the velocity

By far the best personal card i've ever seen

2011-12-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

My old roommate's sister, Kate, gave me one of these. Amazing!

Roast Chicken

2011-12-16T04:27:00.000-08:00

I read an interview with Michael Pollen a few years ago when 'Food Rules' came out, his pocket-sized guide for healthy eating. He said that frequently doctors would ask him to write a list of easy-to-follow guidelines or rules for changing one's diet and reducing risk factors for healthy longevity. It's where his succinct driving mantra, "Eat food. Not too much, mostly plants" came from.

He also talked about hearing from doctors who, when talking to a patient whose elevated levels of cholesterol made them candidates for cholesterol medication, would, instead of writing a prescription, give them a recipe for making roast chicken along with 4 or 5 other meals that you could make with the subsequent leftovers.

I know how easy it is to get into a food rut. Of having a rotation of the same 10 ingredients or meals, especially 3 months into a 4 month season (there's something about changing seasons that gets me obsessively back into cooking). However, there will never be a time when I get sick of pulling out a perfectly juicy roast chicken from the oven. And, I'd argue, if you serve seasonal vegetables as a side, a roast chicken dinner can be as nutritious as it is comforting. Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, a comprehensive 'how to' cookbook provides a recipe for roast chicken and 3 or 4 pages of how to change its flavor profile and serve sides for all 4 seasons. Perfect.

Knowing how to roast a chicken to consistent perfection will change your life. I'm not kidding!

I'd say there are weeks where 3 out of every 10 meals we have contain some part of a roast chicken. I've been known to roast 2 or 3 in a weekend in order to break down, shred and freeze for later meals. If i had to guess, I've probably roasted 30 just this year. The bones destined for stock, one chicken can feed the two of us for 5-6 meals, all told. And since 4-5 pound bird can run you as little as $3.00 if you catch it at a good price and have the luxury of a freezer to store a few extra, this is good on all sorts of levels.

First, some tips, then the recipe:

* There are about 350,000 different recipes on roasting chicken. My method ('recipe' seems a bit of a stretch) is a combination of two of my favorite recipes (different sources, both derived from everyday French techniques). The result will be juicy like a rotisserie chicken. I'll be hopefully posting more recipes for different kinds of chicken (very crispy skin, glazed, etc), but this is a workhorse kind of technique that requires very little fuss, making it a go-to for both a lazy Sunday or a just-got-home-haven't-taken-shoes-off-yet kind of frenzied Thursday night dinner.

* I always buy chickens that weigh around 4 1/2 lbs. This is a perfect size for 4 people and (to my eye) is a little bigger than a typical rotisserie chicken you pick up at the store.
The singular reason for the consistency is to make you a better cook, and to minimize time calculations at the end of a busy day. If I only ever cook chicken that weighs 4 1/2 lbs, then through experience I can tell down to the minute when the chicken will be perfectly done. This also helps improve cooking skills in general, since you can teach your other senses how to tell when a chicken is ready to pull out of the oven instead of just relying on the internal temperature.

* Pull your chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for an hour before cooking. After an hour or whenever I work my way back into the kitchen, I take out the neck and organs that they usually throw in there, pat dry with paper towels, then let it sit, surrounded by more paper towels, in a bowl in the sink for another 10 or 15 minutes. This is about half of the total energy that you will expend making the chicken.

* A good rule of thumb is to season the chicken, then turn on the oven. The amount of time it takes the oven to heat up is about equal to the time your chicken should spend with seasoning before cooking.

* If you're using rosemary, put it in after you flip the bird (or after 45 minutes if you're using a different method than below). Rosemary tends to taste medicinal after 45 minutes or an hour and that 'denatured woodsy' note is really overpowering.

* Always always always temp the chicken. Maybe I'm just paranoid or I'm scared of being too cavalier so as to invite tragedy (if movies have taught me anything it is that being boastful will immediately result in a gypsy curse that threatens to take away that which i hold most dear), but you'll truly never learn how to cook food properly if you don't take the temperature of your protein every single time you take it out of the oven to check for doneness.

* Let rest for 20 mins, and, if possible, tilt it breast side down with the neck slightly elevated on an overturned bowl or something. This helps encourage the juices from the breast to redistribute therein, rather than pooling under the thighs.

Roast Chicken (Poulet en Concôte method)

Preparing

1) Remove the chicken from the fridge and let sit out at room temperature for about an hour. If you're short on time or are grossed out about food spending time in the 'danger zone' of temperature, run a very small stream of cold tap water over the chicken for 20 minutes or so and continue to step 2.

2) With the cavity (rear end) pointing down, sit the bird upright in a bowl set in the sink. This will allow the blood to drain while you rinse and trim.
To trim, check the cavity to see if there are organs or neck pieces. Throw out the organs but save the neck (trimming away the skin) for either stock or start a freezer bag of necks for braising (I'm hoping to do a post in praise of turkey/chicken necks in the coming weeks). I cut out the tailbone with a paring or steak knife so the bottom looks like this:

It's not completely necessary to cut it out, but it's like 99% fat and you never really eat it anyway, so...
While you're down there, take a paring knife to any extra pieces of skin that they usually leave on around the cavity area. Most of the ones I get have these huge flaps of skin that they tuck into the cavity that are easily removable. Rinse and sit upright onto paper towels to soak up water and blood. Put paper towels on top as well and let sit for a few minutes while you wash your hands and put 4 tablespoons of salt and maybe 2 tablespoons of pepper in a small bowl. Finally, flip the wing tips behind the breast to keep them from sticking out. It makes him look like he's sunbathing, so, you know, pretty cute.

3) Add salt and pepper mixture all over the chicken, being very liberal. It is actually kind of shocking how much salt it takes. You should have just a little bit left over that you can reserve for the vegetables. Turn the oven to 350 degrees and let sit until the oven beeps.

Cooking

4) When the oven's ready, generously oil a 7 quart cast iron pot (or other large, heavy-bottomed pot with a fitted lid that is oven-safe) and heat over medium-high on the stove top.
Pat the chicken completely dry and add, breast side down, to the pot when the oil starts shimmering and just begins to smoke. Let cook, undisturbed, for 3-4 minutes and then flip and cook for 3-4 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and crispy. add a half lemon and a bunch of thyme sprigs to the cavity. Cover with the lid and put in oven for 45 minutes.

5) While the chicken is cooking, peel and chop 3 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, and an onion. toss with the salt and pepper mixture left over from earlier and enough oil to make the vegetables glisten a little.

6) After 45 minutes, take the chicken out of the pot with tongs and let rest on a plate. Take the temperature of the thickest part of the thigh. If it's somewhere in the 140s, you're about 30-40 minutes away from being done. Add the mixed vegetables to the bottom of the pot (there should be some chicken fat and juices that have rendered already). Flip the chicken and let sit on top of the vegetables breast-side down. Cook for another 20 minutes, then start temping every 5-10 until the breast registers 165 and the thigh measures 175.

7) Tent with foil and let sit, with the breast side down and propped up a little on an overturned bowl, for about 20 minutes before carving. Strain the vegetables and the cooking liquid or else they'll be a little greasy. You can use the strained liquid to make a gravy if you'd like by adding it back to the pot with some flour and chicken stock and simmering on medium while whisking.

Israel's birthday party

2011-12-15T05:34:00.000-08:00

Back in the summer we were invited to our friend Valerie's son's birthday. Valerie passed away in Japan a few months ago. It was very sudden, and as a result, Israel and Alex moved back to Memphis to figure things out. Israel turned 3 and Joanna, Valerie's sister (above) worked so hard to give him a great birthday. He was a little overwhelmed with all the people, but he looked like he had fun. I love this picture of Joanna.

December Challenge

2011-12-13T06:01:00.000-08:00

I am getting SO excited for Christmas this year. For the first time in years, we're not traveling. We're not hosting family from out of town for two weeks. Everyone is happy and healthy and there's no anxiety about putting together a SUPER FUN, VERY EXCITING holiday.
For the first time, It doesn't have to be a Christmas to make us forget who's missing, or a Christmas to help us forget how to be sad or twinged with bereavement.
It's like I've been given the gift of a holiday unmarred by anniversaries or time.

For the first time, this is just Christmas.

More on all of this later, but my reason for posting is to tell you about this thing that I'm doing. And I know it's halfway through December and I'm sharing it with you two weeks late, but I'm so pleased with how things are turning out I think I might do it for January too, mostly because I am a glutton for punishment but also because I could do a better job of tracking things and posting them (that's the idea, anyway).

Given the excesses in all areas of one's life around this time, I have decided to do a how-cheap-can-you-eat-for-a-month month. I thought it might be interesting to do it during a month where you seem to cook and bake for everyone, a time where mixers are pulled out of their nooks and things get really busy in the kitchen.

The goal is $150 per person for the whole month, so $300 for the two of us and whomever else we end up feeding. I've also thrown in an extra $10 for a bag of sugar and a stick of butter to account for holiday baking, but that's it. (This just made it easier to break down to a day-today since December has 31 days.)

So, the budget is $310 for all meals, snacks, potlucks, holiday baking and company. It works out to $5 per person, per day. We shop frugally, but have a lot of company and a taste for fancy cheeses and artisanal vinegars, so this is way more than half of our usual 'budget'.

Here are some more details about the parameters and full disclosures, and an update on how things are going:

1) We're both in kind of a cutting/maintaining phase. As a result, dinner has to be low carb and can't really involve boiling pasta and opening a can of sauce. Lots of vegetables and more expensive, lean proteins and less of cheap carbohydrates, unfortunately. (-)

2) We have a lot of stuff in the deep freeze, which is half the reason why I wanted to do this anyway. 4 or 5 roast chickens, some tamales, ground turkey, frozen vegetables, and chicken stock. Also our pantry is stocked with pasta, many kinds of flour, canned tomatoes ready for making sauce, trail mix and granola bars that i've stocked up on from back-to-school sales in august/september. This makes lunches a little cheaper since i'm not factoring in the cost of something i bought 2 months ago (+)

3) there's no costco over-supply of coffee, bacon, butter, olive oil or parmesan, which are my staples. When they run out, buying them will create an overage or supply for the following month even though i'm not splitting the cost in half to reflect that i'm only consuming half the product for the month (i've completely overthought this). This may not seem like a big deal, but if i bought just those 5 ingredients at costco, even though they are much cheaper to buy in bulk than run to the grocery store for smaller or individual versions, that still comes to about $70, which makes me wince. I figure that the couponing i do for everyday stuff kind of balances this out (-)

4) Because i've bought bulk herbs and spices from my favorite (and highest quality, in my opinion) online place, I am awash in great, fresh seasoning that i consider a bonus because i can make spice pastes and things for cheaper cuts of meat without making it feel like i'm eating poor people food.
I also have a reduced schedule for the rest of the month until we leave for winter break, so i've got extra time on my hands to do more involved recipes that save money but take longer. (+)

5) I have access to an international market that specializes in hispanic food (Winchester Farmer's Market) and a produce place (Easy-way) that has fresh produce staples as well as sells markdown produce that makes chicken stock (and subsequent soups) really cheap, bringing down the total for the month. (+)

It being almost the middle of the month, we're doing pretty good. We've spent just over $150 and have a pretty amazingly stocked fridge and only need to restock some basic items until the weekend. This extreme reduction month requires a LOT of planning and enough extra work to perhaps make it illogical to do every day for the entire year, but it's not SO much that you can't bring your monthly total down significantly once you get in the routine.

