Savory scones

OK, here's my recipe for the scones - they came out really tasty!







Savory scones (vary your additives to your taste)

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes
• 3/4 cup savory additives (I used ham, jalapeno cheddar, and scallions)
• 1 cup heavy cream (today, I didn't have enough heavy cream, so I substituted what heavy cream I had with half-and-half to make the 1 cup)
• Oven temperature - 425
  
• Ungreased cookie sheet

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Sift together the first 4 ingredients
3. Pour 1/2 of the dry ingredients into a food processor, and layer with 1/2 of the butter cubes. Pour the remaining 1/2 of the dry ingredients on top of the butter, and top with the remainder of the butter cubes.
4. Pulse in the food processor until mealy (this is the point at which the butter has been cut into small bits, and each is coated with some of the flour).
5. Turn this mixture into a large bowl.
6. Add the cream into the mixture, and stir with a spatula until just mixed - it will still be pretty sticky.
7. Pat the dough into a 3/4" thickness. At this point, you can shape it into large round to cut into wedges, or you can just pat it into the 3/4" thickness for cutting with a cutter of choice.
8. Cut as desired - I used a 2 1/2" round cutter, and what leftover pieces I had, I lightly kneaded together and pressed into the cutter for the final piece.
9. Lay the cut scones on the cookie sheet, space 1" apart from each other. Bake for 12 minutes (check at 11 minutes - see picture at the right) for soft scones, 13 minutes for drier scones.
10. Remove from oven, and let rest on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before removing scones to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Delish - and the house smelled great!

So we ventured out to see what baby stuff there are out there. We stopped by Buy Buy Baby, Babies 'R' Us, and Baby Gap - that was plenty of store-shopping for one day, especially the amount of "new" info we were absorbing. Our main focus was on strollers and baby seats, since these are by far the the pieces of equipment that seem to have the largest variety among manufacturers and models. Buy Buy Baby, in terms of baby superstores, had better choices and variety.

We saw the famed Bugaboo strollers, and true, they are quite versatile - however, I didn't see the salesperson demonstrating the versatility of these strollers with just one hand. I also saw an I Coo stroller, also very interesting. There were also the Bumblebees, Universals, Peg Peregos, Gracos, and MacLarens. One particular stroller I was hoping to in see in person is the Stokke, a simple high stroller, albeit the most expensive. Then there were the baby seats, and this we know we'll need from day one. Varieties from weight ranges, strap-in options, grow-into-it versatility, in-car bases, etc., etc., etc. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed - and least of all by the gaggle of salespeople hovering like vultures around new parents and parents-to-be. Half an hour in these stores, and we were ready to break out screaming. But, at the least, we've gathered a bit of information for us to do more reasearch online.

We then made a stop into Baby Gap and Gap Maternity. Mostly, this trip was just to see the maternity clothes, as some of my pants - ok, most of my pants - have begun to get tighter around the waist. Hubby helped me find a ton of pants. Some were full panel, and wearing them made me feel like an old man, pants hiked way high above the waist (for MUCH later on). Some were demi panel, a little more comfortable. And they also had some that had no panel, and these were by far my favorites, for now. I settled on a pair of black pants with a demi panel, and a pair of jeans that didn't have a panel at all - just enough to carry me over a while. I also picked up a white tank top and a black short-sleeved T-shirt.

We then ventured over to Express, to see what men's shirts they're carrying now. Hubby found 2 striped shirts, and I found a red silk dressy tank top, which had an cinched empire waist - perfect for the growing belly on more dressy days. I think it could go well even inside a suit, now that I think about it!

So that was our adventurous afternoon. Another thing that I forgot from the week at the CIA - the one thing that saved my hands from the repeated washings all week, along with the water from the Adirondacks (which I am sure was a big part of how well my hands fared during the week) was my trusty little sample bottle of Kiehl's Creme de Corps Lightweight Body Lotion. I would put this stuff on, and it just absorbed right into my skin, no greasiness. When I returned from the trip, Kiehl's was one of the first places I went, to pick up a little gift for my friend Jess and her newborn, and to pick up a larger bottle of the stuff. Still swearing by it - no reactions from my skin, and it doesn't sit on my skin to grease up the next surface I touch.

Foodwise - before we left, I had an apple, and for our excursion I brought with me a snack of globular grapes, large enough to be plums; a Kashi granola bar; and a bottle of water. By the time we hit Maternity Gap, though, I was hungry - we stopped into a Caribou for a snack of cinnamon roll popovers, and I grabbed an OJ and Hubby a small coffee. At home again, we ordered in tonight, pizza from the Hut. And that's pretty much a wrap for today!

Maam, just the poo please.

Yesterday, I was so excited - when I stepped on the scale, I had gained a pound or 2! But today, alas, I discovered, it was just poo. I guess this weight will come soon enough. A bit of a lump now, which is pretty cool, belly is protruding a bit. But no big weight gain, not yet. At least in weight not in poo.

I keep remembering little tidbits from last week at the CIA that I'm sure I forgot to note during my week there. Little things - like, that oyster noodle soup I made for my aunt in NJ - we used dried oysters. Well, the water did reconstitute, but it gave the soup a weird flavor, left over no doubt from the drying of the oysters. The insides of the oysters, too, were pretty dry, and not that palatable. I wouldn't recommend using dried oysters - just wait for the frozen ones, or use fresh ones that you shuck.

What else... oh, I finally got the photo upload to happen on this site, so I will add some photos along the way from here on out. I stayed at the Copper Penny Inn, in Poughkeepsie, which was a wonderful place to stay, and the hosts were more than hospitable. They were worried that they weren't providing enough in the way of the "breakfast" portion of the B&B, but no worries, as I was getting more than plenty of food at the CIA. They did, however, honor my request for fresh fruit, so each morning, while the world was still dark, I would find a bowl of fruit waiting for me in the fridge before I headed out for my day. There was one day, when I was coming towards Rt. 9 from the 44/55, when the Mid Hudson Bridge was hidden in a fog that tucked itself just along the top half of the bridge. I was completely bummed, that I didn't have my camera on hand, and there was no shoulder to be able to pull over just to take a shot. It was beautiful - the sky was just beginning to lighten, this bridge was shrouded in fog, and just as I turned onto Rt. 9, the fog was no longer hiding the bridge - just that one view as I came on the bridge straight on. You can imagine the expletives coming from my mouth as I saw that view and didn't have a way of capturing it, and I am sure in a cartoon, my car would have been the Mexican jumping bean, with all sorts of punctuation marks all around it.

What else... oh, during one of the wine tasting sessions, I did get the opportunity to taste a cabernet, paired with blue cheese. Oh my god - can I just tell you, what a pairing that is! I don't know exactly all the chemistry behind it, but the pairing tasted like a full meal. It was absolutely amazing! A colleague of mine asked me this week for some recommendations for cheese and wine - you can imagine, that was most definitely my first recommendation. And not to worry, I didn't drink that wine, no chugging here, we did have spit cups that allowed us to just taste. And the cheese, like all cheese in the US, or any cheese that comes across our border, is pasteurized. As Alton Brown would say, "Louie Pasteur, YAAAAY!"

So a quick note before I'm on my way for the morning. Plans for today - I am going to do that roast pork tenderloin for my friend Jess, who just had her second little one this week. Both seemed well when I visited on Monday. I intend on doing one half of the tenderloin as a sweet roulade w/mincemeat, the other with a mushroom filling. Both halves will be barded. Sides - blanched/seasoned broccoli rabe, roasted red potatoes, sauteed mushrooms.

This morning, Hubby and I will embark on our first ever trip to comparison shop to see what baby stuff is out there, probably get hounded by some salespeople who see "SUCKERS" labeled across our foreheads, and come back with more than one sales tag stuck to our body. But before our little trip (which I do hope will not drag on to become one of those all-day excursions, at which point I may have to pack a picnic), I'm off to our farmer's market, to see what is coming of fruit this season; then I'm going to make some savory scones for the week, and for this morning; and I have to pick up some flour, as my baking experiences over the last month or so have depleated my stash (never happened before!). The scones - I'll post the recipe after my trial/error.

Ready again to cook, with recap

Wow, it is already Tuesday. I never did write up our summary of the final dishes at the CIA - so here they are... quail and pork loin were our given ingredients. Funny enough, out of our 5 teams, 3 had salads as part of their final dishes. We were definitely craving some non-cooked greens!


Deep fried quail on bed of mini greens
We received quail already partially boned and halved - it make our job just that much easier. Susan dried off the birds, a light salt and pepper sprinkling on each part, and they were off to the fridge.

Rebecca whipped together the viniagrette, with red wine vinegar, to bring out some red color against the green color of our greens. For the greens, we received a wonderful assortment of mache and lettuce - we chose to use the mache for the small scale of the leaves and its soft flavor, and the red leaf lettuce for some color and bitter contrast. So you know how fresh the mache was - they arrived still in their dirt pods!

