channelchow

Spiced Pear Relish

2011-12-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

6 Firm Barlett or Anjou or whatever pears you can find. Core, peal and finely chop.
1 medium onion, very finely chopped. I like white.
1/4 cup kosher or other big grain salt.
2 large jalepeños. Seeded and Minced.
1 cup sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1.5 c golden raisins
1 Tbl minced, peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp yellow mustard seed

1. In a large bowl, toss the pears w the inion, salt and jalepeñeos. Cover and refridg over night.

2. Drain pears into a colander and rinse the. In a large saucepan, combine the pears with the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 25 minutes or until thickened. Let the pear relish cool. Serve cold or at room temp.

3. Sometimes I add a little mint or brightener...

mac and cheese, first go

2011-11-24T22:31:00.000-08:00

last summer chad was having the good idea that someone should make mac and cheese for thanksgiving. i teased him a lot for this. so today, i made a go at mac and cheese to bring to thanksgiving.

1. cook pasta
way ahead of when you want to make the mac and cheese, cook your pasta. i used strangled priest. once i drained it, i put it in the fridge in a bowl. it could be there as long as over night, but at least 4 hours or so.

2. start to heat oven to 350 degrees.

3. fry pasta
put way too much olive oil and butter in a dutch oven like pot. (i love my crueset pot). when hot, add the pasta and stir and fry until you have a satisfactory amount of "crunchy brown" pieces.

4. mash garlic
using a masher or knife, mash about 4 or 5 cloves for 1lb of pasta.

5. grate cheese
tonight i used gruyere. whatever the size is they sell at my local market, rainbow bridge.

6. add garlic and some of cheese
when pasta was close to done, i added the garlic and stirred. i added some of the cheese and stirred. i also grated parmeson cheese into frying pasta. i removed from heat. if i was not "making mac and cheese" i would have stopped here and eaten this. yum.

7. make creme sauce
melt butter and add equal parts flour. stir until roux is light blond color. slowly pour in milk or creme. (tonight all i had was half n half, so i used that). add the rest of grated cheese to milk mixture.

8. mix, salt and bake
pour creme cheese sauce onto pasta. stir. gruyere is pretty salty, but i added some smoked salt too. i grated some more cheese onto top of pasta and put it oven for 20 minutes.

Extreme Ginger Carrots

2011-11-24T22:14:00.000-08:00

Old recipe, new method and new flavor angles:

1. peel and cut carrots into shape you like. tonight i did them the way ed brown taught me. slicing as i roll them to get some interesting shapes. tonight i used 3 farmer's market sized bunches.

2. heat olive oil or preferred oil in a pan and brown the carrots. i like them so the look like they were roasted.

3. while browning, finely grate a lot of ginger. tonight i think i added too much, maybe close to 1/2 cup, but no one seemed to mind.

4. finely grate 2 oranges. squeeze the juice from these two oranges.

5. mix orange juice with some tamari soy sauce, maple syrup and cayenne to taste. proportions depend on your desired taste.

6. once carrots are browned to your liking, stir in the ginger. then eventually add the juice mixture. allow to come to a boil, then turn heat way down, cover and let simmer on low until desired softness of carrots has been reached. usually about 45 minutes or so.

7. tonight the balance of ginger and cayenne was a little intense, so i added a smidge more maple syrup. also, the sauce was super potent. to tone down, i might have added a little water to the juice mixture.

8. in the past, i have minced up shallots and added with the ginger. tonight i fried up the shallots separately like in Vietnamese cooking. then to serve, stir in a little of the fresh orange rind. chop up some mint and scatter on top with fried shallots.

Wilted Spinach and Kale Salad with Ginger Rosemary Lemon Dressing

2011-02-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Made this from what was in fridge. Worked out pretty well.

Mince some ginger and fry up in too much olive oil.
Add mashed garlic and rosemary just for a few moments.
Transfer to large wooden salad bowl and mash together with ground pepper and salt and a little meyer lemon zest.
Squeeze out 1.5 or less or more meyer lemons into bowl and mix with ginger paste.
Taste and add a little maple syrup to balance the lemon.
Heat some oil up again and brown some slivered almonds. When golden, set aside.
Artistically slice a few carrots.
1/4 Moon half a small red onion.
Thinly Slice some black kale.
De stem fresh spinach from Steve's Farm
Mix carrots, onions, spinach and kale with the Ginger Dressing in the bowl.
Crumble Feta Cheese and Toss.
Heat some more olive oil. When hot, pour over salad to wilt the greens. Toss Well and then toss in the almonds.

Thanksgiving Again

2010-11-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

Everytime I cook Thanksgiving Dinner, I feel like I am starting from scratch. It's like I've never done it before. This year turned out pretty good so I figured I make some notes to help me next year.

The Turkey
1. Delya Gates Raises Delicious Turkeys
Got our turkey from Delya up on Fairview right here in Ojai. I was skeptical cuz it looked like a Supermodel turkey. Long legs and flat chested. I was worried that there would be no meat. The 9lb. was the perfect amount for 4 peeps with just enough meat for some sandwiches tomorrow. And, most importantly the bird tasted great!

2. Salt and Sugar Brine

Dissolve 1 cup sugar and 1 cup salt into a gallon of water. Add some cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, crazed black peppercorns. Warm to make sure it all dissolves and then cool. Use ice if in a rush.
Place turkey breast side down into a garbage bag inside a white foam cooler. Pour in brine and add another gallon water + to cover bird. Seal and put in garage if cold enough.
9 hours later, remove and put in fridge uncovered.

3. The Mark Bittman 45 minute method

Set oven to 400 or so
Remove backbone and open turkey up
Lay in roasting pan and smear with butter
Tuck in garlic cloves and herbs
Pour a little water into pan
Place in oven and set timer for 23 minutes
Turn bird in oven and set timer for another 23 minutes
Check bird and allow to cook for as much longer as necessary dep on size

The Stock

Brown the Giblets
Add some big pieces of onion, carrot and celery
Deglaze with chosen liquid
Add Broth from store
Add Aromatics like Rosemary and such
Bring to boil and allow to simmer until you start to need it
Drain

The Stuffing

Get Olivia’s homemade herbed breadcrumbs from Farmer and the Cook
Melt too much butter and remove some (2 sticks)
Add chopped onion and celery (1 cup each)
Add pine nuts and chopped pecans (1 cup or so total)
Add salt and herbs and pepper
Stir in breadcrumbs and add back in butter to toss (6 to 8 cups)
Stir in Chopped Parsley
Stir in Stock (about a cup)

The Carrots

Get Fresh Carrots from market
Cut in cool shape like Ed taught you
Saute in Pan until starting to turn golden
Add chopped ginger and shallot. Continue to saute
Add Orange Juice, Maple Syrup and Soy Sauce and Water
Turn heat to super low, cover and allow to braise
When ready to serve, toss with mint and orange zest
Can be made ahead, but get super super soft

The Mashed Potatoes

White Rose? Potatoes from Market
Pealed and chopped in half (so left pretty big)
Placed in cold water and brought to a boil
Boil for 25 minutes or until potatoes are practically falling apart
Drain and put right back into hot pan and put on burner, allow to dry out
Begin to Mash with masher
Eventually add in buttermilk/butter/heavy creme mixture you melted
Continue to mash until fluffy and light

The Green Beans

Prep by cutting ends off
Right before about to eat, steam for just a few moments so beans stay crunchy
Toss with some butter, salt and chopped herbs, like dill

Gravy

My gravy did not work at all this year. Never got thick. Even went to the trouble of making a roux. So no notes here except to get better advice next year.

