Avocado Toast - Simplistic Decadence

If you know me, you know that I'm not always the first kid on the block to try something new. The smarter-than-me phones? Harry forced my iPhone 4s on me Labor Day, 2013. I only agreed because I drowned my flip phone the week before while fishing on Georgian Bay near Parry Sound, Ontario. I'm pretty happy with my phone now that I have it, but notice I have a 4s. Yes, there was a big release of the iPhone 6 a couple of months ago. So, still behind the times.

Given this, it should be no surprise that I had never heard of avocado toast until sometime after Labor Day, 2014. I came across an article via Yahoo Food explaining variations of avocado toast. I wondered "how can you modify something no one has ever heard of?" Apparently, I was quite wrong.

I could not name one thing wrong with the concept of avocado toast. I love avocado and don't eat it nearly often enough. Toast made from hearty, crusty bread? Sign me up. A drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper - maybe throw in a swipe of a garlic clove on the toast or a small squeeze of lemon or lime juice and I can't find anything to complain about.

I became slightly obsessed. For several weeks, avocado toast was my Monday lunch. A smoothie instead of cereal or oatmeal for breakfast to allow myself the toast for lunch. I learned that if I was at the store on Saturday, I could buy an under-ripe avocado and it would be perfectly ripe by Monday's lunchtime.

Then, the unthinkable happened. For a few weeks, every avocado was too ripe on Saturday. Maybe because it was the height of college football season and everyone wanted guacamole for the game. Or, was it because everyone else in central Ohio had read the article on Yahoo and decided they wanted to jump on the bandwagon?

I fell into a funk. I would pack my lunch with a sigh and resigned myself to waiting for avocado toast until Cinco de Mayo.

Then, last Saturday, a miracle of sorts occurred. We were getting our groceries on Saturday morning and there it was. The perfectly under-ripened small avocado. I saw the green showing through the flesh and I knew.

It was meant to be.

We already had crusty bread on our shopping list because we were having steak on the grill Sunday and I wanted bruschetta. We can't possibly eat a whole loaf of crusty bread during one meal, so I needed to plan a few other things to use it for.

Avocado toast. Only I didn't eat it for lunch on Monday.

Toast IS a breakfast food, after all.

Finding inspiration...

It's easy to make excuses. I can say it's because I'm working full-time. I can say it's because our hours are so jacked up that we only have a few hours each evening for Debbie and Harry time. But I know in my heart those are just excuses. I have plenty of computer time every single day. I've been up for a little over two hours. I've just kind of fallen into a (bad) habit of just surfing each morning until its time to go to work. On the weekends, we'll sit beside each other and surf, pointing out cool things we find.

And then this happened:

I have been wanting to do a weekend runaway to Cleveland (yes, Cleveland, Ohio) for ages. I finally pouted long enough that Harry agreed. On the agenda: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, lunch at Bahama Breeze (don't judge me), a winery or two, the casino and B Spot, and Nirvana.

So we planned a weekend in October, found a hotel within walking distance of the rail station and headed north. Friday night, we took the train to the Horseshoe Casino and had burgers and fries at B Spot. Google it. It hurts my heart that we were not impressed. I'll still try a stand-alone B Spot and give it one more shot.

Saturday morning was the day I was waiting for: Cleveland's West Side Market! Our primary mission was all about the sausage. But, which stand to choose? We made a circuit of the entire market looking at the options. Our first stop garnered butter, cheese, gnocchi, and pierogi. We picked the shop we would buy our walleye. And then, and then...we bought NINE different types of sausages. Smoked, double-smoked, hot, mild, fresh.

We visited Great Lakes Brewing Company, Bier Markt and Market Garden Brewery. I posted pictures to Facebook via my smarter-than-me-phone of our travels and finds.

It was fun. I wanted to do more.

We did this:

And we did this:

Then we did this:

Which was part of this:

And I even had a burst of creativity with the labels:

A few other things happened that kept reminding us of what we used to love to do: play in the kitchen and create food. In the real world we live in right now, it's impossible to jump back into the farmers market thing. It just won't support us anymore. But, over the last couple of months we've had many discussions about how to take it to a level that we can sustain while still working full time.

