My place of employment has absolutely OWNED me this month. Every night and portions of weekends I've been up to my neck in work. Cooking has been almost non-existent, though I had a good run of it this past Sunday after submitting a grant proposal. Needless to say, I don't have quite as much time on my hands as I did during the first months of the blog.
Also, I am getting kind of bored with the way this blog is going. HOWEVER, I am working on a new format that involves readers more.
Further, the concept of a diet has gone away. Strangely enough, this blog (The Diet Year Project) helped me learn that you don't have to restrict any type of food, or even count calories. Just don't eat too much and exercise more, and don't give up when you screw up. Just get back to business.
Though I have far to go before I reach my target weight, I feel great. And I have big ideas for the a new format for the blog. Hope to introduce it soon.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Hammin' It UP
On Easter Sunday, I came up with a brilliant idea. HAM!
I strolled on down to the Butcher Block and bought us a ten pound ham. Note to self: A ten pound ham for two people is too much. In fact, it's an arresting amount of food. What was I thinking?
So we ate our ham. Yes we did. But as you might imagine, one Easter dinner for two people barely made a dent in the ginormous ham. I knew I would need to get creative with my recipes to include ham in everything. I just didn't realize to what extent.
Here are the ham-based recipes I made:
Chopped Ham Salad - this was really good. Perhaps because I wasn't quite disgusted by the taste of ham at this point. Ingredients included: HAM, boston lettuce, romaine lettuce, Monterey jack cheese, pecans, grape tomatoes, small white beans, red onion, cucumber, and a red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dijon mustard dressing.
Farfalle with ham, peas, lightly toasted pine nuts, basil, and sun dried tomatoes in a tomato-cream sauce - this is a recipe inspired by my Mom's husband Mark. He makes it with prosciutto and uses an alfredo sauce, and it's much better this way. But I tried to lighten it up by using a tomato sauce and some half and half to make it creamier. It was good stuff.
Ham salad - pretty self explanatory. I never make the same type of mayo salad twice. I just use what I'm craving or what I have on hand. I whipped this up with what i had in the fridge: celery, jalapeno, onion, pickles, and mustard. I normally include some sugar, salt, pepper, and other spices if I fancy it.
Ham, Shrimp, and Okra Gumbo with red beans/rice/coconut flakes. I tried to make a healthier version by using a faux rous. Instead of using butter and flour to thicken up the gumbo, I processed onion, garlic, and parsley to make the sauce heartier. The sliminess of okra always serves as a great thickening agent, too. I used Pickapeppa hot sauce to give it a tasty and somewhat sweet spiciness.
Rich picked off most of the bits of ham that were close to the bone. He's the designated meat picker because he gets more than I do, and it bothers him when I fail to gather any meat that would otherwise be salvaged by him.
From the leftover bone, I made a ham stock, which is called for in wonton soup recipes. The stock was very rich, and a very thick layer of fat formed on the top. After that was skimmed, it was a beautiful and velvety. I froze it for later use. Here's a photo of the ham bone after boiling and releasing all its flavors for a few hours. Looks like some the bone marrow came out into the stock. Delish.
After all that, plus the inclusion of ham in some breakfast omelettes, I still had some leftovers to freeze. Whoa. I'm hoping to steer clear of ham until next Easter. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this SNL clip: Hamm & Buble!
I strolled on down to the Butcher Block and bought us a ten pound ham. Note to self: A ten pound ham for two people is too much. In fact, it's an arresting amount of food. What was I thinking?
So we ate our ham. Yes we did. But as you might imagine, one Easter dinner for two people barely made a dent in the ginormous ham. I knew I would need to get creative with my recipes to include ham in everything. I just didn't realize to what extent.
Here are the ham-based recipes I made:
Chopped Ham Salad - this was really good. Perhaps because I wasn't quite disgusted by the taste of ham at this point. Ingredients included: HAM, boston lettuce, romaine lettuce, Monterey jack cheese, pecans, grape tomatoes, small white beans, red onion, cucumber, and a red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dijon mustard dressing.
Farfalle with ham, peas, lightly toasted pine nuts, basil, and sun dried tomatoes in a tomato-cream sauce - this is a recipe inspired by my Mom's husband Mark. He makes it with prosciutto and uses an alfredo sauce, and it's much better this way. But I tried to lighten it up by using a tomato sauce and some half and half to make it creamier. It was good stuff.
