Eat, be and see. by teegee.

Thai Inspired Salad of Awesome!

2010-06-09T20:22:00.007-04:00

Spatchcocked chicken, lol.

Roasted with ginger and garlic.

The whole thing. OM NOM.
Close up of the cilantro pesto:
Bunch cilantro
Coconut milk
Lime juice
Garlic
Ginger Juice
BLEND.
More salad.
More salad! Yum on the mangoes and avocados!

Recipe found here: By me!
I was featured on Marks Daily Apple!

Quick and Dirty Lamb Stew

2010-05-05T19:47:00.004-04:00

Lamb Stew in da Crockpot (quick and dirty)

1.5 lbs lamb stew meat
1 small bag frozen pearl onions
1 leek, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
4 cups chopped celery (I really like it)
1 sweet potato, cubed
1 quart veggie stock
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, minced
fresh chopped sage
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup butter
1 small bag frozen baby peas

Add everything but peas into crock pot. Turn on low for about a workday (that was 8 hrs for me). Come home, add peas, wait 15 mins. Eat. YUM.

Hannah visits!

2010-04-04T22:04:00.005-04:00

Alrighty so this is the short, pictorial version of our day. Im pooped and need to go to bed but I wanted to get this up!

Hannah came and visited, after we went to pick up the meat I had ordered we looked arounf and went to a toy store. We found a primal grill set for the kiddos!

Then we got all excited about the kites the toy store had (and the bacon band aids were prety cool) so we decided to make one. It allllmost worked, lol.

Then we went on a hike and saw lots of cool stuff.

Then we made food! GIANT garlic on the left, green mango with garam masala, chili powder and salt on the right.

Yummy thai salad with chicken and cilantro pesto.

YOUNG COCONUT OMG GOOD.

The end.

Poor, neglected blog.

2010-03-27T22:19:00.001-04:00

Between a lot of everything and nothing you have gotten lost I fear.

NO MORE!!!

If nothing else Ill be typing up recipes, even if they have no pictures or at least crappy cell phone ones.

Sorry blog. You have a bad Mama.

Tara

Beef recipe: Kashk Bademjan

2009-10-21T15:28:00.006-04:00

I attended an Iranian dinner party the other night. Hosted by Kali, all food prepared by Marjan (with a teeny help from Kali and I) and attended by many! Let me tell you the food was a-maz-ing! It was the perfect night to break in her newly decorated kitchen, more on my kitchen decorating later. Anyhow, the first reason I chose to make this dish at home was because it looked easier than the rest. The second was that because it was so tasty Marjan literally had to slap our hands away from the pan. She then hid the dish in the oven and when it was heating before guests arrived... I had to promise her not to eat it while she did her makeup. Basically I was a little child with my mommy telling me "No!". I like to think its a compliment of sorts, that Marjans cooking was so good that it took these extreme measures to keep us from devouring it all before guests arrived. You're welcome, Marjan.

Anyway, one key ingredient that I don't actually own (gasp!) is kashk. I used sour cream instead, as it was the most similar thing I could attain. Kashk is fermented though, and I supposed Ill never really get that flavor in its true form without the kashk. Another thing that is important is that you try your hardest to get Japanese eggplant. I have seen these types of eggplants in every kind of Asian ethnic store Ive ever visited. Indian, Chinese, Japanese... the eggplant is there. I made the dish once with regular eggplant and it was a bit different. If you cant get the Japanese variety, you can use regular eggplant, just add the saltwater soaking step.

Anyhow here is the outline of the recipe as I remember it, and per Marjan's verbal notes:

Kashk Bademjan via Marjan

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground beef preferably very lean (there will be plenty of other fat!)

4-5 Japanese eggplant, or 3 medium regular eggplants*, peeled and cut into roughly 3cm cubes

1 small onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 T turmeric

1/4 cup tomato paste

salt

1/4 c sour cream

dried mint

lard for cooking (or oil if you prefer)

*If you're using regular eggplant, you ll need a saltwater soak. Make some very salty water in a big bowl, add eggplant and cover with a plate. Weigh it down with a can or cup or something. You want all the eggplant to be submerged. After about 30 mins, drain and continue with recipe.

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pan/pot/wok over medium high heat, brown ground beef well. Remove beef from pan and set aside.

2. Add to the pan the chopped onion. If there isn't enough fat left from the beef, add some lard. Brown the onion very well (see pic below). Add the garlic and cook for about 3-5 more mins, until cooked but not burned. Set aside with the beef (I just add it to one big bowl).

3. Add about 1/4 cup lard to the pan and let heat for a minute. Add all the eggplant and stir very fast until its all coated.

4. Add about 1/4 cup water to the pan and cover. The steam will help the egg plant begin to cook. When the water is almost gone, uncover and fry until the eggplant is very soft and brown, stirring every few mins.

5. Add the beef and onion/garlic mixture back to the pan, and add the turmeric and tomato paste. Stir to combine. You'll want to mash up the eggplant pieces a little too, just until they are a little smaller than bite size. I like mine a little chunky though traditionally it supposed to be a smooth, homogeneous mixture. Add sour cream. Salt to taste (about 1 t for me).

6. Spoon into serving dish and sprinkle with dried mint fried in a little oil. I like a lot of mint, but base it on your taste. Usually this is served with lavash bread (similar to pita... kinda) but since I don't eat bread (MOST of the time) I made some cauliflower chips to go with it.

Cauliflower Chips

INGREDIENTS

1 head cauliflower

EVOO or coconut oil, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Cut cauliflower in half. Place halves cut side down and slice into 1/4-1/3 inch slices.

3. Spread out on a baking sheet in one layer (may take 2 pans) and coat in EVOO or melted CO.

4. Bake for about 20 mins. Flip the slices over and bake 20 more mins, or until browned and slightly crispy.

Don't be afraid!!! Yes its lard.

Yes the container is broken from dropping it... hey, it gets used!

Ingredients in the pan. Clockwise from top: ground beef,

tomato paste, fried eggplant, fried onions and garlic, turmeric.

Finished dish, garnished with some mint,
and served with crispy cauliflower "chips".

Close up. Yum yum.

I'm all about the cauliflower-chip-cutesy thing...

but here's how I really ate it b/c I was STARVING!

Cauliflower topped with kashk bademjan and mint.

Wedding cupcakes, a preview.

2009-10-14T19:05:00.005-04:00

The real pics from my sisters wedding arent in yet, so these less-than-stellar ones will have to suffice.

Chocolate cake with orange buttercream and a candied orange peel.

Strawberry cake with chocolate buttercream.

Vanilla-vanilla.

Enjoy!

Updates, yo.

2009-10-14T18:53:00.002-04:00

I think I have a seaweed problem. This is all the seaweed I own. Love it!

Watermelon+ginger+lime juice+peppercorns+basil+club soda=YUM!

Directions: place evrything but club soda in blender and blend. Strain. Add soda. Done!

Papaya salad. I was going for GREEN papaya salad but I guess it wasnt green enough. Still yum.

Dry-fried green beans. With little dreid shrimps. Umami here I come!

Full english brekkie! Starting at the toast: toast, fried tomato, fried mushrooms, hash (potatoes, apple and sage), sausage, bacon, beans (the english kind... more tomatoey) and my eggs are hidden under there somewhere. Lets not forget the tea.

I have been living a ridiculously tomatoey life, and love it.

2009-08-23T18:42:00.003-04:00

I probably eat about 3 tomatoes a day. I cant help it. They are SO good. Between my plants, the CSA and my dads garden, I just really dont have a choice. Darn. Here is what Ive been doing with them. Mostly sammies, but some salads and stir fries as well.

Perfect makins for a perfect sammie: Fried sprouted bread (in BUTTER), counrty dijon, raw cheddar and a tomato.

Tomatoes with EVOO, pepper, basil.

Green zebras and yellow tomatoes on goat cheese.

More sammie awesome.

I think the goldies are my fave. A close second: striped german. YUMMY!!!

Fresh tomato tart and CSA picnic.

2009-08-23T18:19:00.005-04:00

For black pepper parmesan pastry (adapted from epicurious)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons VERY cold unsalted butter, grated
2 tablespoons cold lard
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

1. Blend all ingredients except water.

2. Add water very slowly until it holds form.

3. Press into tart shell and bake at 375F for about 30 min.

For filling

6 oz goat cheese, blended with 2 T chopped tarragon and 2 t country dijon.

About 4 sliced tomatoes (I used lillians yellow and red slicers)

Tarragon, pepper and parmesan for garnish.

1. Slice tomatoes and set in strainer so extra juice flows out.

2. Spread goat cheese mix in bottom of tart shell, gently!

3. Top with tomatoes.

4. Garnish... done!

Pics of the farm:

Rows of cabbages.

Onion curing area.

Me being vain. :)

Pretty flowers everywhere.

Little sisters Bday cake.

2009-08-23T17:56:00.006-04:00

Sarah turned 8. I made her cake.

It consisted of chocolate cake, raspberry cake, chocolate buttercream, raspberry buttercream, royal icing decorations and all kinds of fresh, pink flowers from Emily and Ben at Mile Creek Farm (CSA providers).

I made the cake and buttercream ahead and assembled it the night before, then did the tiers and decorations before the party. I also made the royal icing decorations (with sparkle powder) the night before so they had time to harden.

Check it out!

2009-08-07T12:54:00.000-04:00

I made it onto the Kitchn's website! Woot.

Cherry brandy and brandied cherries?

2009-08-05T12:54:00.002-04:00

Brandied cherries:
1 cup H2O
cinnamon stick
cloves
maple syup
1. Boil for about 5 min, then add 1/2 cup brandy!
2. Place cherries in a jar and cover with mixture.
3. Let sit for 2 days, or a few months...

Cherry brandy: sqish cherries into a jar and cover with brandy. Hide for a few months.

Hopefully these will both be ready by Xmas...

Peach, berry and bacon "clafoutis"...

2009-08-04T23:52:00.003-04:00

Crust is made from ground almonds and butter.

Layered with cmbly bacon (just a little), sliced fresh peaches and black raspberries.

Sort of a deep clafouti/tart. Batter is egg whites, butter and some coco flour.

Oh and the middle pic I put the crust on top... that was better b/c it got crispy.

Gazpacho with roasted tomatillos and basil cream.

2009-08-04T23:18:00.003-04:00

3 tomatillos, roasted at 400 for about 20 min.

3 med tomatoes

half a bell pepper

half a cucumber

half an onion

1 garlic clove

dash tabasco
1. Add everything to blender... blend!

Basil Cream

1 cup cream

1 cup basil

1. I used a stick blender but you can use a food processor.

Serve: Spoon gazpacho into bowl, drizzle with basil cream and mix in some avocado chunks! YUM.

Pesce spada alla Norma.

2009-08-04T23:00:00.003-04:00

Pasta alla Norma, but with swordfish. YUM.

Pesce Spada alla Norma

1 4 or 5oz swordfish steak, cooked however you want (I broiled mine with some lemon).

1 eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, salted, drained and pat dry.

1 small red onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

4 celery tops, minced

1 cup basil leaves, cut in chiffonade

2 T tomato paste

Sprinkle of oregano

Goat cheese

1. Het some lard in a nonstick pan over medhigh heat. Fry eggplant in lard until soft and golden. Make sure the lard is good and hot so the eggplant wont just sop it all up. Having the eggplant WELL drained and pat VERY dry also helps. I used about 2 T lard and had some left when the eggplant was done. Trust me, if you do it right, you wont have oil sponge eggplant yuck.

2. At the last few seconds, sprinkle oregano onto eggplant so it wakes up a little. Remove eggplant from pan.

3. Turn heat to med. Add onion to pan, cook for about 2 min. Add tomato, garlic and celery tops to pan. Let cook about 10 min until tomato is soft and breaking up.

4. Add tomato paste and a little water to dissolve. Heat for a couple mins.

5. Add basil leaves at the last minute and serve. I put in on top of swordfish steaks but you can do whatever sounds yummy! Sprinkle goat cheese on top (supposed to be ricotta salata but I really like goat cheese).

CSA Week 10

2009-08-04T22:58:00.001-04:00

Dayton Restaraunt Week. July 26-31, 2009. Meadowlark review.

2009-07-29T01:40:00.006-04:00

Here is what I ate tonight for dinner (this was all $20.09 for restaraunt week):

1. Spicy Shrimp and Watermelon with Basil, Mint and Nuoc Cham.

2. Harissa-brushed Swordfish with Sicilian Couscous (couscous, kalamata, sultanas, onion, tomato, parsley).

3. Roasted Peach with Blue Cheese, Sweet Balsamic Syrup and Dolcessa Gelato (nixed the bleu cheese).

I was at the Meadowlark here in Dayton. Let me review for you. First course was good. Light and refreshing, though I feel the shrimp was not that good, but I always feel like that about shrimp. Seconds... the swordish was amazing! The couscous, was couscous. Well done, but not special. The fish was special though. Dessert was great. The peach was warm and I either got a balsamic reduction (probable) or a high quality balsamic. The flavor of it said to me that it was a reduction, and sweetened at that. The gelato tasted cream cheesy. I dont know what flavor it was supposed to be but it was def buttermilk or cream cheese or something of that nature.

I have never been to Meadowlark before, and I fear I did not experience the height of what the restaurant can offer. They were busy (on a one hour wait if you didnt call ahead... I did). The host who I spoke to on the phone and when I arrived was very kind and personable, probably the best part of the experience. I felt sort of rushed through the whole experience. I suppose for the onslaught of people they were experiencing, the restaurant fared very well. No overt mistakes were made, save one. They delivered my check to me before I had even received dessert. Way to P*** me off. Are you kidding me? I would consider this place somewhere in the upper band of Dayton dining, and you are acting like a Perkins or a Waffle House and not waiting until I am through with my meal? I mean really. THAT was why I felt rushed. You should let a diner FINISH their meal before you make them pay. Maybe the rules are different considering the time. I dont know. One piece of advice: wait until the end of the meal until bill is delivered please.

I might return to Meadowlark again. On a muchmuch slower night.

Where should I go next? Restaraunt week menus.

Vegetarian soft rolls with peanut sauce.

