I think I might head over there at lunch today to see if their red velvet one is any good.

Do what the sign says: PLEASE DON'T THROW TOMATOES AROUND

While on a recent stop at my friendly neighborhood produce stand (Paquin’s stand at the corner of Moe and Grooms Roads in Clifton Park), I noticed the sign above.  Never being one to let a good opportunity pass her by, I asked the guy at the stand: “Do you really have a problem with people throwing tomatoes?”

I honestly don’t know what answer I was expecting, but the one I received gave me something to think about.  I hope you’ll think about it too.

The guy (I’m so sorry I didn’t ask his name – I hate calling him “the guy”) explained that people tend to rummage around the tomato bin as if they were rummaging through their laundry basket in search of a clean-ish pair of jeans: tossing stuff about willy-nilly and throwing whatever they don’t want to the back of the pile.  There’s also some uncalled-for squeezing going on.  All of this results in bruised, damaged tomatoes that cannot be sold to the general public who prefer unblemished produce.

I was startled when the guy told me that he ends up throwing away fifty pounds of tomatoes a day, due to all of this egregious manhandling.  FIFTY POUNDS A DAY.  Think of how many people this could feed.  Or how much sauce this could make.  What a waste.

And since he has to throw so much away, his inventory is decreased and he has to sell at a higher price in order to get the same income.  He told me that last week he charged $1.99 per pound for the tomatoes, but now he’s been forced to sell them for $2.49 per pound.   That’s a 25% increase for all of you out there who flunked calculus.

I don’t know a whole lot about tomato processing (besides eating them), so I asked if the bruised ones were completely worthless or if they could be used for SOMETHING.  Apparently, they are great for canning.  Too bad I don’t know how to can.  Perhaps next summer I will learn.

And, as it turns out, it’s not just the poor tomatoes that suffer at the grimy hands of overzealous produce customers: peaches get fingernails driven into them, and cucumbers get pressed until they “bleed”.  I’ve also noticed people who insist on shucking every piece of corn before they buy it, leaving the mutant ears to the latecomers.  I’ve always understood that an ear of corn was like a fortune cookie with your takeout Chinese: you don’t open it at the restaurant – you wait til you get home!  Corn is supposed to be “luck of the draw”!

Anyway – the moral of the story: Be kind to the produce.  There are other people here, you know.

$2.49 per pound. Because YOU couldn't control yourself.

Here’s what’s on my holiday baking list this year (and yes, I do indeed make a list):

• Orange Poppy Seed Twinks (a simple variation on my Cherry Poppy Seed Twinks)
• Chocolate Chip Shortbread Sticks
• Russian Tea Cakes
• Church Windows
• Coconut Macaroons
• Oreo Truffles
• Peanut Butter Truffles
• Chocolate Frangelico Truffles
• Butterscotch Toffee Fudge
• Some other kinds of fudge
• Christmas Crunch (chocolate almond toffee)

Since I had a pork tenderloin roasting in the oven this afternoon, I decided to tackle a few of the items that can be made on the stovetop: toffee and fudge.  The Christmas Crunch is an almond toffee that I’ve been making since 1998 (based on the date on the Good Housekeeping magazine I got it from!).  It’s simple (as far as candy-making goes), and it absolutely amazing.  When/if i ever open the Wendalicious Shop, it will be one of the items I sell.

Christmas Crunch, Close Up

I always make a ton of fudge, because it’s so easy and everyone seems to enjoy it.  Of course I make the regular plain fudge, and plain with walnuts.  A few years back I was experimenting (as I am wont to do), and dumped some leftover Heath Bar bits into the butterscotch fudge I was making.  My friend Chris (of “Marlene and Chris” fame) said it was the best fudge he’d ever had, and thus a new tradition was born.  It really is quite fabulous, if I do say so myself.

Here are some pics (with the recipe included) of the Butterscotch Toffee Fudge:

Stirring together 2Tbsp butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 tsp salt and 2/3 cup evaporated milk over medium heat. Boil for 4-5 minutes.