Preparation for this dish was pretty easy, as the seasoning of the birds prepped them sufficiently for flavor. We lightly dredged the birds in salt and pepper seasoned flour just prior to deep frying, and set them into the hot oil. The contrast of the hot and cold, sour with the savory and bitter, and the buttery sweetness of the mache - balance of flavors and textures, a wonderful start to our meal.


Pork loin roulade with dried autumnal fruit, with late summer vegetables
OK, so one part of this was that I wanted a big variety of colors and textures, so I requested young carrots, string beans, and asparagus. For our pork loin, we ended up opting for the pork tenderloin cuts, to avoid having to deal with the bone-in situation in the loin cut. We butterflied the pork tenderloin pieces, and pounded them to 1/2" thickness. Lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, they went into the fridge until we were ready for the wrap.

We prepared the roulade filling by soaking dried apricots in red wine. We also received prunes and fresh cranberries. After about 1/2 hour soak of the apricots, we chopped them up, along with the prunes, for simmering with cranberries to reduce in the red wine. We spiced the filling with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, as well as a touch of salt and pepper. Once this mixture reduced by about 1/2, we spread it out on a pan to cool it a bit before the rolling.

We also got some thin-sliced pancetta, which we laid out on our working surface in preparation for barding the roulade. The pork loins went on the pancetta, and the roulade filling went on the loins last. We then began doing the roll, pushing the pancetta up with the loin as the roll progressed. Some twine ties around the roulade, and it was ready for roasting.

While we prepared the roulade, we also cored some bosc pears, and filled them with the roulade filling. We set these filled bosc pears around the roast, and we also filled the remainder of the roasting pan with quartered red potatoes. We blanched the asparagus, carrots, and beans, and lightly coated and seasoned these vegetables with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

This dish provided a nice balance of the sweetness of the roulade filling, against the meaty depth of the barded pork and the lightness of the blanched vegetables. Coupled with our salad dish, we found a way, with the help of student assistant Marion, to not end up with two main entree type courses, and we also found a way to bring some flavors that we were craving after a week of butter-and-cream finishes.


So that was our Friday cooking event! It was a lot of fun, and all in all, the week was really wonderful. I can't say I miss the 5:30 wake-up time, and I am now, back home, thoroughly enjoying my renewed access to my daily intake of raw fruits. Those savory scones of ham/scallion/cheese, however, I will try making at home - they were just so good, savory breakfast in one portable containment!

The rest of the weekend was not remarkable in cooked food. Friday night, as Hubby arrived at the train station, I took him to the Catarina de Medici restaurant on campus, their Italian restaurant. After a week of roasts, grills, pan-fries, and braises, I couldn't even look at the pork tenderloin he ordered (barded in proscuitto), and I sided with the gnocchi with tomato sauce to get a shot of something different from what we ate all week. The meal was wonderful nonetheless, as I have not seen him for a week, and it was fulfilling to be able to sit down to a meal with him.

We then headed south Saturday afternoon, stopped in Hoboken to visit one of Hubby's friends and his family, and then headed to Philadelphia to stay with my father until Sunday. Saturday night, we had dinner with Dad in one of the restaurants owned by the family Kuo - probably the only Chinese food I would ever really enjoy and be able to eat without exhaustion day after day. We ordered some sauteed Chinese broccoli rabe, stir-fried dried tofu with chicken strips (what the manager called the lay-man (their cooking crew) food), and a dish of deep-fried fish with vegetables. Brown rice all around - I knew I craved it!

Sunday, we had dim-sum at another one of the Kuo's restaurants, and what wonderful dim-sum they have! We ordered a variety of dumplings, with mini pork buns, and flaky turnip buns. After lunch, we gathered our things, and headed back down home to DC.

Yesterday wasn't too eventful eatingwise - I enjoyed my variety of Asian apple-pears and apples during the day. Egg salad sandwich with a molasses cookie for lunch, and I was definitely coming back to my first day at work hitting the ground running. I also visited my friend Jess, who just had her second baby - and as she and her Hubby have just moved into their still-under-renovation house, I thought it would be nice to bring some food over for them. And I can hardly believe I'm going to say this, but I will be bringing a roast - just when I thought I couldn't possibly make another one for ages to come!

Tonight, I decided on a simple soup, not too complicated, as I arrived home a little later than usual after my bike ride home (yup, I rode my 14 miles today). Things to report on my bike ride - in the morning and the evening rides, I took my time, didn't push it too hard, since, alas, it has been basically 2 weeks since I took to my bike last. I could definitely feel the lump in my stomach rising as I rode - it's alive! My pants today fit tighter than before, but just before I left this morning, when I took my weight, I still hadn't gained any weight since my weight before the CIA. But by the end of the day, when I stepped on the scale again - somehow, during the course of the day, I managed to gain 5 pounds. I really have no idea how - the only thing I can think of is that my body was retaining a lot of water after my ride this morning, to replenish and rehydrate; and perhaps it was also drawing water from the fruits I was eating. Who knows!

So tonight was my first cooking experience after the CIA. I used some of my learned skills for mise en place, and if there is one thing that I have learned during my time there, it is the need for a certain level of subtlety (no barding, no roasting). I decided on a soup that Hubby enjoys at the Kuos' restaurants...


Seafood egg drop hot/sour soup
I chopped up some carrots and half of a Chinese squash I brought home from Dad's (sorry, I don't know what the name is for it in English, but I do know in Taiwanese it is pronounced "boo-ah"). I also chopped up a flounder fillet and about 6 large shrimps. I had some left-over shrimp shells, frozen from past cooking times, which I browned in olive oil to draw out their sweetness and their flavor. I then added some water to deglaze the pan, and to simmer out more flavor from the shells into the broth. I then strained the broth to remove the shells, and setting the pan back on the heat, I added the chopped carrots and squash. This mixture simmered as is for about 30 minutes on medium heat - I skimmed the scum off the top every so often.

About 5 minutes before serving, I added the shrimps and flounder, skimmed any scum that came to the surface, and I beat in 1 egg white. I seasoned lightly with a touch of soy sauce, a touch of black vinegar, a touch of sugar, some salt, and white pepper. This soup - it was really wonderful. Light, but as Hubby says, hearty without being heavy. The soft, velvet of the simmered vegetables contrasted against the heartiness of the meats. The salty, spicy, and sour flavors of the soup balanced well. It wasn't heavy, though, like a stew - but we enjoyed it immensely. I guess after my week at the CIA, I did learn something all new after all!

Last day, with not a breath to spare

Quick note before I'm off to pick up Hubby at the train station - made it through the last day, hugs all around, dishes came out pretty good! Will have to update - fried quail on bed of baby greens, pork roulade with seasonal vegetables... great colors!

In the comfort of my adopted home

Back from dinner, and yet not that much time left before I better get to sleep - we had dinner tonight at the Escoffier Room, French cuisine. What a 180 degree turn-around from our less-than-spectacular experience at the American Bounty restaurant last night! Going back to yesterday's dinner, the service was less than perfect, but the food - well, I enjoyed my food immensely. My dinner started off with a tart of cabbage, quinoa, and mushrooms, and had as my entree the roasted game hen with peas. I could tell that the kitchen staff was enjoying their work - the presentation and flavors reflected their enthusiasm. The tart, it had a thin pie crust shell that was really wonderful, and had some herbs incorporated into it; the filling was an equally enjoyable balance. The main course was an amazing visual presentation, of small halved and stacked game hens, pan fried, served on a green pea sauce and small mashed potato rosettes. Dessert - alas, it never did come. We did enjoy some of their cheese selection, but somehow the management decided that we had either (a) exceeded our spending limit as outlined by the Boot Camp program, and would not allow us to pay for further dishes; or (b) had too much to drink, though it averaged about 3 bottles per table of 6-7 (I didn't have much more than a taste of our pre-determined selection of red and of white). It was weird - management couldn't articulate clearly why it was that they cut us off from further ordering of food or of wine, and service really was not enjoyable.

However, this evening's dinner was, as I said, a 180 degree turn-around. French restaurant, and typical of most of our visited French restaurants, the service was impeccable. Well, almost to the point of too controlled and contrived, but it was top notch. As the amuse bouche, we enjoyed a foie gras sausage served in a small puff pastry, with a balsamic reduction. I decided on the consomme, which was served in a small terrine with a puff pastry top; and the seared duck breast with caramelized peach as the main course. Both dishes were wonderful, though I had a harder time navigating around the puff pastry top of the consomme. Presentation was amazing - one of our fellow compatriots at my table ordered a white bean soup, and true to French nature, the soup was served at the table, always an elegant method. A cheese course preceeded the dessert, and alas, knowing that the soft cheeses they served were made from pasteurized milk, I did have to partake in a touch of epoisse, along with an assortment of 6 other cheeses. Oh, my epoisse - how I've missed you so!

