If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, Fellow FoodBeest, “I don’t bake.” But I’m beginning to think that that’s one of those things I made up on a really bad day and was never the truth to begin with. Actually it may have been my mother who said it and I just inherited it.

The only biscuits that got baked in my house growing up came out of an canister that you smacked on the edge of the counter to open. And they weren’t very good.

Looking back, I realize I have mastered pie crust and even bread so I’m not even sure why this is such a surprise.

So this week I took on biscuits. Not a big deal for many of you, but if you happen to be a nice Jewish girl raised above the Mason-Dixon, biscuits are not exactly in your repertoire. In fact anything (with the possible exception of Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies) that mixes butter and flour and some rising agent is not something that “I do.”

And all I can say is, “Well, shut my mouth and slap my granny!” I can bake! These biscuits are light and flaky and really, really tasty. And If I can bake, anyone can. Even you. And by the way, thank YOU. I would never have done this if not for you.

What You Need to Make Biscuits
17 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arthur recommended)
[this is 17 oz by weight to ensure you're not packing down the flour and making your biscuits heavy. Just put your bowl on a kitchen scale set to "0" and then add flour until it weights 17 oz]
4 t baking powder
1 t salt
4 ounces cold butter
12 ounces cold milk or milk and cream combined
2 T melted butter

How to Make Biscuits
Preheat the oven to 475°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line with parchment.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. By the way – and this important – the flour is measured by weight, not volume.

Work in the butter till the mixture is crumbly; some larger, pea-sized pieces of butter may remain intact.

Add the milk and/or cream, stirring till everything is moistened.

Turn the dough out onto a clean floured work surface (I used a silicone backing mat with no flourbut that’s not necessary), and fold it over once or twice. Pat it into a ¾”-thick square, rectangle, or circle.

Cut the biscuits with a round cutter (the edge of a glass will do) or cut into 2-inch squares.

Place them on the prepared baking sheet. Brush their tops and sides with melted butter, if desired (that’s silly. Trust me: you desire this).

Bake for 5 minutes, then turn off the oven. Leave in the oven for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, till they’re golden brown.

Remove from the oven, and serve warm with butter, honey, jam, or, if you’re up to it, some genu-ine homemade white bacon gravy.

Creative Variations
If you want to play with these you can add sharp cheddar cheese before you add the milk and make cheese biscuits. Or you can add fresh herbs like chives or parsley. Or bacon. Or ramps. Or nuts or chocolate chips or raisins and cinnamon or dried cranberries. Got other ideas? Let us all know in the comment section below.

Make Ahead
This made about a dozen two-inch biscuits, but you don’t have to eat them all at once. You don’t even have to bake them all at once. Bake as many as you need and put the rest of the uncooked biscuits in the freezer on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Then you can put them in an airtight bag and bake them when you want them. To bake frozen biscuits, preheat the oven to 475-degrees and bake for 8 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave them in the over for another 5-8 minutes until they are golden brown on top.

This FoodBeest only recently learned about Yotem Ottolenghi. He’s the hottest chef in London and, although not strictly vegetarian, he is the man who sexed up vegetables for the rest of us.

An Israeli-born food writer and chef, Ottolenghi has apparently charmed London foodies, nearly out of their white truffle oil.

His cooking style, while an outgrowth of his Middle Eastern roots, is neither ethnic nor fusion. He does enhance the flavors and textures of the region: Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Israel and Armenia with a modern and western sensibility. Were that we could do that with international relations.

This recipe comes from his column in the Manchester Guardian. I apologize in advance, Fellow FoodBeest, for taking liberties with such a noted chef’s creation. My beets were golden instead of red and I used ramps (wild onions) instead of spring onions. I bet they don’t even have ramps in England. But it is my kitchen and I get to say. Just like in your kitchen you get to say.

Still, I am totally enamored of Yotem and his food. And I am certain that more of his recipes and ideas will show up here as they are showing up in my little Chicago kitchen.

Some people say they don’t like beets. If that describes you, Fellow FoodBeest, this is no time to turn away. I promise that you have never tasted anything quite like this. It is nothing – and I mean NOTHING – like the beet borsht that my mother poured out of Manischewitz bottle and topped with a boiled potato and sour cream

This soup is nothing short of spectacular.

I highly recommend that you let the soup sit in the fridge overnight, or for up to two days, so the flavors develop. You, seriously, won’t believe how amazing this soup is.

