Sausage Pasta Soup with Chiptole and Herbs

Again, you don't need to start with bacon, but I did.

1. Start a pot of salted water on a path to boil.
2. Mince up a few slices of bacon and put in thick heavy pot like a Crueset.
3. While bacon cooks, thinly slice up an onion, chop up some carrots in desired shape and chop up some celery in desired shape.
4. When bacon has rendered its fat, add sausage to pan. Tonight we used Mild Italian Turkey Sausage from Rainbow.
5. When Sausage is done, remove and add more fat if necessary to pan. We used olive oil tonight.
6. Add onions, carrots and celery. Stir and allow to cook to your liking. I like them browned.
7. Add stalks of thyme, a bay leaf, some chopped rosemary and what ever else you want. I also added a lot of ground black pepper. Stir and allow herbs to get in there.
8. Add 1/2 cup of Muir Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes and stir.
9. Add two canned chiptoles in adobo sauce and some of the adobo sauce.
10. By this time water should be boiling. Add your pasta. We used Strangled Priest Noodles. They take 8 minutes.
11. Add the broth to your soup pot and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer a bit. Add the sausage back in and salt to taste. Add chopped parsley if you like.
12. Drain pasta when done.
13. To serve, put some pasta in a bowl, and pour soup over it. Sprinkle bacon on if you made it.
    

Pan Baked Eggs with Sun Dried Tomotoes and Dill

I know that I have mentioned my favorite Cutco pot before. When cooking for 1 or 2, I would choose this pot over all my All Clad, Creuset and other fanciness any day.

1. Mince up 2 slices of bacon (optional) and begin cooking in the Cutco pan or equivalent.
2. Mince a little red onion.
3. When bacon done, remove and leave desired amount of grease, or simply start with another fat like olive oil.
4. Cook onions for a little bit, add Mexican oregano or other herb of choice and add 5 or so perfectly dried Sun Dried Tomatoes from Farmer and the Cook. Stir to coat the tomatoes in oil.
5. Crack four eggs onto of the onions and sun dried tomatoes. Cover and set timer for 6 minutes.
6. Poke at yokes to check for "doneness". (Lately I like my yokes cooked and semi firm).
7. Remove from heat and using your Cutco spatula, cut into pieces and remove from pan.
8. Sprinkle with bacon if using. Sprinkle with Olivia's amazing dried dill, maybe some fresh ground pepper and or her latest smokey paprika salt.

The Knead Bakery

A bunch of years ago, my mother said to me, "When are you going to learn to buy desert?"

At the time I took it as an insult to my baking.

But this year I learned. I picked up 2 pies from the Knead Bakery Team. Born out of the womb knowing the perfect balance of butter and flour and sugar, these women are masters.

I got an apple crème fraîche pie and a pumpkin cheesecake.

OMG. Sublime. THANK YOU!

Mocktails

I am going on 9 months sober.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would make me a Shirley Temple or such drink so that I would have a special drink too at 5pm.

Seems like I still need that. And cuz I did not feel like drinking water all night, I brought my own mocktail fixings to Thanksgiving Dinner at my friends.

For starters:
- Italian peach juice, Pellegrino and a squeeze of citrus
Tangerine is great if you have it, but the lemon that my host had worked well too.

With dinner:
Pomegranate Juice and Pellegrino
Lime is really good in this and if you feel like being indulgent, pour a little cherry juice in too.

Pasta with Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes and a Lemon Creme Sauce

A while ago I mused about becoming a vegetarian again. I must have forgotten about bacon. And my therapist recommended against stopping eating meat.

Barbara Washburn would never make this. "Too much fatness."

1. Set a pot of salted water on a course to boil
2. Thinly slice a few slices (or more) of bacon.
3. In a heavy pan, like Crueset, render the bacon. When done, remove bacon with slotted spoon, leaving the fat.
4. Cut up 2 raw chicken breasts into bite size pieces and cook in bacon fat.
5. While chicken cooks, slice up some red onion. Mince a serrano pepper. Cut a package of Olivia's amazing sun dried tomatoes into slices. Finely zest a Meyer Lemon. Finely chop some Italian Parsley.
7. When chicken is almost done, but not quite, remove with slotted spoon.
8. Add more olive oil to pan if necessary, and add onions. Eventually add the minced serrano and sun dried tomatoes.
9. When onions seem to your liking, add some white wine or other liquid to deglaze the pan and help soften the sun dried tomatoes.
10. I added some turmeric for color. If Eric like saffron, I would have added that.
11. When water boils add pasta. Tonight we used our favorite noodle, Strangled Priest.
12. Add 1/2 pint of heavy whipping creme to pan. Stir and allow to simmer and thicken. Add chicken back in to allow it to finish cooking.
13. When pasta is done, drain and add to sauce. Stir in lemon zest and chopped parsley. Serve.

The pasta was really pretty and golden with flecks of red sun dried tomatoes and green parsley.

Did I mention the Smoked Salt?

No, really.  This stuff is so outta sight.  Go to Farmer and the Cook now, and get some.

Smoked Salt

Olivia's latest offering is smoked salt.

You have no idea how amazing this is.

I have been slacking in my cooking for a while now.

With the invention of smoked salt, all i make lately is plain rice.

Then I add butter, smoked salt and maybe some fresh tomatoes.

OMG.

Heaven.