Dessert, I chose the seasonal fruit tart, dressed with strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and kiwi. They also brought out for our enjoyment a small plate of tea/coffee cookies. Honestly, this was one of the more enjoyable eating experiences, and I know I will remember it for quite a while. The student servers were great - they carried the decorum of working in an upscale restaurant, but when pressed, weren't stuffy and had ease of humor.

So going back to our days' events - between yesterday and today, so much has happened. We've been working consistently in teams of 2-3, and between yesterday and today, each team produced about 4 dishes. Add those dishes up, and by lunchtime, among the 5 teams, we had about 20 cooked items lined up for our enjoyment. Not the easiest lunches, I must admit - I've learned from Chef Ainsworth to eat like a bird, taking small bites of every dish, and eating just one bite from each, to enjoy flavor and to get the variety of flavor without finishing lunch as a bloated whale. Yesterday, we did dry-cooking methods: grilling, roasting, and broiling. My team came away with grilled salmon, which we laid, whole boneless side, on the grill, pink side down. (BTW, did you know, the lesson we learned yesterday in the kitchen - how to know your salmon is a wild salmon - black tongue; not unusual to see injuries sustained from an active life among other fish; and brushing our hand on their fins will yield injuries, whereas farm-raised (I think, now I'm forgetting) do not have the injurious scales on their fins) It really was a whole big to-do, as the chef instructor from the adjoining kitchen said firmly that no, we couldn't possibly grill the whole side without it falling apart! Well, Susan stayed firm in her experience, and sure enough, we did get the wonderful grill marks on our salmon, and then finished it in the oven.

Salmon - what we did - season w/salt and pepper, all sides. Coat well with oil, and brush oil on the hot grill as well. Picking up the salmon from the tail end, lay it down on the grill in one direction to mark the presentation side; and within 5 seconds, pick it up from the tail and turn it 90 degrees to get the complementary contrasting grill marks. We then stuck it into a 350 degree oven to finish.

We also prepared some side dishes, of rice pilaf, sauteed mushrooms, and sauteed spinach with bacon. We substituted the spinach with Swiss chard, due in part to the E. coli scare of packaged spinach and the inavailability of fresh spinach for our use. Quick notes...

Rice Pilaf - I didn't take charge of this dish, but Rebecca put her experienced hands to the task. We quick-sauteed some shallots in butter, tossed in long-grained rice to coat, and covered with stock and a bay leaf. We then finished the dish in the oven.

Sauteed mushrooms - contrary to popular belief, mushrooms can sit in a pan for quite a while, to let the liquid in them evaporate. I asked Jenni, of the team next to us, for tips, as they put together some wonderful sauteed mushrooms just the previous day. Big pointers - warm up the oil; toss in the mushrooms, but do not pack the pan too tightlyl; and just let it sit. Yes, it will steam, it will hiss, it will act all kinds of angry - but do not touch the little suckers. Before you know it, the steam will slow to a trickle from the pan, and your mushrooms will be reduced to almost 2/3 their original sizes. At that point, you've successfully caramelized one side of the mushrooms, and then just stir to even out any of the brown juices on the mushrooms if desired. Her tips worked like a charm - we got our mushrooms nicely caramelized, and no burning at all. Who wooda thunk! We finished the dish with a small pat of butter. We use a lot of butter in these classes.

Sauteed Swiss Chard - pretty basic, we started off the pan with some chopped bacon, and tossed in the Swiss Chard. These leafy vegetables do a lot of work on their own, reducing and softening in relatively short time. The dish came out wonderfully, and it balanced well with the salmon.


As for today, we had the wet-cooking methods - poaching, braising, and steaming. Our team had as our menu poached chicken with tarragon sauce, mashed turnips and potatoes, hot and spicy mixed vegetables (guess who got to do that one! Yes, I know, it's like asking a Latin American to take Spanish class.), and haricots vert.

Poached Chicken with Tarragon Sauce - this dish involved a couple of major steps - making a chicken veloute, which is basically a chicken stock thickened by a light roux; and poaching the chicken breasts, which we cubed, in chicken stock prior to finishing in the oven. The chicken veloute, combined with reduced poaching liquid, made the sauce for the chicken, to which we added some tarragon and heavy cream to finish. I made the mistake of chopping up only 2 chicken breasts, instead of the requested 6, since, apparently, I'm still learning how to read. But, we did manage to save the dish, by reserving the cooked chicken in a separate bowl while we poached the other chicken cubes.

Mashed turnips and potatoes - we cooked both items in boiling water until tender, and we mashed into them a mixture of milk, butter, parsley, with salt and pepper to taste. Pretty simple, very smooth, and the turnips added a bit of different texture to this dish.

Hot and spicy mixed vegetables - heated oil in a wok, tossed in scallions, garlic, and ginger. Upon fragrant, we added chopped vegetables (zucchini, carrots, daikon, celery, squash, and cabbage), along with some chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, and a touch of sugar. We finished with sesame oil. On this dish, I felt it wasteful to just toss our carrot ends (I sliced the blanched carrots on bias) into the compost pile, and as we were in a bit of a waiting period, I decided to put my surgeon-family genes to some good use with the carrot ends and my paring knife. I made some simple garnish with the carrots, which we set in the middle of our presentation plate, flanked by the mashed turnips and potatoes (which I shaped into football shapes with 2 spoons - the term escapes me) and the spicy mixed vegetables. Chef touted the shaping and garnishing methods - yay!

So that's a quick and dirty rundown of what we've learned over the past couple of days. Other items...

Risotto - cook in a taller pot, so that the water doesn't evaporate so quickly. And what of all those "risotto" pans!

Mozzarella - Chef showed us how to make it fresh - so easy! Cheese whey, set into hot water, pull and knead, and when no longer lumpy, pinch off little bundles. That's the direct translation of mozzarella - little pinches. Who knew!

Chef has also been making ice cream for us, from scratch, and it has been quite delicious. Simple, simple, simple - half and half, eggs, and sugar, along with different flavoring additives (mint, pistachios, etc). Tomorrow, he promises creme brulee - oh delight!

All this food that we prepare every day - it does get heavy and old after a while, as each dish is a restaurant-quality dish, and there are so many flavors. I've been balancing our heavy lunches and dinners with some fresh fruit and yogurt in between. I'm jonesing for a salad or just a cucumber, and I think some of my other fellow colleagues are feeling the same. Poor Hubby - he may be joining me for a meal while I will be craving all things uncooked!

Alas, it is definitely time for rest and for bed. Tomorrow morning, we face our final challenge, using 2 given protein ingredients, and creating a menu from them. We have quail as our appetizer protein; with pork loin as our entree. My team is ready for the task, and we have our game plan laid out. I will report tomorrow on how we do in our menu - wish us luck!

Oy, another crazy day!

It is definitely late, and I am almost out the door for dinner. Again, another crazy day, but I am very much looking forward to our final "cooking exam" tomorrow. Will write more later - I know I'm going to get my butt back here earlier tonight than last night, to get my posts up and to get more sleep.

Quick rundown of our day's events - wet cooking methods - poaching, braising. We did some cool stuff!

Late night!

Yeah, OK - today is one of those days. I'll have to see if I can do a recap tomorrow for today's events - we did some dry cooking methods in our production class, and had a tour of the campus this afternoon. Too much food, and I am starting to see a very definitely bump in my belly!

Yes, I know, it could be from all the food they've been feeding us, but I'm going to cough it up to baby! Week 14, pretty cool! I took some cool photos in the kitchen as well as around campus, but I had trouble trying to upload them today - will give it another shot tomorrow.

Signing off...

Some notes before class today

I put on my CIA-issued standard chef's uniform this morning, and I really can't get over this -it's huge! And it's a small! I feel like I'm wearing Hubby's suits! Now, this could be based on men's sizing, but really, I'm still swimming in it. For the days when I'm feeling like my tummy is growing, though, the elastic on the pants really help.

Back from dinner

Back "home" from a very enjoyable dinner - we dined at the Colavita Center's Caterina de Medici, where they serve some wonderful Italian food. My meal started off with a 6 antipasti dish - cucumber salad, a curried pasta salad, roasted red peppers, tomatoes and anchovies, olives, and a fennel and orange salad. Great way to start off the meal! Judging from my colleagues reactions to their starts, the meal was getting off to a better beginning than last night's dinner, which varied in reactions from loving it to really not enjoying it at all. Oh, just for the record, I missed last night's dinner - I wanted more to get a lay of the land, took some great photos of the Poughkeepsie train station and the adjoining bridges crossing the Hudson, grabbed a slice of pie (pizza), an apple, and some apple juice for dinner. I know, not that much food, but during the course of the day, we've been eating almost every couple of hours, so I didn't really feel any need for food.

