No Snowmageddon

After last years bold and audacious winter, this winter was barely a blip. One snow before Halloween and mid-winter flurry and this last gasp... rained away before afternoon. This is my kind of winter.

Bright Orange Soup

After cooking dozens of vegetables for Christmas guests, I found a plethora of leftover orange veggies that needed to be dealt with soon. So I decided to make a soup. It was so good, it has become a Doe Run Farm speciality.

Now this was a "leftover" so exact quantities were not a problem. As you might have figured, we are not big on "exact" measurements. Here are some visuals to give you a hand.



I find a baking sheet full of vegetables is about right. Use any combination of bright orange vegetables. I like squash, sweet potato and carrots. I am sure any one or two will work out just fine. I add one small habanero and a bit of yuzu kosho, which gives it quite a kick. The yuzu kosho and the habanero can be left out, but the joy of this soup is the kick.

Ring around the plate...Chinese five-spice (in bowl), cilantro,
garlic, habenero, yuzu kosho, onion, butter.

Bright Orange Soup

A tray full of orange vegetables (two sweet potatoes,peeled and diced, 1 pound of cut and cleaned winter squash, four or five carrots, sliced or a bag of baby carrots)
2 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon Chinese five spice
1 medium onion
1 small habanero pepper, seeded
5 or 6 cloves of garlic
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 teaspoon yuzu kosho (optional)

1 tablespoon butter
2 cans coconut milk

Place the veggies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and drizzle on the olive oil. Bake at 375 until fork tender, about 40 minutes.

Put the Chinese five -spice, onion, garlic, cilantro, yuzu kosho, and habanero into a food processor and chop roughly. Add the butter to a large soup pot over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the chopped ingredients and saute for a minute or two just to heat, not to brown.

Add the roasted orange vegetables to the pot.

Add the two cans of coconut milk and simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes to blend all the flavors.

Puree with an immersion blender or remove from heat and carefully blend in batches in a food processor. Not too full or you will have a disaster.

Garnish with a few cilantro leaves and serve.

On a subsequent batch, I made the soup in a covered Dutch oven. Placed all the orange vegetables in the pot. Quartered the onion and give the cilantro a rough chop and added it to the pot. Add the Chinese five-spice, habanero, and yuzu kosho and sprinkled it all with olive oil and add a nob of butter. Cover the Dutch oven and placed it in a 375 oven for about an hour. When the veggies are tender, remove the Dutch oven to a stove burner. Add the two cans of coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Blend the soup. I like the cook-in-one-pot the best, as you can stick it in the oven and go about your business. And there is less clean up!

Why Didn't We Think Of This

OK, it is not an iPad but still... what a cool idea. For those of us who can on a regular basis, there is always a canning jar lurking about. While it may be all the rage to use them as a drinking glass, it is often hard to carry one around...till now.

This MADE IN AMERICA idea, is so simple yet so cool. We are totally over-hydrated. The second our jar is empty, we fill it up just to use our cuppow.

Get yours here. Cuppow.

Seriously, buy one right now.

Old Harrods

Over at Cookbook Of The Day we wrote about the Harrods Cookery Book. Now you may not want to cook scones, but you have to admit these vintage Harrods photos are quite nice.

Which came first? Harrods of the egg?

The Health Department would surely close this place down.

Cat Breading

Today's deep philosophical question it this:

What does it say about a society that garners great pleasure from putting loaf bread on a cat's head?

We do not have the answer but we do have these cute pictures!! Let me just say that Teddy is thrilled that there are new cats to suffer the indignities of humans. Treat seems much more interested in eating the bread than wearing it.

In fact, Trick, too, was willing to wear a slice of bread if she got to eat it after.


And, yes Virginia, there is a web site that is totally devote to cat breading.

Fun Things to do with Pulled Pork

Chances are, you do not need any help with what to do with your pulled pork, but here a just a couple of ideas. I am leaving it up to you to gather your own pulled pork. It is such a personal thing, barbecue, so you are on your own.

The other day I was craving crackling bread, but alas, no one had any real cracklings. There was a bag at the grocery from a large pork product supplier, but my guess is they were old. Cracklings are just rendered pork skin. But when added to cornbread, they give it a nice, chewy, crunchy feel. But, as with any cooked product, good cracklings are the key.

With no cracklings around, I realized that I did posses some pulled pork. So why not put that in my cornbread?

So I did.

Pulled Pork Cornbread

1 tablespoon bacon fat or other oil
1 1/2 cup self rising cornmeal
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup pulled pork


Preheat your oven to 450.


Mix the cornmeal, buttermilk and eggs into a bowl and mix well. Fold in the pulled pork.

