Freedom Food!

Remember that??? When people started calling french fries, "freedom fries"?

Gag me.

Crystal and me and Sam are co-hosting the next cookbook club. I've been getting some pressure to announce the book (Katy) so here you go suckas... I just texted Crystal and together we made the decision to use Bouchon. We'd originally thought The French Laundry cookbook would be great but after some research and consideration decided to go with its less glamorous and more practical sister, Bouchon. Both books are by Thomas Keller (as are both restaurants).

Here is a link if you want to check out the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579652395

You can get it anywhere I'm sure but as always Tim will special order it for you if you need.

You know that field trip we discussed last time? Maybe we can all go to Bouchon and check out the digs... Just a thought.

We're still working out the date. Email to follow.

Love,
Shannon

It was great fun the other night, can't wait for the new book. Ladies?

Next time Katy...

...next time.

Ummm...I know I am lame

but...does anyone even look at this...as I said I know I am lame and it has taken me a while to get in the swing-o-thangs but I thought y'all were all "up" on this stuff...someone comment on anything ; )

HeHe

Well here goes...I am new to this "blog" stuff(I know it is just like sending an email, I am just silly like that). Anyhoo we are coming down the wire and will be meeting again to have great food and stimulating convo. I know some of you are out of the counrty right now and some my be just on vacation, but I hope this reaches all of you. Has eveyone had a chance to find the book or at least look at it? Great! If you are reading this and you have not recieved an email form me with all the "special" info please let me know martaberry@gmail.com. OK...I am very excited to see everyones dishes...June 29th, in alameda at (did we say the time...6:30-7pm-ish)

Braaaaaainnnnssss!

I got the new cookbook. Whoa boy. If someone makes the lamb brains I ain't tryin' it. Sorry. I also spotted several dishes that included liver. No brains for me, no liver either. I'm not an organ eater, typically.

june book: the complete book of greek cooking, st. paul's orthodox church

Yayyy! Marta picked Greek food. For a place that calls itself a cosmopolitan food capital, the Bay Area has zip Greek restaurants, as far as I know. There are tons of "Mediterranean" joints but no Greeks. I have a soft spot for Greek food, since every time we took a trip to Chicago as a child we would hit "Little Greece" for some amazing food. Greeks live up to the stereotypes, big strapping people with loud voices and free-flowing ouzo. I hate ouzo, but hey, when in Rome... or Athens. I always ordered the "saganaki," which is fried cheese that they cover in brandy and then ignite at the table into a fireball, then yell "OPA!" while they douse it with lemon. So yeah, Im making that for the Klub. I have also always wanted to make home-made pita, so I will bring that too. As for "church" cookbooks, someone should compile the best recipes from those things and put out a book. Its real food that real people make, and they can be thanked for seven-layer dip, artichoke dip, and cocktail weenies in bbq sauce. So, Marta, thank you for bringing back my Midwest memories! -Katy

Hi, I'm new!

Some of you know me aleady, I'm Meghan! I am looking forward to being involved in the next event! I sure hope in the future we can all cook some Suzanne Somers recipes! I love Suzanne!

See you soon!

1st Klub, The New Spanish Table, completed!

Wow the first Klub was fucking great, IMHO... I must say at first I
was worried, as more than half of you dropped out in the last 24
hours!~ arrrrrrgh. Was I gonna be left holding the octopus? But them
folks that showed up really dove in head first and we had a great
time!

A couple people were nervous about cooking and having people "judge"
what they made, but i assured them that we are judging the cookbook,
not the cooks. a few of you even tested your recipes before re-making
them for the club! awesome, but not necessary! plus, once we were all
gathered it was pretty apparent that it was super chill... I hope.

