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.

old cookbooks

The book automatically opens to page 261. Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts, 1974, purchased brand new, way back then. It went on a journey from my parents' kitchen in San Francisco to New Orleans, where it helped me make desserts for 300 people every week at a church across the street from where we lived on St. Charles near (believe it or not) Desire Street. It was 1983 and I didn't quite know that I was magically pregnant with my daughter.

Now, 26 years later we pull this book out for baking with almost 50 inner city teens who have nothing better to do in the Fillmore district. We are working up to selling them at the Farmer's Market this Saturday. They are actually spongecakes, not the true, brown butter madeleines made famous by Proust, but they are easy, you get to make that very fun fluffy egg spongy batter, and people still like them. We'll let the students choose which madeleine recipe will be the one we use.

It is amazing how life carries with it a chorus, repeating, echoing, reassuring in its familiarity. It can be that parachute pack as I jump out into a new adventure everyday.

Apricot Cros-tada!

Before we left for vacation, Greg & I pulled out Julia Child's cookbook, Baking with Julia, eager to bake with the season's first apricots. This is a great baking book, everything I've tried is friendly, accessible, creative and tasty.

Our experiment this time took her raspberry-fig crostata recipe into more of a south sea island experience, substituting unrefined coconut oil for the butter in the flavorful sesame-almond crust and filling it with a combination of apricots & apricot jam. You'll see my lattice is a "sun-ray" lattice - I chose to use a 12 inch tart pan (because I had so much fruit) and didn't want to weave an entire lattice over it. More fruit per bite, too.

Apricots so far have not been very flavorful due to the timing of our rains this year, but the small Blenheim's I've tasted this week have been delicious! It reminded me of this earlier attempt.

Here is the crust recipe...

Sesame Almond Dough

(enough for a 9 inch lattice topped tart)

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup blanched almonds or almond meal, lightly toasted & cooled

1/2 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted & cooled

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour (whole wheat is ok too)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp grated lemon zest

8 ounces cold unrefined coconut oil

Optional:

1 egg & 1 teaspoon water for egg wash

sugar(fancy sugar) for sprinkling on the crust before baking

a) whisk eggs & vanilla extract together and set aside

b)process almonds, sesamed seeds & a few Tablespoons sugar until all is fine, but not oily or pasty.

c)turn the almond mixture into the bowl of a mixer and add the remaining sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt & zest. Mix on low to combine ingredients.

d)keeping mixer on low, add the coconut oil and mix until it resembles fine crumbs, but it is ok if there are still bits of coconut oil peeking out. Add the egg mixture and mix only until dough is uniformly moist and forms curds about 15 seconds.

e) turn mixture out onto a smooth work surface, knead lightly to bring it all together and wrap and refrigerate while you assemble the filling (can stay in the fridge up to 2 days ahead).

Filling wise, I used 2/3 apricots and 1/3 apricot jam - you will want the consitency to be thick. Even though the crust is pretty sturdy, no need for things to juice out. You can also add a tablespoon or two of flour for other juicier fruit (like berries). Make sure you like the flavor and add lemon juice, cinnamon or nutmeg as enhancements.

Back to the crust, time to roll things out.

The crust here is more cookie-like than pie, but that means you can

forgive yourself when rolling it out and press it into the pan.

See? Don't worry, it will be aok.

Just roll it out as best you can and press it into the corners. For the sun ray top, reroll your dough onto wax paper, slice it into strips and pop it into the fridge for a bit if it is too soft to handle.

Or you can roll out the dough and use various cookie cutters for decorative shapes on top.

Now it is just a matter of filling the tart, topping it with your crust decorations. You can refrigerate here for another 1/2 hour if the dough seems very soft (it will bake better) but we just brushed ours with the egg wash, sprinkled it with sugar and put it into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Next time, I'm going to see if I can make fig or jam bars (not rolled newtons) using this crust.

traveling along

(part of Seurrat's famous painting in Chicago)

We are on the move again, getting ready to drive back after our last day in New York.  We are doing everything on this trip, from train travel, to swanky stays, proudly served train food to 6 course tasting menues to massive amounts of home cooked Hernandez enchiladas.  Tomorrow we start our road trip back, a whole new leg of the trip...more to follow!

food inc. the movie

(click on this link if you'd like to see the 3 1/2 minute trailer for the movie.  If that doesn't work it can be found by searching for food movie inc. trailer in you tube)

Yes, the latest effort from Eric Schlosser et al is coming to a theatre near you.  It is what you think, looking at the state of the American food chain from the seed, meat, supermarket and labor angles. Eric Schlosser & Michael Pollan do much of the narration. Non-partisan, the lightest moments you will experience are in the trailer above.  If you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma, that might be a more humanistic and thoughtful approach to looking at the food situation.  This is more of an investigative reporting view from as many troubling angles as possible.  I thought I was pretty familiar with them, but this movie was able to point out a few more.

