Fresh Brioche

Clam Chowder

2012-02-03T08:00:00.002-05:00

Chowda Time!

I ate a whole lotta Campbell's soup growing up. Beef & barley, chicken noodle, cream of mushroom (oh how I love thee), but I think my favorite had to be clam chowder. Oh was it creamy! Oh was it salty! Oh was it...oh it was everything!

Not everyone felt the same way, like that asshole in kindergarten who said my beloved clam chowder, which I had brought to school in a thermos, looked like throw-up. Clearly his childhood was not enriched by the wonders and breadth of the canned soup aisle. Asshole.

Trying to revive some of that ol' chowda memories (sans Mr. Asshole), I went to the grocery store and spent one bazillion dollars on littleneck clams. It ended up being worth it because the flavor was amazing and better than when I had used chopped claims in the past (either canned or frozen), but I certainly do not turn my nose up at chopped clams and highly recommend them if you don't want to use fresh clams.

I remember you, asshole, and lemme tell you this clam chowder is good.

Adapted from Epicurious

40 small clams, such as littlenecks (about 2 inches in diameter--my grocery store sold about 45 in a bag that cost, again, about a bazillion dollars)

If you're using chopped clams (frozen or canned), you'll need about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup water
8 oz bottled clam juice (or you could just use water, for a total of 1 1/2 cups water)
3 bacon slices, cut into 1/4" dice (you could do 2 slices, you could do 4--3 seemed about right for the amount of clams I had and how much bacon flavor I wanted)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/4" dice
1 TBS butter
1 cup half and half
2 TBS finely chopped parsley

Serves 4 to 6

First, rinse and scrub your clams well to get rid of loose dirt and grit hanging onto the shells. Discard any clams with broken shells (a little chip here and there is fine, but a few of mine looked like they had been mauled).

Place clams in pot (mine was 4 quarts) with water and clam juice (or all water, if you're not using clam juice).

Turn heat to medium high and cover pot so clams can steam for about 5 to 8 minutes, stirring every once in a while. Remove clams to a separate bowl as they open--that started happening for me about the 5-minute mark and kept going. It was like a game--you pick out one, and then lo and behold another one opens! This was very fun for me, which should tell you something about my life.

Pickin' out clams--this one was a gaper.

THROW AWAY the ones that don't open--they have spoiled and may cause serious gastrointestinal stress if you eat them. Lemme tell you about the last time I had a bad clam. Well maybe I won't. Okay I'll say this--you know those juice cleanses they talk about? Save some money and just eat a bad clam.

All innocuous-looking but this guy really just wants to invite you to an evening with the toilet.

Turn off the heat. When clams are cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the shells and build your little pile of oceanic wonder. Then roughly chop them.

Pre-mutilation

Pour cooking liquid through a fine-meshed sieve lined with a paper towel or cheesecloth into a bowl. Don't pour all the way--leave the grit behind. Clean out the pot well--we'll use it again in the final product.

See? Grit, I tell ya.

Prep your bacon, onion and potatoes.

Hm, my bacon looks more like 1/2" dice. Ne'er you mind.

Melt butter in the cleaned pot over medium heat, and add the bacon.

Cook, stirring, until golden brown, then add the onion and cook (still stirring) until softened. This whole process will probably take about 8 to 10 minutes.

Put the potatoes in the pot, along with the reserved clam liquid. If you are using chopped clams, I would start with about 2 cups of clam juice and 1/2 cup of water and go from there.

Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender. The original recipe said 3 minutes, but I must have created some husky pieces of potato because it took more like 10 minutes.

Stir in clams, half and half, parsley and black pepper. You will likely not need any salt, although no one's prohibiting you from adding it.

Ladle into bowls and serve. We ate ours with some toasted sourdough bread. This isn't super thick like the kind you get out of a can--although you could do a little cornstarch slurry or use a roux to thicken. And that would be more effort. Power to you.

Ta-da!

Lamb Tagine

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

My parents came over for dinner the other night, and my mom wanted to bring a red Portuguese wine (Duoro, for those of you curious) for us to try. I had originally thought of making a linguini with clams or shrimp scampi, but changed course due to my mom's enthusiasm over the wine. While I am not usually a stickler for matching just the right wine with whatever I'm eating, it is a general haphazard concern that becomes more pronounced when seafood is at stake. A mismatched wine can be no big deal (at least to me), but a mismatched wine with seafood really throws a metallic off-taste to things that makes me very sad.

After a little research, I decided that lamb would be the way to go. Somehow I settled on lamb tagine. I used a combination of recipes I adapted from Food & Wine and NY Times. In many of the lamb tagine recipes I saw, you brown the cubed lamb meat before braising it in a spicy fragrant mixture. I am not a fan of browning small chunks of meat before a long cooking process--the spattering and turning of itty bitty pieces to get all 6 sides nicely browned makes me...very sad. Apparently it's not hard to make me very sad. Anyway, what I liked about the Food & Wine recipe was that there was no browning, just a long marinade before moving onto the main event. So yes, you do have to plan ahead to give the lamb enough time to marinate, but I was willing to make that sacrifice in order to avoid the fine spray of oil that would cover my cooktop if I had gone the browning route.

As for the NY Times recipe, there were some flavor components that I liked from that recipe, namely tomatoes and orange juice, that I decided to incorporate.

Ingredients

Marinade
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 two-inch strips of lemon peel (you want just the peel, leave the white pith)
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 TBS kosher salt (less if using table salt)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 cinnamon stick or 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of saffron threads (I happened to have this, but it is $$$, so consider this optional--you know, as if you were considering any of this as mandatory with penalty of death if not followed exactly)

2 1/2 pounds lamb stew meat (like shoulder or leg), cut into 1-inch chunks

Braising...stuff
1 medium onion, halved and sliced into 1/4 inch thick half-moons
juice from 1 orange
one 2-inch strip of orange peel (this could also go in the marinade--I was kind of making things up as I went along, which is what I'm sure you want to hear if you're going to use this recipe)
one 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 medium carrot, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/4 to 1/3 cup green olives, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Serves about 6

Combine the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. There's a lot of yummy stuff in there.

Add lamb, stir to make sure the marinade is evenly distributed. No one should be neglected. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours.

Add the onion, orange juice, orange peel, tomatoes, and chicken broth to a large pot (an enameled cast iron casserole works well--it should be at least 4 quarts).

Add the lamb and scrape in any residual marinade from the bowl. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Add in carrots, and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes.

At some point I felt like my liquid wasn't reducing enough so I uncovered the pot and let it simmer for about 30 minutes, but it may turn out differently for you. Anyway, at the end of cooking, stir in the olives and parsley. Serve with couscous.

I loved this dish--the marinade packs a lot of flavor, and then you have the play of the vinegary olives against the sweetness of the carrots and orange. I highly recommend for a weekend winter meal.

Ta-da!

Time Out

2012-01-13T09:42:00.000-05:00

I've been lazy about blogging lately. There are a few draft posts of recipes I have made but honestly I haven't been that excited about the things that I've made lately. I'm in a post-holiday slump. Kevin suggested that I think of other things to blog about. I'm going to ignore that helpful, positive suggestion and instead, put myself in a time-out.

This is how the pros to a time-out.

Bunni wedging herself in the corner by the front door. Totally random (she must have had a guilty conscience about something, like always backing away from me when I try to embrace her in a soul-crushing bear hug)

What, Bunni, what did you do?

I know you did something, it's written all over your face.

Yes, hang your head in shame, little girl. Hang it.

You're round-eyed and horrified at what you've done, aren't you?

Oh wait, you're just sleepy.

No remorse, I tell you.

Happy Birthday Pugs

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

The pugs turned 6 years old a few weeks ago (this is late). We don't typically make a big deal out of their birthdays, because, well, we forget to (so awful!), but this year things were different. We just happened to be on one of our 5x/week trips to a local bakery that makes these little wonders called "pupcakes"!

How did the pugs handle this birthday hedonism?

I presented to them da goods. Bunni is mesmerized. Notice Kevin's hand in the background keeping Bunni's ass planted on the floor.

A closer look, madame? Perhaps you would like just a teensy leetle bite to make sure zat zeese pupcakes are to your liking?

What part of "teensy leetle bite" did you not understand??

While Bunni cleverly destructed her pupcake in .001 second, Rikki's strategy was to lock her jaws around the pupcake entire, trot around the living room in simultaneous jubilee and utter fear that someone would rob her of her precious pupcake, only to be nabbed by Kevin all wide-jawed and just bizarre-looking. All the while, mind you, not actually biting into the pupcake.

She still doesn't get it.

After some considerable time (and, ahem, Kevin retrieving the pupcake from her jaws and breaking it up for her), she finally did get the hang of the pupcake.

After the carnage, the pugs retreated to their bed.

I expected gratitude after the pupcake extravaganza. I expected unadulterated love and adoration.

Instead, I received one sleepy look and one "what da f&#! you want?" look.

Rikki did open her eyes in hopeful anticipation of a stray pupcake.

Bunni, that blessedly iron-hearted pug of mine, gave me a glare that said it all: "You gave me one pupcake. One. I don't understand how you expect me to live."

Roasted Mushrooms

2011-12-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

I love mushrooms. I think they're delicious, I like the texture, and they add such a meaty component to dishes. I know not everyone feels the same way about mushrooms, which makes me sad. The cafeteria in my office building had roasted mushrooms every day as a selection in the buffet for about a month, which made up for the sadness. But then the sadness returned when they stopped offering the mushrooms. My emotions are being toyed with.

If you do like mushrooms, here's a recipe for an easy side dish. Or, if you're like me, you'll eat the entire pound of mushrooms all by yourself as a whole meal. It happens.

I looked at various roasted mushroom recipes and liked this one the best, and adapted it just the tiniest bit.

Ingredients

1 lb. mushrooms (crimini or white)
2 TBS plus 1 tsp olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 TBS finely minced garlic
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
1 TBS finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 TBS chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Serves 4 as a side dish, or 1 if we're talking about me

About prepping mushrooms: they say you're not supposed to rinse mushrooms because they soak up too much water, and that the best way is to wipe each f*(#$ one with a damp paper towel. However, I was watching Jacques Pepin and he said washing mushrooms is fine, as long as you wait to do it right before you use them (otherwise the water soaks in too much, causes soft spots, something like that). So I decided to side with Jacques on this one since it made my life easier.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Crank it!

Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Trim the dried ends of the washed mushrooms and quarter them--some of then were petite enough that I just halved them, or, if extra mini petite, just left them whole.

Toss with 2 TBS olive oil, salt and pepper, and place mushrooms onto a baking sheet. Give them some space so they actually roast instead of just steam each other. Roast the mushrooms for about 15 minutes, stirring things around halfway through.

While the mushrooms are roasting, prepare the very complicated sauce. What you do is combine the remaining 1 tsp of olive oil, balsamic, garlic, and thyme.

Toss the sauce with the roasted mushrooms (if there is a lot of liquid in your baking sheet, pour that off before this step).

Put the mushrooms back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

And enjoy. I think they say mushrooms have a lot of umami. I find them addictive. Hence a pound of them disappearing into my mouth in 10 minutes.

Ta-da!

For the Twilight Fans, Again

2011-12-06T18:54:00.023-05:00

Remember the cupcakes I came across last year that commemorated the release of Eclipse? Well, I'm a little late in posting this, but a local bakery made a very special Breaking Dawn cupcake a few weeks ago.

Reader, I ate it.

Oh it's just too much fun. Although do you know what's *not* fun? Not actually seeing Breaking Dawn in the theater, just being a sad half hanger-on by taking a picture of a cupcake with a photo from the movie. When I suggested seeing the movie to a certain someone, that certain someone countered with Harold & Kumar (which I have nothing against, but that wasn't the point). My life. It's the kind of thing where I would probably have to ask to see this with Kevin as a Christmas gift, the resistance is that high.

You're saying to yourself: why don't you go see it with a friend? And then I would mutter to myself: most of my friends would react that same way as Kevin. I'm an outlier. It is my burden to bear. And I bear it with all kinds of angst, half-gasps, and incoherent sentences.

Chicken and Dirty Rice

2011-12-05T09:57:00.000-05:00

I'm sipping on an apple cocktail. It's deleeeshous! And strong. It took some stocking up of my non-existent liquor cabinet in order to make, but once as I bought the basics and made the thyme simple syrup, it was bottoms up. Okay not exactly bottoms up, since, and this is worth repeating, the drink is strong stuff. It's not the most quick-and-easy of cocktails, but the making of a cocktail is a nice little ritual, isn't it? Plus, I feel ever so sophisticated. I fool everybody. And by "everybody" I mean my husband and the two pugs, the only living beings who are around while I engage in all this fine measuring and ice-and-liquor shaking and whatnot.

