Further Adventures with Kiki

In my house, I don't limit my adventures to just culinary escapades. I also like to include the occasional curious libation. This weekend's adventure:
While searching for my summer roll wrappers (which I did find something that seems to be working, but no I haven't gotten those pictures yet)

HP: It was like Cream Soda & Peanut Butter in the blender. I was fascinated by its frothiness
The Girl: It's thick
The Girl's new beau: Uhh, it is ok
The Boy: I didn't agree to this. I'm not going to try it. You guys go ahead.
Kiki: It's not bad. Kind of like a peanut butter ripple milkshake, but not quite. Come on Boy, don't you want to try just a taste?
The Boy: NO! I'm going outside.

And there you have it. Your first on the street soft drink review, for the next time you find yourself in an odd little Jamaican-Hispanic-Oriental-Fresh Fish-We've Got Plants Market and you are in the mood for something thick and Peanut Buttery.

My wrap rut is continuing. I thought it was just a phase, but I believe that I have turned the corner into rut. If it's edible, wrap it:

I made a few summer rolls, but I never had a chance to take a picture. I thought I got a picture of the wrapper, but my camera card occasionally decides that it doesn't want to be read, so as far as I know I don't have a photo. Yet. The package has about 30 (I think) of these little wedge shaped wrap things, so I still have time. I'm not sure about the pictures though, they need a lot of attention.

I had to trim back the grape vines. Again. They were into the neighbor's yard and over the hedge so my clippers and I had a date. But, the grape leaves are still fairly young and thusly fairly tender, so I blanched a few of those bad boys and filled them up and grilled them.
The filling is Goat Cheese (like that surprises anyone) sun-dried tomatoes, random fresh herbs from the garden, a little chopped garlic and some chopped toasted walnuts. Form that into a log, wrap it up, oil her up, chill for a short time and roll them onto the grill. The recipe says that you unwrap the grape leaves and smear the cheese on little toast points or something like that. The kids prefer to pop them in their mouth as is, in one bite. If your leaves are blanched to the point of being very tender, (go past the pretty bright green stage into the canned green bean color and your fine) and you coat them in olive oil there is an earthy, yummy-grapey taste to them.

The final "wrap of the week" was the Father's Day fish tacos. HP & the kids spent about a year trying to convince me that fish tacos were good. (They just didn't sound right) Now they have regular appearances on our table. Sometimes we use grilled fish and sometimes we do beer-batter fried fish. Beer Batter is simple and crunchy and really very simple. How simple?

• 1 12-oz can of beer. use a decent one, we use Lager
• 1 1/2 cups of AP flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix. Have some beer for yourself. Dip your fish in and fry it up. We used tilapia cut into small fish tenders. Sunday's fillings were:

• Mango-black bean salsa
• Guacamole
• Fresh greens, with little flowers in it from the farmer's market
• Chipotle-Ancho "Aioli" (ok, it's just a sauce I make with mayo & sour cream, but the girl hates mayo, so we don't tell her that is a major ingredient. She loves this)
• cheese. just the regular Mexi-mix. no goat cheese, I swear. We usually use Queso Fresco or Queso blanco, but the ethnic Price-Rite closed right before I got there and the Giant didn't have any. (rrrrrr)

It is a fill & wrap your own deal, so all I need to do is prep. HP does the salsa & guac. He does them both really well, so why should I mess with it.

I think on Friday night, I'm going to make this. Just because it isn't a wrap. And it tastes really good!

Read more...

Wrap You Up in My Love

Ok, so I'm not Madonna. You can't even hear me singing, so I don't see why you need to be snarky about it.

Oh well. I've been on a bit of a wrap kick. I'd almost say I've been on a roll, but like I said they are wraps, so the roll thing doesn't quite compute.

Saturday night was left-over night. Sort of. I had to go out to buy tomatillos so I could make Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, but it was to go onto left over chicken. But, I cooked a big chicken, so I would have left overs for other things.
So, I roasted the tomatillos on the grill, I think about 1 - 1 1/2 lbs, along with a head of garlic & 3 serrano chili's. While that was roasting I chopped about 1/2 cup of cilantro, about the same amount of red onion (ok, maybe a little heavier on the onion) and squoze a lime. (yes, I said "squoze" & I don't care what spell check thinks!) I mixed those in a bowl, added the roasted tomatillos, some of the roasted garlic (3 or 4 heads, who can remember these things) and the serrano after peeling & chopping and ridding them of some of their seeds. (if ya want a little heat, leave more in; less seeds, less heat). I then mushed it all together with my handy stick blender, and poof, I had salsa.

