2023, Food, Nature, Travel

Henrietta Makes a Pig of Herself

55 Comments

I love bakeries – you all know this.  Luckily most of my close friends are also bakery fiends, so I never have to worry about any bakery withdrawal when I travel.

Long before I visited Pat in Nashville last month, she had emailed me a link from a bakery that she wanted to try with me.  Most mornings we made breakfast at her house but one morning we did save for The Franklin Bakehouse.

Franklin is a small community about a half hour from Pat’s home in Nashville.  I expect that the folks in Franklin would bristle at being labeled an outer-ring suburb, but as Nashville has grown, that’s exactly what it has become.  It is the epitome of a small town – lots of little shops, wide sidewalks, picturesque streets.  It didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful fall day in Tennessee, making the drive very pleasant.  There were huge pots of chrysanthemums at every corner of the “downtown” – just gorgeous.

The aroma inside The Bakehouse was amazing and the array of pastries and sweets made it really hard to choose.  I ended up getting a massive cinnamon roll and a beautiful blueberry tart, knowing I couldn’t possibly eat it all (I asked for the to-go container right away).  Pat had the dutch apple pie/bread pudding.  It’s in the picture above and was almost as big as her head.  She also ended up taking some home.  We also ordered coffee and sat at a window table and watched the world go by.  It was a fabulous was to spend an hour that morning.

Henrietta didn’t really make a pig of herself; she actually bristles at the idea as she is a peccary, not a pig!

When was the last time you were able to really relax over a nice meal?

55 thoughts on “Henrietta Makes a Pig of Herself”

  1. We rarely go out to eat unless we travel, although we cook really good food for ourselves at home the act of preparing the food isn’t that relaxing. Two relaxing meals come to mind. One was quite recent in Cleveland, OH, at a Spanish restaurant with a dear graduate school friend. The other was at a fish house in Tacoma a few years ago when we dined with our daughter and a friend of hers from Germany.

    OT- We are expecting temperatures today in the low 60’s.

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  2. We got to attend two Thanksgiving dinners this year, and the smaller one turned out to be quite relaxing. Friend’s husband roasted a chicken, which removed a lot of the usual expectations. We each had our own foil wrapped sweet potato that was the best I’ve had. We brought gingered maple carrots an apple pie… There was wine, and later coffee with dessert; we played cards after the meal. It was lovely, and low key with just the 4 of us.

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      2. Husband made this up – I just asked, and he does it like this:
        – cut up the carrots in sort of a thicker-than-usual julienne, and put them in a ziploc overnight with some shaved or grated ginger
        – melt butter in pan add carrots, maple syrup, some water and cook till the carrots are softened
        – you can add powdered ginger to pan if you didn’t have fresh

        Sorry, I don’t know amounts of anything, but I’ll bet it’s a little different each time.

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  4. Wife and I force ourselves to have Sunday dinner at the dining room table most Sundays in winter when we can’t eat on the porch. The reason is to practice our “restaurant table manners” so we don’t turn into old feeble slobs who leave a pile of crumbs on the floor and food stains on our clothes. That happens too often for me with Mon-Sat meals.

    We usually make something semi-special, have some wine (of course), and have a conversation with music playing in the background.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. xdfben
    DECEMBER 6, 2023 AT 12:00 AM
    Recipes are like guidelines… a starting point. 🙂
    I had two lbs of hamburger, then 2 cans of Hunts tomato paste, and 2 cans of some other brand tomato sauce.

    I have to ask a rather beginner question on spices. The canned spices like rosemary or thyme, do they have to be cooked in? Can they be added on top? (Like chives, to add color). Should onions and garlic ALWAYS be sautéed before adding to a sauce? We have a mortar and pestle that we’ve never used, but it just looks really cool and I feel like I should be grinding up spices. For fun.

    I have so much to learn…so thanks for helping me out.

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    1. THis is from yesterday,Ben, but we had dog training class last night and I did not get to this reply. Try the following: Use Italian Sausage (I use Lunds and Byerlys mild or spicy from the meat counter). Also try a pasta sauce–I use Newmans for things like this.

      Re: mortar and pestle–I use mine to grind up the herbs I grow. It works for sage, thyme, oregany, basil which are all dried first. All of PJ’s comments from yesterday pertain as well.

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      1. Thanks for all this. I did brown and drained the hamburger the day before. I do use Italian sausage some days, and sometimes we make hamburger helper with sausage and I really like that.
        Some of you will understand this: I didn’t want to use the good tomato sauce, I was saving that until I knew what I was doing ha ha that’s why I used the cheap stuff.

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    2. Feel free to use herbs and spices any way you want. In general, dried products can and should be cooked into the dish. The cooking time allows their flavors to disperse equally.

      Fresh products generally work best when added at the end of cooking or as garnish on top. Ex: I chop fresh chives and add them to mashed potatoes just before mashing.

      Most people saute onions and garlic to mellow the flavors in stews, soups, sauces. Trust me, eating too much raw garlic can cause you gastric distress that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy. But I like raw red onions in salads, and I top my pizzas with raw onion slices that only get cooked for a few minutes.

      Have fun with that M&P. I rarely use them, but they work well for grinding seeds and pods like peppercorns, whole allspice, garlic cloves, and other hard seedlike spices.

      Chris

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  6. Last night’s simple, but warming and tasty soup was, in fact, a nice nice and relaxing meal.

