Hell On Needles

St. Patty's Day Feast

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:06:00 +0000

I can't believe how long it's taken me to blog about the food I made during the week of St. Patty's Day! I made such good things that week and such good things after. The recipes are really starting to pile up! More on that later.

I got the bug to make St. Patty's inspired food, but I'm not actually Irish. I'm partly of Scottish descent, though, so that's close enough, right? I'll just jump right in. This is going to be a long post because I made a lot of food. And man oh man do I wish I had some of it now.

Naturally, I started with corned beef! Yeap, from scratch. Brined it myself! I used this recipe, courtesy of Alton Brown for the brine. I couldn't find juniper berries, so I used fennel seeds instead, and I threw in some dried thyme as well. I didn't want to just boil the brisket in water, so I used this recipe to braise it in the oven. After 3 hours I had a flavorful, falling apart cut of meat that was so delicious that when Husband tried it, he lamented there was only 3lbs. I loved the flavors imparted by the Guinness and beef broth. I am definitely making this again next year. Of course, I don't think I'll wait that long to try brisket again in other preparations. It's yummy! I love that juicy, falling apart texture.
Let me tell you about this whiskey sauce I made for the corned beef. See, I had some extra whiskey (more on that below). And I had all this beautiful braising liquid. And I wanted something to top the beef. So I made a roux with a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour over medium heat. I added the whiskey and about 2 cups of braising liquid, brought it all to a boil, and let it simmer until it reduced and became nice and thick. Man of man this sauce was heavenly! It was smoky from the whiskey and the braising liquid was beefy and complex. I can still remember what it tastes like, and my mouth is watering. Try this.

Mustard roasted potatoes, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. I had made these once before so I knew they would be delicious...and they were! I love the grainy mustard over these waxy potatoes. This is my go-to recipe for a healthy flavorful potato. And how well does mustard go with the rest of this food? Perfectly. Yeah.

Horseradish cream braised cabbage and beet greens over roasted beets. I based the cabbage off of this recipe, courtesy of Sassy Radish. I nixed the leeks because I didn't have any, and threw in the greens from from the beets. I wanted to work in horseradish because I thought the flavors would go nicely with the beef and mustard from the potatoes, and I didn't want anything too too creamy, so I used about 2 tablespoons of white horseradish and used the same amount of cream. It kept the dish light and super flavorful. I couldn't get enough! I also roasted the beets, sliced them thin, and plopped the cabbage right down on top of them. Oh yeah. Sweet, creamy, spicy, and slightly crunchy.

Brown soda bread, courtesy of Nourished Kitchen. This was my first attempt at soda bread. And seeing as how this recipe called for whole wheat flour and booze, well you know me. I was there. Also, I liked that you soak the flour in the buttermilk overnight. I'm new to this trick, but find it absolutely genius. Soaking the whole grains overnight helps break down the starches to make them soft and silky. This turned out really well! For the most part. Except I was kinda pressed for time...long story...so I totally undercooked it, and it wasn't cooked all the way in the middle. But you know what? I still liked it! I loved that doughy flavor. And hello! The whiskey soaked currants? Delicious. I would use more currants next time! Husband wasn't really so much a fan. Since it was a soda bread, it didn't have that yeasty flavor he likes. I would make this again, especially when I want an easy bread without a lot of steps. And oh yeah, that leftover whiskey I was talking about? It was from soaking the currants, so it had currant essence goodness in it. Yum!

And now the piece de resistance! Smitten Kitchen's Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. Seriously. Oh my god. These are by far the best cupcakes I've ever made...and possibly ever eaten. Ok, let me walk you through it. The cupcake is a Guinness chocolate cupcake, so yum right off the bat. See that little bit of chocolate in there? That's a whiskey ganache. And it was amazingly good. And that frosting? Baily's frosting. The frosting made it for me for sure. It was so good! But all three together were magical. These were a hit with everyone I gave them to. Word spread about them like a wildfire. And not only did a bunch of people ask for the recipe, one person actually made them herself that very same week! They're moist and chocolaty, and the alcohols provide a great complexity of flavor. Love 'em!

How yum does all that sound? My job may have hung in the balance, but having a lunch like this sure gave me a bit of reprieve:

In Transition

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:43:00 +0000

When I'm feeling down, and this is going to sound so corny, but it's totally true, appreciating the small things really cheers me up. A nice glass of wine. A good snuggle from my dog. A gorgeous landscape. A sweet smelling flower. People telling me it'll be okay just makes me choke back a snide comment (I'm full of snide comments, so that happens a lot when I talk to people). People telling me they're sorry makes me feel hopeless. Pretty much interacting with people when I'm down is the worst cure for me. I like to be alone. I like to be around things that don't require a brave face and won't judge me, should the urge to break down in tears strike. Most of all I like to be around things that remind me I'm small, and my problems are even smaller.

As the weather has definitely made a turn for Spring, I've been outside as much as possible, appreciating all the gorgeous blooming before it gets too hot and everything dies. Such is Southern California. Instead of driving hours and hours to the desert, this time I just had to turn my attention to my backyard.

The sweet smell of the Jasmine

One of the sweetest smells, I think, is Jasmine fresh in bloom. There's just nothing like it. They used to have Jasmine bushes all over my complex, and when I walked Theo every night I would smell it everywhere. Because of the high cost of water, they removed all the Jasmine bushes last year and opted for gravel instead. I was a bit heart broken. But I still have one small bush in my backyard. I can smell it every time I sit down to play fetch with Theo.

Wedding Freesia

When Husband and I got married 3 years ago we gave Freesia bulbs as a favor. I wanted something that people could do something with. Something that would last, but not take up space gathering dust on some shelf. I'm sure most people just threw theirs away (actually, a lot of people didn't take them home at all), but I took whatever was left and planted them in the backyard. They only stay around for a short time in Spring, but I'm always reminded of my wedding and other barftastic stuff when I see their beautiful bright flowers.

The sun is shining, the flowers are beautiful. I live in a nice place. The world is big and complicated, and I am small and simple. Everything is going to be okay.

Alright, enough with the moping! If you read my blog, or are friends with me in any way, you can probably guess that I was laid off from my job last week. I am currently unemployed. A little panicked. A little stressed. But that's not really want I want to talk about right now. There will be plenty more posts coming down the pipe...seeing as how I have nothing better to do now! Ha!

So speaking of transitions, changes, and Spring, I have a new risotto recipe to share with you. Still feeling the change in season, I decided to combine a cold weather-feeling dish with bright spring vegetables. The results were awesome! You might have seen the pictures in an earlier post. They are, unfortunately, truly ugly!

See? Blogger won't even center this ugly thing correctly. It's too horrendous.

But don't be fooled! This risotto was one of the best I've ever made. I used pearl barley instead of arborrio rice. I really liked the texture the barley gave. Each pearl had a bite to it, yet the dish was still creamy and light. I had seen a recipe for farro risotto with caramelized onions and mushrooms cooked in a balsamic sauce, and that somehow inspired this dish. I nixed pretty much everything about the recipe except the onions and mushrooms. I also like to punch up the veggie, factor, so I thought some sweet peas and fresh asparagus would brighten the dish a bit. And they delivered exactly as planned. This risotto was a perfect transition between Winter and Spring.

Barley Mushroom and Spring Vegetable Risotto
Adapted from this article

4 TB olive oil, divided
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
3oz prosciutto
2 shallots, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced (divided)
2 cups pearl barley
1 cup red wine
6-8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
2 portobello mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 TB fresh thyme, chopped
2 TB dry sherry
1 bunch of asparagus, roughly chopped
1 bag of frozen peas, thawed and drained

1. Heat a small saute pan over medium-low heat and add 2 TB of olive oil. Add the onions and let cook over gentle heat until caramelized, about 40 minutes. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl combine the mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, thyme, and 2 cloves of garlic. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes to marinate.

3. In a large pot heat the chicken or vegetable stock so it is at a bare simmer. You want to keep it hot for the risotto, but not cooking.

4. When mushrooms have marinated, place the mixture in a small saute pan over medium-high heat. Add a pinch of salt and cook until mushrooms have released their moisture. Add the sherry (or you could substitute red wine in this step if you don't want to use two different kinds of liquor) and continue cooking until mushrooms are soft and marinade has cooked down, about 15 minutes. Set aside.

5. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add the remaining 2 TB of olive oil. Add the prosciutto and cook until the fat starts to render, or a few minutes. Add the shallots and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining 3 cloves of garlic and cook for another minute. Add the barley and toss to coat in the oil. Let it toast for a minute, then add the red wine. Deglaze the pan if any good bits are stuck on the bottom of the pan and simmer until the wine has almost completely cooked away. Add the stock 1 cup at a time. Stir continuously, adding the next cup as soon as the previous cup is absorbed and cooked away. Do this until the barley is cooked through. It took me about 6 cups.

6. Add the asparagus and peas, and cook to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the Parmesan cheese and stir until it is melted and incorporated. Stir in the reserved mushrooms and caramelized onions.

Wildflowers and Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:04:00 +0000

The recipe for these is in this post, I promise!

I always try and keep a positive attitude. Emphasis on try. I have a lot to be happy about right now. Sure I'm getting fired next Tuesday, but my sister will be in town with my nephew all week! I am having my cousin over for a dim sum dinner (oh, you know there's going to be a ton more on that later). And, best of all, it's Spring! It's hard to tell it's Spring in Southern California. There isn't really Spring weather, per se. It's the period between Winter and Summer when the weather can't make up its mind. One day it'll be raining (ok, slightly drizzling), overcast, and cold, and the very next day will be all sunshine and blue skies. Then three days later the drizzles are back, etc. It goes back and forth like this until the weather settles on hot. The big Spring indicator I've found is the flowers. They're in bloom! Well, ok, also, there are these two ducks that keep, ahem, "coupling" in the pool in my complex. Yeah, that's also how you know it's Spring. Nature has its tells.

I tried not to interrupt this guy's lunch

The leaves on this flower looked like little butterfly wings

Anyway, back to flowers. The weekend before last, as my new thing for March, I drove out to the dessert with a friend of mine to check out the wild flowers that were just coming into bloom. They would have been even better this last weekend or this coming weekend, but we were both busy the whole rest of the month. But there was still plenty take in and enjoy and photograph! I had never been out there before, and it was beautiful! Definitely worth the drive! Husband had a conflict and couldn't make it. In hindsight that's probably a good thing. He would have been bored sitting in a car for a few hours, only to watch my friend and I wander around off the side of a dirt road, snapping pictures of itty bitty flower buds. Not exactly his thing.

A lot of the flowers were just showing signs of wanting to bloom

You know what is Husband's thing? Cookies.

See what I did there? That's called a transition. Guess you could say I'm good at them. Creative at least. Good at attempting creativity? Yeah, we'll go with that.

Anyway, I've had a lot of time on my hands, and depressed, and...you know what? Whatever! You don't even need a reason or excuse or logical thought in order to make oatmeal cookies. These are whole grain, baby! They have dried fruit and vitamin C! And actually, for cookies, they're pretty light on butter and sugar. Indulgent dessert these are, for certainly, but nutrient void? Certainly not! And more important: really freaking delicious! I brought some of these into work (give them a taste of what they'll be missing when I'm gone! Ha! Ok, the people I share food with aren't the people in any way involved in staffing decisions, which is the only reason Husband allowed me to share them in the first place.), and I got ton of compliments on how chewy and flavorful they were. One person said she doesn't even like oatmeal cookies, and she loved these. Another co-worker was inspired to go home and bake her own batch that very same day, after I told her my trick for thick and chewy cookies. I'm going to miss having people to feed.

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cherry Coconut Cookies

Heavily adapted from The Go Lightly Gourmet

Makes about 24 cookies

1 cup dried cherries (or cranberries), chopped
1/2 cup orange juice
1 TB Grand Marnier (optional)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
3 TB honey
1 egg, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TB orange zest
3 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, combine cherries, orange juice, and Grand Marnier (if using). Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes on medium speed).

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and orange zest. Set aside.

5. Once the butter mixture is creamed, turn the mixer to low and add the honey, then the egg, then the cherries (with juice), and finally the vanilla, waiting for each ingredient to fully mix in before adding the next.

6. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix until just barely incorporated. Fold in the oats, chocolate chips, and coconut.

7. Spoon the dough onto cookie sheets, about 1 TB per cookie (I used a 1 1/2TB disher...love those!). Space them about 2 inches apart. Gently press each ball of dough with your fingers, or the back of a spoon, until slightly pressed down. Move the cookie sheets to the refrigerator for 20 minutes (or the freezer for 10 minutes).**

8. When dough is chilled, move cookie sheets to the oven, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are set and starting to turn golden brown.

**Alternatively, if you don't have fridge space, chill the dough in the bowl prior to spooning it out onto the cookie sheets. I prefer to chill it after spooning so I know it's cold when it goes into the oven. The point of chilling the dough is so it doesn't spread too much during baking, keeping them thick and chewy.

Aside: This recipe would be perfect alliteration, if only oatmeal started with a C! It is henceforth known at coatmeal!

Try My Go-To Soup!

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:40:00 +0000

I am officially in love with this soup. It's extremely easy and fast. Just saute some onion, throw everything in the pot, blend, and enjoy! It keeps well. In fact, it tastes better the next day, when the flavors have had time to get to know each other. It's healthy. A ton of green vegetable, and protein and fiber galore! It's filling. And best of all, it's delicious!

Not to mention, extremely adaptable. I used prosciutto because I had it on hand, but bacon or pancetta would have worked just as well. Or skip it all together for a vegetarian version. You could use onion instead of shallot, leave out the sherry if you're not a booze hound like me. Use any kind of bean that tickles your fancy, same for the cheese. In fact, to completely change the flavor of the dish, just swap out the vegetable! I made a soup very similar to this once before with broccoli instead of kale. Just as delicious, but since broccoli tastes nothing like kale, it was like a whole new soup!

I used the ingredients I used here because I think they compliment each other well. Prosciutto, shallots, sherry, and sharp cheddar cheese go together like...me and food! The cannellini beans give a creamy flavor and texture. But my favorite part is the kale. I was surprised, since it was pureed into minuscule bits, that it could still have what I would call a bite to it, but it did! This wasn't some vegetable thrown in to make me feel like I was being healthy by eating my vegetables. Kale is still very much the star in this soup, which I like because kale is delicious!

Also, did you know that studies have shown that if you start a meal with a broth-based soup you're more likely to eat fewer calories for that meal because the soup fills you up? Bonus!

Kale White Bean and Cheddar Soup
heavily adapted from Food Network

2oz prosciutto, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup dry sherry
1lb kale, stems trimmed and chopped
1 14oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1. Heat large pot or dutch oven over medium heat with 1TB of olive oil. Add the prosciutto and cook until some of the fat releases, a minute or two. Add the shallots and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper to your taste.

2. Add the sherry, and deglaze the pot. Wait until it has mostly cooked away, then add the kale and let it cook down for a few minutes. If necessary, add the kale in batches, letting the previous batch wilt down a bit before adding the next. Add the beans.

3. Stir in enough chicken broth for desired consistency. All 4 cups yielded a rather thin soup, which is what I wanted at the time. Bring soup to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Remove pot from the heat and let it stand for a few minutes to cool. Use an immersion blender or a regular blender to puree the soup. Return the pureed soup to the pot and add the cheddar cheese, stirring until it is melted and incorporated.

Ugly Delicious Is The Theme

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:29:00 +0000

Last week (that's right, I'm only a week behind now!), I made some pretty ugly, but pretty delicious food. I've noticed I've really been putting my own spin on most recipes I use now. I have the recipe in mind at the store and just go with whatever looks good. Ever so slowly, but surely, I am learning to trust my own ability to throw a descent meal together. However, I haven't quite worked out all the aesthetic aspects. I give you exhibit A:

Please, avert your eyes

Erm. Hey look! Cauliflower! A food stylist I am not, but it tasted divine. I'll have to work on presentation. Here's what I ate last week:

Spinach, sage, and prosciutto stuffed pork, courtesy of My Kitchen Addiction. For whatever reason my grocery store only sells tiny pork tenderloins. They are usually about a pound, if that. That's small, right? I ended up making two, just so there would be enough for the week. I kind of royal f-ed up this dish. I didn't pound out the pork thin enough. Definitely make it as thin as you can! As a result, my pork wasn't all beautifully wound like Jen's. I also blame the fact that the tenderloin was long and thin, and that definitely hindered it's roll-ability as well. I also may have forgotten a bunch of ingredients in the spinach mixture. Like, say, the breadcrumbs and eggs. Oops! I (on purpose, I should clarify at this point) used feta cheese instead of ricotta because it was a little healthier and just sounded yummy at the store. I also used more like 1/4 cup because I wanted the filling to be mostly spinach with a little cheese for flavor. Oh yeah, I also just about quadrupled the spinach, but I also wanted extra, since I had two pork tenderloins instead of one. I also didn't quite bake it for long enough. The thermometer said it was done, but then I cut into it, and it wasn't quite. That ended up being perfect because it was for lunches, which I always nuke first anyway, so it meant the pork was perfectly done after being reheated, rather than over-cooked. And even though it was undercooked and missing some ingredients, and other mishaps that I don't want to talk about...it came out really freaking good! That's a testament to the recipe, I guess. More or less get the ingredients together and they'll sing. Heh. The pork was tender and moist, the spinach went seriously well with it. And the prosciutto was crispy and delicious, as it should be! Don't let my failure scare you off. It was actually pretty simple to make if you use half your brain, which apparently I was not apt to do.

