empire state of mind

Disclaimer: this post is not really about food. Well, maybe. We'll see.

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Tomorrow I embark on a journey across the country, to an unknown land...New York, baby!! Jon's lovely sister Jessie is marrying her sweetheart Steve at a gorgeous golf course in Long Island. I am so honored to have been invited to share in this celebration with them. Jon's parents and siblings have been like my second family in the 4 1/2 years together. It will be a really special week, to be sure - great company, great location, and a great reason to celebrate!

Only one hurdle had to be confronted before I could really get excited: packing. That daunting task is the bane of my traveling existence! I am a notorious overpacker. Just ask Jon: weekends at his place in LA always call for a full duffel bag, a smaller bag, and a stuffed purse, full of those "just-in-case" items like an umbrella (despite a sunny forecast), extra pairs of underwear, another pair of shoes that doesn't really go with anything but just in case I break a pair, an extra shirt in case I spill something on myself...you get the idea. So this time around, I vowed to keep it simple. My weapons of choice for packing light: a strict list, and the bundle packing method. Originally introduced to me through the lovely ladies at academichic, I decided to give it a whirl for this trip.

My progress, in pictures:

Laying out clothes on my bed. I think I ended up with 5 shirts, 1 pair shorts, 1 skirt, 1 pair jeans, 2 cardigans, 3 dresses (wedding, rehearsal, casual), running stuff, and 4 pairs of shoes (couldn't help myself!).

I arranged my garments around my "core" of undies, my fabulous madebyhank clutch (looking at you, Joyce), and a pair of wedges.

Ta-dah! The final package, nestled in my carry-on with room for gym clothes, jewelry, wedding shoes, and my hairdryer.
I just need to put a few things in Jon's check-on, namely another pair of shoes, my sneakers, and my bigger liquids like sunscreen. But otherwise, I'm a carry-on kinda gal this week! Woo!

Now I'm free to dream about days by the pool, greasy slices of New York-style pizza, and of course, seeing Jessie as a beautiful bride :)

Here's hoping for safe travels, and many adventures (food and otherwise) in the Empire State!

blow-ups and blondies

These last few weeks have been busy! Graduations, people moving away for school, people coming back to school, work getting hectic, training for another half marathon in June...whew. It's a wonder I haven't thrown in the towel and quit cooking - I hardly have time these days! But despite crazy times, I can never be found far from my kitchen.

So what's been cookin', you might ask? In truth, nothing fancy. Some bread pudding and snickerdoodles to satisfy my sweet tooth. Tried out arugula for the first time...and the last. Cooked a delicious dinner with my dear friend Meg. Still obsessed with tilapia - for once, "cheap" and "flaky" are actually good things.

Which brings me to the "blow up" part of this post's title (which sort of sounds like an ad for a porn shop...but I digress). Last week I attempted to bake tilapia, which involved marinating the fish in lemon juice and herb seasoning, then placing it under the broiler for about 5 minutes or so. We don't own a broiling pan, so I grabbed a glass pie dish from the cupboards. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently, when glass is placed close to high heat (such as mere inches from the broiler), then removed from heat, it will shatter into a billion pieces. That was terrifying, but the fish was still good. Miraculously, none got ON the fish, just around my entire kitchen. My poor little tilapia sat in the middle of the round dish bottom, while I scooped curved pieces from the sides out of the stove and off the floor. So, word to the wise: broiler and glass do not mix.

And now for the more fun part of my post: blondies! Trying my hand at these gorgeous-looking bars seems only appropriate, as I am a blondie myself. Plus, some tum issues sidelined me from my training tonight, so it follows that I should bake myself into oblivion with these heavenly treats. Right?

These sweets are delightfully simple to make. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter. Mix, pour, bake. Enjoy. They appear to be a perfect blank canvas for whatever addition you wish: dried fruit, chocolate, butterscotch, bourbon. I opted for that last one. Couldn't resist being a little ambitious on my first go-around.

Sadly, they were not very attractive, so pictures were deemed unnecessary to post. BUT they turned out deliciously! The bourbon was a great add, I fear the blondies may have been a bit bland without it. What would your take on these blondies be?

Blondies
Adapted from How to Cook Everything (posted on Smitten Kitchen)

8 tablespoons butter, melted [I used Smart Balance...perhaps I will try real butter next time]
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (below).
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. I always err on the side of caution with baking times — nobody ever complained about a gooey-middled cookie. Cool on rack before cutting them.

Further additions, use one or a combination of:

* 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts, toasting them first for even better flavor
* 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
* 1/2 teaspoon mint extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla
* 1/2 cup mashed bananas
* 1/4 cup bourbon, scotch or other whiskey; increase the flour by one tablespoon
* 2 tablespoons of espresso powder with the vanilla
* Stir 1/2 cup dried fruit, especially dried cherries, into the prepared batter
* Top with a vanilla butter cream or chocolate peanut butter cream frosting

saturdaze

Ah, weekends. Apart from the errand-running and laundry-doing I have to do after the workweek, weekends are lazy times for me. I try not to make too many plans, so the day can take me wherever it feels. Today I slept in relatively late (9:30, don't judge) and made blueberry pancakes for me, myself, and I.


