Fall Way Back

My oldest daughter asked me to make pancakes for breakfast this morning. Since I had the pleasure of realizing that the clocks turned back last night and I had forgotten to reset them, thus it was actually 6:30 instead of 7:30 am, I decided that I did indeed have the time to do so. Also, my kids LOVE pancakes (I mean, who doesn't?), so as often as I have to say no because of time constraints and whatnot, I actually don't mind making them when I can. Truth be told, I kind of LOVE pancakes as well, but more for the nostalgia factor than anything else.

For as long as I can remember growing up, one day out of the weekend was always designated pancake breakfast day. (It was probably Sunday, but those days also belonged to church services, after which my father would take over the kitchen to whip up hot dogs and pickle relish for lunch. It would seem that Sundays were not the best days for healthy eating during my childhood.) My mother would get up, probably before the rest of us lazy bums, put on her cream colored, polyester, front zip-up robe that almost reached the floor on her petite frame, and start bustling around our galley style kitchen. She would usually have a cup of coffee (black with creamer and no sugar) in one of her Fransican apple patterned cups while she mixed the pancake batter, from scratch, in a well worn, but serviceable plastic mixing bowl. She would fire up her electric griddle, which only saw use on pancake making days, and effortlessly ladle beautifully even 2 to 3 inch diameter dollops of batter onto the sizzling surface. Somewhere along the line, I learned that she waited until the edges of the pancakes were set and the top was bubbly and almost lacy before she would flip them over, revealing a gorgeous golden brown exterior on the one side. After just a few seconds on the second side, she would remove them to a plate, and place pats of butter (probably more likely to have been margarine, but what did I know at the time?) between each pancake. We would always have crisp and crunchy bacon, whose smokey flavor complimented the lightly sweet pancakes themselves as well as the dousing of "maple" syrup that we always poured over the top. (In those days, it was likely to have been called "pancake" syrup, but let's just say that I never had actual maple syrup until I was a grown woman. No offense, Mom.)

None of her three children went away to school and it was only two years ago when the first one of us (my younger brother) moved out of state, but any time we are at my mother's house for breakfast, you can just about guarantee that the electric griddle will make an appearance, as will my mother's pancakes and bacon. The last time I had her pancakes was when my sister, my sister-in-law and I spent the night with my mom the week before my brother got married. It was a sort of bachelorette party for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law - we ate and drank and went shoe shopping. When we got up in the morning, my mother was already in the kitchen, fresh as a daisy (she doesn't drink) and making pancakes. They were delicious. She makes them for my daughters whenever they spend the night with her and she always makes enough that my pancake and bacon loving children can enjoy some the next day (and usually the day after that as well).

So, I also carry on my mother's pancake tradition. I have had her (and my grandmother's before her) recipe memorized since I moved out of her house. When my younger daughter was about to be born, I made and froze two gallon-sized ziploc bags of blueberry pancakes for my older daughter to enjoy while I was in the hospital and after we came home. I have experimented and altered the recipe to make it healthier, to make it seasonal (pumpkin is one of my personal favorites), to add more fruit, to add more fiber, to reduce the sugar, etc., etc., but I can't really beat the flavor of my mother's original recipe. This morning, when I made pancakes, I did actually add some whole wheat flour, which is an ingredient that my mother probably did not have access to in the mid-1980's. For the most part though, this morning's creation was pretty near her original recipe. I poured the batter onto my electric griddle (my Cuisinart Griddler - my absolute favorite kitchen gadget), watched for the edges to set and the bubbles to form, then flipped them over to reveal golden brown perfection. (You know, after the first couple - those are the "seasoning" pancakes that don't look perfect, but taste just as good.) I let my pancakes set on the second side slightly longer than my mother did, and I used the time to smear a little bit of Smart Balance spread (also something my mother did not have) on the top. I stacked them up on a plate, just like her and served them to my daughters with a drizzle of honey (no bacon, much to their chagrin). They were delicious and probably the closest I have come to recreating one of my mother's recipes in a very long time. They got me thinking - about my pancake memories, my family and how we make new memories for our kids every single day. Maybe my kids will remember me bustling around the kitchen, tea mug in hand, whipping up a batch of pancakes. No one will remember the flavors - they were all experimental anyway. In any case, breakfast was great this morning and ended up being a great trip down memory lane - pancake style!

The Chef is Back in the House!

For the first time in several months, I feel like I actually COOKED dinner last night! Why the fanfare you may ask? I cook at least once, sometimes twice a day, but I have stuck to a lot of comfort foods and very basic recipes for the last little bit. I am used to CREATING at least once per week and I just have not been up to that lately. Last night was different and made all the difference for me in really enjoying the meal.

Last night, we had herb and panko crusted tilapia, baked in the oven until crisp and golden brown, alongside which I served a quinoa "pilaf". The fish was good, but the "pilaf" (in quotations for lack of a better word) was where I really let my creativity shine. I started with a basic organic quinoa, which I rinsed (I am still not sure why you have to do that with this grain, but I did it anyway), and then simmered for about 25 minutes until all of the water I added was completely absorbed. While that pot was bubbling away, I put a pan with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil over low heat and added a large clove of garlic that I had minced. I let the garlic brown lightly and perfume the oil, then added one sliced shallot. I turned the heat up slightly and sort of oil braised both the shallots and the garlic together. When they were all soft and golden, I turned the heat off and set the pan aside. Earlier in the afternoon, I had picked our first red bell pepper (almost out of season, but my husband planted it late this year), which I roasted on our stove top until it was blackened and completely soft. I removed the skin and seeds, then chopped it finely and added it to the pan of oil, garlic and shallots. When the quinoa was ready, I added the roasted red bell pepper mixture, a splash of red wine vinegar, freshly ground black pepper and a mixture of sweet green and opal basil (also from our garden). I mixed the entire concoction together and ended up with a really delicious side dish (which also boosted our family's protein intake for the night. Don't know if you knew that about quinoa - it is an ancient grain with a high protein content and a delicious, nutty flavor.) I loved it, my husband loved it, my kids.....were not entirely crazy about it. Oh, well, sometimes you can't please everyone at the table and they did actually try it before declining to eat all of it. (This was mostly my little one; my older daughter was angling for more salad - shocker!- so she finished all that was on her plate.)

I also have big plans for this weekend: today or tomorrow, I am going to try my hand at making marshmallow fondant for a Halloween cake that I am planning for my kids. My older daughter offered to pay me to make a cake for her and, because I thought it was so cute and funny, I posted the conversation on Facebook. My mother saw it, of course, and informed me that, "[I] needed to make that baby a cake." So, that is my goal for tomorrow - a surprise Halloween cake, complete with fun, ghoulish decorations for my babies to enjoy. I am also hoping to try some more new recipes next week - I saw a cooking show yesterday with leek and mushroom turkey meatloaf that sounded really intriguing. (Sounds like it would go well with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, yes?) The weather is changing and with it, my outlook on cooking/creating in the kitchen, hopefully. I am ready for it! Bring on the experimentation!

Squashed!

I was randomly flipping the channels the other day and came across a PBS cooking show on vegetarian cooking. We have periodically gone vegetarian in the past - mainly for my husband's cholesterol issues - but have never really been able to stick with it. (I am a protein person - if I don't have enough of it, I get a little cranky.) In any case, I typically do several vegetarian dishes during the week, in addition to our meat based meals. I am always on the look-out for new stuff to try, so when I stumbled across this cooking show, I decided to watch for a few minutes.

Bear in mind that I started watching this thing at about the midpoint of the show, so I had already missed some of this woman's other concoctions. I began watching her make a pureed watercress and potato soup. Now, let me just say that this sounds fairly foul to me, even on a good day. (One in which I am willing to let go of any previous food bias and try a new combination of flavors.) I am sure it is pretty mild - especially since the vegetables were simmered in plain water and the final soup was seasoned only with sea salt and ground black pepper - but, seriously, I am not sure who, particularly in my family, would enjoy warming up with this odd soup.

Despite my obvious reservations about this TV cook, she did say something that caught my attention. As she began pureeing the cooked potatoes and watercress, she said, "you know, kids will eat almost any kind of soup, as long as it has been pureed. If they go poking around, unable to find any chunks of vegetables, they are more likely to try and enjoy them." Huh. That totally makes sense, actually. Honestly, I don't often like chunks of vegetables in my soups (please see a previous post on Roasted Vegetable Soup and my hatred of any form of celery), so wouldn't the same apply to my kids? Worth a try anyway....

Fast forward to menu planning at the beginning of this week: I had decided to try a pureed butternut squash soup to see if my kids would actually eat it. The recipe came from a cookbook called, "Great Food, Fast" by the editors of "Everyday Food". They also have a cooking show, which my kids and I enjoy watching together and I often rely on them to find recipes that are both kid and adult friendly. In any case, this was a pretty simple soup, calling for butternut squash (I subbed acorn squash), onions, garlic, ginger, water, salt and pepper and a small amount of fresh squeezed orange juice at the end of cooking. Puree it all together, top with a little (optional) sour cream and/or spicy roasted pumpkin seeds and viola! Instant, healthy and delicious family meal, right?

