Gourmet Update

Well, finally something official on the Gourmet magazine site about those of us with subscriptions: we will be getting Bon Appetit instead, for the remainder of the time we're paid until. You can read this for yourself here.

Sigh.

Well, I guess it's better than a kick in the pants. Still, I would rather have had a refund because I stopped my Bon Appetit subscription for a reason.

Gourmet is Calling It Quits

Oh my God! Thanks to Rosa for the heads up regarding Gourmet magazine closing down!

I am a little perturbed about this, mainly because I just renewed my subscription two months ago, and I've paid until August 1, 2010!

There is nothing on Gourmet's site as of yet, and the linked article to the NYT doesn't give a date for the last issue or any pertinent details like that.

I let go of my subscription to Bon Appetit (published by the same company) in favour of keeping Gourmet, because I felt Gourmet was a better bang for my buck and I used way more recipes from it than I did from Bon Appetit.

Anyone else in the same boat as I am?

Lemon Juice Shortage: The Proof!

OK, so I've previously blogged about the lack of lemon juice in my local grocery stores (here and here) and the exorbitant cost of lemons that look like they've seen way better days. Last week, at a big box store, I gathered the courage to take photographs of the shortage (while I am comfortable photographing my food in a restaurant, it seems a little weirder to take pictures of stuff in grocery stores...).

Here is a picture of the abundance of lime juice available, and the empty spot on the right where the lemon juice should be.

Here is a picture taken in the produce section of this particular grocery store. As you can see (sort of) lemons go for 98 cents each, unless you buy them in twos, in which case you get them for 88 cents each. Call me crazy, but this is akin to highway robbery if you ask me! On the plus side, however, these lemons look to be in better shape than I've seen anywhere else. I still didn't buy any, though.

So there you have it.

Lemon Juice: The New Gold

Over the summer, I wrote about our lemon juice shortage, which, I am sad to report, is still ongoing. What fresh lemons I've seen are either exorbitantly expensive (one local, large chain store sold them for $1.19 the last time I was there - ouch!) or look really beaten up and crappy. Still no lemon juice anywhere either.

But, my SIL scored on the lemon juice front during a cross-border shopping spree last week to Spokane, WA. At Costco, she found these 1.4L/48oz bottles of lemon juice - with nifty flip top lid for easy pouring! - for around $2.50USD. I nearly keeled over when she told me this. First of all, there appears to be no shortage of lemons or juice in the States (I did see a 2lb bag of lemons for very little money during my last cross border shopping spree, but since we can't bring fresh produce over the border I didn't buy any) and second, even if we could get lemon juice up here right now, a bottle this size would probably be around $8, if not more! My SIL offered me a bottle and of course I accepted it - and will now be rationing closely it until the return of lemons and lemon juice. In fact, I'm almost not wanting to bake with it at all, and totally hoard it instead! Ridiculous, I know, but when something is hard to get or limited, you kinda want to use it very, very carefully...

So, in celebration of all things lemon but taking into account that even though I now possess nearly 1.5L of this new gold, I have reluctant to part with even a drop, I present you with a recipe reprise from the archives of this blog: Real Lemon Pie.

Real Lemon Pie (originally posted here)

Filling

4 thin-skinned lemons (I don't know how you tell a thin one from a thick one without cutting it first, but I just used what I had on hand)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Shortcrust Pastry

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
150g (5oz) chilled unsalted butter, chopped
2 tbsp granulated sugar
3 - 4 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten, for glazing

1. Wash the lemons. Slice 2 unpeeled lemons very thinly and remove the seeds. Peel the other lemons, removing all pith and seeds, and slice the flesh thinly. Put all this in a bowl, not metallic, with the 2 cups of sugar and mix well, coating all the lemon with sugar. Cover and refrigerate over night.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. For the pastry, sift together the salt and the sugar. Sable in the butter. (Remember what sable means, from the previous post? No? Ok. Rub the butter in with your fingertips - quickly so it doesn't melt.)

3. When you have a cornmeal-like consistency, add the water, one tablespoon at a time and toss gently with a fork. Add just enough water so that the dough comes together and is rollable. Divide in half and roll out 2 10 inch circles.

4. Lightly grease a 9" pie plate. Line the pie plate with one disk of dough; cover and chill. Somehow chill the other disk of dough, too; I put it into a second pie plate for easy tranferring.

