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 :)

waste not, want not

Maybe it's just me, but I have always had guilt issues when it comes to wasting food. If you've ever eaten with me, you'll notice that at every meal, I either a) clean my plate, or b) take my leftovers to go. Seeing that last bit of my meal sitting there, I just get sort of panicky, like it'll just be thrown away, perfectly edible, a waste. Even if I don't particularly want to, I find myself finishing those last few bites, despite the protest of my already-full stomach. Sometimes it's social; if someone cooks me a meal, uneaten food seems an insult to the chef. Sometimes it's fiscal; if I pay $14 for a pizza, I am going to eat the whole darn pizza. Sometimes, I just don't know why. Perhaps the old "Starving children in Africa line" really got to me as a kid. Or maybe it stems from back when my mom would withhold desserts until we "cleared our plates." It was a devious but brilliant method devised to get us to eat our vegetables. The older and more obedient child was I, gulping down the last bites of soggy, steamed broccoli with hardly a fuss. My sister, however, stubborn as all get-out, would sit at the table for upwards of an hour, frowning at her plate, alternately yelling at my parents and fuming in silence while I happily (and flagrantly) slurped my ice cream. Even at a young age, I was a total sell-out for sweets.

It wasn't until much later that I learned the world does not come to an end if you throw in the towel before your plate is empty. This simple fact has saved me a considerable amount of guilt, and even lost me a little weight. Still, I hate throwing away food, and even more so now that I'm paying for my own groceries. So every few days, I peer into the depths of my refrigerator, chopping and stir-frying about-to-go-bad greens and veggies, making ginger-yogurt sauce with the last spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, wilting already-partially-wilted spinach or tossing it into scrambled eggs. Being kinda broke (I prefer the term "frugal") has made me pretty good at getting creative with whatever I have left.

Which brings me to this recipe. Adapted from Cathy Erway's book The Art of Eating In, I took a stale, crumbly chocolate cake and turned it into delish, single-serving desserts. I consider it my sweet defeat of food-wasting guilt. Don't let another baked good go bad again!

"Recycled" Chocolate Cake Tart Shells with Kahlua Chocolate Pudding
original recipe from Cathy Erway
1-2 cups stale chocolate cake (I used half an 8-inch cake. Substitute any stale baked good)
2 Tb melted butter
2 Tb water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 packet instant chocolate pudding mix
just under 1 cup milk
2 Tb Kahlua (or any other flavored liquour. Bailey's would be an excellent sub)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, crumble the cake with your fingers, breaking up any large chunks.
3. Add butter and water and mix well. Dough should be moist but not stick together in a ball.
4. Press mixture firmly against the sides of 4-6 ramekins (depending on how big yours are) to form a shell.
5. Bake shells for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely.
6. Whisk together pudding mix and milk.
7. Add Kahlua and mix well.
8. Scoop pudding into tart shells and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

Makes 4-6 desserts. (This recipe made me 3 large tarts and 2 smaller ones.)

Optional: topped with whipped cream and/or strawberries. If your ramekins come with lids, take one to work or school with you!

catching up and falling in love...with kale

Good news! My camera is found. Smarty pants me hid it in the back seat pocket of my car, probably headed out somewhere, too lazy to take it inside and thinking I could outsmart robbers with my unlikely hiding spot. I do this a LOT, putting things in a "clever" place and completely forgetting its location within days, sometimes hours. I recently misplaced my iPod, which turned up a few days later on the top shelf of my closet. Can't explain that one. But luckily, my beloved electronics are safe in my possession once more.

Now, I get to post some pictures and catch up my life!

A brief look at February:


Jon's birthday was February 10th. 23 years young! I celebrated with Dodgers cupcakes, yellow cake w/ chocolate icing, his favorite. I had fun decorating them, but might have developed carpal tunnel piping those stitches and logos on.


Valentine's Day dinner! Filet mignon with red wine sauce bercy, steamed broccoli, homemade garlic bread, an excellent 2004 Merlot, and some good old-fashioned romance.


Mardi Gras. Jambalaya and bread pudding - sooo delicious. Satisfied the appetites of two strapping young gents, with leftovers to boot. Note to self, experiment with more Creole food. Yum!

Now, on to March. This month I tried a few new things, trying to spice things up since I was still "fasting" from eating out. For instance, I visited my first farmer's market. At first, the crowds, the smells and the sea of colorful EZ-Ups were overwhelming. Luckily I had a seasoned pro at my side, Sarah Dillon, and we navigated the vendors with ease. I picked up my first bunch of kale, inspired by intrepid blogger Cathy Erway, who seems to know her way around the leafy, deep green veggie. Here are my interpretations:


Kale, Broccoli and Tofu Noodle Stir-Fry (fun fact: the noodles are Hungry Girl approved!)

Sautéed Kale Marsala
In conclusion, I'm quite fond of kale. I used the Tuscan variety in both of these dishes, but I have since cooked with curly kale and found it equally enjoyable. Adding to kale's appeal is its considerable nutritional value and health benefits. 1 cup of kale has only 35 calories, but supplies over 1000% of your daily vitamin K needs, 100% of vitamin A, and 88% of vitamin C! Kale is a nutritional powerhouse, easy to prepare, and enjoyable to eat. I probably never would have tried it if I hadn't seen it on Not Eating Out in New York, so props to Ms. Erway for showing me the way!

On that note, I will end this post, with every intention of publishing my late-March adventures at a later time, including San Francisco with my family and Lindsey's visit to San Diego. Stay tuned for more from The Blonde Gourmande...