CafeChatNoir

So, I actually got up early enough AND thought about it and headed over to the Farmer’s Market in Burke. (Usually I think about it in the afternoon and they close up at noon, so…) It’s really pretty small and parking is a touch of a challenge, but a nice way to spend a half hour.

Just wandered around, only picked up some chive cheddar cheese from Fields of Grace farms. Fair amount of nice produce, but all I could do was look and think, “Oooh, it all looks good.” but couldn’t come up with any particular thing to make with any of it. (I am a horrible cook that way - I would fail on Iron Chef.) But, this next week I’ll have to ponder things that need fresh green onions, radishes, mixed greens, fresh dill (OMG it smelled SO good) or new potatoes.

Couple places had good prices on strawberries, too, but I need a whole quart of strawberries like I need a hole in the head.

But, the best was the discovery of two potential local meat suppliers! ** Smith Family Farms does Angus Beef, Grass-Fed Chicken & Free Range Pork. Cibola Farms also does Free Range Pork and Buffalo. More expensive than the market, but I’ll have to give them a whirl sometime - they may very well be that much better, and I’d rather support small local farmers over the grocery store any day of the week. I’m definitely interested in how the pork is over what I can get from the grocery store.

** This is a big deal cause I got word that the slaughterhouse/butcher I had gone to before is no longer doing their own slaughtering, but bringing in frozen items.  Bummer.

I’ve actually responded to an email chain letter.

But this one I could get on board with - an *easy* recipe exchange. Send 1 recipe, add your name, take of the top person and toss out to friends who can cook. (Mazikeen, and AUTiger23 I tagged you among others.)

Anyone else that wants in on it, drop me a comment or email.

Stumbled on this today - looks like a great challenge for anyone - should get some good ideas taking this tack.

Eat Local Challenge

Sunday morning we were back at the Left Bank with Kevin Wirt, the Inn’s Pastry Chef. He made us fresh buttermilk biscuits and banana bread. Awesome breakfast. I’m not big on banana bread (I think I am the only person on the planet who is that way), but when it is straight out of the oven, it’s not bad at all.

I’d say we spent at least an hour picking his brains on methods, equipment, ingredients, food, and anything else we could think of. He was just super about it all. Also gave us recipes for all of these goodies:

– Banana Nut Bread
– Pumpkin Bread
– Cranberry Orange Scones
– Coconut Scones
– Cinnamon Walnut Scones
– Buttermilk Biscuits
– Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits
– NC Sweet Potato & Country Ham Biscuits

For lunch I headed down to Coastal Provisions for a great ham & swiss sandwich and some rosemary roasted potatoes and had a great little lunch on the beach.

Dinner was over at the Lifesaving Station restaurant and it was fantastic. Had the shrimp, corn & crab chowder which was just wonderful. Went with the special, which I have to figure out how to make on my own - pan seared silky snapper, served over thin sliced roasted potatoes and squash in a chardonnay sauce, with tabasco butter on top. It was just perfect. The butter gave it just a bit of a kick without being at all overwhelming and it just hit the spot. The sauce is fairly similar to one I make already, this was just a little thicker, and I think had more butter than I usually have in mine. Definitely have to give it a shot at some point.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and I’m now resisting the urge to rip out my electric cooktop and finally replace it w/a gas range. :)

So Saturday morning I got up and headed over to the kitchen at the Left Bank restaurant. If you ever have the chance to muck around in a commercial/pro kitchen - do it. Gas ranges! Convection ovens! Prep bowls and spatulas as far as the eye can see! Tasting spoons! (I no longer feel like a freak for the fact that I routinely go through half a dozen spoons in the course of cooking something.) Seriously, I was in heaven the minute I walked in.

Chef Christine put the menu together based on what’s in season (or coming into season very soon) and we had an absolutely fantastic lunch as a result. The two main items were rockfish and soft-shelled crabs. She pulls the crabs out and they’re in a metal dish and iced down. She takes off the ice and is talking about something when someone says, “Um, are the crabs…moving?” Yup - still alive! Which makes perfect sense, but it was just wasn’t something anyone expected.