Cranberry Sauce

Buy Olivia’s Ginger Cranberry Sauce again.

Desert

Thank you Knead Bakery for the Pecan Tart and Apple Creme Fraiche Tart!
Thank you Whip Cream!

One of my favorite Summer Salsas

2010-07-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

Mince:
1 clove garlic
1 serrano
1/2 a red onion
some cilantro

Chop:
a small bucket of cherry tomotoes or one large regular tomato

Mix together with some salt, olive oil and a squeeze of lime (lemon will do)

Serve with the "Have a Chips" or make your own chips for best results.

Sausage Pasta Soup with Chiptole and Herbs

2009-12-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

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

Start a pot of salted water on a path to boil.
Mince up a few slices of bacon and put in thick heavy pot like a Crueset.
While bacon cooks, thinly slice up an onion, chop up some carrots in desired shape and chop up some celery in desired shape.
When bacon has rendered its fat, add sausage to pan. Tonight we used Mild Italian Turkey Sausage from Rainbow.
When Sausage is done, remove and add more fat if necessary to pan. We used olive oil tonight.
Add onions, carrots and celery. Stir and allow to cook to your liking. I like them browned.
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.
Add 1/2 cup of Muir Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes and stir.
Add two canned chiptoles in adobo sauce and some of the adobo sauce.
By this time water should be boiling. Add your pasta. We used Strangled Priest Noodles. They take 8 minutes.
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.
Drain pasta when done.
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

2009-12-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T22:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T21:26:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-10-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

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

Smoked Salt

2009-10-05T19:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-27T07:51:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-07-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

Thinking About Making My Own Yogurt

2009-04-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-04-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

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 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 cup white flour
1 tbl + baking soda
1 tbl salt or more
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.
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.
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

2009-04-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Slice and wash a 1/2 a bunch of chard from Steve's Gozo Farm. (I imagine that any green would do).
Turn heat on under a largish pan and add the chard. Add a little water, cover and start to allow the chard to steam.
Once chard is wilty, crack 4 eggs into the chard individually and separated so they cook solo.
Cover pan back up.
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

2009-03-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-27T22:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-24T11:58:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-07T23:32:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

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:

Wrap extra firm tofu in paper towels and "press" tofu
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
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.
Meanwhile, make some rice and put in freezer to cool down quickly.
Prepare your fried rice veggies. Tonight we used shallots, carrots, celery, kale and bok choy.
Start making the fried rice
When tofu has marinated enough, heat oil in pan and fry tofu (if necessary, keep batches in oven warn as cook the rest)
When fired rice is complete, pour the remainder of the marinade into pan and thicken.
Serve rice with tofu and sauce on top.

Fried Rice, Again!

2009-02-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

So tonight, made the fried rice with:

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

so good.

Fried Rice with Greens

2009-02-01T16:53:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-29T18:40:00.001-08:00

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:

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).
After blanching, used a masher to mash.
Mashed up a stick of butter with the garlic and then melted.
Sliced up the French Loaf and Toasted one Side under the broiler.
Added some Mexican Oregano, Thyme and Salt to butter mixture.
When Bread was toasted, removed and dunked the "untoasted" side in the butter. (That bread soaked up a lot of butter).
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.

2009-01-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

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:

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.
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.
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).
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".
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.
I started the water to boil and began prepping the garlic bread.
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.
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).
Serve with Parmesan to grate.

Apple Chutney with Smoked Chipotle

2009-01-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T19:50:00.001-08:00

Buffalo Pasta Sauce

2009-01-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

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:

Defrosted buffalo meat under warm water.
Start pot of water to boil
In a heavy Crueset dutch oven like pot, heat some olive oil.
Break up buffalo meat and brown. Grind some fresh pepper into the meat while browning
While meat is browning, find some bacon(!) in your fridge left over from the holidays.
Slice up 3 strips of bacon.
While meat is still browning, mince up 1/2 a yellow onion and the rest of the carrots from Sunday's farmer's market.
When meat has browned, remove from pan and add bacon. Cook up bacon until fat has been rendered and done to your liking. Remove.
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).
I added the meats back in and mixed well, then added the tomato mixture back in.
By this time the water was boiling, but I wanted the sauce to have a chance to meld, so I turned the water off.
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.
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).
Turned the water back on. That egg pasta cooks in 4 minutes.
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

2009-01-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-03T20:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T19:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T19:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Smokey Greens

2008-12-30T19:42:00.000-08:00

So easy, so awesome. Spicer suggests cooking them in duck or bacon fat. Butter seems to work great. Original recipe from Food and Wine, December 2000.

The trick with greens is to start with way more than you think you need. They cook down so fast. This recipe serves 5 with left overs.

5 bunches of greens. Mixed is best. Kale, collards, mustard, chard, etc. with large stems removed.
Generous 1/2 stick unsalted butter or equivalent fat
2 large red onions chopped
5 cloves garlic minced
2 canned chipotles with some of the adobo sauce (OR 3 of Olivia from Farmer and the Cook's smoked dried chipotles)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tbl cider vinegar

1. Coarsely chop and wash greens in cold water. (This can be done in stages as the greens cook down.)

2. Heat fat in dutch oven like pan. Add the onions and saute until soft. (10 minutes or so). Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

3. Stir in greens by the handful, adding more as previous batch starts to wilt. This takes a long time to get through all the greens. Add the chipotles and some adobo sauce if using canned and some salt and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring ever so often until greens are tender, about an hour.

4. Discard chipotles if you can find them. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Cornmeal Souffle

2008-12-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

This is totally fantastic, but time consuming and needs to be timed well with the rest of your meal. It really wants to be the last thing to get put out. Spicer's recipe calls for grits, but I have yet to find grits in Ojai so I have substituted fine cornmeal. It's still good. Recipe from article in Food and Wine, December 2000.

5 cups water
1 cup whole milk (Organic Valley is my favorite)
3 Tbl unsalted butter
1.5 tsp kosher salt
1.5 cups stone ground grits or cornmeal
1.5 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (5 oz)
5 large eggs separated

1. In a large saucepan, combine the water, milk, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Slowly whisk in grits or cornmeal and simmer over low heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until grits are thick. About an hour.

2. Transfer cooked grits to a large bowl and stir in cheese. Let cool slightly, then add the egg yolks one at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon after each one. (This is where you have the most fudge room with the timing).

3. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Butter a 2.5 qt class or Cormack souffle dish. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold firm peaks. Stir 1/3 of egg whites into grits to loosen them, then fold in the remaining whites.

4. Scrape mixture into prepared souffle dish and smooth the surface. Bake for about 30 minutes or until puffed and golden and center is moist but not runny. Serve at once.

Buttermilk Cornbread

2008-12-30T19:19:00.000-08:00

This cornbread totally satisfies. I have yet to meet someone that does not like it.
Recipe from Susan Spicer. Food and Wine, December 2000.

1 Stick unsalted Butter melted, plus 2 Tbl
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups yellow cornmeal (fine or coarse works depending on your taste)
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbl + 1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat Oven to 400. Put the 2 Tbl of butter in an 8 inch square baking dish and put in oven. (This helps create a crispy firm crust and seal in the moisture)

2. In a Big Bowl, mix the dry ingredients: cornflour, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder.

3. In a Small bowl, mix the buttermilk and eggs.

4. Add the Wet ingredients to the Dry ingredients along with the melted butter and stir to combine.

5. Remove the hot dish from the oven and tilt to spread the butter around the dish. Scrape batter into dish and bake for about 25 minutes or until the toothpick or fork tool inserted in the middle comes out clean. (I usually check it at 20 minutes). Let cool for at least 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack or serve from dish.