FYI--I've discovered that you don't need a real cocktail shaker to make cocktails. I used an old jam jar.

Is there anything like the sound of ice gently clinking against glass? It's such a happy, light tinkling sound. Although when I hear the word "tinkle", I think of #1, and that's not what I mean in this instance.

By the way, this is not a sweet cocktail. While it has apple cider and the thyme simple syrup, don't be expecting Martinelli's (which I happen to love) with some alcohol thrown in.

Onward to the point of this post...

As I mentioned, I've been starting to use my slow cooker and recipes from Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen. You're like, oh my god stop mentioning ATK I can't take it anymore. And I'm like I can't. I just can't stop.

One of my favorite recipes so far is this Southern Style Chicken and Dirty Rice. Prep for slow cooker recipes can be super easy or pretty involved. This recipe is an in-betweener. But very worth it.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
8 ounces of kielbasa sausage, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion, minced
2 celery ribs, minced
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed
Salt and pepper
2 cups instant rice
2 scallions, sliced thin (I completely forgot these when I made the recipe, which renders them "optional")

Serves 6 to 8.

Heat oil in skillet on medium to medium high heat. Cook kielbasa until well-browned, about 5 minutes.

While kielbasa is browning, prep your aromatics.

Add the onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper, chili powder, thyme and cayenne to the kielbasa until veggies are softened and onion is lightly browned, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Add flour. The two-word simplistic beauty of a command sentence.Which I just ruined with my rambling.

Stir for about 2 minutes to incorporate and cook flour. Then whisk in broth, making sure to scrape up tasty bits on the bottom of the pan. Transfer mixture to slow cooker.

See? Those are the bits that you want to scrape up. I am so helpful.

At this point you're wondering how the slow cooker makes life any easier, because this sure doesn't sound any easier than a regular recipe, and I wondered the same thing. I think this recipe is a great example of how the biggest benefit of the slow cooker comes after the prep, when you're letting it sit there doing its thing. Be patient!

Anyway, season your chicken thighs with salt and pepper on both sides.

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and move it around a bit so that it's covered in the sauce. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours (I did 5 hours).

After you've gone to get a massage (or 3) and return to your slow cooker deliciousness, break apart the chicken with any utensil, or just look at it really, really intensely--the meat falls apart quite easily. Stir in rice and 1 tsp salt and cook on high for 30 minutes.

I know, you're like, why would I use instant rice? Well, that's what the book said and we all know that ATK cooks things every which way, and they mentioned that using regular rice could lead to uneven cooking. I don't know about you, but the last thing I wanted was for this thing to be cooking for 5 hours only to find that the dish would be ruined by misbehaving rice. So Minute Rice it was.

This dish is really quite good, and I highly recommend it.

Ta-da!

Saag Paneer

2011-11-18T08:51:00.000-05:00

I love saag paneer. I don't know when I started eating it, but it's one of my favorite Indian dishes. That spicy and creamy spinach, plus the real kicker--cubes of cheese. CUBES OF CHEESE.

So imagine how pleased I was when I was perusing through my sister's recipe files (she is the true cook in the family--really amazing) and I saw a recipe for version of saag paneer that was very doable. The hardest thing to find was the paneer, but luckily they sold packages of it at the Whole Foods nearby for the bargain price of 10 dollars. Yes, 10 dollars. The alternative was making my own, which, as my sister told me with a sniff (which might have included a scoff), is not that hard to make on your own. Okay, then, you make it. I spent the $10.

Next time I make this, I will take the extra step of taking an immersion blender to the spinach after it's cooked to get more of that creaminess that you do when you order it at a restaurant. This was a bit more of a sauteed/quick braised spinach version.

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic (I used 6 the first time and it was a bit too much)
1 oz fresh ginger
1 lb frozen chopped spinach
2 to 3 tsp vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)
1 cup plain yogurt
4 oz buttermilk (1/2 cup)
pinch of red chili powder or cayenne pepper
2 tsp garam masala
1 cup half and half
6 oz paneer, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 TBS butter
salt to taste

Serves 4 to 6

Grind the onion, garlic, and ginger into a fine paste.

In a large saucepan or pot, heat 2 to 3 tsp vegetable oil over medium high heat. Cook the onion/paste/ginger paste for about 3 minutes. Add in the garam masala and chili powder. I think I also threw in a pinch of turmeric and extra cumin, but it's not necessary. Stir until spices are fragrant and cooked, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add in buttermilk, yogurt and spinach (I just threw mine in frozen because the branch I bought was a bag of loose frozen chopped spinach, but if it came in a block I would have defrosted it first).

Simmer at medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Next time, at this point, I will mash the ingredients with a potato masher or blend using an immersion or traditional blender.

Add the half and half. Simmer until the mixture has a creamy consistency, 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the cheese and butter, simmer 5 minutes.

Season to taste with salt.

Not as creamy as restaurant versions, but it hit the spot.

Serve with jasmine rice. Ta-da!

Light Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2011-11-15T08:50:00.000-05:00

Never mind that it's almost 70 degrees today--last week it got a bit chilly and I was in the mood for soup. I saw a delectable recipe for broccoli cheese soup on Pioneer Woman which really brought matters to a must-make-soup-crisis, but the amount of fat in the recipe pushed that past crisis mode, over the edge, down a cliff with an arrow sticking through your side and then you get attacked by zombies. Sorry, too much Walking Dead there.

So I thought I would try looking for a lighter version. Lo and behold I found a recipe adapted from, you guessed it, America's Test Kitchen. I swear I use recipes from other sources, just not right now.

This soup benefits from tons of broccoli--I weeded out recipes using only 6 or 8 oz of broccoli, which is not enough. I mean what am I supposed to do with the rest of the broccoli head? It also uses leeks instead of onions. While I'm sure you could substitute onions, I think the leeks gave this soup a leaner bite that kept it from being too cloying.

However, I could totally be making that up.

The soup derives its "thickness" from evaporate fat free milk (genius) and of course some blending at the end.

Keep in mind that this isn't a thick, creamy soup. It is definitely more of a soup as opposed to a hearty chowder-type consistency. Nevertheless, the flavor was spot-on and for the sake of continuing to excuse my lack of exercise, I would make this soup again.

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

1 bunch broccoli (about 1 ½ pounds), florets cut into 1-inch pieces, stems trimmed and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 pound leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced thin, and rinsed thoroughly (see leek-cleaning method here)
2 teaspoons canola or other neutral oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
¾ cup fat-free evaporated milk (in these parts, this product comes in 5 oz. cans, which is a bit less than 3/4 cup. Nobody threw the soup back in my face so I think the 5 oz. is okay.)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 cup) (okay I might have been a little more generous with the cheddar cheese--that or my 4 oz. were super 4 oz. because I ended up with about 2 cups)
Salt and pepper

Serves 4 to 6

Hack your broccoli to pieces. Keep the florets and stems separate.

Prep your leeks (see link above to how to clean leeks).

In a large pot, combine the broccoli STEMS (not the florets, not yet, oh just you wait), leeks, oil and 1/8 tsp salt and turn heat to medium or medium low. Cover (I forgot to do this) and cook, stirring once or twice, until vegetables are starting to soften, about 6 to 8 minutes. Uncover and stir in garlic.

Stir in broth and water, and raise heat to medium high to bring mixture to a simmer.

Cover, reduce heat to medium-low to keep things at a simmer, until broccoli stems are softened, about 8 minutes. Add the broccoli florets, cover, and cook until everything is tender, about 5 minutes.

Now for the blending. You can either use an immersion blender or a regular blender. If using an immersion blender, you'll kinda have to "trap" broccoli pieces with the immersion blender "cup", blend it, then pick it up and move it around to get all the pieces. Don't lift the immersion blender too much or else you'll spatter. It's like playing whack a mole.

If you use a traditional blender, do it in two batches. I can't give you any more tips because the last time I blended a hot liquid it exploded all over the place, even after taking the precaution of taking out the center thingamajig from the lid. If you use a blender, transfer the mixture back to the pot after you're done.

Whisk in the evaporated milk and mustard, and warm over low heat.

Turn off the heat and whisk in the cheese.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, and sprinkle a little extra cheese over the top for serving. Why not.

Makes a nice, light meal with a couple of toasted bread slices. Ta-da!

Mama Lemme Up

2011-11-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

I was working from home one day, and got to see the pugs in their full lazy glory. They really do lay around and sleep all day. They moved from sunspot by the window, to couch, to their bed, and then for a rare moment they plopped themselves in the middle of the living room floor, a few feet from where I was working.

Do you see Bunni looking at me? Like boring her eyes into my head? It's because despite all the changes in sleeping locale that day, there was one place that she hadn't graced with her turgid self.

So she wanders over and does one of classic "Mama lemme uppp!!!" poses. She will perch her paws on your chair, arch her back, and then paw at you like she's kneading bread. Or trying to dig herself out of a grave. Either one.

While Kevin usually caves in and rewards this kind of behavior, Bunni's mama is made of tougher, meaner stuff. Not quite iron, but maybe some good synthetic rubber.

She takes the unusual tactic of sitting there and just willing me to pick her up. Don't be fooled. This is the dog that usually when reached for, backs away like you're coming at her with handmitts of fire.

Rikki, in the meantime, lay there watching everything. I know that if I picked Bunni up, Rikki would have been there in a hot second to use her big saucer-eyed puss 'n' boots look on me. By the way Kevin doesn't like it when I refer to it as her puss 'n' boots look, because he thinks Rikki has proprietary rights over the look and I shouldn't sully it by dragging in a reference to something other than Rikki. It is all her own.

Back to Bunni, who has kinda given up. I say "kinda" because do you see those ears? Yeah, she's still hoping.

Chicken Enchiladas

2011-11-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

There's been a whole lotta America's Test Kitchen recipes in our household lately. Do you ever go through phases with your recipe inspiration?

My sister alerted me to this recipe years ago. I don't cook much Mexican food, so when I realized there was a recipe that I could actually use to create some delicious enchiladas at home all by lonesome, I pretty much lost all my senses. I gave the recipe to a friend, saying it was so "easy". She kinda gave me a dirty look after she had used it and mumbled that it wasn't so easy. That's what I call LAZY.

Okay, so it's not as easy as wrapping a tortilla around a package of taco seasoning, but in the universal scheme of things it's kind of genius and straightforward, and seriously good. You essentially make the enchilada sauce, poach the chicken in it, then separate the two by straining so the chicken part becomes the filling and the sauce part becomes...the sauce. And if you want, you can make the sauce and filling on one day, and save the assembly/baking for the next day. I mean, what could be easier than a 2-day recipe, I ask you? Note sarcasm.

I am clearly conflicted by this recipe. But not by the results, which are straight up good.

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

1 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbs chili
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
12 to 16 oz boneless chicken thighs, cut into ¼” strips
2 cans 8 oz Hunt’s tomato sauce (this is what you're supposed to use--I, on the other hand, read this as 2 cans of 14.5-oz tomato sauce and had to siphon off about 1 1/2 cups that I saved and later used in a chili recipe. Point being that put those literacy skills to work and don't be like me.)
1 cup water

½ c cilantro, minced
3 c shredded cheddar (or queso fresco)
4 oz jarred jalapenos, chopped (I couldn't find these and just used canned diced green chilies)

10 to 12 corn tortillas

Optional toppings (I took the "optional" part seriously):
sour cream
lettuce, shredded
diced ripe avocado

Serves 5 to 6

When you prep your ingredients, take a moment to contemplate the cilantro. Some people love this herb, others can't stand it. I am in the camp of the former.

Heat 1½ TBS oil in saucepan at medium-high heat. Add onions until translucent just beginning to brown (about 4 minutes), then add garlic until and continue to cook, stirring, for about 1 minute more.

My onions are looking a little anemic.

Add spices and stir so they get nice and fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the tomato sauce and water.

Stir chicken into sauce.

I know, another great picture of raw meat. MMmmm....

Bring to simmer and cook 8 minutes. While it's cooking, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Back to the chicken: strain mixture through coarse mesh strainer into large bowl.

Transfer solids to separate bowl or plate, and mix in cilantro, cheddar & jalapenos.

Spray tortillas with oil and warm in oven for 4 minutes at upper and lower middle racks, on baking sheets. This dries them out a little so they don't get too soggy during the subsequent baking, but if you're going to cut a step this would be it.