Remove from heat, add 4oz marshmallows, 1 bag butterscotch chips, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 cup toffee bits

Stir vigorously to melt the mixture

Pour the fudge into a foil-lined 8x8 pan, then place in the fridge to firm up.

I had a fudge revelation today – much in the same way I created the Butterscotch Toffee Fudge, I invented Vanilla Ice Cream Cone Fudge.  Vanilla Ice Cream with Rainbow Sprinkles is my all-tie favorite summer treat, and I thought it would translate well into the holiday fudge milieu.  I happened to have bought white chocolate chips, so I substituted them and then added rainbow sprinkles to the mixture before pouring it in the pan.  I cannot wait to see how the experiment turns out.    This particular recipe is very amenable to variations, and you can substitute just about any kind of chip or nut, to suit your taste.

If you’ve ever made fudge, or any other kind of candy, you know it makes a sticky, sugary mess.  So, I am including here a handy tip for cleaning up the candy pot – fill it with water, throw in the spoons and spatulas, boil, and pour away the mess.  Sugar only melts in a heated solution, so this is the easy way to get that pot clean again – no scrubbing necessary!

Cleaning the Candy Pot

I will post recipes and photos as I continue my baking over the next week.  I’d love to know what (if any) holiday baking you do.  I’m particularly interested in finding a good fruitcake recipe – I think I may be one of the only people under 40 who actually enjoy fruitcake.  I guess that pretty well sums me up.

Here’s the rundown:

Seckel (sugar) Pears

Seckel pears.  Beautiful, tiny, and reportedly “as sweet as a candy bar” (that’s what the guy told me!).  I’ll do a report as soon as a few of them ripen enough to eat.

Winter squash – acorn and butternut.  I know I’m probably the only person who didn’t know this, but winter squash are so named NOT because they are only available in winter, but because the skins are sturdy enough to allow them to hold through winter.  According to my friend (and Cornell Cooperative Extension Director) Chris Logue, if you keep your squash in a cool, dark place like your basement (as long as the temps don’t go below freezing), you can likely keep squash from now until January.  Nice.  Since I don’t have a basement, he suggested a cooler in my garage.

Freshly dug baking potatoes.  They went into last night’s Pot Roast.   Recipe for that soon.  I didn’t take photos last night, but I make it often enough that I should be able to put up a recipe with pix pretty soon.  I think I have finally perfected that pot roast.

A fresh-baked Morning Glory muffin from Our Daily Bread.  It was pure heaven – filled with carrots, raisins, apples, and coconut.  I jumped on my BlackBerry and found a recipe, bought a quart of Cortland apples at Buhrmaster Farms, and bought the rest of the ingredients on my trip to the grocery store later that day.  Here’s the recipe I found, with a few of my modifications – it makes DELICIOUS muffins, that are really filling and really good for you:

Whole Grain Morning Glory Muffins

• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed natural brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1  Cortland  apple, cored, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dried flaked sweetened coconut, divided

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; break up any brown sugar lumps with your fingers or a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil and vanilla, then add to flour mixture and stir just until combined. Add apples, raisins, carrots, walnuts and 1/4 cup of the coconut and stir gently until well combined.

Spoon batter into 12 paper-lined muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full. Top evenly with remaining 4 teaspoons coconut and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cooked through.

Tomato Sauce

About 5 pounds of tomatoes – the LAST of the tomatoes.    I was feeling pretty ambitious, and bought a ton (for me, anyway).  A friend mentioned a few weeks ago that she wanted to learn how to can.  Feeling inspired by that goal, but not quite ready to start canning myself, I thought I’d take the first step, and at least learn how to make homemade sauce that would be suitable for some eventual canning.  I found a very loose recipe for sauce online, and threw some great sauce together in about 2 hours.  It sounds ridiculous, I know – I mean, who doesn’t know how to make their own sauce?  Well, me.  I have not one drop of Italian blood, so sauce-making does not come hard-wired into my DNA.  But, I think I managed to create a respectable sauce.  Here’s what I did:

• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• a whole mess of tomatoes, peeled but NOT seeded, then quartered
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp dried Italian herbs
• Salt and pepper

Briefly sweat the onion and garlic in the olive oil.  Dump the tomatoes in, and let cook over medium-low heat until they break down.  Add in tomato paste and herbs, let cook for another hour or so, breaking up tomato chunks as it cooks.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  That’s it!  Makes enough to serve at one meal, and freeze some for later.