Ugliest most delicious bit of food there ever was

Barley risotto with mushrooms and spring vegetables, courtesy of me! Recipe to follow. Oh man, this was good. This was my first attempt at non-arborrio risotto, and it came out just like it should!
Kale, white bean, and cheddar soup, courtesy of me again. Recipe to follow shortly. I have a theory that you can pretty much combine cannellini beans, sharp cheddar cheese, and any green vegetable to get the most delicious and healthy soup ever.
And technically I made these blueberry crumb bars, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, ages ago, but they never quite fit into any of my posts previously, so I'll stick them here. They had a 1lb container of blueberries on sale for $6 at Trader Joe's. You can't not buy blueberries for that price. And you can't not bake when faced with that many berries of any kind. I'm pretty sure it's a law of nature or something. These were fantastic. Sweet, buttery, crumbly, delicious!

Hellllllloooooo beautiful!

Recipe: Booze Cake

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:27:00 +0000

Booze Cake!!! I am finally sharing it with you!

Ok, so here's the deal. Last week, I got some bad news. As you may recall, late last year I was laid off from my job. I was given 60 days notice, and in the course of those 60 days I ended up finagling my way into some work and my company rescinded my notice. Yay! I was able to move to a new program, and without boring you with specifics, I'll just tell you that last week we found out this program is kaput. So there is a 99.99999% chance I am going to be laid off. Again. Next week in fact. When I found out, not surprisingly, I was a little depressed. I went home, and I tried to decide between baking and drinking, my two favorite past times (ok, actually my two favorite past times are eating and drinking, but you have to bake to eat in my world), and in the course of events Booze Cake was born!

It really was based on a number of things swirling through my mind at the time. I had bought two tubs of sour cream at the store because they were super cheap and I wanted to use some of it up, so I got to searching sour cream coffee cakes. I looked at a bunch, but they didn't quite have what I wanted. I wanted crunchy nuts and something sweet throughout. Then I found this one, courtesy of Noble Pig. It had almost everything I wanted: soft, cakey, crunchy, sweet. But I wanted something more. Booze. I am a lout, after all. So I...worked it in...in a number of places. This cake is strong, which is exactly what I wanted. I think with some tweaks, it could be a real winner for parties or just when I'm having a bad day. Make no mistake, this ain't called Booze Cake for nothing. It took me to my happy place. Of course, you can always show more restraint than I am capable of. I myself have no shame. The real knock-you-out-er is the bourbon in the icing. That doesn't get burned off in the oven. I did that on purpose. I wanted there to be actual alcohol in this cake. I didn't want a bourbon-flavored cake, I wanted a cake laced with bourbon. Oh yeah. And hey, I may sound like a total lout, but a slice of this cake and a glass of wine is way better for me than doing shots in a bar, right?

Overall, Booze Cake is a sour cream coffee cake with liquor-soaked dried fruit and chocolate chips, laced with bourbon, and topped with a walnut, chocolate topping and a bourbon icing. Yeah, you might need to read through all that again to make sure you didn't miss anything.

I made this in a bundt pan because, well, I was a dork. Next time I would just use a cake pan and put the walnut topping on top, rather than on the bottom. It still tasted great, but it didn't give me quite the crunch I wanted. So this recipe is for how I should have done it. And without further adoooooo, I give you Booze Cake!

Booze Cake
heavily adapted from Noble Pig

Cake
1/2 cup dried cherries
3 Tablespoons Grand Marnier
2 large egg whites (1/4 cup)
1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup mini bittersweet chocolate chips, divided
2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup bourbon or whiskey
3/4 cup sour cream

Topping
1 Tablespoon bourbon or whiskey
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons sour cream
Milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a 9x9 cake pan with non-stick spray.
In a small bowl combine the dried cherries with the Grand Marnier and let them soak while you put the rest of the cake together.
In a small-ish bowl, mix the egg whites, brown sugar, and salt. Mix in walnuts and 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together, and whisk until blended.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the bourbon, and mix until combined.
By hand, stir in flour mixture in 4 additions, alternating with the sour cream in 3 additions. Stir until just barely incorporated. Make sure not to over mix.
Fold in remaining chocolate chips and dried cherry mixture.
Transfer batter to the cake pan and smooth the top. Spoon the walnut mixture over the batter in an even layer. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool cake on a wire rack.
For the topping, whisk the powdered sugar, sour cream, and bourbon in a bowl. Add milk on teaspoon at a time until it is thinned to your desired consistency. Then drizzle it all over the cake.

Notes on this recipe: The recipe calls for chocolate chips, but I actually used chopped up bits from a chocolate bar in the cake. I only have those huge bittersweet chocolate chips that Ghirardelli makes, and those worked fine in the walnut topping, but I didn't want giant hunks of chocolate in the cake.

Next time I might try a different coffee cake recipe, just to see if I can get it a little lighter in texture though overall the flavors were just what I wanted. I would keep all the extras in there, for sure. In fact, next time I think I'll try adding a little orange zest as well, just to see how that pairs with the Grand Marnier. The dried cherries laced with booze were so flavorful, the walnuts gave me the crunch I wanted, and the chocolate...well chocolate is always acceptable. Bourbon is my baking booze of choice. It's smokey and keeps its flavor well after the alcohol burns away.

Really, you could completely alter this to suit your own fancies. Any dried fruit would do. Cranberries and blueberries would probably work. You could use pecans instead of walnuts. You could use tequila or rum. But this Booze Cake is what tickles me.

And if you have occasion to try your own Booze Cake, I certainly hope it is under more celebratory circumstances than my own!

Recipe: Chicken Tortilla Soup

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:31:00 +0000

When I first started this blog, I made mention of my grandmother and my adoration for her soups. It's true. I was not just fond of Grandma's soup. I was obsessed with it. Ok, not really obsessed, but when I was a kid I was rather picky (or rather my family didn't share my taste buds, thus giving the appearance I was picky...though there was plenty I ate, granted there was plenty I didn't), so the fact that I loved Grandma's soup so much was often topic of conversation. One year my mom even gave me a book called Grandma's Soup. Ok, since I have always been a little food obsessed, I guess you could call it obsessed, since it was what I looked forward to most when I would go to Grandma's house.

I never understand the people who don't like hot liquids. I've known not just one person like this, but several. They don't like soup, or coffee, or tea, or anything of that sort. I am exactly the opposite. I love hot liquids! They warm. They comfort. They generally taste delicious. It baffles me. Ironically, one of the people I know like that used to work in a coffee shop. He loved the smell.

In junior high my best friend's mom would always jokingly call me a cheap date because when they would take me out to dinner with them I would invariably order soup and some kind of appetizer or salad. I didn't do it to be a considerate guest of their generosity. I did it because that's what I wanted most off the menu. I guess it was a win-win for both parties. You know, come to think of it, I still do that.

Somehow, I went a long span without much soup. I didn't eat the cans of Amy's low sodium lentil and vegetable I always have stashed in my pantry for emergencies (ridiculously healthy and delicious!). I didn't order soups out at restaurants because I stopped eating out much at restaurants. And I didn't make much soup at home. I don't know what was wrong with me. Maybe because it was summer? But it started before summer. And soup is still good in the summer. Whatever the reason, it seems to have cleared up on its own (yes, I liken it to a disorder or disease). I have been craving soups left and right lately. And if you haven't yet guessed from the title of the post (I know, I can be a bit too subtle sometimes), I'm going to share one with you now!

Even though I do different foods for lunch and dinner, I still like to have an overall theme to all the food I cook each week. Is that weird? Not only does it allow me and Husband to mix and match how we see fit, it also somehow feels wrong to have, say, Mexican food for lunch and Indian food for dinner. Ok, it's weird. I know. At least you don't have to live with me.

So last week I was craving Mexican, and soup, and so I did the natural thing and made a chicken tortilla soup. And I totally came up with the recipe on my own. No help. No stealing. No adaptation. But really, tortilla soup is ridiculously easy to make, so that's not much of a boast. I really wanted the chicken flavor to come through in this soup, so I used only the dark meat from a rotisserie chicken (you may recall I used the white meat in the Mexican lasagna).

My mother may have just fainted in disbelief upon reading that sentence, as I always hated chicken with a passion when I was a kid...and teenager...and adult...

I would definitely recommend using dark meat. This is a very simple soup that really counts on the flavor from the chicken. You wouldn't want to disappoint the soup now, would you?

Everything in the soup is standard fair: onions, jalapeno, Mexican spices, tomatoes, chicken broth, etc., except you'll notice I added a little brown rice. I didn't intend this, originally. I had about a cup of leftover brown rice from the Mexican lasagna, so I figured I'd go ahead and throw it in the soup with everything else. Heck, it's what my grandma would have done! And in hindsight, I was really glad I did. Both Husband and I agreed the rice was a great addition to the soup. It provided more substance and texture without really altering the flavor.

Definitely don't skip (or skimp!) on the lime juice and cilantro. The lime just takes the soup to a whole other level. It would be kind of ho-hum, but with the lime the flavors just really come together into all sorts of deliciousness. Promise. A ditto for the cilantro, but to a lesser degree, as it should be. Cilantro shouldn't be in your face. It would be rude.

I used crumbled blue corn tortilla chips and slices of avocado for the topping. I have a serious relationship going on with blue corn tortilla chips. They are so tasty. As is avocado. Buttery and yummy. Sometimes garnishes are so worth it.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

makes about 8 servings

1TB olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
6 tomatoes, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 TB ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
1 jalapeno, halved and thinly sliced
1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded chicken (I used the dark meat from a rotisserie chicken)
4-6 cups chicken broth
1 can pinto beans
1 cup cooked brown rice (optional)
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
crumbled tortilla chips
sliced avocado for garnish

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the chile powder, cayenne, paprika, coriander, and salt and pepper, stir and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the jalapeno and chicken.
Add the chicken broth, enough to get the consistency you want. I used the full 6 cups. Add the pinto beans and brown rice, if using. Bring to a simmer, then turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Stir in lime juice and cilantro. Sprinkle with crumbled tortilla chips and thin slices of avocado, or any garnish desired.

Craving Mexican

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:03:00 +0000

It's still cold and rainy, which apparently means I'm still craving Mexican food, or at least Mexican flavors. Mexican flavors are awesome! Smokey and spicy tones, from peppers and spices add a ton of flavor without making dishes heavy or fattening (depending on what you make!), which I am always a fan of. I had wanted to make this Mexican lasagna again ever since the first time I made it because, yes, it was that dang good. My only issue with Mexican flavored food is the vegetables. I have a hard time thinking of good, creative side vegetables that compliment the main dish. I think I was somewhat on the money this time, though I wouldn't say I stuck with any kind of Mexican theme. And that's a-ok by me.

Ooey gooey Mexican lasagna

Mexican lasagna, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. My friend upon hearing about this dish described it kind of like enchiladas, which I think was right on. It's like enchiladas, but with more emphasis on the innards and light on the tortillas. And that's perfect for me because when I eat carb upon carb upon carb, it sends my metabolism into overdrive and I end up voraciously hungry in about 10 minutes. This unfortunately keeps me from most traditional Mexican food. Sad, but true. I wish I had taken a picture of a cut piece so you could see all the layers, but alas, I was too busy shoveling it in my mouth. Guess that means I'll just have to make it again sometime! I modified this recipe quite a bit, I'll try and make it presentable...

I replaced the processed starches with whole grain, so I used brown rice and whole wheat tortillas. There's so much flavor going on in this dish, it really wasn't a noticeable change, not that I would have minded the extra flavors. But if you're not into the taste of whole grain, I doubt you'll even notice the difference.
I halved the recipe (quartered the rice). I kind of eyeballed it while I was putting it together. I used a big roasting pan, just a tad bigger than a 9 x 13. I made it in my 9 x 13 last time I made it, so that would work too, but you really have to pack it down. This makes a ton of food, but don't worry, it'll disappear quicker than you think!
For the first layer I used, I think, about 1 1/2 cups cooked rice with 2 cans of black beans. Cooked in the onions and spices, it was some seriously delicious fare! I would reuse this Mexican rice recipe in other applications too.
For my cheese blend I used extra sharp cheddar and pepper jack. I've found sharp cheddar tends to be a bit lower calorie than other cheeses, but it packs a wallop of flavor, so I can also use less of it! I used, I think, a few ounces of the cheddar and a whole wedge of the pepper jack. In lasagna you can't skimp on cheese too much. I tried to be judicious.
Instead of beef I used shredded rotisserie chicken. I used the breast meat for the lasagna, and the dark thigh meat for another dish I'll be telling you about later. I think whatever meat you use, not a lot of the flavor will come through since there's so much else going on, so I went more for texture. The shredded chicken tasted great with it...err rather, a nice mouth feel? I hate that term. Ick.
I used one bag of frozen corn, as I try and stay away from the canned stuff.
I loved the addition of the cilantro on top. Don't skip this step if you can help it!

Whiskey glazed carrots, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. Another recipe I've made before (with the lasagna in fact). I thought it worked well last time, so I decided to try again. You may recall I had some issues with the uber-gobs of butter and sugar used, so I decided to try it my way this time. To the called for 2-3 pounds of carrots I added 2 tablespoons of butter. One tablespoon when I cooked the first batch of carrots, and another when I cooked the second. When it was time to bring the sauce together I used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. And of course, I used the full amount of whiskey called for, since that part never offended me. I loved this dish. The taste of the carrots really came through in a light, but still really flavorful and homey sauce. Now that I don't fear what this dish could do to my waistline I'll have to add it to the repertoire for sure. And I was lame and didn't get a picture of the finished product, but just imagine sliced carrot rounds glistening with a light drizzle of sauce, and you'll get the picture.

Collard greens with andouille, sherry, and almonds

Spanish collards with andouille sausage, sherry, and almonds, courtesy of bitchincamero. Melissa's version originally called for chorizo, which ironically is what turned me onto this dish in the first place, but my wonderful hippie store didn't have encased chorizo, only the loose stuff, which I didn't think would really work. But they did have some really gorgeous chicken and turkey andouille sausage that I thought would do as a substitute. I have no idea how this dish tastes with chorizo, but with the andouille, I fell in love. If you can believe it, I had never cooked with collard greens before. I know! I had only eaten them once before, at a bbq place, and they were nasty and overly salted. But these collards tasted like a chard, but with a bite, not a limp mess like spinach. A wilted green you can chew...but in a good way! Man, it was good stuff. The sherry and almonds were an awesome flavor compliment. This is one of those dishes that is so simple, both in ingredients and preparation, but is so delicious! I would highly recommend you try this recipe. It may not be Mexican (especially minus the chorizo), but I thought it still went well with the rest of the food.

And now some housekeeping items. I've been adding a recipe here and there to Tasty Kitchen, the PW's community website. If you're interested in being friends or checking out my recipes there (which are the same ones I've posted here), I added a badge in the right-hand margin which should link you to my profile there. If you haven't checked the website out yet, it's pretty neat!

Not to get all mopey on you, but remember when I was in need of self pity muffins a few months ago? Well I managed to dodge the bullet for awhile, and...let's just say there's a recipe coming up for a little something called booze cake. Yeah, the situation is that bad. I've got lots of time this week, so let's not rush into anything. It's coming, though, don't worry. And it is boozey!

Recipe: Turkey and Red Bean Chipotle Chili

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:31:00 +0000

Smokey and delicious chipotle chili

Shockingly, it's still cold and rainy (cold being, of course, a relative term). Some nights I open my front door to find a wet drizzle of rain pouring in front of me. The concept of being kept indoors because of inclement weather is definitely a foreign one where I live. It annoys me. But then I remind myself that I'm completely spoiled and I should quit complaining and appreciate the beauty this constant light stream of water has provided for the desert I live in. I've been hiking around the area a bit lately, and seeing rolling green hills dotted with sun-bleached rocks and boulders is one gorgeous sight! You know what I see in the summer? Dead, brown grass. Same color as the rocks. It's nothing special. Just desert. So I should enjoy this wet weather while I can, right? And anyway, it's called a drought and Southern California has been in one, well, forever. Again, desert. So keep it coming, rain! I'll take everything you got!

