I've got sunshine...

...on a cloudy day!

It's been a long, hot, sticky summer and I for one am excited to welcome fall, and hopefully some rainy weather. Today it didn't get any warmer than 60, and even though I have almost no food in the house, I managed to throw together a little something on my stovetop.

Rainy day lentils
1) Mince four garlic cloves and an inch-long piece of ginger. Saute in olive oil. Add 4 ounces of red lentils and a can of light coconut milk; let simmer.

2) In a separate pot, make some sort of rice or mixed grain. I have a nine-grain blend I got from an Asian supermarket in California. I added soup base to the water to give it a bit more flavor.

Combine and enjoy a rainy-day treat!

Deelish chicken dinner

I stumbled on a great recipe recently: Pan-roasted chicken with carrots and almonds


It was pretty easy, too: toss carrots & almonds in oil and honey, then roast:

Also pan-roast some chicken, then stick it in the oven.

Voila: delish. The crunchy almonds were a very nice touch. Just needs a salad!

Granola

My sister has been making lots of granola while staying with me, and I think the absolute best ingredient we've discovered is millet. It's a tiny round grain that adds a really nice crunch. It's easy to buy from the bulk section in the grocery stores here:

Tonight it's my turn to make the granola! I'll be making up my own recipe, borrowing liberally from others on the internet:

• Coconut quinoa granola 
• millet granola 
• toasted almond granola  
• healthy granola 
• and last but not least, David Lebovitz' spin on granola

I'm intrigued at the idea of adding quinoa, and I like the idea of using fruit puree instead of lots of oil. I also like the flavors of coconut and nuts and some spices. I think I'm going to try:

2 cups oats
1/2 cup millet
1/2 cup quinoa
1/4 cup wheat germ 
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1 cup nuts (half walnuts, half pecans, is what is currently on hand)
1 pureed banana
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar or honey, if the banana isn't very sweet
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt

Toast at 300 for ~30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to get it crispy, but not burned. 

We'll see a) how well I stick to the recipe and b) how it comes out.

Summer salad

Early-summer produce has hit the markets big-time here in the Bay Area, and I was inspired to try a strawberry-basil salad dressing.

I got the strawberries at the market, and the basil and lemons from my building's garden:

My life changed for the better when I realized my immersion blender works PERFECTLY in a mason jar:

Does this look like summer, or what?

what I did this evening

I was busy tonight!

I made lemon curd, blackberry-rosemary simple syrup, and lemon meringue cookies. The lemon curd is from some Meyer lemons friends brought over - I still have, oh, nine or so left to do something with!

The simple syrup is for a VERY delicious drink called a Black Rose that a friend introduced me to recently. As tasty as it is now with grocery store blackberries, I hope I remember to harvest some berries this summer and make the syrup again. The rosemary is from the courtyard - is rosemary insanely prolific everywhere? It seriously grows in massive shrubs here.

What did I *not* do tonight? I didn't clean the floors or the bathroom, or deal with the miscellany scattered about. Yes, my parents are coming to visit soon (in 32 hours or so!) but I just know they want to see me in my natural habitat. Heck, I'll just run them ragged, then give them booze & sugary snacks and they won't even notice! It's all part of my Genius Plan for Visitors.

I am the mistress of waffles!

...or at least I made some really yummy ones today. I bought a waffle maker after Christmas and was surprised to learn they're not as easy as my mom's always-delicious offerings led me to believe. I knew they had to be eaten immediately but didn't realize how soggy they could become, and so quickly!

So I've been experimenting a bit. My base recipe is from good 'ol Better Homes & Gardens - that cookbook is a staple on my shelf. I've halved their recipe because even that makes more than I can eat in a morning. I tend to freeze the rest and toast them over the next week or so. (I've had toasted waffles for dinner on more than one occasion!)

Anyway that recipe was a good base but I wanted some ideas for making the waffles a bit more crisp. I did some poking around and tried some techniques this morning with good success. There's still more tweaking to be done (and they still got soggy when they cooled!) but I am well on my way to being a Waffle Star.

Rainy weekend waffles
Turn on the waffle maker when you start combining ingredients, so it's ready to go when the batter is.

