Our Life

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Coming Soon: The Great Barbecue Taste-Off

Yesterday we joined our friend Paul for the beginning of a project we’ve been talking about for months–an authoritative, double-blind taste test to determine the best barbecue in Durham.

This stage of the project involved five restaurants (listed here in alphabetical order): the Backyard Barbecue Pit, Bullock’s, Dillard’s, Hog Heaven and the Q Shack.

Who won? Tune in later this week to find out, when I get time to write up the results. We’ll also feature cooking results from last week’s vegetable haul.

In the meantime, I turn to that last resort of writer-blocked, time-crunched bloggers everywhere: the cat photo. Today: a very rare shot of the adorable multi-colored toes of Catalina, our shy tortie. Don’t try doing this at home.

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We’re Famous!

Or at least linked, and to a blog by someone who doesn’t even know us. 30threads, a new site from Ginny from the Blog, included The Newlyfeds in their latest report on Durham’s food blogs. Food Network, here we come.

I was also pleased to discover that 30threads also offers endless potential for procrastination, with links to 30 of the most interesting threads in local blogs. I killed half an hour in between writing these two paragraphs–imagine the possibilities when you’re really trying to accomplish something.
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But back to food. On Tuesday we received our CSA (community-sponsored agriculture) delivery, and it allayed some fears that I’d been developing about our choice of a farm. Well, actually “choice” is too strong a word. I waited until the last minute (see note on procrastination, above) and so had to go with the only farm that still had space. Except that it didn’t actually have space–something we discovered after we mailed our check, and e-mailed, and heard nothing, and called, and heard nothing, and called, and were finally told that they never got our check and that there was no space anyway.

In late June, however, we got a somewhat garbled message from the farmer offering us a share for the remaining half of the season because someone had dropped out. Driven by a desperate need for vegetables instilled by our new weight watching habits, we acted like a high school wallflower who’s just been asked to the prom by the star quarterback. We couldn’t return the call fast enough, and my mid-June we got our first delivery.

After four deliveries, I am beginning to understand why our farm, Snow Creek Organics, did not bother to call us back. They’re too busy farming. Here’s what was in this week’s delivery:

The items we recognized immediately were Swiss chard (in the back), tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, and okra. The green items on the left that resemble miniature watermelons are squash (I’m afraid I didn’t get the variety) and the yellow items atop the red pepper are lemon cucumbers. The flowers weren’t part of the delivery; they’re the ones Fred always buys for me at the Duke Mobile Farmers Market, our pick-up site (for the vegetables, that is).

I love that Snow Creek gives us oddball varieties to try. The lemon cucumbers were a delight, with a fresh, clean cucumber taste–although with no hint of lemon. The seeds were large but would be easy to remove using the same process as that for cantaloupe. And the slices would look beautiful in a salad with tomatoes. Unfortunately, we ate them so quickly we didn’t have a chance to find out.

We also made a great discovery about the chard stems. I’d thought they weren’t usable, but my 1946 edition of The Joy of Cooking claimed that you could cook them like asparagus. After tasting one raw, I was skeptical: It was awful–bitter, with no redeeming qualities I could identify.

All the more reason to put Irma Rombauer to the test. And it appears that she, like my mother, is always right. Once cooked, the stems lost their bitterness. They don’t taste the least bit like asparagus, but roasting them with garlic, oil, onions, balsamic vinegar, and salt made for a delicious dish.

Roasted Onion and Swiss Chard Stems (serves 2)

Preheat oven to 350. Remove leaves from 10 -12 stems of Swiss chard. (Leaves can be cooked like spinach or other greens.) Cut off about 1/4 inch from the bottom and cut chard into 1″ pieces. Quarter a large onion, lengthwise, then slice. Mince 3-4 large cloves of garlic. Toss all ingredients in a large bowl with 1 tbsp. olive oil, several generous splashes of balsamic vinegar (roughly 1/4 – 1/2 cup) and salt to taste. Spread on jelly roll pan or cookie sheet and bake for 20 -30 minutes.

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Post-Vacation Activities

We’ve been curious for some time about Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill. We have seen folks sitting on that wonderful-looking patio, staring down at the crowds, and we wanted to be up there. Perhaps we wanted to recapture something of the experiences we enjoyed at our beloved Six Feet Under in Atlanta, overlooking Oakland Cemetary.

