Embarrassment of Riches

Nicholas Maes painted a servant girl sleeping in a kitchen, neglecting her work. The painting seems to turn many things around from the usual way Dutch painters saw them. Very often, the kitchen is viewed through a door, off to the side, from a more important room in the house: here, the house shows through a door. The kitchen is foreground, not background, and the mistress of the house seems to be the one who is observing -- not as often happens, the servant. Neglect and duty were frequent themes of the paintings of the era, obviously front and center here.

In pursuit of a better understanding of the Dutch Golden Age, I have been reading The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama. Chapter 3, "Feasting, Fasting, and Timely Atonement" could stand alone as a book on food and culture in this amazing era. I feel as though I learned a great deal about the meaning of food, kitchens, and people as they appear in the paintings of the era. Having read it makes me feel much more prepared to appreciate works such as the sleeping servant above.

Painter Nicholas Maes was especially known for his scenes from daily life. The painting below has a simpler theme: an attractive woman at work, peeling parsnips as a chubby-cheeked child looks on. "The preparation of food -- peeling of vegetables like Maes's parsnips -- could supply ... instruction in household virtue," Schama says (p. 559). A focus on children is the theme of another chapter of Schama's book -- the Dutch were very advanced in many aspects of their attitude toward children. Here, the kitchen activity is enhanced because of the child's participation in the scene.
One thematic pair that recurs in Dutch painting is the "Fat Kitchen" -- before Lent, but also representing wealth -- and the "Lean Kitchen" -- during Lent, also representing scarcity. Here are a pair of such paintings by Steen:

Some people were definitely richer than others in the Dutch Republic, but what's remarkable is that working people, doing even menial jobs, had a decent life and were far from starvation. The gap between rich and poor was large, but nothing like the gaps between grinding poverty and aristocracy in other European countries at the time.

The prayers of working people before they ate their simple meals were a frequent subject for artistic works (as I illustrated in my earlier post). Steen treated this theme several times:
Holiday feasts, as well as the feasts of guilds and associations, were an important element of life in the Dutch Republic, and they served a variety of social and cultural purposes. As depicted by portrait artists, these feasts also help us to envision how people enjoyed life. Steen's painting of the St.Nicholas feast is a good example:


The basket of treats in this detail from the picture especially helps to imagine how delicious the food must have been for people of many social levels in that era.

Food for both rich and poor

In the book A Worldly Art: The Dutch Republic 1585-1718, author Mariet Westermann discusses themes in art work of the Dutch Golden Age, including several food-related themes. During the sixteenth century, many new products came to the Dutch markets, thanks to Dutch commercial voyaging throughout the New World and the Old. In Gabriel Metsu's painting "Vegetable Market in Amsterdam," painted in around 1661, some of the new and expensive vegetables are on display:


Westermann writes: "Metsu gave pride of place to the Horn carrot (the orange root in the cane basket) and the cauliflower, both of them expensive vegetables that Dutch growers had recently developed; they are contrasted with turnips and other humble staples of Dutch cooking."

The painting as a whole shows the environment of this market, and "also celebrates Amsterdam architecture, recently transformed by a building campaign to serve the ever-increasing demand for homes and warehouses." (pages 109-110)

Adriaen van Ostade's etching "Prayer before the Meal" (1653) illustrates a humble family at their hearth, ready to eat a simple meal. The contrast to the rich foods in the other paintings I've shown is obvious. Westermann particularly contrasts the theme of the family's gratitude and piety to the chaotic and irreverent attitudes shown in by other artists, especially by Jan Steen. (p. 123)




Portraits in the Golden Age often used food to demonstrate the lavish lifestyle of the subjects of the painting. In the "Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Militia," painted in 1616, Frans Hals showed about 12 opulently dressed members of the militia and the food they were eating at their banquet: meat, olives, wine, bread. The damask tablecloth remains even today a signal of luxurious dining. The officer carving the meat also suggests luxury. (pages 145 & 180)

I've cut out everything except the food and part of the tablecloth to emphasize the contrast with the poor family's meal in the previous example.

Kitchens in the Dutch Golden Age

Jan Steen's painting "The Parrot Cage" includes many of his playful references to contemporary folk wisdom -- he often showed what he thought of his lazy or slovenly subjects by symbolic images worked into the scenes he painted. I won't try to point these out, only to note that this scene seems to be set in a kitchen, with the stove off to the left.

