He She Chew Chew

Okay...maybe we're back

2009-06-05T05:14:00.000-07:00

Where did we go? Why did we stop posting? Are we still alive?...But what if I need information on how to cook ______?

Brandy and I talked about if we wanted to keep this thing going or not for a while. Actually most of the work and talk was because I stopped working on posts. In short form of the story I was getting a lot of flak for some of the posts that I'd put up. While discourse is nice to what one writes, I don't expect that what my brain might happen to make my fingers type in should be treated as doctrine. We had critics that treated it as such....and this is just for fun...just for us...so I stopped posting. Why bother with it if it's not fun?

Well, we're back...hopefully. Keep an eye out for completely random topics, like the one that I want to do on pig's head bacon (do you really know or care how bacon is made?).

She: Tamale Sauce

2008-07-27T15:02:00.001-07:00

This isn't really tamale sauce. Its more like an overall tex-mex sauce that has all my favorites: some mole, some tomato, not spicy but tangy, nice and thick...I put the kitchen sink in this. Mark brought home tamales one night for dinner, but no sauce, and I was bound and determined to make something tasty. In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently is to add a bay leaf to the stock for some more depth, which I went ahead and added to the instructions. So check out my madness:

Part One: Take one can of tomato paste and put in the pan, and stir while cooking on low til color changes. Then add one can of chicken broth, bay leaf, 1/2 tsp cumin, pinch of cinnamon, 1 tb ancho powder, 1/2 tsp garlic salt, 2 tb smoked cherry peppers, 1/4 tsp oregano. Bring slowly to a boil, whisking to mix spices (don't skip this!), and let boil 1-2 mts.

Part Two: bring down to a simmer, and add 1 tb dark chocolate, 1 1/2 tb honey. Stir/whisk. While its simmering, grab a bowl and add 5 tb of cold water, and mix in 5 tb of flour, one at a time to make a lump-free paste. Kick the temp back to a boil and add this bit by bit.

The flour thickens the sauce, so if you don't use the sauce immediately it'll create a skin. I just added a little water when it got too thick. The only thing that might be hard to find is the smoked cherry peppers. I found them at a spice shop in Seattle, but I'm pretty sure you can get something like it from Penzy's, too. They were a great addition, and I'm hoarding the rest from Mark. Snicker.

She: Cous-Cous Method

2008-07-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

When my mom told me she was buying cous-cous for meals, I promised to add this post. Mark showed me a great way to make cous-cous very fast and simply, and even better, virtually mess-free...my favorite! This method just steams the cous-cous in a ziplock baggy, which you can then chuck into the fridge inbetween meals. Get: 1 cup cous-cous, 2tsp olive oil, 1.5 cup boiling water, 1 small cucumber, 1/2 onion, small handful of mint (or basil), 1/2 tsp cyanne, 1/2 tsp salt, and fresh pepper.

Thats the most basic list of ingredients. Everything than can be cut/diced, including the mint, should be. Put the cous-cous and the oil in the baggie first. Then add all the veggies and the salt/peppers. Pour in the boiling water and seal the bag. Let it sit for a few minutes, and voila! I personally add some apple and/or roma tomato (but add those after it steams), but dried cranberries or raisins are also nice, especially with mint! This is very healthy as a side dish, and a nice alternative to something mayo-heavy like coleslaw. Best of all, besides the knife and cutting board, there's nothing else to wash. :)

She: Powder mixes

2008-07-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

So, this post will be a bit different from others we've had, but it is something we've both done a lot of research on as well: protein powders. If anyone finds it handy, I'll add one on energy bars, too. As it is, I'm up to a 4 mile run 3 times a week with some more cardio/weights mixed in other days, and Mark is biking long distances to work each day as well as his own cario/weights. A few years ago I started running, and diet became more important, and like a trooper Mark jumped on the bandwagon as well, to be my support buddy in it all. Of course, for a while it was really me huffing and puffing more than running, but I digress.

One of the things we read about was the "body for life" diet. They had meal shakes and all sorts of stuff. Of course, there were a TON of carbs and some sugar in the mix too, and when I did the math found out the calories from that one shake were more than erasing the calories I burned on my best workout. I needed about 20-30 grams of protein and didn't need the added carbs or other calories, as I was still eating "normal". To check out your calorie intake, try a site like WeightLossforAll Most exercise diets are geared towards men, who need more protein and whose bodies can handle a lot more carbs without storing it as fat. We started trying protein powders, looking for high protein instead of carbs or sugars, and one other important ingredient: taste.

Now, this might not be crucial for many others, but I have the gag reflexes of a five year old choking down canned lima beans. In short, if it doesn't taste good, I just don't do it. Silly, maybe, but true. It did cut the list down to a few: Beverly's Ultimate Muscle Protein, Cytosport's EvoPro lite, and BSN's Syntha-6. Now, before I go any further, something to look at is the source of the protein: is it whey, soy, egg, or casein? Different kinds of protein get stored/burned in your body differently. Since I was running and not body building, I was looking for a blend with casein and another source: I needed a quick restore plus something that would promote muscle regrowth for longer periods of time. Bodybuilding.com has a good description of each. Also, I found a TON of information specifically for women as well as links at a great fitness blog: Causic Musings. Make sure to look in her "fitness and health and her "fitness on a budget" subcategories. Some of her diets are scary, but the girl is buff and knows what she's doing! I also must add that most of these I mix with soy milk instead of regular milk or water, too, for the quick burst of carbs soy has. SOOO, back to taste.

All three of these taste well enough for me to chug, unlike some others where you can taste the sugar or a chalkiness to them. I always get vanilla, because just about any other flavor is very artificial tasting. Once Mark accidentally picked up a cookies/cream and I had a veeeery hard time with that stuff! Beverly tastes good and has a lot of good stuff in it, except it was more difficult to mix--it didn't want to blend at all and was harder to swallow because of it. EvoPro mixed better, and was my choice for a really long time, but Syntha6 is my new favorite. It mixes very easily, and though its sweet, it isn't sugary, but more like vanilla pudding. Nice. None of these are especially cheap. But I know a lot of new vegans who wonder why they bruise easily and lose muscle tone--you still need protein! You can get a lot of it thru nuts and such, but see if a soy, whey, or other protein can help you out. If wasn't exercising, I wouldn't need the superprotein stuff, but even then, check out the actual amount of protein on the carton--about 20g in a shake is normal, and in a bar, any less than 10g a serving isn't doing you much.

She: Sweets of sorts

2008-06-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm waiting 2 hours for one type of sweets to freeze, and for another to cool. Figured I'd spend the time by letting you know what I was up to...First, I have been eating a TON of cherries. Its cherry season here, and I have never before been so enamoured with the fruit. But after three weeks of the red stuff, some of the farmers at the market have been picking stuff that is ripe right then, so it won't last as long. We bought 4 lbs of cherries this week for just a few bucks and I was determined to do something with them. Besides pit them. that is. I made Mark do the dirty work since we couldn't find a cherry pitter. However, I just read a tip: you can use a straw to pit cherries. Yes! You take off the stem, then poke the straw thru that end, and it will push out the pit on the other side. Nifty. Anyways, I didn't want to make a cherry pie. The crust is always so heavy and not that good for you. I found a Macaroon Cherry Tart Recipe from 101cookbooks blogger. Instead of a traditional crust, it uses a lot of coconut and egg whites, so it is marginally better for you. It smells awesome, and I've had to remind Mark twice to let it actually cool!
On the other hand, I'm freezing my new rocket pops! I bought a set of three tovolo rocket pops that let you layer flavors. I've been looking at these and the pig/icecream sandwich presses they have for a long time. Of course, the real kicker was the pudding I picked up for it. I wanted that fat free, sugar free jello pudding you can get--makes it preeeetty guilt free as a treat.All day on our list of errands I would cry "pudding!" in a cosby accent. Its silly, but Mark started picking it up, too. We were walking around the grocery store barking "pudding!"...anyways. I couldn't find anything but a few boring flavors. I got bananna and chocolate, of course, but besides cheesecake or pistachio (eeeeh) there was nothing but vanilla! What is that about? What about all the funky jello from my childhood? Sigh...

He: Grilled Vegetable Enchiladas

2008-06-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

What do you do with squash? Why does everyone spend all of their time trying to find ways to hide it in baked goods, cover it with cheese, disguise it as something other than what it is? The only thing that squash has really done to us is to drive us to come up with enough ways to use it before it goes bad. This is one of those really fabulous ways to use it when you have an overabundance and just can't stand the idea of just cooking it by itself.

4 lb. assorted summer squash
2 lb. spring onions with tops
2 tbsp. good olive oil (preferably a nice extra virgin)
30 corn tortillas
1 jar of Fronteraenchilada sauce
1 tbsp. dry oregano
1 tbsp. smoked chile powder (not chili powder, but a singular powder like ancho, chipotle, aleppo, pasilla)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
cheddar, jack, or some other melting cheese (if desired)

1) Cut the ends off the squash and cut into planks about 3/4" thick. Do the exact same thing with the onions bottoms (save the tops to cut like green onions at the end).
2) toss the squash and onions with the oil and a little salt and pepper (it's really hard to say how much, just aim to make them taste like squash and onions, just a little bland...if you're really unsure try a Tbsp. of salt, and 1/2 tsp of pepper).
3) Grill on a preheated grill until soft, or about 2 minutes each side. Cool completely
4) Cut all of the vegetables into a nice 1/4" dice, add the oregano, smoked chile powder, the sping onion tops (cut very, very thinly) and any additional salt and pepper if you aren't satisfied with how they taste. Here's my load of veggies all set to become filling

5) Set up your enchilada assembly station just like this picture on the left, with plastic lining your counter and enchilada sauce on top of the plastic. This is an old restaurant trick...trust me it works like a champ.
6) Add a small amount of neutral tasting oil (canola, soy, corn...something inexpensive, since it's just for frying...kinda) to a large skillet and fry the tortillas in this oil for about 5 seconds on each side.
7) Move the tortillas to the assembly station and add a small amount of the squash mixture (about 3 tbsp per tortilla), and roll up the enchiladas.
8) As you finish each one move them into a casserole pan with the seam side facing down. Also, they work best if you push them right up against one another, otherwise they will tend to unroll. These are mine all set for the oven (note, I did some without cheese for the lactose intolerant guests that I had.

9) Once you have them all in the pan, top them with additional enchilada sauce, cheese if desired and then bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
10) They are done when the cheese is melted and the house smells like enchiladas (try not to get them too brown or the tortillas will be like eating tree bark.

11) Enjoy and thank me for putting up something else healthy!

He: White Lasagna

2008-06-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

So, the family has been not so happy with me and the blog. Well, they're not unhappy, more annoyed that we create all of this really cool food that they hear about over the phone and there is never a recipe put up that they can try and make. Well you people here's me making an attempt to communicate better and put up more things that you can make at home that could be healthy.
This is a fairly involved recipe for a white lasagna that you might find in northern Italy (please don't hold me to this, but the techniques are accurate to what would be done). I am going to try and demystify the recipe and the difficulty in the techniques as I go along. As always with my recipes, if something doesn't make sense email or comment and I will explain in different terms than what I have put up here.

Meat sauce ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
2 oz. unsalted butter
2 oz. white flour
1 qt. 2% milk
2 ea. bay leaves
10 ea. whole black peppercorns
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (please don't be lazy with this one, pre-ground always tastes like sawdust)
salt to taste

cheese mixture:
1 head cauliflower (finely chopped, stem, leaves, everything)
2 bunches red chard chiffonade(cut into ribbons) leaves and stems separated
1 lb. 2% cottage cheese
2 tbsp. dry oregano
2 tbsp. dry parsley (you can use fresh on the herbs, just double the amount)
1 cup grated parmiggiano reggiano
3 ea. large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil (divided into 2 tbsp. increments)
salt to taste

assembly ingredients:
1 lb. low fat mozzarella (sliced)
2 lb. lasagna noodles
sea salt to boil with the water for the noodles (1 tbsp per gallon of water)

To make the meat mix:
1) Brown the meat in a saute pan on medium heat until cooked through. Drain excess water and grease.
2) Make the bechamel by melting the butter on high heat stirring frequently until after the first foaming.
3) Immediately add the flour and whisk until evenly distributed.
4) Continue cooking on high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture smells nutty and is a pale golden brown (maybe 5 minutes). Immediately add the milk and stir to combine.
5) Add the nutmeg, bay leaves, and peppercorns. Return to a boil, then lower the heat to as low as it will go and cook for at least 5 minutes.
6) Remove from the heat and allow the spices to infuse for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and peppercorns and stir in the cooked meat.
7) Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt (it's best to err on the side of slighly bland rather than slightly salty, the cheese added later will up the salt content significantly).
8) Set aside until assembly

To make the cheese mixture:
1) Turn oven to as high as it will go.
2) Take the cut cauliflower mixture and toss with 2 tbsp of canola oil and a tbsp or two of salt, spread out on a sheetpan and roast until the florets begin to caramelize.
3) Add the remaining 2 tbsp canola oil to a saute pan set on medium high heat and add the chard stems. Cook until soft.
4) Add the chard leaves and cook until just wilted. Season to taste with salt.
5) Cool the cauliflower and chard until at least room temperature (best if they are cold before proceeding).
6) Combine the vegetables with all remaining ingredients for the cheese mixture.
7) Set aside until assembly.

To cook noodles:
1) Boil in salted water according to package instructions.
2) If you really need help with this step you should not be attempting this recipe
3) DO NOT RINSE OFF THE NOODLES WHEN YOU DRAIN THEM, THE EXTRA STARCH ON THE SURFACE OF THE NOODLES IS VERY IMPORTANT!!

