Cooking and Eating – Page 7 – Ruth E. Hendricks

Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves Evoke Memories

A bolt of lightning knocked out the internet so blogging from my phone
Rhubarb says Spring to me.
When the three kids were younger, we’d pile in the car and drive 7 hours to New York City to visit my sister. I’d park in the lot by the pier on the Hudson and we’d make our way up the five floor walk-up to her apartment. Everyone would be asleep on the floor camping out and in the early morning, Aunt Mary would walk to Zito’s Bakery on Bleecker Street, come home with warm loaves. She’d have the butter out and a jar of her homemade strawberry rhubarb preserves. She’d slice the bread on a wooden board. That’s what the kids woke up to – warm bread and butter and strawberry rhubarb preserves-

Berenice Abbott took this photo of Zito’s in 1937.

Today I went to the Farmer’s market on the South Side and bought two bunches of rhubarb and fresh picked strawberries. I was trying to remember the method and chopped the stalks in one inch pieces, put them into a large enamel kettle and sprinkled with sugar to sit.

Added the strawberries and cooked it down. I wish it wasn’t so late and I could have called for the recipe. Just did it from memory.

The loaf from the Farmers Market on the bread board, a gift from my sister.

Postcard stamp on the back of Zito’s card a dime. I pulled it out of the frame tonight. Read what you wrote.

Before Matthew was born and he’s 33!

Kids grown up and gone but tonight as I taste the strawberry rhubarb preserves, I remember.

P.S. And to answer your question Mary, on the card-
I did get that assistantship and that’s how I was able to get hired at Pittsburgh Public Schools in 1989!

P.P.S. Zito’s is gone now.

May 27, 2014May 27, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Childhood, Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: bakery, Berenice Abbott, Bleecker Street, bread, family, food, memories, New York City, postaday, postcard, strawberry rhubarb preserves 17 Comments

Food Revolution Day Pittsburgh

Fortunately, I ran into a former colleague and her daughter and they were able to explain what was happening at the field at Obama Academy this afternoon when I was driving home from school. Food Revolution Day! In conjunction with Jamie Oliver, the third annual Food Revolution Day was taking place all over the globe today.

I took home an organic purple pepper plant for my neighbor to plant in his garden.

Here is Jen’s daughter Wylie, feeding a kid at the petting zoo.

I sampled some grilled cheese and Non GMO Shagbark Seed and Mill Corn Chips at the Food Truck

Sugar display…

Help the Bees by planting the right plants

Lots of food to sample. This was on top of polenta.

East End Food Coop Exhibit

I ran into four people I know.

May 16, 2014May 16, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: bees, East End Food Coop, eating, food, Food Revolution Day, Food Revolution Pittsburgh, goats, grilled cheese, Jamie Oliver, local, Non GMO Corn Chips, organic, travel 8 Comments

I Know Two People Who Collect These Stickers from Fruits and Vegetables

Especially if they are interesting or different. Unique.

I thought these produce stickers’ design would qualify as a keeper. Although I’m not starting a produce sticker collection today, I thought about two people I know who save them.

What do you collect?

Hey ML? Do you still save these from your fruit and veggies?

Here is what I made with the two zucchini and yellow squash.

In a large skillet sautee an onion and a couple of garlic cloves in olive oil, throw in two yellow and two green squash (cut up) then add salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. Add a bit of water and let them cook until soft. Mash up with potato masher. Boil water and cook eggy pasta noodles, drain and toss in squash sauce. Grate fresh cheese on top. I learned to cook this from Anna Fevola of La Cucina Flegrea. See the cooking class post in 2010 (from before the restaurant moved downtown to Market Square) Everything she cooks is delicious!

April 30, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: collections, fruits, kitchen, pasta, photography, postaday, produce, sticker collection, supper, vegetable, yellow squash, zuchinni 12 Comments

Tulips, Pysanky and the Food’s On

Traditional Lithuanian Easter Spread from Guest blogger –

Marianne M wrote :

Happy Easter Ruth. Been following your travel blog this week. Cooking ham and kohlbasi and prepping other stuff for 4pm dinner. Made haluska too. Love to the kids and grandkids

And the Easter bread Pasca

What a feast

Thanks Mar!!
Xxoo
Ruth

April 20, 2014April 20, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and EatingTags: cooking, Easter, feast, friendship, haluska, kolbasi, Lithuanian, Pierogi, postaday, pysanky 8 Comments

Swedish Pancakes at the Stockholm Inn

Blogging from a smartphone tonight-

My cousin Chris ordered them “dark and dry”.