I'll take a picture this week of my menu planner with my item-by-item totals and maybe post a couple of recipes of cheap stuff we're eating. Yesterday was turkey burgers, carrot fries, and stuffed mushrooms and worked out to about $6.40 for both of us, including breakfast and lunch.

so long, sweet summer

2011-12-06T05:38:00.001-08:00

my favorite picture: the little guy's taking a siesta after eating all of my damn parsley

Summer Update: Sangeet

2011-09-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

This was by far the most pictures i've ever taken in one night. i think before editing i took over 800 in the span of 3 hours, obsessively trying to capture the vibrancy of all of the colors and ornate jewelry and decorations and absorb it all.

a longtime friend of my mom's is from mexico but married an indian guy. their daughter married a cuban dude in mexico last year, and their son married an (absolutely gorgeous) indian girl in a very traditional ceremony.

this is the first i've really been able to peek into this weeks-long ceremony and have always wanted to see it firsthand. gorgeous!

my favorite picture:

since we were guests of the groom's family, we celebrated at their party. the bride's family was in an identical room next door and an accordion wall separated the two. after some traditional singing and dancing, they broke the wall down and everyone partied and ate together.

groom's sister in the center

my mom's friend

the groom

groom's father

Darrel-lynne "Only Other White Girl Present" Thieson

bride

groom's father

my godmother, the groom's brother-in-law, the groom's father

tiniest woman competition winner

Summer Update: Canada

2011-09-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

For the first time in a few years, I went up to Canada for good reasons. I hung out leisurely, made fun plans, caught up with friends and didn't have a nagging, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that reality would eventually catch up with me and i would go back to worrying and processing and all of that. so needless to say it was a great time, and left me with a kind of feeling like you get when you finally book a massage, remember how awesome you feel and wonder why you don't do it more often.
it was fabulous. everyone was so smiley and happy and excited, and i needed the visit. i need to be around the overly polite, i need good chicken wings and swiss chalet and cute accents things taking much longer than they should but people still patiently wait. it was also very sweet of them to let me in the country with a canadian passport even though i have an 'intense southern accent' now apparently.

I stayed with Dee, had a ton of fun with her reconnecting and got to see enough of friends and family to make it feel like a great span of time. i miss you, canada! here are some pictures:

Love them!

Summer Update: Winnipeg, wedding

2011-09-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

Summer Update

2011-09-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

So... it's been 4 months. It has literally flown by, if that helps. Now that it feels like the seasons are changing it always makes me want to reflect and reconnect. The following few posts will be a series of updates and picture posting. Hope you've been doing well!

goldenberries: the tomatillos of the fruit world

2011-06-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

How adorable are these goldenberries? they're like little gorgeous fruit tomatillos!
the flavor is bright, a little tangy like a tangerine, and filled with little seeds that are smaller than a kiwi's.

They often come dried and are another one of those touted superfoods. apparently they're used as a remedy for asthma, among other things, and is an anti-inflammatory. Fresh, though, they would make an amazing fruit sauce or jam, especially with the tiny seeds. However, at $7 for a tiny basket, goldenberry jam might be a little too rich for my blood. this time around we threw it in a spinach salad with apples, hearts of palm and thinly sliced and rinsed purple onions with a honey mustard vinaigrette.

the past 2 weeks, weather-ly speaking

2011-06-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

It's hard to talk about anything other than the weather here. Right now the air conditioning is not working and it's 100 degrees and screaming bright outside. A week and a half ago, though, there were crazy storms and nothing but sticky, humid weather and nightly storms and tornado warnings.

The weather is sunnier and warmer and so begins the summer, it feels like it. so many things are blooming and opening and ripening. a great excuse for my favorite, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches:

we're trying to take advantage of the warm evenings and the hot afternoons as much as possible before the heat and humidity get too insufferable, so we packed our things and went to the sunset symphony next to the river this past weekend and it was fabulous!

perfect weather, a great excuse to go down to the river for a gorgeous view, and so much fun. we packed snacks and wine and water and chilled out on picnic blankets and listened to the orchestra and music and watched the awesome fireworks.

Erbazzone with turnip greens and pancetta

2011-05-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Had this for dinner the other night after seeing something like it on Lidia's Italy. I like this recipe because it's incredibly unfussy and even before it came out of the oven, it was clear that this would be a go-to recipe and a great way to make sheepish seasonal vegetables really sing.

It really came out as a less eggy quiche, or the vegetable filling inside a lasagna. it was phenomenal.

I will say, however, that when we had people over yesterday it was very humid out and the dough ust didn't end up that great. maybe i added too much water but i really doubt it. it just ended up kind of cakey and not crisp, and it didn't hold together in the same way as the first time i made it, so i wasn't able to roll it out superthin and it couldnt crisp. i'm going to play around with the dough and get some actual measurements of ingredients figured out. until then, some pictures:

slow news day

2011-05-10T16:30:00.001-07:00

sorry, guys. my camera has been on the fritz for the past 2 weeks, and on saturday it just magically started working again. forgive the kitty photo.

Cats Holding Stephen Harper

2011-04-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here

2011-04-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

adobo paste - red chile marinade

2011-04-25T16:47:00.001-07:00

I would urge you to try to make this paste just once and for no other reason than to really understand what true Mexican flavors are made of. With a few exceptions, the true Mexican palate is not sympathetic to 'hot' foods; mostly the heat is delivered through very potent and innocuous looking salsas and condiments. the main flavors are a little sweet, some bitter, mostly savory, and unbelievably complex. This adobo paste calls for the toasting and rehydration of some chiles, a process that, when combined with the rest of the spices and herbs, creates a gorgeous, deep, almost buttery and slightly bitter compound.

i used it this weekend with some shredded rotisserie chicken and acorn squash (roasted with a little honey) for a tamale filling. i think it has less heat than you would think, but adds so many layers of complexity that it's hard to describe accurately.

Here's how i did it, thanks, again, to rick bayless and his guidance:

Yield: 1 generous cup

8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4 medium (~2 oz) dried ancho choles, stemmed, seeded and deveined
6 medium (~1 1/2 oz) dried guajillos, stemmed seeded and deveined

1/2 in cinammon stick (or ~1/2 tsp ground)
1 clove (or a pinch ground)
10 black peppercorns (or 1/4 tsp ground)
2 large bay leaves, broken up (I used 1/2 tsp ground bay leaves [laurel molido])
1/8 tsp cumin seeds (or generous 1/8 tsp ground)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme (i used a sprig or two of fresh)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c cider vinegar
3 Tbsp water

Toasting the chiles and garlic: Roast the garlic cloves on a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat, turning frequently, until blackened in spots and very soft, about 15 minutes - i put the cloves in the pan before turning the heat on so the garlic could soften more before blackening
Remove, cool, skin, and roughly chop

While the garlic is roasting, tear the chiles into flat pieces and toast them a few at a time: use a metal spatula to press them firmly (i mean really squish them down. make those suckers sizzle under your spatula) against the hot surface for a few seconds, until they blister, crackle and change color, ten flip them over and press them flat to toast the other side.

(Note: if you use the same heavy-bottomed pan for this as the garlic toasting, like i did, this should only take a few seconds per side. i took mine off the heat to slow the blackening down, then returned it towards the end. this whole process takes just a few minutes)

Soaking the chiles: Break the chiles into a small bowl, cover with boiling water, weight with a plate to keep submerged and soak 30 minutes. Drain, tear into smaller pieces, place in a blender jar and add the garlic.

Finishing the adobo: in a mortar or spice grinder, pulverize the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaves, and cumin. Add to the chiles along with the oregano, thyme, salt, vinegar and 3 tablespoons water.
ith a long series of blender pulses, reduce the mixture to a paste: run the blender for a few seconds until the mixture clogs, then scrape down the sides with a spatula and stir; repeat a dozen times or more until the mixture is smooth. Don't add water unless absolutely necessary or this marinating paste won't do its job well. strain the paste through a medium-mess sieve into a noncorrosive container with a tight-fitting lid. Cover and refrigerate.

tomorrow: adobo paste

2011-04-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

tamales

2011-04-22T20:41:00.001-07:00

Tabasco sauce - chile de arbol hot sauce

2011-04-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy to have found such a great recipe. It is a perfect challenge for a weekend afternoon; it requires some time, a moderate amount of effort, and is just a lot of fun to fool with ingredients that are less than everyday.

Though it takes a little while start to finish, i promise that 80% of the time is spend rolling and splitting chiles, which doesn't take much effort and can be pretty fun.

Coupled with that the fact that this hot sauce lasts indefinitely in the refrigerator, this might be a good experiment for personal use or, alternately, a perfect birthday present for a friend (whom we all have) who can't eat without a bottle of hot sauce nearby.

Here, on the left is traditional tapatio sauce while the one on the right is the homemade tabasco. I will say that this tastes more like tabasco than tapatio, i just didn't have red tabasco in the house to compare it with. note, though, the similar consistencies. I love when i get at least one thing right.

Though it takes about an hour just to de-seed the chiles, I do promise that this requires effort in the form of occupied indifference - that is to say that the chile rolling and extracting is best while watching an hour-long law and order or something, given that it is mostly mindless work. This is where the mimosa comes in, in case you were looking for a cue.
example:

I will caution you to not touch any eyes, nose, or any other body parts, even an hour after you handle the chiles. fair warning.
__________________________________________________________________

1 1/4 oz dried chiles de arbol (appx. 50-60 mixed-sized)
1 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 Tbsp shelled pumpkinseeds (pepitas)
1/4 tsp cumin seeds (or a generous 1/4 tsp ground)
4 large allspice berries (or 1/8 tsp ground)
2 cloves (or big pinch ground)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
2 lg cloves garlic, peeled and roughly clopped
3/4 c cider vinegar
1 mimosa, prepared

Chiles and seeds: stem the chiles, then roll then roll them between your thumb and fingers, pressing gently to loosen the seeds inside. Break in half, shake out as many seeds as possible, then place in a blender jar.
(i developed a method of rolling briefly, splitting in half, and rolling seeds out for a few seconds into a bowl for this step. just experiment with it and see what works)

(leftover, shaken-out seeds)
(arbol chiles, after de-stemming and -seeding)

Assembling the paste: Heat an ungreased skillet over medium-low. Measure in the sesame seeds and stir for several minutes as they brown and pop; scoop into the blender jar. Add the pumpkinseeds to the skillet. When the first one pops, stir constantly for several minutes, until all are golden and have popped up into a round shape.

Blending the sauce: Pulverize the cumin, allspice and cloves in a mortar or spice grinder, then add to the blender jar along with the oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar. Blend for several minutes, until the mixture is orange-red and feels quite smooth when a drop is rubbed between your fingers.

Straining and ripening the sauce: Strain through a mesh sieve or strainer, working the solids back and forth and pressing them firmly; there will be a fair amount of chile seeds, skins, sesame hulls, and other debris to discard, but be careful that there is nothing liquid trapped within them.
Stir in 3/4 cup water, then pour into a bottle, cover and let stand for 24 hours before serving.

breakfast of champions

2011-04-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

if i could eat this for breakfast every day for the rest of my life i'd be a happy woman. i might even consider giving up eggs benedict for brunch it's so good. my idea of an absolutely perfect way to wake up:

refried beans, scrambled eggs with a slice of kraft singles and crushed tortilla chips stirred in at the last seconds, a soft flour tortilla and some (turkey) bacon with a drizzle of syrup on top.

garden update!