Feeding as Tenderness

A sweet Modern Love piece in the NYT today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/fashion/27love.html?pagewanted=1&ref=fashion

Roasted Tomato Sauce with Serranos and Olives

Farmer and the Cook is my favorite place to stop for groceries for dinner.  The combination of surprise fresh ingredients from the farm, combined with the limited selection always constrains me just enough to create something new and unexpected.

(For a Vegetarian Version, use maybe Capers instead of anchovies and leave out the Worchestire Sauce)

1. Heat Oven to 400.  Core and Slice the amazing tomatoes in half and put on a cookie sheet. Rub olive oil on the faces and grind pepper on top.  Put in oven.  Start a pot of salted water and bring to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, mash up some cloves of garlic, mince up some anchovies and serranos.  Mash together into a paste.

3. Meanwhile, mince up some red onion and chop up some parsley.

4. Meanwhile, use a small knife to carve the flesh away from the pits of the delicious green french olives from the Paradise Pantry that you happen to have in your fridge.  (Olivia also has some homemade olives at FnC).

5. Meanwhile, toast some pine nuts.

6. When tomatoes seem done, remove from oven and pour into a bowl, mashing.  Heat olive oil in same pan you toasted the pine nuts in, and once hot, throw in the anchovy paste till fragrant (about a minute).  Pour mixture into tomatoes and stir.  Add some balsamic vinegar and a little Worchestire Sauce (this was the a surprise "thought" tonight).  Add the olives, onions and parsley and stir.

7. Put the egg tagliatelle pasta into the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes.  Drain and add to sauce.  Stir to combine.   Serve with pine nuts scattered on top.  We added Parmesan too.

Mark Bitman Cornmeal Pancakes

I adore Mark Bitman.

Tonight I watched his video on how to make cornmeal pancakes.

Here is the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/dining/02mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining

I will be trying this and reporting in.

Passing the Cookbooks On

I am no longer using my cookbooks and magazines.

In the past, in preparation for a dinner party, I would pour over and through them. Having a party was an excuse to try new methods, flavors, and dishes that were too complicated to try on Monday night at home for two.

My magazines were organized by month, so I could reference the seasons easily. My cookbooks organized by type so I could easily find Mexican, Scandinavian, Vegetarian etc. recipes easily.

I have stopped "entertaining." Eric and I eat much more simply, usually determined by what's available that day from Farmer and the Cook, Bridge or the Market. And yet somehow I am enjoying my food more and pleased the ease of preparation and clean up.

Actually the clean up seems to be a big part of the simplification. I began to do the dishes about a year ago. And all of a sudden, it did not seem so fun to create a big mess.

And as I have blogged about here and in other spots, I am not longer grasping the affection and approval of others through my ability to cook an amazing meal.

As I box the volumes up to take to the Library and Barts, I am enjoying the reflection that cleaning house offers. I found the January 2000 Vogue entertaining magazine that launched me into the small dishes and bites trend. I found the Nov 1997 issue of Sauveur, covered in tomato sauce that began my Italian cooking exploration and I found my first cookbook from college that began the journey, Sheila Lukins, "Around the World."

It's a funny thing to be packing up and shipping off an identity. Admittedly, I am keeping my Joy of Cooking, Deborah Madison, Rick Bayless, Ed Brown, Donna Hay and a few others. And some of the collectibles with images that you just can't get anymore haven't made it to the trunk of my car. My great Aunt Ginny worked for General Mills, so the Betty Crockers are like family heirlooms. The Time Life Collections offer a plethora of funkfied colorized roasted ham and ribs shots for the Holidays circa 1967 that have images that cannot be easily found online.

And if something changes, I imagine that I can collect all that stuff again. But it seems that I am making room for other things.

Pork chops with Poblano Creme Sauce

Eric was on the East end of town at Westridge picking up some pork chops. (Did you notice that I was not a vegetarian for very long?). I was on the West side near Farmer and the Cook.

Olivia has just put out the most beautiful selection of dried chilies and she is carrying anchovies.

She fed me the most Delicious tomato with some mozzarella and basil mixture in her kitchen. Tasting anything Olivia makes inspires one back into the kitchen. So, based on what I could get at FNC today, the menu tonight was this:

Pork chops with Poblano Creme Sauce
Steamed Green Beans with Lemon and Dillweed
Roasted Potatoes sliced Chip Style

I posted the green beans below.
You know how to roast potatoes.

Here is how I made the sauce for the Chops.

1. Boil some water and pour over 3 dried Poblano Chilies to hydrate. (Let sit 30 minutes)

2. Meanwhile, mince up a big shallot from Steve and Olivia's Farm.

3. Mince up a few anchovies.

4. Mince up some garlic.

5. When chilies are ready, remove seeds and veins and mince up. (Note: the poblanos were not as hot as I wanted them to be so I wish I had left the seeds in. Each chili is different, so experiment). Mix the garlic, anchovies, and chili into a paste.

6. Heat some olive oil in a pan and pan roast the peppered porkchops to brown on both sides. (I cover the pan to keep the splatter down and hurry up the cooking inside the meat). Remove chops to a plate.

7. Add shallots to the pan. Stir. Add chili paste to the pan and stir. I let it cook for about a minute. Add a little brandy or other choice cooking liqueur to deglaze the pan. Add some beef broth. Allow to simmer. I tasted it and it was not hot enough, so I added some red pepper flakes. Add some heavy whipping creme. Allow to reduce.

8. I put the chops back in for a little bit to steam in the creme sauce.

Then, to serve. I put the beans and the potatoes on a plate. Put the chop on top and spooned some of the sauce over.

