August 31, 2007 @ 15:47

So there is a cake that I make.  The recipe is from Epicurious.  Great site.  One of the best recipe searches I’ve seen.  Look at the advance search features.  If you need another recipe site after that, you’re really looking for obscure.  Well, or for something that calls for bacon bits or Velveeta.  It’s just not that kind of place.  LOL  Anyhoo . . .  the cake is called Persian Love Cake.  It’s lovely.  I’m actually making it this weekend for a friend’s birthday.  But the first several times I made it, I kept thinking about the spices involved and thinking how nice it would be with chicken.  Yes, yes I know, that’s just not normal . . .  So I tried it.  And it worked.  And that is how we got Persian Love Chicken.  I serve it with rice and fresh fennel sautéed in butter.  Very simple and very very good.  At last Saturday night’s dinner party, I served broiled fruit on the side that I had topped with just a tiny bit of butter and a quick layer of sugar and lime zest.  There were fresh pears, peaches and plums.  It was a perfect side.  We finished the dinner with a couple of other basic sides, a big green salad and garlic bread.  Oh, and veggie skewers brushed with rosemary and garlic olive oil.  Try the chicken, its super easy and a great different flavor. 

Persian Love Chicken for a Crowd

6 lbs. chicken cut into 2 inch cubes, I prefer white meat, but I imagine that dark would be just fine if that’s what you prefer . . . 
1 cup of sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons ground cardamom
Additional 2 tablespoons ground cardamom
½ cup Rose’s Lime Juice
½ cup olive oil

Put about two tablespoons of olive oil in large skillet, add ¼ tablespoon of cardamom.  When the oil is hot, add ¼ of the cubed chicken.  You will be working in batches since this is such a large quantity.  Sautee the chicken until it begins to brown on the edges.  I like mine pretty thoroughly carmelized, but you can adjust as you like.  There’s a lot of room for interpretation here.  (I always say that, and I always mean that, too.) Stirring constantly add about ¼ of the Rose’s Lime Juice.  As soon as the juice has thoroughly coated the chicken pieces, add ¼ of the cardamom sugar mixture and continue to stir until the chicken pieces are glazed.  Repeat this process until you have cooked all the chicken.  You can keep the batches warm in a 200 degree oven in an olive oiled baking dish.  Super simple, super good. 

August 30, 2007 @ 14:57

I sent several of my friends a cryptic email this morning. Basically, it was about popcorn balls . . . The recipe is down there further on in this post . . . 

This is how the ones left over from the dinner party’s treat bags turned out.  I did a practice run for the holidays coming up.  Not long ’til time to pick out this year’s embarassing Halloween costume!  But, the email . . .  it said: 

“Running with an egg on a spoon . . .  What was your first thought?” 

This was my highly unscientific experiment for the day.  I was thinking about Halloween and reading the blogs I read everyday and thinking in a big circle.  And I just wanted to see the responses.  It was quite fun for me.  All of the recipients, I’m sure, have just tossed it over onto the list of reasons why Sara is a bit quirky on most days.  Here are a handful of the responses: 

Beautiful Girl:  Bad idea. Needs tape.   Also: what I feel like I’m doing at work half the time.

Trixie:  Junior high or younger games we played at parties. Literally running with an egg on a spoon and one hand close by to catch it when it fell.  But then words are literal for me.

Juan Grande:  summer picnics?  a good idea for a drinking game?  is this a trick question? 

Jen:  Another broken elbow! 

Peerless:  Employee Labor Day picnic, St. Vincent Infirmary folks, Murray Park Pavilion One, circa 1982.  Moonlight stroll T-shirt (with white tennis shoe printed in white on red shirt), devilled eggs, bright sunshine, godawful heat.  Racing against other employee kids… falling in the sand.  Thinking I prefered horseshoes.  Sprite.  The smell of water from a faucet.  Cold concrete and bare feet.  Poking about in the ashes of a long dead fire.  Pablo Cruz on the radio.  Sun-In and flip flops and orange Pushup pops. 

