5 posts tagged “food”

While I don't know how many people really read this, I've been uncharacteristically quiet here lately -- Mea culpa. I've been tied up in a project over at LiveJournal -- Two Ingredients, a food-challenge community. (My co-moderator came up with the idea, and I just couldn't say no. I've been taking the odd weeks, which strikes me as appropriate.)

There've been some really interesting things to come out of that place, so far.
Also, I'm amused that my typically assigned ingredients seem to be a main ingredient and a spice: Fish and capers. Tomatoes and thyme. Chocolate and garlic.
... All right, I'm kidding with the last one, though I keep threatening to actually do it. ;)

I'm also currently trying to mock up our journal icon, since I already have the perfect image... Now, I just need a line drawing of a chef hat or a spoon, and the thing can go up.
GimpShop is nice and mostly works for what I need, but I kind of miss my student copy of Photoshop: I knew exactly how to get what I wanted from Photoshop, right down to the filters. Darn you, Adobe, why do you have to be so freakin' expensive?

Anyway! Point is, there's been a lot of food over the past month, and I suspect I'll be back-dating some of the recipes and the like, as well as more knitting talk. I still haven't really posted anything about my No Sheep Swap experience with pictures, and I would still really like to -- so, that'll be going up, too.
(Not to mention the stuff that came with a recent-ish Etsy purchase from one of my downstream No Sheep buddies. Seriously, there was some REALLY cool stuff that came out of that package!)

Side note: I'm also contemplating a move for this journal to Wordpress, since I get the feeling I may be a little too dependent on Six Apart for my blogging needs. Alternately, some folk I know on LJ seem to be dual-posting from their Wordpress journals... So when I'm feeling a little less technologically lazy, I think I may look at trying to link this journal in that way. Wish me luck!

Or, food / semi-review post! Don't read this if you're hungry.

The other night, I went out to dinner with the co-workers: We all earned a service award, essentially, and the dinner was our thank-you from the company. When we earned the same award last year, our reward was a dinner at Claim Jumper's (and I'm still dreaming of their ginger creme brulee) -- this year, we were treated to the Kitchen Table at Buca's.

While not my first trip to Buca's, it was my first experience at the Kitchen Table -- and if you ever get the chance, I'd say, take that table at least once. It's interesting to watch everything going on in the kitchen, they'll bring dishes by your table and tell you what they are as they go out, and you get to interact directly with your chefs.

I have to say, I was really fond of ours. She had some excellent suggestions, and, er, we may have gotten to talking about unusual food combinations (like the ingredient choices made in the porchetta rustica -- more on that later). Also, she was a former California Pizza Kitchen chef, so she was listening intently when we started talking about them -- and then she and I got to talking about the Peking Duck pizza that (alas) is no longer on the CPK menu.

I had a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see how the kitchen worked. But I digress from the real reason we were there: The food.

I'm sad to report that for the first time in the years since I've been going to our local Buca's, I did not get the caprese. I'm an enormous fan of the way they make it, but there was just not enough interest at the table, it seemed -- though the day's salad special made its way onto our table, and I wasn't sorry in the least. The Bossman and I polished off most of that (and the leftovers, such as they were, made it home with me) -- he more after the spinach, and me attacking and devouring the fresh, flavorful wedges of tomato.
It was a 'warm spinach and tomato salad,' but it was also so much more than that. They touched the spinach, slivers of red onion and beefsteak tomatoes to the pan just long enough to warm them, and then added candied pecans and what I believe was a house balsamic vinaigrette -- if I'd been able to think past the goodness dancing on my tongue, I would have asked what went into it -- and then tossed with a mild, white goat cheese. The tomatoes were definitely my favorite, though chasing the onions and pecans around my plate were a very close second. -- I may very well have to call over there and ask what balsamic they use, because theirs was so much more mild than the stuff I keep at home, and managed to be sweeter without being cloying. (Time to upgrade!)
I do not know what kind of goat cheese they used, alas, but I think it needed a little more oomph to really make itself known: It didn't stand up all that well when paired with the dressing. Feta'd be all wrong, but it needed something... Guess it's time to go cheese tasting and expand my goat cheese repertoire.