In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients:
3/4 c flour
1/8 c corn starch
1 1/2 tsp baking powder*

In another bowl, combine the liquid ingredients:
5/6 c milk **
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla ***

In still another bowl (no, I do NOT have a dishwasher), whisk vigorously until frothy (you can come back to it after you rest):
3 T egg whites ****
[or, separate one egg, use the white here, and add the yolk to the other liquid ingredients, above]
1 T sugar

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones - stir gently until it's only somewhat lumpy. Gently stir in the egg white/sugar mixture. Make your waffles - they are still best when extremely fresh off the iron, so don't be shy about digging in!

* After reading David Lebovitz's post about non-aluminum baking powder, and because I've often detected trace bitterness when I use a recipe that relies upon it for leavening, I now use Rumford aluminum-free baking powder. You may call me Princess.

** I confess I rarely have milk on hand - it's more often half & half for coffee or sometimes whole milk for tea, and I usually don't want to use all of it up in a recipe. As a result, I am rather cavalier with this bit. Today I used some half & half, some milk, and some water - just  make sure the liquid measure is right.

*** I impulsively bought vanilla bean paste at the Bowl a while back, so I tend to use this instead. If I were a scientist I might do side-by-side waffle tastings, but I'm not the Doctor of Waffles, I am the Mistress of them, so I don't have to do things like that.

**** I happen to have a bajillion egg whites in my fridge (okay, 9) after a recent pot de creme episode.

lazy sunday goodness

Work has been crazy and I haven't gotten much done on the home front lately. However I'm having a lovely productive Sunday so far!

I cleaned the bathroom sink (makes the whole room look better!), finally started some applesauce I've been meaning to make for ages (good thing apples keep so well in the fridge), and made waffles.

Ten billion years ago (or, 15ish) I lived in Boston for a few years. In the summer of 1995 my roommate and I rented a car and did a road trip that included landing in Rangeley, Maine - four hours north of Boston with a population of about a thousand people. I have no idea how we chose that town, nor even how long we were there nor what we did on our visit. The only thing I know for sure is that we went to a place called Blueberry Hill, and I bought a batter bowl almost identical to the one in the picture.

I say "almost identical" because the original was the only thing of all my possessions that broke when I moved cross-country from Boston to Portland. I traveled by train, so most of my stuff got shipped later, and my only casualty was that bowl.

Well, I was both enterprising and rather fond of that bowl. I wrote a letter to the hotel we'd stayed at in Rangeley, and asked them to forward an enclosed letter to Blueberry Hill (since this was pre-internet and I didn't know where it was, exactly). In the letter to Blueberry Hill I guess I enclosed a blank check, I really don't remember - but I asked them to please please please mail me another batter bowl. And they did, and I made waffle batter in it this very morning. And wow, were they tasty!

entirely inspiring dessert

I finally got to go to dinner at a local restaurant that has quite a devoted following. Boot and Shoe Service took its name from the original inhabitants of their storefront - they are a thin-crust pizza joint with amazing desserts.

My friend got a burnt caramel pot de creme that inspired me to do some poking around for the recipe! I found a likely candidate almost immediately, and set to work today.

All in all they came out okay - I don't think I nailed it yet! It's hard to purposely caramelize/burn sugar, and I think I pulled it off the heat too soon. But it was interesting, and I think I'll revisit this - possible for our wine group's dessert in February!

zucchini madness omg

Friends, I don't really like zucchini. It just figures, doesn't it, that it's the easiest dang thing to grow?! Here's a picture of the one zuke plant from my group garden project, about 6 weeks ago:

It's the big green leaves to the right. Believe me when I say that freaking monster has more than doubled in volume since then! And of the five of us in the garden group... it doesn't seem like anyone is that into the dreaded green veg.

My biggest hits so far this year have been Simply Recipes' Chocolate Zucchini Cake, and zucchini pickles!

When I was growing up, our next-door neighbor had a HUGE garden, and I distinctly remember these pickles she'd make. Oddly enough, I liked neither pickles nor zucchini, but it seemed like the two negatives cancelled each other out; I liked her zucchini pickles! I hadn't thought of them for years until I had a burger at a restaurant in Portland and they came with a side of the distinctively-colored pickles. Now that I'm ..um.. blessed with an abundance of the Loathsome Green Monster, I made my own. They came out pretty tasty, though next time I may use cider vinegar to bump up the sweetness a tiny bit.

