The weather at this time of year cries out for a warming, restorative drink; something with spice, which can warm you even while the drink remains cool. We found a good use for a special edition whisky from George A. Dickel/Cascade Hollow Distilling Company in a variation on a classic cocktail called a Penicillin.
According to Wikipedia, this cocktail was invented by bartender Sam Ross early in the 21st century. It calls for two different kinds of whisky; a blended one to combine with the other ingredients, and a second, single-malt to float on top after the shaken (not stirred) mixture is decanted into a glass.
We dispensed with the finishing flourish of the single-malt for two reasons: first, we wanted to showcase the Cascade Moon, and second, we didn’t have any other whisky. This elision didn’t detract from the finished product in the least.
We also didn’t have homemade ginger syrup, but something at least as good: Korean Honey-Ginger Tea, available in any Asian grocery store, especially during the fall and winter. It’s not really tea in the Western sense; more like marmalade. It’s meant to be mixed with hot water for a soothing, toddy-like drink in cold weather, or cold water for a refreshing cooler in the summer.
The cheaper brand comes in a large jar, and another, pricier brand is available in a fancy smaller jar, topped by paper and described as “Ginger Honey Concentrate,” which it is – so the price difference mostly evens out. Both brands market products with more variations of fruits mixed with the honey, but I have not tried them. The ginger is my go-to.
The sample bottle of Cascade Moon Edition 2 (a limited release, small batch blend) was kindly supplied to me by the Taylor Strategy publicists. It was released in December but only in Tennessee, California, and Texas. Sipped straight, it has a smooth, complex and mature nature. It makes an excellent ingredient for cocktails, as our experiment with Something-Like-Penicillin proved.
The Ingredients
Something-Like-Penicillin for Two
Here is the recipe we developed:
Something-Like-Penicillin
Makes 1 drink
2 oz. Whisky
¾ oz. Lemon juice
¾ oz. Honey-Ginger Tea
Candied ginger for garnish
Combine whisky, lemon juice and honey-ginger tea in a shaker and shake well. Pour over cracked ice into a small snifter or cordial glass. Garnish with candied ginger.
The result is complex, powerful but smooth, and a perfectly seasonal warmer for a cold night.
I met Lane Levine several years ago when he was selling his bread at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market. He was a scrappy start-up from Baltimore then, and still is. Alas, as his business evolved, the farmers market model was phased out. I now have to buy his bread in Roots.
He is also broadening his product line. He introduced a line of “toasts,” Melba-like crackers, last year. Now he is test-marketing grilled cheese sandwiches. I received a sandwich for review last week.
Now, one might think that a grilled cheese sandwich is an item that can be made at home without much trouble. After all, you only need: 2 pieces of bread, one or more slices of cheese, and some kind of fat. Cook in a skillet until browned and melty. Done.
But Lane thinks that there is a market for his sandwich, and he might just be right. It comes frozen, ready to pop in your toaster-oven (or microwave, if you must), and is ready to eat in under 10 minutes. He has done extensive research to find just the right blend of cheeses for the inside, and of course the bread is none other than his Simple Country Sourdough, for which I have nothing but superlatives.
As It Comes, Frozen
And What To Do With It
I followed the directions, and the cheese was molten a few minutes before the 8-10 minutes called for (but my toaster-oven runs hot). The top of the bread was lightly toasted; the bottom a little darker. I let it sit as directed, so the cheese was not burning-the-tongue hot when it hit my plate.
Out of the Oven, All Toasty and Delicious
With a Salad for Lunch
And it was, indeed, delicious – the edges of the bread were shatteringly crisp, the insides contrastingly and satisfyingly unctuous. The mix of extra-sharp cheddar and mozzarella gave it a “grown-up” taste way better than the classic processed American cheese slice we all grew up with.
I think this sandwich will be popular with A Friendly Bread’s customer base, those who know how good Lane’s bread is and don’t mind paying a premium price for it. The value-added aspects of excellent cheese and toaster-oven convenience make it a very attractive addition to A Friendly Bread’s product line.