Big Green Beans with Lemon and Dill

1. Bring some water to a boil with a "steamer" thing above it.

2. Place 2 handfuls of fresh green beans from Steve and Olivia's farm in the steamer and close the lid.

3. In a bowl, Zest and Squeeze one lemon from your tree or someone elses. Add some olive oil. Add some green peppercorn dijon or other favorite mustard. Add some minced basil and some of Olivia's Dillweed from Farmer and the Cook. Salt and Pepper too.

4. When beans are done to your liking (we like them still a little crunchy), add to the lemon mustard herb dressing and toss to coat.

Late Summer Guacamole

1. Finely mince up 2 of Olivia's fresh local organic serrano chillies that she picked at 10pm on Saturday night by iphone light.

2. Mash up one clove of fresh garlic from Steve's farm

3. Mince up 1/2 red onion from same farm

4. Chop and mix the above together with some good salt. Squeeze in one or two limes. Add a little olive oil and stir.

5. Core and chop up several almost too ripe red heriloom tomotoes from the Sunday farmer's market. Mix in with the above.

6. Finely chop some cilantro from the Steve's Farm and mix in.

7. Open, Core and Cube several local avocados picked up at FnC. Gently mix in, not mashing.

8. Serve with favorite chips. Ours our 'Have a Corn Chip' made in Laguna Beach.



5.

Raw Corn Salad with Cherry Tomotoes and Avocado

Now that I am sober I am aware of how much of what I ate depended on how it went with red wine. Now what I make for dinner is pretty much only about what is available locally, as in local to my fridge.

After tonight's meeting I was right down the street from Farmer and the Cook, so I picked up some:

- golden cherry tomatoes
- 2 ripe avocados
- a bag of pre husked corn
- cilantro
- 2 jalepenos
- 3 limes
- some spelt tortillas
- some cheese
- some chips

All the produce was grown by Steve.

Obviously I was thinking quesadillas or just guacamole but when I got home eric said cheese sounded heavy.

So I made up a corn salad with the raw corn, halved cherry tomatoes, serranos olivia had given me the other day, red onion, cilantro, lime and salt.

Fried the tortillas up in olive oil.

Spooned the salad on top.
Sliced an avocado on top of each.
And put the last of the smoked salmon on top of that.

YUM.

Grilled Sea Bass "Ceviche"

Olivia and Steve came over last night. We had already eaten too much food and Steve's Potato Salad is so incredibly good, it's hard not to eat A LOT. But we still decided to grill the big beautiful piece of Sea Bass anyway.

So we had a lot left over this evening.

This is what I did with it.

1. Mince up 1/4 of one of Steve's amazing red onions.
2. "Chop" already grilled Sea Bass into the right size pieces for eating with a chip
3. Thinly slice up some of Steve's fresh basil
4. Zest and squeeze a lime into the mixture
5. Add just enough organic mayo to bind.
6. Salt and Pepper.

We ate it with "Have a Chip" Chips.
Perfect meal after a HOT day.


Note: I tried being a Vegetarian again for a while. I have gone back to eating meat.

Chard Pasta

Again, dinner depends on what is in the fridge and what got brought to the studio.

1. In a non-stick pan, heat a little olive oil and pan toast some pine nuts. Remove and reuse same pan.

2. Thinly slice up some shallots or onions or such
3. Mince up that last carrot or two from Steve's Farm
4. Thinly slice the stalks of home grown Rainbow Chard brought to you by Dennis in yesterday's yoga class.
5. Continue to thinly slice the chard leaves, separating them from the chard stalks.

6. Heat too much olive oil and some butter if you like in that non-stick pan.
7. Add 2 cloves of smooshed garlic and some red pepper flakes. Stir and quickly add the onions, carrots and chard stalks. Stir and eventually add the pasta. Stir and allow pasta to get chewy.

8. Eventually add the chard. Stir in and allow to wilt. Squeeze in some lemon juice. Add some lemon rind, some Parmesan, salt and pepper, stirring.

Fried Pasta with Fat and Salt

Olivia, my dear friend is teasing me about not cooking anymore. Steve, her husband even said the other day, "You used to be such a good cook."

But what about Eric? Does he feel tricked? What if he announced that he did want to take care of the cars anymore? We so easily find ourselves in roles and assume we will do them forever.

Fried Rice has been replaced with Fried Pasta.

Tonight I came home at around 11 famished. My Ayurvedic pal, Jackie would be appalled.

1. Find leftover plain already cooked strangled priest pasta in the fridge
2. Heat too much olive oil in a pan
3. Mash up some garlic.
4. When oil is hot, put in garlic, stir and add pasta. Stir well to coat and mix garlic with pasta.
5. I needed more fat, so I added some butter too.
6. Then I added some chopped up dill, salt and pepper and lots of Parmesan, all as it was still in the pan.
7. I poured it into a bowl and came over to the computer to write about it.

It's already gone.

the magic of yogurt and mixed pickle

Uschi gave me a jar of mixed Indian pickle.
Kelly left an enormous amount of homemade yogurt at my house.

So lately I make up some rice with various vegetables and spices. A big scoop of yogurt, a small scoop of pickle and I am in delight.

Here is how I make my rice:

1. In my favorite Cutco Pan, some ghee and heat
2. Add some mustard seeds, maybe some cumin seed, maybe some coriander seed or maybe some favorite curry powder...you have a lot of freedom here. Lately I always add some turmeric cuz i like the color of the yellow rice.
3. Add your vegetables like fennel, carrot, onion, whatever, OR wait till you add the rice.
4. Add the rice and stir. Saute for a little bit.
5. Pour on less water than you think.
6. Bring to a boil. Place sliced chard or kale or spinach or other such greens on top of the water, cover and turn heat to super low. 10 minutes.

