That's why it's especially upsetting (well, to those of us who take our food very seriously) that the FDA is trying to change the definition of chocolate so that it doesn't need to contain any cocoa butter at all - cocoa butter being the key ingredient that gives chocolate its creamy texture. Instead, manufacturers would be allowed to use vegetable oils or other fats, instead.

American chocolate is already laughably terrible by international standards, as our current definition allows a waxy product with less cocoa and cocoa butter onto the market. Do we really want American chocolate to become even worse than it is today? Well, the good news is it's not a done deal yet. We're still in the public comment period for this policy change.

The deadline to submit a comment to the FDA is April 25, so hurry to submit a comment to the FDA today. No, really. Go do it right now!

Endure the ravages of stale, rock-hard baked goods no more!

This magic trick comes to me via Zingerman's. In order to revive dried-out baked goods, sprinkle the exterior with some water - enough to make it moist but not soggy - and shove your bread or bagel into a 325-degree oven (or toaster oven) for several minutes. Call it five or six minutes for a bagel, or fifteen for a full loaf of bread.

Magic, I tell you. The bread comes out of the oven looking, smelling and tasting like it was fresh-baked. You'll never suffer from the stale again.

Lately, though, I've has occasion to use some sub-par ingredients. I didn't expect to see much of a difference, but boy howdy was I wrong.

First: About a month back, I ran out of flour. (I know, I know, how do you run out of flour? But I did.) When I ran to the grocery, they didn't have any of my good ol' King Arthur, so I bought Gold Medal instead. It used to be good enough, right? And then I set out to make pizza dough with this stuff. I have a bread machine pizza dough recipe I've been using without fail for many years now. And with the Gold Medal, for the first time, it was a disaster. The dough was sticky and lacked any sort of body; it wasn't gloopy, not quite, but there was no way it was going to turn into a nice flat disk for me, either. I tried again a few days later, and this time I watched the machine during the initial mix cycle, adding flour until it got to that just-right texture where it had spring to it.

Would you believe it took an extra half a cup of flour? And the resulting dough just... wasn't that great.

Some time later, a relative going on vacation gave me some extra eggs so they wouldn't go bad, and I hard-boiled them for breakfast. I'm used to using the fancy-schmancy cage-free, hormone-free, antibiotic-free organic brown eggs. These were your standard white commercial eggs. Again, I expected no meaningful difference, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The subpar eggs looked beautiful, to be sure. I had hit the perfect point in boiling where the yolks are firm and golden, with no grayish ring around them. But they tasted just awful; so bad I couldn't even make myself eat a whole one. They weren't spoiled, mind you, they just lacked a certain ineffable egginess that I look for in a hard-boiled egg. Also they tasted faintly of burning rubber.

So I guess the necessity of good ingredients has won me over, if in a backwards fashion - you don't necessarily know what you're missing unless, well, you KNOW what you're missing.

So when I found myself with a few potatoes hanging around, and some leeks, I of course thought I should have a go with a highly-rated creamy potato-leek soup.

I used the recipe as more of a loose guideline, though. I took five potatoes, peeled and diced, and simmered them in about three cups of chicken broth. Then I took nine pre-cooked bacon slices (cut into chunks), a couple of tablespoons of butter, and two sliced leeks, and tossed them all into a pan together until the leeks were soft and turning golden. When the potatoes seemed sufficiently cooked, I threw the leek mixture into the pot with a cup of skim milk and a healthy dollop of reduced-fat sour cream. For decoration, I put a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper on each bowl.

I am cured of my aversion to potato soups forever and ever, amen. This was quite possibly the most delicious soup I have ever made. The flavors in this soup blend just perfectly, rich and comforting on a chilly autumn day. I made it for lunch, but it would make a great dinner with some crsuty sourdough bread and a plate of sliced tomatoes or a salad.

It wasn't very quick to throw together, mainly because of the potato-peeling. I suspect this recipe would be faster and just as delicious if you left the skins on the potatoes, though I didn't try it because mine had all turned weirdly green.

It's been two weeks since I joined the Full Circle Farm CSA. As I went to pick up the first box, pictured above, I was still a bit skeptical about the whole thing. Was it worth the expense? Would it be okay having someone who was not me picking out my vegetables? Was it better than just buying veggies at the farmer's market or the local organic grocery? Could we eat them before they went bad?

I opened the first box and was immediately put to ease with the fresh, earthy smell. The veggies are just lovely. Definitely more fresh and flavorful than the supermarket veggies we normally get. I now find myself always thinking of the vegetables - anticipating the current box, planning the next box, looking at the fridge full of vegetables whenever I go to get something to drink.

The new vegetable obsession is strange for me. In general, I never eat... ate... enough vegetables. Of the first box, all but the potatoes and squashes were gone by the following Wednesday. It turns out that the small vegetable box is almost exactly the right amount of vegetables for me and Mr. Orange for a week. Salads, quiches, steamed veggies, yum.

