As I drove along I-270 circumnavigating Columbus, Ohio, my dream vehicle slowly began to materialize in the distance. My eye's could make out the vehicle's shape as my foot pressed against the accelerator to catch up. Watching the speedometer rise from 60 to 70 to 73 miles per hour, I worried that perhaps my speed was getting too high.
I missed my exit, but was too focused on the vehicle I was trying to catch up with to worry. Noticing that the beautiful vehicle I was chasing had pulled off on the last exit I could take before going way out of my way, I excitedly waved to the driver as we both pulled to a stop.
To my right was several tons of pure beauty. The polished wheels shone in the sunlight. Curves accentuated the vehicle's body and a fresh coat of wax had been recently applied. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and snapped a quick picture of my dream car . . . the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile.
The English Composition 1 class that I teach for Columbus State Community College has food as its theme, and this week we read Michael Pollan's "An Animal's Place." Like Pollan who pondered Australian Philosopher Peter Singer's Animal Liberation while eating a steak at the Palm, I contemplated Pollan's ideas as I sat down to the first roast beef of the Fall.
Pollan describes Singer's opinion that a day will come when "eating animals, wearing animals, experimenting on animals, killing animals for sport: all these practices, so resolutely normal to us, will be seen as the barbarities they are." While I believe that people will continue to use animals to benefit mankind as food and for other purposes, the future holds changes in how we view and use animals.
I hope that meals such as this roast don't become a "relic" and will still be accessible to future generations, but possibly on a smaller scale than they are now. In my view, most of us can drastically reduce the amount of meat we consume a year, and still lead healthy lives filled with delicious culinary options for every meal of the week.
In warmer weather, outdoor kitchens offer home cooks the opportunity to prepare a wide variety of foods without the heat and lingering odors that can be problematic when cooking inside the house.
Nemo and I are huge fans of Great Lakes smelt. Here, I'm preparing a batch on an outdoor cooktop designed for camping. Set up in grass or on a paved surface with cardboard underneath, small oil droplets and odors aren't nearly as problematic as when cooking indoors.
A simple flat surface provides the cook with a place to set foods that are ready to cook or have just finished cooking.
"Before" shot of Nemo anxiously awaiting a smelt.
"After" shot following a tasty diced smelt tail.
Harissa olive oil is infused with spices to give it a lively kick that accompanies a range of foods from hummus and bruschetta to chicken and fish dishes. This lovely bottle of harissa olive oil was a graduation gift from Evan Anderson. Not having cooked with it much before, I wasn't anticipating such a bold flavor but found it to be absolutely outstanding in some pesto that I made this week.
After blending black walnuts and grated parmigiana cheese with coarsely-chopped basil and several garlic cloves in a food processor, I drizzled a generous amount of harissa olive oil into the mix and pulsed a couple of additional times.
The resulting mix was phenomenal on toast points and I can imagine would be outstanding if tossed with a whole wheat pasta to make a carb-friendly pasta with pesto diablo.
Thank you to my good friend and master gardener Dan who gave me several tomato seedlings in late Spring. They're starting to produce some tiny, but flavor-packed tomatoes.
Several food magazines and recipes are starting to highlight these minute, flavor-packed cherry tomato varieties on salads, pizza, or as a garnish to other dishes.
I wish to send out a special thank you to Mariah, my student who was kind enough to bring cupcakes to our scheduled final exam period this week.
The students were writing final reflections on their growth and development as writers over the course of the short summer term and the cupcakes were a perfect accompaniment.
Mariah said that she substituted eggs with cinnamon applesauce and I noticed two things:
- the hint on cinnamon was a perfect accompaniment to the chocolate cake
- they stayed moist for a really long time (I took several at the end of class and hid them in my office so that I was able to enjoy wonderful breakfasts for several days afterwards)
For summer grilling that is delicious and easy on the wallet, look no further than fresh corn. Lindsay, my wife and culinary researcher, found a simple recipe that utilizes corn husks as a wrapping for seasoned chicken thighs. Similar to tamales but missing the corn filling, they were very tasty.
Start with husks pulled from several ears of fresh summer corn.
Place a medium-sized piece of chicken within one of the open husks and season. Wrap another piece of husk around the meat so that it's completely encapsulated in husk.
Use a strip of corn husk to tie the bundle into a neat package.
Place the bundles directly over hot coals. The husks will shield the chicken slightly from the fire's intense heat.
Grill for 25-30 minutes, turning once partway through cooking. Move the bundles out of the way of the fire's direct heat partway through cooking if it appears they'e cooking too fast.
While the bundles are cooking, boil the ears of corn that were inside the husks, cut from the cob, and quickly fry in a cast iron skillet with some butter and sea salt.
Serve hot off the grill. Be careful when unwrapping as the contents will be hot.
