Fairway in Stamford, CT

Wishes do come true. Several years ago I wished that Fairway market would come to Stamford, Connecticut where I live. I even emailed them, asking when they’d open here, suggesting that there would be enough of us in town to do justice to the store.

So, here they are, opening up in Stamford, Connecticut on November 3rd! The largest Fairway of all!

When I first read about the possibility that Fairway might open here I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. No, really, it wasn’t because of that email, I know.

I am not a witch ….

But I confess, I am addicted to the place. I usually go to the one in Manhattan on 133rd street, on my way home up the west side. But they also just opened one in Pelham Manor, and that’s only 30 minutes away, so that’s next best. And I occasionally find myself on Long Island to see my eye doctor, who just happens to have his office in Plainview, where there just happens to be an enormous Fairway, not to mention the one I go to in Brooklyn, when I visit my daughter.

Yeah, it’s a grocery store. So why do I find that exciting? Well, I am a food writer, so I look for good food and sometimes ingredients can get a bit boring, so it sort of lifts the boredom factor when you can shop in a place that doesn’t look like every other place and also has so many different high quality varieties and brands that you can’t help but be charmed by a can of beans or a bottle of olive oil. And also fresh fish and meat. And good bagels and some of the best fresh popped popcorn ever. I know that I can go to Fairway and get quail without even calling first to see if they have it.

But they also have plain hamburger and the usual groceries that most of us keep, like breakfast cereal and laundry detergent and soda. I can get kosher stuff. Good vanilla extract. Organic oats and quinoa. Even the milk varieties are interesting. Fairway is like a dozen specialty stores all rolled into one in a place large enough that you don’t have to go anywhere else to get what you need. And it’s not some prissy, too-pretty store either, that makes you feel either that you really don’t belong there or that you do and you’re among the elite.

It’s just a store, a really really good one. And I am lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the place, all 85,000 square feet filled with food and other stuff, next week.

So I’ll let you know what I find.

The Hallowe'en "Season"

Has anyone else noticed that Hallowe’en is no longer a “day” but a whole “season?” And it starts just after Labor Day and everywhere you go there are window displays complete with ghosts and witches, spiders, skeletons and pumpkins. You can buy any kind of costume, from princesses to vampires.

And the candy! TONS of it. In my local supermarkets the Hallowe’en candy takes up more space than boxed cereal. And that is saying something!

If people are actually buying all this stuff our economy must be in better shape than we think it is.

Hallowe’en was much simpler when I was a kid. I hate to sound like an old codger, but back in the day if we went out trick-or-treating it was during the afternoon and we went to just a few neighbors, who would give us some homemade cookies.

Imagine that.

Most of the time we had a family Hallowe’en “party” (that meant my brothers and me and sometimes my cousin Leslie) at home.

My Dad would put coins in apples, put the apples in a huge bowl filled with water and we would dunk our faces in and try to bite an apple (and get to keep the coin). Sometimes he would tie the coin-stuffed apples to a string and we would have to jump up to bite them.

It was fun. And always followed by roasted marshmallows and my father’s fabulous hot chocolate.

Those were good days and warm, terrific, safe and fun Hallowe’ens.

Here’s his recipe. He made it with whole milk, but use what you want.

My Dad’s Fabulous Hot Chocolate

• 2 cups milk

• 4 regular size marshmallows

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• pinch of salt

• 3 tablespoons very hot or boiling water

• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the milk with 2 of the marshmallows over medium heat until near-boiling (the marshmallows should be melted or almost completely melted). While the milk is heating, mix the cocoa powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Pour in the hot water and stir ingredients to form a paste. When the milk is ready, add the cocoa paste and vanilla extract to the milk and stir to combine ingredients. Pour into 2 cups OR, for better results, whirl the mixture in a blender, then pour into 2 cups. Add one marshmallow to each cup.

Makes 2

What to eat when stressed

Dear Mom,  

I am sorry that you got a flat tire; that happened to me once with Z in the car and we … . Well, very long story short, we began on 94th and Park and ended up in the Lower East Side where a guy named Dominic whose “shop” was a folding chair on a random stretch of sidewalk, hooked me up with a new tire.  

And all the while Z had to pee.  

And I was pregnant.  

And late to see a client.  

Hm, and it was your car.

I had indian food that night, I happen to remember.  

I don’t think there is a solution for how to keep the right stress food (for me it would be like potato pierogies or steamed roast pork buns or bubble milk tea) in the car and not just eat it every day.  But I bet there’s an app for locating the closest vendor.

Mer

Thanks Mer! It was certainly frustrating. And I think your idea is right — get something comforting from a nearby restaurant. There is a fabulous Middle Eastern place down the block from that gas station (Waterfalls Cafe on Atlantic Street). I could have had mujadarah!

Next time. Oh no! I hope there is never a next time!!