2009-07-28T13:17:00.003-04:00

Fillings:

Napa, red pepper, scallions, basil, mint, cilantro, cucumber, wakame, avocado.

Sauce:

Peanuts, shoyu, fish sauce, sesame oil, water, onion.

Rolling tutorial here!

Date and tamarind squares. Sweet corny milk :)

2009-07-28T12:31:00.004-04:00

So this is definetly a 20% post. For those of you wh o have no oide what that means, it is basically "Ill do really well with my diet 80% of the time, and have some sweet snacks 20% of the time."

Date/tamarind/hazelnut/coconut squares
Add into a food processor:
about 15 dates
2 handfuls of hazelnuts
about 2 T tamarind paste (available at indian or latin markets)
I added a pinch of cardamom, but you could leave that out or do anther spice.

1. Blitz in food processor until pastey.
2. Sprinkle shredded, unsweetened coconut into a pie plate. Dump paste in there and flatten out to about 1 cm thickness. Sprinkle with more coconut.
3. Place in fridge overnight (or just until hardened).
4. Remove flattened and coconutted disk. Using a sharp chefs knife, slice into small squares (about 3/4 in square).
5. Use more coconut and toss the squares in the coconut, so it sticks to the cut sides.
6. Done! Store in fridge, lasts for a while.

Sweet corn and milk drink! It was so intriguing I HAD to try it! It was VERY VERY yummy. In fact, Im thinking there may be a 20% in this drinks future... we shall see.

Beets? Yes, beets.

2009-07-28T12:19:00.002-04:00

Beet bottoms, post roast!

Cold beet soup. So pretty.

Beet and cabbage slaw.

Cold beet soup for summertime. I used tarragon instead of dill.

Beet and cabbage slaw.

CSA catch up. Post computer virus shuffle.

2009-07-28T12:05:00.004-04:00

Week 6: candy onions, scallions, collards, broccoli, lettuce, yellow squash, patty pan squash, cucumber.

Week 7: zucchini, carrots, lettuce, onions, candy onions, cucumbers, broccoli, yellow tomato (1st of the season).

Week 8: kale, basil, purple potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, patty pans, carrots, candy onions, cucumber, green beans, yellow tomatoes and GARLIC. I also included some bells of ireland in the pic (flowers in the right corner) because I lovelovelove them and Ben and Emily (the CSA farmers) provided them for me after an email I sent. Thanks guys!

I have a ton of recipes coming, so Im going to get started on that. I must say though, that the cukes Ive gotten from the CSA are super yummy! They are really crunchy and awesome. The garlic... ohmagod it was good!!! Well, everything is good but I have never had garlic that wasn't from meijer or something.

Berry picking at my dads house.

2009-07-28T11:55:00.002-04:00

Me being special.

Sunset.

Little sis and I picking berries!

Blackberries or black raspberries. I say black raspberries.

We ended up with about a pint of berries. I need more. They are so good!

News.

2009-07-16T15:25:00.002-04:00

My computer has picked up a virus. SO I dont have access to any pics, or files, or anything. Im at school right now, bringing the updates. Hopefully itll be settled by next week.

<3

Chia seed pudding

2009-07-06T22:15:00.002-04:00

Chia seed pudding
1/3 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup almond milk
a pinch of dried hibiscus flowers
small handful non-sweetened dried cherries

1. Place everything in a food processor.
2. Process.
3. Eat!

Stevia how I love thee...

2009-07-06T22:00:00.003-04:00

This is how not to grow stevia: This is how to grow stevia:

Lesson: Stevia apparently does NOT like bright sun. It withered away like me from my workouts. I hope the second go works! Emily and Ben- sorry I killed the plant you grew. Hopefully I learned my lesson!

Herbs de CSA. Basil (CSA), Sage (CSA), Tarragon (Amish people @ 2nd street market).

CSA: Week 5!

2009-07-06T21:14:00.005-04:00

Week 5: Green onions, Chard, napa, lettuces, turnips, zucchini, patty pan and thyme.

Week 5 Recipes (so far)...

Peach compote

2 peaches, chopped

a little lemon juice

thyme leave, roughly chopped

few chopped stevia leaves

---Simmer peaches, juice and thyme until peaches a slightly soft (just a couple mins). Add stevia and remove from heat. Serve over greek yogurt (or if you're not primal... ice cream!).

Quick and messy zucchini "curry"?

3 zucchini, sliced

1 shallot, sliced

garlic, ginger, lemongrass, thyme... all diced.

coconut milk

--Sautee everything but coco milk in a little coco oil. After slightly cooked, add coconut milk, enough to cover. Simmer for 2 min. DONE!

And here is the full meal... wild salmon, cooked perfectly! YUMMY!!! Maybe I should also mention that I got this fish for ***$8.99/lb*** at an annual sidewalk sale here in yuppieville! Awesome!

Herb roasted chicken...

2009-07-05T14:30:00.003-04:00

I made a roast chicken using some herbs from the old CSA. Butter+thyme+sage+tarragon=

Rub on chicken. Put a chopped lemon inside the cavity. Roast breast side down until temp is 165F internal and the skin is golden and crisp. Like so:

The whole chicken, shes about 4 lbs. I let her cool, then removed the meat and skin and pulled it apart into bite size pieces. Saved the bones for stock!

Now what to do with the herb roasted chicken? MAKE SALAD! It is summer time after all.

Summer Chicken Salad

english cucumber, sliced on the bias

celery, sliced

Aforementioned roast chicken

green onions

"dressing": lemon zest, lemon juice, LOTS of chopped dill, cream, salt.

Its really that easy. That dressing was awesome too! I LOVE dill!

CSA: Week 4!

2009-07-05T13:46:00.012-04:00

Well, here I give you week 4 and 5 of the CSA experience.

Week 4: dill, lettuce, salad mix, zucchini, green onions, patty pan squash, peas, buckwheat sprouts and braising mix (red kale, tat soi, mustard greens, mizzuna and arugula).

The peas!

What to do with the peas? Pea soup sounds nice eh?

Also a Japanese-inspired pea salad. Really from the peas I got in week 3.

From week 3 (which I forgot to photograph): Sauteed kale and turnips with lemon and dill.

WEEK 3 Recipes

Kale and turnips

Kale, washed and torn

Turnips, sliced thin
Lemons, zested and juiced

Dill

Green onions

--Just sautee everything with a little oil (I used avocado oil) and add in the green onions, lemon juice and zest, and dill. EAT!

Pea salad

2 cups loosely packed fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced.

1 bag snow peas (2 cups?)

2 T wakame, soaked

Green onions

Sesame seeds

"dressing": red pepper flake, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a little mirin.

1. Slice on the bias the peas and onions.

2. Sautee shiitakes until crisp.

3. Remove shitakes and add peas and green onions. Sautee briefly, just to get the color to pop... you still want a crunch.

4. Remove peas and onions. Sautee sesame seeds until juuuust golden. Add pepper flakes, sesame oils, soy sauce and mirin.

5. Put everything in a big bowl and mix. Chill. I served this as a cold salad.

WEEK 4 Recipes

Pea soup

2 cups Chicken stock (from the freeeezer)

2 bags peas (maybe 4 cups?), cleaned... pods and all! I saved some peas for garnish.

a 1in x 1in chunk of onion

a few mint leaves

cream

1. Boil peas (in the pod) until cooked. Let cool.

2. Add cooked pods, onion and stock to blender and blend until smooth. Add mint and give one more blend.

3. Strain the mix through a wire sieve (I used my chinois).

4. Chill in fridge. I served it cold as a summer soup with a little cream and peas. It was a nice little lunch while the weather was 90F here!

Summer chicken salad! Click it!

Quick veggie enchiladas (a far cry from these)

3 zucchini, diced

1 patty pan, diced

1/2 cup tomato paste

1 chopped tomato

1 chopped onion

couple cloves of garlic, chopped

salt free taco seasoning (Health food store bulk section)

shredded cheese

garnish: pico de gallo, green onion and avocado.

1. Sautee onion and garlic until translucent.

2. Add squashes, cook until soft.

3. Add tomato paste and seasoning.

4. Wrap filling in soft taco shells (I found some awesome low carb ones in keeping with the PB) and place in a 9x13 pan.

5. Sprinkle with cheese! Bake at 350 until cheese melts.

6. Serve with avocado, pico and chopped green onion.

Pesto turkey and braising mix: I just used a some pesto ground turkey and sauteed the braising mix with it. Simple but tasty!

2009 CSA: Week 2

2009-06-09T21:18:00.007-04:00

First, some recipes from last week!

I ate a lot of salad using the lettuces and arugula (delicious!!!) and I especially LOVED the arugula. Mmmm... arugula. Drool.

Oh, anyway... I used the garlic scapes in a goulash with some buffalo (recipe later).

I sauteed the spinach with some butter and garlic... and ate the whole bag in one sitting. I couldn't stop.

I loved the perfect little sweet strawberries, and I ate them all within 3 days! I used a few to make a gelatin dessert too.

The cilantro went into a curry.

I gave the radishes away to a very appreciative friend, I dont like radishes.

Made the broccoli raab into a sautee:

Broccoli raab.

Broccoli raab and herb goat cheese.

Ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli raab, cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 sprigs rosemary
2 T butter
1 oz herbed goat cheese
Salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Heat butter over med-low and throw rosemary sprigs in. Let heat about 5min to infuse rosemary flavor into butter.
2. Remove rosemary, add onion and cook until translucent.
3. Add tomato and cook until heated trough.
4. Add broccoli raab and wilt. Pump up the heat o get a good saute for about a minute.
5: Plate and crumble goat cheese over. S&P to taste.

Primalish strawberry gelatin dessert: water, cream, gelatin, strawberries. Thats it! Here is one in a little jam jar:

Here is one I cubed and showing with a little cream.

This weeks CSA! 2 lettuces, dandelion greens, salad mix, peas, sage plant, vitamin green (a really great asian green from what I hear), dill.

Primal Diary!

2009-06-09T20:32:00.001-04:00

I have decided to track what I eat and log it in here. More accountability you know! The main reason I am not 100% primal is dairy! I love it too much. Now though, I will be limiting myself to two glasses of raw, Jersey milk a week, cream in tea/coffee/berries and yogurt. Its a start. Also, the "activities" section will ramp up after June 18. Im CRAZY busy until then.

I will update in this blog post only and change the date so it stays current. I have been primal since January, but people need examples so here they are:

Day 9: June 9 2009
B: egg whites, onion, mushroom, cheese. Tea w stevia and cream.
L: Sushi: salmon skin roll, smelt roe, tuna and salad and natto.
D: Tuna salad (tuna, sesame oil, soy sauce, wakame) with avocado. Natto. Pumpkin seeds spiced with fennel pollen and cinnamon. 4 oz wine.

Other: coffee
Activities: nada

Day 8: June 8 2009
B: 4 egg whites, onion tomato, avo. Tea
L: Sausages and strawberries and natto
D: poke
Other: coffee with cream and splenda

Day 7: June 7 2009
B: Egg whites, chorizo, bacon, coffee (First watch brunch).
L: Natto, strawberries and cream, BAS
S: carrots
D: Anchovy ceviche (YUM)

Days 5 and 6: Dont remember, but very in keping with PB!

Day 4: June 4 2009
B: Primal goulash with cheese. Tea with stevia and cream.
L: Stir fried beef with lots of veg and sesame garlic sauce.
D: TJs Ginger carrots, Spinach and garlic scapes from CSA, and asparagus with butter and fennel pollen. Probably gonna cap off today with a little wine too...

Other: Jersey milk (~10 oz), 1 cup coffee with 1t sugar and cream.

Activities: 20 min walk around campus.

Day 3: June 3 2009
B: 4 egg whites, shiitake mushrooms, onion, furikake, butter (weird I know). Tea with stevia and cream.
S: 1 oz raw cheddar cheese and 1 oz salami
L: BAS: lettuce, arugula, radish sprouts, buckwheat spouts, green onion, tomato. Dressing was evoo, lemon juice, S&P. Raw yogurt with a apricot/cherry/cardamom compote.
S: Natto
D: Primal goulash. Strawberry gelatain made with strawberries, cream and water.

Other: 2 cups coffee with stevia and cream.

Activities: none, sadly. Again.

Day 2: June 2 2009
B: Onion, cheese and branston pickle salad. Tea with stevia and cream.
S: 1 cup jersey milk
L: Strawberries from CSA
D: Primal "goulash": bison meat cooked in coco oil, yellow squash, leeks, red onion, garlic scrapes (from CSA), red wine, tomato paste, tomatoes with cheese. 1/2 glass red wine.

Activities: none, seriously.

Day 1: June 1 2009
B: 4 egg whites, mushrooms, onions, cheddar cheese, 1/4 avocado, cooked in organic butter. Tea with stevia and cream.
S: Carrots and PB, natto
L: BAS (big ass salad): arugula, mustard greens, summer squash, radish sprouts, feta, red onion. Dressing made with dijon, evoo and vinegar. 1/2 oz 70% chocolate
S: Tomato with basil and evoo
D: 6oz sirloin, mushrooms, broccoli and 2 rolls (I know I know... they felt so gross in my tummy after haven't had bread in a LONG time. Blech,) and a bite of apple pie.

Other: 2 cups of coffee throughout the day with stevia and cream.

Activities: Climbed 4 flight of stairs twice, 2 steps at a time. I dont have a chance to do much exercise having 11 hour library days at school...

Primal recipe: anchovy ceviche

2009-06-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

I had a bag o frozen anchovies from a while ago in the freezer that I decided to use up. I made a delicious and healthy ceviche from them. SO TASTY. Read on:

Meet the little guys. They are about 5-6 in long. Beat up from freezing.

Clean fish by removing any scales and fins. Okay here is how to gut them: Grasp body right behind gills with left hand (or non-dominant hand). Grasp head by gills with right hand. Pull head down and out. The guts and spine should come right out. Sometimes you have to pick it apart though. Pic if youre interested:

General idea after gutting: fillets in left, guts and head on right.

After gutting, rinse fillets one last time.

