Macadamia Nut Pesto

MacNut Pesto. Yes, it is as good as it sounds. Here's J's recipe:

3 c. basil leaves, packed
1/2 c. spinach leaves, packed
1/4 c. parsley, packed
1 c. oil
1 tsp. salt
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 handful raw macadamia nuts (just over 1/4c.)

Chop mac nuts in food processor. Add remaining ingredients except oil. Coarsley chop, stopping to push leaves down. Slowly add oil. Mix with pasta and devour (see above photo).

Don't let the expression fool you - Mr. Serious Face loved it. See the pesto all over his face?

Garden: week 1

Greetings from the cutest garden gnomes ever.

Garden progress has been made! Thursday the kids and I went out to the garden for a little weeding and onion planting in the late afternoon. J met us there after work and helped while we ate a picnic dinner and I finished getting 6 (short) rows of yellow Stuttegarter onions planted.

Today (Saturday) we went back for a 4-hour stint. J finished turning the soil and getting compost mixed in, so now the whole plot is ready for plants! YAY! I planted more rows of the yellow onions (14.25 total), 3 rows of red onions, and 1.75 rows of shallots. That leaves one small section on that half of the garden for perennial herbs, strawberries, and Doodle's fairy house.

On the other half we started planting some starts I bought (spinach, chard and bok choy) plus pea seeds. These we caged with a little wire enclosure as the garden-wide fence will not be up until May 14th and we want to keep the rabbits and groundhogs out. If our camera were not acting up I would have taken a photo of our lovely garden today (and of my first farmer's burn/tan of the season). Alas, no photos. Instead, here's one of the garden from last weekend, photoshopped with our current garden layout plan.

When we return from Utah we'll be just a week away from the average last frost day. One more week after that and we're getting tomatoes!!!! and peppers... which I just realized I forgot to put on the diagram. Drat. Next week.

The birds want you to...

Roo loves birds. He's also pretty easily distracted. The other day we were sitting at the table for breakfast and Roo was crumpling his waffle, laughing at his sister, and doing anything BUT eating. Finally he noticed the birds outside the kitchen door, pecking at the bird seed we'd scattered.

Me: "Roo, do you see the birds?"
Roo: "Yep!"
Me: "Are they eating?"
Roo: "Yep!"
Me: "You should eat too."
Roo: blank stare, continues to crumple waffle
Me: "The birds want you to eat too."
Roo: immediately starts shoveling waffle into his mouth

I think we're on to something...

Homemade chocolate syrup

You guys! You have got to try this! Homemade chocolate syrup that is inexpensive and DIVINE. Oh my goodness. The recipe is here. Couldn't be easier.

We may have to make ice cream tonight just to have a substrate on which to consume more chocolate syrup. YUM.

Edited to add: I have a new favorite morning drink. Take one cup of coffee and stir in one spoonful of this syrup. Soooo good.

Maui: date night @ Sansei

My sister gave us a great Christmas present while in Maui: her babysitting services so we could go out on a date, our first real date since Doodle was an infant!

We headed to Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar, a restaurant we found listed in some brochure as the best Japanese fusion restaurant in Maui. They weren't kidding. I didn't get any photos of dinner, but lucky for us (and you), lots of other people have posted photos of their fabulous Sansei meals on Flickr. Are you ready to see the amazingness that was our dinner?

The drinks:

Lychee Martini

Lychee vodka martini, garnished with lychee sorbet balls. Yum.

We also had some Sho Chiku Bai “Nigori” (Cloudy Sake). The best sake I've had so far.

The Food:

Panko Crusted Ahi Sashimi Sushi Roll

"Sashimi grade Hawaiian ahi, arugula and spinach wrapped into a sushi roll, panko-crusted, flash-fried and served with Sansei’s mild soy wasabi butter sauce." OMG amazing. Amazing amazing amazing.

Sansei's Shrimp Dynamite

"Crispy tempura shrimp tossed with creamy garlic masago aioli with an unagi glaze drizzle." Yuuummmmm.

Mackerel nigiri, the Alaska Flower Roll, and a Lobstertail and Asparagus roll. All very yummy and fresh. Mmmmm.

