Sheryl Julian, the Globe's Food Editor, writes regularly for the Food section.
Devra First is the Globe's food reporter and restaurant critic. Her
reviews appear weekly in Calendar.
Ann Cortissoz is on the staff of the Globe and writes the First Draft beer column for the Food section.
Stephen Meuse writes about wine for the Globe's Food section. His column on
Plonk ($12 and under wines) appears on the last Wednesday of the month.
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« July 29, 2007 - August 4, 2007 |
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| August 12, 2007 - August 18, 2007 »
August 10, 2007
It's a vacuum sealer for summer fruits, vegetables, and fish. My longtime co-author Julie Riven has one to freeze bluefish that her husband catches and smokes. My butcher has one, so everything he gives me is airtight.
I think the butcher does it because so many customers freeze his meat. In fact, vacuum-sealed meats of his that I've frozen last for months without deterioration. Earlier this summer, I emptied the freezer of all single steaks I'd been tucking away, we lit the grill, and a dozen of us ate like kings.
The comments page on amazon.com has people going on and on about how much they love the FoodSaver brand sealer. Someone in Florida seals uncooked pasta. I'm not sure I'd get that obsessive. But it's tempting for ordinary things, like roasted plum tomatoes, fresh corn kernels, and other seasonal items. I already put a few of these things away.
I'll reach into the freezer on some cold winter day and pull out a package and it will make me smile.
Posted by Sheryl Julian at 03:23 PM
August 9, 2007
Belmont baker Vicki Lee Boyajian found this pamphlet in her mother's kitchen (we were baking pies yesterday for a Food section story for later this month). Inside, the first page reads, "A Selection of family-tested recipes from the Women's Pages of the Boston Globe." It seems to be a compilation from Confidential Chat, mixed with specialties from a party column run in that section.
Here is an excerpt from the introduction: "Parties are meant for fun. Like a good marriage, a good party is made of congenial ingredients. There's the secret."
A "Let's Eat Outdoors!" teenage barbecue, suggests this menu:
Offer this today -- "Potato Salad for a Gang," made with a vinegary mayo dressing; "Real-Gone Burgers," with chives, parsley, and an egg worked into ground top round or sirloin; "Smoky Cheese Burger," which includes Worcestershire sauce, grated Cheddar, and hickory smoke salt; "Peanut Butter Brownies," made with unsweetened chocolate, shortening, and peanut butter; "Chewy Brownies," made with a package of quick fudge or penuche mix; and "Easy Butterscotch Sundae," which mixes light corn syrup, light cream, and margarine -- and you'll probably have a delighted crowd.
Posted by Sheryl Julian at 11:38 AM
August 8, 2007
Posted by Sheryl Julian at 12:06 PM
August 6, 2007
In an earlier post (Over the hill gang?), I described finding a few bottles of older, classed-growth Bordeaux while reorganizing our wine cellar and promised to report on each as we pulled its cork. First up: Château Mouton-Rothschild from the superb 1966 vintage.
Its vital signs -- low fill and weepy closure -- were a bit discouraging. The cork crumbled and broke in two, but was eventually got out. We decided it might be better not to decant the wine, since a gust of oxygen could kill it on the spot.
In the glass, the color was a rich mahogany (old red wines tend to brown as pigments polymerize and fall to the bottom as sediment), though glints of ruby bore wistful testimony to a vibrant youth. The image of an elderly gent in handsomely-tailored but threadbare worsteds, came to mind.
Over the next couple of hours we swirled, sniffed, sipped, and waited for the wine to fall apart. It never did. The bouquet seemed more marked by traces of oak ageing than by fruit. Overall, the impression was of diminished greatness: everything present, just a lot less of it.
Still, there was no mistaking the characteristic profile and "cut" of quality, cabernet-rich Bordeaux -- at least that's how it struck us.
The verdict: feeble but sound.
We decided we'd be happy to go over the hill as gracefully.
Posted by Stephen Meuse at 01:51 PM
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