Before that, though, we had bruschetta and the trio sampler -- battered shrimp, calamari, and mozzarella, only one of which I'll touch. The breaded mozzarella wasn't what I was typically used to: They appeared to be thin, breaded rounds of cheese, and tasted more baked than fried; I was so relieved to see something other than the fat, leaky fingers of fried, breaded cheese dripping with grease, that I did perhaps snitch one more than I should have. (No one complained since the shrimp and calamari were otherwise theirs.)
The bruschetta was little more than fresh chopped tomatoes and basil atop the house bread, drizzled with garlicky olive oil. I did love it, but the toppings were a little light. Maybe they needed a touch more garlic and onion, who could say?

And then we ordered the main course.

I was first to pipe up, and I requested the porchetta rustica: Herb-rubbed pork sliced into rounds, and topped with a sauce of red wine, balsamic, blueberries, capers and hazelnuts, served with a side of roasted potatoes and veggies.  (I have to admit, I've recently found a mild obsession with capers, especially when in these kind of dishes.)
The boss wrinkled his nose at the blueberries -- "Blueberries? In a wine sauce, on pork?" -- but I persisted and received backup from the rest of the group, so it made its way to our table and I was so very not sorry. (Neither, for that matter, was he -- he actually admitted it worked, in spite of the perceived weirdness.) I'm now going to have to dedicate my life to duplicating that dish. ;)

Of course, our chef was listening in while I announced to Bossman that I make it a point to try my hand at making ans tasting 'weird foods.'  It was an amusing couple minutes while I defended myself by pointing to his reaction to the blueberries and capers on pork. ;)

There were other things we ordered, though I did not touch the linguine fruitti di mare -- Again with the calamari and shrimp, only including mussels and clams, which are also not my cup of tea. Meant more for the co-workers, right?

We also ordered some pasta dishes (that were tasty, but I was way too full to truly appreciate) and a side of tuscan beans and escarole in marinara. It was my first time knowingly trying escarole, and I have to say I enjoyed it: I like it in much the same way I like cooked spinach, but it's got ... Hm. Perhaps not 'more' flavor, but that's the best term I can come up with at the moment. Cooked spinach can be a background flavor: Escarole isn't. I'm probably going to have to track it down fresh to form a better educated opinion.

I discovered something, however: While the co-worker-turned-friend at my left was squeezing his lemon onto his linguine di mare at his seat next to me, I took my first bite of the Tuscan white beans, and wow. The scent of lemon that hit me was enough to make that dish pop, and I was actively disappointed that the bites afterward lacked that citrus-y hint. I've decided that this weekend, I will be making white beans with greens (likely spinach, since I always have that on hand), olive oil, and lemon juice/zest.

Honestly, I only had enough room for a spoonful of tiramisu. In-sane.
Great food, though. I'm clearly going to have to drag people back that way to go get more of the things I really liked.

A few weeks ago, I went and wrote up an info-dump on cooking sites to share with my friends: After all, there are so many good places for recipes out there.

I'd hope that any Internet foodie already knows about the good places for recipes: Epicurious.com. Epicurean.com. Myriads of food blogs like 101 Cookbooks and Simply Recipes. And as for community sites -- I had my start with AllRecipes.com, but when it comes to that sort of site, I'm personally fond of Recipezaar.

But did you ever think of NPR as a source of recipes?

They are. I've added their feed to my iGoogle page, and I pounce the moment I see a new link -- It's not the best place for searching for a specific recipe, true, but they seem to have some of the more interesting food-related articles out there.
Today's love fest is for NPR's Kitchen Window: Granita by Any Name -- Call it an extension of my Spice Cream obsession, especially when considering the offerings of Sangria or Orange, Grand Marnier and Lavender Granitas. Coupled with the hot weather, I can hardly think of anything better.

On the News with Food front, I'm also terribly fond of the LA Times' every-Wednesday Food section, but word to the wise if you want to look -- You need to be subscribed to even be able to peek at most of the articles. Boo hoo.

