Whole ginger roasted crab with homemade linguine with shredded carrots, spring onions, and cilantro.  Broth is 2 parts jalapeño/ginger and 1 part Saigon Sauce: soy, grated ginger, teriyaki, fish sauce, brown sugar with sautéed ginger and garlic.   Fish., Sausalito, CA

We like to serve homemade cranberry sauce with turkey. We prefer the flavor and texture to any canned product. This can be prepared up to a week before it will be needed and stored in the refrigerator.

1 12-oz bag of fresh cranberries

1 medium orange, diced with the skin on

1 small can of crushed pineapple

1 C sugar (diabetics may substitute equivalent artificial sweetener)

1 C water

½ C rum

¼ C cornstarch, dissolved in ½ C water

½ t cinnamon

Dash of ground clove

Salt to taste

1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and finely minced (optional)

Combine the water, sugar and rum in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add the cranberries, orange, pineapple (including the liquid in the can), and jalapeno. Mix well. When the cranberries have popped, add the cinnamon, clove and salt. Mix  well. Add the cornstarch, then bring to a boil, stirring until the white haze caused by the cornstarch dissipates. Remove from heat.

En gnutta sol i tallen

Sista jalapeñon i år?

I would like to say I invented this most amazing of salads all by myself, but the truth is that there are lots of variations of this incredibly delicious concoction. Stef made her signature black beans and rice, which I can’t fully reveal here, but I will say that part of why it’s so good is that there is a very good proportion of beans to rice and that the texture is still fluffy, never gluey or gummy.

Avocado and corn salsa

1 avocado

1 large tomato

1 cup of corn (thawed if using frozen corn)

2 jalapenos

4 green onions

2 TBL lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Chop up the vegetables, stir everything together in a bowl. Let it sit in the fridge while the beans and rice cook. Serve and enjoy.

Hittad i en tråd på det hemska forumet.

Videon är fejk viket kommer fram i video två.

For lunch I made Spicy Tomato-Sauced Enchiladas with Jalapeños and Aged Cheese (TEOCE15)/Enjitomatadas with Essential Simmered Tomato-Jalapeño Sauce (EF1).
I wrote that last sentence two weeks ago. I actually had to go back and look at my calendar to see when it had been. It was such a nice day, that Friday. It was the day before Halloween and John took the day off to go to Jack and Scarlett’s school Halloween program which left me with a free morning to, what else, make a nice Mexican lunch for us! Since it’s been a couple of weeks, the details of the meal are a little fuzzy but I remember three things right off the bat: one was that I was nervous about cooking with jalapeños, worrying that the sauce would be too spicy, but decided, nevertheless, not to knock down the level too much, two that it was really good and not spicy at all. The next time I see Rick Bayless (and I hope to see him in December when John and I have reservations for Topolobampo!), how to determine how spicy fresh peppers are will be my first question. The third thing , being a linguist (but not knowing Spanish), I was left wondering how the word Enjitomatadas really could encompass all the meaning of the english title: Spicy Tomato-Sauced Enchiladas with Jalapeños and Aged Cheese. Any Spanish speakers out there? Anyway, back to the enchiladas. As the recipe reads the enchiladas are not filled with anything. They’re just dipped in the sauce and served with additional sauce and queso añejo (which really does taste similar to parmesan) on top. We had some leftover chicken so we added that. Rick does give another alternative, which is to stuff them with either ricotta or soft goat cheese. That would probably be really good too. This recipe was pretty easy and I would make it again.

Then I think it was the Monday after Halloween that I made Chilied Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chard (LHS1). I had made this once before, pre-project. Although I think when I made it before I used the more traditional variation without the chard and with avocado instead. This time I stuck to the recipe and I have to say that the chard in the soup was fantastic, not to mention that I can’t help but feel healthy when eating leafy greens like chard. I also love how the Chihuahua cheese melts. We didn’t use it all in the soup and it has been really good on my sandwiches in the Panini maker. The fried tortilla strips were also great and it was hard not to snack on too many of them while waiting to serve the soup. The only problem I have with this recipe the fried pasilla chile pieces. The recipe calls for dried pasilla chiles to be cut into small pieces and then fried in oil until crisp. Some of them are then rehydrated and puréed with the broth, roasted garlic and tomato (which really gives the broth a nice dark color; John thought I had used beef broth, not chicken), while the rest are sprinkled on the bowls of soup with the cheese and tortilla strips. My chile pieces didn’t taste good to me and I remember that feeling of not liking the chile strips from the last time I made this (the taste of them puréed in the broth didn’t bother me, though and John did like them and was happy to put all of them in his bowl. All in all, this recipe is great and I’ll be happy to make it again and perhaps do a smaller amount of pasilla chiles just for flavoring the broth.

It was just after this recipe that things got off track for me. I hosted my bookclub but all of the remaining appetizer recipes in the book were too complicated for me to do with the amount of time I had so I went in a non-Mexican direction. Then, both Scarlett and I got sick and I’m only now feeling better (although I still don’t have much of a voice). I’m hoping to get back on track this weekend. John has requested a bbq brisket for his birthday tomorrow so I’ll try to do a menu on Sunday.

