Tonight was the second time I tried to make something I saw on Iron Chef America. It's a bit of a challenge, since they don't publish the recipes the chefs make, and I just have to go off sight, Alton Brown's delightful commentary, and my own culinary knowledge. In Battle Butter, Iron Chef Cat Cora made a butternut squash tarte tatin, a little pastry thing that looked so delicious and easy I had to try it. Keep in mind as you read that this was Battle Butter. Butternut squash, puff pastry (which is full of butter), melted butter, and five spice... that's it. Yum. Kent even ate it. I told him it was a butternut squash pie with cinnamon, enticing him with the two key words "pie" and "cinnamon". He believed me. Add a bit of molasses or brown sugar, and it would taste like an actual pie, but Jack and I thought the flavor was incredible exactly as is. It made a wonderful Friday supper with pork tenderloin, crock pot mac and cheese, and steamed broccoli. I realized after dinner that I should have put five spice on the pork, too, but it was just dandy brined in OJ, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar, then pan-seared and baked in the oven.


First, I peeled the squash, cut it into slices about 1/2-inch thick, then cut the slices into smaller pieces that would fit in my crocks. Cat Cora had these cute little cast-iron ramekins that held a round slice perfectly, but in the absence of that, I just cut them into semi-circles and a few smaller pieces for the edges. I was going for an even layer of squash on the bottom of each crock. Then I melted some butter (about 4 Tbsp in all for the whole recipe) and added a bit of it to the squash and tossed in some Chinese five spice. Cat Cora used brown butter to toss with the squash and five spice, but I didn't have that kind of time.


I put a little melted butter in the bottom of each crock, then added a layer of squash. My crocks are oval-shaped, so this is what I ended up with.


Next, I cut some puff pastry in the shape of my baking dishes. I used the bottom of the dish for a guide, but since the pastry draws up a little when it bakes, I could have used the top, too. Either way would seem to work.


I topped each layer of squash with a piece of puff pastry, then brushed a tad more melted butter on top. Blame Cat Cora. Then I put my scraps in a baggie back in the freezer. I'm not sure what I'll do with the scraps, but I hate to waste puff pastry, ever.


I baked them at 425 for some length of time. I had this great plan to time it and see how long it took to bake, but I have two small children. Thus, I know that I put them in the oven at 5:40 p.m., but I have no idea what time I took them out. It was maybe 15 minutes later, but I just kept an eye on them until they were puffed and golden brown.


Just to be funny, I made a short movie of these things sizzling when they came out of the oven. Butter. Can you hear it?


The final step is inverting them onto a plate after they've had a few minutes to cool. Well, okay, the FINAL step is eating them slowly enough that you don't burn yourself, but it's hard. They're that good.

Labels: kitchen adventures, photography, video, what to watch

• posted by erica 10/08/2010 07:58:00 PM
•  1 comments

Tyler Florence saves the weekend again.

I've realized that every time I'm in a food rut, the best thing for me to do is to DVR some episodes of Good Eats, Tyler's Ultimate, and Giada at Home, and then I have more meal ideas than I know what to do with. Tyler's episode about Ultimate Dim Sum yielded an easy recipe for delicious fried rice that made me drool just thinking about it.

I made it almost just like Tyler did, except that I cooked the shrimp in a separate pan so as not to contaminate the rice with shrimpiness that my darling husband does not enjoy, and I added extra veggies like carrots, sweet peppers, and zucchini. I didn't want to go overboard with the soy sauce, since that's a pretty hard mistake to recover from, so I dumped a little in while I was tossing everything together at the end, and then we added more at the table. I used three eggs, like he suggests, but I think it could almost use more than that, since I like a lot of egg and it was hard to find the bits of egg among everything else. But overall, it was a fabulous weekend lunch, a one-pot meal that made us all happy. It's very much like the fried rice we get at our favorite sushi place, nice and light with real vegetable flavors, and very unlike the greasy, salty fried rice we get from our favorite Chinese takeout place. I much prefer the former.

This could definitely go well with edamame and potstickers or something like that, but I needed to keep it simple today. We have a lot of leftover rice, so maybe I'll be in a potsticker mood in a day or two and I can test that hypothesis.

Labels: kitchen adventures, photography, what to watch

• posted by erica 7/10/2010 01:54:00 PM
•  1 comments

It turns out that this fall's pumpkin theme hasn't been so much every Friday as semi-regularly sometime over the weekend, with one or two weeks seeing no pumpkin activity whatsoever. Still, it's fun to use so much pumpkin and search around for new recipes. I baked another batch of muffins last weekend, making 12 muffins without chocolate chips and a mini loaf with chocolate chips for a friend's birthday. The muffins disappear quickly around here, I tell ya.

