Salts Kitchen

It’s finally happening. I’ve been dreaming of a supper club for some years now. When I was in undergrad my mother and sister (and me when I was in town) were in “girl food”. It was amazing. It was a group of women in the food world. Every 6 weeks or so someone would host with a theme and everyone brought what they felt represented that theme. The first night I went to was Indian (I think there was a region, but I don’t remember which). One at my mother’s was “tapas” and one at my sister’s was “Comfort Food”. There were more, but these stuck in my mind. For comfort food, I made peach cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream. My old boss at Clementine (www.clementineonline.com) Annie, brought butterscotch pudding. I think my sister made Shephard’s pie, I can’t be sure but I do recall is was September of 2001.

My own and newer supper club idea has gone through various stages in my head from me doing all the cooking, to a group, to potlucks, and so much more. I even thought for awhile about a “progressive” supper club. While these are all intriguing to me, I rounded up a few food-loving friends and got some ideas. We collaborated, I thought, they suggested, I rebutted, back and forth until The Neighborhood Table was born.

To tell the truth, it was put on hold for quite awhile because I had attempted to do something of the sort back in the day with an ex-partner. He vetoed the idea fairly quickly (in every possible way to every possible version). It took a long time to remember that I could do this on my own and I was about to introduce it again some time later when he in fact did the very thing I had wanted. I know it shouldn’t have mattered and I laugh at myself already for thinking it did, but again it went on the back-burner because I didn’t want to feel like a copycat, combine efforts, or quite honestly do anything the same as what he was doing (apologies Mr.T). Thus, I needed some help. Turns out a few other friends had been thinking of something along the same lines.

But how do we do something to please everyone? How do we make this fair? I can’t afford to cook for everyone the way I truly want to and believe me, when people say “it’ll even out” – it doesn’t. When I cook for friends I am doing just that and I don’t expect something in return or that everyone’s food will be the same. But sometimes I want to make a big production and I want to explore boundaries and I want to create something I wouldn’t normally think of, and I want to make multiple courses and serve my friends, and I want to see how they like new and different things, and I really want to make a whole meal without gluten and dairy and show just how wonderful it can be and and and and alas, I just can’t afford to do it very often.

So how do we make it alright for some of us to cook a 4 course meal and some to make potato soup without eliminating folks, make sure everyone feels like they can participate (even with tuna surprise, thank you Mr. A), and most of all make sure everyone understands that their participation is as important as anyone else’s? So… we took 12 people and created a facebook group. We (well, me) laid out the rules as follows:

1. Someone will host the last Sunday of the month.
2. There is a minimum and a maximum of what the host spends. Depending on expenses you can ask the guests for $5-$12.
3. If you decide to spend more than $12 a person, then it’s on you.
4. Experiment. Use good food. No judgements. No “ewww” faces.
5. If you are in the group and don’t want to host or cook, no worries but make sure someone wants to do that month (I’ll do it!).
6. Everyone must RSVP every time.
7. The host can decide to invite more people if he/she so chooses.
8. This does NOT replace good ol’ fashioned friends over for dinner any night of the week.

And there we have The Neighborhood Table. I thought I’d get this all out there before the posts of food start coming. I already bought my 8 pounds of short ribs and I’ve made my shopping lists. I’m ready and I hope you are too!

This is still part of the chicken soup series because it came about FROM the leftover stock. However, it is not actually a soup. While I can eat soup twice a day for weeks on end, I have been told many times that the majority of people cannot (you naysayers know who you are).

Actually, today in a staff meeting at work the term “cook once eat twice” was brought up. I have never heard this term, but it sure is how I live! So here’s my third way to use what we cooked that first night.

Chicken Salad for 2 meals. I eyed the measurements for this one and it really does depend on your taste. Since this was a split breast, it lasted 2 meals. One I had on a sandwhich of gluten free bread and the next day I ate it over spinach salad.

Split breast reserved from stock, chopped
mayonaise (I like canola mayo) (or you can do half mayo and half yogurt)
a tsp or 2 of dijon mustard
1-2 tsp water so it’s creamy without being too mayonaisey
dash of apple cider vinegar
2 celery stocks, chopped
small handful of dried cranberries
half an apple, peeled and chopped
dash of salt
dash of pepper

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Taste, add more of whatever you feel it needs. THEN add the other ingredients- it makes mixing easier to do it this way.

Enjoy!

