Tuesday, June 15, 2004

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.

Monday, June 14, 2004

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.

Thursday, June 10, 2004

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.

Monday, June 07, 2004

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.

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

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.