Overall, I would say this movie wants to overwhelm you into action, which is a tall order.  Overwhelm tends to numb and fuzz me out.  It is not a movie to see with your children.  But I had never seen inside an industrial chicken coop or meat processing plant (or a CAFO, which stands for "concentrated animal feeding operation) so I guess I have done that now.  I wish there had been more balance to the movie so that we could be left with a sense of purpose, not a sense of how completely messed up things are.  But perhaps it will speak to another layer of people that were not aware of this mulitfaceted insanity and effect at least one change in each of them.

I did leave with resounding appreciation for one of the panelists after the movie.  I mean all of the panelists were amazing I am sure in their own right, having already effected some measure of change in their area.  But Helge Hellberg, Executive Director of Marin Organic, didn't request that we get angry and sign a petition or vote against another legislative measure, he asked us how we were feeling.  He said that he felt pretty terrible and that he thought the movie was not appealing.  That bringing back the love and beauty is the way through this and if we each do one thing more towards this nurturing that we are helping.  He said it better than that, but it was timely and pleasantly shocking in its own right.  

The movie does touch on buying at a farmer's market or planting a garden (even a small one) as ways to help and has some enjoyable moments with Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms (and some in your face moments too), but they are not enough of a breather for me.  Enjoy the trailer.

One more thing, as I was gliding down the escalator, contemplating how lucky we are (afterall, I'm eating a delicious local organic greek salad as I write this) I saw this poster in a drugstore window:

                                     

Don't know if it is for real, but it was a tongue in cheek reminder that we would rather create a fix it product than undo what we have done.

Breakfast of Champions

We didn't run the Bay to Breakers Sunday, but it was a gorgeous summer day with much to do.  More shelves for our storage area & making dessert for 40 well deserving teachers - homemade butterscotch pudding and torta di mandorla.  The above picture though, is of Alicia's whole wheat chocolate chip brownies - a great way to begin this day. While Alicia debates whether or not to share the recipe(Alicia, will you?? pretty please?), here is a link to another pastry chef-food blogger's recipe for the torta di mandorla, an almond olive oil cake that smells so fantastic, it must be good for you. 

Gina DePalma's discussion of almonds vs. chocolate as a gift of love is worth the read. Here is the link seperately under a combined foodie blog, Serious Eats:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/02/almond-olive-oil-cake-recipe-torta-di-mandorla-italian-desserts.html

Checking out the world today, the outfit on Muni on Mondays for job hunting is light blue button down shirt, yellow tie, some with, some without blazer. Still hopeful faces, still empty briefcases.

simple fruit salad

I had done my version of the Las Vegas Spin this past Saturday and was still not quite awake when presented with this great antidote to travel-lag by Greg on Sunday morning.

My version of the Las Vegas Spin is taking a crack of dawn flight into LV, spending the day at a tea convention seeing wonderful friends (what are we doing tasting tea in a place like this?), then flying back the same day, getting home shortly before midnight.  Long enough to smell like the invisible cigarette smoke that permeates every hotel there, but short enough to have enjoyed myself more than trashed myself.  I have to tell you, the smell of oranges and mint was a wonderful reminder of how lucky I was to not still be in Las Vegas.

Even though these oranges have been lurking in the fridge for the last month or so, they were still clearly flavorful and delicious.  Yes, if you are not sure what to do with those oranges, they seem to be one of the few fruits that can be stored in the fridge for a long time - they will keep their flavor and not mold away like they do on the counter.  Just plan ahead if you don't want to bite into ice cold fruit.