Fried Pasta with Fennel and Spinich

I had some cooked plain pasta in the fridge. (Strangled Priest Noodles)
And I had some other stuff, so this is what I did:

1. Poured too much olive oil in non-stick pan and started to heat it.

2. When hot, added a smooshed clove of garlic and stirred quickly to avoid it burning, then i added the cooked pasta. I was going for a nice browned edge in places, almost a fried quality.

3. Then i felt like I should do a little more than just that, so i looked in the fridge again and found a head of fennel and some spinach from FnC. I sliced up the fennel and tore up the spinach and added then to the frying pasta mixture. Stirring and coating with olive oil.

4. Eventually i added some salt and pepper. (Lemon or a little balsamic might have been nice, but all i could think about was lots of Parmesan cheese).

5. When I removed the pasta I added lots of Parmesan. IT was good.

Note: It is my understanding that Parmesan Cheese is not really vegetarian.
A lot of Parmesan cheese, especially imported Parmesan is made with rennet which is derived from the stomach of slaughtered cows. Definitely not vegetarian. I am not sure about the cheese I just used. I will now know to look.

Coming Back to the Vegetarian Campfire

I pay very close attention to my dreams. Several months ago I had a dream that made it clear to me that drinking was not my path and so I stopped.

Last week I embarked on a process called "Active Imagination." I recommend Robert Johnson's InnerWork for a reference. In my first encounter with a character from one of my dreams, I was told to stop eating meat. And while the character and I spoke about my resistance to being told what to do, I knew that I did not stand a chance.

So today is day 1. The person that will suffer the most will be Eric. He will have to get meat on his own. And ChannelChow will become a vegetarian cooking blog. omg.

Real Cooking

Great blog by Mark Bitman on "Tv Cooking vs. Real Cooking"

Thinking About Making My Own Yogurt

I surrounded by people with amazing skills.

Yesterday over at Sara and Alana's house, Sara offered me some goat milk yogurt made by her pal Nikki Anne. The perfect wholeness, tartness and consistency had me scarping the jar clean.

Harold McGee has an article on how to make your own yogurt in the NYT today.

I have always shied from these sorts of projects, but now that my cooking has gotten way simpler, maybe I have the room.

Steamed Salmon and Chard with Lemon Dill Mustard Sauce

So fast, so good.  So easy.  Recipe is for 2.  

The problem with this method is that it has no fat.  And I like fat.  So I made a fat sauce and used fat in my rice.   If you did not want any fat in your dinner, make sauce without the olive oil and butter and cook your rice without it.

1. Slice up 1/2 a head of beautiful yellow rainbow chard from Steve Sprinkle's Gozo Farm.  Wash.

2. Start rice if having.  Tonight I heated up some olive oil, threw in a bunch of fennel seeds and turmeric for a pretty color. Added the white basmati rice and toasted for a moment, then added the water.  Brought to boil and covered.  Takes 10 minutes.  About as long as the fish.

3. Heat a non stick pan and add the wet chard.  Add a little extra water.  Lay the two beautiful salmon fillets from Gee What a Deal Seafood on top of the chard.  Grind a little pepper and sprinkle some salt.  Cover and allow to steam.  (Takes between 8 to 10 minutes depending on size of fish, etc).

4. Meanwhile, make the sauce.  In a small saucepan, heat some butter and olive oil.  Add some fresh chopped scallions from B.D.  Eventually add some green peppercorn mustard (or other favorite Dijon), fresh chopped dill from B.D.,  a few dashes of  worshteshire sauce, tiny grated Meyer lemon rind, juice of one Meyer lemon and lots of black pepper.  Stir with enthusiasm to combine.  The worshteshire sauce is usually salty enough, but salt to your taste.

Everything finishes at once.  And the fish comes out so perfectly tender and tasty.  It's not as pretty as grilled or broiled fish, so the sauce is necessary.  Crispy potatoes would have been a nice textural addition, but crispy potatoes take time...

"I Loved I Lost, I Made Spaghetti"

A new cookbook out by Giulia Melucci. Not sure if any of the recipes are good, but the story about her and the building of the cookbook in the NYT is sweet and enjoyable.

Read it Here.

Garbanzo Flour Shrimp Flapjacks

Steve and Olivia came over last night.  It's always relaxed and easy to have dinner together. And nobody minds trying new things.

Mark Bitman calls these Spanish Tortillatas.  

I watched his video and made them for when Steve and Olivia came over last night.  They are good.  But too many has the same effect on your digestion as too many garbanzo beans.  Keep them as an appetizer.

1. 1 cup garbanzo bean flour
2. 1 cup white flour
3. 1 tbl + baking soda
4. 1 tbl salt or more
5. Stir the dry ingredients and add enough water, stirring to get a thin "pancake like" batter.   Mark described it as the consistency of heavy creme.
6. Add what ever you want.  Last night we had chives, tarragon, parsley, cilantro, red onion, and cut up shrimp to add.  And lots of ground pepper.  Like a lot.
7. Heat too much olive oil in a pan and fry them up like you would a pancake fritter.

I made a cilantro sauce from Cuisinart-ing ginger, garlic, some peeled almonds, cilantro, mint, lemon, a pinch of sugar, and yogurt.

I also served some mixed pickle from ushci.

Olivia made an amazing salad of cocktail grapefruit, kalamata olives, red onion, avocado and mixed greens.