2011-04-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

it is my great pleasure to reintroduce the very boring, only-interesting-to-me updates about our garden, which is currently just a bunch of stuff in pots and one lone cucumber making his way in the world in a bed next to some shrubs.

so far we've planted 3 kinds of peppers, 3 kinds of tomatoes, tomatillos (yellow and purple, how exciting!) that are trying to sprout indoors first and about 7 or 8 kinds of herbs. i still feel some intense urges to head back to get some more plant starters, but so far this is more than enough to keep up with. things are just starting a first bloom and new leaf growth, and have been doing very well despite our crazy storms lately.

Living in the South: flowers in season

2011-04-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Walking around the house once a week is an adventure. with everything blooming at different times, looking for new blooms is a real blink-and-you'll-miss-it endeavor. i can't tell you how many gorgeous and unexpected flowers i missed out on when i told myself i'd take a picture of them 'tomorrow' or 'later' and they were gone by the time i went back.

Salsa Verde - quick, quick

2011-04-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Since discovering the mexican grocer, i've gone three times in less than a week. so far i've bought about 7 pounds of tomatillos just to make this salsa verde for the freezer. every time i make it, it disappears before i can squirrel away a batch or two for the deep freeze. 'well,' i said to myself sassily, 'just try and eat through a quadruple batch.'

I'm working my way through a bunch of recipes in Rick Bayless' Authentic Mexican, and this one is a great kickoff recipe; it's super-easy and very very low maintenance (the whole thing takes about 30 minutes, so definitely doesn't need to be a weekend attempt). the hardest thing is pureeing the tomatillos, which is nothing more difficult than pressing the food processor button.

i really didn't know about this recipe, in that i questioned whether it would taste cohesive and balanced enough since it only cooks for about 20 minutes. from making tomato sauce and stock, i sometimes get it stuck in my head that something can only have flavor if it has been simmering for 3 hours. and while, yes, there's a lot of long-simmering required for mexican cooking, part of the freshness comes from quick blanching or short simmers. it was a good lesson, especially since the flavors of this recipe are both bright and meaty, a product of the quick method.

The recipe in the cookbook lists optional alternatives to ingredients (like a can of tomatillos), but i excluded the ones i didn't use and am just listing exactly what i did.

Salsa Verde

1 pound (11 medium) fresh tomatillos, husked and washed
5-6 sprigs fresh coriander, roughly chopped
3 jalapenos or 2 large ones (i carefully cut off as much stem as possible without cutting into the flesh. it's okay if a little bit of the top nub remains, just no woody stem. will help with processing later)
1 small onion, quartered
1 large garlic clove
1 Tbsp lard or vegetable oil
2 c broth (i used chicken)
Salt (depending on the saltiness of the broth)

1) boil the fresh tomatillos and chiles in salted water to cover until tender, 10 to 15 minutes; drain. (the tomatillos will leach their bright green color and will come out a little green pea soup-y, the jalapenos should be only sightly discolored.)

2) the puree: Place the tomatillos and jalapeno in a food processor or blender (i took one jalapeno and cut the top off, squeezing out the membrane and seeds, and returned flesh to processor. this will make a strong medium-heat salsa verde. if you want mild, or your enchilada filling has heat to it, feel free to de-seed all of your jalapenos). Add the cilantro, onion, and garlic. Process until smooth, about 10 seconds.

3) The sauce: heat the lard or vegetable oil in a medium-large skillet set over medium-high. When hot enough to make a drop of the puree sizzle sharply, pour it all in at once and stir constantly for 4 or 5 minutes, until darker and thicker. add the borth, let return to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until thick enough to coat a spoon, about 10 minutes. season with salt to taste.

For making enchiladas, this is what i do:

scoop enough salsa verde on to the bottom of the baking dish, just enough to cover lightly. roll up the enchiladas with whatever filling you'd like (i like finely diced zucchini, mushrooms, cooked potatoes and onions, sauteed and browned with chicken fat, with leftover chicken and a little cheese mixed in. i will staunchly insist you add some (not a lot) of cheese to the filling. it helps hold everything intact, like delicious glue. arrange very snugly, seam side down, on the baking dish and pour the remaining salsa verde over the middles of the enchiladas, leaving the sides of the tortillas unsmothered so they can crisp. crumble cheese overtop and spray cooking oil over the bare tortilla parts. scoop the remaining salsa verde around the sides.

bake in 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until the cheese starts to brown. turn the oven off and let sit for another five minutes or so. the residual heat will crisp up the cheese and let you get everything to the table while the enchiladas are hot.

i love you, too!!

2011-04-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

boston cream cupcakes

2011-04-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

These cupcakes are damn good. bright vanilla cake with an amazing pastry cream filling and a chocolate glaze. very rich, and not as dense as i was worried they'd be. i swear, i don't think i've made an america's test kitchen recipe that didn't turn into a go-to food.

now they do take a few hours. the fact that they are so worth it might encourage you to make them for someone you really like, as they don't just 'whip up' and do take a stretch of time.
and please, don't make the pastry cream the day before and store it. just take it from me. oh, sure, it'll keep and might split up the time you spend on the cupcakes into manageable chunks, but you'll not have any left, because one spoonful will turn into ten and you'll be running back to the store to do another batch. which is funny, because you, the baker, know full well it's just butter and heavy cream and eggs, and you can count the calories instead of being blissfully ignorant, but you'll eat it just as quickly all the same. i had to stop myself only because i knew i didn't have enough butter for a makeup batch, while the idea of skipping dinner in order to guiltlessly eat the rest of the bowl was already an acceptable compromise in my mind. so if you just want to go ahead and double the recipe in case some 'drops on the floor', you'll get no sideways looks from me. just make sure when it does come time to start filling the insides, you make a really big, hollow center and fill to the top. some does get soaked up into the cake (though not much) and the glaze on top is perfect because it's like a little shellac that'll cover up any overflowing custard.

Pastry Cream
1 1/3 c heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
1/3 c (2 1/3 oz) sugar
pinch salt
4 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in half
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) bring the cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk the yolk, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. add the cornstarch and whisk until the mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 15 seconds.

2) when the cream reaches a full simmer, slowly whisk it into the yolk mixture. return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and glossy, about 1 1/2 minutes.

off the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla. transfer the pastry cream to a small bowl and refrigerate, with plastic wrap pressed flush against its surface, until cold and set, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Cupcakes
nonstick cooking spray
1 3/4 c (8 1/4 oz) all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c (7 oz) sugar
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 12 pieces
3 lg eggs
3/4 c milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350. coat a standard muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray, flour generously, and tap the pan to remove the excess flour.

2) with a handheld mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar on low speed in a large bowl. add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and combine until the mixture resembles coarse sand. add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix until combined. add the milk and vanilla, increase the speed to medium, and mix until light and fliffy and no lumps remain, about 3 minutes.

3) fill the muffin cups 3/4 full (don't overfill). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18-20 minutes. cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Glaze

3/4 c heavy cream
1/4 light corn syrup
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) Cook the cream, corn syrup, chocolate, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. set aside to cool and thicken for 30 minutes.

2) to hollow the cupcakes out, insert a small knife near the edge of the cupcake and cut all the way around, like how you remove the stem from a tomato or apple or something. just make sure you take out a significant amount. if you look closely at the finished product pictures, there's not much save for a shell left of the cupcake itself. these cupcakes dont rise that much, so there's not a whole lot of room for the cream to go if you don't gut it fearlessly. then cut the removed top so that just the top crust remains, which you put on top of the cream like a little hat. the recipe says you should be able to spoon 2 Tbsp on the cream into every cupcake.

3) set the filled cupcakes on a wire rack set over parchment. spoon 2 tablespoons of glaze over each cupcake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Refrigerate until just set, about 10 minutes.

sorry these finished photos look messy! we were running really late.

awesome day!

2011-04-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

FRIENDS. i am just so excited. just so, so excited. when we left california i thought i'd have to mail order all of my chiles and corn husks and such when i got some time to really seriously get into mexican food. not so! as i happened to come across a random article of the commercial appeal regarding a latino and asian market combined into one awesome place of bliss.
i literally squealed when i found a wall of chiles that i was willing to pay 10x more for at Penzey's spices. just look at these little bagged jewels!

and another great find (i really really really had to pace myself.) was fresh rendered pork fat, which is a common ingredient and is what makes great flour tortillas, tamales, mole, etc.

very excited!

so as the school i work for is going on a passover holiday for 2 weeks, i've got some big projects coming up to stock the freezer with; a big batch of salsa verde, corn and flour tortillas, tabasco sauce, roasted poblano base, tamales, moles, adobo seasoning paste and achiote.

verrrryyyy excited!!!

AMAZING.

2011-04-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

Cat and Dolphin getting along juuuust fine.

i've watched this seriously 10 times today. THE DOLPHIN IS TRYING TO PET THE CAT. unbelievable.

visit

2011-04-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

tandoori chicken

2011-04-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

I really think i was born in the wrong hemisphere.

When the weather is cold and sends you diving under the covers, i'm craving foods like grilled corn and crisp salads. i make a lot of quick soups. i grumble about the state of cucumbers and asparagus. i think the homiest things i want to make in the cold months are roast chicken and potatoes or creamed spinach.

now that spring is here and this weekend has been so warm, i'm spending this gorgeous day with my favorite lazy afternoon companions: dorie greenspan and thomas keller. i've pulled 'around my french table' and 'ad hoc at home' down from the cookbook shelves and what recipes do i run my fingers over contemplatively? why, the braised short ribs. the long-simmering pork shoulder with peach glaze. the beef stew that takes four days to make and requires two kinds of fresh stock. you know, stuff that you should be making to lift your spirits and warm your hands when it's snowing outside. when you run in from the cold and light the fireplace. not the kinds of foods you want to crave when it's so hot outside the fridge fogs up when you open it. not the kinds of foods that will make the place so stinking hot you have to sit for a while with a cold towel on your forehead if you stay in the kitchen for too long. which, by the way, happened at least a half dozen times last summer. memphis summer nights damn near killed me.

so i'm beginning to realize why andy comes home and is so exasperated when he sees the dutch oven come out on a day the air conditioning has been running nonstop. he knows what's coming; the main characters have just made their first appearance.
i'm slowly understanding how messed up my brain is. for some reason, i just always crave hot, stick-to-your-ribs, heavy dishes during the hottest days.
so this year i'm trying to compromise. trying. grilling outside with spice heat instead of heat stroke heat. see? compromise. baked beans that can cook for five hours outside in a crock pot with an extension cord. how brilliant you are, Julia! and that's just the beginning.

so to kick it off: tandoori chicken on the grill.
this is an america's test kitchen recipe that i've been excited about for a while. there haven't been any blow-your-socks-off indian restaurants in my life for a while, so i've been missing out on this charred, moist, super-flavorful chicken for a long time.

the tandoori paste was right on, and i loved how it stained my hands like henna. i think that with each new season i get so excited with new crops and ingredients to work with that i tend to slow down when the weather begins to change again, like i'm holding back my energy for the next season. i can already feel the mexican vibes flow through me this spring, so maybe i can mail-order some dried chiles and finally tackle some mole or tamales on my own.

without presumptions that i could improve upon an ATK recipe, i've made a few slight changes for cooking this on the grill instead of the oven. also, i know it's a pain to run out and buy a knob of fresh ginger instead of using powdered, but please do it. it lends a brightness that counters the deep, heavy spices and is really worth it. also, i got 3 small limes and it was more than enough for the recipe.

