Orexia

Gorgonzola-pear butter

2006-06-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

It's easy. Mash together some butter, pears and gorgonzola until you get something that's nicely-spreadable at room temperature. We put it on apple juice and sage-marinated pork chops but it's also to die for on butter crackers. Try serving it with some hard apple cider.

Cranberry pesto tortellini salad

2006-06-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

This is a perennial favorite at the Moscow Food Co-op deli, and super-easy to make. I especially love the look of it - the purplish cranberries in the green pesto and cream-colored pasta is an extremely elegant combination. If you ever need a simple dish to wow a group of girly-girls (think wedding shower or garden party) this is it.

8 oz cheese-filled tortellini
1/2 cup basil pesto
2/3 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup walnuts*
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Cook tortellini according to package directions. Toast walnuts on a baking sheet in oven at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes. Allow walnuts to cool before chopping coarsely. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve chilled.

*I had pine nuts on hand and the finished product was just as tasty.

If you liked this recipe and ever happen to be in the area, you can stop by the Moscow Food Co-op and pick up a copy of their cookbook, which has recipes for many of the favorite salads, soups and snacks served at the deli. Not only is it a great addition to your cookbook collection, but it's a lot cheaper to reproduce the dishes at home.

Bell pepper and tuna rolls

2006-06-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

My mother's 50th birthday is coming up soon, and I'm helping my father plan for her the big party that she deserves. I volunteered to take on planning and preparing most of the food, and so far have decided that we'll have jambalaya for dinner and bananas foster for dessert. Other than that, we can do a few appetizers and a bunch of wine, and I think we'll be set.

Today I made a test run of these tuna rolls, which turned out delicious. I'm taking them to a barbecue later, so I'll be able to see if people outside my household like them. The recipe comes from The Silver Spoon, which is an incredible Italian cookbook. It's got thousands of recipes, most of which have five or six ingredients and a paragraph of instruction. Simple, creative and delicious.

Bell Pepper and Tuna Rolls
1 red bell pepper*
1 yellow bell pepper*
1 green bell peper*
12 ounces canned tuna in oil, drained and flaked
1 scallion, chopped
3 tablespoons mushrooms in oil, drained
2 teaspoons capers, drained
6 canned anchovy fillets in oil, drained rinsed and chopped
1 parsley sprig, chopped
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
olive oil, for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a roasting pan with foil. Prick the bell peppers with a fork, place in the pan and roast for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, wrap in foil and let cool. Peel the bell peppers, cut into fourths, remove the seeds and membranes and pat dry with paper towels.* Combine the tuna, scallion, mushrooms, capers, anchovies and parsley in a bowl and stir in the vinegar. Spread the mixture on the pieces of bell pepper and roll up tightly and chill in the refrigerator. To serve, place different colored rolls side by side on a serving dish and drizzle with olive oil.

* I cheated and used bell peppers from a jar.

Croutons

2006-05-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

I don't remember what episode it was, but there was an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown was talking about when a Frenchman (or woman) had told him he knows that American don't know how to eat because we buy our croutons. And man, that hurts. Before seeing that TV show, I had given up on croutons - you can't stab them with a fork, and they're stale and hard. After seeing that, I thought there might be something more to croutons.

This was over a year ago, and only tonight have I made my own croutons. I was sitting around watching Iron Chef, getting hungrier and hungrier, I realized I needed a green salad with those fresh croutons. I cut a few slices of bread into cubes and tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper and onion powder, and baked them on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. While they were still barely warm, I set them on a salad of leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumber and tomato with some good old litehouse ranch dressing. I can't say that I am completely convinced that croutons are really an essential part of any dish - but if you feel like eating them, I have to concur with Frenchman X that fresh is best.

Jambalaya

2006-05-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

On Sunday mornings, I usually like to crawl out of bed and sit down with a cup of tea, my laptop, and switch on the Food Network. I've usually slept through breakfast, so I read the news and drool over the things Ina Garten and Michael Chiarello and Giada de Laurentis are making until I have to get up and make something myself.

In this state, I'm pretty easy to convince that anything looks good, but watching Michael Chiarello brown andouille and make a stock out of sauteed shrimp shells and smoked paprika and saffron - I knew I had to make this recipe for jambalaya. We were planning on having dinner guests on Wednesday night, so on Sunday we cooked the meat and made the stock, and all we had to do on Wednesday was cook up the rice.

Here's a photo of the shrimp shells and veggies being cooked up before the addition of the liquid for the stock.

After adding more veggies and liquid, this is what we let simmer for about an hour. The stock itself was amazingly flavorful and would have made an excellent soup on its own.

Luckily, we were able to avoid that temptation and follow through with finishing the dish. We garnished it with scallions and tabasco, and drank hefeweisen with lemon.

This was my first experience with making a stock, and I came away completely convinced that it is well-worth the effort. The recipe called for adding storebought stock instead of water, which I thought was a little ridiculous, so I compromised and used half veggie stock and half water. As you can see, the results were incredible.

I don't like mushrooms

2006-05-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

...but I'm not going to let that stop me from enjoying them. I am in the process of learning to love mushrooms, and tonight's dinner was an excellent teaching tool in that regard. The recipe was simple enough that I only need to list ingredients: homemade pasta, morel mushrooms, fresh thyme, white wine, butter, salt and pepper. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Spanish Tortilla

2006-05-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I made my first ever Spanish tortilla, and I've since made two more. It wasn't until my stupid jerk of a brother in law came back from Spain (no, I'm not jealous) that I'd ever heard of a Spanish tortilla, but I'm pretty sure that it's going to be a staple in my kitchen from now on. After picking up some eggs at the first farmer's market of the season, I went home to make yet another tortilla.

3 waxy potatoes, sliced thin
1/2 onion, sliced into rings
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup vegetable oil
5 eggs
salt and pepper

Cook the potatoes and onions in the oils for 20 minutes over medium-low heat, covered in a saucepan on the stove. Season generously with salt and pepper. When the potatoes are cooked through, remove them from the pan, and be certain to take out any pieces still sticking to the pan. Beat together the eggs in a small bowl and set aside while you return the potatoes to the pan, at a somewhat higher medium heat. Pour in the beaten eggs, and shake the pan around to distribute the eggs evenly. Allow the tortilla to cook long enough that the bottom has browned to almost crispness, and the eggs are almost cooked through to the top of the tortilla. Carve around the edges of the tortilla with a spatula to be certain that it doesn't cook to the sides of the pan. Flip the raw side of the tortilla onto a plate and slide back into the pan, raw side down. Shake the pan to keep the tortilla from sticking, and allow to cook until solid and slightly browned on the bottom. Slide the tortilla out of the pan and cut into slices. Serve with smoked paprika piquillo pepper sauce.

Since I have a video camera, here's a video of me demonstrating it.

and...

Smoked Paprika Piquillo Pepper Sauce
1 and 1/2 cups roasted piquillo peppers
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons rioja wine
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
balsamic or sherry vinegar to taste

Blend all ingredients together in a blender or food processor. Balance out the acidity with the vinegar as needed, and season to taste.

Spicy chicken and cashew salad

2006-04-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is an adaptation of something served at the Coeur d'Alene Brewery Alehouse in Moscow (you could order one with a beer when you come out for Drinking Liberally), though we've made a few changes to suit our tastes. I have an undying hatred for celery, but I love my husband more than I hate celery, so in it went.

1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs cooked and chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 12 oz can pineapple chunks, drained
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 cup cashews, roasted
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
black pepper to taste

There aren't really any instructions to this recipe other than to put all this stuff together. The ingredients in the dressing can be adjusted to taste - I like more hot sauce than my husband does. Serve cold on crackers or wrapped in a tortilla with lettuce.

Warm, Sunny

2006-04-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today was the first really sunny day of Spring on the Palouse. It was a little cold, but as long as you were up and moving around, it was definitely weather for skirts and sandals. I got my latest issue of Cooking Light and sat in the sun reading it from cover to cover. To go with my light, warm sunny day, I wanted something for dinner that was also light and sunny. We went with chicken piccata, linguine and olive oil, and a steamed vegetable medley of broccoli, red bell pepper and carrots. It all came together in under an hour, and was a perfect match to the mood of the day.

Chicken Piccata
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded flat and cut into wide strips
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
butter
olive oil
1/3 cup pinot grigio
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup capers, drained

Mix together the flour, salt and pepper in a wide plate or dish. Dredge chicken in flour and set aside. Melt about 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil (adjust amounts to your taste) in a wide saute pan, and add dredged chicken. Allow to brown on each side, cooking all the way through. Refresh the butter and olive oil as needed as you cook the rest of the chicken.

After all the chicken has been cooked and set aside (I kept it in a warm oven), add the wine to the pan to deglaze. Then add the broth, lemon juice and capers. Bring to a simmer and reduce to a thin, cloudy sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings (the capers are salty!), and pour sauce over chicken to serve.

I know this is a pretty basic recipe, but I think it's a good dish to illustrate where a little added patience pays off. Making sure to cook the chicken at the right temperature and let it brown correctly is something I always struggle with - there's something in me that says if it's turning brown, I'm in trouble. I always have to tell myself to let it cook another 2-3 minutes after I start to get nervous. Then, letting the sauce reduce is also an area where I have trouble. I did add a little of the water the pasta was cooked in to help thicken the sauce, but the extra 5-10 minutes of patience that I usually don't have really paid off in the concentration of the flavor of the wine.

Elsewhere

2006-04-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

I was going to post about the way I've had to cook cheap lately, but instead wrote up a little submission for Plastic, and there's an ensuing discussion of how to eat well for cheap. Check it out.

