mimi on the move

pan roasted chicken with honey mustard dressing

2010-06-07T20:23:00.001-04:00

you'd think from this blog that i'm some sort of natural gourmand. but the truth is, i ate horribly until i met mr. mimi -- my palette was unadventurous and whatever i did eat was of the worst nutritional balance. one of the things i love about our relationship is how much i've learned and experienced with new foods over the years.

and although this dinner isn't so lofty, it was something new for me since i've never had a real honey mustard dressing before. it's embarrassing to admit, but the only honey mustard i've ever had is the sticky sweet kind in those plastic containers from random eating out at mcdonalds. and i don't mean to sound like a gourmand, but how does one ever think that is the way food tastes? mcdonalds might be an extreme comparison, and it's not like i ate junk food or fast food on a regular basis. but so much of what i used to eat that's considered "natural" was just a processed version of something that is so simple to make at home -- and dressings are a prime example. if you don't believe me, then surely you'd believe mark bittman! but if you need more proof, try this recipe that is super easy but full of flavor (aren't all donna hay recipes pretty easy but so tasty? that's why i love them).

pan roasted chicken with honey mustard dressing: serves 4
adapted from donna hay (spring 2009, issue 47)

4 chicken breasts
4 large carrots, sliced
6-8 baby potatoes, halved (or quartered if too large)
1 package of baby spinach leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tb whole grain mustard
1 tb honey
1 tb white wine vinegar

1. preheat oven to 375F. make the honey mustard dressing by combining the mustard, honey, vinegar, and 1/4 cup olive oil in bowl; set aside.

2. toss carrots and potatoes with olive oil and salt and pepper, place on baking sheet and roast for about 15-20 minutes.

3. meanwhile, salt and pepper the chicken breasts and heat oil in skillet on medium high heat. sear each side of chicken breast until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side.

4. put chicken breasts on top of carrots/potatoes on tray and continue roasting everything until chicken has internal temp of 165F, and carrots/potatoes are cooked through, about 20 more minutes.

5. toss spinach leaves with carrot and potato to warm and slightly wilt. serve with chicken breast on top and spoon over dressing to serve.

roasted fish, potato, asparagus with dill butter

2010-06-03T08:15:00.002-04:00

just because i don't like salmon doesn't mean i don't like white fish fish (although now that i think about it, i do like salmon when it's raw suhi, but not cooked). we tend to make the same kind of fish dinners, only because we like to keep the flavors really simple and clean. this recipe is really no different, just another great combination of all the things i like -- asparagus from the farmer's market, potatoes, and capers. it's a super easy recipe, and with a great presentation and hardly any work involved at all, it would be a great option for a small dinner party, too.

roasted fish, potato, and asparagus with dill butter: serves 2
adapted from donna hay (spring, 2009 issue no. 47)

4 baby potatoes, sliced
1 lb firm white fish fillets
1 bunch thin-medium asparagus, trimmed
1 tb capers
olive oil
2 tb butter
1 tb dill leaves
salt and pepper to taste
lemon

1. preheat oven to 400F. toss potato and asparagus with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (not too much salt because of the fish and capers in the dish). place potato on baking tray and roast for 25 minutes.

2. season fish with oil, salt and pepper. add fish and asparagus to tray and roast for 15-20 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and the potatoes are golden.

3. combine the butter and dill and spoon over fish, garnish with capers and squeeze of lemon (donna roasted the capers along with the fish).

spinach salad with mango and candied pecans

2010-05-27T21:14:00.000-04:00

it's amazing what happens when you try a fruit you hate in the place where it comes from. has that ever happened to you, with any kind of food? like you normally hate gumbo, but then you're down in new orleans (my heart hangs heavy) and get the real deal and you're like wow, this is good.

six years ago (!!) mr. mimi and i enjoyed our honeymoon down in peru, and on our second week we stayed in the rainforest where of course there were fresh avocado and papaya trees, two of the fruits i typically hate eating. yeah, i know, advocado! weird, right? everyone loves avocado. well evidently i don't, unless it comes right off the tree. same with the papaya. buy me some up here in the US and i hate it. pick one off the tree in the rainforest and i love it. sure, i admit maybe it has something to do with the beauty of the place -- i fell in love with the fruit because i fell in love with being in the rainforest. i admit it because i know how closely food is tied to emotions and well-being (isn't that what "comfort food" is all about). but it's like my taste buds changed once i tasted what a real avocado should taste like.

same thing with the mango. i've always hated it. but down in haiti, mango trees are everywhere. it's the fruit du jour, tourjours! the first month i was in haiti i didn't eat any. but the second month i finally succumbed to needing some fruit in my diet and hesitatingly i ate my first mango in a really, really long time.

i loved it.

ok, maybe i admit i was in haiti and desperate for fruit in my diet -- that any fruit would have been delicious. but the mango was so fresh and juicy, with such a sweet flavor, but not like a berry sweet, just an unfamiliar (to me) tropical sweet. so when i came back home i went on a mango binge, 10 for $10 at the grocery store, done.

then i found this recipe and i was like hmm, mango and candied pecans?! what is not to like about that idea! and, indeed, i loved this salad, all three different flavors -- earthy spinach, tropical mango, and sweet candied pecans -- were wonderful.

spinach salad with mango and candied pecans: serves 4
adapted from bon appetit (april 2000, original recipe click here)

large piece of parchment paper
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
6 tb olive oil
3 tb balsamic vinegar
1 cup pecan halves
1/2 lb baby spinach leaves
2 large mangos, diced
salt and pepper to taste

1. stir sugar, 1 tb oil, and 1 tb vinegar in skillet over medium heat until sugar melts and syrup bubbles, about 3 minutes.

2. mix in pecans and stir until nuts are toasted and syrup coats evenly, about 7 minutes. turn nuts out onto parchment paper, separating them to cool completely.

3. combine spinach, mango, and pecans in large bowl. whisk remaining 5 tb oil and 2 tb vinegar in small bowl to blend, season with salt and pepper. toss salad with dressing, and enjoy!

seared citrus salmon with dill-cucumber sauce

2010-05-23T20:11:00.002-04:00

salmon is one of those things that i eat because i should, not because i particularly like it. not even smoked salmon with a schmear of cream cheese and capers (although doesn't that sound so hopelessly romantically new york?) but you know, it's healthy and blah blah blah so i try to eat some maybe once a month (and yes, always wild-caught alaskan).

but this salmon dinner was one i actually finished licking my lips. and i don't think it was the dill-cucumber sauce because that's just ordinary. but the orange-lemon glaze was amazing, i wish i had doubled it (though i wonder, does it follow the law of diminishing returns?) so if you're a salmon-phobe like me, do try this recipe out.

seared salmon with dill-cucumber sauce: serves 4
adapted from bon appetit (april 2005, original recipe click here)

2 tb olive oil
2 1/2 lb center-cut wild alaskan salmon fillet, pinbones removed and cut into 4 pieces
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
coarse sea salt and pepper to taste

for the dill-cucumber sauce
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tb milk
2 tb chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste

1. toss cucumber with salt and let stand for 30 minutes. transfer to colander and rinse well. pat dry with paper towels.

2. mix cucumber, sour cream, milk, and dill in small bowl. season with salt and pepper. cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

3. preheat oven to 375F. season salmon with salt and pepper. heat oil in oven-proof skillet on high, sear salmon skin side up for about 3-4 minutes. flip and sear skin for about 2 minutes. pour off oil (hold salmon with spatula).

4. mix orange and lemon juice and pour on top of fish, finishing in oven to 140F internal temp. the orange-lemon juice should be a bit syrupy -- pour that on top of each plated fillet. spoon the dill-cucumber sauce on the side and garnish with fresh dill.

andean bean stew with squash and quinoa

2010-05-19T16:58:00.002-04:00

we made this back in march so again, apologies for another out of season recipe. but in my defense it is cold and rainy this week and winter squash be damned, i wouldn't have minded having a warm, cozy dinner like this last night!

the new york times runs this "recipes for health" series, although only until recently did they start including the nutritional information for each recipe. i like the way it's indexed by main ingredient so i can easily come up with dinner based on what i already have in the pantry or fridge.

even if quinoa weren't the nutritional powerhouse seed that it is, i would still always like to cook with it because i love the nutty taste, especially the red quinoa we used for this dinner. and like my previous enchilada post, this is a perfect vegetarian meal, too -- all real ingredients, easy to cook, and lots of sweet and nutty flavor. all you need is some crusty bread to offset the soft texture, and you have a perfect dinner for a cold night! and yes, it's better flavor as it sits, so a perfect left over lunch the next day, too!

andean bean stew with quinoa: serves 6
adapted from the new york times (november 2008; original recipe click here)

1 can pinto beans
1 can chopped tomatoes, with liquid
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1/2 cup quinoa -- make sure to rinse thoroughly
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tb sweet paprika
1 bay leaf
3 tb chopped fresh parsley

1. heat oil in large, heavy pot and cook onion until tender, stirring often, about 5 minutes. add paprika, cook for about 1 minute and then add garlic. cook, stirring for a minute or two, until onions and garlic are fragrant but not brown. stir in tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have slightly reduced, about 5-10 minutes.

2. add bay leaf and squash, bring to simmer and cover for 30 minutes until squash is tender. add beans and quinoa and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, until quinoa is translucent and the little white thread uncurls from the seed. season with salt and pepper if needed and serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

chicken with clementine salsa

2010-05-17T21:27:00.003-04:00

this is going to be another one of those don't look at that photo, just listen to how wonderful this dinner is kind of post. i tend to not repeat making a recipe more than once, but this is definitely going into that small pile of eat, enjoy, repeat recipes. and yes i know that it's now mid-may and past clementine season, but it never hurts to bookmark this and try out later (later, like in next winter when they returns!). or maybe you can try this with regular oranges and see how it works out. a light, easy weeknight meal originally for chicken, surely this clementine salsa would work fabulously with fish, too!

chicken with clementine salsa: serves 4
adapted from bon appetit (december 2009, original recipe click here)

4 chicken breast halves
4 clementines, diced (about 1 cup)
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
2 tb fresh lime juice
1 serrano chile, minced
4 tb olive oil
1/2 cup clementine juice (need about 6 clementines)
salt and pepper to taste

1. place chicken breasts between two sheets of parchment paper and pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness.

2. mix clementines and next 6 ingredients in medium bowl, with 2 tb olive oil. season with salt and pepper.

3. season chicken breasts with salt and pepper, heat 2 tb olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. add chicken and cook until slightly browned and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. transfer chicken to platter, but do not turn off heat.

4. add clementine juice to skillet and boil until reduced to 1/4 cup, stirring often, about 2 minutes. drizzle sauce over chicken and spoon salsa on top.

sweet potato and black bean enchilada

2010-05-11T15:25:00.001-04:00

this poorly taken photo is an embarrassment, there's so many things wrong with it! besides composition how about that white plate that looks pink? urgh. i'm determined to get myself a copy of photoshop elements this summer and give myself a proper tutorial on how to edit my digital photos. i know photo editing won't magically turn my photos into press perfect images, but it certainly will help me turn that plate white!

why all the complaining about this photo? because this dinner was just so good, that i feel badly my photo can't possibly give it any justice.

strange as it may sound, but i made the conscious decision to stop eating all those "fake meat" products when i decided to eat real foods, including meat. oh sure, i made a lot of great dishes from my favorite vegetarian cookbook by deborah madison but eventually convenience took over and it was as if eating vegetarian became only about pretending to eat what i didn't (boca burgers, smart bacon, etc), instead of creating new dishes that were worthy on their own. how did that ever make sense? and have you ever looked at the ingredients on those things? the list is just as long and convoluted as some of your typical processed junk food, maybe just minus the high fructose corn syrup.

and that's why this dinner was just so good. it was everything that a vegetarian dish should be -- real ingredients with all the right flavors, a little sweet and a little salty, and filling without making you feel over stuffed. i started thinking that even my meat eating friends would be impressed! honestly i can't remember exactly why i liked it so much but the minute i finished it, i mentally checked it as one of those recipes i would definitely make again. so forgive me for the bad photo, because it's the only one i have, but i hope my words have at least convinced you to give it a try!

sweet potato and black bean enchilada: serves 4
adapted from whole foods market (original recipe click here)

1 jar of green chile sauce (we cheated and bought a jar of chile sauce, but it's easy enough to make your own and it's included in the printable recipe)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
4 garlic cloves, minced
fresh juice from 1 lime
2 cups cooked diced sweet potato
1/2 cup chopped roasted green chilies
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 tb chopped fresh cilantro
8 small flour tortillas (we couldn't find fresh corn tortillas the weekend we made this, so had to deal with the flour ones -- which technically makes it more like a mini burrito than an enchilada, but either way it's all good!)
4 ounces shredded monterey jack cheese

1. preheat oven to 350F. to make enchilada (mini-burrito) filling, combine the black beans with minced garlic and lime juice. toss to coat the beans and set aside.

2. in separate bowl, combine the cooked sweet potatoes with the chopped green chilies, and the spices and season with salt and pepper.

3. pour about 1/4 cup of the green chile sauce on to the bottom of a large baking dish. assemble each enchilada separately by laying the first tortilla in the baking dish, wetting it with the sauce. spoon 1/8 of the sweet potato mixture down the center and top with 1/8 of the black bean mixture. wrap and roll to the end of the baking dish, and repeat with the remaining tortillas.

4. spoon any leftover mixture around the sides, top with a generous coating of the chile sauce, and sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

5. bake for 20-25 minutes or until they're piping hot and sauce is bubbling around the edges. mid-way through, we topped with a little bit of chile sauce to keep the flour tortillas from drying out (not sure if this is an issue with corn, but you might want to just check).

fish and fowl: origins unknown

2010-05-06T22:21:00.003-04:00

even though i wasn't on my blog doesn't mean i wasn't actually cooking and taking photographs. i actually have quite a few photographs of some tasty meals that i'm going through now, some very good, indeed.

then there is this one that i remember being very tasty, but for the life of me i can't remember where i got the recipe from and i've looked everywhere. you can google something like fish, fennel, orange and get a recipe or two to try out. but none of them were the one i used. besides the tomato base it also looks like there is some sliced potatoes in there, too. i wish i could remember as fennel is one of my favorite vegetables!

and here's another origins unknown photo. although i remember that this one wasn't from a recipe, but just a dish that we created. evidently we must have been in a tomato phase, even though these were both made in the dead of winter. so much for seasonality! but a sauce of chopped carrots, onions, and tomatoes over grilled chicken and topped with capers -- not sure how exactly we made it, but still looks tasty!

haiti in words, no photos

2010-05-04T22:27:00.007-04:00

what a start to 2010! so far, half the year was spent working in haiti, alongside some incredibly dedicated people trying to protect the children in their communities. it’s always the people that i meet and work with that keeps me wanting to go back out for more. many of you ask me what it was like there; here’s one story.

when i was there in february, the scenes of huge piles of concrete rubble and the wrenching stories you'd hear were always worse than whatever i saw or heard on television. it’s one thing to hear about 100 nurses who died as they were in a training; it’s another thing to be hearing the story as you're standing next to the collapsed building that still entombs them under rubble and dust. my driver showed me photographs he kept in the glove compartment of his fiancée who died in the earthquake; he showed me where his house once stood, and now these photos that he salvaged from the rubble was his consolation.

as an expat bystander the whole atmosphere wasn’t so much depressing, as just chaotic and overwhelming – only so many ways to help, only so much resources, but everywhere you drove by were immense needs not being met. signs made out of bed sheets, pleading for food, water, and medicine. and when the heavy rains came, it brought relief from the heat, but you knew it brought muddy misery and drenched nights for the thousands others not as lucky to have shelter.

and the fear that lingered in the beating roar from the chopper blades of every helicopter overhead, or the deep vibrations that shook the walls when each mack truck rumbled along on the street, not to mention the real aftershocks that happened on a regular basis. everyone ran in panic, or just stood there frozen, feverishly hoping that this, too, shall pass.

then i went back in april, and the scenes were still the same – everywhere were still huge piles of concrete rubble and twisted rusted metal. nearly everywhere were colorful buildings partially collapsed that still looked ready to tumble into the road, and onto people, any minute. i can't even come close to adequately describing the panorama of physical destruction that still dominates the landscape.

and almost everywhere were those blue and gray plastic tent cities (bed sheet cities for those still not as lucky to have shelter), people camped out with barely nothing, or people being moved by the government to where there was even less – to huge barren fields of gravel with no green trees or natural sources of water, under the hot haitian sun.

the streets of port au prince were choked again with colorful tap-taps, careening trucks, motorbikes, people, mounds of trash, and stray dogs – everything kicking up dust and filling the city's winding mountainous streets with a crash course just waiting to happen.

but one thing was different about the street scenes this time, and you immediately noticed it. as we drove to the office at 7am, you now saw children in bright uniforms, smartly pressed. boys with neat haircuts and girls with pigtails and braids with big plastic colorful barrettes and ties. all wearing a backpack, often too big for their little bodies, and sometimes carrying a lunch bag, too. walking with their caregiver (here in haiti you can never assume that adult is necessarily the child’s parent), or maybe walking with their older sibling, carefully navigating between all the traffic and other people, and on their way back to school.

it’s a naïve cliché to smile at the sight and sounds of small children on their way to school, brightly dressed. but here in haiti, you can’t help yourself.

because you take in this scene like a colorful breath of fresh air amongst all the panorama of gray rubble. even after i kept seeing it every morning, i kept breathing it in, and nothing could temper my feeling that things are going to be ok.

well, alright i admit that often i started thinking about the fact that in haiti only about 50% of children get to go to school, and about 85% of those lucky children must come from families with enough income to send them to private schools because the government so horribly fails at providing anything for its children. and don’t compare that statistic to the public vs. private school debate in the US, because i’m not talking about differences in the quality of instruction; in fact, many haitian private schools are sub-standard compared to public. i mean that the haitian government can’t even provide the basic physical structure of a school and fill them with teachers, and so for families there is no other “choice” than private.

so while i marveled at the children on their way to school, i understood that i was only witnessing half of the situation, and that for 50% of the other children here in haiti, their reality is much more heartbreaking and their future much less bright.

but when you’re surrounded by destruction, you’ll take that dream, even when you know it’s only half realized. i left haiti last week with those same mixed feelings (can’t wait to get back to a nice shower! but i will miss all the work and everyone i worked with!), but this time i left with an image of hope i didn’t have before. i can’t wait to see what new scenes await for me when i go back again.

holidays at home: lemon-caper crusted turbot and roasted rack of lamb

2010-01-12T22:09:00.005-05:00

the holidays were quiet at the mimis, in a new city without having many new friends yet. i don't feel quite at home, yet. my stuff is here, but it still doesn't seem like something i can really nestle into (which only makes it worse to own so much stuff). i had the small epiphany that for every other apartment we've lived in, we always made sure to paint the walls of each room before moving in. i always thought it made the rooms show off our personality, and i guess now that my walls here are pure white, a palette of color made those old apartments feel like home, too.

but i'm too lazy (and uncertain of the future) to take the time and effort to paint the walls now that we've moved in. the only way to create some sense of comfort is in our cooking. so we decided that for both christmas and new year's eve, we would stay inside, trying to recreate the warmth of home with dinners that would hopefully make us feel like there was nowhere else to be.

we originally had this idea of crab stuffed sole for christmas eve, but when we got to whole foods (sadly, we haven't found a "real" fish monger here in DC, yet. we miss blue moon!) the turbot looked unbelievably fresh, as if you could eat it as sashimi. mr. mimi's dictum is always buy the freshest looking fish, even if it isn't what you thought of making. so we bought a fillet and crusted it with some lemon breading, broiled with white wine, and garnished with capers and chives.

for new year's eve, it was the rack of lamb that was looking the freshest that afternoon and who am i to refuse a beautiful rack! i guess i'm making up for all those years i didn't eat any, but i just love lamb.we cooked this up with a port wine reduction glaze, with deep roasted garlic and rosemary. it was all so rich and delicious, for a moment there, it almost felt like home again.

milo loves lamb, too.

hello, again

2009-12-27T21:44:00.014-05:00

it's been 4 months, nearly to the day. i know a lot of you aren't reading anymore, or should i say i know that many of you probably don't have me in your reader feed anymore since there was nothing more to read.

at first i was going to blame it on work, and say it's not my fault, i was in the philippines responding to the emergency after typhoons pepeng and ondoy. and i was, but that was back in october and only for 4 weeks. so what happened to the other 3 months?