Today I am working from home so that I can keep an eye on the beast (aka my dog Pasha Bean). She has chewed her way out of every cone, life preserver, crate, leash, collar, everything that is supposed to keep her confined post-surgery. The girl just wants some love. Today is also my oldest oldest friend Emily’s birthday. She reminds me on a regular basis how much fun it is to write children’s stories (pretty much just for her) so today I thought I’d actually share the latest. It came about a few months ago when I was thinking of a name for this very blog (it took me a year to settle on a name). I was visiting my brother and my sister-in-law in Boston and we thought of oh so many names that just didn’t quite work- but this one sounded kind of cute. So I wrote a story for my friend Emily.
PS- it’s about food so I figured I’m allowed to post it.

Pasha Bean and the Berry Jar

Once there was a small puppy named Pasha Bean. She was named so
because she was a clown and smelled like coffee. She played and
played, and ate and ate and played some more. She grew up. but she
didn’t just “grow up”, she really grew, and grew and grew. She grew so
much that her mom and dad had to keep replacing her doggie house. They
bought a bigger one and bigger one until one day they realized Pasha
Bean’s house was as big as theirs!

She ate a 35 pound bag of dog food every day. And still she wanted
more. Then one day, while her mom and dad were out at work all day,
Pasha Bean found her dog food and ate it. She ate all 35 pounds, but
she wasn’t satisfied. So she searched and searched her home and she
found strawberries that weren’t ripe; she found lemons that made her
mouth pucker; she found eggs that she couldn’t break; she found
blackberries that were too high to reach; she found lentils, quinoa,
and grains galore, but nothing that she could eat.

Pasha Bean sat. She pondered. She looked around. The only thing that
looked delectable were those darned blackberries so high up. She
jumped, but nothing. She stood on her tippie-toes, and nothing. She
moved a ladder with her nose, but couldn’t quite get it right. She sat
and thought. Then she remembered Oliver. Oliver was her next door
neighbor who caused havoc everywhere he went with his big waggy tail.
She whistled. He jumped through their secret hole in the fence. Pasha
pointed to the berries. Oliver smiled.

Oliver took a warm-up lap around the kitchen. He stretched his paws,
he cracked his knuckles. Then, he raced around the kitchen at full
speed and took a flying leap off of pasha Bean’s great big back and he
landed square on top of the fridge. He did NOT think about the
slippery-slipperiness on top of a fridge. he lost his balance. He
toppled over and off the fridge, bringing the contents of EVERYTHING
down with him. Pasha was covered in those berries. Then down came the
flour jar, then the sugar jar, then came those unripe strawberries.
Oliver dashed back home without a peep. Pasha sighed. She sat,
defeated. She lay down in that mess. She sighed again.

She fell asleep in that berry mess. When she woke up, she stretched.
She licked her lips and stretched some more. Then she stopped. She
licked her lips once more. And once more. She realized whatever was
all over her tasted delicious! That mix of sugar and berries and more
sugar and more berries was the most delicious thing she’d ever eaten.
She shoved what she could into the now empty jar with her nose. She
licked everything off the floor, off her fur, and off the sides of the
fridge.

When her mom and dad came home from work they saw a slightly sticky
pasha. They pet her, let her out, and then looked around for what to
make for dinner. They saw a jar filled with sweet black and red. They
opened it. They tasted it. They couldn’t remember where they’d bought
it but it was tasty. They put it on their cereal. They spread it on
toast. And Pasha just sighed from outside .

Yes, caldo de pollo is chicken soup. However, the first day we had it old school Jewish grandmother way and today we have it old school Mexican grandmother way. And I love it. Technically, you’d start the broth in the same way as yesterday, but with jalapeno and cilantro instead of the parsley. I make this version of soup a little heartier than the first version so I can have it for lunch today at work. Here’s how I doctored up my soup for today’s (and tomorrow’s) lunch. And just so you know, it took me 30 minutes this morning to make this version.
Optional additions: add zucchini to boiling soup and cook, add bay leaves, thyme or oregano.

5 cups chicken stock (with the carrots and chicken)
1 chayote squash, cut into chunks
1 cup rice
1/2 can diced tomatoes (or fresh if it’s the season)
1/2 c. frozen peas
grated cheese (I use a yogurt cheese that is lactose free but not vegan)
1/2 an avocado
1-2 limes
1 jalapeno, seeds removed, and chopped coarsely (or leave seeds for more heat)
1/2 bunch cilantro (tear cilantro by hand, and remove only the very end of stem- the rest of it is tasty)

Cook rice in half broth and half water with cut squash, a tsp of salt, and the half can of tomatoes. Cook as you would normal rice (taste to make sure rice is done).

While rice is cooking, heat up the broth in a pot. Add cut jalapeno. When rice is done and soup is hot, add frozen peas to rice mixture. Ladle soup into your bowl, scoop rice into soup, add cut avocado, torn cilantro, juice of limes, and grated cheese. Eat it up.

And if you do indeed have a cold, this’ll clear it right up.