Scott Hutcheson

2010: The Culinary Crystal Ball

Originally published in quality newspapers on January 7, 2010

For the last few years, I’ve written some sort of column to recap the year in food. I didn’t do that for 2009. Instead I decided to take a look ahead at 2010 and make a few observations about what sort of food trends we might see. To compile this look into the future I called upon my network of chefs, restaurateurs, fellow food writers, and other food professionals. For what it’s worth, here’s what some of us see as we peer into the culinary crystal ball.

Local, Seasonal, and Artisanal
The overwhelming majority of my foodie friends predict a continued trend toward local, seasonal, and artisan ingredients showing up on both restaurant menus and family dinner tables. With more people than ever shopping at farmers’ markets and the renewed interest in growing our own food, an increasing number of people are becoming aware that locally-grown strawberries are in a completely different league than the ones found in the grocery store in the middle of winter. Several high-end restaurants in Indiana have been committed to serving meats and produce from Indiana farms, but some of my friends expect to see this trend make its way to mid-range restaurants.

Rise of the Celebrity Farmer
If locally produced food is going to be big, it makes sense that the producers are going to be big as well. Watch for some farmers to take on near rock star-like status in 2010. While they may not be household names, you will start seeing their products become more closely associated with their personalities. Burton’s Maplewood Farm is a good example. Tim Burton of Medora, Indiana is a technology guy by day and a maple syrup producer by night and weekends. His syrup is showing up on the menus of some of Chicago’s finest restaurants. His syrup is not just on the menu, but often identified as “Burton’s Maplewood Farm Syrup”. Tim makes many public appearances and does syrup tastings. Expect to see more celebrity farmers like Tim Burton.

Releasing Your Inner Julia
I travelled a lot for business last year and I rarely did any sightseeing but on one trip to Washington, D.C. I took time to visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to see Julia Child’s kitchen. It seems like she’s inspired a whole new generation of home cooks to explore French cooking. The 2009 film, Julie & Julia, is undoubtedly part of this renewed interest. So in 2010 we will be seeing more home cooks bourguignon-ing beef, fricassee-ing chicken, and mousse-ing chocolate.

Getting (Pot) Lucky
Throwing a formal dinner party can cost the host a lot. Purchasing groceries to feed several courses to six to eight guests several, then add wine or beer to accompany the meal, and you’ve got a price tag that can easily be a couple hundred dollars.  The current economy has caused many of us to rethink such expenses. Yet we also know that the need to break bread with friends and family is as strong as it ever was. Enter the pot luck. In 2010 we will see less entertaining and more gathering, with each party contributing something to the meal.

These are just a few of the trends we may see in 2010. They may or may not be of interest to you but here’s something to think about. We will each eat somewhere around 1,000 times during this year. We will put little thought into many of these meals – the sandwich eaten at our desk because we don’t have time to take a real lunch break or the bowl of cereal for dinner because we’re just too tired to cook. But hopefully some of these meals will be memorable, not just because of the food but because of with whom we share that food and all the many hands that contributed to getting it to your plate. I personally hope to enjoy more local, seasonal, artisan foods this year; get to know some more farmers; learn to cook a few more classic French dishes, and share more meals with friends, maybe even you!

Special thanks to Chef Lucien Gregor Williams James, Chef Thom England, Victoria Wesseler, Renee Wilmeth, Bethany Deaton, and Jolene Ketzenberger for their help with this column. 

New Year's Status Quos (with recipe for Black-Eyed Pea Salsa)

Originally published in fine Indiana newspapers on December 31, 2009

Are you making any resolutions this year? I haven’t decided. I’ve made them in the past but usually not stuck with them. In years when I’ve not made them, life has changed significantly for the better. For most of us, resolutions tend to be concentrated in the areas of health and wealth. We want to eat better, quite smoking, get more exercise, and do or don’t do other things that will result in healthier versions of ourselves.

When it comes to money we want to earn more, save more, or maybe give more away. The analysts tell us where in the 3rd or maybe even the 4th turn of this recession, to borrow a racing metaphor, but for many of us that finish line seems far away.