Olivia also pan roasted some leeks and fennel and oven roasted some raddicho from Gozo Farm

YUM!

Steamed Eggs with Chard for 2

Tree Bernstein fed me breakfast the other day.  She made the eggs like this.  I was enchanted.  So yesterday I made the eggs like this.

1. Slice and wash a 1/2 a bunch of chard from Steve's Gozo Farm.  (I imagine that any green would do). 
2. Turn heat on under a largish pan and add the chard.  Add a little water, cover and start to allow the chard to steam.
3. Once chard is wilty, crack 4 eggs into the chard individually and separated so they cook solo.
4. Cover pan back up.
5. Not much longer and the eggs will have steamed and cooked perfectly.  Serve the egg and chard with delicious toast from Farmer and the Cook.

Too Lemony Too Salty Dressing

After 100 years of marriage I finally made a dressing that made E's heart swell.

6 anchovies mashed up

1 big clove garlic mashed up

Mash the anchovies and garlic together

Mix in a little country mustard

Mix in a little Worshteshire Sauce

Too much fresh ground pepper

Add too much lemon

And don't add enough olive oil

Toss with butter leaf lettuce.

Cheating Pesto Pasta with Chicken, Sun Dried Tomaotes, Olives and Mozarella

After teaching for Alana last night I went to the Bridge to pick up fixings for dinner. We already had pasta, store bought pesto, kalamata olives, some chicken and lemon at home. I got some sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil), a red onion, some more pre roasted chicken, some slivered almonds and fresh mozzarella balls. I was feeding three. So I made a pound of pasta and had leftovers.

1. Start water to boil.
2. Pull off the meat of the chicken and tear into desired size pieces. Place in large bowl.
3. Thinly slice desired amount of sun dried tomatoes. I think I used about 10.
4. Tear open and pit desired amount of Kalamata olives. I think we used about 15 or so.
5. 1/4 and thinly slice desired amount of red onion.
6. When water is boiling, salt and add pasta. Tonight we used strangled priest shapes.
7. Meanwhile, heat some oil and pan toast a handful of slivered almonds until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
8. In same oil, toast up some red pepper flakes and other desired herbs. Tonight I just added some Mexican oregano. Add oil and herb mixture to ingredients in bowl and toss.
9. When pasta is done, drain. Add to big bowl and toss with pesto. Add almonds and toss.
10. Salt and pepper.

Serve bowls, adding the small mozzarella balls on top.

Fried Wontons and...Fried Rice!

Haha! I added to the Fried Rice tonight.

Anything can be stuffed in a wonton wrapper and fried up and served with a dipping sauce and be successful.

Tonight I did this:

1. Sauteed some minced shallot and garlic and red pepper flakes

2. Eventually added some drained soft minced tofu.

3. Eventually added some shredded napa valley cabbage

4. Eventually added some tamari soy sauce, rice wine and rice vinegar.  Allowed to saute for longer.  Eventually removed from heat and cuz I was in a rush, put in a bowl and put in freezer to cool it down.

5. Meanwhile, prepped veggies for fried rice.  Minced green onions, carrots and celery.  Sauteed these over high heat, eventually adding brown rice and eventually adding some tamari soy sauce. Allowed this to "fry".

6. When tofu mixture was cool, started to heat some oil in a non-stick pan.  Began wonton assembly.  When about 15 wontons were made, oil was hot enough.  Dropped wontons into pan to begin frying.

7. Meanwhile, added 2 eggs to rice mixture and rolled together, turning off heat when done.

8. Turned wontons as necessary and removed to paper towel on a plate to drain.

9. To serve, mixed soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili oil toasted sesame oil, a little sugar and a little water together for a dipping sauce.  Put rice, wontons and dipping sauce in small bowl on a plate.

Blood Orange Salad with Olives, Feta and Fennel and Red Onion

1. Cut skins off a lot of blood oranges.   (squeeze the juice from the peels into a bowl).

2. Cut skins off some navel oranges.  (squeeze the juice from the peels into a bowl).

3. Keeping types of oranges separate, slice into rounds.

4. Thinly slice some red onion (keeping the circular shape)

5. Thinly slice a fennel bulb and toss with some lemon and olive oil to preserve it.

6. Heat some olive oil in a pan and toast some slivered almonds.

7. Pit and finely chop some oil cured olives.

8.  Mince some fresh rosemary.

9. Mix some honey into the reserved orange juice.  Squeeze a little lemon in to get the right sweetness balance.  I added some worshteshire to get more "body".  And some olive oil and shook it up.

To serve, arrange orange slices, onions and fennel to be pleasing to you.  Stacked might be cool...tonight we kind of scattered them.  I spooned a Little of the dressing over the orange, fennel onion arrangement.  Arrange the olive mash to your liking.  Tonight we clumped it around the plate.  Sprinkle the fresh rosemary and maybe some fennel greens for a little garnish and taste.  Sprinkle on the almonds and crumble some feta cheese on top.

Dinner at Olivia's

is always a special treat.

Tonight she made me a compari and pellegrino with a little lemon. This was a great way to start.

Sheila made crostini's with goat cheese, Olivia's sun dried tomatoes, a little parsley herb mixture and some smoked salmon or shrimp.

I made a blood orange salad. 

Steve made a radicchio salad with a simple wonder garlic vinaigrette.

Olivia then served chili pepper polenta cakes.

Diver Scallops on a bed a of sauteed fennel, leak, and spinach.

