What Will You Be Eating In 2022

 Predictions always come with the new year. What will be the latest trends? Who will be the latest stars?  What will we eat is so important. What spice will be the spice to use? Or what veggie or meat will be the darling of social media?

That the question that regular contributor Kim Severson posed today in New York Times Food section. There is a lot of uncertainty thanks to the Omnicron variant  which is adding to economic uncertainty. There are also social justice concerns along with pressure from a fast changing climate.Yet there are some fun and interesting trends out there.The environment is always on people's and restaurant owner's mind. Cups, plates and bowls along with utensils are going to be edible. That means no waste to wind up in landfills.Another trend that's good for the environment is faux meats. Consumers have literally gobbled up everything from Gardein to Moringstar Farms. Mushrooms which are the another good source of protein are going to be one of the top foods of the new year.There's an interest in psychedelics (!) along with ones that can stand in for scallops. They will also be used in packaging with their fibers filling in for cardboard.Seaweed is also going to be one of the biggest natural trends.It too is good for the environment as it reduces carbon dioxide.

Some of the more fun trends will be a return to those ultra boozy , ultra tasty drinks that defined the Eighties. See an uptick in orders for Long Island Ice Tea, Blue Lagoons and Tequila Sunsets. These will be different from the originals in the sense that there will be more fresh juices and a better sort of alcohol.Another drink that will be popular with be the Vietnamese coffee Robusta. It may be bitter tasting and heavily caffeinated but it's less expensive than Arabica and better to cultivate. Candy from China and Korea will also find its' way into American mouth, thanks to a show like Squid Games. Korea also brings us the fusion word swicy - a combination of sweet and spicy  along with swalty  - sweet and salty , This marries savory with sweet or spicy with sweet. Indian food is also going to be very popular, especially dishes from such regions as Kashmir and Kerala, along with from Tamil. Food history will make foodies dive into Wikipedia and old cookbooks. Rudeness will be out as patience takes over.. Other trends include high tea, olives , Taiwanese breakfast dishes and the strange potato milk!

The New Year is going to be an interesting one. We'll be exploring and clamoring for Asian foods along with good for us and good for the environment foods. We'll practice kinds as we revive old cocktails and explore new flavor fusions like swalty and swicy. Here's to the future!

Your Own Charcuterie

 Charcuterie used to mean just a plate of sliced cold cuts, some cheese and a host of bread and crackers .now it['s a board filled with everything from seafood to candy. Anything you can pull together makes for an interesting buffet for the New Year.

Charcuterie boards of any type are easy to make up and fun to nibble from. You don't have to have a traditional wooden board that's typically used for cheeses. any flat surface will do. You can use a platter or a large enough cutting board. Even baking sheets will do in a pinch. Should you line it with aluminum foil? You can.it guarantees an easy  clean up however you can also use large , pretty napkins too. paper ones can work as well. Traditional charcuterie platters originated in France and featured mostly pork  based cold cuts like Jambon de Bayonne and Jambon de Paris, the last can be bought in Whole Foods.  Thickly sliced ham and thickly sliced salame are the basis of an American charcuterie board. You can also include prosciutto and sopprasutta as well. Cheeses are a must. Brie would be a good choice along with Gruyere and a soft cheese like Edam. If you want include goat cheese as well. some add cornichons,  along with green and black olives.Both bread and crackers should be included. Thinly sliced French and Italian bread are perfect for this but sourdough and even rye or pumpernickel can be used. Any kind of cracker is perfect. Vary them, from  buttery Ritz to Japanese rice ones.

The definition has expanded to include other foods. Vegans can delight in a meat free board. Tofurky and Light life have a good selection of cold cuts. You can get ham , turkey and pepperoni and even bologna. Cheeses aren't a problem either. Miyoko's  Creamery has an excellent array of them, from mozzarella to  creamy Road house.  You could even serve the company's plant based  butter on warmed, crusty slices of sourdough bread. Violife also has some tasty dairy free fromages like Provolone and feta. You can still serve cornichons along with  some other veggies such as artichoke hearts  and fresh veggies with a vinaigrette dip. Seafood is taking its' turn at the charcuterie board. Shrimp cocktail is a must, Make sure you have little cups or ramekins of shrimp sauce with it.Crab legs can also be included along with lobster tails. These can be served warm or cold, with either individual lemon slices or melted butter. If you're ambitious enough you could also make California or dragon rolls too with it. Lox can also be served if you want too along with gravlax. Keep the veggies to a minimum and mix the cheese. Try a small sampling of carrots , celery or broccoli with a simple olive oil and lemon or vinegar dressing.

There's nothing like a charcuterie board. Go with the traditional or try a variation. either way is a great fun feast.

Vegan Reheat

 What can you do with a vegan holiday dinner? Reheat it and serve it up in a tastier manner.Vegan ham from tofurky can lend itself to a variety of different recipes from ham salad to treating it  like Taylor ham. Try the latter for a quick, tasty repurposing.

That's exactly what I did. I sliced my holiday loaf from Christmas Day dinner into medium thick  slices,

Some pieces were easier to carve than other bu they produced smaller bits that yielded crunchy morsels when fried.

I decided to fry them up on my griddle using my leftover vegan butter Melt that was also used in my holiday cookies. It was a generous knob.

It was then cooking and flipping the slices as if they were Taylor ham. The edges should flip up like a sombrero's . This usually takes anywhere from five to ten minutes.

Some pieces will cook up faster than others. Let them. This provides crisp pieces sort of like bacon.

I had mine with leftover string bean salad but the slices would also be good in a vegan Eggs Benedict  using Just Eggs or an omelet using the egg sub in.I also made a sandwich of one on rye bread. It would be delicious in savory vegetarian cheese egg strata for brunch too.

