Try strolling for chocolate on Valentine's Day

Sometimes I’m a bit snobby.

Actually, I am particularly snobby right around Valentine’s Day when I see those frilly, heart-shaped boxes of mass-produced chocolates in the drug store.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a total food snob. I love a big ‘ol pile of Fritos as much as the next gal. I prefer cheap champagne. And I’m totally excited to learn that microwave pork rinds have just been invented. (More on that later!)

Specifically, I am a chocolate snob. OK. I said it. And being a chocolate snob, I’m inclined to drive on over to Smithfield on Friday night to check out the “Chocolate Lover’s Evening.”

This is where you stroll through the shops, art galleries and eateries along Smithfield’s charming Main Street and stop at each to sample home-made chocolates – for free! – and then make a $1 donation to vote for your favorite (and you can have as many favorites as you like).

I just spoke with Collin Norman over at the visitor’s bureau and he said that mass-produced chocolates are not allowed in the fundraiser, which benefits American Cancer Society’s Isle of Wight/Surry Relay for Life.

Expect greatness. “The creativity never ceases to amaze me,” said Collin, a veteran chocolate stroller. “There are things dripping and gooey. There are chocolates coated in fruit. There are things you cannot describe.”

On a reconnaissance mission a week or so ago we found lots of cool shops selling all kinds of art, home décor, and such and thought we’d return even without the lure of home-made chocolates. It’s where we met Susan McDonald in her shop, Perspectives, which has lots of cool gifts and home décor. That’s her in the picture holding one of the pretty coffee mugs she sells.

Anyhooooo, Smithfield is about a half-hour from downtown Norfolk. The gig is from 5 to 8 p.m.

And while you are in downtown Smithfield, check out the world’s oldest ham. It’s 108-years-old and Guinness-certified and will be on view at the town’s museum. For more information on all things Smithfield including the ham and the chocolate, click here.

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Super Bowl -- a winning spread

Later today I’m hitting the airwaves to talk Super Bowl food with the happiest man in America.

No joke.

J. P. "Gus" Godsey of Virginia Beach was a few years back selected as "The Happiest Man in America" by USA Weekend Magazine. Now he’s host of "The J. P. Godsey Show" on WPMH Radio 670 AM.

My sliver of fame will arrive just before 5 p.m., when Mr. Happy wants me to describe the perfect Super Bowl spread.

Hmmm.

Let’s start by taking a play from Stephanie Sawyer’s book. She’s the Virginia Beach gal who is a finalist in Pillsbury’s Bake-Off, which has a $1 million prize attached!! I’ve tasted several of her appetizers and can vouch that they won’t be sitting on the table at halftime.

Check out those recipes – plus the whole story of her competitive baking odyssey by clicking here.

The Pillsbury peeps had a whole category for appetizers. Click here for all the finalists recipes.

Then, you almost have to serve chicken wings. They’re not easy to make, but they are easy to buy! So many great wing places locally to choose from. Check out the winners in our January taste test by clicking here.

But you’ve got to have some sweet, too.

Here’s a recipe I’ve been saving for just the right moment. I met Julie Martinette and her “Sassy Nuts” at a tailgate spread at one of Old Dominion University’s home games. Crunchy, nutty with just the right sweetness, they’re a perfect foil to all the he-man food flying about on Super Bowl Sunday. Sassy Nuts Makes more that on person should eat

1 egg white 1 cup sugar 2-3 teaspoons cinnamon 1-3 teaspoons salt 4 cups of pecans.

Whisk egg whites until frothy. Mix sugar, salt and cinnamon in another bowl until well blended. Pour nuts into egg white. Toss until well coated. Pour sugar mixture over nuts and mix well. Place nuts on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour. Toss after 30 minutes. Cool on waxed paper. Try not to eat the whole batch in one sitting! SOURCE: Julie Martinette, Norfolk

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Still room at Thursday winemaker's dinner

There’s still room at Terrapin Restaurant’s winemaker dinner gig tomorrow night (that’s Thursday, February 04, 2010) with California winemaker Russell Bevan.

Brian Williams General Manager Terrapin said that Bevan is a “rising star” in California wines. Recently Bevan Cellars’ 2007 wines were rated by Robert Parker at 95 points. Previous vintages have also earned outstanding scores.

The dinner benefits the Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic Foundation. The cost is $150 per person, not including tax and gratuity. For reservations call (757)321-6688.

To learn more about Bevan wines, click here.

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Remember this guy?

