rubyjune's cafe

No More Boxed Pasta

2012-02-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

Poor Taste Tester. He's not allowed to bring salsa, cookies, or any type of bottled sauce into the house. And that list keeps getting longer: now it's no more Worcesterchire sauce (made it), no pies (come on), and pasta (the subject of today's post).

Fresh pasta is just more delicious and satisfying than dried pasta. Once I got the process streamlined, I make it instead of dried pasta even when time is scarce. The fluffiness, the light feeling on your stomach when you're done, and even its flexibility appeals to me. Lasagna, fettucine, linguine, ravioli, and even angel hair is hard to eat from dried pasta once you've tried it fresh.

Now, don't get me wrong. It can seem intimidating. One of the first times I tried it, I was trying to make a birthday meal for TT and guests were coming. My mother helped, and we used a pricey new Kitchen Aid attachment which extruded the pasta. But instead of doing its job, it warmed up the pasta, pushing out a gooey and sticky mess that I ended up hurling against the wall in fury. Mom fed me wine.

fettuccine

Currently, I don't use extrusion, I just use the $29 countertop machine to roll to the desired thinness and cut it via an attachment. I think I got it at Sears. Go get you one. Be generous with the flour. Get a friend to help, it's fun. Both of you sip some wine and you roll it out while the other person peels apart the pieces stuck together and makes a big pile of floury goodness.

Today I've made 2 big balls of pasta, one herb-green and one plain, let it rest for an hour, and I'm rolling it all out and freezing it so that I will not have to settle for dried pasta when it's late and we're tired.The recipe is simple and you've seen it here before (clearly I've become a bit more optimistic since then, in that post I thought I could never do this right).

herb tagliatelle

Into ziplocks and into the freezer, ready for me when I'm ready for it. Each serving usually feeds 4 to 6 people, so you could portion it to individual servings. Or just plan for guests who will be very impressed.

New Floors and Really, Truly Finished Remodel

2012-02-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

After the busy holidays, January took off like a bullet. Whatever delicious cooking has happened, no documentation has occurred. Within January we have been to Georgia, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and NYC. Now it's already February and all I want to do is stay home and cook and garden, despite knowing the summer will murder anything I attempt to grow.

Taste Tester is upset that the final flooring hasn't debuted here. It's true, we worked our butts off getting it done over New Year's Eve, and the adventure should have been here. Between buying one floor and deciding instead on another, there was also the discovery of 3 years' worth of rotting water beneath the floor. It was so foul we had to mop the cement with ammonia and then again with bleach, but it still reeked.

Here's the results, though: hand scraped, engineered flooring that resists dog claws and clicks in without glue or nails. Fact is, I could take it with me if we sell. The room is big, open, and welcoming. Next project: kitchen tile plus a possible island.

Renovation Completed In The Nick of Time

2011-12-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

All done for now- minus flooring and some trim, but it certainly feels done. It's huge!

Our Christmas tree came from our front yard. It's a little pathetic but deserving of love too.

I really need to invest in a better camera.

That's a metal bat that my brother welded for me!

Justin and Lacy enjoying the new space

Yep, That's A Room

2011-12-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

Since Saturday we've gone from this....

To this! Tonight they should be all done and it will be white. In addition, Rick has promised to score me 4 new dining room chairs that perfectly match our table, and I can begin decorating for Christmas.

Why, you ask, do your dining room chairs not match your table? Well, it's complicated and kind of a long story: I'm cheap.

See, now you understand. I knew you would once I explained. So, won't you stay for dinner? We have decorating to do!

Floor complete, rotten wall coming down

2011-12-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

The window was going to move to the right wall here, but since that faces west--we're thinking no window.

We now have a fly infestation of horror-movie proportions, likely owing to having all windows and doors ajar all of yesterday. After the floors were finished last night, Rick spent an hour bounding around on them trying to find spots not screwed in completely, then crawled on his hands and knees with the drill patching all the places he could "hear" were uneven. I told the dogs I thought he'd gone 'round bend.

As of last night we agreed that this window, which is moving because we want our TV on that wall, may just be done away with since the wall it would move to a) faces west and b) faces the neighbor's house. Now in the morning light, I think the room will be awfully dark without a window. However, we will store it and Mr. Renovation can change his fickle mind later and install it.

Siding to be added here today--board and bat on top, lap board on the bottom, with a shelf separating them. Wish I could paint the brick now but that's for later.

I love my husband

2011-12-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

(This man is not my husband.)

(this one is.)

More Renovation Progress...

2011-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Electrician came this week and sorted out the rat's nest that previous renovators gifted to us. Today the subfloor goes in, and it should begin to look more like a room. Then the walls!

Got this handsome contractor for the day...and his little helper too. He works for lunch and beer and me finishing his laundry. I'll let you guess which 2 of those he'll actually get.

He's Kind of A Big Deal

2011-12-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

In only 6 hours, Rick reduced the garage to only its framing and insulation, removing even the ceiling for easier electrical installation. All the paneling and trim came off the walls, then sheet rock, then plywood hiding behind the sheet rock. We even managed to clean up by 4pm.

Among our interesting discoveries: a herd of geckos hiding in a rotted exterior wall (water damage, another discovery we suspected and confirmed), more hay than insulation in the attic (squirrels), and a mummified skeleton entombed in a wall.

Just kidding on the last one.

Wall in mid-destruction

view from the living room

Today is electrical and framing in the window side wall. The window will move to the caddy corner nearest wall and the exterior door will be removed entirely. In the window's place will be a slight recessed media area where our TV, receiver, and entertainment area will sit. Behind the recessed area, entombed mummy.

My brother is very generously helping provide the electrical expertise, and hopefully the lack of a ceiling will make that easier. My purpose today is to help clean and to cook barbecue for after. Rick thinks he will complete a sub floor by the end of the day, then our sheet rocker will hopefully be here this week to give us real walls.

Updates: If you see the electrical wires hanging down in the last photo, you have a hint of the mess we found in the attic. Professional electrician to the rescue. The best part? The electrician's name is Sarge.

Home Renovation Begins

2011-12-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

We're renovating this weekend and next, the culmination of 6 months of talking and planning. Our house has a converted garage that is separated from the living room by a single wall, so that wall will come down today and then the garage floor raised to the living room's level. After electrical, drywall, and moving a window, we should have a single big living room that will now also have a dining room area.

Rick is a pro at this, so I don't doubt we'll be almost done by Christmas (when we're hosting) but we're going to document it here as a way to guilt-trip ourselves if we leave a portion incomplete. Rick's brother renovated his own kitchen a year or more ago and there's still a whole shelf waiting to be finished.

And so: BEFORE

Bye Bye, Wall!

2nd fridge- to be relocated, possibly into a closet. Srsly.

View from laundry to garage, soon to be hidden by a sliding bookshelf.

And the mess begins...

UPDATE: Just as we get started, cops come to investigate 4 young punks hanging around neighbors' houses that look empty. Yea for resale value!

Arts and Crafts Weekend

2011-10-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend it rained and we started craft projects all over the house, painting and decorating for Halloween. This weekend we finished it all and it's quite the gallery. Taste Tester prefers to be known now as "Freed", the Artist.

Freed used the tree that was taken down 2 years ago, which we saved, to make this bench by hand. It took a full week and it's gorgeous. The insects that crawled out of it were a little frightening, but all tenants were evicted before it was sealed. He's planning to make a matching bench out of the other half of the top piece. Anybody have a fallen tree you want turned into something memorable?

Next he made me tombstones for Halloween. Nothing says "Honey, I love you" like a headstone.

Finally, I got this beautiful copper globe lamp from my brother, who had inherited it from our grandparents, who had found it in Pakistan when they lived and worked there. It's older than I am, and it hadn't been shined up in ages. As long as I could remember in my childhood, it had looked like a dull brown blob of metal. Half a can of Brasso, one bout of tendonitis, and 5 cleaning cloths later, it gleamed.

Cornbread Corn Chowder

2011-09-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

When corn is in season, I love to get elotes wherever I can find it. Roasted corn, topped with mayonnaise and butter and lime and chile powder and cheese. It takes all the healthiness of corn and then completely abolishes it under mounds of fat and chile. This soup is kinda like that. Start with veggies, then drown them in half and half. Also, add some bacon grease, then use cornbread to thicken it. Taste Tester had a sensitive stomach so this was a nice simple version, but at the bottom I suggested some add-ins that would make it pretty awesome.

Cornbread Corn Chowder
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup chopped white onion
3 cloves garlic
1 cup frozen or fresh corn
1/2 cup diced yellow and/or red bell peppers
1/4 tsp each thyme, sage, black pepper, and salt
1 cup half and half
3 cups milk
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups crumbled cornbread
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp honey

Additional ingredients I didn't use but might next time:
diced green jalapeno--red if I could find them
roasted chicken
potatoes (?) or butternut squash
Bacon grease instead of butter to start, and bacon in it! That's the proper start to a proper chowder.
A cheese--not sure what kind, but manchego is my current favorite
Crema fresca as a top garnish with chives

First heat the butter, then "roast" the corn in it to slightly brown it before adding the onions and garlic. Once the onion is slightly translucent, add half and half and diced peppers. Add milk and then chicken stock, seasoning.

My cornbread was fresh from the oven and not yet crumbled

Bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the crumbled cornbread and mix well. Simmer for another 10 while mixing, adding worcestershire and honey at the end. Serve with a small wedge of cornbread.
Extra tip for free:

I don't know about you, but cornbread batter is better than cold cookie dough. I can't stop tasting it. My cornbread recipe is from the side of the cornmeal bag, but one trick for a perfectly moist cornbread is to preheat a cast iron skillet, then turn off the heat and pour the batter in before baking.

Whole Grilled Salmon & The Facts Of Life

2011-09-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted since July? After starting a new job, I guess it got away from me. Fortunately the change of season means we'll begin having more cookouts and people over, even if our back yard looks like the West end of Mars. (Taste Tester assures me the East enders of Mars is populated with wasteful yuppies who overwater their lawns.) Unfortunately, we lost a giant elm that shaded most of our back yard to the terrible drought we're having in Texas.

But, since the temperature was a low 97 Sunday, we did dig up a new recipe for whole grilled salmon. I happened to have a whole salmon in the freezer and Taste Tester wanted to use his smoker, so after dousing the lawn around it to be cautious of sparks, he got it up to 250 degrees and I prepped the fish.

First I had to trim the tail and remove the fins, it was already cleaned when purchased but I rinsed the cavity and dried it as well. Salt and fresh ground pepper seasoned the inside, then a layer of sliced lemons was added inside. On the top, I sliced to the bone and inserted half-moon slices of lemon. Too easy.

The garlic-chive-butter was also spread on the outside

Smoker at 250 degrees, a little cooler than it felt outside

A butter-garlic mix was rubbed on the outside and inside, then it was cooked over low direct heat with minimal smoke for an hour. Oh, and we used a cedar smoking plank that was soaked for 30 minutes in water.

Butter Garlic Sauce
4 tbsp butter (microwaved till warm, ~45 sec to a minute)
5 cloves crushed garlic (toss into warmed butter)
2-3 tbsp chopped chives
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste

Then the fish was served with this cold sauce:

Lemon Mustard Sauce
1/4 cup mayo
1/8 cup dijon mustard
1/8 cup Greek yogurt
leftover garlic-butter-chive mix from above
more lemon to taste--probably another 1 or 2 tbsp
2 tbsp chopped chives
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

We probably rushed the cooking of this, as our salmon was a little less pink than it should have been, but still delicious. Taste Tester sometimes gets excited and chooses the well-disproven method seen in every sitcom ever written of upping the temperature in order to shorten the cook time. Remember when Tootie tried that on The Facts of Life and burned Blair Warner's birthday cake? I laughed and laughed.

Grilled Turkey Meatballs with Grilled Naan

2011-07-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm loving buying cheap cuts of meat and using the grinder attachment to grind the meat. We did lamb burgers the other day-- 4 burgers from $6 worth of lamb shoulder! Today I thought about turkey, since we love turkey burgers.

But burgers are so heavy and I always end up tossing away the bread and just enjoying the toppings and meat. So today I'm making turkey meatballs, and Taste Tester will get to grill them on kebabs, and I'll make naan to go with it because WHO TOSSES NAAN? Nobody, that's who. Nobody tosses naan.

I haven't completely figured out the rest of the meal idea, but a spicy meatball naan sandwich is the rough outline. First I ground the meat I had chopped into small pieces, then I added ~2 tbsp of flour to help bind it. I used garlic powder, ground pepper, a touch of sage, and fresh garlic and chopped onions...but that was pretty bland when I made a test ball. So, I went back and added cayenne, paprika, curry, and cumin. Much better.