The kitchen was pretty decent sized, but there were 12 of us and the Chef, so we were a little cramped to start with, but quickly got to the point where we were working around each other very well. It was easy to be able to keep an eye out and see what was going on in other parts of the kitchen, so even if you were working on one thing, it was not a problem to see how something else was being made at the same time. Oh, and good for grabbing spoons and tasting things as we went along, too.

Basically everyone paired off and grabbed a recipe and went to town. Jo (my partner) and I started with cleaning the crabs - no one else really wanted to do it, I think because of the “still kicking” part - I got over the entire “meeting my lunch before I eat it” problem in about a minute… Pull the tab, clean the gills, cut off the face, next!

Once we got done w/cleaning the crabs, we passed them off to another pair for dredging and sauteing as they were already doing the sauce for them as well. We discovered that no one had taken on dessert yet, so that would be all us. It was a variation on strawberry shortcake - a orange-strawberry compote on orange poppyseed biscuits.

The chef had gone ahead and made the biscuits beforehand for time’s sake, which was very helpful. :) I looked at the recipe and realized this definitely couldn’t be a “prep as you go” thing given the cooking times and the order and timing of everything going in. Off to the racks in the back for prep bowls! I am a total mice in place* kinda gal anyway so the whole prep & staging before actual cooking comes naturally to me, and I honestly think it makes it easier when you actually start cooking anyway. I will say that I think it is definitely more difficult to try and prepare the same dish with another person vs. doing it on your own - especially if you’ve only met the person 15 minutes beforehand and have no idea what their kitchen work style is like. Fortunately it worked fine and no saucepans were thrown at each other in the course of making dessert.

Something I realized after the fact was that while I was having an absolute blast, I was also in complete “work mode” - we had to feed 12 people dessert, we had a great recipe, excellent ingredients and absolutely no reason whatsoever that this shouldn’t kick ass and dammit, it would. Totally in the zone. Chop, zest, juice, stop and think and look around and make sure the answer isn’t right in front of me before bothering Chef with a question, get everything staged in the order to be used, make sure I’m thinking a couple steps ahead so as not to forget anything, and most important, don’t do anything that would make Chef think I am a complete fuckup. Mind you, this was in no way any kind of a boot camp class or anything like that, but I still was in work mode anyway…and was loving it.

So, Jo got going on cutting up a ton of strawberries, while I fought with the oranges. (And won.) Chef did show me a much faster way to section them, which was a godsend, because while I do know how to do it, I just don’t have the mad skillz to do it quickly. Well, I didn’t before this weekend. Then it was cook, add something, stir, cook, make sure it’s not burning, stir, cook, add something, cook, done! Off to the racks in the back again to find the right container to put it in an ice bath, since there was no way it was going to cool down fast enough on it’s own. While we were waiting for it to get to a useable temperature, it was time for the whipped cream. Snag the mixer, cream, sugar and vanilla. Or, not… Check the prep table where Christine had put out the ingredients we’d be using, checked under the table, looked around the rest of the kitchen - no dice. Snagged Christine and asked where it was hidden - I was SO sure it was probably right in front of me the whole time, but turns out it hadn’t come over from the other kitchen. So, we skipped the vanilla in the whipped cream with no adverse effects, and I took care of that while Jo did the garnishes for it. After what seemed like forever trying to get the cream to soft peak stage, we finally got to put everything together. Have to say, it looked awesome when we got it all together.

By some awesome miracle (well, thanks to the excellent direction of Chef Christine), everything came out wonderfully and at the same time. We had enough food for a small army and it was all spectacular:

– Herb crusted rockfish. Awesome.
– Soft shelled crabs dredged in cornmeal and sauteed and served on a roasted corn sauce that was just to die for.
– Oven dried tomatoes - again, what a difference very fresh tomatoes make.
– Bacon cabbage slaw - the recipe we have can be made w/ white wine vinegar or champagne - we went w/the white wine vinegar. I think I’d go w/the champagne when I make it, because it was a touch vinegary to my taste, but still really tasty.
– Cream of asparagus soup - another super dish.
– Chilled asparagus salad with strawberry vinagrette and vanilla strawberries - can you tell asparagus and strawberries are in season? Also, just fantastic.
– Orange-Strawberry shortcake. Given that I had the recipe, cooked the stuff and put it all together, I knew exactly what it was supposed to taste like, and it tasted exactly the way it should, but it was still kind of overly sweet to me. But, everyone else devoured it, so it’s all good.

