My Excuse

Okay, why did I title this blog post “My Excuse”? That’s because my absorption in the Master Food Preserver (MFP) program has been - and probably will be for the foreseeable future - my excuse for everything...my single focus on all things food; my negligence to all other interests, including quilting; and most importantly my untimely blog posts (note my two December blogs posted in February).

I’m beginning my fourth year in our county’s MFP program and my interest has yet to wane. Not for what might seem the obvious reason, because I love to preserve food. And not because I’m a do-gooder and want to save lives. (In case you don’t know, food poisoning can kill!) There are reported cases every year of people being hospitalized (and occasionally dying) from eating home (improperly) preserved food. And not for social reasons. I’ve never been an overly “social” person and I doubt that will change at my stage of life. So, what’s the attraction? Without getting wordy (I’ll do that below), the simplest answer would be “food”. It’s not only a basic need, but it’s one of the simplest pleasures of life. Both Verne and I love to browse cooking magazines and books, try new recipes, new foods and new restaurants. It’s just been in the past few years that we’ve begun to focus on the health benefits of certain foods and their method of preparation and in some cases, preservation.

Not all of what I’ve learned as a MFP is particularly healthful. My initial interest, jams and jellies, is certainly something that Verne and I could do without. Making and canning my own preserves provides an opportunity to control and limit the amount of sugar that goes into the final product, but simply eating the fruit in its raw state would always be the healthier approach. As far as preserving the quality and health benefits of food in general, freezing and dehydrating are more economical and superior methods to canning for retention of nutritional value. A method even superior to those, and one that actually adds nutritional value to preserved foods, is fermentation. My first experience fermenting cabbage went against all I’d learned in my food safety training. Letting food sit on the counter at room temperature (in our case it sits in our dark, cool pantry) for days on end while lactobacillus bacteria eat away at the natural sugars in the cabbage until it softens (rots) in its own juices and lactic acid, which is formed as a byproduct of the process, and the cabbage magically becomes sauerkraut as it’s called in its fermented state. The best sauerkraut I’ve ever eaten, I might add. I should actually say “we” because Verne is my partner in most fermenting projects and makes all of our sauerkraut. When we’re down to a quart it’s time to buy cabbage and begin the process anew.

The following year we made our second fermented product, old-fashioned deli pickles. We’d made “quick” pickles that are brined in vinegar and canned and found them to be delicious. It was the fermented pickles that made us believers in the fermenting process, in particular the unique taste of fermented foods. The hardest part of the process is finding fresh, small pickling cucumbers, which are called Kirby cucumbers. Our local grocery stores occasionally have them, but they’re usually too large and never fresh enough for our taste. We wait until they’re available at Davis Ranch in early June, picked fresh daily and sold in 3-pound bags or by the case. We take them home and thoroughly but carefully scrub them (lots of dirt in those wrinkles), trim off the blossom end (it contains an enzyme that will soften the pickles), pack them in a half-gallon jar with garlic, fresh dill, and a chili pepper, cover them with a simple brine made from water and Kosher salt, and top the jar with either an oak leaf or grape leaf, which is also thought to help retain their crispness. The jars may be covered with a thin cloth or an airlock device like those used in the wine and beer craft (we use the latter) and placed in our dark, cool pantry. And we wait. Just like the sauerkraut we wait for the beneficial bacteria to do its job and consume the natural sugars in the cucumbers and create an environment that is hostile to pathogenic bacteria, thus preserving the cucumbers. More magic!

