Welcome to Auntie Arwen's first newsletter. I'm sending this out to everyone who requested it, plus our past customers. If you don't want to receive further issues, please email me at auntiearwen@snet.net, and I will take you off the list.
This newsletter will come out hopefully every 2 weeks or so, and I'll toss in recipes, hints, where to get stuff (even stuff I don't carry, if I know where to get it), and have a reader's comments section. Actually, this newsletter will be more like a letter than a chunk of (ptui!) spam or advertising. Here's a place for us cooks to get together.
Speaking of cooks, got some recipes for you. If you're hung over from that
St. Paddy's day party, try a Mexican hangover remedy, a tripe soup called "menudo".
Supposed to work wonders. There are two versions: a "white" menudo,
and a "spicy" menudo. Please remember that what Mexicans call "spicy"
is pretty raucous, and the "white" (or "mild"...note the
quotation marks on "mild") is calmer.
Rinse your tripe Really Well in running cold water. Boil up a pot of water,
toss in the tripe. The water should just cover the tripe; if you have too much,
pour it off. Then add the salt, garlic, and onion, and let simmer for one hour
or until the tripe is tender. Now, stir in the hominy and my Cruda Menudo blend
("cruda" means "hangover" in Spanish). Let it simmer another
15 to 20 minutes, taste (and add salt if necessary). Serve in mugs or bowls,
garnished with a sprinkle of cilantro (fresh or dried) and/or a twist of lime,
with some nice hot tortillas on the side. This should serve four people, or
one person with a Serious case of the "crud".
The same ingredients as above, but also add 2-3 chopped seeded jalapeño peppers. (If you can't get them locally, you can get dried chopped green jalapeños from us) and 3-4 chopped fresh tomatillos (available in Hispanic grocery stores and in most large supermarkets). Cook as above, and garnish with a dash of hot red New Mexican chili pepper(we stock that!) or chopped jalapeño or hot cayenne. Or if you really want to go for the burn, toss some crushed chiltepín peppers (we have those, too!) on top. You can also slide a twist of lime onto the side of the bowl, sort of like for a Marguerita. The soup/stew is reddish in color, so green makes for a colorful garnish.
If you like Mexican/Hispanic cooking, Auntie Arwen stocks a nice variety of
chili peppers (ground, crushed, whole pod)
and hot spice/herb blends.
We New Englanders have a reputation, like the Scots, of being frugal. Some folks might say "cheap". So many times we mix up stuff (rather than buy it at a high price at the store) various and sundries that are useful around the house.
Now that winter is winding down, folks are going to want to think about washing the windows. Here's Auntie Arwen's recipe for 1 gallon of Really Good window cleaner. It works well on any glass surface, actually. Not limited to windows.
½ cup "sudsy" ammonia
1 pint 70% isopropyl alcohol (you can get this at the drug store)
1 tsp liquid dish detergent
water to make up 1 gallon
about 25 large-ish cherrystone clams, opened and shucked
2 medium onions, chopped fine
1/4 lb butter (or if you're on a health toot, 1/3 to ½ c canola oil)
1 tbsp Auntie Arwen's Left Bank
Parisian Seasoning
2 eggs, beaten
10-12 slices of white bread, crumbled fine
1/4 c chopped parsley (dried is OK)
Lightly clean off the clam shells (heck, scrub ‘em down good, if you want to) and oil them lightly. Chop the clam meat fine; reserve all the clam juice in another container. It's OK to use the food processor. Now, in a deep skillet or a saucepan, cook the onion in the butter (or oil) until the onions are golden. Take off the burner, add the seasoning and the beaten eggs, while stirring. Then add the soft bread crumbs and parsley, and mix well. Add enough clam juice to make a moist mix. Now, taste (add salt if necessary). Now, put the breaded clam mix into the shells (if you started with 25 clams, you'll have 50 half-shells). Dust with paprika, and bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes.
Do you have any Really Good Recipes? Anything from Beef Stroganoff to organic
dog biscuits? Hints for the cook? Requests for odd ingredients like
cubebs,
orris root,
and grains of Paradise? (surprise, we stock ‘em!). Or if you've
found a new and creative use for one of our blends? Share it with the rest of
us!
As this is being written, our web page is being updated. It reads best on a screen whose resolution is set at 800 x 600. To do this, click on the "start" button (lower left on your screen), select "settings", and then select "control panel", then double click to get "display". Now, click on the tab marked "settings", and you'll see a "slider" sort of to the right side. Your settings may well be 640 by 480 (lower resolution), so mouse that slider about halfway and 800 x 600 will display. It also asks you for the type and make of monitor. Mine was made by Brand X, so I entered the "standard" options.
Please, please check out the web page
( www.auntiearwenspices.com
) and email me any comments, corrections, howlers, hints to improve things,
stuff I oughta stock, etc. I especially would like input from blind readers;
I want this site to be as accessible as possible for you! Please do note that
I can do Braille labelling!
Any free Saturdays during the summer, 9am to 1 pm: Deep River (CT) Farmers'
Market. You can also find my blends at "Especially for You!" in East
Hampton, CT (the store is on Route 66 just east of Brookes Plaza) and at the
Connecticut River Artisans in Chester, CT.
Well, that's it for now. Gotta go whip up some organic hot chocolate mix; am testing that out for addition to my web page. And yes, everything in it is cert. Org.