So, the antipasti - that was the start, and I had a halibut with fava beans, peas, black kale, and cherry tomatoes for dinner - wonderful! I couldn't pinpoint the flavor of a particular spice on the halibut, but it was really good. Light, not too heavy, proportion was still large, but digestible. Final course, I selected parmesan reggiano w/a balsamic traditionale - parmesan chunks with a drizzle of balsamic. Wonderful finish - salty, sweet, dense, light, all at the same time. Wines also accompanied our dinner, the first was a varietal white, smelled very sweet, but was dry on the tongue. Light, very lightly fruity, not syrupy, and the flavor didn't linger long on the palate post-taste. The red was a valpolicella, fuller bodied. Didn't drink any, but I did have a light taste of both.

So today's program! We had our hands in pan methods - pan-frying, stir-frying, and deep-frying. Each team was responsible for three dishes - my team - Susan, Rebecca, and myself - was responsible for a "rainbow beef" dish, a "garden treasures" dish, and a consomme. The two stir-fries were pretty simple from my perspective - but then, as Hubby pointed out, having our team do the stir fry wasn't terribly fair to the other teams, as he equated our task at hand today to having a Latin-American person take beginner's Spanish. One difference we had was that we blanched the vegetables first, prior to stir-frying - at home, I put everything into the wok and add a touch of water to steam in the pan, instead of separating out the blanching part of the process.

Rainbow beef - we thinly sliced beef loin, and marinated the sliced beef in egg and corn starch. We then (and this was part of today's lesson) prepared all our other ingredients mise en place - everything was ready, chopped, and lined up in individual bowls for the cooking process. Needless to say, this step helps ease the cooking quite a bit, as it allowed us to just throw the ingredients into the pans one by one without having to run all over the kitchen to find just what we needed. The accompanying vegetables for this dish were julliened bell peppers and, improvisation, carrots. We also added the standard stir-fry combination of scallions, ginger, and garlic to flavor the oil. Additonal flavorings were oyster sauce, soy sauce, hot bean paste (which Susan and I had no qualms about putting just a little more bam into the dish - another heaping spoonful into the pan - wha ha ha ha ha ha!), ground black pepper, and sugar. The finishing touch on the dish was sesame oil.

I know, sugar, in a savory dish - it does make sense though, as the sugar helps to cut the salty flavoring of the dish. It does not equate, however, with adding less salt or less soy - the sugar, with the saltiness, helps to create a balance on our tongues. Just trust me on this - Dad and I had a long discussion about this very topic just last week!

Garden Treasures - we blanched broccoli florets, carrots, celery, yellow squash, and zucchini. Quick note - easiest way to shock the vegetables when you take them out of the blanch - have a metal colander in a larger ice-water-bath-filled bowl. Just make sure the water does actually come into the colander. Throw in your veggies, and voila - lift out the colander, and your veggies come free of the ice bath sans the ice. We had a refresher experience with that step today.

We then heated up the wok, with some oil, tossed in the standard scallion-ginger-garlic mixture, and then tossed in the veggies. A quick stir-fry, added some salt and ground pepper, as well as finished with sesame oil, and we were done. Two relatively quick dishes - but prep time is extensive.

Now for my favorite part - the CONSOMME!

I've never made a consomme, but I have read some account of Jacques Pepin's first job in Paris, working at a restaurant, not knowing better and stirring a consomme in the making. What I understood when I read that account was that the consomme consisted of some sort of a foam cloud, of impurities from the broth below, that was not to be disturbed. It simmers slowly, meticulously, to bring the broth to a developed clarity with a lot of flavor. Some may think it's just a broth - it really is much more. Read on...

So we took some stock from yesterday's labors, which had chilled overnight to a gelatinous consistency. We skimmed off the fat from the top and reserved the stock in the fridge to keep it chilled. We had sliced chicken, chopped a mirepoix (onions, leeks, celery, parsley stems, and carrots), and chopped a tomato. We also had egg whites. We mixed in the high consomme pot (tall but small stock pot, open area to height ratio is about 1:3) the egg whites, chicken, and mirepoix. We then mixed in the stock and mixed well. All these ingredients start off cold - very important. We then brought this mixture to a boil, but not to a rolling boil. The egg whites, with the other solid items, start forming what is called a "raft" on top of the stock - this raft is a rather solid layer of egg white foam with other solids. The correct way, the raft would cling to the sides of the pot, and we would allow release of pressure from a small hole we make in the center. Ours, however, was simmering at the edges, but no worry.

As soon as the soup got to a boil AND the raft looked relatively solid, we lowered the temperature as much as possible to allow the consomme to simmer quite gently, so as to not destroy the raft and remix all the egg white into the stock, resulting in a cloudy consomme. The small hole in the center, we made with a ladle, to release the heat pressure, and to also put in our spice bag (we wrapped in cheesecloth some thyme, peppercorns, and some other herbs - I was busy watching the consomme and missed what my team partners wrapped up in the sachet d'epices). This gently simmered for about an hour and a half.

What results is, in theory, and ultra-pure stock, free of impurities and filled with flavor, from the spices and from the vegetables. As we ladled out the consomme, we tipped the pot slightly, and pressed down with our ladle on the raft. The consomme underneath, we ladled into a chinois (Chinese hat seive) lined with cheesecloth. I have to say, it really was wonderful to first make this consomme, and then to enjoy it - the flavor is divine, and really sublime.


So that was our day in a quick wrap-up! It is now getting late, and I best be getting my sleep before tomorrow starts up again. So far, it's been good - no bout of sickness, no problems with hunger or thirst (as the CIA seems inclined to make sure we don't go 2 hours without something for our palates), and I've been balancing my meals with portion-sizing and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Oooh, one more thing - our mid morning snacks (I feel like one of those hobbits "do we get third breakfast?), we've been enjoying some of the fruits of the pastry/baking classes' labor. This morning, our mid-morning (read: 8:15) snack had some scones, with ham, bell peppers, and celery in them. So good - savory scones, I will have my hand at them upon my return home!

Until tomorrow - good night!

Quick rundown before our Italian dinner!

Today was a fantastic day, pan methods (deep frying, pan frying, stir frying), and we also made use of some of the stocks/broths we made yesterday. Quick highlight, my team, consisting of Susan, a bookstore owner from Texas; Rebecca, a former barrista from Atlanta; and myself, had the opportunity today to make consomme! If you haven't heard of it, or have but just thought it was simple broth - wait until I give you the rundown of how it is made - it was most exciting to have finally gotten a chance to make this under the watchful eye of experienced chefs!

But until later, it's off mangiare!

Day 1

Wow, I actually got my ass out of bed this morning. It really wasn't that hard - I had dreams throughout the night of missing my 6am start time, and sleeping through class until mid morning. So, at around 4:30, there I was, bright eyed and bushy-tailed. Yeah, I could barely believe it myself.

So, through the misty foggy morning, and the sun wasn't even up yet, off to the CIA I went. Now I wasn't right on time, I was a tad late, but I still got myself in there. It was a classroom full of people, some for the Boot Camp program, some for other programs, all getting the same rundown of where's what and what's where. We then headed off to have some breakfast at an adjoining dining hall, where other fellow CIA students were also having breakfast. And all this before 7am! What did I have - I had beignets with a pear compote, side of sliced melons, a glass of soy milk, a glass of apple/cranberry juice, and a blueberry yogurt. While standing in line, I met a woman named Cynthia, who is writing an article about the CIA Boot Camp experience for Domino; and I also met a woman named Sue. Breakfast shocked us into the world of the awake, and we were off to our first lecture at 7.

Chef Mark Ainsworth is our instructor for our classes of this week, and we started off the class with a brief introductions. I found out Michael is another fellow architect in the class, from Florida; and there are 2 other people from the DC area, one from the neighboring neighborhood! Small world! We also got goodie bags with 2 sets of uniforms we will be wearing for the duration of the week (and books, and a flexible cutting board, and a butter knife)

We started a discussion of ideal proportions of the basics of what we eat - carbs, proteins, and fats. We discovered we were greatly swayed by the influence of recent low-carb diets and new fad diets out there - a proportion of 50-55% carbs, 15% proteins, and 30% fats was the ideal balance. Granted, this is also to be balanced by good carbs instead of refined carbs (fruits/vegetables instead of white bread); proteins should be lean proteins; and fats should be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats instead of the type that solidifies at body temperature (say, vegetable shortening in a container, on the shelf - shouldn't a "fat" really be in the fridge? Or, say, lard, that has a high melting point - well hell, it doesn't melt inside you either. Imagine that little lump slurping its solid way down your esophagus!). Portion control, too, is a factor to take into account, especially in this country - 15% proteins can add up to only about 5-6 oz of proteins for a 200 pound person. That's not a hell of a lot, and it's definitely something that perked up our ears - we find proteins in almost all foods, not just meats, and no doubt we eat a lot more than we should. We also talked about the danger zone for cooked proteins, and the "done" temperatures for proteins, as well as those lovely multisyllabic bugs that will send our stomachs churning. After this discussion, we were off to the kitchen to put our hands and tools to work.