And the naan, recipe here, will also be done on the grill. Grilled bread, meat on a stick...what more could one wish for? Yogurt dip!
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp each of chopped cilantro and mint
1 tsp honey
dash of garlic salt

I also bought fresh sheep's milk feta, so good it makes your mouth weep with gratitude.

After minor marital disharmony over grill space and shoddy grill maintenance by Taste Tester, the naan was grilled and the kebabs failed to hold so they just became meatballs (pan seared then baked for ~20 min at 400), and I chopped some tomato and sliced red onion and it all came together, this was actually FANTASTIC. Sweet Abe Lincoln it was awesome. The spices in the meat made for a smell-good house for hours. And I actually had enough leftover meat to freeze for future turkey burgers!

Scott and I will have to have a turkey burger cookoff....

Garlic Yeast Rolls

2011-06-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

Another bread post, not really showcasing my talents, but the chile relleno omelettes got eaten too quickly for photos this morning. I wanted to make a loaf of bread to enjoy with all our fresh garden tomatoes, but it always gets moldy so quickly that I thought rolls might be better for storage.


Gratuitous Fruit Shot: heirlooms and big boys

So, I threw these together this morning.

Very moist and a great crumb that pulled apart perfectly. Some have garlic on top and the next batch will have some folded into the center too. You'll need a muffin pan and someone who doesn't mind garlic breath.

Garlic Yeast Rolls
6 cloves garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp (or 1 packet) yeast
1 cup milk plus 1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp sugar

Mix milk, sugar, and yeast and let sit for 5-10 minutes so the yeast can dissolve. Stir in egg yolk and salt.
In mixer or by hand, mix with 2 cups flour. If by hand, knead and add flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands until smooth. If in mixer, let it knead and monitor incorporation of the flour until the dough is only stuck to the bottom but clearing the sides.

Roll dough into a ball, coat in olive oil and let rise until doubled in size. Meanwhile, chop/crush/puree garlic with olive oil until the chunks are small. After the first rise, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and press a bit flatter. Spread 3/4 of garlic mix on this side then fold (grab sides and tug outward then fold in at four corners to expel air and incorporate garlic). Then roll into a tube and act like it's playdough until the tub is long and 2 inches at most in diameter and about 15 inches long.

Slice 2" pieces and pat the tops with oil (or the leftover garlic oil if you want!), then place in muffin tin. For a perfectly round top, you'll need to stretch the little rounds and tuck their edges under, so the folded portion is hidden below. My recipe yielded big 8 rolls and could have made a dozen small.

Let rise another 30-45 min while the oven heats to 400, then bake for 15-20 minutes until nice and brown. If you skip the muffin tin, let them rise on the pan you will bake on. Larger rolls might make great hamburger buns!

Cheese Biscuits

2011-05-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

I've made 3-layers cakes, countless loaves of bread, pizza and creme brulee, but biscuits still intimidate me. Added to the intimidation was a bit of disdain, since I rarely crave them anyway. This recipe solved both problems because it's all about cheese. The results are buttery, savory, with the right amount of crumble, and all about cheesy flavor.

And it was a nice way to celebrate May 22nd, a.k.a. "Jesus Called In Sick for the Rapture" Day.

2 cups flour
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp salt (but if your cheese is a salty type, consider halving this)
1/3 cup unsalted butter or Crisco butter-flavored veggie shortening
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 heaping cup of grated cheese
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of milk
(any additions you might want here: chives, rosemary, peppers, cracked black pepper...)

First stir the dry ingredients, then cut in the butter or shortening with a pastry cutter or just whir it in your food processor. If in a processor, you'll want to transfer it to a bowl you can get your hands in to add the oil and cheese and mix it up. Now the milk is added slowly until there is no visible flour (it should be only barely sticky).

Scoop spoonfuls onto a silpat or nonstick pan and bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes. I found that at fifteen, I needed to turn the biscuits over and bake for a minute longer to brown the tops. Also, you could brush the tops with butter for extra flavor, but that touch wasn't needed for me. My cheese was a combo of what I had in the fridge--a little white chedder, a little feta, a little mont jack, and a little cotija. The cotija was extra salty so my biscuits are just a tad bit salty but still fantastic.

Next I want to make these with either all cheddar and some peppers, or bleu cheese like gorgonzola and rosemary. You could use anything...I'm going to be distracted from work all day thinking about the possibilities. What a good easy catering side treat or thing-to-bring-to-a-dinner-party-you-aren't-hosting.

Chicken Pot Pie, Made From Scratch

2011-02-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

Taste Tester has the flu, so chicken soup was on my radar but sounded so Blah. Almost as blah as a milk frother, but not as blah as Dan Patrick. This is not blah. In fact, this has a VERY exciting ending, which you shouldn't cheat and skip down to, but rather let the suspense build.

So I scratched this together, using leftovers and a pie crust recipe from my new discovery, "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American" by Jeff Smith. I bought it whenever ago from 1/2 Price Books and then never read it, but it's all these historical recipes dating back to the Native Americans. Did you know George Washington distilled his own rye whiskey and that Hasty Pudding is actually just cornmeal boiled in water? But that's for another time.

So my pie pastry was this, blended in the food processor until it formed a ball and cleared the sides:
1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup butter (chill)
1 tsp salt
1 small egg
2-3 tbsp ice cold water
* I blended everything before adding the water so that I could watch it form up and not overdo the water.

While this chilled in the fridge, I made the filling (basically white gravy or bechamel with stuff added):
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup half and half
1tsp salt and pepper or more to taste
1 tsp chicken boullion
dash of thyme for flavor
1 small chopped potato-- about 1/2 cup
handful frozen peas and carrots (maybe 1 cup altogether)
1 cup chopped chicken (leftover from a roasted chicken from the HEEB)

First melt the butter in a small pot and then whisk in the butter at medium heat. Keep whisking until this roux becomes tan, then add a little of the milk, blend well with the whisk, and then blend in all the milk, cream and salt. Add the potato and stir as this thickens. Add the frozen veggies and chicken and cover, stirring every few minutes to keep it from clumping or burning to the bottom. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

As the potatoes are softening, get your dough back out and split the ball into two parts. I use 2 sheets of wax paper to roll it out but a floured surface will work too. I had picked out 2 Corningware bowls and once the dough was rolled to 1/8 in thickness, I laid it in and fit to the bowl. This involved snipping off the extra and the inside folds, reserving the dough for the topping. Poke holes in the bottom with a fork or knife.

By now my filling was nice and thick and I turned its heat off, and worried about the crust bottoms. I prebaked them because I like them to be crispy. It was probably 10 minutes at 400 degrees. They got nicely puffed, and then I let them cool a few minutes before adding the filling.

Next I rolled out the tops, I had just enough dough left over for both. Cut to fit, press onto the tops of the filled crusts, and back in the oven for about 30-45 minutes until beautiful brown on top.

And to reveal my big secret, it turns out this is the cure to flu. I'm sharing it with the world because I'm that generous. I could have made millions, but I'm just too nice. You're WELCOME.

Prosciutto Mushroom Goat Cheese Pizza

2011-01-31T19:48:00.000-08:00

I guess very good things truly do take practice. Taste Tester admitted that in the past, he was "being nice" about my pizzas, and they were alright, but this night and this pizza finally blew him away.

Aside from my nearly being out of yeast, the biggest change to the recipe was to match Scott's moisture ratio of 65 % water. I measured 1lb of flour, 6.5 lbs of water, and then otherwise it was mostly the same as any of my others: 2.25 tsp yeast (1 packet) , dash of salt, tbsp of honey and oil each...

The toppings are red sauce, a little mozz, prosciutto, fresh green onions, mushrooms marinated in balsamic vinegar, and a topper of goat and feta cheese.

It only rose twice, and my new wooden peel helped. But the water ratio seemed to be the key. Taste Tester also moved the stone down a rack, and we had a metal pan on the rack above the stone, which seemed to protect the top of the pizza from burning while also distributing the oven's gas heat evenly.

My outer crust was bubbled and the crumb full of nooks and crannies, and the bottom crust was caramel perfect crisp. It was truly an awesome pizza.

For The Love Of In Laws

2011-01-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

My in-laws-to-be gave me a most well-chosen gift for Christmas that I've been debating how to use. It was a very generous gift card to Williams-Sonoma, a store where I covet most everything with a bar code.

That fact made deciding impossible, since so many items are needed: a pizza peel, an oven thermometer, an icecream maker, and--per Taste Tester's current fascination--a milk frother for quicker homemade cappucino. But I had to make a choice, or two:

Cuisinart Ice-21 Icecream Maker

Mmmmmm. Frozen yogurt, sorbet, icecream... and my deal came with two bowls, so I can send Mom home with some!

Aerolatte Milk Frother

And the far less exciting milk frother. Is there any phrase more boring than "milk frother"?

Milk beige. Milk Dan Patrick. Milk golf on TV.

Grapefruit Tart, stage name Ruby Red Tart

2011-01-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

I used to hate the bitterness of grapefruit, but now I love it.

I think it's some sort of metaphor for life: with age comes bitterness, and an appreciation for that in others. Maybe grapefruit got kicked around at the fruitstand in middle school. Maybe the orange and the lime bullied it for wearing pink all the time. So now it's older, it's bitter, it fights the urge to look up lime and orange on Facebook and see what kind of losers they grew up to be. Then lime friends it and is all, "I totally want to know everything about your life! Is your rind still as pink as it used to be?" and grapefruit falls for it and gushes about its life in cocktails and then lime posts pictures of itself in a margarita and a pie and a marinade and a famous Sonic drink, and grapefruit's insecurities blow up in his face all over again.

So I think grapefruit deserves more starring rolls in recipes I like. Today, it's going to push Key Lime off the stage and be a pie. "Grapefruit pie" just doesn't have a ring to it, however, so it's a tart. Ruby Red Tart. Ruby June's Ruby Red Tart.

I started with a baby test version: juice of 1 grapefruit, a pinch of zest, 1 egg yolk, corn starch, and a little sugar. It turned out quite pink, the boiled-down citrus was super tangy. Like the sweet bitterness of middle school, it stung at first but I couldn't quit eating it.

For my bigger version, there will be true justice for the grapefruit. Let there be graham cracker crust and meringue!

New Year's Eve Party Menu

2011-01-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

For a small New Year's gathering we're having, I've been blanking out on what to make because a friend is bringing fondue and all I can think is--bread and cheese are taken. Every snack or appetizer other than crudite seemed to be bread-and-cheese centric, or inappropriate for the holiday.

So I've settled on pork medallion sliders, stuffed mushrooms, and yuccas rellenos con queso, or cheese-stuffed yucca balls. Plus some artichoke spinach dip.

For the mushrooms, I pry out and save the stems and puree with breadcrumbs, juice of one lemon, and italian herbs--a little basil, oregano, and garlic salt. If I'm feeding non-vegetarians, crab/shrimp/any seafood is a great addition to the stuffing. Spoon the stuffing into them, bake at 350 until well browned. Sprinkle with parmesan when serving. Very easy.

(Added after party)

The yuccas rellenos were a party fave, after the fondue of course, and they were fun to make. I skinned, split, and boiled 2 very big yuccas until soft (about 20 minutes). Once cooled I dug out the chewy thread in the center and then mashed with a potato masher.

I seasoned with salt and lime, then cupped handfuls, about 1/8th of a cup each, in my palm. I pressed asadero cheese cubes in, closed the yucca around them, and refrigerated them.

That way the cheese didn't dry out when they were later fried!

It still begged for a cool dip, like a sour cream or yogurt or buttermilk-based green goddess or lime-avocado sauce. Lime and yucca just go together well. The leftover of these, because I made too many, became a part of an egg souffle the next morning that was fantastic, but not photographed. And then my leftover boiled yucca became a mashed yucca-cheese casserole, also not shot but worth adding the recipe for:

1 large boiled yucca, mashed
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup of cheese (any white mexican cheese)
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tsp salt

Stir and spread in a baking dish, bake at 375 until browned on top. Cool a little and serve.

Sick Day Sandwiches and French Onion Soup

2010-12-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

We both ended up sick over the holidays, so soup sounded good to me, but soup is never enough for filling the Taste Tester's gullet, so I made him one of my favorite heavy sandwiches to go with, from the first restaurant I worked at. Beef sandwiches + french onion soup = awesome excuse to dip your sandwich like an Arby's Au Jus.

