Last Thursday, we had a neurological check up for his epilepsy (which is now under control, thankfully) and he had to draw blood for routine analysis. Nathan is terrified of the needles (as am I) – we were in the waiting room for a good 20 minutes while he cringed in the corner. Every time the door opened and a nurse came out to call the next victim’s name, Nathan would just have this dreadful look. Poor baby.

He tried so hard to convince me that the nurses were out to lunch already and maybe we should come back another day (didn’t work). When they finally called his name, he took the tinest of baby steps, hoping that by the time he reached the evil blood sucking station, they’d forget about him (nope). Without any other excuse or stalling tactic in his pocket – he braved the needle. Surprisingly, no screams, no tears this time. He gave up, gritted his teeth and took it like a big boy.

We walked out and I said, “You were so awesome that I’m going to let you ditch school the rest of the day!” And so we partied the rest of the afternoon, frozen yogurt with 3 toppings, Barnes & Noble book spree, lunch at McDonalds and a visit to my local yarn store, The Good Yarn in Sarasota. Owner Susan and the ladies who work there are amazing – they’ve seen me through my beginner days when they sat patiently teaching me how to knit – and have watched me grow into a freaky speedy knitter who has trouble finishing projects because there’s always something shiny new catching my eye (I know, I have issues).

My boys have always embraced arts and craft (though, what kid doesn’t?!), so much that we built a ‘craft room’ in the back of the house, filled with markers of every shade, enough glitter to fill the swimming pool, crafty paper in pretty patterns and a massive square table to work on. This is also where I keep the yarn stash, I think we have enough yarn to knit a striped scarf from here to Texas.

Part of my yarn stash. Some of my needles. I keep the straight and double pointed needles in vintage blue glass mason jars. The rest of my yarn stash is hidden from my husband.

Normally, when I go to the yarn shop, the boys are with me and they LOVE helping wind the yarn, picking out colors with me and getting tons of attention from the ladies who come to sit around the table to knit. It’s social hour every hour there at The Good Yarn.

A pillow I’ve got to finish up – based on The Beekeeper’s Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits - knitting a giant quilt that takes a year to finish is too big of a project for me, but a pillow for the couch is perfect!

This particular afternoon, Nathan asked Amy, one of the ladies who works there, if she could teach him how to knit. A little boy asking to knit!? In a roomful of cheek pinching grandmothers!? It was as if angels overhead had started singing.

I’ve known Amy for a long time now – my first stitch that I casted on was 9 years ago, when I was pregnant with Andrew. Mimi (what my kids call Scott’s mom) taught me the basic stitches and I took off from there, daydreaming about knitting baby booties and cuddly hats. Amy taught me the rest – complicated stitches, how to read patterns and walked several miles going around and around in the store looking for the perfect yarn for my project. She even knew me when I told her, “I think I want to start a food blog.”

My boys looooove Amy. And so Nathan sat down with her and she began teaching him, step by step, stitch by stitch.

While at the shop, he finished a little knitted patch, Amy helped him bind off and they tied the two ends together to make it into a cool necklace which he proudly wore. He was so excited and proud of himself that he spent his own allowance to buy needles and a skein of bright green yarn.

On the way to school to pick up Andrew, he took off his necklace, put it in my purse and said to me, “Mommy, I took it off because I don’t want my friends to laugh at me for knitting, okay?”

awwwwww….sobsobsob…..oh that’s so sad. But I didn’t say anything to him right then while I was driving….there really was nothing I could say that would change his mind at that time. It would take more than “mommy saying so.” I needed references, support, physical proof that manly men knit, that knitting was cool, that the kids at school wouldn’t make fun of him (or if they did, that it wouldn’t matter.)

My winter yarn is at the bottom…you can tell summer is almost here by the happy colors on top!

After I sent out the email to my newsletter subscribers, reader Kathy emailed, “I thought you might like to know about Rosey Grier. He was a pro football player, whose hobby was knitting and needlepoint. He even wrote a book about needlepoint for men. You can’t get more manly than that. You can Google him and read all about it.”