Putting this together is easy and Greg simply peeled the oranges (get those bioflavanoids!) instead of the fancier, messier supreme method ("soo-prem", french for what it sounds like, refers to the supreme cut, in this case, the way to cut oranges into membrane-less sections). Get those youngsters to help you hand peel- the results will impress them too.  

The magic is in assembling shortly before serving and using fresh mint - somehow it connects with the honey in a luscious way. I forget about fresh mint and what a great herb it is.  Actually, less or more of any of these ingredients should still yield accolades. And come to think of it, there are many other combinations of fruit you can use, so I've suggested some below. 

Simple Fruit Salad

4 small oranges/apricots/peaches

1 blood orange/1/2 cup strawberries/ 2 plums

1 Tablespoon honey

1 handful fresh mint leaves, washed & minced fine (chiffonade)

Peel or chop up the fruit, mince that mint and combine just before serving.  To make the honey more liquid, put the jar in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes and stir into thinner consistency before you pull some out.

I'll add a little detail on chiffonade soon but here is the short on it: 

• stack 5 or 6 of the leaves at a time
  
• fold the stack over as if you were turning tabacco into a cigarette (tighter gives you more control but remember the leaves are kinda tender too) 
  
• then slice crosswise as thinly as possible.  
  

I went a little overboard on the chiffonade, so we left out some of the mint when making the salad to make sure we weren't overdoing it - then forgot about it.  It dried in a few days on a plate and will make a delicious tisane.

slow cooked dueling banjos

We are spoiled in California, no doubt.  But when it gets windy and foggy-bone cold, I find myself making excuses to turn the oven on.  So tonight, when two reasons popped up (I bought the tofu a week ago and haven't used it yet and those cherry tomatoes are still sitting there) I decided to make both of my favorite slow cooked condiments. 

First, these go for 2-4 hours in a low (250-275 degrees) oven.  It is perfect when you need to heat up the house and warm your stomach.

First, the roasted tofu bits:

an easy marinade adapted from Kenzo's Tenzo Sauce in Karla Olivieri's Tassajara cookbook.  These cook up moist, dark and chewy and is a great way to make that tofu last.  They end up kind of like the edges of those baked tofu bricks you buy in the deli section because you need some ready protein that won't go bad in 2 days - but much tastier.  I like to sprinkle it on all kinds of asian salads.  The marinade also can masquerade into a quick asian salad dressing, dressed up with fresh ginger or garlic or kept simple with these ingredients that are usually on hand here in our cupboard.  I often save a little tofu out and make a quick saute with it because by the time I start putting things together...I'm hungry!

Here's the guidelines:

1/2 cup tamari

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

1/4 water + 2 TB vinegar(balsamic is actually yummy here)

2TB sesame oil

1/2 tsp powdered dry mustard

you can also substitute mirin for the water/vinegar, but we rarely have that on hand.

combine all of this, and toss with shredded or crumbled tofu.  Bake 2-4 hours, stirring every hour or so until desired done-ness is achieved.  Keeps in fridge for at least a week.

This is enough marinade for 2 pounds of tofu, so I usually have some left over for dressing that saute or more tofu bits in the future.  Extras of the marinade above (without garlic) will last for weeks in the fridge.

Next, The Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Many people have documented the leverage of having some of these on hand. They are so easy and flavorful. Good additions to anything savory because the roasting intensifies their bright tang and if you are at the peak of season, their wonderful sweetness.  An excellent blah fixer.

I often just slice them in half, toss with olive oil & an even amount of kosher salt and bake away (2 hours is often about right), but they are also good roasted with chopped garlic, sections of elephant garlic (which becomes spreadable - evil!) or herbs. And this makes the house smell warm even if it isn't.  I often let them cool and store them in a jar in the fridge - they last for at least a week also although we use them right up.  You can try them in a hotter oven, but more often than not, you will burn some and lose out on the sweetness.  Favorite use for these? In Greg's breakfast eggs!

1.0 CTE from SFUSD for IBW

We should be cooking but instead, we celebrate!  A few days ago we learned that we have been able to get funding for one full time educator along with some improvement money from the San Francisco Unified School District (that's what the acronyms above spell out).  While it is not quite finalized, and this is a thin sliver of the pie needed, it is a golden sliver.  All I need to do is find the rest of the money.  So we re-angle to proposal to allow for people to see the money needed and who and what funds are being commited and we can build it. 