(for my other photos from the philippines, they're all on flickr).

and then i was going to blame it on this sort of late-early life crisis i'm having. you know the kind where you go wtf am i doing with my life? and perhaps it coincides with me coming back from the philippines because after i read this beautiful writing, i was left with that painful feeling that even though everything i've been doing for the last several years has me on the path to the success i've always envisioned for myself, now that i can see it closer, that version of success doesn't really seem to be what i want, afterall. or when i think about it honestly, that version of success doesn't match with what makes me happy, day in and day out.

but i'm still here, cooking and taking photographs, and occasionally baking. and what better way to start off this little blog again, then by sharing a quick and easy hors d'oeuvres that could easily start off your new years eve party coming up (we made them to start off our christmas eve dinner). i found these on smitten kitchen, who happened to find them on the nytimes. they just looked so good on her blog i knew i had to try them.

i made slight variation here and there, sometimes based on what we had in the fridge (sour cream instead of heavy cream) and sometimes based on the "classic" french method mr. mimi knows best (see note below). but they disappeared as soon as they were done. so easy, delicious, and does exactly what an hors d'oeuvres should -- whet your appetite for the next course!

so let these tasty creamed mushroom toasts whet your appetite for my blog again. i promise i'll be back soon with the rest of the holiday dinner, and lots more kitchen adventures for next year!

creamed mushrooms on chive toast: serves 2-4 (it served 2 of us gluttons, but you could, i guess, serve 4 people with this recipe)
adapted from smitten kitchen

note: this mixture is basically a standard duxelles. the original nytimes article, and smitten kitchen's recipe, has you chop the mushrooms to 1/4" and then cook. but to prepare this in the "classic" french method, the mushrooms are roughly chopped (or even not at all if they're small enough) and then after cooking, finely diced. the reason for this is because of the relative high water content of the mushrooms. cooking them on high heat nearly whole (or in bigger pieces) will make them brown nicely and sear in this moisture. i'm sure another reason is because the french like to make things more complicated than they seem, bien sûr! :-)

1/2 lb cremini and shiitake mushrooms
2 tbs butter
1 large shallot, chopped
2 tbs dry white wine
1-2 tb sour cream
salt + pepper, to taste
challah or brioche bread, 4 slices about 1/2" thick and then cut into points or other shapes
1 tb chopped chives

1. brush off dirt from mushrooms, de-stem, and chop mushroom caps.

2. melt butter in skillet over medium-high heat, add shallot and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes. turn heat to high, add mushrooms and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes. mushrooms should be soft, and a deep golden shiny color. add wine and de-glaze, reduce until almost dry, about 2 minutes.

3. put the mushroom-shallot mixture back on the cutting board, and finely dice. return to the skillet on medium heat. temper sour cream and add to mixture (you could use regular heavy cream instead). season with salt and pepper.

4. toast bread (technically this should be a "buttered" toast recipe, but because challah or brioche is so rich already, we just toasted them and didn't butter. if you're using only white bread, you probably might want to add some butter after toasting). top each toast with mushroom mixture and sprinkle with chives.

grilled lamb chops with salmoriglio sauce

2009-08-26T20:42:00.005-04:00

wow for someone who was vegetarian for about a decade, i do seem to eat a lot of meat now!! it's not something i'm necessarily happy about. i would be lying if i said i didn't like the taste of certain pieces of meat. but i would be definitely lying if i said it didn't make me feel morally conflicted.

i try to assuage this conflict by at least only buying locally raised meats from the farmer's markets. this past weekend i went to a new farmer market (new for me folks, and that was thankfully light years better than that other one i tried out) and some of the farms even had photo albums of all their happy chickens, sheep, pigs, and bison in real fields and mucking grounds. it certainly convinced me that, indeed, these animals probably lived their lives as naturally as possible. but it made it that much harder for me to look at those photos and then buy a piece of cryovacked loin. but like i read somewhere recently, these chickens had a really good life for several months and then one very bad day.

i don't mean for this to devolve into a manifesto of sorts, although i do believe too little attention is paid to what we put into our bodies. i spend the majority of my disposable income on food. i believe that i should spend an equal amount of thought and conscious effort in making sure i know the provenance of that food. if not because of the animal i am eating, or the inevitable environmental damage, but at least because of the very fact that i am ingesting it!

i might think a lot about food, but when it comes to cooking, simpler is a lot of times better! i was looking for a new lamb chop recipe and came across this unassuming idea. salmoriglio is a strong, pungent lemon-herb sauce, originally form calabria and sicily. i could not believe how delicious it was! if you like lamb, please try this recipe! and then we can go back to debating whether i should be vegetarian again :-)

grilled lamb chops with salmoriglio sauce: serves 4
from gourmet (may 2000, original recipe click here

1 1/2 tb finely chopped fresh oregano
1 1/2 tb finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tb fresh lemon juice
1 tsp coarse salt
salt + pepper to taste
6 tb olive oil
4 shoulder-blade lamb chops

1. grind herbs, zest, lemon juice, and 1 tsp coarse salt to a paste with a mortar and pestle. transfer to bowl and add oil in slow stream, whisking until emulsified. season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. pat lamb dry and season with salt and pepper. heat a lightly oiled well-seasoned ridged grill pan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. then grill lamb, turning once about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.

3. spoon sauce over lamb. if this is how the sicilians eat, then i need to move there.

chicken fajitas with mojo de ajo

2009-08-11T18:56:00.002-04:00

when i lived in new york city i had a favorite quick, cheap mexican place as a go-to for dinner. it wasn't nearly "authentic" mexican, but somewhere between that and the oozy, greasy, cheesy, incarnation that tex-mex often becomes. it had all the usuals, and normally i like fajitas because i'm such a sucker for sizzling platters of food! but i wasn't terribly fond of the fajitas at this particular place because while sizzling in temperature, it never seemed to really dazzle me in flavor.

so when i saw this recipe in martha's magazine a couple months ago i definitely wanted to try it. and fajitas are one of those recipes where one can think, do i really need a recipe? cut up some peppers, onions, meat and toss it in a hot skillet! and true, it doesn't really get (and shouldn't get) much more complicated than that. but i was really curious about this "mojo de ajo," especially since we loved bobby flay's mojo on a grilled pork tenderloin.

evidently mojo is the cure-all because it's definitely what my go-to place was missing in their fajitas! plus the combination of thighs and breasts (gee, that phrase seems awkward, huh?!) made it so much more flavorful. we only served ours with guacamole and pico, no cheese or sour cream (the guacamole is creamy enough!) i think this is a perfect dish for impromptu summer dinner -- quick, easy, and ready to share with friends or family!

chicken fajitas with mojo de ajo: serves 4
adapted from martha stewart living (june 2009, original recipe click here)

mojo de ajo
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tb minced garlic (4-6 cloves)
3 tb fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 tsp red-pepper flakes
1/2 tsp coarse salt

fajitas
1 tb olive oil
1/2 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices (about 1 cup)
1 large green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced 1/2 inch thick
8 oz boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2), slicked 1/2 inch thick
8 small 6-inch flour tortillas, warmed
salt + pepper to taste
guacamole
pico de gallo

1. make the mojo: cook oil and garlic in small saucepan over low heat until garlic is soft and fragrant, about 8 minutes. remove from heat, stir in lime juice, red pepper, and salt.

2. heat large skillet over high heat, add oil and gently coat. add onion and bell pepper, season with salt. cook, stirring frequently, until onion is bornwed in spots and pepper has softened slightly with blistered skins, about 5 minutes.

3. add chicken, salt, and stir and cook until chicken is browned and thoroughly cooked, 5-7 minutes (you can finish in the oven if you chose).

4. add mojo de ajo, and stir to coat. season with salt and pepper. serve immediately with guacamole, pico de gallo, and warm tortillas!

pork chops with rhubarb-raisin compote

2009-08-05T17:13:00.005-04:00

yes, yes i'm still here!! although i have had a lousy track record, these past two weeks were not entirely my fault for not posting. i finally started a new job, yay! but it meant leaving my beloved new york city, sniff sniff.

except i haven't had really any time to mourn the loss of living in the best city in the USA because i received the offer one week, and moved myself down the next weekend (with the faith that i would be lucky enough to find an apartment in a day, and not be camping out on a park bench), and started working last week! i'm still living in a basically empty room -- i'm living on an aerobed and not much else! -- because the rest of my belongings don't come down until next weekend. and hopefully mr. mimi will follow soon thereafter.

so you see my absence was not intentional, and to prove it here's a post about an obviously previously made dinner. why obviously? because folks, it has rhubarb!! and we all know the peak rhubarb season is only in spring. i was a little late to the party because i was in nigeria, but there were still some good bunches left in june.

we didn't have cherries so we used the raisins from the pantry. the compote (as expected) was delicious and could easily be used with a chicken dish as well. in this heat of august you probably won't find any good rhubarb around, but bookmark this for next spring and i'm sure you'll love it!

for the recipe, click here.

tangy sweet coleslaw

2009-07-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

wow, you're still here?! thank you for hanging in there with my non-existent blogging. i'm not sure why i've been so quiet since i returned from nigeria.

i think part of it was because i kept a daily journal while i was there in order to reflect on what i saw and felt and also to keep my sanity when i was lonely. and when i was really, completely, desperately bored and lonely i would actually write backwards. yes, longhand writing but with the letters and sentences written backwards -- sort of like in a neurotic heeere's johnny kind of way. so to be back home and not have to write at all felt liberating.

another reason was because my taste buds were so disappointed when i first came home. my last week in nigeria i really started thinking about foods from home. i mean, the best thing about living in new york city is its sheer variety of cuisines. but when i came home, nothing tasted good at all. restaurant or home cooked -- everything was bland, nothing was satisfying. i was cranky and that made me crave even less, which only made me more cranky.

what slowly pulled me back to american style food was the grill. and everything that dining al fresco in my own backyard brings with it -- the charred meats, longer nights, white wine, and relaxation.

one of the first grills we had was baby back ribs, something i've never had before. actually i don't think i've ever had any kind of rib before. i liked them, although i don't know if i'd necessarily make them again [mr. mimi interjects here, "whaddaya mean?!? they were great, you loved them!" -- i did?! i honestly can't remember, which makes me believe that i didn't.]

but i found a great slaw to go with it. coleslaw is so easy to make, there's no reason to buy supermarket slaw that's gooped up with heavy mayo and all sorts of preservatives. this slaw by martha uses half mayo, half plain yogurt and it was refreshing. i was on the fence about the tomatoes -- i like tomatoes, and it adds color, but i didn't like the soft texture with the rest of the crunchy slaw. either way, if you invited me to your potluck grill, i might bring this side with me! for the recipe, click here.

good-bye nigeria, hello new york

2009-05-14T09:30:00.011-04:00

my workday lunch spot

it's been a week since i left nigeria. it all went by so quickly. you wouldn't know it since i haven't posted anything in like forever, oops!!

people keep asking me if experienced "culture shock" in nigeria? honestly, not at all. i'm not sure why? i guess because i lived in the capital city and my travels were to large cities as well. i mean, yeah life was a little different here and i ate different food and listened to different music and saw some of the poorest of the poor. but it's not like i was living in a bedouin tent in the middle of the sahara, going to work on camel back for the past three months.

i bring home many stories with me, some that i will share, some that i will just hold in my visual and mental memory. i might not have experienced culture shock but i definitely understood that my life is very different, and not because of me as a person -- but only because of the sheer circumstance of where i happen to live.

before i left i bought my taxi driver a goodbye gift, we were in the store together and i told him to pick out something for himself. he immediately proceeded to show me an electric hair shaver. i was like umm, ok if that's what you want??!! it cost 2,300 naira (about $18). to me that wasn't expensive but to him (and to anyone of his class), that was a generous gift. but i was thinking -- of all the gifts you want me to buy, you pick out an electric hair shaver??!!

on the car ride home he gave profuse thanks, and appreciated how generous i was and how happy he was. i asked if he had one already but was broken? he said no he doesn't have one, he goes to the barber and his son goes too -- but he worries about HIV/AIDS infection and so he is so grateful that he can now cut his hair and his son's hair at home. and immediately i realized, to me it was just 2,300 naira spent as a gift for a friend here, but to him it meant so much more -- to him, to his wife, to his family.

that's when i realized what the real difference -- the real "shock" -- is between me and everyone i met there. it's not about their culture or what they eat or wear or how they live. it's the fact that i go to the salon and get my haircut and my only worry is i hope it doesn't look like crap. my friend goes to the barber and he worries about being infected with HIV/AIDS.

i tried to anticipate how i might feel when i'm back in new york city. i remember when i came home from a two month stay in geneva. i hated the city, i hated the noise and sidewalk litter. i absolutely hated the MTA (can ya blame me there?!) -- but in about a week i fell back in love again with all the things that's amazing about new york.

this time is a bit different. i've never had to deal with such noise pollution (honk, honk, hooonk, HOOONKKKKK!!) as i've had in the streets of abuja. so now new york city is like an oasis of calm and quiet! but a week later and i still don't feel quite at home. i have less patience for the constant jockeying along the hipness and coolness spectrum that is the circus life of new york -- even if i don't join in on the circus, it's become tiringly annoying to watch. i also don't have my tastebuds back yet -- everything i eat leaves me unsatisfied.

but in my downtime i'm catching up on the (literally) thousands of blog posts i've missed in my google reader and i can't wait to start cooking and baking again -- i promise mimi on the move will be busy again soon!

nigerian field visits photos

2009-03-18T14:13:00.003-04:00

As most of you know I'm in Nigeria for four months to finish my masters, working with an international NGO.

This past week I was able to visit the three child protection teams in northern Nigeria -- Bauchi, Kano, and Kaduna.

It was a great experience, and sits with me deeply. All my senses were taking it in -- the sights of the never ending rubbish, goats at every turn of the road. The smells of all those motorbikes, rubbish fires, and at times, sewage. The sounds of all those motorbikes, the hawking, the mosque calls to prayers. The taste of northern Nigeria cuisine, which even the same basic item (fried yams) tasted different.

And of course, the children. I'm not sure what I think. On one hand, it's easy to be angry when every corner in Kano has a bunch of Almaijari boys begging at every car that passes by -- you spot them by their plastic bowls. Boys are sent to the Almaijari "schools" which are Koranic boarding schools where neither the Koran or any form of education is taught. Instead, they are forced on the streets to beg. Millions of boys in northern Nigeria are in this situation.

But it becomes much more complicated when you travel to the communities. Beyond the poverty, you see so many children during the day who should be in school -- in the streets, hawking, working, caring for other children. It's like another world -- especially in Kano, where these communities are basically a hidden world from the main tar streets. But it's not just as easy to say "well, they should all be in school!" At the schools -- the children enrolled are easily identified by their uniforms, but many more children hang around the schools who are not receiving an education.

However the reaction of the children to the foreign oyibos are always the same regardless. With the little ones, it was like a running, screaming mob. For the older ones, we would walk into a classroom, and they would all be hushed by the teacher. They would sometimes sing a song, or merely say in their loudest, proudest English a big "dank you!" -- and once we walked out, it was like pandemonium as squeeling of delight and wonder filled the room. It was impossible not to hear the children and see their laughs and smiles -- and feel relieved and happy. But at the same time -- I always wondered how naive or presumptuous I was to feel that. How cliche, right?