Raise oven heat to 400. Coat bottom of 9 x 13” pyrex pan with ¾ cup sauce. Place generous 1/3 cup chicken filling in middle of each tortilla, and roll that sucker up.

This kinda looks like I'm rolling but I am not--my tortillas curled up during the pre-bake. Funny little things.

Place the filled tortillas in pan, seam side down. Feel free to pack them tightly. Squash 'em and show no mercy.

Pour the rest of sauce over tortillas, and sprinkle with 1 cup shredded cheese.

Cover pan with foil, and bake on lower middle rack for 20-25 minutes.

That's about as good as this picture-taking venture is going to get. Feel free to accessorize with lettuce, tomato, avocado, creme brulee, whatever! Ta-da!

Texas Chili and Strange Bedfellows

2011-11-04T10:26:00.000-04:00

To slow cook or not to slow cook? That is the question.

Do you ever come across a recipe that sounds delicious, but then you realize that you are missing an important piece of equipment to make it? You know, like an immersion blender, food mill, mandoline, etc? That's how it was with me and slow cookers. I had long heard people extolling the ease of use of slow cookers, and I felt like I was missing out on "something big".

So I did what any good bride-to-be does, and registered for a slow cooker months before my wedding. Someone generously gifted us said slow cooker. Then same said slow cooker sat at my parents' house due to space restrictions. Finally, after a year, same said sitting slow cooker came with me to our new, slightly more spacious digs.

And then, but only then, did I start to think about and ponder mighty hard about the virtue of a slow cooker. Did I really need one? What could a slow cooker do that a french oven/casserole couldn't? This pondering was somewhat moot at the time because the return date had long passed.

So, by default, I kept same said slow cooker that had sat until space had sprung. Do I love it? Well, I like it a lot but wouldn't say love. Can you do with a good ol' casserole pot what you do with a slow cooker? Well, yes, with adjustment in cooking method and time.

Well GD-it then what's the point?

The point is that, to blatantly rip off a certain infomercial that we all know, you can set it and forget it. You prep the ingredients (the prep can either be very simple such as throwing frozen food and broth in there, to doing something more complicated like browning meat beforehand), put them in the slow cooker, turn it on, and just leave it. You don't have to worry about an open flame, you don't have to constantly stir...you just let it be.

I haven't quite worked up the courage to leave the slow cooker on while I'm at work because I don't want the apartment to burn down (I go apoplectic just thinking about the pugs by themselves), but that probably would be a great advantage of the slow cooker. For now, I turn it on during the weekends and go about my business (where I'm in and out of the apartment) or leave it on overnight.

Because, you know, it's one thing for my apartment to burn down while I'm not there, but I'm *totally* okay with it burning down while I'm still in the apartment. My sense of logic could use some help.

But! That is for another day.

My slow cooker did, however, give me the happy excuse to buy Slow Cooker Revolution from Cook's Illustrated, a book that I am enjoying very much.

I recently made Texas Chili, apparently because Texas is known to have big hunks of beef in its chili. This recipe uses soy sauce to help enhance flavor and tapioca to help enhance texture. Who woulda thunk?

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

Oh crap--one more thing (sorry for the long intro). The original recipe is for 8 to 10 servings. I made approximately a 2/3 recipe. I'll give the original ingredient amounts, because some of them are not easily 2/3-able and I kinda estimated.

3 onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup chili powder
1/4 cup tomato pasate
3 TBS vegetable oil
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 TBS ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 15oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 28-oz can tomato puree (or tomato sauce)
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/4 tapioca or tapioca flour
3 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS minced canned chipotle in adobo sauce
2 TBS brown sugar
2 bay leaves
1 5-lb boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (as God is my witness I will buy the beef pre-cubed from now on because I can't exactly call the 30+ minutes I spent struggling to trim the chuck roast as enjoyable)
3 scallions, sliced thinly

In a large bowl, combine the onion, chili powder, tomato paste, garlic, cumin and oregano.

Microwave (this helps soften the onion and blend the flavors) the mixture for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer mixture to slow cooker.

Here's my big tip of the day regarding the next step, which involves the chipotle peppers in adobe sauce. Most of them are vacuum-packed. Please be careful when you open it. I don't want to go into detail about the time that I started to open one and the very SPICY and BURNING contents SPRAYED up in to my FACE including MY EYES and ALL OVER the WALLS and even the CEILING.

So, I open the can facing away from me, very slowly, and I wear latex gloves. I know. Paranoid.

You bitch.

Stir the chipotle, beans, tomato puree, broth, tapioca, soy sauce, sugar and bay leaves into the slow cooker along with the onion mixture.

I know, whoever thought you'd be using the following ingredients in the same recipe.

It happens.

Season beef with salt and pepper, and add it to the slow cooker. Everybody in the pool!

Cover and cook for 9 to 11 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Let chili settle for 5 minutes and skim off any fat with a large spoon. Discard bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper if necessary, sprinkle with scallions, and serve.

Ta-da!

What's your opinion of/experience with slow cookers?

Apple Crisp

2011-10-31T10:33:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Does anyone watch The Walking Dead on AMC? I'm not typically into scary shows, but this one I can handle because zombies are not as scary as, say, a serial killer. But last night's was kind of sad--someone did one of those unthinkable things that you understand that people do under extreme duress, but still something that you're sad and disappointed to see. Seeing as that I view TV shows as the place in the sand for my head to burrow in to avoid ugly realities, I may not watch the show anymore. Considering that this is how I react to something fictional on a fantasy TV show, I sometimes consider that I am not cut out for real life.

On a happier note, maybe zombies like apple crisp. Or maybe they don't, unless it was baked with human blood. Or maybe they still wouldn't like it, because the blood would have been cooked. Maybe a drizzling of fresh blood at the end. Is this too macabre?

My sister gave me a fantastic recipe for an apple crisp. She adopted it from a complicated one that involved several cooking vessels, and streamlined it into this great recipe. The premise behind this apple crisp is that you want to cook the apples down before baking the final product with the crisp topping--this gives the filling a good cooked (but not mushy) texture without burning the crisp topping. My sister's genius idea was to pre-cook the apples right in the pie dish at high heat in the oven, instead of using a skillet (i.e. another dish to clean). This be tasty.

For filling:

6 to 8 large apples (the original recipe said 6, I used 7, but could have squeezed in another)
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
juice of ½ a lemon

For topping:
2 Tbs sugar (I may lower the amount of sugar next time)
2 Tbs light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
½ c chopped walnuts or pecans
½ c flour
¼ c (4 TBS) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400.

Peel apples, and slice into ½” wedges (not too thin or the end result will be like applesauce).

I used a combo of Gala and Fuji, for no particular reason except that I had them.

Toss in a large bowl with the rest of the filling ingredients, making sure each piece is coated well -- this is your only chance to get all the flavor distributed. So don't f*$! it up, moron. (I don't really mean that, but I couldn't resist.)

Pat into 8-9” pie plate. I dotted mine with 1 TBS butter, because I felt like it.

Bake for 30 minutes, uncovered.

In the meantime, make filling. In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, cinnamon, salt, flour and nuts.

Sprinkle butter and vanilla over mixture and quickly rub in with fingers, pastry cutter thingamajig or a fork. You're going to get a crumbly mixture with some bits the size of small peas. Get it to the consistency where if you smushed some in your hand, it would hold together.

Remove apples from oven and give the apples a stir.

Cover evenly with topping.

Bake for another 20-25 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream.

The pictures I took of the final product did not do justice to the dessert, so I am omitting them for your benefit, so that you won't be dissuaded from shutting down your computer, going to the grocery store, buying some apples, and going home to make this right now. Like, RIGHT NOW.

Ta-da!

It's Almost Too Much

2011-10-28T08:31:00.000-04:00

It really is. Oh pugs.

I understand that, to the untrained eye, these may rather look all the same, but each picture has an almost imperceptible variation that showcases eons worth of additional cuteness. This is a truth, as any other pet-owner may attest.

Baked "Skillet" Pasta

2011-10-24T09:50:00.000-04:00

I've been watching a lot of America's Test Kitchen lately. Does anyone else love that show? I trust them because I know they've tested each recipe with different iterations dozens of times, and they're so nerdy and cute.

The other day they had this recipe for baked pasta, but a super simplified version that is mostly cooked on the stovetop and then finished off in the oven. So while you do end up using two major kitchen appliances, the ease of this recipe reigns supreme. You do not have to cook the pasta separately and then add it to the sauce, which in my mind translates to "this recipe is heaven".

In the interest of full disclosure, I am still trying to figure out the right amount of water to add to this recipe. The original made this in a skillet and used 12 oz of pasta, whereas most boxes of pasta are 16 oz. I don't know what to do with 4 oz of leftover pasta, so I used the full 16 oz and made this in a deep saute pan. The original recipe calls for 3 cups of water for 12 oz of pasta, so you would think that 4 cups of water would be the right amount, but it seemed like a *lot* of water so I lowered the amount to 3 1/2 cups. That seemed to be fine, maybe still a wee bit on the soft side (the pasta, that is), so I may tinker next time.

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes

2 TBS tomato paste (I did not use tomato paste the first time I made this, but I will next time to up the tomato flavor)

Salt and pepper

3 1/2 cups water

16 ounces ziti or penne

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil (or parsley)

4 to 6 ounces mozzarella, shredded

Serves about 6.

Muster your troops.

Heat oil in an ovenproof deep saute pan (about 4 quarts) over medium high heat and toss in garlic and red pepper flakes.

Cook for about 2 minutes, until garlic is softened, and pour in tomatoes. Forget to take a picture.

Add in raw pasta and water, with about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Your pasta will be swimming. That is okay.

Bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer and cover. Let simmer for about 13 minutes.

While the pasta is simmering, preheat the oven to 475 degrees. After the 13 minutes (the pasta is almost but not completely cooked), toss in the cream, parmesan, and basil.

Scatter mozzarella over the top of the pasta.

Place saute pan, uncovered, into oven for about 10 to 12 minutes or the cheese is golden brown.

Does that not scream comfort food to you?

Ta-da!

Pugs and Chair

2011-10-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

There is a coveted spot in our new apartment. I think it has to do with the warm sunspot.

How are we feeling, my little Bunni? A little toasty?

Gah, momma, why are you always bugging me?

Somebody please take her away from me. Help.

I turned around to see Rikki looking longingly at Bunni in The Coveted Sun Spot.

She seemed resigned.

Two seconds later, Rikki decided she had had enough of waiting in the wings, and grabbed her moment.

Bunni, like the good sister she is, accommodated the latecomer.

Would you call this cozy or squished?

Because You Know You Want One...

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've been looking at a lot of Halloween stuff lately on Etsy. While I'm not the person that has everything decked out and I don't even wear a costume, I do love Halloween. Last year it was easier to decorate because we were living in a smaller apartment, and basically you blow up a balloon and the place would be decorated. This year we're in a smidgen-ly bigger place, but I am on a shopping hiatus. It's sometimes a very cruel world, something that I hope to tell any child I have as soon as they are able to comprehend English.

So these are for you. In case you want to buy them. Which of course you do.

Okay, I'm conflating Day of the Dead with Halloween. That is bad of me. But not bad enough that you should deny yourself this colorful, spooky yet happy garland.

How cute is Vicki the Vampire? Just look at those teeth! And the skull bow! She could greet the guests at your party.

Those same guests could receive a goody bag tied up with these little cutie pumpkin tags.

And you should make cupcakes. And hug 'em with these wicked wrappers.

How awesome would it be to have this skullduggery soap?

This punch needle embroidery is calorie free. So simple, yet it makes me smile.

I love things that glow in the night, like this luminary.

Back to that hypothetical child of mine. I floated the idea of creating a gallery wall of the following prints for the nursery wall, which my sister thought was fantastic. I worry about her.

I love these prints by Lupe Flores. (Yes, that pic on the right is way over yonder. I can't format in blogger--this should not be news to you.)

And ah mah gah how could I forget what I covet most of all:

Is there really anything I could say about this hat that the picture doesn't already show?

Anyone gearing up for Halloween? Do tell!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-10-05T07:02:00.026-04:00

A few years ago, the New York Times had an article about the secret to a great chocolate chip cookie. (Note: in my mind, whenever I think about the date of the article, I think of it as last summer, no matter how many years go by, so imagine my surprise when I see that this is from over three years ago--gets me every single time). Apparently the key(s) is(are): letting the batter chill for at least 24 hours and up to 72 before baking it into cookies, and using a combo of cake and bread flour. I think the resting and bread flour (which is high-gluten) allows the final product to be a little denser with a lovely toothsome quality (I don't really know what "toothsome" means but this seems an appropriate time to use it) that is all part of a good, chewy-but-crisp-at-the-edges chocolate chip cookie.

