get in the kitchen and make me some pie!

so i dunno about the rest of you peeps, but when it comes to a holiday like thanksgiving (or, as i like to call it: tenksgibbin), what must come at the end of the requisite overeating of turkey and sides is PIE.

we had tenksgibbin with the fultzes (3rd year in a row!), so suz and i split up most of the cooking (feller was in charge of the turkey - which, by the way, we got from Slow Food Russian River's Heritage Turkey program. i think this has to do with SFN's "food ark," but i'm not sure.). for my contribution to the dessert portion of the menu, i decided an apple pie would be good.

i got my apples from the philo apple farm stand at the sf farmers' market. they very conveniently had 3-lb bags of sierra beauties, of which i quickly scooped up one of the last few. i was pretty lucky to be able to snag the one i got, cuz i got there kinda late that day, and let's just say their stand looked as though a tornado had blown through it, there were barely any apples left. VULTURES!!! i also helped myself to an "Art's Apple" (ahem, YES, i paid for it) for a snack; i have to say: it was the best damn apple i've had...well, EVER. unfortunately, the stand wasn't there the next week, so i'm guessing that the apple farm is done for the year. *sniffles*

anyway, i bet many of you have never heard of a "sierra beauty" apple before. if i had to describe them, i would say they're MUCH more tart than a granny smith apple, are about the size and have somewhat similar coloring as a macintosh, and hold up marvelously well to pie baking. no exaggeration: they're about the best apple i've found so far to make pies. for reals!

as i'm sure you know, there are LOTS of apple pie recipes to choose from. so which one did i go with? these sierra beauties were so tart that i could make whatever i friggin felt like, so i decided a "calories-be-damned-this-thing-has-a-lot-of-brown-sugar-and-butter" pie was appropriate: cinnamon crumb apple pie. after all, this was for tenksgibbin, a holiday where counting calories gets thrown out the window about 4-5 times throughout the day. ("oh no, i'm so full, i couldn't have any more stuffing...well, ok, maybe just a smidge more...hey damnit, give me more than THAT, there's a whole bowl full of it! are you hoarding it or something?!" --hunh, what? oh, was just reliving a moment there...sorry.)

this pie is not only delicious, but dead simple to make. for any of you who think making pies is hard: believe me when i say it isn't. everyone thinks crust is difficult, but the only thing you really need to keep in mind for crust is to make sure you keep all the fat as cold as possible (butter, lard, shortening, or some combo of the 3) and that you manhandle the dough as little as possible. (nice visual, right? ;) as for making the decorative crimps, that's easy peasy, lemon squeesy: use the thumb of one hand as the guide/mold and pinch the dough around it with your other hand. and besides, it's a PIE, not a wedding cake. so relax, it doesn't have to be even close to perfect looking. now get in the kitchen and make someone some pie!! recipe is below, enjoy!


Cinnamon Crumb Apple Pie
Crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes
1/4 cup frozen solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/4" cubes
4 tbsps ice water
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Filling
3 lbs Sierra Beauty apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4" thick
2/3 cup sugar2 tbsps all purpose flour
2 tsps ground cinnamon
2 tbsps unsalted butter, melted

Cinnamon Crumb Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsps chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes

Crust
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter and shortening and rub in with fingertips or a pastry cutter until coarse meal forms. Mix 3 tbsps ice water and vinegar in small bowl to blend. Drizzle over flour mixture; stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12” round. Transfer to 9” diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2"; turn edge under and crimp decoratively. Keep in refrigerator while preparing filling and topping.

Filling
Mix all ingredients in large bowl; making sure to coat apples evenly.

Crumb Topping
Blend first 5 ingredients in food processor. Add chilled butter cubes; pulse in until mixture resembles wet sand.Place apple filling in crust, making mound in center. Pack crumb topping around apples.

Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 40 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until filling is bubbling thickly at edges, about 45 additional minutes. Serve either warm or at room temperature. Serves 8-10.

when in tuscany, do as dario does

these last few months have been kind of a doozy. it started on fourth of july weekend when i broke my thumb (and let's not forget my chin - gashed that, too) and ended just recently with a 2-week vacation to italy in september. (yes, my life is nothing *but* hardships.)

sandwiched between the broken thumb and the vacation were several weeks of fun shizzle like taking showers with plastic bags over my hand, using things like my teeth as proxy for -1 opposable thumb, and just generally operating at ~50% capacity in some activities (work) and 0% in others (cooking).

the good news was that by the time we went away on vacation, my thumb was not only out of the cast, but was about 90% functional, which meant i could finally get my cooking back on.

the even better news was we were staying near the town of panzano, home of a famous tuscan butcher: Dario Cecchini. his family have been butchers for the last 250 years in panzano. crikey. (for those of you who can't do the math in your head [yeah, me neither], this would mean these dudes were butchers before things like the "declaration of independence" were even glimmers in our forefathers' eyes...)


anyway, with a butcher shop like that, feller and i went to gape as often as we could get away with, and of course we made sure on the few nights we ate in that we availed ourselves of the most wondrous cuts of meat.

on our final night in tuscany, we went big (but also went home - so there you go, LV, it doesn't always have to be an "or") with a beef tenderloin. i couldn't use the freedmoon classic marinade 'cuz feller isn't down with the mustard, so i improvised a little on a recipe i managed to print out from epicurious, despite the fritzy dsl connection. (apparently rain can knock the interwebs out in chianti.) below is the recipe - enjoy!



Garlic-Herb Roasted Beef Tenderloin

2 2-lb beef tenderloins, tied
6 garlic cloves, finely minced
3 tbsps minced fresh thyme
3 tbsps tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
6 tbsps butter, softened
salt and pepper

In small bowl, mix garlic, herbs, and butter until well combined. Generously salt and pepper beef, then coat with garlic-herb mixture. Refrigerate for at least an hour, up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place beef in roasting pan with rack. Roast until meat thermometer inserted into centers registers 125°F for medium-rare. Transfer to platter and let stand 10 minutes. Slice beef into desired thickness. Serve with red wine sauce (recipe follows); serves 8-10.


