In the Mud with Kiki

Ok, so it isn't really mud right now, but it was a one point. Actually, a couple different points it was mud. Last week I even brought my camera to the studio to have my picture taken while I was working. Twice. I even remembered that I had it one day, and asked someone to take my picture once I started working. We both forgot. But this really is pottery that I made with my own 2 hands.

The group shot, hangin' out on the love seat.

This is the big casserole. It may not look so big to you, but trust me, when you are wrestling that clay, it is HUGE!


Next we have the little brother. It's still not very little. The glaze is a little thin on this one, but I'm ok with it.

Look, it is a little family of prep bowls. Done in manly colors, for my B-I-L. The glaze turned out a little funky because it was fired in a different kiln (yes, that does make a big difference) so I'm not sure if I'll make another set for him. I have time, his birthday isn't until August. If I try to make another set how can I be sure
they will nest so nicely?

Well, this isn't mud, but I will share what I had for dinner tonight.
Barbeque Chicken Pizza. On the grill. I finally got at least a little picture.

I made pizzas on Friday night (no, I didn't have my Solstice Party, but at least I had some friends over for pizza and beer) I was a little wiser this time, I didn't make everything at once. I did a couple small batches so we wouldn't eat too much or leave too much. So today, I grabbed a hunk of dough out of the freezer (already rolled out) and threw it on the grill then threw the toppings on. I'm not sure if it would have been less crispy if I let the dough thaw a little more, but it was still pretty tasty for a super quick dinner while HP was in class.

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As promised

After hours of trying to convince flickr to upload my pictures. (pretty please with garlic on top? no, how about bananas on top? sugar on top?)
I am back with the photo version of dinner.
The big bag of banana leaves.


They are long too!

The achiote paste was made with achiote (annatto) seeds, cumin, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, and allspice (maybe some more things, I don't remember) then mixed with OJ, lime juice, garlic,a bay leaf and maybe some other things (and no, it isn't real "pasty").





The fish then marinated for an hour before being wrapped in the banana leaf, sprinkled with fresh herbs and put on the grill.




























I grilled some onions in lime and cumin for the side









While HP made some salsa









Doesn't this look good?
With a little lime and tomato on top, it really was a tasty adventure!

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Look inside

For some reason, I have recently been finding new and creative ways to enclose my food. Some of it is enclosed for cooking purposes only and some of it is enclosed to eat.

Last weekend, I wanted a little of each. My first round began with a trip to the Farmer's Market. Fish for dinner is what was listed on my list, so I headed to my favorite fishmonger and got a lovely piece of Dolphin. No, not Flipper
Then I came home and had to decide what to do with it.

So, feeling a little adventuresome, I tried Tikinxic, also known as Yucatan-style grilled mahi-mahi. What makes it Yucatcany, you ask? It is cooked in Banana Leaves. Banana Leaves were pretty easy to find (found at the 2nd store I went to) though a little pricey- $5.99-which I guess isn't so much considering how many I got.

I then made a recado rojo for the fish and wrapped it up and sent it to the grill. HP made some zippy salsa to go along with it and we put it along side some couscous. We are ethnically diverse at the dinner table. We ate in the yard, under the little baby grapelings with a glass of cheap white wine. It was lovely, and a lot of fun.

My next attempt at swaddling my food, was sadly less successful. It is summer, and we had almost a week with temperatures enough above 90 to reach the top of the double digits. (Today is a "chilly 87") So I thought, what better time to make summer rolls. However, the grocery store gods have a different plan for me. I have now been to 6 grocery stores, 2 farmer's markets, a couple specialty stores and a gourmet shop, but can not find rice paper anywhere. Apparently, international doesn't mean what I think it does, but I have found all sorts of interesting food items out there. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera phone, so you'll just have to wonder about that.

I do have some pictures of the Yucatany fish, but right now I'm having problems uploading to flickr. So you'll just have to wonder about that too!