Here’s a geographically-ordered romp through the world’s strangest food customs, dishes and ingredients. I’ve been receiving emails from these folks for several years, each highlighting short articles about random things I needed to know more about right away! – which I could remedy by going to their website. And now there’s a book that gathers them all in one fabulous, fully-illustrated artifact. I couldn’t have designed a better rabbit-hole myself.
Although it’s organized by region (not excluding Antarctica), the most fun way to experience this book is by randomly opening it and starting to read. You will find juxtapositions of the delightful and the disgusting (Italian spaghetti ice-cream sundaes and fried octopus ink sacs); food pioneers, among them Tom Carvel (soft-serve ice cream) and Maria Orosa (Philippine banana ketchup); and deep dives into subjects you didn’t even know you wanted to know more about (a two-page spread on “Oregon’s Mysterious Mycology”).
This book has considerably lengthened my bucket list (as if Tony Bourdain’s shows weren’t bad enough – Hawaii Spam Jam, here I come)! But they throw historical as well as contemporary tidbits into the frangipani. Did you know that prospectors in the Yukon gold rush (1896) were required to bring a year’s worth of food with them? On page 253, there’s a reproduction of one department store’s suggested packing list. Seventy-five pounds of sugar, $3.00. Ten pounds of coffee, $3.00. Seems a little light on the coffee to me.
Uses of foods in non-gastronomic ways are also explored. A page on “Pantry Alternatives to Tarot Cards” describes using vegetables in ways similar to reading entrails, but less messy. Oh, and “gastromancy,” practiced by the ancient Greek oracles: intuiting the will of the gods through the gurgling of the stomach. This continued through the Middle Ages, when it was considered witchcraft, to the 18th century, when it fell out of favor as the “prophets” were revealed to manipulate their gut sounds to simulate voices.
And about Antarctica? The last article includes a roundup of every base station’s cuisine, including their specialties. Most are what you’d expect: the European Union station boasts foie gras, Yorkshire pudding and chicken Parmesan, while the Polish station prides itself on a traditional Polish Easter breakfast. There are some edgy innovations, though – the Japanese station has adapted the cold noodle dish nagashi somen, where diners pluck up noodles moving through running water in a bamboo slide, to present the noodles flowing through a channel cut directly into the ice. However, the consensus appears to be that the Chinese Great Wall station has the best cuisine, and a hydroponic garden, to boot.
Still, even with the lure of good food, Antarctica will not be added to my bucket list. There are so many other places to go and things to eat in this excellent book, I’m sure I won’t miss it.
I jumped at the chance to meet Laurie Anderson, when her exhibition “The Weather” opened at the Hirshhorn in September. She has been a working artist since the 1970’s, influencing innumerable aspects of art: performance, music, sculpture, opera, multimedia, and writing. She reached a wider audience than art-world-famous when her song, “O Superman,” rose to No. 2 on British pop charts in 1981.
As I walked toward the Hirshhorn from the Metro station, I got the uncomfortable sensation of being watched by a large, all-seeing presence, and sure enough – the museum building had been surrounded by scaffolding for a renovation project. Rather than letting an opportunity to make lemonade go to waste, the Hirshhorn commissioned Nicolas Party to design a site-specific artwork enveloping the entire building. “Draw the Curtain” is composed of several huge faces partially hidden by draperies. The effect is of classical portraiture with eyes following one about the room, but enlarged by a few orders of magnitude.
A Giant Face on the Hirshhorn
And Creepier Closer
It’s an opportunity to contemplate the way indoor and outdoor spaces are being redefined in the time of covid and climate change; of a piece with choosing “streeteries” over the interiors of restaurants, and farmers markets rather than grocery stores. Also, to feel relief from a gargantuan gaze by entering the Hirshhorn courtyard.
Inside the building, we were greeted warmly by the museum staff, then treated to a walking tour of the exhibit by the artist.