I took some of the aforementioned chicken, warmed it up in the skillet with a little oil. Then mixed the chicken with a little sour cream, and some cheese (ok, just regular kraft "Mexican Shredded" cheese) added some of the salsa. I grabbed a flour tortilla, warmed it slightly on the skillet then filled it with the chick-mix and wrapped it all snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug, and put it in the hot skillet with a little oil and "fried" it closed. I put the done one in a warm oven & made a couple more. Next I put it on a plate, put a little more salsa on top, crumbled some cojita on top threw a salad next to it and poof called it dinner.

Monday's wrap was all together different. I made some of the-best-dip-ever to take over to a neighbor's to watch the Memorial Day parade. (Luckily this year, I didn't sneeze or blink when it passed by, so I was able to see the whole thing). Our parade watching is more about sitting on the porch, talking to neighbors and eating. My dip is goat cheese & cream cheese, whipped together with some herbs then baked and topped with caramelized onions. Yesterday's version also had the bonus of some of Trader Joe's Artichoke Antipasti thrown in for the chunks of artichoke. Quick, easy & way tasty! So for dinner I grilled some eggplant, then I smeared my wrap with leftover dip, added the eggplant and some greens and such. There may have been other things in there, but I did this after having a couple glasses of wine (a slightly fizzed pinot grigio picked up at Trader Joe's also for $4 0r $5, yum) so I'm not sure what else went into the wrap, but it was pretty easy & light and nice for an early summer dinner.

And finally, today's late-mid-day-ish wrap that was thrown together so HP would have something to eat before he went to class, was another flavory bundle of food that included some grilled shrimp, black beans, cheese (yeah, more of that Kraft stuff), some green onions and it was all held together with a yumtastick avocado dressing. The dressing was made with an avocado, about 1/4 cup each mayo, light sour cream & olive oil, a little lemon juice, a splash of tabasco, some of the roasted garlic from the other day, a sprinkling of cumin and a dash of salt. A quite tasty smear if I do say so myself.

So I'll wrap this up & let you off to your own wrapped up yummies.

Read more...

Kiki, just out

Uggh!

Note to self: Don't forget you have a blog.
Don't forget to do something fun, exciting, interesting or yummy to post in said blog.
Don't forget, when in doubt, make it up.

I've made nothing fabulous, just dinner the past couple nights. Tonight was a quick grilled chicken w/a raspberry grille sauce, cumin & pepper. While quite good, not earth shattering.

Last night was pretty good. Shrimp in a sauce w/ onions, garlic, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. Would have been better if I hadn't used the cheap cheese, but it was in the mysterious cheese drawer & I needed to get food on the table.

Monday I tried to do another pizza on the grill. I thought I had the trick of getting it onto the grill figured out. Turns out I didn't. We had calzones (or was it stromboli? I'm not sure which) on the grill. At least they tasted good!

Oh well. This is what I get for posting for the sake of posting. I really need to be more interesting!

Read more...

Kiki is out & on the grill!

Quick post for my new grill experiment.

Frites on the grill. They go with bbq things and really, grilling is much better than frying, both for health & taste.

This all started because I wanted some big wedgie type oven fries, but on the grill. I asked HubbyPoo to slice the taters. I want wedges, I said, like steak fries. Since I don't eat steak, he determined that I meant like a frite. No, I said like a big steak wedge. We went back & forth, but since he had the knife, he cut like he was sure I wanted. I pouted, but said fine these will do. But they're not what I asked for. So I made the first version & we thought, hey this is pretty good. Need to work on the overall texture & try to not burn the sides too much, but we may be on to something.

So last night, to go along with our turkey thigh (marinated in beer, soy sauce, dijon & rosemary) we decided to have the fries again.

HP: "I know what you wanted last time, the big wedges. I'll cut them that way."
Me: "No you can't, you have to cut them the way you originally did."
HP: "I don't remember what I did, can't I just cut them the way you wanted?"
Me: "No, I liked they way you did them last time, that is what I want now!"
HP: "OK, I'll try to do that. So you want them how?"

How do we ever get anything done? But he did a great job of cutting taters. After a little encouragement.

The taters:
I used fairly big redskin potatoes, because that is what I had. They were "roughly peeled" (some off, some on--like the cukes you see in salad bars)
Preheat the grill on high. A hot grill is important.
I soaked them in cold water while waiting for a pot of water to boil.
I blanched the taters in boiling water for about 10 minutes. That was a little too long--first time I did about 3-5 which wasn't quite enough. I'd say 7 minutes is probably the key. You want them to be tender, but not mushy. If they were pasta, they be al dente.
Drain & toss with olive oil & some tasty herbs. I used some herbs de provence & Porcini mushrooms and a little sea salt.
If using a gas grill, reduce heat, be sure that you are not directly above any hot spots. Try to avoid the flame. If using charcoal, set up for "indirect heat" (Push coals to sides & cook in the middle)
I put my fries on a grill tray (Like you would use for fish or small veggies).
Grill for about 10-15 minutes. Flipping & redistributing a couple times during cooking.
Way Yum!!