I'll go into more detail in the coming weeks. I'll also do full posts explaining the pictures. Debbie & Harry's Kitchen needs a makeover and some love for the old posts. It feels very good to be writing this. Oh, how I've missed it all.

Heritage...A to Z through our kitchen

Courtesy mmagallan at sxc.hu

In most everyone's kitchen, there are certain intangible objects that influence the way we cook. In our kitchen, heritage plays as much a part of our meal planning as a love of great food or a desire to experiment.

Harry's family is a blend of Danish and hills of eastern Kentucky. On my side of the fence, I have the roots of eastern Tennessee and the Canadian Maritimes. During our childhood years, we've found a constant. We both come from homes where both parents worked. For the most part, weeknight dinner was usually a meat, potatoes and some sort of vegetable. When Harry and I are short on time for cooking, we usually fall back to those heritage meals.

In my house, corned beef wasn't just for St. Patrick's Day. Mom loved a New England boiled dinner and we probably had it a few times a year. The smell of the slow cooking of the corned beef brisket would fill the house. Then, the aroma got turned up a few notches as Mom added cabbage and rutabaga along with carrots and potatoes. In all these years, 2012 will go down as the year that I finally believe I got my boiled dinner to turn out just like Mom's.

There weren't a lot of dinners Harry would like to repeat from his mother. He told me if he judged pizza by the first one she ever made - which was the first time he ever ate pizza - he never would have eaten it again! But, Harry loved his mother's meatloaf. Through most of my years, while I loved Mom's meatloaf, I was just never able to replicate it on my own. I'm sure the reason is that she has a recipe card somewhere that she still follows to the letter today.

Mom blended her fishing-village family's food heritage with that of Dad's family. Slow-fried southern style chicken with milk gravy. In the summer, I always looked forward to fried green tomatoes (just flour, salt & pepper - none of that batter crap!) and fried okra (these were fried in corn meal, salt and pepper - again no batter!). In the summer, we put up food for winter - strawberry freezer jam, green beans, tomato juice, freezer corn, Lady Ashburn pickle relish.

Through our years, our tastes have changed. Our travels have led us to enjoy foods from around the country and around the world. But, our family heritage still finds its way into our kitchen.

Pink Slime...my thoughts

This is one of Harry's pink-slime-free surprise burgers. For this session of burgers last summer, we used ground chuck from Lanning's in Mount Vernon. Locally owned, they source most of their meat from Ohio. Until I can afford my own grass-fed freezer beef, this is as close as it's going to get unless we grind our own (which we do on occasion).

I wrote a fact box for Yahoo! News this morning about the latest development in the pink slime saga and I'll link it here if they decide to publish it. Without too many details, I awoke this morning to see the news that Beef Products, Inc. had suspended operations in 3 of their 4 plants. The makers of the ammonia-treated lean beef trimmings used in filler in 70 percent of the ground beef in our country, after being badgered in the media, specifically by ABC News, and social media (I can't count the number of #pinkslime related things I've seen in the last few weeks) is, in a word, screwed.

I felt a bit of concern for the people who will lose their jobs if the suspensions become permanent closures. I don't like mass job losses of any sort - our economy is still struggling. But, one thing that has run through my mind several times over the last few weeks is "why now?" Why did it finally explode in the media and cause the purveyors of this crap to stop (or plan to stop) using it to cut costs?

It's not like pink slime is new. It's been around since about 2001 and approved for use as up to 15 percent filler in ground beef without benefit of disclosure. I learned about in April of 2011 during the season premier of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution". Jamie's demonstration is overly-dramatic, but it sent me searching. Yes, it's pretty gross to watch.



So, I did some digging. I put together a Q & A for Yahoo! News and while most of the comments from last year have been removed, it gained a lot of traffic. One of the most frequent comments, after "gross", was that people were unhappy to learn that their ground beef had this filler.


But, the status quo continued until late January. That's when McDonald's announced they would no longer use the filler in their hamburgers. In fact, they stopped using it last August. Other fast food chains stepped up to the plate and announced their own plans to discontinue the use of pink slime. But, that's not what brought down BPI.

I couldn't figure out why ABC was suddenly so relentless in its reporting of the issue over the last few weeks. After all, the New York Times had investigated the process and the company in 2009 and the "stunning" information revealed in the ABC and other media reports wasn't anything new. Why now?