Anchovy ceviche

Ingredients:

Anchovy fillets, cleaned and rinsed

lemon zest and lemon juice

Parsley

sun dried tomatoes in EVOO, chopped

EVOO

capers, smashed

Red chili flakes

Directions:

1. Combine all and stir.

2. Place in fridge overnight.

3. Consume. YUM.

Ingredients

Just needs to chill overnight.
I ate this for two days, and it was tasty! Hope you all enjoy!

2009 CSA! Week 1

2009-06-02T19:00:00.000-04:00

I will be chronicling my 2009 CSA experience here. I am getting my CSA from Mile Creek Farm in New Lebanon Ohio. They are really great at communicating and answering questions, and I am excited to see what the CSA thing has to offer!

Week 1: June 2 2009
Recipes in newsletter: Green enchiladas, Broccoli Rabe with Orechetti & Pistachio Arugula pesto.

5/9 bushel box contains: green and red leaf lettuce, salad mix, spinach, arugula, cilantro, radishes, garlic scapes, buckwheat sprouts, broccoli raab and strawberries.

The box I picked up...

Opened, taking a peek inside...

Look at all of it!

Lettuce and greens.

Clockwise from top left: red leaf lettuce, arugula, spinach, salad mix, green leaf lettuce.

Non lettuce stuff.

Clockwise from top left: radishes, garlic scapes, strawberries, cilantro, buckwheat sprouts.

More garlic scapes.
Yum strawberries... these are te best ones I have ever had!
So pretty
Just look at it!

I think this CSA thing is going to work out quite nicely!

Daring Bakers feature!

2009-06-02T15:14:00.006-04:00

SWEET!!! <--- click

Eat, be and see. By teegee
I am just a happy Ohio girl right now! Though I have to say, I always get asked where I am from and people are surprised I am a native. “Unique” is a good word. Currently I just study A LOT and work an extremely unprofessional job (waitress). I am finishing my Masters in Biology with a Micro focus and hopefully going on to even MORE school soon. What I am excited for right now: berry picking season, my first CSA (!), summer festivals, attempting an heirloom garden, making rain barrels, trying to get into more school, applying to volunteer in South America soon and getting a REAL job. On that note if anyone has any contacts in the biology or health fields… hook a sister up!
How long have you been a Daring Baker/Daring Cook and what’s your favorite thing about being in the group(s) so far?
I have been in DB since May 2008. I originally joined because I am primarily a cook, not a baker. I needed someone or something to force me to bake! I do a mean cheesecake, crème brulee, panna cotta and cookies… but that was it. I know techniques and I am a wickedly fast learner so all I needed was the idea. I like that it inspires me to make things I would never have made before. I am not a big cake person, but when you get a cake challenge you can be so creative with it that by the time its done you love it. You want to protect it. You want to take it to the mall for a photo shoot and pass out wallets. Then you want to call all your friends, family, neighbors… and maybe the guy you see every time you go to the store… and celebrate its taste explosion/ blood sugar hike with all of them. For me: cake= blah, DB cake challenge + lots of thought = hey, I like THIS cake!
It make things exciting is what I am trying to say.
What’s your favorite kitchen gadget? How about your favorite kitchen appliance?
Am I allowed to say a fork? Because I love eating and a fork helps me a lot! Okay really though, my knife. I know I should say some chopper or slicer or mixer or something-that-braids-my-hair-whilst-simultaneously-making-sugar-flowers-so-my-hands-are-free-for-chopping… but I really love my knife. I use her a lot (she’s a girl). I am always chopping something, and I cook far more than I bake, so she sort of feels like a hand extension most of the time. Also, my wooden spoon! It cooks, it bakes, it flips, it stirs, it’s rustic and old and has a long handle. It’s wonderful.
Are you known for making a certain dish or dessert? If so, what is it?
Well, I am known for a lot of food! For savory foods I think the most well-practiced things I make are spaghetti sauce, roasts, enchiladas and curry. That sounds so homey, and I really don’t cook like that a lot but I do come back to those eventually. I usually am trying a new dish, like all the time! I make Thai, Mexican, Japanese and Indian food very often. I just see what’s on sale and but it at the store. I never use recipes (only to get ideas). Cooking isn’t math, its art. Once you get a feel for flavors and balance you will be able to make anything! That reminds me of Thanksgiving last year. I have made [the whole] Thanksgiving dinner for my family (10-12 people at dinner) since I was 21. My family once asked for a “menu” with ingredients listed so they will have reference points should they request a dish. I haven’t used a single recipe for Thanksgiving so they know if they want it again I need to remember how I made it! My dad says “Mmmm, this is good Tara… go write it down!” For my dinners at home, I usually just toss things together with a theme and then I have a yummy meal. As a result of the way I cook, things don’t get repeated too much. My roomie would say I make a mean grilled cheese sammie, because she can’t/ doesn’t like to cook and that all she ever wants!
For sweets I make the best cheesecake ever! I am not afraid to brag a little because I really think it’s the best! It is simple and delicious. There is no chocolate or caramel in it (those things aren’t bad, just stay away from my cheesecake) and the main flavor is vanilla, enhanced by good quality ingredients. I also make a great chocolate chip cookie (to the joy of the Bio department at school) and ice cream! I make popsicles and ice cream in the summer a lot. I also make everyone’s Bday cakes/ desserts. Oh yeah, I make a really good Italian Meringue Buttercream too.
Great, I’m going to go eat an IMBC-coated popsicle dipped in curry and coated in chimichurri. Thanks guys.
Is there any recipe and/or technique that we haven’t covered yet that you’d really like to make/learn?
I would like to see some traditional ethnic recipes for the Daring Cooks. I know that’s not easy because the DBers and DCers are from all over the world and may not have access to certain ingredients, but a girl can dream. Savories: Middle Eastern tagines, Jamaican Jerks, Japanese soups (w/ homemade dashi), Mexican Moles (make some tortillas anyone?), Spanish Paellas, etc. For sweets, since I haven’t baked a lot, I have a simpler list: real English steamed puddings, soufflé, 12 layer apple cake, pavlova, baklava, etc. The list is forever long, but those are a few examples of what I just thought about!
Do you have a favorite movie? Book? Genre of music?
Haha, so funny you ask! My favorite genre is sci-fi, maybe a girly movie/book in there sometimes. I LOVE reading. That’s probably my #2 hobby besides cooking.
Here are a few of my fave books: Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Outlanders, LOTR, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Incarnations of Immortality, Sabriel, Brave New World, Enders Game and any cool micro book. Books I am looking forward to: Book 12 of Wheel of Time and Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint.
Movies: Love Actually, Harry Potter, Red Road, LOTRs, Star Wars, Reign Over Me, V for Vendetta, 300, Transformers, Event Horizon, Pan's Labyrinth, Death at a Funeral, Shaun of the Dead, Paris je'taime, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Wit, The Tao of Steve, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Pianist, Kill Bill, Vanilla Sky, The Fifth Element, Big Fish, Adaptation, Awakenings… probably forgetting some.
Music: Ill just give you my top five because I have a TON of music! Motion City Soundtrack, Tom Petty, Mika, Jewel, Wallflowers. Julia Nunes is great too. She works with a ukulele and its awesome, happy music.
You’ve just won $5000.00!!! But it comes with some stipulations… you can’t spend it on your kids or your significant other! This is all YOURS. What would you spend it on? (We’re also going to fantasize that you have no bills whatsoever! Woo!! Hehee)
Well, I don’t have a S.O. OR kiddos, so that’s a pretty easy question! The responsible side of me says to save it for my (never ending) schooling. But, if I could do one thing right now I think I would go back to Ecuador. I went to Tiputini Biodiversity Station in December 2008 and it was AMAZING. Its in the middle of the rainforest (2 boat rides and a bus ride away from cities) right on the Tiputini River in Yasuni National Park. I have been to Ireland, England, France, Italy and Mexico, but Ecuador has stolen my heart. People at the station put in a lot of effort to research and conserve the habitat, it is breathtaking. They are trying understand all the effects of oil drilling and learn as much as possible before its too late. It’s really an impossible job that’s requires a lot of dedication but the relentless nature of Rainforest destruction make it an important undertaking. Soooo, yeah… I would take that $5k and milk it for all its worth to stay as long as possible in the Rainforest and help out.
What is the ultimate comfort food to you?
Really, its simple. Anything I cook that is in season. I always want “summery” foods in the summer and “wintery” foods in winter, you know? Cooking itself is more comforting to me than eating. Its relaxing and just… zen.
Which season (Winter, Summer, Spring, Fall) is your favorite... why?
FALL! Followed closely by summer. Fall in the Midwest is beautiful, and that’s when all the festivals begin! Its cozy. Summer too… mostly because summer is very conducive to good food, due to amazing ingredients, and fun activities.
Other than cooking and/or baking... what hobbies do you enjoy?
Travel, science, reading, decorating with cheap stuff so it looks expensive, google-ing everything, hiking, road biking, kayaking, camping, absorbing all the little moments that make life grand and generally always working towards my goals.
You can visit Tara on her blog Eat, be and see. By teegee

First Daring Cook Ever! May challenge: Ricotta Gnocchi.

2009-05-14T23:05:00.010-04:00

So here is the first ever Daring Cooks challenge! I cant write a lot, Ive got to get to bed, hope you enjoy!

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi
For the gnocchi:
454 grams fresh ricotta (2 cups)

2 large cold eggs

1 T unsalted butter

Lemon zest

½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

¼ t salt

quinoa flour for forming the gnocchi
For the gnocchi sauce:
227 grams butter

Lemon juice

Sage leaves

Step 1: Make the ricotta.

1. Gently simmer one gallon whole milk.

2. Add 1/4 cup white vinegar. Stir. The milk will start to curdle (thats the ricotta). Stain through a cheesecloth lined sieve.

3. Let drain for a couple hours. Then, wrap up the ricotta ball on the cheesecloth and let sit in sieve in fridge overnight. This will drain even more liquid out. You want it REALLY dry.

Step 2: Making the gnocchi dough.
1. To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.
2. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta.
3. Melt the tablespoon of butter. Add it to the ricotta mixture.
4. Add in any flavouring that you’re using (I used lemon zest).
5. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt.
6. Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well).

Step 3: Forming the gnocchi.
1. Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp.
2. In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of quinoa flour that’s ½ an inch deep.
3. With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the centre of your bowl.
4. Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour.
At this point you can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump.
5. Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes.
Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi.
1. Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside.
2. In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other.
3. Once the water is boiling, salt it generously.
4. Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi).
5. Place the skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Swirl it gently a few times as it melts.
6. With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Let brown a little. Remove once lightly browned.

7. Make sauce. Add butter to the gnocchi frying pan. Place sage leaves in butter until slightly fried, then remove to drain. The sage leaves can be crumpled on top of the gnocchi. Add lemon juice and swirl to combine. Pour sauce over gnocchi and top off with a little Parmiggiano-Regiano.

Frying boiled gnocchi.

Lemon gnocchi in a sage lemon butter sauce with crispy sage leaves.

OMG

Im gonna eat you.

Nom nom nom.

Same recipe but with a berry sauce. I just cooked down some blackberries and blueberries.

Blackberry goodness.

Close up.

April Daring Bakers: Cheesecake.

2009-05-01T21:58:00.000-04:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

That was the obligatory blog checking line. Its how the Daring Bakers know we participate. We were allowed to make some changes to the flavors... and I went for it! The original is a simple cheesecake recipe. I usually make one similar to that because fussed up cheesecakes turn me off. No caramel or chocolate or oreos here. Those are all good, just not in my cheesecake! I wanted to dress it up a little so I decided to go with a Goat cheese, lavender and honey cheesecake. Mmmmm. It turned out wonderfully!

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake (Original Recipe):
crust:
180 g graham cracker crumbs
4 oz butter, melted
24 g sugar
1 t vanilla extract

cheesecake:
24 oz room temp cream cheese
210 g sugar
3 large eggs
8 oz heavy cream
1 T lemon juice
Innards of 1 vanilla bean

My recipe:
crust:
30 squares graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter, melted

cheesecake:
1.5 blocks cream cheese, room temp
4 oz goat cheese, room temp
1 pint sour cream, room temp
3 eggs, room temp
2/3 c honey
2 t lemon juice
2 T dried lavender flowers, crushed to a fine powder (got mine at the health food store)
Innards of 1 vanilla bean

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Add cream cheese, goat cheese and sour cream into a bowl and whisk (or beat on low) together. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add honey, vanilla bean scrapings and lemon juice and blend until smooth and creamy. *** Important note: over beating makes cheesecake tough and grainy, kind of like scrambled eggs. You want to minimally mix the cheesecake, and always on low. This way you will get a ridiculously silky cheesecake. remove about 1/3 of the batter, this will be the lavender flavored bit. Add the lavender flowers and a bit of purple food color (optional).
4. Pour non lavender batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Drizzle in the lavender batter on to in a zigzag fashion. Tap again. Pull a toothpick though the top of the cheesecake so it looks streaky. I just did a huge swirly design. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cheesecake to jiggle in the center... like jello sort of. It wont look done to you, trust me. Pull cheesecake out and chill to room temp. Chill in fridge for 4 hours. Eat! It helps to slice it with a knife dipped in HOT water, so you get a nice looking slice.

Ingredients: Vanilla, goat cheese and lavender.

Close up.

More.

The swirly lavendery cheesecake. YUM.

Taste and Create #4: One little Corner of the World.

2009-04-23T19:11:00.006-04:00

I was paired with Katie of One Little Corner of the World. Katie has a very nice blog where she seems to focus on making awesome family meals for her kiddos. I have no kiddos, and I cook for myself... but luckily her blog is chock full of things I can use! Heck yes! I was debating on making wings because she has a "quest for the perfect wing" going. Actually, I am going to try her marinate and grill method this weekend! I ordered my organic chicken wings today! I have a mini-quest going on right now regarding primal cooking. I am trying to get into cheaper and more creative cuts/parts of meat. She has a tongue post that got me thinking "I should really try to make some tongue". I mean if her kids liked it, I should too right? I'm no stranger to strange foods (need I remind you about eating ants and guinea pigs?) but I think the tongue shall wait for another day.

What I decided on was the Montauk Seafood Salad she featured by Ina Garten. She made some tasty additions and changes that I followed and was very happy with! The seafood salad is simply cooked seafood (shrimp, mussels and scallops) in a sauce, zested up with some celery and parsley.