But all this cold, wet weather has kept me in the constant mood for rib-sticking comfort foods. A few weeks ago I wanted something with ground meat, and beans, and chipotle...definitely something spicy. Chili was the obvious choice. I hunted around for a recipe I liked, but nothing sounded quite right, so I decided to just make it up as I went along. Let me tell you, it turned out fantastic! I am definitely keeping this recipe in my back pocket for the next time the mood strikes. It was smokey and spicy and dense and sweet. I really liked the ratio of a little meat, some beans, and lots of peppers. I used dried kidney beans (my first time using dried beans!), and they were fantastic.

There something very important I need to discuss with you: chili powder. You know that generic chili powder you find in the regular grocery store? I can't really stand it. I don't know what's in it, but it never gives the type of flavor I'm looking for when I think chili (or chiles). So I've been buying ancho chili powder and chipotle chili powder either/both of which are far and away better than anything labeled simply as "chili powder". I resisted buying them for a long time because I didn't want to over-clutter my spice drawer, but trust me, it's worth the investment. You'll never go back to the old stuff!

I really debated whether to use turkey or beef in this chili. Husband was out of town, so his cholesterol concerns were for once not a factor. But I actually like ground turkey! I like beef too, but in the end I went with the turkey. You can really use anything you think will taste good.

You'll notice in the pictures I did a rare thing and added some garnishes to my chili. I'm not generally a garnish person, not because I don't like them, but because I'm lazy and it's usually too much effort and time standing between me and the food I want to devour. But in this case, the garnishes were necessary (and delicious!). See, I made the biggest rookie mistake in the book. What do they always say? Add heat slowly because you can always add it, but you can't take it away. Well I was a dummy. I was distracted, talking to Husband on the phone while throwing my chili together, and I wasn't exactly paying attention to just how many chipotle peppers I was putting in. See, they only sell that one rather large can of them at the store. Sure, it looks small in size, but when you open it up there are like 10 chipotles in there, at least! Once the can is open, you have to use them right? Because you can't just stick the can back in the pantry, and you can't let a single precious gem go to waste because that's a sin, right? When you get to this step in the recipe, take a deep breath and don't be afraid to walk away from the chipotles! I think I ended up adding about 6 of them. I really have no idea. I just kept, one at a time, pulling them out of the can, chopping them up, and throwing them in the slow cooker, always amazed that there were still so many left. Well when I finally got around to tasting the mixture, my mouth was on fire. Oops. I had hoped the cooking would mellow out the spicy, but no. This was chili caliente! But that's ok. You know how you tame the spicy? With garnishes! I'll bet you thought I was leading you on one big tangent never to return to the topic at hand, eh? Not so. Dairy is just about the only thing that help quell the fire in your mouth when you eat something spicy, and it just so happens that sour cream and sharp cheddar cheese go amazingly with chili. I added some chopped cilantro because I love it so, and voila! Perfect chili!

And for the record, extra chipotles can be used in a variety of ways: chipotle hummus or black bean dip, a southwestern omelet or frittata, Spanish rice, heck even another batch of chili!

Spicy chipotle chili with some much needed garnishes to cool it down

Turkey and Red Bean Chipotle Chili

1 yellow onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey, beef, or whatever meat tickles your fancy
1 TB cumin
1 TB ancho chili powder
1 TB chipotle chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp smoked paprika
4 bell peppers, any color, roughly chopped
2 poblano peppers, roughly chopped
1 large can chopped green chiles
2 cups kidney beans (or 1 can)
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
2 TB tomato paste
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped (more or less to taste)
1-2 bottles of smoked porter or other smokey or full-bodied beer (I used Stone Smoked Porter)
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro, cheddar cheese, and sour cream for garnish

In a pan over medium-high heat, saute the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add ground turkey and cook until browned and liquid has released and mostly evaporated. Add cumin, ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper, stir to incorporate, and cook for a minute or two.
Put turkey mixture in your slow cooker*. Add the bell peppers, poblanos, green chiles, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chipotles, and enough of the beer until the mixture is thinned to your desired consistency. It'll thicken up a bit as it cooks, but I like it chunky, so I didn't add the whole bottle (I had one of those huge 22oz bottles, so it probably ended up being about a beer and a quarter), which left me the unfortunate task of finishing it right then and there. Cooking is tough, right?
Turn slow cooker to low and cook chili for 7-8 hours.
Garnish with chopped cilantro, cheddar cheese, and a dollop of sour cream (or sliced avocado, or whatever else you like).

*If you don't have a slow cooker, you can use a stock pot or dutch oven on the stove. Just keep the chili at a bare simmer and it does the same thing as a crock pot.

I also discovered an easy non-invasive alternative to collagen injections. You heard it here first, people! The first day I ate my caliente creation was for lunch at work. I didn't know just how spicy it was until I attempted to finish it. There may have been tears shed. I finished it alright, and then I went to laugh with my co-workers about my achievement. I expected everyone to comment on how red my face was, but I guess that's nothing they haven't seen before, my face turns red when someone says my name out loud. Instead one co-worker exclaimed that he could tell my food was spicy because my lips actually looked swollen. So there you go. You want to impress the guys with a fish mouth (something I never understood), just eat some super spicy chili!

The creamiest cornbread you will ever eat

I paired my chili with the most amazing cornbread I've ever eaten. Seriously, it is so freaking good. I wish I could link you the recipe, but I actually got it from Peter Reinhart's cookbook. I know! I actually finally tried a recipe from it! I wish I wasn't so busy this month because after how good this cornbread was, I can't wait to try the rest of the breads in this book. What makes it so much different than regular cornbread? Soaking the cornmeal in buttermilk overnight. It's so hard to describe the consistency of this cornbread, but soaking the cornmeal gave it a creamy, moist, cakey texture that, as the PW would say, made my skirt fly up! And by cakey, I don't mean it was airy and fluffy, it wasn't. It was dense like a good cornbread should be. But I mean it had the creamy texture of a cake, rather than the grainier texture that cornbread traditionally is. I never would have described cornbread as grainy before trying this recipe, but by comparison, it is. I can usually take or leave whole corn kernels in cornbread, but in this one they provided a much needed texture balance. I did alter the recipe in one way. I left out the bacon and bacon fat. I'm sure it's even more delicious with it, but it sounded heavy. I just greased the pan with butter instead.

Accidentally Antisocial

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:23:00 +0000

Ooooh yeah, read on

A few weeks ago I had cause to commute to my company's new building that is very far away from where I live. I'm on the program that runs out of that new building, but it's been a recent thing and I never permanently relocated down there, which was fine by me because I currently live about 5 minutes from where I work and I love it! The idea of commuting 30 miles everyday is not as unsavory as being jobless, but it's definitely not high on my list of likes. But I had a training class at that location a few weeks ago, and was obliged to spend a couple of weeks at the new office with my somewhat new co-workers. A couple of them, being welcoming and friendly (what a concept!), asked me to go out to lunch with them, touting the plethora of delicious eateries in the area. It was probably wrong to do so, seeing as how it was an opportunity to build relationships with the people I've been working with, blah blah blah, but I turned them down.

You see, I was really looking forward to eating my lunch, and the prospect of going out to some local sandwich place or taco shop instead was just unacceptable! If given a choice between that and Moroccan meatball stew over curried lentils and sweet potatoes with a miso carrot slaw on the side, which would you have chosen? My lunch, right? Right. Let me tell you all about it.

Heavenly Moroccan meatball stew

Moroccan meatball stew, courtesy of The Noshery. This was one of those recipes that I saw and immediately had to make. It sounded amazing, and really, did not in any way disappoint! The broth was the perfect mix of sweet and savory with the cinnamon, turmeric, and saffron. The meatballs were flavorful delicious, I especially loved the fresh cilantro in them. And the carrots and spinach gave a nice contrast. I am definitely making this dish again and again. That much flavor can't be denied! And also, it's easy to make. Sure, there are steps, meatballs are always a pain to roll out, but definitely doable.

Ugly picture, but delicious curried lentils and sweet potatoes

I served the stew over curried lentils and sweet potatoes, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. There wasn't as much rhyme or reason I usually give to my side dishes. I knew I wanted to use something more nutrient dense than brown rice, and I had some beautiful French lentils from the farmer's market, and Trader Joe's sells those dang handy 2lb bags of sweet potatoes. I saw this recipe and thought the flavors would go well with the stew, and they did! If anything, they blended too well together and I couldn't really tell where one dish ended and the other began. But that's ok. As long as what I was eating was delicious, I was happy. There's really nothing to dislike about this dish. I absolutely love lentils, I love sweet potatoes, I would die for kale (which I seem to remember using instead of chard because we've just been getting some amazing local kale at my hippie food store), and I could eat curry flavored anything all day. So yeah, make-again-able for sure.
As the vegetable accompaniment, I made a miso carrot slaw, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen (all the way at the bottom of the post). I've made this slaw before, and it's delicious. I just finely chopped some red cabbage and tossed it with the miso carrot dressing. There's something so satisfying about topping a vegetable with a vegetable. The flavors weren't Moroccan per se, but they were light and sweet, and I thought they went well together, especially the carrot.
I sopped it all up with some Tibetan flatbread, courtesy of La Fuji Mama. This stuff was seriously easy to make, and it was pretty tasty, though it was a bit dense. If it were just the stew and this flatbread, that would have be best, but with the lentils and slaw...it was just too much food. I only had one quarter of the piece of bread, and even that much totally stuffed me. I ended up not making more when I ran out later in the week just because it wasn't really needed. Another time (with less food), I would definitely make this again.

Do you see what I mean about blowing off my co-workers? Who would turn down that amount of yummage? And believe me, it was yummage indeed.

For dinner I made a fennel and lemon slaw, courtesy of The Kitchn that I thought was just ok. Fennel and radicchio are both big flavors, and the dressing was a bit too light to go with it, and it was far too tart with the lemon juice and vinegar. I would consider trying this again with just some cabbage and using just a little dressing a bit heavier on the oil, but I would probably just try another recipe.

Ooey gooey Mexican macaroni and cheese

The real dinner star was my Mexican macaroni and cheese, which I adapted from The Chef and Photographer. I loved this recipe because it's so adaptable, and it replaces a lot of the cheese and cream with low-fat alternatives, but it still tasted amazingly creamy. Like, it tasted completely sinful. It's definitely not sin-free, but it didn't taste like I was eating mac and cheese with lowfat cottage cheese and sour cream. I know some people don't like the taste of either, but really it took on the flavor of the cheese, and the cottage cheese and sour cream just added creaminess from a texture standpoint. I made it Mexican by using pepper jack cheese and adding chorizo, jalapeno, and bell peppers (and mushrooms and spinach for some extra veg). I also used whole wheat pasta and whole wheat panko bread crumbs. Seriously, they are the best thing ever. Taste just like the regular stuff! This mac and cheese was fantastic. Spicy, peppery, creamy...what's not to like? With a few dabs of hot sauce on top Husband and I were in heaven! I doubled the recipe (used a full pound of pasta), and it filled both my casserole dishes (one 9x13, and one size smaller, I have no idea the dimensions, but it fits right inside the bigger pan). Oops! Next time I'll definitely go with her recipe. I'm guessing that would fill a 9x13 pan, which is plenty for dinner for the week! The best part is I can use this recipe again and make a completely different mac and cheese just by adding different ingredients! I would highly recommend this recipe to people looking to lighten up their mac and cheese.

I'm still several weeks behind in sharing my cooking adventures. How does that always happen? Well there are a few more of my own recipes on the horizon. I've been Ms. creative extraordinaire in the kitchen lately. I can't wait to share it all with you! And unfortunately, it looks like I'll have nothing but time in the near future. That program I was telling you about? That one where I was dreading commuting not quite as much as being jobless? Well we didn't get the contract, so now I can go ahead and start dreading being jobless, since that's probably going to be happening some time next week. *sigh* Let's just say, there's a recipe for something I call "Booze Cake" heading your way.

Recipe: Thai Green Curry

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:47:00 +0000

Wow, I am so behind! It seems like a lifetime ago I made this curry. Have you ever seen a curry leaf? I have never seen one. I even trekked to the Asian food market a few weeks ago in search of them so I could try making curry from scratch, rather than using a dubious, unknown paste. But they had none, so dubious green paste it was! I will say, this turned out to be far and away the best curry I've ever made. The lemongrass really cinched it. It was my first time using lemongrass, and I'm really unfamiliar with it. It's pretty fibrous, so I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to eat it. Anyone know anything different? I ended up bruising it (breaking the stock with my fingers), and putting it in whole, and then I fished it out at the end. Unfortunately, it broke up during cooking, so fishing it out was kind of a pain. I think I need to find a better way.

I served this curry over brown rice I had cooked up with some of the first dashi I had left over from my miso soup, and also added some chicken I had cut into pieces, tossed in egg wash and corn starch, and then pan fried. I had got it into my head that 5 pounds of chicken was a good amount for Husband and I for the whole week. What can I say? I was tired of Husband gobbling up all the food before the week was done. I then got it in my head that I would cut, coat, and fry all 5 pounds of chicken, and split it between the curry and an orange chicken dish I also made. It took, I kid you not, hours. At one point I was on the verge of tears because it was getting so late and all I had accomplished was frying a few pounds of chicken, with a few pounds still left to go! I will never do it again, in such mass quantity anyway. It actually turned out delicious. But it was definitely one of my more bone-head moves. Time management is not my strong suit by any means!

It's worth noting that green curry paste is rather spicy, however the flavor does mellow a bit. When Husband and I tried the curry while it was cooking, I held off on adding more curry paste because we both agreed it was pretty darn spicy (a little too much for me), but the next day the flavors had married and the heat had dissipated (just a little bit). I still found it had a kick, but it was not longer a kick in the face. You might want to keep that in mind when deciding whether to add more curry paste to the dish. Husband was a little disappointed, but he still liked the dish either way.

Really this recipe could be modified for a super-easy weeknight meal. Keep the onion, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass, but for the rest of the veggies, you could always just use a frozen medley. They are already cooked, so there's a much shorter cook time. Just throw everything in the pan, add the coconut milk and curry paste and simmer for a few minutes. For some protein, you could pan-sear some tofu and throw that in. Just don't forget the lime and basil and the end. They really brighten the dish! For me, it's all about the water chestnuts. I love them (so moist and crunchy!), but for some reason never cook with them. Oh ho ho, is that going to change.

Thai Green Curry

makes about 8 servings

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 carrot, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

10 oz mushrooms, sliced

1 stock lemongrass, bruised (break the stocks between your fingers)

2 TB ginger, minced or grated

1 cup frozen peas

1 can water chestnuts

1 can coconut milk

1 TB green curry paste

juice from 1 lime
1 handful basil leaves (preferably Thai basil), cut into ribbons

salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the carrot, celery, bell pepper, mushrooms, ginger, and lemongrass, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the peas and water chestnuts.
Add the coconut milk and curry paste, and stir to incorporate. Add more or less curry paste to taste, it's quite spicy, so go slow. Simmer mixture for 10-15 minutes until the sauce has thickened a bit.
Stir in lime juice and basil. I served mine over brown rice with some diced chicken.

Two New Things

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:28:00 +0000

I accidentally stumbled onto a New Year's Resolution that I didn't even mean to make, but that I am totally loving and moving forward with full steam. Every month I do try two new things: something out and about where I live, and a meal out at a new restaurant. At the end of the year I will have tried 12 new things to do around the city, and hopefully eaten 12 awesome meals! This is preferably with Husband, but as he's been out of town so much, I'm not letting him slow me down! With the out and about part anyway. He refuses to miss the food portion of our journey.

In January we tried an eatery we saw on that Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was so awesome we've already been back a second time (and it's really far away!). For our outing we jogged together around a lake. Ok, we'd done that before, but never together, and we had some much needed us time.

In February we spent Valentine's day at a restaurant we'd both been to before, but not in several years. We had blacklisted it for years because we hated the snooty attitude we experienced there when we were young, lowly college students. But we decided to give the place another try and loved it. Our older, more experienced palettes could better appreciate just how good the food was, and our server was awesome. Either the snoot is gone, or we're just old enough not to warrant it. For the outing I hiked (which I posted about on my dog blog) a local mountain I never even knew was there. And because I'm a dork who likes extra credit, last weekend Husband and I went to an Italian place we drive by several times a week (it's right by Theo's doggy daycare!) but had never been to. We went with some neighbors of ours who are fellow Corgi owners. We also checked out a walking trail that's right across the street from our housing complex we had no idea was there. It's not as good as the other walking trails in the neighborhood, but in light of recent local events, those weren't available last weekend.

What's in store for March? There's a restaurant that opened early last year that we've been meaning to try, well, since it opened! This is the month we're finally getting off our butts to do it! And I'm hoping to get out to the desert to see some wild flowers this weekend, but the scheduling is tough, so I'm not sure if it'll work out. If it doesn't, well I just have no idea what I'll be doing. But I figure there are museums and parks to check out, botanical gardens, strawberry picking, and heck there are always more lakes to walk around and more mountains to climb.

