Greenfest Needs Food

Finally. A good use for monster zucchini.

OK. Could all of you event planners get together and coordinate your festivals, openings, shows, events, picnics, garage sales, etc. so they don’t happen on the same weekend in September. There’s nothing to do all summer long, and then, bam!, there are ten festivals and events in one weekend. I’d love to drop by all your events, but if you put them on the same weekend, it’s physically impossible.

I did drop by Greenfest Philly this Sunday to see how Philly is greening and preening, and picked up lots of fliers. I also went to the event with the intent of picking up lunch from some veggie/green friendly vendor.

The only – only – food stand was Cosmic Catering, a local caterer that used fresh, local ingredients. I could have ducked into Whole Foods, but decided to give Cosmic Catering a go, since they bothered to represent.

The tofu veggie burger had plenty of vegetables incorporated in the patty, but squished out the back side of the bun when bitten into. I think if they weren't so swamped and had more time to cook the burger, the patty would have set up a little better. No condiments were offered. Boo.

The veggie wrap had plenty of veggie variety – broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, carrots, and probably something else – but the herbed tortilla wrap is a pet peeve of mine and a no-no; the herbs in the wrap always overpower what it’s holding.

I appreciate Cosmic Catering's presence and the fact that they had two solid veggie offerings, though.

Free food – and pictures of small rodents stuffing their face – makes everyone happy. The chocolate coffee Larabar was my favorite flavor from their line.

Some what timely, as I just decided to eat oatmeal for breakfast (I'm a cereal person, but sporadically go on oatmeal kicks) were the Quaker Oatmeal freebies.

The best score of the day was the Whole Foods' Scratch -n- Sniff stickers. (If only I were going back to school, and had a note book to sticker.) I wasn’t sure if I should inhale popcorn smell after the media popcorn lung scare this week. And I was a little scared to smell the hot dog, but thankfully it didn’t smell like much more than ink and paper. Ice cream sundae and strawberries – sniff-tastic!

Kitchen Tips From a 93-Year-Old

Once again, I tacked a not-really-a-vacation weekend onto the long list of such weekends this summer when I accompanied my boyfriend to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit his 93-year-old grandfather. I’ve never been to Corpus Christi, but have always had a soft spot in my heart for this seaside town ever since watching The Legend of Billie Jean – the raddest 80’s teenage rebellion and girl empowerment movie set in and filmed in Corpus Christi – over and over and over again in the 80's with the assistance of HBO (down in Fraggle Rock...).

I was excited to finally visit Corpus Christi, but Corpus should have stayed immortalized in my little brain as the place where Billie Jean proclaims ,“Fair is fair!,” and rebel justice prevails in the end, as the town is not nearly as exciting in reality. Sadly, there is no statue for Billie Jean in Corpus. But there is one for Salena.

But I was not in Corpus to sightsee; I was there to visit with the gramps, after all. The dear man is 93, undergoing chemo, lives alone, cooks for himself, and can talk Joan Rivers under a table. I don’t know how he does it. He nearly wore me out. While there, he taught me a few lessons in the kitchen that, even though I've heard them before (and ignore them), maybe I should wissen up and do as I'm told.

Zeyde’s Kitchen Tips

• Organize your kitchen for most efficient use. The man can stand in one corner and reach most things he uses on a daily basis without taking a step. (That’s the corner in the photo)

• Use a real measuring utensil. The teaspoon in the silverware drawer is not for measuring.

• One knife cannot do everything. Some cut bread well, some spread butter well, and some cut tomatoes well. Use the appropriate knife.

• Clean up as you cook, and there will be minimal mess when you’re done.
  

• Have a food schedule. For example; eat oatmeal two days, dry cereal four days, and eggs one day during the week for breakfast. Schedules make decisions easy and assure you eat the required food you need.

• Last, but not least, when you’re 93, you can be as stubborn and set in your ways as you like, and you’re always right!(There’s something to look forward to.)

While milling around his kitchen, I stumbled upon some vintage cooking items in the cupboards. There’s always a few jars in the spice rack you have no clue when you purchased, so they stay. We're all guilty of this. But, if you can remain guilty for a few decades, you might have some eBay material. These goodies were so charming, I had to take photos.