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Why I'll never be a "Food Blogger"

It has taken a week, but I will finally post a couple food pictures:
I will never be a food blogger because I don't have the patience to pose my food beautifully or remember to write down what is going into my dinner. Or even what I had for dinner some nights. But I do at least think about these things and OCCASIONALLY remember to take a photo.

For my wrap-fest, the only one that got near a camera was eggplant night. You will notice immediately that eggplant, while tasty, is not very photogenic.
(You'll also notice that my slices aren't very even. Another reason I'll never be a food blogger.)
They do look a little better once they have be sacrificed to the Char-King
(pay no attention to the piece that is under the grate. It was a rough flipping)
Sadly the goat cheese spread on a flour tortilla doesn't do much for the color. Thank goodness for a little lettuce mix.


It was probably slightly redundant to serve it with a salad, but hey, I needed to add something to call it dinner and I thought that chips would diminish that "healthy" aspect I was kind of going for. (It's only a little goat cheese, it just looks like a lot) Or maybe this is the shrimp one. Since I didn't slice for the photo, who knows!

So for the really good pictures of food, visit someone who seems to have more patience to photograph every thing, beautifully as well as posting the recipes. Thank goodness for people like Cathy, who cooks, photographs everything, raises hooligans and is soon planting a winery. How do you manage to do it??? (and remember me when you need tasters :) )

Also not to be missed is another amazing chef/photographer who answers the Eternal Question What's for Lunch Honey?

There are tons more out there, but those are my current faves!

I will also take a minute to talk about my grilled pizzas, once again. (I swear that I will photograph these babies at some point when I am not scrambling to get them on the table to feed people) (how do you do that, make the photo all pretty and still have a hot dinner???)
Anyway, I did a variation on my grilled pizza and am very excited because I learned that it will be possible for me to make these year-round.
Some of the talented young men I know at the GoggleWorks recently had a gallery show. As with all good things, it had to come to an end and it did last Friday night. But the guys decided to go out with a bang and a party so I agreed to make some dip. Which then turned into some dip and a little food. On the menu: Redneck Fondue (a yummy beer-cheese dip), Sweet & Saucy Meatballs (turkey meatballs in a ginger-peach sauce spiked with bourbon) and grilled pizzas. I was a little bummed (but not at all surprised) I couldn't bring my tabletop propane grill, but I was able to bring this:

My ever trusty Farberware grill. My parents got one as a wedding gift, my mom picked up a spare for parts at a garage sale because she was frightened it would one day fail. I got mine when the local Service Merchandise was closing. It is rather large & a pain to store, but it is an awesome piece of kitchen equipment. (It's most common use in my home is the rotisserie feature for a Christmas duck. There is NO other way to cook it!) So I saw it sitting there and decided that was the answer to hot food.
I made my pizza dough as normal, but when it came time to shape it, I used an empty tin to create small (about the size of an English Muffin) individual pizza crusts. I hammered them out and put them in the freezer until it was time to go. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible (or at least as simple as I could at this point) so I prepped for 2 kinds of pizza. The first had a cheese spread made with Goat Cheese (I can get an 11 oz. log for $5.25 at the local farmer's market; it is a staple in my house) mixed with cream cheese and fresh snipped herbs. I think I used oregano, marjoram, rosemary and thyme with a little salt and pepper. I also had caramelized onions (another favorite in my home) and roasted red-pepper. My other variety was fresh mozzarella marinated in Balsamic vinegar, sliced tomato in olive oil and fresh basil.
I prepped all the toppings and put them in their plastic containers and trudged off to the Gallery.
The creation of these mini-miracles was actually pretty easy.
I preheated the grill and then plopped the pre-cut dough circles (ok, by that time, maybe not circles, but close enough) onto the grill. I then either (a) smeared it with the cheese spread, and topped it with onions and red peppers or (b) placed the mozzarella, tomato and basil on top. I brought my Pampered Chef bar pan and used that as a lid to trap the heat inside which almost worked. (a couple of the pizzas rose a lot so the toppings stuck and I had a bit of a mess)
Amazingly enough, this worked out really well. The pizzas cooked up brilliantly and disappeared as fast as I could make them. I also figure that I can make a bunch of small crusts (maybe muffin sized, maybe dessert plate sized) and freeze them ahead of time so that the mess of the crusts is out of the way, and I can eat these on a whim instead of on several hours notice. (The dough is very simple, but it does take time to rise, and I usually make a big mess--which is another reason I don't take photos).
As you may have realized, these are very unconventional pizzas, but I haven't figured out a better name for them. My husband was vying for "Grillza" but I am not so sure. Any ideas??
I am also constantly looking for ideas of what to top these with. I did get a great inspiration tonight. How perfect would an upside down version of these be? Pizza Rockefeller anyone?
Any other suggestions for these? Please, I think I'm in a (tasty) goat cheese rut!