Tandoori Chicken

3 lbs chicken parts (1 3-lb chicken cut up), bone in and skin removed
4 T lime juice
1 c whole yogurt
2 tsp salt

Paste:
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp chili powder (i used ancho chili powder for all but 1/8th tsp or so, where i added in some cayenne)
1 Tbsp garam marsala

Gash the chicken pieces on one side a few times with a sharp knife, 1/8 inch deep

Heat oil on medium. Add garlic and ginger and cook swiftly, not letting brown. Add other spices and cool for a minute to bloom.

Divide Paste into 2 bowls - one larger and one smaller. to the smaller bowl add 2 Tbsp lime juice and the yogurt.
To the larger bowl, add the remaining 2 Tbsp lime juice and 2 tsp salt. Add gashed chicken and really rub the paste all over, making sure to get into the cuts. let sit for 30 mins at room temp.

Pour yogurt mixture over chicken and mix. oil the grill to prevent sticking, though it'll still stick a bit because of the yogurt. grill should be set to 325 (med. low). place chicken scored side down.

grill for 20-25 minutes (until breast meat registers 125 degrees, thigh 130), then flip and turn grill to low and cook for another 10 minutes or so. if the chicken breast is closer to 160 before you flip, consider taking the breast meat off a little earlier than the rest of the pieces.
when done, meat should register 160 degrees at the breast and 175 for the dark meat. tent with foil for a few minutes before eating.

if you wanted to make a mint chutney with this, process mint, onion, lime juice and yogurt until smooth.

if you're doing this in the oven, the instructions are to bake @325 for 22 minutes, then turn oven broiler on and ensure rack is mid-low in the oven. flip chicken and finish cooking 8-10 minutes.

a well-planned wedding is a thing of beauty...

2011-04-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

a well-planned wedding is a thing of beauty. if you're lucky, your only duty is to show up looking cute and accept offerings of champagne and hopefully tasty food. 2 weekends ago we went to my sister-in-law's wedding and it was awesome. AWESOME. mindblowingly awesome. and i'm not saying that because our only job was to show up looking cute, sip champagne, and eat awesome food (i'm still thinking of the gumbo). the rooftop champagne toast aside, we had an amazing view:

lots of smiley, happy people:

and an overall great time:

honestly, this was the BEST wedding ever! we had such an amazing time. things could not have been more perfect!

Smoothies

2011-03-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

This morning i ran to the grocery store for a few things and found a bag of pepino melons. normally $5 per melon (seriously. and these aren't even as big as a mango!), i found a bag of 5 good-looking beauties for a dollar. not one to walk away from a good deal, i thought i'd use this opportunity to try a melon i had always wanted to eat but never had.

refreshing like a watermelon, slightly perfumed like a cantaloupe, and with surprising richness like a papaya, these mild fruits have a great yield and look adorable sitting on the counter (they're a soft egg yolk-yellow with dark purple streaks and look like a cosmic mistake). They're also not a front-line fruit; they lack any kind of punch or distinct flavor that would make them a fruit that... well, a fruit that you had actually heard of. so i just thought i'd send them to the background to heighten a fruit salad or... oh wait! we drink smoothies now. perfect.

You know the commercials or movies where a guy comes in from his morning jog, then opens his stainless steel refrigerator and returns with perfectly ripe, fake-looking fruit, and just 'whizzes up' a smoothie? and that's breakfast? with no buttery bread in the conversation, no eggs with syrup? just... fresh fruit?

i'm sorry, but that just doesn't work for me. i need a proper breakfast. if i were searching for an excuse, i'd blame my quasi-English upbringing, and by that i mean i was raised in the same vicinity as a few 2nd generation English offspring. i need eggs. (turkey) bacon. and most importantly, 1/2 a day's worth of carbs. potatoes preferably, but i won't scoff at a toasted english muffin. maybe some grits could join us.

so, in my opinion, breakfast is way more important to get right than lunch. i've eaten many a crappy lunch sandwich happily. more often, i'm eating leftovers across all points of the 'tasty' spectrum every day. lunch, to me, is sort of an afterthought, consisting of whatever you can scrounge up and eaten in however many seconds or minutes you have to spare. but breakfast? oh, dear. if you mess my breakfast up i'm about ready to cut you.

which is why i know with full certainty that i will never be the guy, fresh from a morning run, whizzing up a smoothie and calling it breakfast. but. BUT. i think i could be halfway.

in the past month we've been doing a lot of celebratory eating. imbibing, too (let's not kid each other), and all of excesses made me realize, two days before my sister-in-law's wedding, that i needed to get my food life in order. so, in similar fashion to how i react to many things, i started making lists. writing down everything i've eaten in an attempt to shame myself into eating better and get back on track. and it worked (it always does), but it also made me realize that even though i feel we eat well 80% of the time (the past few weeks completely falling in the 20% category), i honestly thought we were better with fruit. i love fruit, and just assumed we got enough on a daily basis. not so, said my carefully written lists. not so at all.

so here was the inspiration behind our now-daily smoothies. by no (NO) means is this a breakfast replacement. i see this as more of a breakfast mini appetizer. and, i can say, an amazing way to wake up. so thirst-quenching, nothing too sweet, and nice fiber and refreshing bits of things that are good for you. it's a little 'you're welcome, body' taste before i proceed to deliver a punch of calories and protein.

and let me just say that making daily smoothies without buying a frozen mix is so damn easy. maybe once a month or every few weeks i'll make a sort of batch, which is to say i cut fruit, lay them out on a rack and leave to freeze for 3 hours. maybe an hour of peeling and cutting for a month or so of smoothies. and then just a minute or two in the morning assembling and blending. to me, that kind of time required in exchange for getting a bunch of my fruit requirements per day and extra protein, antioxidants, and fiber is worth it. can you tell i'm trying to hard-sell this concept? and you can add as many other things as you want to: flax seed, those little acai berry smoothie packs (have you seen those bags of individually-wrapped 1 oz portions in the freezer section?), and my favorite, a teaspoon of granulated soluble fibre (benefiber).

almost of the things that you are told to eat and that will save your life and make you live to a thousand years can be put into a smoothie and can be consumed very happily. no punishment required.

so this is what i do:

about once a month, i go to the store and get the old, ripe bananas that are dirt cheap and shrouded in shame in the form of a white paper bag and bright manager's special sticker. so long as they just have a couple of spots on them, they're cool. anything more funky and just get the regular ones. you want ripe bananas, not welfare bananas.

then i usually get a box of cuties (in canada they're the christmas mandarins, but sometimes in the summer they have something similar) and spend a small part of a lazy weekend afternoon peeling and separating the orange segments, then arranging (cutely) on a rack and then freezing. i recommend a law&order marathon weekend, but it's not mandatory.

[peeling and segmenting the orange is the longest step, and if you want to skip it or your oranges are awful, feel completely free to use orange juice as a liquid and be done with it. no judgment from this side, just cut & freeze whatever you like to replace.]

then you can get a tub of plain or vanilla (check the sugar content) yogurt and wait around until a fruit you like is in season and then is fresh and cheap, then cut it up and freeze it too. which is why, after tasting the melon today, i found myself compelled to tell you about the smoothies. go make smoothies!

for liquids i use a big dollop of yogurt, some coconut milk (i love that it's light, flavorful, and the cartons are shelf-stable so you never are without) or regular milk, and sometime a spash of whatever fruit juice we have on hand.

also, it should be mentioned, that the Magic Bullet is the best invention ever. When Andy lived up in Canada with my roommates and i, his birthday came a few days before he left to California again. So I booked a hotel room with an on-site spa for extra relaxation, and got a suite so we could have a room dedicated to snacks and chilling wine. it was supposed to be a romantic interlude before he left (did i mention i lived with 5 other people at the time?). My girl Jacquie was off work that day, and offered to help distract him with lunch and drinks while i ran to the italian centre and got the good snacks. the imported salami, the smoked salmon and spread, the melt-in-your-mouth smoked gouda slices. then jacquie drove him to our pick-up location, and i got so excited about other people appreciating our snacks, i invited her up for an hour for some wine and food. what began as a romantic escape quickly devolved into shoving our faces full of food and watching a will ferrell movie on their pay per view (not a euphemism, jerks). after the movie cut and the credits ran, the tv cut to a Magic Bullet infomercial.

friends, it was all over from there. it really was. for 2 hours we watched demonstrations about how amazing this product was. instant salsa? 10 second alfredo? blueberry smoothies??? all amazing. about a half hour in we couldn't find out how to turn on the AC and called downstairs. a guy came up to fix it and he, too, stood transfixed. of course, this was in 2004 and way before facebook (i think?) and twitter and this product being sold at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Macys. this was the Magic Bullet's inception. Three years later, i was still talking about the Magic Bullet and Claire, an old roomie, bought us one off of some random As Seen on TV website for our wedding. now, i'm not going to say i pulled it out all the time. mostly to make small batches of ground almonds for indian dishes, or as a spice blender for rubs and marinades. but i can't say i used it more than once a month, until the smoothies. now i thank claire almost every day, out loud like a woman unbalanced, for our amazing Magic Bullet. it even has lids! so you can make three or four smoothies at a time and put lids on them, then keep them in the fridge and add the frozen fruit and ice the morning of. the cup portions are perfect, and it blends frozen stuff amazingly. the future is here.

sigh.

2011-03-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

i know it's been a while, but so many exciting things have been happening lately!
we moved to our first house and it is beyond awesome. we have grown up furniture and a backyard and framed things on walls and an actual place to put stuff. it's amazing!! here are a couple of random pictures:

Duck update

2011-01-12T16:01:00.001-08:00

Well, we close on our house next week and so this is probably going to be one of the last updates of our little friends. It was a cold, cold day down here, but bright and sunny. i saw a little friendly walk by followed by a fuzzy carpet of newborns. It was adorable, because these little guys were so young they had no idea what to do about the bread we were dropping for them and were literally shivering and huddled together like they were kindergarteners outside at recess.

2010

2011-01-03T20:21:00.001-08:00

well, first let me begin by apologizing.

i'm very sorry, world. i'm sorry for not posting in a month. i'm sorry for only now posting silly pictures. i am just a whole novel of sorry.

we've done nothing but sit on the couch with a huge down comforter watching movies, eating the most unhealthy food, drinking awesome wine, and catching up on our tivo queue while getting excited about the many changes yet to happen in 2011. and since you can't look forward before you first look back, we've been looking at a lot of photos.

i remember how when, after years of long-distance dating spanning across two countries, we finally lived in the same place permanently we just couldn't believe it. we were in stunned silence for about 6 months at least. we would wake in a panic, still half-asleep and would immediately try to calculate how many days and hours we had left together before one of us would have to board a plane and how long it would be before we saw each other again. when i moved, we would be doing everyday things like brush our teeth or make toast and pause, wide-eyed, and say "we live together. you don't have to leave!" it just seemed so surreal.

we spent 3 years in a perpetual countdown and we just felt plain guilty when it was over. like we were completely undeserving of the blessings we had been given, and undeserving of the pleasures of waking up together without having to worry when one of us would leave. we were waiting for the other shoe to drop, or for a strange twist to happen in the third act to make us feel the consequences of our happiness. watching movies, you never get comfortable with the happiness afforded to the protagonist and you wait and watch and wait and watch for it to all end horribly.

so when my mom got sick, i hate to say it, but part of me just really felt like it was punishment for being so happy. and it took a long while to reconcile with that and realize how awful it was to feel that way.

so the photos this year are of us in a new chapter. being happy means more after experiencing such sorrow, and i love that our smiles have been tarnished and repolished and we just look like we're smiling in a deeper way, a way that to me is so much more significant. you can never go through life and become more innocent or less scarred, and i have become very happy seeing our more recent photos. we're grinning and happy and so much more in love, because we're not happy like we were when we first got married, in stunned silence at our life without worries. we're smiling now from the other side, beaming, with a new understanding of the necessary interplay between the dark and light.