(The turkey was good as well, but not very inventive.)

And a good dinner was had by all!

Read more...

Kiki is out & on the grill!

In honor of the beautiful weather, I have spent a few more hours in my garden along with a few hours just hanging out on my back porch. It is a second story "sleeping porch" that over looks the back yard. Which is also kind of a garden, maybe it's a yarden?

Having spent time outside, who wanted to go back in? but there was still dinner to attend to. So on the grill we go. I have a very basic gas grill. (My dad & sister chipped in & gave it to me for my birthday 5 or 6 years ago. I'll admit that I don't do whatever grill maintenance you are supposed to do to a grill, but it has served me well.) So on my very basic grill I'm always happy to find that I can make some outstanding things. (My husband has a very expensive grill, it has been sitting under it's cover and been used only once or twice since he moved in 3 years ago)

Ok, enough of that paragraph (that should probably be severely edited, but probably won't be). I will try to make it through the descriptions of my food with out the further use of parentheses) I will insert a sad aside into this paragraph. My batteries were dead & I have no photos of this. That is truly a loss! (I guess I'll have to make it again) (oops, darn parentheses) (hey there they are again)

Friday night dinner:

Pizza on the Grill

I made my first pizza on the grill. My brother-in-law does this with some frequency, so I thought, hey why not. His original recipe comes from Stephen Raichlin's Barbecue Bible. I don't know if he still uses those recipes, but I did not. I looked at that recipe, as well as Raichlin's BBQ USA recipe for pizza on the grill. I love his books & every recipe is a winner, but I still made up my own recipe (based to some extent on his). You can also visit Mr. Raichlin at www.barbecuebible.com.

The Crust

• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon Honey
• 1 1/2 packages active dry yeast (can probably get away with only one, but I had an open one)

Mix together and let sit 5-10 minutes or until foamy.
Add

• 2 teaspoons coarse sea or kosher salt
• 3 Tablespoons corn meal
• 3 Tablespoons Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Mix thoroughly then slowly add

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• about 3 cups white flour

mix together(I use my hands) using more or less flour to achieve a somewhat slack dough. Do not over mix, take a break & let it sit if you need to. Knead into a basic ball like shape place in a large oiled bowl, cover and let sit until doubled in bulk; this will take 1 1/2 - 2 hours. (I let mine sit longer than that, I had to trim a bowl & pick up my car & go to the farmers market so I'm not sure how long it sat) Ideally it would sit in 72-75 degree draft free w/ a little humidity, but if you don't have a rain forest handy do your best. If you are trying to get a real head start on dinner or are preparing for a bbq or company or what have you, you can refrigerate it over night at this point. When it has doubled, punch it down and divide into 4 or 5 small disks; you will want the pizzas small enough to handle. Cover and let rise, about 40 minutes - an hour. While it is rising, create your toppings.

For our pizza, we used Caramelized Onions (HP really likes them on pizza), Shrimp and Two Sauces. Sauce #1 was a basic Italian pizza sauce that I made from a #10 can of tomatoes over the winter. Sauce #2 was a variation of an alfredo sauce.

Super Thick Alfredo apologies on the vagaries of my measuring, I wasn't really thinking about it:

• about 3-4 Tablespoons butter
• about 1/4 cup heavy cream
  
• about 1/4 - 1/3 shredded Parmesan cheese
• about 2-4 Tablespoons goat cheese

In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter with cream slowly add goat cheese & parmesan and stir until melted. Season with Salt & Pepper. Yum! (Also tastes good on pasta like regular Alfredo)

Assemble your toppings (I did slightly pre-cook the shrimp then let them finish on the grill)

At this point, preheat your grill. Put it on high & close the lid. You want your grate to be hot, hot, hot!

Stretch your dough into crusts; instead of using flour to stretch and pull, use olive oil, you shouldn't need a lot, maybe a tablespoon. Form crusts on something that you can carry to the grill and hopefully slide your pizzas off of and onto the grill (maybe a cookie sheet?). Your pizzas should be small enough that you can pick them up and put them on the grill without stretching or tearing the dough. (If you have a Pizza Peel you don't need to worry as much about the size, dust it with cornmeal and slide your pizza on).

Topping your pizza:
You do not top the traditional way!

• First goes the cheese, so it can be close to heat & melt. Also you don't want a lot of wet on your crust.
• Next goes your meat. All meat should be pre-cooked, my shrimp was slightly under cooked to avoid it getting too rubbery on the grill.
  