I used this recipe (I think... they are all about the same) and here's my pickles getting briney. yep, everything is now that turmeric yellow color.

What else can I do with zucchini? I should probably just give in and pick 'em really small, but I keep hoping one of the gardeners will want one or two (or ten).

Summer in a bowl!

This pasta salad was a standby in my childhood. The flavors of ham, sharp cheddar, sweet pickle relish, mustard, and mayo (or Miracle Whip, in our household!) combine in a sweet/sharp contrast. Toss in crunchy veggies and refrigerate so the flavors mingle, and you've got a great summer treat!

big plans, little time

Tonight I'm cooking for lunch group. I'm going to make something up, and clean out my fridge, too!

Ingredients:
leftover romesco potatoes (a 16-oz-jar-ful)
leftover romesco sauce (4 ounces or so)
leftover diced tomatoes
chickpeas
spinach

... all over penne, I think. I may add caramelized onions to boot. What do you think?

In addition, my workplace is having a small fair for Earth Day, and I've agreed to stand around and answer questions (if anyone has any!) about preserving & canning. So I might try to squeeze in a batch of Meyer lemon jelly tonight, and since I'll be doing the work anyway, may get some limoncello started. I've still got my eye on making a batch of strawberry-rhubarb preserves, but I just don't know if I can get it all done after work this week - I'll be away starting Crack of Dawn Saturday.

Cooking for wine group

Tomorrow is the 2nd Friday of the month (YES, already. shocking), so it's wine night. We're having Rioja, and so decided to have the participants bring tapas-style offerings, rather than structuring the evening as a typical meal.

I'm bringing two things:
Smitten Kitchen's Romesco potatoes, and David Lebovitz's Involtini. Believe it or not, I have (so far) stuck to the recipe in the case of the former; the latter - not so much.

The romesco sauce for the potatoes can be made in advance, so I made mine tonight. I have only a photo of the finished product! 

The sauce is comprised of dried chilis, rehydrated a bit; roasted almonds & hazelnuts; diced tomato; a bit of garlic; a slice of bread; some lemon juice, vinegar, and fresh parsley. Then you puree it all with a lot of olive oil. Isn't it gorgeous?! Tomorrow I will roast the potatoes at home then bring them, still hot, to the wine gathering. I'll finish them by smashing them a bit, crisping them up a bit, then dousing with sauce.


I don't feel badly about changing the involtini recipe - it's a suggestion more than a rule. I used prosciutto, some kind of Spanish cheese that is not Manchego, and fresh sage from the garden (I only recently realized it was growing there!). Right now the little packets are marinating in olive oil. Yum!

So very very wrong

As the saying goes: If this is wrong, I don't want to be right.

In my case, at the moment, my oh-so-wrong addiction is to asparagus. I tend to have seasonal devotion to foods (winter being Brussels sprouts & sweet potatoes, roasted together), and this spring I've been bitten harder than ever before by the Asparagus Bug.

I keep it pretty easy, too: toss the asparagus in olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper, roast at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Lately I've taken to making a meal of it by adding egg. A couple of times I've soft-boiled an egg or two, peeled the egg, then sliced it onto the asparagus.

Today, I learned how to poach eggs! My motivation was an article reporting that the majority of people surveyed (I can't find the article right now so don't know if it was Americans or Britons) couldn't poach an egg. That bugged me - if someone asked me I'd have to admit that I couldn't, though I was perfectly confident that I could follow directions to do so!

It's crazy-easy:
combine water, 1 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp vinegar in a shallow saute pan or skillet:

Bring to a boil; slip the eggs in gently (the directions recommend using some sort of dish or cup to get the egg to the water without splashing it in).

Put a lid on the pan, remove it from the burner, wait 4 minutes or so, and voila! Poached eggs! I cooked min for 4 1/2 minutes and next time will try 5. Otherwise, I was quite happy with them.

To serve: remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, let them drain in the spoon a minute, and then place on the plate. I flipped them over as the bottom was a bit more presentable.

As a bonus, I had an "oh yeah I live in California" moment when I pulled a lemon from the tree out back to use as a garnish. Yum!

