Japanese Sweet and Sour Pork

INSPIRED BY VIRGINIA BENTLEY and the frost covering the ground this morning: a quick sweet and sour pork with a Japanese twist.

Toss 1 pound bite-sized pork with 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Set aside.

Saute chopped onion and green pepper, about a cup of each, in a few tablespoons of corn oil. Add 1/2 cup each sliced shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots and continue cooking. Salt lightly. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, stir fry the pork in a bit of additional oil until browned and mostly cooked through.

In a small bowl, mix together the juice from an 8 ounce can of pineapple chunks, 2 tablespoons corn starch, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon ketchup, 1/4 cup sugar. Add to the pan and bring to a boil. Boil for one to two minutes, stirring constantly. Add the reserved vegetables and pineapple chunks; stir well, and heat through. Serve immediately with white or brown rice.

Some recipes call for the addition of pre-cooked carrots. If desired, simmer carrots in a small amount of salted water until just tender, then slice into thin coins or long diagonals. Add just before serving.

Happy Halloween

YESTERDAY, just before heading to the grocery store at 4:30, I decided I wanted chicken pot pie.

A little late in the game to make that sort of decision, perhaps. So I opted for a quick version of chicken and biscuits. Just as satisfying, though far less work.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Saute 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms in a few tablespoons of butter. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 pound of chicken tenders. Cook until lightly browned. Add 1 cup of chicken broth, cover pan, and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Remove tenders. Stir 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables. Add 1 can condensed mushroom soup, 1 can of chicken gravy, and 12 ounces of whole milk. Stir well. Season with lots of pepper. Cover and bring to a simmer. Slice or shred chicken as desired and return to pan. Stir in 2 tablespoons of butter for added flavor or a bit of dried thyme if desired. Adjust seasonings. Heat through and keep warm.

Meanwhile, make your favorite biscuit dough or for ease, use a mix. Roll out 1/2 inch thick. Cut out 1 1/2 inch round biscuits.

Transfer chicken mixture to a buttered casserole. Top with biscuits placed around the edges. Brush biscuits with melted butter if desired.

Bake until biscuits are golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes. Serve with a healthy appetite. An Argentinian Malbec might have seemed a strange accompaniment, but it all went down rather nicely.

There's always room at our table.

The sun is going down, the afternoon's writing nearly complete. I want a cup of tea before dinner, but what to brew? Madagascar Vanilla Red, Perfectly Pear White, Yerbe Mate Fresh Green Organic, Honey Vanilla Chamomile, White Chai, Peppermint?

Ah, there's the Red Rose.

I am something of a creature of habit.

not ready for frost on the pumpkin

The cold weather has snuck up on me. While I did put the electric blanket on the bed (as the heat somehow doesn't reach that corner of the second floor), as of yet I don't have the three cords of wood I'll need for the winter stowed in the basement. I can't reliably find matching socks in the morning, and I certainly can't be expected to face the chill without a pretty sweater dress. What's a person to do?

Pretend the garden is still flourishing. Pretend it's still sunny and warm.

So even though the tomatoes are coming from Georgia, and the eggplant has been trucked in as well, I'll be making a batch of caponata this weekend. The sweet and sour Sicilian side dish might not be the thing to set out along side a turkey pot pie, but it nestles fine with soups and panini sandwiches and makes a great topping for pasta, too.

Facing reality is highly overrated, don't you think?

Once More, With Feeling

So we lost our concentration when it came to blogging.

We could blame poor hand-eye coordination, or wardrobe malfunctions (what is appropriate blogging attire, after all?), but mostly it's a matter of sheer techno-incompetence that has had me at various times over the last months eager to take a sledgehammer to the computer screen.

I can operate any number of kitchen appliances blindfolded. I've driven tractors. I've held several positions of admittedly small importance in which, however, people of much greater importance relied on my commendable photocopying, scanning, document merging, and handling of toner cartridges. But I can't seem to work for more than an hour on my computer without pressing some misguided sequence of keys that freezes the whole shebang.

We'll try again, though blogging requires manipulation of a series of buttons and tabs, a number of which are a complete mystery to me. I'm sure one of them should be labeled, "Hey, Denise! Press here to ruin your afternoon."

Thank goodness for pen and paper.

Okay, I'm a little punchy.

This weekend I've been pulling together the articles for our premiere issue; among them is Ruth Allard's neat piece on Depression era foods, "Care for a Lard and Sugar Sandwich?" Ruth interviewed a number of folks who recalled not only those lard sandwiches, but homemade root beer and switchel, popcorn eaten with milk as cereal, potatoes served up three times a day, and ice chips collected by youngsters following the 'ice man' as he traveled from house to house.

We have Nat Tripp writing about asparagus; Joyce Mandeville on rhubarb; and Susan Millar-Williams on cornbread. Virginia Downs waxes nostalgic about morels and fiddleheads; Bill Biddle talks about goose hunting with Sharon Wilson, who left teaching and "picked up a gun." (Giving the educators among us pause for reflection.) Isobel P. Swartz urges us to beat our swords into plowshares, while our wine goddess, Laurie-Beth Dixon, leads her followers through South American vineyards in search of affordable delights.

Eric Paris is on board with the latest farmers' market report. Carla Occaso helps you decide where in the Northeast Kingdom to hold your wedding. We'll have features on kids in the kitchen and the perils and pleasures of cooking for one. And summer recipes to savor.

None of which, however, calls for lard.

Springing ahead

The season is changing, the snow on the hill behind the house is melting, and the brighter sunshine invigorates the spirit. And keeping stride, we're making wonderful progress toward publishing our first issue in June. Great local writers are on board, a talented design team is at work, and I'm testing recipes! On tap this weekend: all things strawberry, including an elegant ice cream that requires no machine, based on a recipe of my mother's, who would have delighted in this project. Challenges abound though: how to keep the heavy cream to a minimum, and also, eliminate the raw egg whites my mother used years ago, when we weren't so worried about salmonella. But as tasks go, this one will be welcomed and cherished. And with luck, delicious as well.

Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net.