a recipe with no name, but it's delish and another proud recipe-less moment!

I visited some friends for whom I do some book-keeping, as I have for about 7 years now (time flies!!!). They were making dinner, which smelled amazing and they insited I have a small plate before I go (twist twist). it was quite tasty, so I inquired. They had learned a pasta trick on TV I'll share with you. They had picked up a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Their dish included, among other things, zucchini, which as of late is one of my fave veggies. They also used asparagus, which is most certainly not one of my faves. At any rate, since the next night was my night to cook for the fam, I thought I'd take this non-recipe and do my own spin off... and a new dish was sort of born :)

By the way, the following is not really "in order" so much as just talking about the various components, so you'll have to work that part out on your own if you want to try this!

Pasta: Farfalle... ok that's fancy for Bowtie Pasta and I couldn't remember it so I had to look it up. Anyway, a bag o'that. Hey here's the secret... while it's cooking, get a really fine grater and grate some parmesan cheese (from a wedge... don't cheap out on me here, it's important). Once you pull the pasta from its boiling bath and drain it, sprinkle the freshly grated parmesan and mix it up. Do this "infuses" the pasta with the parmesan flavor... very much worth the effort

Meat: Instead of a rotisserie chicken, I got a couple boneless skinless breasts, briefly marinated them in garlic & herb marinade, butterflied them, and threw them on the grill. Once those are done, slice and dice

Veggies: I am always trying to balance between my pickiness and my pop's love for flavors and vegetables I can't stand :) So this was a great opportunity. I sauteed some onion and garlic and bell peppers, then added zucchini and yellow squash and diced roma tomatoes. We cooked these in an iron skillet on the grill , just so I didn't have to run back and forth between kitchen and grill (PS some EVOO in that skillet and season it up too). Once the veggies were fairly well ready, I added a little tomato paste (like 1/2 of one of those teeny cans) and some water, to kind of meld it all together.

OK in a gigantic bowl, I combined and tossed the parmesan infused pasta, the veggies, and the grilled, marinated chicken, and then tossed in a little more parmesan cheese.

It was delish indeed!!!

YUMMY PIES

Levi's fave pie is Strawberry-Rhubarb... especially the one his mom makes. So I've set about making a couple before (I think I blogged about those). Well I wanted to make another since the grocery store had rhubarb in stock again. Before the rhubarb went bad in my fridge, it was apparent we were gonna need to go with the quick and easy pre-rolled dough crust, so I asked Levi to pick one up on the way to my house. He picked up 2 pkgs which is 4 crusts. so much for just making one pie! I made one, and we shared it with his parents a couple days later after a fishing trip... DELISH and it wasnt runny at all! yay!

But what to do with the remaining 3 crusts? Looked up a couple of "low cal" recipes and decided to try one: Apple-Blackberry... http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/apple_blackberry_pie.html.
My notes:

• the only thing that I can tell that makes this low-cal is if you use their special low-cal crust recipe... I kinda failed to do that, but one day when I feel like making my own crust is worth it again, maybe I'll give it a whack!
• Peeling, coring, and dicing 6 granny smiths is more of a task than I thought! I was surprised that it rivaled the S-R Pie recipe! aside from that, however, couldn't ask for the filling to be more simple to put together
• I took a walk on the wild side... I used Marion Berries instead of Blackberries... A dear dear friend of mine and her Marth-loving sister :-) are from the area (Oregon) where these berries are grown, so I regard them fondly. When I saw them in the freezer section, I wondered what the consequence of my defection from the recipe would be. By the way, a Marion Berry is: a cross between the Chehalem and Olallieberry blackberry, so it's kind of a blackberry anyway!
• I don't know what happens if you use a different berry or if you use fresh berries... hmmm...
• The color from the marions leeched out into the apple + stuff mixture super fast... i was shocked and the color was like this bright magenta color... strange!
• The amount of filling was way more than i thought would fit in the pie. However, I put it all in anyway, as it heaped up in the crust bottom and covered it with the top. I am glad I did because it came out perfect! If I hadn't I guess i would have had a concave pie!
• When I pulled the pie out, a little had leaked out... perfect for tasting, no? well, lemme tell you, this dribble tasted like a jolly rancher! haha! I found it very interesting and wondered if I'd like the pie... or anyone else at the 4th of July BBQ for that matter! :-)
• But it was a hit! YUMMY! I would definitely recommend it!