November 2, 2003

Kuwait City, Kuwait

                So, I’m trying to put together a quick, post-work snack.  Declining on milk and cookies because I’m a freak about dairy products and won’t drink milk that’s even THINKING about expiring, I decided to try to whip up a dish I had eaten the other day: jalapenos stuffed with ground meat.  Mmm…I lazily place the milk back in the fridge and begin!

                Almost as directed, I deseed the ‘peno and plunk it in some cold water which is supposed to take some heat off.  I’m so proud that, despite not using gloves as directed, I appear to have this unbelievable skin that doesn’t even tingle after the deseeding.  I am so cool!

                Suddenly, I have an uncontrollable itch on my nose.  I scratch it away and proceed about getting the ingredients ready.  In no more than two seconds, the warming starts.  Sinuses are officially cleared and, yes, my nose is starting to really heat up!  It’s on official burn mode.  And, ice isn’t helping…it’s actually just sticking to my skin and I now have an ice cube stuck to my face.  After ramping up to full-on thermo-nuclear temperatures, I decide there MUST be a better way.

                So, after no sympathy from my husband, I consult the internet.  Hopping up and down in my seat in discomfort, I read the various home remedies for curing chili burn:

                First, I concoct a syrup from sugar and water and apply.  Feeling sticky, but the heat is still rising!

                Remember that nearly expired milk?  Well, god bless laziness ‘cause the next suggestion involves applying milk to the burn area.  The cold liquid feels goooood.  I think the injury was reduced to a third degree burn.

                Another recommended home remedy is baking soda.  Well, I just made cookies so I MUST have baking soda.  Okay, so the cookies never settled and instead wound up as baked dough balls which Eric renamed “Brookies” for their brownie-like consistency.  I rush to the kitchen cabinet in agony, excited to finally find some relief.  Much to my surprise and chagrin, I do NOT have baking soda; I have baking POWDER. Hmmm…. Explains the Brookies!

                Finally, the cure came in the obvious form of cortisone cream.  Ahhh…..

                Moral of the story:  Just don’t cook with jalapenos.  Period.  Leave that to the professionals!

First Jalapeño Pepper

This is my first Jalapeño and We are in November!.  The plant it’s not doing great and cooler short days are not helping either. I’ll try again next year.

The situation

Yesterday’s major effort to fully plant up the vegetable garden left 7 unused seedlings still drooping forlornly in their punnets:

• 2 cherry tomatoes
• 1 Lebanese cucumber
• 4 chillies, comprising:
  • 2 Cayenne
  • 1 Anaheim
  • 1 Jalapeño

Overflow garden as seen from the back deck, next to established plants

There’s a large amount of garden space in our back yard, hugging the fences on all 3 sides. Now it so happens that one part of it, about 3 metres’ worth on the upper, southern side nearest the deck, is empty.

It used to be shaded, a little too well, by a Macadamia nut tree that leaned over the fence from George the upper side neighbour’s yard, so we’d really never grown anything there.

(That Macadamia was a wonderful tree – big enough to partly shade our back deck, making it considerably cooler on those stinking hot summer days of ours. The new, wind-down shade we had installed after it was gone is okay, good even, but still… I miss the tree, its leaves, its birds, and even its occasional possum denizens.)

Anyway, about 8 months back George finally had the nut tree chopped down – it had been heavily crowded out by both our and his back decks for years, so major branches had been lopped off here and there. It was starting to look lopsided. (Hmmm, could it be this is where the term “lopsided” comes from…?)

The overflow garden, planted, trellised and mulched.

After the tree went, we realised that the area of never-used garden bed below it was now far more exposed to the sun and therefore more “plantable”. So I got in a half metre of organic garden soil from Camp Hill Timber and Landscape, our nearest supplier of landscaping supplies. After adding the soil to the bed I’d then thoroughly swaddled it in sugar cane mulch and used some of the ubiquitous old pavers to protect the mulch (not all that successfully, let’s face it) from cat attack. And that’s how the bed has stayed ever since, waiting for a purpose.

Well, almost half of it now has that purpose.

The process

I spent a pleasant couple of hours in the middle of the day there (fortunately it was cloudy and so not too hot), first removing the pavers and scraping the mulch back out of the way. I then dug up the areas where the excess seedlings were to go and added a measure of compost to each area, mixing it well through the soil. Wetting everything down thoroughly at each step I transplanted the seedlings into position, putting in a stake or trellis next to those that will need it (the tomatoes and cucumber). I finished off by re-mulching around the new denizens, making sure to keep the mulch at least 5 centimetres away from the seedling stems so the organisms that break down the mulch don’t focus on the stems instead, and “re-paving” the lot for ongoing protection. Step back and away, and the job ’tis done.

Potted chillies (Jalapeño and Anaheim) destined for the back deck

Oh, and while I was at it, I potted up the last 2 remaining chillies, the  Anaheim and the Jalapeño, and put them upstairs on the back deck.