Our home fermenting didn’t stop with sauerkraut and pickles and by 2015 we were fermenting kimchi and I was brewing kombucha on a weekly basis and beginning every day with a large glass of it. The pronoun change was intentional. Verne loves making and eating sauerkraut, dill pickles, and even kimchi, which he uses in a delicious kimchi fried rice recipe he developed. But the man has drawn the line at kombucha. It’s just too scary for him. He claims that he gets his probiotics from beer and wine and doesn’t need to drink “the booch.” I admit the SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), a pancake-shaped gelatinous slab of cellulose that inoculates the drink and is commonly referred to as the “mother,” is like nothing I’d ever seen before. And, my first reaction was to be frightened by it. Once I began caring for it and enjoying each week’s birth of a baby SCOBY, a sign that the mother is a healthy, functioning mass of beneficial bacteria and yeast, I looked forward to the ritual of bottling the week’s brew and caring for my SCOBY by feeding it a gallon of freshly made sweetened tea (next week’s kombucha). At any given time I have as much as 2-3 gallons of kombucha fermenting downstairs in our dark, cool pantry. Actually, we no longer call it a pantry. Filled with fermenting sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, kombucha and Verne’s sourdough starter, it is now called “the fermentation room.”

SCOBY on top of Kombucha ready to bottle

If you’re wondering why I’ve become so interested in this type of food preservation, my entry into the field of fermentation tracks with the USDA’s testing and approval of fermented products for teaching by master food preservers nationwide. For your understanding, the USDA along with its agency, NCHFP (National Center for Home Food Preservation), is the top dog when it comes to home food preservation. Secondarily are the universities and their extension offices in each state. The master food preserver program is county-specific with a coordinator (employed by the state’s land-grant university, California’s is UC Davis), and local volunteers who receive training in food safety and preservation, report to the coordinator, and teach the public safe home food preservation methods and techniques. I’m in that last group, a volunteer who spends an inordinate amount of her time reading, learning, experimenting so she can be the best of the best teachers when she shares her knowledge with the public in the form of classes and articles. Both kimchi and kombucha were additions to the list of USDA approved homemade foods to teach in 2015 and more recently yogurt, my current focus, and kefir have been added. However, let’s get this straight. I have the MFP program to thank for the nudge into the world of fermented foods, but it's really been the hours I've spent reading on the subject that have pushed me over the edge and made me a true believer in the health benefits of having a probiotic-rich diet and the fun of fermenting foods at home. If you are even remotely interested in the subject, begin your reading with Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz.

The Breadman

And, know that if I'm a little late in updating the family blog, that for now it's because I'm busy with my yogurt experiments. For example, "What is the quality difference between yogurt made at home from commercial store bought ready-to-eat yogurt containing a live and active culture versus a reusable heirloom-variety yogurt starter culture available on the internet?" Or, "What is the quality difference between yogurt made in a dedicated yogurt maker that holds the temperature constant at 110 degrees for the required 8-10 hours compared to that made by improvising and using a warm oven or a heating pad?" I'm all for the latest in technology and the latest gadget (just ask Verne), but some people don't want to spend $50-$100 for a yogurt maker, so I try to offer low-cost alternatives. And, you can't do that without firsthand experience.

So, goodbye for now...it's back to the lab for me (that would be our kitchen)!

A Fifth Stocking Hung By the Chimney with Care

Of all the holidays we celebrate during the year, Christmas is one that offers the most established traditions and behaviors. A comforting sameness. Decorations spanning almost 50 years. A six-foot (fake) pole pine that we bought 20 years ago, and sits year-round on the first landing of our staircase. This year we added small battery operated twinkling lights. Something new. There’s the leaded glass Santa and seven-piece glass Nativity scene we bought 30 years ago from an artist in Pine, Arizona when we were visiting my mother. And the wooden nativity scene that Lauren cut using a scroll saw while practicing to make her gift for Scott (a United States puzzle that holds the quarters for each state) as part of our family Christmas exchange that spanned ten years. And the lighted, waving snowman that (almost always) hangs in the front window to welcome guests. I have no idea where he came from and, personally, I find him annoying and insisted this year that he remain in the decorations box, thus banning him from Christmas. As I write this I’m feeling a little regret over my selfishness. There is the food of the holiday season. The Laird’s cookies. Our former neighbors, Parry and Leone, bake a dozen different cookies each year and share them with friends and neighbors. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without their cookies. And the pull-apart cake from another neighbor. It arrives every year on Christmas Eve morning fresh out of the oven. Perfect for a house full of guests. The list is long and everything on the list holds years of happy memories. A comforting sameness.