Well, well, well.

Remember my Halloween rant about carving pumpkins early to guarantee ghoulish jack o' lanterns? Cut 'em early, I advised, so that they will get that shrunken head look, complete with buzzing flies.

Oddly, this guy is still kicking. Found him in my garden yesterday mocking me.

Still, I'm glad I didn't turn him into a pie . . . .

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Fresh, The Movie - 2 more chances to see it!

See Fresh, The Movie. Tonite!

The flick is not in theaters, but this documentary is making its way across the country in a grassroots effort, which in itself is cool.

The documentary features interviews with American farmers, thinkers and business people “who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences,” according to the filmmakers.

I’ve heard that it’s more than an award-winning documentary – it’s also a call to action to live a more “sustainable” lifestyle.

I haven’t yet seen the film, but our local chapter of Buy Fresh Buy Local is showing the film tonight (February 2) at the Virginia Beach Central Library near Town Center at 6:45 – 8:45 p.m.

There’s another show on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at Norfolk Collegiate Lower School from 6:45 – 8:45 p.m.

Admission is $10, with proceeds going to Buy Fresh Buy Local

There will be a Q&A with local local food enthusiasts either before or after the show . . . I’m hoping to make it to one of the showings. Hope to see you there!

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Eating snow, yes or no?

On this important topic, it seems there is no consensus.

But I’m not scared of snow.

Surely I’ve ingested things that are far worse, like Midtown Tunnel fumes, fire pit smoke and once, a chip of green paint accidentally chopped off the counter of a Chinese kitchen that made its way into my take-out. I drink out of the garden hose, too.

So back to snow.

The best way to eat snow: right out of the sky, a miniscule tingle on the tip of the tongue.

The second best way might just be this “Snow Julep” that I enjoyed on Saturday, inspired by a few sprigs of mint soldiering on in the pathetic remains of my backyard garden. And the snow, of course.

It was an easy affair – snow packed into a glass, a bit of bourbon, a bit of simple syrup, a bit of mint extract, then more snow, a bit more of the above, a mint garnish and a straw.

Two days later, I’m still alive and the debate rages on. One website says you should eat no more than 1 cup of snow every five years. Another says to never eat it. This site says to test it first. This Associated Press article says that, like bacon, it’s OK in moderation.

And Cousin Georgie, my personal snow expert way up in Maine, says to only eat it fresh, otherwise you run the risk of eating snow mites.

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Turnip Soup? I'm giving it a try.

Turnips.

Kind of pretty, aren’t they?

Although this type of tuber isn’t near the top of my list of fave foods, I couldn’t resist buying some on my trip up the Eastern Shore the other day.

Sated by a morning spent eating venison and cake, I wasn’t a bit hungry. (More on that caper later!) But at Quail Cove Farms in Machipongo, Bill Jardine grows the most amazing sweet potatoes on his family's 15-acre, certified-organic farm. I’m totally spoiled since my first bite of his potatoes, with names like Hernandez and Porto Rico. (See my earlier story about the kinds he grows by clicking here.) And so is The Baby Girl, who now eats baked sweet potato fries a couple of times a week.

But before I even walked through the door of Quail Cove’s expansive health food market, I was charmed by this stand of turnips. Back home, I’ve been contemplating just what to make with them. The verdict: “A Rough and Ready Turnip Potage” from Deborah Madison’s seasonal cookbook, “Local Flavors – Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets.”

It seems pretty simple, and plenty warming for the kind of weather we seem to be in store for. A FOOT OF SNOW!! That almost never happens here!

Here’s how to do it: A Rough and Ready Turnip Potage

6 slender leeks 3 small Yukon Gold potatoes 6 small turnips 1 ½ tablespoon unsalted butter A few thyme sprigs Sea salt and freshly ground pepper Cream Chopped parsley or thyme

Slice the white parts of the leeks crosswise and wash them well. Scrub the potatoes, quarter them lengthwise, and chop. If the turnip skins are tender looking, quarter and chop the turnips without peeling.

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the vegetables, give them a toss, then add ½ cup water and the thyme. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add 5 cups water and 1 ½ teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the vegetables are tender, 25 to 30 minutes.

Taste for salt, season with pepper, and stir in a few spoonfuls of cream. Garnish with chopped parsley or thyme.

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Smith Island Cake -- my new bad habit

Yesterday, I acquired a new bad habit.

