I'm reposting this to clarify what I mean by chili garlic sauce. I bought a bottle of the red stuff with rooster and the green cap, only to realize that it was chili sauce, not much garlic. That's the bottle with the thin neck that you see on tables in thai (and some other) restaurants. It made an OK sauce, but it didn't have that dynamite punch.
So, what you need for this recipe is the stuff in a bottle with a wide green cap. You should be able to see plenty of chili seeds floating around inside. It can still have the rooster on it, but there are other brands as well.
------------------
Usually, I take fresh vegetables to snack on at work. But sometimes, I take steamed vegetables: cauliflower, broccoli, yams, beets, cabbage. They can be pretty dull eating on their own.
Yams benefit from a bit of balsamic vinegar, a few drops of sesame oil and a scatteing of sesame seeds. Also for them, as well as other vegetables, I've developed a sauce that's so good I can't get enough of it.
I don't have exact proportions because I've been eyeballing it. Next time I make it, I'll make a larger amount and keep track of the ingredient measurements. For now, though, try this.
Mix
a few tablespoons chili garlic sauce (the kind that comes in a clear plastic bottle with a rooster on it and a green cap)
some rice or other light vinegar, maybe a teaspoon or two
a few drops of sesame oil
some tamari or soy sauce, not a lot, just enough to give it a salty edge
Serve it
on rice, other cooked grains and/or steamed vegetables. Sprinkle over some toasted sesame seeds for flavor and sunflower seeds for crunch.
This mixture is quite spicy, so a little goes a long way. I find the combination of chili garlic sauce and sesame oil to be intoxicating. The sunflower seeds take it to a new level. I used raw, unsalted seeds.
Since all its ingredients can be kept at room temperature, the sauce can, too.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Thursday, August 31, 2006
The chili rice thing
I found out today that this dish is as good with chicken (I used hindquarters and wings) as it is with beef, which is very good indeed. I developed the recipe maybe a decade ago when I was researching pressure cooking for FoodDay. The beef version of the recipe ran with the article in The Oregonian.
Oh, and did I mention it was fast? Open a few cans, toss in the meat -- it's all ready in less than half an hour (pressure cooking time is only 15 minutes, although it takes a few minutes to get the pressure up).
The Chili Rice Thing
3/4 cup brown rice
1-1/2 teaspoon lard or oil
1-3/4 cup water
Bay leaf
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 4-ounce can diced chilies
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons beef (or chicken) base (Better Than Bouillon is a good one)
1/4 to 1/2 pound piece of beef or pork or a couple of pieces of chicken (2 hindquarters or 8 wings, etc.)
In a pressure cooker bottom, brown the rice in the lard. Add the water, bay leaf, tomatoes, chilies, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, beef or chicken base and meat.
Put the lid on the pot, bring it to a boil and cook at high pressure for 15 minutes.
The result is a bit soupy; serve in bowls.
Serves 2-3.
No pressure cooker? You can probably put everything in a pot in the oven for maybe 60 to 90 minutes at 350. But I haven't tested the recipe that way.
Oh, and did I mention it was fast? Open a few cans, toss in the meat -- it's all ready in less than half an hour (pressure cooking time is only 15 minutes, although it takes a few minutes to get the pressure up).
The Chili Rice Thing
3/4 cup brown rice
1-1/2 teaspoon lard or oil
1-3/4 cup water
Bay leaf
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 4-ounce can diced chilies
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons beef (or chicken) base (Better Than Bouillon is a good one)
1/4 to 1/2 pound piece of beef or pork or a couple of pieces of chicken (2 hindquarters or 8 wings, etc.)
In a pressure cooker bottom, brown the rice in the lard. Add the water, bay leaf, tomatoes, chilies, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, beef or chicken base and meat.
Put the lid on the pot, bring it to a boil and cook at high pressure for 15 minutes.
The result is a bit soupy; serve in bowls.
Serves 2-3.
No pressure cooker? You can probably put everything in a pot in the oven for maybe 60 to 90 minutes at 350. But I haven't tested the recipe that way.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Walnuts
I wrote this in June, then found it again when I was moving files to my Apple.
Always before, I shelled walnuts in the context of other activities. At one point in my life, while watching television––hard to believe now that I watch virtually no TV. I was always trying to get the task over quickly. It was a stop, usually unwelcome, on the route to somewhere else, like making cookies.
But today, I am shelling walnuts on a warm midsummer Sunday afternoon in a quiet urban backyard, and this is precisely what I wish to be doing with my time at this time.
When the nuts have my undivided attention, I see so many things. A half-shell, unscathed, would make a fine boat for a miniature sailor. I remember, as a child, fitting one out with a toothpick mast and a little paper sail.
The nutmeats are shaped like little human brains. Some people on the fringe of nutritional thinking have made the connection that they are therefore brain food. The thin, dry membranes that separate the halves look like pelvises. Perhaps they are good for childbirth, too.
The shells, wrinkles and scored––I wish now I had thought of walnuts when I needed an object to work on in a drawing class. I envisioned the subtle shading that would demarcate the indentations; the fine, trembling lines of the veins; the nobility of the complete shell, as simple as an egg but so much more complex.
I remark how the interior of the shell so follows the contours of the meat. Does the shell form the meat or does the meat form the shell? Does it matter?
I treasure each motion, sweeping of a nut from the bowl, watching the other nuts in the bowl shift when I take one, finding a useful point to leverage the nutcracker, hearing the sharp sound of cracking, exploring the feel and parallax of an individual nut as I turn it around and around, pulling at sharp edges, easing out the meat.
How could I have been impatient with any of this?
Always before, I shelled walnuts in the context of other activities. At one point in my life, while watching television––hard to believe now that I watch virtually no TV. I was always trying to get the task over quickly. It was a stop, usually unwelcome, on the route to somewhere else, like making cookies.
But today, I am shelling walnuts on a warm midsummer Sunday afternoon in a quiet urban backyard, and this is precisely what I wish to be doing with my time at this time.
When the nuts have my undivided attention, I see so many things. A half-shell, unscathed, would make a fine boat for a miniature sailor. I remember, as a child, fitting one out with a toothpick mast and a little paper sail.
The nutmeats are shaped like little human brains. Some people on the fringe of nutritional thinking have made the connection that they are therefore brain food. The thin, dry membranes that separate the halves look like pelvises. Perhaps they are good for childbirth, too.
The shells, wrinkles and scored––I wish now I had thought of walnuts when I needed an object to work on in a drawing class. I envisioned the subtle shading that would demarcate the indentations; the fine, trembling lines of the veins; the nobility of the complete shell, as simple as an egg but so much more complex.
I remark how the interior of the shell so follows the contours of the meat. Does the shell form the meat or does the meat form the shell? Does it matter?
I treasure each motion, sweeping of a nut from the bowl, watching the other nuts in the bowl shift when I take one, finding a useful point to leverage the nutcracker, hearing the sharp sound of cracking, exploring the feel and parallax of an individual nut as I turn it around and around, pulling at sharp edges, easing out the meat.
How could I have been impatient with any of this?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
What yogurt is good with
I seldom buy flavored yogurt. Don't like it much (although Brown Cow makes a fine product with cream at the top that you can toss if you're being good or mix in if you are feeling like a treat. Try the vanilla; it's flavored with maple syrup.). I can create fruit-flavored yogurt by mixing in a few spoonfuls of jam.
You'll want to start with good quality plain yogurt -- Nancy's or Trader Joe's French Village or Brown Cow plain. The cheap supermarket stuff tastes nasty. Or buy a yogurt maker and make your own. I used to do that, using Nancy's as my base.
Today I experimented with texture, mixing in chopped roasted almonds for crunch, dried cranberries for sweetness and chopped candied fruit peel (it's in the 2004 recipe set, for those of you who get my yearly mailing) for chewiness.
Other candidates are granola, chopped dates, raisins (especially golden ones), other types of dried fruit and other varieties of nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. I suppose you could add mini chocolate chips--they were in the breakfast condiment trays everywhere when we visited Germany--but I resist the idea of candy in yogurt.
And of course, there is always fresh fruit or berries, or even applesauce. My favorite is bananas, with brown sugar. That is an intoxicating combination.
You'll want to start with good quality plain yogurt -- Nancy's or Trader Joe's French Village or Brown Cow plain. The cheap supermarket stuff tastes nasty. Or buy a yogurt maker and make your own. I used to do that, using Nancy's as my base.
Today I experimented with texture, mixing in chopped roasted almonds for crunch, dried cranberries for sweetness and chopped candied fruit peel (it's in the 2004 recipe set, for those of you who get my yearly mailing) for chewiness.
