Glorious Mornings, Guaranteed

When I was in middle school, a restaurant called the Garden Cafe opened up across from my house.  The food was sort of upscale diner.  I don't really remember much about it except that they served breakfast all day and no matter what you ordered it came with your choice of muffin.  Chicken parmesan? Blueberry muffin.  Chop Salad? Bran muffin.  Pancakes? You must like carbs, why not have an apple muffin?

I always favored the Chicken Salad with a Morning Glory muffin.  I think it has been a decade since I had one, so when I was cleaning out the pantry and came across some desiccated raisins, soy flour, and wheat germ, I combined several recipes to create this one.  The soy flour adds protein and the wheat germ adds fiber - both of which help this muffin keep you full until lunchtime.  I used apple butter from last fall's canning, but feel free to substitute applesauce instead!

While the muffins, were cooking, I made a list of the remaining ingredients sitting purposeless in my pantry/refrigerator door/freezer. I'm usually good about only buying things I need that week at the grocery store, so I don't tend to accumulate much, but every six months or so, I try to do a clean out of all the half-empty containers. My happiness project goal was a good excuse, and now we have the next two weeks of dinners set:

Bulgur à loaded tabbouleh with cucumber, tomatoes, and black olives

Rye Flour à pizza with caramelized onion, ham, and swiss (increase proportion of rye)

Ginger Pickle, Chickpea Flour, and Fenugreek Powder à Indian spiced grilled chicken skewers, paranthas, yogurt, and ginger pickle

Chow Mein Noodles and Peanuts à Thai-ish cabbage salad

Rice Paper Wrappers and Sweet Chili Sauce à vegan summer rolls with peanut and sweet chili sauce (I like them with tofu better than seitan)

Homemade Pickles, Buttermilk Ranch Mix, and Panko Breadcrumbs à “fried”pickles with ranch dip

Quinoa and Chia Seeds à energy bars

Green Curry Paste à summer vegetable curry

Buffalo Wing Sauce à buffalo chicken pizza 

Pickled Pepper Rings àroasted cherry tomatoes, toss with basil, goat cheese, and pasta

Chinese Bean Sauce à Chinese beef and asparagus; Chinese black bean chicken wings

Tamarind Concentrate and Peanuts à simple vegetarian pad thai

Morning Glory Muffins
Makes 12

1 cup AP flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup soy flour (or more whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)
1 tbsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
8oz can crushed pineapple in juice, do not drain
1/2 cup apple butter or applesauce
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. vanilla

4 medium carrots, coarsly grated
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients well.  In a separate bowl (or realistically, in a well in the middle of dry ingredients to avoid having to clean to bowls, mix the wet ingredients.  Stir to combine, the dough will be thick.
3. Fold in carrots, raisins, coconut, and walnuts.
4. Line 12 muffin tins with parchment liners (these are amazing - nothing will stick to them) and fill each liner with a full 1/4 cup of batter.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

30 x 30 Wrap-Up

Work Things
1. Find a Time Management System that Works
This is a constant struggle but the Pomodoro Technique, paired with a weekly priorities list, and a dry erase board listing the current status (urgent, backburner, waiting on a collaborator) and next step for each project are currently working for me pretty well.  I still constantly underestimate how much time everything will take me, but I'm getting better.

2. Five Publications 
I have only had two papers actually come out, one on paraoxonase in the Journal of Lipids  my dissertation work in Human Genetics but I have three more in press which will be out sometime in the next few months (hopefully) depending on the publishers' timelines.

3. Three Grant Applications
I've applied for more three applications and most importantly had one funded by Wenner-Gren.  I'll be ramping that research project up soon and I can't wait!  

4. Keep up with New Statistical Applications
This is a sisyphean task as there are always new methods coming out.  I did attend a great course taught at Cold Spring Harbor Lab in August which gave me all sorts of new references to work from.

5. Improve my R and Linux Programming

A friend of mine started an R programming group in San Antonio which has been great for learning new applications and meeting other nerds.