The Ever Enchanting Janet:  Simple answer?  Someone running with an egg on a spoon… what else is it suppossed to make you think of?  Wait, maybe it makes me think of someone with their forehead on a baseball bat spinning around till they are dizzy and then trying to run….I guess that’s not what you’re looking for?  Other picnic games?  So.  Maybe I just think of picnics, which make me think of the flat merry go round spinner on the playground, and that reminds me of watching my neighbor coming down and putting out her trash and how she walks like she is trying to stay on one of those flat merry go round things. 

Most people  went straight back to grade school days, seeing the image in a very straightforward way.  But some meandered around it and some who had answered plainly immediately emailed me again to ask “why?” and to qualify their answers.  Honestly, I was just curious to see how different your answers would be, one from another.  And I’d been listening to Crowded House.  Extra points if you know the reference.  

But, really, why?  Because there’s a blog that I read regularly about running.  You know, that thing I try to do that I don’t do very well at all.  Da Big Leap.  Right over there listed in the Places I Go, if you wanna check it out.  I was shocked to see him hesitate over calling himself a runner the other day.  Every post has mileage and time right there to see.  Runner, no doubt in my mind.  It made me begin thinking about how we qualify everything.  We are all so quick to compare ourselves to other people, even if they are very clearly oranges to our apples.  Or to just judge ourselves unworthy outright.  I remember a conversation I once had with my aunt, my mother’s former sister in law, a couple of Christmases ago.  She was telling me about how my mother hand made wrapping paper for the gifts she gave one year.  My mother had actually told me about the same Christmas, but she told me during a conversation about how you can make do with nothing.  To her, these were her way of contributing what little she could during some very lean times.  To my aunt, they were over the top unforgettable efforts to give the perfect gift.  Two absolutely different memories of the same moment.  My friend Nat says she can’t cook, but every night she feeds four sons and a husband.  Sugar, they all look happy to me.  You are a cook.  If you love it and work for it, you don’t have to be perfect at it.  I had a bit of a debate with myself about this blog.  I look around and heck, when you’ve got hundreds of professionals out there with advice, what could I possibly have to say about the subject?  What I’ve got to say about it is what I would want to hear about it.  A real girl who gets up every morning and makes sure three people get baths, breakfast, dressed and to school and work on time with no other grown up to help.  And in the between times I do my best to do a few things that will stick with my boys after they’ve grown up, some memories.  They won’t remember if I bought them everything they ever wanted, but they’ll remember the times we decorated cookies together.  I don’t have a single memory of shopping with my mom as a kid, but I remember popcorn balls.  It’s not whether you excel beyond all others in a field that matters, it’s the effort you put into it and the memories you make along the way.  And I believe that it’s that effort that will determine whether my kids turn out to be people who will answer their crazy friend who sends them emails about eggs on a spoon.  I think they will. 

Popcorn Balls

12 cups popped popcorn
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

I like to pop the popcorn in the microwave in a plain paper lunch bag.  Just put ½ cup kernels in the bag and fold the top down and microwave on high until the popping slows, just like you would microwave popcorn in the store boughten packs. 

Combine sugar, water, salt, corn syrup, and vinegar in a covered stock pot.  I’m a nervous candy maker, so I love that mine has a glass lid so I can watch safely.  Let this simmer for 3 minutes with the lid on, allowing the steam to wash down the sides of the pot.  After three minutes, uncover and cook to hard crack stage (290 F), although I don’t use a candy thermometer, I use a glass of water and wooden spoon, the old lady way.  Pour slowly over hot popped corn, mixing well to coat every kernel as best you can.  Butter your hands (this is one of my favorite parts, it makes me think of my childhood.  Carrie thinks this is hilarious, but buttered hands just make me nostalgic) and press into balls  when it has cooled just enough to handle.  Don’t wait too long, or you’ll just have home made caramel corn.  Which ain’t bad . . . 

For some extra fun, try covering them with modeling chocolate and let the kids decorate them.  Extra candies can be glued on with plain melted chocolate.  