This is self-apparent at this point, but this is not the easiest of chocolate chip cookie recipes.

There are some changes you can make. Don't have bread flour and you don't want to buy it? Go ahead and use all-purpose flour, no biggie. Same goes for cake flour? Same answer. What, you don't have chocolate feves? Neither do I. Don't know what they are? Neither do I. And folks, I lived literally around the corner from Jacques Torres, which the article specifically mentions as a source for these feves or whatever they are, and never bought them. Regular chocolate chip morsels have never done me wrong in this recipe.

However, the resting time is pretty important to this recipe, if only to let you see what all the hoopla is about. Of course a yummy cookie will still result without resting time, but the resting time leads to a cookie that will have people kinda looking at you in amazement and saying "Oh my gosh you made these?"

Adapted from New York Times

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour (I used pastry flour, although I have been known to just use plain ol' all-purpose flour)

1 2/3 cups bread flour (personally I haven't skimped on this ingredient because of some oddly rigid belief that the high gluten really contributes to the final product, but I certainly won't come after you if you use all-purpose flour for the whole recipe)

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (20 TBS, yeah you read that right) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves (this is a lot of chocolate, more than you know--you will see later what I mean. Also, chocolate chip morsels usually come in 10 or 12 oz bags, so I just use two of them and call it a day.)

Makes 1 bajillion cookies

First, mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. The original recipe says to sift, but I don't sift. I never sift because I'm lazy and sifting is messy. I whisk the ingredients. It's totally not the same thing but I don't care. Which seems contrary to the fact that I'm spending so long on justifying why I don't sift. Hm.

Wow, a phone camera just doesn't compare, does it. By the way, that little pear crock is my salt crock.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars, scraping the bowl a couple of times with a spatula. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating and scraping well after each addition. Also add the vanilla extract.

My butter was a wee bit soft, so yours might look a bit fluffier than this.

Next, mix in the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar/egg mixture in batches. This will seem like you're squeezing an elephant's worth of flour into a mixing bowl. Don't worry, this is par for the recipe.

Then add in your chocolate chips. This will seem like adding another elephant's worth into the mixing bowl. You will give up on using the mixer because it will have started wheezing and whining, and perhaps you will see fumes emanating from the mixer. Take over with a spatula and show that cookie monster who's boss.

Cover batter with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to 72 hours.

About 30 minutes before you're ready to start baking the cookies, take out the batter and let soften from the chill. It will make it easier to scoop.

Wait, don't get me wrong. It will still be hard to scoop. And such is life. Did I mention this recipe wasn't easy.

Anyway, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line/spray your baking sheets and drop large golf ball-sized mounds of dough onto the sheets (the recipe says 3 oz balls, like I have a kitchen scale or something, psh). Leave a few inches between each mound, about 6 per standard sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are light golden brown. Let rest on sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.

Then, after all that work, you can enjoy! Or, pack up all of them for your husband to bring to his coworkers, belatedly realizing that you got to enjoy only one cookie. One, lonesome cookie.

Ta-da!

Awry

2011-09-29T14:40:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, I think a little thing is going to make a huge and amazing change in my life. Like I'm sure if I had that basil lemongrass goat milk soap that smells so lovely, I would be a different person with a different life, the most notable difference being a large amount of independent wealth.

This past week, I had that special feeling about two new habits I decided to acquire.

First, instead of buying $2 for a cookie pack every other day (alright, fine, sometimes every day), I bought a box of the same cookies at the grocery store for only a dollar more. I was proud of myself, thinking about how much more bang for the buck I was getting--I'm so thrifty! You see where this is going. Despite my best-laid cookie box plans and the new life that was going to accompany it, I ate the box in two days. So not only a financially questionable performance, but also calorifically horrendous.

Second, I figured I would stave off munchies during the day by loading up on apples. The farmers' markets are in the throes of some great, tart apples, and I was going to take advantage of these relatively inexpensive, healthy treats. You know they always say that fiber fills you up for longer, right? They do say that, and I've discovered that when they say that, they are lying. Apples do not fill you up for that long, certainly not past the point where you've thrown away the core and walked back to your desk. Yes, I know that it may just be the power of psychology bulldozing over scientific knowledge here--and by "power of psychology", I mean the type that wants a cupcake. An apple is really not the same as a cupcake.

So I've eaten through the box of cookies, gave up on the apples (at least for a couple of days), and have bought donuts instead. A winning combination.

Anybody have better ideas for midday snacks? I can tell this donut thing is not a good long-term solution.

Crabcakes

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Growing up in Maryland, blue crabs were a big thing. My family would go to the Maine Avenue Fish Market in DC (at least, that's what I think it was--dude, I was young, and just along for the ride) and visit the floating barge stalls, and buy at least a bushel of crabs. I loved those cantankerous critters and their fresh seawater smell. At home, my mom would boil a massive pot of crabs with plenty of Old Bay seasoning, and cook some corn on the side to boot. We'd cover every square inch of the kitchen table with newspapers, set garbage bags at almost every seat, set out a roll of paper towels (to act as napkins), and various crab destruction tools (meat mallet, hammer, nutcracker--you name it). When the crabs were done, they were brought to the table, nooks and crannies filled with that delicious Old Bay.

If you've eaten a blue crab, you know it's not exactly an easy feat. You have to work at it. There are multiple components, things to discard and things to eat, elusive bits of meat to pry at, methods to learn in order to crack the hard legs but not to shatter them. You will get microscopic cuts on your hands from those pesky shells, into which the chili from the Old Bay will enter, which will make you feel very spicy. You will work hard to clean out crab and Old Bay from under your fingernails, yet your fingertips will still carry the scent for at least a day.

It is, for those who love the process, a ritual. It is, for those not so into it, a pain in the ass. It is a ritual for me, one that I love, and that I hope to enjoy again much more often now that I am back in the DC metro area.

All that being said, there is an easier, fancier way to enjoy these AWESOMELY DELICIOUS crabs. Crab cakes! I made these last month, but with all the limbo purgatory nonsense going on in my life, I neglected to blog about them.

These are adapted from Cook's Illustrated.

1 pound fresh jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over to remove cartilage or shell
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herb, such as cilantro, dill, basil, or parsley, or 2 tsp dried herbs (which is what I used because I didn't have fresh on hand--I understand that fresh would have been better oh would you leave me alone)
1 ½ teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
2 to 4 tablespoons panko or plain dry bread crumbs
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tsp dijon mustard
Salt and ground pepper (use white ground pepper if you have it)
1 large egg
¼ cup all-purpose flour or cornmeal
¼ cup vegetable oil

Serves 4 to 8 (crab is pretty rich, so I can't be exact here, not that I ever am)

I used Phillips brand jumbo lump crab meat, pasteurized and sealed. It was surprisingly delicious (I had strong suspicions beforehand).

Gently combine the the crab meat, herbs, Old Bay, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, mustard and mayonnaise in a medium bowl. You want to try and keep the lumps of crab as intact as possible. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Beat egg in a separate bowl, then gently fold into crab mixture. Gently, please.

Hehe that's not appetizing.

If the mixture is a bit wet and you can't imagine for the life of you how you'd be able to form it into cakes, then add a bit more bread crumbs or panko.

Divide the mixture into equal parts and form them into patties about 1 1/2 inches high. How big the patties are (the diameter) is up to you. The original recipe called for dividing the mixture into 4 portions. I started down that road and got the feeling that I was making a crabcake the size of a birthday cake, and scaled back significantly. I made 8 patties from this recipe--I found this led to patties small enough that they were easy to handle.

Place the cakes on a a baking sheet lined with waxed or parchment paper; cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes, and up to 24 hours.

When you are ready to cook the crabbie cakes, put the flour (or cornmeal) on a plate or other shallow dish. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking--a nonstick skillet would be awesome here. While the oil is heating, lightly dredge the crab cakes in the flour/cornmeal (dredge only as many as can fit in the skillet--you can wait to do the others for the next batch).

Place the dredged crab cakes in the skillet, and fry until outsides are crisp and golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Serve with a wedge of lemon and whatever else it is that you decided to toss on the plate that night.

Ta-da!

Oh, Never Mind

2011-09-23T11:37:00.000-04:00

About a year ago, when I finally decided that wearing some makeup on regular basis was a good idea for a 34-year old that looks like an 18-year old, I bought the basics. Concealer, powder foundation, blush, lipstick, eyebrow pencil, eyeshadow, tools, and...mascara. One of these might have been a waste of money.

Lemme tell you something about my eyelashes. They are short. They are thin. And they stick straight down onto my oily skin. So what's a girl to do? Well, if you're like me, you'll spend money on a few expensive mascaras and an eyelash curler only to come to the realization that higher beings just did not mean for you to wear mascara.

I started with this:

Lancome Hypnose Waterproof

It seemed fine on application--I mean, I was 34 and buying mascara for the first time, so really, what did I know. By the end of the day (or, to be honest, by the end of a few hours), I would have raccoon eyes. Ironically, the waterproof portion of the mascara would kick in at that point (a little late to the game, aren't ya?) and I'd have a helluva time trying to shmear the hypnotic undereye circles from my face.

After looking for help on the internet, I decided to buy an eyelash curler. This would solve all my problems, and I would have big batty lash eyes.

Tweezerman Eyelash Curler

No, no, that's not how this story ends. No matter how I used this, the raccoon eyes would still appear. Also, a note about me and this curler. I knew I was doing something wrong when I could feel pain, much like someone was tweezing out my eyelashes one by one, when I was using the curler. The problem was that I didn't know quite how to fix the issue. I then devised an acrobatic method in order for this curler to have effect, but it is my belief that yet again, the shortness of my eyelashes were foiling me, as there just isn't much to work with. I mean, in order to get this to work, I practically had to surgically embed the curler at least 1-inch deep into my face.

So then I thought, Lancome mascara, this is your fault. I will switch loyalties. And I bought this:

Bobbi Brown No Smudge Mascara

I think when they sold me the box, they snickered and scratched out the "No" in "No Smudge". Needless to say, this didn't work either. But I kept at it. I thought I needed to curl my eyelashes more. At a certain point I was so agitated that my curling efforts left my lashes going straight out of my face and then taking a sharp 90 degree turn up towards the sky. Not exactly a natural look.

In the end I gave up, not even finishing the tube of mascara. And I went mascara-less for a few months. This was a good time in my life. Then for some reason I got the urge again, seeing that unused rose gold eyelash curler mocking me in the morning, to try another mascara.

So I bought this:

Urban Decay Cannonball

I used this for exactly 1 day. When I saw the telltale raccoon rings, I knew it was a no-go. I'm trying to think of how not to let the almost full tube of mascara not go to waste. I considered becoming the world's premier mascara artist, where I brush the mascara freestyle against a canvas and sell it for 40 million bucks.

I don't think my mascara foibles speak so much as to the quality of these mascaras (because you will see tons of reviews loving them), but more about the quality of my eyelashes. As in, not high. Maybe I'm just not meant to be a mascara-wearing lady. It is a sobering thought to categorize oneself in an exclusionary manner, but I suppose we all must accept truths about ourselves in order to function and not rip the living daylights off our delicate undereye epidermis in efforts to deal with raccoon eyes.

Gimme My TV

2011-09-21T12:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, enough time has passed since I last blogged that I couldn't remember how to create a new post in blogger. It wasn't instinctive, the way it used to be. Soooo looong agooo....

I've been laying low since spring because:
(1) I moved to the DC metro area;
(2) No really, it was just me, not Kevin;
(3) I'm not creative enough to blog about anything that didn't involve me blurting out that I had moved; and
(4) I couldn't blog about moving because of work issues (i.e. Kevin looking for a job).

So there you have it. Oh, there were other reasons, like that I was living in temporary quarters (thanks mom and dad!) and wasn't cooking (thanks mom and dad!). Seems like I'm not the only making a big transition around here--in the meantime, you people got pregnant and made big moves of your own!

But now I'm back. To let you know. That I can really break it down.

Who remembers that? Who knows where that's from? Here's a hint: the next line, apropos, is Do you LOOOOVE me?