Question about your Carrot salad recipe

Under the ingredients, you described the carrots as shredded and then in the body of the recipe, you call them grated.  What is a shredded carrot and for this recipe, which method do you prefer?    Thanks,  Marlyn

 submitted by:   marlynack@optonline.net

Hi Marlyn

Thanks for alerting me to this. I changed the recipe to reflect that you can either shred or grate the carrots. I always use the shredder blade on my food processor (too much trouble to hand grate). Once, after I shredded the carrots, I also chopped them with the “S” blade so that they looked grated (this is something I do when I make potato pancakes, btw). Either way they taste terrific. I take the easy way out now and just use the shredding blade.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can hand grate or chop finely in a blender.

What do you eat when you're stressed out?

When frustrated, upset or stressed out, people respond to food in two different ways. Some people can’t eat. They feel full up to the top of their throats and nothing solid will go down.

Other people eat to capacity, stuffing their faces till all the little spaces in the emotional part of their brains are saturated.

I am the second type.

So, last night at about 8:30, after an evening of babysitting for my granddaughter Lila, 4, and grandson Remy, 3 months, I set out to drive from Brooklyn to my home in Connecticut, about 45 miles away and about 5-6 blocks from their house I hear “click, click, click” and I feel a lttle lopsided at the driver’s seat and I know without looking that I have a flat tire.

Yep. Got out — luckily — in a parking space just before I was about to make the left turn to take the highway, turned right instead because I know there’s a service station 2-3 blocks away and surely some nice young man will change the tire for me.

But apparently the young people at this station have safe, secure jobs and plenty of assets in the bank and have no need to earn an extra $$whatever they think I might give them, and they told me to call AAA, which I did.

Then, when the man from AAA came and tried to get the “doughnut” tire out of the trunk, he broke off the screw that holds it in place.

So now I have no tire and no way to get the doughnut tire.

He borrowed some tools from the service station and after several attempts to get the spare he told me he couldn’t get the screw off, that the doughnut was there for life and that I should put air in the tire and drive to the local 24/7 tire store and get a new one.

Geez! My tire is brand new and besides I don’t want to go to the tire store and I’m tired and cold and now I WANT TO EAT. ANYTHING!!!!

But I didn’t have anything in the car to eat. I was eyeing the Yogurt Truck which had parked itself at the gas station. Imagine, in this day and age, a yogurt truck selling “healthy” frozen yogurt, (rather than that fat-and-calorie laden ice cream), that you can get covered with fudge sauce, sprinkles, chopped cookies or other wholesome items.

But I realized I don’t want just anything. It was cold out and I had forgotten my sweater at my daughter’s house and besides, ice cream isn’t filling and neither is healthy frozen yogurt with nutritious sprinkles on top.

I needed to munch something. Potato chips, pretzels. Stuff like that.

So I looked the AAA man in the eye and gave him my best Mom “you can do it if you try” look and said in my best Mom voice “you can do it if you try, I just know you can.” So he borrowed another tool and sure enough, after a while he did it!

He fixed the tire, blessed me for having an AAA card. I didn’t have any gold stars or stickers to give him so I gave him some extra $$, because he was so determined.

A few weeks ago I blogged about having food in the car for emergencies (I was stuck in a horrible storm then). But do I listen to my own advice about having food in the car? Or to the advice of people who told me what food I should always have in the car?

NO!

I wasn’t really hungry. I was upset, frustrated and stressed out, needing the kind of food I want to eat when I feel that way. So the real problem is how to have that kind of food in the car all the time and only eat it when I need it.

I’m not sure how that can work. I’d probably eat the stuff at any old time and then I would have to keep replacing it and if there’s one thing I don’t need it’s to consume extra calories of eat-this-when-you’re-upset food.

I did have some Ricola sugar free lemon-mint cough drops. They had to do.

But when I got home just before 11 p.m. I ate a large bowl of popcorn.

Which is better, the food or the memory of the food?

Was your mother really a good cook? Was that chocolate cake or those hash browns you had 20 years ago at that restaurant really fabulous?

Food memories can be funny. Our tastes change. Maybe Mom’s chocolate chip cookies weren’t really that good, maybe those hash browns were actually a bit too greasy and if we ate these foods today in someone else’s kitchen or in a different restaurant we wouldn’t rave.

But we remember them so fondly that we think we’ll never find the ultimate recipe for whatever it is we thought was so wonderful.

I have that feeling about a lot of foods. My Mom’s Nut Roll. The Apple Tart at L’Orangerie in Los Angeles. My grandmother’s baked blintzes. The Hot and Sour Soup at Temple Garden in New York’s Chinatown.

When autumn comes and I see the trees turning orange and gold, my food memory turns to pumpkin pie and that makes me remember the Automat. It went out of business when I was a little girl, but I still remember my Aunt Roz and Uncle Mac taking me there for lunch or dinner when we went into Manhattan to go ice skating or to see a show. They were the kind of aunt and uncle that took their nieces and nephews to places and we all loved them so much that the food that came with the day would of course be wonderful no matter where or what it was.

At the Automat, if it was autumn, there was pumpkin pie.