In both of these categories, health and wealth, I’m not inclined to make big goals, should I choose to make resolutions. I think I would be pretty happy to have maintained the status quo 12 months from now. I would like to still be employed and still be making the same amount of money I make now. I hope to still be living in my house, still have a wife who loves me and children who are still healthy. At my advancing age I have no illusions of regaining either the waistline or biceps of my youth but if on January 1, 2011 I’m no fatter than I am on January 1, 2010, that wouldn’t be all bad.

So I think I’ve talked myself into a few status quo resolutions. I hope to stay the course in 2010. Even to do that, however, will require some balance of resolve and luck. As for the luck part, I’m looking to an old tradition of the Southeastern part of our country – eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.
The practice of eating black-eyed peas for luck is generally believed to date back to the Civil War. These legumes were first planted as food for livestock in the South and when Sherman and his troops showed up the fields of black-eyed peas were passed over as they burned other crops. In the wake of the destruction, the Confederates found that the black-eyed pea was a protein-rich food source that helped them survive the rest of the war.

Today, most of the time, black-eyed peas are fixed with a ham hock or perhaps served with rice in a dish called Hoppin’ John. However they are eaten, the idea is that these little guys will bring you luck and prosperity in the New Year. Some even suggest eating 365 of them to give you enough luck for every day on the calendar. I’m planning to go Tex-Mex for my luck-insurance policy with a salsa made with black-eyed peas.

Whether you are going big with you resolutions for next year, just trying to stay the course, or not setting any goals at all, maybe you could use a little luck in the 2011. I make no guarantees about the luck-bringing capacities of the humble black-eyed pea but, hey, who knows?  

New Years Day Salsa

• 1 can black-eyed peas, drained and washed
• 1 16 ounce bag of frozen corn, thawed
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix the first seven ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the lime juice, oil, cumin, salt, and pepper. Stir this into the contents of the large bowl. Serve immediately. This is great to eat with chips but is also an excellent topping for grilled beef, fish, or chicken.

They Eat Reindeer, Don't They?

Originally published in quality newspapers on December 17, 2009

There’s always been something that really bugged me about Christmas. It’s not the blatant commercialism or that annoying Christmas Shoe’s song, although both those things do strike a nerve. It’s that Christmas, at least in the United States, does not have one ubiquitous culinary centerpiece.  Sure there are lots of traditional Christmas foods but no main course that shows up on nearly every family’s table. Thanksgiving, of course, has its turkey but no single beast or fowl is synonymous to the yuletide celebration.

Like some sort of gastronomic rerun, lots of families do turkey and all the trimmings again. Others do a preview of Easter with a ham or leg of lamb. I polled a few of my friends this week and I got virtual grocery list of traditions – roast pork, prime rib, chowder, fondue, lasagna, duck blood soup (okay, that almost makes me hurl, George Piper!), and pizza burgers. Others told me that the main course meant nothing compared to the desserts and side dishes that are must-haves: red velvet cake, cherry pinwheels, and shrimp cocktail. Two of my nephews don’t think its Christmas without their mom’s Pretzel Salad.

At one time, the Christmas Goose rivaled the Thanksgiving Turkey in the holiday fowl wars. The tradition of the Christmas Goose, popular in Dickensian England, made its way to the new world and remained a favorite in the U.S. through most of the 19th Century.

In other parts of the world, folks are not as fickle as we are. They commit to something and stick with it. Here are a few Christmas dinner traditions from around the globe.

Australia
In the land down under, Christmas falls in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer so it makes perfect sense to throw another shrimp on the barbie instead of heating up the house.

Czech Republic
Our friends in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic gather on Christmas Eve to enjoy fried carp and potato salad.

Slovakia
Oplátky is the traditional Christmas food in Slovakia. This flat wafer-thin waffle is coated with a bit of honey and eaten with a small piece of garlic. The honey and garlic symbolize the sweetness and bitterness of life.

Iceland
If you ever get invited to Iceland for the holidays there’s a good chance that reindeer will be in the menu. I’m not sure if this will get you on the Big Guy’s Naughty List or not so eat at your own risk.

