I've switched my food blog over to http://ravenously.wordpress.com. i8 was taken :(

Come by and visit me there! I like wordpress better than blogger.

I made a big batch of pesto on Sunday, but accidentally ground up part of my pink silicone spatula in the Cuisinart. Fortunately it was not a green spatula, and the pieces were easy to locate. The basil was from the farmer’s market, as was the cheese–absolutely delicious raw milk Trader’s Point Fleur de la Terre–and I used walnuts instead of pine nuts because the downtown Bloomingfoods doesn’t carry pine nuts. Booo! I put two Tbsp of pesto into each Saran wrap-lined cup of my muffin tin, and froze the pesto into little cakes, and put the frozen pesto cakes into some Ziploc freezer bags so I can enjoy the taste of summer basil all winter long.

Dinner tonight will come from one of my favorite cookbooks, Lindsay Bareham's Supper Won't Take Long. Sort of, anyway. It's a dish called Brown Tom; the only reference I could find to this on the internet came, coincidentally, from Martinsville, IN: the Morgan County Longrifles site informs us that "Brown Tom was the nickname given to the standard ration bread issued to the British military." Bareham's recipe is for a gratin of tomatoes, brown bread, flat leaf parsley, garlic, and onion. My onions seem to have dissolved into a goo at the bottom of my crisper drawer, so I ended up using lots of garlic instead, and I had no flat leaf parsley. Also, I ignored her advice to peel the tomatoes first.

So my Brown Tom is really pretty different, and I don't know if you can really call it the same thing. I pureed some of the white and whole wheat rolls my mom made while she was here (I've been eating them, but there sure are a lot of them) into bread crumbs, minced about four cloves of garlic, and mixed the crumbs and garlic up in a casserole dish with slices of red farmer's market tomatoes, salt, and pepper. I sprinkled some parmesan on top, drizzled the crumbs with soy sauce and olive oil, and stuck one of my pesto-cubes smack in the middle. I hope it tastes good. It seems like it should, in theory. I will find out soon.

Some interesting stuff I've eaten lately:
- Yummy quinoa salad at Angela and Pete's house: quinoa with parsley and mint, dressed with a garlic-lemon juice-olive oil dressing, mixed with chopped tomatoes.
- Water buffalo yogurt. It's pretty creamy, but sort of a weird, smooth, firm texture rather than the creamier type I prefer.
- Malabar spinach, bought from Jennie and Rebecca at the farmer's market. I thought about growing this for a while--it's recommended by permaculture books as a perennial green (permaculture is big into growing perennials rather than annuals; it's supposedly much easier on the ecosystem). It's... um... interesting. And by "interesting," I mean "slimy." Like okra, it gives off tons of mucilage, especially the stems. I cooked it with ramen and threw in a couple of beaten eggs for protein. I was kind of appalled as I was eating it and the sliminess gradually dawned on me, and had to look it up to make sure it wasn't rotting or anything. The flavor seemed pretty nice and inoffensive. The slime was just something else. I bet it would be good in gumbo, though.
- Mom and I also did a lot of baking when she was visiting--she made rolls, both white and whole wheat, and I helped her make a whole wheat crust custard apple pie with Jonathan apples from the farmer's market. Yummy!

Yesterday, September 15, was Joseah's birthday, so we had him, Beth, Jeanne, and Steve over for dinner and a screening of David Lynch's Inland Empire (horrible). Jeanne and Steve brought some of their homebrewed beer and delicious homemade mac and cheese--the secret is apparently Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard. I made salsa with some red and yellow farmer's market tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, bottled lime juice, salt, garlic, and some rare chiles we bought from the Chile Woman at the market--I believe they were called Arrivivi Gusano. They were very hot, but with a wonderful fruity taste; half were unripe green and half were pale yellow, and they were perhaps an inch long and fairly thin and tapered. I also made some almond thumbprint cookies from the Joy of Cooking, minus the almonds. I made a few with Maine blueberry jam, for Rahul, and for most of them I used spoonfuls of peach jam Joseah's mom had sent him for his birthday, and that he'd brought over to share. It was all very nice. We had hash browns and eggs at Wee Willie's, went to the farmer's market, and went to the Bloomingfoods grand opening, where I got a free chair massage and some free soap samples.

Today I was woken up with breakfast in bed! I didn't actually eat it in bed, but I was incredibly thrilled to wake up to hash browns, cottage cheese, and a vegetable omelet with sweet red pepper, onion, olives, and spinach.

I made an easy casserole for dinner: emptied a can of organic rice and beans into a glass pie pan, mixed it with a chopped fresh tomato, red onion, fresh spinach, and topped it with some shredded cheese, then baked at 350 for about 20 minutes, turned it up to 450 for the last 10 minutes to brown the cheese.

Now I'm trying to catch up on work and readings for class--spent all day in the library watching the videos I'd missed--and I'm feeling very tired.

Best bento boxes ever:
http://e-obento.com/

A few yummy things to report:
- I ate paw paws last weekend (Labor Day weekend) thanks to Jeanne, who stopped by early in the morning from her shift at the Bloomingfoods stall to pick some up. They were much better when old and soft and brown, and tasted somewhere between banana, mango, and papaya, with a bit of papaya-ish kerosene taste that kept me from fully enjoying them.
- I made cornmeal pancakes with frozen corn kernels and they were really crunchy and good.
- I also made buckwheat pancakes with buckwheat flour from the WIBS mill at the farmer's market, and then tried to make a sourdough-starter buckwheat bread loaf, but it didn't rise. It was really good when fresh out of the oven, though, with that browned grain flavor bread should have.
- I made a tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes and basil from the farmer's market. I think we ate this with rotini.
- I made a tomato stew with Quorn pieces, green olives, fresh tomatoes, basil, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, and sweet peppers from the farmer's market. We ate this over couscous with sauteed mushrooms.
- Went to Camie's house a few days ago, on Sept 5th, where she and Laura showed us how to make salsa, beans, and fresh corn and flour tortillas. I made huevos rancheros the next morning with some leftover refried pink beans and chipotle salsa. Delicious!

We had a pretty nice weekend, I think, full of many of the simple domestic pleasures I missed in our studio apartment in Cleveland. Yesterday morning we biked up to the farmer's market and bought a few things. Jennie and Rebecca were there, though without any yarn or roving to buy (and the sportweight alpaca lady wasn't there either!). We chatted about spinning briefly, and I bought some plump Pink Lady and small dark Brandywine tomatoes, and a huge, fragrant, flowery bunch of basil with sharp pointed leaves--it looks like Thai holy basil, but green, not purple. They threw in a small round watermelon along with it. The folks from Wibs were there for the last time this year with their loudly chugging red enameled mill pouring out cornmeal, so I stocked up: 2 lbs buckwheat flour in a white cloth sack, 2 lbs white cornmeal, and 4 lbs whole-wheat flour. The fresh sage at another booth looked so nice, I had to pick some up despite having no plans for it. And it was mainly the thought of having to carry anything else on my bike that kept me from going crazy over the huge variety of summer heirloom tomatoes. We went to the library, I divested myself of three trash bags full of clothes at Goodwill, and I made whole wheat rotini with fresh tomato sauce (seasoned with hot peppers from our Thai bird pepper plant, which grew insanely huge and leafy under Jeanne's care over the summer).

Today, I made John Thorne's buckwheat pancakes--I think the recipe is from Serious Pig--which we ate with maple syrup and melted butter. Not bad, not great either. I think fermenting longer would help. I uncharacteristically attempted to clean the bathtub. Then we went to the Bryan Park pool and I went down the two waterslides about a million times. The sun is shining, cicadas are buzzing, Bloomington looks green and fresh and summery still.

We had Charlie and Defne over for dinner (plus a late-night postprandial swim in our clothes)

The menu:
- aperitifs of Charlie's fancy, fragrant French absinthe poured into a glass, with cold water slowly poured into it through a sugarcube on a cut silver spoon, till the liquid was a cloudy pale yellow
- green leaf lettuce salad with walnuts, dressed with chopped shallots, lemon juice, flaxseed oil, EVOO, sweet and spicy mustard, salt, pepper, dried tarragon, and dried thyme
- sauteed asparagus dressed with herb and fried shallot compound butter
- crisp-fried polenta slices (not fresh--we bought a tube from the store) topped with a tomato sauce made from canned crushed tomatoes, soffritto (garlic, onion, carrot, celery), a fresh chopped tomato, a bay leaf, fresh basil from Aarthi's garden, oregano, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper; and sauteed white button mushrooms
- red lentils cooked with soy sauce, garlic, soffritto (garlic, onion, carrot, celery), fresh rosemary from Aarthi's garden, dried oregano, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, chopped fresh tomatoes, soy sauce, fresh parsley, fresh chopped spinach, bay leaf, salt, and pepper
- rice pudding: a cup or so of brown basmati rice gently cooked, uncovered, with a can of coconut milk and water, seasoned with cardamom pods, vanilla extract, lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, star anise, dark brown sugar, a tiny pinch of salt, and maple syrup from Steve and Amalia's farm.

A nice dinner for one (Rahul is in Georgia, eating pecan pie):
Wash and cut up half a cauliflower into florets. Toss in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a sheet of foil on a baking sheet. Cut the top off a head of garlic and pour some olive oil inside. Wrap it up in the corner of the foil. Bake it all in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, boil some water and make a handful of linguine.
When it's ready, the cauliflower will be a deep, toasty brown on most sides, and the garlic will be soft and browned.
Squeeze out the roasted garlic into a bowl. Mix with the cauliflower and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

A nice dinner for one (Rahul is in Georgia, eating pecan pie):
Wash and cut up half a cauliflower into florets. Toss in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a sheet of foil on a baking sheet. Cut the top off a head of garlic and pour some olive oil inside. Wrap it up in the corner of the foil. Bake it all in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, boil some water and make a handful of linguine.
When it's ready, the cauliflower will be a deep, toasty brown on most sides, and the garlic will be soft and browned.
Squeeze out the roasted garlic into a bowl. Mix with the cauliflower and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

We had Steve, Jeanne, Steve's friend Omar, Tim, and Trevor over for dinner tonight. It was a lovely sunny day, mostly spent shopping and cooking. We cleaned and vacuumed the house, and I had a bouquet of purple dame's rocket and tansy leaves from the farmer's market in a glass vase in the living room.

To drink, we had:
- Oliver Winery wine (Sauvignon Blanc and Soft White)
- Jeanne's home-brewed beer, a very light, tasty wheat beer
- Club soda with lemon wedges

We also had:
- NYT no-knead bread (a little flat--the water wasn't warm enough when I added it to the yeast--but very crisp). Served with goat cheese from the farmer's market, soft white stuff mixed with black vegetable ashes
- Salad: red romaine and green romaine from the farmer's market, with a dressing of lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, dried tarragon, minced shallots, salt, and pepper, topped with toasted walnuts and grated parmesan and romano cheese
- Zucchini carpaccio: three zucchini sliced into thin rounds, laid out in three layers; on top of each layer, I squeezed a little lemon juice and sprinkled olive oil, salt, pepper, parmesan and romano cheese, lemon zest, and toasted pine nuts
- Lentil soup: a soffritto of celery, onion, carrot, and garlic sweated for half an hour on low heat, with a bag of brown lentils and about 8 cups of water added to simmer for hours. I seasoned it with a small can of tomato paste, a few glugs of soy sauce, dried oregano, thyme, and rosemary, and fresh Italian parsley added towards the end. I also threw in a quarter of a package of orzo pasta towards the end of cooking.
- Mushroom pasta: Rahul made this: two packages of whole-wheat rotini, handfuls of farmer's market spinach, and a huge saucepan of creamy mushroom sauce. He made a white sauce with a butter-flour roux and whole milk, cream, and mushroom Better than Bouillon added as the liquid. I don't know what other herbs he added, but he did put in a lot of garlic, garlic chives, diced carrots, and onions.
- Corn pudding: I followed the basic recipe shown here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/14317
with five ears of fresh yellow corn instead of six, the kernels cut off the cob instead of grated, and a few other modifications. In other words,
Cut corn kernels and scrape juice from five ears of fresh corn.
Mix with 1/2 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup cream, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp sugar, freshly ground black pepper, 1/2 stick melted butter, and 3 eggs.
Add chopped fresh garlic chives, Italian parsley, and some ground paprika.
Bake in a buttered muffin tin set in a pan of hot water, at 350 degrees, for about 45 minutes. Spoon onto plates.
- Peanut butter cookies: Jeanne and Steve brought these.

Two yummy things at Community Kitchen today:
1) I made coleslaw! I love it when I get to actually cook things. I didn't have to cut up any vegetables, just emptied gigantic bags full of pre-washed shredded cabbage and carrots into a bowl and made a pitcher of vinaigrette to go on top. Apple cider vinegar, vegetable oil, sugar (enough to make it sludgy, and then some), salt, pepper, mustard powder, dried dill, and tons of poppyseeds. I kept looking for caraway seeds or celery seeds, but couldn't find any.
2) Adam made a peanut curry sauce out of coconut milk, peanut butter, turmeric, curry powder, parsley, and garlic powder, and it was absolutely delicious! He was going to cook cut-up apples and assorted veggies in it (looked like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, green onions, green beans?--not sure what else) and serve it over rice or something. I am seriously considering dropping by CK at dinnertime for a plate of the curry.

Oh, and the chocolates my mom sent were amazing. My favorite was the raspberry ganache. There's a guy at the Bloomington farmer's market (he was at the winter market, at least, haven't seen him yet at the summer market) who sells truffles covered in raspberry dust. I might have to try some of his.

I had a really lovely birthday. I worked all day (well, so it was lovely aside from that and the agonizing VPN troubleshooting on the phone--"Remote Assistance" wasn't working). Rahul left me a card on my computer that I found when I got up in the morning. Since he scheduled a meeting for the evening, I thought we wouldn't make reservations anyplace since we weren't sure when we'd be able to go.

When he got home, we got dressed and went out to Tallent to see if we could get a table.

Then, when he walked in, he said, "Hi, I have a reservation." So he planned all along to get back in time for our reserved dinnertime, and actually called ahead for reservations! It was a small thing, but it meant a lot.

Here's what we ate:

Indiana Duck Breast
Sweet Potato Roesti, Cauliflower, Golden Raisin Olive Relish

Trout
Lemon & Herb Stuffed, Parsley Cous Cous, Sundried Tomato Vin

They also brought us amuse-bouches--a crispy sweet potato chip with smoked salmon, ham, and lemon aioli, and about 10 other things all piled on top in miniscule amounts. After dinner, we were given one thin, chewy chocolate cookie each.

The nicely dressed people across the room were talking loudly about all kinds of unsavory topics. Really loudly:
- "So I was scraping the scar tissue off my groin with a butter knife..."
- "I found out I could pull on the tendons and make the claw [apparently a cut-off pheasant foot] open and close. Then I forgot it in my desk one day and got in trouble when the teacher found it because of the smell..."

And a man dining by himself at another table stood up and I saw to my surprise that he was about four feet tall--he looked normal-sized sitting down, so he must have had really short legs. Between the conversations and the small man in the suit, it started to feel very Lynchian indeed.

We went to Runcible Spoon afterwards. Rahul and I shared a Blind Dave's Mocha (chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and coffee) and had some champagne. Jeanne and Steve came to join us, and Melinda stopped by with her friend Adam and brought me a rose from the table where she'd been sitting at a law school banquet. There was a private party in the main room to honor Sherman Alexie, and they gave free bottles of wine to the management, so the owner came by and gave us some free glasses of the sparkling red.

Mom and Dad sent me cards, and Mom also UPS'd a box of fancy chocolates that arrived the next morning! I haven't tried the chocolates yet, but they're very beautiful.

I miss my boyfriend. :( Rahul is off in Nashville, TN today and tomorrow for a job interview.

So he missed out on some yummy pasta:

Creamy Lemon Pasta
A couple of handfuls of dried extra-wide egg noodles
A couple of handfuls of frozen peas
About 1/4 bunch of fresh parsley
1/2 of a large lemon (I miss fresh, free California lemons! This one cost $1)
2 large cloves garlic
Olive oil
2 Tbsp mascarpone cheese
Salt
Pepper

Put on the water for the egg noodles.

While waiting for it to boil, mince the garlic. Heat up a dab of olive oil in a tiny pan and brown the garlic. Remove from heat and place in a serving bowl.

Cook the noodles according to directions.

Wash and chop the parsley.

Dump the frozen peas into the pasta water a minute before it's done; by the time you drain it, the peas should be thawed.

Pour the drained pasta and peas into the serving bowl. Throw in the mascarpone and the parsley. Zest and juice the lemon directly into the bowl. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, and stir together to melt the mascarpone into a creamy sauce.

Things that might have made this dish better, if I'd thought of them and had them all on hand:
- Parmesan cheese
- Fresh mint or basil
- More garlic!
- Chopped olives
- Capers

Overall, though, it's a lovely, delicious, simple dish. The mascarpone makes it really easy--the previous incarnations of this pasta dish I've made before (with lemon or with yellow bell peppers) called for using cream and reducing it in the pan, which is much more time-consuming. Since the mascarpone is thick and creamy and clingy already, you can easily make the sauce before the pasta is even done cooking.

So... time to get back to my project and some fashion-ogling. I'm really craving chocolate, or hot cocoa, or a mocha, and we don't have any in the house. Unfortunately, Rahul has the car and it's forecast to snow tomorrow, so I probably won't go out. Saturday I paid no attention and went downtown to get breakfast and to attend Nancy's birthday party and spin at the yarn shop, and by the time I left (with 237 yards of green-blue merino tencel, and 30 yards of angora/silk/cotton 3-ply handspun in hand), huge, horrible globs of wet slush were splattering down everywhere, inch-thick all over the car windows. There was a kind of crust of fluffy/icy slush on the road that was retaining water underneath and I was glad Bloomington is so small.

Vegetarian (not vegan) gravy


Worked up as a substitute for our favorite white bean gravy because of the tragic demise of our hand blender.

Make a light roux with one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon flour. When the roux is thick, but still very pale, add Morningstar Farm sausage crumbles (perhaps 1/2 cup). Mix well with the roux and saute until lightly browned. Add about 1/2 tsp Better than Bouillon vegetarian broth concentrate, and about 1 cup cool water. Stir well; cook until the gravy is the desired consistency, then stir in about a teaspoonful of mascarpone cheese. Cook for a minute longer and then serve with Remarkably Acceptable biscuits.

I made this reasonably good imitation of Gretchen's braised red cabbage, and am enjoying it now with Quorn nuggets and a slice of whole-grain bread:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/102295

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 2 1/4-pound red cabbage, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
6 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add cabbage and sauté until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add sugar; toss to coat evenly. Add vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until cabbage is tender, stirring often, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I've eaten some great things while I've been in California these past few weeks (since 12/16/06). I have been on vacation from vegetarianism.

Aloo tikki and masala dosa from Vik's Chaat House.

At Sarah's solstice party, a great spread of all kinds of familiar, wonderful Solstice party foods: "Swedish meatballs" (they turned out to be Italian meatballs from Costco baked in butter); Gretchen's wonderful traditional red cabbage, cooked till tender (water, white wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and butter); roasted new potatoes with dill, Sarah's homemade white chocolate peppermint bark with peppermint candies AND peppermint oil, and dark chocolate with salted chopped pistachios; cold, plump boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce; slices of cucumber; slices of crisp apple with caramelly brown Norwegian Gjetost cheese; tangy pickled herring with paper-thin slices of lacy Havarti on those cardboardy whole-wheat crackers; anise-flavored kerosene, aka shot glasses of aquavit; champagne, Martinelli's, both traditional and mango-flavored; gorgeous brownies with whole tiny candy canes pressed into the top of each one (great idea, but I didn't try it).

At Dad's house: Cauliflower roasted in a pan with just olive oil, salt, and pepper, until brown and nutty. It was so delicious we kept eating it with our fingers until it was almost all gone.

Some other lovely dishes at Dad's house, too many to count: lentil hummus, crunchy Fuyu persimmons, home-made crackers with a delectable Brie, vegetable chowder from the Deborah Madison Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone cookbook, black cherry jello mold with walnuts, cherries, and celery embedded inside for a lovely crunch. A fragrant, buttery pear from Harry and David's. Pan-fried masala dosas from frozen packages from Vik's. Pink, juicy grapefruits sprinkled with sugar. Peet's coffee with half-and-half or vanilla soy milk, waiting for me when I came to the table each morning. Another loaf of no-knead bread from the New York Times, which we had the day after it was baked, so it was chewy rather than crispy.

Three! generous pieces of unagi on rice, miso soup, and salad, for about $10, with Leah and Martin at Mifune in Japantown. Did I mention it costs about twice as much for unagi donburi in Bloomington? I don't know how much they give you, but I seriously doubt it's six whole pieces of fish, and I don't think they include the sides of soup and salad, either. Also some nice salted edamame.

Dad took me out to Lalime's as a Christmas present. We ate:
- Caesar salad: crisp, beautiful baby romaine lettuce, full of sweet flavor, dressed with a complex, creamy anchovy dressing and unfortunately large, sparse, crunchy croutons. The salad would have been perfect with a larger number of smaller croutons.
- Wild mushroom stroganoff--creamy, with wonderful wild mushrooms and perfectly cooked al dente fresh pasta. It came with a tiny kabocha squash gratin on top.
- Rich, luscious mud pie with frozen coffee? hazelnut? ice cream, frozen whipped cream, chopped toasted almonds, and a dark chocolate sauce with little chocolatey wafers on top.

Dad had some kind of Mexican-inspired fish with a roasted green pepper sauce, and a mixed greens salad with roasted golden and red beets and a huge piece of runny, pungent blue cheese, which he kindly shared with me.

Patty got locked out of the house for three hours that night--she was home dog-sitting and left the keys in the house when she took Jeb out for a walk. Unfortunately, their neighbors John and Betsy were out, and Jeb would lunge at people if they came near, so Patty couldn't bring him to some random neighbor's house. She ended up huddling in the laundry room for warmth and going through the trash at the high school to find a paper plate for Jeb to drink water out of. I had already felt pretty guilty about eating the wonderful meal without her, without the thought of her shivering in the cold while rummaging through dumpsters.

We went up to Napa for Christmas Eve and dashed back down Christmas Day for Patty to go to dinner at her sister's house with the aforementioned black cherry Jello mold in tow.

For Christmas dinner, we had some wonderful oldies-but-goodies. Roasted turkey, brined for two days until it was unspeakably luscious and juicy. A bite of the sticky rice (loh mai) stuffing straight from the bird, all crisp and brown and savory at the edges, studded with sweet sausage and mushrooms. Honey-roasted ham, crunchy and brown along the slashed, broiled edges. White wine from New Zealand, red wine. Yams with marshmallows on top. Soft, doughy garlic bread with the crust all crunchy from the oven. Roasted carrots and potatoes and who knows what else. Roasted cauliflower with capers and anchovies (the plain roasted stuff we made at Dad's was better, though). Green beans. Salad. Is it bad of me not to remember the vegetables very well? Roasted whole yams, perhaps left over from the casserole dish. Last but not least, a stunning buche de Noel that Juliana made, with cocoa-dusted meringue mushrooms on top, a dark ganache icing, and yellow sponge cake rolled with a pastry cream/whipped cream mixture, served with a scoop of coffee ice cream. Grandpa got sick that night and said the buche de Noel had done him in.

Latkes with applesauce and sour cream at Saul's, with Mike and Christy.

On the 29th, Will's wedding, and Will and Nikki provided, of course, an amazing feast. They were married in the basement of the CIA in St. Helena. We had stopped by Dean and Deluca on the way over and enjoyed window shopping for beer toffee and nuts in honey. In the basement, when we first walked in, there was a bar serving Nutella hot chocolate with dishes of banana and espresso marshmallows. I had one of each.

We walked between the giant wine casks and the towering stone walls all draped with white, starry lights, and sat down to watch their wedding take place against burgundy velvet curtains. It was a lovely ceremony, and they danced away from the altar to the tune of "I Feel Good."

Next came hors d'oeuvres: rather dry breaded balls of duck confit topped with a candied kumquat, perfect little Chinese soup spoons full of creamy mac'n'cheese topped with bacon bits, and Patty's favorite, crisp crackers seemingly made completely of nori, topped with a slightly spicy tuna tartare and masago. We had these with crisp, fizzy, delicious glasses of cava--my favorite alcoholic beverage of the evening.

Upstairs, I was seated at Table 1 with Michael, Yvette (who has moved to New York), and Valerie, Will's best man Reed and groomsman Geoff, Reed's girlfriend (I forgot her name--something with an M), and Will's cousin Leigh, who sang a Sarah McLachlan song in the ceremony. We had:

Huge, juicy, crunchy pan-seared day boat sea scallops on a bed of roasted cauliflower puree, with roasted cauliflower pieces and a crispy fried caper vinaigrette. Incredibly good.

Handmade fettuccine with roasted butternut squash puree, shavings of Romano cheese (grana padano?), onion soubise (that is, finely minced caramelized onions) and big slices of crunchy fresh black truffles. I was surprised to find that I liked the fresh truffles--their earthiness is better restrained when they're fresh, not cooked or infused into oil. This was such a wonderful dish--my favorite was either this or the scallops.

Beef short ribs with shallots, young haricots verts with peeled orange and gold baby carrots, thinly sliced potatoes layered into a crispy-topped cheesy gratin, and fat, meaty pieces of Maine lobster poached in butter and served with a lobster reduction sauce.

The wedding cake, a hazelnut dacquoise that turned out to be essentially a big heap of hazelnut buttercream with a few little nutty crunchy bits here and there.

A cheddar cheese croissant and a puffy sugar-topped brioche from the bakery in Stanford Shopping Center. While Mom and I were sharing the croissant, we saw a security guard for the mall zip by on a Segway.

Mom's meltingly tender beef short rib stew served over noodles.

Slices of canard a' l'orange with Ken and Sarah at a French restaurant in Los Altos, served with chewy Thai red rice, and probably also some kind of vegetable, broccoli perhaps. I mainly remember the seemingly endless stack of slightly red coin-shaped slices of duck piled on my plate.