Ottolenghi’s intention is that you serve it on a hot day with the ice slowly melting into the soup. For a less dramatic, but no less delicious option, add a bit of cold water to get a smooth and soup-like (no, I didn’t say soupy!) texture..

What You Need to Make Yolem Ottolenghi’s Beet Borsht

2½ lb beets
[I used golden beets; the red ones make a different color soup. Duh.]
5 spring onions
[I used – of course – ramps instead]
2 cucumbers, peeled, deseeded and cut into rough chunks
3 celery stalks from the tender yellowish center, stems and leaves roughly chopped
8 oz crème fraiche
3 T balsamic vinegar
3 T olive oil
1 T + 1 t maple syrup
Salt and white pepper
11 oz ice, crushed (or ½ C cold water)

How You Make Yolem Ottolenghis Beet Borsht
Heat the oven to 400 F. Wrap each beet individually in foil and bake for an hour to an hour and a half, until a knife goes in easily. Set the beets aside until they cool, then peel and cut into rough chunks.

Cut off the white ends of the spring onions (or ramps) and put these in the bowl of a food processer. Save the green parts as garnish. Put the beets, cucumber, celery and 4 oz of the crème fraise into the food processor and blitz that puppy until it is smooth. Add the balsamic vinegar, oil, maple syrup, ¾ teaspoon of salt and a pinch of white pepper, and pulse to combine.

Put the soup in an airtight container and refrigerate, overnight if possible.

Next day, ladle the soup between six small bowls. Sprinkle the ice chips on top and then add a dollop of crème fraiche to each serving. Finely slice the green part of the onions or ramps, sprinkle them over the top and serve.

Cupcakes have gone passé. So 2012.

Doughnuts are now the bomb, Fellow FoodBeest. Everyone in town is making them with toppings of toffee and bacon and potato chips and birthday party sprinkles and coffee glaze and pomegranate and coconut and pistachio and maple and everything you can think of and lots of things that you would never think of. Most of them tooth-curdlingly sweet.

It was time for a FoodBeest version that worked at home. So we researched and researched and looked at cookbooks and googled and found lots of recipes. Cake doughnuts. Raised doughnuts. Glazed doughnuts. Chocolate doughnuts. Jewish doughnuts. Italian doughnuts. American doughnuts. Old Fashioned. Modern.

And then I ran across this very simple recipe from noted pastry chef Gale Gand via her Italian mother-in-law. Sweet enough, but not cloyingly sweet. Kinda round, but not perfectly shaped. Crispy on the outside, soft, moist and lovely on the inside thanks to the ricotta cheese. And we fell in love.

These were a Mother’s Day brunch offering, but it could have been for Father’s Day or Christmas or Chanukah or the Fourth of July or just some Sunday morning. Or dessert. Or whatever.

You’re gonna like these. Let us know what you think.

What You Need to Make Italian Doughnuts
Vegetable oil, for deep frying
6 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 pound ricotta cheese
2 ½ C flour
1 heaping T baking powder
1 t vanilla

How You Make Italian doughnuts
In a deep saucepan, heat enough oil to deep fry (about half-way up the pot) to 350 to 365 degrees F. It is critical that you have a deep-frying thermometer. You want to keep adjusting the temperature of the oil so that it stays between 350 and 365 degrees. Otherwise the doughnuts will brown too fast on the outside and leave the center raw. Trust me on this, Fellow FoodBeest. I found out the hard way.

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl with a wooden spoon in order until the batter is smooth.

Using a 2-tablespoon measure (like a coffee scoop), scoop a spoonful of batter then push it off into the hot oil with the other spoon. They will sink then float to the top of the oil. Turn them occasionally with a slotted spoon to be sure they fry evenly on all sides.

If you want to make this ahead, you can cover the bowl of batter and store it in the fridge for up to a day. When you’re ready to fry the doughnuts, you may have to increase the frying time slightly to compensate for the colder batter.

Drain on paper towels and roll at the table in cinnamon sugar. You could also sprinkle confectioners sugar on top, but we prefer the cinnamon sugar. Serves dozens immediately.

Ok, so you must think I’m obsessed, Fellow FoodBeest. And you are probably right.

Remember Bubba in Forrest Gump? That would be me. Ramps. “You can barbecue ‘em, boil ‘em, broil ‘em, bake ‘em, saute ‘em. Dey’s uh, ramp-kabobs, ramp creole, ramp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple ramps, lemon ramps, coconut ramps, pepper ramps, ramp soup, ramp stew, ramp salad, ramps and potatoes, ramp burger, ramp sandwich. That- that’s about it.”