I had promised many moons ago to talk about Pecan Bourbon pie. I will at least give the recipe here and a couple notes. Did these for Thanksgiving and Christmas I think... would definitely do them again, although they can be a little bit high maintenance... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan-Pie/Detail.aspx

My Notes:

• go ahead... use a little extra bourbon... or fail slightly to cook it all the way. OK maybe not unless you plan on getting people a little silly off of your pie. I had one such pie that folks could really taste the bourbon... then they could "feel" it... WOOPS!
• I found keeping the chocolate chips and pecans from sinking to the bottom to be a challenge... particularly the chips. they seemed to "stick" to the bottom of my bowl... particularly problematic when making 2 pies... so I learned not to pour the mixture... and spoon it instead ;-)
• I haven't figured out exactly how to make the top of this pie come out "pretty" just yet. I always get extra bubbles and what not that make it not look flat and pretty... hmmm...
• It's a crowd pleaser, but it is very rich... small slices!

Happy Birthday Levi - The Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Saga

***OK Apparently I am kinda lame because I never finished this post and posted it.. it's been sittin in my drafts***

Levi's birthday was last night (3/27)... a Thursday, which means it coincided with LOST night where we often are joined by a couple friends for dinner and commercial free LOSTness. The festivities...

I asked Levi to choose whatever he wanted to have for dinner. He requested the pecan-crusted fish and lemon beurre blanc and requested I use tilapia this time. No problema. I think I have finally mastered this lemon beurre blanc and don't have to measure anymore! Might I add that this time I used a chenin blanc from Trader Joe's called "Fish head" because it cracked me up and it was fish and well, it's Levi's birthday, so it was a no-brainer.

He also requested sweet potatoes. I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes so I looked for a twist. Got a great tip from a co-worker to make sweet potato fries... you can buy pre-cut sweet potatoes (I have since done some of my own cutting and experimented with different cuts - fries vs circles, wedges, etc). Also had a recipe for sweet potato salad, which I still need to try.

Ro brought a yummy salad, and so all that was left was a desert. I know Levi's favorite is Strawberry-Rhubarb that his mom makes. I have never had it, but he raves about it and I'm sure with as much expertise she has I could never measure up to that one, but I thought I'd at least try to make one of similar delight. Headed for a non-lattice topped one ;-) and found one Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Almond Crumb Topping by Emeril Lagasse (BAM!) on FoodNetwork. It was the one that would cook the fastest, easy pie top (I was a little intimidated by the edge crimping business at this point, and it used rum and flaming... a slam dunk.

OK finding 2lbs of Rhubarb is no easy task. I went to 3 or 4 different produce specialty stores (Trader Joes, Henry's, Whole Foods, a hippie store in my neighborhood) and made several phone calls (each of the 3 previous in several locations plus Ralphs x2). I couldn't even find frozen rhubarb! I was about to give in and just do a strawberry pie or go buy one when I finally, at the last possible minute, found some rhubarb rumpled up in a bin at Vons... the bottom of the barrell... barely 2lbs once they cut of the parts that had deteriorated. Sonnet and I set to work on peeling and cutting the rhubarb and hulling and slicing the strawberries. The ingredients for the filling filled the pan on the stove to the brim, so it made quite the mess as it bubbled. I had hoped the torching would be a little more dramatic, but it was not. Apparently rum is tougher to light and flame than it looks. I am sure it was a snap for Emeril! The filling made 2 pies... an hour later when they finally seemed ready enough to pull from the oven we waited as long as we could for them to cool. Not long enough apparently because it was Strawberry Rhubarb soup between the crust! And let me tell you that at this point it was like 11pm or so! The second one, however, was great and I think we ended up enjoying that at game night at my parents' house or something. YUM! All in all, it was fun to make!

It's been a while...

It appears that once I took up running, Culinary Journey went on the back burner, so to speak. I haven't really done too much in the area of new yummies, but let me see what I will need to catch up on in the near future... Ummm...

I think the most notable would be the honey pineapple chicken... once in the crock pot and once in the oven. Ooh that reminds me... cranberry gravy pot roast will need to have it's piece. Did I ever talk about the bourbon pecan pie? I don't think I did... so we'll have to add that one in. Made some sugar cookies for V-Day with the little one, which was fun too.

Well I have a lot of catching up to do, but I think I'll just go ahead and roll with Levi's birthday dinner for now... stay tuned for others...

OK This is SO not ok...

Seriously? Somebody please tell me this isn't real...

Squirrel Melts Recipe Video

A Proud Culinary Moment...

I made another step in the culinary journey. I sought to prepare a delish fish dinner and browsed a few recipes. I boldy took pieces of each recipe and came up with my own menu.

