Hedonia

Eat delicious preserves. Save tsunami victims.

When I woke on the morning of March 11 and saw the news of a 9.0 quake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, my heart sank. Initial reports had death tolls only in the hundreds, but I knew that would rise swiftly and aggressively. And worse, I knew that countless more survivors would face even more struggles for possibly a very long time. 

As the events have unfolded over the subsequent weeks, I don't think any of us was prepared for the scale of the horror. And it's far from over. 

For me, I'm awash in a sense of helplessness. I'm thousands of miles away, and far from flush with cash these days. So when several fellow bloggers began to organize bake sales to raise funds, I was thrilled. 

Down in the South Bay, regular Punk Domestics contributor Paige Bayer of Canning With Kids is organizing an event at Roy's Station in Japantown, and other events will be at Pizzaiolo in Oakland, Bi-Rite in San Francisco and Gioia in Berkeley. Other bake sales are cropping up around  the country, so check the map to see if one's near you. All will occur on April 2.

Those of you who know me know I'm not a baker. (I do horrible things to pie dough. Atrocities. There oughta be a law.) But I do make the occasional jam and stuff, so I was very happy to join in on the virtual bake sale hosted by Sabrina at The Tomato Tart. I'm putting up (so to speak) one jar each -- the LAST jar -- of four of my favorite creations. This is the stuff I was hoarding for myself, people! And now it can be yours. 

Go to Punk Domestics to find out how. I said go!

Corned tongue and Queen Alexandra's Sandwiches

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A couple years ago, my then-boss gave me a very thoughtful gift: A vintage 1958 edition of the Gourmet Cookbook, Volume II. To this day I occasionally like to sit down and flip through it, enjoy the quaint little illustrations that separate recipes and inhale the musky aroma of the quinquagenarian pages. The book is mostly text, but it is peppered throughout with occasional color plates to highlight certain recipes.

As one might expect, there's quite a lot of old-school fare in there, harkening to the deep French roots of continental cuisine so much in vogue at the time. The recipes are amusing enough as it is, but the presentation as well as the preparation is really a snapshot of retro food in the most over-the-top sense; in fact, there's an entire section dedicated to aspics. To wit: Langue de bouche à la Rochefort, beef tongue poised like a ski slope on a mound of rice, then coated in four layers chaud-froid and decorated with filigree-like slices of truffle. 

Yummy.