Corn Fritters::La Mais Frire

Sunday dinner. I was going to make shrimp and vegetable curry. It was hot today. I had lots of good ingrediants--like cauliflower, carrots and bell peppers. I had fun stuff to throw into the curry like raisins and flaky coconut and roasted peanuts.

But the guys wanted meat. Red meat. With baked potatoes. And I, stupidly, said yes.

Off to the store I went to buy a steak and three baking potatoes. I used the cauliflower (steamed) and was going to cook up some artichokes the Bug asked me to get (a buck a piece).

But I was too tired for the prep work, and opted instead to make something I saw in my "Professional Chef" book. Now, that recipe was for 87 billion fritters, so I made up my own recipe.

Corn Fritters
Serves many
1 bag frozen roasted white corn, found at Trader Joe's. Any frozen or fresh corn will do--about three cups. DON'T USED CANNED.
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 to 1/3 C one-percent milk
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Freshly ground black pepper
3 T olive oil
1 T butter

Defrost the corn and drain any liquid. In a large bowl mix flour, eggs, baking powder, milk, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Add corn and red pepper and mix until just blended.

Heat a frying pan to medium/medium low. Add olive oil, then butter. Drop batter in rounded table spoons, turning once brown. Remove to paper towel to drain, serve hot.

Some people eat these with honey or maple syrup. I like a chipotle dipping sauce or salsa.

Juiceboy said, "These are really good. Too bad they aren't healthy."

How to Cook Rice Noodles

I'm just an Irish girl, born to Canadians. We never had rice noodles when I was a kid, but fell in love with them after I moved to California. In the past when I cooked them they turned into a gloppy, sticky mess. Not any more. Last night I figured out the key to cooking rice noodles.

You can buy rice noodles in Asian Markets, or, if you're very lucky, in the Asian food aisle of your grocery store. I like the ones that are flat and broad like fettucine.

How to Cook Rice Noodles
Take the entire package of noodles (unwrapped, of course) and soak in cold water in a large, flat container like a covered casserole, for at least 30 minutes. Some packages and recipes state this is all you need to do. Don't believe them. If you like soft rice noodles, and you're not planning on cooking them in an additional recipe, do the following:

Bring a broad pot of salted water to boil. You'll be lowering your metal, hand-held strainer into it, so make sure you can reach that water. If you use a big pasta pot, you're going to have to fill it nearly to the top with water--so it would *not* be a good choice.

Right before you're ready to serve, place individual portions of the noodles in your metal, hand-held strainer. Place the strainer in the boiling water for about 20-30 seconds, stirring with chopsticks to seperate. When tender, strain the water out and serve.

Spaghetti Fritatta

It's Saturday Brunch and everyone wants to know what I'm making. And honestly, I don't know. Juiceboy ate the ham I was going to use for a dish. What now?

Let's Look in the the Fridge! Leftovers...leftovers...ah and leftovers. It guess it's time for leftover fritatta!

Spaghetti Fritatta
Heat your oven to 350.
Cook the following in an oven-proof skillet.

Brown some ground pork. Remove and drain on a paper towell.

Saute 1/2 yellow onion and one clove garlic in the pan. Add 1T butter. Add about two cups leftover spaghetti (really, d0n't cook this up fresh. That's just silly.).

Add 1/2 cup sliced green pepper and 1/2 cup chopped tomato.

Season with basil, oregano, fennel (for sausagey flavor) , salt and pepper.

Throw in whatever tasty leftovers you have in the fridge.

Beat a bunch of eggs--I used 10, because 6 wasn't enough. I think 8 would have been fine.

Cook for approximately 20 minutes until eggs are set. Top with parmesan and some grated monterey jack cheese (cheddar would be v. nice as well). Put back in the oven for about 10 minutes until bubbly. If you want the cheese browned, turn on the broiler for about 3 minutes.

I think chopped broccoli would have been good, too. This is not healthy cooking, I know. We're having veggie stir-fry for dinner.

Hot Peppers and My Mouth do not mix

I planted some cute pepper plants in my backyard planters this summer, alongside some tomato plants. The peppers weren't really productive--every now and then I'd go out and cut off a nice green pepper about half the size of my fist.

They were sweet, bland, but added some nice color to my Saturday egg dishes.

On Wednesday of this week I took a cute little pepper with me to work. It had begun to redden, and looked happy on my desk next to some fresh tomatoes.

Late into the afternoon I was craving potatoe chips. I reached for my pepper and bit off the tip. Nice, sweet, crispy. I took a bigger bite, much the same. The third bite brought me into the red part.

SWEET FIRES OF HELL!

My mouth burnt. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I couldn't move. I finally managed to spit out the mouthful after crying out. My eyes turned red, instantly.

I ran a block for milk.

In heels and a suit.

I RAN.

What happened to my sweet peppers?

Juiceboy Salad

Bon Vivant fka NoodleWhore wrote:

"Hi Fleagirl! I've tried on many occasions to post comments on your blog but I
keep getting error messages so that's why I'm writing via email.

Thanks
for stopping by my blog! I've enjoyed reading both your blogs. What do you put
in the yummy Juiceboy salad?

Good luck with your enchilada gravy (don't
forget the oregano). There is a restaurant right by me that I know makes their
own (it's fabulous!) but I suspect that most Mexican places here used the canned
stuff."

First things first:

Comments: I'm using the Beta version of Blogger, so maybe there's a problem with comments. I've switched to accept annoymous comments. Hey--can someone test for me please?

Thank YOU: I love traffic. I love email more. Keep it coming! And send us links to your great blogs so we know where to send other visitors to.

Juiceboy Salad
Saute two or three boneless, skinless, frozen chicken breast. Throw them frozen into the pan and fill the pan halfway with water and throw in two cubes of chicken bouillon. Cover with a lid and simmer until almost cooked.

Cut chicken into cubes. Reserve cooking liquid for another use, like good soup or enchilada gravy.

Clean skillet, add some butter, cook on high heat until browned, fragrant, and fully cooked. Season with salt & pepper.

Get a huge bowl and throw in: sliced cucumber, chopped celery, grated cheese, grated carrots, chopped hard boiled egg, chopped green pepper, green onion, a zillion fat-free crutons, chicken, and avocado.

Top with a creamy dressing.

This is an entree salad, and should feed at least six hungry people.

Hog and Cow

Okay. It's time to do Weight Watchers. I lost the "10-Day Diet Challenge" to Juiceboy and now he has my $50. We shook on another weigh-in on October 15, and I'll be darned if I give him half my allowance a second month in a row.

My question for you is...what are your tastiest "healthy" meals? I want high fiber, low fat. Send them my way!

Enchilada Gravy, Clue #1

I've found some answers! It involves ancho chiles, flour, a broiler, and chicken stock...I think. He was speaking Spanish and I picked up only every third word. But I do know: NO TOMATOES!

Searching for Mr. Enchilada

There are very few taquerias that can satisfy my craving for Enchilada Gravy. This is not a tomatoey, runny mess. This is not a dark brown, thin, trickle. The best enchilada sauce is a gravy. It's viscous and thick, and congeals a bit when cold (which tells me there's fat in it). It has a meaty taste to it, though it's red in color, and absolutely smooth in texture.

Chabelas on Haight Street in SF had the best. They closed one day due to kitchen problems, and never reopened. Sigh.

Happy Burrito in Oakland has got something close. Very close. I'm afraid to ask for the recipe lest they haul out a 20-pound tin.

Anyone have a good enchilada gravy recipe?

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I'm working at home today--not feeling great with an Autumn cold. Needed something fast but comforting for lunch, so I looked in the fridge. Ack--it's the 15th, time to use up the dying vegetables. This is a quick, healthy, low-fat version of the high-fat favorite.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup.

• Spray large soup pot with cooking spray, melt one Tablespoon butter on medium low heat.
• Coarsley chop 2 large carrots (scrubbed, not peeled). Add to soup pot and stir to coat.
• Coarsley chop one yellow onion and two to three stalks celery. (I had leaves left, so in they went). Add to soup pot and stir to coat.
• Clean and cut up a head of cauliflower. I break up chunks with my hands.
• Add one to two cloves garlic, smashed.
• Add one large (32 oz) tin chicken or vegetable stock--low sodium is recomended as this stock reduces. If you don't have low sodium then throw in a potato to take out some of that salt. Be sure to fish out the potato later.
• Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 45 minutes.
• Take about 75% of the solids with some liquid and blend till smooth. Return to pot, and turn off heat. (It can burn now)
• Add about 1/4 cup 1% milk; more if you like your soup thinner.
• Add 1 tablespoon curry powder and lots of fresh black pepper. No salt should be needed.
• Top with parsley and a tablespoon of grated cheddar or colby jack cheese.

YUM.

Bad Bean Sprouts

Someone came to my blog today because they searched for "bean sprouts how do you tell when they are bad?". My instant thought was, when they are moist, sour, or gray. Is there another way?

I know there has been some hubub recently in the Candadian press (and yes, this was a Canadian visitor) about bacteria and bean sprouts.

So--how DO you tell when bean sprouts are bad?