Ham salad - pretty self explanatory. I never make the same type of mayo salad twice. I just use what I'm craving or what I have on hand. I whipped this up with what i had in the fridge: celery, jalapeno, onion, pickles, and mustard. I normally include some sugar, salt, pepper, and other spices if I fancy it.
Ham, Shrimp, and Okra Gumbo with red beans/rice/coconut flakes. I tried to make a healthier version by using a faux rous. Instead of using butter and flour to thicken up the gumbo, I processed onion, garlic, and parsley to make the sauce heartier. The sliminess of okra always serves as a great thickening agent, too. I used Pickapeppa hot sauce to give it a tasty and somewhat sweet spiciness.
Rich picked off most of the bits of ham that were close to the bone. He's the designated meat picker because he gets more than I do, and it bothers him when I fail to gather any meat that would otherwise be salvaged by him.
From the leftover bone, I made a ham stock, which is called for in wonton soup recipes. The stock was very rich, and a very thick layer of fat formed on the top. After that was skimmed, it was a beautiful and velvety. I froze it for later use. Here's a photo of the ham bone after boiling and releasing all its flavors for a few hours. Looks like some the bone marrow came out into the stock. Delish.
After all that, plus the inclusion of ham in some breakfast omelettes, I still had some leftovers to freeze. Whoa. I'm hoping to steer clear of ham until next Easter. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this SNL clip: Hamm & Buble!
Saucy!
I love hotness. I crave hotness. I am hotness.
For me, if a dish isn't spicy, then it better have some other amazing flavor that makes my heart melt. If you weren't already aware, the chili pepper is my favorite vegetable - and there are so many varieties to choose from.
My preference, of course, is to infiltrate all my dishes with fresh, hot peppers. Unfortunately, that choice doesn't cater to all eaters.
So I must pay homage to hot sauce. I curtsey to say thank you. Hot sauce, I am so happy that you exist. If you didn't, my life might be less fulfilled.
I've created an overview of my favorite hot sauces. I'll start with a visual aid - my favorite hot sauces outlined in something I'll call a Sauce Grid. Please note that bottles are not to scale, and they are in no particular order as far as favorites.
Sauce summaries:
Cholula Hot Sauce: My go-to sauce for anything and everything. Cholula touts itself as "The Flavorful Fire". The original flavor is lovely, but I see that they've unleashed other flavors like chili garlic, chili lime, and chipotle recently. Pequin peppers are the highlight of the sauce. It's made in Mexico, near Guadalajara. When I had just graduated from college I was living in LA and looking for a job. My budget was tight. Eggs and bean burritos were pretty much my entire diet. Cholula hot sauce was my very good friend.
Frank's Red Hot: The best best best sauce for wings. Just visit Frank's Red Hot Official Website for a laugh. Or here's one of the funny-as-shit Frank's Red Hot commercials (featuring the old lady) on youtube.
Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce: Look, I hate regular Tabasco sauce. F-THAT! Not a good flavor. But the green pepper sauce is awesome, and is regularly available at all Chipotle restaurants. I slop that stuff all over my burrito.
Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce: I've mainly experienced this at Vietnamese pho restaurants, with the clear bottle, green cap, and rooster logo. The description of the sauce is written on the bottle in many languages - because it was invented and is still produced in multinational Rosemead, California by Huy Fong Foods, whose founder is a Chinese-Vietnamese chili pepper farmer who fled Vietnam around the time I was born. The American dream was achieved. Very cool.
Melinda's XXXXTra Reserve: Melinda's is my favorite at the moment - and another sauce I use on almost everything. Namely eggs, pizza, and soups. This sauce has origins in Belize, and is made from habanero, carrots, onions, and other fun stuff. There are many heat levels and flavors, but my fave is the XXXXTra Reserve. Check out www.melindas.com.
Nando's Extra Hot Peri Peri Sauce: Oh Nando's. I love Nando's. I must explain further so my American readers fully understand the gravity of the Nando's situation. Nando's is a casual dining restaurant chain founded in South Africa by Portuguese colonists who had moved there from Mozambique after it gained independence. You normally split a whole flame grilled chicken, dump this very spicy Peri Peri Sauce (made with the African birdseye chili) all over it, and enjoy it with rice and fries. It is delicious. Nando's has chains in the UK, Australia, and Canada (and I'm sure in other places) but in the U.S. there is only one: in Washington, DC. Fortunately, you can still buy the Peri Peri sauce in grocers like Trader Joe's, and they are making their way into other stores. It's a fantastic hot sauce. I usually only use it when I make Peri Peri chicken because it's hard to find. For any of you living in or visiting Washington, DC, go there - it's worth it. Also, visit the Nando's website. It's a trip.