This weekend, I browsed FN's collection of pumpkin recipes, and I found a couple I was eager to try. The first ended up being part of tonight's dinner: Mario's Pumpkin Lune with Butter and Sage. (FYI: lune = moons = ravioli.) Some of the pumpkin recipes are a little vague on how much pumpkin you should use; this one, for instance, says to roast a small/one-pound pumpkin, so I just guessed that that would be about equivalent to 1.5 cups of pumpkin puree. Rather than making my own pasta dough, I used refrigerated egg roll wrappers, and I was able to get nine 2-inch circles out of each square. I mixed up the filling and tasted it, and the balsamic vinegar seemed to overpower everything else, so I started to get a little disappointed that maybe I wasn't going to like it at all. A little balsamic goes a LONG way on my taste buds. I added a little honey and some sage to the pumpkin mixture, and even though it still tasted odd, I hoped for the best and assembled the ravioli. Rather than using all butter for the sage sauce, I used half butter and half olive oil, and it was very well balanced with the fresh sage. I was really pleased that the balsamic vinegar mellowed once everything mingled together in cooking, and I ended up liking it quite a bit. I ended up with a lot of extra filling because I made a small recipe of ravioli, so the rest of the filling is now in the freezer for some future dinner engagement.

At the point when I was mixing up the filling and started to worry that I was going to hate the finished product, I asked Jack to go to the store to get some ricotta so I could also make some more traditional ravioli. I filled them with ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, and a bit of pesto, then decided I'd deep fry them (hey, why not?) and we could dip them in tomato sauce. I used a lot of pans and other preparatory dishes for the meal, but it was worth it. Kent really loved the fried cheese ravioli, though he wouldn't try the pumpkin stuff — that was okay, because he's normally really good about trying a bite of new things if we encourage him, and I didn't want to push it tonight.

The other pumpkin recipe I want to try soon is this Pumpkin Mousse, which sounds like a lighter, mellower cousin of pumpkin pie. And it looks so lovely in those wine glasses.

Surfing the Food Network website without first seeing the recipes on TV is somewhat new to me, but I'm trying to embrace it, because we're about to take the big step of dropping down to limited cable (channels 1-22) and getting Netflix. Netflix has a lot of full seasons of TV shows that I want to see, but I'm a little sad when I think about not being able to watch the Food Network or The Daily Show. And Jack won't have ESPN. So many Daily Show clips end up on YouTube, and we don't watch as much of those other stations as we used to anyway, so I think it won't be as huge of a lifestyle change as it would be for some families. At least we'll still have PBS and all the big networks (ABC, CBS, etc.), where most of our favorite shows are anyway. Hopefully we'll grow a little, and we'll have so much easier access to indie films and other obscure things. Plus, we'll save money, which is the main reason we're doing it. Sigh. Saving money is hard.

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 11/15/2009 06:48:00 PM
•  1 comments

That's the reason we eat fajitas, right? The sizzle? I think so. I love making fajitas, and tonight, I tried a new main ingredient: steak. Blame the Steak Fajita Throwdown. Father Leo, a Filipino Catholic priest who's also a triple black belt in Tae Kwon Do and has his own local cooking show in Maryland, handed Bobby Flay's butt to him on a sizzling skillet. It was awesome. You'd think Bobby could win a throwdown dealing with Southwestern food — much more likely than his victory over two sweet old ladies from New England in the Berry Pie Throwdown a couple of years ago. Anyway, Food Network's website didn't publish Father Leo's winning recipe, but I remembered enough of it from the show that I was able to wing it and happily devour the results a little while later.

I usually make portobello fajitas, or portobellos for Jack and shrimp or chicken for me. I don't buy a lot of beef, except for ground beef and the occasional bacon-wrapped filet when I'm feeling splurgy, so venturing into the meat section of the grocery store to find flank steak was a mini-adventure for someone who considers herself half a vegetarian. I ended up using about half a pound of what I bought and freezing the rest, and it was the perfect amount for me. Hush. I'm eating for two.

The marinade was unique and wonderful, and my favorite part of the whole thing. I marinated Jack's mushroom in the same stuff, and he loved it as well. As nearly as I can remember from the show, the marinade included white wine (which I subbed with O'Doul's, because that's what we had in the fridge), red wine vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, salt and pepper, and oil. I also threw in a pinch of cayenne for fun. I cooked the steak on a grill pan for 7 minutes on each side, then let it rest before slicing it really thin. I caramelized the onions and peppers in a big skillet, then cooked Jack's mushroom along with them in the same pan. Homemade guacamole, sour cream, and a little cheese were the only things we added, and they were perfect.

Kent ate about two bites of refried beans, a tiny piece of a tortilla chip, and one grape, then spent the rest of the meal squishing his hands through the beans. I offered him steak, which he's eaten in the past but didn't want to have anything to do with this time. Sometimes I wonder about him. However, he is being extremely cute right now and saying, "fatitos!" over and over.