I'll write about it in courses... First, I made the pear sangria which
was probably the best of the three things I made. It tasted better
than I had even imagined. I shoulda made more! We also began with the
marinated carrots, and Crystal and Sam (plus Greg) brought an empanada
with tuna and red pepper. It was beautiful, for one thing, and
disappeared really quickly. (You'll have to forgive me, I dont have my
book and can't figure out the exact names of the recipes... ). They
also brought a palate-cleansing granita made with liqeur and green
grapes which we served in little glasses and felt quite chic.

From there we had the octopus and potato salad, which I made and
thought tasted like... er, a potato salad with octopus. Nothing to
special, but totally edible.

Scott and his dad Bob really went crazy and barbecued some amazing
chicken with garlic... then they served another bbq chicken dish that
they served in slices with a side of spicy gazpacho. i thought it was
very very spanish and very very good! they also brought another
surprise but more on that later...

Kitty brought not only a CD of 60s and 70s spanish music (of course!)
but also a honey-lemon chicken. it had a beautiful saffron color and
was just about the tenderist chicken i have ever eaten. i loved it.

Dessert! Shannon made a beautiful cake with powdered sugar on top. I
have to confess I was too full to try it but i have a big bunch of it
in my fridge for breakfasts all week. Marta, the pastry chef, opted
for the pear and blue cheese tart... another thing i couldn't eat but
plan to! dang gastric bypass surgery...

Mostly we all ate and talked and whooped it up. My friend Fred also
showed up, making our gathering about 10 people, and he wants to join
tha klub now. WE NEED NEW MEMBERS! Pass it on.

As the host, I was really touched at how much work and enthusiasm
everyone put into it. you all really honored the book and gave it your
best. I couldn't ask for better co-klubbers!

The verdict on the book? Most everyone said that their recipes didn't
turn out the way they expected... some also complained about typos,
like "add 1/2 olive oil". 1/2 of what?? But everyone liked the book,
and we damn sure wolfed down all the nummy food. I think the book is
worth it for the sangria recipes alone. Still, only about three
people were happy to add it to their collection. The rest were glad
that they used the library or borrowed their friends'.

OK, NEXT KLUB.... we have a queue forming. It looks like Marta will
host the next one at her apartment in Alameda. She mentioned wanting
to go "white trash" so wippee goddamn dee doo to that. Next will be
Shannon, then Kitty. The next one will probably meet at the end of
June. Sorry its so east bay focused! you SFers who want to host may
be able to move to the front of the line...

Oh, yeah, the surprise! Well it wasnt exactly spanish, but bob and
scott brought a pinata shaped like godzilla. i happened to have the
godzilla soundtrack so we played that and wacked it. ok that doesnt
sound right.

xokaty

Saffron. Yuh-uhm.

You know, saffron is one of my favorite spices. It was well represented in The New Spanish Table and at Sunday's dinner party. Deeee-lish.

(I wrote this part in an email I sent to some of you today and upon Katy's suggestion have reposted it here as a blog.)

I had such a great time with you guys. I raved about Kookbook Klub so much that my reluctant old man, Tim, wants to attend next time.

Ha!

HA!

And when a cookbook gets chosen for next month Tim said he'd check the book store's inventory (used and new) for us...so maybe those of us who want to buy it could maybe buy it used.

Maybe.

I dug the cookbook. I mean, I'm really in love with The Art of Simple Food (Alice Waters) right now and The New Spanish Table was very different (not so, uh, simple). Life feels really complicated to me a lot of the time (I'm complex, what can you do?) so I love the idea of keeping it simple in the kitchen. That was what I found challenging about the book --.a lot of the recipes are fairly complex. I think that is also what makes the book beautiful. My experience of the book was definitely influenced by my relationship to time right now. For me, right now, there's a perceived scarcity when it comes to time and I was extraordinarily resistant to slowing down, planning for, shopping for, and making most of the yummy sounding dishes I found in the book (if it requires a double boiler or more than one or two basic steps it seems I'm not your girl). I almost made a roasted asparagus dish. Simple. I really want to be in a place in my life where I can slow down (my eternal struggle)...with Tim moving in (Yay!) and work being crazy and being gone two weekends out of last month I felt short on time and it impacted my relationship with The New Spanish Table. I can see that this is the beginning of a really wonderful process for me. Every six weeks I get the opportunity to struggle with this stuff. I get to learn to slow down and enjoy the entire process. The choosing, the planning, the shopping, the cooking, the eating. In time I'll be double boiling the shit out of some chocolate...like it was nothin.

