Fourth Annual Julia Child Event Coming Next Month

I hereby announce the fourth annual Julia Child Birthday Celebration, in which food bloggers and others honor the life and work of an American icon.

This year the event will be even more exciting, what with the Julie & Julia movie coming out around the time of Mrs. Child's birthday and the cookbook giveaway here on CT.That's right—our local Barnes & Noble store in Champaign has generously donated a beautiful hard-cover copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking to the event! They have a little display set up where you'll find Julia-related books, so if you've been meaning to read, say, My Life in France, Julie & Julia, or the JC bio Appetite for Life, give our local store some love by buying your copy there.

Thus, we have a two-pronged thing going on for the event this year.

If you want a chance to win the Mastering the Art of French Cooking book:

• Leave me a comment on this post by August 13, 2009, at midnight CST.
• Briefly explain why you'd like to have the book, or just share thoughts about or memories of Mrs. Child.
• Include your name (it can be just your first name) and the city and state you live in. (The giveaway is limited to people currently living in the United States, Alaska and Hawaii included.)
• On August 14, we'll put the names of all who leave comments that include the information described above into a hat, and we'll choose the lucky winner of the cookbook at random.

If you want to take part in the birthday celebration by cooking:

1. Make a dish or dishes of your choice from one of Mrs. Child's books.
2. Write up a post about it on your blog, referencing the event and linking to this announcement, by August 13, 2009, at midnight CST.
3. Send me an e-mail with "Julia Child Event" in the subject line (champaigntaste AT gmail DOT com).
4. Include in the e-mail a permanent link to your post, your name, and your blog's name.
5. If you don't have a blog but want to take part, simply do #1 above, take a photo if you can, and send me an e-mail telling me about your experience cooking the dish. I'll include your photo and/or story in the roundup post.

On August 15, the anniversary of Julia Child's birth, I'll publish a roundup post with links to all the submissions, so everybody can see what everybody else cooked and we can all celebrate together. I'll also announce the winner of the cookbook. (If you win the cookbook, I'll ask you to send me your full name and mailing address at that time so I can send you the book.)

Let's get in the mood by watching the trailer for the movie, shall we?

I hope you'll take part in this year's event in some way, whether by cooking or simply by sharing your thoughts about Julia Child (or both!). She was certainly an influence on my life; the year that she died, I almost felt like I'd lost a member of my family. I know lots of other people felt that way, too; she was a much-loved figure in America for such a long time, not to mention what she did for American cuisine.

If you'd like to see the roundup posts for the past JC events, here are links to them:
JC Birthday Event 2006
JC Event 2007
JC Event 2008

Bon appétit!

Prairie Fruits Farm Goes Whole Hog

Last night, my friend Shirley and I had the pleasure of attending a special dinner at Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery, which is located just 10 minutes north of Urbana. I went to one of these on-farm dinners last year; on that occasion lamb was the star of the show. This year, on this evening, it was pork.

And not just any pork, but pork from a heritage-breed pig raised by Stan and family at Triple S Farm. Thus, every dish served at the dinner—every dish involving the noble pig, that is—was made from Triple S Farm pork.

We arrived at Prairie Fruits Farm at the 4 p.m. start time to find guest chef Paul Virant (of Vie restaurant in Western Springs, IL) setting out platters of homemade mortadella garnished with pickled artichokes and giardiniera made from farmers' market veggies,dishes of fromage de tetes torte (a head-cheese concoction baked inside puff pastry),and trays of crostini, made from bread baked at Vie, accompanying bowlfuls of cherry mostarda (an Italian fruit-and-mustard condiment).A stunningly delicious start. We tried not to gorge ourselves, as we knew that, oh, five more courses were coming. As we polished off the appetizers, Chef Paul treated us to a peek inside the enormous smoker where the third-course entrée (porchetta) was cooking. When others moved off for a tour of the farm, Shirley and I whipped out our folding chairs, set them under a shady tree, opened a bottle of rosé, and sat down to chat awhile.