Caveat: when I said I'm "back", I mean sans camera. Which leads me to:

Mina electronics update #1: I am now one of those people who has had her camera fritz out. Now, I suppose that sort of thing will happen when you get a camera, get lazy about buying a case for it, blog for over 1 1/2 years with it, don't bother to wash your hands before taking pictures of your cooking with it, take it to Bali, London, Alaska, the Ukraine (that was Kevin), and every place in between, but it was still a blow.

We are going to get another point and shoot. I've decided against the DSLR. It's just too much camera for my addled brain. I need something simple. Something that still has access to manual settings, ones that I don't really understand, but exist nonethelss.

Mina electronics update #2: this update assumes that you know a predicate, which is that Kevin and I both now have jobs in DC and have moved into an apartment. Wheee! Moving on. We didn't have cable the first week. I'd love to say that we realized the benefits of living a TV-free life and that it made us appreciate each other more and we started crafting together and scripting puppet shows, but that didn't happen. We missed our TV. I mean, we survived fine and in certain ways it was nice, but I think it was tolerable because we knew the deprivation was temporary and we compensated by watching DVDs.

So we have been busy unpacking, buying furniture, buying a car, exploring our new town, unpacking, making plans to explore the area, and unpacking. I hope to share some of these new adventures with you and to get back on the cooking wagon!

Oh, and Halloween is coming up. You know I love Halloween. So so much. I'm so excited for all.

And in case you were wondering, the pugs are as they always are--lazy and adorable.

Hello!

2011-08-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

I haven't been able to piece together thoughts in a cohesive manner lately, preventing me from posting anything on the blog. Let me show you what I mean. Below is a sampling of the thoughts that have flittered throughout my mind as possible blog posts. You'll see what treasures they are. And you will feel blessed that I didn't write an entire post about any one of them.

Numbeeerr ONE!

I like getting massages. They are high on the list of things I like to do. I look for places that give a really good rate, usually bare-bones establishments that have only curtains separating the massage areas. For the price, I'm sure my neighbors didn't mind that one time I was snoring with the lung capacity and hibernation-type content of a black bear. Seriously, I woke myself up with the sound of my snoring. I am entertaining.

However, sometimes I have an issue speaking up at massages if the pressure is too hard. I don't know if it has anything to do with my fear/respect of authority, or that I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, or the thought that I should toughen up and just take it in the face, etc. In any case, I find myself in situations at these massages thinking of how I might describe the massage to someone else, like:

"I thought she was trying to separate my muscles from my bones"

"I thought if I could live through this, I will be okay when someone pummels me and throws me into the trunk of the car"

"She got on my back, on all fours, with her knees digging into the back of my knees, and started flailing her feet like she was doggy paddling, kicking me over and over and over again. Then, I can't be sure because I was lying face down, but I'm pretty sure someone else came in and they both started kicking me" (this really happened)

"I wonder if I would feel stupid explaining to someone that my shoulder blade was broken because I refused to speak up at a massage. You know, the massages that you pay for, presumably not to break your body"

That's that.

Nummmbbeeerrr TWO!

The pugs had diarrhea. It was a pleasure. No it was not. I had bought them a new bag of food--not "new" in the sense of changing the brand or even the flavor--just the same replacement bag of food that I've been getting for the past couple of years. So imagine my delightful surprise when both dogs came down with the runs.

I called the pet store and told them about my predicament (I really wanted to say "I AM DROWNING IN POOP THIS IS HUMILIATING") and they told me to come back in and exchange the food, no questions asked. Well they did ask some questions, but it was normal stuff, like what food was the poopy culprit. It was then that I found out that the company making the pugs' food started selling to a big chain, and that it was possible that the quality of the product had gone down in order to meet the new demand.

So of course I immediately get suckered into purchasing the most expensive pet food on earth. Okay maybe not the most expensive, but it's up there.

Anyway, the diarrhea cleared up *like that* and we're good now. I don't have to go home each night after a work with a sense of trepidation and a gas mask, waiting to see the surprises my babies left me.

Nuummbbbeeer Three!

Kevin got me a Kindle last Christmas. I thought of writing a post and never did. I like it. My sister bought me a hot pink cover for it. It is convenient--very light, you can get books instantly, and you're never caught finishing a book without another to start. The screen is amazing and easy to read. You can type in notes and make highlights, which creates this nifty little index compiling all the notes and marks that you've made--you know, the kind of index that allows you to look over your scholarly and deep deep thoughts in a way that impresses you with yourself.

It's not cost effective compared to hard copy books. Publishers have started setting Kindle prices for their books, which are often a few bucks more than the paperback prices on Amazon. I would say screw you publishers, except that I know they're having a hard time so I will let them go. This time. The shivering that they were experiencing in their boots is on respite.

Do I miss the experience of reading a hard copy book? Sometimes, but surprisingly not as much as I thought. Actually, very little, and the whole holding-a-real-book was an emotional issue for me. I think it helped that I still have some hard copy books that I plan on reading, because Kindle didn't have them available and/or I got them for a $1 at the local used book sale. I haven't actually picked one up, though, but it's nice that they're in a huge heap near my bed.

That's it folks.

I will be back soon with more fascinating thoughts.

P.S. I have not been cooking much. And when I have, I just repeat recipes I've already posted here. I could probably post them again and no one would know the difference, but I have integrity. So much of it.

Grilled Butterflied Chicken

2011-07-19T08:23:00.000-04:00

You will see random pictures of splayed chicken in this post, in various stages of doneness, so be prepared.

My parents' grill was recently resurrected from what was a horrid, rusty, filthy grave. They should be ashamed of themselves. The savior was my sister, who took one look at the grill, sprinted back inside, and promptly ordered new grill grates to be shipped the next day. Thank you sister. (I, on the other hand, had completely avoided the grill, knowing what I was likely to find. Not a savior.)

There were some plump, good-looking chickens at the farmers' market, and we picked one up with the thought of butterflying the chicken and cooking it on the born-again grill. I searched the internet for grilled butterflied chicken recipes, and mostly based my recipe on the one in this blog, which was adapted from Cook's Illustrated. I liked the recipe not only because it gave directions on how long to grill a butterflied chicken, but it also called for brining the chicken beforehand.

For the chicken and brine:

1 whole chicken, about 4 to 4.5 pounds
1 1/2 to 2 gallons of water
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar

I also used this dry rub recipe from Saveur, but it isn't necessary. If you click on the link, you'll see that the rub recipe has about 15,000 ingredients. This is something that would automatically go in my "no" pile, except that my sister made the rub, not me. I used it, but I didn't make it.

Pour a few cups of hot water into a container large enough to hold the chicken and at least a few inches of water above it. Pour in the salt and sugar, and mix until the granules dissolve. I added in a couple of bay leaves, just for kicks. Place your chicken into the container. I also read that you should put ice in the mixture so the temp lowers and discourages bacteria. So I did that.

Pour in enough water (start with a gallon and go from there, depending on the size of your pot and chicken) to cover. Then I covered the whole thing and put it in the fridge for about 4 hours.

Tip 1: you can start this process with a frozen chicken. The brining thaws out the chicken very quickly.

Tip 2: don't quote me on this, but I wouldn't brine the chicken for more than 4-5 hours. After that, the solution breaks down the meat too much and it may become mushy.

When you're ready to move on to the next step, heat your grill to medium high (if you have a charcoal grill, I get the impression that medium high means that you can hold your hand about 5 inches from the grill for about 4-5 seconds before your hand melts--this is why I use a gas grill).

After brining, remove the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Discard brining solution. Now get to butterflying that chicken. I previously gave vague and unhelpful directions on how to butterfly a chicken in this post, so if you'd like to be unhelped again, please click on that link. (I did link to a different site that has more specific directions on butterflying, which is more helpful.) Basically you take poultry shears and cut along each side of the backbone, remove the backbone, and flatten out that sucker chicken. You may need to make a vertical slit/crack along the breastbone with your knife in order to help this along.

Some recipes at this point would have you cover the chicken with plastic wrap and pound with a heavy object to achieve an even, flat layer of chicken, but that sounded like too much work and shit, I just butterflied a chicken, isn't that enough.

Season well on both sides with salt and pepper. I used the infinity ingredient dry rub, which had salt and pepper in it.

Slap the chicken, skin side down, on the grill. It should sizzle a little. Mine didn't. Apparently we were running out of propane, which caused all kinds of issues, like dinner taking about twice as long as it should have to cook. C'est la vie. Turn the heat down to medium.

Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, until the skin is nice, crispy and golden. Flip it over.

My chicken start to try and shimmy out of its skin. This may have had to do with some inadvertent mistargeted butchery on my part.

Cover and cook for about 12 more minutes, or until the breast meat is about 165 degrees and the thigh meat is 185 degrees. Or, you can be like me and ruthlessly hack into it with a paring knife to see if the juices are clear (done) or still pink (not done). Cutting into meat at this stage is typically a no-no because the juices run out but when it comes to E. coli, I choose hacking.

It was at this point that the propane, unbeknownst to me, really started to run out, and the chicken was just not cooking that well. I severed the thighs/legs from the rest of the body to speed up cooking, but hopefully you won't have to engage in this sort of amputation. If you do, though, just do it with love, okay?

Cook, you damn chicken, cook.

When the chicken is fully cooked, set it on a cutting board and let it rest for about 5-10 minutes before cutting into it. This wait seemed somewhat symbolic at this point on account of the previously-referenced hacking. See evidence below.

I spy a gouge in the leg, multiple stab wounds in the breast, and general gross dismemberment.

But it was tasty nonetheless. The brine gave it a lot of flavor and juiciness, and the rub was excellent.

Ta-da!

Cranberry Bean Bruschetta

2011-07-14T08:03:00.000-04:00

Way back when, my sister introduced me to cranberry beans and a lovely little snack made with said beans. She simmered the cranberry beans with garlic and water (and bacon or parmesan rind or tomato or...this recipe is flexible) with a sprinkling of sage at the end--perfect for topping little slices of toasted baguette. The beans take a bit unfairly long to cook, at least 40 minutes, but if you have time, the result is savory and delicious.

So whenever I see healthy cranberry beans at the grocery store or farmers' market, I grab a bunch to make this cranberry bean topping. Haha that's a lie. I love how that sentence made me seem like this person that cheerfully roams around markets with a cute little basket on her arm, blissfully caressing all the produce, having a little go-to recipe for each vegetable that she can make in her sleep. Whatever. In the 10 years or so since my sister showed me this dish, I've made it about 4 times. How's that for frequency.

You'll need:

3/4 lb to 1 lb of fresh cranberry beans in the pod
Enough water or chicken stock to cover beans in small pot
1 to 2 garlic cloves, smashed
About a 2-inch square piece of parmesan or one slice of bacon, diced
1 or 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
About 5 medium-sized sage leaves, thinly sliced
Baguette slices, about 1/4-inch thick and toasted

Shuck your cranberry beans (is it shucking beans? Some other term? I don't know.). Never seen a cranberry bean? Here you go.

Beautiful, aren't they? Well, enjoy those cranberry stripes while they last, they disappear in the cooking.

Place beans in a small pot with enough water to cover by 1/2 inch. Throw in the garlic cloves. I threw in the parmesan later because I initially forgot it, but this would be the time to put in the parmesan rind or bacon (or hell, both).

Turn heat to high until water is boiling, then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes or until beans are tender, checking every once in a while to make sure water doesn't get too low.

When beans are tender but not mushy, throw in the diced tomato.

Simmer, uncovered, for about 15 more minutes until the mixture is a nice brown color, and everything looks melded together. Fish out the parmesan rind, if using, since it will be a floppy mess by now.

Sprinkle with sage, and load that topping on your crostini. Or bruschetta. I don't know the difference. I am talking out of my ass.

You can make this with other beans as well, and with dried beans. But don't expect me to give you directions on that. I've only made this 4 times.

Ta-da!

Melting...Just Melting...

2011-07-12T08:19:00.000-04:00

It's been hot here. Very hot. And humid. I haven't been cooking that much, partly because it's too hot to cook, but also because it's hard to cook when you're melting.

Just take a look at the effects of this muggy weather.

Can't lift head, momma. So heavy. Everything is melting.

Okay, momma, now you're squeezing too hard.

The heat is oppressing me into absolute torpor.

The humidity makes my wrinkles swell. Do they look too big to you?

I'm officially melted. Only copious amounts of blueberries shoved into my mouth can save me at this point. I'll just leave you with that nugget of knowledge.

Bursting

2011-06-21T08:00:00.003-04:00

My heart bursts at the seams looking at these. This is one of the reasons why I love having two pugs.

Bunni resting her head on Rikki's belly

Bunni never would have done this when Rikki first came into our lives.