Here is the recipe, with my changes:

Montauk Seafood Salad

Ingredients

1 16-oz bag mixed seafood (from Trader Joes) featuring calamari, shrimp and scallops.
1 shallot, minced

2 T olive oil

2 T avocado oil
1/2 t thyme leaves
1 t minced garlic
2 lemons, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 T white wine vinegar

6 oz fresh mushrooms, quartered
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup medium-diced celery

handful chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Heat oils over medium heat and add shallot. Saute for about 2 min. Add garlic and thyme. Saute for 1 min.

2. Add lemon zest and juice, mustard and vinegar. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add seafood mix and mushrooms, cover. Cook for about 3 mins. Stir and cook for about 3 more mins or until seafood is cooked through.

4. remove the seafood and mushrooms to a dish. Add celery and parsley.

5. The seafood and mushrooms will have released a bit of liquid. Turn heat up to med-high and reduce sauce for a few mins, until about half its original volume. This took about 5 mins for me b/c I used a good, heavy, wide pan.

6. Add sauce over salad, mix and eat!

The salad all finished. Yum yum. All mine.

Look at all that yummy seafood. Just look at it!
Wait... whats this? Mr. Octo-souvenir-magnet man is coming to claim vengeance for his cousins.. the squid who became the calamari. He really is just a power hungry little guy, he wasted to be king of the seafood trifecta. Made a crown out of his cousins. Hmpf. You win this time, sir.

The salad was so light and refreshing... I will definitely be making it again. I could simply add some more veggies and this would become the ultimate primal meal!

Thank you Katie!

Spring, she do officially be here. Kitchen cure time.

2009-04-22T21:01:00.007-04:00

Some pretty Spring pictures to get us started.

Dianthus, one of my fave flowers.

My tootsies in the hammock.

Flowery tree.

My "cake" for my bday (24th). Nilla wafer/pudding/banana trifle thing. YUM.

Now onto the Kitchen Cure! This is a 6 week kitchen clean up! I dont know if I reall need it but I might pick up some good tips. Week 1 Assignment: Clean out fridge and pantry. Well... I already did this a couple weeks ago. Look how on top of things I am!

"Before" fridge. Notice all the cool stuff in there.

After

After in the freezer.

Pantry... believe me, this looks great.

Crock pot pulled pork, ya'll.

2009-04-21T23:37:00.004-04:00

This is a simple and mostly primal non-recipe. It was super easy. Ready?

Crock Pot Pulled Pork
Ingredients
~3 lb pork roast (I get mine from a local farm- no grains in this hog! Organic too.)
1 bottle low carb BBQ sauce (only 3 g carbs per serving!)
Some stock (ham stock if you have it), I used chicken.
2 T Liquid smoke
2 Bay leaves
1 T Cumin
1 T Paprika
Salt

Directions
1. Put roast in crock pot. Add 1/3 cup BBQ sauce over roast. Add liquid smoke, bay, cumin, paprika and stock to cover roast halfway. Add salt if you like it. I added a little beer too, well... because I could! Play around with it!
2. Set on low for about 6-8 hours. Remove roast and let cool until comfortable to handle. Drain liquid from crock pot, reserving about 1/2 cup.
3. Cut into palm sized chunks, and commence pulling apart with your hands! FUN!
4. Put pork back into crock pot, set on high. Add reserved liquid and enough BBQ sauce to make yummy. I used about 3/4 cup. Add salt and pepper to taste. I added a little liquid smoke too, just to give it a little more smoky flavor. Let heat for about 20 minutes or until hot.
5. Done! Active cooking time: 20 mins!

Coleslaw
Ingredients
1 bag coleslaw mix
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup yogurt (I used homemade strained yogurt)
1 T vinegar
1 t lemon juice
salt and pepper

Mix. Eat.

Journey to the south, via paper map. Dont forget the tea, with stevia.

Looks so good!

The best chocolate chip cookies ever!

2009-04-21T21:27:00.008-04:00

Cookies. With chocolate chips in them. Chewy ones. Moist ones. CHEWY ONES!!! I have never been a big fan of cookies myself, but I make a mean cookie (with chocolate chips in it) so why not? I only ate 2 of these... theeeeen I ate 2 more in doughs worth while I was making them. Doh! I eat around the chips. I don't much like chocolate, so the dough is in dangerous territory... while the little chippies can just stroll along without the fear of the Tara-monsters jaws. I have a purpose. You shall see. Lets just dive right in, shall we?

Simplicity itself.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Ingredients

2 1/4 c all purpose flour

1 t salt (i use a little extra b/c salt + choc = yum)

1/2 t baking soda (I use Aluminum free)

1 c butter, melted

3/4 c dark brown sugar

1/4 c white sugar

2 T corn syrup

1 egg

1 egg yolk

seeds from 1 vanilla bean, or 1 t extract

few drops almond extract

1 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Mix melted butter, egg, egg yolk, corn syrup and sugars. Add vanilla and almond extract.

2. Add salt and soda. Add flour in ~1/2 cup increments until well combined.

3. Add chocolate chips.

4. Put dough in refrigerator for at least 2 hours until firm, or overnight.

5. When dough has firmed up, preheat oven to 325F.

6. Spoon dough out onto cookie sheet while dough is cold. You want about 2 tablespoon dollops, spread about 3 inches apart. You can round them out if you like, but I just chucked them onto the pan. I lined my cookie sheet with a silpat, but I would recommend using minimal grease or spray to reduce spreading.

7. Bake for 13-15 mins, or until they look aaaaaalmost done.

8. Let cool for 5 minutes on pan, then slide off onto cooling rack. Be careful with them!

9. Try at least one while still warm and melty.

10. Yum.

Pictures!

Ingredients.

Chocolate and vanilla. Homemade vanilla= 3 beans and some Ciroc vodka to cover. Wait 3 months. Enjoy.
Chippies.
Tower of cookies.
This is what a sunrise should look like.

Look at that. Just look at it!

These chippies survived the Tara-monster's jaws. The first time.

Oh sweet chewy delightfulness.

Cookies an (raw) milk.

There are no words. Well, "om nom nom" might sum it up quite nicely.

Tara-monster's jaws!!! Oh, did I mention I made these for my Orthodontist and his awesome crew? They rock. I'm getting the tooth jewelry off tomorrow so they deserve a treat for dealing with me. They shall get all the cookies I made (minus 2 I ate and 2 the roomie ate).

Go make these. Now! Let me know what you thing of them!

Have a wonderful week.

Spring Catch-up.

2009-04-17T21:14:00.004-04:00

Well this blog entry seems to be all side dishes. AND all Primal-friendly! Just wanted to get some pics out there so I could clear some files. Nothing crazy today...

Veggie stir fry. Zucchini, oyster mushroom, cabbage, carrot, broccoli stem, snap pea, celery. Add a little garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Yum. Rabbit with tomato, onion, cream and parsley.
Zucchini and tomatoes with a little seasonings.

Asparagus and shallots with fennel pollen and a little lemon.

Sauteed veggies with lemongrass.

BLT salad with avocado. Dressing is yogurt, cream and some Mrs Dash table blend. It was quick.

I loooove me some bacon.

Primal dinner.

2009-04-01T19:36:00.002-04:00

So I am still doing the primal thing. Its easier as time goes. I DID cheat for my Bday, but... uh, that's my Bday! I have been pretty good about the diet so I am not too concerned. Surprisingly, it was easy to get back to it after cheating for 2 dinners and 2 desserts. Like, no cravings. Cool! Still need to get a workout plan going.

Anyway here is what I made for dinner the other night: Mexican grilled smelts, grilled leeks, grilled portabellas, roasted peppers and tomatoes and a little avocado and lime. All with chimichurri aka the best stuff on Earth!!!

Smelts are just small fish. That's all. I ate the bones and stuff b/c well... they aren't super bone-like. Just chew really well, or pick around them. I marinated them in a salt free Mexican spice blend I picked up at the health food store. then just grilled them.

Chimichurri is a sauce that originated from Argentina. I made a little change to mine and added a couple grilled tomatillos. Because I like them. And I can.

Chimichurri recipe by me
Large handful parsley
Large handful cilantro
2 grilled tomatillos
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c EVOO
Juice of 1 lime
3 T red wine vinegar (or enough to make it saucy... consistency AND appeal, haha)
Salt and pepper
Chili powder to taste

1. Put parsley, cilantro, tomatillos, garlic, oil and lime juice in food processor. Process.
2. Add vinegar until you get a thick sauce.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste, and however much chili powder you desire. For me, it was like... 1ug. I'm a wimp.
4. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. If it lasts that long.

I put this on EVERYTHING. Even my eggs in the morning. Its so tasty.

Spread.

Close up of mushrooms, avo and lime.
Blurry pic of peppers and tomato.

Smelt.

Chimichurri... guarded by dinosaurs! Rawr!

Vanilla everywhere!

2009-04-01T19:11:00.003-04:00

I got 1 lb of Vanilla! Woot! I am splitting it with a friend. Fun fun:

Going to make extract.

And cakes.

And custards.

And Ice cream.

I love you, vanilla.

Taste & Create #3: Ruths Kitchen Experiments.

2009-04-01T18:35:00.005-04:00

Well its time for another Taste and Create! Its something I have done a couple times and I plan to keep it up. Its a really fun and a very cool way to see what people in other parts of the country/world are cooking! This month I was paired with Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. The girl has some cool recipes and it was very difficult trying to force myself away from making the Lemon and Blackcurrant Cake or the Victoria Sandwich Cake (with LOTS of IMBC) or these Mince Pies (I know its not Christmas time anymore but they look sooo good)! I decided to make something meat based because, unfortunately, the cakes and pastry don't really match with my primal diet. I chose Aloha Chicken. It looked interesting and used some flavors I would never put together so I tried it.

I am happy I got to this because I had the FLU!!! Listen, I always say I never get sick and then BAM... the flu. Started feeling bad Friday (Mar 20) then was pasted in bed Sat, Sun, Mon and Tue with a 103F fever and sleeping 20 hours a day. Wed it was 102F. Thu, Fri and Sat I was super tired but no fever. By Monday (9 days later) I was back to normal. I dont think I have ever had the flu. It was horrible. I thought my head was going to explode and went to the doc to make sure I didnt have meningitis... or mono. All better now though, just in time for my Bday!

Aloha Chicken
650g Chicken breast (or 3 chicken breasts)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice (I used pineapple tidbits)
2 tbsp dark brown soft sugar

Recipe
1. Mix all ingredients. Place chicken in bag and pour mixture over.
2. Marinade in fridge overnight.
3. Place in a 9x13 baking dish and place into a 400F oven.
4. Bake for about 40 mins.
5. Enjoy! I served it wih some pineapple, onion, pepper and tomato kebobs.

Verdict: I really liked it, but I would leave the cinnamon out next time! I decreased it a little, but it still gave a flavor that wasnt super compatible with the Hawaiian flavor.

Thanks Ruth!!!

Happy Pi Day.

2009-03-14T23:26:00.002-04:00

3.14159265348979323846246433832

That how much of pi I remember offhand. I dont even know if that is correct!

Well I wish I had a pie for you on pi day, but alas... I did not cook a pie. Or a cake. Or even anything circular.

Here's to hoping you had some delicious pie on pi day!

Almost primal dinner... not so primal dessert.

2009-03-09T11:46:00.006-04:00

Since I have committed to being primal (Well, aaaalmost... I still drink raw milk and eat raw cheese but that's better than the reg stuff. I eat a lot less now than I did, but I'm not supposed to have it at all. Take away breads and sugar and all that but don't effing touch my cheese!) I have eased into it. I still eat fruits and sometimes some beans or sweet potatoes or banana, but it still puts me in the under 80g a day area so its cool. Getting rid of refined stuff was easy... too easy...? Usually, no carbs besides veg, fruit and milk. I do participate in the DB Challenges still, but I usually give the goodies away. I dont have a big sweet tooth, its always been like that. These pics are from a while ago, as I am trying to put up all my back-logged stuff.

So, here are a couple mostly primal dinners for you and a def not primal dessert.

Duck with blueberry-orange sauce, roasted blood oranges, sweet potato latkes and asparagus.
Got the idea from Jennifer McLagan's book Fat. Its a book all about using animal fats to cook, which is way better than veg oil. Lots of great recipes and ideas. I recommend you check it out!
Her recipe features duck breast with blackberries. Well, duck beast is expensive, so I went with legs. Also I have a big Tupperware in the freezer full of blueberries from last year so I used some of those. I never follow recipes anyway, I just use them for ideas.

Duck legs, ready to score (with a very sharp knife).

Blueberries out of the freezer. Starting blueberry sauce, saute shallots.

Grated sweet potato, egg whites, coconut flour and cardamom for the latkes.
Seared duck.

Sauce coming together.

Roasted blood oranges with salt and pepper.

Duck leg covered in orange-blueberry sauce, roasted blood oranges, sweet potato latkes

with sour cream and asparagus cooked with a little lemon and pepper.

Now onto the not primal dessert I made this with a friend in mind who was going through a difficult time. It was very good (yeah I had a bite) and still featured the orange-bluberry theme, haha.

Orange and blueberry bread pudding with slivered almonds.

The last primal dinner of this post. Got the idea from Use Real Butter when she did this with boursin. I had goat cheese so I used that.

Goat cheese, basil and spinach chicken with mushrooms, broccoli and asparagus (with homemade butter).

Review: Tim Tam (Slam)!

2009-03-03T15:50:00.002-05:00

If you have not discovered Tim Tams, GO OUT RIGHT NOW TO FIND THEM! They are only available at Target (tar-jay) so hit up your local Target and do yourself a favor. These are now my favorite cookie! Thank you, Australia!

Tim Tam Slam: Also known as the TIM TAM Suck or TIM TAM Bomb. Grab a Tim Tam and a warm drink (coffee, milo or tea). Nibble both ends off the biscuit and use it as a straw for your drink. When its saturated, quickly SLAM it in your gob before it falls apart. It can get kinda messy, but who cares when it tastes that GOOD! <--- True story.

Yours truly performing a Tim Tam Slam, but with milk... yeah I know I look like I have an extra chromosome. I cant help it.