Place an iron skillet on the stovetop and heat. Add the oil to the hot pan.

When the oil is hot, add the batter.

Remove from stove and immediately place the skillet into the oven.

Cook for about 45 minutes or until the top is brown and cracked.

I told you awhile back about making Tomato Confiture from Taste. I opened a jar and I cannot tell you how yummy it was.


As you know, the Doe Run Farm specialty is our Three B Pancakes. The three "B's" being buttermilk, Bisquick and bacon. Well, our new specialty is our Three P Pancakes. Pulled Pork Pancakes. This is basically a "serving suggestion" as stated before, you are in charge of your own pulled pork and also in making you own pancakes.

Three P Pancakes.

1 cup pulled pork
1 stack of pancakes
1 pint Jack Daniel's Syrup.

Alternate pancake, pulled pork, syrup.

The easiest way to make Jack Daniels Syrup is to heat a syrup you like and add a shot of Jack Daniel's.

As a child, I would not eat "dark" syrup. My syrup of choice was plain, clear Karo. This caused a problem when I wanted to eat pancakes in a restaurant...which I seldom did as they always wanted to serve me brown syrup! I find, however, that plain Karo with a shot of Jack Daniel's is just the ticket.

Now get out there and barbecue a pork shoulder. Of go to your fave barbecue establishment and grab a pound of their pulled pork. You will be good to go.

Requiescat in Pace - Dorothea Tanning

Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning by Lee Miller

Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning died at age 101. She is one of my favorite artists.

Voltage, 1942

Her memoir, Birthday, was called "an enchanting, succulent book" by Susan Sontag. I cannot think of a better description.



She remained a powerhouse her entire life, holding up to the scrutiny of having a famous artist husband, Max Ernst. I once contacted Tanning about participating in a book on women's creativity. She was adamant that she did not want to have anything to do with "feminist" writings. (Actually, they were just creative women, not feminist women, but as you can see, she was adamant.)

Birthday, 1942. Self-Portrait

I think the world was a better place with Tanning in it. She will be missed.

Reclining Nude 1969-70

New York Times obituary.

Cocktails at the Burn Pit -- Juicer Edition

Let me just thank everyone who encouraged me to stay on the straight and narrow path to healthy living. Wait, none of you did that. You just want more evil and delicious ways to use my juicer. Bless you hearts.

Of course my ass is as big a house now. At this rate I will be adding a portico. Still...

Here is the recipe for the Greeny Lucinda. Since that tired old Bloody Mary is garnished with celery, we thought it only fitting and proper to garnish our Greeny Lucinda with tomatoes.

Greeny Lucinda

4 stalks of celery
2 small green apples
a handful of spinach
10 drops of green Tabasco sauce
5 drops celery bitters
1 ounce vodka (OK 2 ounces!)
tiny tomatoes for garnish

Juice the celery, apples and spinach. Pour into a glass. Add the bitters and Tabasco. Garnish.

Did I mention I am using a nice vegetable juice to make ice cream? Please, don't encourage me... maybe just a little encouragement...

Tales From the Dark Side

Let me preface this by saying I sincerely hope my friend, Ann, does not read this entry. She says she reads my blog, but I think that most days she does not read my blog, so I am hoping that this is one of those days.

Let me begin at the beginning. Like most people, I started the New Year thinking that this would be the year I got all healthy and slim and fit. Of course, I believed that there must be some type of kitchen gadget that would help me accomplish this. The more I thought about it, the more I knew what I needed to be fit and slim and healthy was a juicer.

I did my due diligence for a juicer. Picked out the one I wanted, which was more money than I wanted to spend. I went on eBay and found that by the time the shipping was included, the used eBay models were more than the new amazon juicers. Then I found a reconditioned juicer and I added it to my wish list as I tried to decide just exactly how healthy I wanted to be. Then the cheap, recondition models sold out. Then the new model sold out. Then I began to worry. I mentioned this to Ann (remember, do not tell her about this post) my juicer dilemma.

Ann believes in being proactive. So she bought me the juicer for my birthday (which is a couple of months away, but Ann has never been wedded to celebrating actual events on their actual day. The good thing about this for me, not Ann, is that she often FORGETS that she bought you something for a specific day, months before and then buys you something else for the actual day).

So I got my miraculous juicer for health and fitness. Let me just say, boy does it juice. Stuff any veggie into the magic tube and in seconds it spits out a thick, rich juice. It was wonderful. I juiced every day.

