Afternoon Pudding

Quick Question

2009-08-16T21:14:00.001-07:00

Is there such a thing as cake rehab? If there is I need to be admitted immediately.

CSA Program

2009-08-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance t o post in a while, both with my computer being a butt and also because my parents were in town for a week. After working a 9 hour day and then spending time with my folks I really couldn't muster up the desire to sit down and write. Unfortunately I think there were a lot of yummy things made while my parents were in town that have gone undocumented, I didn't even bother to take photos. I will try to be more attentive this week. I hope that the 10 hours of sleep I managed to get last night will start me off well for the week.

I wanted to tell you about something cool I just joined. It's an organic produce CSA called Full Circle Farm . CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. With this program I pick up a box of delicious fresh produce weekly at a pick up site two blocks from my house. There are three different box sizes that you can choose from and I get the small box for $30 a week. Let me tell you that it is an amazing deal. I used to waste so much money at the grocery store with produce, because even though I would have a list I would easily stray from it and buy things that I didn't need. I always had produce that went bad. now I just rely on what's in the box for my weekly produce and unless I really need an important ingredient for a dish I no longer buy produce at the store. The small box contains a good deal of produce. It is listed as the best option for a family of two but I think that it could easily work for up to four people, especially of you get a box weekly. Everything I've gotten so far is fantastic and delicious. What I also like is that you can make exemptions in your box, so I will never be receiving beets or mushrooms! You also have the option of substituting items from the box as well as buying extra items, like more produce or coffee, tea and eggs. It really has made shopping very easy for me.

This week I will be receiving all of this in my box:
1 bunch Rainbow Chard 1 bunch Red Radishes
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes 1 bunch Opal Basil
0.34 pound Salad Mix (Cut Greens) 2 each Bi-Color Sweet Corn
1 each Cucumbers 3 each Peaches
1.5 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes 3 each White Flesh Nectarines
1 each Kent Mangos 0.75 pound Santa Rosa Plums
1 pound Farmer's Choice Of Summer Squash

I also added a few extra things to my box because I LOVE FOOD. It's great having the produce list 5 days before your box is ready because it gives you the chance to modify your box contents as well as plan your weeks menu.

If you are interested in joining please let me know and I can give you a code to get $15 off of your first order.

Side Dishes

2009-08-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

I find that I very often neglect side dishes. I get very excited about the main attraction and don't even think until the last moment as to what would go well with it. It's not that I don't love a good side dish. I mean I am crazy for mashed potatoes and veggies cooked in any way shape or form. Maybe it's because I am both cheap and lazy. No maybe about it.

I think the hardest dish for me to come up with an accompaniment for is hamburgers. Hamburgers are so delicious and big (the way I make them) that really they don't need anything with them, but I always feel this sort of obligation to keep them from being lonely on the plate. Remember, cows have feelings too.

My two new favorite side dishes for grilling season are Mayo-free cole slaw and Grilled Potatoes. What I love about both of these dishes is that there are endless variations.

With the Mayo-free cole slaw I use 1/2 head of green cabbage, 1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, and one onion. I slice it all very thin and put it in a bowl sprinkled with salt and pepper, 1 tbsp sugar, and a 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes. You set it aside while you make the dressing. In a sauce pan combine 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar (apple cider vinegar would be good too), 1 tsp of mustard powder, and 2 tsp of lime juice. Bring the ingredients to a boil then allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and refrigerate for at least two hours.

You can easily change it up with any seasonal ingredients that you want, as well as spices.

The potatoes are cooked in small foil packages (do not fill with more than 1/2 cup of potatoes in each package or they will take forever to cook) with olive oil, garlic, paprika and italian seasoning on the grill for 20 minutes. You can add anything you want to these potatoes. Cumin would yummy. Or curry. I also think some shallots would be delicious. You can seriously put whatever your heart desires on these potatoes and they will be fabulous. Unless of course you put something gross. But if you can ruin potatoes, there is probably no hope for you and you should make sure to have take out on your speed dial.