Then dinner was announced, and, since there had been rain earlier in the day and the forecast for the evening was uncertain, we ate at prettily decorated tables in the barn.First up: the soup course. Each diner was given a bowl in which were placed a pork-liver dumpling, fresh and preserved turnip slices, bits of pickled garlic, and a sprinkling of PFF's Moonglo cheese. The (very professional) servers then came round with silver pitchers and poured the herby, savory pork broth into the bowl.The second-course salad consisted of Blue Moon Farm's lettuces, arugula, and sugar-snap peas, and Nickles Farm pickled snow peas, accented by a preserved green garlic and herb vinaigrette and PFF's Caprino Romano.And then out came the porchetta. Trays of the succulent grilled pork were passed around, as well as bowls of ham with PFF Romano and green beans, Blue Moon Farm tomatoes baked with a scallion and basil salsa verde, and red Russian kale with pork jus.Throughout the meal the servers kept our baskets filled with freshly baked bread from Vie so that we could slather on the incredible butter that was set out in crocks. The butter was made at PFF from Kilgus Farmstead cream.Impossibly, there were still two more courses to go. We had lovely plates of three varieties of PFF cheese accompanied by bits of preserves (made from PFF fruit, of course) and delectable honeycomb (yep, honey is made at the farm, too).As if this all weren't enough, the capper was a mixed-berry clafoutis and bowls of mousse made with PFF chèvre. Have you ever had fresh chèvre mousse? Neither had I. It was rich, creamy, frothy, not real sweet—difficult to describe, easy to eat spoonfuls of with the clafoutis.As a bonus, Chef Paul gave us all the recipe for the chèvre mousse, which I will, of course, now share with you, in case you'd like to try it. (If you don't have a kitchen scale, now might be the time to invest in one! Otherwise, you can convert the metric measurements and come pretty close that way.)

Fresh Chèvre Mousse
Courtesy of Paul Virant, Vie restaurant

100g egg whites
34g sugar
152g fresh chèvre (whipped)
200g heavy cream (whipped)
40g egg yolks
34g sugar
1 t powdered gelatin

Make meringue with egg whites and first quantity of sugar. Whip until soft peaks form.

Cook egg yolks and second quantity of sugar over a water bath until thick. Add gelatin and whisk to dissolve. Remove from heat.

Whip chèvre until smooth and soft. Whip heavy cream until it reaches soft peaks. Fold yolk mixture into whipped chèvre. Fold in whipped cream. Fold in meringue.

Portion into desired dishes and refrigerate until set.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
I'm not sure how we got up from our chairs after eating the final course, but somehow we made it. What an experience. Kudos to Leslie, Wes, and everyone at PFF for starting these on-farm dinners to showcase locally produced food and for packing each new season with delicious surprises.

Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery
Old North Lincoln Road, just north of Urbana, IL
Visit the Web site for details about farm operations and dinners.

The dinners sold quickly this year, and there are seats left for just one ("An Illinois Fish Tale," featuring Illinois River Paddlefish and Southern Illinois freshwater prawns—yum. You can read about the guest chefs for that dinner on the chefs' Web site).

Road Trip: Shapiro's Deli-Cafeteria

So, you're in the heart of Hoosier country, and you need a nosh. What to do? Easy. Head to Meridian Street, in downtown Indianapolis, where you'll find a gen-u-wine Jewish deli. A couple of friends and I did just that over the Fourth of July weekend. Shapiro's has been serving kosher food in Indy since 1905. Since 1905. You can read the fascinating story of this business and the family that runs it on their Web site.When you walk in, you'll see the deli up front. Then, to the right of the deli, the large cafeteria beckons. The first items you see when you grab a tray and get in line are the desserts: cakes and pies galore.As you run your tray down the line, you see so many different dishes it makes your head spin. My head was spinning so fast I forgot to take photos, so I'll just have to try to describe the scene for you.

In the sides-and-salads category: Potato salad. Chicken salad. Tuna salad. Cottage cheese. Bean salad. Deviled eggs. Marinated mushrooms. Pickled herring. And so on. And so forth.

Then it's on to main-dish options like corned beef, roast beef, stuffed cabbage, meat loaf, beef stew, spaghetti with meatballs, and baked chicken. (And hey! They serve Swiss steak on Sundays!) We all went with the stuffed cabbage. Ground beef and rice are wrapped up in cabbage leaves, and the whole schmeer is baked in a sweet-ish tomato sauce.If you get a main dish, it comes with "two hot vegetables." So for my vegetables, I got, ahem, macaroni and cheese and a potato pancake. Yeah, I starched it up, what can I say? If you wanted an actual green vegetable, you could choose from spinach, boiled cabbage, and green beans.