Seafood Okra Gumbo

2008-12-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

My first and only trip to New Orleans was to see my little brother graduate from Tulane in the year 2000. We ate like Kings that week. Dinner at Emeril's, Commander's Palace and Jacquimos. Breakfast of fancy fried donuts called beignets and Nutty Black Coffee at Cafe Dumond. Lunch at the Gumbo Shop and elsewhere.

This recipe comes from the Gumbo Shop in New Orleans. I have tweaked the ingredients and directions a little based on what is available to me in Ojai, Calif. Of course if you can get shrimp with the heads on for the stock and fresh crab, do it!

Serves 6 to 8 hungry people.
Most peeps like a scoop of white rice in there.
Corn bread is almost a must.

2lbs frozen shrimp with shells

Cup of canned or fresh crab meat

(our local market carries this canned crab meat in a black tin that has been pretty consistent)

3 quarts water

2/3 cup + 2 Tbl. cooking oil (peanut oil has proven to be my favorite, but others work)

1 qt. frozen okra, pre sliced (Okra is fresh here in the summer and I almost never want gumbo in the summer...so frozen it is).

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 tsp. minced garlic

1 16oz. can of tomatoes (You can't find 16oz. of tomatoes, the 14oz works fine. Lately I use Muir's Fire Roasted Crushed tomatoes and like that the best).

2 Bay Leaves

2 tsp salt (to taste)

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. ground white pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne (I get super shy about the red pepper when serving a large group).

1. Peal and De vein the Shrimp. Set aside in Fridge.

2. Rinse shrimp shells (and heads if you have them). In a non-reactive pot, heat a little of your oil and saute the shrimp bodies until pink. Add 3qts of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes to make stock. Strain, discard the bodies and set stock aside.

3. In a non-stick, heat 2Tbl. of oil and add okra. Saute over medium heat until "ropiness" is gone. This takes an unusually long amount of time, but I also like to "overdo" it and blacken the okra bit. About 25 minutes.

4. Place 2/3 cup of oil in a large (8qt.) heavy bottomed pan Dutch Oven like pan. Add the flour and, over medium high heat, make a dark brown roux. This also takes a crazy amount of time and can be done while the okra cooks. It requires constant stirring. Initially little foamy bubbles will appear, this is the flour frying. Then, once the bubbling has stopped and you start to smell popcorn, you must stay totally diligent. The roux will turn a teddy bear brown and make it's way to a chocolate. You will be tempted to stop before it gets too dark cuz if it's burned you have to start over, but play the edge as close as you can. The darker the roux the more nutty and rich the flavor.

5. As soon as you get the color you want, throw in the onion, peppers and celery. Stir and mix for about 4 minutes and then add the garlic. Saute until soft and the sweetness has been released. The Gumbo Shop suggests letting the vegetables stick to the bottom of the pan and then scraping them off allowing the natural sugars to caramelize but I have never experienced this "sticking" they talk about. Maybe if I was using Cast Iron...? About 15 minutes or so.

6. When the vegetables are tender, add the tomatoes, bay leaves, 3 peppers and salt. (I also usually add some thyme). Again, mixing and sauteing for about 10 to 15 minutes.

7. Add the cooked okra and saute for about 10 minutes more.

8. Add stock, but eyeball quantity. I never add it all. Stir and bring to a boil. Lower heat and partially cover and simmer for about an hour, stirring every so often, adding more stock if gumbo seems to thick.

9. Return to a boil and add shrimp and cook till pink and firm. About 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add canned crab.

Gumbo is best prepared ahead of time cuz the flavors get better with time. So early in the day or day before is best. Reheating gently to not overcook the shrimp.

Making Your House Smell Like Christmas

2008-12-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

It was Tuesday and we had been cleaning all day and the house smelled like cleaning products.

My parents were due to arrive in about 30 minutes.

SO I threw some Cinnamon Sticks, Cloves and Cardamon Pods onto a baking sheet and put them in the oven at around 350 and INSTANT CHRISTMAS SMELL.

Spiced Pecans

2008-12-30T12:38:00.000-08:00

These are totally yummy and can be tweaked to suit your tastes. More salty, spicy or sweet. I have been making these around the holidays for 10 years. Original recipe from Michael Brisson in Fine Cooking, Nov 1998, No. 29.

2 to 3 tsp. good salt (original called for 4tsp but always was too salty for me)

1/2 tsp cayenne or to taste

1 tsp each of ground white pepper, nutmeg, cloves and allspice (fresh ground is yummy, but the already ground works well too)

4 to 5 cups of pecan halves

a generous 1/3 cup of butter melted

1/3 cup of dark maple syrup

1. Heat Oven to 350

2. Mix dry ingredients together well and toss in pecans. Tossing with your hands works the best.

3. Mix melted butter over nuts and again toss. (Taste here. Sometimes you can tell you need more salt or something else. Sometimes I have added ground cardamon into the mix)

4. Spread out on a baking sheet into one layer.

5. Bake until lightly toasted, stirring every so often. About 10 minutes.

6. Pour maple syrup over nuts and stir to combine and bake about another 10 minutes.

7. Let the nuts cook in the pan, about 20 minutes. Then scrape into a bowl, breaking up any large chunks.

Christmas Week Menu

2008-12-30T12:12:00.001-08:00

A large part of hosting Christmas in our family is the food.

Tuesday Night Dinner

Toasted Herby Spicey Nuts

Golden Sea Bass Fish Tacos with Cilantro Mint Yogurt Sauce

Serrano Chili and Lime Cesar Salad

Coconut Rice

Christmas Eve Day

Afternoon Grazing of Cheeses and Meats and olives and the like from Paradise Pantry in Ventura

Spiced Pecans

Christmas Eve Dinner

Seafood Gumbo

Buttermilk Cornbread

Butter Lettuce Salad with fennel, Snap Peas and Turnips

Gingercake with Whip creme, Pomegranate Seeds and Mint for Desert

Christmas Day Brunch

Lox from GeeWhataDeal and the Fixings

Christmas Dinner

Grilled Filet

Cheese Grits Souffle

Smokey Greens

Black Rice

Jalapeno Pear Relish

Lemon Chiffon Pie with Ginger Molasses Crust

The 26th

Dinner at Azu

The 27th

Lunch at Farmer and the Cook

Dinner at the Watermark

Sunday Lunch

2008-12-21T13:40:00.000-08:00

Came home after teaching today and made this for me and Eric.

German Pumpernickel Toast with:

A little Whipped Creme Cheese

Capers

Red Onion

Some Smoked Salmon Lox from GeeWhataDeal

Fresh ground pepper

on the side, a Semi Soft Hard Boiled Egg with salt

Coffee

Manicotti for the Boys

2008-12-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

I felt energized and loving when I went to the grocery store last night. I was feeling pasta, but when I thought Manicotti, I knew the boys (my husband and brother) would be pleased.

Bill of Casa Barranca Winery had just given us 4 bottle of wine for Christmas. We opened the Bungalow Red. Fantastic.

I used the recipe on the back of the box of the shells as a grocery list, adding and changing where I felt appropriate.