Plum crazy

2009-08-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

It has been hot in Seattle. Really, ridiculously hot. All I want to do is bathe in a bowl of ice cream or sit in ice water all day. The other night I made David take me to Ikea because a. there is air conditioning there and b. there is frozen yogurt at the end. I say at the end , because to me Ikea is like a ride. Fun and a little terrifying, with some of the longest waiting time on earth. Speaking of rides, I keep having this reoccurring dream that I am on the Pirates of The Caribbean ride at Disney land and that the drops are waaaaay longer than I remember them being. This is a problem because I am a wimp and HATE drops. I will not go on a roller coaster no matter how much you try and convince me. Anyway, weird dream and I don't know why I keep having it. Is it a sign that I'm supposed to go to Disney land or that I shouldn't because I might die on an ocean adventure?

Even though it's hot I still love the summer (do you like how I went off on a tangent and didn't even try to connect it to anything? that's what it's like having a conversation with me). One of my favorite parts of summer is all the amazing seasonal fruit. For some reason this year I haven't been baking a lot of fruit desserts. Most likely because my schedule has been crazy and also because of the heat.

My favorite fruit to bake with is the plum. I love plums and I love them even better when they are baked with sugar and other deliciousness. I've tried many plum recipes through the years and my very favorite is a torte from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters. The cook book is hit or miss for me but the plum cake/torte is one of my very favorite summer treats. It's simplest to make and yet has such a smart flavor profile. Tart plums in vanilla cake sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Mmmmmmm.

Esther Pullman's Plum Torte from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups sugar divided
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
12 italian plums pitted, or 3 large plums pitted and cut in eighths
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Coat a 9 inch spring form pan with vegetable spray and dust with flour. Cut a parchment paper or wax paper liner to fit the bottom of pan. Insert the liner and coat with spray and flour. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Cream together butter and 1 cup of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat in eggs. Add dry ingredients then vanilla. pour the batter in the pan and arrange the plums on top. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. Combine the remaining sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle over the plums. Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Another easy way to use plums is as a condiment for pork. Pit and dice about 4 plums. Put into a sauce pan with 1/3 cup of red wine and 3 tbsp (or more to taste) of Worcestershire sauce. Add a pinch of salt and sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let simmer until you have a jam like consistency. Serve over the top of grilled pork (I used a shoulder steak sprinkled with garlic powder and paprika).

Vino Fly Trap

2009-07-26T13:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a bit between posts, our internet is being a punk and making me angry.

I love this time of year in Seattle. It's beautiful, maybe one of the prettiest places in the country. Everything is green and lush with flowers hanging off of fences and porches, exciting landscapes and views. I love living here. I'm in a city and yet I have a view of a lake and trees and a city from my front porch. Heavenly.

The one thing I don't like about this time of the year are all the damn fruit flies everywhere. They annoy the crap out of me! I went to have a glass of red wine the other night and as soon as I placed the glass on the coffee table, a fly landed and started swimming in it. I took it as a sign that I did not need to have any wine that evening and decided to turn the glass in to a fly trap. I left the wine out over night and by the morning there were eight flies in the glass. So if you hate fruit flies I recommend leaving a small amount of red wine (no sense in wasting too much) out to collect them all.

Bacon is the new power food

2009-07-20T19:01:00.001-07:00

You've heard of sweet potatoes and blueberries as power foods, but what about bacon? Sure the first two are power foods because they are healthy and do wonderful things for your body, but bacon, BACON can be added to anything! Even sweet potatoes would be more powerful with bacon.

I have been a bacon lover for, let me think about it, FOREVER. I can't get enough of it. And even though I usually start disliking things once they become trendy, bacon is a whole other story. I'm down with bacon appearing as a star in every restaurant. The more I see people using bacon in interesting ways the more inspired I am to use it. In Portland, OR there is a donut shop called Voodoo Doughnuts that makes a maple bacon bar. It's a delicious, spongy yeast donut (my favorite doughnut texture) with a strip of bacon on top. So good! After eating that doughnut for the first time I was inspired to come home and make maple bacon ice cream. I used a David Lebovitz recipe for the maple ice cream and added tiny pieces of crisp bacon at the end of the churning. The bacon adds the salty/sweet factor without being overwhelming. There is a lovely bit of smokiness that really compliments the maple flavor.