The outcome

The new, ‘overflow’ vege garden is hereby dubbed the Annexe. I can see it going one way or the other – either down in flames and eaten out because it’s closer to the fence and may be easier and safer for the possums to reach; or it’ll flourish because it’s somewhat more out of site and sheltered than the main bed out in the yard.

What’s the bet?

(P.S. Ignore the date on the photos – it’s wrong. I accidentally set the camera date to the day before after recharging the battery overnight. A true GardenerScampus moment – no doubt merely the first of many more.)

I didn’t have nachos tonight in preparation for National Nacho Day.  I had pizza.  Crappy pizza too.  Stupid excessively overpriced crappy pizza.  This is what happened…

The past two nights, G has stayed up late and has been energetic and lots of fun so I planned on that tonight.  I planned on picking him up from daycare and we would go shopping to pick up the stuff for the Best Nachos Ever and it would be loads of fun.  Like this!

Gratuitous Cute Kid Shot #1

I forgot though.  Yesterday we went to one of the mass inoculation clinics and he got shot up with seasonal flu vaccine and H1N1 vaccine … and then he woke up at 5 this morning with a fever and cranky.  So when I picked him up from daycare, it was a lot more like this …

Gratuitous Cute Kid Shot #2 (can you still call it cute when it looks like this?)

Suffice to say, we did not make it to the grocery store and I did not make nachos.  Instead, I ordered this crappy-ass pizza from this crazy place that charged me $3.00 to put less than an ounce of feta on my small pizza!  But I digress …

Since my child has yet again prevented me from being able to provide you with delicious photographs of delicious food, the least I can do is provide you with my Philosophy of Nachos and some delicious recipes.

Here’s my Philosophy of Nachos:

Nachos are all about the layers, the cheese and the salsa.  Well, nachos ARE cheese on top of tortilla chips.  Otherwise, they’re just tortilla chips.  So really, the tortilla chips are conduits.  Conduits for yummy ooey gooey melted cheese and tart juicy salsa.  Of course, you should also put other toppings on your nachos to make it really spectacular which is what I almost always do.  But the key is the layers.  To build a really good plate of nachos, you have to layer your nachos, cheese, toppings like you are building a really complex lasagna, or playing Tetris or something like that.

You start with a nice deep casserole dish, or even better, a deep cast iron frying pan.  Spread a two chip thick layer of tortilla chips across the bottom.  Use good chips.  You’re making nachos here – there is no “diet-friendly” here – nachos are about excess!  Skip the baked tortilla chips and go straight to the good ol’deep-fried corn tortilla chips.  Don’t buy unsalted chips either.  You’d just be cheating yourself.

Evenly sprinkle a layer (silly aside here – I just accidentally typed “lawyer” not “layer” – I have work on the brain) of grated “cheese” (explained below) and a layer of “toppings” (also explained below), followed by another two chip thick layer of chips, another layer of cheese, another layer of toppings and so on until you have filled the casserole dish.  Finish by topping the last layer of toppings with a layer of cheese.  Bake in a 350 degree oven until all the cheese is thoroughly melted.  It can’t be a little bit melted.  It has to be bubbling-boiling-oil-separating-from-the-milk solids melted.  Take it out of the oven and then eat your nachos by dipping them in a variety of “delicious dips” (explained below) and sour cream before carefully putting them in your mouth trying not to burn your tongue on the melted cheese.  Drink beer with your nachos. Or maybe a Margarita if you want to pretend you are on a tropical holiday somewhere lounging on the beach …

Gratuitous Cute Kid Shot #3 - On the

Delicious Recipes:

“Cheese” – should be a mixture of cheese.  Not just any old cheese.  Mix monterey jack (preferably with jalapenos or habaneros in it) and extra old cheddar.  That’s the best combo.

“Toppings” - this is where things can get crazy.  Skip the canned black olives (eeewwwww!!!) and go for any combination (or all) of the following:

1. The Fresh Veggie Topping: Finely chopped bell peppers of every hue (red, green, yellow, orange), tomatoes (use Romas – they’re less juicy so they won’t make your chips soggy), sweet onion (stay away from yellow and purple – too strong!).

2. The Taco Sunday Veggie Topping: Saute onions, mushrooms and diced red peppers until tender but still crunchy.  Add black beans, corn and spices.  ”Spices?”  Spices.  Specifically, toasted ground cumin, chili powder, toasted ground coriander, cayenne, salt and lime juice.  Yes, I consider citrus a spice.  Cook long enough to meld all the flavours, but remember that your veggies will be cooking in the oven while the cheese is melting so don’t go overboard or you’ll end up with mush.

3. The Taco Sunday Meat Topping: Brown extra lean ground beef or bison meat.  Properly lean meat will actually require some oil in the pan and there won’t be anything to drain off.  Add spices and a slurry.  Spices are pretty much the same as for the Veggie Topping, but don’t put lime in it unless you really, really like citrus.  Make a slurry with some corn starch and some water, or if you want to stick with our family’s Taco Sunday tradition, use beer.  Mix the spices with the slurry, slop it onto the meat and cook on med-low heat until it thickens.  You can do the same thing with chicken instead but it’s best to rub spices on the chicken, grill it, shred it and then simmer it in the spicy slurry.  If you use chicken, definitely use the lime.