The Dutch Golden Age lasted from around 1580 until around 1700. During this era, many famous painters produced works of amazing genius. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Steen, Metsu, Terborch, and many others particularly loved to paint the beautiful interiors of the homes of the rising middle class Dutch people. Scenes of kitchens, food, and food preparation appeared so much that I can't do justice to this era with a single short write-up. I have chosen just a few examples.





Vermeer's painting "The Milkmaid" shows a woman at a table, probably in the kitchen where she works, pouring milk from a pitcher. Golden loaves of bread covered with sesame seeds appear to be ready to serve to someone, presumably her employers. Another, more elaborate ewer stands on the table behind the bread basket.

The simplicity of this painting contrasts to the multi-level symbolism of Steen's paintings. Scholars seem to think it is exactly what it looks like: a servant girl preparing food. The light from the window illuminates this simple scene, painted in around 1660. Vermeer's incredible talent has inspired writers, film-makers, and painters from that time onward. In the 19th century, this painting received quite a lot of attention, evidently.



Terborsh's "Woman Peeling an Apple" was painted very shortly after Vermeer's "Milk Maid," in around 1661. These painters knew one another's work, and influenced one another, so it's not surprising that the theme of food preparation appears in both. The bowl of fruit on the table, including the dangling apple peel, is very similar to many of the still-life paintings of the era.

The painters in this Golden Age documented everyday life with beautiful insight. Paintings included the many new fruits and vegetables that appeared in the markets and people preparing and eating all sorts of produce, meat, fish, and baked goods. I'll return to this rich and wonderful era of kitchen images.

The Korean Grandfather's Kitchen

When we were visiting Hawaii last month, we enjoyed the Lyman Museum in Hilo. As part of their commitment to the many ethnic groups that make up Hawaiian society, they offer The Korean Grandfather's House. Mainly targeted to children and school groups, several rooms are furnished to illustrate life in rural Kora in the 1930s. Immigration from Korea to Hawaii actually took place in around 1905, I learned in another part of the museum, but this exhibit originated elsewhere.

The kitchen in this house was particularly interesting to me, especially the utensils, the low ovens below the counter top/stove, and the baskets hanging on the wall. There wasn't actually much written documentation. Costumes and props in an adjacent room suggest that children visiting the museum are encouraged to act out what they imagine to be the life of this house.

The Kitchen of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace

The L.A.Times today noted that 2009 will mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII on the English throne -- he was crowned as king when he turned 18. The article noted:

A major presentation at Hampton Court, Henry's magnificent palace on the Thames, opens April 12 and runs daily through the year. It focuses on one day in the king's life: July 12, 1543, the day he married his sixth queen, Catherine Parr.

Famous for his leadership, his many wives, and his split with the Catholic church in Rome, Henry VIII is also legendary for his giant size and appetite. So it's no wonder that Hampton Court Palace features, among its many wonders, a major exhibit about cooking and kitchens of Henry's era. Says the Palace website: "The Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace are a living monument to 230 years of royal cooking and entertainment." The photo from that website indicates how interesting a visit must be.

In Henry's day, the kitchens prepared two meals per day for 600 to 1200 people ranging from the lowest servants to members of the royal family. Today these kitchens continue to be used for period cooking and baking.

It's been many years since I visited Hampton Court Palace, and I don't know if the kitchen exhibit had been created at that time (or if I visited it). I mainly recall the outside with its famous brick exterior, and the fact that England was having a terrible drought that year, so many of the gardens were going without water.

You can see that I'm resuming my occasional feature about kitchens of all sorts, from those of my friends to famous and historic kitchens.

The I-Hate-Eggplant Club?

Eggplant is in season, and I've enjoyed a few favorites this year. I love eggplant's multiculturalism: it's in cuisines everywhere in the Mediterranean, southeast Asia, China, and maybe elsewhere. Or as Evelyn added "Eggplant dips, dishes, and sandwiches are ubiquitous in practically any fast food court or restaurant with vegetarian options, and people eat it in middle eastern sit down restaurants all the time."

