Drifting

MLK Cake 2012

2012-01-17T08:46:00.001-08:00

Martin Luther King Jr cake for 2012, J & my 7th meeting-anniversary, and 8th MLK Cake.

Raspberry cake with vanilla butter-cream frosting and chocolate glaze.

Post under construction!

2005 3 days after meeting the love of my life

2006-2007 lost on an old hard drive somewhere

2008

2009

2010

2011

Pumpkin Bread

2012-01-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's the season change, maybe it's the pregnancy and my new fondness for baked goods, but this year I haven't been able to get enough pumpkin bread/ muffins/ pie/ etc...

To celebrate the darker days and annual turning-on-of-the-heater I've been baking pumpkin bread. It's inspired by my mom's delicious original recipe, but I've tried to make it a tad healthier by cutting sugar and adding some fiber. (To you know, counteract all that butter in the picture above.)

Pumpkin Bread (1 standard loaf)

DRY ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/4 cup oats
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves (if you don't have all these spices 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice mix wil do)
1 tsp baking soda

WET ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup milk (eggnog makes a great substitution!)
1 cup canned pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients together.
Mix wet ingredients together.
Combine wet and dry.
Optional- Add 1 cups walnuts or other nuts/seeds, etc (for the loaf pictured I use 1/2 cup each chopped pecans and persimmon.)
Pour into lighted greased and floured loaf pans.
Bake one hour ten minutes in 350 oven.

I've also learned some really valuable lessons about substitutions in baking during the process...

Though it has a delicious nutty flavor, teff flour makes for a much crumblier loaf than all-purpose flour. Be warned your sliced loaves will fall apart.
You cannot substitute molasses for sugar. The flavor may be good, but the loaf will collapse.
Neither can you substitute equal parts bran for flour, see collapse problem above.

And the real prize, for sticking with me, my mom's pumpkin bread recipe:

Makes two standard loaves

3 cups sugar
3.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
.5 tsp cloves
2 tsp soda

4 eggs
1 cup oil
.67 cups milk
2 cups pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients together.
Mix wet ingredients together.
Combine wet and dry.

Add two cups walnuts or other nuts/seeds, etc (optional).

Pour into lighted greased and floured loaf pans. Bake one hour ten minutes in 350 oven.

still alive!

2012-01-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

We made it through the new year!

And I experienced my first hangover-free New Year's Day in, oh, more than my "adult" life.

It was grand.

A couple weeks ago J & I took our last pre-baby vacation to visit some friends in Oregon and play in Portland for a day.

It was also grand.

Here's hoping all the changes we're expecting (ha!) 2012 to bring aren't too crazy!

Our kind of Christmas

2011-12-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas and 6th night of Hanukkah to everyone!

Latke and pumpkin bread recipes in the tubes.

No wine for me this year, but I've got a date set for next year.

Thursday reminder

2011-10-27T11:15:00.001-07:00

Today's mantra:

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

Works wonders when working with the great unwashed public, especially those closest to our hearts.

End of Summer Soup

2011-10-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

So good I only got pictures of one 1/2 eaten bowl

This hearty end of summer soup is a great low-attention one-pot meal for when the skies cloud over and the weather turns cold.

And for when your preggo taste-buds finally start responding to a wider range of flavors than fat and sweet.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 bell peppers (one yellow one red), chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
3 springs thyme
6 sage leaves, torn
1/4 cup basil leaves, chiffonaded
4 cups chicken broth/ stock (veggie or mushroom as a substitute)
1/2 cup roast turkey, roughly chopped or torn to bite-size pieces (baked tofu if making a vegetarian/vegan soup)
4 cups roughly chopped ripe tomatoes, heirloom, beefsteak, red, yellow, purple- doesn't matter, just don't bother peeling or seeding
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled (pasteurized for us preggos, none for vegans!)
1/2 cup dry egg noodles (substitute with orecchiette if going vegan)
1 egg, lightly beaten (vegans leave this out, obviously)
4 cups well-washed spinach, dried and chopped
green olive bread, lightly toasted and buttered

in large non-reactive stock pot heat oil at medium high. add chopped onion and saute until fragrant & translucent
add celery and carrot and saute a few more minutes
add jalapeno, bell peppers, sage, thyme and turkey (tofu) saute until peppers are fragrant and soft, giving a good stir every minute or two. the goal here is to get a light coat of brown on as many veggies as possible. however, your pot might be a bit crowded, so don't worry if it doesn't work out
toss in all the tomatoes and reduce heat to medium low, cover and let cook until tomatoes are thoroughly broken down, stirring occasionally. this will probably take around an hour. here's where your laziness in not peeling or seeding pays off- the confetti of colorful skins adds visual interest and texture to the soup
once the tomatoes have broken down into an easy liquid, stir in your broth and bring back to a simmer, let simmer another 10-15 minutes covered
thoroughly mix your crumbled feta, egg noodles and beaten egg in to the soup. cover and set a kitchen timer for 5 minutes
when the alarm goes off stir in basil and 1/2 the chopped spinach, leave uncovered and set alarm for another 5 minutes
when the alarm goes off again, remove your soup from the heat and fold in the remaining spinach. keep soup covered, away from heat until it's cool enough to dish up
if you can find one, serve with a green (or black) olive baguette- the combination of sweet, salty, spicy soup and sour bread is heavenly.

This is happening?

2011-09-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today is J & my four-year anniversary!*

And an excuse to post.

The recipe posting has been negligible over the last few months because I haven't really been interested in food.

In fact, I've only been eating capital B Boring foods.

Cottage cheese, roast turkey, avocado, string cheese, plums, yogurt, and more cottage cheese.

I've also been incredibly lazy about cooking.

Thank god the Trader Joe's in Davis opened; I didn't really miss not having one around for the last eight years, but their frozen dinners have been a savior to the overly sleepy cook with suddenly, horrifyingly, bland taste-buds.

Last night I had wilted spinach with 2% milk poured over it for dinner. Really.

Three weeks in Asia was truly great, but having to be careful about every bite I ate, and extra-vigilant against food poisoning left me feeling more than a hair on the wrong side of boring.

For a naturally shy girl, not going out for drinks with colleagues, or having Perrier with a twist of lime as my "fun" beverage, was a new experience.

Good thing I seek out new experiences.

Since a lot right now is falling under that category...

And if you haven't guessed it already...

If everything goes according to plan...

(and the whole thing has so far)

The July 8 post was a clue...

In March our lives are really going to change.

(This picture of our bean is almost a month old, but it's another month til we get a new one)

Life is surreal.

I am so happy and lucky to have four years of marriage with the best husband ever, and excited for what the future years will bring.

Happy anniversary love of my life ♥

*Blogger has it's time zones wrong- this was posted 2011.09.30 even though Blogger thinks it's the evening of Sept 29, no where on the planet is it still the 29th.

Return

2011-09-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be home for the cool weather and first rain of autumn!

Where is Amelia? September 2011 edition

2011-09-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

For those following along at home:

View East Asia 2011 in a larger map

So I've joined the ranks of long-abandoned blogs at last.

Other life events have kept me relatively uninspired in the kitchen (can anyone say spruced-up Trader Joe's frozen foods?) but those will get their fair address when I'm back from these three weeks in Asia.

In the meantime I'll try to update from the road as time and firewalls permit!

Friday Beautiful

2011-07-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

In honor of all the pollinators out there that help the produce in my Friday farm-box:

Have a fantastic weekend, and enjoy the beauty around you.

Weekend Adventure (3 days to enjoy home)

2011-05-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

J & I had a weekend mini-adventure before I head off again for a few days in Santa Barbara, right on the tail of my few days in Tacoma, WA.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, taken at the Tacoma History Museum

Saturday we explored the Fremont Weir State Wildlife Area north of Davis

View Larger Map

I'm pretty sure I flew in over the reserve Friday on my way home.

Photoed over at our joint Tumblr, ManyIrishTears.net (there is a story behind that name) and on my Flickr.

We also ventured to the 19th annual Pacific Rim Street Festival in Old Sac Sunday, where we had some unfortunately mediocre Asian street food (great Lumpia though) saw some Taiko, Hawaiian dancing, and Tai Chi.

Now it's time to move my clothes from one suitcase to another and enjoy some down-time together.

weekend awesome

2011-05-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

It's the weekend, yay!

I have a few days off to pretend I'll post some of my recipes dating back to Easter brunch, catch up on house-cleaning, and hopefully play like this owl & cat.

If you've got a weekend I hope you enjoy it as much.

Sweet & Sour request

2011-04-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

Does anyone out there in the internets have a good recipe for Sweet & Sour Sauce from scratch; like using fresh tomatoes and pineapples, rather than cans of tomato (or god forbid, ketchup) and pineapple?

This is something I'll be experimenting with once tomatoes come in season.

The sidewalks of Brazil

2011-04-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan any society/ culture that considers the aesthetics of the mundane.

Everywhere I went in Brazil -except Brasilia, which is a 60's modernist fantasy- there were fantastic mosaic sidewalks. It's called Portuguese Pavement and found, obviously in Portugal, as well as the prior colonies.

Birds

Flowers

Ribbon Waves (note that anyone with money had security)

Intersecting designs

Famous Copacabana waves

Hearsay has it the white tiles represent European immigrants, the black tiles represent Africans brought as slaves, and the red tiles represent the native population; in sidewalks and life it looks like the natives got screwed in representation.

How great would it be if all our steps were on public art?

Pão de Queijo

2011-04-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

These delicious cheesy doughy balls were everywhere in Brazil- every meal included them and the airports smelled of them.
Even more than the endless amounts of charred cow, Pão de Queijo will always remind me of my first trip to Brazil; I knew they'd be the first thing I tried making after getting home (and almost everything else was just seared meat anyways...)

Pão de Queijo

500 grams- about 3.5-4 cups Tapioca flour
2 cups of milk
1 cup of cooking oil
1 Tbsp salt
3-4 eggs
2 cups grated/crumbled cheeses
few pinches extra salt

Measure Tapioca flour into a heat-proof, large (it will hold everything) bowl
Boil milk, oil and salt together
Pour milk/oil mixture into the tapioca flour (you may not need all the liquid) and stir until it becomes a big pasty mess, similar to choux
Set aside the mixture to cool while you grate and/or crumble your 2 cups of cheeses- I used 1 cup Greek feta, 1.5 cups Parmesan and .5 cups sharp Irish cheddar
Preheat oven to 360 degrees
Beat in 2 eggs, 1 at a time, then add 1/2 the cheese
Beat in the 3rd egg, if it's looking too watery omit the 4th egg, if not, beat it in too, stir in the remaining cheese
You should now have a thick, smooth dough
Spoon heaping spoonfuls of dough onto lined cookie sheets, keeping in mind that Pão de Queijo will grow close to 25%
Sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt and bake at 360 degrees for 15-20 minutes
Pão de Queijo is best served hot fresh from the oven, but good reheated too.

The recipe I've posted is slightly tweaked from the one I used- my batter was a bit too liquid* and my dough-balls flattened too much as a result, see above; if anyone tries making these let me know how Pão de Queijo turns out for you!

*UPDATE- on a second making it turns out mine was liquidy just because the milk/oil mixture cooled too much before I added it, pour it into the flour while still boiling and you'll be fine.

Kimchi Noodle Soup

2011-04-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

I promise I'll get to the Brazilian recipes soon, but for now it's last night's dinner.

I'd had some kimchi fermenting in the fridge for, oh, 5+ months, and decides it was time to clear up space and use it up. Since kimchi is pretty potent stuff I needed a recipe that would survive adding 3-4 cups of kimchi, which isn't exactly something you can top a delicate salad with. A restaurant near us has kimchi soup on the menu, and I decided to try a variation on the idea.

Warning: there is nothing at all, in any way authentic about this soup, it came straight from my palate-brain connection.

Kimchi Noodle Soup, serves 2-4 depending on hunger levels.

For the soup:

1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3-4 cups kimchi
4 cups broth
Udon noodles for 2
2 eggs beaten with some water
Black pepper to taste

In large stock pot heat sesame oil, then saute onion until fragrant, but still green
Add kimchi and broth to pot ( I had chicken on hand, but imagine fish, mushroom or a mild vegetable broth would all be good, and easily adjustable to any dietary restrictions), season with black pepper and turn off heat
Let the flavors marinate at room temperature while you make your own noodles, or for 1/2 hour or so to mellow out the kimchi
Turn stove-top to high heat and bring soup to a rapid boil
Add noodles and reduce heat slightly
When noodles are almost done add egg mixture to soup and cook one minute
Let soup cool ever so slightly
Serve steaming, garnished with red pepper flakes and Brag's amino acids or a drop of soy sauce.

Unfortunately, we ate all this up before I took a picture, but it was good.