Cream Cheese Wontons

What to do when you find out your mother-in-law is coming three hours earlier than you thought--with her best friends who are visiting from overseas? You throw together a plate of quick-to-make food, like cheese & crackers and fruit. But what if you want to really impress them? Make cream cheese wontons with your leftover wonton skins!

The picture is all that was left of about 24 wontons.

Cream Cheese Wontons
Square egg roll wrappers--I used the large ones and cut them into four.
Water or egg substitute for sealing.
Cream cheese or neufchatel cheese, softened at room temperature if time allows.

Add ins. You can make plain cream cheese filling, or add in any of the following:
Crab meat
Chopped scallions or chives
1t to 1T curry powder or paprika

Place about a half teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Dampen two sides and of wrapper and fold to create a triangle, eliminating as much air as possible. Or, twist into a little "purse".
Use a small, heavy frying pan with about 1/2 an inch of corn oil, on medium high heat. Gently place wontons and cook until golden brown, turning over when done. Then, drain on paper towel.

Serve immediately--these don't taste as good later. (And you can plan for two or three per person. They are yummy, but fattening. What did you expect from deep-fried cheese?)

Oh Good Lordy, I was Ignorant

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yet another email. I didn't know I had to be invited by someone else to participate in the "Things to eat before you die" fad. Good lordy, I crashed a chain letter!

Pot Roast

I was looking for an economical bit of meat that would be good for two dinners...and one that we haven't had recently. So pork roast was out. Happily, I asked the Safeway butcher to bring out more of the 7-bone pot roast, which if you get the right cut has very little boning and not much fat.

So for $6.50, we had a nice pot roast dinner for the first cool evening of the fall.

Fleagirl's Pot Roast

Season one 4-5 pound pot roast with kosher salt & freshly ground pepper. Then, with a hand-held strainer, sift flour evenly across the roast.

In a wide, heavy pan, heat about 2T corn oil. Add roast and brown well. Turn and brown the other side.

Remove roast (put in oven proof pot or dutch oven). Add to cooking pan about three cups mirepoix (three large diced carrots, one diced onion, two ribs diced celery) and about five smashed cloves of garlic. Cook until tender.

Move mirepoix to roasting pot.

Deglaze cooking pan with 1/2 cup chicken broth, one can roasted tomatos, and a splash of red wine. Scrape up all the yummy bits on the pan, break up tomatos. Add to roasting pan after all is simmering.

Cover roasting pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil and tight-fitting lid. Cook in oven at 325 to 350 for two-to-three hours. During this time baste the meat every hour.

Serve with egg noodles (I throw some frozen peas into the water while they are cooking), and sauted cabbage (I like to add some thick-sliced carrots, which add color and crispness).

Cheap eats and kitchen fiascos

Sarcasm doesn't come across well in blog titles. Someone angrily emailed me this week, "Fine Cooking? Are you kidding me? There's nothing gourmet about your recipes!" EXACTLY.

I'm just poking around in the kitchen, trying to cook good, decent meals that aren't too expensive. I've never taken a cooking class in my life. I shop the sales at Safeway (watch for my pot roast recipe tonight--chuck roast is on sale). My family has a love of anything that comes wrapped in colorful waxed paper and served hot in a bag.

All I'm trying to do is share my struggles with inexpensive, healthy cooking. So what should my blog be called? Cheap eats or Kitchen Fiascos?

Beating the heck out of dim sum

My in-laws and their visiting friends were coming for cocktails tonight, and I needed something fast for dinner after. What to do with a fridge full of half-cooked dim sum? Add chicken broth!

Yes, this is my recipe for won ton soup.

Won Ton Soup

• Spray your favorite stock pot with Pam.
• Add one diced carrot, one diced stalk celery, about 1T chopped ginger, one chopped clove garlic.
• Cook till fragrant but not soft.
• Add one big huge can of Swanson's chicken broth (or the broth of your choice).
• Cook on low heat until steaming.
• Add leftovers from nights before, including: chopped cabbage, filled wontons, linguine, spinach wontons, pork/shrimp meatballs, and diced tofu.
• Simmer until meatballs are cooked through. Do not boil!
• If you made fresh wontons tonight from the leftovers, now's the time to add any beaten egg you have leftover.
• Stir in about a tablespoon of sesame oil and one tablespoon soy sauce.
• Top with fresh chopped scallions.

Serves Plenty

Dim Sum Aftermath

Hi, I’m Fleagirl, and I’m a food addict. I woke up this dreary, dark morning and thought, “Why did I do that?” I felt guilty and annoyed that I’d gone into a dim sum frenzy, spending my birthday money on food, most of which is in the fridge or the freezer. Of course, I could have spent that same money at Yank Sing, one of the best SF dim sum joints, and I wouldn’t have learned a thing about cooking from the experience.

My stomach feels wobbly today, as it did last night. Even though I only had two pan-fried (which is pretty much deep fried, but you turn it half way in the cooking process) spinach rolls, the grease deemed too much for my gentle constitution. Or was it something else? The Bug spent the night tossing and turning, talking in his sleep and even sleepwalking twice. (He’s an extremely active sleeper.) He only had one bite of the spinach roll.

Anyway. This post isn’t about my guilt. Well, it is. You see—Juiceboy and I made a bet to see who could lose more weight in three weeks. The winner gets half--$50—of the other one’s allowance. I was doing pretty well up until last week, and now I’m feeling bloated and gross and thick. I really want to win this challenge. But he’s able to hike and bike and swim during the day, when I’m flat on my ass in front of a computer.

I’m going to make some radical changes for the next ten days (because that’s all I have).

No alcohol.
Water water water
tons of veggies and fibrous fruits
Smaller portions
No butter, cheese, ice cream or other high-fat dairy item.
Walk every day—during lunch or at home in the dark if need be.

I have 10 days. Will I do it?

Dim Sum and Then Some

We made dim sum tonight, and it was pretty good. I'd planned to make about three or four different dim sum, with a quick veggie stir fry to go along with some sticky rice I'd made. Here's what I learned:

1. Allot an hour, at least, for each item. I started at 5pm and we ate at 9pm. And I was smart and prepped all the veggies, etc., first, since every dish was a variety of the others.


2. Willing little hands are great for the wrapping portion. The Bug wrapped up 16 packets of foil-wrapped chicken and countless pork & shrimp dumplings. Had I done it, it would have added an extra hour.


3. It's best to use the tools prescribed by recipes, but if all else fails, figure out what the cooking process is and mock it up. I do not have a steamer pot and basket for sticky rice, so I steamed the rice in a damp tea towel on a metal steamer basket. Probably not the best way of doing it, but it worked. Of course, The Bug got a funny look on his face halfway through the rice and asked, "Did you put wet towel in the rice? It tastes weird." What a clown.


4. If you're pan frying, for god's sake get a spatter screen!


5. You need a variety of dipping sauces. Sweet, mustardy, vinegary. At the very least.


6. There is absolutely no need to make all of the following at the same time for only three people:

Baked Foil-wrapped chicken
Steamed Shrimp & pork dumplings (kind of a sui mai)
Pan-fried Spinach & tofu egg rolls
Scallion Pancakes
Sticky rice
(I never made it to the stir fry)

Searching for Steamers

After my dim sum dream from this morning I went out to scour suburbia for my needs.

1. A decent Asian Market
2. A kitchen store where I could buy a decent steamer for under $30.

It didn't seem so hard. This is California, after all. I found a decent Asian Market on my first try, only 20 minutes from my house, in an extremely dubious looking strip mall. But it had the right smell and a tremendous variety in the store, including a small fish counter. Very Nice!

I found two kinds of dried, shredded pork there (Tung Yang Pork Fu is the kind I got, the mild type, as opposed to Tung Yang Pork Sung, which has the same ingredients but is redder). Lots of veggies that I could identify, and 100 types of rice-based wrappers. The Bug picked some sticky glutinous raspberry sweet, which he didn't like.

On the search for sticky rice I found an employee lounging on 40-pound bags of rice. Feeling quite silly, I asked for the smallest bag of sticky rice possible. I think it was five pounds of "Sweet Thai Riz" and cost $3.50. The man laughed and asked if I knew how to cook it.

"Oh, I have a recipe," I answered, and then asked,"What do you recommend?"

"Cook for a long time, about 30 minutes, with a lot of water," he laughed.

They were all really sweet. The cashier asked, "What are you making?" and I told her I wasn't quite sure, since I didn't know what they would have.

Then, armed with some items, I knew I needed a better steamer. I would have liked a big bamboo one, even though I know they harbor bacteria, etc., but would have settled for something metal, as long as it had stackable levels.

I went up to the Vacaville Factory Outlet Stores. There are four kitchen-ware stores there: Le Creuset, Corningware, The Kitchen Store, and Le Gourmet Chef.

Since I was just looking for a stupid bamboo steamer, I went into The Kitchen Store first. I soon found out it had no steamers whatsoever, and mostly sold gadgets made by "The Good Chef" which are the worst pieces of crap ever. So we went over to the stupidly-named "Le Gourmet Chef" (I should have known).