Oddly enough, the answer to that last question was: YES! Both of my kids tried the soup and my older daughter loved it! She actually finished her entire bowl! To be fair, I think she actually loved the spiced pumpkin seeds better than anything else, but still: I got that kid to eat a full serving of a vegetable that, had I prepared it in its whole form, she would not have touched with a ten-foot pole! My younger daughter, who I often accuse of surviving on air alone, tasted the soup, declared she did not like the sour cream that she had insisted on swirling into it and refused to finish it. She did, however, finish her salad, so that was a partial win for me there as well. My husband and I both enjoyed the soup ourselves and, yes, we both finished our bowls. Even without the addition of a stock (chicken or otherwise), I found this soup to be warming, filling and even a little refreshing. Pureed squash soups are often heavy or cloying, but this one was neither. It was nice - and we will probably repeat the recipe again.

In conclusion: thank you random vegetarian PBS TV host who suggested pureeing vegetables into soup to get kids to eat it. That was a great idea, even if your potato and watercress soup turned (and still turns) my stomach at the mere thought of it.

Et Tu, Trudy's?

Monday was a school holiday for our oldest daughter and my husband decided to take the day off to spend with the three of us. We planned to go out to eat and then to go to the Texas State History Museum to view a special exhibit on aviation that is currently featured there. It has been a while since we ate at Trudy's, a local Tex-Mex joint with several locations around town, so we decided to make that our lunchtime meal. We set off in the late morning, headed for the University of Texas campus (where the museum is and where one of the locations of Trudy's may be found), a little hungry, but nowhere near ravenous. That was fine - I figured that, by the time we got a table and placed our order, we would be ready to eat. We pulled into the parking lot and were bemused by the lack of cars. Up to the restaurant we walked, hand in hand with our daughters, only to find that the UT area Trudy's doesn't open until 2 pm. The girls suggested we just wait the two hours (they don't really understand time yet, obviously) and then have lunch. Nah - that wasn't going to work for me (or shortly, for anyone else, once they realized they were starving).

Determined to have our meal at Trudy's, we set off for the North Star location - just a few miles up the road on Burnet. Upon arrival, we were relieved to discover that this restaurant was, in fact, open for business. We were promptly seated, our drink orders were taken and our friendly waitress informed us that they currently had their "specialty foods buffet" set up and we were welcome to "load up". While she retrieved our drinks, my husband checked out the buffet and pronounced it, "meh" with a shrug of his shoulders. When our waitress returned, I said, "I guess we just need a couple of menus so we can decide." She responded with, "oh, we don't have menus". Argh! Are you kidding me?!? All I wanted was the salad that I always get at Trudy's - this, in fact, being the menu item for which we had driven all the way into Austin. Now, obviously, I have some personal issues here, but let's just say that I was more than a little disappointed that I couldn't have what I wanted, not to mention the fact that we had passed the point of no return as far as feeding our children. They wanted something to eat and they wanted it right then. So, with my own "meh" and shrug of my shoulders, I stomped over to the buffet line with my oldest daughter and filled her plate and mine with Trudy's "specialty foods".

By the way, "specialty foods", in general, means "fried" at Trudy's. I had a mini fried avocado, a mini fried chicken taquito, fried coconut shrimp, fried chile relleno and fried corn nuggets. To be fair, they also had a number of other "off-menu" items such as meatballs in guajillo chile sauce, pasta with a chipotle cream sauce and a chicken pot pie, not to mention a rather meager salad bar. I actually had a small amount of salad with my lunch (nothing compared to my original plan of the Ensalada Grande with Habanero Honey Mustard dressing) topped with a mediocre dressing. The food tasted ok (at the time - my husband later thought he had gotten a touch of food poisoning), but I was already really disappointed in one of my favorite restaurants. First, finding one location with crazy hours (can you say drinking joint?) and second, finding the other location which, crazily, doesn't offer a la carte service during the week anymore. WTH?

Ah, well, personal issues aside, I still love you Trudy's, even if Monday turned out to be a bad day for enjoying your food (from the menu). Hopefully, I will get my Ensalada Grande fix sometime soon, though I think I will have to just stick with the south location from here on out. Such a bummer - at least the museum turned out to be a good choice. The kids enjoyed themselves and we managed to have a really fun family day together (despite the disappointing lunch).

Busy, busy, busy

Whew! I have been crazy busy these last few weeks and (shocker!) I am just now finding the time to sit down and write a little something. Last weekend I did a cake for the largest wedding I have ever done. Now, to be fair, the wedding was only for about 115 people, but still, that is bigger than I have ever done. (I usually do small weddings - about 50 people on average.) In addition to doing the cake, I also assisted with the catering (by Mari Desautels of Mari Cooks) at the event, so last Saturday was fairly busy for me. The wedding had an overall Mexican theme to it, so the food and the cake were along those same lines. For the cake, I made three cinnamon-spiked French vanilla tiers, covered them with a basic butter cream and decorated using handmade, royal icing flowers as well as more butter cream to mimic the embroidered patterns found on traditional Mexican dresses (I think the one I used was specific to the region of Oaxaca). I served a cream sauce on the side, which the guests could pour on themselves, and which recreated the flavor of a traditional tres leches cake. (We were missing at least one of the "leches", but the flavor and structure of the cake worked really well without it.) Ultimately, I was pleased with how the cake turned out.

I was also very impressed with the food the caterer set out on the buffet. (I didn't actually help prep any of the food, but I did assist with set-up, clean-up and taking home some of the leftovers. Yum!) She had cheese enchiladas, beef and chicken fajitas, pulled pork shoulder (phenomenal), rice, beans, red and green salsas, guacamole and all the other accoutrements that a delectable Mexican buffet would need. Seriously, all of the food smelled divine and it tasted just as good the next day. The guests seemed to really enjoy everything - cake included - and the bride and groom seemed very happy with how their reception turned out (pretty much the most important thing for wedding caterers).

In any case, I hope to write more about what I am cooking at home in the coming days. Doing so has proved slightly more challenging lately, both for personal and for professional reasons. Time is always a factor for sure, but I definitely want to continue to share what our family is consuming (as much as what they are not - anybody with kids out there knows EXACTLY what I am talking about). For now, enjoy the cake picture!

Fire in the Hole!

Things have been a bit busy around here lately - both personally and professionally - but, here I am and ready to tell you a little story this morning! I am sharing this for several reasons, the main one being that I think every aspiring home (or professional) cook needs to understand that kitchen disasters happen to the best of us and when the unexpected happens, you do your best to roll with the punches and salvage your meal. The story begins like this: my husband's 38th birthday was last weekend and we decided to invite our parents over for dinner that evening. My husband has an odd fondness for Cornish Game Hens and so I have developed several different ways of cooking them for him. My personal favorite is to have the butcher at my favorite specialty foods store chop them in half, after which I just bring them home and lightly marinate them in whatever I am into on that particular day. I then grill them on my natural gas grill which saves my kitchen from being overheated during the hot afternoon. For my husband's birthday dinner, I had decided to marinate the halved Cornish Game Hens in a light Dijon-herb vinaigrette. I lovingly clipped basil, chives and tarragon out of my herb garden, added a couple of tablespoons of Dijon mustard, a splash of red wine vinegar and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I generously seasoned each hen half with salt and pepper, then slathered on the marinade and let them sit while I fired up the grill. I planned to serve the hens with horseradish mashed potatoes and peas with caramelized pearl onions.

By the time the grill was heated and ready to go, most of the other prep work had been done. The onions were golden brown, crispy and sweet, just awaiting their addition to the pot of simmering peas; the potatoes were ready to be riced (pretty much my new favorite way to mash potatoes); and the Cornish Game Hens were seasoned with the tart and tangy marinade and ready to cook on the grill. I had ten hen halves, which I anticipated would take up most of my grill space, so I had the thing on full blast so as not to lose too much heat when I started cooking. I carefully arranged the halves on the grill grates, skin side down, closed the lid and left my husband and his father on the back porch to monitor the grilling process. I came back inside and began dealing with the potatoes and peas. Not five minutes passed before I turned around to look at the grill (which tends to smoke a bit when I do Cornish Game Hens on it - those things are a little fatty when you leave the skin on). I noticed a fair amount of fire in the bottom grill pan and also noticed that my husband and father-in-law were crouching down to get a better look at it. I thought to myself, "hmm...that is not what it is supposed to be doing". At that exact moment (or so it seemed), the fire when from small to kind of engulfing the grill pan. The grill starting belching out this thick, dark black and billowing cloud of smoke. I realized that my first reaction was a bit of an understatement and as I noticed the black smoke creeping into my kitchen, I ran to open the windows on the front of the house so I could avoid the obnoxious fire alarm from going off. My kids watched all of this with rapt attention and then started running around asking me if we needed to call the fire department. My mother-in-law distracted them while the rest of us dealt with the fire and they had a great time with the open windows (which lack screens right now), playing "apartment". (They were neighbors talking to each other out their windows.)

