A recipe from Michelle Maisto's memoir

Her new book is called "Gastronomy of Marriage - A Memoir of Food and Love". One of the things I like about it is that she treats food as culture. She uses food memories to tell stories. Like her grandma's famous walnut tarts. Not only does she tell us about her mother making these and 11 other kinds of cookies at Christmastime, she gives us the recipe for these delights.

WALNUT TARTS
crust:
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 cup flour

filling:
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts or a combination of the two
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. For this recipe you'll need a mini muffin tin (two ideally). Put these in the refrigerator. Then blend the crust ingredients until smooth. If, like me, you tend to have warm hands, wash them under cold water. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into each muffin cup and press the dough with your fingertips until each one is like a mini piecrust. Don't press them so thin that you can see the gray of the muffin tin; the thickness of a navel orange peel is about right.

Put the muffin tines back into the refrigerator while you make the filling, simply mixing the ingredients together. Spoon the filling into each little pie shell, leaving a little space before the top of the crust. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the crust is light brown.

Tune in this week for my conversation with Michelle Maisto about her relationship and her relationship to food. If you miss it, check the archive!

this week on Realgoodwords: Names I can't pronounce!

Pim Techamuanvivit and Mireille Guiliano. Help anyone? I live in northern Minnesota and the toughest word we use is PASTY. We're talking about the meat & rutabega pocket made famous by the miners. Nothing twirly there if you get my drift.

What words can't you pronounce?

This week my authors Pim and Mir (as I like to call them) will talk about loving food and the art of work and savoir faire. Stay tuned.

Diet? Milkshake! Diet? Milkshake! Diet? Milkshake...

It's the eternal struggle, isn't it? Succumb to your summer desires of cool ice cream coupled with chocolate sauce or fruit or caramel or basil/lemon, served in a metal cup OR stick to your new food attitude, where milkshakes, while not exactly "evil", are not really on the program.

This week's Realgoodwords battles it out between body image issues and milkshakes. Okay, not really. But somehow, these 2 interviews work well together, kinda like peanut butter and chocolate.

Adam Ried is a cookbook and kitchen equipment junkie. He's the food columnist for the Boston Globe Magazine and the equipment expert for American's Test Kitchens and Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchens.

His new book is "Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes" and along with the standard chocolate milkshake Adam's got some doozies like Shot in the Dark Coffee Shake and Peanut Molasses Shake and Sweet Corn and Basil Shake. Tune in for some fun conversation and memories of those perfect shakes. See the photo of one of Adam's favorite's: the Lemon Buttermilk Shake. See here for the recipe.

Stephanie Klein is a very popular blogger who "tells things straight up and unfiltered". Her first memoir came from that, called "Straight Up and Dirty" and is being made into a 1/2 hour comedy for television. Her latest is another memoir, this time about her childhood as an overweight kid. It's called "Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp".

I asked Stephanie about being a mom and how she is going to deal with weight issues and her own kids.

She said, "I don't just tell them they are beautiful - I make sure they see that I tell myself that I'm beautiful - even if I don't feel it."

I asked Stephanie if changing the negative self talk to positive helped her in weight loss. I expected her to say yes. Instead she said,

"I don't think petting my arms and complimenting them on what a great job they are doing staying attached to my shoulders worked for me. The whole 'love yourself in the mirror' didn't work for me. What actually worked was seeing my before pictures when I was a kid and really looking at them and taking a step back. Just look at that form, that person, that girl - if she were your daughter...is she beautiful? I look at them and say YES! You WERE beautiful, you were pretty, you were energetic, you had this amazing personality. I wished that someone would have focused on that and focused on bringing out all of my talents instead of "you're the fat girl" and my father puffing out his cheeks at me at the dinner table when I'd go in for seconds. Because I think it all of my energy were focused on singing or painting or learning photography I wouldn't be so apt to sit down in the front of the television and eat a third bowl of cereal."

Or a third milkshake? It's almost the 4th of July, I think ONE milkshake is okay. Don't you?

Comfort Food - What's Yours?

I'm reading/getting ready for interviews on a number of books this week for upcoming editions of Realgoodwords. Most this week are fufilling my need for lighter, take-me-away kind of reads.

Kate Jacobs new book is called "Comfort Food"....it fits right in with my recent devouring of food-related novels. As I said before, I'm slow in coming to the hot new craze (which is probably OUT by now) of foodie-ism. Food Channel, celebrity chefs and our household favorite "Top Chef". Here's the story on "Comfort Food":

Comfort Food is about the power of food to bring people together and the joys of savoring every bite of life. Gus Simpson is a host and chef for the Cooking Channel who has been subject to rating wars and trends in television. As she turns fifty she is pushed to start a new live, reality tv show with a young Spanish cook she can't quite get used to. Also on the show are her daughters, a younger chef and her best friend. Her "martha stewart" veneer is shattered and she learns to be more real and connect with people in a not so perfect menu, comfort food kind of way.