The cocoa and sugar mixture in the small glass bottle with the for-real retro cartoon is for decorating tops of cookies. I don’t think we could get away with the word “midget” to describe these small paper cupcake liners nowadays. I don’t think you could pick up cupcake liners for the faded nineteen cents printed on the yellowing sticker, either .

This paper wrapper held the most beautiful match boxes – each covered with a different illustration. Amazingly, these matches have been floating around the kitchen longer than I’ve been on this earth!

Vacation?

While I have not really been on “real” vacation the past few weeks, I have been busy taking long weekends outside of the city – D.C.; Podunk, PA; and the beach the past three weekends. Eating out at new restaurants (at least any where relevant to Philly) just simply hasn’t happened. Neither has elaborate or tale-worthy cooking. This trend may continue for a while. Like most people, this next weekend is a long holiday weekend for me, and I’ll be in Texas before I have time to even post about food or restaurants that I don't have time to get to. So, I’m announcing a sort of blog vacation. See you sometime after Labor Day.

Until then, here’s what I was doing this past weekend instead of heading out in the city to chow down. If you couldn't tell from the photos, I went to the beach...and evened out my sock tan!

This dog is obsessed with balls. Does not stop. Ever.

All the vegetables brought to the beach house were grown on my friend Stephanie's homestead. (That's her hand over the platter of grilled vegetables. She wanted her hand to make it into the blog. Her husband is stoking the coals with an empty beer bottle. I don't think he wanted in the blog, but he made it in anyway.) We grilled corn in the husk and marinated eggplant as side dishes to accompany fettuccine tossed in garlic and lemon and topped with feta and grilled squash, zucchini, and red peppers. That's about as exciting as things got...food-wise.I almost collected blueberry-on-steroid-esque beach plums that grow in the sand dunes to bring home – you know, to cook somehow and impress – but then I was like,"Nah, I'm going to be gone in a few days." Plus, they have pits, and I'm too lazy to extract the pits.

Too Many Tomatoes!

Oye, the tomatoes! In the winter you dream and pray for that mid-summer day when you pick your first tomato. By the end of summer, you’re thinking of hosting your own Tomatina festival.

I don’t think there is a single person who has ever under estimated the amount of tomato seedlings to plant in the spring. Growing tomatoes is sort of like cooking; you always overcompensate and have more than enough. It doesn’t help that your gracious friends over planted tomatoes, too. I swear it was just a few weeks ago that I was groaning about slow tomatoes.

I had the gorgeous array of tomatoes you see above sitting on my kitchen table, so I just accepted my dinner fate – tomatoes with a side of tomatoes. The black cherry tomatoes were grown by a friend, and mouth-popping worthy, so I didn’t dare cook these. Sliced, and tossed with vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, onions, and basil, these tomatoes marinated while I took care of the main course.

These striped tomatoes were also grown by the same gracious friend. Earlier, I had cut into one of these tomatoes to make a sandwich for lunch and discovered that the inside of the tomato was practically empty. Not great for sandwiches. Remembering she had forgotten to tell me about the tomatoes specifically for stuffing, she piped up the next day. Well, all righty! These guys are for stuffing. Stuffed they were – with rice, peppers, olives, onions, and whatever else I had on hand.

Coming soon: Too many Squash!

Sweet Loaf

This comic* has been brought to you by the Seitan O' Greatness recipe over at Post Punk Kitchen and the Butthole Surfers' song, Sweet Loaf.

*I've been out of work for two days because of the rain. I got bored, I baked, I played with food, and conjured up high school memories. I hope the rain stops soon.

Brown Betty Dessert Boutique

After a light lunch at home on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I was yearning for more lazing…but in a cute coffee shop or dessert parlor with a piece of cake in front of me. A last minute invite for an impromptu dinner put a wrench in my plans of lazing, but not my plans of having cake. I’ll just pick up some dessert as my contribution to the dinner – cake for them and me!

