We’re finally used to being back home from vacation in Maine. We were only gone a few days, but we really fell in love with Maine in general and Kennebunkport in particular! But now we’re back in the country, replacing sights of the Atlantic with sights of farmers.

We had some people over the other night, and I was going to fix flank steak, but I saw this flat iron steak at the market. They were giving out samples, and it was pretty good, so i thought I’d try it.

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I’m like just about anyone else… Grey winter days make me crave comfort foods. Yesterday could have been colder (I think it hit well over 60 for the day), but it was drizzly and grey all day long, so it seems like a comfort food would fit just right for the day.

January in Ohio can be almost depressing. I almost wish we got the snow they get in the Cleveland area; having just grey, miserable days can really get to a person. Comfort foods are a great way to fight that grey-day-feeling, though. I think comfort foods lift our spirits on their own, bringing back memories of our moms taking care of us on those days when we have to stay inside, or reminding us of the smell of Grandma’s kitchen when she was making our favorite dinner.

One of those comfort foods for me is post roast. Reading the title of this entry was a pretty good give-away, huh? Being who I am, though, I have to try to change it up just a bit from what I’d consider ordinary.
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Christmas brings a lot of opportunities to socialize and throw parties. Whether throwing a party of just going to one, I like to have a few things that I can cook pretty easily in case I need to host people or just take something along with me to a party.

(obligatory Christmas/Rudolph photo)

I made something the other day that’s nothing new, but I hadn’t made it in a while. It’s not a good item for the Hanukkah events that friends may be throwing, but it’s good for just about any Christmas party. I have tasted pork heaven, and its name is Pig Candy. So what is Pig Candy? It’s actually one of the easiest things to make, but oh-so-addictive and tasty. The ingredients are simple:

• Bacon. Not thick sliced or peppered
• Dark brown sugar. If only light is available, adding a bit of molasses helps
• Ground chiles. I like cayenne, chipotle and/or ancho. Ancho isn’t as hot, but is helped with a touch of cayenne.

For amounts, I start with about 2 cups of brown sugar for a pound of bacon. I mix in the chiles with the brown sugar; if I use cayenne, I use maybe 1/8 teaspoon. If I use ancho, I go with more like 1/2 of a tablespoon to a tablespoon. This is one of those things that you have to play with to see how much or little you prefer.

The oven doesn’t get preheated, so don’t worry about that. Start with a cooling rack that fits inside a cookie sheet/half sheet pan, and lay on the bacon in a single layer as tightly as you can. It will shrink up a lot, so just make sure it’s not overlapped. Then place the pan in the oven and turn it to 400 degrees F. I can’t remember why this is done in a non-preheated oven, but Alton Brown told me to do it that way, so I do!

The one change I make to AB’s method is that I turn down the oven once it reaches 400 degrees. I take the pan out of the oven, turn it down to 350 degrees F, and somewhat carefully layer the sugar/chile onto the bacon.

Once it’s on the bacon, I just smooth it out a bit. I like to put a good amount on each slice of bacon as it will melt off quite a bit, and I want to be sure to have plenty left on the bacon. Once the sugar is on the bacon, I put it back in the oven, turned 180 degrees from how it started. I then start my timing; every 4 minutes, I turn the bacon again, checking doneness. I like my bacon crisp, but even if you prefer yours less crisp, it needs to be crispy for this. I also turn on my overhead vent, as things start to smoke after a while.

I cooked this in the oven, but it can also be done on a grill or hot smoker. Once the bacon is crispy, I remove the pan from the oven and turn off the oven. Even if I’m doing another pan, I turn it off to let it cool somewhat before the next batch.

I immediately remove the bacon from the cooling rack onto paper towels so that it doesn’t stick to the cooling rack. If I’m doing more, I wipe off all the grease and melted sugar and start all over.

The end result is just ridiculous . I’ve had people at my office offer to buy more, and one person suggested I sell it as a gourmet item locally. Little do they know that it was a bunch of barbecuers that told me how to do this stuff!

Total time for this is approximately 25 minutes, though your oven could cause things to cook a bit faster or slower. The 350 degree setting is used so that the sugar doesn’t burn.

How does this become an appetizer? Pig Candy is great all on its own, but put it on a festive platter with sliced pears and brie, or figs and cheddar, or all of the above, and you’ll have a high-class appetizer that’s a bit different than anything other people may be bringing to the party.

So any of you out there trying this, if you do a variation of any sort, let me know what it was, and how it turned out.

Here it is at last! The foie gras I’d been so looking forward to preparing and eating. The big question: was it worth it?

The answer: a definite YES!

This stuff is like heaven on a fork. Here’s the progression of how things went:

If you look at any posts this week, they’ll most likely be from our 2007 wine party. This was, I guess, the featured dish of the party (outside of the wine, that is). I’d been looking into whether I’m pro-foie gras or anti-foie gras in an earlier post. My conclusion was that I’m pro. So I put in my order, and the foie gras got here last Thursday.

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Last night was kind of exciting. I got home to find a package waiting for me.

That’s right, my duck liver had arrived!

As I opened it, the first thing I saw was a bunch of those horrible styrofoam peanuts. I hate those thing! But lurking just below the peanuts, under ice packs, was a load of good stuff! I got the foie gras; a 1.65 pound duck liver, from Hudson Valley Foie Gras. This was suggested because they feed with soy mixed in with the corn, and D’Artagnan feeds with only corn. The soy mix results in a firmer liver, which lends itself well to pan searing. Also in the delivered treasure were 4 tubs of duck fat, duck sausage and wild boar sausage and bacon. Good stuff to be trying over the week!

The one item I got into for the party last night was crepes. They refrigerate very well, so I took the opportunity to get them done before Saturday.

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This past weekend was cool and rainy in Ohio.  It was actually very warm, considering that it was the 2nd weekend of January, and temps were in the 50’s, but it rained and rained and rained.  In fact, it rained enough I didn’t really want to be outside cooking, so I decided to make some beef stew, which I hadn’t done in some time. 

I fix what I would call a more rustic stew.  I thought about the word "rustic", which basically means "rural" or "of the country", that sort of thing.  As it relates to food, rustic, to me, implies food done with less fuss, though there may well be a lot of care into the preparation.  The food should appear to be simple but well done.  Cuts of ingredients would be larger than a more sophisticated version of the same dish, and herbs not diced as finely.  Pepper would be coarsely ground.  For stew, it means to me that that the ingredients are maybe left larger than what one would take in a single bite.

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