I walked outside and asked my husband, "are they f*****?" (I have a bit of a sailor mouth when it comes to food getting messed up in my kitchen. Also, I had spent almost $25 on those things and I kind of wanted them to turn out well, especially because it was my husband's birthday dinner.) Upon opening the grill, we waved away the remnants of the smoke and were horrified to find that the Cornish Game Hens were about as black as could possibly be. We examined them closely and decided that some of the damage the smoke had done could be washed off and the rest we would just eat around.

So, that is what I did. I took my lovingly prepared Cornish Game Hen halves back inside, scrubbed each one individually and placed them on a pan to roast in the oven to finish cooking. When they came out, I served them, as planned with mashed potatoes, peas and gravy and everyone at the table (including our two daughters) declared that they were very tasty. I have to admit that I was surprised by how good they did actually taste. To be sure, they were smokey and quite overcooked in spots, but they had crisp, crunchy skin and juicy, sweet meat that was, oddly enough, still fairly nicely seasoned. The Dijon-herb flavor was just about obliterated, but the resulting salty-smoke combination was not too bad.

As I said, kitchen disasters can happen to the best of us - especially those of us who, because we have professional training, think that we can make grills which are in sore need of cleaning/tuning up work for us. I knew that grill wasn't working right - the gas doesn't light immediately and I often throw matches into it to make it light (NOT smart, by the way) - but I decided to use it anyway. Professional training brings with it a sort of arrogance that, "hey. I know EXACTLY what I am doing", but it also creates the ability to, as I said before, roll with the punches and salvage what you can when things go wrong. Any professional chef will tell you that. They all have a thousand stories of what has happened to them and how they managed to pull off a spectacular meal anyway. For me and this time at least, my kitchen disaster happened in front of my family, so, as an audience, they were pretty forgiving in any case. We had a wonderful birthday dinner and I ended up with a good disaster story to tell. Until next time!

Leftoverpalooza!

Although I am writing this post almost one week after the aforementioned, "Leftoverpalooza", I am still just so darn excited about how I was able to transform a bunch of random bits and pieces that I needed to clear out of my refrigerator into a tasty, (somewhat) healthy dinner that all of my family members enjoyed thoroughly. We begin with the story of a recipe, which we (meaning my husband and myself), enjoyed long ago - a baked pasta dish with a sauce of pureed winter/butternut squash, covered in a crispy-crunchy bread crumb and Parmesan cheese topping. Now, the original recipe was meant to mimic the color, if not the specific flavor, of macaroni and cheese and, if I recall correctly, did not go over very well with the two children it was meant to impress.

This time, as I said, I was attempting to clear out the fridge and, with the original recipe in mind, I riffed on the veggie/mac 'n cheese beginning with some frozen chunks of butternut squash. I nuked those in the microwave with a little bit of water until they were thoroughly cooked and completely tender. While that was going, I started some salted water for about a pound of basic shell pasta. When the squash was ready, I mashed the chunks into a kind of stringy puree with the back of a fork and, decided, at the last second to grate and add the leftover hunk of reduced fat cheddar cheese (probably about 2 ounces) to the mix. I also had some lovely ham, leftover from the previous night's dinner at my mom's house, which I diced into small pieces, adding it to the cheese and squash mixture. Continuing with the "kitchen-sink" theme, I added about a 1/4 cup of heavy cream, leftover from an ice cream recipe, which turned the mixture into this incredibly luscious looking, pale orange sauce, which (I think) anyone would have been hard pressed to discern from a traditional bechamel based cheese sauce. I wasn't really sure how the stuff would taste, but, like I said, it looked darn good. For the topping, I chopped a bunch of leftover parsley, mixing it with some bread crumbs that I had in the freezer and some grated Parmesan cheese. When the pasta was al dente, I drained it, then tossed it with the squashy cheese sauce. I poured it into my prepared (read: coated the crap out of it with cooking spray) oven proof dish, topped it with the bread crumb mixture and put it into my preheated oven at about 350 degrees. The dish probably baked for 20 to 25 minutes and, when it came out, the sauce was bubbling and the bread crumb topping was delectably golden brown. Despite how good it looked, it was still down to how good it tasted.

We sat down at the table and both of my girls expressed their excitement at being served macaroni and cheese. They were a little concerned about the green flecks of parsley (or "leaves", as my younger daughter usually calls anything with chlorophyll), but they both agreed to try it. I put a little on both of their plates and was more than a little surprised when they both scarfed it down and requested seconds (my older daughter even came back for thirds). I tried it kind of skeptically myself - I really wasn't sure how the flavors of the squash and cheese would work together. I was amazed at how creamy and downright delicious the combination actually was! The squash was pretty overpowered by the sharpish flavor of the cheddar, but it lent the sauce the perfect hue of yellowish-orange that is always the marker of a good mac n cheese (according to my kids, at least). The ham provided a nice textural counterpoint with its chewy density and added a lovely, smokey and salty flavor to the dish. The bread crumb topping was toasty, slightly nutty and salty (from the Parmesan) and the parsley flecks perked up the taste and appearance of the dish with its fresh green color and flavor. The pasta was perfectly cooked - just slightly chewy and all the more luscious as it absorbed the beautiful sauce. In fact, those shells made the ideal sauce carrier - the ham pieces just nestled in for the ride to our mouths. Seriously, this little experiment was tasty. Not all of my attempts at creating delectable dishes out of random leftovers turn out this way, but this time, I got lucky. Unfortunately, everyone liked the dish so well, there were not any leftovers for me for lunch the next day, but goodness knows I would much rather have dinner heartily eaten. In fact, the pictorial evidence shown below is just before my husband consumed the final little bit. Maybe next time, I will remember to take a picture before we actually eat our meal.

Yowza

It has been far too long since I have posted anything on here and for that, I do apologize. My weeks have been filled with house repairs, getting ready for school and quite a few cakes and catering gigs, just to name a few things. What with all the extra time I have now (wink, wink), I am hoping to get back on here and post food thoughts/musings more frequently. I have just a few spare moments this afternoon, so here is what I am currently excited about in my little culinary sphere. I ordered a copy of America's Test Kitchen's Healthy Family Cookbook which should be here (hopefully) in a couple of weeks. For those of you that are not familiar with ATK, they are a group of culinary research professionals that publish a magazine, Cook's Illustrated, and have a couple of PBS TV shows - America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Country. They are amazing! They find a recipe, test the crap out of it and make adjustments as necessary so that EVERYTHING works like it is supposed to. No muss, no fuss - just follow their recipes and have amazing results every time. They actually delve into the science of food (which is how they make the recipes work), but they also take the time to review food products, gadgets, etc for taste, quality, and a host of other factors which saves time, money and frustration for those of us who practically live in the kitchen. The recipes in this particular cookbook are family favorites that have been tested and overhauled by ATK so you end up with fabulous food that is healthy. I can't wait! I am sorely in need of new dinner ideas for my family and I think this is just the ticket! Again, I should be posting more in the coming weeks, and I plan to share my recipe discoveries as they come along. Happy September tomorrow and look for new postings very soon!

More Fun with Fusion!

This post is somewhat belated - mostly because I have been slacking like you wouldn't believe on any number of items. I finally decided that today is the day that I get myself back on track - get up early, get some writing done and feel like I had been productive the rest of the day. That didn't quite work out since our alarm did not go off this morning, but here I am in the afternoon, blogging away, so I can at least scratch one thing off of my to-do list.

So, my newest food experiment actually took place last week (I said this was a belated post). In my last post, I talked about the possibility of using some leftover black beans to make some kind of Cuban inspired dish and, lo and behold, I actually did it! I called my creation, "Cuban Risotto", and it made a most satisfying vegetarian meal.

I started the dish by combining about a cup of short grain brown rice with a can of diced tomatoes, all of their juice and approximately one cup of water. As anyone who has ever cooked brown rice, especially the short-grained variety, knows, it takes A LOT of liquid when cooking on the stove top. (Tip: keep an eye on the rice during its almost hour-long cooking time. If it appears too dry and the kernels are not quite cooked, just add a little more liquid to the pot. Trust me, having rice that is a little on the moist side is infinitely preferable to having partially cooked rice kernels in your dish. Ouch!) While the rice was cooking, I heated (and honestly, continued cooking because they weren't quite done the first time) the black beans leftover from another meal. As those two pots bubbled on the stove, I chopped up a variety of peppers (red, green and a couple of particularly spicy anaheims from our garden), four cloves of garlic and a bunch of cilantro. I also sliced two ripe (read: almost blackened) plantains and set those aside. Once the beans were ready and the rice was almost there, I drained the liquid off of the beans and added them to the (still) cooking rice. I set that pan on a very low burner on the back of the stove and gave my full attention to the psuedo-recaito (a Latin American vegetable base of peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro) that awaited me. I started by sauteeing the peppers in a little bit of canola oil. Once those were nicely wilted and starting to brown, I added the garlic to keep it from burning. I sauteed that combo until the garlic became fragrant and then I dumped the whole caboodle into the waiting rice/beans pot. I added the chopped cilantro, mixed thoroughly and set the pot aside, off the heat and covered, to wait until the rest of the meal was complete.

