Dear Grandma,

It was you who started my love affair with meatballs. When we used to visit you in Florida, I’ll never forget the chocolate frosted marble cupcakes (refrigerated, of course), golf cart driving, and endless games of gin rummy. But the best part, my true favorite, will always be your meatball sandwiches. Pasta with meatballs was the dinnertime regular, but it was lunch the next day that was always my real favorite: leftover meatballs with your homemade tomato sauce on buttered italian bread.

When Mom called and told me you had died, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I emailed Mom and asked for the recipe, and Craig went out and bought fresh meat from our local butcher. I wanted to honor you through the way I knew and loved you best: your cooking. I’d never made them before, I don’t know why. But it struck me as important that I remember you through food. With eggs from our chickens, and parsley from the garden, I shaped meatballs and memories with my hands, remembering your voice, and summers on Cape Cod, and so much more.

Thank you Grandma, for your delicious food; for teaching us to drive (maybe illegally) on the Basking Ridge golf courses; for your gruff and loving voice; for teaching me to play Bridge; for your support and excitement, when I last saw you and told you about the food-related business I am starting. Your encouragement meant more than you could ever know.

We’ll miss you, Grandma, and love you always. Your memory lives on in our cooking.

Love always,
Stephanie

Rosemary “Boots” Bartolini
March 18, 1924 – March 4, 2012

Grandma’s Meatballs

¾ lb. ground beef
½ lb. ground pork
¼ lb. ground veal
½ c. flavored breadcrumbs
¼ c. fresh parsley, chopped
¼ c. parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 eggs
zested rind of one lemon
dash nutmeg
salt & pepper

Place all ingredients in bowl and mix until combined. Shape into meatballs. Brown meatballs in oil. Cook browned meatballs in favorite tomato sauce for one hour or until cooked through. Serve over ziti or other cooked pasta. Better yet, slice and serve with extra sauce on your favorite italian bread.

Perhaps I should celebrate with food and write about it here, on this blog that I supposedly keep.

To boot, he made a video about it. It is possibly the greatest gift I have ever received. I hope it makes you as happy as it makes me.

Craig, I am so excited about spending a lifetime with you. I promise, I will (probably) never throw dice at your head ever again.

I love you.

Two years ago I was living in China. It was on a lark, really. I decided I needed a change in my life and wanted to learn a new culture, a new language, a new food. So I moved to Beijing for six months with this awesome boy I like. While I was there, traveling to far flung provinces and climbing Great Walls and studying Mandarin, I was forever on a quest to find authentic food and cooking experiences. The country did not disappoint. In no particular order, some top favorite culinary experiences included: exploring Beijing’s street food; eating Peking duck; learning to make kung pao chicken; eating kebabs on the streets of Kashgar; exploring Beijing’s ancient tea district.

My personal favorite, however, likely owing to my long-standing love affair with the food, was learning to make dumplings.

With the Chinese New Year coming up this week, I thought it would be a perfect time to celebrate the time we had in China with friends and dumpling-making.

For the evening, I prepped all the filling veggies ahead of time and then laid everything out so that guests could have their own dumpling-making station. I think the process worked great and, truth be told, dumpling-making is way more fun en-masse. I have tried to make 200 dumplings on my own and whilst the Chinese grandmothers make it look easy, I tell you it is no small feat. There is power in numbers and that holds very true for dumpling making.

Pork Dumplings

Serves 2 (or maybe 1, if you’re me)

• - Steaming: For the dumplings below I steamed them using traditional Chinese steamers. To use these, line the bottoms with cabbage or other leaves (aluminum foil works, too!) to prevent your dumplings from sticking. Fill a wok or shallow pan with 1-inch of water and bring to a boil. Place steamer baskets in water and steam for 15-18 minutes or until done (note: be sure the water does not come through the steamer and reach the dumplings). Your water may run out; I keep a kettle of boiling water handy to refresh the pan when it gets low.
  - Boiling: In the past I have boiled my dumplings. Place dumplings in boiling water. When dumplings float to top, add 2 cups of cold water. Let dumplings come to water once more and add an additional 2 cups of cold water. Repeat this once more, and your dumplings will be complete!
  - Pan-frying: For pan fried dumplings, steam or boil as in the above steps. Steam for 10-12 minutes or boil, adding cold water twice. Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a pan and transfer boiled/steamed dumplings to the hot pan. Pan fry until golden brown, turning to brown each edge.

