Something different

Too often I neglect to write about food.  I think part of it is that it’s so much a part of me that it doesn’t seem very interesting.  I mean, I’m LEARNING how to sew, so there’s just a lot more fodder to write about (I’ll never be done learning to cook, I just trust my instincts a lot more because I’ve been doing it longer).  That being said, when I started this blog, it was my intention to write about food more.  Hence today.

My good friend Tamara (who is often my partner in all crimes food) made a similar salad the other day for lunch and I thought it was delicious.  She put tuna and avocado in hers and served heirloom tomatoes on the side.  I love grain salads, but I never think about rice.  Plus, it makes a lot of salad which ensures easy lunches for me for a couple of days which is handy with a wee one around.  It sounds like a lot of ingredients, but really, you could make it as wild or simple as you like based on what’s hanging around your fridge. 

Salmon Rice Salad

1 cup dry basmati rice cooked–I’m not sure how much that yields…

1 shallot, minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 cup green beans cut into 1″ lengths

juice of 1 lime

1 rib celery, diced (if you have any celery with the inner leaves–use them too…they’re yummy)

1/2 cucumber, peeled and julienned in about 2″ lengths

3 green onions, chopped

1 tomato, seeded and diced

1/2 cup cashews

2 good handfuls of cilantro, torn off stems

1 can wild salmon, drained and any obvious bones removed

1 T rice vinegar

olive oil–enough to suit your fancy–say 3-4 T

salt and pepper to your liking

If the rice is leftover, you’re set.  If you’ve just cooked it, spread it on a baking sheet that’s been lined with parchment or waxed paper to let it cool. 

Heat a skillet over medium heat.  Add 1 T oil when the pan is hot.  Add the shallot and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent.  Add the green beans and saute until the beans are crisp-tender.  Salt and pepper the beans to taste.

Toss the beans and rice in with all the other ingredients.  Add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.  Sit down and have a lovely lunch.  You deserve it!

More sewing later.  Gnomey is back.  She had a good nick in the throatplate (I thought my 1/4″ foot was a blind hemmer–whoops!) and a worn out link that was causing the problem.  There are lots of projects on the table…almost so many I feel a bit discombobulated.  Such is life.  Noah’s cutting a tooth too, so that could have to do with my state of I’m-not-sure-what’s-going-on-here.

 

The Pie Hole (in my heart)

I am sad about Pushing Daisies. It seriously has to be one of the wittiest, most intelligent shows ever produced. It could not have a better cast or a more beautiful sense of style. The sets, the clothes, the lighting, all the nods to classic films are all totally jawdropping. So what does ABC do? They live on ridiculous shows like this and cancel Daisies. This is a serious blow.

There being just 2 episodes left, I’ve decided to bake a pie the next 2 weeks to mourn this loss bitterly. I think Ned and company would heartily support my efforts.
This week–a pie from my own head inspired by the Pie Hole’s menu: chocolate coconut cream, made w/o dairy for me baked in my vintage shallow pink Pyrex pie plate:

For a shallow 8 1/2″ pie:

Crust:  6 graham crackers ground, mixed with 1/4 cup sugar, 4 T of canola oil (although today I had lard)

Press into the pie plate and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes until nice and golden.  While the crust is baking, toast 1/2 cup of shredded coconut in a small baking pan next to the crust until golden–it might take a little longer than the crust, it might take less–just watch it because burned coconut is sad.  Set the pie crust and the coconut aside.

Filling:

In a 2 qt saucepan, whisk 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. flour, and a heaping T of cornstarch.  Slowly add 1 can of coconut milk.  Turn the heat on medium and bring to a boil, whisking constantly.  Have 2 egg yolks in a wee bowl off to the side.  When the coconut milk comes to a boil, boil for 1 minute, stirring vigorously.  After the minute, pour a bit of the boiling mixture into the egg yolks and whisk until combined.  Stir the egg yolk mixture into the rest of the coconut milk and return to the heat for 1 more minute.  Take the pan off the heat and add 1 cup of shredded coconut and 1 tsp. of vanilla.  Pour the filling into the pie crust and cover with plastic, making sure that the plastic touches the filling so it doesn’t get a skin on it.  Chill for 3 hours, or until good and cold then top it:

Topping:

Boil 1/2 cup of coconut milk.  Chop 1 bar of really dark chocolate–use your favorite and go as dark as you please.  I’m a fan of Lindt 70% myself as well as Green and Black Organic.  Add the chocolate to the coconut milk and stir off the heat until melted.  Pour on top of the pie.  Return the pie to the refrigerator and chill, uncovered now until the chocolate has set.  Just before serving, top with some toasted coconut that you set aside.

