classy

pickled
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

tonight for dinner, a and i had chicken sausage with mustard, mine with sauerkraut and a side of pickles. oh, and a charming glass of beaujolais-villages. this is what happens when you go for a long bike ride, stop at your friend's house and unexpectedly get fed delicious homemade gazpacho and blueberry peach pie but come home to a somewhat empty kitchen craving protein. you work with what you got, which does not include buns. or fresh vegetables. but does inexplicable include large quantities of pickled foods.

its meals like these that lead to major gaps in my foodblog. i mean, it's a bit embarrassing, isn't it? and i didn't even include here a picture of our appetizer, ritz crackers with easy cheez, left over from our 50s party. and i'm only mentioning now the sugarless neopolitan ice cream because i feel somewhat obligated to do so.

because everyone is always cooking these amazing meals and i'm eating crackers with tomato sauce from a jar for dinner. sigh.

Scandinavian Festival: Fried Dough Medley

funnelcake
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

what better way to follow an evening of jello, chicken can-can (made with four kinds of creamed soup!) and processed meats than to head to Junction City, Oregon's very own Scandinavian Festival? This is no doubt the event of the year in this town of 5200 people.

after a disappointing morning in which all of our festival buddies bailed, we rallied and got ourselves the 30 miles to Junction City (and we were the ones to host the party the night before--all anyone else had to do was show up!). it's a teeny tiny town and was completely overrun by men in lederhosen and women in bright blue and red jumpers. it couldn't have been pleasant what with the temperature reaching 100 degrees.

at any rate, we spent the afternoon visting food booths, eating fried food: funnel cake, aebleskiver (little balls of dough), deep fried veggies, a "krab kaka." finally, to temper the rumblings of deep fried batter in our stomachs, we shared a pink lemonade sno-cone. and you know you're in trouble when you turn to a bright pink sugary sno-cone for something a bit more mild.

i'm glad we made it to the festival. it was pretty awesome. and scandinavian culture is oh-so similar to dutch culture, which warmed the little dutch girl's cockles. we got a picture of her in front of the windmill and we watched the almost-like-dutch-dancing swedish dancers. it was a very wholesome occasion.

a swell evening

snowy chicken confetti salad
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

this weekend's party was a success! our friends far exceeded my expectations, which were already pretty high. below are the contributions of the house; you can see what our guests brought here. everything was beautiful, if not entirely edible. and everyone was very nice about the fact that it was so hot in the apartment that the sandwich loaf started to sag. the hosts of the party contributed:

snowy chicken confetti salad(shown above), of which 1/4 was eaten assorted pickles and cheese pineapple punch ambrosia salad

lavender sandwich loaf crackers and cheese with olives and weenies snowy rainbow jello

the hosts were impressed by every other dish, especially the meat tower, which was left practically untouched, but enjoyed nonetheless. it was a spectacle to behold. the creative use of ritz crackers was also noted. and we might actually consider making the meat casserole on a cold winter night.

megwoo at iheartbacon.com also put together quite a, um, feast (for the eyes, if not the belly, in some cases.)

1950s party prep

in the spirit of the 1950s housewife, it is 11am, the sandwich loaf is in the fridge and i'm having my first alcoholic beverage. just something to take the edge off a long day of cooking and cleaning.

more jello

ingredients
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

"you know, it's much easier to be a good cook when you like what you're cooking."
(overheard in staff lounge this morning)

i was thinking about this and i realized that i don't even like the pineapple with emerald wreath. i mean, who would?!? no wonder i couldn't get it! luckily, i'd already decided to switch to Marje's Super Amazing Rainbow Jello, made by my cousin every thanksgiving as long as i can remember. she even used the jello to let me know she knew i was queer: for years she'd told me that she'd give me the recipe on my wedding day. the year she said to me, "you know, deepfry, i'll give you that recipe whenever you want it. you don't need to be married to have it," i knew she was in the know.

so, it's appropriate to make the jello for a party that sort of romanticizes the incredibly stifling and oppressive decade that is the 1950s. i put on my peddle pushers, white blouse, sensible pumps, did up my hair in a hanky and pulled out the ingredients for the jello: generic coolwhip and four flavors of jello. my cousin advised against grape, blueberry and banana. i got strawberry, lime, lemon and orange. classics. after mixing each in it's own bowl, i put them i the fridge to set until "it doesn't just dribble off the spoon." Thirty minutes later, i pulled out the jello and mixed each with 6 oz. of coolwhip. i spooned at random from each bown until the mold was full. and well, we'll see how it goes!