And don't even get me started on the sandwiches. Obviously, there are corned beef and pastrami. Housemade, to use the parlance of the day. And smoked salmon, kosher salami, roasted turkey, chopped liver, and baked tongue, to name a few more. Let me just say that these are the largest sandwiches on the third rock from the sun. You must have one on Shapiro's own rye bread.

Feeling puny? Have a nice bowl of chicken or matzo-ball soup. Feeling hearty? Eat some borscht!

I love the children's menu ("for our guests age 12 and under"). For $2.75 you can get a kosher hot dog or corn dog, spaghetti, grilled cheese, or chicken. If you want a side with that, add $1.00 (baked beans, fruit cup, mac and cheese, etc.).

Yeah, they pretty much have your kosher food needs covered at Shapiro's. If you don't live close enough to nip in on a regular basis, do as I did and take a cooler with you. That way, you can stock up, in the deli, on meats, breads, and desserts to take home.

Prices are reasonable, and the value is fantastic because portions in the cafeteria are enormous and this is real food. A pastrami sandwich will set you back $10.15. Smoked salmon sandwich: $11.55 (remember: largest sandwiches on Earth). The stuffed cabbage dinner is $10.50. Swiss steak goes for $13.80. Meat loaf: $9.45 (remember: dinners come with two large sides and two thick slices of rye bread topped with dill pickle spears). A bowl (not a cup, a bowl) of soup: $4.30.

If you buy meats in the deli to take home, you'll spend some money. A pound of corned beef or pastrami goes for $15.99. However, bread prices are very reasonable. A half-loaf of rye, which is the size of most normal loaves of bread, costs only $2.95 (the full loaf, which could make sandwiches for a small army, is $5.10). And they have bagels, of course: $1.25 each or $8.95 for a dozen. You can also take home whole pies and cakes, cookies, cheeses, and more.

I wish I'd gotten a photo of one of Shapiro's sandwiches, but, as you saw, I indulged in the stuffed cabbage dinner. My thought was to take home the ingredients and make my own sandwiches. Here's a shot of the last of the pastrami on the rye bread.After I took the photo I topped the pastrami with Swiss cheese and Plochman's mustard and warmed it up in the toaster oven. I can't tell you how delicious the pastrami and corned beef were. You must have the experience for yourself, because I would hate for you to miss out on this wonderful food.

Is it too shmaltzy to say that I heart Shapiro's? Don't be a shlub! Go eat there soon!

Shapiro's Deli and Cafeteria
808 South Meridian Street (downtown and very easy to get to off the Interstate; here's a map)
Indianapolis, Indiana
317-631-4041
Open 6:45 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day
(There are now also locations in Carmel, IN, and at the Indianapolis airport.)

P.S. If you go to Shapiro's, you might see a celebrity. Or two.

P.P.S. Many thanks to my friends Stubearto and Shirley for making the trip so much fun. On the way to Indy, we listened to a radio show produced by Uni High students for which Shirley was interviewed. The show was about the women's liberation movement and how it played out in Champaign-Urbana. The students ended the show with one of that movement's anthems. So now, somehow, I'll always associate Shapiro's with "I Am Woman"!

Swiss Steak

Many's the time Keith has told me about this dish, which his mother used to make when he was just a wee lad in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The dish gets its name not because it's a Swiss dish but because it involves a process known as "swissing," in which a relatively tough cut of meat (such as round steak) is tenderized via pounding or rolling (as through a cuber). Keith remembered his mother in the kitchen, pounding the steak with a mallet before cooking it. And he pined for the finished product—tender steak in a thick sauce.

When Swiss steak was served at their house, it was always accompanied by a certain kind of floury side dish; thus, even though the authors of The Joy of Cooking, where I found the following recipe, advise serving mashed potatoes on the side, I went with noodles (Reames brand thick noodles, available locally at Schnucks and Jerry's IGA).Swiss Steak
From The Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

Preheat the oven to 300 °F.

Trim the edges of a 3/4-inch-thick, 2-pound round steak. Rub with 1/2 clove garlic. Pound into both sides of the steak, with the edge of a heavy plate or a mallet, as much flour as the steak will hold. Cut it into pieces or leave it whole. If left whole, gash the edges to prevent curling.