Other candidates are granola, chopped dates, raisins (especially golden ones), other types of dried fruit and other varieties of nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. I suppose you could add mini chocolate chips--they were in the breakfast condiment trays everywhere when we visited Germany--but I resist the idea of candy in yogurt.
And of course, there is always fresh fruit or berries, or even applesauce. My favorite is bananas, with brown sugar. That is an intoxicating combination.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Fruit salad
I've been making a lot of fruit salads this summer. This morning's was cantaloupe, banana, orange and tiny champagne grapes. Instead of adding honey and lime (see Honey, below), I chopped up a couple of dates for sweetness.
Eat plain or with plain yogurt (high quality yogurt, such as Nancy's or TJ's French Village, tastes great plain) and maybe granola.
Eat plain or with plain yogurt (high quality yogurt, such as Nancy's or TJ's French Village, tastes great plain) and maybe granola.
Using honey
A correspondent asks: Do you happen to know what the honey to sugar equivalent is? I have a jar of honey. I'd like to use it up in cooking, but I'm not sure what the equivalent is between sugar and honey and I don't want to do a one to one and have things too sweet.
Thank you!
Answer:
You really can't substitute honey for sugar because the honey has so much water in it. It tends to make baked goods heavy. So make sure your recipe calls for honey. One baked thing that you can substitute it for sugar in is bread -- it makes the texture smooth and the bread may keep it from going stale so soon.
I use a fair amount of honey. Mostly I put it in tea and coffee instead of sugar. Keep it in a jar or sugar bowl on the counter. That way it'll be convenient to use.
I also make a lot of mixed fruit salad. For dressing, I dissolve a tablespoon or so of honey in some hot water, cool and add lime juice to taste.
You can have it on toast (ummm, with butter!). You can put it on your hot cereal.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Thank you!
Answer:
You really can't substitute honey for sugar because the honey has so much water in it. It tends to make baked goods heavy. So make sure your recipe calls for honey. One baked thing that you can substitute it for sugar in is bread -- it makes the texture smooth and the bread may keep it from going stale so soon.
I use a fair amount of honey. Mostly I put it in tea and coffee instead of sugar. Keep it in a jar or sugar bowl on the counter. That way it'll be convenient to use.
I also make a lot of mixed fruit salad. For dressing, I dissolve a tablespoon or so of honey in some hot water, cool and add lime juice to taste.
You can have it on toast (ummm, with butter!). You can put it on your hot cereal.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Salad with cold oranges
I still remember picking out this recipe at the Berkeley Co-op. In the produce section, you could pick up recipes printed on cheap green paper that highlighted new ways to use fruits and vegetables. This recipe was dated September, 1968; I probably picked it up in 1970 or '71.
The idea of a salad with onions and green pepper and oranges seemed unbearably exotic in those days. Now it's way less strange, but still an unusual combination.
I made this for an office potluck recently, to good reviews. It was the first time I remember having putting in the cucumber. It didn't add that much, and you could leave it out.
------------
Ensalada de naranjas
4 oranges, chilled
1 cucumber
1 small sweet onion (or red onion)
1 green pepper
Lettuce
French dressing (see text)
Peel and slice oranges, discarding seeds. Peel and slice cucumber; chop onion and green pepper. Arrange lettuce on a flat dish and place onions and cucumber on top. Sprinkle with onion and green pepper. Serve cold, with a simple dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper (use a 2-1 ratio of oil to vinegar, maybe 1/4 cup oil and 2 T. red wine vinegar -- I always just eyeball it).
Serves 6.
The idea of a salad with onions and green pepper and oranges seemed unbearably exotic in those days. Now it's way less strange, but still an unusual combination.
I made this for an office potluck recently, to good reviews. It was the first time I remember having putting in the cucumber. It didn't add that much, and you could leave it out.
------------
Ensalada de naranjas
4 oranges, chilled
1 cucumber
1 small sweet onion (or red onion)
1 green pepper
Lettuce
French dressing (see text)
Peel and slice oranges, discarding seeds. Peel and slice cucumber; chop onion and green pepper. Arrange lettuce on a flat dish and place onions and cucumber on top. Sprinkle with onion and green pepper. Serve cold, with a simple dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper (use a 2-1 ratio of oil to vinegar, maybe 1/4 cup oil and 2 T. red wine vinegar -- I always just eyeball it).
Serves 6.
Hard peaches
Produce buying has been easier in recent years, probably because I'm not buying much fruit at the supermarket. Greengrocers and farmers markets tend to have fruit that's already ripe or that will ripen soon. So it's been a while since I bought home a bag of peaches that just refused to ripen.
Here's a handy guide to how fruits far after picking, from Shirley Corriher.
Fruits that never ripen after picking: soft berries, cacao, cherries, grapes, citrus fruit, litchis, olives, pineapple and watermelon
Fruits that ripen only after picking: avocados
Fruits that ripen in color, texture and juiciness but not in sweetness after picking: apricots, blueberries, figs, melons other than watermelon, nectarines, passion fruit, peaches and persimmons
Fruits that get sweeter after they're picked: apples, cherimoyas, kiwifruit, mangoes, papayas, pears, sapotes and soursops (also known as guanabana)
Fruits that ripen in every way after picking: bananas
Oddly, this list does not include plums, but they seem to be like apricots, getting jucier and softer but not necessarily sweeter.
Here's a handy guide to how fruits far after picking, from Shirley Corriher.
Fruits that never ripen after picking: soft berries, cacao, cherries, grapes, citrus fruit, litchis, olives, pineapple and watermelon
Fruits that ripen only after picking: avocados
Fruits that ripen in color, texture and juiciness but not in sweetness after picking: apricots, blueberries, figs, melons other than watermelon, nectarines, passion fruit, peaches and persimmons
Fruits that get sweeter after they're picked: apples, cherimoyas, kiwifruit, mangoes, papayas, pears, sapotes and soursops (also known as guanabana)
Fruits that ripen in every way after picking: bananas
Oddly, this list does not include plums, but they seem to be like apricots, getting jucier and softer but not necessarily sweeter.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Put your berries in a betty
Now that the berries have come on, try this old favorite with blueberries or blackberries. Raspberries are too intense unless you mix them with another, milder fruit. Other summer fruits work great, too, including rhubarb and plums. This version uses half the topping of the original recipe. The result has less fat and fewer calories, and the flavor of the fruit comes through much better.
Fran's Betty
4 cups fruit, such as berries, sliced apples, peaches, rhubarb, canned pie cherries
1/2 cup sugar
3/8 cup flour (6 tablespoons, or 3/4 of 1/2 cup); since the amount is not critical, you can eyeball it
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
1/4 cup cold butter
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Wash, peel and slice or chop the fruit as appropriate and place it in a 9-inch pie plate or dish.
For the topping, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter. Alternatively, combine the topping ingredients in a food processor.
Sprinkle the topping over the fruit. Bake about 45 minutes. Some of the fruit will ooze through the topping and the remaining topping will be browned and crisp.
Serve warm or cold, plain or with cream.
Serves 6
Adapted from The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 1970
Fran's Betty
4 cups fruit, such as berries, sliced apples, peaches, rhubarb, canned pie cherries
1/2 cup sugar
3/8 cup flour (6 tablespoons, or 3/4 of 1/2 cup); since the amount is not critical, you can eyeball it
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
1/4 cup cold butter
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Wash, peel and slice or chop the fruit as appropriate and place it in a 9-inch pie plate or dish.
For the topping, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter. Alternatively, combine the topping ingredients in a food processor.
Sprinkle the topping over the fruit. Bake about 45 minutes. Some of the fruit will ooze through the topping and the remaining topping will be browned and crisp.
Serve warm or cold, plain or with cream.
Serves 6
Adapted from The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 1970
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Whatabrunch
Today Marcus from Vienna, one of Robert's teachers at German summer school, came over for brunch. It was fun for me, because I didn't have to cook. All I did was chop, slice and arrange. We had
whitefish salad
an apricot coffeecake from Jaciva's
three-seed bread from Grand Central Bakery
wine-cured salami
sopressata salami
Old Amsterdam aged gouda
Appenzeller, a firm, semi-robust cheese from Switzerland
Ranier cherries
Strawberries
Fruit salad of mango, nectarines, orange and reapberries with lime juice and honey
dry black olives with Provencal herbs
moist green olives with Provencal herbs
picholine olives
vegetables: carrots, red pepper and sliced dill pickle
coffee (Torrefazione)
home-made butter (see Real Milk)
And a fine time was had by all.
whitefish salad
an apricot coffeecake from Jaciva's
three-seed bread from Grand Central Bakery
wine-cured salami
sopressata salami
Old Amsterdam aged gouda
Appenzeller, a firm, semi-robust cheese from Switzerland
Ranier cherries
Strawberries
Fruit salad of mango, nectarines, orange and reapberries with lime juice and honey
dry black olives with Provencal herbs
moist green olives with Provencal herbs
picholine olives
vegetables: carrots, red pepper and sliced dill pickle
coffee (Torrefazione)
home-made butter (see Real Milk)
And a fine time was had by all.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Blue corn cakes
Serves 2
The elusive, slightly assertive flavor of blue corn meal sets these pancakes apart.