While we had our lunch, the sommelier, Lynette Sumner, gave us 4 different wines and went over pairing wine with food. This gal seriously knows her stuff - and if she wasn’t so incredibly nice, she’d be very intimidating. After about 5 minutes, I realized the most intelligent thing I could say about wine was, “I like red wine!”

Everything was just spectacular and everyone had a terrific time. I ended up getting a sandwich from Tommy’s Market for dinner, cause there was absolutely no way on earth I could finish another full meal after lunch.

So this weekend, I spent some time up at the Sanderling Inn for their “Cooking School Weekend” that their executive chef, Christine Zambito, put on. A very long time ago, the restaurant at Sanderling was the first place I really saw just how much impact changing chefs can have on a restaurant when they’re left to their own devices and allowed to do what they do best, so I found it oddly appropriate that my first ever formal cooking class would in the same place.

Friday night I arrived and they had a nice little reception upstairs at The Lifesaving Station restaurant. I figured it was just going to be a little meet & greet kind of thing, but no, it was better! Wine and hors d’oeuvres - and then Christine showed us how to make all the goodies we’d gotten to eat AND had recipes for all of them to take home. All of these were absolutely wonderful and easy as all get out to make, but look and taste fairly impressive. What we had:

- Sanderling Crab Dip - this is what they serve in the restaurant. This recipe is particularly good as far as I’m concerned because there is none of this adding artichokes or any other silliness - just lots of crab goodness.

- Roasted Red Pepper Hummus served on Belgian Endive - insanely easy and absolutely blows away anything I’ve ever bought prepared, ever. The presentation on the Belgian Endive looks great, and adds a great crispness to it.

- Smoked Salmon Canapés - Just your basic smoked salmon w/jazzed up cream cheese in pinwheels. Half on crackers, and the other half on cuke slices. I was really surprised at how good the ones on the cukes were - it wasn’t a combination I would have thought of (one of my biggest weaknesses w/food), but I really liked it.

- Bruschetta w/the following toppings:
– Black Olive Tapenade - I’ve had this before and could kind of take it or leave it, but this was out of this world. Not sure if it’s the dry cured olives, the fact that it was fresh or what, but I could have eaten this with a spoon.
– Diced tomatoes with Garlic & Herbs - All I can say is this shows how much of a HUGE difference really nice, fresh, not-ripened-on-a-truck tomatoes make. SO good.
– Herbed goat cheese - this is in my list of recipes, but I’m pretty sure this either wasn’t in with what we ate, or I somehow missed it, but it looks good and I’ll be giving that a go at some point as well.

So, we got ourselves all good and noshed up to get things kicked off. Headed over to the Swan Bar in the restaurant and discovered that they have lost the recipe for Keoki coffee that I left them the last time I had drinks there (14 years ago…), so they now have that again, and I’ve got a new friend in the bartender, Jason.

So, given it’s a bit of a dreary day, I decided veggie-beef soup would be good. Found two recipes* and while neither one was exactly what I wanted, I figured it was a good enough base to work with. Though I am eating the results right now, let’s just say it’s not quite there just yet. The afternoon went a bit like this:

Mince, mince, chop, peel, dice, MEDIC!! (Garlic, onion, carrots, potatoes.) The new santoku knife is now officially broken in, as evidenced by the band-aid on my left hand.

Slice, slice, slice. Why can’t I ever find beef in a pound package when I actually only need a pound But then again, can you have too much beef in beef soup? The new chef’s knife is awesome.

Toss the beef in a bit of pan searing flour, brown it with the onions & garlic. OMG, smells heavenly.