Dinner Last Night

2010-11-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

I made the two tarts in the Around My French Table cookbook with amazing results. One, a traditional margherita with an olive tapenade as the base. The anchovy in the tapenade was really perfect. I can't believe I've never thought to include it in my previous lacklustre tapenade attempts.

The other, an unbelievably tasty combination of deeply caramelized onions, pancetta, and thinly sliced raw scallops fired under the broiler to barely cook at the last second. By far my favorite of the two. Though the huge diver scallops were on the pricey side, you really only need 2 for the dish (I made 4 pastry rounds per recipe, so 8 total), so I appreciate how the recipe makes frugal use out of the most expensive ingredients.

The photos are crappy; turns out the sun really does set at five, even if you're not finished with the dish until 5:30 and actually expect the sun to wait so you can take pictures in decent light. Rude.

oh hi

2010-10-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of random pictures from the past couple of weeks. Have been doing more bread baking now that it's not 500 degrees out.

Here are a couple of random pictures from the past couple of weeks. Have been doing more bread baking now that it's not 500 degrees out.

duck update: migration island

2010-10-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

So we haven't seen a lot of our waddling friends in a couple of months. A few weeks ago we saw that a bunch of them had been staying in the big lake in the middle of the apartment complex and that the word had spread. When we took a walk over there last week we discovered something like a Temptation Island resort for watery fowl, like a singles club for a few dozen ducks. Here are a couple of pictures from about a week ago. I am completely enamored with the little growths around the beak of some of the ducks, as they're all different and some have hair and things growing out of them. Anyway, as you can see they are not at all unfriendly with humans and a bunch of them even grunted and complained when Andy didn't throw bread in their direction for a few minutes. My favorite duck was this new dark horse that looks like Darth Maul.

Echo Flower Shawl

2010-10-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

This shawl was a great lesson in believing in the virtues of blocking. Since I had a specific friend in mind when making this, I became so discouraged with how small I was convinced it would turn out to be that it sat in a 'to be finished' basket for a month or two. The pattern scrunched the stitches up so completely that i was all but ready to throw it out. After blocking, however, it unraveled itself perfectly.

The main pattern throughout looks like little flowerbuds or strawberries. The edge has gorgeous little nupps that run an opaque contrast to the transparency of the rest of the shawl. I can't wait to make this shawl again, maybe in a mustard yellow or chartreuse. The photos with the truest colors are probably the two up top, but even then it's not quite. This is not a shrinking violet color, so imagine the above two with a little kick. Anyway, here are some pictures:

Oaxaca buns

2010-10-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

If I were pressed to choose, I'd say the melty, crispy, browned cheesy bits on top of something straight out of the oven is one of the finest cook's reward. These little cuties are basically that reward in bun form. Further, calling them buns is a little dishonest, as they only have enough flour to loosely hold their shape. They're really more like dumplings, I guess.

Anyway, I've been playing around with the flour ratios for a while, so I may post an updated recipe when I'm finally, truly satisfied. This one calls for 1/4 cup tapioca flour to 3/4 cup all purpose. It's not quite perfect, but they're pretty delicious in this carnation, so I'll stop nitpicking. It would taste best with as much tapioca flour as possible but it has a very displeasing aftertaste when you use it exclusively. It's easy to find this at larger grocery stores, I use the Bob's Red Mill brand, and a small bag will last a long time.

Tapioca flour is, for most intents and purposes, interchangeable with cornstarch. I keep a small amount in a container near the stove and use to tighten up sauces that are not quite thick enough immediately before serving. The advantage that tapioca flour has over cornstarch is that it thickens more quickly and at a lower temp than cornstarch needs, just remember to create a slurry (mix w/a tablespoon or 2 of water or the liquid you want to thicken before adding) with it instead of dumping it in raw, to avoid clumping. I've seen some Thai recipes that call for a tapioca flour batter for frying, and I'm curious to see how it tastes.

A couple of quick notes about the recipe: 1) use gloves. 2) this recipe is infinitely better if you get a little zen with the cheese. in a perfect world, you should unknot it (Oaxaca cheese comes jumbled up like a pretzel and is just really long string cheese if you untangle it), string it into long strips and chop it up like that. It's meltier and flakier and tastes way better. Because my life is so filled with fabulously busy things, I didn't do it this time, but I sure wish i did.

1 jalapeno, deveined and deseeded
1 package Oaxaca cheese, finely chopped
1/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons cream (milk is fine if it's all you have, but start out w/2 tablespoons and see how it goes from there)
pepper

combine first three ingredients, tossing to coat. stir in remaining ingredients, kneading to combine.
dough should just stick together when you work a ball of dough in your hands for 10-15 seconds, warming it. if it's still crumbling, add more cream, a tablespoon at a time. Space slightly apart on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350 for 15-20 minutes, until deep golden. let cool on a wire rack immediately.

I made a pineapple-ginger butter to go with it, but i'm not happy enough with it to recommend you make it.

(mascot)

i know her! i know her!

2010-10-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

Big congratulations to my cousin-in-law, Cindy, who, in addition to being fabulous, also has her big Cooking Light feature in October's issue. Look at some pictures!

The Taste Test awards were her idea, and she has spent the past six months to finish it. Congratulations, Cindy!

Awwww

2010-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Anniversary Stole

2010-09-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

So last year around the time my mom passed away I started knitting a stole for myself. I started it when I was up for the summer and she even helped me pick out the color and yarn. Wearing it became sort of a strange commemoration, something tangible that immediately brings back all of my sense memories from that time. The smells, the feeling in my stomach, the sun rising and setting on all of the places we shuttled ourselves around to and from in a fog. It sounds like a morbid thing to want to commit to yarn, to wear as an accessory, but it's oddly comforting.

And so with the anniversary coming up I had already sort of unconsciously started planning what this year's stole would be. I used a baby blanket pattern that I liked knitting back in January in a deep rust. I wanted something really sizable, and very wide so it would look as good stretched out like a big wrap as folded in half and scrunched up like a scarf.

The stole I made last year reminds me a great deal of the rings that I wear, actually. Last summer my mom was giving very specific directions for my dad and I to gift and distribute all of her belongings. After a meal, while one of us was sitting on the lazyboy in her room reading, thinking, trying not to cry, etc., while she snored, she would suddenly awake, and with a determined look would tell us exactly where an item was, and who should get it based on an anecdote or a feeling she had that it would serve a special purpose for them. Every day she did this, in the same way that you bolt awake when you feel the sunshine and think you've overslept before realizing it's Saturday. Her memory of random objects was hilarious. She was never wrong, too; the woman was meticulously organized.

One thing she had me distribute fairly early on was the jewelry. included was a family ring that I inherited from my paternal grandmother over a decade ago. I had completely forgotten about it, but I've worn it daily since.

On and on she went, with all of her possessions. She had us make lists and followed up to make sure we had called the right people and had gifted all we were instructed to. Letters with cheques were mailed and everything slowly and steadily flowed out of the house. It was like she wanted to be completely untied to this world, to leave nothing for anyone else to clean up. (Though, in all honestly, I think she just didn't trust that we knew the worth or the use of the objects and was scared we'd just drop 30 boxes in front of the thrift store and be done with it.)

It struck me as so fitting. And then I remembered the Faulkner quote (ironically, written in As I Lay Dying) that talks about emptying yourself for sleep:

"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were. I don't know what I am. I don't know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know where he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sleep because he is not what he is and he is what he is not. Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it nor yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the wind and the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep. And Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room. And so if I am not emptied yet, I am is."
— William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text)

I knew what she was doing and her reasons behind it from the beginning. I remember exactly the day and the moment she searched and searched the perfect caves of her memory, her eyes darting back and forth the way they do when you are recalling and focused, and found nothing else. She looked empty, and satisfied. It was like she knew her job was done. I left a few days later, and came back 2 weeks later when she died.

The family ring looks old but well-cared for and appropriately tarnished in crevices. It has all of the birthstones of her kids and her husband with hers is in the middle. I wear it on my right hand to remind me of where I've come from, and my wedding ring tells me where I'm going. Similarly, the stole reminds me of everything to do with that time; the awful wasting, the inability to change the inevitable, the frustration and despair, but also the precious moments pregnant with hope and affection. The foot rubs that would make her sigh with a happiness that was an honor to give, the daily, hourly displays of strength and grace. Life's a tradeoff.

Duck update 3

2010-09-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

These were taken Aug 25, and I am just amazed at how big these little guys are! They haven't been by since (or at least not when I'm looking) but as I pulled into the apartment complex the other day I could have sworn that they had an adolescent growth spurt and are bigger and covered in black feathers. I think there are a couple of duck families hanging out in the area, so nothing confirmed.

Duck pictures #2

2010-09-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry if this is redundant for anyone. I posted an album a few weeks ago on facebook combining pictures from this post and the next one and I forgot to upload them here. These were taken a few weeks after the first post, and a few weeks before the following post. Look at how much they've grown!

Lunch today

2010-09-17T11:15:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry, but how awesome are egg salad sandwiches, especially for lunch?

scared of me? YOU SHOULD BE.

2010-09-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Sure, the news says I'm "weakening". But that's exactly what I want you to think.

The last of the firsts

2010-09-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I went up for the first anniversary of my mom's death. Everything went really well, it was as happy and lovely as could be, and the memorial mass was very intimate and sweet. There were about 60 people there, which was... more manageable? than the actual funeral, where a few hundred people showed up. Last week was the same preparation, routine and result but on a slower and smaller scale.

The thing that I thought of the most, however, on the plane ride and while I was there was the fact that the day of her anniversary marked the End of the Firsts. Everything from here on out will be counted in years, not months. Very strange considering that until about 3 weeks ago I was still thinking that she had passed away 'a few months ago'.

Half of the time it feels like it has only been a matter of months; other times I could swear it's been years and years since I last saw her.

Mushroom Empanadas

2010-08-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've been testing out some empanada dough in preparation for the Mexisplosion that's about to pass through this doorway when I get home with my newly inherited tortilla press. This dough recipe is from the Smitten Kitchen, which is flaky and delicious enough, but most of the really authentic recipes call for 1/2 flour / 1/2 masa, with vinegar. excited to test out a few when I get back from Canada. I can't believe that it has been a year already. Throughout the summer all I've really focused on is trying to pluck from my memory the things that I was doing at exactly that same day one year ago. I'm awful with dates, but my memory has been pitch-perfect all summer. I can remember distinctly the daily routines of last summer.

But, anyway, this empanada batch had pureed mushrooms, shallots, thyme, and turkey mince. The filling is the raw stuffing leftovers of a Turkey Valentine (stuffed and rolled turkey breast) from the night before. Anyway, looking forward to pawing through more recipes.

