Can I get a simple breakfast in Columbus that's healthy and inexpensive?

This morning I was puzzled by what to serve for breakfast. Tired of cereal and we've eaten out too much lately. I went shopping around 6 this morning, just in time to get the usual shitty choice of Giant Eagle produce. Wanting to stay close to home to get the food backfired again.

Trying to make the best of it, I got some strawberries, d'anjou pears and a few bananas; standard year 'round choices. We also had some Mrs. Davesbeer's famous cinnabon rolls - much better than the real thing. In a few minutes I had diced up the strawberries and sweetened them with a trace of sugar, soaked the sliced pears in a bit of acidulated, sweetened water to keep them crisp and bright, tossed a few small banana slices in and some grapes. A nice balance for our decadent treat of the cinnamon roll.

Pretty mediocre meal but nice, simple and really inexpensive. So, my question is, Why can't I find anything like this in Columbus? Northstar has wonderful food, but a light meal for 3 is about $20-$30. Clearly for the child-free or 150-200K demographic. Other establishments give toxic fruit servings stinging with citric acid saturation and days old or, if it's fresh, a couple crappy pieces of greenish melon - yeah, that's Panera's $3.50 "fruit" cup. I don't hate the standard fatty b'fast fare. I like it too much. I just can't figure out why we can't get something like what I served inexpensively.

Please leave any tips in the comments - thanks.

Whitebread

whitebread, originally uploaded by Seligmans Dog.

I visited my mother last week. At one point, she asked if I could make a whitebread. Hmmm, pretty much dedicated most of my adult baking life trying to perfect a razor-crust on a lean dough baguette, but, sure, I guess I could whip up a simple 'merican style loaf.

One trick to a good bread cooked in a loaf pan is getting the blob of dough in the correct size loaf pan. I made approx. a 500 g dough and used a 1.5 L glass loaf dish (I think this is a standard 9x4 loaf pan, but the dish was stamped with a "1.5l" on the bottom).

Anyway, here's the recipe:
water, 200 mL (could've used milk), warm (ca. 90°F)
butter, softened, ca. 2 T
sugar, 2 T
salt, 1 t
flour, 2C
active (not instant active) yeast, 1 packet (2 1/4 t)

Add everything into a bowl and stir until a shaggy mass is formed. Dump onto counter and knead about 5 minutes. Let rise and hour or so, degas (squish it) and let rest 15 minutes, form into loaf and plunk down into buttered glass loaf pan, let rise covered (I use a slightly moist paper towel) until just bulging over the top of the loaf dish, cook in preheated 425°F oven for about 20 minutes.

Wait until cool to slice. Make grilled cheese sandwiches with it.

Pot Roast (desperation dinner deluxe)

Take note of this one busy parents!

The other night I bought a "pot roast" (presumably, some cut of chuck) on the recommendation of the enthusiastic butcher at Kroger. Well-marbled, about $8 for a 2-3 pound piece. Last night, I dragged out a cast iron skillet and put the semi-frozen slab in, filled the pan (sides and on top of the meat) with chopped veggies: potatos, carrots, turnips, onion, a little garlic, a sprinkle of salt, big sprig of rosemary and a small squirt of oil. I tossed it in a 220°F oven from 8 pm to 6 am.

The aroma wafting through the house caused the dog to wake up several times. This morning, I removed it and let it sit. In the interest of quality assurance and protecting my family, I selflessly lunged at a morsel of the fork tender succulence. I almost portioned it out for breakfast.

Interestingly, the roots were not overcooked, still relatively firm. Took 10 minutes to toss together and will take a few minutes to warm and we will eat well tonight.

Slow cooking is the way to cook these inexpensive cuts - Thanks Wolfert (and Andrew for telling me of her book.)

My only complaint on this is the roots cooked near perfectly, BUT, they and the meat looked all the same color. Visually, the meal wasn't very appealing. We served it with a few crisp raw veggies to up the color. In the future, I'd add the veggies later in the cooking to retain their color. Aside from that, it was an amazing meal.

Turkey Meatballs (a rewritten post from 2004)

Ever since Frankie was a teeny, tiny baby, she liked turkey meatballs. We make them often but I've learned a lot since I first started making them and they're better than ever. I decided to rewrite the post.

The significant observations that have guided my new, almost finished, master recipe for Turkey Meatballs are ...

• Grind (size) is crucial. Andrew has guided me in the craft of Charcuterie and recommends a coarse grind in most sausage preparations (kielbasa, sausage, etc.); his guess is the more coarse the grind, the less likely it is to dry out during cooking. I think he's spot-on; the few sausage preps I've done have come out exceptional. Just as significant, the coarseness of the grind contributes greatly to mouthfeel. There's an Ohio brand of ground turkey sold frozen that is ground really fine. It tastes mealy when cooked. When I bought some coarsely ground 93/7 turkey the other day it was infinitely better when cooked in this recipe. A coarse grind definitely wins. Thanks for the tip Andrew.