Matsuhisa style Miso Butterfish - "Tender butterfish marinated and roasted in sake and sweet miso." Click on the link to see the photo. So SO good.

Finally, Dessert:

Tempura Fried Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

"Vanilla ice cream wrapped with buttery pound cake, rolled in roasted macadamia nuts, flash-fried and served with chocolate and caramel sauces."

I'm of the opinion that this should be the only dessert option they offer. It is mind-blowingly delicious AND decidedly Hawaiian. Why get New York-style cheesecake or chocolate cake and ice cream that you could get anywhere when you can get THIS?

This was such an amazing dinner. It was great to get away with just J, and we got to appreciate some really awesome food while doing so. In all, a perfect evening. Special thanks to my sibs who entertained the kiddos, and family members who gave us cash for Christmas "to spend as we wish". You bought us one heck of a memorable dinner. Thank you!

I love it

...when my kids love the food I make.

Pictured: stuffed 8-ball zucchini. Based on the Fat-free Vegan 8-ball zucchini recipe, but highly modified to include fatty pork sausage, among other deliciousness.

Drowning in apricots

About 1.5 weeks ago we picked apricots. Lots of apricots. The friends of a friend of ours had a tree full of apricots and didn't want them to go to waste. I inquired about picking, and they happily invited us over to "take as much as we wanted."

We brought home six boxes worth of apricots.

This is where those who have processed and canned fruits ask "what in the world possessed you to take so many? What can any one family do with SIX BOXES of apricots?"

That is a very good question.

We made 31.5 pints worth of apricot goo - like applesauce, but with apricots. Doodle loves it, J likes it, and we could use it to feed a small army if necessary. No scurvy in the long winter months for this family!

We also made two dehydrator-loads worth of apricot-applesauce fruit leather, which will hopefully last our frugivorous child at least partway through the winter. *fingers crossed* Oh, and we gave ~3lbs to a friend to give to another friend to make into Apricot Hefeweisen and jam.

Yes, ridiculous amounts of apricot product. I know. Want to see what the process looked like?

Half of our sink was commandeered for the apricot cleansing.

Then the cooking of the goo. Lots of goo.

My view of the pitting process, 31 weeks pregnant. Added bonus: it was dang hot in our house, so I rarely had my shirt pulled down over my belly. Good for not overheating. Bad for avoiding the occasional squirt of apricot juice in the bellybutton. Blech!

OMG Awesome

Two new favorite recipes:

Rhubarb soda. Simple and so delicious.

Plain whole wheat bagels. A little bit of work, but fresh bagels are well worth it.

If you need me (and it's not teaching or thesising hours) I'll be in our kitchen making more of this yumminess.

It's coming...

The Chocolate Festival is tomorrow!

Hope to see you there!

Wonton skin recipe

Since you asked, here's the recipe for the wonton skins I made. It is from the Joyce Chen Cookbook.

Wonton skins (recipe also used for egg roll skins and egg noodles)

2 c. flour
1 egg or egg white (I used the whole egg)
1/3 c. cold water

Beat the egg with water and add to flour. Stir thoroughly until well mixed. Knead for about 5 minutes into a stiff dough. Cover dough with a damp cloth and let set for at least 30 minutes.

This dough should be very stiff and after covering with a damp cloth the dough will be more smooth and softened a little. Since the dryness of the flour is influenced by the humidity of the weather, sometimes the flour has to be kept in a very dry place or it will not form together. You must then wet your hands, shaking off the excess water, and knead until the dough forms together. You may wet your hands for a second time but never over three times.

Put about 1 cup dry corn starch in a clean handkerchief or two layers of cheese cloth, tightening with string to flour the board and dough. [editor's note: dusting with cornstarch helped A LOT to keep the noodles from sticking to eachother.] If making noodles, divide the dough into four equal parts and form each into a round cake. Roll flat repeatedly until dough is very thin and about 12" in diameter. Flour both sides, then cut into about 1/16" wide strips. [editor: I used a KitchenAid pasta roller attachment, which worked great.]

To make egg roll and wonton skins, divide the dough into six pieces and follow the same procedure as for noodles. Roll out also to 12" in diameter which will make the skins thinner than the noodles. Cut the thin cake into four quadrants to make egg roll skins. Cut into nine even pieces for wonton skins.