MORE Meyers

Oh dear. I have yet another mountain of Meyer lemons on my desk. I brought bags of dirt to a co-worker's (my building's garden project overbought.. complicated uninteresting story) and their trees are going gangbusters, so of course I had to help him out.

I'm having people over for dinner tonight. I'm going to wash the lemons and arrange them with some fresh rosemary in a vase as a centerpiece. But then what?

Last year I made:
- salt-cured lemons (which I only used once and eventually threw away)
- candied lemon peel (gave away a little, eventually threw out)
- simple syrup (eventually threw out.. terrible trend!)
- meringue cookies with lemon zest

This year I made the meringue cookies again. I've also made: 
- lemon curd (four cups of the YUMMIEST thing ever, but so unhealthy - I gave a lot away; next time I'll process the jars so I can save some for later) I think I used this recipe but boosted the volume a lot.
- lemon marmalade (total fail - it didn't set AT ALL but I don't blame the recipe)
- lemon/almond cake with blops of lemon curd baked on top - I can't find the digital recipe but it's printed out at home. If I figure out the url I'll add it here - it was GOOD.
- lemon cake pie

What next? Maybe another shot at marmalade (with a different recipe) or maybe lemon jelly based on this recipe for orange jelly. Or.. hooooooooooly smokes I just found a recipe for almond lemon curd!!! I bet that would be killer with hazelnuts and Meyer lemons. And I DO have some blueberries in the freezer; this lemon/blueberry cake might be good. Or, this lemon-souffle pudding looks amazing. And this page has about ten billion more recipes.

So basically, I've got options but no real ideas. Also, not a lot of free time in the next two weeks.

Edited to add: Triumph! I found the link for the Lemon Almond Torta I made that was soooooo good. 

another dinner

After my lovely visit to Rhode Island, I had one day off before returning to work. I guess I wasn't ready to let go of the vacation feeling - I decided to have some friends over for dinner, after the triumph of wine night!

I set the table for five:

 

and paused to get a picture of the hillside behind my apartment, which is blooming like crazy right now:

It was super rainy out, so I spent a nice couple of hours making my apartment smell great by producing a huge vat of applesauce, and also a big pot of chicken & dumplings:

 

 The recipe is from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook - I got it for Christmas (well... I got my sister's 2nd copy in exchange for giving her another cookbook at a later date), and the very first time I flipped through it, I fell for that recipe. I vowed to get a Dutch oven and make it, and I knew I'd have to have guests, as it serves 6-8 and I don't think dumplings would keep very well. I still don't know the answer to that, as we scarfed every last dumpling down. Note to self: next time make them smaller so I have hopes of having leftovers! 

It was a lovely way to spend a rainy evening before heading back to work. Now that I've taken the plunge and had people over for dinner, I hope I do more of it. We'll see.

Calling in the librarian super powers!

I went to Rhode Island for five days to hang out with my parents & siblings. Since 1996, my sister and younger brother and I have cooked an elaborate feast on Christmas Eve; since John missed Christmas this year, we planned to do one of our sessions during this visit. We chose a greatest hits theme, picking some of our favorites from the last 13 menus (most of which I have, at least the names of the menu items).

In 1996, Mary made an amazing roasted eggplant & red pepper soup. We knew that had to be on the menu, but when she got to RI, she realized she'd forgotten to bring the recipe, the book was out of print, and she couldn't find a similar-looking recipe online.. Librarians to the rescue! We knew the title of the book (Healthy First Courses) and author (Diane Rossen Worthington), and I used Worldcat to see what libraries still have the book. As it happens, it's in the closed stacks at Multnomah County Public Library, and one of my friends from grad school works in their Central branch. A quick Facebook message and we were on our way! She found the book, transcribed the recipe, and sent it to me via Facebook. How modern!

