Soup and Song

Move Over, Val's Granola

2012-01-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I am SUCH a goner.

Do you know how many calories I've consumed in the form of this granola TODAY ALONE??

Me neither, and I prefer to keep it that way. I usually don't deviate from my own treasured granola recipe. It's lovely. It's not too sweet. It's fragrant. It's damn good. People love the living crap out of it! But, truth be told, for me at least, it isn't addictive. I love every single bite, I do! But usually, a small portion satisfies me and then I'm on my merry way. I like it like that. It's a bit labor intensive to make, too, so I don't make it that often, and it is always a treat when I do.

But this stuff is as easy to make as it is to inhale. It's sweet & savory, salty & crunchy and completely addictive. Reminds me a bit of really good caramel corn. You keep reaching your hand back into the bag for another handful, just one more handful, and then, just one more after that. Until the bag is empty and you're turning it inside out to dump the crumbs into the palm of your hand, looking around to make sure no one sees you licking said crumbs off of said palm.

So, as much as I love this stuff, I don't think I'll be making it again any time soon, or if I do, it'll only be to give to people as gifts. Don't get me wrong! This here is a glowing endorsement. I just find it prudent not to keep things that are this sweet and full of carbs around my house. I even cut back on the sweetness, using a little less than 1/2 cup maple syrup when the recipe calls for 3/4 cup. I've read recommendations elsewhere that suggest taming the sweetness a bit, and I think that's a good call. Even with just under half a cup of maple syrup, this batch was still plenty sweet. Not sweet enough to hurt the teeth, but just enough to make me want to eat the entire batch in one setting! And I nearly did. And I bet you will too, just as soon as you try it out for yourself. Enjoy, and be sure to give a lot of it away to spread those happy delicious calories around!

NEKISIA DAVIS' OLIVE OIL AND MAPLE GRANOLA

Makes about 7 cups

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, hulled

1 cup raw sunflower seeds, hulled - (I used coarsely chopped almonds instead of sunflower seeds)

1 cup unsweetened coconut chips

1 1/4 cup raw pecans, left whole or coarsely chopped

3/4 cup pure maple syrup - (I used just under 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

Coarse salt

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Place oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, pecans, syrup, olive oil, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl and mix until well combined. Spread granola mixture in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Transfer to oven and bake, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until granola is toasted, about 45 minutes.

Remove granola from oven and season with more salt to taste. Let cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

Happy 2012!

2012-01-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012!

It's a New Year, indeed. Hope your holidays were fab. I enjoyed some really nice time away from work. Spent some of it lazing around the house, some of it working around the house, enjoyed some garden time (finally cleared out the summer garden remnants and planted more kale, yay!), read a ton, and had a wonderful visit with my whole family. Did some baking, too! The pizzelle baking has become an annual tradition now, as has the overconsumption of said pizzelles by the baker. Thank goodness for that other annual tradition, the January cleanse! Although truth be told, my regimen is not much of a cleanse this year. For this month I've cut out alcohol and am eating sensibly, avoiding most sugar, fried foods and the like. And I'm starting each day with an awesome smoothie made in my new Vitamix blender, OMG!!! It leaves all the other blenders in the dust. I have wanted one for the longest time. This thing can puree like nobody's business. Whole fruits and vegetables become smooth as butter. I've been using it to make shakes, juices, sauces, even coconut milk! It's the bomb and I am so so happy that I finally get to have my very own, courtesy of my brand new Grandma. Well, she's not exactly brand new, but rather new to me, by way of that sweet husband of mine. And what a gem she is. Besides being a kind and generous human being, she's also sharp as a tack. I miss my own grandparents a lot, and didn't get to enjoy them for nearly long enough before they left this world, so it's a treat to get to have a Grandma again at this stage of life. I appreciate her very much!

Besides the magical blender, I'm also the fortunate recipient of some really great cookbooks. The first was a gift from my friend Mel: My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy's Undiscovered South, by Rosetta Costantino with Janet Fletcher. Although so far, I've only made one recipe from it, I'm sure that I'll be going back to this again and again. On Christmas, we made Polpette di Melanzane - crispy eggplant "meat"balls. They were such a hit, even the carnivores reached for seconds! I'm really excited to try many of the recipes in this book, like Spaghetti with Salt Cod and a Spicy Tomato Sauce, Creamy Chick Pea Soup with Shrimp and Anise Seed, and Fresh Tuna Pizzo Style with Wine Vinegar, Garlic, and Mint.

I also got Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food: A Grocer's Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community Through Food, by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough. Although I live in the Bay Area, I haven't been to the Bi-Rite Market proper. I have been to the Bi-Rite Creamery and do declare their ice cream to be some of the most incredible that I've ever had! The recipes in this book look great. I'm particularly excited to try the Red Quinoa and Tofu Salad with Ginger and Pickled Daikon, the Winter Lentil Salad with Roasted Root Veggies, and the Curried Coconut Sweet Potato Mash.

I'm also quite excited about Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry, by Liana Krissoff. I don't have much in the way of resolutions this year, but I do resolve to make more things from scratch, and I'm excited to fill my pantry (and my stomach!) with homemade things in pretty jars (well, the homemade things will go in the stomach, but not the jars!). Lots of inventive flavor combinations in this book - like Strawberry and Lemon Preserves, Pickled Sugar Snap Peas with Mint, and Cardamom Plum Jam.

Yes, 2012 is going to be the year of More Homemade around here. Here are just a few of the things I'm planning to make from scratch this year, some of them for the first time: yogurt, tofu, tempeh, tomato paste, mustard, and vinegar, and Dad's Sauce.

I can hardly believe that it's been a whole year (and then some!) since I watched my Dad make the family recipe for meat sauce, and I wrote it down, and I proclaimed here on this very blog that I was going to make it in the coming year. Well, the year came and the year went and I never did make it. Not gonna let another year pass without making it! I might even break out the pasta machine and make fresh pasta to go with it. Of course, this will have to happen after January, which already seems to be flying right by.

Wishing you many fine meals and happy, healthy times in 2012!

2011-12-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well howdy, stranger! The months, they keep a flyin' by. I've been enjoying a fair bit of winter hibernation, and not enjoying a sore lack of culinary inspiration. It all makes for a big lack of blogging. Boo.

Many of the meals I've made these past months have been rather blasé'. Not necessarily bad, but not much to be chirping about either. Simple soups made with some kind of legume and whatever kinds of vegetables are flopping around in the fridge. Unremarkable frittatas. Boring pastas that just make me depressed when I consider all the amazing pasta dishes I was lucky enough to enjoy in Italy. And then, for the times when I can't even muster up that stuff, there has been takeout. Burritos and Indian food mostly.

I did make an awesome but small batch of refried black beans a few nights ago, which inspired me to buy a big bag of pinto beans the next day, and cook them in the same method, and the second batch was just so-so. Nonetheless, I find refried beans to be such a delightful comfort food. Even a so-so batch really hits the spot for me on these cold, blustery days. If the worst problem I have is boring food and so-so refried beans, well then, I could be doing a lot worse!

Tonight, however, I made the WORST stir-fried tempeh & green beans that a person could ever make. It should have been rather healthy, you know? Tempeh, green beans, quinoa, all the makings of a good meal. Except I managed to make it charred black, artery clogging, greasy and heartburn inducing. I told the little mister that we might as well have eaten bacon for all that fat and grease. At least bacon would have tasted good. He finds the mere idea of bacon to be revolting, and he swears he actually liked tonight's dinner, which is good, because I wouldn't dream of eating tonight's leftovers, as much as I hate to waste food. I don't know if I'll ever come close to mastering or even *getting* the art of the stir fry. I think I might need to take a class or something, or just stick to ordering Chinese takeout next time I get the itch.

To add insult to injury, tonight was the night I was going to make the first batch of holiday pizzelles, but even though I had thought I had all the ingredients on hand, it turned out I didn't have enough flour, and only had anise flavoring as opposed to real anise extract. And after that greasy heavy heartburn inducing artery clogging meal, the last thing I wanted to do was to duck out to the store and wander around in search of real anise extract which they may or may not have at the market down the street. So, no pizzelles tonight, but hopefully, later in the week.

Wish there was something more exciting or inspiring to report, but sometimes, you just do the best you can, and your best is boring, uninspired, greasy, and charred. And in those times, I find it helpful to remember that it's a very great gift to be able to have any kind of food, and a kitchen in which to cook it, inside a warm, cozy home, shared with a loving partner and sweet, devoted furry four-legged pals. When I think about it in those terms, it's hard to complain about a single thing, and in fact life feels very inspired after all!

Everything changes and passes eventually, after all. I have total faith in that. But in the meantime, if anyone out there has any tips on the art of the stir-fry, by all means, please do pass them along!

Until next time, warmest winter wishes to you and yours.

2011-11-14T20:42:00.001-08:00

Wow, that was some show! Thank you to all friends near and far who made the journey to enjoy the evening with us. We were blown away that so many people turned out to pack the Freight & Salvage, and what a glorious treat it was to play on a stage with such exquisite sound. I'm still basking in the glow. Here are a few pics of the show, courtesy of my pal Michael Z.

There was so much work leading up to that show that I hardly had a moment to think or cook or clean my filthy house for weeks on end leading up to the big day, and so it was a huge treat to have nothing much on the calendar for the rest of the weekend but sleeping in, spontaneous brunches with friends, and lots of playing in the warm sunshine with dogs, as well as a birthday celebration for my sweet friend Monique, whom I've been lucky to know for the entire 5 years of her life! Icing on the cake, or pie, as it were: Monique's dad Steve made incredible homemade pizza at the big birthday bash. What a perfect way to finish off a perfect weekend! By the time I collapsed into bed on Sunday night, I felt so satisfied and serene and just plain giddy, and it still kind of felt like summer.

And then, just like that, all of a sudden, seemingly in the blink of an eye, summer slipped away. But the tomatoes in our garden didn't seem to get that memo yet. I'm happy to report that the last dregs of our Bloody Butcher heirloom tomatoes are still making a valiant attempt, and I can hardly believe it, since it's nearly Thanksgiving! But somehow, we still keep plucking red, ripe, juicy, gorgeous beauties from the plant that I was sure would never even see enough sunlight to produce anything at all. I am SO happy to be proven wrong!

Still, the days are suddenly so much shorter and it's hard to bid farewell to those long, lingering summer days and all the glorious rewards that come with them. I take sweet comfort in the fact that the lemons on our tree are starting to turn from green to yellow, and I start to get excited about things like winter squash and brussels sprouts and leafy greens, a few of which are doing their best to grow in our garden. Well really, only chard and potatoes are growing at the moment, damn the critters that destroyed and ate the rest of it! I figure this is a good opportunity to let the soil rest & replenish, and instead, I find myself spending more time indoors playing with a crazy silly puppy and getting some really good use out of the oven and the stove top. Slow roasting tomatoes, baking bread, roasting squash, braising vegetables, and making lots of soup. Nothing really remarkable to report, just enjoying the chance to hunker down and slow down and enjoy the moments as they come. And I'm happy to say that so many amazing moments have been coming, one right after the other. It's been an incredible year and it's not even over yet. So I don't mind so much that summer is gone, because I know there is still so much to look forward to. I'm happy to be able to catch these moments as they come.

Home Fires

2011-11-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I don't spend all of my time cooking and dreaming of cooking and gardening and dreaming of gardening and playing with dogs and (not dreaming of) cleaning up after dogs.

Some times, I still find time to make actual music. And in fact, I made some recently!

In fact, a new baby has finally been born. This one was a year and a half in the making and created by a team of five, and brought to life with a little help from several more talented souls, cause it takes a village to make a record.

Yes, Loretta Lynch has a new album, and we are so excited to unleash it into the world! And we'll be doing just that on Friday, Nov. 4th at the venerable Freight & Salvage. I am so pleased to be able to play on that sweet sounding stage again, and happy to be able to make music with Ari, Heather, Dan and Nathan, whom I adore not only as fine musicians, but as wonderful and inspiring human beings, too.

I wish all my family and friends (and friends I've yet to meet!) could come to the show. I wish YOU could come to the show! And guess what? Even if you live far away and can't come to the show, you can watch the show from wherever you are (as long as there is a computer where you are, that is...) because it is being webcast!

So join us, won't you? Tune in on Friday Nov. 4th before 8 pm Pacific time and point your browser here. Choose the single show pass, and from the comfort of your own home, sweet home, let us entertain you.

Puppy Love

2011-10-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is Stella (aka Stellllaaaaaaaaa!), the newest member of our family and stealer of sleep, bringer of chaos, bringer of joy! We're smitten!

I'd love to post some more pics, but, being the squirmy little creature that she is, it's hard to get her to hold still long enough to pose for the camera.

We're having so much fun with her! She came home with us last Saturday, Oct. 15th, from the Berkeley Animal Shelter, the very same place that dear old Spider once resided. We've been missing that old gal like crazy, and we always will. And also, we've been feeling for awhile that we're ready to have a new dog friend, not only for ourselves, but for big Bloom, who's been pretty lonely without his old pal.

This is a pic of Bloom & Spider together on her last day of life. Still breaks my heart!!

We thought we'd wait until the end of the year, but oops, we just couldn't resist a visit to the shelter last Saturday... and when we met this little bundle of energy, it didn't take long to come to the conclusion that the time was going to be now, and the dog was going to be her. Our fates were sealed!

The listing on Petfinder.com said she was part of a litter of Great Dane mix puppies, but the paperwork they sent us home with says she's part Mastiff. We saw a picture of her mama, and she looked kind of like a chocolate Lab, so who knows? As of now, she weighs 31 pounds and is approximately 4 months old. She'll probably be bigger than Spider was, but not as big as Bloom.

We start dog training class tomorrow, hooray! It'll be a great learning experience for all of us, I'm sure. Having a new dog has got me reading a lot and thinking a lot about how to best raise her to be happy and healthy pup who'll live a good long life. I'm quite intrigued by the possibility of a raw foods diet, or maybe even a cooked foods diet. I've read a lot of articles that seem to say that at worst, dried kibble dog food is full of all sorts of awful things, and that even the higher quality brands are very highly processed. I don't want to consume many processed foods or meat from factory farms, and I would rather my pets didn't either, but I still have some research to do. Food for thought.

And speaking of food... I'm still searching for the perfect recipe for Ribolitta, that amazing Tuscan soup with kale & cannellini beans that we had several times in Florence. I made my own version last week, and while it was good, it wasn't insanely, dreamily good like it was in Florence... but then, I guess most things aren't! But I'm going to keep trying out recipes so if anybody out there has tips, please send them my way.

Lastly... I'm trying out some new looks here at Soup and Song, so apologies if things look funny for awhile. Thanks for checking in. Hope all is well in your world!

Ah, Italy!

2011-10-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Ciao, friends!

We made it back from Italy. What an experience for the senses it was - the tastes, the sights, the sounds! Warm breezes, blue skies, blue waters, red wine, salty anchovies, bright and beautiful vegetables, impeccably dressed Italians whizzing by on mopeds and motorcycles, the hypnotic sound of water lapping against the side of the ferry, the musical sound of Italians speaking their language to one another, the scent of bread baking, that first bite of pistachio gelato, oh my. Words can't do it justice. It was an absolute pleasure to soak it all in, and I am still soaking in the memory of it all.

I so wanted to fill my suitcase with practically everything we saw - beautiful vegetables! Delicate glass jewelry! Prosciutto! Bottle after bottle of wine! Espresso! Espresso makers! Pasta! Cheese!

Well, the suitcase wouldn't have been able to make it onto the plane if I'd done that, so we didn't bring a whole lot back with us. We mostly bought what we could consume while we were there, and that was enough to keep us perfectly happy.

But I just couldn't resist that big, salty hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano...no worries that I had to lug it around for a couple of days and pack it up nicely in my suitcase! I just this moment finished chopping it into smaller chunks to give to friends. Some people show their love with sweets and some of us show it with cheese. Yay for cheese!

More coming soon! But for now, a few photos and a quick moment to give thanks for the opportunity to enjoy such a wonderful experience, with such a wonderful human being by my side. I am so, so thankful!

One of the greatest meals of the trip, or maybe my whole life, was inside these humble walls in Florence. It was here I had my first taste of ribollita, with which I am now obsessed. More about that later!

Spaghetti with freshly caught anchovies from the sea in Cinque Terre, at Trattoria Lanterna. OH. MY. GOD. Another food highlight.

Produce market in Lido. Such beauty!

Masks in Venice.

The pizza of my dreams, also in Lido.

Summer Squash: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

2011-09-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ah, summer squash. It just keeps coming, and in a way, I think I can finally say that I have *almost* become sick of it! Or at least, I've reached the point where there is plenty of it to eat around here, and plenty to share with friends, too. Win win!

It's been a busy busy week - the last week before we leave to Italy, OMG!!! And also, Loretta Lynch has a brand new album, more than a year in the making, that we are scrambling to promote prior to our big CD release show on November 4th. Since several of us band members will be traveling over the next month, we're doing our best to get things in order now. It's a little insane, and it's all good! But in light of all that, the house has been a mess, sleeping patterns are all messed up, and eating and meal planning has been sporadic at best. Thank goodness for all that squash!

Last night, a lovely salad came together, inspired once again by the wonderful cookbook Plenty. The recipe in the book suggests a simple combination of grilled squash with fresh basil, hazelnuts, balsamic vinegar and shaved parmesan. But I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts, and beefed it up a bit by adding lentils and cooked barley, since I happened to have that in the house. The final touch was pepper cress directly from the garden (pepper cress: my new favorite garden item! hot! spicy! peppery!). I was quite thrilled with this lovely meal that came together in the midst of chaos all around, and in spite of a mostly bare fridge.

Here is a loose guide:

First, slice some summer squash: about 1 medium squash per person. Toss it in olive oil and add a light sprinkling of salt & pepper.

Grill the squash or cook it in a grill pan, as I did. Get it a little charred on the outside but stop cooking before it gets too tender - you want it to have a bit of bite to it still.

If you like, you can also grill some sliced red onions or shallots.

Set the squash & onions or shallots aside in a bowl, and toss with a light sprinkling of balsamic vinegar.

Take some fresh basil and tear the leaves and sprinkle into the bowl with the squash. Toss it all together and divide the squash mixture onto plates.

If serving with lentils & barley as I did, combine the lentils & barley and add more olive oil, salt & pepper, basil and a bit more balsamic vinegar. Add a scoop of this mixture to each salad plate.

Top each salad plate with toasted walnuts & shaved parmesan, and garnish with pepper cress and another little drizzle of olive oil.

And there you have it, dinner! Good with bread, if you've got it, or croutons, or lots of wine, or all of the above!

Can't wait to post all kinds of updates about Italy - and more importantly... can't wait to GO TO ITALY! Much to do before then - things to pack, music to promote, squash to pick. Life is good! Ciao for now!

Carpe Diem!

2011-08-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Seize the moment, seize the day. Pick, pluck, cull, crop, gather, make use of, enjoy. It's a good way to live life. Sometimes, I am able to do this. To live and love and be grateful in THIS moment, knowing that THIS moment is all there is.

And sometimes, it takes death, suffering and loss to remind me of this. This year has been a doozy. Hell, this month alone has been a doozy. My dear friend Sabine lost her dear friend Pam to cancer just last week. Pam was a loving mother and wife and daughter and friend. Many of my friends who knew and loved Pam are grieving, hard. I wish I could have known Pam beyond meeting her a couple of times. She was no doubt an amazing soul and has left a huge hole in this world, in this life of all who knew and loved her.

My Uncle Pat also left the world and lost his battle with cancer earlier this month. His cancer was sudden and shocking and brutal. He was a wonderful friend to my Dad. He was the one who would come and visit my Dad during his illness and brighten his spirits, bringing him treats from the Italian store, a family member who was also a dear friend. The last time I saw him, he was strong, healthy & vibrant. I was so glad to know that he was there to support my Dad through my Dad's illness. I can still hardly believe that he is gone, and heartbroken at the way cancer snatched him away from his loved ones so fast. And I can't even get started here about how much my Dad is suffering now, not only over the loss of his dear brother, but through his own illness. He has been so strong for so long now through this journey. I'm proud of him and inspired by him and doing my best to take each moment as it comes, thankful that he is still with us.

My friends Steve & Patsy lost their dear friend & musical co-conspirator, Scott Petersen, to cystic fibrosis, this month as well.

The last email exchange that I had with Patsy, she said something about us needing to get together more, to seize the moments while the moments were still ours to seize. So I invited them over for dinner that night and to my great delight, they didn't have a gig. And so last Friday, we managed to pull together a very spontaneous barbecue, along with our dear friend Lucio, who was in town for some shows, and Berge, another treasured friend and musical partner who is dealing with a landslide of difficulty and illness in his own life right now. Sabine would have been there with us, except she was at Pam's memorial that night.

I wanted to make something fabulous but didn't have the time or the wherewithal. We got some fish & veggies to throw on the grill and I made some cole slaw, and we had each other and plenty of beer & wine and guitars, and that was all that was needed. It was summer in the bay area - by the time the sun went down, the fog had rolled in and we were freezing and had to start a fire in the fire pit just to keep warm. But it didn't matter, because we were all together. Anything else was just icing on the cake.

Steve & Patsy's 4 3/4 year old daughter Monique cracked me up all night long. I've known and loved Monique all her life and it's been an absolute pleasure watching her become the person that she is. She ate all the tomatoes we'd recently picked from our plants, straight out of the bowl, with pure delight, the way Sabine had taught her to do. When she later asked me for a blanket so she could lay on the couch, I gave her one, which she proceeded to sniff and then proclaim indignantly, "… you need to wash things more!!! This stinks!!". I couldn't help but agree with her and laugh through my horror. The blanket did indeed smell like dog. We must have used it in the car at some point, and I swear it was clean and had been washed, but somehow that dog smell has a way of lingering. If you ever want the truth about just how much your shit stinks, just ask a kid. They'll tell you straight up!

Monique also brightened my spirits by letting me play with her Grouch Marks glasses. I got a little obsessed with taking pictures of me and that nose and mustache. I think the pic below pretty much sums it up. I hope it will always serve as a reminder to me to not take myself too seriously, to remember that not only does my shit stink, but many of my the things in my house do too, and to love, love, love and be grateful for every single moment. Carpe Diem!

Let's Make Mustard!

2011-08-23T11:44:00.001-07:00

Recently I experimented with making mustard. I started with this recipe for a Spicy Beer Mustard that I found in Food and Wine Magazine. The flavor was great, but be warned - the recipe makes a huge amount of mustard! Definitely enough to share. I ended up adding even more mustard powder and seeds than the recipe called for. In the end, I was pretty happy with it but have been wanting to try out some different recipes.

Luckily, today I stumbled upon this post on the awesome blog Food In Jars. I have never canned anything, but I love this blog and am thinking it may inspire me to give it a try one of these days.

The mustard post is actually a guest post, written by Kaela Porter of the blog Local Kitchen, another fine and inspiring blog with many lovely photos.

Enjoy the blogs, and enjoy making mustard! I plan to make another batch soon, and will report back.