Let's talk fish...

Levi and his dad took my sis and I out fishing on Saturday. It turns out Becka is a total fish slayer. She caught the first, the biggest, the smallest, and the most fish of the day between the 5 people on the boat. Who knew! When we got back, Levi fileted the fish and his friend and I split the meat between us, except Becka's huge rock fish, which remains in my freezer for another day. Enter fishing pictures...

Monday night, a couple friends and Levi were coming over so I had to think about what we could do with this fish for dinner...

To bake or to grill?

To encrust or no?

Sauce?

Sides?

The final decision? Pecan crusted fish with a lemon buerre blanc sauce, mashed potatoes, green beens, Wilson Creek 2005 Chardonnay. Here I will talk about the fish

Before I give you the details, note that there was a lot of left-over crusting and sauce...

The Fish:

We caught white fish and red rock fish and the filets were about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. I bet this would work with lots of different kinds of fish, but I don't know fish all that well. All I know is that I looked for rock fish and white fish recipes, but found these for some other kind of fish instead and thought it sounded good. :o)

The Crusting:

About 1 cup of toasted, chopped pecans... I say get the whole ones and toast them up... just make sure not to chop them up too fine, but not too coarse either

1 1/2 cup of bread crumbs

2 tbsps kosher salt - I would recommend grinding it up a little bit... regular salt is probably too fine, but just regular kosher salt seemed a little coarse

2 tsps pepper

Some chopped fresh rosemary and chopped fresh parsely (I "eyeballed" it... so proud!!!)

Shake all that junk up in a bag and only put into the bowl what you need and freeze or fridge the rest for next time... I wonder if you have to re-toast up the pecans if you fridge or freeze them to get the oils going again... dunno. But wouldn't keep them un-fridged for very long because I hear oils in nuts spoil.

This particular recipe insisted I rub butter (not melted, just softened) on the fish, but that sounded retarded to me so I used something I saw in a different "encrusting" recipe that used olive oil... so...

Fire up the oven to 450 and get a cookie sheet out. The recipe said spray with cooking spray, but I say nay... I like parchment paper instead cuz it rocks.

2 bowls/plates - one with EVOO (so rachel), one with the crusting (I refuse to say breading)

Simple... dip the fish in EVOO (I gave it a quick swish against the dish to get excess oil off, and then press one side into the crusting mixture... press nice and firm so it all gets nice and stuck on there and lay it on the cookie sheet/parchment paper.

Bake 'em for 12 minutes... check for flakiness... mine were perfect at 12 minutes. (I did this recipe a couple nights later with chicken, also delish, and 12 minutes was a bit too long)

Lemon Beurre Blanc sauce:

Beurre Blanc is just a "white butter" sauce. I saw tons of Beurre Blanc sauces with fish recipes... a lot of them looked annoyingly complex, including the one that accompanied an encrusting recipe. Then I saw this one with a grilled fish and it sounded delish. I'll warn you that it takes for freakin ever, makes way too much sauce, and does not taste even a little bit good by itself. Way lemon-y. But it's fairly simple and I learned about how tedious "reducing" liquid is AND that even if a sauce tastes retarded by itself, it could still REALLY complement the food you serve it with... without further ado...

In a saucepan, over medium heat stir together

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used that Chardonnay I mentioned earlier)

1 cup heavy cream

the juice of 4 lemons (I bet 2 lemons and maybe a little more wine would do quite well instead)

Bring that to a boil and then let it reduce to about half... should be a thick-ish sauce

cube up 2 sticks of butter and let them soften just a little. The first time I let them soften too much and the sauce was runny. the second time, maybe not enough and I over reduced the liquid so it was more of a lemon butter spread than a sauce. Anyways, Stir the cubes in slowly until they blend into a nice sauce. Might have to let it cool just a little bit to thicken...

Drizzle that over the fish and even in your taters... YUMMO...

By the way, I mentioned "first time," "second time" in here... when I say second time I am referring to when I tried it with chicken.

So this was kind of a fancy meal for me, but still went pretty quick... gotta say I am super excited that I braved up and put together different recipes... one step closer to culinary fabulousness!!! :-)

Thanksgiving Feast

Ok sorry about this kids, but I have to whine considerably for several minutes tonight. I just spent like 4 hours in the kitchen, not to mention about 100 bucks at the grocery store. Why? Thanksgiving. I am hostess-with-the-mostessing on Wednesday night and I work on Wednesday. Below... some trials and tribulations SO FAR

Knowing I would not have time to babysit a bird, I thought maybe I could just go ahead and crock pot it. Got the smallest lil bird I could find at the grocery store, bout 8.5 lbs.