Red Wine Sauce

4 tbsps chilled unsalted butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 teaspoon coarsely cracked black pepper
1 cup red wine
3 cups beef stock

Melt 2 tbsps butter in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onions and sauté until soft and translucent. Add rosemary and black pepper and saute for 1 minute. Add wine, bring to a boil, then add beef stock. Boil until reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Strain, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids and return sauce to saucepan. Whisk in remaining 2 tbsps butter. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

this little piggy went to market...

as i was writing about last night, little cami turned 1 this past saturday! part of me can't believe it's already been a year since she was born. i mean, golly, it feels like only last year that her parents were dating, never mind married. oh wait, no, what i mean is it WAS only last year that all of their friends found out they were dating secretly for over 3 years. ...but that's a long story for another time. moving on.

like i was saying, little cutie cami turned 1 this past saturday. i asked if i could bake the cake, because i have a huge soft spot for her. (yes, shocking, i know) of course, how can i help myself? not only is she extremely cute, she also seems to enjoy my company... frankly, this pleases me about as much as it worries yi-fang. which is to say: immensely.

anyway, for those of you who don't know, 2007 is the year of the pig (don't worry, i didn't know either). cami's parents are both chinese (although yif will take pains to point out that HE is not a canton like p), so p thought it would be fitting - not to mention funny - to have a piggy birthday cake.

now, for those of you who don't know her, p does what she can to, ah, influence dinner and dessert menus in order to maximize her eating pleasure. in my baking repertoire, her favorite dessert is banana whipped cream chocolate cake. you can guess what it was she first requested. only problem is, p had been holding off on giving cami any sugar until she turned one, so she had no idea if cami would react well to chocolate. now p is many things (and i like to tease and give her a hard time on about half of them;), but when it comes to cami - oooog, it pains me to pay her any compliments - she's a great mother to that cutie pie. i say this with certainty because p actually sacrificed an opportunity to have *HER* favorite cake and asked that i make a toddler friendly flavor: banana.

this suited me just fine, because banana cake is ridiculously easy to make, and is universally loved (except, um, by matt sweenlinghouse and byron... both hate bananas. weirdos, the both of them!). the cake had to serve about 35 people, so i decided to make a 2-tiered cake (6" and 10" cakes), with a banana caramel cream filling and cream-cheese icing. i used all organic / pastured / sustainable ingredients... well, except for the jelly beans; yes, even i have to make compromises with high-fructose corn syrup sometimes. i used white (coconut) jelly beans on the snout and brown (root-beer) ones for the toes. check out the photo yif took of it and let me know what you think. i think it came out pretty cute, if i do say so myself! recipe is below. enjoy!!!



Banana Layer Cake with Caramel Cream and Cream Cheese Icing

Banana Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs

Banana-Caramel Cream Filling
3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
1 small ripe banana, peeled, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar

Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and then dust with flour 2 9" round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Sift dry ingredients together in medium bowl. Combine bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla in another medium bowl. Using electric mixer, on high speed cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend after each addition. Add dry ingredients alternately with banana mixture in 3 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter equally among cake pans.

Bake cakes until tops are just beginning to color and tester inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool cakes in pans on rack for 10 minutes, then turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

Filling
Combine brown sugar, banana, and butter in processor; blend until smooth. Add 3/4 cups whipping cream; blend. Transfer to heavy medium saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture boils. Cook without stirring pan until mixture reaches 218°F. Pour caramel into bowl. Cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally.

Whisk remaining whipping cream in large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually fold in cooled caramel mixture. Chill until cream is firm enough to spread, about 3 hours.

Frosting
Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and then gradually beat in powdered sugar. Cover and refrigerate frosting until firm enough to spread, about 15 minutes.

Cake assembly
Place 1 cake layer on cake platter. Spread banana caramel cream evenly, then top with 2nd layer. Frost cake with cream cheese frosting. Cake be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Let stand 1 hour at room temperature before serving. Serves 8-10.

palatable pot roast

so my broken thumb is now nearly not broken. i should be getting the "all clear" from the doc in about 2 more weeks, meaning i'll be able to resume my impressive feats of right-handed strength... up to and including twisting doorknobs, eating sandwiches, and holding cups. (please please, contain yourselves. no autographs, NO AUTOGRAPHS!)

in any event, last wednesday, the dr pulled out the pins that were holding my bone in place as it healed. i think he said something about taking it "easy" and to "go slow," but i wasn't really listening, so i'm not sure. besides, i had a party to cook for. my friends' daughter - cami! - was turning 1 this past saturday (also the 1-year anniversary of my spilling an entire liter of slice on the front passenger floor of my car...long story...still haven't really cleaned it up, either *sheepish blush*), and i was pretty determined to help provide the grub. specifically some kind of beef dish. why beef? well, not being able to cook for the last several weeks has caused my frozen meat collection to grow considerably ("useless hand" never factored into my calcs wrt joining that meat csa), so i jumped at the chance to contribute something substantial enough to make a dent into my supplies.

i selected two chuck roasts and thought over what the fudge i could do with them. "pot roast" was the obvious answer... but as this was going to be a lunchtime partay, i figured pot-roast sandwiches were a better bet. after all, my meat slicer was languishing away, calling to me, desperate to understand what it had done wrong that would make me turn my back on it... oops, sorry, got carried away there. i mean, c'mon, i know meat slicers don't have feelings. (right?)

so you're probably wondering how the fudge can you slice pot roast with a meat slicer; it's so tender there's no way, right? well, not if you refrigerate it overnight. when you do that, it firms up and becomes very easy to slice, and thin no less. then it's just a matter of reheating it before serving it. and besides, everyone knows that pot roast always tastes better the second night. what's that? you DIDN'T KNOW?!?!?! sheesh. well, it's true. (the key is to let it hang out in the gravy.) for the party, we served the very tender, thinly sliced pot roast on some nice and crusty fresh baguette, with the gravy on the side. delish. recipe below; should be started at least the day before you plan on serving it. enjoy!


Korean-Style Pot Roast
4 lbs chuck roast
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sake
3 tbsps Korean hot red pepper paste
1/2 cup brown sugar

Rinse and pat dry chuck roast. Rub 1/4 cup of brown sugar all over roast, and place meat in slow cooker. In a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, water, vinegar, sake, red pepper paste, and rest of brown sugar until well combined. Pour marinade over beef. Set slow cooker on high and cook for 5 hours, or until beef is fork tender. Turn off slow cooker and cool in juices. Remove meat from slow cooker and wrap tightly in tinfoil; pour pan juices into a quart measuring cup. Place both in refrigerator overnight.