Then I had to go into work for a spell, nothing too troublesome, just end-of-the-month things to be dealt with. I spent a good chunk of my time there playing with my office manager's adorable 4-year-old son, who tickled my feet under the desk and insisted that crocodiles should always be drawn in black. I'm in love, and am already hatching a scheme to babysit soon.

After work I puttered around the house for a bit, taking care of a few things before heading up to Jon's place, hoping to pass a sunny afternoon reading by the pool. Alas, the weather turned against me and became sullen and cold, so I half-napped on his couch watching a House marathon on Bravo. Almost as exciting, I suppose. Since Jon had plans this evening, I decided to date myself: cook a nice meal, have a little wine (OK, perhaps a lot), clean my room...yes I understand cleaning isn't standard date fare, but having a tidy room makes me happier than watching a sappy romantic comedy.

So this is what I made: pan-fried tilapia with white wine and capers. Sounds fancy, cooks quickly, absolutely delicious when it's done. I loved the buttery taste of the flaky fish paired with the lemon-flavored sauce. I served the fish and sauce over a bit of brown rice and wilted spinach, and it was just fabulous (paired with a glass of sauvignon blanc, of course).



Pan-Fried Tilapia with White Wine and Capers
From WeightWatchers.com

1/4 cup white wine, dry
1/4 cup tomato(es), seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp capers, drained
1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
1/2 tsp dried basil (I used fresh basil here, since it's all I had, and it worked nicely.)
1 1/2 pound raw tilapia, four 6-oz pieces
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 sprays cooking spray
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp light butter
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 medium lemon(s), cut in wedges (optional)

Combine first 6 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk; set aside. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Dredge fillets lightly in flour, and coat both sides of fillets with cooking spray. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fillets; cook 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; turn fillets, and cook 3 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Remove from pan. Add wine mixture to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter until melted. Spoon wine mixture over fillets; sprinkle with parsley. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet and 2 tablespoons sauce).

just a taste

In the kitchen, I am usually very involved with my cooking. I'm the girl with her ladle in the soup and finger in the cookie dough, making sure things are tasting good every step of the way. If I get something really good going, I might end up sating my appetite before the meal is even ready! There is always a danger of this happening in baking. Take chocolate chip banana bread, for instance. First of all, I got an extra scoop of semi-sweet chocolate chips at Henry's for the sole purpose of munching while baking. 1/4 cup of those chips ended up in the batter, on top of the 1 (heaping) cup already folded in. Many finger-licks (and even spoon-dips...let's be honest here) later, I reluctantly folded the batter into the loaf pan. Lo and behold, a hearty nugget of chip-studded dough had evaded the sweep of my spatula, and remained, resolute, on the bottom of the bowl. So I ate it. What's a girl to do, other than put a pot on for peppermint tea to soothe the inevitable tummyache?

While the bread bakes, I'm preparing dough for tomorrow's blueberry mini tarts, a thank-you for the guy at work who's been helping me get my e-mail back up and running. He's the unsung IT hero of our office; always ready to help, and never complains about our endless whinging when the system is down or I can't get the scanner to work. I figure I owe him, and he likes fruit-centric desserts, so clearly tarts are the way to go. I just have to make sure I leave some for baking.

[Side note: I wish recipes would stop being so coy with "4 ounces" of butter - Do not be fooled! It is a WHOLE STICK!! This being my first time baking with real butter in ages and ages, I am especially pained.]

Photos to come EDIT Um, these didn't last long enough to photograph :( which is actually a good thing, because it means people ate them!

unintentional vegetarianism, and the beauty of an empty sink

Somehow, over the past month or so, I've become a vegetarian. It sort of snuck up on me. Perhaps it started after reading food lit à la Michael Pollan and "Fast Food Nation," which put a huge damper on my taste for meat, especially beef. Normally I buy frozen chicken en masse from Ralph's, defrost a breast or two for the evening's dinner and the next day's chicken salad or wrap. I also regularly incorporated ground beef and turkey in my pasta sauce, or as called for in various Weight Watchers dishes. Now that I've discovered the endless possibilities of beans, tofu (cheap! so very cheap at Trader Joe's!), and quinoa (my latest love affair...helping me recover from the lentil disaster), slick chunks of flesh don't really do it for me anymore. When I eat out, I'll order meat, usually seafood - and I never pass up an opportunity for a fresh and tasty In 'n Out burger. But cooking at home, as I so often do these days, is almost all veg.