Fun Things
6. Go on a picnic
Not yet.  This whole fun things sectionis going to be ugly.  Evidently, I need to have more fun.

7. Go camping
Nope.

8. Go to a local festival
Turns out I don't like crowds.

9. Go to the beach
Yes!  In Malibu and Venice.

10. Go to a professional sporting event
Uh-uh. But I'm hoping for a San Antonio Silver Stars game this summer.

11. Participate in alumni association events
I cheered on the Jayhawks at a March Madness watch party.  Turns out the motivation I needed to finally get out of the house was getting rid of cable.

12. Use the library
I haven't actually checked out any books yet, but I've started looking forward to my commute thanks to their audiobooks.

13. Visit the zoo and botanical garden
Neither.

14. Watch classic movies

This one I've done a lot and, in agreement with every list ever, Casablanca was my favorite.

Crafty Things
15. Crochet a throw
Decided to be a bit less ambitious and crochet a pillow instead.  I'm really starting to get why people enjoy crocheting, though and may try a throw eventually.

16. Sew 6 garments for myself 
I did make two new items from scratch - my Easter dress and a mod pink pencil skirt I haven't posted yet - but I am even more excited to be upcycling new outfits from old clothes - teal pants and black cardigan with crepe ruffle, navy skirt and grey striped button down, and summer t-shirt dress (I'll be posting soon).  It's better for the environment AND my wallet.

17. Knit a sweater (Vignette Cardigan)
I knit one and I've cast on three others, because starting is the most fun part of a project!  

18. Knit a pair of socks
This was my first pair of socks with sock yarn and they are so decadent.  There is something really luxurious about hand knit socks.

19. Own no yarn that moved from PA
I'm counting those three cast-ons as using the yarn, so this is pretty much true.  All of my yarn now fits in the four wire baskets I have allocated for it, and I'm determined to keep it that way!

20. Put all photos in scrapbooks
Done, done, done!   

21. Learn to take better photographs
I really regret that I didn't put more time into this and I think I'll carry it over into the new year.  I do wish I took better photos, but I know it will take work.

22. Learn to draw
I started working on this and then realized that it really isn't that important to me right now.  

Yummy Things

23. Bake through Bread Baker’s Apprentice
I've learned to vary hydration levels (stiff dough for bagels and wet, sticky dough for focaccia), make lean pain de campagne and extremely rich casatiello, and leavened bread with direct fermentation (cranberry-walnut bread), instant yeast (stollen), and sourdough (pumpernickel).  My favorite development, though, is the sourdough pizza dough that has replaced my normal Friday dough.

24. Make brunch once a month
I love breakfast food.  This year we had apple-sour cream pancakes, Dutch baby, Southwestern omelet with extra crispy hash browns, waffles, spicy chicken biscuit sandwiches, peach and sausage kolaches, Moroccan merguez ragout with poached eggs, and migas.  

25. Try out six new canning recipes
Before summer rolls around, I'm using up my last stores of ginger pear butter, tomato jam, serrano jelly, ice-brined garlic dill pickles, peach butter, and - my favorite and already gone - chocolate balsamic strawberry jam.

26. Cook with a new ingredient each month
I tried out kala jeera, forbidden rice, pork belly, cocoa nibs, crab, caperberries, chia, and harissa, but I spotted three new fruits I'd never seen at the store today.

Strong Things
27. Run a half-marathon
I did it! I'm I ready to train for next year.

28. Compete in a 1 mile swim race
I missed the actual race (I was at my statistics course), but I've been swimming a mile most Sunday mornings.  

29. Complete two triathlons 
This year I completed the Spa Girl triathlon and Wurst Tri Ever.  Both had particularly fun swimming elements.  The Spa Girl was held at a resort and we swam the quarter-mile in the lazy river and the Wurst Tri Ever we road a water slide that dropped us into a spring-fed pond.

Last Thing
30. Purge things we don’t need from each room of the house
This has been so satisfying!  It is an ongoing project, and I think I may double back and purge more.

