Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit

Basket of FREE G*R*A*P*E*F*RU*I*T !!

I am a GIGANTIC fan of many things Texan, but nothing more so than our own Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit. One of my very first oil painting masterpieces was a painting called “Grapefruit Tree“, and every winter I eat about my weight in Ruby Red Grapefruit, and I also make Grapefruit Marmalade ( I am due to make some more soon, too! Because I am OUT!)

So it was Totally Awesome that I got this SWAG BOX of Ruby Red Grapefruit, because, I ALREADY am a GIGANTIC FAN! But I am ALL ABOUT letting the FREE EATS pour abundantly into my reality. With heartfelt gratitude I accepted this HANDSOME BASKET of 9 grapefruits, plus a bonus paring knife and a kitchen towel, AND a DVD about Grapefruit that I haven’t watched yet, but actually DO look forward to watching because I am VERY INTERESTED!!

I have read, heard or somehow absorbed the information (which may or may not be true, as you can tell by my vague ideas about how I ran into it in the first place) that MANY of our Texas Delicacies, such as Pure Luck Goat Cheese and Fredericksburg peaches, never make it out of state because we eat them all HERE. So in the rest of the country we aren’t famous for them, because we are always hogging them all to ourselves. (Which I really have no problem with.)

I had thought that Rio Star Ruby Reds were in that category too; that there just aren’t enough for the Texans, so the rest of the country can go hang…but apparently, they are being publicized, so maybe there are enough to go around?

In any case, I L*O*V*E them SO! So I am going to spend a little more time writing about them. I mean, in addition to this post, which is essentially just to rejoice that I got free grapefruits.

Have I mentioned that they are the Best Grapefruits Ever? And that they are sweet, so sweet that you can just peel them and eat them, like an orange, except they taste like grapefruits, not oranges? Did you know that Fresca was a grapefruit soda?

THE CAKE SHOW

Every part of every cake must be edible; everything you see on this cake tower is cake and frosting

I have been a JUDGE at FOOD EVENTS a few times; today I was a judge at THE CAKE SHOW. Actually, it wasn’t called THE CAKE SHOW, it was called “That Takes the Cake!” and it was this HUGE and very well-attended event at the Crockett Event Center.

(The fact of the matter is, FOODIE SEASON is beginning again. I have 4 events this week! I mean to go to, to write about.)

Naturally I liked the DOG cake!

Anyway, my friend Christine has 3 nieces, and they are really into cake decorating, to the extent that they have an actual business where they make these amazing cakes. They were inspired by this TV show called THE ACE OF CAKES. APPARENTLY, they aren’t the only ones! This Cake Expo that I was a judge at is growing larger every year, and it was just delightful!

(Although I must say, though many would say “That’s a job I think I could handle- being a judge at a cake contest!”, it SOUNDS a lot better than it is. For starters, you don’t actually GET PAID, it is more of an honorary thing, that one is considered expert enough to be a judge; and then there is the gastric distress. I have learnt to eat about a teaspoon of each entry, and it still is enough sugar to cause……GASTRIC DISTRESS.)

Fun Sushi Cake

This is one of the CHILDREN'S entries

I took too many pictures of cakes to post them ALL at once, but here are a FEW of the pictures. Luckily for me, I was a judge of FLAVOR, not decorating, and the entries for flavor were far fewer, and much easier to rate.

a sample of some of the SIMPLE two-tiered cakes

My Breakfast

Scrambled farm eggs, and two small slices of home-made flaxseed bread with lox and cream cheese

Gladiolas

This hybrid for some reason reminds me of my Grandmother; it hybridized in my garden, I planted solid colors and over the years they have bred. This one, obviously a hybrid of pink and yellow

A pure yellow

Here are some photos of my miraculous Gladiolas. I planted 50 more gladiola bulbs last week, too. MOST bulbs can’t take the Texas summer here (exceptions being German Iris, Rain-Lilys, and Amaryllis) but I have had luck with Gladiolas even though they generally DON’T do well here.

Here is a white and red and a yellow that you can barely see, behind

I think my “luck” is that I planted them in the only deep soil in my yard (there is one little pocket- I imagine maybe it is where are outhouse was a hundred years ago, that would explain the DEPTH of the soil there when everywhere else it is one inch deep.)

So if you plant these, plant them in deep, good soil, if you have any. I should mention, these aren’t blooming NOW, these bloom in the early summer. I just planted the BULBS now.

This insanely showy one is another hybrid, this time between yellow and purple

S*N*O*W !!!!

My Dog Skip in the S*N*O*W !!!

This is it! This is the FIRST SNOWFALL that actually accumulated on the ground in Austin, Texas, since I moved here as a small child in 1970. It may be the first accumulative snowfall in SOUTH Austin since 1920 or so.