The next day, slice meat to desired thickness. Discard fat from pan juices, and season with additional red pepper paste and sugar if necessary. Place beef and pan juices in a 9" x 13" baking dish. At this point, you can refrigerate overnight for some additional marination. When you're ready to serve, preheat oven to 350 degrees; cover baking dish with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes. Serves 8-10.

no bargains at flea street cafe

the weekend after i broke my thumb (and um, also gashed my chin), we went to dinner with our friends lyd and mikey venturson. they live in saratoga, we live in sf, so when we get together for "dinner out," we usually pick a restaurant that's somewhere in the middle-ish.

this go-round, lyd picked the place: flea street cafe in menlo park. i think it might actually have been technically my turn, but that week, between keeping my hand elevated 24/7, finding out i needed surgery, getting surgery, and then dealing with the kind of pain that only overmedicating will take care of, i was pretty much useless. thankfully, most of the pain subsided by saturday early afternoon, so dinner out was a go.

when we got to the restaurant, we were greeted by numerous copies of a cookbook - strangely, one that i actually owned: Simply Organic. in fact, it was the very first cookbook i went out and bought after i read Omnivore's Dilemma (no, not my first cookbook ever). turns out the author of Simply Organic lives in the area and owns flea street cafe. guess i need to read those book prefaces more often. oh well. lyd had told me she chose the restaurant b/c she read about how it supports sustainable, organic farmers/producers. all in all, pretty cool and random (although i guess it wouldn't have been random had i bothered to read the front of the cookbook).

for our first course, i chose the toybox squash fritters (i'm not a good judge of deep-fried food. i luv it all); kevin and mikey had the caesar salad (very tasty); and lyd had the raw beet "ravioli" (she liked it). pretty great start.

i then made the mistake of ordering the salmon. long ago, i decided i would never order salmon at restaurants b/c they always cook it past where i like it. well, my non ability to cut my food for the next 4 weeks was 100% the reason i ordered it. MISTAKE. not the restaurant's fault at all since no one can cook salmon the way i like it except me. mikey had the salmon, too, and seemed to really like it. it came with beet potato mash, early summer vegetables (broccoflower and baby carrots), and a trio of sauces (though i forget what they were. they were kind of like chutneys.) kevin enjoyed the steak (hearst farms grass-raised rib eye), which came with a blue cheese topping and scalloped potatoes. lydia had the short ribs, which came with horseradish cream and summer beans, organic tomatoes, roasted new potatoes as sides. she won the ordering award for the night. the short ribs were great.

for dessert, we all shared the basil lemon cake (very yummy) and the midnight chocolate cake (VERY chocolate-y!).

all in all, dinner is best described as solid - i'd say a 3 out of 5. service was solid, the food was solid (despite the rigmarole with the salmon). that said, it was somewhat pricey - and i say that even after accounting for the higher cost of the organic / sustainable ingredients - and this is excluding the alcohol (although for once, *I* didn't have any. i know, shocking. do you mind picking yourselves off the floor? THANK you.). so if you go there, know that you might feel a little sticker shock given the cost v. the overall food experience. bottom line is this is a place that while i won't be rushing back to, i'd certainly be open to going to again.

venerable veggie burgers

well, dudes, i broke my right thumb this weekend, so posts for the next few weeks are going to be a bit shorter than usual (or, at least take a LOT longer than usual), since i only have use of my left hand. (i guess this is when i'll find out if my nursery school teachers forced me to be right handed - i've been suspicious i was supposed to be a lefty for years.)

anyhoo, i'm making the effort to post tonight because i promised jsk i would share the veggie burger recipe i used this weekend for my contribution to the fultzes 4th of july bbq. i dunno about you, but most veggie burgers are pretty gross: discs of disgustingness, if you will. hence why i wasn't interested in buying any prepackaged ones for the shindig. there happened to be a very interesting quinoa burger recipe in the july issue of martha stewart magazine, so i knew this was my opportunity to try it out. i luv quinoa with as much passion as a person can feel towards a grain product without feeling deep shame, so any excuse to cook with it works for me.

well, it turns out that not only did the adults who tried them like them (vadim, katie, jsk, p, and mwah), but they were a hit with the little kiddies, too. both cammy and jaden ate them like they were candy. frankly, when a toddler loves your cooking, it doesn't get much better than that. ultimate compliment, 'cuz kiddies don't choke something down to be polite; they'll just spit it back out and scream. (hunh, what's that? cammy and jaden will eat anything? oh... [awkward, crushed pause])

well ah, moving on, the recipe (changed to my tastes) is very simple. the one thing i would say is these burgers are relatively fragile, so be careful as you flip them. enjoy!


Quinoa Burgers

8 oz portobello mushrooms, stems removed, coarsely chopped
1 small summer squash
1/4 cup finely minced onion
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps unsalted butter

In a food processor, pulse mushrooms until they resemble a coarse paste, and transfer to a bowl. Using fine shredding disk, shred zucchini, then using paper towels, squeeze several times to remove as much water as possible. Add zucchini to mushrooms.

Heat 2 tbsps olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and red pepper flakes, and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and zucchini, and cook until tender, another 2 minutes. Place mixture in a medium bowl, add Parmesan, quinoa, and salt and pepper to taste. Let mixture cool slightly, then stir in breadcrumbs and then egg. Cover, and refrigerate until cold and firm, about 1 hour.

Firmly shape quinoa mixture into 6 patties. Using a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, melt butter with 2 tbsps olive oil. Cook patties until golden brown, crispy, and cooked through, about 5-7 minutes per side. Serves 6.

4 down, 51 more to go

so before february of this year, kevin and i would go out to dinner. a lot. or order in. a lot. in other words, i wasn't cooking. very much. at all.

but all that changed once i read Omnivore's Dilemma; i started to cook almost every night, and somewhere along the way, we forgot that the bay area has a lot of great restaurants that subscribe to the sustainable ethos.

then, the sf chronicle's 2008 top-100 bay area restaurant list came out in april, and i realized there was some work i had to attend to. life can be so *difficult* sometimes, right?! well, it's now the beginning of july and i thought i would report back on the progress made.

the bad (horribly pathetic) news is i've only made headway on 4 of the 55. for those of you wondering, that's a totally lame-o 7.272727272727272727%. shameful. at that rate, i will definitely NOT accomplish my goal to try all 55 before the new list comes out. *sniffles. honnnnnnnnnnnk* like i said, life can be so difficult sometimes. and if i were being perfectly honest, "4" is actually "3" because i realized literally tonight i've already eaten at chow. oops. heehee.