Bunni is not so generous about sharing her couch nook, though.

Speak to the paw, Rikki.

That's a cuddle if I ever saw one.

Detour

2011-06-15T08:19:00.000-04:00

Sometimes things just don't go as planned. It started with the idea of making a tasty, zesty blueberry and lemon olive oil cake. So promising! It was going to be great!

I had plump, sweet delicious blueberries and a simple cake recipe. What could go wrong?

Plus, I had Heineken keeping me company. I ask you again, what could go wrong? (Yes, I'm drinking beer out of a wine glass. And yes, in retrospect I'm wondering whether Mr. Heineken had anything to do with the detour.)

I should have started to suspect that things were not going well when I started dropping eggshells left and right into the batter.

From then on, there were things like discovering there was not enough baking powder, trying to make it up with baking soda, the cake starting to burn before being cooked through, the cooking time taking eons longer than it was supposed to...and ended with me throwing the cake in the trash after determining it inedibleness. Ah, those beautiful blueberries.

After that detour, I righted myself and focused on something definitely more promising. I present to you my two little ottomans of joy.

Yes, that is pug fur sprinkled on the carpet.

Yes, that is a pug fur sticking out of Bunni's eye. I swear that stuff is like kudzu.

Another Kind of Comfort Food

2011-06-13T08:30:00.001-04:00

I make a lot of pasta recipes (just see my recipe page)--I love making and eating pasta. It's a one-dish meal, super versatile, so yummy and filling, and so on. In a way, pasta is a comfort food to me because I turn to it so often. But it's not a comfort food in the sense that there is one or two dishes that bring a rush of nostalgic memories or anything. I guess pasta is more of my go-to as opposed to a comfort food. So I'm basically flip-flopping mid-paragraph and don't know what I'm talking about.

Because when it comes to comfort food, the thought of sitting down to a spread like this at my parents' house gets me every time...

One super awesome thing about Korean food is banchan, an endless variety of small dishes served at the beginning of the meal (and to be picked at throughout the meal). They're generally pretty salty so a little goes a long way (though I can really hork 'em down), and they are meant to be eaten with rice. The above picture was not the full buffet that my mom put out that night, she continued to plunk down dishes after I took this picture. Besides the rice and beer, and here are a few of my other favorites:

Jangjorim. This is cooked, shredded beef marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, and...other things I don't know. It is salty, tangy, savory, and absolutely one of my most favorite banchan EVER.

Radish kimchi. I love traditional cabbage kimchi as well, but if I had to choose, I would pick radish kimchi for my deserted island.

These are fresh sesame leaves and a green called soot-ghat from my parents' garden. We dip it in a mixture of miso paste and red pepper paste. Deewish.

This is also a heavy favorite of mine--gaetnip. It's sesame leaves marinated in soy sauce, red pepper and garlic. One of these wrapped around some nice, fluffy rice is heaven to me.

This is a slightly astringent, bitter green sauteed with garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and stuff. No I don't know the name. I didn't say this post was supposed to be educational.

Source

Myung-ryang-jut. This is preserved salted pollack roe. I didn't take a close-up picture so I found this on the webz. I don't even know what a pollack is, except that it's a fish. A little pinch of this with rice is a bit of salty, briny, savory heaven. I know it sounds kind of unusual and looks odd, but I love it and is an absolute favorite among Koreans. This isn't the kind of fish egg caviar that you find in sushi restaurants--the eggs are much smaller.

What are your comfort foods?

I Went to Alaska and All I Got...

2011-06-10T09:00:00.001-04:00

...was motion sickness. Seriously, I've been back almost a week and I can still feel the room swaying. I was on an Alaskan cruise with my family last week, and it's taken me this long to be able to look at the computer monitor long enough to write a post without hurling.

But really, the cruise was great. I have a hard time describing the cruise without sounding like a cliched cheeseball, though I will mention that on not just a few occasions was I reduced to a little girl jumping up and down, clapping my hands, and squealing because I saw the spout from a whale or the bobbing nose of a seal. I mean, I let the entire 1900-passenger cruise know if I saw something in a very loud, clear, and high-pitched manner.

One of the stops we made was in Ketchikan, where my sister, her husband, Kevin and I had the brilliant idea of going tandem sea kayaking. I won't go into great detail, except to say that out of a group of 15 tandem kayaks, there were three that fell noticeably behind. "Noticeably behind" means about a mile. Of the three kayaks, my sister and I populated one, Kevin and my brother-in-law a second, and a 70-year old couple in the third. And while I would like to tell you that the other twelve groups were comprised of robust, Olympic-caliber kayakers, that was most certainly not the case. I would also like to tell you that there was a shark that latched onto one of our paddles and was dragging us behind the whole group and my sister and I engaged in a heroic battle alternately using our paddles to row and to beat off the shark, but that would be a lie and I think you would know that.

But I did get a few *amazing* shots. Like, I am so impressed with myself I don't know what to say. Let me set the scene. I took the front seat of the kayak while my sister took the back (our instructor told us that the person who could walk and chew gum at the same time should sit in the back and steer, hence the ordering). You can't turn/twist too much in a kayak because then you'll find yourself in a flipped kayak, upside down in the water, but I did want to make sure I got exciting action shots of me and my sister kayaking.

So I lifted my camera above my head, and lowered it behind me between my shoulder blades, with the camera pointing at my sister. Then I hit click a few times. The results were, as I previously alluded to, absolutely stunning.

Wa-BAM!!

Ka-CHING!

Wa-HOO!

Ala-ka-ZAAM!

WOWZA!

GAZOOKS!

This is my optical illusion shot. Looks like it's just me in there, eh?

Well you would be WRONG! How's that for some photography magic? Boo-yah!

I am overcome with the awesomeness that is myself. It's nice to be back and share it with you all.

Fear of Commitment

2011-05-23T13:35:00.000-04:00

I know myself. I change my mind. I'm lazy. Also, I don't like the feeling of my lungs burning. You may wonder how that last sentiment fits in with all this.

In my last post, I quickly ninja-style threw out there that I had started the Couch to 5K program. My sister had done it and now she's a friggin' running FIEND, Jessica did it and finished her first 5K (congrats!), and...okay that's actually all I know but whatever, it seemed the world had turned a corner. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. My sister used to preach fire and brimstone against running, and was machine-gun ready with sarcastic (and well-reasoned) retorts against the purported benefits of running. And now look at her. She has special socks for running. She tells me now that her new goal is to "improve her time". What the hell happened.

I used to run. The same way I used to go the gym. I always hated running. In college, having previously never gotten off my lazy ass for any exercise, I felt a lot of peer pressure to join the ranks of walkman-toting, sports-bra clad hard-assed bodied females running all over my college campus. So I joined. It was torture. I would count in my head or pray for Prince to hurry up and finish singing "Raspberry Beret" so that I would know my trials were over. One time, I started running, and about 2 minutes into it, I just stopped. I pulled a U-turn and headed back to my dorm (with the comfort of an open, communal kitchen that was stocked with Mrs. Field's raw chocolate chip cookie dough batter in the freezer in convenient softball size). I clearly remember saying out loud, "I hate running."

So I can tell you a lot about how I hate running, but I can't tell you why I've started on this program. It's probably a combination of boring things:

I need to exercise
I need to exercise for free or low cost
I need to exercise in a manner that doesn't take me far away from home
I'm turning 35 and at some point I actually have to get in shape so that I have a long, happy life. Especially if I have kids and am trying to keep up with them when I'm 70 (they'll be 10 years old by then, at the rate I'm going).
I can feel my muscles going into atrophy
Yoga wasn't cutting it. Not that I do yoga anymore.

My sister is excited and very supportive of my new endeavor. She sent me an email with three 5K choices, so that I would have a specific race to work towards. I replied "no".

Then she said dogs were allowed at one of the races. At first I was like "Double No!" because of the mental image of carrying a pug for 5K, but she meant as a cheerleader. How cute would that be? So I said "okay, but I may not continue with running if it gets too hot". Because I just can't commit. I don't know whether I'm going to finish this program. I'm already behind, for crying out loud.

I'm supposedly on Week 3 but like I said, I'm behind. I have no idea where I am. I just know that running for 3 minutes straight BURNS me like Gollum with the rope around his throat.

So this post is pretty much about nothing. Thank you and Happy Monday!

Two Sides: Asparagus Gremolata and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

2011-05-17T09:40:00.000-04:00

So, where was I? I don't remember. I think I baked some fish. Yes, yes, I think I did. Along with that baked fish, I made some asparagus with gremolata and roasted fingerling potatoes. For the sake of thoroughness, I present to you two perfect side dishes for your springtime meal.

Non sequitur: I'm going the Couch to 5K program. Yeah, me. Get outta town! I've heard a lot about people getting fit lately, and combined my recent discovery that I need a hobby and that at some point, I need to actually make do on my promise to improve my cardiovascular health, I've made the plunge. I am amazing. Truly magic.

Non-sequitur #2: once as the temperature is regularly in the 80's, that will spell death to my running because I am not going to run in hot weather.

Asparagus with Gremolata

2 lbs asparagus, trimmed (I also give the stalks a quick peel, but that's not necessary)
2 TBS butter
2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 garlic clove, minced
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 TBS chopped parsley

Prep your asparagus by trimming off the tough ends. I also ran my peeler against the stalks to remove the tough outer layer. It was a weekend and I had time--otherwise I would probably skip this step.

Boil a large pot of salted water. While the water is boiling, get a big bowl, fill it with ice and cold water--this will be the chilly reception your asparagus received after being cooked.

Cook the asparagus in the boiling salted water until just crisp-tender, about 2 minutes (I prefer mine underdone instead of overdone).

Drain or fish out asparagus with a slotted spoon and place into ice water bath.

Let them cool for a few minutes and then drain. If you like, this part of the recipe can be done up to a day in advance--wrap the cooked asparagus in paper towels, the plastic, and refrigerate. Let them come to room temperature for about 15 minutes before moving on with the recipe.

Prep your lemon zest and garlic. Oh the aroma.

Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add lemon peel and garlic and stir 30 seconds.

Add asparagus and toss to coat. Sprinkle lemon juice over.

Sauté until asparagus is heated through and coated with butter sauce, about 3 minutes. Season asparagus with salt and pepper. Transfer to platter. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Hm, guess I took a picture before the sprinkling of the parsley. I am remiss.

The "recipe" for the roasted fingerling potatoes isn't really a recipe. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean 2 lbs of fingerling potatoes--slice the large ones in half.

Toss potatoes with a TBS or more of olive oil, 2 chopped garlic cloves, a 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes, and about 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper.

Place on baking sheet and roast until browned on the outside and cooked on the inside, about 20 minutes total. Toss the potatoes about halfway through. If you feel like they're browning too quickly on the outside, turn temp down to 350 degrees to give the insides of the potatoes a chance to cook. When ready to serve, sprinkle with some parsley.

And serve it with your main course (you know, the one you made a week ago).

Ta-da!

Baked Lemon Sole with Lemon Caper Topping

2011-05-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

A doctor I visited told me that I should incorporate more fish into my diet. That was not the only thing she told me to do. There were in fact many a thing she suggested, many of which I have not done, which perhaps contributes to the fact that I have not seen her again out of guilt...but that's besides the point. I'm not a big fan of pan frying/sauteeing fish because of the stubborn and lasting smell it creates in my kitchen, so I'm a sucker for recipes that involve baking the fish.

Basically, this recipe is using sole (dover, lemon, grey, whatever)--basically a thin fish--with a flavorful bread/butter/caper/lemon topping. You could probably use tilapia. Or for that matter, any fish as long as you adjust the cooking time. Have at it.

The original recipe calls for fresh bread crumbs and walnuts for the topping. I didn't have fresh bread--enter panko crumbs (other dried breadcrumbs would do). I didn't have walnuts--enter sliced almonds (or just leave it out, it's okay, I won't tell Satan that he should sent you an invitation.

Adapted from Food Network/Sunny Anderson

For topping:

1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs), or 4 slices fresh white bread, crusts discarded (I tried writing "decrusted" for the sake of brevity but sounded odd), and bread quarter
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup nuts of your choice (walnuts, almonds, whatever)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 TBS olive oil

For sole (or whatever fish):

4 lemon sole fillets
salt and pepper
4 TBS butter, plus extra for baking dish (you can lower the butter amount if you're concerned about calories/fat)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 TBS capers

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9 x 12 inch casserole dish (or use cooking spray).