• Next went the onions
• Finally the sauce is splatted on top. Use your sauces some what sparingly, this is more about the crust.
  

Onto the grill we go!
Your grill should be really hot by now, so turn down the burners to actually cook. If you have a big fancy grill, try doing a very hot side and a medium side.
Slide or manhandle your crusts onto the grill. If using two zones, start by putting it onto the hot zone to sear the crust.
Close lid. Don't peak for first minute.
Ok, you can look now, if you have 2 zones, slide your pizza to the medium zone. If you have 1 zone, just check to be sure you don't have any hot spots. Close lid. Cook for around 5 minutes or until sauce & cheese appear to be bubbling.

And a good dinner was had by all!

Read more...

Sushi Night

Sunday HP decided to make sushi. It was the second attempt, & I was too tired to photograph it, but I do have the photos from the first try.

(I'm glad that I was too tired to photo it. First try was really quite successful. We watched the video & read some techniques on the internet. Second try, not nearly as pretty. The rice wasn't quite right (may have had a measuring error & may have been the rice itself) We didn't watch any video before hand. HP thought it would be easy since we were so successful the first time.

Me, I was off volunteering & making clay flowers for an open house at the arts center all day, so when I got home, I just wanted a glass of wine. (Thanks to Holly who gave me a few bottles of wine on Saturday, so I got to have a glass with dinner))

So Sunday's wasn't very pretty, but the pictures are from our first try, last month.
Massaging the rice in the steamer bowl

The rice is put in a large shallow bowl to cool and the sushi vinegar is poured over top

Fanning the rice to cool it & help the moisture evaporate
The ingredients Ahi Tuna, Smoked Eel (Unagi) & Salmon. (the salmon was camera shy) along with avocado, cucumber, green onion & wasabi

Forming the nigiri (topped with unagi)

Making the tuna roll rolling and rolling
We started feeling advanced so we did the rice on the outside too

And finally the finished plate

Read more...

Pizza Nights!

As I mentioned in my last post, I dove in & made Beth's Pizza Dough. I loved the fact that I did a little mixing & threw it in the fridge to deal with later. It was not a lot of work & made for a delicious couple dinners.

Saturday Night's Pizza got the full treatment of pics & narration, Monday's you'll just get the highlights

Friday night I mixed up the yeast, flour & water; it did not look like a "lumpy pancake batter" so I added a splash more water. My yeast expired last August (ok, I'm behind on my baking) but it was stored in the freezer, so I decided to go for it & see what would happen.

Saturday night, I pulled out the dough. In my elderly yeast did it's job & my dough rose in the fridge. (Yay!) So I divvied it up to Saturday night dough & Monday night dough & went on about my work.

I started stretching & pulling, going gently & stopping if the dough was cranky. HP asked if I could throw it in the air like real pizza guys. I tried & got a little air, but we'll just leave it that I made a great catch.

I moved my dough to the parchment paper to let it rest & began gathering my toppings. Sauce went first w/ a little cheese mixed in. It was home made from a batch I made a couple months ago. I don't recall the original use for it, but I made plenty. Glad I have pizza recipes to try it out on. Next went the basil, then caramelized onions and (left over) asparagus. It was topped with an Italian cheese blend (yes, the shredded stuff in the dairy section of the grocery store.) and into the oven it went. A few minutes later voilá it was dinner!

Not bad for a first pizza. The dough was a little thick in spots, and the whole thing probably could have benefited from another minute or two in the oven (HP was in charge of pulling things out of the oven on Saturday night and he seems to have been just a tad impatient.) The result was a thick, soft bready dough that tasted great and made a wonderful pizza. HP says the caramelized onions are what made it.


Monday night's pizza was a little less organized. We spent the first half the day at Daddo's house a couple hours ago, then drove home, dropped off The Girl at her mom's house. I knew I had the dough in the fridge & needed to get back to it, so we stopped at the grocery store for our toppings. Mixed mushrooms (shitake, baby bella, oyster & I don't remember what else is in the mix). A sweet onion and some fresh mozzarella balls from the deli. (the little ciglione or however that is spelled).

I pulled the dough out, it had been stored in a ziplock bag, so it seemed to have some bubbles in it, but as I worked it there was no problem. I put the onion & mushrooms on the stove w/a splash of wine & a knob of butter so they could caramelize away while I thawed some sauce, prepared the dough & preheated the oven. Then it dawned on me that I had used the last of the parchment paper on the kringla. Things were not looking good. I don't own a pizza peel, so I was in a bit of a sticky wicket. So I pulled my stone out of the oven & decided that it was going to be made directly on that. I added a little extra olive oil to my dough to avoid sticking, then mixed in some dried Tuscan herbs because it sounded good at the time.