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Kiki, in the garden

We had a brief hint of sunshine this weekend. Unfortunately, it was short lived, but it was a full day of sun.
First we went to our favorite greenhouse. We drove up on a sunny Saturday only to find that there were about a zillion other people with the same idea. The grown-ups were rushing throughout like kids at opening day of Hershey Park. Couples were calling to each other like kids discovering candy. "Look at the Zinnias! Honey do we have space for these peppers or more tomatoes?"
Loading up the buggies and filling trays with young plants, there were smiles everywhere. The promise of lush gardens and fresh juicy tomatoes was like a call from above, as in the Song of Solomon:

2:12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.

In our yard, the doves have returned. Last summer they raised a family, we watched as they fed the babies, and taught them to fly. We didn't have a chance to say goodbye to them as summer faded away, but we were overjoyed to see them return.

Our very small yard requires quite a bit of work to keep it presentable. While I have always favored the "natural" look (to the point my husband calls it wild or sometimes unruly) we at least try to start the spring with some trimming. I think we only buy plants as a reward for all our trimming. I'm not sure that makes sense, but it's my story.

The hedges needed attacking, the grapes & wisteria were taking over the world and there were sticks and twigs and leaves to be picked up. And then more grapes and wisteria to trim. It was a long day in the yard followed by pizzas made on the grill. (Which I have yet to have time to photograph, though I think of it each and every time.)

The trimming did reap an unexpected reward, I had lots of grape leaves and had a wonderful Sunday dinner!

Salmon grilled in Grape Leaves.

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Dreaming of Spring

I am cold.
I am pretty much done with cold, it is officially on my nerves.
I would much rather be sitting here with my laptop than the cold, very messy office where I am now.
I find my self looking through the Sundance Catalog longingly at clothes like this








or this












I also like this one & it's on sale





--as is this one

Somehow I found myself on Ebay, bidding on this scarf. It looks springy and bright, but I don't think I want to increase my bid any higher, so I'll probably end up with out it.
I blame the blogs.
Today it started with a trip to Apartment Therapy to look at "the amazing bookshelf staircase" so I started looking around and there was a picture of these Ranunculus. Flowers along with the seed catalogs--especially this one have got me ready for longer, warmer days. (Holly, if you are out there, definitely check out that catalog, yum!)
I am also ready to spend time on the grill. That started last night when dinner was cooked on the grill, because I'm slightly sadistic and like to shove a beer can up the chick's posterior and let it steam from the inside out. With my special blend of herbs and spices (so secret, I don't even know what is in there) it was the tasty main course along with some Fettucine More-Kiki-Than-Alfred-o (more secret ingredients :) ).

Alas, spring is not close enough, but will be here when she is good & ready, so I will continue to wait.
At least I can play in the mud all year round!