I’ve only spent one Christmas out of the U.S. and that was 1998 when my wife and I traveled the U.K. the entire month of December to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Glasgow, Scotland. We had traditional meals that looked and tasted a lot like what we would have had back home except for a few quintessential British favorites like Figgy Pudding.

Our own family has not yet settled on a Christmas dinner tradition. Some years we have our big celebration on Christmas Eve and other years we’ve made it the noon meal on Christmas day. The menu varies.  We’ve had a standing rib roast, turkey, and crab legs in recent years and I’ve not yet settled on a menu for next week.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be barbecuing and the prospect of a house that smells like fried carp doesn’t sound like a good idea. The idea of a waffle doesn’t sound half-bad but the honey and garlic combo doesn’t exactly get my mouth watering. Even if I could find it, I’m not willing to inflict the emotional duress that would surely result from me uttering the phrase, “Come on boys, finish up your reindeer.”

Savour the Flavor of Gingerbread (with recipe for Gingerbread Steamer)

Originally published in warm and frothy newspapers on December 10, 2009

Imagine being a dignitary from a far-away land visiting Queen Elizabeth I in 16th Century England. Protocol demands that you exchange gifts. Perhaps you bring her some rare jewels mined in your home country or a beautiful tapestry woven by your servant. There is a good chance that one of the gifts you would receive from the good Queen would have been a cookie made with exotic spices and shaped and decorated in your very own image. This practice is history’s very first mention of what we now call the gingerbread man.

The Brits may have invented the gingerbread man but the Germans made it an art form. Maybe it was a German who visited the Queen and returned to his homeland to spread the word about these unusual treats. The Germans must have really, really, liked the gingerbread man because they were the ones who started to build him houses, animals, and, of course, the gingerbread lady. They were also the first to associate gingerbread so closely with Christmas, using the cookies as tree ornaments. Nuremberg, Germany, emerged as the as the gingerbread capital of the world, thanks to the elaborate gingerbread scenes that the bakers of that city would create.

The Gingerbread Boy took his place in the cannon of children’s literature in an 1875 issue of the St. Nicholas magazine.  Most of us are familiar with the tale in which a childless woman bakes a gingerbread boy who comes to life and runs out of the house. The story evolved over the years and most modern versions emit the rather macabre scene in which the gingerbread boy is eaten by a fox as the boy screams, "I'm quarter gone...I'm half gone...I'm three-quarters gone...I'm all gone!"

The creative forces behind the film “Shrek” paid homage to this detail of the original story. In the film, Lord Farquaad breaks off both of the gingerbread boy’s legs to torture him and prevent him from running away. In the process, one of the legs is crumbled to pieces. By the end of the movie, the intact leg is reattached with frosting stitches and the boy hobbles, one-legged, on a candy-cane crutch. Now my boys can’t eat gingerbread without evoking this scenario. Nothing says Christmas like a good dismemberment.

There may be another reason why these cookies have become a Christmastime mainstay. The spices used in gingerbread – ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg – are all believed by some to have medicinal properties that flight of colds and other wintertime ailments, although I’ve never heard that a “gingerbread cookie a day will keep the doctor away.”

With the holiday season upon us, many of our homes will be filled with warm aroma of gingerbread baking in our ovens and both young and old will enjoy decorating cookies, building houses, and enjoying the time together.

One way to savor the flavors of gingerbread, even when you don’t have time to bake, is in a festive Gingerbread Steamer – warmed milk flavored with the familiar spices. A batch of Gingerbread Steamer Mix is good thing to keep on hand to take the chill of a winter day and it can also make a great Christmas gift. This recipe makes about nine servings.
  
Featured in legends, fairytales, and Hollywood movies, gingerbread has enjoyed a rich history and by all accounts will be with us for generations to come.

Gingerbread Steamer

Mix

• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 tablespoon cloves
• 1/2 tablespoon nutmeg

Steamer

• 8 ounces of milk
• 2 tablespoons of the mix
• Whipped cream (optional)
• Grated crystallized ginger (optional)

To make the mix, combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. When ready to prepare, pour 8 ounces of milk into a mug and add two tablespoons of the spice mixture. Stir and then heat in the microwave until steaming. Stir again and top with whipped cream and grated crystallized ginger, if desired.

