Almost Spring

A garden surprise party. I nearly forget the bulbs and the flowers they bring until one morning I walk outside to find a living bouquet of cheerful flowers reminding me that spring is near. We're pruning trees, turning soil and getting ready for early garden vegetables thankful for our mild coastal climate that offers a head start on spring.

Pilgrimage To Zingerman's

 Just a short drive from Detroit is the university town of Ann Arbor, home U of M and Zingerman's culinary empire. I've been getting Zingerman's quirky hand drawn catalogue of high-end gourmet items  like sardines from Spain, cheeses from Zingerman's creamery and around the world and crusty breads chewy and delicious enough to mail order.
Behind every corner is an employee so proud of the richly sourced products they cannot wait to offer you a taste. I was already buying a beautiful bottle of 16 year old balsamic but was offered a taste just the same. I asked about a couple local Michigan cheeses and my very attentive Zingerman's counter clerk whisked away to bring me tastes -- happily pointing out which she liked best and condiments and sundries from around the store that would make a winning combination. That's how I ended up with a rich creamy cheese coated in liquor soaked raisins (not local but superb) and Zingerman's house baked graham crackers.

 My first thought is how can a place so small hold in so much deliciousness. Zingerman's is jammed packed with products, a cheese and charcuterie case, breads, and hungry patrons waiting in line for the famous sandwiches. A friendly face wearing an apron waits in front of the deli case to take your order, hand you a ticket, and show you to the cashier/ sit down area in an adjacent building. "The red building and to the left." No one seems to worry that I am walking outside with an basket of products into a completely open area.
Not quite so small, it turns out that Zingerman's deli is a compound of four buildings (the creamery and bakehouse -- "the artisan facilities" are in another part of town) and a patio that must be packed with hungry co-eds in spring weather.

I settle down with #18, a turkey and swiss Reuben with Zingerman's homemade coleslaw and Russian dressing, all wrapped up in grilled, crusty Jewish rye. Zingerman's sandwiches come in two sizes -- this one, BTW was the small or "nosher" size with a super sour garlic pickle and a side of beet feta salad.

If all this weren't enough just across the patio is a cheery yellow building. Desserts, coffees, gelato, candies and more than one employee who visible swooned over slices of hummingbird cake. At $6.99 a slice a swoon is required.

Prices aside (actually the sandwiches were pretty much NY deli prices and just about big enough to make them a value) if I were in the area again I'd stop in and try another of the 80 some offered sandwiches -- and to bring home a couple tasty presents.

Coming home soon Honey!

 A Zingerman's picnic.

Looking Out At Detroit

A couple inches of snow between me and Detroit's quirky world of restaurants

La Shish Detroit, MI

The re-birth of an old favorite
Detroit, MI has the world's largest arabic speaking population outside of the Middle East. Yes that's culturally interesting, a growing population that according to Time Magazine is bringing prosperity to an area many thought (and still believe) was in terminal decline. No less a Detroit citizen than Henry Ford himself recruited thousands of Lebanese and Yemenis and Arabic speakers from the crumbling, defunct Ottoman Empire. Today descendants of those workers and a continuing stream of new immigrants bring their culture and traditions and most importantly foods to winter's very shore in Detroit.
What that history means for a food focused traveler like me is a plethora of Middle Eastern (many Lebanese focused) to choose from.
Tonight we ventured to La Shish, a very casual halal restaurant. The original La Shish was a popular Dearborn area chain for years until a strange collection of accusations -- reported crimes and blood money and tax evasion caused the chain to close (and the original owner to flee the country). Just last year a new owner bought the restaurant, the logo, the recipes and re-opened a Michigan favorite.
La Shish is a hole in the wall. Some of our large group for dinner got very quiet as they walked in glancing at the TVs, paper napkins, and the "gentleman's club" next door. Once the food started coming out there was little cause for concern. LA Shish makes fresh hot pita from a wood fired oven in the back and offers all of the usual starters and dips -- creamy smooth hummus, lamb stuffed grape leaves scented with cumin and coriander and perhaps cinnamon, crisp lemony salads, tabouli of bright green parsley. Because we were a large group we opted for one of the extravagant combo platters. The flaming tower -- which although delicious was no tower at all but a massive serving plate covered with rice, shwarma, ground lamb "sausages"and beef kebabs among other treats perfectly seasoned and a delicious foil to La Shish's vibrant, aggressive, delicious, garlic sauce.
For Detroit La Shish is one of many, in any other city La Shish would be on every best of list.

Bareroot Season! So Many To Choose from.

I know they don't look like much now, but I love them so. These are our newest fruit trees -- an Indian Blood Cling Peach, a Free Strawberry Peach, and a Pineapple Quince. All heirloom varieties known for exceptional flavor and heartiness in our cooler, rainy winters. As opposed to the more well known container plants, bareroots are exactly that -- young grafted trees with exposed roots to be put quickly in the ground. They are easier  to plant (you don't need such a big hole) and less than half the price of container grown trees -- not to mention much lighter to bring home. It's often possible to get more unique varieties as bareroots. We picked these beauties up from the nursery today and James planted them so I could see my sweet little trees in the ground before leaving town. Today they seem like naked sticks but this spring they'll be full of beautiful flowers and in less than 2 short years (it's best not to let a bareroot tree fruit the first year to help build a stronger root system) delicious fruits.

A Salad James Won't Eat

James won't eat beets. He won't even try them. But I had some in the fridge so I made this lovely salad -- something James won't eat. Thinking back to that long gone pledge to cook every recipe in Jim Lahey's My Bread cookbook. I roasted my beets and followed Lahey's "recipe" for marinated beets which is basically red onions and sliced beets left to marinate in red wine vinegar. Hardly a taxing recipe. I left my beets to marinate and then in my own version of Lahey's marinated beet sandwich I tossed the marinated veggies with olive oil, arugula, and -- because I didn't have goat cheese in the house -- Nicasio Valley Cheese Company's Foggy Morning, a tangy but delicate fresh white cheese.

I'm Out Of Everything Cake

Banana Blueberry Pound Cake. An Invention.
I started off to use up the buttermilk in the fridge and make James a quick poundcake to have while I am gone. It started off to be so easy.
I creamed 1 cup of butter with 3 cups of sugar and was just about to add the eggs when I realized I had cooked some of the precious few I had left for James' breakfast. Not to worry I added in a whole banana and 2 TB of vegetable oil to substitute for the missing eggs and then added in the two eggs I had. In a separate bowl I mixed together 3 cups of flour, 3/4 tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp of baking powder (for safety sake). I went for the buttermilk and instead of the cup I had planned on I found a 1/2 cup at best. I mixed 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup whole milk yogurt. I alternated adding the buttermilk and the flour mixtures to the mixer (starting and ending with the buttermilk). The batter looked creamy and smooth. I slipped in a tsp of vanilla and started eyeing the pint of blueberries in the fridge. We probably wouldn't eat them before I left. James loves blueberries. Banana blueberry seemed like a good combination -- in they went. I gave the batter one last stir and poured it into a greased (though not quite well enough) 10" tube pan. The super moist flavorful cake baked for 70 minutes at 325º.
Maybe not my prettiest cake, but no complaints on the taste. I might just try this one again -- on purpose.