By day four, something bad happened. If my life were a supernatural television show, you would now be seeing the breath come out of my mouth as the room turned cold. On day four, I made a lovely spinach, apple, and celery juice. It was bright green and celery wafted up from my glass. And then…

I went to the dark side. I thought, what if I juiced a nob of horseradish into the juice, added a splash of celery bitters and a generous supply of vodka… yes, it would not be a bloody Mary but a Greeny Lucinda. One would never drink a Bloody Mary again. In fact, you could hold one of these in your hand and stand in bathroom mirror and chant Bloody Mary over and over and remain safe from ghostly possession.

From that moment on, every time I looked at the juicer, I thought of all the cocktails I could make. Then one night, it occurred to me that I could not only make cocktails, I could make bread! Imagine just how good bread would be if you replaced the water with juice…

Boy, was I right.

Carrot Bread with Currants

3 cups freshly squeezed carrot juice

1/2 cup milk

3 cups white AP flour

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

1 packet dry yeast

1 cup currants

Toss all the ingredients into a large container and stir until all the flours seem to be incorporated --you have a shaggy, stick mess. Let the dough sit in a warm place for an hour or two and then put in the refrigerator and allow to sit overnight.

Remove dough from the refrigerator. It will be a very sticky dough. Lay a sheet of foil or parchment paper on a tray or plate, as this will facilitate moving the dough to the oven. Dust your hands and the workspace in flour. Pull out half the dough and work it into a ball, adding just a bit of flour to keep it from sticking to your hands. Place the ball on the floured workspace and cover the dough with a cloth; let it rise for about 1 hour.

After 45 minutes have passed, place a covered Dutch oven into the oven and preheat oven and pan to 450 degrees. Carefully remove the pan and open it. Dust your hand in flour again and invert the loaf into you hand, removing the foil from the bottom. Drop loaf into the Dutch oven. It doesn't have to be fancy, just drop it in. Cover with the lid, return to the oven and cook for 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let sit for 30 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan.

I made some honey butter to spread on my juice bread. Now I am the first to admit that my miraculous juicer was supposed to be used for juice and not cocktails and certainly not bread... but look at it, really how can one resist. I promise to go back and DRINK the juice. I do... really

Famous Food Friday -- George and Martha Washington

"States" china with Martha Washington's initials in the center.
This china was a gift from the East India Trading Company.

As I stated in the Lucindaville Abecedary, Dining With The Washingtons is a glorious book. It may look like a stuffy old academic tome from the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, but it is a breath of fresh air when you open the covers. Yes, it is a well researched scholarly book about George and Martha Washington, but the focus is about an area often overlooked in most histories – it is about the kitchen – or more specifically, how the kitchen impacts the dining room.

This interdisciplinary study starts in the kitchen and uses this space to view everything around it. It begins with the house as a focal point for entertaining such as, who came and why. George Washington’s life of public service made him a distinguished guest and those traveling through Virginia became his guests. Mount Vernon became one of the first private homes to offer its guests ice cream. In 1784 a “Cream Machine for Ice” was purchased in England for the sum of 1.13.3 pounds. It must have been a hit as three years later and expenditure of $7 was noted for another ice cream maker and the next year a full five shillings for ice cream spoons. Seriously, who wants to eat ice cream with plain soup spoon?

Ice Cream "Machine"

There is section on how everyday meals would have been prepared. While not incorporating the same pomp and circumstance of “state” dinners, the meal preparation was executed with military precision. The household staff, consisting of Washington’s slaves, began work before sunrise and ended late in the evening. A diary of the cook’s day from the 1790’s tells us that the cook, Lucy, along with her husband, Frank Lee, the butler would rise at 4 a. m. to begin work. A normal workday for Lucy would end with cleaning the kitchen at 8 p. m. When company was expected, the day would run much longer as Washington generally served his guests at 9 p.m.

Larder at Mount Vernon

Washington’s lavish meals were raised at Mount Vernon. Washington was a serious student of agriculture. He was one of the first farmers to abandon the once lucrative crop of tobacco for more farm friendly grain, which he milled and sold. A world traveler, Washington was fond of imported drink, but in his desire to “shop American” he replace imported ale with local beer. Especially fond of Robert Hare’s porter from Philadelphia, Washington was saddened when the brewery burned and wrote of his sorrow, “on public as well as private accounts.”

No book on dining would be complete without recipes. Noted food historian Nancy Carter Crump assembled a lovely collections of recipes that would have graced the tables of the Washington and translated them into a usable collection for today’s kitchens. For historical sake, here is one of Martha Washington’s actual recipes for you to try.

Take 40 eggs divide the whites from the yolks & beat them to a froth then work four pounds of butter to a cream & put the whites of the eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manners then put it in the Youlks of eggs & 5 pounds of flower & 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it add to it half an ounce of mace & nutmeg half a pint of wine and some frensh brandy.

Even if you could care less about history, this is one culinary romp you will want on your shelf.