Just add water

2006-03-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

There are a few people theorizing as to what could be contributing to the food-related-stupidity observed in this Washington Post article. I'm going to add my voice to the mix, because I think there's more to it than people being stupider now or shallower or less refined. Advertisers of prepared/prepackaged/fast foods have a stake in convincing people that cooking is hard and they can't do it. I am mystified by a lot of products I see that are no easier to use than making the dish from scratch would be. Instead of using a cake mix, where you have to mix together some eggs, some oil and some cake mix, you could make a cake from scratch by measuring out the flour/sugar/baking powder/salt, taking perhaps two extra minutes doing it. You can buy boxed pasta with "flavor packets" for olive oil and garlic - or you could boil your own pasta, mince up some garlic (or buy pre-minced), warm it up a little, and combine. There is even frozen pre-buttered toast that you have to toast in your toaster oven to serve! These things require only slightly less if not the same amount of work than making them from their component ingredients would, but people will gladly pay the mark-up for the "convenience," the cute packaging and what eventually comes to be the familiar and comforting flavor of partially-hydrogenated soybean oil.

The worst part is that it took me a few years of intent cooking to realize this - it's easy to buy the idea that Pasta Roni is easier to use than spaghetti and olive oil. I don't cook everything from scratch, and I like cheetos and McDonald's cheeseburgers. I am not a paragon of food purity and integrity. I do try and think about what exactly it is that I'm buying when I pick something off of the grocery store shelf instead of out of a bulk bin, however, and I think it's made a huge improvement to my cooking.

Quiche

2006-03-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

When cooking with heavy ingredients, I like to use a little more of the more flavorful fats and cut back on the less flavorful ones. The recipe for this quiche called for a 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 cups of cream, 4 strips of bacon, and a cup of shredded cheese. Instead of cooking my vegetables in the recommended butter, I used a comparable amount of bacon grease to get the job done. I made a few other replacements and reductions - thus decreasing the fat and calories - but the end result was a very flavorful quiche.

I'd never made a quiche before, and somehow both recipes I based mine on didn't recommend pre-baking the crust. Miraculously, it came out minimally soggy, but I won't repeat this mistake again. There's really nothing worse than soggy eggs.

1 pie crust
4 strips thick-cut bacon
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups broccoli, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
4 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon mustard powder

Heat oven to 425F. Fry bacon in saute pan until crisp and set aside. Remove bacon grease from pan except about 1-2 tablespoons, and return pan to medium-low heat. Add onion and broccoli to the bacon grease, stir to coat, and cook until onions are translucent. With the pie crust arranged in a pie plate, evenly arrange the cheese, onion and broccoli in the crust. Crumble the bacon into the pie plate along with the vegetables and cheese. Whip togther the remaining ingredients and pour into the pie plate. Bake the quiche at 425F for about 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 300F to bake for 30 more minutes, or until quiche is solid and a knife stuck in the center comes out clean.

Okay, it's time to confess: I love storebought pie crusts. They're so easy to use and taste just as great as anything I've ever made. If it's Thanksgiving or some other special occasion, I'll make my own, but for a Wednesday night dinner, storebought pie crusts are a convenience I don't mind relying on.

Indianish dinner

2006-03-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

Indian lamb patties

Potatoes with yogurt sauce and cilantro
Radish and fennel salad with yogurt-coriander-mint dressing

Indian lamb patties
serves four
1 3/4 pounds ground lamb
2 shallots, minced
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
dash cayenne

Mix all ingredients and form into 2 to 3-inch patties. Pan-fry until centers are completely cooked. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Potatoes with yogurt sauce and cilantro
Serves four
Adapted from Indian: deliciously authentic dishes by Shehzad Husain and Rafi Fernandez
12 new potatoes, halved
2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon whtie cumin seeds
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 fresh green chiles, sliced
cilantro to garnish

Boil the potatoes in salted water with their skins on until they are just tender, then drain and set aside. Mix together the yogurt, turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, salt and sugar in a bowl. Set aside. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the white cumin seeds. Reduce the heat and stir in the yogurt mixture to cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Add the cilantro, green chiles and cooked potatoes. Stir together and cook for a further 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Radish and fennel salad with yogurt-coriander-mint dressing
Serves four
1 fennel bulb
1 english cucumber
8-10 radishes
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
salt, to taste

Slice vegetables thinly and arrange on plate. Mix remaining ingredients and season to taste with salt. Pour dressing over salad and serve cold or at room temperature.

Manila CakeorIt came to me in a dream

2006-03-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night, I had a very vivid dream about making a cake called "manila cake." It was a four-layered yellow cake, triangular in shape, with white frosting and fruit slices stuck to it. In my dream it was one of the accepted classics, like a german chocolate cake or a pineapple upside down cake.

When I woke up, I knew I had to make it. I used the starlight yellow cake recipe from good ol' Betty Crocker, and used lemon buttercream frosting. For the fruit, I used kiwi, orange and mango. We served it last night to dinner guests and it was very well-recieved. I am not exactly a pastry chef, and it's hard to transpose a recipe from dream to reality, but I think it turned out nicely.

I ate a turnip

2006-03-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, not the most riveting news to return from my unexpected hiatus, but it was notable to me. I'd never eaten one before, but was looking around the produce section for something to roast with chicken and shallots and fennel, and threw it in my basket on a whim. They're delicious, it turns out, and not at all deserving of their bland reputation.

Hummus amongus

2006-02-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

zuzu at feministe is effusing about hummus (and her immersion blender - I need to get me one of those), which puts me in mind of my favorite hummus recipe that I have eaten so much of that I'll have to probably wait a few months before I make it again. There is only so much dark sesame oil that I can take in a certain period of time.

From the 15-minute gourmet Vegetarian, by Paulette Mitchell

1 tablespoon canola of safflower oil (I substitute dark sesame oil to great effect)
2 tablespoons finely-chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper, to taste
dash of ground cumin
1 15-oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons fresh lmeon juice, or as needed
2 tablespoons tasted sesame seeds

1. Heat the oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes or until the onion and garlic are softened. Remove from the heat; add the parsley, basil, coriander, oregano, pepper and cumin. Stir just long enough to soften the parsley.

2. Process the garbanzo beans and lemon juice in a food processor until smooth. Add extra lemon juice as needed so the mixture is spreadable. Add to the onion mixture. Stir in the sesame seeds. Admjust the seasoning to taste.

I'd also like to add a word about this cookbook, because it's a really usful one. They're not kidding with the 15-minute gourmet thing, and have lots of great tips about how to keep a kitchen that can put out dishes within a quarter of an hour. Any vegetarian who is a beginning cook will find it a great resource. Also recommended: Laurel's Kitchen.

Blood Orange Margarita with Ginger

2006-02-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

My husband was out of town during Valentine's day, but we did manage to drink a lot of these gorgeous cocktails this weekend, in honor of V-Day. They're delicious, and too gorgeous for words.

1/4 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh blood-orange juice
3 tablespoons tequila
1 tablespoon Cointreau
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Lime slice, for garnish

1. Put the grated ginger in a small sieve set over a small bowl and press to extract the juice. Combine the ginger juice with the orange juice, tequila, Cointreau and lime juice in a cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with the lime slice and serve.

I love you, Internet.

2006-02-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

Bad Feminist's post about home economics classes reminded me of the coolest book I have ever laid eyes on, Food Chemistry and Cookery by Evelyn Gertrude Halliday. It's an old, college-level home economics textbook that uses chemistry experiments to demonstrate the principles of chemistry that are used in the kitchen - and at a fairly technical level, too. I had a very hard time returning the book to the library and not "losing" it. I googled it, and lo and behold, the entire thing is available online. Check it out, and you'll have a new appreciation for the chemist-chefs that are making strides in the culinary world.

Cross-posted on F-Words.

Broccoli and White Cheddar Soup (and a vegan alternative)

2006-02-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

1 tbsp. butter
1 onnion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
2 teaspoons salt
3 lbs broccoli, with stems
4 cups chicken broth, divided in half
1/4 cup half and half
6 oz aged white cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and black pepper

Melt butter in soup pot, and add onions and salt. While the onions cook to translucency, remove the stems from the broccoli crowns, removing the stems and chopping them into 3 or 4-inch lengths. Chop the crowns into small, bite-sized pieces. Once the onions are tender and translucent, add the stem pieces and 2 cups of chicken broth to the soup pot. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil and simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes, until broccoli stems are tender. Remove the onions and broccoli stems from the simmering pot to a food processor or blender. Add the broccoli florets and 2 remaining cups of chicken broth to the pot and simmer, covered. Puree the onions and broccoli stems until smooth and return to soup pot. Once broccoli florets are cooked and tender, reduce heat to just below a boil. Slowly stir in the half and half and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with shredded cheese as a garnish.

For a vegan alternative to this soup, use vegetable broth and magarine (or oil) to cook the onions. Follow the directions until the onion and stem puree is added back to the pot, and you're done. The stem puree is a good way to use a part of the vegetable that often gets thrown away, and adds nice thickness and body to the soup. If I weren't such a cheese fan, I could have stopped at that my point.

But that's why I'm not a vegan!

Fennel and Cucumber Salad with Meyer Lemon Dressing

2006-02-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Salad
2 large cucumbers, sliced
2 fennel bulbs, chopped into slivers

Dressing
1/4 cup fennel fronds
zest and juice of 3 meyer lemons
zest and juice of two lemons
6 sprigs fresh dill
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In case it's not obvious, you combine the veggies in a bowl, mix together the ingredients to the dressing, and pour the dressing over the salad. Ta-da!

I'm stealing this recipe directly from my husband, who made this for a potluck we attended last night. It was very well-received, and tasted nicely fresh and summery for February.

