made an awesome discovery at Cost Plus World Market: they have tiffin tins! They carry the two level (pictured) and a three level as well, but M. eats so little for lunch I couldn't imagine filling the three. Maybe I'll go back and get it for picnic purposes, though.
Something about this tin is so satisfying. I like the handle and the way the containers lock together. I can't wait to make some rice and curry and try it out.
esterday it was a whopping 85 degrees or so in a freak warm-wind-pressure-something incident, so I passed on making a hot dinner and opted for sushi instead. My vegetarian sushi repertoire is slowly expanding - I attempted tamago (rolled egg omelet) for the first time. I didn't have the recommended square pan and my tamago came out looking pretty rough, but I sliced off the sloppy edges and made the best of it anyway. They're at the bottom of the sushi platter. I also tried asparagus maki with thinly sliced lemon on top - pretty good. Most of all I love the delicate presentation possibilities with Japanese cuisine.
couldn't resist a big bag of kiwis the other day, so I've had to get a little creative in uses for them. This morning I diced a couple and served over waffles (mmm....waffles) and this evening I mushed one up - sorry, muddled one up for a kiwi cocktail. I'd call it a kiwitini but it just sounds too silly.
To make one, peel a kiwi and muddle half of it in a cocktail shaker with about a half ounce of simple syrup. Add two ounces of citrus vodka (Hanger One Buddha's Hand Citron is my favorite) and ice, shake, and strain.
hursday visits to the farmer's market have become one of my favorite parts of my weekly routine. Thursday dinner is becoming routine as well, because I always hunger for the same thing: a simple preparation of meat from Prather Ranch, and a big salad of fresh goodies from the market. Today's salad was delightfully crisp and tender lettuces with the first snap peas of the season, tangerine, and avocado. I dressed it with olive oil and an orange muscat champagne vinaigrette I picked up on a whim at Trader Joe's.
ometimes the simplest food is so satisfying. Here I sauteéd some kale with garlic, olive oil, and lemon, and served it up with steamed asparagus over rice with lemon butter. The perfect little lunch for two.
he leftover pizza went into a bento the next day along with a carrot apple muffin, nuts, and carrot pieces.
have an ongoing struggle with the perfect pizza dough. On my first try after receiving the happy gift of a pizza stone and peel, I used this recipe from Bon Appetit and with the help of beginner's luck, created a perfect crust: light, bubbly, crispy, and tender all at once.
Since then, I've had no love from my further pizza attempts, even using the exact same variables as the first time. But then, pizza is temperamental like that. So I soldiered on to different recipes, hoping to find something that yielded somewhat consistent results.
The latest attempt was using a basic dough recipe from Vegetarian Classics, with decent and sturdy, if not stunning results. The crust was crisp but a bit too dense for my taste. On to the next!
]]>appy Easter! M. and I are laying low today and just catching up on cleaning and work, but I did take a moment this morning to do a little baking so I could use up some of my exploding stash of carrots. Because Easter is all about...bunnies, and bunnies obviously like carrots (?). I admit I don't entirely understand the association with rabbits and resurrection, but at least I can enjoy eating the results.
Here's the recipe I used, with the following modifications: fuji apple instead of granny smith, vegetable oil instead of corn, swapped about half the oil for applesauce, no nuts (didn't have any), and my coconut happened to be unsweetened.
]]>got this recipe from the now-defunct Jane magazine, which I always used to get when travelling to Suluk - it provided a pulpy levity against the intensity of travelling to the Abode for esoteric training. Their take on entertaining was just my speed: the accompanying recipe for these rolls was "green curry for idiots" (which is also an excellent recipe, but that's for another day).
To make the rolls, the hardest part is finding the rice paper wrappers. They're dry and unrefrigerated, if that helps. I know Andronico's carries them if you're in the Bay Area, or perhaps you can find them at an Asian grocery near you.
It takes a little practice to work with them, but it's fun to experiment. Fill a large bowl (larger than the circumference of the wrapper) with warm water, and slip the wrapper in. Remove it just when one side becomes soft, about 15-25 seconds - that side can be the bottom of your roll, and the rest will continue softening as it absorbs the water. Remove it and place it on a cutting board so the soft edge hangs off, then put your fillings at the bottom edge of the board. Flip the soft edge up over the filling, fold the two sides over the filling, and roll up.
The filling they gave in the recipe was: cooked and cooled vermicelli noodles (also called rice sticks); slices of cucumber, mango, avocado, apple, and carrot; and mint and cilantro leaves. I change this up freely depending on what I have around though - the rolls pictured contain noodles, mint, spring salad mix, avocado, tangerine, and carrot. If you're omnivorous they'd be great with shrimp or ground meat.
Accompanying sauce recipe after the jump.
]]> For the dipping sauce:Add:
2.5 T fish sauce or stir-fry sauce
1 T lime juice
1/2 tsp. sambal chili sauce
1/2 tsp. grated ginger
Let sit 10 minutes before serving.
]]>or this bento I used a frozen rice ball from the last time I made sushi to make the yaki onigiri, and it worked great - this will work well for bento supplies I can keep on hand in the freezer. I microwaved the rice ball for a minute and then proceeded to grill it on each side as is, then again brushed with soy sauce. I let it cool before putting it in the bento box. According to Lunch in a Box, they can be frozen after the grilling part as well.
Contents: Celery with cream cheese, homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (from frozen dough balls), orange wedges, hardboiled egg with s+p packet, and yaki onigiri.