Assembly and final cooking:
1) Assemble in this order: noodles, cheese mixture, meat mixture, noodles, cheese mix, meat mix, noodles, cheese mix, mozzarella.
2) Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
3) Cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Here's a picture of what the final pan will look like. We had another shot with just a single portion of this, but it looked disturbing cut. If you consider the ingredients that go into this dish there is a great deal of protein, only a nominal amount of fat, and a lot of fiber from all of the veggies that are in it. Outside of the healthful items that are here, this really keeps well (10 days or so, refrigerated) and reheats fabulously.

She: Mexicali dinner

2008-06-13T21:14:00.001-07:00

So, last week we made a Kick. Butt. Dinner. It was fabulous. and I can actually say we split duties. Usually he does most of dinner and I do dessert and random tasks. But this was great. Mark made some turkey that he did his little ziplock technique to...he posted that Sous Vide? Anyways. We had that, and he cooked black beans, and I made the corn bread and guacamole, and whatever it was I made for dessert which I can't remember.

Almost everything came from our farmers market. The honey for the cornbread, the corn, avacados, cilantro, etc. That was really nice, and I felt good about the organic local stuff. Now we go to our little market off sunrise every saturday morning and get our veggies. And right now, cherries. I should get Mark to post his cherry custard, which kicked butt...but back to this meal. I'll let him explain the meaty stuff should he desires, but I was really pleased with the guacamole--my first attempt. I thought I'd give ya the recipe.
Two avacados. I sliced 'em in half and twisted. I scooped it all out in small chunks with a spoon and put it in a bowl. Then I took the cilantro, twisted it up in a bunch that I folded twice and cut it up (faster that way). I added one sweet pepper, 1/4th to 1/2 tsp salt, a tad bit of ground black pepper, and I squeezed one lemon to mix it up. I actually like lemon in it better than limes--it has more zing, I think. Stir it up and mash just a little.

The thing I remember was at the market I was about to pick some that were too hard or too soft. Mark picked one up and showed me where to poke it gently--near the stem. You want that to give slightly, and mostly ignore the rest of the fruit. Oh, and he swore that keeping the pit in with the guacamole would keep it green, but I looked it up. Its an urban myth, about nitrogen or something keeping it fresh, but in reality it doesn't. So if you have leftovers, press plastic wrap to the surface. The citrus juice helps the color stay green, too.
Doesn't dinner look beautiful? It was great, cheap, local, and healthy!

He: Rice

2008-05-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry...no pretty pictures this time. This is just an information post to help clear some nutritional information out of my head. This is just about rice, spurred on by an article that I read earlier today in cook's illustrated that was talking about the best ways to cook brown rice.

Just so that I don't run into any potential issues with Cooks Illustrated getting pissed off that I put up their cooking method on the internet, I won't. The way that I normally cook brown rice is basically the same way that I cook white rice. I usually do a ratio of 1.5:1 of water to rice and steam it until tender (at least 45 minutes). you can get more complicated than that, but for basic rice that works. When you have significantly more rice you need to add more time, but for simplicity's sake I'm just putting up this. Now, you don't have to be limited to just water for cooking your rice....you can use just about any liquid under the sun. I have found over the years that you need to be careful not to use any sort of high acid liquids (tomato juice, wine, orange juice, Dr. pepper) to cook your rice because it has a tendency to cause the grains to split down their length. Also, I personally prefer to add salt before cooking, while Brandy prefers to season her rice after cooking (my method is see as the more western technique, her's is the more eastern).

The next big topic that I want to share is nutritional information when dealing with rice. For many years now in assorted cooking circles I've had people blast at me for not having issues with parboiled rice (Uncle Ben's rice). They say that it's basically a white rice, and when white rice is made it's pearled, or tumbled to remove the outer bran and with it goes most of the nutrients. While the glycemic freaks are right that plain white rice isn't all that good for you and will cause a glycemic spike in your system that will cause you to store most of the calories in the rice as fat, Uncle Ben's/parboiled rice isn't quite the same thing. The way that parboiled rice is made is that it's flash steamed while it's still a whole grain (brown rice basically). What happens is that a lot of the nutrients that are in the bran layer actually adhere to the inner white part of the grain, and when this rice is tumbled it doesn't lose all of the nutrients that unsteamed white rice does. True, you will still have a glycemic spike by eating parboiled rice, but at least you will get more nutrients into your system while this happens.

The last thing that you should think about when you are out shopping for rice is, where is your rice coming from? You can get just your basic old Uncle Ben's rice, or Minute rice (if you really want to support Kraft foods and mega-agribusiness) or you can purchase rice from a legitimate American company that grows fantastic rice. The company that I'm imploring you to try is Lundberg Family Farms . All of their rice is grown right here in California...actually I've met some of the people in the company and cooked for all of the growers and they're just fantastic people. They actually produce rices that the world market sees as being the best in the world. If you try nothing else you have to try their short grain brown rice just once. I also wholeheartedly recommend their wild rice blend...it's just some really tasty stuff

If you need recipes for what to do with rice let me know and I'll put some up here.

He: Coco Cafe Rehersal Dinner

2008-05-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

Okay this post is only just barely about food. This is mostly about our rehearsal dinner at this really tasty little spot on Kauai called...yep Coco Cafe.

Without going into all of the reasoning why we picked this one let's just say that it really suited us well, and the price was right (inexpensive..evrything else was going to be $50 + a person...not cool). We loved the open air part of it, we loved the lack of alcohol sold on premise (actually I loved it...my whole family seemed to be against it...that's all they seemed to talk about).

This is one of our best friends Kris, Krumrie to all of his friends and the name that he was introduced to me as. That's his girlfriend Naiomi....the first one that Brandy and I both approve of. The last one is Domo...if you don't know Domo I feel sorry for you ha! ha! Actually look him up, and all of his small furry buddies (they're just some of the many neat little toys that we have in collections here at the house). The other site that sticks out in my head is a designer in L.A. called the monster factory...or something like that?

At some point later on I'm sure that Brandy will put up some more pictures of Domo's fabulous Hawaiian vacation. The shots are just hilarious. But I digress....

That's some more of the family. The one with the camera is Amber...and the one that looks a little too white is Brandy's mom (it's just the flash...she has a fabulous tan).

Brandy has the great idea to get a bunch of disposable cameras and give them out to everyone to take pictures of the wedding, and the reception and whatever else. on the packaging for the cameras we taped on a message to give them back to us at the end of the reception. Brandy's family latched onto this idea and went nuts. We gave 'em 5 cameras and they filled 8 or 9...along with a ton of shots on their own digital cameras. Can't say the same thing happened with my family...they didn't like the cameras...couldn't figure out how to use them....blah blah blah. I don't know what the deal was, but it was really disappointing. I guess I've lazily protested it all by not talking to any of them since we got back. I will, I'm just bad about communicating...and talking to most of them is just dysfunctional and painful.

Okay so I have no idea how any of this has anything to do with food...but I don't care. If you don't like it...tough.....I will post more important things in other posts. This post is just for us.

She: Noodles in Kauai

2008-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

Hamura Saimin Stand in Lihue was one of the best things about chowing down in Hawaii. I lived overseas in Asia growing up, and in my school we didn't have tater tots and chocolate pudding--we had noodles and fried rice. And lord do I miss the noodles. We have lots of vietnamese restaurants here in sacto, but I don't think any of them make their own noodles...there's a zang to the yellow noodles that is lacking, and the consistancy is wrong. Well, Hamua's had fresh noodles, and I practically turned into a puddle slurping them down.

Another fabulous treat while we were there, only served once or twice a week, were the pork filled rice buns. Buck fifty a peice for a softball sized bun-o-heaven. We ate there a day before we were married, and came back the day after for more! Now, I have to say, I rarely put in much effort to the photos on this site...photography is "work" and I try to keep this blog casual and fun, which means to serious lighting or equipment. The photo I have here shows an exception to the rule--we took Domo with us everywhere on our Hawaiian wedding trip and he hung out for all the snapshots. Domo rocked the noodle shop (snicker). Everyone talked about the lilikoi (passionfruit) pie they had, but I thought it was sooo light I couldn't hardly taste any passionfruit, let alone zippy tartness, so that was a disappointment. BUT, the overall experience was great, and at 4.25 per noodle bowl, an absolute steal and trip (for me) down memory lane. If you aren't sure if you'd had great noodles, ah, buy a plane ticket to Kauai and try these guys out!

She: (mini) Lemon Cupcakes

2008-05-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

So, stress baking begins again. I am in the midst of grading portfolios. I gotta say, english teachers can complain about essays all they want--at least they can fit it into one bag! Sigh. Anyways. I made some cupcakes for one of my classes, a classic lemon cake. Usually I fill it with lemon custard, but I didn't have the time, and I was using my new cute mini cupcake pan! Hurrah! Isn't the size just cute? I think I like them better than regular sizes. Fit into your mouth in two bites.

Well, here's what you'll need:
8oz flour, 2.5 tbs corn starch, 2.5 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, 7oz sugar, 3 oz butter, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, zest of 2 lemons and 8oz milk.

This goes a little differently than normal. First mix wet (except milk, use creaming method) then add dry (except flour). The creaming method, btw, is when you mix the butter til creamy, then add sugar, then egg, etc. After all this is mixed (including zest, yes?) then you alternate adding milk and flour. Bake at 350. If mini cups, 15 mts. If normal cups, 19 mts.

For the icing: cream 4 oz butter with 4 oz cream cheese, then add 1 lemon juice and about 3 cups powder sugar. Voila!

She: Absentee

2008-05-12T17:32:00.001-07:00

So, we haven't posted in a while, and in particular I haven't posted in even longer...with good reason. We got married! I can assure you that I had very good reason to ignore the blog. First there was the planning, then the pre-emptive push with my classes for while I was gone. THEN we got married, and then its been catch-up for all the things I couldn't preschedule. But we are back. Its exam weeks now, but I assure you I will be adding posts about some of the interesting food we had while in Hawaii, and some of my stress-baking I did in the weeks prior to the big shebang. But for now, I come almost directly from William Sanoma...

Since its exams week, and photo classes use part of that time in critique, I try to bake stuff for my students. As much as I love cupcakes though, with 100+ students, its too much work. So I bought a mini cupcake pan! I love it when I can buy things with the excuse that I need something for work. I'm not fooling my wallet at all, but it's still fun.

However, that isn't why I'm posting. I'm posting because I think I saw the most ridiculous device ever. The "Peanut Butter & Jelly Spreader". It is a knife. One side is for peanut butter and one for jelly. They are color coded ends, so there is no unwanted mixing of peanut butter and jelly. :| This costs 10 bucks with tax! I KNOW there are some things there we don't need but are great toys: premade pancake mixes, once-a-year overpriced cookie cutters, but a special peanut butter sandwich knife? COOOOOOME OOOOON! If mixing is such an issue, use two knifes, but don't waste money on this!

He: Sous Vide pictures

2008-03-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

For anyone that is keeping track of things based on the dates that are posted at the top of the posts...get over it. Sure, I've taken a lot longer than I said I would to put up pictures...what can I say? I'm a king at procrastination...even when it's something that I like.
This first image is the bag of chicken and the seasoning, and the thermometer. The thing that I want everyone to see is the temperature on the thermometer (which is right around 120 degrees). This is lower than the final cooking temperature that was reached several hours later, but important to see nontheless.

The second image is of the bones at the end of the cooking of the chicken. I wanted you to see this to illustrate a principle that happens in meat that everyone takes as law. Chicken meat that is still red is not necessarily undercooked. According to my favorite food scientist/chemist/god to all chefs Harold McGee, 'When meat is heated quickly, its temperature rises quickly, and some of the muscle proteins are still unfolding and denaturing when the pigments begin to do the same. The other proteins are therefore able to react with the pigments and turn them brown. But when meat is heated slowly, so that it takes an hour or two to reach the denaturing temperature for myoglobin and cytochromes, the other proteins finish denaturing first, and react with each other. By the time that the pigments become vulnerable, there are few other proteins left to react with them, so they stay intact and the meat stays red'. Basically what he is saying is that since the myoglobin(the particle in meat that has the color) breaks down so slowly the color never has a chance to react before the molecules that it will react with will already be denatured and unable to cause a reaction to change myoglobin from red to brown. This accomplishment can also be done chemically through sodium nitrite (the salt used to cure meats like bacon), or through normal table salt (if it has enough time in contact with the raw meat). Therefore, with this very slow cooking method that I have presented here, since the meat is raised to a temperature that will kill all errant microbes very, very slowly the myoglobin never has the appropriate proteins to react with to break down.
Oh, to answer the question that was asked about the website of the food chemist that explains how to do sous vide at home it's: www.khymos.com

He: Sous Vide cooking

2008-02-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, what the hell is sous vide, and why in the heck would I want to do it. Sous Vide means 'in a vacuum' in French, and it's been all the rage in high end restaurants for the last several years. Chances are, unless you've dropped a couple hundred bucks for one of those multi-course extravaganzas at a mecca of great food, you've never seen the term....that's okay I will explain.
The principle behind the technique is based in the idea that there is an absolute perfect point, temperature-wise, that you want to bring any protein to where it will be the most palatable. The trick to all of this is best shown by making a custard...creme caramel, creme brulee, or for that matter creme anglaise or even just french toast. With all of the aforementioned dishes there is that idea 'sweet spot' where the egg is just set and the dish is creamy without being runny. I really like the way that Alton Brown explained it in his first book. If you don't have his first book, I'm not going to go through the explanation for you in detail. As always, if you would like the long explanation, please post a comment and I will answer to the best of my ability (just expect to learn a lot more than anyone could possibly want to know).
In terms of the 'sweet spot' for meats, there is some variability depending on the final results that you're after. For the sake of simplicity, and because I don't have any pictures to back up any other meats today, I will just stick to chicken. The ideal 'sweet spot' for chicken is 152 degrees. How did I come to this number you ask? Well, the number is something that many chemists and food scientists that have hated having dry chicken (or for that matter any other poultry) so they did experiments and research into the actual chemical and physical changes that take place. Luckily for me, I didn't have to wade through millions of pages of scientific papers to find out about this 'sweet spot' for America's favorite bird I just checked out the section on meat in Harold McGee's food bible. Okay, I also used this great website written by a chemist that explains how you can scam the true technique for minimal money at home. Again, if you want that link you will have to post a comment.
The pictures that you see are of the last chicken dish that I put together. In the bag are two chicken leg quarters, along with a pile of seasonings. For those of you that wish to attempt this technique here's the other ingredients: Annatto seeds, cumin seeds, black pepper, garlic cloves and bay leaves....oh yeah, and one gallon ziplock freezer bag.
All that you do for this techique is to flash blanch the chicken for 5 seconds in rapidly boiling water to kill external bacteria, and any other nasties that you might not want to have. Stick the chicken in the bag with the seasonings. Suck as much of the air out of the bag as you can(I found that a straw works really well for this). Then all you have to do is drop the bag of chicken into water that is maintaining 152 degrees for at least 6 hours. I want to say that this batch I think I cooked for 36 hours, but who's counting really. 36 hours you say!...is he absolutely deranged? Nope, the chicken never has a chance to overcook because it never exceeds the temperature range of the 'sweet spot' which is anywhere over 160. How did I maintain temperature for that long? Well, the only thing that I did was to add ice cubes if the temperature ever went too high...which happened once or twice....and I'd turn the heat up just a touch if it was too low.
This technique is sooooooooo stinking simple that anyone should be able to make the most succulent chicken of their entire lives this way.

