 Spring in San Francisco The fact that it's Tuesday means that I had a GREAT weekend in San Francisco. How appropriate that on Saint Patrick's Day, I learned where Irish coffee was first served in the US. With apologies for the delay, here's what is cooking in this house this week. Clean-out-the-Fridge MondayKalua pig for fried rice, a variation on a theme. Leftover Kalua pig was the meat-flavoring agent for fried rice. In this case, it's important to take a light touch on shoyu and oyster sauce because kalua pig is salty. With a side of kim chee! Meatless TuesdayButternut Squash Soup, Round 2. The first time the immersion mixer was lots of fun, but the soup required lots of doctoring and still wasn't quite right. Trying again, this time with coconut milk, ginger and lime juice.
 When chickens are productive, make quiche. WednesdayQuiche. A friend of mine at work has chickens at home, doing what they do best. Farm-fresh eggs this week! One classic bacon with onions with Swiss and Gruyere and one vegggie with red peppers, zukes, onions, artichoke hearts and Colby/Jack cheese Meatless ThursdayFarfalle with sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli. Typically my husband makes this with chicken, but we'll try meatless this time. FridayPasta with clams, corn, chorizo and tomatoes from Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. From a diner in Rhode Island. I might swap soy-rizo here too. Experiment in SaladSometime this week, I'm trying a butter lettuce, grapefruit, walnut and feta salad. The original recipe is in this month's issue of Cooking Light. The directions say to peel a grapefruit--how do you even do that?! We'll find out and report back!
 My own private Waimea Bay. Sigh. Someone very dear in my Hawaii ohana is making the big jump to the "Mainland". Wishing them good luck, and sending them off with a view of one of my favorite places in the universe--summer morning at Waimea Bay. As the song goes, it's my "pocketful of paradise". I did not get to go to Hawaii this summer, and Waimea gestalt is one of the many things I really miss. With that, a mix of Hawaii and Mainland cooking this week. SundaySteve's Grilled Lamb. We ate it with Spinach Bolani (Afghani flatbread) and fresh grilled eggplant that we got from the Mountain View (CA) farmers market that day.
 Love my Daddy's Fried Rice! Monday--Grandma's BirthdayAll you can eat buffet, as requested by my mother-in-law for her birthday dinner. With strawberry chiffon cake from Whole Foods. The seasonal apple cake is also quite good. TuesdayMy Daddy's Killer Fried Rice. For A LOT of leftover rice. WednesdayTofu Loaf, inspired by Green Garden Restaurant, a long-closed and very local-style restaurant in Hanapepe (Kauai). In addition to an awesome lilikoi pie, they baked up a tofu dish with onions, shiitake and mayonnaise. This version also includes tuna, carrots, celery and cream of mushroom soup. It shall be a grand experiment.
ThursdayTo balance out the Perhaps-Not-So-Great Green Garden experiment, I'll try a fancier Hawaii Regional Cuisine recipe. This one is Hoisin Linguine from Russel Siu, one of the co-founders of 3660 on the Rise. This also happens to be my mother's favorite restaurant, and by utter only-in-Hawaii coincidence, Mom used to go to water aerobics with the other founder. Very small island.  Meatless FridayTaking the last gasp of summer with Roasted tomato pizza. Baking ExtrasTodd's Pound Cake. I grew up with Sara Lee Pound Cake, but I dropped her for husband-made. The 5 eggs and 1/2 pound of butter means it is should never been a weekly staple, but it's marvy as a once-in-awhile indulgence. Go Giants. Beat Cal. Hockey Come Back!
Eat Well. Be Well.
 Brown University, Providence, RI This post is dedicated to all college kids (and a few in particular) who are now living the dream of off-campus apartment living.
Ah, yes. The freedom of selecting exactly what you want to eat. No more mass-produced, pre-selected dorm food to be eaten at specified times.
The reality of which quickly becomes, "Oh (appropriate college-level profanity here)!? I have to cook! And wash dishes!? And buy food?! Hello, Mom!?"
A friend of mine has a child is in just such a predicament, with two vegetarian roomies thrown in, just for some added fun.
Do not despair, or worse yet, whine. Armed with a salad spinner, rice cooker, a non stick pan, a non-stick spatula and a baking sheet, you will neither starve nor burn through your parents' money eating out.
Feeding Your Ohana 101: Staples you should always try to have in-house | Spices & Seasoners
Garlic. This makes everything better
Coarse sea salt. Say no to refined salt
Black pepper. The kind you can grind on your own
Olive oil. For general-purpose cooking
Canola oil. For when you decide to fry something, and you will
Shoyu (soy sauce). Low-sodium, green label Kikkoman is my favorite
Roasted sesame seed oil. Dynasty or Kadoya brand
Oyster sauce
Sriracha sauce. Look for the rooster on the label. He is your friend.
White vinegar. Buy a gallon and you can also use it to clean your floors. When you clean them.
Balsamic vinegar. Impress your friends
Brown sugar. For homemade teriyaki sauce
White sugar. If you bake. A mom can dream!
Optional
Cooking sherry and ginger | Generally non-perishable items
Onions. Technically perishable, but they last a long time and you will use them a lot
Rice. White or brown short grain, Koda Farms if you can
Quinoa.That you can cook in your rice cooker
"Noodley" type pasta like linguine
"Shaped" pasta like penne, farfalle, or elbows
Nuts. Pine nuts, walnuts and cashews
Dried cranberries. Good to toss into salads
Bread. Add cheese and it's a sandwich
Perishable Items--stored in the fridge
Eggs
Real butter
Cheese. Parmesan and your favorite for sandwiches
Yogurt
Firm tofu. If you and your roomies can make peace with it
A bottle each of lime and lemon juice. Fresh are always preferable, but these are good to have on standby
| What you can make with the above supplies plus a trip to the grocery store for fresh produce.  So whether you are Lions, Tigers or any-type-except-Golden-Bears,
Cardinal, Crimson or Big Red--enjoy college.