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 9/18/2009 07:19:00 PM
•  1 comments

1. A fun playdate with Noah today and some much-needed relief for his mom Sunny, who's dealing with many frustrating aspects of her husband's care and legal situation after he was hit on his bicycle by a Suburban two weeks ago.
2. The fact that I slept 12 hours last night; I fell asleep right after dinner and completely slept through Kent's bedtime routine, including the two books that Jack read to him in the bed right next to me.
3. How good it feels to cook breakfast again: bacon, eggs, and cheese on a croissant will be gracing my tummy several times this week.
4. The reinstitution of the nightly Dessert and TV ritual after Kent goes to bed, which had taken a few months off when I either didn't want dessert or just didn't want to stay up.
5. The red bootie on my knitting needles, which is the first thing I've sat down to make for Beta.
6. Lost. Jack has been geeking out, following everything that happened at Comic-Con, and can't keep himself from telling me all about it so that I will be as geeky as he is.
7. The Office. I can't wait for it to come back in September so that Pam and I can be pregnant together.
8. The way Kent looked today with watermelon juice dripping all over him. He doesn't like to be messy (e.g., he always wants to wash his hands after he colors with markers), so he insisted on taking off his shirt after it started to get wet, then wanted a bib so the juice didn't keep running down his little Buddha belly. Slurping watermelon, wearing nothing but a bright yellow diaper and a plastic bib. That kid just gets cuter and cuter.
9. Missing peaceful solitude a little bit. I might be starting prenatal yoga this weekend.
10. The fact that I never made it down to Florida to meet Jerry, Jack's step-grandfather, who passed away tonight, and the fact that his kids (not Jack's dad, but Jerry's birth kids) don't seem to care too much.
11. Love, compassion, forgiveness, hugs, and sharing. All the good stuff we need more of.

Labels: belly, Beta, Dean, family, Kent, what to watch

• posted by erica 7/27/2009 09:07:00 PM
•  2 comments

I'm missing my son's first fireworks because I'm sick and because it's stupidly hot outside. It's 8:45 p.m., and it's 93 degrees outside with a heat index of 99. What the #$%@? I've felt lousy all evening, so I'm at home with a bowl of Crispix, watching the episode of When Weather Changed History about the Challenger explosion. Interesting show, especially since I was only 5 years old when it happened and didn't really get the details at the time, but I'd much rather be watching Kent spazz out on the levee while watching the fireworks.

It was important to me that Kent still get to do it now that he's old enough to watch them, even if his preggo mom didn't feel up to it, so Jack took him a little while ago, and now I'm feeling sad and lonely. I wondered after they left whether there was a place we could have watched from the comfort of our car, but it's not really possible to get close enough to see and still escape the hoards of traffic, and it'll be way more fun for Kent to be out on the levee with his fun daddy anyway. And there will be more fireworks in years to come. I'm just bummed that I'm missing this. Oh well. Beta will get his/her first fireworks later, and at least I should be around for that, unless I lose my mind and decide to get pregnant again. Hey, future Erica, when you're reading this and reminiscing about pregnancy and tiny babies, remember that the first trimester is MISERABLE. SERIOUSLY. And you're older than I am now, so if you find yourself wanting a third child, you should probably adopt.

We got some disappointing news at the pharmacy today. I've been taking the generic version of Zofran, the best defense for most women against pregnancy nausea, for the last week and a half. It doesn't keep me from feeling queasy, but it does keep me from throwing up. I got my first round of 12 pills for less than $8, but I took my last one this morning, so I was ready for a refill. We went to pick them up this afternoon, and the pharmacist informed us that our insurance would only cover 12 pills every 23 days, and not enough time had passed yet, so we'd have to pay out of pocket. $120 for another 12 pills, I kid you not. How we go from $8 to $120 is a mystery to me, but it's completely frustrating. I didn't buy them. I figured I'd just deal with it until the middle of the month when I can get another refill, and Jack is going to call our insurance company to make sure that it's all true and to try to figure out if there's anything we can do besides lodge a serious complaint. I've not ever really felt like the victim of a stupid insurance policy before, but now, I'm upset. Are they thinking that I might only be sick on alternating days?? I'll probably only be sick for another month or so anyway; could I just get an advance on my future allowance? I know they wouldn't do that. Dumb, all of it. This is nothing compared to what Nicole has gone through for her insulin pump and supplies, or what people with expensive and very serious diseases like cancer have to endure, but I'm still questioning the wisdom of this policy, especially as it affects my ability to parent Kent and to feel like I'm maintaining my own health while I carry a baby.

So, uh, Happy 4th of July. I should just go to bed.

Labels: belly, holidays, Kent, what to watch

• posted by erica 7/04/2009 09:41:00 PM
•  1 comments

Okay, one more recipe: Giada's Pasta Ponza. This was our dinner tonight, with a baguette. AMAZINGLY good. The roasted grape tomatoes make this explosively good fresh sauce, and the breadcrumbs add a great amount of seasoning. I was thinking that I might try it with regular tomatoes instead of grape tomatoes sometime this summer, when I'm likely to be staring at tomatoes all over my kitchen and wondering what to do with all of them.