Meet Bettina at The Lunch Tray. Food blogger, activist and creator of an online petition to remove pink slime from school lunches. When she launched the petition on March 6, Bettina hoped to convince the USDA to reconsider their decision to buy 7 million pounds of the filler to add to the school lunch program. She had over 100,000 signatures in four days. And, when something goes viral in social media, the mainstream media has no choice but to cover it. The petition worked in a way. The USDA will give school districts the choice to opt-out of the pink slime-filled beef. And, nearly every grocery chain in the country will discontinue selling pink slime-filled beef in response to customer concerns.

I picked the picture of Harry's surprise burger for a reason. That's how I felt last spring when I learned the government didn't think we needed to know that our ground beef contained this filler. It's not a matter of wanting the lean beef trimmings banned - I wanted them disclosed.

I learned something else when I stopped buying Kroger ground beef in the rolls and switched to Lanning's. We were in a pinch and had run out of ground beef and Lanning's was closed on Sunday. We decided to go ahead and run to Kroger because, as Harry had said months earlier, "We were already eating it all these years."

Harry makes GREAT burgers! He's a little unconventional, but they are always juicy and he grills them perfectly. These burgers, even though the only variable was the source of the beef, were practically inedible. They shriveled to nothing. The great beef taste we enjoyed from the Lanning's ground beef and our own ground beef was non-existent. Sometimes, you don't know what you're missing.

BPI, I sincerely hope your attempt at re-creating your image saves your company and all those jobs. I think you've got a hard row to hoe. If I can offer one piece of advice, it would be to regret all that lobbying you did 10 years ago to convince the government to not require labeling of your process and filler. Let the consumer be informed and let the consumer decide for themselves. If lean beef trimmings were so healthy and delicious, why would you be ashamed of labeling them?

It didn't rise...

School work and trying to cram as much Harry time in as possible this weekend led to a delay in his Muffuletta. Last night, almost immediately after he got home from work, I started to make the Muffuletta bread. I started with my usual hoagie recipe from Bread Day and went about my normal thing.

I cut the recipe in half because I didn't want to deal with making hoagie rolls or sandwich buns and I've done it before. I still had close to a pound of dough after I portioned out the 20 ounces for the Muffuletta loaf and just rolled it into a long, rustic loaf.

Four hours later, after an emergency change of dinner plans, the bread still hadn't increased in volume and I gave up and went to bed.

I think I've figured out the problem and I'll use the scientific method to prove my hypothesis this afternoon when I try again. Funny enough, I'm positive it wasn't one of the simple problems I wrote about back in the AC days. In fact, I think I'll need to revise that article.

I just wanted to post to leave it out there: no matter how many times we do something right, sometimes it can go wrong. I've baked thousands of loaves of bread and I've had two failures in less than two months - the dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner didn't rise, either.

I want soup...

Shout out to squidonius at sxc.hu

No - I didn't make that soup or take the pic. A quick perusal through my food porn files found no acceptable soup pics. I have one of a sausage and corn chowder that I posted with an article back in the AC days that drew a comment of "ooohhh...what's the purple - is it onion?"

No - it was taken with a point and shoot that was awesome back in the NOLA days but doesn't work well inside. The "purple" was actually sausage. sigh.

Harry & I really do a decent job of keeping the pantry ready for soup any night of the week. It's fast and we honestly eat a bowl of some sort 3 or 4 times a week through the winter. The speed might be the reason I rarely remember to take pictures of soup in progress - especially on nights that Harry is working.

I threw together a pot of tortellini soup the other night - as promised - and my "work" was done in less than 15 minutes. I had a container of Harry's homemade chicken stock in the fridge and I diced the onions and garlic while the sausage was browning. I did a few dishes while the tortellini was cooking and it was time to eat.

That's why I don't understand complaints of "we're just too busy" when parents say they don't have time to cook but they have time to stop at the drive-thru. In the same amount of time you drive-thru and wait for your order, then get it home and it's no longer hot, you could have a fast pot of soup simmering on your stove. /end rant - sorry.

I've seen Facebook posts from all over the country talking about the current deep freeze. My friend Angie in Savannah lost her pepper plants and banana tree last night - even under a blanket.

It won't be much warmer today than it was yesterday - I think tonight will be beef and barley soup!