Last Weekend

2010-08-14T13:54:00.001-07:00

just a couple of pictures to summarize the past weekend. Made 450 lbs of trail mix because someone in the house can't stop eating it. The knitting picture is a shawl being blocked. It's just a straight stockinette shawl with the bottom of the Haruni pattern that I did earlier this summer in grey. This new one is really light, very soft (Malabrigo lace), and a gorgeous, clear jade color. Also, the obligatory cat photo, because I clearly need a job. She likes beer, but then again, who doesn't.

New Neighbors

2010-08-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

Because we are fancy, we live in a place that has 2 little stocked lakes that a resident duck family seems to enjoy. I guess it's a "thing" in the South to have an apartment complex on a bigger piece of land and to have little amenities like that. Curious!

Anyway, the above text is just an excuse to post 200 pictures of the cutest procession in the world. These guys were literally right outside our front windows and door when i went out to get the mail.

If these pictures don't make you feel rainbows then I don't want to have a conversation with you:

Last Few Days of California

2010-08-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Since I clearly didn't make blog posts about any of these events, here's a big lump of all of the pictures of our last month in California. I'm thinking of adding these to aother few sets of pictures to make an iPhoto poster, because all of these immediately bring us back to that place.

Apologies for the huge amount of grilling pictures. Andy got a job offer and he had to physically be in Tennessee two and a half weeks later, so naturally my first panic attack was worrying about how we were going to eat all of the food in the freezers, so it lead to a lot of use of the BBQ. Anyway, in no particular order:

light tornado, likely named after Andy.

as big as a tree, this guy is!

Co-captain Furpants

2010-07-31T16:31:00.000-07:00

So when we drove up, Andy and Mike spent most of the trip in the moving truck, trading driving duties. The kitty and I followed behind in the car and I was surprised by how relaxed she was. we kept her food on the floor of the backseat, and she stretched out over a towel and slept most of the way. She even spent the night in the car when we stayed at a hotel that we couldn't sneak her into.

We've moved!

2010-07-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, my friends. It took about 4 days. We traveled 2,100 miles and we only stopped to gas up and sleep. We were on the road for about 12-14 hours every day and no matter how early we went to sleep we never really managed to get more than a few hours of sleep per night before dragging ourselves out of bed and doing it all over again.

The drive itself was really pretty, and it was a true shame that we didn't have any flexibility with our drive that would allow us the opportunity to stop and just take it in. Since I've only lived in the states for 3 years, it was very cool to drive through the country and just take in how big everything is. The thing that struck me the most was the different pockets of climate and landscape and how that gave way to different cities and lifestyles.

New Mexico was absolutely gorgeous. We watched 8 different lightning storms all around our cars, following us through the state. And I can't even describe the sunset against the purple mountains... unbelievable.

So, we got here in one piece, more or less. We got in on the 4th, and wouldn't you know it, but the country was so excited about our move, there were fireworks everywhere! (why yes, the world does revolve around me, thank you.)
Mike drove in with us, and we got in around noon. We all showered and visited , then tried to fill as much Memphis into Mike's few hours in the South before catching a flight at four that afternoon. So we went to Corkys and then the boys drove around downtown so he could take a bunch of pictures. A day later we unpacked the moving van and then collapsed. And then, just like that, we were officially in Memphis.

We're moving!

2010-06-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Well, friends. It is finally time to announce that we are moving. Andy was offered a job last Wednesday and we will find ourselves on the road in less than a week. Andy and Mike will trade off on driving the big moving truck and i'll putter along behind them in one of our regular vehicles. And I don't really feel like i need to say this aloud, but there are two snack coolers and they are both filled and ready to go.
So for the past week i have been packing and running up and down stairs with boxes and finishing up work stuff and having goodbye lunches. but mostly packing. and pretending like i'm completely prepared for the disgusting weather we are voluntarily moving to.

weekend: zucchini pancakes, new knitting project

2010-05-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

2 c. shredded zucchini
1 Tbsp tapioca flour
or
1/2 Tbsp cornstarch and 1/2 Tbsp flour
3-4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt / 1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh dill
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
2 eggs, beaten

heat pan on med with a pad of butter and Tbsp of olive oil.

grate zucchini and toss with tapioca flour/corstarch mix. add all ingredients except for the eggs, stirring to combine. make well in the bowl with zucchini mix and add beaten eggs. stir just until combined. spoon mixture (i used 1/4 c. measuring spoon) into pan, maybe 4 at a time. flip when top starts to bubble.

for the dip, i used a combination of garlic mint yogurt and sour cream, so anything a little zesty would work. also, i'm not sure where in the world you are reading this from, but over here it's just beginning to be corn season. if you have some cooked and shucked corn, it would be great in here. if you're adding more than a few tablespoons, i'd add another teaspoon or so of flour.

This little number is just about finished. remember the grey haruni shawl from about a month ago? i'm knitting it again, except skipping all of the lacework except for the beautiful bottom border with the flower petals that flare out. the color in the picture above is very close to reality. it's a gorgeous soft jade and has just enough tone-on-tone difference throughout the yarn to keep it interesting. and, since i'm using malabrigo lace, it's so touchably soft that i'm not even missing the lace stitches.

dinner tonight

2010-05-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

for dinner we had some fish burritos with carrots, tatsoi, and ancho chili powder. andy hates the texture of mushrooms and i can't live without the taste, so there are ground mushrooms in the Ultimate Compromise risotto with you see in the pictures.

i do have to take a second and talk about how much i love tatsoi. aesthetically, it looks like a delicate bunch of young bok choi that has been crossed with a bunch of spinach. the leaves are small and can be peppery. i usually use the leaves wilted in hot dishes, but the recipes i've found on the internet have encouraged using them raw. i would think that a great use for both the delicate stalks and the heartier leaves would be with some kind of warmed vinaigrette, since it can withstand some heat before shrinking away and almost seems made for a marriage with bacon, shallots, or any other thing you can think to throw at it. i'm excited to get back to the farmer's market and try out some other usages and methods.

sweater #2

2010-05-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

a little larger, i used some malabrigo sock in Aguas. as it knit up, it was a lot more blue-ish and denim-y shaded, which is fine. the yarn itself is surprisingly silky and soft after washing. just seems a little more breathable than some of the other sock yarns i'm used to using. anyway, here are some pictures:

okay, so this picture looks a little weird. i think i stretched out the arms when i was putting it on the table. the armholes are not actually that skinny, and the body should be a little leaner and longer. i think i just was in a hurry to take the pictures before the light went out.

'baby mine' sweater

2010-05-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here's one of two of these little sweaters i've made with some nice sock yarn. this gorgeous purple is some shibuiknits sock. i'm waiting to pick out some dark wooden buttons and this thing is finished. very cute little knit! nice pattern, too.

have a great weekend!

2010-05-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

climbing!

2010-05-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Look what i did 2 saturdays ago! look at how high i climbed! congratulate me!
my knitting friend sarah and her husband, edward, took me to their climbing gym in Concord for my first climbing lesson. it was a little like what i was expecting, but a lot of things surprised me. like how there are different paths you take depending on your level of experience and ability, but it's not like you just scramble up the wall using the pegs and pebble things willy-nilly. oh no. there is no willy-nilly in climbing. there are only certain colored pegs you use for each climb, and by using pegs that are colored differently you're cheating and you will receive disapproving looks. and you can't say you actually climbed a path. it's very honor system-based. and so the result is that you are climbing up a giant puzzle, where you have to plan a few moves in advance to set yourself up to reach a certain point or rock. ah yes. a giant puzzle that makes you sweat in ways you did not think possible. it's a little scary how quickly it brought out my covert type-a personality. because yes, it was only my third climb ever, but i was not only going to be doing a 5.9 climb, i was also going to get to the top.

(what my booty looks like from 2 storeys up)

did i want to cry 3/4 of the way up because i was totally exhausted? no comment. did i finish? hell yes.

in the interest of full disclosure, however, around the time i lost feeling in my forearms i made the decision that i was only wanting to go about 5/6ths of the way up. i ended up calling out that i was ready to come down but the bastards who took me pretended not to hear me. so, yes, i got to the top. and i couldn't move my arms for a few days, but i definitely have the bug. and i will say this: it's worth getting up at 8 on a saturday to go.

(please ignore the 12 year old climbing club champion to my right)

haruni shawl, completed

2010-04-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

please don't read so much into the volume of photos i took; i'm displeased with how this blocked.
the bottom, especially, didn't fan to show off the gorgeous petals as much as i wanted it to, and it's lacking a scalloped crotchet edge. i do like how thick it is (used a dk knit), but i had to cut out a repeat up top to make sure i had the yardage to finish. i'm excited to try this pattern again, as the bottom border is SO pretty, but maybe stick with a vibrant laceweight.

buttons!

2010-04-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

there is nothing that brings me back to childhood more quickly than my mom's button tin. just like the comforting feeling of digging your hand in cold sand or a bag of rice, i remember spending hours digging my hands in the tin, then methodically sorting the buttons. my favorites were the colored ones below, but now i am so in love with these canadian legion buttons:

sifting through all of these treasures (rarely accompanied by a pair or set) made me want to put buttons on future heirlooms, or special handmade gifts for close friends who would understand how substantive it is to have a button that i could draw from memory. so far, i have a couple of baby sweaters that have come off the needles in the past few months (is it just me, or is everyone you know knocked up?), but i haven't decided whether they're "button tin worthy".

a rude awakening: what happens when you don't do a gauge swatch

2010-04-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

i don't think that i have ever done a swatch in my life. which, up until this point, i'd argue wasn't really necessary. i don't care if my stole is an inch longer than what the pattern lists, i make my touques based on feel, and i have yet to make a sweater.

but if ever i needed a lesson in diligence, this squirrel mitten pattern is that lesson. this is what happens when you don't pay attention to needle size:

you get an arm mitten. do you need an arm mitten? because i will send you this one, shamefully. the inverted-colored mitten on the left is my second attempt (with the colors inverted) with a different burgundy color. the lighter purple heather is the same, i just switched the knitpicks palette burgundy with the gorgeous dream in color in 'november muse'. i've had that yarn sitting around forever. i've tried to turn it into various shawls, scarves, and other yarny items, but none have stuck. i usually get about a day's worth of knitting in and then realize the color just isn't right. this yarn seems perfect for the mittens, which is completely delightful. i love how i can showcase such a deeply colored yarn in all its variegated glory.

here are some more pictures of pretty colors:

for real, i LOVE dusk light. i haven't shot at sunset for so long, but look at how pretty everything turned out! love the saturated colors of almost-night.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

2010-04-04T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hope you all have a great day. We're going to mama Cefaratti's house for a few hours to celebrate with them. Hoping to take my camera, but we lost the lens cap in Chico, so i don't know if i want to trust myself to not be clumsy with it. Enjoy yourselves!