It was Sunday afternoon and I didn’t feel like working hard. I also didn’t feel like eating anything heavy. Ordering in would mean pizza or barbeque or Chinese and I didn’t feel like any of those. Soup seemed right. I wanted something filling but nothing too hearty. It was spring and getting warm.

And then I came across a recipe for spring minestrone. Most minestrones I have known (and loved) are heavy, rich and satisfying on a cold winter day. This wonderful spring minestrone is rich, but it is also light and bright and filled the best of spring produce: peas, asparagus, artichokes. A perfect vehicle to use up the last of the ramps, which will substitute for garlic and green onions.

Use a vegetable broth and you have a totally vegetarian meal.

And the pesto is much more gentle than traditional pesto because the ramps replace the rough raw garlic flavor and what you get is still vibrant and sunny and evocative of nice green things growing. It accompanies the soup, but your leftovers freeze well and would be awesome on pasta, in risotto or to toss potatoes in.

Spring Ramp Minestrone

What You Need To Make Spring Ramp Minestrone
2 T olive oil
1 bunch of green ramp wings (3- 4 oz)
1 lb baby potatoes, or Yukon gold potatoes
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 quart vegetable or chicken stock
Salt
½ lb artichoke hearts (fresh or frozen – not canned), chopped roughly
1 15-oz can of chickpeas
1 C peas (fresh or frozen)
½ lb asparagus, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 C greens (dandelion, chard, spinach, kale, arugula, etc), sliced into thin ribbons [I used kale]
About ¼ C basil/ramp pesto
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish

How to Make Spring Minestrone
Wash the ramps carefully and chop them. Slice the potatoes and artichoke hearts into chunks you could easily eat with a spoon.

In a large pot set over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil for 1 minute. Add the ramps and sauté, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the potatoes, stir to combine and cook 1 minute.

Add the diced tomatoes with their liquid and the quart of vegetable or chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, add salt to taste, then cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.

Add the artichoke hearts and cook another 5 minutes, then add the chickpeas and green peas and cook another 5 minutes. Remove the cover from the soup and add the asparagus. Cook 2 minutes. Add the greens, stir well to combine and cook 1 minute.

Turn off the heat and serve the soup hot with a dollop of pesto and a nice sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese atop each bowl
Serves 6.

Basil/Ramp Pesto

What You Need to Make Basil/Ramp Pesto
2 C fresh basil leaves
1 C chopped ramp wings
2 T pine nuts (pignolis)
¼ C walnuts or pecans
¼ C olive oil
¼ C grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

How To Make Basil/Ramp Pesto
Wash the basil leaves and ramp wings carefully by swirling them in a bowl of water and then spinning them dry in a salad spinner.

Put the pine nuts and walnuts or pecans in the bowl of a food processer or blender. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, ramp wings, salt and pepper. With the food processor or blender, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is well pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for another minute.

You can use this right away or store it in the refrigerator or freezer. A thin film of olive oil on top will help preserve the color and freshness.

Post note: The leftover basil/ramp pesto was awesome for a very fast and simple dinner on penne with sautéed shrimp (thank you Bubba) and a few cut-in-half grape tomatoes. How do you use ramps, Fellow FoodBeest?

An early sign of spring, ramps are pungent wild onions, sort of a cross between leeks and garlic. Legend has it that the city of Chicago took its name from the Potawatami word for the wild onions we now know as ramps: shikaakwa. That might be true. Or maybe not.

Shikaakwa, or ramps, are only available for two or three weeks a year.

I was in Mariano’s looking for ramps and I asked the produce guy who was stacking plastic boxes of lettuce on shelves, “Do you have ramps?”

“Ramps?” he repeated. “Ramps? What are ramps?”  Not a good sign.

Then I went to Whole Foods and asked the produce guy who was bringing out plastic boxes of tomatoes,”Do you have ramps?”

He walked over to another counter and looked. “Looks like we’re out of them. We’ll get another shipment of them this afternoon.” At least he knew what I was talking about.

We finally scored a couple of nice bunches of ramps the next day. The question was now what to do with them?

First off we cut off the white and red ends of most of them and pickled them.

Then, left with the green wings, we made a tart. And biscuits. And a fritatta. And then we made a spring minestrone. And a pesto. All featuring ramps. If you think I went a little crazy with ramps, you would be correct. But I did get them out of my system. Now it’s your turn.