Britny doing the same. Roffles.

Packaging.
Choc on left, caramel on right.
YUMMMM.

So I know I am on the Primal blueprint, but sometimes you just have to eat three cookies when you find out they are on limited release in the USA. I don't stray very often with my food, (though looking at my blog you would think I am heading straight down the diabetes highway) I usually get my carbs through fruit and milk (ah mi gawd I love milk), and maybe once every couple weeks I eat a cookie. Or a small slice of bday cake. Not too bad. Easy to keep going because I don't flip out about it. Now I just need to work out. Hmph. Back to the cookies...

The cookies are super yummy. I thought I would like the caramel ones better but the choc ones were simple and tasty. Plus when you're doing a Tim Tam Slam with something cold (i.e. milk) the caramel in the middle gets all hard. I should have learned my lesson with Hobnobs...

Tim Tam = Yum Num.

Caramel Sauce: How to?

2009-03-02T15:24:00.000-05:00

Caramel Sauce! For my February Daring Bakers Challenge I made a caramel sauce to go with the cake we made. I thought I would show how to make it.

Caramel Sauce
1.5 c sugar
2 T H2O
2 T butter
3/4 c heavy cream
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1. Heat sugar and water in a pan over medium heat, swirling occasionally. DO NOT STIR: if you stir the sugar could re-crystallize and you will end up with something like this (Dave really is a great cook, but don't stir it. Don't.).
2. When the sugar melts it should be about the consistency of clear maple syrup. It will turn brown. This happens very fast, and it will burn if you aren't vigilant. Once you see a little teeny hint of brown do not leave it alone. Just gently swirl the pan. When its a dark amber color add the butter. Stir gently (okay, NOW you can stir). Remove from heat.
3. Add the heavy cream and stir. It will bubble a lot, so be careful.
4. Add vanilla and salt.
5. Done. Store in fridge and just microwave when you're ready for it to be warm and gooey. Its pretty simple but for a more detailed description go here.

Sugar melted and liquid.

First hint of color. After about 30 seconds.

Another few seconds.

And another few seconds.

Add the butter, remove from heat, then add the cream.

Stirring it in.

Yummy nummy sauce. Add the vanilla and the salt. Done.

Closeup of finished sauce being drizzled.

February Daring Bakers... Chocolate Valentino!

2009-02-27T23:18:00.008-05:00

Back for another Daring Bakers Challenge! This month we are doing a flourless chocolate cake aka chocolate valentino.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
What is in a flourless chocolate cake you ask? Well, there is chocolate... butter... and eggs. The end. That's it?! Yes, that's it. Really. Now I am not going to lie... I was totally prepared to HATE this cake. I really don't like chocolate and this is just too much. Buuut upon making the cake I decided it didn't totally suck. I decided I would make a caramel sauce because chocolate and caramel is a nice pairing, no? Then I got a little nuts. I made roasted banana ice cream, thinking caramel and banana= bananas foster= yum. So that's cool. Chocolate cake, roasted banana ice cream and caramel sauce. Simple and tasty. Then I decided I wanted in on this bacon-in-sweet-things action. I made bacon ice cream too. So chocolate cake, bacon ice cream and caramel sauce. well it sound like it should work right? Oh and did I mention I cant eat egg yolks? Read on...

Chocolate Valentino from DB
454 g (1lb) chocolate, roughly chopped
146 g of unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated
1. Put chocolate and butter in a bowl. Nuke in microwave for 1 minute bursts until smooth and melty.
2. While your chocolate and butter mixture is cooling, butter you baking pan (I used 4 oz Apilco ramekins).
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put the whites into a large bowl and the yolks into a small bowl.
4. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. Stir the yolks with a fork until runny and lighter.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter (some white really is okay).
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F for 12 minutes (for the ramekins).
9. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then carve around edges with a SHARP knife and unmold.

Roasted Banana Ice Cream
3 bananas, cut into 1 in pieces
1/3 c brown sugar
2 c half and half
1/2 vanilla pod, scraped
2 t lemon juice
1. Heat oven to 400F.
2. Toss bananas and brown sugar together, then spread in a baking dish.
3. Roast for about 25 min, stirring halfway trough.
4. Scrape bananas and all the sugary, sticky goodness into blender. Blend.
5. Add half and half, vanilla seeds and lemon juice and blend until smooth.
6. Freeze according to your ice cream maker.
*If you don't have an ice cream maker you could add some brandy (2-4 Tablespoons-ish) to this and put in a shallow dish. Place the dish in your freezer and pull out every 30 min and beat with a handheld mixer. Tedious, but it works. The -OH keeps huge ice crystals from forming.
7. Put in freezer!

Bacon Brittle Ice cream
1/2 lb bacon (preferably thick cut), diced
2 T brown sugar
1 T butter
1/4 c maple syrup
2 c half and half
1/2 vanilla pod, scraped
2 T brandy
1. Prepare bacon for its ice cream adventure. Fry up the diced bacon until crispy. Drain well. Set aside.
2. Heat brown sugar and butter in microwave (1 min bursts) until it makes a caramely like sauce. 3. Stir in about 2/3 of the bacon and pour mixture into a greased plate or cookie sheet. Let cool.
4. While bacon brittle is cooling, make your ice cream. Mix half and half, maple syrup, vanilla seeds and brandy in a bowl.
5. Freeze according to your ice cream maker.
6. While ice cream is freezing, chop up the cooled bacon brittle.
7. When Ice cream is nearly done freezing add bacon brittle and the 1/3 you saved before (that wasn't added to the brittle).
8. Chuck in freezer in a well-sealed container.

Caramel Sauce
1.5 c sugar
2 T H2O
2 T butter
3/4 c heavy cream
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1. Heat sugar and water in a pan over medium heat, swirling occasionally. DO NOT STIR (will cause your sugar to eff up... just don't do it).
2. When the sugar melts and turns brown (happens really fast) add the butter and stir a little (okay, NOW you can stir). Remove from heat.
3. Add the heavy cream and stir. It will bubble a lot, so be careful.
4. Add vanilla and salt.
4. Done. Store in fridge and just microwave when youe ready for it to be warm and gooey. Its pretty simple but for a more detailed description go here.

Banana ice cream in foreground, bacon in background.

Mmmmm caramel sauce...
I wanted to represent the ingredients. You all are lucky I didn't throw
a strip of bacon in the background for good measure!
Bacon Brittle Ice Cream

Roasted Banana Ice Cream

Inside of de cake.

CAKE- Now I would like to say that I did have a bite of the cake. I used dark chocolate (not super dark) and did not add any sugar, and surprisingly, I liked it! I still don't think I could eat even one whole little cake, its still A LOT of chocolate. More and more though, I think its the ridiculous amount if sugar in chocolate things that I don't like. I don't have big sweet tooth (salt tooth anyone?) so maybe that's it? Maybe my tastes are changing and I am just beginning to dig the stuff. Who knows? I would much prefer a fruity dessert to a chocolaty one still. Oh and did I mention that I will be making myself a yolk-free one soon? We'll have to see how that affects it. My body refuses to digest yolks, so I cant eat the cake. One little bite is okay though... ;) As far as chocolate desserts go, molten chocolate cakes win, but this wasnt bad... just too much for me.

ICE CREAM- The roasted banana was awesome!!! If you like bananas foster it tastes like that... but ice cream! Seriously Im going to spoon some out of the freezer right now... lol. The bacon ice cream was good too, but it had that hint of salty/sweet and maple flavor as well. More complex than the banana for sure. I would maybe serve it with something less in-your-face like this cake is. Maybe with a simple apple pie it would work? The choc just competes too much with it, flavor wise. But still... its bacon. Bacon ice cream. Insta-love.

My cheap set up...

Rainbow Cake.

2009-02-23T17:43:00.011-05:00

My Step-Sister/Roomie/BFFs Bday was last weekend. I wanted to do something awesome for the cake, because at this point my family just expects me to do all the baking and make it grand to boot. I guess I dug that hole myself. Oh well, I wouldn't have it any other way. So Britny is the kind of person that will eat frozen pizzas for every meal given the choice. Its hard to accept sometimes, me being a foodie and all. This is why I didn't feel bad using a boxed mix. Cue family reacting in horror as they discover I used a boxed cake mix (thanks guys). I got the idea from Omnomicon (Jan 7, 2009 post... for some reason my hyperlink isn't working right now. Grrrr). I followed the directions on the box though, no WW for me.

Rainbow cake
1 box Duncan Hines french vanilla cake mix, prepared

1. Prepare cake mix according to the the package. I divided the cake mix into 6 colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet (ROYBV). No indigo here, sorry indigo. I used my scale to weigh the prepared batter, and decided I needed about 6.5 oz for each color so I would have an equal amount per color. Weighed out 6.5 oz into cups and set aside. Well, the last one had like 5 oz b/c I decided I needed to eat some batter. What?
2. Mix the colors according to how dark you want them in each cup. I used Wilton color pastes b/c you only have to use a little teeny bit to get a lot of color. ***Please ohmigod please make sure you get 'Wilton TASTE FREE red'. If not your cake may taste like... plastic. Do it. For me. We discovered this the hard way when making red rice krispy treats for valentine's.
3. Pour half the mix in one pan and half in the other in order (ROYGBV). Just pour in, tap the pan once to spread it and pour the next in the center. Repeat.
4. Bake according to the instructions.

Frosting
4 oz butter, room temp
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 t vanilla

1. Cream butter and cream cheese.
2. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time and blend.
3. Add vanilla.
4. If too thin add a little more sugar, if too thick add a little milk.
5. Cover and set aside, we want it to be room temp for spreading.

Assembly:
1. After the cake has cooled, cut off the domed tops and feed scraps to nearby children/pets/self.
2. Put first layer on cake plate, cut side up and spread with frosting. Place second cake layer on the frosted first layer, cut side down. You will have a "cake sammie" with the two cut sides in the middle. This is so the cake will be ice and flat once its frosted.
3. Apply crumb coat. It will be thin and transparent but its sole purpose is to trap [rainbow] crumbs so they don't litter your beautiful frosting like a Jackson Pollock painting. Refrigerate cake for 2-4 hours, until crumb coat is hard.
4. Frost the rest of the cake to your heart's desire. I left the frosting white because I though it was a nice contrast to the inside. But, you know... its your cake so do whatever you want!
5. Enjoy.

Cups of color.

Done.

Batter in pan to show the way to pour it.

Assembled cake + colored sprinkles + candles that burn in a color = rainbow fun.

The caaake! The purple you cant see so well in the pic.

The Harry Potter cake plate. Again. :)
And then I got her a rainbow balloon octopus!
Made by this guy at The Organ and Kidney Donation Benefit I attended.

Taste & Create #2: Passion + Love + Patience = Good Food.

2009-02-23T16:55:00.005-05:00

Well, here I am continuing the T&C trades! I really enjoy doing it. I missed the Dec/Jan one because I was in Ecuador, not gonna lie... I'm not too sad about the trade! But here I am stateside again and its time to get back to all my stateside things. Sooo, here for the 2nd T&C I was paired with Shilpa of Passion + Love + Patience = Good Food. I was originally going to do the Cauliflower Curry recipe, but I logged on again to get the recipe and saw a green curry recipe. It seemed so fresh and vibrant with herbs and it featured one of my fave things: coconut milk. So my mind changed , fast. Dory Green Fish Curry. I did everything the same except I substituted in zucchini for the fish. Why? I don't know, it sounded good and I like zucchini. A mild veg to really let the curry shine through.

Zucchini Green Curry
1 big yellow onion, chopped
2 zucchini, sliced
8-10 sprigs of parsley leaves
8-10 sprigs of basil leaves
3 sprigs of mint leaves
3 green chillies (I left this out because I am wimpy with de spice)
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
coconut milk
salt to taste

Method:
1. In a blender, blend coriander, basil and mint. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Fry onions till it starts turning light brown.
3. Add ginger garlic paste. Fry for 1 or 2 mins.
4. Add the zucchini and fry for 1 or 2 mins.
5. Add the blended mixture and cook for 1 or 2 mins on low-medium flame.
6. Add the coconut milk for the consistency you desire. Cook on low-medium flame for about 4 mins.

Curry, done. The daffodils were blooming so I had to include them!

Close up, with a little extra coconut milk.

Mmmmmm...

I really liked this. It was super simple and very tasty. I love that. Minimal effort for max flavor. I suspect you could add anything to it, while keeping the sauce the same. Yum.

Thanks Shilpa!

Craftiness in the kitchen.

2009-02-13T14:30:00.001-05:00

Here's a really neat little idea for kitchen decorating. Use coat hangers to make book hangers! I am a big fan of using cheap stuff for decorations, especially since I am in college (almost done). I like nice/cute/eclectic things so this works for me. I decided to showcase some books that were neat in their ideas, art or general look. It doesn't matter if I use them b/c I will just pull them off the hangers. No biggie.

Finished wall o' books.

Side view. You can see my later versions in the foreground and my earlier tries in the background. Plus, I MIGHT have been a little distracted b/c I was watching V for Vendetta while bending the hangers.

Side view of a finished hanger.

Front view. I got plastic covered hangers from my local store.

Not perfect though...

A great book! I just got it and I love it! I have already made a recipe from it (to be posted later). I really boils down to eating REAL FOOD.

Oh, Jaime. Good recipes, with combos I would not have thought of.

Some more of my cookbooks in the kitchen. There are more still in the office. I have a lot of books...

Enchiladas, 2 ways.

2009-01-31T12:05:00.002-05:00

As you all may have guessed I never (well, 98% of the time) measure ingredients. For me, cooking is about feel and flavor. Put things together you like. Try new stuff. It will probably be tasty, but maybe it will need refining. No problem. Try again. That's the fun about it. I decided to stray a little from my cooking mantra and make some enchiladas with a tomatillo salsa (Ive never made that before). Still though, recipes are just a guide. More for me to keep track of what I need to buy so I don't forget something at the store. Here we have "The Recipe Way" for which I sort of followed the recipe as a guideline, basically eyeball all measurements and add and subtract ingredients when I want. Case in point: I like onions so I added more of those, but I am a HUGE WIMP when it comes to spicy food, so I took everything spicy out. And we have "The Tara Way" which means I make it with what I have...?