Laurie Anderson and Yet Another Looming Presence
The exhibit is a combination retrospective of her past career and new work. Highlights include a corridor of flags dipping and rising by automation (“Red Flags”) referring to “O Superman;” a swath of shredded pages from Crime and Punishment as a matrix for a video projection; a series of newspaper front pages deconstructed, recombined and superimposed; and the room which Ms. Anderson spent hours painting and in which an observer could spend hours absorbing in and through all senses: “Four Talks.”
The Raven in the Four Talks Room
The Parrot Needed a Little Amplification
Ms. Anderson covered the walls with whatever spontaneously occurred to her, a frozen stream of consciousness, accompanied by ambient sound and four related works. Among them, two birds stand out: an oversized raven (“The Witness Protection Program (The Raven)”) and a parrot that looks like bronze but is painted foam (My Day Beats Your Year (The Parrot)”). While the raven is mute, the parrot (true to its kind), speaks. Actually, it mumbles, and needed a little electronic assistance to be heard.
Although I was enjoying the event for the art that surrounded us, I felt an obligation to provide reader service by seeking out any food-related references I could find – and there were a few: a slice of devil’s food cake and a reference to Dairy Queen among the painted bon mots, and two IRL references.
There’s the Dairy Queen Reference
And the Devil’s Food (With Some of the Press Corps)
And the Negroni Bag
The negroni bag is part of a fundraiser for bartenders and other restaurant workers who lost jobs because of the pandemic. It’s also a very clever reference to to-go cups from New York City diners.
As we processed into another room covered with large-scale paintings which Ms. Anderson was still tweaking just days before the public opening, I realized that the woman with recording equipment was Davia Nelson, one half of the Kitchen Sisters. She produces terrific audio stories for her podcast and NPR. The Sisters have widened their scope from the first series of stories on “Hidden Kitchens” to encompass many things lost and found. I can’t wait to hear their take on this exhibit!
Davia Nelson, Busy Recording
As the tour ended, I asked Ms. Anderson if she had any perspectives on food or cooking. She allowed as she did have “one recipe” and described the procedure for “Hotel Hot Dogs.” One strips the insulation from a lamp cord and sticks it into a bratwurst – and “BOOM!” Did I believe she had ever done this? Not until I found the story on the web. Even so, keep that grain of salt handy – and consider the accompanying photo includes a man who looks very much like Andy Warhol.
There’s plenty of time to see this exhibit. It will be at the Hirshhorn until July 2022, and Ms. Anderson is scheduled to make live appearances starting in January. But, unless you’re Superman, don’t cook bratwurst with a lamp cord!
Who else remembers the old advertising jingle? (Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie…) The new Smithsonian exhibit and related virtual chef demo prove that Latinx fans are just as enthusiastic and voracious as any others. While the demo was a function of the Smithsonian Associates and therefore a ticketed event, the exhibit, spotlighting the popularity of baseball among Spanish-speaking folks throughout North and South America, is free at the National Museum of American History. It would have been a real pleasure to view even if that museum visit hadn’t been my first in a very long time.
Take Me Out
The Entrance is Designed to be Interactive
I admit the demo colored my experience of the exhibit – I was primed to spot any reference to food. Sure enough, among the uniforms, stats, and homages to the great ones (Roberto Clemente!), there were a few artifacts and some video footage relating food to sport.
Admiring the Great Roberto Clemente
Girls’ Leagues Videos Got Girls’ Attention
Among the displays of associated merchandise were familiar artifacts: a Wheaties box, a glass, mugs, a soda can, a Coke bottle.
The Merch Display
A wall of imagined orange crates with exaggerated and wonderfully fanciful end papers depicting heroic men’s and women’s teams by artist Ben Sakoguchi was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit. One team, from East Los Angeles, was known as the Carmelita Chorizeros (sausage-makers), providing not one but two food references.