Pickled Ramps

What You Need to Make Pickled Ramps
½ C white wine vinegar
½ C sugar
½ C water
½ t mustard seed
½ t coriander seed
½ t fennel seed
3 red peppercorns
3 white peppercorns
dash mild crushed pepper
1 small bay leaf
1 pounds ramps, cleaned and trimmed
Kosher salt for blanching
½ T salt for the pickling liquid

How You Make Pickled Ramps
Trim the ends off of the ramps and cut down the leaves leaving about ¼ inch of green, saving the green ends for another purpose. Wash the ramps under cool, running water.

Blanch the ramps quickly by dropping them in a large pot of salted, boiling water for 30 seconds, and then immediately shock them (immerse them in ice water). Drain the ramps well and place them in a mason or other canning jar.

Combine the vinegar, salt, sugar, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the bay leaf, mustard seeds, coriander, pink and white peppercorns, dried pepper and fennel seeds.

Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the ramps in the mason jar and let cool, sealing tight and transferring to the refrigerator.

These will last weeks in the fridge. They’re great to serve with grilled chicken or steak. If you follow proper, safe canning techniques, they will last for a few months. Or until you eat them all. Which ever comes first.

Ramp & Cheddar Biscuits

What You Need to Make Ramp and Cheddar Biscuits
2 C all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
½ t salt
1 T sugar
4 T cold butter
1¼ C heavy cream
¼ C all purpose flour (for shaping the biscuits, not to go into the mix)
½ C fresh ramp leaves, coarsely chopped.
½ C white cheddar cheese, grated
1 T melted butter (for glazing)

How You Make Ramp and Cheddar Biscuits
Preheat the oven to 475(F). Whisk together the dry ingredients, the cheese, and the ramps. Use fingers to incorporate cold butter. With the butter, you really just have to knead it with your fingers until the mixture has a course texture, like corn meal. Pour in cream. Stir (preferably with a wooden spoon) until dough forms. It’s okay if the dough is a little sticky, you’ll work it out on the countertop.

Sprinkle flour onto the countertop and scoop your dough onto it. Use your hands to flatten it out. If you flatten it a little, flip it, and flatten it some more, you have a better chance of being sure that one side doesn’t get overworked, which is important.

If your dough (and this goes for any dough, really) ever gets too sticky and unmanageable, pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes or so. The stickiness is really coming from the butter getting too warm, so cooling it off will allow it to firm up a bit.

Using a biscuit cutter (or the open side of a glass), cut the dough into circular shapes. Place on ungreased baking pan.

Melt the last tablespoon of butter and, with a silicone (I like silicone because the bristles don’t come out) brush, brush melted butter on top of the biscuits. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Makes 6 biscuits

Julia Child does it with a chicken. She calls it a family-style dinner.

Anthony Bourdain favors oxtails and says it would make a Frenchman cry.

Thomas Keller uses marrow bones and iconoclastically cooks it sous vide.

And every French household has its own version of pot-au-feu (pot on the fire), a simple and classic French beef stew that some consider the quintessence of French family cuisine.

It has a lot in common with similar dishes from other cultures, like Pho (which may well have taken its name from pot-au-feu), cholent, New England boiled dinner and various hot pots.

The essence of pot-au-feu is that it uses low-cost cuts of beef like shank, oxtail, short ribs or even brisket; some meat with a lot of cartilage like marrowbone or shank to give the broth a gelatinous texture; simple, usually root and winter vegetables, spices and sometimes sausage.

Some French households keep the pot-au-feu going for days, adding new meat, vegetables and/or pasta or rice over time.

You will want to serve it with plenty of toasted French-style bread and toppings like strong mustard, horseradish, coarse salt, and cornishons. The broth is extraordinary and is perfect served on its own or served on a deep dish and used to soak into the toasted bread.

Some recipes call for a brine for the meat. We started with a recipe from the Zuni Café Cookbook that uses a dry brine in which the meat was salted and left to rest overnight as it absorbs the flavoring.

Start this two days before you plan to eat it. You need 24 hours for the meat to dry brine and then another day after cooking for the meat and vegetables for them to mingle gently in the broth and come together to form a cohesive dish.