Guess what... they don't do crockpots in most stores for a 8lb bird. You can get teeny tiny ones up to about 6qts and then WHAMMO they smack you with a big fatty 18qt one that I'll never use again. so the conventional oven method was going to have to work. Save $20 by purchasing roasting pan instead of crock pot and onward we go.

Good Eats' Alton Brown introduced me to "brining" which he strongly recommends... this was confirmed by the Food Dude on Channel 933. Food Dude even gave several brining recipes and posted them. Martha Stewart also has a tempting brine recipe. I signed on... I went for the "Earthy" style one... though must admit was quite tempted to try the "Apple/Spicy" one... perhaps next year or maybe I'll do a game hen in that since I hear brining is good for all birds and I could use something new to do with game hens. Besides, the earthy one had a lot less ingredients and went along with the "how to cook it" recipe I wanted to try. So let's talk brine, cuz really that's where I'm at right now... I'll give you the recipe

Brine (for a bigger bird, per the recipe):
2qts vegetable stock
2qts cool water
1 tbls Dried Rosemary
1 tbls Dried Sage
1 tbls Dried Thyme
3/4 cup Kosher/Coarse salt

some notes...
I wasn't paying attention to the word "dried" and assumed I needed fresh... was shopping fresh for the cooking recipe.
Couldn't find fresh sage anyway... only dried.
I realized when i got home with yet another gargantuan box of Kosher salt that I had one already.
Wish I had made my mind up before I also bought the stuff for the Apple/Spicy one cuz I got a whole butt load of apple juice and OJ now... (1 gallon cold water, 2 quarts apple juice, 2 quarts orange juice, 3 cups Kosher or coarse salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 10 whole cloves, 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg) although it will be nice to have some cloves around and I can use the juice anywho.

I only made about 1/2 of the brine because it was a small bird. was very conservative with the herbs cuz I wasn't sure if dried or fresh were more potent. Put the bird in the stock pot and then opened up another veggie broth (which I now have to figure out how to use within 10 days before it goes bad... turkey soup anyone?) to top off the pot with that and cool water and a little more salt and herbs. Ooh and since Martha had a reisling in her brine (but lots of other stuff I didn't feel like hunting for), I thought I might throw in a little dry white wine just for kicks. It was a bottle I was scared to open anywho... just gave the turkey a couple splashes of it.

By the way, turkey doesn't quite fit in the pot so I'm having to rotate his briney butt a few times here and there to make sure all gets a good soak.

Tomorrow, hoping to leave work a little early and finish up work from home... will slip the turkey into the oven at about 4/4:30 so it will be ready by 6:30/7... in theory. Tomorrow is the easy part, right? Pull the turkey out of the brine, give him a quick rinse and a pat down. Now for the other recipe...
in the cavity, stick a half a lemon, a medium onion, quartered and peeled, 4 sprigs each of rosemary, thyme, and sage, all fresh (well in my case all but one). Tie the birds legs and set him in the pan. Squeeze the other 1/2 lemon out into a bowl. brush the bird with the lemon juice and olive oil; salt and pepper to taste. initial blast of higher heat (425) for first 15 minutes, then 325 for the rest of the time.

A word on turkeys... ew.
THANK GOD this was a pre-gutted turkey... giblets and neck were in lovely little packages in the cavity along with a turkey gravy in a packet (um no thanks?) and some strings that are supposed to be turkey lifters (whatever). that whole giblet and neck thing... gross. thank god it was in a packet and I could get rid of it instantly. grody. Also, mine spilled turkey juice all over the place. When I thought the last of the turkey juice was gone and drained... alas there was more. And looking inside the cavity? ugh... I barely tolerate this kind of thing for game hens. eesh.

Also on the menu, lil sis will be in charge of mashed taters and some kind of veggie, but I have back up veggies and taters in case she doesn't get a chance.

Ah, but what for dessert you ask? Well I'm so glad you did. About a year and a half ago, I bought a book for a donation to a local charity. it's called 'California Sol Food' and most of the stuff in there is a wee bit foo foo for me... but there was this pie that I have always wanted to try so now was my chance... Pecan Bourbon Pie...