Another reader, Faleen, pointed out that football great, Rosey Grier, wrote a book on needlepoint and loved to knit! I’ve just now found out that Laurence Fishburne, Ringo Star and Russell Crowe knit too.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and any special messages you have for Nathan – I’ll be reading the responses to him! 

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 16 comments

I’ve known Giuliano, Lael and the girls since their early days of the blog. The Hazan’s live in Sarasota, Florida, just a few minutes hop down the interstate from us. If you’re not familiar with Giuliano, I’m sure you’ve heard of his mother, Italian cooking doyenne, Marcella Hazan, whom I was lucky enough to spend time with a couple of years ago.

Giuliano, Lael and I have crossed paths many times, though usually it’s is a quick “hi!” at the IACP conferences or other blogging conferences. We’ve dined at their house and they at ours – I’m in love with their girls, Gabriella and Michela, who love their pastas almost as much as their papa.

Giuliano just came out with a new book, Hazan Family Favorites, featuring recipes from his childhood and new recipes that he loves to make at home with the girls. The dishes are unfussy and simple to prepare – most recipes have just a handful of ingredients and 3 steps. My favorite part of the book was reading the family stories and watching Giuliano grow up with Marcella and Victor through photos!

This morning’s eggs from our hens and a giant zucchini from the garden went into the Frittata with Zucchini. We added a super-ripe heirloom tomato, also from our garden and finished it off with goat cheese crumbles (sadly, not from our homestead, though one day….maybe…a goat or two)

How to make Zucchini Frittata

The zucchini is best sliced on a mandolin – the one I *love* is the handheld mandolin by Oxo for $14.99. It’s lightweight, under $15 and requires no setting up.

Gorgeous heirloom tomato from my garden – I don’t remember the name of this tomato, but it ripens to a deep dark red/black color.

The onions are caramelized with just a pinch of sugar. The sugar helps speed up the caramelization by half the time.

Sliced zucchini is added to the pan and cooked until soft.

Those pretty eggs are from the hens – we used 5 of them. Whisk the eggs well.

In the pan, pour in the eggs, throw on the tomato slices and dot with crumbled goat cheese. Bake.

Great for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments

When I got my first real job in college, the question morphed into, “how can I make this easier?” (i.e. less work) which led to learning a new word, “streamlining.” It became a game to me – I challenged myself to find ways to simplify tasks at work and kept track of money saved and minutes shaved.

Promotions came fast, money came easy and success as an employee was a piece of cake.

I remember during my Tony Robbins days, one of the biggest lessons I learned during the seminars was, “Ask a better question, get a better answer.” It’s so true – I kept asking myself the right questions.

Now, just to be fair, I don’t always ask myself smart questions: “I wonder how much of my arm a gator could chomp off in one bite?”

Asking a better question changes your focus – your brain’s gears start churning, maybe your eyes will start wandering and looking off in far distance as you search for an answer. [when I'm deep in thought, I tend to look up and to my left....you?]

Ever heard of WWJD? What would Jesus Do?

Well, I have a list of people that I admire – the list is a wild party – with celebrities (Oprah), crazy business greats (Richard Branson), innovators (Steve Jobs and Guy Kawasaki), family (Dad and brother), Jackie Chan, Edward Cullen, Cyndi Lauper, my 10th grade math teacher, Ms. K (a woman I met on the plane 14 years ago), my husband and the boys, a woman I used to work for but I really despised but damn she was a marketing genius, and a slew of other strange characters in my life.

So anytime that I needed to solve out a major problem, brainstorm a business idea or just plain ol’ bored….I hold a party in my head. With fabulous cocktails and finger foods catered by Wolfgang Puck and allllll these people on my imaginary “Board of Advisors” show up. It’s invite-only. Sometimes we’re on the beach, sometimes we’re in our PJs sitting by the fire (please tell me I’m not the only one who imagines Anderson Cooper in pink striped PJs!) and I go around the room, imagining what each person would given the unique situation.

WWJBD? What would James Bond Do?

It’s the best way to brainstorm hands-down (and the cheapest too).