• When I was buying that super fine grind stuff, not knowing any better, I changed the mouthfeel by adding cracked wheat or bulgur. Far from a new method, cracked wheat has been added to ground lamb in kibbe forever, but it's not commonly used in combination with ground turkey. The cracked wheat made that turkey taste good. Don't worry, the hard nuggets of grain hydrate and soften in the mixture and upon cooking. There is no discernible taste or texture of the wheat. And, it's whole grain causing the meatball to be a pretty darn complete meal with protein, complex carbs and some fat all in one tasty little nugget of goodness.

• Like any meatball (traditionally sirloin), don't handle the thing much. Compress these things together as gingerly as a biscuit. Too much man-handling and it's gonna be tough.

• Future directions. Soon, I'd like to grind my own turkey thighs. It should be outstanding - another post.

That's it. Here's the recipe. I make them, freeze them on a cookie sheet and the next morning put them in a ziploc bag for cooking in tomato sauce (I don't fry meatballs, I cook them slowly in tomato sauce - any other method is just wrong).

Turkey Meatballs
Put the following in a bowl
Coarse ground turkey, 1 lb, highest fat content you can find
cracked wheat or bulgur, 1/2 C
bread crumbs, fine, 1/4 C
milk, 1/4 C
finely minced onion, 1/4 C
a few fine slivers of garlic
reggiano, 1/4 C (optional)
eggs, 2
oregano, dried, 2 T
salt, 1 t (I almost always salt 1% by weight, here, 5 g / 500 grams ingredients)
pepper, to taste

Put everything in a bowl, using your hands, gently fold everything together without working it too much. Form into whatever size meatball you like (we like golf ball sized). That's it.

I may modify quantities of cracked wheat and bread crumbs as I remake them. Toss a few frozen ones in tomato sauce and let simmer gently an hour or so. You'll eat the leftovers for breakfast.

Related articles

• Turkey Meatballs with Sweet and Sour Sauce (savoringeverybite.wordpress.com)
• Meatballs: Let's go round again (independent.co.uk)

Chicken n Aubergine

Chicken n Aubergine, originally uploaded by Seligmans Dog.

I was up this morning around 6 to go out for a quick coffee and remind myself a game of Candyland is more important than surfing the net.

I started the briquettes plus some hickory with a torch and let it rip during the morning. Dome temp around 250-275 in my kettle and the results look great.

Chicken was simply stuffed with rosemary and bay leaves and seasoned with s+p, eggplants were punctured once. Later today I'll turn it into a nice mild smokey baba ghanouj. Two dinners down.

The next logical step after Twinkies ... corn dogs.

mmmm...grease

Frankie's BFFF from her daycare days came over Saturday for a super play date and dinner. They both were chanting "corn dogs" and Frankie had been leading the chant for several days already. These kids were going to tear up the house worse than they already had if there were no corn dogs.

Never made them before. I winged it. Bought some mini beef dogs (yum, a snack for me during prep time) and a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix. I mixed the corn muffin mix using a bit more milk than the box called for to make the batter a bit more wet, dipped the dogs in and tossed them in soy oil (ca. 365°F) and fried them about 40 seconds each. They were devoured quickly.

They didn't look like the golden and thickly breaded corn dogs found at the State Fair, but they sufficed. The kids made these delicacies into a meal with Kraft Mac 'n Cheese and steamed broccoli. Yeah, haute cuisine in our home.

Twinkies, a masterful assembly of carbohydrates (and soy)

Admit it, you want one

I am not a food snob. I love good food. Good food that's good for you and good food that's toxic, like McD's (any of it) and ... the oh so delectable spongy, creme-filled squishy wonder that is the Twinkie.

Twinkie, Deconstructed is a book by food science writer Steve Ettlinger. I wanted to read this for a variety of reasons:
1. I have an unusual relationship with carbohydrates; it's too odd to describe, a professional interest.
2. The soft squishy texture ubiquitous in classic American baked goodies has always intriqued me. I bake lots of bread and was looking for a trade-secret type of hint to give my breads better shelf life without sacrificing taste (haven't found it yet).
3. Food labels are overwhelming mysterious lists, e.g., on the Twinkie label is listed dextrose and glucose - these are identical molecular entities, but, because of labeling regulations, these synonyms are both required.