Although I do want to whine some more, it's late and I actually do not know the final outcome of said attempt at home-made pie. But let me just say that making pie crust sucks and I'd rather not do it again. Lucky for me, I've got friends in high places... a certain someone I know has some tricks up her sleeve she is willing to pass on to me... IF ONLY WE COULD DO THIS LIKE TOMORROW??? I wanted to make one for my Wednesday night Thanksgiving thing and also one for the Thanksgiving shin-digs I'll be attending on Thursday.

More to follow on the rest of the bird saga and pie saga tomorrow...

-S

Tryin' it tomorrow: Hoisin Pork Medallions

Courtesy of Anne at work, who Katie and I have taken up many-a-conversations about cooking...

Cooking spray
1-tablespoon dark sesame oil
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, cut crosswise into ½ inch thick slices
6 tablespoons water
1/3 cup dry sherry
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 cups hot cooked long-grain rice, cooked without salt or fat
¼ cup sliced green onions
Cilantro springs (optional)

1. Coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray; add oil, and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add pepper and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add pork, cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove pork from skillet. Wipe drippings from skillet with a paper towel.

2. Combine water and next 3 ingredients in skillet; cook over medium heat 1 minute, stirring constantly. Return pork to skillet, turning to coat. Place rice on a platter; spoon pork mixture over rice, and sprinkle with green onions. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired. Yield; 4 servings (serving size; 3 ounces pork and ½ cup rice).

Per serving: CAL 303 (23% from fat); PRO 27.1 g; FAT 7.9g (sat 1.9g); CARB 29.1g; FIB 1g; CHOL 79mg; IRON 2.6mg; SOD 195mg; CALC 34mg

The cutest little chili recipe ever...

By the grace of Polly... here is cutest little chili recipe ever... in an email from Polly to Katie (sisters)...

Ok Sister, so in about the same amount of time as cooking the cornbread you can have homemade chili, and not gut bomb canned chili... it looks like a lot of work, but its not!

Homemade Chili
1 Lg Can of DICED tomatoes
1 Sm can of tomato paste (might not need whole can)
1 14oz can of Kidney beans
1 Reg can of black beans
1 Reg can of white beans
1 Med can of corn
1/2-1 Beer (darker is better)
1 Thing of ground beef or ground turkey (your choice)
1 pkg of chili seasoning-or cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper (all items enough until your happy with flavor-beware with cumin because it gets hot fast!)

While browning your meat of choice, in a large saucepan add:
-Kidney Beans w/juice
-Black, White beans & Corn DRAINED
-1/2 can of tomato paste (may add more later)
-Entire can of diced tomato
-After adding all cans of ingredients stir well, over medium heat, start adding beer (Sm amts at a time.)
After meat is browned drain & add to chili.
Add spices keep on med heat bring to slow boil- keep stirring intimidatingly. Keep top on sauce pan, after slow boiling for 10-15 min w/all ingredients bring to low and let cook until chili is thick and ready. serve with sour cream, cheese and onions. its delish!

How "Martha" is she??? Be sure to see her blog in "More blogs to check out" at the bottom of this page called "Martha is my hero"

I'll be sure to try this out sometime and let ya know how it go...

Come back...You won't want to miss this: Pork Chop Flambe

OK it wasn't really Pork Chop Flambe, but I must recant the story of my first solo adventure with pork chops... to be continued...

PS add to my list of things to get for the kitchen... a new meat thermometer and a fire extinguisher...

So Behind... Let's Catch up: I CREATED!!!

Oh the details shall follow soon, but let me just tell you that I came up with the idea all by myself... a rendition of a theme I had tried previously.

Marinade:
EVOO
Lime Juice
Mexican seasoning
Cilantro
Red Pepper Flakes
Garlic
Apple Cider Vinegar
I can't remember what else... but that should be about it

Marinated Chicken breast tenders, lavishly coating them.
Laid them out on a baking rack over a baking pan and baked them for maybe 15 minutes (don't remember how long) at I dunno 350-ish degrees
Turned em over and basted and laid thin-slide roma tomatoes on them and then topped them with a layer of shredded monterey jack... mmmmm
Baked em just a little bit longer so the cheese got nice and melty

Served with...
Steamed brocolli; ooh and I added pre-grated carrot (the thick-ish kind?) to the brocolli along with some seasoning and topped that with a little shredded jack too (never thought it possible, but a little carrot makes brocolli taste even better!)
Black beans topped with yet a teeny bit more monterey jack

I had a little much lime in there but it was pretty tasty. Roma tomatoes I think really kicked it up? It was better the second day actually which was cool.

A little help from Sonnet...