Combine bread, lemon zest, nuts and cheese. You can do this in a food processor, and then drizzle in the olive oil while pulsing. Or, be like me, and just mince everything finely and toss 'em together before mixing in the olive oil.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, then add the lemon juice and capers.

Rinse fillets and pat dry with paper towels.

Season fish with salt and pepper, and place in baking dish.

Pour butter/lemon/capers mixture over fish. Then sprinkle crumb topping over fillets.

Bake, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes.

I served this with roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus with gremolata, which I will discuss in great and fascinating and mind-blowing detail in another post.

This dish was a winner. Next time I think I might go lighter on the topping, but this was great.

Ta-da!

Linguine with Clams

2011-05-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

I don't think I really ever had linguine with clams until I had it at my sister's house. Wanna know why? Two reasons.

Nuuuumbeeerrrr One!
Da clams. From da farmers' market. Which, according to the...clam-monger, were harvested the night before.

They were sweet, flavorful...cannot type...for having gnawed...knuckles...bloody...

Nuuuumbeeerrr Two!

Da pancetta. My sister made it. Yeah, you heard me. No, she didn't make the pig or anything, but she bought the pork, seasoned and cured it. Herself. Her badass self.

Can you believe she cured this herself? HERSELF?

The recipe was adapted from Saveur, but honestly, this is all my sister.

Ingredients

1 lb. pasta, preferably linguine
1⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 oz. pancetta (or chorizo), finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced crosswise
2 Fresno or Holland chiles, stemmed and thinly sliced crosswise (okay, I don't know what either of those are--go for a jalapeno or serrano)
2 1/2 to 3 ls. littleneck clams (about 30), scrubbed clean
1⁄3 cup dry white wine or vermouth
3 tbsp. roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat oil in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Add chopped pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until just crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer lovely crispy pork bits to a paper towel; set aside.

Return skillet to medium heat and add garlic and half the chiles.

Cook, stirring, until garlic is light golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Add clams and wine (or vermouth), increase heat to high, and cook, covered, swirling pan occasionally, until clams open and release their juices, 5–10 minutes.

Can't you hear the clinking and clacking of those lovely clams cascading into the skillet?

Using tongs, transfer clams to a plate, and set aside.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until just al dente, about 6 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1⁄2 cup pasta water, and set aside.

Bring sauce to a boil over high heat, return meat and shallots to pan, and add reserved pasta and 1⁄4 cup cooking liquid.

Cook, tossing pasta occasionally, until sauce clings to pasta, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle in some more of the pasta cooking water if the pasta seems dry. Add 2 tbsp. parsley, season with salt, and toss to combine.

Transfer pasta to a serving bowl, arrange clams over pasta, and pour any clam juices from the plate over pasta.

Wait, I think we ran out of parsley. Bad us. Delicious anyway.

Ta-da!

Chicken Under a "Brick" with Lemon and Thyme

2011-04-28T08:26:00.001-04:00

Chicken. Seems ho hum, right? But oh my friend you would not say such things if you've tried this recipe. It's got crispy skin. It's got lemony thyme flavor. And it's got....POTATOOOEEESS! Yes, we are pleased.

I've made this recipe a few times and my main advice is to use a small chicken. The chicken we used this time was a meager 2.75 lbs, but I tell ya, it was the perfect size. You have to be fitting this sucker into a skillet and flipping it at some point, and I had some major problems with the 4 lb chicken I once used, although 4 lbs is definitely doable. If your manual dexterity skills reside at a higher level than mine, which they probably do, then go for the 4 if that's the smallest size you can get.

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated and My Husband Cooks.

Ingredients

Lemon and Thyme seasoning

1/4 cup olive oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped (about 2 to 3 TBS)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 TBS thyme leaves, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Chicken and potatoes

1 whole chicken, anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 lbs (though I recommend the lower end), butterflied (either courtesy of you or your butcher)
1 1/2 lbs new potatoes, halved/quartered into 1-inch pieces (you can also use fingerling potatoes)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Prepare the lemon thyme seasoning. You don't have to do this first, but I did, because butterflying the chicken by myself was daunting and I was putting if off as long as possible.

Chop/mince your shallot, garlic, and thyme. Them mix all ingredients together into a chunky marinade/sauce.

It may not be glamorous, but this is the stuff of heaven.

Now turn to your chicken. Pat your clucker dry. For butterflying your chicken, I highly highly recommend a pair of poultry shears. Without them, I'm sure I would have had bits of raw chicken flung all over the apartment.

My Husband Cooks has good instructions on butterflying a chicken and you can find plenty of resources online, so I'll just summarize.

Place chicken on cutting board, breast side down.
Cut out the backbone by snipping closely along each side of the backbone.
Flip chicken back over, spreading chicken. Press HARD on breastbone--you may hear cracking. Revel in the violence.
Cut off the tips of the wings.
If you want, place a piece of plastic wrap over the chicken and pound the chicken to even that sucker out, but I didn't. I just smooshed it extra hard to get it as flat as possible.

And you end up with this.

I know you're all salivating and can't wait to bite into that raw chicken, but just you wait. Season your chicken with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat, until shimmering. Place chicken in skillet, skin side down.

See, I told you there would be more salivating. I mean wow, who wouldn't find this appetizing. Chicken, thank you so much for your sacrifice, I want you to know that I ate you with love, respect and mucho gusto.

In order to maximize skin crispiness, place a heavy object (a pot works well) on top of the chicken and fill it with canned food (I put a barrier of foil wrap betwixt the chicken and pot.

While the chicken cooks, preheat oven to 425 degrees. After about 20 minutes, you'll get a beautiful crust on the chicken skin. Which, if you're like me, you'll maul a bit with a spatula as you're impatiently trying to scrape the chicken from the pan. Remove the chicken to a plate/baking sheet, skin side up. Pour off chicken fat, leaving a few tsp.

See the bald spot on the thigh towards the bottom left of the picture? It is my life's shame.

Mix the potatoes with 2/3 of the lemon-thyme mixture. Place the potatoes in the skillet.

Place the chicken, skin side up, on top of the potatoes.

Drizzle the remaining 1/3 of the lemon-thyme mixture over the chicken. Cook about 30 to 45 minutes, until the chicken reaches about 160 to 165 degrees internally. Alternately, like me, repeated take out chicken, take a paring knife, press down on chicken. If juices run clear, it's done. If the juices are pink, stick it back in the oven. Be incorrect and doubt yourself multiple times so that you swear not to make chicken again.

When chicken is done, remove to cutting board.

The recipe says to turn on the broiler and crisp the potatoes, but mine were pretty well done so I skipped that step.

As you guys know, at this point in my recipes I'm f&*#g hungry and don't really have the patience for photos. So here is the chicken, which doesn't look like a chicken, completely sans delicious potatoes, with romaine dressed with lemon and olive oil.

Really? That's the best I can do?

Don't be discouraged by this disappointing picture. The chicken was awesome and so were the potatoes.

Ta-da!

Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas

2011-04-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Feels a bit more like spring. I slaughtered a lamb yesterday and rolled around in fields of asparagus. I'm kidding. I didn't do that. But I did make pasta with spinach, lemon and peas recently. It seemed all spring-ish to me.

The pasta called for in the original recipe is gnocchi, but you can use any pasta you like. That original recipe recommends using dried De Cecco gnocchi, which I could not fine. The pasta force be with you.

Oh, I also had some leftover prosciutto so added that to the recipe, but you can skip that if you want this to be vegetarian.

Adapted from Epicurious

2 to 3 oz prosciutto, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (optional)
1 cup frozen peas (not thawed)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
1 garlic clove, smashed
3 cups packed baby spinach (3 ounces) (I doubled the amount and bought one of those 5 oz bags. why not.)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 pound dried gnocchi (or other pasta)
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Prrrrep! Your ppprrrrosciutto!

Place ppprrrrosciutto! in skillet over medium low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until ppprrooosciutto! (sick of that yet?) is crisp, about 4 to 5 minutes (that's a lie, I can't remember, but it should be somewhere around there.

And now ve begeen vis de odder ingaedienz for de pasta saus!

Anyway, add the peas, cream, garlic, red pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp salt to the prosciutto. Cover and simmer until peas are just tender, about 5 minutes.

Add in spinach and cook, uncovered, until spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes.

Add in the lemon juice and zest.

In a separate pot of boiling salted water, cook gnocchi according to package directions. Drain gnocchi and add to sauce. Liberally dose with grated parmesan.

This was a relatively quick dish that I will make again. My one caveat had nothing to do with the recipe but more with the gnocchi that I used, which was subpar. NEVER AGAIN will I use that gnocchi. Not that you'll use this gnocchi, but it was the Fairway brand in NYC.

Ta-da!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T16:36:00.000-04:00

I've been taking a vacation from cooking/blogging, but I'll be back soon with all those terribly exciting recipes that you love!!! I know, you're about to burst.

Before you burst, feast your eyes on this.

Source

I found an old picture of Bunni (i.e. B.G. i.e. "Before Gray settled in all over her chin and face")

Baby girl, if you were made out of chocolate, I'd eat you right up.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

2011-04-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

There are a few cooking posts that have been languishing in my drafts that are just dying to debut themselves.

Anyway, I thought I'd fit in my long, slow-cooking dishes before it actually gets warm (winter has been dragging its feet a bit). So I pulled out my favorite recipe for meatloaf from Cook's Illustrated.

I know, meatloaf gets a bad rap. People have icky thoughts about it. But this stuff is good. Really really good. It's a combo of beef and pork for balance (all beef can be too strong, all pork can be too sweet and soft), *gently* mixed with various aromatics (gentle mixing is the key, otherwise you end up with concrete), wrapped in BACON (I mean, come on), and drenched in a sweet sour sauce. Enough talk, let's move onto the action.

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Brown Sugar - Ketchup Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup or chili sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons cider vinegar or white vinegar

Meat Loaf

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped medium
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup whole milk or plain yogurt
1 pound ground beef chuck
1 pound ground pork (the original recipe calls for 1/2 lb ground pork and 1/2 lb ground veal, but I had a 1 lb package of ground pork so there you go--I've made it with the veal combo before and that is delicious as well)
2/3 cup Saltine crackers , crushed (about 16), or quick oatmeal, or 1 1/3 cups fresh bread crumbs (I used the quick oatmeal)
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
6 - 8 ounces bacon , thin sliced (8 to 12 slices, depending on loaf shape) (I used pancetta for various reasons not worth going into, but actually I prefer the bacon--I missed the smokiness)

First, make the glaze. It's extremely complicated.

Mix all the glaze ingredients into a small saucepan; set aside. See? I told you it was going to be rough. (You'll heat the glaze later, if you're wondering why you need the saucepan.)

Now, ze meatloaf. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep your onion and garlic.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet and put the garlic/onion in there. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Take off heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, salt, pepper, thyme, milk or yogurt, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and hot pepper sauce. You will get this lovely mixture:

I know, pretty. Makes you want to suck it down with a straw, eh?

In a large bowl, crumble up your meat.

Add the cooked onion/garlic mixture, egg mixture, oatmeal and parsley to the meat. Mix to combine, but be as gentle as possible and stop once as things are fairly uniformly incorporated. A light hand leaves enough air pockets so that your meatloaf will turn out light, instead of like a super dense brick.

Line a baking pan with sides with aluminum foil (I have this baking sheet but turned up the sides a lot on the foil--the meatloaf lets off a good amount of fat). Dump the meatloaf mixture onto the sheet and shape into a 9 x 5 inch loaf. If it's not perfect, toss in the trash. I'm kidding.

Brush half off glaze mixture over the meatloaf. Lay the strips of bacon crosswise on loaf, with each slice slightly overlapping. Tuck in the end of the bacon under the meatloaf.

I stuck it in the oven first before remembering that I needed to take a picture. So here is a 2-minute baked meatloaf. So appetizing.

Bake for about 1 hour. Remove meatloaf from oven, cool at least 20 minutes.

Simmer the remaining glaze and then brush that lusciousness over your big, bad, naughty meatloaf.

So I don't have the greatest pictures of it sliced up, because it is quite tender, but here it is with polenta and broccoli rabe.

Ta-da!

Tourists

2011-04-04T08:22:00.000-04:00

My travels the other week got me thinking about tourism (just a little, I was on vacation). Living in NYC, you see a lot of tourists. When I first moved to NYC, I took on the stereotypical (and I think, to a certain extent, outdated and untrue) exasperated attitude with tourists, in terms of getting impatient when they were walking too slowly on the sidewalk and...actually that's the main thing, not moving fast enough. Don't worry though, I was always friendly if someone asked for help.