Last week on his Weber-grilling marathon, when I set up Len for 2 and a half hours of standing over a hot hardwood-charcoal fire, three eggplants made the agenda. (Along with 6 ears of corn, many peppers, and a 3 lb. tenderloin, which each had to be done separately.) Grilled till they collapsed, the little purple beauties were then made into baba ganoush with some tahini and other stuff. Good. Likewise ratatouille a couple of farmers market before that.

The food pundits have been busy writing about eggplant recently, though they've concentrated on why people DON'T like it. In Gourmet I was amused by Laura Shapiro's piece: Why Does America Hate Ratatouille? The author's premise is simple: Americans are never going to like eggplant, no matter how French it seems. "Unlike quiche," she writes, "which came over from France around the same time and quickly achieved stardom, ratatouille is still languishing on the edges of the everyday food world. "

She elaborates:

It didn’t go upscale, like salade niçoise, which acquired fingerling potatoes and fresh tuna. Nor did it go downscale, like the doomed croissant, today a bleak emblem of food-court cuisine. Over the years, recipe-writers dreamed up all sorts of new angles—canned tomato sauce instead of tomatoes, frozen squash instead of summer’s fresh varieties, and every novel add-on they could think of including string beans, pumpkin, cumin, pesto, bacon, pimento-stuffed olives, and blankets of grated cheese. None of these innovations had any lasting impact. In fact, ratatouille has bypassed most of the usual milestones in the life of an American recipe. Quick ‘n’ easy versions did not take over the category. There was no ratatouille revival. It never became an icon of comfort food. Ratatouille—humble, graceless ratatouille—has defied culinary history.

Less amusing and more doctrineaire is an article in today's New York Times health section: The Misunderstood Eggplant. Just the title -- and designation in the health section -- suggest that both authors are on the same page.

"People do have strong feelings about eggplant. If they don’t like it, they usually cite its bitterness or heaviness," says this author. And citing Russ Parsons: "most eggplants are not bitter (even though they have every right to be after everything that has been said about them)."

The NYT recommends eating the purple skins of eggplant because of its excellent chemicals including an antioxidant called nasunin, a flavonoid of the type anthocyanin -- sort of a turn-off, no? And the author explains yet another way to make eggplant dishes more healthful. A technique to prevent eggplants in a frying pan from drinking their weight in oil. Instead of sauteing the article recommends oven roasting; the author suggests cutting them up first. Well, it might not taste the same.

The thing is, there are dishes that are good with roasted eggplant, but I'm not sure you should just make a substitution in a fried eggplant dish. In my own cooking, I prefer to roast whole eggplants with skin and stem intact in a very hot oven or in the microwave (it's quick!), but I like outdoor grilling best. I peel the tough, charred skin off later, despite the flavinoids.

Dire warning for roasting, nuking, or grilling whole eggplants: don't forget to stab each eggplant all over with a knife to let the steam escape. Years ago, I learned this lesson: I had one explode and leave its stringy pulp draped over my oven racks.

I'm not listening to these ways to recruit members to the I-hate-eggplant club. Though Evelyn says "I used to hate eggplant, and there's nothing wrong with hating it! But...Baba Ganoush is definitely more common than most of the dishes mentioned (other than croissant). I bet the New York Times writers are too snobby to ever go to a middle eastern or generic modern American place."

Weekend Baking

Sunday I baked a plum cake (same recipe as my earlier peach cake). While the cake was baking, the plums were sinking under the batter, which was not as beautiful as the result of my sister's recipe. I think her batter is firmer. I brought the cake to dinner at the home of the friends who gave me the Polish cookbook: they said it indeed tasted like a Polish cake.

Monday, I baked an apple pie. I should have made the slices thinner. I flavored it very very faintly with lavender, as well as cinnamon. I served it as dessert after a Labor Day picnic -- chips, hamburgers, hot dogs...

Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler

Cobblers, crisps, crumbles, pandownies, buckles, bettys.

Yesterday Elaine tells me that she made an apple crisp using the method of my rhubarb crisp -- that is, with egg in the filling and crumb topping. I think crisp and crumble are regional terms for pastry with fruit on the bottom and a crumb topping. I think buckle and betty may be limited to just blueberry buckle and apple betty -- or may also be regional terms.

Last night, Alice, Miriam, and I made a peach cobbler. Evelyn tried another peach cobbler recipe last weekend that was different from mine. I think cobbler means pastry with fruit on the bottom and pie-crust or biscuit-like topping rather than a crumb topping.