Heat in a large, heavy casserole 1/4 cup bacon or ham drippings. Sear the steak on one side until brown. After you turn it over, add 1/2 cup finely chopped onions and 1 cup mixed finely chopped carrots, peppers, and celery. Do not allow them to brown.

Add 1/2 cup strained boiling tomatoes and 1 cup stock. Cover the casserole closely and place in the oven for 2 hours or more.

Remove the steak to a hot platter. Strain the drippings. Degrease the drippings and make pan gravy. Pour the gravy over the steak. Serve with mashed potatoes.

To make pan gravy:
Use 2 tablespoons drippings from meat. Blend 1 or 2 tablespoons flour into them. Stir with a wire whisk until the flour has thickened and the mixture is well combined and smooth. Continue to cook slowly, and stir constantly while adding the degreased pan juices and enough milk, water, stock, cream, or beer to make 1 cup. Season the gravy with salt, pepper, fresh or dried minced herbs, grated lemon rind, etc. You may strain the gravy, reheat, and serve it.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
I didn't strain the sauce and make the pan gravy, as advised in the recipe, because the sauce looked pretty good with the vegetables in it and because I didn't feel like fooling with it. I don't think Keith's mother did that step, either, because he said he remembered a thick sauce with bits of vegetables in it.

Keith pronounced the dish wonderful, and every bit as good as his mother's—high praise! It was very gratifying to make a dish that brought back so many pleasant memories for him.

You may also be interested in Elise Bauer's mother's recipe for Swiss steak on the Simply Recipes site. The sauce in that recipe is more tomato-ey, and their version of the dish looks simply delish.

Cravings

Food—Pan-Asian
Drink—Coke products, other sodas, tea
Location—Campus
Average price for an entree—$6.50
Atmosphere—Hole-in-wall
Service—Courteous and quick
Patio seating—No
Vegetarian-friendly—Yes
Child-friendly—Perhaps; it's usually bustling and crowded

Several people have urged me to try this tiny restaurant on campus over the past year or so, but since there are 1 million restaurants in C-U and I can't clone myself, I hadn't made it over there until a few weeks ago. And then the following week I went again. Week after that: same drill. This place is great.Cravings' menu offers dishes representing a large number of cuisines: Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese. The volume and variety of dishes that the cooks turn out is mind boggling, really. The menu is posted on the walls above and nearby the counter where you place your order. This is just a miniscule portion of the menu.And don't miss the white board (on an easel in front of the kitchen) that lists specials.Lotta stuff to choose from. It can be a challenge to figure out what is what, so I'm going to try to sort some of it out for you.

Take a look at some of the dishes my lunch companions and I have tried. First and foremost: catfish fillets in black bean sauce with pea pods (listed on the specials board in English as "Fish Fillets/Chicken w. Bean Sauce"; $7.99).Tender fried catfish, delicious salty-sweet sauce, crispy pea pods. Man.

One lunch companion's tofu with pork and mushrooms was also outstanding (listed on the specials board as "Black Mushroom Pork Tofu"; $6.50).And we all pronounced Cravings' version of gado-gado (veggies and your choice of meats or tofu in a peanut sauce) a big tastebud pleaser, as well (on the regular menu; $6.25).There are any number of dishes involving green beans; in fact, one whole menu is devoted to them (this menu is posted on the south wall). We asked for green beans with pork, and got this:Look at all those green beans! The friend who got this stir-fry is doing Atkins, and even without the starchy rice accompaniment, he was quite satisfied after polishing it off.

And then there was this ground-pork dish (OK, so my friends and I are fond of pork). Ground pork, peppers, and basil topped with a fried egg and served with rice. Which I'm pretty darned sure is a dish that was featured on Chez Pim just now: Pad Krapow. Pim calls it a "ubiquitous fast-food dish in Thailand." One of the more delicious things ever. (Listed on the specials board in English as "Basil Pork Egg Rice"; $5.99.)Note that the entrees are so large that two people can easily split one (I've taken half of my food home and had another meal of it every time I've been there). When you consider the already very reasonable prices, you can see what a tremendous value you're getting. And when two of my friends did split a dish, they were kindly each given a bowl of rice without having to order extra rice (and without being charged for it). That sweet little touch made me love the place even more.