Really, it's for fun, so there are no hard and fast rules. The intent is to get out and do things. It doesn't have to be new so much as special and eventful.

Anyone have an suggestions for general out and about activities? I still have ten to go!

Recipe: Miso Soup

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:52:00 +0000

miso soup

I have always loved miso soup. I never go to a Japanese restaurant and not order it. It's actually one of the reasons I married my husband. He thinks it's too salty, so he always gives me his bowl.What can I say, we're just compatible. In high school when my mom would go out of town for work (which was, at points, more often than anyone liked), my dad and I would go to the same small, neighborhood sushi place. It was our thing. We ended up there so often that the owner of the restaurant got to know us. She would always ask how we were, and when I went off to college, she would ask how I was. I always ordered their miso soup, and I always loved it.

Miso was always so mysterious to me. I loved everything flavored with miso, but I didn't really know what it was. And miso soup? Who knew what the heck was in that! All I knew was it was delicious, and that was good enough for me.

Well miso, if you don't know, is a paste made from fermented soy beans. There's white miso (which is really more yellow), red miso, brown miso, and probably some others. The color really just refers to their intensity of flavor. White miso is mild and smooth, while brown miso is a much stronger flavor. They sell 20 different varieties at my local asian food market, but they also carry it at the health food store.

Then there was dashi, the broth that miso soup is based around. I remember generally reading something about dashi being made with dried fermented fish something or other and was effectively scared away for a few years. But upon further reading, it's actually not that scary. It's a bit of a process, but dashi has just three ingredients: water, kombu seaweed, and bonito flakes (the nasty fish stuff I was talking about, but really, it's not nasty at all). Again, I found the kombu and bonito flakes at my asian market, but I've seen the ingredients at my local health food store, and the bonito flakes were at Whole Foods as well. They're those ingredients you never realize are there because you weren't looking for them. Really search the asian food isle next time you're at the store and you might be surprised with what you find. Then again, if you go to a big chain grocery store, you might not be. I'm always horridly disappointed by what they carry in the asian food isle at my grocery store. It's itty bitty!

So I've reached another point on my food journey. A few weeks ago I made my own miso soup that I think could rival that of any sushi joint in the area! I stocked it with a ton of tofu, seaweed, and scallions, which made it substantial enough for dinner when I paired it with a small salad. It was salty, and savory, and delicious! Husband even had a few bowls! It really amazes me how something with so few ingredients can taste so deep and complex. The real time commitment with this recipe is the dashi. You have to be near the stove to keep an eye on it, and you have to make first dashi and then second dashi. But once the dashi is done, it's a matter of minutes to whip up a bowl of miso soup for dinner every night. I highly recommend if you're in the mood for something light, healthy, and delicious.

What's this about first dashi and second dashi? Well basically you cook the kombu and bonito in water to release their rather strong flavors. This is first dashi. This isn't the stuff that miso soup is made of. It's too strong, so it overpowers the subtle white miso. But it does make an excellent general purpose broth. I used some to cook up some brown rice for a curry, and it gave the rice a great flavor. You cook a new batch of water with the left over kombu and bonito flakes, and the delicate broth you get from this second dashi is what you want to use for the soup. This is where I went wrong the first time I tried to make miso soup. I hadn't yet heard of second dashi. Also, I used red miso instead of white. Miso soup is delicate and needs to be treated with a light hand. Red miso and first dashi have their place in my kitchen, just not in my miso soup.

Don't be scared, give it a try!

Miso Soup
(dashi recipe adapted from Serious Eats)

For first dashi:

8 cups water
1 long strip of kombu (about 5x8")
1 cup tightly packed bonito flakes

For second dashi:

8 cups water
kombu and bonito flakes reserved from first dashi

For miso soup (one bowl):

1/2 TB white miso paste
1/4 cup cubed firm tofu
1 TB dried wakame seaweed
2 TB chopped scallions

For first dashi:

Wipe off any excessive powder off the kombu with a damp paper towel. Some powder is desired.
Put water in soup pot. (It's important to use water you would consider drinkable, as dashi is very delicate in flavor and bad tasting water will come through.) Add kombu to water and turn stove to medium heat. Slowly bring the water and kombu near to the point of simmering without actually letting the water boil. (This is important, as letting the water get that hot will cause the kombu to release icky tasting chemicals.) Using medium heat this should take about 10-15 minutes, depending how how cold the water was to start with (mine was chilled, so it took 20 minutes).
Before the water boils, remove the kombu and reserve it for the second dashi. Keeping the water over heat, add the bonito flakes. Bring mixture to a boil, turn off the heat, and let the flakes sit in the water for about 2 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a mesh strainer. Reserve the bonito for the second dashi.
First dashi isn't used for miso soup, but it can be used in place of chicken, vegetable, or seafood stock in other applications.

For second dashi:

In a soup pot, combine water and kombu and bonito flakes reserved from the first dashi. Again, make sure to use drinkable water.
Heat mixture over medium-low heat at the barest of simmers for about 10 minutes. Like the first dashi, letting the water boil will result in icky dashi, so be diligent!
Strain dashi through a mesh strainer, discard kombu and bonito flakes. Dashi should be a beautiful barely golden color.

For the miso soup:

To prepare one portion of soup, fill a bowl with the second dashi made above. Add the miso paste, you can add more or less to your liking. I found 1/2 to 3/4 TB per bowl was a good amount. Whisk the miso around until it is incorporated fully into the dashi (it should look cloudy). Add tofu, wakame seaweed, and scallions. Give the seaweed a minute to rehydrate, then enjoy!
You could always make this a more substantial meal by adding soba noodles and spinach.

Seriously Citrusy

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:14:00 +0000

I never thought I'd be one for seasonal cooking, mostly because when I first started cooking, I was completely ignorant of what the heck foods you get in what the heck seasons. I know this will make some people want to reach through their computer and smack me, but living in California, I've always lived in close proximity to produce grown here in my state, as well as the stuff grown down in Mexico and Chile and other South American regions in our off-season. Blueberries, for example, never leave the grocery store. Sure, in the middle of January they cost $6 for the tiniest of containers, but they're there. When I wasn't cooking, I wasn't buying as much fresh produce, so I never really noticed when the produce was cheap vs. ridiculously expensive in the context seasonality. It's a bit pathetic, I know, but I have since developed a healthy respect for summer fruits, winter leafy greens, and everything in between.

What does that have to do with anything? Well I've been having a serious hankering for citrus the last few weeks, which, you'd never guess, is in season right now! Or at least, it was when I was actually making the things I'm about to share with you.

candied orange peels

First, I saw recipe after recipe for candied citrus peels, and decided to try it. Apparently the natural pectin in citrus peels, when cooked with lots and lots of sugar, become like a gummy candy. Neat, huh? I had to try this with orange peels because I used to love the orange gummy candies my grandma kept in her candy dish when I was a kid (you know, those ones that are shaped like an orange slice?), and it worked out because I also was making orange chicken later that day, so I used both the juice and the peel from the oranges. I'm so green!

Candying orange peels is quite an undertaking! I used this set of instructions, courtesy of I made that! First I peeled and cut the peels from about 8 oranges (it took a long time). Then, I boiled the peels in water and a ton of sugar. Now be careful here. Keep it at a very very gentle simmer. I let my liquid boil too violently and ended up with a hard sticky mess (which I rectified by adding more water to thin it back out). Then I parked the pot of peels in the fridge for 2 days (it took up more room than I would have liked). When they were good and soaked I dried them in the oven, over verrrrrry low heat. Then tossed them with sugar, and voila! Candied citrus peels!

I will say, this was not an easy recipe. There were a lot of steps, and as I found out, doing things not just so resulted in not exactly pristine results. But that's ok. I learned some valuable lessons I can employ next time around.

Overall these turned out pretty good. Texture-wise, they were perfect: soft and chewy. Taste-wise they were good, but some of the peels still hung on to a bit of their bitterness. I think that could be remedied with cooking the peels longer, and soaking them in the right consistency liquid. Basically, if I don't mess it up next time, they should come out a little better. Since it's the pectin in the peels that makes them gummy and delicious, fruits with a thicker peel come out yummier. I hear pomelos are actually the best citrus to candy.

meyer lemon marmalade over Greek-style yogurt

Next, when I saw the recipe from Simply Recipes on meyer lemon marmalade, I knew I had to make it immediately. First off, I am completely in love with meyer lemons. They are so sweet and mellow and citrusy and just delicious! Now jams vs. jellies vs. preserves vs. marmalades, etc. always confuses me a bit, but marmalade is made from citrus and includes the peels, so can have a bit of a bite to it that some don't like. But I like it just fine! Unlike my candied orange peels, this marmalade was easy and came out delicious! I've been enjoying a few spoonfuls on some Greek-style yogurt, and together they are heavenly! I highly recommend.

In this cold winter weather, I love the bight, light flavors of citrus to bring sunshine to my day.

Recipe: White Whole Wheat Bread with Wheat Germ and Rye

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:10:00 +0000

White whole wheat bread with wheat germ and rye, one baked, one rising

I have stumbled upon a major pet peeve. In my daily perusal of the interwebs I often see baked goods advertised as whole wheat. I get excited, go to the site to check out the recipe, and 9 times out of 10 I am disappointed to learn the item in question is not, in fact, "100%" whole wheat. Sometimes it's a sprinkling of whole wheat flour, and sometimes it's just a sprinkling of AP flour, but to me it doesn't matter how much whole wheat flour you work in, if you still us AP flour in the recipe, I don't think you should call it "whole wheat". Is it better to replace half the flour in a recipe with whole wheat rather than none? Totally. Can you still boast that it's a healthier baked good? Sure, why not. But if I'm going to be healthy, I want to go all the way. And if I'm not making something already sinful, like dessert, I like to eliminate the processed starches where I can. Ok, I'll get down off my soapbox now.

So a few weeks ago I attempted my first loaf of whole wheat bread. I started with this whole wheat with wheat germ and rye recipe, courtesy of Annie's Eats, because, well...the picture just looked really good. I'm a consumer whore, I know. But I also liked the use of honey instead of sugar, and the wheat germ. I've had a big bag of wheat germ in my refrigerator for months, and I'm always looking for good ways to use it. But I did something I don't normally do. I deviated. *gasp!* I know! I planned to follow it to the letter, in the hopes of getting a loaf that looked as pretty as Annie's, but the recipe was lacking in one area. That dang 2+ cups of AP flour. At the very last minute I decided I didn't want it in there. So I modified. And you know what? I conquered! I don't know what took me so long, but this was actually my first loaf of bread. You know, like sandwich bread, in a loaf pan and all. And really, it was easy!

For my modifications I used white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat flour. If you don't already know, white whole wheat flour is just as healthy as regular whole wheat flour. It's just made from white wheat, rather than red wheat. I find it lighter in both taste and texture. The only place I've found it is Trader Joe's, but it's also readily available online (King Arthur's Flour is always a good resource). Also, I nixed the AP flour entirely. I was afraid this might make the dough too heavy, so I added some vital wheat gluten. I found this at my local natural food store months ago, I've not seen it at the big grocery stores, unfortunately. I'm really not actually sure exactly what it does, but I think it's supposed to give a little help to more robust flours to help their gluten develop, which is how they rise and get all delicious. I honestly have no idea how this recipe would turn out without it. It would probably be fine. Worst thing, it would be a bit stubby of a loaf. Perhaps adding a bit more yeast would be in order? As you can tell, I am by no means an expert on bread baking...yet.

Anyway, this bread was faaaaantastic! It had a great crust on the outside, nice and crunchy, but thin like a sandwich loaf crust should be. The bread was sweet and nutty, yet light. I wish I had gotten a picture of a slice of the bread. Next time. I definitely can't boast that baking my own sandwich bread is just as easy as buying it at the store, but it wasn't traumatic, so now I cringe a little every time I buy a loaf. Heh. That's ok though, I don't eat bread very often, so I actually need all those preservatives they put in. Plus, Husband, always supportive of my baking, downed both of these loaves in a week. Ok, I helped. But he seems to feel the need to destroy everything that comes out of the oven. I'm ok with that.

I also found out my bread slicing skills are dismal! They were too thick, too thin, slanted, ugly. I need one of those bread slicing machines, like they use at California Pizza Kitchen. Or, you know, just learn not to be completely inept. So practice, or winning the lottery...whichever comes first.

I was just planning on linking the recipe, but I think I actually modified this recipe enough to post it here. I can't call this 100% whole wheat either, because technically there's rye flour and wheat germ in it too, but I'm comfortable calling it whole wheat bread without feeling like a total hypocrite.

Not the best picture, but one dang good loaf of bread

White Whole Wheat Bread with Wheat Germ and Rye
adapted from Annie's Eats

Yield: two 9-inch loaves

Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups warm water (about 100 degrees)
1 ½ TB instant yeast
¼ cup honey
4 TB unsalted butter, melted
2 ½ tsp salt
¼ cup rye flour
½ cup toasted wheat germ
5-6 cups white whole wheat flour
4 TB vital wheat gluten

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the water, yeast, honey, butter (make sure the butter is also under 100 degrees so you don't kill your yeast) and salt with a rubber spatula. Mix in the rye flour, wheat germ, 2 cups of the white whole wheat flour, and the vital wheat gluten.
Add 3 cups of the white whole wheat flour, attach the dough hook and knead at low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Add more flour as necessary to get the dough to the right consistency. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Knead just long enough to make sure that the dough is soft and smooth, about 30 seconds.
Place the dough in a very lightly oiled large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free area until the dough has doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Heat the oven to 375°. Gently press down the dough and divide it into two equal pieces. Gently press each piece into a rectangle about 1-inch thick and no longer than 9 inches (width-wise, so it will fit in your loaf pan). With a long side of the dough away from you (hot dog, not hamburger), roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing down to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam-side up and pinch it closed. Place each cylinder of dough into a greased 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, seam-side down, pressing the dough gently so it touches all four sides of the pan. Cover the shaped dough; let rise until almost doubled in volume, 20 to 30 minutes.
Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim reads 205°, 35 to 45 minutes. Transfer the bread immediately from the baking pans to a wire rack; cool to room temperature.

A few notes on the recipe:

If you can't find white whole wheat flour, you could certainly just use regular whole wheat flour. Next time I think I'll try this, just to see how much the loaf differs in taste and consistency.
To toast the wheat germ I just spread it evenly over some foil and put it in my toaster oven until it smelled done (maybe 5 minutes).
I only have one loaf pan (another thing to add to my always-long kitchen list!), so I baked the loaves one at a time. Obviously, the second loaf didn't do it's full rise in the loaf pan. I just left it out on the counter to rise, and when I transfered it to the loaf pan, I made sure to be gentle so I didn't press out any air.

I Am Here To Corrupt Your Waistline

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:52:00 +0000

Here's the thing. I love baking. I'm all about it. I see a ton of delicious recipes everyday with all these dang food blogs I read. When I have time over the weekend, I make a recipe or two. Then I eat a small portion of it, and then I give the rest to Husband, or occasionally bring what's left to work, if Husband will spare it, which he usually won't. ("You want to give my dessert away to those people? Heck no!") Heck, sometimes he won't even share with me! ("My muffins!") So of course, when Husband is feeling overweight, he blames me and my waistline-corrupting ways. He's right...but at the same time, he doesn't have to eat 4 pumpkin muffins as soon as they come out of the oven. He would argue that he does. Heh.

Anyway, if you couldn't already tell, I'm going to share with you some of the baked goods that came out of my kitchen a few weeks ago. Be warned, they were all delicious and completely bad for you in excess amounts!

Meyer lemon bars, or as I like to call it, a slice of heaven

Meyer lemon bars, courtesy of, who else, Smitten Kitchen. I knew I wanted lemon bars. I knew I wanted to use Meyer lemons. As soon as I saw that Deb had used an Ina Garten recipe, it was like the planets aligned. These were heaven in my mouth. They were sweet, but not too sweet. I always trust Deb's recipes on the sugar because she seems as averse to overly sweet desserts as myself. They were just the right touch of sour, and the shortbready crust was buttery and divine. I'm sure they would be just as heavenly with regular lemons, but I really love the mild and slightly sweeter flavor of meyer lemons. I did the full-size lemon layer. I wanted lemon not lemon, after all. This recipe made a big 9x13 pan of bars, so some of these actually made it into work for my co-workers and they were quite a hit. With everyone lamenting the weather at the moment, these are a great way to brighten anyone's mood.

Ugly, hideous, delicious best cocoa brownies

The best cocoa brownies, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. I didn't intend to make these. But then Deb posted the recipe, and I happened to have all the ingredients, and they happened to look very simple to make. And dang it, I can't resist chocolate! Oh my word these may have just been the best brownies I have ever had. So dense and moist and fudgey and rich, but on top of all of that, they weren't overwhelmingly so. They weren't too rich (though it's hard for chocolate to ever be too rich for me), or too dense. Substancial, but not heavy. And keeping them small made them a perfect bite when I wanted something sweet and bad.