Ben Sakoguchi’s Baseball Series
Carmelita Chorizeros: Sweet and Savory Combined
Orange Juice: Part of the Breakfast of Champions
The Aztecs of the North
The teams were real; the orange brands and embellishments were created in the artist’s imagination. But wouldn’t that Aztec warrior strike fear into the hearts of your opponents?
Connecting the Corn
The chef demo, billed as “Pleibol and Eat Well! Latino Culinary Traditions and America’s Game,” neatly dovetailed into the ¡Pleibol! exhibit by featuring Dayanny de la Cruz, executive chef of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The virtual audience was treated to a demonstration of three dishes served in the ballpark, all traditional but with a few tweaks designed to make them easy to eat while holding a scorecard or anticipating a leap for a foul ball.
Bull Pen Elote, corn on the cob covered with a savory cheese and spice mix, was inspired by a stop at a Mexican street market on the way to a ballgame (in Chicago, go figure!), where the elote was topped with Cracker Jack.
The Cubano sandwich is popular throughout the Latinx world, but where else would smashed plantains substitute for the bread? According to Chef Dayanny, “plantanos” are thought to be the source of Dominican boys’ extraordinary strength, and so as a tribute to those ballplayers, she uses tostones for her “Domini-Cubano Sandwich.”
Other ingredients are more traditional: pernil (roasted pork), Dijonnaise sauce with guava jam, hot dogs, pickles, and Swiss cheese. Layered on those fried and flattened plantains, that would give any fan a run for their money!
The last recipe Chef Dayanny demonstrated was controversial at first. Nobody thought it would work at the ballpark, but it was a big hit. Tomatillo and Watermelon Salad, says the chef, “represents very much who I am, as a chef, as a woman, and I as a mother…This dish was not made for certain times, or places, or seasons; I created it to break expectations of what food in sports entertainment was supposed to be by incorporating Latino flavors and culinary techniques along with my own culinary style, which is very much grounded in my identity as a woman.”
Community and Resilience
Other ways of representing women in the Miami baseball community reflect the inclusiveness of South American fans. About fifty local vendors supply food to the ballpark, supporting small businesses and promoting a sense of community involvement.
And the long tradition of players’ mothers supporting their boys’ teams with homemade food just happened to be on display in the ¡Pleibol! Exhibit. Among a collection of video clips was one profiling Mrs. Altagracia, Vladimir Guerrero’s mother, who cooked for all the teams her son played for during his 16-year Major League career. She’s just one in a long tradition of “the moms of baseball,” looking out for their sons and all the other players on their team.
Well, it’s shaping up to be a banner year for wild things from my backyard. Last year was something of a bust; hardly any pokeweed, and just a few handfuls of berries. This year, however, is something else.
Was it the cicada invasion (speaking of wild things!)? Or just the cyclical nature of nature? Whatever, I’m having to think of things to do with all the wineberries that are coming in. The pokeweed has experienced a rebirth as well. Fortunately, I have no worries about using up the poke while the new shoots are harvestable; I pick some every day for about two weeks, and then, just as I get slightly sick of it, presto! it’s too old to eat.
Pokeweed, Picked
So far, I’ve had pokeweed tacos, poke pasta, and my old favorite, cold poke salad with an Asian-inspired dressing. Poke seems to have a special affinity with toasted sesame oil.
Poke in Tacos with Lots of Cheese
Poke Pasta with Blue Cheese Sauce
In contrast to the wineberries, the black raspberries have not been particularly plentiful. They tend to grow intertwined with the wineberries and probably compete for resources. The raspberries ripen earlier, and there is a short window when I can enjoy both berries fresh on my morning cereal.
Black Raspberries on Bush
Black Raspberries, Picked
I’ve frozen some wineberries, and this year I’ve started a batch of shrub, following a recipe using (red) raspberries which includes dried hibiscus and rosehips. I added some hibiscus but left out the rosehips. The mix infuses for two weeks in apple cider vinegar, then is strained and sweetened with honey. Diluted with sparkling water, it promises to be a refreshing summer drink.