 

I will not apologize

The title needs an explanation.  But first, here is my kitchen print in its new home.  The owl clock, which I received for my birthday is from Decoy Lab.  I love how the fabric makes the owl pop…makes those owly eyes even more buggy.

The title refers to this quote from the late, the wonderful, the rather witty Julia Child:  “You should never apologize at the table. People will think, ‘Yes, it’s really not so good.’”

Today’s luncheon adventures made me think about this quote.  I have not been able to cook regularly since I’ve been pregnant.  Food has been often repellent to me, a lot more things make me feel sick, and I’m completely wiped out physically and mentally after teaching.  This has been a great point of sadness for me because I get so much joy out of cooking.  I also often have apologized to my more than understanding husband about what feels like a failure on my part.  Silly perhaps, but I don’t think I’m along among women who feel inadequate from time to time.  Feelings aside and feeling physically good today, I decided I’m going to make lunch…really make lunch.  What follows requires a bit of background…

A couple of years ago, I stopped using teflon pans after an incident that involved toasting chiles in what turned out to be a superheated teflon pan…the combo of the teflon fumes and the chile gas that resulted was a noxious, painful situation that certainly would have killed any canaries in the vicinity had there been any.  Since then, I’ve not really missed my non-stick pans with one exception…for making Tortilla Espagnola–Spanish Omelet.  It involves cooking potatoes in oil until they are soft and a little brown and then mixing them into eggs.  You pour the whole contents back into your pan and cook until the bottom of the tortilla is set.  Then you flip it and slide it back into the pan and cook the bottom side.  This is not an easy operation without some non-stick help. 

But Spainards have been making this dish since the dawn of time–or at least a long time before teflon, so what to use?  Thankfully, Nathan bought me a paella pan on a business trip a couple of years ago.  This pan is lightweight and very capable of holding seasoning much like a cast iron skillet (which is unfortunately too heavy for the flipping process).  So this morning, I went about seasoning it.  It looked pretty good and black by the time that I finished, so I proceeded.

Tortilla Espagnola–adapted from My Kitchen in Spain by Janet Mendel–serves 4 for a light meal or 2 if you’re like me and don’t particularly feel like sharing at the moment

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/8″ thick

1/2 cup olive oil (okay, it’s a lot of oil, but trust me, you want all of it)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika–sweet or hot

1/4 onion, chopped in small dice

6 eggs

Warm the oil in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat.  Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. 

  Things are going well so far.

Add 1/2 tsp of the salt, the onion and paprika.  Continue to cook the potatoes until they are tender throughout and if you like as I do, have some brown crispy edges to them.  Scrape the bottom of the pan really well with a wooden spatula to release any potato particles. 

Beat the eggs with the remaining 1/2 tsp salt in a large mixing bowl.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the potatoes and mix with the eggs.  The remaining oil in the pan should coat the bottom of your pan.  If it doesn’t, add a little more.  Pour the egg mixture back into the pan and cook until the edges are set–about 5 minutes.  Shake the pan as you do this to avoid sticking.  If you’re a little hesitant, run a long spatula under the omelet before you do the next bit.

Take an inverted pizza pan or cookie sheet and flip the tortilla out onto it so that the cooked side is up.  Slide the tortilla back into the pan and cook until the bottom is also set.  If you’re lucky, you will have quite a pretty omelet.  But it’s okay if, like me today, your omelet looks like this:

  The truth is is that all the love you put into letting those potatoes cook all that long time will still shine through in the final flavor of what now looks like a pile of hash.  If your tortilla also looks like a pile of hash, remember Julia and don’t apologize.  Plunk it down on a plate under some parsley and your family will still enjoy it.  You can work on your flipping technique later (or season your pan better).

As for me, I ate like 1/2 of the thing for lunch.  It was delicious.

 

Swapping

Sew Mama Sew is hosting a fat quarter swap.  I figured…why not.  It sounds fun and I haven’t swapped anything in a year because it seems like I miss the sign up deadlines for swaps I’m remotely interested in.  Pretty fat quarters—how could you go wrong?  In fact–go sign up yourself.  You have until the 13th to do so.

 Aren’t they purty?

Now for something not so purty, but amazingly delicious:

Quick Black Bean Dip

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

juice of one lime

1 tsp. ground cumin

pinch chili powder (or more if you like)

good pinch salt

2 T fresh salsa (WF has a local brand that’s pretty decent in their refrigerated section…if Nathan actually liked Mexican food, I’d make my own because mine is better)

2 T olive oil

Whizz everything in the food processor.  That’s it.  Eat it with tortilla chips or put it on tacos or salad or whatever floats your boat.  It’s not super lovely looking, but it is delicious.