What exactly is Comfort Food?

It's different for everybody I guess - whether it's a dish your grandma made - or a meal with friends or family that makes you feel better....For me, baking - whether cookies or cakes - is a comfort. The eating is too of course, but mostly, the preparation is what comforts me. I can't figure out what it is...

I like to bake for other people and I like to be in our kitchen, immersed in a project. Yesterday my mom and brother and nephew visited and we had a great time - having a couple of meals together and hanging out by the lake. Here's what I made for them:

HEIDI'S COMFORT POUNDCAKE
1/2 lb of butter (I used the wonderful Dahl's Dairy Butter)

1 1/2 c of sugar
3 eggs (local from our very own Jane Grimsbo Jewett)

2 cups flour

1/2 c. milk (Dahl's again)

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

generous shakes of cinnamon and ground cloves (optional - I like a little spiciness to the cake)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (otherwise known as 375 in my oven). Butter and flour a Bundt pan and set aside. Spill flour for good luck.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs. Add 1 cup of flour and beat well, beat very well. Mix in the milk and vanilla and spices. Combine the baking powder and last cup of flour then add to the batter. Beat well, beat very well.(caution: this cake dough provides excellent licking of the beaters).

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake about 45 minutes - I set the timer for 30 and checked it and then for another 15 minutes or so. You'll know when it is done when it doesn't shake like jello anymore and when the stick you poke in it comes out clean and batter free.

When the cake is done, turn it upside down on a plate to cool, leaving the bundt pan on top of the cake for about 20 minutes so it will hold its shape. (This is the part where I didn't do as great and was grateful I'd be serving family who will love me despite my imperfect cake. I can usually guarantee a great tasting cake, not a great looking cake.)

For frosting I beat fresh whipped cream with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and a little more cinnamon. Best served with a strong cup of coffee.

Food as Culture

Chef Gillian Clark talked with me this week about her life in food. It sounds strange, but food really is about more than the plate in front of you or the drive-thru on the way to work. Food defines our culture, food brings us together....

Gillian talked to me about the food she serves in her restaurant - she wanted simple, American fare. They are known for their meat loafs and burgers and fresh ingredients.

That got me thinking, what is the food of Northern Minnesota? Is there a kind of food that defines your family or your town? Post your thoughts on what food best represents the culture of Northern Minnesota. Wild Rice? Walleye? Pasties?

it's not really stealing, is it?

My family and I have been spending most of our time in hospitals lately - my dad is in ICU and is on a tough tough battle to get better. We keep him and each other company, laughing inappropriately, doing crossword puzzles and my new hobby: stealing magazines from hospital waiting rooms.

It's only the food magazines I'm interested in stealing- I mean really, that's not that terrible is it? What magazines keep you interested in waiting rooms?

At least I'm getting some new recipes....Here's one I'm hoping to try soon...I've never made anything with watercress before - have you?

Chickpea Salad (from Real Simple magazine)
2 tablespoons olive oil
object
1 pound carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 small red onion, thinly sliced (1 cup)
8 cups watercress, washed and dried

In a large sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the carrots and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce
heat to low, add 1/4 cup of the chicken stock, cover, and cook until the liquid is absorbed, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the chickpeas, cumin, and paprika and cook over medium heat, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the remaining stock and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice, onion, watercress, and the remaining olive oil and toss well.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Can be made up to 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Yield: Makes 8 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES
114(0% from fat); FAT 4g (sat 1g); PROTEIN 4mg; CHOLESTEROL 0mg; CALCIUM 78mg;
SODIUM 182mg; FIBER 4g; CARBOHYDRATE 16g; IRON 1mg

I Blame Maggie Montgomery...

Once I was all about the words. Now, it's about the words, but also about the food.

I blame Maggie. And of course, indirectly, KAXE. What with the food and the kitchen and all that.

You know Maggie, our fearless leader in all foods local. Maggie's Wednesday Morning Show segments and daily meals in the KAXE kitchen have pushed me to not only cook more but eat (and enjoy) local foods like cheese and butter and milk and meat all from local producers. I even tried goat meat for crying out loud.

But lately I've moved into a whole new realm. I'm addicted to the food channel.... and I wrote a Lake Country Journal article about some local restaurants I enjoy. I have even started reading "foodie" books. Here's a couple I've been working on and will be featuring on upcoming episodes of Realgoodwords.