The possibilities are endless with leftover Tofurky ham loaf.  You can slice it, cube it, mince it.It's tasty fried, but you can air fry it too. Be creative with your vegan holiday leftovers. It's amazing what you can make with it.

Merriest of Christmases

To my readers around the world., enjoy this Christmas with favorite foods and family members.🎄🎄🎄

A Homemade Christmas

 A Good Christmas to all my readers worldwide. I had a very Aldi Christmas Eve with making their Priano Mushroom Risotto which was delicious. Here are their sugar cookies, which were supposed to be drizzle ones. They look more like what came out of the reindeer after a bad stomach ache.

It was melting Nestle's chips and drizzling them over the cookies. However there was too much chocolate. still they tasted pretty good.

Enjoy your cookies, whether homemade or not !!!!

The Oysters And Their Merroir

 If you think oysters are just oysters, think again. They are as complex as wine, and even mirror the drinks' many different flavors and subtleties. These are not just bivalves. They're much more.

 Regular contributor Melissa Clark explored  this in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Oysters are actually filters, cleansing up to three thousand gallons of both salt and fresh water daily. Yet for centuries they have been considered both a staple as with the Indigenous Americans and a luxury as with the Europeans who settled the continent. However they're not that simple. They are a complex animal, now mostly farmed in controlled conditions, not unlike grapes meant for wine.Unlike wines there are only five kinds of them in the United States. There is the East Coast one, found in the Atlantic while the Pacific Ocean has the west Coast oyster. yet the varieties or varietels are just like wine. An oyster raised in the warm waters off Louisiana is going to taste entirely different from one harvested from Maine's icy ocean. This is called a merroir,  a play on the french terroir, from land. Mer is from the french word for 'sea". It's the interaction of aquaculture techniques and the local merroir that creates the taste. even though the oysters from the Glidden Point Oyster farm is only one thousand feet from the Mook sea Farm, their tastes are vastly different. The Glidden Farms ones are sweet , dense and stony  while the Mook Sea Farm have a clean flavor and a rounded shell.

Sometimes the land itself can have a direct impact on the oysters flavor. At Hama Hama Company in Lilliwaup Washington,  the Pacific oysters are raised in the Hood Canal. This is nestled in an area where there are Douglas firs which drop their needles into the water. This definitely affects their taste, along with the algae and phytoplankton. Oysters aren't the only ones with a merroir. Scallops are also affected by their environment too. They also have a distinct flavors and textures.They run the gamut from soft and mild  from Cobscook Bay to funky, firmer and saltier adductors from Little Macchias Bay. This is a recent thing and it may be shortly applied to shrimp, crab and lobster too,If you plan on eating oysters for the holidays, keep in mind that they're not really good with champagne as most make them out to be. Ms. Clark  feels that raw oysters gives the bubbly a metallic taste unless they're Oysters Rockefellar.. Instead try a modestly sweet German Resiling. You can also try Sancerre, Muscadet or Chablis.

Oysters are not just oysters anymore. The same idea with scallops. They're as complex as a good wine with different flavors and sub notes. Like a good wine, they should be savored and appreciated for those unique tastes too.

A Trucker's CHristmas

 We don't give enough credit to our truckers. They have been our saviors during this pandemic and shortages. Funny enough these heroes prefer to be on the road at Christmas, celebrating and even cooking from their cabs.

Priya Krishna , a regular contributor and cookbook author interviewed this chefs of the road for today's New York Times Food section. The cab kitchens are actually well equipped despite their small size.Trucker Dina McKinney's kitchen is really like everyone else's. There are spices neatly organized in jars, a butcher block counter and a prettily tiled backsplash. there are even Santa towels. She is cooking for herself but what a meal!. There will be Brie in puff pastry and a thyme and rosemary rubbed turkey leg to be roasted on her rotisserie. It's dripping will go to   season a turkey breast. Brussels sprouts with bacon will be sauteed on her butane stove. Not every trucker has her elaborate system. Yet many of the three million something truckers out there are cooking from their cabs. They are either looking for much healthier foods than what's in truck stops or out of necessity. Most places nationwide have closed due to the pandemic. Then there's the life of a trucker.Many are working long overtime hours for the money  along with helping to lessen the supply chain issue, especially now around the holidays.

Yet they persist and find ways to celebrate with home cooked meals. Trucker Margie Gillis from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin is making her Christmas meal with leg of lamb and eggplant casserole which she will share with other truckers. Her Thanksgiving was great with stuffed roasted duck,  green bean casserole and cheese mashed potatoes. and cranberry sauce. However it does have its' setbacks, She will only wipe her dishes clean and then thoroughly wash them when she takes her shower at a truck stop. Traditional cookies are out. She just can't handle mixing and baking them, with flour all over the place and trying to clean beaters.  New Year's also gets special food in the cabs.Tamra Fakhoorian plans a tasty First Night with a big charcuterie board chock full of cured meat, olives, and cheeses. There will be lights around her bed and she will record her goals for the New Year. Cooking can also alleviate any depression or loneliness that comes with the job. James Willis of Tacoma Washington will make himself a  lush meal of  steak cooked in a George Forman grill with instant mashed potatoes and gravy. Some truckers like couple Melissa Cheshire and Vincent Louque enjoy eating out . They get to sample local specialties like gumbo and shrimp in Lousiana. Another , Sunny Grewal from Fresno.  celebrates Diwali with take out naan and shahi paneer.  Rafique Smioth from Philadelphia observes Eid on the road too.

Truckers do have hard lives but they manage to make do. This includes having the best holidays they can. It even involves a  home cooked meal with all the trimmings.