Lotta Frittata

2011-08-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been going to the farmers market every week, sometimes twice per week, and the produce has been blowing my mind. I've developed a sweet summer ritual of making a frittata every week with fresh farm eggs from the market, and whatever produce I pick up there. Lately that's been corn that is explosively sweet, sometimes chard or potatoes, and sometimes squash and fresh herbs from our garden. Tonight's frittata featured corn, chard, sweet red onions & juicy early girl tomatoes from the market, basil & sliced padron peppers from our garden, and shaved imported parmesan. The simple tastes of summer abundance. It doesn't get much better than that and I'm savoring it as it comes and enjoying it while it's here.

Hello, Summer. And Thank You, Portuguese Bringer of the Fava Beans!

2011-08-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

I'm finally sitting down after a good five hours spent in the kitchen, and wow. It was such spontaneous joy.

It all started with a little Portuguese woman. I don't know who she is, only that my co-worker Todd knows her, and that every year around this time, she brings him garbage bags full of fava beans. And he never has the heart to tell her that actually, he just isn't quite up to growing callouses on his thumbs to shell & peel them, and so he brings them to work & implores that we take them off his hands. And that is how I find myself, once a year, with my own callouses after having shelled & peeled a big old mess of them like I did tonight, so they could enjoy a starring role in tonight's amazing impromptu summer bounty bachelor dinner!

That's right! No pizza or mac & cheese for this gal tonight. Tonight was all about those fava beans...

and shaved zucchini from our garden...

... and lots of other garden goodies too, like sweet as can be cherry tomatoes, cool and crunchy cucumbers that I can hardly believe I finally managed to grow, preserved lemon from our bountiful tree, and freshly cut parsley & marjoram (and shallots from the farmers market!).

It all would have been perfect just like that, but then there were fresh eggs from Riverdog Farm that I couldn't resist poaching in homemade vegetable broth, because I had just made it using all the ends of the vegetables from the week, so why not enjoy it right away?

All this chopping and slicing and poaching and shucking and shelling served as the perfect way to pass the time for hours while a big batch of granola slowly baked to perfection. Lots of dear friends & loved ones have birthdays or other occasions they're celebrating right about now, and I bet you can guess what they'll be getting from me! Yes, all my love and some of my granola. The gift that tastes good *and* keeps you regular!

But, I digress a little. There's no recipe really, nor much of a point to all my rambling tonight. I just had to stop & share my pure joy & gratitude for the fact that summer is here, and for all the sweet, crunchy, tender, vibrant gifts that come with it. Thank you, summer, and thank you, Todd, and most of all, thank you, little Portuguese woman of mystery for helping me to complete this warm & breezy summer night!

You May Want Your Own Tagine for This One

2011-07-26T21:48:00.001-07:00

Today, like many days, was spent more in the kitchen and garden than in any other place or pursuit. The kind of day that just thrills me. There have been so, so many of those days recently and I realize that I haven't been documenting them much, but tonight I'm here to change that.

You see, tonight I tried out a recipe that my dear friend Ari (amazing chef and musician) passed along to me, along with her adaptations, that she'd found via the SF Chronicle. I added a small adaptation of my own, popped it into the oven and waited with great anticipation while out in the garden planting a new batch of lettuces, greens and herbs. And when that timer went off and it was time to take it out of the oven, and more importantly, when it was time to eat it, I couldn't get over how wonderful it was. I served it with a quinoa pilaf I made that was inspired by the cous cous recipe in this posting, and all told, it was one of the finer meals I've made so far this year. Too good not to share.

And so here I am, sharing.

Original recipe says to use "halibut, true cod or any other firm fish". I used a couple of swordfish steaks that together equaled about a pound. The original recipe calls for only about a 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes, but Ari suggested using more, and so I did - and since I had them, I added some preserved lemons too. Ari suggested making some extra chermoula sauce cause it's so damn good, and using canned artichoke hearts instead of futzing with fresh ones, which I happily did, because I just so happened to have a can of them sitting on the shelf, which is what inspired me to attempt this recipe in the first place. Lastly, my little mister isn't a fan of the cilantro, so I used much more parsley and much less cilantro, and no one was any the wiser!

The tagine calls for a chermoula sauce which, besides adding incredible depth of flavor, adds moisture to the dish and helps all the ingredients to come out juicy, tender and so very succulent. Instead of using the extra sauce for dipping, as Ari suggested, I used it to flavor the quinoa pilaf.

Fish Tagine with Olives, Potatoes and Artichokes, with Quinoa Pilaf:

For the Sauce:

1 1/2 cups parsley leaves
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 small yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 T. lemon juice
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1 t. paprika
1/2 t. cumin
1/4 t. cinnamon

For the Tagine:

2 halibut, swordfish, true cod or sea bass or other firm-fish steaks, about 1 pound total, and ideally about 3/4 inch thick
1 can artichoke hearts, cut into quarters
2 t. olive oil
2 medium potatoes, sliced very thin
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
16 oil cured black olives
1 to 2 cups diced tomatoes, with their juices (I used early girls from the farmers market!)
1/4 preserved lemon, diced
chopped parsley & cilantro to taste

For the Pilaf:

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2 cup water
Chermoula sauce
1 - 2 T. dried cranberries
1/4 preserved lemon, diced
2 scallions, diced
1/4 c. diced parsley & cilantro, in whatever ratio you like
1/4 c. diced green olives

To Make the Sauce:

Combine all sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Add more olive oil if needed.

Take half the sauce and coat the fish on both sides, and refrigerate the fish for an hour or up to 3 hours.

To assemble the tagine, pre-heat the oven to 350. Smear the olive oil on the bottom of the tagine. Add the potato slices - you should have enough for about 2 layers. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Top with the fish steaks. Scatter the artichokes & olives over & around the fish. Dot with half of the reserved sauce, the tomatoes & their juices, more salt & pepper and a final sprinkling of the chopped herbs.

Put the cover on the tagine & bake for about 1 hour & 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the fish is moist, tender & simply divine.

Since the tagine magically makes a broth that is nothing less than transformative, it's good to have some bread or a pilaf to soak it all up.

To make the quinoa pilaf:

Bring the quinoa, water & chermoula sauce to a boil, along with a bit of salt and the dried cranberries. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed & quinoa is tender. Off the heat, stir in the preserved lemon, scallions, herbs & olives.

To serve:

Spoon some of the quinoa pilaf into a bowl and top with a spoonful of the fish, potatoes, artichokes & broth. Enjoy, savor and enjoy some more!

Garden Joy

2011-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

On a brighter note, it seems like summer is finally, finally here! There is no end to the amount of thrills I get from going out to the garden every morning and every evening to see what has changed, what new blossom has appeared, what ripening has transpired in the twelve or so hours from when I checked it last. Every morning and every evening feel like Christmas used to feel when I was a kid - such surprise, wonder, delight and gratitude!

Tonight, I discovered the first tomatoes beginning to ripen. The same tomatoes that last night were green. It made my day, made my week, made me delirious with joy to know that the spot we've placed these girls turns out to be sunny enough after all.

And although the radishes we planted from seed a little over a month ago only netted a modest crop, I was and still am so delighted with each and every one of these beauties that I pulled from the dirt tonight.

There was also a questionable meyer lemon tree here when we moved in. We thought it might be diseased and considered cutting it down, but it has turned out to be a wild, lovely, incredible jackpot of fragrant, sweet lemony goodness that is still producing sweet gorgeous fruit, even now. There must be some kind of metaphor in there about how the thorny, hard to understand, imperfect situations bring the most growth and reward, but I'm not sure I'm feeling eloquent enough to put it into words just now.

I still feel like I hardly know what I'm doing, placing seeds in the soil and doing my best, hoping for the best, hoping nature cooperates, crossing my fingers, trying to learn, paying attention as best I can. It doesn't always work out, but it is so gratifying when it does. I'm sure it sounds cliche' but it is no less true: it's a lot like life. Best to enjoy the journey and celebrate and give thanks when it all works out. And tonight, I most certainly am.

Plenty

2011-06-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi, is my current new favorite cookbook. And it's fitting, because right now, I'm feeling plenty. Plenty good, plenty bad, plenty scared, plenty perplexed, and plenty grateful in the midst of all of it.

Tonight, rock star husband had a recording session, so for me it was a bachelor dinner night, but I wasn't in the mood for my usual old mac & cheese or pizza, and since I'd just gotten my hands on this inspiring collection of recipes thanks to my pals Jamie & Eve, I decided to dig right in and treat myself to a solo summer dinner as fine as anything I'd make for company.

The food was sweet comfort in the midst of difficult family times. My heart is pretty broken at how badly my Dad is struggling again even though he was here only a month ago and looking and feeling strong and healthy. And in the meantime there has been news that several of our other family members are struggling too, despite everyone's best efforts to be healthy and do all the right things. Sometimes I feel myself going down that dark road where I think, what does it even matter if you try to eat healthy, exercise, and do all those other things that are supposed to be good for you? As my friend Kathleen says, you still have to breathe the air. You still have to live in this world and come to the realization that cancer doesn't discriminate. Cancer doesn't care what you do. There's no eloquent way to phrase it. It just sucks.

So tonight, I cooked my worries away, at least temporarily, and enjoyed the fruits of my labors all by my lonesome. I practically jumped for joy at the goodness, the vibrance, the sheer freshness and delight of this perfect marriage of flavors and textures: lentils and watercress in a watercress vinaigrette with asparagus and manchego, a squeeze of lemon and toasted walnuts.

I adapted this recipe a bit - it called for walnut oil but I used toasted walnuts instead, and I used french lentils instead of green, because that's what I had in the house. I can't take too much raw garlic so instead of a raw clove, I used the piece of garlic that I'd cooked with the lentils, which was nicely mellowed but added just the right bit of subtle garlic flavor.

It was my first time using watercress at home. I've enjoyed that intensely peppery green in salads at restaurants, but never ventured to use it myself. And never would have considered pureeing it as part of the dressing while at the same time serving it as part of the salad - it's a winner, to be sure!

So without too much more adieu, I will post my adapted version of this recipe from this fabulous, inspiring book, which I can't wait to dive into further. I will urge you to make this for lunch or dinner while you can still get good asparagus, and to enjoy it, if you can, with someone you love. I will continue to give thanks for food, for family, for friends, and for every moment spent being healthy and strong in my body, and I will wish the same for you.

Lentils, Asparagus and Watercress

Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe in Plenty

Serves 4 generously

1 cup french lentils

4 cups watercress, thick stocks removed

1/4 - 2/3 c. parsley (original recipe called for 2/3 cup but I only had about 1/4 cup on hand, so that's what I used)

1/2 cup olive oil (original recipe called for 2/3 cup, but to me, 1/2 cup seemed the right amount)

1 T. red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic

salt & pepper

1 large bunch asparagus (about 1 pound), cut into roughly 2 inch segments

shaved manchego cheese to taste

toasted walnuts to taste

lemon wedges

Rinse the lentils and place in a saucepan with plenty of fresh water and 1 plump clove of garlic, peeled and smashed, and 1 bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer, add a generous sprinkling of salt, and cook until just tender. This could take about 20 to 30 minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, put half the watercress, the parsley, olive oil, vinegar, salt & pepper into your food processor. After the lentils have been cooking for about 10-15 minutes, fish out that clove of garlic and add it to the food processor. Blitz until smooth & creamy, and pour into a big salad bowl.

Once the lentils are tender, drain them well and dump them into the bowl with the dressing, and toss it all together while the lentils are still warm. Taste & adjust seasonings - you may well need more salt.

Steam or boil the asparagus for about 2 to 3 minutes, until just crisp-tender. Original recipe suggests boiling but I steamed them. I also think it would add another whole dimension of flavor if you grilled the asparagus!

Now it's time to serve the salad, warm or at room temperature. Add the drained asparagus to the lentils, and toss it all with the remaining watercress. Pile onto a plate or into a bowl and shave a little manchego over it, sprinkle a few toasted walnuts, and don't forget to squeeze a bit of lemon over it, which really serves to bring all the flavors together. Enjoy every bite, welcome summer, and then enjoy some more bites! You'll be so, so glad that you did.

Hitched

2011-06-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

Geez! It seems that now that I'm a married lady, I can't seem to get around to this here blog!

It's been a delightful couple of weeks of feasting and celebrating with friends and family. The truth is, I'm still taking it all in. We have the greatest friends and the most wonderful families, and I'm still completely blown away by what an awesome wedding ceremony and celebration we were able to have, thanks in large part to the kindness & generosity of our friends & families. The food was divine, the music outstanding, and the company could not have been better.

We had a pretty limited budget, and our friends came through BIG TIME, pitching in to take care of every last detail from the music to the food and drinks and organization and photographs and flowers...oh, the flowers!

It was so great that parents and sister came out and finally got to see the new house. I am incredibly grateful that my Dad was here & feeling good & strong, and it made me endlessly happy to make his favorite potato soup for him and the rest of the family.

There was much feasting, did I mention that? Some of the feasting was done at places like Venezia and The Lake Chalet, some of it was done at home. It was an extra treat to be able to cook with some of the food that was grown in our garden! A good time was had by all. We chose Venezia for the dinner the night of the wedding, suspecting that it would appeal to every last one of us, and we were right on the money. Classic Italian food done perfectly, excellent service too. And we had an excellent brunch at the Lake Chalet featuring not only great food and a stunning view, but a really good Bloody Mary, too.

The week passed way too quickly, and when it was over, there was a short honeymoon in Big Sur, a prelude to the not-so-short honeymoon in Italy that will happen in September (OMG! I FINALLY GET TO GO TO ITALY!!!). Big Sur was gorgeous as always, only much colder than it's been when we've been there in the past. But that didn't stop us from feasting and relaxing in front of the fire, nor did it stop some of us from enjoying a hot soak in the glorious outdoor tub!

All in all, it's been wondrous, and I still feel elated from it all, and ever thankful for this sweet life and all the people and places and experiences that make it so.

Super Quick Smoky Chic Peas & Wilted Greens with Goat Cheese

2011-04-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned my love affair with smoked paprika, aka pimenton? I use it so often, in so many ways. Love, love, love that smoky goodness, in bean dishes, soups, stews, marinades. And these little cans that it comes in are great for storing pencils & pens when the can is empty, as an added bonus!

My love of paprika grows ever deeper on a night like tonight, when a little dash of it is added to a meal that took all of about ten minutes to make, and was thoroughly satisfying. Win-win!

You can make this with any kind of beans you have around, and any kind of greens too. If you happen to have creamy goat cheese around too, by all means, invite it to the party.

First, just mince some garlic and saute' it in a bit of olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes.

Next, add the chic peas...a cup or two if you've made them from scratch, or a whole can, rinsed & well drained, which is what I happened to have on hand tonight. Add a sprinkling of salt & pinch of crushed red pepper and cook for a few minutes, shaking the pan a couple of times. And then, add a little sprinkling, or a big sprinkling if you like, of smoked paprika. Stir to incorporate, and stop to appreciate just how delightful the kitchen is smelling right about now.

Now it's time to toss in your greens - I used a bunch of wild baby arugula. You could also use spinach, or perhaps coarsely chopped mustard greens or chard. Now would be a good time to add another sprinkling of salt, too.

Keep on stirring and once the greens are just wilted, it's time to flick in a few dollops of goat cheese, if you've got it. And around here, we're fairly addicted to it so we've almost always got it!

And before you know it, before you've even finished your first glass of wine, you're pretty much ready to eat. This dish is great to combine with a grain, and tonight we were lucky to have a delicious wheat berry salad that the lovely Kanteen was kind enough to share, and it was the perfect complement.

If you didn't happen to have something at the ready, you might start cooking some rice or quinoa a few minutes before starting this dish so that it'd all be ready at the same time. Or you could just eat it with some crusty bread. It's highly adaptable and the perfect remedy for those times when you need something healthy & delicious but are running low on energy & time, which for me lately, seems to be all the time!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lasagna!

2011-04-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to my friend Jamie's to prepare 7 lasagnas for the family wedding dinner, and my friend Erin showed up to help. We spent the day in Jamie's perfectly gorgeous, well set up, and inviting kitchen.

The week prior had been very trying on many levels. I had had a supposedly minor procedure to have a cyst on my eyelid taken care of, and ended up with a pretty massive, long lingering black eye afterwards. I looked like a serious victim of domestic violence. The day after the procedure, the honey and I had planned to go to SF City Hall to get our marriage license, but somehow it would have felt strange to show up there looking like I'd just been beaten!

And then, there was the obligatory pre-marital argument that turned into a major blowout, the kind of blowout that has one or both parties threatening to cancel the wedding, divide the possessions and just bail on this whole thing. Fortunately, that one ended in forgiveness, commitment in tact.

But the bad feelings were hard to shake, and by the time Sunday morning rolled around, I was feeling pretty wrecked and emotionally hungover. I would have spent the day in bed in the fetal position if I hadn't already signed up to do this, but there was no turning back. And spending the day with sweet, generous friends in a warm & inviting kitchen, cooking food with and for people I love turned out to be just the remedy to everything ailing me.

As an extra special, most kind and utterly generous gift, Jamie not only did all the shopping, but paid for everything - that would be something like twelve pounds of local asparagus and six pounds of fancy imported gruyere and parmesan from The Cheeseboard, not to mention many, many boxes of noodles and many, many cans of organic fire roasted tomatoes. It really was a perfect way to spend a day, and feels so good to have that task completed. Jamie was also kind enough to lend us his freezer to store all the lasagnas until the big day.

As if all of that wasn't enough, he served us a world-class lunch featuring meltingly tender Rancho Gordo yellow-eye beans and fresh cod slathered in miso and baked in tin foil, all served over mixed baby greens. All of it was just the remedy to soothe my soul, and a reminder once again of how fortunate I am.

42 = The End of High Heels

2011-04-11T18:05:00.001-07:00

Somehow my 42nd birthday came and went without my managing to attempt to turn the day into a national holiday. I actually had it in my head that it'd just be low key this year, but somehow the Universe (and my wonderful friends!) conspired to deliver quite a lot of fanfare in spite of this!

In the course of three days, I was treated to not only some wonderful company and inspired gifts, but also some seriously great food, including the acclaimed San Francisco institution Zuni Cafe, as well as other trusty East Bay favorites Dona Tomas and Burma Superstar, and new favorite Plum! More good food than a person has a right to eat! More good food than a woman who's going to try to squeeze into a wedding dress soon should even be attempting to eat! But, I did my best, oh yes I did!

One of the great things about turning 42 is that I feel like, for better or worse, I'm getting more comfortable at living in this body of mine, even when it gives me trouble. And BELIEVE ME, it gives me trouble, despite my best efforts to be good to it.

On my birthday, I was walking down the street looking live Olive Oyl, holding on to my honey's arm so I wouldn't trip as I walked in my mild 2-inch heels that I'd just bought. Mother f*cking DANSKO'S for f*cks's sake! Supposedly any old broad should be able to walk in these things! But alas, not me. I'd already twisted my ankle while walking in these shoes no less than THREE TIMES the previous weekend, and this was my last ditch attempt to try to train myself to walk in heels.... but I had to ask myself: why bother?!

Because really, the truth is, I'm a sneakers & cowboy boots kind of girl, and I have been for years. And in all my years of living, I've never had anyone in my life think less of me because I wasn't wearing heels, or more of me because I was. And as I gingerly tiptoed down that San Francisco street, desperately afraid of falling and twisting my ankle again, that realization sank in hard. In fact, my honey even asked me who exactly were these people I was trying to impress with my heels? Because he likes me no matter what.

So as I turned 42, my present to myself was the decision to ditch the heels and all the pretense that comes along with them, and focus instead on the things that really matter: the fact that I've got people who love me no matter what, and that I get to enjoy so much goodness on this earth and in this life. I've got quite a nice collection of cowboy boots and I just might be wearing them when I get married, and I'm happy about that!

What's This Food?

2011-03-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Forgive the long pause.

I haven't one iota of inspiration lately, culinary or otherwise. The world is too sad a place these days. I feel extremely lucky for my kitchen, my home, my life, and everything and everyone in it, no question about that. But that is about all the enthusiasm I can seem to gather lately.

Although I'm not finding much inspiration in my own kitchen, I am enjoying learning learning about "new" and unusual foods through the podcast What's This Food. I love the concept of this show - a new food explored every single day of the year. From the host, Daniel Delaney's web site:

WTF, or "What's This Food?", is a daily web show that profiles commonly unknown or unusual food ingredients, techniques or dishes. As part of his New Year's resolution, Dan, the host, sets out to discover and learn about a new food each day in 2011.

That is seriously badass. I've been totally digging watching and listening to Dan's daily podcasts, and learning about foods like lotus root, persimmons, starfruit, ghee, bonito, and so much more! Check it out, and if you're so inclined, you can subscribe to the show via I-Tunes.

Here in the Bay area it's been raining for what feels like a couple of months. I'm not sure what my garden thinks about that. It's been dumping rain ever since we planted the latest batch of plants, and I'm pretty sure the peas have drowned. But, the beets do seem to be growing, as well as the arugula, kale and broccolini, little bit by little bit. And the compost heap is growing too. Now all we need is some of that magical sunshine to warm us all.

In Praise of Kale and More Gardening Inspiration

2011-02-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kale has been a favorite in our kitchen as of late. We were lucky to get a very nice harvest of it from our garden - it seemed to grow better than anything else we planted last Fall. Possibly because our garden doesn't get full sunlight, it seemed to take quite awhile to develop, but once it did, it developed quite nicely, and we've been eating a ton of it ever since.

I love to make kale chips, and I also have been adding a couple of leaves to my smoothies in the morning. Believe it or not, it blends right in and tastes just fine. I also like to slice it thin and enjoy it in salad. And it doesn't hurt that it's considered one of the world's healthiest foods!

This morning I stumbled upon this excellent article about kale on Bay Area Bites, and thought I'd share, as there are several great recipes listed that I'm looking forward to trying.

In other news, just last weekend we harvested what was left in the garden - mostly lots of greens, and made room for the next bunch of plants. Since our garden only seems to get what is considered "partial shade", especially at this time of year, we stuck mostly to greenish things - more kale (of course!) and broccolini, arugula, little gem lettuce, beets and sweet peas. The day we planted everything, a heavy storm blew in and the poor little plants have been getting pummeled by the rain and wind for days now, so I'm hoping they'll survive!

In my efforts to become more knowledgeable about gardening, I recently enjoyed reading Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail, and learned a lot about how & when & even where to plant, even in small spaces or less than optimal conditions. Now I'm more inspired than ever to keep at it, and to grow more food than ever this year! Ms. Trail offers up so many handy tips in her book, including how to make your own compost, which is the next project I'm going to tackle, once that pesky, but much-needed rain, stops dumping out of the sky.

Garden Inspiration

2011-01-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of nights ago, I was lucky to catch Joan Gussow being interviewed by Novella Carpenter. I was already a fan of Novella's after having read her awesome book Farm City, and now I'm a fan of Joan's too. I bought her latest book Growing, Older, and haven't been able to put it down.

Both women are pioneers in their own ways, and both women know a thing or two about food, farming, and writing. It was truly a pleasure to hear their insights, and my only complaint was that it was too short! I could have listened to them for hours!

After spending a short while listening to these two witty, engaging and inspiring farmers talk about growing food, I came away more determined than ever to really learn to become a better gardener.