At a restaurant in Milpitas, on the left-hand side of the mall as you face Ranch 99: Salt and pepper Dungeness crab, soothing silken steamed tofu with shrimp in it, steamed spinach with chopped bits of pork and black mushroom.

A couple of pieces of salty preserved lemon or plum, from Tsang Po Po--who knows, really, what those fruits are in the end. It's the salt/sour/sweet punch in the mouth you really crave.

Big cubes of fried stuffed tofu from Canton Palace or whatever it's called, on the street across from Marina Foods. It's fried so the skin is chewy, but the inside is still silky, there's a big lump of shrimp meat in the top, and a savory brown sauce coats the whole dish. Also cooked romaine lettuce or nappa cabbage, with a soy or oyster sauce.

Dim sum at Koi Palace in Daly City: ha gao, siu long bao, beignets (sai yong), lo mai fan. I remember the siu long bao filling was coarsely knife-chopped and they weren't very full of broth.

My New Year's Eve dinner: decent, but not exceptional, paneer tikka masala and aloo naan from the curry place on Curtis and Solano. The free chai was really good, though, I have to say. Later, at Robert and Sara's, between bouts of rabbit-pestering in Rayman with Mike and rocking out with Guitar Hero 2 with Willis, I enjoyed some champagne, a cocktail of whiskey and ginger ale, some utterly delicious melty queso (cheddar with cream, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, and who knows what else) with tortilla chips, a banana (!), and lemon-ginger cream sandwich cookies.

New Year's Day lunch with Lee and Mary and Molly at Daimo: cheung fun with shrimp, cheung fun with you tiu inside, lo bak go, chow fun, crunchy tsin mein, and salt and pepper tofu with fantastically crunchy, salty outsides. I have to say it beats the salt and pepper Dungeness crab we ate in Milpitas a few nights earlier. It's great to just enjoy the crunch without having to pick through shells to extract the tiny bits of meat.

Lo bak go fried with scrambled egg, Vietnamese iced coffee, and a small #1 bowl of noodles at TK Noodle, an old favorite that we abandoned for years after TSS saw someone sneezing into the soup. I think we went back because it's under new management. The broth is so soothing and is full of thin rice noodles, beef balls, slices of beef, bean sprouts, tiny crunchy pork rind pieces, and cilantro.

A bacon waffle with maple syrup from Pancake House in Los Altos with Mom, TSS, Serena, and Tsang Po Po. I tried one of Mom's sausage links--the sausage was really sweet and moist and tasty.

A bowl of pho with tendon and steak from a place on S. Murphy, aka Downtown Sunnyvale. I had forgotten how much I loved all the fixings: squeezing in the tiny wedge of lime, dropping in the sliced green peppers, tearing the Thai basil into the soup, and stirring in handfuls of wet, crunchy bean sprouts, their white echoing the white of the rice noodles.

God, this is a lot of stuff already, but I'll add anything noteworthy I think of later.

Shevia

4 cups basmati rice
2 1/2 grated unsweetened frozen coconut

Soak the rice for at least 3-4 hours, then wash in several changes of water, until the water runs clear.

Blend the coconut and rice with water until smooth.

You can cook the batter at this stage as pan polo, a thin crepe.

Cook down the blended mixture to a thick paste.

Form the paste into golf ball-sized patties with a thumb print in the center of each one.

Steam in a steamer for about 20 minutes, until the cakes look slightly translucent.

Press each one through a shevia press onto a plate, as a sort of flat cake of vermicelli.

Mix with coconut oil, shredded coconut, chopped green chilis, asafoetida, and salt.

If you want to make sweet shevia, you can make a mixture of coconut milk, brown sugar, and cardamom and use that instead of the coconut-chili-asafoetida mixture.

Vegetable Manchow Soup

2-3 dried Chinese mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water and chopped
2-3 mushrooms, chopped
1/4 small cabbage, chopped
50g tofu, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped and de-seeded
2 green chilis, chopped
2 bamboo shoot slices, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 inch piece garlic, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1 cup noodles
2 tbsp oil (plus some to deep fry)
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 Tbsp red chili sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp MSG
salt to taste
4-5 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbsp vinegar

Blanch noodles in hot water, remove, and drain well. Heat sufficient oil and deep-fry blanched noodles for two minutes or until light brown and crisp. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Blend cornstarch in 1/2 cup water and set aside.

Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a wok or pan, add ginger, garlic, green chili, and stir-fry briefly. Add green onion and cook for a few minutes.

Add mushrooms, cabbage, bamboo shoots, tofu, capsicum, and carrot and cook on medium heat, stirring continuously for two minutes.

Add chili sauce, soy sauce, pepper powder, MSG, salt, and stir to mix. Stir in vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Stir in blended cornstarch and cook for two minutes or until the soup thickens, stirring continuously.

Stir in vinegar and serve piping hot, garnished with crisply fried noodles and spring onion greens.

Spinach Balls
2 10 oz. packages chopped spinach, washed, squeeze out excess water
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups Brownberry Herb Stuffing
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 tsp oregano
salt to taste

Mix everything together and form into medium-sized balls. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Serve with ketchup.

I need to try this recipe from the NYT!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?em&ex=1163134800&en=a25918d1aead20f6&ei=5087%0A
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Recipe: No-Knead Bread

Published: November 8, 2006

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
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3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

For lunch today, I made a simple but tasty little dish: some of those prepackaged spinach gorgonzola ravioli with a sauce made of chopped ripe tomatoes and garlic fried in a little dab of butter.

Savory tempeh muffins

I based this recipe on the "Henny Penny" muffins recipe found in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook.

1 package soy tempeh, chopped
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 cups whole wheat flour (minus a little bit)
roughly 3 Tbsp white cornmeal
(pour enough into the measuring cup with flour to make up the difference to 2 cups total)

1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup plain soy milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Fry the onion and celery in a little oil over medium heat, then add the tempeh and fry until golden brown. Pour on the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and mix in the hot pan, then remove from heat and allow to cool.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and thyme in one bowl. Stir in the tempeh mixture.

Combine the eggs, soy milk, and cheese in another bowl.

Pour the liquids into the flour and stir lightly, just to moisten. Grease two muffin tins with olive oil (this will make about 1 1/2 muffin tins' worth). Fill each muffin cup and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and a fork inserted into the center comes out clean.

These are delicious with honey and/or butter.

I cooked a lot this weekend, in addition to going to the farmer's market and talking to Jenny and Rebecca (the sheep farmer and her daughter from my spinning class) about their peacocks, carving some awesome pumpkins with Steve and Jeanne, buying a nice new yarn storage unit at the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, and spinning for hours and hours--I thought I just wasn't skilled enough to spin the fine, silky merino I had bought, and then Robin drastically loosened the Scotch tension on the wheel to reduce the takeup and I was suddenly able to spin laceweight merino! Suzanne was nice enough to let me borrow the wheel indefinitely. Sue from my class said she's going to Sheep Street next weekend for another class and to try out wheels, and will email me with the details.

- Made a Middle Eastern-ish eggplant dip:
Wash, trim, and roast 3 small eggplants at about 400 degrees until soft and dark(I used the white kind with purple streaks). Let cool and peel off the skin.

Fry some chopped ripe tomatoes and garlic, then puree the eggplant flesh with these vegetables, salt, pepper, cumin, and a little bit of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.

- Roasted a butternut squash: 1h at 400 degrees, cut in half, face-down in water
- Roasted a bunch of green tomatoes from the farmer's market with salt, pepper, EVOO, garlic, and oregano
- Made chuda and the dressing for bhel puri for a potluck that never happened. The chuda needs to have the recipe Rahul's mom gave us quadrupled before it tastes right.
- Made some hard-boiled eggs
- Rahul made manicotti stuffed with ricotta, egg, and fresh basil, topped with tomato sauce
- Made scrambled eggs and home-fried new potatoes for breakfast
- Made a panna cotta that just didn't come out right. I boiled 2 cups slightly hard cider with 1 1/2 Tbsp agar-agar (this made a very firm gel) and let it set. I wanted to add a layer of yogurt, but was afraid it would curdle if I heated it, so I heated a small amount of yogurt with water and 2 Tbsp agar-agar, then stirred it into the other 3 cups yogurt and seasoned it with honey and vanilla. The main part of the yogurt was too cold and set the agar instantly, so now I have a slightly set yogurt with lots of tiny granules of hard gelatin in it... gross.
- Made a Southern breakfast: white corn grits with cheddar cheese melted into them, served with absolutely delicious fried green tomatoes that I made by slicing green tomatoes and then shaking them up in some Andy's Spicy Fish Fry and frying them in olive oil
- Cooked a fake chicken stew with wild Chicken of the Woods (sulfur shelf) mushrooms from the farmer's market--these are very chickeny indeed, but very much like dry, massively overcooked chicken unless you cook them in sauce. We braised them first around lunchtime (saute in oil or butter, then add water and braise for 20 minutes) but they came out dry and disappointing, and so for dinner I made a stew out of them. I chopped up an onion, a few carrots, and a few stalks of celery and sauteed them, then braised for a while (we had a few scraps of mushroom left over that we had forgotten to cook earlier) and cooked some whole-wheat penne in the meantime in a separate pot. When the pasta was done, I drained it, then returned it to the same pot with a can of Amy's Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup and some extra water. I added the vegetables from the other pan, seasoned it with thyme, salt, pepper, and soy sauce, and we enjoyed it with some wheat toast and hummus (Rahul) and eggplant spread (me).

These mushrooms are apparently quite risky--Wikipedia says half of the population is allergic to them! We had to sign a waiver at the farmer's market saying we wouldn't sue if the forager turned out to have gathered the wrong thing and poisoned us. He reassured us that there's a mushroom inspector who comes around the market every morning and checks them, and they're only allowed to sell six common types of wild mushrooms: morels, chanterelles, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, and I forget the last two--one might have been puffballs. Then he handed us a paper telling us that if we didn't braise the mushrooms for at least 20 minutes, we would probably end up with nausea, vomiting, or other nasty side effects.

CHUDA!

1. Mix the following in a large bowl:



2cups of Special K cereal

2cups of Rice Krispies

2 cups of Toasted corn (Corn Chex, I think)

1 cup of shredded wheat (optional)



2. Prepare seasoning separately:



2 tbspn of Canola or Veg oil

1 tsp of mustard seeds

1/2 tsp of turmeric

1/2 tsp of Asafoetida

1 or 1 and 1/2 tsp of chilli poweder

10 curry leaves



3. The process:



Heat oil; add mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splatter, reduce heat and add turmeric, Asafoetida, chilli powder and curry leaves. Immediately pour the whole thing on the cereal mix. Add 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of sugar to the whole thing and mix thoroughly. Put the whole thing in oven at 200 degree for 10 minutes. Then add roasted peanuts. Mix again. Eat to you heart's content. Enjoy.

Beans and cornbread

Beans

1 cup Anasazi beans, picked through and rinsed--not presoaked
1 can chopped tomatoes with Italian seasoning
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced and browned
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups boiling water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 Thai bird peppers, chopped

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Combine all ingredients in an ovenproof pan, cover, and put into oven for 5+ hours.

I haven't finished baking this yet because we had to leave for the Calexico concert before I was done, so the beans are still somewhat hard. :(

Cornbread

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place an 8-inch seasoned cast iron skillet inside with 1 Tbsp coconut oil to preheat for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime, combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and mix together:
1 cup white stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
(will have to double-check proportions for preceding 3 ingredients)

Whisk together the wet ingredients in another bowl:
3/4 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar (these two ingredients substitute for buttermilk)
1 large egg

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together lightly, just to moisten. Remove the preheated pan from the oven and swirl the melted fat up around the sides to coat them. Pour in the batter and return the pan to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, until the cornbread is golden brown. "Invert the pan with a confident flip," as John Thorne, whose basic recipe I'm using, puts it. Cut into little wedges and eat the crispy-crusted cornbread hot, with butter, or some melted Cheddar cheese.

Biscuits and Tempeh Sausage Gravy

The recipe consists of three parts: the sausage crumbles, the gravy, and the biscuits.

SAUSAGE CRUMBLES
the recipe is posted here:
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/recipe.php?RecipeID=125

prep time: 2 minutes | cooking time: 25-30 minutes | makes about 2 cups

Ingredients
8 oz package tempeh
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried margoram or oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions
In a saute pan, crumble the tempeh and add enough water to almost cover it. Over high heat, steam the tempeh until most of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Drain the remaining water and add the rest of the ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

GRAVY:
2 cups cooked white beans, or 1 15-oz can drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup veg broth or water
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper
10-12 leaves fresh sage, chopped

Prepare the Tempeh sausage crumbles and keep them warm in a pan.
Puree the white beans with the oil and broth until relatively smooth. (I have a hand blender so I just do it right in a cooking pot, but you can do this in a blender or food processor instead). Add this to the tempeh crumbles with the salt and pepper. Heat through. You can thin the gravy by adding more vegetable broth. Mix in the sage and cook for another 2 minutes.

BISCUITS:
I use the Joy of Cooking olive oil drop biscuit recipe, which is deemed "surprisingly acceptable" in the cookbook. I think it turns out pretty well because you don't need to stir as much as if you make the biscuits by hand the traditional way, (cutting in the butter in pieces) so the biscuits stay more tender.

Mole for Partners Club Mexican Dinner Night (9/10/06)

All amounts listed are approximate... some more than others
Sauce:
2 cups pumpkin seeds, toasted and salted
1 cup toasted almonds
10 medium-large tomatoes (mixture of plum and pink heirloom)
3 fresh ancho chilis
1 fresh "Native American" chili
1 fresh Hungarian hot pepper
3 fresh tiny Thai bird chilis
1/2 cup raisins to grind in the sauce, plus 1/4 cup to leave whole
1 Tbsp cocoa nibs, or substitute 2 squares of unsweetened dark chocolate

Stew seasonings:
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
6 large cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped coarsely
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried ground cumin
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 lime
2 cups water

Stew:
2 frozen Quorn Naked Cutlets, cut into cubes
1 pint tiny summer squash, cut into diagonal slices--I used a very pleasing-to-the-eye type shaped like tiny zucchini and shaded butter-yellow on one end, where the green stem was attached, and pale leaf-green on the other
1/2 pint green beans, trimmed and snapped into pieces
2 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 carrots, peeled and sliced

Fry the onions in some olive oil over medium-low heat. After a few minutes, add the garlic. Once the onion is soft and the garlic is slightly browned, add some water.

Wash and place the unpeeled tomatoes and chilis on a silicone baking sheet in a baking dish under the broiler until charred.

Peel the charred skin off the chilis, remove their seeds, and place the chili flesh into a food processor.

Add the tomatoes to the pot with the onion mixture and let everything simmer while you prepare the rest of the sauce.

Add the pumpkin seeds, almonds, 1/2 cup of the raisins, and cocoa nibs to the food processor and grind everything to a powder. Add this mixture to the pot, then add the oregano, cumin, soy sauce, salt, and whole raisins, and stir and mash all the ingredients together. It should look pale and creamy.

Add the stew ingredients, allowing for the disparity in cooking times between each type of ingredient: potatoes and carrots first, then squash, then green beans and Quorn.

Simmer until the stew is cooked through. Add the lime juice and pepper, taste and correct the seasoning. I ended up stirring in a few extra spoonfuls of tomato sauce at the end because there was too much nut mixture, making the sauce too bland.

Serve with rice.

Notes on the recipe: next time, I would add many more tomatoes and ancho peppers in relationship to the nut mixture, in order to give the sauce more depth, spice, and tanginess, and more chocolate to strengthen the bitterness. As it was, I think it ended up more bland than I would have liked--it tasted perfect after I had added only about half the nut mixture, but I ended up adding the rest because I had to use it up. The lime was a substitute for the citrus sourness of tomatillos, which I couldn't find, but I think this would be phenomenal with tomatillos, green tomatoes, or maybe even ground cherries instead of the lime juice. A bigger variety of nuts would also make this sauce very interesting. Some of the Diana Kennedy recipes I was studying and adapting used hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, and sesame seeds in addition to almonds and pumpkin seeds. Also, the green beans were a substitute for nopales. Real nopales would probably be better.

Portobello-Spinach-Leek-Goat Cheese thingies: link from Daren
http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/recipes/portobello_leeks.html

Also, I made shortbread (recipe from Joy of Cooking, minus sugar; divided in half, I added walnuts, rosemary, and parmesan to half the recipe, and crushed cardamom seeds, vanilla, and sugar to the other half) and larb the other day. The larb was Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style fried with ginger slices (later removed), chopped garlic, chopped green chili, and chopped lemongrass. I seasoned it with lime juice, lime zest, soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, toasted rice powder, and brown sugar, plus chopped raw mint, cilantro, Thai basil, celery, and red onion. Pretty good wrapped up into bundles with red leaf lettuce... the only thing I'd change is adding more lime juice.

Mushroom Tofu Stroganoff
from Horn of the Moon Cookbook

I asked for this recipe from my coworker Greg, who brought it to one of our potlucks. It's delicious! He says he uses fresh dill and substitutes peas and zucchini for the tofu. (I think also carrots)

4 Tbsp butter
3 onions, finely chopped (1.5 cups)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried dill weed
2 tsp basil
3 squares tofu, drained, pressed, and cut into 1-inch cubes (1.5 lbs)
2 Tbsp tamari
4 tightly packed cups sliced mushrooms (about 1/4 inch slices)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 qts water
1 lb curly noodles
1 cup sour cream + dollop for garnish
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp poppy seeds

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in wok or large, deep cast-iron frying pan and saute the onions, garlic, dill weed, and basil. After 5 minutes, add tofu and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring gently occasionally, until tofu browns nicely. Add tamari and stir. Then add mushrooms, salt,a nd cayenne. Lower heat, stir, and cook another 5 mins. Remove from heat.

Bring water to a boil in a 4-quart pot. Cook noodles until tender; drain adn return to pot. Toss noodles with 1 Tbsp butter to prevent sticking.

Add 1 cup sour cream and parsley to mushroom mixture and mix well.

Melt remaining 2 Tbsp butter in saucepan and add poppyseeds. Cook5-10 minutes. Pour onto noodles and toss. Serve noodles with stroganoff on top and dollop of sour cream as garnish.

Baicoli

400 g 00 flour (3 1/5 cup)
50 g butter (3.5 Tbsp)
50 g sugar (1/4 cup)
15 g yeast (3 tsp)
1 egg white
1 1/2 cup milk
Salt

Put the yeast in a little bit of the warmed-up milk. Mix about half a cup (50 g) flour into a paste with the milk mixture. Make a ball, cut a cross into the top, cover, and let rise for about half an hour in a warm place. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Mix the rest of this flour, sugar, butter at room temperature, salt, and the egg whites. Knead, adding a bit of tepid milk (enough to make a bread-like dough), divide in 8 parts and make small cylinders about 4 cm long.

Grease a baking sheet. Place the loaves far apart on the sheet and let them rise about 1 1/2 hrs. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden but not crunchy. Let cool and wait a couple of days. Then slice them and toast the thin slices.

I had some good meals about a week or two ago: Cafe Gratitude with Rahul, Chez Florio with Ailis... I'll have to write about them later.

I wanted to stop in and make notes of things from my travels to remember:
"Cucina Da Mario"
di Masiero Anna Lisa
San Marco 2614--Venezia
Tel. 0415285968
The little canalside restaurant Francesco brought me and my mom to, where the woman spoke no English and berated some meek English tourists for requesting something off the menu that she had apparently run out of. "...Everything here is fresh! You think I sell things from cans here? No! Nothing comes out of cans! So that means you can't have everything exactly as you like it all the time!"

"Innocenti" ceramista a Montefiesole
is the man who made the beautiful majolica boxes with birds I bought for myself and my mom in Cinque Terre.

Vieng Travel (viengtravel.com) is the place that books the accomodations in the Tree Top Lodges in Khao Sok.

Recipes from Rahul's mom

Masala Dosa
1 cup urad dal
2 cups rice
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

Soak the until soft, then blend together with water until smooth. Let the batter ferment in a warm place overnight before frying.

Bhaji (potato filling for dosa)
Around 5 small potatoes
Black mustard seeds
A pinch of cumin
A pinch of turmeric
A couple of curry leaves
1-2 onions, cut into half-moons
1-2 green chilies, sliced
A piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
Salt
Lemon juice
Cilantro (optional)

Boil and peel the potatoes, then dice into small cubes.

Heat oil in a pan over high heat. Add the mustard seeds. When they begin popping, add the cumin, turmeric, and curry leaves. Fry for a minute. Add the onions, chilies, and ginger, and fry the mixture for a few minutes. Add some water and salt to the potatoes. Cook over low/medium heat. After the mixture is cooked, season with lemon juice and cilantro.

Fried Cauliflower
Cauliflower
Whole coriander seeds
Rice flour
Chickpea flour
Salt
Chili powder

Make a batter from the coriander, flours, salt, and chili powder mixed with water until just liquid. Batter the cauliflower and deep-fry it. Serve with sweet Thai chili sauce.

Doodh Peda (condensed milk candies)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup sugar
Ground cardamom
Saffron

Cook all ingredients together over medium heat until caramelized. Let cool slightly, then roll into balls and let cool. These candies should be soft.

Dinner, Monday, May 22
Quorn, sourdough stuffing (fried carrot, celery, and onion, cubed dense sourdough moistened with vegetable broth and an egg, seasoned with rosemary, sage, and parsley, and baked until crusty), mashed red potatoes with chives, and some kind of weird gravy from a packet

Breakfast, Tuesday, May 23
A fried egg and whole-wheat sourdough bread

Lunch, Tuesday, May 23
Black beans, sourdough stuffing, steamed broccoli, and an orange

Dinner, Tuesday, May 23
There was a power outage throughout the East Bay, so we had to go to a nearby Indian restaurant, where we sat at chairs outside in the twilight and ate lukewarm potato patty wrap sandwiches, while candles and oil lamps flickered inside the dark restaurant, looking, Rahul said, just like stores in India in the evenings.

Breakfast, Wednesday, May 24
Yogurt with honey and almonds

Lunch, Wednesday, May 24
Black beans, sourdough stuffing, and steamed broccoli

Dinner, Wednesday, May 24
My mom took me out to Bendean and I had bread and butter, a roasted beet, grapefruit, and arugula salad, and a bowl of tomato-dill soup with croutons. Given the nature of the restaurant, there's actually a good chance that many of the ingredients were local, but I don't know for sure.

Breakfast, Thursday, May 25
Yogurt with honey and almonds

Lunch, Thursday, May 25
I didn't plan very well, so:
A slice of home-baked sourdough whole-wheat bread, with native sourdough yeasts but non-local flour.
Tomato basil soup
A salad of romaine lettuce with croutons, sesame dressing, and a hard-boiled egg
A gingersnap

Lunch, Monday, May 22
Steamed artichoke with garlic butter
Black beans with orange juice
Sourdough crepe

Dinner, Friday, May 19
Vegetable chow mein, vegetarian spring rolls, and raw broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, melon, and pineapple from the buffet at the Tonga Room, where we had happy hour cocktails with my coworkers.

Brunch, Saturday, May 20
I made sourdough crepes: starter mixed with flour and enough water to make a runny batter, fried paper-thin on a hot cast-iron griddle.
Rahul made some oven-fried potatoes with rosemary from the garden.
I spent an hour kneading dough--the gluten just wouldn't develop!--and then Rahul remembered that the farmer's market salesperson had said that this flour was not suitable for making bread, which made me feel better about my bricky sourdough failure from last week.

Dinner, Saturday, May 20
We had a student-nostalgic, decidedly non-local dinner up near campus:
Vegetarian pad thai from Thai Basil (in the Durant food court)
Vanilla and cheesecake frozen yogurt from Yogurt Park

Breakfast, Sunday, May 21
Leftover sourdough crepes spread with Smart Balance margarine.

Lunch, Sunday, May 21
Caesar salad and an artichoke heart and olive pizza from Pizza Orgasmica.

Dinner, Sunday, May 21
After Bay to Breakers, I collapsed in bed and slept for about six hours, skipping dinner. Got up around 10 PM and went back to sleep around midnight, for a total night's sleep of about 14 hrs.

Breakfast, Monday, May 22
Yogurt with honey and almonds

Lunch, May 16; Dinner, May 16
Maui onion potato chips and a pear and camembert sandwich on walnut bread from Bay Bread. Leftover tomato sauce spaghetti. Black beans.

I started making a loaf of whole-wheat sourdough bread with my Full Belly Farms whole-wheat flour and the sourdough starter I've been cultivating on top of the oven. I dissolved 3/4 cup of starter in 1 1/4 cups warm water with 1 Tbsp honey and 1 Tbsp olive oil, then poured it into a well of 2 cups flour and slowly added about a cup more flour as I stirred the dough together.

The results so far seem rather lacking. I think the dough was too wet, and the starter is not strong enough yet--the dough, while fairly smooth once I had kneaded it for about 800 strokes, was still a sort of soft saggy mass rather than a smooth, firm ball. I left it in the slightly warm oven (the beans had been baking in the other half of the oven, so some of the heat came through the oven wall) to rise. After two hours, it looked pretty much the same. The next morning, it was slightly bigger, but passed the poke test specified in Laurel's Whole Wheat Bread Book: moisten your finger with water, poke it into the dough 1/2 an inch, and see if the dough springs back or sags inwards. Since it did neither, I decided the bread was ready to be deflated. I pressed it down gently and put it back into the slightly warm oven to rise all day. Hopefully, when I get home today, it 1) will have risen nicely, and 2) will not have overflowed all over the oven floor.

Breakfast, May 17
Yogurt with honey and almonds.

Lunch, May 17
Roasted sweet potato (roasted in the toaster oven) with black beans and yogurt.