And for the moment you were all waiting for -- yes I took photos, finally!! I didn't get as many photos of images/experiences that I wanted to. Mainly because I was "working" and not travelling, where I could stop as I'd like. And even when I did get to take photos, it never seemed to capture what I was seeing/feeling.

But they are up on flickr, so click on this link to view --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikatzchen/sets/72157615259746736/

three random stereotypes that are relatively true

2009-03-09T07:59:00.000-04:00

1. women carry huge amounts of X, Y, Z balanced on their heads -- well, this is only partly true because plenty of men are hawking items along the street, even if the majority are women. but you see them everywhere, balancing a huge bowl of bananas, mangos, water, rice, etc etc while walking down the hot, dusty sidewalks.

i try not to be impressed by such feats of balance but more than once i wish i could try to do such balancing myself without (a) dropping the load on my feet like the lame oyibo i am or (b) appearing condescending or naive like the out of touch oyibo i am.

2. nigerians drive like shit -- ok, you want me to be kinder and gentler? how about they drive like crazy crap. this is something that photos cannot do justice to, nor even mere narrative. i cannot describe what riding around in a taxi is like here -- this is something that can only be experienced first hand. but all those rumors i heard about driving on sidewalks, cutting people off, no headlights at night, burn-out car crashes in the middle of the road etc etc are very much true here.

part of the problem is that there are too many cars. everyone owns his/her own car because taking taxis all the time can add up pretty quickly (i should know). so it's a source of pride -- you always see people cleaning up their cars to a glittering sheen, whether it's a brand new peugot or a beat-up 20+ year old volkwagen with no door handles and cracked windshield.

however, once they get on the road -- it's the law of step aside bitch, me first. i like to believe they don't necessarily do this with malicious intent. the truth of the matter is the process of getting a driver's license consists of forking over the required "fee" and there you go, you're ready to drive! it's all about money, baby. so i say a good majority of the drivers out there have never really "learned" how to drive.

so a road technically wide enough for 3 lanes easily becomes a 4 lane road. or even funnier, when the 3 lane road becomes a 2 lane road -- nigerians seem to love to think of lane markings as what you drive over, as if it's a monorail tracking. i've finally gotten used to 4-way intersections with no street lights where the law of step aside bitch, me first is quite an adventure. basically i hold my breath and hope not to get side swiped. only one taxi ride (out of many) have i ever felt "are these my last thoughts? am i going to die here in abuja, alone, in this taxi?" -- but it still doesn't get any easier.

3. nigerians love obama and think of him as a brother -- this is also very much true from my unscientific sampling of taxi drivers and other local folks. the best conversation i've had about obama though was from a taxi driver who was amazed that a black man could become president of the US -- his voice was filled with awe and he felt that made the US a wonderful country where anything was possible, and he only hoped for such greatness to be able to happen in his country. i admit (and i don't even like obama) that i was pretty proud to be representin'!

tomorrow i leave for nothern nigeria -- bauchi, kano, and kaduna -- for a week of field site visits. bauchi recently had some riot troubles, but the curfew has been lifted and so we're going ahead. i'm pretty excited, especially to see historical kano. this is supposed to be work and i'm not really supposed to act like a tourist but i hope to have time to see the famous dye pits and the ancient city walls (what's left of them). i'm also bringing my camera so hopefully i'll have photos soon!

abuja, nigeria

2009-02-27T14:30:00.002-05:00

it’s been over two weeks here in nigeria and i still haven’t written. i guess partly that’s because there is no cooking or baking to tell you about. it is so hot (even by nigerian standards - every day has been easily over 100F degrees) that the thought of turning on the stove or oven seems a cruel punishment. but hot weather has never deterred me before.

then i realized it’s because i don’t have any one here to share it with. i never think of food as purely sustenance. i’m fascinated by the rituals, customs, and habits of people sharing food. i enjoy cooking and baking because i enjoy sharing it with others. my fondest memories are embedded in events surrounded with food. baking is a solitary activity for me - but it's always shared with others afterwards. and my favorite part of cooking is doing it together with mr. mimi. so when it comes to cooking or baking by myself, and for myself - i’m at a loss.

so unless you want to hear random stories about nigeria i probably won’t be writing much here. if i bring out my camera maybe i’ll post some photos. right now i’ve only been using my iphone to take quick photos - certainly not blog-worthy!

until next time, as they say here - you’re welcome!

banana bundt cake

2009-01-27T15:02:00.001-05:00

how appropriate that i'm here on a tuesday with a dorie recipe. it's bittersweet because i no longer bake along with the lovely tuesdays with dorie group, although i do follow many of them along the way. i don't believe this one has been made by the group yet, but i know they will love it once they do!

this was my first time making a bundt cake in order to justify buying the pan a couple months ago!

so simple, and probably my favorite recipe so far. it came out so moist and the banana-sour cream flavor was perfect. when googling around to find an online print of the recipe, i found that dorie made these into banana cake muffins with half the recipe - what a terrific idea for an easy portable breakfast treat!

for dorie's banana bundt cake recipe, click here. i did not use chocolate (the book recipe does not include it either), but i did add a lemon glaze once it cooled.

for some strange reason, this is my fourth post on banana baking! i either really love bananas, or i routinely let them brown-rot far too often. but for other banana bread/cake ideas, click here or here or here.

orange cream cheese muffins with pepita crunch

2009-01-22T14:09:00.001-05:00

citrus is pretty much my favorite fruit and one of the very few reasons i can tolerate winter at all! however, when i was a wee girl of about 6 impressionable years i was at a family dinner function of sorts. towards the end, fresh fruit was served, including orange wedges. after eating mine and leaving the rinds on my plate, one of my ornery uncles cleverly said "hey, why aren't you eating those? you're supposed to eat all the orange parts!" i had never heard such a thing but i was the quintessential curious kid, so i bit off a big piece of the rind ..... and a thousand glasses of water couldn't get rid of that bitter, awful taste!!

ever since then i've had an unnatural, neurotic obsession with peeling off every dangling piece of rind and white pith whenever i peel an orange. yes, even though i know the white pith has all that good nutrition! but what can i say, my taste buds were traumatized and now i can only have my oranges naked.

so i was a bit wary, to say the very least, with this recipe that asks for the orange - flesh, pith, and rind! - to be incorporated. as a pre-caution, i zipped it to a pulp.

but my fears were unwarranted, because these muffins turned out so good. i'd even prefer them a bit more orangey (maybe a round 1/4 cup?) and the pepita crunch was a lovely topping. here's to a yummy breakfast treat!

orange cream cheese muffins with pepita crunch: makes 12*
from great coffee cakes, sticky buns, muffins & more (2007, p. 106)

for pepita crunch
1 large egg white (reserve yolk)
2 tb plus 1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup pepitas

1. preheat oven to 350F. spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray or line with parchment. in small bowl, whisk together egg white and 1 tb of sugar. add pepitas and toss well. pour onto cookie sheet and spread evenly in single layer. sprinkle 1 more tb of sugar over pepitas. bake for 7-8 minutes.

2. stir pepitas with fork and bake for another 7 minutes. stir pepitas again, sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp of sugar and bake for another 3 minutes. remove and allow to cool; set aside.

for muffins
1/2 small navel orange, cut into 6-8 pieces (rind, pith, and flesh)
4 oz cream cheese, room temp, broken into 3-4 pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly firm
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk (from pepita crunch)
1 tsp vanilla

1. increase oven to 375F. whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and bakng soda; set aside.

2. turn on food processor and drop orange pieces through the tube. process until finely chopped. measure out 1/4 cup pulp and return to food processor bowl (discard any excess orange). add cream cheese and process in three 10-second intervals, scraping the sides after each.

3. but butter into 1-inch pieces and with electric mixer and paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute. stop and add cream cheese/orange mixture, mix on medium 1 more minute. add sugar in steady stream, then blend in eggs, yolk, and vanilla.

4. reduce mixer to slow and add flour mixure in three additions, mixing until just blended after each addition.

5. portion level scoops into muffin pan. sprinkle top of each with 1 tb of pepita crunch. be sure to use any sugar that remains in the pan.

6. bake for 22-25 minutes, rotating halfway through, until golden brown and tops are spingy. cool on rack.

* note: despite ms. walter's annoying insistence on making 14 muffins in her recipes, i just whip up the whole batter and make 12 and it's never been a problem. however, i have to wonder, why write recipes for 14 muffins??!

roasted chicken stuffed with dried fruits

2009-01-20T16:06:00.000-05:00

how fitting that my election night post was about roasted chicken, and here we come back to roasted chicken for today.

besides my political dreams, as an adolescent i also thought i was going to be a famous artist. i'd skip classes for days on end to be in the art class studio all afternoon. i was passionate about van gogh, cezanne, and kandinsky. i loved hopper. i was sure i was going to be the next contemporary brice marden or julian schnabel.

then my tortured adolescence of drawing and painting came to an end, but i still loved visuals - typography, design, illustration. and so when i ended up working at a bookstore, i was always a sucker for the cover of a book. i bought man without qualities because when both volumes are put together, the spines are a image of his face. and no, i have never gotten past page 100, but i still love that cover.

another thing i learned working at the bookstore is that the holidays are prime cookbook buying time. who knew? but several years ago we joined that tradition and bought claudia roden's middle eastern book for someone. back then i was pretty ignorant and all i knew about middle eastern food was your standard kebabs, hummus, and tabouli. and i was definitely ignorant about what a great writer claudia roden is. she doesn't just give recipes, she's a storyteller - of food, history, and culture. honestly i really didn't know anything except that this book had a gorgeous cover! so gorgeous in fact that i had to buy a copy for ourselves the next year.

and after all that babbling, all i have to say is: make this chicken. you will love it.

roasted chicken stuffed with dried fruits: serves 4-6
adapted from claudia roden's new book of middle eastern food (excellent book, highly recommended, 2000, p. 225)

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 - 4 lbs (preferably organic, humane)
1 onion, finely chopped
butter
olive oil
1/2 lb dried prunes, soaked, pitted, and chopped
1/2 lb dried apricots, soaked pitted, and chopped
1/3 cup raisins, soaked
2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (a specific type is not mentioned; we used granny smith)
salt + pepper
1 tsp cinnamon

1. preheat oven to 325F. fry the chopped onion in 2 tb butter until soft and golden. add chopped fruits and raisins and sauté for a few minutes. season to taste with salt, pepper, and cinnamon.

2. stuff the chicken with some of this mixture, securing the opening with a toothpick. rub chicken with olive oil, salt, and pepper. put the remaining mixture in a roasting pan. place the chicken - breast side down - on top of the mixture. salt and pepper. (this roasting method of breast side down is unsual, but mr. mimi is convinced what gave the chicken such great flavor and moistness and wants to try it with other dishes.)

3. roast the chicken for about 1 1/2 hours total, turning the chicken over after 40 minutes. serve the chicken with the extra stuffing mixture, accompanied by rice.

honey shortbread cookies

2009-01-15T13:42:00.001-05:00

i admit, i only wanted to make this because (a) it has five ingredients, easy-parcheesi! and (b) i've never made shortbread before. can you believe i've never made shortbread - even though trefoils are my third favorite (behind thin mints and samoas, of course!)??

well i'm glad that oversight was rectified because these are some the yummiest cookies i've ever made! everyone knows that the combo of sweet and salty is near goodliness, and for any skeptics, the case was confirmed with that famous new york times article last year that caused legions of bloggers to take note and bake away with a little sprinkling of sea salt!

i used a scant 1/2 tsp of fleur de sel instead of kosher. all i had in the pantry was wildflower honey, which i normally find too floral but once it caramelized it was fine. and of course, the sprinkling of salt made it perfect!

sprinkling or pour? as you can see, i was a wee bit generous with the salt. but i am someone who will pick popcorn and chips over chocolate and ice cream any day, so - uh - i guess that means no problem for me! but even my sweets obsessed mr. mimi thought it was just fine. so i guess it just looks too salty in photos even though technically it didn't taste over-salted. also, it was a teeny tiny bit crumbly when i cut the slices. but only really at the narrow apex and it totally had no impact whatsoever on the "oh. my. goodness, these are so insanely yummy!" that we mumbled between each bite.

the recipe suggestion was to serve once cooled completely, although i preferred the cookie just on the edge of slightly warm. mr. mimi preferred them room temp to better appreciate the sandiness of cookie. in the end, i would have preferred if i didn't eat almost all of them!

for the fine cooking recipe, click here.

i am also sending this on over for the weekend cookbook challenge of five ingredients or less!

chunky peanut, chocolate, and cinnamon cookies

2009-01-14T15:55:00.001-05:00

i have finally settled back into new york city after a really great holiday vacation in san diego, san francisco, and sonoma. and now i have just a little more than two and a half weeks before i leave for nigeria.

it's a strange feeling not having a place to report to. since i can remember, i have always had to - in theory, folks - be at work or in class. but now, in between a few school papers due and and a couple of travel-related errands, i really have nothing to do.

i guess i should cherish this downtime, but i have heard i will have lots of it in abuja!! so i decided to take the next two weeks and bake every day. all those things i have wanted to try again and get right, all those bookmarked blogs, and tagged book pages. of course, i can't get to it all, but there is really no excuse to start having fun again in the kitchen.

so sit back and enjoy the treats. my first bake is by request of mr. mimi: chunky peanut, chocolate, and cinnamon cookies. honestly, i hardly tasted any cinnamon, but they were still very good. i did add the vanilla in with the wet ingredients instead of at the end (as instructed) because it just seemed very weird to me to do otherwise.

i used the recipe from her book, in which she suggests that you can make ahead and bake-off when needed. simply form the dough into 1-inch balls, flatten them slightly, freeze them on cookie sheets until firm. keep in resealable plastic bags for up to one month. i froze about 3/4 of the dough and baked some off last night. i love that i have cookies waiting for me in the freezer!

for the online version, click here.

happy new year!

2009-01-07T20:54:00.006-05:00

i wanted to try to blog while on vacation ... but alas, vacation took over ;-)

now vacation is coming to an end and in just a few more days i'll be back home freezing my tuchus off in cold, wintery new york city. i don't have any food-related items to chat about now (plenty of eating, just not any cooking involved, it is vaca after all!) but i'm a list-lover.

so when i came across these two from mary schmich of the chicago tribune via nonsociety (yes, i admit it, my daily guilty pleasure) i had to be a virgoan over-achiever and fill out both of them. enjoy and i'd love to see what's on your list!

(click here and here to see both original lists)

looking back on 2008
- I gained two very good friends
- I lost the patience to sit through classes that bore me to tears
- I stopped thinking about my ex-friend who was never my friend to begin with
- I started eating meat again
- I was hugely satisfied by our visit to kruger park
- And frustrated by the inability to connect
- I am so embarrassed that I was socially awkward in front of my new friend
- Once again, I googled RL and couldn’t find her
- Once again, I did not run a 5k
- The biggest physical difference between me last December and this December is I lost 10 lbs … but I think I gained it all back on this vaca ☹
- The biggest psychological difference between me last December and this
December is more confusion
- I loved spending time playing tennis
- Why did I spend even two minutes trying to chase that which was not going to be mine?
- I should have spent more time riding my bike
- I regret buying so much clothing
- I will never regret buying our trip to south africa even though with that money I could have bought a lower credit card bill
- I procrastinated way too much
- I didn’t become healthy enough
- H drove me crazy
- Was our annual holiday party crazier than ever last year? Or was it me?
- The most relaxing place I went was south africa
- I feel so happy when I write that down
- Why did I go to social work school?
- The best thing I did for someone else was forgive
- The best thing I did for myself was buy a mac
- The best thing someone did for me was give me the chance
- The one thing I’d like to do again, but do it better, is make people laugh

and looking forward to 2009
- One thing I will learn: french
- One place I will go: nigeria
- One physical habit I will break: sleeping in late
- One physical habit I will cultivate: running
- One mental habit I will break: regret
- One mental habit I will cultivate: patience
- One relationship I’ll repair: sex life
- One home repair I’ll finally get around to: moving
- One work habit I will change: arriving late
- One thing I’ll throw out: clothing that doesn’t fit
- A second thing I’ll throw out: old files
- One thing I’ll eat more often: fruit
- One thing I’ll eat less: meat
- One thing I’ll drink more: good wine
- One thing I’ll drink less: cocktails
- One overdue e-mail I’ll send, or overdue phone call I’ll make: honestly couldn’t think of anyone
- One resentment I’ll get over: losing RL through nobody's fault but my own (albeit more like regret, not resent)
- One person I’ll treat more respectfully: my husband
- One thing I’ll spend less money on: clothing
- One other change I’ll make in my finances: I’ll get a job
- One thing I’ll spend less time doing: second-guessing myself
- And a thing I’ll spend more time doing: being happy with feeling happy
- One resolution I’ve made before but will honor this time because I really do believe that with a little effort life can be better: just do it

roast flounder provençal

2008-12-23T12:28:00.001-05:00

i haven't been posting as frequently as i had been. time constraints during the busy month of december are real but couldn't be the sole reason.

i still try to keep up with all the new posts in my reader, and after reading some of my favorites, finally i realized that one reason i feel less vested in my blog is the artificial wall i put up to preserve my "identity". i was always worried about remaining anonymous. mimi isn't even my real name! but i realized that the blogs i love the most are those that are personal. not necessarily dirty laundry personal. but those who have the stamp of "i" clearly and openly in their writing and photography.

it may be that my online identity is an artificial façade because i'm so unsure of my own personal identity at this time. too many changes, not enough answers, getting older but not feeling much wiser.

but it's nearly the end of december and i can't let it go by without another recipe. here's an easy one, maybe a good option for a simple christmas eve dinner?

roast flounder provençal: serves 2

1 lb flounder
2 shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
handful european olive mix, pitted and sliced
olive oil
fleur de sel
pepper
thyme and chives, chopped
white wine

1. preheat oven to 375F. rub flounder fillets with olive oil, cracked pepper, and fleur de sel. roast until firm, about 10 minutes.