1. Start the heat under a big pot of salty water.

2. In an cast iron enalmed pot like a Crueset, heat a little olive oil and brown the hot italian turkey sausage. (4 links with casing removed. I had to do in 2 batches)

3. While sausage is browning, mince up 2 carrots, 2 leeks, 2 stalks celery.

4. In a bowl, mix 15oz. Organic Valley ricotta with 1/3 cup of finely grated parmeson.

5. Once Sausage is browned, remove to a bowl, add more olive oil to pot and add onions, carrots and celery. Stir and saute for about 10 minutes, or until softer. Add mined fresh rosemary and sage. Some dried thyme. A little Mexican Oregano. (Or whatever herbs you have on hand and like). I also added 2 fresh Bay leaves from B.D. Pour in some of the wine from your glass to deglaze. Stir and allow to saute and soak up juices. Add a 28ox can of Muir's Fire Roasted Crushed Tomotoes. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down and allow to simmer. Pour in a little beef broth to thin the sauce out a bit.

6. Turn oven to 350. Grease a 9x12 baking dish with olive oil. Wash your spinich.7. When water is boiling, cook the shells and drain. I ran cold water over them and that made them cool faster so they were easier to handle.8. Throw washed spinich (still wet) into pan you just cooked pasta in. Turn heat to super low and stir and cover. Pay attention to this pot. Stirring and helping spinach to wilt. Takes about 4 minutes or so. Once nice and wilted, but still green, drain into a fine colander and rinse with cold water. With hands squeeze out excess moisture. Finely chop and mix into ricotta along with meat. Freshly ground pepper and what ever else you think might taste good.

7. When all ingredients are ready, begin to stuff cheese mixture into shells. Your hands work the best. Be careful not to bust open the shells.

8. Lay in baking dish and then cover with tomato sauce. Put in oven for 45 minutes.

There wasn't a morsel left. I imagine that this dish could serve up to six peeps if you had a salad to go along with it. But the 3 of us polished it off. OMG.

Geordie Making Mom's Chili from Grandma Elsie

2008-11-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

"I made some adjustments, " He said.

Geordie sent me to the store to get the ingredients. This is what he whipped up.

1.5 pounds ground meat

1 Medium Yellow Onion Diced

1 Green Bell Pepper Diced

2 cloves minced garlic and or 2 tsp of garlic powder

1 16oz can of Red Kidney Beans

1 28oz can tomato puree

1/2 ketchup

2 tbl brown sugar

3 Tbl or to taste of Chili Powder

2 tsp. of dried mustard or to taste

2 tsp. of garlic salt

1 tsp. cayenne or to taste

1 finely chopped jalapeno with or without seeds (optional and to taste)

1 tbl. worshteshire

2 tsp. of white pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Tabasco to taste

1. In a heavy pot, like a Crueset Dutch oven, heat a few tbl of olive oil and brown the meat. Add salt and pepper while cooking and a little cayenne while browning.

2. When down, remove meat and drain in colander. Add an additional tbl or so of olive oil and saute onions and peppers and garlic. (Onions and garlic first. Peppers after).

3. When soft, add meat back in. Drain kidney beans goo and add to pot. Add can of tomato puree. Add ketchup, brown sugar and everything else.

4. Stir. Keep on medium heat until starts to bubble, then turn to simmer and stir occasionally. For about 30 minutes or longer if necessary.

Serve with crusty bread for dipping. A fresh green salad is also good.

Spinich Salad

2008-11-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

I was reluctant to bring a salad to Thanksgiving. Who has room for salad on Thanksgiving? Why would you have salad when there's stuffing? But I love Babs and will do whatever she says. I made this from what I had in my fridge mostly from our local farmers.

1. Wash a bunch of Steve's amazing spinach

2. Mash up some garlic with some salt. Add some of Alice's Ojai White Balsamic Vinegar. Add some chopped green peppercorns and chopped mint from Steve and chopped parsley from BD.

3. Thinly slice at least 2 bulbs of fennel and a bunch of B.D.'s tiny scallion chive onions. Mix and squeeze a meyer lemon from Friend's Ranch over them.

4. Toast pine nuts.

5. When ready to serve, toss spinach with fennel mixture and dressing. Crumble Feta on top. Heat olive oil in small pan on stove. When hot, pour over salad to wilt. Toss quickly. Sprinkle in Pine nuts and add 3 cubed avocados. Gently toss. Salt to taste and serve.

Ginger Carrots

2008-11-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

I was fretting about this dish. I had not made it in a while and was not quite sure how I used to do it. So i approached it with some angst, but it seemed to turn out okay. Even Lia liked it.

Peel and cut too many carrots from your favorite farmer to be as closely the same size as possible. Heat olive oil or other favorite oil in a big saute pan and brown in batches if necessary, removing to a bowl.

Add more oil to pan and saute too many minced shallots and too much minced ginger. De glaze a bit with some orange juice.

Throw carrots back into pan. Add a mixture of Orange juice, honey, soy sauce, black pepper and water back to pan. Bring to a boil. Then lower heat as much as possible. Cover with wax paper and lid if necessary. Braise for up to an hour until carrots are as you like them.

Stir in fresh chopped mint and a little salt to taste if necessary.

Roasted Cranberry Sauce

2008-11-27T21:53:00.001-08:00

At the suggestion of the Saveur, I roasted the Cranberry Sauce. This recipe needs tweaking, but here is what we did. This made enough Cranberry Sauce for an Army. 16 Peeps barely made a dent.

6 boxes of 7oz Organic Cranberries from Farmer and the Cook

1.5 cups Maple Syrup (sugar would prob. work too)

6 tbl. olive oil

5 pinches good salt

8 crushed cardamon pods (not a good idea, too many loose cardamon bursts...ground might have been better)

8 cloves (again, had to find the cloves in the sauce after roasting)

6 cinnamon sticks (candela would have been better)

2 seeded and deribbed jalepenos from FnC thinly sliced (if you know your people, leave some seeds in).

Peeled and thinly sliced skin of 3 oranges (from FnC)

Tossed Together and Roasted in an Oven at 450 for about 15 minutes.

(I like the look of whole berries in the sauce. This blew all the berries up and so the sauce was more like jam)

Transfer Berries and Such to a Bowl and stir in 5 tbl. or so of Fresh Squeezed OJ and 4 tbl. or so of Port. Let sit for an hour and taste. Eventually remove the pods, cloves and sticks before serving. (This was a pain!) Refrigerate if you like cold cranberry sauce.

We mixed in the seeds from one pomegranate. I love this! it gives the sauce a burst like surprise.

Thanksgiving at the Washburns

2008-11-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

We went to the Washburns for Thanksgiving. I was super grateful to not cook a feast this year. First year in a long time.

The meal was fantastic. I was assigned a vegetable dish, salad and cranberry sauce. I ate none of what I brought. I focused completely on the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and a little turkey.

Recipes following.

Food Control and Family Patterns and Pasta

2008-11-05T16:55:00.000-08:00

My little brother Geordie has moved in with us. I love my little brother and am totally delighted that he is here, especially the way his presence exposes the family patterns so quickly and easily.

It was around 3:30pm and Eric had come home from the grocery store with the fixings for a smoked white fish dip and the ingredients for roasted tomato sausage pasta. I was excited to make a nice meal for the 3 of us.

Geordie emerged from the office and announced he was hungry and was going to go out and get something. I mistakenly suggested he wait cuz I was going to make dinner. I jumped up and prepped the whitefish dip. When it was gone within 2 minutes, I realized that maybe I had underestimated (or worse, not even acknowledged) his hunger. And that the appropriate response would have been, "Great, see you later."

