Saturday, May 23, 2009

Menu 2: Great Summer Dinner

I made this as a lunch menu in April 2006 for a reunion of my Theta sisters from the University of Michigan. We gathered in Sonoma, California at a lovely retreat center and went on a wine tour, pictured here, one afternoon. It was great.


  

Barbeque Pulled Chicken

The black beans pictured on this plate aren't included in this menu. Perhaps later.










1 8-ounce can tomato sauce or home-made if you have it
1 7-ounce can chopped green chiles, including the juice
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon regular or smoky sweet paprika
Note: El Rey de Vera Pimenton de la Vera (Spanish Smoked Paprika) It comes in Sweet, Bittersweet, and Hot. I use Sweet in this recipe. Fancy supermarkets often have it. I get mine at The Spanish Table in Berkeley.
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground chipotle chile
Note: Chipotle ground chile is in my supermarket in the Mexican section, usually in a clear cellophane bag.
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
2½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, extra fat removed
Note: Scissors work great to cut off the extra fat.
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

1. Stir tomato sauce, chiles, vinegar, honey, paprika, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, ground chipotle and salt in a 6-quart slow cooker until smooth. Add chicken, onion, and garlic; stir to combine.
2. Put the lid on and cook on low until the chicken can be pulled apart, 2-3 hours depending on the size of your slow cooker. A smaller pot will take more time. You can also use a large sauté pan on the top of the stove or on low heat in the oven. Start checking thighs after two hours.
3. Transfer the chicken thighs to a bowl, and let cool until you can pull the meat apart with your fingers or a fork.
4. Pour the liquid into a sauté pan and boil it down until it is thick. Return the chicken to the sauce, stir well, and check for salt. Reheat if necessary, and serve on toasted buns. I usually serve open-faced with the toasted bun forming a platform for the chicken.
5. You can make it the day before and reheat to serve.

8 servings
Adapted from February/March issue of Eating Well magazine

Erasto’s Coleslaw

















½ cup sour cream, crème fraiche or thick yogurt
½ cup mayonnaise
2½ tablespoons Dijon mustard (I like the whole seed kind)
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons champagne vinegar or other white wine vinegar
6 tablespoons dried currants
½ head green cabbage, shredded or chopped
1 medium carrot, thinly shredded or grated
1 apple, chopped, optional
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, honey, vinegar, and currants in a large bowl. Mix well.
2. Add the cabbage, carrot, and apple, if you wish, and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4-6 servings
Adapted from Cindy Pawlcyn’s Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook

Silky Sautéed Red Peppers

















3 red bell peppers
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Wash the peppers, halve them lengthwise, and remove and discard the seeds and membranes. Cut each pepper half in half, cross-wise. Cut into ½-inch lengthwise strips.
2. Place in a very large skillet and toss with the 1/3 cup vinegar and salt. Cover and cook over low heat until soft and tender, about 25 minutes. Toss occasionally, adjusting the heat so the peppers cook slowly. The liquid will have nearly evaporated by the end of the cooking. Watch that the peppers don’t scorch.
3. When done, transfer them to a platter. Return the skillet to the heat, and deglaze with the final 2 tablespoons of vinegar, scraping up any of the flavorful bits that may have remained in the pan. Add the oil, and heat until just warmed through.
4. Pour the liquid over the peppers, toss, and taste for seasoning. Serve right away or cool for at least 30 minutes before serving at room temperature.

4-6 servings as a side dish
Adapted from Patricia Wells’ Trattoria

Redone bathroom

Just a few little cosmetic changes to our upstairs bathroom.


Before
DSC_0004 by you.





After
DSC_0006 (2) by you.

Vacation mode

Vacation is just around the corner! Wednesday we will be leaving for Outer Banks, NC to meet with our good friends Sarah and Mike with their two children. I am so looking forward to being on vacation; we both need it so badly! And it will be awesome to see Sarah, Mike and the kids too.