minced pork, 1/4 pound
chinese cabbage, 1 1/2 cups, chopped
ginger, 1 tsp. finely minced
scallions, 1/5 tsp. chopped
salt
soy sauce, 1 tsp.
sesame oil, 1 tsp.
peanut oil, 1 tsp.
chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp.

1 cup flour
1/4 cup water (to start, add more as necessary)

1. Finely chop the cabbage and add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt. Let stand 15-30 minutes until cabbage is wilted and water has drained from cabbage. Squeeze excess water from cabbage and set aside — cabbage water will be used later.

2. While cabbage is sitting, make dough. Mix flour and water. Add water until dough begins to come together into a ball. Knead lightly for five minutes until dough forms into a smooth ball. Let dough rest for 10 minutes while finishing the filling.

3. Place minced pork in bowl. Add ginger, scallions, soy sauce, and wine. Slowly add in the cabbage water, mixing well after each addition. Mix with chopsticks or a spoon, stirring mixture continuously in one direction. The meat will slowly incorporate the water and come together. Note, you may not need all of the cabbage water. Mixture should not be too liquid. Add cabbage, peanut (or other cooking oil), and sesame oil. Continue mixing until well combined.

4. Finish preparing your dough for the dumplings by rolling your dough into a log, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. (A trick: to keep the log from flattening excessively, roll the log 90 degrees after each turn). When you have finished cutting the dough, flatten each dough ball into a disc with the heel of your hand. With a small rolling pin, roll out each disc into a wrapper 2-4 millimeters in thickness. You are now ready for filling! You can fill your wrappers anyway you like, but I have provided a little video below with some instructions on how to roll out, fill, and crimp your dumplings. See the photographs below for more details on rolling and cutting the dough, and of course feel free to comment with any questions.

5. To cook the dumplings you have several options.

6. Enjoy your dumplings with soy sauce or, my personal favorite, a dipping sauce of 1 part soy sauce, 1 part aged Chinese vinegar, 1/2 part garlic, and 1/4 part ginger.

Note: You can also purchase dumpling-skin wrappers at specialty or Asian grocery stores, to save you the step of creating your own dumpling wrappers.

The Chefs! For the record, I had an awesome night. I am so grateful I have such a group of loving and dumpling-loving friends who are excited about spending the night learning new things and eating to our hearts’ content. Thanks for coming, friends. Wishing you all the happiness you deserve in the New Year.

P.S. Note the abundance of Panda Hat. No, we are not just really big Giants fans. Pandas are the pride and joy of China and panda hats are sold abound on the streets of Beijing. Clearly we purchased many on our travels.

P.P.S. A HUGE thank you to Foodbuzz, an online community of food bloggers that helped to support this evening of dumpling-feastery for their 24×24 Event!

The CSA Challenge menu is live! I spent much of today and last night drooling over cookbooks and recipes and planning out menus, which it turns out is way more fun than lying groaning on your couch. I feel very happy about this newfound productivity.

I have successfully created a menu, spread into nine dishes or four meals, which hopefully highlights all 12 delicious ingredients that might be spared the unfortunate fate of their earlier counterparts: Death by Refrigerator. I got home early from work today and so got a jump start on one of the more time-consuming menu items I chose (which ONE, you ask, eagerly? See above for a sneak peak photo of one of my secret ingredients). A full post on tonight’s dinner, and future meals, coming soon!