He recommended the fresh orange juice, too. Delicious.

Welcomed by a Rockford sock monkey

Mary found something fishy in the gift shop

April 16, 2014April 16, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: breakfast, family, Rockford IL, Swedish pancakes, travel 12 Comments

Night Diner

9th Street South Philly

March 5, 2014March 6, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: counter, diner, dining, eating, iPhone photography, kitchen, night photography, Philadelphia PA, photography, postaday, travel 14 Comments

It’s a Meat Week- blogging from Jim’s Steaks Philly

Steve and I drove out 290 miles after school. He’s going to a conference and Mary and I are making it a mini vacation. She’s back at the hotel but we hoofed it .6 miles to South Street to Jim’s Steaks

Here is a cheesesteak with

Yea, we ate organic cheddar from Mercer County on the drive out bit tonight it is Cheez Whiz , baby. No provolone.
Plenty of grilled onions

And here it is. We shared one.

More for Philadelphia tomorrow

February 28, 2014February 28, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: eating, food, fun, Philadelphia, Philly Cheesesteak, postaday, travel 7 Comments

DJ’s Butcher Block in Bloomfield

Since we’re talking about meat…..

on the way home from school I stopped at DJ’s Butcher Block (Butcher Shop) on Penn Avenue.

What a selection of-

antibiotic free, local, grass fed, custom cut and ground meat.

There is also Amish Butter and Organic Cheese, one item I bought today was from Mercer County.

Local farms provide fresh eggs and rich milk that separates in a glass 1/2 gallon bottle (to be returned)

DJ the proprietor is a also a chef, trained at the Culinary Institute of America (I read in this Pgh CityPaper Article)

He knows what he is doing

for the vegetarian? A couple of vegetarians were in front of me buying sausage today.

Someone else was picking up a custom order of braciole.

You can get a Savory Meat Pie to take home and bake.

I bought a pound of the grass fed ground beef and made burgers which were delicious, fried up in a cast iron skillet.

During Little Italy Days I had photographed DJ at night. Thanks for allowing me to tour your butcher shop and photograph you again.

February 26, 2014February 26, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: Amish butter, beef, Bloomfield, butcher shop, cooking, eating, eggs, food, Little Italy Days, meat, neighborhood, Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh PA, postaday, travel, vegetarian 10 Comments

Where the Wild Boar Roam

Erika and I went to order lunch at Hill’s Market in downtown Columbus on Sunday.

We were at the Deli Counter and I saw the Wild Boar Salami packages.

Printed on the labels it said Made From Free Roaming Wild Boar

so I asked the man making the sandwiches where the Wild Boar roamed free before they were made into salami.

He had no idea. I figured it wasn’t Columbus, local.

I picked up the package and read the fine print but no location mentioned.

It’s mentioned on the Creminelli website though- TEXAS!

Then I looked it up on the internet and it says there are “wild pigs in FORTY FIVE states” (USA)

I remembered hearing Wild Boar in the Grafenwoehr trash in Germany, scraping a jar or a can along the concrete walk in the middle of the night. And going to the Wild Boar Park in Germany, seeing baby wild boar. Ate a plate of Wild Boar meat at a Boar Fest, remember his snarly face on the spit. Ugh.

Anyway the packages in the deli case got me wondering about Wild Boar and where they roamed free in America.

Have you seen any wild boar lately?

February 25, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and EatingTags: Columbus OH, deli counter, eating, family, feral pig, food, Hill's Market, postaday, salami, wild boar, wild boar salami 17 Comments

Yellow + Blue = Green

Ready to whisk eggs before scrambling,

adding some grated cheese, freshly ground pepper

It was the colors in the light that caught my attention.

February 17, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Cooking and Eating, PhotographyTags: ceramic bowl, cooking, eating, eggs, eggshells, food, food photography, kitchen, photography, scrambled eggs 9 Comments

Category: Cooking and Eating

Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves Evoke Memories

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