If you're feeling ambitious, or like planning ahead for several months, here are the complete steps.

For kimchi:

You could use store-bought kimchi, but the stuff made at home has more personality. I know there are many many variations on kimchi, since I'm allergic to shrimps I leave them out, and make it as follows.

In large, seal-able glass or ceramic bowl combine:

white vinegar
rice wine vinegar
lots of chopped garlic
1 Tbsp + red pepper flakes
fish sauce
thinly sliced Napa / green cabbage, as for a slaw
mung bean sprouts

You'll want to taste the sauce as you go, making sure it's not too vinegary, is very spicy, and has plenty of fish sauce. You don't need to cover the cabbage and sprouts completely as they'll wilt over time, and a thorough tossing once in a while ensures even flavoring/ fermentation. I keep the bowl in the back of the fridge, using bits of the kimchi over time, and adding leftover sprouts and bits of cabbage from other recipes. I'm not sure of the real use-by timeline on this as I'm partial to pickled and fermented food anyways, but I think it lasts a long time.

For noodles:

I also attempted to make my own noodles for this soup, what I made turned out pretty good for a first try, but you might just want to stick with store-bought udon or rice noodles.

1 cup tapioca flour
.5 cup AP wheat flour
water egg mixture as needed

in large bowl combine tapioca and wheat flours, making a well in the middle
start moistening the flours with water, no more that a 1/4 cup to begin with; be warned that tapioca flour is just like cornstarch- it melts when you're not touching it and crumbles when you apply any force
once you have a slightly sticky but coherent dough ball, knead the hell out of it
let dough rest a while
using AP flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, roll sections of dough out to as close to 1/8 an inch think as you can get- in full disclosure I always fail at that part, and am lucking for a chunky 1/5 inch thick noodle.
let noodles rest/dry for at least an hour before using.
If unlike me you're not pulling a recipe out of your back-side, I suggest using that instead.

Isn't this enough?

2011-04-13T12:07:00.001-07:00

Storm, a 10-minute poem/story by Tim Minchin

Home again, again

2011-04-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

More details forthcoming.

Where am I?

2011-03-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Brasil!

My crazy travel season has begun, again.

View Brazil 2011 in a larger map

Four down and three to go; though I doubt I can convince them to send me to Antarctica.

Kale & Salami Pizza

2011-03-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Last fall I when I was in Seattle for a week, I went to Salumi at the urging of my friend Jason, and this famous chef guy that I may or may not have had a crush on back since this book came out.

Normally, salami can be a bit of a turn off, strange processed meat stuff with fat particles that get stuck in your teeth--ugh.

Not the case with Salumi Salami, it is amazing; complex flavors, well-balanced texture- I'm never going back to the Costco stuff.

Some four months later recipe inspiration struck.
A week later I had Finocchiona and Salumi Salami in hand, Kale had returned to my farm box, and I was ready for Kale & Salami Pizza.

You will need:

Pizza dough for one pizza, from your favorite recipe, or your amazing local bakery (mine sells both raw and par-baked pizza dough)
one bunch dinosaur kale, washed and chopped ( I only used 2/3 a bunch, and will definitely use and entire bunch next time- it really shrinks)
high quality salami
1/4 yellow onion, thinly sliced
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
mozzarella cheese, shredded
parmesan cheese, grated

Four sauce

one can tomato sauce, normal size
one can tomato paste, the teeny cans
paprika
oregano, fresh or dried or both
garlic powder
several cloves fresh garlic, minced
salt & pepper

Preheat oven with pizza stone (if you have one) to 510 degrees
Combine all sauce ingredients, spicing to taste, in a large bowl and set aside
If you're using raw dough, wrestle in to shape. If you're lazy like me and using shaped par-baked dough, make sure it's thawed and set aside
In large bowl toss chopped kale with salt, pepper and just enough olive oil to lightly coat, set aside
Grate mozzarella cheese, enough to mostly cover your dough with a thin sprinkling
Slice your salami very thinly, I used both varieties, seven thin slices of each I then cut in half for 28 thin half-rounds total
Gently spread dough with pizza sauce. You want it to just moisten and flavor your pizza, not drown it
Sprinkle mozzarella over pizza, reserving 1/2 handful for later
Hand grate some parmesan over pizza
Evenly distribute sliced salami, onion and kale over the pizza
Toss remaining mozzarella over the pizza to hold kale down, this should be just a bit, don't smother the kale and salami
Finally, hand grate more parmesan over the top, this will give it an extra flavorful crispy top.
Bake pizza at 510 degrees for about 10 minutes or until crust is desired crispness, checking regularly after six.
Let pizza cool until it's approachable, slice and serve.

Manchurian Vegetables

2011-03-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Amelia's blog which is rapidly becoming about only foods that taste good but photograph terribly.

Today's installment is a variation on Manchurian Cauliflower;

again, adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

4 petite or 2 normal heads cauliflower, 4-5 cups worth, trimmed of stem and greens
4 carrots
3 cups baby spinach leaves, rinsed and chopped
1Tbsp sesame seed oil
4 stalks green garlic, chopped (2-3 cloves normal garlic works too)
2/3 cup ketchup- homemade is preferred, but who would I be kidding? I used Heinz Once you stop gagging trust me, or rather trust Bittman- it's good
1 Tbsp Sriracha or other hot chili sauce
1/8 tsp anise seeds
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce

Blanch or steam cauliflower (and carrots) until tender and no longer "cabbagey."
In wok heat sesame oil over medium heat and saute green garlic until it is fragrant and begins to brown.
Stir in ketchup, Sriracha, anise, cinnamon and soy sauce with garlic and cook until sauce begins to bubble.
Meanwhile separate cauliflower into chopstick-manageable size pieces and chop carrots into 1/3 inch thick rounds
Gently fold cauliflower, carrots and spinach into sauce.
Cook until spinach is wilted.
Let vegetables cool a bit, and serve over brown rice.

Welsh Rarebit

2011-03-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

J was stuck in Vegas for a week. Yes, stuck. I went for a long weekend with him, and the scene there? Not really (more diametrically opposed to) our style.

His flight home was delayed, it was cold, raining- some comfort food was is order. The hotel we stayed at had a "cheddar stout soup" on the menu, and rarebit was on my mind.

Welsh Rarebit
from Mark Bitman's How to Cook Everything

For sauce:

1lb cheddar, shredded; Irish, sharp, aged--something strong enough to stand up to the stout
3/4+ cup stout; I used Guiness
Worcestershire sauce; 2 Tbsp or to taste
Dash cayenne; I was out (shocking!) so used hot paprika
1 Tbsp mustard; should be dry, but I used Dijon
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

In heavy-bottomed sauce pan heat butter over medium-low until melted
Gently add in flour. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it's golden brown. 3-4 minutes.
Whisk in cayenne and mustard
Slowly pour in stout, whisking until texture is homogeneous
Reduce heat to low and whisk in handfuls of cheese until completely melted
Be careful not to overheat, or yours will breakdown like mine. Also, don't be lazy and chop cheese instead of shredding- it makes it heat unevenly and breakdown, like mine.
Remove sauce from heat; it will keep a day.
When you're reheating don't forget and leave sauce on the stove while you go to get husband from the airport; it'll overheat and breakdown like mine.
If this does happen, you can kinda rescue the sauce with careful additions of more flour, beer and cheese. I do not recommend getting your sauce in a situation where it needs rescuing.

To Serve:

Have grand ambitions to do this eggs benedict style.
Realize it's late and you don't have the time for a multi-dish broiling process.
Toast both sides of thick bread slices under the broiler until pretty dry
roast any veggies you have on hand (I had leeks, broccoli and cauliflower) until tender
poach one egg per person
Put toasts on large cookie sheet and spread each lightly with sauce
top toasts with a few of the roasted vegetables, and a healthy (really not healthy) scoop of sauce and broil until bubbly
place toasts in bowl or on plate with remaining veggies and top with egg
serve immediately

Linguine with Chorizo + Clams

2011-02-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hey look- it's a post!

I have lots of recipes to update with...

See, I'm not lying!

It's just hard to spend that many more hours at the computer. I guess you could say I'm suffering from a motivation problem. Even worse, most of my winter recipes are now out-of-season; I was just bemoaning the end of Kale.

Mourning the passing of kale from my farm box- the one food I'd be happy eating every meal.7:42 PM Feb 11th via Echofonamelia
aemalkin

Which at least half my winter recipes have used, dammit.

We usually fancy it up for Christmas, but this (technically last) year I didn't have a damn thing planned for our usual romantic feast. Lucky for me, there's almost nothing seasonal in the recipe, so I can post it 2+ months after the fact, and not feel like anyone reading this would need to wait a year to try out the recipe.

Really I was just craving clams again (which always seem like a "fancy" special food to me) when I saw chorizo at the store and thought "mmm spicy" and was inspired. I googled around for some recipes using both and found the two below. I had a suspicion it'd be a bit too much flavor, but turned out fantastic!

Though it's not a meal worthy of the tittle "feast" the idea seemed like it needed sharing, so we invited a friend over for some pre-Christmas wine & wii; a good time was had by all.

Linguine with Chorizo + Clams
inspired by Emeril and Smitten Kitchen

1 lb fresh linguine (I used two-color because that's what the store had, but would prefer normal)
1 lb little neck clams, fresh in shells
4.5 oz chorizo, about 1 1/2 sausages
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/8 tsp saffron threads
dry white wine
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
olive oil
chicken broth
pinch red pepper flakes
juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon
handful roughly chopped parsley
Parmesan for garnish

in heavy bottomed sauce pan saute chorizo in just a splash of olive oil until it releases its fat
add in garlic, onion and red pepper flakes
when onion is soft and fragrant add a half cup of white wine or broth, use it to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan
add clams to pan
pour in enough, equal parts, chicken broth & white wine (or one or the other) to not quite cover the clams. this will be your sauce for the pasta, so keep in mind how wet or dry you'd like it to be- as long as there's enough liquid for the clams to steam you'll be ok. stir in the saffron threads
cover clams and let them steam in broth
after clams open (discard any who don't) add parsley and lemon juice to broth
distribute pasta, clams and broth evenly between 3-4 bowls, garnish with freshly grates parmesan
serve with a robust red wine and crusty french bread

The process

MLK Day 2011

2011-01-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

We had the best meeting-anniversary weekend this year.

Among other things, a return to simple, tasty, unambitious, portrait stencil cake. (Those cupcakes? Nearly the death of me.)

Coated in whipped cream, cocoa stencil.

Vanilla & chocolate genoise cake.

Cakes layered with chocolate ganache and multi-berry whipped cream.

Recipe when (if) I get to it, may be 2012!

And the best co-baker anyone could hope for.

Potato Parsnip Latkes

2010-12-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again, I even remembered with days to spare!

This year my farm box doesn't have leeks yet, but I do have parsnips for the first time. I've never cooked a parsnip before, but assumed they'd go great in latkes. While the flavor was fantastic, they turn a bit creamier than I'd like in a crispy latke; good enough I recommend trying it. Maybe someone has advice on how to keep the crispiness?

2 medium parsnips (2 cups worth once julienned)
a few handfuls worth of potato, I used 4-5 small ones (also 2 cups julienned)
1 carrot, shredded
zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp barley flour (use all AP if you don't have barley)
2 Tbsp AP flour
peanut or other high-heat oil

Thoroughly scrub parsnips and potatoes
Peel parsnips. I almost never peel my potatoes, but that's a personal choice.
Julienne parsnips and potatoes and toss them in a large bowl together
Lightly salt the vegetables to release moisture, then press it from them with a dish or paper towel (you don't want lint in the latkes!)
Mix in shredded carrot, it's mostly there for color.
Toss flours with the vegetables. Barley flour enhances the sweet earthiness of the parsnip with nuttiness, but using all AP would be fine
whisk eggs and lemon zest, stir into julienned vegetables
preheat oven to 375 degrees
heat oil in large cast iron skillet to high
when oil is quite hot drop mixture into oil one heaping teaspoon at a time, careful not to crowd skillet
brown latke on each side, approximately 1-2 minutes per side, then remove to foil lined baking sheets
when baking sheets are full, move to oven and bake 20-25 minutes
remove and serve immediately with plain yogurt and apple sauce

As a side I served spinach salad with a dressing made of 1 Tbsp red bell pepper and ancho chili
jam, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, and 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Deviled Eggs 2010

2010-12-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

For the Thanksgiving deviled eggs this year I used a flavor combination I have been very much into lately. It brightens up the cool days, but doesn't seem as seasonally incongruous as say a strawberry balsamic would (not to mention how strange that would be in deviled eggs...) Mostly I've been using these ingredients together as a salad dressing or quick pasta sauce, but imagine they'd also be fantastic on fish.

