letter had wondered aloud when the American version of biscuits first appeared. Bakerina consulted her rather authoritative Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, to little avail other than to point out the rise of chemical leavening on the North American continent. From what I read, potash was used by the Native Americans as a chemical leavener, though this may want cross-checking by someone with a handy copy of Peter Ciullo's Saleratus: The Curious History & Complete Uses of Baking Soda.

Got curious again today, mostly because I was making a batch of baking powder biscuits for supper tonight. Through Google Books, I've managed to track saleratus biscuits in The American Housewife of 1841, which gives a receipt for Butter-milk Biscuit that's remarkably like what I just made a couple of hours ago.

Earlier than this, however, I've managed to track down a copy of Eliza Leslie's Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats of 1832. This collection provides a recipe for "Sugar Biscuits" that uses both a pearl-ash chemical leavener as well as the beating technique used to create hardtack in the 18th and early 19th centuries.¹ The Frugal Housewife of two years earlier does give a recipe that equates to the modern biscuit, but is called "short cake" instead and is not separated into single servings.²

Prior to this, "common biscuit" is seen both in the two 18th century editions of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy and in Lucy Emerson's New England Cookery of 1808, referring to a sweet cookie-biscuit brushed with beaten egg white and dusted in sugar. New England Cookery also elaborates three other versions of biscuit, the closest to the modern variety being completely unleavened.

So, it would seem, up to the first decades of the 19th century, American biscuits were the same as English. Then, biscuit came to be used for a hardtack analog leavened by beating in air, about the same time as chemical leaveners were coming into use³. Beaten, single-serving biscuits were then "assisted" in the same way yeast breads were receiving leavening assistance from chemical leaveners, and eventually biscuits came to rely entirely on chemical leavening.

Many thanks to the Feeding America historic American cookbook project.

¹: If you're (crazy and) really keen on learning about hardtack, I got my information from my new copy of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog (thank you, thirteen_letter!) where they quote from Wm. Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine of 1815.

²: The author, Lydia Maria Francis Child, also describes the use of saleratus to assist in the rising of yeast dough, which is echoed in a number of later texts.

³: The earliest American use of the various carbonates (calcium and potassium) seems to have been in gingerbreads. While not commercially available until the mid-19th century, American settlers were selling off the ash from their cleared land to fuel burgeoning ceramics and glass industry along the eastern seaboard--and potash would have been widely available.

Wow, I'm going in to Manhattan a lot, lately.

The lovely Bakerina informed me that quark might be had at the Union Square Greenmarket, so I met up with Bunni and her for noshies and shopping. Had lunch at Stand, where the veggie burger was nice and full of veg, but fell apart rather infuriatingly during the eating process (I would like to note that I was certainly not fressing in any appreciable way), however you all must try the rosemary-ade. I wish I could bottle the stuff and bring it home.

Several hours of crowds rather did my head in, and even though I parted with the ladies around 17:00 I still had to deal with the full-beyond capacity of the trains of NJ Transit. Every engineer Saturday apologized for the lack of the usual number of cars per train that necessitated standing passengers in the aisles and vestibules. I swear, it was nearly like Mumbai, except riding atop the train would be even more dangerous here and other passengers are most certainly not likely to help you onto the already-crowded train. May play the hermit for a few days to clear my head and get back to feeling sociable again.

(...but who can resist a subatomic particle with subsets like "strange" and "charm"? Really!)

In getting really quite excited about December baking, I started today with a batch of scones, and already have a few recipes lined up to try this season, including pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake. Have come across a new Lucia bun recipe that involves quark, I have decided to set about trying to find a functional equivalent that I might be able to find in one of the local shops.

For those of you not necessarily well on your way through the bizarre and frightening odyssey that is the exploration of the more obscure cheeses (as far as most Yanks are concerned, anyway), quark is also called fromage blanc, or baker's cheese. It's creamy, with a slightly acid taste, and quite spreadable. I'd probably schmear it on bagels, if I knew where to find it.

Am going to try Kings and Trader Joe's (only the former is particularly close) for a decent quark. On the very likely chance I can't find proper quark, I could probably at least find a fromage blanc. May additionally try going the recipe with a ricotta or Greek yoghurt, if it comes down to it.

