I don't like my doctor

I went to the doctor today to make sure some weird pains I've been having aren't something serious, like cancer. She told me that "women on a certain age" get this sort of thing, and that if I want to minimize it I should do a couple of things, including changing my diet.

After explaining that I've lost 50+ pounds and am exercising a whole bunch, she said, "Yes, well that's very interesting, but I want you to cut out caffeine, alcohol, sugar and wheat."

What?

WHAT?!

Why not just meat and dairy too? This is the lady who told me not to eat anything white when I was pregnant--so she could have this time said to cut out all brown foods or something.

When I was done wanting to kick her in her doughy, 40+ inch waist (talk about the pot and the kettle), I realized this wouldn't be a terrible thing.

So for 2010, I'll work at weaning myself off caffeine, alcohol, sugar and wheat.

Sigh.

Venti Non-Fat, No Whip, Caramel Mocha

My SBX drug of choice has been a Venti Non-Fat, No Whip, Caramel Mocha for a long time. I thought I was being pretty good. Non-fat milk. No deadly whipped cream. Just a couple of squirts of flavor....

Until I found out I was getting TEN quirts of sugared-flavor, which worked out to a whole lot of calories. At the same time, I was getting tall non-fat lattes for a co-worker. You know the kind. She's 23 and if she doesn't get to go running at least four times a week gets physically sick to her stomach. She's a size two, smart, and super sweet. Some times I want to throttle her.

Especially when she'd order her angelic latte each morning.

Well guess what? I'm wearing a coffee halo thanks to her! I started cutting back the squirts in January and by February was having the non-fat lattes. I do get grandes, simply because I like a second shot of espresso (I figure I have kids & a husband who keep me up at night and she can get 14 hours of beauty sleep if she wants to).

I really do enjoy the non-fat lattes. And that's something I NEVER imagined I'd say. In fact, I'm going to bed RIGHT NOW so I can wake up and have one in the morning!

Festival Food

Went to the Sonoma Jazz+ Festival last night to see Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We were running late, so skipped a nice dinner in a restaurant (boohoo--Juiceboy and I never go out to dinner alone), and went straight to the festival.

The sun was setting behind the stage, and folks were milling around in the warm Sonoma evening enjoying local wine, Sweetleaf tea, espressos. We were hungry and decided to get dinner out of the way--I wasn't expecting much in the way of quality. I was wrong. For festival food, this was good!

For $15 we shared an Asian Noodle Bowl with udon noodles, chunks of chicken, fresh snow peas, etc. The amount of garlic and ginger was pleasant, and while I would have liked the noodles a little less cooked, it was good. I loved that they served it in an Asian-take out box with chopsticks...silly, I know, but it played up of what it was supposed to be. We also had mesquite-grilled beef skewers with cole slaw, red-potato salad, and a little salad of fresh julienned veggies (carrots, zuchinni, squash). The cole slaw and potato salad were obviously *not* out of a can or box or whatnot. The flavors were bright and fresh and balanced.

They had honkin huge chocolate cup cakes for $5, but I was being very, very good, and just sampled the organic chocolate instead.

Who knew that you could get a decent meal from a booth at a festival? And not a bit of fried dough to be seen!

Bits and Pieces

There is so much to write about, and some how I've managed to wait until it was tomorrow, again. It's too late to write anything properly. This past week has been a blur of food and visitors and my trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I still don't have an answer for that, but I do know some new things about food.

1) Country-style ribs from Safeway are not ribs. They are pork shoulder cut into rib-shaped slabs. They are, however very tasty barbequed, and don't take nearly the same amount of long, slow cooking as regular ribs. I don't know why though. Maybe if they were cooked long and slow they'd be even better?

2) Cooking country-style ribs in the oven wrapped in foil with braising liquid for a long, slow period isn't nearly as good as grilling them outside, over hickory chips.

3) S'mores are just as good made in the microwave as over the 'que. And faster.

4) Dim sum is normally a brunch thing. Don't show up at 4pm in Chinatown expecting dim sum to be served...anywhere.

5) Duck is very tasty. Duck five ways is even better.

6) Babies like duck broth.

7) Husbands like a never-ending supply of chocolate-chip cookies.