AAAANYway, the good news is that of the 3 places i've bona-fide, brand-new been to, two of them were great, and one of them was solid.

the first place was kaygetsu in menlo park. we went with feller and suz fultz. jaden didn't come with; apparently he had better options that night. whatever. that dude thinks he's too cool for school or something. his loss anyway, because dinner - which was a multi-course tasting menu - was awesome. i highly recommend if you like japanese food; and make sure to get the sake pairing. everything was beautifully prepared, extremely fresh, and most importantly: tasty. it's definitely not cheap, so save this place for a special occasion (or not, if you're high-roller money bags). when you go, try to ignore that it's in a random strip mall. (for reals; but don't worry, you'll forget once you're inside the restaurant.) definitely will be going back to this place. someday.

the second place was incanto in noe valley. the service was a little spotty (took them about 15 minutes to even give us menus), but the food was pretty good. we stuck with pasta for our main dishes, so i have no idea how well they prepare their entrees. for appetizers, i had the pig's trotter with foie gras, bacon & roasted figs (extremely rich; i shouldn't have PIGGED OUT and eaten so much of it. get it?! PIGGED OUT? hahah-- *sigh* never mind.); kevin had the little gem salad with house vinaigrette and shaved parmesan cheese. for dinner, i had the bucatini with sardinian cured tuna heart, egg yolk & parsley; yi-wyn had the handkerchief pasta with rustic pork ragù; kevin had the rigatoni with an heirloom tomato sauce. yi-wyn's was the best out of the three; mine was definitely the most unusual, but solid. (we didn't stay for dessert and decided to go to mitchell's for ice cream instead.) basically, the restaurant was good enough that i'd go back if someone else said they wanted to try it, but i doubt i'll go again on my own.

the last place was pizzaiolo in oakland. to be honest with you, before this restaurant list came out, i had NO idea that there were so many great places to eat in the east bay, much less in oakland. the executive chef/owner of the restaurant used to cook at chez panisse, supposedly manning the pizza oven for 8 years and learning how to use local, seasonal ingredients from the master herself. i had the black mission figs with prosciutto, crème fraîche and mint; kevin had the little gem caesar salad (damn good croutons). for dinner, we shared a margherita pizza, which had this really great spicy tomato sauce (i'm very picky about tomato sauce) and a nice thin crust with perfectly charred and soft-yet-chewy edges. for dessert, i had the affogato made with a shot of blue bottle espresso [my absolute favorite coffee. *contented sigh*]; kevin had the dark chocolate pine nut tart. the whole meal was excellent and reasonably priced (and this includes the fact we both had proseccos, kevin had a chimay, and i had an old fashioned with bulleit bourbon. ...which also explains why i decided i needed a jigsaw puzzle afterwards. long story, don't worry about it.). i'll definitely be going back. (pizzaiolo, not jigsaw puzzle store. ok, maybe i'd go back there, too.)

so that's that for now. hopefully i'll be able to pick up the pace. in fact, on the docket are nopa and bar bambino in the next few weeks. i'll be sure to let you know how all of this goes. did i mention that life can be so *difficult* sometimes? no? well it can be. very.

using your noodle(s)

i've been kind of tired these last couple weeks, so i haven't had as much energy to cook dinner every night. still, a girl has to eat, so on one of the nights this week where i was just so not in the mood to stand over a hot stove, kevin and i went out to dinner instead.

i made reservations on opentable (luv it - suits my desire to not have to talk on the phone) at a place called circolo in our neighborhood. in hindsight, i should have realized the fact this joint offered 1K bonus points was a big red flag.

circolo is in the space that used to be home several years ago to tasty gordon's house of fine eats. do any of you remember it? that place rocked - good thing, too, with a name like that, otherwise: *awwwwkward*. especially loved their donuts. (mmmm, donuts) circolo has actually been around for about 4 years now, and frankly, i'm surprised b/c i can't figure out how it's lasted this long. maybe it used to be good, and something changed; whatever the case, i'm not sure for how much longer it's going to be around.

to make a long story short, circolo is pretty close to a disaster. (another red flag: when we got to the restaurant, there was a big banner hung outside the restaurant announcing it was now going to be open for lunch...bad sign.) the service was borderline (waiters were very friendly, but not around a whole lot, even though the place was pretty empty) and the food was mediocre - a direct result, i'm pretty sure, of the cooks not bothering to TASTE what they were making.

dudes, seriously, making delicious food isn't hard, but you can't do it unless you *taste* the dish as you cook it. if whatever you're making doesn't taste good enough for you to want to eat very much of it, then do what you need to do to fix it, and then taste it again (and do this again and again and again, if you have to). just don't go double dipping your tasting spoon into things, or, uhhhhh, go ahead and double dip, but just do it quickly before anyone SEES you. [i refuse to comment on whether i am guilty of the latter on the grounds that i may incriminate myself.]

anyway, i ordered the ahi tartare and garlic noodles. two extremely simple dishes to make - or so you would think. i can count on one hand the # of times i've actually sent something back and circolo has the dubious distinction of being one of them. i sent back the ahi tartare. seriously: yuck. the restaurant tried to make it up to us by 1) remaking it; 2) not charging us for it; and 3) giving us a complimentary dish (halibut ceviche). only problem is, when the food isn't good, you don't exactly want MORE of it ;) don't get me wrong, we appreciated that they actually cared (and yes, of course we tipped the waiter on what the bill would have actually been. i mean, come on, do i look like an ass? wait, don't answer that...).

the garlic noodles were also pretty disappointing - more like really bad chinese lo mein. where was the garlic? why was it oily not buttery? worse, there was going to be a lot left, b/c the portion was HUGE - enough for 4 people. i felt so badly about how much food was going to be wasted - especially since the restaurant was trying so hard to make it right - that i asked them to box up the noodles to take home. i figured this would be as good an excuse as any to experiment. would the noodles hold up under a "do over" the next night? i waited to see with bated breath (ok, not really; 24 hours is a long time to do that.)

the answer is: definitely yes. the next night, i made a really simple roast chicken (rinse and pat dry a 3 lb whole chicken; salt and pepper inside and generously salt outside; roast at 425 degrees until thigh reaches 170 degrees. rest for 10 minutes then carve and serve.) and served it with revised garlic noodles. turns out you CAN just rinse noodles a few times in hot water to remove any grossness. and turns out my hunch was correct: garlic noodles are freaking ridiculously easy to make. recipe below. enjoy!

(oh, and in case i wasn't clear before: don't go to circolo. i'd give it 1 star. kevin and i have an over/under bet going on when they'll close. we'll get back to you on who wins.)


