Foodie Post

Look what I found while looking for the turkey recipe!
A foodie tv series produced by Gourmet Magazine!

Here is what it says on the website:
With the breadth of international travel combined with a passion for food, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie delivers a unique cultural look at the world, food first. Each episode of this mouthwatering food, culture, and travel series dives into the diverse realm of the world's greatest cuisine, from New Zealand's purest honey to Italy's famous Parmigiano-Reggiano. Over the course of 20 half-hour episodes, this James Beard Award-winning series promises to unearth an all-new feast of fabulous food trends, exotic ingredients, and in-the-know food players.

I have to watch every episode, of course. I watched Hawaii today. Farmers, Cooks, Culture. I couldn't be happier! I think Food- its growing, its traditions, its yumminess- is really my expression of creativity. Then wool. Oh and then singing and performing. But food is first.

Speaking of food, here is the recipe for the turkey. If you are planing on doing turkey for Christmas, this is your recipe. trust me.

Here are a few recipes I created this last week...

Autumn Chicken Salad

1 cup Leftover chicken, whatever you got, shredded
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced (including some of the "feathers"
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup roasted walnuts
1/2 an apple, sliced in three sections, cored, and thinly sliced
8-12 oil cured black olives, pits removed and torn in thirds
olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt, fresh crushed black pepper

Just mix it all together.

Sausages with red onions and apples in a mustard sauce

2 mild pork sausages, sliced in 3/4 inch slices on the diagonal
1 apple, cored and quartered and sliced in short fat slices across the quarter
1 red onion
thyme
parsley
mustard
cream
salt
sumac

sausages and onions:
peel, halve, and slice onion and put in pan with olive oil
cut up sausages and add
cover and sauté on a med high flame till sausages are browned and onion is translucent
turn down flame and add salt, finish cooking and put into a bowl
next:
add cream, thyme and parsley (if dried) to pan, warm
add mustard, black fresh ground pepper, and salt
take off the heat (if fresh, add the chopped herbs now)
pour over sausages
last:
put an almond-sized piece of butter in the pan, melt
add apple pieces and sauté till slightly browned
pour onto sausages
sprinkle sumac and smoked salt on top, if you have them
eat slow if you can.

For my birthday I received Nigel Slater's new cookbook, or cookery book as he calls it, called Tender II. Tender I was about vegetables and this one is about fruits. He is exactly the kind of cook I aspire to be, a soul brother elder in the garden and kitchen pointing the way. All of the vegetables and fruits in Tender he grows in his garden. He grows them. THen he cooks them. Without being some celebrity chef, although he writes a column in a newspaper about cooking and he has a television series on the bbc about simple cooking, oh and a film has just been made based on his autobiography, Toast: the story of a boy's hunger. However, his recipes are simple, rarely having more than 10 ingredients, and deeply nourishing. His passion for good food, for growing food, and for life, are apparent in each of the recipes. I cannot more highly recommend that you go and buy his cookbook and let it inspire your garden, your purchases at farmer's markets, and you cooking.  Hooray Nigel Slater! And the best thing is, my sister has promised to order  Tender I as a belated birthday present! Please visit Nigel Slater's website for recipes and a list of his books.

and lastly, in gratitude to those I eat with and speak of the Great Everything with;

before the walrus and the carpenter feasted on the oysters the walrus was purported to have said:
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--

And whether pigs have wings."