4. The Taco Sunday Extra Best Special Topping: Chorizo and lime.  That’s it.  Just chorizo (really good quality of course) sauteed with some fresh lime juice squeezed on it.

5. The Gotta Have Something Pickled Topping: pickled jalapenos, banana pepper rings, green chiles, olives (again, let me reiterate, not the canned ones! eeeeeewwwwww!), etc.

“Delicious Dips” - there’s a variety here.  It’s all about salsa fresca – which just means “fresh sauce” which doesn’t really tell you much about what you’re eating except that it’s “fresh”.  No, that doesn’t mean it’s going to pinch you in the butt when you walk by.  It means fresh raw ingredients.  The best salsa is made with the best produce, so if you’re gonna make it, splurge on the high quality produce and buy local whenever you can – it almost always tastes better.

Because I am blessed to live in the heart of farm market country, I rarely eat store bought salsa.  Salsa fresca is easy to make and delicious to eat so why would I?  First, make your base.  What you do is you finely mince a mid-size clove of garlic and put it in a bowl.  Add about a quarter of a sweet onion finely diced, a couple of handfuls of fresh cilantro leaves, a pinch of cayenne and some fresh squeezed citrus (you pick lemon or lime – depends on what else you’re putting in the salsa).  Amounts are not specific (if you have a problem with that, please go re-read my profile – you can’t say you weren’t warned).  Point is to have a light touch with the onion, heavy touch with the cilantro, cayenne to taste.  I almost always include a fresh hot pepper, like a jalapeno or serrano or habanero, in my base, but it’s optional.  Not everyone likes the really spicy stuff.

For tomato salsa, add to the base some fresh finely diced tomatoes.  Use good flavorful tomatoes like Super Sweets or Romas.  Not cardboardy flavourless beefsteaks.  You might as well buy something in a jar if you’re gonna do that.

For tomatillo salsa, skip the citrus and add a bunch of finely diced tomatillos and some avocado.  Tomatillos are very acidic so you don’t need citrus, unless you feel like having a perma-pucker while you eat.

For fruit salsa, add a finely diced fruit, like a papaya, mango or pineapple (or all of them mixed together).  These are tropical fruits which is a deviation from the fresh local produce refrain.  It’s the exception to the rule.  You could, in fact, make a salsa using fruits local to BC and it would still be delicious.  Peach salsa, for instance.  Or apples.  Or … you get the point.

That’s about it for salsa fresca.  I am not going to talk about guacamole here.  Why?  Because I know there is a guacamole day coming up someday and I wouldn’t want to steal it’s thunder.  Plus, I think this is my longest post yet and I’m concerned I have lost your attention by now.

I am SO going to make nachos this weekend!

B.

Wednesday, November 3, 2009
Cajun Martini

I was looking forward to this drink, namely since it calls for pepper vodka and it would give me an excuse to buy some to have on hand for Bloody Marys – nothing quite as tasty as a Bloody Mary made with pepper vodka.  However, I was soon dismayed during my stock-up trip to BevMo to find they no longer carried Absolut Peppar, or, apparently, any other variety of pepper vodka.  There was a chipotle vodka there but I wasn’t quite adventuresome enough to spring for that.  Actually it was Hangar One’s Alchemist series, which after reading more about it, I wish I’d bought a bottle of it.  I may have to go back and buy it anyway, despite the cost, it sounds tasty:

Brother, Can You Spare $45.99?

No. 3 on the Alchemist Series. Base vodka distilled from fresh peppers, blended with separate infusions and distillations of fresh roasted Fresno chiles, habaneros, jalapenos, bell peppers and pasillas.  Aye, now THAT’S a pepper vodka!

Anyway, I digress.  I was looking for a reasonably-priced small bottle of Absolut Peppar.  I did not find it.  I did ask the one decent-looking older guy at my La Mesa BevMo for assistance and he told me they hadn’t had any there for awhile, and that I was about the 10th person to ask him in the last couple of months.  Hmmm, what does that mean to you?  ORDER IT.  It’s a good thing I don’t run a business, I’d obviously be incompetent at it.  Let’s see, my customers keep asking for something, what should I do?  I did find mini bottles of lemon and citrus vodka for a couple of future recipes that I have calling for them – not that I mind having more vodka, but the space in my freezer gets a little tight sometimes.  No luck on the chai syrup for the Maharaja Martini I still need to make, so I’ll have to try elsewhere or just order it from the Torani website.  I confess I had no idea they make some forty million varieties of flavored syrups.  Right up there with Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, except only the good varieties!