Baby's first tequila hangover

2006-01-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

If I've overindulged, I tend to wake up very early and very chipper. Headachy and dizzy, but chipper. All I wanted for breakfast was cold sparkling mineral water, applesauce, and a grilled ham and swiss sandwich. And that's exactly what I had.

Green Rice with Crab and Shrimp

2006-01-29T10:34:00.000-08:00

It was getting to be time for another girls' night in, so I invited all my girlfriends over for dinner and cocktails. The tequila was flowing plentifully, so I didn't manage to get any good pictures in.

Green Rice with Crab and Shrimp

generous 1 cup long-grain white rice
3 1/2 cups drained canned tomatillos
large bunch cilantro
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 poblano or other green, fresh chiles, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound crabmeat
1/2 pound cooked shrimp
1 1/4 cups fish stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
salt
slices scallions to garnish

1. Put rice in a heatproof bolw, pout in boiling water to cover and let stand for 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
2. Put the tomatillos in a food processor or a blender and process until smooth. Chop half the cilantro and add to the tomatillo puree with the onion, chiles and garlic. Process again until smooth.
3. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the rice and fry over medium heat for 5 minutes, until all the oil has been absorbed. Stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking.
4. Stir in the tomatillo mixture, with the crabmeat, stock and wine. Cover and cook over low heat for about 20 mminutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir occasionally and add a little more liquid if the rice starts to stick to the pan. Add salt as required, then spoon into a dish and garnish with the remaining cilantro and the sliced scallions. Green salad and lime wedges make good accompaniments.

I've made it before, but the first time I tried this recipe, there were some really surprising elements. I'm going to include a bunch of notes here, so you're not as scared as I was if you try this. First of all, the tomatillo-pepper-onion-cilantro puree (I forgot to put in the cilantro last night - duh!) has quite a lot of body and liquid to it. The texture ends up being really odd and not light and fluffy. This may not be true with people who are not cursed with rice, but it's always been the case for me. I didn't even add the stock, because there was so much liquid in the puree. Also, to prepare the shrimp, I just fried them on high heat quickly, with the shells on, and then removed the shells and tails before adding them to the dish before serving. The shrimp added a nice color contrast, which was nice because the dish is so green.

I don't think I've perfected it (and you can't get a straight answer from partygoers about the quality of your food) so I'll keep playing with it. It's a really yummy, healthy dish, though, so do check it out. And it goes really well with pinot grigio or margaritas. Maybe too well.

Chili

2006-01-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

No, it's not real chili. But just like when I have a nasty cold or other miscellaneous ailment and I call it the "flu," what I made tonight I call "chili." It's got prissy ingredients like beans and sweet bell peppers, but it's also delicious with a dollop of sour cream and a hunk of corn bread on the side.

2 slices thick-cut bacon
2 onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp kosher (or oak-smoked) salt
4 tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
2 pasilla peppers, diced
2 sweet bell peppers (red, yellow, whatever), diced
1.5 lbs ground pork
2 cans diced and peeled tomatoes
2 cans beans (I usually use 1 can kidney, 1 can pinto)
salt, pepper and chili powder

Fry bacon in a large soup pot. Remove bacon once it has cooked, and add the onions, peppers, garlic and spices to the bacon fat along with the salt. Allow the vegetables to cook until tender. Add the ground meat and cook until juices run clear. Add beans and tomatoes, and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste, and adjust seasonings until satisfied.

Stuck in a rut

2006-01-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while. Not because I'm busy or making lackluster food. I'm not making any food. I've gotten into a funk where I don't want to clean, so I just avoid my house as much as possible. I've eaten two Big Macs in the last four days, if you want an indication that I'm having a real problem here. I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now, drinking coffee someone else made in a room that someone else cleaned.

If I don't want to die of fast-food-poisoning, I need to get domestic here, stat. Tonight I'm making chili, and I am declaring here that I will report back so I have someone to be accountable to.

Generic Organic

2006-01-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a pleasant sight at the grocery store: organic products in generic packaging. This is exactly the sort of thing that I think needs to happen before organic or other more worker-friendly or environmentally-friendly food production becomes a truly integral part of American consumption. It's affordable (even these organic generic beans werere less expensive than the brand-name conventionally-produced beans), and on the shelf right next to the conventionally-produced food. No henna-printed labels picturing pandas smoking pot, no rhyming pun names, just a can of beans that you see on the shelf, and decide that the ten cents might be worth buying organic.

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

Moscow empties out over the winter break, so my New Year's Eve was spent at home with fondue, champagne and Soul Caliber II.

Kitchen Lab Notebook: Rice Report

2005-12-28T09:58:00.000-08:00

As an excuse to perfect my rice skills, I made lemon-oregano rice to go along with the chicken and vegetables last night. Rinsing the rice until the water ran clear was very helpful, and the rice turned out to be very acceptable, but not great. When I brought my rice and water to a boil, there was not the starchy bubbling over that generally occurs, so it seems pretty clear to me that there was a significant amount of loose starch nestled amongst the rice grains I was previously using.

As it was, I used 1 cup chicken stock and juiced 1/2 of a lemon into a measuring cup and filled it to 3/4 cup. I brought this mixture to a boil and then added my rinsed rice. Once the rice and water had come back to a boil, I reduced the heat and let the rice cook with minimal disturbance. After the rice looked acceptable, I fluffed it with a fork and added in 1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano.

(It was a great pair with the rest of the dinner.)

My hypothesis is that the rinsed rice had a small amount of liquid adsorbed to it, so my liquid measurements were off. I will next reduce my liquid by a few tablespoons to see if this will completely alleviate the gluey rice problem. Other possible sticking points may be whether I add the rice to boiling water or bring the water and rice to a boil at the same time. I will continue to isolate these variables until I am satisfied with the results of my experiments.

Chicken Thighs with Roasted Sweet Vegetables

2005-12-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

This is another recipe I saw in passing on Food Network months ago, but never got around to trying. Once we got around to tackling it, we made quite a few changes, and the results were fantastic. I'm always amazed at the profoundly deep tastes that result from roasting just about anything, and this is the best example I've made yet.

12 oz spicy italian sausage, either loose or if in casings, chopped into pieces
4 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground fennel seeds
1 teaspoon ground red pepper flakes
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1-2 fennel bulbs, quartered
1 small red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
5-6 shallots, peeled
1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
kosher salt

Preheat oven to 450F. Heat an ovenproof vessel on the stovetop at medium-high heat, and add sausage to pan. Cook for a few seconds, allowing oil to seep out into the pan. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper and add to the pan with the sausage. Brown meats on all sides and remove from pan to a dish. Dispose of drippings except about 2 tablespoons which should be left in the pan and the pan replaced on the hot burner. Add pepper, red pepper and fennel to oil and cook for 30-60 seconds. Pour in white wine and deglaze the brown bits stuck to the bottom. Burned chunks may be removed and thrown away. Allow about half of the volume of the wine and oil to evaporate off and then add remaining ingredients. Coat with hot oil and wine and cook on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Replace the chicken and sausage in the pan with the vegetables and put the pan in the hot oven. Allow to cook for 20-30 minutes until edges of vegetables are browning and chicken is cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to stand about 5 minutes before serving.

PS - Doug, the enameled cast iron pot was perfect for this and I love it. Thanks so much!

I need help

2005-12-26T19:07:00.000-08:00

I am not good with rice. I am bad with rice. It my single greatest cooking flaw. I was helped immensely by Rachael Ray's advice to measure out the amount of liquid the recipe suggests, and then to dump a bit out of the cup. I can handle the technique of coating the grains in oil and cooking them for a moment before adding liquid, but boiling rice without doing that always gives me a gluey mess. Can someone please help me? I don't care if half of your rice routine is superstitious rituals as long as it works. I need help!

Bet you didn't know...

2005-12-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hefeweizen pairs well with swedish fish candies.

Overnight Caramel French Toast

2005-12-26T15:14:00.000-08:00

This Christmas, my mother charged Andy and I with making brunch on Christmas day, and were more than happy to oblige her. We just went with two dishes, a layered polenta dish with marinara and wilted spinach, and a recipe for french toast that I lifted from the latest issue of Cooking Light. And if it's brunch, there have to be mimosas.

The french toast blew me away. I'd never eaten baked french toast before, but the way it gets toasty and crispy on top but stays gooey and moist (but cooked) inside. The recipe was a reader-submitted recipe, so I'd liketo say that Vanessa Johnson was a very big help for this successful brunch. I used nice crusty italian white bread, and it helped the texture immensely. This is going to be a recipe I'll use many times.

1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup butter
Cooking Spray
10 slices french bread
1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat 5 minuites or until mixture is bubbly, stirring constantly. Pour mixture evenly into a 13x9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

2. Arrange bread slices in a single layer over syrup in dish.

3. Combine milk, flour, vanilla extract, salt and eggs in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Pour egg mixture over bread slices. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F.

5. Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over bread.

6. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until golden. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 10 servings.

The Plate is Political

2005-12-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

Red State Rebels gives an update this morning on the status of Albertson's in Idaho. Apparently it's going to stay put, which is great to hear.

Later in the post, Julie goes on toe disparage Winco, and I am going to have to take issue with this, because I am a big fan of Winco. For anyone who might not have one in their area, Winco is a cost-cutting supermarket that doesn't go the extra mile to make your shopping experience cozy, but it really makes up for it in price and selection. In Moscow, it really is the best place to get most of your groceries. I'm pretty selective about food, and other than the Co-op, it has the best produce in town, a huge bulk food selection, and the best prices and selection on just about everything else. I do generally buy my meat at Rosauers, which is one of very few local grocery stores to actually have a butcher's counter instead of pre-packaged meats.

