a la francaise

Before leaving Calgary, I received a lovely gift from CC. Her husband is an excellent woodworker and he has been experimenting with creating french rolling pins. I've been working solely with a tiny 6" Indian style rolling pin - hey, maybe I can blame the flop pie on the pin! - so this was a welcome gift.

("Is that a man-beating stick?" Hubby asked when he saw it. I just smiled.)

Here are Hubby's hands, making graham crumbs for low-effort, high reward microwave cheesecake. The pin worked well, and with Hubby working well...why would the pin be used for anything but rolling?

Microwave cheesecake - fast, easy and truly effective at sweet tooth appeasement. It's elsewhere on the web but here it is for those of you not trolling for hot new recipes.
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 Tbsp sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Combine the graham crumbs with melted butter and the 1 Tbsp sugar. Divide the crumbs between 4 one cup ramekins or small canning jars and press into the bottom.

Mix the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Divide evenly into jars or ramekins.

Place in microwave for 2 minutes. The top of the cheesecake should appear dry when cooked. If it doesn't look quite done, microwave at 30 second intervals until the tops appear dry. Chill in the fridge 1 hour. Garnish with berries or fruit compote and serve.

Lime flavour option: omit the vanilla, add the zest of 1 lime and 2 Tbsp lime juice.

Once my mom comes next week, I'll ask her to make pie crust with me and we'll give the pin a trial of its true purpose, seeing if that silky finish lives up to its promise. (sorry, we ate the cheesecake before I remembered to take a picture. Not for the first time.)

My kingdom for a good fish counter...

...oh wait, I have one of those, because I have H-E-B. Great fish in West Texas! Who knew?!

Of course I've checked out the local grocery stores. My first few experiences, Albertsons and Walmart, were not great. Limp produce, limited selection: was not feeling the love. But then I heard about H-E-B, which I've been pronouncing 'heb'; the commercials clarify that it's really H E B, short for "Here, everything's better". Ohhh, hokeyness. But then guess what: it was a rose in the desert, a Texas/Mexico-based freshness-and-local-focused food emporium. It has no atmosphere - it's not Whole Foods pretty- but the meat, produce and fish is largely Texas sourced and has been brought in within 24 hours.

Plus they're making tortillas all day long. Fresh, warm tortillas! When I see the catfish at the seafood counter, it gets my juices going...fish tacos, anyone? Hubby loves fish tacos. And here I've been in the south for 3 weeks and haven't had catfish yet!! As in, I have never had catfish. This must be rectified.

The ahi tuna I bought for New Year's Eve was good - there it is, marinating in olive oil - as have been the gulf shrimp. I intend to thoroughly check out the rest of the options in the fish case.

Then there was Lamb's stone ground cornmeal from Converse, TX. Could there be simpler packaging? Made some good grits with it, tarted up with the last of the Tomme d'Savoie from Janice Beaton.

All in all, I'm very relieved. Good groceries are just down the street.

A shocking absence of big hair

Hubby and I headed south in December. Someone asked where in Texas we were moving and when I replied, "unfortunately it's 'ugly Texas'", her response was "Oh, you're moving to Midland!", and indeed we are.

Or actually Odessa, the twin city next door to Midland. Not for a long time, but hopefully a good time. I paid the import duty for myself at the border: $6 US to bring one of me in. (processing fee for my companion visa)

In preparation for leaving our condo to our friends T&K, who would happily be able to housesit for us, I made a list of possibly mysterious homemade items in the fridge: sundried tomato tapenade, pickled red onions, preserved lemons, 3 kinds of herb butters, wine vinegar in the making, plus glace fruit from Paris...what a food geek. Thankfully, T is a foodie like me and will likely actually use these things.

The morning we drove out was full of hoar frost through southern Alberta. I had calculated that since Manuel Latruwe bakery opened at 7:30am, we would be able to stop by for some pain au chocolate and a baguette - a real, delicious, crisp crust baguette to eat with cheese and smoked buffalo for lunch. It's a Janice Beaton bag full of cheese in the photo of the back of the SUV; I doubt there will be Beaufort in Odessa. And unfortunately, I'm very sure there will not be good baguette - or possibly ANY baguette in West Texas.

Hubby started drawling before we even hit the lone star state, and at the same stop in New Mexico I was ma'amed for the first time. We were definitely not in our Kansas, anymore.

The drive - besides being LONG - was uneventful for us, although we passed half a dozen semi's on their sides in the ditch, blown over from ferocious wind in the pass above Pueblo, Colorado.

The best meal of the trip was in Hereford, Texas - yes, many businesses were named 'Whiteface', and Hubby's cattle side enjoyed this immensely - where we ate at K-Bob's, having the steak, of course. I ordered green beans on the side, craving something vegetal: they came southernized, I think. I'm still learning about this but they were what I would normally say were overdone, except that they also were in a smoky kind of sauce, so I think it was planned. Unless they burned them to the bottom of the pan. I'll continue to research this and let you know.

It was a relief to have used the last gas station bathroom. The sunset was spectacular but we really just wanted to get out of the truck and start making home out of our rented condo. The simple pasta I made that night wasn't fabulous, but it was real food and it tasted good. Plus, it had collard greens in it - collard greens! There they were, just sitting on the shelf in the produce section, along with mustard and turnip greens. I had to try them. The flavour is slightly bitter and although the leaf doesn't look or feel that dense, they take longer than expected to wilt in the pan. I'm looking forward to exploring the rest of the local grocery stores.