Well, the upside was I didn’t have to call the fire department. Grilling is the caveman of cooking. I believe a pyromania gene is embedded in the DNA of most boys. The love affair of boy meets grill as...
Foodies & Friends
Welcome to Foodies & Friends—a celebration of food and the people who gather to share it.
Of all the senses, the sense of taste is most dependent on the others in order to achieve a true sensory experience. Each of the other senses plays a symbiotic role, evoking different parts of our psyche and establishing emotional connections that go well beyond nutrition.
The sounds of an engaging discussion around a dinner table are as just as much a part of the celebration as the food itself. Individual personalities flavor the conversation in many of the same ways that different ingredients flavor a meal. Food may restore the body, but true friendship is what restores the mind.
Foodies Blog
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Early in my career, I worked too much and slept too little while covering crime, floods and the daily circus of news. I needed a break from urban reality and the adrenaline rush. I needed a reboot. I reasoned a...
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There’s a famous art installation in Amarillo, Texas called the Cadillac Ranch, where a line of classic wing-tipped, fin-tailed Cadillacs are half-buried, nose first in the stark dirt. I’ve always loved the striking visual—decadent post-WWII luxury roadsters arranged in a...
I’ve just put the leftover roasted chicken carcass from last month’s recipe into a stock pot along with an onion, carrot, celery stalk, peppercorns and water to cover and decided it would be a good time to write a column while my stock simmers. I’ve been thinking about alternatives to turkey when planning holiday fare, and my mind drifted to a road trip of many autumns past.
Apple Cider Pork Loin
A friend, Jim, and I, both Steinbeck fans, decided we would do a “Travels with(out) Charley” car trip (since neither of us owned a dog). The travelogue would be done somewhat in reverse or in a counterclockwise direction starting in the South. We loaded my hatchback with a road atlas, vitamins, a homemade compilation jazz CDs (Jim, a political science writer and chef, was also a jazz band drummer), and enough food and water for many days.
Travelling mostly back roads, we weren’t very far from home when we started passing apple stands. Apple orchards were not a part of my childhood experience and anything beyond the red delicious variety was news to me. And there was a lot of breaking news. The varietals were unending, and the taste variants of tannin, acid, sweet, bitter were all so sensuous. Apples!!! I had to rethink my ideas of jelly, apple butter, chips, juice, etc. But the one item that left the most dynamic impression was cider and cider apples. We would buy two gallons at a time of unsweetened, unpasteurized, unfiltered, just squeezed glorious juice and place it on the backseat floorboard and partake as needed.
It was my first experience with cider that would ferment slowly and naturally. Each day it was a different taste and experience. The fizz and changing alcohol content made for a very interesting and lasting relationship. Since then, I’ve loved to use apples in cooking, and this recipe uses them in a number of forms for a delicious fall dinner entrée or Thanksgiving centerpiece.
And now it is about time for me to tend to that stock while you try this recipe.
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