2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dry milk powder (Bob’s Red Mill, more fine-textured than most others; or omit and use milk instead of water below)
1 egg
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
Heat a griddle over medium heat. Use a tablespoon or a serving spoon to pour batter onto griddle (make the cakes small). Cook slowly over medium heat for maximum crispness.
Serve with maple syrup or warm applesauce.
Recipe created in 1999
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
From Beans to Sweet Potatoes
I spent the morning in the kitchen. I don't go to work until 3 today.
I made myself get up early to start the maple baked beans and load the bread machine for pumpernickel rye. Then I went back to bed for a while.
Later, added water to the beans. This recipe cooks at 375, so the oven was available for other things. Toasted some nuts for the pumpkin bread and our morning oatmeal. Roasted two thick pork rib chops, brushed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper.
For the pumpkin bread, I substituted sweet potatoes I had steamed a few days earlier. I pulled back on the sugar, taking out about 2 tablespoons from the cup called for, because the sweet potato was so sweet. I riced the sweet potatoes to ensure a smooth texture.
I used the butter I had made from the cream I harvested from the nonhomogenized milk (see Real Milk). It melted gently in a small cast iron skillet set over the oven vent.
Out came the pork chops, in went the pumpkin/sweet potato bread. Heat reduced to 350; there's an hour left on the beans, and I think the slightly gently heat will be OK.
Still to make: A salsa/salad of fresh tomatoes, red onion, avocado, XV olive oil. I think I will use balsalmic vinegar and capers.
Recipes:
Maple Baked Beans: Helen Witty (I don't have a citation for the cookbook, sorry)
Dark Pumpernickel Rye Bread: Bob's Red Mill
Pumpkin-Nut Bread: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
Oatmeal with toasted walnuts: Franny
Tomato-avocado-red onion-caper salad: Franny
Pork chops with olive oil and balsamic vinegar: Franny
I made myself get up early to start the maple baked beans and load the bread machine for pumpernickel rye. Then I went back to bed for a while.
Later, added water to the beans. This recipe cooks at 375, so the oven was available for other things. Toasted some nuts for the pumpkin bread and our morning oatmeal. Roasted two thick pork rib chops, brushed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper.
For the pumpkin bread, I substituted sweet potatoes I had steamed a few days earlier. I pulled back on the sugar, taking out about 2 tablespoons from the cup called for, because the sweet potato was so sweet. I riced the sweet potatoes to ensure a smooth texture.
I used the butter I had made from the cream I harvested from the nonhomogenized milk (see Real Milk). It melted gently in a small cast iron skillet set over the oven vent.
Out came the pork chops, in went the pumpkin/sweet potato bread. Heat reduced to 350; there's an hour left on the beans, and I think the slightly gently heat will be OK.
Still to make: A salsa/salad of fresh tomatoes, red onion, avocado, XV olive oil. I think I will use balsalmic vinegar and capers.
Recipes:
Maple Baked Beans: Helen Witty (I don't have a citation for the cookbook, sorry)
Dark Pumpernickel Rye Bread: Bob's Red Mill
Pumpkin-Nut Bread: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
Oatmeal with toasted walnuts: Franny
Tomato-avocado-red onion-caper salad: Franny
Pork chops with olive oil and balsamic vinegar: Franny
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Real Milk
Real Milk
There are two brands of organic milk commonly available in supermarkets here in Portland -- Horizon and Organic Valley. Horizon is a mega-dairy based in the Midwest, and its products are usually ultrapasteurized, which creates a cooked taste I don’t like.
Organic Valley is also a national concern, but it uses local dairies -- in Portland’s case, dairies in Washington state. The product I’m in love with is non-homogenized milk. It has a (very) thick layer of cream at the top.
I don't need all that cream, so I use a demitasse spoon to pull as much of the cream as I can out of the 1/2-gallon bottle, which is plastic and has a screw top. I put the cream in a jar and keep it in the freezer, adding more cream as I buy more milk.
When the jar gets full, I make butter using my food processor. Basically, I dump the cream in, add some water, and process. It takes no time at all (less than a minute), because there’s hardly any liquid in it. In fact, I have to add the water to make the mixture viscous enough to churn. There’s a Web page (link to webexhibits.org/butter/doityourself.html) that describes the general process, although it takes far less time to make butter with this concentrated cream than with the whipping cream used in the recipe there.
The result is like Plugra, or European-style butter. Because it has more fat and less water than conventional butter, it makes superior baked goods. And of course it tastes great. I divide the butter into 1/2-cup portions and freeze them.
Anyway, the remaining milk must still have some fat in it, because it tastes rich even after it's skimmed, it tastes like the milk you get in Ireland, very creamy and fresh.
I’ve bought it at Zupan’s and New Seasons, but the folks at New Seasons must make a point of shaking the bottles, because the one I bought there didn’t have the layer of cream.
If you don’t want to mess with the non-homogenized milk, Organic Valley sells homogenized milk with various fat contents in gallon jugs. Also, Alpenrose cows aren’t treated with BGH/BST, so you can buy that brand. Safeway has recently decided to ban BST from the milk that goes into its Lucerne dairy products. And Trader Joe’s has a pretty good organic milk that’s not ultrapasteurized, as well as conventional milk that is BGH-free.
I was fine with the Trader Joe's milk until I discovered the superior taste of the Organic Valley non-homo milk. Without a second thought, I jilted TJ's for my new love, and it's been a honeymoon ever since.
There are two brands of organic milk commonly available in supermarkets here in Portland -- Horizon and Organic Valley. Horizon is a mega-dairy based in the Midwest, and its products are usually ultrapasteurized, which creates a cooked taste I don’t like.
Organic Valley is also a national concern, but it uses local dairies -- in Portland’s case, dairies in Washington state. The product I’m in love with is non-homogenized milk. It has a (very) thick layer of cream at the top.
I don't need all that cream, so I use a demitasse spoon to pull as much of the cream as I can out of the 1/2-gallon bottle, which is plastic and has a screw top. I put the cream in a jar and keep it in the freezer, adding more cream as I buy more milk.
When the jar gets full, I make butter using my food processor. Basically, I dump the cream in, add some water, and process. It takes no time at all (less than a minute), because there’s hardly any liquid in it. In fact, I have to add the water to make the mixture viscous enough to churn. There’s a Web page (link to webexhibits.org/butter/doityourself.html) that describes the general process, although it takes far less time to make butter with this concentrated cream than with the whipping cream used in the recipe there.
The result is like Plugra, or European-style butter. Because it has more fat and less water than conventional butter, it makes superior baked goods. And of course it tastes great. I divide the butter into 1/2-cup portions and freeze them.
Anyway, the remaining milk must still have some fat in it, because it tastes rich even after it's skimmed, it tastes like the milk you get in Ireland, very creamy and fresh.
I’ve bought it at Zupan’s and New Seasons, but the folks at New Seasons must make a point of shaking the bottles, because the one I bought there didn’t have the layer of cream.
If you don’t want to mess with the non-homogenized milk, Organic Valley sells homogenized milk with various fat contents in gallon jugs. Also, Alpenrose cows aren’t treated with BGH/BST, so you can buy that brand. Safeway has recently decided to ban BST from the milk that goes into its Lucerne dairy products. And Trader Joe’s has a pretty good organic milk that’s not ultrapasteurized, as well as conventional milk that is BGH-free.
I was fine with the Trader Joe's milk until I discovered the superior taste of the Organic Valley non-homo milk. Without a second thought, I jilted TJ's for my new love, and it's been a honeymoon ever since.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Ambitious Dining 1997
What I ate in 1997
Wednesday, Jan 1: Lunch: reheated cabbage rolls. better after sitting (see last entries for 1996). Dinner at Pearl's: Bangers, bread pudding, potatoes with poppy seeds, sweet-sour cabbage. I contributed a pie of layered choco. and mint pudding in a chocolate cookie shell with whipped cream on the top.
Thursday: chicken quesadillas with the leftover chicken. Marvelous
Friday: quesadillas with cheese on onion only. also good. bit of refrieds.
Saturday, Jan 4: Tried Noah's in Hillsdale with Lyza, Ruslan, Maggie. OK. Lunch: snack of calamari at Portland Ale brewpub on Flanders. Good. So was the oatmeal stout, available only there, not in bottles. Dinner: chunky spaghetti sauce with lots of ground beef. Not my favorite, but I had a hunger for olives and mushrooms.
