Poison
July 29, 2004
Oleander means 'poisonous for man(kind)' and the flowers, leaves and sap of this plant are indeed poisonous for humans to ingest. Upon my arrival here (2 weeks ago today!) Kristi asked me to take care of her failing oleanders. I got straight to work, watering, inspecting, killing large herds of orange aphids, concocting homemade pesticides to kill the aphids (just soap), and transplanting the oleanders into planters that effectively keep in the moisture.
These days the oleanders are putting on quite a show and this morning when I walked out to give them a look-see I noticed a very funny 6-legged white stamen! A white spider had camouflaged herself in the flower and was waiting for something delicious to come along and become breakfast! I am really pleased with this development because this means that nature has taken over the foul task of dealing with the aphids. If you're like me and don't like eating aphids, it's really nice if another species lends a hand. One woman's meat is another one's poison.
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Regime Change
July 28, 2004
Now that the Tour de France is over we've decided to cut down on our calorie intake. Gazpacho for lunch. Blend ingredients, chill and serve.
Please read more... "Regime Change"
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42 looks good on you...
July 27, 2004
Today Kristi has turned 42. She wants to keep a low-profile today which is why I have posted this image of her low-profile brunch in my blog. I always fake sour dough pancakes by using joghurt, lemon and lemon peel.
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Will Weed for Food
July 26, 2004
Ikea's new packaging strategy. Actually this is part of an elaborate sneaky garden design by Kristine and Fred. We're looking forward to the recipes but by the looks of these leafy babies we'll only be making weed butter.
Please read more... "Will Weed for Food"
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Surf and Turf
July 24, 2004
The results of our adhoc fish and sausage fry, on a private beach along the shaded banks of the Vis. It was a perfect summer's day, a wonderful and unusual conglommeration of people, each one more interesting to me than the next. The day unfolded from pleasure to pleasure, the company, conversation food and location(s) all were perfect. I am so happy to be here.
Please read more... "Surf and Turf"
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Un vraiment couteau l'Aguiole!
July 23, 2004
After leaving the yurt encampment on the Aubrac Thursday, JT, Kristi and I decide to go down to the village of l'Aguiole to check out the village famous for its handmade, bee-backed knives. At lunch Kristi and John surprise me with un cadeau d'alliance! Tears well up in my eyes and I become the incredibly proud and honoured owner of this boney beauty, a real cowgirl's knife.
In the last 36 hrs I have used this knife to: open up 2 bottles of wine, cut the tops off some garlic, cut the tops off some Cevenol onions (so sweet you can eat them raw), cut my dinner twice, cut some wedges of creamy fresh Cevenol sheep's cheese, cut up some porky sausages, and gut one kilo of sardines! Actually, Kristine did all the gutting.
Pictured above are the swift hands of new friend Kristine who on the banks of the river Vis, and with the aid of l'Aguiole extricates the innards of an about-to-be-bbq'd sardine.
Please read more... "Un vraiment couteau l'Aguiole!"
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Aligot
July 22, 2004
Aligot is melted Aubrac cheese, chunky mashed potatoes, and coarsely chopped garlic stirred and stirred and stirred in a special p�t d'Aligot until it gets nice and stringy.
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My thick and luscious...
July 20, 2004
A few days ago Kristi proudly returned from market with 2 white tupperware tubs. "This is the best joghurt on earth. I eat at least two of these per week, you simply must try it." One bite of the thick and luscious white stuff and it became clear why Kristi had suddenly become a joghurt fan. The stuff she was eating was pure cultured double cream.
In the mean time John has taken to introducing Kristi as his 'curvaceous' wife. (I suggested thick and luscious.)
Please read more... "My thick and luscious..."
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Feeding Frenzy
July 19, 2004
I see my formerly skinny friend licking her fingers and I go into a cooking frenzy. These pictures were not posed.
Yes, I have arrived safely and will start blogging regularly again. Pardon the hiatus.
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Presentation is Everything
July 14, 2004
I feel like this little raisin.
Please read more... "Presentation is Everything"
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No Rest for the Rugged
July 13, 2004
There you are, a pre Iron Age chef and you want to whip up a fine bouillon for tonight's f�ete. It's easy as pie... read on.
Please read more... "No Rest for the Rugged"
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If it Bleeds, it Leads
July 12, 2004
That's was one of the more memorable lines in Michael Moore's, 'Bowling for Columbine'. Moore is speaking to a TV producer, asking him to explain why there are so many fear evoking images on the US nightly news. The TV producer replies self-evidently, 'If it bleeds, it leads'.
I thought the line was a fitting title to the next few entries of Culiblog in which I will document a workshop that I followed at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht this last February. Onno Faller led a workshop titled, 'Cooking as Genre' the last two days of which were devoted to a little dead wild boar. Above you see Natasha and a handsome bald bloke, BOTH VEGETARIANS, skinning the poor dead beast.