A mish-mosh of ticky-tacky joke stuff (pig-lighters with flames coming out of their noses, fake french chefs holding chalkboards, etc.), and extremely expensive boxed items with "The Professional Series" or something along that line printed on them. Whether they were nice or not, I don't know. $30 for a tiny steamer insert that I can't unbox is too steep for me.

Did I mention the pretzel and mustard dip bar? Wasabi Horseradish Mustard dip and crap like that. They had more salsas and hot sauces with stupid names like "Queen of Farts" than they did cookware.

I finally found a set of two tiny bamboo steamers made by Joyce Chen. They were called "Cocktail Steamers" I think and would have held no more than two potstickers a piece. At $8 for two they were ridiculous. When I asked the sales clerks they got snotty and said, "We had fold out metal steamers but we don't any more."

Mental eye roll.

The Bug and I will MacGyver something together tomorrow. Tonight we made linguine (see earlier post).

I'm armed with all my fixins though. Pretty excited. Maybe Juiceboy will be home to photograph the results.

Linguini and White Clam Sauce

One of The Bug's favorite dishes is Linguine and Clam Sauce. In fact, this weekend Juiceboy is off camping, and I gave The Bug his choice of any dinner. And that included eating out? His choice? You guessed it. Linguine and Clam Sauce. My "Fast & Cheap" version is incredibly fast and easy. Watch for when your supermarket puts the tinned clams on sale.

Linguine and Clam Sauce
Eyeball all amounts, adjust to your taste.
Since you'll cook the sauce on really low heat, go ahead and use that non-stick saucepan.

Put lots of fresh water, dosed with kosher salt, onto boil.
When it boils, add and cook 10-16oz of linguine.

In the meantime:

• In a big saucepan melt about one and a half tablespoons butter over low heat. Add one tablespoon of olive oil and about three cloves of finely chopped garlic.
  

• Sweat garlic over low heat until fragrant and supple. Do not turn up the heat past medium low, and if butter starts bubbling, turn it down. There's nothing worse than browned garlic in this dish.

• While garlic softens, open two tins minced or chopped clams (I like the ones in the yellow tuna-sized tins. You'll find them with the tuna in fact.) RESERVE THE LIQUID.

• When garlic is softened, add a shake of red pepper flakes. Go easy on this, you can always add more. Heat for 30 seconds.
  

• Then add the clam liquid, plus one whole bottle clam juice, which is also found in the tuna section. Be sure to shake the bottle.
  

• Turn heat up to medium high and bring to a boil.
  

• Add about a half bunch of well chopped parsley. (This is a great use for parsley.) Don't worry about the stems--just wash the parsley, shake it, and chop away. My mom uses scissors, I just use my knife.
  

• Immediately turn down to medium/medium-low. Check your pasta.
  

• Now, shake out some cornstarch in a measuring cup. About 1/8 cups worth and add enough cold white wine, chicken broth, or water to liquify. Mix till smooth.
  

• Turn the heat up again till it's simmering and add your starch mixture. But be careful! Add a bit at a time, as this will thicken your sauce faster than you can imagine. Stir like crazy as you add it.
  

• Once thickened to your liking (we like it THICK), turn off the heat and add freshly ground black pepper and the clams. Please don't cook the clams unless you like Linguine and Rubber Bits.
  

Add-ins to consider: fresh basil, finely chopped white onion, fresh clams, even thick-cut and diced bacon.

Serve with Parmesan cheese and garlic bread and a great salad.

Should serve four.

Testing...1, 2, 3

I just switched to the Blogger Beta and am more lost than a man in a bra department. Where are my site feeds?

Dreaming of Dim Sum

I've been dreaming again of dim sum. Really good dim sum, the kind you come across once in a lifetime. The kind that bursts in your mouth with freshness and lightness. Tender, gingery siu mai. Heavy, thin-skinned potstickers. Har gow that explode with cilantro and garlic. Lo mai gai 30 seconds from being cooked--completely fresh and flavorful. There's no grease, and all the carts delight you. And a hundred carts come by in the first 15 minutes you're seated. And you can have all you want for only $10.

It's only 9am and my mouth won't stop watering. Now, if it were a year and a half ago, I'd have The Bug prepped and we'd be flying out the door to Chinatown, ready to be the first ones in when the doors of our favorite dim sum place opened. But when you trade the city for the country (and four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool and room for a pony), you lose some things. I have no problem with the commute. I can handle not being able to roll down the street for a beer. Miss the 50 restaurants within walking distance? Not me. Never looked back.

Until today. Even in nearby Napa, there's no dim sum. Even if we headed north an hour to Sacto, no dim sum. And the Bay Bridge is closed this weekend, which would mean driving to BART, then getting on the train, then bussing to our favorite place...and by that time, we'd have hit crowds.

So instead I think I'll spend some of my birthday money on supplies for making dim sum. A steamer, certainly. The ingrediants, for sure. What else? Unfortunately Juiceboy took the digital camera camping with him, so any pictures will be day-old. Now...off to find a cooking supply store in suburbia. Sigh.

My five-things-before-death list

Okay. I'm on the bandwagon. Here's my addition to the Traveller's Lunchbox Five Things You Must Eat Before Death list:

1. Toll House Cookies: Seriously. Think back to the first day you held one of these, hot, off your mom's, or grandmother's, cookie sheet, tossing it back and forth in your hands, till it cooled enough to eat. Remember the creamy richness? The chewy, tender, crispness? Bottle this essence and label it "YOUTH".
2. Boston Cream Doughnuts: I hadn't even thought about this until I was fantasizing about the cookies. And then I remembered one thing better. The Boston Creams from Dunkin Donuts that I loved so as a teenager. I loved them so much that I dreamt about them at 26 when I was pregnant and wrote a sonnet to a Boston Cream Doughnut. Mmmmm....custard in deep fried bread, covered with chocolate. Ayayalllaaagh... (that's onomatopoeia for me drooling)
3. Smoked Oysters: Yes, the tinned ones. Throw some vinegar & Worcestershire sauce on them, then drain them. Good plain, with toothpicks. Divine wrapped in bacon and broiled as "Angels on Horseback". And I have these memories of making plates of them for my mother's bridge group: Ritz cracker, homemade Thousand Island Dressing, oyster. Sprinkle a little confettied parsley and it will look less 70s....
4. O Fries and Gravy from the "O" in Pittsburgh: Hate to say it but it's been 15 years and I don't know if it still exists.
5. Fillet mignon, rare, grilled asparagus, and a nice glass of cabernet. My recommendation? At the bar of the Chophouse Grill in Chicago.

Vietnamese Shrimp Rolls

Had to work late tonight so I picked up some shrimp rolls from the Vietnamese restaurant down the street. Normally they are cut in half, at an angle, but maybe they saw I like my food and figured I'd eat the whole thing in one bite.

Shrimp rolls are a big favorite of mine. They are served cold, and are made mostly with rice paper and rice noodles or rice sticks. The shrimp are sliced in half so they lay flat against a mix of mint and lettuce leaves. Bean sprouts give extra crunch, and sometimes julienned smoked pork or carrot sticks are added.

They are almost always served with nuoc cham, which is a dipping sauce with a fish sauce base. Anyone who knows me knows that Fleas hate fish sauce, which is why I love that this place adds peanut butter to theirs, which cuts the rotten fish taste.

Since they aren't fried or loaded with fat, these are a good option at restaurants for anyone watching their weight.

Beans, Beans, They’re Good for Your Heart

I love a good black bean burrito. The cheaper the better. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Please don’t add rice. A little cheese, a good dose of piping hot black beans…at most some onions, maybe some cilantro. Yum.

A place down the road from the FleaJuice House (aka home) serves a lovely bean burrito for only $3.95. They serve it mojado, which means it’s wet. Making a burrito mojado usually entails enchilada sauce and a smattering of cheese, but this place is smart and uses delicious tomatillo sauce, also known as salsa verde, which is green and garlicky and just the slightest bit sweet. Then they smother it with cheese (hey, I didn’t get to be fat from skipping the cheese). A kick-ass burrito, as big as my head, for under five bucks. Man. I’m making myself hungry.

I had a black bean burrito for lunch today, as pictured, and the man I was with stopped mid-sentence and blurted out, “What are you eating?” I thought it was funny because we are in the SF/Bay Area, and I’d have thought he’d have seen a black bean burrito before. Maybe the fact that he’s 66 years old makes a difference.

The Red-Headed Stepchild of the Buffet

Tonight at work we had food delivered from Pasta Pomodoro (we have a dinner party for 50-100 people once a month). One of the dishes was "Healthy Chicken Pasta." I knew just by looking at it that we'd have tons of it left over. And we did.

It was penne pasta with what seemed to be a very dry tomato sauce, and not much of the sauce. There was big chunks of zuchinni (and we all know I hate zuch.) and little bits of chicken. There were some green bits--but were they spinach? Basil? Watercress? I couldn't tell by aroma--there wasn't any.

I know this was dubbed a "Healthy" dish, but couldn't it have been made to look yummy, too? The "healthy" salmon looked good, as did the fagioli (white beans) and the insalata caprese. And the unhealthy shells with gorgonzola sauce was perfecto!