In our old place, we had the garden placed in an area where it received abundant sunlight, and although we had our share of challenges, I was constantly amazed that it seemed like all you had to do was plant the stuff, water it, pull weeds occasionally, and then reap the gorgeous fruits of your labors! We were fortunate to grow some incredible tomatoes, peppers and squash.

In the new place, the garden lives in an area that only gets sun later in the day, and definitely not for eight hours per day. We started with cool weather crops - lots of lettuce, and also chard, kale, broccoli, beets & cabbage. I'm thrilled to say that we harvested all the broccoli recently (see a few pics on my last posting) and although the crop wasn't prolific, it was tender and vibrant green and absolutely delicious! There has also been a ton of kale which has also turned out wonderfully, and I've been enjoying that, along with some chard which turned out only partially well, in my salads almost every day.

We were also very lucky that the yard came with a meyer lemon tree which, despite the need for serious pruning, still turned out bucket loads of top-notch fruit! In addition to giving bucket loads away, I made a pretty large batch of preserved lemons recently. I had to stop while eating my lunch today to appreciate that the great majority of food in my bowl came from our yard - kale, chard, broccoli, and preserved lemons, hurray!

As for the beets, they didn't fare so well because I forgot to thin them, and the jury is still out on the cabbage but it does seem to be growing. The lettuce did just fine but didn't quite thrill me the way the kale & broccoli did. Some of the lettuces and chard and beet greens developed some kind of brown rot and I never quite figured out what it was or what caused it.

The point I'm getting to here, is that there is still so much to learn! I feel like an absolute beginner, and I also feel that if I'm able to get this many good results when I barely know what I'm doing, I can hardly wait to see the kind of results I'll get once I apply myself a little more proactively!

But where to learn? I'd bought the book How to Grow More Vegetables but it seemed far to complex for an absolute beginner like me. Today I was poking around on the old interweb and I stumbled upon the Alameda County Master Gardeners site, which is a great resource for someone growing right here in Alameda County. Just perusing their site and clicking on their links, I've already learned a lot, and I am more excited than ever!

If anyone out there reading this has a good book to recommend for beginners, I'd love to hear about it.

In other news, can you believe I've nearly made it 21 days without coffee, sugar, alcohol, dairy, eggs, corn, gluten or soy! And would you believe that I've eaten better than ever during this time? It's true! I'm sure I will enjoy adding some of the things back into my diet that have been left out these last weeks, but I'm also really excited to continue many of the healthy habits that I've learned. The whole goal was to get to feeling good, and it feels good to be able say that I'm feeling good! Here's hoping this finds you feeling good too!

Greetings From a Whole New World....

2011-01-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

...Today is day 16 of a 21-day cleanse, during which I'm not consuming any alcohol, caffeine, sugar, gluten, corn, soy, dairy or eggs. And you know what? I feel pretty good!

Truth be told, I've had a few moments of cheating, including a couple of cups of green tea, and the other day I splurged on something that felt extremely decadent: "ice cream"! Actually it was sorbet from Scream Sorbet, my absolute favorite local "ice cream" shop. The flavor, coconut thai basil, was out of this world. It featured only four ingredients: coconut milk, basil, lime and sugar. Yes, white sugar is something I'm not supposed to be consuming right now but I won't beat myself up too much, for it was a tiny scoop, and I've done really really well with giving up all this other stuff, most of the time without feeling terribly deprived. But on this day, that little scoop of bliss was just what I needed! I think I could give up dairy forever as long as long as I knew that Scream Sorbet was around.

The first day without caffeine was beyond brutal, and I really wasn't prepared for how awful I would feel. I'd only been drinking half a cup a day, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to give it up, but oh, was I wrong. The pain in my head was absolutely unbearable, enough to make me think I might have to never touch coffee again, or if I do, then NEVER EVER GIVE IT UP AGAIN! So the next day, I drank a little green tea to help keep the headache at bay, and that seemed to work. I'm happy to report that now I'm doing just fine without the coffee or the green tea, and without all the other stuff too.

And as for the foods that I *am* eating, I'm loving them! Lots and lots of vegetables and fruit and some grains and legumes and fish. I'm not finding myself hungry during the day and I feel much more energetic, too. And I'm still having fun trying out new recipes, some of which I'll post soon, so don't despair! For now, I'll leave you with some pics of one of the first harvests from the garden at the new house - broccoli, chard and kale. Perfect timing cause I've been eating a LOT of that stuff lately!

Until next time, have some cheese/eggs/pizza/beer/wine/nachos/etc.... for me!

In With the New

2011-01-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

Suddenly it's 2011. Seems like it just crept up when I wasn't looking.

The last couple of the weeks of 2010 were pretty rough for me, what with losing my dear furry friend and then getting sick, so I didn't exactly feel as if I started this year with a bang. It was more like a pathetic little whimper. Although I'm almost entirely over the head cold sickness, I'm sure the heartsickness will be lingering for a long, long time. Damn, I miss that old gal.

On the up side, I had a wonderful visit with my family, and am happy to report that my Dad is doing great, and that I finally got to learn how to make the family recipe for sauce & meatballs & homemade pasta. Thanks, Dad! I'll make it one of my goals for 2011 to make it on my own and report back.

Along with the arrival of the new year, so too has the annual alcohol-free January arrived. I was really looking forward to it and feeling very excited about all the benefits: more energy, improved health, clearer skin, dropping a few pounds, sleeping better. But so far at least, my insomnia seems to be worse than ever, and I feel nothing but sluggish and uninspired. Nothing like feeling crappy to make a person want to drown her sorrows in red, red wine! I know, I know... it's only been 5 and 3/4 days! I'm not really giving up that easily.

In fact, today it occurred to me that since I'm already feeling so cruddy, I might as well go all the way with this detoxing thing and do a real cleanse, something I haven't attempted to do in years. So starting this Saturday, besides the alcohol, I'll also be losing dairy, gluten, soy, corn, caffeine & sugar for 21 days, something I've never attempted to do before (possibly because it's INSANE!!!). The goal is to get to the point of feeling good, but I imagine that before the feeling good starts, there's going to be a LOT more feeling bad. Oh well, I've felt bad before and I've gotten through it, and at least in this case, the feeling bad comes with a purpose.

Not sure how much posting I'll do in the next 3 weeks but will do my best to update periodically once I recover from the sheer shock of it!

For now, I'm wishing you all a very happy, healthy and inspired 2011! Feel free to have a glass of wine or three for me this month, won't you?

Farewell, Old Friend

2010-12-25T16:35:00.000-08:00

Spider came home from the pound with me on March 28, 1997. They told me they thought she was about 6 months old then, so I decided that September 28th would be her birthday. She had been brought to the pound with her mama, who was put down while at the pound, and though she was very sweet, she was also nervous & scared. I don't know what her life was like before she got to the pound, but I suspected that she and her mama were neglected and not treated very nice. Long after she left her old life behind, she still spent her whole life terrified of fireworks and loud noises. The day I took her home with me, I promised her that I would always do my best to protect her and be her friend, and honestly, it is she who has been the best friend to me ever since that day.

I didn't know much about raising a dog when I brought her home with me, and my learning process was trial by fire. It's hard to believe that the same little rascal who destroyed my apartment - speaker cables, window ledges, chairs, shoes, table legs, blinds, and anything else she could get her teeth on - grew into such a regal, mature, and dignified old soul.

Even though I adopted her, Lucio was her dear friend and trusted caretaker practically from day one, and she was also lucky to have many other human and dog friends throughout her long life. She grew up surrounded by live music, and would frequently just lay right down in front of the drum kit during our various rehearsals. She was happy as long as she could be right by our side, and it always troubled her greatly when the pack was separated. She loved to chase the ball and swim, and boy did she ever love to eat.

She did a lot of traveling with us over the years, and lived in many different places around Berkeley and Oakland, and even did a brief stint in Phoenix. When I look back on all the turns my life has taken over the last 14 years, it was always she who was the constant, she who held me up with her gentle loving presence no matter what kind of chaos was happening in my life.

When John and Bloom came into her life, John became yet another trusted caretaker & friend to Spider, and although it took her a little while to adjust to having a 150-pound "little" brother, Bloom idolized her and was always happy to be right by her side... which she didn't mind too much, as long has he didn't get too close. As she reached the end of her life, she tended to like to have more space to herself. but she was plenty happy to share the couch with Bloom. And in fact, the young dog taught the old dog a new trick. When she discovered that he got treats for rolling over, it didn't take her long at all to roll over herself!

Spider moved on from this world on December 22, 2010. Words can't express how heartbreaking it was to watch her become uncomfortable and pained in her old body, and to accept that it was time to let her go. In fact I had spent so much time dwelling on my fear of this, that I never stopped to consider that it could be a beautiful and moving experience, and it really was. I feel incredibly fortunate that when it was time, she was able to be surrounded by her closest loved ones - Lucio, John, Bloom and me. As heartbreaking as it was, we couldn't have asked for a better send off for her, and we knew without a doubt that this tired old soul was ready to go. In some small way, that made it easier. That, and knowing that she was loved by so many, every single moment of her life. She will always be loved, and we miss her very much.

If you click on the link at the beginning of this post, you'll be taken to a photo gallery of some pics of her throughout her life. I took some of the pics, and many of them were taken by Lucio, including the most awesome one at the beginning of this page. We love you, Spider!

Tokyo Turnips

2010-12-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

My, oh my. I'm so digging my new love affair with Tokyo turnips! In case there was any doubt, an old dog *can* learn new tricks. I don't know how I managed to go forty-something years without these root vegetables in my life, but I'll tell you - now that I've found them, they are here to stay!

First, I bought some to include in a vegetable stew I was making. I'd had them once before at a catering job I was working at, where they were pickled Japanese style and I remembered loving them. I suspected that these turnips, so small and delicate, looked like they'd be good in my stew, instead of the larger ones that have a purple tinge.

After cleaning them and dicing them, I ate a cube raw. And then I ate another, and another, and another, until there were hardly any left to go into the stew! They have such a delicate flavor, so wintery and crunchy, sweet and juicy and a little bit spicy. They remind me of a cross between a radish and a turnip, and I find them totally addictive. And I love that you can eat them raw, or cook them. When you cook them, they become even more delicate and almost buttery. And you can, and should, cook the greens, and even the stems. There's nothing not to love about these babies!

So I put them into my stew, and they melded beautifully. And the next night, I put them into an Indian-style stew with black-eyed peas, kabocha squash and coconut milk, and they were the star of the show. At least, the ones that made it into the pot and weren't eaten raw while I was cooking.

I would post a recipe for how to use them, but really, I think the best way to eat them is to enjoy them raw, or lightly steam them, greens, stems & all, and sprinkle with a little salt.

Since they grow well in colder weather, I'm thinking I'd like to try to grow them in my garden, if I could ever find a way to keep the dang squirrels from destroying everything that is planted out there!

For now, I'm just happy to be enjoying something new to me, something delightful that thrives when the weather is cold and the sunlight is scarce.

Until next time, I'll just be over here inhaling my Tokyo turnips with a big, dumb grin on my face!

Now, About that Winning Chili Recipe…

2010-11-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

So sorry to keep you waiting! I got sidetracked by Life - you know, big stuff like…. getting engaged!!!!

And then my dear old dog Spider suffered a near-death experience and we thought for sure she wasn't going to make it. But judging by how shamelessly she continues to beg and how boundlessly she still runs up & down the stairs, I'm happy to say that she seems to want to stick around for a little while longer, and I'm thrilled and thankful for that!

So the news is good all the way around, yes it is! It's a win-win-win situation. Now let's get to talking about that winning chili recipe, shall we?

First things first - the recipe was inspired by this link: a very detailed recipe and worth reading!

And second things second - I cooked the beans using this method. And of course, it's ok to use canned beans if that's what suits your fancy.

As for the dried chiles, you can find them at your local Mexican market. And also, you can vary them if you desire. I used the ones I had on hand it it happened to turn out perfectly.

You'll see that the recipe calls for fresh habanero chiles, frozen. The reason for freezing them is because it mellows the heat significantly, and that's why you can use so many of them in one recipe without burning your pants off. And you can certainly use less or leave them out if that's how you like it!

And lastly... the recipe calls for Marmite. I've always thought of that as some weird thing my friends from across the pond like to keep in their cupboards. But let me tell you, it really adds something essential and robust to this chile paste, and I would not leave it out! In fact now I'm a little obsessed with finding other recipes in which to sneak a little Marmite!

And now, without further adieu…

Val's Award Winning Chili Recipe

2 dried chile California - with seeds

2 dried chile New Mexico - with seeds

2 dried chile de Arbol, seeds removed

1 1/2 T. cumin seeds

1 1/2 T. coriander seeds

1 t. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 T. coffee beans, very finely ground

1 star anise

2 T. tomato paste

2 medium pasilla chiles, diced

2 medium red bell peppers, diced

4 medium green bell peppers, diced

5 habanero chiles, frozen

2 onions, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. oregano

4 cups vegetable stock

2 t. soy sauce

1 t. marmite

2 bay leaves

1 28 ounce can tomato puree

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup tequila

15 cups beans - I used a combo of black, pinto, kidney and white beans. *See notes below.

1-3 T. brown sugar

Seed the New Mexico & Arbol chiles, and then toast them, along with the unseeded California chiles, in a hot skillet for about 1 minute or so on each side, just until they start to brown and smoke a little, and then set aside.

Toast and grind the cumin & coriander seeds and the star anise, and set aside.

Bring 1 cup of the stock to a boil in separate pan and add the toasted chiles and 1 habanero pepper. Simmer over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by about half.

Put this liquid/chile mixture, along with the toasted chiles and ground spices into a food processor or blender and add the ground coffee, cocoa powder, tomato paste, soy sauce and the marmite. Blend into a paste and set aside.

Fire roast the other 4 habaneros and then finely dice them. Easiest way to do this is to put them on a skewer and hold them over the flame on your gas stove, turning occasionally, until they start to blister & blacken.

Next up: saute' the diced onion in a couple tablespoons olive oil for about 8-10 minutes until starting to soften. Then add the fresh diced fresh chiles, oregano and garlic.

Add the diced roasted habaneros and the chile paste to the onions & peppers. Heat at medium high until the paste starts to sizzle & coat the pan. Then add the other 3 cups of stock and 2 bay leaves, plus the beans (see below), 1 28 oz. can tomato puree, 1/4 cup cider vinegar and 1/2 cup tequila. Don't forget the salt - I must have easily added a good tablespoon, but just do it to taste, adding a little at a time and letting it absorb fully into the chili. Cook until it's done! This should take 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally, over very low heat. Once it's done, add the brown sugar to your liking. It'll be even better the next day!

* I used all beans that I'd cooked in advance until *just* done - did not cook until terribly tender because the beans cook more in the chili. Here's the combination of beans I used:

6 cups black beans

2 cups pinto beans

4 1/2 cups kidney beans

2 1/2 cups cannellini beans

And that's it! Now that you've made your chili, it's time to enter it in a contest… or just invite 20 or so of your friends to come over & help you eat it! Either way, you can't lose!

Full of Beans!

2010-11-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

So as per my last posting, I've been crazily cooking dried beans in an effort to find out just how the hell it is that you really cook dried beans.

For years, I've been cooking beans from scratch but the results have almost always been entirely inconsistent. The same pot might have some beans that are perfectly tender, some that are overcooked to the point of exploding, and a few that are bordering upon raw. I mean, what the hell?!! They all cooked in the same pot! How could this be?

I have always cooked my beans slowly, at a low temperature, and more often than not, I soak them. I have always gone with the recommended standard of not adding salt until the beans are tender. But it never seemed to matter. I longed to be able to turn out the kind of beans in my kitchen that I'd get when I would go to a local Mexican restaurant and order a side of whole pinto or black beans: plump, perfectly tender and full of flavor, and with a velvety skin. Why couldn't I EVER achieve that kind of result in my own kitchen?!

Naturally, I turned to the experts but that only resulted in more frustration. Even Alice Flipping Waters says to just cover the beans with water and cook until they're done! Rick Bayless says that true Mexicans don't soak their beans, and that the key is to just cook the beans in massive quantities. Well, that might work for a restaurant but it's not necessarily practical for the average home cook. I consulted the Dona Tomas cookbook and the Joy of Cooking. Everyone seems to act like it's just natural to easily cook dried beans, as easy as breathing!

What the HELL?! I just couldn't accept that. I started asking around. A couple of my dear friends, Jamie and Kathleen, who happen to be fantastic cooks, admitted that they have the same problem with dried beans. They never cook quite right. I was sad to hear this but it also made me feel validated. Maybe I'm not just a complete bean-cooking idiot.

So I started poking around on the internet, consulting food science writing on the matter, and growing more and more frustrated. Most sources seemed to say it was simple - soak the beans (or don't), cook and don't add salt until the end. In fact, most sources say you'll ruin the beans if you add salt too soon - that it would in fact make the skins rupture before the beans were really done.

But then I stumbled upon a chili recipe which made the outrageous claim that you not only soak the beans with salt, but that you also add the salt when you cook them, right in the beginning. This was contrary to most everything I'd ever read, but I was willing to try anything at this point!

Right around the same time, I also found an article claiming that in order to make fool-proof, perfect beans, without even soaking, that you first boil them on the stove and then finish them in the oven. And I tried this method, both with soaked and un-soaked beans. And the soaked beans definitely had the best texture of any bean I'd ever cooked, but they still tasted a little bland.

So then, I tried first soaking the beans WITH salt, and then boiling and cooking them in the oven WITH salt, and lo and behold, I ended up with the most perfect batch of beans I'd ever cooked in my life. Tender and delicate but by no means mealy. Plump and juicy, salty and smooth, with hardly any beans having split open. Again... What the HELL?! It's contrary to what everyone says, but at this point, I couldn't care less! Because I've made several batches of beans this way now, and they've been by far the best beans I've ever cooked. And people, I have cooked a LOT of beans!

So here's my take on how to cook the most succulent dried beans:

First, soak your dried beans 8 hours or overnight in plenty of salted water. I don't measure much - if I have like a cup or two of dried beans, I add a teaspoon or so of salt. If I've got something closer to a pound, I might add closer to a tablespoon of salt.

After soaking, discard the soaking water and pre-heat your oven to 250. Put the beans in a heavy duty pot that has a fitted lid. Cover with fresh water by about an inch or so. Add more salt and any aromatics. Depending on the type of bean, I usually like to add half an onion, some crushed garlic cloves, a carrot or two, a bay leaf and either a splash of olive oil or a cheese rind - yes, a cheese rind! Adds a nice rich, salty depth.

Bring the beans to a boil on the stove. Once boiling, turn off the stove and put the beans into the pre-heated oven with the lid on the pot. Start checking after 45 minutes or so - depending on how long you've soaked, them, they may be ready that soon or they may take as long as 90 minutes. Recently I cooked black beans that took about 90 minutes - and they were hands down the most perfect pot of black beans I'd ever cooked - as good as the beans I'd get in the local Mexican restaurant, finally!! Cannellini beans using the same method only took 45 minutes until they were meltingly tender. Red kidney beans took about an hour. So you'll need to pay attention, but it's worth the effort, I tell you! I'll never go back to cooking beans the old way.

So that's more than my two cents on beans. Next up, I'm going to post my recipe for chili which features a big damn lot of beans! And yes, it's ok to use canned - I wouldn't blame you a bit if you opted for that - but in case you feel like using beans that you cooked from scratch (and saving a whole lot of money in the process, I might add!), then I urge you to try making them this way. And also, I'd love to hear about your results, too!

Happy bean making, friends! Stay tuned for that chili recipe!

We Are the Champions!

2010-11-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading this blog for a couple of years, you may recall that one time, I tied for second place in a chili cook-off.

This event is always a blast, a wonderful good time featuring music and food and drink to benefit the Mother Ann Wright Foundation - a grass roots organization that feeds hundreds of people in need, every single day of the year.

Winning anything at all should have been thrilling, right? But honestly, I take my cooking seriously - a little TOO seriously, some might say, because instead of being excited that I won second place, I was sore that I didn't win first place. I mean, come on! It's a benefit, for crying out loud! A benefit to feed the homeless! What the hell was wrong with me?! Believe me, I asked myself that a lot around that time.

Fast forward to this year. I was excited to make chili just for the fun of making chili. I'd recently been on an insane quest to figure out the perfect method for cooking dried beans, and I think I've finally found it! That's going to require a separate post entirely!

In my quest to find the perfect way to cook beans, I stumbled upon this chili recipe, which looked amazing. But I wanted my chili to be veggie this year, so I decided to adapt it.

More importantly, I decided to make the chili just for the sheer enjoyment of it. I remembered my insane disappointment from not winning previously and knew that I couldn't let myself go to that place, and so I didn't. I just made the chili and served it up with no attachment to winning or even caring about winning.

But, guess what?

I WON!!!

Sure was thrilling to snag that trophy!

And I have to send out serious kudos to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt over at Serious Eats, for the original recipe was his... and he freely encourages folk to use it as a starting point and adapt as they see fit, and so I did. I'll post my recipe soon, but first I have to do a separate post about cooking dried beans, so stay tuned, friends!

Pickle Time

2010-10-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Dang it, the summer flew by and suddenly it was almost, almost too late to make pickles. But luckily, I happened to be shopping the other day and noticed the market still had pickling cucumbers and flowering dill, so I loaded up my cart and went on my merry way.

Then last night, in less time than it takes to make dinner, we made pickles.

Of course, they won't be ready to eat for a week or two or three, because we are making them using natural fermentation. Do you know about the book Wild Fermentation? It's a great resource authored by Sandor Katz, about the many benefits of making your own fermented treats - like yogurt, pickles, and sauerkraut. Of course, he doesn't just sing the praises of fermented foods, he tells you how to make them!

You can find the precise recipe for pickles here, or better yet, get your own copy of the book! But below is a rough guide to how we do it.

First, you don't have to use flowering dill but it's nice to use if you can get it. You can use regular fresh dill or dried dill.

The Wild Fermentation site recommends that you make your pickles in a crock, but we always make them in mason jars.

So here's what you'll need:

3 2-quart mason jars

3-4 lbs pickling cucumbers

2-4 bunches fresh flowering dill, or fresh dill

2-3 heads garlic

3-4 T. whole black peppercorns

Salt and water

First, make the brine. You'll need enough to cover all your pickles so you might want to start with 2 quarts water with 6 T. salt mixed into it. This probably won't be enough brine to cover all your pickles, but you can easily make more.

Rinse the pickles and the dill. Peel and smash the garlic cloves and distribute them evenly amongst your clean pickle jars.

Roughly crush the peppercorns in a mortar & pestle, or if you don't have one, crush them with a rolling pin on a cutting board. Divide the peppercorns into the jars.

Divide the dill evenly into the jars, and then add the cucumbers to the jars.

Now pour the brine over the pickles, and, if you need to, make a little more brine. You want enough to nearly cover the cucumbers.

Sandor Katz recommends you place a plate on top of the pickles to immerse them completely, but we've found that a clean beer bottle with a little water in it is the perfect way to weigh the pickles down and immerse them fully.