Add water, beef stock, some worchestershire and red wine and everything else. Add oregano, basil, thyme, pepper, bay leaf, couple grinds of sea salt, parsley. Quick taste, ACK, TOO MUCH PARSLEY - emergency skimming ensues.

Bring to boil. Let simmer. Stir and taste repeatedly. Something not quite right, can’t put my finger on it. Not bad, just not quite right. Too beef stock-y maybe? Who knows.

45 minutes passes. Bring back to boil, Add 8 oz mini shell pasta, let go for about 10 minutes.

Discover there isn’t enough liquid once the pasta is cooked. Cussing ensues as I search the kitchen for anything besides water. 1 can chicken stock! Add that, stir and I think I have taken care of the “too beef stock-y” issue. However, it’s kinda washed out the spices. Damn!

Overall, it’s not bad, but still a work in progress. I did write down everything I did as I went along. Next time, another can of chicken stock, probably skip the water altogether, toss in some peas, maybe lose the parsley.

Thing is, with spring here, the chances of my making this again before Halloween are pretty slim. Hopefully I’ll remember to find my notes next time around.

* - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spicy-Vegetable-Beef-Soup/Detail.aspx and http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegetable-Beef-Soup-2/Detail.aspx

“Cake’s nothing but a delivery system for icing.”

Well, amazingly enough the pancakes came out pretty darn well despite the fact that I literally cannot remember the last time I made them. (Thank god for bisquick and buttermilk.) However, I do need to locate a better pan for it next time around, cause flipping them was a little on the sketchy side and there were a few that ended up in the trash. The paprika bacon was wonderful, no surprise there.

I do believe I’ll have a Mardi Gras Guinness before the night is over, if nothing else to drown my sorrows if the Caps don’t win this evening. (3-2 Montreal, 10:15 left in the 2nd period.)

By sheer luck I stumbled on a link for the Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar via del.icio.us, clicked on it because it sounded intriguing and discovered it’s in Philly, less than a mile from where I’ll be staying next month. Oh hells yes, I’ve made a reservation for when I’m up there. Really looking forward to this trip.  Which also reminds me that I have GOT to figure out where on earth I put my camera.

Or Pancake Day, depending on from where you hail…

There will be pancakes here today, which could be interesting given that I can’t even remember the last time I made pancakes. If nothing else, there will be bacon - made up a bit of the paprika bacon I picked up from the butcher shop yesterday and it is GOOD. Properly thick sliced bacon is oh so, so good. Mmmm, bacon.

Nope, not Catholic - just appropriating the fun parts of Lenten season for myself.

Saw this come across the wires this morning: Twelve step program aims to cure email addiction. Put down the crackberry and back away slowly - you’re just not that important. I can only speak for myself but I’ve found over the years that when you’re having problems managing god knows how many emails, it’s usually because of carelessness on the part of the sender. How many emails have you gotten that have been sent to everyone and their brother and have absolutely nothing to do with you? Yet, you still have to take the time to read it and discover that it is meaningless. So, lets have some classes on how to properly send email so it gets to the necessary parties and doesn’t bother anyone else…

In other news, JetBlue is setting out a customer bill of rights. Now, I’m glad they’re addressing the problems on the tarmac from last week - this is a good thing. However, didn’t something like this happen just recently to another airline? (American, I think?) I’d say when something like that happens, even if it’s one of your competitors and not you, wouldn’t you want to have a little sit-down with folks and say, “Hey, what do we have in place to make sure something like that disaster doesn’t happen to our airline?”

I understand how they got out on the tarmacs in the first place - they got information (unfortunately incorrect) that the weather was going to change in short order and they’d be able to take off. OK, I can see going ahead and leaving the gate for that. However, I still can’t understand why it could take upwards of 8 to 11 hours to realize that the weather isn’t going to change after all… And I do understand that when you’ve got planes coming in, planes on the tarmac, a limited amount of gates you can get to, it becomes a logistical challenge to be sure. But dayum, have a hard go/no-go point and if it’s no-go, then get the wheels turning to get that plane back to the gate - don’t just sit there and keep hoping the weather will change.