So, what I want to know is...is the tomato-based pasta dish the red-headed stepchild of the buffet? What do you pass up or avoid altogether?

Chips and Beer (I'm so classy)

I’m on my Capital Corridor Amtrak train going home. It’s my last evening in the 35-and-Under demographic (like how I keep stretching my demo?) and I’m celebrating by enjoying a beer and chips. From the instant the dining car conductor cracked the Dos Equis and squeezed the lime my mouth has been watering. There’s something about essence of lime that’s just delicious. And when it hits hops and barley? Mmmmmmm.

My chips are Cheddar Beer Kettle Chips. They’re new—the ones in the yellow bag. As Michelle, our conductor agreed, “Yum! They’re cheesey and beery and good.” And they are thick and tangy and crunchy. And cover your fingertips in a nice rich coating of oil, so you know they aren’t good for you at all. In fact, one bag has 18 fat grams, but I’m not counting today.

What is it about chips and beer that satisfies me so? Everything is right this afternoon. We’re trucking through Pinole—the gray-green San Francisco Bay to my left, the creeks and eddies and million-dollar swamp grounds of Northern California to my right. There goes the Contra Costa jail, and some small but tidy homes with amazing bay views. Wild life areas and a boarded-up elementary school. Teenagers in red and white striped shirts huddle at the side of the tracks, startling me. They’ve probably started school and are embarking on thrilling and dangerous flirtations.

The Dos Equis wraps around my nerves and relaxes them. I’ve swapped the Hives and the Strokes for Death Cab for Cutie. And it blends perfectly with my respite. Farther east now, I think we’ve hit Hercules, where new houses have popped up like mushrooms grown too close. Old houses and buildings on the edge of town are strangely boarded up. I don’t know why.

All would be perfect if this beer was a Negra Modelo. Oh, how I love my Negra. The flavor is rich and deep and is better without a lime than with. I fell in love with it at Las Mesas, a great little taqueria in the Lower Haight that closed less than a year after it opened, the owner deciding there was more profit in bagels than burritos. Pretty Elizabeth would bring me my Negra Modelo, smiling shyly, knowing before I ordered that I’d ask for it. I’d enjoy it while I waited for our to-go burritos—mine almost always a chicken mole burrito, no chicken, and Juiceboy’s a veggie burrito—they had an amazing number of grilled veggies in their vegetarian items. The Bug tried everything, but loved the shrimp the most.

Las Mesas, this beer’s for you.

Harvesting the Tomatoes

It's the end of August. The kids are back in school and nights are cooler. Radish seeds are planted and the strawberries are making one last heroic push. And my tomato plants, which are the wildest, scariest thicket of bushes you've ever seen, are finally putting out.

Not many toms, as you can see, considering I have six plants. Those wrinkly ones are quite interesting. I can't remember what they're called (yes, I should have saved the little plastic thingy that they stick in the soil), but the flesh tastes quite meaty. I'm not sure if I like them or not. The darker ones are called black beauties, and end up looking like they've gone bad, because they're all tinged with dark green, but they are really quite good.

They're a strange group of fruits, they are. I'll have to make a sauce and freeze it. We're almost tomato'd out!

Food blogs

Jeez. Do you know how many food blogs are out there? 87 trillion. Yes. And most of them take themselves incrediably seriously. Please. We are what we eat and all that crap.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

The Bug, who is nine and not always the easiest to please, announced "We should have this every night!"

This is a good use of leftover chicken when whole chickens are on sale. I bought two, and was able to have two dinners of roasted chicken, a couple of lunches of chicken sandwiches, and then this yummy, stewy soup. And I REFUSE to go the Rachael Ray way by calling it "stoup"!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

• Make a broth with the meaty bones of two roast chickens. (I like to reserve the meat from one and add it at the very end before the soup is served.)
• How to make a broth: take the chicken bones/meat, at least one onion, one or two large carrots, celery hearts with leaves, a handful of smashed garlic cloves, and a handful of peppercorns. If you want to saute the veggies to bring out the flavor, do! Then, cover with fresh, cold water. Simmer for a number of hours until reduced to about 50%.
• Strain the solids from the broth, reserving any good meat and carrots. But for lord's sake, throw out the skin! Allow broth to cool, then skim any fat.
• Saute in butter or olive oil one chopped onion, two carrots, two-to-three ribs of celery, until fragrant.
• Add back the broth and meat, bring to a slow boil.
• Add one 16oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes, with liquids.
• Add one can black beans, with liquids.
• Add one cup frozen corn.
• Add chili powder and cumin, to taste.
• Add about 1/2 cup of small pasta, such as orzo. I like a star shape. The smaller, the better, because pasta absorbs a lot of liquid as the soup sits. Don't add too much or you'll have pasta stew.
• Taste for seasoning (salt, pepper, spiciness)
• Crush tortilla chips into the bottom of each bowl, add soup. Then top with chopped green onion, cilantro and about a tablespoon of shredded mexican blend or colby jack cheese. Cheese is, of course, optional.

Breakfast at Any Time is Good

Last night Juiceboy was scheduled to make Stir-fried veggies and rice. The only problem was he didn't realize it was brown rice and would take much longer than he had planned. We were all starving at 6:30pm and didn't want to be eating at 7:30 or 8pm, so we started thinking about what to have or do.

I was trying to convince him that it would take that long to cut up all the veggies and get them going, but he wasn't having it. What to do? Make breakfast for dinner!

To start:

Homemade Pancakes
I think pancakes made from scratch are nicer than those out of a box. You can adjust the mix to suit your taste (fluffier? more baking powder. Thinner? More eggs and milk. Etc.)

Sift all dry ingrediants:
1.5 Cups flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Then mix separately:
1 to 2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 C milk (I use 1%)
3 Tablespoons melted butter
dash of vanilla

Mix wet into dry until just mixed. Let the lumps sit. This is one of those times you don't overmix, like muffin baking. And then walk away. Cut up your fruit for toppings, etc. After ten to fifteen minutes (if you have the time, let the batter sit longer in the fridge!), prep your pan.

I like an iron skillet. They hold the heat evenly. Juiceboy likes a well-buttered pan, I like a lightly Pam-sprayed pan. If you're buttering, keep the heat lower and cook the pancakes slowly.

Cook the pancakes as you normally would. Serve with sliced strawberries and fresh blueberries, organic maple syrup (or 100% maple syrup, none of that fake artificially-flavored sugar water!). One of our favorite toppings is a strawberry syrup sold by Safeway, warmed up and over the fruit. Yum.

Ham and Eggs
Food Network just ran a repeat of Rachel Ray's Green Eggs & Ham. However our Ham & Eggs is absolutely nuthin fancy.

One ham steak--like a $1.29 Farmer John ham steak. Throw it in a pan with a little oil or butter (Juiceboy skipped that part and it just made cleanup a little harder). Heat on low till it's carmelized a bit.

Sunnyside up eggs: Two eggs per person. Butter/oil your iron skillet, heat on medium. Get all the eggs cracked in there, salt and pepper them, and then cover the pan with a lid. At this point I lower the heat to medium low and go set the table.

After about four or five minutes the whites on the top of the egg should be set. Slide onto the plate with the ham (that has been sliced into three or four pieces, one per person). And then enjoy with the pancakes and fruit!

Breakfast is great at any time of the day!

Chopped Salad and Cobb Salad

Two of my favorite salads are chopped salad and Cobb Salad. Chopped salads are easy to make and easy to eat (you literally chop everything into bite-sized pieces); Cobb salads are robust entree salads that has something for everybody.

The following is a mix of the two. Make the salad yours--add and subtract what you like!

Chopped Cobb Salad

One-to-two heads romaine lettuce, chopped into one-to-two inch pieces. Or, if you've got some organic spring mix, that's very nice. Of course, you won't chop it...
One large grilled chicken breast, chopped into one-inch cubes.
One to two ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped.
One to two ripe avocados, chopped to small cubes. Spritz with lemon juice to
keep from browning.
Three or four eggs, hard-boiled, cooled, and...chopped.
Bacon or ham, about one cup, chopped. Substitute turkey if you prefer.
1/2 cup Red onion, chopped, or green scallions if you prefer.
Small cubed cheese, flavorful and light in color. I like blue cheese/gorgonzola. Feta would be good, as would a nice havarti. (Cheese is optional, esp. for you waist watchers)
Red, yellow and orange peppers; cored, seeded and chopped to one-inch
pieces.

Salad dressing. With all these flavors I prefer to simply toss with good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper, and some snipped fresh herbs like basil or dill. If you prefer bottled, I recommend Paul Newman's "Newman's Own Caesar"
dressing.

Remember, this dish is all about presentation at the table.
Spread lettuce on a large, flat tray. Then, alternating colors, spread other ingredients in lines across the lettuce. Have more egg than onion? Put the onions on the ends where the lines should be shorter, and the egg in the middle.
Alternate meat/veggie/dairy as well as colors.

If you don't have an ingredient, simply replace it with something else.
Marinated new red potatoes would be nice. Celery adds good crunch. Even sesame
seeds would be an interesting addition.