Garlic Noodles

3 tbsps unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps brown sugar
12 oz lo mein noodles

Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter and then add garlic. Saute for a few minutes, until softened and fragrant, then add soy sauce and sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Add noodles and stir until evenly coated and heated through. Place in a large serving bowl, add - if you're into it - the grated Parmesan cheese (how much is up to you) and toss to combine. Serves 4.

happy as a clam

for most of the food i cook, i try to stick to the "locavore" philosophy that michael pollan advocates (in both of his books: Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food). that i live in northern california actually makes this extremely easy to do - there's an abundance of amazing seasonal produce (although i'll get back to you on that during the winter...).

but despite the ready availability of most foodstuffs, every now and again i get a hankering for something that isn't in season in the pacific northwest, and i break down.

this week, it was because of pasta with clam sauce. i saw a recipe in the june issue of bon appétit magazine that i really wanted to try. now, of course, there's nothing wrong about wanting to try a tasty clam recipe. that is, unless you live here, where clams aren't harvested until the winter months. last i checked, it was still june... darn.

i justified what i was about to do by telling myself that ordinarily i do a pretty decent job eating like a locavore. i know, this sort of reasoning can be a slippery slope - and i don't usually wear sneakers - so i vowed to make sure not to throw a bellyflop dive down said slope... but only provided i could get my grubby little paws on about a pound and a half of clams, and soon.

i made my "crime" less terrible by making sure to get them from the san francisco fish company - a store in the san francisco ferry building whose owner subscribes to the sustainable ethos. he also happens to have half-decent puns. (loda and skim, you ladies paying attention? you have some competition on your hands...) we had them tonight for dinner and they were fantastic! if you like clams, give this recipe a try - for me, it was well worth the "guilt" of not being a locavore for a night!


Spaghetti with Spicy Herbed Clam Sauce

1/2 stick unsalted butter (I like Straus Creamery)
2 tbsps olive oil (I like Stonehouse)
2 onions, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 medium tomatoes, cored, chopped
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups water
3 pounds littleneck clams, scrubbed clean
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
8 ounces spaghetti

Melt butter with olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until soft, then add garlic and stir until fragrant. Add tomatoes, white wine, and water and bring to boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring broth back to boil. Add clams, cover and cook until clams open, about 3 minutes (discard any that don't open). Remove clams to large bowl and tent with foil to keep warm.

Add herbs and crushed red pepper to pot. Add spaghetti and cook pasta until almost al dente. Place clams (and any liquid in bowl) back into pot. Cover and simmer until clams are heated through, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide evenly into 4 pasta bowls. Serve with crusty bread, so you can mop up the yummy broth!! Serves 4.

instinctively flock like the salmon of capistrano

for those of you who didn't know, i'm korean american. (like for instance maybe vadim - i believe he thinks all asians are chinese. j/k!;) now, i'm the first to admit that i'm about as twinkie as they come (yellow on the outside, white on the inside, in case you were wondering). ...although in the last few years i've become good friends with LOTS of asian people that sometimes i look around at dinners and parties and think to myself that my parents would probably cry with happiness if they could see me now (that, or they would demand to know who the *fudge* i was and what had i done with their daughter?!).

i'm sure a lot of it has to do with having moved to northern california from nyc (the west coast is the only place i've been in the US where people aren't surprised i speak english fluently without an "asian" accent), but it still makes me laugh every now and then. (ok, always.)

anyway, even though i'm (now *mostly*) twinkie, this doesn't mean i don't love love love korean food. in fact, i grew up eating korean food pretty much every night for dinner (sometimes my mom would make random american dishes like burgers or corned beef... ok, so corned beef is an irish dish, but you get what i mean - it wasn't korean) and it's one of the only ways you can get me to eat heaps of vegetables. i'm not sure what it is, but with any other cuisine, i have to really make an effort to eat veggies; with korean food, i'll happily wolf down all the vegetable side dishes (banchan) i can get my grubby paw armed with chopsticks on. yum yum yum.

so remember how i told you a couple weeks ago about that fish stand called shogun fish at the saturday sf farmers' market? well i peek my head in now to see what they've got on tap. this past weekend, i saw some really nice wild alaskan salmon fillets and decided to incorporate them into this week's dinner menu.

i used a variation on the traditional korean galbi marinade (and observed in all "field tests" conducted by yours truly to be universally loved by the whitey folk i know) . the nice thing about fish in general is it doesn't take that long to, well, marinate, so it makes for a very easy and quick meal - perfect for a weeknight. this particular recipe takes about 45 minutes from prep to table, 30 minutes of which are for letting the fish just sit there so it can soak up the marinade.

my suggestion is to serve the salmon with creamy wasabi mashed potatoes and spicy stir-fried chinese long beans (yeah, you know what i'm talkin' about). of course, you can choose whatever you like... but, hello, WHY? this way is so deeeelish, you won't have to FISH for compliments from your guests because they'll be having a WHALE of a time! (get it? "FISH" and "WHALE"... because we're talking about SALMON?! hahahah-- *sigh* never mind...)


Korean-Style Broiled Salmon

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tbsps rice vinegar
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 tbsps fresh orange juice
1 tbsp Korean red pepper paste
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tsps toasted sesame oil
2 scallions, chopped

4 6 oz fresh salmon fillets
2 tbsps olive oil

Whisk first 8 ingredients in a small bowl until sugar dissolves. Place salmon fillets in a Ziploc bag and pour marinade over; marinate fish for half hour (or up to 1 hour).

Preheat broiler. Remove fillets from marinade, reserving marinade. Heat olive oil in a large, ovenproof skillet on high heat. Place salmon fillets skin side down and cook fish for 2 minutes, or until skin is browned. Spoon a little of the marinade over the fillets (discard marinade), and then place skillet in oven. Broil for about 5 minutes (inside will still be cool), or until cooked to desired doneness (is that a word?). Serves 4.

a bolt from the blue

blueberries are here! well, so they've actually been available at the sf farmers' market for the last few weeks, but i didn't pick any up for myself (or anyone else for that matter) until this past saturday.

last week's breakfast muffins worked out so well that i decided to make another batch for this week as well - but blueberry instead of carrot. there's a booth along the outside of the sf farmers' market called triple delight blueberries that i've seen for the last few weeks. i decided this was as good a place as any to buy the all-important ingredient to my precious blueberry muffins. i mean, really, how can you go wrong getting blueberries from a farm that feels it can name its prized crop "triple delight"? either they were delusional or spot on... and either situation would provide solid entertainment (although one in a sort of sad way).