What You Need to Make Pot-au-Feu
4 pounds beef shank (or short ribs or brisket)
Salt
1 lb. veal shank
1 lb. garlic sausage
3 quarts chicken or beef stock
2 small yellow onions, peeled and halved
1 bay leaf
A few black peppercorns, barely cracked
1 whole star anise
3 sprigs fresh thyme
3 crushed garlic cloves
3 springs parsley
2 large carrots
2 medium leeks, light green and white parts quartered lengthwise
3 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 medium white turnips, peeled and quartered
½ cabbage cut into wedges with the core intact

Mustard Vinaigrette
1 T broth from pot-au-feu
2 t dijon mustard
1 to 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
6 T olive oil
1 t walnut oil (optional)
Salt and freshly cracked ground pepper

How to Make Pot-au-Feu
One day in advance, trim most of the fat from the beef, but leave the silverskin and tough sheeting around the bones intact. Salt evenly all over (use a bare tablespoon of coarse salt per 4 pounds meat). Cover loosely and refrigerate.

The next day, blanch the meat: Pour a few quarts of cold water — enough to cover the short ribs — into a deep 6- to 10-quart stockpot. Set over high heat. When the water is warm to the touch, add the meat, a teaspoon or so of salt, and bring to a simmer for just 2 minutes. Drain, rinse the meat in cold water, and wash out the pot.

Put the beef and the veal shanks back in the clean pot and add enough stock (I used a box of good beef stock supplemented it with a few cups of chicken stock) so that the meat rises about an inch above the surface. Add cold water to cover by a few inches, bring to a simmer, and skim any last bits of foam or scum that pop up. Taste for seasoning.

Create a bouquet garni or herb bouquet with three layers of cheese cloth in which you put bay leaves, peppercorns, star anise, garlic, parsley and thyme. Tie it up with kitchen string, and put it in the pot. Cook uncovered at a gentle but very steady simmer, skimming occasionally, for about 1 hour.

Skim the broth once again, then add the sausage, onions, carrots, leeks, turnips, and potatoes. Add more stock or water as needed, so everything stays covered. Stir once. Bring to a simmer then taste for seasoning. Cook 30 minutes.

Add the cabbage and simmer until the meat is yielding but not soft, about another half-hour. The vegetables should be just tender. Remove the bouquet garni, let everything cool in the broth, and refrigerate overnight.

On day three (eating day!), skim any congealed fat from the top of the broth, then gently reheat the broth with the meat and vegetables.

Transfer the meat and vegetables to a shallower pot (with a few ladlefuls of the broth to keep everything moist) and keep warm over gentle heat. Taste the broth and adjust seasoning as needed.

Mustard Vinaigrette
Chill the tablespoon of broth, then skim any fat. Whisk together the mustard and vinegar in a small bowl, then slowly whisk in the oil. Whisk in a trickle of the cooled pot-au-feu liquid to stabilize this emulsion. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Serve
For the first course, ladle the broth into bowls and serve with toasted crusty French bread.

For the main course, lift the meat from the pot and slide it off the bones. Thickly slice it – across the grain. Arrange on individual plates, surrounding with the vegetables, whole, chunked, or wedged. Skim the rich broth and serve a splash of it with each plate. Serve vinaigrette alongside.

This is also interesting served at room temperature, especially if the broth has gelled.

It will serve a lot of people. Say Merci bien.

A Guest Post from FoodBeest Friend Yvette Moyo about the proposed closing of Yale Elementary School, a Chicago Public School in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood where children and their parents learn micro business development, parenting, community building, and how to avoid and combat minority health disparities It is part of the Eat to Live Englewood Urban Garden and Farm Development (EUGFD). Yvette is Co-Founder of Real Men Cook Father’s Day Celebrations and Real Men Charities, Inc, which co-sponsors EUGFD.

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

My sister, you are amazing.

You have overcome monumental challenges and publicly demonstrated resilience and the best of being human in the face of extreme tragedy. Your achievements are many — from combating obesity, maintaining your lovely public disposition, loyalty to your sister, to honoring the memory of your nephew through service with your foundation You are indeed a role model.

I wanted to bring to your attention to the fact that your alma mater, Yale Elementary School, will be shut down by Chicago Public Schools (CPS). As a member of the community you still call home, I work with other supporters of the Eat to Live Urban Garden and Farm Development (ELUGFD) each summer next door to Yale Elementary School, the school at which you learned every day, to teach children.

This is what it looks like when Yale student, Sierra, was working in the garden.

Some time in early Septemter, months after we’d closed out gardening, another Yale girl, saw me at the school. I recognized her as a young lady who wouldn’t listen those first few early days in the garden. But she began to talk about one of the days we sauteed spinach with olive oil, fresh garlic and a squeeze of lemon. Some of the spinach was from the bush of wild spinach in the garden and some from leaf spinach.