Okay...in the hopes of having something posted, pics or no here it is. The pics aren't up because B won't materialize the cord for our digital camera, and I suck with photoshop. I promise that I will get the cord from her and post very, very soon.

He: Organics, and the price of labeling

2008-02-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

This is a post just for me (sorry I'm sure you're hugely disappointed). It revolves around a very annoying conversation and a rather insane idea from a woman that I spoke with yesterday for what felt like an eternity. She wheeled herself up to me in one of those electric shopping carts to ask me if the salt that we were using in the kitchen was organic sea salt or not. In the process of arguing with this woman that the idea of having an organic mineral is just insane, I talked her into looking further into what she is trying to hold as ideals. Coincidentally, organic sea salt is just not possible...or is it?
Does everything in the free world have to have a label in order for it to be good? According to this woman that is hell bent on everything that enters into her body to be organic....yes. For the rest of modern society, should we be looking to organics to save our less than perfect eating habits...no. If you consume 4000 calories a day, and half of that is fast food or something fried covered in cheese...then you deserve to be the fat lazy slob that you are. If you consume that much food, and you're thin as a rail...be happy...the genetics roulette game has come out to your genetic advantage on this one.
I'm not in the best of moods about it all so I won't go into too much more of a rant. I just can't stand the idea of someone trying to hold anyone to some high and lofty standard if they don't actually hold themselves to that standard meaningfully.
Coincidentally, even though there are millions of organic products that are available to me every single day (thank god for California), I buy organic only when it makes sense. If anyone out there really wants to know what I think about it, or as a chef which products I feel warrant purchasing organically..just ask

She: Brandy Gets Creative

2008-01-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

We have this problem in our house sometimes. Well, often. My partner tends to eat/use ingredients I've mentally earmarked for a recipe without either buying more or letting me know I need to (grumble, grumble)...typical stuff, really, but when you're halfway thru making oatmeal cookie dough to find most of your oats gone, ya gotta get creative. In the end, it turned out to be a great new recipe and a really unique cookie.
Ingredients:
3/4C butter
1C brown sugar
1/2C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 3/4 C flour
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup dried tropical fruit (I used a mango/pineapple/coconut mix)

As usual, cream your butter and sugars with the cinnamon. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix in the flour, salt and soda/powder. I mixed in the fruit stuff by hand and baked it at 375 for 10 minutes. This is a chewy cookie that gives a slightly different flavor than a regular oatmeal-raisin does.

She: Pecan Sandies

2008-01-09T18:35:00.000-08:00

I think these were the most polished looking and tasting cookies we had over the holiday. I love pecan sandies, and haven't ever tried my hand at them. The recipe I used said that you needed to have a special cookie cutter, but I ignored that for common sense--I just used a small jar lid, about 3 inches diameter.

Ingredients:
3/4 C toasted pecans (3 oz), plus about 2 cups unroasted pecan halves for cookie tops
2/3 C plus 2 tbs powder sugar
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter @ room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg, separated

To toast the pecans, I just put them on a cookie sheet at 400F for about 5 mts and let them cool. Then you take them and your 2tbs sugar and pulse them together in your food processor til they become a fine powder. Then mix it with your other dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix your remaining sugar, butter and vanilla, then add egg yolk. Mix all your ingredients together (minus egg whites and unroasted pecans). My dough was crumbly, but it held when I shaped it into a ball. Then take what you can between wax paper and roll it til about 1/4 inch thick. Use your jar and cut out circles. Brush it with lightly beaten egg whites, and place your pecans on top. Brush that with egg whites too (I think to keep it in place) and stick em in the oven for 12-15 mts at 325F.

She: Striped Cookies

2008-01-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

I think I had the most fun this holiday making these cookies. It wasn't really that difficult, but they looked reeeeally pretty, and since I used Scharffenberger cocoa powder the chocolate came thru nicely. I also did all the steps inbetween other cookies, so I wasn't waiting around for stuff to chill. Here's how it goes:

For each of the doughs, you mix the sugar, butter, then egg, and mix with the dry ingredients. It'll be crumbly, so you add the icewater and then roll it in a ball and put it in a container for a half hour. Now you should have 2 cold balls of dough. What you need to do is divide each ball in half. Put it between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll it out to about 8x12 and stick it in the freezer for an hour. Take off the paper and stack each dough (alternating vanilla and chocolate) so you have 4 stacks. Cut those stacks in half and place that on top so you have 8 layers--I used a rolling pin to press them together lightly. Trim off the excess and cut your stacks into 1/4 inch thick cookies. I baked mine for 12 minutes at 375.

VANILLA DOUGH:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ice water

CHOCOLATE DOUGH:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 1/3 ounces)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ice water

She: Divinity

2007-12-30T23:03:00.000-08:00

Okay. I'm not giving the recipe here, because this recipe or this candy in general is TOO MUCH WORK. And thats saying something, coming from me. But this is a creamy vanilla treat we would get during christmas from my Grandmother. I've been trying this dish for the last few years, and this is the first time I've gotten it right! So I had to post an image to my family. As proof.

Now, if you're curious, I used the good old fashioned Betty Crocker recipe. I found out a couple of things: After whipping up my whites, I started pouring in the hard-ball sugar mix. At this point, once its all fluffy, you're supposed to start spooning it onto sheets. Well, mine was still so hot it made pancakes...until it cooled more by the end of the line. So I'd say disregard that part of the recipe, and let the sugar cool just a bit before spooning it out. At the end, I had my fluffy candy, but it was still sticky. It took two days to set in the fridge! That was where I went wrong every year before--I didn't wait long enough for it to set! So, hurrah for divinity.

He: Butter

2007-12-15T22:18:00.000-08:00

Okay Brandy has been giving me a lot of crap lately. My head is just full of useful food information, that I could be sharing with the world. What do I usually do with it all? nothing. So this might be a boring post, but for those in the world that would like a little more information on what is actually happening with our foods, or how to pick out better foods...you will like this.
I was very slowly reading my way through this amazing book about food by Harold Mcgee who takes all of the scientific information that Alton Brown brings to you in Cliff's Notes form in the full unabridged dictionary form. This guy's work is the stuff of legend and requirement of any modern kitchen in the US. Let's get to the meat of things...or rather the fat of it.
Raw Cream butter--just as it sounds this is raw butter made with raw milk. Something that nobody in this country will find without the right teat to remove it from...so I'm not going to bother to explain it (if you ever do find it...enjoy it while you can).
Sweet Cream Butter--The common stuff that you find all over the US. It's just pasteurized cream that has been turned into butter. Can be found salted and unsalted (the salted is usually less money because the salt makes it antimicrobial, and therefore extends shelf life). They are both at least 80% fat, and the rest is divided up between water and milk solids, and in the case of the antimicrobial one salt. Coincidentally, I NEVER buy salted butter...why buy something that is potentially old?
Cultured cream butter--Originally this was raw cream butter that is soured prior to being churned. Basically this is butter that has a more intense flavor and aroma....but since it's made from raw butter....you can't find it in this country. In Europe they make this by using a couple of methods, using the a bacterial culture that already has the flavor profile, and diacetyl that makes it more intense. This butter is great for eating raw, or for cooking in things that the flavor of the butter is greatly needed (croissants come to mind).
European-style butter--American creation that is meant to resemble European butter. The restaurant standard that comes to mind to me is Plugra...horrible name...good butter. Most of Europe has a standard that butter has to be at least 82% fat, so that is the standard that most of these 'boutique' American producers shoot for. Most of these producers tend to hit around 85% fat.
What does all of this really mean to you and your wallet? Well, if you're smart you will just buy standard unsalted sweet butter from whatever producer you like. The only times that you should even think about any of those crazy expensive butters (the stuff that you see at places like Whole Foods) is when you're working on pastries where there are only a few ingredients...places where the FLAVOR of butter is important to the final product. Brandy and I tend to do this when we do cakes and cookies...and every once in a while just for kicks.

She: Cupcake Craving

2007-12-06T20:51:00.001-08:00

Last week we went to Cupcake Craving off Arden and Howe. We got the half dozen and brought them home for a sugar coma. We had the Smores, Lemon Boost, Cherry cake, Red Velvet and German Chocolate. The Smores was fabulous--chocolaty (iiif thats a word) and creamy. The German Chocolate was also decadent. Red Velvet? (shrug) I don't think red velvet is ever all that fantastic, but I was disappointed by the cherry cake. I wanted much more flavor! There are a few others in town I want to try out. For this place, the people were very friendly, the cakes were all super soft with nice icing, and anything chocolate is great, but I'd prefer more punch to their fruity flavors.

She: Pumpkin Cheesecake

2007-12-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

I actually made two different cheesecakes for thanksgiving, but the pumpkin cheesecake was by far better. Infact, it didn't last for more than an hour. The whoooole thing. I got the recipe from "Joy of Baking." It wasn't the easiest recipe, but it was worth it. I added a few alteration, but they are minor.

First, the crust: I used a food processor and ground up a cup of ginger naps, cup of graham crackers and mixed that with 1 tb of sugar and 4 tbs of melted butter. I smashed all that down into the bottom of a springform pan. I then ground up some walnuts and sprinkled those ontop...that helps the crust from getting soggy later.

The cheesecake: Mix/grind the spices together and set aside (1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 nutmet, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp salt). On low speed, beat 1 lb cream cheese til smooth, then mix in 2/3c brown sugar and spices. Add 3 eggs, then add 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cup pumpkin puree. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl! Pour ontop the crust, and bake at 350F for 30 minutes, then reduce to 325F and bake for another 10 minutes. If you put a cake pan filled half with water at the bottom of the oven while it cooks, it'll help prevent cracks in the cheesecake.

Topping: Mix 1c sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4c sugar. Spoon the mix ontop of the bakes cheesecake and then return it to the oven for 8 minutes to set it. A nice tip Mark shared: if you need to put this in the fridge, you can spray some pam oil on a plastic sheet before you put it on the cheesecake--it keeps it from clinging to the dessert!

She: Gaaaaah

2007-11-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

I am in the midst of making: Lemon-cheese tart, pumkin/vanilla cheesecake, and pumpkin pie. I bit of juuuust as much as I can chew tonight. I'm exhausted just watching the oven. And you KNOW its a long night when it takes 10 minutes to realize I've been listening to the BeeGees...

She: NC and food

2007-11-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

We have pics from fabulous restaurants and all, but I thought I'd add a post on WHY we were in NC and the food along with it...we were there for a wedding. Mark was part of the wedding party--his best friend was getting married! Important foodie things: the rehersal dinner had an interesting cake based off the bride and groom hitting it off at a carwash. Then there was the dinner. I laughed at the southerness of it: fried chicken, green beans, hush puppies and bbq.

Now, I MUST protest this, much to Mark's annoyance. My family is from the bbq capital of the world...Kansas City. (thats right, I threw down that glove). This...meat that they call bbq in NC is NOT bar b que! Period! Its shredded meat. There's no rub, not basted with sauce...nothing. They just have some vinegar you can put on the side with some chilli flakes in it. THATS NOT BARBQUE! Okay. I'm stepping off the soap box now.

Last there was the wedding cake. It was a lovely layered cake--each layer was a different flavor. I had the carrot cake. It was moist and yummy. AND pretty without a lot of fake icing. I haaaate that serious buttercreme stuff that tastes like shortening. In between the festivities we went tooling around town to different restaurants. Niiiice stuff. We'll post'em soon.

He: Lilly's Pizza

2007-11-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

When I was little there was a couple of meals that just stuck as things that my family always made. The two things that stick out in my head that my excelled at were baked chicken with noodles and steamed broccoli, and spaghetti with either meat sauce or white clam sauce. I can't say that I have fond memories of the chicken, although I probably lived off the noodles...and probably would to this day, if it wasn't for the Atkins diet and all of those years thinking that carbohydrates were bad. Unlike the chicken, I do have very fond memories of the spaghetti and clam sauce (or meat sauce), and today I can make those sauces with no effort at all. If given the chance to relive those memories of the family around the table with spaghetti and sauce, and garlic bread that would make even garlic farmers blush is something that I'd love to be able to do.