I spoke of bacon brownies and eventually there will be a recipe for them, once I find the brownie recipe that works the best. I will also be adding many bacon enhanced recipes to this blog as they are concocted. I have many many ideas forming. For now, I will leave you with the idea of BACON S'MORES RICE KRISPIES TREATS. They will make you happy.

Why being lactose intolerant sucks

2009-07-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

Cheese. Ice cream. Pizza. Lasagna. Do I really need to explain further?

I believe that I was 11 or 12 when it finally became clear that I was lactose intolerant. I know I cried about it, but I also remember being really happy that I finally knew why I was always sick. I had horrible stomach cramps probably since the age of 7, and we could never figure out what it was from. My mom also had the same symptoms, and it wasn't until a woman at church told her she must be lactose intolerant that she was able to figure it out. Once we knew about my mom we were able to figure out that I had the same problem. Of course this was after years of doctors appointments, tests, upper GI's.

Being a lover of food it is really difficult to have dietary restrictions. I hate having to check labels and having to tell people if I'm going to eat at their house for the first time. It's always super awkward. I don't know why but I always feel like such a whiner or something. I hate being that person who says "Yes, I would love to eat your dinner as long as it is free and clear of this list of things" (insert handing list here). For a good while I stayed away from gluten, but have luckily found out that it's not that bad of an issue for me. I think most people have a hard time with gluten, but luckily I don't have celiacs. I would shoot myself if I couldn't eat dairy and wheat! I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that I love cake!

Lucky for me there is Digestive Advantage to allow me to eat dairy. I don't take it on a regular basis because it's kind of expensive and I need to double up the dose. So I save it for special occasions and then I binge on dairy until I.....well, you know what cheese does.

I LOVE goat cheese because I can eat it whenever I want. Being lactose intolerant just means that I can't have cow's milk but I can have goat's and sheep's. YAY! I could live off of goat cheese, red wine, bittersweet chocolate, bacon and avocado. It's that good.

Recently I have been hearing a lot about halloumi cheese. I had never come across it (or maybe I just didn't notice it) until I bought Nigella Express. She has recipes using halloumi and since then I've been seeing recipes all over the place using it. Halloumi is a greek cheese that is a blend of goat and sheep milks. It has a very salty flavor and is super cool and fancy because you can grill it and it won't melt. We had it for dinner the other night when we made hamburgers, yet again. I really liked it. I also happen to enjoy salty food so for people with a distaste for the salty, it might not be your thing. Another reason I like it is because it kind of squeaks when you chew it. As if there was a mouse in your mouth, but that would be a different texture....gross and very unnecessary. Please don't associate that with the cheese. The cheese doesn't deserve that.

Anyway the moral of the story is dairy is good/amazing so if you aren't lactose intolerant have an extra scoop of ice cream tonight in honor of me!

More Cake

2009-07-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

I hope you have a bag of cheetos handy whenever you read a food blog. I know that I have to have some kind of snack within reach as I dive through the endless supply of decadent recipes and mouthwatering photos that can be found on internet food blogs. I mean, if you thought that Food Network was food porn, the internet has once again revolutionized the porn industry (food porn that is).

I am a big fan of food porn. I read cookbooks and food blogs all day long. I prefer them to food shows because I often find the hosts obnoxious or boring and it takes away the pleasure of the food. The only two hosts I truly enjoy watching on Food Network are Paula Deen (I don't care what you think haters, I love her because she is bat s*** crazy and is everything I long to be when I'm old) and Nigella Lawson (Again, I don't care what you think haters, she is beautiful and her recipes are easy and tasty and she has one of my favorite brownie recipes ever). Paula makes me laugh and Nigella makes food look sexy. These are also two women who are not ashamed to dive into the food before it's even cooled, they love food like I love food and they look like they will eat what you put in front of them. I like that in a woman. Stop pretending that you only eat salad ladies! Eat a piece of cake!