You may have noticed that my brownies turned out...quite ugly. That's a story I can hardly recall without bitter anger. Ok, not really. Ok, maybe just a little bitter anger. So I baked and baked (see items 1 and 2 above), then I let everything cool and went to take a shower. Husband came into the bathroom a few minutes later to let me know the brownies were good. Aw, that's nice. I figured he had cut a corner out of the pan to try. That's what I normally do when I can't wait for something to cool. But when I got back to the kitchen, all squeeky clean, I found that someone had obliterated my brownies. They were ragged and crumbled everywhere. I may have pulled my hair while screaming NOOOOO!!! at the top of my lungs. My beautiful brownies! Who would do this to you! I try not to get mad at people when they have good intentions, but I was mad. I attempted to calmly tell Husband that next time I would prefer if he would not "helpfully" cut my entire pan of brownies, as he had ruined my whole batch. And then he got all offended and tried to act like I was being irrational and mean.

And then I really got mad and told him he had totally ruined my entire batch of brownies! And, being Husband, he refused to admit he had done anything wrong because he had accomplished what he wanted, which was cutting the brownies into HUGE pieces (that way he wouldn't feel like a total pig when he ate just one piece). They were cut, they tasted good, he didn't see the problem. I could have divorced him right then and there. Uggggh! And top it all off, because my life wouldn't be mine without a cherry on top, he cut the brownies in the pan. As you can probably surmise, sharp knife + metal pan = scratched pan. Yes, there is now a permanent reminder of brownie-gate. To his credit, Husband did actually feel bad and apologize (for scratching the pan at least, I honestly don't remember if he begrudgingly apologized for the brownies themselves), and promised not to mess with my baked goods again.

There's a lesson to learn here, people! When letting brownies cool and you have a chocoholic husband on the premises, guard them with your life!!! Or you'll be in danger of the monstrosity you see above. They're so ugly and hideous! But really, they tasted awesome. I am totally going to make these again soon and see if I can't get a descent picture out of them. I know they don't look like much, but I highly recommend this recipe!

Cara cara orange curd on no-kead walnut bread

Cara cara orange curd, courtesy of The Kitchn. I don't know how long cara cara oranges have been around, but I just discovered them. I'm pretty sure they're a recent development. This is why I love the natural food hippie store where I like to shop. They don't just have awesome fresh and local produce, but they actually cut up samples for you, and will talk with you about what it is, if you ask. And I'm talking persimmons and cara cara oranges, not granny smith apples and navels, like they do at the grocery store next door. A few weeks ago they had a ton of cara cara oranges, which someone (another shopper, not a produce person) told me was a cross between a grapefruit and an orange, but wikipedia says otherwise. But I can see where people would get that impression, since their pinkish-orangey flesh looks very much like that is the case.

Anyway, when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. I've always wanted to try lemon curd, and this sounded just so much better. It was so good. Heaven in your mouth good. It was sweet, and tangy, and sour, and creamy, and just about any other delicious adjective you can think of. Check curds off the list of things I am afraid to make. This was easy. I wouldn't call it simple, as there were a number of steps, but there were no tips and tricks to keep in mind. Just followed the instructions, and deliciousness ensued. I love it when that happens!

I enjoyed the curd most on this no-knead walnut bread, also courtesy of The Kitchn. It's just Jim Lahey's classic bread with some extra goodies thrown in. I'm not usually a fan of raisins in bread, but I used golden raisins, and with the walnuts and cinnamon, together they gave the bread a sweeter, more desserty quality, which went great with the orange curd. I would definitely add this bread into my usual rotation. Raisins and all!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Er, Lunar New Year that is. Speaking of which, I had the best dim sum I have ever had last weekend. We were seated in a main drag rather than the wasteland that is reject cart area. And the quality of bbq pork and shrimp was just out of this world, melt in your mouth delicious. My only complaint was that the pork bao cart didn't come by until the very end when we were stuffed. Almost unforgivable! I say almost because we forced ourselves to eat two orders of it anyway.

But I have a confession to make. This post has nothing to do with Lunar New Year. I just thought it was appropriate to point out a New Year holiday, while I blog about another one past. That's right, it's time I finally got around to telling you more about the meals I was eating around the new year. You may remember from my Year in Review post a few weeks ago I talked about the two most delicious meals I ate were right before the new year. Well here they are!

A few days before New Years Eve I took advantage of my week off from work to make bagels. Why? Well here's one of the things I love about Husband: he is endlessly supportive of my cooking, and especially my baking. It's not surprising since he obviously benefits big time from the effort, but he never tires of telling me how proud he is. Even better, there are a few items Husband will no longer buy and insists that I make myself, bagels being one of them. Husband is also a man of tradition like myself (erm, a woman of tradition in my case), few traditions, but traditions none the less. A big one with him is smoked salmon from Seattle. I'm not talking lox, people. I'm talking salmon that is actually smoked. I've only ever seen it in fish markets in Seattle, and it is definitely worth the hassle that is trying to get ice on a plane nowadays (here's a tip: bags of ice are not allowed, they could leak and ruin other people's luggage, but cores that come with coolers that have caps, or I would assume other sealed vessels, are allowed. But you have to check it. If some idiot at the check-in counter tells you ice is flat out not allowed, ask to talk to her manager because she's a frakking liar). Anyway, every time we go to Seattle, we come home with smoked salmon, and it goes in the freezer until it is consumed by the appropriate method, which is on a bagel with cheese of some kind and slices of apple. So freaking good.

So that's how I ended up with bagel attempt number two (my first attempt was blogged here), and I am happy to report it was a resounding success! Whereas last time there were pretty good, this time they were great. I've definitely still had better at bagel shops, but I've also had worse, so that's pretty darn good, right? Not to mention these blow those icky store bought bagels out of the water. I stuck with Peter Reinhart's recipe, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen (though I could have just looked it up in my Peter Reinhart cookbook, but I like Deb's notes).

I took Deb's advice and did the egg wash. I like the texture an egg wash gives, and since I did poppy seeds and sesame seeds, I wanted to make sure they would stick. I generally prefer my bagels denser and chewier (I boiled them extra which supposedly made them chewier, but not quite dense-chewy), but they had a great crust and the flavor was...well, you just can't beat that fresh out of the oven flavor. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the finished salmon-bagel sandwich because, well, when faced with such deliciousness I just can't wait.

My bread doughs have been coming together much better ever since I excepted the fact that my doughs always seem to require more flour than recipes call for. You know when something says to add 6-8 cups of flour, depending on what you need to keep it soft and elastic without being tacky? Yeah, I usually get to about seven, and then after kneading for a few minutes it gets sticky again, so I add more, etc., etc., that I usually end up with over 8 cups. I just don't pay attention to the recipe and try to listen to my dough instead. It works out much better that way.

I remembered this being very labor intensive, and even though it's a two day process, it really wasn't that bad this time around. Yay for my Kitchenaid mixer which does all my kneading for me! Gotta love it. I don't know how often I'll make bagels just because I try and limit my carb eating (not in an Atkins way), and these aren't whole grain, but I will definitely add this recipe to my special occasion bread mental list.

My other success at the end of last year was my New Years Eve dinner. It was kind of accidentally fancy. Really we were supposed to hang out with friends on New Years Eve, but after spending the week running around trying to accomplish a year's worth of ignored errands in the span of 3 days, we were exhausted and just wanted us time. So we flaked. I'm a bad person. I know. It's ok though, I made them brunch the next day.

Also, we had this fish. See, the night we got back from visiting Husband's parents, Husband was watching that show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network, and the episode on ended up featuring a place in our city, so I sat and watched the segment with him. It was this fish joint owned by two brothers who are deep sea fishermen. One brother does the grilling, the other brother runs the seafood counter. Everything is fresh, made to order and looked delicious. It looked so good, in fact, that we decided to trek over there for lunch the very next day! Man oh man is that show good for business. On a Tuesday at 11:30am it was packed, and it stayed packed until we left about 75 minutes later. But the food was great. We've already been back there this year. But the best part is their fish counter. There are slabs and slabs of fresh caught fish! Nom! So Husband and I got some to take home and make ourselves. We ended up, among other things, getting some escolar, a fish I'd never heard of but looked delicious (and it was!).

So long story long, we had this escarole we really needed to cook or it was going to spoil, so we stayed in and cooked rather than going out and partying. Heh, me party...yeah right. I had no idea what I was doing. When I was shopping for ingredients at the store I had no idea what I was doing either. I just grabbed ingredients that called out to me and didn't question it. When I was cooking in the kitchen I just kind of started putting those ingredients together and didn't question it. What I got was this:

Don't ask me how! It just happened! Like magic! The fish is the escolar, grilled with meyer lemon and orange garlic butter. To the bottom left is a shaved fennel and raw beet salad with walnuts and a meyer lemon, truffle oil, and champagne vinaigrette. And to the top left is a roasted cauliflower puree topped with small pieces of roasted cauliflower and sauteed leeks. It was amazing. By far one of the best meals I've ever cooked. And I didn't use a single recipe. How could I when I didn't even know what I was making? Go figure. The fish was so buttery it just melted in your mouth. Husband was making all sorts of groaning noises while he was eating, he was so happy. And no, I did not eat that huge piece of fish. I ate half of it...and Husband ate the other half on top of his huge piece. Yeah, he really liked it.

Phew! Slowly, but surely, I'm getting all caught up! Is anyone tempted to attempt bagels, or have you accidentally made a gourmet meal before?

Christmas Time In Napa

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Cakebread Cellars barrel rooms.

Hey, did you know I went to Napa for the weekend while Husband and I were visiting his parents in the Bay Area for Christmas? We had an absolutely fabulous time. As I observed to Husband on our drive home (he was lamenting that we were leaving so soon), Napa is a vacation spot where basically all your do is drink wine and eat really great food. It's accepted. And really, that's what Husband and I like to do when we're on vacation. When people ask how a trip was I tell them whether the food was good in that area. When people ask what we did, I tell them all about the great places we ate. For example, France? Amazing. In Paris we could fall out of our hotel and and find a bakery selling chocolate croissants for next to nothing that were the most amazing things we've ever tasted. In Normandy the food was heavy and rich without being heavy and rich, which is all I know how to describe it. Delicious and comforting! Our honeymoon in Hawaii? Great, amazing fish. Had to seriously scout out places to find a sliver of vegetable, and they usually cost up the butt if we did find any. Seriously. We ate at one place that had meat on one side of the menu and fish on the other. No sides, no salads, no fruit cup. After a few days of eating like this, I felt completely disgusting. So yeah, I'd say Napa is the ideal vacation spot for us! Especially since I am a self-admitted lout!

Anyhoo, we drove up Saturday afternoon, myself, Husband, his parents, and the dogs, and checked into our hotel: the Napa River Inn. Can't recommend this place enough. It was clean and quaint (and I don't mean that as a nice way of saying small). The staff was very friendly (the bell hop gave the dogs treats). We got adjoining rooms without having to ask, and we found in one of them a little dog welcoming package, including food bowls, treats, and a towel for the floor for each of the dogs. The rooms were spacious, and it was right in the center of town. You could walk anywhere. And let me tell you about the breakfast! There is a bakery right next door. It's amazing. When you walk in your room there is a card to fill out for your complimentary breakfast the next morning. You fill out what you want from 3 categories and what time you want it delivered to your door. The next morning I got a scone, a breakfast sandwich, and a fruit cup. Husband got the same, but paid a bit extra for a cinnamon bun instead of the scone. Image the hugest scones and cinnamon buns you've ever seen, and now double it. That's what we got. I ate the fruit cup, about 1/3 of the scone, a few bites of cinnamon bun, and half the breakfast sandwich and I felt like I would be stuffed for days. And it was so good I didn't want to stop eating it!

After we checked in, we were hungry, so we went straight to a winery I heard had a great deli (thanks for the tips, Kelly!). V. Sattui winery definitely had its good points and not so good points. The grounds were gorgeous and their large stone buildings were beautiful to look at. They had a ton of picnic tables outside, so there was plenty of room to sit and eat. Their deli and shop had some really great items, cheeses and meats that went on for days. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that they would actually make you a sandwich from all the breads, meats, and cheeses they sold. Not so. They have a ready-made food "deli", and that's it. You don't want mayo on your sandwich (I try not to touch the stuff)? I guess you just have to wipe it off. Even though you can buy your own bread, cheese, and meat and assemble it yourself, and even though they have the means to do it for you (a knife is really all that's needed), and even though they could probably make more money by charging you double, they refuse. I just couldn't get over the ridiculousness of that. That said, the already made food was quite good. We got some sandwiches, soups, and roasted vegetables and shared. Everything was tasty except the vegetables, which were still basically raw. I would certainly come back, bring my own knife, and make my own sandwiches. Next time. Oh, it was also insanely packed. Like it took 30 minutes just to get to our number to order the food, which is actually good because it took about that much time to find enough space between all the bodies of other people to even see the display case to find out what they have and decide what you want. I heard someone ask if they were always that busy, and the guy behind the counter responded that they were actually often even busier. How is that possible!? They also had an independent vendor giving away samples of fudge. It was so delicious we bought some.

V. Sattui. A good variety of wines to choose from, but I didn't much care for them. The Madeira had that cloyingly sweet taste I really don't care for.

While I would definitely come back for the deli, I would skip the wine tasting next time. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that good, and from my perspective, there's no excuse to drink bad wine in Napa (or even not great wine). On purpose, anyway. I found the whites too sweet and the reds a bit too tannic for my taste. But I'm glad we went here first because it put us in the mood to find better wines to taste!

Next we stopped at Cakebread Cellars, a winery my friends recommended. They are by appointment only, but I called to schedule an appointment basically the day before, and actually ended up calling them 3 times to reschedule my appointment time that day, and they were super accommodating. I basically called them from V. Sattui and asked if we could change our time to the next closest so we could basically go straight there, and they said sure. We still had about 45 minutes to kill once we got there, so we took the dogs for a walk around the grounds.

Oh yeah, did I mention we had the dogs in tow? Well we weren't allowed to leave the dogs in the hotel rooms, so we threw them in the back of Husband's dad's car (it's a hatch back, so nice and roomy). They didn't much like being left alone while we went off drinking and gallivanting (ok, seriously blogger? Your spellcheck sucks balls. You can't tell that galevanting is a misspelling of gallivanting? Come on.) around, but they loved walking around the rich and fertile land, and contributing some of themselves to the wine-making process.

Yes, I took a picture of my dog peeing. He looked so cute! And ok, it looks like he's peeing on grape vines, but really he's peeing about half a foot from the main gravel path. It was more exciting when you didn't know, wasn't it?

Anyway, Cakebread was by far my favorite winery the whole trip. We got to the tasting room about 10 minutes before our appointment. I checked in and was told to wait off to the side for just a minute. After about 15-20 minutes I was getting a bit perturbed, as they were helping everyone who came in after me, but were totally ignoring me. Finally someone noticed me standing there looking pissed and asked me what was the deal. I may have had a bit of acid in my tone when I said I had no idea, I was told to wait just a minute and then was forgotten all about. I'm pretty sure that's why we ended up getting a private tasting, and everyone else was in big groups of about 10 people. Heh. Oops! But score for us!

The glasses never stayed filled for long. The wine was so good I couldn't stop drinking it!

The tastings are done in their barrel rooms, which was very intimate and fun. Our...wine pouring lady (??), she was awesome. She was very knowledgeable about the wines, and very talkative in general, in a good way, not in a shut up and pour me some wine kind of way. She was apparently trained as a chef, but decided she loved wine more and switched professions. She told us all about the wine varietals, grapes, growing regions, good years vs. bad years. We asked her questions, and she always had a great answer. I learned more about wine in that hour than I have in my 27 years on this earth. It was great. And the wine was amazing. Delicious. Expensive. We bought some. I wish we had bought more. I wish I would win the lottery tomorrow so I could build a house across the street and taste wine there every day. Yum!

After Cakebread we decided the dogs had been so well behaved, we took them to a dog-friendly winery I had found on dogfriendly.com (how awesome is that website!), Alpha Omega. I had never heard of this winery, so I wasn't expecting much besides a tasting room we could take the dogs to, but I was so pleasantly surprised! Their tasting room is modern and sleek with a lovely outdoor seating area and some seriously cool bathroom fixtures. I went in ahead to make sure they were really dog friendly and the guy told me "we're friendly if they are". Oh Theo and Rex are friendly all right! They loved the attention, and some people seemed to enjoy having the furry ones around to lighten the mood. And best of all, the wine was really gosh darn good! We bought a bottle of their rose and their cabernet, if I remember correctly. But it was rather pricey, and the tasting was rather short, only 4 wines (so basically on par with Cakebread). One woman who worked there gave Theo and Rex a ton of love and attention. We actually ended up seeing her in town the next morning with her own dogs, and she not only remembered us enough to come over and say hello, but she actually remember the dogs' names! How dog friendly is that? I would definitely come back, Theo in tow.