Later, once I was living on my own, trying to survive as a post college, semi-lost adult I attempted to develop my palate in Raleigh. I developed a love for a few distinct spots that my college buddies and I seemed to spend way too much time in. One of those classic spots for us was this little eclectic pizza place called Lilly's. The whole place is just a hodgepodge of styles, with old sections of cathedral ceilings just lying on the floor, and a bliniking sign near the bar that just says 'wow'. Even with the hodgepodge they make the best pizza that I think that I've ever eaten. The last time that I was able to enjoy a slice was about 7 years ago.

Thanks to by best friend Steve, and his new bride Mary, Brandy and I got the opportunity to enjoy a slice from this fantastic little place. Here are a few shots of the place, and what doesn't look like an incredible pizza....but the thing that I say when people ask is that the dough they make is soo good that you'd almost like to eat the crust..and then maybe the rest. Trust me this is something that if you ever make it to Raleigh, you have to try at least once.

She: Explaining Delusions

2007-11-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

First, Mark's last post was a mea culpa, of sorts. First, since I've been traveling this month I told him that HE needed to be in charge of the blog this month, and do his fair-share of writing for a change...which didn't happen. And, we had our oven break, and in another delusion, he decided to fix it himself, which took 2 weeks to complete (and a repairman did most anyways) so even if I WANTED to bake and post I couldn't. As far as the tomato plants he's referring to? 3. Thats right, three whole tomato plants and he thought he'd have enough to bottle ketchup. He gets these bright, half-baked ideas, and I sit in the back of the room saying, that its all nice and well, but will never be a reality if you don't have a gameplan. Which he usually doesn't. So if I don't decide to take over (like I did with the tomato plants...he just forgot the water them for 2 weeks, snort) then I get a blog without the HE component to counterbalance, an unusable oven, and other mangled ideas. But thats what makes us great--he's got the optimism, and I have the practicality--together we can pull off anything...but only if I'm in town to give'm a nudge.

He: Delusions of Grandeur

2007-11-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows the old saying 'don't count your chickens before they hatch'. Well, in my world that should extend a whole lot further. A couple of years ago when Brandy and I were still living in Atlanta we had a garden. The delusion that I had going is that we would have tomatoes coming out of our ears. I was sure that we would have sooo many tomatoes that we would have more than enough to sell some to the restaurant that I was working for at the time. I was sure that we would have soo many tomatoes that after canning, and drying, and the selling them that we would still be eating them until we couldn't stand it. As fate would have it, we ended up having a massive thunderstorm when the plants were loaded down with fruit and we lost a ton of tomatoes. Of course I was distraught...and the wonderful ninja poster just below had a hearty round of 'I told you so'. I'm sure that you will see my delusions of grandeur rear it's ugly head many times in the future.

She: Ninjas + Food...

2007-10-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, check this link out...Adventure Dining. Now, some people like a little...unique spice to their meals. Eating in the dark while blind waiters serve you is trendy now. Could be cool...but I'd be really worried about how clean the place is...I know. I have a suspicious mind. But this article, this boggles the mind. Or atleast, MY mind. Ninjas! "Ninja New York" is a restaurant where "the wait staff at Ninja New York has been rumored to leap out and startle visitors from the shadows, scale walls, mysteriously appear and disappear..." Thats right. The chef and the wait staff are all reported to be Ninjas serving you in ninja style.

I find this absolutely hilarious. BUT, not enough that I wouldn't actually go if it wasn't a bazillion dollars to eat there like I think it probably would. Of course, I do understand that its showy, and doesn't tell us about the food itself at all or if it's worth eating. But, as Mark says, restaurants are part of the hospitality industry, meaning they need to be hospitable and entertaining, since thats partly what you pay for. And I, just once, might like to be served my buffalo wings with stealth, smoke and mirrors.

She: Truffles galore

2007-10-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

I went to the Oak Cafe and was served some scrumptious truffles. I bought a few to take home, and on the way FROM the cafe TO the car, it melted into a pool! So I decided to make my own. I used one of Mark's books, "Chocolate" by N. Malgieri...I usually stay away from it because its so...well, cheffy. A thousand silly ingredients and specific temps...if I can find a work-around, I will use it. But, not with chocolate. Too tricky. I decided to go crazy and make lemon flavored, dark chocolate truffles with milk chocolate coating. Ha! So here it goes:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs light corn syrup
8 oz bittersweet chocolate (72%)
grated peel of 2 lemons

Coating: 12 oz milk chocolate (50%) and a plate coated in dutch process cocoa powder.
First, cut your bittersweet chocolate into slivers and put it in a glass bowl with the lemon peel. Then mix cream, butter and corn syrup in a pan and bring to a low simmer. Remove from heat, and add to your glass pan of chocolate. Whisk smooth, and cool the mix for 2-3 hours in the fridge. Roll into balls and put on a cookie sheet, which you put back in the fridge for another hour.
Melt the milk chocolate to about 95, and let cool to the low 80's (F) and dip your truffles--I put the chocolate in my icecream scoop and then rolled the truffle around to coat. Let cool for a few minutes, then roll in the cocoa powder. Keep them chilled til you wanna eat them, then let them reach room temp. Yummy!

He: For the love of god...if you make nothing else...MAKE THIS CAKE!

2007-10-06T20:07:00.001-07:00

How's that for a tagline? All due to the amazing cake that almost wasn't made.
Brandy and I were running through our area whole foods looking for ingredients. We were trying to find something that would inspire us to make a dessert with some of the apples that I had picked up earlier in the day (it's apple season right now...enjoy them while they rock). We talked about maybe some sort of turnover....nah. We talked about maybe making a pie...just too plain to really be us. I talked about some sort of thing that is in phyllo dough...that was shot down on the principle of being too cheffy (happens all the time in our house). By the time that we were out of the store we were really no closer to figuring out what we wanted to make with the damn apples...then it hit me....Scott's apple cake.

When I was working everyday at Watershed this cake went virtually unnoticed in my mind. I'm not sure if it's the leaden death-bomb quality of all of the peanut oil in it, or the almost gritty sugar glaze over the top. I never quite saw it for the beautiful thing that it is...just this wonderfully rich cake that beautifully shows off in-season apples. Sure...it does have a lot of sugar, and the glaze almost hurts it's so full of sugar...but if you don't attempt any other recipes on this site you must try this one!

Okay I just thought of one more thing that is kinda cool that you should know about this post...apples. The apples that the original recipe calls for are winesaps. Well, here in this part of California that isn't something that seems to be available right now. I ended up using pippins (which are a japanese creation crossing a yellow delicious with a granny smith). Also used were gravensteins, which I don't know the history of..but if anyone out there does please enlighten me. The last variety was some sort of crisp apple, as in there was 'crisp' in the name but I can't think of the variety now. When working on anything with apples it's always better to have more than one variety so that there will be greater depth of apple flavor (just one and it will be very monotonous as far as the apple flavor goes).

Here's the recipe:
1 C. packed light brown sugar
1 C. granulated sugar
1 1/2 C. vegetable oil (we used peanut oil at the restaurant..just make sure that the oil doesn't have any strong flavors...I bet grapeseed would be very nice in this)
3 eggs (at room temperature)
1 t. baking soda
2 t. ground ceylon cinnamon (very important...most cinnamon is vietnamese, and it's way too spicy for this preparation)
1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. salt (fine grain sea salt preferrably)
5 ea. fresh apples peeled, cored and diced into 1/2" pieces (baking varieties)
1 1/4 C. coarsely chopped pecans
2 1/4 t. vanilla extract

The Glaze
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 C. granulated sugar
1/4 C. packed light brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 C. heavy cream

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2) Mix the sugars and oil in a bowl until well blended
3) Add the eggs one at a time and mix until each is incorporated
4) Sift together the dry ingredients and mix into the wet..stirring only to incorporate (if you overmix at all this cake will be really dense and hard)
5) Fold in the apples and pecans and vanilla
6) pour into a buttered and floured 9X13 inch pan and bake until the cake tests clean with a skewer (ours took 2 hours.....don't expect this to be accurate for everyone else. At the restaurant the cook time on this cake varied a lot! Start checking it after 1 hour)
7) Allow to cool in the pan completely (about an hour
8) To make the glaze melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sugars and salt, stir until well blended and cook over med-low heat for 2 minutes. Add the heavy cream, stir and bring to a boil...cook 2 more minutes.
9) Quickly poke holes with a skewer or fork all over the top of the cake, and with the hot glaze pour it over the cake.
10) Allow to cool slightly, and then enjoy this fantastic old southern treat.

She: Peanut Butter n Jelly Cupcakes

2007-09-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

I saw different parts to this recipe in different places, and just had to put it together. I had a baaaad week, and when I do I bake. I needed a good project. These cupcakes are worth it. They are delicious! The icing alone is sinful.
Ingredients:
1 1/4C flour, 1 1/2tsp baking powder, 1/4tsp salt, 1/2C peanut butter, 1/2 stick butter, 1/2C brown sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanila, 2/3C milk.
Icing:
1/2 stick butter, 1/2C peanut butter, 1/2C cream cheese, 2C powder sugar, 1tb milk
Directions: for batter, mix pb, butter and sugar on high til fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Reduce and alternate between the rest of the wet and dry. Fill cupcakes 2/3 full and bake for 18mts @ 350F. While its baking, mix the icing: all the ingredients should be at room temp, blended on high. For the filling, I used smuckers raspberry jam in a piping bag with a long tip and just stuck it into the cupcake and squeezed. I squeezed too much in the first few and had jam volcano erruptions, but I got it right after a few. I just covered the spot with the icing. Tasty!

She: Home-grown Sunflower Seeds

2007-09-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

This is a different kinda post, but I thought it could be educational, so what they heck. First, we have a garden. Not a fabulous one--it is plagued by aphids and spider mites, but we have peaches, lemons, a horde of pepper plants, tomatos, strawberries and a host of herbs. And sunflowers. I bought a different kind of sunflower this year--it looks like a giant mum. The things were huge! 8 feet tall, they had half foot wide heads on them, and the bees loved them. I wanted to save my seeds. So I read up on it, and found that if we had enough we could even have enough for a snack! Well, we didn't quite, but this is the process:

1. Once the sunflower starts to die, the stem and base of the flower will go from green to yellow. At this stage clip it and leave it in a dry place.
2. Once its dried, first pluck all the petals off. There will still be a section of innerpetals that hold and divide the seeds.
3. Now put the flower in a plastic baggie and use your nails to scratch out the seeds from the center. You put it in a baggie so seeds and their inner petals don't get all over the place. After thats done, you can save them to plant for the next year, or roast and eat 'em!

He: Corn Quiche Crostada

2007-09-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Anyone that knows how to bake will look at the header and wonder what the heck I was thinking and how the freak is this going to work? Well the thought was to try and come up with a crust for a quiche that would be low fat, high fiber, and high in good fats. Enter the crostada crust....slightly modified of course. The other big thing that I was trying to do with this is come up with a quiche that I could use as a meal (getting enough protein in 1 slice for me, makes that slice dowright huge...not so appealing).

6 ea. lg eggs
1/2 pound of lowfat cottage cheese
1 pound of organic tofu
1/2 C. rolled oats (nothing flavored...just plain 'ole oats)
1/2 C. plain raw nuts (I recommend pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts, or pecans)
2 Tbsp. plain lowfat yogurt
1 tsp. salt
2 ea. ears of corn (roasted and kernels removed from the cob)
a few dashes of hot sauce

1) Add the oats, nuts and yogurt to a cuisinart and pulse to combine (you want the nuts to be broken down, but you don't want the oats to be total flour.
2) Press this mixture into a pie pan until you've reached a consistent thickness
3) Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes
4) Blend together the eggs, cottage cheese, tofu, and hot sauce until smooth in a blender.
5) Transfer this mix to a bowl and stir in the corn
6) Transfer the egg mix into the cooled, baked pie shell and place in the oven at 325 degrees until lighly browned on top and the whole mass jiggles just a little when you shake the pan
7) Cool and serve

The beautiful thing about this quiche is that it comes together in just a couple of minutes (minus roasting the corn). Also it satisfies all of my rediculously healthy diet stuff too.

He: Old Southern style preserved figs

2007-09-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, Brandy has been giving me a lot of crap lately for not putting together any new posts, and she has every right to....I've been neglectful of our little blog. Well no more...at least until I run out of pics and recipes for stuff that needs to be posted.

Let's get to the point of this already....you guys really don't care about the random blatherings of a cooking madman...do you?

In a cookbook that I LOVE The Gift of Southern Cooking by Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis I found a recipe for whole preserved figs. I've seen this recipe executed under the tutelage of Scott Peacock a couple of years ago. It really seemed simple at the time...really just a lot of waiting for things to 'do their thing'. How often do you see something like that in a recipe? Anyhow, since Brandy is in love with figs, and since we're in the fig growing capital of the US, and since we hit that great local farm for more figs than anyone can realistically eat before they go bad (believe me I tried...my limit seems to be about 10 of them before I just want to yack), I thought that this recipe would be a good idea.