On the way out of town, I stopped by Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, a mother and daughter run bakery in Northern Liberties that uses Grandma Betty’s vintage recipes. Like many grandmas, Brown Betty’s namesake, Elizabeth Hinton, was famous for her pound cake. Other family cake recipes, such as carrot cake, cheesecakes, and chocolate cakes are also baked daily with a pinch of love and family tradition. The cakes proudly pay homage to the women in their family with cute names like Hattie Don’t Play™ and Aunt Eva Says™.

Most of the cakes in Brown Betty’s repertoire are available in cupcake form – perfect if you’re prone to eating an entire cake in one sitting (and want to avoid that), or just want to sample all the cakes (one per day, or in one sitting). I had a dozen assorted cupcakes boxed to go for the dinner party. I am embarrassed to say that I ate more than my fair share of the cupcakes (in one sitting), but I'm doing investigative work, and, um, need to do thorough work.

I was inexplicably drawn to the strawberry cupcake (forgive me, I cannot remember the names off all the cupcakes), stemming perhaps from fond memories of squeezing Strawberry Shortcake’s head to snort the synthetic fruit vapors wafting from her hair when I was a child. There were two strawberry cupcakes, one with chocolate buttercream frosting, and one with strawberry frosting. I ate both. The cake was moist and light, but the delicate strawberry flavor was overpowered by the sweet frosting.

I then ate a pound cake cupcake. The pound cake cupcakes really are pound cake, so don’t expect a light vanilla cake – these cupcakes are heavy and dense…and oh so good.

I heroically swooped down to finished the chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting when a dainty person could not bear to finish the beautiful cupper since being weaned from rich, sweet desserts. I was happy to assist her in her shortcomings, as I’m declaring this cupcake my favorite in the bunch.

After consuming three and a half cupcakes, I needed to put an end to the piggery. From there on out, I just took a pinch from the edges of a few more – all in the name of research, of course. The buttermilk pound cake with lemon frosting was my favorite pound cake, simply because lemon and pound cake are a classic pairing. The pound cake with pineapple was also outstanding, and a different twist on pound cake for me. If you like carrot cake, let me just say that you should start here. The carrot cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting is the lightest and moistest carrot cake I’ve ever had.

Grandma Betty – and all the other fabulous women in their family – doesn’t put out a single bad cake. Betty was obviously one bad ass lady, and her family is doing her – and us – right.

Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, 1030 N. 2nd St., #601, Philadelphia, PA, 19123 215-629-0999 Tues.-Sat., noon-7 p.m.; Sun., noon-5 p.m.; Mon., closed.

Zen Press

As promised, the unveiling of the divinely delish drink sampled the other night at – shock and horror – the chain restaurant, P.F. Chang’s. The cocktail is called Zen Press on P. F. Chang’s menu, and is a gin drink made with cucumbers and lemongrass syrup. The type of gin used is key; they use Hendrick’s Gin, a Scottish gin scented with cucumbers and rose petals. The Zen Press smells intriguingly of melons and honeysuckle – the lemongrass syrup and rose scented gin registered as honeysuckle when I stuck my nose in the glass. The flavors are sophisticated, smooth, and refreshing.

I liked – loved – this drink so much I had my friend and server at P.F. Chang's, who steered us through the night with great recommendations (drink included), ask the bartender how the drink was made: two slices of cucumber muddled in a glass, a shot of lemongrass syrup, and a shot of gin topped off with Sprite and seltzer. I started off with this formula, and after three drinks had the drink down to a science of me. Of course, size of glass, your taste preferences, and how fast or slow you want to get to par-tay will influence your hand.

Zen Press
Makes 1 drink, plus lemongrass syrup to spare

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 stalk lemongrass

• Place sugar and water into a small pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar crystals have dissolved.
• Slice the pale, fleshy base of lemon grass into small rounds and add to the sugar and water mixture.
• Let the syrup cool for at least 30 minutes, or longer for stronger flavoring.
• Strain.

1 inch of cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
3/4 shot lemongrass infused simple syrup
1 shot Hendrick's Gin
ice
Sprite
Seltzer

• Muddle cucumber slices in the bottom of a glass.
• Add lemongrass syrup and gin.
• Stir, and strain into a glass.
• Add ice, and top with a splash of Sprite and Seltzer.