2. meanwhile sauté garlic and shallots in olive oil until tender. de-glaze with white wine, add tomatoes, olives. season with herbs, flip twice and turn off heat. serve over top of fish. goes perfectly with roasted fingerling potatoes and carrots!

twd: buttery jam cookies

2008-12-09T00:06:00.000-05:00

there's so much more i wish i could be cooking and baking and blogging about. but big changes are happening (even some that nobody knows about - but NO!! i am not preggers, so don't even ask!) so time is of the essence for me right now and i only squeeze in what i can.

but i'm glad i snuck in some time for a tuesdays with dorie cookie this week. we have been graciously allowed to skip around weeks this month, and technically this isn't due until next tuesday.

i made the recipe as written, but with cherry preserves. when these came out the oven i was totally underwhelmed and thought well that was a waste of butter. i mean look at the photo! no amount of photoshopping could make these actually look good!

but then i tried them with a cup of tea and wow, i was totally and pleasantly surprised by how good these are! they are like a scone but lighter, and like a biscuit but crispier. it's hard to describe - but soft on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. thank goodness i gave some away because by the next day i had eaten the rest.

and speaking of the next day, you know how almost all baking recipes warn "best eaten day made" or whatnots. like we all have time to bake the day of anything?! but these truly are best eaten the day they are made. i kept them overnight in air-tight box, and they were still yummy today (i still ate them all didn't i?) but they definitely lost some of the crispy.

to get the recipe, please check back to heather's blog, randomosity and the girl next tuesday!

arugula, carrot and celery root salad

2008-11-26T07:41:00.000-05:00

for those who procastinate (like moi) and are still looking for a salad for tomorrow .... here's a perfect choice!

fine cooking's original recipe said it could serve 10-12 .... i halved the recipe and we still ate it all accompanied to a main meal. then again, i'm someone who could eat a big salad for dinner and be happy, but i could imagine even you carnivores would go for seconds with this one!

super easy to make, and the spiciness of the arugula would probably go great with all the sweetness of traditional thanksgiving fare.

every thanksgiving is special to me. but as i get ready to temporarily leave my family and friends for half a year, i'm going to be giving a lot of thanks this thursday. i hope you'll be celebrating with loved ones as well.

arugula, carrot and celery root salad: serves 2-4
adapted from fine cooking (jan 2009, p. 58)

2 tb apple cider vinegar
2 tb honey
1 tsp dijon mustard
3-4 tb olive oil
salt + pepper
3 medium carrots
1 small celery root
3 oz baby arugula
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. make vinaigrette: in small bowl, whisk together vinegar, honey, and mustard. whisk in oil and season with salt and pepper. this makes the whole batch of vinaigrette from the original recipe but you'll only use half for this serving size. serve with extra vinaigrette on the side, or save for another time.

2. wash and dry the arugula. peel and trim carrots and celery root, and grate into strips (great the celery root right before serving, as it may oxidize and turn brown if done too much earlier).

3. toss together the arugula, carrots, celery root, and half the almonds and cranberries with half the vinaigrette. season with salt and pepper to taste. sprinkle the rest of the almonds and cranberries on top.

comfort food: pierogi

2008-11-25T11:08:00.000-05:00

sorry, no tuesdays with dorie here. vibi from la casserole carrée choose the "two-fer" pumpkin slash pecan pie, but i already have got my pies to bake for thanksgiving, and i just can't bear to do another one!

but this weekend i did make pierogis. i can't remember when i first ate a pillowy puff of potato, but evidently i was polish in a past life because i love them!! they're like a comfort food for me. when i was younger i used to eat a plate of them with caramelized onions for dinner.

so when we finally decided to use up the kielbasa we bought from the farmer's market, i got the brilliant idea of making my own pierogis!!

yes, it's true i like martha's recipes, but i figured her mother would know a thing or two about making pierogis. unfortunately i was going between the online and magazine recipe, and halving both and i wasn't as organized as i should have been. it was an afternoon of oops, that was supposed to be 1.5 cups of flour! and an oops, i forgot to salt and pepper the potato mix! and shit my countertop next to the oven is hot and my dough is now sticking!

do you ever having baking days like that???

but the end result was some delicious pierogi. never doubt that something as simple as potato stuffed dumplings can taste amazingly better homemade than store bought! i think there was a little bit of that delicious taste called "pride" in each bite too ... i couldn't believe i made these babies by hand!!

for the online recipe - and a great video of martha and mum - click here.

winter squash soup with sage leaves

2008-11-21T08:39:00.000-05:00

in an effort (however non-effective, at least it's earnest) to try to reduce the gluttonous impact my recent omnivorous ways have been taking on my body, i'm devoting one night a week to making soup for dinner. last week's was pasta e fagioli. yes, i know soup doesn't necessarily mean "healthier", but it at least feels healthier, so i tell myself.

we had a butternut languishing on our counter and fresh chicken stock (yes, i'm in love with homemade chicken stock) waiting in the fridge. some of my favorite soups come from, of course, ms. madison. so we decided to try this simple sounding squash soup with sage leaves.

i was worried without some beans or pasta or dare i say, meat, i wouldn't feel full from this soup. but coupled with a crunchy greens salad and some baguette, it was a perfect dinner. it was so flavorful, and like always, was better the next night. i even had the last bit for lunch yesterday and i still loved it. yes, that bears repeating ... i ate this soup three days out of this week and still loved it on the third day!!

so what are you waiting for?

winter squash soup with sage leaves: serves 4-6
from vegetarian cooking for everyone (1997, p. 215)

2 1/2 - 3 lbs winter squash
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for squash
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
12 whole sage leaves, plus 2 tb chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
4 thyme sprigs, chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt + pepper
2 quarts homemade stock (be it vegetable or chicken, but please be it homemade!)
1/2 cup fontina, pecorino, or ricotta salata, diced into small cubes

1. preheat oven to 375F. halve squash and scoop out seeds. brush surface with oil, stuff cavaties with garlic and place cut sides down on baking sheet. bake until tender, about 30 minutes.

2. meanwhile heat 1/4 cup oil in small skillet until nearly smoking, then drop whole sage leaves and fry until dark, about 1 minute. set leaves aside on paper towel and transfer oil to wide soup pot. add onions, chopped sage, thyme, and parsley and cook over medium heat until onions have begun to brown, about 12-15 minutes.

3. scoop squash flesh into pot along with any juices that accumulated in the pan. peel the garlic and add to pot along with salt and stock and bring to boil. lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes. if soup becomes too thick, simply add more water/stock to thin it out. taste for salt.

4. depending on the type of squash you've used, the soup with be smooth or rough. if you want a refined soup, use a handmixer or blender. if you mix it, you might want to heat it up a bit again. then ladle into bowls and distribute cheese over top (the cheese adds a contrast flavor to the sweetness of the squash, so yes, it's necessary!) garnish with sage leaves, add pepper, and enjoy!

a try at snickerdoodles

2008-11-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

i have to admit that i've never heard of snickerdoodles before i started blogging. AND i thought they had something to do with snickers, yummy! so i was just a tad bit disappointed when i learned that was just false advertising - and in reality they were just basically a sugar cinnamon cookie. where's the snickery peanuts and chocolate and caramel??!!

but so many people wrote so many wonderful things about them, so i've wanted to try making them ever since. last week i did, but i was rushing out and did not watch them carefully. they ended up slightly overcooked and deflated to a crunchy cookie. so the verdict is out on whether i like these or not, i'll just have to bake another batch more carefully!

i used the recipe from fine cooking's special cookie issue, but you can find the recipe online here.

twd: arborio rice pudding

2008-11-18T23:57:00.000-05:00

one of my weaknesses in the last grocery aisle of fairway is the stacks of kozyshack. i'm such a sucker, for both the vanilla rice pudding and the regular chocolate pudding. it doesn't last long once it gets back to our fridge

so when isabelle from les gourmandises d'isa picked dorie's arborio rice pudding for this week i was pretty excited to try it out. there was a bit of a typo that the miss dorie herself pointed out to us on the twd blog but then i overcompensated too much and ended up with a pudding that was more like a mushy brick of rice. whoops! but it still tasted pretty great. i'm tempted to see how it might come out with rice milk instead, since i don't buy cow milk on a regular basis at all.

as always, please visit the other members and check out their much more creative rice puddings! for the recipe, click here.

separate is not equal

2008-11-15T16:47:00.003-05:00

ricotta pancakes

2008-11-14T00:53:00.000-05:00

happy friday everyone!

two years ago, mark bittman had an article about pancakes that showcased a photo that was the very definition of drool-worthy. i don't even like pancakes (i'm an omelette girl) but these just looked so damn good, soft on the inside, crunchy brown on the outside, so golden and buttery!!

and his accompanying recipe for ricotta pancakes became our favorite, it's the only one we make when i finally get the craving.

for the recipe click here.

and for the bittman photo that started it all, click here.

think paprika round-up!

2008-11-13T00:27:00.000-05:00

sunita gave me the gracious honor of hosting october's think spice event. i chose paprika, and received some delicious entries!

in addition to the one i offered - mr. mimi's chicken paprikash - here are the other lovely dishes to satisfy your paprikan curiosity. please visit their blogs, all of them are wonderful!

sweatha from tastycurryleaf made a very yummy potato goulash, vegetarian german style, even if that is an oxymoron! this bowl of goodness is perfect for these colder nights.

next up is lubna from yummy food (needs no explanation!) who found the paprika very spicy but made these spicy potato chunks. i don't care how simple the recipe may seem, i bet this was delicious!

su-lin from the beautiful blog tamarind and thyme made a similar pimentón potato wedges, dusted with paprika. she suggested to pair these up with grilled steak. but they look so good i could probably eat a whole plate as lunch!

priya with her colorful blog priya's easy n tasty recipes posted one of her favorite recipes for spicy baked chicken. if the picture doesn't have you drooling i don't know what will, this looks fantastic!

mahima from olives and basil actually loves the flavor of paprika! and here's her entry, a peppery basil spaghetti that is both creamy and spicy blissfully at the same time. sounds like my perfect kind of pasta!

and last but not least, lovely manuela from baking history brought along cheese straws. "hard to stop eating" she says and i'll take her word for it, but i definitely want to try making these!
so there you have it, all the paprika you could ever want! next up is think spice ... think anise hosted by manuela. for past think spice events, visit sunita's blog.

thyme roasted chicken with apples and bacon

2008-11-11T22:43:00.000-05:00

sorry there's no tuesdays with dorie here today (but please check out everyone else on the blogroll for a very awesome kugelhof as chosen by yolanda from the all-purpose girl!)

but i don't want to leave you empty-handed, so let's revisit a week ago tonight, election night. what a strange ride this has been, when the only reasonable discussion of policy and politics i could have was with my republican cousin-in-law because everyone else in my immediate circle was an obamaholic who couldn't see beyond their own assumptions and stereotypes. i'm a 110% dyed in the wool liberal - love me or leave me - but go ahead and challenge me! i love to refine my arguments with debate and deconstruction until alas, you just have to concede that i was right all along ;-)

we had some people over for election night and wanted to serve a family style meal that was easy but comfy. we settled on roasted chicken, butternut squash risotto (that was awesome), and arugula salad (thanks J!)

so here's to change, here's to hope, and here's to turning that map a little more darn blue.

thyme roasted chicken with apples and bacon: serves 6

large whole chicken (ours was 5 lb)
1 bunch thyme
2-3 apples
4 garlic cloves
3 slices turkey bacon, cooked
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine
olive oil
salt + pepper
lemon juice

1. preheat oven to 425F. rinse chicken inside and out; discard gizzard and neck.

2. dice apples and mix with lemon juice. slice garlic cloves and dice turkey bacon. toss all in bowl with a little olive oil, a couple thyme sprigs, and salt and pepper.

3. place remaining bunch thyme sprigs in roasting pan. stuff chicken with apple/garlic/bacon mix. rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (and other seasonings as desired). place on top of thyme sprigs.

4. roast in oven for 20 minutes. turn down to 325F and pour some of the chicken broth and all the white wine over chicken. continue to pour a little fresh broth on chicken every 20 minutes until roasted to an internal temp of 165F.

5. take out and let rest for half hour. carve and set on oven-proof platter with stuffing, pouring juices over the chicken/stuffing. put the platter back in the oven and bring back up to internal temp. serve sizzling and enjoy!

pasta e fagioli

2008-11-10T21:58:00.002-05:00

i have to sheepishly admit ... many times i go through my google reader and think so many things look delicious and i post a comment "got to try this soon!" - sometimes even a "definitely trying this out!" - and then i guiltily never come through on my encouraging promise.

but for some reason, this pasta e fagioli bucked the trend when i saw it on jen's blog use real butter. folks, i saw this yesterday and made it tonight ... that's how much i was impressed by this so simple, but so delicious supper soup!

i made some slight modifications based on what we had in the pantry, and our preferences. we used our favorite turkey bacon instead of the italian sausage, and navy beans instead of northern. we did splurge on the ditalini (oh when am i going to use this again?!) and we had fresh rosemary instead of dried (if you use fresh, add and remove with the cinnamon, not in the beginning as written in the recipe).

i worked later than usual tonight so i asked mr. mimi to have it ready for me when i came home (i know, spoiled by a professional chef!) and when i walked in the hallway, the spicy aroma - combination of cinnamon, rosemary, and vinegar - was sooo nice!! it was a perfect meal with some crusty bread, and even though i was tempted to halve the recipe i'm glad i didn't because i bet it will taste even better (as all soups inevitably do) for tomorrow's, and the next day's, and next day's lunch!

now you might notice that my soup doesn't really look like anything from jen's soup. although i'm sure her photographs benefit from natural mountain sunshine, my soup was definitely a dark red in real life too, so it could have something to do with brand of tomatoes i used. regardless, it tasted great, so who cares what color it came out!

plus! when i started getting ready to write this post and upload my photos i noticed that unbeknownst to me at the time of my clicking - both of us did a spoonful money shot. great pasta e fagioli minds think alike :-)

for the recipe, click here.

twd: rugelach

2008-11-04T10:47:00.000-05:00

this post is going to be short and sweet as i have (at least what seems) a zillion things going on today.

when i was younger i loved hanukkah. and not just for the gifts! but latkes and rugelach were my favorite holiday treats that basically i pigged out on because they only came around once a year!

so how delighted i was when grace from piggy's cooking journal picked rugelach for this week's tuesday with dorie!

the recipe was super easy to follow. i used a combination of whatever i had on hand: cherry jam, walnuts, and golden raisins. i did not add the chocolate, as dorie suggests, because i'm one of those few stalwarts who thinks not everything tastes better with chocolate!

these were the best rugelach i've ever eaten, especially right after baking. the dough was so light and flaky, compared to the denser dough typically found at store or even bakery bought versions. next time i want to try rolling them a little bit more uniform in size/shape, but i can't wait to make these again for hanukkah!

for the recipe, click here. and to see everyone else's rugelach combinations, click through the blogroll!

happy halloween!!

2008-10-31T18:35:00.002-04:00

one of my favorite nights of the year has finally arrived .... happy halloween everyone!!

happy anniversary sweetie

2008-10-30T09:24:00.000-04:00

these past four years have been wonderful.

you are my everything.

i will miss you when i leave next year. but that's why i love you. because you are always there for me, supporting me, my biggest cheerleader. i couldn't do this without you.

happy anniversary sweetie, here's to many more wonderful years!

daring bakers: pizza, pizza, pizza

2008-10-29T00:23:00.001-04:00

i've said it before but i'll say it again: i love pizza. plain, white, vegetables - you name it, i love it. well, actually, i prefer my pizza meatless. is that an aberration?

anyhoo, what a happy surprise when rosa from rosa's yummy yums picked pizza for this month's daring bakers challenge. and it was even more special as this month's selection was in honor of sherry, who was to co-host with rosa, but who tragically passed away this summer.

i just had one wee mistake. i've only made pizza dough once before and it was made, proofed, and baked on the same day. so even though i waited to the very last minute - because i like to put the challenge in a daring bakers challenge! - i was cool as a cuc, and anticipating a fun night of when the moon hits your eye ....

but this recipe from peter reinhart instructs one to rest the dough in the refrigerator overnight before proceeding the next day .... frickety frick!!

well, there was not going to be any overnight rest and i made do with the time i had (about 3 hours in the fridge). this made the dough harder to work with as it was relatively warm and soft. i used more flour than usual to get it working. i also think next time i won't make the dough balls so small, as it is counter-intuitively easier to work with larger pieces of dough.

even without the longer fridge time, these pizza babies still came out terrific. it had a wonderful flavor, soft but crispy at the same time, it was great to bite into. but i felt badly i didn't do this recipe the justice it deserved. however, this is definitely going to be my go-to recipe for pizza dough from now on, so i'm excited to see just how amazing it can be!

for the recipe, from reinhart's the bread baker's apprentice, please check out rosa's blog. however please note the original recipe did not call for sugar, and listed oil as only suggested for high gluten flour like bread. for more pizzas check out the entire daring bakers blogroll, all zillion of them!

pizza #1: fresh mozzarella, anchovies, capers, hot chilis, and sauce (inspired from jaime oliver)

pizza #2: fresh mozzarella, artichokes, spanish olives, and sauce

pizza #3: gruyère, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and turkey bacon. um yeah, just forget about that first comment about meatless pizzas! this one was definitely my favorite, so damn tasty. i loved having the gruyère instead of mozzarella, it's more flavorful and such a good contrast to the earthy mushrooms and onions.

twd: chocolate-chocolate cupcakes, boo-yah!

