The Dangers of Being a Food Snob

I have recently been called a food snob. I've been called worse in my life, but a food snob? Moi?

Yes, I will admit, I am particular when it comes to restaurant food. Is that a crime? I know what perfectly prepared food looks and tastes like. I'm on to the tricks restaurants use to stretch their food dollars. I have been down the road of plate coverage and I have eaten my share of "bad" food. I can spot food that has been prepared with quality ingredients, passion and love as soon as it prances out the kitchen door. And I can spot a fake at first bite.

When the best husband in the world and I go out to eat, the restaurant, pub, grill, bistro or sidewalk vendor is carefully selected. 

We can tell you (in our opinion) where the best burger joint is in a three state radius. 

French Country? No problem. Just up the street at a little place called A Toute Heurre (At Any Time) that also happens to serve only locally grown or produced foods. It is packed every night.

Best hot dog in the state? Hot Dog Johnny's in (my kids still laugh at this) Butzville, NJ.

Burger? Wertz's, Home of the Wertz Burger - across from the old Allentown Fairgrounds in Allentown, PA.

Intimate dinner for two featuring the best tapas around? Apollo Grille, Bethlehem, PA.

Favorite Micro Brewery? Bethlehem Brew Works, Bethlehem PA. 

Pizza - toss up between Emma's Brick Oven and Calabria's Sicilian Style right here in town.

 

Best Wine Bar in the state for food and wine value and sexy ambiance? The Wine Loft at the Piers in Long Branch, NJ.  

New York City - wow - I'd run out of blog space. Bobby Flay's Bar American for great food, cocktails and service. Bouley for atmosphere, gourmet excellence and a lovely little lemon cake they send home with you. TriBeCa Grill for cocktails and rack of lamb. Gotham Grill for squab.

 

Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia - a once in a lifetime treat. The Chef's Choice 9 course with wine is to die for.

Cafe TuTu Tango in Orlando Florida for roasted pear salad and other tapas meant for sharing while watching professional Flamingo Dancers whirl past your table and local artists working on their most recent creation. 

The Boat House in Bar Harbor that serves up steaming, fresh caught Maine Lobsters on hard wooden tables spread with newspapers and cold frosty mugs of beer. 

Best Mexican food north of the border? Tinga in Westfield, NJ. A little place where you order your food standing at a counter and if you're lucky they bring it to you when it's ready. 

The best meal of our life? In Bayeux France in a 11th. century manor house - the chef's choice. course after course of tiny bites of unbelievable flavor with perfectly paired French wines and Calvados made from neighboring orchards as an after dinner drink. 

We love food, all kinds of food. But a food snob, me? No way. 

The danger of being a food snob is well, just too dangerous. What would I miss out on? Pastrami and Swiss on fat sliced rye bread from a little corner deli? Funnel cake at a church bazaar, hot from the oil, still sizzling, dusted with powdered sugar? Ham , eggs and pancakes all puffed and golden at a silver diner located on a road to no where? A fresh Jersey peach picked right at the orchard, eaten immediately with juice running down your sleeves. It's too risky to be a food snob. 

AND what about my all time guilty pleasure, eaten in secret, hiding in shame and embarrassment at my lack of will power- oh the childhood memories of ... Fluffernutters on white bread - "oh sweet mystery of life I think I've found you". 

Salty JIF peanut butter with just the right amount of Marshmallow Fluff on way too fresh, soft white bread... would a bonafide food snob eat a Fluffernutter Sandwich? I think not. 

See, it doesn't matter what the main ingredients are, the ethnic background, the price tag - or where it is cooked. What matters is the freshness and quality of the ingredients, prepared with passion and attention to detail; served with pride. So walk-up window, casual neighborhood diner, 5 star rated restaurant, doesn't matter - as long as all of the above is mixed in. 

Food Snob? Moi? Never! Pass the Jif and Fluff please.

Fluffernutter Sandwich (serves one kid in you)

2 pieces white bread (crust on, because you will get curly hair if you eat your crusts)

2 tablespoons peanut butter of choice

2 tablespoons marshmallow fluff

Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread

Spread marshmallow on the other slice of bread

Moosh the two slices together. 