 

Because I’d rather be a tossed salad than a pickle

My history with hair products is long and rather sordid.  Ever since the joys of puberty turned my hair curly when I was living in a climate of year round 100% humidity, I have used about a million different things to keep the frizz at bay.  2 years ago, I started reading about all the icky chemicals in hair products and cosmetics and I chucked all of my old stuff in favor of things without any artificial preservatives or things that you need a degree in chemistry to understand.  I’ve been a lot healthier because of it, but lately my hair has been quite dry, which it never is.   I read about washing your hair with baking soda and rinsing it with apple cider vinegar at angrychicken who read about it here , and I thought–why not.  So after 2 days, my hair is feeling remarkably healthy and clean.  You can’t really get more natural than 2 ingredients.

I did add some things.  First, I whizzed about 2 T each of lavender flowers and powdered chamomile with some baking soda in the food processor until the lavender was quite pulverized.  It smells nice and my hair dearly loves both herbs.  Secondly, I really don’t feel like smelling like a pickle either in the shower or afterwards.  I know that the smell of vinegar tends to go away when it’s dry, but I have to go to work with wet hair because I am incapable of getting up at 4 am just to wash my hair, so the idea of being a pickle for my first couple of classes is a little fishy at best.  So, to enough vinegar to fill an old olive oil bottle, I added about 30 drops each of German chamomile and lavender essential oils.  The essential oils tend to negate the vinegary smell.  Just give the bottle a shake before you use it (it’ll look like salad dressing funny enough), and you’re good to go. 

Things are tougher with the styling products.  I just can’t seem to get my soft bouncy curls with all natural/homemade stuff.  Grr.  Back to the drawing board.\

I got my package from decor8, and I’ll post pictures later.

 

Happy 4th (on the 5th)!

 photo-Tetra Images

I LOVE the 4th of July!  We spent time with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and my sweet nephew yesterday!  It was a nice time of eating, talking, and watching my painfully cute nephew be utterly charming.  He’s almost walking–which is so exciting.  The best part of course, was the fireworks.  I decided any holiday that involves exploding things automatically is very very cool.  That’s the influence of my brother, who, I think always hoped I was a brother instead of a sister.  Try as he might to erase my decidedly girly ways, I was never interested in the same things and vice versa.  But I do enjoy playing with fire–in safe, generally approved ways, and I heartily disagree with sheltering people from the joys and wonders of a good sparkler.

Something pink today (do you know the moment in The Sound of Music when they’re talking very seriously about other things and pause to have this side conversation in between real conversation to talk about the lemonade being so pink?  I LOVE that!):

Strawberry Lemonade–makes about 10 cups

2 lbs lemons

2 cups sugar

1 qt strawberries, washed, with the tops cut off

2 qt water

Use a vegetable peeler to take all of the rind off of 3 lemons.  Put the sugar, lemon rind, and 2 cups of water in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Let it boil for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat.  Let the syrup cool.  Meanwhile, place the strawberries in a food processor and puree.  Press the puree through a medium mesh sieve to get out most of the seeds (if you don’t mind strawberry seeds, don’t bother).  Juice the lemons into a bowl or a large Pyrex measuring cup.  Strain out the seeds and as much of the pulp as you want to not have floating in your lemonade.  Mix the sugar syrup, strawberries, and lemon juice in a large container.  Add enough water to suit your taste (you could use sparkling water to make it fizzy in keeping with the 4th…hmm, I wonder if pop rocks would be okay to throw in there…).

 

Two Things to Cool You Off

1.  A wee bit of smashing opera

My CD club was offering this album,

so I thought I’d give it a go.  I typically eschew anthologies, but listening to clips online, I decided it was far too excellent to pass up.  You MUST listen to Pavarotti’s rendition of Nessun Dorma from Turandot.  It’s my favorite Nessun Dorma of all time.  It’s very sad to me that people of my generation associate Pavarotti not with his younger days when he was really truly a powerhouse of a tenor, but with the cheesy opera lite 3 Tenors stuff (Okay, perhaps I should back up and lament that few people of my generation appreciate opera in the first place).  My students are in LOVE with his La Donna e Mobile from the 70’s (I use it to teach 3 beat meter).  Anyhow, what a marvelous album.  I think there should be fireworks going off when you listen to it. 