To Those Who Wait

Published in quality newspapers on December 3, 2009

Waiting. We spend a good part of our lives doing it. Efficiency experts have quantified our waiting and found that on average we spend five years of our lives waiting in lines and six months sitting at red lights. Add up all the other waiting we do and it takes up an annoyingly significant chunk of our time here on earth. Surely whoever said “good things come to those who wait,” could never have predicted the amount of waiting required in the 21st Century.

There’s another sort of waiting that is more than an annoyance. It takes a toll on us physically. It knots our stomachs, furrows our brows, and keeps us awake at night. Sometimes this waiting lasts only a few minutes, like waiting for that state trooper to get out of his car after we’ve been pulled over – ticket or just a warning? We wait anxiously for a few hours before a phone call lets us know that our traveling loved ones have safely navigated rain-slick roads and made it home okay. Fortunately this sort of waiting is temporary. When the waiting is over, the worry dissipates like steam from a tea kettle.

Waiting can also be an ever-present, yet unwelcome companion, with us every second of every day for days on end and fate hangs in the balance. We wait for the test results from the lab. We wait for a son or daughter to safely return from war. We wait for that email letting us know we got the job.

We’re now in the season of waiting, the holidays. We do lots of waiting this time of year. Even children seem to up their waiting quota. They wait for out-of-town cousins to arrive. They wait for Santa’s visit. They wait for presents to be opened. They wait for dad to run to the drug store to get AAA batteries.

During the holidays a good deal of waiting occurs in and around the kitchen. Thanksgiving, with a houseful of people awaiting the meal, strikes the tone for the holiday season. The turkey is the culinary pace car of holiday cooking, cooking for hours not minutes and setting the standard for much of the slowed-down food preparation that will occur in the coming month.

Even those for whom slice-and-bakes will do during the rest of the year, will break out the Betty Crocker Cookbook for the tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe and spend the better part of an evening mixing, rolling, cutting, baking, smelling, decorating, and finally eating cookies that were worth the wait.

It is tempting to think of waiting differently than other aspects of life, as the empty space separating one thing from another. Is waiting just the gap between what was and what will be; or does the waiting have value in and of itself? 

Waiting, if we let it, can help us focus. It can push aside all the clutter in our lives so that we zero in on the object of our waiting. Some of us attend churches that observe Advent. Advent is all about the waiting, four full weeks of anticipation and preparation. The themes of Advent - hope, love, joy, peace, and celebration – encourage us to let waiting become more than a mere holding pattern.

I don’t know about you but I’m not good at waiting. I work 65 hours a week. I’ve got family and civic commitments. I don’t have time to wait. Yet waiting doesn’t seem to know or care how important I think I am. Normally when I’m forced to wait, my blood pressure goes up and my mind fills with all that I could be doing.

During this holiday season I’m going to try and change all that and if waiting is difficult for you maybe you should join with me. As I find myself waiting over the next few weeks, whether in a check-out line, in busy kitchen, or in a quite sanctuary, I’m going to try and let the waiting teach me something, perhaps about hope and love and joy and peace and celebration. Maybe good things will come to those who wait.

Have a Warm and Fuzzy Thanksgiving

Originally published in quality newspapers on November 19, 2009

When I picked up my 3rd-grade son from school earlier this week I asked the question I’ve asked nearly every afternoon since he could talk in complete sentences, “How was your day?” Although he CAN speak in complete sentences, that doesn’t mean that he always DOES so. Most of the time, his answer to this question is a monosyllabic, “fine.” On this day he was unusually chatty providing me rich details of his day at school. He was also peppering me with seemingly random questions. “Daddy, how many friends do you think you had in middle school?” “Do you think adults use less than ten percent of their imagination?”

After that random Q and A our conversation turned to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. His nonstop banter paused for just a second and then he said, “Why do I feel all warm inside when I think about Thanksgiving.” I probed a little about the “warm feeling” he described and he told me that he also feels it when it’s cold and snowy outside and we’re all inside our house, all four of us, watching a movie or playing a game.