Serves four as an entree; serve with good, crusty bread.

Bread Machine Recipes

I recently received a second-hand bread machine from my mother-in-law (thank you!). I've figured out what buttons to push to make it go--it didn't come with an instruction booklet. Because I've made the one white bread recipe printed on the side of the machine so many times now that I'm bored with it, I went looking for other recipes.

Here are some good sites that offer a variety of Bread Machine Recipes:

• http://www.breadworld.com/ It's the Fleischman Yeast Company's site.
• http://southernfood.about.com/od/breadmachine/ "Southern" bread recipes like cajun and beer bread.
• http://breadnet.net/#ABM A crazy number of bread machine recipes from all over the world

Chicken Piccata & Bread Salad

I really am trying to make smart choices in cooking. Of course, this was a Sunday dinner, so it had to be a little fancy. We had the leftover No-Cook Tomato Basil Pasta from last night plus:

Chicken Piccata

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (pounded thin or butterflied if you want, but I just left mine as is, straight out of the freezer)
• 1/2 can chicken broth
• Juice of one lemon
• One large clove of garlic, smashed but not chopped
• Black pepper
• 1/4 cup (eyeball it) chopped parsley
• About 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• Grated Parmesan
• 1 teaspoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Capers (optional)

In a heavy skillet, place frozen chicken breasts, broth, lemon juice and garlic. Cover and simmer pm medium low about 15 minutes, turning occasionally. When cooked almost through, remove from pan. Reserve broth, straining first.

Add butter and olive oil to the pan--I wash the pan first--and turn pan to medium high. (NO NON-STICK PANS!). Return chicken to skillet and let brown, about 5 minutes each side.

Remove meat once again. Add pepper and parsley. Whisk some leftover broth with cornstarch in a cup till thin and lumps are gone, then add sparingly to sauce. Do this slowly. You don't want a sticky mess, just to thicken it slightly.

Sprinkle parmesan on chicken, then add sauce and capers. Garnish with parsley.

I have nice homemade bread that's just one day past eating for sandwiches. I also have lots of tomatoes from our backyard plants and the farmstand. Here's a simple recipe that celebrates the flavors of summer. It's all eyeballed and to your taste. Go easy. And remember, the bread is supposed to be soggy. It's bread salad.

Bread Salad (Panzanella) day-old homemade bread or other bakery bread--crusts are great--Cut fresh, juicy tomatoes, at least a pound, in coarse pieces. Whatever you do, don't dice into nothingness. This is not about mashed tomatoes. Throw on top of the bread.

Peel and slice a cucumber into 1/2 inch chunks. Don't worry about the seeds. They're good for you.

Add either thinly sliced red onion or chopped scallion (aka green onion).

Tear fresh basil--don't chop it. Throw it in.

Let it all sit for a while, then add 1/4 cup olive oil with a splash of balsamic vinegar whisked in. Season with salt & pepper. Taste. You might want to repeat the olive oil and vinegar.

Please, please, don't use store-bought Italian dressing or vinagrette. The fresh, summery flavors need only to be highlighted by the oil and vinegar, not overpowered by corn syrup, soybean oil, and artificial flavors.

Ham & Potato Hash with Eggs

If you are baking potatoes, throw two or three extra in the oven. Then, put them in the fridge (they'll keep for a few days). On Sunday morning, when you want to make nice hash browns, you'll have your potatoes all ready to go.

This is a hearty brunch, good for a crowd. Serves 4-8, depending on how hungry your crew is. It would make a nice dinner too.

Ham & Potato Hash with Eggs

• Three medium baking potatoes, cooked, cooled, and diced.
• One fresh green pepper, diced.
• 1/2 Cup yellow onion, diced.
• 1 ham steak, diced (the Farmer John ones are perfect for this, not expensive, the right thickness, etc. Watch for when they go on sale. Sometimes I get them for 29 cents, if they are needing to be sold. I pop them in the freezer and use within a month.)
• Butter/olive oil
• Eight eggs
• Shredded cheddar cheese (about 1/4 cup)
• Light sour cream
• Salsa

Heat a large skillet on medium high. I use an iron skillet when I'm cooking at this high heat. Remember, you never want to heat a non-stick skillet higher than medium (here's why). Melt approximately 1T butter and 1T olive oil in the pan. When hot, add the potatoes, and walk away for about five minutes. (Don't really walk away, but don't you dare think about stirring, turning, etc. All the yummy browness you're trying for will just stick to the pan.)

After about five minutes, check a potato. If it doesn't stick you can GENTLY turn the potatoes. Only turn them once. Cook another few minutes. Prep a large non-stick pan with a bit of olive oil and heat to medium-low. Add the potatoes, bring up to medium.

Add green peppers, onions and ham to the iron skillet and cook till fragrant. Watch not to burn. Add to the potato mixture. You can put the iron skillet aside--you won't need it anymore.

On medium heat, mix the hash and taste for seasoning. Remember to taste all the ingrediants together. The ham adds salt, so you should only need to add pepper and maybe some garlic powder.

Make eight indentations in the mix and crack eggs into each. Cover and cook on medium low for about six minutes.

Top with shredded cheese, then cover until cheese is melted.

Serve with a little light sour cream and your favorite salsa.

Fast and Cheap and Oh SOOOO Good!

We went to Casteneda Bros' farmstand today and picked up some good, big heirloom tomatoes. They are way bigger than mine.

I wanted to make a good dinner, but cheap and fast, as it's the first of the month and that means rent comes before fancy dinners. So what to do when you want to make a nice dinner for three, but you have about ten dollars? In California, where meat is expensive--as well as everything else?

One fresh (picked today!) green pepper, sliced. That's it! Cost: 50 cents
Two top loin sirloin steaks, total weight, just under a pound. On sale at Safeway: $4

Fresh Tomato & Basil Pasta
(I eyeballed all of this, so all measurements are approximate)

• About two to three cups chopped, FRESH tomatoes
• One big clove garlic, minced
• Fresh basil, about 10 big leaves, gently chiffonaded (cut in thin strips)--be careful with basil because it gets damaged and bruised easily. Handle it as little as possible.
• Approximately 8 oz ricotta cheese
• Two to three tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• red pepper flakes (if you need some heat)
• About 16 oz rugged pasta, like rigatoni or cappelletti

Put water on to boil, with olive oil and salt to taste. When boiling, add the pasta. As it cooks combine all other ingredients in a bowl, stir and taste for seasoning. Let sit. When pasta is al dente, drain well, but do not rinse. Add hot pasta to tomatoes, toss to coat.

Cost: Assuming you have the olive oil and other seasonings, about $4.

Here's an interesting pasta recipe site: http://www.barillaus.com/recipes__cooking.aspx

Steak Marinade

• Two cloves garlic
• About 1/4 C olive oil
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• Salt & pepper
• Fresh basil, about 2 tablespoons, chopped

Blend in a food processor. Then marinate steaks in a glass bowl for approximately 10 minutes.

I seared the steaks in an iron pan at high heat, treated with olive oil first. I cooked on both sides quickly, then deglazed the pan with about 1/4 cup red wine.

We enjoyed this dinner with homemade bread and fresh, local honey (cost: $5.50).

Belly Fat Foldover

People come to this site looking for the funniest things. Here's a sample of some of the phrases that have brought readers to my little blog:

1. zhizhig galnysh: Now I really do have a recipe for zhizhig galnysh on my blog. Someone in Kampong Batu Tiga Suku, Malaysia Googled this recipe, and once they found it, didn't want it.
2. tuscan potato salad: lots of folks looking for tuscan potato salad. If you don't like my recipe, here's another: Oh. Wait. Epicurious doesn't have one. Neither does FoodNetwork. Neither does Weight Watchers. Guess you're stuck with mine.
3. how to make icing out of regular butter: So this means you don't want royal icing. You don't want cream cheese icing. You don't want fondant. You want good, old fashioned cup cake icing. Okay.
4. organic prarie: Spelled wrong, but they got here. I guess I should edit my own spelling mistakes, huh? This is for Organic Prairie Ground Beef. Here's their link and here are my thoughts.
5. what to do with fresh coconut: okay, so I never cracked open my coconut and all the milk dried up and Juiceboy threw it away. Once a year I buy a coconut, and then it sits in the fruit bowl for two months and Juiceboy throws it away. Please, please, someone give me advice on what to do with fresh coconut!
6. how to sweeten unsweetened chocolate: um...you melt it in a double boiler and mix it with sugar. Or corn syrup. Adding a little butter helps too. Really, it's better to figure out what you want to make with the unsweetened chocolate, and then look for that recipe.

Pollo Asada

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. (I use the big frozen ones from Safeway and defrost them in the microwave)
Your favorite marinade. (If you're short on time, use a powdered one, like the McCormick "Zesty Herb" one. I watch for them to go on sale and buy a bunch when they are under seventy-five cents).