So since we've embarked upon this culinary journey, Sonnet has found great joy in helping. She always asks me to "save a part for her", which is pretty cool! This started when we tried a recipe I got out of the Costco Connection Magazine (of all places! I think it was in the June/July edition across from an article about buying a grill). It was a greek style lemon-herb chicken skewer thing with tzaziki sauce. The tzaziki sauce was the real draw, although I will say their recipe for tzaziki sucked... still searching for a truly good recipe. I'll keep you posted if I find one.

However, a couple posts ago, I mentioned the thing I "created" was a rendition on an earlier theme. This recipe is where I got the idea for the marinade in the one I posted earlier today.

Marinade:
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Lemon zest
Red Pepper flakes
Parsley
Mint I think?
Cilantro
Garlic
Apple Cider vinegar
Other stuff? can't remember

Sonnet helped by adding the stuff that I chopped up to the mix and then mixing the chicken around...


Marinated and Cubed the chicken breast tenders and stuck em on skewers


Grilled em up nice and easy... (PS I need a new grill next summer... squatting before a grill for more than about 10 seconds is for the birds... and I don't mean chicken)


It was tasty, but Sonnet said it was too spicy... maybe I will make it a little milder next time... less red pepper and cilantro or something.

Since then, she always wants to have a hand in making dinner... the other night we made "Saturday Special" aka "Not-Taco-Salad-but-Not-Nachos" (Chips, chili, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, etc) and she got to layer up the ingredients... fun stuff! :-)

And by the way, More on Mirepoix

A call from Lori learned me a couple new words...

Sofrito: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofrito
Sofrito is the spanish version of Mirepoix... not so much carrot, celery, onion, but garlic, onion, and tomato cooked in olive oil (now we're talkin!), used as a base, as is mirepoix in french cuisine. There are tons of renditions of it in various other spanish influenced areas (Latin america and what not). Apparently comes from
Soffritto...

Soffritto: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soffritto
Soffritto is italian for "sauteed". Basic Italian soffritto starts with onion and garlic in olive oil and then you add veggies or whatever.

Chiffonade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiffonade
Slightly less related, Chiffonade is a method of cutting herbs/greens so that they make thin little strips like ribbons. Comes from french word meaning "rags". Ain't that cool??? I gotta try that sometime just so I can throw the word around!

Mirepoix

Katie and I have a white board in our office which we litter with words of the day (yes I know... we're nerds). We were visited by a nearby coworker who decided to add a lovely word of her own... mirepoix. It's a culinary term that means the combo of onion, celery, and carrots (aromatics, 2:1:1 ratio). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirepoix_(cuisine) for further info.

Katie proceeded to expose my little blog to said visitor (grumble grumble, blush blush) and so I explained the premise to her. She then recommended the following websites...

www.allrecipes.com
www.epicurious.com

I am quite interested to peruse these sites, but it will have to wait until later..

TTFN

Black Bean Salsa with Exotic Fruit Chips

Will be attempting this for my brother's b-day party... Mom asked me to just bring chips and dip... nonsense ;-)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_26763,00.html?rsrc=search

UPDATE: Black Bean Salsa was a moderate hit... not spicy enough of course! Not a huge fan of the exotic fruit chips and they are NOT easy to find. But the salsa was easy to make and pretty flavorful. I would do it again :-)

Disney Pricess Cake

I can't believe I almost forgot this story!!!

Let's just say that when going to Albertsons to get a cake for her 3rd birthday party, Sonnet fell in love with a cake they said was discontinued (hint hint Bakery People... take it out of your catalog). She took it so well, but I was determined to make her one very happy little princess. I found the kit on-line (ebay) and had it overnighted to me by the absolute nicest bakery supply lady you could ever imagine... Sweet Grace's is her shop (Northern California). She sent recipes for the cake and icing and cake glaze and how-to's for cake decorating and so on! It was awesome. Then I visited a cake supply shop locally to get the tools... this cake turned out to be VERY expensive so if you need a princess castle birthday cake, let me know... would love to make use of various things I purchased in order to make it!

I baked and glazed the cakes the night before and we took the cakes to Grammy & Papa's house the next day, set them up and iced them while Sonnet napped and then Grammy, Sonnet, & I iced it together... I think that might have been the best part! It was a big hit and plenty cake for our big ole' family. Yay!

The Creme Brulee Saga

Several months ago, I got a dinner gift certificate and thought I'd share it with two of my favorite people ;-)

We went to Black Angus and for dessert we got creme brulee and some other dessert. It turns out that my dinner company (both of them) love creme brulee. So I thought maybe I would give it a try...