Dinner, Friday, May 12
Leftover vegetable soup with beans and corn
Corn on the cob
Broccolini with soy sauce, sesame oil, and red chili flakes
Oven-fried potatoes with Cajun fish fry coating

May 13 and 14: I spent most of the weekend with my sister and my parents for Mother's Day and Serena's dance performance, so aside from my usual breakfast, none of my weekend meals were local. They were good, though, including an eggplant tart, croissants, goat cheese and tomato sandwich from Bay Bread for a Mother's Day picnic in Golden Gate Park; mixed vegetable spaghetti with the Proustian ketchup-like orange tomato paste sauce common to all Hong Kong-style spaghetti dishes; and my mother's apple custard pie.

Breakfast, May 15: Yogurt with almonds and honey

Lunch, May 15: Salad with lemon juice and olive oil dressing, hard-boiled egg, and apple; carrot cake.

Dinner, May 15: Rice noodles with soy sauce, green beans, onions, and red and orange bell peppers. I made a pot of black beans with garlic, salt, and vegetable broth, but I haven't tried them yet.

Breakfast, May 16: Yogurt with almonds and honey; coffee with soymilk

Dinner, May 11
Rahul and I went to the Ferry Building after work, where I bought some incredibly expensive ($5/lb) heirloom black beans. We caught the ferry to Jack London Square and watched the sun hang low and bright over and through the skyscrapers and the great iron span of the Bay Bridge towering over us. The ferries are so cool--I can't believe I had never taken one up to this point. There's a full bar on the first level; the first two levels have these big wraparound windows and long, curving banks of vinyl-seated booths and chairs, so they have a kind of 60's spy/lounge vibe. The top level is out in the open, with wooden seats, and dark smoke streaming past you from the smokestacks on either side of the boat. We stayed on the top deck, in the wind, and watched the view the whole time, wishing it took longer than 20 minutes to get across the Bay.

Rahul was meeting his aunt and uncle for dinner, so I walked to the 12th Street BART station and went home, where I simmered the last of the leftover beans and the kernels from one ear of white corn in a pot of vegetable broth. I fried some leftover textured soy protein (Nutrela) with eggs to accompany my soup. (Rahul made an entire box! of Nutrela recently and the huge tupperware is still in the fridge.)

Breakfast, May 12
Yogurt with almonds, raisins, and honey.

Lunch and Snacks, May 12
I roasted a potato in the toaster oven (350 degrees for about 2-3 hours) and ate it with salt, pepper, and yogurt. I also took a trip out to Japantown at lunchtime with Martin, Caitlin, and Andrew, where I bought a pint of soy milk which I assume is not local--it's made by the Sacramento Tofu Company, but I doubt the soybeans and honey are from around here. Caitlin bought a little tray of soy sauce-glazed rice balls on skewers and I ate one--it was nice and chewy, though sticky. I have avoided the Pocky on the table.

Dinner, May 10: We had drinks with my coworkers last night and majorly fell off the wagon, diet-wise--I had mango mojitos, tempura-fried zucchini and mushrooms with soy dipping sauce, the celery from the buffalo wings, and deep-fried mozzarella cheese sticks with marinara sauce. I came home and stirred my sourdough starter and felt a little better. Soon I can enjoy some nourishing whole-wheat locally-grown sourdough bread with yeast from the most famous sourdough country in the world. Also, on the bright side, when I weighed myself this morning, I found that I had lost almost 5 pounds in the last two weeks without particularly depriving myself.

Breakfast, May 11: Yogurt with honey and toasted almonds.

For dinner, depending on how ambitious I feel, I may make some potato gnocchi with a romesco-style sauce using a leftover red pepper Rahul has in the fridge. Or maybe I'll boil my artichokes, or roast the last sweet potato and make some caramelized green tomato relish to go with it. Of course, if I have leftover rice, I'll probably just end up just eating rice and beans again.

Dinner, May 9:
Vegetable soup

Breakfast, May 10:
Scrambled egg
Yogurt with almonds and honey
Coffee with soymilk

Lunch and afternoon snacks, May 10:
Lemon rice
Beans
Hard-boiled egg
Carrot cake with honey-mascarpone frosting


I started a jar of sourdough starter last night--I used regular Midwestern flour to make the starter, because I've never done it before, but I'll use the locally grown Full Belly Farms flour ($2 for 1.5 lbs) for the actual loaf of bread in a week or so. In preparation, I found this recipe for 100% whole-wheat sourdough bread:
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/100percentwholewheat.html
and ordered some food books from Amazon.

May 9 snacks and lunch:
Croissant
Coffee with soy milk
Carrot sticks
Lemon rice
Beans
Apple

Dinner, May 8.
Salad (from the young salad greens with edible flowers) with blood orange olive oil and white balsamic Stonehouse vinegar dressing, salt, pepper, and croutons.

Vegetable soup: I sauteed diced carrots, yellow onion, celery, garlic, and chopped sage and rosemary in olive oil. I then poured in a few cups of broth and simmered peeled, diced potatoes and cooked beans in the broth until tender. When the soup was almost done, I dumped in sliced button mushrooms and chopped spinach, and seasoned with some sea salt.

Rahul had bought some soft tofu from Ranch 99, and he fried it into a scramble with some eggs, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar. I had some of this as well.

A couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc from Napa (I forget which winery--at $4 a bottle, does it matter?)

Breakfast, May 9.
Straus Family Creamery whole-milk yogurt with honey and almonds.

I found this interesting link to a Mother Jones story on http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com. According to this story, California imports and exports almost identical amounts of cherries, lettuce, and almonds to and from other countries during the height of growing season. The article lists other illogical import/export products as well--crops we import from other countries while exporting our locally produced versions.

My changing footprint

I thought it would be interesting to chart my ecological footprint over the last few years, picking a few typical cases from my life. I'll mark 25 hours of air miles for each of these years, since I've gone to Asia or Europe on vacation almost every year.

2001, my senior year of college. Eating meat. Living with two people in a small apartment. Driving very little, usually with someone else--in general, walking almost everywhere. Generating plenty of trash and using lots of electricity. Not paying much attention to where my food came from.
Results:

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 5.4 MOBILITY 1.7 SHELTER 2.5 GOODS/SERVICES 3.7 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 13
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3 PLANETS.

2002, working in Redwood Shores. Still eating meat and processed foods, generating lots of trash and using lots of electricity, living with one person in a small apartment. Driving approximately 370-400 miles a week (it's roughly a 37-mile commute from Berkeley to Redwood City, according to Google Maps) but carpooling every day.
Results:

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 5.4 MOBILITY 4 SHELTER 3.2 GOODS/SERVICES 6.4 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 19
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.3 PLANETS.

2003, working in Marin. Now living in a medium-sized house with two other people. Commuting by myself, by car, about 15 miles a day/150 miles a week. Making a conscious effort to reduce energy and trash consumption, but still eating meat.
Results:

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 4.7 MOBILITY 3.7 SHELTER 4.9 GOODS/SERVICES 5.9 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 19
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.3 PLANETS.

2003, same circumstances, but vegetarian, with a larger percentage of unprocessed foods.
Results:

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 3 MOBILITY 3.7 SHELTER 4.9 GOODS/SERVICES 5.9 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 18
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.9 PLANETS.

2005, working in San Francisco. Taking public transit about 200 miles a week (it's about 20 miles from Albany to Pacific Heights, and I commute both ways every day.) I walk and bike almost everywhere, but do drive some of the time to run errands on the weekends, visit my parents, and so on; however, I drive with someone else almost all the time.

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 3 MOBILITY 2.5 SHELTER 4.9 GOODS/SERVICES 4.9 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 15
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.4 PLANETS.

2006, working in San Francisco, circumstances much the same as in my last snapshot, but living with just one person and now making an effort to eat locally grown, unprocessed foods.

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 2.2 MOBILITY 2.5 SHELTER 4.9 GOODS/SERVICES 4.9 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 15
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.3 PLANETS.

Rahul sent me a link to this interview with ethicist Peter Singer on Salon:

In your book you say that socially responsible folks in San Francisco would do better to buy their rice from Bangladesh than from local growers in California. Could you explain?

This is in reference to the local food movement, and the idea that you can save fossil fuels by not transporting food long distances. This is a widespread belief, and of course it has some basis. Other things being equal, if your food is grown locally, you will save on fossil fuels. But other things are often not equal. California rice is produced using artificial irrigation and fertilizer that involves energy use. Bangladeshi rice takes advantage of the natural flooding of the rivers and doesn't require artificial irrigation. It also doesn't involve as much synthetic fertilizer because the rivers wash down nutrients, so it's significantly less energy intensive to produce. Now, it's then shipped across the world, but shipping is an extremely fuel-efficient form of transport. You can ship something 10,000 miles for the same amount of fuel necessary to truck it 1,000 miles. So if you're getting your rice shipped to San Francisco from Bangladesh, fewer fossil fuels were used to get it there than if you bought it in California.

A recap of the weekend:
Dinner, May 4. Well, we broke down and ended up eating out before the movie--Pizza Inferno, down the street from the office, has two-for-one happy hour pizzas, so we got one tomato-garlic and one tomato-basil personal-sized thin-crust pizza. Funny how much this has made me enjoy such simple foods, though. I would have been tempted otherwise to get a more complicated pizza--goat cheese and walnut, maybe, or ricotta and roasted pepper--but the plain tomato sauce pizzas were just heavenly after a week of plain salads, beans, eggs, and nuts. Afterwards, I ate a frozen banana covered in chocolate with almonds. (One of the ice cream shops in Japantown makes these from scratch, but inexplicably puts the bananas on long, deadly sharp bamboo skewers instead of popsicle sticks.)

Breakfast, May 5.
Coffee with soy milk. I don't remember what else I had.

Lunch, May 5.
I had some of Rahul's risotto for lunch, some beans, and an apple. The apple was disappointing--rotten spots all through it, and I ended up throwing away most of it uneaten.

Dinner, May 5.
Social outings strike again. I went with some coworkers to see our other coworker perform in Pippin, all the way across town at San Francisco State. We took the 22 to the Mission and I had a quesadilla, chips, salsa, and strawberry agua fresca of possibly local origins. I got an urgent call from Rahul while I was at the restaurant: something had gone wrong with our new hot water heater and it was spewing boiling water all over the side yard. By the time I got back inside and scarfed down the rest of my quesadilla plus some of my coworker's vegetarian burrito (the part I had was mostly rice, beans, and tortilla) we were running extremely late and took a cab down to the theater. The Mission had started filling up with crowds of Cinco de Mayo revelers.

When I came home, I found that Rahul had gone to Trader Joe's and stocked up on food, so I'm going to be using Trader Joe's almonds for the next week or so rather than farmer's market almonds. They're from the San Joaquin Valley, so more or less local, although not grown as close as I would like.

Breakfast, May 6 (Saturday).
We went to Monterey Market and the Berkeley Farmer's Market this morning and picked up some more produce. I had forgotten to go to the bank, and Rahul was grouchy and holding the purse strings, so I didn't really get to buy all the things I wanted at the market. However, we did go home with some yummy garlic quark, shining white corn, a big bag of beautiful salad greens with edible orange marigold petals and tiny blue cornflowers, red and Yukon Gold potatoes, and a big bag of carrots. The man who runs the Ludwig Farms potato stall also sells beautiful goose and chicken eggs (including blue Aracauna), pecans, black-eyed peas, cranberry beans--and some delicious-looking pecan brittle and mini-pecan pies. I eyed the pecan brittle sadly, and thought of it as we biked home to meet the plumber. The first week of June, maybe I'll go back and buy a chunk of it.

Because I roasted a sweet potato in the toaster oven at work yesterday and then forgot to eat it, I had it cold for a late breakfast, dabbed with garlic quark.

Lunch, May 6.
I discovered an open bag of croutons in the cabinet that I had bought just before starting this diet, so I'm making an exemption so they don't go stale and end up getting thrown away. I also have a little bag full of Mexican avocados from Trader Joe's that have been sitting in the fridge for weeks, slowly ripening. One of them was soft today, so I decided to go ahead and eat it. I made a big bowl of salad for lunch with croutons and avocado slices--no dressing. I also snacked on some apples.

We cleaned house, and I slow-baked another pot of beans with oil, garlic, sage, salt, and pepper, using up the rest of the bag.

Dinner, May 6.
Home-fried potatoes (diced and boiled till tender, then pan-fried with rosemary until crisp).
Mushroom soup: a soffritto of onions, carrots, celery, and garlic fried in a little bit of oil, with dried thyme, salt, and a handful of chopped button mushrooms added along with enough water to cover it all. I simmered this for a while and stirred in some fresh spinach and chopped parsley at the end. Rahul said it tasted "healthy," but apparently not in the way that is code for "tastes terrible."

I also made a rather odd but fairly tasty carrot cake:
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
1 cup ground almonds (I'm not sure how local these are--I used some leftover almond meal from Trader Joe's, so I'm guessing they're also from the San Joaquin Valley)
4-5 Tbsp honey
Cinnamon
Allspice
Nutmeg
Vanilla
2 eggs + 3 egg whites (left over from the ice cream)

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees first, then separated the eggs and beat the whites to a stiff foam. I mixed the yolks with the honey and spices, then with the carrots and almonds. Finally, I folded in the egg yolks. I sprayed a baking pan with olive oil and poured in the batter, then baked for about half an hour, until the cake was brown. The flavor is like standard carrot cake, but the appearance and texture are odd--instead of the usual homogeneous moist, brown cake with a coarse crumb, my cake turned out as orange carrot shreds suspended in a yellow souffle-like medium. It turned out fine once I frosted it with a container of mascarpone beaten with honey and lemon.

Breakfast, May 7 (Sunday).
I don't think I ate anything for breakfast. An apple, maybe?

Lunch, May 7.
I ate a big bowl of salad for lunch, with orange slices and croutons, splashed with a dressing of shallots, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and blood orange olive oil. We went to the discount grocery store, and I resisted the chocolate Rahul bought himself as a treat.

Dinner, May 7.
We went out to try a new tiki bar in Alameda that Rahul had fact-checked for work: Forbidden Island. We had a great time. I had some sweet potato fries (possibly local) and some definitely non-local drinks, which were just amazing. Rahul got a Hawaii Kai Treasure: rum, lime, honey, and grapefruit juice. I got a Macadamia Nut Chi Chi--huge, sweet, creamy, served in a big glass goblet with a paper umbrella: vodka, pineapple, coconut, and macadamia nut liqueur. After that, we shared a Classic Mai Tai: lime juice, orange curaçao, orgeat, and rum. For dinner, we went to downtown Alameda and I had a burrito at a little Mexican restaurant.

When I got home, I did a lot of cooking for the next day: lemon rice and a big pot of broth. The rice was a variation on riso in bianco or insalata di riso, roughly following a recipe in John Thorne's Pot on the Fire.

I started by boiling a huge pot of water with some sea salt. While I waited for it to boil, I mixed up an egg with the juice of half a lemon and some salt and pepper. When the water was boiling, I dumped some peeled and chopped carrots, asparagus spears, and broccoli florets into the water, and let them simmer until tender. I fished them out with a skimmer, and then poured 1/2 lb. of Arborio rice into the pot. I boiled it for 15 minutes or so, until al dente, then strained it and tossed it with some olive oil, the vegetables, some chopped fresh parsley and crunchy celery, and the egg and lemon mixture, which gently cooked and clung to the rice as it would in a carbonara sauce.

For the broth, I sauteed half an onion and a handful of vegetable trimmings (I'd been saving these in the fridge and had a large bag full of celery strings, asparagus peelings, and carrot peelings and ends). When these were browned, I poured in some salt and a lot of water--10 or 12 cups, maybe?--and dumped in the rest of the bag of trimmings. I simmered it for a while as I washed dishes--not sure how long, but the vegetables were pale and pulpy by the time I strained the broth. I haven't tried it; will check it out tonight (May 8).

Breakfast, May 8.
Polished off the rest of my yogurt with some honey and toasted almonds.

Lunch, May 8.
Carrot sticks, lemon rice, and beans. A cup of maple tea.

Eat Locally, Day 4

Crisis!
Rahul got us some free tickets to see The Silent Holy Stones tonight at the Kabuki--part of the SF International Film Festival, it's a movie about a young Tibetan lama who becomes obsessed with watching TV.

Unfortunately, we didn't feel like planning what to do about dinner tonight, so this morning we woke up and couldn't think of what we should do about dinner. Should we break the diet and eat at a restaurant near the Kabuki? Should we trek across town and try to eat at a pricey restaurant like Greens that uses mostly local foods? Should we bring something with us for dinner? Or just skip it altogether?

I brought a lot of food to work, so I guess I'll probably eat leftovers, but we'll see--maybe we'll need to eat out tonight.

Dinner, May 3:
Scrambled eggs with onions and soy sauce
Sauteed asparagus
Oven fries with ketchup
A little bit of Lundberg Farms risotto with carrots, salt and pepper
Salad of romaine lettuce and apples with the usual oregano-lemon-olive oil dressing
Honey-lavender ice cream--this came out way too strong. I steeped 2 Tbsp fresh lavender leaves in 2 cups of 1% milk, strained it, then made a custard with 3 egg yolks and 5 Tbsp honey, adding a teaspoonful or so of vanilla extract, and froze it in the ice cream maker. Whether it was the honey or the lavender doing it, something about that ice cream made our throats burn and it really wasn't the mild, delectable treat I was looking forward to.

Breakfast, May 4:
Two slices of leftover banana bread. At least it was home-made, not store-bought.
Coffee with soy milk.

Lunch, May 4:
Fresh, crunchy leaves of romaine lettuce topped with egg salad: one hard-boiled egg chopped and mixed with plain nonfat yogurt, salt, pepper, and chopped nasturtium leaves for a spicy vegetable bite. I wish I had celery, or some pickled nasturtium buds to use in place of capers.

Interesting links:

A guide to local cheeses:
http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/elc/PostFiles/SFLocalCheeses.pdf

A report stating that an average of one egg per day is OK for most people as long as their diet is otherwise low in cholesterol:
http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.493/pub_detail.asp
I was getting concerned when I realized how many eggs we had been going through, and this made me feel better.

Today is May 3, Day 3 of Eat Locally Month.

Here are some of the links I've been checking:
http://www.locavores.com
http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/jen/
http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/

So the latest update is that Rahul broke down last night (after two days) and decided he couldn't take this diet anymore, and that he would have to cheat a little every day. He went to Safeway and bought some whole wheat bread, grape jelly, and peanut butter. Last night he ate a dish of vanilla ice cream, and this morning he ate a toasted PBJ sandwich for breakfast. I was pretty mopey about this last night, but I'm trying to just ignore the temptation. As an antidote, tonight I'm going to try to make some local ice cream from scratch: Rock Island eggs and Clover milk, sweetened with honey and flavored with lavender from our yard (or maybe some lemon from the neighbors). The Donvier cylinder is in the freezer, waiting. The honey won't be local--we have a whole container to use up, and it's expensive stuff. I might add some vanilla extract. I think I'll have to relent in general on spices.

Rahul claims he'll get malnourished this month unless he eats bread. I'm not really sure if he meant he wouldn't get enough calories (like the rest of America, we could both stand to eat fewer calories!) or if he thought he wouldn't get enough vitamins from his vegetable-heavy diet (!) or what. I asked him, and he said, "Like for example, where is my protein coming from?" I said, "Do you think you're getting more protein from bread than from the almonds, eggs, and beans we've been eating?" And then we had to head to work. So I still don't know exactly what he was concerned about.

I think my diet over the past few days has been way healthier than what I would normally eat, although my digestive system has been complaining about the amount of fiber I've been eating--salads and beans. I keep ending up with a painful gas-stomachache. Apparently, though, the only way to really solve this is to keep eating what you're eating until your body gets used to it. Rahul has reported no problems, probably due to the fact that he used to take a whole container of raw broccoli with hummus to work and eat it for lunch, or daily salads.

So... without further ado, here are my latest meal reports:

Dinner, May 2: Rahul made most of the dinner, so I don't know what spices he used--I know for sure I saw him stir some Asian chili paste into the eggs before scrambling them, and I know for sure there was salt in everything.
Sweet potato "fries," skin on, roasted in the toaster oven in some olive oil. I ate these with a little bit of ketchup from Trader Joe's--all I can say is that at least it was organic.
Stir-fried pea sprouts with garlic (that's the last of them--yay!)
Scrambled eggs with onions and chili paste
Refried beans: I made this by dumping the last of my leftover beans into a cast-iron skillet with some water and mashing them up as they heated. At the end, I added some chopped cilantro from the garden and some minced red onion. They were not as flavorful as I would have liked--they would have been better with some cumin, I think, and maybe some oregano or lime juice.

Breakfast, May 3: I made a locally grown version of an old favorite dish of mine: toasted some almonds in the toaster oven while getting ready for work, then stirred them into a bowl of plain nonfat Straus Family Creamery yogurt along with a spoonful of honey. It's really delicious, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it before.

Lunch, May 3: I had some leftover risotto that Rahul made a couple of days ago with Lundberg Farms rice, carrots, and olives (not sure what else was in there). Right now I'm eating the artichoke I prepared this morning: I steamed it by putting it in a covered glass dish with 2 Tbsp. of water and microwaving for 8 minutes. I made a yummy dipping sauce to replace the mustard-mayonnaise combo or lemon butter I usually eat with artichokes. Into a few Tbsp of plain nonfat yogurt, I stirred some chopped parsley, oregano, and sage from the garden, the juice of half a lemon from the neighbor's yard, chopped shallots, and some salt and pepper. I have an apple, a hard-boiled egg, and a little dish of nuts with me for snacks.

Eating Locally, Day 2
Progress report: So I've been cheating and having some black coffee to drink. I also cheated yesterday and ate some leftovers so they wouldn't go bad--an apple pear from Chile, and some leftover chocolate truffle custard cake from my birthday (still apparently good)--with ingredients from who-knows-where.

At work, apart from the apple pear, I snacked on some almonds and a cucumber. For dinner, Rahul and I ate really well! I don't know all the details, since he cooked, but we had diced, oven-roasted red potatoes, stir-fried pea sprouts, steamed carrots and broccoli, and scrambled eggs with onions. I think everything except oil, salt, and pepper was local. We've been saving the local Bariani oil for dressing and other raw purposes, and cooking food in the cheaper imported oil from the giant tin can.

For breakfast today, we had some more oven-roasted diced potatoes, Yukon Gold this time. I'm eating my lunch right now: Romaine lettuce with Pink Lady apples, cucumber, and hard-boiled egg, tossed with the leftover dressing (lemon juice, olive oil, shallots, oregano, salt, pepper). I still have half the apple to snack on, and I brought some beans and almonds to work with me as well. Rahul made some rice last night with carrots, Lundberg Farms rice, and olives (not sure what else is in it) and I brought the leftovers--I don't think I'll be hungry after this salad, though.

We're going through potatoes like crazy; I think we drastically underestimated the amount of starch we eat. We may have used up all our potatoes already, although we still have some sweet potatoes to use. I saw a recipe in The Vegetarian Epicure for roasted sweet potatoes with green tomatoes that sounded interesting. I may make a variation on that using some of my frozen green tomatoes and roasting them into a sweet and sour relish.

Also, giving up coffee/tea is next to impossible. I hung up some pineapple sage leaves to dry, so I can make an infusion from those, but I think I may just have to claim coffee and tea as an exemption.

Mom wants to go out to dinner tonight. I'm torn. Maybe I can find someplace with locally sourced foods that's cheaper than Chez Panisse (the only place I can think of offhand).

Eating from my foodshed
May is Eat Locally Month, and my boyfriend and I have decided to participate. For the entire month, we will try to eat only foods that come from within approximately 100 miles of our home in the East Bay Area of San Francisco--our local "foodshed."

The costs of flying or trucking in food from around the world are hidden from us, but think of the wasted energy involved in flying in organic mangos from the Philippines or hothouse bell peppers from the Netherlands. You wouldn't pay for a plane ticket for a courier to bring those foods by hand. If someone subsidized the plane ticket, wouldn't you still be appalled by the wasted fuel and effort involved in flying foods around the world while perfectly good food is being grown in your area?

So--is anyone else in? I realize this is a much more difficult exercise for folks in the middle of the desert or the frozen tundra, but people did it successfully for millions of years...

Here's how it's gone so far.

We took a trip to the farmer's market at Jack London Square and to the Berkeley Natural Foods store.

We bought about $40 worth of food altogether, mostly organic, with our foodshed stretched to about 190 miles, to Fresno. Our haul included, among other things, almonds, first-press Bariani extra virgin olive oil, asparagus, broccoli, apples, Yukon Gold, red, and sweet potatoes, yellow and red onions, romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrots, pea sprouts, mushrooms, cranberry beans, yogurt, eggs, and milk.

Dinner last night was mostly locally grown, with a few exceptions because it was still April. I've marked the non-local foods in red.

I chopped and sauteed a yellow onion in olive oil in one pan, then added pea sprouts snipped to 1/2 inch lengths with kitchen shears; sauteed minced garlic and diced button mushrooms in another; and peeled and diced a large Yukon Gold potato and barely covered it with simmering water in a third saucepan. When everything was tender, I stirred it all together and added some salt and pepper. I picked some stems of curly parsley from our yard and snipped it into the pan as well.

In another pan, I made crepes: egg, milk, olive oil, salt, and flour. We placed some shredded cheese on the crepes and used the heat of scoops of the potato-mushroom-greens mixture to melt the cheese. It was delicious!

I also cooked beans to take to work with me today: I poured boiling water over a mixture of cranberry beans, chopped garlic and shallots, slivers of golden sage leaves picked from the garden, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I put the casserole, covered, in a 250-degree oven for a few hours, and then added a few chopped tomatoes that I had stored in the freezer from last summer's harvest to make some variation on fagioli all'uccelletto. The beans came out meltingly tender even though I hadn't soaked them.

For breakfast today, I had one sunny-side-up egg and a spoonful of the cold beans. I packed an apple, a cucumber, beans, salad greens, and a little container of salad dressing made from olive oil, shallots, oregano from my garden, and lemon juice from the neighbor's garden, along with the usual non-local salt and pepper.

So far, so good, although my coworker brought in a big plate of donuts and I am having a devil of a time not helping myself to a big chocolate-glazed Boston Cream puff of sugary fried goodness.