French Onion Soup, quickie version:
3 red onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic
4 cups water, mixed with whichever beef boullion you like according to its instructions
a stringy cheese, gruyere or swiss or provolone, in slices
baguette bread, preferably stale
1 cup sherry cooking wine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

In a deep, heavy bottomed pot, saute sliced red onions in olive oil, throwing garlic in once they are very soft, then adding sherry before garlic burns. Let sherry burn off the alcohol for ~5 min, then add the beef boullion and let simmer until the onions are soft enough to bend like noodles but not disintegrating. Salt to taste. When served, put a thick slice of baguette in bowl and top with slice of cheese, then spoon soup over it so it melts. Gooey soggy cheesy bread wonder.

Beef and Baguette Sandwiches
2 small french bread rolls
mayo and A-1 or another steak sauce
sliced roast beef
provolone or swiss cheese
onions (unless you're already worn out on them, see above)
worcestershire sauce

Saute onions in a little oil, add a couple dashes of worcestershire sauce, and warm beef in that pan while bread toasts. Melt cheese atop the beef and onions.
Spread toasted bread generously with mayo, then 1-2 tsp of steak sauce on top of the mayo. I was not generous enough with ours and regretted it! Plate open faced with beef. Serve with multiple napkins, this is awesome but messy.

Schlotsky/Schmaltz's Have Been Hacked

2010-12-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

In my hometown, there's this great sandwich joint called Schmaltz's, and for rookies it could be perceived as a Schlotsky's knock-off. But in fact, the only thing in common is the funny sounding name and somewhat similar bread. The family-run Schmaltz's is ~~a gem (can't believe I said that)~~ makes delicious sandwiches and amazing soups, my favorite being Wisconsin cheddar cheese soup. It's so thick and rich I can hardly handle a cup of it. And their bread, either in a little muffin-size bun with your soup or a larger 6 incher for sandwich, is amazing. It's got the perfect thin but tough crust, a chewy crumb that never gets soggy when smeared with mayo or dipped in soup. Seemed like sourdough to me, only no sour taste.

I think, however, that I've begun to hack their recipe. We rushed home after Christmas, Taste Tester unexpectedly ill, and stopped by Schlotsky's to get him some soup. I asked for bread on the side and began to rethink the recipe, did some research, and hit the key: the dough is 1) overmixed so the gluten is thick and creates that spongy tug to it, and 2) it's more batter than dough, heavy in water AND milk content. That also helps the gluten.

And it was superfreakineasy to boot. Which means 1) I need to buy more flour and 2) Taste Tester will be eating a lot of bread and sandwiches as I perfect this. Currently, my crust isn't tough enough and my crumb needs to just be a little more chewy and white. So I'm thinking I'll reduce the hydration ratio a little, mostly by the milk, then find a smaller loaf pan since it's risen and baked in a pie round. And, I need to convert it to a proper ratio of lbs or oz.

So far, it's
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup milk
1 packet or 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar, but I'm leaving the sugar out next time
Mixed in a blender till smooth, runny, and sticky, then split into 2 small pie rounds to rise for an hour (or till to the edge of the pie tin, depends on the temperature) and then baked at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cornmeal on the base of the pie tin and a spray of oil on top helps the crust.

Test Post From My Itouch

2010-12-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

I bought a new gadget that I'll be able to use when I'm cooking and posting, all while listening to podcasts about cooking and music!

This is my 1st post from it, after a failure at making apple cinnamon rolls. Turns out butter melts in a hot oven and puff pastry boiled in a puddle of cinnamon butter tastes like a dumpling.

I'll spare you the photos.

Taste Tester Sets A Rib Record

2010-11-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

These are the 15 racks of ribs that Taste Tester is smoking today for the annual family post-Thanksgiving Day party. We spent an hour rubbing them all with his famous recipe. He'll be managing 3 smokers, doing a huge smoked salmon also, and letting me in the way for some grilled veggies. Every year at this time, and several more at different BBQs, people request these smoked ribs, and it wasn't until this year that we admitted to each other we don't really like smoked ribs that much. It's just that he's so good at it, it's become a burden he has to bear. I do love his sense of responsibility.

Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict

2010-11-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

While I didn't take photos of this, the recipe seemed worth sharing because it was actually delicious. I didn't have any bacon or sausage to serve with breakfast, so I found a can of crabmeat in the pantry and went to town.

Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict with Lemon Cayenne Hollandaise

Part 1: Crab Cakes
1 can crabmeat, 1/2 cup crushed breadcrumbs or crushed crackers, 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
4 chopped green onions, dash of garlic salt, dash of pepper
1 tbsp mustard, 1 tbsp mayo, juice of 1/2 lemon

I formed these into 3 patties, could have done smaller patties and made 4 with the same recipe though. Then I pan fried them in a few tablespoons of olive oil till browned on each side.

Part 2: Hollandaise Sauce
4 tbsp butter, juice of 1/2 lemon, 3 tbsp Fage (or other Greek-style) yogurt, 2 egg yolks, cayenne pepper

In a double boiler (for me, a metal bowl perched on a small pot of simmering water), I melted the butter with the lemon juice. I threw in the Fage to sub for more butter/egg yolks but it made for a great base that's ultimately healthier. I whisked these till they were well blended, then threw in 2 egg yolks and about 1/4 tsp cayenne and kept whisking. Hollandaise is basically an emulsion of eggs and butter, so you can't walk away from it. It took about a minute to thicken up, then I took it off the heat and whisked a little more and put it aside while I moved onto...

Part 3: Bread and Poached Eggs
3 eggs, 2 toasted English sourdough muffins

The pot of boiling water for the hollandaise became my poaching water, and it's recommended to add vinegar to the pot to help the egg proteins cook.

Your water should be simmering, and you crack the egg right into the water. With a slotted spoon, pick up the egg after 3-5 minutes and check for doneness: the white should be only 3 inches across and done, but the yolk will still be a soft bubble of runny goodness. While the eggs poached, I plated the muffins and the crab cakes onto them - Taste Tester got 2 and I had one, they were filling.

Then I ladled out the eggs onto the crabcakes, and spooned the hollandaise over it. Incredibly good!

Here's an image of how mine mostly looked, but my hollandaise is thicker. I seriously will hang my camera in the kitchen from now on, I've missed 2 great meals and people are going to think I'm a liar.

Fleece Winter Hats for Unfortunate Kids

2010-11-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

I made this for a friend's kid, and I'll be making more to embarrass other people's kids. They can't avoid crazy Aunt Rachael.

Eric's Salsa

2010-11-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

I made salsa for a birthday party this weekend, and the party man liked it enough he asked me to post the recipe. The photo's kinda lousy but atleast you can see it's red.

Ancho Erico Salsa

6 halved tomatoes
2 quartered red onions
2 fresh jalepenos
2 garlic cloves
3 dry ancho chiles
1 bunch cilantro
salt to taste

I roasted the first 3 ingredients at 500 degrees until the tomatoes were somewhat blackened and the onions were getting charred. The anchos were softened up in a bowl of water in the microwave, I set it for 3 minutes and let them sit. They will only soften if the water can reach inside their skins, so you might use scizzors to snip them lengthwise.

While the anchos softened, I used the hand blender to blend up my initial ingredients in a big bowl. Then I added the anchos (less the water they soaked in), the garlic cloves too, and blended them in. I put this in the fridge overnight to be sure the anchos are completely softened, and then I reblend in the morning to get rid of any chunks leftover. Salt to taste, then finish with the cilantro. I think cilantro's fresh flavor will get pretty weak if added to a hot salsa.

Baguettes and Paper Balls

2010-10-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

This felt like my first real success with bread, even if I've posted success before; it just finally felt less intimidating and more natural this time. The recipe was so simple and a great base for future experimenting.

1 lbs flour

0.6 lbs water

2 and 1/4 tsp of active yeast (or a packet if prepackaged)

1 tsp salt

I mixed it all in the AKAM and then oiled the ball of dough and let it rise in an oiled bowl. Then I split it into two loaves and stretched them into rectangles, rolled the rectangles into tubes, and rolled the tubes into skinnier lengths like playdough strings. They rose again in my baguette tray (a flat pan is fine too) and after an hour long rise, they were ready for 30 minutes in 375 degrees. I think my oven is cold, as it took me 40 to 45 before they got crusty and sounded hollow. The slashes I made on the top allowed air to escape and create a nice pattern.

And in the back, the fine final product of my sick-day-paper-mache'-experiment.

Whatever's In Your Fridge Lasagna

2010-10-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

My brother called for advice on lasagna the other day, right after Taste Tester warned me to clean out the fridge, so I got the idea that I could possibly find lasagna ingredients in there. I had the basics: tomatoes, noodles, mozzarella, parmesan, and tomato sauce.

In the fridge I found baba ghanouj, pecans, rutabagas and okra. And feta.

And I made a lasagna from it all. And it was actually good! The bottom was roasted rutabagas, tomato sauce with chunks of tomatoes and mozz. Maybe a little parm too. Then noodles, then baba ghanouj and feta and pecans.

Noodles. Tomato sauce, grilled okra, and mozz and parm. It even looked pretty at the end.

I only posted this to show that recipes are just concepts on paper, and things can taste great without them. Also, go leftovers!

Banana (and other stuff) Bread

2010-09-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

This is one of those things that embodies fall to me, even if bananas are tropical. And not just banana bread, but all vegetable-based breads, like zucchini and pumpkin and coconut. Well, coconut is technically a fruit. So is pumpkin. Damnit, so is zucchini.

That is REALLY not the point. They are all things that unexpectedly make great tasting bread that I like for breakfast. In Barbados, coconut bread was a dense, crumbly, amazing local specialty that I ate with a little cream cheese. I've never been able to recreate it.

And zucchini bread? Who thunk that up. Probably a desperate Pilgrim, those crafty frugal pragmatists.

This new banana bread came past a colossal failure with the texture of tofu. Following a recipe closely helped, although* I did add** a few drops of orange oil. *And half a teaspoon of coconut extract. **And pecans on top, to avoid complaints from Taste Tester who doesn't appreciate my obsession with nuts.

Coconut Banana Bread

2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

I used 3 bananas, and my coconut was toasted. I also used less sugar because all things in moderation/weight watcher's suggestion/processed foods are bad/the hell ever you like.

After mixing all the wet ingredients, stir in the dry (easiest to premix those in another bowl too) and bake in a loaf pan for 1 hour at 350. Check for a toothpick to come out clean to be sure it's done.

Sick Day / Halloween Preparations

2010-09-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

So my pumpkin patch failed epically. All the babies died in our summer heat. Maybe next year.

Consequently, I have to decorate for Halloween without the benefit of a pumpkin patch yielding gourds of all shapes and sizes. I shopped but, on a budget, these craft stores--and even Big Lots!--want so much for everything. So it's back to basics--do it yourself or don't bother.

And then Rick gave me his flu, so I was stuck home today and the Hallmark channel wasn't cutting it. I paper mache'd. Or papier mache'd, if you want to sound like a snobby Gallic artist. Point is: Martha Stewart would never be this creative on a sick day.

Paper Mache Pumpkins
Stage 1 Get messy with balloons and paper, flour, and water

Recipe for glue: 1 part white flour (wheat tears the paper), 2 parts water
Dip the newspaper pieces, use your fingers like a scizzors to squish off the excess, and stick to a balloon. I read advice about what direction to lay the paper, but there's no rules. Just stick it to the balloon and do it again.

Tomorrow I'll either have to re-layer or paint them!

Last Camping Meal

2010-09-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

I made this breakfast on our last morning camping, and was really quite proud. First I layered bacon like a pie pan in a cast iron skillet, then topped that with very thin slices of potato. On top of a 2-slice thick layer of potatoes, I piled in the green chile + mashed potatoes + bleu cheese we'd had the night before, and created wells in them. In the wells, I broke two eggs, then nestled the whole shebang into an open fire of coals, topped with another cast iron.

In about 15 minutes, all was warm and done like a potato layered pie. I wish I could cook everything in cast iron.

Camping Cuisine #4: Failed Fishing Excursions and Steak Night

2010-08-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

When you travel to another state and intend to fish, you ought to buy a fishing license and learn the regulations. I did. I bought a 5-day pass (read the entire rule book) and some new lures, even though I knew my best lure would be the magic one because

It was made in Hood River, Oregon
It was named "Krocodile"
It was previously embedded in the dog's paw.

However, Taste Tester lost this lure on our 2nd day of fishing from both the shore and the kayak (named Mango). I never got nibbles until we were tipped off to add corn niblets to our hook, and even then I kept getting hung up on the rocks below surface. When I did, I used Mango to help me get behind the rock and save the lure.

