Tag Archives: San Francisco

Chicharrones Cookies!

For all of you who can’t jam enough pig in your pie-hole, here’s another little treat from the Howells, NE Centennial Cookbook.  I thought this would be a nice treat for my former chef, Ryan Farr, now at the helm of 4505 Meats here in San Francisco.  (N.B. non-Latin, non-bay area residents, follow this link – chicharrones)   My sidekick and I dropped by chef Ryan’s workshop last night with a bag of these little gems and added a little fuel to the pork-crazed fire.  If only I had made them with Ryan’s pork candy…  Next time for sure.  Enjoy!

A few little notes – The recipe as written was too dry for me.  I added a little more dairy.  I also took the following liberties; I added lemon zest instead of lemon extract because I like zest (and we didn’t have any extract) but I replaced the lemon extract with vanilla, these cookies seemed to want a little cinnamon (so i gave it to them) and I also nudged in a little ground chipotle peppers (seemed like a good idea).  The recipe asks for nuts, raisins, or coconut.  I caved, and put all three in.  When you bake these at home, be sure to press them pretty flat (like 1/4″ or so) before baking as they will rise quite a bit, but not spread.  Right from the oven they are really crisp and chewy.  As the even out, they become soft, and retain a nice toothsome quality with an occasional little piggy crunch.  Oinkers Away!

As I remember it, there are a lot of family farms that raise pork in the Howells area.  This seems like a creative and resourceful way to help make sure that no part of the animal gets wasted.  Or, it could be some home cook’s answer to ‘what the hell am I going to do with all of THAT?’.  Either way, we benefit from Mrs. Mayme Hilz’s contribution to the cause.

Eat Well and Be Well -

-Scotty


FoodWorks In Progress

I shared a pork burrito (love this place) with my first guinea pig client (insert twisted, meaty metaphor) this afternoon. Before our appointment, I did myself the favor of filling out my own questionnaire for potential coachees. Woof. I was at Thorough Bread, working through my oatmeal cookie, madly scribbling new content, and making global ‘no-way-Jose’ marks over several questions in a row. The questions, while good, weren’t really on topic.  And that’s a problem for me. Imagine you came asking me for advice on how to change a light bulb, and I fire back a series of questions about solar panels. Invariably linked? You betcha. Off topic? Mmmmmmm, yeah. This is a great ‘oh crap’ moment. Thankfully I haven’t rolled this project out for paying clients yet.
But it gets worse. I power down the demi-burrito, and pull out the paperwork for this session. As I’m ticking off the questions, I start skipping EVEN MORE of them. They just don’t matter like I thought they would. What matters is what my friend has to say about her cooking needs. What matters is how she feels about food. What matters is why she might want to invite me to stand beside her in her kitchen. There weren’t questions designed to capture that kind of ‘high-touch’, personal narrative. A good conversation yielded more valuable information than this ‘entrance exam’. My friends, this is a blessing.

On the flipside, we did roll over to the fresh market and get some great looking vegetables for her True Blood Sunday gathering. And she did learn a couple of techniques as we pulled the corn / tomato / basil / chevre salad together. I’m much more of a hands-on teacher at this point, so cooking with her put me in a comfortable place. Of course, just spending time cooking with friends is almost always enjoyable. Even more so if I weren’t on the wagon just right now? Perhaps -

We’ll be cooking together later this week (pot roast dinner!) and there will be some good learning moments for both of us. Meanwhile I have two more volunteers for Wednesday afternoon. Hang in there. After today’s intake interview meltdown, I have a lot to chew on.

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As my euphonium instructor used to remind me ‘it’s okay to make mistakes, just don’t make the same one twice, and you’ll get much better’. Thanks Dr. Davis. I haven’t forgotten that recipe for improvement, and I’m working it harder now than ever.
Tootles and Noodles –
-Scotty


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