2.  Something icy to replace your afternoon tea

Strawberry Lassi–Gourmet had this recipe (I’ve since changed it to suit my tastes better) in the April 2005 issue and I’ve loved it ever since.  When it’s really hot outside–so hot that your cheeks are flushed and your head feels like it’s going to explode, this drink will cool you off from head to toe.  Plus it’s tasty.

 photo Romulo Yanes, Gourmet

1 cup strawberries, tops cut off

1/2 cup ice

1 cup plain yogurt (I love whole milk)

1/2 cup milk

pinch ground cardamom (not essential but good)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Sugar to sweeten–I usually use about 2 T, but use more or less depending on your taste

Whiz everything in a blender until smooth.  Pour in a tall glass and enjoy the waves of coolness that will spread throughout you and the fact that you are drinking a milkshake that will not leave you with that–whoa-I-just-drank-a-milkshake tummyache.

 

Happy Snack

I feel so much better when I actually eat a very small snack before lunch and at tea time.  My blood sugar thanks me very well.  Usually I have a small bit of fruit and a small bit of cheese, but today I decided to make some marinated beans.  I love the marinated chickpeas that I make, but today I wanted to make a version of 3-bean salad.  My aunt in Houston makes 3 bean salad and I always loved it, but most recipes are way too sweet.  Here’s what I came up with:

1 can each kidney beans, yellow wax beans, green beans, drained and rinsed

Small bunch of green onions, sliced thinly

all of the inner yellow stalks with leaves from a bunch of celery, sliced thinly

Juice of 1 large lemon

3 T tasty vinegar

1/3 cup oil (I used a combo of canola and olive)

2 T sugar

1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  You may need a little salt, but not much because the canned beans have quite a bit.  I think it’s tastes better chilled, but as I made this this morning around my snack time, I couldn’t resist.

 

 

Spinach Mac and Cheese

This was dinner tonight. 

Very simple and easy on a sore throat (I taught today with handsigns and writing on the board–awkward, but it kept my kids very attentive, which was super, especially given that there is one more week left for the year).  I suppose you could take out the spinach, but we are constantly getting spinach in our vegetable share, and it’s too much for me and Nathan to eat raw, so I usually end up sneaking it into a lot of different places on the weeks we get it. 

I adapted the recipe from Here in America’s Test Kitchen.  I’m typically not a fan of Cook’s Illustrated in general because the tone in their recipes always seems so know-it-all, but this really is a good recipe.

Spinach Macaroni and Cheese

1 small bunch of spinach, washed and spun dry

1 egg

1/2 cup of milk (I like a combo of half and half and 2%)

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp hot pepper sauce (I use Sriracha because I love Vietnamese food and would be lost without it)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dry mustard dissolved in 1/2 tsp water

4 oz elbow macaroni

2 T butter

6 oz grated cheese (today I used a combo of sharp cheddar and goat’s milk monterey jack)

Bring some salted water to a boil.  Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is tender–about 2 minutes.  Fish the spinach out of the water with a strainer and press out as much water as you can from it.  Chop the spinach once you have finished wringing out the water. 

Mix the egg, milk, pepper sauce, worcestershire, salt, and pepper, and mustard mixture in a small bowl and set aside.

Cook the macaroni in the water you used to cook the spinach in until it is still a little firm (you will cook it more).  Drain it and return it to the same pot and toss with the butter over a low heat.  Pour the egg mixture over the macaroni along with the cheese and the spinach.  Stir until it starts to thicken and the cheese is melted (about 5 minutes).  Bon Appetit.

 

Green Guacamole

I had the bevy of avocados (I like them with eggs in the morning, so I bought a bag, but they weren’t ripe, and we got some others in our vegetable share, but they also weren’t ripe, so by the time they have all become ripe, I come to realize that I can’t possibly eat them myself), so I decided to make guacamole which I haven’t made in a really long time.  This recipe is a very slight adaptation of Rick Bayless’ from Mexico One Plate at a Time (still my favorite Mexican cookbook).  All the ingredients are green (except the garlic)!

4 ripe avocados

4 small tomatillos

1-2 green chiles of your choice (poblanos are my favorite for this, but New Mexico green chiles or anaheims are a good sub–or serrano or jalepenos if you like)

3 cloves of garlic

juice from 2 limes

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

8 green onion tops, sliced

salt, to taste

Roast the garlic, chiles, and tomatillos until nice and black under a broiler in a non-reactive pan (don’t use glass!  I busted a nice piece of Pyrex that way once. )–or line a baking sheet with parchment (it will burn, but it’ll be okay if you watch it) or a silicone mat.  Peel the chiles and pulse them with the garlic and the tomatillos until chunky-smooth.  Half the avocados and scoop out the flesh with a spoon into a mixing bowl.  Smash the avocados with the spoon.  Add the chile puree, lime juice, green onions, and parsley.  Add salt to taste (start with 1/2 tsp. and then see if it needs more).

Mmm green.