Jana and Lauren helping the Best Daddy Ever make apple pie for Christmas

This year we had a small, but significant change in Christmas sameness. We added a fifth stocking to those that hang on the fireplace mantle each year. Lauren knit the oversized stocking that matches the others (except for colors) and gave it to Andy McGee, Jana’s significant other, to welcome him into our family. Andy’s parents joined us for a few days over Christmas (they did not get stockings) and we spent three days celebrating with good food, good wine (including more of that bubbly I discussed in the last blog post), and good conversation. Andy is a welcome, comfortable addition to our family and we look forward to hanging five Christmas stockings again this next year.

 Andy, Jana, and the fifth stocking

Lauren with Frosty

Jana and I shared dozens of calls leading up to the big weekend. Because we had a few additional guests, she and Andy offered to cook our Christmas Eve meal. Wanting it to be perfect, they practiced their menu three times during the few weeks leading up to the holiday. Three times they made and ate Hazelnut Crusted Pan-Fried Fish with a White Wine Sauce. Each time with a different kind of white fish. They came prepared to make a memorable Christmas Eve dinner. In fact, Jana, being kitchen savvy and quite competitive (like her mother), challenged Verne and I to a cook-off. Sounds a bit like a Bobby Flay Throwdown. In this case, Jandy’s Hazelnut Crusted Pan-Fried Fish throwdown against my (famous in our small circle of friends and family) Deconstructed Pot Roast. Doesn’t sound like much? Don’t let the name fool you. I begin with a well-marbled piece of beef (preferably bone-in), brown it and then roast it for several hours in my All-Clad slow cooker. Separately, I prepare the best-ever caramelized onion, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with a ton of butter and crème fraiche. Orange, purple and white carrots (baby, if I can find them) are roasted until fork-tender and slightly blackened around the edges. A thick beef gravy (this is when I enlist Verne’s help) is made from the pan drippings. This simple homespun meal is then artfully presented on an oversized white buffet plate. Each of the three components are placed separately on the plate and joined only by a thick ribbon of gravy and a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley, thus the name Deconstructed Pot Roast. Simple, yet elegant. Comfort food at its finest!

Jana, Andy, and Lauren making Christmas Eve dinner

I tried to warn Jana. After all, she hasn’t eaten meat since she was in high school and she had no real understanding or appreciation of her competition. Combine that with her unfamiliarity with our stove (like that one burner that cooks too hot) and the large frying pan she grabbed (the one that cooks too hot), and the Jana was destined for something unexpected. Something less than the perfection she’d reached in her own kitchen. I don’t want to say “failure”, because Jandy’s meal was certainly not a failure. It was very good.  And, the smoky scene in our kitchen as the oil heated and the fish blackened and the smoke detectors blared may have been hard on the senses, but it was at least very entertaining. But, this was a competition that was started by Jana and Andy. It was only fair that at the end of the day (Christmas day, that is) both meals be judged on their merits and a winner selected. Being the only impartial people present for both meals, Andy’s parents were given the job of choosing a winner. Life’s full of tough choices, idn’t? (If you don't remember, that's Ursula's line from The Little Mermaid, but seems very appropriate here.) Talk about being put on the spot…one team was going to be very disappointed. Would it be their only child and the love of his life? Or Jana’s parents (and their hosts)? Well, they are good people and set aside their personal biases and made a fair and equitable decision. The pot roast won! I’ve got to say, Jana makes me proud. She was disappointed, but took the loss in stride and by morning she was talking of her meal plans for the 2017 Christmas Cook-Off. You can knock her down, but not for long!

