A Welcome Change

I spoke to a few people this past weekend who could not sleep Saturday evening. I was sleepless, not something that happens often... Was it the blue moon? That seemed to be the popular possibility. After finally catching a few hours in the very early morning, Sunday, we woke up hungry. I scrambled eggs with cheddar and set out coffee and fruit for some tasty fuel. Then, I decided that the whim of making a slab scone, something on mind for awhile, was ripe to occur, so I rolled out scone dough instead of cutting it, and tucked it up like a sleeping bag around a layer of Damson plum preserves. With each fold I hoped I was bringing luck to that night's sleep, and thankfully, it was a good one, especially since we woke up to these today.

Turn to the pantry

I already think a lot about frugality as it relates to cooking and maxing out whole ingredients, but when I sat down to interview this chef last week for an upcoming piece in next month's  Industry magazine, my horizons were even further expanded. He's on a frontier with a wave of chefs who are reducing waste, pickling, canning and renewing. Part of his mission, besides making ketchup, vinegar and anything else he can, is shifting focus to not always be meat-centric. Not meaning it's not there. But once and awhile, isn't it nice to turn to the pantry?