And it’s not even a bad drive. Dave & I went out this afternoon to the wilds of Catlett, VA to go to the slaughterhouse/butcher that he had been telling me about (and making me drool in the process.) It is fantastic.

You walk in, there are 2 chalkboards with everything they have on them and a counter. No displays. No fridge of cut items. No - you tell them what you want and they cut it right then and there. Got 2 pounds of sausage, 2 pounds of center cut pork chops, a beautiful sirloin steak and a pound of paprika bacon, at an insanely good price.

Everyone has their thing of what makes a butcher the real thing - for me, it was the fact that they had chitlins on the board. These folks have everything. It’s a great place, and I will be making return visits.

It’s Wilson Farms Meat Co. Take 234 to 28 South, and then left at the second light after the “Welcome to Nokesville” sign/barn with the pig & cow on it, and an immediate left. Hours are M 8-5, T-F 7-5, Sa 7-4. 540-788-4615

And it’s really not a bad drive out there at all, and completely worth it.

ETA: I don’t know if they take credit cards, didn’t see a machine and I was paying cash anyway.  Checks only for “established customers”.

Happy Friday everyone. Been a fun week with crappy weather here and now it’s all about trying to get rid of the ice. On my car. That I cannot remove. Seriously, I spent somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes today trying to get it off, and managed to remove about 1/4 of it and broke the ice scraper in the process. I am about ready to just go out and pour water all over it even though it would likely just result in more ice on the driveway, which wouldn’t exactly be optimal either. But dammit, I want a driveable car! Little bro is exceptionally generous in the lending of his auto whenever I need it, but still, I’d prefer to be on my own wheels, thankyouverymuch. (Of course, it just occured to me that I could move the car to the side of the street, which is already covered in ice anyway, and try the water trick there…)

But, the cold weather is perfect for Goulaschuppe and it will be ready to go here in about 15 minutes. I do love winter for the soup weather. :)

Been a nice week for the markets, some good consolidation days and some nice bumps with Bernake’s testimony on Wednesday and the some more flatness/consolidation going into the long weekend. I’d expected a little more of a bounce today with traditional short-covering, but you can’t argue too much with the week as a whole. Pays the tab for a few more rounds at GD’s and the tuition for a couple more classes.

Speaking of classes (nice segue, wasn’t it?), I’ve gotten off my arse and registered for my next one. (The classes roll monthly, so not starting anything at the beginning of February due to the questionable status of my laptop was no big deal - I knew I’d be back at it soon enough.) This one is “Introduction to Intelligence” - it’s a 16 week one, and I’d add another 16 week in core requirements if I could find one, but all the others at the moment are 8 week, which would be like 3 classes vs 2 classes and well, I’m a wuss and don’t want to make that jump until I see how I can fare with 2 classes at the same time. I’ve done one of the 8 week classes, and it was a little tight at times, but I was also still working, so it’s kind of hard to judge how it would be otherwise. But, there are a couple 16 week ones opening in April, so I’ll pick one of those up. Also got word that I comped out of the 4 other classes, 2 basic english & 2 basic history, so go me. (I’m essentially re-doing undergrad, I want a better basis in the area than the accounting degree I’ve got before I go attempting grad level work. Bonus is that I’ve comped out of all the “fluff” and am only doing the core/major classes.)

I stumbled on this recipe for Lobster & Beer Risotto. There must be something like “lobster appreciation day” or some such nonsense that would warrant making this… Hell, I’ll probably just settle for, “The sun came up this morning, there is reason to celebrate.”

ETA: Link working now.

Thanks to Unknown_Progrmr for the heads up on this.

If you’ve got Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter with a code starting with 2111 on the lid, you can toss it or return it to ConAgra for a refund - it’s been linked to a salmonella outbreak.

