She: Tomato Soup

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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.