Sunday, Jan 5: Still using up the tortillas, with fresh chicken breasts, some fajitas. No cheese. still great -- oregano, paprika, olive oil, Cajun seasoning, chili powder and lemon juice in marinade. With green peppers and onion.
Monday, Jan 6: Still eating Bob's non-wheat 8-grain cereal cooked in the crock pot. Don't like it much, better when cut with Malt-o-Meal. Lunch: cabbage rolls, since I had to thaw some out for Lyza yesterday. Supposed to use sour cream. Dinner: thrown together yet it worked: chix breast with salt, pepper, lemon juice, basil in a sauce of chardonnay, cream, chix broth, chervil. Damn dandy. With quick risotto of chix broth (from that chix last week), basil, thyme and some of those garlic/sundried tomatoes in oil Ginger gave us for Christmas.
Tuesday: 5-minute meal, dynamite: flour tortilla with homemade refrieds and some of that frozen BBQ junk with sour cream, sliced jalapenos and hot sauce. I though I'd plotz.
Wednesday: Marvelous meal at Lake Grove Bistro. (I left M. at home with oxtails braised in the pressure cooker). Carlo kissed my hand. Three times! Peppercorn steak, just-right rare and crowned with a mountain of tender small onion rings. The potatoes were scalloped and there was a mound of tender-steamed spinach and some mashed sweet potato. All the tastes melded in a special whole. Jan Jordan had pasta with walnut cream sauce and ate all of it. I took most of mine home and M and I had it for dinner Thursday. Dessert was tiramisu, disappointingly swimming in some not very tasty sauce.
Thursday: Leftovers from Lake Grove.
Friday: Leftover ox tails. Biscuits.
Saturday: thawed some spaghetti sauce, extended it with tomatoes left over from the oxtails and some tomato sauce.
Sunday: church annual meeting; made salami sandwiches on rolls. Dinner: oven-fried chicken (a chance to use the Frank's hot sauce, which I adore) and oven fried potatoes and some good slaw with sour cream and chopped jalapenos.
Monday, Jan 13: Chicken quesadillas (M. requested cheese, but there was leftover chicken)
Tuesday: Maggie ate all the leftover potatoes before I got home. I had the last few pieces of chicken and we went out to Dairy Queen. I had a banana split and she had a peanut buster parfait. What can I say. We were in the mood.
Wednesday: Salami sandwich; Maggie ate early again.
Thursday: Spaghetti with that leftover tomato sauce. Soup with leftover chicken broth, chicken base, chopped fresh spinach and cream. wonderful. Bedtime snack of walnut halves and malmsey.
Thurs, Jan 23: Most memorable about last weekend: salad with chicken marinated in mustard, white wine and garlic, baked and sliced and served with a Caesar dressing; black-eyed peas with salt pork; salmon sautéed and served with mushroom-cream sauce and parsley potatoes and baby carrots, glazed. On Monday, Jan 20, Lisa Sarasohn and two boys came and we had lasagna from the freezer with white sauce added. Maggie made fudge and mint brownies to take to school for finals week. I seem to be subsisting lately on oatmeal and refried beans (waddle's AGAIN). Maybe we'll have turkey quesadillas tonight.
Thurs, Jan. 30: The car wreck threw us out of joint for food. Comfort food. Waffles and sausage; turkey crepes (turkey is too strong, but the mushrooms in the white sauce were good). Some salads and bread from at trip to Haggen.
Tues, dinner at Harborside, now the Pilsner Room. Not good. The black and blue ahi was old. Lyza said her chicken was very ordinary, although it allegedly was soaked in tamarind juice. But yesterday, Wednesday, a real winner: lentils with hot Italian sausage and onions over pasta. I had regular hot sausage and made it Italian by adding fennel seed and basil and oregano. The fennel was so fragrant. Boil the lentils while you saute the onions and then the sausage in some oil with the spices. Add to the lentils. It will all be done in about the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Wed. Feb 4: Weekend at Triangle Lake, eating big American meals. Sunday, after Baroque Festival, Thai Villa -- Tom Gah Kai and satay and sizzling shrimp. Lunch Monday at Higgins most excellent stuffed baguette with smoked turkey and duck and garlic aioli and a nice salad with odd greens. We ate leftovers for dinner at the ZooBoo planning meeting, then went on to see the Russians about a car and were given tea with sliced lemons and oranges and a plate of Russian chocolates that were very good. Wed lunch, old favorite salmon teriyaki rice with seaweed and shredded egg at Koji. Dinner with Maggie at Fernando's. Tapas: quail in chocolate sauce, roasted potatoes with hot dipping sauce, toasted bread with a thin slice of parmesan on top and shrimp-stuffed peppers. Arm of the Gypsy, a chocolate cake roll, for dessert. So relaxing.
Tues, Feb. 25: On Feb. 15, went to Indigene with Sarasohns and Foster Church. Seafood stew not too good, but the vege platter was -- many tastes, cool to spicy, and textures, from stiff to soft. I had chicken with rosemary and garlic under the skin. Really good, too. Took an extra dessert home to Maggie, some meringue with chocolate and whipped cream.
Feb. 18, lunch with Pearl at Hands On. Roasted veggies, a good combination of flavors, with herbed aioli. Worked well. Pearl had a turkey sandwich. Hum. Feb. 19, lunch at Toulouse, where Betty didn't turn up. Wild mushroom soup had a gorgeous base, but was only lukewarm. Olive bread. "Caesar" salad had lettuce with brown edges. Feb. 20, lunch at Bima, where the combination of the pork loin sandwich and David's shrimp skewer and rice was swell. By themselves, the dishes were ordinary. The shrimp had a good mayonnaise-like sauce, but no hint of the coconut promised on the menu.
Things I made on vacation, week of Feb. 23: Breakfast squares (Foodday), some whole-wheat oatmeal bread that came out perfect, molasses-bran muffins, adobo with pork sted chicken (a success) and pilau, which Maggie likes. Cleaned out the spice cabinet and made chili with a mix and also some jambalaya with both chicken and sausage. That was a winner. It's hard to list dinners because we eat so many leftovers.
March 5: Lately, pearl in hospital, just grabbing food. Jambalaya and chili leftovers; the rest of the hot Hillshire farms sausage, which I didn't like much. Saturday (march 1), Maggie gone, I had a big salad with a dressing including some of the Japanese plum vinegar. It needed lemon to broaden it out. With some bread, all I needed for dinner.
Sunday, tried some of Andy Mershon's BBQ sauce on some sliced pork which I baked. Very good, a little hot, a little sweet, with mid notes so often lacking in other sauces. with baked beans and potatoes mashed with turnips.
Monday night, the potato-turnip leftovers went into the Cuisinart with some sorrel chiffonade that had been lightly sauteed in butter. A few drops of cream and some home-made chicken broth from the freezer and boy was it good. I made some croutons from this bread I took to Pearl but she didn't like, and they were marvelous on top. We had some cherry yogurt from Brown Cow, but it tasted like cough syrup and was not a success.
Still snacking on the home-made breakfast bars from the freezer. I like them more now.
Tuesday, sauteed some pork until it was crunchy carne asada (no spices, just salt), then folded into warmed flour tortillas with sour cream, guacamole (which M. surprised me by wanting to have; I thought she didn't like it), hot sauce. MMM ... forgot the onions but didn't miss them till just this minute... They were very, very good. We had some carrots with them that didn't cook long enough, so that was a wash.
Wed: crepes with strawberry-rhubarb sauce
Thurs: No dinner cause of Sound of Music practice. Went right from work. Had a bowl of cereal or something when I got home.
Friday, march 7: Cathy was here. Marinated olives* and the artichoke dip* that won third place in the recipe contest. The other artichoke dip I made in January was better. Lunch (I was home cleaning), leftover crepes and strawberry sauce. Dinner at Pearl's: angel hair pasta with 6-8 sundried tomatoes plumped in hot Chardonnay chopped with 5-6 cloves roasted garlic. Include the soaking liquid and cream in the sauce. Cathy liked it a lot. Mesclun mix.
Sat, mar 8: Yogurt waffles don't get very crisp if you forget the butter. Market Street pub: first beef for Cathy in 2 years. really good burgers and the beer sampler. Coffee: Steen's, where a young woman was noodling on the piano. Dinner (Cathy went to Pearl's): salad with a dressing of veg oil, cider vinegar, tarragon, cloves and salt. Toasted rosemary baquette, artichoke dip and olives.
Mon, mar 10: hash browns, sunny-side-up eggs and some roasted red peppers and eggplant with Parmesan cheese. No one was nuts about the eggplant.