I'd highly recommend this particular CSA - but I imagine most CSA programs are pretty good. Fresh vegetables with the added bonus of supporting the local farms. An all-around win. Interested? You can check out what's local to you at sites like Local Harvest.

Offering you an assortment of fruits, vegetables and herbs, Full Circle Farm's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program is your local connection to fresh organic produce.

We strive to bring you the freshest certified organic produce available year-round. In collaboration with other West Coast growers, we ensure a wide variety of seasonal produce available each week throughout the year. Full Circle Farm produce is always primary but we also utilize other organic farmers to help create a well balanced and unique CSA box each and every week.

I'm looking forward to my first produce box, which I will pick up on Wednesday. This week's box is scheduled to include broccoli, sunburst squash, fingerling potatoes, baby yellow carrots, snap peas, green onions, cremini mushrooms, zucchini, baby arugula, salad mix (cut greens), roma tomatoes, radishes, minneola tangelos, and basil. Yum!

Thank goodness I tried this recipe for Spirited Cranberry-Apricot Sauce out of some old Cooking Light magazine. It's incredibly delicious - far, far better than any canned creation.

Also, it's so easy to make. Soak 3oz of dried, sliced apricots overnight (or for 8 hours) in 1/4 cup of sherry or OJ (I tend to use OJ simply because I don't cook with sherry that much).

Bring 3/4 cup water and 2/3 cup sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Turn the heat down to medium and add the apricot mixture, 1/4 cup honey and 12oz fresh cranberries. Cook until sauce is slightly thick. Put into a pretty bowl and chill until time to serve.

A few days ago, one of my coworkers presented me with two lovely filets of salmon (one sockeye, one silver), freshly caught (then flash frozen) during his three-week Alaskan fishing excursion. I quickly started planning meals revolving around the fish - and tonight's plan involved grilled silver salmon and vegetable kabobs, perhaps eating out on the patio, sipping frozen lemonade.

But, dinner time arrived. The weather, unsuitable for outdoor dining. The grill, completely out of gas. Mr. Orange, reluctant to go out to remedy the fuel situation.

My grilling dreams washed away, I recalled an earlier conversation with Andrea. She had made stuffed zucchini - filling a large zucchini with a blend of wild rice and vegetables. Hey, what a great idea!

Pictured here, half of the silver salmon filet, sprinkled with rosemary from my garden and black pepper. Two zucchini boats, filled with sundried tomato rissoto (with extra tomato and the chopped zucchini innards mixed in) then baked with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. A wonderful meal for two.

As for the frozen lemonade - that idea fell to the wayside as soon as I noticed my favorite 'beer', Lindemans Framboise Lambic, on sale during our trip to Whole Foods. For dessert: Fage Greek yogurt mixed with honey and fresh blueberries.

All in all, a lovely, simple meal. Now to plan for the rest of the salmon...

During our brief hiatus, winter has become spring (for me, at least) and my grocery store has started carrying more summery fruit! I love the summer fruit. Apples, pears, citrus, I like them, sure, but they're not nearly as nice as a fruit salad of peach, plum, mango and berry with just a bit of chopped fresh mint leaves tossed in. Mmmm.

Now, we're not quite to that point here yet. Peaches are still a bit squishy and mealy and overpriced... plums I haven't even seen. But the berries are looking very very nice lately - a little bit of sunshine to brighten my rainy Seattle afternoon.

I found a recipe for a squash soup that showed promise; sauté an onion in oil and butter, add chopped butternut squash, vegetable broth, cayenne pepper and thyme; bring to a boil, then simmer 20 minutes. With me so far? Next you purée the mixture along with... Neufchatel.

"Hm," I thought, intrigued. "Neufchatel, eh? That could add a pleasant and creamy richness to a squash soup. I'll give it a whirl!" ...and so I did.

Everything seemed great up until the adding of the Neufchatel. My first sign of trouble was the odd, almost artificial color the soup became. The soup also thickened significantly, though I had been expecting that, at least.

I nervously served the bowls to my family and waited for their assessment. Mr. Lemon looked bewildered. "It tastes like turkey gravy," he said. I tried the soup myself. Turkey gravy? I wouldn't say so, exactly, though the soup did have a gravy-like weight on the tongue. The soup was rich, certainly; but the Neufchatel had completely obliterated everything I love about a squash soup. The delicate sweetness was gone, the subtle nutty flavor vanished. I'm not sure the soup was really bad so much as it tasted like nothing I had ever eaten before in my life, and most certainly not like I'd been expecting. My palate had been betrayed!

Well, you live and you learn, right?

On the other hand, I also made a really fabulous whole wheat bread. I followed the recipe pretty closely, substituting half the honey with molasses, and using the "Rapid Bake" cycle on my bread machine. This bread is absolutely amazing. Moist, flavorful, dense without being heavy. I am already looking forward to having more of this bread with jam for breakfast in the morning.