The timing for the stimulus money is perfect, but looks very complicated and competitive.  There are lofty Federal guidelines, but the state is not ready to get specific yet.  Oddly, the situation creates a better funding structure for us than regular governmental funding.  Usually government funds present themselves as an increasing trickle but the stimulus funds are tied to immediate use and will be pulled within 2 years.  This heavy up front style is much more like a classic business model and mirrors exactly what we want to do.  But the acronyms are multiplying.  ARRA, TANF, OEWD, ITA, TAA,WIA, WISF, CBDG and more.  In these technical planning meetings you get wrapped up in wondering about how to show your program in the best light... a cohort training model?... an onramp bridge program? new collaborations? or just put yourself out there as we all rush to Super RFP 107?  

It feels like I am taking the test before going to school, but wait a minute, am I the one becoming an educator?  It is a truly strange time.  Time to go cook something.  

Possibilities

These days we are all looking for signs.  I bought an RTD , ( industrial speak for "ready to drink")  when we were at Whole Foods Franklin manning a non-profit table for Modern Cooks.  It was a little challenging because while customers loved the idea of cooking, since we aren't currently running the program, it seemed much harder for them to relate.  And it was lunchtime, they were busy running to and fro.

Anyway, this RTD,  I think it was called Mate Magic, tasted like light lemonade.  And the cap had a message on the inside.  No, it is not your eyes, I will put these glasses on and read you what the message on the cap says:

Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.

 (japanese proverb)

Don't know how often you read your horoscope/fortune cookie/ouji board and think "oh that could apply to me." This one? When I read this one I felt it was scripted exactly for ME.   I expected to look up and see everyone staring back at me (some pointing, some hands on hips), their expressions all saying "WELL, do you get it yet? Do you need a wake up call, or perhaps...a gong in your ear or something?"  

"No," I would say, "I'm not ready yet, I just figured out the floor sink problem and saved thousands of dollars because of it!" 

No, what I need is a funnel trap.  Like this!  These are not prototypes for deep sea diving, these allow you to wash vegetables in a sink without fear of the sewer backing up into it.  A big concern for the health department.  The only other 

way involves converting a floor drain into a floor sink, that is if you have a floor drain to begin with. And if you don't (which we don't) then it can really suck.  Like many thousand dollars suck.

Exciting subject.  It is important to not daydream too long, and to keep your eyes open and yourself in your shoes, but you also have to allow the vision to fully take shape, whether it is happening right now or not.  You have to see down the road a little bit more before you can shout and cheer and take action.

Egg Magic

Friday was B-Day. 

BRUNCH.

Use the "B Word" with any kitchen professional and they will more often than not groan at you.  The amount of work involved ahead of time combined with the demands of putting freshly cooked eggs out are trickier than many might think. People brunching in restaurants need to eat pretty much 10 minutes after they order, table turns are quick and the pressure on the front and back of house stay heavy and constant. It is hot, sweaty work.  In the kitchen, Alicia nicknamed the area she usually stood at brunch as "the armpit." Salamander roaring at eye level while a 500 degree oven at knee height ("hell") acted as the most effective mass toaster, all while she made as many egg scrambles as she could in heavy cast iron pans in front of her.

Last week was spring break and I may have already filled you in on this brunch project.  Start to finish, bring the teens in on Monday, decide the menu, sell tickets and serve brunch on Friday.  And it was like jumping into the deep end of the pool for this group of youth organizations that work together, but never quite this closely. Many of the people involved have loads of experience in teaching business, organizing people and most of all, understanding and dealing with the problems in their neighborhood, but none have owned their own restaurant.  They had warned me a few weeks back they were thinking of doing this, but I get a call on Tuesday.    The teens are from all four housing projects not just one and more want to join in every day. Tickets are selling. This is a big deal. Can I come in and help?  

I put in my cameo appearances, but they did all the work and the end result was a bigger success than anyone hoped.  I spent most of Friday in the kitchen and things went well. ("well" in restaurant speak means we had a good time and even though we couldn't find the cutting boards and the sink overflowed all over the floor and we spilled all the chopped tomatoes, we had no disasters.)  The kids came together and helped when they could have more easily hung back, in fact, I'll have to write more about how well they presented themselves and how proud everyone was of them. 