So here, for posterity, is the recipe for  
Roasted Red Pepper, Eggplant, and Garlic soup

2 red bell peppers
1 eggplant, halved length wise
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
4 cups poultry stock
4 tablespoons fresh basil

1. Preheat broiler. Place the poppers on a broiling pan under the broiler about 4 inches from the heat source. Roast, turning occasionally, until the skin is blistered and slightly charred on all sides, 6-8 minutes. Transfer to paper bag, close tight, let rest for ten minutes. Remove from bag, peel charred skin. Halve peppers, remove the stems, seeds, and ribs. [we cheated and used jarred roasted red peppers]
2. Preheat oven to 400. Coat a roasting pan with nonstick spray. Sprinkle the eggplant halves with salt and pepper. Place them, cut side up, with the garlic in the pan and bake, turning once, until brown and tender when pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes.
3. Halve the eggplant again, place in food processor. Add the garlic and puree, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until smooth, but with a little texture remaining, about 20 seconds. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. [we used an immersion blender]
4. Clean processor bowl and add the bell peppers and cayenne pepper. Puree, scraping down the sides halfway through, until very smooth, about 1 minute. [again, we used the immersion blender, being sure to clean it between batches to keep the flavors separate]
5. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion and saute, stirring, until very tender, 10-12 minutes. Cover and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add the eggplant puree and the poultry stock, stir to mix well and bring to a simmer. Stir until well blended.
6. To serve, ladle into individual bowls. Stir an equal amount of red pepper puree into each serving, without mixing it in completely. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon basil atop each bowl.

It was as delicious as we remembered - definitely a Greatest Hit!

The whole menu:
Roasted eggplant soup
veggie sushi rolls
salad
Vietnamese shaking beef salad
individual baked alaskas (cut an orange in half, hollow it out, fill with vanilla ice cream, cover with meringue, and cook at 500 for 5 minutes. easy and delicious!)

Recipe review: Savory Pumpkin Pie

For this week's lunch group, I made savory pumpkin pie. Okay, so the blogger who posted the recipe is Canadian. Therefore the recipe is actually Savoury Pumpkin Pie, or Kolokithopita. (Aside: I notice he also has a recipe for zucchini pie, and it's also called Kolokithopita, so I assume Kolokithopita = squash pie in Greek).

I won't rip off his recipe, but it's basically:
layer phyllo dough in a pie pan
combine pumpkin, egg, feta, sage, and pepper; pour into the pan, and bake.

I made the recipe as written, but then I realized two things: a) the pie plate wasn't very full; b) I had about 1.5 cups of pumpkin left (stupid can sizes). So, I sort of halved the recipe and made a second batch of the pumpkin/egg/feta/sage combo, and poured it on top of the original layer. (You couldn't tell, fortunately.)

The recipe was easy, that's for sure. It tasted good, but upon discussing it with one of the Lunchers, we agreed it seemed to be missing a flavor note. I think it needed something bright/acid in it, probably some lemon juice. It was easy to make, and I might do it again, but I'll definitely tweak it a bit. You're shocked, I know!

Roasted vegetable soup

I don't think I've talked about lunch group here. In April 2007 four coworkers and I resurrected something from before my time at work - each member of the group brings in lunch for the rest of the group one day per week. So when we had five members, every day we got a home-made mostly-vegetarian meal! (We're flexible on the vegetarian part.)

We've had some gains and losses - one lunch group member is on sabbatical from us because her two small kids and busy life leave her unable to commit to cooking on a regular basis; another member is out on maternity leave right now. But we're carrying on with three right now, and it's almost completely responsible for my revived interest in cooking (my interest in baking is another story for another post).

After 2+ years I've gotten pretty good at winging it. Here's what I did a couple of weeks ago:

Bought a bunch of veggies:

Roasted them:

Heated them in some homemade chicken stock, then pureed them:

I also cooked some wheat berries and mixed them into the puree. I love wheatberries for their amazing chewiness - they NEVER get soggy, and they have a great almost nutty taste.

As a final touch, I had a pretty and flavorful puree made of roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, and basil. Just a dab of that on top of the soup was enough to give it all a great flavor.

I sent a jar of the soup to my at-home-with-infant friends, and served the rest to lunch group. Yum!

Edited to add... haHAH! Librarians to the rescue, thanks Brian!

Garden bounty

I performed a little kitchen magic.

Roast: some garden-fresh tomatoes, and garlic (at 375 for about 45 and 25 minutes, respectively):



Clean and pluck a whole bunch of basil leaves:




Puree the basil with some olive oil and a bit of salt. Plop most of the results into the bottoms of a muffin tin, and freeze. Once they're solid, combine them in a ziplock bag for later use.




Finally, puree the roasted tomato, roasted garlic, and the remnants of the basil (whatever was left in the food processor. Store the results in the fridge and meditate upon the best use of the delicious results.