Suddenly, she said to me, “I know what I want for my birthday! A big bowl of that spinach. Can you make one just for me? Can you get me that for my birthday?” Of course! The Eat to Live Summer activities at Yale aim to create excitement and new vitality around life-giving foods that delight with the simplest preparation.

That’s what this is all about.

In recent years, Yale Elementary has seen many improvements; brick and mortar upgrades and new air conditioners, but the all-important library has been without a librarian for years. Our work in Englewood includes a track record of health education, community building and programming featuring men, and a curriculum created to reduce obesity in 10 Englewood Schools. Our funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is being renewed for the third year for the impact we’ve had in changing eating habits, nutrition knowledge and behaviors.

We’re requesting that you lead the campaign for the transformation of the new Yale/Hudson School with our team of seasoned, culturally competent teachers and administrators committed to educational innovation. Our goals – to teach self-love to our children, and by extension our community, cultural enhancement, with an emphasis on math and science as fun and critical sources for lives that work.

The Yale/Hudson School boasts a garden (our outdoor classroom and soon-to be developed farm), the ELUGFD, a collaborative effort between Angelic Organics Learning Center and Real Men Charities, Inc., initially launched with the Center for Urban Transformation. Class sizes will be limited to 15 students per room, allowing us to keep current students and teachers in place, fortifying the staff with new life and the energy necessary for the study of math and science, and life associated with urban agriculture.

We’ll view all students as having special needs with attention and focus on the haunting issues of unemployment, mass incarceration, violence, and health disparities, including obesity prevention. Parents will be part of the school and encouraged to attend and learn micro business development, parenting, community building, and how to avoid and combat minority health disparities. Hours of operation are daily, 7:30 am until 9 pm.

Ms. Hudson, you will LOVE what we have in store. But we realize you can’t do it alone. We want to help you build a support team, and encourage you to contact fellow Chicagoans. Friends like Lupe Fiasco, Common, Kanye West, Quincy Jones and others who lay claim to The Windy City. We hope to establish a fund to run the school. We have a highly trained team assembling to design the facility with committed, culturally competent professionals. You’ll be taking it off the hands of CPS.

I’m the co-founder of Real Men Cook, and we’ve stopped planning the curriculum for the summer camp that includes Real Men Building Healthy Kids in our outdoor classroom at ELUGFD, including time for children to work in the garden. The Camp begins in a few months – our third year, but only with the resource of water to the garden from Yale school, and only with the classrooms for our wonderful Family Camp curriculum. We are looking for a miracle, and you Ms. Hudson, have a track record as a miracle-maker.

The Final Yale hearing regarding closure was held last week. We’ve asked CPS for creative solutions. The New Yale/Hudson school is one we think has possibilities. Who else could we call to help other than you, a successful Yale alum? Take a look.

I hate meatloaf, Fellow FoodBeest. Ok, “hate” is too strong a word. I am completely disinterested in meatloaf.

I know it’s one of those super comfort foods that people love, like Sloppy Joes (which I totally get) or Mac and Cheese (never turn it down) or pot roast (not so much), but I never really got it about meatloaf.

My mother used to make a meatloaf built around a couple of hardboiled eggs. I’m sure she got the idea in some 1950s-era Better Homes and Gardens. The idea was that when you slice the meatloaf, you get a yellow and white slice of egg in the middle of your food.

Like a third eye, unblinking at you.

I once made a meatloaf and took it out of the oven only to watch it promptly slide off the pan and onto the floor.

“Oh, darn, now we’ll have to order out.”

A lot of people really love meatloaf, so I thought it was time to try to see what all the fuss was about. I searched around for a recipe that would elevate meatloaf to something special. I found this one by Chef David Burke. Now, if you don’t know, David Burke is a bit of a celebrity chef with great creds and restaurants in New York, New Jersey and a well-regarded steakhouse in Chicago.

Chef Burke calls this Millionaires Meatloaf. He serves it over lobster mashed potatoes and topped with a beautifully grilled shrimp.

The perfect ending to the meatloaf affair, Fellow FoodBeest, would be my rapturous report about how I discovered that I now love meatloaf. But here’s the bottom line. This is meatloaf. The bacon helps.The veggies help. The seasonings help. We couldn’t figure out what to do with the whole roasted garlic cloves.

For my money, I would take Chef Burke’s lobster mashed potatoes and the grilled shrimp any day, but why bother sandwiching meatloaf between them? To me, it’s still just meatloaf.

If you like meatloaf you’ll probably love this one. I wished I did.