8) Homemade vanilla ice cream is not appreciated by four-year olds.

9) Barilla Plus is a great pasta to feed to kids--fiber, protein and omega-3s.

10) The Bug knows that he likes calamari with tentacles. Seriously! I still won't touch the stuff.

Oh. I'm tired. Should that be the title of my blog? Seriously....

Buying Too Much and Carrot Soup

I've been wondering lately how people without much money are handling the rise in...everything. The rising price of gas, of milk, of bread, of cereal, of rice, of bell peppers, of onions even. It seems my food costs have gone up about 20% in the past six months. I've been crabbing and kvetching...but no more.

Last night I threw away a produce drawer full of food. A drawer...you know the one I mean, the one at the bottom of my fridge. I'd gone to the Farmers' Market two Fridays in a row. And bought way too much stuff. Even I knew that at the time. And then I went to Whole Foods. And then I went to WinCo. And after that I did my necessity trips to Safeway for milk and baby food and red wine (which are much cheaper than at other stores...).

In the end, produce never got eaten. It was as though everyone was overwhelmed by the bounty, and when they opened the fridge just thought, Oh. There's nothing in here to eat because I just see a forest of food.

Too bad there aren't any trees.

And so, when the trees began to smell, I finally tossed them.

I made a new rule yesterday. The cupboards and fridge can only be 1/3 full at any given time. I'll do the disaster stash someplace else. I think we don't force ourselves to eat what we have. From now on, I only replenish when we're absolutely empty.

Today for lunch I made carrot soup with all the carrots that made it out of the forest. They were still needing to be eaten, and I had bags and bags of them in baby version, sliced, and shredded (remember, the Bug has two false front teeth and can't bite into his favorite veggie). So I browned some red onion, two cloves of garlic, and a whole mess of carrots with salt, pepper, and a little curry powder. Then I threw in a box of generic chicken broth, a little extra water, and simmered till they were soft. I blended it with an immersion blender (a fantastic baby present!), added about two cups of shredded carrots, let it reduce another 15 minutes, and gave a quick whir again.

After adjusting seasonings, we enjoyed it topped with some plain yogurt left over from our Greek dinner. The Bug, the Baby and I all quite liked it (the Bug and I added more curry powder and I added some red pepper flakes), and then I fed it to my mother-in-law when she arrived mid-afternoon. She wasn't sure about the yogurt, until she had it. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it, too.

I wouldn't have made it today...had I not seen the carrots waiting patiently. I probably would have just opted for a quick canned soup. I'm glad I saw them!

Butter is Not Always Better

It being Mother's Day today, I was talking to my mother. She mentioned that she'd made some lemon bread that completely fell apart when she de-panned it. She'd swapped butter for the shortening and "sour cream" for the milk, since her milk is skim. What did she do wrong?

Her sour cream was actually whipped cream, that she'd made of cream and whipped--without sugar--that had gone a bit passed its date...and was, therefore, sour. I don't know if this type of sour cream has the same density as regular sour cream, but I'm not certain it would be a good substitute for milk.

Since I didn't know, I needed to figure out if butter is a good substitute for shortening. I read lots of statements that said that butter is always better...in terms of health and flavor, that is. But when it comes down to the science of it, butter is NOT always better. At least, not if you do a one-to-one substitution.

Why is that? Well, shortening is pretty much 100% fat. And butter is fat, water and sometimes salt. If your recipe requires half a cup of shortening and you put in half a cup of water...you won't have enough fat. But you will have extra liquid. So, what I've read is that you need to have 1.2 times the amount of butter as the recipe calls for shortening.

What really crushed her is that she had special butter from Trader Joes that she said is better in baking...but she didn't use it. It likely has less water and salt in it. I never did ask her why she didn't.

So...can you substitute butter for shortening? Yes, but adjust your recipe accordingly.

Blackbird's Kvetching

Blackbird is kvetching about boring, confusing blogs that blend too much into everyone else's blogs. She said that some blogs are about what the blogger is making/buying/cooking (or something to that effect) and how it gets boring, because they're *always* making/buying/cooking.