I know I've had a link-dump before on other places with recipes: I remember going on and on about Williams-Sonoma's recipe and technique pages, though you really have to be relentless in searching that site sometimes. Cooking.com. Café Beyond -- Two out of three of these contain recipes and techniques, so I usually end up saving the page in some format for the info as there doesn't appear to be an archive. (Alas.)

Plenty of good resources out there.

 
I must have been on to something, since I've added not one, but three new food blogs to my reading collection from the time I originally shared that information. I found Orangette thanks to following a link out of NPR's Kitchen Window, my dear friend C. glibly sent me a link to Heather Christo ("My co-worker's friend is launching her foodie website and I thought it was nifty," she says. "Take a peek!"), and Simply Recipes linked to Tea & Cookies two days ago. (Two days that I've spend going through Tea's blog, deciding amidst the travel, tea, grilling lessons, and keys to a well-prepared kitchen that she's a person I wish I had the chance to get to know in person.)

Clearly, the Internets are plotting toward inundating me with food blogs to get back at me for going all knittery.

So. There's a world of intimidatingly good cooks out there that are also really fascinating people... Not that the two are mutually exclusive. Actually, seems to me most interesting people are foodies or otherwise passionate about something.
... Tea may also have posted this meme in one of the more recent (but still older) posts. I'll admit to a  weakness for interesting memes, so...

EIGHT FOOD THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

1) WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FOODS?

Sushi. I can't narrow it down more than this, because that's just cruel. Shiro-Maguro nigiri (albacore sushi) is a favorite, but so are hamachi (yellowtail), toro (the fatty tuna), anago/unagi (eels), and my crispy, ever-present spider roll or salmon-skin handrolls. There's so many different flavors, textures, and colors that there's no bigger pleasure for me than a nice selection of different sushi, set at center for everyone at the table to share.

Dim Sum. I regret that I have not yet had the chance to go to a 'true' dim sum restaurant in the local Chinatown, but oh. My 'secret' dim sum stop on PCH and Oak is always a pleasure to take friends to, as much because said friends (and family!) let me stop the carts and order for everyone as the morsels laid on the table. I'm always partial to the steamed char siu bao, the deep-fried hom suey gok, the steamed Shanghai bao with their rich, brothy centers plus the plum vinegar / shredded ginger dip, and the slick 'rice noodle' dish hiding their delicious meaty centers between rolled sheets of rice flour and sweet vinegar sauce... Though I can never forget the honey-like thick lotus seed center of my favorite sesame balls.
Sundays are also a treat at that restaurant, because that's when they pull out the things they don't make the rest of the week, and I'm personally of the mind that the char siu flakey pastries are to die for.

Creme Brulée. If you've never sat down with me in a restaurant that has this on the menu, then it's likely that you don't know about my utter weakness against this dessert: I'm an addict. The last two times I went with my mother to the Hamburger Hamlet, I saved room for dessert because they have a peach creme brulée. (Also, serving it with a quarter cup of diced peach pieces served in their own juice and tossed with mint doesn't hurt.) -- When my favorite French restaurant Le Chalet de France was closing, I made it a point to run back from college for the weekend solely to go on their last Saturday open and asked (bold as brass) for their recipe. They gave it to me, and I still have that napkin the maitre'd scribbled the note on hidden away. Ever since then, I collect creme brulée recipes like another of my friends has been known to collect recipes for shortbread and trifles.

Blood Oranges. I do have a fondness for citrus, but blood oranges always take the metaphorical cake for me. There's just something about cutting into a light orange skin and finding that dark purple-red center. It could just be a 'weird color' food thing, but I also still remember one trip out of Green Valley Falls (I think) in El Cajon when I still had friends down that way, and stopping at a roadside stand on a whim, I found them, fragrant and sweet. Just the thing for someone parched out by the sun and hiking through forests -- and I peeled the thing, not knowing any better, dripping the bloody juice all over my shirt while attempting to separate it into the familiar neat orange wedges and getting shredded pulpy pieces instead, but still licking my fingers clean of the juice. Yum.