I let the stone cool to a warm, but handleable temperature. I dusted it w/ corn meal and proceeded to stretch my dough on top. I was much more even handed than the first one & got a pretty uniform layer. After it rested, I smeared the dough with sauce, added the sliced mozzarella, next was basil, then the mushrooms & onions and topped with the Italian cheese & into the oven it went. We were a little more patient with the pizza (especially since the stone wasn't oven hot) and didn't retrieve it until everything was bubbling and toasted. The pizza turned out fabulous. The camera was still hidden away, so I didn't get a pic of this one, but it was even better than the first!


And a good dinner was had by all!

Read more...

in the kitchen, not on the kumputer

Am in the kitchen today (tonight)

Made pizza from beth's dough at http://ayearinbread.com/ It was quite yummy & I have pics! they will be posted next week. (promise) Our toppings were: homemade tomato sauce, parm. cheese, basil; caramelized onions (from here) asparagus tips (also left over from there) and mixed Italian Cheese. (from the grocery store. mozzarella, asiago, parmesan, romano, provolone shred & mixed)

Am currently boiling eggs for The Girl to dye when she gets off work at the ball park (in about 2 hours)

Also shortly to start said kringla. Actually started last night, but am baking tonight. And I'm leaving in 12 hours to see my dad. Miles to go before I sleep!

Read more...

Spring in the Kitchen

This morning, while waiting for the car, I wondered around the internet for a little while. After a hop here & a skip there, I wandered over to Joke's blog, Same thing, But Different. He was writing about food, and there were a couple posts, one was risotto. Hmm a spring time risotto, the perfect use for my asparagus. So I commented that I would make that for dinner. That is a major commitment for me, especially before my first conversation with my husband. (He left the house early, I only said "grrmmph, lub u, didja sayme any coffee?" before he was on his merry way.) So I swirled it around in my head to try it on and when my husband came home and we had an actual conversation, it went along these lines.

HP: Hi I'm home, did you save me any coffee?
Me: Umm, maybe. How was your appointment?
HP: Fine, nothing exciting. Not much coffee here.
Me: Yeah, well. You drank a lot before you left.
HP: I didn't think I had that much. Are you going to...
Me: Sure ya did. What do you think of Shrimp & Asparagus Risotto for dinner
HP: Wow, that sounds good.

So now I had committed. My mysterious cheese drawer was woefully empty so I made my 3rd trip to the grocery store this week. I think I'm done that for a while. Eventually I decided to make dinner. I started late, which is never a good idea, especiallly with something that requires patience like risotto. Oh well.

How Kiki cooks Risotto:
At some point, not early enough, I pulled the stock & the shrimp out of the freezer to thaw.

Some time later, I open a bottle of dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio (or pinot gris, if you prefer). Poor a large glass of said wine, sip and contemplate the mess in the kitchen. Most of it was theoretically going to be cleaned by HP, so I leave it for him.

Realize that the wine that is going into the risotto needs to be brought at least to room temp, so I search for a clean measuring cup & poor 1/2 cup in; I leave that on the stove (not on a burner) so I'm not putting something cold into my risotto (a no-no). It dawns on me that all my chicken stock is still solid ice, so put it in the microwave to thaw. I start slicing my onion (I slice, then chop) I soon realize that I have much too large of an onion, so I stop, get some butter from the fridge and start the back burner with a little butter & a little wine so I can caramelize some onions since I have them sliced. Microwave beeps, what did I put in there? Oh yeah. Check on stock, still a large stockcicle. Zap some more. Have some more wine. Start chopping shallot, decide to grab another shallot to add to the onions that are caramelizing. check on stock. Almost done, zap. Chop garlic. Decide I want this to be garlicy, so I chop some more. End up chopping 5 big cloves. Pull stock out of micro and put onto stove to get it simmering. Put butter in pan for risotto & try to check that I have everything, drink a little more wine. When butter is melted, I add the onions, saute a little, then let soften. Next I pull Asparagus out of fridge, chop; get HP to peel shrimp & grate Parm. Shallots & garlic go in w/ the onions, I splash more wine into the onions caramelizing on the back burner and everything is happy. I have another sip of wine, and I'm working on being happy as well. Into the pot goes the risotto. It gets all pretty & glossy, then next goes the wine. It smells great going in. Bit by bit the stock goes in. Stirring, & sipping the risotto gets cooked. (With occasional visits to splash the caramelizing onions with wine)
Soon it's time for the big finish, first the shrimp, next the lemon juice & the asparagus. A little cheese, and finally a few asparagus tips that I held for decoration.
Gosh that turned out pretty! I really wish I had my camera in the kitchen (One of these days I'll be that organized) The soft pink of the shrimp and the bright green of the risotto against a soft creamy risotto back ground. A very thin slice of lemon and some fresh ground pepper and a small sprinkle of cheese and it's on the table. There is just enough wine left in the bottle for HP & I to have some with dinner. ( I may have sipped many times, but I did so in moderation.)