Oh, and if you like the standard Chinese-restaurant dishes like cashew chicken, beef with broccoli, twice-cooked pork, and egg rolls—you guessed it; they have those, too.If you go, or if you're already a fan, let me know what your favorite dishes are. I intend to eat my way around Asia at Cravings.

Cravings Restaurant
603 South Wright Street (just north of Green St.)
Champaign, IL 61820
217-328-2538
Open every day from 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (but note that they are closed on Sundays for the summer)
Eat in or takeout; no delivery

History, Philosophy, and Penne with Arugula

A very nice young woman asked me yesterday morning what my philosophy of food is. Having not thought about the matter in quite that way before, I sort of stumbled through an answer. At dinner, when I told Keith about how I'd had some difficulty with the question, he said, actually, I think that's easy. You like real food. And do you know, I think that sums it up nicely. Fresh food prepared simply is my thing. This probably stems from my Sicilian mother and the enormous pleasure she took in eating the simplest things: a slice of excellent capicola (which she pronounced gob-a-gole) with a hunk of fresh bread and Provolone cheese; a steamed artichoke leaf dipped in lemon butter; a succulent broiled lamb chop.

Thus, I am pronouncing this pasta dish to be an example of my philosophy of food! I found the following recipe, wherein you cook arugula along with pasta and then serve it with fresh tomato sauce, in my old The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian book (published in 1993; Flora's got it at Jane Addams, by the way). Having just gotten arugula from farmers' market, and 9 or 10 Roma tomatoes, I decided it was the dish I needed to accompany Keith's grilled ribeye steaks.Jeff Smith (a.k.a. The Frugal Gourmet) got this recipe from Carlo Middione of Vivande Porta Via deli-restaurant in San Francisco.

Carlo's Macaroni with Arugula and Fresh Tomatoes
From The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian, by Jeff Smith

1/4 cup virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 pounds fresh tomatoes, cored, peeled, and well crushed
1 pound short pasta such as penne, small rigatoni, fusilli, etc.
1 bunch (approximately 2 cups) arugula, washed and cut into 4-inch pieces
1 1/3 cups grated Pecorino cheese

Heat the oil in a large frying pan until it is quite hot, add the onion, and cook it until it is just transparent. Add the garlic, and fry it until is is golden and fragrant. Add the tomatoes, and stir the mixture well. Cook the tomato sauce for about 30 minutes or so.

Boil about 6 quarts of salted water in a large pot. Add the pasta, and after about 2 minutes, add the arugula. When the pasta is al dente, pour it into a colander to drain. Put the pasta and arugula mixture on hot plates, and ladle on some tomato sauce. Sprinkle plenty of the grated Pecorino cheese on the pasta, and serve it immediately, very hot.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some notes on ways that my preparation varied from the instructions in the recipe:

• I didn't use onion in the sauce, only garlic, and I didn't let it become "golden," only fragrant.
• I didn't core or peel the Romas; I just whizzed them a bit in the processor (I usually just cut them in quarters for this kind of sauce).
• I didn't add the arugula to the pasta-cooking water until about a minute before the pasta was done.
• I mixed the sauce, pasta, and cheese in a bowl before serving.

I sprang for RAO brand penne from World Harvest market on University Ave., and I got the (very tasty) Pecorino Romano from there as well.

FYI: Prairie Fruits Farm is now producing Pecorino Romano (they've been getting sheep's milk from an Amish farmer). It's quietly aging at the moment; Leslie told me it will be available this fall.

Now, if only some local farmer would start making capicola . . .

Jane Addams Bookstore Marks 25th Year in Downtown Champaign

Speaking of being inspired to cook by books: Recently I was sitting around bemoaning the loss of an old cookbook that I'd had for eons (until it literally fell to pieces) when Simona, my partner in the Novel Food event, told me about her adventures at Omnivore Books in San Francisco. Her mention of that store, which is devoted to books about food and cooking, spurred me to revisit our own local purveyor of used and rare books, Jane Addams Book Shop.

The book I was looking for was American Wholefoods Cuisine, by Nikki and David Goldbeck. I phoned Flora Faraci, owner of Jane Addams, and she kindly searched her inventory for it. She didn't have that book, but she did have another by the Goldbecks, The Good Breakfast Book, so I went in to pick that one up.

Making my way to the third floor of the shop, I found the food and cooking section. One small room is packed, floor to ceiling, with all manner of cookbooks, from the mundane to the esoteric, covering a wide range of cuisines.