What is your favorite type of soup to make at home? No rules - it can be a chili-type, a chowder, hearty, creamy, thin? I'll admit soup is something I always want to hear new ideas!

An education and a challenge

I mentioned yesterday that I have a lot of goals for 2012. Debbie & Harry's Kitchen is the focus of several of those goals, including traveling to Seattle in June for BlogHer Food 2012!

I spent a good bit of time on New Year's Day just reading. No, I didn't wear down the battery on my Kindle - I was reading blogs. A lot of blogs. Mostly food blogs. I learned a lot from reading these blogs and will not call out anyone for any reason.

1. Posting Frequency - Obviously, if you look at that little index in the right sidebar, I'm only averaging about two posts per month over the last two years. If I ever want to qualify for the BlogHer Publishing Network, I obviously have to be more prolific. They would like a couple of times a week. My personal thought is more often than that, but I can work on it. I was interested to see many beautiful food blogs that had maybe only 1 post per month.

2. Recipes - One of my downfalls is that I beat myself up for not having a recipe every day nor the food porn to go with it. I learned in my blog reading that not every post has to contain a recipe. I thoroughly enjoyed reading food bloggers that talked about their lives in general and only peripherally mentioned food. That was an eye-opener. As important as it is to me to cook, I'm also very passionate about food safety and education.

3. Photos - I freely admit that I don't have the designer's eye nor the proper equipment (yet) to create tantalizing food porn that will leave a reader drooling. We have improved. That studio light in the kitchen is just the start. My collection of funky dishes and place mats from Dollar Tree is helping. One of my faults is the stainless steel tables we work on. We don't have a "kitchen table" or a "dining room table" or a "breakfast nook." That steel gives a funky reflection in photos and I'm trying to remember that when I'm working on something.

BUT - I saw a lot of well-read (stat-counters) food blogs that didn't include step-by-step photos and sometimes didn't even include a photo of the finished dish. Maybe I'm overthinking the food porn? Maybe I'm not?

4. I'm jealous of swag. I'll admit it - I'd love to open my mailbox or see the hot FedEx guy show up with something someone wants me to review. I'll get there. In the meantime, I exploring a few avenues that will make it possible for ME to run some give-aways.

So, I checked in on BlogHer and realized they have a monthly challenge. Just a means to inspire us to post daily, to build up our traffic. I failed miserably at last April's A-Z Blogging Challenge but there's only one theme to think about this month with the BlogHer NaBloPoMo Challenge: Beginnings. It's a new year and while Debbie & Harry's Kitchen isn't a newborn pup in the blog world, we are still in the beginning phases. I hope I can do this.

So, I'm going to join the challenge. Maybe it's the kick in the ass I need to be more regular with my blog postings. And from my reading yesterday, maybe I can find a way to keep people interested even if I don't post a new recipe with 23 8 X 10 color glossies everyday.

Merry New Year!!!!

As long as I live, I will never forget the scene on the train in "Trading Places."

Good stuff!

Another year - another year of goals! I did reach some of my goals last year. My weight was not one of them! Oh, we would have good intentions but the food is just so good! I have an awesome incentive this year: I'm going to be a Gramma in June! Yes, we all want to be more healthy and live longer lives but there's something about the impending arrival that sort of kicks you in the ass and says "no, seriously - I want to dance at my grandchild's wedding."

Before that, though, I have a wedding reception to prepare for! Trey and Nicole want it casual - here at the cabin and a rather casual theme for the food: Cinco de Mayo! This is going to take a bit of planning to make it special but stay within our budget. They also want a margarita toast rather than champagne - that's something I can't wait to play with! My first thought goes to strawberry-something-something but the Ohio strawberries won't arrive until June at least.

Speaking of June, I'm going to my first writer's conference: BlogHer Food in Seattle! I'm hoping that Harry will be able to go with me but it truly depends on his work schedule. If he does get some comp time by then, he would much rather spend it catching Walleye on the French River - well, so would I - but I need to take this opportunity to learn.

I've long been a fan of Ree Drummond over at The Pioneer Woman but a few months ago I totally became a fangirl of Irvin Lin at Eat the Love - follow that link and see why. Food porn. Glorious food porn and a more scientific approach to baking than I've ever been patient enough to try. He's also running a giveaway for a few more days. Someday, when I'm a big kid, I'll collect swag that I can give away!

