Oh Dear New Orleans!

Ever fall in love? You know that feeling...suddenly it hits you - blam! This is it! I love New Orleans that way.  Chicago will always be my true love, the one that I had 18 good years with and then for one reason or another, it was time to leave.  New Orleans is like that new romance lurking in the corners of your life that you haven't acted upon yet.  It's exciting, scary, dangerous, a little voodoo-y, delicious, weird, wonderful.  All the things I like.  Here's a pic of our first meal in town.  Mudbugs and Beer is how someone described it, but truly, you can't know how delicious that crawfish (and the shrimp) was until you go there and eat some for yourself.  I was lucky I had a few natives around to show me the best way to eat this stuff.  Did I mention the fresh and broiled oysters? O.M.G.  More to come on Crescent City for sure!

Relax Much?

Can you relax? I have a hard time with it.  The other day, I baked a bunch of stuff.  Guess what? I relaxed.  But when the baking is over, life continues...but you have baked goods, so it's always better.  I made Alice Medrich's Cocoa Brownies (my GAWD that woman is a genius.  I got the recipe from the website Food52) and Deb Perelman's Whole Lemon Bars (from her cookbook - another genius).  Then, I made my standard no-knead bread (originally from Foodie With Family blog, I believe) with dried garlic, onions, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, black sesame seeds, flax seeds, herbes de provence, white pepper and smoked salt - heaven! All for now - busy week ahead, then off to New Orleans! 

Tocino - A Love Story

Do you ever come across a recipe that is so killer you just can't stand it? Well, here is mine:  Tocino.  Ever heard of it? If you're from the Phillipines, maybe you have.  But I'm telling you, this has rapidly morphed from being my new recipe to an old favorite.  It's wonderful.  Best of all, it's easy, which appeals to my lazy side, believe me.  I got it from Rebecca Lindamood's terrific blog Foodie with Family.  If you don't know Rebecca's blog, take a minute and check it out:  www.foodiewithfamily.com. She often posts the most amazingly exotic recipes made easy by subtitutions that are well within any home cook's reach. 

For example, tocino is made from rather exotic ingredients in the Phillipines, however, Rebecca makes it simple for us and the results are nothing short of astounding.  She lists pork shoulder on her site for this dish, but I get pork butt (heehee).  Is that the same thing? Not sure.  Here's a funny thing though - my butcher always gives me the stink-eye when I order the pork butt (heehee) for it.  You have to get the butcher to slice it thin - some butchers sulk and slice it too thick - guess what, the recipe still works.  It's practically foolproof! But it's a pain to slice, hence the stink-eye. 

I don't fry the pork, but grill it.  It makes a bit of a mess, and there is a slight learning curve involved in grilling it.  The sugar cure really makes the flames go high, but bear with it and let the pork char a bit.  Pile it up over the flames and then put the sizzling pork on a plate when it really starts to darken.  I've even had black pieces - they work just fine.  There is so much flavor! I do add one exotic ingredient - fish sauce.  I'm addicted to it.  You certainly don't need to add it.  But if you have an Asian market near  you (who doesn't?), this is readily available.  I like the Vietnamese fish sauce best, as opposed to Korean.  You can also completely eliminate any or all food coloring.  This dish pretty much makes itself.  I hope you make it! Here is what you need:

3 pounds pork butt (heehee), sliced into 1/8 inch slices and cut in half lengthwise (can be thicker if you have a sulky butcher)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. fish sauce (optional)
3 tbs. kosher salt
15 drops red food coloring or 3 tbs beet powder (what? also optional, please)

Combine everything except pork in a large bowl.  Add pork to bowl, one piece at a time.  Mix together as much as you can with your hands.  Transfer to two ziploc bags, or one GIANT ziplock bag.  Let sit in fridge for three days, turning it from time to time.  Or, stick it in the freezer until you need some/all of it.  The idea is to let it cure in the bag.  It won't look like much going in.  But over time, the juices release and get all red and the salt and the sugar work their magic.  Then, either grill it over hot charcoal or fry it in a cast-iron.  Beware though - it's sticky! But sticky goodness is what it's all about with pork, no? I serve it with jasmine rice and lots of hot sauce.

That was a lot of work!