I made a few things in the last week or so: a loaf of lovely challah that I baked too long, turning it a deep mahogany brown, a loaf of not-so-lovely bread machine-like white bread, a delicious casserole of baked mac-n-cheese topped with the breadcrumbs made from the leftover challah. (The macaroni was Barilla's "healthy" version and it was actually quite good--I think it has substantial portions of whole wheat, lentil, and quinoa flour.)

Tonight I made this "Anasazi Butternut Squash Soup" from Epicurious. I substituted a 12-ounce package of Soyrizo for the chorizo, vegetable bouillon for the beef broth, and black-eyed peas (with a shorter cooking time) for the kidney beans. I left the pepitas out entirely. It was really good. Browning the Soyrizo--blackening it, really--in the cast-iron skillet really made the dish, giving it depth and a slight savory bitterness that counteracted the light vegetable sweetness of the corn, peppers, and squash.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/102324

3/4 cup dried kidney beans
1 pound beef chorizo sausages, casings removed
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups water
2 14 1/2-ounce cans beef broth
3 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled seeded butternut squash
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups frozen corn kernels

2/3 cup shelled pepitas, toasted


Place kidney beans in medium bowl. Pour enough water over to cover beans by 3 inches. Let stand overnight. Drain.

Sauté chorizo in heavy large pot over medium heat until cooked through and fat is rendered, about 10 minutes. Transfer chorizo to paper towels; drain, leaving 2 tablespoons drippings in pot. Add onion and garlic; sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Add 3 cups water, broth and beans; bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover. Simmer until beans are tender, 1 hour.

Add squash to soup. Cover; simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in bell peppers, corn and chorizo; simmer uncovered about 10 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, set aside 2 tablespoons pepitas for garnish. Blend remaining pepitas in blender until finely ground. Stir ground pepitas into soup. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with reserved pepitas and serve.

Makes 6 servings.
Bon Appétit
Flavors of the World
October 1999

Daren recommended this dish to me:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/233790

BUDDHA'S DELIGHT

Extremely subtle and very delicate, this special dish, called Buddha's Delight because it's completely vegetarian, is all about texture. The biggest challenge in making it is finding the right ingredients, but the reward is worth the effort. Prepared with fresh vegetables, this recipe is sublime. If you can't find them fresh, don't be tempted to use canned (frozen bamboo shoots and ginkgo nuts are acceptable, however). Traditional Buddha's Delight doesn't call for garlic, but we find it makes all the difference. The recipe also serves 4 as a fabulous vegetarian main course.

12 large dried black mushrooms (3 oz)
5 cups boiling-hot water plus additional for soaking bean curd skins
2 dried bean curd skins (2 oz total)
1/2 lb fresh or thawed frozen large bamboo shoots
2 to 3 oz very thin bean thread noodles (2 small skeins; also known as cellophane, glass, or mung bean noodles)
1 (1/2-lb) firm fresh tofu cake, or 1/2 cake from a 14- to 16-oz package, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1 (1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and very thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup peeled shelled fresh or frozen ginkgo nuts
1/3 cup vegetarian oyster sauce
1/4 cup light soy sauce (preferably Pearl River Bridge brand)
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine (preferably Shaoxing) or medium-dry Sherry
3/4 teaspoon sugar
2 cups fresh soybean sprouts (1/4 lb)
2 romaine hearts, trimmed and quartered lengthwise, then cut into 2-inch pieces (6 cups)

Soak mushrooms in 5 cups boiling-hot water in a bowl, keeping them submerged with a small plate and turning mushrooms over occasionally, until softened and cool enough to handle, about 30 minutes. Squeeze excess liquid from caps back into bowl and reserve liquid, then cut out and discard stems from mushrooms. Cut caps into 1-inch wedges.

While mushrooms soak, carefully break bean curd skins in half crosswise, then halve each portion crosswise again. Transfer to a bowl, then add enough boiling-hot water to cover and soak, turning occasionally, until softened, about 30 minutes.

If using fresh bamboo, trim bottoms of shoots, then halve shoots lengthwise with a sharp heavy knife. Pull off and discard leaves from shoots, then remove any blemishes with a sharp paring knife (don't worry about natural dotted pattern along base of shoots).

Cover fresh or frozen bamboo with cold water by 1 inch in a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 2 minutes, then drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. Repeat boiling and rinsing, then arrange bamboo halves, cut sides down, on a cutting board and cut bamboo lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

Soak noodles in cold water to cover until softened, about 5 minutes, then drain in colander and transfer to a bowl.

Drain bean curd skins in colander. When cool enough to handle, squeeze dry and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces.

Halve tofu lengthwise, then cut each half crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices.

Heat oil in a 5- to 6-quart wide heavy pot over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Add ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add mushrooms, bean curd skins, bamboo, and ginkgo nuts and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Stir in oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar and simmer 1 minute. Add reserved mushroom-soaking liquid and bring to a boil. Gently stir in tofu and soybean sprouts, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Gently stir in noodles and simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Add romaine hearts (pot will be full) and turn to coat, then simmer, covered, until romaine is tender, about 5 minutes.

Cooks' notes:
• Mushrooms, bean curd skins, and noodles can be soaked (but not drained) 1 day ahead and chilled in their soaking liquid separately, covered. Drain (reserve mushroom-soaking liquid) before using.
• Bamboo shoots can be cooked 1 day ahead and cooled completely, then cut and chilled in cold water, covered. Drain before using.
• Buddha's Delight, without romaine, can be made 2 hours ahead and kept at room temperature, uncovered. Bring to a boil and proceed with recipe.

Makes 8 servings (as part of a Chinese meal).
Gourmet

We went to the Scharffen Berger Factory Tour last Saturday in the drizzling rain. Their building is surprisingly small. The manufacturing facility consists of two large brick rooms converted from a turn-of-the-century sulfur factory; in one room was a big green metal winnower spitting out nibs and bits of hull, and one shiny red vintage roaster looking like a monstrous Le Creuset Dutch oven; a few melangeurs and round orange conchers in the other room, and their molding line with the shiny chocolate bars coming down the line to be sorted by middle-aged Asian ladies with hairnets, earmuffs, and embroidered cursive nametags on their suits. (The woman nearest to us was apparently named "Temp.") They rejected any bars with visual defects or air bubbles (they weighed each bar on a digital scale). The good bars got picked up, placed in individual clear plastic bags, sealed with a sticker, and placed into boxes. The bad bars continued down the line to a big reject bin that would later be melted and re-tempered.

All around was the overpowering smell of chocolate and white plastic trash cans full of roasted nibs. Little labels dangled from the handles of the bins giving the origins and identification of each batch of nibs.

The lecture beforehand was pretty interesting. The only "waste" in the factory is the cocoa hulls, which get sold to chicken farmers as feed.

The cocoa fruits are grown in a band from 20 degrees north to 20 degrees south of the Equator. Scharffen Berger doesn't buy from the Ivory Coast, and they pay above fair-trade prices for their beans. The fruits are knocked down from the trees and the white, tangy, mangosteen-like pulp is scooped into banana-leaf-lined baskets to ferment for a week or so, bringing out the cherry/berry/fruit flavors in the chocolate. There are 20-40 beans in each fruit. They handed around some lacquered fruits to look at--they were a bit like winter squashes or gourds. The color of the fruits naturally ranges from cream to red or purple. The fruits look like warty footballs and grow straight out of the trunks of the trees, growing from creamy, ornate, orchid-like flowers the size of a pinky fingernail.

Scharffen Berger has a "bean-to-bar" production facility. The beans are removed from the pulp (they passed around some raw beans), roasted to bring out the smoky/bitter notes in the chocolate (they passed around roasted beans and allowed us to crush the hulls with our fingers and remove them), winnowed and crushed into nibs, ground with the melangeur into cocoa liqueur, then conched (stirred) for hours to smooth and mellow the liqueur. They are tempered, and this is the process as I understand it: they start by raising the temperature to remove unstable crystal formations, then stir until thickened while the heat is lowered to encourage stable crystal formation, heat the mixture again to dissolve any remaining unstable crystals, and then let it cool, with the stable crystal network now acting to seed stable crystal growth and make the chocolate nice and shiny and crisp.

We sampled their 99% unsweetened chocolate, their 72% signature blend, the 60% chocolate used for confections, their milk chocolate, roasted cocoa nibs, and chocolate-coated cocoa nibs.

All pure chocolate production takes place in the nut-free Berkeley factory; some of their confections, such as their Gianduja bars, are created in another facility nearby--in Sonoma, I think.

There was a sign in the front room explaining that due to the use of white sugar (refined with animal bone charcoal), Scharffen Berger dark chocolates were vegan from a dietary point of view--you wouldn't ingest any animal products--but not from a strict point of view, since they do indirectly cause harm to animals.

Cook's Illustrated

Creamy baked 4-cheese pasta
4-6 as main course, 6-8 as side

topping:
3-4 slices white sandwich bread with crusts, torn into quarters
1/4 cup (1/2 oz.) grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

pasta and cheese
4 oz. Fontina (1 cup) shredded
3 oz. Gorgonzola, crumbled (3/4 cup)
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano (1 oz.)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1/2 oz.)
1 lb. penne
1 Tbsp plus 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp unsalted butter
2 tsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1. for topping: pulse bread in food processur to coarse crumbs, about 10 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). stir in parmesan, salt, and pepper.

2. for pasta: put oven rack in middle, preheat to 500 degrees.
Bring 4 quarts water to boil. Mix cheeses in a large bowl. Add pasta and 1 Tbsp salt to water and stir.

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat; whisk flour into butter until no lumps remain (about 30 seconds); gradually whisk in cream, increase heat to medium, and bring heat to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 1 minute to ensure that flour cooks. Stir in remaining 1/4 tsp salt and pepper. Cover to keep hot and set aside.

When pasta is very al dente, drain for about 5 seconds, leaving pasta slightly wet. Add pasta to bowl with cheeses, immediately pour cream mixture over, then cover bowl and let stand 3 minutes. Uncover and stir with spatula until cheeses are melted and sauce is combined with pasta.

Transfer to 9 x 13" baking dish, then sprinkle with breadcrumbs, pressing down lightly. Bake about 7 mins, until topping is golden brown.

variation: Add 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained, to pasta with cream mixture and stir in 1/4 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves just before transferring pasta to baking dish.

variation: add 1 cup frozen peas along with cream mixture.

Oven fries
3 russet potatoes (about 8 oz each), peeled, cut lengthwise into 10-12 evenly sized wedges
5 Tbsp. veg or peanut oil
salt and pepper

- dark, nonstick, heavy duty baking sheet is best
1. adjust rack to lowest position; preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place potatoes in large bowl and soak in hot tap water for 10 mins. Meanwhile, coat 18 x 12" heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with 4 Tbsp. oil and sprinkle evenly with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
2. Drain potatoes. Spread out on paper towels and pat dry. Rinse and wipe out bowl; toss with last Tbsp oil. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet. Cover with foil and bake 5 mins. Remove foil and bake until bottoms of potatoes are spotty golden brown, 15-20 mins, rotating baking sheet after 10 mins. Using metal spatula and tongs, scrape to loosen potatoes from pan, then flip each wedge, keeping in single layer. Continue baking 5-15 mins until fries are golden and crisp, rotating pan as necessary.
3. Transfer fries to second baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Crackly golden phyllo pockets stuffed with cubed butternut squash, feta cheese, and caramelized onions.

Recipes From My 88-Year-Old Grandma


Coconut (or date) cake
1 16-ounce package glutinous rice flour
1 7-ounce can coconut milk
1 1/2 c. white sugar (or less, to taste)
1/3 cup oil (use canola, vegetable, or other mild-tasting oils)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and bake for 45-55 minutes.

Variation: If making date cake, follow the recipe above, but replace the coconut milk with an equivalent amount of canned date paste, reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup, add up to 3/4 cup more milk, and add 1/2 cup walnut pieces.

Red bean cake
1 lb. glutinous rice flour
2 c. cooked red beans (soak overnight before cooking)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. oil
1 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 c. milk or milk mixed with bean soaking liquid
Walnut pieces or date pieces (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients and bake for 45-50 minutes. Don't pour the mixture more than 1 1/2-1 3/4" thick or it won't cook well.

Daikon cake ("loh bak go")
All quantities are approximate--measured by eye.
8 large daikons
1 16-ounce package glutinous rice flour
3 slices fresh ginger
2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Pepper
2 tsp. MSG
1 Tbsp. rock sugar
1-2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil
The following four ingredients should come to maybe 2 cups total:
Chopped shiitake mushrooms
Shredded, rehydrated dried scallops
Dried tiny shrimp ("ha mai")
Chopped Chinese sweet sausage ("laap cheung")

Peel and grate the daikon. Add the rock sugar (taste a bit of the daikon to see how bitter it is, and add sugar accordingly) and the slices of ginger to the daikon. Place it in a large pan over medium-low to medium heat and cook, stirring, until the volume is greatly reduced, the daikon is tender but still has some texture, and the mixture is boiling. No need to add any water--the daikon will let out its own liquid and this should keep it from burning/sticking, assuming the heat is not too high.

Remove from heat and pick out and discard the ginger. Stir in the rice flour until the mixture becomes a very thick paste/dough. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Line some metal pans--my grandma uses a mixture of metal cake-style pans and Danish butter cookie tins--with Saran wrap, or oil them. Press the daikon cake dough firmly into the tins with a spatula. Steam for about one hour.

Remove from heat and cool. The daikon cakes should firm up enough to be lifted out of the tins. They are now ready to slice and pan-fry (this is the most delicious way to eat them; the slices develop a crunchy, savory brown crust).

Notes: We tried microwaving some of the daikon, but didn't finish cooking it that way. I think using some parchment paper would be preferable to the Saran wrap, but we didn't try that.

I made moussaka and a potato casserole this weekend. The moussaka was more or less from a Joy of Cooking recipe. We also bought a Microplane box grater and a rabbit-ear pepper grinder! I'm pleased with both.

It was a diner-y weekend:
Friday: we ate hash browns and eggs at Carrows and watched the Shawshank Redemption at home.
Saturday: we ate hash browns and eggs at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. In the evening,we saw Russell Peters with Atsushi, Jameel, and John An. We ate at Lori's Diner afterwards and I had hash browns yet again.
Sunday: We went to Trader Joe's and I bought Jak and Daxter and We Love Katamari. I played We Love Katamari and cooked.

Moussaka:
2 large eggplants
1 large russet potato, peeled
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can crushed tomatoes with basil
1 container extra-firm tofu, frozen
1 handful golden raisins
Chopped fresh ginger
Cinnamon
Allspice
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Red pepper flakes
Balsamic vinegar
Sugar
Mirin
Fresh oregano
Fresh parsley
Spinach
Yogurt bechamel (see recipe below)

Defrost the tofu in a pan of hot water. To make it defrost faster, crumble it into a strainer once it's no longer rock-hard and continue soaking in changes of water. It should have a nice, firm, spongy feel to it.

Fry the potatoes and eggplant until brown; grill other eggplant slices in another pan (I used my cast-iron grill pan on high heat).

Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil in a pan with a dab of fresh ginger. Add the crumbled tofu and raisins. Season with the dried spices. Add the tomato sauce and the balsamic vinegar, mirin, and sugar. Stir in the fresh herbs/greens.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil a casserole and layer in the potatoes and a layer of eggplant. Pour the tomato sauce on top. Layer in more eggplant and tomato sauce. Top with the yogurt bechamel.

Bake for one hour. The bechamel should be browned and bubbly.

Yogurt bechamel: (my ingredients/recipe ingredients)
4 Tablespoons olive oil
4 Tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (1%/full fat)
1 cup yogurt (nonfat/full fat)
Salt
Pepper
2/3 cup grated cheese (mozzarella/Gruyere)

Potato casserole:
I made this to use up the rest of the yogurt bechamel sauce.
2 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced very thin
About 8 shallots, sliced
5 or 6 stems Parsley, chopped
5 or 6 leaves of sage, snipped
Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper

Oil the pan and layer into it: potatoes, mozzarella cheese, herbs, shallots, and spices. Pour the bechamel over. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour.

We had a few people over for New Year's Eve: Mike, Robert, Sara, Willis and his friend Patrick, and James. We cleaned the house and made some food and had some drinks and saw 311 and Three Doors Down and Dick Clark and the robo-Bangles on TV.

Dumplings
1 pkg spinach potsticker wrappers (the round kind)

About 1 cup pea sprouts (about 1/3 of a bag)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch chives
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in a little water
1 egg

1/2 bag frozen Morningstar Farms veggie meat crumbles

Chop all filling ingredients except the meat crumbles in a food processor. Stir in the crumbles. Drain the filling in a strainer, then use it to fill the wrappers, sealing the edge of each dumpling with water. Deep-fry in batches in about 1/2 inch oil. We had a few wrappers left over; we filled these with cream cheese.

Dipping Sauce
Add a bit of each, to taste:
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Sriracha sauce
Sugar
Rice wine vinegar
Hot chili flakes

Bhel puri
Mix together:
2 cups or so puffed rice (not Rice Krispies)
1 medium Roma tomato, seeded and chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped very finely
1 small sprig mint, chopped
About 1/2 tsp cumin
Salt
Pepper
Hot chili flakes

Dressing:
About 1 Tbsp tamarind molasses
About 2-3 Tbsp sugar
About 3 Tbsp water
Mix together until the mixture is tangy but not overpoweringly sour or strong.

Pour the dressing over the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Eat right away or it will get soggy. If it does get soggy, mix with some more fresh puffed rice just before eating, so you have something crunchy in the mixture.

We also made some pizzas with TJ's pizza dough and pizza sauce, fresh herbs (basil and oregano), mozzarella, and toppings including caramelized onions, black olives, and fake Italian sausage.

As for store-bought foods, we also served grapes, chocolate chip meringues, broccoli and baby carrots with hummus, and crackers with brie and chevre. Robert brought some wonderful ice cream, Willis brought some wonderful chocolates. We had lots of drinks. I made batter for mustard seed dosas, but Rahul said I shouldn't make them for the party, so I guess I'll have them later.

Mustard Seed Dosas (from Madhur Jaffrey)
1 cup rice flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup plain yogurt (sour is better)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut (we used frozen)
1 tsp salt (I don't remember the exact amount)
1 tsp pepper (ditto)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (ditto)
some hot pepper flakes or fresh hot pepper

Blend the above ingredients in the food processor until completely smooth.

Fry 1 tsp mustard seeds (?) in 4 Tbsp (?) oil until they pop, then stir them into the batter.

Fry the dosas in a pan, smoothing them down with the back of a spoon until they are very thin.

I went to the office holiday party yesterday and got to wear my sparkly new earrings and necklace and red lipstick. It's fun to dress up! There were so many lovely things there:

- sprouts and goat cheese wrapped in beef carpaccio
- oysters with lemon and mignonette (also there were clams and mussels)
- shrimp with cocktail sauce
- grilled calamari
- five-spice chicken
- endive (dark red radicchio) with parmesan cheese
- rare skirt steak with broad beans on a bed of romesco sauce
- bruschetta with grilled red pepper and a smear of green sauce (pesto?)
- rather sandy scallops with dabs of orange, green, and white sauces, and a potato wedge
- toast with a salmon salad smeared on top
- chocolate and vanilla pots de creme
- chocolate crinkle cookies
- pineapple with coconut and mint shavings
- sauvignon blanc
- "dark and stormy": dark rum with ginger ale
- "ruby and sapphire": bombay sapphire gin with pomegranate molasses and fresh lime
and I'm sure I'm forgetting things!

I need to remember to try reading some Jack Gilbert.

Today I walked to the beach (four-hour walk from the Sunset--about six miles total) with Sam, and we ate at Hanabi in the lower Haight (veg gyoza, veg tempura, grilled mushrooms/broccoli/carrots, rice, miso soup, salad, pickles), and saw Jen read her hilarious jr. high diary at the Make-Out Room at 22nd and Mission:
http://www.getmortified.com
and saw Suzie and Ronda and Jennifer's brother Andrew and friend Liz, and Ronda gave me this link to her visit to French Laundry:
http://weblog.drymartini.org/
which I'll have to read later.

Barbara made this wonderful pumpkin flan for the company potluck, leaving out the chile and pepper. It's from Martha Stewart Living!

Southwestern Pumpkin Flan
Serves 8 to 10

1 cup sugar
1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. chipotle chile powder
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bring sugar and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Brush down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Cook, without stirring, until sugar turns dark amber, about 8 minutes. Pour into a 9-inch round cake pan. Set aside to cool.

Blend pumpkin, condensed milk, and whole milk in a blender until smooth. Add eggs and yolk, cinnamon, salt, chile powder, cloves, and cayenne; blend until smooth. Pour mixture over caramel in pan. Carefully transfer pan to a large roasting pan. Add hot water to roasting pan to come 1 inch up sides of cake pan.

Bake until set and beginning to turn golden brown, about 1 1/2 hours. Let cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. Run a knife around edges; invert to unmold. Scrape remaining sauce from pan over flan. Serve immediately.

I made this for the company Thanksgiving potluck, substituting Quorn tenders for the chicken and toasted cashews for the walnuts. I did add the eggplant and cinnamon, and also some cumin.

http://www.whats4eats.com/recipes/r_po_fesenjan.html

Fesenjan
(Persian chicken in pomegranate-walnut sauce)
Yield: 4-6 servings

INGREDIENTS PREP AMOUNT
Butter or oil 1/4 cup
Chicken cut into serving pieces 2 1/2 to 3 lbs
Onions sliced thinly 2 each
Walnuts finely ground in a food processor 2 cups
Stock or water 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Pomegranate syrup (see notes) 2/3 cup
Sugar 1 - 3 T
Salt & pepper to taste

METHOD
Basic Steps: Sauté ? Simmer
Heat the butter or oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add the chicken pieces a few at a time and brown on all sides. Remove to a plate.
Add the onions and sauté in remaining butter or oil till translucent.
Stir in the ground walnuts, stock or water and browned chicken pieces. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer 20-30 minutes.
Stir in the pomegranate juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Sauce should have a balanced sweet-sour flavor. Simmer another 15-20 minutes till chicken is tender, sauce is somewhat thickened and the walnuts begin to give off their oil. Serve with plain white rice.
VARIATIONS
Use duck instead of chicken. Trim of all excess fat, and spoon off excess fat as dish cooks.
Pomegranate syrup, sometimes called pomegranate molasses, is available in most Middle Eastern and health food stores. If it is unavailable, you can use an equal amount of frozen, concentrated cranberry juice. The flavor is roughly the same. If using fresh pomegranate juice, use 1 1/2 to 2 cups and cut back on the stock or water.
Add 1/2 tsp ground cardamom or 1/2 tsp cinnamon when sautéing the onions for a richer flavor.
Add a little more sugar if the sauce is too tart, a little bit of lime or lemon juice if it is too sweet.
The chicken can be marinated in a few squeezes of lime juice for a few hours if you like.
A peeled and cubed eggplant is sometimes added. Sauté the eggplant along with the onions. You may need to add a little more liquid to the simmering stew.
NOTES
Fesenjan, also known as khoresht-e fesenjan, is special occasion food in Iran. It is traditionally made with duck or pheasant in the north of the country along the Caspian sea. It is a thick, rich, sweet-sour dish that improves in flavor the next day.

Here's my idea for a dessert for the Thanksgiving potluck: dip fresh figs in dark chocolate. Wrap the figs in phyllo and bake till crispy.

I am planning to make a rice pilaf with cranberries and pomegranate fake chicken (fesanjan). I'll have to sub cashews for the walnuts. The figs are still iffy.

The Tragical Comedy, or Comical Tragedy, of Key Lime Pie: a juggling performance in four acts

ACT I: CRUST
2 sticks butter (or use leaf lard or vegetable shortening)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
About 1/3 cup water

1 egg yolk
1 pinch salt

This is the standard Joy of Cooking flaky pastry recipe. Cut the butter into pieces and rub it into the flour, sugar, and salt until it reaches a texture like coarse crumbs, with a few lumps of butter here and there. Pour in the water. Mix just until it congeals into a big rough ball. Chill in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour or more.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it into two balls. Flour a rolling pin and a board and roll out the dough. Place it into two pie pans and trim off the overhanging edges. (If you're patient, put them back into the fridge for another hour or so to let them relax so they won't shrink in the oven. I am not patient.) Put a big square of tinfoil over each pan. (The edges should cover the entire pie crust, to keep it from browning too much at first.) Put raw beans, rice, or pie weights into the foil to weigh down the pie and keep the crust from bubbling and puffing. I have a Ziplok bag labeled "PIE BEANS" in my cabinet. I imagine it is a fairly cryptic artifact to come across, unless you bake pie crusts from scratch.

Begin Act II. Bake the crusts for 20 minutes.

Remove the crusts from the oven, take the foil and pie weights out of them, and prick them all over with a fork. Place them back into the oven for about 10 or 15 minutes to let them brown.

Take the crusts back out. Whisk together the egg yolk and salt. Brush the crusts with the egg yolk to waterproof them, and put them back in the oven for a few more minutes to let the egg yolk cook.

ACT II: FILLING
1/2 cup lime juice
3-4 tsp lime zest
1 (14 or 15-ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk, of any fat content
4 egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix everything together. Divide the filling between the two crusts. Go to Act III; prepare the cornstarch paste. Place the pies in the oven and bake for 5-7 minutes, until the filling is just thick enough to support the meringue. While the filling is baking, go immediately to Act IV.

ACT III: MERINGUE
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup water
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

Mix the cornstarch and 1 Tbsp sugar together in a small saucepan. Add the water very gradually (or the cornstarch will become lumpy) and heat the mixture to a boil, stirring vigorously. Let the mixture boil for about 15 seconds, stirring the whole time, then remove from the heat and cover. You should have a translucent paste.

Place the egg whites in a clean, greaseless, yolk-free bowl. Beat until foamy. Add the vanilla and cream of tartar, then the 1/2 cup sugar, little by little, and then whip at high speed until it forms stiff peaks. It should not look dry yet.

Add the cornstarch paste a little bit at a time, beating at low speed. When all the cornstarch has been mixed in, beat at medium speed for 15 seconds.