Happy cooking!

Ooh, Chocolate...

The Chocolate Festival is coming! The Chocolate Festival is coming!

Saturday, February 7th is Logan's annual Valentine Chocolate Festival. The festival starts at 6:30pm at the Carousel Room of the Bullen Center (43 S. Main, next to the Eccles Theater). It's best to be there right at the start to get a chance at some of the professional chocolate masterpieces. $5 gets you in the door with a booklet of tickets to exchange for chocolate - but you can always buy more than one! Plus there are both a silent and live auction after voting is done, in which you can take home some of the delectable chocolate creations. Proceeds benefit the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, Logan chapter.

When else do you have the opportunity to mingle with awesome people while stuffing your face full of amazing, gall bladder-killing chocolatey goodness while supporting a good cause? (See that photo? That's an entry from a previous year. We're talking rooms FULL of chocolate like that. Still think you're busy that night?)

Loganites, let me know if you want to make a group outing of it. I'll be there.

Kung Hay Fatt Choy!

Our Chinese New Years Eve party was a success. We fed 14 people and had only a bit of leftovers. The company was great and the food was awesome.

This was the menu:

Cooked spinach salad with walnut dressing
Homemade potstickers with lamb filling
Seasoned black mushrooms
Wonton soup with wontons made from scratch
Char siu baos (steamed bbq pork buns)
Pork & shrimp lo mein (noodle dish)
Whole ocean trout, steamed
Sticky rice New Year cake
Almond cookies
Clementines and canned lychee fruit

These were all new recipes to us, so there was an element of discovery and experimentation in the process. The reviews were very positive. I doubt anyone went away hungry. Some even took home leftovers.

Homemade potstickers. Aren't they beautiful?

First course: spinach salad (the green stuff in the bowl) and seasoned mushrooms (in the brown bowl). The first batch of potstickers had already been devoured.

Remnants of the lo mein (red platter) and ocean trout (round platter). The ocean trout was amazingly moist and buttery tasting. Sooooo good.

I was having so much fun eating and cooking and socializing that I forgot to take pictures. So little photographic evidence of the feast exists (note the absence of wonton soup and bao pictures - we were all busy cooking or eating). Oh well. It was delicious. We'll definitely make these dishes again, though probably not all at once - it's a lot of work.

When you invite friends and then refuse to let them bring something for the meal, they instead bring you lovely, useful gifts. Like toilet paper. Thanks, Ellen! We'll think of you whenever... ok, maybe it's better that we don't. But thanks!

We wrapped up the evening by playing with Doodle's wooden play food (who'd have thought a bunch of biology nerds would love cutting apart pieces of wooden food attached with velcro?) and an awe-inspiring round of dish washing. To everyone who stayed and cleaned our kitchen: thank you. You are now our favorite people. And you're on the top of the invite list for next year. :-)

I'm off to enjoy the last bit of wonton soup and almond cookies.

Kung Hay Fatt Choy, everyone!
(that means Happy New Year)

Chinese New Year prep, part 3

Char siu baos: success. Dee-licious! That's a bao above, but not a photo I took. The bao, and directions for making it, are here. Or more drool-worthy photos on Flickr here.

Almond cookies: success. Also delicious. I'll have pictures once our darn rechargeable batteries will stay charged. (grumble grumble)

This afternoon we'll be up to our ears in wontons and jiaozi (potstickers) if all goes well.

I'll share any recipes requested after this mad culinary spree is done. But now, back to the kitchen!

Chinese New Year prep, part 2

Chinese barbecued pork: done. Remarkably easy.
Egg noodles from scratch: done. Easier than I thought, especially with a pasta roller setup.
Wonton wrappers: done. Ditto, as this recipe is the same as the egg noodle one. Two birds with one stone and all that jazz. Hooray!

J is in the kitchen right now working on char siu bows (or baos) - steamed barbecued pork buns. They're really more of a dim sum dish, but they're one of his favorites (and mine) so we're making them.

Tomorrow we wrap the wontons and make the potstickers (jiaozi) and almond cookies.