I'm not going to give you tried and true amounts for anything in here...because it's really not essential to getting this to come out. The only pieces that are important are: the amount of time between cookings, the type of figs that you use (black missions will not work), and making sure that once they are canned that they sit for at least 6 weeks. So here's the basic rundown.....email if you need more specific instructions...but really, there aren't any more

1. Sprinkle figs with a couple tablespoons of baking soda and then pour boiling water over all. Let soak for 5 minutes (this step toughens up the skins a little bit so that the figs stay whole).
2. Drain off the water and rinse the figs in a bath of cold water 3 times, so that you can get off all of the baking soda that hasn't combined with the figs.
3. Pour a bunch of sugar over the figs (for 2 pounds of figs, at least 2 cups of sugar). Back the freak off you diabetics...this is important to cure the little suckers! If you're really that concerned with the sugar content....tough....just don't eat so many.
4. Allow to sit in the sugar for at least 2 days.
5. Follow this cycle for the next several days: after 2 days put in a nonreactive pot and bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring to make sure that all of the figs get some time in the sugary mess at the bottom of the pot. transfer back to your holding container and wait 2 more days. do this cycle 3 times.
6. After the 3rd cooking transfer the figs to canning jars (with out transferring much of the liquid). Bring the liquid to a boil and cook until a candy thermometer reads 220 degrees. Pour the resulting syrup over the figs. Can according to manaufacturer's instructions.
7. Store in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks (do not store them in the fridge....it's not dark in there all the time...and too cold).
8. Eat the delicious figgy goodness when there are no figs available.

She: Figs and Such

2007-09-08T19:47:00.001-07:00

I suck. I'm sorry. But school just began and I've been wrapped up with my classes! Now I'm back, and I'll get to nagging Mark about his fig post. But I'll start here with a preview...We went to this beautiful farm a few weeks ago--Mark wanted to check out where he was buying produce for his business from, and the owner offered...so we drove up to Davis and had a peak at the place. First, it was gorgeous. The grew a variety of everything: peaches, nectarines, lavender, wine grapes, tomatos, almonds...we walked around the place and looked at what they had. First, I have to say I was astounded by the almonds. I've never had them fresh before, and it was amazing. Once you get them out of the shells they have a good water content, like coconut. It was and eye opener to have this moist nut instead of the dry stuff you get at the supermarket. They also had fig trees--a few kadotas and some black missions, and we picked and ate the fruit off the tree. They let us take some home, and thats what mark is making preserves out of. They started talking about varieties of fruit and I started to go cross-eyed, so I went out side and took some pictures. They had bunches of flowers around to attract bees, and the whole place was beautiful. My grandparents had a little garden with some veggies and a couple of apple trees, but I've never had the experience of just walking thru acres of fruit you could pick right off the trees. It makes you appreciate food in a new way, and I felt so much more connected to the process. We put the figs to good use, and now that they are canned, mark will be adding up instructions and some of the pitfalls he ran into with the whole process, so stay tuned!

She: Tomato Soup

2007-08-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Normally I hate tomato soup. I couldn't put my finger on why, until I told Mark. He summed it up for me: tomato soup usually tastes like nothing but tomato acid. So true! Well, I visited my folks back in KC recently, and had great soup. I had been in the airport and on planes all day. I had some trail mix with me, but I didn't eat since the Denver airport *sucks* unless you like McBurgers or gelatenous stirfry. So instead I left the airport ravenous, and when my sis brought me home, she didn't have much readily consumable except for tomato soup...so I shrugged and chowed down. And it was brilliant! I finally begged for the recipe, so here it goes:
1 LB roma tomatoes
1 LG red bell pepper
1 LG red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
5 cups vegie stock
pinch sugar
1 cup small pasta (optional)
salt and pepper to taste, fresh basil leaves (garnish)

Preheat oven to 375. Half the tomatoes, pepper, onion and place on foiled roasting pan or cookie sheet. Add the garlic cloves. Drizzle olive oil over vegies and cook 30-40 until edges of vegies become blackend. In a blender (food processor), add 1 cup of vegie stock. Add roasted vegies while still hot from oven. Puree. Strain blended vegies into pot. Add remaining 4 cups of vegie stock, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to boil. Add pasta. Cook for 7-8 minutes. Garnish with fresh basil leaves. And here's a pic of the sis as I show her the blog at the airport..obviously she is amazed at the sheer beauty of my laptop. Snort.

He: Chicken Stock

2007-08-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Okay...Okay...I put up a post about how to make chicken stock. Brandy pointed out to me that people in the regular world don't make their own stock. They don't? Why the heck not?.....oh I know....they just don't know how. Well once you read through this you will be amazed at how easy it really is.

3 lbs. chicken bones(or turkey bones)...wings, necks, backs...whatever...skin is okay too
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
2 bay leaves
8-10 whole black peppercorns
a few(2-5) parsley stems (no leaves)

1)Stick all in a pot and add enough water to cover
2)Bring to a boil uncovered, over high heat
3)Leave at a boil for 1 minute
4)Reduce heat to as low as it will go, and allow to cook for at least 6 hours(it's okay at this point to cover it, just not tightly)....I usually let it go overnight
5)Strain out all of the solids, saving the liquid (toss the solids out, they're not good for anything else now)
6)Place in the refrigerator until cold, and gelled
7)Skim off all of the fat and use as needed

Okay, this is just slightly simplified from how it actually is, but it will make a great stock. If you need a stronger/more intense stock than this, use more bones and a little less water(although you still need enough water to completely cover the bones). If you need a slightly weaker stock use more water and less bones (again the bones still need to be completely covered by the water when you start to heat it from cold).

One more little tidbit...chicken bones are hollow...they float. Don't freak out when they start to float up as you're heating the stock up to bring it to a boil.

He: Roasted Summer Vegetable Salad

2007-08-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

There are some of the great things that are here in Sacramento. One of those great things is the local farmer's market. Not to get into detail about the market, I will just say that it's year round and has all the good stuff that is growing in the immediate area. I LOVE to go to the market. Really this is all beside the point of this, which is this roasted summer salad that I threw together last night.

The original base idea for this is born from a cookbook written by a mentor of mine, Scott Peacock. He wrote this beautiful cookbook that you really should check out sometime called The Gift of Southern Cooking (click here for Amazon book link) His is based on roasted okra and heirloom tomatoes, and shallots and field peas (which are completely not available around here...damn). Mine is based on what mood hit me while we were at the market.
The only things that I would probably change about this salad are, that I would like it to be a little spicier (Brandy doesn't do spicy food well, and I can always make something hotter just for me), and I wish that the string beans at the market weren't soo bloody expensive (they were going for $4+ per pound...highway robbery if you ask me). Well here's the recipe the way that you see it pictured.

2 lbs Small summer squash(crookneck, pattypan, zucchini, whatever looks nicest)...just make sure they're small...big will be too starchy
1 lbs Red torpedo onion
1 lbs Sugar Snap peas
6 ears yellow corn
1/2 C. Fish sauce
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. peanut oil
4-5 coarse grinds of black pepper

Roast the corn still in the husk at 350F for 30 minutes, then cut the corn off the cob. Slice the onion into rings 1/4" thick, toss with the summer, squash snap peas and oil. Put on cookie sheet and roast at 500F until squash is lightly browned (maybe 5 minutes). Cool and toss all together with soy/fish sauce.

She: Hina Tea

2007-08-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

I love tea. Mark loves a good, strong green tea, but my tastes vary a bit more. I do prefer green tea since its light in caffine and has a more delicate flavor, but I drink all sorts. Good tea is easier and easier to come by, which is good, considering I don't drink coffee. Most malls have a teavana store, and we've found a great place in San Fran's china town thats amazing. However, we recently found a great place downtown that is fabulous: hina tea.

Hina tea is a balm for the body AND the mind--as an artist I'm a tad picky about my surroundings in some ways, but the architecture there is calming and creative. There are tons and tons of teas to choose from: blacks, whites, greens, fruit infused, you name it, they've got it. And if you aren't sure what you'd like, they'll let you try a few out. Smelling the teas gives you a decent idea of what the flavor will be, but it gets a little tricky with fruit teas, which was what I was hunting.

Mark set down the path of purism, selecting a ton of straight green teas. He likes a stronger, grassier taste to his teas than I do. I like teas with jasmine and other flavors--but no sugar. No siree. I tried a white apricot tea, a passionfruit tea, and when these didn't ring my bell I asked for the barista's opinion, and am sooo glad I did. She introduced me to their Shanghai Lychee. I love and remember lychee from overseas, and the tea was amazing. The grean tea wasn't overpowered by the fruit. Instead, I got a strong kick of green with the lychee on the back of my tongue as an aftertaste. I got it iced (they have iced, hot, chai and all other sorts of stuff). Mark and I sat down with our teas and they gave us a tray of cute cookies to go along with our tea. They have a great selection of ceramics, and the place is spacious, quiet and soothing. The staff are helpful without being pushy. I highly suggest giving it a try. The shop is located off K street (2319 K Street) near Rick's Dessert Diner and Tres Hermanas. The website is: http://www.hinastea.com

She: Non-Desserts

2007-08-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

Recently I talked to my sis, who said she hadn't tried any of my recipes since they were mostly desserts. (eep) Weeeeelll, I DO cook, but I just like desserts, so I tend to post those. But I will henceforth scatter my recipes with entree blogs as well. For tonight, I'm making quiche.

Quiche was one of the few things my mom would make that I loved as a kid. Usually she made it with shrimp, crab and cream cheese. Yummy, but laden with calories, so I try for other stuff instead. I wanted a meal I could eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner and something that had lots of protein, and this fit the bill. Now, this recipe calls for tabasco sauce, but don't think that makes it spicy. It just gives the dish a very very subtle zing. Same goes for the garlic salt, too.

Here's the list of ingredient: 1 frozen pie shell (I'm feeling lazy), 4 eggs, 1 cup milk (or soymilk), 1/8th tsp tabasco, 1/8th tsp salt, 1/4th tsp garlic salt, dash of pepper, 1 cup sliced mushrooms, 1 small diced onion, 6 or 7 chopped basil leaves. I also added 1 oz mozzerella in blocks.

Instructions: First, put the onions in a frying pan over medium heat with cooking spray or oil and cook til translucent. When they are, add the mushrooms and toss them in the pan til golden brown, then remove from heat. In a bowl whisk eggs, milk and tabasco, then mix in the salt/pepper. Place half the onion/mushroom mix in the bottom of your pie shell, then add on half the basil. Pour in the egg mixture, then put the rest of your veggies, including basil, ontop. Put in the oven and cook at 375 for 35 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. You can replace the mushrooms/onions with anything--I also like bell peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions and a bit of goatcheese. See? I can write healthy!

He/She: Just Desserts

2007-07-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

She: Besides cheese, we did other foody things in Berkeley for Mark's b-day. We went on the Sharffenberger tour, for starters. (and mark looked oh-so-snazzy in his paper hairnet). We tasted lots of chocolate, learned about cocao, and how they actually build their own chocolate instead of buying it. Meaning, they go straight from the bean.

He: Okay I have a point of clarification about that. They don't build the chocolate...it's not like it's a building that needs to be constructed. Cut into it's simplest terms they make a completely smooth mixture of roasted cacao beans and added cocoa butter in bar form. There's a ton more complexity to it, but heck if I really know what that is.

She: OMG. Thats incredibly picky on word choice. And you build up layers of paint in a painting, you build the complexity of an image, you build flavors in food (I've heard you say that)...I'm right, you doofus. :P

She: we also went to two dessert places. For immediate gratification, we went to Ciao Bella Gelato. I must say, I loved their selection. The colors were like a beautiful pallete. I tried quite a few flavors before succumbing to one scoop of Jasmine Cassis and one of Passionfruit sorbet. Lovely. They were both tangy, and while sweet, filled with lots of fruit flavor. The jasmine stayed on the back of my tongue for hours and is my new favorite flavor.

He: What did I have? Mocha somethingarether and pistachio. They were good...it was nice to have actual gelato(which does seem like an actual treat). Honestly it still doesn't hold a candle to the joint that we used to go to in Atlanta that Alon's owns.
She: Well...I didn't have the gelato, I had sorbet, and THAT was better than any atlanta or other sorbet I've had. But yeah, nothing beats Alon's gelato yet. sniff, sniff...

She: The other dessert place we went to was Love at First Bite. The cupcakes came in interesting flavors like ginger or pistachio chocolate, but alas, the didn't have each every day. We picked up a four-pack for home. The lady at the register was really sweet, but I have to say that if there was anything that was a tad off-putting, it was the chef. She was a tad curt...and I was overflowing with cupcake adoration (but not in a scary stalker way), so it was baffling. At home I tried to lemon pistachio, which while the lemon cake was good, the icing was almost...chalky. I dunno. I didn't dig it too much, but it was a flavor adventure. The one I truely adored was the strawberry. The cake was light and pink, and the icing was sweet and crammed full of tart strawberry flavor. It was amazing.

He: Yeah, you'd think that someone that owns a shop that is dedicated to sweet little cake pastries would be more positive. The woman was cold...distant...and rude(typical cali). The cupcakes were nice, very nicely made...but after looking at their site, and reading their menu I wasn't really all that impressed by any of it. If you're going to specialize in just one foodstuff, be great at it...not just good.

He: Oh toaster how I shall continue to long for you...

2007-07-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I didn't get the Dualit toaster that I'd been asking for over the last couple of months. How much joy would I have really gotten out of the thing? Would it have become the latests kitchen albatross like our yogurt maker? We may never know. What we do know is that Berkeley is a fantastic place that has an incredible love for food. We also know that something as simple as a little disk of bread dough can bring me back to my childhood. More on this last part later...

We went to Berkeley for my birthday, because we really needed to get out of this town(which seems to only excel and being spectacularly mediocre). A wonderful woman that used to work with me over at the coop, Jill, gave us this great little map of all of her favorite spots to go while in Berkeley. Why follow the map of someone that could be completely MAD!?...what the hell...what do we know of this place...besides how bad could it be? She listed this fantastic little Jewish deli that we plan to go and check out next time that we're there...Chez Panisse, and this place called the Cheese Board Collective.