THE RECIPE WAY:
AKA green enchiladas.
The recipe was spawned from reading the other Tara's food blog, Tara the Foodie. I came across the blog a while ago, and really love the pictures she posts with everything, and the liberal use of Mexican ingredients (one of my faves). She gives the recipe as Tyler Florence's. Check her blog out, its worth a look.

Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa:
1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered
4 garlic cloves
~~2 jalapenos~~ tooo spicy
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 lime, juiced
Enchiladas:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock, storebought
Chopped cilantro leaves
1 deli roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, meat shredded
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
10 large flour tortillas
1/2 pound Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
2 cups sour cream
Chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves, for garnish
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

For the salsa: On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.

Enchiladas: Meanwhile heat a 2 count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized - this should take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for a further minute. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn't burn then gradually add the chicken stock to make a veloute. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens. Turn off the heat, add half of the roasted tomatillo chile salsa, some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Change the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and begin assembling the dish. Take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa. Now take the flour tortillas and briefly flash them over the stove-top flame (or put them briefly under the broiler if using an electric stove). Using a shallow bowl, coat each tortilla lightly with the reserved salsa mix. Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix on top of the tortilla followed by a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll like a cigar to enclose it. Using a spatula place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all the tortillas. Finally pour over some more of the salsa and top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Garnish, cilantro and tomato.

While chopping, don't forget eye protection from the evil sulfuric acid! These are my old chemistry goggles. Safety first.

Tomatillos, red onion, white onion and garlic.

After roasting, blend with cilantro and cumin to make your salsa.
The veloute (one f the 4 french mother sauces... all pretty easy so don't get scared). Basically a roux with stock or broth added. If we added milk it would be a bechamel sauce. Roux+ _____= a mother sauce.
Roaster chicken from the deli that I shredded. Save the carcass for stock!
Veloute, chicken and tomatillo salsa. The saucy deliciousness... mmmm.
Filling the enchiladas using flour tortillas, sauce and cheese.
Put in pan and cover with more tomatillo salsa.

Cover with cheese. I <3>Here I am making a black bean and con dish Ive made like a million times: Saute red onion, add roasted red pepper, corn, cilantro, lime juice and rinsed canned black beans. Consume.

Enchiladas after baking.

Black bean side.

Condiments: tomato, sour cream, cilantro, avocado, tomatillo salsa and chopped banana pepper.

The meal: rice, beans and enchiladas. Carb heaven.

THE TARA WAY:

AKA don't use a recipe

some (2 lbs-ish) chicken

1 bell pepper, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 zucchini, cut into large matchsticks

1 pkt low sodium taco seasoning

1 T-ish cumin

couple scoops of sofrito

1 small can chopped green chiles (available at a latin market or the international section of your grocery)

1/2 c-ish cilantro, chopped

1 can tomato sauce

corn tortillas

8 oz cheddar cheese

Garnish: avocado, sour cream, green onions, cilantro, lime wedges, tomato...

Cook chicken (however you want), remove and shred or chop, then set aside. Cook onions, zucchini and bell peppers until onions are almost translucent. Add taco seasoning, cumin, sofrito and green chiles. Cook for a couple min. Add chicken. Add cilantro right before use.

Pour 1/2 can tomato sauce in a 9x13 pan and spread out. Put about a 1/4 cup of filling into a corn tortilla and fold over then place in pan, seam side down. Repeat until pan is full. I can usually fit 8-10 in. Top with rest of tomato sauce and then cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350F until cheese is melty and slightly golden, about 20-30 min. Consume!

Filling.

Rolling...

After baking... one exploded. It happens sometimes w/ corn tortillas.

Plated with lime, cilantro, avocado and sour cream. Maybe enjoy with a horchata?

The Sweet 100

2009-01-30T19:53:00.005-05:00

Inspired by the omnivore's 100, here is the sweet 100!

1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten--or make them a different type color.
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat.
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.
5) Optional: Post a comment here linking to your results--or just post a comment letting us know how many you've tried, or what you're going to try next!

Ive had 57/100 of these. I should really just cross them all out though, since now I am PBing it... I really shouldnt have ANY of these!

Red Velvet Cake
Princess Torte
Whoopie Pie
Apple Pie with sharp cheddar
Beignet
Baklava
Black and white cookie
Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
Kringle
Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
Scone with clotted cream LOVE THEM!
Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
Halvah
Macarons
Banana pudding with nilla wafers
Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls")
Dixie Cup
Rice Krispie treats
Alfajores
Blondies
Croquembouche
Girl Scout cookies
Moon cake
Candy Apple
Baked Alaska
Brooklyn Egg Cream
Nanaimo bar
Baba au rhum
King Cake
Sachertorte
Pavlova
Tres Leches Cake
Trifle
Shoofly Pie
Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
Panna Cotta again, LOVE it!!
New York Cheesecake
Napoleon / mille-fueille
Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake See xmas cookie post
Anzac biscuits
Pizzelle
Kolache
Buckeyes
Malasadas
Moon Pie
Dutch baby see Taste and Create post
Boston Cream Pie
Homemade chocolate chip cookies
Pralines
Gooey butter cake
Rusks
Daifuku
Green tea cake or cookies
Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
Crème brûlée I DO have a kitchen torch... lol.
Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
Jelly Roll
Pop Tarts
Charlotte Russe
An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
Hummingbird Cake
Jell-O from a mold
Black forest cake
Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
Kulfi
Linzer torte
Churro I LOVE churros
Stollen
Angel Food Cake
Mincemeat pie
Concha
Opera Cake see opera cake post
Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
Pain au chocolat
A piece of Gingerbread House
Cassata
Cannoli
Rainbow cookies
Religieuse
Petits fours
Chocolate Souffle
Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
Rugelach
Hamenstashen
Homemade marshmallows
Rigo Janci
Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
Divinity
Coke or Cola cake
Gateau Basque
S'mores
Figgy Pudding
Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
Joe Froggers
Sables
Millionaire's Shortbread
Animal crackers
Basbousa

January Daring Bakers... Tuiles!

2009-01-29T00:00:00.010-05:00

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Go to The Daring Bakers!

Okay so that was the obligatory blog-checking line, I hope? Well anyway we get to make tuiles! Ive been wanting to make these for a while now, but I had simply added then to the "later" category in the back of my head! Well... now! Ordinarily tuiles are quite simple, but I had to crazy it up! These kinds of challenges are my favorite kind, there is a lot of freedom and it does not involve chocolate! A baker not liking chocolate? I know, I know.

I really wanted to do something in season fruit-wise, so I chose blood oranges! I love me some blood oranges. The first time I ever had them I was in Sicily and ordered a glass of fresh blood orange juice. Yum. Well, hope you think these are creative! My additions are in red.

Sweet tuiles: Cardamom tuiles with coconut mousse and blood orange jellies.
Savory tuiles: Marmite tuiles with avocado mousse and flaked salmon.

Sweet Tuiles from “The Chocolate Book” by Angélique Schmeinck
65 g softened butter
60 g sifted confectioner’s sugar
~~1 sachet vanilla sugar~~ dash vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 t cardamom powder
65 g sifted AP flour
Oven: 350F
Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an offset spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Bake in a preheated oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still very warm, so place the baking sheet on a pulled out oven rack and shape while in front and slightly inside the oven.

Coconut Mousse by me
1/2 c heavy cream
1 T sugar
dash coconut extract
1.5 T unsweetened coconut flake
Whip cream, add sugar and extract then add coconut.

Blood Orange Jellies by me
1 c blood orange juice, strained of all pulp
1 T sugar
1 packet gelatin
Bloom gelatin on blood orange juice for 10 min. Microwave in 10 second bust and stir until dissolved. Add sugar, dissolve. Pour into am 8in round cake pan and plane in refrigerator overnight. Cut into 1/4 in cubes with a very sharp knife.

For the sweet ones I made a square stencil (from a cardboard milk carton) and when they were done baking I folded three corners in and left one flat. Pipe in coconut mousse and decorate with blood orange jellies. Garnish with blood orange segments and coconut. Pretty simple. These are wonderful little cookies and simple! The stenciling takes the most time but after you get the hang of it is no biggie.

Savory Tuiles from "The French Laundry Cookbook" by Thomas Keller
65 g AP flour
1 T plus 1 t sugar
~~1 t kosher salt~~ 1 T marmite
114 g unsalted butter, softened
2 large egg whites
~~2 tablespoons black sesame seeds~~
Oven: 400F
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the softened butter until it is completely smooth and mayonnaise-like in texture. Using a stiff spatula or spoon, beat the egg whites into the dry ingredients until completely incorporated and smooth. Whisk in the softened butter by thirds, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary and whisking until the batter is creamy and without any lumps. Place Silpat on the counter (it is easier to work on the Silpat before it is put on the sheet pan). Place the stencil in one corner of the sheet and, holding the stencil flat against the Silpat, scoop some of the batter onto the back of an offset spatula and spread it in an even layer over the stencil. Then run the spatula over the entire stencil to remove any excess batter. Place the Silpat on a heavy baking sheet and bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until the batter is set and you see it rippling from the heat. The cornets may have browned in some areas, but they will not be evenly browned at this point. Open the oven door and place the baking sheet on the door (this will help keep the cornets warm as you roll them and prevent them from becoming too stiff to roll).

Avocado Mousse by me
1/2 c heavy cream
1/2 mashed avocado
1 t lemon juice
Whip cream and add mashed avo and lemon juice. Add a dash of white pepper and salt to taste. Whip for 10 more seconds to combine.

For these I simply made a circle stencil and when they were cooked I put then into a mini-muffin tin to for nice ripples. I am GLAD I chose these to do round b/c they are finicky as hell! They will over cook so fast in the oven, I wasted a whole pan of then b/c they got too done. They are harder to shape if they are over done. I feel the amount of butter is excessive, so I added more flour and they were still oily when they were done. I know the butter:flour ratio is such maybe to offset the lack of sugar in the savory recipe, but man! Oh well it worked out well in the end. I just piped in the mousse and put a piece of salmon on top, garnished with smoked paprika.

Now for the pics!

Blood oranges.

Stenciling the sweet tuiles.

See how thin they are?
Assembly of the sweet tuiles. Be careful! Yes, that is an ice cube tray! Lol.
Sweet tuiles done!
I had to showcase the insane amount of snow we got.

Close up. Yummm,

Savory tuiles.

Close up.

Xmas cookies.

2009-01-28T20:05:00.006-05:00

So I know Im a month late but here are the Xmas cookies! I guess its more of a pictorial since I dont feel like writing much.

Betty Crocker cookbook from 1974.

"Russian Teacakes" = "Round Powdered Cookie Rounds" Thats the name from my childhood, and it still sticks. One of my fave memories is cooking these with my Mama.

The infamous "Round Powdered Cookie Rounds" (aka mexican wedding cakes).
Jams I made this past summer with seasonal fruits! Kumquat Marmalade, Blueberry Jam, Apricot Jam, Raspberry Jam (no pic) and Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam.

Nori Shortbreads inspired by David Lebovitz. I actually used Furikake.

Earl Grey and Clementine Shortbreads

Double Ginger Cookies. Chewy and yummy!

Old Fashioned Fruitcake Muffins. LOTS of brandy was involved.

Rolling the Anise Scented Fig and Date SwirlsAfter chilling, slicing and cooking. These were reeeaaally good.

Limoncello.

Cute bottles.

Ecuador, Dec 2008.

2009-01-12T13:18:00.013-05:00

Well I went to Ecuador on a school trip. It was the most awesome thing I have ever done! I have been to Europe 2x and this was significantly more fun and rewarding. We stayed at TBS, Tiputini Biodiversity Station. Its a research station so there were a few researchers down there while we were there. I met some awesome people (Jose, Santiago, Ramiro, Diego, Shawn, Bejat, Erin, Michele) and did sooo many awesome things:

Piraña fishing
Turtle egg hunting
Walks in the rainforest
Canopy tower
Nighttime caiman hunt
Float trips down the river
Seeing the monkeys right outside our bunks
Butterfly swarms in the Vball court
Tattoo fruit
Lake tour
Dock at night to look at the stars
Saw loooots of animals and plants and insects...

I'm sure I am forgetting stuff, but Ill edit accordingly. Some things I'm glad to leave behind include: not being able to flush TP, wearing bug spray all the effing time, not wearing makeup (I'm ashamed to admit) because I looked a hot mess down there, being suspicious of the fruit, veg and H2O all the time (damn you little microbes), not eating so many carbs (though I do LOVE me some fried plantain) and being able to use the bathroom in private (the bathroom was just screened away from the bunks, sooo yeah).

Despite all the things I am glad to have back, I will miss 10-fold more things. From the people (who I will see again, sometime) to the learning Spanish everyday to the simple little WOP frogs. It was simply the most amazing and different place Ive eve been, and the allure to return is strong. I feel like I may have finally found my happy place.

Oh and please be aware of the devastation oil drilling causes, Ecuador is losing its native rainforest at an extremely rapid pace, and I fear that someday some will not be able to see what I have been lucky enough to. Its truly heartbreaking stuff, that makes me pissed and feel helpless at the same time.

This is the view of the Tiputini River from a hill. This is where we stayed. Beautiful.

We went on a canopy walkway. It was super fun, but there were lots of ants and sweat bees or other various insects of annoyance. A lot more here than in the understory it seems.
View from a canopy tower.
Pretty pic. Me jumping into the Tiputini! I stayed in for about an hour, just floating and being amazed at where I was!
Pic (credit to Sarah) of a tree right before a storm.

Turtle eggs were harvested to take back to the station and hatch.
On to the FOOD! Me eating lemon ants! They are very small, so there was no weird moving-in-my-mouth sensation. Just bursts of lemon! Those little black dots on my hand are the ants.
Tacos for dinner. One of the dinners I enjoyed more.
Snot grenade! I loved these! More of a novelty, the flavor isn't much.
Cuy. AKA guinea pig. Its traditional to eat in Ecuador and Peru (probably other countries as well). I thought it tasted good but the meat was oily, and not just from the frying. I would have it again though in a different preparation.

