What a truly wonderful time! (Emily should be a hand model) 

Let the celebration begin!

Salpimentar: to season

In dashing note format....
Yucatan last week at school and we made this paste: Recado Salpimentado.  It consisted of roasting garlic and onion on a dry griddle (comal) and then pureeing it with black pepper & spices.  It is used to season the famous Yucatecan soup, Sopa di Lima (kind of like a tortilla soup).
Loved the idea of having a seasoning paste without the runaway raw garlic flavor.  Think pesto with more possibilities.
Tonight I look in the fridge and not one, not two, but THREE bunches of cilantro.  Maybe I could make a cilantro salpimentado type of thing?  (less oily or cheesy than a pesto)Here is attempt #1:

2 bunches of cilantro, washed twice, stem bunch & larger stems removed
zest of 2 meyer lemons
4 large garlic gloves, skins on
1 shallot pair( (size of a large lime) split
fancy kosher salt(1/2 tsp - could use more)
6-10 cracks pepper
juice of half lemon
2 TBS olive oil
1/4 tsp chili flake

• roast garlic & shallot until dark brown/black on most sides.  
• take off skins
• zest lemons into food processor, toss in cilantro, onions, garlic, salt & pepper & chili until small bits
• with machine running add olive oil & lemon juice and process until smooth.

Tossed in pasta that was rewarmed with toasted walnuts & olive oil. Yum! 4/14/2010
Also good on tortillas with poached eggs and a bit of salsa! (4/20/2010)

Custard Cornbread

Marion Cunningham & Deborah Madison get all the credit.  And this isn't the best picture, but we ate it all up too quickly.  I'm dashing this down here so we'll have it available when needed.  An 8 or 9 inch cast iron pan makes this rise beautifully and using organic or stone ground cornmeal helps make the separation into a custard even more apparent - a beautifully delicate orange crust rises to the top above the custard.

Buttermilk Custard Cornbread
(350 degrees, bakes for 35-45 minutes until it doesn't jiggle and pulls away from the sides slightly)
1 1/3 cup organic cornmeal
1/3 cup a/p flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup milk or cream-buttermilk combo
1 cup cream, reserved 'til the end
3 eggs
2 tablespoons butter

• Put butter in skillet and put in oven and turn oven on. 
• Combine dry ingredients in one bowl.
• Combine eggs and buttermilk, milk, cream-buttermilk combo, reserving that last cup of cream separately.
• Once the butter is melted and the skillet hot, swirl it to coat the pan then pour into the wet ingredients.
• Combine wet into dry ingredients(still reserving that last cup of cream) until just combined.
• Pour into that hot skillet and bring over to the oven.
• Open the oven door, put the skillet on the oven rack and pour that last cup of cream gently on top of the batter.
• Slide gingerly into the oven and bake as above.
• Serve with syrup or any special butters you happen to have on hand from visiting guests.

Looks like it will serve 6-8, but it serves only 4...4 very content people that is.

favorite cold remedy

Its been awhile. I've been calling the last few months "the vortex." Getting used to a new full time job, continuing the tea business and settling, once and for all, old chapters. I'm around a whole new set of germs and woke up this morning with that little tickle in the throat that just might be the beginnings of the cold/flu that I'm seeing all around me already. Here is what kept me from getting seriously sick during the three years of running my restaurant:

Echinacea Kamikaze

1)

in a small 4 oz cup, combine:

juice of 1/2 lemon or large lime

1 generous dollop of honey - sugar can be used, but honey is much better

2-4 squirts of liquid echinacea with golden seal (I use a no-alchohol variety)

optional: large pinch of cayenne (about the size of a lentil)

2)

fill the cup with hot water (about 2 oz)

and add more sweetener or lime/lemon juice to taste.

the cayenne will settle to the bottom and will be a final "hit" to the drink, so go easy the first time.

You can buy liquid echinacea with or without golden seal at most health food stores and I always have a bottle on hand.

Good luck with those colds!

Progress shows itself in funny ways

Stopped by Ida B. today with Greg, wanting his advice on improving the layout of the room. Our timing was impeccable, the cafeteria was actually unlocked. Planning didn't progress far (the layout has already been set for now) but I did get a key to the room, worn smooth and kept shiny by years of use. Stamped K-1.

I kind of like that.

Kitchen One.

So, I missed the boat, the planning of the room has to wait for covert, completable-in-a-weekend-operations. We'll do it in stages (with the principal's blessing as we go, of course). Right now the room feels like a weird apartment we just got for really, really cheap. Peeling paint and chicken coop frosted windows (do they open?). Get your stuff in there, move it around until it fits or move it out. Smile a lot.

All sorts of questions now pop in and out of priority:

• Will Feng Shui help?
• What blackboard?
• What do I do for lunch?
• Why are there two microwaves and five small rolling carts?

Other thoughts:

• These floors are awesome for rollerskates (just waxed linoleum) but better watch the water and get those rubber mats in quick.
• I want peg boards.

ok, it is really happening, really it is. really.

(an old floor in the bathroom of a rundown theatre in the Mission)

SFUSD new teacher orientation ("the new teacher project"-doesn't that sound so happy?) starts this Monday,and I still haven't heard from human resources yet.

And I have the principal of the year fighting for me...since April.

And she is a good fighter.

We know this will all happen, but it is amazing to experience how clogged/confused/bogged down the system is. Coming from a restaurant where now means NOW, it is hard to picture how things get done. Don't get me wrong, this is not a complaint as much as an observation at yet another complex and broken system. I'm just ready to get on the roller coaster ride, I've paid admission (CTE Credential), waited in line (application process within this budget period) and now would really like to belt up.

This morning the principal was explaining the next steps in this process to me - even she has been given additional procedures. In our conversation we started discussing how I will be able to coordinate with the school lunch people, since my classroom is the cafeteria. I've moved some items in, but there are still piles of various things that might be SNS's (Student Nutritional Services) or other teacher's from a pot luck, or just hand me downs.

We don't know is the answer.

So many regulations have been added to SNS, because they didn't comply with Federal requirements last year (and haven't gotten their reimbursements from the government - since MAY = $1.5 million a month) that we have no idea whether the person that has been handling this job at the high school will still even want to be there.

Let the ride begin.

Sweet Biscuits

This is not a biscuit. But it goes well with biscuits.

Short & sweet says it all!

Sweet Fruit Biscuits:

2 cups Flour

4 tsp Baking Powder

3/4 tsp Fine Salt

1/3 cup Sugar + extra for tops

6oz Sweet Butter(cold & cut into bits)

1 cup Cream+ extra for top

1/2 cup Fruit

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Mix together dries (and dried fruit if using).
• Cut in butter.
• Add cream, do not over mix.
• Add fruit, if dried, mix with dries, if fresh or frozen, toss it in last.
• Pat into square on a floured worktable, about 1/2 inch high.
• Cut into squares - you can freeze some on a sheet pan at this point (once frozen you can toss them into a zip bag and back in the freezer).
• To bake, brush with cream, sprinkle with sugar (fun sugar if you have) and bake until golden.

copyright, Modern Tea. Chef credit to Gabriell Rickard.