--Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit
Born February 7, 1812
Clearly, he knew my family.
Happy Birthday, and a toast, to my literary idol.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Happy Birthday, Charles!
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Good Morning!
Morning means menu-planning here where land meets sea, and both send up gifts of nourishment and pleasure. Concentrated on a tiny peninsula in Rhode Island is the best that New England—or anyplace—has to offer: unhomogenized cream, grass-fed beef, sour cherries, currants, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and gooseberries; gorgeous lettuce; tree fruits and nuts; lobsters, clams, and ocean fish; native poultry and eggs; sensational potatoes and corn; tomatoes in their infinite variety of color, size, shape, and texture. In the morning, when the deer come out and the birds are just waking, when the fox and the coyote are going home, I take my coffee outside and think about dinner. In the morning, I go to the farms to buy what’s good or what calls to me. In the morning, I bake for breakfast or the weekend’s guests.
Here in
Living well through food is surprisingly easy. Great ingredients and surefire, pitch-perfect recipes are a good start, and we’ll talk about that and how/where to find them, or to know them when you see them. But equally important is a shift in thinking, perhaps a little learning, to see how simple and enjoyable it can be. So we’ll also talk about some of my other favorite subjects, the true secrets of making good food part of everyday life: using the freezer, seasoning food, putting together a menu, radical preserving, pacing of cooking tasks, stocking a pantry, entertaining at the drop of a hat, understanding food temperatures. They all work together in a seamless, organic whole.
The return to the seasonal and local is lesson number 1: food is remembering. What’s new is old. You may have arrived late, but welcome to the table.
Jane Robbins
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Sources and Sites
- American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
- Autocrat and Eclipse Coffee Syrup
- Chowhound-New England
- edibleRHODY
- egullet
- Farm Fresh Rhode Island
- Gastronomica: Journal of Food and Culture
- Gray's Cornmeal
- Kenyon's Cornmeal
- Morning Glory Coffee Syrup
- Narragansett Creamery Raw Milk Cheeses
- Quahog.org
- Rhode Island Beekeepers Association
- Rhode Island Lobstermen's Association
- Rhode Island Red Club of America
- RI Dairy Farmers Association
- RI DEM-Division of Agriculture
- RI Fruit Growers Association
- Slow Food
- Sustainable Rhode Island
- Tiverton Four Corners
- Tiverton Land Trust
- Town of Little Compton
- URI Cooperative Extension
- Visit Rhode Island
About Me
- Jane
- I have a professional chef's diploma but, more important, grew up watching my Pennsylvania German grandmother cook and bake for my family. I first came to Rhode Island from New Jersey for college in the 60s, and was forced into cooking for myself by the shock of institutional food. Thank goodness for all those years of observation and pie for breakfast. The culinary degree is good for learning chemistry (syneresis, anyone?) and food safety, and maybe for trusting me when I tell you not to refrigerate something. But I learned to cook by eating, watching, and doing. I highly recommend all three. When I'm not writing about food, I'm writing about the history of research universities and teaching about organizations, leadership, and innovation at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, or writing fiction. It's hard to know which is mightier--the pen, or the wooden spoon.