Modeling Chocolate

10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
 1/3 cup light corn syrup

Melt chocolate and add the corn syrup.  Knead until smooth.  Yes, seriously, it’s that easy.  For milk chocolate or white chocolate use 10 ounces of chocolate or coating and a smidge less than 1/3 cup of light corn syrup. Let set until firm after you’ve kneaded it smooth. 

It’s a great party activity, and not just for Halloween.  Go crazy in the candy aisle and they’re year round fun. 

Today is Bear’s first day dressing out with the football team.  He isn’t playing football.  But as he’s taking athletics, he got a choice, wait for his sport’s season to start and sit in study hall until then or work out with the football team until then.  He has chosen to work out with the football team.  I’m absolutely thrilled!!!  I dropped him off this morning in his white tee shirt and work out shorts and his new running shoes.  During open house last week a girl said hi to him as we were walking down the hall.  After we passed I asked him who she was.  He said, “My ex-girlfriend.”  Ugh!  Did your heart skip a beat when you read that the way that mine did when I heard it?  Of course not, you didn’t give birth to him.  But wow, it smacked me!  My baby has an ex-girlfriend . . .  just . . .  wow . . .  And someday, he’ll be thinking this about one of his own, I’m sure.  He asked me once if there were video games when I was a kid.  I told him of the glorious days of Atari.  He just looked at me like he wanted to pat me on the hand and get me a lap shawl . . .  It’s a great big circle, isn’t it.  Once upon a time I was a cute little punkin, too.  I remember asking my Mom about poodle skirts and being told she wasn’t old enough to remember those, but tie dye she could help me on.  I wonder if she remembers that.  I’ll have to ask her. 

Check out my fashion-fu back in the day. 

 August 28, 2007 @ 12:00

OR The Very Good Bad for You Dip . . . 

 An old friend of mine sweet talked a recipe, for what she called Baba Ganoush, out of a restaurateur in Washington D.C. a very very long time ago.  Now if you go looking for a Baba Ganoush recipe, you’ll find hundreds of them, and almost all are with eggplant.  But that is what she called this dish.  Over the last twenty years, we’ve tweaked it a bit and a bit more and eventually a lot.  And now, this is the easiest and best artichoke dip ever.  But I still call it Baba Ganoush in my head, as it reminds me of my sweet old friend. 

Easy Peasy Artichoke Dip

3 14 oz. cans of artichoke hearts in brine, drained well
1 3 ½ oz. jar of capers, drained well
1 ½ cups of grated parmesan cheese
1 cup real mayonnaise

Cut the artichoke hearts into manageable pieces.  I cut mine into quarters, because I serve this with big hearty crackers or toasted pita.  If you’re going to serve it with more delicate crackers, you may want to go for a finer chop.  And be very sure you drain them well; you don’t want this dip to be watery.  Mix the artichokes, capers, mayonnaise and 1 cup of the parmesan.  Put into a small casserole and top with the remaining ½ cup of parmesan.  Bake at 400 until bubbly and golden brown on top.  Serve with your favorite crackers. 

August 27, 2007 @ 14:56

So we started Satuday’s dinner party with one good for you and one very good bad for you dip.  The fat free curry dip is a version of a dip that I first had at my friend Jen’s house.  The full fat version is luscious with cream cheese, one of my favorite things, but with just a few little changes, it becomes completely guilt free.  And is almost as good as Jen’s original. 

Fat Free Curry Dip

1 8 oz. package of fat free cream cheese
2 cups of fat free plain yogurt
1 to 2 tablespoons of curry powder (to your taste)
¼ teaspoon of salt

Blend the cream cheese until smooth, add the yogurt slowly by thirds.  Blend in salt and curry powder.  The curry powder will bloom a bit, so this dip is best made at least 2 hours ahead of serving time.  Serve with crudités or any other favorite crunchy. 