Throw the chicken breasts into a glass or ceramic dish, then toss the marinade on top. Cover and refrigerate. Go for a swim in the pool, or run through the sprinkler. Go inside for a glass of wine, and turn the chicken over. Start your barbeque (I prefer hardwood charcoal, not briquettes, and I use a chimney, no lighter fluid. Fluid leaves a yucky flavor.). Go for another swim. Finish your wine. After 20 minutes your charcoal should be ready. Clean & prep your grill--when it's hot, brush with olive oil. For god's sake, don't spray it with PAM--you'll blow yourself up! Get your chicken, throw it on. Once it's nicely browned on the first side, flip it. Test for doneness. Yum.

Okay. So I'll post a marinade recipe later. Gimme a break. That's really what we had on Saturday, with salad and rice. It was good. My mother ate the leftover chicken cold while she was floating around the pool Sunday afternoon.

Iced Coffee

It's too hot for regular coffee at home, but I was really missing my daily Starbucks non-fat, no-whip caramel mocha.

Here's what I came up with:

Iced Caramel Coffee Mocha

Brew your regular coffee, but make it a little stronger than normal.
Fill a tall glass halfway with ice cubes and cover with skim or 1% milk.
Add 1 tablespoon caramel sauce, 1.5 teaspoon chocolate sauce
Fill with coffee, stir and enjoy.

It's not Starbucks, but it also cost a LOT less!

Blueberry Tart

It's blueberry season. Juiceboy brought home a 2.5 pound basket of Canadian blueberries, and made a great dent in them, enjoying them with his Special K and strawberries each morning. I thought they might go bad pretty soon, and turned them into a tart.

We found it to be a rather tart, however, it was also quite sweet. I will make this again, spraying the pan before putting the crust in and cutting down the lemon a bit. A really nice alternative to ice cream, cake, etc. I think it would travel well, too.

Blueberry Tart

One Pillsbury roll-out crust
6 Cups fresh, washed blueberries
3/4 Cups sugar
1 t salt
1 T cornstarch
2 T cold water
2 T lemon juice
2 t lemon zest
1 T butter

First, cook the crust in a tart pan according to the directions. I did not spray my ceramic quiche dish (this would work better with a springform pan I think), but I will next time. Let the crust cool completely.

In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Add cold water and stir until smooth. Add lemon juice, zest, and butter, and 2 Cups of the blueberries. Turn on the heat to medium.

Mush the berries with a potato masher. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring, until thick. This will only take about 5 minutes. Mix in the remaining berries.

Let mixture cool, then pour into tart pan. Refrigerate for an hour, at least, before serving with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Tomato Hornworms

Yesterday I noticed my tomato plants were starting to look funky. Whole branches had lost their leaves. I didn't think, gee, this must be the work of something BIG, I thought, I must have a ton of tiny little bugs.

After some more searching, I gave a disgusted yelp. A big, disgusting, 4" green caterpillar. And I could hear it chomping away. On further inspection, I found three more. Today, another three. Will I be picking these foul things forever?

I've picked them off, sprayed with organic 3-in-1, but I'm afraid the infestation might be too big. As it is, I know I planted my plants too close to one another, let them over grow, etc. But will these disgusting creatures decimate my crop?

The above image is from http://www.yardener.com/Hornworms.html. I heartily recommend you check out www.yardener.com and their blog http://gardeneryardener.blogspot.com.

A thoroughly creepy site has a RECIPE for eating these bugs.

Employees Must Wash Their Hands

If ever I own my own restaurant, the sign in the bathrooms will say:

Employees who don't wash their hands will be shot;
and the rest of you who don't are disgusting.

Non-sustainable Farm Stands

I don't understand farm stands. We have one locally, Larry's Produce, that it all the rage with some folks. We stopped there today at about 4pm and the parking lot was packed. People ran around with yellow plastic wheelbarrows (there are no hand baskets), butting in front of other people, ignoring that there was a world around them.

But that doesn't matter. What matters is that we loved Larry's last summer. Good produce, most of it locally grown, at great prices.

This year the stand opened a month late, in June. Today was our first visit. It was late in the day and everything was understandably picked over.

But the green peppers were bruised and mal-formed, many of them with pale spots and dark tinged-stems. The eggplants were covered in flies. The peaches were bruised yet hard. And people had picked through the tomatillos and torn the husks down to check them out.

When we got home I discovered the asparagus was from Washington state and was in terrible condition. It was old and water-logged, and tasted like the cardboard it had been shipped in. The avocados were dark skinned but rock hard, and sported Chiquita stickers.

Only the tomatoes were any good. But I don't think it's tomato season yet, here in the Bay Area. My tomatoes are still green on the vine.

So my question is, should farm stands strive to stock only what is local and fresh? Wouldn't it make sense for Larry's to carry the delicious local strawberries, cherries and kiwis that are grown right down the street?

I don't care how cheap the produce is if I can't use half of it and the other half tastes like it arrived at my kitchen via the Panama Canal.

AKA Sawdust Cake

I can tell you now why banana cakes include sour cream or buttermilk or even, bleck, sour milk: to add moisture. I made a cake today that we were all looking so forward to trying. Honestly, we might be a chubby family, but I rarely bake. And rarely do I bake from scratch.

So, I used a recipe that had only ingredients I had: Chocolate Banana Cake. I'm not printing the version of it that I used (I actually added more butter than the recipe called for), simply because the cake turned out to be the driest cake ever.

Juiceboy asked if it was a trick cake, had I put sawdust in it? It was like those birthday candles that re-light when you blow them out...but with this, it looked like normal cake and then you put your fork in it and it fell into not pieces, but molecules.

If I made it again I'd add a ton of butter and eggs. But then, that wouldn't help this fat family. What if I added more banana? Or applesauce? Would that make a dry cake moist?

Oh, and for the frosting, I made a chocolate glaze, also from a strange recipe. The result was not good, so I monkeyed with it and it was just fine. The original called for brown sugar, cocoa powder, milk and vanilla. I also added corn syrup, butter and some regular unsweetened chocolate. Needless to say, it was much better than the cake itself.

"My Fridge Is Empty" Frosting?

I'm in the middle of baking a banana cake--one without nuts or sour cream. (Why is it every recipe out there wants bakers to use sour cream, sour milk (bleck!) or buttermilk??)

It's a chocolate banana cake and the batter was thick, thicker than brownies. I'm a little worried that the measurements on the recipe I found on the internet were off.

So, if it all works out, this should be a cake that needs a bit of frosting. It's got brown sugar in it, but not enough to completely sweeten the unsweetened chocolate in it.

My problem is, I used my last two "real" eggs (I've got plenty of healthy egg-in-a-carton) and my powdered sugar tastes like someone's foot. Does powdered sugar go stale? Especially after two years?

I've got butter, granulated sugar, 1% milk, brown sugar, vanilla, some old cream cheese, two cans of condensed milk, and a package of instant vanilla pudding. Any chance I can make icing out of that?

I don't think so either.

Tuscan Potato Salad

I picked up a nice bag of Yukon Gold potatoes tonight at the grocery store, and thought I was going to grill them up with olive oil, garlic & rosemary in an aluminum foil pouch. However, my sad little pile of coals was really only big enough for the pork tenderloin I was grilling, so I quickly adjusted.

After consulting with a few cookbooks (1,001 Vegetarian Recipes, a BBQ book, and the Professional Chef), I finally remembered I had the Monastery Salads book. So many potato salad recipes perfect for our warm California evening. I pieced together some ideas, and produced:

Tuscan Potato Salad

About 1.5 lbs yukon gold potatoes
1 Cup (approx) shredded carrot
1/2 Cup (approx) chopped celery
2 hardboiled eggs, sliced
1 T capers
Juice of one lemon
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Boil the potatoes until fork-tender. Run under cold water to cool. Cut into bite-size pieces in a medium bowl. Add remainder of ingredients, to taste. Toss and serve.

It's really easy, and much lighter than traditional gloopy, mayonnaisey pot. salad.

While the Bug thought the capers were "shocking," Juiceboy and I really enjoyed the salad with our tenderloin and snow peas. (The Bug tells me he liked the snow peas all on their own.)

We now have a subscription to Arrowhead

Having great-tasting, cold water delivered in gigantic batches to your house is a great way to drink more water. It’s always there, glugging up great bubbles, grumbling at you as you walk by.

We have gone through four huge jugs in two weeks, and will need another delivery in about two days (we get five ginormous bottles a month), doubling our consumption this month.

It’s a hot one!

No Wonder We're Fat!

Last night we sat down to what I thought would be a healthy, homemade dinner. And I realized as I looked over the dishes, it's no wonder we're fat. I'm filling up my family with all the wrong things.

I'd made turkey tacos. And while the substitution of ground turkey for ground beef was a good start, I should have gone farther.

Here's what I made:

Turkey Tacos
(one serving; all measurements approx.)

6oz ground turkey sauteed with taco seasoning
Two corn taco shells, warmed in oven
3 oz Refried beans (fat free)
2 T Chopped romaine lettuce
2 T salsa
3 T cheddar cheese

I'll post the total nutritional content for this later today (Dietwatch.com is down), but I'm sure it's not good. Where are my veggies? The tacos felt greasy just coming out of the package. And it just didn't seem like a well rounded meal.