Wineberries, with some Annoying Rosebushes
Shrub Ingredients
See You in Two Weeks!
Speaking of cicadas, I had to decide whether to try sampling them when Brood X was upon us for some of May and all of June. The media were full of suggestions, as if eating insects was suddenly the thing to do. Call me a contrarian, but I decided to give them a miss this year – not through revulsion, but for sympathy for their survival strategy. Seventeen years in the dark for a few weeks of fun in the sun!
After their little corpses started to litter the ground, I confess to being glad that the earsplitting noise was gone, but really, who could begrudge them their short, wild time aboveground?
It’s the brightest spot of the Olney Farmers Market, even on a dreary day. We’re talking about the M&M Plants stand. Here’s a look behind the scenes.
M&M Plants began 12 years ago when Mark & Madgie McGaughan found a 5-acre property near Sugarloaf Mountain where they could pursue their interest in horticulture. Madgie worked at Plantmasters and Mark was in construction, but grew up on a horse farm. They used their knowledge to create a farm with dozens of varieties of plants and flowers, a hot house and high tunnels, all built by Mark.
Mark and Madgie and Tractor
Row of Flowers Ready to Pick
There is an old stable, but used for storage, not horses. Per their membership in the Monocacy Valley Flower Co-op, a walk-in cooler holds flowers from M&M and five other local farms. Madgie coordinates the co-op and makes weekly deliveries to wholesalers.
Flowers in Cooler for Co-op Distribution
The high tunnels, also known as hoop houses, are structures that allow flowers to grow year-round. They keep the wind out and the warm air in. On sunny days, the warmth is trapped by the plastic. This extends their season by 1 month at the beginning and 1 at the end.
Inside the Hot House
Outside the Hot House, with the High Tunnels in the Background
There is always something going on in the hot house. Seedlings are grown in April, potted arrangements are created and stored, and wreaths are made for the holidays.
A Rustic Touch for our Feathered Friends
The Tools of a Flower Farm
The Olney Farmers and Artists Market is lucky to have M&M Plants since 2008, all year long. Visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/M-and-M-Plants-197156990304267/ And be sure to say hello when you visit the Olney Farmers Market!
A new vendor at the Olney Farmers Market will be selling locally-made hard cider on the first and third Sunday of the month.
When you are looking to name your brand-new cidermaking establishment, what do you choose? A name that reflects the history of the land you plant your young trees on, in the hope of having the same longevity as the singular landmark on your property?
Tommy Evans named Two Story Chimney Ciderworks for the unmissable structure behind his house: all that remains of what must have been a very grand tobacco barn. The earliest records date the farm to 1847, when Luther Moore Sr. and his son began farming tobacco in rotation with corn, dairy cows, and cider apple trees. Two trees planted in the early 1900’s remain, and have formed the basis for a set of grafts Tommy is nurturing for fruit to blend into the cider his new trees will yield in the near future.
Pretty Dramatic View of Chimney
Old Apple Tree on Left, New Plantings in Foreground
Cuttings Taken from Old Trees
Tommy in Future Orchard
Tommy grew up in New York City, moving to Maryland and the land at Etchison in 2016. He has planted one thousand cider-specific trees with eight thousand more on order, for the 45 acre orchard he envisions. Meanwhile, apples from the two heritage trees enrich his cider made from fruit supplied by a local Maryland orchard.
In the bottling shed, the juice spends six to eight weeks in fermentation tanks after infusion with special Australian yeast made specifically for cider. A carbonation tank imparts that pleasing fizzy character to the finished product. Some cider is finished with hops, to make it more attractive to beer drinkers. Tommy is growing his own hops. Chacun à son goût. (“To each their own.”)
The Bottling Shed
You Can See the Chimney from the Bottling Shed
Tommy Shows Us His Hops
TSCC Logo on Crate
Currently, the cider is sold in glass bottles, but Tommy plans to shift to cans very soon. Cans are more environmentally friendly, and the bottles cannot be reused and are expensive to produce and ship. Also, the cans will hold smaller amounts than the bottles so portion control will be easier.