Thanks for the rad times.

Pre-cooking book review, The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen

Me agin. OK, so, I wanted to do a pre-cooking review of the book. I plan on doing this for all the books we choose. You can like a book on sight, and then actually work with it and cook and not like it so much. So, this is not-yet-cooked-from-it review.

So, I am very enamored with Von Bremzen and was excited to see her Spanish book. She writes for Travel and Leisure (yeah like I can afford to even READ that sucka) and Food & Wine Magazine. I like the interesting things she has to say about Spain. For example, she asserts that all the really innovative and interesting new things in gourmet food are happening in Spain... she says the France is "tired." Hm. There are some really interesting chefs in Spain, people she calls Avant Guard. I suppose this is apparent in her book, where she has some weird recipes, like balsamic vanilla ice cream with sardines.

Before I go into the book, let me first outline what I like in a cookbook. Firstly, I have to feel like its something that I can besmirch and soil with no guilt. It should have fingerprints and drips and pages stuck together once I get movin' on it. This usually leaves out "chef cookbooks." Those are the kinds with loads of pictures and glossy paper.... and usually full of recipes that you really dont feel compelled to make. That would be my second criteria... Do I feel COMPELLED to cook the recipes? This is hard to put my finger on, but I know it when I see it.

My favorite cookbook is Sundays At Moosewood, which fills all my criteria. First of all, Moosewood is what taught me how to cook. Sure, all the recipes start with olive oil and "traslucent onions," and they all sort of taste the same... but it taught me a lot about cooking and experimenting. the "Sundays" book goes all over the world. Each section is another country. I felt COMPELLED to cook these recipes the first time I saw them. The fact that they came out great was, of course, also important.

So on to The New Spanish Table. It is broken off into 12 sections: Tapas, Soup, Salads, Eggs, Empanadas, Seafood, Meat, Poultry, Beans & Potatoes, Rice & Pasta, Vegetables, and Desserts.

I don't know a lot about tapas, but I was excited to see a whole bunch of ones that I had never heard of and sounded amazing... like Catalan guacamole (with anchovies!), Goat-Cheese Stuffed Piquillo Peppers, Beet Leaves stuffed with Morcilla (blood sausage! eww...but strangely interesting), and of course deep fried croquettas. I would like to have a party just to serve all that stuff. I'm not much of a soup fan, but if I ever feel the need to make some this will be the first place I go. Basically, every section looks amazing. There are a few pictures, but they are taken from real Spanish kitchens or food vendors. She goes into essayed detail about each region and dish; something I don't normally care for, but found myself motivated to learn more about... she is just really motivational! COMPELLING!

Here are my complaints: I don't care for egg dishes, really... not my favorite. The section on eggs doesn't thrill me. Also, the desserts aren't that thrilling. There are a lot of them made with anise (yick) or some sort of liquer... not my favorite. I've actually never tried a granita, so I can't really comment on that. I will be cooking one of the treats tho... I'll keep it a surprise.

In short, is this a cookbook I would want to own? Hell yes. But then again, I picked it. I'm curious what other people think in tha Klub. I'm sure this book ain't for everybody...

Katy

The Spanish Table...Mill Valley!

Yo yo yo babypops... so I went to the Spanish Table today! In Marin! Whoo-hooo. First off, the Spanish Table is a "chain" store with like three other places in upscale towns... Berkeley, Santa Fe, and Seattle. They specialize in all things Spanish. The author of the book that we are working on for this month's Kookbook Klub recommended it, so I was looking forward to going. I needed to buy some 'cheap' Spanish wine for the Sangria and I wanted to get some nice olive oil.