The rest of dinner was great.  Great conversation, lots of wine, and of course that leads to even more great conversation.  I believe the fact that I had not one stitch of leftovers save for two little key lime tarts and the curry dip is a sign.  And I was very thankful for those.  One of my favorite things for the day after a holiday or dinner party is having cake or pie for breakfast.  Not my healthiest habit, but, it eases that after the party sadness.  There is just something sad about closing the door behind your last guest and washing the wine glasses and turning out all the lights.  It really does seem to go by so quickly.  All the build up to the event itself and then poof!  Everyone goes home with their treat bag and it’s over.  (Yes, I made treat bags for all the grown ups.  Little kids aren’t the only ones that should get a treat bag when they leave a party, don’t you agree?  Ours had popcorn balls and Cardamom and Cayenne Truffles.)  Sitting on the sofa in the morning sun the next day and having a key lime tart for breakfast and remembering the fun we had is a nice little consolation prize, though, no? 

Here’s a sneak preview of what’s coming up.  I’ll be posting more of the evening’s recipes as the week goes along. 

August 23, 2007 @ 14:20

Dear self, 

The next time you plan a dinner party and believe that rule about how many people will attend in relationship to how many people you invite, remember that it is not really a rule.  It is a rule OF THUMB.  Which is very different than an actual rule.  So, now that you are cooking for 30 people on Saturday instead of 15, and quite happy to do so, you should let everyone else know why they won’t have anything new to read until Monday . . . because you are going to be spending all day Friday making key lime tarts and prepping lamb and chicken and  . . .  hey, what are you doing, it’s time to go! 

Sincerely,

Your brain

P.S.  get a bigger house and more parking space . . . 

Can’t wait to see all of you who are coming to dinner Saturday.  I’ll have pictures and some new recipes for everyone else on Monday!  Have a great weekend! 

August 21, 2007 @ 14:07

Bear’s first day of Jr. High.  The old friends together again after a long summer away from home.  He likes all of his teachers.  And I am happy to report, he got the locker figured out.  He’s decided to go out for sports this year.  I’m super excited about this.  We bought him running shoes and I’m very much looking forward to taking him out to my favorite trails with me.  He hugged me yesterday and it startled me how tall he actually is . . .  there’s nearly a man there where my baby boy used to be . . . 

Puppy had his first session of his new therapies today.  It went well.  We will smile and leave it at that for now.   

Today, we had birthday cake at work.  And tonight, I’m baking a birthday cake for Tiff.  I’ve been making this cake for years, but just a couple of years ago, a friend decided to start calling it Ubercake, and the name has stuck.  Chocolate cake layers drenched in chocolate syrup (Hershey is our friend), with Peanutbuttercream, covered with chocolate ganache.  I’ll add a picture of how it turned out soon . . . 

 Edit August 22, 2007 @ 08:24

Terrible picture . . .  but . . .  you can still see the chocolatey goodness, eh? 

August 20, 2007 @ 11:22

August 17, 2007 @ 11:13

Today has been such a good day!  Email from my baby brother in Iraq.  Says he is fine, just hot.  Says to tell all the single girls that have commented over his picture in my office that he said hello.  What can I say, he’s adorable.  Then was tracked down by a friend that I lost touch with years ago.  Which led to the finding of another long lost friend.  Have already exchanged a couple of emails with the first, am hoping for more.  I’m looking forward to the rest of this day if it’s going to continue this way.  You think I should take a long lunch and drive to the state line to buy a lotto ticket? 

Funny how I was already feeling nostalgic when I woke up this morning.  I’ve been thinking about my grandparents.  I used to spend time with them over the summers.  So when it’s hot and school is about to start and the grass is turning brown and you’ve got the air conditioning up so high that you worry that it won’t survive, well . . .  that’s when I start to think about Christmas.  Yes, I said it, Christmas, the holidays, I’m already thinking about it.  And hey, there are only 129 days left.  If you really wanted to get specific, like right down to the second!, you can go here . . .  That’s really not very long if you’re planning on making all homemade gifts this year.  I plan it that way every year, and every year, the week before, I scramble to finish up.  Finish up with shopping that is.  And another bag or box of half sewn feety pajamas or half planned bath products get piled into the sad forlorn craft closet.  Or worse, the trash bin.  I was so optimistic the year I made lip balms in the most fabulous flavors, margarita and mulled wine.  Sound yummy, no?  Well . . .  no.  What they actually tasted like was bug spray.  So bad!  The best ever are the half brained plans to learn to knit (jaysus, I’m an idiot sometimes) or some equally complicated skill that I don’t have and couldn’t possibly learn in less than 90 days.  Maybe this year I’ll learn scrimshaw . . .  OOOH! Or glass blowing . . .  No no wait!  I’ve got it . . .  basket weaving . . .  does anybody know how to strip bark? 