That's me! Is it time to blend all my little blogs into one? I'm too busy to actually make a real go at the other ones. The Customer Service blog is intended to be all about excellent and awful experiences in customer service...as this is a huge peeve for me. No pet about it. And Motherhood and Apple Pie started as a place to put all the stuff that was rolling around my head as I commuted...but I really haven't done anything at all with it lately. An 11-year old, an infant, a lonely full-time-dad husband and a 50-hour a week job just kind of fills my days, you know?

But then I remembered that this is a food blog. It's okay to be narrow-minded. People come here to read about what I'm cooking and the lessons I've learned. So maybe I don't have twenty-thousand regular readers. That's okay. I get a LOT of people who what to know how to cook rice noodles. Or find out if sugar goes bad. And how to make cream cheese wontons.

Next post? How to make a killer Spinach-Artichoke Dip. The secret? BACON!

Heady Scents

We live in a small '63 ranch house. Pure California. Designed by people who don't cook onions. Or garlic. Or fish, or seared pork, or yummy high-heat shrimp...get the picture? Juiceboy just walked into our bedroom, which he'd closed the door to when I started the onion fry. It was our last bastion of non-smelly house. Or so I thought.

"It smells in there. But a different onion smell. I realized the rest of the house smells better. Guess I didn't close the door fast enough...?"

How do you get food smells out of the house?

Caramelized Onions

The above onions are NOT mine, but Kathy Maisters, at StartCooking.com

If I didn't know better, I'd think I was pregnant. I've been craving caramelized onions all week. None of the restaurants I had to go to for work had them. Seriously--I ate out four times in five days...you'd think one place would have a sandwich with caramelized onions!

Of course, I wanted real caramelized onions. Not ones sprinkled with brown sugar to speed the process, or fat slices of sort-of brown onions...that make you think they possibly just sauted them in a brown liquid.

So tonight I pulled up the old Joy of Cooking, sliced up two organic "Mother Love" onions and got cooking. The Bug was curious...could he have caramelized onions as a snack in his lunch? Would they be thick, like jam? (Mmmm...caramelized onion jam....).

They softened for 80 minutes. Then I put the baby down to sleep and turned the heat up to medium. Ack! In 15 minutes they were caramelized and slightly burnt. Somehow the heat was too high. They're edible, but I've got to figure out my burner and pan.

In the middle of the caramelization process Juiceboy opened all the windows and doors. I was SERIOUSLY stinking up the house. The house is still redolent with the odor of slightly burnt caramelized onions.

The verdict? The Bug said they're the best onions he's ever had. I will try again, this time, with the heat lower.

I was going to blog the whole recipe, but Kathy at StartCooking.Com has a great play-by-play, straight out of the old Joy. The image above is hers...honestly, her onions are much prettier than mine.

If you haven't visited her site yet, do. The video on how to make grilled cheese just cracks me up!

The starter

So the recipe for sourdough starter is so simple, there's no way I can mess it up. 1/2 Cup bread flour mixed with 1/4 cup room temp water every 12 hours. Easy, right?

So how was I able to mix in REGULAR flour instead of the bread flour?? I was so concerned about getting it in the right time period; getting the right amount of air holes in the plastic wrap--but couldn't get the FLOUR right?

We'll see if it's right.

Since I don't know if it's okay, I thought I wouldn't post the boring flour picture. Instead, here is a picture of our GIANT baby, who is 7 months, but in 18-month clothing. He is OFF the charts!

High Heat Chicken

I made a high-heat chicken last weekend, inspired by a recipe in the new Cook's Illustrated. It was for a chicken with super crispy skin--my absolute favorite--but I wasn't about to rub it with baking powder and air dry it in the fridge over night since it was 5pm and dinner needed to be on the table no later than 7pm. School night and all that jazz....

So I took ideas here and there, and ended up completely filling the house with smoke and super-heated chicken fat scent. The chicken itself was really good--moist and lemony. The skin? Not so crispy, but still pretty darn good.

There's no real recipe, but if you want the tips, email me at flea-girl@hotmail.com.

Bun

We just got a new camera at work, and since I had to take lunch, I thought I'd take a picture of it, you know, just to test the camera.

This is a picture of my favorite Bun dish, #47, from Saigon Restaurant in Oakland. It's grilled pork with spring roll. I like two bowls of the pickley-carrot sauce.