At any rate, these are the deviled eggs. No pictures; they were eaten up before I remembered my camera.

The amount of each of these ingredients will vary depending on the size and tastes of your group, as always, proportions are to taste.

enough eggs for your group, one whole egg per person is a good estimate
extra virgin olive oil
capers, as many as you'd like
garlic, minced
lemon zest, one lemon's worth
mayonnaise (only for the deviled egg version)
optional- a small amount of anchovies/anchovy paste, I would have used this if no vegetarians were present, but they were
eggs, more than you need as some will break in the process
paprika, to garnish

if your eggs are less than four days old leave them out at least overnight prior to boiling. This makes them much easier to peel than very fresh eggs.
boil eggs and let cool completely
with a super sharp knife cut eggs lengthwise, put whites in one bowl and yolks in another
rinse whites clean, then return to bowl
in large bowl, beat together eggs and appropriate amount of mayonnaise until fluffy (a few Tbsp should do it.) I used my kitchen aid this year. It was awesome.
beat in a Tbsp or two of olive oil, just enough to impart the flavor nicely
beat in capers, several cloves minced garlic, lemon zest and anchovy if using. I love capers, so used 4-5 Tbsp for one and a half dozen eggs, I would have used even more if I'd known they'd go over so well.
scoop all the yolk mixture into a zip-lock or pastry bag
cut off the corner of the bag and pipe a yolk-sized mound of yolk mixture in to each white half
garnish with paprika and serve, if I'd been thinking ahead or fancy I'd have garnished with additional lemon zest and a caper

Home

2010-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

And so glad to be.

It rained non-stop in the Netherlands and Germany. But I'm not complaining, I love northern Europe; it just feels- comfortable, relaxing.

Frankfurt- my 1st time in Europe since creation of the Euro-zone

Rome was breathtakingly beautiful.

Amelia at the races, impersonating an oil painting

Monaco was gorgeous. And unbelievably expensive. I'm not sure any real people live there.

My hotel is visible in this pic, but I did not have a sea-view

I'm home through most of January, and I'll be back to posting recipes over the next two months (hopefully.)

After that I'm back up to Seattle for another week; more on my developing love/infatuation with that city soon.

If you're curious for more check Flickr for pictures from my travels, I've almost finished uploading my SE Asia pictures, finally.

In the meantime, Rome:

Seriously fucking gorgeous folks

Where am I?

2010-11-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

View Europe 2010 in a larger map

After this I'll be home through the new year!

Home Again, if only for a minute

2010-10-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm home from my 3.5 weeks in South East Asia (see previous map) with just enough time to catch my breath before I'm off to Seattle for a week, then three days later off to Europe for a week and a half!

Batu Caves

This rushing about the globe has left me unsure of night from day, and not cooking at all. But take one look at this picture and you know it's worth it.

(We did get the best anniversary present ever- my mom cooked and delivered over a week's worth of gourmet meals, nothing better than being able to eat home cooking after nearly a month of eating out and not having to be the one doing the cooking!)

So excited that it's finally fall here at home and I get to wear all the sweaters I took out of storage before leaving for Asia; I'm also thrilled to see autumn in Europe, since I've only been in the height of summer.

I'm slowly posting pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aemalkin/sets/72157625082790046/

Between all the travel, a wedding two days before I left and one the the day after I got back, it's been sloooooow posting, but keep checking back!

easter benedict

2010-10-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in a part of the world where pig is not on the menu.

I was going through old post drafts and thought what better time to share this hamalicious benedict recipe I've been meaning to post since we had it for Easter brunch!

1 bunch asparagus
2 ciabatta rolls, or loaf sliced into roll size portions
enough prosciutto for two
2 eggs
butter
white wine vinegar
hollandaise sauce (use your favorite recipe; a simple one or a traditional complex one; mental note to self to post my own recipe some time)

set pot of water large enough to hold asparagus on to boil
slice asparagus spears into thirds and blanch in boiling water until just cooked through, a few minutes, then submerge in icy water (or just steam it in the microwave)
slice ciabatta into halves, as you would for a sandwich, and lightly butter them
briefly broil buttered ciabatta until slightly toasted
scatter asparagus atop ciabatta, it will roll all over the place, and fold prosciutto slices on top of that
start making your hollandaise
broil rolls topped with prosciutto until it is slightly crispy, then keep warm in the oven
poach two eggs in vinegared water
when eggs are done remove the rolls from the oven and place eggs on top of prosciutto
cover the whole thing with hollandaise sauce to taste

Amazingly Lucky

2010-09-30T01:29:00.000-07:00

Five some-odd years ago I met an amazing guy.

Three years ago today I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie.

You've made me happier than I ever knew I could be.

Every day I'm amazed at how lucky we were to find each other, and thrilled I've got a husband so awesome.

I wish I weren't halfway around the world from you today.

I can't wait until I see you again.

Here I go again!

2010-09-28T14:40:00.001-07:00

I'm off for a while, and not sure if I'll be able to access this blog.

View SE Asia in a larger map

To everyone whose email I haven't replied to, whose calls I haven't returned, I apologize.
I love you all, and hope to talk soon after I'm back!

yogurt cake

2010-08-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

Yogurt cake is deceptively simple for it's easiness to fantastic taste ratio. It is great weekday cake, light dessert for casual company or easy Monday treat for coworkers.

Yogurt Cake, adapted from smitten kitchen

1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/3 minus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (trust me)
1 cup white sugar
juice and zest of 1/2 large very ripe orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 9-inch cake pan
in mixing bowl combine yogurt, oil, sugar, juice, zest and vanilla
add eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated
sift all dry ingredients into moist, gently stirring until just combined
pour batter into cake pan and bake 35-45 minutes, until toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
let cake cool, then gently remove to wire rack to finish cooling
slice, serve, enjoy

You can fancy this cake up a bit by sifting powdered sugar over the top.
You can make a far richer dessert by using full-fat yogurt (I'm picturing maple brown-cow.)
You can add in fruit to the mix (blueberries anyone?)

This recipe is far more template than law; you can us any flavor yogurts, any fruit juices, what ever.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-08-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

These are the best chocolate chip cookies ever, really.

We (J does the cookie baking) got this recipe from an issue of the dearly departed Gourmet magazine. Now the magazine automatically falls open to the crinkled-dough-encrusted page.

Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Gourmet April 2007 (normally I'd link to the recipe, but can't find it)

You will need:

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups AP flour
2 cups chocolate chips (or white chocolate or peanut butter chips, or nuts, or a combination, go wild, or not)

in mixer beat together butter sugars and salt until light and fluffy
add egg and vanilla and beat until combined
reduce speed and add flour, mix lightly until just combined
fold in chips. or nuts, or whatever
refrigerate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight (very important, if you don't, all that tasty butter will melt into one messy sheet-full of dough)
preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper of baking mats
distribute 2 tbsp mounds of dough evenly on sheets
bake about 7 minutes then rotate sheet and bake 5-7 minutes more, until edges are golden brown
cool cookies on wire racks

Share with a friend

shakshuka

2010-08-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I've had a particularly stressful week, I just want some comfort food.

But I also want something interesting. And healthy (ie not pizza or take-out Chinese, again.)

Shakshuka is one of those meals that is infinitely comforting, variable and satisfying. Plus it's relatively hands-off (which, if you've noticed a theme to most things I cook) is a week-night necessity.

To make this you will need:

2 chopped onions (red, yellow, white, combination thereof- it doesn't matter)
at least 5 cloves chopped garlic
28 oz can tomatoes, whole preferred
1.5 tbsp olive oil
2 chopped jalapenos (or more)
1 chopped anaheim pepper
1 chopped green bell pepper (any combination of green peppers is good)
pinch red pepper fakes
1 egg per person
1/4 cup feta cheese
green herbs, to garnish (green onion, parsley, cilantro, thyme, etc...)

In heavy-bottomed large sauce pan/skillet heat olive oil over medium high
add onions and garlic, sauteing until soft, 5+ minutes
add all peppers and saute until fragrant and soft, 5+ minutes
open and dump in tomatoes and their juice
cover and reduce heat to medium low, let simmer, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes begin to break down, 25+ minutes
as tomatoes soften, squish them into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon
once tomatoes are nice and soft, crack one egg per person over the top, and sprinkle with feta
cover and cook until eggs reach your desired firmness, usually just a few minutes for runny/soft yolks
spoon shakshuka and one egg into each person's bowl, garnish each bowl with the chopped green herbs
eat, be comforted, and relax

If it's really been one of those days/weeks I do the same thing, only with store-bought spaghetti sauce -not the same, but still nice.

If it hasn't been one of those weeks, I imagine you could make this almost as easily with fresh tomatoes (I'm lazy and wouldn't peel), although internet rumor has it only canned tomatoes are authentic.

cat distraction

2010-08-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today was a very MONDAY type of day, and required some cheering up after work.

Needless to say, I am in love with this cat.

Interlude

2010-08-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Very serious lesson about to be learned about cuffing those pants too high over pale legs when kayaking

Before that, there's time for some bliss on the lake

That important lesson about kayaking when pale? Yeah.

out of oatmeal

2010-07-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up craving oatmeal, only to find the oatmeal jar sadly empty.

So I used what we had on hand, and made something even better.

1/3 cup quinoa
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup almonds
rice milk

in a heavy bottomed pan combine all ingredients and just cover with rice milk
cover pan and simmer until rice milk is absorbed, about 10 minutes
uncover and stir in enough water to make it on the liquidy side
simmer until water is mostly absorbed
serve with diced peaches or other seasonal fruit

weekend video

2010-07-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

in case anyone needs reminding, this is the second most awesome music video ever (today at least)

(Green Garlic) Cheese Bread

2010-06-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

No, it's not healthy. Yes, it's good.

Green Garlic Cheese Bread

1 tbsp butter, softened
1 stalk green garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup cottage cheese
1/2-2/3 cup shredded cheddar (or other melty cheese)

preheat oven to 350
mash together green garlic and butter
mash in cottage cheese in several batches
stir in cheddar in batches, until the mixture threatens not to be spreadable
spread cheeses on top of thick slices of bread (I used Village Bakery's walnut, yum)
bake 10 minutes, broil 2 minutes
generously salt & pepper as soon as it's out of the oven
let cool several minutes before eating

strawberry balsamic salad

2010-05-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

I love that brief time of year strawberries are in season.*

When there are too many to just eat, even by the handful, and they're so perfectly ripe they won't keep more than two days. I'm sure a normal, rational person would freeze some for later in the year, but, honestly I just thought of that, and when drunk on ripe fresh strawberries it's hard to plan ahead.

So I've been trying to eat up these perfect strawberries in as many ways I can.

Here's another version of the salad I posted last year, now with pictures!

Strawberry Balsamic Salad:
(serves 2 as dinner with a side)

12 medium strawberries
1/2 red spring onion, thinly sliced
1.5 tbsp EVOO
.5 tbsp golden balsamic vinegar
1.5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
capers to taste (if your taste is against capers leave 'em out, I used 2 tbsp)
salt & pepper
field greens (or baby spinach, or bib lettuce, or red leaf, or...)

macerate 1/2 the strawberries with a pinch salt and the balsamic vinegars
stir in oil, onion and capers
fold in greens
salt & pepper to taste
slice remaining strawberries on top

For dinner we ate the salad with green garlic cheese bread, recipe to follow.

*Note-
the kind of strawberries that make you sing this

Weekend Cute

2010-05-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

While I think about writing up recipes, and pack for a week in Kansas City, MO., you should have some cute.

Where can I get me some jerboa?

home again

2010-05-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from China.

How was it?

In two words:

Fucking Awesome.

the current cause of my anxiety & excitement

2010-05-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

View China in a larger map

Saturday project

2010-05-01T15:31:00.001-07:00

Going to China in three days? Haven't started packing?

I know just the thing that should be number one on your to-do list; how about reupholstering the dining table chairs?

Sound good?

No, really, look at these:

Thought so.

(Admittedly, the other two, the ones we use, were not nearly this bad.)

So.

Much.

Much.

Better.

And very easy.

Just unscrew the seat from the chair base.
Remove all the staples (this took us about 15 minutes per chair; really, who uses that many staples?)
Unfold the old fabric and measure or use directly as a template for the new fabric
Cut fabric and carefully fold and staple around the seat.
Screw seat back on to chair frames.
Voila! Exciting new chairs, for about $3!

I really liked this fabric, found at Ikea for less than $2 a yard. But, it's not upholstery fabric, so I'll probably get to switch it up again in a year or two. In the meantime I'll be on the lookout for cool upholstery samples.