I went during work hours. I work with developmentally disabled people, and part of our philosophy is getting people with disabilities out there in the real world, not holed up in some gym doing a jigsaw puzzle all day. So, in short, I can do errands at my job, so long as the clients help me find things and are active participants. Boy, did I have active participants! First I had Lisa, who has Downs Syndrome and was voted Down Syndrome Woman of the Year in the 90s. She got her picture taken with that Corky guy from Life Goes On, pretty much the Marlon Brando of Downs. So she's rad. Then I had Alex, who has, jeez, I dunno... he is just kinda strange. He makes dolphin noises "eek eek eek!" and calls random people "fool!" when we pass them. He's of Chinese descent, rail thin, and totally blind. He loves it when i sing that ditty from Saturday Night Live with Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra: "You are black and i am white! You are blind as a bat and I have sight!" So he likes to be teased about not seeing shit. He loves to be taken to knew places, especially if you walk him through it, physically and verbally. I knew he would dig The Spanish Table, and that Lisa would dig it too.

So here's how the joint is set up: There's a big ol' wall of wine, for starters. I'm not really a wine person, but if I was I'm sure I would enjoy it. Then there's a big ol wall of olive oil, sardines, anchovies, octopus... all sorts of things in tins. Then there is the Pimenton, and saffron... stuff like that. They have the world's biggest paella pan. Seriously. It's like five feet across. Now that, my amigos, is La Paella.

The lady who worked there was really nice and I showed her what i wanted to make in the cookbook. She pointed out some nice wines for sangria, since I have decided to make all the sangria since I am the host. One was called Tres Ojos. I asked Lisa if she knew what that meant. She said nope. I said "three eyes." What a freakin' cool name, for anything! Then I said to Al, dude, three eyes? You got no eyes. And he laughed and made dolphin sounds.

My favorite thing about this store is the aprons. They are flamenco dancer style, with flouncy ruffles at the bottom. I put one on Lisa, a red one with big white polka dots. She looked like Minnie Mouse. It was really cute.

After that we went and got ice cream. I was sort of pissed. I asked the teen behind the counter if they had kid's servings. She said "only for kids," I'll have to charge you full price." OK think about this.... what is the fucking difference if I am a kid or not, or if Lisa or Alex is? A lot of disabled people cant eat all that. Anyway, this policy is INSANE. I'm writing a letter. I mean come on, what are they losing by giving us a child's portion and charging us for a child's portion? Grrrrrrrrr. Yeah this has nothing to do with La Paella. It just pisses me off.

Over n Out...

La Katy

Hello...

Katy may have had a few indulgences in her bio about me, but mostly on point.

Since it seems customary, and as I am "new" member to this "seasoned" (ha ha) group of KookBook aficionados, I thought I'd write a little hello...

My name is Scott, I work for the same non-profit as Katy. She says program coordinator, I'd like to think of myself more as her BOSS. I jest...(partially) Actually, our boss says the only reason I got the job is because Katy said I was "smart". So, there's that straightened out. I have been called Deuce, thanks to the Shanz and Katy. I do have the pipe dream of raising buffalo, back in Big Sky Country and would like to become an advocate/lobbyist for people with disabilities.

My Pops, does like Soundgarden. We went to a concert with Katy, and they both sang along together. He's an operating room nurse, and all around good guy. Funny and entertaining. He has and continues to teach me how to cook, ever since I was little kid. We live together in our bachelor pad in the rockin Union City!

As far as the cooking, yes we have a little rotisserie oven. It's more of a glorified toaster oven, although it would be sweet to have an industrial one. We aren't really "serious" cooks, but enjoy doing it. Neither of us are "cookbook" cooks, but we're excited and ready for the Klub!

Aside from the delicious food, I am excited to meet you all. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of Katy's friends and must say they have all been such awesome people, that I'm sure those of you I haven't met will be as well.