i took them home and, er, conducted a couple quality-control tests. ok, maybe several tests... ok, ok, maybe it was so many "tests" that it was a good thing i bought an extra pack of them as insurance... against, ahem well, MYSELF. [*embarrassed pause*] anyway, it turns out that this particular farm's harvest lasts for only about a month and a half, so it's a good thing i stopped by this weekend to get my blueberries on. and actually, i haven't seen blueberries at other stands (raspberries and strawberries, yes. blueberries, no), so if you happen to know if there are any to be found elsewhere at the sf farmers' market on saturdays, let me know!

below is a blueberry muffin recipe i found on epicurious. i used dark brown sugar instead of the light brown in the recipe (and less than called for), which i think gave them a nice caramel-y / butterscotch-y taste - two of my favorite flavs - added some vanilla, and used a lot more blueberries.

these particular muffins were super easy to make - i think i mixed these up and had them in the oven in about 10 minutes. for reals! i wouldn't lie to you about that. they took a lot less time to bake up than the recipe would have you believe - yet another example for why you should always check on the progress of whatever you're baking. recipe reflects the changes i made and the time i ended up baking them. enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I prefer Straus Family Creamery)
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 medium egg (I use pastured eggs from Marin Sun Farms)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz blueberries

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin. In a small bowl, whisk first 5 ingredients until combined well. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined and then gently fold in blueberries.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups; bake until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool muffins in tin for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely on rack.

i say "tomato," you say "tomahto" (or maybe you also say "tomato"...)

the best time of the year in terms of vegetables and fruit is nigh upon us in northern california! well actually, it's not nigh - it's already here. unlike the east coast (where i grew up), the summer harvest starts in end of may / early june.

i wrote earlier this week how zucchini and stone fruits are in season. another vegetable (although i guess technically it's actually a fruit) that's started to crop up (hahahahaha - get it "CROP UP"? ...'cuz we're talking about harvests? get it? hahahahah-- *sigh* forget it.) are heirloom tomatoes.

heirloom tomatoes are loved at the house of freedmoon. our absolute favorite are green zebra tomatoes, which are a little bit more tart than most tomatoes. i haven't seen any yet at the farmers' market, but i'm sure they'll start appearing soon. at least...i sure hope they do. otherwise, i'm going to be a little bummed out; i love those little suckers.

besides savoring heirloom tomatoes in their purest form - in my world, this means simply sliced and layered with some fresh mozzarella and basil, and then drizzled with some really great olive oil on top - another great way to enjoy them is via gazpacho. what's gazpacho? well, as wikipedia explains it, it's a cold spanish soup that comes in many, er - well, flavors (including a warm stew variant, believe it or not).

permutations aside, i think it's safe to say that the typical american thinks gazpacho is a cold tomato soup. and by cold, i mean uncooked, since cooking would obviously change the taste of the tomato. the version i made this week also had some white peaches in it, which sweetly rounded out the savory tanginess of the tomatoes. i used a cherokee purple, an 1884, and a vintage wine, but you can obviously switch it up to whatever combination of tomatoes you like. enjoy!


Heirloom Tomato and White Peach Gazpacho

1 1/2 lb heirloom tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 lb white peaches, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 small shallot, coarsely chopped
2 tbsps good-quality extra virgin olive oil (I like Stonehouse)
6 tsps white-wine vinegar
4 tsps chopped fresh tarragon
salt and freshly ground rainbow peppercorns to taste

Combine 1/4 of tomatoes and peaches with 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsps vinegar, 1 tsp tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Purée rest of tomatoes and peaches with remaining ingredients in a blender until smooth. Force through a medium-mesh sieve, discarding solids. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for an hour, or until chilled.

Divide gazpacho into 4 soup bowls and top with tomato-peach salsa. Serve with grilled burrata sandwiches. Serves 4.

stratospheric strata

one of the nice things about going every saturday to the sf farmers' market is i get the opportunity to learn what fruits and vegetables are in season. before february, i had pretty much zero clue what was in season locally, b/c at supermarkets, nothing is ever NOT in season.

on the fruit side, i guess now it's peaches / plums / nectarines (hrmmm, maybe it's just generally harvest time for stone fruits...hmmm...yet it isn't summer yet...) because they're EVERYWHERE. i think some kind of peach dessert post is in order sometime soon.

on the vegetable side, i've noticed some of the most beautiful red onions i've ever seen and also summer squash. which, to be frank, has sort of confused me, because, well, it's not quite SUMMER yet, is it? IS it?

seasonal confusion aside, for the last couple weeks i've accepted the availability of summer fruits and vegetables in late spring, 'cuz that's how i roll. (you know me: easygoing, laid back... hahahahahahahahahaha - sorry, sorry, i'm going to need a moment to collect myself. hahahahahahaha. whoooooooo, that was a good one. *hiccup*) and let's be honest, i'm not complaining. i've been too busy enjoying my donut peaches (mmmmm, donut peach, mmmmm) and nectarines from balakian farms to have time to whine and feel confused. this past saturday, they had plums, too, so i bought a few of those as well. but the real reason i made sure to make my way over this past saturday was to scoop up a few of their summer squash (after paying for them, of course): a couple each of green and yellow zucchini.

we ate them tonight for dinner in a summer vegetable strata. if you're wondering what a strata is, it's basically a fancy name for a savory bread pudding. kevin and i actually made this dinner together - he made the herbed egg batter while i got the rest of the ingredients ready. overall, prep to serve for this dish is about 1 1/2 hours, so don't do as we did and start making it at 8pm...that is, unless you don't mind eating after 9pm. ;)

other than that, we both really enjoyed this dinner; kevin was in fact surprised with how much he liked it, b/c he was pretty sure he was a big two-thumbs down on zucchini. then again, if you made sure to put enough goat cheese on an old shoe, he'd eat the whole thing like it was going out of style and rave about how tasty said old shoe and beloved goat cheese were together.

not that zucchini tastes anything like an old shoe. i love zucchini. and guess what: kevin thinks he does now too. ;) i'm just going to take that ball and run with it, 'cuz zucchini are going to be around for a while. after all, it's a SUMMER SQUASH and it's only the first week of june!


Zucchini Strata

2 tbsps olive oil
1 medium green zucchini, sliced thinly
1 small yellow zucchini, sliced thinly
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 eggs
1 cup whole milk (I like either Straus Family Creamery or Claravale Milk)
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 slices brioche bread
8 oz chevre, crumbled (I love Laura Chenel)
1/4 cup chopped green olives
Grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8" square baking dish. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, then add zucchini, onions, and garlic and saute until onions turn translucent and zucchini softens.

