Winter's Bounty

If you can't go to the Sunshine State, bring the sunshine to you! I canned Florida oranges this weekend as orange marmalade from Sherri Brooks Vinton's wonderful preserving primer, PUT 'EM UP. The kitchen smells like what I imagine a humid greenhouse full of orange trees does. These'll make great gifts for other snowbound friends who by now are sick to death of shoveling, de-icing, and shivering!

WHAT JURY DUTY IS GOOD "PHO"

Vietnamese restaurants have become the real reason to go to Chinatown in Manhattan. Bahn mi and pho joints are everywhere! I had my first bowl of pho yesterday at Pho Pasteur (which seems to me like a name concocted to make Americans less suspicious of exotic foods that might not be "clean" enough!). Fresh shrimp swam in a light broth with broccoli, celery, cilantro, and rice noodles. Messy, but wholly satisfying!

AND THE VERDICT IS...

The only good thing about jury duty in Manhattan is ready access to Chinatown's exotic, well stocked supermarkets. For dinner at home with Charles last week, I found fresh vegetable noodles to make a bed for the steamed salmon steaks. The markets are packed with condiments and sauces, flour and pre-made won ton wrappers, colorful vegetables, and noodles, dried and fresh. The noodles were satisfying, a nice complement in color to the salmon, but--even with butter, salt, and pepper--not particularly flavorful. The salmon was delicious: steamed in tin foil on top of the stove on two slices of ripe tomato with a mayonnaise/white wine vinegar/dill/caper sauce and a garnish of chopped green olives. And the verdict is...guilty of being easy, fresh, and fragrant.