Of course now I'm tempted to paint little green, white and black birds along the chair backs- which would limit future fabric choices.

extended intermission

2010-04-27T09:39:00.001-07:00

I have about 15 recipes made, photoed, and waiting to be written up.

In the mean time I've been low on oxygen, bronchial tubes filled from allergies and the madness at work that continues.

Despite, or maybe because of, all that, it's the little things like this that give us hope.

Potato Leek Soup

2010-04-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Lazy cook's note: instead of writing these instructions twice, I'm posting my contribution to a recipe exchange email, all pictures are from a lemon coconut curry version of the soup

Hello,

Lately my no-time go-to recipe has been potato-leek soup. I've been
getting pounds and pounds of potatoes and leeks in the farm box, and the bigger the batch I'm willing to make the more of them I can get rid of; this soup cooks up with just about no attention needed, and freezes well .

you'll need:

1) leeks; washed, dried and sliced
2) potatoes; scrubbed clean and roughly chopped (I leave skin on)
3) broth
4) fat, like oil or butter

There are no strict leek to potato ratio rules, just keep in mind that more leeks make a lighter soup, and more potatoes make a thicker soup.

1) Heat a little fat in large stock pot
2) Add leeks to pot and saute until they are tender, stirring enough
so they don't stick/burn
3) Add potatoes and enough broth so leeks and potatoes float
relatively freely, like a load of laundry
4) Simmer until potatoes are quite tender, then let cool a bit
5) Use immersion blender and blend as little or much as you prefer
6) Salt & pepper to taste

I like this loose recipe because you can change the soup very easily:
bacon fat, chicken broth and a little cream at the end for a heartier
version; olive oil and veggie broth for a vegan soup; add in garlic
and onions with the leeks and beef broth for a richer french-onion like soup; use sweet
potatoes, curry, lemon, and finish with coconut milk for something completely
different.

But I ramble- hopefully you like potatoes and leeks.

Curried Winter Greens

2010-03-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

1 tsp oil
1 bunch chard (or kale), cleaned and chopped, stems removed
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 tsps your favorite curry powder
4 ounces coconut milk
3 cups broth
2 eggs for poaching, optional

heat oil in wok
add onions and garlic, saute until fragrant
add curry powder, saute until fragrant
add greens, saute until wilted by 1/3-1/2
add broth and coconut milk, simmer until greens are tender
if poaching eggs, make 2 little wells in the curry, crack 1 egg into each and cover wok, letting simmer a few minutes until eggs are done
dive equally into 2 bowls and serve with naan.

I made a spicier, larger version of this the next day which included beet greens, carrot greens, green garlic, broccoli, purple cabbage and ginger; it was also delicious.

for Dave

2010-03-25T17:26:00.001-07:00

Bacon Bourbon: an experiment

Several weeks later.....

"...it doesn't really taste like bacon..."

If repeating experiment:

use more bacon
leave actual bacon crumbles in bourbon
do not leave bacon fat on bourbon while flavor matures

In conclusion: this tasted more like bacon-fat than bacon-deliciousness, not our hypothesis when designing the experiment.

Next time follow above suggestions.

the horror

*Edit: Dave informs me this was "marinated" far too long, among other things. Next time, if there is a next time, we'll use his reference: http://www.theagitator.com/2008/08/16/how-to-baconify-your-bourbon/

travel

2010-03-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

A little bit of awesome

2010-03-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

A trail of rainbow clogs; left by Dutch faeries?

Coconut Kale

2010-03-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

This was so good and so easy to make I have to share it, even if it disappeared before I remembered to get a picture.

1 tsp oil (any high heat)
.50 onion, diced (I used a stalk of green garlic too)
1 bunch kale or chard, rinsed and roughly chopped (I used Dino Kale)
.50 can coconut milk (I had "lite" on hand)

heat 1 tsp oil in a wok, add onion (& green garlic of you have it) and saute until tender
add kale and saute until it's wilted to about half its original volume
add .50 can coconut milk and simmer covered until kale is tender, stirring periodically, about 8 minutes

Baltimore anyone?

2010-03-04T07:38:00.001-08:00

I'll be going to Baltimore pretty soon. I'll be there just a few days, and busy with work matters during most of the time.

But, if any of the internet that happens to stumble here can recommend any must-do Baltimore activities I'd be very appreciative.

It's becoming such a familiar sight

Red Cabbage

2010-03-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

I recently read something about seared red cabbage, although I have no idea where it was. Bon Appetite? Some MSN article that popped up when I signed out of hotmail? No clue. *edit- it was the newsletter that comes with our CSA share.

At any rate, the words "seared cabbage" stuck in my head, and my little head of red cabbage didn't need to worry about languishing forever (to the point of complete wilt-down) in the veggie drawer.

small head red cabbage, quartered and stem removed
olive oil
lemon juice
lemon pepper
cayenne pepper
nutmeg
1/4 cup apple, finely diced
walnuts, chopped
cauliflower greens, chopped (optional, I just hate to throw them on the compost heap)

preheat oven to 350
drizzle cabbage quarters with fresh lemon juice, sprinkle with peppers and nutmeg
heat oil in cast iron skillet until almost smoking
carefully sear each cut side of the cabbage, working in batches if necessary
return all cabbage to the skillet, add greens, apple and walnuts around the cabbage
move to oven and bake 15-30 minutes, until cabbage reaches desired softness (really you could eat it right after searing. we ordered pizza, so I cooked it about 1/2 hour while we waited; it was on the soft side, but still very good)
broil for a minute to get the top slightly crunchy right before serving

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Quiche

2010-02-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

mmmm quiche.

This was inspired by a flip through Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which includes a caramelized onion variation in the quiche section.

lots o' onion

You will need:

1 tbsp unsalted butter
4 cups (about 4 smallish) onions, thinly sliced
.5-1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
1 standard 8" pie crust (I used a prefab)
5 eggs
1 cup milk (I used whole, cream or reduced fat also works)
a few ounces goat cheese
nutmeg
cayenne pepper (optional)
salt & pepper to taste

fully cooked

heat butter in heavy pan until melted, add onions and saute slowly over medium to low heat until caramelized. this step may take up to 1/2 and hour. with my super-crappy electric stove I had to turn the heat between low and medium often, making sure the onions were still cooking, but not browning too fast and getting crunchy, when almost done stir in the thyme. The onion should reduce to about 1.5 cups total
meanwhile par-bake the pie crust at 375 for 5-10 minutes, until golden-brown, then reduce oven to 325
in large bowl gently beat together eggs, milk, a pinch fresh grated nutmeg and cayenne pepper. add salt & pepper to your preference
gently spread some of the onions over the crust, pour in egg mixture, and distribute remaining onions evenly. crumble goat cheese over the top.
bake at 325 until quiche is set, somewhere around 30 minutes. if it still looks loose bake longer, checking after each additional 5-7 minutes
you can broil it for a minute or two at the end to give the top a nice golden top

dinner, with a guest appearance by spicy carrot-cauliflower soup

Notes:

With the pre-made crust this is a really low-attention hands-off meal I'd even made on a work night.

I didn't add any salt originally, and the eggs definitely needed it to help them stand up to the sweet onion.

The goat cheese kind melded in too well, next time I'd use more.

Slow Cooked Beef

2010-02-24T08:06:00.000-08:00

You could probably never tell it from this blog, but we actually eat vegetarian most of the time. I was a vegetarian for 13 years (even vegan for a few of those) but have been eating meat again for almost four (oh-my-god-time-goes-fast) years.

Most of my vegetarian recipes seem so second nature to me I don't bother to write them down, but I'll start trying to get more of those up.

There are certain times of the month when, I'm feeling a bit, um, anemic, that I Constantly. Crave. Cow.

For those occasions there's this recipe (served here as sandwiches, but probably excellent over egg noodles or spaetzle)

ready to spend hours alone

Slow-Cooked Beef, serves 6 adapted from the pioneer woman:

You will need:

chuck roast, about 1.5 lbs (grass-fed local please)
large onion, sliced
1 tbsp butter
6 cups beef broth +/or chicken broth, divided
4 cloves garlic, sliced in thirds lengthwise
10-20 pepperoncini peppers, chopped, divided
1/2 cup pepperoncini brine
2 tbsp italian seasoning
tabasco sauce
tamari or soy sauce

sauteed onions, browning beef

in dutch oven, heat butter and saute onion until browned
put in roast and brown on both sides
sprinkle roast with seasoning, garlic and 1/2 the pepperoncinis, then add brine & broth to level with top of beef
cover and simmer on stove-top one hour, preheat oven to 275- 300 degrees
transfer dutch oven to oven and cook 3-4 hours more check periodically to make sure broth hasn't completely evaporated due to your negligence in getting dutch oven lid back on straight, add more broth as needed.
Once meat is very very tender remove it from oven and carefully pull it entirely apart using two forks.
add remaining pepperoncinis, give it a good stir, then add dashes of tabasco and tamari to taste
return covered dutch oven to stove-top and simmer until ready to serve. Alternately, you can refrigerate it at this point then gently reheat the next day when you're ready to eat (what I did)

left over rolls salvaged as new tops

toast buttered french rolls under the broiler and top 1/2 with beef mixture (squeeze it out with a slotted spoon so the rolls don't get too soggy)
top meat side with swiss or provolone cheese and return to the broiler until cheese melts*
close sandwich, plate, serve with the beef juices in small bowls and a giant helping of vegetables to balance it out
fail to get a single picture that makes a delicious meal look appetizing
share, eat, enjoy

This could easily be adapted for a slow cooker; Just saute the onions and brown the beef before throwing it all in the cooker.

all eaten up

*monitor the broiling sandwiches very closely, or don't make this when you're having friends over for dinner. For the life of me I can NOT broil anything when we have company; this was the second time I've smoked friends out the house when something only needed a "few more seconds" under the boiler. At least the food didn't burst into flames, this time.

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

2010-02-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe over on Poppytalk via Everybody Likes Sandwiches, and knew I must have them.

Unfortunately, I have terrible terrible cookie baking skills.

Luckily, my husband has fantastic cookie baking skills. And a sweet tooth. And a sweet heart.

So I got to eat delicious butterscotch oatmeal cookies just days after learning of their existence; I highly suggest you do the same.

Notes:

We got 36 decent-sized cookies out of this (well, 34 after sampling the dough.) Use a heaping tablespoon for each cookie.

I wasn't sure about the coconut in this recipe, but you can hardly taste it, and it adds a pleasant chewiness to the oatmeal. Of course I like coconut, if you don't, try just adding a bit more oats or substituting with pecans.

Don't be too stingy with the salt on top. We used some home-harvested red sea salt from a dried lake in Idaho (or something, the story was rambling) and the contrast with the sweet really enhances the cookie.

Have these with strong coffee for a delicious, if not so healthy, breakfast.

*****

Recipe credit to Poppytalk/Everbody Likes Sandwiches:

(adapted from The Canadian Baker)
1 c butter, softened
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c milk
1 t vanilla
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 c oats
1 1/2 c butterscotch chips
1/2 c flaked unsweetened coconut
flaky sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, and the 1st salt measurement in a medium bowl.

2. In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in milk and vanilla until combined. Slowly add in flour mixture and mix until just blended. Add in oats, butterscotch chips and coconut until incorporated.

3. Spoon up a large tablespoon of dough and drop it onto a cookie sheet leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie. Slightly press down on each lump to slightly flatten and sprinkle a flake or two of salt on each cookie. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, or until cookies are golden brown.

Spicy Carrot Cauliflower Soup

2010-02-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

soup spoon

I love soup.

Soup is one of the first things I remember my mom showing me how to make. Soup can be light or hearty, cool or warm, require constant attention or be a pot you ignore for hours at a time- in other words, I can manage to scrape together a decent soup no matter what mood I'm in.

sad wilting cauliflower octopus

Due to bad planning and tragic events we've been out of town for the last three weekends plus, which means a HUGE pile-up of sad-looking vegetables from the CSA box. I started out thinking I'd make the soup I first learned from my mom- vegetable with dumplings -but as I tend to, I got a tad distracted and changed my plans along the way, ending up with this delicious sweet-spicy soup instead.

attempting to keep track

1 tbsp oil (more if needed)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp red curry (paste or powder)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1.5 tsp curry powder (yellow kind)
1 dried chili, torn up
.5 tsp whole black pepper corns
4 cups carrots, chopped
4 cups cauliflower, chopped (I used a combination of the flower and the greens, well-aware that using the greens would ruin the vivid orange of my soup)
4 cups yam, chopped (I never skin my veggies, just scrub well, feel free to do whatever)
8 cups broth (go for veggie to make this a vegan/vegetarian soup)

before blending

in a large stock pot heat your oil, add onion and saute over medium-low heat until you finally stop crying from the chopping, or the onion is translucent/beginning to brown. then add the garlic and spices and cook several minutes more. (if you're me, choose spices by going through the spice-cabinet while onions are sauteing, realizing you've got a few things from the last time you made Indian that should probably be used before all their flavor is gone)
if needed, add a bit more oil then the cauliflower, cook until most of the cabbage smell has dissipated
add carrots and cook until slightly soft, stirring every few minutes. add yams and cook a bit more, trying to get some of each ingredient browned for flavor.
add broth to cover vegetables, cover, and leave simmering until everything is tender/cooked the hell out of, depending on your schedule
either leave soup whole or blend with immersion blender
serve with a dollop of plain yogurt (unless you're making a vegan version of course) and a sprinkle of dill weed

almost gone

We ate the soup with buttered toast and kale chips, which never made it out of the kitchen...