Top of the Hill is too traditional for that, but we enjoyed our lunch there this morning. It was a your typical good bar/restaurant combo, done well–quick service from a nice college student, beginning the meal with the usual “Hi, I’m Alisha, and I’ll be taking care of you this morning”; safe, familiar menu options; and an interesting beer list, which we’ll have to try sometime when we’re not there at noon.

The food was neither spectacular nor disappointing, but for a total of $27 with tip, we can’t complain. Fred’s beer battered fries were the exception–crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. The tomatoes on my shrimp salad with green goddess dressing were surprisingly sweet and flavorful–the advantage of ordering while they’re in season, I suppose. And the rolls were quite good–perfect little warm brioches, luckily for us served with no butter or oil. Fred’s bleu cheese burger was a fine if not memorable example of the genre. My salad was a bit on the small side, as were the shrimp–but enough for me in my state of post-vacation repentance.

But the view–well, that takes everything to a different level. Decent food and comfortable prices, overlooking Chapel Hill so that you can even see the distant hills–what more can you ask of life? As much as I like great restaurants and perfectly prepared food, I found myself offering up a small prayer of thanks that this beautiful spot had not been taken over by a place that only the wealthiest diners could afford, and that the owners were taking care of us little people quite nicely.

There was only one thing to do when we got home.


Louise, however, remained ever vigilant, on the off chance that a stray piece of food might jump out of the fridge.

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Where Have We Been?

We’ve been enjoying an extravaganza of pleasure at Kiawah Island this week, with romantic walks on the beach . . . .

. . . fine dining at Kiawah’s exclusive restaurants . . .

. . . building goo castles and other activities dictated by our beloved five-year-old despot (our niece, Grace). . .

. . . and, of course, shopping at Rosemont Farms, where the chickens are beautiful . . .

. . . and so are the little heirloom tomatoes.

Even the abundance of fresh produce, though, could not stop our weight watching from falling down the typical vacation abyss. My mother’s shrimp and grits were perhaps our greatest downfall. I knew that disaster was inevitable during our shopping trip to get ingredients.

“Do you want me to get half-and-half instead of cream to use in the shrimp and grits?” my mom asked, as we stood in front of the milk cooler.

“Don’t worry about it, Mom,” I said benevolently. “We can eat that sort of thing on Weight Watchers. We just can’t eat as much.”

And another warning, as she was cooking: “I usually put a whole stick of butter in this. Is that okay?”

“Oh sure,” I blithely responded. “Like I said, we can eat it, just not as much of it.”

I started with a respectable serving of about half a cup. But once the smooth, cheesy, buttery goodness and the fresh shrimp made their way into my mouth, it was all over. I have no idea how many half-cup helpings I ate, but it was more than three. And luckily there was some left over lunch for the next day.

But Weight Watchers is a benevolent God, much like the one worshipped by the Baptists. You can backslide all you want, just as long as you show up in church on Sunday and put your money in the plate. So we’ll repent now, and go up for the altar call when the organist plays “Just As I Am,” and humbly promise never, ever to do it again until the next time.

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Weighing In, Again

Collective weight loss, recorded at our Weight Watchers meeting today: 15.8 lbs. That’s 8.6 for my beer swilling, pork guzzling husband and 7.2 for me.

But despite my bitterness, I’m proud of Fred. Although Weight Watchers tries, a little, to be male-friendly, it’s not easy for the hapless man who stumbles into this largely female realm. Today, for instance, Fred was handed a slip of paper to read out loud at the meeting, with the following tip for feeling good about himself during the weight loss process: “A fresh haircut, a manicure, or some new makeup can go a long way toward boosting your spirits while you’re trying to slim down.” Perhaps I’ll pick up a new tube of mascara for him. It would bring out his eyes.

The most stunning revelation, though, has been that our weight watching is turning us into responsible locavores. We’re relying on fresh, local produce because we’re being forced to eat far more vegetables than meat, and they now need to taste good. This also means that we’re looking for seasonal produce that’s flavorful because it’s not been grown in a hothouse or shipped from too far away. We’re getting most of this from the Farmers Market in Raleigh and our CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) deliveries once a week, and if we can drag ourselves out of the house before noon on Saturday we might even try Durham’s own Farmers Market.

But we WON’T be wearing sensible shoes or peasant skirts, no matter how much they might help lift Fred’s spirits while he’s slimming down.

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Weighing In II

It’s been a busy week, but the good news is that we have lost a collective 13.2 pounds.

The bad news is that 5.8 of those pounds are mine and the remaining 7.4 are Fred’s, despite the fact that he took leisurely strolls through the neighborhood and ate pork sandwiches with garlic fries while I ran through sweltering heat and nibbled on carrots. It’s further proof that patriarchy is alive and well.