Me and Mango

However, TT felt it was a better technique to just pull. Real hard. The line broke and Krocodile was lost. So was my $31 fishing license money and any chance at landing a trout. So he showed his guilty remorse by cooking me a steak and sweet potato whilst I crafted a new lure from a beer can.

Steak medium rare, roasted hatches and bleu cheese on top, baked sweet potato with sour cream and chipotles in adobo sauce

So with such an amazing meal, I forgave him his trespasses against my lures.

Diary of Camping Cuisine #3: Pizza on the Grill

2010-08-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

View from dam to other side

View from our campsite. Looked like the ocean!

So this wasn't so much of a success as a learning experience. Now that I've finally mastered my dough, I made enough for 4 pizzas and froze them after the 2nd rise to go with us. Little did I know that even at very chilly temperatures, yeast will keep on truckin'. I opened up the dough (previously rounded orbs) to find a sticky, bubbly mess exploding out of the bag I had stored them in.

But I had wisely packed flour and, after patting them down and releasing the gas, they were workable. Two were re-rolled and saved, and 2 were set to rest and make into pizzas.

Brilliant Scott had advised us to grill them lightly first, then top them, then grill again, which I did. However, I think the lack of a pizza stone caused the burning of the pizza bottoms. Next time, I think I will bring a stone to put on the coals themselves, or maybe you could be super-crunchy-granola types and get by with some natural stone.

We did a pesto base and toppings of a variation of onions, tomatoes, and pepperoni, plus mozzarella and arregiano cheeses on one and goat cheese and mozz on another. Still good, but the burnt crust risked a chipped tooth.

Witness the charred remains

If I had my druthers, I would have added smoked lake trout, but because Taste Tester discouraged me from fishing on our first night, I never caught any fish.

Next chapter: failed fishing excursions...

Diary of Camping Cuisine: Family Cooking (cheating) in the Best Kitchen Evah

2010-08-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

(Rigatoni used because Taste Tester hates penne. Penne. Who hates penne?)

Sam(...and the awesome stove)

Now I admit this is not truly camp cooking, but it was before the official campout began and an exceptionally fun meal to make with the amazing New Mexico relatives in their belongs-in-a-magazine kitchen. Giant kitchen range, great island to work at, dogs underfoot (as I've said before, it's a type of seasoning to have dogs in the kitchen), and lots and lots of iiiitty bitty chairs.

Pebble

We made this recipe (designed for a 2-person meal, though I overshot the target and made enough for about 10):
Chipotle Mushroom Penne

1 seared (and then chopped) ribeye steaks--leftover steaks are great for this
1 to 1.5 cups cream
2 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 chopped chipotle in adobo sauce
1/2 thinly sliced red onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
1.5 cups sliced mushrooms
3 cups penne cooked al dente

Saute garlic and onions in oil, stop them from burning by adding the cream. You may want to water it down or use half n half instead, some heavy creams are thicker than molasses. Add mushrooms to simmer and soak up the cream and add the chipotle, but go easy on it if you're a pansy about spice.

The sauce should simmer a little and get a nice orangey shade when it's time to add the pre-cooked pasta and beef. (Chicken tastes good in this also.) Simmer another minute so the pasta is finished, then plate.

Fresh garden peppers roasted for an app!

Caesar salad on the side

Hannah :)

They also served a breakfast to die for: smoked salmon from Seattle on schmeared bagels with onions and lemon. That was wonderful, and it got me in the mood to fish. Little did I know that Taste Tester would jinx my luck at fishing the next day...

Diary of the Camping Cuisine: 1st post: Ceviche Superwoman

2010-08-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well after a week of lavish camping in beautiful New Mexico state parks, we are exhausted and a bit fatter from all the great eating. I'll post all the best meals over the next few days with recipes and photos, all at once would just be TOO EXCITING.

To begin, our first night on Heron Lake and the gorgeous sunset. The fish were jumping everywhere and Taste Tester discouraged me from fishing, therefore I never caught anything our whole trip.

For this evening, I roasted green NuMex chiles and made a green salsa with tomatillos, onions, garlic, and lime.

Then I made a ceviche with crappy Walmart tilapia and crappier Walmart shrimp. It was actually uncrappily fantastic, limey and fresh and cold and creamy. I know creamy doesn't sound like a descriptor for ceviche, but after a nice sit in the lime juice, the juice thickens and coats the fish like a sauce.

Walmart Tilapia and Shrimp Ceviche
3 filets of tilapia, diced
handful of shelled shrimp, sliced lengthwise in half
2 chopped jalepenos
1/2 diced white onion
juice of 2 limes and 1 lemon
salt
handful chopped cilantro
Diced avocado

Better photo:

A nice dish for camping because it's really just a chop and mix dish, but I do let it refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour with some stirring to fully coat the lime and lemon acid on each piece of fish so they cook evenly. In hot weather, nothing is more satisfying, every time we try a new ceviche I want to open a cevicheria in a food trailer. I'd move it to wherever is having the hottest weather. Like a ceviche superwoman.

The infinite wiggle, start at the nose and end...a while later

2010-08-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

For your viewing pleasure...Ben after his bath.

Prep Week for Camping Week

2010-08-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

We're going to New Mexico if we can survive this week, and it'll be an all-camping vacation. I'm planning to attempt some non-traditional camping cooking, so far I've set these goals:

Campfire pizza (fresh frozen dough brought from home)
French toast
Paella (or something closely resembling it)
Fish THAT I CAUGHT*

Pictures will be shared.
*...this last one will depend on the supply, rather than my cooking abilities.

Pumpkin Patch Updates

2010-08-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

It's still growing like crazy. Something like 55 babies and they are getting kinda crowded! I've been cooking but forgetting to photo and post. If something interesting happens, I'll share.

Pumpkin Patch Beginnings

2010-07-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

We tilled up the section of our front yard between the sidewalk and the street and spread all of our compost in two long lines, then planted jack o'lantern pumpkins, ghost (grey) pumpkins, acorn squash, and spaghetti squash. Or atleast I think it's spaghetti squash, I saved the seeds last year and didn't label where they came from. Definitely a gourd-like plant.

Now, 4 days later, we already have babies shooting up. This is meant to be a pumpkin patch for the neighbor kids to enjoy, too. I'll post our progress. Update from day 5: I counted 38 seedlings coming up! We're going to be overrun with vines.

Calling Pet Protective Services

2010-07-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Our smallest dog, Sadie, is recovering from a fishhook getting caught in the top of her paw. This is the drugged up version right home from our vet. It's a long story but the highlights are she's afraid of doors, I only own one fishing pole, and she's the only live thing I've ever caught with it.

I think the real tragedy about all this is that Sadie, beloved by all who meet her, is not so beloved by the man of the house. With this injury, she's getting special attention from him: trips to the vet in his car, helping her get around, checking bandages. She's convinced he loves her now. That's the truly sad part.

Pizza Success

2010-07-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Holy crap this was good pizza. After so many fails, we finally had a winner with the same damn pizza dough I'd been cursing all along. It's from the Silver Palate New Basics Cookbook, and it turns out it just needed a longer bulk fermentation and another fold. So many of my cookbooks are filled with corrections in the margins that I really think there's a market out there for a cookbook editor who checks more than just grammar.

I've learned from diligent studies of breadmaking (or reading one really good book about it, anyway), that our mother's lesson of "punching down" dough during successive rises is a great outlet for domestic fury, but not the best method to maintain a well balanced dough. Instead, during the rise (or bulk fermentation), I fold the bread to release gas. It's basically like trying to fold bedsheets that have the elastic--not really exact or pretty, but there's some semblance of organization there. I pull from the top and fold in, from the side and fold in...and so on for four sides folded into one seam that is then turned under in the bowl for the next rise. This is s'posed to improve the organization of the gluten matrix.

Like anybody's doing electron microscope studies of gluten in dough. Really, where do they get this stuff?

In any case, this recipe calls for 2 one-hour rises, but I added a third and the dough resulted being much more elastic and with less tendency to tear when stretched into a shape.

Pizza Dough:
1 cup warm water
1 packet of active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 to 3 cups flour
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil

The water should be around 75 degress, and the mixer can do the rest. Proofing the yeast isn't necessary, but I always dissolve it in the water first to help the spores break open. Let the mixer run at a low-medium setting to knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes or until it is smooth and only clinging to the bottom of the bowl but clearing the sides.

Place in an oiled bowl in a warm spot and cover, allow to rise until doubled (~1hr) and then fold, repeat for another rise and fold, then rise again one hour and work into your pizza shape. This recipe made two ~14'" pizzas.

Our toppings for Taste Tester's were pesto, spinach, mushrooms, and goat cheese plus mozzarella. Our toppings for mine were a lite schmear of tomato paste, rosemary, red onion, bleu cheese, fresh garden cherry tomatoes, and some shredded mozz and pepperoni.

The oven should be already at 500 degrees, and your pizza stone should be that hot too. (Careful kids!) I still want to master Chef Scotty's version, but I might just settle for letting him make that for me.

Dairy Maiding: Goat Milk Ricotta

2010-06-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

Once in college, I applied for a student job and was placed at the Texas A&M Dairy farm, where I expected to be interviewed and shown around. I wore shorts and flip flops, and they asked me to go to work that night.

I ended up in overalls and flip flops, stomping through manure, slapping cow's asses to steer them to the dairy. There they lined up in an aisle, had each teat washed with an iodine dip, and I learned to attach the milking machine. By about 930pm, I thought I had the flow down, then someone supervising me realized I had missed something (I don't recall what, but it was vitally important) and they had to drain out about 20 gallons of milk and waste it.

I found another job editing a professor's book. Thank GOD for English AP tests.

I have struggled and overcome my fear of milking...in fact I want a milking goat but Taste Tester wisely refuses. One day, though, I'll get my goat. (Why is "you really got her goat" a phrase with a negative connotation?) Goat milk is easier for humans to digest, does not cause allergic reactions, and is naturally homogenized--you don't have to separate the milk after milking. And I love all goat cheeses.

This was my first making-of run, next I'll try to make something cultured, but this turned out nicely tangy and great for a spread.

I boiled a half gallon of goat's milk to 180 degrees then let it rest. I couldn't find fresh goat's milk, only pasteurized, but that would be fun to try. I then added 1/4 of a cup of lime juice, but lemon or apple cider vinegar were also recommended. I let that sit for ~20 min to curdle. Above is what curdling looks like. I expected more clumps but it was reminiscent of watching grits boil. Except more boring.

Next I ladled this into a colander lined with several layers of cheesecloth. Next time I'll buy some loose-weave muslin, the cheese cloth eventually wasted a lot of cheese.

If yogurt making was easy, this was remedial easy. If I had kids (and I liked them) this would probably be a fun activity. After this, all I had to do was wait. Once it drained low enough to tie up the bundle of cheesecloth, I let it drip over the sink for half an hour, then let it drip over a bowl in the fridge for another half hoour. Then I turned it into a bowl and added chopped rosemary, 1 crushed clove garlic, and a dash of salt.

I'd made some fresh French bread also, and we toasted that and schmeared the cheese. Good times.

I'm going to start adding what I thought were my overall costs to make things, and to be honest this was ~$4.00. In reality, buying your own goat cheese would be about the same. But if you could buy a couple gallons of goat milk for a better rate than I got, it might be a savings. Time to consider dairy maiding again.

Gardening Like You Know What You're Doing Part Deux et Trois

2010-06-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

DIY TCBY: Make Your Own Yogurt, Normal or Frozen

2010-06-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

I'm never able to use up an entire half gallon of milk OR yogurt before the whole thing turns, but I've learned a few tricks that make me more likely to use them.

For the milk, I turn it into yogurt (part of this post). When the yogurt's about ready to turn, I'll be turning into the greek style which is thicker and can substitute for sour cream and heavy cream in almost any recipe. What I'm trying tonite is turning the greek yogurt into frozen yogurt.

So to recap:
Almost bad milk--->yogurt--->Greek style yogurt--->frozen yogurt

I don't have an ice cream maker, plus I'll only be making a small amount, but according to my research, a hand blender works and it is still just as creamy as the pro stuff.

To make yogurt, you first boil your milk, bringing it to boil for just a minute before pouring it into a bowl to cool to lukewarm (plastic wrap to maintain the sterility). After it's cooled to that warm temperature, it can begin to breed acidophilus bacteria that convert the lactose into lactic acid, which in turn performs a magic trick (hard to believe I'm a microbiologist) and ta-da, yogurt. One catch, though, is that unless you grow acidophilus in your spit, you'll need a starter culture--a couple spoons of any live culture yogurt will do.