While 2011 was a year of economic recovery for us, I just wasn't quite comfortable enough to say to Harry "Hey - let's go on a taco truck tour!" He's totally psyched about something like that and we will hit up Columbus Food Adventures in 2012. To start the year, we'll be hitting up the Winter Beer Fest in just a couple of weeks!

As for today, it's time to get my kitchen back into shape for playing with food AND dieting! I need to move some of the pantry ingredients that are filling my counters back into storage. The Kitchen-Aid will be removed from its permanent home on my work table to keep room for the fruit basket. Oh - it won't go far, I still have to bake bread. Our traditional New Year's Day dinner of dead pig and sauerkraut is on tap along with garlic smashed taters and a salad.

We're not planning a huge deal for the Ohio State/Florida Gator Bowl on Monday because Harry starts back to the gawd-awful 3:00 AM start time on Tuesday - UGH! Good thing the game is in the afternoon - some simple munchies of guac and salsa along with Devils on a Horse. Harry's more excited about having Tortellini Soup because I haven't made it in a bazillion years! Found a great deal on frozen tortellini at Kroger yesterday and grabbed two bags. Maybe he'll get it twice this year!

Merry New Year to all! What are your goals for 2012? Oh - and I really could use some food ideas for that Cinco de Mayo wedding reception!

D is for Dill...

I’ve become rather fond of dill over the last year or so. I’ve always loved big, fat crunchy Kosher dill pickles but I’m talking about the herb.

Since 2007, we’ve been making a variety of dip mixes for The Wright Taste, all with a different level of dill: Traditional, Garlic and Fiesta. So, we’ve always had dried dill in the Magic Drawer. I had a customer who would buy several packages of Traditional Dill Dip mix at the beginning of the season. She used it to flavor her potato salad. It always sounded good to me, but I’ve never tried it.

Harry’s the one who actually started us playing with it in some of our other foods. One night I was putting together potatoes to roast on the grill. I added onions, granulated garlic, Kosher salt, cracked pepper and he suggested some dill.

During the summer months, we eat a lot of salads with veggies fresh from the market. I like to whip together a quick homemade dressing and dill works great with Greek yogurt.

I’m not much of a pickle maker – we’ll see how the cukes do in the garden this year. But, my plans for the herb garden definitely include dill this year.

C is for Chowder...

It's raining and that makes me think of Chowder - well, that and the fact that today is "C" day in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. When it's cool and icky outside, I love a warming chowder.

We don't draw the line at clam chowder. A chowder is thick and creamy and filled with chunks of good stuff like protein, veggies and sometimes potatoes. OK, in our kitchen, our chowders always have potatoes. I will admit to cheating when I do make clam chowder. I buy the canned things because I've never actually cooked a real clam. Remember - I live in central Ohio. Truly "fresh" seafood is a luxury item. Oh, except for that guy in Jelloway that goes to Maine every couple of weeks to catch live lobsters and brings them back here to sell very cheap!

If I'm making a chowder involving seafood or fish such as mussels, clams, cod or any firm white-flesh fish, I start sauteing the veggies. And no - I'm doing this off the top of my head so I don't have any pretty pictures. Celery, carrots and onion - and the diced potatoes. We tried this with some kind of stew late last fall and I was amazed at the new depth of flavor that was added by lightly sauteing the potatoes before adding the liquid.

Chowder liquid. I've not had any success making fish stock because all my fishing expeditions end in hamburgers. Homemade vegetable stock is a good option and plain ol' water works well. I always take care to just cover the veggies because I know I'm going to be adding cream or half and half.

The protein in a chowder doesn't have to be from the sea. I love to make chowders featuring ground Italian sausage and I've eaten some heavenly corn chowders. I add the clams or other fish just as the liquid has come to a simmer - don't want to cook them until they're too tough!

My cousin Freddie makes the most beautiful fish chowder I've ever had. Filled with whatever catch his son brought in off the boat that morning and a light, barely-creamy broth. I haven't eaten it since the fall of 2001 because he lives in New Brunswick but I can still taste it.

No recipes, no pix, no links...just warm and fuzzy thoughts.