Want a facsimile of the original Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, circa 1896? It's there.How about a book on Chinese cuisine? Yep, you have a number to choose from.Books by the old (American) masters? Take your pick.And speaking of American chefs, if you have holes in your Frugal Gourmet collection, you can fill them at Jane Addams (don't count on getting Our Immigrant Ancestors; I nabbed that one the day I visited).There are other books on American cooking, like Sheila Lukins' U.S.A. Cookbook,and there's even a small section of books devoted to food Illinois-style (don't you love the one title: Illinois Celebrates Pork).Thinking Atkins or another special diet? You might just find what you need in that category.And if you want to learn more about wine, or you need a guide to mixing the perfect cocktail, Jane Addams has you covered in that department, as well.In sum: If you're looking to replace a favorite old cookbook, or one that your grandma had that's gone out of print, a book from the recent past—heck, even a new book—check out a downtown Champaign treasure trove, Jane Addams Book Shop, and help Flora celebrate 25 years in business.

Of course, Jane Addams is not limited to cookbooks! Flora has books on subjects ranging from aromatherapy to zoology, not to mention novels by every author you can imagine. I found the mystery book that inspired the last Novel Food event there (OK, so it's always about eating with me).

Jane Addams Book Shop
208 North Neil Street (across from Boltini Lounge)
Champaign, IL 61820
217-356-2555
Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Hey, C-U Cooks: Will YOU Be the Next Food Network Star?

As you may know, the fifth season of the culinary reality series "The Next Food Network Star" premiered a couple of weeks ago. Just today, a casting associate with the Food Network e-mailed me to let me know that the network is hosting an open casting call in Chicago next month for the 2010 season of the show. Chicago is one of just eight cities around the country in which open casting calls are being held.

To elaborate: The Food Network is looking to cast season 6 of the aforementioned televised contest. They are calling "all chefs, home cooks, line cooks, caterers, and culinary enthusiasts" to go and audition on Sunday, July 12, 2009, in Chicago. If chosen, you'd be one of ten contestants on "The Next Food Network Star," and if you're the last cook left standing when that grueling ordeal is over, you'll be awarded your own new FN series.

Do you have strong culinary skills? A personality that "pops"? A passion for cooking? Food knowledge? Lots of energy and enthusiasm? According to the flier they sent, these are the qualities the FN is looking for in potential candidates for the show.

If you think you have those qualities and you'd like a chance to vie for a foodie series of your own on the Food Network, get yourself up to Chicago next month and try out.

The detailed lowdown:

Chicago Open Casting Call for "The Next Food Network Star"

Sunday, July 12, 2009

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Affinia Chicago Hotel

166 East Superior Street

Chicago, IL 60611


What you need to take to the audition:

1. Two recent photos

2. A copy of your resume

3. A filled-out application (available on the show's "casting-call" page)

For more information or questions, e-mail nfns6chicago@yahoo.com.

So, hey—maybe in 2010 we'll be watching "The Next Food Network Star" and rooting for someone from Champaign-Urbana! Will it be you??

Foods of Our Fathers, and a Poem

This is from the archives, originally published in 2006. Because you probably didn't see it, and because I'd like to honor my father again, I'm bringing it back for a second appearance. Happy Father's Day, everyone! ~Lisa

My father loved McIntosh apples paired with sharp cheddar. And Welsh rarebit. And blancmange, which he said he remembered his mother making. And ice cream, which he tended to eat straight from the carton (as I caught him doing in the photo). He was a divorced dad, which meant that on the weekends I spent with him as a child, we ate our share of frozen Swanson's TV dinners and pot pies. But when he had time, he loved to experiment with sophisticated recipes like steak Diane and beef bourguignon.

For my sixteenth birthday, my dad took me and some friends to the local French restaurant for brunch. We sat outside on the deck and ate salads and savory crepes filled with artichokes and shrimp in a creamy sauce. The pièce de résistance was dessert— baked Alaska. It was presented with much pomp and circumstance and was flambeed at the table. I knew I had entered the world of adult dining!

In the 70s my sister and brother-in-law lived with us for a time, and we were all taken with the new health-food craze. We made whole-wheat bread and steamed vegetables and tried recipes from Francis Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet. I remember especially one profoundly disgusting meal involving peanut butter, tofu, and brown rice (maybe this is why my sister still can't tolerate tofu).