Before you blow it off thinking you haven’t bought peanut butter recently and this is “new” - check the pantry. Surprised the hell out of me when I discovered a jar with the 2111 code…

If a little on the cold side, but it’s bright and sunny and I’m in a lovely mood and life is good in general. I’ve gotten the name of the shop in Old Town - La Cuisine - where I will go cutlery hunting at some point in the near future and I’m getting info on a slaughterhouse/butcher a little south of here.

Son as I finish my coffee, it’s off to the gym and then the market to be prepared for our end-of-the-world snowstorm coming along later this week.

Have an absolutely glorious day.

Though I didn’t spend quite as much time as not knowing what day it was this morning, I did wake in a panic thinking, “Contractors! 8AM! It’s 8:30!! Crap, crap, crap!” and then realized it was only Saturday and that I had not in fact slept through the entire weekend. I can think of much more pleasant ways to wake up.

In making dinner last night, I’ve finally convinced myself that I really DO need some new knives, and it really wouldn’t be a frivolous purchase. (I’ve wanted them for a while, wasn’t sure I could say I needed them.) At a minimum, a new chef’s knife & a santoku knife. I’ve got a couple good paring knives and a good bread knife, but my current chef’s knife just isn’t doing it anymore. There is supposedly a great culinary shop in Old Town but I don’t know the name, nor can I find any kind of directory listing for it… So, I may end up back over at Sur La Table for them, but I’d rather support a non-big-chain business if I can. Guess I’ll find out whenever I can get myself up to Old Town and take a look around.

I’ve had folks ask if all the days tend to run together with the whole unemployed student thing going on. Actually, they don’t and I actually make a point of not letting the week/weekend blindly run together, and I have an amount of structure & routine in my weekdays that surprises even me. Weekdays are for getting stuff done and weekends are for sleeping in and not getting stuff done. (Well, other than laundry & dishes.) Granted, I can get more done during the week now than I did before, which helps the weekends stay “weekends”, but Friday night still has meaning to it in my little world.

I have promised my brother that there will be beef stew & dumplings in the house in the next 72 hours. The dumplings are easy enough - that’s why we have this magic stuff called Bisquick. The stew? Well, it occurred to me that I have never actually made beef stew. How does one spend near 35 years on this planet and not make beef stew? I don’t know, but somehow I managed it. I don’t have a recipe and I’d just as soon wing it, cause that’s more fun anyway.

The basics of it are easy enough - beef, carrots, onions, corn, potatoes. Lots of potatoes. Salt, pepper, worchestershire, garlic, thyme, bay leaves. Where it is going to get interesting is the liquid. How much and what? Water, stock, beer, wine? I’ve looked over lots of different recipes and the proportions of beef/vegetables to liquid are all over the place. Figure start with less and add until it it’s right. (Not quite sure how I will be gauging “right” but I figure I’ll know it when I see it.)

I’ll take notes so if it comes out well, I’ll remember what I did next time. Or if it’s awful, what NOT to do next time.

985,000 Easy Bake Ovens Recalled

When I was a little one, I oh so wanted an Easy Bake oven. Never did get one - my mother kept saying something about having access to a perfectly good full sized kitchen whenever I wanted.

But I was just entranced - tiny exquisite cakes! Perfectly decorated little sugar cookies! Sprinkles! Frostings! For whatever reason, I felt the Easy Bake would turn me into the next Julia Child.  (As any well marketed kitchen gadget should do.)

It wasn’t just that I coveted the Easy Bake due to it’s well cemented place in pop culture. In one of Louisa May Alcott’s books (either Good Wives or Little Men, I can’t remember now) there is a whole scene in which a little girl has a real miniature stove/oven setup. As in little cast-iron, coal fired, the real deal and she then goes about setting up a dinner party. I thought that was just the absolute coolest thing and thought it was a definite shame that I couldn’t get hold of that.

Overall, I think the biggest draw was the fact that the Easy Bake oven was MY size. Sure, I had a whole kitchen I could use just for the asking, but it was sized for a bunch of grownups and I definitely was not. I couldn’t reach a damn thing, I managed to whack my head on the oven door handle more times than I could count and generally, when your tools just don’t fit you, it’s not quite as much fun.