But I was attached to our having dinner together, and so I navigated incorrectly, not receiving the fresh information. And as most of us do when we are hungry and not being allowed to do what we want to do, he got angry. (A mild soft angry with a slight agitated and accusing raised voice). And I felt like my mother with my father. One wanting the freedom to satisfy his needs and the other trying to satisfy hers, corrupted with the illusion that her plan was superior.

And so he left to get food, and I laughed and saw what had happened. And when the invitation came in to go to a housewarming party from 6 to 7, I accepted cuz now I was off the hook for dinner. Geordie returned with beer and peanuts still under the assumption that I was cooking dinner. Hahaha. Trick or treat has been the theme for me with my SELF this week and she keeps winning.

1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees

2. Slice open the collection of tomatoes you have from Steve and the Sunday Farmers market. (Tonight we had romas, heirloom, vine ripe and cherry). Lay out on a baking sheet. Smear with olive oil, crack some pepper and put in oven. Set timer for 30 minutes.

3. In a heavy enameled cast iron pot, add some olive oil. When hot, cook up turkey sausage. Tonight Eric came home with spicy and mild.

4. Meanwhile, mince up 1 or 2 carrots and 2 stalks celery and 2 shallots. When meat is done, remove with a slotted spoon. add more oil if necessary and add carrots, celery and shallots.

5. Mince up some rosemary and add to herbs along with some dried thyme and other desired herbs or spices. Eventually add about a cup of wine and allow to simmer and evaporate. By this time the tomatoes are done. I poured the entire tray of tomatoes with juices in. If I had paused, i might have drained them a bit, cuz the sauce seems more watery than i would have liked. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer. (Even though the sauce did not need any more liquid, I added a little beef broth to enhance the flavor.)

6. Meanwhile, start a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta, drain and serve with sauce.

7. Delight in the revealing of that which is no longer serving you.

Terrible Fish

2008-11-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

At the farmer's market today, cute Taylor Fujita was working for Alicia and Ric. She was obviously briefed to try to move the Orka or something like that. I had never had the fish and she is so darn sweet, I took her recommendation for the fun of it.

I baked it with some herbs and spices and oils.

UGH! Tough and chewy and dry, we opened up some A1 and treated it like pork.

Thank goodness the potatoes and greens with shallots, tomatoes and garlic and almonds and balsamic vinegar were delicious.

Halibut Tacos with Cilantro Chutney and Feta

2008-10-19T19:12:00.001-07:00

Made up how to do this tonight.

Needs Refinement, but tasted good.

1. Set Oven to 400 degrees

2. Rub Halibut with olive oil. Fresh ground pepper and crumbled Mexican Oregano.

Place on baking sheet and cover with foil.

Stick in oven and set timer for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a blender

Mix up:

1 small container of Brown Cow Creme Top Whole Yogurt

About 7 or so Raw Cashews

One smashed clove of garlic

Handful of Fresh Cilantro Leaves

1/2 a handful of Lemon Basil

1/4 a handful of Fresh Mint Leaves

Juice of a Lemon

Blend and salt to taste.

4. Mince up some of B.D.'s mini green onions and crumble a bit of fresh feta.

5. At 10 minutes, check fish. I put it back in for 3 more minutes. Then I removed fish from oven and turned on the broiler. I put the fish under there for 3 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan and fry up some of those delicious sprouted corn tortillas.

7. To serve, put a tortilla on a plate. Place some fish on top. Pour some cilantro chutney and sprinkle with scallions and feta. (Toasted almonds would have been perfect here too).

Chocolate

2008-10-12T20:29:00.001-07:00

I love chocolate.

Dark Chocolate.

And usually we have a Dagoba Bar in the home. Or some delightful organic equivalent.

Tonight my little brother brought home some Hershey's Special Dark from Special K on his run to pick up some chaw.

Have you tired that kind of stuff lately?

Gross!

Ginger Steamed Golden Sea Bass with Greens; Side of Roasted Lemon Verbena Potatoes

2008-10-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I have not had meat for about 4 weeks. Fish seemed a reasonable route to see if I wanted it again and notice how I felt.

My little brother moved in from across the country yesterday and I have found myself in the position of "head chef" of my new 3 person household and this is what we made tonight.

The men in my life love carbs. You could serve this dish with rice, but both Eric and Geordie love potatoes. Also, since this was an experiment, I knew that if it failed, at least they would be happy with the potatoes. (If Marty Nation was cooking we could have had that amazing potato puree he used to make at the IRON PAN...oh! I miss those!)

Roasted Potatoes

Heat Oven to 400.
Scrub Little Red Potatoes (from Farmer's Market)
Thinly Slice
Toss with Favorite Olive Oil, crumbled Dried Lemon Verbena (from BD) and Freshly ground Pepper
Lay out on Baking Sheet in Single Layer
Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes until desired crispiness is achieved.

The Fish

Mince too much ginger. Mince or smash 3 cloves or more if you prefer of garlic. Wash and thinly slice 1/2 bunch of scallions all the way into the deep greens.
Wash greens. Tonight we used a combo of dandelion greens and baby bok choy. I was looking for mustard greens, but to no avail. I left the stems whole. (I might at some mustard seed to the dish to get this...but the wasabi served at the end pulled it together).
In a large Pan (I used a Crueset Enameled Cast Iron) heat toasted sesame oil. When hot, add garlic and ginger and some red pepper flakes if desired. Saute briefly until fragrant. Add the greens, tamari soy sauce (or other favorite), rice wine vinegar and toss. Cook until they start to wilt, about 3 minutes. Lay fillets of Golden Sea Bass on top. (I split the fillets into half pieces so they were smaller). Shake a little extra soy sauce onto fish and rub in. Sprinkle scallions on top. Cover. Set timer to 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the wasabi powder with water as directed and let sit for 5 minutes to make Wasabi.
Meanwhile, pan toast whole slice almonds in a little olive oil.
When potatoes are done, remove.
Check Fish at 10 minutes. Tonight I set the timer for 3 more minutes and that was PERFECT. Moist, flaky and infused with the ginger flavor.
To serve, arrange potatoes on plate. Scoop fish and greens next to potatoes. Sprinkle with little lemon zest. (My brother does not like lemon zest and went for the juice instead). Sprinkle with the roasted almonds. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce.
I think it would have been better to make a "sauce" of the wasabi and soy to dip the fish into....Next iteration to be revealed soon, I suppose.

Eggplant Tomato Custard

2008-10-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

So i have been on an Ayurvedic cleanse for the last 4 weeks or so. Mostly I have been eating basmati rice cooked in ghee and Indian spices with a variety of vegetables, interspersed with kitchare.

Tonight was the first thing I cooked other than that. Inspired from a recipe from Deborah Madison's Green's Cookbook. I rarely cook eggplant. Eric cannot stand it. So I never buy it. But Steve gave me a CSA box the other day filled with it, so what's a dedicated local organic cook to do??

Also, I already had some tomato sauce made from roasted heirloom tomatoes with a little bit of garlic and lemon basil, so the dish was super easy.