They are all good, especially right now with all the seasonal fruit.

Peach (or Apricot) Cobbler
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Make the filling first:
9 to 10 ripe peaches or 1 1/2 lb ripe apricots
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 for apricots)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon or lime juice
3/4 teaspoon almond extract

Peel the peaches and cut in 6-8 slices each, or cut apricots in quarters. Toss all the ingredients together in a 9-inch round or square glass or ceramic baking dish. Let stand until juicy, about 30 minutes or as long as it takes to make the topping.

For topping:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar mixed in
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk OR 1/2 c. milk plus a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar
2 or more teaspoons of cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 teaspoon sugar in a bowl. Blend in the butter with your fingertips or a knife until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the buttermilk with a fork just until combined. Do not overmix.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on top of the filling; leave spaces in between the blobs to allow topping to expand. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons cinnamon-sugar.

Bake cobbler in 400 degree oven until fruit is tender and topping is golden, about 30 minutes. Cool slightly, about 15 minutes, and serve warm with ice cream.

From the Fortune Cookie Chronicles

I am a big fan of Jennifer 8 Lee's book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. This morning she posted this video of her experiences in China showing people fortune cookies, which are in fact American.

See the full details in this article on fortune cookies in China.

Roberta's Dangerous Chocolate Cake

My friend Roberta sent me a recipe that seems to be circulating, for a nearly instant chocolate cake which you microwave in a coffee mug. I made myself one for dinner as I was dining alone. It was like a cakey brownie with little warm chocolate patches from the choc chips. Delicious. Very large portion. Here's the recipe (with my adjustments) (and Jen's adjustments). Now you know I'm not eating only fresh produce.

Dangerous Chocolate Cake

1 coffee mug sprayed or greased

Add
4 tablespoons flour, not self rising
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

Mix these well.

Add
1 egg,
mix well, then add
3 tablespoons oil (I cut it to 2 Tb) (Jen cut to 1 Tb) and
3 tablespoons milk (I used 3 generous Tb kefir) (Jen used buttermilk).

If you'd like, add
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (Yes!).

Bake in microwave for 3 minutes. Cake will rise over the top of mug. Do not be alarmed. Let rest a couple of minutes.

Why is this cake the most dangerous?
Because now we are just 5 minutes away from chocolate cake any day, any time!!!!

Elaine's Plum Cake

This is Elaine's cake made with the recipe she sent me, originally from Janie's Nana.

More Local Produce

The Ann Arbor Farmers Market was beautiful and sunlit this morning. I got there early enough to get a good parking space, and quickly bought the items that I wanted for a couple of recipes. The market stall above I where I bought herbs and zucchini. I was thinking plum chutney, but the Michigan blue plums aren't in yet.



And here's what I already have in the oven and in the pot: ratatouille and roasted tomatoes. Last year I made only one tray of tomatoes. We used them up so quickly that this year I have 2 trays in the oven, to cook very slowly until 10:30 PM. Last year's write up is at New Recipe. The recipe came from Lydia, here: Roasted tomatoes. The last thing I made with them was Trout.

When I make ratatouille, I always think of Michelle in Provence and her local produce from the market in Cotignac. This time, every fresh item I used is local. We don't have local olive oil the way they do in Provence!

Home Grown Tomatoes

Thinking about tomatoes -- when we were kids, our neighbor Mr. Boles always gave us tomatoes from his garden. He worked for the agricultural department of the railroad, and he was always checking out new varieties. We loved every one, still warm from the hot St.Louis sun. I may have mentioned this tomato story before.

Sometimes the ones from the farmers market as good as Mr.Boles' home grown tomatoes. Click here to listen to the song "Home Grown Tomatoes" by Guy Clark.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

I can never get to eat too many good tomatoes, even in this high tomato season. I decided to cook some of the gorgeous ripe ones I bought yesterday. Despite what some experts say about canned tomatoes being just as good for cooking as raw ones, there's a splendid richness that comes from cooking really ripe tomatoes and eating them right away.

I didn't want to cook them too long, or make anything too complicated. So I made Shakshuka, an Israeli breakfast favorite for dinner for the two of us. Len's cousin Janet introduced us to this treat on our last day in Israel a couple of years ago.