In the same pan I used for the peppers and garlic, I heated about a quarter inch of canola oil and added the sliced plantains, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Once each side of the plantain was nicely browned, I removed them from the oil, drained them on paper towels and lightly salted them with kosher salt. Once all the plantain slices were fried and accounted for, dinner was served!

The combination of the rice, beans and vegetables was hearty and delicious with just the right amount of kick from the peppers. Since both the rice and the beans were cooked properly (this time), they were soft and easy to chew, but retained just enough of their structure so that we were not gumming mush. The cilantro provided just enough brightness to lift the "risotto" out of its earthy foundations and the plantains on the side offered a salty-sweet, crunchy-creamy combination of flavor and texture that contrasted nicely with the smoothness of the rice dish. Overall, this one was a winner at our house - generally speaking, of course. The rice and beans were enjoyed by all, but my oldest daughter declared that she did not care for the plantains, though she would eat bananas by the boat load if I would let her. (To be fair, plantains are NOT bananas, and I still thought they would both enjoy them. Not so much, but that is okay.) So, Cuban Risotto may make a showing on our table again at some point. We shall see, but, until then, let the crazy fusion experiments continue!

New Job

Although I am taking an embarrassingly long time to post anything on my lovely little food blog, I just wanted all of my loyal readers to know (yes, all four of you) that I have recently taken on another writing gig. I am now the Austin French Restaurants Examiner for www.examiner.com. I am just getting started (I actually submitted my first article for review today), but I am pretty excited about the possibility of having my writing exposed to a wider audience. I will probably post my articles, especially since they will all relate to food, on my blog as well and I will attempt to continue writing about my personal culinary adventures. Hopefully, I will do said writing more often than, I don't know, once every couple of weeks. Geez. For someone who hopes to be a food writer and for someone who does actually eat every day, you would think I would find more time to post on here than I actually do. Oh, well. Perhaps I will have a little tidbit for you all in the next day or so - I am planning a creative use of leftover black beans for dinner tonight. It shall be in the vein of Cuban black beans and rice with fried plantains, but since I am doing all of this recipe-less, I am not entirely sure how it will turn out. No worries - we went to a birthday party this morning (yes, I made the cake) and I walked out with a lovely box of extra pizza. Should dinner be less than delectable, Domino's will sub just fine. Until next time, my friends!

Breakfast for Dinner

As I was making my grocery list this morning, I asked my daughters what they would like to have for dinner this evening. As per her usual request, my oldest shouted, "breakfast for dinner!" before her younger sister could even think of a particular food she would like to eat. Immediately following the first shout was, "bacon and eggs for dinner!" (My kids both could live on bacon alone.) I didn't even really have to hesitate before I agreed because, I too, love having breakfast for dinner. There is just something about flipping a meal on its head - particularly breakfast - that appeals to me. Apparently, I have, much like my own children, always loved breakfast for dinner nights. Ours usually was bacon and eggs with a little stack of toast that had always been freshly and generously buttered by my mother before she set it on the table. Ahhhh......the simple pleasures in life. In any case, since I am a chef and since I don't do anything, food-related at least, particularly simply, I asked my daughters if they would like plain, old bacon and eggs or if they would like.....wait for it.....breakfast quesadillas! I guess I sold it well, because they agreed quickly to the new menu item. Score!

Now, I have to give credit where credit is due here. I did not come up with the idea of breakfast quesadillas. I had breakfast with my dad a couple of months ago at Austin Java, a local coffee shop/cafe, and spied this on the menu. I thought it sounded really interesting, so I ordered it and ended up enjoying the heck out of meal. This is not a hard concept really - it is basically a potato, egg and cheese breakfast taco rejiggered into a....you got it....quesadilla! The tortilla was crispy, the eggs fluffy and hot, the cheese gooey and melty and the potatoes lightly caramelized. (By the way, Austin Java also has amazing salsa which was served with this dish. I am a bit of a salsa snob and I LOVE theirs.) Anyway, I decided to rip off their menu idea and try it at home.

I started by nuking a couple of red potatoes in the microwave for about two minutes per side. Basically, they were all but cooked when I took them out, scorching hot, four minutes later. I cubed them while I heated some canola oil in a skillet, then sauteed them for a couple of minutes until the cut sides turned a gorgeous crunchy brown. I pulled them from the heat, parked them in a bowl and used the same skillet to scramble a few eggs. While the eggs were cooking, I put some whole wheat tortillas down on a griddle, sprinkled them with cheddar cheese and then ladled the mostly set eggs over the top. I dotted the tops of the eggs with the cubed potatoes, crumbled some turkey bacon over that and finished them all with another dusting of shredded cheddar cheese. I pressed a second whole wheat tortilla over the top and....viola! Breakfast quesadilla! (Note: this all took a little bit longer than I had originally anticipated, so the bottom tortillas got slightly more browned and quite a bit crispier than I would have intended. Nevertheless, the end result was very tasty.) I cooked the first side, as I said, a little longer than I should have, but ultimately flipped them over easily since the cheese acted as a bit of a glue holding it all together, cooked the other side for a couple of minutes and served them cut into wedges. I even had some salsa (not as good as Austin Java's, but still) to eat with mine.

Verdict: the girls loved the breakfast tacos with a twist! Breakfast quesadillas were a hit tonight! As a matter of fact, my oldest kept saying, "mmmmm.....potatoes. I LOVE potatoes!" Apparently, that girl doesn't get enough tubers! So, another successful experiment this evening. I don't think it will take the place in my heart of that little buttered stack of toast, but it will probably come pretty close. Potatoes are delicious. Until next time, friends!

Less Complaining, More Cooking

So, I am sort of over my disappointment at not being chosen as a finalist in my last cooking contest attempt. It's cool, man. Really. Since I have moved on, I have decided to get more creative with my own cooking at home (trying to keep it as much in check as I possibly can so my kids will actually eat the food) and I have found a couple of other recipe contests to enter as well. So, to the creative cooking side of things, I present: Thai-inspired coconut shrimp pasta!

I started this dish in a completely different region of the world: Brazil. How do Brazilian and Thai cuisine intersect, you may ask? Well, in my head, of course! Last semester, one of my classes was International Cuisine and we were each assigned a former colony of the Portuguese empire. (Confused yet? I know this is convoluted, but stick with me, here.) In any case, one of the regions was Brazil and my classmate found an amazing shrimp soup called, Shrimp Moqueca. It is such a simple soup, yet so amazingly full of flavor that all of us fell in love with it immediately. It starts with a base of onions, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes and chilies and is finished with coconut milk. The shrimp are simmered in this deletable concoction and the soup is served and finished with cilantro. Seriously - it is lightly sweet with a hidden spice that is not only surprising, but is also an incredibly delicious way to cut through the richness of the coconut milk. Yum.

Ok, so I considered making this soup because my kids LOVE shrimp and because I LOVE this soup. Then, I started thinking - they don't like spicy things and I don't like using full fat coconut milk. What to do? I definitely wanted to have a tomato, garlic, bell pepper base (mostly because I had a bell pepper that I needed to use), spiked with a teeny amount of spice and laden with light coconut milk. So, then that got me thinking about other coconut milk-based sauces and I remembered a Thai green curry recipe that I found on The Best Life website (www.thebestlife.com). That recipe called for (duh) Thai green curry, which I did not have and did not want to purchase. (Have you looked at the sodium levels on that stuff? Atrocious.) Anyway, what I came up with was a bit of a hybrid between these two recipes, as odd as the Brazilian-Thai combination might sound.

I started by caramelizing a small red onion in about a tablespoon of olive oil, with about a teaspoon of granulated sugar (to facilitate the caramelization). Once those were nicely browned, I added diced green bell pepper and sauteed the two together for about five minutes. I added a smidge of chili-garlic sauce and heated that with the vegetables, briefly. I then added a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic and allowed the liquid to reduce for a couple of minutes. All the while, I had a pot of boiling water going on the back of the stove, to which I added a couple of strips of lime zest. Once the water was nicely perfumed, I removed the lime zest and added a box of whole wheat linguine (standing in for Thai rice noodles). When the sauce reduced to the consistency I was looking for, I added about a tablespoon of Thai fish sauce, squeezed a whole lime into it and then added about a cup of organic, lite coconut milk. Immediately, the sauce bloomed into this gorgeous dusky rose, with peaks (pun intended) of bright, verdant green and deep, brick-red bubbling around in my pan. I am not sure there is anything better than a tomato cream sauce and this coconut one was no exception. I added the (previously frozen, peeled and de-veined) shrimp to the mix and let it simmer in the fragrant, sunset-colored liquid. By this time, the lime infused linguine was just about al dente, so I drained that and, as the shrimp began to turn opaque, threw it into the pot to finish cooking. I sprinkled the top with chopped cilantro and Thai basil (from our garden), mixed and served it.