If you do not already have tomato sauce made set the oven to 400. Core and half 3 to 5 heirloom tomatoes, depending on the size. Place Cut side up on baking sheet. Rub with Olive oil and grind fresh pepper. Roast for about 45 minutes, or until they look shiny and dry. Remove from oven and let cool a bit before handling.
In a large bowl, mash a clove or more of garlic, add tomatoes and mix. Rip up some of BD's amazing Lemon Basil and add to sauce. Add more olive oil and some balsamic vinegar.
Turn oven down to 350
Diagonally Slice up 2 or 3 your perfectly grown Japanese eggplant grown by Steve Sprinkle.
Heat some oil in pan and once hot, add the eggplant slices. Brown on both sides. Remove to a plate with paper towels to drain and cook remainder.
To assemble the gratin, spread some tomato sauce into the bottom of a pyrex or earthware dish. Tonight I used my 9" circular Pyrex dish cuz I was the only one eating it. (Again, eric hates eggplant). Layer with eggplant slices. Salt and Pepper. Grate some Gruyere cheese on top and scatter whole or sliced basil. Add another layer of eggplant, more cheese and more basil and then top off with tomato sauce.
To make the custard top, beat one egg with 1/2 cup of ricotta, a shy 1/3 cup of milk, grated Parmesan and saffron softened in hot water.
Pour custard on top of gratin and put in oven. I ended up baking it for about 50 minutes. Usually I set the oven for about 3/4 of the time I think it might take so I can check on it. Then add time. The custard top puffs, hardens and becomes a beautiful golden brown.

I ate it straight and liked it that way. To serve to a pal, might be nice to have a rocket citrus salad to compliment or to keep the heartiness, some rice would make it more dense.

Geeky Pan Article

2008-10-08T19:37:00.001-07:00

NYT's Food Section had a nice geeky pan article worthy of Cook's Magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08curi.html

Talks about Cast Iron, Nonstick, Metal Pans, Enameled Cast irons...the properties of butter vs. oil...all the good stuff...even clean up advice!

The thing is, we get so used to doing things a certain way and then someone reveals a tip. Problem is that its so hard to take the tip and CHANGE!

oh goodness. another tight spot. my pans!

Ayurvedic Cleanse

2008-09-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

I am on a 21 day Ayurvedic Cleanse. Cleanse is the modern spiritual word for a "diet" and can be a dangerous hiding place for eating disorders. But the Ayurvedic method is pretty relaxed. You are still eating and the emphasis is on detoxing the mental and emotional layers as well as the digestive system through a sattvic diet and scheudle. The plan has you eating your biggest meal in the middle of the day and not eating after 6:00pm.

My main reason is that I am in the process of unraveling some old crusty and deep unconscious patterns and food and drink would be the natural escape route and rest place. So, in anticipation of that, I asked my pal Jackie Parker to put me on a cleanse.

For about 15 days I have been eating bowls of basmati rice with ghee, lots of Indian spices and a variety of approved vegetables that I can get at the farmer's market.

I make my meal in one pot. My favorite cutco pot left over from when I used to sell their knives door to door. I heat up the ghee, add mustard seed, whole cumin, whole corriander, whole fennel seed, some other spices Uschi brought back from India, Curry Powder or Garam Masala, Hing and Tumeric. Then a scoop of rice. I add sliced carrots or fennel or turnips. Letting the water come to a boil, I usually throw some green beans or sliced kale or other green on top. Cover with the lid and set timer for 10 minutes.

Cooking and Cleaning

2008-09-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have always been the cook in our family, and Eric has always done the dishes.

Suddenly, due to unraveling of some deep patterns born totally out of resistance to my mother, I am willing and even compelled to do dishes.

And all of sudden, my cooking has become incredibly limited. The amount of dishes and mess I would produce was never taken into consideration when Eric was doing the dishes. Now that I am involved all the way through to the end, we have become a one pot, maybe 2, meal household.

But like the constraints of poetry, I am hoping that this efficiency gives birth to a whole new set of flavors and understanding. The test will be in entertaining.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

2008-09-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Late Summer Tomatoes Rule!

Tonight, we oven roasted a selection of local heirlooms and vine ripes from Steve's Farm.

Mashed them up. Added some basil from B.D.'s Farm, minced raw red onion from Steve's Farm, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Maybe the best tomato sauce ever.

Added some browned turkey sausage and served with Strangled Priest Pasta topped with some fresh mozzarella.

A couple and their cooking legacy

2008-09-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Intimate look at Marcella and Victor Hazen's life in food together in the NYT with much speculation of the mechanics of the relationship. Very few people seem to understand the dynamics of a long lasting and complex relationship.

Anniversary Panini

2008-09-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight is eric and my 11th wedding anniversary.

We made paninis.

I made eric's with salami, goat cheese, Basil and red onion.

Mine was Dublin Cheddar and Basil.

Too much olive oil in a pan.

Fry sandwich in the olive oil.

yum.

Kambucha Wine

2008-09-06T19:10:00.001-07:00

Blend some of Peter's chilled homemade kombucha with chilled pomegranate juice.

yum.

Asparagus turkey Sausage PAsta with Fresh Mozarella

2008-09-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

Start Water to Boil, add Salt
Brown Sausage
Remove and add some olive oil to the pan
Add Thin Asparagus cut in half to pan. Add fennel seeds, red pepper flakes.
Once pretty soft, add thinly sliced fennel
Add Red Wine to deglaze. Put Sausage back in and stir with minced Lemon Basil. Turn Off Heat as Pasta cooks.
Cook and Drain Pasta . Lately we are using the Strangled Priests.
Mix Pasta with Sausage Asparagus mixture. Add Olive oil and a few dashes of Ojai Olive Oil's White Balsamic vinegar.
Serve with Freshly Sliced Fresh Mozzarella

Potato, Fennel, Tomato and Olive and Gratin

2008-09-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

inspired by old Green's recipe i used to make and what was in the fridge.

1. In one pan heat too much olive oil and start browning thin slices of red potatoes. (tonight i had lots of little ones from the market). Drain and continue until you have enough.

2. In another oven proof pan (i have an all clad that i love), heat too much olive olive and start sauteing thinly sliced 1/4 moon shaped red onion.

3. Slice up a big heirloom tomato from Tutti Frutti

4. Pit some dried cured black olives from the Paradise Cafe in Ventura

5. Thinly slice some of B.D.s Fennel.

6. Preheat Oven to about 400 degrees.

7. When the onions are halfway done, add some crushed fennel seed, thyme, red pepper flakes,and pepper. When onions are about 2 minutes from being done, add a clove of minced garlic. Turn off heat when as brown as you like them and start to pile on the tomatoes, potatoes and fennel and scattering the olives. Tonight, I did not make enuf of everything to make attractive "layers" so it all just got kind of piled in there. Dot with generous pinches of goat cheese and pour the leftover olive oil from frying up the potatoes on top. Put in oven with lid on and set for about 20 minutes.

8. After 20 minutes, remove pan from oven, turn on broiler. Grate fresh Parmesan cheese all over the top and pour on a little extra olive oil. Put on broiler for about 2 minutes or more until brown and crispy.

9. To serve scoop into shallow bowls, mince lemon basil from B.D and scatter on top, and sprinkle with good salt.

Note: potatoes could have been prepped by slicing and boiling, but e likes his potatoes crispier.

Swordfish with Fennel and Mustard Sauce

2008-08-22T21:16:00.001-07:00

Eric came home from 2 day road trip. He needed something fresh, local, light but comforting. I was pooped, had not gone shopping and needed to cook everything in one pan, so this was the result. I have never cooked swordfish this way so felt fun and bold. He was happy, so it was a success.

1. Slice some of Steve's smaller red potatoes (those small french red potatoes would be ideal for presentation) and fry in olive oil until crisp. (Oven Roasting would render drier, crispier potatoes). Remove and allow to drain on some paper towels.

2. In same olive oil (adding more if necessary), add thinly sliced fennel. Stir until starting to soften, then push to sides to create room for 2 perfect pieces of swordfish from Alicia and Ric of Geewhatadeal. (Wow! I have never encountered such tender plump pieces of swordfish.) Cover pan to cook first side. When browned to your liking, turn fish over, add some white wine to pan and cover again.