Now I don’t know the science behind that warm and fuzzy feeling; but I know exactly what my son was describing to me and it sure seems like we get those waves of emotions, or surges of chemicals to the brain, or whatever they are, more in the holiday season than any other time of year. Thanksgiving is primetime for the warm fuzzies. Many of us get to enjoy four-whole days away from work and school. Some will host extended family and others travel near or far to be with those they love the most.

Thanksgiving is primarily a holiday celebrated on the home front. We Americans love our restaurants but the significant majority of us eat our Thanksgiving meal at home. According to the National Restaurant Association, only one in ten Americans eat their Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant.

All of the warm-fuzzy experiences my son described to me were home-based. There was no mention of trips to Disney World or Chuck E. Cheese; and spending time with his friends wasn’t on the list either. The warm fuzzies seem to be quarantined within the walls of our home or the home of a couple members of our extended family.

There’s further evidence that the warm fuzzies are not location-based but rather people-based. My parents’ current residence is a house in which I have never lived. My childhood home, in fact, was torn down years ago to make room for a strip mall. When we spend the holidays with my parents, I wake up in a strange bed in a strange house but get an immediate case of the warm fuzzies when I realize where I am – with my wife and children and my parents.

Next week we’ll be traveling to Dayton, Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with my wife’s sister and her family. They built a house this year so this will be the first Thanksgiving in their new home. I can almost guarantee that they brought the warm fuzzies with them from the old place.  

I realize that not everyone gets to experience the love of hearth and home around the holidays. Strained family relationships can be heightened during the holidays. Nothing throws cold water on the warm fuzzies like Uncle Sal getting drunk and punching Uncle Mike. For some, the forecast calls for the cold pricklies.

I’m glad my son feels loved and secure and that family time brings about the warm fuzzies. I hope that will always be the case. If the warm fuzziess have become more difficult for you to find, try looking extra hard for them this Thanksgiving. They’re probably there somewhere, maybe playing cards with the dust bunnies under the bed.

Halloween: Memories in the Making (and recipe for Spider Web Pizza)

Originally published in hauntingly delicious newspapers on October 29, 2009

I love Halloween but not in the sacrifice a goat and worship the devil sort of way. You won’t find any zombies or tombstones in my yard and my kid’s won’t be dressed in gory costumes. This year they’ll be disguised as a pint-sized version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Part of what our family loves about this holiday is that it is a neighborhood affair. We live in the North Meridian area where centuries-old maples line the streets forming a golden fall canopy and porch lights illuminate homes where generations of kids have tricked and treated. Going house to house with our kids we see lots of friends. Kids compare their loot while the adults catch up on each others’ week. 

Sometimes I’m envious of our friends who live in new subdivision with their big backyards and perfect sidewalks but all that envy melts away on Halloween evening when my neighborhood becomes a real-life version of what movie sets and theme park main streets try to copy.  

I have no doubt that for my children, trick or treating in our neighborhood will be a lifelong memory they will cherish their whole lives. When you think about it, memories are all we really bring with us on the journey from childhood into the adult world. Even if you manage to keep friends for a lifetime it is your shared memories that create the bond. 

The dinner table is another place where we try to create some Halloween memories. My wife usually makes some spooky desserts and I concentrate my efforts on a fun entrée. Over the last few years I’ve come up with Stuffed Monster Heads (aka stuffed peppers) and Werewolf Paws (aka calzones). This year it was Spider Web Pizza. I know I’ve only got a few years to have this sort of fun with my kids so we are making the most of it and creating as many memories as we can.
   
Spider Web Pizza
This pizza can be made completely from scratch or you can certainly purchase a ready-made crust and use a jarred sauce. The most essential component is the mozzarella cream sauce used to make the web and the spiders made of olives and carrots.  