Cover the pickles loosely with a clean towel and put them in a cool place. Mr. Katz recommends you taste the pickles after a few days, and then check them daily. We have tended to only taste them about once every week or so, and that's worked out fine for us. Regardless of how much tasting you do, you'll want to skim off any mold that may form on the top, and rinse any mold off the bottles too.

Depending on the temperature, and how sour you like them, your pickles should be perfectly delicious and ready for crunching in one to four weeks.

Enjoy!

Welcome Back, Herb Butter

2010-10-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Fall seems to really be upon us this time. No more summery teasers, just cooler air and grayer skies and scattered showers, and for me anyway, an intense desire to make soup. A desire bordering, of course, upon obsession. Lately I have not wanted to eat anything else, and so all week long, it's all soup, all the time. Of course, I write these words on a Monday and so far, it's only been two days of soup. Yesterday it was lentil vegetable for dinner (and this morning for breakfast too), tonight's dinner (and surely tomorrow's breakfast or lunch): mushroom barley with homemade mushroom stock. Tomorrow night it's going to be Middle Eastern Spinach Soup from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu cookbook, and the next night, Deborah Madison's Parsnip Carrot Soup from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

All along, so far, the magic bonus ingredient has been herb butter that I hastily whipped up last week with some leftover thai basil, dill and shallots that I had laying around. And I'm reminded of what a wonderful staple this is to have in your pantry - or rather, freezer. I haven't only used it in soup recently. Over the weekend I fried and egg in it - what a way to elevate your basic average fried egg on toast to something sophisticated and elegant!

I highly recommend you make yourself a slab of herb butter next time you have some leftover herbs wanting to feel completely loved. It's easy - bring a stick of butter (I prefer unsalted) to room temperature. Once it's nice & soft, blend some finely diced herbs into it using a rubber spatula - 2 to 2 1/2 T. is a good amount, and if you are so inclined, you can add some finely diced shallot and grated lemon zest, along with a light sprinkling of salt.

Once the herbs and enhancements have been blended into the butter, smear the whole lot of it onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper and shape into a roll. Throw it in the freezer and when frozen, cut it into slices and store the slices in a glass or plastic container, taking out a slice or two to use as needed.

Just think: herb butter melting into a mountain of garlic mashed potatoes or a steaming squash biscuit or creamy scrambled eggs or a hot pot of stew or freshly steamed root vegetables....I'm sure you get the picture and I bet you have dishes of your own that are crying out for a little herb butter love, so bring 'em on!

I'm thinking the cold weather season is going to be a whole lot easier to stand as long as I've got lots of soup and lots of herb butter.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

2010-10-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

Today would have been my Grandma Esway's 111th birthday.

I wouldn't have even known it was her birthday except for the fact that I realized recently that since I've moved, the few photos that I have of her haven't resurfaced yet. So I asked my parents to scan a photo and send it to me. And it happened that the photo that my Mom sent happened to be a photo of her on her birthday (which, coincidentally, also features a roughly three year old me, sitting there right next to her!), and Mom also pointed out that her birthday is today. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

I still miss her and wish that I could have known her better. I bet my parents and all of her children and grandchildren still miss her too. I've been thinking a lot about how we are never really ready to say goodbye to those we love. I've been thinking a lot about how I wish I could have known her better, and for that matter, my Grandpa Esway, who died when I was young enough not to be able to remember much of him - and both of my grandparents on my Mom's side too, whom I remember but wish that I had known so much better than I did.

I was very inspired recently by my friend Taralinda's recent posting about Dia de los Muertos, aka the Day of the Dead - a time to honor our ancestors. So I am taking this moment to honor my grandparents and thank them for everything they sacrificed so that I can be sitting right here, right now, writing these words.

My Grandma Esway married very young and most certainly lived a difficult life - the likes of which I can only imagine. She never had a fraction of the choices or options that someone like me has today, and she never had much money, but somehow, whenever I was with her, I felt like the richest person who ever lived. And despite whatever material items she may have lacked, she definitely helped to inspire my love of food and feeding people and reveling in the kitchen. And I seriously think of her and give thanks for her every time I use her cast iron skillet, which is practically every time I cook. And I know that no matter what I make in that skillet, there is always a little of her magic in it, and a little of her love, which no doubt makes everything that comes out of it taste that much more delightful.

So Happy Birthday, Grandma. Thanks for the inspiration.

Last Taste of Summer

2010-09-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Last Day of Summer. How did that happen so mother flipping fast?!!!!!??? Summer is officially over even though it hardly ever got here in the first place! Tomorrow is the vernal equinox and then the days just get shorter and shorter. Soon it will be time for roasting vegetables and carving pumpkins and baking bread and harvesting the fall crops in our new garden that we finally had a chance to plant this weekend - lots of salad greens, chard, kale, beets, cabbage and broccoli, oh my!

But for now, it turns out to be a very happy coincidence that tonight's dinner featured the very last bits of goodness from our summer garden at the old house.

We had one last small handful of padron peppers and sweet italian peppers, and a lone midget red bell pepper that we tossed into Grandma Esway's old cast iron skillet, and we quickly fried and then ate them with coarse salt while standing in the kitchen waiting for the tomato soup to finish simmering. I think she very much would have approved of tonight's meal. Dad, you would too!!

The soup was made with the last batch of big fat plump juicy tomatoes from the old garden, supplemented by a handful of dry-farmed early girl tomatoes from local farm Dirty Girl Produce.

The tomatoes got simmered with shallots & onions cooked in a little butter and a little water, and sat there simmering for what felt like so many hours that we thought for sure that we'd never, ever get to eat the soup. But good things come to those who wait. Especially if those who are waiting happen to have a batch of fried peppers to tide them over!

The last day of summer turned out to be not so bad at all, and I'm feeling pretty excited to greet the fall and all of the goodness that it will bring, too. On to new adventures!

Some Things are Worth Repeating

2010-09-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well hello, stranger! It sure has been awhile. Lifetimes have passed, or at least it feels that way. It's a new era, in a new home, and it's almost a new season, with summer slipping away quietly. Couldn't let it go without sneaking in a little getaway to one of my most favorite places ever: Big Sur!

The dinner we cooked in our little cabin last year was so delightful, we had to give it a repeat performance using this year's tomato harvest from our garden at the old place. Oh, am I going to miss that garden.

The weather was just perfect, the scenery dreamy as ever, and there was much lounging with dog friends.

And how crazy is it that I spent much of my life in Arizona, but I had to go to Big Sur to find myself in the company of a real live scorpion? I guess there's a first for everything. Thankfully no one was stung and all ended well for everyone but the poor scorpion. We found out later that the kind of scorpions that hang around California are not poisonous, but I guess I'm glad we didn't take any chances. Poison or no, it's better to not be stung!

When we got back to Oakland, even though I was not quite ready for the getaway to end, it felt so nice to come home. It was a hot afternoon and the house was baking, so we did a little yard work and set up a table on the back patio like we'd been meaning to do ever since we moved in. Later we got Thai take out from King of Thai Noodle and sat on the cool patio eating it, once again savoring the perfect summer-ness of it all.

Welcome Home

2010-08-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Or maybe should I say, welcome to my new bulk goods cabinet! Yes, these kinds of things excite me. I am love, love, LOVING the new digs. This cabinet was originally used to house an ironing board, but I try to never own anything that requires ironing! And on the rare occasion that I may find myself needing to iron in the future, I'll just pull the old ironing board out of the BASEMENT. Oh, to have a basement to keep things! It's a wonderful luxury, to be sure.

And speaking of the basement.... last night I discovered a remnant left behind by the previous owners of the house: a small container filled with old teeth. You know, just in case we break some of ours and need a replacement tooth, there is a variety to choose from! Little teeth, big teeth, teeth with fillings. Yeah, it's kind of creepy and gross but I refuse to let it stop me from loving this place! I don't know where the teeth came from and I'm not sure I want to know, but the vibe here is good, that much is for certain.

It's been completely hectic getting moved out of the old place and into the new place, hence my extreme lack of posting. But little by little, progress is happening. Meals are being cooked. Grass is growing. Boxes are getting unpacked, and despite the chaos, it all feels wonderful!

Padron Pepper Break

2010-07-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

The chaos around here continues, along with the poor nutrition and sloppy surroundings. I think I've gained five pounds in the last week alone, due to the interruption in my normal way of eating/cooking...as in, I haven't really been cooking. And as much as I sometimes enjoy eating out, after two or three meals in a row, I just long for something simple and cooked with my own hands. But with the kitchen 75% dismantled (and my whole life, for that matter), there just hasn't been the time, nor the mental space.

Thankfully, in spite of the chaos in here, out there in the yard, the garden just keeps on growing. As it turns out, the garden doesn't really care about your chaos as long as you remember to give it a little love, attention and water. And so far, it hasn't been TOO busy in here to remember to do that. And so the garden has rewarded us.

Tonight, and seemingly overnight, we discovered a big fat handful of Padron peppers that were ripe for the picking. And pick them we did, along with one perfect tomato. I can hardly wait to fry the peppers tomorrow and eat them with sliced tomatoes and just picked lettuce from the garden. It will be the most perfect antidote to all the heavy, fat-filled takeout meals we've been eating, and I can hardly wait.

As much as I'm looking forward to completing this move and making that first feast in the new place, I'm really savoring the last days of being here and enjoying this wonderful garden. I really hope that whomever lives here next will want to keep on nurturing it and loving it and growing it and in turn, be rewarded by its lovely abundance.

Until next time, cheers!

New Digs

2010-07-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

I became a homeowner (again) on Thursday, July 8th, 2010. I'm still kind of pinching myself about it. How did that happen?!

I spent so much time over the last few months worrying about what would happen if I *didn't* get the place, if the loan *didn't* come through, that I neglected to really consider the enormity of what it would be like if everything DID come through.

Well, it did! And soon, I'll be off to a new (but admittedly, smaller) kitchen with marble counter tops and a new stove! Abundant closet space and windows! More than one bathroom! A music room and a guest room, oh my!

And yet, in spite of how thrilled I am, I'm a little freaked out about it too. I fear my days of eating out are over for the foreseeable future. I even had a nightmare recently, thanks to being too addicted to The Wire, that I was about to go to prison to serve time for being a heroin dealer. And I wasn't worried about life in prison, or leaving my friends and family behind, oh no. I was only worried that I'd lose my house because I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage. Uh, someone needs to step away from the television set. But that shouldn't be very difficult, because suddenly it feels like every single day and night for the next many months will be swallowed up by the act of dismantling one place and shoving its contents into boxes, transporting them to another place and bit by bit, turning that new place into a warm, cozy, inviting, comforting home. It's a project that could take a long, long time. And also, one that I am delighted to be able to sink my teeth into.

It's going to be a slow process getting all the stuff from here to there, one that will take the next several weeks. It's a little overwhelming. Our current digs are more chaotic than ever, filled with half-packed boxes and nervous dogs and a sloppy, stuff-strewn kitchen, and a fridge full of limp vegetables that have been sadly lacking attention. So tonight I chopped and stirred into a pot whatever I could find in there - onion, celery, carrots, cabbage, tomato sauce, potatoes, cooked pinto beans and yogurt. And from the pantry: french green lentils and quinoa and garlic. You might not call it delicious or even cohesive, but it wasn't bad either, and we called it dinner...and also, we called it Slop, Goulash, Gruel and Clean Out the Fridge Stew.

Something tells me I might have to get used to this kind of thing for the next little while - to that and eating takeout. But I am by no means complaining. I keep dreaming of the first meal I'll cook in the new place while the sunlight streams through the window with the stereo blasting, even though that time seems like light years away. I have no idea what it will be, or even when, but at least now, it's closer than it ever was before, and I am very thankful.

Green Things

2010-06-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

It's not easy being green sometimes. I had such high hopes for this big pile of fresh fava beans that a friend from work gave me. I also had peas, lemons, white wine, and a little cream. And some pasta. Should have been all the makings for a perfect summer meal, right?

Well who are we kidding? Summer in the Bay area is all about bleak, grey skies. And bleak about sums up the end result after all my time spent tirelessly shucking the fava beans and slipping each little bugger from its skin. I just really don't know how to make a cream sauce, as it turns out. And I don't know how to fake it either.

As it happens, I guess I'm good at making grey goop, because after sauteing the favas & peas with a little garlic & olive oil, and adding some splashes of white wine, lemon juice and half & half, I decided it might be good to puree some of the mixture to make a sauce. Except it didn't make a sauce, it made something more like the consistency of... goop.

So I added some pasta water and kept on pureeing. And despite my efforts, it never really became sauce. But after all this work, I couldn't waste it. So onto the pasta it went. I wouldn't call it a BAD dinner, but I wouldn't exactly call it good either. Oh well, I guess they can't all be winners. Note to self: next time, follow a recipe.

There was a consolation prize however. I ventured out into the garden after dinner and noticed the kale plants are getting quite hardy, especially now that we've successfully beaten the slugs, with a little help from iron phosphate slug bait. Wish I'd discovered the stuff before the slimy jerks managed to eat half the garden, but better late than never. Just looking at this kale, I'm already feeling confident that tomorrow's dinner will be much better than tonight's. Some kinds of green are easy after all, and thank goodness for that.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

2010-06-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

Why buy tortillas at the store when you can make your own??? If you thought you couldn't make your own, I'm going to beg to differ, cause I'm going to show you how. It's not that hard, I promise, you'll see! Now I'm sure you can find many places on the web to learn how to do this, but I've been making my own quite a bit lately, and several people have mentioned they'd like to see a tutorial of sorts, so here is my humble take on the matter.

I'm sure I still have a lot to learn , but I think at least for now, I've finally gotten to the point where I can make these babies with some amount of confidence that I'll slay my dinner guests when it's taco night. Ok, granted, usually the only ones eating them are just me and my honey, but I'm telling you, these tortillas slay the living crap out of us, so much so that we now look for ANY EXCUSE to have taco night!

And you know what else is cool? They're CHEAP! You can't beat delicious AND inexpensive!

You'll see from the pictures below that I use a tortilla press to flatten the little balls of masa into tortillas. You can buy one for about $10 - $20 at your local Mexican grocery store, and there are also many places they are available online, like here for instance. (And that big boy in the background is Bloom, who is very interested in taco night, as is Spider, who was busy working on her beauty sleep when this shot was taken.)

The next thing you'll need is some masa harina, which is very finely ground corn flour made from corn that has been dried, cooked, ground up and dried again. The cooking water always contains slaked lime, also known as “limewater,” which gives masa harina its distinctive taste. I use the Maseca brand, which you can also get at your local Mexican grocery store. However, your local store just might carry the fresh masa, in which case you won't have to mix the dough yourself. If you're working from the masa harina, here's how you do it. This recipe makes enough for 8 tortillas, but of course you can double or triple it as you see fit.

Measure out 1 cup of the masa harina, stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt, and slowly stir in 2/3 cup water. Stir it well until a dough forms.
If the dough seems too dry & cakey, slowly and in small increments, add a little more water.

I've found that it works best when the dough ends up being the consistency of Playdough - smooth, pliable and a little bit moist.

You want to be able to easily separate the dough into 8 pieces which you can roll into balls. Once you've done this part, cover the bowl with a damp towel in order to keep them moist.

Now you're ready to press the tortillas. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on either side of your tortilla press and place one of the balls in the middle of the bottom side of the press.

Now pull the arm down and press!

Open carefully, and gently remove the tortilla.

Place it into a pre-heated skillet over medium heat. I use a very well seasoned cast iron skillet, but you can also use a nonstick. The main point is that you don't want the tortillas to stick.

Cook them for a little less than one minute per side, and then you're done!

You can eat your tacos right away, with or without cheap wine from Trader Joe's. Load the tacos up with whatever suits your fancy, and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Pesky Pesticides

2010-06-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you live in California, perhaps you saw the recent headline which read "State Poised to OK supertoxic pesticide"? You can read all about it here, but the basic gist of it is that the state of California has this crazy idea that it might be ok to allow the use of methyl iodide in our soil.

Among other things, methyl iodide is such a reliable cause of cancer that it's used in labs to induce cancer. Breathing methyl iodide fumes can cause lung, liver, kidney and central nervous system damage. It causes nausea, dizziness, coughing and vomiting. Prolonged contact with skin causes burns. Massive inhalation causes pulmonary edema. But astonishingly, those that govern our fine state think it's just a swell idea to dump this crap into our soil. I wonder how much money the pesticide lobbyists paid for this? I am outraged, but then, it's not terribly surprising considering that we live in a world where corporations regularly get away with destroying our environment, right, BP?

Although I have very little hope that it will make a difference, Governor Schwarzenegger is taking comments regarding the use of this poison until the end of this month. I made the call and I hope you will too, and I hope you'll also pass it on. You can reach the Gov. at 916-445-2841. You can also sign a petition to be submitted to the EPA here, and keep updated by visiting the Pesticide Action Network.

Meanwhile, our little garden here is plugging away, with lots of squash blossoms and tomatoes peaking out from tiny flowers, and the kale is growing like weeds. The basil seems to be getting devoured by slugs, but I'm not feeling a need to poison the soil with cancer causing chemicals! I was thinking I'd start with treating the little slimy creatures to a cup of beer or a sprinkling of salt. Cause beer and salt aren't only good in the kitchen!

Moroccan Carrot Salad

2010-05-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just made the best salad, so good that I had to stop right now, my belly close to bursting, and tell you about it.

But first, I have to tell you that yesterday we went to the Grand Lake Farmers Market, specifically to have lunch at our friend Jenya's booth. She's one of the proprietors and chefs of Vesta Flatbread, and we are big fans of not only Jenya, but of all the wonderful culinary delights created by the folks at Vesta. If you live in the Bay area, please do yourself a favor and go enjoy a Vesta Flatbread sandwich and beverage.

I guarantee you that once you've tried it, you'll be hooked. Jenya & her partner Traci use only the finest, highest quality, locally sourced ingredients. And they create delicious offerings whether you are a carnivore or a vegetarian.

So while we were at the market, we picked up some beautiful, crunchy, super sweet baby carrots from the Happy Boy Farm booth. If you're used to eating those bagged peeled baby carrots, trust me, there is no comparison. These baby carrots are so good you can just basically eat them straight up, and I frequently do!

But tonight, I thought it would be good to feature them in a salad, and it so happened that I had mint in the garden and greek yogurt and homemade harrisa in the fridge. Once I got to chopping and slicing, it didn't take long to realize that I was onto something inspired, something I know will be making regular appearances in our kitchen. The following description is more of a guide since I didn't really measure anything, but hopefully you'll get the picture, and feel free to improvise as you see fit!

First, peel (or don't, if you don't feel inspired to do so) enough fresh baby carrots so you have about a small handful for each person at the table. Then chop them into bite sized pieces and drizzle a little olive oil over them, and sprinkle with salt.

For each serving, you'll want to plop a small dollop of yogurt into a bowl, and stir into that yogurt about a teaspoon or so of harissa. Stir it up and then stir it into the carrots. Squeeze a little fresh lemon juice into it and give it another stir. Thinly slice about 2-3 mint sprigs per serving, and stir those into the salad. If you feel like it, top it with a little crushed red pepper. Dig in and crunch away.

Happiness is a Roasted Beet

2010-04-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

The month of April has flown by with all kinds of birthday festivities, all of which included amazing eating, some of it local and some of it in faraway places. And I've been reminded once again that sometimes, the best meal of the vacation is the one you make on the night you get back. And the night after that, even.

Most recently, we just got back from the Oregon coast and it was wondrous, gorgeous, perfect in every way. We ate the freshest seafood every single day, usually several times a day. But after a few days, I was sick to death of eating out. It wasn't as if we didn't have a kitchen in which to cook, it's just that we weren't as prepared as we'd like to be, so we went with the flow and ate out in some really good restaurants. But still, by the end of the trip, as much as I was loving the fish and the beer and the wine, damn if I wasn't dreaming of vegetables.

And so after a twelve hour day yesterday that included ten hours of driving, we couldn't help but stop at the market on the way home and pick up some fresh spinach and feta to make what ended up being the most delicious spinach salad ever. And tonight's dinner included another spinach salad but this time topped with roasted beets, courtesy of our dear friend Lucio who'd left them here in our fridge. I was so struck by the color of the beets after roasting, I had to share.

Oh, but there is so much more to catch up on! And catch up, we will, but for now, I'm headed to sleep with visions of beets and broccoli dancing in my head. More to come just as soon as I'm able to catch my breath!

Best Friends Forever!

2010-04-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

Is there no end to my obsession with writing songs about dogs? I never even knew I had that obsession until I started this project!

Today's song was inspired by the true love story of Tara and Bella - an elephant and a dog. Do yourself a favor and watch this little clip; it'll warm the bitterest of hearts!

Upon learning about these two magnificent creatures and their sweetest, most wonderful friendship, I got in touch with my inner Madonna and wrote this little bit:

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/tara-and-bella">Tara and Bella by Val Esway</a>

A Couple More

2010-04-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

The birthday week fun has begun! I was too busy being showered with flowers and wine and sushi yesterday to post a song. I know... my life is VERY HARD!

So today I'll post two. Actually one is a song and one is a very goofy spoken word piece. You may not like it, but I bet your dog would, if only (s)he could speak English!

Just a reminder that if you want to read the lyrics or find out more about the writing of the song, click on the song title.

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/failure-notification">Failure Notification by Val Esway</a>

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/if-dogs-ruled-the-world">If Dogs Ruled the World by Val Esway</a>

The Andiron Seaside Inn

2010-04-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

A day sure can make a difference.

We woke up Saturday morning and packed an overnight bag, piled the dogs into the wagon, and headed to Mendocino to stay overnight at the Andiron Seaside Inn. Highly recommended if you find yourself traveling up that way! In fact, even if you didn't think you'd be finding yourself up that way, do yourself a favor and plan a trip!

The owners, Scott and Madeline are two of the kindest people you could ever meet. I'd met them years ago when I was a bartender at Lanesplitter. Not only were they two of my favorite customers, but they are also responsible for making the Lanesplitter Action Figures, including mine! They bought this place a year or two ago and have renovated it in the coolest vintage style, with each room unique. Our room was furnished with vintage barber chairs and art-deco lighting. We really appreciated the extra friendly touches, like dog towels and biscuits for Spider & Bloom!

(The reason you see only one biscuit there is because Bloom devoured his immediately, before I could get a photo. That blur of grey you see in the bottom right hand corner is Spider's snout, attempting to make her way directly so that she could devour hers too!)

And if that wasn't nice enough, we were also greeted with a little something to help me kick off my birthday week!

The Andiron was such a sweet and cozy place that we almost didn't want to leave it! But we had to get out and take in some of that gorgeous coastline. And so after Happy Hour at the Andiron, we managed to get to the bar at the Little River Inn just in time to enjoy a delicious dinner and a fine sunset.

As if all of this wasn't enough, we also managed to pack in some thrift shopping and several brewery visits. How can you see the largest pepper grinder you've ever seen in your life, for only one mere dollar, and NOT buy it?? After all, we do love black pepper around here. A lot!

By the time we arrived home on Sunday evening, I felt rested, refreshed and renewed, and very thankful for all of it!

But now, now it's Monday, and if it seemed like I was getting a little too perky and optimistic, here's a little something for balance. It's called (A by no means complete) List of Things that Could Go Wrong. A fitting song for a Monday. Enjoy!