In all truth, this year I am trying to be reasonable.  I am going to make the one thing I know I can always get right.  Food.  The best homemade gifts I’ve ever pulled off have been food.  Except for the year I grew cockscomb, dried them and made a them into a wreath for an aunt.  I had a party one year and sent my guests home with dinner for two.  Boxes that had compete dinners for two ready to heat up.  The year I made truffles and cookies and spiced nuts and stacked them in those great boxes like Harry and David’s (don’t their catalogs make you hungry?) was a really good year, too.  This year I think I’m going to go very old fashioned.  Chutney and Dilly Bread and maybe apple butter.  The dilly bread is something that my Meemaw always made.  It never occurred to me that it had a life before my Meemaw.  But a couple of years after she passed away, while on my “I’m going to win the Pilsbury Bake Off” kick, I discovered the recipe.  It was actually a $25,000 winner in 1960, they called it Dilly Casserole Bread, entered by a lovely lady named Leona Schnuelle, of Crab Orchard, NE.  By the time I was around and interested in cooking, it was two decades later and Meemaw called it Dilly Bread and had tweaked the recipe a bit.  You can find Leona’s original here.  Below is my Meemaw’s and now my version . . .  mostly its just more butter.  Because we all know more butter is better . . . 

Meemaw’s Dilly Bread

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 pkg. active dry yeast
1/3 cup luke warm water
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons instant minced onion
3 teaspoons dill seed
1 teaspoon salt

additional butter and coarse salt, if desired . . .  if desired?  Well of course it’s desired! 

Put 2 cups of the flour into a mixing bowl.  I use my Kitchenaid mixer and the dough hook for this, you can do it by hand if you choose.  In a small bowl combine the yeast and warm water, set aside.  In a small sauce pan melt the 2 tablespoons of butter, add the cottage cheese and warm through.  Be careful not to melt the curds.  It should be just above room temperature but very clearly still cottage cheese.  Stir into the cottage cheese mixture the beaten egg, sugar, minced onion, dill seed and salt.  Add the yeast/water mixture to the cottoage cheese mixture and then pour over the flour.  Mix until throroughly combined and formed into a ball in the center of the bowl.  You may need to use the additional half cup of flour if the dough is too sticky to form a ball.  Place the dough into your desired baking pan that has been greased or sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, I like loaf pans because this bread makes the best ham sandwiches you have ever had in your life.  Or a round casserole dish is the traditional form.  And that’s very nice, too.  Let this rise in a warm place covered with a damp towel until doubled in size.  Now here’s a family controversy.  My mother says punch it down and let it rise again, I say don’t punch it down, straight to the 350 degree oven until dark golden brown and sounds slightly hollow when tapped.  Slightly!  You don’t want a little brown brick, right?  But, if you do miss the mark the first time, it crumbles into a fabulous stuffing for chicken roasted with fresh fennel.  While it is still hot, coat it with butter and a sprinkling of coarse salt. 

Wait, wait, back up . . .  you’re still stuck on the $25,000 in 1960 for a bread recipe?  Yeah!  Now you are thinking of entering yourself, too . . .  aren’tcha?  Yeah you are.  Good luck with that.  I’m going to learn basket weaving instead . . . 