UPDATE: Er, oh, yeah, I used butter in the bread and not shortening, too. Sorry. Still the yum, though!

Preliminary Internet searching told me the restaurant, La Table et La Forme (17, Boulevard Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris), served light, modern fare. They had a Valentine menu for the occasion. It is the menu that made the experience worth posting - it hadn't even occurred to me to photograph other restaurants we ate at, as I was too busy enjoying the vacation.

 

La Table et La Forme's Valentine menu included three appetizers, three entrees, and three desserts - all served in small plates. The overall effect reminded me of tapas. Each diner received the same meal and it did not appear that any other food was being served.

I neglected to photograph the first course, but feel free to scroll down to look at the dinner and dessert photos for an idea of how it was presented. The first course consisted of a creamed corn soup accompanied by popcorn and a baby corn wrapped in pork (bacon), a shrimp eggroll over mixed grees accompanied by soy sauce, and duck fois gras with a fruit jam. The waiter told us what each dish was and the order we should eat it in. The soup was good, but the popcorn and baby corn accompanying it were very odd. I'm not sure if we were supposed to dip the popcorn ito the soup or just munch on it plain. The eggroll and fois gras were pretty tasty.

The main course consisted of a fish entree and two meats. Again, the waiter pointed out each item and gave us an order to eat them in.

On the bottom right, we started with whitefish served over spinach and tiny mushrooms in a soy based sauce. At the top, there is sliced beef and fig in a fig sauce. At the bottom, roast duck in, um, some kind of sauce that goes well with duck. The meal also included garlic chive mashed potatoes and parmesan risotto. I overheard a woman at the next table complain that the beef was "almost like jerky", but I thought my serving was tender and flavorful. The sauces were somewhat overpowering, especially that of the duck, but it's easy enough to not coat the meat in sauce.

After dinner, we were served a platter of desserts. As these were pretty self-explainatory, the waiter did not go over them or suggest how to eat them.

Beginning at the top and going counterclockwise, dessert consisted of chocolate gelatto and fig with chocolate sauce, diced tropical fruit with mint, orange creme brulee, mint sorbet, and tiramisu. The sorbet and fruit were mainly to clear the palate. The fig dessert was interesting and tasty and the creme brulee was very creamy. The tiramisu, generally my favorite dessert, somehow ended up somewhat dry and bland. If it had been the only dessert, I'd have been extremely disappointed.

 

We ordered coffee with dessert, but it didn't show up at the table until well after we were finished. The service was, by American standards, inattentive and lackluster. The meal moved slowly, and the waiter managed to bring us another party's check somewhere between the entree and dessert. But, overall, it was a delicious and amusing dinner and I don't regret the choice to not venture back to the city center this evening.

When I took pictures of the fabulous pies (these are chocolate cream and coconut cream, but she also makes other types of fabulous pie), I had every intention of posting the recipe for all to enjoy. My mother, however, objected. "But it's my grandmother's recipe!" she exclaimed, in a tone of voice that suggested that even thinking about sharing the recipe was a crime. Suffice it to say, there is no boxed pie filling or container of whipped cream involved. Mom faxed me a copy of the recipe for my own use - it was simply an ingredient list. She gave me the instructions on how to make the pies over the phone, twice. I didn't write them down and I'm not sure I completely remember them.

This got me thinking, though, of 'family recipes' in general. My grandmother used to make wonderful peanut butter chocolate fudge, but no one in the family has the recipe for it. My attempts to make similar fudge were just that: similar. Not *quite* what I remember. The exact recipe is lost, at least to me. My aunt makes chicken and dumplings on holidays, I think a recipe from my other grandmother, but I can't be certain. My futile attempts at finding out more about that failed, mostly due to the whole holiday part of the equation - and I rarely remember otherwise. I wonder if there's a whole slew of other family recipes floating around my own family that I just never asked about.

Next time I have to ask mom how to make the pies, I'll write it down.

The machine I received is a Rival VS150, complete with canisters and extra rolls of bags. The reviews of it state that it's a nice machine, but difficult to close. And, yes, it is. You have to apply some pressure on the lid in order to snap it shut to vacuum or seal the bags, but oh, what a useful gadget.

Alas, I haven't been grocery shopping in a while, so I don't have a lot of thing in my kitchen that I can vacuum seal for fun. I do have ongoing problems with cheese going bad before I can eat it all, so I sealed up some of that. The unit will also reseal chip bags (a good thing, both for freshness and because of my bag-theiving kitties). I generally buy meat at Costco anyway, but vacuum sealing it will make it last much longer than normal freezer bags. And I should be able to keep greens crisp twice as long in one of the vacuum canisters. Did I mention the cheese?! And no more brown avocado?!

Thanks, Mom & Dad! Now I just need to go shopping :)

That is a very, very good opportunity to move toward the vegetarian side of the plate.