Another great thing about Winco is that it is very employee-friendly, with benefits and stock options for employees (even some part-time employees). In a country that is getting less and less worker-friendly every day (my own sister works almost full-time at McDonald's in that limbo where your primary employer refuses to give you benefits), Winco is a great business to support.

There's also the irksome political habits of Albertson's, which recently pulled an issue of Seventeen magazine off its shelves because it contained an educational illustration of a vulva.

Winco may not concentrate much on the tasteful display of their wares, or accept credit cards, but I'm happy to overlook these inconveniences in favor of supporting a worker-friendly company.

(I'm cross-posting this at F-words, my opinion blog, because it was equally appropriate to each blog.)

San Miguel's

2005-12-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

I tried to take a picture of my delicious meal, but the idea of letting it get cold was too, too sad. I'll have to just stick to an endorsement for now, and say that if you're in Moscow and need mexican food, it must come from San Miguel's tacos on Jackson street. San Miguel's operates out of one of those cool taco trucks, but don't fear. I recommend tacos al carbon, the torta cubana or the chorizo burrito.

I am fascinated by taco trucks. Where do you buy one? Do you just have to customize it yourself? Are they really really cold in the winter, or does the cooking warm it up enough that you're comfortable? If I ever get the courage, I'll ask to see inside.

Foodies Don't Eat Hamburger Helper

2005-12-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

After berating my friend for suggesting such a graceless recipe as cheeseburger soup, I realized it was exactly on the wavelength of what I wanted for dinner tonight. I do think there are some major problems with the soup (Chicken broth in a burger-inspired soup? Velveeta?). Also, whereas some foods have evolved over time to be served on a stick, this strikes me as a devolution from a solid, land-lubbing perfect food creation back to the literal primordial soup.

Andy and I decided that the solution to this junk food craving was to de-box box food. We made Hamburger Helper. This would satisfy the craving and our pride. If we were actual, discerning foodies, this meal would have been censored before it made it into the pan, let alone us letting it pass our lips. If it was never clear before, we now know that we are not foodies, but chowhounds. We served it with frozen peas on the side.

6 ounces wide egg noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced finely
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon paprika (smoked paprika is what we used tonight)
salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat a large pot of salted water and add egg noodles when water reaches a rolling boil. Heat olive oil in a wide skillet, and add diced onion. When the onions have become translucent, add the ground beef, and cook until browned, seasoning with salt to taste. When noodles are done, strain and return to pan. Add the browned meat and onions to the noodles to prevent them from sticking together, and set aside. Add butter to a heated saucepan, and once melted, whisk in flour slowly. Allow flour to cook in the butter for about thirty seconds, and then slowly whisk in the milk. Stir in the grated cheese, allowing it to melt into a thick sauce with the milk, butter and flour. Add seasonings and adjust to taste. Pour cheese sauce over noodles and beef, and stir to combine.

Garlic, Chickpea and Spinach Soup

2005-12-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

When my husband isn't around at dinner time, I get to choose what's for dinner. Ha!

From Vegetarian: the best-ever recipe collection, edited by Linda Fraser

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
5 cups vegetable stock
12 ounces potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2/3-cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons light tahini
7 ounces shredded spinach
cayenne pepper
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the garlic and onion for 5 minutes, or until they are softened and golden brown. Stir in the cumin and coriander and cook for another minutes. Pour in the stock and add the chopped potatoes in the pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes more, or until the potatoes and chickpeas are just tender. Blend together the cornstarch, cream, tahini and plenty of seasoning. Stir into the soup with the spinach. Bring to a boil, stirring and simmer for another 2 minutes. Season with cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Serve immediately, sprinkled with a little cayenne pepper.

Baby Baklava

2005-12-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

Aren't they adorable? I was surprised at how well these turned out, and how little effort they really required. I brushed butter on four or five sheets of phyllo and stacked them. I then cut them into squareish shapes and stuffed those into the cups of a muffin tin. Then, I mixed about 1.5 cups each of crushed walnuts, crushed pecans and pine nuts, and some large amount of cinnamon (probably about two and a half tablespoons). This mixture was poured into the phyllo-lined muffin cups, and then I put the pans in a 375 degree oven and baked for about 10 minutes, until the edges of the phyllo dough were browned. During baking, I warmed up to a boil a syrup of 1 cup honey, 2 cups white sugar, 1/2 cup water and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. This was poured into the cups (about 1.5 tablespoons per cup). Cooling was easy when the temperature was hovering around 0 degrees (F) outside.

Cookoff

2005-12-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

When I was pawing through the clearance book rack at Hastings the other day, I came across Cookoff by Amy Sutherland, and figured it would be worth the $4 investment. It's an investigation into the lives and motivations of the participants of cooking contests in America, and the content is really very interesting. Unfortunately, Sutherland is a terrible writer and condescending to boot. I've not finished the book and she's already misused the word "copious" twice, and even worse, repeatedly calls what is obviously message board a "chat room." That may have been acceptable in 1996, but lady, it's the 21st century here. Also, she seems to have an axe to grind when it comes to gender roles. I figured the gender angle would be really interesting, but Sullivan seems to be more interested in reinforcing gender roles than exploring them. I cringed through most of the burger chapter while she told me that women are afraid of grills but big strong men know how to handle them - apparently that's just the way things are, even though there are plenty of women in the burger contest. Further, for a book purporting to celebrate cookoffs, there is an awful lot of condescension. I realize that the Pillsbury Bakeoff is not the forum for cutting-edge cuisine, but these are things Americans eat, and the people in this book are the ones making the food Americans eat. There's no reason to say that a contestant "slimed" her dish with russian dressing unless you're actively trying to be mean.

Still, I'm almost finished with the book, and have enjoyed the content if not the delivery. The idea of entering recipes in contests is becoming more and more tempting, epecially considering the substantial prize money offered at some contests - the Pillsbury Bakeoff has a grand prize of $1 million. Check out Cooking Contest Central for info on contests around the country.

Brika

2005-12-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

It was several years ago that I saw this recipe on Food Network, but only this week did we get ourselves together enough to make us some brika.
They're Tunisian pastries filled with mashed potatoes, tuna, capers, feta, cilantro, coriander, amongst other ingredients. It sounds like a bit of a train wreck, but I promise the results are delicious and the taste not overwhelming at all. The recipe Food Network gives calls for filling won ton wrappers with the mixture and frying the parcels. I didn't have the heart to deep fry something at home, so instead we made phyllo dough parcels and baked them and served them with a tomato and fennel yogurt sauce for dinner. They were delicious, but I was surprised to find that the flavor was really only intense enough when they were cold instead of hot. I still don't know how that many flavorful ingredients can go into something with such a subtle flavor coming out.

Torture by Pork

2005-11-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

Slow-cooking is best done outdoors or in a crock pot while you're at work. Otherwise, you spend 8 hours smelling the delicious meal that is cooking, unable to really taste it. I put together some pork for burritos this afternoon, and I still have a couple of agonizing hours left before I can eat it.

This is pretty much the only application I use my crock pot for, but it's worth buying a cheap little one to make this. Setting it up the night before you intend to make it, and then throwing it into the crock pot in the morning is something you'll thank yourself for when you come home in the evening to a house that smells amazing, with a hot dinner ready to be assembled.

~2.5 lbs pork sirloin
2 cans diced, peeled tomatoes
2 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp oregano
1.5 tsp kosher salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp chili powder
2 pasilla peppers, seeded and diced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
1/2 cup roughly-chopped onion

I throw all of this stuff in my crock pot (if the pork isn't completely submerged, I'll add water until it is), leave it on high heat for about 8 hours, and then pull the pork out (using a strainer to keep it from retaining too much liquid). Shredding this pork and adding it to a burrito with beans, rice, sour cream and cheese is a truly amazing experience, especially considering the minute amount of work that goes into making it.

How do they do it?

2005-11-25T12:25:00.000-08:00

I am too lazy to cook some nights, or just really want a burrito from Taco Time. Other nights, I am hungry enough by the time I finish cooking that I don't have time to prettify my food enough for picture-taking. Seriously, how do they do it?

Pesto Parmesan Chicken Sandwich

2005-11-12T18:01:00.000-08:00

This sandwich idea was lifted from the dining service at Washington State University (which is where I work). I realize that putting bell pepper, asiago, basil pesto and chicken together is probably the most obvious go-to yumminess recipe ever. I'm posting it anyway, because it's keeping easy, quick and yummy ideas in mind that keeps me from eating fast food to get my stomach to quiet down when I get home from work. If this recipe can help one person somewhere avoid a trip to McDonald's, I'll feel justified in purveying this low-hanging culinary fruit.

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 cups chicken broth
1 clove garlic
1 cup basil pesto
1/2 cup jarred roasted sweet bell pepper, diced and drained
asiago (or other hard Italian cheese), shredded
sandwich rolls
butter

Bring chicken broth to boil in a wide pot or pan for which you have a lid lying around somewhere. Crush the garlic clove and toss into the boiling broth. Add the chicken to the boiling pot, and lower the heat to a simmer. If the chicken is not covered by the liquid, add water until the chicken is totally submerged. Poach the chicken for about 25 minutes, until it is cooked through and tender. Remove the chicken from the pot to a medium-sized bowl, and shred it with two forks. Stir in the pesto and bell peppers. Butter your rolls (however many you feel like eating) and toast under the broiler. Spoon the pesto chicken onto the roll, and sprinkle the cheese on the chicken.

Grand Opening

2005-11-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

It opened a little while ago, but today there was a grand opening party for Moscow's just-moved food co-op. It's grown to at least twice its old size, and acquired a meat department, and a much larger selection of pretty much everything. Also, it's gorgeous. I went down and sampled some cheeses and cowgirl chocolates (a Palouse original), and took some neat pictures. I may live in a small town, but I still feel pretty lucky to live within two blocks of a large supermarket, a food co-op, two wine stores (one of which is run by a local winery), a produce stand, and the farmer's market during the summer.