Three Dinners and a Movie

I've gotten behind on my Dinner and a Movie posts because I feel like my movie critiques aren't up to snuff and my food posts end up just being a thesaurus-worth of "this is tasty."  So, presented without additional commentary are three great meals for three great movies:

Thelma and Louise with fancier than diner Provençal Tuna Melt and Lightened-Up Banana Pudding (don't roast the bananas, they turn to mush).

Gone with the Wind with Hoecakes and Black Eyed Peas with Smoked Turkey Leg

Duck Soup with 1930s-era Philly Cheese Steaks with provelone instead of cheese sauce and Crispy Green Beans. 

Moonpie Kingdom

Geoff's birthday was last week- happy birthday, honey!  We've both been swamped since the beginning of the year and so he wanted to spend his birthday relaxing at home, watching movies.  Quite a few people had recommended Moonrise Kingdom to us so that was up first.  Like most Wes Anderson films, Moonrise Kingdom is self-contained to the point of existing in an entirely different universe, unlike some of the others, it seems a bit like the characters know they are in a Wes Anderson film.  Regardless, it's worth checking out for the beautiful scenery and the charming young characters.

For Geoff's birthday treat, I decided to make "Moonpie Kingdom" peanut-butter moonpies.  For my birthday, I always want chocolate-filled chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but Geoff likes his chocolate in moderation.  I never had a particular affection for prepackaged moonpies, but the idea - two cookies, filling, and chocolate can't go wrong. Geoff loves peanut butter so I decided to make cake mix peanut butter cookies like my grandfather used to make and fill them with a peanut butter and marshmallow filling.  I had thought of making my own marshmallows  but it was a weeknight and even I have my limits.  The sweetness of the filling needed some contrast so I used a 60% cacoa chip to coat everything.  I think these would be adorable in a mini-size as well.  And, if you are looking to make these even quicker Nilla wafers or mini Nilla wafers would be probably do nicely in place of the cookies.  Just give them some time to let the marshmallow soften then up.

Peanut Butter Moonpie Kingdoms
serves 8

16 New-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
7 oz. Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 cup peanut butter
8 oz dark chocolate
1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1. Make up a half-batch of peanut butter cookies and cool completely.
2. Melt peanut butter in the microwave until flows easily.  Mix with marshmallow fluff.
3. Place a heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter fluff mixture on the bottoms of half of the cookies.  Top with a second cookie and refrigerate at least two hours to over night.
4. Melt dark chocolate with oil in a microwave-safe bowl.  Dip sandwiched cookies to coat.
5. Return moonpies to the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to set up.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Actually, it's not.  It was 80 degrees in San Antonio today.  But imagine if you lived in say, Fargo, North Dakota. You'd be pretty cold right now and longing for a hearty braise like this one.  Minnesota and North Dakota are both home to a large number of German immigrants and this recipe is an ode to them and the easy meals you need if you are a pregnant chief of police with ruthless murderers to track down.  Bone in pork chops get a quick sear before being braised in hard apple cider with onions, cabbage, and apples.  The sweetness is cut with a heaping tablespoon of mustard and some fresh scallions.  I served it over spaetzel (which I highly recommend), but if you are in a hurry, or drank the other five hard ciders while the pork chops braised, it would be great with a hunk of bread or some roasted potatoes.

I've seen a number of Coen brothers' movies, but never Fargo which is widely regarded as their best film.  The plot is a bit bizarre but it is all of the details that make it great.  The pacing, the characters breaking through the crust of the snow as they try and traverse the landscape, the creepy Paul Bunyan statue, the juxtoposition of those who are content and those who are trying to live beyond their means.  I always enjoy William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi, but this movie reminded me how much I like Frances McDormand who is quietly brilliant in this movie.  I may go ahead and become a Coen brothers' completist.