But for the kitchen, the crowning glory was Tina taking the horrific box of processed eggs that we both were dismayed with and layering them like lasagne with sauteed onions, peppers & cheese. "Egg Magic."  We couldn't keep it coming out fast enough, people raved about it. Many times in the kitchen you have to take what you have and turn it into something worthwhile, but when it works and makes people happy it is the magic that keeps us jumping in to the deep end.

big vans

Honora tells a story of sitting in that first DMV class during high school.  When the person from the DMV explained how the driving test works, a youngster held up his hand. The conversation went like this: 

 "Can I take the test if I use my cousin's big ass van?"

 "Excuse me?"

 "Can I take the test if I use my cousin's BIG ASS VAN?"

He wasn't trying to be rude, it was a true question and after some laughter, it was treated as such.   

So I'm sitting in my little City Car Share Car (prius today) wolfing down the first half of a tuna sandwich and spy this van across the street.  It is for sale.  You can still see the "super shuttle" shadow below the turquoise and sky blue paint job.  I am in love.

Now why in the world would I want to own a biggassvan?  Oddly, Greg and I had just been talking about Honora's DMV classroom experience last night, and this reminded me of it again.  This week I find I am helping the lower Fillmore community groups do a "brunch business in one week" project for the middle & high school students that are out on spring break.  They are trying to keep these kids off the streets and expose them to business, particularly thoughts around marketing themselves.  On Monday there were 12 teens, Tuesday grew to 15 and yesterday, almost 20.

When I met the young men & women yesterday, I expected a lot of attitude, but no, they were surprisingly gentle, with themselves and me.   Their eyes sparkle but it is hard for them to greet you eye to eye.  I wondered about what this world would be like if everyone could relate on the same level as everyone else.  It has gone steps away from "I'd be kissing up" or "I'd be like them."  It is almost like there is now no reference point to start with.   At first I thought it was because I looked so out of context but then I noticed this was how they related with all the other adults too. No one has explained how important your ability to greet someone is to your future.

Is this teaching them to be "like us?"  I don't think so.  Whatever access point that allows someone to connect or understand someone else or improves awareness is valuable.  I thought about the big blue van again, picturing it full of these kids going to the farmer's market and talking about what fruits and vegetables they like.  We went yesterday(in another van) and it was fun seeing them discover blood oranges, sugar cane, oregano plants and taste the "nasty" cheese.  They may not greet me in a direct way, but when we talk about food, it is easy to relate.

noodle salads...dino food?

yep. staring into the fridge again, its 6:30pm and I'm thinking I should make a soup, but instead saw the tubs of cooked noodles I had made in batches the other night for lunch options...quick salad time all of a sudden sounded much better.

I added a finely chopped fresh fennel bulb (you could use carrot), some japanese pickles, including the hijiki pickle I made that seemed to be a serious reminder of that dark watery scene in Princess Bride as I fished them out of the soy sauce marinade.  Then a splash of the marinade, some vinegar and some furikake.

When I am doing some kind of cooking, I try to piggy back a little prep on another meal.  Sometimes it feels like I'm backfiring and I get every pot and pan dirty, but I always get to reap the rewards later.

Noodles, particularly asian noodles, are often an easy piggy back:  Its only one more pot, you are dealing with hot water, which cleans itself, and I often want to do batches of different kinds, usually setting a small colander in the water that I can easily pull the first batch out, tonging the colander out then finishing in classic pasta fashion, draining in the sink.  This time I started with a batch of buckwheat soba and finished with pad thai rice linguine.

Here are some tips when cooking noodles in this way:

• shorten the cooking time 30seconds- 1 minute
  
• rinse the noodles with cold water until they are cold throughout
  
• it often helps future use by adding a little oil for easy separation later (exception is the classic zaru soba salad, where the noodles will easily separate by being rinsed again)-I love to add sesame oil to the rice noodles and olive oil and a touch of salt to western pasta.
• keep in mind many kinds of noodles expand, but rice noodles seem less so.

Once you have this part already cooked, it is so much easier to throw a single meal salad together later.