There were other memorable Good Eats over the weekend. Like Pine Grove Pizza on the night the three kids arrived. We picked up Lauren at the airport and got back to Amador County about the same time as Jana and Andy arrived in town. We had reservations at the Union, a table for five in the back room next to the fire place. A perfect start to our weekend. Driving through Pine Grove Jana noticed Pine Grove Pizza was open and all bets were off! Typically, it’s closed for the holiday when she’s home at Christmas and she can’t get her Pine Grove Pizza fix. We’d just made it in the nick of time as they were closing for two weeks that very night.

Christmas Eve Eve held a big surprise. We had Maria and Ruben join us for Verne’s famous spaghetti and meatballs. Our young friend Ted Burns couldn’t come for dinner as he had committed to making dinner for his family, but joined us for dessert that evening. His gift to us was a Buche de Noel cake that he made that day. Actually, he made one for us (his adopted family) and another for his parents and grandparents who live in Pine Grove. After hours of work, one turned out picture perfect (below) and the other was a flop. Sweet Ted brought the perfect cake to us. It was incredible and as delicious as it was beautiful. The mushrooms, made of egg whites, sugar, and cocoa powder, were so realistic I was afraid to eat them. But when I finally did eat one, OMG! They melted in my mouth. Ted is an amazing baker in his non-working hours and has recently been selling at local farmers’ markets in Redlands, where he lives. Chocolate croissants are his biggest seller. If they’re as good as they look, they are definitely worth an 8-hour drive to Redlands! Something we plan to do this year.

Ted's Buche de Noel 

Lauren spent another week with us before she returned to Portland on New Year’s day. During the year she had sent me a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Maria Kondo. The New York Time’s bestseller has become so popular that the process of decluttering and organizing is now simply referred to as Konmari. Lauren read the book (and its sequel) and took it to heart. She completely Konmari’d her home this past year and was after me to begin the process…a much greater challenge than what she had, I assure you. I read the book, but never seemed to find the time to take the first step. I guess all I needed was a little push, which is what I got over the holiday. Lauren and I spent a long day together cleaning, decluttering and organizing the master bedroom. I wouldn’t say that Verne and I are hoarders (maybe collectors), but we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. As Verne says, it comes in one bag at a time. Well, I’m here to tell you that I’m now a believer in the Konmari method and plan (with Lauren’s help) to declutter our life. Buy the book. Read it!

Our sweet daughter doesn’t come for a visit without a plan to help her daddy. This time of year the help usually involves splitting firewood. They’ve been working on a couple of old cedars on a neighbor’s property that have been down for quite some time now. Unfortunately, down includes the fact that they are down the hill and must be split by hand and then carried up to the road piece by piece. It’s hard work. A back-breaking job. (I’m told…I haven’t helped! My contribution is to burn the wood.) After they’d spent several hours splitting, they took a hike down Ponderosa Annex in search of an old soap stone quarry Parry Laird had told Verne about. Verne had tried to find the quarry on a couple of occasions without success. This was going to be his last attempt before asking Parry to come out and help him find it. Success! They found the quarry about a quarter mile from home and scavenged a couple of large pieces of soapstone. They plan to etch the Moser name into the stones and use them as..what? I’m not sure. But when I find out I’ll be sure to share it with you.  Until then, I hope you all have a healthy and Happy New Year!

Verne and Lauren with their soap stone finds

A Holiday Party

It’s the first of February 2017 and I’m ashamed to say I never wrote my final blog for 2016. I’ve got my excuses, but I’ll save them for a separate post. The older Verne and I get, the more we rely on my blog to remember where we were and what we were doing…not just last year, but last month and occasionally last week. Yikes! Aging is not for the fainthearted. Writing this blog post is going to be challenging.