The taste....well, the taste was pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. It was everything Thai food should be - lightly spicy, barely sweet, slightly tart and oh, so savory. The anise flavor of the basil and the herbal pungency of the cilantro set off all of the other flavors, which rather than fight each other to assert themselves individually, married together in a lovely fashion to create what I now realize was true fusion food. I mean, I started in Brazil, jumped over to Thailand and managed to bring in a little of Italy as well. How crazy is that? Wait. I think I mean, how crazy delicious is that?!?

Don't Put All of Your Eggs in One Basket

Another quick entry for today: I have learned a valuable lesson. I recently entered a cooking contest, to remain unnamed here...cough...Cooking Light....cough. I developed a brownie recipe that I felt was fairly unique (and no, I am not going to give it away here - sorry). No, I felt like it was EXTREMELY unique. Anyway, I used several of the sponsor ingredients and produced a delectable treat that was satisfyingly delicious AND quite healthy to boot. Seriously, I thought I had it in the bag until yesterday when I was....spoiler alert!...NOT chosen as a finalist. Man! What a let-down! You know how it is (well, maybe you don't) - you see an amount of money offered in a contest and think, "hey! I could TOTALLY win that! Now, what would I do with all that cash?" Talk about counting your brownies before they were baked....sigh.

I perused the finalist selections this morning (and please do so yourselves if you see fit) and have (sort of) figured out that the sponsors were probably looking for something a bit more straightforward that would showcase their individual ingredients rather than what I created. That is okay. If I knew any of the finalists (which I don't), I would want to wish them a hearty congratulations and best of luck in this voting portion of the contest. I am disappointed, but am still the proud owner of a signature, healthy brownie recipe with a couple of unique and totally unexpected twists. Anybody need one of those? My creative genius could totally be bought for say, $20K (the prize winnings for the grand finalist in the original contest). No? Eh, I understand. I'll just keep all of those tasty brownies for myself then. Until next time....

Well, that didn't take too long...

Hello there! I know I have not written anything in an embarrassingly long time. My excuse: I was on vacation with my husband in Belize. I had hoped to have a full recount of all the amazing Belizean food that we ate while we were down there, complete with pictures no less, but the truth is, we stayed at a resort that seemed to cater to American tourists rather than stay true to the dishes that make up the culinary traditions of the tiny, Central American country. Now, to be fair, they did have a couple of things that are staples of the Belizean table (and bar, for that matter) that we became so enamored with, that we bought and brought home with us as our "souvenirs".

The first is Marie Sharp's Habanero Pepper Sauce, which we purchased in its "mild" version. What is interesting about this stuff is both the incredible heat it packs, and also the fact that carrots are included in the ingredient listing. Carrots, you say? Oddly enough, I found that the cooks in Belize were apt to throw carrots into just about any dish that showed up to tempt our palates: from tuna noodle casserole (I told you it was Americanized food) to the incredible conch ceviche (which may or may not have given my husband violent food poisoning) that we snacked on in the bar one afternoon. In any case, for a pepper sauce that is manufactured in Belize, having a carrot base for the fiery condiment makes more sense than not. The sauce is tasty - really, really spicy, but flavorful as well. It does not seem to have the same acidity that a vinegar based Tabasco sauce does. Don't get me wrong, I like Tabasco sauce, but this is a more subtle flavor - maybe tempered a little by the sweetness of the carrot base. The heat...well, the heat is kind of "burn your face off" heat, as opposed to the lower burn of a Tabasco hot sauce, but it is delicious and definitely something I have been adding to soups, quesadillas, fajitas.....well, pretty much anything that needs a kick.

The second staple that we transported home, is Kuknat Coconut Rum, also made in Belize. Now, my sister informed me, upon our return to the states, that we have coconut rum here as well, but, typically eschewing rum myself, I had no idea. It was not until we were on an island vacation, drinks made with local booze included, that we actually tried this clear and delightfully scented rum. (Just as a side note here: I love the smell of coconut. It is one of those things that I like the scent of more than I do the actual flavor of the raw product.) In any case, the coconut scent and flavor of the rum is light, but definitely perceptible, even when combined with Coca-Cola to make a most venerable tropical mixed drink - Rum and Coke or even, with a lime twist, Cuba Libre. Like I said, we liked it so well that we decided to bring some home - thinking all the while that we had found a new, as yet undiscovered by our non-Belizean traveling friends, liquor.

Ah, well - so I am not a great bar tending adventurer. No matter because our mixed drinks will have the essence of the Belizean tropics while our mouths feel the fire of a typical table side Belizean condiment. No matter that we did not enjoy traditional Belizean fare while we were there either. I mean, what is having a chef in the family worth if not to research and attempt to recreate the cuisine of a underdeveloped Central American nation? Not to mention the fact that we will probably go back. When we do, I am sure great culinary delights shall await us. Until then, habanero pepper sauce and coconut rum will suffice for giving our Texas food and drinks a taste of Belize.

Yoga Diet - The First Week Part Deux

Ha! See, I told you I would have more posts coming on the "Yoga Body Diet" recipes! So, last night we tried Chicken and Zucchini Quesadillas which is supposed to be served with a mango-jicama salsa. Well, because I had planned to serve the quesadillas with a salad anyway and because I didn't really get the idea of a "salsa" lacking any spicy components, I decided to add the salsa ingredients to my salad. I did make the quesadillas as directed by the recipe....well, more or less that way. I used whole wheat tortillas, chopped zucchini, sliced poached chicken, reduced fat cheddar cheese (in lieu of the mozzarella written in the recipe) and added about a pinch of adobo seasoning to kick the flavor up a notch. (Oh, my God. Did I just quote Emeril? Is that even how you spell his name? I apologize - I really couldn't think of anything else to write right there. I won't do it again. Promise.) The quesadillas were sprayed with cooking spray and baked in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes. The result was a crispy exterior with a juicy, gooey, cheesy interior that boasted perfectly cooked zucchini chunks (still bright green and crisp-tender) and a minute level of savory spice that satisfied my ever-cooling taste buds. (I still miss my peppers - don't get me wrong.) The salad was pretty incredible as well. I combined butter lettuce with fresh, homegrown tomatoes, ripe mangos, avocado, sweet and crunchy jicama, dressed with an exceptionally light lime, soy and agave vinaigrette. Damn tasty and freaking fresh. It made great leftovers for lunch today as well.

Tonight's dinner was the "Yoga Body Diet" version of pad thai, a dish that I often make, both from written recipes as well as new creations straight out of my own head. This one featured tofu and rice noodles, both of which I have managed to find products that were made right here in Texas! If I geek out about anything (science fiction, British science fiction, books - okay, I geek out about a lot), it is finding local food products in my local grocery store that can supplant items made in far off lands that previously represented my only choices. Anyway. So, this pad thai recipe had the noodles, the tofu, the egg, the lime, the fish sauce, the cilantro and even....a teeny bit of cayenne pepper! Oh, happy day! The tofu was just chewy enough, the noodles were slightly starchy, even retaining some al dente texture and the sauce was tart, slightly sweet, bright, fresh, piquant and herbaceous. All in all: a good pad thai in my book. (My kids, despite the multiple attempts at this dish, still are not Thai food eaters. I am still not willing to give it up. I will broaden their little palates, so help me God!)

Current score: two more tasty dishes! Tomorrow, if I feel up to it, I may attempt the intriguing Cherry Basil Granita for dessert following something called, "Tasty Tacos". Until then, my friends, bon apetite! (See, I left Emeril out of it - you can't go wrong with quoting Julia, after all.)

Yoga Diet - The First Week

So, I am now a little over the first week through the Yoga Body Diet that I was telling y'all about the last time I wrote. Although I was not technically scheduled to begin cooking from the book this week, I decided to eschew the traditional principles and advance myself to the point where I was allowed to begin eating foods designed for my pitta dosha. A quick review of the dishes this week will soon follow. Here are a couple of things that I have learned this week: first, although I would not have thought it possible, I have kind of managed to keep my food cravings in check. What I mean is that I usually crave salt, sugar, and spice (not necessarily in that order and often with the addition of alcohol to one or all of those three flavors), but I did not really have a problem with that this week at all. In fact, last night, as my husband was enjoying his weekly beer ration, I thought about having some chocolate - a couple of tablespoons of chocolate chips to be exact. At first, I decided that I really did not want any, but then gave way about halfway through the movie we were watching. I ate the chips, relished them even, but afterward, felt kind of empty. I was not upset with myself for breaking the diet, but I realized that, in fact, my initial instinct was correct: my body actually did not want the chocolate at all. Huh. Second, before I get to the actual food, I have also realized that being slightly hungry at the end of the day is not a bad thing. I actually feel more ready for sleep in that state (rather than overstuffed discomfort) and have actually slept better this week than several previous. Again: huh.