Spiders
Canned pitted whole black olives
Carrots

Each olive will make one spider so use as many olives as you like. For each olive, cut eight thin carrot sticks, about the thickness of a toothpick and about two inches long. Use an actual toothpick to poke holes in each side of each olive, ideally four holes per side. The olives I used were on the small side so I could only get three holes per side. I realize that an insect with six legs isn’t technically a spider but I hoped my kids wouldn’t notice or care. Once you have the holes poked, insert a carrot “leg” into each hole. Please the spiders on the pizza prior to baking.

Mozzarella Cream Sauce
3-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3/4 cups heavy cream, heated just until steaming
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella

Over medium-low heat, melt butter in a heavy-bottom, medium sauce pan. Add flour, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking occasionally, for 2-3 minutes; do not let the mixture brown. Whisking constantly, add about two tablespoons of the hot cream to the sauce pan. Add the remaining hot cream in small increments, whisking constantly until a smooth paste forms. Whisk in remaining hot cream and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce is thick and creamy, about ten minutes. Add the mozzarella, stirring until melted and fully incorporated. Let cool for about 30 minutes and then place in a squeezable condiment bottle. After the pizza is cooked, use the squeeze bottle to pipe on a spider web pattern of your choosing. Ig you are uncomfortable using your imagination, you can Google spider webs to find a picture of one.

Chicken Fry (and recipe for Chicken-Fried Ribeye Strips)

Originally published in sweet and sticky newspapers on October 22, 2009

I won’t go so far as to say they won’t eat poultry at all in Oklahoma; but birds of a feather seem to be able to flock together more safely in the Sooner state than in other environs. Maybe that is why cowboy Curly McLain gently encouraged chicks, and ducks, and geese to scurry along as he maneuvered his fringe-topped surrey down the dusty roads of the Great Plains. I’m not sure Curly would have yielded as readily to a herd of steer, especially of he was hungry.

In this area of the country, beef is nearly always what’s for dinner, from Texas brisket to Kansas City strip steaks. In Oklahoma they love beef so much they’ve reinterpreted non-beef dishes to create bovine versions. If you are visiting friends in Oklahoma and someone suggests a “chicken fry” for dinner, there will not be any actual chicken involved. The chicken-fried steak is a staple of Sooner cuisine. You can certainly find chicken-fried steak in other states, but Oklahoma takes it to the next level.

Having spent the first nine years of my life in Oklahoma, and returning to visit, frequently, it has become one of the foods I make sure to experience when there. Most often, chicken-friend steak is accompanied by a pepper-flaked white gravy and served with mashed potatoes. You can also find sandwich versions of the delicacy, the beef equivalent of our own pork tenderloin. 

My own interpretation of the dish departs slightly from the traditional version. I prefer using a rib eye instead of the bottom round usually used. The ribeye costs more but I really like the texture. I also make strips, which are easier for my kids to eat. Fried beef with gravy isn’t a food that should probably on our menus on a daily basis, but it’s a delicious comfort food that can be a perfect indulgence on a cool fall day.   

Chicken-Fried Ribeye Steak Strips

• 2 pounds of 1/3 to 1/2 -inch thick ribeye steaks, trimmed of excess fat
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 whole eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup whole milk, warm milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place the flour into a pie pan and the eggs into a separate pie pan. Season both sides of each piece of steak with salt and pepper then dredge the meat on both sides in the flour, shaking off the excess. Pound each steak to about 1/4 inch and cut into 1/2 strips. Dredge each strip in the flour, followed by the egg, and then in the flour a final time. Place the meat onto a plate and allow it to sit for 10 to 15.

Place enough of the vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a 12-inch sauté pan and set over medium-high heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the strips in batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Cook each piece on both sides until golden brown, approximately four minutes per side. As they are cooked, move the strips to a wire rack set in a half sheet pan and place into the oven. Repeat until all of the meat is browned. You may need to replace the oil half way through of too much flour has been released into the oil, turning it dark brown.

Once finished frying the strips, remove all but one tablespoon of the oil and whisk in three tablespoons of the flour left over from the dredging. Add the chicken broth and deglaze the pan. Whisk until the gravy comes to a boil and begins to thicken. Add the warm milk and whisk until the gravy coats the back of a spoon, approximately five to ten minutes. Season to taste with salt and lots of black pepper; and serve the gravy over the strips or in a small dish for dipping.