The good-looking BevMo clerk promptly turned his attention to a couple of high-maintenance cougars who were stocking (stalking?) up for a party of some sort, apparently, neither of whom had as much between her ears as she had in the silicone inserts in her boobs.  The clerk was falling all over himself waiting on them and carting stuff out to their car – a red Corvette, naturally.  Spare me.  Who says only men have mid-life crises?  Meanwhile, I carry my own box of liquor to my car myself and am chuckling at the thought that I could probably blow off the Corvette with my mere 304 hp Cadillac CTS only because the two cougars probably drive like pussies.  I then head out to the vet to pick up more medicine for one of my cats. 

I have a diabetic cat, his name is Purrthos.  He’s had diabetes for 6 years now, he gets an insulin shot twice a day.  He is about the most easy-going, happy, mellow cat you could ever meet.  He also is on blood pressure medicine and has a heart arrthymia.  My vet has to thump him in the nose to get him to stop purring long enough to be able to hear his heart when I take him for checkups.  We should all be this happy and so easily content.  Anyway, I hit the vet’s office, find myself wishing I could knock over a bank as I pay for his insulin and blood pressure meds, and head back home to Santee.

I live in Santee, California, which is just slightly north and east of San Diego.  Santee also has an unfortunate reputation for being a rather redneck, somewhat ignorant part of the county.  A lot of it is justified, a lot of it not.  I think it depends on where you are in town and who you see and who you associate with.  I don’t hang out in Santee much – for one thing, the place isn’t known for fine cuisine and I like good food and I like martini bars.  Most of the places here have that strip mall generic aspect to them – Olive Garden, Chili’s, Mimi’s Cafe, and a host of taco shops and all the usual fast food suspects, plus the county’s first Sonic burger joint, which I have yet to go to.  I figure my arteries have a hard enough time staying open as they already are, I really don’t need to encourage them to slam shut with the typical Santee restaurant fare.  I’m probably one of the few people in Santee who voted for Obama, and even got cursed at by the rotund street flower vendor near the freeway onramp for 52 for putting up the sole Obama campaign sign before last year’s election. I can’t say as I’m totally thrilled with the job the President has done thus far but I will say I think he inherited a hell of a mess, and thus end my political discussion with that and keep the rest of my opinions to myself, they don’t belong in this blog.  Santee, however, tends to have the type of folks out here that still have their “W ‘04″ sticker on their truck, even though that was, oh, FIVE YEARS AGO now at a minimum.  Lots of trucks with the tailgate testicles, too.  If you haven’t seen those, it’s where the rear bumper has a pair of large, fake, rubbery testicles hanging down where the trailer hitch would usually go.  Really, really charming.  I gotta say, I see those and just think what a catch the driver must be.  NOT.  Last but far from least, there is a large preponderance of what I’d call “rolling memorials”.  They are car window decals that usually look like this:

Now this is not to say I’m unsympathetic to anyone’s loss of a loved one.  Far from it.  However, I do think that your love of the dearly departed is better expressed via a more dignified method than, say, a cheap vinyl window decal.  Like perhaps with a marble headstone or a nice urn, or blasting their ashes into space, or a memorial sealife reef with a plaque dedicated to them on it.  Any number of things.  If this was the way my loved ones choose to honor me, I’d tell them to spring for a couple of carwashes instead.  I understand that you miss them and you loved them … but for the most part, the people around you on the road have no idea who this person was.  And you probably rarely see your own memorial sticker, because it is on the BACK of your car.  If you want to remind yourself of your loved one’s departure, put the sticker on your bathroom mirror instead.  I just don’t get the appeal or how this is really honoring someone. 

This past week, however, I actually saw a rolling memorial for someone I’d heard of, a dear friend of someone who is very close to me who passed away in February of this year.  Turns out his grown daughter and family live in the family home out in my neighborhood, and lo and behold, I’m on my way out on Monday morning when I actually see a sticker on the back of a Yukon with this man’s name on it.  Then, in what has to be pretty high odds, on my way back from the vet today with my cat’s medicines, I see ANOTHER sticker, on a different car (a pickup truck) dedicated to the same guy.  I think the Yukon is the wife’s car, the truck must be the husband’s.  What are the chances?  I’m starting to think I should get one myself and slap it on my car’s window just so I don’t feel left out.  Nyah.  I still never knew the man myself, and when I told my friend about seeing these, he wasn’t overly impressed or touched, thought a nice headstone made for a more fitting memorial.  And it does give me pause to wonder – what is it we are hoping to elicit from those around us with stickers like these?  Sympathy?  Pity?  Does the sympathy of total strangers really mean that much to you, if you were to get it?  Something to think about.  Me, I’d rather know that a few very special people loved me and missed me than know that a thousand strangers were going to see my name on the back of a car someday and wonder, “Who the fuck was that and why should I care?”   If I were to put a sticker like this on my car at the moment, it would look like this:

My Kinda Memorial

So after my second viewing of the same rolling memorial sentiment, I reach Santee and pull into my local Mom and Pop (actually I think it’s Pop and Son) liquor store, Mr. Liquor, to see if they, by chance, have any Absolut Peppar.  They do.  Tons of it.  Of course, it is vastly overpriced compared to BevMo, but this store does carry a surprising amount of variety.  Whenever I can’t find something at BevMo, this place usually has it if it’s alcohol-based.  Two reasons I don’t go to this store more often would be: 1) You guessed it, price.  I don’t need to pay $24 for a bottle of Absolut Peppar; 2) Seedy people in the parking lot.  Granted, they come and go, as they are customers, and the store has a sign outside discouraging people from consuming alcoholic beverages in the parking lot.  Now, the fact that they have to HAVE such a sign up is usually a warning sign anyway.  It never occurs to me to guzzle a six-pack in the parking lot at BevMo, for instance.  This liquor store, though?  Well, different story.  Depending on how often I drive by it in the course of a day, I usually see at least one or two customers heading back across the street to the apartment complex directly opposite, already swilling something out of a paper bag.  I’m sure it’s just a Diet Coke.  There’s also a pay phone outside and I inevitably see someone using it.  How often do you see anyone on a pay phone anymore?  In Southern California?  At least in well-populated areas?  Pretty rare, and no, I’m not trying to sound like I’m dissing anyone for using a pay phone, I know there are still people who don’t have cellphones and can’t afford them … it’s just strange to see someone using one these days. I don’t even know how much a call costs. 

So I come out of the store with my own paper bag with my pepper vodka, finally.  Sure enough, there is a guy on the pay phone.  His car is parked next to mine.  I get into my car, glance over at his car, and become suddenly thankful that I’m looking down into my lap.  His car is an older BMW, one of the really boxy-looking ones, bright blue, with light blue fur on the interior.  FUR.  Not just on the dashboard.  Oh no.  It’s on the insides of the door panels.  NICE.  It sticks up above the bottom of the window so you see this line of fur where the window meets the door. Now that, my friends, is Santee class.  I should have checked for the rolling memorial window sticker on my way out, but I was trying so hard not to laugh that I forgot.

Home at last.  I mix up my Cajun Martini to go with my Lean Cuisine dinner, some shrimp and pasta thing that is actually pretty decent.  Now the image of the Cajun Martini in The Martini Book is rather deceptive, as it is pictured as this pretty, red-orange drink.  Again with the color issues like I had with my Nyquil drink of my previous post – but in this case, my drink is perfectly clear.  Maybe the Hangar One Chipotle is red, I guess I’ll have to buy a bottle (oh, twist my arm!) and find out.  Or whatever was used for the photograph was red.  But Absolut Peppar, which is about the most common pepper vodka I’ve heard of, is quite clear.  6 parts pepper vodka, 1 dash of dry vermouth, garnish with olive stuffed with pickled jalapeno pepper.  The photo shows a red pepper floating in the cocktail – I don’t think jalapenos are red, are they?  At any rate, it sure as heck isn’t an olive.  Photo FAIL, Zeva Oelbaum (the photographer for the book).  Not that it isn’t a lovely image, no slight intended there.  Just not one of the drink as it is prepared.  So I try to get past my lack of a pretty reddish orange martini and cope with it.  It took all of about three seconds, about the time it took me to drop in an olive.  I have double-stuffed, garlic and jalapeno pepper stuffed olives, so that one had to do, and I finally sampled my Cajun Martini at last.

Whew.  If nothing else, I can use this when I run out of drycleaning fluid.  Well, if I had such a thing sitting around, anyway.  Kind of right up there with horseradish except without the benefit of covering a juicy piece of prime rib.  STRONG.  Too strong, really, to be enjoyable.  By the time I got about halfway through the drink, I found myself adding a touch of straight vodka to it, and put in two more olives – one of the previous variety, and one of the ones stuffed with bleu cheese, to soften up the drink a bit.  That helped a lot, surprisingly.  If I made this drink again, I would make it with probably equal parts pepper vodka and regular vodka, and change the olives.  As the recipe is stated, I’d give it only 2.5 stars.  With my modifications (not thoroughly tested, mind you), it would probably move up to a 3.5 or 4 star drink.  I’ll get back to you on that after New Year’s, I’ve still got a lot of other martinis to finish first!

Your hostess,
Cathy

Last week I cooked up a shepherd’s pie for dinner and while it was delish I wondered what else you could put in a baking dish that would be equally delicious… After a week of thinking what I might include I came up with a pulled pork bbq pie! There are no measurements here, its all made up so just play along!

What you’ll need:

• can of sweet corn
• pork shoulder
• corn bread mix
• honey
• can of 3 bean mix
• 1 large sweet potato
• cayenne pepper
• paprika
• cinnamon
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 brown onion
• bbq sauce
• brown sugar
• salt
• olive oil

That’s in no particular order…

First things first, throw your pork shoulder into the slow cooker with half of your onion chopped and let it cook on high for 4-6 hours. After 4-6 hours it should be falling apart. Pull all the meat out of the cooker onto a cutting board and start to shred the meat with two forks pulling it apart into strings.