This recipe makes somewhere around 10 bowls worth (the vegetables really shrink.) The black pepper adds a surprising amount of spice that is nicely balanced by the sweetness of the carrots and yams, I'll definitely make this one again.

a belated new year

2010-02-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

This lunar new year, and valentine's day, I wish everyone the ability to find love that lasts a life-time; whether with another person, art, nature or the everyday astounding-ness of life.

sea soup

2010-02-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

makes two very large bowls with a bit left over, could work for three.

1 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, sliced thin
2 cups chopped dino kale (or other winter greens)
5 radishes, sliced thick
1 tsp dashi no moto or fish bullion (can be found in the ethnic aisle of many grocers)
2 cups any broth (I had beef on hand so used it, but mushroom would be great)
4 cups chopped bok choy
extra water
1 egg per person
miso paste
small block tofu, chopped
1 cup brown rice
furikake

heat oil in a large pot and saute onion 'til translucent
add kale, then radishes and saute until slightly wilted
sprinkle in dashi no moto and and broth
stir well, then close lid and simmer until kale is very tender
meanwhile, add 1.5 tbsp of miso paste to each person's bowl, take a bit of liquid from the soup and thin the miso, so it will easily incorporate with the soup later
add a scant 1/4 cup rice and equal share of the tofu (no more than 1/4 cup) to each bowl with thinned miso
add bok choy to simmering soup, if needed add water to just cover greens, and return to simmer
make a slight nest for each each egg, crack in eggs and cover soup until eggs are poached to desired hardness, just a minute or two
ladle egg, veggies and broth into bowls and season top generously with furikake, eat

Something I Love

2010-02-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

I'm adverse to serials.

I usually won't watch a new television show until it's off the air--I hate having characters live in my head only to have them vanish with no conclusion; I get enough of that in life.*

I do read web-comics like people watch TV.

For just a year or so I've been reading Anders Loves Maria, it's a beautiful heart-wrenching comic that catches the frustrations and joy of love with fabulous muted art that evolves with the story--and last night the author concluded it.

It's also _really_ popular.

If you haven't already read it I highly recommend you do.

Here's a link to the archives: http://anderslovesmaria.reneengstrom.com/archives/

*with many qualifications and exceptions to any absolute

a moment of calm

2010-02-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the radio silence lately, things have been hectic between work and home, and most of the meals have been simple--no fancy dinners attended or appetizers shared, and there are only so many variations on potato-leek soup anyone is interested in seeing.*

We had a great few days last weekend visiting relatives in Denver; I'm simultaneously travel exhausted and rejuvenated from temporarily escaping the grind.

*edit: so apparently I haven't actually posted a recipe for potato leek soup yet; I'll get on that.

in storms

2010-01-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

Faux Mushroom Chicken Risotto

2010-01-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

Is a bit misleading, since this does not actually have major chicken in it. It does however have real chicken broth (with teeny pieces of chicken,) that I cooked down from an actual chicken carcass, so it's a bit more chickeny than if I'd used the normal pre-fab broths. If you're using a purchased broth I'd add a 1/4 cup or so of shredded chicken.

Makes 4 servings as dinner

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup onion, sliced or diced
1 garlic glove, minced
2 cups mushroom, sliced
pinch hot red pepper flakes
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
4 cups chicken broth (optional shredded chicken)
2 tbsp butter

saute onion in oil until fragrant, add garlic and cook another minute
add mushrooms and cook until they have begun to release moisture or shrunken
add pepper and zest, saute another minute
add rice and cook, stirring frequently for a few minutes (add optional shredded chicken here)
pour in chicken broth, give it a good stir, and simmer, covered, over low heat until much of the broth is absorbed
add 1 tbsp butter and cook uncovered over low heat, letting more liquid steam off, repeat
check ever so often, stirring and making sure not to burn
eat when ready

I served this over butternut squash puree with a few fried sage leaves, yum.

Frying sage leaves is super easy. Heat high-heat oil in a frying pan. Drop sage leaves in hot oil. As soon as leaves stop sizzling remove them to a paper towel w/ wooden chopsticks or slotted spoon. Ta da!

MLK Cake 2010

2010-01-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

Jevan and I met on January 15th, 2005 that weekend, and every anniversary since, has fallen on the Martin Luther King Jr holiday. The first weekend we baked a cake together together (we got domestic very quickly.) Love and lust drunk we decided to make it black & white swirled, with red/pink frosting in the middle, to symbolize harmony and the insides we all share.

This is our fifth year together, and fifth cake.

The first year

We either didn't take pictures of the second year, or they're on some hard drives I need to hook up and transfer pictures from.

Year the third

The best so far.

The fourth, in which I learned a valuable decorating lesson.

I'm just a tad bitchy and judgmental about cupcakes (aren't they so 2006/2007?) BUT, I woke up from a dream, knowing how I could get the design for this years' cake right, and if it involves cupcakes--so be it.

I woke up Sunday morning thinking of this and rushed to draw it before my mind blanked. Now to see how we can execute it.

****************************************

Not the worst, but I learned several more important lessons in decoration, the first of which is marzipan is a bitch to work with.

I hope everyone had a fantastic MLK Day, and remembered "don't be a dick" not to anyone, not if they look different and not if they think different; "don't be a dick" is an imperative.

Recipe to follow.

Mushroom Beef Bourguignon

2010-01-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had some friends over for dinner, and I wanted to make dinner using my new toy/ dutch oven. None of the recipes it came with seemed quite right, I wanted something I could leave mostly unattended and that would cook for hours. I googled, I searched epicurious for "dutch oven" still nothing, so I decided to search Smitten Kitchen, success! I was going to make the vegetarian version, but had been feeling a bit anemic lately so decided to add the beef. The recipe seems like it could easily be made vegan by leaving out the beef, using veggie broth and substituting soy margarine; I bet it would still be delicious.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Mushroom Bourguignon (serves 4 with a little left over)

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 lb beef stew meat
6 cups mushrooms, sliced (combination of portabella & crimini)
1 smallish yellow onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, finely diced
1 tsp fresh thyme (all my normal thyme seems to have died, so I used the flourishing "caraway thyme")
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup red wine
2 cups beef broth
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup pearl onions
1.5 tbsp flour

Heat 1 tbsp butter and olive oil in dutch oven or large heavy pot. Brown beef and remove. Briefly brown mushrooms and remove (careful not not let them weep)
Add 2nd tbsp olive oil to pot then saute onion, carrots & thyme along with a bit salt & fresh ground pepper until onion is translucent and beginning to brown. Add garlic, cook briefly then add wine. Turn up heat until wine is reduced by half (if your beef chunks are large you may want to cut them into smaller pieces now), then add beef broth & tomato paste
Add beef and simmer, covered, on low heat until beef is exceptionally tender (this took several hours, don't worry about overcooking it)
Once beef is falling-apart tender add mushrooms and give it all a good stir. Keep cooking on low, covered, stirring occasionally. After mushrooms have shrunken add pearl onions, and continue to cook as before until mushrooms are tender. (or longer, I ended up having started too early so the food simmered, just barely, a good hour at this point)
Mash the remaining butter & flour together, and stir the paste into the bourguignon. Start the water for your noodles and let cook
Serve bourguignon over egg noodles with a dollop of sour cream. I Accompanied it with butter lettuce salad in lemon vinaigrette. Success!

death metal cockatoo

2010-01-09T11:03:00.000-08:00

Here's an awesome video for the weekend:

\m/

easy-peasy cold weather breakfast

2010-01-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

These are super-cute super-easy little breakfast casserolettes I've made a couple of times for cold-weather Sunday brunch.

They're quick to make, take minimum attention and leave almost no dishes to wash (which is ideal to me; who wants to wash dishes after champagne?)

This kinda strikes me as some ultimate mid-west diner fare, completely anti-gourmet but surprisingly delicious; I love the contrast between the salty bottom and sweet top.

You will need:

a ramekin per person (or other small bowl that can take relatively high oven temperatures, my new dutch oven came with two mini-ovens that work perfectly)
1-2 strips bacon per person
a small batch of your favorite pancake batter
1 egg per person
maple syrup

using kitchen shears snip bacon in small pieces into ramekins
put ramekins in oven at 400 degrees
cook bacon in ramekins until crispy, pouring off fat as needed
meanwhile make up a batch of pancake batter
after bacon is crispy remove from oven and pour off fat again (or sop it up w/ a paper towel)
spoon pancake batter over the bacon, until ramekins are about 1/3 full
crack an egg over pancake batter an put lids on ramekins (if you don't have lids you can tightly cover them with tin foil, carefully 'cause they're hot)
put covered ramekins into oven and reduce heat to 350
bake 5+ minutes, until egg is cooked how you want (in the picture I left them in to long and had completely hard yolks)
remove from oven and pour maple syrup on top
serve on an oven-mitt or other heat-proof surface & enjoy!

What are other people's favorite cold weather comfort breakfasts?

Hoppin' John

2010-01-04T08:37:00.001-08:00

Most cultures have some specific food you eat to welcome the new year and ensure luck/fortune/prosperity for the duration. Some people eat long noodles to symbolize a long life or food with names like what they want to bring about. In the southern US people eat a black-eyed pea dish called Hoppin' John. The black-eyed peas look kinda like coins, and it's often eaten with greens (the color of money) all adding up to a dish that should bring prosperity in the new year. Hoppin' John happens to be the tradition I've taken on; a little prosperity can't hurt, and the food really helps settle the morning after stomach. I have been trying to make a Hoppin' John that doesn't taste like dirt (black-eyed peas have a lovely if quite earthy flavor) for three years now, and have finally succeeded!

This serves 4-6 people as a meal

3 cups black-eyed peas
4 cups broth
3 strips bacon
one medium onion
healthy pinch red pepper flakes
a handful fresh spinach per person

put peas in a large bowl and just cover in water
using kitchen shears cut bacon into small pieces over a large heavy-bottomed pot
cook bacon in pot until crispy
dice onion
pour off excess bacon grease and add onion to pot
cook onion until translucent
add peas & pepper and stir thoroughly
add broth (I used chicken) and simmer gently until peas reach desired doneness (3-4 hours)

rinse and roughly chop spinach
fill each bowl 2/3 with the fresh spinach
top with hot Hoppin' John and a pat of butter
enjoy, make a resolution to be less hung-over next year

Cioppino

2009-12-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

Cioppino is a spiced wine and tomato based soup with whatever fresh seafood you have handy thrown in. It usually includes all kinds of shellfish; my version does not--crab, shrimp and lobster all make me violently ill. Below is what I threw in, but anyone else making this should include whatever floats their boat.

These are the three recipes I referred to the most while creating my own: one, two, three

Makes way more than enough to feed two, probably 6 servings if you add a bit more seafood.

The broth base:

1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion diced (2 cups)
1/2 medium fennel bulb quartered and thinly sliced (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium green bell pepper seeded & chopped (3/4 cup)
1 jalapeno pepper seeded & diced
1-2 carrots thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped herbs (Italian parsley, basil & oregano)
2 cloves
1/4 tsp anise
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

in a large heavy-bottomed non-reactive pot (say a dutch oven) heat oil and butter until it sizzles
add onion & fennel and cook until translucent
add everything else above and saute until very fragrant

The liquids:

28oz can diced tomatoes
1+ cup chicken broth (or seafood broth)
1+ cup dry white wine
8oz clam juice
2 tbsp tomato paste
dash Tabasco sauce
dash Worcestershire sauce

add some white wine & chicken broth and give a good stir
add a few dashes Tabasco & Worcestershire sauces
add clam juice and stir around
add diced tomatoes & tomato paste and stir well
taste and add additional liquid as desired (you'll want enough liquid to cover all the seafood you'll be adding)
let simmer, covered, as long as you want, several hours is fine

The seafood:

10 clams
6 mussels
6 sea scallops
2 oysters
3/4 lb halibut fillet (any white fish will do)

thoroughly scrub everything in a shell

in a large pot put 1 cup white wine/chicken broth or combo of over medium heat
when wine begins to steam add mussels and clams and place lid over pot
steam until shells just open, 2-3 minutes, and remove from heat
strain steaming liquid and add it to the broth
cut halibut into bite-size pieces
shuck oysters, adding their liquid to broth

about 5 minutes before you want to eat add all the seafood to the broth, making sure it's mostly submerged
let cook, barely simmering for no more than 5 minutes
remove from heat and serve immediately

Make sure to serve cioppino with with lots of crusty french bread and garnished with chopped fresh parsley & ground black pepper. Have a good red wine on hand, don't wear white, grab plenty of napkins, have an extra bowl to toss the shells in and enjoy!

