bread and butter

I track things.  In various ways, through planners, notebooks and journals I track anything and everything in my life and the life of my family.  I have notebooks filled with dates and book lists, TV shows to keep track of and weight over time. Appointments and travel and my innermost thoughts are all represented in my stack of notebooks. 

This program is a reboradcast from May 6, 2019.

Haggis. You’ve heard of it, though, if you’re like me, that’s about as far as it goes.

If there was one smell my son could bottle and then marinate in for the rest of his life, it would most likely be the yeasty smell of rising bread.  There is a look he gets on his face when he walks into the house as rolls or loaves are rising that is akin to nirvana.  Or, at least, that’s what I assume that look is as it’s the same one I get when I see, or even think about tacos.  Or cheesecake.

This program is a rebroadcast from April 19, 2019. 

I’ve been thinking about leftovers. Not the stubborn remnants of the casserole that turned out a little questionable even on the first go-around. No, I’ve been thinking of welcome leftovers. The curry that improves with time, giving bold spices the chance to marry and settle down. The chicken salad that tastes better the next day.

My husband feels very strongly that where we live produces the best ice cream. Anywhere. I’m loathe to disagree, my husband being a connoisseur of all things sweet and me…not so much. Don’t get me wrong, while I’m not a crazy ice cream fan, I do like itand I do have my favorites and, on one recent occasion had a true and verified religious experience with a scoop of honey lemon ice cream on a sugar cone that I would without hesitation kill for a repeat of any day and any time. Just lead me back to it. Soon. And often. But I can usually skip it and I have even had it go bad in my freezer before.

UPR has a state-wide audience, so here at Bread and Butter we try not to fixate on specific food venues. Because why would we torture you folks in Richfield and Vernal with the news that there’s a restaurant near here that serves mouthwatering Barbacoa quesadillas with hand-made tortillas cooked to a toasty crisp, melt-in-your-mouth shredded pork, dark brown candy-like caramelized onions and a side of tangy and colorful jalapeno sauce. That wouldn’t be nice.

Jenn and her husband Tom discuss baking bread this week on "Bread and Butter."

I’m old enough, now, that my holiday memories have that gauzy filter planted firmly over them.  I recount, fondly, stories of Santa riding the local fire truck up and down the streets, siren and lights blaring, a few weeks before Christmas.  I remember the bag of mixed nuts and boxes of cherry cordials and orange sticks that would magically appear under the tree every Christmas Eve.  And then there was the food.

Food writers Jenn Ashton and Lael Gilbert discuss the odd behavior of only eating certain foods during the holidays. 

Food writers Lael Gilbert and Jenn Ashton sit down and discuss the modern-day obsession with the Instant Pot. 

Lael and Jenn are joined by a special guest to discuss something "peculiar and remarkable." Without giving too much away, it has to deal with a special kind of food planning referred to as "The Matrix." You'll have to listen in to the discussion to find out more. 

It’s that time of year again! The season we feast! We’ve chosen certain days to spend interminable hours thawing turkeys, swearing at pie crusts and refining our bread making skills … all in order to allow our friends and extended family to gather and stuff themselves silly.

I don’t have a big sweet tooth.  I never have.  I didn’t even like chocolate, the ultimate sugar cliche, until something shifted after I was pregnant.  And I still, after 45 years on this planet, believe chips are a fine meal replacement – especially in the corn or tortilla families.  

I’ve realized, by hanging out with people who don’t know how to cook, that I really can competently make my way around the kitchen. I’m a home chef, not a pro. But I’ve realized, by watching the way my teenagers slaughter apples with a chef’s knife and massacre a brownie mix … a brownie mix! How hard could it be? … that over the years I’ve actually become pretty handy to have around, culinarily speaking.

I have two medium glass jars of leftover bacon grease sitting on my kitchen counter, nestled in between my bottle of olive oil and my vintage avocado green floral motif butter dish.  I never assumed I would be the sort of person who strains and saves bacon grease to use in my cooking, but, really, now, it’s low on the list of broken assumptions I’ve amassed in my decades on earth. At least I can assuage this assumption with the knowledge that it’s really my husband who does the straining and the pouring.  I simply benefit from the full jars.

There is an abundance of inspiration on how to eat well from the big world. Every culture does it just a bit differently – from favoring an emphatic slurp over a bowl of noodles in Japan to the taboo in Italy against mixing seafoods like calamari with cheese. 

For a recent segment, Lael and I played a ‘Name that Utah City with a Food Name.’ If you missed it, check out this link. Listen to the clues and see if you can guess the Utah cities. There are a few more Utah towns or cities we couldn’t fit into that round; but, they deserve just as much love and culinary attention.

In Costa Rica this summer, after two idyllic weeks of traipsing through cloud forests and relaxing on warm beaches, I still hadn’t had the chance to tour a chocolate farm. This had definitely been a priority on my pre-trip agenda, but I had procrastinated … mostly because I’d hyped the experience up so much in my head, I was afraid of disappointment. 

"Did you know you would be a game show contestant today? We’re going to play Utah Cities with Food Names. I’ll give you some clues. Each answer is a city in Utah and the city has food or a food substance in its name."

Last summer, lurking in a corner in the dark of my basement was a vat of tiny warty cucumbers from our garden, now drowning in a salty brine of peppercorn, dill, garlic and grape leaves. It was my first ever experiment in fermentation. I faithfully checked the vat daily, ensuring the vegetables stayed submerged below the brine-line and to skim any scum from the surface where the saline content wasn’t high enough to prevent undesirable microbial growth.

Lael - So Jenn, last week I was thinning out my kitchen cupboards.  They are full of stuff, but if I could only have 10 essential tools in my kitchen, what would I choose? It's kind of the desert island question, if you had a kitchen on the desert island.  Here they are, you tell me what you think.  I’m going to start at the end.

Jenn - So Lael, recently you shared with us your top 10 essential items for the kitchen.

Lael – I did

Jenn – It was a great list.  I got to thinking, we have some sophisticated listeners on Utah Public Radio, and maybe they have a lot of those items.  So what about a list, maybe just a top 5, of some essential tools that you may not have in your kitchen.  Well let’s jump in and see.

Every year or so at my house, it rains plastic containers. I reach up to the top shelf to stack those last few plastic containers and lids, but there is just no more room, and they come pattering down to the tile floor. That’s always the signal, as reliable as spring crocuses, that it’s time for the annual kitchen cleanse.

Spring in Utah -- the grill covers are torn off with the first sunny day, then go on again for those late storms that seem to surprise us every year. By summer, we finally feel confident enough to shed the covers for good and get down to some serious outdoor eating.

Last month we hosted a dinner for a group of high school students … most of whom I’d never met before they appeared, ravenous, in our driveway. It was perfect weather that day not to allow 25 teenage boys inside the house. Soon the grill in the backyard sizzled juicy Angus hamburgers, salty franks and a few well-seasoned black-bean burger patties. A folding table was loaded with buns and condiments, plates of crisp veggies, creamy red potato salad, a huge plate covered with tiny squares of dense fudge … chocolate and peanut butter.