Note: in the episode where she cooks this, Giada goes into an explanation of why you should toss cooked pasta with parmesan cheese before you add the sauce (the cheese sticks better), but the printed recipe says to toss it with the sauce first, then the cheese. I've started noticing that a lot of recipes on Food Network's website deviate from what was said in the show, and the change is usually for the worse, not the better.

This recipe comes from Giada's new show, called Giada at Home. I was starting to feel like her old show, Everyday Italian, was getting a little flat, like I could watch the first three minutes of the show and predict exactly how she was going to cook everything because it was a minor deviation from some recipe I had already seen her make. Being in her own home has breathed new life into her culinary output, though. Or maybe it was having a baby. I'm kind of hooked on the new show — I've always enjoyed her flavor profiles, so it's a lot of fun to have some new recipes that aren't exactly the same as what I've already seen.

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 5/21/2009 07:09:00 PM
•  0 comments

My mom likes to tell the story about how, when I was very young and she took me to the grocery store, I saw a number 6 on a sign and kept looking at it right-side-up, then upside-down, then right-side-up, etc., and saying, "It's a 6! It's a 9! It's a 6! It's a 9!" Just now, when we were watching Sesame Street, and Prairie Dawn and Cookie Monster were introducing the letter of the day, Kent looked it and said, "M!" He then turned himself upside-down (which you know he loves doing), and exclaimed, "Doo!" (his way of saying "W"). Repeat.

 

Labels: Kent, language, what to watch

• posted by erica 5/05/2009 10:42:00 AM
•  3 comments

I decided this weekend that I really wanted to watch a movie with Jack after Kent went to bed. We almost never do this, since we stay awake for about two hours after he goes to bed, and there are always chores, emailing, etc., to catch up on. Last night, though, we permitted ourselves the luxury and rented Rachel Getting Married. I love Anne Hathaway and have been dying to see her in more films that aren't princess-y — I've enjoyed every performance of hers that I've seen, especially her fabulously subtle one in Brokeback Mountain.

She so rocked the character of Kym in Rachel Getting Married. And the screenplay was brilliant in the way it unfolded, revealing little pieces of this family's story a bit at a time in very interesting ways. It was heartbreaking in places, but it managed to end with a surprising sense of optimism and peace. It's cathartic, and I would imagine that it would speak even more deeply and loudly to an addict who has been through the experience of leaving rehab and trying to atone for the past with people s/he loves.

I felt a little overwhelmed by the "we're SUCH a joyous, global, and multi-ethnic group of people, let's celebrate every culture on the planet" thing that was such a huge part of the wedding festivities (a bunch of white girls in Indian saris?), but it did serve to place Kym's isolation in an even stronger light, especially the times she brought the celebrating to a screeching halt.

I think I'm going to watch it again before it's due back to the store. What a fulfilling, well composed film. I can't wait to see what Hathaway does next. Anyone seem Becoming Jane? Should I look for that now?

Labels: what to watch

• posted by erica 5/04/2009 09:56:00 AM
•  3 comments

The difference between our viewing of Sesame Street most days and our viewing of Sesame Street today: today, it was LIVE! We went to the big arena downtown, and since Jack works less than a mile from there, I drove to his office and had him drop us off and pick us up after the show. I felt really lucky not to have to battle for parking, since I heard from my other mom friends who got tickets with us that it was kind of a nightmare. The show itself was great, though. Screaming kids all around us bounced around in their seats or on the floor. They squealed like teenage girls at a 1964 Beatles concert when Elmo came out. They laughed hysterically when the characters fell down or did other slapstick stuff. (Adults apparently forget how funny it can be when someone falls over.) The people dancing inside the costumes were really talented, too; they reminded me of mascots who can also do funky dance moves in sync with each other. A lot of parents would probably shudder at the idea of all of that aural and visual chaos, but my mom friends and I had a great time (some of us reliving our Sesame Street memories from our youth), and we think the kids had a pretty good time, too.



I know, blurry. It was the best I could do from the second level of the arena. If anyone wants to get me a camera with a better lens for my birthday in May, I won't argue.



Kent tried to hold hands with his little friend Taylor before the show. She's just the sweetest thing, and I totally want them to date someday. Kent is very into hugging and hand-holding with *all* other kids these days, so I don't think he was really showing her any special treatment or anything. I still love it.



He was so wiped that when Jack, Kent and I went to lunch after the show, Kent fell asleep in my arms and then slept while I carried him back to the car. He proceeded to sleep for another hour; he was still asleep when I pulled into our driveway, so I grabbed my laptop and brought it back outside and checked my email while I waited for him to wake up. Wireless technology at its finest.

Today was a great day, despite the rain and general yuckiness. I adore Sesame Street in just about every manifestation.

