 The wind is blowing in our fall weather and baking anything with pumpkin was just the ticket to warm up the Carondelet Kitchen. It is also the time of year I get to use my Nordic Ware cake let pan in the shapes of acorns, leaves and pinecones. I’ll use my pumpkin and wheat loaf pan soon which has a cornucopia of fall items in it as well. I have to say I feel in love with the pans first. I appreciate the artisanship of the pans and I know they will be around for a long time. Plus, I get the bonus of eating food in fun fall shapes and sizes. To further instill my love of Nordic Ware, I found the perfect recipe in their Spiced Pumpkin Loaf . It holds the perfect spice profile for fall and works so well in their bakeware. Time to grab a steaming cup of coffee and butter for another slice of this delicious pumpkin loaf!  
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 Are you ready for the colder days and longer nights? I never really thought of myself as being a “pantry” person since going to the store is so easy…until lockdown. This year has brought on so much creativity in my cooking but also more thought into storing it for later consumption.
My pantry is stocked thanks to canning marinara, pepper jelly, jams, and hot sauce this summer. We have stocked the wine rack and the liquor cabinet. The soup pots will be rattling soon to stock up the freezer with easy to prepare meals on cold days. So, like the squirrels, we are busy around the Carondelet Kitchen getting ready to enjoy the winter months with easy meals and leisurely days in front of the fireplace with a good book.  I have always loved olives. It is probably the one thing that defines me from the Big Guy who turns purple if he gets near one.
I am not sure how it started but it seemed my brother and I were always running to the refrigerator for a handful as a snack. I still remember my mom reminding us to use a spoon since we were not the only ones eating them! Ironically, we were but that didn’t stop mom from teaching us food etiquette. As the years have gone by, I still love them. I’ll cut them up and put them in my salads, but my favorite is to take pitted olives and stuff them with blue cheese. YUM! Talk about pumping up my martini and truly making it a special happy hour. Come on 5:00!  I previously mentioned that my grandpa used to keep his bacon grease in a lodge pan on his stove which he used every day to make his bacon and eggs. I realize this creates visions of horror for many people including my preteen self while staying with my grandparents. As I grew older, perhaps from this traumatic experience, I would drain my bacon grease into the trash knowing it was better than pouring it down the drain. Too many other horror stories can happen when your grease becomes solid fat in the pipes! I recently read an article in Southern Living that gave me a new appreciation for bacon grease. My Big Guy is from a southern family, but I don’t remember the first lesson in their kitchen which was to treat bacon grease as gold. According to the Southern Living article, “bacon grease adds savory, smoky depth to all kinds of recipes: skillet cornbread, succotash, buttermilk biscuits, pastas and just about any type of cooked vegetable.” You had me at savory and smoky! I drained the grease through a coffee filter, and it is now safely stored in a mason jar in my refrigerator. I am already checking my cookbooks for a southern classic meal to feature this new appreciated secret to my cooking!    Big Guy and I do enjoy hummus especially with fresh veggies. Our go-to was always a store-bought brand and some pita bread to round out the dippers for the hummus. We recently watched an episode of Barefoot Contessa where Ina Garten made home-made hummus. I guess I always assumed it was difficult to make but it was so easy. It was literally everything into the food processer and you had hummus. The best part is the use of lemon juice allows you to keep it up to a week in your refrigerator. I am not going back to store bought…no offense to the great makers of hummus. I just read Trisha Yearwood makes hummus with sweet potatoes. Good thing I already have extra garbanzo beans and tahini on hand because I am making it for the next round of hummus and wine night.    