Eat

Smile

Cancer Sucks and Shanewiches

"Cancer Sucks, But My Son Rocks" - those are words written by my brother-in-law (Shane's Dad) on his blog site, www.teamskelcy.wordpress.com

Forgive me if I use this blog over the coming weeks and months to talk about our nephew.

When cancer strikes a loved one, the whole family gets cancer together. As a family we have weathered this storm before. With my father and the best husband in the world's father (prostate cancer). TBHITW's mom, breast cancer. My mom, colon cancer. All are survivors and we give thanks everyday for that.

But when cancer strikes a 10 year old boy - all reason flies out the window. All perspective can get lost in the battle.

Shane's journey into the world of cancer started with an innocent fall on a school playground just a few weeks ago. A bruise to his left side, above his hip was the beginning. When the "bruise" got worse, a second visit to the pediatrician was warranted. It wasn't a bruise. In a few short days of MRI's and tests, Shane was undergoing surgery to remove a tennis ball size tumor from his left side. TBHITW went to Michigan, the family rallied around Mark and Dee, Shane's parents, his sisters (the twins) just Irish Twins away in age, Kaitlin and Allyson and of course, Shane.

The surgeon felt 99.9% sure he got it all. Praise be! The tumor was not attached to the bone and had not spread. It was a "contained" tumor. Shane went home from the hospital, TBHITW came home from Michigan and we rejoiced that an angel pushed Shane down on the playground - otherwise the tumor would not have been found for months.

Then the pathology reports started coming in....

Confusing, infuriating, terrifying. The cancer is rare. Pathologists were consulted at the University of Michigan, the University of Boston and Emory University in Atlanta. A team of 20 tumor specialists was assembled. What was this? What path of treatment was needed? The verdict that came back has tried the faith and hope of everyone in this family. A rare cancer - rarely seen in adults and only seen 5 times in children. They are even loathe to name it. Myxiod Sarcoma? The doctors say it doesn't need a name. The diagnosis is enough.

The tumor team and all the pathologists have decided that the course of treatment will commence with chemotherapy beginning June 1. A full summer of it.

To be followed by radiation.

To be followed by surgery to remove even the skin that was covering the tumor. 

To be followed by a skin graft. 

We feel helpless in the face of this enormous disease that has captured our family. 

Some of us will pray. Some of us will cry. Some of us will yell. Some of us will shake our fists at the cancer gods and some at their very own God. 

Some, like Mark and Dee, will run in the NYC Marathon this fall - raising money for cancer research and honoring their son's struggle. 

Me, I'll cry a little (I call them my private cries - maybe in the shower, maybe when I'm all by myself in the kitchen). I'll google Myxoid Sarcoma - maybe. But mostly I'll cook. I'll rename old recipes for Shane and invent some new ones. I'll find the foods that soothe a chemotherapy racked body. I'll visit in July and take over someone's kitchen like an invading army. That is my therapy. That is where I find solace. In front of a pot. Creating, tasting, inventing, feeding. Feeding the family and feeding my soul. And somewhere in all that stirring and mixing and basting and sauteing is a prayer for a cure. 

ShaneWiches - formerly known as Whoopie Pies. (I can rename it because I changed the recipe somewhat in order to use whole wheat pastry flour and brown sugar instead of the traditional all white flour and sugar - feel free to change it back! I also feel free to rename it because if ten year olds can get cancer, they can have a cookie/cake named after them)

Cookies (Cakes):

1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 c all purpose flour
2/3 c unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 c buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar to one cup milk, let stand for 5 minutes)
Crystal sugar (optional)

Filling:
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 c confectioners sugar
1 jar (7 1/2 oz) marshmallow cream
2 tsp vanilla

1.  Heat oven to 350
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.  Combine flour, cocoa and baking soda.
In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 min.  Add egg
and vanilla and beat to combine.  Alternately add flour mixture and
buttermilk beginning and ending with flour.  Mix until smooth.

2.  Drop 1-inch mounds of batter 2 inches apart onto baking sheets.
Sprinkle half of the mounds with crystal sugar (optional).  Bake until tops are puffed
and cookies spring back when touched, 15 min.
Transfer to rack and cool completely.

3.  To make filling:  Beat together butter, confect. sugar, marshmallow
cream, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 min.  Spread a rounded tablespoon of
filling on flat side of half of the cookies.  Top with other.

Make these for all the people you love in this world - just because you CAN.