Tues, Mar 11: Desperation dinner of bacon and biscuits, but the bacon (from the freezer!) was old and had to be tossed. It was really more like tea. We are snacking on a salad mix and making lunch sandwiches with cheese, sun-dried tomatoes with roasted garlic, sliced yellow peppers, green onions, salad mix -- that sorta stuff.
A superior lunch at Montage Tuesday. Chicken with some sort of hot herb stuff on it that didn't get into the way of the meat but was real hot. It tasted good with the limas and corn and I don't even like limas. I had rice. D. had dirty rice with his Cajun blackened (charred) oysters, and that was OK, too.
Maggie made some of that easy toffee, but she took it all to school.
Wed, Mar. 12: Maggie not home till late from model UN. I tried making a posset by heating milk and eggs to 160. It was like a wonderful, creamy custard that you could drink.
Tues. March 24. Not too much. Lenten fare, often just oatmeal or bread or potato. Last week, a nice treatment of a pork steak, baked with garlic powder and basil, then drizzled with lemon juice. Leftover chili from the freezer. A stew of pork and chicken using up leftover cut up veggies from a school function that didn't work. A really fine lunch at Obi, where the standout was the salmon skin roll. They brought us some grilled salmon that wasn't on the menu, probably because it was David. Maggie continues to like veggie-cheese sandwiches.
For Academy awards, made the spicy chicken wings* and killer noodle salad* that won the contest. Also cream cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic (I'm still only halfway thru that bottle), guacamole, some fresh-baked bread, veggies and rocky road brownies from Gourmet with chunks of bittersweet chocolate in the topping. Wow. But the party was a semi-bust.
Wed, March 25
lunch yesterday a cream of mushroom soup at Market Street Pub. huge 1-inch-square chunks of mushroom, must have been portobello. Intriguing hint of thyme in the broth.
April 24, 1997
It's really been a long time... Easter was a disaster. Made an angel cake, though, with strawberries and whipped cream. That was OK.
Restaurants: Salvadore Molly's, spendy but worth it. Lyza's jerk chicken was tasty and just fiery enough. I had calamari appetizer, which was pretty good and had a chance to put all sorts of sauces on it. Especially interested in Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce, since we had put nearly half a bottle in Pasta From Hell*, which I made as a test for a story on hot sauce on the Internet. It had bananas with pineapple, orange and lime juice. It was good but really too hot to eat. Could be improved with less hot sauce.
Fiddleheads: another real find. Lyza had french toast with ham and farmers cheese, I had a chile bean soup and Ruslan had some kinda saucy chicken tacos I can't quite recall. Good atmosphere
Esparza's: I like it better each time. David had soft tacos with big hunks of bbq beef in them. I had roasted lamb enchiladas that were remarkable.
Il Piatti: A restaurant and coffee house combo, warmly decorated. Outstanding was the appetizer of thin toast smeared with chicken liver something.
Koji with Maggie, where I got her to eat raw tuna in a spicy tuna roll. Also salmon skin roll (obi's is better) and some ebi nigiri.
March 28: Some notes indicate this was the banner day I made the Puree of rutabaga with crispy shallots*. Oh, was it fine. Served with roasted red peppers and onion. Filling and satisfying.
March 29, Good Friday. no fat. mostly ate milk and homemade bread. Lentils with onions for dinner. Curiously satisfying, too.
March 31, Monday: I made a quick sweet and sour pork with brown rice, using bottled sweet and sour sauce. It was a hit.
April 1, Tuesday: Big lunch at Higgins: duck, chicken, rabbit stew over cheese polenta. Good.
...
April 20, Sunday: Roasted lamb. Leftovers made these great sandwiches with sliced red onion and some salad mix greens. Had that for one dinner and another lunch.
April 23, wed. Bunches of food at the office. Land o' Lakes brings in two butters: maple-roasted onion and chive-cilantro. Both very good with their cornbread. There's leftover cake (carrot) from the Stickel lunch tuesday. Thin lemon cookies made by SOM. Ohio Lemon Pie* which didn't work for a reader but was ok when Linda did it. Very tart; the curdly eggs weren't attractive, though. Dinner is all veggie-fruit. Waldorf salad with dried cranberries. Steamed broccoli with soy-broth-olive oil sauce and some roasted sunflower seeds. Late night snack of brown rice, plum vinegar and shredded pink ginger.
April 24. Lunch with Jan at Koji. She has roasted eggplant bento; I have tofu steak. Satisfying.
May 5. Still trying to keep up with it all. Saturday, cooked all day. Big pot of greens from Big City Produce. Spanish rice and baked beans in the oven. Sunday, game hen blackened with molasses-soy marinade, with baked potato and steamed artichoke. Last week, hardly any meat. Some poached salmon seemed lit the afterthought with those mashies with crispy shallots and broccoli with soy sauce and vinegar, not to mentioned some sauteed mushrooms. A few more good meals at Salvador Mollie's.
Mother's Day: dull lunch at Il Fornaio, but great desserts -- stout chocolate cake and coconut cake -- at B. Moloch. Went back a few days later with Jan Jordan and had two other great desserts, a cheesecake and a very very creamy lemon whatever it is if you have a brulee without browning it. Oh, it was good. Before that, we went to Portland Brewing way over by Montgomery Park. I had a black and blue salad which was filled with overdone cow. I took it home and gave the leftovers to the cats.
On vacation, I made great sandwiches starting with a spread of cream cheese, mayo and chopped green onion. It made great veggie sandwiches with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, mesclun, sometimes avocado. Needed salt and pepper.
May 25: a good soup of mushrooms and sorrel (a bit of sherry, a bit more cream), to go with the corn and pepper salad with grilled shrimp from the May gourmet. It was great -- the kicker was the boursin cheese. the dressing, made red with carrot and red bell pepper, was slightly spicy, slightly sweet.
May 26: game hen soaked with soy, ginger, lime and broiled. It was ok, but made very boring sandwiches after those great veggie models.
Making smoothies with fruit (peaches, mangoes, bananas are favorites) and milk or perhaps sparkling water and Morning Blend juice for breakfast many mornings.
June 3. Dinner last night: strawberry-rhubarb betty, baked potatoes restuffed with sour cream and green onions and rebaked with cheddar, mesclun salad with dried cranberries and boursin. Walnut-oil and garlic dressing with cider vinegar. I just don't like walnut oil much.
Dinner June 1: A really good chili from the crock pot: beef, canned chopped tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, chopped jalapeno, onion, garlic, chopped green pepper. The secret was in the jalapeno; it added intense depth.
June 18:
One really, really good quick after-work snack-meal: At Koji's on Macadam, three great rolls -- spicy tuna, salmon skin and plum-mint, plus a cold sake that was so cold the bottle was ice. It poured slushy. All the tastes went together in a truly spectacular manner -- edge of the sea, smack of brine, sour plum and grassy sprouts, hot pepper and wasabi, crackly skin and smooth flesh, rice and rice wine.
I made a rhubarb goo that was really good. Added cling peach, chopped, for crunchy texture, and chopped in some ginger. I couldn't really differentiate the ginger, but Maggie could. I just thought it tasted really good, deep and balanced and a bit exotic.
I've found that the Grand Central baguette is just fine with honey, no butter. The honey has sat long enough that it's thick and grainy.
I live for Murchie's Russian Caravan tea -- it has a smoky background that tastes like the pictures in Tea in the East.
We tried some Copper River salmon steaks. They were deep red in color (it's coho, I think). Much more flavorful than the salmon I caught last September. I marinated them in lime juice, olive oil and a bit of vodka (out of vermouth) and just grilled them on the grill pan. I made some simple tartar sauce; it was elevated by the addition of Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce.
There was fruit and fruit and fruit: strawberries, apricots, mangoes, bananas, peaches and raspberries and melon. I make smoothies almost every day for breakfast.
David and I ate at the Tiger Bar. Food was good, but the chicken on my skewer was so bad I thought it was the sauce. I wouldn't let David finish it.
Dinner with David and Jill Thompson and her boyfriend Rick at Hall Street. Starters: chicken quesadillas, crunchy and sweet under a swirl of mango sauce, and smoky grilled asparagus that was far better than I expected. I had a fine prime rib, perhaps the best I've had. Rick's pork chop was nothing special. Everyone loved Jill's crab cakes; I though David would find them too salty, but he liked them, too. I can't remember what David had, but I ate as much of the burned cream as I could get away with. Jill said she had had a better one recently, then couldn't remember where.
July 3: A really fine lunch at Toulouse. Salmon and sole medallions with a sweet orange sauce that had lots of depth and was not too sweet. Maggie had a risotto with smoked gouda and asparagus that she liked a lot but I thought was way rich. Betty had a lamb sandwich with tzatziki.