Grand Central Market

After spending a week eating and drinking in Portland over the Thanksgiving holiday, we came home and fasted (NOT!) for a week before driving to SoCal to help Jana and Andy with a combination housewarming/holiday party they’d planned for their friends. Andy’s parents (Helen and Alan), who we’d not met at this point, also drove down from Santa Rosa to help with the event. We spent Friday evening getting to know each other over dinner at the kids’ favorite restaurant, Maccheroni Republic, that’s just a short walk from their place in Central Los Angeles. I have to admit that downtown Los Angeles (DTLA, as it’s known) is really growing on me. I love the hustle and bustle (quite the contrast to our quiet home in Volcano), the architecture with its combination of beautiful old restored buildings and sleek new high-rises (the Grand Central Market is a perfect example of restoring and repurposing a hundred year old building—a train station, no less—into the largest open air market in LA), street art and wall murals at every corner (it’s art for the masses), and the streets that are alive with human energy all times of day. Initially, we were concerned about parking and getting around town, in general. It’s proven to be easy. We park, we walk, we sometimes Uber...

Jana and Mommy after lunch at Grand Central Market

Jana and "the best Daddy she's ever had"

We spent Saturday morning shopping for the party, but not until we’d enjoyed brunch at Grand Central Market. This was not our first meal at the market. Knowing the ropes, we took Helen and Alan in tow as we split with the kids to head to our favorite food vendor. The Market is a celebration of diversity offering food from every cuisine and culture: American, Indian, Asian, Mexican, BBQ, Vegetarian, to name a few. We’ve not deviated from our first experience last year when we enjoyed the best carnitas tacos we’ve ever eaten. We need to think about branching out and trying something new next visit. After eating we accompanied Jana as she shopped for cheese and other items for a charcuterie board, smoked salmon for a beautiful terrine she later made, and fruit for a sangria punch (that no one drank). 

Three Scots (Alan, Helen and #1 son, Andy)

It took all six of us (plus one cat) and the remaining five hours to prepare for the first guests arriving at 5 p.m. Parties are a lot of work! While the sangria was passed by, the champagne…that is, sparkling wine…was a big hit. The McGee’s brought a couple of cases of sparkling wine from Helen’s employer, Gloria Ferrer, and it was enjoyed by all. It came complete with Alan’s demo on how to safely open the bubbly. It would be unfortunate to injure a guest with a flying cork. Unfortunate, but very funny. Next year I’ll offer to uncork the sparkling wine and I’ll have a much more entertaining story for you!

Izzy in her safe place away from all the humans

We met Raelin and family in Pasadena for breakfast the next morning before we headed home. It’s always good to see them even if it’s just for a couple of hours. Maybe the infrequency of our visits is actually why it’s so good to see them. (Just kidding!) Raelin and Kendall shared their excitement over an upcoming trip to England with Kendall’s high school color guard team. I think Raelin convinced herself that 16-year old Kendall wouldn’t want to travel without her mommy. Right! Those two are joined at the hip, as they say. I wonder if Rae will be joining Kendall at college in a few years?  Aaron continues to suffer from back problems. It always saddens me to see him hobbling around with a cane. I wrote about Aaron and his ailments (three bulging discs) over a year ago. At that time he chose bedrest over surgery and after a few months was able to return to work. Over the last year he has been involved in two freeway accidents, one involving a semi-truck which totaled his car and just about totaled him. Both accidents have caused further damage to his back leaving surgery his only option. One unlucky guy! Then there’s Sam, the final and youngest Burkhard at 13 years old and now the tallest of the family. Sam has two Moser traits that are impossible to miss. Since Sam was a little guy he has loved books and would rather read than do anything else…just like his Grandpa Verne and Aunt Lauren. Both bookaholics! Secondly, Sam has the Moser quick wit and sense of humor. He’s not quite as mouthy as his mother (yet), but I can always see that he’s laughing (at his own humor) on the inside. A few more years and Sam will definitely be a match for his mom. Great kids. Great parenting. The Burkhard’s are a loving, laughing family and it’s always a pleasure to spend time with them. I love them all!

Raelin and her precious children, Kendall and Sam

Whew! I’m exhausted after writing that last gushy paragraph. Raelin read me the riot act a few months ago after I’d posted a blog about our SoCal trip and failed to mention our time with the Burkhard family. I apologized and tried to make amends by revising the original posting with a line or two about our time together. Too little, too late. Rae, will you finally forgive me?

To be continued…