Little did I know that creme brulee is difficult to make (???) but I found a recipe called "Easy Creme Brulee recipe"... notice the emphasis on "easy"? I thought it would be a snap. I figured that night I would get the ingredients and make it, let it set overnight, pick up a torch on the way home the next day and voila... creme brulee a la me... for two super special people :-)

Everything was perfect except for one little thing... I waited and waited and waited for the creme to set up in the oven, to no avail and then it just got chunky.

I consulted my handy-dandy-auntie again. She asked if I put boiling water in the pan holding the rammekins... no... in fact I did not. I didn't even notice that it said "hot" water in the recipe.

rammekins by the way, care of one fabulous Lori, who picked them up for me when she realized I had no idea what a rammekin was... I called her from the store when I was trying to pick up ingredients some other day for something else and saw a different recipe for creme brulee and asked her. So please know that the creme brulee, had been a long time coming even to this point...

So no set up creme brulee that night, and so I didn't go to get the torch the next night. Decided I would try it again later and keep my eyes peeled for a good deal on a torch. Finally got a torch the week of 4th of July, while camping (yes, camping) in Carlsbad. Lucky for a future creme brulee, Sonnet outgrew her sneakers and we hit the outlet to snag her a new pair. Along the way was a kitchen goodies outlet. (Also got a yummy spice blend you add to EVOO and dip bread in... it was a hit at the 4th of July BBQ... yum!)

Guess what... the torch didn't come with butane. I believe it was about a month ago that I finally got butane for the thing and filled it up.

Little brothers like fire... I hesitate to admit that one such younger brother thought it rather entertaining to play with the torch whilst my child slept in his care... grrr... The torch is empty, but I will fill it again... one day...

Let me just say... this had better be one darn good creme brulee when it finally comes around!!!

...to be continued...

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/262/Easy_Creme_Brulee6793.shtml

Cooking Classes at Qualcomm...

Saw this in the QLife bulletin today and was SO excited...

"Sponsored by QLife and The Cancer Project, this 8 week series will offer information on: Low-fat foods, fiber, dairy alternatives, replacing meat, planning healthy meals, antioxidants, immune-boosting foods and maintaining a healthy weight. Since the Cancer Project is paying for the food, please only register if you will be committing to attend all eight classes - no shows will be a huge inconvenience and cost to the instructor! Each class will feature cooking demonstrations and tastings. Each participant will receive a cookbook..."

Is that not the coolest thing ever? I wanted in so bad I could taste it (pun intended).
Only problem... the class is full and I am on the waitlist... ssssiiiiigggghhhh...

By the way, I just want to say that this was my gazillion dollar idea a few months back... "someone should start a company that offers lunch-time cooking courses to corporations." I didn't jump on it... and now... someone else gets all the dough (yep. another pun). In fact, even further, Katie and I mentioned it to an HR partner who is on this climate enhancing project. The project team didn't take the bait for the idea...and looky there... the cancer project seems to have the idea and people are FLOCKING to it! uh-huh... I'm looking for my favorite three words here...

Apricot-Ginger Glazed Cornish Games Hens

Cornish Game Hen always sounded so fancy so I never thought of making it myself until I saw Alton doing some cool hen grilling (using a brick wrapped in foil for pete's sake) and I thought... hmmm... now I could probably do that!

quick props to Lins for telling me about Alton on the show "Good Eats" on food network... he's a wacky, nerdy type science guy, but he gets into WHY we do what, the tools, the safety, etc. If you get a chance to watch the episode, it was called "working with fowl" or "preparing game" or something. He showed lots of nifty meat thermometers... by the way, I need to get one so I am going to start myself a wish list... and come to think of it, a list of spices I now have and ingredients I have tried... well it's a good thought... we'll see what comes of it.

Anyway...
I really wanted to try the game hen the way Alton showed it, but I think maybe I'm not ready. He did something with bacon to make whatever flavoring the game hen needed. He showed a couple ways to cook the birds... one was in a pan, one was on the grill... both requiring a brick wrapped in foil and pre-heated. There were too many steps, I was fresh out of bricks and bacon, and I needed to cook the birds pronto. Maybe next time Alton... now that I do not fear the small fowl, I just might brave out and spread my flightless wings... later.

After consulting my office mate, Katie, I decided to go with the apricot-ginger glazed version... why? it boasted shorter cook time and shorter prep time... right up my alley. Oh and there was no stuffing and nothing really all that crazy in the way of ingredients and prep.

Some caveats...