I've never been anywhere that had such an incredible selection of cheese. There's this amazing little bar in Georgetown that has 700 some odd beers, but a place that probably has that many cheeses?! unhead of.....and they let you taste ANYTHING(definitely not a possibility with the beer joint). [By the way the beer place in Georgetown is called The Brickskellar(sp.) if you ever make it over to our nation's capital and need to find the Mecca of beer.] Everything about this place just made me happy..from the board proclaiming all of the cheeses that they had available that day(as you can see from the pic, you almost can't read them all...there's just too damn many), to the breads that were being baked perpetually while we were there....to the incredible pizza shop that they run a couple of doors down. We were in love with this place as soon as we walked by it. Yeah...we were famished by the time we got to Berkeley, thanks to a rediculous traffic jam in Sacramento that stranded us for 4 HOURS....so we went for the pizza first.

I LOVE this little place. They have the concept of what a restaurant should be down pat. Offer just one thing to eat. Yeah...screw the Friday's or Applebees, or whatever concept you want..of offering 85 bazillioin badly made things and just do 1 thing great. The one pizza that they were offering that day was mozzarella, feta, roma tomatoes, lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, and cilantro. We ordered a 1/2 pie and ate the whole thing(just barely)...and it was worth every last remaining bite. At just $9 for that half it was also a really good deal. I could continue to wax poetically about this place for at least a couple more paragraphs, but Brandy would kill me for making this post way too long...so I'll stop.

I know that Brandy was just overwhelmed by all of the cheese at the main shop. (When loading the blog Brandy writes in this thought: I looooooove cheeeeeeese). Their selection was very impressive....okay...it was too much for me too (and I know a good bit about cheese...although most of my knowledge is in American atrisanal cheeses, and Italian cheeses....with highlights in just a few of the bigger known ones of the world). They had a huge selection of foreign cheese, with just a little bit from bay area producers(which is a little disappointing. You'd think that with Chez Panisse right across the street from them that they'd be pushing local with a vengeance too???...hmm). I tried to steer things towards cheese that I thought that Brandy might like(my personal tastes and hers are not always the same...I like having the richness of a soft ripened cheese with the sharpness of bacterial bloom in the background, she tends to like things a little less aggressive). (Again, Brandy interjects: I think my tastes are generally MORE aggressive with hard cheeses like sharp, cave aged gruyere's where most of his hard cheeses are...milder. He just goes more tangy with soft cheeses) So I tried to let her pick out all of the cheese...mostly because I was completely enamored with the smile and the gleam in her eyes as she tried each new cheese. The woman that was helping us was very gracious, very friendly, incredibly helpful..and completely unlike what we would have found in Sacramento, very polite. Overall it left such an increbly positive feeling in us for the whole experience. We just can't wait to go back.

Okay, so what was the point about the little dough round that sparked memories of my childhood? Well while we were stuck in traffic..listening to the radio...something in my head thought back to living in Chicago and to this weird little Jewish bread thing that I hadn't had since leaving there. They're called bialys, and they're just little rounds of dough with some ingredients on top of them...kind of bagel-shaped, but without the hole. I can remember living in Chicago and going with the family out somewhere to a shop that just made these things and nothing else. They'd have every topping under the sun on them...but the only ones at that point in my life that I wanted had sauce and cheese, just like a pizza. As I was thinking about these little disks while we sat in traffic...I tried to come up with the word for what they were called(simply so that I could try and look them up on the internet..and maybe make them someday)...and it just hit me. Coincidentally...someone out there remind me to make them and I will do it...and post the results...with troubleshooting tips. it was the very last food that I thought that I'd find 2000 miles away from when I'd had them last. It was the last thing that I'd thought that I'd have 24 years since the last time that I'd had them. it was this stupid little round of dough, topped with roasted onion and poppy seeds that brought me closer to childhood than anything has in recent memory.

Thank god for Berkeley. Thank god for the Cheese Board Collective on Shattuck in Berkeley. Thank god for bialys, and thank god for those great childhood memories of Chicago.

She: Caaaake

2007-07-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, Mark still hasn't gotten off his keister and finished his blogs, so I'm posting this one. Preparations for Mark's b-day were a little harrowing. I went ALL out and got him a whole Star-Wars ensemble for the table, including streamers and all...and forgot wrapping paper. So I got creative with wrapping some presents with grocery bags...
Owls are birthday-ish, right? Well, in between cutting bag parts, I made cakes. Yes, CAKES, plural. I made a lemon cake for Erika (her bday too) and a chocolate almond cake for Mark, upon request. I've given a lemon recipe before, so I'm gunna dive into the chocolate one here, which is a little different, since its a Vegetarian chocolate cake...not because I don't eat dead things, I do (hope I don't offend, shrug), but because Vegan/veggie chocolate cake TASTES better. More chocolate, less sugar. So here we go:
Chocolate Cake Recipe
3 C. flour, 2 C sugar, 6 tbs dark cocoa, 2 tsp b. soda, 1 tsp salt, 2 C water, 3/4 c. veggie oil, 2 tbs vinegar, 2 tsp vanilla. Put into 2 nine inch cake pans, bake for 40 mts at 350F. I actually did one cake pan, and made cupcakes that I cooked for 20 mts with the other half of the batter. That way I could give away some more of the desserts...the icing is the chocolate ganache I previously mentioned in the toffee cupcake recipe, with the vanilla switched for almond extract (not neccisary, but gives a...almondy flavor that was requested) and then sprinkled sliced almonds ontop. You can see the process from un-iced to decorated here. Mark ate his entire cake ALONE. The rest of us had cupcakes.

She: Adjectives and icecream

2007-07-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well, first I must say that Mark has about three blogs in the works filled with yummy recipes, but he hasn't finished them for some *lame* reason...But I now have this fabulous tale for you, and a promise that many recipes are in the works...we've been making our own preserves, veggie salads and other creative foodstuffs. So please be patient.

Mark and I are running a tad low on summer funds for fun, so we decided to do something cheap that we've been meaning to for a while: hunt good ice cream in town. You see, we left Atlanta JUST as we'd found the best gelato shop in town (What's the Scoop, right next to Alon's bakery). Now we are completely spoiled, having tasted quality. Sigh. So first, I wanted to get a sandwich so I didn't go completely piggy at the ice cream parlor, so we went to Bernardo's to split a grilled ham and cheese. It used to be that Bernardos served a fabulous grilled ham and cheese on a long slice of bread with warm tomatoes and a side of fries. Hmmmm. So I ordered the same thing I have in the past, but my sandwich comes out...and its not grilled. Infact, besides having ham and cheese on it, its nothing like the old sandwich--this new fiasco is drenched in mayo and stacked with lettuce, with a soft bun replacing the buttery, grilled bread. I look at the waiter and say "I'm sorry, I ordered a grilled ham and cheese?" to which I get an explination that the menu has changed, and that this IS the grilled ham and cheese. I protest. It ISN'T GRILLED. Ah, but the ham is, I'm told. The way this usually reads in the normal world is Grilled (ham and cheese) sandwich. Meaning, grilled sandwich. But no, now at Bernardo's it means ham thrown on a skillet til luke-warm...with some cold cheese, on a bun. UTTER CRAP! Don't use adjectives if you don't know how. As a consumer, I find this misleading and just wrong, considering they have, in the past, actually grilled the sandwich.

Well. After my mis-described sandwich, we move further downtown to Gunther's shop. There are pictures inside to prove it really hasn't changed much in the last 30 years or so, and I almost got one of their fruit freezes--they really do shave the ice right there, and they sandwich two scoops of shaved ice with a bit of vanilla icecream. Yum. But we wanted to see what these guys were made of, so Mark got two scoops: Butter Brickle and Mocha Almond Fudge, and I got Black Raspberry Chip and Chocolate in waffle cones. The cone was good, and didn't drip or get soggy...important when you're downing the sweet stuff. I think Mark preferred the butter brickle, and though the black raspberry was good, it was the old-fashioned chocolate that was amazing. The ice cream didn't have any ice chips in it and was nice and smooth. The service was good, and I kept wanting to go photograph the malts and bannana splits coming out for other people. The food was PRETTY. Its also local, friendly and cheap, so I'll be going back soon.

She: 4th of July and recipe justifications

2007-07-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

This blog needs ceremonial meat, and who doesn't bar-b-que during the fourth? We didn't have a grill, so I got one at lowes. For some reason Mark had been saying a true dome top is better for some reason...don't remember WHY, but did remember he said that. Anyways, I got one for 10 dolla that was small enough to hide away, and it works great. Of course, I made my best buddy Justin put it together (one little grill, sooo many parts). We made burgers with grilled pineapple slices and cheese. MMMMMMM.

Well, as he put together the grill for Mark to slave over later, I was fixing an upside-down pineapple cake. For Mark's b-day Justin got us the Amy Sedaris cookbook, so I cracked it open to find a recipe. Of course, what that recipe called for DIDN'T WORK. You take 4 tb of butter in a skillet and mix in a cup of brown sugar til it dissolves...except IT DOESN'T. I tried this frickin thing twice (no one every said what temp to heat it at, so I tried a few times) but it either doesn't mix or makes candy. It sucks. If you know something I don't then lemme know. I'll also say that the cake ended up a little dry, so I'm changing the heat temp for the cake. Here's my altered version:

The upside down part: Lay 5 pineapple rings in 9 inch cake pan. Mix 1 cup brown sugar with 1/4 cup pineapple juice from can (unsweetened) until it dissolves (hah! take THAT recipe!) then mix with 4 tbs of melted butter in a pan and reduce. Pour it all in the pan with the rings.

The cake part: Mix dry in a bowl: 1 1/2C flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2C sugar. Get another bowl--Melt 8 tb butter, add in 1/2C milk and 1 egg. Mix wet and dry, then spoon over pineapple stuff in cake pan. Cook for 30-35 mts at 375F.

She: I was dissed

2007-07-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

Mark had this five page long post he wanted to add. No photos, and I said "gee honey, we should get some eye-candy to make this more appealing." Not to say that it wasn't interesting, but I've worked as a graphic designer, marketing artist, and magazine assistant editor. I know text. I don't use all that here (too much work) but the basics I still cover...like giving a full frickin five page long essay without a visual break. Well, I got a nasty snap response that the blog shouldn't be just about "cutsey" recipes like I show. So my feelings were hurt. Since Mark doesn't write html/java, I end up posting these blogs. So I just didn't post his, or any of my cutsey recipes. So no coconut cupcake recipe. No lemon tart recipe. No chocolate chip cookie recipe. I'm fine now, but the 10 day absence can be soley contributed to Mark's temporary scorn. Ah, feel the love.

He: Food Blogging and Why I Matter

2007-06-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, I just read through the latest post that one of my favorite food bloggers www.amateurgourmet.com has put up about what we do. I believe very much what he writes, mostly because I've eaten at a lot of the restaurants that he's been to, at least while he was still living in Atlanta. There's a realness that can only be gained by experiencing what he has experienced. Why should you care about what he has to say, or what we have to say, or for that matter what anyone in the ethos of the internet has to say? Well....you shouldn't, or at least you don't have to. There is something about maybe the writing style, the voice, that you like and maybe you've experienced some of the same experiences that we have and what we're saying seems real and true.

Well, I believe that the restaurant reviews and the writing in general on this site is very truthful. The restaurant reviews are a big deal to me, mostly due to my 11 years in the industry living the lifestyle of one that lives and dies by reviews and critiques.

Within the industry you constantly preach to your underlings that they are only as good as the last dish that they've served. You constantly end up telling people that work themselves into the ground on a regular basis that they need to be doing more, that they need to be working harder, that they have to be more perfect. 'There are thousands of other restaurants here, we have to be better than all of them'. I've lived that quote, I've told that quote...and if you have the right staff that is working for you this is absolutely true. At the same time, occasionally you just aren't 'on', you just can't get everything just perfect.

For the true reviewer you always go to a restaurant more than once. Maybe you got there on a night that things just weren't perfect? Maybe the cook that was working on your meal was not on? Everyone makes mistakes, and occasionally restaurants do too. If after more than one occasion things don't seem any better, then you can write an honest review of a place.

Since I was working on the receiving end of these reviews for years, I know what it's like to get a review from someone that just didn't get what you were trying to do. You take the information that the reviewer did provide and try to distill it down to exactly what that person's experience was like and make improvements based on that. Being on the other side of that writing reviews I know exactly what is going on that has thrown something off, or has just created a concept that is so lackluster that everyone must know about it. Sometimes the reviewer just hated you and isn't going to get what you were trying to do with the concept that you're working within. Sometimes it's just simply that expectations weren't met...and there's nothing that can really be done to fix that.

Just so that you can gain a bit more perspective on food blogging and chefs, please check out these pieces from famous chefs. http://eater.com/archives/2007/06/why_i_hate_food.php
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=sci_tech&id=5388017
http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/05/batali_and_bourdain_argue_over_adam_platt_the_egg_thief_and_much_more.html
Please, keep in mind that in the end, there are people behind all of the work that you're either witnessing(eating at a restaurant, or reading on a blog), or experiencing(at a restaurant, being entertained somehow). Take all with a grain of salt, and try to find your own truth in all that you experience.

She: Ruined lemon bars

2007-06-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

When I'm stressed, I bake. Yesterday I made banana bread, but that didn't help enough. You see, my brakes failed on my way home. *Yikes* There's nothing like driving at 65 mph on a highway pumping your brakes like a mad woman. The master cylinder is going out, so I am sans car. I can only read and prep for class so much before I go nutty from sitting, so I bake.

Today I tried to cheer myself with my favorite recipe: lemon bars. Tried and true, they are better than anything I have found from any bakery or restaurant...they are nice and tangy instead of sugar driven, and I hoard the recipe while stroking the book and calling it "Precious"...not really, but you get the idea. Anyhow, after baking the crust I go to pour the lemon batter on top and it rips a hole in the crust, which now floats in the lemon goo. Sure, it'll still taste good, but it won't look pretty. As a visual artist, this is less than satisfactory.