Now I came fully prepared with, basically, as one of the other fellow students observed, my kitchen. I had all the tools the CIA brochure asked for, and then some. What to my surprise - they really had well-stocked kitchens, with just about all the tools with the exception of knives. It makes sense - just about all other tools can be used over and over without getting worn through our out. Knives, you run into liability issues if they aren't sharp enough, and if someone were to cut themselves because they aren't kept up to par. Besides, Hubby was completely correct for suggesting this, by using our own tools, we are already familiar with how they feel, and the skills we learn we can directly apply.

After a brief but involved knive cutting demonstration involving deboning and disjointing whole chickens, slicing/dicing/brunoising (mini dicing) some potatoes, we were off to our stations in teams, to prepare stocks and broths. My team was responsible for preparing a chicken broth, not too difficult, and filled with a wonderful mirepoix of carrots, celery, onions, and tomatoes. We also spiced it up with a cheesecloth sack filled with peppercorns, thyme, rosemary, basil, bay leaves, and parsley stems (which I found out, is much more flavorful than the leaves and completely appropriate for use in a long-cooking item like a broth or a stock). We tried out our knife skills, jullienning, dicing, slicing, and brunoising. It was a lot of fun, albeit a little confusing in a new kitchen, but boy, those huge stoves are just wonderful!

Lunchtime! Chef Ainsworth had marinated some chicken parts in a premixed seasoning mixture of majoram, sage, garlic, pepper, and a couple other spices I can't remember now, with some olive oil, kosher salt, and dijon mustard, which went into a hot oven (425 degrees) to bake. Some of the student assistants also helped roast some beets, and some of the other students who had finished their dishes early helped cook some lemon-glazed carrots (lemon, salt, pepper, olive oil). There was also mashed potatoes, thanks to our collective brunoised potatoes; as well as some steamed broccoli and boiled corn on the cob. Lunch really was wonderful - we entered our dining room to discover that there were small plates of desserts and an assortment of breads, no doubt by the pastry and baking students. Laughter ensued during our lunch conversation, about where we were from, what we enjoyed cooking, and our kitchen experiences. After the wonderfully enjoyable lunch, we returned to the kitchen, to deconstruct our lunch - what did we or didn't we like about each dish, the textures, the colors, the variety. We then cleaned up the kitchen, stowed away the ingredients we didn't use for use later this week, and headed back to the classroom for a lecture and discussion about plate presentation. This was the point when the room did get dark, and we were hoping that there would be an espresso machine around!

And now I am back at my adopted home for this week. One thing I took away from today's experience was the variety of colors available in food. True, I noted it before, but today's lunch was such a variety, of reds, oranges, greens, browns, yellows - a fantastic demonstration of the need to have, as Chef Ainsworth pointed out, the full spectrum of colors in our daily meals to be able to have some level of balance in our diets. From such different backgrounds, we arrive at the same point, for different reasons, and to gain different experiences - we put on our chef's jacket, and all differences are gone. Tonight, we are off to dinner at the St. Andrew's Cafe, with focus on healthy eating and food habits - I will have to give the rundown of that experience when I return!

Arrival!

I got here, safe and sound, not a second to lose. The trip up from NJ wasn't too bad, but once I got close, the roads got smaller and I got loster. A couple of U-turns, and round-about ways of getting up here, I finally made it to my B&B home station for the week. The owners were wonderful to get me situated in the house, and then to direct my way to the CIA in the case I wanted to make a dry run - and that's exactly what I did.

So off to the CIA, and it was a great visit. There were several parties going on at different parts of the campus, and as I strolled in the Hudson Valley sunset, I was really enjoying the scholarly environment of my surroundings, albeit scholars of palate as opposed to words. Nonetheless, it was such a good feeling here, I got goosebumps just thinking about the week ahead. Mind you, I haven't started yet, so I have a feeling that tomorrow's write-up may be even shorter than this evenings. I saw a little groundhog nibbling his way through dinner along the Hudson, by one of the buildings. The train was chug-a-lugging its way southward on the west bank of the Hudson, backed by the rising hills and the gradually changing colors of the trees. The sun was just setting. And everywhere, I smelled garlic. Oh heaven.

This evening, I went to a restaurant in Rhinebeck, about 20 miles north. Gigi Trattoria. I ordered the half-order of the bolognese with their homemade fettucini; and a salad of arugula and shaved parm to finish. The fettucini arrived, and I realized immediately something was off. Way off. I tilted my head forward to just give it a sniff - no smell. None. Not from a bolognese. Even when I wasn't pregnant, I could smell the bolognese just sitting back, and it smelled rich, saucy, dense. This, I smelled... nothing. I took a taste, and true to my nose, nothing. Homemade ricotta was good, but the sauce - oy! It really left something to be desired. I ended up asking for the salt, something I never thought I'd have to do with bolognese, but sure enough, there I was, salting this damn plate and mixing it as if for final serving. Oy.

The salad was fine - I selected something that, should the fettucini be off, could really not be messed up, as each component carries with it an inherent flavor or character. The parmesan was salty, but the flavor was not crisp; the arugula was fresh. A squeeze of lemon and their olive oil drizzle dressed the salad. It carried itself all right - but the salad was just huge. Too much for me to finish on my own - perhaps for a table of 4, but for just 1, it really was too big.

I finished the meal with a peach tart, which was touted to come with whipped cream. So, to end my evening of disappointment at Gigi's, out came a cake with peaches baked on top, and vanilla ice cream on the side. The cake was too much, so I ended up just eating the peaches, some of the accompanying strawberries, and half of the ice cream. Alas, not the perfect meal, but it filled the void.

So now I bow out, to catch some zzzz's before my morning rise and shine. Until tomorrow!

1/2 Trip Northward, Please

I am now here in NJ, half way up the way to the Hudson. Yes, my lower back has started to hurt a bit from long periods of sitting, and now I know I can no longer drive the whole way up without a stop here and there. It really wasn't difficult to force myself to stop - my bladder was screaming all the way up from Baltimore, so as soon as I hit the first rest stop, off I went, darting to the women's room, to breathe my sigh of relief. I also nabbed a banana and a fried chicken leg for a little snack (what could I do, it really was just sitting there beckoning to me.). But now, I am at Aunt and Uncle's house, in NJ, enjoying their hospitality and the cooler northern air. I'm getting ready to head out again, to continue my way up to the CIA.

Now one thing I didn't realize, and that I had forgotten, was that the drive up from Washington really isn't that big of a deal... that is, until you get to New Jersey. In order to keep up with everyone else on the road and not find yourself the welcome recipient of friendly finger number 1, it's lead foot leading the way. I ended up getting here faster than I had originally planned, so it gave me some good time to find some ingredients to make a Taiwanese dish for my relatives today. Last night, Aunt fixed up a wonderful linguini with clam sauce - lots of parsley and fragrant garlic, with olive oil and clam juice. She went through the trouble of actually cooking real clams (I just shortcut it when I'm at home w/canned chopped clams!). We enjoyed it with a side of roasted vegetables (assortment of bell peppers and eggplant), and it was just the right amount for dinner.

Today's lunch, I am planning to make for her...

Taiwanese Oyster Noodles
Bunch of thin noodles (enough just to serve for who is eating right away, preferably from an Asian store - they're white, thin, individually bundled with a black band, in a cardboard shell wrapped with clear cellophane)
3 bunches scallions, sliced into 1" long pieces, both green and white parts
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked to reconstitute and then sliced thin
4 oz chicken breast, sliced thin (I don't have this today, we'll see how the dish comes out)
oil for stir-frying
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups water
10 oz can of oysters (I ended up finding only dried ones, none fresh or frozen, so they're soaking right now, overnight, to reconstitute - we'll have to see how they come out)
2 cups cilantro leaves, loosely packed
salt, white pepper, hot pepper flakes to taste
Corn starch and water mixture to thicken soup
Enough extra leaves of cilantro for garnish, one per bowl of noodle soup

Boil up some water and cook the noodles until just al dente - remove from heat and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.