2008-10-28T23:10:00.001-04:00

for this week's tuesdays with dorie, clara from the wonderful i heart food for thought chose chocolate-chocolate cupcakes and gently suggested doing a halloween theme for decoration.

there had been some lengthy discussion about the texture and crumb being dry, with lots of talk about ratios and flour weights. i don't think there are any "fool-proof" recipes (especially for baking) so i tend to think that any discrepancies mainly occur because of differences in conditions, particularly in the oven. so i decided to proceed as written, but keeping a careful watch on the baking time. i checked in 16 minutes and the toothpick came out wet; only 2 more minutes and it came out completely dry.

the result? well first, the batter was soo good! that bowl hardly had to go in the dishwasher i cleaned it so well myself - no shame!

and the cupcake? amazing! moist and chocolately. i did not have any problem with it being a crummy dry crumb. i suspect that was related to my 18 minutes baking, compared to dorie's written 22-25 minutes. i would've preferred a chocolate buttercream, but that's just me (or is it you, too?)

i wasn't at all creative in the halloween department. but do you ever need a pretty reason to eat a chocolately chocolate cupcake??

for the recipe, please click here!

don't forget about think spice!

2008-10-27T19:29:00.002-04:00

tonight is the deadline for think spice ... think paprika! so get your spicy on, whip up a paprikan inspired dinner and email me the deets!

for more info about paprika and info on the event, click here. to see the chicken paprikash i made, click here.

do you see what i see?

2008-10-26T23:30:00.003-04:00

for the more technologically advanced ... how do i deal with the fact that screens display color and brightness so differently? is there any way to compensate when using photoshop so that a digital photograph is rendered visually the same on any screen?

i am researching how to calibrate my own screen for color management; but assuming that most people don't go that far, is there any way to be in control of how others see my photos (who don't calibrate their screens)?

alsace onion tart

2008-10-25T20:21:00.000-04:00

savory tarts are one of my favorite meals.

i had bookmarked this alsace onion tart a couple of months ago. caramelized onions in a tart? i'm happy to report it tasted as amazing as it sounds!

we used turkey bacon to assuage our fat intake guilt, and of course it tasted just as lovely. i was tempted to add a sprinkling of gruyère, but decided to leave the recipe as written. i never think a little bit of cheese makes anything taste badly, but this tart was perfectly creamy and rich just the way it was.

for the recipe, click here (from gourmet 2004, posted on epicurious).

in the home stretch: making chicken stock

2008-10-24T15:48:00.000-04:00

only one more week to go!

nablowrimo has been fun, although tedious at times and because i want it to be interesting on the user-end i at least have tried to post something culinary-related almost each day.

but here i am, stretching it so to speak in the home stretch.

because a post about stock isn't inherently interesting. but oh so important. in the winter i am a big fan of making my own stock. of course, that was always vegetable stock. but now that i have gone to the dark side of omnivory, i wanted to start off the season with some easy chicken stock from leftover parts and bones saved from the think spice dish.

and home made stock is so so easy there is absolutely no reason for you not to make it yourself. besides some chopping at the beginning there is nothing you else you have to do. you can do a big batch and freeze individual sizes. plus, you get to use up the bits and bobs of the vegetables from the week so they don't go to waste (unless you compost). but the real reason to do it is to make everything you make taste that. much. better!

my go-to easy stock is the from deborah madison's vegetarian cooking for everyone (you know, my favorite book of all time). i simply added the parts/bones after the vegetables had browned a little bit, and browned them some more before adding the water. i found her "quick stock" posted over at brin eats. i think the only difference between her "quick stock" and her regular "vegetable stock" is double the carrots and celery. but the quantity of items is not a science, and you can improvise easily. i always add peppercorns and leeks. this time i added chives because i had them (but no fresh thyme).

the next morning my kitchen still smells like that simmering stock from last night. which, i guess, could be a good or bad thing ;-)

let's make whoopie!

2008-10-23T20:38:00.000-04:00

it's a pumpkin kind of time. i first saw these whoopies over at peabody and knew i had to make them. then by chance a couple days later i actually bought the baked book myself and still knew i had to make them.

they didn't come out as domed and cracked on the tops as i would have liked. but my goodness, these were amazing. so spicy! i loved them. i'm glad i halved the recipe otherwise i would have been in real trouble. as it is, i'm already ashamed to admit how many i ate in one day, oh it was a perfectly delicious, gluttonous day!

i promise, if you make these, you will love them!

pumpkin whoopie pies: makes 12 large pies
from baked (2008, p. 151)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tb cinnamon
1 tb ginger
1 tb cloves
2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin purée (yes, the chilling is important)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

for filling:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 stick butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla

1. preheat oven to 350F. line two baking sheets with parchment.

2. whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside.

3. in separate bowl, whisk brown sugar and oil together until combined. add pumpkin purée and whisk to combine thoroughly. add eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

4. sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.

5. drop heaping tablespoon of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. bake 10-12 minutes, until cookies are just starting to crack on top and toothpick comes out clean from center of cookie. remove from oven and let cookies cool completely on the pan while making the filling.

6. sift confectioners' sugar into bowl and set aside. in bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter until completely smooth. add cream cheese and beat until combined.

7. add confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth, but be careful not to overbeat.

8. turn half of the cooled cookies upside down (flat side up). drop a large scoop of filling on to flat side of the cookie. place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. smooch a little so the filling spreads. put the whoopie pies in the fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up before serving.

cook book and travel advice needed!

2008-10-22T11:30:00.010-04:00

my dear readers, there are a few of you out there who i think might be able to help me with two questions ...

now that colder weather is here, i love to curl up with new books. i've already got a few on my wish list, but i really want a new cook book for dinner.

i've been eyeing the barefoot contessa books and know there are a bunch of fans out there ... so, if you like BC and have her cook books, which one would you recommend? do you have a favorite recipe from one of them? maybe her first one? or in paris? or at home? they all sound and look so lovely!

and it might be only october but that doesn't mean i'm not thinking about the holidays! the mimis are heading out west to visit family for christmas. we decided to extend the trip up to san francisco for new year's eve. neither of us know anyone in san fran, and mr. mimi was there only about 25 years ago! i'm super excited to visit chinatown, joe's burger, chez panisse, and muir woods.

but what should we do about new year's eve?? how do most people in san fran celebrate? unfortunately since we don't know anyone there, house parties are not an option. so for those stuck out and about, which part of town do people go to? we're no longer club hopping kids (well, mr. mimi never was, haha!) but like music, dancing, burlesque, etc etc. if you have specific suggestions that's great, but at least right now we're just trying to decide what area to book our hotel that might offer the best possibility of being in walking distance of whatever it is we end up doing! so downtown? union square? the mission? soma or whatever it's called?

i don't have much to give in return except my sincere undying gratitude, suggestions for vegetarian cook books, and new york city travel tips!

(photo credits: the contessa by quentin bacon and golden gate from destination 411)

twd: pumpkin muffins

2008-10-21T10:32:00.001-04:00

don't be fooled by those healthy looking seeds on top of these muffins. they are muffins afterall, and still have a nice big stick of butter in them!

i am a re-member of the happy tuesdays with dorie club. it was the lazy days of summer and i couldn't manage to be inside enough to get baked goods done every week (or even twice a month as allowed!) but as tuesdays with dorie grew, it finally expanded beyond and the inevitable deadline to join was created.

and what perfect timing for me to re-join because these pumpkin muffins were quite a tasty midnight snack. or breakfast treat. or after lunch why the heck not?

i used dried cranberries instead of raisins because i thought the combo was just a bit more complementary and i liked the color contrast too. i also used pepitas on top instead of sunflower seeds. the muffin cups definitely get filled up more than what i'm normally used to; i was a bit fearful they would overflow, but all was fine in pumpkin land.

for the recipe, check out kelly's blog over at sounding my barbaric gulp! - thanks for such a great pick kelly! and go ahead and check out the tuesdays with dorie blogroll, all almost 300 of us!

think spice ... think paprika ... think chicken paprikash!

2008-10-20T22:28:00.001-04:00

this recipe is a family hand-down from mr. mimi's great grandma, who came from czechoslovakia (and supposedly somehow through marriage - and maybe some tale telling - is related to the great masayrk) and brought all her amazing cooking with her.

mr. mimi's fondest memories of his great grandma is visits to her large, ornate apartment in the bronx, especially on christmas eve when she hosted the family dinner. but regardless of when the visit was, and what it is for, the minute he stepped into her home, he was greeted with the most amazing smells coming from the kitchen. she was the one who inspired him to be "chef boy rp" (rp is mr. mimi's real initials). she always had something cooking, and was famous for her chicken soup with egg drop. it was crafted from hours of labor and a heart full of love.

one of his other indelible memories is his great grandma sticking a big brown bar of soap in his mouth when "damn" came out of his precious four year-old mouth. he never said it again in front of her ;)

this recipe is in honor of his great grandma, who taught it to his mother (yes it skipped a generation; his nana was of the 'everything convenient is good' mantra of the postwar 50s), and who passed it to him. although it is less a "recipe" because there are no real exact measurements. what's written below is a close approximation of what happens without thinking about it in the kitchen. it's a cliché, i know, but it is one of those family dishes that was taught by feel and look and taste rather than teaspoons and cups and pounds.

even thought it doesn't look like much the best thing about it is the smell that is so warm and fantastic while it's braising. by the time it's finished you will think you're starving because it smells so good. this must be what mr. mimi means when he talks about his great grandma's kitchen.

and when i chose paprika for think spice this month, i knew i would make this. if you'd like to join this event, you still have a week left! for the rules, click here.

mr. mimi's chicken paprikash: serves 4
adapted from great grandma

1 whole chicken, cut into parts
1 large onion, medium diced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2-3 bay leaves
1-2 big cans crushed tomatoes
hungarian sweet paprika
salt + pepper
1/2 cup sour cream (give or take)
tomato paste
olive oil
1 lb large pasta shells

1. season chicken with salt and pepper, and heavily coated with paprika on both sides; rub in paprika. in heavy dutch oven, heat olive oil on medium and lay chicken skin side down carefully and sear until deep golden red, about 5 minutes. then flip over and sear on the other side for another 5 minutes. note: depending on your dutch oven size, you probably will have to do this in two batches; for the best sear, don't crowd the chicken!

this isn't the prettiest photo, but just to show you the chicken should be well coated with paprika!

2. take out chicken and place on plate. pour out oil and wipe out dutch oven if necessary. add a little fresh oil and sauté the garlic and onion until caramelized. stir in a tiny bit more paprika.

3. put chicken back in, skin side up. add bay leaves, tomatoes, salt and pepper. turn heat down to low, cover, and simmer for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. occasionally stir and turn chicken.

4. pull chicken out. temper the sour cream by adding a little bit of the tomato sauce to the sour cream and whisk; then add back the tempered sour cream. you will have to adjust the amount by eye, it should be similar in color to a dark pink vodka sauce. if necessary, tighten it up with some tomato paste.

5. meanwhile, bring salted water to boil and cook pasta according to directions.

6. skim off fat from tomato sauce and add back chicken. slowly bring back up to heat. add in cooked pasta and stir well so the shells get nice and coated. bon appétit from the old world!

note: if you're not in budapest or going there any time too soon, the best readily available (at least in the US) hungarian sweet paprika is from szeged.

roasted fish with vegetables

2008-10-19T23:29:00.001-04:00

last night was one of the first saturday nights the mimis have had in a while to stay in and enjoy a home cooked meal. we made sure to get to the farmer's market early (which for us, is by noon. what is early for you on a saturday??) so that we could see what blue moon had on hand. striped bass comes in to market season by late summer, and we were lucky they still had some filets left for the day. noodle pudding usually has it on their specials list by now. in fact, that may have been where i first tried striped bass a couple years ago. it's now one of my favorite fish for fall.

i often think of fish as a summer thing because i love it on the grill with just a spritz of lemon. it's hard for me to think of mild fish in the colder weather when i'm craving heavier, cozier type of meals.

but here's a recipe that is perfect for fall, that keeps the fish light and fresh but incorporates one of my favorite ways to have vegetables in the fall: roasting.

and the beauty of this recipe is that it is so versatile. i prefer mild, flaky fish like striped bass but you could use other filets as well. as long as 1. it can be cooked through (i.e., tuna would not work) and 2. it isn't too soft (i.e., skate is a possibility but you'd really have to watch the time).

also feel free to use whatever combination of vegetables you may prefer for roasting. i love the simplicity of mirepoix, with leeks instead of onions. the leeks roast up to a sweet toasty crisp. and of course, garlic. roasted garlic cloves may be the vegetable kingdom's gift to the culinary world. don't skip on them, and don't be afraid to eat them whole!

roasted fish with vegetables: serves 4

1 1/2 lb filet of fish
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch celery
1 bunch leeks, white and some light green parts, cleaned
8 garlic cloves
salt + pepper
olive oil
lemon

1. preheat oven to 400F. cut the carrots and celery into 1/2 inch chunks and the cleaned leeks into 1/2 inch slices. slightly smash and peel the garlic. toss everything with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. evenly place on bottom of roasting pan. cook until just tender and slightly brown, about 45 minutes.

2. rub some olive oil on both sides of each fish filet. season with salt and pepper (i like using coarse sea salt for this). lay on top of roasted vegetables and cook until fish is done, about 15 - 20 minutes depending on thickness of filets. by then the vegetables should be nicely roasted and caramelized, but if not you could always take out the filets when done and finish off the vegetables for a couple additional minutes. spritz fish with lemon and enjoy!

a little taste of south africa

2008-10-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

that brings back so many good memories. this was perfect with tonight's dinner, which will hopefully be posted about tomorrow! right now i'm a little too tipsy to type! ;-)

hello weekend!!

2008-10-17T21:51:00.002-04:00

i'm ready for ... lots of tennis, good home cooking, maybe painting the bathroom?, research and writing, economics homework, a ton of baking, maybe a movie?, and wishing that monday would never come!

project runway

2008-10-16T21:08:00.003-04:00

literally five minutes at home ... time to squeeze in only a couple sentences, so here it goes!

korto was completely robbed last night! her show was the only one that actually looked like a collection. the colors were great, silhouettes were interesting, beading was gorgeous. it looked cohesive while still interesting. in an elle spread, it would be enough variety to be pleasing on the eye.

leanne on the other hand was completely boring. yes, her construction is beautiful and i absolutely loved two of her pieces. and kudos for having skirt, dress, pants, and short. but every single item had the waves!! and only two colors! her elle spread will be boring, five pages of all the same thing!

i don't think i've ever been so annoyed by someone i don't know than by kenley! and my goodness, that voice of hers is like nails on a chalkboard! but i have to give her credit and say that some of her pieces were lovely. but overall, the show just looked disjointed without much that connected all the pieces.

and your thoughts??

banana chocolate nut bread

2008-10-15T23:28:00.000-04:00

does anyone make banana bread because they actually want to?? or is it because they innocently forget about those last three bananas on the bunch until it's too late?

i won't point any fingers ... but here's a banana nut bread i made tonight. and because everything tastes better with chocolate, i threw in a handful of chocolate chips as well.

banana chocolate nut bread: makes two 9x5 loaves
adapted from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 49)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
2 tb vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup (about 4 oz) walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk
non-stick cooking spray

1. preheat oven to 350F. coat loaf pans with cooking spray. in large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment, beat eggs, sugar, and vegetable oil on medium-low speed until combined. beat in flour mixture. add vanilla, banana, coconut, nuts, and buttermilk and beat just to combine.

3. divide batter evenly between pans. bake, rotating halfway through, until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 60 - 65 minutes. transfer to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes. remove loaves from pan and let cool completely.

if you find yourselves with even more ripe bananas, check out these two posts as well: classic banana bread and banana cake (from david lebovitz).

i miss you already chewy

2008-10-14T23:58:00.003-04:00

this is the third re-write of this post, and still i don't know what it is that i really want to say.

chewy was welcomed into a new home tonight, with a new family that will love him and care for him in all the ways i could ever wish for. but i am heartbroken at the feeling that i have abandoned him.

years ago when i was acknowledging my cross-national adoption for the first time, and understanding what it means to me to feel that loss, i met someone who helped me develop the strength to find some inner peace. it was literally just a single talk we had one evening, but it has stayed with me for 15 years now.

she grew up in a strict catholic family in the 1960s and when she became pregnant as a teenager her parents forced her to give the baby up for adoption. and what she told me was: "after 30 years i have never forgotten my son or his birthday. it is impossible for a woman to forget the experience of being pregnant, giving birth, and the baby they were not able to keep. your mother has not forgotten you."

at the time she told me that i was a teenager and had never been even close to being pregnant. so i could not really relate to her experience, but i took her words on faith.

and at the risk of being anthropomorphic, i can't help but remember her words as i pass along chewy to his new family. and before you start criticizing me for comparing a kitty to a child, it's not the adoptee that is the same. but it is the act itself - giving something i love away to someone else - that has unexpectedly triggered so many feelings of grief, loss, abandonment, and doubt.

my friend who adopted chewy told me that it is when we love and care for someone or something that we have to make hard decisions.

so true.

so tonight, dear chewy, i hope you are settling in with your new family. giving you to m. was one of the hardest decisions i have had to make.

we came back home and your little welcoming meow at the front window was missing, and your funny little spirited personality is no longer there to make us laugh. i cry when i think of your face as we drove away. but i will never forget you.

pork chops with pomegranate-fennel salsa

2008-10-13T23:26:00.000-04:00

i confess. i often ... okay, yes almost always! ... buy pomegranate seeds already hulled out of the shell. i'm really not that lazy. it's more that i just can't help it. they are coming into season now and when i go to the market and see the little containers full of those gorgeous red tangy seeds i just can't help buying one or two! which is exactly what i did a couple days ago.

totally unrelated, one thing that i've been surprised about since i've been eating meat this year is how much i like pork chops and tenderloin. and with flying pigs up at the farmer's market every saturday by us, it's very tempting to treat myself at home with a nice pork dinner.

so i searched around for a recipe and when i found this one with pomegranate seeds i just knew i had to try it with the seeds i just bought! we added a bbq spice to the rub for the pork chop, just to give it a bit of complementary flavor to what i expected to be a relatively sweeter salsa.

and in the end, dinner was perfectly delicious. i'm not sure if it's because we bought the fennel at the farmer's market as well, so it was more fresh than usual, but it really had a great flavor. i highly recommend trying this! the recipe also suggests the salsa would pair well with lamb.

pork chops with pomegranate-fennel salsa: serves 4
adapted from gourmet (jan 2002, original recipe online at epicurious, click here)

1 lb fennel bulb, stalks cut off and discarded (although you probably could use some of the greenery as garnish if you'd like)
1 cup pomegranate seeds
2 tb chopped chives
1 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp honey
olive oil
salt + pepper
coarse sea salt
spice rub of your choice (we used a moderately spiced pre-made bbq rub)
4 thick cut pork chops

1. preheat oven to 400F. halve fennel bulb lengthwise and core it, then cut into 1/4 inch dice. cook fennel in olive oil in a skillet over moderate heat, stirring until tender, about 15 minutes. transfer fennel to bowl and stir in pomegranate seeds, chives, vinegar, honey, and salt and pepper.

