"Bucket of balls"
I was born and raised in Worcester, but I’ve been spending time in western Massachusetts since the fall of 1999, when I met people from the Springfield area who would become lifelong friends – and introduce me to my future husband that Thanksgiving weekend. Awww.
Reminiscing aside, this piece of trivia is important. It means that I’ve been familiar with the area for 12 years – and until Saturday night, had never eaten at The Federal in Agawam. For. Shame.
So, two years ago today, this happened:
And to celebrate, we drank this:
Rodney Strong Rockaway Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine that floored us during a tasting at the Healdsburg vineyard last December. It’s a single-vineyard blend, described as having “juicy red and black fruit character, and an elegantly round and seductive mid-palate.” I’m no expert, so I can’t attest to all of that. I do know that it knocked the wind out of us upon first taste. And if it wasn’t so pricey, we probably could have been convinced to buy a case.
But unless we hit the lottery, or I pursue a career that isn’t journalism, it’s going to have to remain a special-occasion treat. This bottle of 2007 vintage was a 30th birthday present, and we decided to open it to celebrate our anniversary and our upcoming trip to Spain.
What?? Yes, you read right. At the end of this week, we’ll be eating our way through Barcelona. Next week, we’ll be catching some Mediterranean rays on the beaches of Mallorca. After that…well, I’m not so sure I can be convinced to leave.
More experienced home cooks, and Italians who grew up in Nonna’s kitchen, are probably laughing at me right now. But they’re not going to dim my excitement. I MADE CHEESE.
On Friday night, we had dinner at Rizzuto’s in West Hartford, beginning our meal with a cheese plate. The selection of six cheeses featured their dreamy, fluffy, perfect housemade ricotta. We were in love, especially once we tasted it again with a touch of truffle honey.
On Saturday morning, I found myself flipping idly through a recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine, where I happened upon the page with Nancy Silverton’s DIY ricotta recipe. It was serendipitous, really. I decided I had to make it that night.
The recipe calls for whole milk and cream; I just went with five cups of whole milk. It boiled over quickly – nearly ruining a burner on our flat top stove – but produced a decent amount of curd after settling for 15 minutes. I drained the first batch, reboiled the milk again with a little more lemon juice and then drained the (middling) curds from the second round.
The yield, after about an hour’s worth of drain time? Maybe a cup and a half of ricotta. It’s certainly not a high-volume recipe. But if you’re prioritizing freshness and taste over convenience, this is the way to go. It was really excellent, and you can’t beat the pride factor of making your own cheese, especially when it’s so delicious.
We ate our ricotta in the form of bruschetta, with oven-roasted tomatoes and fresh basil that we’d picked ourselves at Easy Pickin’s Orchard. The rest of our farm spoils included baby eggplants, leeks and Macoun and Gala apples. Next summer might just be the year we splurge on that CSA.
MARK MIRKO / HARTFORD COURANT
Last year, I ate fried butter.
This year, I ate fried Kool-Aid.
Can I get some hazard pay over here?
The famous white clam pizza at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
August marked the sixth anniversary of my move to Connecticut, when I enrolled in Quinnipiac University’s graduate journalism program. And I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t originally the biggest fan of the Nutmeg State.
In short, my 2005 thoughts pretty much dovetailed with the recent “Worst 50 States in America” series on Gawker, where Connecticut was ranked midway at #31.
“Connecticut is mostly just America’s suburb, a string of medium-sized towns rolling into medium-sized towns, only to be briefly interrupted by decaying heaps like Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford. Connecticut has some of the least character or local flavor in the country…”
A La Carte
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.