And this is a GREAT camera. I haven't messed around yet with resizing images or anything, so I think this one is honking HUGE. But look at that detail! You can see the ridges on the scallions, and the finely chopped peanuts, and the different strands of the rice noodles!

I've learned that Kodak Easy Share cameras are crap. Spend the extra $150 or whatever and get a good digital camera!

Can't Win them All

A Cooking Light recipe on braising prompted me to make something braised this weekend. It's been gloomy, we all have colds, and the thought of some slow-cooked, melt-in-your-mouth beef was just what the doctor ordered.

Being of stuffy-headed mind, I read the recipes and article twice and watched the videos on the website carefully. The videos were a disaster. The talking heads didn't discuss cuts of meat at all. They didn't show browning techniques. I wanted something more than a pot roast. I wanted delicious, braised beef.

Well...you can guess what happened. It was Saturday afternoon, so all the smaller cuts of bottom round were sold. There was a huge brisket--but I don't have a container big enough for a whole brisket. If I'm going to buy flank steak I'm going to marinate and grill it. No roasts. So, I got a four-pounder. It had to be cooked in my bigger, lighter pot.

I forgot that it heats faster. What happened as I was dicing onions? Yup, I burnt instead of browned. Picture it: the Bug coughing from smoke, the baby crying, and I'm scraping meat like it's toast. Juiceboy to the rescue, and dinner got back on track.

I slowly simmered it in a lovely red wine sauce with parsnips, carrots and red potatos (those added about 45 minutes from serving time). I served it on top of wide egg noodles.

In the end, dinner was an hour late. The veggies were just barely cooked and the meat was tough. And...it was your basic pot roast.

It made for good leftovers. I slowly simmered it the next two days, cooking extra egg noodles right in the sauce the second night. They were pretty good.

So--I don't know if I'm too excited by braising. I've yet to have truly tender beef come out of something braised. But then again, I'm known for my kitchen fiascos.

Did I mention I burnt the bacon the next day?

Bits and Pieces

I'm playing catch-up. I'm back to work (started right after Labor Day), working from home two days a week, and running around like mad the rest of the time. The baby is fat--today is the last day for his 0-3 months onsies, even though he's just two months. I think he'll weigh in at about 14.5 pounds at his appointment with the doctor. It's all that good, healthy mothers milk. Everytime I think I'm done with the breastfeeding/pumping routine, I remind myself that this kid is doing good on it.

And *I'm* still losing weight, though not working hard to do so. I'm down 22.5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. Hooray! I had a baby two months ago and have lost a total of 39.5 pounds!

So here's some of what's going on:

1) I can cook rice again. And ooohhhh, is it good!
2) I have a good recipe for Faux Pho. I'll post it in the next day. No pictures though, sorry.
3) The heirloom tomatos at our local farm, Parker Farms, are beautiful and delicious. But even better is the yellow watermellon. It is sweet and unbelievably juicy. I asked the ladies at the stand what kind of watermellon it was, and they looked at me funny and said, "....yellow?"
4) Buying local and fresh is the way to go. I made a tomato salad that looked delicious. I layered tomatoes, cucumbers and "fresh" mozzarella (not the rubbery stuff but the more expensive kind packed in water). I seasoned with salt and pepper. I drizzled olive oil on it. It looked great but had absolutely no flavor. Why? Because the vegetables HAD NO FLAVOR. I bought them at Safeway. They were probably two weeks old by the time we got them on our plate. Blech.
5) We saved money on Juiceboy's birthday. Instead of going out to a steakhouse, I turned our house into one. I bought NY Strip Steaks from Costco (I've never paid $30 for three steaks...unless I'm at a steak house, and then I'm paying that much for one). I was very careful in how I cooked them, and they came out perfectly (I'll post the recipe here later). And with these gigantic brontosaurus steaks we had big baked potatoes and steamed cauliflower. Of course, there was bacon and chives and (light) sour cream for the potatoes. For desert? Ghirradeli brownies. We're not big cake people....

Must dash. The baby is about to do this:

The Truth about Starbucks

I love my Starbucks. It's a guilty, guilty pleasure. I know I have to give it up, once and for all. I know this because it's disgustingly expensive. But more so because the drinks that I like are LOADED with sugar. I might as well pour my coffee over ice cream and call it a coffee sundae!