I have to say, it tasted as good as it looked; and a good dinner was had by all!

Read more...

And the snack of the day is....

No dinner tonight, just snacks.

turkey meatballs in a mango-orange-ginger-bourbon sauce. I will say, the bourbon does matter. I used some Bookers that was given to me, but wish I was able to use the FAR superior Maker's Mark instead. Even with the inferior bourbon, the sauce was pretty tasty. A little sweet, a little spicy. Just needed a little on the sour side to be better (along w/ real bourbon) but I am currently out of Tait Farm ginger shrub. And what else did we make?

Hubby-Poo's hummus. Nothing different or unusual here. Just a great blend of acid/spice/base. His hummus is consistently good. Not much I make is consistent, though it is usually good!

Also on the menu: Another HP favorite, spinach dip. His recipe is from the Pensacola Junior League Some Like it South.

And finally, for dessert. I made brownies for grown-ups. They have a raspberry-Chambord icing w/ (hopefully) bittersweet glaze. I was improvising from a recipe for a chocolate mint brownie (that is out of this world). I left them in the fridge for the icing to set and haven't had a chance to taste them yet. I don't want to interrupt the meeting, but may need to before long. Since I was busy making these snacks, I didn't get a chance to eat much.

I was planning to take pictures of some of the spread, but sadly the battery on the digital needed to be charged.

And now for a quick gripe. As I indicated above, I am a huge fan of Maker's Mark Bourbon. I am even a Maker's Mark "Ambassador," spreading the love (of MM) whenever I can. (Any one interested in becoming an ambassador, let me know & I'll get you more info). Anyway, back to the gripe. A friend with a good heart, knows that I am a bourbon drinker, and while he is fully aware of my preference being the kind soul that he was, and in possession of some excess bourbon, he gave me the Bookers. First of all I have to say, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, yuk. It tastes like corn squeezings that were left in the still a little too long. Secondly, I'll add that, upon review of the Booker's very own website their bourbon is "truly the absolute best." I need to state for the record, that they are big fat liars. Thank You.

Read more...

I should be making dinner....

Actually, I should have made dinner an hour ago. I even had a plan for dinner.
Turkey Steak (a cut of the thigh.) with a crust of coconut, cinnamon, cloves, coriander... served with a carrot puree with ginger and shallot, based mainly on this. A little couscous for my starch and it would have been dinner. See, it sounds yummy--I really had the best of intentions. I was going to make dinner after my nap. HP is recovering from a cold and is snoring in the weee hours of the morning. A pillow over the head hasn't been helpful. So my nap didn't work out as planned. And it was 4:30. So diet coke and nachos were the snack to wake me up and get me cooking. After a little while I looked at my dear HP and said, "I think it's your turn to cook." and bless his heart, he is did. And not only is he making dinner (Turkey burger for me, Hamburger for him. He got "real meat" out of the deal, so he isn't suffering) He took the rest of the ground turkey and made 3 burgers for the freezer, so when we decide to have burgers we can just pull them out. AND he made, "like 100 meatballs" with the rest of the turkey. He has a meeting here tomorrow, which generally requires some refreshment for the poor board members, so meatballs it is. I will create a ginger-peach sauce and they will be the warm snack. HP is going to make some hummus. He somewhat follows the SouthBeach recipe (found here along with Baba Ganoush), it's yummy and good to have the around the house. I think I agreed to make brownies also. It will be "day 2" so I'm not entirely convinced the guests will ever see them.

Read more...

Spring is sprunging!

It was a lovely spring day today hooray! Yesterday's rain went away, it was cool, but warm if you were in the sun and a nice day to be outside.

Hubby Poo & I spent a few hours sitting outside. We pulled a couple weeds & tried to unearth some of the sprouting bulbs from underneath the dead leaves. A small bunch of crocus were up waiting for us to join them in the sun.

We mostly just talked about what we should be doing to the yard & garden. We are big on talk, short on cash gumption action. I was supposed to get an herb garden for my birthday. The idea was that we would plan it out & build the foundation for it so it would be ready for planting this spring. Well, we are still talking about it.

Him: "We need bricks. Where can we get some free bricks"
Me: "Look, here on craigslist. Free bricks in exchange for helping dismantle a chimney. Only about 45 minutes away."
Him: "Can you get a free truck too? How are we going to get the bricks here?"
Me: "You only asked me to find bricks. I didn't realize I was in charge of transportation also."
Him: "Well we can't put them in the convertible, not enough room and my car won't go that far with out breaking down."
Me: "hmmm. What do you want for dinner?"

