Kosher-Style Pork Cracklins

Every good cook has a good cookbook. I probably have a number of good ones; I just haven't tried them all out yet. I have peeked into a few, mainly to see how some dish is made. and then I decide it's too hard to do!

I do have one very special cookbook, "Cooking at the Café" written by Francie O'Shea. Francie signed and gave me the book herself! How did I come to know such a great cook? I used to babysit for her back in my early college days. She would typically be at home, and with me babysitting, she was free to cook in her kitchen without interruption.

I opened it up, afraid that I'd find some complicated recipes for fancy dishes. However, the recipes included such simple sounding titles as "garden veggie pasta", "lentil soup" and "quick hummus".

Check out the bicycle on the cover!

In part of her note to me, Francie wrote, "Keep this book around -- one of these days you'll want to cook!"

I guess that day is today! I found Francie's website where she has one recipe online, so I decided to try that one out first. Many of her recipes are vegetarian. They are all recipes that were served on the menu at a café she owned in Corvallis, Oregon. All the recipes are hand-written in the book, plus she has lots of tips on cooking.

As this is the Kosher-style Pork Cracklins, I am most pleased to note that there is a Jewish parable on the last page.

I just finished spending two weeks with my Grandma. I brought a bunch of cooking magazines, so we could get ideas on things to make. We went through them and I made up a list of recipes and wrote down the ingredients. I went shopping and bought tons of food. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before I could try the Cottage Pie or the turkey for two recipe in the latest fine Cooking issue. Also, I didn't get a chance to make banana nut bread which would have been SO easy! Time just ran out, and things were more difficult with a non-working grill. From calling my cousin, we learned it didn't work because it was out of gas. So on my last day, I refilled the propane tank, and whipped up some Well Done (Cheese) Burgers Done Well. They turned out nice, but not as GREAT as I remembered them. I think it really makes a difference having fresh ingredients.

I got Grandma hooked up with a West Bend electric can opener, since she has a hard time using a manual one. I also bought her a new peeler since I was planning on peeling potatoes for that Cottage Pie! I looked in two stores for a 100% silicone spatula, and couldn't find one that was "normal" shaped. I will have to buy one here and ship it to her. They are wonderful. (I found mine at Target, even!)

On my last night with my Grandma, we decided to go out. Grandma had spent at least the last two weeks not going out of her house any farther than the driveway. So we went to a Chinese restaurant that is always so friendly to us, and we both visited the local Sur La Table for the first time ever!!! I was so worried they were going to be rude and push us out the door as we only got there 15-20 minutes before closing. However, they still had their doors wide open well after "closing"! I'm not sure if it was because a cooking class was going on in the back or what, but it was so nice to just browse around. I cannot wait for Austin to get its own Sur La Table!

I came home and found two new cooking gadgets waiting for me... a new KitchenAid toaster and a set of odd-sizes measuring spoons. Next, we need to get the stove reconnected to the gas line.

When it came time to create my wedding registry, I made sure to seek the advice of my expert Pork Cracklins cooking friends. They helped me quite a bit. Sometimes I'd have the right idea for an item, but maybe not have selected the best version of it. For items that weren't for sale at the two stores where I was registered, I just kept a list on the side, and mentioned an item off the list when someone asked if there was something specific I wanted. I also looked at other brides' registries for ideas.

Since then, I have been buying items as the need arises, such as a dutch oven and toaster. Very often I find that either Cook's Illustrated or Fine Cooking has mentioned the item, or ran some tests of the item across various brands and given them ratings. (I also buy some of my food this way!)

Two friends of mine are marrying soon, and the list of items on their registry was pretty short. I decided to offer them some suggestions, and found a way to create a public wish list on Amazon with all the items. I added comments, priorities and quantities to each item as well. Just like photographers like to learn about and share what's in your bag, I think cooks are equally interested in what's in your kitchen!

What's in my kitchen?

PS - I do not actually have any pink appliances.... or any All-Clad!

You surely don't eat 100% of the food that enters your home. What happens to the last few strawberries no one is willing to eat, the spinach that went bad waiting for you to eat it, or those chicken bones from the roasted chicken last night?

For most people, the foods' destiny is the garbage can. It will sit in the garbage until the can is put out to the curb and magically taken away by your local sanitation engineer. This is where my excess food always went until April of this year.

My husband discovered a composter called the green cone, passed the idea along to me, and then ordered one. You can buy a green cone for $160. (Save $40 if you can find a friend to get one with you.) I picked out a spot that would get enough sun during the day and yet still be far enough from the house to not attract bugs. Because you have to dig a hole 24-28 inches deep, the laws in Texas required a call before you dig (whenever you dig 16 inches or more). Then you have to wait two days before starting to dig.

Finally, I was all cleared to dig, so I did. It took a couple of days for the hole to be big enough, but could surely be done in a day by someone ambitious. I did probably 80% of the digging and then let Jay finish up the rest, because I lacked the motivation to continue digging. We installed the green cone and put the dirt back around it. We got right to putting our food scraps into the cone. So exciting!

(More photos of our green cone.)

From the green cone manual, the green cone "takes your cooked and uncooked kitchen food waste, including: meat, fish, bones, dairy products, vegetables, fruit, peelings, etc. The only exceptions are bulk amounts of food related materials that require a very long time to breakdown, namely: cooking oil/fat and the hard shells of nuts and seafood, such as oysters and crabs."

We've been using our green cone for half a year now, and I just love it!! As I'm chopping unwanted parts off veggies or eating down to the core of a piece of fruit, the food goes right into a little green bucket that is kept in our kitchen. Then, every couple of days, we dump the bucket into the cone. Just as a person who likes to live in a nice home environment, I've seen two huge improvements. First, the kitchen trash can rarely smells anymore. It only smells if someone has forgotten about the bucket and dumped some food waste into the trash can. Previously, I knew I'd have to take the trash out right away if I was cooking chicken or other meat with trimmings that get tossed. Now, it's just a quick trip to the cone, no hassle with a new trash bag or a smelling trash can out front. The second huge improvement is that the outside trash can rarely stinks anymore! In the hot Texas sun, it can get pretty nasty. With the green cone, it's no longer an issue at all. (Not only does the trash not stink, but I've never noticed the cone itself being stinky.)

The biggest plus with this composter is that after installation, it's pretty much maintenance-free. You don't need to empty it out, as the broken down nutrients go directly back into the earth. It's recommended that you place the green cone in your garden, so it can reap the greatest benefit from the nutrient-filled soil. After 6 months, I can attest that the soil has improved. We have a few "weeds" growing right next to the cone. They are little trees and growing so fast! Someday I hope to plant a small garden nearby.

There are only a couple of negative aspects. Once in awhile, especially if we've kept some food in the kitchen bucket too long, we'll see a fruit fly or two. When the cone is really active, especially after adding meat, there seem to be some uh... "icky" bugs wiggling around in the cone. It can be a little disturbing opening up the cone during these times. Those small things are just a reminder of how useful our thrown away food pieces are. They are doing a lot more good for the environment inside that cone than surrounded by plastic and chemicals and compacted many feet below the ground in a big garbage dump.

It's important to know that you can do composting in many other ways which don't require nearly as much of an upfront investment. Lots of information is available online. My inspiration for this post was to contribute to Blog Action Day.