Braised Pork Chops with Cabbage and Apples
serves 4

4 bone in pork chops (about 3/4 - 1 inch thick)
1 onion, sliced
1 large apple, sliced
1/2 head green cabbage
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
12 oz. hard cider (I used Harpoon)
1 heaping tbsp. grainy mustard
1/4 c. scallions, sliced on the bias
1 tbsp cornstarch, optional
2 tbsp water, optional

1. Heat 1 tbsp. oil until shimmering, salt pork chops and sear until browned on both sides, but not cooked through.
2. Set pork chops aside and add another tablespoon of oil if needed (my pork chops were very lean) and reduce heat to medium.  Cook onions until medium brown.
3.  Add cabbage and apple and cook until slightly wilted.  A deep fond will have developed in the pan.
4. Turn heat up to high and add half the cider, stirring vigorously to deglaze the pan.  Add remaining cider.
5. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low.  Add pork chops back in, partially submerging.
6.  Cover and cook 60-90 minutes.
7.  When pork chops finish cooking, remove gently and stir in in mustard.  If the sauce is too thin, you can thicken with a slurry of cornstarch and water.
8.  Serve topped with scallions.

Lonely Man's Dinner

TV dinners and those divided plastic trays full of cafeteria food both exist in my mind largely in the black and white of Patty Duke and Dobie Gillis reruns.  Salsbury steak, in particular, is known to me only as a punch line in the realm of fake high schools.  But this Salsbury steak, given full TV dinner treatment by the Pioneer Woman, looked so good smothered in a thick layer of onions that I had to make it.  If you are looking for a lighter meal to fit your New Year's resolutions, I substituted ground turkey for the beef and I think bison might be even tastier if you can get it.  I might have overdone it on the onions, ending up with about a 2:1 onion to meat ratio, but they were so sweet neither of us minded.  Sweet peas in browned butter and smashed roasted potatoes finished out our (undivided, ceramic) plates.

And who needs a TV dinner more than a house-bound man in the 50s?  A man who spends his days, perhaps, watching his neighbors out his Rear Window?  I've been avoiding Alfred Hitchcock movies for a long time. Mostly because I'm a well-known scaredy cat and also because my mother was traumatized by The Birds (seriously, she still gets freaked out by the presence of more than about three birds).  I really enjoyed Rear Window and I was surprised to be surprised at the ending since it is more than 50 years old.  While Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly were both good, my favorite character was the nurse played by Thelma Ritter who was also fantastic in All About Eve.

Flush from not being scared by Hitchcock, I watched Strangers on a Train (good, not amazing) and my mom and I watched the new Hitchcock biopic between Christmas and New Years (truly excellent).  So now I'm ready for some more - what next?  Vertigo?  North by Northwest?  Or should I jump straight to Psycho and The Birds?

p.s. My memories of the few TV dinners I had as a child always included a really gross microwave brownie.  However, I have recently discovered this actually quite good version of a peanut butter chocolate cake from Budget Bytes.  You're welcome.  Also, I'm sorry.

Seven Sad Samurai

(Geoff takes a bite.)
"This is the best Japanese curry I've ever had."
(Second bite.  Puts down fork.)
"It might be the best dinner you made since we moved to Texas."
(Picks fork up again.)
"People would pay for this."
(Doesn't say anything else until his plate is clean.)

I tried my first Japanese curry in May at a second-floor restaurant in LA over the karaoke room we were about to occupy for five straight hours.  If you haven't had it, this curry shares very little with its Indian cousin.  The basis is a nice, dark roux that gets sweetness from a grated apple and spice from garam masala.  I started with this basic recipe from serious eats and added edamame and more carrots for some vegetables.  This would certainly be a satisfying vegetarian meal, but I have a serious weakness for pork tonkatsu.  It's just boneless pork cutlets dredged in flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs before lightly pan frying.  It's fantastic with this sauce, but just about anything would be.

The meal was served alongside Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, just the sort of cultural touchstone that I've felt left out on.  And I'll continue to.  I didn't want to admit this, but I turned it off less than an hour in.  It was just a bunch of people being mean to old Japanese men and I wasn't in the mood for three hours of crying.  I would be a terrible movie critic, but life is too short!  So my recommendation?  Make this curry, pull up some youtube videos, and karaoke at home.  You may even want to start with the Bare Naked Ladies, who probably didn't really watch Seven Samurai either.