Loooong story to get to my point – I started the Steamy Kitchen business with a $200 investment: domain name, free WordPress blog theme, cheapy camera. In fact, the bulk of the investment went towards the making of the business plan: $4 posterboard and $60 worth of magazines. Many of you who have seen me speak know about how I created a “dream board” to use as my business plan (that story deserves its own post).

In creating Steamy Kitchen, I asked myself and my Board of Advisors, “How can I transform this precious personal food blog into a thriving site that supports our family?”

If you think I’m an anomoly, you need to pick up a copy of Chris Guillebeau’s book, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the way you make a living, do what you love and create a new future.

Who is Chris? A friend and on my imaginary “Board of Advisors.” (WWCGD? What would Chris Guillebeau do?) He’s the author of The Art of Nonconformity - download his 2 free manifestos (bottom right hand side on his blog) and read them….now!

Chris is on the right and that’s the one and only Jonathan Fields on the left.

Chris’s new book, The $100 Startup, profiles 50 people who have started their business with very little investment and have built it to earn at least $50,000 a year to millions a year. And yeah, I’m in it (wheeeeeeee!)

What I love about Chris is that he gets me (and I get him.) We’re both nonconformists (or as my kids call us “weirdos”), carving out our lives the way we want, not what’s expected or based on others’ standards of normal. There’s always a better question to ask, another way to solve a problem, a more creative path to living.

Who would be on your Board of Advisors?

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 26 comments

When we first moved into our house, I had carved out a small patch of land for the herb garden. Since the irrigation was a little messed up, the gardenette was close to a hose and small enough to be manageable daily.

Once the main garden was built last October, I had transferred all my energy, plants and herbs into raised beds and sort of neglected the temporary gardenette. Most everything had died (that patch is still without automatic irrigation) except for the weeds and the fennel plants, which had miraculously thrived with no attention and no water. I have no idea what super-strain of fennel this is, but heck, I’m grateful.

I’ve got more fennel than I can ever eat myself, so I’ve been inserting both the bulb and the fragrant fronds into salads and grilling recipes when we entertain. People say fennel is licorice-y, but it’s so much more than that. Fennel is refreshing, slightly minty with the fragrance and “mist” of anise. I think the word, “licorice flavor” is too strong of a description — I don’t taste the licorice flavor straight on my tongue, it’s more of an overall delicate aroma. Kind of like how fresh basil, mint or dill tastes in your mouth.

Fennel is perfect to pair with miso, honey and orange. It’s an herb that can stand on its own – the fresh crunch of the bulb and don’t forget the lovely fronds, which are equally fragrant with a more floral slant.

If you’re not a big fan of fennel – I’ve got substitutes for you in the recipe.

Miso Salmon with Orange and Fennel Recipe

This is another miso inspired recipe I’ve developed for my client, Miso & Easy, a ready-to-use miso paste. Use any miso paste that you wish!

Here’s what ya need:

The first step is to marinate your salmon (or any fish of your choice) with miso, honey, ginger, sake (or white wine – or omit the alcohol altogether). Marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour or even overnight is fine.

On a baking sheet, layer sliced fennel bulb and a few orange slices. Substitute onion for the fennel, omit the orange if you’d like.

Lay the marinated salmon on top.

Top with fennel fronds – or fresh herb of your choice (basil, parsley, etc) You can even top it with more orange slices if you want.

Bake until done and serve with rice.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments

A few months ago, I thought it would be fun to make hazelnut milk. Yes, fun to make, fun to sip, but the concoction was so rich that sipping was all we could do….that is….until we discovered that adding a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream to it made it fantastically addictive.

We haven’t made hazelnut milk since – but with a giant bag of happy round hazelnuts still in my refrigerator (hey, is is weird that I keep nuts in the refrigerator?) I came up with several recipes to use them up.

Even though this dish looks fancy, even restaurant-worthy, the elements of this dish are relatively simple. Well, it has to be, in my opinion – nutty and luxurious-tasting hazelnut browned butter shouldn’t have to compete with anything too complicated on the plate.

The cherry tomatoes are from the garden, I can’t pick them fast enough – I’ll finish picking one side of the plant, turn around and zoinks!! another 10 have ripened just like that.