Earlier, tried the recipe from Gourmet for Pasta with Chard. Fettucini, chard, toasted walnuts, gorgonzola, cream. It was OK, but the chard chunks were too big. Also did a big Southwest something salad from Gourmet. It had Tomatillo-Tequila dressing, roasted corn, peppers, mesclun, black beans, fried flour tortilla on the bottom, goat cheese and fried strips of corn tortilla on top.
Discovered the very best brownie recipe. It's in Maida Heatter.
July 7: A weekend by myself trying new things. I marinated some crosscut ribs (thin slices across the ribs) in two sauces: hoisin and Dijon mustard and oyster with jalapeno, lime juice and orange marmalade. Both were excellent. I also made some barley and ate it plain and with Japanese pickled plums (tiny whole ones that are mostly pit) and also had some underneath a fry of chicken livers and salt pork. I made raspberry muffins with Malt-O-Meal (still good days later) and roasted corn on the grill with the ribs. I had tomatoes and cucumber, red onion and feta in wine vinegar and olive oil with olive bread on the side, spread with anchovy-garlic butter. I had Eggo waffles and homemade apricot nectar at Pearl's and tried some raw kohlrabi, which I did not particularly like. I made some Texas Caviar using black beans sted black-eyed peas (with onions and a vinaigrette-like dressing, with a hint of Tabasco).
August 5, 1997
OK, it's been a while. For a long time, I didn't cook much. That was then.
Aug.1, dinner at Trio in NE Port with David and Karen Pate. Zucchini-coconut soup was like the zucchini soup with curry I had made the day before, but with a hint of coconut. Appetizers included some shrimp on skewers, portobello mushrooms and gorgonzola on bruschetta. The best was stuffed poblano with roasted garlic sauce. Lamb chops with a sort of cake of eggplant that was very nice. Ribeye steak with a butter that had pink-purple shallot butter -- tasted great. Poussin -- well, it was a chicken. Fine, fine Cooper Mtn. 1996 pinot gris. Dessert was a sliced banana and custard sauce over a piece of shortbread and with sugar bruleed on top. I didn't want top share.
I tried another custard sauce at home, serving it with nectarines and banana. We've also had, in the last week, some very nice salads from the garden-- just lettuce and tomatoes and herbs with some cheese added. Maggie noticed what a difference freshness makes. We had soup made of zucchini, and ratatouille (I used basil and it had a very funny smell. None of my garden basil tastes very good this year at all). I also made a chocolate-chip zucchini cake. We had lamb from the farmers market roasted with garlic and oregano and lemon. Maggie ate the roasted tomatoes with parmesan that went with it. The recipe for yogurt potatoes with mint from The New Vegetarian Epicure was fantastic. I made the plum upside-down cake from The Oregonian. Looked spectacular. Last night I threw together a cobbler to use up the nectarines I had bought for a tart I couldn't make cause I didn't have any sour cream.
September 22, 1997
A weekend of cooking out of Gourmet. Mango Cucumber Salsa was so good I made it twice and passed the recipe around work. With that we had seared sea scallops and a wonderful salad of purple potatoes, sugar snap peas and mint.
The next night we had stuffed chicken breasts, only I thawed out thighs by mistake. THe stuffing was prosciutto smeared with mustard, topped with basil leaves and mozzarella and rolled up. With it we had roast vegetables I had brushed with olive oil with paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper, basil and oregano. The combination on the sweet orange winter squash was outstanding.
Also this weekend, I made an apple crisp (fresh apples) and bourbon pancakes, only I had to use Irish whisky, being out of bourbon.
A good restaurant meal I had several times lately at Heathman Bakery was chipotle marinated goat cheese served with salsa and lamb carnitas and blue corn tortillas.
I made pesto last week with walnuts (from Winnie and Harold Hughes's) lightly toasted. Also chili in the pressure cooker, which didn't entirely work because I put in too much liquid.
And that seems to be it for 1997. I kept eating; I just stopped writing it down.
Wednesday, Jan 1: Lunch: reheated cabbage rolls. better after sitting (see last entries for 1996). Dinner at Pearl's: Bangers, bread pudding, potatoes with poppy seeds, sweet-sour cabbage. I contributed a pie of layered choco. and mint pudding in a chocolate cookie shell with whipped cream on the top.
Thursday: chicken quesadillas with the leftover chicken. Marvelous
Friday: quesadillas with cheese on onion only. also good. bit of refrieds.
Saturday, Jan 4: Tried Noah's in Hillsdale with Lyza, Ruslan, Maggie. OK. Lunch: snack of calamari at Portland Ale brewpub on Flanders. Good. So was the oatmeal stout, available only there, not in bottles. Dinner: chunky spaghetti sauce with lots of ground beef. Not my favorite, but I had a hunger for olives and mushrooms.
Sunday, Jan 5: Still using up the tortillas, with fresh chicken breasts, some fajitas. No cheese. still great -- oregano, paprika, olive oil, Cajun seasoning, chili powder and lemon juice in marinade. With green peppers and onion.
Monday, Jan 6: Still eating Bob's non-wheat 8-grain cereal cooked in the crock pot. Don't like it much, better when cut with Malt-o-Meal. Lunch: cabbage rolls, since I had to thaw some out for Lyza yesterday. Supposed to use sour cream. Dinner: thrown together yet it worked: chix breast with salt, pepper, lemon juice, basil in a sauce of chardonnay, cream, chix broth, chervil. Damn dandy. With quick risotto of chix broth (from that chix last week), basil, thyme and some of those garlic/sundried tomatoes in oil Ginger gave us for Christmas.
Tuesday: 5-minute meal, dynamite: flour tortilla with homemade refrieds and some of that frozen BBQ junk with sour cream, sliced jalapenos and hot sauce. I though I'd plotz.
Wednesday: Marvelous meal at Lake Grove Bistro. (I left M. at home with oxtails braised in the pressure cooker). Carlo kissed my hand. Three times! Peppercorn steak, just-right rare and crowned with a mountain of tender small onion rings. The potatoes were scalloped and there was a mound of tender-steamed spinach and some mashed sweet potato. All the tastes melded in a special whole. Jan Jordan had pasta with walnut cream sauce and ate all of it. I took most of mine home and M and I had it for dinner Thursday. Dessert was tiramisu, disappointingly swimming in some not very tasty sauce.
Thursday: Leftovers from Lake Grove.
Friday: Leftover ox tails. Biscuits.
Saturday: thawed some spaghetti sauce, extended it with tomatoes left over from the oxtails and some tomato sauce.
Sunday: church annual meeting; made salami sandwiches on rolls. Dinner: oven-fried chicken (a chance to use the Frank's hot sauce, which I adore) and oven fried potatoes and some good slaw with sour cream and chopped jalapenos.
Monday, Jan 13: Chicken quesadillas (M. requested cheese, but there was leftover chicken)
Tuesday: Maggie ate all the leftover potatoes before I got home. I had the last few pieces of chicken and we went out to Dairy Queen. I had a banana split and she had a peanut buster parfait. What can I say. We were in the mood.
Wednesday: Salami sandwich; Maggie ate early again.
Thursday: Spaghetti with that leftover tomato sauce. Soup with leftover chicken broth, chicken base, chopped fresh spinach and cream. wonderful. Bedtime snack of walnut halves and malmsey.
Thurs, Jan 23: Most memorable about last weekend: salad with chicken marinated in mustard, white wine and garlic, baked and sliced and served with a Caesar dressing; black-eyed peas with salt pork; salmon sautéed and served with mushroom-cream sauce and parsley potatoes and baby carrots, glazed. On Monday, Jan 20, Lisa Sarasohn and two boys came and we had lasagna from the freezer with white sauce added. Maggie made fudge and mint brownies to take to school for finals week. I seem to be subsisting lately on oatmeal and refried beans (waddle's AGAIN). Maybe we'll have turkey quesadillas tonight.
Thurs, Jan. 30: The car wreck threw us out of joint for food. Comfort food. Waffles and sausage; turkey crepes (turkey is too strong, but the mushrooms in the white sauce were good). Some salads and bread from at trip to Haggen.