3. Meanwhile, mix some green peppercorn dijon mustard with some lemon, soy sauce and olive oil. Lift lid and pour mustard sauce over fish and cover again. When fish is done, remove to a plate. Stir fennel and mustard sauce and remove to a bowl. Toss turnip greens into pan and stir fry until soft and bright green.

4. Meanwhile, divide potatoes between plates. Place turnip greens next to potatoes, slightly on top. Place fish in middle between potatoes and greens, pour fennel mustard sauce on top. Sprinkle with a little freshly chopped dill and freshly ground pepper. Serve.

Wilted Spinich Salad with Feta and Figs

2008-08-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

This is the perfect dish when Steve's Spinach starts to go off. The most delicious gigantic spinach ever.

1. Wash Spinach.

2. 1/4 Slice half a medium red onion. Put in bowl of cold water to reduce "onion-i-ness".

3.In the Salad Bowl, mash a clove of garlic and grind with a little salt

4. Mice some fresh mint and grind some Mexican oregano and mix with garlic.

5. Pit and tear Kalamata or other favorite black olives. (At least 12 depending on how much you like olives.

6. Pour some favorite vinegar into bowl. Lately I am addicted to the Ojai Olive Oil White Balsamic Vinegar. But red wine vinegar is also delicious.

7. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan and pan toast a few slices of ciabatta or other favorite bread to make "croutons".

8. Toss Spinach into bowl with onions, halved fresh black mission figs, crumbled feta and freshly ground pepper.

9. Heat some olive oil to just before smoking and pour over salad to wilt spinach. Toss.

10. To Serve, scoop into bowls and place croutons around sides.

Eating What You Usually Throw Away

2008-08-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

I am being guided to cut all animal products out of my diet. It has come about suddenly and is related to an unraveling which I have been writing about in Blog of Yogi but not yet posted.

I am not new to the territory as I was, like most people I know, a vegetarian in college. But I married a meat eater and love a meat eater, so I aligned.

Re becoming a vegan cook will be fun. The key for me will be to find new ways of doing things and look in the direction of the abundance of possibilities as oppose to focusing on what is missing from my diet. My first experiment was to start to cook the tops of the vegetables that I usually toss.

Larry Yee at B.D.'s stand is always telling me that he cooks his radish tops. So tonight I sauteed them up in a little olive oil, added some lemon, salt and pepper and they were delicious. I might try to toss them with some couscous and toasted almonds next time.

Then, those giant fennel tops! So I sauteed the stalks up and sure enough, they are tasty! Who knew!

Leftover Halibut Tacos

2008-08-15T21:11:00.001-07:00

We had some fish left over from last night's Halibut cooked in Coconut meal. So we made it into tacos.

1. In a blender, blend 1 inch or so of roughly chopped ginger, 1 clove garlic, 5 or so cashews, an entire bunch of cilantro, several sprigs of mint, a small container of plain Brown Cow yogurt, juice of 2 small limes and salt to create a green chutney.

2. Pull out Halibut from fridge and break up into pieces.

3. Fry up one side of those Delicious sprouted corn tortillas from Rainbow Bridge in a little olive oil. (Fry on at a time to serve and eat).

4. To serve, break fish up onto tortilla scooping some remaining sauce on top and pour desired amount of cilantro chutney on top.

YUM! Thank you John and Shani for the Halibut!!!

Halibut Baked in Coconut Milk Curry

2008-08-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

We defrosted the second piece of Halibut from Shani and John. I came home thinking that a Lemon Grass Jalapeno Shallot kind of thing baked in coconut milk would be good, but after cruising around on line and looking up recipes, ended up doing this:

1. Heat Oven 350 degrees. Use a Oven Proof Creuset flat bottomed saute pan for this.

2. 1/4 sliver and saute a yellow onion. Once browned, add some minced garlic, 1/2 a seeded (or not) jalapeno, and minced ginger. Saute for 2 more minutes. Add Spice Mixture.

3. Spice Mixture

4tbl or so of coriander

1/2 tbl of cumin

ground together in spice grinder

mixed with:

1 tsp of smashed (loosely ground) fennel

1/4 tsp of Cayenne

1/4 tsp of tumeric

1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper

1 tsp of salt

4. Stir and add a chopped perfectly rip heirloom and some halved orange cherry tomatoes from Tutti Frutti. Allow to cook until tomatoes break down and sauce becomes "lumpy" as one recipe called it.

5. Meanwhile, Cut the giant fillet that Shani's husband John caught into four 2"+ pieces. Rub with oil and squeeze a little lemon on it. Place on a baking sheet and bake in oven from 8 to 10 minutes.

6. Once tomatoes sauce has gotten "lumpy", add 1/2 can of coconut milk and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.

7. When fish is 1/2 baked, remove and add to pan with sauce. Cover and put in oven for 10 minutes. (Longer if fish is not cooked when you check).

8. Serve with Lemongrass Rice. Cilantro would be the obvious herb to sprinkle on top, but we have a lot of Steve's amazing basil, so we used that and it was Delicious.

Fennel and Sausage Pasta

2008-08-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

We have made this 100 times but tonight it came out really good.

1. Start a large pot of heavily salted water to boil.

2. Pull Mild Fennel Turkey Sausage into chunks and brown in some olive oil. Remove with slotted spoon to a bowl when done.

3. Add more olive oil to pan if necessary. Add 2 to 4 thinly sliced heads of fennel to pot. (Amount depends on size of fennel. B.D. grows this delicate full flavored fennel that is very small. Steve grows massive bursting extra crisp fennel). Saute for 3 to 5 minutes depending on your slice sizes, then add a cooking alcohol of choice to pan to deglaze. Last night we used Madeira. Saute briefly, then add a mashed head of garlic, red pepper flakes to taste and a least a cup of beef broth. Partially cover to allow fennel to steam.

4. Eric's new favorite pasta is strangled priests. Add to pot when water is boiling. Takes about 13 minutes for this noodle to cook.

5. Meanwhile, add the sausage back into the pot with the fennel and a lot of slivered fresh basil from Steve's farm. (This is the best basil I have ever had). Partially cover and turn heat way down to keep warm. (Usually I throw fresh herbs in at the end, so this was an experiment to allow the herbs to cook a bit).

6. When Pasta is done, drain and toss with fennel, adding salt and freshly ground pepper. (In the past I have added a hit of creme here but did not tonight).

7. Scoop into bowls and add some fresh mozzarella.

Mindful eating

2008-08-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

Turns out that keeping a food diary is critical to weight loss. Becoming MINDFUL and ACCOUNTABLE for what you eat.

Article here.

the white and green meal

2008-08-09T20:56:00.001-07:00

i was in FnC yesterday thinking about getting fish and Shani and I got into a conversation about Pismo Beach and the Crab Shack. She mentioned that her husband John had just come back from a fishing trip and she had too much halibut. Score!

So tonight we cooked it.

1. Set Oven to 400 degrees.

2. Mush mashed Garlic from Steve;s Farm and Good Salt with smashed cardamon pods, dried curry leaves, Mexican oregano, freshly ground pepper and olive oil.

3. Slather fish in mixture.

4. Place fish on shallow cookie sheet and cover with foil.

5. Place in oven. Set timer for 8 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, grind cardamon seeds with some allspice seeds and a few dashes of ground canela (Mexican Cinnamon).