The rest is just waiting, and I like to use a heating pad on low beneath the bowl so that the process only takes about 12 hours. So on the left--boiled milk; on the right, the same bowl after a night of sitting out (covered) with a spoonful of fresh yogurt added. I'll be waiting a few more hours before straining this through cheese cloth to make...

Greek Style Yogurt!

(this was made from the leftover plain yogurt in the fridge which also was the starter for the above yogurt)

Meanwhile, more immediate gratification from my recipe-within-a-recipe, like this whole post is a molten lava brownie thingy that goos out when you cut it. Which is a great idea for a future post.

Frozen Yogurt Recipe
Greek-style yogurt (essentially plain flavor yogurt drain to reduce water content)
Flavor concentrate (mine is vanilla and coconut)
Add-ins (mine is chips of dark chocolate)
A sweetener--a couple Splenda packets made mine great, but a purist might just go for sugar

Mix your stuff, unless your add-in could get ruined by a hand blender, then put in a bowl in the freezer. Every hour, stir with the blender until it's completely frozen. Mine took about 3 hours.

First check: not frozen at all.

Another hour later--fairly crunch with ice crystals, so I added my dark chocolate chips,
then put it back for another 30 min...

Coconut chocolate chip fro-yo. Ideally I think another couple hours frozen would have been good, and this was a small batch so it went fast. But still, pretty easy plan for a dinner party dessert. Also healthy, low fat, high in calcium, low sugar, looks like I actually tried hard when I really only stirred crap up a few times...

Sushi for Beginners

2010-06-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

For both these sushi rolls, all I had was more of the tuna from the other night, but it's my favorite anyway. I'm out of practice with sushi making, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. These were both rolls with spicy tuna in the center, plus some avocado and cucumber.

Spicy Tuna Filling:
Fresh tuna, chopped/minced into very small pieces
1-2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Sriracha spicy chili sauce
1 dash cayenne
This mix was a stirred up until the color changed to a redder tuna rather than pink.

Then I laid out press-n-seal plastic wrap and a half sheet of seaweed (nori) and spread cool sushi rice over it. It won't stick if it's as cold as the fridge it came from, but a quick nuke in the microwave (about 20 seconds) brought it to the perfect just-below-room-temperature I was needing. Then it stuck like duct tape to everything.

The layer of rice was spread out on the plastic about 1/4 inch tall and then I laid the nori on top and lightly pressed it down. I spread my filling in the center, and for one I added a line of avocado and cucumber, but for the other I saved the avocado for a topper.

Using the plastic wrap I rolled 'em up till they just overlapped, and pressed lightly so the rice sponged together. Yes I just used sponged as a verb.

I cooled both rolls in the fridge briefly, and sprinkled one with sesame seeds and panko bread crumbs. The other I topped with thinly-but-not-thinly-enough-sliced avocado. My spicy sauce from the last post was great with the panko crunch one. Slicing them was an art, the bread knife seemed best but it was hard to keep them pretty and circular while doing so.

It just might be possible I could get this sushi stuff down and save us a lot of money eating out. On the other hand, I might not bother. All Taste Tester had to say was "It's good." Not exactly the glowing praise one expects for hand-rolled custom homemade sushi, but I loved it. Next time, I think brown rice plus a new type of fish in the mix.

Tekka Don (fish on rice)

2010-06-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Tekka don is tuna sliced over sushi rice, with any extras you'd like. It's sometimes also called chirashi sushi, or "scattered sushi". This was fun and so much easier than I expected. I think it all came together in 20 minutes--start the sushi rice, run to the oriental market for fish, come home and slice things while the tuna defrosted, and then put it all together.

I like my sushi rice to be cool or room temp, but for this dish a little warmth is an interesting contrast to the chilled tuna. So the sushi rice was done in my rice steamer, and to each cup of rice I add ~1/8th of a cup of rice wine vinegar, plus ~1/2 tsp each of salt and sugar (or a sweetener like Splenda).

My toppings were julienned cucumber, pickled ginger, sliced scallions, nori seaweed cut into strips, and a little lemon and avocado on the side. Other good toppings are sesame seed, julienned carrots, lettuce, sliced radish, anything with some texture and crunch. I also like this spicy dressing:

1 tbsp mayo
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1-2 tsp sriracha red chili sauce
dash of cayenne if that isn't spicy enough

These ingredients well-blended make an orange dressing that is often found on spicy sushi rolls.

So once my rice was done and cooled to a warm (not hot) temp, I topped it with the veggies and then the sliced tuna atop that. I drizzled with spicy dressing and it was an amazing meal.

Scotty Karate's Pizza Dough...the uprising

2010-05-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

Now I mixed in an additional 1.75 cups of flour, an additional teaspoon of yeast, teaspoon of salt, and a tablespoon of honey.

I ended up adding more flour in order to reach the desired consistency of dough that was not clearing the bottom of the mixing bowl but clearing the sides. This was probably another cup of flour, which in a high humidity place like my kitchen, was not unreasonable. But it was definitely sticky.

Turn into an oiled bowl, let rise for 1.5 hrs...I followed that instruction, then when I removed the plastic wrap, it was so bubbly and sticky that it seemed to have risen too long. Extra flour was needed in order for it to be manageable enough for the final fold into 2 pizza dough piles that would rise another 1.5 hrs and then be shaped, topped, and popped into the oven.

So we lead into the next chapter...

Abundant Fail:

This is a photo of the terrible mess that came out of the oven for the first round of dough. I let the last rise go too long, probably 2 hrs instead of 1.5. This is blamed on Taste Tester, and his distraction of me with cool bottled beverages. But I think Scott would say the humidity didn't help. I shaped the dough and it kept tearing, I then tried more flour and a roller, then toppings...into a 500 degree oven, cornmeal on the bottom to get it onto the preheated pizza stone, and...mostly awful. The dough definitely has great oven spring, and the toppings surprisingly tasted good together (gorgonzola, rosemary, and pepperoni over a light red sauce).

The 2nd pizza there is no photo for, as it was utterly atrocious and had to be thrown out due to its dough being, well...still dough.

We're still cleaning up the mess I made in the kitchen, but I'm determined to keep trying.

Scotty Karate's Famous Amazing Pizza Dough Recipe

2010-05-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Our friends Scott and Shelby made us some out-of-this-world good pizza earlier in the fall, and Scott shared his recipe. I was previously making pizza dough from one mix with 2 rises, but his starts with a poolish--a mix of flour, water, and yeast allowed to pre-ferment for hours. The benefit of a pre-ferment like this poolish is to improve the extensibility of the dough, or its ability to be stretched. The Italian version of poolish is called biga.

The poolish is:
1.5 cups bread floud
1 1/3 cups water
1 tsp active dry yeast

This is stirred up and left covered with plastic wrap for 4-5 hours, and it will be the base of the dough.

Now we wait...be back in the afternoon.

Rosemary Gorgonzola Pasta (Ruby June's Favorite)

2010-05-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

This dish, and this flavor combination, have to be one of my top all time favorites. There's this aromatic earthiness to a quality gorgonzola cheese that just pairs perfectly with rosemary's intense, nearly piney flavor, and garlic and red onions round out the ideal palette--on a pizza, on a pasta, on top of a chicken breast...I'd put this into a smoothie if I thought I could survive the morning after drinking it.

When I worked in the restaurant where I learned this heavenly duo, we got weekly deliveries of huge wheels of gorgonzola, and all the guys in the kitchen knew to leave it to my shift to do the work of breaking the gorg into manageable chunks for our mise en place. After that was done, I would --away from the view of any patrons--lick my paws clean with very little shame.

The rosemary in my garden was your basic culinary herb from the nursery, but I'm addicted to its unique scent, it reminds me of chocolate when I smell it. I ate a bite tonight with a piece of dark chocolate, and that's going to be a whole 'nother post for dessert ideas...I'm imagining a rosemary creme brulee.

Anyway, this dish is pretty simple once you've prepped your chopped rosemary, crushed garlic, and sliced red onions:

1 tbsp chopped rosemary (peel the leaves from the woody stem first)
1/2 large red onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic
4 cups fusilli pasta cooked al dente (8 minutes boiled, then drained and cooled under cold or icy water so it stops cooking) . The fusilli is important because it captures more of the bold, creamy sauce. My dish looks too colorful, I would have preferred non-colored fusilli if it was all about looks. Unfortunately it's all about what the store I was at had on sale.
2 small precooked chicken breasts, sliced thinly
1.5 cups half and half
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese
First, saute the garlic and onions at low heat (with butter or oil), then stop them from burning by adding the half and half. Add rosemary, cheese, and chicken, and heat until cheese incorporates into sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add in the pasta, then heat at a low simmer for 1 more minute. Serve and sprinkle a teeny bit of rosemary on top.

Camping and Kayaking

2010-05-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

We camped, kayaked, and ate like kings on the Guadalupe River with these views. Gracie joined us. What a beautiful weekend. The Hobitent survived a storm that dumped 3 inches on us, and we stayed dry, then had a great Saturday of perfect weather.

On the last kayak voyage, we let the current take us slowly downriver, but upon turning back to paddle up, the current was immediately faster and the river level had risen about 3 feet. That was quite a workout to get back to camp.

Funny Gardening Advice From the Interwebs

2010-05-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

I think I've got snails in the garden, but I know the birds are visiting. Because I only caught a cardinal in there, I decided as a goodwill gesture that I would not scare him off. But there are about 8 baby tomatoes that I can only imagine look mighty tasty to him, so I started researching these 2 problems.

Here's the interesting advice on the intertubes:
1) Get something shiny

2) Get something that looks like it could hurt a bird

3) Snails are electrocuted by copper

And bizarrely enough, I had all those things in one masterful solution hanging in the TajMaShed.

Refrigerator coil art, by Mom. 1)Shiny 2)Looks Like A Snake 3)Copper.
Done.

Hair soaks up oil spills

2010-05-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

No Groceries Until Garden Grows

2010-04-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ever since putting in this garden, I've grocery shopped much less, as if it is yielding pounds of tomatoes, serranos, okra*, and tarragon**. It's not. But I think we're getting somewhere. I also think some hungry caterpillars are getting further, by the looks of the sage leaves. Who knew those little bastards had gourmet tastes?
* which i haven't planted yet ** which is probably better measured in ounces

Herbs to the left, veggies along the back, but the herbs are struggling. Up front, the basil plants are ready to go, but they'll get so big they might shade the herbs...which might be for the best. I'm torn.

This is a fine looking tomato plant, breed Husky Cherry Red, which is a small fruit tomato but sounds like a plump fruit who dances for money.

And in another inappropriate shocker, this Spirea, usually white and known as Bridal Wreath because, I presume, it was used to make some, is popping out fuschia. I find this to be disappointing and would only use it to make a bridal wreath for Malibu Barbie.

Gardening Like You Know What You're Doing

2010-04-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

Taste Tester and I decided we wanted a garden this year, and after much planning we made ~~a few~~ 15 trips to Home Depot gathering supplies. I assumed it would be some chicken wire stapled to a few stakes to keep the dogs out, but this is what he had in mind.

There's rocks edging it, paver stones at the gated entry, and a ledge for my baby plants to grow on.

So far I've planted tomatoes and have a big selection of herbs about to be planted. According to know-it-all-gardeners I ask, I'm behind on planting things. However, according to Aggie Extension Service for Travis County, I'm right on schedule. We'll see how we do.

Since the garden is alongside the Taj MaShed, I think it will be referred to as the palace gardens.

30th Birthday Party at Phara's

2010-04-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

30th birthday party at Phara's was one of the best evenings of my 30 years.
www.pharas.com

First BBQ of 2010

2010-03-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Babies. Barbecue. Beer. And 100 oysters.

Recent Activity

2010-03-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

There's a series of photos on my camera documenting the beginning of a dish, but the painstaking process and the beautiful delicious finished platter never gets snapped. I'm working on that. Partly I get obsessed with the process, and partly I drink.

02-20-2010 Diary entry:
I survived a baby shower, and I remembered how to use icing...
Vanilla Cupcakes- 1 dozen

1½ sticks unsalted butter
1¾ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla (see shopper's note)
½ teaspoon salt
2½ teaspoons baking powder
2½ cups flour
1¼ cups milk

To prepare oven, muffin tin: Preheat over to 375 degrees. Adjust oven rack to middle position. Line standard muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

To make cupcakes: In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder. Add flour in 3 batches, alternating with milk. Beat at low speed for 30 seconds or until mixture is smooth and satiny.