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/list-of-things-that-could-go-wrong">List of Things That Could Go Wrong by Val Esway</a>

Song of the Day

2010-04-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Just back from a wonderful day and night in Mendocino. What a difference a day makes! More to come, including pics! But for now, I couldn't let the day get away without posting today's song. Just a reminder that you can click on the song title in order to find out more info. about the song, and to read the lyrics.

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/truth-teller">Truth Teller by Val Esway</a>

A Song and a Getaway

2010-04-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm liking this month a lot already!

Soon we'll be headed out the door to go and hang out here. It's probably going to rain all weekend but it will be beautiful nonetheless.

Before I go, here's a little something for you to listen to:

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/montecito-avenue">Montecito Avenue by Val Esway</a>

Dog Love...

2010-04-02T06:25:00.001-07:00

... is the song of the day. It's a good kind of love. I can't promise it's a good kind of song, but here it is, for better or for worse.

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/dog-love">Dog Love by Val Esway</a>

To learn more about the writing of the song, and to read the lyrics, click on the title of the song.

Thanks for listening!

Lend Me Your Ears and I'll Sing You a Song...

2010-04-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

... but I can't promise it'll be perfectly in key, as this month, it's all about demos!

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, then surely you've gathered a little about my recent creative frustrations. What follows is my attempt to break through that and hopefully move forward by spending a little time revisiting the past.

Welcome to A Song A Day in April, wherein I sift through and dust off old songs, new songs, and demos that have never seen the light of day (and perhaps, a few that never were *meant* to see the light of day!).

I'll mostly be posting previously unreleased demos, most of them largely unedited, many recorded moments after I wrote them, or even AS I was writing them, thanks to my participation in the Immersion Composition Society.

In some of my previous years of living, I've begun each year by writing one song each day for as long as I could manage to keep it going. But at this particular point in my life, I'm doing a lot of looking back.

April is the month of my birth, and possibly it’s purely coincidental that I'm turning 41 this month and so, perhaps, you could call this a part of my mid-life crisis, who knows? I've been feeling pretty creatively blocked over the last couple of years, and this project began in part because I was revisiting some of my orphaned songs in an attempt to get myself unstuck. In the process I realized that maybe I wasn’t stuck after all – maybe I was just working on finding my way.

Anyway, I discovered a few gems – and a few turds too – but mostly just had a great time revisiting the orphans! Some of them I may never want to revisit again, others may find their way into my live performances. For now, I'm just having fun digging through the old stuff, taking stock and working on finding a place from which to spring forward. I'm hoping that perhaps there are a few people out there who might appreciate this process and want to listen in.

Not sure where we're going to end up, but am looking forward to the journey, and would be delighted to have you riding shotgun with me.

And with that, here is today's song:

<a href="http://valesway.bandcamp.com/track/mid-life-crisis">Mid-life Crisis by Val Esway</a>

Hidden Treasures

2010-03-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

Ah, Spring! It seems to have finally sprung.

Yesterday was the day I'd been waiting for since pretty much the beginning of winter. It was the day we'd finally clear out our jungle and prepare to turn it into a garden!

Of course, this would be no small task, and I've got the aching muscles today to prove it, even though the mister did a lot more of the heavy duty hard work than I did.

Little by little, we hacked at, whacked at, and ripped those stubborn weeds out of the ground. And somewhere underneath one of those sections of jungle, it was such a thrill to discover a little carrot patch that had just been sitting there for months and months, doing its own thing, minding its own business, not seeming to mind our months and months of neglect. Nature is pretty darn cool that way.

We didn't quite get to the actual planting of the garden yet, but that will happen soon. We still have to till the soil and get the plants. But for now, I'm quite pleased with the results of the day's work, and looking forward to enjoying the fruits (and vegetables!) of our labors!

It's nice, in so many ways, to have a clean slate from which to spring forward, and I sure am ready for it.

Triumphant!

2010-03-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

...that's how I felt on Sunday when I finally wrote a song that I didn't want to throw into the toilet. The irony is that I was on the verge of giving up. In fact, I had given up. I had spent a good many hours that day procrastinating. But I had also spent a good many hours that day attempting to work on one very specific concept for a song.

Over and over I strummed, I picked, I wrote, I re-wrote, I sang, I hummed, I hacked, I thrashed and I sighed heavily. Because no matter what I did or how I did it, I just wasn't feeling it. Not one tiny bit.

And finally, after many hours like this, I just said screw it, I'm done with this. And for some inexplicable reason I picked up the guitar and a bunch of words came to me...words about giving up and not giving a shit that you're giving up and not giving a shit whether anyone cares that you're giving up, and feeling somehow completely liberated, feeling like you're finally seeing the light that you couldn't see because you were too busy obsessing over sticking with the thing you were trying to do in the first place, the thing that wasn't working anyway. And a melody came along with it, and a little teeny hook, and about ten minutes later, there was a song. A song that I didn't feel the need to flush down the toilet. A song that I never planned for or expected to harvest from the depths of my admittedly neurotic soul.

And suddenly I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be, doing exactly what I needed to be doing, and it was such a wonderful, perfect feeling, the likes of which I haven't felt in far too long. I wanted to jump up and down, do a little jig, alert the media. Who knew that my creative block and complete and utter panic over it would be the very thing that would finally inspire me move through said block?

Is the song the best thing I've ever written? Probably not, not even by a long shot. But it showed me something that I needed to see, inspired me to feel something that I needed to feel. It reaffirmed my belief (the one that was starting to wane) that if I just show up and do the work, the music will eventually come, and for that, I am so grateful. Please feel free to remind me of that the next time I start whining and ranting, won't you?

Bachelor Dinner

2010-03-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

The other day I was out with my honey and a friend of ours, and the topic of bachelor dinners came up. That's the generic term I use for when you're flying solo for dinner, which hardly ever happens to me anymore. My honey and I, we eat dinner together almost every night. We like it. It's nice, and it works well for us. It works especially well for me because first, I'm a control freak and like to be in charge of what we're eating most nights, and second, since most of the time I do the cooking, that means I hardly ever have to do the dishes! So for these reasons, and also because I love to cook, most of the time we eat at home, together. And if on a certain night we find ourselves feeling unmotivated or just plain out of stuff to cook, we just go out and grab something, and more often than not that something ends up being tacos or a burrito, or sometimes pizza.

But back in the olden days, I almost always kept a frozen pizza in the freezer, a box of mac & cheese in the cupboard, and microwave popcorn for when I couldn't even be bothered to turn on the oven or boil water. Or sometimes I just ate oatmeal, or bread and cheese. I must admit that occasionally, I kind of miss those days. Don't get me wrong - I was endlessly lonely and some might even say bitter! I wouldn't trade what I've got now for anything, especially not those days! But sometimes I miss flying solo, just going with the impulse to do whatever I feel inspired to do in the moment without giving any thought to what anyone else might want or need. Earlier this week, I had of one of those nights. I got home from a long day at work followed by an intense yoga class that made me feel like my legs were going to separate from my body. Alas, there was no mac & cheese or frozen pizza to be found and I just didn't have the energy to leave the house again. But there was a can of black beans which soon became refried beans, and corn tortillas in the freezer, and zucchini in the fridge that took me as long to steam as it took to defrost a tortilla in the toaster oven, open the beans and throw them in the pan with some shallots, garlic and spices, and soon enough, there were tacos. Within about ten minutes I had a bachelor dinner that was significantly better than the mac & cheese or frozen pizza would have been anyway!

But guess what? I'm on my own this weekend while my rock star boyfriend jets off to play music in NYC. Me, I'm planning to lock myself in the house for most of the weekend and try to write as much music as possible in the hopes of finally breaking through the longest period of writer's block I've ever experienced. And just in case I get hungry and don't feel like cooking, yesterday I bought a frozen pizza, and I'm not ashamed to say that I can't wait to pop that baby in the oven, and maybe even eat it standing up!

Getting Unstuck

2010-03-09T15:36:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday I attempted once again to write and record songs from 8 am until 7 pm. This time I came up with 7 "pieces", none of which turned out to be keepers, but I'm encouraged that I was able to come up with anything at all. I didn't feel *quite* as manic and neurotic and hopeless as I'd felt during the previous session, and that in and of itself is progress! Now might be a good time for me to re-read the most excellent book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - highly recommended if you haven't read it. Hell, maybe it'll even get me unstuck in the blogging department too, you never know!

So Much Soup, Not So Much Song

2010-02-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made the most delicious soup, so delicious it thrilled me a little bit. Said soup was the Tom Yum (hot and sour lemongrass) soup from the cookbook Bhudda's Table by Chat Mingkwan, whose subtitle is "Thai Feasting Vegetarian Style". This soup will cure what ails you. It's nicely spicy thanks to the wickedly hot thai chiles, but more than that, it's just perfectly balanced thanks to the combination of fresh lemongrass, shallots, galangal, lime juice and chili paste. I dare say it tasted *almost* as good as a soup you'd get in a real Thai restaurant. I've been feeling pretty good these days but if I should succumb to the winter cold or flu, I know exactly what soup I'll be eating to warm the bones and clear out the sinuses!

I can't even count the number of pots of soup I've made recently. A favorite one that I've made again and again is this Japanese Hot Pot recipe by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, featuring the completely addictive combination of kabocha squash, taro root, and both dried and fresh mushrooms, just for starters.

Yes, soup has been coming out of my ears. Soup has been constantly flowing in my kitchen. But what about the song??? I just wish that I could write songs the way I can make soup. I mean, yes, I can follow a recipe, oh boy can I. And much of the time, I can improvise a pot of soup based upon whatever I happen to have sitting around in the fridge. Like last week, I had some cooked blackeyed peas, which I combined with sweet potatoes and yams, coconut milk and spinach and kelp noodles, and it was a bona fide hit. The idea for that soup was inspired by a friend who is recovering from surgery, whom I had signed up to make soup for during her recovery. I was pretty sure that this combination of flavors would appeal to her, and it turns out she loved it. And so did I!

But where songwriting is concerned, it seems that I have found myself in a bona fide SLUMP! I used to write a lot. A lot of it was crap but it turned out that some of it was good. But in the past year especially, I've hardly written any music at all. And it has left me seriously questioning my life as a songwriter and also, feeling pretty out of sorts about it all. And so last weekend I finally pulled my head out of my ass and decided to do something about it. Last weekend I participated, once again, in my lodge's version of the Immersion Composition Society. The short description is that we pick a day, and on that day, we each write AND record as many songs as possible in that given day. And then we meet up that night to play for our cohorts the fruits of our labors from the day. And each time I've done it, even though it has been frustrating and scary and maddening, it's never failed to help me find inspiration I never even dreamed of previously. And more often than not, I've usually ended up with a song or two that was a keeper.

Well last weekend, I had a crisis. I spent a good 8 hours writing and strumming and doing my best to create songs out of thin air. But about halfway through the day, I was seriously distraught. I wasn't coming up with anything that wasn't completely ridiculous or self-indulgent. Or whiny. Or Just.Plain.Lame. I thought to myself that perhaps my life as a songwriter has come to an end. And I wrote page after page of blather. I tried to be kind to myself and tell myself that I just needed to get unstuck and that maybe after being stuck for so long, that it might take awhile to get unstuck. And I alternated those kinds of sentiments with other kinds of sentiments, sentiments that aren't nearly so kind or forgiving. You know... the kinds of sentiments that say forget it, you suck, you'll never utter another interesting word again, and you should maybe just give it up and spend the rest of your days in the kitchen making soup. Because you KNOW how to do that. And honestly, if I spent the rest of my days making soup and not song, life wouldn't be so bad. But the truth is, I'm just not ready to give up the SONG part of me yet. So I'm trying to listen to the kinder parts of myself and making some effort to ignore the not so kind parts, for now anyway.

I am not yet unstuck, but maybe I'm not still completely stuck. Maybe it's a fine, fine line. And so I'm just going to keep chipping away and see where it leads me. It might just lead me straight back into the kitchen, soothing myself with soup or copious amounts of alcohol, who knows? But that thrill that I had when I slurped the first spoonful of tonight's soup... I'd love to have that kind of thrill again after having finished a song, a song that feels good. A song that might make other people feel good, too. Wish me luck, cause I feel like I really need it.

Hello, February!

2010-02-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Drum roll please. I made it through January, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. In fact, I came out on the other side of it feeling pretty dang good!

In addition to abstaining from alcohol, I decided to go on a diet. And in order to help with that effort, I managed to engage in some form of exercise for 30 out of 31 days. I did a lot of walking and a lot of yoga. At first I thought the yoga was going to be something I'd have to push myself to do, but it turns out that I'm loving it. I'm loving it so much that now I can't imagine letting a week go by without practicing it at least several days out of the week. Same with the walking, which I've always enjoyed. And since I'm once again walking in the Arizona Breast Cancer 3-Day this year, there's no time like the present to get started with the training, and it feels good!

Of course, it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows. Some days I couldn't stop dreaming of chocolate cake, even though I've never been a huge fan of such things previously. And even with all of this walking and breathing and stretching, I still have a ton of aches and pains in my back and neck and legs, although it's a lot less than than my usual amount, so for that, I'm happy.

As the month passed, I found that most of the time, I wasn't missing alcohol very much. There were moments when I REALLY wanted a glass of red wine, but those moments passed. Of course, I didn't go out a whole lot last month. I did a lot of staying home and hunkering down, and it felt good.

I learned SO much about calories! Probably more than I'd ever care to know, because now that I know what I know, I can't help but change the way I eat. I'm kind of mourning the former me that had a good run, for something like 38 years or so, of being able to eat and drink any old thing that she wanted in any kind of quantity, and never gain a pound. Yeah, those were some good days! It kind of blew my mind to discover last night, for instance, after making a huge batch of my homemade granola and then analyzing the calories, that one mere cup contains somewhere near 570 calories!!! I guess I won't be inhaling it like I used to.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about my eating habits in general, and came to the conclusion that if I had to choose between eating certain foods and drinking alcohol, as much as I LOVE wine, I'd have to choose the food over the drink. But rather than being restrictive, what I'm hoping I'll take away from all this is the ability to just be moderate and make healthy choices, because in the end, it's all about feeling good. Ok I can't deny that sometimes, stuffing myself like a pig and knocking back half a bottle of wine feels GREAT - in the moment, that is. But this is a different kind of feeling good that I'm experiencing now - sleeping better, more strength in my body, clearer skin, and oh - being able to fit into my pants! I do rather like that benefit.

Of course, moderation has NEVER been my strong point. I've usually tended towards being an all or nothing kinda gal. But I'm going to give this my best shot. And in order to help myself along, my plan for February is that I won't drink alcohol at home (unless I'm having a dinner party). I'll happily have a drink if I'm out to dinner or at a bar (and I hardly ever go to bars unless I'm playing in them so there shouldn't be overwhelming temptation there!). But for today, it turns out I AM going to a bar! And it's a bar that serves pizza so not only do I get to enjoy my first glass of wine of the year, but my first slice of pizza too! It will all happen in about another thirty minutes or so, but who's counting??

Oven Roasted Broccoli

2010-01-17T08:17:00.001-08:00

If you've been reading this blog for longer than a year, you may recall that I abstain from alcohol every January. This is my third year, inspired by my honey who's been doing it every January for many years. I haven't found it very hard to do this time around because frankly, I waaaaaay over-indulged in December and by the time the holidays had passed, I was more than ready for a break. This year however, we threw another challenge into the mix. We are dieting!!! I have never successfully dieted in my life. Truth be told, I never needed to until I found myself in my late thirties with pants that mysteriously started shrinking!!! So I tried the Fat Flush Diet for about a week, and found myself feeling constantly bloated and grossed out from eating like five servings of meat per day. I got discouraged and gave up and bought bigger pants. And what's worse, I had stomach problems for a long time to come after that.

Fast-forward a couple of years to the end of this last December, and let's just say that by this point, it wasn't just my ill-fitting pants. I just felt icky. So not only was I ready to stop chugging the wine, I found myself ready to go on a diet.

And here we are, a little over two weeks later, and it's been challenging, but I'm starting to feel pretty good! I'll admit I've been fighting the occasional craving for a gigantic bowl of chocolate ice cream, but in general, I'm not feeling terribly deprived. I'm not really following a diet plan per se, just not eating anything fried or cheesy, and eating tons of vegetables, small amounts of lean protein, and a small amount of carbs. And I'm walking every day and have just started doing yoga twice a week. My obsessive tendencies are working to my advantage, for now at least, but of course the real challenge will be to keep up the healthy habits once January is over!

All of this is a long way of getting to the point of telling you about my new favorite food: Oven Roasted Broccoli!! It's perfect diet food, and just plain healthy - but more than that, it is UTTERLY DELICIOUS!!! It does use a small amount of olive oil so if you're looking for fat-free, I can't help you. But if you want another way to love broccoli, read on. Hell, if you don't even LIKE broccoli, you might try this, because it just might make a believer out of you.

I didn't come up with this idea - I'm sure it exists in some cookbook out there, and that you can find recipes for it on several different blogs, but here is my take on it.

Pre-heat the oven to 425. Take one large head of broccoli. Clean it and use a vegetable peeler to peel off the harder outer part of the stems. Chop it all into bite-sized pieces, and dry it well. Put it into a bowl and toss with a little salt, a light coating of olive oil, a sprinkle of crushed red pepper, about a half a teaspoon of smoked paprika, and several cloves of minced garlic. Spread the broccoli onto a baking sheet and place into the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is starting to brown and caramelize. Remove from the oven and stir a little lemon zest into it. The end result will be part tender, a little crisp, both savory and a little sweet, and entirely delicious.

I'm sure that as I keep making it, I'll be playing with the spices. In fact I think it'd even be good with no spices at all. And once the dieting days are over, I'll look forward to topping it with parmesan. But for now, I'm perfectly happy to inhale a whole tray of this stuff just like this. Whatever gets you through the diet, eh??

Habanero Hot Sauce to Warm You in the Winter

2010-01-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

This recipe might seem a little out of season, but believe it or not, our wild jungle of a garden is still producing oodles of habanero peppers, and even a few kind of sad looking, but still tasty tomatoes. What's a person to do then, but make habanero sauce? That person would be my honey, and this is his recipe, which is really only for those of you who go gaga over insanely hot heat. Me, I'm not quite that brave, but I do like a little drop of this stuff from time to time and can attest that it is indeed delicious, insanely hot, smoky, and even a little sweet.

The recipe requires that you oven-roast some of your tomatoes first, and you can do that by halving them, laying them out on a baking sheet, drizzling with olive oil and sprinkling with salt, and then roasting at low heat (like 250 degrees) for about an hour or longer, until they are wrinkly and starting to starting to brown. Depending on the size of your tomatoes, this could take more or less than an hour. While you're at it, go ahead and roast some garlic cloves, whole and unpeeled, at the same time, because you'll need for some of the garlic in this recipe to be roasted.

You'll also need to fire-roast your habaneros, which is easily done by putting the peppers on a skewer and holding them over an open flame until they start to blacken and blister. WARNING: THIS STEP WILL FILL YOUR KITCHEN WITH HOT PEPPER FUMES! So you see, you've gotta REALLY love the heat to wanna make this sauce! That, and you might wish to cover your mouth & nose while doing this step, and of course it goes without saying that you'll want to have a lot of ventilation.

Once your roasting is complete, it's time to make the sauce!

Habanero Hot Sauce

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 medium carrots, chopped
12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
12 roasted cherry tomatoes
Quarter of one white onion, cut into strips
8 fire-roasted habenero peppers, cut in half
3 cloves of roasted garlic, cut in half
2 cloves of raw garlic, peeled and cut in half
Juice of one lime
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
1. Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the carrots and let them cook for about five minutes. Then add to the skillet the onion, tomatoes, habaneros and garlic cloves and cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Transfer skillet contents to a blender and add lime juice, vinegar and pulse (can add a bit of water, a tablespoon at a time if it’s too thick).

3. Salt and pepper to taste, and make sure you have a glass of water on hand!!

Sliding into 2010

2009-12-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

Good Lord, where has the time gone?

I wish I was one of those people who just lives to write, who's every fiber of their being is wired to express themselves creatively. Alas, that's just not me. I love to create, and sometimes I feel I'm even kind of good at it. But sometimes, I'm just lazy. Sometimes, I'm too busy being in the moments to write about the moments, for better or for worse.

And so, months pass. The air grows colder, nights grow longer, and many pots of stew and soup are conjured and warmed up and consumed, and some of them are even worthy of writing about, but nothing is written about them.

Hard life experiences come up, the kind that no one or nothing can really prepare you for. You dig in and push forward one moment at a time and one step at a time, even when you can't see the road in front of you, let alone the final destination. You push forward one moment at a time, one prayer at a time, one miracle at a time. Sometimes you feel like you're pushing forward one battle at a time and one heart wrenching sacrifice at a time. But you try to focus more on the moments that feel miraculous, because those are the only moments that can carry you through to wherever that final destination is supposed to be. You try to keep your eyes on the road, even when you can't see the road.

And then, a white Christmas happens, even if it happens a day or two late. No one seems to mind because you are all just happy and thankful to have this time to be together, snow or no snow.

Pizzelles get baked, all three Godfather movies get watched, the wine and beer are flowing and diets get planned. And before you know it, you're slip sliding into a new year and nearly a new decade (for the new decade really begins in 2011, right?).

That about sums up these last months for me. One moment it was the end of the summer, the next it was Halloween and suddenly and startlingly, the new year is close enough to touch. But I must say I'm looking forward to whatever said new year may hold, ready to let go of this last year and all that it has held, for better or for worse.

So happy new year to you and yours from me and mine, and here's wishing all of us a fruitful and delicious and healthy and inspiring 2010 and beyond.

A Tale of Two Harissas

2009-11-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

My latest food obsession is harissa, otherwise known as North African chili paste. In case you are the type who would run screaming after hearing the word "chili", let me assure you that it isn't terribly spicy, unless of course, you want to make it that way. It's more like a little sweet, a little smokey, a little spicy, a little salty, and bursting w/ tantalizing tastes thanks to the spice blend which features coriander, cumin, caraway, mint and lemon. There is a LOT of flavor packed into a teeny dollop, and every molecule of it is heavenly. (I strongly recommend clicking on the "harissa" link above and reading the article "Harissa, mon amour" from the L.A. Times, which describes harissa much more beautifully than I can!)

I recently bought a small jar of the Alili brand harissa, and it was supremely delicious. My honey and I polished off the jar over the span of a mere few days. A spoonful here, a dollop there, and it quickly disappeared. It was so good that I decided this would now be a must-have staple in our kitchen, but at $7.99 a jar, I'd darn well better learn how to make my own! And so today, I did, with a little help from my friends.

I'd been eyeing the harissa recipe in (what else?) Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. But I also sent a request out to my food-obsessed friends on Facebook asking who had an exquisite recipe, and the lovely and multi-talented Jenya sent me a link to this Saveur recipe. I spent the better part of this afternoon making the two recipes side by side, and no offense to Deborah Madison or anyone else, but the Saveur recipe turned out to be the champion.