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Weighing In

We lost a collective 8.2 pounds in our first week.

Fred, however, received a further blow when he was told that he had to eat five vegetable servings a day. He went out and bought some pickles.

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Fred Cracks (And a Chicken Liver Recipe)

1. Fred Cracks

The beloved Fred, my Yankee Doodle Dandy, turns 48 today.

We celebrated last night by going to the Durham Bulls game. It was a wonderful night even though we lost. And we even managed to stay within our Weight Watchers goal for the day, mostly because we went for a walk beforehand to make sure we’d have enough points for the beer.

But Fred’s struggles were becoming evident.

“That wasn’t so bad!” I chirped as we went to bed. “You got to have two hot dogs, a cup of popcorn, and two beers for dinner. That’s amazing!”

“I’m hungry,” he sighed. “Do you know that the wings I used to eat for lunch at Twain’s would use up all my points for the day?”

And this morning, he hit bottom.

I had just poured my morning coffee in happy anticipation of drinking it on our screened-in porch on this glorious day off. Fred was sipping a Diet Coke. (Even before Weight Watchers, he drank about 3 -4 Diet Cokes a day, the residue of earlier weight-loss efforts.) Knowing his struggles, and ever eager to be helpful even though he gets to eat the equivalent of nearly three candy bars more than I do every day, I thought I would make a suggestion. Looking at the Diet Coke, I asked, “How are you doing with drinking your water?”

Fred’s face suddenly took on the look of someone who’d just been told his dog had been run over. “They want us to drink water?” he whispered.

“Yes,” I said. “Six glasses a day. Of course, it can be any uncaffeinated beverage.”

Fred turned slowly and then sat down, trying to absorb this latest blow. And then it came out:

“WILL THEY TAKE EVERYTHING FROM ME? I’m living on celery and water here! What will they do next–take me to The Federal and make me watch people EAT PORK SANDWICHES AND GARLIC FRIES WHILE THEY’RE SWILLING HENNEPINS? GOOD GOD!”

2. Chicken Livers

Despite our struggles, we are actually beginning to find things to eat that do not involve celery or disgusting low-fat abominations. One surprisingly good resource is the Best of Weight Watchers Magazine cookbook. It’s not filled with hideous dishes that merely sustitute fat-free sour cream for regular, or tofu for beef. Instead, the recipes are what I like to fancy as European. They focus on fresh, seasonal, luxurious ingredients that don’t necessarily require a lot of added fat, or they encourage smaller portions. More on that later, though, once I try some of the recipes.

For now, I want to turn to a happy moment in our early perusal of our Weight Watchers materials. It was the discovery that cooked chicken livers have only 1 point per ounce. This means that a half pound of chicken livers is only 8 points. I was especially glad of this since we had a pound of them from Rainbow Meadow Farms (also the source of our beloved guanciale).

Now, this discovery may not offer much comfort if you’re used to eating a pound of fried chicken livers, as I used to do at least once a week when I was in college. But still, I figured there must be some decent way to saute them with onions, which would add flavor and volume without a lot of extra calories.

So I turned to James Beard’s American Cookery, my go-to volume when it comes to preparing offal of any kind. And there it was–a recipe for Sauteed Chicken Livers.

I confess I was forced to leave out the 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of oil in the original recipe (which adds up to 24 points, in case you’re interested). Instead, I used two painfully small teaspoons of leftover guanciale fat. Surprisingly, this didn’t add much. Guanciale’s mild flavor is wonderful when it’s a featured component of a dish, but it was completely lost in this recipe. So I’ve substituted bacon in the recipe below.

Beard’s recipe also suggests serving the livers over spaghetti with tomato sauce–so to make up for the lack of fat in this version, I added tomato sauce directly to the livers.

This turned out to be a dish we will eat again, even when we’re not quite so points-restricted.

Chicken Livers with Onion and Bacon

(2 servings, 9 points each)

1 lb. chicken livers, cleaned (NOTE: Most recipes tell you to remove the tendons. I am too lazy to do this, but go ahead if you like.)
2 teaspoons bacon fat
About 1/4 c. water
1 large onion, halved and sliced thin
2 large cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp. tomato paste, mixed with enough water to make a thick sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt bacon fat in water in large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add garlic and stir. Add tomato sauce and heat until just beginning to bubble. Add chicken livers, salt, and pepper, and cook until chicken livers do not “bleed” (about 10 minutes–longer than many recipes suggest, but I like them well-done).