A tasting room is under construction and planned to be open to the cider-curious some time in August. Tommy will be selling cider at the Olney Farmers Market this Sunday and the first and third Sunday of every month. Meanwhile, Jose Andres has reportedly approved of Two Story Chimney’s cider. It’s only a matter of time before we can say “I knew him when…”
Stop by the information booth at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market and stock up on some Low Country cuisine! Continuing the theme of supplying specialties from the South, you can now buy sacks of Shrimp and Grits mix, which contain all the ingredients except the seafood to cook up a dish evoking the Gullah cuisine of Charleston, South Carolina. There are also sweet and hot pickles from Texas (excellent), and some hot sauce which you won’t catch me anywhere near an open bottle of; but several folks with asbestos palates tell me is terrific.
Why, you may ask, is a Maryland market carrying these traditional products from places like Charleston, South Carolina? Blame it on Britt, Janet Terry’s daughter. She went to college in that city of cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages and pastel antebellum houses, not to mention a cuisine influenced by both French settlers and the Gullah Geechee culture of the barrier islands. Ever since, Janet has evoked memories of her visits by finding delicious things to share. (You may wonder why the Market has stopped carrying the deep-fried, eat-‘em-shell-and-all peanuts which were so popular for many years? Well, there’s a peanut shortage at the source. Stay tuned to the Market newsletter for latest developments on the goober front.)
If you want to know more about Gullah Geechee cuisine and how it influenced American cooking, there is a series streaming now on Netflix called “High on the Hog.” One episode features the “rice belt” area of the Low Country, and the cooks and restaurants serving the region’s traditional dishes.
The Shrimp and Grits sack, produced by Gullah Gourmet, contains packages of grits and sauce base. Adding water to each (separately) and cooking for the specified time yields a pot of cornmeal mush and some very tasty sauce. A pound of shrimp, sauteed in butter as the package instructions recommend, completes the dish. It’s rich, filling and delicious, and serves four. For fourteen dollars, it’s an affordable indulgence. Include a salad for a complete meal.
The café tables were artfully decorated with pitchers of flowers, arranged by Madgie of M&M Plants. The booths were full of the best local art anywhere. The lawn in front of the Thrift Shop was edged with booths full of good things to eat and drink. The weather- well, the rain held off, mostly.
View of Art Show
Another View
And Yet Another, Showing the Tables and Flowers
But our spirits could not be dampened, because it was Opening Day for the summer season. The Market was full of mothers and those who love them. All the usual vendors were there. Our favorite musician, Pat O’Neill, filled the air with roots music. There was even a surprise appearance by Sandra Dean.
Pat O’Neill Band with Sandra Dean
And, as a special treat, there was a juried art show! World-famous local artist Greg Mort awarded the three prizes to the artists voted best by our patrons. At-Large Montgomery Councilmember Evan Glass followed up with handsomely-framed proclamations. The Market management presented the winners with bags of Market goodies.
And the winners were:
1st Place – Danielle Reznick, age 14 (!): Cards and Crafts
2nd Place – Ahmad Azimi: Art from found objects
3rd Place – Suzanna Moreau: Baxter Road Designs
L to Right: Master of Ceremonies Doug Terry, World-Famous Artist Greg Mort, 1st Place Winner Danielle Reznick, 2nd Place Winner Ahmad Azimi, 3rd Place Winner Suzanna Moreau, OFAM President Janet Terry, Councilmember Evan Glass
And the Winners with Their Proclamations
Danielle does quilling, art built from coiled colored paper, and sells kid-friendly kits of beads to decorate pictures and picture frames. Ahmod makes art from found objects, ranging from animal skulls to plastic trash. Suzanna is the most conventional artist of the three – she specializes in sea life and chickens.
It was a great start to the full Market season. Here’s looking forward to many more wonderful Sundays. See you there!
