The Cottage Kitchen Rules

Okay, I'm not going to plagiarize, but while going through my fly-away collection of recipes (those scraps that you never rewrite on something to fit in a box or file, because you lose that patina: the moment you had to find paper, the grease spot that overtakes some of the letters...) I came across something I downloaded while surfing Morel mushroom recipes from an e-newsletter, posted in March 2003 written by Edie Clark, with whom - if I met Edie - I think I'd have a lot to talk about. Read on...

Cottage Kitchen Rules
1. Experiment with new things.
2. Find interesting ways to "spin" old things.
3. If it flops, don't make it again.
4. If it's great, draw a lot of little stars and write things like "super" all over the recipe card.
5. Invite a lot of people over to help, then put them to work chopping and dicing.
6. Tell them to bring wine.
7. Make sure someone like Jeanie brings dessert, if you're lucky enough to know someone like Jeanie.
8. Listen to Pavarotti. Opera "fine tunes" taste buds. If you don't believe me, try it.
9. If it tastes like dirt, don't eat it. Especially if it's expensive.
10. If it isn't fun, don't do it, except for the dirty dishes.
11. If it's pasta or rice or soup, drizzle a dash of white truffle oil on top. This will be delicious and it will make everyone wonder what that mysterious flavor is.
12. If you can't decide what to serve, boil some fettuccini and serve it with an Alfredo sauce and whatever's in season. Try mushrooms, ramps, fiddleheads, seafood, sausage, bacon, chicken, or meat.

I mean, don't you just feel like you want an invitation to Edie's? She understands my fly-away scraps of paper with recipes on them, I know she does. She had posted a great recipe for Morels with Madeira and Fettuccini. Besides that, if she's got so many people drinking, chopping and dicing to Pavarotti, she's got a bigger mess in her kitchen than I probably do...(at least not after last night's organizing). We're bonded without ever having met.

Better yet, I know we're already bonded over our little forest fungi. And I'm getting a bit antsy for Spring planting season and moreover, mushroom hunting. I bet Edie is, too. But this weekend (because there are no morels yet up here), I'm seeding my San Marzano tomatoes (now nearly 11th generation from my job in the Santa Fe greenhouses) and with that comes my daydreams of the Morel...those lovely, wrinkled, dirty little sprites. Can't help it.

My only challenge now is to find someone like Jeanie. Although I did have a KILLER flan (or should I say super) in the not too distant past...maybe I do have my Jeanie...

And so...the great failure

So what do you suppose this is? I'll give you a hint - it's NOT a close up shot of corpuscles...

Okay, I'll tell you!

I got this BEAUTIFULLY photographed book called Preserving last year and was so excited to try the Basil Oil! After I grew a lovely crop of Sweet Italian Basil, I set to work squishing each plant into a quart jar to receive the gently heated extra virgin olive oil.

The recipe said to heat the oil slowly to 104 degrees, pour into the jars over the fresh basil and after sealing them, leave them for 6 - 8 weeks. I thought that this seemed like a low temperature - certainly not a sterilizing temperature - but I forged ahead, then went to New Zealand after straining out the solids from this lovely dark green olive oil, again as instructed. Great things were to come from these jars.

When I came back a month later, I was all set to look upon this beautifully flavorful liquid and give away many bottles triumphantly at Christmas. "Why yes, I did grow the basil first - uh huh, then I used a recipe in this GREAT book..."

But this is what I saw when I went down into my basement to check on my holiday lovelies... I checked with the National Center for Home Food Preservation and was told in multi-syllabic terms that I would make someone very ill if I distributed this now evil tincture. I believe the term was Clostridium botulinum bacteria, my goodness.

So over this past weekend, I poured every one of these bottles out into an old washer fluid container and put them in the dumpster. What a sad waste after such lofty expectations. My oil last year turned out so well! Is this what I get when I don't listen to my inner chemist?

Okay, so lesson learned. Dry the basil first and then use the sunlight to create the carrier oil. There will be no more of this fresh Basil Oil Recipe Tom Foolery for me. And I just hope my garden will forgive me this Spring.