in attempting to attone for last night's post-dinner fall from grace, i just ate an entirely virtuous lunch: tofu and vegetable maki (with brown rice! and braggs instead of soy sauce!) and an odwalla super protein original, which i'm currently obsessed with (liquid meals!).

i expect that i'll be starving in about one hour. it's too bad i have no chocolate cherry bread with me.

last night, we had an incredibly virtuous dinner followed by a profoundly unvirtuous dessert:

dinner: poached salmon, steamed broccoli and brown rice, all covered in soy-sesame-ginger sauce. i was just back from a bike ride (and how lovely it is to come home from a workout with dinner just about ready) and this was a perfect protein-full but light dinner.

dessert: beer and zingerman's chocolate-cherry bread, toasted. and, for some but not me, a cigarette. my parents got april a bread-of-the-month club membership for graduation and yesterday the final package arrived: chocolate-cherry bread and farm bread. honestly, you haven't had bread until you've had zingerman's bread. i'm not a cherry-in-things person (i prefer them on their own, unadulterated by other ingredients) but this bread, especially when toasted, makes me weepy. the bread seems to be sourdough mixed with dutch cocoa and is full of dried cherries and chocolate chunks. it's thick and crusty. and combination of crunchy warm bread, tart cherries and melted chocolate. ahhh...

inspiration

my friend cindy can't make it to either retro food parties, but, in solidarity, she made a sandwich loaf. it's like a pug: so ugly, it's beautiful:

it should be an inspiration to us all.

cereal

cereal
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

here's an exciting glimpse of breakfast at the wittebreak or breakeveen household. cereal! with cat ass! yum! this photo is also called "Hi! I just got a digital camera and have to document everything that happens!"

yesterday we went to cedars with lesli and sarah. they both got turkish coffee and after finishing their tasty beverages, the owner of the restaurant came over to read the grounds. lesli is or was or will be chased by someone who is wielding a large item. you can see, if you look closely (and squint a bit) an image of someone holding something over his/her head and chasing someone else, who is running away.

sarah, on the other hand, will be attending a wedding. she will receive a package. or has received one.

april and i had no coffee. so nothing will happen to us. despite this, we had a tasty meal. we split the maza plate (the combo featuring baba ghanoush, humus, stuffed grape leaves, a chicken kabob, falafel and tabouleh) and a kafta kabob. for dessert we had an amazing piece of knafee, which is essentially hot fried cheese and syrup. as you can guess, anything cheesy, fried and drenched in sweetness is bound to be pretty fantastic. i was a bit skeptical before trying it (though not enough to order something else) but wow, was it good! the knafee, with april doing the honors of taking the first bite, is pictured. notice it's massive size. i look forward to returning to cedars for a late night turkish coffee and knafee.

impressive!

last night, fourteen fine folks in chicago got together and ate 47.6 lbs of Old Country Buffet. that's 3.4 lbs each. you'll note in a photo captured by one of the amateur competitive eaters, that, as it turns out, one heaping pile of food is only one pound. so almost three and a half plates each of mashed potatoes, fried chicken, creamy coleslaw, fries, peas, corn, jello,...

this: three and a half times over.

i am so, so in awe. deeply, reverently in awe.

jello=3
eliz=0

i have great knife skills for an amateur, can turn out fantastic soups, breads, pastries, and whatnot, but i cannot for the friggin' life of me make a jello mold!! what gives?!?!

switched to strawberry jello since the thought of lime jello is beginning to make me whoozy. doubled the quantity in order to fill the mold. completed jello and took to weekly queer as folk viewing.

only one mistake this time, that april pointed out, and, oh, so obvious once she mentioned it! when flipping the jello over, it began to ooze out. so we threw it back in the freezer for a bit. reflipped after soaking briefly in warm water in order to melt the outside for easier slippage. the top still stuck to the mold, and the bottom was still kinda oozy. so, clearly, it needs to set overnight. i am too Gen-X (or Y, or something) and thus lack the patience for jello. that's so depressing.

next time, the fucker sits overnight.

jello=2
eliz=0

fuck.

attempted another pineapple in emerald wreath for a dinner party at strangers' house. take away rule: do not experiment on a dish for people you don't know! luckily, these strangers, with their beautiful restored 50 yr old stove and fridge, were impressed with the concept of jello mold enough to be forgiving of the actual dish.

mistakes:
1. grapes floated to what is actually the bottom of jello.
2. jello did not fill mold and, thus, had to travel 2 inches from mold to plate, thus collapsing said mold.
3. twenty minute non-air conditioned car ride heated jello, further contributing to collapse.

by the time the jello was served, it was a green puddle with bits of grapes and pineapples floating about. ew.