Both recipes feature dried guajillo and New Mexico chiles, plus garlic, coriander, cumin, caraway seeds, salt and olive oil. But the Saveur recipe also features mint and lemon, and, perhaps more importantly, calls for smaller amounts of all the spices. And somehow, using smaller amounts makes the flavor work better as a whole. Less is more! It's like the difference between a bunch of musicians playing too many notes and stepping all over each other's toes, and, a symphony. Yes, I do believe the Saveur recipe is that good.

I made a couple of slight modifications to the recipe because I didn't have quite enough New Mexico chiles; instead of the eight that it called for, I used four of those plus four California chiles. I must admit, they looked very similar when dried, and I have no idea how it may have altered the taste, but it sure tasted good! Additionally, while the chiles were soaking, I dropped the garlic cloves in to soak as well, in order to take off a bit of that raw garlic edge, for as much as I may love the raw garlic, it doesn't love me back *quite* so much.

Enough blathering - onto the recipe! Long may you enjoy it - I know I'm going to!

8 dried New Mexico chiles, seeded and stemmed
8 dried Guajillo chiles, seeded and stemmed
1/2 t. caraway seeds
1/4 t. coriander seeds
1 t. dried mint leaves
3 T. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
5 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon

1. Put the chiles into a bowl and cover with boiling water, letting sit for about 30 minutes or until softened. After about 5-10 minutes of soaking, drop the garlic cloves into the bowl and let them soak along w/ the chiles. If you don't mind your garlic raw, then wait to add the garlic to the food processor later.

2. In a dry skillet, toast the caraway, coriander & cumin over medium heat, shaking the pan constantly, until fragrant. Let cool a bit and transfer to a spice grinder. Add the mint and grind it all to a fine powder. Set aside.

3. Drain the chiles & garlic and transfer to a food processor. Add the ground spices, olive oil, salt, garlic and lemon juice. If you desire more heat, now's the time to add a little cayenne. Puree, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. When smooth, transfer to a clean jar, topping off with more olive oil after each use.

Now that you've got it, what are you gonna do with it?! Here are just a few suggestions - stir it into rice or lentils or chic peas or soup to add another dimension of flavor, or spread it onto bread or crackers. Use it as a rub on whatever kind of meat or fish you like. Add a little plop as the secret ingredient in your chili! You get the idea and I bet you've got a few ideas of your own so if so, please send 'em my way!

Peas by Deborah Madison

2009-10-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lately I can't stop thinking about soup, and I've been making quite a lot of it. This blog DOES have soup in the name, after all.

So far, I can't take an ounce of credit for any of the recipes, except perhaps, in being able to spot a good one when I see it. And time and time again, I find that Deborah Madison never fails me.

Last night I made her recipe for Yellow Split Pea and Coconut Milk Soup w/ Spinach, Rice and Spiced Yogurt, which you can find on this fine blog. I followed the recipe almost to the letter, except that I used only half a can of coconut milk instead of the full amount, and it was divine. The blend of spices includes ground cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, and crushed red pepper in the soup, and paprika, cumin, turmeric and black pepper in the spiced yogurt. The end result is warm, tangy, and so completely comforting. I think this might be my new favorite.

If yellow split peas aren't your thing, Deborah has you covered. You can't go wrong with her recipe for classic Split Pea Soup in her cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Here again, a little paprika is used to add a hint of smokiness to the soup, and it works beautifully. That particular recipe uses a nice variety of dried and fresh herbs too. I know I'll be making this one again as the weather grows chillier.

I also stocked up on black-eyed peas recently, and, at the risk of sounding like some kind of deranged chef stalker, once again, Deborah Madison's recipe for Southern Black-Eyed peas, in the same cookbook referenced above, is a keeper. That woman knows how to create spice combinations, and how. This recipe uses ground allspice and chipotle powder. It's dynamite. I can't recommend Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone highly enough.

I'm sure that one day I'll find myself inspired to create my own recipes again, but for now, I'm thoroughly enjoying the recipes that have been created and tested by the pros.

A Radish is Born

2009-10-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

Days, weeks, months pass. I keep thinking I should write something. Not just thinking I should, but really wanting to. And yet, summer has turned to fall and soon enough it will be winter, but again and again I find myself staring at the blank page, thinking about things, but not really moved to write.

The cooking has ebbed and flowed. Some nights it's been tacos to go, other nights it's been home baked bread, black eyed peas and slow-cooked greens. It's all been perfect in its own way, but I haven't felt inspired to write about any of it.

There has been a crazy amount of zucchini and gorgeous tomatoes from the garden. One of the coolest things I have experienced in a long time has been growing my own food, and doing it with the one I love. It seems like a simple thing but it feels pretty monumental. The simple and yet monumental experience of growing food and enjoying it and sharing it is what has been getting me through all the things that I don't feel like writing about.

A couple of nights ago, these radishes that were climbing out of the soil felt like salvation.

I don't know what tomorrow will hold or when I will kick my own ass into movement again, and I hate how whiny I sound, but there it is. Fortunately, the garden still grows no matter how uninspired I feel, because I haven't gotten so out of touch that I fail to pay attention to it. The radishes are still growing and so is the chard and the beets and the carrots, and for now, that's enough for me.

Big Food vs. Big Insurance

2009-09-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

This Op-Ed piece from a recent edition of the New York Times pretty much sums it up, much more eloquently than I could ever hope to do. Thank you, Michael Pollan for such a well articulated and thought provoking article.

Heaven = Big Sur

2009-08-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Live from Big Sur. This place is so beautiful that it practically restores my faith in the human race and this gorgeous planet that we live on. Somehow mankind hasn't managed to ruin all of it just yet, and I feel very lucky indeed to have finally, finally made it here. How did it take me so long? I'm not sure. But I know that now that I've found this place, I'll be needing to come back again and again and again. Heaven on earth turns out to be a mere three hours from my home in Oakland.

The place that we're staying is like a treehouse in the redwoods. It's so beautiful in an of itself that you could just check in and not even bother to venture out to check out the scenery down below. But oh, you'd be missing out on something amazing if you didn't drive along the coastline and take in the bluest waters, the whitest waves, the clearest skies. It's been a long time since I found myself having my breath taken away like this at every turn, and I have been drinking it in.

Tonight we could have gone out to any number of restaurants with delicious (albeit VERY expensive) menu items to choose from, but we wanted to maximize our time in the treehouse. So we bought some pasta and an onion and some garlic, and used it, along w/ the goat cheese & aged gouda we'd brought from home, and the passel of ripe, juicy tomatoes from our garden, to make a perfectly delicious dinner to enjoy on a hot, hot summer night in a treehouse way up in Palo Colorado National Forest above Big Sur. And it knocked our socks off.

If it seems like goat cheese and aged gouda are a weird combination, just have faith. Think of the aged gouda as if it were parmesan, which you could certainly use if you so desired. But we just used this cause we had it, and it worked beautifully.

This is more of a guide than a recipe.

First, dice half an onion. Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Pour some olive oil into a skillet and slowly saute' the onion with a little salt. Keep it over low heat and stir it occasionally while you're chopping the tomatoes. I used about a dozen cherry tomatoes cut in half, plus three whole tomatoes diced into bite-sized pieces. Then I chopped four large cloves of garlic.

After a little while of cooking the onions, they started to slowly turn golden and soft. I splashed a little red wine into the skillet and kept stirring. I probably would have used balsamic vinegar, but didn't have any, so just used what I had on hand. Kept stirring occasionally over low heat.

Meanwhile, I tossed a small handful of the raw tomatoes into a big serving bowl along w/ a splash of olive oil and a little bit of goat cheese, the creamy kind.

Once the pasta was added to the boiling water, I added the garlic to the onions and kept stirring for a few minutes, then added the remaining tomatoes.

About ten minutes later, when the pasta was done, I added it to the bowl with the raw tomatoes & olive oil & goat cheese. Then I stirred in the skillet full of tomatoes, onions & garlic. And added salt & fresh ground pepper, a little more goat cheese, and a topping of the grated aged gouda. And it was heavenly. The perfectly heavenly meal while visiting heaven on earth. I can hardly think of anything better.

Story of an Artist by Daniel Johnston

2009-08-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

Weeks, months fly by. I just got back from a week in Ohio hanging w/ my parents, soaking up the humidity, making pot after pot of soup, and cherishing every moment spent.

The video I'm posting here is apropos of nothing, but tonight, this song came up on my I-tunes and it just slayed me. Split my heart wide open. And I had to share.

Luckily, I've spent much of my life feeling very supported in my attempts to be an artist. But even despite that, I've had moments where I felt like this. I bet that more than a few of you out there can relate.

How My Garden Grows

2009-08-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it's possible that it took me 40 years to become excited about gardening, but I am so thrilled to have finally arrived at this place. I know that to many people out there, having a garden is just second nature, and I've always admired those kinds of people, although I never thought I would be one. Some people who've known me for many years have been known to refer to me as "the black thumb", because I was too lame to keep even a basic houseplant alive. But I guess that lameness was something left behind in the dirty thirties, because now, I've got a garden, and it's growing and thriving!

I've never tasted a cucumber as good or as sweet and crispy and bursting with freshness as the ones I've been delightfully picking from the garden lately.

And the tomatoes are plumping up and growing redder by the day, and the zucchini have already become challenging to keep up with, but that is absolutely no problem in my book, because I never tire of zucchini!

The chard is recovering and the arugula is perfect for the picking. The lettuces overflow and the herbs have grown wildly, calling out to be made into herb butter and pesto and salsa verde.

The peppers are still tiny but seem to be making good progress.

And every day, I am so tickled to watch it all grow. And I'm very thankful to my honey for being motivated enough to get us to the gardening store a couple of months ago so we could get everything planted, and for showing me the steps needed to make things flourish and thrive... I mean, it seems so simple now - you just have to plant the seeds, provide water, expose to sunlight, pull the weeds, and pay a little attention. But for some reason, that process always felt like a mystery to me in the past. I'm glad to say that those mystery days are behind me, and am totally excited to discover what other treats I'll have the good fortune to grow as the seasons pass. And I must say that the whole experience is very good medicine for me at this particular point in time, and for that, I am even more thankful.

Been a Long Time Since I Rock & Rolled...

2009-07-22T20:41:00.001-07:00

.... well actually, that's not true. But it feels like it's been awhile since I've rocked & rolled in the kitchen, but boy howdy, tonight I made up for lost time. And now I shall attempt to quickly fill you in on tonight's highlights.

1. My favorite new simple spicy cole slaw recipe - just in time for BBQ season!

2. Padron peppers, do you know them? Do you worship them like I do?!

3. A quick little recipe for roasted corn & cherry tomato relish, great as is, or as a topping for roasted fish.

Yeah I know that's a lot to cover, but like I said, I'm making up for lost time! And compensating for future laziness!

So first, let's talk cole slaw. I am addicted to this simple, fiery, bright & summery recipe, which owes a lot to an Alice Waters take on the same dish.

First, you thinly slice your cabbage. I like the plain old green variety. I also toss into the bowl some thinly sliced red onions, a generous amount of fresh chopped italian parsley (from the garden!!) and a couple of diced fire-roasted pickled jalapenos, especially pickled by my honey, the pickling master. You could also use the canned variety, or use fresh jalapenos. For the dressing, whisk together 1 part apple cider vinegar to 2 parts olive oil, with a sprinkling of salt. Toss the dressing w/ the cabbage mixture until it's well coated, and you're off to the bbq! This slaw also goes well w/ tacos, or just plain straight up.

On to the padron peppers. Our pals Steve & Patsy made these for us last year, and we could NOT STOP eating them, to the point of feeling embarrassed because we simply could NOT STEP AWAY from the plate. And if you make them, or are lucky enough to find them at a party, you won't be able to step away either. They are a type of small green pepper that look a little like a jalapeno, but they are mostly sweet, except for the occasional one that turns out to be very hot! You simply fry them in a little olive oil until the skin blisters a bit, and then drain and toss w/ coarse salt. And proceed to eat until you have nothing left but a plate of stems!

And lastly, here's a little relish I threw together tonight to accompany some fish that I attempted to pan-roast. The fish was so-so, but the relish was so damn good, who needs the fish, anyway? It's a good thing we didn't need the fish because half of it stuck to Grandma Esway's pan, nearly causing me to have a complete meltdown... but fortunately the pan survived! And like I said, the relish was splendid.

Take one ear of corn and remove the husk, and either pan roast or fire roast the corn so that it gets blackened here & there. Once it's cool, cut the kernels off the cob and scrape them into a small bowl. Toss in about a tablespoon of minced red onion, and a handful or two of ripe cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Add a sprinkling of salt, about a half teaspoon of lemon zest, about a teaspoon of olive oil, a tiny splash of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar) and a couple of sprigs of basil (from the garden, preferably!) cut into slivers. Toss it all together and eat with a spoon! Or, use it to redeem that sad fish that was supposed to be so good but that almost ruined your grandmother's cast iron skillet. Any way you toss it, you'll love this stuff. It screams SUMMER!

And speaking of summer, I hope you're enjoying yours! I'm enjoying mine, even despite family illness, personal injury and an ailing, achey old dog. Perhaps I'm enjoying and appreciating it all a tad bit more, in light of all these things. Enjoying each bite, and each warm, lingering night, especially those rare ones (lately) where I find myself in the kitchen, chopping and slicing and dicing all my worries away.

Simple Summer Tomato Salad

2009-07-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

Can't wait to make this with tomatoes from my garden, which are growing riper every moment. It was so exciting when the first one went from green to yellow, and then yellow to orange. And how exciting it will be when one by one, they go from yellow to orange to ruby red and perfectly ripe, ready to be plucked and sliced and diced and sauced and thoroughly enjoyed.

For now however, we had to settle for what we had on hand, which was a couple of organic red cluster tomatoes. Not homegrown, but not half bad.

It's such a simple salad that it barely requires a recipe, and before you know it, you're halfway to dinner. Just slice the tomatoes and place them on a plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and upon each tomato slice, smear a dab of creamy goat cheese, if you've got it. Drizzle a little olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, and then, top each slice with a sprinkling of fresh basil slices, preferably from your garden!

Our basil is growing wildly so the basil part turned out to be no problem at all. In fact, I'm already feeling the pesto coming on, in anticipation of just how wildly it's going to continue to grow as the summer passes. I'm really digging this gardening thing, and still tickled pink that it's working, considering that for many years I couldn't even keep a houseplant alive. Stay tuned for more updates!

Not Just Any Cast Iron Skillet

2009-06-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, so much to report. I don't know where to begin and I doubt I can cover it all, so I'll shoot for the most important points.

First, I just got back from five days in Ohio w/ my family, where we celebrated my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. That's right - fifty years! It was a joyous occasion for so many reasons, not the least of which is that my Dad is feeling good again, and that alone is reason to celebrate. On Sunday morning, he was up at five a.m. making homemade sauce, followed by an entire afternoon of making homemade pasta - ok, truth be told, he supervised the pasta making part with my brother-in-law Terry doing much of the work, and bless 'em both, for they sure did create a feast.

My Dad reminded me that I really ought to mind my Italian heritage and get with the pasta making program, or at least with the Italian food making program in general, and he's so right! I'm hoping this newly acquired cast iron skillet will inspire me. I grabbed it from my parents' basement, and Dad informed me that it's been in the family for at least one hundred years. I imagine that he, and his mother, and who knows how many others in the family, have cooked many a meatball in this skillet, and who knows what else? Polenta, quick sauce, fried peppers, sauteed greens, and probably, all manner of meat. I hope that somehow, a little bit of the family's culinary magic will live on in this pan, and that maybe a little bit of that Italian food magic in particular will rub off.

Dad and I talked about how so many of the family recipes are cooked with "a little of this, a little of that, and a little instinct", and how sometimes when I operate that way, it's a hit - and sometimes, it's a miss. I can work wonders with solid recipes, but am not always entirely confident improvising in the kitchen, and maybe that's why I haven't had major success in my Italian food cooking adventures. But like I said, this skillet is inspiring me to keep at it, and keep at it I will!

The other thing to report is that - gasp - I HAVE A GARDEN!!! AND FOOD IS GROWING IN IT! I know that for some people, this is no big deal, but I have never in my life successfully grown anything to eat, and I'm tickled pink!! I had salad for lunch AND dinner today, all with greens that we grew in half wine barrels. And I have to say it's the coolest thing ever to just walk out into the yard, pick some food, and eat it moments later.

Not everything is growing perfectly - the chard seems to be dying and the cucumber plant is getting eaten by critters - but the salad greens and herbs are thriving, and the tomato plants are doing quite nicely. And this makes me very, very happy.

Life is a Colander of Cherries

2009-06-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to report that my dear Dad is on the mend. We still have a long and probably hard road ahead of us, but for now, he's healing and having good days, and this makes me so happy. And I get to visit him and my Mom again in a couple of weeks, and am looking forward to filling their freezer with more treats.

I've been spending a lot of time in the yard lately, and that makes me happy too. We planted another garden and this year I'm determined to keep it alive and make it thrive! We've got hot peppers, cucumbers, chard, lettuce, eggplant, zucchini, delicata squash, arugula and several kinds of tomatoes. I was so thrilled to discover the first little row of arugula sprouts, tiny as little bugs, sprouting out of the soil the other day.

The other thing that has been making me happy is summer fruit, like these gorgeous cherries, so pretty I just had to share, if only virtually.

I took these pics when I was working for Chef Phil Gelb, who was making a cherry vinaigrette to go over a salad that included roasted peaches, among other delicious things. It's always a treat to enjoy Phil's kitchen creations; I learn so much every time I work with him.

That's all I have to report for now. Until next time, here's hoping you and yours are enjoying your moments as they come.

Tomatillo Soup w/ Pinto Beans & Corn

2009-05-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yep, sometimes the only thing you can do is to keep making soup. I wish more than anything that I could still be with my family, making soup for my dad every day, but I won't have the chance to do that again for another month. So in the meantime, I'm doing my best to take each moment as it comes, and that is no small task.

Luckily, yesterday I was fortunate to find myself with both some extra moments and some culinary motivation at the same time, so I grabbed my apron, knives & cutting board, and started roasting, peeling, chopping, dicing and slicing. Warning: this is the kind of recipe that takes a little time, but it is well worth every ounce of effort and time spent.

The original recipe was for Chicken-Tomatillo Soup - a friend from work turned me onto it - and was kind enough to pass along the recipe, which she got from the "Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook: Spirited Recipes from Santa Fe". I'd been wanting to adapt this recipe for vegetarians for quite some time. I wasn't quite sure how the recipe would fare using a mixture of water, vegetable stock and pinto beans in place of the chicken and chicken stock, but the results were pleasing - rich, bright, spicy, sweet and smokey. And exactly what I needed.

Making this soup in the morning with my kitchen full of sunlight was the perfect way to feed my soul, and I'm looking forward to having this soup feed my body all week long. I hope you'll enjoy it too.

Tomatillo Soup w/ Pinto Beans & Corn
(printable recipe)

2 T. olive oil

1 leek, finally chopped - you should have about 1 1/2 cups

3 ribs celery, finely diced - about 1 cup

6 cloves garlic, finely diced

3 dried red chiles - ancho or guajillo - soaked in warm water, rinsed, stemmed, seeded & diced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 T. smoked paprika

6 cups water or vegetable stock

10 tomatillos, husked removed, rinsed, and diced into bite sized pieces

2 T. tomato paste

2 cups fresh corn kernels

1 t. sugar

1. t. salt, or more to taste

3 - 4 cups whole pinto beans, preferably cooked from scratch

About 1/2 pound fresh mild green chiles, roasted, stemmed, peeled and diced - should measure around 1/2 cup - you can use pasilla, serrano, or jalapeno, or a combo.

Garnishes: squeeze of lime, chopped cilantro or italian parsley, crumbled cotija or feta cheese

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil until quite hot. Add the leek, celery, garlic and dried chiles, and saute' for 5 minutes or so. Stir in the cumin and paprika. Add the water or stock, tomatillos, tomato paste, corn, sugar, salt and green chiles, followed by the pinto beans and the roasted green chiles. Bring to a boil and reduce to a mild simmer, and let it simmer and cook down for a good 45 minutes or so, until the tomatillos have cooked down a bit. By this point you should have a nice, rich broth that's good enough to slurp on its own, but with lots of chunky bites of peppers, tomatillos, beans and corn. I'm telling you, this is good stuff! Ladle it into a bowl, squeeze a bit of lime over it, add a handful of your herbs and a little sprinkling of cheese, and you'll be in heaven, and so will your friends. This will feed a crowd! It's good for about 8 servings, so go ahead & throw yourself a dinner party. Your friends will thank you!

You Are What You Eat

2009-05-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a really cool project that I stumbled upon, called You Are What You Eat. It's a photo journal essay by Mark Menjivar that is a glimpse into people's lives via the inside of their refrigerators. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

When the going gets tough...

2009-05-13T10:28:00.001-07:00

... it's time to make soup. I was going to write that when the going gets tough, "the tough make soup", but frankly, I'm not feeling tough at all right now. In fact I feel so fragile that I could just blow away at the first sign of a strong wind. But I'm carrying on, and I'm making soup, cause it seems like making soup is the only productive thing I can do right now.

I've made a lot of soup over the last couple of days - cream of broccoli for my mom, brother & I yesterday, pasta e fagioli for the whole family tonight, and tomorrow, it'll be chicken soup and potato leek soup for my dad, cause that's what he requested. I'll be filling the freezer with soup before I leave here over the weekend.

"Here" happens to be Canton, Ohio. It's where I was born, and where my parents grew up, and also, it's where they recently moved back to again after being away for more than thirty years.

No sooner did they get here, my Dad discovered that he is very sick, and it's turned everything upside down for our whole family. Thankfully, my brother and I were able to come out here, and Dad was able to come home from the hospital last night. I made him scrambled eggs this morning and he said it was the best thing he's eaten since this whole ordeal began. And I just felt so lucky to be able to be here to scramble those eggs, and to go to the grocery store and load up the cart w/ food for the family. Because in a way, that feels like the only way I can make a difference.

We have a difficult road ahead of us. It's amazing how an ordeal like this can completely shake your world to the core, but I do believe that we will all come out of it stronger. There are a lot of unknowns right now and maybe this is just a good reminder that everything is tenuous and temporary. In the words of my good friend Joe Rut, "I like now, now is enough ... now is the only time we have to love...". So, I'm doing what I can. I'm loving my family. I'm here, and I'm making soup. For right now, that is enough.

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Soup w/ Chipotle

2009-05-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

As I write this, it's pouring down rain outside, and a perfect day for soup. But actually, I made this soup a week ago and am just getting around to writing about it now. Or I will, momentarily.

Today, I spent the afternoon preparing road trip food for Loretta Lynch's journey to Los Angeles tomorrow, which begins at 6 a.m. We'll play three sets of music over the course of twenty four hours, and then high-tail it home. Since our first set tomorrow begins the moment we spill ourselves and our gear out of the van, we wanted to be prepared with both breakfast *and* lunch without stopping, and without having to eat deep fried Highway 5 nastiness. Cause this is a band that likes to eat well! So I happily spent the afternoon roasting peppers for sandwiches, and making a frittata w/ roasted mushrooms, shallots, thinly sliced potatoes & fresh dill, plus chipotle-roasted garlic hummus. Hmmm... hope I can hold off on eating the stuff until tomorrow. Better save some for the rest of the band!

