IN THE WOLFF’S DEN: PART III
It is cold today, much colder than it has been these past two months. So chilly, it seems strange to think that soon we will be traveling that quarter-turn into spring. Yet there are more birds now. They flutter and…
chucksmith
DIY Fresh Salsa
Want fresh salsa, but don’t want to settle for the (ahem) lesser options at the supermarket? You’re not the only one missing the great varieties of fresh salsa from Wolff’s while we’re closed! So we came up with a great…
Wacky Cake
We don’t know why this is called Wacky Cake… Maybe just that it’s totally WACKY that such a delicious chocolate cake can be made without eggs, butter, or dairy! (The whipped cream on top is an optional indulgence.) Enjoy this…
KITCHEN COPY: POMEGRANATE
Although most pomegranates are and have been cultivated throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent for centuries, today the fruit can be found growing in California and Arizona. Besides being a wellspring of minerals, raw pomegranate seeds provide…
KITCHEN COPY: AMAZING ALMONDS
In my last post, I mentioned that I suffer from lactose intolerance. And when I write suffer, I mean suffer. Giving up ice cream has been one of the most difficult and challenging things I’ve ever had to do. But as…
KITCHEN COPY: RAMBUTAN!
It’s difficult to describe the rambutan…It helps to be familiar with the texture and flavor of Lychee fruit, and the strange, otherworldliness of sea urchins. According to Wikipedia, the rambutan (a name which refers to the tree and the fruit) is native to tropical regions…
KITCHEN COPY:FRESH CRANBERRIES
I’ve been told that men tend to gain a lot of weight in their thirties. I keep hoping that will happen to me. I could stand to gain a pound or two. But all I’ve gotten so far is lactose intolerance, and…
Maryland Crab Dip
From Wolff’s own chef, Chuck Smith!
KITCHEN COPY:SWISS CHARD
Has it ever happened to you that two things enter your life at the same time, and forever after it’s nearly impossible to think of one without also thinking of the other? It happened to me about twelve years ago. It…
KITCHEN COPY: SWEET SAUSAGE
If I didn’t have other cookbooks to keep it pinned between, my Fanny Farmer cookbook would completely fall to pieces. It’s true. Just about every page within its sad, decrepit cover has become unglued. And the spine has given up entirely. On a few occasions I’ve…
KITCHEN COPY:A PRETTY PUMPKIN
Right about now the Mums begin rolling into Wolff’s and taking over the place like some kind of bizarre alien invasion. It seems like every day more cloudbursts of color are added to the expanding floral grid. Their arrival coincides with…
KITCHEN COPY: HONEYCRISP APPLE LIME GRANITA
Some things take a long time to learn about oneself, while other things take none at all. After scaling, gutting, and prepping fish for a brief stint at a small Greek restaurant in Federal Hill, Baltimore, I had a pretty good idea of…
KITCHEN COPY: WATERMELON-TINI
The single memory from my childhood of eating watermelon centers more upon the large, black, unpleasant, inedible seeds than it does the deliciously sweet and totally consumable flesh. It is a memory which speaks volumes about the kind of person I am. It’s no secret how I…
KITCHEN COPY:NOTEWORTHY NECTARINES
I’m fully allowed to taste the produce at Wolff’s Apple House. As their resident chef, it’s part of my job. Nevertheless, there is always a moment (right about the time I lift the fruit from the display) when it feels criminal. Like I’m getting away with something.…
KITCHEN COPY: HEAVENLY HEIRLOOMS
Some heirloom tomato varieties hardly resemble tomatoes at all. That’s what one might think, anyway. The truth is that only in the last hundred years did tomatoes become so uniformly round, and red, and (Let’s admit it!) often flavorless. That’s all changed, of course.…
KITCHEN COPY:FLAVORFUL FINOCCHIONA
On any given day Wolff’s buyer, Lisa McWaters, is in the process of introducing a new product onto the shelves. The process can take anywhere from a day, to several weeks. There is usually a trial period where Wolff’s employees…
KITCHEN COPY:A HANDSOME PEAR
If you met me ten years ago and we struck up a conversation about favorite foods, I would have proudly admitted that I preferred sandwiches over all else. Especially grilled sandwiches. The same holds true today… I love grilled sandwiches. A grilled cheese sandwich was the first thing…
KITCHEN COPY: SCANDALOUS STRING BEANS
Whether whores first invented puttanesca is no concern of mine. The sauce is bright, flavorful, pungent, and goes with just about anything you can scrounge together. Including the ubiquitous green bean. Literally translated, alla puttanesca means “in the style of a prostitute.” It is…
KITCHEN COPY: A RHUBARB TO REMEMBER