Bun with Pork Belly

Those of you who are Facebook friends of mine may have heard me mention the little boy who came to our house to trick-or-treat and asked if we were having hot dogs for dinner.  I said yes, rather than try and explain what pork belly is to a four year old.  The inspiration for me to make my own bun (the Vietnamese noodle "salad") came from a dinner we had in California. I mentioned at the time that "I had the bun with char-grilled pork and the pork was basically bacon" and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since.

I bought a 2 pound pork belly (it shrinks a lot when you cook it) from our local heritage pork purveyor.  Fair warning: it comes with the skin on.  Also, some hair.  But this, my friends, is the omnivore's dilemma.  I forged ahead with an overnight brine and braise with Ming Tsai's recipe. After it came out of the oven and it had cooled a bit, I cut off the skin and (are you still with me?) sliced the meat as thinly as possible.  To crisp up the meat and render the remaining fat, I tossed the strips into a hot skillet.

This is more of a salad than you usually get with lots of lettuce, cucumbers, and whatever else you might want.  Whatever you include, you should top it with vermicelli noodles and positively drench it in this fish sauce (nuoc mam cham).  I got this recipe from my brother and it is the perfect balance of sweet, sour, and pungent with a good bit of heat (the way I made it).  You can even use it to pickle some carrots and onions to add some color.  So the verdict?  The bun itself was pretty easy to make, but I'm going to leave pork belly to the pros.

Grown-Up Treats

Halloween is the time of year where all of our sweet-tooths can be easily sated with jumbo bags of unrelentingly sweet fun-size treats.  But sometimes you need a slightly more complex treat.  Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of bag of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate morsels.  It tastes like your childhood and will always please a crowd.  But if you are looking for a more adult version of this classic, I'd recommend you check out this recipe from Jennifer Martiné.  I have a sweet-tooth, but when things get too sweet, I go into sugar shock so I love that the sweetness of the cookie is balanced with salt and just a hint of bitterness.

I had never tried cocoa nibs before and pushed this recipe aside, assuming that they would be difficult to find.  Then one day I was picking up a bag of dark chocolate chips and noticed cocoa nibs on the shelf above.  If you can't find them at your local market, try your local snooty grocery store.  The cocoa nibs remind me a bit of coffee with a chocolaty undertone and provide a nice texture somewhere in between the crisp of the toasted walnuts and the yieldingness of the chocolate chips.  These are chock-a-block full cookies and I wasn't actually sure that the dough would be able to contain it all!  A few grains of very coarse sea salt provide a final flourish.  Be careful, though, these perfectly balanced cookies are completely addictive.

Here's to You, Senora Robinson

Haha.  So that "whole week of Dinner and a Movie" plan didn't go so well.  But I'll get to them!  Next up is The Graduate and a very 1960s meal - fondue!  I've always been a fan of fondue and I had been wanting to try this extremely non-traditional Fondue with Tequila and Chipotles.  I made a few substitutions based on what I had on hand.  I've found that as long as there is cheese and booze, you can improvise however you want with fondue.  Instead of the chipotles, I used fresh roasted Hatch chiles which were at their peak a few weeks ago.  Using white wine seemed strange in this dish so I substituted Lone Star.  It's the national beer of Texas!  I also decided to add some turkey chorizo, but I think that may have been guilding the lily.  I only make fondue about once a year, so I usually go fairly traditional, but I'm glad I took the chance and branched out.  If you have a favorite fondue recipe, please share!

Of course you can't have fondue without dippers!  While picking up a nice crusty loaf at the local baker is certainly an option, I opted to make the pain de campagne - a French country bread - from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  It's a rustic loaf made mostly of white flour with a small amount of wheat flour for flavor and texture.  It comes together quickly and can be formed into boule for sandwiches or any number of other shapes.  With a bit of steam in the oven, I got a perfect ratio of crust to soft interior.  I formed half of the dough into an epi (wheat stalk) which not only looks fancy but also maximizes the exterior so that each piece has a crusty edge.  For some variety, I also roasted up a head's worth of cauliflower florets to dip in the fondue.