What You Need to Make David Burke’s Meatloaf
5 strips lean bacon, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 lbs very lean ground beef sirloin
2 large eggs
½ C milk
1 C finely ground fresh bread crumbs
¼ C Dijon mustard
¼ C barbecue sauce
1 T bottled horseradish, well drained
½ C finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 t coarse salt
1 T freshly ground black pepper
1 t finely minced fresh thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme)
2 to 3 cups croutons
10 whole, unpeeled, garlic cloves
4 bay leaves
1 sprig fresh thyme

How to Make David Burke’s Meatloaf
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the bacon in a medium sauté pan over medium-low heat. Sauté the bacon for about 5 minutes, or until it has begun to crisp and most of the fat has rendered out. Add the garlic, onion, and carrot and continue to sauté for about 4 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft and the onions are translucent but have not taken on any color. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the vegetables to cool. Burke suggests you make more that this and serve it surrounding the meatloaf.

Place the ground sirloin into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and milk and, using your hands, work the liquid into the meat. Add the bread crumbs and continue to work the liquid and crumbs into the meat. Add the cooled vegetables, mustard, barbecue sauce, and horseradish along with ¼ cup of the parsley, salt, pepper, and thyme. Using your hands, gently work all of the ingredients into the meat until well combined.

Place one-half of the croutons into a shallow baking dish.
Transfer the meatloaf mixture onto a clean, flat surface and shape it into a loaf about 3¼ in. X 2½ in. high X 12 in. long. Press the remaining croutons into the loaf, making sure that they are partially pressed down into it.

Gently press the unpeeled garlic cloves into the top of the meatloaf. Carefully lay the loaf on top of the croutons in the baking dish, reforming the shape with your hands, if you need to. Pierce the meatloaf with the bay leaves and thyme sprig. Place the meatloaf in the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. The internal temperature should read 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer and the top will be nicely browned.

Remove the pan from the oven. Allow the meatloaf to rest for about 5 minutes before transferring it to a serving platter. Remove the bay leaves and thyme sprig and sprinkle with the remaining parsley.

Cut crosswise into slices 1-inch or thicker and serve.

You can do an awful lot with very little, Fellow FoodBeest. This recipe is basically flour and water with a little olive oil, cheese and seasoning. It is a two-step cooking process. First you bake the flatbread – it’s a cracker, really. Then you top it and bake it a second time.

The flatbread comes from Sardinia, a Mediterranean island that is a part of Italy. Featuring za’atar, it actually has at least as much in common with Middle Eastern cooking as it does with Italian.

A spice mixture typical of the Middle East, za’atar is a blend of drued thyme, oregano, and marjoram. It sometimes includes sumac, toasted sesame seeds or salt. There are many different versions of za’atar, depending on where in the Arabian Peninsula or North Africa you are.

Za’atar is typically used on pita or hummus. You can use it to season meats or vegetables. You could mix it in with yogurt for a dip or on roasted potatoes.

I had quite a time finding za’atar. I hunted through the spice and international aisles of my local grocery chains and failed. One option was to seek out a Middle Eastern grocery store. Instead I went to the best source for great spices that I know of, the Spice House. The Spice House has stores in on Wells St. in Chicago, in Evanston and Geneva, Illinois, and in Milwaukee. It carries a really broad range of fragrant and fresh international spices and spice blends.

I couldn’t live without their Saigon Cinnamon. Or their sweet smoked paprika. But I digress, Fellow FoodBeest.

You can can order za’atar – or other spices – from the Spice House website.

Sardinian flatbread (6 good-sized pieces)

What You Need To Make Sardinian Flatbread
2¼ C unbleached all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1 t sea salt
1½ C warm water

How You Make Sardinian Flatbread
Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of mixer (yes, you can do it by hand) and mix until it comes together and becomes elastic.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it a few times. This is a very messy process. The dough is sticky and your hands will be covered with it.

Set it on the counter and cover it with the mixing bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put a pizza baking stone on a rack in the oven and heat it to 475 degrees for a good half-hour. If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can use parchment lined sheet trays lined with parchment paper.

After the dough has rested, divide the dough into 6 pieces and roll each one in the palms of your hands until they become smooth balls of dough.

Sprinkle the counter lightly with flour and then dip one of the balls of dough into the flour and shake off the excess.

Using the palm of your hand flatten the dough out into an oval and, with a rolling pin, start rolling it out. Turn it 90 degrees between each roll so it becomes a long oval. Roll it as thin as you can. The pieces will be rustic and irregular-shaped. Not a problem. What do you think they look like in most Sardinian kitchens?