I made this dish once before, but I don't think I posted anything about it that time. Believe it or not, we ate them with a grilled pepper and tomato salad. As I say, I can never get too many tomatoes in August.

What I did, based roughly on a Joan Nathan recipe --

Shakshuka
2 Tb. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, roughly diced
2 large ripe tomatoes (around 12 oz each), cut in bite-size pieces
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
squeeze of tomato paste from a tube

4 large eggs

Over medium heat brown the garlic a little bit in the oil in a small frying pan. Add the tomatoes, salt, paprika, and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stop here if you aren't ready to serve; reheat the tomatoes when ready to cook the eggs.

Break the eggs into the simmering tomato mixture. Cover and continue to cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, until the eggs are set. Serve directly from the frying pan.

More on Plums

Elaine sent this plum cake recipe from her old friend. I haven't tried it, but it's another answer to Arny's request. And it makes the second instance of an Eastern European summer fruit cake today.

Nana's Plum Cake

1/2 stick of butter (2 Oz.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, separated

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

Prune plums
Sugar, butter

-Melt butter, beat in sugar, then egg yolk, then vanilla.

-Add flour, sifted with baking powder and salt.

-Beat egg white until stiff. Fold it into the mixture.

-Pat dough into a 9" or 10" greased pan.

-Heat oven to 400 degrees.

-Cut plums in half the log way (remove pits), and lay them close together all over the dough.

-Sprinkle them with pretty much sugar.

-Dot with butter

-Bake for 20 minutes, or until center of cake starts looking like cake crumb when you look inside with a knife.

This dough is good with all kinds of fruit

Cherries, peaches or apricots with almond flavor in the cake

Blueberries or apples with lemon

I was recently making it with rhubarb, mixing little pieces with flour and sugar before putting them on top.

Part brown sugar is good on the fruit, too.

It's a very quick and easy cake to make.

Love,

Janie

Chutney Recipes

In answer to Arny's request for a plum chutney recipe, here are several chutney recipes for present and future reference. For plum cake, use the recipe in the earlier blog post today, but use plums instead of peaches. For plum compote, cook plums and apples and maybe some peaches with sugar to taste and a bit of lemon peel -- there's no recipe for this!

Plum Chutney
from the New York Times some time in the 1980s

3 lb blue plums           3 small hot peppers
1 and 1/2 lb. apples      2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups brown sugar        1 tbsp each ginger, allspice, cloves, mustard seed

Slice plums, chop apples, and mix in other ingredients. Simmer till very thick, about 1 hour. Taste and add more sugar if necessary before you have finished simmering it. Place in jars, refrigerate, and let the chutney rest 2 weeks before serving.

Note: I posted it with photos last year: Plum Chutney Recipe

Mango Chutney

6-7 large mangoes*                2 cups cider vinegar
3 cups light brown sugar          1/2 red bell pepper, seeded & chopped
1/2 c. golden raisins             1/2 c. finely chopped candied ginger
1/2 tbsp. Chinese chili-bean      5 whole cloves
paste, mashed **                  5 whole allspice berries
3 cardamom pods                   1 stick cinnamon

Peel, seed, and chop the mangoes making various size pieces from very small to 1/4 inch cubes. Place all ingredients in a large kettle, bring to a boil, and simmer for 2 hours until chutney is thick, stirring occasionally to ensure no scorching. Remove large spice pieces. Rinse canning jars in hot water, fill with hot chutney, cover, and store in refrigerator. Be sure to allow chutney to rest for at least 2 weeks to acquire a mature flavor.

You can also sterilize the filled jars with a 10-minute water bath and so on in order to store the chutney at room temperature safely. (I never do this).

* Seems to be better with somewhat greener mangoes.
** Note: my bean paste had whole black beans. The second time I made the chutney I tried to pick them out as they looked funny, even when mashed into the paste. I think Chinese chili garlic paste is a better choice here.