Soak the mushrooms in hot water for 10 minutes to reconstitute, and slice up the scallions. Heat up your fry pan (I'll be using a wok), enough to hold about 4 cups water. Rinse off the mushrooms and slice thin. Add oil to the fry pan, and heat to gently rippling. Add the scallions, and quickly stir-fry. Add mushrooms, soy sauce, and sugar, and quickly stir fry. Add water (I actually use the water the mushrooms have been soaking in, as it's infused so well with the mushrooms' flavor) and bring to a boil. Add oysters, salt, white pepper, and hot pepper flakes, to taste, along with the cilantro. Bring soup to a boil, and add the corn starch/water mixture to thicken. (This mixture will thicken as it cools.) Add in your noodles to just before serving. Garnish w/extra cilantro leaves (one per bowl).

There are a couple of items I'm missing for this recipe (namely, the chicken breast), and a couple others that I've substituted (namely, the dried oysters) so we'll see how the flavors come together. I'll keep you posted...

Maus een zee Haus!

Yeah OK, it's been a crazy week. I'm gearing up, getting ready to head out to the Culinary Institute for my week-long Boot Camp this upcoming week - during which I plan to keep my blog active (as much as possible, unless I completely zonk out at the end of each long day). And with deadlines, events, and all other things going on, I haven't kept my blog up as much as I would have liked. Highlights of the week? Two things - I got a chance to meet up with my friend Melissa, as she and her husband have just moved into town, not far from where we live. So very exciting! She is perhaps the only one of my college friends who could make sense of and laugh at my funny haha: My OB had told me, he would prefer that I not travel via plane, because he'd prefer that he not have to name a child Dulles; to which I thought, hell Dulles no, we'd name it Eero! Ha HA! We met up on Thursday at a local pub, for some grub, and had a great time catching up. Cookingwise, not much going on - there were two PB/honey sandwich evenings, 1 cheesesteak lunch, 1 pizza dinner, and my evening with Melissa was dressed up with steamed shrimps with spices (yum!) and buffalo wings (double yum, though to much to eat!). It didn't help that it was 35 cent buffalo wing night, and now, I've got that on my radar (DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!). Yup, my crazy eat out or badly each night week. Gotta have it some time.

The other highlight was my date afternoon with Hubby - I took off early yesterday, told the bosses I was playing hookie to hang out with Hubby after not having seen him for a good part of 3 weeks as he was cranking on his deadline at work. Good "have fun!" and "good luck next week!"'s later, I was home, around 3, and we planned out our afternoon. A stop at a museum, a couple of errands, and dinner somewhere - that's all we really planned. More or less, it was just nice to hang out with him, as I will be gone for the entirety of the week. We stopped by the Hirshhorn, to see what they were showing, in some misty rain. We then headed to the Sign of the Whale, where my alma mater is planning to have their event to welcome the local alumni of the Class of 2006 this week, so that I could work out the selection of appetizers with the manager in time for the event (which, alas, I will miss). We met Vito - fantastic guy, warm, hearty, with that deep laughter you can expect from someone who has seen the good and bad in life. So that got worked out, and then we headed to Georgetown to do a little shopping and to grab some grub. We had Thai last night, I some pad thai, Hubby some panang curry. Good food all around, albeit too much pad thai for me, but hey, there's a meal Hubby can have some time this week.

So we come to this morning. I was ready to head out and run a couple of errands before beginning my trip northward (yes, I know, Boot Camp doesn't start until Monday, but a long drive straight up without any stops didn't really appeal to me). I reached into my work bag, which I set on our dining chair, away from any walls, and what to my surprise? Said mouse has found a way to get his sorry little ass onto the chair, into my bag, to nab some bites out of my apple. OK, normally, my buddhist being says, "Be kind, be gentle, live, and let live." I should know this - in the past, when we've had other mice in the, um, hise, before I told Hubby what predicament we've walked into, I've thought up a name for the little critter(s), drawn up a story (HIS NAME IS WILBUR HE'S THE YOUNGEST OF 16 HAS HUGE BROWN INNOCENT EYES AND HAS A MATE AND HAS JUST HAD 20 LITTLE ONES PLEASE DON'T NAB HIM HE'S JUST LOOKING FOR THE LITTLE MORSELS LEFT ON OUR LITTLE KITCHEN RUG!!), to which Hubby would glare at me, as having given a creature a name makes it just that much more difficult to prepare the guillotine.

I'd strut away from the icy glare, proud of my accomplishment in allowing another little creature to live among us through, usually, the coldest months, during which there is no food to be found outside. Alas, this time, I am sure it is not Wilbur (as we have nabbed a couple of mice in the past, since they keep making it a habit to eat my vegetable seeds that I was trying to start for planting outside). The story of Wilbur - he really was a cute mouse, wasn't afraid, would come within a foot of my foot in the kitchen to beg for some little morsels from my cooking. I'd "accidentally" let some pieces of vegetable fall to the floor, or some little bit of bread, and off he'd go, stashing it in his mouth, and to his home in our home. Then there was Eliza, who was a scaredy mouse, peeked out at us once in a while, didn't dare make full body show. She didn't last long before we nabbed her.

This time around, things are different. It started innocently enough - the mouse or mice ate my seeds that I was trying to start in an egg crate on the floor for the winter season (beets, eggplant, squash). And then, they moved to my apples on the countertop. I would have these apples for one of my 6 daily meals, you see - so when they do a little bit, off went one of my meals. Eat preggie's food, get thrown in the slammer - that rule now dictates the pattern of food in the house. The day of reckoning has come - but Hubby is making it easy on me, as he is planning to set out traps while I am gone. In the mean time, all of our countertop food has moved to the center island, and here's to hoping said Maus does not learn how to become Sir Mausmund Hillary before we nab them - hopefully, before I return.

Gloomy Monday

9.11. Day of rememberence, of reflection. For each American, this day carries with it something different - we each have our own experience of the day and of its aftermath, and our reflection is unique to ourselves. Mine was the day of the 3 hour commute as I drove with my little pet guinea pigs in my car, in parking-lot traffic trying to make my way out of Washington DC, to my boyfriend's (now said Hubby) house, not knowing what would hit next and what was or was not safe; and then of watching the news for the rest of the day, only to dart back into an eerily quiet DC, to pick up a change of clothes so that I didn't have to stay at my condo that evening, which, mind you, was a mere 5 blocks from the White House. It was a profound day, a day of awakening, that we are not alone in this country. My parents rushed me out of Taiwan for fear of a Communist attack after the US Government declaration that China was the real China. We sought refuge in the US, thinking this land to be the land of hope and of some level of safety. That day 5 years ago, I came to the realization that, as temporary keepers for what short time we live on this mass of land and water, and so long as greed and some twisted sense of supriority reigned in the human psyche, the human species will experience no sense of true safety, true hope, and true freedom. Alas, nothing is ever perfect...and yet, at times, we really can get just enough of what we need to get by.

With reflection in my mind as I biked home this evening, I thought to make something that my father often makes for Hubby and me when we go visit. And, the day being quite gray and chilly, I thought this dish to be appropriate. Beef noodle soup, a very Chinese dish, a fast-food dish, often found in street kiosks at lunchtime, a wonderful conglomeration of spiciness, saltiness, and sourness.

Chinese Beef Noodle Soup
I started this dish not really knowing exactly how to make it, but I did remember some of the ingredients my father used, and improvised to develop my own flavor. I used our left-over spaghetti from our pork chop noodle soup, just brought it out of the fridge. I had 1 small left-over tomato from my visit to the farmer's market 2 weeks back, a small head of green-leaf lettuce (I was in lack of Chinese cabbage, which would have been the right thing to add, blanched), Chinese fried shallots, and some store-bought low-sodium beef broth. I also brought out some thin-sliced beef (though stew-style or kabob-style cuts can also be used). I seasoned the beef with some salt and white pepper, and let it defrost while I took my shower after my ride home.

I came back to the kitchen to partially defrosted beef, which I turned over to season the other side (same, with salt and white pepper). I coarsely chopped the tomato. Using a medium saucepan, I laid the beef slices in with the first seasoned side down. Heated up the beef, and sauteed it sans oil in the hot pan until it changed color. Then, I added the tomatoes to the pot, and seasoned lightly with some soy sauce and some dried chili pepper flakes. I added the fried shallots, stirred to mix, and let the mixture cook a bit to draw out some of the tomato juices. I then added the beef broth, brought the mixture to a boil, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. At the end of the 5 minutes, I threw in the left-over pasta and the lettuce leaves, just to heat and blanch, and turned off the heat after about 1 minute. If you actually have Chinese cabbage, unlike my explosion of expletives when I realized I was in lack of this essential ingredient, blanch it, chopped into big 2" pieces, in water for 2 minutes, and add it at the end, just before serving. That was it - dinner in a bowl, ready to go, and fairly easy!