We're thinking of some grilled options, but not for sure yet. In closing, good call on this cookbook!

New Memberz...

These guys can come on and do their own intros, too, but we have four new people who will be joining us!

Will Harper is a total douche. He is the managing editor at the SF Weekly. He really likes that band Disturbed and the Indigo Girls. Which brings me to his girlfriend, Annika, one of the top ten greatest women I know. She used to be gay but Will's mojo is apparently so powerful that she now has gone straight. She works at an architectural firm. Annika has the dubious distinction of being the first person I ever met out here when I decided to go West. This is a terrible introduction to two of my favorite people. Oh well.

Scott Blood is a dude I mentioned briefly in an email. He is the program coordinator at my job, and, at the tender age of 22, earned the knickname "Deuce" from me and Shannon. Now he is creeping up on 24 (heavens!) and is ready to do grown up shit like tha Klub. Actually he is very into cooking and got giddy when he saw the cookbook. His dad is pretty rad, too... he likes Soundgarden. He will be coming along to tha Klub too. They are serious cooks and even own a rotisserie oven. I mean, only Safeway has rotisserie ovens! Wowser.

Floyd is my main man. He's so cool that I told him he didnt even have to cook to show up. He probably wont (show up, that is) cuz he has a very busy punk rock show schedule. He works for Fat Wreck Chords and at the Hemlock. Floyd reads more than anyone I know, even my mom, and that is saying something. We once fought about Orville Redenbacher for 2 hours. Sometimes we fight, usually about totally stupid shit. I love me some Floyd.

Okie Doke... that's about it. Tha Klub is getting sizable, but not everyone will be able to show up each time, and there will be flake-age down the line, trust me. Call this the Kookbook Klub Surge, only hopefully this one will actually be a success.

xoKaty
The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen

La Paella

Ok so I admit it, I'm scared to make paella. Are any of you going to do it? They make it sound so... er... importante. Muy. Like you need a paella pan, and snails from Spain. And you know what? I have never even eaten la paella. What if it just tastes like Uncle Ben's with saffron? It's a lot of work and maybe la paella just isn't something to write home about in the first place. Still, I feel like the Spanish Table Kookbook Klub wouldn't be autentico without a paella. I'm torn.

Today I am going to the Spanish Table store in Berkeley to see what she's got. Hopefully I will be able to find the Spanish wines that the sangria's call for, but I also want to get some really flavorful Spanish olive oil. Yeah I also want one of those cute flamenco aprons. Perchance I will ask about La Paella. (I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to insist that we all refer to it that way.)

Do you know what you are kooking yet?

Katy
The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen

New to Kookbook Klub

A little info about myself to add to Katy's earlier bios...
Hi, my name is Crystal. I live in Emeryville with several dudes(one of which is my boyfriend)and work in San Rafael at Factor 5, a video game company(even more dudes) I just started at this month. So I spend my day staring at my dual screen monitors, making 3D art that you will eventually be able to play with! Well, maybe not you, but I will because I love me some video games. I also play softball with Shannon and her beau Tim, and I have a fondness for almost all furry creatures, the smaller the better. My roommate Sam may be my cooking partner. He's a budding culinary genius, but can't quite commit due to a grueling work schedule (he delivers for La Farine) and his band practice.
Looking forward to meeting you all.
--Crystal

Shopping for Sardines

I am, er, "lucky" enough to work in Marin, which for a town near San Francisco with so many rich people, has a deficit of good restaurants. They do, however, have some great gourmet grocery stores. I have been hitting all of them to see how hard it will be to find some of the ingredients in the book.

