Another special note regarding the loss of Chester Weedgar, Jr.

As the summer ends, I am faced with another death - the death of my goldfish.

Yesterday afternoon, Chester jumped out of his fishbowl onto the rug of Paul's apartment. Without water, Chester couldn't survive for long. When Paul came home from work that night, he found Chester, shriveled into something barely recognizable on the rug.

So what did Paul do? He flushed little Chester down the toilet. And that was that. It's not what I would have done with a dead fish, but then again, what else could he have done? A burial at sea at Druid Park Reservoir?

We miss our little fish. We loved to watch him swim around his glass bowl, always looking so happy. He survived way longer than I anticipated he would, almost two and a half months. I'm going to miss feeding him in the mornings.

But seriously, first my car, now the goldfish? It's been quite a summer.

Read more...

Mussels and Crabs for Dinner?

After an excess of meat, meat and more meat, I was ready for something different, something lighter. My first thought was seafood. With a stroke of brilliance, Paul suggested snow crab clusters that were on sale at Giant. $5.99 a pound was absolutely ridiculously cheap for crab. Maybe it was because we were in Baltimore, the crab capital of the world? Who knows, but it was a deal we couldn’t pass up.

And even better, Giant can steam the crabs in-store, seasoned with or without Old Bay. The snow crab claws contain an impressive amount of meat and are easy to break open and eat. They can be enjoyed hot or cold.

Crab legs in hand, something else caught my eye. Mussels were on sale as well, $6 a bag - couldn't pass that up either.

The crabs were ready to eat, but the mussels were still alive. I didn’t realize this, as for some reason I thought that if the shells were open the mussels were dead. As a result, I chucked 10 of them into the trash can. Paul discovered them half an hour later, explaining that if the shells were open, you could tap them on a hard surface. If the mussels were alive, the shells would close.

I decided to make a simple sauce for the mussels, nothing that I had a recipe for, just something I improvised –

-some champagne (just pour it in the pot until it looks like enough)
-a small amount of beer
-a can of tomatoes and one fresh tomato, diced
-a generous amount of garlic powder
-a pinch or two of parley
-ambiguous amounts of salt and pepper

I learned that you don’t need a lot of liquid with which to steam mussels. I combined all of the ingredients in a pot, and waited for it to boil. We steamed the mussels above the mixture in the pot for about five minutes, until the meat inside the shell turned a golden brown color.

In addition to crabs and mussels, I asked Paul to make some of his specialty potatoes. They're in no way healthy, but they really are delicious. He slices russet potatoes into triangle sections, pours olive oil or canola oil into a big saucepan and fries them up until they're golden brown. Afterwards he seasons them with salt and pepper. It's that simple and they made a perfect companion to our seafood dinner.

The meal was a huge success - everything was cooked perfectly. I really liked my mussel sauce too - the champagne cut the acidity of the tomato sauce nicely. And to think - I used to believe you could only get good mussels and crabs in restaurants.

Read more...

A trip to the JFX Farmer's Market

Anything before 11 a.m. on a Sunday is horrifically, unacceptably early for me. It is nearly impossible for me to wake up any earlier, especially when I’m going to bed after 3 a.m. on Saturday. It’s been quite the problem for me all summer, because I can never make it to any of the Baltimore area farmer’s markets before they close. Thanks to a recent assignment from my food editor at Baltimore magazine, I was finally able to make it yesterday.

The project was for me to write a short article about a pickle vendor at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market, every Sunday morning from 7 a.m. to noon underneath the JFX. The vendor is called “In a Pickle,” and sells all sorts of innovative variations on the classic pickle. My pre-determined 9 a.m. arrival time for me and my boyfriend Paul (he’s obsessed with pickles) was far too ambitious. We arrived closer to 11, but we still had plenty of time to browse (and there was still plenty of food to be sold!).

We wandered around the crowded, but lively market, in search of the pickle tent. We browsed vendors selling peaches, fresh berries (I bought some blackberries) and other fruits. I bought a chocolate chip cookie from a baker, too. There were also vendors selling fresh live crabs and prepared foods such as crepes, falafel, omelets, Asian food (a bit odd) and a Baltimore favorite, pit beef sandwiches. We were unimpressed with the pit beef, particularly because the vendors stuffed the beef between two slices of what appeared to be soggy Wonderbread.

After a bit, we finally found the pickle vendor, and were quite impressed. After waiting in the long line, we bought a pint of kosher dill pickles, one for Paul and one for my roommate (another pickle fan). Paul also bought a “pickle on a stick,” which is exactly what it says it is. I asked the man helping us where the pickles came from, and he responded, “Our pickles are grass-fed from Arizona.” At first I believed him.

I must confess that I’m not a huge pickle fan myself, but after trying a bite of Paul’s pickle on a stick, I have to say that it wasn’t half bad. The crisp crunchiness has a surprisingly clean flavor and wasn’t nearly as overpoweringly sour as I expected it to be.

Read more...