Leave it out on the cutting board while you rinse all the meat cook-off goo out of the crock pot. If you’re like me, you chop your onion small and it’s all mixed up in the bits that cook off the meat so I chuck them and add new onion to the cleaned crock pot. Throw the pulled meat back in along with the drained can of beans, about half of your drained corn, chopped jalapeno (seeds in if you like it hot!) and a bbq sauce of your choice. I make my own but any will do. you can find some great bbq sauce recipes here. The basic vinegar sauce is yum! Just don’t add so much sauce that it gets soupy. I also suggest you don’t pick one that is too sweet…lean towards spicy.

Allow all of these ingredients to cook for another 3 or 4 hours. This is when I start my sweet potatoes…

Peel your big sweet potato and cube it into big chunks. Throw them in a bag with some olive oil, paprika and cinnamon. Shake it all up and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Each piece should have enough cinnamon and paprika to lightly coat it. Once they’re all spread out on the cookie sheet sprinkle it with salt and brown sugar.

Bake it in the oven like you would frozen french fries. Flip them over once one side looks brown and bake them the same on the other side…you want them kind of crispy so they hold up in the pie.

Once the sweet potato fries are done and the meat has cooked in the sauce for about 3 hours, start layering (and i like to use a slotted spoon to scoop the meat) meat mixture on the bottom…pile on the sweet potato fries in the middle…and then another layer of the meat on top.

The last layer will be your corn bread! Make the batter by the directions on the box and add the other half can of your drained sweet corn. Cover the meat with a layer of the batter. I also like to drizzle the top with honey.

Everything inside is cooked so you just need to watch for you cornbread to cook. The potato should be crispy on the outside so it’ll hold up in the bbq too.

Scoop it out just like shepherd’s pie! I suggest a side of coleslaw and maybe some extra corn bread too.

Let me know if you tried the recipe and how you like it!

]]> http://whats4dinnersolutions.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/chicken-and-rice-soup-tonight/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:45:35 +0000 TaMara Rullo http://whats4dinnersolutions.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/chicken-and-rice-soup-tonight/ http://daughtersoflight.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/jalapeno-pepper-poppers/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:08:19 +0000 Miss Felecia V http://daughtersoflight.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/jalapeno-pepper-poppers/ http://whitneyinchicago.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/jalapenocheddarscones/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:29:25 +0000 whitneyinchicago http://whitneyinchicago.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/jalapenocheddarscones/

Can I let you in on a little secret?  My current kitchen obsession doesn’t revolve around my KitchenAid, or my growing collection from The Spice House, or gearing up for the Holiday cooking season.  My obsession lies with my freezer.

A packed full freezer is a beautiful thing. On the nights where I just don’t feel like cooking, I have a quart of some lovely soup ready to be thawed and paired with a salad and some crusty bread. Now that the clocks have fallen back, darkness creeps in at 5PM, which only reminds me that winter is just around the corner.

Good thing I have quarts of sweet corn, sliced peaches and pitted sour cherries ready to be dug out of a corner and transformed into a sweet reminder that the snow will thaw, and summer will come again.

Jalapeño Cheddar Scones I saw over at the Smitten Kitchen…freeze-ability. It never fails that when I make a full loaf or batch of something, the last quarter sits on the counter and goes bad (note to self: add mini loaf pans to wish list). But when I see a recipe where I can freeze pieces individually, to be baked off while the aforementioned soup is defrosting on the stove, I jump at it. These scones fit the bill.

Jalapeño-Cheddar Scones (printable recipe)
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, via NYMag

I love a good scone but I always associated scones with something that is sweet. These scones almost turn out somewhat like a dense layered, cheesy biscuit that is oh so delicious.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, diced {stick the diced butter on a plate in the freezer}
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 eggs {3 if you want to use one for an egg wash; I didn’t}
1/4 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, diced
2-3 small jalapeños pepper, minced {Don’t worry too much about the heat, these are really not spicy scones at all; somewhat to my dismay}

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a small skillet, melt 1/2 tablespoon of butter and sauté the jalapeños until they soften, about two minutes. Let them cool, then place them in a small bowl with the cheddar cheese and coat them with one tablespoon of the flour. Combine the remaining flour with the baking powder and salt. Cut in the remaining butter with a pastry blender, until the butter bits are pea sized.

Lightly whip two of the eggs and cream and then add to the pea sized flour-butter mixture. Using a wooden spoon, fold mixture until it begins to come together. Add the cheddar-jalapeño mixture to the dough and mix until everything is incorporated.

Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead gently for less than one minute. Pat dough out to a 3/4- to 1-inch thickness {make sure to get it thin enough, mine were a tad thick and kinda puffed up a lot once they were baked-not a bad thing, just not as pretty} and either cut into 8 triangles or the shape of your choice with a biscuit or round cookie cutter.

Optional: Make an egg wash by beating the remaining egg with a teaspoon of water. Brush the scones with egg wash.

Place scones on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Scones are always best the first day which is why it is great to flash freeze any you don’t plan on eating. Simply stick the scones on a baking sheet and pop in the freezer until they are frozen. Remove from the baking sheet and store in a freezer strength zip tock bag. Add a few minutes to the baking time if necessary.