When I was in my twenties, my dad and I tried making pesto sauce (this was just as pesto was becoming popular, at least in our area of California). We had no idea how it was supposed to be served, so we poured it all over plates of pasta as if it were a red sauce (at that time we were oversaucing all pasta dishes, I am sure). We were overcome with the thick sauce, and the garlic stung our tongues, and we couldn't figure out why anyone liked the stuff.

Not long before my dad died, he and a friend made a surprise birthday meal for the friend's wife. For dessert, they planned cherries jubilee. He described preparing the cherries, pouring on a big slug of Cognac, and flambeeing them this way: "...we put a match to it and the whole thing went up like Mount Vesuvius!"

When my dad especially enjoyed a dish, he would close his eyes and say in mock ecstasy, "Mmm . . . ambrosia!"

Here's a poem by Maxine Kumin (from Selected Poems 1960-1990, published by W.W. Norton and Company). The first time I read it I thought of my father, and I copy it here in his memory:

Appetite

I eat these
wild red raspberries
still warm from the sun
and smelling faintly of jewelweed
in memory of my father

tucking the napkin
under his chin and bending
over an ironstone bowl
of the bright drupelets
awash in cream

my father with the sigh of a man
who has seen all and been redeemed
said time after time
as he lifted his spoon

men kill for this.

...

On this Father's Day 2009, let's celebrate our dads by remembering the foods they loved. When you think of your father, what foods come to mind? Does/did he like to cook? What are/were his favorite dishes? Leave me a comment; I'd love to know.

Cocomero Haiku Contest Winners

Before announcing the winners of the haiku contest, may I just tell you something interesting? Monday was the birthday of the famous Japanese poet Issa, which I discovered via The Writer's Almanac on that day:

It's the birthday of Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa, born in Kashiwabara, Japan (1763). He's one of the masters of the Japanese form of poetry called haiku, which uses 17 Japanese characters broken into three distinct units. He spent most of his adult life traveling around Japan, writing haiku, keeping a travel diary, and visiting shrines and temples across the country. By the end of his life, he had written more than 20,000 haiku celebrating the small wonders of everyday life.

And isn't frozen yogurt one of life's small wonders?! Apparently we thought so, because we asked you-all to write poems on the topic, and you came through in a big way. All told, 108 haikus were submitted. It was very difficult for Heather, Cynthia, and me to settle on just three favorites, but in the end we were forced to.

And now, the winners.

Steve G., who actually wrote this haiku in Japanese, then translated it so that it conforms to the 5-7-5 rule:

clouds are approaching—
and on top of my yogurt
I sprinkle berries

Sara P.:

summer blazes on
yearnings for the chill of tart
frozen drops of joy

Perri K.:

So many flavors!
Thank goodness for giant cups!
Damn. They charge by weight.

Congratulations to Steve (a.k.a. Morizou), Sara, and Perri! Please go into Cocomero with your haiku, tell a staff person your name and that you are a winner of the Champaign Taste haiku contest, and you'll each receive a $5 gift card. Enjoy your frozen yogurt!

And look: The manager posted the winning haikus on the wall in the store.
Y'all are famous!

Honorable mentions go to these folks and their poems:

Patrick:

Sweet Cocomero
Let's just hope it doesn't end
Like that one Seinfeld

(If you have no idea what the Seinfeld reference in the preceding haiku means, here's a synopsis of the episode.)

Janna:

There’s frozen yogurt
Where Garcia’s used to be.
Good lord, I’m so old!

Jennifer:

Tangy creamy snow
Rainbow-crown'd with shining fruit
Tames the summer blaze

This was great fun, everyone. Thank you so much for taking part in the haiku contest; you're the best! Many thanks also to my friend Jen for suggesting the contest in the first place. And three cheers to Colin at Cocomero for donating the gift cards (and for creating pomegranate flavor frozen yogurt).

Thai Food Fiasco: An Attempt at Pad See Ew

Here's a report for those who may have the mistaken impression that everything I cook turns out well. I recently bought the book Quick and Easy Thai and have been looking forward to cooking something out of it. As you may know, the old man loves beef, but not necessarily Thai food, so for my first real foray into Thai cooking I chose something I hoped he'd take to: a beef-and-noodle dish called pad see ew. I've eaten pad see ew many times at Thai restaurants and I just love it. (The dish is sweet, not spicy, by the way, so if you find yourself at a Thai place and you're afraid of getting something that's too spicy-hot, order it.)