Tues, dinner at Harborside, now the Pilsner Room. Not good. The black and blue ahi was old. Lyza said her chicken was very ordinary, although it allegedly was soaked in tamarind juice. But yesterday, Wednesday, a real winner: lentils with hot Italian sausage and onions over pasta. I had regular hot sausage and made it Italian by adding fennel seed and basil and oregano. The fennel was so fragrant. Boil the lentils while you saute the onions and then the sausage in some oil with the spices. Add to the lentils. It will all be done in about the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Wed. Feb 4: Weekend at Triangle Lake, eating big American meals. Sunday, after Baroque Festival, Thai Villa -- Tom Gah Kai and satay and sizzling shrimp. Lunch Monday at Higgins most excellent stuffed baguette with smoked turkey and duck and garlic aioli and a nice salad with odd greens. We ate leftovers for dinner at the ZooBoo planning meeting, then went on to see the Russians about a car and were given tea with sliced lemons and oranges and a plate of Russian chocolates that were very good. Wed lunch, old favorite salmon teriyaki rice with seaweed and shredded egg at Koji. Dinner with Maggie at Fernando's. Tapas: quail in chocolate sauce, roasted potatoes with hot dipping sauce, toasted bread with a thin slice of parmesan on top and shrimp-stuffed peppers. Arm of the Gypsy, a chocolate cake roll, for dessert. So relaxing.
Tues, Feb. 25: On Feb. 15, went to Indigene with Sarasohns and Foster Church. Seafood stew not too good, but the vege platter was -- many tastes, cool to spicy, and textures, from stiff to soft. I had chicken with rosemary and garlic under the skin. Really good, too. Took an extra dessert home to Maggie, some meringue with chocolate and whipped cream.
Feb. 18, lunch with Pearl at Hands On. Roasted veggies, a good combination of flavors, with herbed aioli. Worked well. Pearl had a turkey sandwich. Hum. Feb. 19, lunch at Toulouse, where Betty didn't turn up. Wild mushroom soup had a gorgeous base, but was only lukewarm. Olive bread. "Caesar" salad had lettuce with brown edges. Feb. 20, lunch at Bima, where the combination of the pork loin sandwich and David's shrimp skewer and rice was swell. By themselves, the dishes were ordinary. The shrimp had a good mayonnaise-like sauce, but no hint of the coconut promised on the menu.
Things I made on vacation, week of Feb. 23: Breakfast squares (Foodday), some whole-wheat oatmeal bread that came out perfect, molasses-bran muffins, adobo with pork sted chicken (a success) and pilau, which Maggie likes. Cleaned out the spice cabinet and made chili with a mix and also some jambalaya with both chicken and sausage. That was a winner. It's hard to list dinners because we eat so many leftovers.
March 5: Lately, pearl in hospital, just grabbing food. Jambalaya and chili leftovers; the rest of the hot Hillshire farms sausage, which I didn't like much. Saturday (march 1), Maggie gone, I had a big salad with a dressing including some of the Japanese plum vinegar. It needed lemon to broaden it out. With some bread, all I needed for dinner.
Sunday, tried some of Andy Mershon's BBQ sauce on some sliced pork which I baked. Very good, a little hot, a little sweet, with mid notes so often lacking in other sauces. with baked beans and potatoes mashed with turnips.
Monday night, the potato-turnip leftovers went into the Cuisinart with some sorrel chiffonade that had been lightly sauteed in butter. A few drops of cream and some home-made chicken broth from the freezer and boy was it good. I made some croutons from this bread I took to Pearl but she didn't like, and they were marvelous on top. We had some cherry yogurt from Brown Cow, but it tasted like cough syrup and was not a success.
Still snacking on the home-made breakfast bars from the freezer. I like them more now.
Tuesday, sauteed some pork until it was crunchy carne asada (no spices, just salt), then folded into warmed flour tortillas with sour cream, guacamole (which M. surprised me by wanting to have; I thought she didn't like it), hot sauce. MMM ... forgot the onions but didn't miss them till just this minute... They were very, very good. We had some carrots with them that didn't cook long enough, so that was a wash.
Wed: crepes with strawberry-rhubarb sauce
Thurs: No dinner cause of Sound of Music practice. Went right from work. Had a bowl of cereal or something when I got home.
Friday, march 7: Cathy was here. Marinated olives* and the artichoke dip* that won third place in the recipe contest. The other artichoke dip I made in January was better. Lunch (I was home cleaning), leftover crepes and strawberry sauce. Dinner at Pearl's: angel hair pasta with 6-8 sundried tomatoes plumped in hot Chardonnay chopped with 5-6 cloves roasted garlic. Include the soaking liquid and cream in the sauce. Cathy liked it a lot. Mesclun mix.
Sat, mar 8: Yogurt waffles don't get very crisp if you forget the butter. Market Street pub: first beef for Cathy in 2 years. really good burgers and the beer sampler. Coffee: Steen's, where a young woman was noodling on the piano. Dinner (Cathy went to Pearl's): salad with a dressing of veg oil, cider vinegar, tarragon, cloves and salt. Toasted rosemary baquette, artichoke dip and olives.
Mon, mar 10: hash browns, sunny-side-up eggs and some roasted red peppers and eggplant with Parmesan cheese. No one was nuts about the eggplant.
Tues, Mar 11: Desperation dinner of bacon and biscuits, but the bacon (from the freezer!) was old and had to be tossed. It was really more like tea. We are snacking on a salad mix and making lunch sandwiches with cheese, sun-dried tomatoes with roasted garlic, sliced yellow peppers, green onions, salad mix -- that sorta stuff.
A superior lunch at Montage Tuesday. Chicken with some sort of hot herb stuff on it that didn't get into the way of the meat but was real hot. It tasted good with the limas and corn and I don't even like limas. I had rice. D. had dirty rice with his Cajun blackened (charred) oysters, and that was OK, too.
Maggie made some of that easy toffee, but she took it all to school.
Wed, Mar. 12: Maggie not home till late from model UN. I tried making a posset by heating milk and eggs to 160. It was like a wonderful, creamy custard that you could drink.
Tues. March 24. Not too much. Lenten fare, often just oatmeal or bread or potato. Last week, a nice treatment of a pork steak, baked with garlic powder and basil, then drizzled with lemon juice. Leftover chili from the freezer. A stew of pork and chicken using up leftover cut up veggies from a school function that didn't work. A really fine lunch at Obi, where the standout was the salmon skin roll. They brought us some grilled salmon that wasn't on the menu, probably because it was David. Maggie continues to like veggie-cheese sandwiches.
For Academy awards, made the spicy chicken wings* and killer noodle salad* that won the contest. Also cream cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic (I'm still only halfway thru that bottle), guacamole, some fresh-baked bread, veggies and rocky road brownies from Gourmet with chunks of bittersweet chocolate in the topping. Wow. But the party was a semi-bust.
Wed, March 25
lunch yesterday a cream of mushroom soup at Market Street Pub. huge 1-inch-square chunks of mushroom, must have been portobello. Intriguing hint of thyme in the broth.
April 24, 1997
It's really been a long time... Easter was a disaster. Made an angel cake, though, with strawberries and whipped cream. That was OK.
Restaurants: Salvadore Molly's, spendy but worth it. Lyza's jerk chicken was tasty and just fiery enough. I had calamari appetizer, which was pretty good and had a chance to put all sorts of sauces on it. Especially interested in Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce, since we had put nearly half a bottle in Pasta From Hell*, which I made as a test for a story on hot sauce on the Internet. It had bananas with pineapple, orange and lime juice. It was good but really too hot to eat. Could be improved with less hot sauce.
Fiddleheads: another real find. Lyza had french toast with ham and farmers cheese, I had a chile bean soup and Ruslan had some kinda saucy chicken tacos I can't quite recall. Good atmosphere
Esparza's: I like it better each time. David had soft tacos with big hunks of bbq beef in them. I had roasted lamb enchiladas that were remarkable.
Il Piatti: A restaurant and coffee house combo, warmly decorated. Outstanding was the appetizer of thin toast smeared with chicken liver something.
Koji with Maggie, where I got her to eat raw tuna in a spicy tuna roll. Also salmon skin roll (obi's is better) and some ebi nigiri.
March 28: Some notes indicate this was the banner day I made the Puree of rutabaga with crispy shallots*. Oh, was it fine. Served with roasted red peppers and onion. Filling and satisfying.
March 29, Good Friday. no fat. mostly ate milk and homemade bread. Lentils with onions for dinner. Curiously satisfying, too.
March 31, Monday: I made a quick sweet and sour pork with brown rice, using bottled sweet and sour sauce. It was a hit.
April 1, Tuesday: Big lunch at Higgins: duck, chicken, rabbit stew over cheese polenta. Good.
...
April 20, Sunday: Roasted lamb. Leftovers made these great sandwiches with sliced red onion and some salad mix greens. Had that for one dinner and another lunch.
