the art of simple food II

Spring is coming eventually...the Groundhog told us that it was and so does the little bit of extra light pushing back sunset every day. If you're ready for warmer weather and contemplating a garden, Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food II:  Recipes, Flavor, and Inspiration from the New Kitchen Garden is a lovely book to read now to get yourself into the growing mindset.  Because it's not really about vast plots of land, it's about the appropriate attitude of cultivating and preparing food in a more personal and organic manner.  From herbs to lettuce, garlic, onions, vegetables, berries, melons and citrus, Waters details the bounty of the seasons along with wonderful recipes like Golden Jubilee Tomato Soup with Spiced Yogurt, Julienned Gypsy Pepper Salad, Wild Plum Jam Turnovers and Blackberry Souffle.  To preserve your harvest, recipes and guidance for home canning and making your own liqueurs are also featured.  Namely Vin d'Orange, Crab Apple Liqueur and Hazelnut Liqueur....please pass the bottle, thank you.

As a well-known cookbook author, chef and owner of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, Alice Waters has long been taking the basic concept of food and giving it new breadth and life.  She advises first-time gardeners to start small -- that the new kitchen garden can be "as simple as putting a seed in the ground and watching it grow." Whether you work with a pot of basil on the windowsill, heirloom tomatoes on the fire escape, zucchini on an apartment rooftop, or a suburban sprawl of romaine, eggplant and sweet potatoes (and/or your own personal cornfield or orchard), the main idea as Chef Waters explains is to nurture "the vital link between taste, cooking, and gardening".  She offers resources for seed "lending libraries" and urban gardening networks, as well as information on techniques like double-digging and crop diversity. And if you find that you don't have a green thumb, try your local farmers' markets and turn their harvest into a summer of culinary adventures -- just as long as we celebrate the earth and how to use it best for our health and enjoyment.

the mendelssohn club cookbook

German composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn's birthday was February 3, 1809 once upon a time, and then a century later in 1909, The Mendelssohn Club of Rockford, Illinois published a cookbook (also still in print and available on Amazon and Alibris, et al).  The ladies of the club wanted to raise funds for Rockford's then-new Mendelssohn Hall, so they put together a collection of favorite recipes and spirited interludes, with everything from tea sandwiches and teas, punches, salads and salad dressings, sauces, soups, chowders, cakes, pies, cookies, breads, muffins, meats, fish, vegetables, souffles, dumplings, puddings, canning, preserves and pickles, homemade beer, ciders and wines -- and let's not forget the general household hints and etiquette advice.

As the introduction states, the Club was troubled by the myth that "the artistic temperament and the domestic sciences have little in common; that they blend about as harmoniously as the proverbial oil and water." The cookbook preface also made sure to let us know that despite their love of music and the arts, these ladies hadn't neglected their domestic lives, and this all-purpose cookbook with its wealth of knowledge from how to clean and gut fish to planning a many-course wedding supper is surely proof of that.

I haven't tried this Mendelssohn Club recipe for Baked Pears but it does sound kind of intriguing:

Core and pare nice large pears.  Stuff with sliced candied ginger. Bake slowly in the oven with only enough water to keep from burning.  When done, place in a dish on ice.  Cut marshmallows up in small pieces, soak in sweetened cream for several hours.  When ready to serve, pour cream mixture over the pears.

Also despite there being plenty of labor-intensive dishes, this one sounds like a quick and elegant dessert for Valentine's Day, substituting those pre-made sponge cake shells they usually sell in the produce section near the fresh berries for the angel food individual cakes:

Use angel food individual cakes...[f]ill with a chocolate custard to which has been added sliced blanched almonds.  Pour over all stiffly whipped cream.  Put a Maraschino cherry on top and a row of chocolate almonds around the edge of each cake.

All in all, it looks like the work of the Mendelssohn Club, which was already 25 years old in 1909, continues on impressively today with Rockford's Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center.