I've never been able to give a good book report, but I will say, after reading about half of the book, I've learned tons. The book's not a fast read and it's not funny as the title might indicate; it's serious food science, but it has enabled me to read and understand most of that label. I don't often finish books, but if I finish this, I'm rewarding myself with a couple soft squishy yummy nuggets of goodness.

I just hope they don't turn stale before I get to them; the expiry is 29-Jan-09 (ha, ha, ha - yeah right).

My new bbq tool

I use a chimney to ignite fuel for my kettle. But, living in a heavily wooded area, I don't like using paper to light it. Too many drifting embers from the lit paper.

So, I opted for this. Now I can caramelize crème brulée and then weld the ramekin to my grill.

My pork shoulder and turkey thighs have been smoking since 7 a.m. today. It's for the babysitter while we go to the Studio 35 beer tasting tonight!

ick

ick, originally uploaded by Seligmans Dog.

It's cold and, aside from a pork shoulder I'm starting tomorrow morning, I'm just making pedestrian fare these cold, dark days. Not all boring though. Got a couple bagels this morning. All ready to cheese 'em and checked the state of the cream cheese in the back of the fridge. Wow!

I think I'll call Merck and see if they want to send out some basic research folk to get a sample of this to see if there's any promising drug candidates lurking in this rich pot of biodiversity.

Thankfully, we had more cream cheese. This was cool though.

Baguette Prep Video, Part 2 of 3, Loaf Formation

In which I embarrass my wife.

My baguette prep is very similar to Julia Child's. Consult that for a great sequence of still images. However, my prep is profoundly different when it comes to the recipe. That will be disclosed in Part 1. I don't know why I did this backwards, but it'll be complete eventually. I'll also be doing variations of each of the 3 parts (1. dough prep, ferment 2. round, rest, loaf formation, proof 3. dock and bake). Stay tuned for more - and be brave, give it a shot.

Final product after baking.

Potato Chips

A perfect potato chip almost makes me weep with joy. The oft maligned chip deserves more respect. It is the behemoth producers and economy of scale that ruined the beauty of what should be a delicacy deserving of the most sophisticated palate.

Years ago, I deep fried some mandoline-sliced sweet potato slices. They were absolutely perfect, but deep-fried. Today, I took the mighty russet and sliced it on a mandoline slicer. The slices were soaked in water for about 10 minutes, removed from the slurry of water and extracted starch and left to air dry (about 15 minutes). They were placed on an oiled, black cookie sheet (in a single layer), dabbed with a tad of soy oil using a paint brush (I would've used a spray can of veg oil, but had none) AND baked at 425°F (convection) for about 10 minutes. Voilà.

Why the two piles? Stay tuned ...

Final steps in baguette prep

Third in a series, but I need to film the first two. If that makes sense. Hope you enjoy this while waiting for the beginning pieces.

Winter brisket

before


after

I've only tackled brisket once before. It was ok, but I gave it too much of a rub; a piece like this, doesn't need it. I did a combo cooking method that worked swimingly. A week ago or so it was really windy and about 18°F. Good day for barbecue I thought. I fired up my trusty Weber at about 5:30 am and tossed on the meat, fat side up of course, and let it smoke for about 5 hours using Kingsford embedded with hickory. Temp in the dome, about 275°F. A little erratic with the blustery wind but not bad.

Suddenly, family matters dictated we needed to dash. I pulled the meat off since I didn't know how long we'd be away. I placed it in a small pan (and kept the smoky drippings for later!) and placed it in a 200°F oven (a la Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen) and let it go for about an additional 6 hours. See the after pic.

I wrapped the brisket in foil for and parked it in the fridge. Warmed gently a couple days later immediately reminded us of the wonderful 'q aroma, it was served with baked sweet potatoes. If I were on death row, this might be the final meal I request. I no longer fear the bbq challenge of brisket. Not a very expensive cut, BIG crowd pleaser, not too fatty by the time it's finished. Be brave, bbq a brisket.

My aromatic tasty nuts

Saturday morning breakfasts are pedestrian in our home. Not quite gruel ... or ... yeah, it is gruel. We often have mixtures of grains (oats, old-fashioned or steel cut, rye or wheat berries, quinoa, what germ, flaxseed, etc.) mixed with 2 volumes of water and simmered until tender. This concoction's beauty is realized when we add the toppings. A drizzle of cool whole milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar are mandatory.

We also top the porridge with walnuts or pecans, lightly toasted in cast iron just prior to topping. The secret to our special nuts is the way we store them. We have a spice overflow drawer. Here we store all the spices for a nice garam masala, coconut, cardomom, cinnamon, paprika, and other savories that don't fit in the spice shelf. Over time, these nuts inherit a special curry flavor that is subtle but special. The specific flavors could never be duplicated - which is good. It evolves over time and surprises us each breakfast.