Whisk eggs, milk, herbs, salt and pepper until well incorporated. Slowly whisk in flour, making sure there are no lumps. Place two slices of bread in pan and then top with half of zucchini-onion-garlic mixture, goat cheese, and olives; repeat layers once more. Pour egg mixture evenly over layers and then sprinkle top liberally with Parmesan cheese.

Bake in oven for 50 minutes, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 5 minutes, then cut into quarters and serve. Serve 4.

do you know the muffin, man?

i don't know about any of you, but breakfast is always a meal i have a difficult time figuring out what to do. mostly because what i would *really* like to eat every day are eggs and sausage / bacon on a buttery biscuit. (mmmmm, breakfast biscuits, mmmmm) but since we've already established that i have a tendency towards the spherical, i don't in fact eat like this [*sigh*], and instead, struggle to come up with acceptable alternatives.

ok ok, so i'll be honest. even if my metabolism COULD handle eating breakfast sandwiches every day, the reality is that i wouldn't, because, well... i like to sleep! sleeping is one of my most favorite activities, and i like to do as much of it as possible every morning (mostly to make up for not having done enough of it the night before ;). so, my typical day involves waking up with about 15 minutes to spare for getting ready for work, which is about enough time to brush teeth and hair, wash face, put in contacts, and get dressed. hot tasty home cooked breakfast? yeah right, you can just forget about it (fuhgeddaboudit?).

anyway, i go through cycles where i eat the same (easy, mindless to prepare) thing every day until i get sick of it, and then i get on the struggle bus for a week or two before i'm able to figure out what next to eat. lately, i've been eating cinnamon raisin toast with peanut butter. and by "lately" i mean like the last 2 months or so, which i'm pretty sure is a new mooner record. the upshot is that i've been sick to death of cinnamon raisin toast but unable to figure out what the fudge to eat next.

i ate sconehenge scones for a couple weeks (sooooo good), but they're not filling enough, which meant i had to eat something else on top of the scones (well, not LITERALLY on top of); basically, way too much breakfast planning for my taste (get it: "taste"? hahahahahah--- ok, never mind). anyway, there've been a few times over the last couple weeks that i've way shorted myself on breakfast and ended up scrounging around like a rat in my snack pile for things to nibble on until lunch.

not good. (not a very appetizing visual, either, right? :)

it dawned on me this weekend i could make my own muffins - meaning, make them in a way to make sure they were filling enough for breakfast. (i can be pretty slow sometimes. ok, fine fine, i can be pretty slow often.) carrots are all over the place at the sf farmers' market, so i figured this would be a great place to start. (i like to buy my carrots from star route farms and chue's farm.)

i used my favorite carrot cake recipe (i've had it for about 15 years), added some currants and pecans (feel free to leave them out if you're a carrot purist), and just baked up the batter in a muffin tin instead of a cake pan. i ate one the second it cooled enough (hello, i made them, and SOMEBODY has to conduct quality control. sheesh.) - moist, well spiced, just sweet enough, and chock full o' tasty goodness. i'm looking forward to having them for breakfast this week!

if you like the recipe and want to make it as a cake, double the recipe, use 2 buttered 9" round cake pans, and increase the baking time to about 35 minutes.



Caroline's Carrot Muffins

1 1/2 cups organic unbleached flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dried currants
3/4 cup chopped toasted pecans
2 medium pastured eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
8 oz canned crushed pineapple with syrup
2/3 cup salad oil (I use Stonehouse olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift first 9 ingredients together into a large mixing bowl; stir in currants and pecans. Add rest of ingredients and then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed, just until everything is incorporated.

Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Fill cups almost to top. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until tester inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in tin for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely on rack.

duck, duck, mmmmmmmmmm

although i don't eat it that often, i really love duck. like fish, the biggest problem has been where to get humanely- and sustainably-raised duck. well, every now and then, marin sun farms has some at the saturday sf farmers' market - they work in partnership with a duck farm - and so last saturday, i secured enough to make dinner for two.

it's a good thing i didn't really ask kevin what he thought about having it for dinner, cuz he would have said, "yuck, no thanks, ma'am." it turns out, except for peking duck (which, btw, is my absolute FAVORITE duck dish. [*mouth-watering, sigh*]), he was under the impression that he doesn't really like duck. well, he was wronnnnnnng! he actually really liked it and ate everything on his plate. (hrm, hrm, evidence i should keep ignoring him (just for dinner planning, of course)? heehee)

below is the recipe. i served it with creamy mashed potatoes and roasted baby carrots. the skin was perfectly crispy, the duck was a beautiful medium rare, and the sauce was delicately sweet and savory at the same time. this particular dinner takes about 45 minutes from prep to serve. enjoy!


Duck with Earl-Grey Tea Sauce

1 1/2 lbs boneless Muscovy duck breast
1 cup finely chopped shallots
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
4 tsps Earl Grey tea leaves
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsps butter, cut into small pieces
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450°F. Pierce duck breast skin all over with fork and then sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Over high heat, heat large skillet then add duck breasts, skin side down. Sear until skin is browned, about 5 minutes. Turn duck over and cook 2 more minutes. Remove pan from heat, set aside. On a roasting pan with a rack, transfer duck breasts and roast in oven for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 10 minutes.

While duck is roasting, heat skillet (with pan drippings) over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes, making sure to scrape up and stir in any browned bits stuck to pan. Drain off all duck grease from pan, then add stock, orange juice ,and tea leaves. Boil until mixture is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Strain sauce into a bowl and discard solids. Return sauce to skillet; add honey and bring to simmer. Whisk in butter, then season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Slice duck breasts thinly across grain. Divide equally into 4 servings and plate by overlapping slices slightly, then spoon sauce onto duck. Serves 4.

marlene's marinade

so remember how i was saying during a few posts that i didn't get what people meant when they said grass-raised beef had to be cooked differently? well i finally figured it out a couple weeks ago: it matters for really lean cuts of beef, like most steaks.

turns out you can't grill them up with just the usual salt and pepper (and maybe a little olive oil) rubbed in. well, i guess you CAN grill them up if you insist, but you'll wish you had just listened to me instead. ;) but seriously, grass-fed steaks are so lean, they really benefit from hanging out in a marinade, preferably for overnight.

one marinade i really like is a recipe from kevin's mom, marlene. it's especially great on beef tenderloin (which is what the marinade is actually for), but it works really well for any cut of beef. tonight we used it on a rib-eye steak. so, ok, rib-eye isn't all that lean, but it was pretty awesome anyway. recipe below.