Labels: Kent, what to watch

• posted by erica 3/26/2009 07:58:00 PM
•  0 comments

In that post a few months ago about Kent's language, I reported that he had about 130 words or so. Before I started writing them down, I thought he had maybe 30 or 40, but then I realized it was a lot more, obviously. After that, I stopped keeping track, because he added 2 or 3 words every day and there were just too many. About a month ago, he started putting two words together. I think his first multi-word utterance was "Bye-bye, Dada." He started describing things with adjectives and possessives, like "silly Kent," "Daddy's car," "big table," etc. Now, just a few weeks later, complete thoughts are spewing forth from his little toddler mouth. Sentences. Requests. Descriptions. It's mind-boggling. The day I noticed exactly how far he had come was about a week ago, when he was holding out his milk cup to me and saying, "Tay me mo," meaning, "Take my milk." I couldn't believe it.

It's fun to speculate what newborns are thinking, but you never really know. Even with toddlers who aren't speaking much, it's hard to know, because they might be saying "Mama" or "No!" or "milk" but you know there's more behind the thought than just that word. Now, though, I feel like I'm starting to get a real clue what he's thinking. It's a great lesson in how humans acquire language. I keep thinking about how much my psychologist friends Lauren and Steve are going to geek out whenever they have a child.

He also seems to form memories around words and phrases, or at least that's how he expresses them later. We went to the Baton Rouge Zoo about a month ago and he scraped his knee on the sidewalk, so for a while, he'd look at his scraped knee, say, "Say knee" (scraped knee), and then immediately say, "zoo," as in, "I scraped my knee at the zoo." While we were on our trip, we went to the NC Zoo (post forthcoming, don't worry), so he got to form new memories around a zoo. We walked by the lion habitat, and the lions were sleeping, so ever since, he's just been yelling out "Lie sleeeeeeee" (lions sleeping) at random moments. And if we mention the word "zoo" in any context, he always reminds us that the lions were sleeping when he was last at the zoo. His associations are pretty powerful.

He also gets SUPER excited about these phrases of his and will just ball up his little fists and yell them out. I laugh when he does this, which makes him laugh and get even more excited. At dinner a few nights ago, I felt like he and I were laughing together, making each other amused, for the first time ever. I've always giggled at things he did or said, but this was the first instance in which I felt like he was reciprocating laughter, responding to the fact that I was so amused. We were like two giggly friends who get punchy together. The feeling was indescribably sweet.

Recording his language on video has proven to be something of a challenge, since he's often more interested in the camera than in speaking whenever I pull it out, or it makes him more self-conscious, or something. But here's a little gem to let you hear his voice, at least. Explanation: he only recognizes a few people on TV, among them, President Obama and Bobby Flay. We were watching Iron Chef America the other day, and Kent got really excited about Bobby. I can't blame the kid. Bobby can seriously cook. Anyway, here's a video for you.



Oh, and did I mention that he can recognize all the letters now? W is his favorite (which he still calls "doo"), followed closely by Z and K. He can also recognize some numbers, and he spazzes out a little bit when he's saying the alphabet or counting out loud. Sesame Street is a blast now.

Labels: Kent, language, what to watch

• posted by erica 3/20/2009 09:41:00 AM
•  1 comments

It was an exciting afternoon.

Yesterday, we got a $2 bamboo sushi mat at World Market (we adore this place), and today I found sushi rice, nori (the seaweed wrappers), and fillings at Whole Foods. I read this recipe from Jill Davie and watched this video by Alton Brown, and I felt like I was all set. It was like The Matrix, when Trinity needs to know how to fly a helicopter, so she asks the controller guy to upload a helicopter program into her head, then she twitches for a few seconds and is ready to fly.

The hardest part was convincing myself that I could do it. This took months. The easy part was cooking the rice according to Jill Davie's detailed recipe, then putting everything together the way Alton showed me. I *heart* Alton. The part that was both hard and easy was eating it, because it was delicious, but we had too much, so there's some in the fridge that I'm not sure will be any good tomorrow.

Did you know that the term "sushi" actually means "vinegared rice", not something to do with fish, as so many people think it does? I learned this from Bobby Flay's sushi episode of Throwdown (which he lost very badly). Rice vinegar, sugar, and salt combine to make a solution that you sprinkle over the rice, then stir it so that it's well incorporated, and this rice is the base for many different kinds of sushi, not just the rolls, which are the only kind I've ever tried. I ended up cooking 2 dry cups of rice, just under half of what Jill Davie calls for, and it was enough to basically fill up a 9 x 13 Pyrex pan and ended up being enough to make 4 whole rolls of sushi, more than enough for 2 people.

I made the kind of rolls with the nori on the outside, rather than putting the rice on the outside in the style of California rolls, because I figured that my first time out, I ought to cut myself a break and use to my advantage the fact that the nori helps to keep everything together. I noticed that there were two kinds of nori sheets available: pre-toasted ready-to-use ones, and some that seemed like they'd need some extra work before they'd be ready. I went with pre-toasted. Also, I learned when I opened the package that the characteristic smell of sushi comes not from the fish inside but from the nori. It was interesting to discover the separate smells/tastes of the nori, the vinegared rice, etc., so that I can appreciate each subtle flavor in the sushi rolls.