Since I’m the only one in the house who eats tomatoes (!#!$@!#) I’ve resorted to sharing the lot with the hens, chucking a handful every day into their coop.

pssst…..Hey, has anyone tried hypnosis to get your kids and husband to like a certain food?

Throw those babies into the pan with the fish, they’ll burst open (sometimes I’ll even use my spatula to squish ‘em a bit in the pan to release the juices).

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 15 comments

Usually, the kitchen is loud….or should I say “lively” – the boys are running through with their Nerf guns, old-school Madonna playing on Pandora, me singing, “borderline….feels like I’m going to lose my mind…you just keep on pushing my love….” and Coco at my feet, waiting for me to drop a morsel of food as I fling my arms trying to dance my Madonna.

Yeah, that’s usually the scene.

Last week, I was alone in the house during the day – the kids were at school and Scott was in New York to be with his very ill dad – my kitchen was very quiet. I liked it that way, I had forgotten how the sounds of cooking can be soothing.

the “pop” as my sharp knife breaks and pierces the skin of a taut, ripe tomato.

chorus of scratching as I grate parmesan cheese.

gentle tzzzzssssss of bubbling butter in a pan.

if you can hear with your eyes, the sucking and drawing up of hot melted butter into the spongy pores of the bread.

fllllueeaappp as the face of the sandwich falls back on the pan after you flip it.

zzzahhhhhhhh as grated parmesan relaxes, melts and spreads out.

(smile) thanks for listening….

This recipe is from my friend, Michael Natkin, who happens to have one of the most happy smiles I’ve ever encountered. Michael runs Herbivoracious blog, which is all about vegetarian recipes. His very first book is just out - Herbivoracious and I’m so giddy proud of him.

Of all the recipes, I chose Super Frico – only because after seeing that recipe name, I couldn’t stop singing, “She’s a super frico, super frico. She’s super-frico, yow”

Come on! Be a dork and sing with me!

That sandwich is pretty kinky
It’s a super frico
The kind of lunch you read about
In foodie magazines

That cheese is pretty wild now
It’s a super frico
I really love to taste it
Every time we meet
She’s all right, she’s all right
That sandwich all right with me, yeah

Super Frico, baby

Make your standard grilled cheese sandwich (I like adding tomato to mine)

Remove the sandwich and sprinkle in your grated parmesan cheese, roughly in the same size as the sandwich.

Once it gets a little bubbly and melty, put your grilled cheese on top.

Press with a ginormous spatula to weld the cheese to the sandwich.

Lovely.

Stuff from the store

Need a cheese grater? I love this one.

I’m a big fan of fat spatulas…this one is nonstick.

Best Parmegiano Reggiano – big love for Whole Foods, the only company I know who has “crack parties“

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 25 comments

This is a variation of one of the most popular recipes from my cookbook (Todd & Diane posted the recipe for Garlic Butter Noodles) and SteamyKitchen.com (Garlic Scallion Noodles).

I’ve one-upped the recipe by adding in a spoonful of miso paste and throwing in fresh mushrooms, which is like upgrading from (okay, I just deleted a lame analogy of something related to stereos….too doiky, too predicable….deerrrrrr….)

Anyways, the miso paste, even just just a spoonful of it, melted into butter gives the entire dish richness (without adding meat!) I’ve created this recipe for my client, Miso & Easy, who makes ready-to-use miso paste. 

Garlic Noodles with Miso Butter

You can use any type of noodles that you want, Asian noodles or even spaghetti noodles (which is what I used). The secret ingredient is miso paste and Maggi Sauce….but soy sauce will work just as well.

Get your wok out (or a large saute pan with high sides) and add saute the garlic and green onions in butter, but for the love of Buddha, don’t burn the garlic – keep the heat in control!

Add in the mushrooms.

Just as the mushooms are softening, add in the miso (you might want to make a little space in the pan and stir the miso with the butter to melt it)

Maggi or soy sauce.

Cooked noodles and toss! toss! toss!