Saturday GSD Day

2010-04-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

Feeling pretty awesome right now. Have the following bunch (and more - just couldn't fit it into the shot) of unfinished projects that i am spending the day wrapping up and blocking. i'm camped out in the living room catching up on my hulu queue, and feeling the satisfaction of finishing about 8 projects that just need ends woven in or borders added. i'm even going to get into some boxes in the garage in the hopes of finding my mom's button collection, in an old RCMP commemoration tin that i could probably draw from memory. i've been to a couple of craft stores over the past few weeks, trying to track down nice buttons to finish some little sweaters and shoes and stuff, but always leave empty-handed. i realize now that buttons that aren't nostalgic or remind you of something seem a little... empty. so here's hoping i find a few gems to put the finishing touches on some newly completed knitting projects.

sean and alison's wedding

2010-03-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

we went to chico yesterday for our friend sean's wedding. it was a very intimate wedding and we had a great time catching up with some faraway old and new (to me) friends. let me first preface this with a self-congratulatory statement that i remained at all times a classy lady. however, chico is a city that is unlike any i have ever been on a saturday night.

i am not strong enough to live in chico.

these people party like the world is about to end. it was only 11 or so when we walked to a downtown bar after the wedding and people were spilling onto the street, i saw at least three vomit stains on the sidewalks (we walked six blocks, you guys. six blocks.) and the most random holes-in-the-walls were literally crammed with people holding two or even three drinks in their hands and gesturing wildly. i admitted defeat quickly. and i didn't even feel old about it, which i regularly do when i walk into a forever21 (pretty sure they're contracted to dress the entire city of chico) or a regular bar after 10pm. i think we all just realized we were completely unprepared for the sheer intensity of... insanity. if i ever have need to go back, i'm begging the universe to make it a tuesday.

here are some pictures of the wedding. i was too dumbstruck to take pictures of the chaos that happened afterward.

(mike's pictures above and below)

haruni shawl

2010-03-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

so far this has been a great pattern, and the end result is going to look amazing. i've never seen a shawl with such a pretty and unconventional border-- the bottom fans out and large petals appear, making a wavy border instead of creating a perfect triangle. it's almost as if the shawl changes time signature right before the end. cannot believe i've let this thing sit on the shelf for so long before finishing. already planning another one in a burnt sunset color with a true laceweight yarn. i'm really interested in seeing how it changes the distinct angles that i'm seeing towards the bottom. i can't wait for you to see what the finished product looks like.

elizabeth zimmermann's lap blanket

2010-03-23T15:56:00.001-07:00

can't decide on what the color pattern should be. here are two frontrunner combinations:

any suggestions, internet? i'm partial to the combination on the bottom picture, but i don't know if i like how the two darkest and two lightest colors are next to each other... kind of makes it seem unbalanced, in my opinion. these colors aren't photographed at an exact match... and the camera isn't picking up on the really pretty details. these squares are knit from the inside out, so the stitches follow the direction of the square. when you put them together, it should look like it was knitted from all directions. also, the yarn was a splurge of a kettle-dye, so there are these beautiful little rings that appear, since the color is intentionally uneven. i'll try to take some pictures that will pick that up when i do a final project posting.

anyway, i've been playing around a lot with these colors, and i can't seem to find a pattern that makes it look nice .keep in mind there will be a white border surrounding the individual squares and the whole blanket. maybe even a scalloped edge if i'm feelin' sassy.

picture update

2010-03-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

hey, guys. haven't really been given the chance to take pictures of much lately; the majority of the past weeks have been cold, dark, and miserable, and awful for taking pictures in. haven't been cooking a great deal, and i've been working on a variety of all-yet-unfinished knitting projects that are either supercomplicated and slow going, or really boring and are sitting on the shelf. been hitting the gym a lot in the past month, and getting home at seven-ish doesn't lend itself to doing much more than shoving anything edible into my mouth, fridge door open, standing up, often with hands as utensils. i paint gorgeous pictures of myself.

here's a little of what we've been up to:

(fatty atop knitted quilt squares)

(jalapeno-pineapple and ginger quick jam/american-style chutney)

(March Makeover items)

(fatty)

squirrel mittens

2010-01-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

current work-in-progress that has been put on the shelf for the next few weeks are these really cute squirrel mittens. it's my first time trying colorwork again since probably over a year and a half ago, and i'm using this pattern to really get good at two handed knitting, where you keep the main color in your regular hand and then in your other you hold the contrast color (the dark purple, in this case). it took a little getting used to, and this isn't something i can do yet while actually having to pay attention to something else. as a result i've been burning through my Hulu queue with throwaway shows that don't take up a vast amount of brainpower to watch. oh, and that hem? yes, please notice it. notice because it took me a really long time to get right. and it's pretty, yes? it was worth the time and aggravation? boy i hope so.

nerd talk:
i'll explain: you cast on and start knitting 10 or so rows, then do a row of yo and k2togethers and then knit another ten rows. Then, you flip the bottom edge up on the inside and basically sew a hem with your knitting, so that the bottom edge is now the yo/k2tog row. it took forever because i cavalierly thought that i could just "wing" picking up the stitches to hem, but then i'd get a 1/3 of the way through and realize that i've picked up stitches from, like, 8 different rows. i eventually picked up the back stitches with a circular needle, then lined them up parallel to the needle with my live stitches and knit them both in the same direction. not sure if it messed me up for the lining, but i can't imagine how it could have.
/nerd talk

the lining is going to be doubleknit with misti alpaca lace in this cute easter yellow:

anadama bread

2010-01-27T07:12:00.000-08:00

working a little from The Breadbaker's Apprentice, i made anadama bread. It calls for a full cup of cornmeal that has been allowed to soften overnight with an equal part of water. It also calls for good quality molasses, if that gives you any indication of it's taste. the cornmeal disappears and imparts a sweetness that heightens the molasses, but it's not necessarily a sweet bread.

not sure how i'd use it, but it's good as is and it makes amazing toast. it would hold up to something pretty bold, like a roast beef and horseradish sandwich, or for grilled cheese or something. anyway, it yielded 2 regular sized loaves or 3 middle sized, so i ended up with 3 which worked out really well. have tried using the oven to rest and bench the dough, always by turning the heat to 200 for a few minutes, then shutting off, waiting about 10, then sticking the loaves in there, like i did with the other bread i posted about. gave me great results. trying to get into the habit of a weekend breadbaking routine. maybe i'll zip over to some bread message boards to get the fingers itchy for some dough. anyway, here are a couple of pictures:

"just because you're busy, doesn't mean you can't look sharp"

2010-01-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

i'm begging you to watch the video that automatically starts when you load the webpage devoted to Pajama Jeans, "the newest thing".

El Nino is coming

2010-01-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

according to several reports, El Nino will be hitting California for the next 2-5 weeks, supposedly starting in the next few days. which means that i might not be able to take any pictures of any finished knitting items. i know, my life is difficult. it might mean, however, more rainy day activities like pouring through my new yet-to-arrive cookbooks that i am super, super excited about. In case you want to relive the horror of last time, here's a refresher course:

Conan's statement on not doing late night

2010-01-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

i know you all have read this by now, but it's just too great to go unmentioned.

The Six Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods

2010-01-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Article found here. Quick read.

pita bread with tumeric and onion

2010-01-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

This pita bread is from a naan bread recipe courtesy of allrecipes. Since i cooked the bread 2 at a time in the oven, it allowed for experimentation that brought me from naan to a pita. the recipe itself is not a quick endeavor, but the cooking time is, and the results are outstanding.

Given the high yield (i'd say you can get as many as 20 small pitas out of the dough without a problem; i got about 10 medium- to large-sized ones) this is an absolutely perfect thing to make for when people come over, especially if you're doing any outside grilling like shish kebabs or grilled chicken. i say this because they're incredible as soon as they cool, good for maybe a day or so afterward and then go downhill pretty quickly after that.

the sweetness of this dough definitely pushed through the turmeric and onion powders. the pita tasted a bit like freshly baked sweet bread, and that lends itself well to further alterations. the first thing that comes to mind to me is adding finely chopped rosemary nettles.
we paired ours with some oven baked cornish game hens marinated and cooked with adobo and orange juice, so also having a more savory marinade would help play off the bread's taste.

sorry about the crappy photos, i wasn't expecting to take any pictures that night.
my own modifications have been made below, so if you'd like to see the recipe as it was printed, or if you would like their directions on how to grill the dough, check out the link above.

Ingredients

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp each turmeric and onion powder
1/4 cup olive oil, for brushing.

Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand 10-15 minutes, until frothy. Whisk together sugar, milk, egg and salt in a small bowl and pour over yeast. Add the turmeric and onion powder to the flour, and add 3 1/2 cups to the yeast mixture if you're hand-kneading and 4 if using a mixer with a dough hook. add remaining flour as needed, keeping in mind that you might not use it all.
Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth, adding remaining flour if needed. If using a mixer, it will be more like 6-7 minutes and the dough should clear the bowl without sticking.
Using either method, the dough should not be sticky. it should should feel like a smooth skipping stone when you run your fingers over it, but should still be a little tacky. if you're not sure, go for another half minute and check the smoothness again.
Roll into a ball.
Place dough in a well oiled bowl, rolling to coat. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume. If your house is on the chilly side, especially during this time of year, what you can do is turn on your oven to the lowest temp (150 or 200 degrees) and leave on for five minutes, then shut off, wait another five, and let the dough rise in there. the idea is not to heat the dough or get it to a proofing temperature, just to give it a place to rise where it can snuggle in a little warmth.
Punch down dough. Pinch off small handfuls of dough that are bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball. the size isn't a huge deal, since you have to watch for doneness anyway when it cooks, but this will give you a good-sized pita. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover completely but loosely with a towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
When the dough is ready preheat to 450 with a heavy sheet pan on a middle rack.
As the oven preheats, begin to roll out dough in small batches. i would recommend cooking 2 pitas at a time, and rolling out to order (2 at a time while 2 are in the oven) the dough is quite tough, so really get in there to roll them out to 1/8th of an inch. if the dough is too thick, it won't make an air bubble in the middle, so you'll have flatbread instead of a pita.

when the dough gets to the correct thickness, drizzle a little olive oil on top, take the sheet pan out of the oven and throw the pitas oil side down on the pan and get into the oven quickly. watch for small air pockets that begin to pop up. these should grow until most or all of the dough is inflated, about 2 minutes.
if you can stand the heat, pull the oven rack closer to you a little, quickly flip dough with tongs, drizzle/brush oil on second side and sprinkle with kosher salt. the second side should be done in 30 seconds or so. then you can fill with tasty treats like so:

challah bread

2010-01-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

so, my husband is pretty awesome. very awesome. for christmas he surprised me with a kitchenaid pro. the bread one. the one with the new and improved (and it really is new and improved) dough hook that more accurately mimics hand kneading, the one with the crazy awesome motor, the one that doesn't break down when you make a batch of Peter Reinhart pizza dough, and the one with the HUGE mixing bowl. wow. what a difference. i didn't have a clue how much i really missed having a mixmaster in the house since ours broke down (just a $10 piece that blows out to save the motor when stressed... did you know that i can't find ANYONE licensed to fix a kitchenaid? since they never break down, they just make you buy a new one when there's a problem) over a year and a half ago.
this thing really is awesome. a huge difference, and will never short out when trying to push through a thick dough; it will just stop working and will turn on again after a 10 minute break. my hands are very warm normally, so hand-kneading raises the temperature of the dough more than 10 degrees higher than it should be going into the first rise, which makes a huge difference. this dough came out perfectly cool (one degree above the expert's listed temp).
i bought two bags of king arthur's bread flour (and a bottle of wine... ahem) to prepare for the breadexplosion that's going down this week. peep:

challah bread was 5 degrees above recommended temp, after less time than the minimum listed... my oven must run really hot, as i baked it on 360 instead of 375, so from now on will try baking out at least 25 degrees below what it lists and see how things work.

post-new year's eve cocktail

2010-01-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

1 shot lemoncello
1/2 glass champagne
cranberry juice

mmmmmmmm......