ACT IV: IT ALL COMES TOGETHER
Once the meringue has been prepared, it won't last long.
The crust must be filled while it's hot, or it will get soggy.
The meringue must go onto the filling while it's hot, or it won't cook properly--it will get soft and weep, since the bottom surface won't cook as quickly as the top unless the hot lime filling is cooking it from underneath at the same time.

So: as soon as the pies have been filled, the meringue has been whipped to peaks, and the filling has been baked just enough to set it, remove the pies from the oven. Dab a band of meringue around the edges, making sure it touches the crust all the way around; if it doesn't, it will pull back at that point. Fill in the center with more meringue. Smooth it out. Bake for another 20 minutes, and then remove the pies and let them cool.

Exeunt omnes.

Hominy Casserole
Just made this. It's really tasty--I think because of the amazing heirloom tomatoes (from my garden and Monterey Market).

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 medium apple, peeled and chopped (to make ~1/2 cup)--I used Honeycrisp, because that's what I had, but that's probably not the optimal apple for baking.
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 can white hominy, rinsed and drained
1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
3-4 leaves fresh sage, chopped
3" stem of fresh oregano, chopped
5-6 large leaves fresh basil, chopped
About 3 cups chopped tomatoes
3 slices of white bread, grated into breadcrumbs (I toasted them and grated off as much as I could--the rest I crumbled into coarse pieces)
About 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
MSG

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Saute the onions, apples, and peppers in olive oil until the onions are soft and beginning to color. Season with the herbs, salt, pepper, and MSG. Add the tomatoes and cook a few minutes longer. Spoon half the hominy mixture into a large casserole dish. Top with the large, crumbled breadcrumbs. Spoon in the rest of the hominy mixture. Mix the fine breadcrumbs and grated cheese and use this mixture to cover the top of the casserole. Dot with butter. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is browned.

Quark Cheesecake
This is still baking as I write this, so we'll see how it turns out...

For the crust:
2 cups almond meal (from Trader Joe's)
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, softened
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a pie pan. Mush all the ingredients together in another bowl. Press the crust firmly into the bottom of the pan and up the sides. Bake for about 15 minutes, until brown.

For the filling:
1 container lowfat quark (16 ounces/about 2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Stir the sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice and zest into the quark. Add more sugar to taste. When you're happy with the flavor, stir in the egg--mix well, until the mixture is creamy, with no yellow streaks of yolk. Pour into the crust. Bake for 45 minutes or so, until the filling is more or less set but still wobbles a little bit. (I'm waiting to see if 45 minutes is an accurate time estimate, and if I should have added another egg for the filling to set properly.)

Coming very soon, because I have a ton of limes: Key lime pie!

Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto

butter
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 cup fresh chanterelles
1 medium yellow onion
1 carrot
2 ribs of celery
1 1/2 cup Arborio rice
2/3 cup white wine
a bunch of veg broth
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
truffle oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Clean and coarsely chop the chanterelles. Mince the garlic. Heat some butter and oil over medium-low heat and lightly fry the garlic, then add the chanterelles and saute until they release liquid and turn tender and slightly colored. Remove them to another pan.

Heat the broth in one pan.

Peel and finely dice the onions, carrot, and celery into a soffritto. Heat more butter and oil in the other pan and fry the soffritto until tender and golden. Add the rice and fry for a minute or two. Put the mushrooms back into the pan. Add the wine and stir until absorbed. Start adding the broth a cup or two at a time and stirring until absorbed.

When the risotto is done, remove it from the heat and stir in the cheese, a spoonful of truffle oil, and the fresh parsley.

Brown Butter Brussels Sprouts

- Boil sprouts for around 10 minutes
- Melt butter in a cast-iron pan
- Add mustard seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, sliced garlic, and turbinado sugar and cook until mustard seeds are popping and seeds/almonds are brown
- Saute sprouts until brown
- Season with salt and pepper

- Eat over rice, with an egg over easy, sesame oil, and soy sauce.

Upma/Rulaav (from Rahul's mom)

1 cup cream of wheat ("sooji"--coarse, not instant/quick-cooking)
5 tablespoon olive oil or canola oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urid dal
few curry leaves(optional)
3 green chillies
1/2 cup carrots and peas (optional)
small piece of fresh ginger
salt and sugar to taste.
Method of cooking:
Fry cream of wheat in a pan until light brown (dry-without any oil). Take it out in a plate.
Heat oil,add mustard seeds. Once it splutters,add urid dal until it browns. Add curry leaves,ginger and chillies.
Add 2 cups of water to the seasonings and boil the water. Add salt (1 teaspoon) sugar(2 teaspoon), carrots and peas.If you like,you can also add onions and tomatoes. But you have to add these before you pour water in the seasonings.If you are adding onions, add after you put curry leaves and fry the onions in oil till light brown and then add tomatoes.Boil till the vegetables are cooked. Reduce the heat, and add fried cream of wheat and stir slowly till it dissolves in the water(Don't mash the cream of wheat) If it is lumpy, you can add little more water.
Cook on low heat for five minutes or till the water evaporates.Add cilantro chopped if you like. Bon Appetit!

We had a very awesome dinner on Saturday night with Robert, Sara, and Mike. The feast included:

Red wine

Mead

Toasted pumpkin seeds roasted at 400 degrees with salt, soy sauce, sugar, and olive and sesame oil

Macaroni and cheese gratinee

Green salad with strawberries, almonds, walnuts, pineapple, and blue cheese, with raspberry vinaigrette

Now and Zen UnTurkey

Gravy

Stuffing

Roasted carrots, onions, and asparagus with rosemary and garlic and olive oil

Mini-pumpkin pies made with fresh red pumpkin--sliced and baked at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, pulp scooped out, pureed and drained in cheesecloth

Pumpkin pie creme brulee (pumpkin pie filling steamed in a bain-marie at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, then caramelized with a butane lighter)

Vanilla ice cream

Garbanzo bean "cacciucco"

200 g garbanzo beans; 400 g beet greens; 200 g peeled tomatoes; 3 cloves of garlic; 1 onion; 3 salted anchovies; 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil; 2 Tbsp. grated Pecorino cheese; 4 slices of homemade Tuscan bread

Despite the name, this dish has nothing to do with fish. "Cacciucco" is a term used to mean a mixture of ingredients.

Wash the garbanzo beans and soak them in lukewarm water with a pinch of baking soda for twelve hours. When it is time to cook the soup, wash the beet greens and cook them for a few minutes in a small amount of boiling salted water. Dice the onions and garlic. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and brown the onion and garlic mixture. Rinse and clean the anchovies and add them to the oil, stirring until they dissolve. Drain the garbanzo beans, rinse them under running water, and place them in the saucepan. Chop the peeled tomatoes. Cover the beans with water, add the tomatoes, the beet greens and their cooking water, pepper, and a little salt. Cover the pan, heat until boiling, and then lower the heat and simmer for about three hours, until the garbanzo beans are tender. Toast the slices of bread and crumble them into pieces in individual soup plates or in a large soup bowl, then pour the "cacciucco" over the toast and serve it piping hot and sprinkled with grated Pecorino.

For this recipe, we recommend using a pressure cooker; if using a pressure cooker, the soup only needs to be cooked for about 45 minutes.

Butterfly pasta with green tomatoes

350g butterfly pasta (farfalle); 800g very green, round salad tomatoes; 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil; 2 Tbsp. grated Pecorino Romano cheese; 2 cloves of garlic; basil; salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Wash the tomatoes and cut them horizontally into slices about 1/2 inch thick.
Arrange the tomato slices in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet.
Peel the garlic cloves and mince them with five or six leaves of basil.
Sprinkle the garlic and basil mixture over the tomato slices, along with salt, pepper, and two spoonfuls of olive oil drizzled over the top.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and let it cook for about an hour, until the tomatoes are tender and slightly caramelized.
Take the baking sheet from the oven and mash the tomatoes into a creamy sauce with a fork.
Cook the pasta, drain it, and pour it onto the baking sheet along with the hot tomatoes.
Mix well, making sure to stir in all the herbs and seasonings, and garnish with grated pecorino and freshly ground black pepper.
Serve warm.

* Make sure to use tomatoes that are green all the way through so they maintain their tangy flavor even after being cooked.

Cacciucco di ceci

200 g di ceci; 400 g di bietola [erbette]; 200 g di pomodori pelati; 3 spicchi d'aglio; 1 cipolla; 3 acciughe sotto sale; 2 cucchiai d'olio extravergine d'oliva; 2 cucchiai di pecorino grattugiato; 4 fette di pane casereccio toscano.

Malgrado il nome, questa preparazione non ha niente a che fare con il pesce. Cacciucco e' un termine usato nel senso di miscuglio di ingrediente. Lavate i ceci e metteteli in ammollo in acqua tiepida con una puntina di bicarbonato per dodici ore. Al momento di preparare la zuppa lavate con cura la bietola e fatela cuocere per pochi minuti in poca acqua bollente salata. Scaldate l'olio in una casseruola piuttosto grande e fateci imbiondire dolcemente un trito preparato con la cipolla e l'aglio. Quando il soffritto e' pronto, sciogliete nell'olio le acciughe precdentemente dissalate e diliscate. Scolate i ceci, sciacquateli sotto l'acqua corrente e versateli nella casseruola, copriteli d'acqua, aggiungete i pomodori spezzettati, le bietole con la loro acqua di cottura, pepe e poco sale. Incopherchiate, fate prendere l'ebollizione, quindi abbassate la fiamma e proseguite la cottura per circa tre ore, finche' i ceci non saranno teneri. Tostate le fette di pane e distribuitele a pezzi nei piatti individuali o in una larga zuppiera, versatici il "cacciucco" e servitelo ben caldo spolverato di pecorino grattugiato. Per questa preparazione e' consigliato l'uso della pentola a pressione e, in questo caso, la cottura si limita a circa tre quarti d'ora.

Farfalle con i pomodori verdi

from La cucina di casa del gambero rosso--500 ricette di Annalisa Barbagli

350g di farfalle; 800g di pomodori verdissimi del tipo rotondo da insalata; 3 cucchiai d'olio extravergine d'oliva; 2 cucchiai di pecorino romano grattugiato; 2 spicchi d'aglio; basilico; sale e pepe.

Lavate i pomodori e tagliateli a fette orizzontali di circa un cm di spessore. Ungete la placca del forno con un cocchiaio d'olio e sistematevi le fette di pomodoro in un solo strato. Spellate gli spicchi d'aglio e tritateli finissimi insieme a cinque o sei foglie di basilico. Cospargete il trito sulle fette di pomodoro e completate il condimento con sale, pepe, e con due cucchiai d'olio. Mettete la placca nel forno precedentemente scaldato a 200 gradi e lasciate cuocere per circa un'ora fino a quando i pomodori saranno teneri e avranno preso un leggero colore caramellato. Togliete la placca dal forno e schiacciate i pomodori con la forchetta in modo da formare una salsa cremosa. CUocete la pasta, scolatela e versatela sulla placca con i pomodori ancora caldi. Mescolate bene in modo da raccogliere tutto il condimento e completate con il pecorino e con una macinata di pepe fresco. Servite caldo.

Assicuratevi che i pomodori per questo piatto siano verdissimi anche internamente: solo cosi' manterranno un piacevole sapore aspretto anche dopo la cottura.

Jennifer and I went to Greens. The space is a little too cavernous, but very pretty, and there's a wonderful view.

We shared the Early Girl tomato bisque with fresh basil on top and mascarpone to stir in. Very fresh-tasting and nice.

I had polenta with melted cheese on top and some kind of sauce of white corn kernels, tomatoes, and onions. On the side there were two small grilled zucchinis and a little pile of amazingly flavorful sauteed chard, which left my teeth uncomfortably furry after dinner. After the lovely flavor of the chard and the tomato soup, the polenta seemed a bit too bland--it was good, but sort of a let down.

Jen had risotto with cherry tomatoes and chanterelles.

Casey and I went to La Balompie, an El Salvadorean restaurant in the Mission, on 18th and Capp (a block or two past Mission if you're walking away from Valencia). We met her friends Alisha and Oneida there.

I had a corn pupusa with loroco and cheese, and a rice pupusa with beans and cheese. They mixed up my order and Casey's, and also got one of Alisha's pupusas wrong, and brought an extra order of plantains to the table (Casey said something about her plato, and the woman heard this as platanos).

I thought I'd like the corn tortilla better, but the rice pupusa was actually really nice and toasty-tasting. Cheese oozed out of both and got deliciously browned and crunchy. We had cool, crunchy, sour cabbage slaw to contrast, and a rust-colored, liquid, spicy salsa.

Casey told us about how you're supposed to eat them: cut open the top like a pita, put in some cabbage and salsa, and then eat the whole thing with your hands. The last time she was there with Colin, he had started eating his with a knife and fork, and a man at the next table said to his family, "Look, they know a different way to eat pupusas." Casey turned around and said, "Oh, he's English" and the man got really embarrassed, and then wouldn't stop talking to her in Spanish.

The plantains were nice with sour cream.

I had a glass of melon juice (cantaloupe). I wouldn't get it again--too sweet, I'm just not fond enough of melons.

I also got some disappointing empanadas. They were basically stuffed fried sweet plantains with a thick, stiff, pure white "custard" inside that looked like a hard-boiled egg. Far too dense, oily, sweet, and rich.

I had the most wonderful salt chocolate from Germany. So I don't forget, here is the information from the label:

Leysieffer
Pralinenmacher seit 1909
Meersalz schokolade
Eine ueberraschend harmonische Verbindung
Grobes Meersalz aus der Bretagne enthaelt nahezu alle Mineralien und ist reich an Magnesium

Leysieffer made in Germany
wie eh und je mit Kakaobutter - keine Fremdfette

D-49076 Osnabrueck
www.leysieffer.de
5279
Vollmilch Schokolade mit Meersalz
Milk chocolate with sea salt
Chocolat au lait avec sel marin

Zutaten: Zucker, Kakaobutter, Vollmilchpulver, Kakaomasse, Meersalz, Emulgator: Sojalecithin, Vanillin
Kakao: 33% minimum
3,40E, 100g

On Thursday, I cut up some of my Early Girl tomatoes and black pear heirloom tomatoes into a salad with fresh mozzarella from Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building. I also added fresh basil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and hazelnut oil. (I was held up on the bus by two shouting women--one fat lady shouting at one Chinese lady to "go back to China" so I missed my usual bus home and decided to stop by the Ferry Building.)

On Friday, Rahul and I infuriated waiters by eating one $3 taco each, with glasses of water, before the Teenage Fanclub concert at Bimbo's.

On Saturday, I cooked tomato scrambled eggs and fried polenta, and we went to see Cyrano de Bergerac and ate trail mix.

On Sunday I ate with my parents at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. It was OK. We had Hong Kong-style desserts afterwards that were wonderful:

Mango pudding with frozen coconut milk on top
Chilled liquidy/cornstarchy mango pudding with tapioca
watermelon juice with blended frozen coconut milk on top

I cooked some tomato sauce thickened with almond butter and creme fraiche and laced with basil, shallots and red bell peppers (sort of a deconstructed Romesco). It was a bit too rich.

Corn popovers from the New Basics:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp. coarse cornmeal
1 Tbsp. snipped chives
Ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup corn kernels (I used frozen ones, thawed in the microwave, without a problem)

1 cup milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp. butter, melted and then cooled to room temperature

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix together the dry ingredients, then lightly mix in the wet ingredients (there should still be lumps in the batter). Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Pour 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup, and bake until the popovers are puffed and golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. They will collapse as they cool.

I made this for bookclub.
I also made fresh salsa (tomatoes, lime, cilantro, jalapeno, and salt) and vegetarian posole (recipe from Harley--I didn't use liquid smoke):
Vegan Posole
1 can hominy
1 can pinto beans
1 large white onion
1 bulb of garlic
3 fresh poblano peppers (Anaheim chiles can be substituted) ( you can just replace these with the Chipotles cut up small)
several cans of vegetable broth
canola oil
liquid smoke
salt

Put the beans and posole in the pot, fill with vegetable broth until they are covered with an inch or more of liquid (but be sure to leave room in the crock pot - the stuff expands as it coooks). You can fill out with water if you run out of broth. Add the red chile.

Chop the onion into coarse pieces, and sautee in a bit of canola oil. Separate the garlic into cloves, peel, and slice into fairly thick chunks. When the onions are golden brown, add in the garlic and continuee to sautee. Get the onions just as brown as you possibly can without actually burning them. Add to the pot. There will be some brown residue in the frying pan. Blend it with a little water and pour it in too. Add a couple splashes of liquid smoke. Put the pot on low and cover.

Let it all cook together for an hour or so, then salt to taste and serve.

Very hearty and flavorful, very little labor.

Harley made delicious green chile cheese enchiladas, and Ben brought some yummy crunchy bean and cheese taquitos, and I'm sure there's some other food I'm forgetting due to the margaritas.

also cf. http://www.hotgoat.org/mt-archives/hotgoat/001244.html

Salad dressing, served on spring mix from Monterey Market, along with candied almonds:
1/2 shallot, minced
Dollop of Dijon mustard
"White balsamic" vinegar
Toasted hazelnut oil (La Tourangelle--it won a hall of fame award from the Chronicle)
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Lemon thyme
French tarragon

Put all ingredients into a jar and shake the hell out of it.

Tomato cobbler:
Take tons of tomatoes (I think I had about ten medium-sized tomatoes from the yard)--chop into large pieces and fill the bottom of a large casserole dish. Mix in a couple of tablespoons of flour, salt, sugar, and pepper, a dash of mirin, and 1 1/2 shallots, chopped.

Mix up some cobbler batter:
5 Tbsp butter, chopped into pieces
1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh oregano leaves
1 tsp fresh sage leaves
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves
5 oz. sharp white cheddar
Mix as you would for pie crust.
Gently mix in 1/2 cup soy milk, then drop flattened balls of dough on top of the tomato mixture. Lightly brush the top with additional soy milk.

Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour.

Polenta
Standard recipe (3 cups soy milk, 1 cup polenta, salt, pepper, 1 broth cube) with 1/2 package frozen corn kernels stirred in.

Blackcurrant-rhubarb-apple pie
1 pint blackcurrants, stemmed
1 stem rhubarb, cut into one-inch pieces
1 Pink Lady apple, peeled and sliced
Mix together with sugar and about 3 tsp cornstarch and then pour into a pie crust with a lattice top. (1 1/4 cups flour, 1 stick butter, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, water) Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then 350 degrees for another 30 minutes or so.

Tomato sauce with spaghetti: very simple, basic recipe.
Saute chopped onion until brown. Stir in some chopped garlic too.
Seed and quarter tomatoes and throw them in.
Pour in a dash of sake.
Add chopped fresh basil and rosemary.
Salt and pepper.

Good stuff.

I made a lovely tomato tart last night, but accidentally burned it. The tomatoes (9 Early Girl tomatoes from my backyard plants) were totally amazing, some of the sweetest, most flavorful tomatoes I've ever eaten in my life, and still warm from the sun.

I used half the pie crust recipe from Joy Of Cooking (1 1/4 cups flour, 1 stick butter cut into pieces, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/3 cup ice water) along with some chopped rosemary and a few tablespoons of grated parmesan. Into this I layered snipped leaves of fresh basil; the sliced, seeded tomatoes; pieces of almond cheese, mozzarella-style; parmesan, salt, and pepper. I decorated the whole thing with basil leaves on top, and baked it at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes (it ended up burning when I turned the heat up to broil to brown the cheese, then stepped away for a minute).

Problems with it: too much pepper, too much liquid--perhaps a layer of polenta poured into the bottom would work next time; the inside of the crust never got brown--stayed kind of white and mushy--so perhaps a blind-bake of the crust would be in order next time.

Here's Rahul's posting about our 4th of July recipe:

http://www.blackpitchpress.com/chaos/2005/07/delicious-vegetarian-bbq-recipe.php

Delicious Vegetarian BBQ Recipe


My Fourth of July vegetarian barbecue meat turned out to be a big hit, even amongst the meat eaters. Frankly, I'm a little surprised. I thought it was very good myself, but I haven't had meat in a long time, and my roommate (a non-veg) was telling me that if you had eaten meat recently, you'd be able to pick out fake meat really easier. Well, I think he changed his tune a bit with this latest concoction... which, come to think of it, didn't really require any special recipes on my part-- just Bill's Best (a fake meat made from soy and gluten) and Berkeley's finest-- Everett and Jones BBQ sauce.


Recipe:

Mix 3 parts Bill's Best "Chik" with 3 parts Bill's Best "Beaf." Add 2 parts water. Mix thoroughly, kneading the ball for 15-20 seconds. Form into a meatloaf shaped log. Slice the log into narrow, rectangular filets, about 0.35 to 0.5 inches in width (make sure it is somewhat narrow, because the filets need to be thin to cook to a meat-like consistency). Boil the filets for 10-15 minutes in lightly salted water.

Heat cast iron skillet on med-high to high (depending on your range-- ours seems a little weak and needed to be set to high). Set it to a point where the filets can cook and caramelize but not burn. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet. After oil is hot, place filets on skillet, making sure that all pieces have one surface directly on the iron. Cook for a bit, checking every now and then to make sure nothing is burning. When filets are browned on one side and somewhat dry, flip them over and cook similarly on other side (it should take 5-10 minutes to cook one side-- if it cooks faster than that, the heat is on too high).

After both sides are cooked, remove filets from skillet and place in mixing bowl. Pour Everett & Jones (or other delicious BBQ sauce) liberally on filets and stir them until surfaces are evenly coated.

Toss filets back into skillet for 20-30 seconds, adding a very small quantity of water to prevent the BBQ sauce from burning. Allow steam to reheat filets. Remove from skillet and place back in mixing bowl. Add sauce from skillet to mixing bowl and also add more BBQ sauce to mixing bowl. Stir thoroughly. Can be placed on toasted hamburger buns or eaten straight from bowl.

Tastes great with beer.

Bill's Best: http://www.billsbest.net/

This recipe from CL sounds good:

thai spinach wrap recipe < claymonkey > 07/02 09:49:06

Some one asked for the sauce for this - they had it at Suboy Suboy. This recipe is from Nancie McDermott's "Real Vegetarian Thai" cookbook (Mmmm love the spring rolls!!!) - everything that I've made from it is absolutely fantastic.

It's called miang kum - miang means "leaf" and kum means "a small mouthfull".

Sauce:
1/2 cup toasted coconut
3 Tbs. peeled, coarsely chopped ginger
2 Tbs. coarsely chopped shallots
1 Tbs. Asian bean sauce
3/4 cup veg. stock
1 cup palm or brown sugar
1/4 cup tamarind liquid (I've substituted pineapple juice in the past)
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt

Treats:
1/2 cup toasted coconut
1/2 cup cut-up peeled ginger (1/4 inch chunks)
1/2 cup cut-up limes, including peel (1/4 inch chunks)
1/2 cup cut-up shallots or red onions (1/4 inch chunks)
2 Tbs thinly sliced fresh green chiles (thai bird, serrano, or jalapeno)
1/2 cup salted, dry-roasted peanuts (cashews work too!!)
1/2 cup salted sunflower seeds (I've never used)
large spinach leaves or some lettuce with cupped leaves (like boston, etc..)

To make the sauce, in a mini processor or blender, combine coconut, ginger, shallots, and Asian bean sauce and grind to a fairly smooth paste. Add a little of the stock as needed.

In a saucepan, combine coconut-ginger paste, veg. stock, sugar, tamarind, soy sauce, and salt. Stir well, bring to rolling boil over med heat, stirring often. Boil for 2 min. stirring and adjusting heat so it doesn't boil over. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil and simmer, stirring and scraping down sides, now and then, until the saue is dark brown, thickened to a medium syrup - about 10 minutes. Cool sauce to room temp. Can be kept in refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.

When the sauce reaches room temp. it should be a little thcker than real maple syrup and thinner than honey.

To serve, arange all ingrediants except spinach/lettuce in separate heaps on a platter or in small bowls. Separate the leaves and arrange on platter nearby. Place sauce in small deep bowl with a small serving spoon.

To eat, take a leaf, add small amounts of each treat, and top with a dollop of sauce. Fold into a small packet and pop in mouth. Best in one bite.

Yum, Yum!!! These are so good. Suboy suboy uses those little dried shrimp also.

I made polenta again with the recipe I listed below, and this time stirred in the kernels cut from two ears of white corn. I heated it just till the kernels were warmed through. It was delicious.

Other than that, I ate a bunch of terrible food at the Pride parade:
A Hungarian langos (which Dad and Patty will be very excited to hear about)--freshly fried bread dough, hot and crisp on the outside and soft and doughy on the inside, brushed with garlic oil, spread with sour cream and sprinkled with grated cheese, something firm, maybe Gruyere? $4.

A black cherry drop--black cherry Smirnoff and sour mix. They carded, but there was not enough alcohol in it to get even me tipsy. $5.

A vegetarian corn dog with lots of ketchup.

A cup of black coffee with sugar in it at Cafe do Brasil, where I also beat Kenny at pool while waiting for his friend to call us (I left early, around 6, after waiting with him for a couple of hours, and he came back an hour later--she never showed).

I saw a lot of very Pride kinds of things. Many shirtless men, and a few pantsless ones as well. Amazingly good dancers wearing camouflage pants and nothing else. A big naked hairy bear getting spanked in Leather Alley by a bored-looking professional spanker guy. I also had a three-minute chair massage and was handed about ten Asian-American lesbian event fliers in the space of two minutes in the API alley, which made me feel curiously included--I had been ignored, flier-wise, through pretty much the whole parade, and then I was suddenly mobbed.

It makes me so happy that an event like this exists!