To bake cupcakes: Divide batter evenly among cups (fill to 2/3 the cup). Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 45 minutes or until at room temperature.

My icing was just buttercream but with orange oil added, and of course coloring.

02-14-2010 Valentine's diary entry:

I made a red-themed meal to prove my love to the Taste Tester... it kinda worked.

Red Rice Pilaf-- this pilaf but with red rice comprising most of the rice

Chicken Fesenjen / Chicken with a Pomegranate Walnut Sauce

2 chicken breasts, in 1" x 1" pieces

1 large white onion, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves crushed

1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped in food processor to coarse, mealy size

3 to 4 cups pomegranate juice (4 if bottled, 3 if fresh)

olive oil and salt

The chicken was seared in the pan with olive oil until lightly browned, then set aside while the garlic and onions were sauteed. To stop the garlic before it burns, pour in the pom juice and add the walnuts. Allow this to simmer for about five minutes to reduce the water in the sauce if from bottled. Add the chicken and cover to simmer until chicken pieces are fully cooked. Served over the pilaf.

Taste Tester liked it, but it was too sweet for him. To which I said, EXACTLY YOU JERK I MADE IT FOR YOU FOR VALENTINE'S DAY.

But we obviously have fun because I only photographed the rice and the salad (pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette and goat cheese over field greens).

03-05-10 Margarita Night Diary Entry
*no diary entry, but water marks and aroma of lime on page*

Rick's Family's Margarita Recipe: 3 parts lime, 1 part tequila, 1/2 part cointreau, shake a while with ice, serve. Salt optional. One has to wonder why I have more photos of this process than the rest.

03-06-10 Diary Entry
For Rick's birthday, I made fresh pasta with slender asparagus, grape tomatoes, prosciutto, and shrimp with a light goat cheese cream sauce very mildly flavored with rosemary. The pasta took forever, I thought I failed at it, I threw some of it at the wall while my poor mother maintained perfect composure (guess she's seen that a few times in my life), and then it all cooked up perfectly. Note for future fresh pasta escapades--even if it seems like it's all sticking together, once it goes into the boil, WTF?! it all separates.

And this is the only photo. The super yellow yolk is from a totally free range chicken. The other two are "cage free" according to the carton, but according to Aunt Sadi the yolk knows. Darker yellow shows the hen had more natural food (bugs) high in protein. That's a bug yellow yolk.

And to close, my brilliant dog, who gets lost in the curtains on a regular schedule:

Superbowl Sunday Meal

2010-02-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Taste Tester enjoyed a weekend of bachelor partying *not for his own wedding* and to welcome him back I roasted a whole chicken and used our leftover cheddar for homemade macaroni, con chipotle. Possible other men don't enjoy such receptions after a bachelor party, but I don't mind telling you the weekend's activities were dominated by a scrabble tournament.

For the mac (inspired by The Barefoot Kitchen Witch), while I boiled 4 or 5 cups of pasta shells, I made a simple roux from 4 tbsp butter and 4 tbsp flour melted and whisked. Then I poured in 3.5 cups warmed milk, briskly whisking under low heat until it thickened. Where I'm from, this is gravy. Where it matters, it's "bechamel". Whatever.

After that was nice and smooth, I added 1 cup each of grated white and yellow cheddar blocks, basically a big handful each, stirring to melt. I had some roasted garlic on had and added 4 cloves of that also, then the chipotle in adobo. Depending on your spice tolerance, you could add 1-3 peppers chopped. Avoiding the seeds reduces the heat, and also makes you a sissy. Salt to taste.

During the sauce prep, the shells finished, and all went into a baking dish and stirred. I sprinkled a little old parmesan and panko on top for crisp, then baked at 375 for 30 min with foil over it, 15 more without until it browned the panko lightly.

It was delicious, I probably shouldn't have baked it that long but even the browned edges were good. I might even use more cheese in the future.

The chicken, stuffed under its skin with slices of lemon, was simple but delicious. It was also baked first for 30 min at 375, then I bumped up the temp to 400 to finish it. When internal temp along the drumstick muscle (but not too close to the bone, which heats faster than the meat) got to 170, it was perfectly juicy and delicious.

New Beer Fridge

2010-01-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

Yea! More room for ingredients, frozen meat, and a fine and varied selection of BEER. Funny photos of the move-in. If you look close, you can identify the as-seen-on-TV HumpStrap. I swear that's truly the name. They strapped on their HumpStraps, as a 2-man team, and grunted and sweated together. Don't be ashamed of your love, boys.

Sourdough Bread/No New Pets

2010-01-23T08:01:00.000-08:00

So I've been wanting to try sourdough for a while, because I love the flavor and especially the texture, but all the recipes involved beginning a "starter" which is a yeast-baby fed with water and sugar or flour. It's called a starter because it is kept alive in your kitchen through careful nurture, then lends a few tablespoons when needed to start, or rise, your next loaf of bread. Legend has it that many long-lasting kitchens have had long-lasting starters with the same bread of yeast from over 100 years back.

Meanwhile, we have 4 dogs and I don't need another mouth to feed. I also object to the logic of a thing being called a starter if it, by definition, does not end.

However, over at jemangelaville, she had the hutzpah to make a starter and finish it! Her recipe sends the whole starter off to fight the good fight in the oven and never return. I am impressed by this brave choice and decided to try it.

Below is the starter, a combo of .5 tsp active dry yeast, 1 1/4 cups white flour, and a 1/4 cup whole wheat, plus 1 cup warm water.

And now...get ready, start...and wait! This gets covered in plastic wrap and left on the counter for 2-12 hours. I'll be waiting atleast 12.

By the next morning (oops, few beers and fun made me forget the timing), here's how it looked:

And it smelled delicious, like a yeasty beer smell. Mmm. This got mixed directly into the AKAM along with 4 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon more yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar, another cup of water (but I used milk, just to be a rebel), and 1.5 tsp salt. Then the first rise, about an hour, and a second rise in the pans. I tried out a baguette pan Mom gave me, and a loaf pan. Slight mistake made by trying to artifically encourage the rise (sat them on top of the oven) which caused some early yeast deaths. Although, considering the life of a yeast cell, I doubt this was much mourned.

And it was absolutely delicious for sandwich, breakfast toast, and spreads. I definitely screwed around with the recipe, but I think what resulted was closest to Schlotsky bread. More dense and chewy than the beautiful white French bread over at jemangelaville.

Honesty In Relationships

2010-01-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

This is the seafood lasagna I was trying for the second time, the first one being quite successful--with fresh pasta, a creamy mushroom sauce, and freshly poached fish. I'd been craving it again and I wanted to try a few changes, and document it here. Rick said it was better this time, and I disagreed.

Then at the end of the meal he said, "Honey, I really love you. And I love your cooking. Please never make seafood lasagna again. I didn't like it the first time or this time."

And I think he was right. It was definitely bad this time, and maybe the first too. In fact, seafood + lasagna is just a bad combination in general. So, you won't see the recipe here, and I'm crossing it out in my cookbook in case any poor fool child ever inherits it.

Carnival Corndog Bites (minus the guilt)

2010-01-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

When I saw this idea on slashfood, I was really excited to try it. Corndogs without the frying, baked in muffin tins (preferably mini). I did a variety of veggie dogs, real franks, leftover beer brauts, and even a couple mushrooms. I didn't use slashfood's recipe because it involved a cornbread mix, and all I had was cornmeal. But the recipe on the cornmeal bag worked great, and I added an egg.

1 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk (I substituted greek yogurt, worked fine)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 inch pieces of hot dog franks or veggies
optional add-ins: chopped peppers, tomatoes, herbs, go crazy! I used chile pequins, for a nice fruity burn.
My batter was pretty thick and I watered it down just a tad--maybe 2-3 tablespoons of water--in the hopes it would taste more like the batter on a carnival 'dog.

Then preheat the oven to 450, drop the filling in each muffin cup (nonstick sprayed), pour a 1/4 of cup of batter or less over the filling, and bake for 10 minutes. For better presentation, pour the batter first and stick the filling into it, that looks a lot more like a corndog.
Taste Tester is not immediately available for reviews, but I found I liked them best dipped in--what else?--plain ole mustard. Not the fancy type, but phosphorescent yellow ballpark mustard. It's a fun snack and really, not unhealthy!

New Year's Day Hike

2010-01-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

We took our spry young Weim Molly for a hike in McKinney Falls State Park (it's in the city limits!) for New Year's Day. Gorgeous weather. Falls were a bit small but would probably be huge after a good rain.
And here's her older brother Benny wishing he could've gone too.

Cinnamon Rolls: "Not Gooey Enough"

2009-12-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

Per Taste Tester: not gooey enough. Obviously this whole web-celebrity-thing has gone to his head.

I used this recipe from the Food Network, and I did actually use less butter and sugar in the inside of the rolls than was required, which would've created more goo. The recipe is huge, next time I'll roll it out thinner so the layers are flakier, with more cinnamon swirl. And gooeyer.

Biscotti for Gifts

2009-12-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

Get a look at how productive I am! Cookies yesterday (partial fail acknowledged), half my Christmas shopping done yesterday...and now the rest is getting done today! I'm going to make my work friends biscotti since we all enjoy our coffee. I've started with a recipe from The Professional Chef, which is a textbook/cookbook that Aunt Sadi gave me in 2007. It's like an encyclopedia for Cooking Like You Know What You're Doing.

Biscotti's also fun because it allows me to use my scale, which I LOF. This recipe, strangely, didn't call for any butter. I've probably got 24 or 36 individual biscotts from this one, but I plan to try another next round. They are flavored with almond extract and orange oil, but then I split the dough and went with fruit added for one, while I topped the other with chocolate and almond slivers.

2 lbs flour
0.7 lbs sugar
6 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp orange oil (I didn't have an orange to zest, but a tsp of zest would suffice)

Whisk the flour and soda together in a separate bowl while the mixer whisks the eggs, sugar, salt, and extract to be lighter in color and thick.
While that whisked, I chopped dried apricots and added a jigger of triple sec to them to soak. I also may have had a jigger. To be sure it was still good. You could do one or both of these things.

Next, incorporate the flour slowly. Due to the lack of any butter or fat, it's a super-sticky dough, but I rubbed some vegetable oil on my palms before I formed the dough on the pan.

Once the flour is incorporated, you can add any nuts or fruit you chose. Half of my dough got the drunken apricots. Half stayed sober.
I was out of parchment to bake them on, so one pan had a silicone liner and for the other I went old-school: Pam and flour. (As mentioned before, I greased up my hands for doing this so all the dough was on the pan instead of my hands.) Bake for an hour at 300 degrees, then allow the loaves to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Now slice with serrated knife from the corner inwards, as thick as an inch or thin as a half-inch. Lay them back on the baking sheet and bake again at 275 this time for 30 min.

Once cooled, I spread melted semi-sweet chocolate pieces on the side of the plain biscotti, then sprinkled with slivered almonds.

Cooking FAIL and the Vengeful God of Mixers. But not epic fail.

2009-12-12T13:31:00.001-08:00

From Ruby June's Cafe

This is the time of year I always make my favorite cookies: Ginger Honey Molasses Cookies. Last year...oh jeez, no--2007!...they were finally perfected. The amount of flour had to be adjusted, then I got them right.

This year, I used the Almighty Kitchen Aid Mixer and...lo, there was cooking fail. I used to get such an arm work out mixing them, but the AKAM whipped them up like egg whites, so the dough (usually dense) was more like mousse.I just figured out one screw-up: I used the whole egg instead of the yolks only.

But I really want to blame the Kitchen Aid, though it feels like blasphemy that I should only whisper or else something terrible shall befall me, like the Vengeful God of the Mixer might smite me where I stand, frowning at a lousy batch of cookies. They aren't even the right color!

Wait...they taste pretty good! Usually it's really hard not to overbake them. Maybe this isn't an epic fail. I'll let Rick decide if I give them away and make us some more in the old style.

One thing I wanted to share--my mom's wisdom for cooking tips. When you're using honey or molasses, grease your measuring cup/spoon/whatever. The sticky stuff dribbles right out without the messy clean-up. See? Go Mom!

Think They're Getting Along

2009-12-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

And I think Molly got into our stash of crack again.

New Addition To The Family

2009-12-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

Our biggest baby yet: Gracie Lou

I think this close up looks like Stimpy:
(Yes I do know Stimpy was a cat.)

Tostones con Mojo

2009-12-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

I love making this cuban side dish of fried plantains for a few important reasons:
1. Garlic garlic garlic
2. And then you add more garlic
3. The plantains are fried, smushed, then fried again. DOUBLE FRIED PEOPLE. If you were in Cuba, it would probably be double fried in LARD.