Hey - that was a lot of work - but worth it! Can you believe this is the view from my girlfriend's living room? It's a little blurry - but that's the ocean.  Ah-mazing.  Everything turned out great - except, my provolone crisps ended up like chewy rubbery pieces of gum in the salad.  That did not turn out well at all.  But pretty much all the other recipes were hits.  The two crackers listed in the last blog post are really the best.  Both come from Smitten Kitchen - do you know that website? I've talked about it before.  The flatbread recipe can be found on her website - the grissini recipe, well, you gotta buy the cookbook.  But here's a hint - if you go to her website and search Russian Black Bread, it's pretty much the same ingredients, scaled down.  So good.  Two of the cookies came from 101 Cookbooks, another great site. The dark chocolate sables came from Smitten as well.  Love me some Smitten.  She just posted those on her site the other day.  I also like Pinterest for recipes.  All for now.

First New Post in a Long Time

Oh yes it has - it's been a long time since I blogged.  I think I need to return to it.  There's a lot going on, and since I only have one blogger pal on here (who came to see me! wavewavewavewave) I can definitely vent.  Maybe not today, though.  Let's just say, I'm tentatively putting my toe back in the blogging pool.  Did I really only post once in 2012? Yup.  Oh well.  What's new in my world? Not much has changed.  I'm learning my sixth one woman show.  I'm still with Dean, still living in my new apartment. Went back home three times last year because my Mom had a slew of issues.  Still cooking, learning new recipes.  Still at the same jobs.  Those jobs in my apartment that needed completing? Still incomplete.  Oh well.  Sometimes, you have to let things slide a bit.  Especially out here.  This Sunday, I'm cooking for 14 people! My pal lives in a big new house in Manhattan Beach and I'm providing the food.  Here is the menu:  

Pumpernickel Grissini
Rosemary Flatbread
Whipped Feta and Lemon Dip
Creme Fraiche Horseradish Dip

Lacinato Kale with Pumpkin Oil, Balsamic Vinegar and
Provolone Crisps

Homemade Garlic-Onion Bread
Homemade Cultured Butter with Fresh Marjoram

Chicken Saltimbocca
Parsnip Puree

Whole Vanilla Bean Cookies
Nibby Buckwheat Cookies
Super Dark Chocolate Cookies

Sounds good, right? I swear I could do this for a living, but the only bummer is, dealing with the public.  Been there, done that, it's over.  Maybe I can just get friends to hire me?? I'm burying the lede here: I'm a little burned out on my job.  Oh well, who isn't? In these tough times, I'm lucky to be employed. 

The picture is from my local supermarket's parking lot.  Pretty amazing skies around here lately. 

All for now. 

Let Go Let Cake

So, a brief history of my cakes - they generally suck. I could not figure out why this or this recipe did not turn out well. Everything looked fine, but the taste was heavy, dense, cardboardy. I kept experimenting with this, and this. Still, bupkus. The cakes were not good.

Then, my pal said, why are your cakes cold? I said, because I stick them in the fridge when I'm done frosting them. She looked at me. "Are you crazy? Leave OUT your baked good, that way they won't dry out and taste crappy!" She's from the South and knows about these things. "We used to leave baked goods out for a week!" Yikes.

For me, this was really tough. I come from a family where fridge-ing and freezing are done almost without thinking. But I decided to give it a try. I did have some help from this awesome chick because I was trying out a new recipe of hers and if you read in the comments section, you'll see how kind she was to talk me down. I also tried this cake recipe, (the chocolate version) because Deb is god. I really wanted to try these two together. BTW, I did the caramel version of the frosting.

Then, I left the damn frosted thing out for two days - covered of course - and you know what? It was amazing. AMAZING.

That said, the leftovers are right where they belong - in the fridge. See pic for deets.

Happy Baking! And thanks to all my pals who helped! You know who you are.

Back in Los Angeles

I'm back for New Year's - it's going to be small this year. No party, just a nice dinner with friends and Dean. Now, one of the friends just called to say his pop's in the hospital, so it might just be Jan, Dean and me. We'll see. I've done a lot this year, I want to keep the end kind of on the small side. Christmas was fine, and so was Mom's birthday. My two favorite pictures are attached. The lighthouse one was taken on Christmas Day on the shores of Lake Michigan in Kenosha. The balloon one was taken at Mom's party as the festivities were winding down. Happy New Year everyone!