2. pat pork chops dry and season with coarse sea salt, pepper, and spice rub. heat olive oil in skillet over high heat until hot (but not smoking). sear chops until golden brown on each side, about 2 minutes each side. pour off excess oil - the easiest way is to use tongs to hold chop in the skillet and then pour oil out. put skillet in oven (make sure it has a metal handle!!) until 150F internal temperature, turning pork chop over once about 5 minutes in.

* note: we had very thick pork chops and that's why we suggest finishing off in the oven. if you only have very thin pork chops, you could very well just finish in the skillet on top of the stove.

chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

2008-10-12T23:57:00.004-04:00

yes, it's true. i missed a day. not entirely my fault as yesterday i was out of the house from the time i woke up until 3 in the morning (thanks m!)

the worst part is i LOVE lip balm. and so to hopefully make up for my lapse and to unjeopordize the receiving of said lip balm, i offer not one but two awesome chocolate treats!

first up is martha's double chocolate brownie cookies. fudgy inside, relatively crispy outside. need i say more? these are delicious, and i promise you will be sneaking them all day long.

second up is david lebovitz's black bottom cupcakes. i first saw these on smitten kitchen and totally wanted to make them. this is a bittersweet bake today because david is in new york city for a little get together at city bakery. i just couldn't manage to squeeze in a trip to manhattan this afternoon and so i missed out on meeting him. oh well, i guess it's a good excuse for another trip to paris! ;-)

but back to those cupcakes. now i know bloggers tend to be generous with the adjectives. how many things can truly be fantastic, amazing, delicious, tasty, and wonderful? but honestly, these things were incredible. it was an instant ymmm from the first bite. so moist and good! and so much fun to make!

for martha's double chocolate brownie cookies, click here (there is a comment about them not spreading. i used a scooper and plopped the dough down. they spread just fine for me.) in the book, it suggests adding 3 oz coarsely chopped walnuts.

for david's black bottom cupcakes that i found via smitten kitchen, click here.

spice racks rant

2008-10-10T19:53:00.003-04:00

okay, yes i'm pushing it here for post numero diez. but anyone who lives in new york city knows how much can be a bitch to run errands. the simplest things can take all afternoon. and then it's still a crapshoot if you can actually find what you want!

no let me clarify that. in this great city you can find anything that you want, and a thousand things you never even dreamed of wanting.

but how come all spice racks now come with the actual containers?? i want this one. but i was trying to save me some shipping charges and so i spent all afternoon in the usual suspects, looking for at least something similar. all i find in the stores are big fancy racks with spice jars already included. wtf?! is it that difficult to have something simple? i hate when consumer goods try to get more complicated and fancy when all it really is, is more junk.

what's your rant?

day 9: lemon bars

2008-10-09T21:53:00.003-04:00

at first i was really excited about nablowrimo. but now i have to admit, i'm kind of tired. and i still have 22 more days to go!!

but in a couple months i will probably be in a new place where i might not have the luxury of baking as many things as i want to, or when and how i want to. so i want to take advantage of this time to really enjoy myself, enjoy the city, my family and friends, and time well spent in the kitchen.

in this way, nablowrimo helps me keep focused on bringing you more savory meals and sweet treats. because goodness knows you don't want to hear 22 more days of politics from me!! ;-)

and because not everything can be chocolate (or can it??) here are some lemon bars. and while this is the second recipe for lemon bars that i have tried, i don't think i have ever eaten a lemon bar from a bakery, so i have no idea what they are "supposed" to taste or feel like.

so if you're a lemon bar connoisseur, don't take my word for anything. but the lemon was a great flavor, the texture was like a jellied candy. the shortbread was a little thick because i made the mistake when the recipe called for a 9x13 pan and i used 9x9 (i don't even have 9x13). but i love shortbread so really, no problem there.

for the recipe from gourmet magazine, on the food network online, click here.

spicy green salad with manchego and pears

2008-10-08T23:53:00.000-04:00

tonight we went over to our neighbor's house for dinner (which was delicious btw, thanks k.!) and k. asked us to bring a side or salad. i knew she was making some mushroom risotto so i wanted to bring something with a bit of contrasting texture and spiciness or tartness.

i was tempted to make the broccoli crunch i saw recently on 101 cookbooks. but i needed something i could do quickly right between getting home from school and going over to her house.

this green salad was perfect for the meal, and a great salad if it is fall wherever you are. for ultra convenience you could certainly buy pepitas that are already toasted, but it's so easy to do it yourself and buying raw makes it more versatile for other uses. i did buy an arugula mix to make the grocery shopping simpler; you could probably use any sorts of greens you prefer, but do make sure it contains some spicier ones so they complement the sweetness of the pears and saltiness of the manchego.

spicy green salad with manchego and pears: serves 8
adapted from gourmet (nov 2007) found on epicurious

1/3 cup hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/3 cup plus 1 tb olive oil
3 tb sherry or red wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp grainy mustard
4 cups packed spicy greens (radish, watercress, arugula, etc)
4 cups packed frisée
1/2 lb piece manchego cheese, shaved into thin slices
8 small bartlett pears
salt + pepper

1. cook seeds in 1 tb oil in small skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until puffed and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. transfer with slotted spoon to paper towels and reserve oil. season seeds with salt and pepper.

2. whisk together vinegar, honey, mustard, salt and pepper. add remaining 1/3 cup olive oil and reserved pepitas oil from skillet in slow stream, whisking until emulsified.

3. cut around the core of each pear and cut slices 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. toss pear and cheese slices with greens. drizzle dressing over salad and sprinkle with seeds.

food for thought

2008-10-07T21:39:00.003-04:00

no time for a recipe, but wanted to make sure i got my nablowrimo post in!

i read this last week, a reader's comment to the new york times article about a police lieutenant's suicide after he ordered the tasering of a man, who then fell off a fire escape and died.

i found it meaningful in so many ways, in so many contexts ... personal, cultural, political, international.

"We place so much emphasis on blame and responsibility in our public culture today — and so little on forgiveness.

I wonder if were we a more forgiving society — one in which a tragic mistake such as the death of Iman Morales could be admitted and then forgiven — if Officer Pigott might have lived to serve again as a chastened and wiser servant of public safety.

In this case, tragedy and suffering has been duplicated — and no one is the better for it."

— Posted by Mark (comment #158)

ravioli with brown butter sauce

2008-10-06T21:54:00.000-04:00

brown. butter. sauce.

'nuff said!! this isn't going to win any awards for eating healthy. but it's delicious in all the right ways. we had some store bought (but very good - raffetto's is one of my favorites and as close to home made as it's going to get right now) raviolis that needed to be used up.

after an afternoon of procrastinating (two papers due tomorrow) on food network online, i found a recipe for brown butter that just sounded like a perfect way to dress them up. there's really nothing to it, but the addition of toasted walnuts and cranberries to the classic brown butter and sage was a brilliant touch of flavor.

if it makes you feel any better about the butter consumption, it makes the pasta so rich and decadent, you can barely eat a normal serving size. a big bowl of spaghetti and marinara this is not. we also coupled it with a side of sautéed broccoli rabe and garlic, so the bitterness of the broccoli rabe complemented the richness of the butter sauce nicely.

brown butter sauce: for 6 servings of pasta
from giada de laurentiis (originally with squash tortellini)

1 1/2 sticks butter
2 tb torn fresh sage leaves
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries
salt + pepper

1. melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. when the butter is just about all melted, add the sage, walnuts, and cranberries. cook until the butter starts to brown, about 3 minutes. remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

cauliflower risotto

2008-10-05T22:15:00.000-04:00

now that colder weather is here for many of us, risottos are popping up all over the blog world. risotto is one of my favorite comfort foods, a spoonful of creamy goodness. risotto is so easy to make and so endless in the possibilities, plus there is usually a good amount of leftovers for a lazy dinner the next night.

i have never actually ever seen a jamie oliver episode on the telly. but i do have his italy book and with those softly focused rustic photos, everything just looks and sounds so good.

i don't know about you, but when i think of cauliflower, "delicious" isn't exactly the first adjective that comes to mind. but i was intrigued by his recipe for cauliflower risotto, sprinkled with a bit of crunchy chili pangrattato on top.

and before you can say "eww, anchovy" at least just try a little bit, because the pangrattato adds just the right bit of spicy flavor to perfectly complement the creamy sweetness of the risotto. mr. mimi is an anchovy fan (will eat them straight out of the jar) and i am definitely not. but even for my serving, a smaller sprinkling was just lovely.

i visited beautiful sardinia last year. but if this is how the rest of italy tastes like, will someone book me a ticket?

cauliflower risotto: serves 6
from jamie's italy (2006, p. 141)

2 handfuls of stale bread, torn into pieces (we used a bit of bread crumbs from the pantry instead)
1 small can of anchovies, including oil
3 small dried red chilies
olive oil
1 cauliflower head
handful of chopped parsley
salt + pepper
4 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 pints stock
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 a bunch of celery, finely chopped
2 cups risotto rice (arborio)
a pour of white wine
6 tb butter (we definitely did not use that much!)

note: i always edit (for brevity) the recipes i post online, and usually there is no apparent difference. however, in this case, unfortunately jamie's colorful english voice (whiz, massaging, oozy, etc etc) will be lost in blog translation.

1. combine bread, anchovies, oil from can, and the chilies in a food processor, and pulse until mixed. heat oil in frying pan and fry the flavored bread crumbs, tossing and toasting until golden brown; set aside.

2. trim coarse leaves off cauliflower and cut out the stalk. chop the inner part of the stalk finely. heat olive oil and 1 tb butter in another pot and add the onion, garlic, celery, and cauliflower stalk. cook for about 15 minutes. this is called a soffrito.

3. meanwhile heat the stock and add the cauliflower florets to the hot stock. when the vegetables in the main pot have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat. keep stirring and after about a minute, add the white wine and keep stirring.

4. once the alcohol has cooked off, add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt (i usually add a few cracks of pepper too). turn the heat down to a simmer. keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring gently, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. the cauliflower florets should be soft; add them to the risotto, crushing them as you go.

5. the rice is finished once it is soft with a slight bite. season if necessary and then remove from heat and add in 5 tb of butter, grated parmesan, parsley and stir in well. place lid on pot and let sit for 2 minutes. for each serving crack a little pepper, grate some more parmesan over the top, sprinkle with the anchovy pangrattato, and enjoy!

hazelnut cinnamon chocolate biscotti

2008-10-04T23:55:00.002-04:00

wowzers. blogging on a saturday night.

damn, this nablowrimo has got me hardcore!!

even though i love brooklyn and all the relatively new things popping up over in red hook, i am embarrassed to confess that i had never heard of baked until i read about them on smitten kitchen last month.

and now i can't escape them! i've been reading about them everywhere. and then peabody made their whoopie pies. and then i took a random visit to my local barnes & noble to find a microeconomics study book and i saw that matt and renato were scheduled to do a discussion, tasting, and book signing a couple days later.

it was fate.

so on thursday night i heard the story, ate the famous baked brownie, bought the book (full price, grrr), got it signed, and was off on my merry way dreaming about all the fun things i wanted to try.

with a bit of time to spare this afternoon, i decided i wanted to bake up some treats to share with my parents who are enjoying a weekend in the city. we were meeting them for dinner in just a short while so it needed to be something quick, easy, and portable. and a recipe that had all ingredients already in the pantry and fridge (which is more of a challenge for me than you think).

the decision? hazelnut cinnamon chocolate biscotti. i had to halve the recipe because i only had a total of 3 eggs on hand, which was a bit of a pain because of the original 1/3 and 1/4 measurements. but i figured biscotti would be forgiving in the precision department.

the verdict? sorry baked, but i wasn't wild about these. don't get me wrong, they taste very good. the cinnamon is a nice surprise. but the whole nuts were just a little too whole. and i think there is too much chocolate. i know, i know! no such thing as too much chocolate. maybe i'm just a traditionalist? or maybe i just need to wait a night and dunk them in my tea tomorrow morning for a proper analysis? keep tuned!

hazelnut cinnamon chocolate biscotti: makes 24
adapted from baked: new frontiers in baking (2008, p. 147)

1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup blanched hazelnuts, toasted and cooled
1 3/4 cup (10 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 large egg white

1. preheat oven to 350F. line baking sheet with parchment.

2. whisk together sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugar mixture until color is uniform and mixture is thick. add vanilla and beat for 5 seconds. add flour in two batches and beat until just combined. scrape down bowl and mix for a few seconds more. add hazelnuts and chocolate chips and beat until just combined.

3. turn dough out on sheet and shape into log 16 inches long, 3 1/2 inches wide, and 3/4 inches thick. use offset spatula to smooth. bake for 20-25 minutes until firm, but not browned. let cool on pan for 10 minutes and lower oven to 325F.

4. while log is cooling, whisk egg white and 2 tb water together and brush egg wash on top of the log.

5. cut the log into 3/4 inch slices with serrated knife. note: the following method comes from martha stewart and is how i do all biscotti now. put wire rack on top of baking sheet. arrange slices, cut sides down, on rack. bake for 25 minutes (time is from original recipe). let cool and enjoy with coffee or tea!

five friends

2008-10-03T16:11:00.002-04:00

thanks to jen over at use real butter i discovered that october is national blog writing month. woo hoo! that means one post every day for the entire month of october. what do you get out of it? hopefully some interesting stories, recipes, photos, and random droolings. what do i get out it? a free luxury lip balm!! my oh my i need this lip balm. i love lip balm. i will pimp myself out for lip balm any month!

and well now it's day three. sheesh, you thought you were going to get another recipe? umm, i'm really not that industrious in the kitchen! and although some people may not enjoy reading about those other parts of my life ... isn't that what having good food and drink is all about? to have the time and space to share good stories, happiness, heartache, debate, politics, hopes, and questions with family and friends?

so even though you might not agree with my choice come election day, i hope you agree with this video.

for more nablowrimo goodies, check out the blogroll here.

think spice ... think paprika!

2008-10-02T10:55:00.000-04:00

this month i have the honor of hosting the wonderful spice event created by sunita over at sunita's world. "think spice" was actually the first ever blog event i ever participated in (garlic back in january) so it holds a special place in my little bloggy heart!

paprika is made by grinding dried red peppers into a fine powder, and the flavor can vary in spiciness. according to wiki, paprika originated in southern mexico, central america, and the antilles islands, where native americans used it for healing and seasoning. the plant was brought back to europe via trade routes. from there it arrived in hungary through the balkans. the name "paprika" came from the 18th century as a diminutive form for the south-slavic name of pepper ("papar").

the most popular and readily available paprika in the US is hungarian sweet paprika. there are other varieties of hungarian, as well as californian and spanish smoked paprika. the most common - but certainly not the only - cuisines that use paprika are hungarian, spanish, portuguese, and turkish.

have i whet your appetite for all thinks paprika?! ;-)

three simple things to join this event

1. create a dish that highlights paprika. it can be sweet or savory, vegan, vegetarian, or carnivorous!

2. post the dish and recipe by monday october 27. include any unique information or tips you might have about using paprika, or maybe any special memories you have about the spice or dish. include a link back to this post so that others can join, and a link back to sunita. feel free to use the logo in your post.

3. email me by the deadline: mimionthemove AT gmail DOT com. use "think spice" in the subject line and make sure to include your name, blog name, recipe, URL to your recipe post, and photo.

i can't wait to see what everyone makes! have fun and think paprika!

braised chicken with mushrooms and polenta

2008-10-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

i love being pleasantly wrong about food. this dish had "meh" written all over it. but the polenta brilliantly soaks up the broth and it turned out to be delicious in that carb-heavy comfy kind of way!

the pounded chicken breast was actually bought a couple of weeks ago when we had a craving for chicken parm. but no one does it better than gino's so why even bother trying? consequently it remained in freezer limbo until a more interesting idea came along.

so while it might not be the prettiest thing out there (thank goodness for green parsley!), this is the perfect go-to dish for a quick weekday dinner. we enjoyed this with a side of steamed green beans fresh from the farm, because mushrooms really don't count as a vegetable serving do they?? ;-)

braised chicken with mushrooms and polenta: serves 4
adapted from martha's great food fast (2007, p. 201)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt + pepper
olive oil
1 lb white mushrooms, sliced 1/2 inch thick (feel free to use other mushrooms)
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 3/4 cup vegetable broth
2 tb chopped parsley

1. season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. heat oil in large skillet over high heat. add chicken and cook until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes per side. transfer to plate.

2. heat some more oil in the skillet and add mushrooms, garlic, and salt. cover and cook over medium heat until mushrooms release their juices, about 2-3 minutes. remove lid and cook over high heat, tossing occasionally, until mushrooms are golden, about 4-5 minutes.

3. pour wine into skillet and stir until evaporated. add stock and parsley, cook over medium high heat until liquid has reduced, about 8-10 minutes.