Should I ever find myself with little ones that have an interest in mucking around in the kitchen, I need to remember this and figure out some ways to make it work without having to resort to a crappy Easy Bake oven…

So, trying to find that perfect gift for the love of your life? Well, if this isn’t it, I don’t know what is.

The Bacon of the Month Club

Link via Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen

Tonight, satay, aka Thai-meat-on-a-stick. It’s usually an appetizer, but screw that, it’s good enough on it’s own for me.

Satay

1# chicken, cut into strips (can also use flank steak)
Marinade:
2t creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. lime juice (lemon can be used, lime is just a little better)
2t curry powder
2 cloves chopped garlic
1t hot pepper sauce (I just use thai chili sauce, could pretty much use any hot sauce)

Combine the marinade ingredients, dump in the chicken, cover and refrigerate overnight (if possible - minimum 2 hours)

Put chicken/steak on skewers, grill on high heat 5 minutes on a side. (Same if using broiler inside.)

I also usually cut up a bunch of big chunks of onion and marinate & grill them along with it.

Sauce - you can get the peanut sauce in most grocery stores anymore, if not, just melt some peanut butter in a small saucepan and gradually add red pepper flakes until it gets to your desired heat level.

So happy to be back in the kitchen. Part of it is just being happy to be in the kitchen, the other part being that I don’t feel like crap anymore so I actually feel like cooking again.

Made lumpia tonight - basically Phillipine eggrolls, but much, much better. Had them the first time when we were overseas, and they’ve always been a favorite of mine. The wrappers are thinner and fry up smoother than eggroll or springroll wrappers and well, they’re just better, you’ll have to trust me on this one. Little labor intensive getting them wrapped up, but worth it.

Lumpia (Phillipine eggrolls)

1# ground pork (can use ground beef, half beef/half pork, or the beef/pork/veal mix usually marked as “meatloaf mix” in stores)
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. minced carrot
1/2 c. chopped green onion
1/2 c. thin sliced cabbage
1 t. ground black pepper
1 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. soy sauce
~20-25 lumpia wrappers (hard to find anywhere but an asian market, but worth it)

Brown the beef/pork/whatever, set aside to drain, leaving some of the oil in the pan.

Saute the garlic & onion until tender.

Add the beef/pork back along with all other ingredients. Reduce heat to low, cover and let sit 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool to the point where you can handle it without burning yourself.

Take a lumpia wrapper, put an oversized teaspoon of the filling in and pretty much just wrap it up like you would a burrito. Seal the edges with water. Once everything is wrapped, fry in hot oil (veg is fine) 1-2 minutes until golden brown.

These can be frozen before they are fried up and will do fine defrosted and fried later. Can also be put in the fridge before frying for a day or two.

Sauce - basically nothing more than a sweetened, thickened soy sauce. I usually toss some soy, brown sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan and let it go on low heat until it’s the way I want. I’ve not used the recipe below, but it looks like it should work:

1 c. sugar
3 c. water
3T soy sauce
3T cornstarch
1.5 t salt

Melt sugar in saucepan. Make pase of the soy, cornstarch, salt and some of the water, then add the rest of the water and add it all to the sugar. (All over low heat.)

OK, TiVo will be the end of my brain to be sure, but it keeps tossing up new things I’ve never seen before. Lots of programs I’ve heard of but never bothered to figure out what channel or when they’re on - but now they just show up on the recorder.

Up until now, I’d not seen any of the Iron Chef shows, but now I’ve seen a few of Iron Chef America and holy crap they’re insane. It really amazes me how these folks can come up with anywhere from 5-7 dishes with the “secret ingredient” and they all seem to be things that you’d at least want to try, even if you’re not drooling over it. My brother says the original Iron Chef shows are better, but the American version is pretty cool. And there seems to invariably be one judge that seems to be a self-important, pompous ass that you want to pop in the mouth. I’ve no doubt it’s by design.

There aren’t a lot of cooking shows where I think, “Damn, I would have never thought of that” - this is one of the few.

Plus, the plating is absolutely gorgeous on everything these folks turn out. I’m lucky if I don’t have half the dish on the counter trying to get it to the plate.