Okay. So, the burning question here is: how is the food and do the recipes work? The answer is: pretty good and yes, they do, for the most part. I started the week by making homemade granola: baked oats, heavily laden with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla, augmented by pumpkin seeds and unsweetened coconut. It smelled incredible - a gorgeous combination of sweetness and spice, one that I thought would taste as good as it smelled for sure. Result: it tastes okay, but is nothing compared to its baking smell. If I could eat that scent - well, damn, I don't think I would need anything else for the rest of the day. That day, I also made Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oats and Coconut. This one was interesting - not a lot of ingredients, dry or wet, but the batter came together quickly and actually turned into something that closely resembled real cookie dough. Again, I baked these cookies which were spiked with cinnamon and coconut, and relished the scent alone. Fortunately, although slightly dry (especially four days after baking), they taste almost as good as they smelled. They are chewy, with a light crunch from the oats and coconut and have almost enough chocolate to be truly satisfying. Yum.

I have not really done anything as far as lunch goes this week, but dinner-time has been pitta specific all week long. We started off with Cream of Broccoli soup, made with (get this) goat cheese instead of cream. Oh. My. God. That was gooooooood. I actually don't care much for cream of anything soup (well, unless you count that cream of asparagus soup that I had - more than once in more than one country - when we traveled across Europe in the Spring of 2002. Incredible.), but this was tasty. My kids didn't care for it too much - my youngest held her nose the entire time she, literally, choked it down, but I thought it was heavenly. It was a pureed soup, so it retained a little of the grainy-ness inherent to broccoli florets, but the goat cheese mellowed the flavor and gave it just enough of a tart edge to make it really interesting. The second night was Fried Rice with Pineapple and Coconut: starring one of my dosha "power foods": tofu. Now, I don't mind tofu at all, but I do prefer it when the rest of the dish it is in creates a flavor palate that shines aside from its bland nature/texture/flavor. Despite the addition of fresh, gorgeous, juicy, sunshine-in-a-bowl, pineapple, this dish was, at best, blah. It featured short grain brown rice which had a chewy, satisfying consistency and called for snow peas (for which I subbed fresh green beans) which added an interesting level of crunch. Ginger and garlic provided the only means of seasoning on top of some shredded cabbage and toasted (which I lazily didn't do) coconut. "Meh" is about all I can say about that one.

Finally, for this post at least, we tried Roti Pizza. The book defines roti as a sweet-tasting Indian flatbread, but based on the fact that it is made from whole wheat flour, water and salt, I was not holding my breath for this "pizza" to turn out as anything besides edible. I am pleased to admit that I was incorrect: the dough came together quickly in the food processor, was fairly easy to roll out and, when topped with tomato paste, various delicious "power" vegetables like asparagus and artichoke hearts (two of my personal favorites), reduced fat mozzarella cheese and finished with fresh basil from our garden....well, it was, in fact, pizza! It was delicious pizza! The crust was chewy and, despite its humble beginnings and my extra low expectations, it held up very nicely to all of the toppings.

So, the score is: meh, tasty, yummy, blah and surprisingly delicious. More to come very shortly on more "Yoga Body Diet" Recipes.

Gearing Up

So, this week, I will begin cooking from my new book, The Yoga Body Diet. I received the book in the mail last week and read it, cover to cover, in about three days. I took the assessment test and discovered, much to my own surprise, that my dosha, or personality(ish) type, is pitta. Pittas are associated with the element fire and the summer season. They are typical "Type A" personalities with a fair amount of drive and ambition. Now, I can't say that I fall completely into this category, especially because the test indicated that I am also fairly close to the kapha, or earth dosha, but a lot of the pitta characteristics seem to apply to me.

Why am I writing about this right now? Mainly because, as a pitta, I am supposed to (essentially) cook from summer's bounty and limit the amount of spices that I use in my cooking. I am good with the fresh fruits and vegetables that abound with this season - in fact, summer is really my very favorite time/season in which to cook. Summer produce is incredible and the flavors are made even more amazing by eating everything at the peak of ripeness. (Anyone who has ever been suckered into buying summer fruit -watermelons, strawberries, etc. - during the winter knows what an extreme disappointment they usually are. Trust me - been there and done that just because I have been jonesing for a bite of summer on a cold winter day.) I love the beautiful, ruby-red strawberries and the way their flavor brightens my entire mouth. I adore fat, fuzzy peaches and their sweet-tart juiciness that feels like a dose of sunshine itself. Summertime, homegrown tomatoes are to die for - plump, earthy, explosively warm tomato flavor in a riot of colors. All kinds of peppers are amazing - some scorching and some sweetly piquant - picked at the peak of ripeness, and can enliven just about any dish. I also love the cooking techniques (or lack thereof) the hot weather brings - cold and crisp dinner salads, savory meats grilled outdoors, fresh fruits and vegetables that need no further embellishment than a sprinkle of salt or a twist of black pepper. Ahhh......I can almost taste it all now.

I started by saying that I can deal with the pitta perspective of a diet based on fresh fruits and vegetables and that is, in fact, the truth. I think the only issue I might have is with limiting the spices, although I think my children will thank me for it (not big fans of spicy anything, unless it is a sausage of some sort). True to my predominantly pitta nature, I LOVE spicy foods and would pretty much eat them any day and any way. As a Central Texan, I adore Tex-Mex, but I don't limit myself to the cuisine of chips and salsa. Oh no, I am international in my spice consumption - Thai, Indian, Italian and so on, each hold at least one heavily spiced dish that is near and dear to my heart (and the subsequent burn). Ah well, much like the alcohol that I have overindulged in the past couple of weeks, it is not going to hurt me to give it up for the next few weeks. It should facilitate the re-balancing of my dosha and the deepening of my yoga practice (which is a surprisingly good workout - trust me, I am pretty hard core with my exercise and I was astounded by how difficult holding various poses actually is). I am menu planning this afternoon and should have more posts this week as I attempt to adhere to an Ayurvedic, pitta-specific diet. Wish me luck....or perhaps send me a "namaste".

A Couple of New Things

This one is gonna be short, folks. I thought, what with finishing school and getting through wedding season and all, that I was going to have mountains of time in which to write witty/inspiring/laugh out loud (I refuse to use text-speak)/delicious word pictures of the many foods that I try/buy/make/consume. Sadly, I was incorrect in the respect that I have lost all sense of discipline over the past week and a half, and I have found many other things (TV! Fictional novels! Sleep!) with which to occupy my time.

In any case, here are a few quick thoughts: first, after renting a margarita machine for my graduation party this past weekend, I have decided that I am officially tired of margaritas (or "margarinas", as my six-year-old was calling them). I currently have about 1/2 a gallon left in my freezer. (No way were we going to waste good booze by turning it back over to the margarita machine folks!) I am guessing that I am not officially tired of alcohol because I continue to consume all of the post-party goodies in my fridge as well - goodies as in beer mostly.

Second, just as soon as it gets here in the mail (or however it is being delivered to my house), I am planning to try a new diet called, "The Yoga Body Diet". (Wow, Mom! I can hear you rolling your eyes from here!) I am not doing it so much for the weight loss (although, hell, who I am kidding? That would be a nice side-effect), but more for the assessment tests and yoga moves to support health, weight loss and general relaxation. Despite my undisciplined post-culinary school state these days, I still feel kinda stressed, so I figured, ancient discipline based on centering yourself to achieve a calm relaxation? What could it hurt, right? Also, I am pretty excited about getting some new recipes (the book has about 75 of them) added to my already fairly extensive repertoire. I will definitely keep (all four of) you updated on how those recipes and the diet program itself stacks up.

That is about all I have for now and, really, based on my level of anti-productivity these days, that is pretty dang good, if I do say so myself. More to come soon....

Post Wedding Burgers

Meh. I said (or rather, typed - on Facebook) that I wasn't going to write today, but I changed my mind. I have been doing too much of nothing (or would that be too little of anything) lately. So, while my children are occupied by their hour of "screen time", i.e. the grand old dame of electronic babysitters, television, I shall quickly post something new.

In my last post, I mentioned what a crazy whirlwind my life has been the past couple of weeks and last weekend was kind of the pinnacle of wonderful chaos for me. I graduated from culinary school last Thursday and then my children acted as flower-girls in the wedding of a very dear friend of mine, so we had wedding-related activities Friday and Saturday as well. After the wedding ceremony itself on Saturday, we headed to downtown Austin for the reception at a fairly swanky hotel. We ate dinner, drank ourselves (read: mostly my husband) silly at the open bar and ended up, after cake and dancing, in the lobby bar around 10 pm. After having another round of drinks with which we toasted the bride and groom again, a group of us decided to hit the entertainment district in search of.....a hamburger. Yep, you read that right. In our defense, it was purported to be one of the city's best: a 3/4 pound hamburger with all the trimmings at an Austin bar called Casino El Camino.