I thought that I wanted to make the strangest thing in the book, at least to me, the sardines with balsamic vinegar vanilla ice cream. Ewwwww. But I bet they will be surprising. The recipe calls for sardines, which you clean and marinate. I have never seen a sardine and was surprised at how big they are, about the size of a banana. First I went to Whole Foods, where they were all layed out all nice in the fish section. I asked the fishmonger dude if he could scale and bone them. He stared at me, then said, well we can cut their heads off and gut them, but by the time we take all the bones out you wont have any meat. In short, he didn't recommend it. Not wanting to just take his word for it, I went to Woodlands Market in Kentfield, where Sean Penn shops. Its a smallish highend market with an amazing meat and fish counter. They didn't have sardines in stock but could order them if I got at least seven pounds! Argh. I asked if they would bone them and all that, and they said its a big pain and really hard, and by the time they did all that it would cost me $70 bucks. Goddamn! Who the hell eats sardines when they are so much trouble?

In the book Von Bremzen makes boning them sound so dang easy, but I have a feeling I will end up with a huge mess and probably some frustrated tears. So, sorry folks, I am not cooking a sardine recipe! Octopus, on the other hand...
KATY

Chrissy Bio!

Hiya... Chrissy told me some more about herself! I cant figure out how to go and edit what i already wrote so I'm putting it in a new posting:

Chrissy works at Williams-Sonoma doing the corporate sort of writing, and adjunct at City College teaching English to the masses. She also does a little food writing at SF Station and recently the Onion, too. She's a self-described "cookbook hoarder." Yay!

Kookbook Klub In Full Effect

Hi and welcome to Kookbook Klub! I am trying to figure out this blog thing so bear with me.

Our first Klub will meet May 4th and we will be doing this book:

The New Spanish Table by Anya Von Bremzen. Katy (me) is hosting. I first came upon this book when I was looking at a story about the best cookbooks of the year in Food & Wine magazine, which is my current favorite cooking mag. I wrote down the recipe they featured then promptly lost the piece of paper. When I bought the book I thought the recipe would jump out at me... but it didn't. I'm thinking it was the roquefort and pear risotto though, since I always dig new risotto recipes.

Here are the members of our club... that I know personally. We have some new people, and significant others that I don't know as much about but am really excited to meet!

Members:

Katy St. Clair: loves to cook and write, also digs guinea pigs and crossword puzzles. REALLY loves organized activities around food and friends and meeting new people, so is super excited bout Kookbook Klub.

Kitty Faria owns the bar Kitty's in Emeryville, shares her time between Brazil and the Bay Area. You may also know her from KALX or her many DJ gigs.

Shannon West has a Masters in psychotherapy and works at JFK University. She also plays softball but is surprisingly not a lesbian. Her boyfriend Tim is a bookseller at Pegasus and will also be joining us! He loves Scrabble, too.

Marta Berry used to work with Katy at the Express and they are old friends. Marta went to a fancy cooking school on the East Coast, cant remember what its called but its the big one. And she is a bonified pastry chef! She's probably tired of making dessert but hopefully she will throw down at least once.

Jennifer Maerz is the music editor at the SF Weekly. She rawks pretty hard and used to work at the Stranger, the best damn weekly in the country, IMHO. She also knows Dr. Drew Kapinksky or however you spell that, AND Dan Savage, so I'm sure she will be down to give us some sex tips. Just kidding. Her friend Chrissy is joining us too and I can't wait to meet her... She already owned the book I picked so Im thinkin she's pretty hardcore in the cooking department.

Tiffany Romain is getting her PhD at Stanford in medical Anthropology. She has a darling lil child and a great husband, both of which I am dying to meet at the first Kookbook Klub!

Jen Loy is a writer who you might known from her tenure at Mama Buzz Cafe and Kitchen Sink magazine. Her hubby will be joining us as well!

Frances Reade used to work with me at the Weekly. She is an amazing writer and probably an amazing cook. She is so creative that Im sure she is... her boyfriend Ben will be joining us as well too. He's a sweetie.

Michelle Turner is the best cook I know. By day she does PR for Bulldog Reporter, and at night she turns into the foremost expert on Dr. Phil trivia. She also writes for the Express, where she had her own food column for awhile. It is her dream to teach cooking classes to children. And then eat them.