Pickapeppa Hot Sauce: Here's a lovely Scotch bonnet pepper sauce prepared in cane vinegar and aged in oak barrels. It's got a yummy sweetness. I use it on pizza, and to prepare cajun dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee.
Louisiana Hot Sauce: Though I don't use this too often these days (it's watery compared to Franks), Louisiana Hot Sauce was the first hot sauce I fell in love with. Lots of this went down my gullet in college.
Sambal Oelek Ground Fresh Chili Paste: I love this hot sauce (also made by Huy Fong Foods) for flavoring Asian soups and stir-fries. Often, at Asian restaurants, you'll see this on the table in a clear container with metal lid and a tiny spoon. Or at least I think that's what it is.
What are your favorite hot sauces? What do you use them on? How do you cook with them? How did you find out about them?
For me, if a dish isn't spicy, then it better have some other amazing flavor that makes my heart melt. If you weren't already aware, the chili pepper is my favorite vegetable - and there are so many varieties to choose from.
My preference, of course, is to infiltrate all my dishes with fresh, hot peppers. Unfortunately, that choice doesn't cater to all eaters.
So I must pay homage to hot sauce. I curtsey to say thank you. Hot sauce, I am so happy that you exist. If you didn't, my life might be less fulfilled.
I've created an overview of my favorite hot sauces. I'll start with a visual aid - my favorite hot sauces outlined in something I'll call a Sauce Grid. Please note that bottles are not to scale, and they are in no particular order as far as favorites.
Sauce summaries:
Cholula Hot Sauce: My go-to sauce for anything and everything. Cholula touts itself as "The Flavorful Fire". The original flavor is lovely, but I see that they've unleashed other flavors like chili garlic, chili lime, and chipotle recently. Pequin peppers are the highlight of the sauce. It's made in Mexico, near Guadalajara. When I had just graduated from college I was living in LA and looking for a job. My budget was tight. Eggs and bean burritos were pretty much my entire diet. Cholula hot sauce was my very good friend.
Frank's Red Hot: The best best best sauce for wings. Just visit Frank's Red Hot Official Website for a laugh. Or here's one of the funny-as-shit Frank's Red Hot commercials (featuring the old lady) on youtube.
Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce: Look, I hate regular Tabasco sauce. F-THAT! Not a good flavor. But the green pepper sauce is awesome, and is regularly available at all Chipotle restaurants. I slop that stuff all over my burrito.
Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce: I've mainly experienced this at Vietnamese pho restaurants, with the clear bottle, green cap, and rooster logo. The description of the sauce is written on the bottle in many languages - because it was invented and is still produced in multinational Rosemead, California by Huy Fong Foods, whose founder is a Chinese-Vietnamese chili pepper farmer who fled Vietnam around the time I was born. The American dream was achieved. Very cool.
Melinda's XXXXTra Reserve: Melinda's is my favorite at the moment - and another sauce I use on almost everything. Namely eggs, pizza, and soups. This sauce has origins in Belize, and is made from habanero, carrots, onions, and other fun stuff. There are many heat levels and flavors, but my fave is the XXXXTra Reserve. Check out www.melindas.com.
Nando's Extra Hot Peri Peri Sauce: Oh Nando's. I love Nando's. I must explain further so my American readers fully understand the gravity of the Nando's situation. Nando's is a casual dining restaurant chain founded in South Africa by Portuguese colonists who had moved there from Mozambique after it gained independence. You normally split a whole flame grilled chicken, dump this very spicy Peri Peri Sauce (made with the African birdseye chili) all over it, and enjoy it with rice and fries. It is delicious. Nando's has chains in the UK, Australia, and Canada (and I'm sure in other places) but in the U.S. there is only one: in Washington, DC. Fortunately, you can still buy the Peri Peri sauce in grocers like Trader Joe's, and they are making their way into other stores. It's a fantastic hot sauce. I usually only use it when I make Peri Peri chicken because it's hard to find. For any of you living in or visiting Washington, DC, go there - it's worth it. Also, visit the Nando's website. It's a trip.