Back in 2008 we were lucky to have a new neighbor move into the house next door. Truman Higgins was a furry fluff ball with energy to burn. He quickly became a regular in the Carondelet Kitchen and was welcomed as a member of our family here in South St. Louis. When his family moved away, we were again lucky enough to be puppy-sitters for my buddy Truman. I always said we got old together! He’s quite a bit older now and not quite the spry puppy he once was but he’s still my buddy and adds spice to our lives just like the bitters that bear his name. Isn’t it a little odd to think that as recently as 2004 there were only three commercial brands of bitters available in the United States? Recently, with the rise of celebrity mixologists and the availability of the internet to inspire chefs and amateurs alike, handmade bitters are now available in a variety of tastes. Bitters are simply a flavoring for cocktails made from infusing roots, barks, fruit peels seeds, spices, herbs, flowers, and botanicals into high proof alcohol. I like to think of it this way: bitters are liquid seasoning for drinks. Think salt and pepper for food and you get the idea. Our combination of bitter orange peel and several herbs and spices all macerated in alcohol works well with a variety of spirits, from Whisk(e)y and Rum to Vodka and Gin. Think of it as the perfect complement to bring balance to any cocktail. You can use bitters to balance a sweet drink and bring unity to the ingredients used in your cocktail as well as giving it an aromatic spiciness. You can easily go out and buy a bottle of bitters but how easy is it to make your own at home and mix it into your own Manhattan or Old Fashioned? Check out our recipe in the RECIPES tab!  Big Guy made the first pot of chicken noodle soup in a quest to elevate that which came in a can. No offense, canned chicken soup can be delicious especially when you don’t have time to make it. I remember saying in an earlier blog that Big Guy and I tend to follow the recipes the first time without wavering on any ingredients or directions. In the case of this soup, we do still have the basic ingredients of carrots, celery, onion, and chicken. We elevated our soup by roasting the chicken prior to adding it to the pot. In addition, instead of water we use chicken stock. Finally, we added lots of Reames egg noodles which, with time, will give the soup a thick and creamy base. I love the Carondelet Kitchen version of this soup since it freezes well. As a bonus, I keep extra noodles in the freezer to add to the reheated soup. The perfect meal for a fall and rainy day!   It is fall and there is finally a chill in the air. While college football has been going on for over a month, I am finally ready to pull out the big Dutch oven and get my “chili” on. I know this is bragging rights territory since many folks believe they make the best version to ever be considered for a blue ribbon. I tend to make and freeze chili without meat so I can change up the recipe depending on the occasion. I am fortunate I never got too wrapped up in competition, since I was given my humble pie early in my chili days. Big Guy and I used to have movie nights and it was going to be a cool evening. I opted to put out a pot of chili with meat and one without to keep our guests fed and warm. I put a sign over the pots and noted the one was “vegetarian” to let them know their options. I guess our friends are all carnivores since the “vegetarian” pot was mostly untouched. I heard one friend say the vegetarian was ok, but they really liked the meat version. Big Guy and I had a good belly laugh knowing it was the same chili with only one added ingredient. Advertising is obviously key to “selling” your food. I guess next time I’ll call it naked chili. That should get some attention!   I have written in the past about adding fun to your everyday life. Here comes another idea thanks to my bonus son. As you are setting out your humorous cocktail napkins for Happy Hour, why not extend that to the ice in your drinks. I realize many drinks should be neat, but many do include ice. I realize many of us have an ice maker in our refrigerators whose idea of fancy is supplying chipped ice or cubes. Is that fun? Heck no! Go for the round cubes trays or even better go for a fun design that includes a stirrer such as my guitars. It will certainly be a conversation starter once we can get back together for cocktail parties.    The Carondelet Kitchen running out of butter is certainly a sign the world is ending or one of us forget to pick it up at the store. It is not unusual for us to have three to four pounds of butter at a time and usually two to three different kinds of butter. After all, you may need unsalted butter instead of salted. Or, perhaps, you would like a finishing butter instead. The list goes on depending on your recipe.
I realize this is probably the time I’ll get a comment about how unhealthy butter is for your diet. People, life is too short to skimp on the butter. I say that only because I could never get into margarine, or I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. Believe me, it is not butter! As a final thought, I totally agree in moderation which is certainly something Big Guy and I practice daily. This is despite the fact my grandpa lived to be 103 eating eggs and bacon every day in the same grease. YUCK! Obviously, I never adopted that practice from my family’s eating habits! |
AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
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