I could have done a very similar meal, but made it salad based, and thrown in lots of veggies, skipped the cheese, and used one taco shell, or chips, for all three of us. And I'd use the salsa as the dressing.

And what did we have for dessert? Ice cream. No wonder Juiceboy felt junky this morning!

What do you do with Fresh Coconut?

On a whim I purchased a coconut. It sounds nice and sloshy. Once I get it open, what do you recommend I do with it?

Thoughts, recipes…?

The Mexican Challenge

Juiceboy and I both love Mexican food. I also enjoy other latino cuisines; true South American restaurants are a real treat for me.

We find ourselves running to the local taqueria way too often. I know gigantic burritos are not healthy for us, just on the shear volume of the food. (What, us, not finish what's on our plates???)

While I've been successful in swapping black beans for refried, and pollo asada (grilled chicken) for carne asada (grilled steak) for ole Juicy, I can't get him off the dairy wagon. the more cheese and sour cream, the better!

I've been getting a black bean and cheese burrito, thinking it was healthier than carnitas, and it probably is. But I watched the cook throw about 87 cups of cheese on top of the burrito, and my heart spasmed. So last night I ordered a *SALAD*. Of course, it came in a fat-fried shell, and had a thick layer refried beans, iceberg lettuce, and another thick layer of a yummy cheese.

Not your Weight Watchers salad.

So my challenge to you: send me your best HEALTHY Mexican recipes. Taste, nutrition and ease of cooking are important. Post them in the comments area here. The winner will receive a package of my favorite tortillas and a California avocado!

Zum Zum

How cool is *this* restaurant and shop? Lordy, I miss the East Coast!

Zum Zum

I'm not entirely sure that a jalapeno-filled pierogi is authentic Polish cuisine. Can you prove me wrong?

Icing Radicchio

I've wanted to grill radicchio for a while--it always sounds so good. I thought it would be a healthy side to the hamburgers and corn I'd thrown on the grill.

Unfortunately, I didn't read any recipes on how to cook it, so I didn't soak it in ice water first. Lordy, was it BITTER!

Next time this veggie is on sale (I think I dropped about $4.50 for a head that I tossed in the compost since it was inedible), I'll try Michael Chiraello's version.

Organic vs. "Deadly" Ground Beef

Yesterday was a perfect California Memorial Day: 80 degrees, blue sky, cool pool. I spent the afternoon reading and helping the Bug with a school project, and then I eased myself into the water when the sun got too hot. After that, the only thing that could top the day was a cold Sierra Nevada and burgers on the grill.

I bought two types of ground beef: Safeway's 93% lean at $4.69 a pound, and Organic Prairie's 85% lean at $5.59 a pound. I wanted to see what the difference was, other than the manufacturer's claims of the organic beef being "The most delicious and safe meat."

The organic meat seemed to be ground finer, with more consistent coloring, while the regular ground beef was a thicker grind, with lots of marbling. This surprised me, as it was supposed to be the leaner meat. Is the organic beef ground twice for a better mix?

When it came down to taste, I have to admit--I flubbed it. I forgot which ones were the organic ones when I laid them on the grill. And, I cooked them to well-done, instead of medium. I love a rare burger, but in these days of salmonella poisoning, I just didn't want to chance it.

The long and short of it was, we couldn't tell a difference from taste or texture. Since we rarely eat ground beef at home, I'm going to go the organic route from here on out. Yes, it's more expensive, but the Safeway brand was only cheaper because it was on sale.

Here's some good recipes from Organic Prarie: http://www.organicprairie.com/recipes.html

ZHIZHIG GALNYSH

Yesterday, I went to lunch with a friend who's Chechen. I work with her and haven't known her for long, but I like her. She speaks many different languages, and seems to have a tapestry of experience that most people I know will never have. We ate lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. Sometimes we don't entirely understand one another, and our conversations can sometimes be stilted, sometimes with long pauses before we respond to one another, as we try to understand what the other one is getting at.

We got to talking about different types of restaurants: Middle Eastern, Russian, Thai. She mentioned that Chechen food is quite different than Russian, but couldn't explain how. Just that it was. "It's very complicated cooking," she said. It seemed, from her description, to have a lot of steps.

Her inability to describe what Chechen dishes are like raised my curiousity, and I told her I'd find some recipes to try. The following is from The Prague Post, a review of "The Refugee's Cooking Pot":

ZHIZHIG GALNYSH
Serves four
INGREDIENTS
• 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) meat
• 4 potatoes
• 4 onions
• fat for frying
• 1 kilogram corn flour
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 cup plain flour
• 4-5 cloves garlic
Optional: carrots, parsley, green onions, dill, according to taste

PREPARATION
• Boil meat (chicken or any other, except pork). When cooked, allow to cool, cut into small pieces and lay aside.
• Reserve approximately 150 milliliters (about half a cup) of the stock and put into a bowl with garlic, finely chopped.
• Boil the potatoes and mash them coarsely -- but not to the level of a puree.
• Chop the onions and saute with carrots and herbs, if desired. Add onions and reserved stock with garlic to the potato mash to form a thick soup.
• Prepare pancakes by mixing flours together and slowly adding very hot water while stirring until a thick dough is created. (If you do not have corn flour, you can use the same amount of plain wheat flour with an egg instead. In this case, roll the dough flat and cut into squares.) Form small cakes, approximately 3 centimeters (just over 1 inch) in diameter. Gently drop the cakes (or squares) into a pot of boiling water and cook for 15 minutes.
• Add the cooked pancakes to the potato-garlic soup.

• To serve this dish in the typical Chechen manner, as it is served at special occasions, seat guests around the table and place the soup in the center. Place a serving of meat in a bowl, pour the soup over and season with more chopped garlic.

Nearly a Year...and Fatter?

This does not bode well for this blog. My first post was nine months ago. I was supposedly determined to cook more healthy meals for my family. And through that, wouldn't you think I'd lose weight too?

But I'm fatter. And I think Juiceboy is too. Maybe for him it's been pints of Ben & Jerry's, maybe for me it's been wine and Croissanwiches. I definitely need to exercise more and control my portions. Cutting down fats is a big goal too.

We are eating more fiber, more fruits and vegetables, and less meat. In the past, I loved to make big meaty dinners on Saturday and Sunday nights, feasting on the leftovers throughout the week. This weekend we had much leaner fare, albeit non-vegetarian.

The "You'd Pay a Lot for This in a Fancy Restaurant Dinner" #1

Spinach and Cheese-stuffed Raviolis tossed with Fresh Asparagus, Shaved Garlic and Olive Oil.

Fresh British Columbia Clams steamed in a garlic-olive oil broth, garnished with minced parsley.

Hot garlic-studded Pugliese Bread.

I'd been shopping at Costco when I was hungry. The raviolis are fresh pasta and large-sized pieces. Five of them are a filling serving, especially when tossed with a pound of asparagus.

Question: they've created Beano to deal with gas. Has anyone come up with something to minimize asaparagus pee? Is there anything grosser than going into a bathroom after 10 people who've eaten asparagus?

The clams were also a Costco item. I definitely don't need five POUNDS of clams, but I don't have a fishmonger here to purchase fresh shellfish from. So Costco it is.

I steamed the clams with olive oil, white wine, garlic and chicken broth. I used the wrong kind of pot though and I felt they had a chlorinated taste to them. I was quite disappointed, but the Bug ate clams with gusto. DH abstained...he's not big on clams just for clams' sake--that's why I made the ravioli as well.

The best thing about the dinner? Leftovers! Watch for the delish clam chowder tomorrow.

Pepper Seeds for backyard yummies

There's a good site for seeds for backyard peppers:

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/hot_peppers.htm

Veggie Cinco de Mayo

Like St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo is a contrived holiday for the rest of us who don’t hail from the country of origin. Rather than go out drinking (are there other drinking holidays like these? New Year’s Eve….), I chose to make a nice dinner for my family.

I was craving carnitas, that delicioso braised pork it seems I can only get at taquerias. I’d noticed that Costco was carrying it. Only problem: Juiceboy is deep in the thick of veggiedom.

What to do? I made a vegetarian Mexi-fest.

Vegitas (fajitas minus the meat)
One yellow onion, thinly sliced.
One large red bell pepper, sliced
One Anaheim pepper (or other mildly hot pepper)

Stir fry the veggies until soft. Add one packet of fajita seasoning mix and ~1/2 cup water, simmer on low until sauce has reduced. Serve with hot tortillas, guacamole, shredded cheese.

Another meatless entree that was enjoyed by all was:

Chile Rellenos

Roast poblano peppers (the bigger the pepper, the better)
Once the skin is charred and blistered, pop in a paper bag for about 15-20 minutes. After this the skin will come off easily.
Slice down the middle to remove the seeds. I like to remove the stems and top, though this results in a floppier chile. Some restaurants serve the chile seeds and all, but I don’t recommend this, as the seeds are the hottest part of the chile and it’s just darned unpleasant to have all these little seeds marring your cheese.
Fill with the shredded cheese of your choice. I was lazy and used the pre-shredded Mexican mix from Safeway.
Top the cheese with scallions.
Bake until the cheese is melted. (350 degree oven, about 15 minutes)

I like these in a tortilla, Juiceboy ate them with a knife and fork. The Bug gave his away.