It was the very best pumpkin pie. In my memory. I have been trying to duplicate its flavor and texture since I started cooking. But food memories linger so no matter what I come up with, it’s never “the one” even if the results are fabulous. Someone once gave me a recipe that was supposed to be the Automat authentic version and I made one. Of course I didn’t remember the pie tasting like my pie did.

So which is better, the food or the memory of the food?

Both really, for different reasons. We can savor the memory and eat something delicious even if it isn’t quite the version you remember.

Here’s a terrific recipe for Pumpkin Pie. Not too spicy and with a hint of molasses. Don’t use pumpkin pie “mix”, use plain pumpkin puree or fresh mashed pumpkin (press fresh mashed pumpkin to extract excess liquid).

Pumpkin Pie

• 1-1/2 cups mashed pumpkin (canned is fine)

• 1/3 cup brown sugar (any kind)

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 3 tablespoons molasses

• 3 large eggs

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1-1/2 cups half and half cream or evaporated milk

• 1 9-inch single pie crust, unbaked

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Spoon the pumpkin, brown sugar, white sugar and molasses into a bowl and blend ingredients thoroughly. Beat in the eggs. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cream. Blend ingredients thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the crust. Bake for 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees F and continue baking for 55-60 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Makes one pie

Ask Ronnie a question: http://ronniefein.com/ask

To comment: http://ronniefein.com/submit

Easy way to pit a ripe avacado

yumblrinmy:

This will come in handy if you make guacamole or guacamumus.

Wish I could have embedded the video here in this post, but the creator disabled embedding :(

Sometimes you know how to do something and don’t do it anyway.

Last weekend I went to pit an avocado and instead of using a chef’s knife, I used a small utility knife because I was too lazy to get the big knife that was in a drawer about 7 feet away.

And instead of hacking the knife into the pit sideways, I tried to use the point.

Yes, indeed, I missed and now I have a large cut in the middle of my palm. Hurts. I feel like a jerk.

Do it the right way folks!

Easy Baked Apples

What do you eat when you wake up cold and shivery?

We haven’t turned the heat on yet because it’s been about 70 degrees here and our house has been warm. But all of a sudden it’s really autumn, the outside temperature has dropped and it was freezing in our bedroom this morning.

I desperately wanted something warm to eat. But there wasn’t anything in the house!

Wish my Dad was around to make some of his renowned hot chocolate.

Mmm how about some quick biscuits? Hot oatmeal?

My thoughts actually turned to baked apple, warm and fragrant and sufficiently sweet for dessert, but breakfasty enough.

Unfortunately I didn’t have any baked apples.

Fortunately, I still have some of the apples I bought at Blue Jay Orchards (http://www.bluejayorchardsct.com/) in Bethel, Connecticut a while ago for my pie apples.

I’m making baked apples today, in case I wake up cold tomorrow.

Easy Baked Apples

• 4 large apples for baking
• half a lemon
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup maple syrup, agave or honey
• 1 cup orange juice or apple cider
• cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the apple cores, leaving about 1/2-inch on the bottom. Peel the apples halfway down from the top, stem end. Rub the peeled flesh with the cut side of the lemon. Place the apples in a baking dish. In a small bowl, mix the raisins, nuts, one tablespoon of the sweetener and 3-4 tablespoons juice. Stuff this mixture into the apple hollows. Combine the remaining sweetener and juice and pour over the apples. Sprinkle the apples with cinnamon. Dot the apple tops with butter. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the apples are tender, basting occasionally with the pan juices. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 4 servings

Ask Ronnie a question: http://ronniefein.com/ask

To comment: http://ronniefein.com/submit

more noisy children!

sprinklefingers:

oooh. oh! check it out!

the story about the north carolina restaurant that banned screaming children made it all the way to the UK!

here’s what one of the guardian’s bloggers has to say about it.

don’t miss the comments!

ps: take it easy, folks! we’re talking about kids here, not terrorists!

Oooh indeed. When I was a kid we didn’t get to go to a restaurant until we were able to sit still.

My children (now grown adults) are probably still angry with me because I made them sit at the table instead of walking around and saying hello to other people at other tables. We wouldn’t eat out with my brother because he let his kids not only talk to strangers at other tables but also let them get up and sing, (in case there were any talent scouts hanging around).

Today, though, restaurants are more family-kid friendly and there are more of them. In these places children are not expected to behave like tin soldiers at attention. Toddlers make noise. Babies cry. Kids spill milk. Parents scold.

If you don’t like this atmosphere, and you want a quiet evening, eat somewhere else! Or go later after the kids have left and gone to bed. When my husband and I want a quiet dinner we go to a place where we know the kids aren’t.

It’s not like parents are going to take their toddlers and babies to The French Laundry or Restaurant Daniel. We’re talking about pizza places, burger joints. Places where you get grilled cheese sandwiches.

And it’s not as if kids are the only noise offenders anyway. I’ve heard many grownups laugh and talk so loud you could hear them across the restaurant, without a care in the world about how rude they are. 

So, chill out everyone. Deal with the noise (or go elsewhere).

Ask Ronnie a question: http://ronniefein.com/ask

To comment: http://ronniefein.com/submit