Smoked Paprika Tomato Sauce

2005-11-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

A few comments asked for the recipe for the tomato sauce I mentioned in my last post, so I guess I'll expand on it a little. Unfortunately, it brings up some painful memories, though I feel it's been long enough that I can discuss it now.

I picked up a copy of Saveur magazine a few weeks ago, and it had in it a gorgeous-looking Argentine recipe for potato gnocchi with tomato sauce. One Wednesday night, I decided that no matter the time needed, I was going to make this dish. Somehow, the trip to the grocery store for this one meal ended up costing me $50. I was even more determined to have the most delicious meal of my life. I put my heart and soul into those gnocchi, and they came out a soggy mess. I've never made gnocchi before, and I think I now realize that I just don't like gnocchi. Still, I felt betrayed by my wet little pillows of potato and egg.

Andy had the task of making the tomato sauce, and his outcome was better than mine (adding to my consternation, I assure you). This is the sauce that I put on the polenta and garlic-rubbed jarlsberg, and I'm sure we'll make it again.

Adapted from Saveur magazine, October 2005, no. 87, pg 99.

3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained
1 carrot, peeled, trimmed and grated
1 jarred, peeled, roasted red bell pepper, drained and chopped
6 tbsp. tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put oil and onions into a wide pan and cook over medium heat until soft, 8-10 minutes. Stir in garlic. Redice heat to medium low, crush tomatoes with your hands into pan, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from heat. Pulse tomatoes, pepper, carrot and a large spoonful of the tomato sauce in a food processor. Add remaining sauce and process until chunky. Return sauce to pan, stir in tomato paste, bay leaf, and spices. Simmer the sauce partially covered over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Adjust seasonings.

Why, oh why did I ever go to Jack in the Box?

2005-11-06T22:41:00.000-08:00

Midnight snack:

Brown slices of firm polenta in olive oil. Rub slices of jarlsberg cheese with raw garlic. Top browned slices of polenta with jarlsberg. Cover in warm smoked paprika tomato sauce.

Enjoy.

The Old European

2005-11-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually in the mood for cooking in the morning. On weekends, I usually ooze out of bed around 11 or 12, and then drag myself into a restaurant or fast food place to indugle in some grease. Then, I head back home to nap or go to the gym, depending on my level of ambition. One of the best places to go for breakfast on the Palouse is the Old European in Pullman, Washington. My family only rarely ever went out to eat, and all through college I had no car, so I didn't discover the place until a couple of years ago. If you're in the area, you must go! They make almost everything in-house, from salad dressing to jam to fresh bread. It's not really an eggs and hashbrowns sort of place, but the potato pancakes, dutch peach pie, and waffles are amazing.

Brunch

2005-11-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

I've always liked the idea of brunch. It's got a dorky name, and is a great mix of hoity-toity and slobishness. You're drinking mimosas at a table with a lace tablecloth, but you're hung-over and couldn't get up in time for breakfast. I'd like to host a big brunch someday, after a big party. Ideally it would be during summer, and served outside.

I've thought a lot of the aesthetics through (and practiced the night-before partying), but the food is something I haven't quite nailed down - not to mention getting the lovely home and yard where all of this would be set.

Today I actually woke up and had cooking on the brain. It helps that Food Network has so many recipe-oriented cooking shows on weekend mornings. I have been craving polenta lately, so I looked up some recipes on the Food Network site, and found a dandy. "Polenta Stacks with Ham, Spinach and Cheese" isn't the prettiest of all names, but it turned out to be delicious. I used already-firmed polenta I bought at the grocery store, and browned slices of it on the stove. Then, as the recipe called for, I heated some garlic and crushed red pepper flakes in olive oil, and wilted spinach in this. To serve, it was just a matter of arranging the sliced polenta, slices of jarlsberg (it's all I had lying around, but it's an amazing pair with a heavy garlic flavor), ham and wilted spinach, and then covering with warm marinara. It was easy with the shortcuts I took (marinara from a jar, polenta pre-firmed, spinach pre-washed), and a flavorful breakfast that wasn't too heavy.

Definitely a recipe to keep away in my fantasy food party file.

Dinner Alone

2005-10-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

I have Thursday nights to myself, so I like to make things that my husband won't eat. He once got a terrible stomach flu when we were entering what we had planned on being a month exploring Chinese cuisine, and as a result he can't eat some pretty yummy things, like soy sauce.

I took advantage of my evening alone, and made a stir fry of onions, bok choy, sweet bell peppers and cashews with garlic, soy sauce and ginger. I put it over brown rice (which my husband also hates) and planned my Halloween costume. Delicious.

Saturday Night Dessert

2005-10-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday Night Dinner

2005-10-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

Broiled steelhead with serrano pepper and yogurt sauce

1/2 english cucumber, finely grated and drained
1 1/2 cups yogurt
2 serrano peppers, seeded and finely diced
1 teaspoon coarsely crushed cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
This sauce was created by my husband, and it's a really great accompaniment to fish like salmon, steelhead or trout. It's also substantial enough that the sauce itself makes a good snack, so we make plenty.

Roast yukon gold potatoes, shallots and sweet bell peppers, with rosemary and olive oil

Boiled artichoke with drawn butter.

Salty Chops

2005-10-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

After having heard Alton Brown disparage the modern pork chop, I thought I would take his suggestion and brine a few of them before cooking and see what happened. I used the brine recipe he gave for his grilled stuffed pork chops, which I'm going to reproduce here, because I just don't think it's right:

2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard powder
1 pound ice

The directions have you warm the vinegar, and then stir in the salt and brown sugar until dissolved, and then add the seasoning, and then cool the whole mixture with the ice. Now that I'm sitting down to write about it, I realize I completely forgot to add the sugar, but I'm not sure how I could have - I used more like 3/4 cup of salt, and I could not get it to go into solution until I started adding water to increase the volume of liquid. Even then, when I added the ice, salt started crashing back out of solution. Not only did it bring back traumatic memories of chemistry labs, but it nearly became one of those kitchen tantrums that occur when you're making something new and it's already long past dinner time. Maturity did win out, and I brined the chops for about an hour and fifteen minutes before pan-frying them according to another food network recipe, pork chops with mustard bourbon sauce. (Note: listen when they tell you to remove the fat from the pan - igniting the bourbon can turn into a grease fire if you don't. I only had a little fat left in my pan, and it was still rather scary.)

The chops turned out okay, but a saltier than I would like. Maybe the sugar would have cut down on the saltiness, but I guess I'll have to find out next time. Not an incredibly successful dinner, but I've done worse.

How much worse? I was preparing salmon burgers, and thought the whole thing would go a lot faster if I threw the ingredients (eggs, salmon, onions, garlic, breadcrumbs etc.) into the food processor. This did cut down on the prep time, but what came out of the processor was more like a batter than a burger - I'm thinking too much liquid came out of the onions when they were processed so thoroughly. I did try to pour some of it onto a pan, and the result can best be described as a salmon pancake.

We went out for chinese food that night, and now have a little perspective on our cooking flubs. The pork chops might have been too salty, but at least they weren't salmon pancakes.

World's Second-Best Sandwich

2005-10-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

When I saw commercials for the movie Spanglish, my two thoughts were these:

1) Not going to go see that movie.

and

2) Damn that sandwich looks good.

I later created what I had figured was the sandwich I saw, and it really was delicious. One of my favorite meals of all time is now this sandwich and a bowl of french onion soup. In fact, that was my dinner last night so I thought I might write something about it here. It turns out I do have a good eye for sandwiches, but I'm not the first to be impressed by it. In fact, the sandwich existed before the movie, and is widely known as "the world's best sandwich." This is not to mention that it is the creation of the famous chef Thomas Keller.

My formulation is slightly different than the original (healthier, too), so I'll provide it. Maybe it's the world's second-best (or most derivative) sandwich.

2 slices crusty bread, toasted
1 slice jarlsberg, swiss or other mild, nutty cheese
2 slices tomato
2 leaves lettuce
1 egg
whole-grain mustard
mayonaisse
mustard
salt and freshly-ground black pepper

I'm always a little insulted when I see recipes for sandwiches or pizza in cookbooks, so I won't demean you with unnecessary instructions here. I will note that a good, fresh egg is essential, and that it be cooked soft, so the yolk can seep into the bread.

Also, I saw the movie and found it to be baffling but unimpressive. I guess I'm also a good judge of movie previews.

Salsa

2005-10-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

I didn't tell my mother until after I was married that my husband just doesn't like her salsa. Last weekend, my mother and I made a big batch out at her house. It's really different from what you generally expect of salsa: no spices or seasonings other than garlic, and rather than being salty, it's somewhat sweet. I grew up on it, and really like it for what it is. To me, it really emphasizes the character of the vegetables that go into it.

9 lbs tomatoes
8-12 green bell peppers
12 jalapenos
6 anaheim chiles
8 medium onions
10 cloves of garlic
24 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp salt
1 1/2 cup vinegar

Peel and chop tomatoes, and simmer in a large pot until soft. Chop remaining ingredients (I like the garlic to be chopped roughly, so you get big sweet chunks of it), and add to pot. Simmer for 25 more minutes until soft. Stir in tomato paste, sugar, salt and vinegar. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pack in hot jars, and seal with hot lids. Process 30 minutes for quarts and 25 minutes for pints. Yields 10 quarts or 21 pints.