So, there were six of us, three of which have been friends since we were children plus our respective spouses/significant others, and between us, we ordered five of these mammoth burgers. (Now, I say "mammoth", but it was a bar and it was REALLY dark, so I had to rely upon my sense of smell, taste and touch, rather than my eyesight in these circumstances. Really - the only light came from the street outside, the scattered neon on the walls and the TV over the bar which was unfortunately playing the last half of the movie, "Deliverance". Good times.) In any case and, hopefully, needless to say, I was not really hungry, especially since I had already eaten a full meal only a couple of hours before, but I decided I could handle the burger on my own. (One of my friends did the intelligent thing and split a burger with her husband.)

I have to say, right here and now, that I am no burger connoisseur, so if you are, please do not be offended by the next part of my post. The burger at Casino El Camino was good. It was good and it was huge, so if you are starving and in desperate need of a hamburger, this sucker is for you. It smelled amazing - full of grilled, ground beefy goodness, punctuated by the pungency of raw onions, the sweet earthy tomato slices and the toasted-yeasty scent of the bun. It tasted pretty good, too - hot, rich, juicy, savory meat with the light acid of the tomatoes, fresh crisp of the lettuce and sharp bite of the onions. I ate half of the hamburger completely naked - mostly because I couldn't make out more than a vague hamburger shaped blob sitting in a basket in front of me and also because our somewhat grouchy waitress didn't offer any condiments. The french fries were also fairly tasty - just hot and crisp enough and with only a light dusting of salt. I wanted to finish the second half. Honestly I did, but I figured that if I continued to cram food into my already full stomach, I would not be happy with the results. So, I offered the second half to my equally full husband who was more than pleased to help finish my meal. Like I said, I am no burger expert, but I was not completely blown away by the burger at Casino El Camino. It was good, but fell a little short of great. Blame it on my own slight intoxication, the late hour, the level of food fatigue I was already feeling - what have you - but I probably won't be making a trip back to Casino El Camino for the burger. Now the Bloody Mary, on the other hand.....well, we may just have to see about that.

Memories Overlaid

Based on the fact that I have started quite a number of my posts with an apology (more to myself than to anyone else), I am not going to do that today. I would indeed be remiss if I didn't at least say that I wish that more time had been available to me the past three weeks so that I could write about some of the many things that have been going on. It has been a whirlwind of cakes, baby showers, bridal showers, school work, bachelorette parties, moving assistance, kids, marriage, life - I have so many things to say about all of that, but today I wanted to write about a couple of other things. If you all will indulge me a little, just for today, I am not going to write about food directly. I know this is a food blog and all, but I wanted to write about a journey that I have been on for the past several years. Here goes and, I promise, next time it will be back to good food/cakes/products as per the usual around here.

I know I have mentioned before that I am a culinary student and I am proud to announce that today is my very last day of culinary school. In addition to being gifted the joy that is scrubbing the kitchen this afternoon, I also am attending my graduation ceremony tonight. (Man, do I wish I didn't have to pull a Clark Kent and change in the ladies room at school this afternoon. That is NOT fun.) Today is the culmination of three years of hard work, juggling school and home life, and I am pleased that those years have paid off for me in so many ways. I have learned so much about myself and I have made a lot of great friends, so despite my ecstatic exclamation that I AM GRADUATING, I will actually miss school and all that entails.

Now, many of you may not know this about me, but I am a numbers/dates freak. My family routinely makes fun of me for remembering random dates and happenings, but something about keeping track of my personal history and important days in my mind is soothing and logical to me. I love it when I can plan major life events around that personal history - somehow imbuing the new event with weight and meaning before it even occurs. For instance, our tenth wedding anniversary is next week. We chose that day, originally, to fall close to my grandfather's birthday and were really excited when we realized that my husband graduated college five years ago on that date, and I began working at the store where we would eventually meet on that exact date as well. Both events led to us meeting and, eventually, getting married. (Did I forget to mention that my husband is almost as bad as I am about this kind of stuff?) In any case, May 13th is yet another of those dates for me.

Six years ago, at almost this exact time, I was lying on an operating table having a craniotomy to remove a massive brain tumor. I was 25 years old, had an 8-month old daughter and was not sure if I would wake up to the knowledge that I had brain cancer, major neurological impairments, a massive change in personality or even at all following the surgery. Fortunately for me, my surgery was about as successful as neurosurgery can be. I was still the same person (albeit with a massive scar and a really wicked haircut), I was completely cancer free and, best of all, I was alive and healthy. Everything changed for me after May 13th, 2004 and my life would not be what it is today without having had that experience.

Fast forward about three years, another beautiful baby girl and lots of amazing life later, and I was facing down the first day of culinary school. Now, for those who don't know me, I am a worrier and I mean in the extreme sense. Although it was not unusual to see me running through the neighborhood on a daily basis, (and still is not), it was a little unusual that I had woken up well before the break of dawn that first day of culinary school and was so full of nervous energy that I had to channel it in a positive manner or run the risk of making myself completely sick. So, I ran. I ran as hard as I could, all the while thinking to myself, "you CAN do this. You CAN go back to school and you CAN learn to be a professional chef." I remember thinking these exact words, "you have survived BRAIN surgery. You can do THIS. Showing up for class is easy compared to that." I made it through the run and through the day, only to feel like I was going to hyperventilate the moment I stepped onto campus that evening, but I plunked myself down in a chair and, ultimately, kicked ass in that class (Viticulture and Enology - where my incredibly near-photographic memory allowed me to earn my first of all "A's" in culinary school).

So, tonight when I walk across the stage to accept my second college degree, an Associates of Applied Sciences in Culinary Arts, I will be thinking about not only how I survived brain surgery six years ago today, but also how I survived culinary school for the past three years. Like I said, I have learned so much about myself - my confidence is fairly unflappable and those little voices of self-doubt have long since quieted down. Here's the long and short of it: I learned, through brain surgery and through the gauntlet that is learning how to be in a professional kitchen, that I am a bit of a badass. I was once nervous about even walking into a commercial kitchen and now I know that I belong in one. I once didn't know how I was going to bake/transport/set up 200 cupcakes and now I create amazing custom cakes whose designs rival those of some pretty amazing pastry chefs. I used to take my health, my brain, my memory, my scholastic aptitude all for granted and now, I am in fantastic shape, graduating with a 4.0 GPA and am profoundly grateful for every day I am given. My children, my husband, my family and my friends should all share this accomplishment with me. You all were there when it was a matter of life or death and you were all there when it became a matter of following my dream. I would not have been able to accomplish any of this without your love, faith and support and for that, I am deeply, humbly grateful. Thanks to everyone out there for indulging me this post and look for new items regarding my food-life after culinary school very soon.

Still Here and Still Healthy

Ok - a full quart of the home-brewed kombucha is consumed and I am still kicking. Honestly, I feel pretty good and, whether psychosomatic or not, I kind of felt a spike in my energy level yesterday as well. That is truly saying something for me, especially on a Monday, because it is one of my longer days at school and well, it is Monday for crying out loud. I managed to not only blog, but also to finish about half of the week's worth of laundry, do a little school work and cook dinner for last night and for tonight as well. Really - that is a LOT more than I typically do on a Monday afternoon/evening. I am usually wiped out by my class and it is like pulling teeth just trying to get the bare minimum done for the day and to prepare for a very early morning on Tuesday.

I am still not digging on the lack of fizziness in my first batch here, but the flavor is definitely growing on me. It is nicely tart with just a little hint of sweetness and it really looks pretty in the glass. I get that sour, fermented smell off the liquid, but it is not as off-putting as some of the store-bought varieties that I have tried. (Please see the entry entitled, "Oh, the horror!" Geez - I just gagged a little reliving that experience.) Also, I am not sure if I did it right, but my kombucha is lacking the snotty strings of culture that typically float around in the store bought bottles. Maybe that is why it is not effervescent, but if so, I can live with that. Those cultures may be the key to bubbles and the most healthful benefit of kombucha, but I am not a fan of chewing my drinks, so, like I said, I can live with mine being less snotty than most.

Anyway, on with the experimentation (or the "snake-oil" as my mother is fond of saying these days). I have a little more time this morning to see if I can figure out how to carbonate my next batch because I have a new gallon of sweetened tea sitting on the stove, awaiting its "mothers". I think I am going to go tropical with this batch - maybe acai, tamarind or guanabana. We shall see what I feel like when I get to the store this afternoon or tomorrow. Here's to not poisoning myself and keep your fingers crossed for fizzy next week!! Til next time....

Addendum (posted 2 minutes later): I figured it out. I refrigerated my kombucha during the second fermentation process. I should have left it out on the counter because I think I made the culture go dormant by chilling it. Ok, well, it obviously didn't hurt ME and I know better for next time.