    During the month of December, we light a calendar candle on the table while we eat to help count down the days til Christmas. Little things, like Christmassy place mats help create what we call hygge. One of my cactus plants is in full bloom at the moment, so it has a place of honor at the table as well.

    One of the beauties of a soup dinner, is that it minimizes the dishes that need to be washed afterwards. Another is that I usually make a big enough pot for two meals, so that’s what for dinner, this time with a cheese quesadilla on the side.

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      1. I pull my kitchen stool up to the stove and handle the “cooking” part, and Hans does all the prepping of all of the veggies etc. Soup is pretty easy because it’s a leisurely process where timing usually isn’t a huge factor. If I have to do it all by myself, it takes hours because I need to rest every five minutes. There isn’t enough overhang on our kitchen counters for me to be able to sit on my stool and work.

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    2. YA and I have been using our holiday plates as well. I have that old red crockery with the Christmas tree on it from Wachterbach. They don’t make these dishes anymore, so I think of them as really special..

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Well, I can tell it is winter here. We Baboons are onto food and recipes again. In the summer all I need are tomatoes and sweet corn.

    We had a wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving meal that I enjoyed immensely with close friends and family. The other enjoyable experience lately was two meals out at Italian Eatery in S. Minneapolis on Cedar near Lk. Nokomis. On my birthday we sat outside on the deck which was enchanting. The food and drinks were outstanding. It was expensive, so we save this place for special outings. Then Lou wanted to return for his 80th birthday a month ago. We were inside for that, but the entire experience was quite similar. We leave that restaurant with the feeling that someone took care of us.

    Barb–I still want the recipe for the Thai Carrot Ginger Soup.

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        1. Jacque— when I reply from my phone, rather than my iPad, I am anonymous. How ever I am not the anonymous troll from yesterday.

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    2. Here it is:
      Thai Carrot Soup

      1 Tbsp fresh ginger
      garlic (4 cloves depending upon size and your taste) [I often replace some garlic with onion]
      saute in olive oil

      1½ cups chicken or vegetable broth
      1½-2 pounds carrots cut (7 or 8 regular size)

      Simmer all above till carrots are tender, then blend.
      Back in the pan, add:

      1/2 tsp Thai red curry paste (this is very spicy—your discretion) [I’ve also used green curry paste…]
      1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
      1/4 cup soy sauce
      1 cup coconut milk (or the whole can)
      pepper

      Garnish:
      cilantro, and or lime juice

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  8. Yesterday I had a nice, relaxing breakfast made with fresh eggs from Ben, a whole grain pilaf, and some cranberry sauce.

    I think having meals outside is the most relaxing way to enjoy food. I love eating outside but I’ve given my deck over to the birds now and I won’t be eating out there until I’ve cleaned it up in the spring.

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  9. The relaxing meal that comes to mind is something my sister does every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She invites me over and makes a meal of the Thanksgiving leftovers. There are usually just three of us, and most of the cooking is already done, so there’s a less stressful vibe around it, but the food is just as good as the Thanksgiving spread. I think of this as Thanksgiving Redux.

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  11. When we were in Sheboygan, after viewing the winners of a Japanese quilt contest at the quilt museum in Cedarburg, our air b&b host recommended a ramen restaurant in the downtown area. We sat at the counter rather than a cozy table but the ramen was so good and the atmosphere so convivial that we set for ourselves the project of trying all the well-rated ramen restaurants in the twin cities. We’ve only made it to two so far and they were good but didn’t measure up to the Sheboygan experience.

    We were visiting the Swedish Institute to take in their Christmas display (it’s exceptionally good this year) and it gave me a hankering for Swedish meatballs. We could have eaten there but Fika was full and there was a waiting list.

    Back home I made a double recipe of Swedish meatballs and froze most of them. But then for dinner I made meatballs with plenty of gravy and mashed potatoes (often I just boil them and we smash them on the plate but these were proper mashed) and steamed green beans. We had some fresh cranberry orange relish left over from Thanksgiving that substituted nicely for lingonberry sauce.

    It felt equivalent to a meal we might have gotten in a good restaurant.

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        4. I like Swedish meatballs, have never had Norwegian ones, but of course the Danish meatballs are the ones I’m most familiar with. But to my mind you can’t go wrong with meatballs, no matter their national origin.

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  12. The Birds and I had Jolly Green Giant peas and carrots for lunch yesterday. The meal was new to them and they were, of course, suspicious. Their portion was mashed up with vitamins and millet treat sprinkled on top. It is relaxing to see them try new foods. It reminds me of giving my infant kids food. When they like it, it’s all over their faces/beaks.

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  14. Not a meal, but when I’m making Amish friendship bread, and I’ve got headphones on and music going, a drink on the counter, and I’m whistling some tune, and getting in a zone and I always enjoy that moment.
    By the end of the season, I’m not so excited about it anymore. the drink gets bigger or stronger, haha.

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  15. Not a meal, but when I’m making Amish friendship bread, and I’ve got headphones on and music going, a drink on the counter, and I’m whistling some tune, and getting in a zone and I always enjoy that moment.
    By the end of the season, I’m not so excited about it anymore. the drink gets bigger or stronger, haha.

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  16. I relaxed over a nice meal recently, but I gotta tell ya, not often enough. Spent after the holidays, and looking for a recharge. Hopefully we can join our family/friends at the table for a nice one without all the holiday pretense and expense! Cheers!! 🥂

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