Suggested but untested variations: Instead of using melted bacon fat, chop two slices of bacon into 1″ pieces and fry in the skillet. Drain all but two teaspoons of the fat and saute your onions in that–I think you would be able to leave out the water in this case. This will add 1 point to each serving.

When you’re maintaining your weight again: I think it would be quite safe to use four slices of bacon instead.

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The Fred Starts Weight Watching

I was pleased and a bit surprised yesterday at Fred’s enthusiastic embracing of our new regimen. He bounced in after work with his list of his daily food intake, carefully written down on a napkin filched from Whole Foods.

“I’ve done pretty well, I think!” he said. “I wrote everything down–I probably ate about ten points or so. I had just potato chips for lunch, and then a little bite at Whole Foods after work. But I’ll have to add it up.”

“That’s great, honey!” I seethed, thinking of the 33 points he gets to eat every day as opposed to my 20, because he is a man and the Weight Watchers scientists are clearly misogynists.

He went over to the dining room table and took up the Weight Watchers pamphlets, points calculators, and other paraphernalia.

“Let’s see,” he mused, chewing on the end of his pen. “Two servings of potato chips–that’s 6. How much was the pork? Okay–let’s say 5 for that. And the beef was . . . looks like 4. The blueberry pie–oh.”

Pause.

“Well, I really had just a bite of that, so we’ll just say 3. Sweet tea–that can’t be much.”

Pages shuffle. Another pause.

“There’s no entry for sweet tea. What’s wrong with these people?”

“It’s probably the same as for Coke,” I chimed in, helpfully.

“Oh.”

More shuffling. More pausing.

“Another six points, I guess.” Sigh. “Six points just for tea!”

A few more shufflings, pauses, and sighs later, he looks up, despair clinging like an old cobweb to his face. “I’ve eaten 28 points already!”

I smile. It’s an unkind smile–the type you might see on a spider when she feels the first twitch of a fly, or on a hawk when she spots a little bunny hop across the field.

“That’s okay, honey.” I said. “I’m fixing broccoli for your dinner.”

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In Honor of Weight Watchers, We Present Fish Salad and Roasted Broccoli

Part I: Weight Watching

We’ve given up. We went to Weight Watchers yesterday.

It’s a sad day for the house that loves guanciale, and butter, and pasta, and roasting a chicken just so we can eat the skin. But we really have no choice. I am 7 pounds over what is considered a maximum healthy weight for my height, and Fred–well, he’s a little more than that.

Our mission now will be to create dishes that will keep us within our daily points allowance but won’t completely compromise our food integrity. This means none of the glue-like substances that some marketers try to pass off as food, like fat-free cream cheese and mayonnaise. I don’t think we can take that. But we can certainly eat a heck of a lot more vegetables, and probably much smaller portions of the things we love.

I am also delighted to report that a Bloody Mary is only 3 points, but just 2 if you use only a splash of tomato juice.

Tonight, we cooked the last of the guanciale in a pasta dish. We just ate less of it and more of the broccoli I fixed to go with it. A colleague offered the following preparation for the broccoli, which turned out to be quite good.

Roasted Broccoli

Cut up two heads of broccoli. Toss in 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil and salt it to within an inch of its life. Roast in a shallow pan at 400 degrees until just beginning to brown, about 10 – 15 minutes.

“It’s just like popcorn,” my co-worker told me, and it’s pretty darn close.

II. And Then There’s the Fish Salad

I have also been meaning to talk about the spectacular fish salad I created last week with some leftover broiled triggerfish. Unfortunately its next iteration will probably have to wait until after the Weight Watchers project is over, or until I have not eaten for several days.

This is a great way to use leftover broiled, poached, or grilled fish. Since you don’t have to re-heat it, you don’t risk the overcooking that usually renders leftover fish dry and nearly inedible.

The recipe would work well with any white fish that you typically cook through rather than serve rare. If you have a leftover piece that is rare (like salmon or tuna), you might want to broil or poach it for a minute or two before making the salad.

Fish Salad (makes about 2 cups)

1 piece cooked fish (about 4 oz.), bones removed if necessary, chopped fine
2 – 3 carrots, peeled and minced
2- 3 stalks celery, minced
1 small sweet onion (Vidalia or other mild variety), minced
1/2 cup peas, cooked until just tender, drained (pour cold water over peas to stop cooking)
1/2 cup mayonnaise, or more to taste
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together in bowl. Serve with crackers or with a sandwich. Don’t count the Weight Watchers points.