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Feelin' Saucy

Yes, I have some tomatoes. And peppers. And tomatillos.
So listening with one ear to the wise Miss Holly,I decided to make sauce. Tomatoes, check. Hmmm, plenty of Poblano & Serrano peppers as well. What else is lurking in my larder? Onions, check; garlic, check. What is growing in my garden? Cuban Oregano, Hmmmm. Let's check the spice rack: tasty, a little cumin; perhaps a little chili powder.
Ok, now that I have my 'meez,' it's time to get cookin'.

First off, get the grill going, preferably with some smoky wood chips in there, then I slowly roasted my tomatoes along with a couple onions, some garlic cloves, and my pairs of poblanos and serranos (and only lost one serrano through the grill grate). While they are roasting a way, I turned on the crockpot and added a little olive oil. When the oil was warm, I added a couple teaspoons of whole cumin seed and a little more garlic. After I peeled the roasted veggies and added them to the pot, I added my oregano, along with a little ground cumin (ok, I like cumin, what of it?) and some chili powder with the obligatory salt & pepper. Then I gave it a whirl with the stick blender and left it for the night. This morning I woke up and look, I have enchilada sauce. Fantastic! Now to get some chicken, or some beans & make enchiladas...

This weekend was the last weekend that we had The Boy over to visit before he goes off to college. (I guess I should call him The College Man now, but I'll have to ease into that). We celebrated with family activities such as him showing his Father how to load an Ipod with music. Also, as we know, no College Man is ready for school without new clothes for school. We got socks and a baseball cap. They started out white, then a short time later they looked like this:

And then, finally like this:

Well, the family that tie-dyes together, ummm I'm not sure how to finish that one.

Back to the family activities. We also ATE. I know that will come as a shock to some, but that is considered a family activity around here.
Friday night was Fish Taco night. I know that sounds gross, but really they are quite flavory. The fish were fried in a beer batter and served with HP's homemade salsa (fresh from the garden), Kiki's guacamole with roasted garlic, and plenty of queso fresco. Fish Tacos, who knew?

Saturday was our annualish Crab-Fest. I love Maryland crabs, and look forward to eating them every summer. Unfortunately, as they need to be imported they are a little pricey, so I only get them once a year. This year's fest was served up with the freshest corn-on-the-cob I could find and a loaf of Homemade Pesto Bread. (I love The Herbfarm Cookbook and all the wonderful recipes I've found there!)

Somehow, we did end up with a few left over crabs at the end of crabfest, so Sunday's brunch was this:

Crab & Thyme Souffle adapted from The Herbfarm Cookbook. Now that is TASTY!

The other thing I love about The Herbfarm Cookbook, is that after having it from the library for about a month-and-a-half, I decided to splurge and buy it (after all, I'm worth it & besides, I was worried about spilling something on the book!) Unfortunately my splurge budget is not what it once was, so my solution? EBAY!
That's right, winner bidder kitchenkiki at $4.99. Now that's TASTY!

And a final image, Sunday's dinner (I didn't want it to feel left out)Pizza on the grill! (ok, I had some dough challenges, so one of the pizzas was cooked in the oven)
A perennial favorite: Pizza with caramelized onions, shrimp and alfredo sauce.

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Kiki, in the Garden and on the Grill

We have survived the 2007 Garden Tour. We do not need to volunteer our property for another tour (house or garden) for at least 5 years the way I see it.
Woo Hoo!
Around 300 people traipsed through our yard, complementing us and oohing & ahhing. They loved HP's veggie garden and my flamingo (that HP hates and refers to as a "silly extravagance" ok, it was a silly extravagance, but I've got the perfect fuschia for it so it stays.)

So while cleaning up the garden we needed to clip back the grape leaves (which, a few days later, I need to do again...) well we decided not to let all those grape leaves go to waste, so we pondered, "What would Raichlen do?"
So we stuffed them with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, fresh herbs and pine nuts. Then threw 'em on the grill. Well, Yum! is all I can say.

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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!

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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!

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