I served these two dishes with black beans, rice (Uncle Ben’s makes a really nice garlic & butter rice that I get for special occasions, otherwise I make it myself), guacamole, chopped cilantro, chopped romaine lettuce, good salsa, and sliced black olives.

Guacamole tacos are a good option too!

Waldorf Salad

Juiceboy has gone veggie on his annual summer-detox stint. I bought a trillion dollars worth of veggies and fruit yesterday and realized that I needed to use a bunch of it for dinner last night because it wouldn't all fit in the fridge!

Here's my version of the famous Waldorf Salad:
A bunch of organic spring mix (lettuce)
One bunch celery, chopped
Approximately 2 cups red seedless grapes, halved
One apple, cored and chopped (I like Pink Ladies but any firm apple will do)
1/2 cup cashews
One big spoonful light mayo
1/4 cup Litehouse Pommegranate Raspberry Vinegarette

Toss it all together, adjusting the dressing to your taste. My family likes more mayo, I like more vinegarette. Either way, this salad was a big hit.

Juiceboy said "This salad rocks!" and The Bug said, "Mom, can you make this salad every Sunday?"It definitely was a great main course salad!

Too much cholesterol

I learned to consume less sodium. More Calcium. More fiber. And now I'm battling cholesterol.

Through Dietwatch and my obsessive logging of everything I've been eating I've discovered I had NO CLUE what was in an egg. And all the crazy nooks and crannies that cholesterol can hide.

Have I really eaten the equivalent of an egg a day for the past five years? Is *that* how I packed it all on?? Here's a quick, fresh breakfast recipe for the egg lovers out there who want to keep living. Watch the fat the rest of the day though, because your avocado is just nature's butter.

Eggy Tortilla Taco

Heat a small cast iron skillet, spray lightly w/non-stick spray.
Saute 1/4 to 1/2 cups chopped green onions till fragrant (about one minute).
Add 1/4 cup Egg Beaters. On medium low, cover lightly so top sets.

In another cast iron skillet, heat a 10" tortilla. I prefer homemade or Guerrero's Fresqui Ricas (these are ones are are fresh and not fully cooked yet). If you can do whole wheat or low fat, go for it.

Open an avocado. Put the tortilla on a plate. Scoop the avocado onto the tortilla, slice several times on an angle with your spatula.

Slide the finished eggs onto the tortilla next to the avocado. Add seasonings, salt, pepper, to your taste.

Fold and eat!

(This is not low-fat, but it does have a lot of fiber and it's a nice weekend treat).

Calories
324
Total Fat
18g
Fiber
10g
Protein
12g

Whole and Organic Foods

With all the struggles we have with the foods we love to eat, one of the remedies we're trying is stocking the house with whole and organic foods. The following was a tasty fritatta that was quick and easy to make, and made a nice Sunday brunch for us groan-ups. (The Bug wasn't touching it!)

Fleagirl's Asparagus Fritatta

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium and add 1T olive oil.
Chop some yellow onion, saute.
Chop, at an angle, 7 to 10 spears of asparagus. Saute with onion.
Thaw ~1/4 to 1/2 box of frozen spinach and throw it in the pan.
Add in a healthy amount of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, & Italian seasoning to taste.

When asparagus is nice and bright green, put the veggies in a round or square glass pan, ~8 inches, that you'd sprayed with cooking spray.

Add a 16oz container of egg substitute.

Cook for about 30 minutes, or until egg has set.

Serve with fresh fruit and a piece of crusty bread.

Shall I Cleanse My Colon?

I subscribe to Dietwatch’s Daily tips. Today’s was the following. Personally, I think this would just make me throw up:

“Spring Cleaning

We’re talking about your colon here, not your closet.

If you’ve considered cleansing out your colon (part of your large intestine), you should know that not everyone thinks it necessary to do so; some health experts maintain that the colon takes care of the body’s waste on its own and needs no help. Others think it’s a remedy for illness and a way to keep your body healthy. Here’s one way do it safely, if you so choose:

Mix juice of a whole lemon with 2 T. olive oil and lots of cayenne pepper in 8-10 ounces of water. Lemon has a laxative effect, cayenne pepper stimulates the immune system, and olive oil helps the gallbladder and liver eliminate toxins.”

See more progress on: Lose 100 lbs.

Officially Hit Maximum Density

Two nights ago I officially hit maximum density.

I’ve been watching my face get fuller in the pale reflection of my computer screen recently. And I’ve been wearing a suit jacket to cover the ever-slowly increasing mound of my stomach-flap (what is that fold-over stomach fat thing called, anyway?). And I changed out of a pair of strangely-colored gold jeans because my ass was the size of New Hampshire.

Now, lest you think I’m just some normal-sized chick who has strange weight issues, let me tell you: I’m not. I’m officially obese, and I think the phrase “morbidly obese” actually can be attached to me. As in, “You know Fleagirl, she’s the morbidly obese redhead.”

Mmmm. Yummy.

I know have not 100 pounds to lose to hit my goal weight, but officially 128 pounds. Yes, a whole human being needs to be shed from my frame.

And as I’m turning 36 this year, I don’t have anymore time to waste.

So, what I’ll do to accomplish this:

Stop eating out. No more stopping for Burger King on my way to work. No more totally expensive but delicious Chinese food. Track my nutritional intake on Dietwatch.com. When I lost the 55 pounds that I have since found, I used Dietwatch and found I was sorely lacking in calcium but ate way too much sodium. And I really thought about the nutritional value of what I put into my body.Start walking DAILY. Just move your fat ass, Fleagirl. Gawd!Do yoga or pilates for stretching all the kinks.Cut down on caffiene and alcohol. Sigh.Sleep at least seven hours every night. No more 6-hour nights all week and 13-hour nights on Friday and Saturday.

*Stop feeding my family meals cooked with butter, sour cream & other yummy, dairy products that are really killers.

See more progress on: Lose 100 lbs.

Roasts and Cakes

When it's the time of month that we're pinching pennies, I realize I go back to cooking meals like my grandmother would. Big, inexpensive cuts of meat like pork or beef, or even a large chicken, that I can cook on a Sunday and have last throughout the week. And cakes or pies instead of the premium one-night pints of ice cream.

Last night I roasted a five-pound pork shoulder. It was $1.59 a pound. Of course, it was a bit fattier than a tenderloin would be, but at $8 it was a lot cheaper, too. I stuffed finely minced garlic into slits made with a small knife, then liberally seasoned with salt and pepper. A bay leaf went into the pan, and a lot of thyme went into a half-cup of white vinegar, which went over the roast.

The recipe I used said to cook it at 325 for 35 minutes a pound, but I don't think that was right. They missed something there--let it get to 150 degrees first, and then the 35 minutes per pound? Pork and chicken are those meats that my family just doesn't mess around with being undercooked. And of course, one thermometer said it was done, and the other didn't. I just sliced some up and ended up slowly microwaving them on low power till I knew they'd be quite cooked, while the roast stayed in the oven to finish cooking.

A gravy was made with the pan juices mixed in with canned chicken gravy (which I'd bought previously on sale). Yellow gold potatoes were cut into bite-sized bits and seasoned with kosher salt, pepper, rosemary, and tossed in olive oil. I cooked those at 355 for about an hour, until they were well roasted on the bottom.

I quartered a cauliflower and carmelized one side of each piece in an iron skillet, then added some water to the pan and gently steamed. For the Bug I heated up creamed corn, and for the dh and me added a starchy treat of cornbread stuffing, which we'd had already in the cupboard (bought on sale, of course).

The dinner, overall, cost about $13, including tax. The leftover pork can be sliced up and eaten as is with the leftover sides, or cubed and cooked as sweet and sour pork, or chopped and eaten as a version of carnitas in burritos and tacos.

And then there was the white cake and chocolate icing, which were a total of $2.50. Since I cooked it in one 8-inch square pan it dried out a bit on the sides so the center could finish. I'd have cooked it less and had a less-done center if I'd thought of it. The icing is Duncan Hines, I believe, in the new big container and it says it's whipped. The flavor isn't my favorite. It doesn't have a rich chocolate taste to it; I think I taste the shortening more. The cake is worth about what it cost to make, though it smelled great while it was baking, and it looks nice.

Guala-comma Sauce

There's a Betty Grable movie called Moon Over Miami where kooky co-star Charlotte Greenwood woos bellboy Jack Haley with her fantastic "gualacomma sauce." For years Juiceboy and I referenced the gualacomma sauce, but we have no clue if it's guacamole, or something else.
In the effort to find a replacement for mayonaise and aoili, here's the result:

Fleagirl's Gualacomma Sauce, take one:

2 Haas avocados
Juice of two limes
1/3 C olive oil
1 garlic clove (or half of one if it's big)
Rosemary
Basil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mash the mix up a bit and then blend it in a food processor or blender until it's absolutely smooth. Taste for seasonings and thickness. It should be the consistency of mayonaise--nicely spreadable. Use on sandwiches, crackers, or with vegetables. Nice for backyard barbeques too: hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.