print o the wave stole

2010-01-10T21:15:00.001-08:00

this pattern, eunny jang's Print O' The Wave stole has been in my Ravelry queue for a year or so, just like everyone else who has seen it. at first i wasn't a huge fan of the little zig-zag lace that goes on in between the little 'waves' of lace, but now that it's completed it does frame the other lace well. overall i'm happy with how everything turned out save for the borders, which i really messed up on for some inexplicable reason. i used madelinetosh yarn in turquoise that i splurged on using a birthday gift card from my girl Dee. the colors are a LOT brighter -especially in the sun- than the photos suggest. just couldn't get a good, sunny day to take pictures, and our new place is awful for getting any natural/direct sunlight. imagine something brighter, greener, fresher-looking, with these little flecks of a true turquoise color.

it's a big day for the Third Wheel

2010-01-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

today is the day that the third wheel, mike, is getting a new best friend. he adopted a pot bellied pig named Peanut (!!!!) from an online pig adoption site. he is already in love with this thing, and for good reason. she's a cute, pudgy little gal who gets daily exercise by walking to the end of the driveway and back, baited with grapes. the old owner loved her very much, and stayed in his house (we think he's recently divorced) for an extra year so he could keep her for longer. she's a really sweet pig who gets vegetables as a treat and enjoys belly rubs.

if you're not emitting high-pitched sighs by now, here are more reasons: she's potty trained, she's an indoor/outdoor pig, she comes with her own igloo doghouse (that just melted me), and really seems to respond to what you're actually saying... the old owner said that she could tell his intent, would know when a walk was coming even before he reached for a leash or mentioned it aloud, and seems to have different grunts for approval/excitement/disapproval. adorable, and i'm insanely jealous.

for the past week he's had nothing but pigs on the brain (sends us texts with nothing but "piigggggggggg" as a message, or just has faraway looks in his eyes when idle for more than a minute), so i know this new pal is going to a good home. we've got a pool going on how long it'll take until mike joins some "men who want to marry pigs" groups. he already loves her that much.

update: got a text late last night with a picture of mike behind the wheel of his car and (though it's hard to make out in the dark) two little ears poking out from the back seat. looks like he got it home okay... no word yet on the engagement.

Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater /gratuitous kitty photos

2010-01-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

this came together over two or three days, and i am really in love with the color, shibuiknits in peony. i caught some good light for about 15 minutes, so here are some photos of it blocking. i haven't taken any finished pictures, but it looks the same as the photos with just a missing big wooden button at the top below the collar, so just use your imaginations until i can get one:

yarn shipment!!!!!

2010-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

eatsleepknit.com has a really cute way to retain customers, and that is with their yarnathon, where each skein of yarn you buy has its yardage added to a total that is your marathon distance.at certain mileage points you get little gifts or incentives. for example, i got a 1m welcome package, which included:

a free blanket pattern, color and yarnweight swatches, a scratch ticket (!!!!), button, pen, chocolate, etc.

(malabrigo superwash sock yarn in 'aguas')

(shibuiknits superwash merino wool sock weight in mulberry
[left] and peony [right])

(dream in color smooshy in 'good luck jade')

(madelinetosh worsted in 'moorland' - is a brighter green than this)

(madelinetosh handpainted lace in 'clover' - is more muted and less bright than this; has more almost-white flecks and is a little more sage-colored... very pretty)

(by far my favorite: madelinetosh lace in 'iris' - is more blue than this, with these crazy other flecks of color... is less purple-y. SO PRETTY. i think i've found the project that this will be for... very special color.)

(madelinetosh yarn in 'violin' - i was hoping that this would be more true to the photo on the website, with a lighter base and with highlights of pink, peach, and light orange. it's a lot more varied than this photo... here it looks pretty solid, but in actuality is flecked with under- and overtones.)

(malabrigo yarn in 'pearl ten' - i'm currently using this for another Oriel stole and i must have forgotten how freaking soft this is already, because that must explain why i have two other colors waiting for me in my yarn stash, unused. even before washing and blocking i am in amazement. so pretty. best described as a purple-grey. this photo is pretty true to color)

heirloom baby blanket

2010-01-10T20:26:00.000-08:00

this was a spur-of-the-moment knit that i began and finished before my yarn shipment arrived at the beginning of the month. it took about two or three days, all told, but these were holiday days, days after the guests had gone and when i could park my happy rear on the armchair and watch some law and order marathons. the color is lovely and i'm happy that the yarn has gone to a good project (i've had color number 9455 of cascade 220 heathers for forever in my stash) like i just adopted it to grateful parents or something. it's a gorgeous teal with hints of gold (which show up a lot better when you zoom in the above picture), and for some reason i've just been drawn to colors like that lately... tourmaline or teal or aqua. what does that say about me, i wonder? my knitting friend, stef, has been hooked on a lemon yellow for the past year or so. it's weird the connections that knitters have with yarn. i'm turning into a monster of my own making for sure. just be forewarned: there are about five back-to-back yarn love posts about to come up, so maybe check back in a week if you're too cool to see dozens of photos of yarn. pfft.

lemon bounty

2010-01-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

we moved at the end of the summer. actually we moved the weekend my mother passed away. we were set to move friday and saturday with our cars for smaller stuff, and the had a moving van rented for sunday. friday night is when we got the call that she might not last the night, then saturday morning is when i booked my flight for that afternoon. andy and our lovely friends moved on sunday while i was up in canada, and it has taken us until ohhhhhhhhhhh about three weeks ago to finally unpack all of our boxes. you can tell which ones we packed ahead of time, which is about 70% of them, as they're clearly labeled and organized, and which boxes were filled with things we didn't get to packing before The Call came. mostly andy did these and they're just shoved full of random crap, thrown in as they came back to our now old house for another pick up with the moving truck.

all this to explain what happened to our lemon tree: it did not survive. we get considerably less sun in the new place, and with all of our stuff going on, we really did neglect her. very sad... we were planning on bringing her to tennessee with us when we move (we're moving in 2010), but her leaves fell off... very very sad.

BUT! our place came with a large lemon tree already and it was ready for harvesting over christmas break. just look at all of our bounty!!! it was enough to make a full batch of lemoncello (pictures to come), and a crapload of lemon juice to freeze in ice cube-sized pieces, which will come in handy not only for my massive amounts of soda water that i go through daily, but also for recipes and general cooking. a great, great help.

have been considering putting the other three dozen or so i have left over to some kind of canning use, but maybe i'll hold on until one of my new cookbooks arrives: Well Preserved.
if they're losing their will to live by the time i get the supplies, then i'll just make more lemon juice to freeze.

hesperia stole

2010-01-10T19:57:00.001-08:00

i love this stole. the color is a gorgeous dark periwinkle, and it's superlight, airy even. i bought the yarn in edmonton at river city yarns when i was there for the summer and cast on a week or so before i left (first week of august or thereabouts) and when i had to return at the end of that month for my mother's last day and ensuing final arrangements and funeral, i knitted it everywhere: on the plane, outside her room as she slept, and in quiet times throughout my stay and after when i returned home. i think i would really lose my shit if if i ever lost it... is there a way to laminate a lace project so nothing can ever happen to it? jeez. anyway, it's very wide and quite large and enormously pretty, but i'm biased. ravelry pattern can be found here, and below are some pictures, the bottom soaking picture being the one that reflects true color the best:

(i have no idea what's going on with my hand there)

christmas vacation

2010-01-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

couple of randoms but had to include: visit to the jelly belly factory which took like three hours of waiting in line and us watching avatar, which my dad LOVED. please believe me when i say there is a very specific type of movie that he likes. this means that though he watches a fair amount of movies per year, he probably likes maybe three. last year it was a huge deal that he liked 'no country for old men' because he usually hates long movies without a whole lot of action. mike said that he said "woahhhhh" like four times throughout the movie.

also, we just saw it the other night in 3D Imax and if you have the chance to do so, PLEASE DO. maybe it's the bigger screen, but some scenes/shots look so real, and it's easier to see the effects on the imax screen than a regular one. the animals and foliage look especially good, but the closeups of the blue skin was just incredible.

christmas presents, pt 3

2010-01-10T18:30:00.001-08:00

hands down, my absolute favorite thing my mother ever made (very weird using past tense, even now... wow...) were her mexican wedding cookies. they're similar to shortbread and are very buttery, nutty, and always have a generous amount of icing sugar sieved on top, making them look like little crescent moon-shaped mountains. no memory transports me more quickly to decembers before i left home, especially in later years when she finally smartened up and made an extra batch for me as she hammered out the christmas baking.
the trick is that they're not too sweet, they mainly taste of butter and nuts, they literally melt in your mouth if given the opportunity, and you can go through at least two dozen before getting too sugarbuzzed. at least two dozen.

i should be able to show you what they look like so we can both have mouths watering, but i found this recipe the day after i tried making them using internet recipes, and none of them turned out AT ALL. very cute: thumbing through her nearly-broken-spined small recipe book it was one of the first, and under the title said, "julia's favourite".

christmas presents, pt 2

2010-01-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

aside from being an all-around great human being, my mother owned a small business where she made and decorated cakes from our converted basement. in addition to getting an amazing prize of her hand-written recipe books and some cherished, well-used other cookbooks with filled post-it notes to me as a way to guide me through many of the recipes (i can't go through those yet, but i'm seriously considering putting them in a firesafe or safety deposit box), she gave me her entire cake decorating and tip collection.

i also have a lot of her cake pans, and by a 'lot' i mean probably 8 or 10 of the best or most functional. it sounds so silly, but those baking pans are so precious to me, you have no idea... pans used from birthdays long ago, pans she used so often that i can decorate imaginary cakes from memory. for christmas i decided to split up most of the supplies between my brother, my godfather, and myself. all three of us had expressed interest in keeping up with the lessons my mother taught each of us long ago, and there are more than enough supplies to go around.

her flower tip stands (little stand the size of a standard long nail with a flat metal surface attached to the top, where you attach a small piece of parchment paper and can build up icing flowers and roses by piping with a flower tip and twirling the stand around) brought back so many memories, of watching, raptured, her twirling the stand around her fingers and in seconds sliding off a perfectly formed icing rose, of the dozens of flower lessons, of scraping my sloppy icing mounds back into the bowl, disappointed with the imperfection. seeing all of these tools has awakened a determination to get back into cake decorating, a clear channel to reconnect with buried memories of my mother at her most dazzling and brilliant, creatively speaking.

each of these tips has its own oral history, own memory attached, so having enough to split between the three of us was so lovely. a way to keep it moving, keep the lessons, the stories, the history moving, giving it a newfound trajectory.

christmas presents, pt 1

2010-01-10T17:20:00.001-08:00

not wanting to leave my mother out of our christmas this year, i made a few group presents for my brother and his girlfriend, my dad, and andy and i. i had intended to make new christmas stockings but in the interest of keeping my sanity (i started baking/cooking and freezing back in october when my dad first came to the decision to come down), i gave up on the idea at the beginning of december and we kept our old stockings, which looked really cute hanging, for the first time, above a fireplace. can i just mention how much i LOVE stocking stuffer buying?? holy cow. my dream job is definitely a professional stocking stuffer. i love all of the cute little trinkets and stuff i could find for stuffing.

the second gift (why yes, i'm still considering completely unfinished stockings to be a first gift) was to give something to mark the holiday in ways all families recognize: yearly ornaments. i had a christmas stamp and got some double-sided wide satin ribbon, and there you have it. the ornaments themselves are from crate & barrel. their colors were so gorgeous! i'm staring at an intense blue one on the tree now (the ones above were for my dad and brother).