I am not happy. It is the first time EVER I have had this happen, and I am enraged (well, mildly put-out). I have been foiled by the kitchen gods. "Poppycocks!" I cry! (I just read a book about drunk scottish and irish faeries in New York called The Good Fairies of New York, so it seemed fitting). In more American vernacular, it sucks.

She: Asian Market

2007-06-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last week Mark and I went to the Wing Wa asian market down Stockton. I love going there--it reminds me of living in Bangkok. We bought some candy that I used to get "Super Candy." Its reeeaaally sour--they have super lemon, apple, strawberry and some other flavors I can't remember, but it is coated in salt and makes your mouth pucker, but in a good way. Its not the biggest of the asian markets in town; we still have a few to try, but I love their selection of rice noodles. They have a whole frickin aisle for it. They've also got a great selection of uber-cheap seafood as well.

I went there to hunt for sticky rice, though, so I could make my favorite summer dish: sticky rice with mangos. I luuuuuv this dish. We used to buy it from the vendors by the pound. After the first round, where it was still nice and warm, we'd put it in the fridge and slice it like butter and chomp on it for breakfast. I tried to make it a few times in atlanta, but there are different varieties to the rice, and they never had the one I was used to: a medium grain sticky white rice. But behold! They had a whole shelf devoted to different kinds of sticky rice. Now, sticky rice is, well, sticky. Very sticky. When cooked properly, its more sticky than sushi rice, and makes a great dessert. Of course, there is another part of this puzzle that's also fallen into place here in california...the mangos. There are many different types of mangos. Thai mangos are not like the regular variety you get in most supermarkets. The mangos I crave are sweet and buttery--there's no bitterness, stringiness, or that nasty chalkly aftertaste I've come to despise. We've found Ataulfo mangos taste the same.

Instructions
So here's what you do: get sticky rice. Make sure its not the short grain but medium grain variety (medium looks like normal rice, short grain is almost round). Take 2 cups of rice and soak it for 5 hours in a bowl of water, covering the rice completely. Drain the rice, and put it in a rice cooker with the water about a 1/2 inch above the rice. Cook for 25-40 minutes (I have a rice steamer, not cooker, so it takes the longer amount). If you're not sure, take a bit out of the middle--if any of the grains are hard, cook it longer. While its cooking, mix a cup of coconut milk with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp salt (you need the salt!) until it dissolves. When the rice is done, mix it well with this mixture and let it sit for 15 minutes so the rice absorbs the mix. Then serve it with sliced mangos!

He: My Birthday!!!

2007-06-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are fabulous holidays, if you're the one that's having the birthday. I can't really say that in the last few years that they've really been all that spectacular. I think that part of that can be attributed to not being able to remember what happened. It's not that I was drunk, and that my brain was addled with alcohol, preventing me from processing the information as the celebration was taking place. I think that my birthdays just haven't really been huge events, which really isn't that big a deal.

This year seems to be another one that really probably won't be a big deal at all. Since we moved to California less than a year ago, both of us have only made a friend or two (we tend to make them very slowly...we're really picky), so it definitely won't be a massive to-do with a party and reckless debauchery. Also, it's been more than a year since either of us has had any negligible amount of alcohol, so it won't be a big drinking occasion either. It will be a day where the diet program will be damned, and we will eat whatever we damn well please (just how many calories are in the average birthday cake anyhow?).

Since the circle of friends on this coast is soo small for both of us, I thought that it would be smart to put up a list of all of the stuff that I'm interested in, and why. I figure this way, there's a chance for all of you out there to learn a little bit more about me. This is a chance to figure out what you want to get for me for this birthday. Lastly, this is an opportunity to see a little of what's available in the world of consumer goods, as seen from the mind of a guy that's about to turn 32.

First, the kitchen gear:
www.reusablebags.com has got these lunch kits by a company called Sigg. I'm interested in these mostly for my commute by bike to and from work. Right now I'm taking this insulated fabric lunchbox with me every day. It has worked fairly well for the last year and a half, but it's soft. The problem that I run into with that is that I can't carry anything fragile or crunchy in it....it all just comes out crushed. Also, reusablebags has got some shopping bags for groceries that I think are really cool.

www.cookwarenmore.com carries the irregulars from the factory for all-clad cookware. Before we moved from Atlanta we sold just about everything that we owned. Most of my cookware I sold to a very happy cook at TWO Urban Licks in Atlanta. We haven't replaced any of the stuff that was sold, because I want to buy cookware just once more for the rest of my life. Due to this stipulation that I've placed on myself, my options are a little limited. I could go with some really nice, very heavy French cookware like Le Creuset. Problem with that is that it's iron, and soo freaking heavy that it's impractical just for that. I could go with something like Calphalon, but it's heat transference leaves a lot to be desired(also, they're really picky about what cleaners you can use to clean them...not cool). I've used All-Clad in professional kitchens before, and they work brilliantly! They heat up faster than any other pans I've ever used. They have virtually no hot spots at all. Biggest thing for me, they're just about as indestructible as you can get(check my earlier post about the Dualit toaster to see my thing about indestrucibility. Really I'm just looking for gift certificates on this.

Kitchenaid 6qt artisan mixer(you can find these refurbished from kitchenaid) go to kitchenaid.com for the details and ordering. I'm very specific that I want the highest power 6qt mixer that they manufacture. Also, I want the pasta roller attachment as well(I really miss making fresh pasta...did it at many a restaurant)

k-tec blender(the most powerful blender that you can get for your home....that won't take up as much space as our 90lb. german shepard

Anything from King Arthur Flour(gift certificates preferred) www.kingarthurflour.com

Bike Stuff:
www.seallinegear.com they have a waterproof urban backpack that would be perfect for my commute.

www.castelli-us.com sells a waterproof high-visibility jacket that would be really handy for the commute home at night(just so that I can be more visible to the cars)

www.roadid.com they sell what is the bike equivalent of dog tags. Just in case I do get in a wreck and can't explain who I am or where my nearest relative is(Brandy is tops on that list). Also, they sell little blinking waterproof lights that couldn't be a bad thing to add to the bike for the night rides(hate those pesky cars).

I also could use a good bike pump. The topeak joe blow pro looks really good....but honestly I just need something with a pressure guage that I can use from home.

Random Stuff
Solar christmas lights http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Christmas-Light-S-p-16351.html
hooray for the green revolution!

Brandy and I have been very much into fitness in the last year. We've done a decent amount of research into every aspect of it. One of those areas is supplements, and A1supplements.com is one of the best sites to buy your supplements from. I'd love a gift certificate from them. We buy from them every single month, but this GC would be so that we could pick up some stuff that we've been thinking about but unable to spend the money on.

www.half.com The ULTIMATE place to buy books. If you're good friends with me please email and I'll give you the password to my login. We've got an extremely long list of books that we want, that we haven't bought yet. Please help us support literacy.

The last big thing for me is Threadless.com They sell basically the only shirts that I wear anymore. Please, if you are thinking about getting me something from them, make sure that it's funnny(nothing like a little humor on you to help brighten someone's day).

She: Lemon Bread with cheese filling

2007-06-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

So, Mark came home the other day with about two dozen bananas. Who NEEDS that many bananas? I had every intention of making banana cookies and altering my banana bread recipe to a healthier but still moist wheat flour, but those plans didn't come through tonight. Why? Well, Mark made a fabulous goat cheese and mushroom pizza. From scratch. Which is great, except the utensil-part. Here's a run down of my thought process...

Mark is on the couch being a slug (he made dinner so that is his right). I walk into the kitchen and the bowl, cookie pan, and other instruments of baking are all slimed, in the sink. I look at the bananas, know I'll need at least two bowls, and decide that its just not worth it. So I find the one clean bowl we have, look in the fridge, find my lemons, and go to town. I'll leave the recipe at the bottom. While the bread is baking, I clean BOTH dirty bowls and all the utensils, and throw some baking soda in the sink and use my left-over lemon rinds as agents to scour the sink (soda + lemons work really well on grease stains, which were also in abundance since Mark doesn't rinse down the sink either). While I'm doing this, I belt in a loud voice sure to be heard "Gee, it would be SO nice if someone cleaned their OWN bowl and stuff." I am obviously a sensitive, delicate and tactful butterfly of social graces....

Anyhow. The lemon bread didn't dome, but thats because I put a lemon/cream cheese filling in the center. Its still yummy, though.

Lemon Bread:
Mix: 1/2 c soft butter, 1 c sugar. Add 2 eggs, 2 tbs lemon juice, 1-2 tbs lemon peel. Premix dry (1 1/2 c flour, 1 ts baking soda, 1/8 tsp salt) and add to mix. Lastly, mix in 1/2 c milk and put into bread pan.

Lemon Cheese
Mix 1 tsp sugar, 1/3 cup cream cheese with juice and peel of one small lemon. Put into a sandwich bag, cut a corner and squeeze it down the middle of the bread.

Bake in oven 350 F, 40-45 minutes. If you want extra lemon kick (I do), mix 1/2 lemon juice with 2 tsp powder sugar and drip over warm bread. The cheese sinks pretty low, but it does make a very nice compliment to the sweeter bread part. I suppose you could change the ratio of lemon juice in the cheese to keep it lighter. I'll repost if I try this again.

He: The Dualit Toaster Obsession

2007-06-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

I know that I have a running obsession with well made kitchen gadgets. Form for me is never as much of a drive as something that seems as though I have no chance of breaking it. I seek out things that seem soo powerfully built that there is not a chance in hell that I can possibly damage it. After breaking my way through 5 kitchenaid mixers, 3 toasters, countless sautee pans, at least one full dish set, and more glasses than I care to count, I look for those things that will at least put up a good fight. The toasters hand made by an English company called Dualit comes into the equation.

How could a toaster possibly become an obsession? Well, who doesn't love toast? Toast can go with just about anything. The English have toast with baked beans on it as part of their classic breakfast. Americans have turned the toaster into a machine of speed and efficiency(just look at Quiznos or Subway to see what I'm talking about).

There was a time in my own life where I was completely obsessed with learning how to make the best artisanal breads that I could. As a by-product of all of this there was always a ton of bread around the house, thus, a great deal of toast was made. My all-time favorite was a bread that I got from Buckhead Bread company in Atlanta Georgia. The produced this incredibly flavorful, hearty loaf that I think was called sour pecan, raisin batard. Just imagine Pepperidge Farm cinnamon raisin bread on steroids, and you'll be in the ball park of what this fantastic bread was like. I used to look forward to breakfast, just to make a piece of this into toast and top it with a little strawberry preserves. I still have a pavlovian response just thinking about it.

The reason why I'm completely caught up with the Dualit toaster is simple, it's the best. I personally believe that anything that you can get that is made by hand is almost always a better product. These toasters are still made by hand. They're also spectacularly heavy-duty with heavy stainless steel components, and very solid controls. The last thing, the big winner for me and why I must have one of these machines, is that with the majority of toasters when they finish toasting the bread pops up and immediately begins to cool. With a Dualit toaster, the heat shuts off, but the toast stays warm in the machine until you press to lift it out of the machine(it's keeping your toast at the perfect temperature just until you want to extract it and give it a little butter and jam love). What couldn't possibly be better than that!?

Anyhow, the Dualit toasters happen to be painfully expensive machines, and I'm not exactly growing money instead of hair at the moment. If anyone out there can feel it in their hearts to 'donate' to the cause of allowing me (well, really Brandy and I)the dream of getting back to that perfect state of 'toasty satisfaction' please email us and we'll let you know how you can give to the cause.

He: Fluffernutter cookie sandwiches

2007-06-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

Aka doggie crack sandwiches

Okay, originally this idea was born out of trying to find a use for a bunch of peanut butter that we got for free. You would think that having a ton of free, organic, stone ground, raw, perfect peanut butter would be a fantastic thing. Well, you're right! Having this stuff around is inspiring to look for unique and creative possibilities. These cookies are the first of many explorations into the world of everything that is peanut butter.

Just so that I don't get lost in the thoughts of how and why all of this was born I'll give you the whole method now.

Peanut Butter Sandies
½ c. (4oz) unsalted butter
½ c. (4 ¾ oz) peanut butter (plain, unseasoned, unadulterated…just peanuts and nothing else)
1 c. (7oz) granulated sugar(I used organic, unrefined cane sugar, but just about any will do)
¾ tsp. salt (kosher or sea salt please)
½ tsp. baking soda
2 t. Vanilla extract (here we used Penzeys double strength)
1 ea. Large Egg
¼ c (2oz) Heavy Cream or sour cream
3 Tbsp. (3/4 oz) Cornstarch
3 C. (12 ¾ oz) Unbleached AP Flour

1. Beat first 6 ingredients until light and fluffy(medium speed on your mixer for 4 minutes)
2. Add egg and beat until completely incorporated
3. Add ½ of the cream, ½ of the flour and all of the cornstarch and beat well(about 2 minutes on medium)
4. Add remaining cream and flour, mix just until incorporated
5. Divide dough in ½ flatten slightly, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour(we did it overnight)
6. After refrigeration, preheat oven to 350˚F, parchment line 2 sheetpans, remove dough from freezer about 5 minutes before rolling out
7. Lightly flour work surface and ball of dough(instead of this I lined the counter with freezer paper…we have funky tile for counters). Roll to 1/4-1/8” thick, cut to desired shape.
8. Place almost touching on the sheetpans and bake for exactly 10 minutes do not allow to brown
9. Cool on the sheetpans for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Pliable Paste (filling)
1 c. (9 ½ oz) peanut butter
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 ½ c. (10 oz)confectioners sugar
6 Tbsp. milk

1. beat peanut butter and vanilla
2. Add confectioners sugar and beat until smooth(this will take several minutes)
3. Add milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached
4. store until needed, covered

Almond Marshmallow Fluff
1 ea. Egg white-at room temperature
1 c. unrefined cane sugar
1/3 c. water
1/8 tsp. salt(sea or kosher)
1 ½ tsp Almond extract

1. Beat egg white in the bowl of an electric mixer until frothy, add salt and beat until stiff, shiny peaks are formed
2. Melt water and cane sugar in a saucepot, stirring only until dissolved, then bring to soft ball stage(240˚F on a candy theromometer)
3. Allow the sugar mix to sit for 1 minute off heat before adding to the beaten white
4. Slowly stream in the sugar mix, while beating on high, the white until all is incorporated.
5. Continue to beat on high until the mixture is completely cooled and lifted to full volume(this can take as long as 20 minutes)
6. Store covered until needed in a container

Assembly: Lay down finished cookie, and put a thin sheet of the peanut filling ontop, then about 1 tbs of Fluff. Put another cookie on top to complete the sandwich. I also dipped the cookies in melted chocolate, placed them on a rack and let them cool. If you don't want rack marks on your chocolate, transfer them to a wax sheet.