7. Heat Olive Oil in a saute pan. When Hot, throw in Romano Beans fresh from Steve's Farm. Cover. Pay attention to beans, turning as necessary. When Browned, sprinkle and toss with Spice mixture and pour a liquid of choice into pan and cover to steam. Tonight all I had was beef broth. But water, fish broth, veg broth, chicken broth all would have worked.

8. Meanwhile, dice up Cucumber and half of a jalapeno (seed removed if you like) from Steve's Farm, Radishes from B.D, an onion from Dennis. Squeeze lemon or lime on it. Add some rice wine vinegar. Add some olive oil, salt and freshly ground peeper and toss. This is the "condiment or "relish" or "salsa" for the fish. This was hot and peppery and strong. Only for a particular palate.

9. Check fish when buzzer goes and put back in or let rest accordingly.

10. Beans are probably done about now.

(thinly sliced fried potatoes would have been good right about now too, but lately i have not been in the mood to give much more than 15 minutes to cooking, so no potatoes)

To serve:

Place Romono Beans on plate.

Place fish kind of on top.

Place a scoop of radish cucumber salsa to side.

Slice of lemon or lime.

A sprinkle of good salt and grind of pepper

This was amazing. Eric doesn' t like the beans, so those were rejected...but this dish is going to be iterated upon an refined for sure.

Everything expect the spices was LOCAL, organic and spontaneously found.

Salmon and Green Beans for 2

2008-08-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

This took 10 minutes to make. Got everything at the Farmer's Market this morning.

1.Turn on Broiler and bring water to boil in a pot for which you have a steamer top.

2. Rub perfect piece of Salmon from GeeWhataDeal Seafood with some olive oil. Salt and Pepper.

3. Put Salmon under broiler. (set timer for 8 minutes...at this point you will check it and most likely put in for another 2 minutes or so).

4. Meanwhile, mince up a shallot. Mix with lemon juice, grainy mustard, worsheteshire, dill, minced green peppercorns, salt and pepper, olive oil to make a vinaigrette.

5. When fish has about 4 minutes to go, put green beans in steamer over boiling water and cover.

7. Chop tarragon.

8. When Beans are done, drain and divide between two shallow bowls. Toss with a little butter (optional) and fresh tarragon.

9. When fish is done, divide between the two bowls.

10. Serve with Vinaigrette and sour creme (optional, but if Eric is your husband, a point winner).

11. As a side, sliced fresh peaches is good.

Deconstructed Pesto Pasta

2008-07-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

In a big bowl, combine:

Too Much Garlic Mashed in a Masher

Too Much Olive Oil

Good Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

Zest of 2 Meyer Lemons

Meanwhile,

Bring a pot of salted water to Boil

Toast Pine Nuts in Oven

Attractively Chop or Sliver Fresh Honor Farm Basil

Throw Tagliatelle Egg Pasta into Water (4 minutes)

Mix Basil, Freshly grated Parmesan, toasted Pine Nuts, some Red Pepper Flakes and juice of 1 to 2 lemons into Garlic Olive Oil

When Pasta is done, Drain and Stir into Olive Oil Mixture to combine.

Serve with Goat Cheese crumbled on top or not.

Makeshift Pesto Sausage Pasta

2008-07-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Eric only received half the text and came home with turkey sausage, strangled priest pasta and sun dried tomatoes...not really enough to create a sauce.

So, pulled out everything we had in the fridge (today i was grateful for the CSA) and decided to make pesto kind of thing:

Bring Water to a Boil and pasta accordingly.

In a Cuisinart, mix

- fresh garlic from Steve's Farm

- Salt

- Slivered Almonds

- Fresh Basil from Steve's Farm

- a Canned Chipotle

- Meyer Lemon Juice

- Olive Oil

To create a Pesto.

In the pan,

- Brown the Sausage and Remove from pan and place in big bowl.

- Add leftover roasted tomatoes from earlier in the week, add the few fresh ones you have along with sliced up marinated sun dried tomatoes and heat through. Add to bowl with sausage.

1/4 Slice half of a small red onion up for fresh pepperyness. Add to bowl.

When pasta is done, drain and add to bowl. Add pesto, salt and pepper and toss to coat pasta.

Grate Preseason on top.

For a spontaneous random creation, it didn't turn out that bad. Lots of flavor and good mix of light and savory flavors. And eric, who just came home from a 12 hour drive was happy.

Improv Salsa Verde for Mexican Ribs

2008-07-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

While done perfectly, with meat falling off the bone, the Ribs had no flavor. So we whipped this up:

minced garlic

minced capers

minced green peppercorns

minced serranos, with and without seeds

minced cilantro

Ojai Olive Oil's white balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

olive oil

Party with New People Menu

2008-07-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a collection of pals over that we have wanted to meet each other. But maybe the affair was a little too big and too many people did not know each other. There was a choppiness at moments. And the conversation stayed somewhat surface. But there are always first steps in introductions. I coordinated what peeps brought and that worked well, except I forgot to assign the bubble water.

Carolyn brought a bottle of 1950s tequila which made my evening smooth. Several Vodka and Tonic drinkers. Wine. And non drinkers. I had made some rose water with the intention of making a non-alcoholic concoction, but ran out of time.

The Menu:

Starters

Seviche

Guacamole

Homemade Chips

Jicama Appetizer

Dinner

Carolyn's Watermelon, tomato, cucumber, mint and feta salad

Slow baked Mexican Ribs

Salsa verde of Capers, Green Peppercorns, Serrano Chilies and Cilantro

Alice's Blueberry Jalapeno Chutney

Buttermilk Cornbread

Chipotle Butter

Desert

Barbara's Plum Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

Grilled Corn Mexican Street Style

2008-07-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

This was THE HIT of all the food. So easy and fun to eat. As Geordie said, "like an adult ice cream cone."

1. Prepare Corn by pulling back the husks and tying them to create a "handle". Remove the stringy things.

2. Prep and prepare grill as you do.

3. Lightly Grill Corn.

4. Remove from grill and lightly spread a little mayonnaise on each. Sprinkle with chili powder. Grate feta cheese on top and squeeze a little lime.

Amy's Going Away and My Little Brother is in Town Party

2008-07-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

I woke up feeling upset and annoyed about the party. I did not know who was coming and it had been designated as a potluck. The fear that it would be a "bad party" cuz I was not totally controlling it is knotted in there deep.

But by 11am or so, when Geordie and I had to go shopping I made a conscious (slightly aggressive) decision to change my mood about it and have fun. I cam eback to the original intention of gathering which was to come together and love Amy. And of course it was a blast.

About 30 wonderful loving people all happy for Amy's Journey to New York showed up with food and drink to share. My little brother and I had a blast cooking together. And we got to roll the furniture around to open the house.

The theme was Mexican.

Drinks

Arturo brought Sangrita and Tequila

Jackie brought Mojitos

Beer and Wine

Lots of Pellegrino

Appetizers

Seviche with Homemade Chips

Guacamole

Salsa

Grilled Corn with Mayo, Chili Powder, Feta and Lime

Dinner

Homemade Corn Tortilla (Roberto and Alana)

A delicious Squash Filing (Roberto and Alana)

Smokey Pork Filling

Grilled Achiote Fish

The Trimmings for Tacos

Black Beans (Olivia)

2 Delicious Rice Dishes (Amber and Elizabeth)

Chili Cornbread (Meghan)

Lots of wonderful Green Salads (Jacqui, Sara, Jim)

Deserts

Flan (Allison)

Chocolate Cake (Amy)

Homemade Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream (Amy)