Hand-Picked Goodness?

I don’t know why I do it, but I keep reading packages. The latest to catch my eye was the latest flavor of Miss Vickie’s potato chips. I couldn’t pass up the idea of “Hand Picked Jalapeno” I just had to find out what made it so very special.

I’m a pepper freak and have every type of pepper I could find in the garden shops in the area, and as I’ve posted, they have been producing like crazy – and everything there is hand-picked. But honestly, in the peppers, I’ve never noticed much different between the flavor of the hand picked ones from my garden and the ones I purchase in the off-season from the supermarket.

So I bought a bag.

I was disappointed to find that there was no email address for Miss Vickie* so I could ask her about her hand-picked jalapeno secrets. However, the bag did offer some tips such as, “picking the jalapenos by hand when they are perfectly ripe.”

I think she meant to be talking about the tomato that goes with the jalapeno in salsa. Jalapenos when “ripe” either become woody or mushy and sweet.

I was also a little baffled at how the pepper went from “perfectly ripe” to “jalapeno powder.” Something gets lost in that translation. I want to take a tour of the process to see just what they do to preserve the hand picked goodness. The powdering process seems to violently diminish the gentle care of hand picking.

Despite all this – yeah, they’re good!

*Miss Vickie is a little sister to Frito Lay

New York - Day 4

Today the conference was in full swing - starting with a regional group breakfast at 7:30 a.m. (which is 6:30 a.m. back home), so I was at it bright and early. The news promised lessening rain, but as I set out on my trek to the conference hotel with a planned stop at the coffee supplier, it was raining harder than at any point since I'd been in the city.

My small umbrella was not doing the trick at all, so I took the route I could find with the most overhead scaffolding and managed to reach the conference only a bit damp and ahead of the chickens who took a cab.

The sessions I attended were good, but didn't really address needs I had. I tried to pick carefully, but found in many of these sessions, my organization is far ahead of these doing the presenting. I should be doing more than one presentation at this conference. Actually, so far, I could have presented the entire conference.

After the conference I went to meet up with Southern Boy, his bf, and a good friend of his for dinner at S'mac. He's written about going there several times and as much as I don't like mac and cheese, I just had to try a restaurant where that is the only thing served. I had the Brie with roasted figs and shitake mushrooms. It brought an entirely new horizon to my idea of mac and cheese and completely removed the image of the blue box from association forever. The friend and the bf were both generous and gave me bites of theirs to eat. Each was unique and good in its own way.

After the experience with the PB & J French Toast of a couple weeks ago, I'm definitely going to have to experiment with the mac and cheese theme next.

Grilled cheese wont' be far behind.

After dinner we wandered around East Village for a while and went to Porto Rico Importing Company and bought coffee in bulk - which means I'm going to have to leave something in New York since my suitcases were already over-stuffed coming here. I bought two half-pounds of beans. Can't wait to get home and pull out the grinder.

We then headed over to Veniero's Pastry Shop for coffee and dessert. The incredibly creamy cheesecake weighed down any chance of the coffee keeping me up tonight.

I would definitely go back to the East Village for food again. And now I'm back at the hotel at 10:00 to review the powerpoint for tomorrow.

Food Review: PB & J French Toast

Friday on Sirius OutQ, the morning show began a new series with Betty Fraser of Grub restaurant in Las Angeles. She began with a bang by suggesting peanut butter and jelly French toast.

I listen to the show while driving – I now believe that drooling and driving is at least as dangerous as drinking and driving.

That evening while having dinner with a friend, I told him about the peanut butter and jelly theme Betty used on the show. Without hesitation he decided I would make the French toast for Sunday dinner.

There are so many varieties of jelly; I spent the rest of the time leading up to Sunday deciding what kind of jelly to use. The idea of adding thinly sliced bananas to the sandwich ultimately led me to choose strawberry jam.

So on Sunday afternoon, I baked a honey-sweetened whole wheat bread for the meal. I also bought a loaf of Texas toast as an option for the dinner guests.

I also decided that a strawberry sauce with powered sugar and whipped cream would make a great finish to the toast, and it did! Normally I take a photo of new dishes that look particularly good. The PB & J French toast did not last long enough to photograph. The two guests I served dove right in and indicated they would be back again for more after they came out of the diabetic coma.

I’m hoping that Betty Fraser continues bringing such good, down-home suggestions for food, and I think she will after seeing the Grub menu. Home cooking. Comfort food. Whatever name one chooses, food in the style of French toast keeps the kitchen as the room where people gather. It is exactly the kind of food I enjoy making. The PB & J French toast is one of those dishes I’ll continue to experiment with and enjoy with the variety of jellies available – I’m pondering jalapeno jelly….

Food Review: Black-eyed Pea Pie

I suppose not every recipe comes out perfectly on the first try and that was the case with black-eyed pie. I needed a way to finish off the leftovers from my New Year's good luck feast. I decided to combine two foods commonly eaten together - black-eyed peas and cornbread.

The dish has a nice variety of textures with a firm crust of cornbread all the way around and the soft, almost creamy, filling of black-eyed peas. The bottom crust was a little rigid, but the top crust was a perfectly textured cornbread. The very bottom of the top crust was a bit mushy, but I'm not certain it is possible to get all of cornbread to firm up when there is essentially a wet bottom to it.

The flavor was good and the well seasoned black-eyed peas were essential to the taste. Cornbread tends to be cornbread.

While the paring of two foods which have long been associated is a masterful stroke, a few details of the recipe need to be worked out. When the cook perfects the timing of the crust, the pie will be a flavorful part of a meal; however, it lacks the substance to fully satisfy on it's own.