Babies are People Too

2005-10-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to comment at length on this, because I don't really know anything about raising kids (See my post about not having a sweet potato pie in the oven.). Still, I thought this article about feeding babies a variety of foods was a great thing to see. When I was a kid, I really had no control over what I ate. If I was going to be picky, I was going to be hungry. Some people I know, however, and a lot of children I know, are rampantly, phobically picky. I've always suspected that starting your kids out on bland food is a great way to kick-start pickiness. As for the obesity angle, I think it also follows that if you're not interested in eating something that's not starchy and white, or trans-fat laden and salty, one of two things are going to happen: you're not going to enjoy eating, and only do it as a chore, or if you like eating, you're going to have a hard time making healthy food choices. And that's hard enough when you're not picky.

I've Got a Sweet Potato Pie In the Oven

2005-10-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've been in a little bit of a no-cooking funk lately. Andy's done a good job of getting me through it, and has kept my palate entertained with thai food, fennel and caraway-encrusted lamb chops, and caramelized onion and ricotta pasta, amongst other dishes.

As delicious as this funk has been, I think I finally ejected myself from it last night by making Alton Brown's sweet potato pie. This was the first of his recipes I ever made, and I highly recommend it. I was skeptical until I saw that it's topped with pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup. I will eat anything underneath pecans and baked maple syrup.

Last Thanksgiving, my mother asked me to bring a pie. She hates both sweet potatoes and punpkin pie (this pie tastes a lot like pumpkin pie), so I told her I was bringing a surprise to Thanksgiving. No clues allowed.

At this point, I'd been married for about four months, so my mom was hoping that I was going to say I was pregnant. (Who knew the grandchild pressure started so soon?) Imagine her disappointment - no baby on the way and a pie she didn't like.

Coconut Cinnamon Bread

2005-09-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup sour cream
1.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In one bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Beat in oil and then sugar slowly, then sour cream. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, and mix gently.

3. Pour half of batter into loaf pan. Mix together remaining ingredients in a bowl, and sprinkle half of the resulting coconut mixture on top of the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter to the loaf pan, and use the remaining coconut mixture to coat the top of the batter. Swirl with a knife to marble.

4. Bake for about an hour, and remove from pan after about ten minutes of cooling.

I like technology. I wish that genetically-modified organisms were labeled at the grocery store, because I would like to buy them - I think they're cool. I can't wait until Google is connected to my brain.

So, when I saw the silicone bakeware begin to appear in stores, I was very excited. I was also engaged to be married, and registered for a bunch of it. Some very thoughtful people ended up giving it to us, and at first I was thrilled. However, I have come to believe it's not nearly as badass as it looks. First of all, anything like a loaf pan will not hold its shape, so when you lift the pan out of the oven, your baked goods can crack or your super-hot food can spill all over you. Secondly, they're hardly as nonstick as advertised.

Also, they're not kidding when they mention the upper temperature limit on the label. My previous oven (Why did I get a new oven? Just wait.) was an old, unreliable thing that had unpredictable of pockets of heat and coldness. I was baking some corn bread to go with a nice, big pot of chili sitting on the stove. The recipe I used gave a pretty high baking temperature, but one below the upper limit of my bakeware.

Still. Several minutes later, my kitchen was filled with smoke...and flames...leaping out of the oven. I proceeded to act like a Sim does when its oven catches fire, but Andy was good enough to remember we have a fire extinguisher, and use it for its intended purpose. Unfortunately, fire-extinguisher gunk got all over the kitchen - including in the pot of chili - and we spent the evening cleaning up the kitchen.

We ate cheese and wine for dinner that night, and the landlords replaced the oven.

I'm baking this bread in my silicone loaf pan, and 45 minutes into baking, so far so good, but I'll wait until it comes out of the oven to uncross my fingers.

Soyrizo vs. Chorizo

2005-09-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on a package of chorizo? The kind I've bought before actually lists lymph nodes and salivary glands. I try to be grown-up and realistic about the food I eat. I realize that eating dead animals is already kind of gross, but this was truly too much information for me.

Now, when I want a spicy breakfast, I use soyrizo, which I'm pretty satisfied with. It has the same texture problem that most soy-masquerading-as-meat products do, but it's a lot less creepy to bite into something unexpected in my soyrizo and eggs than it is with chorizo that comes from actual animals.

Other meat-like products that I prefer over their actual meat counterparts, due to this creep-out factor, are soy corn dogs and soy "chicken" patties. With these products, though, the original is so highly processed to begin with that replacing it with soy really doesn't change the eating experience too much.

Not food-related

2005-09-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

I drove through Orofino, ID this weekend, and saw this billboard. It has nothing to do with food, but I thought it was too amazing not to put up here.

Orexia on the Road

2005-09-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

Since this is the first time I've ever actually been smart enough to stay in a hotel with wireless access, I thought I'd write a post.

When I travel, I want to eat good food. Moscow, while it has a lot of good low-priced food, is not a great dining town. When I get out of town, it's time to sit down at a restaurant and let someone serve me something delicious.

I'm in Missoula, MT, hanging out with my in-laws as a pre-birthday celebration for my husband (his birthday will be Monday, poor thing). We went to a restaurant called the Depot, and if you're ever in Missoula looking for a big piece of meat, The Depot is the place to go. I had smoked pork, and it brought back wonderful memories of my birthday. I also ate my very first raw oyster, which was a lot more delicious (and less slimy) than I would have expected.

We're sitting around the room waiting for my brother in law to finsh work, so we can hit the bars. The last time I was in Missoula, Kyle (the brother in law) set out to help Andy and I experience Missoula to its fullest (that is, drunkest). The evening was culminated at a bar called the Oxford. It's a bar where they serve brains and eggs, and pickled turkey gizzards. They also serve a chicken-fried steak, which is best enjoyed after at 2 am. It creates a nice, greasy seal over the alcohol churning in your stomach by that point.

The very essence of Missoula.

Why I Love The Onion

2005-09-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

They are the geniuses who combined two of my greatest loves: true obscenity and food.

Tomato and Blue Cheese Soup

2005-09-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

The weather here is showing signs of cooling - cool nights and warm (but not hot) days. I always prefer the weather and sun in summer, but I love fall cooking. During summer, ingredients are so superb that you can eat basically everything fresh or lightly-cooked. Perfect produce is great, but when I'm not interested in heating the house any more than absolutely necessary, I ignore lots of cooking methods. With fall I can return to roasting and baking, without roasting myself in the process. Andy and I tackled this recipe tonight, adapted from one of my most-used cookbooks, Soup: Superb ways with a classic dish edited by Debra Mayhew. We used some oak-smoked salt we found in Vancouver BC, and it added a nice richness to the soup without making it heavy.

3 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled, quartered and seeded
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 1/4 quarts low-salt vegetable broth
4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
3 tablespoons half and half
4 slices bacon, cooked to crispness and crumbled
salt and pepper

1. Heat the oven to 400 F. Spread the tomatoes in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with the garlic and some salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 35 minutes.

2. Heat the butter in a large sacuepan. Add the leek and carrot and season with salt and peper. Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the stock and roasted tomatoes. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Add the blue cheese, and blend all the ingredients to a smooth, creamy texture. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

5. Return the soup to heat, but do not boil. Stir in the cream and crumbled bacon. Serve with crusty bread.

Peach Ice Cream

2005-09-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing captures summer better for me than a ripe peach. My grandparents have a peach tree in their yard, and always bring them on visits during peach season. Grandma has spoiled me into being unable to eat fuzzy peaches - she would always peel and slice them for me, and I'd sit at the table in my swimsuit and eat them while they were still warm from being blanched in hot water. The magnificent scent, texture and taste of a peach is only enhanced by these sunny memories.

My grandparents were in town this week, watching my sister while my parents got to go to Beijing. My grandmother brought me some peaches from her tree, and by the time they got to me, some were pretty beaten-up, so I cut them up, and decided to finally break out the ice cream maker my in-laws gave us (a year ago). The recipe I used came from egullet, and I'd repeat it here, but it's very simple: mix up some eggs and sugar and cream and half and half and peaches, throw in a dash of vanilla (I used almond extract - I make this substitution a lot, because I can never remember to buy vanilla), and freeze.

My timing isn't perfect - the weather here is already starting to cool down. Still, since I'm due to bring dessert to a dinner on Tuesday, I thought ice cream would do justice to my grandparents' peaches. I sampled it out of the machine while I was packing it away into the freezer, and other than a little too much almond extract (I halved the recipe, but forgot to halve the amount of flavoring added), it's delicious.

PS - Any suggestions as to how to mask my over-almond mistake? I was considering making a tart sauce to sort of distract, but I don't want the peaches to get lost in all of this. Ideas?

Things I have never eaten before

2005-08-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

I think of myself as a pretty food-literate person, but I still find myself eating things for the first time several times a week. This last week in Vancouver BC allowed me first experience with a lot of foods, so to begin the recap, I will list things I ate that I had never before:

Creme brulee
Montreal Smoked Meat
Gaspatcho
Beets
Monkfish
Olives with pits
Pickled eggplant
Washed-rind cheese
Risotto
Foie Gras
Gnocchi
House wine
Peach cider
Chantarelle mushrooms
Maitake mushrooms

...and that's all I can remember. More soon.

Mojitos

2005-08-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

They're delicious. I might be very late to the party, but I am only now discovering the profound deliciousness of mojitos. Make one. Or several. But don't plan on driving afterward.

PS - Our club soda had gone flat, so we replaced it with ginger ale. This means I might not know the true mojito, but what I know is still damned delicious.

Wedding Bells and Potato Salad

2005-08-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

I'm right now boiling potatoes - lots and lots of them - for a potato salad to be served at a wedding I'm going to this weekend (woo Tony and Carly!). I figured if the salad was good enough that they would ask Andy and I, who are hardly professionals in the realm of food, to make it for their wedding, it has to be good.