My daily coffee--a Venti Non-Fat, No-Whip Caramel Mocha. Yes, it has calcium. But it also has 375 calories and 3.5 grams of fat. And it costs $4.20 a day now that the price has gone up again.

Sigh. This morning's was my last.

(Have I mentioned that I'm down 15 pounds from pre-baby weight?)

Fiasco #87: Quiche

Who in the world can mess up quiche when you use a ready-made crust? Oh look, there's Fleagirl, jumping up and down with her hand raised, shouting "Me! Me!"

Yes, another pregnancy-related kitchen fiasco. I decided to use up two slices of bacon and half an onion that was getting a little old. I had a Pillsbury crust and a couple of eggs. Very nice Sunday brunch. Until I decided I wanted to pre-bake that crust.

I made pre-baking mistakes in my past, with homemade crust, by not weighing it down. I don't have pie weights, so I decided to use rice. Simple enough.

Except I couldn't get the rice out of the baked crust when it was done. Yes folks, I was a dodo head and didn't line the crust with foil first. Just poured that rice in and it baked nicely into the bottom. And the corners. And the folded parts where the crust slid down the STRAIGHT-SIDED pan I decided to use.

At this point I was having crust in my quiche one way or another. So I broke it all apart, dug out the rice, and reformed a rough approximation of a crust. Of course, as soon as I poured the egg into the crust it flowed around, behind and under all that lovely riced crust.

In the end, it looked AWFUL. But it tasted no worse than a lot of quiches I've had in cafes and salad shops.

Lesson learned: Line the stupid crusts with foil before pouring rice into them.

Kitchen Fiascos #87 & 88

Juiceboy has gone veggie on me again, a full three months earlier in the year than normal. I'm okay with it though, as I can get meat at lunchtime and it's not a bad thing for me to be cooking healthier meals.

For dinner last night I was going to use up some of the 25 cups of brown rice I'd brought home from work (leftovers from an event). Since I've been having problems cooking rice, I was quite glad to take the white and brown stuff off their hands.

On the menu was absolute peasant food: cabbage soup and hot and soup broccoli. The soup was fine, though dull. I'll noodle out the recipe some more and when I perfect it, I'll post it.

For the broccoli, I was to get oil in the pan smoking hot, then brown a slice of ginger, which I did. Then I was to add cider vinegar, soy sauce, chicken broth, cayenne, etc. I started with the vinegar.

SHPLOOOM! BANG! HIIISSSSS! BLANG!

Uh, duh.

Never put vinegar into a pan of hot oil. First, mix all the ingrediants called for, and add them in a large quantity, and maybe, just maybe, let the oil COOL DOWN before adding it.

I'm just lucky I don't have a gas stove. I only had minor burn spatters on me, though the surrounding area of the stove sure got a good covering of grease.

After all was said and done, the broccoli was pretty bad, any way. Too much cayenne, which I don't like as a result of trying that ridiculous colon-cleansing recipe. Cayenne lemonade, indeed!

Tonight was much more successful: a variation on the Barefoot Contessa's Crunchy Noodle Salad and fried rice. I'll post these throughout the week.

My Adventures in Ice Cream

I haven't posted in eons due to a crazy work schedule and readying for Christmas. Now that that's over with and the in-law invasion has passed, it's time for me to get back on track. Sadly, I haven't cooked much in the past few weeks...but more on the cause of that in the future.

My big present for Chriistmas was a Cuisinart ice cream maker, with a bowl you freeze and then pour everything into and just leave be for 25-30 minutes.

For my first venture I set out to make chocolate ice cream. I had to go to two stores to find cream, but I found it. Safeway didn't have ANY because they didn't get their load today. Their shelves were bare all around the store.

I followed all the directions and found that after 30 minutes of mixing, the ice cream was really just cool cream. It hadn't thickened or frozen at all. I put it in an airtight container and have had it in the freezer for over an hour, and will see if anything happens.

I'll try it again after freezing the bowl for 24 hours. Any other tips for getting it to work?

Black Friday

Yesterday I blogged as I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. It was my first complete TG dinner ever made all by myself, having gone to potlucks for the past 12 years. But this year we weren't welcome at the potluck and I was pleased to have the freedom to cook what I wanted, the way I wanted.