And toss more!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 20 comments

I’ve been keeping the baby chicks in the covered patio, in a big plastic tub filled with pine shavings. Since the chicklets have now grown winglets, they can sort of flap!flap!flap! really fast to travel somewhat vertically so we’ve have a screen that we put on top to keep them from escaping. Yesterday, I took the screen off to let them flap!flap!flap! to perch up on the edge of the tub. Well, silly me forgot to put the screen back on and a couple hours later, I counted the chicks…1…2…3…4…uh, where’s #5?!

‘

The yellow chicks are Salmon Faverolles - she’ll grow puffy cheek muffs, a beard….and has…..

5 toes (instead of the normal 4) and they have feathers on their feet!

Oh shit.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 23 comments

Lamb is crazy-expensive at our markets, it’s actually cheaper to go to a fancy restaurants to order lamb chops than it is for me to cook at home.  Ground lamb prices are a little better, but still a splurge when compared to beef. Splurge I must (yum….lamb….) and decided that I need to fancy the lamb burger up with warm, melty brie and quick pickled onions. Quick as in 10-minute, 3 ingredient quick.

The quick pickled onions is essential to the recipe, in my opinion, because the lamb has a strong, distinctive flavor and the brie is ooooey, goooey, rich. The pickle helps cut that fat and richness and provides a contrast to the gamey lamb.

Wow, do I sound cheffy or what!?

The 10-minute red onion pickle only takes 3 ingredients – rice vinegar (or red/white vinegar), water and a pinch of sugar. The onions mellow out in the vinegar and water – so you won’t get the hot bite that you would from regular raw onions.

You can even throw in some chopped chile pepper if you want the red onion pickle to be a little spicy.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments

The Chinese equivalent to bacon is Chinese Sausage, or “lap cheong” in Cantonese. If there’s one ingredient that will make brussels sprouts your most favorite vegetable, it’s Chinese Sausage (yes, even more so than bacon).

Chinese Sausage is the secret ingredient to my fried rice - and hey, it’s sold on Amazon.com (actually, that’s a pretty good price $12.85 for a package of 3).

I should probably compare Chinese Sausage to pancetta, as it’s more like pancetta than bacon. But it’s much sweeter and not quite as salty.

Each sausage is dotted with fat…lot of it. Is that a good thing? Well, I believe that sausage without fat is just pork. The fat is where the flavor is, but I do understand the fine line between full-flavored and too fatty. I’ll show you exactly how to deal with this and let you decide how much of that fat to keep or discard. (photos of Chinese Sausage from Amazon.com)

Brussels Sprouts Chinese Sausage

One of my favorite ways to prepare brussels sprouts is to treat it like cabbage and shred it with a chef’s knife. It is a little time consuming, cutting every itty bitty mini “cabbage ball” by hand….feel free to use a food processor with a shredding disc OR just cut each brussels sprouts in half and leave ‘em half orbs.

Dice the Chinese Sausage and throw ‘em in a cold wok or saute pan. Yes. cold pan. Turn on the heat to medium-low and let the sausage heat up gradually.

As it heats up, you’ll begin to see ‘em sweat. That’s a good thing – the fat inside each sausage is melting.

If you use a wok, it makes it easier, push the Chinese sausage up the sides of the wok and let the fat drip down. Make sure you control your heat – don’t let the sausage burn. Now at this point, you can use a paper towel and mop up all this extra fat and discard (!!!) or be like me and just use that fat to fry the brussels sprouts. Just do an extra lap in the pool.

Remove all of the cooked sausage to a plate, being careful to not scoop up any of that fat. We’ll add the cooked sausage back in the pan later.

Crank up the heat and add in the brussels sprouts. Add in 1 tablespoon of water to get the b.s. cooking. If you’ve taken the easy way out and only cut the b.s. in half, you’ll add in a bit more water, cover the pan and let the b.s. steam. But since we’ve got shreds, they cook rather quickly – no need to cover the pan.

Fish sauce is my other secret weapon in this dish – feel free to sub with soy sauce.

Once the brussels sprouts have cooked through – just taste one of them, they should still be just slightly crunchy but with no raw taste – add the Chinese Sausage right back in.

Toss toss toss!

Done. You’ll never have brussels sprouts quite like this….feel free to do this with regular cabbage as well.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 31 comments