I put a nori sheet on my little mat (on top of a cutting board), wet my hands and spread out some rice to nearly cover the seaweed, placed a few toppings along the length of the seaweed, then cautiously but rather amazingly rolled the whole thing up.





I looked at my first roll, shouted a little bit, and proclaimed to Kent that I had made sushi! He was more interested in his Mardi Gras beads, but what can you expect from a young sous-chef?

I made four rolls altogether, and they tended to get bigger as I went. My third roll was so big that some of the stuff oozed out the far side as I was rolling, so I learned my lesson and went back to a modest size for the last roll. (Note: the recipe suggests cutting each roll into 6 pieces, but we could hardly get them into our mouths, so I'd suggest cutting into 8. Also, I learned as I went that the tighter I rolled everything up, the easier it was to slice the roll.) Each roll was a slightly different combination of cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, and avocado, and most of them also contained a bit of cream cheese. I love Philadelphia rolls (cream cheese, cucumber, and smoked salmon), so incorporating thin slices off a brick of cream cheese was a no-brainer, and Jack liked the taste, too. There aren't many options at most restaurants for vegetarian rolls, so making our own with whatever toppings we wanted was pretty fun. Next time, I may buy some crab or krab and make my own separate rolls, but it was nice to make everything vegetarian tonight so that we could share.

Since I've now had the experience of making these and know how easy it is to interchange ingredients, I don't understand why sushi places don't just let you pick 3 or 4 ingredients you like instead of making you choose a pre-arranged combination. It would definitely make life easier for vegetarians if they could just ask for a few specific non-fishy things instead of hoping that there's something safe on the menu. Of course, vegetarians are probably among the least likely groups to say, "Hey, let's go out for sushi!", so there's that to consider as well.

Our dinner was rounded out by steamed broccoli, of which Kent shocked everyone by eating several pieces, and some mini egg rolls from the freezer. Kent also had some other foods that he liked, typical at dinnertime when we venture outside his comfort zone. I mixed up a dipping sauce with hoisin, rice vinegar, soy sauce, water, scallions, ginger, and red chili flakes, then also mixed up soy sauce and a bit of prepared wasabi like we do when we go out for sushi. We left the forks out of this meal and used our fancy wooden chopsticks, and then we stuffed ourselves so full of sushi, broccoli, and egg rolls that I might not eat dessert while we watch TV tonight.

Okay, maybe just a little piece of Dagoba roseberry.

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 2/23/2009 08:07:00 PM
•  3 comments

1. Sleeping in until 6:45. Yes, that counts as sleeping in here.
2. Wearing my new green pima cotton t-shirt that I got for $7 yesterday at the Gap outlet.
3. A walk to the park after lunch, wherein we swung, bounced, and slid on the old equipment and also discovered that they're upgrading the park with a new play area and awesome new equipment.
4. Picking dandelions on our walk, then talking about the colors on the dandelion when we got home and drawing a cool yellow and green picture. It's all scribbles and pointillism, but it's very neat to watch him create.
5. Sorting and putting away Kent's toys. I love when all the pieces are back in all the puzzles, all the play food is in his kitchen, and all the blocks and toys are in bins.
6. A productive trip to Target, wherein we found an Elmo book (which kept him occupied at the store) and Elmo baseball socks (for his Easter basket) in the $1 section.
7. Counting school buses on the way home from Target. Official count: 13.
8. Watching Elmo's Potty Time (again) from the library, and remembering how awesome the segment is on how toilet paper is made. Seriously. Here's a video from The Discovery Channel on YouTube that gives you an idea. They make a roll that's bigger than my car, then unroll that onto smaller rolls that are still about 20 feet long, then finally slice those into the rolls we buy. I so want to visit a toilet paper factory now.
9. Making veggie omelets, cheese grits, and fried green tomatoes for dinner.
10. Realizing that my bad mood and difficult day yesterday were only temporary and that Kent is, in fact, fun to be around again.

Labels: Kent, kitchen adventures, SAHM, what to watch

• posted by erica 2/17/2009 04:24:00 PM
•  4 comments

I just saw this adorable segment on Sesame Street this morning, and through the magic of YouTube, I can share it. The sentiment is great with all the letter-writing and pining from far away (and what a great song!), though I'll confess that the little girl's outfits are my favorite part.

Labels: Freude, what to watch

• posted by erica 12/23/2008 12:14:00 PM
•  3 comments

After we visited Jack for lunch today, we parked by the levee and went to visit the HMS Bounty, the ship that was used in the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty and, more recently, Pirates of the Caribbean. Apparently, it sailed all the way around the world to promote the Pirates of the Caribbean films (which I loved, because Johnny Depp totally rocks it as Captain Jack Sparrow), and it's been in the Port of Baton Rouge for two weeks. We didn't go aboard, but it was fun to see anyway. Also, it was very cold and windy on top of the levee today. Kent was the only one of us wearing a coat... he's very smart and well-prepared.