Also, I went to Caitlin's birthday at Solstice after work on Friday, and had a delicious raspberry mojito and some delicious french fries, and played with a dog, and had a generally good time hanging out with nice work folks. Afterwards I went to Chaim's alien-themed party, and had a wonderful time drinking, dancing, and trying to be witty and charming. Well, wonderful until everyone got their crap stolen from downstairs, which was really totally horrible. On Saturday I lay around and reread Fire and Hemlock and did my laundry, and then Kenny and I went to go see Land of the Dead with Martin in SF. It had the best scene ever in it: a guy getting ready to throw a grenade has his hand chopped off by a zombie, and then he falls on his hand, and then the grenade blows him up. Also, there was a lot of entrail-munching. I think that Land of the Dead would make a great film to show at management training seminars. "Lead by example! Communication is vital! Don't get distracted from your goals! With teamwork, we can conquer any obstacle! BRAAAAAAAAAAINS ARE DELICIOUS"

I made a cheesecake last night:
Beat two packages of Neufchatel light cream cheese with two eggs and 2/3 cup of sugar until creamy. Add a little less than a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour into a graham cracker crust and bake at 300 degrees for about an hour. Let cool.

I made a nice swirly marble pattern on the top with lemon curd:
Beat 3 eggs with 1/3 cup sugar and the zest of one lemon until light-colored and foamy. Add 6 Tbsp (2/3 stick) of butter, cut into pieces, and 1/2 cup lemon juice, and heat over medium heat, whisking, until thickened. Simmer for a few more seconds, then remove from heat and let cool.

I brought the leftover lemon curd in to work today and we had it with toasted crumpets and double Devon cream from Mollie Stone's. SO GOOD!!! With a cafe au lait from Royal Ground, it made the tastiest, carbiest breakfast ever. Caitlin called it "evil good," which I guess is one step beyond "wicked good." Leah broke her diet and had some too.

Also, I forgot to write that I had some nice goat cheese and mushroom pizza from Cheese Board when I went there with Casey on Saturday, and a delicious Jerusalem Falafel with my dad and Patty on Sunday, after our long hike in Tilden Park.

I also found the following rockin' tapes in my trunk:
Milli Vanilli
Wilson Phillips
Paula Abdul
The Immaculate Collection

Here is a recipe for my incredibly trashy, incredibly comforting dinner last night:

Open one can of Spaghetti-Os.
Dump 1/4 tube of Gimme Lean! Ground Beef Style soy protein stuff into the Spaghetti-Os. Mash it up and stir it in with a spoon.
Nuke for 2 1/2 minutes.
Eat while watching Buffy Season 1, Episode 7 (The Witch).

Bradford and I went to Frjtz last night (http://www.frjtzfries.com) in Hayes Valley. It is such a cute little cafe--window seats and a garden in the back--and they serve you thick, crispy steak-cut fries in a paper cone in a milkshake glass. There are a million sauces. We tried the following:
* jalapeno ketchup
* caper and onion ketchup
* curry ketchup (our favorite)
* miso mayonnaise (tasted just like mayonnaise)
* honey mustard sauce
* spicy peanut yogurt sauce (tasted just like peanut butter)

I would like to go back there again. I love french fries.

Made a cabbage casserole at 10 PM, from the Savory Way cookbook:

1 stick brown butter (heat ghee/butter together till nut brown--recipe calls for 4-6 Tbsp)
1 lb. white new potatoes
salt
6 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced (recipe calls for 2)
2 large leeks, white part only, sliced 1/4 inch thick (recipe calls for 3)
2 pinches red pepper flakes
one head green cabbage (recipe calls for 1.5-2 lbs)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 lb. smoked fontina cheese, sliced (recipe calls for Taleggio)

Make the brown butter.

Peel the potatoes and slice into 1/2" chunks, then boil in salted water for 8 minutes and drain.

Heat half the brown butter in a skillet and add the sage, leeks, garlic, red pepper flakes, and water to cover the bottom of the pan. Stew over medium-low heat until the leeks are soft. Add the cabbage in batches and wilt it over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally. Cook until the cabbage is tender.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the cabbage mixture with the potatoes, salt and pepper, the rest of the brown butter, and the Parmesan cheese. Layer cabbage in a casserole dish with slices of cheese and bake for about 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and vegetables are hot.

Yum!

Also, I bought the following AWESOME things on sale from Caper:
- Organic imported Parmigiano-Reggiano, 50% off
- Spicy peanut butter
- A MarieBelle Aztec hot chocolate lunchbox--so beautiful!
- A lovely tin of Russian tea
- crackers.

Friday night mostly liquid dinner:

Margaritas and nachos at Leticia's with Marc/Kai/Caitlin/Martin.

Newcastle Pale Ale at the Emiliana Torrini show at Slim's with Martin. I would like a miniature, awkward, funny, adorable Emiliana Torrini to keep on a shelf in my living room, alongside my copy of Pikmin. I bought her CD instead, but it's not the same--she could be any Jane Sigridssensdottir off the streets of Reykjavik singing breathy, quirky little songs. Maybe it will grow on me once I listen to it a few more times.

(No food here: but ran into Bryan at Butter, the white trash club, where he was escorting his friend to a Livejournal date and was very surprised to see me and I would have been surprised to see me there too; hung out with him for a bit but did not partake of the jello shots served from the trailer in the back. There was loud thumping music and a video of breakdancers on the wall.)

A long circuitous walk around San Francisco eventually led us to Sparky's Diner, where the jukebox ate several quarters' worth of songs (we were cheated of La Isla Bonita but did get to hear Oh! Get me away from here, I'm dying) and I had a very enjoyable plate of scrambled eggs, highly spiced soy sausage patties (definitely not Morningstar), and crispy hash browns with green onions. I like breakfast food in the late late nights, and it was a nice change from Denny's.

The next morning, Rahul and I went to Ann's Soup Kitchen and I had the most delicious breakfast potatoes in the East Bay--fried till they have a golden, crunchy crust a quarter of an inch thick. We also walked for about five or six hours while Rahul's broken bike wheel was being fixed (took an hour out of that to go ice skating) and ran into his friend Paul from the Transportation Library and discussed Rowbikes.

I ate some more lentils and rice for dinner, and yogurt covered blueberries, and potato chips, and watched a few hours of The Office.

Also, I canceled my subscription to The Box.

Lovely lemon dessert
Marion Cunningham

Wednesday, January 22, 2003


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In the old days, every kitchen had a soup pot simmering on the back of the stove. That's not always practical with today's fast-paced lifestyles, but we can still attempt to create the kitchen-centered home that the simmering pot encouraged.

In that long-ago era of sharing meals with others every day, no one would leave the dinner table until dessert was served. In fact, the first question children and other family members would ask as dinnertime neared was, "What's for dessert?" Lack of a sweet finale could cause tears of outrage.

Homemade desserts like lemon pudding cake, one of my childhood favorites, don't have to be difficult. It takes little time to prepare and uses everyday ingredients, yet the results are as comforting as that simmering pot of soup on the stove. This is just the sort of recipe that I hope can inspire you to keep sharing the joys of eating together at home with your family and friends today.



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Lemon pudding cake
This is an old favorite of mine from days past, and a lovely light dessert. All the ingredients are mixed in one bowl, but something magic happens in the oven: The batter separates into two layers, a creamy lemon pudding on the bottom, a light sponge cake on top.


INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

3 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups milk

Whipped cream (optional)


INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2-quart baking dish or an 8-inch square baking pan. Get out a slightly larger pan, at least 2 inches deep, that will hold the cake pan comfortably.
Combine 3/4 cup of the sugar, the salt and flour in a mixing bowl; stir to blend. Add the melted butter, lemon juice and zest and the egg yolks; stir until thoroughly blended. Stir in the milk.

Beat the egg whites in a bowl with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar until they are stiff but not dry. Fold the beaten egg whites into the lemon mixture. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

Set the dish in the larger pan and pour in hot water to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the top is lightly browned.

Serve warm or chilled, topped with whipped cream, if desired.

Serves 6

PER SERVING: 295 calories, 6 g protein, 42 g carbohydrate, 12 g fat (7 g saturated), 135 mg cholesterol, 187 mg sodium, 0 fiber.

Marion Cunningham, Bay Area cooking teacher and author of "The Fannie Famer Cookbook," among others, will publish her new "Lost Recipes" cookbook later this year.


lemon pudding cake recipe from the chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/22/FD161368.DTL

Made bean dip:
2 fresh Box avocados mashed into guacamole with 1/2 lemon, salt, cilantro from the yard.
1 can refried black beans
1/4 cup? Victoria salsa
Sliced almond "mozzarella" cheese on top
Microwaved for 6 minutes to warm and melt everything

It was OK. Kyle makes it better.

Made basmati rice.

Made some delicious lentils:
Heated to a simmer over medium heat:
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 can light coconut milk
1/2 cup or so of water

Meanwhile, fried in another pan:
1 chopped red onion
1 head of young garlic, chopped
1 tsp. chopped ginger
Black mustard seeds
Turmeric
Cumin
2 dried red chili peppers.

Dumped Pan 1 into Pan 2 and simmered till the lentils turned into a mush. Added a couple of teaspoons of soy sauce and some salt. Took off the heat and added the juice of 1/2 lemon and a generous handful of chopped coriander.

Also, polenta:
3 cups milk
1 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp butter
1 broth cube
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
pepper

Bring milk, butter, spices to a boil, then pour in cornmeal in a thin stream, whisking constantly, and keep stirring over low heat for about 10 minutes, until thickened and pulling away from sides of pan.

Today we went to Manzanita, a vegan/macrobiotic restaurant, for brunch. They have an all-you-can eat special for $12.50. The menu:

- Blanched kale
- Soft rice mix (a brown rice mixture of short-grain, wehani, and wild rice) with carrot-cauliflower puree
- Broccoli-bean miso soup with chopped parsley
- Savory pinto beans with cilantro
- Sauteed cabbage with sesame seeds and hijiki
- Pear-vanilla sauce sweetened with maple syrup
- Salad with creamy citrus dressing
- Twig tea with lemon
- Snow peas, rutabagas, and daikon (the latter two boiled and cut into fry shapes) with pesto. The pesto had ume paste instead of salt.

The food was all somewhat bland, in keeping with macrobiotic principles. The beans were the best, I thought, and the runner-up was the cabbage. It was nice to eat a restaurant meal that felt really healthy.

Rahul also got a decent chocolate(?)-chip vegan cookie.

Friday: Drinks and Scrabble (42 points on the word "Exiles") with Casey at Grove in the Marina, then a hurried dinner with Colin before they went to catch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Oddly, I ran into Dan on BART going home.
Saturday: Gardening, and Rahul and I made pizzas (one on a cookie sheet, one in a cast-iron pan) using Trader Joe's dough--olives, tomatoes, roasted jalapeno sauce, spinach, mushrooms, and parsley. In the evening we went to Alan's birthday party. I brought him KOTOR PC and a tea pillow. We bowled at Serra Bowl in Daly City, and Caroline made an incredible spread of food--I'm awed!:
- hand-made dolmas with currants and pine nuts
- cherry tomatoes stuffed with mozzarella and basil
- stuffed mushrooms
- fried risotto balls
- seven-layer bean dip
- guacamole and chips
- ice cream cupcakes topped with whipped cream
Sunday: Manzanita (review above), the Verizon store, house cleaning, piggie baths and haircuts, lots of wine, and fava bean puree with lemon, garlic, olive oil, and salt.

I had okonomi-yaki the other day at Sapporo-Ya in Japantown--they served it with parmesan cheese shreds all over the tonkatsu sauce and the cheese was writhing like a whole plate of living animals. It twitched around for about three minutes before settling down.

I like this review of Minibar from the New York Times: "They put on a dazzling show, starting with mojitos that you spritz into your mouth from a tiny silver sprayer and passion fruit whiskey sours. Fragile anise-flavored lotus root chips come with the drinks, presented in a cotton-lined white box.

My wife, Betsey, was instantly besotted with little logs of salmon belly wrapped in pineapple, topped with crispy quinoa for crunch and served with an avocado purée and mandarin orange segments. There was a touch of Serrano pepper in there somewhere, which gave the dish a bounce.

Minibar's deconstructions have helped build its reputation. For Robert M. Parker Jr., the wine critic, Mr. Andrés spread grape-flavored gelatin in a long, thin sheet and topped it with taste dots representing the flavors often detected in white wine, like vanilla, mint and almonds. He devised a Caesar salad consisting of two vertical cylinders of finely sliced jicama encasing romaine and anchovies. A quail egg is perched on one, a mound of shredded Parmesan on the other. His cheese steak consists of strips of Wagyu beef, seared with a blowtorch and wrapped around hollow miniature baguettes that are filled with aerated cheddar cheese.

There is always a conjunction of the intellectual and the playful. A chunk of ravishingly tender lobster is impaled on a kind of plastic syringe; the idea is to eat the lobster while squeezing its juices blended with olive oil from the syringe into your mouth. Believe me, it works.

Our favorite was a sweet-and-earthy frozen beet soup with raw scallops and raspberries, a concerto in red that deserves a place high on any list of modern classics."

Molecular gastronomy is awesome!

I also made a yummy dish last night by braising greens from the Box ("braising mix" of assorted bitter greens) in olive oil with onions and garlic, then toasting broken soba noodles in another pan and adding broth to cook them, and tossing everything together with some soy sauce and sesame oil.

Caramel cookies recipe to try

Cream butter with confectioners' and granulated sugar until fluffy.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup ground almonds
3 cups flour
Caramel
2 (14 ounces) cans (2 cans) sweetened condensed milk

24-26 cookies Change size or US/metric
Change to: cookies US Metric

5 hours 30 mins prep
Wrap and chill 30 minutes.
If chilled longer let it warm up until it can be rolled.
Or, whack it with a rolling pin until it cooperates.
Roll dough out to 1/4" thickness, cut in 2 1/2" circles and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes.
Cool cookie sheets between batches.
Cool cookies on wire rack.
Carefully (they're fragile cookies) spread some caramel on one cookie and top with another cookie.
Dust tops with confectioners' sugar and enjoy immediately having a crisp cookie-the way they were meant to be eaten.
They will turn soft after setting.
Alternatively the cookies can be filled with the rewarmed caramel as needed.
Caramel: Pour both cans of condensed milk in the top of a double boiler over simmering water and simmer on very low heat 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.
Eventually the milk will thicken and brown.
Cool well and it will thicken further.
Refrigerate until needed.
Makes enough for 4-5 dozen cookies.

My stepdad taught me to make the best tomato scrambled eggs in the world.

1. Beat three eggs and add a splash of milk.
2. Heat some oil in a nonstick pan on high heat. Add the eggs with lots of oil and scramble them. Remove to a separate bowl while they are slightly scrambled but still largely runny.
3. Slice two green onions lengthwise and slice again into two-inch segments.
4. Roughly chop three tomatoes and press out the seeds and juice through a strainer.
5. Wash the pan and put it back onto high heat again with oil.
6. Add the tomatoes and green onions and cook them, shaking the pan but not stirring.
7. Add a generous amount of rice wine, sugar, and salt. The rice wine gets rid of the pungent tomato flavor, and the sugar softens the taste from being too sour.
8. Cook until the tomatoes seem cooked through--five or six minutes?--and then add the eggs again.
9. Stir a bit, and cook until the eggs are set.
10. Serve immediately.

Friday:
Tomato soup for breakfast.

I had dinner at Winterland with Casey:
Strawberry-basil mojitos ($9! and I spilled my first one after drinking only 1/4 of it--they gave me a new one for free)
Togarishi popcorn (=furikake with chili flakes)
Fried little green peppers--some spicy, most sweet--and fried battered baby artichokes (some very fibrous leaves indeed) with saffron aioli
An amazing dish of macaroni and cheese topped with very rich breadcrumbs--brioche? croissant?--with a pear salad on the side.

We saw a Brussels Griffon in a handbag and I fed it some lamb's ear.

and then we took the 1 downtown and ordered tea (green tea w/jasmine--good; chrysanthemum tea w/mint--bad) and "Jade and Ebony" and steamed rice at Shanghai 1930 while we watched her old jazz teacher Suzanne. Jade and Ebony was bok choi and shiitake mushrooms. The bok choi (about 4 total, cut in half lengthwise) was fine, kind of boring. The mushrooms (about 5 total) were good--I think they were cooked with sugar, soy, rice wine.

Saturday:
Lentils and tomato soup for breakfast.

Dad and Patty made me a nice lunch. A Moosewood Collective phyllo dough roll stuffed with sauteed peppers, onions, squash, toasted breadcrumbs, and parmesan, and topped with poppyseeds; an orange and cabbage slaw salad; tofu cubes with sesame; bread and butter; pound cake with an orange glaze. I tasted a very expensive (due to the Ghiradelli and Scharffen Berger chocolate) prune puree cake that tasted like Semifreddi's gingerbread.

Sunday:
Mike stayed for dinner after dropping off our pitchfork. How Amish.
Salad with orange pieces from Mike, lettuce from the Box, and a dressing of toasted hazelnut oil, toasted sesame oil, Dijon mustard, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and lemon juice from Mom's lemons.

Herb roasted potatoes: blue, red, and yellow new potatoes from TJ's and banana fingerling potatoes from the Box; all peeled and sliced in fry shapes, tossed with olive oil and garlic, and sage, thyme, rosemary, and oregano from the garden; roasted at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, stirred, cooked another 15 minutes (which was too long--they came out burned) and tossed with salt and pepper.

Quinoa cooked with minced garlic.

Caramelized Minit-Meat Beaf: cooked slices of Beaf, sliced Box carrots, onion, ginger, and garlic in a mixture of butter and olive oil, then poured in a can of ginger ale mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil. Cooked this whole thing dry, until the ginger ale sugar and soy caramelized on the Beaf and veggies.

Dark Scharffen Berger chocolate-covered candied grapefruit peels.

Whipped cream (very thick and luscious cream from Straus Family Creamery) with vanilla and sugar, on some sliced, sugared Box strawberries.

I didn't even get a chance to serve tomato soup and lentils!

I did a lot of cooking last night; I left work a half hour early and had plenty of time to make food before watching ANTM. This morning my new organic box came, with lettuce, strawberries, zucchini, yellow fingerling potatoes, carrots, English shelling peas, and Fuji apples.

Tomato soup: This is from a gift, a little plastic-packaged mix of white navy beans and seasonings. I soaked the beans overnight and when Rahul got home he put them to boil with 8 cups of water for 1 1/2 hrs, then turned it off when he went to meditation. When I got home (just about at 6:30) I just had to drain the beans, put them back in the pot, add 8 cups cold water, the seasoning mix, and 1/2 can of tomato sauce, stir well, and simmer for maybe 15 minutes.

Salad: Picked oakleaf lettuce and arugula from the garden. Made dressing from fresh lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, blood orange olive oil, crushed garlic clove, salt, pepper, and Grey Poupon mustard. Ate with some chunks of a good-quality Roquefort from Cheese Board and croutons.

Carrots: Peeled and coin-sliced the (now soft) carrots from the last box and sauteed them in butter over medium heat with a few sliced cloves of garlic until they started to get brown. Added a generous glug of ginger ale and a few leaves of Vietnamese coriander and let it all cook down with an occasional stir until brown and slightly crisp and caramelized.

Drink: Mixed the rest of the ginger ale with some vanilla vodka and chilled it in the freezer till dinnertime.

Lentils: Sliced two medium yellow onions in half-moons 1/4" thick and nearly deep-fried them over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, until dark brown, with much more oil and time than I normally would have used, per the instructions in the big Deborah Madison book I got out from the library. In the meantime, I put 1 1/4 cups of black lentils on high with 4 cups (1 quart) cold water and a teaspoon of salt, then lowered the temperature and simmered about 15 minutes. I added 3/4 cup of basmati rice and lots of ground black pepper, stirred, covered, and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. I did have to add a little more water. At the end, I stirred in the onions and oil. It was very tasty, and much more minimalist than a dish I would have invented. I had to restrain myself from adding carrots, celery, bay leaf, thyme, etc.

Carrot cake: Had a slice of the birthday carrot cake while watching Strange Days on PBS. So good, with the cream cheese frosting and raisins.

I have leftover lentils, carrots, and salad, raw peas, and a Fuji apple for lunch today. This morning I had a soy cafe au lait and a little bit of cranberry-orange bread from Peet's.

On Sunday, Rahul took me to the Oakland Zoo--the gibbons were quiet, so the highlights were the close-up adorable meerkats and the giant fruit bats (flying foxes) hanging like Gothic umbrellas or H.R. Giger chrysalises from their mesh, opening their four-foot wings every now and then. At 4:30 we went to Le Theatre and had a lovely meal:

Prosciutto amuse-bouches (which we didn't eat)

Bread and butter (they brought us several baskets of bread, sensing our poverty and gauche manners before we even asked)

"Salade composee" with a creamy, buttery, pungent Roquefort, red-freckled lettuce, a savory garlic-mustard vinaigrette, beet cubes, and honey walnuts

Roasted asparagus salad (Rahul had this--I don't remember the details)

Pommes frites with aioli

Polenta napoleons with roasted eggplant, onions, peppers, and tomatoes stacked on top of the crispy polenta rectangles

Honey mousse (not very light/mousse-like, but very tasty nonetheless; more like a thick cream with ground almonds in it)

On my actual birthday, Monday 4/18, I went home, ate some vegetable ramen (non-fried) with swiss chard, bleached a shirt with a bleach pen, and painted watercolors of nasturtiums.

I had a great dinner at Chez Nous last night with Jennifer, Shara, Bryan, and Marianne. Hiromi and Cindy were stuck at work till 10:30ish and couldn't come. Shara gave me some wonderful blood orange olive oil and yuzu rice vinegar from O Olive Oil and recommended some sea salt caramel chocolates from the Pasta Shop on Fourth Street. She also brought me my Mercenaries PS2 and Xbox copies and beanie and t-shirt. Marianne gave me a lovely necklace in the most adorable bag ever--a hamster blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Everyone treated me to dinner--thanks guys!--and we had:

Strawberry sangria

Very hard and disappointing bread with salt but no butter or oil on the table (Shara hinted about me opening the olive oil sooner but I didn't catch the hint, and didn't open it until it was too late)

Asparagus soup with truffle oil--powerful-tasting and pungent; I didn't realize the taste was truffle oil till I got near the bottom of the bowl

Pommes frites with harissa (nice crisp fries, not very spicy harissa)

Spinach with lemon and garlic

Gnocchi with fava beans and garlic cream sauce (tender and wonderful)

Chicken kebabs with orzo (didn't try this)

Salmon cakes? (didn't try this)

Kobe beef with truffle butter and hen of the woods mushrooms (didn't try this)

Chocolate pot de creme covered in whipped cream, with a thin crunchy cookie. SO AMAZING

Chocolate caramel pyramid (dense chocolate cake in a beautiful marbled pool of caramel and chocolate sauce)

Cannele de Bordeaux? "Like a portable creme brulee" I think is how Jennifer described it--it's a pastry with a crunchy, dark, caramelized outside and spongy inside, all drenched in a sweet pale sauce like condensed milk. They forgot to put a candle in my pot de creme so they brought this out later, on the house.

Bergamot Earl Grey served in a funny little corked, dark-glazed ceramic pot like a moonshine jug

I feel like I'm forgetting something still... anyway, the good company overshadowed the food. It was a very nice evening, and so good to see everyone again. I found out Peter's second son was born the day before (he shares my birthday)!

I made stuffed zucchini the other night, partly with zucchini from Trader Joe's and partly with zucchini from The Box. I was debating a zucchini carbonara or zucchini lasagna instead, but the stuffed zucchini won out.

I trimmed the zucchini, sliced it in half lengthwise, turned it face down on an oiled baking sheet and baked at 400 degrees until browned on the bottom (maybe 15-20 minutes?) In the meantime, I fried up a mixture of chopped yellow onion, chopped garlic, leftover cooked barley cakes (bound with egg, seasoned with thyme, cutting celery, and sage, and fried till brown), chopped sprouted whole-grain bread from TJ's, golden sage, cutting celery, salt, and pepper. Once the zucchini was done and had cooled off a bit, I scooped out the centers with a teaspoon, mixed the pulp into the stuffing mixture, filled each zucchini with a heaping serving of stuffing, put a slice of lactose-free yogurt cheese on top, and baked in the 400-degree oven for another 20 minutes or so, until browned on top. It was very good.

The rest of my food weekend:
Saturday morning, I accompanied Rahul to West Berkeley and had a cup of delicious, hot, sweet soy masala chai at Peet's while he met with Nathaji about the Sacred Space website. We walked a one-eyed white dog--a pitbull, maybe, but she was small and narrow-headed--named Snowball (her ear had been torn, and she was very excited about going out, trying to escape behind my leg and jump on me while I tried to put the collar on her). She was a nice dog. Squirrel, the dark brown resident cat at the shelter, was looking fat, sleek, and happy. I petted him for a bit while he lay on the warm CRT monitor at the front desk and purred. I went over to the tag area to put away my tag and say hello to a rat with lice, and Squirrel came over to me and very self-assuredly jumped up onto the counter, and then straight onto my shoulders, where he settled like a fur stole, purring like a maniac and looking very comfortable. He pushed his head against my face with affection and draped himself around my neck. He didn't use his claws at all--he was very soft all over. Of course, I had allergies for hours afterwards, but it was totally worth it.

I also tried the Best Chocolate Ever at the fancy food store on 4th Street. It was Michel Cluizel's Plantation Grand Cru "Concepcion" and my God, did it taste good.

Rahul and I went to Vik's after the animal shelter, where I had another chai and my Lactaid pill, fried mashed potato cakes with peas in them, covered in a chickpea tamarind sauce (aloo tikki cholle) and Rahul had samosa cholle (samosas covered in the same kind of sauce). We saw Daryll and Melanie there.

I played Diner Dash a lot on Saturday night. It's a step up, gameplay-wise, from Restaurant Empire, at least in terms of the actual flow of a restaurant floor.

On Sunday we finished coloring some posters for the Zachary's contest. Rahul and I drew a toothy green frog-like monster hanging upside-down from a branch, with flying pizzas surrounding it. I don't know what the deal is but it made me laugh whenever I looked at it. Kenny drew a fat man in a blue jogging suit being attacked in the middle of the forest by a remote-controlled robotic unicorn controlled by a small, evil guinea pig. It said "ZACHARY'S [ELEVATION]" on the bottom. We bought some Zachary's spinach and mushroom with lowfat mozzarella and whole wheat crust, and ate it in the children's vegetable garden at Thousand Oaks School. The sun was shining and a small child was laughing hysterically at a green balloon mounted with a noisemaker nozzle: his father would blow up the balloon, let it go, and let it whiz around the schoolyard making a loud whistling noise.