So I am pretty much over my sickness. I ended up with tonsillitis and only had to take last Monday off work. I am on antibiotics for 1 week. At least it wasn't strep and I am feeling better in time for vacation!

I finally got some pictures uploaded from when we went to Kentucky and Kristina and Daniel's wedding reception. Sarah and Mike drove up from Tennessee to be there too so it was a mini reunion for everyone!

DSC_0016 by you.
Daniel, Kristina, Sarah, Heather, Nathan and in front
is Hannah.

DSC_0020 by you.
Nathan enjoyed crawling up the hill next to the church.

DSC_0021 by you.
Hannah enjoyed somersaults on the hill.

I'm sure there will plenty more pictures to come from vacation! =)



In the beginning





















Some folks ask me if I have always loved to cook. The answer is a resounding no. As a young girl, I once made a disastrous chocolate cake with my cousins, but other than the occasional banana salad, I was neither interested nor particularly welcome in my mother’s kitchen. I did set the table.

My mother cooked serviceable dinners, pretty much the same conventional fare every week. Well-cooked pork chops, hamburger patties, french fries and green beans from the freezer, a salad, and ice cream. She had some specialties, like Beef Stroganoff, which were reserved for company. And on Sundays after church we would occasionally have a wonderful pot roast with carrots and potatoes or chicken and dumplings, both of which I adored. But mostly it was plain and simple mid-western food. And I took no part in preparing it.

So what happened?

• A move to Berkeley, California in 1966. Newly married to a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, I moved from northwestern Ohio to the Bay area just in time for the action. Which for me included food as well as anti-war and anti-establishment.

• The Shattuck Avenue Coop at the corner of Shattuck and Cedar, where Andronico’s currently resides, was a place of wonder for this mid-western lass. Full of exotic fruits and vegetables and people, the store offered a dazzling assortment of food products and wines from around the world. I studiously picked up all the free printed recipes and bought the Coop Lowcost Cookbook, to supplement the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook I had received as a wedding present.

• Our friends Nick and Sarah were passionate and adventurous cooks and eaters. He was a Scot and cooked up “scurlly,” an oatmeal and onion combination, which we washed down with wine or Green Death, so called because of its green can and lethal effect.

• Cookbooks started showing up under the Christmas tree and in birthday boxes. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was first and was quickly followed by Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook and New York Times Menus Cookbook.

• Gardening and food columns in the Good Times, an alternative East Bay newspaper in the 60s. Jeanie Darlington wrote about gardening in Grow Your Own. Marrakesh Lil, among others, wrote a great food column whose recipes I held onto for years. I lost them about 19 years ago but just recently my former husband found them and sent them to me.

• Occasional dinners out at places in San Francisco and Berkeley, such as The Pot Luck on San Pablo Avenue, opened my eyes to the amazing combinations of flavors and exotic ingredients you could put in your mouth. “Blew my mind” as we would say.

• A chance to grow and eat really fresh produce came about as an indirect result of the People’s Park controversy in 1969. The university turned a field at the corner of Buchanan and Jackson into garden plots and offered them to residents of Albany Village where we were living. We signed up. Oh my god, fresh green beans, basil for pesto, and tomatoes.

• I was cooking all the time. Nearly every day. Hard to imagine now, isn’t it? Learning so much. Gazpacho from Craig. Salmon cheeks and Finnan Haddie from Spengers Fish Store, chuck roasts from the Coop, and fresh crab for special occasions.

I was really lucky to have such a perfect coming together of supportive elements: cookbooks, friends and a husband who liked to cook and eat, a good grocery store, and time. I made a whole bunch of mistakes. The above photo from 1967 is an example: too much time butterflying shrimp for a dish that was bland and dull. Oh well, I said to myself, I never claimed to be perfect. And there are lots more dinners ahead of me. It's still the case.