Then Sunday we'll steam lots of stuff, make rice, a cooked spinach salad, wonton soup, a noodle dish (lo mein) and sticky rice new years cakes (nian gao). Then we feast!

Chinese New Year prep, part 1

J and I have decided to have a proper Chinese New Year celebration. Ok, so it'll be on Chinese New Years Eve (this Sunday), but still. We're going to make a bunch of yummy Chinese food, which we're both excited and kind of nervous about. Why nervous, you ask? Because neither of us have ever made any of these dishes before. And we'll be serving them to guests. So we'll see how it goes.

I think we've finally got almost all of the ingredients, so today I started prepping stuff.

Chinese barbecued pork - sliced and currently marinading in the fridge. We'll cook it either tonight or tomorrow.

Egg noodles/wonton wrappers - dough is resting, and will be flattened and sliced into noodles using our super awesome KitchenAid pasta roller/cutter setup shortly. If that works well, I'll make some more and cut it into wonton wrappers while Doodle is napping.

More updates as we make progress and learn what to do (or, probably more accurately, what not to do) when trying out some new Chinese dishes.

Pumpkin poppy seed goodness

This is by no means a food blog. I'm far from a culinary expert. But if you're bored and have some pumpkin (or squash) and some poppy seeds lying around, you should try this recipe. It's yummy.

Pumpkin poppy seed muffins.

You can thank me later.

Pumpkin pie

Last night we were puttering around after watching a cheesy movie (the Great Race, in case you're wondering). We asked Doodle what she wanted to do. She replied, "pie!" We asked what kind, and she replied, "punkupunkum" which we interpreted to mean pumpkin. J and I both agreed that a pie sounded delicious, so we dashed to the kitchen and started throwing things together. Twenty minutes later we had a fully-assembled pie. Hooray for teamwork! Pie completed (and a couple slices eaten) before bedtime. We rock.

The pie was delicious. So why do I feel bad that, as of noon today, the pie is gone?

Of course I can!

I am so excited that winter is drawing near. No, not because of the skiing (though it might be nice to try this year). I'm excited because canning season is almost done. I am SO DONE with canning.

Last year we got into canning. We preserved some tomatoes, some apricots, and a bunch of pickles. I kind of felt compelled to do it, wanting to provide sustenance for my family in those long winter months ahead (ignoring the modern conveniences of grocery stores and international shipping of produce). This year I just went crazy. I figured last year we did well, this year why not can more? And why not try some new things? That, my friends, is where I made my mistake.

Want some advice when it comes to canning? Here goes:

1) Warnings about hot pepper preparation are to be heeded. Otherwise your hands will feel like they're on fire for at least a full day, if not longer. Pain is amplified if you run your hands under hot water, scratch your nose, or bite your fingernails.

2) If everyone you talk to seems surprised that you'd want to can corn rather than freeze it, ask yourself why that might be. It's probably because canning is a lot more work, and the end product doesn't taste that great. PLUS canned corn in the store, even organic, is really pretty cheap.

3) Ditto on the green beans. Do you know how long it takes to pick, wash, chop, pack, and process green beans? For.bloody.ever. Don't do it.

4) Learned last year: if your family isn't all that excited about some bit of produce (say, plums) that is in abundance and free, don't go all out canning it. They won't be any more excited once it's been processed and sat in the basement all winter. Anybody want some canned plums?

Now, for personal edification, here is the list of our canning results this year. I haven't counted up how many jars we have yet, but the shelves in the basement are filling.

• Chopped tomatoes
  
• Pureed tomatoes
• Tomato juice
• Salsa
• Pickles (dill)
• Relish
• Corn
• Green beans
• Apricots
• Peaches
• Peach juice
• Applesauce

Ah, winter. I'll be able enjoy my weekends, not worrying about getting up early to go to the farmer's market. No stressing about the boxes of produce in the kitchen that will all turn to mush if I don't process them *NOW*. And I'll have yummy, fresh-tasting tomato sauces in those cold winter months. Hmm, maybe it was worth it...

beware the Romas

I really think you should read this. I think the author is right on about corporate agriculture. Remember the spinach scare? Seems like a new thing every spring/summer that we should be afraid about. Maybe we should just start growing our own food, or buying from local farmers we trust. Seems like an easier solution to me.