Using a fork pierce the dough. Gently lift the dough and place it onto the stone and bake it for 5 minutes, flipping it half-way through. While it is baking, roll out the next flatbread. Remove the first flatbread from the oven and continue baking the rest.

Feta Cheese and Za’atar-Topped Flatbread

What You Need to Make Feta Cheese and Za’atar-Topped Flatbread
3-6 pieces of Sardinian Flatbread
olive oil
[Use a good one. You can taste the difference with this]
za’ atar
[For more information about za’atar, see above]
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
¾ C crumbled feta cheese

How You Make Feta Cheese and Za’atar-Topped Flatbread
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
Brush the flatbread with olive oil, sprinkle with feta and then dust with za’ atar, salt and pepper. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Break it into pieces and serve immediately.

If you don’t know what to do with it, invite Mr. FB over. He will happily eat it while watching golf on TV. (Golf? Really? Yes, golf. Who knew?)

Cooking isn’t brain surgery, Fellow FoodBeest. Most recipes won’t implode if you don’t follow them to the letter. Sometimes you do want to do exactly what a recipe proscribes so you get the exact result you are reproducing.

Other times you go with the flow.

If you find yourself with only two shallots and the recipe calls for four, you don’t necessarily have to run out to buy two more shallots. Let’s face it, there are little bitty shallots and great big ones. The difference in weight can be a much as 100 percent. So go ahead and use the two you have. Doesn’t seem like enough? Add a little finely chopped sweet onion to round it out. It’s a close substitution.

Does the recipe call for heavy cream and you don’t want that much fat in your diet? Use half and half. Or milk. Or a combination. It won’t be quite as rich, but you’re not committing a sin you need to confess to the local food police.

You can’t find your dill? Ok. Use a little thyme. Or even oregano. The resulting dish will have a bit of a different flavor profile, but if you are using what you like and you keep tasting, you’re going to be fine.

Your doctor said to stay away from butter? Ok. Use a little olive oil in its place.

Chowder (or “Chowda”) is a seafood soup or stew that originated in New England and the Atlantic seaboard as a poor man’s food. It was made up of what could be found in the garden and then highlighted with a bit of whatever part of the day’s catch a fisherman brought home. The chowder was traditionally served with hardtack crackers to thicken it.

This is about the only “chowda” I’ve ever made that didn’t start with salt pork or bacon. Rendered bacon fat is nice for sautéing veggies and bacon’s smoky flavor adds a lot of depth to the soup. If smoked salmon is the fish you use, the flavor bacon adds may be a bit redundant. You will have enough of that sooty, woody flavor that you really don’t need it.

Want more corn? Use a 15 oz can instead of the little one. Want it richer? Use heavy cream or more half and half. Can’t find chives? The green parts of scallions will do nicely.

Turns out this chowder is really good. I like my soups so thick they are borderline stews and you get that here. Also the flavor is really rich and deep. It’s a good soup for any time of year.

You might like it served with a lightly dressed green salad and a crusty, chewy loaf of bread instead of hardtack.

What You Need to Make Smoked Salmon Chowder
1 T butter
4 small shallots (about 4 oz), chopped fine
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 C clam juice
1 C water
1 bay leaf
1 lb. smoked salmon filet, flaked up into bite-sized pieces
[This is the most important element. We're not talking about lox here. Use the best smoked salmon filet you can find and can afford]
1 lb red skin potatoes, cubed with skin on
8 oz can cream-style corn
[if it's in season, I would use fresh corn cut off the cob]
1 C milk
½ C half and half
1 T copped fresh chives
1 T chopped fresh dill (or 1½ t dried dill)
Salt and pepper to taste

How You Make Smoked Salmon Chowder
Melt butter in a large, heavy saucepan over low to medium heat. Add the shallots and celery with a pinch of salt. Sauté gently until soft. Add the clam juice, water and bay leaf. Simmer 10 minutes.

Add the potatoes and corn. Simmer another 15 minutes.

Add the milk and the half and half. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep tasting. You can always add more. It’s darn near impossible to take salt or pepper out once its in.

Stir in the smoked salmon and herbs. Continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, taste again, adjust seasonings as necessary, and serve.

How do you alter recipes, Fellow FoodBeest? Do you go out of your way to avoid – or add – fat?Do you hate some ingredient and always avoid it? How would you change this one to suit your needs, your preferences, and what’s in your pantry? Let us know in the comment section below.