Labels: photography, what to watch

• posted by erica 12/05/2008 08:37:00 PM
•  0 comments

Meatloaf.

And it was awesome, because I followed Alex Guarnaschelli's recipe from her new Food Network show, The Cooking Loft. I didn't know that much about her before this show premiered, except that I had seen her on Iron Chef America as both a contestant and a judge, and I liked watching her cook and talk about food. It turns out that just about everything she makes looks delicious to me.

She's into comfort food, but with some kind of flavor twist, like the tarragon and sour cream in this meatloaf. I didn't use the tarragon she called for, only fresh parsley, since I didn't want to plunk down the money for a package of fresh herbs when I don't actually know what tarragon tastes like. Maybe I'll try that next time. Baking it on a sheet pan with parchment under it, rather than in a loaf pan, made all the difference in the world in getting a nice crust on the outside. It was also very moist from the sour cream and eggs, and I could really taste the tangyness of the ketchup in it. I laugh every time I cook with ketchup, remembering how once, on Iron Chef America, commentator Alton Brown jokingly called ketchup the American mother sauce. Foodie humor.

I loved this meatloaf. Kent loved it. I wanted so very badly for Jack not to be a vegetarian at that moment, so that he could love it too, but what can you do? It's not like I could sneak meatloaf into something, even if I were that devious. This was actually my first time making meatloaf, and I'm glad I had a yummy recipe. Most of it has already been packed up between wax paper layers and put in the freezer, but I saved a few pieces (including the nice crispy leftover end) for a meatloaf sandwich and some bits for Kent.

Now I feel that I have to visit her restaurant in Greenwich Village, which is called Butter — how could you not want to go there? Not cheap, but I'm drooling already looking at the menu. I want to eat every single one of the desserts.

Labels: eating out, kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 10/16/2008 08:51:00 PM
•  2 comments

Kent started hugging us for the first time today, which is just indescribable joy for a mom (and a dad, I hear). He got such a kick out of wrapping his little arms around our necks and squeezing. He just kept giggling and saying/signing "more" and wanting to do it again. I feel quite lucky at the moment.

Another reminder of how blessed I am was that I FINALLY, after almost 3 weeks (?), got to catch up with my mom on the phone today. That was way too long to go without contact, and there wasn't really a reason other than the fact that we're both so swamped. I kept thinking about the Gilmore Girls episode when Rory and Lorelai are playing phone tag for days, both needing to talk to the other about major things going on, and they each end up crying in the arms of another friend because they miss each other so much. I wasn't crying yet, but I was feeling very separated from her life, wanting to know how her new teaching job was going and also just wanting to hear her voice. We never get past that connection to our moms, do we? I hope not.

I think I'll be more excited than usual tomorrow, when Kent wakes up at 6 or 6:30, because a new day of hugging will commence. Some Wednesdays, it's really hard to send him off to school, when I just want to keep him all to myself instead. I do need some time to finish some of the weird diss things I've been writing this week that are rolling around on the page, unable to be tacked down. Being in my own head space for this much time during the past week has been heavenly, because Progress is happening, but it's also like Tim Gunn's analogy to the fashion designers about the monkey house at the zoo. You first go into the monkey house, and you think, "Wow, it really STINKS in here," but after a while, you start to notice the smell less, until eventually it just smells normal to you. Of course, someone from the outside would still come in and say, "Wow, it really STINKS in here," and you'd be like, "Hmm, I hadn't noticed." This is what it's like to be creative in isolation, then share with the outside world. No monkey poop, no monkey poop... maybe that will be my new mantra.

I started off talking about delicious little boy hugs, and I ended up at monkey poop? See? This is what can happen in a dissertation. Let that be a lesson to you all.

Labels: dissertation land, family, Kent, what to watch

• posted by erica 10/14/2008 10:13:00 PM
•  0 comments

This is absolutely stunning. Kind of makes you feel like the human race can handle any challenge, doesn't it?


via videosift.com

Labels: observations, what to watch

• posted by erica 10/14/2008 02:00:00 PM
•  3 comments

I think blackberry Italian sodas are just about my favorite drink, besides coffee, of course. Unfortunately for me, it's next to impossible to find blackberry syrup (I've never seen it sold in a store, only online with shipping charges roughly equal to the price of the bottle itself). We had it in our cafe when I worked at Borders, which is how I got hooked on the darn stuff in the first place, and the only other place I've ever been able to order a blackberry soda is Cheeburger Cheeburger, a chain soda shop/ 50s diner that we don't visit very often because of, well, the heart attacks. They have very evil onion rings.