Coca tea. AKA mate de coca. Used to help alleviate altitude sickness symptoms (I was lucky I didn't have any). We stayed in Quito for a couple days and the elevation is ~9,300 feet so some were suffering. We're from an elevation of ~700 feet. Tea tastes like a cross between chamomile and green tea. I just like it.

View of the Andes from Quito.

Verdict on the food: I would have liked more traditional food at the station, but Im told most people want something they can recognize, so Im in the minority there. I love food al together, but Americanized food is bastardized. We take perfectly good cuisine from other countries and eff it up so much! Ugh. Anyway, the food there was good, but traditional is preferred. I know Im a food snob. I cant help it. Sorry.

WOP!!!

Indian meal, in pictures.

2009-01-06T18:15:00.010-05:00

MENU:

Vegetable-coconut curry

Veg pakora

Aloo tikki

Rice (no pic)

Naan (no pic)

Tamarind date chutney

Mango lassi

Rice Pudding with coconut and cardamom (no pic)

Making the tamarind-date chutney.

Making paneer.

Weigh it down.

Frying the pakora.

Finished pakora.

Aloo tikki... I LOVE THESE.

Really baaad pic of the raita.

Mango lassi. Delicious.

1.5 c yogurt

2 ripe mangoes, peeled and seeded

1/2 - 3/4 c water

1 t rosewater

honey to taste

Mix with a hand blender or blender. Serve very cold, I like it over ice.

Veggie curry.

Made with paneer, raisins, lots of veg (whatever you want) and a coconut curry sauce.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-19T16:10:00.008-05:00

Well here it is! Thanksgiving day menu and pics! I went to Ecuador 2 days after Tday, so I'm just now getting around to posting this! Hope you all enjoy, and maybe get some ideas for next year! I made this for 10 people, and we still had some leftovers! Perfect size! Please email me or commen if you would like recipes (better than I have posted) or Qs!

MENU
Appetizer
Roasted pumpkin and goat cheese dip served w/ garlic croutons.
Salad
Shaved asparagus salad with cranberries, chicory, roasted pecans and lemon vinaigrette.
Main
Apple and onion roasted turkey with an herbed compound butter.
Sides
Shelley's mashed potatoes (family brought).
Shaved brussel spouts with crispy bacon, red onions and apple cider vinegar.
Fresh green bean casserole with a baby bella mushroom cream sauce.
Sausage and cornbread dressing.
Sweet potato rolls.
Condiments
Cranberry compound butter.
Pan gravy with bouquet garni.
Dessert
Pumpkin cake layered with chestnut mousse, iced with Italian meringue buttercream and served with maple ice cream.

RECIPES
Appetizer: Pumpkin/ goat cheese dip w/ garlic croutons.
Clean a sugar pumpkin, remove seeds. Roast until soft @ 350F, then scrape out insides. The shell will be sturdy and you will use this for presentation. Add 6 oz goat cheese and 3 roasted garlic cloves to the pumpkin pulp. Mix up, add salt and pepper to taste, and f needed add a little milk to thin it out. Should be texture of hummus. For the croutons: buy a baguette and slice into 1/2'' slices, toast in oven. When done remove and rub with a little raw garlic.
*I made dip ahead and reheated in microwave, croutons need to be fresh though. Everyone LOVED this dip and it was pretty easy to make.

Salad: Shaved asparagus salad.
Tear some romaine, baby spinach and arugula up. Toss in some shaved asp. To shave asp simply use a very sharp peeler and shave parallel slices of the asp, I used about 0.75# for my salad. Toss in some craisins, roasted pecans and shaved chicory. For the vinaigrette: 1 c EVOO, 1/2 c lemon juice, zest of 2 lemons, salt and pepper. Add all into a jar and shake.
*Made whole salad and dressing day before!

Main: Apple and onion roasted turkey w/ compound butter.
Combine 1/2 c butter, 2 T each chopped rosemary, thyme, sage and parsley. Rub under skin of bird. Place bird in roasting pan upside down (to let the breasts get nice and tender from the drippings) and stuff with quartered apples and onions. Cover legs and wings with foil to prevent overcooking. Place celery, carrots and onion in bottom of pan to flavor drippings (for gravy). Roast @ 325F for 3 hours, then flip and roast for 2 more. Remove foil from legs and wings and put oven at 425F. Roast for 30-45 mins, check temp (should be 165F).

Sides:...
Shelley's mashed potatoes
Shelley brought them.

Shaved brussel sprouts with crispy bacon, red onions and apple cider vinegar.
Thinly slice 3 packages of brussel sprouts (~ 3# total). Saute 1/2# bacon until crispy, then add julienned red onions. Add brussel sprouts and cook until wilted, but NOT mushy. Finish with some slat and pepper and about 2T apple cider vinegar. These were a hit!

Fresh green bean casserole with baby bella cream sauce.
Dice fresh green beans into ~1.5 inch pieces, on the diagonal. Make cream sauce: chopchopchop 24 ounces baby bellas and saute with butter until liquid has evaporated. Thinly slice 12 ounces baby bellas and add to mix, saute for about 5 min. Add about 1T flour and stir. Add a splash of white wine. Add 1 small carton heavy cream (and some milk to thin out, if needed) and simmer for about 5 min. Add some salt and lots of pepper. Blanch green beans bright green and slightly soft. Combine sauce and beans, top with onions (I just used store-bought b/c I don't want to fry onions) and bake at 350F until hot, or about 40 min.

Sausage and cornbread dressing.
Cornbread: I made according to a recipe I got at the fair this year with my stone ground cornmeal! YUMMM. 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 c sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup milk, 1/3 butter, melted, 1 egg --- Mix and bake at 400F for about 25 min. Let cool, then crumble into about acorn size chunks. For the dressing: cook 1# ground sausage and drain, then saute 1 chopped onion, 2 celery ribs, finely chopped, and 1 carrot, finely chopped. Add the mirepoix into a big bowl and combine with 2 eggs, 1c diced apples, cornbread recipe that you crumbled and 1T chopped thyme, and rosemary and 2.5 T chopped sage. Mix and add enough chicken broth for the wetness you want. Bake at 400F for about 45 min. Consume.

Sweet potato rolls.
Okay, I winged this one... here goes. You will need one boiled sweet potato, mashed and cooled, about 2 cups. Please use a sweet potato and nothing from a can, it really matters. Cut 2 sticks cold butter together with 4 cups flour. Add 2t baking powder and 1/2t salt. Add in mashed sweet potato. Add two eggs. Add flour or milk if needed if too dry or wet. I added a little more flour. drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake at 350F for about 18-20 min. YUM.

Condiments:...
Cranberry butter.
Add 1/4 c water, 2 c cranberries and 1 c sugar to a saucepan. Turn on medium and simmer until the berries pop and you have a nice cranberry goo... about 30 min. Cool completely. Add this to 2 sticks of soft butter and that's it. You may add a little salt (I did) and more sugar if you feel its needed.

Pan gravy.
Take drippings from turkey pan, and separate the fat and the juice. Heat the juice in a saucepan with stems leftover from turkey and stuffing herbs. Make a roux with 1 stick butter and 1/2 c flour (I use Wondra) and cook until slightly golden and nutty smelling. Add hot broth 1 c at a time and whisk in like mad! I used about 6 cups. Simmer for about 5 min... its ready.

Dessert
Pumkin cake layered with chestnut mousse with Italian buttercream and maple ice cream. Start this cake the day before!

Cake: I used melted butter instead of oil, no nuts and made 2 8-in cakes, which will become four layers.
Mousse: Simply make and chill overnight, the spread between the pumpkin cake layers when you assemble it the next day.
Buttercream: THE best buttercream EVER. Also the one I make b/c I cant eat egg yolks. YUMYUMYUM. You will be eating this straight. I made it waaay ahead and stuck it in the freezer, it came out perfect with no funny flavors (seal it tight).
Maple ice cream: mix 3c half and half with 1c grade B maple syrup (better flavor than grade A) and 1t vanilla. Chill in fridge for at least 4 hours then freeze according to your ice cream maker. So simple but the flavor is amazing. I added 1/4t xanthan gum fo texture, but its not neccesary.

Appetizer

Table centerpeice, hollow a pumkin, fill with water, and put flowers in... done!

Salad

turkey

more turkey

sweet potato rolls

shaved brussels

green bean "casserole"

Plate

people eating

cake, a little lopsided...?

The Omnivore's 100!

2008-12-17T12:25:00.006-05:00

Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

Tara's edits:
Things I would never eat.
Things I have eaten.
Links to wikipedia from VGT.

Tara's Omnivore’s Hundred: 68/32, not too bad.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea: Ill try that sometime
3. Huevos rancheros: for brunch.
4. Steak tartare: and carpaccio
5. Crocodile: and alligator
6. Black pudding: in england
7. Cheese fondue: many times
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush: make it
11. Calamari: lots
12. Pho: lins with rachel
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart: and a bite from taco from a street cart in Tijuana
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle: @ Alinea
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras: @ Alinea b4 the Foie ban thing
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese: ewww
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper: I cant handle spicy foods
27. Dulce de leche: I love milk products.... mmm.
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda: sounds good
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl: not much on the bread bowl thing though
33. Salted lassi: and mango and strawberry
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar: I dont smoke
37. Clotted cream tea: <3>
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O: Its all about the sugar solubility when getting max % OH in the Jello shpots people!
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects: ants, crickets, mealworms
43. Phaal: too spicy
44. Goat’s milk: in the fridge right now
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more: I wish
46. Fugu: not yet
47. Chicken tikka masala: its one of my faves
48. Eel: I looove eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut: only a couple times
50. Sea urchin: in sushi... ewww.
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer: made my own
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal: I didnt ever have a bigmac until like 3 years ago, and thats the only one ive had. no meal though, I dont like soda.
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV: here in DYT actually
59. Poutine: gross
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores: der
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin: ehhhhh
64. Currywurst: maybe, I would have to see it
65. Durian: NEVER AGAIN, well... maybe if it was covered up by a TON of sugar?
66. Frog's legs: @ Alinea
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake: I looove churros
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain: I also like plantain. and yucca
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette: heellllllll nooooooo. I will never eat the rectum of anything!
71. Gazpacho: made it
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe: @ a party
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict: but made sauce w/o yolks b/c I cant eat them
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant: full tour @ Alinea the week it opened, whatev... it'll get there whenever they do a Chi-town guide!
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare: rabbit
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam: never again
92. Soft shell crab: made it
93. Rose harissa: damn you harissa!!! Ive been looking for this for like 2 months. Fuck it, im making it. Stupid spice blands.
94. Catfish:not so good
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox: make it
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta: make it
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Ill add: marmite, sofrito, nori, homemade butter, chestnuts, organic milk, nutella, kippers, panettone... more stuff Im probably forgetting.

Homemade toothpaste.

2008-11-25T12:31:00.006-05:00

Yes, I made my own toothpaste. What? I was not happy that I was going to the dentist and told I had two cavities every time. Do I floss? Yes. Drink pop? No, never. I do everything right and still... arg! So I decided: I cook all this food, and I know biological stuff (you know, from that degree) so I could do it better. Guess what? No cavities last week at the dentist. I think this may be luck b/c I have only been using this toothpaste for about a month. But I looked at, researched and followed Dr. Nara's plan and really think its helping. I will, of course, update later! Warning: the linked website is a bit funky so navigate with care.

Basically the point is that you have to kill the acid-producing bacteria in your mouth so that cavities wont form. We all know bacteria produce acid which erodes enamel away and forms cavities. Sugar is their food source, as well as refined carbs. So, get rid of the bacteria, and we should be good.

Also re-mineralization is possible on a microscopic scale so we need to topically apply these minerals to allow for bonds to form. One thing I have been iffy on is that glycerin appears to coat your teeth and prevent this remineralization. Even Tom's has glycerin in it. Yet another reason to make your own.

Recipe:
2 T baking soda
1 T salt
1 T xylitol
1/2 T aluminum free baking soda (this has calcium carbonate in it)
2 t fennel powder (for flavor, not neccesary)
1 t prickly ash bark

Mix this then wet your brush and dip it into the powder and brush for two mins (after flossing!). I follow this with a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide/water rinse then use ACT mouthwash (for the fluoride).

I added the bay leaf for looks and flavor, you dont need to.

You can alter the recipe too, I added a little more xylitol for sweetness so play around with it! Enjoy!

Taste and Create #1: Adventures in Shaw!

2008-11-25T11:45:00.009-05:00

I think you should know how I was feeling about this taste and create... Excited? Yes. A little nervous? Yes. Like I am stuck in one of those dreams where I don't have any clothes on and everyone is staring and mumbling? YES!

This blog just got started, and Ill move to wordpress someday. It stared as "just for fun" but I dig the support and friendliness I get from passer-bys (mostly DB challenges) and being able to showcase my skills in the kitchen area. When life is all about trying to finish your masters, a little creativity is required so one does not go insane. Lets just say my friends and family don't have the address to my blog yet... I am THAT nervous about it.

Naked dream in real life blogland.

This brings me to my next point... Stephanie has seen me! Aahhhhh! I decided to participate in the Taste & Create challenge here to try to get out there and get okay with people actually looking at (and judging) it. Lets just say I am happy I did! I was paired up with Steph from Adventures in Shaw and I was super excited to try a recipe. Her blog is really nicely put together and was fun too look through for ideas! Go check it out. I was going to do the Artisan Boule bread (bread is yummy and useful) or the Chicken Piccata (lemon + capers... sign me up) or the Strawberry & Cardamom Pancakes (lets face it, Cardamom is my favorite sweet spice!) but I was drawn to the appley goodness of the eternally autumnal Walnut & Apple Dutch Boy. It is autumn after all. And the name is just fun.

Recipe: adapted from Adventures in Shaw.

Ingredients:

3/4 c AP flour

1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 T brown sugar

2 T grade B maple syrup
pinch of salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c milk
2 t vanilla
1 whole egg

3 egg whites
1 c dried apple, chopped
handful chopped walnuts, toasted
1 T butter, melted

To bake:

1 T butter for the pan (x2)

10 to 12 inch oven proof skillet
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix everything.