A small but enjoyable tasting menu

My one big regret on our trip to Napa was that we never made it to Silver Oak Cellars. We tried! Unfortunately, we lingered too long at the other wineries on Saturday, and by the time we drove up at 5:45, we discovered they had closed at 5:30. Boo! And when we went back first thing Sunday morning, we found that they were also closed on Sundays. Nooooo! Whyyyyy? I will definitely make it there next time.

After we got back to the hotel we played with the rugrats for a bit, and then headed next door to Celadon for dinner (thanks for the great recommendation again Kelly!). I was a bit befuddled by this one. First off, it was small and quiet, nice and intimate. There were other people there, but it wasn't busy or loud. The food was amazing. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meals. The pork belly buns were delicious (though Husband thought they were too fatty, which is I think what pork belly is supposed to be like. It was good fatty, not gag-reflex fatty.), the duck confit and spinach salad I was still dreaming about the next day. And the Moroccan inspired lamb was just...omg. So good. And I could not stop eating the couscous it came with off of Husband's plate. Seriously. But. But. The wine. Was bad. There were 4 of us, each of us got a different wine from the wine list. 2 of us even asked for suggestions. And every single one was crap. I was astounded. This is freaking Napa! How do you have a single bad wine on your wine list, let alone all 4 of them, if not all? It was completely disappointing, and kind of dampened the meal because we were so confounded. It'd say next time, I would definitely still eat there, but I would either bring my own wine and just pay the corkage fee, or drink water and have wine in my room after dinner.

The next day we had the most wonderful Sunday brunch at Redd, recommended by the same friends who recommended Cakebread Cellars, so we were excited to try it. It was fantastic! We got there kind of ridiculously early, so we decided to walk around the neighborhood with the dogs, which was a nice way to build up our appetites since we were still a bit full from the huge breakfast we got. We were still early, so the place was totally empty, but it filled up later. We tried the potstickers (excellent), diver scallops (worthy of a wet dream), and duck confit (always a winner). They also had some fun and delicious cocktails. It was a fabulous experience, I can't wait to do again next time I'm there. I would definitely go back for brunch, but I'll bet their dinner is even better.

We ended the trip with a stop at Opus 1 winery. We intended to end with Silver Oak, but well, you know how that turned out, and Opus 1 was nearby. This is some 'spensive wine. We're talking $200/bottle, so we didn't go with the intention of buying, but we thought it'd be fun to taste. At $35 for a single glass (a rather full half glass, not a tasting glass), it was a bit of a splurge, but when you're in Napa, you just gotta go for it. Once they pour you your wine they leave you to wander their massive ~~castle~~ grounds. We spent most of that time wondering why they have such a big building, but such a tiny tasting room. What are the other rooms for? It's not a hotel. Maybe events? Anyway, I thought it was kind of hilariously and charmingly over the top. Husband thought it was a bit intimidating, but I think he was mostly just intimidated by all the BMWs in the parking lot. We didn't have an appointment, but they weren't busy, and let us go right in. When you enter the big, ridiculous double doors there is a large sterile, marble-floored room with a single desk and the receptionist who does the appointments. That might have had something to do with the intimidation as well. The wine was, of course, amazing. I savored every bite. And with a bite or two of that fudge from V. Sattui we bought the previous day, it was sinfully good.

Opus 1 winery. When you approach the giant double doors, there is over the top opera music playing. I couldn't make this up.

All in all it was only a day and a half, but it was such a day and half. We had a truly great time, and I look forward to going back for a bit longer of a stay. I was actually a bit scared to go there and plan the whole thing. For some reason I found the whole thing rather intimidating, but once I got there it was so easy and laid back, I had a grand time. It's the kind of place you can just wander around and inevitably find someplace amazing, or at least familiar if that's what you want. If you go to Napa, I don' think you'll be disappointed.

Oh, and by chance we stopped at Oxbow Public Market, which was a short walk from the hotel. Holy moly was that place cool! If you're looking for something to take home from Napa, definitely check this place out. They have vendors of every sort selling everything you could want: cupcakes, spices, cheeses, olive oils, sauces, and of course, wine! We holed up at the cheese store and a very knowledgeable girl gave us some samples based on what we said we liked, and we came home with some great cheese and bread for an afternoon appetizer. Loved it!

Have you ever been to Napa? Where did you go? What did you think?

Our next vacation is coming up after Easter: Monterey. You can bet we'll be doing some wine tasting there too!

Dreary Winter Weather Calls For Comfort

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:27:00 +0000

I can't believe how far back I'm playing catchup with some of these recipes. I know there are some good recipes I'm missing out on posting about because I just can't remember making them, and I didn't get a picture to help me. I'll have to riffle through my mountain of printed recipes to see if I can find any gems. It definitely says nothing about the food if I can't remember it...just that I'm dumb and scatter-brained. Heh.

But one good thing comes from my delay, and that's the weather! When I first made this chicken and dumpling stew, courtesy of I made that!, it was cold and rainy and I was in dire need of some comfort food, and oh my did it ever fit the bill. I've actually made it twice already. But since then the weather warmed up and it looked as if our typical mild Southern California winter would pay us a visit. Nope. The East Coast is buried under snow, So Cal keeps getting hit with much needed rain, and six more weeks of winter are upon us. So it looks like the comfort food is still appropriate, no matter what the bright summer produce from Chile tries to convince me of otherwise.

I used chicken breasts (bone in) instead of thighs because I have an irrational aversion to chicken fat. I think it stems from my grandmother force feeding me KFC when I was a kid. Oh, and the chicken thighs they sell at the store are really fatty, if you didn't get the correlation there. I also punched up the vegetables a bit by adding carrots, celery, and frozen green beans, in addition to the peas called for. I also used 1% instead of whole milk. But otherwise I followed to recipe to a T, and it was delicious! It's creamy without being heavy, and the thyme, tarragon, and bay provide some great flavors. And the dumplings...oh the dumplings!

First off, I had never made chicken and dumplings before. So when I read the recipe I was a bit confused. I was supposed to drop the batter into the stew? No way! I closed my eyes, dropped the batter in, covered the pot and let it cook for the alloted time, and when I took the cover off, I was greeting by these huge, fluffy bits of heaven. Moist on the outside, dry and biscuity on the inside, and a great companion to the chicken pot pie flavors of the stew. Oh man, this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Recipe: Roasted Tomato And Cauliflower Soup

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:11:00 +0000

Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to write down this recipe immediately after I made it because I cannot for the life of me remember making this soup. I mean, I remember roasting the tomatoes and eating it's deliciousness, but I don't remember the specifics. Heck, I forgot all about the cauliflower until I was uploading the photo to flickr! It's not that the soup wasn't wonderful. It was. I just have a problem with my memory. It's a hereditary thing. You should see my dad. I'm afraid it doesn't look good for me. But the first step in overcoming a problem is admitting you have one, right? I do. So I always write things down when I really want to remember them. So obviously, since I wrote this soup recipe down, I must have loved it! Which I did. I remember that.

I also remember that I am super proud of myself because I came up with this recipe all on my own! Ok, I am not the first person to roast a tomato before making a soup out of it. And I definitely read about doing just that eons ago. But I chose each ingredient myself and decided what to do with each ingredient myself. There was no recipe this was based on. It's 100% from me. Yay!

I love tomato soup. If the acidity from the tomatoes didn't send my heart into a burning rage I would eat it all the time, were it also not for that little thing called heavy cream. It's what makes tomato soup creamy and delicious. Without it, tomato soup is just not the same. Except I had this idea. What if I could make it thick and creamy without cream? Milk wouldn't do, too watery. Starchy potatoes are traditionally used to thicken soups, but I didn't want to replace cream with starch, and also, that would make it a totally different soup. And also, that just sounds weird. Then I remembered a few weeks prior I had roasted some cauliflower and pureed some of it so it was kind of a mashed potato consistency, but with a light as a feather and creamy taste. And I had an aha! moment. And my roasted tomato and cauliflower soup was born!

Don't do what I did and overdo it on the cayenne. It was all good because my husband loves spicy foods, and I do pretty well with them myself, but in the future I would make sure to add it in small amounts. A little goes a long way. The same goes for the garlic. I love garlic. Can't get enough. Husband loves it so much he can't even taste it in food anymore unless it's so overpowering it'll make your eyes water. Seriously, he's crazy. Anyway, I put the whole head of roasted garlic in. A head sounds like a lot but when you roast the garlic, the flavor actually mellows out and sweetens, so it's ok to add more than you would raw. That said, you still might not want the whole head. Maybe try just half and add more if you think you can handle it. And if you're like me, roast 2 heads, put one in the soup, and use the second to spread over some toast to eat while you're making the soup. Nom nom nom! Garrrrrrlic!

Roasted Tomato and Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

3lb roma tomatoes

1 small head cauliflower

1 head garlic

1 medium onion, chopped

2 shallots, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (start with 1/8 tsp if you're very sensitive to heat)

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 TB butter

1 TB flour

2 cups white wine (or broth)

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Half the tomatoes, lengthwise. Chop the cauliflower into florets. Arrange tomatoes, halved side up, and cauliflower in a roasting pan (I split the tomatoes into one roasting pan and the cauliflower in another, as the tomatoes hog all the room). Drizzle the tops of the tomatoes with olive oil, and sprinkle a little salt and pepper over each one. Do the same with the cauliflower, then toss to coat. Chop the top off of the garlic head, drizzle with olive oil, and wrap tightly in aluminum foil. When the oven is ready, put the tomatoes, cauliflower, and garlic into the oven. Let them roast and do their thing for about an hour. After 30-40 minutes, give the cauliflower a toss for even browning. They might need to come out before the hour is up if they look done before then (I say they're done when they have a nice brown to them, but before they start to burn, obviously). Once the tomatoes are done and cooled, remove the peels (they should come right off, or at least, come off in just a few pieces), but be careful not to squeeze out their juices. We want those!
Once the stuff in the oven is finished, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven or big soup pot over medium-high heat (I used medium, but my stove runs very hot). Add the onion and shallots and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the oregano, basil, cayenne, paprika, coriander, and salt and pepper. Stir and let cook for about 2 minutes. Clear a spot on the bottom of the pot and add the butter. When it is melted, add the flour, and gently combine them into a paste. Let this cook for a minute, then mix it all together. Add the roasted garlic by squeezing each clove to release the soft roasted goodness (only add as much garlic as you can handle). Add the wine (or stock if you're not a total lout like me) and deglaze (use a spoon to break up the cooked on delicious bits), let this mixture cook down for a few minutes.
Once mixture has simmered a bit, add the roasted tomatoes and cauliflower. Use a spoon to break up the tomatoes and bit and let this simmer together for a few more minutes. Then turn off the heat.
Using a blender, food processor, or my weapon of choice, an immersion blender, puree the mixture until it has reached your desired consistency. If you want a thinner soup, you could add some more broth to thin it out. I like it thicker, myself.

I served the soup with some cracked wheat sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches. It tasted like gourmet comfort food. My favorite.

See, this is the problem with posting my food when I've already finished eating it. Now I want some of this soup and I have none! I might have to make more this weekend...

PS: If you've noticed how awesome my pictures have been looking lately. Err...well the lighting of them, anyway. It's because of my new light box! My sister gave it to me for Christmas/Chanukah this year and I was so excited when I opened it! Ask Husband. Well, he was out of town at the time, but I was completely ridiculous over the phone when I told him all about it. It's one of those things that I have wanted ever since I knew what I light box was (so like 6 months ago, heh), but that I figured I would never own because it was far to frivolous to buy for myself. And this is why my sister is awesome. Because she is so thoughtful with her presents. It makes me feel like she really knows me. Love you, sis!

Anyway, enough with the gushy stuff, this light box is portable, and it comes with a fold-able translucent white screen with a backdrop in grey or blue (it's reversible). It also comes with the two lights you see, and a tripod. The tripod is one meant for a table top, so I haven't had a chance to use it much. I think the next step here is going to be a full sized tripod because man do my arms shake! Hehe. I couldn't tell you what the brand is because I was too busy ripping it open, and I've since thrown away the box, but I would guess you could just do a google search for portable light box and come up with something similar. I really like the screens because you can set the lights outside the box and it defuses the light nicely so you don't end up with weird looking shiny dishes. Ya know?

You know the best thing about it? I can take pictures when it's dark out without my pictures looking all yellow and icky! That's partly thanks to my learning a few things about my camera (you can set the white balance, who knew?), and partly because I have this great light box! Hooray!

Let's Talk Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:50:00 +0000

If you're still sticking with your New Year's resolution to eat healthier and be healthier...good for you! You've outlasted the "resolutioners" who frequented my complex's gym for a while. Unfortunately, you'll probably hate me for what I'm about to post. It's time I finally get around to telling you about the Christmas cookie tins I gave to my loved ones this year. Aren't you glad I put it off until now?

It was by no means my first time making Christmas cookies, but it was my first time making tins and giving them to people, rather than gobbling them up myself. Though, let's be honest, there was an embarrassing amount of gobbling on my part, regardless. It all came about because Husband's dad's boss, up until this last year, would make a cookie tin every year, and Husband always looked forward to it. Last year she decided to retire from the holiday cookie obligation, as it really is a ton of work. Husband, completely bummed out, suggested I try my hand at it...and well, that's really the only encouragement I need to bake at this point!

Let me tell you...trying to whittle down my long list of possible cookie candidates was an exhaustive process. I had a whole list going in Google documents, that was actually comprised of several sublists; highlighting was involved. I had subgroups of cookies, where I grouped them by type (molasses, gingerbread, sugar, shortbread, etc.), then I pasted links to all food blogs and other websites I read that had recipes of that type that looked good. And here's where you'll really think I'm crazy. I read through all those recipes, compared them to each other, and one by one eliminated them until I knew which recipe I wanted in each category. Oh man, it took forever. But it was fun to see the subtle differences in ingredient to come up with a similar end product! And you can start pretending you don't know me now, because yes, I fully admit to being a bit obsessive sometimes.

I know I tend to be over ambitious when it comes to cooking and baking. If you're coming over for brunch, I don't just make pancakes. I also bake up some spinach and eggs, make a fruit salad, bake some scones and biscuits, always with the intention that I'll whip up something for dessert, though I always run out of time. Heck, if I have enough notice I'll bake up a fresh loaf of Challah, and the night before make up some boozy baked French toast for baking the next day. So I knew I wouldn't have time to make every kind of cookie I wanted. I ended up just planning for every eventuality. I made sure I had enough ingredients to make everything I wanted. I had a million pounds of ap flour, 500 sticks of butter, pecans, almonds, extra jars of cinnamon. It was like a war zone in the kitchen. Then I prioritized my cookies. What did I definitely want in the tin, and what could I live without? Then it was time to bake! I ended up hoping for ten different kinds of cookies, but ended up with six. Not bad! Especially considering I didn't much consider how much the tins I bought would actually hold. But I'll get to that. For now, let's talk cookie.

Chocolate peppermint cookies, courtesy of Martha Stewart. These are chocolate peppermint cookies with a white chocolate coating and a dusting of peppermint candy. They look like crap, but I swear they didn't before the white chocolate was involved. A word to the wise for those making these cookies: just do plain circles! These were supposed to be pretty stars, but well, the white chocolate coating didn't go so well. Have you ever worked with white chocolate? I hadn't. It doesn't melt! At least the chocolate I bought wouldn't. I thought I was going all out by getting the good stuff, but maybe I should have just melted some cheap white chocolate chips. In the end, rather than dipping the cookies, I had to brush on the goop (which is the most spreadable consistency I could get it to), and since I had to keep the chocolate over the heat to keep it goopey, it was also very hot, scalding in fact. So I pretty much burned the heck out of my hands while trying to evenly cover each cookie. Since this was the first cookie I attempted, I was afraid it didn't bode well for the rest of the day. Thankfully, this was the worst mishap I had, and it ended up being pretty worth the effort. They may not have looked it, but they were delicious, definitely enhanced by the white chocolate, so I wouldn't skip it. In fact, they were Husband's favorite! Maybe next time I should try thinning it out with some butter or water or something?

One note on the recipe, it called for way more white chocolate than I needed. It called for 2lbs, and I only wanted to shell out the money for 1lb. I think it ended up being pretty close, but I actually still had a little left over. Perhaps that's because I didn't have anywhere near the 6 dozen the recipe supposedly makes. Considering my cookie cutter was only like an inch and a half, and I only ended up with about 2.5-3 dozen cookies...that's a seriously small cookie she's making! Be warned. Also, have you ever tried sprinkling peppermint candy dust? It doesn't sprinkle so much as clump and stick to your fingers. I don't really have any tips for you, just play around with it until you find something that works for you. And maybe practice sprinkling before you turn half your cookies into a clumpy mess like I did. I ended up sprinkling with dust (a certain flick of the wrist helped de-clump), and then going back over with the courser crumbs for a bit of crunch.