]]>oday was the first day of my CSA pickup from Full Belly Farm at the Farmer's Market. I picked up my produce first so I could see what was in there and then supplement from the rest of the stalls. I think it'll take a little trial and error before I get my Farmer's Market routine fully down, but I was very pleased with my haul today:
Contents: ranunculus, spring mix, leeks, broccoli, assorted tangerines and oranges, beets, garlic, carrots, celery, grapefruits, handmade butter (handmade butter!), organic cheddar, humane/organic eggs, purple cabbage, humane/organic beef, and brussels sprouts. All produce is organic and purchased from the people who grew it. Total cost? $50.
We have bread and rice still and I got Strauss milk on the way home, so I'm hoping not to go to the supermarket at all this week and really to avoid it as much as possible - we'll see how it goes!
]]>stumbled on this idea in an internet forum I frequent, and it's brilliant and super-easy. I mixed eggs, cheese, s+p, diced zucchini, and finely chopped red onion (i.e. whatever I had around) in a bowl, poured into muffin cups, and baked for about twenty minutes until set. They make great leftovers.
ontents of bento: mango chunks, baguette with little sunburst-shaped wedges of cheese and mustard on top (in a lettuce divider), cashews, and homemade apple frangipane galette. M. ate everything but the galette, go figure - I would have gone for that first.
am a pretty lucky gal to have a house conducive to entertaining (except the parking situation) and a big-ass dining room table, so I was more than happy to hostess for my dear friend L's 30th birthday party last Saturday.
The lamb spices
The menu: L brought an awesome Cambodian appetizer (what was it called again?) of spinach leaves that you piled yourself with tiny shrimp, minced ginger, peanuts, toasted coconut, scallions, red onion, diced limes, and some kind of sauce. Her favorite cocktail is my fresh lime vodka gimlet (recipe after the jump) so I made a pitcher, and they went perfectly with the appetizer - a happy coincidence! For dinner we had couscous, vegetable tagine, spiced lamb stew with butternut squash, and a salad of romaine and arugula with toasted pecans, cranberries, and balsamic. I made a frangipane apple galette for dessert with calvados whipped cream.
The spices smelled heavenly simmering in red wine with onion and cinnamon sticks.
Click on over for the cocktail recipe, a few of my entertaining tips, and a bonus napkin fold!
]]> Entertaining tips from Repast:1. Obviously, make everything you can in advance, but I also make up a master plan for when I'm throwing a party and clip it into the front part of my recipe binder. It has the ingredient list for the grocery store, the menu, associated recipes, and a breakdown of when I'll make each thing (day before, morning of, etc.) so I can check it off and make sure I haven't forgotten anything. I also try not to shop and cook on the same day - I find it exhausting.
2. Presentation is nice, but at the end of the day, people will remember how it tasted over how it looked.
3. I'd like to be the type of person who irons my napkins, but really I'm just not. I'm cool with that.
4. Don't be a martyr - accept help with the dishes if offered, or lead a jaunty after-dinner parade to the kitchen for DIY plate-scraping and dishwasher-loading.
5. If all else fails, order a pizza, send a friend on a beer run, enjoy the company, and get over it. My theory is that a party will never be a failure as long the hostess has a good time!
Fresh Lime Vodka Gimlets:
It's easy with this 1-2-3 formula! But first you'll need super-easy simple syrup, which is just 2 parts sugar heated in 1 part water until it dissolves. I used to never make it because I thought it was hard, but it takes about 30 seconds and the extra keeps about a week in the fridge.
1 part simple syrup
2 parts lime juice
3 parts vodka (or gin for a classic gimlet)
Shake all the ingredients over ice and strain into a chilled martini glass (you can run lime around the rim and dip it in sugar first if you're feeling fancy). Garnish with a lime wedge.
Bonus: Buffet Napkin Fold!
When people are coming over for a buffet this is a great way to minimize delicate plate-balancing operations. First take a cloth napkin and put it on the table so the corner with all the floppy edges points towards you. Then grab the corner of the top layer and fold it up in half, so it points away from you.
Flip the whole thing over and bring the side corners toward the middle, so one overlaps the other. Tuck one into the fold of the other. Flip it over again and insert silverware - voila!
orry this one is a bit late. I was low on groceries on Valentine's Day so I threw this little bento together out of ingredients not ideal for M.'s tastes, but he was too busy to actually eat this one anyway so it didn't really matter - he had a very hectic day!
Contents: Tortilla chips and salsa, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (I had the dough frozen and baked a few that morning), carrot sticks, heart-shaped cheese sandwich, and a tiny tangerine.
After M. got home we went out to a sublime dinner at Fork in San Anselmo. I highly recommend this place, as we've eaten there several times and always had a great experience. I knew I could count on them for an elegant meal that wouldn't be harried despite the holiday diners, and they came through impeccably.
I'm a pretty unmemorable type on my own, but Charles, the maitre'd and co-owner, always remembers me, which gives the experience a personal touch. He wore a tux for V-day, classy guy. The service is always excellent and the menus interesting and seasonal. They have a great early bird prix fixe menu on weekdays, and a larger prix fixe tasting menu during normal dining hours, complete with wine pairing. Or you can order à la carte (except for on Valentine's day - they had prix fixe only). M. appreciates the vegetarian tasting menu, which they always offer, and overall everything about the place shows a tasteful restraint and attention to detail. Stop by if you're in the area!
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