Although I have killed hundreds of animals for food and skinned them and prepared them, I never find this an easy task. I find myself gritting my teeth as I remove their jackets. I am not repulsed, but I feel sad for the animal, I feel the extreme tension of the killing and of a death that I initiated by wanting to eat the animal. Every animal, even a lobster, fights for its life as we would do. And it never ceases to amaze me that once the animal is skinned, it becomes just a piece of meat to me and my mind switches to the matter of the marinade.
Please read more... "If it Bleeds, it Leads"
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Hangover Helper
We only wanted to go dancing.
And of course pollute ourselves and then sweat it out on a dancefloor in a very slutty way. We wanted to smoke and breathe deeply, to sweat. The goddess of Shake Yer Bootie unfortunately had other designs for the evening and our simple plan fell through. You can't dance just anywhere. Sometimes that special sleazy ambience is essential to the formula. In the 'consolation bar' we sat to drink one more 'last one'. Above my head hung fake old-fashioned enamel advertisements for Guiness stout that asserted, 'Guiness gives strength'. Vitamine B complex, iron, excellent. I guess the moral of the story is that a person just doesn't always need a whole hell of a lot of strength. This morning I was waxing existential when I remembered, 'BREAKFAST!' And I remembered it twice. This is my second breakfast.
Fried eggs with 'cheese in a can', the Turkish sheep cheese rounds in brine sold in cans here. Salty, crumbly, meltable, beautiful to the beholder, delicious. Thank Gawd for breakfast.
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I Love Smoking: Tea-smoked Salmon and a Dessert Borscht fit for a Foot Massage
July 11, 2004
In 6 steps from upper left;
1. Line a wok with aluminium foil and place a handful of any sort of rice on the bottom.
2. Place a goodly amount of delicious loose tea on top of the rice. Earl Grey is the best choice. You are about to create a smoker in which the rice and the tea are the smoldering fuel.
3. Place some granulated sugar on top of the tea.
4. Set a slab of salmon in a bamboo steamer over the rice, tea and sugar heap (other fatty fish work well too). Dust the fish with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, lime zest and sprinkle with lime juice. Cover with the top part of the steamer.
5. Wrap the entire contraption in alu foil so that the smoke from the soon-to-be-smoldering rice and tea can only go through the bottom of the bamboo steamer and delicately smoke the fish.
6. Place the wok+steamer on a large flame and blast the hell out of it for a good *2-3 minutes. Turn the flame down almost as low as possible and wait until you smell the heady burning tea escaping from the smoker. Every now and again place your hand on top of the bamboo steamer - it should be hot hot hot. After 15-20 minutes open up the smoker and poke your finger through the fattest part of the flesh. It should be cooked or almost cooked.
Serve immediately.
*(Be careful not to smolder the tea too vigourously or you will get a bitter smokey flavour. Instead, just relax.)
Guest and composer Daniel Carney has come all the way from Baltimore and said that this tea-smoked salmon is the best thing he's ever eaten 'ceptin the last dinner you made me'. (Better count the silverware.) His t-shirt says, 'I love the Korean alphabet!' The dessert borscht (actually just hangop, lime zest, lime juice and a wee bit of the 'ol white death - baroquely drizzled with beet caramel) is inspired by the chilled Polish summer fruit soups and as well the Polish summer borscht. One bite of borscht and Daniel exclaims, 'Dang, I do believe this is the wierdest dessert ever to have crossed my lips!'
Orly is ecstatic with the dessert borscht and asks, 'What, you want a foot massage?'
(not pictured, Orly's husband and Waimes piano restorer, Gijs Wilderom)
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Taiwanese Bean Beverage
July 01, 2004
Yesterday Dan said that Latvians are lucky.
But today is another day and for breakfast I decided to serve up this Taiwanese Bean Beverage to my Latvian guest *Emils. Just a little good morning experiment. Emils remained cheerful throughout the tasting although shortly after fulfilling his task as guinea pig he dashed out of the house supposedly to buy a shirt - but I think he hauled off and got a bagel.
Discorea Mixed Congee ingredients: water, sugar, adlay(?), discorea rhizome (?), chickpeas, glutinous rice, red beans, kidney beans, millet, oatmeal, oats.
* Emils Rode is a Latvian artist currently participating in the show BREAKTHROUGH in Den Haag. This exhibition in the Grote Kerk spotlights artists from the new European member states. http://www.grotekerkdenhaag.nl
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Smart Taiwanese Packaging (because you never know when you're going to want to tuck into that Discorea Mixed Congee snack that you've been stowing away in your purse for special occasions)
The spoons that come with the Taiwanese bean beverages that I bought yesterday snapped neatly into the lid. Unfold and click and you're ready to suck up all the goodness.
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