I enjoyed The Graduate mostly for the soundtrack (Simon and Garfunkel were a frequent presence in my childhood) and the casting of Mr. Feeney as the dad.  However, I had trouble keeping myself from seeing the movie other than through my own, modern lens.  I suspect that, in 1967, this was a tale of disaffected youth refusing to strive for their parents' suburban ideals and adults who aren't happy in the lives they built for themselves.  It's Rebel without a Cause, a toned-down Feminine Mystique, a bit of On the Road (like The Graduate's Benjamin, Sal Paradise just needs to get over himself, quit mooching off everyone around him, and find a job).  Perhaps because I've been a curmudgeon since age 18, none of this particularly resonated with me.  Dustin Hoffman, who was 30 playing 21 while looking 45, is funniest in his discomfort at being seduced by an older woman.  But I didn't much care for Benjamin and saw the movie through Elaine's eyes except for why she could possibly be attracted to him.  The moral of Elaine's story seemed to be "you are smart and driven young woman, here's a lazy, morose partner (who slept with your mom) to drag you down."  I would have been happier with the iconic final scene showing Elaine riding off in the back of the bus alone.

Royale with Cheese

We're kicking off an entire week of Dinner and a Movie posts with a modern (well, 18 years old) classic - Pulp Fiction.  Even if you haven't seen the movie, you have most certainly seen the "Royale with Cheese" scene.  Rather than try to imitate a Quarter-Pounder, or the more prosaic Royale with Cheese, I decided on the recipe for the Shake Shack burger I found on What's Cooking in Your World.  Except I didn't want to pay for sirloin tips and short ribs.  Also, my food processor is broken.  Also, I'm lazy.  So instead, I bought one pound of ground sirloin and it was still the best burger I've ever made. The key is that you don't mix anything into the meat.  In fact, you touch it as little as possible.  I just broke it into four pieces, heavily salt and peppered both sides, and the smashed a thin slice of onion onto one side before placing the burgers on a screaming hot cast iron skillet.  The resulting texture was slightly crumbly and really delicious.  I'm never mixing up my burger meat again.  You have to love a recipe where the end result is improved by putting in less effort.

Since the patties were so easy, you'll have more time to whip up a special sauce - equal parts mustard, mayo, ketchup, and pickles (homemade is great).  And, of course, you must have fries to go with your burger.  I have a favorite baked fries recipe that I've used in the paste that calls for coating the fries in corn starch to get that really crispy exterior.  This recipe from Ellie Krieger doesn't give the fries the same texture, but does call for toasting garlic in olive oil, using the garlicky oil to coat the fries before baking, and then sprinkling the crispy bits of garlic (and rosemary if your me) over the fries once they are done.  And that, my friends, is genius.

Okay, now that dinner is ready, what about the movie?  I really liked it.  I forgot how much I enjoy Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, and even Bruce Willis.  I've seen some other Tarantino movies before so I was familiar with his pacing and love of violence.  I really like the way his characters speak - analytical and stylized - and I'm a real sucker for Uma Thurman so I was already predisposed to enjoy Pulp Fiction. The movie braids together apparently disparate story lines into a single film with a jittery timeline that clearly comes together in the end - a storytelling technique I usually enjoy as it allows your understanding of events to evolve in a natural way.  (Sidebar: Whenever there are multiple stories, you expect them all to come together by the end of the film.  Am I the only one who wants to see a movie where all of the storylines tie together except for one.  Man, that would drive people crazy.)  I'm not sure what I can say about Pulp Fiction that hasn't already been said and re-said so I'll just conclude by saying that if you haven't seen it (I can't the only one to wait 18 years, right?) and you have the stomach for the violence, you definitely should watch it.

