we are (almost) all going green

i was in hannaford today and as i was checking out, i happened to look around and notice that EVERYONE who was checking out had reusable bags with them. it just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to think how far we have all come. as i have mentioned previously, i remember buying a cloth bag at stop and shop in dennis, massachusetts and being told i was the first person to ever buy one.
but of course i'm not totally naive. i'm pretty sure that it's not like this every where. it definitely wasn't like this in new haven, connecticut one short year ago when we were living there. and i did see a kid (yeah he made me feel old because he had tattoos so i knew he was at least 18 but he for sure looked 13) bag his cantaloupe. really? i get that people want to bag their tomatoes or nectarine cuz you eat the peel. but a cantaloupe does not need its own plastic bag to make it home to your kitchen. it basically has its own container.
and yesterday i was at a medical conference and they were serving juices and sodas and waters in plastic bottles and there was no where to recycle them. the garbage was almost completely full of plastic bottles with just a few pieces of real garbage mixed in. i put my cranberry juice cocktail bottle in my purse and brought it home to recycle.

corn and tomitillos

here are a couple of recipes i made this weekend. both new. one for tomitillo salsa and one for corn bread. (okay so i actually wrote this post a few weeks ago but i was drunk when i wrote it so i wanted to read it over when sober before posting it and then i forgot all about it)

tomitillos were from the hampton farmers market across the street from my work. at that farmers market i was reminded of how lucky i am to live in portland and have such a rich farmers market two times a week. into the tomitillo salsa i added cilantro and jalapeno from saturday's farmers market and i added one ear of fresh corn to the corn bread, also from saturday's market.

i thought the corn bread could have used more fresh corn but the others eating it said the ratio was good with just one ear and had i added more it may have upset the balance. this is great moist corn bread. i have been looking for a go-to recipe for corn bread for a while and i think i found it.

the recipe for tomitillo salsa calls for roasting the tomitillos under the broiler for 5-7 minutes and then blanching them. they were quite soft and well cooked after broiling them, so i skipped the blanch. i also somehow decided that it was really spicy with half a jalapeno when making it. but then when i went to eat it, there was no spice at all.

creating food memories

this past labor day weekend my friend brian and his fiancee lane visited us. brian and i spent 10 months together in ghana when we were 20 years old and juniors in college. we lived on the campus of the university of ghana, in legon, a town just outside the capital city of accra. we shared a lot together in those ten months and in remembering it, there are a lot of food memories. brian loves food. in ways that are different and similar to me, but he loves food. this vague memory came back to me of taking a long taxi ride to some unfamiliar corner of accra for pancakes. brian was in heaven and i think i remember him making some very homer simpson-like noises as he devoured his pancakes. as anyone who has spent an extended time in a land with very foreign food knows, the simple pleasure of a familiar food can be so very comforting.
he also frequently came to my dorm room for dinner of pasta with red sauce. living in the dorms in ghana was both similar and different to living in dorms in the us. there are cafeterias but they only serve lunch, so students set up make-shift kitchens on our porches to cook. on my wobbly table i would chop tiny onions and garlic cloves. i owned one pot and an electric hot plate that had only one setting -- very hot. once the onions and garlic were sizzling in the oil i threw in tomato paste, imperfect little fresh tomatoes, and lots of salt. when the sauce was done i transferred it to one of my few bowl and boiled water in that same pot for the pasta. i can't remember what i would do if the water wasn't running. take it from my bucket stored full of water for my bath? once the pasta was cooked and drained, i poured the sauce over it and heated everything up. brian loved it. and truly its really the basis for the marinara sauce i make today. i even considered making brian my much improved spaghetti and meatballs while he was here.
instead brian and lane wanted to treat us to dinner as a wedding gift. we chose fore street. i have been wanting to try this restaurant for some time but it just hasn't been in the budget. so when brian emailed me a list of restaurants to consider, i told him i was dying to try fore street.

our reservations were late: 9:30 on a sunday night. we decided to head over there a little early to have a drink and see if they could seat us early. we were in awe the moment we walked in. the decor with the exposed brick and open duct work and all the wood is just beautiful. the hostess said she thought a table would be available early and so we headed into the beautiful bar to get a drink to start. before our drinks even arrived our table was ready and the hostess let us know that our drinks would be brought to our table for us. we were seated at this amazing table right by the window with a view of commercial street and the harbor.
brian, lane, and seth all got special cocktails and i had a glass of shiraz. the wines by the glass were really reasonably priced and there were quite a few choices. brian picked out a great bottle of wine to go with dinner and he said that there were a lot of price points to choose from on the list of bottles.
for appetizers seth and i shared a beautiful salad of rocket and fresh tomatoes as well as a charcuterie plate with fois gras, duck sausage, and sweet breads. both were amazing. seth made an observation that the serving sizes on the charcuterie plate were perfect, because if you eat too much fois gras you are asking for a stomach ache. lane thought she really wanted to try some maine oysters but didn't want to miss something spectacular on the appetizer menu. so she asked the server for his favorite and he said he could eat the oysters any time of day. lane loved the beautiful briny and slightly sweet damariscotta oysters.
i actually ordered the pork chop for my main dish at first because i was so interested in the idea of a pig from berwick, maine. but then before the server could leave i changed my order to the pan seared duck breast. this was definitely the right choice for me. while i know my own pork chops probably don't compare to chef hayward's pork chop, it is something i can and do make a home. duck on the other hand is a protein that still scares me a little as a home cook. i love the dark rich meat and order it out when ever i can but i'm still a little shy about making it myself. this duck breast had a thick layer of fat that was seared crispy and was served with transcendent white beans that were firm to the bite and just kissed with the taste of sage (sorry to use such a word but the beans really did bring me to another level).
the meal was wonderful; the company was wonderful; and in the end this was one of our most memorable wedding gifts.

there really is something in the bread

i knew we had great bakeries in this town and i have spent time extolling their virtues in a previous post. but its always nice to see portland's bakeries getting some real recognition in the form of a great review in bon appetit magazine.
there are also little blurbs about the great breweries, seafood, and just great food we have here in portland.
credit to portland food map for posting these links.