2) WHAT FOODS DO YOU HATE?

Eggs and catsup. Which is unfortunate, since the fiancé only eats his eggs that way -- but it turns my stomach and I just cannot get through to whatever it is that people see in that combination. It also extends to eggs and any tomato-esque product, be it tabasco, salsa...

Liver. The only liver you'll ever catch me eating is rumaki, and even that's usually just for the bacon and the water chestnut. I used to eat it as a kid, but the flavor's just too heavy or something for me -- and I can't stand the smell when it's cooking.

Celery. Everyone tells me it has no flavor, but I beg to differ. It tastes bitter and sour to me, and not in a way I find pleasant, so I just don't eat it.

3) FOODS YOU LIKE BUT ARE EMBARRASSED TO ADMIT?

BBQ Chips and Ice Cream. Whenever I tell someone about this, they always immediately ask if I'm pregnant. I started eating this at the tender young age of eleven, so I'd sure as hell hope not. ;) It was a combination I read about in a story from my Cricket magazine -- potato chips and chocolate ice cream -- so I was curious enough to try it: We only had the BBQ Lays, so that's what I used. The salt-spice is an interesting addition to the sweet of the ice cream.

4) STRANGEST FOOD YOU'VE EATEN AND ENJOYED?

Does the BBQ chips and ice cream count?
All right, seriously...

Emu. Not terribly weird, but I was amazed to find out it's a bird that cooks up and vaguely resembles red meat. A former boyfriend snuck it into meat sauce in place of beef, and it was terribly good.

Beefalo. Mom saw it in the market once and brought it home: A cross between a cow and a buffalo. I don't remember ever having it again, but the burgers were pretty tasty.

5) COOKING FAILURES THAT STILL RANKLE?

Bad Meatloaf. My mother makes a mean meatloaf, made even funnier by the fact that she can't stand the stuff. My brother, Dad and I can't get enough, so she made it -- but it wasn't her thing. Unsurprisingly, shortly after first moving into my old apartment, I wanted meatloaf. I had all the ingredients necessary except for tomato paste... But I had tomato soup.
Oh God, it was awful. Too sweet, too liquid, even undiluted -- I ended up throwing the meatsplat away (because it certainly wasn't going to be mistaken for a loaf, even with all the breadcrumbs I put in to try and compensate) and just eating the german potatoes I'd fried up as dinner instead.
I did get better, and each time I make meatloaf, it's to thumb my nose at that first attempt... But I'm not ready to forget it just yet.

Runny Cookies. This one still bothers me, because unlike the meatloaf above, I have no idea what went wrong. It was a year ago and I followed the instructions to the letter, used the right amounts of butter / flour / sugar -- and I mixed and chilled and baked like mad, trying to make a small army of chocolate chip cookies that had been requested to go with a friend's All-American Dinner party. I've got the third and fourth sheets ready to go when I open the door to the oven and find the four dozen cookies I'd put in ten minutes prior had all merged into one large, overcooked cookie.
Panic ensued. I thinned out the number of cookies, hoping it had just been a fluke while I willed the first two sheets cool so I could clean and get to the next batch -- and eight minutes after putting them in, I had cookie puddles that much closer resembled chocolate-studded burnt pizzelles than your all-American chocolate chip. Lessening the time further meant they were still puddles and half-raw.
With twenty minutes before we had to leave for the get-together, I ended up dropping dough into my one lonely muffin tin, just desperate to get something semi-presentable: I only had about a dozen and a half of the planned seventy-two cookies and a large amount of frazzled nerves.
Insult to injury: I tried the same recipe the next week, and it went off without a hitch. Maybe it was the sheer volume I was attempting -- Can't say.

6) INGREDIENTS YOU DON'T WANT TO CONSIDER LIVING WITHOUT?