I Did It

That's right....I did it. I brewed my first batch of kombucha. I actually just finished drinking my first full glass of kombucha and, a full five minutes later, I am still sitting here at the desk, not retching my guts out. Again with the too much information, you say? Well, let's just say that the whole "accidentally poisoning myself" thing has been in the back of my mind the whole time this tasty little drink has been brewing. I am relatively pleased with the results of my first effort: the kombucha is an appealing maroon color and has a bright and tangy flavor which complements the blueberry and pomegranate flavors of the fruit juice used in the fermentation process. A couple of things that I am not so happy with: first, my kombucha is not effervescent and I am not exactly sure why. Second....well, mostly I am just peeved that the stuff didn't come out fizzy. Other than that, it tastes, smells, appears to be exactly like the stuff that I have bought at the grocery store. I guess I will have to research and try to figure out why the drink did not self-carbonate this time. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," right? Hell, as long as I don't make myself sick from this stuff, I think I will count this little experiment as a success. I think I will hang on to this first batch and ingest it by myself to see how it affects me. I had promised a couple of friends that they could try it, providing I avoided any type of medical follow-up after drinking it, but despite my early digestive prowess, I want to make sure it is safe before I go around handing out liquids inadvertently laden with food-borne illnesses. Maybe the next batch will be bubbly. I sure hope so because that is kind of why I decided to initiate this little adventure in the first place.

Oh, the horror!!

Well, first of all, I am embarrassed yet again. Mainly because I have been slacking and have not posted anything new for quite a while now. Truly, this was not because I did not have anything to say - anyone who knows me even a little will tell you that is NEVER the case. Mostly, it was because I have been so stressed out by school and by life that I just have not had the opportunity to sleep well, let alone write on my pretty little blog. I am still stressed, and will continue to be for at least the next 12 hours (BIG day for me at school - once this one is over, I can kick back a little), but I tried something yesterday that required at least a short entry.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about my little kombucha obsession? Well, it continues today and my little brewing experiment is progressing nicely on my countertop even as I type. It should actually be ready by next Monday, so expect a blurb about my first home-brewed batch of pomegranate-blueberry kombucha first thing Tuesday morning. (Again, that presupposes that I will not need to visit the nearby hospital for a stomach pumping Monday evening. Fingers crossed!) Anyway, back to today's topic - yesterday my daughter and I were grocery shopping and, like I have been doing for a couple of weeks now, I stopped by the refrigerated section of the health foods aisle at my store to pick up a new flavor of kombucha. (I have tried quite a few at this point and they have all been tasty in their own way.) Based on the fact that I am currently fighting off the remnants of a cold and, yesterday, a minor hangover to boot (I said I was stressed - no judgement, people!), I decided to try the "green" kombucha, which listed a number of plant based ingredients, the most intriguing of which was blue algae. I am not sure why I thought that this was a good idea, but the color looked so dang pretty in the store. It was this beautiful, clear, kelly-green that looked fresh and just seemed to smack of healthful benefits. I was kind of excited to try it since it was the first non-fruit based version that I have picked up.

So, I get home, unload the groceries and whip out the emerald kombucha. I started to shake it, gently, to distribute the culture and because there seemed to be some green sediment at the bottom of the bottle. I was kind of fascinated by how quickly the oz-like liquid morphed into dirty, sludgey swamp water because, apparently that is what the sediment was. Then, because I shook the bottle a little too much, it started hissing at me, so I unscrewed the cap and spewed fizzy, algae laced kombucha everywhere. Seriously, the foam that now covered the bottle, my hands and filled most of the glass that I managed to get out had these filthy, scummy little specks in it. I thought it couldn't possibly smell or taste as bad as it looked, so I sniffed it cautiously and was smacked in the face with a rather rancid, soured spinach (and I guess algae) odor. It was like a glass full of the Bog of Eternal Stench (little game for you - guess the movie!)....ok, maybe not that bad, but god, it smelled foul. You might think that I wouldn't drink something that I thought looked and smelled disgusting. Well....you would be wrong. I thought it couldn't POSSIBLY taste as bad as it looked and as bad as it smelled. So, I held my breath and chugged.

Moral of the story here is: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...it is a duck. The green kombucha was nasty. It completely changed color upon mixing (red flag one); it looked putrid after mixing (red flag two); it smelled terrible (red flag three); and finally, it tasted worse than the aloe vera juice that I tried a couple of years ago, which earned its own "tart ass" moniker (red flag four). Lesson learned. By the way, the reason I chugged it, if you haven't guessed it already, is because I am cheap. I spent $3.19 on that stuff and, by God, I was going to down it if it killed me. I also kept it down, although, for about 30 minutes after, I kind of felt like I was going to puke. Little too much information? Maybe, but that's what I am here for, folks. My pain is your gain and here is the message of the day: DON'T DRINK THE GREEN KOMBUCHA (unless you like that sort of thing - more for you, really). Stay tuned.

Kombucha

Well, that is embarrassing. First, I make this big announcement that I am revamping the content of my blog to be completely food related and then……nothing. Over two weeks worth of nothing to be exact. Not that I didn’t have other things to do because I certainly did. I had school work to do (which I can’t wait to be rid of), books to read, TV to watch, kids to take care of, etc. What? Don’t food writers have lives, too? Back to the point here. One of those things that I did over the past two weeks was to try the strange concoction of kombucha. This is a fermented tea, which is apparently an ancient Chinese drink and which claims to have a wide range of health benefits. My cousin, who is also a chef, mentioned it in several of her Facebook posts and so, thus inspired, I decided to try it.

I bought my first 16-ounce, certified organic bottle at one of my local “health-foods” grocery stores (of which there are now several in the Austin area – anyone noticed that trend?) on sale for $1.99. The label was colorful and really very pretty, but what intrigued me, beyond anything else, was the flavor: Elderberry Hibiscus. (You can say it with an English/Monty Python accent if you like. You know you want to.) As a southerner, and especially as a southerner with ties to Central Florida, I love hibiscus in all of its many forms, from floral to food. Many restaurants in our area serve an herbal hibiscus tea, which I often drink, and so, when I saw this option, I had to try it. Also, I enjoy saying Elderberry (see the Monty Python reference above), although I have not had particularly good experiences with that fruit (but that is a story for another time).
When I got home, I opened the bottle, not exactly sure what to expect. After reading the label and determining that a 16-ounce bottle actually contains four servings, I poured approximately eight ounces into a glass to check it out. (Yes, I know it was more than one serving, but it was only 40 calories and I was thirsty.) Since kombucha is a fermented drink, I should not have been surprised by the effervescence of the liquid, but I was not really paying attention to the fermented part, so I was slightly taken aback by the fizzy quality of that initial pour. I say “taken aback”, when I mean, “delighted”. I LOVE carbonated beverages. Anyway, I should also mention the smell. It is a little off-putting, to say the very least. It is a mixture of musty and slightly sour, with only the barest hint of the fruits, or in this case, flowers that flavor the drink. That being said, if you know ahead of time, I think you can get past it. The first sip was tart, tangy, bubbly, lightly sweet and oh, so refreshing. I literally guzzled the entire glass and had to stop myself from getting the remainder out of the refrigerator. (I stopped myself for about half an hour and then went back and finished the rest of the bottle. See, I have a little self control.)

So, I am hooked. I do not really know if all of the health claims about kombucha are true, but I also do not really care. I like the taste. I like the effervescence. I like the probiotics that are clearly visible as threads and a general cloudiness in the drink (another slightly off-putting factor, but I say, just man up and chug it). I like the energy I get from drinking it. I like the fact that it makes me feel full (another health claim – weight control and who doesn’t need help with that?). I also like that my cousin, wonderful woman that she is, sent me information on how to brew it myself. I currently have a starter sitting on my counter which should be ready in about a week to start its second fermentation as pomegranate-blueberry kombucha. I will end up with a couple of gallons, all for substantially less than the original $1.99 that I paid for that first bottle. (Since that one was on sale, the price was not too bad. The guava flavored one that I bought last week was a whopping $3.19!) I will let you know how it goes and if I survive my homemade kombucha. If I write my next blog from a hospital bed, at least you will know why.

Specialization

Well, I have decided that random postings on my blog are just not working for me. Honestly, it seems like I am inspired to write only when it is about food, so here is my big announcement for the day: welcome to Central Texas' newest food blog! Yep, I am going to put myself into that little niche, already filled by any number of other gloriously written blogs about a myriad of food related topics. How am I going to stand out? Yeah, I don't really know the answer to that one yet, but I am going to give it a shot at least. I have to keep reminding myself that I got into this purely for the sake of writing for myself. Like I said though, writing for myself has quickly turned in the direction of my other personal/professional passion: food. Anyway, I just wanted to make public what the title of my blog already indicates. Making Every Day Gourmet is not just how and what I write about, it is really how I live and cook, both in my own home and as a soon-to-be-graduating (yay!) culinary student. Whew - announcement done. I am working on a few things right now, some of which I hope to finalize this week and some of which I hope will turn into a journey for me that will yield many, many more blogs in the future. Look for more on this in the coming weeks! Until then, happy daylight savings time and welcome, Spring!