As I cooked this dish this evening, I reflected on my parents, and how much they cooked when I was growing up. I never really thought much of it, and I didn't compare how we ate to how others ate, not until later on in life, after having left their house. I remember talking with one of my office colleagues about a particular dish, dumplings in chicken soup, and, while he came from a more southern root, and I from roots half way around the world, we relaly were surprised how closely the dishes matched each other and how much they really satisfied the soul. I take no shame in declaring that I love that dish that my parents made for me when I was little, and though they both were very well off as doctors in Taipei by the time I came along, they still cooked this peasant's dish at home. I remembered that not long ago, I asked my father for the recipe, and he just laughed. That's poor people's food, he declared. Your mother's family and my family ate that as a filling food, because the dumplings did fill you up, and they were inexpensive to make, he laughed. But I love that dish, no matter the roots.

If not for my parents' family roots, if not for their hard earlier life, if not for all the circumstances that surround our every day - we may be very different people from who we are today. If not for my parent's poor family status growing up, they may not have had as much experience cooking at home, and they may have gone out to eat more often - and I may not have had as much opportunity to cook and to enjoy cooking, and to be able to appreciate some of the food they brought to the table, rich or poor. If not for my family's - and in particular, my maternal grandmother's - foundation of market-scouring and home cooking, I would be a very different person today. I would not sacrifice any part of my family's histories, for better or for worse, for sake of losing what daily joy I find in the kitchen.

Dad comes in for a visit!

Last week was a whirlwind. Hubby had (and still has) a deadline on a project, and evenings were busy with events. With the coming of the weekend, I had a coversation with Dad earlier in the week, to catch up and to talk with him about a couple of recipes that I wanted to try out. There was, in my earlier days in Taiwan and my visits back with family, a wonderful dish, that I always wanted to try to make, but had not had the time yet to just give it a shot: fried pork chop noodle soup. They serve it at this one restaurant in the basement food court level of a department store; and, alas, this restaurant ended up closing not long ago. It's probably a basic dish, considering that they churned this stuff out for patrons left and right, but there are no recipes for it really, to give me any hints on the spices they use to flavor the pork prior to deep frying, or how they go about making their soup. All I know is, if someone made it right, I'd know it from the first taste. But, I have yet to find anyone who can make it this side of the Pacific. So there I was, talking with Dad, and he suggested, how about he just come visit for the weekend, and we can make it together. That was a fantastic idea - we could use the help of 2 familiar tongues to see if we've got the recipe right.

Fried Pork Chop Noodle Soup
Dad actually came prepared, with pork chops already marinating in soy sauce, scallions, salt, pepper, and sugar. The mixture smelled wonderful, but a bit strong... nevertheless, we pressed onward. He also brought some vinegar-pickled mustard greens, a very Chinese ingredient, and definitely not for the light of nasal-sensed. Flavorwise, I find it really wonderful, it's sour, it's salty, but it definitely is not something that a typical American would just pick up off the shelf and say, hey, I'll throw this into a soup, and it'll taste just dandy. He also brought some cucumbers from his garden (yay, at least his cukes survived the heat wave - mine died...), which we would slice and marinate with salt, sugar, and vinegar as a side dish. The marinated cukes is a good balance for the meat/noodle-heavy soup, since the cukes have a wonderful sweet and light flavor. Poor Dad, though - while trying out my mandoline, on which I also sliced a small sliver of my thumb, he took a good hard slice of HIS thumb, and we were playing EMT in the kitchen with my first-aid kit. Word of warning - a mandoline, while convenient in slicing everything under the sun, also takes with it the convenience of slicing, well, everything under the sun. We learned that lesson the sharp way.

So after our little emergency session, we took the pork chops, dredged them in a mixture of corn starch, white pepper, and black pepper; and got them ready for frying. A pot of oil hot and ready to go, Dad took care of deep frying the chops while I chopped up the mustard greens into little slivers. I also cooked up some spaghetti, and drained it. Using the same pot, I heated up some chicken broth for the soup base. In just about an hour, we were ready to go with our dish - some spaghetti into our bowls, some soup to surround, a little pile of pickled mustard greens beside the spaghetti, and finally the fried pork chop on top. The pork chops were really wonderful, very flavorful, and balanced well with the sourness of the mustard greens and the base of the soup. Not exactly like we remembered (next time, I'm going to try just marinating the pork chops in just salt, pepper, and sugar; and dredge in the same corn starch mixture, omitting the soy/scallion items, which seemed to overpower the flavor of the meat.

Pickled cucumbers
Cukes sliced thin, and we mixed them with some salt to coat and to flavor. I placed the cukes in a colander, to allow the water extraction from the cukes (by the salt) to drain off. After about an hour, we added some sugar and vinegar, to taste - personal preference will dictate how much you add to your cukes. You can go ahead and just eat the cukes as soon as you've mixed in the sugar and vinegar, or you can let it sit in the fridge overnight if you'd like. I personally think the next day, they taste even better, having let all the flavors meld together.


So that was Saturday, and this morning, Hubby, Dad, and I went to a local diner to have some brunch. It was all right, not all that impressed - their apple wood smoked bacon was a bit too smoky, and the waffles were a bit too thin, almost like toast. The flavors were still good, and I was impressed by their moist scones (Dad's order), their sausage links, and, most of all, the maple syrup they set on our tables (instead of the usual corn syrupy bleah). We returned in the early afternoon, and Dad was getting ready to head on back home.

With Dad heading off, and Hubby at work to catch up on his deadline, I was left, wha ha ha ha ha, to my own devices. I decided to bake some items for this week - I settled on some lemon poppyseed muffins, a la Joy of Cooking, and I also added in some raisins for texture. Having gotten some inspiration on the scones from brunch, I also decided to make some scones, a la Best Recipes (from Cooks Illustrated) - this was a tip from a good friend of mine Jess, who made scones one time for a girls' day trip that filled our car with wonderful smells.

I followed the recipe this time to a T, and used a food processor that they called for instead of my usual standing mixer. I found, by using the food processor, I was able to get a finer grain in cutting the butter into the dry ingredients, and the flour seems to have been better coated with the butter than any other method I've tried. BTW, I've tried them all - hand mixing, standing-mixer mixing, and hand-held mixer mixing. I may also try this same method for my pie crusts in the future! In addition to the heavy cream that the recipe called for, I mixed in my experimental choice of additions - raisins, as well as 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The dough turned out moist and sticky, and after patting the dough down to about 3/4" thickness, I cut rounds out of it. Baked it for 14 minutes at 425, and they turned out pretty well. I could probably have turned off the oven at 12 minutes, but thought I'd leave them in just a bit longer to further brown the top, but the bottoms did get a little scorched. Nonetheless, after letting them cool, I took a smidgen of a bite, and they came out pretty good - moist in the center, not heavy and dense like some of my other scone efforts. This time, I did pay close attention to not overmix, which is something I can be *badly* prone to do in baking - and my close attention paid off.

And now, it's dinnertime - I may just have a slice of that left-over pizza we still have in the fridge. Until tomorrow!

Labor day weekend, sans really all that labor

Ahh Labor Day weekend - the weekend for rest, relaxation, and a whole lot of cooking! Not that I did a ton and had to replace appliances, but I did do some good damage in the kitchen. Saturday morning I had my usual visit to the farmer's market, albeit rainy, where I ran into a friend of mine from school, Jessie, and her little baby son George Jr., who happen to live not far from us. It gave us good time to catch up, and to also celebrate my new little news (and by the way, this week we will be our 12-week mark!). So to the market I walked, drenched in the rain from the thighs down, but I did score some small pears, heirloom tomatoes, raisin rolls, and baguette. Saturday was also the day we had a wonderful in-area visit from Hubby's Sister and Brother-in-law, along with their new little baby son, whom I hadn't met yet; and Brother-in-law's family was having a party. I made some little sweet-potato cheesecakes, to celebrate the cooler weather and the oncoming fall season.

Sweet Potato Cheesecakes
2 8 oz. boxes cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato (but you could also use pumpkin if you'd like!)
2 egg whites
1 large egg

(and I made the graham cracker crust from the recipe on the side of one box of those crackers)

Preheat the oven to 350. Move the top rack into the middle of the oven, and keep the lower rack at the lowest position. Grease your cheesecake pan(s) of choice.

Crush up the graham crackers (I used a food processor to make the job easier), and mix with the melted butter to make the crust. Press into the bottom of your pan (I used a 12-cake mini-cheesecake pan, with bottoms that push upward to lift everything out, with 6 4" mini-quiche pans, which also have those bottoms that push up; but you can also use regular springform pans). Chill in the fridge.

Make your filling! Whip together the cream cheese and sour cream until thoroughly mixed and fluffy. Add the light brown sugar, mix thoroughly. Add in the mashed sweet potato, and mix thoroughly until uniform. Add the egg whites and the egg one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Put them together now... take out your pan from the fridge, and pour in your filling until about 1/4" from the top. Stick your cake(s) onto the top rack, and place a pan (I used a pie pan) of water on the bottom rack. Bake for:

1. mini cheesecakes or 4" quiche-sized cheesecakes - about 30-35 minutes
2. springorm-sized cheesecake - about 40 minutes.