Improv Everywhere used spray chalk last year on NYC sidewalks to delineate different lanes for tourists and NYC-ers

But after a while, I realized that even though tourists walk too slowly because they are looking at the sights (as they should), I really like tourists. I love that people want to come from all over the world to visit the city I live in. And it's not just the tourist revenue that I appreciate--it reminds me that I am privileged to live somewhere that people find worthy to visit, to plunk their money down for travel, hotel, etc. to enjoy. It makes me realize how great this city is, and I'm happy that other people want a piece of it.

Nowadays, I'll happily answer tourists' questions and probably give them more detail about how to turn a corner than they would like. I also walk up to confused-looking tourists to ask them if they need help (only if they look really, really confused--people eventually figure things out). I know other NYC-ers do this also, so actually I'm not sure the whole "stereotypical" NYC haughty attitude really applies that much.

Once, on a packed subway train, a couple visiting from elsewhere asked me about directions. I told them, and after thanking me, the guy said "You must be tired of people asking you all the time about how to get somewhere." I responded no, that I would do the same exact thing if I were to visit his city (as long as he didn't live in hell, I wouldn't visit hell for kicks).

However, despite my more open-minded attitude about tourists, when I was in London last week, I found myself preoccupied with not seeming like a tourist. I walked fast. I carried my camera in my bag and only whipped it out when using it. I wore decent-looking boots, even though I schlep around at home in my comfy Ecco walking shoes. I tried to memorize maps before heading out so that I wouldn't have to stand in the middle of a sidewalk, studiously examining a map.

Why was I doing this? Why is it a bad thing to be a "tourist"? Because I'm concerned with looking like I know what I'm doing? Why is it a bad thing to not know what I'm doing?

Well, even if I wanted to try and seem like I knew what I was doing, obviously my plan of trying to memorize every street in London before I headed out from the hotel didn't work. I needed to look at a map a lot. A lot a lot. London isn't on any nice grid system. Streets just randomly stop and others go every which way.

I needed to pull obvious U-turns in the middle of a sidewalk when I realized I was going the wrong way, I needed to snap away with my camera in little gardens where people were trying to have some peace and quiet, I needed to take pictures of my food before I ate it, all that good stuff.

And as time went on, I became less self-conscious. As in, it's okay for me to just pull over to the edge of the sidewalk and look at a map, because dude, I don't know where I am. And yes, I'm going to take an annoying amount of pictures because I'd rather remember this than be self-conscious about brandishing my camera left and right.

Now, there are certain things as a tourist that I tried to be aware of. Like if I did need to stop and take a picture, I pulled off to the side to make sure I got out of anyone's path. If I was walking with Kevin, we wouldn't walk side by side the whole time so as not to block the path of the many people who were walking faster (apparently I'm terribly preoccupied with the walking thing).

Lucky for me, the Londoners I encountered seemed to embrace a more open attitude towards tourists, and they were all lovely and nice. Except for one person. A server at a restaurant who made it pretty clear that she was annoyed that we were the last reservation and that she wanted to leave. I complained about her to the manager, which was my right and I'm glad I did it, but I'm not glad about the bonehead move I made in which I didn't leave ANY TIP at all (by accident--my tourist brain didn't understand the system and I would have left a little tip but totally screwed the servers that night in my confusion. I still feel a knot in my stomach from this--you know, because they were going to send their kids to college on my $10 tip).

As for walking slowly, the impetus of the Improv Everywhere prank, why not? As long as we make an effort not to block those that are walking more quickly, what's wrong with meandering? I'm on vacation, dude, I don't need to be anywhere.

So how do you feel about tourists and/or about being a tourist?

How Could You

2011-04-01T08:30:00.000-04:00

Bunni, upon our return from London:

Mommy how could you have left me for so long? I had no choice but to snuggle with (gasp) my sister, who prances around in that robe like she's the anointed Joseph with the technicolor coat.

Mommy it was horrible her ass was in my face the whole time.

I think I grew even more back wrinkles during the time you abandoned me.

I feared all was lost. Don't ever leave me like that again.

Editor's note: the truth is that Bunni acted very excited to see us for about 3 minutes before padding off to her special spot on our recliner, away from the rest of us. I forcibly pulled her back onto the couch for some family time, in response to which she extricated her limbs from my grasp, one by one, and marched straight back to the recliner.

London Highlights

2011-03-31T08:45:00.000-04:00

The gods smiled on Kevin and bestowed upon him a business trip to London last week, and they practically cooed and giggled over me by allowing me to tag along for the trip.

If you're in need of a little escapism, are curious about or planning to go to London, or just like the drone of my writing, this post of my London trip highlights is for you.

1. Borough Market

Near the London Bridge lies a series of old buildings under subway tracks where centuries ago, traders of grain, fish, meat and vegetable sold their products. It's a bustling food market, which Kevin aptly called "Dickensian", that houses over 100 stalls seemingly randomly dropped throughout three main market areas.

It's crowded, there are turns and twists, and a dizzying array of fresh and prepared food. It's not really a farmers' market as it's not big on produce, but if you need cheese, bread, meat, seafood, dessert, wine, flowers, meat pies, chocolate, cider, etc., then this is the place (well, at least on Thursdays through Saturdays).

One of my favs at Borough Market was this heavenly stand that had multiple half-wheels of Raclette (a French cheese known for its wonderful melting properties) broiling away under heat lamps. If you order a plate, the nice gentleman (he was actually relatively sullen, I'm just calling him nice because he gave me food) will slough off a layer of gooey melted cheese onto a heap of perfectly boiled potatoes and dish it up with some gherkin.

It ain't pretty, but no one said heaven was about good looks.

2. Mayfair

One of the ritzier and prettier neighborhoods in West End, right by Hyde Park. I loved meandering the streets and looking at all the gorgeous architecture and window shopping at the stores in Bond Street (which seems to be on the border between Mayfair and Soho).

3. Afternoon Tea (or more importantly, Clotted Cream)

I learned that the late afternoon tradition of having tea, scones, sandwiches and dessert is called afternoon tea, not high tea. High tea is something else--what that is, I don't know. Anyway, in the world of Mina, afternoon tea is not complete without champagne. Even though champagne doesn't really go with desserts. That never stopped me. Because I persevere.

The afternoon tea at the Haymarket Hotel is a little bit of a splurge but SO WORTH IT especially if you can sit in the airy and bright Conservatory.

Very rarely is there something more special than a glass of bubbly. But when it comes to afternoon tea, you really have to talk about the clotted cream. Somewhere between the consistency of butter and cream, this stuff is just thick gobby creamy goodness. I mean do you see that beauteeousness?

4. Dogs (imaginary and otherwise)

You've already met Molly, a bear of a mastiff that I met in Regent's Park:

I actually took Kevin back to Regent's Park later that day and pointed out the exact spot where I had met Molly earlier that day. Like it was some sanctified patch of dirt and grass.

But we also came upon the new window dressing for Mulberry, which included:

AH MAH GAH A PUG!!!

5. I feel like I should have a nice number of five highlights. Hm...oh, the lemon sole at Hereford Road restaurant. We made the trek out to this Notting Hill restaurant, opened by a chef that trained with Chef Ferguson at St. John, the restaurant that made a splash of cooking very good British food with excellent ingredients, and using all parts of an animal. At both St. John and Hereford Road we had some excellent meat, such as roast bone marrow and veal breast, but the highlight was absolutely the lemon sole.

Not a pretty picture, but this fish was delectable. Tender yet firm, cooked incredibly well and so wonderful with a healthy dose of lemon. I admit that I don't often finish my entrees (I get full easily), but with this one, Kevin stared at me a little mortified as I, with my fingers, pinched up every last morsel that couldn't be scrounged up with my fork. The food made up for the incredible cacophony that fills the restaurant.

There were obviously other great things, but I'll inflict those on my family.

Please

2011-03-30T10:06:00.003-04:00

I've been away for a while because I was in London last week. Yipee!!!!

Anyway, more on my travels later. The title of this post relates to my next request. Would someone please get married and use this on their cake? I'll pay you.

Source

And okay, I will tell you a little about my London trip right now. Let me introduce you to the highlight of my trip.

Molly the Mastiff. I ran into this big hunk 'o' love in Regent's Park. We had a connection.

She showed me her big fat cheeks.

She was the size of a small bear.

Just one last shot.

Pasta with Lamb Ragu

2011-03-18T09:35:00.001-04:00

Winter is creeping out of here, but before it completely and finally fades away, I wanted to braise something. Anything. I haven't cooked lamb in a while, and Lidia Bastianich was on TV making a braised leg of lamb that made Kevin exclaim repeatedly "Can we have that? That looks good. We should make that. Can we have that? That looks really good."

Lidia said the leg of lamb can also be used in a pasta dish, so I went that route. The original recipe was for an obscene amount of lamb that requires a 7 quart french oven, which I do not have, so I adapted it for a more manageable amount.

The general steps are to put a filling in the lamb, braise it, shred the meat, and cook down the sauce. Then you're supposed to slice and serve, but like I said, I wanted to make it into a ragu sauce for pasta. It occurred to me that I didn't really need the filling in that case, and the filling I made ended up slipping out of the lamb, so the filling was kind of a useless exercise. Although guess it still flavored the meat and sauce, and overall this dish was incredibly tasty.

Adapted from Lidia Bastianich

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup crustless bread, a few days old or lightly toasted, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 grated pecorino
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 TBS chopped parsley
3 to 4 lb boneless leg of lamb, butterflied and untied (your butcher section will usually have boneless leg of lamb that is already butterflied and tied--just untie it when you get home. did I just insult your intelligence)
Kosher salt
3 TBS olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
one 28-oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
1 lb short tubular pasta, like ziti

Ready? Let's start with the filling.

Place the bread cubes in a bowl and pour in just enough water to cover. Let them soak for a minute or so (shouldn't take long). Then strain those soggy suckers and squeeze 'em to get out most of the water. Put the mushy bread back in the bowl and mix with the pecorino, garlic, parsley, and a pinch of salt.

Unroll your leg of lamb and cut away any huge chunks of fat. Don't worry about being perfect about this. Or at least I didn't, because I generally find trimming fat to be a huge pain in the ass.

I first shimmied the leg out of its netting.

And here it is, in its splayed glory. Wanton.

Drop mounds of the filling over the lamb, and spread evenly, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges. I did less than 1 inch, and I regret that because there was sure a lot of filling that ended up floating in the sauce. Good thing I wasn't going to serve this sliced.

Roll up the meat to form a roll, and secure with twine.

I should have also tied a twine lengthwise around the lamb. That might help explain why I lost almost all the filling in the cooking process. By the way those are silicone reusable strings that I received as a gift. They are cute.

Season the outside of the lamb with about 1/2 tsp salt. Heat the olive oil in a large French oven (at least 5 1/2 quart) over medium to medium-high heat. When oil is heated, carefully transfer the lamb into the pan. Let brown on bottom side (about 3-5 minutes), then rotate and repeat until all the sides are browned. Remove lamb from the pot.

Hello, you turgid piece of meat, you.

Place the chopped onions into the pot--stir and scrape the brown bits of the bottom of the pot. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes until onions are softened, then drop in the bay leaves, rosemary and thyme. Cook for another minute or so.

My mixture was looking a little dry so I added a bit of red wine.

Transfer the huge honkin' leg of lamb back to the post. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and enough water to submerge the lamb by three quarters. Sprinkle in about 1/2 tsp of salt. Stir the ingredients around the lamb, and ladle some on top of the lamb.

Cover pot tightly and bring braising liquid to a boil Then reduce the heat to a simmer. Braise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, checking every 40 minutes to make sure that the lamb is still submerged and rotating the lamb.

Remove the lamb and let rest for 20 minutes. Remove bay leaves and herb stems from the braising liquid. Skim off fat with a wide spoon. Bring liquid to a boil and let reduce while the lamb rests.

Um, so here's the part where I realized something went wrong with the filling. Prepare yourself for an ugly picture that is rather gory. You know how you're supposed to get a lovely roll of lamb with circles of filling? Hehe.

Not so much. Fuggit.

When lamb is cool enough to handle, chop/shred the meat into generous bite-size pieces, about 1/2 to 1 inch.

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, add to braising liquid. Place chopped meat back into pot and stir around.

Ta-da!

Again, I'm not really sure the filling was necessary and it was a fail anyway, so if I make this again, I'm going to make some tweaks. But I would definitely make this again on a lazy Sunday.