This went with some not-so-special pork roast. I usually also make boiled yucca, but time was limited for me so the plantains were our starch. Green plantains, which seem too hard to be useful, actually behave a lot like a potato: softer when fried, then better WHEN FRIED AGAIN.
The dip for the appetizer, called mojo (mo*ho), is crazy simple:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp salt

AS MUCH GARLIC AS YOU WANT ( I used four large cloves)

I used my hand blender to puree these together. As I said, this is a really garlicky dish, but mojo specifically is one of those rare sauces where the garlic is meant to be burn-your-tongue fresh. The vegetable oil smooths it out, but this is definitely for garlic lovers. Also, a traditional mojo might have pork fat drippings in place of the some or all of the oil. I added some to this version, and it was delicious. Some of the mojo was the marinade for our pork, and half was reserved for fresh dipping. Once you heat it in a pan, the garlic will have less of a bite, but I like the burn.

So once the mojo is ready, throw into the fridge and start the tostones:

Peel and deep-fry 1.5" lengths of green plantain (brown/yellow is too sweet for this) until they turn a darker yellow, about 1 minute or less.

Now commences the smushing of the plantains. I made a professional-grade smusher with a little ramekin that fit into an icecream bowl. My fulcrum of smush was a meat tenderizer.

After you've smushed them all, reheat your pan and toss them back into the grease! They'll need to brown up for about 30 seconds to a minute, then allow to cool before salting lightly. Serve with mojo on the side, but don't put up with sissies who won't try it. The mojo makes the dish.

The ThanksGiving Results

2009-11-27T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well, our questionnable cut of lamb turned out good if a bit overcooked by me. After rubbing it with chopped rosemary, crushed garlic, fresh ground pepper, and olive oil, I trussed it tighter than Scarlett O'Hara's corset and roasted it at 450 for 30-40 min. Next time I will start at 450 for 20 minutes, then reduce to 350 for a little more so I achieve the med-rare I was hoping for. It was accompanied by amazing spinach artichoke casserole (to be re-posted at another time when I get the recipe), holiday favorite green bean casserole, and roasted root vegetables. The sauce for our lamb was a port reduction with lamb stock and rosemary.

A few photos were taken before we attacked everything, and I managed to get the pumpkin bread pudding dessert (thanks again Kitchen Witch!), which turned out just delicious. I think that concept could be applied in a french toast setting too, I might try that soon.

Though we lacked a turkey, I feel the Wild Turkey that I laced the dessert's icing with was sufficient to ease our pain.

Thanksgiving Plans THWARTED

2009-11-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

I think I've been had. I'm pretty sure my comedic buddies of no habla ingles at the carniceria have provided me part of a shoulder and ribs of a lamb. along with a tib/fib that yielded almost no meat.

I had a helluva time getting the bones out and I'm worried it might already be disaster.

Thanksgiving Plans

2009-11-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

My family has a tradition of cooking Duck a l'Orange for Thanksgiving, but since this is the first year I can remember when I'm not working the last Thursday in November, Rick and I decided to do our own. Here's the plan, and afterwards I'll post the (hopefully non-disastrous and non-food-poisoning) results.

First, leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic, served with a port wine rosemary sauce. The rosemary I planted in our front yard is sourced from Jesus's own garden and actually almost smells like dark chocolate to me. Being from Jesus's rootstock, I think it's appropriate for the lamb.

On the side will be a spinach-artichoke casserole, roasted root vegetables, and something else.

For the dessert, I found this recipe for Pumpkin Bread Pudding (thanks Kitchen Witch! Hopefully it doesn't make us behave like grumpy old men!) which I plan to top with icing laced with whiskey.

borrego (illustration by 6 yr old me)

The interesting part is the lamb, which I bought from the carniceria where the butchers no habla inglese, so I searched lamb on the interwebs and asked them for la pierna de cordero, except I said cordoro, and additionally Rick says I sound like an Italian mobster when I try to speak Spanish. Too much accent. In any case, they understood me (after me and 3 butchers made sure I said "lamb" and not "ham") and gave me borrego. I'm also pretty sure they gave me some insults, judging by the laughter and joking amongst the butchers. But hey, 7 lbs of bone-in for $15? Plus a bag of produce for $4? I'll weather the embarrassment being laughed at, if in fact I was.

According to another interweb check, borrego is yearling lamb or maybe just sheep. So my move to be all support-your-local-butcher-austin-granola-extra-crunchy may actually lead to some tough chews, but hopefully not. Now to debone a leg and make my own stock!!

Rainy Day Ravioli

2009-11-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

Weather's drizzly here and Rick's got a busy important new job so I decided to do something I'd been planning for weeks: make a bunch of fresh ravioli and freeze it for dinners. I wasn't exactly the barefoot contessa at this, but I was barefoot, with quite a nice pedicure.

I started with the plan of mushroom ravioli, but ended up doing some butternut squash ravioli too. And then I went crazy and made walnut pate and put that in ravioli too!

I won't go through the pasta recipe--that can be found on my very first post. But for the mushrooms, I threw 16 oz of fresh shrooms in the processor and then sauteed them down to about 2.5 cups (seasoned with fresh garlic also and a dash of balsamic vinegar).

Next time, I think I will roast the mushrooms first, because they ended up being soggy and having to cook down for a while.

For the butternut squash filling, I roasted a split squash at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, then scooped it into the processor and pureed it with more fresh garlic.

My favorite was the walnut pate-- toasted walnuts, olive oil, a spoonful of cooked mushrooms, and fresh garlic. Salt and some parlsey and...vegetarian gourmet!A fantastic appetizer on toasted baguette. Almost too good to put into ravioli. Almost too good to let anyone else share...but I started to get really bad garlic breath after eating these four myself, so it went into the ravs.

First I laid pieces of flat pasta down, spooned the filling on them, and sealed them closed before cutting them with a pizza slicer (into the squares at top, the ones in front of the toes).

But that wasn't as pretty as cookie-cutter-ing circles and then sealing them up.
Let me just note here that in my opinion, dogs in the kitchen mean the food will taste better. I realize the health department doesn't always agree with me on this, but what do they know?

Then, following advice from a recent article I read, I let them chill in the freezer for ~15 minutes before throwing them in a bag. I meant to do 4 bags, but 2 seemed like enough and that gave me leftover pasta dough.

This hermetically sealed bag was closed with the advanced technology I call "Close the bag most of the way and then suck the air out with your mouth."

New England Vacation

2009-11-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed a very long holiday seeing Manhattan, upstate New York, then traveling to Portland Maine and down the coast through Portsmouth, Salem, Hyannis Port, Newport (RI), then back through Long Island before heading home. The foliage was great, the towns lovely, the history a little lacking, and the food expensive. Here's half the total photos capturing a fraction of our fun.

First Fall Dish: Pot Pie

2009-09-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

After a disappointing escapade with beer can chicken (he tried 3 different beers, smoked the chickens for over an hour, and they all tasted exactly the same: like smoked chicken), we have a fridge full of chicken. So of course, chicken pot pie came to mind, and it suited our first fall weather. I believe this is the first time I can remember September in Austin being pleasant.

This is my base recipe for pot pies, with a little cheating on the crusts. But from this I've done many variations with vegetables like spinach, potatoes, and this time okra. I'd like to try using chipotle some time, or curry with a potato, samosa-like filling.

2 frozen pie crusts
1 can cream of something soup (chicken is a go to, but mushroom and also onion make for a great gravy inside)
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken
2 cups vegetables, pre-cooked (suggestions for an easy mix are peas, carrots, onions, and diced potatoes)
Few dashes garlic salt

Defrost the crust and bake one for ~8 minutes so the base will retain its crisp. Mix together all other ingredients, pour into pre-baked crust. Invert other crust on top and carefully pry off its aluminum pan. Press the edges to seal in your gravy, but expect it to boil out anyway and mess up your oven (as illustrated below). Bake at 375 for 40 min to an hour, and keep an eye on the crust to be sure it doesn't burn.One final note-if you prefer less gravy, you can leave out the milk.

A Tree Dies In Austin

2009-09-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

A little photo essay of our dead tree being cut down. It now will be a stump through Halloween (to hold pumpkins) but we're accepting ideas of what to replace it with.

Kayaking on Lake Austin

2009-08-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like I haven't been cooking lately, but I have. I just forget to photograph the interesting dishes.
Here's our recent kayaking trip on Lake Austin closest to the dam. Next time we're taking lunch and a dog with us.

The Most Beautiful Baby EVAH

2009-08-14T12:15:00.001-07:00

Presenting Miles Waverly Oliphant, the most adorable (and my all-time-favorite) pseudo-nephew Eh-Ver.
Also to be Known As...LittlePants.

Home Improvement MADNESS

2009-08-03T13:53:00.001-07:00

Here's the arbor Rick built this weekend, with hanging plants, a fan on the way, and water misters. MISTERS PEOPLE.
I'll have to take some clearer photos of the finished product after he hung all the plants.

P.S. Mom--we've decided we'll take you up on the offer for a beer fridge. We're just gonna give up on work and open a little cafe on the back deck.

The Meestery is SOLVED!!!

2009-07-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Meet Erythrina crista-galli, also commonly known as the Coral Tree. In climates with no freezes, it's a big tree. In places that freeze, it grows and flowers then dies back to the base until summer returns. Now we'll try to propagate seeds in Florida to see how they compete with the mothership. Auntie Dee, seeds are on their way!

Previous post:
We thought we had identified our plant as an Australian coral pea, Kennedia rubicunda, but the more educated minds that are asked to consider the mystery (Mounts Botanical Garden, The Palm Beach County Extension Service, a waiter in FL with a green thumb and an iPhone, and also very big books about plants), the less certain we are of its origins. But, he's now officially a celebrity in Florida...and looking a bit yellowish-green around the gills in Texas (29 straight days above 100 degrees). Since one expert guessed it was a Texas plant, I'll try to contact a Texan expert soon and see if there's an answer here!

Done

2009-07-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

The deck is done. Incredibly hard work for 3 days but so worth it.

Patio Reno!

2009-07-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

Today we started our patio tear-out and covered deck install. We will replace our brick patio with a deck that stretches into the yard, and Rick's building a porch that will keep out the sun and have a fan and even...MISTERS OH I KNOW YOU'RE JEALOUS.

This means waving goodbye to a few plants that were already dying in this Texas heatwave, and to balance that botanical karma a few will probably thrive now that they will be shaded. But it also means enjoying the back yard again and hopefully being able to plant things that actually grow.

Before pics below...after to follow soon...Ugly brick patio with lousy edging and dog-mangled flower bed.Side of patio with flagstones, tree that dies and bush that lives.Half the yard is stones--now half of that will be curvy deck.Patio will cover French doors and window to the left (I think?) and the oddball pine tree goes. It never fit in, and I think all the other trees laughed and called him names.

Meestery Flower :: SOLVED?

2009-06-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

I sent the sexy flower to my aunt who lives in Florida (looks exotic and tropical, right?). Her partner who is a brilliant Renaissance man could not identify the plant. But they tell me they are going to ask their friends who are horticulturists...and the grandchildren of the man that Romaine lettuce was named for!

So the meestery continues but hopefully will be solved soon.

Update: Per Mr. Romaine, it may be an Australian Coral Plant.

Plants That Look Sexy

2009-06-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

This flower (unknown name/genus/species) is growing in our front yard. I think the flowers either look like Toucan Sam or something a bit less kid-appropriate. Maybe it will be Leta's next stained glass.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

Have a lovely Easter!

Big Barbecue Housewarming and Great New Potato Salad

2009-03-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Taste Tester's birthday coincided with a nice Sunday barbecue, and about 40 friends and family warmed up our new home with food, homebrewed beer, and even some gifts! Someone put me in charge of taking photos, which resulted in a handful of good photos but a shocking lack of well-taken, well-timed ones. For instance, I have no picture of the icy cold pint of the delicious homebrew which never left my hand. That may or may not have affected photo-taking.

The potato salad was almost all I was in charge of, and I tried a new one to share here. It's a knockoff of a Central Market fave with bleu cheese and bacon. It's funny to me that potato salad is basically potatoes and mayo, as if its original creator was thinking, "What can I combine and call a salad that would involve NOTHING healthy or salad-like? And then, let's cook it first!"