Pickapeppa Hot Sauce: Here's a lovely Scotch bonnet pepper sauce prepared in cane vinegar and aged in oak barrels. It's got a yummy sweetness. I use it on pizza, and to prepare cajun dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee.
Louisiana Hot Sauce: Though I don't use this too often these days (it's watery compared to Franks), Louisiana Hot Sauce was the first hot sauce I fell in love with. Lots of this went down my gullet in college.
Sambal Oelek Ground Fresh Chili Paste: I love this hot sauce (also made by Huy Fong Foods) for flavoring Asian soups and stir-fries. Often, at Asian restaurants, you'll see this on the table in a clear container with metal lid and a tiny spoon. Or at least I think that's what it is.
What are your favorite hot sauces? What do you use them on? How do you cook with them? How did you find out about them?
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A Kitchen Garden
Folks, it's that time of year. Time to plant! The risk of a frost is over in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere. So get those seeds you started in January out of the greenhouse!
I wish I could say that I started seeds this year, like I used to do in Missouri, but I no longer have the space for five flats of seedlings lying around, and I no longer have a garden to plant them in. But what I do have is a balcony and a local florist-slash-garden supply store.
Sunnyside Florist is the name of the store, and the owner's name is Bill. Unlike in Missouri, local garden shops don't have a huge stock because they are small. So you get to know your "plant broker" really well. We've set up a great partnership. I tell him all the plants I want, he gets the plants for me and calls me when I can come pick them up. Genius. The other option is to go to Home Depot, but I would much rather direct my patronage to a small business owner. Plus, the employees at the Home Depot in my neighborhood are useless. They don't know shit.
So Rich and I loaded up our granny cart with plants today. I bought all the coleus in stock and placed my order for sweet potato vine and more coleus. I also bought:
HERBS!
Our last apartment in Columbia Missouri had a cute little back garden, even though a large part of it was concrete. Richard built raised beds for the sunniest part of the garden, where I planted lots of different types of herbs, tomatoes, and hot peppers. Basil was the most prolific. I used to gather basil to make fresh pesto with pine nuts, parmesan, and olive oil, then freeze the extra basil with olive oil to use for pesto during the winter.
Living in the city, we no longer have that luxury, but we do have a balcony. Only one side of the balcony gets enough light for herbs, so I decided to make a mini herb garden. A citified herb garden!
I tried to fashion my herb garden while keeping planter art in mind. Italian parsley, a tall grower, is near the back, basil, mint, and chives in the middle, and oregano and rosemary, which can be trained to vine out of the bottom, in the front. I'll also look for some thyme to add to the trailing section in the front. I'll need to trim these as often as a lady of the night might trim her vajayjay. Otherwise it will get wily.
Here's a photo:
So hopefully the $25 I spent on herb plants today will save me money over the course of the summer. Fresh herbs can be expensive when you buy them at the store, and wasteful because you often don't use all of them. I hope to set up a system to cut back these herbs once a week, and if I don't cook with them, I will dry them or freeze them.
I'm friggin excited.
I wish I could say that I started seeds this year, like I used to do in Missouri, but I no longer have the space for five flats of seedlings lying around, and I no longer have a garden to plant them in. But what I do have is a balcony and a local florist-slash-garden supply store.
Sunnyside Florist is the name of the store, and the owner's name is Bill. Unlike in Missouri, local garden shops don't have a huge stock because they are small. So you get to know your "plant broker" really well. We've set up a great partnership. I tell him all the plants I want, he gets the plants for me and calls me when I can come pick them up. Genius. The other option is to go to Home Depot, but I would much rather direct my patronage to a small business owner. Plus, the employees at the Home Depot in my neighborhood are useless. They don't know shit.
So Rich and I loaded up our granny cart with plants today. I bought all the coleus in stock and placed my order for sweet potato vine and more coleus. I also bought:
HERBS!
Our last apartment in Columbia Missouri had a cute little back garden, even though a large part of it was concrete. Richard built raised beds for the sunniest part of the garden, where I planted lots of different types of herbs, tomatoes, and hot peppers. Basil was the most prolific. I used to gather basil to make fresh pesto with pine nuts, parmesan, and olive oil, then freeze the extra basil with olive oil to use for pesto during the winter.