There are a few things that I would change if I do these cookies again. One, I think I want to play with the filling a little bit, it was way too sweet for me. Two, the original recipe that I based the fluff on came out of a cookbook by an old chef friend of mine Scott Peacock. Some of you may know him, he's extremely popular on the east coast. Some of you may even have his cookbook(written with his long time mentor and friend Edna Lewis) The Gift of Southern Cooking. The changes that I made were for just basic tinkering ideas…I think that I'd add back in the gelatin. Without the gelatin to provide structure for the fluff, you just end up with Italian meringue, which doesn't have the 'bounciness' that's soo nice about homemade marshmallows. Also, I think that I want to play with the flavoring of the marshmallows(the original recipe calls for vanilla, but I used up all of mine on the other parts of this cookie), maybe something like cinnamon???

I think that's about it with these. Please feel free to post your comments and questions and I will try to answer any and all that I can.

She: Toffee Chocolate Cupcakes

2007-05-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

SO. I had my craving to bake some cupcakes again. I do this often...every week or two. But, since this is a new blog site, I will explain. I NEVER use boxed mixes. Why? Well, if I had my own kiddo who needed 75 cupcakes for school, I might. But most of the joy for me is coming up with a recipe that isn't a standard flavor. That, and boxed stuff has a ton of preservatives and other scary things I like to avoid. Because I like my sugar honest. I don't always start with an original base--the vanilla cake base is from Amy Sedaris, but usually I try things out a few times and modify from there.

Yesterday I made a new concoction: Toffee Chocolate Cupcakes. First, a few words of caution: do NOT overfill these cupcakes. They will overflow into a messy mass if you do. Also, make sure your oven is well heated at 360. Most recipes say 350, but when you open the oven, you let some of the air out, and it cools slightly. This adjusts for that a tad. And one last thing...if you use foil cups, great. But I don't always know what I have at hand at home, and this was a mix of both foil and paper. For paper, I tend to double-cup. This is because the second paper cup helps soak a little of the greasiness out of the cake. Also, this recipe uses baking powder--thats good because powder releases at oven temp and not immediately like baking soda, so don't subsitute.

Batter Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of butter (room temp), 1 3/4 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/4 cups milk, 1 cup toffee bits.

Instructions: Cream butter and sugar--make sure the butter is well incorporated. Then add eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder. Alternate adding flour and milk--I did this in 1/2 cup increments. Fill the cups 2/3 full, and cook for 20 minutes. Test with a toothpick; they'll be done when you get NO crumbs on the toothpick. Let cool for 5-8 minutes, then transfer to a rack. Recipe makes about 2 dozen cupcakes.

Now, the cupcake is moist, but the toffee bits melt in to add extra butteriness (is that a word?) to the cake. I paired it with my own version of a chocolate ganache icing. The icing was SO worth the wait, not that I had a clue of how LONG I'd wait when I started it.

Ganache Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup bittersweet chocolate (at least 60% chocolate--I like Ghirardelli), 1 cup powder sugar.

I have seen a lot of ganache recipes, and they call for either butter or a ton of powder sugar. I HATE adding butter to icing if I don't need it. Why? It cuts the chocolate flavor down. And so does too much sugar. This works really well though. Just put the cream in a sauce pan on low heat, stirring every once in a while til you see small bubbles around the edge. If you don't stir it, it could burn on the bottom and that would taste nasty. This took me about 5 minutes. I cleaned the kitchen counters and let the dog lick the bowl (the cupcake batter, NO chocolate for doggies!) while doing this. Put the chocolate chips in a Pyrex or metal bowl, and when the cream is ready, dump the cream on top. I let it sit for juuuust a minute or two to let it melt, then take a whisk and stir them together. After its all solidly mixed, I added the powder sugar, stirred it in well, and let the ganache sit. AND sit. AND sit some more. You don't put chocolate in the fridge or you start to break down the cocoa butter and such. And destroying chocolate flavor is a sin. But since I didn't know how heavenly it would taste, my patience was wearing thin. I'm a photographer. We dig that whole "immediate gratification" thing. SIGH.

Its supposed to sit til at room temp, but what I THOUGHT was room temp was only close, so I broke down, put plastic wrap on the bowl, and let it sit overnight. Up to that point it was like I was 8 yrs old in the back of my parents car, only instead of asking "are we there yet?" it was "has it cooled yet?" You'll know its ready because if you tip the bowl sideways, it doesn't slide. Niiice and thick. And really rich. I think it might overwhelm the toffee cakes, but adding a tad more toffee might make up for it.

She: Noodle House

2007-05-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I'm addicted to vietnamese noodles and grilled meat. LOVE it. I never lived there, but I did live next door in Thailand, and depending on what vendors you ate at, there were some similarities--there's a thai version of pho soup and all that jazz. Anyways. When Mark and I moved to Sacramento, we were completely bummed by the lack of fab mexican or new american cuisine. Its what we lived on in Atlanta. (but we are still looking around here!) Instead, we found that while the Sacramento version of salsa leaves a bad (read watery) taste in our mouths, the noodles in this town rock.

Noodle House is one of my favorite places in town. Its a little joint in the strip mall over on Madison and Manzanita in Citrus Heights--behind the Starbucks, Lyons, etc. Its just "Noodle House." But it IS authentic, and the staff is super friendly. They do know me, and I always sit at "my" table (little embarassed at being such an obvious devotee), but even before they knew me, I was always greeted and seated sweetly by a soft spoken Vietnamese lady. And anyone who serves there is just as gracious, too. That goes a LONG way with me.

Anyways, I went there with my friend Erika, and we started off with fried wantons in ginger sauce. They use *real* wanton wrappers--meaning they are really thin and crispy. They use these on their imperial rolls (aka spring rolls), too. Any time I get a spring roll or wonton with a thick wrapper, I'm a) disappointed and b) suspicious that they actually bought them premade. Thats usually what I find in those situations.

While we were chomping on these badboys, we were also drinking the complimentary hot tea that comes with any meal there. We ended up ordering two different versions of the rice noodles--she got grilled beef and I got the chicken. I've had them all, and all of the meat there is moist. This meal comes in a bowl with a side of a cucumber/pickled carrot/lettuce salad that I just mix in with the noodles. The noodle bowl is too big for me to finish unless I'm really full, and if you just get the basic its under 6 bucks! The only thing is...if you go there often enough (as I obviously do) you reaaaally get to know the recycling elevator music they play, but with everything else they've got going, it doesn't phase me in the least.

He: Toast in Granite Bay

2007-05-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

‘It’s soo soothing and pleasant that it makes me want to just kill myself. I want to die. I want to die. Kill me now!’ – Stan’s Grandfather on Southpark
This is the only real lasting impression that I took away from the experience of brunch at Toast in Granite Bay. Not to say that the meal was so heinous that I was asking people around me if they would kill me(although the idea of it may have motivated the waitstaff to life), but just that maybe if someone did try to kill me while I was dining at Toast I might just have more emotions to attach to the experience there. Let’s just say that I know enough about restaurants to know when someone truly knows what they’re doing and what they want to do, and when someone hopes that nobody really catches onto the fact that they really don’t have any idea and are just faking it until they can get to the point that they know that they know nothing. Toast gives me the distinct impression that they fall into the latter of these categories.

If there is anything that reading of many, many other blogsites have taught me...people loooove pictures.
I had a simple plate of over easy eggs with roasted red potatoes, honey ham and wheat toast. She had eggs benedict , more of those same red skin potatoes and a cinnamon roll that we both shared. I found just a couple of things to be a little off about my meal(but it's breakfast, it should be fantastic...it's not like it's a hard meal to cook). She, on the other hand, had all sorts of problems with what she got. My issues were potatoes that looked like they went right from the steamer to the plate....no color whatsoever. If you're really going to do such a travesty to potatoes as to cut them up and cook them to be eaten as pieces there should be come freaking CARAMELIZATION on them...otherwise just mash them. Her issues were VERY hard english muffins, poached eggs that should've just been hard boiled(since they were sooo well done), and completely BROKEN hollandaise(which I also thought was too spicy with tabasco). The only 2 things that I can honestly say that toast did well were a good cup of coffee, and an admirable attempt at a cinnamon bun.
What could possibly make me think that Toast is a place that is just trying to get its bearings and maybe try to make a run at figuring itself out? First there’s the complex that it’s a part of, Quarry Pond in Granite Bay. This is a strip mall that is created around the idea of copying the Ferry Building in San Francisco(I know this is the idea that they were going for, because I interviewed with the head chef of Toast that works directly for the owner of the whole complex), only not doing it as big, or with as many unique shops, or without really having the backing of being in a true food town. If you have been to both of these places, you have the opportunity to call me to the matt if you think that I’m completely off base on my assessment of this completely created, Starbucks ‘Venti Latte Culture’ sham of a concept.
The second big thing that makes me wonder what they hell they were thinking in their creation of Toast is the interior and overall design of the place. As soon as you walk in you will see a small bar, with a large flat screen TV and the host stand. As soon as SheChew and I walked in I noticed and incredible confluence of white logo’ed button up shirt, black slacks, blonde-dyed twentynothing female servers(all of whom looked like they wanted to be anywhere but there, spending as much of their parents’ money as they possibly could). For some strange reason(it certainly wasn’t the architecture or the tables, or the strange location of the kitchen) I thought of Bette’s Ocean View Diner in Berkley http://www.worldpantry.com/bettes/home.html . The similarities between Toast and Bette’s certainly stopped immediately after that first impression, and any big fans of the latter please let me apologize for mentioning a very good breakfast spot that has nice food executed by real cooks, in the same article with food prepared by Latinos that don’t have enough concern, or love of food to get the food right…..yet.
Okay it just occurred to me that this post is getting to the point of becoming amazingly long. If you’ve actually made it this far I commend you. Yes, at times I can be very negative towards the restaurant industry. I don’t think that my viewpoint is at all invalid, since I do have a very strong base in the hospitality industry itself. I think this base in hospitality affords me the space to make the comments that I do, and will continue to do. If restaurants in this area really want to become more like the bay area, where true, superior establishments exist, they really need to go back and reexamine how they are going about the concept of hospitality, and get outside of this exclusive idea that they’re there just to make money.

She: Luccas with sole

2007-05-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Lucca for lunch. When we went in, at first we thought the place was dead--there was one table filled. Then we were asked if we wanted to be seated outside, and behold! Almost every seat was packed. Now, the owners of Lucca's own Roxy, too, which we've had very mixed experiences for... so we weren't sure what we were getting into.

The first thing we found though, was that the atmosphere was great outside. There were a few water fountains in the back, with lemon trees and other vegetation to obscure its proximity to other buildings downtown. Our waiter was (for a change) timely and actually knew the specials. We each ordered one: Mark had the open-faced albacore tuna sandwich topped with boiled egg and a side of fries. I had the Petrale sole fillet with watercress and mashed potatoes. We also ordered the Myzithra cheese flatbread, which came with a tasty lentil and garlic dip, olive pesto dip, as well as olives.

My sole was fabulous. It was delicately sauteed, and covered in a red cream sauce which matched without overwhelming the fish. The mashed potatoes were rich and buttery, and the entire dish was presented prettily, as well. We passed on desert--nothing really jumped out to either of us, and we were comfortably full. The only thing I have to say is...the waiter put down the bill RIGHT in front of Mark. Now, in our enlightened day and age, it should be common practice to put it between a couple. As a woman, I balk at the idea that if I'm with a man--regardless of his age or relationship, seventy percent of the time the bill is given to him. I HATE that. Its a sexist assumption that "the man pays." It may be chivalrous for a man to offer to pay, (or heck, ANYONE else to pay) but not for the waiter to make that assumption. Especially since, like today, the meal went on MY card. I mean...that isn't smart as I am the tipper, as well. :P But, the food was great, atmosphere relaxed and sophisticated.

I did start thinking on the way home about how to make my own fabulous fish--I never make fish at home, it seems, and as summer comes I'd like a few lighter meals in the week. So I scrounged up a few recipes and came up with this:

Ingredients:
Get 1 or 2 lbs of sole, or even a flounder, I cup of flour, an egg, a few pinches of salt and pepper, 1-2 cups of tempura crumbs, olive oil, butter.

Instructions:
• Pat the fish to dry with paper towels.
• Roll the fish in flour, then dip into beaten egg. Make sure to take off any excess egg.
• Roll gently in tempura crumbs.
• Place on a plate in the fridge and let it sit for an hour.
• When hour's up, recoat with more crumbs.
• Heat 1 tbs of butter and 1tbs of oil in the pan.
• GENTLY place the fish in the fan, and saute fish on both sides til golden brown. Use medium-high heat, for around 5 minutes each. You must be gentle when you flip the fish over, or it'll break up into a few sections.

If you'd like, once the fish is cooked you can squeeze some lemon or some other citrus onto the fish before serving.