Remember that if you have aluminum foil and an iron, you can make grilled cheese, and that snow banks are excellent temporary coolers.
Eat Well. Be Well.
Study Hard. Play hard, but not too hard. After all, I'm still a mom!
Hmm. When last I posted, I deliriously anticipated a speedy return to cooking after a couple of days. My kids cycled through this cold after a few days, why not me too? Then the reality of a middle-aged body with bad sinuses made itself very apparent.
One week later and still sniffling.
I've never been a fan of starving a cold or anything else, so we did not starve last week, thanks to takeout and my truly awesome husband. I've chose spicing out a cold and so here's what we ate last week.
 Starve a cold? Nope. MondayIndian Pizza from Pizza Pub. Yes, we used a ValPak flyer, but it turned out pretty well. Indian pizza is more like putting the spicy Indian chicken dish of your choice (tandoori, tikka masala, paneer or butter) on a flat naan bread-like crust with onions, hot peppers and a little cheese. Not so much pizza as flatbread, with a nice differentiated crunch from both crust and veggies. Plus, it was temperature and spicy hot, just what stuffy noses needed. We will definitely try this again, and not just when we are sick. TuesdayOyako donburi. Almost chicken soup and pure comfort.
 The pork loin magic sauce WednesdayFrom-scratch Grilled Pork Loin. This is becoming a good go-to meal for especially hectic days. Start-to-finish in about 45 minutes, including marinating time. ThursdayKalua pig and Kim chee fried rice. We had leftover kalua pig, snow peas, shredded carrots and rice. Add an onion and kim chee for another meal of spicy comfort food. FridaySandwiches from Ike's Lair, Cupertino. IF hockey season ever gets started, this will likely replace our beloved Togo's. Gasp, there I said it. Why? A great value, a lot of vegetarian and vegan sandwiches, and seriously amazing Dutch crunch bread. Our favorites, # 19 Home for Thanksgiving: turkey with Havarti, cranberry sauce and sriacha; Steve Jobs: eggplant with pesto and provolone and #6 Hot Momma Huda: Halal chicken, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, ranch and provolone. Four sandwiches will run about $40, but you will have enough for at least two meals. I would also like to thank the cyber-ohana for all of your kind words and cold remedy suggestions! Hearing from you all was good medicine indeed. I am on the mend! Eat Well. Be Well.
 Mele Kalikimaka! This past weekend, we hosted our annual Christmas potluck. And yes, with respect and appreciation for other religions and cultures, it is still Christmas in this household. The main meats this year were Crock Pot Kalua Pig and a new Asian-style brined turkey (more on that later this week), for which our guests were guinea pigs. We also attempted a miso-mustard sauce for green beans that we wisely tasted before subjecting out guests to it. Miso and mustard were just not meant to be friends, so it was a quick fix with a Shoyu-Sesame sauce instead. What can you do with leftover Kalua pig and turkey? Here's what's cooking this week.
 Kalua Pig-Kim Chee Fried Rice MondayMy Daddy's Killer Fried Rice using kalua pig and kim chee. Any salted pork product makes a mean fried rice. Pairing kim chee, which gives a little more crunch and zing to the overall texture, and kalua pig, which is very soft and almost sweet, is winning. TuesdayTurkey Satay Pillsbury Manapua. This is a grand experiment. I'm tossing the leftover turkey, shredded carrots and probably chard with Chicken Satay sauce and then using the construction techniques of Pillsbury Manapua.
 Pistachi-zu Tofu WednesdayHot Chicken Salad, using turkey. I love this recipe and don't make it often enough because the majority of the household is not crazy about olives. However, the influential minority that cooks dinner loves olives, so it's on the menu this week. ThursdayPistachi-zu Tofu. Something light before Christmas. FridayAmici's Pizza and Hockey Night. I've been craving Amici's Boston and Milano pizzas for a good month now and have also saved up for it. I'll be posting the Asian brined turkey later this week as well as potluck items for Christmas eve and Christmas Day. 'Til then... Eat Well.Be Well.
 We were driving to Davis with a brunch stop along the way. Based on my friend Jeff's Yelp-help, our parameters are places higher than 4 stars, and ideally more than 100 reviewers. Babs Diner in Suisun City and Grandma's Place in Fairfield fit the bill.
Stop #1 was Babs Diner in Suisun City. A bustling homey place right on the water. Friendly people, hash and eggs looked fab, and clean bathrooms. However, with a wait more than 30 minutes and hungry kids and a hungry Grandma, it was time for option #2 and fast.
Stop #2 was aptly named Grandma's Place in Fairfield. But the kicker is that it was formerly called Sandy's, my sister's name. Cosmic Propinquity!! Traveling w/Grandma to a place that used to have the same name as my sister, it was fate to eat there. And it was great.
This ain't no spa cuisine. The "Country Benedict" (see above) is Eggs Benedict with sausage patties, gravy and includes a side of fried rice (or potatoes or hash browns). It was about $9 and as much as I loved it, I could only eat half of it. The make your own omelettes have a good variety of ingredients and are generously stuffed--Portuguese sausage, artichoke and tomatoes was yum.
They also offer smaller sized and priced options for kids and seniors (An eggs/bacon/pancake combo was a hit). Highly recommended and nice people too.
|
RSS Feed
