Fascinating. These young people are quite disdainful of Bavarians in general and Munich folks specifically. To be honest, I let this part of the conversation die out since it started to involve politics and national identity, topics that are dangerous when you are an AirBNB host. Sometimes it is better not to know too much.
Doesn’t really matter. These two young people LOVE food and love talking about food. It has been a good fit. When they found juniper berries in my pantry, their opinion of me went sky high!
Appetizer was a wonderful heirloom tomato sliced with a bit of furikake.
For dinner i used a half block of silken tofu for my version of the japanese chilled tofu appetizer, some soy sauce, scallions, more furikake, and sesame seeds.
Side of smacked cucumbers with one english cucumber and the soy/sesame oil combo.
I’ve finally found a kombucha i like (healthade brand ginger lemon) so that will be dessert since there’s a watermelon shortage in my apartment at the moment.
BF cooked tonight - bit of a fridge clean-out. Prosciutto and melon and some pretty ancient cheese & olives started us off. I’d made some pistou last weekend (at the time, i was almost completely out of pine nuts) and he put that on little zucchinis and roasted them with shallots, as well as roasting a gorgeous yellow pepper. He took the leftover jalapeno peach jam chicken i made that neither of us liked and somehow turned it into a tasty pasta dish with cherry tomatoes and pine nuts.
Gorgeous food Maria. One of the fun perks I get from of cooking is using leftovers in creative ways to make something better than the original dish. When it happens it’s a big “yes”. And if it happens with something you didn’t like it’s a bigger “YES”.
@biondanonima Corn was in abundance today. Peaches too, though they have been so-so, not that sweet, so you may need to adjust accordingly. Cabbage for slaw, zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans-- you’ll have lots to choose from!
Bavarians are generally viewed as extravagant, baroque, boastful, spendthift, full of hot air, and generally too flash for comfort, and exceedingly proud of this reputation. They are fun, though. They consume a third of their daily calories in beer (in litres, called a Maß).
Schwaben are diligent, austere, thrifty, practical, taciturn if not shy, and have an extremely dry sense of humor. They drink a daily quarter liter of wine (tägliches viertele, usually red Trollinger), maybe two quarter litres on Sunday. Most people would generally not think of them as “fun”.
So they both tend to look down on the other as something incomprehensible.
But it’s better than the Bavarians and the Prussians.
My great uncle Fritz who served on German side in WW1 said they had to put the Schwäbian units between the Bavarians and the Prussians, because otherwise the Bavarians would spend all their time shooting at the Prussians instead of the French.
You are right about the peaches - they look good but very little flavor. I was planning to make a raw peach pie (firm-ripe peaches sliced and held together with jello goo, like strawberry pie), but since these have so little flavor I’m going to have to make a cooked one. Any tips to perk up the flavor in the filling? I’m thinking plenty of lemon juice, a little bourbon and an almond streusel.
The lemon sounds very good. If you want an Allmond flavor you might consider using some amaretto. A peach LaCour might work but sometimes they have a very fake flavor. Clearly I’m typing on my iPhone I apologize in advance for the typos.
There’s a new post on david lebovitz site for a galette using frangipane which would help the peaches, top has generous sugar sprinkled on before baking to make a sweet crunchy thin top
They bake most of their bread and some of it is pretty good, but they also bring in bread
from one of the NYC bakeries, I think it is Sullivan Street. The pies, cookies, cakes, quiches are all baked/made in house.
Pretty much everything is good to very good with the exception of their cakes. I definitely prefer their savory offerings.
Last night was a bit of a celebration. One cousin flew in from London and another drove up from NYCity. A., my London cousin, had lived in Atlanta for seven years before returning home. He has no outdoor area in that urban place, while S. lives in Brooklyn with no grill. What to serve? It came to me. Forget all that fancy food that A. and I usually enjoy together. We went old-time American. Ribs, potato salad, tomatoes from the garden, cole slaw, and corn on the cob.
First A. made us a martini with an onion (Gibson?) I pulled out the 1958 Tiffany martini glasses given to my parents as a wedding gift and now just collecting dust on the box in the basement.
Salade de roquette avec des radis, des tomates jersey et des poireaux. Maize ala Jersioise. Brocoli des jersey au beurre de citron et à l’huile d’olive extra vierge. Saucisses de porc italiennes grillées. Côtelettes de porc avec frottement à sec de gingembre, paprika, assaisonnement jerk jamaïcain:
I would further add that Maize Jersioise is a dish of my own invention that begins with fresh Jersey corn, broken into small cobs and steamed. The fresh mini cobs are then tossed in a dressing containing equal parts melted butter and EVO, with Sicilian red pepper flakes and sea salt added to taste.
Quick naan pizzas. Blitzed a slightly overripe garden tomato and added oregano, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes. Topped with fresh mozzarella, fennel salami, and a few sun dried tomatoes. I mixed a few arugula leaves and basil leaves with parmesan shavings and evoo and dumped that on top too.
Yesterday’s dinner was at a gathering at a friend’s house on a lovely cove close to the ocean on the North Shore. Burgers, appetizers (shrimp, chicken/cucumber with satay sauce, caprese skewers with dipping sauce, deviled eggs, and various Scooby snacks), several salads. Drinks, good company and a really nice night
Today was a quiet day reading, making some corn stock, and watching movies. Used up some nectarines and plums (that didn’t get used in the fruit salad I brought to last night’s party) in a Plum and Nectarine Crisp for dessert.
Dinner was Chicken Cutlets Veronique to use up the green grapes that didn’t get used in the fruit salad. Leftover basmati rice, and then some roasted veggies - carrots, radishes, red bell pepper, and sugar snap peas tossed with olive oil and Penzey’s Sunny Spain seasoning. Wine.
Dinner tonight was last night’s dinner once again. However, we had our first large [Jet Star] tomato from the garden! No olive oil. No garlic. Just naked so we could taste the essence of this year’s tomatoes. Nice!