And, it is.

Feta and Green been Red Potato Salad

1 pound red potatoes, diced
2 cups fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp tabasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled feta

Boil potatoes for 10 minutes in salted water. Add beans to hot water and potatoes, and cook for 5-8 minutes more. Drain potatoes and beans and pour into large bowl. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and tabasco in a measuring cup or other small vessel, and whisk. Pour dressing over potatoes and green beans, and mix. Add feta, and mix again. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot or cold (I prefer hot).

(This is a recipe that was given to me by my mother, who got it from my aunt, and I really don't know where it came from originally, though there was something very much like it in a recent edition of Cooking Light, minus the feta. (What were they thinking?!).)

City Mouse, Country Mouse

2005-08-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

I live in a town of a certain size and certain location that is judged differently by people, often depending on the size of their own town. Moscow has about 18,000 residents, including the students at the University of Idaho, and is surrounded by a lot of rural land. My hometown, 11 miles away, had 1,000 residents, though that figure is dropping, and we jokingly referred to Moscow as the Big City. I still run into people who say they have a hard time driving in Moscow, with all the traffic and such. On the other hand, 18,000 people is not a lot of people, considering the millions that populate actual Big Cities.

It's funny how this in-the-middle sort of space has affected how I feel when I am in a rural place, and when I'm in a city.

Next week, I'm going on vacation to Vancouver BC, and the trip is intended to be a food-based one. I've researched the advice on Chowhounds Canada extensively, and my list of must-visits include Granville Island, Feenie's, West, and a dim sum place yet to be determined. I have to admit, though, that looking through the menus of the more expensive places, that I was a little bit bewildered at first. I'd never heard the term tasting menu before, though I can assure you I now intend to spend more money on food on this trip than I have on all the meals I've eaten in my life combined. All of this left me feeling a little countrified.

On the other hand, my husband and I spent the last weekend camping with my family and another family, and it left me feeling a little citified. I live in a rural part of the country, but I'm hardly an outdoors enthusiast. It's nice now and again, but if I'm going to live out here, you'd think I'd take advantage of the lovely landscape I'm provided with. I don't, really. In fact, we had to buy a tent to make camping possible - we don't have any of the supplies. We even skipped sleeping bags (since we have none) and brought blankets. It all made me feel a little citified, though I still had a great time.

I'd always had a bad opinion of camping, but I recently started viewing it in a culinary context, and reversed my opinion on camping. When you don't have to hike to your destination, you can bring anything you want; I'd always assumed camping meant eating hot dogs and drinking orange soda. Not so. Last year, the same group of people went camping with my husband and I (a newly minted husband at that point, to boot). Andy and I were just along for the ride, but our hosts brought lots of great wines and beers, and for dinner we ate steak and pasta with fresh pesto. It was also the first time I'd ever eaten pate.

With this in mind, I put a little more thought into our camping trip, and we ate quite handsomely. I brought my dijon/cranberry/rosemary chicken salad, and a sort of made-on-the-fly couscous/fruit/nut salad. The other campers brought meat and blueberry muffins (July and August must be torture for Atkins dieters, with all the delicious fruit around). Pairing this with plenty of red wine, corona with limes, and 90-degree weather along a deep, fast mountain river made for a fantastic weekend.

This Tuesday Is Our Turn

2005-08-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday, a couple my husband and I know get together for dinner, switching on and off who cooks dinner and who brings dessert. Usually, Andy and I get to planning immediately after the meal we cook. This week, however, we completely forgot it was our week for dinner until about 5:00. Dinner was to be at 7:30. Plenty of time, plenty of time.

We ended up serving broiled steelhead seasoned with dill and lemon, with chopped sweet onions and fennel bulb on top. (I can't take the credit - Andy was in charge of turning the fish from a raw fillet into a main dish.) I made mashed potatoes for the first time ever, Alton Brown's creamy garlicky ones. For veggies we served a spinach salad with peas, basil pesto and toasted pine nuts (something I saw on Barefoot Contessa, though I can't find the recipe online).

Not so bad for a completely unplanned meal. When I walk home from my bus stop with a growling stomach, past one amazing taco van, it's sometimes hard to remember that the extra hour or so it takes to get dinner on the table is usually worth it, and almost always fun.

Amendment

2005-08-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

While peaches brulee are delicious, pennies brulee are not. I can in no way pretend to attempt making a list of things that a creme brulee torch will cause to explode - sending molten metal and penny shrapnel in all directions, including toward your beautiful face - but apparently pennies are sometimes one of them. Be warned.

Girls' Night In

2005-07-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago, while my husband worked late, I decided to make a nice meal for him to come home to. I fried some potatoes, flavoring them with rosemary, and made chicken marsala (my first time, too). It turns out he doesn't like chicken marsala, but I'd run all over town looking for that damn marsala, so I told him to shut up and eat it. He did so, but I was left with a bottle of marsala, and I really couldn't bring myself to drink it. I decided the best course of action would be to have a dinner party to use up the rest of the marsala in some more marsala chicken - one he couldn't come to. Thus the girls' night in dinner party.

The menu included chicken marsala (Emeril's recipe), a stone fruit and havarti salad (adapted from the latest issue of Cooking Light), and cold pesto pasta. Also, being a girly dinner party, I had to come up with the girliest cocktails I possibly could, and I settled on champagne cosmopolitans. For an appetizer, I just set out some cognac and truffle-flavored pate and crackers.

It was a really fun evening. We sat in the back yard on a blanket and ate dinner, and proceeded to polish off many bottles of champagne. We lit candles when it got dark, and sipped champagne and talked until midnight. It was a perfect way to spend a blisteringly hot evening, and an even better way to finish off the bottle of marsala.

Stone Fruit and Havarti Salad
1 peach
1 plum
1 nectarine
0.25 pounds havarti cheese
Salad greens
1/3 cup walnut oil
1/6 cup balsamic vinegar

Peel and pit the fruits, and dice the flesh into 1/2-inch sized pieces. Cut havarti into cubes of the same size. Arrange salad greens in bowl, and top with fruit and cheese. Make dressing of oil and vinegar, and pour over salad. Serve cold on a hot evening.

Relationship Advice

2005-07-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

When you can't think of a gift for your husband on your anniversay, try a creme brulee torch. It is the most manly of kitchen tools, so he will be happy. You will be happy because every dessert I can think of is improved by a hard shell of bruleed sugar. For example:

2 peaches, halved and pitted
1 cup dry marsala
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 teaspoon nutmeg
white sugar
vanilla ice cream

Combine marsala, nutmeg, and vanilla extract in a saucepan, and reduce by half over medium heat. Sprinkle sugar over peaches, and fire with kitchen torch until a hard, golden brown shell forms. Drizzle marsala syrup over peaches, and serve one scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside each peach.

My wonderful husband created this recipe the other night (I am only guessing at the amounts in the recipe until I can confirm with him), and it was truly one of the most delcious things I have ever eaten. As peach season (my favorite time of the year) dawns, I encourage all who can to make this dish. Leftover peaches can be stored in the refrigerator, and this makes an excellent breakfast.

CAUTION: Lovey-Dovey Material

2005-07-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today is my one-year wedding anniversary. Exciting tales from my kitchen are being preempted by sweet, sweet lovin'. Please stay tuned for more information.

Regional Insanity

2005-07-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

There are some regional foods that I have to chalk up to regular old insanity. Sweet tea in the South? Salty lemonade in India? I realize that it's a little ethnocentric of me, but I also don't think it's impossible that one's culture will drive them to eat some downright yucky things.

So, I was trying to think of what regional culinary insanity I've succumbed to, and I'm pretty sure it's fry sauce. I love fry sauce. I've heard it claimed that the stuff was invented in Lewiston, Idaho (a mere 40 minute jaunt south of here), though it is hotly debated. I wonder how mixing ketchup and mayonnaise ever had to be "invented," but I suppose it hasn't existed for all time - someone had to be the first.

I don't know what sort of deep fast food love it triggers in me, but I will patronize a burger place based solely on whether or not they provide it. The McDonald's locations around here used to serve it, but it was discontinued a few years ago, and now I don't really see the point of going to McDonald's - even if you really have a hankering for "food."

Iced Tea

2005-07-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

It took me a long time to realize that iced tea didn't have to be a few bags of lipton thrown into a big jar and left in the sun all day to get bitter. In fact, it was only after hearing a story on NPR (a year ago? two?) that I realized any tea can be served cold. I blame the ubiquity of pre-packaged foods. Certainly not myself. Every once in a while, I have a sort of epiphone (if you can call it that) where I realize "Hey, I could make macaroons." Or, "Wait a minute, the difference between making a cake from scratch and making a cake from a box is only a few measured ingredients, and I don't have to pay for the packaging or wonder about the preservatives."

Anyhow, I'm currently drinking some cool darjeeling/peppermint tea, and was wondering what other tea combinations anyone likes to make in the summer. Suggestions?

Krusteaz Wheat and Honey Pancake Mix

2005-07-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

I'm home from work with a cold today, and all I wanted for breakfast was pancakes. In my house, we don't normally cook breakfast - we tend to either roll out of bed in the morning and dash to work with some sort of energy bar in hand, or sleep until noon on weekends and ooze over to the Breakfast Club on Main Street for something delicious and effort-free.

Comfort food was my main objective this morning, so I went out and got orange juice and the above mentioned Krusteaz Wheat and Hoeny pancake mix. I would estimate that 70% of the breakfasts I ate throughout the first 18 years of my life consisted of these pancakes. I'm still not sick of them. I love them. My mother for some reason was always happy to make them for me, and I am sure this is a big part of how my parents indoctrinated me into preferring whole wheat flour-based foods to white flour-based ones.