4. return chicken to skillet, cover and simmer over low heat until cooked through, 10-12 minutes. serve cutlets over polenta, topped with mushrooms and broth liquid.

for the polenta: martha has an oven-baked recipe, but i just made regular polenta over the stove top which is basically ... 5 cups salted boiling water, add 8 oz polenta, whisk until it thickens and then take off heat and let stand for 30 minutes. stir in salt, pepper, grated parmesan cheese, butter, milk for desired consistency and taste.

strozzapreti with black kale, sage, and potatoes

2008-09-29T11:02:00.000-04:00

deborah madison is one of my favorite cookbook authors. i have never made anything of hers that i didn't like. i mean, the good lady obviously loves her butter, so what is there not to like?! :)

normally i use the old standby, but her local flavors book is also a great treat, with beautiful photos of recipes organized by seasonal fare typically found at your farmer's market.

even though i hate the colder, darker days, i have to admit that i love dinner in the fall. everything becomes warm and hearty without being yet winter heavy.

strozzapreti ("priest stranglers") refers to the pasta's shape, which resembles folded and twisted ribbons of fettuccine. the strozzapreti i found at fairway was probably a little more twisted than what i'm used to but ms. madison also suggests gemelli if you can't find any.

ms. madison also suggests this serves 4 ... umm, maybe 4 paul bunyans. i did use a bit more pasta than her recipe (who buys 3/4 lb of pasta??) but even so, this pasta is quite rich, so it would easily serve 6, and maybe 8 if you had something else accompanying the dinner.

strozzapreti with black kale, sage, and potatoes: serves 6
adapted from madison's local flavors (2002, p. 101)

4 tb butter
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
10 sage leaves
2 bunches cavolo nero (black kale)
salt + pepper
2 cups finely diced yellow potatoes (about 3/4 lb)
1 lb strozzapreti
5 oz italian fontina cheese, cubed
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano

1. bring large pot of water to boil. meanwhile, heat butter, garlic, and sage in small skillet over medium heat until butter is lightly browned and nutty smelling. turn off the heat and discard the garlic.

2. chop kale coarsely. when the water is boiling, add salt and kale. boil for 4 minutes, then add potatoes, and boil for 6 more minutes or until both are tender. scoop out, shake off excess water and reserve in bowl. in same water, cook pasta until al dente, then drain.

3. combine pasta, potatoes, and kale. pour the butter and sage over the mixture and using a pair of tongs, pick up some of the pasta to wipe out the butter pan. add the fontina and a generous grating of parmigiano, and toss well. season with pepper and enjoy!

the ER, daring bakers, and an award

2008-09-28T10:54:00.008-04:00

if you are someone unlike me - someone who sees a deadline 30 days away and gets things done with 29 days left - then you wouldn't be writing this post.

but if you fall into the 30 days in advance means do it on day 29, well then a trip to the ER and a weeklong recovery means that the deadline is screwed.

such was my fate last week, which is why i do not have anything to share with you. natalie from gluten a go go and shelly from musings from the fishbowl picked an awesome recipe in peter reinhart's lavash crackers to be accompanied by a tasty vegan dip of one's choice.

what compounds my non daring baker misery is the fact that earlier this month lisa from magic sprinkles bestowed the brilliante award to me! even though i don't feel very brilliante right now, thanks lisa! now i'm supposed to pass on the award to 7 more bloggers. but i'm going to bend the rules and pass it along to the group of hundreds of amazing daring bakers. i've said it before, but every month they inspire me and humble me. so please, go check out these truly dynamite daring bakers!

best turkey burger for the end of summer

2008-09-21T14:56:00.003-04:00

this relentless head sinus cold couldn't have come at the worst time - new york city weather has just been shamelessly gorgeous the entire week!!

but i've gone through three boxes of tissues. one pack of ricola and albuterol. lots of vitamin C and zinc. countless pill popping. add on to that ... the stress of getting everything ready for mr. mimi's big surprise party last weekend, all the math work i'm supposed to be doing for my economics class, the mess of papers on my desk (i hope there isn't anything important in that mail), i haven't played tennis in eons, i want to start training, et je veux prendre des leçons françaises ... what i need is a vaca and a detox, stat!!

well, the vaca is long over and the detox isn't going to be until next month. so i have to comfort myself by giving you a recipe to enjoy those last days of summer grilling. i have to admit that since i've been selectively eating meat again, the thing i seemed to most enjoy - you know, eating sensually with all five senses - were the hamburgers!

i never craved them before, but they were so good this summer, i just loved them. maybe it has to do with the context of lazy summer evenings with a grill and friends? how much of the food we like or don't like has to do with the memory of that food, with the context, with what we were doing or who we were with? it's like the memory of music, n'est-ce pas?

best turkey burger: serves 4
from martha's great food fast (2007, p. 123)

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey - note: try to get the best quality, from your local farm or farmer's market if possible, it truly does make a difference!
1/2 cup finely grated gruyère cheese
4 scallions, thinly sliced (we omitted b/c i hate scallions!)
1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
salt + pepper
vegetable oil for grill

1. heat grill to high. in medium bowl, use fork to gently combine turkey with cheese, scallions, breadcrumbs, mustard, and garlic. season generously with fresh salt and pepper. divide the mixture evenly and gently form four 1-inch thick patties.

mr. mimi tip: in order to avoid the shrunken flying saucer hamburger syndrome ... while forming the patty, press the middle so that it is thinner in the middle and wider on the outside. then when the meat contracts while grilling, it will shrink to a normal hamburger shape.

2. lightly oil the grill. place patties on hottest part; sear until browned, 1-2 minutes per side. move patties to cooler part of grill and continue grilling until cooked through, about 5-10 minutes each side.

salad days: mediterranean couscous and lentils

2008-09-15T20:59:00.002-04:00

months ago the mimis were perusing the bulk items at fairway and came across lentils labeled "black beluga lentils." although they looked similar in shape and size as french green lentils, i wasn't sure what they would taste like. but with such a sexy name ... who in their right mind could refuse buying them?!

but then they languished on the pantry shelf, all pretty looking with nowhere to go. finally after a couple of days of takeout to compensate for a bare refrigerator, i was dying to make a home meal with whatever we had on hand. a little searching around epicurious and i found this wonderful, easy recipe.

mediterranean couscous and lentils: serves 6
from gourmet (sept 1995, via epicurious - click here)

1 cup lentilles du puy (french green lentils - or use black beluga lentils if you can find them!)
3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup couscous
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 bunch arugula, chopped (we only had some wild greens, but with some bitter herbs and arugula included so we thought it might work – probably better with all arugula though)
2 cups vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved (we used regular tomatoes, chopped)
1/4 pound feta, crumbled (about 1 cup)

1. in a small saucepan simmer lentils in water to cover by 2 inches until tender but not falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes, and drain well. transfer hot lentils to a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. cool lentils completely, stirring occasionally.

2. in a saucepan bring water to a boil and add couscous and salt. remove pan from heat and let couscous stand, covered, 5 minutes. fluff couscous with a fork and transfer to a large bowl. stir in 1 tablespoon oil and cool completely, stirring occasionally.

3. in a small bowl whisk together garlic paste, remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt and pepper to taste. stir lentils and dressing into couscous. chill salad, covered, at least 3 hours and up to 24. (note: we only chilled it to a warm room temp, for about 1 hour and it was still delicious!)

4. just before serving, stir in remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

martha mondays: tomato tart

2008-09-08T00:30:00.003-04:00

another round of martha mondays!

i hate the end of summer. shorter days, colder evenings. it all just means one depressing thing: crappy man winter is on its way. so you'll probably see me try to squeeze in every last drip drop of summer left here in the next couple of weeks. denial is a wonderful thing! ... and so is this tomato tart!

i bought martha's baking handbook back around the holidays last year, and this was one of the first things that caught my eye. the thought of using blah winter hydroponic tomatoes seemed a waste of the whole effort, and so i had to wait it out six long months!

there's nothing tricky about this tart, just your standard pâte brisée dough, tomatoes, garlic, fontina cheese, and basil for garnish. i haven't made dough in quite a long time so i decided to make it with half vegetable shortening, half butter to make it easier to work with (in case you're wondering, shortening doesn't melt so that's what makes it easier). but i still had problems rolling it out, mainly because it became a wee crumbly as i tried to stretch it to 13 inches. so the dough got manhandled when putting into the tart pan, although it still turned out pretty flaky. note to self: more practice with pâte brisée! hmm ... i see all sorts of pies in my baking future :)

you could say this is just a fancy pizza, and even though the preparation and assembly is easy, it is a bit of total time needed (with the garlic roasting, baking, and cooling). but pizza never looked so amazing, smelled so awesome, or tasted so delish! next time i will have to come up with a way to dry the tomatoes a bit before baking so that the crust can stay a little more firm. but make this your next lazy sunday and maybe you, too, will forget that cold weather is almost here.

it appears i also need more practice with my lovely camera and studio light set-up (there is no option for "natural" light since i ain't baking or cooking until well after sun down.) do you see all those blown highlights in the tomatoes and cheese?! ugh.

tomato tart: serves 4 as main (or 3 if you are anything like me!)
from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 268)

1 head garlic
3 tb olive oil
1/2 recipe pâte brisée (follows)
3/4 cup grated fontina cheese
1 1/2 lbs ripe, firm tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
salt + pepper
12 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

1. preheat oven to 30F. place garlic on piece of aluminum foil; drizzle with 1 tb olive oil and fold foil to encase garlic, sealing folded edges well. place on baking sheet and roast until golden brown and top of knife easily pierces flesh, about 45 minutes. remove and let cool.

2. on lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 13 inch round, about 1/8 inch thick. remove excess flour and fit dough into a 10 inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom, pressing into edges. use rolling pin to trim dough flush with top edge of tart pan; chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

3. raise heat in oven to 425F. when garlic is cooled, squeeze cloves out of their skins and into small bowl. mash with a fork and set aside while tart shell is chilling.

4. spread roasted garlic evenly on bottom of tart shell. sprinkle with 1/4 cup grated cheese. arrange tomato slices in overlapping circular pattern on top of cheese, working from outside towards the center. season with salt and pepper. sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of grated cheese and drizzle with remaining 2 tb of olive oil.

5. bake tart until crust is golden and tomatoes are soft but retain shape, 45-55 minutes. cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. garnish with sliced basil leaves and serve warm. (you can make this a day ahead and reheat at 300F until warmed through.)

pâte brisée: full recipe (use half for tomato tart)
from martha's baking handbook (p. 224)
note: i used half shortening, half butter - but i'm giving the recipe as written

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, cold cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water, plus more if needed

1. combine flour and salt in food processor. add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces. (to mix by hand, combing dry ingredients in bowl and cut in butter with pastry blender.)

2. with machine running, add ice water through feed tube in slow, steady stream, just until dough holds together without being sticky. do not process more than 30 seconds. test by squeezing small amount of dough together; if it is crumbly, add more water 1 tb at a time.

3. turn out dough and divide in half, shaping into flattened disk and wrapped in plastic. refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. can also be frozen up to 1 month; thaw overnight in refrigerator before using.

salad days: classic chicken caesar

2008-09-06T20:36:00.004-04:00

my motto: if i salad is complicated, it shouldn't be made. and if it isn't tasty, it's just a bunch of rabbit food. this caesar is perfect on both points. we forgot to make the croutons, but a little less carbo is always a good thing anyway.

chicken caesar salad: serves 4
adapted from martha's great food fast (2007, p. 119)

4 oz italian bread, cut into cubes
3 tb olive oil
4 chicken cutlets (each about 2-3 oz)
1 package romaine lettuce leaves (18-20 oz)
salt + pepper

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup soy mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped (essential, not optional!)
1 small garlic clove

1. preheat oven to 375F. place bread on rimmed baking sheet. drizzle 2 tb olive oil and season with salt and pepper; toss to coat. bake, tossing occasionally, until golden about 12-15 minutes. remove and let cool.

2. heat remaining oil in large skillet over high heat. season chicken with salt and pepper. cook until done, 1-2 minutes each side. remove and let cool. slice chicken crosswise into strips.

3. cut romaine hearts crosswise, wash and dry.

4. whisk together all ingredients for dressing until smooth (martha had you use a blender, but that is totally unnecessary).

5. toss all ingredients with a bit of drizzled dressing - a little bit at a time - caesar dressing is very strong and you won't need much for flavor. grate some extra cheese if you'd like on top of each plated salad.

salad days: light and easy

2008-09-05T18:51:00.001-04:00

even though i'm currently a full-fledged omnivore, i still crave greenery and love having salads for dinner. here are two that were made quite a while ago, but would be perfect for the end of summer produce.

when mr. mimi first put some strawberries on one of our side salads, my first thought was creative but gross. and then i ate it. wowzers, i loved it. the sweetness complemented the tangy vinaigrette so well. and it felt so refreshing.

what i happily learned is you can basically add any fruit to a green salad and it is wonderful. this time we added nectarines to a romaine with tomatoes, avocado, red onion, and boca chick patties with a simple champagne vinaigrette for a big main salad. but really, you could use any summer fruits - plums and peaches (yumm, grilled peaches too) would be delicious!

another simple side salad we made was a mix of green and wax beans, tomatoes, and a spicy sesame-vinaigrette. if you've never used sriracha sauce, this is *the* spicy sauce - and now you can even get it on amazon! i bet you'll never go back to boring tabasco!

what do i think about sarah palin?

2008-09-05T18:25:00.006-04:00

a family member has been forwarding me all sorts of anti-palin commentary. finally i responded with a snarky "i am probably not as anti-palin as you think" and i think she fainted with shock - you need to put it in the context that i am more left than most left democrats, and pretty much a diehard feminist - and she wrote back "but don't you think palin isn't ready to be president?"

i sat on it for a day and then this was my reply:

... actually i think the whole "ready or not?" question is not even necessary - and certainly ironic when it comes from obama supporters (not you specifically, i mean in general) who claimed the question was irrelevant for their candidate, but now somehow crucial for the republican side.

i have lots of opinions about this election, but they probably don't fall into the neat package that most democrats portray. and while it may grab headlines, i really can't take any author seriously when their title is "caribou barbie" - this is what represents meaningful conversation??! but then again, for most democrats - they actually don't want any meaningful debate, they just have knee-jerk reactions (democrats good, republicans bad) in which they'll believe anything that the left-side press will write.

honestly, of course i disagree with the vast majority of palin's beliefs, values, and positions on many issues. however, i think the democrats (or at least the left-side press) is rutting around for anything - which usually turns out to be nothing - to try to discredit her. and it's just not going to work. first, because the kind of stuff they are bringing up really doesn't matter. the hypocrisy of the democrats for what should be a "scandal" is embarrassing. and second, because what the democrat party fails to remember again and again is that not everyone in the country is a left democrat.

i think the party made a huge mistake when they didn't pick hillary to be the vp nominee. not only did she win 48% of the party itself, but she obviously won over people that palin is going to appeal to. could they not understand what the demographics in the primary results indicated? biden is just not going to be a match for that. that's the difference between the republicans and democrats - the republicans pick people to win, and the democrats pick people they like.

it doesn't say much when probably the only reason i'll vote along the democrat ticket this year is because of the supreme court justices and not because i actually want to vote for the democrat nominee. the democratic party had every single thing going for it this year to make it a real election, to bring real issues to the forefront. that they haven't done it thus far, and from the look of the stuff the left-side press is dishing out - they probably won't - is depressing.

but then again, two months is a long time and who knows what will happen! but if it continues like this and obama and the democrats that support him don't change their strategy, he will lose ...

i haven't gotten a response yet :)

update: her response was about the supreme court issue, which i agree is very important. but this was my reply ...

the problem is ... for most of americans - even women - the supreme court is not the most important issue. the more the democrats mention that, the more they are preaching to the choir and missing what palin appeals to. the thing is that pro-choice and pro-life are values that many voters won't cross. the republicans are smart enough to know that and they don't bother with that issue. instead, they go after the other "gray" issues which leave many voters undecided. i think the biggest problem with the democrats is they dismiss and devalue what palin brings to the republican ticket - it's easy to call her a "caribou barbie," no? - and they don't seriously look at what she's going to bring in areas like ohio and michigan. we watched bill maher last night and he made fun of her and her "small town" experience and values. what the democrats forget is that most of the nation does not live in LA or NYC. i'm not saying i agree with those experiences or values - but i don't underestimate them and i don't belittle them - because i know that the states that matter also live like that.

daring bakers: i declare my love of éclairs!