On Sunday night I went down to Mom's for dinner, and met her former student Sarah. We had blue potato Terra chips, green English peas with chopped tofu (smoked?) and water chestnuts, red and black steamed rice, a tomato omelet (sweetened, with green onions, and the eggs wet and creamy--it makes my mouth water just thinking about it), Chinese broccoli, and quail eggs. I also had a brownie that Sarah made.

I forgot to update about last Thursday, when Rahul and I had dinner at Roy's for Aleks and Shane's farewell party. I had an apple martini, a French cosmopolitan (orange vodka and Cointreau were the distinguishing factors), black truffle and asparagus risotto, fresh spring rolls stuffed with avocado, with chili pepper dipping sauce, a fresh cabbage salad with ginger-sesame oil dressing, and grilled tofu with sprouts and ponzu, served on rice. Dessert included a strawberry stuffed with whipped cream, a real tiny cream puff, and a fudgey dark truffle square. It was a nice evening, but I woke up at about 4 AM with a terrible sick, painful feeling. i thought I might have food poisoning but it was not so.

I made a good dinner the other night:
Grilled asparagus spears
Sauce maltaise (hollandaise made with blood orange juice instead of lemon juice)
Quinoa with garlic
Roasted Carnival squash
I also roasted beets, but I haven't eaten them yet.

I was proud of myself: everything, including the broth I used to cook the quinoa, was made from scratch. The asparagus, blood oranges, and garlic were from the Box, as were the carrots and leek ends I used for the broth (though not the mushrooms or celery). The Box = Farm Fresh to You from Capay Farms.

The night before, I made some cheddar pie crust from scratch and used it to make two lattice-top Pink Lady apple pies, which I had a la mode with Robert, Sarah, Mike, Kenny, and Rahul, while watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse episodes. The apples were also from The Box.

Recipes:
Asparagus:
Heat a grill pan to high, oil the asparagus, and throw it on there, turning it around after it gets some grill marks on it. Keep a window open--this gets smoky!

Sauce Maltaise:
I don't remember all the exact quantities, but you need to whisk together three egg yolks in a simmering double boiler with 1 1/2 Tbsp. of cold water. Once the yolks are thick and foamy, whisk in some warm (not hot) melted butter--I think it was 1 stick. Also whisk in salt and pepper and some blood orange juice. (The blood orange juice should be a cooled reduction of about 1/4 cup blood orange juice--2 small oranges--with two big strips of zest and a little bit of sugar simmered for about 4 minutes.)

Quinoa: Wash the quinoa thoroughly to remove the bitter saponin coating. Saute a clove of minced garlic in oil, then toast the quinoa in the pan with the garlic until it's golden. Add twice the volume of the quinoa in liquid, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cover until all the liquid is absorbed. (Like making rice pilaf).

Squash: Stab a few times and bake on a foil-covered pan in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Beets: Scrub well, and bake in a covered baking pan with 1/2 cup water in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes.

This morning I made a corn and potato semi-souffle from the Whole Foods cookbook: beat three egg whites till foamy (I did it by hand!), slice 2 potatoes (from the Box) and roast at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, mix some flour, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and a can of corn into the egg whites, and make a casserole in a greased square pan by layering potatoes with the corn mixture. Bake for about 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees, until the potatoes are tender and the top is golden. It was a little too bland.

I also had an amazing (and very expensive) truffle and an outstanding square of mint chocolate from the Scharffen Berger factory. I think I would like to move in there forever.

I made an excellent vegetarian ragu the other day:
Chop and saute a yellow onion and a few stalks of celery for a while in some olive oil. (I probably would have used carrots, too, if I'd had them). Add some chopped garlic, too, maybe 3 cloves.

Empty a package of soy "ground beef" into the pan.

Pour in a bunch of soy milk--maybe 1.5 or 2 cups and stir. Let it simmer over medium-low heat while you watch America's Next Top Model. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper, a big squeeze of ketchup (to even out the acidity), a bay leaf, and a small can of chopped tomatoes (1 or 2 chopped tomatoes, or tomato paste, or sauce are all OK too). Stir during commercial breaks. Add some chopped fresh basil right at the end. I think some thyme or oregano wouldn't be bad in there, either.

I served it with tagliatelle (pastasciutta from Trader Joe's) and it was really good. People kept remarking on how good it smelled or looked when I heated it up in the office for lunch.

Good ANTM drinking games:
* Take a shot every time someone says "fierce."
* Take a shot every time the girls squeal.
* Take a shot every time someone screams and covers her mouth with her hands because she's just SOOOO excited.

Also, I got my first organic box delivery, from Farm Fresh To You. More on that later--I want to do a price comparison at Mollie Stone's.

Also, Barbara at work brought in some Trader Joe's chocolate chip meringues and I LOVE them.

I used to LOVE a kind of breakfast yogurt--Yoplait, I think--that was available back in the 80's and early 90's; it had chewy whole grains mixed in with the fruit and yogurt. Not mushy muesli flakes, but real whole grains with a chewy texture. They stopped making it. I was so excited when I found a similar yogurt in Italy--Danone (Dannon) con cereali--but that, too, was a seasonal yogurt, and after the winter I couldn't find it anymore, either.

I got some soft pastry wheatberries at Whole Foods this weekend. I soaked 1 cup of berries in 3 1/2 cups of cold water overnight, then cooked them like rice the next day (heat to a boil, bring down to a simmer for about 50 minutes, until the water is absorbed). This morning I stirred them into a cup of strawberry Dannon Light 'n' Fit and it was perfect, absolutely perfect.

I made this watercress soup recipe today, substituting nasturtium leaves (without stems, about 4 loosely packed cups) for the watercress. The cookbook (Chez Panisse Vegetables) also suggests using spinach. I had it with some croutons on top, and gave up on the sieve because none of the vegetable was ending up in the soup itself. I have to remember to puree this in the blender, not with the hand blender, because it's too fibrous for the hand blender to handle.

Watercress Soup
2 bunches watercress (~1 lb)
1 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cups chicken stock (I used vegetable) or water
A few parsley leaves
A few tarragon leaves
Salt and pepper
Creme fraiche (I didn't use this)

Pick through the watercress and discard any thick stems.
Peel and slice the onion and garlic thin and stew them in the olive oil, covered, until soft and translucent. Add the stock, bring to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. After 5 minutes, add the parsley. Have ready a large bowl half filled with ice and a smaller, stainless steel bowl that will nest inside it and rest on the ice.

Remove the soup from the heat, add the watercress and tarragon, and allow the soup to stand for 5 minutes, no longer. Immediately puree the soup in a blender and pour it through a medium-fine sieve into the bowl on ice. Stir the soup until it is at room temperature, then remove it from the ice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Reheat the soup to a simmer just before serving; do not boil. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish lightly with lines of lightly salted creme fraiche streaked on the surface.

I'm making this today:
LEMON, PEPPER, AND THYME POPOVERS
2 large eggs3/4 cup milk1/4 cup water1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon salt1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves

Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously grease six 2/3-cup popover tins or nine 1/2-cup muffin tins.
In a bowl whisk together eggs, milk, and water and add butter in a stream whisking zest, pepper, and 1 teaspoon thyme into batter. Add flour and salt and whisk mixture until combined well but still slightly lumpy. Divide batter among tins, sprinkle remaining teaspoon thyme over popovers and bake in lower third of oven 45 minutes. Cut a slit about 1/2 inch long on top of each popover with a small sharp knife and bake 10 minutes more.Makes 6 large or 9 medium popovers.
Gourmet

I also made a baked acorn squash (halved, face down, in water in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, then face up with butter, cinnamon, and sugar in the cavity, for another 25). I plan to season with salt and pepper and eat it along with some of Semifreddi's amazing dark gingerbread.

I made a risotto this weekend:
I sauteed two kinds of wild mushrooms separately in a pan--one was large and yellow and, according to Rahul, had "the consistency of chicken fat," and the other, which I had more of and which was cheaper, was chewier and more flavorful.

I started with a base of 1/2 onion and 1 carrot and a little handful of chopped cutting celery leaves from the garden. I sauteed these in butter and olive oil, then added about 3 cups? of Arborio rice. I rehydrated dried porcini mushrooms in hot water, then added the soaking liquid, the chopped dried porcinis, and a glass of chardonnay from my Target wine cube. I added about 6 or 8 cups of vegetable broth and generous amounts of Parmesan and butter at the end, along with plenty of salt and pepper (no, the broth wasn't enough for the salt). I chopped the sauteed mushrooms and stirred them in.

The less appetizing-looking side dish that came along with that was the remainder of my purple broccoli, which apparently turns a wan translucent violet-gray with purple undertones, like the skin of a salamander, and oozes a magenta liquid like beet juice, when cooked with an acid. I braised the broccoli with garlic, water, and red chili flakes, then added some lemon zest and lemon juice and salt and pepper. It tasted better than it looked.

Also, I got ripped off by buying "grapple" apples from Safeway. They're pronounced "grape-L," apparently. "Looks like an apple, tastes like a grape!" ran the tagline on the box. It cost a whopping $5 for 4 apples, but gosh darn it, it smelled just like grape-flavored bubble gum, and wow, apple breeding technology has come a long way! I was so excited after my discovery this year of my new favorite apple, Pink Lady, which smells and tastes vaguely floral and very sweet and fragrant.

When I got home, Rahul asked about the grapples, and I said they were apples that had been bred to taste and smell like grapes (my impression from the packaging). He pointed out the fine print that said "Ingredients: Apples, artificial grape flavoring." Fuckers. What kind of a name is "grapple" anyway? At least broccoflower has a nice ring to it. What's next? The Blape? The Grorange? Plus, the verb "grapple" doesn't have especially positive connotations.

HOLIDAY BISCOTTI WITH CRANBERRIES AND PISTACHIOSThe pleasingly chewy biscotti are coated on one end with white chocolate. In our test kitchen, imported white chocolate, such as Perugina or Lindt, yielded the best results. click photo to enlarge
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder3/4 teaspoon salt6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature3/4 cup sugar2 large eggs1 tablespoon grated lemon peel1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract1 teaspoon whole aniseed1 cup dried sweetened cranberries3/4 cup shelled natural unsalted pistachios
6 ounces imported white chocolate, chopped
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl to blend well. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in lemon peel, vanilla, and aniseed. Beat in flour mixture just until blended. Stir in cranberries and pistachios (dough will be sticky). Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Gather dough together; divide in half. Roll each half into 15-inch-long log (about 1 1/4 inches wide). Carefully transfer logs to 1 prepared baking sheet, spacing 3 inches apart.
Bake logs until almost firm to touch but still pale, about 28 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet 10 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.
Carefully transfer logs still on parchment to cutting board. Using serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, cut logs crosswise into generous 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place slices, 1 cut side down, on remaining 2 prepared sheets. Bake until firm and pale golden, about 9 minutes per side. Transfer cookies to racks and cool.
Line another baking sheet with waxed paper. Stir white chocolate in top of double boiler over barely simmering water just until smooth. Remove from over water. Dip 1 end of each cookie into melted chocolate, tilting pan if necessary; shake off excess chocolate. Place cookies on prepared sheet. Chill until chocolate is firm, about 30 minutes. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.
Bon Appétit
December 2003

Candied Grapefruit Peels
Greens "The Savory Way" Cookbook

3 grapefruits (preferably organic)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups water
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
Additional superfine sugar for coating

Juice or eat the grapefruits. Cover the peels in cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 25 minutes. Cool. Scrape out the pith with a teaspoon and cut the peels into strips.

Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a 2-quart non-corroding saucepan and bring to a boil. When the syrup is clear, add the peels, lower the heat, and cook till they are translucent, about an hour.

Set a cake rack over a baking sheet. Remove the peels, a few at a time, and spread them out on the rack. If you're using them for cooking, allow them to stand until dry and then put them in a covered container and refrigerate.

If they will be used for candy, put the superfine sugar in a dish, let the peels drain for a minute on the rack, then lightly toss them in the sugar (chopsticks work well for this). Set them on a clean rack. If you're reusing the sugar, sieve it between batches to remove the lumps from the syrup.

Allow the sugared peels to sit for an hour or so, until somewhat dry, then put them in a covered container and store on a shelf (several weeks) or in the fridge (several months).

For orange or lemon peel, use 5 or 6 thick-skinned oranges or 6 large lemons and treat them as above--they make take less time than the grapefruit.

For chocolate-covered fruit peels, let the rinds drain till fairly dry and not too sticky, then dip in melted bittersweet or semisweet chocolate instead of sugar. For 2 cups candied peels:
5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
2 tsp unsalted butter

Put the chocolate and butter together in a heavy saucepan or double boiler and gradually melt over low heat. Stir to combine. Dip stuff in it.

http://www.frissonsf.com/

I'd like to try this place.

DISASTROUS PESTO

Last time I tried to make it, I spent half an hour trying to scrape the whole leaves away from the sides of the blender with a wooden spoon, so this time I decided to take the trouble to get the food processor set up.

First I discovered I had no more Parmesan cheese (after picking 4 cups of basil from the plants in the front and carefully separating leaf from stem). Oh well, it can be added later.

I put the leaves and pine nuts into the bowl of the food processor and press "pulse." Because of the dumb-ass design of the food processor, leaves start shooting out of the chute at the top (I lost the extra piece you need to block shit from flying out of the container. Too many extraneous pieces on the food processor to keep track of...)

I have some kind of flat plastic thing that fits on top of the blade stem. I figured that might work to keep things from flying out. I put it on, and then discovered that the food processor bowl no longer wanted to lock in place, no matter how hard I pushed on it. Rahul helped me get it locked.

Chewed-up bits of leaves started spewing out of the food processor again; on top of that, I couldn't pour olive oil down the feed tube anymore because there was a flat plastic thing blocking the feed tube.

I opened it again, removed the plastic piece, and got Rahul to help me lock it back in place.

Finally I was able to get the olive oil into the pesto. It turned into a lovely, smooth, creamy green sauce in seconds.

I patted the sauce into an ice cube tray and headed to the freezer.

When I opened the freezer door, a gallon bottle of water that had been precariously balanced on top of the fridge immediately fell down and burst open, pouring water all over the floor and my feet.

The mop was sitting on the bare dirt outside in the side yard, so I ended up soaking up the water with a towel rather than washing the mop as a preliminary to cleaning up the kitchen.

What a way to spend 10:00 on a Sunday night. I'll feel good about it later when I'm enjoying the nice summery pesto, I guess.

4 cups basil leaves
2/3 cup almonds and pine nuts
2 cloves elephant garlic
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt

After Rahul and I went for a bike ride to the Peralta Community Garden and back,

I cooked up some polenta:
3 cups water
1 cup polenta
1/2 tsp salt
1 chicken bouillon cube (I figure it's OK as long as I'm just using it up)

I spread it on waxed paper in a baking dish and let it cool in the fridge. In the meantime, I turned my tomato soup into sauce:

Sliced up a couple handfuls of fresh button mushrooms.
Browned them in olive oil.
Threw them into the soup with a handful of dried oregano.
Added a handful of fresh basil leaves, minced with the mezzaluna.

Then I sliced the polenta into squares and fried it in butter and oil, poured sauce over the top, added some sprinkles of vegan mozzarella, and melted the "cheese" in the microwave.

I ate some delicious black seedless grapes for dessert.

USA Today takes Marcella Hazan to Olive Garden
http://www.usatoday.com/money/mds048.htm

YUMMY heirloom tomato soup:
3 lbs. heirloom tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
Salt
Pepper

Saute the onion in a saucepan till soft.
Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 25 minutes.
Puree.
Add salt and pepper.
Eat.

I also made pesto, which I haven't tried yet:
2 cups basil leaves (I added stems and flowers... trimming the basil plants back)
1 tsp minced garlic
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Blend.

I stirred in a bit of lemon juice--it doesn't seem to have helped; the pesto seems brown today. No salt yet.

my pimp name is "Master Fly Chye Loco" according to http://playerappreciate.com/pimphandle.asp

Fried portobellini (coated in egg and breadcrumbs) with garlic salt and pepper, with ketchup. More soup.

I bought Red Shell miso salad dressing and Rahul says it's the same as the restaurant kind. I haven't tried it yet.

Fava bean puree again with garlic pita chips.

Soup: browned onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, added rainbow chard stems from the garden, then added 8 cups water, all my remaining lentils, some dried peas I accidentally made from fresh shelling peas, 2 peeled, diced potatoes, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and then the chopped-up chard leaves towards the end.

Bookclub food:
Fava bean puree crostini: fava beans from the garden, thyme from the garden, mint from the neighbors' garden, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, a little dab of minced garlic, some extra virgin olive oil, a small splash of seasoned rice vinegar, all blended together with the stick blender and eaten on slices of bread.

Asparagus risotto with lemon zest and lemon juice and thyme and basil from the yard and butter and Parmesan, with an onion and celery base.

Carrots and celery that ended up on the floor and were washed and eaten with hummus.

Dulce de leche mousse cake.

Baked potato chips and Doritos and Chips Ahoy.

Lots of Shiraz.

From our company Intranet site. I LOVE the Ranch cookies--big and soft and chewy and full of chocolate chips...

Such Things as Dreams are Made Of:
Macaroons & Chocolate Chip Cookies
May 26, 2004

By Stephen Simmons



Photo by Tina Mills
(click on image for an enlarged photo.)
It seems that everyone loves the Ranch cookies. And lately we’ve had a lot of great comments on two cookie recipes in particular, the coconut macaroons and the chocolate chip cookies. Here we’ll provide instructions to make them in smaller batches than we normally would for all of the Cookie Monsters at Big Rock and Skywalker Ranch. The size of the individual cookies depends on you. But please try to remember to bake the cookies before you eat them…as difficult as that may be. Each recipe makes about 18–24 cookies.


Coconut Macaroons

5 cups flaked coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1-½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
½ cup currants (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix the coconut, milk and the extracts.
Add the currants at this point if you like.

Spoon out consistent portions onto a greased baking sheet. You may use a teaspoon or tablespoon or small ice cream scoop for portioning.

Bake the cookies 8–10 minutes or until they are just browning on the edges.
Remove them and let them sit for a while before eating.



Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ cup granulated sugar
2 cups light brown sugar
1 ½ cups butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
2-tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
16 ounces chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
In a mixer, cream the butter and both kinds of sugar together. Add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Next add the flour mixture and chips.

Remove from the mixer and place in a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least an hour. Scoop out the dough with a small scoop or spoon and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies 9–11 minutes. For chewier cookies bake 7–9 minutes. For crunchier cookies bake 10–12 minutes.

As a side note: After the dough has been chilled, you can roll it into a log approximately 1 ½–2 inches thick, wrap it in plastic wrap, and store it in the freezer. Remove from the freezer, let it sit out for about 10 minutes, and then cut it as thick as you want…or just eat it raw if you simply can’t help yourself.

Enjoy!

Friday night, before going to Troy and watching Brad Pitt jump around in a tunic, I made this:
Eggplant Parmesan-type stuff:
fried eggplant and Yukon Gold potato slices layered with vegan mozzarella in between layers, tomato sauce made with canned tomatoes and a fresh red Anaheim pepper and basil and Italian parsley from the garden, and sprinkled with capers and toasted pine nuts.

Sunday I went to a barbecue at my parents' (Mom and stepdad's) house.
Mom made 2 kinds of cherry pie: a baked pie with cherries suspended in a custard filling, and a no-bake pie with sour cream/cream cheese filling and cherry topping, both in graham cracker crusts. She also made miso-crusted wild king salmon and described a lovely dish with fresh peas, chopped water chestnuts, chopped shiitake mushrooms, and omelet pieces.
I made portobello mushroom caps marinated in lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, fresh rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper, and cooked on the grill; the lemon and rosemary were from the yard.
Also brochettes of summer squash, zucchini, onion, and shrimp, marinated in a mixture of fresh orange juice and lemon juice, soy sauce, maple syrup, garlic, salt, and pepper.
CHT made his famous chicken wings: a vinegar and soy marinade brushed with maple syrup at the last minute.
And we grilled corn and ate that as well, and had some fresh Acme sweet rolls and ciabatta. It was very nice.

Friday:
Hung out with Molly, who was in town for her grandma's 90th birthday, and had latkes at Saul's with her parents.

Saturday:
Saw _The Day After Tomorrow_. Shaved the piggies. Dad and Patty came by. Went to Red Lobster and ordered coconut fried shrimp; Rahul had the Admiral's Feast. A very friendly Midwestern waitress who kept calling us "my friend." GW couldn't make it cause his roommate's cat got out.

Sunday:
Rahul and I went to Carnaval but missed Sarah. Bought a coat in the Mission for $5--Banana Republic microfiber trench. Went to the Ferry Building and couldn't find Christy. Ate an egg and red pepper sandwich with harissa at Lulu Petite, along with homemade rosemary potato chips. Baker came over and played Viewtiful Joe with Kyle. I made corn chowder from John Thorne's recipe (4 ears white corn, simmer scraped cobs in 3 cups salted water for 20 minutes, saute an onion, fish out the cobs and add the onion and corn kernels and 2 cups milk and simmer for 5 minutes, season with red pepper and black pepper and salt); Rahul thickened it with cornstarch.

Monday:
I made rosemary onion home fries for breakfast, and had some coffee. We had a BBQ for Kyle's birthday. Sarah, Jeni, Christy, Baker, and Christy's friend Mike all came over. We had carrots and celery, hummus, tortilla chips with bean dip, Morningstar Farms Grillers Prime with lettuce and tomatoes and mustard and mayonnaise and ketchup and grilled red onions, beer, "beer brats" (Tofurky sausages), zucchini, corn, cheesecake, and tea.

This has nothing to do with food, but I'm still repeatedly suddenly sad about Thom Gunn passing away.

Tartine: baguettes and butter and strawberry jam.

Watermelon salad: cubes of watermelon with feta, mint from Ernestina's garden, and cilantro.

Quiche: Rosemary pie crust made with minced rosemary from the neighbor's garden, sauteed onions, beet greens and arugula with thyme, salt, and pepper, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup milk and smoked gouda cubes tossed in with it. Brought this to Erin's BBQ party--a bit too much veggie in proportion to the custard, but still good.

Quiche scraps: rosemary pie dough scraps sprinkled with Parmesan and baked till brown and crunchy

ended up being:
Herb salad mix w/Newman's Italian dressing, sunflower seeds, and 1/2 avocado, diced
1 can Black Beluga lentils with tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, curry, cumin, chopped Swiss chard from the garden
Whole wheat couscous
Roasted beet, carrot, onion, and fennel salad with thyme, dressed with blood orange juice and olive oil
Strawberry-rhubarb sauce with blood orange zest and sugar (ate this later with vanilla frozen yogurt)

Lentil salad (or soup?) with tomatoes, carrots, celery, beet greens or chard, thyme, orzo?

Roasted beet, pine nut, and feta salad, dressed with blood orange juice

Green salad with seared marinated tuna (lemon and garlic) and avocado

Cooked rhubarb and strawberry with Meyer lemon and blood orange zest, with yogurt

After I got back from Italy, I went to the garden--now overflowing with fava beans--and picked a large metal mixing bowl full of them. Shelled them, blanched them, peeled off the tough outer skin of the beans; sauteed them with thyme, Italian parsley, and a red spring onion from the garden.

At Molly's house in LA we had a few meals of the following:
Black bean chili
Avocados
Raw corn, grated carrot, and sweet onion salad with lime juice and cilantro
Pico de gallo (tomatoes, onions, cilantro)
Plain yogurt
Tortilla chips

We ate at Rivoli last night.

It was warm out; I wore my olive green sueded button-down shirt over the black lycra-blend skirt, black microfiber knee socks and my black sneakers, the rose quartz dangly earrings, and my black leather jacket.

Rahul, after a lot of silly deliberation with his navy and brown sport coats over blue jeans, ended up just wearing a nice light blue dress shirt tucked into his jeans with the braided brown leather belt, and the black leather jacket over it.

Seated with a not-quite-satisfying view of the garden--I could see (well-lit) ferns and camellias and white African violets that made me think of Jen's Secretary's Day flower arrangement from Uncle George, curved around the rounded stone patio, with some big tree--fig maybe--arching overhead. Cats wandered around--Rahul saw a black one, but I could only see a long-haired tortoiseshell cat cleaning itself in the middle of the patio. The table next to us had a birthday; the waiter sprinkled metallic "Happy Birthday" confetti over the table, and I kept sneaking glances at her big bouquet of candy-striped tulips laid on the chair--white with thick pink stripes, probably two dozen of them.

The bread was OK--the crust was too chewy and thick for my taste, although the inside was nice and wheaty--the whole served with a little dish of butter and a little dish of kosher or sea salt.

We started with some really delicious portabella mushroom fritters--meaty and juicy and thick inside (just big slices of the cap) covered in a crunchy, salty batter, with capers and shaved parmesan scattered on top, on a little bed of dressed arugula, and lemon aioli to dip it in.

Rahul had mushroom, ricotta and chard cannelloni with roast pepper vinaigrette, fonduta, roast shiitake mushrooms and fried sage. I tried a bite--wasn't that impressed; the texture of the filling was dissatisfying to me, too chunky, with too strong & wild a vegetable taste from the chard. It was pale, almost flabby-looking, with a white sauce (the fonduta) on top and the red pepper puree underneath. The shiitakes just sat on top of the cannelloni.

I had grilled Gulf shrimp with white corn pudding, oven roast tomato, snap pea and cucumber ragout , shrimp butter and basil aïoli. It was really good. The ragout was a little weird--didn't quite seem to go with the rest; the whole thing was served together, which I hadn't expected--a sea of shrimp butter and aioli (pale yellow with green commas and pools here and there) with a few saggy cherry tomatoes scattered around with tiny discs of cucumber and little julienned pieces of peapod, the corn pudding on top in a big molded mound, and the grilled shrimp scattered on top and around it--a little smaller and drier than I would have liked, but delicious nonetheless. The corn pudding was amazingly good (Rahul didn't like it that much, though, although he loved the sauce)--yellowy and browned from the oven around the top edges, but creamy and rich and light and eggy inside, with a strong sweet corn taste and kernels (but no distracting kernel husks) well-mixed into the pudding.