Living in the city, we no longer have that luxury, but we do have a balcony. Only one side of the balcony gets enough light for herbs, so I decided to make a mini herb garden. A citified herb garden!
I tried to fashion my herb garden while keeping planter art in mind. Italian parsley, a tall grower, is near the back, basil, mint, and chives in the middle, and oregano and rosemary, which can be trained to vine out of the bottom, in the front. I'll also look for some thyme to add to the trailing section in the front. I'll need to trim these as often as a lady of the night might trim her vajayjay. Otherwise it will get wily.
Here's a photo:
So hopefully the $25 I spent on herb plants today will save me money over the course of the summer. Fresh herbs can be expensive when you buy them at the store, and wasteful because you often don't use all of them. I hope to set up a system to cut back these herbs once a week, and if I don't cook with them, I will dry them or freeze them.
I'm friggin excited.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
April Update
Well,
April has obviously been a rough month for my blog. I'm sure it feels neglected. I've been so busy with work I've had little time to cook - and I've been writing so much for work lately I have hardly any motivation to do any writing for fun in the evenings.
I signed up for a farm share this year, and I'm looking forward to receiving, creating recipes for, and preparing my locally grown veggies and other treats. I'm excited because it will force me to be creative since I'll have the ingredients before I plan the meal.
Here's an interesting article about how the Icelandic volcano is forcing folks in the UK to eat locally because they can't fly in fruit and veg from afar.
Iceland volcano: Can fruit and vegetable shortages turn us on to local food?
April has obviously been a rough month for my blog. I'm sure it feels neglected. I've been so busy with work I've had little time to cook - and I've been writing so much for work lately I have hardly any motivation to do any writing for fun in the evenings.
I signed up for a farm share this year, and I'm looking forward to receiving, creating recipes for, and preparing my locally grown veggies and other treats. I'm excited because it will force me to be creative since I'll have the ingredients before I plan the meal.
Here's an interesting article about how the Icelandic volcano is forcing folks in the UK to eat locally because they can't fly in fruit and veg from afar.
Iceland volcano: Can fruit and vegetable shortages turn us on to local food?
Monday, April 12, 2010
Holidays: Thinking Ahead
What?
That's right. I have never been organized enough to think about holiday presents in April. But this one will take some planning. Here's my idea for the best holiday gift in the world:
A Family Recipe Book!
Even if you feel like you have a small family, you probably don't. I considered this for a minute. I could make a cookbook for the
Fenwick/Tune/Hofer/Van Patten/Redmond/Christie/Guillot/Cooper/Richardson/Taulli/Marks/Mole/Arnot/Smith/O'Toole/Bell families! Those are just the families my husband and I are connected to. American, British, Italian, French... the list goes on.
But what if I added in some recipes I've shared with some of my closest friends? I consider many of these folks my family.
Botha (South African flavors!), Wong (Chinese flavors!), Ondevilla (Filipino flavors!), and so many more from the Midwest and branching out around the world.
And how about my work colleagues? I have an amazing network of colleagues from diverse backgrounds. I can think of colleagues with families with origins from all over the world!
What a great gift for people who love to cook.
If you're with me, send me a few of your favorite recipes at jenjfen@gmail.com, and I'll try them out in my "test kitchen". Or just send me the name of a dish you love, and I'll try to find or create a great recipe.
That's right. I have never been organized enough to think about holiday presents in April. But this one will take some planning. Here's my idea for the best holiday gift in the world:
A Family Recipe Book!
Even if you feel like you have a small family, you probably don't. I considered this for a minute. I could make a cookbook for the
Fenwick/Tune/Hofer/Van Patten/Redmond/Christie/Guillot/Cooper/Richardson/Taulli/Marks/Mole/Arnot/Smith/O'Toole/Bell families! Those are just the families my husband and I are connected to. American, British, Italian, French... the list goes on.
But what if I added in some recipes I've shared with some of my closest friends? I consider many of these folks my family.
Botha (South African flavors!), Wong (Chinese flavors!), Ondevilla (Filipino flavors!), and so many more from the Midwest and branching out around the world.
And how about my work colleagues? I have an amazing network of colleagues from diverse backgrounds. I can think of colleagues with families with origins from all over the world!
What a great gift for people who love to cook.
If you're with me, send me a few of your favorite recipes at jenjfen@gmail.com, and I'll try them out in my "test kitchen". Or just send me the name of a dish you love, and I'll try to find or create a great recipe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