Pleasures of the Bendy Straw

I'm going to miss having a four year old in my house. My youngest will be five soon and with each passing day he will become harder to delight. I know this because I watched it happen with his older brother. The other day my little one had a cold drink in hand and asked for a straw. He was overjoyed to see that it was one of those that was flexible. "Oooh, a bendy straw," he said with widened eyes, as much to himself as to me. It won't be long before he will be much more difficult to please.   

Bacon: The Gateway Meat (and recipe for Sriracha & Brown Sugar Bacon)

Originally published in toothsome newspapers on October 1, 2009

“Eat two pieces of bacon and call me in the morning.” Although the doctor didn’t officially write this on the prescription pad, these were his post-tonsillectomy instructions for my wife. We had heard that having one’s tonsils out as an adult was quite a bit more of an ordeal that it is for children but after several occurrences of strep, our doctor recommended this as the course of action for my wife. Healing seemed to be taking its own sweet time and the level of pain was nearly unbearable. Bacon was the doctor’s proposed remedy, mentioning something about nitrates, and crispy bacon edges scraping at the wounds.

I don’t know about you, but if I had a doctor actually insist that I eat bacon, I’d be as happy as…well…a middle-aged man in a bacon store. My wife didn’t have quite the same reaction. She had been a full-scale vegetarian for the previous decade, eating absolutely nothing with a face. We stopped by the store on the way home to “fill her prescription” but she remained un-persuaded. I told her that since we had bacon in the house anyway, I was fixing a BLT for myself. As I had hoped, sizzle and smell proved to be irresistible seducers.

After a couple days of bacon therapy, she was well on her way to a full recovery; but I began to note a change in her behavior over those next few weeks. Although she continued to live her veggie-patty lifestyle, I would catch her stealing lustful glances at my cheeseburgers and it wasn’t long before she began ordering fish and then chicken when we ate out. She eventually found her way completely back to the land of meat eaters but now considers herself an ethical carnivore, eating only animals that meet her definition of being humanly raised and free of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Now that we have kids, our family of four eats a well-balanced diet. Many of our meals are meatless, we eat far more poultry than red meat, and we buy our chicken, beef, and pork from local farmers, including our bacon. My favorite bacon supplier is Chef Chris Eley of Goose the Market in Indianapolis. Chris is to the bacon lover what Jerry Garcia was to the Deadheads. He has made an art out of the practice of bacon making, procuring his meat from Indiana’s finest pork purveyors, and smoking and curing it to perfection. His bacon is available daily in his store and he also offers a Bacon-of- the-Month Club.

I love bacon in many forms – with eggs, in a sandwich, atop baked beans. I have even had some amazing bacon ice cream. My most recent bacon obsession is a sweet and spice version I make with Sriracha, a Thai hot sauce named after the seaside city where it was first produced. Sriracha has a consistency much closer to ketchup then Tabasco and besides sun-ripened chili peppers, it includes vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. The heat from Sriracha is certainly warm but not overwhelmingly so. I love it on scrambled eggs and also use it to flavor stews and soups. Just about anywhere you might use a splash or two of Tabasco, Sriracha will work.

My latest bacon obsession includes Sriracha and brown sugar. The result is an explosive combination of sweet, salty, spicy flavors combined with the fatty goodness of the bacon.  If I could put a warning on this bacon, I would. Eat at your own risk, vegetarians, for this might be the very bacon that will push you over the meat cliff.

Bacon with Sriracha and Brown Sugar

• 8 strips of bacon (thick cut is best)
• Sriracha
• Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put a baking rack on a baking sheet and arrange the eight strips of bacon on the rack. Squeeze a thin ribbon of Sriracha down the center of each strip of bacon. Use a pastry brush to spread coat the entire top surface of the bacon with the hot sauce. Sprinkle the top of each piece of bacon with a generous portion of brown sugar. Place in the oven and cook to your desired bacon doneness.  I like mine fairly well done which takes about 25 minutes.