On a side note this recipe taught me I'm not nearly as adventurous about texture as I am flavor--fun as they were to play with, eating the oysters kinda creeped me out; I think I'll stick to eating my oysters grilled

Persimmon Pie

2009-12-20T20:08:00.001-08:00

Pie! (just in time to make for Christmas, before people stop doing things like eating pie)

Around Thanksgiving we visited wonderful friends who are also amazing cooks. After fantastic wood-fire cooked home-made pizza for dinner we had leftover Thanksgiving pies for dessert. One was pumpkin and the other was persimmon.*

I did not even know persimmon pie existed. (On a side note I am forever indebted to Jess for showing me amazing things to do with persimmons, last year she made a salad with persimmon & fresh mint, I never would have thought of the combo and it was amazing.)

I was once again inspired, and sent home with a grocery bag of persimmons. I spent a long time searching the internet for a good persimmon pie recipe, but couldn't find anything that looked right; I wanted my pie to have the same almost exotic/unexpected quality as hers (she used an olive oil crust which just added,) but was too embarrassed to call and ask for the recipe (plus I think she cooks a bit like me, more from imagination than recipe.)

I ended up completely winging it- with delicious results!

First off, I suck at pie crust. I made it by hand for this pie, but I always end up squishing pieces together in the pie pan after ripping the thing into eight pieces trying to transfer it after rolling.

Pie Crust (from the recipe on my pastry board)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup shortening (I used 2/4 cup unsalted butter and 1/4 cup crisco)
1/3 a cup cold milk (or water)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar (could have used a tad more)

this makes two 9-inch pie crusts, which I'm not going into due to my own ineptitude. Please use your own favorite recipe of get some pre-made frozen ones (I was just too much of a cheapskate to pay what they wanted for the good ones)

Pie Filling (two parts)

4 persimmons (all persimmons used are fuyu)
1 tsp sugar

peel and chop persimmons
in heavy sauce pan cook persimmons with sugar until they begin to break down
use immersion blender or potato masher or fork to puree persimmons
move puree to large mixing bowl

admission- I'd actually made this earlier in the week to put on waffles

5 persimmons
juice of one small tangerine or other citrus
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg (or to taste)

peel and quarter persimmons, thinly slice quarters and stir in puree
squeeze tangerine juice into pie filling and stir well
add ground ginger and nutmeg to filling and mix
taste and add more spices as you see fit, or any other spices you'd like, or more sugar if you have a sweet tooth

line 9-inch pie tin with first crust and blind-bake it
set oven to 350 degrees
pour pie-filling into crust
cut second crust into 1/2 inch strips and weave into a lattice over the pie top (or totally cheat like me and just start in one corner of the pie alternating horizontal & vertical strips 'til it looks like a lattice)
brush top of pie with melted butter or egg-wash and sprinkle with sugar (I didn't do this, but will next time)
bake pie in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and let cool before serving

This pie is excellent with whipped cream &/or vanilla ice cream, probably a nice glass of spiked eggnog too; enjoy!

*After typing it this many times the word "persimmon" starts to look very bizarre

Green Curry with Tuna

2009-12-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been craving seafood like mad. I blame the bucket of clams and mussels I split with my boss while on the road last month; I haven't been able to get the deep rich salty iodine taste out of my mind since then. To really satisfy the craving I'm going to make cioppino for christmas (modified of course, since my allergy to shrimp, crab, and lobster wouldn't make for a very merry meal.)

In the meantime I decided on fish curry.

I made it with things which happened to be in my fridge/garden/cupboards , but I think the general lack of a recipe will lend itself to whatever you happen to have on hand.

1 tsp oil
1 stalk lemon grass
2 red spicy peppers, one fresh and one dry
1 clove garlic
.5 inch ginger root
1.5-2 Tbsps green curry paste (if you're the type of person to make this from scratch rock on, I use Thai Kitchen since that's what the local stores carry)
1 carrot
3 Tokyo turnips
1 6oz can albacore tuna in water, do not drain
2 cups chicken broth
4oz coconut milk
3 heads baby bok choy

heat wok with oil over medium-high
finely chop lemon grass & peppers, matchstick garlic & ginger (or be smart and do all the prep work ahead)
saute spices until aromatic then add curry paste and cook for several minutes more, stirring occasionally
meanwhile slice carrot and turnips into half moons
increase heat and add veggie slices, saute until vegetables are almost seared
decrease heat to medium and add tuna, including its water, breaking up and large chunks
cook a few minutes then stir in chicken broth and coconut milk
slice bok choy
when curry is barely simmering add bok choy and stir often until bok choy is tender, about two minutes
remove wok from heat and serve
enjoy!

This was so light, simple, slightly spicy (but won't be if you leave out the peppers) and delicious. I somehow managed to leave all the vegetable with a little crispness (from the lady who always accidentally makes mushy curry.)

My body is so happy with me for finally feeding it what it wanted that my toes are still wiggling, I might just burst after making cioppino.

Potato Leek Latkes

2009-12-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

Since the last day of Hanukkah starts this evening

You should make some latkes if you haven't already (and if you have you should make these anyways)

You will need:

high-heat oil for frying (what it's all about)
4 cups shredded or grated potato (I'm coming to hate my mandolin much less)
1 leek
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1tsp salt (koshering)
.5 tsp ground pepper

grate your potatoes and squeeze out as much liquid as you can
slice the light parts of one leek into very thin half moons
beat eggs in a small bowl
combine all ingredients except eggs in a large bowl (tossing after each Tbsp of flour)
add beaten eggs and mix thoroughly

heat a few Tbsp of oil in a large heavy skillet over high heat
preheat oven to 350 degrees
once oil is hot hot hot add heaping tablespoons of latke mixture (I fit 3 in a 12-inch pan)
brown on each side (2 minutes a side or so) and transfer to a foil lined baking sheet
add more oil between batches as necessary

bake latkes 25 minutes at 350 degrees
after baking move latkes to a paper-towel lined plate
keep browning second batch while the fist batch bakes

right after the last batch is done serve with sour cream and applesauce (and a big salad)

Enjoy!

This made 21 latkes

Spicy Bacon-Wrapped Dates

2009-12-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

I decided to combine two of the best "bacon-wrapped" foods I've had, bacon-wrapped dates (delicious delicious appetizer from Thanksgiving) and bacon-wrapped jalapeno thingies, into one hopefully superior bacon-wrapped appetizer.

You will need:

dates, pitted
jalapenos
neufchatel (or cream) cheese
shake cayenne pepper
bacon (I use Niman Ranch)

preheat oven to 375
slice bacon strips in thirds
seed and finely dice jalapenos
stir jalapenos & cayenne in to cream cheese
slice open dates and fill with jalapeno cheese

wrap stuffed dates w/ bacon thirds and secure w/ a toothpick

pace dates on rack on large cookie sheet and cook 25-30 minutes or until bacon is crispy

Enjoy!

When I made this I used a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes and no rack; it resulted in the bottom of the dates caramelizing a little too much and really sticking in your teeth, that's why next time I'll totally go with the rack method.

Beef Stroganoff

2009-12-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

I have been craving beef stroganoff for three years, really. For some reason I just hadn't gotten around to making it- I wanted it to taste just like I remember from childhood, I kept forgetting to ask my mom for her recipe, she didn't have a recipe, I lost the copy she gave me, etc... and three years later I decided it was time to do a little searching and find a recipe that would taste right.

Despite the bad picture the food was delicious

Thank to the epicurious app on my iphone and the tragically, dearly departed gourmet I managed to make beef stroganoff that tasted exactly like what I'd been dreaming about.

Adapted from Beef Stroganov in Gourmet October 2001

You will need

3 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter (divided 1.5+1+1)
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup beef broth
1 lb beef*
2 Tbsp olive oil (divided 1+1)
1/2 cup shallot, sliced thin
4 cups (3/4 lb) brown mushrooms, cut in thick slices
3 Tbsp sour cream at room temperature
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
(you'll also need egg noodles to serve properly)

*I used stir-fry strips my meat counter had pre-cut, but they cook through a little too quickly, so next time I'll just have the butcher cube a steak

This recipe was what finally got it through my head that prep is important, I got all my ingredients measured and chopped and ground and whatnot prior to cooking and it made things go sooo smooth.

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over moderate heat then whisk in flour
Cook roux, whisking constantly for 2 minutes.
Add beef broth in a slow stream whisking constantly, bring to a boil.
Reduce heat & simmer sauce 3 minutes, whisking periodically.
Remove from heat & keep covered & warm.

Rinse & pat beef dry then season well with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 Tbsp butter with 1 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy skillet over moderately high heat.
Sauté beef in two batches, turning to brown on both sides but still pink inside, about 1 minute.
Transfer the meat and its juices to a bowl .

Heat remaining butter with remaining olive oil in the same skillet until hot but not smoking,
Sauté shallot lightly brown, about 3 minutes.
Add mushrooms and sauté, stirring occasionally, until their water is evaporated and mushrooms are browned, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Return meat with its juices to skillet and stir to combine.
Keep on lowest heat.

Reheat roux/broth sauce over low heat without boiling
Whisk sour cream, mustard, dill*, salt, & pepper into sauce.
Stir sauce into beef and mushrooms until combined
serve over buttered egg noodles

*I didn't remember there being dill in stroganoff, but it definitely gave the food the flavor I wanted.

Enjoy!

The not-super-appetizing-looking side above the stroganoff is leftover actually-quite-delicious cabbage dish I'll post the recipe for soon.

This recipe claims to make six servings, but really it's four, two if you have the metabolism of my skinny husband.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2009-12-01T11:45:00.000-08:00

The ultimate in cold-weather comfort food (well, maybe second to grilled cheese and tomato soup.)

I threw this soup together from what I had on hand in the kitchen, after browsing several broccoli cheddar soup recipes online, all of which looked either too complex or simple (or pre-packaged) to me. Total cooking time was less than an hour, and it made at least eight servings, since the batch is so big I'm hoping it will keep well in the fridge & freezer.

You will need:

4 tbsp butter
2 cups chopped onion
8 cups chopped broccoli, stems and florets separated
1/4 cup flour + 1 tbsp
8 cups broth (I used 4 low-sodium chicken & 4 vegetable)
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

The only dishes you'll need for this is are a big heavy-bottomed pot and an immersion blender or normal blender.

Put your pot over medium heat and add 2 tbsp of butter
once butter begins to sizzle add the onions and saute until tender and translucent
add chopped broccoli stems and cook until soft
make a well in the veggies and add the remaining butter
once butter melts shake 1/4 cup flour into butter
cook until flour is golden, taste to make sure flour is cooked, stirring often
add a bit of broth and scrape up any brown bits stuck to bottom of pot
add remaining broth and thoroughly stir soup
make sure broccoli is soft and use immersion blender to thoroughly blend soup (or carefully do it the pain-in-the-butt way w/ a normal blender)
bring soup to a simmer and add broccoli florets
toss grated cheese with 1 tbsp flour to coat
simmer until florets are just fork-tender
remove soup from heat
add cheese a handful at a time, stirring completely between each addition
let cool a bit and serve

This soup was super served with red pepper flakes, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a splash of golden balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy!

p.s. Not many pictures because this time of year it's always dark by the time I get to cooking, and the light in my kitchen is terrible.

If you're curious about nutritional info, the soup comes in at 260 calories a serving, and probably tons of sodium, but lots of vitamins & calcium.

<3

2009-11-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

What I give the most thanks for,

and I wouldn't have it any other way.

student action at UC Davis

2009-11-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

Generally I sympathize.

Mrak Hall November 19

Dutton Hall November 23

Dutton Hall door November 23

Mrak Hall lobby November 23

Autumn Evening

2009-11-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

Cream Puffs

2009-11-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had dinner with some friends, who have graciously hosted the last, oh, 25 times we've gotten together. Feeling shitty about not having cooked them a dinner in so long I decided to make an ambitious looking "fancy dessert" to bring along.

Luckily it turns out fancy-looking cream puffs are ridiculously easy to make!