I was quite pleased that the birds came organ-less... though let me say that in this recipe you have to slice it in half and cutting through bone is not all that cool... particularly since my good knife was still MIA.

Learned a little something about ginger - not all that easy to mince it. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to try to do this with a garlic press... yeah not so much. Didn't know those holes aren't really for making really tiny pieces of garlic... bummer. So I have since purchased a grater, but until I find one that works better, I am going to say working with ginger root is not really my best friend...

Not only am I missing my knife and an appropriate too with which to grate ginger, but the recipe says to use a "roasting pan and rack" and while I've got the rack, my roasting pan is missing... so irritating. Thought I'd share how improvisation skills came into play... I used the grill rack from my little portable barbecue over a flat square pan. The hens took up more space on the grill rack than was covered underneath by the pan, so I put a cookie sheet beneath the whole thing... pretty funny... but it worked out ok.

I was cooking 2 birds, each weighing about 1.5 lbs, but the recipe called for birds that were about a pound... thanks to Lori, I was able to confidently adjust the temperature and timing reasonably... if only you knew how big of a step that sadly is! haha!


I think yummy sounding glazes might be a little bit of a waste for me as I am not a fan of the skin... but I am sure it did contribute to the flavor of the meat at least some. Next time, maybe I'll get a little under the skin just for kicks.

Had corn on the cob and canned peas with this... pretty tasty!


http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_22347,00.html?rsrc=search

PS Must tell Katie's story of trying to cook a whole chicken with a can of beer on the grill, which seriously deterred my idea of roasting these birds on the grill until I'm a little more savvy... apparently the recipe she followed didn't mention that it would be good to put the chicken on one side and the heat on the other so the chicken would cook by indirect heat and drippings wouldn't fall directly into the fire. Oh and apparently it's a good idea to put a pan under said chicken as well... the result of doing neither? crazy flames engulfed the chicken and nearly blew the place up. Good thing this fire-fighter's daughter had her trusty fire extinguisher handy, right? so busted! which reminds me... I don't think I'll be grilling any chickens til I have an extinguisher of my own...added to the list. :-)

Flank Steak Pinwheels

Another recipe I aspired to reenact per Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals. I'm not one to throw many barbecues, and I didn't care much for the carrot hazelnut salad thing she had to go with it, but these things looked pretty cool and it made me want to have folks over for dinner. so I did!

I invited a few people over and prepped for the thing. let me say it was a wee bit of a walk on the wild side as I have never butterflied a flank steak, or touched one for that matter, I'm not a fan of spinach, and I'm not the world's greatest griller. But I gave it a shot...
Can I mention really quick that I couldn't find "flank steak" on my own... had to get help from the butcher. yeah good stuff.

Thankfully, Rach added in her commentary that you need a really super sharp knife to butterfly the meat, so I picked one up (sadly lost it the night I had the friends over). glad I did so or I would have NEVER gotten that thing butterflied!!! My next hurdle to jump was the fact that when butterflied and flattened out, the flank steak was way bigger than my plastic cutting board/mat... luckily I have two. RR had mentioned that you have to cut something here or there to even it up, but the flank steak she used was apparently perfect so she didn't have to cut anything... so I have no idea what it meant to "even it up"... having had to roll the thing up and skewer it, I'll say that maybe it would be a good idea to make the edge on the outside of the roll straight across for ease of skewer placement.

Filling - I used asiago, chopped fresh spinach, and gorgonzola crumbles, per RR's recipe, although I like how she gave ideas for other cheeses to use... I love options! I totally forgot to add the onions, which was a bummer cuz they went bad in my fridge, but that's life in my fridge...

Rolled up the flank steak nice and tight and stabbed the water soaked skewers down into the roll, Sonnet helped me slide them through as we turned it on its side. Then I gingerly cut them into their own cute little pinwheels and bathed them in olive oil as they awaited the grill.

Grill men to the rescue... One of these days I will probably have to learn how to man a grill myself instead of finding a man to man the grill... hooray for me, there were two grill savvy men at our little shin-dig who handled the flank steak pinwheel grilling just b-e-a-you-tifully!

Paired with these delish little treats we had BBQ'd corn on the cob (Sonnet's fave) , a fab salad brought by the guests, and I couldn't help but open a bottle of my ever-fab Dolcetto... mmmm... what a great way to enjoy a summer evening with friends!

We topped the night off with a splash fight in the jacuzzi and vanilla ice cream over grilled peaches (pssst... I hear the secret to grilled peaches is starting with peaches that aren't very ripe yet)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_37202,00.html?rsrc=search