A Jewel of a Trip

I had a rough meeting at work the other day.  I needed out of the office so I decided to take a trip to the local whole foods to look for cranberry beans.  Well, when I got there they only had canned cranberry beans.  That didn't sound fun at all so I decided to take a stroll and see what I would come up with.  My bag included ...

Pita chips for lunch
Two cans of San Marzano tomatoes - which are destined for a puttenesca sauce and homemade pasta
One quart kumquats
One pomegrante

Satisfied with my trip I went back to work.  But the real satisfaction came when I got home.  I showed the kids what I got and you would have thought it was an early Christmas.  The cheers over a fresh pomegrante filled the kitchen.

Pomegrantes are an activity in our house.  Peeling them open, getting the seeds and then refereeing all the kids grabbing the jewels as if they were real jewels and the one with the most had their college fund all secure.  It is a messy and time consumming affair, but it is the longest they sit at the table and they are devouring one of the most nutritious fruits known to man.  No more satification than that. 

Now, off to make cookies.

Two days until Christmas - fingers crossed I get that camera!

This little piggy went to market

I'll take some italian sausage...hold the beans

I found those sneaky cranberry beans. They were right under my nose. The only problem is that they are not called cranberry beans. At least not in Italian. In Italian circles they are called Borlotti beans. I found them at the Baci Market in Little Italy. And what a treat, because Baci is a really fun, tiny grocery with an amazing meatball sub, and home made Italian sausage.

Here is Baci and Michelle, the cashier, holding the beans. In my grocery bag...sausage, caper berries, fresh mozzarella, frozen home made ravioli, a big jar of Nutella and a little noodle called corallini (which I suspect will find its way into Borlotti Bean Soup in the next week). The other ingredients have no bean association, but make me happy!

Beautiful Music

Megan Moore Murphy (co-inventor of the poop bar) is as ingrained in my childhood as popsicles and delivering papers.  And that's why I can forgive her for teaching my boys this wonderful jingle,

Beans, beans the magical fruit
The more you eat the more you ....

You know the rest.  Let's just say the Keels boys are looking forward to this battle and all the singing opportunities that come with it.  Not to mention the other thing.   They might consider that singing too.

Do you see a pattern here with me and Megan Murphy?

Come out, come out wherever you are....

Tricia and I decided this month to battle with Cranberry Beans. Sounds festive, right? Not sure they are really holiday food, but they are pretty. And they do have cranberry in the name and I love that. But, there seems to be a sourcing problem.

I have seen these bean fresh in my local market many times, but didn't know what they were. But they aren't there now which means that dried will have to do...except I can't find those either. Tricia says her Whole Foods in Columbus has them but Chicago...No. No cranberry beans to be found. Is it a regional thing. Do people in Columbus like cranberry beans more than people in Chicago? Is it just a supply and demand issue? I don't know.

So stay tuned on this battle. I've got the Beano, just can't find the beans.

Mushrooms, take stock.

At first I thought ... I don't have time for Battle Wild Mushroom ... I have a turkey to roast.  You see, I am not the culinary giant when it comes to this holiday.  I usually just let Megan do all the work.  But this year we had guests to our house and the turkey was my doing.

So I needed to get this mushroom thing off my plate so to speak.  I made a soup ... I know .. I know.  I think I have a soup addiction really.  This had loads of mushrooms, shitakes, porcinis and creminis with cabbage, ginger and chicken broth.  It was good in that rustic kind-of soup way that I like.  The kind-of way that makes me feel like some little old women in Italy just made the same thing.  It was really just a means to an end of checking Battle Wild Mushroom off my list.  And using that cabbage that wasn't going to make it much longer.

But lo and behold, these things kept showing up.  I put a boat load of creminis in my stuffing.  Not very creative, but classic.  It was great.  Meaty even.  Enough to keep the theme alive .... in my head at least ... on thanksgiving day.  But the best discovery happened the day after. 

The turkey stock.  I started it like I do all stocks really.  Telling my kids to get out of the kitchen.  Just kidding.  Seriously though, the left over turkey carcass.  Pretty sure it was Judy's best friend (See February's post).  The turkey wings that no one ate.  Onion, carrots, celery, couple cloves of garlic, parsley.  Water of course.  The usual suspects.  And then I remembered, I bought a pack of mixed dried mushrooms at the start of the month.  I had been scared to use them because they did have oyster mushrooms in them and I just wasn't convinced I wasn't going to have a drink (See Megan's PSA at the beginning of the month).  But knowing Oyster mushrooms are more expensive than the others in this medley, I figured it probably meant there was one in the whole mix.  So I took a risk, threw in the pack, poured a drink.

Let me tell you ... that was the richest broth I have ever made.  You hear people say things have depth of flavor.  This was deep and rich and earthy.  Sometimes, I admit it, I need to add lots of salt to get my broth to taste like something.  Not this time.  A little seasoning was all it needed.

I went back to the store - Trader Joe's - and bought five more packs to have for the winter.  When you are addicted to soup ... you really have to think ahead.