Last night I made a half batch of the puffs. Since I still had several cups of the filling left this morning I decided to make a full batch, I got 33 puffs, and still have lots of cream left.

They are made from a versatile choux paste, and chantilly cream. Both recipes are via the amazing Pastry by Michel Roux.

For the Choux Paste you will need:

1 stick / 8 Tbsp unsalted butter diced
.5 cup whole milk
.5 cup water
1 tsp caster sugar
.5 tsp salt
1 generous cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs, room temperature

preheat oven, the original recipe calls for 350 degrees, but I found almost 375 worked better for me
in a large sauce pan combine milk, water, butter sugar and salt

bring to a boil over low heat and immediately remove from the heat
dump in the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth

return the pan to medium heat and stir constantly for one minute
transfer paste to a large bowl and let cool a bit

beat the eggs into the paste, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next
line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

scrape all the paste into a large ziplock or pastry bag
snip off a small corner of the bag and pipe the paste into .5 inch mounds, staggering rows
gently brush the tops with egg-wash and mark with the back of a fork

bake for 25 minutes or until golden-brown and just crisp on top (be very careful not to remove them from the oven too soon or the choux buns will collapse, it happened with my first batch, the recipe said to bake for 15-20 minutes, but mine needed 25 before they were strong enough to keep their shape)
remove to a wire rack and let cool

For Chantilly Cream:

1 pint / 2 cups whipping cream
.5 cup caster sugar
scrapings from the inside of one vanilla bean

Chill bowl of electric mixer
beat whipping cream, sugar and vanilla bean together for 1-2 minutes on low speed
increase speed and beat together 3-4 for minutes
if you want true Chantilly cream be careful not to over-whip, I turned up the speed a little too much and made whipped cream, still delicious, but less dense than might be desired

Once the choux buns are fully cooled it's time to fill them. Yesterday I piped poked little holes into the buns and piped in the cream using a ziplock. Today I just broke them open and spooned a tablespoon of cream into each one then closed it back up like a little sandwich. Do whatever you prefer, the final result tastes so good that no one will judge.

These would also be delicious as a savory pastry, just fold in some grated cheese before piping the choux buns and don't fill with the sweet cream.

Enjoy!

And just because choux makes me think shmoo!

This totally turned into Scooby Doo.

Winter Knitting

2009-11-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

As the weather is getting colder here I've been inspired to pick up knitting again. So far I haven't had any crippling wrist and hand pain, so the prospect of more projects is looking good.

This scarf is the first thing I've completed in a year!

In general I'm much more intrigued by texture knitting than by the garment or color/pattern knitting like intarsia. That means I tend to only knit scarves and hats; I find a stitch I like, and focus on it over and over, without having to worry about gauging the stitch, or losing patience before the whole garment is finished (see box of 1/4 done sweaters and one mitten with fingers too short to fit husband's hand.)

The scarf is done mostly in moss stitch:

Cast on multiples of four stitches.
Rows 1 (RS) *K2, p2; rep from * to end. Rows 2 and 3 *P2, k2; rep from * to end. Row 4 *K2, p2; rep from * to end. Rep rows 1-4.

I think I used rows of 16 stitches.

I ended up putting in several rows of ribbing. The ribs started as a mistake, but I liked the visual interest they added to an otherwise boring white scarf (not totally boring, look at the sparkles!)

I finished it off with a variation on double-knotted fringe. The yarn was too bulky to double-knot all the strands, so I only used 2/3 of each tassel. The whole project used one skein of some cheapo poly-blend yarn I'd gotten years before, and I think it looks fantastic.

The scarf and fringe are still curly in these pictures, and I might need to block it. But hey, it's a scarf and I'm a lazy knitter.

If you're looking for a good knitting book my go-to book is a late '70s/ early '80s version of Vogue Knitting, although this is on my wish-list.

I'm currently looking for an easy pattern for knitting flowers if anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Potato Escarole Soup

2009-10-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

heartier version

Normally I consider myself pretty brave when it comes to food. I'll try almost anything.
I eat food cooked with small amounts of shrimp, crab, lobster and abalone, all of which I'm allergic to (I'm still finding the fine line of how much I can eat without getting violently ill.)
I've embarked on a mission to find the enjoyment in foods I couldn't stand; mayonnaise, horse-radish, tomatoes, blue cheese, raw onion, and I love them all now- next up I brave sardines.

But when it comes to raw escarole I am a complete wimp, the stuff is just too... something; spicy, bitter, pungent? And this from the woman that likes straight vinegar.

Lately my wonderful farm box has been coming with a huge bag of escarole, so I needed to find a way to eat it. It turns out escarole is fantastic if you cook the hell out of it.

so much escarole

As fall really sets in and the weather turns cold I find myself craving soup and missing greens. As luck would have it the strong flavor of escarole (and the whole needing to be cooked to death thing) works perfect in soup, so I present Potato Escarole Soup:

You will need:

6 cups escarole, give or take
4 cups broth, I used chicken
1 cup soy or real milk
1 medium onion, sliced or diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper (optional)
2 cloves garlic (optional)
3 cups potatoes, cut into slightly larger than bite-size

potatoes

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed stock pot and add the onions. Cook them over low-medium heat until they begin to caramelize. This might take up to 15 minute, but a good pot means you can pretty much wander around chasing shiny objects and neglecting the soup.

I love this pot

Add bell pepper and garlic, cooking until fragrant and slightly browned.
dump in the escarole, turning the pile frequently as it wilts.

versions one and two

Once the escarole is fairly wilted (it will reduce by about %300) add the broth.
Take your hand immersion blender and blend away. If you don't have an immersion blender, go through the process of blending the soup in small batches, careful not to let it get too hot and not to burn yourself.

more and less blended

Add the potatoes and simmer soup until the potatoes are cooked. Or, if you're me, add potatoes then forget you were making soup. Wander into the kitchen every so often and wonder aloud what that tasty smell is. Realize over an hour later that you were still making soup. Lament it no longer has a beautiful emerald color, but rejoice it still tastes fine.
Serve garnished with red pepper flakes, a pinch kosher salt, and a few drips red wine vinegar.

This recipe made enough for 6 bowls of soup. I put half in the fridge to eat that week, and froze the other half for later.

ready to freeze

I used chicken broth, but I like recipes that can easily be made vegetarian or even vegan. Alternately, I made a second heartier anti-vegan batch later with these variations.

Use some bacon fat or cook a chopped up strip of bacon before caramelizing the onion
Leave out the garlic, add some chopped tomatoes in with the escarole.
Don't blend the soup quite as much, leaving it chunkier.
Use 1/2 & 1/2 or cream instead of soy milk, (I forgot to put it in before taking the picture)
It just occurred to me, but adding sauteed mushrooms (after blending) would add great flavor

Enjoy!

Delicious Lamb or "buut Liisaaa, you saiid you looooved me"

2009-10-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been craving lamb. I've also been feeling pretty lazy kitchen-wise. My solution was marinaded roasted veggies and lamb. I only used a few dishes, and made enough food for four meals.

First off is the marinaded lamb.

So the picture looks kinda gross, but it tasted great.

For the lamb marinade I combined

one cup nonfat Greek-style yogurt (Fage Total is awesome)
one clove minced garlic
juice of 1/2 Meyer lemon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
a pinch kosher salt

I put about a pound of lamb stew meat in the marinade, cover it and got to work on the rest of the food. Next time I'd splurge for a better cut of meat, and have the butcher chunk it for me since the stew meat can be a bit dry if you don't actually cook in in a stew.

Next up were eggplant and onions.

sorry for the plastic glare

Roughly cut one medium eggplant and a large yellow onion into wedges and put in a large ziploc bag or a bowl you can toss the it all around in. I added the marinade straight into the bag one ingredient at a time, and just tossed it around a few times over the hour or so it marinaded.

Marinade for eggplant and onions:

1 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses (has a great sweet and sour earthy flavor)
kosher salt

Last up were the green beans and bell pepper.

Beautiful beans

I marinaded one lb green beans (blossom end snapped off) and 2 or 3 large red/yellow bell peppers cut into thick strips in:

extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
fresh rosemary
a splash red wine vinegar

This marinade didn't overpower the natural sweetness of the peppers or the beans, and the splash of vinegar really livened the whole thing up.

I let the three parts of dinner marinade away while I ran around the house being distracted by random shiny objects. (About an hour)

The first thing I cooked was the lamb, partly because meat is better if you let it rest a while after cooking, and because I was only using one baking sheet to cook everything (not just laziness, we have a small oven with only one shelf) and decided that the lamb's juices would enhance the flavor of everything else. (Mmmmm lamb juices...)

I preheated the broiler and spread the lamb out on a foil-lined high-sided baking sheet. I put it 6 inches from the broiled flipping it over after 6 or seven minutes, and cooked for about 15 minutes total, although it probably was done after 10. I still have a proclivity to overcook meat on my first try with something new, still learning after 13 years not touching the stuff.

I switched the oven to bake at 350 and moved the cooked lamb to a bowl and covered it with foil.

Next I spread out the eggplant and onions of the same baking sheet and roasted them for 15 minutes, before stirring them around and roasting longer. I think they cooked for about 1/2 hour total, stirring more often over the last 15 minutes. I scraped them off the sheet into another bowl and covered.

Last to cook were the beans and peppers I roasted them for 10 minutes on one side, stirred up and roasted another few minutes.

As I cook I try to keep a pretty close eye on the roasting veggies, because in my experience thing can go from perfect to burnt or mushy with the slightest distraction (you don't want to know how many times "it need about 45 more seconds under the broiler" has turned into "oh shit where is all that smoke coming from!?")

I made a really quick tzatziki to serve the food with.

1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt
1/2 large cucumber (skin on) finely diced
2 cloves garlic minced
juice 1/4 meyer lemon
1 or 2 finely chopped mint leaves
tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp dried dill

The combo of herbs I used isn't totally traditional, but it's what I had on hand, and ended up tasting great.

To serve I put the lamb and veggies on some white rice, and topped with a scoop of the tzatziki.

the finished product

Yum!

vegetable "noodles"

2009-08-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our wonderful farm box I recently had lots of zucchini and cucumbers on hand. I wanted something crisp and fresh for dinner, but I also had a craving for pasta.

Since it was about 100 degrees in our house even with the A/C on (it's a small window unit) and I didn't want to cook so much as a pot of boiled water I decided to cut the veggies into thin noodle-like strips.

The soy garlic ginger batch was done by hand, not something fun or recommended to do in a 100 degree kitchen, ugh. The pesto batch I broke out the mandolin for. I usually kinda hate my mandoline*, but this made it worth it. Although looking at the two pictures I find the less-than-perfect hand cut strips more appealing, but spending an hour cutting two small zucchinis and one cucumber, no thanks.

These are two sauces/ marinades I use all the time, varying the ingredients slightly to suit my mood and what I happen to have on hand. They go great on all kinds of vegetables, starches and tofu; either one would be good on chicken, but beef works better with #1.

Marinade #1

minced garlic
finely chopped ginger root
soy sauce
rice wine vinegar
sesame oil
fish sauce (optional)
red pepper flakes

Sauce #2

chopped basil
minced garlic
olive oil
chopped walnuts
salt & pepper
chopped tomatoes (optional)

If you eat these immediately they are fresh and crunchy, the longer you let them marinate, the more chewy and noodle-like they become. Either can be made up to a day ahead of time and left covered in the fridge, the veggies just absorb more marinade and become more intensely flavored.

*Can anyone suggest a good mandoline? One that can slice hard vegetables, like carrots (mine fails here) and isn't completely terrifying to assemble/disassemble and clean?

a hero

2009-08-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Douglas Adams is one of my heroes.

Growing up reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and all the ensuing sequels, shaped (or fit) my sense of humor and personality.

Shortly after I moved to Davis I was watching public access TV to avert the loneliness and clicked upon a lecture filmed at UCSB a week or so prior to Adams' (early, tragic) death.

He reads and retells stories from his non-fiction account of traveling the world in search of endangered species Last Chance to See. Adams and his traveling companions try to catch glimpses of animals from a New Zealand flightless parro t called the Kakapo to the now (tragically, sadly) "functionally extinct" Yangtze river blind dolphin the Baji.

Everyone should read this book. If you have read it, listening to the lecture and hearing some of the stories in Adams' own voice is wonderfully touching.

But it is the last 10 or 15 minutes of the lecture that really get me.

Adams talks about the incredible simultaneous tragedy and hope humans find themselves in, of how we've come so far to being able to rectify some of our mistakes in relation to Earth's other inhabitants, and how inevitable it seems we'll just keep going as we have been, as is in our nature to do.

You can almost hear his voice cracking.

Parrots the Universe and Everything:

The lecture is over an hour long, so you might want to switch over to youtube and watch it full-screen, or just listen.