April 23, wed. Bunches of food at the office. Land o' Lakes brings in two butters: maple-roasted onion and chive-cilantro. Both very good with their cornbread. There's leftover cake (carrot) from the Stickel lunch tuesday. Thin lemon cookies made by SOM. Ohio Lemon Pie* which didn't work for a reader but was ok when Linda did it. Very tart; the curdly eggs weren't attractive, though. Dinner is all veggie-fruit. Waldorf salad with dried cranberries. Steamed broccoli with soy-broth-olive oil sauce and some roasted sunflower seeds. Late night snack of brown rice, plum vinegar and shredded pink ginger.
April 24. Lunch with Jan at Koji. She has roasted eggplant bento; I have tofu steak. Satisfying.
May 5. Still trying to keep up with it all. Saturday, cooked all day. Big pot of greens from Big City Produce. Spanish rice and baked beans in the oven. Sunday, game hen blackened with molasses-soy marinade, with baked potato and steamed artichoke. Last week, hardly any meat. Some poached salmon seemed lit the afterthought with those mashies with crispy shallots and broccoli with soy sauce and vinegar, not to mentioned some sauteed mushrooms. A few more good meals at Salvador Mollie's.
Mother's Day: dull lunch at Il Fornaio, but great desserts -- stout chocolate cake and coconut cake -- at B. Moloch. Went back a few days later with Jan Jordan and had two other great desserts, a cheesecake and a very very creamy lemon whatever it is if you have a brulee without browning it. Oh, it was good. Before that, we went to Portland Brewing way over by Montgomery Park. I had a black and blue salad which was filled with overdone cow. I took it home and gave the leftovers to the cats.
On vacation, I made great sandwiches starting with a spread of cream cheese, mayo and chopped green onion. It made great veggie sandwiches with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, mesclun, sometimes avocado. Needed salt and pepper.
May 25: a good soup of mushrooms and sorrel (a bit of sherry, a bit more cream), to go with the corn and pepper salad with grilled shrimp from the May gourmet. It was great -- the kicker was the boursin cheese. the dressing, made red with carrot and red bell pepper, was slightly spicy, slightly sweet.
May 26: game hen soaked with soy, ginger, lime and broiled. It was ok, but made very boring sandwiches after those great veggie models.
Making smoothies with fruit (peaches, mangoes, bananas are favorites) and milk or perhaps sparkling water and Morning Blend juice for breakfast many mornings.
June 3. Dinner last night: strawberry-rhubarb betty, baked potatoes restuffed with sour cream and green onions and rebaked with cheddar, mesclun salad with dried cranberries and boursin. Walnut-oil and garlic dressing with cider vinegar. I just don't like walnut oil much.
Dinner June 1: A really good chili from the crock pot: beef, canned chopped tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, chopped jalapeno, onion, garlic, chopped green pepper. The secret was in the jalapeno; it added intense depth.
June 18:
One really, really good quick after-work snack-meal: At Koji's on Macadam, three great rolls -- spicy tuna, salmon skin and plum-mint, plus a cold sake that was so cold the bottle was ice. It poured slushy. All the tastes went together in a truly spectacular manner -- edge of the sea, smack of brine, sour plum and grassy sprouts, hot pepper and wasabi, crackly skin and smooth flesh, rice and rice wine.
I made a rhubarb goo that was really good. Added cling peach, chopped, for crunchy texture, and chopped in some ginger. I couldn't really differentiate the ginger, but Maggie could. I just thought it tasted really good, deep and balanced and a bit exotic.
I've found that the Grand Central baguette is just fine with honey, no butter. The honey has sat long enough that it's thick and grainy.
I live for Murchie's Russian Caravan tea -- it has a smoky background that tastes like the pictures in Tea in the East.
We tried some Copper River salmon steaks. They were deep red in color (it's coho, I think). Much more flavorful than the salmon I caught last September. I marinated them in lime juice, olive oil and a bit of vodka (out of vermouth) and just grilled them on the grill pan. I made some simple tartar sauce; it was elevated by the addition of Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce.
There was fruit and fruit and fruit: strawberries, apricots, mangoes, bananas, peaches and raspberries and melon. I make smoothies almost every day for breakfast.
David and I ate at the Tiger Bar. Food was good, but the chicken on my skewer was so bad I thought it was the sauce. I wouldn't let David finish it.
Dinner with David and Jill Thompson and her boyfriend Rick at Hall Street. Starters: chicken quesadillas, crunchy and sweet under a swirl of mango sauce, and smoky grilled asparagus that was far better than I expected. I had a fine prime rib, perhaps the best I've had. Rick's pork chop was nothing special. Everyone loved Jill's crab cakes; I though David would find them too salty, but he liked them, too. I can't remember what David had, but I ate as much of the burned cream as I could get away with. Jill said she had had a better one recently, then couldn't remember where.
July 3: A really fine lunch at Toulouse. Salmon and sole medallions with a sweet orange sauce that had lots of depth and was not too sweet. Maggie had a risotto with smoked gouda and asparagus that she liked a lot but I thought was way rich. Betty had a lamb sandwich with tzatziki.
Earlier, tried the recipe from Gourmet for Pasta with Chard. Fettucini, chard, toasted walnuts, gorgonzola, cream. It was OK, but the chard chunks were too big. Also did a big Southwest something salad from Gourmet. It had Tomatillo-Tequila dressing, roasted corn, peppers, mesclun, black beans, fried flour tortilla on the bottom, goat cheese and fried strips of corn tortilla on top.
Discovered the very best brownie recipe. It's in Maida Heatter.
July 7: A weekend by myself trying new things. I marinated some crosscut ribs (thin slices across the ribs) in two sauces: hoisin and Dijon mustard and oyster with jalapeno, lime juice and orange marmalade. Both were excellent. I also made some barley and ate it plain and with Japanese pickled plums (tiny whole ones that are mostly pit) and also had some underneath a fry of chicken livers and salt pork. I made raspberry muffins with Malt-O-Meal (still good days later) and roasted corn on the grill with the ribs. I had tomatoes and cucumber, red onion and feta in wine vinegar and olive oil with olive bread on the side, spread with anchovy-garlic butter. I had Eggo waffles and homemade apricot nectar at Pearl's and tried some raw kohlrabi, which I did not particularly like. I made some Texas Caviar using black beans sted black-eyed peas (with onions and a vinaigrette-like dressing, with a hint of Tabasco).
August 5, 1997
OK, it's been a while. For a long time, I didn't cook much. That was then.
Aug.1, dinner at Trio in NE Port with David and Karen Pate. Zucchini-coconut soup was like the zucchini soup with curry I had made the day before, but with a hint of coconut. Appetizers included some shrimp on skewers, portobello mushrooms and gorgonzola on bruschetta. The best was stuffed poblano with roasted garlic sauce. Lamb chops with a sort of cake of eggplant that was very nice. Ribeye steak with a butter that had pink-purple shallot butter -- tasted great. Poussin -- well, it was a chicken. Fine, fine Cooper Mtn. 1996 pinot gris. Dessert was a sliced banana and custard sauce over a piece of shortbread and with sugar bruleed on top. I didn't want top share.
I tried another custard sauce at home, serving it with nectarines and banana. We've also had, in the last week, some very nice salads from the garden-- just lettuce and tomatoes and herbs with some cheese added. Maggie noticed what a difference freshness makes. We had soup made of zucchini, and ratatouille (I used basil and it had a very funny smell. None of my garden basil tastes very good this year at all). I also made a chocolate-chip zucchini cake. We had lamb from the farmers market roasted with garlic and oregano and lemon. Maggie ate the roasted tomatoes with parmesan that went with it. The recipe for yogurt potatoes with mint from The New Vegetarian Epicure was fantastic. I made the plum upside-down cake from The Oregonian. Looked spectacular. Last night I threw together a cobbler to use up the nectarines I had bought for a tart I couldn't make cause I didn't have any sour cream.
September 22, 1997
A weekend of cooking out of Gourmet. Mango Cucumber Salsa was so good I made it twice and passed the recipe around work. With that we had seared sea scallops and a wonderful salad of purple potatoes, sugar snap peas and mint.
The next night we had stuffed chicken breasts, only I thawed out thighs by mistake. THe stuffing was prosciutto smeared with mustard, topped with basil leaves and mozzarella and rolled up. With it we had roast vegetables I had brushed with olive oil with paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper, basil and oregano. The combination on the sweet orange winter squash was outstanding.
Also this weekend, I made an apple crisp (fresh apples) and bourbon pancakes, only I had to use Irish whisky, being out of bourbon.
A good restaurant meal I had several times lately at Heathman Bakery was chipotle marinated goat cheese served with salsa and lamb carnitas and blue corn tortillas.
I made pesto last week with walnuts (from Winnie and Harold Hughes's) lightly toasted. Also chili in the pressure cooker, which didn't entirely work because I put in too much liquid.
And that seems to be it for 1997. I kept eating; I just stopped writing it down.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)