Marlene's Marinade

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed

2-lbs beef of your choice (e.g., beef tenderloin or steaks)

Mix all ingredients into a Ziploc bag. Add beef to marinade. Marinate overnight. Roast or grill as usual. Reserve marinade; place in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer sauce until reduced by about half; keep warm.

If you're cooking with grass-raised beef, meat will cook more quickly than conventionally-raised (grain-fed) beef. Serves 4, with sauce on side. There should be enough leftovers for tasty things like sandwiches!

make me some pie!

well so it looks as though cherry season is in full swing in northern california. it's also already almost over - i started seeing cherries a couple weeks ago at the sf farmers' market, and this saturday, the farmer i buy my cherries from - twin girls farm - told me that they expected to have them only for a couple more weeks. *sniffles*

having heard this, i figured it was now or never to get my cherry pie on. we were going to a memorial day bbq on sunday; when i had asked what i could bring, i was told dessert or wine would be great. well, imo, bringing wine to a party is BORING, so i decided to make pie. the week before i had acquired my first-ever cherry / olive pitter that i was pretty enthralled with, so as i made my weekly farmers' market grocery list, i made sure to write down the ingredients i didn't already have on hand: namely, a pound or so of cherries and a 1/2 cup of lard from humanely-raised pork at prather ranch.

WHAAAAAAT - LARD?!??! you exclaim? yes, that's right. i use lard in my pie crusts. do you want to know why? because vegetable shortening is FAKE. it's WEIRD. it's NOT NATURAL. take a look at the ingredients in crisco: soybean oil (probably from a genetically-modified organism - "GMO"), sunflower oil (also probably from a GMO), fully-hydrogenated palm oil (sounds so natural - NOT), mono- and diglycerides (...), TBHQ (what the *fudge* is THAT?), and citric acid (noted in the ingredient label as an "antioxident"... whuh?!).

YUCK! seriously. "TBHQ?!?" apparently this is an ingredient that crisco thinks it can abbreviate and yet i (a decently aware consumer) have no idea what it is. you don't either, do you? frankly, i don't want to know, but since i'm not going to be eating it, i don't need to know. after all, why would i want to consume something that's been pumped full of hydrogen and is more likely than not made out of GMOs? no thanks. this doesn't pass muster with mwah and i certainly hope this doesn't pass any smell test for you, either. oh, but wait... crisco is odorless. so you wouldn't be able to smell it anyway. food for thought: when was the last time you encountered real food that had NO ODOR?! that's right! NEVER! (although i'm sure if you try crisco's "butter flavor" shortening, there might be some kind of smell. ahem.)

besides, using vegetable shortening, at least to me, is like using margarine when you could be using tasty delicious butter. i'd rather have nothing than eat margarine. margarine tastes gross - it tries so hard to be butter, but let's face it, it's just "chemicalicated" vegetable oil. yu-uck. you want to know *why* you can't believe it's not butter? BECAUSE IT'S NOT BUTTER! (garlinghouse, are you reading this?)

so why do i use lard in my pie crusts? well, the biggest reason is taste and texture. i think it makes pie crusts very flavorful and flaky. but it turns out from a "health standpoint" (hahahaha, i mean, we're talking about DESSERT. health! hahahahaha) lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than butter; lard also has no trans fat. i get lard from prather ranch, which subscribes to the ethos of humanely- and sustainably-raised meat. (yay!) plus, the people who work at the store in the sf ferry bldg are SOOOOO nice and friendly, too. [they also happen to have some pretty tasty beef hot dogs (no mystery meat!) that you can munch on (snarf, in my case) as you do your shopping.]

anyway, i majorly digressed. i was supposed to be writing about delicious, yummy cherry pie. below is a new recipe i tried out, and if i do say so myself (and i will:), it came out beautifully. i also really liked the crust - so much so that this might be my new standby recipe. don't be afraid of making a lattice top, either. it looks spectacular (and thus, many assume this = hard), but if you could weave a potholder in elementary school, you can weave a pie crust. for reals.

i finished baking the pie only a couple hours before going to the bbq on sunday, so it was still a little warm when people started to dig in. vadim - although he denies it - had at least 2 pieces, and he's pretty into food, so i'll take it as a sign that the pie was as tasty to everyone else (or at least just to vadim) as i thought it was. this one is a keeper. and, although we didn't have any, i bet either a little almond ice cream (yes, almond!) or whipped cream would be deeelish with this. enjoy!


Cherry Pie

Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup chilled lard, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
7-10 tbsps ice water

Filling
1 24-oz jar sour cherries in light syrup
1 15-oz can tart cherries, drained
1 lb fresh Bing cherries, pitted
6 tsps arrowroot
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 whole nutmeg, cracked in half
1 whole star anise
1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream


Pie Crust
Place flour, sugar, and salt in food processor. Add butter and lard and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer to medium bowl. Add ice water 2 tbsps at a time and mix with fork until dough begins to clump together. Gather dough together, divide in half and flatten each into disk. Wrap both well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an 1 hour. (DO NOT skip this step, otherwise, your pastry will be a mess.)

Filling
Strain syrup from sour cherries into large saucepan, reserving 1/4 cup. In a medium bowl, whisk reserved 1/4 cup syrup and arrowroot until blended and no lumps remain; add sour cherries and toss gently to combine. Set aside.

In the large saucepan with syrup, add cinnamon, nutmeg, and star anise, bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add tart cherries and simmer until liquid reduces to about 3/4 cup, about 10 more minutes. Discard nutmeg and star anise, then add sugar and fresh Bing cherries. Simmer on medium heat until fresh cherries are tender, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in sour cherry mixture to saucepan and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. (Don't turn your back on it, it thickens pretty quickly.) Immediately remove from heat and transfer to medium bowl to COOL COMPLETELY.

Assembling Pie
Place rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 400°F. Roll out first dough disk on floured surface to 13" round. Transfer to 9" glass pie dish. Trim dough to 1" overhang. Spoon cooled filling into crust.

Roll out second dough disk to another 13" round. Cut dough into 3/4"-wide strips. Evenly space 5 dough strips across pie in 1 direction and weave in 5 strips spaced evenly in opposite direction, forming lattice. Trim strips evenly with bottom crust overhang. Turn dough edges under, pinching to seal, and crimping edges decoratively. Brush edges and lattice lightly with whipping cream. Place pie on foil-covered rimmed baking sheet and bake until crust is golden brown and filling bubbles thickly, about 50 minutes. Cool pie on rack. Serve either lukewarm or room temperature. Serves 8-10.