3. Put 1 T of your butter in the pan and put in oven to melt.

4. Pour half of your batter into the pan.

5. Bake for 15-18 min.

6. Pull out, slide dutch boy off pan and consume! Don't forget to make the other one too...

Walnut choppage.

Dutch boy w/o walnuts for my friend.

Dutch boy w/ walnuts for me! Reminds me of the surface of mars...

Verdict: Yummy! This was nice and less time consuming alternative to pancakes! Make batter, pour, bake, eat. Niiice. I think I will try to make it with coconut flour next time for a carb-friendly version. That and I reallyreally like coconut flour... Thanks Steph!!!

Peach and blackberry galette.

2008-11-05T12:57:00.007-05:00

I love blackberries. I love peaches. They should get married. I used to be able to get good peaches form a roadside orchard, but they closed... now what am I supposed to do?! Well, I came across some good ones at a local market, as well as some local blackberries, and decided I needed pie. Well, my fave crust is a cornmeal pate brisee, b/c its so freaking easy and tasty (and durable, but tender)!

Pate Brisee (makes 2 crusts, so you can save 1 in the freezer!)
2 c AP flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1 t salt
1-2 T sugar
1 c cold unsalted butter, cut into smallish pieces
1/4 cup sour cream
1 T cold vinegar
Ice water

1. Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt and sugar. Add the butter and work in until sandy with fingers.
2. Add sour cream and vinegar and work in. Slowly sprinkle in the ice water until a nice dough forms.
3. Divide dough in half and put one in the freezer for later! Take the other one and let rest in fridge for 20-30 mins before rolling out to form a disc. This will firm it up a bit so its a little more sturdy. Roll out until about 1/8'' thick and proceed to...

Peach and Blackberry Galette
1 rolled out Pate Brisee crust
2 c blackberries
3 peaches
1/4 c sugar
2 T cornstarch
dash of vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Toss together blackberries, peaches, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch. Arrange fruit mixture on top of the dough, leaving a ~2'' open space around the edge. Fold border over fruit mixture.
3. Brush pastry edges with egg. Bake until crust is golden, ~30-40 minutes.

I realize my border in more than 2'', but whatever, I made a

double so I used the whole pate brisee recipe.

*******CONGRATS PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!********

BEST apple spice cake ever!!! Seriously.

2008-11-03T20:52:00.009-05:00

Dinner at the parents house. This will consist of yummy food and a walk in the woods after dinner, they want to show me the pawpaw grove. We'll need plenty of sustenance for that 20 minute journey, lol. So, I'm bringing dessert. What am I bringing? I decide on something Autumnal, you know, since its Autumn. Well, apples are a fall food, so lets make an apple cake! Hey- I saw one the other day on the kitchn website.

Print.

Buy brandy.

Bake.

OHMYDARWIN! Delicious!!!

Apple spice cake with brown sugar sauce, via the kitchn, with some edits by me.
Cake
1 c golden raisins
1 c brandy
1 c unsulphured dried apple slices, cut into eighths
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 c AP flour
1-1/2 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
1-1/2 t ground cinnamon
3/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 t fresh ground cloves
1-1/2 c packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c applesauce
3/4 c chopped pecans, toasted
2 medium sized tart cooking apples, such as Northern Spy or Rome Beauty, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Additional butter for greasing the pan

Directions
In a small saucepan, soak the raisins and apples in the brandy for 20 minutes, then heat over med-low for about 10 mins. Do not drain!
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together in a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl (of stand or handheld mixer) blend both sugars.
Add the eggs and beat on medium speed until thickened and pale (2 minutes with a machine, 4 to 5 minutes by hand).
Add the cooled melted butter and applesauce mix to blend.
Fold in the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just enough to moisten most but not all of the flour.
FOLD in the dried fruit and brandy mixture, chopped pecans, and diced fresh apple.
Don’t fret about the ratio of fruit to batter — there is a remarkable amount of fruit but it bakes into a wonderfully chewy cake.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and set in the center of the oven. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until the center springs back when lightly touched, a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce
1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream (36%)
2-1/2 tablespoons brandy
Directions
Combine the butter, sugars and cream in a small, heavy bottomed saucepan.
Stir this mixture over low heat until the sugar dissolves, then increase the heat to medium and bring the sauce to a very gentle boil, stirring all the while.
Cook 5 more minutes, then remove from the heat and stir in the brandy or other liqueur.
Serve immediately, or cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. To rewarm, either microwave the uncovered sauce on low power or transfer the cold caramel to a saucepan and stir over low heat until warm.

Cut the cake and drizzle with a little sauce... mmmmm!!!
We had about 1/4 of it left... between 5 people... since dinnertime. We're not big dessert people either! My little sis (shes 7) declared she likes it more than angel food cake and strawberries, which is her all time fave. (No worries people, I boiled off the -OH for the sis!) The sauce makes it over the top. I would think a scoop of vanilla ice cream would not be amiss. If you want coronary disease and yumminess all in one!

This picture really doesn't do it justice! It bakes up chewy and perfect, I promise!!!

Here is my tasty lunch from today. I thought I would share.
Sammie: Challah slices, avocado, lettuce, white anchovies marinated in mexican spices.
Yogurt: Im addicted to yogurt so whenever I find something new I pick it up. This was actually pretty good! Ill buy it again if I see it!

Happy Late Halloween from Anck Su Namun (me).

Traditional sunday roast, English style.

2008-11-02T22:35:00.013-05:00

So I hope to be getting a science research or health care job in England in the spring. PS if anyone can help me with this I will make you lots of goodies!!! Anyhow, this has got me thinking about the food (because heck... its me!) over there. Now a lot of people think that English food is bland boring food. Not so. I have been there twice and I would say its on par with American cuisine, but less fast-foody. They are getting there though, if they arent careful. England has a long history and many classic dishes, the most comical to me being stargazer pie. They have a mecca of different cuisines surrounding them (ie Europe) and plenty of immigrants to bring delicious recipes with them (curries?). BUT there are classics too, well relatively speaking. When I think of English food I think of: PG Tipps, scones, bangers and mash, fish and chips, curry, marmite, McVities anything, roasts, full English brekkie, pasties, bubble and squeak, banoffe... the list goes and goes. Well, I decided lets try some of it before I get there. I have had several of these things, but never a roast dinner. Now let me tell you, I am not the kind of person who eats a lot of meat, let alone big hunks of it. This is precisely the reason I decided to make this dinner. I am more a fresh, light, bright flavors sort of person. I added my own little twists as you will see...

Traditional Sunday Roast, English Style
Salad with spinach, peppers, cukes and tomato.
An olive plate with kalamata, picholine and castelvetrano (my FAVE) olives and brie, goat cheese and cheddar.

Roast beef.
Roast potatoes.
Braised brussel sprouts.
Yorkshire puddings.
Pan gravy.

Meyer lemon cake with eggless lemon curd and Italian butter cream... and PG Tipps tea. :)

The olive plate. I ate all the castelvetrano olives, oops (well, the one bigger green one on the right is the last one). Castelvetrano olives are mild and way less salty than regular olives. I looove them. Aged brie on left, honeyed goat cheese on right.

Roast beef. My family came over so we started to dish it and then I remembered I needed a pic. Lol. Method: used a 2.6 lb top sirloin, night before cut slits and add garlic cloves inside, then rub with seasoned salt. The next day, let rest one hour to come to room temp, then turn oven to 500F. Put in a 9x13 pan: mushroom, celery, carrot and onion scraps and a couple bay leaves, a couple thyme sprigs and a sprig of rosemary. Add 3-4 cups low sodium beef broth. Put on bottom rack of oven. Set roast on top of the pan ON THE RACK above so there will be nice heat circulation and the pan will catch the dripping juice (of which there isn't much). Cook at 500F for 15 mins the bump down to 325 for about 1-1.5 hours. Cook until the internal temp reads 135F, that will give you a med rare center. To make the gravy: strain the pan with the drippings into a bowl, discard scraps. Make a roux on the stove top by heating 3T butter and 3T flour over med heat until light golden. Slowly add the juices from the pan (about a cup at a time) and whiskwhiskwhisk! Drop heat to med-low and simmer for a few mins to thicken. Done deal.

Yorkshire puddings. 4 eggs, 1/2 c milk, 1/2 t salt, 2 c flour. Mix until looks like thick pancake batter. Heat oven to 425F. Put 1t oil (I used EVOO but you can use any oil, shortening or fat like bacon grease) in each of twelve muffin tins. Put into oven until HOT and almost smoking. Pull out oven rack and add some batter into each muffin cup. It should sizzle! Push rack back in and bake for about 25mins, until tall and golden, with some browning on the edges. Mine are hollow, you just cant see it.

Roasted potatoes. I used Nigella Lawson's recipe, with mods. Peel some potatoes. cut into large chunks. Biol for mins, drain. Put into pot and shake up to bash up the edges a little. Add 2T course cornmeal and shake again. Spread onto greased baking sheet and bake at 425F for 45-60mins. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I also made Brussel sprouts but no picture of those.
Here is my meyer lemon cake! YUMMMM. I served it with some PG Tipps tea. Cake recipe from the accidental scientist, its a little dense, but maybe I did something wrong? I wonder how hers turned out? I think next time Ill just make it 4 eggs and no meringue, and add more leavening. Eggless meyer lemon curd (b/c I cant eat very much yolk or my intestines hate me): 1/4c water, 1/2c sugar, 3T cornstarch, 1/2 c meyer lemon juice. Microwave for 3 mins, until thick and... well, goopy. Then add 1T meyer lemon zest and another 1/4c meyer lemon juice. Let cool and whip until spreadable. I made IMBC (italian meringue buttercream) from Joe Pastry, which is kick ass! Go to the site and be amazed, for real. Don't forget the crumb coat on the cake people! It sort of sticks the crumbs into the cake so you have a nice, crumbless frosting job. Crumb coat-fridge-real coat of IMBC-smooth with a hot spatula. I made 2-8'' cakes and cut those into halves, so I would have 4 layers. I smeared lemon curd thickly onto the top and bottom layers and raspberry jam into the middle one. There will be some leveling off of the sides vertically, so you get easily frostable sides. I made some candied meyer lemons to decorate with!
You could use regular lemons, I just had a little zest and A LOT of juice leftover from my limoncello batch, 18 lemons and 1500mL of vodka!

Buttercream. I could eat SPOONS AND SPOONS of this stuff!!! Its really addicting, and totally hides how much butter is in it! Wolf in sheeps clothes? If you're going to make it get organic butter please! PS note errant crumb in cake photo... dammit!

What you cant see under the cake is... HAAAAARRY POTTER!!! Hehe. Here are the layers for you. The family said the cake was divine, sort of like a light pound cake. BUT pound cake... and lemon curd... and buttercream?!?! Noooo. I wanted a light, airy, delicate cake and this was a bit heavy. I even used cake flour people!

Well, that's the wrap up for my Sunday roast dinner! Hope you liked it and if you have any Qs or suggestions... please comment! GObama!

Daring Bakers Challenge- October!

2008-10-29T11:49:00.011-04:00

Okay, here is the daring bakers challenge for October... Pizza! I like pizza but only when its home made. I decided to make a shimp pizza and and ancovy pizza (b/c thats my FAVE topping!!!). The dough was good, but I had to add a lot of flour and then rosemary to make it the best dough ever! I even used a little of my new robust, spicy olive oil on the top of the pizzas.

I noted changes in red.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

Original recipe from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 Cups Unbleached bread flour

1 3/4 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Instant yeast

1/4 Cup Olive oil

1 3/4 Cups Water

1 Tb sugar

Cornmeal for dusting

Chopped rosemary

Day One

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days. I only rested it for a couple hours and room temp.

Day Two

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

The Pizza dough, with rosemary added.

Shrimp pizza.

Roasted garlic, Precooked shrimp marinated in spices, Mozzerella cheese

Anchovy and Basil Pizza.

Tomato sauce with roasted garlic, mozz and parm cheese, oregano, fresh basil, anchovy fillets (torn).

Summer catch up.

2008-10-24T17:21:00.013-04:00

Well, its been a fair bit snce Ive written a blog. I guess Ill do a summertime overhaul to share with you some good summery foods. Since its October now, Ive been eating a lot of Fall-like foods, so I was craving a salad today. One last summer hurrah, Here we go...

A morel mushroom pilaf. I think you all may have a clue that morel hunting season is months-past, but You know, Im doing the summer clean out to catch you all up! My stepmom collected morels and gave me some, and I was happy to geez... HAVE to think of something to use them in! :) I did a couscous with parm and morels, peas and onions, used chicken stock (homemade, der). Yum, I think I will demand manymany more morels next year!

Lavender blossoms and a watermelon cooler. I beleive this was after a mud volleyball tourney! Watermelon + water (more than you'd think) + sugar + lemon sorbet = yumminess! Just add everything into a blender and bleeend.

Strawberry pie. Sorry, camera skills suck! SO easy and SO good! I was eally suprised by this. The flavo is so intense (with those summertime berries), I got way more than I was expecting. I think I made this pie like 4 times, to rave reviews. Recipe from Gourmet via YumSugar: http://www.yumsugar.com/1734253

Stuffed grape leaves (Dolmades). There is a gapevine at the 'rents house, so I collected 75 and went to town! These are obviously a summer dish b/c I HATE using jarred grape leaves. What a watse! Get the tender leaves, and make sure they are pesticide free! Made with lamb, rice, onion, mint, dill (NO cinnamon or allspice), lemon and served with tzaziki. They were very delicious. Took some time to make, but worth it... especially with the fresh grape leaves.

Molten chocolate cakes. Okay, these arent summery per-se, but I made the for my Daddys bday in summer, so they were summery for me! He turned 52 (but looks 40... please let me get that gene!) and after dinner we did what classy people do. Attacked him with water balloons! Ha! Well, these are REAL molten cakes, not the kind with the truffle in the middle. Melt chocolate, add eggs and sugar and salt and a little flour, bake at 425F for 8 mins, until not done (hey, they are molten chocolate cakes, right?) , remove, turn out, add cream and eat! Yummy, and I dont like chocolate!

Water ballon fight. Daddy, Shelley (step parent), Sarah (little sister). Im behind the cam.

And Ill leave you with this:

AAAHHHHHHHH!!! Happy Halloween! GObama!