The poisonous leaves of the rhubarb plant can cause a variety of symptoms including stomach pain, nausea, and breathing difficulty. The bright red stalk of the rhubarb plant, on the other hand, is totally edible and can cause delight, a…
KITCHEN COPY: THE WHOLE EGG
For someone who grew up eating uniformly bleach-white supermarket eggs, all natural, free range eggs were a revelation. My wife used to run a farm, and it was there that I first encountered them. It was on that farm where I witnessed firsthand the obvious benefits of allowing…
KITCHEN COPY: CONTEMPTIBLE KIWI
At the risk of sounding totally counterculture, I would like to confess that I love tropical fruit. That is, I thoroughly enjoy consuming fruits that have been harvested in tropical regions, packaged, and shipped across the globe. I enjoy these…
KITCHEN COPY: C IS FOR CONFIT
It could have been the alcohol. But more likely it was just foolish pride… Having paid good money for my culinary education, I wasn’t about to let myself be upstaged by some amateur food enthusiast. Especially not in front of others.…
KITCHEN COPY: EASILY ELEGANT LEEKS
Leeks have come a long way in my life since 2001. It’s been an uphill battle for this once neglected ingredient. Unlike onions and garlic, the leek is more intimidating. It seems almost alien when pulled from a grocery bag…
Hot Soup
Fran Wolff likes to say, “the soup season begins when people go inside of their homes to escape the cold. That is when people really want to buy soup.” I agree with him. It’s just around the time when the…
EASY AS 1-2-3
For the past two weeks I’ve been thinking about the best way to eat a turkey. And to be honest, I much prefer eating leftover breast meat, cranberry sauce, and stuffing positioned between two pieces of bread. I mean, I…
CANDY FOR BREAKFAST?
For weeks Steve Rosazza has been delivering some very delicious acorn squash. This variety, along with Butternut, Spaghetti, and Festival, are just some of the winter squash available locally at Wolff’s. Years ago, while working on a small farm in…
IN THE WOLFF’S DEN: PART II
For the second time this year, I’m meeting with one of the Wolff clan in the living room of Ken and Gennie Wolff. Their house sits right across from the recently cultivated Sunny Brae Farm. I have spent a fair…
IN THE WOLFF’S DEN: PART I
There is a narrow dirt road that runs along the edge of the Wolff’s modest Sunny Brae farm. Mostly inactive now, this road used to be heavily traversed by tractors and various farming implements. Currently, three generations of Wolffs live…
CAPITAL M
I know this girl that hates mushrooms. It doesn’t surprise me. She hates a lot of the foods that I love. But as I add the finishing touches to latest batch of Cream of Mushroom Soup, I can’t believe what…
A REAL CHRISTMAS
Down the road from here, a shop selling Christmas trees presents a sign to the passers-by announcing, “Have a real Christmas. Buy a real tree.” This concerns me. If a true Christmas means having a real tree, then every Christmas…
OH, FLORAL MERISTEMS!
At this time of day, the palest shade of yellow becomes white. It is a white like ivory or the cooked white of an egg. It is the glorious flesh or white curd of the aborted floral meristems. It is…
APPLES PANDOWDY!
Any way you look at it, a farm is a business–a livelihood for those interested in growing large quantities of food to sell. But the business of farming varies greatly. In many cases food is grown because it is profitable.…
THE ART OF PATIENCE…AND SOUP
Think of your favorite soup… What does it smell like? What does it taste like? What texture does it have? Is it uniform and velvety on the tongue? There is no correct answer to these questions. Actually, I would venture…
A DIFFERENT KIND OF APPLE + Applesauce Recipe
As I walk across the Wolff’s parking lot, it occurs to me that it has been raining for days. It makes the atmosphere of the market a little damp, but that doesn’t stop the crowds from visiting the store in…
The Rockettes and Homegrown Tomato Sandwiches
There’s this sandwich my grandmother makes. It’s easy to build and very delicious. It starts with perfectly ripe tomatoes. When the summer heat first yields vine ripe tomatoes in earnest, you simply slice them, lightly salt them, and stuff them…
Hot Summer, Frozen Fruit
In one attempt to remove refined sugar from my family’s diet, I decided to make my own frozen desserts instead of purchasing pre-made ice pops. Many frozen ice pops in the supermarket include corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup in…
The Proof is in the Peaches
Edward Behr, author of The Artful Eater, believes that the best apple you will ever eat is a stolen one. In my case, the best peach I have ever eaten was stolen from a neighbor’s fruit tree on a hot July evening in 1992.…