Now that we've made it through the detour down Memory Lane, I can get to the reason I am posting this. I checked out the ingredient list, thinking I could reproduce it and see what a difference using my own eggs and my own milk makes. After browsing around on Allrecipes, however, I couldn't find something that replicated it. The ingredient list includes soy flour, oddly enough. Another important factor is that there is no buttermilk - I am not a fan of buttermilk pancakes.

With time, I can probably figure this out, but if anyone reading this knows where I should look for a recipe that replicates these pancakes, I'd appreciate the info.

I always thought I was good with gadgets

2005-07-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have several lovely pork butt pictures on my ancient digital camera, but am not sure I'll ever get them off of the camera, let alone all the way up onto Orexia. So, I've given in to a pictureless pork butt summary. For now.

The recipe itself was not at all complicated. Brine your butt overnight in a mixture of water, salt, and molasses. Rub it with a mixture of spices. Set in smoker, and leave at 210 degrees F for 10-12 hours. Remove from heat, wrap in aluminum foil, and allow to rest for one hour. Then, most importantly, enjoy.

I did all of those things. It was a little stressful at times, and keeping a constant temperature was not really possible. I can't be sure if this is Alton Brown's fault, due to an unsound concept for a terra cotta smoker. It could also be my fault, since the equipment I used was not quite ideal. The contraption is supposed to be made out of two terra cotta pots that can be stacked mouth to mouth, with a grill in the middle to hold the meat over some smoking hardwood chips (heated by an electric hot plate underneath). The two pots we had did not quite have mouths of the same size, but we compensated by insulating any openings with a towel. After some early morning trouble getting an acceptable temperature, we did get several hours of good smoking time (while we were fiddling with the smoker, I threw it in the oven at 210, so the meat would at least be done by the time guests arrived). Dinner went off without a hitch, and a good time (and a lot of beer) was had by all.

This was my first barbecue experience, and I have honestly never eaten anything like it. I thought I'd crave it evermore. I did prevent that from happening, however, by making a small mistake: the towel used to insulate the smoker, smelling unbelievably like smoke, got stuck into my laundry hamper. It took a few applewood smoke-infused days to figure out why the smell had not left my home.

We did smoke another pork butt the following weekend, though we couldn't get the Alton Brown smoker to work. Instead we set the apple chips inside a gas grill, did some fiddling with temperature, and let it sit. This also produced admirable results, but by now, I believe I've inhaled at least a quarter pound of charred applewood, and I need a little rest.

Phew

2005-06-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

It's working! The temperature is oscillating between 200 and 220, but I don't really know how we can really control it any better.

Beer tastes better before noon

2005-06-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Up at 7:00. Nearly nine, and we still can't seem to get the temperature right on the smoker. I threw the meat in the oven at 210, so we won't have to be dining at midnight. 8 hours of smoke rather than 10 will probably still get the job done.

It's all coming together

2005-06-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I plan to thoroughly rub my butt, then spend 10 to 12 hours blowing smoke up it.

Saying "pork butt" will never stop being funny.

Currently, I have 6.23 pounds of pork shoulder butt submerged in a brine of molasses and salt water. Apple chunks and chips are soaking in water overnight. I will write a depiction of the events that occur tomorrow, though I may have to sober up a few days before taking on the task.

Happy birthday, me!

5 a day? Yeah right!

2005-06-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

Reading this post at Morsels of Megret reminds me of something I have learned in the past few months, which I think is an important lesson if you're going to enjoy eating healthy foods: shopping for produce takes time and attention. It's only something that I've gotten any good at in the last few months, and my diet has changed accordingly. When I go to the grocery store and look at the produce, I have to wonder who eats these rock-hard "peaches" and "tomatoes." I certainly don't. And, judging by the diet habits of Americans, no one else does, either. I think it says something bizarre about American culture that we prefer food that looks like it should to food that tastes like it should. Sure, the tomatoes are awfully shiny and blemish-free by the time they make it to Northern Idaho from wherever they came, but that oughtn't be enough to get me to buy them. A McDonald's cheeseburger is an unsullied, platonic form of a cheeseburger, but it tastes nothing like something you'd make at home.

So, the next time you read a news report on the dismal eating habits of Americans, don't guiltily think of your last midnight run to Jack in the Box. Just remember that you don't have to eat the phony produce that comes in 5 lb bags. My usual tactic is to go with what looks and smells like it would be tasty, rather than making a plan of what produce to buy. Some staples, like tomatoes, I admit I'll eat whether they at all resemble what I want or not. But something you plan on eating on its own, like an apple or a pear, don't bother unless it's in a decent condition. Otherwise, it'll molder on your shelf, and continue to fuel your all too understandable avoidance of fresh produce.

P.S. I'm not just trying to preach to the choir about this, or condescend. I suppose that if you're interested in food, you are probably careful about your produce. On the other hand, I've been very interested in cooking for a long time, and have only really gotten the hang of buying fresh fruit in the past few months. This really is an epiphone for me, and I just wanted to emphasize that you don't have to be a junk food junkie to not be eating a lot of produce. With what's available, it's only natural. Cultivating the ability to choose good produce has been a bigger influence on improving my nutritional intake than anything else. More on choosing later; I've still got a lot to learn myself.

Sunny Day, Cooking with Family

2005-06-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today was both my mother's birthday and father's day, so I was able to visit my parents and fulfill two required duties with one meal. It was a gorgeous sunny day, with no clouds, and my husband Andy and I cooked a simple but delicious meal for my parents: chicken breasts stuffed with spinach and feta, potatoes roasted with rosemary and onions, and a fruit salad. I won't bother to list the recipes, because naming the dishes really tells you all you need to know.

Later, after having a beer in the back yard with Andy, while the sun went down, I made some bacon jalapeno corn muffins. Again, the name tells you about all you need to know. They do make a great, rather eye-opening breakfast, though. Often, when I wake up, the last thing I want is something heavily sweet.

Also, when I stopped by to pick up some bacon at the grocery store, I put in an order for about 7 lbs of pork butt. T-minus five days...

Clinical studies have revealed surprising results as to the effects of reading this blog.

2005-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should have googled the term "orexia" before choosing it as a name for my blog.

Countdown to Pork Butt Birthday

2005-06-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

My birthday is on Friday, the 24th of June. It is my plan to take the day off of work, and spend the day drinking beer and smoking a pork butt, a la Alton Brown's terra cotta smoker. I don't know anyone who has tried this apparatus, but I'll do my best to describe it, and report the results in this blog for the sake of posterity. This will not only be my first experience creating real barbecue, but it will also be my first experience eating real barbecue. My hopes are high.

The aim is to take a tough, cheap piece of meat and hold it over a low amount of heat for a very long time, so as to dissolve the tough connective tissue and keep the delicious juices inside. And, if I plan on keeping a piece of meat warm long enough to do this, I might as well also be imbuing it with flavor - letting smoke pass over it, since I've got the heat going anyway.

There are expensive ways of doing this.

I don't plan on doing this the expensive way. Alton Brown, in his infinite wisdom, has shown me the way to barbecue.

I am currently in the stage of equipment collection. The items needed include

Large terra cotta pot
Shallow terra cotta dish or bowl, with a circumference the same size as the pot
Electric hot plate
Barbecue grill sized to fit a few inches below the rim of the terra cotta pot
Cake pan
Thermometer
Hardwood (type and amount yet to be determined)

Stay tuned for a diagram, and further explanation of the process.

Genius Chicken Salad

2005-06-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

1 whole chicken breast
fresh rosemary
olive oil
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/2 diced sweet bell pepper
1/4 cup dried cranberries (unsweetened preferred)
1 tablespoon chardonnay
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper

1. Salt chicken breast, and heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add desired amount of rosemary to oil and allow to warm (I used about a tablespoon). Set the chicken breast in the oil and brown on one side. Turn, and allow to brown on the other side.

2. Remove chicken from heat.

3. Combine remaining ingredients in medium-sized bowl and stir.

4. Dice cooled chicken breast, and add to dressing in bowl. Be sure to transfer the oil in which the chicken was cooked to the bowl as well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Refrigerate until cool. Serve on whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato.

This is a recipe I made up the other day, and I hope the amounts listed somewhat reflect what I did. This may require further revision. When I made it, I used dried cranberries that had been sweetened, which made the salad a little too sweet. Also, the white wine left the dressing a little drippy. None the less, I'm pretty sure making up this salad makes me a genius. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Food Cultures from Around the World

2005-06-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Today I was browsing the new books at the library, and came across a book called Food Culture in the Near East, Middle East and Northern Africa. The first chapter gives a great overview of how common ingredients are used in the area, what common staples of food and drink are consumed, and even some recipes for demonstration. The good news is that the book is part of a series. The bad news is that the books are about $50 apiece. More good news is that my library has several of them.

Spicy Raspberry Bran Muffins

2005-06-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 cup bran
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 can raspberries, drained

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and prepare 15 muffin cups with grease or paper liners.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over gentle heat and set aside.

3. Sift together the flours, baking soda, salt and garam masala.

4. Add the bran and sugars to the bowl, and mix.

5. In another bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, lemon juice, melted butter, and the raspberries. Don't worry if the berries fall apart.

6. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and stir lightly until just moistened; do not overstir.

7. Fill baking cups to almost full.

8. Bake until golden, about 15-20 minutes.

I made these muffins on Sunday night, and they have kept really well all week. They're nice and moist, and I love the fragrance. I recently substituted garam masala for cinnamon in a carrot cake, and the results were equally as nice as what I got in these muffins, if not better.

I'd love any comments about what would be a good change to this recipe, or anything else it brings to mind.