By accumulative I mean, it took about 4 hours to melt as opposed to melting the instant it touched the ground; in NORTH Austin, the news says that they still have snow on the ground up there, and north of Austin, in Leander and other small towns, they were building Snowmen!

Like last time this year, it snowed but they don’t predict a FREEZE, so I didn’t cover the garden (I have heard snow is “poor man’s fertilizer” because it traps nitrogen in the soil, so I didn’t want  my soil to miss out on that, either.)

Kale, Cabbage, and Lettuce IN THE SNOW

We shall see in the morning if the lettuce made it through all right. Everything else is frost tolerant and ought not to mind.

Global Climate Change sure is making things EXCITING around here! Drought, Flood, Being Broiled Alive and Snow, so far, THIS YEAR.

Artichokes IN THE SNOW

Baked Oatmeal: This is THE way to make Oatmeal.

Baked Oatmeal, seen here with brown sugar and heavy cream.

My friend Christine and I went to Bouldin Creek Coffee House a while back, and she ordered their Baked Oatmeal with Apples. I was really taken with its great texture, flavor and appearance, and decided on the spot to check out recipes for baked oatmeal and give it a try. I am always looking for ways to get more oatmeal into our diets, because it is so good for cholesterol levels and health generally, plus, have I mentioned, I LOVE BREAKFAST?

Also, I like to use McCann’s Steel-cut Irish Oatmeal (Big Surprise, right?) and since it takes 45 minutes to cook, I am always looking for ways to make it that don’t require stirring oatmeal on the stove for that long. I have worked out a few ways, but they never get quite as dry as I would like.

I found a couple of recipes on the internet, and after fooling around with them a little I came up with this recipe:

BAKED OATMEAL WITH DRIED APPLES

1 1/2 Cups of McCann’s Oats

1/2 Cup walnuts

big handful dried apples

1/2 cup or so other dried fruits (I used dried apricots and cherries)

1 cup of milk (any kind including soy)

2 eggs

T coconut oil

t cinnamon

salt

STEP 1: The night before, put the oats and walnuts in a bowl or pot and cover with filtered water with a little salt. They will soak up most of the water. Set on the counter or on the stove.

STEP 2: In the morning, turn the oven on to 350˚. Grease a shallow baking pan with butter.

STEP 3: Mix together the milk, eggs, coconut oil, and cinnamon. Beat them together with a whisk, or put in a mason jar and shake them up. The coconut oil will be solid, don’t let that worry you.

STEP 4:  Drain the oatmeal mixture in a sieve. Dump into a biggish bowl and add the egg and milk mixture and stir it up nicely. Add the dried apples and other dried fruits. Pour into the buttered baking dish.

Step 5: Bake for around 45 minutes. This makes enough for four adults; it reheats beautifully though, so you can just throw the remainder in the fridge if you don’t eat it all, and reheat it quickly another day for an awesome repeat.

The baked oatmeal in the baking dish. This is a rather small dish, only a little larger than the stove burner

It smells just HEAVENLY, and the texture is Perfect! Dry, yet creamy. I like my oatmeal with butter and brown sugar on top, but you don’t need to add much because the dried fruits add plenty of sweetness. I was hesitant at first to put a whole teaspoon of cinnamon, but when I used a half teaspoon, it wasn’t enough. I imagine that over time I will refine this recipe more and more (I have only made it once, after all), so I will post updates as they occur.

Tomorrow is supposed to be freezing and rainy, with a high of THIRTY-SIX (after yesterdays EIGHTY-TWO!) (Now THAT is a Blue Norther), so it sounded to me like a perfect day for Baked Oatmeal. Plus, in my Victorian house, heating up the cast iron cookstove goes a long way towards getting the house warmed up, too!

My Second Course at the CARILLON

Hamichi Crudo and Crisp Pork Belly

Turnips!

These Turnips are about the size of Ping Pong Balls

My Neighbor Glen, who reads my blog, asked me the other day, “So, do you put turnips in your meatloaf?” And I was all like, “What? No!” But then I realized that I had written, “I have some beautiful baby turnips, so I am going to make MEATLOAF!!”

(Ha ha I made a typographical error just there, and wrote “MEATLOAD!” That is an AWESOME new name for meatloaf…I think I will privately call it MEATLOAD in my head from now on)

No, this is the thing: turnips just don’t GO with everything. Most people don’t even LIKE them. My very own husband, in fact, describes them thusly: “They have the texture of wet wood, and they taste like wet cardboard.”

Now, obviously, I don’t agree….but I understand that they aren’t everyone’s FAVORITE vegetable. I think the main reason I love turnips is because my Mother hated them, so we NEVER had them when I was growing up. I got to discover them as an adult. And what do you know, I liked them!