August 15, 2007 @ 18:36

It is climbing toward 104 degrees today.  But it is so cold in my office that I’m wishing for hot chocolate and cardamom toast.  And a blanket and a love seat and a good book and a big fire in a fireplace . . .  hmmmm.  Maybe what I’m really wanting is a good vacation somewhere where it’s cold on the outside and warm on the inside instead.  What I’ve got are invitations to two different fabulously beachy places in the next couple of months and cannot make them fit my schedule.  If I’m going to freeze or toast, I’ll take toast, on the beach with a silly drink and some friends around.  But I just can’t make it work, which is entirely rotten.  I’m overscheduled and not enough of it is fulfilling my need for boat drinks and juvenile frivolity.  In fact, my schedule is so out of control that it has killed off my most recent attempt at dating.  It had potential, too . . .  *sigh* 

Once in a blue moon, I will have an enormous streak of dating optimism and throw myself back into the dating pool.  A few months ago, I did just that . . .  at one of those dating sites.  I know, I know . . .  but let me tell the whole story before you smack me in the head, k?  I spent two months dodging emails from men who were ten to TWENTY years older than me, and a couple who were younger than me who broke at least two of Trixie’s Rules of Online Dating.  A couple of them were my age but scary.  The final straw was when they emailed me with “new” members who would be good matches for me and one of them was somebody a friend had tried to set me up with that scared the bejeezus outta me.  Like a stalker starter kit, ya know?  But in between all of those, had been a couple of emails with a nice guy.  Who actually seemed . . .  sane.  A couple of red flags, but not big ones.  Self employed, which let’s be honest, can either mean what it says or can mean “I want to live on your couch and let you pay my bills.”  And didn’t have a picture up, but did eventually send one as we continued to talk over emails.  We had some interesting discussions, eventually exchanged cell numbers and talked a bit.  And scheduled a first date.  Now I had already noticed that the email content was diminishing.  The phone conversation minimal.  But I was trying not to be negative.  The day before the date, he was called out of town for work and had to cancel.  The next few weeks we found it impossible to make our schedules fit.  The phone calls stopped.  The emails lagged.  There were a few attempting to make that first date happen, but hey, we’re all grown ups here, and real life just isn’t that simple right?  I figured that it was just not going to happen.  If we can’t sustain even phone conversations between trying to make our schedules work then that reflects a bit of ambivalence on both sides, no?  So, c’est la vie, que sera sera and all that.  And then this email arrives.  A big long email that when I first began reading made me smile, because it was more of a conversation than we’d had in about two weeks.  And then I got to this paragraph . . . 

“ . . .  do you think we’re ever going to actually meet in person?  You’re intelligent and funny and have a great phone voice - definitely the type of creative person I’d like to be friends with.  But, I’m wondering that we may never get to meet each other in person.  After months of trying, I don’t think there’s anything else I can say or do to get you across the table from me at Starbucks.  And it’s not so great for my self-esteem to keep trying.” 

And to this I say “HUH?”  Maybe I’m confused here.  If you have trouble getting together with somebody but are genuinely interested in that person don’t you still talk to them?  When the phone calls didn’t continue, I just figured he wasn’t interested.  But what I’m thinking now, is he just wasn’t interested in talking to me.  But still wanted to sit across a table from me?  I’m just confused by this.  Has the SCA ruined me for same town relationships?  I have relationships with friends that I will only see once or twice a year.  There are people, some that live minutes from me, some hours, that I only see in email and then at events, but that I would lay down in front of traffic for them.  Because I conduct so many of my closest relationships electronically and over the phone, have I forgotten how to be a real live girl?  When the truth is that scheduling conflicts were two sided, not just one person dodging the other, I just don’t feel as if I was being aloof or dismissive.  And just for clarification, this entire process from first email to last took only three months.  See?  I say ONLY three months.  My response to that email was to invite him out for lunch that weekend.  I haven’t heard from him since. 

One of my friends, who has sworn off dating forever, says I should stop chasing cars.  Says it’s much safer under the porch.  I hope I’m not already under there and just don’t know it . . .  Jen, will you come dig me out?   

I see a weekend baking frenzy coming for sure.