And if that was not heaven enough, Sheila surprised us with delicious coffee and chocolate shortbread cookies.  And Olivia dished out her homemade persimmon ice creme.

YUM!

 

the savory scones at farmer and the cook

the savory scones at farmer and the cook are SO GOOD that i have no desire to learn how to make them.  and i refuse to share mine.

this morning i called to find out if they were happening.  emy told me that they were "in the oven and should be ready in about 20 minutes"

oh!  i can't imagine i have done anything in my life to deserve such a special treat!

me and fried rice are gonna get married

yesterday i made fried rice with pre-made brown rice from rainbow bridge.  the nuttiness of the brown rice is awesome.  

for lunch i used shallots, kale, carrots, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar and eggs

for dinner i made it with leftover yellow onion, rosemary, sage, kale, lemon zest, lemon, roasted cashews, eggs and parmeson

for lunch today i made white rice and made the dish with shallots, jalepenos, kale, soy sauce and eggs.  i got an extra good "do" on it this afternoon.

"Italian Style" Fried Rice for One

1. In a non-stick pan, heat too much olive oil.
2. Pan Roast a handful of cashews. Remove with slotted spoon.
3. To pan, add 1/4 cup or so of minced onion and a mashed up clove of garlic. Add some red pepper flakes, thyme and a little turmeric for color.
4. Add leftover cooked cold white rice (about 1.5 cups).
5. Stir and mix and saute until starts to brown.
6. Add leftover baby spinach and mix up to wilt.
7. Push rice to the side and crack egg into pan and scramble. Mix into rice mixture.

8. Remove from pan. Grate lots of Parmesan into Rice. Stir in Cashews. Add Lots of Ground Pepper. Salt. Some Meyer lemon zest and a little lemon juice.

more tales of fried rice

and, did you know that you can make fried rice with just a little fat, a smidge of leftover minced onion, rice, egg and soy sauce? probably even less....

Fried Rice and Fried Tofu

So, like I said, I am i the fried rice current, but tonight we added tofu. It has been a LONG time since I made tofu.

Here is what I did:

1. Wrap extra firm tofu in paper towels and "press" tofu
2. In a shallow flat dish, like a Pyrex baking dish, mix tamari soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, a little maple syrup, red pepper flakes and slice scallions
3. When Tofu has been "pressed" for about 3o minutes, remove from paper towels, slice no thicker than 1/4 inch and place in marinade. Best if can soak for about 30 minute.
4. Meanwhile, make some rice and put in freezer to cool down quickly.
5. Prepare your fried rice veggies. Tonight we used shallots, carrots, celery, kale and bok choy.
6. Start making the fried rice
7. When tofu has marinated enough, heat oil in pan and fry tofu (if necessary, keep batches in oven warn as cook the rest)
8. When fired rice is complete, pour the remainder of the marinade into pan and thicken.
9. Serve rice with tofu and sauce on top.
   

Fried Rice, Again!

So tonight, made the fried rice with:

shallots, scallions, carrots, celery, bok choy, kale, basil

so good.

Fried Rice with Greens

I often will get into "kicks" in cooking. This is one of the reason I do really well on the Ayurvedic Cleanse cuz I love the ritual of the same meal.

Today I give thanks for the Superbowl. I came home to an empty house for the first time in about 4 months. The boys are off watching the game in East End. I was giddy with delight when I realized the gift.

And I made some fried Rice which is my new favorite thing to eat.

1. Mince up some red onion
2. Mince up some turnip greens, bok choy, kale or chard or a combo. (Tonight I was lucky enough to have turnip greens which are my favorite and baby bok choy from B.D.)
3. Add some olive oil (or other favorite fat) to a non-stick pan and raise the heat
4. Add some red pepper flakes or other spice.
5. Add the onions and saute for a while then add the greens
6. When greens are wilted enough, add some leftover rice from the fridge, breaking up the clumps. (I bet this would be so good with brown rice!). Mix and allow to "brown". Eventually mixing in some Tamari Soy Sauce.
7. Beat 2 eggs in small bowl.
8. Push rice to the side and pour eggs into pan. Allow eggs to cook for a little bit before you start pushing them around. Eventually mix into rice and use your wooden edged spatula to break up the clumps.
9. Fresh ground pepper and a little soy sauce on the side to taste.

Enjoy your quiet house.

Refridgerator Fried Rice

We returned from a hike and we only had one egg left. Starving and reliant on what was in the fridge, here is what we made:

1. Mince up the 1/2 yellow onion left over from last night's dinner
2. Mince of some of the 2 stalks celery you left out from last nights dinner
3. Mince up some of the left over packaged Lassen's ham
4. In a small non stick pan, heat a little olive oil or other fat and add the above ingredients
5. When soft, add the rice left over from Chinese food on Friday. About a generous cup. Saute until starting to brown. Grind lots of pepper into mixture.
6. In a small bowl, whisk up egg. Push rice aside and allow egg to start to fry. Then eventually ix into rice and toss and continue to fry. Add some soy sauce. Continue to cook until egg are sufficiently dry. Serve.

This was ridiculously tasty.