The main reason for our trip is to play the grand opening of a new children's clothing resale store, Grow Kid Grow , owned by our incredibly talented pal Missy Gibson. We'll also be performing a brunch set at the Redwood Bar & Grill on Sunday, sharing the stage w/ another fine & talented human, David Serby. If you're in the L.A. area, or know people who are, send 'em along!

For now, I'll leave you with this soup. The perfect soup for a rainy day like today. If only we had some right now....

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Soup w/ Chipotle
(printable recipe)

1 medium onion, diced

2 t. cumin

2 t. ground coriander

2 medium sweet potatoes, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups cooked black beans

3 cups water or stock of your choice

1 - 2 chipotles in adobo sauce

1/2 t. ancho chile powder

1/4 t. mustard powder

1/2 t. smoked paprika

salt to taste

Juice of 1/2 a lime, or to taste

Garnishes: diced avocado & sour cream or yogurt

Saute' the onion in a splash or two of olive oil, until lightly brown. Add the diced sweet potatoes, garlic, and cumin, coriander, ancho chile powder, mustard powder and smoked paprika. Saute over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the three cups of water or stock, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let is gently simmer for about 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender. Now add the black beans, chipotle chile, and salt. Cook for another few minutes, until everything is well heated. Turn off the heat and either blend it smooth with an immersion blender, or blend it in a blender or food processor. Squeeze in the lime juice, taste it and adjust the seasonings. You may desire more salt or spice, or it might be perfect just like that! Serve it w/ a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and a sprinkling of diced avocado. I bet it would be great w/ cornbread, so I might have to try my hand at that next time.

Bread Saves

2009-04-24T17:45:00.001-07:00

I've posted about this recipe before, but it's been awhile, so I felt it was worth mentioning again.

I've been feeling a little on the cruddy side this week, but this bread cheered me right up. I mean, just look at it! It looks like it came from a *real* bakery for goodness sake! But the real bakery is right here in our humble little kitchen! Nothing like a slab of totally homemade and hot from the oven, crispy crackly crusty bread, steaming on the inside and slathered with butter, to cure what ails you. At least until you try to button your pants. Oh well!

Here's a link to the infamous recipe, originally posted in the New York Times, adapted from Jim Lahey. Give it a try. And try not to eat the whole loaf in one sitting. I be you'll have a hard time with that. But don't let that stop you. Enjoy!

Polenta

2009-04-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

Howdy from a 90 degree day in the Bay area. I don't know the exact temperature, but it's darn hot. So naturally, today would be the day that my culinary inspiration finally returned, causing me to use every burner on the stove, raising the temperature in our kitchen to something just beyond sweltering. Thank goodness my friend Claire gave me all that delicious white wine to keep me cool!!

In addition to the compulsion I felt to make a big pot of fiery red curry today, I also thought I'd revisit my old friend polenta. Growing up in my family, it was called cornmeal mush and it was total peasant food. It's still total peasant food - cheap and filling - and it was then, and still is, delicious!

Certainly everybody out there in blog land has their own recipe. I can't say that I have one single recipe for polenta, but I thought I'd share with you what I made today. As you can see, my dear old dog Spider thought it smelled delicious!

One of the things I love about polenta is that it's so versatile. You can do what I did, or create your own take on the situation. It's very forgiving and adaptable to your tastes.

First, you cook the polenta. Many recipes say to use milk, but I prefer to cook it with water. Boil a good 6-8 cups of water with a pinch of salt, and slowly whisk in about 2 cups of polenta.

Now, cook it rather slowly over medium-low heat, whisking often, for a good long while - I cooked mine for about an hour. It might seem like it's done after 30 minutes or so, but it really benefits from an extended period of simmering. Just make sure to stir it often so it doesn't get all goopy and stick to the bottom.

Once it's nice & thick & porridge-like, I like to stir in some butter and grated cheese - cause what isn't better with butter & cheese?! Today I used some jalapeno jack that was lying around. I used about 1 cup of cheese and half a stick of butter. And then, I poured the hot polenta into a couple of buttered casserole dishes, and after letting it sit out on the counter to cool, put it into the fridge to solidify further.

While the polenta was cooling, I prepared the toppings, using what I had on hand.

I caramelized an onion ever so slowly, and thinly sliced some zucchini and mushrooms, and diced a handful of sun dried tomatoes. I roasted the mushrooms in a skillet, and roasted the zucchini in a separate skillet along with the sun dried tomatoes, and set it all aside.

Once the polenta was cool, I spread a thin layer of caramelized onions on top, and followed it with the zucchini and mushrooms. Then I topped it all with some feta and chives, cause that's what I had in the fridge. Now it's sitting there just waiting to be enjoyed, along w/ that big pot of curry, and I'm torn between two lovers! In any case, I'm happy to have leftovers after having had several days of eating too much toast and pizza.

Another thing I love about polenta is that it's a super cheap way to feed a crowd! I made two casserole dishes of it tonight. One pan alone is enough for us two eat for dinner tonight & lunch tomorrow, and I have another pan to take to a gathering later tonight. And the whole lot of it cost something like five dollars! So, three cheers for polenta. And feel free to let me know how *you* like to make it!

40, and Counting

2009-04-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

Um, I'm 40 now! For some reason, I was really fearing it, but it turns out to be, so far, wildly better than I could have imagined.

I started celebrating in late March, beginning with my trip to Phoenix. I never did write about all my delightful dining experiences while there, so I thought that the least I could do was post a few photos.

I finally made it to Pizzeria Bianco! We waited three hours for our table, but it was oh sooooo good. The pizza really is worth the wait. And there was plenty of wine to help make the waiting not so terribly painful.

Then, it was back to the Barrio Cafe. Mmmmmm yes to fine food and tequila!

And speaking of tequila, that happened to be the theme of my 40th birthday party, and oh my, did my friends ever deliver. They didn't only deliver an abundance of really fine tequila, but they showered me with love and warmth and kindness and a lot of really delicious food, too!

I had such an amazing birthday week - was lovingly bestowed with wine and flowers and delicious food - and gifts! I couldn't have imagined it getting any better, and then there was my party!

My honey and some other very dear and very talented friends put together a tribute band and played a set of my songs, with different folks sitting in on vocals, and I was stunned and amazed. They say that life begins at 40, and I think I'm starting to believe that. It's a good feeling!

Vegetarian Refried Beans - a rough guide

2009-04-02T07:29:00.001-07:00

I made it back from Phoenix, and as predicted, did a lot of good eating while I was there. I need to post about that soon, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share sort of a recipe for one of my ultimate comfort foods - refried beans. Considering how much I love them, it's rather shocking that I've never attempted to cook them at home until now. Though I generally stay away from meaty things, when I go to restaurants, I don't care if the beans have lard in them; I'll eat them anyway. But I really don't want to use lard at home. And I was skeptical that I could achieve the same dreamy flavor without using lard, but I was quite pleased with the end result, especially considering that I just threw in a bit of this, a pinch of that. That's why this is more of a guide than a recipe....but you can still click here for a printable version.

Start with the beans! I used roughly 2 or 3 cups of whole pinto beans that I'd cooked from scratch. Had them simmering on the back burner over low heat. In the meantime, in a cast iron skillet, I lightly browned half an onion, diced, and added a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Stirred it for a few minutes and then added a pinch of mexican oregano, a pinch of smoked paprika, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of salt, and a ladle full of the beans, along with some of the liquid in which they'd been cooking. Mashed it all up with the back of the wooden spoon, and continued to add the beans, a ladle full at a time, mashing all along. Once all the beans were in the skillet and fairly well mashed, it was a little thick for my taste, so I added the rest of the bean broth and stirred until it was perfect. Then, because I am addicted to chipotle, I stirred in a little bit of chipotle in adobo sauce, and a sprinkling of cheese. And then it was even more perfect. I can't believe I waited so long to make these, and I'm sure it won't be too long until I make them again and again and again...

Cheap Eats

2009-03-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

Damnit, I hardly cooked a thing this weekend. But man, did I do a lot of eating, some of which included some real bargains.

First, it was vietnamese sandwiches for lunch at Banh Mi Ba Le Vietnamese Sandwich Deli. You cannot beat the price, and the food was darn good. They don't have a web site that I know of, but next time you find yourself hungry and wandering the streets of El Cerrito, head on over to 10174 San Pablo Avenue, and bring your cash because that's the only kind of payment they accept. Sandwiches are like $2.50 each - can't be beat! I do believe that meat eaters could do quite well here, but we didn't do so bad either. I got the veggie/tofu sandwich, and my honey got the sardines. Both were packed full of pickled veggies and peppers, and we bought some of their house made kim chee and added it to our sandwiches - blasphemous, perhaps, but it was good! We also got an order of 3 shrimp rolls at $1 each, and although they weren't the best ever, they weren't bad for a buck.

Then for dinner, I finally, finally got to experience Shalimar, in all its Tenderloin glory. Where have I been, and how could I not have known about this place all these years? It's the real deal - authentic Indian and Pakistani food. We feasted to our hearts' content for a total of $17.00. True, the neighborhood is a little rough. And the restaurant itself, it's not much to look at. In fact, getting your food to take out might be a better option. But it's all about the food. Completely authentic, spicy, made from scratch, and just perfect. Plenty of great vegetarian options here, among them, the most excellent Palak Paneer, and the dreamy Bengen Bhujia (eggplant, roasted and stewed with "exotic" spices).

I've been trying to save my money cause I've got some serious eating to do when I go to Phoenix later this week. Hello, Bianco's Pizza! Finally going to get to eat there!

Homemade Barbeque Sauce

2009-03-19T16:33:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I know. It kind of looks like a bowl of ketchup. But trust me, it's good! And you can make it too!

We've had some crazy perfect weather around here the last few days, and it's giving me the barbeque itch. And today, it occurred to me that I've always wanted to make my own barbeque sauce, and that perhaps today should be that day. And so it is.

Truth be told, there won't be any charcoal grilling going on here tonight. I have to inhale my food and dash off to a rehearsal, so I'm just gonna pull a couple of homemade white bean & quinoa burgers out of the freezer, fry 'em up in the pan and slather them with this sauce.

I think there's room for you to improvise here & there w/ this recipe - for instance, if you don't have liquid smoke, you could leave it out. And if you don't have molasses, you could substitute brown sugar. If you don't like it spicy, you could leave the chipotle sauce out. But one of the things I happen to like about this recipe is that it's both smokey and spicy. It's your barbeque though, so sauce it up any way you like! I think next time I'm going to experiment with throwing some beer into the mix.

Here's how you do it.
(printable recipe)

Combine all these things in a bowl and stir it up well:

1 cup ketchup
2 T. red wine vinegar
2 T. worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. liquid smoke
1 t. dijon mustard
1 t. chipotle sauce (that is, the sauce of canned chipotles in adobos sauce)
2 t. molasses
light sprinkling of garlic powder

Now heat it up on the stove and cook over low heat for about ten minutes or so, slather onto the food of your choice, and enjoy!

Curry Paste, How Do I Love Thee?

2009-03-11T19:33:00.002-07:00

Let me count the ways...

So I finally got to dig into my new cookbook, Buddha's Table - and just two recipes into it, I think I'm in love.

This is what my kitchen island looked like on Sunday after I got back from shopping.

Between the advent of Daylight Savings time and a short detour for drinks overlooking the Oakland Estuary at Quinn's Lighthouse (thanks, Suki!), we didn't get around to eating dinner until like 10 pm, but boy, was it worth the wait. Homemade red curry paste! I made some, and so can you! It blows away anything you could buy in the supermarket. It features the tantalizing and complex combination of cumin, coriander, shallot, lime zest, garlic, red chiles and galangal, among other things. We blended it into a luxurious stew with kabocha squash, japanese eggplant and coconut milk, and trust me, this picture doesn't do it justice. It was a reason for living, I tell you.

We also made - from scratch! - a totally authentic green papaya salad, and I dare say it was as good as anything you could get in a restaurant. And I was glad we had leftovers because it tasted even better the next day.

The green papaya salad didn't use curry paste as an ingredient, but we did have some left over. So tonight, I smeared some of it onto asparagus that I roasted in a skillet along with some sliced shitake mushrooms, minced garlic and a handful of diced fermented black beans.

This might be one of my favorite dishes yet, and I'm going to post a more detailed recipe at some future point, but for now, the point is, homemade curry paste is my new favorite food! I am nothing if not obsessive, after all.

Yawn...

2009-03-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

... I haven't been all that creative in the kitchen or at the keyboard recently, but I've been doing some good reading. Somehow I stumbled across a great blog called The Ethicurean. It's a great source for info. about sustainable eating, packed with lots of interesting and informative articles. Check it out.

And in order to keep feeding my cookbook addiction, I recently purchased two new cookbooks. I am especially excited about the book Buddha's Kitchen by Chat Mingkwan. I feel a Thai feast coming on!

Another cookbook that I'm looking forward to trying is Peter Berley's The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. My cookbook cabinet is almost out of space. I should probably consider purchasing less cookbooks and doing more cooking...what a concept, eh?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Nirvana

2009-02-25T13:50:00.000-08:00

God I love these cookies...so much so that I've had to ban myself from baking any more for awhile, because I can't stop eating them when they're around, and yet I love them too much to give the majority of them away - how selfish of me! How fattening! You'll just have to make your own, and then, you'll see what I mean!

I did a bit of searching for the perfect recipe, and stumbled across this one by searching the web. I found this web site which claims the recipe is a direct re-print of the Cooks Illustrated recipe. I adapted it slightly because I don't like my cookies to be any sweeter than they need to be, so I reduced the amount of sugar. I also added vanilla extract because strangely, their recipe doesn't seem to include it. And, I added walnuts. A few other tips I recommend that weren't included in the original recipe: first, start with your dough very cold before baking - this makes nice chunky cookies, which I happen to love. Second, rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the baking process. This ensures more even baking.

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies

(printable recipe)

1 1/2 cups FLOUR
1/2 teaspoon SALT
1/2 teaspoon BAKING POWDER
8 ounces (2 sticks) UNSALTED BUTTER, softened
3/4 cup LIGHT BROWN SUGAR, packed
3/4 cup GRANULATED SUGAR
1 t. VANILLA EXTRACT
2 large EGGS
3 cups OATS
1 1/2 cups CHOCOLATE CHIPS
1/2 cup coarsely chopped WALNUTS

1. Preaheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, by hand or by mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugars and beat the mixture until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time.

4. Stir dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture with a wooden spoon or a large rubber spatula. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

5. Place dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets by large spoonfuls (about 1 heaping teaspoon each), leaving at least 2 inches between.

6. Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes (in my oven, it took 21 minutes exactly, so I rotated the cookies after 10 minutes and then baked for another 11 minutes). Slide cookies (on parchment) onto cooling rack. Let cool, and store in airtight container.

Potato and Chic Pea Stew with Chipotle

2009-02-16T21:26:00.000-08:00

I must be feeling good again. Today, for the first time in what feels like months, I spent the whole day in the kitchen, and boy did I cook and bake up a storm. Later I'll post my recipe for the BEST OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER. But for now, I wanted to post my entry for this month's No Croutons Required Challenge. Each month, bloggers from around the world are invited to create a vegetarian soup or a salad recipe using the featured ingredient, which happens to be potatoes this month. So today, among other things, I made this delicious stew. It's simple, flavorful, hearty and a little bit spicy - perfectly wonderful and warming for a rainy day like today. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did!

Potato and Chic Pea Stew with Chipotle

(printable recipe)

1 - 2 T. olive oil

1/2 cup thinly sliced leeks

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup carrots - 3/4 cup of them sliced, 1/4 cup of them finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

2 1/2 cups yellow finn or creamer potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dice

2 T. tomato paste

2 cups chic peas

4 cups chic pea stock, water or vegetable stock

1 t. Mexican oregano

1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, finely diced

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium-sized soup pot, and add the leeks. Saute' for five minutes or so, and add the 1/4 cup finely diced carrots, the celery and the garlic, along with a generous pinch of salt, to create the soup base. Cook over medium heat for about ten minutes or so, stirring frequently, until everything starts to become nicely golden. At this point, if you wish, you can deglaze the pan with a little splash of sherry or white wine or stock.

Next, stir in the two tablespoons of tomato paste, and then add the two cups of chic peas, and the four cups of liquid. Since I had just cooked my chic peas from scratch, I used a combination of chic pea stock and water. If you're using straight water, you may need to add a little more salt, so adjust accordingly.

Add the potatoes and the carrot slices, plus the oregano and chipotle pepper. You could surely add more chipotle pepper if you'd like, but I think it's a good idea to start sparingly and work your way up. Bring it all to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, cover partially, and cook for another fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the potatoes and carrots are nicely tender. Taste it, and add a little more salt if you feel so inclined.

Since I like this dish to have a more stew-like consistency, I used my immersion blender to puree half the soup, but you could enjoy it as-is if you don't feel like taking that extra step.

If you're feeling extra inspired, you could garnish this stew w/ a squeeze of lime, a few cilantro slivers, and a crumbling of cotija cheese. I'll probably serve it that way the next time, but today I just served it straight up, and it got rave reviews. We had to save room for those cookies! Stay tuned for the recipe, my friends. And until then, be well!

Beat That Winter Cold...

2009-02-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

... well, I didn't exactly beat mine. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I got my ass kicked HARD. I was sick in bed for 6 days, getting worse each day instead of better, until finally I developed a fever, went to the doctor and discovered I had a sinus infection, which I am still getting over. I can't wait till I feel like myself again, because let me tell you, I have not one iota of inspiration, culinary or otherwise.

Maybe if I'd been following some of these tips sooner, my terrible cold wouldn't have turned into a terrible sinus infection. May you remain healthy and not need these tips! But for what it's worth, here they are:

1. Feeling a little (or a lot) congested? Breathe steam. It's a very simple and effective home remedy for helping to open your breathing passages and keeping your sinuses well lubricated. When your sinuses dry out, bacteria can get trapped, and that's what helps to bring on those nasty infections. Just boil some water and pour it into a bowl. Hold your head over the bowl and cover it with a towel, and breathe deep. An added bonus - it's great for your skin!

Another tip I learned from my friend Ari: add a drop or two of essential oil of thyme to the water in the bowl - it has strong antibacterial properties and will provide added strength in fighting infections. But use it sparingly for it's very potent - a little goes a long way!

2. Got a sore throat, body aches, or inflammation? Try a bromelain & turmeric supplement. It's a natural way to reduce inflammation, and it's good for both your digestion and your liver. Bromelain, which occurs naturally in pineapple, is also very good for both sore throats and sinuses. If you don't feel like buying a supplement, just eat some fresh pineapple or drink some fresh pineapple juice.

3. Be kind to your nose! If you're sneezing crazily and blowing your nose endlessly like I was, trust me on this. Rub the area around your nose with some nice soft lotion, or better yet, coconut oil, which in addition to being soothing and providing moisture, contains antibacterial properties. If I had done this right from the start, I wouldn't have ended up with a red, swollen, blistered, scabby nose!

4. In addition to the usual infection fighters such as vitamin C and zinc, try Andrographis. Again, my friend Ari turned me on to this Ayurvedic herbal supplement which helps to strengthen the immune system, and like turmeric and bromelain, it is good for your liver and digestion.

5. Lastly, I wish that I had been using a neti pot right from the start. If you can get past the weird initial feeling of using it, you'll be really glad you did. And if you ever find yourself paralyzed with debilitating sinus pain, you might, like me, be willing to try just about anything to find relief. Remember what I said earlier about keeping the sinuses from drying out, so as not to promote bacteria growth? Well, here is a very effective way to do that, and it helps tremendously to relieve sinus pressure. It helps move all that congestion out of your head so you can breathe and rest. I can't recommend it highly enough!

I'm feeling a little bit better with each passing day, and really looking forward to the day when I feel inspired to create something good in the kitchen again. It's gotta happen soon! Until then, may you stay healthy, my friends.

Curried Coconut Red Lentil Soup with Spinach

2009-01-21T12:46:00.001-08:00

Thank goodness the last 8 years are behind us! I don't know who coined the phrase "The end of an error", but that sounds about right. I'd drink to that, if I was drinking this month. Damn. I'll have to eat soup instead. This morning I got up extra early and suddenly felt inspired to cook again, so I whipped up this soup before going to work. It's very hearty and warming, just in time for this much needed rain that's threatening to fall out of the sky. And also, it's delicious!!! Keep in mind that the flavor and spiciness of prepared curry pastes can vary greatly, so start out sparingly and work your way up. I used a green Thai curry paste, which was on the milder side.

Curried Coconut Red Lentil Soup with Spinach

(printable recipe)

1 medium yellow onion, diced somewhat fine
1 1/2 c. red lentils, rinsed
1 1/2 c. small red potatoes, diced to about 1/2 inch
1 - 2 T. curry paste
3 cups vegetable stock or water
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups spinach leaves, sliced into thin ribbons
Juice of 1 lime

Heat a couple splashes of olive or canola oil in a soup pot. Add the onions with a couple pinches of salt and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10-15 minutes, until the onions soften and turn a light golden brown. Stir in 1 T. of curry paste and add the lentils and the stock or water. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down and simmer, partially covered, for 8 minutes. Add the potatoes and the coconut milk, and simmer for another 8 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Stir in the lime juice, taste it and add more salt if necessary, and add more curry paste if you'd like.

Enjoy!

Pantry Essentials

2009-01-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

Some day, I'll get back to posting recipes. And for that matter, there is an abundance of great music I've been meaning to write about, too (Ah, nothing like starting a fresh new year with a smattering of procrastination.). For now, I've been in a mode of strictly cooking from cookbooks, namely, my most recent purchase: 5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices by Ruta Kahate. There are some real winners in this book, and a couple that didn't win me over so well, but overall, I've been digging it.

I came across this article the other day on one of my favorite blogs, Gluten Free Girl. It's all about essential pantry items, and it was inspired by this article by Mark Bittman at the New York Times. So I thought I'd post my own list of pantry essentials. And on this note, Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food has a whole section dedicated to this very subject. The premise is simple: with a few basic staples in your pantry, sometimes supplemented with some fresh produce or whatever you like, you are always ready to create a delicious meal. And that is a very comforting feeling.

So here are some of my pantry staples:

Dried beans - usually of 3 or 4 varieties at any given time: black beans, chic peas, red lentils, french green lentils, cannellini beans, kidney beans are a few of my favorite. I generally cook them in larger batches, and freeze them in smaller batches so that I always have some ready to use.
Rice - basmati and brown rice
Quinoa - highly nutritious alternative to rice. Delicious when prepared in the manner of risotto!
Pasta - I agree with Alice Waters and others who use only imported dried pasta
Canned tomatoes - I like to use Muir Glenn organic tomatoes, and especially the fire roasted ones. Many people recommend San Marzano tomatoes from Italy, but I haven't been able to find them organic.
Coconut Milk
Rice noodles for use in Asian stir fries and soups
Spices - well lately, I've been really into mustard seeds, cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne. But also, I couldn't live without bay leaves, Mexican oregano, crushed red pepper & kosher salt. And it's very handy to have paprika and saffron on hand.
Oils: I use a lot of olive oil - I don't generally buy anything too fancy; I just like the organic extra virgin first cold pressed stuff. I also keep canola oil around, and sometimes I make my own clarified butter, or ghee. Although not as essential, I do like to keep sesame oil around, and a little peanut oil can't hurt either.
Vinegars: my perennial favorite is good old red wine vinegar, but we also always have balsamic and rice wine vinegars too, as well as distilled white wine vinegar. Did you know that last one is good for removing odors? When I smash anchovies in my mortar & pestle, I soak it with water and vinegar to make the fishy smell go away!
Garlic and onions - the world would not be the same without them! I like to use yellow onions for every day cooking, red onions for use in salads (and for pickled red onions, of course!) and white onions for Mexican cuisine. And shallots are nice to have too.
And we can't forget: flour, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and baking powder and baking soda so you bake something any time you are stricken with the whim.