The Farmers Market Bounty. All those carrots were only $5!

Turnips are at their best when they are YOUNG and SMALL and freshly picked. I think the longer they sit around, the funkier they taste. (Ooooh, that makes them sound really bad, doesn’t it?) They have a bit of a bitter flavor when they are old and big.

Turnips just taste like TURNIPS. The flavor of turnips goes extremely well with only a few things: game, duck, roast turkey, and MEATLOAD.

There are probably many great ways to make turnips, but the classic French way is the way I have been making them lately, Turnips Glace.  The Farmers Market here in town, in Austin in February, has been selling the most GORGEOUS baby turnips for weeks now. The cold weather makes them sweet(er), and I have been buying them every week to eat ALL BY MYSELF (because as you can probably tell, Mr T. has no interest in even trying them, because he is picky, picky, picky.)

Cooking in the GLAZE

Turnips Glace is what you might surmise: Glazed Turnips. People used to make many vegetables glazed in the Olden Days! It essentially means, in a sauce made of melted butter and brown sugar. (They also used to eat many vegetables creamed, which means swimming in heavy whipping cream and butter. And we are supposed to be so decadent NOWADAYS?)

It occurred to me that “Glazed Sweet Potatoes” used to be a popular dish also, so I made a dish of both. Carrots could be used, also, or you can just make turnips all by themselves.

Here is the TOTALLY EASY recipe for Turnips and Sweet Potatoes Glace:

Peel your Sweet Potato(s). Big or aged turnips should also be peeled; with really young turnips you really can skip it entirely.

Boil some water in a pot. Add the pieces of vegetables and boil for a few minutes, Seriously, like four minutes, That is as long as it takes for them to get mostly soft. Test for softness, then drain.

In a skillet, melt some butter. Add some brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the drained turnips and Sweet Potato pieces.

Toss it all around joyfully. You are all done! DELICIOUS!

Later this week I will be sharing my MEATLOAF recipe, which is the Best Meatloaf Recipe In the World.

Look at the Lovely COLORFULNESS of this MEAL! Don't you wish you lived at my house? Of COURSE YOU DO!

My Breakfast

Look at the Gorgeous Dill!

One of my AMBITIONS is to start a thing where I show my avid public what I have for breakfast everyday. Partly because I L*O*V*E B*R*E*A*K*F*A*S*T, and partly because I have this really hardcore I-will-bore-you-to-death-with-this view that AMERICANS, particularly American Women, don’t bother to eat breakfast anymore and this breakfast-skipping is a terrible terrible idea that undermines  health and intelligence, while slowing down metabolism and causing everyone to do poorly at school and at work.

(It is not at all unlikely that this breakfast-skipping is directly causing the decline of America!)

See? I TOLD you I will bore you to death with this topic!  I am like a cranky old Crank standing on a soapbox in the park, haranguing the mob while they laugh at me….EVEN THOUGH I AM RIGHT.

It is my hope that reading about MY BREAKFASTS will inspire you to go to the trouble of making yourself a little something before you head out, because, DAMN, breakfast looks so GOOD!

So, without any more ADO, here is what I had for breakfast today: a sesame bagel, toasted, with a little cream cheese, white onion, fresh dill, a cherry tomato, and about 2 ounces of lox.

Here is a view with the Lox. Usually I have a nice homemade cappucino or, in the summer, a Vietnamese coffee with this breakfast, but today I just had iced tea.

More About the Carillon

This is the main dining room (there are MORE dining rooms beyond the arches!) The arches, in keeping with the University Theme, have INSCRIPTIONS carved in the stone,like on the UT "Old Campus". (You know, where they teach the REAL subjects: THE LIBERAL ARTS

Here are some things about the CARILLON: The decor REMINDS ME of the inside of the UT Student Union Building, which is no put-down; the UT Student Union Building is SO GORGEOUS inside that one can barely believe that they let undergraduates hang around in there. It is all limestone and arches and it’s sort of Mission style, only very Texan.

SO is the CARILLON! Look at how solidly Texan, how opulent, yet simple the decor is.

CHEF JOSH WATKINS. He used to live in San Francisco. Now that he lives in Texas, he tried NOT the think about Politics

Here is a picture of the Chef, Josh Watkins. He is famous. He is young and famous, and nice and talented.

Here is ANOTHER thing about the Carillon: FREE PARKING. You can park in the underground fancy-shmancy parking garage, and then get your ticket thingy validated, and the parking is FREE and also VERY EASY and if it is bad weather you don’t get rained on.

The CARILLON is in the new UT conference building, I think it is called the A T & T Conference building or something. You know how A T & T has enough money to endow a building at UT?

MY IPHONE BILL