"Out of the Frying Pan: A Chef's Memoir of Hot Kitchens, Single Motherhood, and the Family Meal" by Gillian Clark. I really enjoyed reading this - and I had no idea how much stress was involved in being a chef....how much politics play into the job and how HUNGRY I could get, reading a book!!

Gillian includes many recipes in the book, like:

Carrot-Sage Soup

Note: The amounts below are halved from the original recipe, which yields
1/2 gallon of soup. If you're game for a large pot of soup, double the amounts.

Ingredients
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup white wine
3 cups water
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 bunches (about 1/8 pound) fresh sage, tied with kitchen twine
salt and pepper to taste
Method
In a large pot, sweat the onions in the oil. When onions are soft and
translucent, add carrots. Cook carrots and onions together, stirring constantly.
Do not let carrots brown, but cook them until they glisten -- about 5 minutes.
Add white wine and simmer until it is almost gone.
Add water and boil the
mixture until you can easily slide a sharp paring knife into the fattest piece
of carrot. Do not cook until carrots fall apart; they should be just tender.
Puree mixture in a blender on the highest speed.

Return soup to pot and add cream. Tie sage to pot handle so that the sage
leaves are immersed in the pot.

Let soup simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and
pepper taste. Discard the sage.

Makes about 1 quart of soup.

I heard a great podcast with Michele Anna Jordan about the book she edited along with Susan Brady called "The World is A Kitchen - Cooking Your Way Through Culture Stories, Recipes, and Resources". I'm just getting into the book - which includes writing about food, recipes and ideas for culinary travel. I'll let you know what I think.

More from Liza Palmer's interview

Liza is the author of "Seeing Me Naked" and "Conversations with the Fat Girl". I talked with her last night on Realgoodwords - check out the archive to hear it yourself.

There are so many books that are labeled "chick lit" - stories that concern younger women. Often times books like "Sex and the City" are confused with being the norm; centering on fashion and boyfriends. But there is a whole world beyond "Sex in the City" that is thoughtful, fun and mostly about relationships, like Liza Palmer's writing.

I talked with her about her main character, Elizabeth:

"Elizabeth is just your run-of-the-mill 30 year old - always trying to figure out where she fits into life - she's a perfectionist who doesn't quite know what decisions she needs to make - the big decisions of career...family...love. She's doing okay, but I think she's kind of waiting for her life to kick in - and it's not clicking in at the moment."

And Liza continued, about that in-between time in life, like her character Elisabeth experiences as she starts making pastries that are more comfort foods....

"I think we start moving in a certain way - in our career or our taste - the books we read or movies we watch - before we get that we're moving that way personally. It's like the outside of our our life starts changing before we even realize it. I really identified with that."

and Liza's thoughts on her writing process...

"My first drafts are very quick because I hate the blank page. So I vomit out very quickly the worst first draft ever. I don't really know any of the characters at that point - so then I will go back and edit and edit and edit. "Seeing Me Naked" was edited like 10 times or something like that - It is almost like the first time you write a draft its like you and the main character are at a Starbucks together - like maybe you are in line and chat a little bit and the next time you edit is like you are at a bar and maybe you've got a beer in her and she opens up a little more - then the 3rd edit maybe you are driving up the coast to go to San Fransisco so you've got her for 8 hours and she opens up more. So every single edit I get to know her AND you also get to know the main characters by our secondary characters getting fleshed out. Every single edit you get the idea of your main character's world."

We're talking Locavores next Tuesday!

Locavore is defined as:

Someone whose diet consists of food grown or produced within an area most commonly bound by a 100-mile radius of their home. Locavores usually shun large supermarket chains, opting for farmer's markets and local gardens instead. It is also a current trend for many high-end restaurants as well.

This word was just declared Oxford American Dictionary's 2007 Word of the Year. It was coined in 2005 by a group of four women from San Francisco. It's also sometimes spelled localvores.

Is Locavore/Localvore a word you are familiar with?

If you are reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" like I am, it's a word/concept I'm coming to understand more and more. We're getting together next Tuesday, 3/11 at 4pm to talk books and food. Everyone is invited to join us - whether or notyou've read the book - and talk about the concept of eating locally -specifically how to eat locally in Northern Minnesota. Maggie Montgomery will be on hand totalk about how she has been eating locally since last July.

Not only am I considering a more extensive garden this year, making cheese
has actually crossed my mind after reading the book! Kingsolver writes about the New England Cheesemaking Company where she learned to make homemade mozzarella and other cheeses. Have you ever made cheese? Let us know! What local food do you eat?