McDermott does pad see ew a little differently from how I've seen it in other places; she calls for collard greens or spinach instead of the usual Chinese broccoli. Since I'd just gotten both collards and spinach at farmers' market and had a skirt steak from Triple S in the freezer, I was all set.

Then I decided to check the fantastic food blog Chez Pim to see how she does pad see ew. Her recipe looked great, so in the end I followed it except I stayed with the spinach instead of using the broccoli.

Pim's recipe called for the usual fish sauce, plus thick soy sauce and oyster sauce, none of which ingredients I had on hand. After a visit to Far East Market (for the dried rice noodles; couldn't find any fresh ones) and Lee's Oriental Foods, I was ready to go. Lee's carries the Three Crabs brand fish sauce that I'm pretty sure Pim favors, by the way.The thick soy is interesting; it's a mix of molasses, soy bean extract, and salt, so it's sweet and salty. Yum.I sliced the skirt steak thinly and across the grain of the meat and marinated it, as per Pim's recipe. Looking good. I prepped the spinach and garlic, and I soaked the rice noodles. All going well so far.

I heated oil in the wok until smoking. I drained and carefully dried the rice noodles. I threw them into the wok. The noodles almost immediately formed a giant, solid mass. I tried, with two large kitchen implements, to separate the noodles—to no avail. I added the thick soy and fish sauce, thinking they might loosen the noodles up. Wrong. I turned the mass, which was now not nicely charred like Pim had described but was pretty well burned. (The crappy, even more-out-of-focus-than-usual photo is just fitting, isn't it?)I wrestled with it some more, and then it was clear that the noodles had no intention of ever separating. The noodle mass went from wok into garbage can.

I realized at that point that all was not lost, however. I still had yummy marinated beef, garlic, and spinach sitting there. So I fried up the beef and garlic, added the spinach when the beef was almost cooked, threw in some more thick soy and splashes of fish sauce and vinegar, and we ate the beef-and-spinach stir-fry with steamed rice. It was quite delicious, thank you very much.Rice noodles, you won that round. But you've not seen the last of me yet.

Announcing Novel Food Summer 2009 Edition

Have you made up your summer reading list? Any promising novels on the horizon? If you're a cook who likes books, please join us for this event next month. By "us," I mean my partner Simona, of the food blog Briciole, and yours truly.

What happens in Novel Food is that you read a novel (or bio, or memoir) and then you cook something inspired by it and share it with us via either a blog post, if you have a blog, or by sending Simona or me a write-up about it (with photo if possible). Then Simona and I will publish round-ups of all the submissions with links to your novel posts so that everyone can see what everyone else has been reading—and cooking.

If you haven't seen one of these Novel Food events before, you can get an idea what they're like by checking out one of the round-ups from past events.

Here are the guidelines for submissions:

• Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection to a published literary work (novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio, poem).
• Publish a post about it on your blog by the end of Saturday, July 18, 2009 (midnight, Pacific Time), referencing the Novel Food event. Include a link to this or to Simona's announcement. If you wish, you can use the Novel Food logo.
• Send an e-mail to Simona (simosite AT mac DOT com) or to me (champaigntaste AT gmail DOT com) and include your name, blog name and blog address, and a permanent link to your post. Please, include the words "Novel Food" in the e-mail subject line, so we can more easily retrieve the message in our inbox.

Non-English submissions are fine. If possible, include an introduction in English.

If you don't have a blog, send us an e-mail telling us about the recipe, the literary work that inspired it, and, if you have it, a picture of what you made: we'll add it to the roundup as well.

Note: If you don't receive an answer to your e-mail or a comment on your post within two days of sending me or Simona the e-mail, please contact us again: sometimes messages get lost in cyberspace.

We're looking forward to seeing what you're reading and what you cook up! For my part, I'm not sure yet what book I'll end up cooking from. There are so many books on my list that I wonder which ones will actually end up getting read. Most promising right now are A Thousand Splendid Suns and In the Kitchen. Also on the nightstand are Unaccustomed Earth and Not Becoming My Mother. None of those books are light summer reading, but all sound intriguing. See you soon after July 18 with a book-and-cook report.