Garlic Bread

Tonight Eric came home with the groceries and there was not enough pasta in the package to feed 3. I think I have mentioned that my little brother now lives with us. We had some leftover french loaf from last night (used to make croutons for Cesear salad) so I decided to make garlic bread. I have never made garlic bread. Here is what I did:

1. Blanched a lot of garlic cloves in boiling water for about a minute. (Got this idea from an Italian cookbook on instructions of how to make garlic butter).
2. After blanching, used a masher to mash.
3. Mashed up a stick of butter with the garlic and then melted.
4. Sliced up the French Loaf and Toasted one Side under the broiler.
5. Added some Mexican Oregano, Thyme and Salt to butter mixture.
6. When Bread was toasted, removed and dunked the "untoasted" side in the butter. (That bread soaked up a lot of butter).
7. Grated a little Parmesan on each slice and placed back under the broiler until toasty brown.

Serve HOT. The garlic bread was unfortunately delicious.

Dialing in the Family Pasta Sauce. This time with Chipotles.

Growing up my mom had a spaghetti sauce recipe that she followed to a T every time. For a long time I imagined that one day I would too have a sauce that we made consistently. It just hasn't worked out that way. Sauce is always a play of what you have in stock, what is available locally, what the mood is and who you are feeding. Tonight's sauce was spicy and sweet and yummy.

So tonight, we made the sauce like this:

1. In a Dutch Oven like pot (my Crueset is my go to), heat a little olive oil, cook up pieces of hot Italian turkey sausage. Remove with slotted spoon to a bowl.
2. Add a little more olive oil to pot and add 1/2 minced yellow onion, 2 minced carrots, 2 minced celery sticks. Saute for a while.
3. Meanwhile, mince up some fresh rosemary. (I love a little fresh sage too, but did not have any tonight). And mince up the left over pork chop from last night that you already cooked. (Optional and not necessary of course).
4. Once veggies have sauteed to your liking, add the herbs and mix. (Tonight I added Mexican Oregano, Thyme and Fresh chopped Rosemary, Red Pepper Flakes and Lots of Freshly Ground Pepper). Then make a little room to brown the pork a bit. (This could have been done pre veggies, but I spaced). Once pork has browned a bit, add sausage back to pot and stir and let "meld" a bit. Usually I use red wine to deglaze the pan, but tonight I used some port. (Made it too sweet which led to the adding of the chiptoles.) Stirred and allowed to soak until pan was again "dry".
5. Add a can of Fire Roasted Chopped Tomatoes. I wanted the sauce more "saucy". So I peered into my fridge to see if I could find some tomato sauce. I found one labeled 11.03.08. It did not seem okay. If I had had beef broth, I would have added that, but I had some Chicken Stock, so I added a little of that.
   
6. I started the water to boil and began prepping the garlic bread.
   
7. When I tasted the sauce, it seemed too sweet, so I added 2 canned chiptoles. This fixed the problem. Brought Sauce to a boil and allowed it to simmer.
   
8. Once pasta was cooking, I added some chopped fresh Italian Parsley and continued to allow to simmer. I added some salt. (We like the Strangled Priest Noodle).
   
9. Serve with Parmesan to grate.

Apple Chutney with Smoked Chipotle

I came home with porkchops and apples with a plan to make some applesauce.  But there was no butter, so I had to rethink it a little went for a spicy apple condiment to go with the chops.  I made this on the fly as I found ingredients, so if I spent some more time with it, I might change the order of events, but this is what I did and it turned out super yummy.

1. Peel and Core and chop your apples to desired size.  I squeezed some Meyer lemon on them as I went to help prevent browning. I think i had about 8 apples.  Pink Ladies.

2.  Mince about 2 inches of ginger.

3. In a heavy bottom pan, heat olive oil.  (This was the only fat I had.  Butter or ghee might have been better).  Add yellow mustard seed and then the ginger and then some turmeric (purely for the pretty yellow color).  Add the apples.  Mix well.

4. I allowed the apples to cook for like this as I wondered what I was going to do.  I found a few of Olivia's magic smoked chipotles.  I minced up 2 of them (removing the seeds) and added them to the apple mixture.  Then eventually I added some cider vinegar and sugar and allowed to cook over low heat, stirring often.  

5. The mixture probably cooked for about 20 minutes in total while I made the Cesear salad and prepped the pork.  When it seemed done enough, I transferred it to a bowl and covered it with foil to keep it warm.  Before serving I mixed in some chopped cilantro.

बुफ्फालो चिप्तोले सुंद्रिएद टोमाटो पास्ता

सोमेहोव माय ब्लॉगर अकाउंट आईटी ट्रांस्लातिंग एवेर्य्थिंग इ से इन्तो संस्कृत व्हिच इस प्रेत्टी फुन्न्य, कज इ दोन'टी स्पेअक आईटी बुत हवे वांटेड तो लीर्ण आईटी फॉर अ व्हिले।

बुफ्फालो चिप्तोले सुन्दिरेड टोमाटो पास्ता

Buffalo Pasta Sauce

I went to farmer and the cook tonight to pick up ingredients for dinner.  We have been sick for like 2 weeks in my house and i was tired of soup.  It felt like we needed more fortification.  Sometimes getting dinner stuff at FnC is hard.  They have the freshest most amazing local organic produce in town but the shelves are lacking the other stuff that I want.

I left with some frozen ground buffalo, kale, egg noodle pasta and a can of crushed tomatoes.