I can add this one to a long list of others . . . Kill Devil Grill’s French fries, that apple pie cheesecake over at the Jewish Mother which I acquired a taste for while pregnant with The Baby Girl, Feridie’s double-chocolate covered peanuts, John’s Drive-In peanut butter-banana-chocolate milkshakes, a big old hot dog from Uncle Al’s and Fritos.

Now, I’m addicted to Smith Island cakes. I’d never tasted one until yesterday, when I was waaaaayyy up on the Eastern Shore in Cashville. There, Kenny Myles had challenged our outdoor writer to a venison cooking Smackdown, and I and Aqua Chef Bill Edmondson were judges.

We spent a couple of hours nibbling all things venison from Kenny’s amazing repertoire – venison sweet baloney, chipped venison dip, venison bratwurst, venison kilbasa, venison sausage-cheese balls and the reason we traveled 75 miles and paid the $17 Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel toll: venison pastrami.

Anyway, when a winner was declared, Kenny started slicing up this amazing 8-layer banana cake. Now, as the daughter of a baker, I’m pretty picky about my cake. Bottom line: it has to be worth eating. Plus, I wasn’t hungry at all at that point.

But Kenny handed me a slice and I took a bite and almost swooned right there in his man cave. Eight, count ‘em, eight dense, thin, not-too-sweet cake layers separated by cream cheese icing. An occasional fresh banana slice nestled into the icing added texture and freshness.

Smitten, I stopped on my way through Onancock at the bakery where the cake came from. There, baker-owner Becca Eskridge Crutchley stood in her small kitchen, a 10-burner, dual oven Vulcan stove on the back wall and a fleet of mighty mixers at the ready.

The Smith Island cake, Becca explained, originated on the islands out in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay (she’s a Tangier Island gal), and recipes have been passed from grandma to grandchild for generations. The traditional version is yellow cake with chocolate icing, but Becca has developed her own repertoire that includes flavors such as lemon, peanut butter, blueberry, strawberry, coconut . . . . with all manner of icings and fillings.

I bought a slice of strawberry cake from the cooler for me and this slice in the picture for The Baby Girl ($2.50 each). We conceded that perhaps it’s better that $17 and 75 miles separate us and Becca’s wonderful cakes.

If you’re up that way and want to stop by, Becca’s is at 156 Market Street in Onancock, just two miles from U.S. Route 13, the main road up the shore. If you want a cake or a half a cake, call ahead (757)789-3686. She also makes sandwiches, soups and sweet potato biscuits. And remember, she’s closed on Sunday.

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A forgotten trove of cookbooks

As y’all already know, I have an embarrassment of cookbooks.

They form a brick wall under my desk at the office and leaning towers near the chairs in my reading room at home.

But you know who has stacks more cookbooks than me? Public libraries.

I first discovered this when The Baby Girl was a toddler. I realized that if she was playing in the children’s room, I could still keep an eye on her from the cookbook aisle. (Sometimes, these were my only "me" moments of the day.)

As I recall, the same aisle sported the dieting books, but I didn’t linger there. Instead, I marveled at all of the choices: Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean and Martha Stewart. Cookbooks for cooking with kids and cooking with crockpots and cooking for a crowd. Baking cookies, cooking cakes and 365 ways to cook chicken. Books that showed how to cook low-fat, no-carb and with no meat or money.

I always seem to forget that they’re sitting there waiting for me, shelves and shelves offering a comforting cold-weather repast.

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Hambone contest cookbook winners announced!

Drum roll, please.

My hambone is gone, used all up with the meatless bone going to my new best friends, Basil and Lily, who chewed it to death in the backyard.

So many good recipes came in that I’m awarding a few prizes:

First, Gourmet’s gigantic new cookbook to Elaine Lombardi’s Teen Living students at the Renaissance Academy in Virginia Beach. They do a project called Rainbow Bean Soup and that’s it in the picture. I’ve not tried the soup yet, but that’s the plan for when I get another hambone!

A cookbook, too, to ODSmokehouse . . . I used the bean-less recipe for my bone and guess what? Even The (picky, picky, picky) Baby Girl liked it, although we area little weary of that pork taste right now. (Evidence: a pound of bacon, fried two days ago, sits largely untouched.)

And another cookbook to mariac86899 for the tasty suggestions. Can’t wait to try the Baked Mushrooms, Noodles and Ham Mornay (pg 413 - Craig Claiborne NY Times Cookbook).

Y’all sent  your mailing address to me at lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com and I’ll get those out to you next week. And thanks for all the great suggestions . . . Have a great weekend!

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