I thought I'd have many problems, mix ups, and fiascoes. Surprisingly, I didn't. I planned in advance, double checked ingredients (save for the buttermilk), and expected delays. My dinner table wasn't as pretty or as fancy as I would have liked. I'd planned on turning the little gourds into candle holders, and I'd thought I would plate up in the kitchen, but at the end, I just ran out of counter space.

Here are my lessons learned:

1. Turkey: Don't put two cups of water in the pan. I think one cup would have been enough. Also, check the temperature much earlier. When I pulled it out to check it was at 180, so it probably rose to 190. The breast meat was good, but my guess is that when it's cold it will be dry. I found I didn't need to baste it--rubbing melted butter all over it before I put it in did the trick. I also cooked it on top of a whole bunch of carrots, a really big, quartered onion, and some celery, to make the juices flavorful.
2. Stuffing: The cornbread by itself was really dry, so I'm glad I used it in stuffing. I used the Joy of Cooking Southern Corn Bread recipe, which was dead easy (email me if you want the recipe). Then, I cooked up some Jimmy Dean Sausage, and I do think next year I'll add some andouille to that. Into that went 3 tablespoons butter, 1.5 cups of chopped onion, 1 cup chopped celery, a large clove of garlic, chopped. That cooked till fragrant, then I crumbled in the corn bread, about 1/3 cup chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon fresh chopped sage (which I'll increase to two T next year), 1 teaspoon thyme (again, I'll increase that), one beaten egg and chicken broth to soften. Next year: more onion, sage, thyme, another egg, and I think I'll take some of the liquid from the turkey pan in addition to the chicken broth--if I have as much as I did this year.
3. Bubble & Squeak: Definitely this year's stand out winner. Juiceboy snuck back into the kitchen and had more later in the night. I'll post a separate recipe for that. It just kills me that it's a recipe for using leftovers and I made it all fresh!
4. Corn Popovers: They were a nice idea and looked great as they puffed up in the oven, but they were heavier than I had thought they'd be. Don't know why I expected something like miniature Yorkshire Puddings when I loaded them down with corn meal and corn, but there you go. They were good with butter and I'm going to have one for breakfast. Hmmmm....what should I have on it? How about....
5. GRAVY: My favorite part of any holiday dinner. The turkey gravy came out GREAT. First, I made a roux with about 4 T flour, and really let it cook. I think I could have let it cook a little more than I did, to darken the sauce. Then, I added room temperature chicken broth in doses, whisking like mad. All told, I probably added 1.5 cups. I took my de-fatted turkey juices and added about four cups, mixing well in between each addition, and then I just let it boil furiously for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. I was going to add some wine, but I forgot. And that was okay--it tasted great with just a shake of ground pepper. I'm happy to say I have a big container of "gravy fixins" in the freezer now for the future.
6. Salad: I have a new sweet & savory salad dressing. Since I don't have measurements, it's not going to be its own recipe: about 1/4 cup honey, about one clove of garlic chopped fine, olive oil and red wine vinegar to taste, thyme, salt and pepper. This would be great with some crushed red pepper flakes, too. For the salad I tossed organic greens, one roasted beet that I'd julienned, about 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and some softened goat cheese. It was very good and I look forward to having it for dinner!
7. Chocolate Trifle: Well--this went sideways. I was making Paula Deen's Chocolate Coffee Trifle, which I'd had at someone else's house. It was the best dessert EVER. However, I didn't have any Kahlua, and wasn't about to buy a bottle just for this dessert. Another missing element--I don't have a trifle bowl. So, we had pieces of cake with the fudge sauce over top, a scoop of Hagen Daaz vanilla and a little Cool Whip. There were supposed to be chopped up Heath Bars on it, but I forgot to add them. I don't think anyone noticed...not the way my guys were wolfing it down! I hadn't made the sauce before dinner because as soon as the popovers were done they needed to be served. And I was ready to eat after six hours of cooking.

Invader Alert!

In-laws popping in. Corn bread out, cake in.

Burnt thumb as I was testing iron skillet to see it bacon fat was smoking. Note to me: don't touch hot skillet if you don't have a mitt on both hands.