DAY 1
Butter herb roasted chicken with cornbread pomegranate stuffing
and
Chickpea and butternut squash salad over arugula with lemon tahini vinaigarette

DAY 2
Ginger fried rice with leeks
and
Sauteed bok choy in ginger garlic sauce

DAY 3
Root vegetable casserole (or perhaps Shepherd’s Pie… you are very persuasive, Liz…)
and
Spinach salad with poppyseed dressing

DAY 4
Baked radicchio and mozarella pasta
and
Bibb lettuce salad with goat cheese and balsamic reduction

BONUS DAY
Persimmon bread! (Doesn’t that sound like the craziest thing you’ve ever heard? I cannot wait).
his evening.

To recap, here is a list of this week’s veggies.

1 medium butternut squash
2 pomegranates
1 bunch arugula
3 heads bok choy
3 medium leeks
3 persimmons
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
6 medium carrots
3 turnips
1 head raddichio

Also, you all left lovely comments and ideas on the last post, and many delicious recipe ideas, so I’m pretty sure I am going to have to have the CSA boxes keep coming so that I can use them all up. As promised, there is a prize coming to one of you! To all who commented, I am going to randomly pick one of you and you will be invited to partake in one of the upcoming meals, if you are local, OR you will get a gift sent to you, if not local. You know, just to thank you for being so participatory and reading my blog. I appreciate all the support and want to thank you with gifts of foodie love. So stay tuned next post to see if you’re a winner!

I am growing frustrated. I want to be incredibly supportive of my local farms and I know that community supported agriculture is a great way to do that. But every two weeks I get a box of veggies delivered to my door, and every two weeks I find myself making room for those veggies in the fridge by throwing away the old rotting veggies I didn’t have time to use.

I feel awful about it and I was JUST about to go to the website and cancel my subscription and instead I turned to you, blog. Instead, I decided I need to change my behavior and do a better job with my veggies and so I have decided to begin (drumroll…) The CSA Challenge. Every two weeks, on Tuesday, I am going to detail exactly what I received in my CSA box. And I will plan a menu around that box. We will plan a menu together. And then I will blog about each of those recipes, throughout the two weeks. I’m hoping the planfullness (sure, I make up words) will be helpful to me. And the blogfulness will hold me accountable to follow through. And maybe even it will be of use to you, fellow Bay Area (and elsewhere) eaters who are looking for cooking inspiration every time your CSA box rolls in. So now… I begin!

This week’s box contains:

3 turnips
1 medium butternut squash
3 persimmons
2 pomegranates
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
3 medium leeks
6 medium carrots
3 heads bok choy
1 head raddichio
1 bunch arugula

Here is my bounty, in all of it’s glory (before fridge):

So here is how this CSA Challenge will go. Tuesdays (every other, as that is how often my box comes) I will post the contents of that week’s box. Wednesday I will post my recipe plan and inspiration. And throughout the remaining days before the next box arrives I will post entries for each meal. If you have inspiration or thoughts for recipes, please share them in the comments section. If you have thoughts on how you have fared (or struggled) with managing your own CSA box, please share those thoughts too.

I am grappling with my desire to support local agriculture in a way that seems ideal — sustained buying direct from producers. But this ideal has butted heads with my unfortunate ingrained shopping habits that have gotten me used to purchasing exactly what I need whenever I want it. Philosophically I jumped on the bandwagon of supporting local agriculture years ago, but I am finding more and more that I need to fundamentally alter my habits of purchasing and making food. I need to be more planful, and less impulsive, and I need to make time for food. I find, often, that my plans to cook dinner five nights a week get derailed as I stay at work late and go off to second and third jobs and more often than not come home and collapse exhausted on the couch, thoughts of cooking healthy vegetable-rich meals far from my overscheduled mind. And thus my poor veggies grow increasingly sodden in my fridge. SO. Here is the beginning of me putting an end to it all. Send me your ideas on menu planning in the comments. Bonus incentive: Local Bay Area commenters stand to win a prize!