Garlic. I know that there's been a recent movement to try and remove garlic from Italian cooking, since it overwhelms the taste: Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and you're never taking my garlic from me -- You can steal my stinking rose from my cold, dead fingers. If I didn't think it'd get me smacked by all my friends, I'd use it in everything except my baking. (Although, there are several things I can picture that being good in... Foccaccia or popovers, anyone?)

Smoked paprika. I don't use it frequently, but there are just some comfort foods I make that can't do without it -- Chicken paprikash being the primary example, but I also like to sprinkle a little of it into my stews and eggs. There's really no other spice like it, in my opinion.

Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil. The two are always paired in my mind, and always made better with garlic: Still, there's so much I use balsamic in when I'm making dinner, the thought of going without makes me sad. Once I started using balsamic, it was love: I don't understand how my mom can turn her nose up at using it when she's never given it a try.

Cheese. I use cheese at the smallest provocation. It doesn't necessarily matter what kind: I try to keep a selection of blue, asiago or romano, parmesan, sharp cheddar, and brie in my fridge at all times, and I'm even happier if I have a little goat cheese, aged white cheddar, or swiss there, too. The simple act of having gnocchi in the pantry is enough to send me after a double handful of shredded cheese while I brown them in the pan. Yum.

Gnocchi. Certainly the most recent of my pasta-related loves, it nonetheless manages to be my favorite. I will take gnocchi (dried, frozen, packaged fresh or homemade) over any other pasta -- and that's high praise, given my surely inborn, cultural love for spaetzle and my fondness for all things rice noodles. If I had to forgo pasta entirely except for one kind, this would be the one I'd choose to keep. Versatile, able to be a side or a main course, and varying from satisfyingly hearty to temptingly light... There's no question that I'm all about the gnocchi, especially now that I know what to do with them.

Beans. These are a recent addition to my repertoire, but I'm experimenting with them. Fresh beans, canned beans, frozen beans, dried beans -- I already knew I loved green beans, the proof along the bottom shelf of my freezer and pulled out whenever I thought we needed more green in our diet, but having recently found the baked beans recipe, I'm all about broadening the spectrum to include legumes regularly. Also, as someone who's mad about hummus and already has olive oil and garlic listed as ingredients not to be lived without -- Sounds perfect to me.

7) CUISINE YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT?

I know surprisingly little about Mexican, Mediterranean, and Persian cuisines. I can do Italian, a little, but even with that there's still a lot of room to learn. (Not that I'm an expert on Asian and French cuisine, by any means... But I feel a little more well versed in those. I can handle coq au vin or off-the-cuff veggie sushi rolls, which must count for something.)

8) FOODS YOU HATED BUT HAVE GROWN TO LOVE?

Avocados. Okay, this is going to have some of my friends gaping at me if not actively laughing or teasing: Oh, how I love avocados. Of course, I only started eating them outside of guacamole during college, and wow. All I need now is a ripe avocado, a spoon, and a little salt and/or a dribble of pure citrus, and yeah. I'm in heaven.

Eggs. Don't look at me like that -- I really didn't like them as a kid, and the parents finally stopped asking me to choke them down when one slid back up at about the age of seven. I was re-introduced to eggs in omelettes, and then I deigned to have scrambled, and by late high school, I was almost willing to eat poached eggs. It took me a while, but now they're one of those ever-present ingredients in my fridge, and not just because you can't make a cake without them... I mean, there's quiche.

Beets. Yeah, I know, show me a kid who ever liked beets -- but I'll have you know, I've always loved the other traditionally hated veggie, the brussel sprout. Beets never really appealed to me 'til I found a beet salad calling for diced roasted beets, shredded mint and olive oil. I've been partial ever since.

Tomatoes. This is the most recent food ideology changes, since it seems to me that I've only been eating raw tomatoes with anything approaching pleasure for the past year or two (which means it's probably more like five). I couldn't stand them before, the slimy texture of the seeds enough to send me running away -- and truthfully, I still have that issue with cherry tomatoes, but I'm happily eating about every other variety there is. Strawberry tomatoes are a decided favorite, and I really, desperately need to find a plant that grows those for my front yard. Sugar plum and grape tomatoes are a brilliant snack, and the roma will forever be my first tomato love, especially with a little fresh basil and mozzarella. Yum.

