Penguin ice cubes

Several summers ago I downed quarts and quarts of mint sun tea. Katie Daniels (then my son's girlfriend but now update: wife) is the one who turned me on to this.

Because of all the rain that particular spring and early summer my mint had gone haywire. It not only spread all over the place but was about 4 feet tall (no kidding). So one day Katie took some of the clippings from my effort to thin the mint jungle, put them in a gallon juice container with water, set it out in the sun for a couple of hours, strained it and chilled it.

Yikes, who knew a cold drink could be so refreshing? I've made it multiple times since, including making it with boiling water on a day that the sun didn't cooperate (though the sun tea version is decidedly better), and now it's my new favorite summer drink. Plus I feel virtuous having a use for all that mint.

Long preamble to get to this: How cool would it be if I used the mint tea to make ice cubes in the shape of a penguin? Can't you just see a bunch of mint penguins floating on their backs in a big punch bowl? You could float the penguins in a bowl of regular iced tea since the mint would go very nicely with it.

The silicone penguin mold shown here makes 12 penguin cubes. (Of course you will find it on Amazon, because Amazon controls the world.) The same company also makes ice cubes in the shape of rubber duckies and seasheels.

Silicone salt pig

I wish I had seen this when I was writing about salt pigs. This little piggy, which is called a Pop Savor, is from a family-owned company called prepara (check out some of their other cool kitchen devices on their website).

The Pop Savor has a porcelain base and a silicone top that is designed to stay closed to keep the contents from getting wet/dirty, but that pops open easily when you're ready to use it. It also comes with its own measuring spoon. You can buy Pop Savor in lots of stores, including Bed, Bath and Beyond, or online at several places. It sells for $20 from Amazon.

Colorful whisks

I'm not sure if silicone whips cream or egg whites better than metal, but you almost don't care because this rainbow balloon whisk from Kuhn Rikon is so fine looking. You can get them from a number of different sites (do a Google search on Kuhn Rikon silicone whisk), and though at one point they were sold at the MoMA store (see, I told you they were cool looking), you can now buy it from Walmart(!). There are two sizes: The 10-inch is about $20, the 8-inch about $16.

Corn Part Two: Crop diversity in Ecuador

OK, boring headline, but really cool picture. For the past decade there has been a concerted effort to record and preserve the astonishing variety of crops grown in the northern Andean highlands of Ecuador. In a survey of farms in the region, it was found that local farmers are growing a stupefyingly large variety of chile peppers, beans, squash, corn, and potatoes.

This includes 30, I say, son, 30 different kinds of corn!!

In addition to cataloging this incredible diversity, each year there is a seed-exchange fair (the photo above is from the fair) in the town of Cotacachi to help preserve varieties in danger of disappearing. And a food processing facility has been set up to provide a profitable outlet for local crops—thus encouraging farmers to keep farming. The artisanal products made in the processing plant appear to only be sold in Ecuador, but here's what they have (that I wish I could buy): Andean blackberry marmalade, dried cape gooseberries, roasted black squash seeds.

In case you've never seen a cape gooseberry, it looks like a tomatillo, to which it is in fact related. They are also called ground cherries, though they are not at all related to that fruit. Ground cherries, if they're grown in your area, might be appearing in farmers' markets about now.

Did anyone get the Foghorn Leghorn reference above? It's hard to write in a cartoon accent. If I'd said "I say, son" out loud, I'll bet you would have gotten it.

Corn gadgets

I was talking with a friend the other day who mentioned that his bachelor great-uncle had had a large porn collection. Maybe because the acoustics were weird, or because I'm in the food business, I thought he said corn collection.

After some hilarious confusion (Me: "What did he have in his collection?" Friend: "The usual stuff." Me: "But what is the usual stuff??" Friend: "You're joking, right?" etc.) I decided maybe I should start a corn collection. I remembered that I had an old corn-shaped pitcher at home (see #1 above) and figured that was a good kick-off.

1 This pitcher is quite old but has no identifying marks on it, so no way to research it. It's stoneware and about 5 inches high. My guess is that it was either part of a sugar/creamer set or maybe it was to hold melted butter for corn-on-the-cob. I found an almost identical item in an online antiques store for $115.

2 A metal corn pitcher from Wilton Armetale in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It's made of a propietary aluminum alloy called Armetale metal and is about the same size as my ceramic pitcher: $65 from LaZinnia Decor, though it appears to be a discontinued item so it may be sold out soon.

3 Barbecue folks corn holders are $12 from Sur La Table. The prongs are stainless steel, but the little corn-holding peeps need to be handwashed.

4 There are approximately 1.2 zillion dishes painted to look like corn cobs, so it was refreshing to find this plain white porcelain rendition from Maxwell & Williams. $10 for the set (dish plus 2 corn holders) from Time Well Spent Gifts.

5 I actually wrote about this for Hallmark magazine, but it deserves a second mention. The OXO corn stripper keeps the corn kernels from flying around when you cut them off the cob. $13 from Williams-Sonoma.

6 Why didn't someone think of this before? These colorful plastic corn holders with a corkscrew-style "prong" are designed to screw into the corn before it's cooked so you don't have to struggle to get a corn holder into a hot cob. And because they are all plastic, they can be used in the microwave—though once you start cooking lots of corn at once (is there any other way?), the microwave ceases to be a time-saving device. The set of 16 corn holders is $15 from QVC.

Addendum. Another unusual take on the corn dish. This four-piece set (only 2 shown, duh) is available from Sierra Trading Post for $30, but it's a close-out.

Bulgur Salad with Black Beans & Oranges

Finally, weather worthy of a cold salad.

[Someone told me that it's been 140 years since the month of July went without a single day over 90 degrees—in the Northeast, that is. I know that you guys on the West Coast would have welcomed a day under 90, but us Right Coasters have been wearing long pants and sweaters. Weird.]

On the subject of bulgur:
Bulgur is cracked wheat that has been parboiled to make it faster to cook (i.e., cracked wheat is not a good substitute unless you are willing to steam up your kitchen for longer to cook it). Bulgur can come in several different granulations, although the most commonly found supermarket brands don't indicate size. In well-stocked natural foods stores or specialized online sources you can find granulations ranging from fine to extra coarse (which is almost the whole kernels). A medium to coarse (shown above) grind works best for salads. You could also use other wheatlike grains—kamut, spelt, farro—that have been "bulgurized" (parboiled and cracked).

Bulgur Salad with Black Beans & Oranges
Make the bulgur ahead of time (like the night before) so you don't have to steam up the kitchen in the middle of a summer day.

Grated zest of 1 lemon
2/3 cup lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 medium-large (8-ounce) red onion, finely diced
1-1/2 cups bulgur
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups water
2 cans (15.5 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
2 navel oranges, peeled and coarsely chopped
Chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, oil, salt and red pepper flakes. Stir in the onion. Let sit while you cook the bulgur.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the bulgur, garlic and water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until the bulgur is tender, 15 to 20 minutes (if there's still some liquid, drain it off). Transfer the still warm bulgur to the bowl with the lemon-onion mixture and toss well to combine.
3. Add the beans and oranges, and toss well. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Makes 8 servings