I found this delicious cake while reading a favorite food blog of mine called The Town Tart. It's a vanilla cake with a creamy frosting, yummy. The cake looked and sounded dreamy , so I whipped it up as part of my 4th of July celebration (I cooked a lot that day and didn't want to put it in one post, no need to overload you). I made a few changes to it, mainly in the frosting. The recipe she used called to add some strawberry preserves to the frosting which I declined to do. You can by all means try it, but I found without it I had one of the most amazing frostings in front of me. It's a combination of cream cheese frosting and whipped cream so it has all the joys of cream cheese but with a lighter texture and flavor. it really could go well with just about any cake, but the combination of vanilla cake and strawberries was to die for. The strawberries are sandwiched between 3 very moist, thick cake layers that had a very delicate vanilla flavor. I think the addition of some vanilla bean would be killer. The moistness is in thanks to the sour cream that's in the batter, which I adore. I know I will enjoy a cake when the recipe calls for either buttermilk or sour cream in the batter.

I could eat this cake every day for the rest of my life and not tire of it. You will love it to and I really think you should try it. You can find the recipe here. Go forth and enjoy!

Roslyn likes cake too.

I will not eat you. You are gross.

2009-07-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of simple and quick meals. None of that Rachel Ray 30 minute meal stuff (I am not a fan), but good delicious things that I can have on the table in a jiff. Let's face it, after a long day of Bravo TV, I am not always in the mood for something labor intensive.

Monday night I made a stir fry for dinner. I love me some stir fry, and usually I do a good job. My typical recipe involves soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, a little honey and some kind of spicy something tossed with some chicken (I am rarely fancy enough for beef or pork in a stir fry) and veggies. This time around I had bought a store bought package of stir fry veggies from Trader Joe's. It looked good with cabbage, carrots, and some peas. I added onion, broccoli and red bell pepper. I was excited. I was hungry. I was dumb and didn't read the veggie packet. Had I , I would have realized that hiding behind the label was a mound of celery. Blah! Gasp! Not celery! I hate that stuff. I didn't discover it until it was too late, it was already stirred. So instead of enjoying my meal I spent the whole time picking out celery and cringing when any accidentally made it's way in my mouth. Bummer!

Now I will admit that I don't always hate celery. Smother it in peanut butter or cream cheese and I will eat as much as I can get my hands on. I enjoy the texture variety of ants on a log. But if you even think about giving me cooked celery I will eat your children. Cooked celery always brings up memories of Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup. I am not a fan. Partially because with that memory also comes the memory of pouring my squeeze it (remember those amazing beverages? kids of today are being robbed!) into my soup to see what that would taste like. Celery also reminds me of diets, which I abhor.

Along with celery there are other things that I refuse to eat. Mushrooms. I can't do it. I can't in good consciousness eat fungus, especially when it smells like a moldy towel (I can't in good taste tell you what I really think it smells like) and can't be properly washed because it will absorb the water. Cauliflower. Get it out of here. How dare anyone make cauliflower mash when there are perfectly good potatoes in this world. Cauliflower just tastes bad and you can't convince me otherwise. Beets. Sick. They taste like dirt. If I wanted to eat dirt I certainly wouldn't pay for it. I've tried them candied, in salads, in many ways (generally to be polite) and each time I want to upchuck. I'm pretty easy going about food and am willing to try many things, but I cannot and will not eat another beet, even if it means death.

Frenchy frenchness

2009-07-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

I am far from posh and trendy. I rarely brush my hair and my clothes consist of items priced, generally, around $5. You will not see me at any of the hip bars on the hill or dining at any of the fashionable restaurants. My blog is certainly not the sheekest on the web, I don't have pictures for every step of the recipe (what a bitch if you ask me!) and I don't own plates and place settings simply to decorate my photos. I have no swank and I like it that way.