Zucchini Margaritas & dinner

2009-08-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

This sounds odd, but tastes absolutely fantastic.

Recipe lightly adapted from Andrea Albin's Zucchini Lime Tequila Slushies featured in Gourmet, because I like things boozy and I don't particularly like things sweet. This makes a double batch.

You will need:

4 small zucchinis cut into inch long sections (I think this was just over 3 cups)
1/2 cup caster sugar
180 ml (.75 cups) tequila
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
shake or two sea salt
5 cups ice cubes

Puree all the ingredients in a blender and serve. This made three large glass fulls.

[A brief aside on blenders--I never really thought about them, but had always been disappointed with ones I'd purchased, they leaked, jammed and just sucked. As a wedding present J's mom got us a vita-mix (same brand jamba juice uses) and it is amazing; I even never thought a blender could be amazing. So if you've got a few extra hundred bucks, never want to buy another blender in your life, or see one of these at a garage sale or 2nd hand store get it!]

We needed dinner to go with our drinks, so I threw together this quick and easy mexi-tinged sweet and sour stir-fry; it took only a few minutes and complimented the drinks perfectly.

Make some brown rice ahead of time (or if you're me, have some left in the cooker from yesterday)

1/2 cup firm tofu diced
small onion in slices
1 tbsp ground cumin
medium cucumber in half moons
large tomato chopped (1 cup)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 cup ketchup (oh shush, it works)

heat some oil in wok over medium high
toss in tofu and cook until it begins to turn golden
add onions and cook until they become aromatic
add cumin and stir well, let spice cook briefly
add tomatoes and cook until they begin to break down
add cucumbers
squeeze in lemon juice and ketchup, stir well
cook an additional minute or two, but make sure cucumbers retain some crispness
remove from heat and serve over brown rice

Enjoy!

a trip to the park

2009-08-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

For several years now I've been craving roller-coasters. Not just the Giant Dipper, which is still one of the most fun I've been on, but a real throw-you-around make-you-fear-for-your-life experience. Last weekend my craving was satisfied.

We got some 1/2 price tickets to Marine World (discovery kingdom I do not accept you) through twitter and braved the atrocious coast-bound traffic to meet up with friends in Vallejo and ride some damn rides.

We met up with the always fabulous Rah:

and her friend Dominic (an awesome guy who also battled the traffic from Sac. and is not intimidated by killer whales.)

Jevan spent the week before saying his Saturday was going to be spent "waiting in lines, in the heat, with screaming children." So that was true, but the lines weren't so long, the breeze was cool, and the children didn't scream very loud.

I even caught him smiling:

We saw captive wildlife:

Tank of the blue dolphin

This bird had amazing feet that looked two sizes too big.

This Indian Fruit bat was my favorite, when it climbed up to eat a piece of pear you could see it had a face just like Falcor. The collar looked uncomfortable.

And great wild chickens

It's hard to find a greater density of miserable-looking people that are supposed to be having fun that in an amusement park; looking around there was nary a smile to be found. Thousands of people with small children and infants in strollers waiting in line for rides only a few of the family can go on, asking youth that wants to run around to stand still and behave, it just doesn't seem like an ideal family outing.

What do you do with a five year old and these?

Oh, feed them "American Fries."

Marine world is a self declared "family environment" where you can be expelled for offending anyone, and no drugs of any kind are tolerated. However, this was the musical act of the day:

Yep, "Canobliss," 'coincidentally' is similar to cannabis." the band all had matching t-shirts with their name on them.

There was one place in the park everyone had genuine smiles and looks of awe and wonderment -- the butterfly exhibit.

We had a great time, and were reminded amusements parks are definitely not somewhere we want to visit more than every three years.

But last weekend, this made it all worthwhile:

instant wonder

2009-07-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

I walked out of my office to grab the morning coffee (it has been a looooong week between work, summer school, and life) and was instantly rejuvenated by this:

Hot Air Balloons!

There's nothing like looking up in the sky and seeing huge brightly colored balloons to make you feel like an optimistic child.

The very best part of this was that everyone else who saw the balloons also had these amazing grins on their faces, and we all smiled as we walked past each other.

cool pasta for hot days

2009-07-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

When it gets over 100 (well maybe over 90) degrees for days on end the last thing I want to do is heat the house up even further with cooking. I know grilling is the summer standby, but that often seems like a lot of time and charcoal for just the two of us, and I still haven't quite mastered grilling vegetables.

Plus I'd usually prefer something crisp and cool.

So last week I wanted pesto, but a lighter less time intensive version, so I made this take on the easy-pasta-and-stuff dinner, and was really happy with how tasty it came out. (I know it's a bias but I'm always secretly delighted when I make something vegan that is delicious.)

You'll need:

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp almond butter
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup finely chopped basil
2 or 3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cucumber cut into thin flat wedges
1 large tomato roughly chopped
1 ear corn, kernels cut from the cob
enough pasta for two, I used good old spaghetti
plenty of salt & fresh ground pepper (I have a shaker filled w/a mix of kosher and dead sea salts, and can really tell the flavoring difference over regular table salt)

put pasta water on to boil
meanwhile whisk oil, garlic, almond butter, vinegar, basil and a pinch of salt in a large bowl
let "pesto" marinate a bit
just before pasta finishes cooking, toss tomatoes, cucumber and corn with pesto
drain cooked pasta and immediately toss hot pasta in bowl with pesto vegetable mixture.
season with salt and lots of pepper

Enjoy!

new (old) music

2009-07-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

In honor of Bastille Day.

I've been listening to Keny Arkana. I highly suggest everybody check her out:

fourth of July

2009-07-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

In which we celebrate the struggle for a better life by grilling animals

Beef and Lamb burgers: 1 lb beef .5 lb lamb

Caper Remoulade:

capers
basil
garlic
pickle
mayonnaise
dijon mustard

Best Buns Ever:
via Smitten Kitchen

The finished product:

Beef & Lamb Burgers w/ Caper Remoulade and Cheddar Cheese, inspired by this

summer in Davis

2009-07-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

Trying to eat lunch and study is not easily accomplished while being taunted by an overly-aggressive squirrel.

I was also wearing flip-flops and really fearing for my green-painted toes; the worst part was when he'd disappear under the table.

beautiful borscht

2009-06-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

This is not anyone's traditional borscht. This recipe was not handed down by anyone's grandmother. This did not come from a cookbook of Eastern European food. It just came from having too many beets lying around and a craving for borscht.

I used:

5 beets
2 carrots
1 can diced tomatoes
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
vegetable oil
several cups chicken broth (but beef might be better, or veggie if you swing that way)
cumin to taste
salt and pepper to taste
use a cup or two shredded cabbage if you have it, I didn't
cilantro to garnish
plain yogurt (or sour cream) to garnish

Boil beets until they are tender (easily stabbed w/a dinner fork)
drain beets, reserving a cup or so of cooking water, and let cool
in large cast iron skillet sautee onions in oil
add garlic to onions after a few minutes
(if you have cabbage add it now)
add carrots and sautee until barely tender
add cumin and can tomatoes (un-drained) to skillet and reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes
meanwhile cut cooled beets in to pieces your blender can handle (peel if desired)
remove skillet from heat and let cool
place beets, tomato mixture, and broth in blender, reserving a few scoops to add texture
blend the dell out of it
add more broth and water from beets until borscht is the desired consistency
stir in reserved veggies
serve topped w/ a scoop of yogurt and pinch of chopped cilantro

This made enough borscht to feed two people bowls at least once a day over four days

appetizer as dinner

2009-06-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to bake bread. So far it's hit or miss, with the hits coming almost solely from the no-knead bread recipe full deserving of it's fame.

Last week I tried to make some french baguettes from Mark Bittman's excellent book "How to Cook Everything." They weren't awful, just a little denser than I'd like (I think more yeast next time or starting w/ slightly warmer water will help.)

So I had a meh baguette and lots of veggies from the farm box and about zero desire to cook dinner- what to do?

easy-peasy bruschetta to the rescue!

You'll need:

baguette
olive oil
garlic
haricots verts (green beans, I'm just feeling fancy today)
salami
garlic
tomatoes (I had small yellow cherry tomatoes)
salt & pepper to taste

cut baguette into slices on the slight diagonal
drizzle cookie sheet w/ olive oil, place bread on top and drizzle w/ more oil
broil bread until golden brown

I was really lazy an not in the mood for complex cooking so did this the easy way, but you could be far more gourmet about it than I was

chop haricots verts into 1/2 inch pieces
chop salami into small cubes
put beans and salami in microwave steamer and nuke until beans are just tender but still have a some crunch
mince garlic
thinly slice tomatoes
add tomatoes and garlic to beans and salami
add a little olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
microwave another 30 seconds or so
place bread on plates
top w/ veggie-meat mixture
serve

po-ta-to (say it like a hobbit)

2009-05-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

One of the things that makes me feel best as a cook is when someone says "I don't normally like _____, but this is great."

There are a few things I feel that way about too (my friend Steve's tiramisu is fantastic, tiramisu in general - meh) and potato salad is probably number one on the list. Only my feelings for it are more passionate than "don't like"; normally I can't stand the stuff.

Which is why I was amazed the first time I made this potato salad (to bring to a BBQ, it's traditional so somebody must like the stuff, right?)

Now I make it almost every summer, and just heard those encouraging words again last weekend, "I don't normally like potato salad, but this is really good!"

Potato Salad, adapted from Intercourses : an aphrodisiac cookbook (not sure about the aphrodisiac part, but everything I've made out of here has been fantastic)

You will need:

1 lb small potatoes, red, fingerling yukon, anything that boils up tasty w/out falling apart. (or more, depending on how many you're serving.)
1/4 cup mayo, regular light or some combo of the two (not ever ever ever miracle whip)
1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2/3 Tbsp dijon mustard
lots of lemon pepper
1/8 cup chopped fresh dill
1 or two hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, chopped (I've found the pricier ones are worth it)
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 small chopped dill pickle (absolutely must be the crisp refrigerated kind)

boil potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, cool and cut into bite size pieces
in large bowl (not metal) mix together mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard and dill
add lemon pepper to taste
fold in egg, artichokes, red onion and pickles. add lemon pepper to taste
fold potatoes into mixture, working in batches to get them thoroughly covered in sauce
chill until you're ready to serve

almost summer strawberry salad

2009-05-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

This week we received two baskets of strawberries in our farm box- with the warning to EAT RIGHT AWAY since late rain can make the fruit spoil quickly.

I decided to make a salad with some of them and it was fantastic!

You're going to need:

lots of delicious ripe red strawberries
a clove or two of garlic
anchovy paste (really, trust me, unless you're a vegetarian, then leave it out)
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
mixed greens (spinach, red leaf lettuce, etc I think any leafy greens except iceberg lettuce will work)
raw almonds

I started by mincing the garlic clove with the anchovy paste (maybe 1/8 a tsp worth) in the awesome garlic mincer J. got me. If you don't eat meat (or are afraid of anchovies) I'd use just a little sea salt in place of the fish paste.

Then I put the garlic anchovy mixture into a large bowl and whisked in about three Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Next whisk in a Tbsp of balsamic vinegar.

Now slice or chop up your strawberries into sizes and shapes that make you happy. I cut mine in half the long way then made little half moon shapes out of those. I used about 2/3 a little green basket of strawberries.

Toss the berries in the vinaigrette and let the marinating begin. I kinda randomly mashed at a the strawberries a few times to encourage their juices to flow.

Grab a large handful of raw almonds and smash them up into little pieces (I use the side of a ball-peen hammer and a ziploc bag I keep on the counter solely for nut smashing) or you could be fancy and buy almond slivers.

Toss torn hand-fulls of your greens into the large bowl with the dressing, mixing as you go.

To finish it up sprinkle the salad top with the almonds, either in the large bowl if you're serving it that way, or in individual bowls if you swing that way.

Enjoy!

(Feeds two adults one heaping bowl each)

I've been terrible about taking pictures of food lately, so you'll just need to imagine how vibrant and beautiful it was.

changing expectations of gingham

2009-04-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Keep watching, trust me

today

2009-04-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started w/stepping my barefoot into a shoe w/cockroach, ended finding my newly transplanted strawberries burnt to death; hope today is better.

American Apparel is run by a-holes

2009-04-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

A clothing company known for its racy ads is fighting a $10 million lawsuit brought by Woody Allen, arguing that it can't have damaged his reputation by using his image because the film director has already ruined it himself.

Basic rule: if you don't have permission to use someone's image don't do it.

Fish Tacos are fantastic

2009-04-15T10:18:00.001-07:00

Please accept my laziness in this recipe, I'll make it more legible soon.

and for some reason everything I take a picture of in my living room comes out really yellow, any suggestion?