As part of Alexis and JP’s wedding I decided it would be romantic and lovely to can various family recipes and give them out as wedding favors. I know, it’s like I have a mini-Martha Stewart inside of me, crying to get out. But I love this stuff.

I don’t know where I first got the idea, but at some point I found these Weck Jars and I think things started spiraling from there. I had images of hand-letterpressed tags and colorful family recipes peeking out from beautifully-made-yet-functional German glass containers. Clearly my imagination was running wild, but this is just what happens when your only sister gets married. I couldn’t be stopped.

Infinite thanks to Natalie Norton for capturing this photograph and so many moments throughout the weekend

This first recipe isn’t a family recipe at all (clearly I wasn’t going to succeed on all fronts), but it was so insanely delicious when I first tried it it had to be included. It is one of those recipes that almost has too many flavors, like Remy’s cheese concoction in Ratatouille, that seem to explode in cosmic awesomeness. You just keep eating more, trying to figure out what exactly is that magical combination of flavors doing somersaults in your mouth. Intrigued? READ ON. I give away all my secrets (that I stole from family friends — thank you Chip and Sara!) below.

Spiced Mixed Nuts
Yield 4 cups

1 lb. (4 cups) mixed unsalted nuts (such as cashews, macadamias, walnuts, pecans or almonds)
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. dark brown sugar
2 Tbs. chopped fresh rosemary
¼ tsp. cayenne
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Scatter the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake, shaking the sheet couple of times during baking, until the nuts are nicely toasted, 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, set a small heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle in the coriander and cumin and toast until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter, brown sugar, rosemary, and cayenne. Return the skillet to low heat and stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, 2 to 2 ½ minutes. Keep warm.

Tip the nuts into a large warmed bowl, pour the warm spiced butter over the nuts, and add the salt. Stir until the nuts are well coated. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary. Let the nuts cool completely.

The nuts can be made up to a week in advance. Store in an airtight container.

Stay tuned… more canning and WEDDING CAKES coming soon!

This weekend… My sister was married. It was beautiful and wonderful and fun and overwhelming and filled with small crises (and large) that could not have been predicted despite my best efforts at anxiety and that only made the weekend more memorable and awesome. Crises like… A tree fell on the nearby transformer and knocked out power for the whole wedding! And… We made a wedding cake that collapsed and had to be remade the night before the wedding! You know. Just fun things like that.

But really, truly, the wedding could not have been more awesome. I got a little over-eager at the thought of my sister getting married and so long ago volunteered for a number of crafty sounding activities that seemed like the best idea ever. Ideas like: I wanted to buy beautiful jars and can family recipes as wedding gifts. And make the wedding cake. And other things like that. So this next series of posts will be dedicated to each item I created to celebrate my sister Alexis and new brother JP’s big day. Some of the things ended in crises (friendly warning: DON’T MAKE BUTTERSCOTCH IN BATCHES OF FIFTEEN. Ever). And others ended beautifully. All of them were crafted with love and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to celebrate my sister’s wedding. I would do it all again, in a heartbeat.

I love you Alexis and JP. Here’s to many more celebrations to come (though I might not make you a cake for all of them).

Onwards: my friend Sadie seemed skeptical at my choice (I admit, it was not the best looking one of the bunch) but I was smitten at first glance. It was a #8 (10 inches) Griswold, with an admittedly impressive layer of grime and muck. But the store owner was adamant that no cast iron skillet was too far gone and that it would be easy to fix up. And I, being the competitive and easily drawn-to-challenges person that I am, thought that seemed like the best idea ever.

If you are competitive like me and want to take up your own challenge, see below for the whole process. I tell you honestly it was far easier than I anticipated and I am immensely pleased with the results. Cast iron skillets are pretty much indestructible and easy to fix up, and the benefits of cooking in them (even heat, easy to clean, stove and oven and anything-you-can-throw-at-them proof, etc.) are awesome. If you come across one that looked like mine, here are some easy tips to fix them.