I recently watched Alton Brown's episode of Good Eats about blueberries, and his final recipe, at first glance almost a throwaway compared to blueberry pie and blueberry coffee cake, was for blueberry sodas made with homemade syrup. My first thought was, "I wonder how well this would work with blackberries?" I used frozen blackberries, since the recipe calls for a lot and I didn't want to spend crazy amounts of money testing this out, but it turned out very well. I even left a review about it on Food Network's website (my first review there!), hoping that other people would be inspired to try different berries. I'm definitely keeping this one in my recipe box on their website.

Incidentally, all you FN junkies out there, have you noticed that Food Network has redone their website? First of all, their main color is now red, as compared to the light green they used to have, which sort of steps up the site, in my opinion. It seems easier to navigate now, and they have a lot of links and suggestions for similar recipes over to the right of each recipe page. And the coolest new thing, which I just noticed, is that they have a tab at the top of the site for In Season Now, so all you Animal, Vegetable, Miracle people can browse to your heart's content to make use of your farmer's market finds. (FYI, I plan to join you in reading this book someday, but it's on a very long list of fun reads that I don't think I'll have time for anytime this decade. Maybe the 2010s will be the decade of pleasure reading for me.)

If I could have only one website, FoodNetwork.com would be it. I get lost there among the gorgeous photographs and methods for creating everything from culinary wonders to the simplest, most delightful little things.

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to read, what to watch

• posted by erica 10/02/2008 11:08:00 AM
•  2 comments

because I made them from scratch for the first time. Alton Brown inspired me this time (I know, NOT Bobby!), since I recently watched the episode of Good Eats on cooking with wonton wrappers. (If Bobby Flay is my TV boyfriend, Alton is my TV best friend. I think he and I would get along splendidly.) I fantasize sometimes about eating Trader Joe's vegetable potstickers (basically little dumplings that you fry in a pan), since I've had them twice but can't find them anywhere around here, so this was a perfect thing for me to learn to do. After watching Alton make some potstickers with pork, then some steamed dumplings with tofu and vegetables, I took the best of both worlds and made potstickers with tofu and veggies. Here's my basic procedure, though as usual, I didn't really measure anything and more went on what I had available and also how things looked on his show when he was getting it all together:

Vegetarian Potstickers

-half a package of tofu, drained (with water squeezed out on a towel) and diced into 1/4-inch cubes
-half a zucchini, grated
-1 carrot, peeled and grated
-half of a small bell pepper, diced
-about 1/2 inch of ginger root, peeled and minced
-2 green onions, diced
-5 or 6 small mushrooms, thinly sliced
-soy sauce (2 to 4 teaspoons)
-sesame oil (about 2 teaspoons)
-teriyaki or hoisin sauce (2 to 4 teaspoons)
-black pepper
-1 egg, beaten
-1 package of wonton wrappers

Combine all filling ingredients except egg in a large bowl, taste, and adjust seasonings as necessary. When the seasoning is as perfect as you think it's going to get, add the egg (unless you want salmonella, in which case you can add it before you taste everything). Put about a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each wonton wrapper, then brush edges with water, seal while pushing out excess air, and crimp to keep filling from leaking out. If you're doing a large batch, place finished dumplings under a damp towel while you work with the rest. Heat a small amount of oil in a large sauté pan, add a layer of potstickers (8 or 10), and cook for 2 minutes without touching them. Add hot water to about halfway up the sides of the potstickers (it will sizzle and pop when mixed with the oil, so watch out), cook an additional 2 minutes, then remove potstickers from pan and serve with dipping sauce. I mixed together some peanut sauce, soy sauce, and rice vinegar for dipping, but whatever kind of Asian sauce/herbs you like would probably work well. If you're cooking more than one batch, dump water out of the pan between batches, and keep cooked potstickers covered in foil in a 200-degree oven until ready to serve. Uncooked potstickers can be frozen on a cookie sheet (so they don't stick together) then kept in a sealed bag until ready to cook.

A few notes:

• I put four wonton wrappers out on a plate at a time so that I could work pseudo-assembly-line style and get a few done at once, and then I put all my sealed little guys on a cookie sheet under a damp towel while I finished making the others. It's important to keep them moist so they don't dry out and crack. Also, the more you work with wontons, the easier it gets, so don't be disheartened if you're totally overwhelmed or don't get them to work the first time. Keep experimenting.
• If you follow my recipe roughly, you'll have a LOT of filling. I used almost an entire package of wontons, since each dumpling needs only a very small bit of filling inside it, and it took a long time (30 to 45 minutes) to get all the dumplings together. However, we now have several meals' worth in a big freezer bag, so at least I only had to go through it once to get a high yield. We'll just have to restrain ourselves from devouring all of them in a week.
• I think the ginger is what really makes these great. I keep whole ginger root in a sealed bag in the freezer and just chop a bit off whenever I need it, so I almost never use the powdered stuff. I could smell the ginger the whole time I was making these, and it lends a fresh, spiced flavor that is unlike anything else. Mmm.

In the words of Alton Brown, "I bid you good eating."

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by jack 8/22/2008 07:55:00 PM
•  1 comments