Andreas Viestad, having nicked a couple L'Angostines from a lobster trap in southern Norway: "During the short walk from the other side of the island, we have become good friends, especially this one, who seems to want to hold me fast in his...or her...embrace. But that shall come to an end, as I am to cook them." *kronsche*

He sauteed the tails in tarragon, and made a sauce with mustard, cream and saffron. Num. Makes me miss cooking with Tomás.

In order to combat the nastynasty plague with which I've been afflicted after exposure to several hundred strange children, I've been consuming tea, hot port and chicken soup in such quantities that I'm nearly on a liquid diet, for all I haven't much appetite. Had been getting v. little sleep, too, until last night. Am a bit annoyed that I seem to have the weakest immune system of the household, but that's my price for not having to deal with other people's kids on a regular basis, I suppose.

I've started to run low on chicken soup, so in order to make up a massive batch of that wonderful Jewish penicillin, matzoh ball soup, I asked for matzoh on the latest grocery run. I did indicate how much my recipe required, which is two crackers. (For those of you unexposed to matzoh, a single cracker is a square a little larger than a dessert plate. They're thin, so this isn't an awful lot of matzoh.) I assumed that I'd be presented with, at most, a full 1# box of crackers, and I'd have enough for a double batch, with enough for matzoh brie (or whatever it was mr_balloonatic taught me to cook) and other noshies to last through a nod to Pesach in a household of confirmed goyim, albeit that we're wise-goys.

Managed to forget that this is New Jersey in the couple weeks leading up to Pesach. Matzoh is like water, and the supermarkets can't give it away fast enough. Also forgot the lure of the word "free" to some people. I now have 5 pounds of matzoh, because it was free. Stood in the kitchen a while, staring at this stack of boxes, rather at a loss for what to do with it all.

When found by smarriveurr, he suggested that I use it to provide myself with a bit of culinary fun, the 5# Matzoh Challenge: how much of this stuff can I manage to use up before I admit defeat? I know I can use it anywhere I use regular bread crumbs, and I've seen such arcane recipes as matzoh lasagne, but this'll require a bit of ingenuity on my part. Will attempt to document how far I can get with so much matzoh.

This may turn out to be fun.

As I mentioned to foxxydancr yesterday, butter and treacle on your hot scones makes for fantastic breakfast. Blame Trisk, who's probably unrepentant.

Had I known that wyli wanted an "aftermath" shot earlier, I would have attempted a shot of my sticky, grinning little self. On the other hand, I imagine molasses is difficult to get off a camera, so maybe it's for the best.

ETA: I got confirmation. Yup, unrepentant.

I tried a coffee rub on a cut of beef for dinner this evening: coffee, brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, sage and cayenne. It wasn't good until smarriveurr brushed the grounds off, which was a genius maneuver. I should have used more brown sugar and less coffee, even though I used much less than the recipe called for. Being that smarriveurr likes black coffee less than melted coffee ice cream, I may not try it again, or I may try to improve it when I'm not cooking for him.

Being a confirmed Yankee (if I really can be called an American at all), it may be somewhat strange that I'm drawn to southern cooking.

While I love my bagels and schmear, I really like corn meal mash and grits. I discovered grits, I think, because of my younger sister. She was good friends with a girl who lived down the block, whose mother, IIRC, was from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. Grits became a part of breakfast at our house, as an option for us kids to cook ourselves,¹ after Kate decided she liked them. Early grits-making involved almost exclusively butter and salt--it wasn't until I went off to college and discovered the Food Network that I realised the real potential of grits. Bobby Flay makes these crazy 10-ingredient grits, with different meats and spices, but I think that's excessive. I make really good savoury grits with cheese and spices.

James L. Grant, also, is totally right about N'Orleans coffee. I've been drinking a mix of coffee and chickory, and it somehow tastes of everything that's good and dark. finaliteration: this may be the Coffee of Doom you seek. It's potent.

I think I'll try beignets, at some point soon.

¹: I also used to make okonamiyaki, once I discovered the recipe in gifted class.