Here is what I did:

1. Defrosted buffalo meat under warm water.
2. Start pot of water to boil
3. In a heavy Crueset dutch oven like pot, heat some olive oil.
4. Break up buffalo meat and brown.  Grind some fresh pepper into the meat while browning
5. While meat is browning, find some bacon(!) in your fridge left over from the holidays.
6. Slice up 3 strips of bacon.  
7. While meat is still browning, mince up 1/2 a yellow onion and the rest of the carrots from Sunday's farmer's market.
8. When meat has browned, remove from pan and add bacon.  Cook up bacon until fat has been rendered and done to your liking.  Remove.
9. Add a little extra olive oil to pot and add onions and carrots.  (If I had had celery or fennel, I would have used some of that too.)  Stir and start the saute process.  Add your desired herbs and spices.  Tonight I had some fresh sage in the fridge so I minced up some of that and added dried thyme, Mexican oregano, red chili flakes.  Once the onions and carrots were browned, I poured a little port into pot to deglaze it.  (If wine were open, I would have used that).
10. I added the meats back in and mixed well, then added the tomato mixture back in.  
11. By this time the water was boiling, but I wanted the sauce to have a chance to meld, so I turned the water off.  
12. I found some sun dried tomatoes in the fridge, so I thinly sliced about 5 of those up and added them to the pan.  I added a little extra pepper flakes and ground pepper for more spice.
13. I thinly sliced up the beautiful amazing kale from Steve and added that and stirred it in.  (We need the Kale in this house for fortification).
14. Turned the water back on.  That egg pasta cooks in 4 minutes.
15. I tossed the egg pasta with a little butter (this is totally cheating).  And served the pasta with a little splash of olive oil and Parmesan for grating.

Both Geordie and Eric liked it.  I did too.

Cayenne for Sore Throat

After having a burning frog in my throat for a week, I finally had the concoction of:

hot water

lemon juice

honey and 

CAYENNE

and that made all the difference

Corner TURNED!

Potato, Fennel, Leek Gratin

One might imagine with the holidays behind us that the concept of  "eating light" would kick in.  Oh well.  On our way to Rainbow Bridge this evening I suggest Potato Gratin and Eric said, "Yes.  That is What I Want."

1. Heat the Oven to 375.

2. Cut a piece of garlic in half and smear all the sides of a 9x12 baking dish.

3. In a heavy bottomed pan (like a Creuset Dutch oven) pour in a quart of milk.  (If you are trying to gain weight, make it a half n half creme to milk mixture).

4. Peal and thinly slice a lot of your favorite potatoes.  Tonight we used the Yellow Finnish ones they had a Rainbow.   I think i peeled and sliced about 9 or so.  Add to the milk as you go cuz peeled and sliced potatoes do not respond well to open air.

5. Thinly Slice 2 large leeks and wash.  Drain and add to milk mixture.

6. Thinly slice 3 cloves garlic and add to milk mixture.

7. Tonight I added 2 bay leaves, some dried thyme (fresh sprigs is also great), freshly ground nutmeg, white pepper (did not feel like grinding fresh so added already ground), and lots of freshly ground black pepper.  I think this is a pretty standard offering.  Obviously there is room for experimentation.

8.  I start the heat at medium under the milk and potato mixture.  I was busy blogging about class today and my latest discovery of my own depression and I did not want to watch the milk come to a boil.  So I set the timer for about 15 minutes and came back to check every so often.  In general, you want to bring the mixture to a boil slowly and then turn down and simmer until the potatoes become soft, but not to the point of falling apart.  

9. Slice up a big bulb of fennel as thinly as possible.  Once milk has come to boil and you are simmering it, add fennel.  

10. Grate the block of Gruyere that you can get at Rainbow.  Seems like a shy 2 cups but I did not measure.

11.. When ready, use a slotted spoon to bring some of the potato mixture into the gratin dish.  Sprinkle with some cheese, some ground black pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg.  Layer some more potato mixture and repeat.  Layer the last layer and add enough of the milk to come up to the edge of the top potatoes.  Cover with remaining cheese and dot with butter.  (Clearly there was no resolution to lose weight!)

12. Put in oven and set timer to 45 minutes.  Check on gratin.  You want a nice toasty brown crust and not too much bubbling.  When done, remove and make a simple sharp green salad to cut it.

13. Tonight I made a dressing with garlic, shallots, Serrano, Meyer lemon rind, Meyer lemon juice, country mustard and olive oil.  The Salad was Butter Lettuce with cilantro and celery.  (Fridge Review, baby).

Pan Roasted Open Faced Grilled Cheese with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Avocado and Chiptole Lime Salt

5 out of the 6 ingredients came direct from Steve and Olivia at Farmer and the Cook

1. Heat an indulgent amount of olive oil in non-stick or other favorite grilled cheese making pan

2. Slice up some of Olivia's fresh spelt seed bread 

3. Place slices in oil and allow to "toast"

4. Meanwhile, grate up some yummy sharp cheddar cheese.  You could get this at FnC, but I had some from Vermont in my fridge.

5. Turn slices of bread over, sprinkle with cheese and cover to allow cheese to melt.

6. When cheese is melted, remove to a plate.  Put 2 or more of olivia's amazing smoked sun dried tomatoes on top.  Slice up some avocado and place on each sandwich.  Sprinkle with Olivia's amazing chipolte Lime sea salt.  Eat with a fork and knife for tidiness or not.

You can get Olivia's chipolte mix and tomatoes at organichiles.com.

The Perfect Sun Dried Tomato

Olivia Chase of Farmer and the Cook has created the perfect Sun Dried Tomato.  Soft, packed with flavor, moist and chewy, it lends itself to a whole new paradigm of what do to with sun dried tomatoes.

Her site:

oragnichilies.com will start to sell them soon 

along with her perfect chipotle lime salt and other goodies.

You can also visit her at the Farmer's Market in Ojai on Sundays next to Friend's Ranch stand which is where you should get your lemonade.