Did this blog post leave you hungry for burgers, but wishing I was a better movie critic?  Check out my friend Bryan over at Bryan Loves Movies where he gives each movie a "Snack Food Analogy Rating" as in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is pudding.  Even when I think I’m really in the mood for pudding, I always end up eating about half of it and tossing the rest aside."

Hey there, Crabcakes.

I really love crab in just about any form, but I have never cooked it myself.  I think it falls into my broad (unfounded) Kansas-based fear of cooking seafood.  Being far from any place where crabs are harvested, I was a bit skeptical of the tub'o'crab on offer at Central Market.  But it was on sale last week so I went ahead and give it a shot.  While I love crab legs  in butter, if you aren't on the coast, they are crazy expensive.  Crab cakes, however, can - and should - be made at home.  The lump crab isn't quite as sweet as fresh crab, so the other ingredients really pep it up!  I had seen this recipe for Faidley's Famous Crabcakes on TV.  It uses saltines instead of bread as a binder and contains a good bit of mustard, which I always like in crabcakes.  The result is a nice, light crabcake without too much filler.  I added a panko crust for extra crisp before sauteing and the result was definitely something I'd make again.  So far, trying new ingredients has been deliciously rewarding!

Happy National Waffle Day!!!!

What's that? You didn't know it was the 143rd anniversary of Cornelius Swartwout's U.S. patent for the waffle iron?  Not to worry, International Waffle Day is coming up next March 25.  Or, I suppose, you could just make waffles because they are delicious and make people happy.  Tonight, the Waffles of Insane Greatness as adapted by Molly Wizenberg made these people very happy (the bacon may have also helped).

These waffles really are insanely great.  The real appeal of waffles to me lies in a crispy exterior and this recipe has them in spades.  Veronica and I ripped open the first one hot off the iron and it was unbelievably crisp with a fluffy and moist interior.  It is everything you could want in a waffle and hard to resist eating plain, standing around my kitchen, with mimosas in our other hands.  But, we restrained ourselves after the initial waffle and ate the rest topped with blackberry-blueberry compote at the table.  Any berries that are on sale or you have in the freezer would work.  I just cooked them down with some maple syrup for sweetness and then thickened with a tiny bit of cornstarch slurry to give it more body.

Our lovely neighbors provided the waffle iron this evening, but I'm thinking that I'll be needing one of my own soon.  As insanely great as these waffles were, I'm constantly afflicted with culinary wanderlust and could never be tied down to a single waffle recipe when there are yeasted buckwheat waffles, cornmeal-bacon waffles with thyme-infused syrup, and liege waffles to be had.  Do you have a favorite waffle to add to my list?

Savory Jams

I've mentioned before that I try not to can things that are readily available at the grocery store.  Sweet and savory tomato jam definitely falls into that category.  I saw this on the Wednesday Chef blog more than a year ago and was drawn in by the idea of a tomato jam to use on sandwiches and especially as a new twist on my favorite Sunday morning toast and sunny-side up egg.  It is accented with cumin, which I love, but contains too much sugar for my taste.  I'm working on coming up with ways to use up the rest of the jar, but I've realized that I'm just not that into sweetness outside of dessert.  I like the idea of a tomato jam, but perhaps something halfway between a sauce and tomato paste with lots of herbs and a spicy kick.

My other canning experiment this month was the result of a very overgrown serano plant at Veronica's place.  While I was cat-sitting, I picked nearly a pound of red and green peppers and still left quite a few on the plant!  I had seen this recipe for pepper jelly at Confections of a Foodie Bride and decided that would be the perfect use for this bounty.  I have fond memories of party appetizers from my undergrad days consisting of just the block of cream cheese covered with jalapeno jelly and served with crackers.  I made a half-recipe each with red and green seranos.  A few notes of caution on this recipe.  First, boiling hot peppers in vinegar should only be done with the exhaust fan on - unless you are trying to drive guests out of your house.  Second, seranos are HOT, so I added back only a tiny amount of pulp that came through the sieve and the result was still pretty spicy.  If you don't like the heat, you can make a milder version by removing the seeds before boiling the peppers or increasing the proportion of bell peppers to spicy peppers.  This jam includes a lot of sugar, but here it is really necessary to cut the heat of the peppers.  The richness of the cream cheese is a great complement to the jam and I think this is the best way to serve it.  If you're facing an excess of peppers, consider making some pepper jelly and canning it in small jars.  The red and green would make for pretty stocking stuffers or hostess gifts.