5. Beat the eggs well and add the lemon slices, mixing gently but thoroughly. Pour the filling into the shell and put on the "lid." Crimp the edges to seal them. Decorate the top with pastry scraps. Brush on the beaten egg you reserved for the glaze, and bake until golden brown - 55 minutes to an hour. But keep an eye on it. Let it cool completely before serving.

Abundance of Apples

Along with picking hazelnuts last Monday, I also picked myself about 15lbs of pretty much organic apples from C&R's trees. Because they are unsprayed, many were quite wormy, but I managed to get enough to see me through the winter.

I'm not the hugest fan of apple sauce, so I didn't make any, but I did slice and freeze apples that can be used in all kinds of other baking, so I am pretty stoked.

I think these are Macintosh apples, but am not entirely sure. I am sure that they are juicy, and simultaneously tart and sweet.

In order to freeze the apples, first I cored them and cut them in half. I then put them in a bowl of cold water with about 1/4 cup lemon juice. This is a trick I learned in culinary school, where we frequently needed to hand-slice large amounts of apples for whatever it was we were baking. As we sliced, we put the apples in a bowl of lemon water, and the citric acid in the lemon juice helps to slow down the browning that occurs when apple flesh meats air. It doesn't completely stop the browning, but it does reduce it.

After that, I sliced the apples and put them in freezer bags in four- and two-cup batches, making sure to label the bags and press out any air left in the bag. I got 26 cups of apples out of this little endeavour! Excellent haul, if I do say so myself. I am now set: I have hazelnuts, apples, and blueberries nicely packaged and frozen for my winter baking needs. And, the apples and hazelnuts were local and organic to boot. The blueberries are from BC, which is local enough for me.

Incidentally, the local overpriced grocery store is still out of lemon juice, so I borrowed some from my roommate who got a bottle before the shortage. I have no idea when we'll see lemon juice back on the shelves, but I do hope it's soon. They are selling lemons for 79 cents each and I think that's pretty much akin to highway robbery.

A Shortage of Lemons

While cruising the aisles of my local overpriced grocery store the other day, I happened to notice that they were out of lemon juice. Plenty of lime juice, but no lemon. I didn't really think much of it at the time because, let's face it, grocery stores run out of stuff - it happens. I didn't need lemon juice, and usually, if I do need it, I buy a fresh lemon. But, at this particular grocery store, lemons are about 79 cents each, so I really have to want lemons if I'm going to spend that kind of money.

On the way out to the lake last weekend, my SIL was telling me that she and her mother, who run a catering business on top of their day jobs, were having a really hard time finding lemons and lemon juice. At Save-On Foods, they found a few lemons, but they were exorbitantly priced at 99 cents each. Lemon juice was also in short supply and they got the last bottle in the store.

Way back in the mists of time (which in this case was probably a couple of weeks ago), I do recall hearing about a citrus shortage of some kind, but had it in my mind that it had more to do with grapefruit, which I regularly buy on sale, but I have noted that there haven't been any on sale lately.

My roommate, J, works at the local overpriced grocery store part time, and I asked her what she knew of this lemon thing tonight as she baked huckleberry cornmeal muffins. She confirmed that there is a lemon shortage.

Lo and behold, the CBC has an article posted about this very issue.

But...I was in the States last week cross-border shopping. I cannot bring fresh produce over the border (nor, as it turns out, can I bring beef-flavoured cat food into Canada from the USA, but 5kg of beef for human consumption is just dandy) so I don't normally bother to look at the produce on offer. I did this time, though, and saw that lucky Americans can purchase a 2lb bag of lemons for $3.99 - and there were plenty of 2lb bags available! I am lime green with envy! (Limes, it appears, by the way, are not in short supply.)

The facts, as much as I can suss out:

• 25% decrease in global lemon supply causes widespread lemon juice shortage
• Freeze, wind and drought responsible for drastically reduced lemon yields
• Despite shortage, experts claim supply should return to normal in 2009

[source]

The CBC story quotes someone from the Canadian Grocery Council, saying that lemon juice stocks should be replenished by the end of this month, though it does specify "large grocery stores."

Hm. I hope I'm not SOL for long!

In the meantime, A) I wonder why oranges are still readily available to me, B) I guess I should pay more attention to the 100 mile thing, and C) I hope I don't get a lemon craving anytime soon!