Cranberry Chutney
Use a total of 2 packages of cranberries -- 6 cups
Combine the following in a large pan and boil until sugar dissolves:

   1/2 cup cider vinegar        2 and 1/4 cups brown sugar
 3/4 tsp. curry powder        1/2 tsp. ground ginger
 1/4 tsp. ground cloves       1/4 tsp. allspice
 1/2 tsp. cinnamon            1 and 1/2 cups water

Add and simmer 10 minutes:

   1 apple, peeled, cored, chopped
 2 lemons and 2 oranges, prepared as follows

Use the orange and lemon rind and the fruit -- pare rind with a vegetable peeler and chop or grate it. Discard the pith. Section and chop the fruit.

Add and boil 40 minutes:

   1/2 cup golden raisins       1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
 3 cups cranberries

Add 3 cups more, that is the rest of the cranberries. I fool around with this recipe a lot. Sometimes I just put everything together and cook until it looks thick and done. Sometimes I use candied ginger.

Store in jars in refrigerator. Age this chutney about a week before using. It keeps for several months in the refrigerator.

Rhubarb-Apricot Chutney
Mainly as received from Lydia at The Perfect Pantry, May 2008

2 cups diced rhubarb                  2 cups dried or fresh apricot halves, diced
1 cup honey OR                        1 cup golden raisins
   1 and 3/4 c. brown sugar         2 cups cider vinegar
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice              1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger OR         1 tsp cinnamon
   2 Tbsp candied ginger            1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cloves                 1 tsp allspice

In a heavy saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

The original recipe didn't say to age the chutney, but of course I did, and of course it improved with age.

Polish Peach and Apricot Cake from a New Cookbook

Stunningly beautiful Michigan peaches, apricots, plums, peppers, tomatoes, are in season. Lat night for dinner we enjoyed tomato salad, grilled peppers, and the depicted cake made from peaches and apricots.

The cake recipe is very much like the one my mother made, in the Jewish tradition, but this one comes from The Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab. Some Polish friends recently gave me this book as a gift, and I'm really enjoying it.

Like many recently published cookbooks, this one includes a great deal of social history and food history for the recipes. It is organized around the seasons and holidays celebrated in Polish villages. The author is Polish-American, and combines her family recipes and traditions with information about customs throughout Poland in the last two centuries.

While I've read quite a bit about Jewish traditions in villages in the same regions, I learned a lot by reading this book. For one thing, Polish village life continued until quite recently -- and probably is still alive in places. In contrast, I'm used to thinking of Jewish village life, which was completely extinguished in World War II.

The parallels and similarities between Polish customs, foodways, and even vocabulary, and those of their Jewish neighbors are rarely mentioned in the book, but I found it striking. Recipes include similar cakes (babas and babkas), fruit compotes, poppy seed sweets, meat and vegetable soups, noodle casseroles (which would be called kugel in Jewish tradition), kasha and kishka (same words for buckwheat and stuffed intestines, but the Poles used pork), potato pancakes, stuffed dumplings, cucumber salad and others. In many cases, the only difference is the use of bacon and pork fat in the Polish recipe instead of chicken schmaltz, or the use of sour cream to garnish meat dishes as well as vegetable dishes.

The biggest surprise to me was the line-up of Easter foods placed in a basket to be ritually blessed by the priest. A Paschal Lamb made from cake or butter, eggs, meat ("especially pork ... reminiscent of the Old Law of the Old Testament which forbade pork"), horseradish, salt, greenery, and bread were the ritual foods (p. 164-165). Meanwhile, for Passover the same week, their Jewish neighbors, not mentioned in the book, prepared a ritual plate with a lamb bone, horseradish, eggs, salt, greenery, and unleavened bread, as well as charoset -- but never, never pork. I had no idea that the cultures mirrored one another this way.

Click on this copy of the cake recipe -- which includes my notes -- to see a full-sized version. It's definitely a good recipe! For my cake yesterday, I used my sister's technique of baking the cake for 10 minutes before topping it with the fruit, so that all the fruit doesn't sink to the bottom of the cake.

Peak of the Season

What does this mean?

I just made this blog into a word cloud, using Wordle. I guess the internet is full of silly little applications like this! Well, at least the word "food" came out pretty big.

Here's the word cloud for maetravels:


What do these tell me?

We're not in Hawaii any more

But we had a couple of treats during our last 24 hours on the island. A last dinner at the Kona Brewing Company:


A last lunch at Merriman's Cafe during a leisurely ride up the coast. Dessert: pineapple-papaya crisp with brown sugar ice cream:

Aloha!