1. Supplies: you’ll need your cast-iron something; Easy-Off; Crisco or other light vegetable oil; steel wool or another metal scrubbing device; a hot oven.

2. Spray Easy-Off on your pan and let sit for 30 seconds to a few minutes, depending on how bad your pan is (I left mine for about 30 or 40 seconds) and scrub off. Repeat process several times, rinsing in-between with water, until all of residual grossness is off.

3. Wash pan with soap and water.

4. Heat oven to 500 degrees Farhenheit. When oven is heated place pan in the oven and heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Remove pan from oven and spread thin layer of Crisco or vegetable oil on interior of pan, wiping off with a paper towel when done. Be careful not to burn yourself like I did.

6. Place pan back in oven (I have heard that you should turn upside down, with aluminum foil placed at the bottom of the oven to catch drippings, but I didn’t do this or find it necessary). Leave in oven for 15 to 30 minutes.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 two or three times or until your pan is nicely blackened with an even seasoning coating.

Voila! Your cast-iron skillet has been saved and is now well-seasoned and ready for cooking. Another beauty of cast-iron cooking is that you can cook without butter or oil because your pan retains the natural oils. If you find your food sticking too much or your pan difficult to clean, your pan isn’t well seasoned enough. Repeat steps 4 through 7. A final note on washing your pan: some people swear by never using soap, some people insist the oils will become rancid if you don’t. I have no firm opinion on the matter except that you should never soak your pan or use the dishwasher — handwash, dry completely when done (you can even heat on the stove after drying to really get the water off), and re-season when necessary and you’ll be fine.

Now… what to COOK?

Several weeks ago I was walking through the San Francisco Ferry Building and came upon a new storefront, Heath Ceramics. It was dreamy, I’ll just say that. So needless to say I peed my pants with excitement when I learned that their headquarters and studio were just over the bridge in Sausalito and where they give FACTORY TOURS and have EVEN MORE THINGS TO BUY. Luckily for me those more things to buy include seconds, which are just about the only things of theirs I can afford (I didn’t say it was cheap. Just pretty).

So a couple week ago (we’ll not count exactly — yes I am a delinquent blogger and have a backlog of posts to get up) I took an excursion with friends up to their factory. We biked across across the Golden Gate Bridge, planning to find some delicious eatery post-tour, eat ourselves into a stupor, and take the ferry back to the city when we were done. A perfect plan for a sunny Sunday.

The bike ride was lovely and I was not disappointed by the factory tour and the plethora of things that I Really Wanted to Buy But Could Not Afford. As it was a weekend the factory was not in full operation but the tour still gave us a great peek into the ins and outs of production. Heath Ceramics has made beautiful tableware and tiles since 1948. (As an aside: for a little design porn, check out a feature of the owners’ home here. Like I said… dreamy. If that doesn’t make you want to go out and re-do your non-existent fireplace with Heath tiles, well, I just don’t know what will). Lots of interesting tidbits about the company… The company was founded by Edith Heath but is now owned by Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey (of beautiful home-fame) who bought Heath in 2004. Heath strives to minimize their environmental impact by sourcing local earth, firing their kilns at low temperatures, reusing their clay scraps (which are turned into the tile) and recycling water. Since I came across them I see them everywhere and have noticed their wares used in restaurants all over the Bay Area, including some of my all-time favorites — Chez Panisse, The Slanted Door, and Farina, to name a few.

All in all… A dreamy Sunday. (Or was it Saturday? I blacked out after the food coma). I spent much of the time plotting my future dream home. It looks great, let me just say. I’ll be sure to invite you all over in 49 years when I can afford it.

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The organization that I work with, Haiti Projects, has been featured as today’s Daily Grommet — check us out! The video is also embedded below.

[brightcove vid=71454743001&exp3=37836813001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=37906111001&w=486&h=412]

PS I realize this doesn’t have so much to do with food, per se… But keep checking back to Daily Grommet! They often feature some exciting kitchen accessories and delicious delicacies.