Which brings me to what's currently cookin': Glazed Tofu Meatloaf. OK so it cheats a bit - maybe a lot - with the ground turkey, but I don't think poor tofu could properly "loaf" alone (I am willing to be proven wrong on this one...bring on the tofuloaf recipes!). But you've got a whole package of tofu in there, and half a bell pepper. Plus, I've got some Easy Brown Sugar-Glazed Carrots simmering on the side - a delightful new (veggie!) side-dish find. Considering I'm not officially a vegetarian, and that this turkey is my first grocery store meat purchase in over a month, I think I'll be OK.




The wonderful thing about both of these recipes is the minimal amount of dirty dishes they produce. The meatloaf can be accomplished with a bowl, a whisk, a saucepan and a baking dish; the carrots, just a saucepan and a spoon. As much as I love cooking, I absolutely hate doing dishes, so a small stack of dishes at the end of the night is a reason to celebrate, indeed. Perhaps a small glass of wine will do the trick...


Looks like a hot mess, but it's actually pretty tasty!

twenty-three

Birthdays are my favorite days. This year, it was tough deciding how to celebrate. I had a lot of suggestions: Vegas, Gaslamp quarter, Vegas, beach, oh and I think someone suggested Vegas. I was a little overwhelmed with my choices. Then I realized, my birthday is the one day where I can do exactly what I want, when I want - OK I'm sure I sound like a birthday diva, but it's true! And all I wanted this year was a big slice of not much. Luckily my birthday fell on a weekend, so being lazy seemed only appropriate. I slept in, went kite-flying with Jon, watched a couple of kick-ass movies while drinking my favorite beer, and went to bed relatively early.

When Sunday rolled around, I was ready for some action, but wanted to stay true to my me-centric plan. So naturally, I spent all day in the kitchen with Julia Child's cookbook, preparing boeuf bourguignon, garlic mashed potatoes, and soufflé à l'orange. What an adventure, and what a payoff!



Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon...


...Garlic Mashed Potatoes (hats off to Miss Betsy for the fabulous casserole!)...


...and Soufflé à L'Orange.

One thing I learned on my birthday is that even when you plan on a perfect day, things can still go wrong. Not with my French cooking, thankfully, but take kite flying for instance. I borrowed a beautiful, fierce-looking kite from the equally beautiful and fierce Joyce. Mission Bay was ideal for kite-flying that day; not too crowded, and plenty windy. Hopes were high when Jon and I claimed a grassy stretch for what we imagined to be hours of languishing in the shade, watching the kite float lazily in the breeze. Jon grabbed the kite and strode down the lawn, while I went the other way, letting out the line. We waited til the wind picked up, Jon threw the kite up in the air, it shot straight up, the line was taught in my hand, I was laughing with the wind in my hair, it climbed and climbed...then did a few ginormous loop-de-loops and dove nose-first into the grass. We tried in vain to get it in the air, but got the same results every time. Highly disappointing. After checking and double-checking the kite, we concluded it just wasn't the right kind of kite for flying (perhaps it's more suited for fighting?). We were sad for a few minutes, but then Jon offered to take me to see "Clash of the Titans" and I felt better.

In short, I learned that you can't always get your way, and sometimes, you just gotta figure out a plan B. Good lesson to start off my twenty-third year, I think. Here's to another 23 years - hopefully more! - to put my newfound wisdom into practice.

food and fun with lindsey ♥

A few weeks ago, I had a very special weekend guest chez Blonde Gourmande: one of my very best friends Lindsey (aka La Gourmande Rouge!). Linds and I have been friends since middle school, and luckily for me, she loves food and cooking (and French!). So I knew we were in for some fun, both in the kitchen and out.

The first night she visited, we attempted pizza dough from scratch, subbing half the white flour in the original recipe for whole-wheat flour. We topped it with pesto and WW shredded cheese, and the results were extraordinary!
Lindsey made a great sous chef. All she needs is a fancy white hat!

The raw dough, waiting to be transformed into something delicious (and edible).

Cheese, please!

Before...

...and after. YUM. This pizza didn't last long!

The next morning, I suggested we try a recipe for cranberry and corn pancakes from Not Eating Out in New York. Lindsey seemed dubious, but eager to try. Despite how gorgeous these babies looked, I gotta say, corn in pancakes is not something I am apt to try again. But, at least we gave it a shot.

Gorgeous cranberries really popped against the yellow of the corn.

This stack of pancakes looks promising...but the texture/taste combo was a little too unusual for our liking.

A couple more highlights of Lindsey's visit:


Natural History Museum, Balboa Park

Picnic Lunch in Balboa Park


Cooking ratatouille, cassoulet, and and homemade bread for the boys. They didn't balk at the veggies, and even came back for seconds!





All in all, a very enjoyable, very tasty weekend. I only wish it could have been longer!

I have many more pictures from other cooking adventures, including my birthday weekend, but those will have to wait - it's dinner time :)