ahh, singleton's

I drove up to Killington, Vermont last night to pick up all my ski gear for the big trip to Chile tomorrow. On my way back home I made a detour to Proctorsville to buy several sticks of smoked pepperoni at Singleton's Store. I used to think of pepperoni as vile greasy heartburn inducing discs of death on top of pizza with plastic cheese topping. Singleton's pepperoni changed all that; it's spicy, firm, and very smoky; the fragrance lingering on your fingers long after you've sworn you won't have another piece. It's lovely with cheese, and though I haven't tried it with pizza, I'm sure that it would be delicious.



Though there is an impressive array of hard-to-find foods, it's really all about the meat department. The bacon is a must, and we get bags of bacon ends in the fall and winter for lentil soup and baked beans. The teriyaki jerky is an excellent snack, or in some cases dinner - no matter how many packages we'd buy, they'd never make it back to the house.



They have a neat outdoor clothing section with merino wool jackets from Ibex - I had to get one, along with the pepperoni sticks; the cashier and I had a good laugh when I asked her to put the jacket in a separate bag.

After I get back from Chile, get married...

...and pick 200 pounds of plum tomatoes, I may have to take a trip to Gaithersburg, Maryland, a place I have never been, to eat in Roy's Place



a restaurant that has over 200 kinds of sandwiches. The menu is full of delightfully bad puns and inside jokes for brainy types - I particularly liked:

15. THE HEAVENLY EVELYN TM (Retired toe dancing queen and snapdragon fancier.) Austrian boiled beef, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato & horseradish mayonnaise

51. TIMOTHY’S TREMOR TM (Induced by a surfeit of Lampreys and too much Geritol.) 6 oz. steak, broiled provolone & that good ole rat sauce on a hard roll

26. LASCIVIOUS LUCINDA TM (Fanny Hill’s Natchez Kissin’ Cousin.) Spicy roast pork, turkey bosom, lettuce, tomato & golden sauce

36. THE JULIUS CAESAR TM (All gall is divided into three parts.) Three hot Italian pork sausages, broiled Swiss cheese, crushed cherry peppers and raw onions on French bread

52. LA PLUME DE MA TANTETM (Oy! Mon Dieu!) Gehochteleber tchicken and lobstair salad avec bread francais (chopped chicken liver and lobster salad)

I plan to wash it down with: "FOR THE RABELAISIAN: 16 OZ. MUG OF OUR FANTASTIC, UNBELIEVABLE & BURPY BEER"

If you've been there let me know if the sandwiches are as good as the menu.

pebre

I've found a number of recipes for this chilean condiment but this one looks closest to what I had when I was last there. if you add tomatoes it becomes chilean salsa

this one's from salsapower.com a facinating collection of salsa recipes and music news

2 medium onions
1 bunch of cilanthro
3 tablespoons of crushed red pepper (spicy) in paste form [you could use 1 jalepeno, serrano or as some recipes suggest, aji peppers, which are freakin' hot]
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil, salt to taste
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons water
[oregano is optional, several recipes call for it - I'd use fresh]

Chop the onion in small cubes, then add sugar, or salt, or hot water and then rinse (this is to lessen the strength of the onion flavor). Chop the cilanthro very fine and mix it with the rinsed onion. Add the hot pepper paste, the chopped garlic, olive oil, vinegar, lime, water and salt to taste.
Mix well and let stand. Serve spread on bread or on top of grilled meats.

skiing and picorocos

it's too stinkin' hot to stay home, so I'm going skiing at valle nevado in chile


mercado central

if the skiing is sketchy we'll get some sopa de mariscos, a tasty seafood stew with barnacles,

which are tastier than they look.

my wedding is september 18th, am I freaking out?

I saw these greens in the latest issue of House and Garden
and I think I'll have to get them for the big day. Check out MaryJanesFarm

We're having the service (all 5 minutes of it) and the reception at our house and I decided to take on the catering. This is not unfamiliar territory for me; large parties are just small parties with more food. Geoff and I have been talking about menus for the past month and we thought it wise to not try anything new - we are sticking with all the old favorites that are easy to make and very tasty. It will be like a picnic under a tent.

So here's the menu, subject to change -

Assorted olives, including fabulous green olives with preserved lemon and cinnamon and oil cured olives with provençal herbs that we found at Sid Wainer in New Bedford

Artisan cheeses and smoked pepperoni from Singleton's Store in Proctorsville VT (yeah, it's trashy but oh so good)

Roquefort grapes - an ancient Martha recipe, and maybe her bacon wrapped dates stuffed with almonds - they're so 80s; all the more reason to visit them again

Smoked Salmon

An amazing mushroom pate that geoff stole from his brother-in-law

Eggplant Caponata from the Olives Table cookbook

Fish House Punch, Margaritas and Bloody Marys, as well as Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and a variety of local brews



Chicken with Korean barbecue sauce

Baby back ribs with barbecue sauce and extra napkins (just because I like to see the guests get messy)

Skewered shrimp marinated in Sambuca and fresh rosemary, then wrapped in proscuitto (another Martha fave)

Provençal potato salad from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook

Geoff's Thai pasta salad with baby shrimp

Pesto-stuffed cherry tomatoes from our garden (we have to get rid of them somehow)



Flourless chocolate cake (I've raved about that already in a past post), fresh fruit and assorted chocolate goodies.

a surfeit of food celebrities

forget jamie oliver and rocco dispirito - here are my top 10 sexiest foodies in the media:


1. ted allen


2. alton brown

3. mario batali

4. anthony bourdain

5. ina garten

6. paula deen

7. nigella lawson

8. chef

9. the swedish chef

10. tyler florence

6 pounds of chocolate helped save my dad

dad had surgery at portsmouth hospital last week - I did the only thing I could think of when stressing out - I bought chocolate for the staff. pounds of it, which was devoured in seconds. I'd like to think that it fueled the nurses and surgical team to reach new heights of medical greatness. what's important is that dear old dad is on the mend.

Many thanks to portsmouth hospital for getting dad back in fighting shape and to byrne & carlson chocolates for putting several boxes together on the fly - including the pecan turtles for the nice lady in the icu waiting room.