So. Anyone else want to answer this one?

I've begun to suspect I'm insane.
Reasoning: I've got plenty to do this evening, between making up some homemade pizza (and I've decided to use a long pan instead of the usual hole-bottomed pizza pan, as I haven't been happy with its results lately) and getting the house ready for an imminent termite inspection, so what do I do?

Pick up my size 2 double-point needles and start two socks at once.
Barking mad, probably.
But, the idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to cast on: I'm currently working in complimentary shades of TLC Essentials -- which I don't particularly like the feel of, but it's part of my early stash and needs using -- in a burnt orange and their Falling Leaves ombre.
Never knit a sock in my life (though crocheting is a different story -- and I've several pairs, thank you!), and then I get the wild hair to do two at once.
I'm also planning on trading off the colors at cuff, heel, and toe, as if I weren't already confusing myself as it is.
Should be some pretty sweet socks if I can do it right, though, and I won't be afraid to wreck them through wear.

Note to self: I want this in Wild Wild West. Just one skein, but I've got a sock pattern in mind that I'd love to try.
... Well, maybe Blue Bayou, too.

Anyhow. Tonight, pizza.
The fiance and I picked up another of Trader Joe's pre-made pizza doughs in the garlic and herbed crust variety, and I'm currently contemplating whether I want to use a tomato sauce as the base or just go with garlic and olive oil as a pseudo-white sauce... I mean, olive oil and garlic. Good stuff, especially when you consider I've got mozzarella and roughly shredded parmesan to put on top, and then cover with prosciutto, salami, and capocollo. I'm also debating whether or not to add sun-dried tomatoes to the list or not: Alas, though I can see the tomatoes getting bigger by the day, there are still none ready for eating on my tomato plants.

... Don't think that I'm not looking up how to make sun-dried tomatoes for when that crop finally comes.

It does sound like a good, if meat-heavy pizza... And since it's going to be a pan pizza, that means it's going to be a bit more square than usual. (Alas, I can't guarantee thicker... Though I have rolled the dough out and I'm leaving it to rise some more, so. If I'm lucky.)
I suppose I do have some bell pepper strips in the freezer, and can also go that route. The fiance's kinda meh on the topic of olives, though, and tempting as it is to go viciously harvest the sneaky mushrooms in my yard... Probably not advisably edible, and since I haven't any criminis in the fridge, that means no mushrooms for the pizza.
That's life: Ought to get to making that pizza, or at least gathering the ingredients.

I was contacted by my 'upstream' Secret Swap pal today -- That is to say, the person that's going to be sending me yarn. I'm thrilled -- She apologized for being late, but the way I look at it, she had 'til the 25th to pipe up so I wasn't stressing it.

Life. It's what gets in the way when you're making other plans.

Now, for something I am letting stress me out a wee bit... My tomato pots have mushrooms.
Sneaky little field mushrooms that I can't always pluck out before they open their little gills and start the whole damned process of germination and growth over again. Every morning, I'm out there, tossing out as many as I can find... And yet, there are always more.
Irritating, to say the least: I'm halfway starting to consider buying the necessary equipment to turn said tomatoes into a hanging garden... Maybe then, the mushrooms won't find a place to be.
I can hope, right?

I'm a little on the bummed side: I stopped at the new, considerably more local Whole Foods for my lunch break today, hoping to find the refrigerated sweet potato gnocchi I'd seen there their opening week: None there, and they had some interesting looking fresh sun-dried tomato gnocchi, but half the bag had been squished by an overzealous shopper and there weren't any more to be had.
Means there's a Trader Joe's run in my future for the evening, since I'm out of milk, eggs, quatro fromaggio and pizza fixings.  (After the barbecue chicken pizza I picked up from the Whole Foods pizza stand and had for lunch, I'm really in the mood for home-made pizza with unusual toppings.) Also, it would probably be nice to make another grab at their frozen meat section.

Now, to chase the cats off the fiance so we can go make that TJ's run...