Many delicious items from one trip to the market!  Can’t wait to see what’s cooking next week.

I used leftover meatball marinara sauce to make lasagna this week – I chopped up the meatballs, added them back to the sauce, and used it as a layer in the lasagna.   It was great, and nothing went to waste (I’ve been bringing leftover lasagna for lunch all this week).

Tonight, I used the batch I threw in the freezer last week to make Meatballs in Onion Gravy.  Simple!! 

• one can of cream of broccoli soup (lowfat okay, other flavors will work too)
• one package of turkey gravy mix
• one cup water
• one cup skim milk
• 1/2 package dry onion soup mix
• 2 tsp poultry seasoning
• One batch of cooked meatballs (about 24)
• chopped scallions

Mix the can of soup and next 5 ingredients in large saucepan.  Stir with whisk until smooth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until thickened.  Add meatballs; stir.  Cover partially and let simmer for 30 minutes, until gravy is thick.  Serve over cooked egg noodles; sprinkle with green onions.

Enjoy this – it’s a simple and inexpensive way to have dinner ready quickly.  And - if you want to dump everything into the crockpot before you leave in the morning, it would work just great!  My advice would be to set the crockpot on Low for 6-8 hours.  Then all you have to do is cook the noodles when you get home!

From Tuesday, January 27 through Saturday, January 31, more than 20 Schenectady County and Downtown Schenectady restaurants will be offering a special three-course menu for the low, low price of 2009 Cents (that’s $20.09, for those of you getting out the calculator).

As of this writing, the following restaurants are participating:

Manhattan Exchange, Parker Inn, Clinton’s Ditch, The Stockade Inn, Tops American Grill, Backstage Grill, San Souci, Glen Sanders Mansion, Aperitivo Bistro, Taj Mahal, Brandon’s Ritz Terrace, 20 N. Broadway Tavern, Castelo’s, Union Inn, Bangkok Thai Bistro, Turf Tavern, Kabul Nights, WineDown Lounge, Ambition Café.

Wow!  That’s a lot of restaurants! I can say that I’ve personally eaten at all but 2 of them (the 2 newest ones, 20 N. Broadway Tavern and Kabul Nights), and they are all terrific. In fact, I was so impressed with WineDown Lounge recently, that I bought my in-laws gift certificates to there for Christmas!  I highly recommend it.    The Executive Chef there is Rob Gavel, who made some great food at Cafe 1795 in the Stockade (which sadly closed a couple years back). WineDown has awesome food and a wonderful wine list!

I consider sampling my city’s restaurants to be part of my job.

Most restaurants suggest making reservations for this traditionally busy week.  Diners who fill out and submit a brief comment card will be entered into a drawing for a Dinner and Entertainment Package.

For more information and downloadable menus, visit www.sayschenectady.org.  This year’s Bicentennial Restaurant Week is presented by The Chamber of Schenectady county, The Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation, and Schenectady County.

Get out there and enjoy Schenectady County Bicentennial Restaurant Week – I know I will, probably several times!

-end of shamless plug-

We purchased some apples, cider, donuts, and a peach praline pie for dessert (Sarah brought some pie back to the Sionna residence – how was it?).  The quintessential autumn retail experience.  I didn’t buy any apples myself, but Sarah was kind enough to give me 4 apples to use as I saw fit.

The conundrum: what to do with them?  I know how to make pie (kinda boring), I don’t know what I’d do with applesauce (I like it, but not that much), and I am not a raw-apple-eating kind of person.  SO – after consulting with my fabulous neighbor Chef Mark, I decided to roast them alongside a Cinderella pumpkin he gave me, and puree them into a pumpkin apple soup (with the addition of chicken stock, salt, and butter).  it was pretty good – though Chef Mark suggested that I add some CHEESE to it to increase the depth of flavor.  He is SO smart.  It was incredible.  I suggest you make some yourself!  But only use 2 apples, instead of 4 – it was a bit apple-y.

