Some odds and ends

Is it really October already? Here are some odds and ends

Had a trip up the coast for our anniversary, cooked some Alaska salmon, had some fantastic wine, and took a drive up the 1 to Monterey.

Finally got around to making Chinese soy sauce chicken, including an adventure to the 99 Ranch Market soy sauce aisle. Bonus, tiny bok choy for $.99 a bag!

Birthday dinner was a great big veal chop and some heirloom tomatoes -- YUM!

Crazy around here, watching what we eat and drink, doing Wii Fit, baseball, baseball, baseball... are the holidays really almost here?!?

Life giving you lemons?

Add vodka.... and wait....

I am a terrible food blogger

I am such a bad blogger...

1 - I get into a rut where I make the same things over and over ... or go to Juan Pollo around the corner

2 - We go to the coast, eat fresh fish and/or steak, and really who wants to hear about our adventures at the beach?

3 - When I do cook something new -- this week a "quick chicken masala" from Food & Wine that I adapted to be even quicker -- I forget to take a single photo (but I served pale chicken and onions, along with white rice, on a white plate....)

Well... for #3, here's the recipe:

• Take 1 8oz package of Greek yogurt, mix with 2 Tbs olive oil, a clove of garlic (minced) and 2 tsp of garam masala (I might suggest using a bit more), along with a tsp or so of salt. Mix up in a baking dish, then add a package of boneless/skinless chicken thighs, and marinate overnight.
• Preheat oven to 400, slice a large onion up in 1/4 inch slices, lay the chicken out on the slices, cook for about 50 minutes in the top 3rd of the oven, until the chicken is done.
• Meanwhile, I tossed some baby carrots with olive oil, salt & cumin seeds, then roasted them on the other rack in the oven for about 30 mins, tossing every few minutes.
• Serve with basmati rice & chilled Harmony Riesling.

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So...

I've actually cooked twice this weekend, new things from cookbooks since this is the time of year that I put away the braising type books and get out the lighter cooking.

Yesterday was a classic from Marcella Hazan, a pasta in sausage cream sauce. It's a lot like Mario Batali's "sausage and weeds" (in fact I use the same pasta), but no tomato paste. I really liked it, it had a nice mild flavor but was still creamy and coated the pasta well.

Today, we went around the world to Rick Bayless from Mexican Everyday. I hit the Smart & Final "Extra" down the street for some tomatillos, a chile, tortillas, and some cotija cheese. I made the spinach & mushroom enchiladas with tomatillo cream sauce. I left out the optional chicken, but followed the recipe pretty closely. I do have this comment ... the recipe calls for queso fresco, but lists feta as an alternate. Queso fresco here is more like mozzarella in texture, so I bought cotija. Maybe it's a regional difference? Who knows. I used sour cream too, I find the Mexican crema a bit too runny for my taste.

Why no pictures? Well, the pasta wasn't really all that photogenic, a pale sauce on pale pasta. The enchiladas really needed to be put together, served & eaten really quickly. And, I was running late, or I would have added some artistic photos of tomatillos half husked or something using depth of field. Besides, surely someone else has made those enchiladas so there is probably a great photo out there in the interwebs somewhere.

It's Friday!

As an homage to Thursday Night Smackdown's "Awesome Shit that I Want Monday"... I present the following....

Don't you need a pendant that looks like okonomiyaki?? I do... or rings that look like other Japanese foodstuffs. Check it out on Etsy

Local Bounty

A quiet weekend in Los Osos was well deserved after the 25 lbs of pork shoulder sold at the baseball tournament last weekend!
We rested, we ate Mo's BBQ for lunch, steaks & local bay scallops for dinner, and homemade chorizo & egg burritos for breakfast.

As we were packing up, one of the Forever Stoked guys that live next door brought these beauties, wild chanterelle mushrooms from their secret spot somewhere in the hills:


Yes, they are that big, here's one next to my chef's knife (not a paring knife) for scale:

Simply sauteed with butter, shallots, and a bit of thyme & seasoning, splashed with vermouth & cream:


Tossed with papardalle, they were just about perfect with a Loring Wine Company Pinot (08 Rancho Ontiveros to be exact).

Spectacular. Makes California worth it... mostly.

Back to the Kitchen...

A week with the creeping crud head cold, our house saw a lot of soup. Monday and Tuesday were soup, and Wednesday was pasta (sausage and "weeds" from Mario Batali) which is a big favorite. Thursday I was just way too beat, so it was pizza.

Friday I made it through the afternoon without cold medicine and without using a box of tissue, so we celebrated with something new from Pepin's More Fast Food My Way, crispy chicken thighs and mushroom sauce.

The thighs are cooked skin down with a tight lid in no fat until the skin is nice and crispy, these could have gone a few more minutes. Then some onion, garlic & mushrooms are sauteed in the chicken fat (drain all but about 2 tablespoons), with a bit of wine (vermouth in this case) until reduced to a nice sauce. With a nice salad, made a perfect Friday night dinner. The evening was rounded out with some popcorn and The Great Muppet Caper - love Charles Grodin's socks!

Saturday was errand day, with grocery store visits in between torrential downpours (its an El Nino, confirmed officially today). I had promised the Rabbit for a while that we would see the Percy Jackson movie, capped off by Bob's Big Boy (ok patty melt actually, though the meat was kind of dry).

Today, the sun came out, and I felt like spending some time in the kitchen. I made breakfast (eggs and chicken sausage), then put together some no-knead bread, and baked it.

During the USA/Canada overtime, I tried this quick "ricotta" cheese from Serious Eats.
Note my sophisticated cheese making equipment - Pyrex, colander, paper towels.

It actually turned out pretty good, with a drizzle of nice olive oil, a bit of salt, pepper & thyme. We had a little post-game snack.

Now, I have a pot roast going in the oven. Life is good.