I love Poppers. I look forward to them whenever I eat out. So last year I decided to try making them myself. They turned out really well, so I shall share it with you!

Jalapeno Poppers

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 15 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 1 1/2 cups crushed corn flake cereal

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, sharp Cheddar cheese and mayonnaise. Stuff jalapeno halves with the mixture.
3. Whisk together eggs and milk in a small bowl. Place crushed corn flake cereal in a separate small bowl.
4. Dip each stuffed jalapeno half into the egg and milk mixture, then roll in corn flake cereal to coat.
5. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and lightly browned.

Enjoy!

How much garlic should one clove yield?

Don’t you just hate it when a recipe calls for a “clove” of garlic. Have you ever seen a head of garlic? Are all the cloves on all the heads the “same size” Heck no. There are big cloves, little cloves, medium sized cloves. So when a recipe calls for a clove, how much garlic should that be?

Well, first and foremost, LindySez all seasonings should be done to taste. When I see a recipe that calls for a set amount of any herb or spice, I use that as a guideline, and so should you. After adding their recommendation you should taste, add some more or not, depending on how you like that taste. And always, after you are done cooking, and before you serve, you should taste one last time and adjust. Tasting and smelling are two of the most important elements of cooking.

Once, when a non-cooking girlfriend was watching me prepare dinner, she asked “Lindy, why do you smell everything before you put it into your dish”…well, the reason is quite simple, if it doesn’t smell good to start, it’s not going to taste good to finish. And you would be surprised to find how many things can go bad, very quickly. Nuts are notorious for going rancid because of their high fat content- LindySez keep your nuts in the freezer. And you can do a lot of mental tasting by smelling foods, and that helps keep those calories off your hips, and thighs, and stomach and everywhere else.

A very valuable lesson could have been learned had I followed this advice a few years ago. I was painting the rooms of my house, a buddy, who was a professional painter, told me that I could “save” my brushes without having to clean them after each days use, by wrapping them up in plastic wrap and putting them into the refrigerator. There they would stay fresh until I was ready to restart my project. Well, Lindy is all for saving time and energy with cleaning brushes (what a royal pain that is anyway); so I wrapped my brushes up and put them in the refrigerator. A couple of days later I decided to make some Salmon with Lime Jalapeno Sauce; I took the salmon (wild but frozen) from the freezer and let it thaw. Cooked it up, made the sauce, sat down to dinner and we take a bite “Wait a minute”…we all said “this tastes funny – what is that flavor?”…OK…important safety tip…if you are using a WATER based paint, you can wrap your brushes up and store them in the refrigerator, but, if you are using OIL based paint, not a particularly good idea. The flavor of oil based paint tainted the salmon…I could have smelled it, had I bothered to prior to cooking…but you could taste it for sure. We had a lovely pizza that night (thank goodness for take out).

Another time was when the family decided to make tamales. You know how much work is involved in making tamales, or perhaps you don’t. Well, it’s a lot of work. After making a most delicious Chili Verde filling, the family got to the business of making the tamales, laying out our corn husks, spreading the filling inside, rolling tying and finally we steamed them. We were looking forward to a lovely Mexican feast…but again, something was off. We nosed it to the culprit, the masa had turned. What a huge amount of work and food would have been saved had we simply smelled the ingredients before we put them together. So use your nose, it knows!

OK…back to the original question for today, how much garlic should one clove of garlic yield? An average clove of garlic will yield about 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic. Mystery solved.

OK…this recipe doesn’t have any garlic in it, but it’s yummy, especially when made with wild salmon, no paint.

4 (5 ounce) Salmon filets (all bones removed)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Sauce
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
3 large jalapeno peppers, seed and cut into a julienne
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons lime juice
dash salt
dash pepper

Fresh lime wedges
Snipped fresh chives, optional

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Lightly oil a shallow baking dish. Place the salmon in the dish, skin side down. Combine the lime juice and olive oil; brush over the fish. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for 15 minutes. Place fish in oven and bake until fish is almost opaque, about 8 minutes for each inch of thickness. Remove the skin.

While the fish cooks, prepare the sauce. Over a medium-low heat, heat the olive oil and butter; add the jalapenos and saute until tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the sour cream and heat through, do not boil. Remove from heat; stir in the lime juice, salt and pepper. Transfer to a plate, spoon sauce over, sprinkle with minced chives, if desired.

Lindy Sez - Serve this one with a nice Sauvignon Blanc – it plays nice with the lime.

This is a simple and yummy bean dish that is perfect with brown rice and sautéed broccoli. Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone.

2 cups pinto beans, soaked overnight

1 onion, halved

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 can diced tomatoes

1 Tbsp minced jalapeño

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Place the beans in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Boil hard for 10 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms. Add the onion and garlic.   Lower the heat and simmer until beans are tender, about 40 minutes.  Remove the onion, drain, reserving liquid.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the tomatoes, jalapeño and cilantro. Cook briskly until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Add the sauce to the beans and simmer 15 minutes more. Add back some of the cooking liquid if it gets too thick.  Salt to taste.