4 lbs (1 bag) red potatoes, chopped in 4ths and boiled or pressure-cooked until soft but not too mushy
1/2 to 1 cup mayonnaise (depending on your diet, you could also use a little buttermilk or yogurt for the extra 1/2)
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
salt and ground pepper to taste
8 strips bacon, baked on a rack to allow fat to drip, then cooled and crumbled
chopped green onions
1 wedge bleu cheese, crumbled

Mix all ingredients (minus the onions and bacon and the potatoes) in a bowl and refrigerate while potatoes are cooking.

Drain and cool potatoes on a flat surface lined with aluminum foil, or just in the fridge. When cool, mix sauce into potatoes and add onions and bacon. My onions were the most beautiful shades of green but my camera couldn't do them justice.

New Home Tour

2009-02-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

We have moved in to our new home and have been unpacking all day. It actually feels like we're settled in and it's only been a day! Here's a few photos, more to be added in daylight tomorrow!

Fresh Lasagne

2009-01-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

I've posted fettucine and linguine and lasagne and ravioli but I've never posted about making pasta fresh at home. For the most part, it's fun and easy. However, it's time consuming, so I only really do it to make special meals. But I can't really recommend doing it if I don't prove that I can, right?

So here's my recipe:
3 eggs + 3 cups flour
pasta machine

I've heard of recipes with more yolks, different ratios, but I think that's the best way to start the challenge of doing this, and the $15 machine is just a must. Pasta dough is so thick it's very difficult to roll it thin enough single-handedly. Or double-handedly.

Also, several chefs and recipes stir this by hand, but it's messy enough without mixing the two stickiest ingredients in your pantry right on your counter. I plop it all in the food processors and whiirrrrr till a smooth ball of dough is knockin' around in there.

Now, this is the most important step: go have a beer (or glass of wine). Ignore the pasta like a bad puppy for atleast 30 minutes. This lets the gluten build up so it will not tear when you roll it out. If you don't know or care about gluten, just trust me and drink your juice.

After one or two glasses, go back and start the rolling process. you'll want flour on hand to sprinkle it and prevent stickiness. Start with a ball of pasta that fits in the palm of your hand, and smush it as flat as possible before rolling it through the widest setting on the pasta machine. Then re-roll it thru at successively smaller settings till you get to the lowest.

What you have now is lasagne. If your machine has adapter for fettucine or linguine or spaghetti, you would run it through those again to yield consistently-sized threads of pasta. But if your plan is lasagne, like my next post, then start layering your yummy goodness.

The Toys Of Christmas

2008-12-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

This is the completely retrofabulous citrus juicer I got for Christmas. (Find it at Amazon: the Typhoon Retro Revolution Juicer. What a name!) You just yank down the handle and the cone compresses your fruit into the cup.
I was getting repetitive stress injuries each summer and/or margarita night when using my crappy aluminum citrus juicer balanced over a bowl. That's a vintage piece I'll be glad to lose.
We made ceviche and lemon-garlic sauce over redfish and shrimp.

However, here's the ceviche recipe (the picture is stolen, by that time enough homebrewed double IPA had been enjoyed that I forgot I even owned a camera).

Simple Tilapia and Shrimp Ceviche
2 filets of tilapia, diced into bite-size chunks
1.5 cups peeled and deveined (uncooked!) shrimp, split in halfsies
half a red onion, sliced into thin strips about 1 inch long
1 diced tomato (and don't loose the juice, it is the healthiest and most flavorful part of the tomato!)
dash garlic salt
1 cup lime juice
half a jalapeno, seeded and diced or sliced into half moons (less if you're a wuss)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 avocado

Reserve the and cilantro to dice over the dish when served, but everything else into a bowl and refrigerated for atleast a 1/2 hour. The citric acid cooks everything, and can be drained before serving. This can be overcooked, so if you're paranoid about bacteria, get over it and eat it while it's fresh. Everybody will hate you if you serve rubbery shrimp.

This is a base ceviche that can be changed for the seafood type, the jalapeno switched out for a different flavor (I won an award for a chipotle version). Scallops, tuna, octopus...any seafood works but even cheap tilapia tastes delicious like this.

Oh My God How Yummy

2008-11-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

Here's the fantastically successful strawberries-in-a-basket. It's an almond lace cookie shell, recipe from The Barefoot Kitchen Witch blog (thanks!): http://thebarefootkitchenwitch.typepad.com/the_barefoot_kitchen_witc/2008/02/florentines-alm.html.

After baking you have to shape the shells while hot into the preferred shape--for me, a bowl.

Next I coated the bottom of the "bowl" with dark chocolate, then added whip cream, then the strawberries. It's so simple and sooo yummy.
Yippee for great endings to great meals.

Thanksgiving Plans

2008-11-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

I want to state, for the record, that I am opposed to trying weird new interpretations of classic Thanksgiving recipes.

It doesn't matter what you want to try, the classic works the best. Why fry a turkey when the baking makes the skin crispy? Why change green bean casserole when that's all you ever dream about for that day anyway? Why skip naming the bird if the guilt will still appear next time you see a live turkey?

Perhaps the last one isn't a universal truth, but we always named our bird. We also also always had a duck at Thanksgiving, which maybe isn't your tradition but it was ours and I don't care if you judge me.

However, after my rant, this pic is what I'm going to try this year, and I'll post how it turns out:
Wild Rice, Walnut, and Goat Cheese Stuffing
It's basically your typical stuffing plus some wild rice & goat cheese. But I'm using red rice. And roasted walnuts. Also I may throw in a little bit of dried fruit like cranberries, maybe even some sweet potatoes, primarily because this is Bobby Flay's recipe and he's a douchebag. I can do better.

seriously, though: from the Urban Dictionary

The OED defines 'Bobby Flay' as 'The unfortunate consequence of the union between television, ego, and blinding mediocrity.'

Boules: A Game and a Food

2008-11-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Boules:
1) a ball-shaped bread, often used for bread bowls

2) a game using metal balls tossed about a yard in pursuit of a smaller white ball, played with one hand following the rule that an alcoholic beverage must be in the other hand.

I have nearly won at boules the game. I have absolutely won at boules the bread, see above left.

White Bread Plus (from Joy of Cooking, quote "plus for flavor, keeping quality and nutrition." Guess they didn't have Dr. Atkins when this book was wrote)
in 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water, dissolve 2 1/4 tsp yeast from jar (same amount as a packet) and 1 tsp sugar.

Beat in:
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup melted lard or shortening (lard not being a staple on my shelf, i melted Crisco butter-flavor shortening and it worked great)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar

Sift and mix in 4 cups all-purpose flour

Using my mixer, I let this knead till smooth and elastic, then let rise in an oiled bowl for an hour on top of the dryer while washing clothes (warm dark place) *with a damp towel over bowl.*
After that first rise, separate into three balls of dough, wrapping the dough to a base (so the top is smooth) and putting that (folded edge base down) on the pan you'll bake them on. I used a pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal. Turn the oven to 400 degrees. Put the bread into the cold oven and, after 15 minutes, reduce heat to 375 for 25 more minutes. It will make its second rise in the oven.

Two tricks I used to get a crisp outer crust: I brushed the outside of the dough with water, and I put a bowl of water at the bottom of the oven.

Another trick I learned ONLY from Joy of Cooking despite much research: you must let your bread cool completely before putting into any storage container. That moisture that escapes would, otherwise, allow mold to grow. Considering no other fancy cookbooks taught that, I'd like to acknowledge that I do plan to succeed off the backs of the overworked housewives (ere the age of bread machines) that came before me.

Cheating Isn't Cheating If You Eat the Evidence (Part I)

2008-11-20T06:05:00.001-08:00

Life's been a bit busy lately and I haven't had the drive to be much a gourmet after 9-hour days at the office. That doesn't mean I haven't been creative, though, and I thought I'd share some of my favorite short-cut dishes that taste complicated.

Pics here, following the theme, are a mystery--did I take the photo or did I cheat and steal it somewhere?

Chicken Pot Pie with Okra
1.5 cups frozen okra
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup cup frozen french-cut green beans
(you might also want carrots or corn kernels, etc...all frozen is fine but I do recommend a little defrosting first to get out some excess water)
leftover chicken, chopped or shredded
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of milk
2 frozen pie shells

Mix together all ingredients (except the pie shells) while you pre-bake one of the shells for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. This makes the crust crustier and it won't be as soggy for the final devouring.

Next, pour all ingredients in to the pre-baked crust and bake for 30 minutes while the other pie shell defrosts enough to pop it out of its aluminum pan. Ideally this amount should pile up to be a little taller than the crust, but thick enough to not pour out.

At the 30-minute mark, pull the pie out and put the next crust on top, using a knife to put steam-escape-valve slits in the crust.

Bake for another 20 minutes or until the top crust turns pretty and golden. Serve and tell everyone you hand-made the crust and gravy, grew the veggies yourself, and hell you even raised the chicken. Well done you.

Update: here's the real photo:

Pumpkin Party--Late Posting

2008-11-11T13:49:00.001-08:00

Pumpkin University

2008-10-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

extremepumpkins.com
This site makes me very, very happy. I failed on my first pumpkin carving early in October, but I've got big ideas for this week.

Hatch Chile Time

2008-09-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy lately, work and Oregonians visiting, barbecues and swim contests, and frankly not a lot of great cooking on my part. But I'm refocused, motivated primarily by a shocking number of credit card charges for dinners out. Time to get back in the kitchen.

It's not fall yet, but it is hatch pepper time. Hatch chiles can be mild or hot, but are only meant to be eaten after their skin is roasted off. I learned a lot of new recipes from Taste Tester's family involving hatches, and we invented a few of our own as well, but this simple pesto is my absolute favorite. Tomorrow I plan to buy a huge pile of peppers and make enough of this to last us through fall.

Hatch Chile Pesto
5-10 Hatch Chiles, roasted, skinned, and seeded
handful pine nuts
Salt
olive oil to taste
parmesan (optional handful--skip for the lighter version)

The first 3 ingredients go in the blender; then olive oil is poured in slowly until it reaches a hummus-type consistency. I don't think you need the parmesan but it's pretty yummy when not dieting. This is the family version, but Central Market made a milder, oilier version I didn't enjoy as much.

It's not for the weak-hearted, but if you like spice, it tasted good smeared on everything from roasted corn to barbecue, and I even used a dallop in soup today.

Seafood Risotto Perfecto

2008-07-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

All the delicious seafood in Oregon spoiled us for a while and we've been eating out a lot. But I got my focus back and pulled off a seafood, garlic, and parmesan risotto last night with bay scallops, black mussels, and Gulf Coast shrimp. Thanks both to our friends for the shrimp, and the fantastic Quality Seafood of Austin for mussels and scallops. When I picked out one bag of frozen scallops, the manager checking me out refused to sell them to me because he felt they were slightly freezer-burned!

This risotto definitely took an hour since I stirred through the whole process, but was well worth it. Stirring throughout the cooking process of risotto releases the starch on the rice and creates the creamy texture. It's also a good arm workout.

Ingredients:
2 cups Arborio rice
4-5 cups seafood stock (i used half stock, half sauvignon blanc) at a simmer
10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined*
1 lb mussels
1 cup bay scallops
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1.5 tsp salt
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 shallot diced
1/4 cup butter

Saute the garlic and onions (add the salt too) in all the butter, then at a low temp pour in the rice and saute the rice as well for a few minutes. I don't know why we do this but we do.
A 1/2 cup at a time, add the stock/wine and stir until the rice absorbs it. Keep the rice at a simmer or lower. Once you've reached the point of the last cup of stock, add your scallops and shrimp with the stock and this will allow them to cook. Meanwhile, use the remaining stock to dump the mussels in, cover and steam 10-15 minutes.
If you taste the rice after the 4th cup, it may still have a little bite. You can still use the remaining stock (with mussel juice-YUM!) to cook it a little longer. When you bite into it and it tastes like soft rice with a tiny bit of chewiness, it's done. Fold in the cheese and the vinegar, stir and serve.

I recommend a small plate, and I arranged the steamed mussels around the edge of the plate.

This was a very simple, yummy risotto. In retrospect I would also perhaps use lemon juice in place of vinegar, and fresh parsley chopped and stirred in at the end.

Best Vacation Ever...Oregon is amazing

2008-07-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Lasagna Enters the Race

2008-06-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Cuisinart Online is holding a recipe contest. I've entered the pumpkin lasagna...cross your fingers.
Here's the selection of prizes if I win:
IceCream and Yogurt Maker
Countertop Water Filtration System
Cuisinart Blender

If you're a member or don't mind becoming one, go to this site and vote big stars for my recipe!
Here's the link:
http://www.cuisinartstandmixer.com/recipes/index.php?recipe_id=1987