Let cool on a rack before chilling, and don't even try to release the cakes before you chill them!


So that was Saturday, along with a whole lot of bonk bonk of crabs at the host's house.

Sunday, not too much going on. We ended up going to get some Salvadorean take-out for dinner, but nothing too fancy duing the day.

Monday, Labor Day - we had our friend, Mike, over for dinner, and I decided on a menu of gumbo to start; roasted chicken, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies as the main course; a salad to finish; and our friend was in charge of the dessert. The day getting gray and chilly, the menu seemed befitting. I'll tell you, even cooking at home the whole day, with all the smells already surrounding me, I could still tell, the house smelled amazing by the time Mike came over at 8. I also made a couple other little dishes, one of which I still need to finish wrapping, but that's to follow.

Cornbread
I used the Joy of Cooking for my cornbread - Northern Cornbread, to get a little more juice in them. Started with corn meal, flour, sugar (I need to remember to add more next time!), and baking risers. Mixed in milk, buttermilk, and eggs. Folded in canola oil and a cup of corn kernels. They rose, and the texture was pretty good, but Hubby wanted sweeter - I'll add a bit more sugar next time (or maybe try substituting applesauce).

Gumbo
If ever, EVER, you've had gumbo that was red in color or looked like it was tomato based - sorry kid, that ain't the right recipe you had. Perhaps more a creole, but it just ain't right. It should be brown, because a proper gumbo starts with a roux, not with tomatoes. You need to have some tools on hand before you get started. Either finely chop, or food process coarsely 1 bell pepper, 1 onion, 2 stalks celery, and 1 clove garlic (you can use the bottled garlic, 1 tablespoon then). Make sure you've got a pot big enough for about a quart and a half of water (about 4 cups), and it should hold its heat well without burning when left on the lowest heat setting on your stove.

The way I start my gumbo: a whole lotta love. A stick of butter, melted in a pan, whisked with a cup of flour, to make a roux. I know I've gotten my roux right when it turns darker brown, smells nutty, and starts to just smell burnt, but not yet - that's the moment when I take it right off the heat. And no substitutions - no margarine, no fake butter, it's gotta be the real thing. Whisk well, taking care not to burn your roux - this may take a couple of times of practice, but you'll get it right. It should be thick, smooth, not dried out, and definitely not burnt.

As soon as my roux starts to turn that corner from just dark and nutty to burnt, I take it right off the heat, and throw in the vegetable mixture as quickly as possible. Stir quickly, until the sizzling stops. Then, stir in to mix until smooth the water, and add some basil and thyme (I go heavy on the thyme). Set this mixture back on the heat, bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer at minimum 2 hours, and usually, I go 4. Stir it every so often, about once every half an hour, just to make sure the bottom, which will stick, doesn't start to go dry and burn on you - because, at that point, there's no saving the gumbo.

After this simmering time, add in some pre-made cajun seasoning to your liking. I've also approximated the seasoning mix I use with some gumbo file (sassafras leaves), cayenne pepper, granulated garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. Make sure not to add too much, either of the mix or of salt, because the mixture of the gumbo as it's been cooking imparts a wonderful sweetness that you could easily overpower with a heavy salt hand. I then add in cooked crawfish, shrimps, or lobster, and cook until just heated through - since the seafood is already cooked, you don't want to overcook it and make them all rubbery. Serve with a bit of rice, just enough so that it's like soup with some rice, and not the other way around. This dish is the perfect solution for those cold days that will be upon us soon.

Roasted Chicken
Now, I don't know how you do your roast chicken, but I learned to put mine in a brine. This time though, having made the decision to do a roast chicken at the last minute, I didn't have too much time to do the brine, but all the better - it still came out juicy and tasty. For the brine - I mixed enough water to just cover the chicken, with about 1/2 cup of salt. Let sit and marinate for about 2 hours. I roasted the bird, with a mirepoiux of carrots, celery, and onions underneath, for about an hour, with butter tucked under the skin and some lavender honey coating the skin (it gives it a nice brown tint, and also helps to crisp the skin). Internal temperature when I took it was 180 - above the "chicken's done" limit, but it still was juicy, thanks to the brine.

Mashed potatoes and steamed carrots
These are pretty straight-forward - I did my mashed potatoes the same way I did them last Thursday, by nuking them in the nuker, with water about half-way up the sides, first side 5 minutes for 1 large baking potato + 2 smaller red potatoes, then 5 minutes on the other side. I mashed these up with heavy cream and butter.

The carrots, I sliced into sticks and steamed the same way, but for only a minute and a half. Carrots were still semi-crisp on the inside, soft on the outside. The main course was not overly elaborate, but it did hit the spot for our guest - so it's all good!

Salad
I had myself a ton of fun with a new mandoline and a round metal mold. I thin-sliced some beets, and cut rounds out of them. I first wanted to try doing something akin to beet tartar (yes, beet, not beef), but I decided it was just too much beet, and I didn't know what our guest's take would be on beets (I know Hubby would sooner chew off his arm than eat a whole plate of beets, while I, on the other hand, would sooner eat a whole plate of beets than chew of my arm - but that's a whole other discussion.). So, simplicity, simplicity - 4 rounds set in a square on the plate, with a small pile of mixed baby greens on top. Dressing - I mixed heavy cream with some ketchup (yes, ketchup), as well as a fresh grind of pepper and salt to taste. Simple dressing, home-made, sweet and sour - balanced well with some of the bitter greens and the earthy beets.

Our friend brought a strawberry shortcake, and I was ecstatic - yay, cake! A wonderful finish to our meal, with some fruits too to boot.


So I mentioned that I made a couple other dishes, to store away...

Curry pockets
Pan fried some ground chicken, with onions and some corn, along with some premixed curry powder (fenugreek, cinammon, cumin, coriander). I got some pre-made empanada shells, for baking - I have yet to fill those shells with the filling. But, I know, once made, I can freeze them, and to reheat - just stick into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes solid.

Taiwanese Ba-wan
OK, this is a different dish of Taiwanese sorts. I would usually enjoy this at lunch on the weekends, when I don't feel like cooking something elaborate. Stir-fried sliced chicken, fried shallots, chinese mushrooms, and sliced bamboo. Mixed together potato starch, corn starch, and water to a milky consistency. Greased a 6-muffin pan, and spooned in some of the starch mixture just for the bottom. Spooned in the chicken mixtue, and topped with some more of the starch mixture to cover. Steamed in a wok, on high heat and boiling water, for about 20 minutes, and then they just pop right out of the muffin tin. They went right into the freezer, and *hopefully* they didn't come out too hard - this is my first time making this dish.

So that was a long winded summary of our weekend of cooking! Twas fun, enjoyable, but I still have to finish those curry pockets. Alas, late in the evening now, still finishing my dinner of hummus/chicken/veggie wraps... another night then. Until next time - good luck in the kitchen!

Lamentations and Ernesto

So I had the steak last night - oh, lamentations! To the end of my sushi addiction goes also my rare steak addiction, as I sobbed over the wasted juices from the steak while I pan-seared it. Yes, there I was, grilling the damn thing, and I was counting down the months until I can eat it rare again. The steak was still edible, but nothing as good as the way I would usually have it. I had a small salad to start, and a side of baked potato. Well, I do my baked potato a shortcut way, nuke it (depending on size) 5 minutes in a bowl w/water about half-way up the side of the potato, turn it over so wet side is up, and nuke it another 3 minutes. The baked potato I had last night was a small one, so I did it just 3 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second - it came out perfect.

Tonight, with Ernesto blowing up the eastern seaboard, and temperatures dropping like it's already late fall, I felt like nothing short of mac and cheese. Oh, I could have made it at home, no trouble, but I didn't feel terribly much like cooking this chilly evening. So, out we went, Hubby and I, to find me some mac and cheese. We found it, at a local bar restaurant, and their mac and cheese helped fill the void - along with a roast beef au jus - but it was rather bland. Alas what can one do?

So Ernesto - blowing up the eastern seaboard, and Hubby and I had loads of fun after dinner walking down to the waterfront, to see the river fully occupying some of our local streets. We're just strolling out of the restaurant, and Hubby's like, "Hey, let's go see the river!" I'm thinking, well, OK, but I do believe that is the river I'm staring at right in front of me, on the street! He's like, "No... that's just flooding." Well, it was earlier in the day when he went to the same street to check it out - but this evening, it was the full-blown river, coming right up the street! Amazing, and it was much fun stomping around this growth, watching this black mass of water reach its fingers right up the low-lying streets to claim what it could. I'm sure the police who were out patrolling were like, yup, always got a couple of crazies that have to come down and play with the growing river. It was pretty damn cool.