And then, I was inspired to buy some apples myself, and create something delicious.  Excuse me, Wendalicious.  Luckily, this month’s issue of Cooking Light arrived just in time.  I made a spectacular Tarte Tatin – a basic upside-down apple dessert, with caramel-bathed apples.  Recipe here.  Note: please do not be tempted to add traditional apple-pie spices to this recipe.  The rich and nutty burnt-sugar taste of this recipe is absolutely beyond compare.

Here’s what mine looked like, before I devoured it (and gave a few pieces to Chef Mark and his wife):

Give it a try – I used Gala apples, but I bet you could use just about any type (except Macintosh, because they do not hold their shape very well when cooked).  Enjoy!

Here’s what I got this week:

• Salad greens
• Green leaf lettuce
• Swiss Chard
• Thyme and Basil
• Sugar Snap peas
• yau choy (Chinese greens, similar to bok choy, but smaller)

I also purchased some squash, additional basil (I can’t resist), parsley, and spring onions at the Farmer’s Market. Still mostly green stuff this week, but I hear next week the beets are coming!

Anyway, I wanted to make sure I used some of this before it wilted and I had to throw it away, so I had to get creative to come up with something fun and delicious for dinner. After looking through the fridge and pantry, I found:

• Chicken Apple Sausage
• A jar of roasted red peppers
• Whole wheat fusilli
• Parmesan cheese
• garlic

And, then, inspiration struck! Here’s what I ended up making:

Chicken Apple Sausage Garden Pasta

• Whole Wheat pasta (any short kind will work – I happened to have fusilli)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 spring onions, chopped (both white and green parts)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (or more if you want)
• 3 chicken sausage links, sliced
• a bunch of Swiss Chard
• 2 roasted red peppers, rinsed and sliced
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth
• 1 tsp of your favorite Italian seasoning mix (mine is Tuscan Sunset from Penzey’s)
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
  
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (or more if you want)

Cook pasta in salted water until al dente, about 9 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Trim the ends off the chard stalks and discard. Rip the ribs off the leaves, tear up the leaves, and set the leaves aside. Chop the ribs coarsely.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl in the olive oil. Add the chard ribs and chopped onion. Saute for about 3 minutes, until they begin to get soft. Add the sliced sausage, and cook until lightly browned. Add the garlic, and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Dump the chard leaves on top (don’t mix in), cover, and let simmer until chard is wilted (about 3 minutes or so). Remove the cover, add the sliced peppers, seasonings, pasta, and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan. Stir until thoroughly combined and heated through. Serve with additional Parmesan.

Wendalicious!

This was SO good – the chicken apple sausage and the chard gave it a nice sweetness, which was balanced by the heat of the red pepper and garlic. It was also really really easy! I had never eaten chard before, so I was pleasantly surprised!

And for those of you trying to eat healthfully, this recipe is extremely good for you, if you can manage not to eat the whole pan of it (good luck).  Olive oil, leafy greens, whole wheat pasta, lean poultry…it’s in there.

Oh, and I ate all the sugar snap peas while I was making dinner. Like candy!

Enjoy!

How do you use it? Do you have a favorite recipe containing rosemary?

Does smelling it make you think of anything? Does the very sight of a sprig of fresh rosemary, rising majestically from a creamy yellow mound of fresh whipped potatoes, inspire you to compose a poem?

I want to know. The world wants to know. Tell us, right here.

In fact, I actually have a bathroom pet peeve that drives me absolutely over the edge – people talking to me while I’m in the stall. I’ve actually had a woman in the stall next to me say, “Who’s that?”, eager to start a conversation. Dammit, it’s “me time”, not happy hour. Don’t you have some business to attend to?

So, on a whim, I Googled “Public Bathroom Etiquette”, and I found an incredibly informative and wildly hilarious website, which addresses every concern one might have about what is appropriate in a public toilet. FYI – it’s okay to text while in the stall, but absolutely verboten to make a call. Who knew? Enjoy.

And, for heaven’s sake – stop talking!