MASALA EGGS RECIPE: STARTERS RECEIPE


INGREDIENTS:
6 hard-boiled eggs
3 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise or cream according to your taste
3 tablespoons minced green onions
1 tablespoon minced seeded jalapeno chilis (or to taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced mango chutney or tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
METHOD:
Shell eggs, then cut in half lengthwise.
Transfer yolks to small bowl and mash with fork. Mix in mayonnaise. Stir in next 4 ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon yolk mixture into whites. Top generously with chopped radishes.
Time 10 Minutes

CORN SNACK RECIPE-SNACKS RECEIPE


Ingredients:
1 cup sweet corn or corn niblets (preferably the petite sweet corn you get in supermarkets in the frozen food section)
salt (According to your taste)
sugar (According to your taste)
pepper (According to your taste)
1 teaspoon butter (optional)
1 teaspoon oil

Method:
Take a skillet with a deep bottom, heat it to about moderate temperature and add about one cup of corn (or according to your preference).
Keep heating on medium heat and keep stirring so that the corn browns evenly
Once corn turns brown, add the salt, pepper and sugar to it and stir on high heat for 30 seconds.
Serve hot in a bowl and enjoy

1 servings
Time: 5 minutes

The Lake of "Piana degli Albanesi"



In Sicily the bigger reason of attraction is the sea because we are in an island and so we are surrounded , enveloped, cuddled by the sea. The sea that changes continuously, the coasts always different that follow the perimeter of this triangular land .

Our sea is beautiful, but often neglected, the sea that gives us life and food, the sea that promises future and freedom to those who want escape from an impossible life, but often betrays, becoming a place of death or of deportation. The sea is friend and enemy at the same time, it can be a great tear or a place of friendship.

But today I will not talk about the sea but about a lake. The lake that gives the quiet, the lake that's not enough because is not open and infinite as the sea, but gives us the water for drink, making less arid the lands of Sicily.


The Lake of Piana degli Albanesi, is near a small town (PIana degli Albanesi), about 20 km from Palermo, founded in 1488 by some exiles Albanians fled from their land of origin after to the invasion of the Turkey. At Piana the Byzantine culture mixes with the Baroque, influenced by Pietro Novelli. THe people continue to maintain the original traditions and customs, language Arberesh, greek orthodox religion. In Piana there are the best "cannoli", and there is also a lake.

This is an artificial lake created with a dam crossing the river Belice. This lake is surrounded by a small mountain range whose peaks are the mountains of Maganoce, Kumeta and Pizzuta.
Around the lake overlooking the nature and human technology that made him such. Everything is covered with a green and flowery mantle, there are woods in which to enjoy the shadow. You can relax, or fishing. There is a lot of free space.


You can lie down on grass fresh and enjoy a fantastic landscape, feeling the scent of nature, listen to the silence, interrupted occasionally by the hum of a bee, but at that point not terrifies because it is part of the environment.


So you can understand that I liked my picnic in Piana degli Albanesi, a sandwich with an omelette of artichokes and stay with my loved ones.


I love the infinite sea, is my passion although I'm not a great swimmer. I especially like watch and hear the sea. I like the rocks apparently uncomfortable, but really cozy and solitary.

I must admit that until now I had never shown interest in the lakes, but now is different,The lakes are beautiful and magical, and when there is a dam I imagine that the sea is not so far away, just need to follow the course of the River...

Opera Cake



Resep menyusul, yg pasti sesuai dengan resep baku yg telah ada selama ini

Tumis Genjer Bumbu Terasi



Bahan - bahan :
  • 2 ikat daun genjer
  • 10 buah jamur kancing
  • 3 siung bawang putih
  • 3 siung bawang merah
  • 1 buah terasi (ukuran terasi ABC) hancurkan hingga lembut
  • cabe rawit merah secukupnya
  • garam dan gula secukupnya
Cooking directions :
  1. Panaskan wajan beri sedikit minyak tumis bawang putih dan bawang merah yg telah diiris tipis dan terasi hingga harum baunya.
  2. Masukkan cabe merah beserta jamur kancing, beri garam dan gula
  3. Masukkan genjer tumis hingga matang
  4. Angkat dan sajikan