So why I am I trying to be fashionable in making a french pastry called canneles? Because every time I hear about them or see pictures of them, I want to put them in my mouth. I choose things to cook and bake based on how desperately I need to eat them when I hear about them. If food evokes a kind of a panic within me, a panic that says "eat or die", that's when I know I've found a winner.

I've come across many recipes for canneles and it took me a while to discover the recipe I needed to try. The recipe I decided on for my first venture was one that appeared to be pretty straight forward. It had rum (yum) and vanilla bean (yummer) in the batter and sounded pretty easy. I bought some great little molds at Sur La Table using a gift certificate I had (thanks Jinnah!) and prepped my soul for this adventure. The canneles take between an hour and a half and two hours to bake, so I needed plenty of time for them. I'm glad I took the time. These are so good. Chewy on the outside (I didn't get them as dark as they should be) with a creamy custardy middle. The flavor was not as intense as I would like, so the next time I will add more vanilla bean and rum, maybe even whisky in place of the rum.

I will link to the page where I found the recipe once David is home and can teach me how to do it. If it hasn't become aware yet, besides a ridiculous problem with punctuation I also am computer illiterate. Whatever, I'm funny as hell so that's all that matters.

You can now find the recipe here at a wonderful website called Lottie + Doof.

My favorite cake

2009-07-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

So I have decided that I will be making no more promises. Like tempting you with the idea of bacon brownies and not following through, or saying that I will write about the 4th and never doing it. I think that, just maybe, if I don't make any promises about it, I will actually post the things that I am thinking about. You just won't know what they are ahead of time!

I've decided not to post much about the 4th. I ended up in a pretty bad mood most of the day and I know that I if I start writing about it I will start venting and that is not what this blog is about. It's about the greatness that is food.

Many people I know are under the assumption that I am much more of a baker than a cook. Some are even surprised that I cook (which is silly because I can't even count the amount of times that I have had them over for dinner, where no dessert was involved!). It's true that I bake more than I cook but it doesn't mean I love it more. I love cooking just as much, maybe even more than baking. The thing is, cooking is truthfully only appropriate 3 times a day. Nobody wants, well I can't speak for everyone I guess, a roast with fingerling potatoes and green beans for a 4 o'clock snack. But people will eat a cookie. Baked goods can be appropriate at any time of the day and people seem to be less discriminating about them. Darn near anyone will eat a chocolate chip cookie if you put it in front of them.

I think my favorite thing to bake are cakes. And my favorite cake of all times is red velvet. The first time I heard of red velvet was while watching "Steel Magnolias" and the crazy aunt at the wedding had made a red velvet armadillo grooms cake. I found myself intrigued. Although really you can't say the word cake without my interest being perked. I think that the first time I had red velvet was at a restaurant in Hollywood with my friend Vanessa, but I can't remember which one. Since then I've tried many recipes to figure out the exact ingredients to make a perfect, rich slice of red cake. My stand by recipe for the longest time came from "Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook", the first cook book I ever bought myself. The cake comes out amazing, as does everything you make from that book. Every time I used that recipe I have gotten nothing but raves. For the 4th I decided to try a different recipe, this time from "Bon Appetit Y'all" (I have an endless amount of southern cook books in my collection). I'm sorry Sylvia, but I think I have found a new favorite. This cake was AMAZING! My friends dug into it right away calling it their
"appetizer". I even converted a red velvet hater.

AUNT LOUISE'S RED VELVET CAKE adapted from Bon Appetit Y'all

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsps cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 (1 ounce) bottle red food coloring

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
8 ounces cream cheese at room temp
1/2 stick unsalted butter at room temp
1 box (16 ounce)confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour three 9 inch round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Sift together the dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside.Combine the oil and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time. With the mixer on low add food coloring. Add the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping down the sides as needed. Mix until just combined.Divide the batter between the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then invert the layers onto rack to cool completely.

To make frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together in mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla, if the frosting is to stiff, add the milk a little at a time. Frost cooled cake and enjoy!

I wanted to say that yesterday was my father in law's birthday! I'm really lucky in the whole father department because he is a great guy!