And back to the drawing board we go.

So now it is the herb garden. Plus the pergola is cracking from the vines taking over and the weather attacking and so forth.

We thought about oiling the furniture. It is a cheap teak-like wood that I got from Target.

Him: "Gosh this furniture is starting to show it's age."
Me: " yeah, well, it was pretty cheap. It probably would have been happier if we brought it in for the winter"
Him: "How come we didn't do that? We were going to bring it in, sand it, oil it. Give it some TLC. Why didn't we?"
Me: "Have you cleaned a spot yet?"
Him: "Aren't you going to get started on dinner?"

And so our outdoor furniture is cracked & faded. At least we talked about doing something. And admitting your furniture has a problem is half the battle!

Dinner tonight. The World Famous, Beer Can Chicken! Woo-Hoo. I like to stick a can of beer up a chicken's posterior end! I through together a few herbs & spices , gave that chicken a massage & then sent it to the grill sauna for a little steam and voilá it's dinner. Along with hubby-poo's famous mashed potatoes (famous mostly because I can convince him to make them!) and some absolutely fantastic Guacamole also made my dearest Hubby-poo! Left over chicken will go into chicken Korma and left over mashed potatoes, well, let's just say we didn't need to worry about them. And a good dinner was had by all :)

Read more...

still here, kind of

Why is it this blog doesn't post itself? I am quite convinced that some of the others do, but not this one.


OK, a few pics:

It's a Box!

Oops That's not the one I was thinking of. But a quick review. Thoroughly OK, but the damn valve leaked & was a big pain in the neck! And left a sticky fridge. Yuk.

Ok, let's try this again!

It's a Box!

Yes this time, it really was a box. Addressed to ME! (I'm Kiki)
From the sweet & loving Sarah Louise. Ok, she pretends to be sweet & loving, but really she is an enabler. I have an addiction. She knows about it, I have publicly admitted it, but what did I find in the box?
No, I'm not addicted to green easter grass. (Or any other kind, despite rumours to the contrary). My addiction is deeper than that. Literally, I had to dig deep into the green grass to reach my addiction.
Yes, I am addicted to Girl Scout Cookies!
I am not the only one. It is a well documented addiction. And by well, I mean the documentation was superbly done by Marc Acito on NPR. Finding Binge Absolution in a Do-Si-Do Ok, I'm sure that is getting old, because I have posted it a few times, but really it's true!

And in other news: What's for Dinner? Well, let's go into the dinner closet & see:

Tonight's dinner, was a yummy & delish Thai Shrimp Curry. There was garlic, shallot, ginger, green onion, onion, tomato, red curry paste, shrimp, basil, lime, 1/2 a serrano, coconut milk, and I don't remember what else was in there, but it was Good! Served over plain white rice, with a salad.


Last Night's dinner. An almost disaster, but pulled off to be another fine production. (Recipe inspired by this)I marinated a turkey thigh over night in Yuengling Black & Tan (if you are over 21, click for more on this), dijon mustard, rosemary, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, olive oil & a few other odds & ends. The plan was for my darling husband to throw it in a crock-pot and add a couple taters towards the end of the day. He forgot. Maybe I should have "forgotten" to feed him? But no. I went to PLAN B. I pulled the thigh from the marinade, put in a dutch oven (skin side down) w/ another 1/2 a beer, covered it and put that in a 375 oven for about an hour. Then I took it out, flipped it "skin side" up, removed the lid and let it cook for another 20-30 minutes. Hubby's penance for forgetting to put it in the crock pot was that he made mashed potatoes. I boiled down the beer, added some Maggi Seasoning (known in our house as "gravy helper") some butter & some flour and we had a tantalizing taste sensation. A little creamed spinach & it's a meal.
(an aside, I didn't realize that Maggi was Asian until I found the link hmm. It is tasty, I'll give it that)

And my final food posting, was the Friday night dinner treat. We braved the Snow & Ice and got to the farmer's market before they gave up for the storm and picked up some fresh scallops. I made a thick sauce with a little orange/mango juice from the fridge, some soy sauce, maybe some fresh ginger, or some ground ginger, or possibly some ginger shrub. Definitely a little bourbon(Did I have some of the bourbon as well? Mayyyyyyybe), and a spoonful or so of orange marmalade and possibly some Pickapeppa sauce, maybe a sprinkle of crushed red pepper though I don't completely remember. I would think there was some other things in there, but I neglected to write any of it down. I was making it up as I went a long.. The scallops themselves were seared in clarified butter. Your scallop cooking tip of the day is SEAR them. You can grill them also. broiling is ok, but really sear or grill. Trust me. Never, ever saute them. Scallops taste best & retain their sweetness only if you leave them alone. So put your pan on Med Hi, clarify your butter (clarified butter has a higher smoke point once you remove all that milk fat) when the pan is nice and hot gently place the scallop in the butter. Let it sizzle, then gently flip(tongs are best) and sizzle the other side. Gently remove, directly to the dinner plate & enjoy immediately.
Anyway, the scallops were served with a green salad and ginger-coconut rice. And a good meal was had by all!