I still have the rice noodles left and I'm going to chop up some cilantro, mint and some basil if I have it, add some tofu and perhaps even a miso-ish dressing for another meal...more on that later!

slow pot of beans

One of the cheap electric gadgets that I swear by is a small slow cooker.  For only $10  at Walgreens (make sure you get the kind where the crock pulls out of the electric cooker) you get a little work horse that turns cooking beans, or making soups easy.  And if you get into this, the bigger ones, which hold what looks like a gallon, have high and low settings - perfect for the chili for 10 crowd.

The trick in using one of these is setting up a nice mix of aromatics for the beans to slowly cook in.  Sauteing them together first really helps bring out the flavors.  The five minutes it takes is worth it.  Here is the mexican version:

1) pre soak the beans(unless using lentils or split peas).  I use 1 cup dry(makes 4 servings) and try to soak them for half a day or overnight.  If you forget, you can soak them in boiling water for a few hours.  Look for rocks (really, do!) and stragglers that don't look particularly like they want to be eaten.

2) Saute:

1 yellow onion(it is hard to have too much)

in olive oil with

1 TBS cumin

1 TBS chili powder

salt

until translucently wonderful.

3) decant into waiting crock pot.  For added spice add 1 whole - de-seeded dried Guajillo or Ancho chili.  Rinse the saute pan with about 1/3-1/2 cup hot water and pour that into the crock too (hey, a tasty pre-clean!). Check and see if you plugged in the crock pot. Now drain away, rinse and add the soaked beans.

It will look like this:Then add about 1/2 a large can of tomatoes - oops I got a little excited and filled it a little too high...

... now let it simmer for 6-10 hours.  You can go away for at least  6 hours, but it doesn't hurt to stir it every few hours if you are around or after that point. Sometimes beans or heavy items will stick to the bottom as it gets thickly cooked. Fine tune the seasonings when you get closer to serving.

You want to eat sooner?  You can transfer it back out of the slow cooker and put it on the stove on low heat, stirring occaisionally.  This is a good second option if you are staying at home.

This is also easily adaptable to a brown sugar bean or a soup or a stew. Sear floured & cubed meat and throw it in.  If using split peas or lentils, there is no need to pre-soak either.

The only thing I wouldn't overnight cook in a slow cooker is a grain.  We made oatmeal once and it stuck so bad to the sides, it took two days to soak & scrap it off. Hmmm, perhaps I should have just cooked it off! But you can overnight cook grains in a rice cooker - they are teflon coated (recipe to follow!).

Enjoy! 

home improvement never goes as planned

Trying to improve the homestead is one of the more forceful examples that life is not what you think.  

We talked ourselves into believing we were just cleaning house, putting things back in the storage closet.  Now this storage closet (dubbed Fort Knox) has half the storage capacity that it used to because the new electric hot water heater (dubbed Jabba the Hut) needs an immense amount of fire walled, fire doored space.  We were (I was) kidding ourselves that it would all so easily pop back in there.  The brain coerces you into believing it should or maybe if we clean around the dryer, we can use that area.  Oh look at all this lint, our dryer vent isn't even connected and apparently, judging from the quantity of lint, it hasn't been connected for at least the past five years we have lived here.  Hmm, all is not what I thought it was going to be.

We took this in with the slow Sunday absorption that makes it bearable, we had delayed this too long and even as Greg got a splinter in his foot, we decided to make the best of it all. Yes, even though chocolate was needed, we held firm to our responsibilities. Thinking that our priority was to get the shelving project moving and bringing in the dryer vent as a minor little additional co-project.

Now when an artist/carpenter goes to task making a shelf system, things get interesting.  There is the drawing, the cut list, the car/truck rental (ok a truck is not available, we'll get the Scion XB bread box down the street), the zooming over the hill to borrow the scene shops magic cutting tools, the zooming back to return the car in time, the drilling and clamping, the resizing the...oh it is almost 8:30pm, time to eat moment, when you realize the day is done and the "let's clean the house on Sunday" project you envisioned finally completing has not even started. And the dryer is unhooked, tomorrow is Monday and there is wet laundry.

We do what sensible people do, we eat dinner, partially clean up the dishes and go to bed.

So now it is Monday, I need my laundry. Soon.  After a small re-visit on the situation, we decide the elbow piece is too big and would push the dryer into the hallway.  I go back to the store, smartly returning it to find the only other alternative costs 5 times as much. Well then, I say, this has to work. I once again wish my shopping gene wasn't the opposite of Greg's as I always seem to attract the most expensive option.