I wanted the buttermilk and Meyer lemon panna cotta with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert, but they were out of it, so we went without and just went home, where we had a harrowing evening clipping guinea pig nails.

Other leftover dishes:
Veggie omelet
Veggie pizza
(both of which were made with some combination of fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, purple potatoes, green, yellow, and orange bell peppers, mushrooms, green and yellow summer squash, olives, and broccoli)
Pasta with tuna, summer squash, olives, broccoli

Last night's dinner: pasta with cauliflower, almonds, summer squash, sardines, tomatoes, garlic, currants, fresh basil and italian parsley, red pepper, freshly ground black pepper. Also, oddly, some enoki mushrooms I bought for the party but didn't open.

Yesterday for lunch at Big Rock: A phyllo triangle stuffed with walnuts, caramelized onions, brie, and pears. Side of braised red Swiss chard. A grilled polenta square.

http://www.evite.com/huanhuachye@yahoo.com/playwithyourfood

attendees:
me
rahul
kyle
atsushi
debra
pei
jameel
jeni
sarah
alan
debbie
jason
dawn
jennifer
andrew
mike
bryan
christy
chris
billy
hiromi
john
mari
rick
fernando

Yum, yum, yum--simple risotto:
Soffritto (1 onion, 4 smallish carrots, 2 sticks celery), a generous teaspoonful or two of chopped garlic, Arborio, veggie stock, 1 container halved yellow cherry tomatoes, ~1 cup frozen peas, dried basil, salt, pepper, and ~3/4 cup shredded mozzarella stirred in at the end.

Upside Down Tomatoes

Greens/Deborah Madison's black bean chili < fritolay > 03/01 13:08:43

Part one:

2 c black turtle beans, soaked overnight
1 bay leaf
4 tsp cumin seeds
4 tsp dried oregano leaves
4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 chili negro or ancho chili, for chili powder, or 2 to 3 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp corn or peanut oil
3 medium yellow onions, diced into 1/4 inch squares
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 lbs rip or canned tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped; juice reserved
1 to 2 tsp chopped chilpotle chili
about 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
4 tbsp cilantro, chopped

sort through the beans and remove any small stones. Rinse them well, cover them genrously with water, and let them soak overnight. Next day, drain the beans cover them with fresh water by a couple of inches, and bring them to a boil with the bay leaf. Lower the heat and let the beans simmer while you prepaere the rest of the ingredients.

heat a small heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, and when they begin to color, add the oregano leaves, shaking the pan frequently so the herbs don't scorch. As soon as the fragrance is strong and robust, remove the pan from the heat and add the paprika and the cayenne. Give everything a quick stir; then remove from the pan--the paprika and the cayenne only need a few seconds to toast. Grind in a mortar or a spice mill to make a coarse powder.

Preheat the oven to 375. To make the chili powder, put the dried chili in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes to dry it out. Cool it briefly; then remove th stem, seeds, and veins. Tear the pod into small pieces and grind it into a powder in a blender or spice mill.(con't next)
Heat the oil in a large skillet, and saute the onions over medium heat until they soften. Add the garlic, salt and the ground herbs and chili powder, and cook another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juice, and about 1 tsp of the chilpotle chili. simmer everything together for 15 minutes; then add this mixture to the beans, and if necessary, enough water so the beans are covered by at least 1 inch. Continue cooking te beans slowly until they are soft, an hour or longer, or pressure cook them for 30 minutes at 15 pounds' pressure. Keep an eye on the water level and add more, if needed, to keep the beans amply covered.

When the beans are cooked, tastethem, and add more chilpotle chili if desired. Season to taste with the vinegar, additional salt if needed, and the chopped cilantro.

Prepare the garnishes [I like just jack cheese myself]:

1/2 to 3/4 cup muenster cheese, grated

green chilies: 2 poblano or Anaheim, roasted, peeled and diced, or 2 oz canned green chilies, rensed well and diced

1/2 c creme fraiche or sour cream

6 sprigs of cilantro

If using fresh green chilies, roast them over a flame until they are evenly charred. Let them steam 10 minutes in a bowl covered with a dish; then scrape off the skins, discard the seeds, and dice.

Serve the chili ladled over a large spoonful of grated cheese, and garnish it with the creme fraiche or sour creen, the green chilies, and asprig of fresh cilantro.
----------------

Here's one I adapted from The Whole Chile Pepper < data_snoop > 03/01 12:05:12

Book by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach.

Once I served this at a party, and people had to be told it was veggie chile.

Casi-Style Chili

Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients
4 Jalepeno chilies stems & deveined, halved
4 tb Chili powder
1 tb Paprika
2 lb Beef chuck [substitute 2 pkgs Yves Veggie Ground Round]
1 md Onion, chopped
2 tb Kidney suet; chopped [substitute vegetable oil ]
8 oz Tomato sauce
12 oz Beer [essential!! use a decent dark beer like Negra Modelo]
2 c Beef stock [substitute veggie bullion or mild-flavored veggie stock]
3 ts Cumin, ground
2 ts Garlic powder [substitute 3-4 cloves minced fresh garlic]
1 ts Pepper, black
1/4 c Masa harina (finely ground maize flour) [can be omitted w/o a problem]


Instructions 1. Brown the veggie ground round and onions in oil or fat.

2. Add the tomato sauce, beer, stock, chilies, cumin, garlic, black pepper, and 2 tablespoons of the Chili Powder. Simmer the chili over a low heat for 2 hours until the meat is tender.

3. To thicken, make a thin paste of the masa and water. Quickly stir this into the chili -- if done too slowly it will lump.

4. Add the remaining Chili Powder and Paprika. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the Jalepenos and serve.

I have also made this subbing a mix of NM/Anaheim chile paste (from the Santa Cruz Chili [sic] & Spice Company] and chipotle puree for the chile powder.
-----
This one is a favorite of mine < disco45 > 03/01 13:59:13

It is from epicurious.com - Their recipe uses whole cumin seeds - I changed it to 1 TB ground cumin for time saver and I always use sweet maui onions. The ingredients don't sound too impressive but this chili has received rave reviews from friends and family - and some can't even believe it's veggie.

Serve chopped green onion, sour cream and grated cheddar on top.

BLACK BEAN, YELLOW PEPPER, AND CUMIN CHILI

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 12-ounce onion, coarsely chopped (about 3 cups)
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies
3 15-ounce cans black beans, well drained
2 14 1/2-ounce cans diced tomatoes with roasted garlic
2 cups vegetable broth

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and cumin; sauté until onion is soft and golden, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add chipotle chilies and stir 30 seconds. Add black beans, diced tomatoes with juices, and vegetable broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer uncovered until liquid is reduced by half, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Transfer 2 cups chili to processor. Blend to coarse paste; return to pot. Simmer chili to thicken, if desired. Season chili to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm over medium-low heat before serving.)

Makes 6 servings.

http://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=12195716
http://www.dafiore.com
http://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=12623885

I think this comes pretty close. < Maithx > 01/29 13:19:34

3/4 cup red miso
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons water, hot
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Combine the miso and sugar first, then whisk in the other ingredients

http://www.fatduck.co.uk/menu.html

Really bizarre stuff, just like El Bulli:
Designed to maximise the Fat Duck dining experience. This menu - consisting of a series of small courses
(plus a few hidden extras) - is intended to be taken by the whole table

NITRO-GREEN TEA AND LIME MOUSSE
OYSTER AND PASSION FRUIT JELLY, LAVENDER POMMERY GRAIN MUSTARD ICE CREAM, RED CABBAGE GASPACHO
QUAIL JELLY, PEA PUREE, CREAM OF LANGOUSTINE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SNAIL PORRIDGE
Jabugo ham

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROAST FOIE GRAS
Almond, cherry, chamomile

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SARDINE ON TOAST SORBET
Ballotine of mackerel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SALMON POACHED WITH LIQUORICE
Chicory, "Manni" olive oil

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SWEETBREAD COOKED IN A SALT CRUST WITH HAY Crusted with pollen, cockles a la plancha
and parsnip purée

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MRS MARSHALL'S MARGARET CORNET

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MANGO AND D0UGLAS FIR PUREE
Bavarois of lychee and mango, blackcurrant sorbet, Blackcurrant and green peppercorn jelly

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMOKED BACON AND EGG ICE CREAM
Tomato jam, tea jelly

Wine tasting and tour at Rudd Winery (Oakville).

2000 RUDD RUSSIAN RIVER CHARDONNAY
"BACIGALUPI VINEYARD"

The Bacigalupi Vineyard is located on benchland along Westside Road within the fog belt of the Russian River Valley. The 2000 vintage of this vineyard designate Chardonnay Rudd's second release made from blocks 1,3, and 5 planted on the Wente clone in 1966. These same vines were the source of the legendary 1973 Chateau Montelena that won the Paris Tasting in 1976. The vines are low yielding, producing fruit of intensely focused yet elegant flavors.

Harvest 2000 began on September 9 and was completed over a 4-day period. This vintage exhibits fruit forward aromatics and a wonderful minerality, balanced with a long, elegant mid-palate with a persistent savoriness in the finish that only mature vines can produce. Once harvested, the grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed, then gravity-fed to French oak barrels in Rudd's underground caves. Native yeasts were allowed to induce both the primary and malolactic fermentations. Weekly stirring of the lees occurred until the secondary fermentation was complete, then the wine was stirred monthly for the remainder of time in barrel. After 22 months of barrel aging, the wine was racked to tank, settled and minimally fined before being bottled unfiltered in early June 2002.
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appellation: Russian River Valley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fermentation: Native yeast and natural malolactic
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aging: 22 months in French oak; 70% new
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cases produced: 970
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suggested retail price: $50

2001 RUDD NAPA VALLEY SAUVIGNON BLANC

The 2001 Sauvignon Blanc, produced from vineyard sources in Oakville, Rutherford, and Calistoga exhibits the richness and classic varietal flavor that has become the hallmark of Rudd's approach to Sauvignon Blanc. The blending of these three fruit sources resulted in a complex integration of subtle tropical fruits with herbal undertones framed by crisp, refreshing citrus nuances.

Harvest 2001 began on August 23 and was completed over a seven-day period, beginning with the Rutherford fruit, followed by Oakville and ending with the Calistoga vineyard on August 30. Once harvested, the grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed, then gravity-fed to French oak barrels in Rudd's underground caves. Native yeasts were allowed to induce fermentation. This primary fermentation was completed in a combination of fourth-use French oak and stainless steel barrels with no subsequent malolactic fermentation. The wine was stirred and topped monthly for eight months, then racked, fined and bottled without filtration in June 2002.
Blend: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appellation: Napa Valley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fermentation: Native yeast / no malolactic
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aging: 8 months in a combination of neutral French oak and stainless steel barrels
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cases produced: 2700
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suggested retail price: $28

2000 RUDD OAKVILLE ESTATE PROPRIETARY RED

The 2000 Rudd Oakville Estate is the first vintage from our newly replanted vineyard at the corner of Oakville Crossroad and Silverado Trail. Our vineyard is planted on rocky, red volcanic soils at the foot of the Vaca Mountains. We planted the vineyard to 4 X 4 spacing using low vigor rootstock to encourage the vines to produce smaller, highly concentrated fruit. The 2000 was made primarily from Clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon, a highly regarded Bordeaux clone that successfully expressed this unique Oakville terroir.

Harvest 2000 followed ideally mild summer temperatures, allowing for extended hang time that produced mature tannins in all three varietals. As a result, the wine exhibits powerful ripe tannins balanced by a seamless mid-palate, concentrated dark fruit flavors and complex aromatics. After eighteen months of barrel aging, the wine was bottled without fining or filtration in early June 2002.
Blend: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appellation: Oakville
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fermentation: Native yeast and natural malolactic
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aging: 18 months in French oak; 83% new
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cases produced: 1200
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release Date: Fall 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suggested retail price: $100

and a Petit Syrah/Zinfandel blend, but I couldn't find the wine on their website.

We ate 8 dishes:
1) Cold cuts (smoked fish, jellyfish, pork, vegetarian goose, etc.)
2) Fried chicken
3) Steamed fish with preserved vegetables--full of tiny bones
4) Pig knuckles with tofu skins and hair vegetables
5) Sweet and sour beef with onions
6) Soy sauce braised pork (with fat)
7) Chinese greens with mushrooms and abalone
8) Stuffed tofu skins with veggies

White rice,
Chicken soup with vegetables,

and for dessert,
Aunt Peggy's walnut soup with tapioca balls:
Shell and blanch walnuts, then peel off the papery skins.
Deep-fry the walnut meats.
Puree in a blender with some skim milk and raw rice, for about 30 minutes.
Heat on stove.

Produces a thick, creamy, nutty, sweet, light tan-colored soup.

In my experience instant mixes < amateur_pro > 01/22 07:18:02

do not work very well. It is a long process, but the dough keeps in tne refrigerator for about a week. Here is a recipe that works for me. It is ok to halve the recipe.

Long grain rice - 3.5 cup
Uncle Ben's rice - .5 cup
Urad dal - 1 cup

Soak rice and dal separately for 3-4 hours (even overnight). Blend smoothly (I use an osterizer blender). The blended dough should have the consistency of sour cream. Blend urad dal (available in Indian grocery stores) the same way. Mix blended rice and dal together well, and keep in a warm place overnight. I usually keep it in the oven with the light turned on. The dough has to slightly ferment.

Potato masala:
Boil fingerling potatoes and mash coarsely (leave some big chunks). Heat oil, fry mustard seeds and saute sliced onions, green chiles and ginger. Add turmeric and potatoes. Add curry leaves (optional). Add mashed potatoes and mix well. Heat well and add chopped coriander leaves.

Make dosa on a hot griddle. Pour 1/2 cup of dough and using a ladle make a thin crepe. A little tricky, but practise makes perfect! Add a tsp. of oil or ghee. when it looks cooked turn over. Keep the potato mixture on to one side of the dosa and fold over. Serve with coconut chutney.

If you want to try instant mix, MTR products are better than most.

Ate at Foreign Cinema last night for the SF Dine About Town program. It's in the Mission. We ate inside, by the fireplace and a group of Japanese Mafia types instead of outside under the plastic tent and the huge projected movie playing on the back wall.

Wheat and white bread (the white was better). Not as crusty and delicious as at Buckeye's, but still very good.

Appetizers:
Fromage d'Affinois with potatoes, roasted garlic puree, and bay leaf--a delicious heap of melted cheese (with a rind, somewhat Brie-like) with a few potatoes and about a teaspoon of roasted garlic. It was good, but I wished there was a bit more balance between cheese and potatoes.
Grilled squid with harissa, cilantro, and toasted almonds--a tiny portion. The squid was grilled to just the right meaty consistency, not tough at all. The combination of flavors was nice and interesting, although the harissa seemed more like a romesco, not the fiery paste Patty remembered from Libya.
Chicory salad with apples, walnuts, and blue cheese dressing--unexceptional, but good. A mixture of somewhat large pieces of purple endive and icebergy, flat chicory.


Entrees:
Curried chicken with bacon vinaigrette--by far the most generous portion, almost too much meat. It was moist and tender, but didn't taste much like curry. It was served with what looked like tiny wilted bits of romaine lettuce and a thin bed of mashed potatoes.
Roasted duck breast--rich little slices of moist duck meat rimmed in fat and intense, herb-crusted skin. Served on a bed of polenta. The sauce had unidentifiable little brown bits in it--looked like raisins but crumbled more like those brown bits inside a roasted chicken. Served with a little bruschetta toast with something brown on it (liver?) It was in some kind of wine sauce, I think.
Salmon with butternut squash puree--the salmon was cooked to the perfect degree, but unexceptional. The squash was delicious, probably from large amounts of butter. The salmon was dressed with a green sauce on one side--looked like pureed peas with little bits of onion in it, but I don't know what it really was.

Desserts:
Grapefruit and blood orange granitas--Dad couldn't have much of the grapefruit because it reacts with his medications, but the grapefruit granita was the better of the two, very intense and clean-tasting. The granita kept hitting my crown and making me jump from the cold. Ours had the grapefruit piled on top of the blood orange in a martini glass, but a much prettier one at another table had them side by side, so you could see the contrast between the deep red and the pale orange.
Ginger cake with orange and caramel sauce--Good, though I was very full by this time and couldn't eat much. Reminded me of Sarah's lebkuchen.
Cannoli--disappointing. The cannoli was tiny and bland--the ricotta was like wallpaper paste, the candied fruits were colorless and flavorless instead of sparkling and sharp and sweet.

We also had a glass of nice red wine--Cabernet-Syrah blend or something.

Patty recommended a Searidge Merlot to me from the Chron's top 100 wines list--$3, she said. I'll have to try it.

Raise the Red Lantern was playing on the screen outside, in washed-out colors.

Black beans and corn

Mince 1 white onion and saute in olive oil till translucent. Mix in a teaspoon of minced garlic or 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic in the pan, saute.

Cut up and add one fresh tomato.

Add one can of corn and one can of black beans (organic).

Season with paprika, cumin, oregano, salt.

Mince one green chile pepper and add it. Add the zest of one orange and the juice of one lemon.

Add one or two tablespoons minced cilantro at the end of the cooking time.

I ate a ladleful of this this on a whole-grain sprouted tortilla (Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas from Trader Joe's) with some mozzarella melted on top, 1/2 avocado, diced, and some TJ's Brown Rice Medley (cooked with chicken-flavored ghee from my Chicken in Milk--contains brown rice, daikon seeds, and black barley).

Yum!

Mango curry salad

2 ripe mangoes, diced
1 avocado, diced, minus one slice
3 green onions
1/2 fresh jalapeno, minced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup slivered almonds

Curry vinaigrette:
1 clove garlic
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lemon
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 slice avocado, mashed
2 tsp curry powder

Mix the salad ingredients. Mash the garlic with the salt and then whisk in the citrus juice, olive oil, and avocado (for a creamy texture) and the curry powder. Dress the salad ingredients with the vinaigrette.

turkey empanadas
> I used the basic pie crust recipe from the Joy of
> Cooking. I don't remember everything from the
> filling, but an approximate recipe would be:
> - Chopped cooked turkey meat
> - A handful of currants, soaked in hot water till soft
> and drained
> - Chili pepper
> - Unsweetened cocoa powder
> - Cinnamon
> - Oregano
> - Salt and pepper

Stuff tofu with peanut sauce and deep-fry!

We cooked the 23-pound turkey a few days ago. We brined it. Rahul said it looked like Rush Limbaugh sitting in the bathtub. Dad and Patty came over and we ate cranberry sauce and stuffing in addition to the turkey with its nice browned skin. Then we had chocolate. Yum! Then Rahul decided he was going to stop eating poultry, so now the burden to finish the meat is on me and Kyle.

At Cafe de la Paz:
A stringy, overpriced smoothie.

Llapingachos (Ecuadorian potato cakes)--browned mashed potatoes stuffed with cheese, served with fried plantains and chile cream drizzled on.
Corn pancakes with chile cream and an almost puddinglike consistency.
Caramelized fried plantains with chile cream.
Grilled zucchini, red bell pepper, and onion.

From Britt-Marie's:
Spinach salad with marinated red onions and feta.

Chicken breasts with a cream sauce, stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes and hazelnuts and served with rice and veggies.

Lemon mousse with whipped cream.

But the pork chops, oh, the pork chops...!
Pork chops with stewed apples, goat cheese, and walnuts, on garlic mashed potatoes, with lemony, crisp-tender carrots and broccoli.

Yum.

I made turkey stock after cutting off bits of turkey for sandwiches:
Cover turkey carcass in stockpot with cold water.
Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer, skim off foam and "impurities."
Add a quartered, peeled white onion, one stick of celery cut into one-inch pieces, one carrot cut into one-inch pieces, and a bouquet garni (a spoonful of dried thyme, a bay leaf, and 8 or 10 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley tied together in a piece of cheesecloth). Simmer for 3 hours. I watched "The Core" on DVD while this was simmering. It has congealed into a gelatinous but tasty stock. I peeled the poached turkey meat (which still has some flavor) off the bones and then the next day made a turkey stew with them (canned Italian-style tomatoes, currants, cilantro, spices, a carrot and a potato and a bit of stock) which I served with a saffron-turmeric-cinnamon pilaf.

Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk

1 chicken
1 pint of milk
1 stick (4oz) of butter
olive oil
Zest of 2 lemons
good handful of fresh sage leaves - picked
ten cloves of garlic skin on
Salt and pepper

Find a pot that will fit snugly around the chicken (I used a stockpot with the plastic handles removed so it would be oven safe)
Melt the butter in a dash of the olive oil in the pot. Season the chicken generously with s and p. Fry the chicken in the pot until all sides are golden brown. Discard or find another use for the oil and butter (I poured it over veg that had yet to be roasted carrots+parsnips in cumin)bearing in mind that it will need to be cooked thoroughly since it was used for an uncooked chicken. Do not scrape the bottom of the pot - there will be bits of brown goodness that you want for flavor. Put the chicken back in the pot and add the rest of the ingredients. What happens is the lemon and heat split the milk causing clumps of it to caramelize. Roast in the pot for about 11/2 hrs at 375. Pour over the juices and bits of caramelized milk and garlic when serving - yum!

http://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=10658557

I had a small dinner party last night--last-minute as usual; I'd planned Sunday, but Marianne was the first person I called and she could only make it Saturday, so I planned it for then and then called a bunch of people.

Eventually the guests were, in addition to me and Kyle (Rahul is in Missouri):
Marianne
Steve
Sarah
Paul
Mike
Jason

The food was:
* Dip contributed by Kyle (refried beans, hand-made guacamole, salsa, olives) with chips
* Baguettes
* Romesco sauce (1/4 c. hazelnuts, 1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds, toasted; 2 roasted red bell peppers; 1 ancho chile, softened in hot water then diced; 4 Roma tomatoes, seeded; salt; 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar--this was too much; a few Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil; 2 slices wheat bread, toasted)
* 2 eggplants, about 5 small white potatoes, 1 onion, a bundle of asparagus spears, 2 zucchini, all cut into spears or wedges and roasted with olive oil, oregano, and salt, and eaten with the bread and romesco
* Mixed green salad with an olive oil-mustard-lemon juice dressing, reduced-fat feta cheese, some delicious grapes (which we also had on the table for munching), and candied walnuts
* Pasta with a tomato sauce (Paul Newman marinara, Tofurkey Italian sausage of a strange and spongy consistency, and a can of diced peeled tomatoes)
* Bahlsen Contessa Lebkuchen cakes contributed by Sarah--spiced and fragrant gingerbread-like round cakey cookies, with bittersweet chocolate on the bottom and a light glaze on top
* Vanilla fudge Haagen-Dazs, also contributed by Sarah
* Reese's Peanut Butter Bells contributed by Jason
* McManis Pinot Grigio 2002 contributed by Marianne and Steve
* Heron Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 and another Cabernet bottle that I can't find, contributed by Jason and Marianne and Steve
* Some kind of fruity Clearly Canadian-type soda--don't remember who brought this. It smelled strongly of strawberry yogurt.

We all chatted for a while, played with piggies, eventually after I took Sarah home played some Secret Weapons Over Normandy (I lent Steve the PC version) and Soul Calibur II.

Kyle and Fernando and I went to Cesar last night and had tapas.

I drank a sour apple drink made with Calvados but I didn't like it (and it was $8.25!)

Something I did like was the food, even though they ran out of the fried herb potatoes. The whole menu is pasted below.

We had:
Fried shrimp and squid (very yummy!)
Canape de boquerones (which was not that great weirdly fruity from the orange zest they added--Kyle initially thought it was cranberry, which I guess shows how cranberry relish-esque the zest made it)
Roasted eggplant and new potatoes with romesco (very good, came with bread as well)
Salt cod and potato cazuela (the waitress described this as "like a baccala" though she meant "like a baccala mantecato"--also yummy)
Bread pudding (orange overkill--the caramel sauce was too tangy, not rich and velvety enough for my liking)

tapa del dia: rabbit & wild mushroom stew with leeks & fried garlic, $10.25
roasted marcona almonds, $2.75
a plate of jamón serrano, chorizo soria & lomo embuchada, $7.75
hearts of romaine with red wine vinaigrette & valdeon, $6.75
fried shrimp & squid with mojo picón, $8.75
canapé de boquerones (pickled anchovies) with black olive relish, $6.75
membrillo & aged manchego, $5.75
roasted eggplant & new potatoes with romesco, $6.75
endive & watercress salad with smoked trout & persimmon, $7.25
*fried potatoes with herbs & sea salt, $5.25
datiles y tocino (roasted bacon-wrapped dates), $6.25
salt cod & potato cazuela, $3.75
spanish cheeses: murcia al vino, urgèlía & iberico, $6.75

bocadillos

*lomo de cerdo (roast pork loin), $7.25
spicy tuna & egg, $6.75
manchego & greens, $6.00

sweets

rice pudding with burnt sugar, $4.75
mel i mató with dried cherries & almonds, $4.75
bread pudding with orange-caramel sauce, $4.75
crema de chocolate, $4.25

Made interesting oat cakes (kissing cousins to supplí):

Made one recipe steel-cut oats oatmeal (1 cup of steel-cut oats into 4 cups boiling salted water, simmer 1/2 hour or till thick) and ate one bowl.

That night, with the leftover oatmeal, I mixed 2 beaten eggs, about 4 sprigs chopped fresh Italian parsley, salt and pepper, a handful of shredded Parmesan, dried oregano, and dried basil. I formed little patties on the palm of my hand with the mixture, dropped a sprinkle of cheddar cheese on top, then another dab of oat mixture, and fried till golden and crunchy on both sides. The cheese was melty and gooey inside. It would have been better with some chopped nuts, but the oats were nice and chewy and savory.

I also ate some guava and didn't like it much, although the piggies did.