Now I know why I'm so bad at posting. I'm slow at it. Oh well. Bon Appétit!

Read more...

still here, kind of

So I've been reminded of how tiring stagehand work is--especially when topped w/ an hour+ commute each way.

I made it through the first week, and have begun week two. The week that the days will start to become 12 -14 hour days instead of the 8-10 hour days I've seen so far.

Other than my feet hurting immensely by the end of the day and I'm too tired to do much else other than work (read: short blogs if any unless I get a break in the day and have my computer) I've been hanging in there. It has been kind of fun to do some of the stuff & see the magic again from the trenches, though there has also been a lot of standing around waiting for someone to make a decision which becomes quite enervating.

At some point I may post some pictures, we'll see.

From the kitchen stand point, my Jambalaya turned out quite well. Especially considering I had a minor panic attack while cooking it and didn't know if it would be made at all. I also made Red beans & rice, mostly in the crock pot this week. They also turned out pretty good even though they almost ended up in the trash because of a series of mishaps like forgetting to turn the crock-pot and such.

Yesterday was my day off (yes, I went to the blasted grocery store) and Hubby-Poo and I got together and made our first sushi. We had fun massaging the rice & clapping the water off our hands & trying to get the right roll on our maki & rice mush on the nigiri. All in all it turned out pretty well. We had a good time and I have pictures that will be posted at some future date.

so enough of the boring blog and I'm off to veg.

Read more...

Before-N- After

This weekend had a few "Before & Afters" so that is what I thought I'd share.

Before:
a big bag of chicken bones (as mentioned here) purchased for $1 at the farmers market
After:
a gallon & 1/2 of home made chicken stock. Tastes better & is more economical than the store bought stuff and I had dreams of chicken soup because it was simmering overnight.

Sorry no photo of gross chicken bones & a freezer full of stock

Before: I liked the little vase, but the glaze left something to be desired. I am more used to (and much prefer) a high fire glaze and like dipping rather than painting, but I'm using free clay, so Cone 04 it is.



The After is with a little touch up & some gold "rub-n-buff" (and a little better lighting)

Before: The dining room chairs as they have existed since before I was born:

After: A little fabric (that I have only had for 8 months...) and I have an updated look. (Is it redundant to try to Modernize Danish Modern?) The new covers have the added a bonus that they don't stick to my legs in the air-conditionerless summer time!

I guess that is it for what I accomplished this weekend. Hubby-Poo has yet to finish his chili. He spent most of the day on the computer & realized that he didn't really want cook tonight. Last night's dinner was a tantalizing Indian chicken & rice dish called Chicken Korma. It has cumin, cardamom, ginger, coriander, turmeric, safron and a little cayenne along with chicken, garlic , onions and yogurt. The recipe I have is pretty simple & tasty!

Look, I remembered to do the labels!

Read more...

Day 2

I'm stuck at home today. I don't mind being at home too much, but the idea of being "stuck" no car, no escape, depresses me. Especially since I didn't find out my husband's car was dead until after he left. (Oh by the way...)

So I'm stuck at home, cold & cranky.

I did get some of my pieces out of the kiln yesterday. A couple bowls, a little bitty cutting vase & a hand built flower vase. I'm not sure I'll be able to put any flowers in it, but it is shaped like a flower. I like it. I can't wait to finish it. I think I'm going to do a Raku glaze. I also trimmed a couple pots to go into the next firing. My old instructor said that one of them was very nice, which was good to hear. I made a couple on the kick wheel. Similar to the one on the left. I find it harder to center & open on the kick wheel (I need the constant speed of the electric, this slows from the friction of hands on clay) I definitely prefer to trim on a kick wheel. I find it easier to control for that. I am planning to continue throwing on the kick wheel to see if I get the hang of it.


Last night's dinner was shrimp with tomatoes, red onion & feta cheese; it wasn't bad for a quick dinner, but I think it needed more lemon. Tonight is turkey steak with exotic spices & a carrot puree. Hopefully it will turn out.

I'm watching a friends kids tomorrow so she can work, so I probably won't cook tomorrow. Or write. Today's is pretty boring, but since no one reads this, I guess it doesn't matter!

Oh well, maybe I'll go play Zelda

Read more...