Cherry-nut rugelach, courtesy of King Arthur Flour, via Serious Eats. Another (successful!) first attempt. If you've never had rugelach, it's a flaky almost pie dough-like cookie wrapped around a cinnamon roll-like filling. But it's a cookie! They're seriously good. The secret to the dough is cream cheese. I hear that it really makes all the difference in flavor and tender texture. I wouldn't know, but since they turned out so well, I'm not going to knock it, that's for sure. I used dried cherries and walnuts as suggested, but I'll bet you could play around with other dried fruits and nuts, though I don't know why you'd want to. Everything here just worked. Unfortunately, it was also very labor intensive. It made 64 cookies! That's 64 wedges of dough you have to cut out, 64 wedges you have to roll up and shape. The recipe makes exactly that many because you actually divide the dough into 8ths and then slice each piece into 8 wedges. I'd say you could always go for bigger wedges and end up with bigger cookies, but I think the size I ended up with was perfect, a nice bite size.

By far the best compliment I got on these cookies was my co-worker telling me that they tasted just like the rugelach her aunts used to make her. She said the best food is the kind that invokes a memory and I had done a really good job. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?

Sugar cookies, courtesy of Martha Stewart. I decided to represent a little Chanukah in my Christmas cookie tin with these dradel-shaped sugar cookies. I decorated the tops with turbinado sugar I mixed with blue food coloring. I had to add quite a bit to keep it from looking green. It was a shout out to the sugar cookies we used to make when I was a kid, decorated with red and green sprinkles. I know sugar cookies are sugar cookies, but these really were divine. I really liked the simplicity of the recipe, and I wanted one with a good amount of butter. Sugar cookies should be buttery! Unfortunately, they really lost their freshness the next day. Even though they were stored properly, they became a bit stale in texture. Since these were traveling all over the place, I probably would nix this cookie next time. But for any same-day event, these cookies are a winner (and really, even "stale" they still tasted pretty darn good to me!). They also made a ton. Probably about 4-5 dozen because my cookie cutter was smaller. So unless you have a million people to feed, or unless you're using giant cookie cutters, I would halve this recipe.

Slice and bake cookies, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. These were essentially shortbread cookies with cocoa powder, orange flavoring, and dried cranberries and pomegranate seeds. They were, unfortunately, really not my favorite. I added cocoa powder to the dough, mostly to appease my chocolate-loving husband. I think they would have been better without it. I also had a dried cranberry/pomegranate seed combo package from Trader Joe's and decided to use it, instead of just dried cranberries. There was nothing distinctive from the pomegranate seeds, they didn't add anything, and their texture wasn't quite right for a cookie. I would leave them out next time. And I would add more orange. They weren't orangey enough. Personally, I liked these cookies the least of all, but I had a friend who liked these the best, so you just never know.

Bourbon balls, courtesy of my mom. Let me tell you about these "cookies". When I told my mom I would be doing a cookie tin, and I was deciding which kinds of cookies to make, she told me about these bourbon balls my grandmother used to make. My mom said they were so good she literally gained 10lbs from licking the batter the one time she made them. Yikes! Fattening with booze involved? I was so there. First off, please pardon my lumpy spheres above. I don't know what deformity I have, but I am unable to roll dough into a ball to save my life. It always ends up some weird flying saucer shape instead. Anyway, these puppies were strong. I rolled them all out, popped one in my mouth, and then immediately started re-rolling them all smaller just so it wouldn't be such a kick in the teeth. Phew! It was like taking a shot! I think next time I would reduce the amount of bourbon I used...but not by too much! I'll post the recipe below.

I should also mention the reason these balls are so strong is because they are uncooked! It was actually kind of a pain because I felt like I needed to make a disclaimer to everyone eating them, especially those who were pregnant and breastfeeding. And I didn't want to give them to people at work because we have a dry campus and I didn't want to get in trouble. So I think next year I would leave these out. But they'd definitely still be good for a dinner party or other boozy event! Also, I really think these improved in flavor over time. The alcohol flavor chilled out a bit, and the flavors married together a lot better a day or two later. So next time I think I'll do these up ahead of time.

Gingerbread cookies, courtesy of 101 Cookbooks. Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of these cookies, which completely bums me out because they were far and away my favorite, and beautiful! I had a gingerbread man cookie cutter and everything. I could not stop eating the dough while making the cookies, and after they were done, I could not stop eating the finished product. Fantastic. Seriously. Which is funny because up until, oh, a year ago, I thought I didn't like gingerbread. It's kind of a more adult flavor, but oh do I love it now. But even if you don't love gingerbread in general, you will still love these cookies; Husband did! I kept telling him to try the dough (omg, it's the best dough ever!), and he wouldn't, insisting that he wasn't a fan of gingerbread. Well when he finally tried the finished cookie, he was a believer, and even regretted not trying the dough. Sucker! Definitely follow her advise and don't over-bake. I know my oven runs hot, so I actually ended up pulling them out a good minute or two sooner than the minimum recommended time. When the cookies were cooled I dipped them in some royal icing I whipped up with yellow food coloring. Don't worry people who ate my cookies, I used pasteurized egg whites I bought in a carton, which are supposed to not carry salmonella or whatever, though really, who gets salmonella from eggs anymore? Did I mention how much raw dough I ate?

What set this recipe apart from the other gingerbread recipes? It was definitely the white whole wheat flour. Don't be fooled by the name, it's still a whole wheat flour. I believe it just comes from a different type of wheat than regular whole wheat flour. It's a finer grain, which bakes up a lot less heavy, more like AP flour, but with that hint of nutty flavor that I love so much. Everything about the ingredients in this recipe worked great.

And those are all the cookies I had time to make. It was pretty hilarious to see every single surface of my kitchen covered in cookies. Considering I only made about 8 cookie tins, I definitely ended up with more cookies than I needed. Next year, if I have the time to do this again, I will definitely halve some of the recipes.

Here are my lessons learned (ugh, I am such an engineer):

The freezer is your friend. I had dough firming up in the freezer pretty much constantly. It made such a huge difference in how they came out. Using the cookie cutters was a thousand times simpler when the dough was cold, and I think it really made a difference in how they baked up as well.
Use easy cookie cutter designs. I thought I had! A star, what's so involved about that? Well it was still a pain in the butt. Next year I might nix it and just stick with a circle.
Plan ahead! Make sure you have all the ingredients you need. You may have flour, but do you have enough of it for all the batches of cookies you want to make? I actually calculated it all out to make sure. I hate running to the store for one thing. I don't live close enough to make it not a complete pain in the butt. Also, plan what you'll make when. Some of the doughs I made 2 days in advance, just so I would have time! I made sure all the doughs were made the night before so cookie day was just about the baking. And read each recipe! If you need eggs and butter at room temperature, make sure you take them out of the refrigerator with enough time for them to warm up. I'm notoriously bad at this.
As I already said with the gingerbread, but this really goes for all cookies, don't over-bake! Nobody likes crunchy dried out cookies. If you're going to go through all the trouble to make cookies, it's worth the extra minute of keeping a close eye on the oven a little before the time they're supposed to be done.
Husbands are good at destruction. I got a bit stressed over the white chocolate fiasco, so Husband wanted to help out to help calm me down. I gave him the job of smashing peppermint candies, he enjoyed it immensely.
Buy big enough cookie tins! I knew the tins I bought would be too small, but I was stubborn because the next size up I found were just too darn big. Next time just go a size up. Sure, it's a pain to ship, but better that than feeling like you're shorting your loved ones. I only had enough room for 2-3 cookies of each type.

Bourbon Balls

Ingredients:

1 c. ground pecans
1 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 T. cocoa
3 1/2 c. crushed vanilla wafers
1/2 c. bourbon
3 T light corn syrup

Directions:
Combine nuts, sugar, cocoa, and wafer crumbs and blend well. Stir in bourbon and corn syrup. Form mixture into balls about 1" in diameter. Roll each ball in powdered sugar and store in a tightly covered container. Makes 3 dz.

julo notes: I just threw everything in the food processor and pulsed. If you have that option, I would definitely use it. I would probably only use 1/4 cup of bourbon next time. The crazy hippie homemaker in me would rather make her own wafers and find a substitute for the corn syrup, like agave nectar, but the lazy girl in me probably would never bother.

Did you notice how awesome my cookie pictures turned out? No, I didn't learn not to suck as a photographer overnight. I got some help in the form of a Christmas/Chanukah present from my awesome sister. More on that later.

2009 In Review

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:31:00 +0000

It seems all the rage with the new year was looking back on the highlights of 2009. I can't count how many blogs I read that summed up their favorite recipes from the year past. And you know what? It's a darn good idea! Sometimes I'm in a bit of a rush and, I confess, I skim. I think, oh that looks tasty, I should make it some day, then I click away and never think about it again. Looking at this year's food from some of the food bloggers I follow, I appreciated them calling special attention to the real winners. So I'm going to copy, kind of. 2009, looking back, was kind of a big year for me. Lots of stuff happened, some good and some bad; lots of changes, some good and some bad. It's worth taking a minute to reflect.

Well lets get the obvious out of the way. In 2009 I lost almost 70 pounds. I gave up eating out for almost every meal and learned to cook, bake, and be an all around vixen in the kitchen. I quit my over-priced, scary, annoying gym I hated going to (and really never went to), and started running around my neighborhood, doing workout games on the Wii (Wii Fit and EA Sports Active), and slowly reintroduced myself back into the gym (in the form of the tiny crappy one in my complex, it's perfect). I've never been prouder of myself. Whereas before I could be described as a lazy, thoughtless couch potato, I am now a superwoman who gets things done. I'm still rather thoughtless, but now that's because I'm busy thinking of other things. I feel like I could fill a whole separate blog writing about my lifestyle change. I've often thought about posting about it here, but I don't want to sound preachy. When people ask me how I lost weight, I'm never sure the level of detail they're looking for. I could talk your ear off for days all about how I did it, and how anyone can do it. The ins and outs. The little things. The tips and tricks. But I usually just reply with "diet and exercise", because, really, it seems like most people just want to know which fad diet worked for me. I saw many a face fall with disappointment with my answer, only because it wasn't something easy they could do themselves (it is! It's just not easy). This blog has definitely helped play a role in my lifestyle change.

On the not so happy front, I almost lost my job, and in the process, lost all respect for the company I work for. Not because they almost fired me (sorry, ahem, was almost "impacted by a reduction in force"), but because of the manner in which they chose who to lay off and who to keep. As in, they kept all the over-paid older conservative white men and fired all the minorities. Seriously. I'm not making excuses like "oh, they got rid of me because I'm a woman" because I'm bitter. They really did fire a bunch of women! And African Americans, and Asians, and Latinos, and younger liberals (though if they were white, that seems to have mostly been forgiven)! They fired an African American co-worker of mine, only to bring a higher-paid white guy in to do the same exact work. They've had complaints filed against them with the government for it. It's been disgusting to watch, and I have nothing but disdain for the people who are now in charge. I ended up switching to another organization under a completely different set of managers. Not to say they are any better, but I, as of yet, have no evidence of their all out bigotry, as I do with those in my previous organization. If I could think of a career that I could feasibly transition to that would require not a significant reduction in pay and no further degrees, I would jump on it.

On a related, happier note, in the course of events on the job front, I ended up getting offered a job with another company. Doing the same engineering work, and contingent on a project they haven't been awarded yet. But still, an opportunity for a fresh start. Terrifying, but fresh. I won't know if/when I start until next month. I hate change, so I'm secretly hoping they don't get it. Hehe. But it was beyond flattering to know that it wasn't a fluke, my getting hired as an engineer. Apparently other people are desperate enough to hire me to!

Unfortunately, since Husband works at the same company I do, the drama of the past year seeped in and infected our home life a bit. Not to say there is trouble in paradise. There is not. But morale was low. And it still is. Here's hoping we can pick ourselves back up in 2010.

You know what helps with that? Food!

2009 I learned so much in the kitchen. It's kind of crazy to reflect on all the kitchen adventures I had last year. And I've got the burn scars to prove it! In 2009 I not only got in the kitchen to practice home cooking more, I actually learned to cook:

I discovered quick breads. Banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread. You name it, I love it. I didn't eat a lot of quick bread growing up, so my love is new and exciting. Here's hoping our honeymoon phase lasts awhile yet. I still need to try breads with cornmeal and berries and nuts and other good things!

Learning to cook meant learning to cook meat. That's a no-brainer for some of you, for others you might think vegetarianism is ok. And it is! I was one, basically, for most of my life, because I never really liked meat. But in 2009, I was a full on carnivore! Taking on culinary duties meant feeding not just myself, but Husband as well. And he likes meat. So I would make it, mostly for him, take a little for myself, and one year later, I am now on board. I'll say I'm picky about meat. Picky about the quality, picky about how it's cooked, picky about the texture. Rubbery chicken I don't do. Even good chicken I'm still not the hugest fan of, but put a good sauce on it, and it's all good. Not to mention pork is divine! Who knew? I tackled lamb, beef, turkey, and even some fish! I'm glad I finally like meat. Any vegetarians out there can feel me on this one. Not eating meat is a pain! Going out to a restaurant, you're usually limited to about 2 choices, rather than the usual 20 million. You have to ask for specialty meals at events like weddings or company parties. You have to make sure to tell your host before any dinner party. You have to struggle to get enough protein. It's a pain.

You know what else I learned to like? Brussels sprouts and kale and beets and squash and mangoes and persimmons! Oh how I love persimmons. Basically, by getting out and cooking "new" foods, I really opened up my palette to the wonders of fruits and vegetables. I admit it. I used to be one of those people who would always go for the mainstream produce. Apples, lettuce, green beans, broccoli, bananas, etc. The safe stuff. The stuff that's easy to prepare. The stuff I grew up eating. I still buy all those things, there's nothing wrong with them, but they are decidedly safe. I'm glad I got out of my comfort zone to expand my culinary horizons this year. Turns out brussels sprouts are not only fantastic for you, they are actually delicious! You just have to have a few good recipes under your belt. I learned that there is not a fruit or vegetable I don't love. Except bok choy. I don't know why, I just don't dig it. It's too chewy for my taste. Husband has never quite gotten over it. He loves it.

I also learned to bake! I tackled bread! Bread! I don't know why, but to me bread was one of those completely non-approachable foods. I held in awe anyone who could make a simple no-knead loaf. Bread was mystical, and surely must take years of intense study and practice in a specialized kitchen to make properly. Then I tried the famous no-knead recipe, and the rest is history. Bread still is rather scary, in comparison to quick breads or muffins or good ol' cookin'. But I tackled things like pretzels, challah, and even bagels, and won! I made cakes, muffins, cookies, brownies, anything and everything. I now have a pantry fully stocked with all kinds of flours, sugars, baking sodas, powders, spices, etc. I rarely have to pick anything up at the store before I can try a recipe. Nothing is worse than a hankering to bake only to find you're out of butter.

I, like the rest of America (ugh, I hate it when I'm accidentally trendy), discovered whole grains. Not just brown rice or whole wheat pasta, but quinoa, wild rice, barley, lentils, spelt, farro, etc. I used to look at a picture of french fries and drool. Now I cringe at the grease and drool over butternut squash risotto. I learned to change my portions. Not just how much food I eat, but of what type. "Eat food, eat less, mostly vegetables". It's a phrase that is old news to anyone who knows Michael Pollan, but I was living under a rock, and just heard this phrase for the first time this week. It's simple, it's true, it's genius. It's basically what I discovered on my own last year.

In 2009 I broke the bank in the kitchen. Well technically we broke the bank in 2008 when we remodeled the kitchen. But in terms of stuff that goes in the kitchen, Husband was very good about my Bed, Bath, and Beyond shopping habit. I bought cookie sheets, cake pans, muffin tins, measuring cups, cookie cutters, dishers, cutting boards, pastry blenders, dough scrapers. You name it, I oogled it, and if I could justify it, bought it. My kitchen is fantastically stocked, and I still can only think of the things I want and don't yet have. A mini muffin tin, a tart pan, more dishers, etc. That's what 2010 is for, eh?

Some of my favorite kitchen essentials this year have been, well, essential! My microplane, for one. It zests, it grates, it...well that's about it, but it does those things fantastically. I used it pretty much every week for citrus zest, grating ginger and garlic, grating nutmeg, grating cheese. It really is the best $12 you can spend. My cast iron skillet, another $20 well spent! What took me so long to get one? I don't know. They cook everything beautifully and are easy to maintain. But my all time favorite purchase was Kiwi, my dutch oven. That's right, I named it. It's my baby. I love it so.