Lordy, I feel like holy hell, there is no other way to describe it. Tomorrow I will find out exactly how much DayQuil you can consume and still remain upright. Ton of stuff to do tomorrow and I’d prefer to be numb while doing it if the way I feel at the moment is the only other alternative.

Watching Gordon Ramsay’s F Word right now, can’t say I’ve seen him look like he was about to cry within the first 30 seconds before… (Get your mind out of the gutter - the F stands for food, despite the fact that his favorite word seems to be fuck.) I’d kill to be able to watch him work in person.

I’ve never seen Hell’s Kitchen so I have no idea if it was similar or not, but this is a good combination between the actual psychosis in the restaurant kitchen and other “human interest” stuff - right now he’s doing a segment on Sunday lunch. “Get off your mobile and get your ass in the kitchen.” (He’s actually quite pleasant in the outside the restaurant scenes, and to me, fucking hilarious in the kitchen…) The stuff they’re cooking isn’t horribly complex, the premise is that it’s something anyone could make at home - but throw folks into a restaurant environment that they’ve never experienced and watch it all implode… (Or hopefully go well.) I know if it were me, I’d be totally screwed. I have no idea how on earth anyplace gets all the timing right without ending up with half the stuff on a warming shelf.

He does actually defend the guys in the kitchen when folks decide they don’t want to pay just because they don’t like what came up on the menu, which is pretty cool - he doesn’t seem to really want anyone curled up in the fetal position in the corner of the kitchen.

Perfect for lunch on a cold, snowy day: Pulled pork sandwiches. Made it last night and oh my but the leftovers are GOOD.

Finally saw Alton Brown’s Feasting on Asphalt last night. Cross country motorcycle trip in search of road food. What’s not to love?

Hey locals - the chocolate festival is just around the corner - Feb 3/4.

On a completely unrelated note, check out this thread if you’re in the market for a fake ID in the DC area - maybe the answer will eventually appear… Damn, it’s been deleted. Doesn’t everyone post in a public forum asking where to buy a fake ID?

Pulled Pork Goodness

Note: I make no claims of this to be “authentic” of any type or style of pulled pork - it’s just how I make it and it’s tasty. Takes a while, but worth it.

First, I use pork tenderloin. I know lots of folks use pork butt for this, but it just makes too much, and a lot of the time I’m making it w/leftover pork tenderloin from a previous meal, so when I am making it as the first meal, I still stick with the tenderloin cause I know it works.

Brine the pork tenderloin in a salt/sugar brine for 1-2 hours. (about 1/2 c. kosher salt & 1/4 c sugar. Feel free to toss in some peppercorns, garlic, whatever spices float your boat.)

Rinse and rub down with cracked pepper, garlic, onion, thyme, again switch it up to suit your tastes, and then pan sear.

Transfer to saucepan, add enough liquid to cover it about 1/2 to 2/3. I use some beef stock and a bit of wine or dark beer. (Would have used pork stock if I’d had it, but it works.)

Start simmering on low…for a long time. (I think it ended up going about 2 hours in total) Check it every 20 minutes or so to turn things and see if it’s “pullable” yet. As the liquid reduces, I start adding barbecue sauce. Once it’s to the point where you can pull it, start shredding it, keep simmering and adding more barbecue sauce. I think I kept it on about 30 minutes past the shredded stage.

Start eating. (I think it’s great on toasted onion rolls.) Great the next day and freezes well, too.

Every time I go to the townhouse I think to myself, “Grab the small dark wood bookshelf.” Every time I manage to forget. Today, I got it out of the room it was in and as far as the hallway and got distracted. It’s still sitting in the hallway.

Perhaps tomorrow when I go to let the painters in I will actually remember to put it IN THE CAR.

OK, highly unlikely, but here’s hoping.

Dinner tonight: Pan seared scallops with a quick simmer in meuniere sauce. MMmmmmmm, good.

Another question for the local geeks: Any recommendations for laptop repair in the area? Specifically replacing a DVD/CD drive.