Excuse me, your pancakes are making faces at me

2009-07-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have plenty to say about the good ol' 4th, and will write about it most likely tomorrow, but first I must tell you about a wonderful brunch I had yesterday with dear friends.

My buddy Finn, who is the coolest five year old I have ever met, has been promising me for months that he would make me pancakes. Apparently his family has a tradition where they decorate their pancakes with fruit and whipped cream and he felt that I could never truly know them until I sampled their pancake breakfast. He told me that he would "draw, you know, whatever you want. I could draw a bomb or a sword or I guess something girly if you want that". How in the world could I turn down an offer like that?

So yesterday David and I headed on over to Finn's house for pancakes. I was stoked to see the layers of pancakes stacked high on a plate in the oven, delicious crispy bacon, and a variety of fruit. Mr. Finn got to work right away, creating pancake art with his nimble fingers. Blueberries for eyes, a strawberry slice for a nose, and a piece of apple cut in the shape of a smile. Amazing! David's pancake had bucked teeth and Finn's had fangs. (We opted for faces instead of pictures seeing as I forgot to take my digestive advantage and would not be able to eat the whipped cream.) It was a glorious breakfast that inspired me to create pancake faces for my own kids one day.

Finn you are a gem and your pancakes are magnificent.

Happy Birthday Dad

2009-07-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's my Dad's birthday! He's the coolest Dad ever and you know you are jealous because he's mine and not yours.

burger joy

2009-07-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while since I've last posted a blog promising bacon brownies. Well I'm sorry but you will just have to wait. The brownies I made, though covered in crunchy yummy bacon, were far too cakey for me. In brownie terms (my brownie terms anyway) cakey=fail. Brownies must always be dense gooey fudgy happiness. Always. I would have posted about the fail last week but I ended up sick. Boo.

Today I would like to tell you about the joys of a good burger. I heart burgers in a big big way but am very picky about them. I believe that a burger should be able to stand up on it's own without any condiments. Bacon and bbq sauce are an amazing mask for a dry flavorless burger, not to say that I don't put that on my burger every time because I totally do. You just can't expect the condiments to do all of the work. Last night I made a killer burger. So juicy and well seasoned that I would have been happy with just patty and bun. David did the actual grilling because he likes to think of himself as a grill master in the making, but I combined all the ingredients. So I win.

I always like to start a meal with a pre-meal snack. This usually involves whatever I can reach while I'm cooking. Recently, however, I have been seeking out marshmallows to fulfill this need to nosh. In the past few weeks I find myself smelling marshmallows every where I go. Glass blowing smells like marshmallows (David and I went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma last weekend), wood sanding smells like marshmallows (the neighbors are revamping their home), even the air smells like marshmallows. So after being tormented by the sticky sweet smell I marched myself to the store and bought three bags of them. And I tell you, I am not ashamed! You know, most people seem to have a marshmallow limit. They can only eat 2 or 3 before they feel ill. I, on the other hand, seem to have no limit. I can eat a whole bag and feel like taking a jog. (LIES. I never feel like taking a jog.) I can also eat brown sugar mixed with butter like it's nothing.....maybe that should stay a secret?

The one thing in life that I can and do OD on is cherries. The little bastards get me every time! They sweep me away into a world of cherry bliss and before I know it I have eaten an entire bowl and feel like I'm about to birth a gremlin. Then the next day I get up and do it again. I guess I have short term memory problems? Or a crazy addiction.

Was this supposed to be about a burger? I think so. I ate cherries with my burger if that helps tie together tangent with actual story. I made the burgers with a little over a pound of ground beef, adding about a tablespoon of soy sauce, probably 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder (I usually like to roast garlic for the burger but I ran out of time last night), onion powder (or chipped shallots but I had none), and dried basil. When the patties were formed I sprinkled the tops with seasoning salt and sent them on their way to the grill. I made them into two patties so they were quite the hefty burgers. So good and so worth the future cardiac arrest.

Look how crazy big that patty is! We topped our burgers with lettuce, tomato, avocado, and gorgonzola. I put bbq sauce on mine while David had his with ketchup and mustard. I hate ketchup and I think it's a horrible thing to do to any food, but I don't judge.