2008-08-31T01:39:00.006-04:00

if you must know - and as you can probably tell from the more than pathetic results - i did this at midnight the night before the deadline. and i am so pissed at myself because when meeta from what's for lunch honey along with tony of olive juice picked pierre hermé's classic chocolate éclairs i was so frickin' excited! does it really need explaining? i mean, doesn't everyone love éclairs? plus, i've never made the choux before, so i was definitely on to the challenge!

hmm, challenge ... by definition, doesn't that mean i shouldn't have left it the last minute? yes, i know, but stay with me here. i halved the recipe, because i'm trying to train, and having a box of fresh éclairs around was not going to help. first batch of choux came out runny after i beat in the eggs. me thinks it wasn't the eggs but that i didn't mix and heat the dough thing long enough.

i am far from even being a novice, let alone expert, in this stuff - so i had really no idea, but the reasoning sounded good at the time. so the second batch had the dough thing mixed and heated for at least 4 minutes, and this time the eggs added beautifully and i had a nice pipable dough. coincidence? who knows, i'm just happy it worked. so now they were baking good, golden brown, rising up, out of the oven ...

and the damn things deflated! and became soggy!! i think the main reason is because i left them - by mistake (see midnight baking circumstances, above) - on the hot baking sheet to cool instead of putting them on the rack. me thinks that it must need the air circulation. i also read the tip from foodbeam to poke a hole in the bottom once they're done to let the steam escape. makes perfect sense, thanks hindsight!

i wanted to cry. of course i want things i bake to come out correctly. but because this was new and because i love éclairs, i really really wanted these to come out better than ever! and now they were just soggy eggy hot dog buns!!

thankfully the over the top death by chocolate pastry cream made up for it!

so dear darling choux ... i may have failed you this time, but you have not seen the last of me, i promise i will make you proud!

and i promise if you take a look at some of my fellow daring bakers, you will be drooling to make your own éclairs today! they are an amazing group, and every time i think about dropping out of this thing (hello time management problems) i am always pulled right back in by all the gorgeous creativity they show month after month. if these lads and lassies don't inspire you as well, then i don't know what will!

chocolate hot dogs, anyone? ;)

lemon (non-poppy) muffins

2008-08-29T16:00:00.001-04:00

although i'm no longer part of tuesdays with dorie because of the weekly time commitment it requires, i still like to see what they are up to and use her book now and then. her lemon poppy seed muffins were always top on my list to try. i haven't baked anything since we returned from vacation and even though i was dying to get back into it, i wanted something easy parcheesi (gosh, i used to love that game!)

of course, i drive mr. mimi crazy because i am the opposite of mis en place. which is weird since i'm a typical virgoan organizational maniac. but somehow, when it comes to the kitchen, i like to go with the flow ...

which means that i forgot the poppy seeds in lemon poppy seed muffins!!!

but fear not - these muffins were still rockingly awesome! i halved the recipe and it came out fine. i didn't have enough sour cream, so i had to throw in a couple tablespoons of yogurt to make up the difference. these babies will not fool you into thinking that muffins are "healthy" - these are definitely more like a loaf cake with lots of lemony goodness. and yes, i have more of that sweet icing on my muffins than dorie has in her photo, but can ya blame me?!

lemon (non-poppy) muffins: makes 12
adapted from dorie's baking book (2006, p. 10)

2/3 cup sugar
1 lemon - juice and grated zest
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
8 tb butter - melted and cooled

1. preheat oven to 400F with center rack. prepare muffin pan of your choice. in large bowl, rub sugar and lemon zest together until sugar is moist and fragrant. whisk in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. in other bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and melted butter until well blended. pour liquid ingredients over dry and gently but quickly stir to blend. do not overmix the batter (a few lumps are okay).

3. divide evenly in muffin cups and bake 18-20 minutes until tops are golden and thin knife inserted in center of muffins comes out clean. transfer pan to rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin. let cool completely before icing.

4. to make optional icing (but is icing ever really optional?) - put 1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted, into bowl and add about 1 1/2 tb of fresh lemon juice. stir to moisten and then add enough additional lemon juice (it will be about 2-3 tb total) to get a thinned, drizzable icing.

i want to believe

2008-08-29T15:51:00.001-04:00

that this year is going to be different.

i never had a problem or dislike of obama, per se. i had a very big problem with the "leadership" and decision making incapability of the DNC that made the primary season a farce. i had a pretty big dislike of many of obamaniacs (which, btw, is almost everyone in my circle) and their intense - yet completely hollow - demagoguery of hillary. the media fueled contradictions and hypocrisy - if the majority of white people in a county voted for hillary it was because of racism, but if 90% of black men in a state voted for barack it was solidarity?? - of the primary season was almost unbearable.

i don't think i will ever agree with the selection of biden as VP. strategically i think a united party is a stronger party and including 48 percent of the party would have been a start.

but i want to believe that this year is going to be different. that our passion, our determination, and our efforts will not be for naught. because i refuse to believe that the only winning vote i have ever casted in my whole twelve years of voting was for bubba.

i don't get the same visceral reaction that the most fervent supporters do when obama speaks. but he had some amazing passages that reminded me ... i still believe in a place called hope.

oh yeah, and when i was a wayward teenager i was ga-ga over al gore. i wanted to bear his love child. i mean look at this photo - wasn't he a hottie?! he might still not be a great speaker, but damn he's still handsomely good-looking!!

garlic chicken

2008-08-28T00:43:00.003-04:00

anyone who knows me, knows i'm only not only never speechless, but i'm passionate about politics. when i was an adolescent, my nickname was "madame president" until someone had the courage to burst my dream and tell me that only american-born people can be president. then i decided first female secretary of state would be good enough, but ms. albright beat me to it. now i'll just have to settle for senate majority leader :)

so even though this is my food blog, you'll have to indulge my occasional political ramblings, particularly at a time like this.

i remember in my 11th grade US history class, a photo of hillary clinton was posted beside the chalkboard. she looked so powerful, and so graceful; it was just a photo-op but i knew she was looking right at me. i remember staring at it, thinking i could be anything i wanted to dream of. emotionally i am still saddened by her loss. strategically i still think she would have been the better VP choice. but honorably i am proud to be part of her 18 million cracks. she didn't have to apologize for anything; her speech was for us.

and bubba ... amazing then, amazing tonight, amazing always. i'm so glad he tried (in vain, i'm sure) to make people realize that this is politics, not a peace parade, and that obama is a stronger candidate because of the primary contest against hillary. the people who constantly berate hillary with this delusion that the republicans would never have come up with this negative ad shit on their own has been living under a rock for the past 8 years.

both clintons have reminded me why i'm proud to be in the democratic party, and why the party still owed them the gratitude that they never have been given since he left office. but i anxiously wait for tomorrow night to see if obama can convince me that he has earned the vote to celebrate this historic moment. i am certainly not as undecided as before, but i am definitely not as convinced as i need to be.

now how to segue to some garlic chicken??! ;)

this was made some time ago, and what it might lack in the creativity department it sure does make up in the delish factor. so if you're looking for a quick and easy meal, this is all you need! (sorry the photos have such a yellow hue - photoshop expert i ain't!)

garlic chicken: serves 2
adapted from donna hay magazine (issue 37, p. 136)

cook one chicken breast in olive oil on high heat until cooked through. add 2 cloves crushed and 1 clove chopped garlic and season with salt and pepper. toss with a handful of chopped parsley and chives and a squeeze of lemon.

thank you hillary

2008-08-27T01:48:00.005-04:00

i know i said no more politics, but i am so happy now in a way that i so so so much needed.

i may still not understand why barack didn't choose her as VP - and that's pure strategy talking, not my emotions.

it's bittersweet, but thank you hillary ... you did it, and you did it brilliantly and beautifully.

(don't worry, i promise tomorrow there will be more food. but can you really blame me? it's been an amazing year!)

martha mondays: peach, apricot, and cherry pie

2008-08-25T16:35:00.006-04:00

sorry about that political diatribe. it should be an interesting week. but regardless, even if you don't agree with me, hopefully you still keep reading this blog! because food knows no political bounds :)

this lovely martha monday pie was made about a month ago. i rushed to get it done by the date i picked out and then didn't have any time to get it posted, but better late than never (i think?!)

despite the fact that i just bought a bunch of grapes, i do normally like to stay within season for my fruits and vegetables. i'm not so much a fruit pie person (you either are or you aren't) but it would seem heresy to let summer pass by without at least one fruit pie baked. i tend to like the pies in the old standby book, but wanted to give martha a try.

this was easy enough to assemble (although i did not have time to do the lattice) and pretty much your standard pie filling technique. i wasn't exactly fond of the flavors - i think it was the cherries that bothered me - but mr. mimi loved it. and of course, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and almost anything turns into delish!

the next martha monday will be on september 8th. keeping with the summer theme, the recipe will be the tomato tart on p. 268 - pretty simple but a great addition to any one's labor day picnic! if you want to join me, simply make the tart and post about it on september 8th. if you email me a link, i will make sure to include you on my post.

peach, apricot, and cherry pie
from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 236)

i'm omitting the recipe part for the dough, so just use whatever one that's handy!
1 lb fresh peaches, pitted and sliced into 1/4 inch wedges
1 lb fresh aprictos, pitted and sliced into sixths
1 lb fresh sweet cherries, pitted and halved
2/3 cup sugar (increase to 3/4 if you like a more sweet pie)
3 tb cornstarch
1/4 coarse salt
juice of 1 lemon
2 tb butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tb heavy cream
sanding sugar for sprinkling (optional)

1. in large bowl, toss together peaches, apricots, and cherries. add sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon juice; toss to combine.

2. spoon mixture into chilled pie shell, mounding fruit in the middle (to make sure it doesn't get soggy, fill the pie shell right before you're ready to cover). dot with butter. brush rim of pie shell with water and cover with lattice, or entirely. if you cover entirely, make sure to cut some steam slits. in small bowl, whisk egg yolk and cream and brush on top. generously sprinkle with some sanding sugar. freeze or refrigerate pie for 30 minutes until firm.

3. meanwhile preheat oven to 400F with rack in lower third. place pie on parchment lined baking sheet. bake until crust begins to turn golden, about 20 minutes. reduce oven temp to 350F. continue baking, rotating halfway through, until crust is deep golden brown and juices are bubbling and thickened, about 40-50 minutes more. let cool completely and enjoy!

please check out lil miz lynn over at bites and pieces who made an awesome looking pie!

fish en papillote

2008-08-24T23:56:00.009-04:00

anyone who knows me knows i ain't speechless ...

why does the democratic party consistently have to disappoint me? don't even get me started with how pissed i was that the party leaders fucked up florida and michigan (so not counting votes in 2000 was bad, but not counting your own votes in the 2008 democrat primaries is permissible?!) - that's like ancient history now.

i have never felt this depressed since the third of november 2004, when the mimis were honeymooning in peru and heard the news. after all that excitement felt during the protest - i was like this is it, this is going to be real change. and then the bubble burst and it was back to the reality of what the fuck?

i felt similar excitement during the primaries this year (except florida and michigan, see above). granted, the end result was not what i wished for, and the amount of accusatory, misogynist shit i had to hear from people on the other side of my own party was beyond anything i could ever imagine. but it was an exciting time to be a democrat again. if 2004 wasn't our year, for goodness sake, what could go wrong now??!!

oh, why am i so naïve?

even though i was not thrilled with the idea of obama as our party's nominee (i think people are going to be sorely disappointed when all that rhetoric meets reality; and perhaps they are now realizing the messiah is just another strategic politician) i still had hope that the choice of 48 percent of the democrat party was going to be at least considered. sure, there was always second place during every primary cycle, but for goodness sake - 48 percent!! - this was different! but then 18 million voters were just pushed aside as sore losers, and i just don't know what to think about my party anymore. and somehow now all the things/votes/politics that were such evil in hillary are suddenly okay in joe?!

and even though this is fueled by my emotions, even looked at realistically (i.e., we want to win) i just don't believe that joe actually adds much to the ticket. i know that demographic analysis is often ballooned into media-hyped generalizations. but who, really, is going to switch to obama because of biden?

i am just so frustrated, angry, and disappointed. all i feel is an empty pit in my stomach. contrary to what is posted in the new york times comments section ... i am not a bitter hag or a rovian republican or a racist. all i have to say is that i'm glad i live in new york where my vote really doesn't matter. because if i lived in ohio or florida i would feel absolutely tortured going into that booth in november.

now that i have gotten that out of my system, the real purpose of my post was to show you an awesome way to get your fish on during the last weeks of summer. there's only so many times you can do tuna or swordfish on the grill. sometimes you want just a light, flaky fish (or in my case, like all the time!) and here is the perfect way ...

fish en papillote
fillets of your favorite white fish (sole, flounder, wild bass, snapper, etc)
a couple of new potatoes, sliced - or a couple of cherry tomatoes, halved - note: you could probably play around with other types of vegetables, you just need something to act as a small bed for the fish
1/2 vidalia onion, sliced
fresh sprigs of thyme, parsley, chives, and/or dill (play around with what you have)
salt + pepper
old bay
olive oil

1. toss the potatoes, tomatoes, and onion with olive oil and salt and pepper. place on a piece of parchment paper. add herbs on top. depending on your number of servings, and how you want to present the fish, you can either put it all on one parchment, or do it individually.

2. place fillets skin side down on top of mixture. drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top and then season with salt, pepper, and old bay. fold parchment into closed pouch and then wrap entire pouch in aluminum foil.

3. meanwhile have your grill to 375F. place pouches to the side of the direct flame, cook for about 30-40 minutes until done. to serve, you can either serve it right in the pouch, or plate it. but if you plate it make sure to get all that delicious juice too, it's the best part!

this version had potatoes, all in one pouch

this version was tomatoes, in individual pouches

speechless

2008-08-23T11:33:00.006-04:00

i am so disappointed.

south africa

2008-08-21T12:12:00.012-04:00

settling back home is always the toughest part of vacation. but especially so when you have the best vacation, ever. which is the simplest way to express how much we loved south africa.

in two weeks you can hardly see anything in a country as large and diverse as south africa, but of what we did, it was amazing.

our itinerary kept us very busy until just the last day: boulders beach, cape of good hope, langa township, hermanus, kruger park, sabi sands reserve, and hazyview.

the main reason we decided to vacation in south africa was for the animals. and we were not disappointed at all! in addition to the big five, we saw so many other animals large and small. great birding too, and beautiful, diverse ecozones.

you can also see more photos on my flickr set. if you really want all the boring little details, i also have a trip report posted on lonely planet.

but now it's back to the reality of not working and going back to school ... AND BAKING!! 'tis about time to get back to it, huh? so i'm off to make an old favorite and spend my entire afternoon catching up on everyone's blogs that i've been missing!! :)

this blog is not a figment of your imagination

2008-08-02T09:07:00.003-04:00

i really am here. and i really did my martha pie this past monday, really. i even have photos to prove it! in fact, i have a whole crapload of photos of so many different things i was wanted to post here but haven't yet gotten around to it.

i promise i will when i return.

but this afternoon i will be on my way to south africa, for cape town and kruger. so you, my dear readers, will have to wait just a wee bit longer.

in the meantime, please go check out lynn at bites and pieces who also did the martha pie, and it came out looking gorgeous! her lattice top - first ever! - is lovely and looks oh so delish. she also passed along the arte y pico award, which certainly is undeserved at the blog moment. i promise i will make it up to her!

and here's my sweet milo. i hope to see the ancestral version of this on my safari :)

martha monday: pistachio tartlets with crème fraîche and berries

2008-07-15T01:20:00.005-04:00

welcome (back) to martha mondays, where i work my way through her baking handbook ... trying things out, challenging myself, and hopefully learning (and eating yummy things) along the way.

i have to admit i'm a sucker for photos. if a recipe doesn't have a photo, i'm apt to neglect it but if something has a gorgeous photo, i can't wait to dig in even if it has ingredients i'm not fond of (exhibit A, mocha roulade).

so with warmer weather finally here, there are several things i've been wanting to try out, purely based upon martha's photo :)

i decided to start with the pistachio tartlets with crème fraîche and berries (p. 255) as they seemed easy and fresh. the dough was quite soft, but really lovely and definitely a keeper for other fillings. i loved that the crème made it not too sweet, which was perfect with the berries.

for some other tartlets, please check out zakia over at the frosted bakeshop who also loved the pistachio dough. and new blogger, lynn from bites and pieces also joined us this week. and she made the crème fraîche from scratch, quite impressive!!

next martha monday: either the peach, apricot, and cherry pie (p. 236) or the sour cherry cobbler (p. 279). both seem your standard summer fare, but i would love the challenge of doing a "real" lattice top. post by monday, 28 july and email me your link: marthamondays -at- gmail.com!

and i apologize for the poor overexposed non-color corrected photos of my delicious pistachio tartlets! i promise next time not to wait until 11pm the night it is due!! :)

the best savory galette, ever

2008-07-11T01:59:00.000-04:00

i implore you to make this galette.

it is one of the best things i have made, ever. okay sure, my home made repertoire is pretty darn small, so i guess that isn't saying much! hehe. but really, this is one of the best things i have ever eaten at home.

i know what you're thinking ... mimi, how can something simple be so delish? yes, surely you think i'm exaggerating. but please, make this galette and just try, just try!, to tell me that it isn't also one of the best dinners you've ever made.

leek and goat cheese galette: serves 6
from deborah madison's vegetarian cooking for everyone (1997, p. 498)

galette dough (p. 696)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tb sugar
12 tb cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 - 1/2 cup ice water, as needed

1. mix flour, salt, and sugar together in bowl. cut in butter, leaving some pea size chunks. sprinkle with ice water by the tablespoon and mix with flour mixture until you can bring dough together. (you can also use a mixer or food processor if you like.) press into disk and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

2. roll out disk on lightly floured counter about 1/8" thick. you can either make one large galette or six small ones. i'd suggest the small ones because with the filling, it becomes a bit unwieldy. and for dinner, it's nice to serve individual size galettes. either way, roll it out to a circle of your size, and no it doesn't have to be a perfect circle, that's the beauty of the galette.

for the filling:
6 large leeks, including inch of green
3 tb butter
1 tsp chopped thyme
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup crème fraîche
salt + pepper
1 egg, beaten
3 tb chopped parsley
4 oz (herbed) goat cheese, less or more to taste

1. preheat oven to 400F. thinly slice and wash the leeks. you should have about 6 cups.

2. melt butter in medium skillet. add leeks, thyme, and 1/2 cup water. stew over medium heat, stirring frequently, until leeks are tender, about 12 minutes. add wine and continue cooking until reduced; then add the crème and cook until it coats the leeks and little liquid remains. season with salt and plenty of pepper. let cool 10 minutes then stir in all but 1 tb of the beaten egg and 2 tb of the parsley.

3. spread leek mixture on top of rolled galette dough, leaving a 2 inch border around the edge. crumble the goat cheese on top, then fold the dough over the filling (fold it over a little or a lot, up to you). brush with reserved egg and bake until crust is browned, 25-30 minutes. garnish with remaining parsley. bon appétit!

just what i needed

2008-07-10T19:18:00.008-04:00

some of you may have already seen the new york times article (or maybe even better yet, and you've known about matt since 2005). i actuallly saw that article on the "most popular" links for a few days and with the title i was like whatever.

but now i'm so fortunate that jen over at use real butter posted about it.

after all that i've been thinking about, and all that doubt, and all that i've been struggling with recently ... this video was exactly what i needed.

maybe it will be for you too.

if you want to watch a clearer version, click here and make sure to click on the link for "watch in high quality" (right below the "views" number)

for more info about matt, click here.