And in the fridge and freezer, it's good to have:

Panko bread crumbs - I know Mark Bittman isn't a fan, and it's true, you *can* make your own bread crumbs without too much fuss, but I love me some Panko!
Lemons - a little juice, a little zest, there is no end to the ways you can make your lemons feel useful.
Butter - I like to use organic, unsalted.
Nuts - usually I have pine nuts, walnuts and sliced almonds, and sometimes cashews or pecans. I use them in stir-fries and pasta dishes and salads and baking, and nuts are an essential ingredient in my homemade white bean & quinoa burgers. Yay for nuts!
Tomato paste in a tube - I love this because you can just squeeze out the amount you need
Anchovies and/or anchovy paste - some wouldn't consider this essential but I sure like to have it. Great for caesar salads of course, and the anchovies in their whole form are great for adding to pasta or pizza.
Parmesan - many recommend a nice hunk of imported Parmigiano-Reggiano, and I don't blame them. But don't blame me if sometimes I'm low on funds and lazy, cause I say grated parmesan from Trader Joe's or the Berkeley Bowl is better than no parmesan at all!
Capers - mmmmm salty goodness. I love to add them to tuna salad, pasta or pizza.
Olives - again, many recommend you buy fancy fresh ones, and sometimes I do, but it's nice to have an old stand-by jar of kalamata olives for adding to pasta or salads, or for making olive paste. In fact, you could take some of the above staples - olive oil, garlic, anchovies, capers, olives, and pasta, and put it all together for a nice little meal, even adding some canned tomatoes if you feel so inspired.
Fish sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce, miso, red chile paste - great for Asian-inspired stir-fries, soups, curries, etc. Miso also makes a nice addition to marinades or salad dressings.
Vegetable stock - I make my own using scraps of carrots, celery, onions, garlic, shallots, and sometimes greens. Saute in olive oil, add some water and fresh or dried herbs and a squeeze of tomato paste (or not!), a healthy dose of salt, and cook anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Always good to have a stash of this in the freezer, and it's a great way to use those leftover vegetable bits!
Frozen peas - oh, how I love them in stews and stir-fries and risotto.
Sherry or white wine for deglazing the pan after frying onions/garlic/etc.
Chipotles in adobo sauce - they come in a can, and then I store them in a jar in my fridge upon opening - love that hot smokey, goodness. It's great for spiking your chili, and good with soup, squash, and of course, black beans!
Curry paste - there are several good brands that have no preservatives, and it's a great thing to have on hand for whipping up a quick curry or stew. Saute some onions & garlic, add some diced potatoes and other veggies to the pot, add a couple of splashes of coconut milk and some curry paste, and cook until the veggies are tender.
Worcestershire sauce - mostly I use it in Steve Lucky's Lemon Caesar dressing, but it's also good to add a couple dashes to your homemade veggie burgers or salmon burgers, or, if you're the meatloaf sort, it's good for that too.

Well there you have it. Damn, I'm getting hungry!

Love Your Liver

2009-01-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Happy 2009!

Around here, it's that time of year again - time to embrace all things non-alcoholic, now that the period of holiday over-consumption has passed. I decided against embarking on a full-fledged cleanse or fast, but I am doing my best to eat well and be kind to my liver, and thought I'd share some tips about how you can do that simply through eating and drinking the right stuff!

Fortunately, I've been cooking and eating an abundance of Indian food recently, and using turmeric frequently. Besides being a lovely shade of yellow, turmeric is a digestive aid, and assists in removing toxins in the body. It's also a great anti-inflammatory agent. In fact, turmeric has so many health-promoting qualities, that is listed as one of the World's Healthiest Foods.

Rosemary is another herb that has so many great qualities, it's another of the World's Healthiest Foods! Not only is it great with potatoes or in soups or sauces, but it's great for the immune system, has many anti-inflammatory properties, is great for digestion, and helps the liver to work more efficiently.

Artichokes may not be on the list of healthiest foods, but they sure can't hurt. Artichokes are great for the liver, gall bladder and kidneys, all helpful in detoxification. Plus, they taste great and are so much fun to eat!

I drink dandelion root tea year round, mostly cause I like the taste - it's kind of roasted-nutty tasting, and this works well for me in my post-coffee life. How nice to know that it also happens to be rich in minerals and vitamins A, C, D and B complex, and great for the liver, kidneys, pancreas and spleen.

I won't lie - I miss wine & beer, damnit! And for that matter, I miss pizza and french fries and cookies! But despite that, it does feel nice to be doing good things for my body. And on that note, I'm off to make a cup of dandelion root tea!

Happy 2009!

2008-12-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing all of us a most wonderful 2009! The holidays have sort of swallowed me up a bit recently, so please forgive the infrequent postings.

At our house, the Christmas feast was a five course Indian meal that we spent two days preparing - that's my idea of a good time! In fact, we've been refining and combining different recipes to come up with the perfect palak paneer, and we think we've finally hit the jackpot! So hopefully I'll post that recipe in the near future. If you are not familiar with palak paneer, it is a spinach and cheese curry that uses homemade cheese, and it's a total comfort food, yet bursting with flavor and texture. I'm telling you, our house STILL smells amazing from all the food we cooked, days later!

But what's a person to do when they don't actually have two days to spend in the kitchen? Thankfully, my obsession with Indian cuisine recently led me to yet another cookbook that I am very excited to enjoy: 5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices by Ruta Kahate. The recipes in this book feature coriander seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, cayenne, and mustard seeds. I'm very excited to start trying some of the recipes, particularly because the recipes are simple, in that you can whip them up any night of the week in an hour or less. But simple doesn't have to mean simplistic, and I'm sure this is true, because I actually had the good fortune to take one of Ruta's cooking classes in Berkeley several years ago, and I have tasted the results. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about my adventures with this cookbook before too long.

For now, I'm off to get ready to ring in the new year, and wishing everyone a safe and happy and prosperous - and well fed - journey into 2009!

For That Special Coffee Drinker In Your Life...

2008-12-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

... I thought my friend Berge was kidding when he told me about Weasel Puke Coffee, but it's the real deal. Maybe now I can start drinking coffee again? On second thought.... maybe not. Somebody out there must love the stuff, because apparently, it's currently sold out!

In case you're too lazy to click on the link (cause maybe you need a little jolt of caffeine?), here it is in a nutshell:

"There's a little animal in Vietnam which has magical properties. Locally, it's called a weasel (though technically, it's a type of civet, but let's call it a weasel like the locals) and it sure likes to eat the fruit of the coffee plant. But the seeds don't sit well in its tummy, so it vomits them up. And that's where the fun comes in - for local coffee folks gather up the beans and lightly roast them. The stomach acids seem to wear away the bitter taste of the coffee beans, and the resulting coffee is delicious and smooth.

Ok, right now you're probably thinking we're full of crap. But nothing we've written above is false. Weasel Puke Coffee really is made of beans thrown up by local Vietnamese weasels. And it really does give the coffee a different taste - a rich chocolaty flavor. Weasel Puke Coffee is truly a gourmet treat. And if the thought of drinking puked up coffee makes you throw up in your own mouth a little, then you are just the person to try this. Because puke makes the coffee better. Trust us."

On second thought, I might just stick to tea...

It's Pizzelle Time!

2008-12-16T17:27:00.000-08:00

I am a bit of a scrooge. And also, I'm not hugely into sweets. But every December, I find myself craving pizzelles - a "traditional italian wafer cookie" - typically flavored with anise and lemon or a combination of the both. Every December, usually thanks to my mom or my sister, I nearly o.d. on these things (And of course, every January, I curse that extra fat roll!).

I've never baked them myself but this year I realized that if I want to eat them, I'm going to have to learn how to make them, because I won't be seeing my family for the holiday. So tonight I pulled out the pizzelle iron that my mom gave me for Christmas several years ago, and I finally took it out of the box. Thanks, Mom!

In my search for the perfect recipe, I found this interesting article. But that's just an aside, because the perfect recipe of course, is my family recipe! I don't know exactly where it came from, but tonight I called my sister and she dictated it to me, and told me to follow it exactly, and I did... almost. The recipe calls for lemon extract but I was too cheap to cough up $7.99 for a bottle of lemon extract, and I happened to have a bunch of nice, thick-skinned lemons on hand from my friend Thomas' tree, so I used lemon zest instead, and I think it the results are fabulous.

So remember, you have to have the pizzelle iron in order to make these things. And once you do, you make them like this: (click here for printable recipe)

Melt 2 sticks butter, and let it cool.

Put 1 3/4 cups sugar in a bowl, and pour the butter into it and stir.

Add 6 eggs to the butter & sugar mixture, and mix it well.

Add to the above mixture: 1 1/2 t. vanilla extract, 1 1/2 t. anise extract, and 1 1/2 t. lemon zest.

Now add to the mix: 3 cups flour, 1/2 t. baking powder and 1/2 t. salt. Mix it well.

Heat up the pizzelle iron, and drop the batter by the small teaspoonful, a plop on each side. Clamp the lid down and let it do it's thing for about 30 seconds. Don't worry if the first few come out funky - the pizzelle iron just needs to get into its groove. Remove the pizzelles with a spatula (plastic or wood only please!), and let cool on a cooling rack. You'll notice that they come out of the iron soft and pliable, but within a minute or two on the cooling rack, they'll be nice & crisp, and you probably will eat them as fast as you make them. So much for giving them away as gifts. So much for your diet! If you do manage to refrain from eating every last one, once they are completely cool, store them in an airtight container. They should last for several weeks, except they won't, because everyone will love them!

Roasted Beets with Horseradish...

2008-12-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

... the recipe couldn't be more simple. Dice some beets and toss with a little kosher salt, roast till they're nicely tender but still have a bit of texture, and toss with fresh grated horseradish, a bit of olive oil and some chopped fresh basil.

Upon seeing this dish prepared, I learned about one of the great culinary mysteries, that being the relationship between beets and horseradish - when you combine them, they transform one another.

If you've ever been within a few feet of someone grating fresh horseradish, then you've felt the way it burns your eyes and nose. This shit is HOT - sinus clearing hot. It makes your eyes water and your nose run just to be near it, to say nothing of consuming it. So naturally, I expected this dish to be hot in the same way. But in fact, it was subtle as can be. Something about the sweetness of the beets just completely mellows the horseradish, and the horseradish somehow mellows the sweetness of the beets. It's a match made in heaven.

I learned this simple recipe while assisting my friend Phil Gelb at his underground restaurant concert series last weekend. It's been quite awhile since I've worked a food gig, and I must admit that it was nice to just show up and chop and slice and dice and serve, instead of being in charge of the whole affair. And the bonus, besides working with Phil and enjoying the delicious food, was being able to enjoy two sets of music by Amy X. Neuburg. This is a woman who has an amazing voice and uses it masterfully, and her compositions are sophisticated, entertaining, and moving. I found myself at different points during her set with goosebumps, and then tears in my eyes, and then laughing out loud. Amy is a uniquely talented composer, vocalist and entertainer, and it was a pleasure to enjoy her music two nights in a row.

On other fronts, it seems the cold winter temperatures have finally arrived. That means I'm laying low whenever possible, and baking lots of squash in an effort to keep warm. I'm sure I'll emerge from the cocoon at some point with a new recipe or two. Until then, be well and stay warm!

Kitchen Improv: Indian Spiced Cauliflower, Fennel and Red Lentil Stew

2008-12-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't do a lot of improvising in the kitchen. I like to follow recipes; I guess I'm not the biggest risk taker. When I do create my own recipes, it usually involves a fair amount of testing and refining until I get it right. But once in awhile, a meal just magically comes together despite my skepticism, and last night was one of those nights.

It was getting towards the end of the week, and the fridge was looking a bit bare, but it did hold some cauliflower and fennel and half an onion. In the freezer, there were cooked red lentils that were left over from my last pot of Indian soup (a recipe for curried red lentil and tomato soup with perfumed spice butter, from my recent cookbook purchase "Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking" by Julie Sahni), and also, frozen peas. In the pantry there were black mustard seeds, cayenne and cumin seeds, and an abundance of Garam Masala, plus there was ghee. It wasn't long before dinner was on the table, and wow, was it good!

I was skeptical about combining cauliflower and fennel - I don't know why, but it seemed like a combination of flavors that could go either way, delicious or god-awful. Thankfully, it was delicious. What follows here is more of a guide than an actual recipe. Serve it with some basmati rice and you're good to go.

One thing to note about red lentils - they cook much differently than the standard green or brown lentils, which generally hold their shape. Red lentils cook a little more quickly, and develop a thick, creamy consistency as they cook - so they are perfect for a nice, thick stew like this one. Also, don't be alarmed when your red lentils lose some of their color as they cook.

I wish I'd gotten a picture, but alas, my camera batteries were dead, so I'll just have to make more of this another time!

First, cook your red lentils. I did this according to the recipe in the aforementioned cookbook, and basically it involves rinsing about a cup and a half of red lentils, covering with about 4 cups water and a pinch of turmeric, bringing to a boil and then simmering over lower heat, partially covered, for about 35 minutes or so. Note: skip the turmeric if you're not going to use the lentils for an Indian preparation.

Cut up half an onion into a small dice, plus a couple of cloves of garlic. Set the garlic aside.

In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat about a tablespoon of ghee, butter or olive oil. Over medium heat, saute the onion, stirring frequently, for about 10-15 minutes, until it's soft and nicely golden brown.

Now, add to the pot: about a teaspoon of cumin seeds, and about the same amount of black mustard seeds, plus a bit of cayenne, depending on how spicy you like it. Keep stirring, and after a minute or so, add some chopped fennel and chopped cauliflower. I used about 1 1/2 cups of each.

Add the garlic and a generous sprinkling of salt, and keep stirring for about 5 minutes, and then, add some water - about enough to cover it all by half an inch. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes or so, until the cauliflower and fennel have started to become nicely tender.

Now it's time to add the lentils - I used what I had on hand, which was about 2 cups or so. I also scattered about 3/4 of a cup of frozen peas into the mix, along with about a half teaspoon of Garam Masala. Cook for another 5 minutes or so, and it'll be ready to serve. It's nice when things turn out that way, isn't it?

And Speaking of Wine Lovers...

2008-12-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

... a friend of mine is not only a wine lover and collector, but she also makes her living selling wine. Occasionally she has more wine in her personal collection than she knows what to do with, and a couple of times, she has been known to pawn some of it off on me. Or maybe she just takes pity on me because I told her that I recently bought a bunch of wine (or rather... swill!) at the Grocery Outlet. Of course, that was before I knew about The Wine Mine!

Anyway, said friend was kind enough to hip me to an opportunity to enjoy a fabulous meal at a brand spankin' new restaurant last night - this restaurant is so new in fact, that it isn't even open to the public yet, so it was a very special treat. The place is called Marzano, and they specialize in wood-fired pizza, so naturally I had to take a break from my post-Thanksgiving diet. I had planned to make stir fried vegetables and tofu last night, but those plans were quickly and happily abandoned when I got the call that there were 2 seats available for a test drive before the place officially opens tomorrow. How could I resist?

Here are a few things we got to enjoy, and truly, every bite was savored.

House cured monterey bay sardines with giardiniera valencia orange, almonds, golden raisins, saffron - it's not a combination that I would have thought of, but it was exploding with vibrant flavors and contrasting textures. Salty and sweet, crunchy and tender all at once.

Tricolore salad with treviso, frisee and wild arugula lemon-anchovy vinaigrette, pane grattugiata pecorino romano - just say the words "anchovy" and "arugula" in the same sentence, and I'm there. And this salad did not disappoint. I had to refrain from licking the plate.

Quatro formaggi pizza with mozzarella, fontina, pecorino, roasted wild mushrooms & sage - This pizza was dreamy. I rarely cook with sage and every time I taste it, I am reminded that I really ought to cook with it more! Together with the roasted mushrooms and cheeses, this was a perfect flavor combination.

Napoletana pizza with tomato, anchovy, capers mozzarella, black olives, chili flake - Once again, I couldn't pass up more salty, briny goodness and this pizza did not disappoint. In fact, it was a good contrast to the 4-cheese pizza, because as far as I could tell, this one had no cheese except perhaps for a light sprinkling of parmesan.

I'm looking forward to enjoying more meals at Marzano. Another nice thing about this place is that it doesn't break the bank, and also, the service is great. I'm no restaurant critic (not that I'd mind getting paid to eat!), but that's my two cents.

For Winos and Those who Love Them

2008-12-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

Since I made a little trip the Wine Mine today, and also read a good article and watched a video about frugal wine buying, I thought I'd help spread the good word.

First, about the Wine Mine. I just discovered this place, which is not much more than a hop, skip and a jump away from where I live. It has apparently been there for over a year, but some of us are slow learners! I finally wandered in recently, and am so glad I did. The service is great. You can read all about the owner, David Sharp, on the Wine Mine's web site. David offers a wide selection of great quality wines at reasonable prices - from $5 - $205. He's knowledgeable and friendly, and so far I haven't bought a bottle from him that I didn't love, even in the $7-10 price range.

If you don't live in the Bay area, fear not! I read this great posting on the Get Rich Slowly blog today (yes it's true, I have a secret love of blogs having to do with personal finance!). The article is entitled Finding Good Wine at Great Prices: Expert Advice for Frugal Wine Lovers, and features a video from Gary Vaynerchuk at Wine Library TV. I didn't previously know about Wine Library TV, but am glad I do now.

So let's hear it for good wine that doesn't break the bank - I'll drink to that... tonight, in fact!

Holiday Gifts for the Foodies you Love

2008-11-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

Is it too early to start talking about holiday gifts? Can any of us even afford to buy gifts in light of the fact that the economy has gone down the toilet? I'll leave those answers up to you, but I will suggest that if you're going to give gifts, why not give gifts of food and drink, because who doesn't love food and drink? I've written about all the products below at some point or another on this blog, but thought I would compile them into one handy list of some of my most favorite consumables. Tested and loved by me, and sure to be loved by you and your favorite foodie.

Katz's jams, honeys, vinegars and gift boxes -

Oh, how I love anything made by the Katz company, based right here in Northern California. I first learned of their products when my friend Denise gave me a jar of their citrus blossom honey for my birthday a couple of years ago, and I have been smitten ever since. Besides their honeys, they make exquisite fruit preserves and artisan vinegars and oils. They also have beautiful gift boxes, brimming with deliciousness. If you're fortunate to live in the Bay area, you can find their honeys at the Berkeley Bowl. But if not, don't fret. Just wander on over to their online store and have yourself a ball.

Agrumato Extra Virgin Olive Oil Pressed with Lemons

Bless that Denise; she is a woman who knows her food! She's also the one who turned me on to this superb olive oil, and I swear since she gave me that bottle, I must've bought another 10 bottles that I've given as gifts over the last couple years. This oil is great for dipping bread or using to dress a salad; it's wonderfully fragrant, tangy and refreshing. If you live in the Bay area, you can find it at Berkeley Bowl or at The Pasta Shop. You can also find it on Amazon.com.

Chocolate Santander

I wrote about this chocolate recently, and I meant it when I said it ruined me for all the other chocolates. There is just no comparison. This Colombian single origin chocolate is like no other. Their 70% dark chocolate bar is smooth like velvet, deliriously dark and delicious. As far as I can tell, you can't purchase their chocolate from them directly on their web site, but you can get it from Chocolate.com, Chocosphere.com, or even Amazon.com.

Cha-no-Aji - The Taste of Tea

I first learned of this tea through my friend, vegan chef extraordinaire Phil Gelb. One sip and I was hooked. I am a big fan of their Night Blooming Jasmine tea - so delicate and fragrant. They have so many wonderful varieties of tea that you'll find it hard to choose just one. They also carry many lovely teapots and cups. To the best of my knowledge, you can only buy their teas directly from them, via their online store.

So that's my two cents, for what it's worth. Hope everyone out there has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Although I always enjoying cooking a feast, I'm happy to be able to enjoy someone else's feast this year. Tomorrow I'm headed to Palm Springs to spend the holiday w/ the family of my sweetie, who's mother's husband is a fabulous chef, and whom I'm told has been already cooking for days. I can't wait!

Until next time, cheers to one and all.

Green Beans with Garam Masala, Garlic and Slivered Almonds

2008-11-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

If you read my last post, you may be wondering just what a person would do with such a large quantity of garam masala. Well I don't have a definitive answer to that question, but I can tell you about a delicious way to use a couple pinches. It does not involve mac & cheese! But I couldn't help but post my photo of the mac & cheese I made the other night to enjoy w/ my wonderful friends. It's the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I love Cooks Illustrated because their recipes are tested exhaustively, tried and true. You follow the directions, and you get the results. You have to be a member in order to access their recipe, or, you could do like I did and buy one of their cookbooks.

But see, the thing about mac & cheese is that there's no getting around the fact that it's a high fat, high carb food. Delicious, yes. Fattening beyond belief, yes. And definitely, it's a dish that I like to make some sort of attempt to balance out by serving it with not only a big green salad, but also, a side dish of some other green vegetable. That's where the green beans come in. And the garam masala. And while we're at it, a little ghee if you've got it, and some garlic and slivered almonds. Alright, truth be told, if we were counting calories, we'd be eating steamed broccoli, but hell, where is the fun in that? We didn't come here to count calories!

Green Beans with Garam Masala, Garlic and Slivered Almonds

(click here for printable recipe)

1. Clean and trim a whole bunch of green beans. I used a little over 2 pounds to feed 7 people. Set the beans aside.
2. Mince several cloves of garlic and set aside.
3. In a large, heavy skillet (like, say... Adam's orange Le Creuset!), either melt a big plop of ghee or a big splash of olive oil over medium-high heat.
4. Add the green beans to the pan and cook over medium to high heat for about 10 minutes or until they start to become tender.
5. Keep the heat high and add 2 or 3 cloves minced garlic and the almonds - about 1/2 to 3/4 cup - and keep stirring till everything is nice and golden brown. The trick is to stir it enough so that the garlic doesn't burn, but not so much that the green beans won't brown. I can't claim to be an expert on how to achieve this, cause it seems like every time I make this dish, I arrive at my results in a different way. Isn't that extremely helpful?
6. Once the beans are more or less done, which means nearly tender but still a little crunchy, and somewhat golden brown, turn off the heat.
7. Sprinkle with kosher salt and several pinches of garam masala. Toss it well and serve it up with your mac & cheese, and enjoy in the company of fine friends and fabulous four-legged creatures who would never dream of begging!