Yes, I ate the whole thing. And?

Mmm Salad

2009-06-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

For as much as I love food I always seem to have trouble putting together a good lunch for myself. For some reason when I go grocery shopping I tend to neglect the middle of the day meal. I have plenty of food for breakfast and dinner, but it all takes time and thought which is not something I like to apply to lunch.

Yesterday I managed to find the perfect lunch hiding in my fridge. If only I could manage to be creative every day at noon. The problem is at that time of the day my brain is usually focused on cake. But not yesterday! I scavenged and found some pancetta left over from a gnocchi dish I made last week, red bell pepper I had just roasted, gorgonzola, and some dill. I cooked the pancetta and bell pepper with some olive oil and garlic then tossed it in with the dill and cheese in some spring salad mix. I made a dressing with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, shallots and pepper. Yum! It was a very happy lunching indeed.

Tomorrow I will be writing about the bacon brownies I will be making this afternoon.

Food and Friends

2009-06-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening David and I had a lovely dinner party with some of our dearest friends. It was a blur of food and laughter, impressions and speech therapy. Not to forget some pictures of the most amazing bangs I have ever seen (I can't go in to any more detail than that, to protect the innocent ,you know). I also had one of the most lovely conversations about secret eating, a club that I am proudly a member of. Trust me, there will be much more on that topic later.

The theme of the dinner was "Monica trying to cook with soul". Soul food happens to rank among my favorite culinary experiences. I LOVE fried chicken. I LOVE pecan pie. I could go on for days. The menu consisted of Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Collard Greens, Caramelized Onion Corn Bread, Baked Mac N Cheese, and Hello Dolly Bars. I stuffed my face until it darn near exploded.

If only I had pictures to share of the yummy things we ate. Soon I will be borrowing a quality camera and will be posting as many pictures as possible. It will give me a great excuse to have a baking extravaganza. Not that I ever really need an excuse.

Anyway, back to the meal. Here are the recipes, I hope you try and enjoy them.

PORK TENDERLOIN

1 pork tenderloin

1/2 C light beer

3 Tbsp Tamarind paste

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp onion powder

Put the first 4 ingredients in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Remove the tenderloin from the bag and rub the garlic and onion powder on the meat. Grill for about 40 minutes and let rest for 10 before slicing into this baby.

Collard Greens

I buy pre-cut pre-washed bags of greens from Safeway or Trader Joes. It makes life easy and less gritty.

1 bag of collard greens (roughly 6 cups)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/8 C champagne vinegar

2 tsp garlic powder

dash of cayenne pepper

hot sauce (my preference is Tabasco chipotle sauce)

Add the olive oil to a large pan or stock pot over medium heat. Add the greens and vinegar, stirring constantly. Cook the greens until they are slightly wilted and bright green in color. Add the garlic powder and cayenne before giving a few last stirs and turning off the heat. Add hot sauce to taste (this can be done to each individual portion or the whole mess of them if everyone who will be eating likes the heat).

Caramelized Onion Corn Bread

For this recipe use your favorite cornbread recipe or mix. I use Marie Calendar's mix (I get a big bag from Costco) that you just add water to.

Cornbread mix and needed ingredients

one vidalia or other sweet onion sliced thin

4 Tbsp butter

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the sliced onion and cook on low for about an hour, stirring occasionally to make sure they don't burn, until the onion take on a nice brown color. Mix the cornbread with ingredients and pour into pan. (8x8 is what I used) Add the onions on top and then bake the cornbread according to the instructions.

Baked Mac N Cheese

I happen to be lactose intolerant so I only get to treat myself to delicious mac n cheese once in a while when I take my Digestive Advantage lactose intolerance pills. It's a good thing to because otherwise I would probably eat it every day and be as big as the moon.

2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

1/2 C cream or milk

1 C sharp cheddar cheese

1 C fontina

1 C gorgonzola

1 box macaroni noodles.

Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare the noodles according to the directions on the box. In a sauce pan melt the butter on medium heat. Whisk in the flour until a paste forms. Add the cream and continue whisking, then add the cheese. Whisk until just melted. Add the noodles to the pot and stir to cover. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x12 dish . Bake the mac n cheese for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the top has a nice brown around the edges.

*I recommend adding copious amounts of bacon if you are serving this to carnivores.

Why I will NEVER be a vegetarian

2009-06-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

First I feel it is only right to apologize to Roslyn, my cat, for kicking her off my lap so I could have room for the computer.

Any who. So I think that it goes without saying that the reason I could never be a vegetarian can be summed up with one word. Pork. Add hunger/enjoyment sounds here. Yes pork, you lusty lady of goodness. I never tire of your succulent goodness, you who can be bathed in bbq sauce or slow roasted with a simple blend of spice. You haunt my dreams and give new meaning to my days. Pork, I think I might just be in love with you. Sorry David, you understand.

My love of pork has not always been so. Growing up I remember the disappointment at hearing that pork chops would be served for dinner (that is all I knew of the pig, besides bacon, as a child). I would groan and complain and and yet still found myself having to swallow the dry chop. I love my dad but he could sure over cook his meat product. It wasn't until I became an adult and started cooking for myself that I became swept up with pork fever (very different from swine flu, no worries). I realized that pork could be tender and amazing and that the natural flavor is suitable with almost any dish. Now adays I have a hard time not having pork for dinner. Who needs chicken when you have pork tenderloin as an option.

Today I had the chance to taste an amazing pork sandwich. I was walking to the bus stop after getting my hair colored when I meandered past a lunch truck shaped like a pig. Of course natural curiosity led me to walk over and immediately get in line before knowing what was on the menu. Come on, you can't pass up what could be cooking inside a pig shaped truck. The options were slim, pork sandwich with spicy or sweet sauce, a vegetarian sandwich, and chips and slaw. I ordered one of each of the pork sandwiches and brought them home to share with David. They were amazing. The flavor of the sauce was out of this world, though I would prefer a little more spice to my spicy sauce as it was not all that different from the sweet sauce, and they were covered in a flagship cheese and cilantro. I happen to be part of the percentage of the population who totally digs cilantro so that was fabuloso for me. The name of the truck is Maximus-minimus. Find it. Look it up on line, sell your soul to the devil to take you there, then devour at least two sandwiches. You will love yourself for it.

Go team pork.

The Beginning and a failed cake

2009-06-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here is my feeble attempt at joining a world that I love. I feel like I'm in high school, a dorky kid so longing to fit in with the cool kids of the blog world. But alas, my style is not so cool and I my be destined to hang by myself unless I can fin some way to inadvertently cry out "I'm here, I'm cool in my own way".Maybe I will resort to being a class clown or a smart ass, all the things that got me through awkward childhood. Or maybe my obsessive love of food and life will spill on to these pages bringing pleasantries and wittiness, and of course lots of amazing foodgasm inducing dishes.

It might be strange to start my very first post with a failure but I figured I could only go up from here. Or fail again, which is bound to happen, but we will wait and see.

I recently purchased a bag full of kumquats from the lovely Pike Place Market and finding myself not in the mood to pop the lovelies directly in my mouth, I wanted to find a way to use them before they went bad. What better way to use fruit than to make a cake, right? Since I have recently been attached to my lap top (I have discovered my love for food blogs and cannot be parted from them) I decided to scour the internet for the most delicious sounding recipe. I came across a recipe for infused vodka, I really should have stopped there. But then came a recipe that seemed to scream to me; Coconut kumquat tea cake. Hubba hubba. After wiping my mouth to remove the stream of drool on my chin I gathered all of the ingredients called for. Lucky for me my kitchen is like a grocery store so I didn't need to run out for any ingredients. I put it all together and waited as it baked. It smelt soooo good. That was as good as it got. The cake was gummy and flavorless and left a horrible after taste in my mouth. Such sadness and disappointment.

After all that I decided that what I really wanted was a few kumquats to munch on.

*Sorry for no picture. It was far more sad than the cake!