I took the jam and cream cheese to a pool party with some girl friends which we all enjoyed until the first thunderstorm we've had all summer rolled through!  Not to worry, there is plenty more summer to be had here in south Texas so we'll have plenty more chances for lounging by the pool.

In a Pickle, Again

This was my second attempt at homemade pickles.  My favorite pickles are extra-garlicky and super-crunchy.  So basically, I want to can pickles that taste like refrigerator pickles.  It's a lofty standard, but I decided to try out this recipe for ice-brined spicy garlic dill pickles.  Supposedly, pre-brining the cucumbers overnight on ice keeps the pickles from getting too soft during canning.  I don't really follow the science of this, but I gave it a try.

I brined the cucumbers whole but sliced them before putting them in the jars because I mostly use pickles on sandwiches and burgers. I forgot that I was making a half-batch of these and included the full amount of pickle spices.  I didn't really notice a difference, but the pickling liquid is rather yellow.  After a couple days to let the vinegar penetrate the cucumbers, I cracked open a jar.  The pickles were good, but not particularly crisp.  This may be a case where store-bought will always trump my homemade.  I'd much rather spend my time making peach butter.

So what do you do with 8 jars of sliced pickles?  Make oven-fried pickles of course!  I've had my eye on this recipe from Skinnytaste for a while and I wish I had made them sooner!  I added an extra step by flouring the slices first before dredging in egg and the cornmeal/Panko mix resulting in a nice, thick crust that stayed on the pickle chips.  The results were delicious, especially when dipped in ranch dressing spiked with horseradish.  I took these to a ladies' night last weekend and got a bit of good-natured teasing for having biked to the farmer's market to buy these cucumbers, canning the pickles myself, and then making the breaded pickles and horseradish-yogurt ranch dressing from scratch.  That is, when their mouths weren't full.

Summer's Bounty Salad

I love grilling vegetables in the summertime.  The intense heat of the grill intensifies the flavor and caramelizes the edges to bring out the sweetness.  This composed salad can be made with any combination of summer vegetables you may have on hand or find at the market that week.  I used slabs of eggplant and zucchini cut 1/2" thick, sweet onions, and red bell pepper.  Once grilled over medium heat until tender all the way through, the vegetables were tossed immediately in a red wine vinaigrette.
The warm vegetables are contrast with a cold salad of pear tomatoes, mozzarella pearls, and fresh basil plus salty kalamata olives and caperberries.  Any type of cheese would be nice, especially a fresh goat cheese, and you could substitute whatever types of olives, pickles, or maybe giardiniera you may have on hand.  I included caperberries after seeing them at the deli counter.  The only time I had tried them before was a few years ago at a small Italian restaurant and I remembered really enjoying them.  Caperberries are the fruit that results from the caper bud being allowed to develop; they are bright and briny with a nice crisp texture.  The ones available at Central Market were a little too salty, but a brief soak in water will reduce the saltiness.  If you are a fan of olives, capers, and other briny goodness, they are worth tracking down.

The variety of flavors and textures keeps the salad plenty interesting, but some bread finishes out the meal nicely.  Any type of bread would be good - in fact, this reminds me a lot of plate of assorted breads, cheeses, and marinated vegetables I frequently had for lunch at Wheatfield's bakery in Lawrence.  I made my standard pizza dough and rolled it out into approximately 8 inch rounds which I lightly oiled and grilled.  Once off the heat, I rubbed the flatbread with a cut garlic clove.  Leftover, veggies, and mozzarella make a great panini the next day.  

Red Wine Vinaigrette


2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste


Mix all ingredients together.  Great on salad, vegetables, or even as a marinade.