It does soups, stews, braises, and breads perfectly. Kiwi is my first dutch oven, so I can't say whether Le Creuset is really worth the extra money. But I can say that this Le Creuset dutch oven is divine. Kiwi is one of those things I meant to tell you all about months ago, but never got around to. Bad! See that utensil set pictured along with Kiwi there? That came with it. For free. A $70 utensil set! They're all silicon, and they are also on my list of kitchen things I love. I use them all the time, along with a bamboo utensil set I bought for when I need something a bit more heavy duty, like if I need to deglaze. I also received a couple of awesome kitchen and food blog related gifts this Christmas/Chanukah from my family that I want to make mention of. But I don't have pictures yet, and couldn't really do them justice. So that'll have to wait, and technically, I'll count those under 2010!

The dutch oven was my dream drool-over item for 2009. And since I was lucky enough to get it, I need a new item! And I already know what it is. An ice cream maker. It seems like everywhere I look people are making ice cream and sorbets that look to die for! But they need ice cream makers, of which I am totally lacking. Husband is an ice cream fiend, so he fully supports the acquisition...we just haven't worked out the logistics yet. As in, they cost money, and our money is earmarked for other non-kitchen related things for the foreseeable future. But since we don't foresee very far at any given time, it may yet happen. We shall see.

I became a total wino. Ok, I was always a wino. I love wine. Actually, let me rephrase. I became a total lout. Not to say I drank a lot, because I don't. But I put booze in everything. You know why? Because it tastes better! A soup with chicken broth? Eh. A soup with white wine or dry sherry? Now we're talking! Stews with red wine or stout beer. Breads with bourbon and whiskey. Chocolate cake with flambed prunes. Bread pudding with Grand Marnier. You name me a liquor, and I'll name you a dish I'd like to cook it in. I've been boozy-cooking all year, but I didn't dawn on me until very recently just how much I enjoy liquor in cooking and baking. Is that normal? Am I a total freak? Either way, I am definitely a lout...and damn proud of it! Booze makes food taste better!

Ok, now that this post is reaching novel status, I'll wrap it up with my hopes and dreams for 2010. I read some articles predicting food trends for the year. I thought that was fun, so I'll give a go at it. I think in 2010 the following will be big: maple syrup (seriously, I've already seen like 20 recipes using it, and it's only 2 weeks into the new year!), whole grains (because they're trendy right now), pork (because it never goes out of style), and rhubarb (pulled that one out of my butt, so we'll see!).

And finally, here's some ingredients I'm really looking forward to cooking/baking with more this year: rhubarb, cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, asparagus, chard, peppers, sardines, salmon, trout, scallops, lamb, pork, and chocolate. Also, this is the year I tackle creme brulee. It'll happen!

What did you accomplish in 2009 that you're most proud of, kitchen-related or otherwise? What do you think will be big in 2010?

Update: I forgot to mention one thing. The meals I am most proud of from last year. There are two, and they actually fall on New Year's Eve, and a just a few days before that. First, after we got back from spending Christmas with the in-laws, I took advantage of the time off to make bagels. They are slightly labor intensive (though less so than I remember), so I had been waiting for the right opportunity. The bagels turned out fantastic! I got a much better rise than the first time I attempted them (I store my yeast in the fridge now), and the flavors were just...oh so wonderful. My mom once made a comment that she didn't see the point in making bagels when you could buy them just as fresh from a bagel place. To that I say, try my bagels! Well ok, they're probably just as good, perhaps even not quite as good as store bought, but they taste so much better when they're home made. I'm pretty sure that's a scientific fact...you know, on a psychological level or something. Anyway, once the bagels were made, we cut them open, layered them with cream cheese, slices of fuji apples, and smoked salmon from Seattle. Real smoked salmon, as in, it's smoked, not cured. It's not lox in any way shape or form (except that both are salmon). It's to die for. I hope you can try it some time. I piled that sandwich high and paired it with a glass of Navarro Late Harvest Gewürztraminer. If you ever have the opportunity to try this wine, do. It is so frakking good. It's pricey, but buy the biggest bottle you can afford. You won't regret it. We had just a half bottle. It's crisp, it's light, it's sweet without being cloying (and I'm not usually a fan of sweet wines, but this is restrained). Definitely Navarro's specialty. It was so good with the salmon. Husband and I have never been so silent. We just ate, the occasional grunt to let the other know we were blissfully happy. I'm so glad I married someone who loves food as much as I do.

Then on New Years Eve I kind of accidentally cooked up a gourmet meal for just the two of us. I say accidentally because it started out just needing to cook up some escolar I had bought. Have you ever had this fish? It was my first time trying it, and let me just say, this fish is like butter. It melts in your mouth. I grilled it with an orange, meyer lemon, and garlic butter. Perfection. I paired it with pureed roasted cauliflower topped with sautéed leeks and a raw beet and fennel salad with orange and meyer lemon truffle vinaigrette. I say accidentally because when I went to the store to pick out ingredients to go with the fish, I didn't have any specific dishes in mind. I kind of just threw these things together, and magic happened. Really. When I put the plate in front of Husband, I said to him, "I don't know how I put these things together, but I just kind of...did." The food gods were watching out for me that night. Also, I paired the dinner with our last bottle of Navarro Gewürztraminer (not the late harvest, but also divine). Another meal with silent grunting. Husband especially. Every time he took a bite of fish, he would moan. He doesn't moan. It was that good. Husband even had the piece of mind to recommend I take pictures. I debated. Pictures meant a longer amount of time before I could dig in to the food. But I did. They're still on my camera. So pictures and recipes to come...sometime in 2010!

Playing Catch Up

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:05:00 +0000

I still haven't mentioned the food I made the week before Thanksgiving. Unpardonable! I was definitely cooking up a storm in the weeks before, probably in anticipation of the big day. Some hits, some misses. Check them out below.

Let's go ahead and do this in order. I'll start with the dish I liked most and work my way down to liked least. That way I get the gratification of sharing sooner, and I'm all about gratification.

Kale and sweet potato gratin, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Deb's recipe actually calls for swiss chard, but for some reason my grocery stores just don't carry it. It sucks! But let me tell you. This is good. This is sinfully good. The sweet potatoes are sweet, the kale is nutty with an ever so slight bite to it. And the cheese...the bechamel... Sorry, I needed a moment. And thinking about it, it wasn't actually that bad for me. Wait, wait! Hear me out! The recipe called for heavy cream or whole milk. I had 1% and heavy cream. Since I wasn't about to use all heavy cream (ugh, emphasis would be on the heavy!), I mixed them! I forget what exactly my ratio was. maybe 50/50? Maybe I was daring and did 75% milk and 25% cream? Let's say I did. Because really, this recipe doesn't need to cream to be good. The cheese does a great job of adding creaminess, and the kale and sweet potatoes are so flavorful! Man oh man this was good! Make this one. Seriously.

Mini meatloaves, courtesy of Food Network. I've mentioned these before. They are so delicious. I doubled the recipe this time, so they would last the week with Husband on the mini meatloaf eating rampage he tends to get on when these babies are around. He was very good about leaving enough for me to have one everyday in my lunch. Really, they're more like meatballs. I still need to try making these a bit smaller and making a meatball sandwich with them. Yum!

I had the hardest time actually getting the meat at the meat counter! I told the guy I wanted a pound of ground sirloin, a pound of ground pork, and a pound of ground turkey. The guy was an idiot (he's the same idiot that pulls some idiot move every single weekend I'm there, ugh.). He ended up giving me some meat that was neither of the 3 I mentioned. And every time (every time) I ask for sirloin, he starts for the ground chuck and says "this one?" I always have to tell him no, I want the one labeled "sirloin" (and I have to hold in the "which is why I asked for sirloin!"). I try not to be a smart ass b*tch, but sometimes it's so hard. Thankfully Husband knows me too well, and was there to keep me in check.

Butternut squash soup, a mash-up of Shutterbean's...and some one else's, which I can't for the life of me find! Remember when I said I just wasn't big on squash soups? Yeah, I'm standing by that. I was in a soup mood, had some butternut squash, so thought, why not? But unfortunately, it was not all that. I ended up using more vegetables than just the squash, such as onion, celery, and carrots. And I added in some of the fresh sage I had left over from the polenta (see below). Even with the herbs, and curry powder, and other additives, I still thought it was a bit bland. And hot sauce didn't lend itself to the flavors, much to Husband's chagrin. Also, the sage was a bit overwhelming, so I would probably leave it out next time. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.

Quinoa stuffed squash, courtesy of The Kitchn. This one was a miss, which bums me out because I was so excited to make it! It sounded fantastic. Quinoa with dates and pistachios? Yum! I'll admit that this recipe originally drew me in because I had a big tub of dates from Costco and nothing to do with them, but it also just sounded tasty. First, I'll admit that I messed up a couple of times. I used acorn squash rather than the dumpling squash called for. And in my frazzled state (I usually get a bit frazzled towards the end of the day on Sunday when I realize it's getting late and I still have a lot to make) I totally forgot to add the cinnamon and lemon zest. But I really don't think that was the problem. The problem was the squash. Either I'm not a fan of the stuffed squash delivery method (much as I wasn't much of a fan of those stuffed peppers a few weeks ago), or it was just my mistake using acorn squash. Either way I thought the filling was quite tasty, but it didn't wow me. I don't know that I would make it again, even if I could decide on a better way to eat it.

Mushrooms and leeks with pumpkin polenta, courtesy of The Chef and The Photographer. I hate to say it, but I wasn't really a fan. Which bums me out because looking at the ingredients, I should be a fan. A huge fan! I love mushrooms and leeks, and cooked in butter and sherry with some fresh sage. Hello yum! And pumpkin! My fav! But something about this one just didn't come together for me. And I'm sure it was just my own cooking being off. First, I had textural issues. Polenta is mushy, mushrooms are mushy. It was a big mush party going on in my mouth. I know, my grandmother is turning over in her grave right now hearing me complain about food being mushy, seeing as how she always accused me of being too lazy to chew (thus why I didn't like meat growing up, supposedly). I used creminis. Perhaps another type of mushroom would yield tastier results. Or maybe some nuts thrown in for some crunch? Also, I went overboard on the sage. I hadn't used fresh sage before, so I didn't realize is was so...potent. And potent it is! And believe it or not, I also had issues with the polenta. I actually didn't much like the pumpkin with it. I didn't think the flavor meshed well with the rest of the dish. It just kind of tasted...off. I would take a bite and think, this would be good without the pumpkin. Maybe it's because I used canned pumpkin puree instead of fresh. Maybe canned pumpkin puree is perfectly acceptable in baked goods, but in cooking the difference really shows. That's probably it. But when I'm doing something as easy as polenta, I don't want to roast a pumpkin first. Husband really wasn't a fan. I've tried feeding him polenta a few times now, and each time he's tried it without complaint, but he just doesn't like it, which is too bad because I think it's pretty tasty and easy. It's pictured on the right side of my lunch container in the picture at the top.

Well there you have it. I don't think I've ever had so many mehs in one week! Thankfully the gratin and meatballs were fantastic enough to keep me excited the whole week. Unfortunately, I haven't been so great with taking pictures of my food stuffs since Thanksgiving. Bare with me people, it's been a busy few weeks! I'll have pictures galore when I show you the cookie tins I'll be sending out to people next week. Stay tuned!

PS: Did you notice I got a new keyboard? Woohoo! No more zzzzzzz issues! As you might have been able to tell from the plethora of zzzzzzs in this post. Though probably not because you don't realize how many times zzzzzz comes up until you're made to do without it.

Pumpkin Bread, Sans Cans!

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:53:00 +0000

I've posted about pumpkin bread before, but nothing I've made beats Alton Brown's pumpkin bread recipe that uses shredded fresh pumpkin rather than the canned stuff. It's moist. It's pumpkin-y. It's just fantastic. The first time I made it, I was too lazy...

Ok, quick aside: the "z" key on my keyboard doesn't work. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have to comb the interwebs looking for the letter to copy and paste, or figure out what letter I can type to trick blogger's spell check into realizing z is actually what I want? Thank goodness it's not a popular letter, but even just this short missive has several! Oiy!)

Anyway, I was too lazy to confirm how to toast the pumpkin seeds, and I forgot to toast them until the batter was basically all put together and ready to go into the oven, so i don't think I toasted them for long enough. Yeah, they turned out chewy. Chewy seeds is definitely not a texture that is appealing while eating pumpkin bread. I didn't mind it so much, and I liked the flavor they added, but Husband hated them and picked them out, like raisins out of a scone. For future reference, Self, to properly toast pumpkin seeds, bake at 375 for about 7 minutes (and maybe drizzle (Ack! Two of them!) some olive oil on them first). I basically did that, but it's worth another try with some patience on the side this time.

I used my Cuisinart with the shredding blade to make quick work of the pumpkin. If you don't have one of these, or some other mechanical means to shred...perhaps this recipe isn't for you... Or perhaps you have a friend who will let you sneak over to their house for 5 minutes to shred and run. One medium pumpkin yielded enough meat for 2 loaves.

It doesn't look like traditional pumpkin bread because rather than orange in color, it's more of a brown with wisps of orange throughout, but it sure tastes like it! You can't get any fresher than, well, fresh! This bread cooks low and slow to really let the bits of pumpkin cook and become soft and delicious. I was dubious about the recipe at first because there aren't a lot of spices, just cinnamon, I think. I was worried it would be bland, and when it comes to holiday baking I tend to fall over backwards for anything with lots of holiday spices (i.e. cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.), but this bread was definitely not bland. The pumpkin is the star, and the cinnamon helps to give it a boost without overpowering it. Again, another reason it's important and fantastic that the recipes uses fresh pumpkin. Canned pumpkin, I think, would have been a bit bland indeed.

I've made it twice already (the second time without the pumpkin seeds), and it was delicious both times. In fact, I'm making it again tonight for my office holiday party tomorrow (along with a Snuggie for the gift exchange, how perfect is that?!). I'm going to try toasting the seeds again, but if that doesn't go over well, I'll try adding walnuts. I never get to add nuts to my baked goods because Husband whines that it ruins it. Ugh. Well Husband is out of town this week, so I can ruin all the pumpkin bread I want! Ha!

I have a feeling I'll be breaking this recipe out every time I see sugar pumpkins at the store. Sadly, that time of year seems to have come and gone already. Good thing I stocked up!

Hey, remember when I talked about making chicken stock? Well Lindsay and Taylor over at Love and Olive Oil just posted about making their own chicken stock, in a way quite different than the method I originally tried. They sweat the veggies in oil first, and simmer for about twice as long as I did. And they added way more herbs and spices, which is definitely something I was lacking. I have another carcass in the freezer (grrr!), so I might just have to give this one a go and report back. Wish me luck!

The Best Bundt Cake I Ever Made

noreply@blogger.com (JuLo) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:54:00 +0000

For some reason within the last few months a bunch of my friends on Facebook decided it was high time Husband and I reproduce. Every Facebook status was twisted and corrupted into signs that I was pregnant. All in good fun and completely ridiculous, of course. Well a few weeks ago I posted the following status update: "[julo] has her very first bundt in the oven!" A few minutes later one of my friends politely scolded me for egging people on. Ha! Something about adding fuel to the fire. But I really did have my first bundt in the oven! I speak purely of edible delights, surely.

That's right I can't believe it either. I'd never made a bundt cake before a few weeks ago. The primary reason being that until a few weeks ago I also never owned a bundt pan. (Apparently my mom isn't into bundt cakes, as I can't remember ever seeing one in the kitchen growing up.) I mean, a bundt cake is just a cake in a giant donut shape, but without the pan, it's just not a bundt. But after a year of food blog reading, I was ready for the next step in my kitchen career.

Of course, new kitchen purchases are a sticky situation with the old ball and chain. Losing 65 pounds over the course of a year meant I was pretty much constantly buy new clothes (just to stay descent!), and all my kitchen adventures resulted in lots of equipment purchases (just to stay descent! There's nothing worse than an under-dressed pantry). Husband makes sure I don't go overboard (a job I happily give him!), but really it just means I have to get creative when I want something. Remember when I wanted a Dutch oven and I showed him the Dutch oven episode of Good Eats? Woohoo! Dutch oven for me! Well when I decided I was ready for a bundt pan, I showed him this:

Ohhhh yeah! Tell me more, Baby!

Ok, actually, I didn't show him this specific picture, since that's the one I made, and that would have been kinda hard, since I didn't have a bundt pan at that point, and I haven't yet perfected my time machine. But I showed him the link I'm about to share with you, and when you click the link and look at the picture, you'll understand why I am now in the possession of a shiny new bundt pan. Let's see if you can even resist the name of this treasure.

That would be an apple praline coffee cake, courtesy of Honey and Jam.

Click the link. You know you want to. You might want to have a bucket ready. To catch all the drool of course. Comparing her picture to mine, I really should have let the glaze thicken more to that chunky consistency she got. Next time!

This cake was fantastic! It was light and fluffy with a fresh flavor from the apples and cinnamon. The glaze was a little on the sweet side by itself, but since it was just a drizzle, it was a good amount in combination with the cake. And the pecans were awesome too. I highly recommend this cake. It was easy and very very delicious! A cake pan well spent!