I decide I will take care of the dryer vent all by myself - I have this really expensive dryer vent part after all, right? I get to learn all about aluminium hosing and aluminium tape.  Cool Stuff, you don't really understand why they make things the way they do until you get your hands on them.  Sometimes even then, it is a mystery.  But for the basics (ever handled aluminum dryer vent hosing?) there are reasons.

 It ends up being a typical home improvement project, but luckily, with a happy ending (so far). Much cutting of aluminium hose to fit, but wait, it collapses! How Handy! (oops it is sharp too). Yes, the co-project even got to the "don't look at me" part of home improvement, jagged pieces of aluminum, much crumpled "oops that didn't work" tape as I realize you don't pull the paper liner off the tape before you put it on, but as you put it on - they figured this out just for you, to make it easier and less wasteful to get around those dusty tight spaces - wow - light bulb flash!  And much re-fitting and re-doing.  At last, only an hour later, I have it connected and am drying laundry.    I celebrate by finishing the set up for an overnight pot of beans and take a bath.

feta-cottage herb spread

MQTA's box this week: how to use it all?  

Ok we thought we were tired of eating carrots raw, and have been having a lovely time tossing them with olive oil & salt and baking them in a hot oven 20 minutes - sometimes after scrubbing, we slice them lengthwise to include some of the green tips, very fancy.  But maybe this week we will go back to diagonal raw slices to enjoy with this dip:

inspired by Karla Oliveira's Tassajara Cookbook:

1/2 cup rachael's feta

1/2 cup cottage cheese

splash olive oil(1tsp?)

handfull smallage leaves, chopped

1tsp greens of scallions(or green garlic!)

1 tsp fennel leaves

chop all the goodness, refrigerate a bit. enjoy guiltlessly with fresh sliced carrots, celery or lettuce...

my three condiments

Okay, I am not talking about those 10 open jars of mustard or bottles of hot sauce  lurking on various shelves.  I am talking about the magical bowls of goodness that, with a little marinating time, become this special something, sparking up the drim and drabness of even the freshest, well-tuned larder.  Not to say that I have a fresh and well-tuned larder, but I always smile when I see just one of these smiling back at me from the fridge.  Each one hits a slightly different spectrum of the palate.

Preserved Lemons: Salty Lemony Tang: it is not that I used to disdain these, but I had never made them myself.  Now I love meyer lemons even more than in my marmalade phase (hey, in a pinch that jar of marmalade sure can help out a chili or sauce too).  Use Paula Wolfert's recipe,and use meyer lemons. I prep the lemons by scrubbing them first and then pouring boiling water over them before delving into her recipe. Definitely a satisfying use for lemons with little effort. Takes about a week to perfection.

Do these things taste better because you have been drooling over them waiting for them to be ready?  Perhaps but hey, what is wrong with that???

Ancho Pickle: Warm, Deep, Tart Chili:   We have nicknamed this one "unctious." It is. You want to just eat the chilis whole once it is ready.  Picture those jalapeno pickles you often see at the taqueria salsa bar? But take that liquid, add lots of onion, garlic, oregano and press cleaned & toasted dried ancho chilis into it for a week.  The chilis thicken up and develop a fantastic flavor.  Excellent remedy for the bland pot of beans. A little heat, but not too spicy.  The recipe we used is from Diana Kennedy's new book, The Art Of Mexican Cooking.  Buy it for this recipe alone.

 They taste the best after 10 days but it is hard to wait that long.  We started ours out in a round souffle dish, keeping the chilis pressed down with a smaller, heavy plate.  Then, as the unctious got used up, we transferred it into our lil' dark green oval casserole for space saving reasons.

You would drool too.

Hijiki in Terayaki: Sweet & Salty Darkness: You know that black twiggy seaweed they often garnish Japanese dishes with?  Seaweed often seems expensive but it is lightweight, so a little can go a long way.  You can reconstitute it by soaking it in water, but we like to make our own simple terayaki sauce, toss the hijiki in for a week and voila...yum.  Good on top of anything asian for a sweet soy low note that has its own richness to it.  This is from my own recipe, I hope to post soon. I want to test a substitution thought that would make it less expensive.

As you can tell, these jars are getting a little low, time to drool, I mean, make more!