Thoughts on oranges...

Last week I ate two delicious naval oranges. They were sweet and juicy and just perfect. So, over the weekend I bought a couple of Cara Cara Naval Oranges thinking they'd be just as good, but bigger.

The first thing I noticed about them was their color. Once peeled they were a dark orange inside. I'm sorry to seey they didn't seem particularly juicy...and I am even more sorry to say they tasted like some God-awful combination of the orange and yellow Triaminic!. Disgusting! I couldn't even finish one, it was so bad.

But getting back to oranges I like...the blood oranges this year have been good, and I discovered this blood orange soda at Trader Joe's that tastes awesome. I haven't been drinking wine or beer lately, so it's been a nice substitute.


And one thing I always enjoy this time of the year are those adorable little Clementine Cuties you can get by the bag at pretty much any grocery store. When they're good, they're awesome, and easy to peel.

Lastly, the juiciest citrus I've enjoyed recently was a tangelo. I'm not huge on the flavor of tangerines, but I ate one recently, and it was like an explosion in my mouth. I couldn't believe how much juice was in it.

Actually enjoying vegetables

I'm not going to lie to you...up until recently vegetables were just something I ate to be healthy. I had yet to find any joy in them. One night, a very long time ago, I went out for Chinese food with my friend and she ordered this green bean dish that was amazing. Still...that was then.

Recently, we bought some produce from our friend Berrie, who has a magical green thumb. Her scallions are nearly the size of leeks, and her mustard greens are like no other. Are you feeling the change in the tide here? In the past I had steamed her chard and enjoyed it, but with two big bags of greens on my arm, I knew I had to do something more. So I sauteed kale, chard, spinach and mustard in butter with scallions and garlic. I was completely floored. I like greens! Veggies are amazing! From then on, I've made sure to stock my fridge with greens. Berrie's are the best, but I can't always get those, so I settle for grocery store veggies. I have steamed a number of veggies together, stir fried them, and looked for recipes online. It is a whole new world for me! I found this one for broccoli:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chili-garlic-roasted-broccoli-recipe/index.html

We had it last night. I didn't have grill seasonings, so I used Worchestershire sauce instead, and it was awesome!

I can't wait to find more great veggie recipes. This is an Asian style kale recipe I also really enjoyed:


http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2006/10/04/asian-style-kale/

I didn't have any shallots or fresh ginger the first time I made it, but I used finely sliced onions, and powdered ginger as substitutes. Instead of dousing the whole thing with soy sauce at the end, I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

It was excellent, especially with rice. The trick with the kale is not to overcook it. You want it to keep it's shape. At the same time, to avoid it being hard to chew, fold the larger pieces in half and pull off the stems.

FUBARS and catastrophes

Not everything turns out well. My banana bread, for instance, turned out a little gummy...but at least I know why. It's slightly better than the time I made pumpkin cake, but forgot to add the cinnamon, nutmeg and pretty much everything needed to keep it from tasting like play-dough....which was what my girlfriend and her niece said when they ate it.

Another time, I was making pizza using one of those store-bought, roll-out crusts that usually end up being a little too sweet. Anyway, it kept tearing, so I figured I'd mash it up into a ball and roll it out myself. Nope. It was like elastic. The more I rolled it, the more it snapped back into place....and I was not in a great mood that day. At some point, both the rolling pin and the ball of dough ended up all over the floor...thrown by some unseen force that couldn't have been me having a temper tantrum.

It sucks to waste food, but sometimes I just have to suck it up and wipe the slate (or the counter) clean.

The power of intention is a good place to start....

I loved that movie Like Water For Chocolate, because the main character cooked with her soul. Her thoughts and emotions were the main ingredients, so her cooking often took on mystical properties. In one scene, unable to fully express her love/lust for her brother in-law, she roasts Quail in rose petals, sending everyone at the table into some kind of pre-orgasmic fit. Her sister then runs off, fully nude with a strange cowboy.

Okay, so my cooking doesn't quite do that. But I do believe intention has something to do with it...maybe I am more careful when I want things to be just right. Like when one of our best friends was having a very very very bad year, she was spending a lot of time at our house. So I wanted the food I cooked to have healing properties. More than that, I viewed my meals as something like a big warm hug. I wanted to cook in a way that surrounded everyone with love and comfort. It was during that time that I first made Chicken Cordon Bleu in a creamy wine sauce. Yes, it was fattening! I'm sure of it, but that's not something I think about when I cook. Somehow the devil you know seems less dangerous than the one you don't...and in this case, I at least knew what was in it. It turned out so well though. It was a lot of work, as is anything that requires supervision on the stove top, and I have to admit I started to panic when my friends pulled up and it wasn't quite done yet. But it was to die for, and the house was filled with the most wonderful smells. It reminded me of when I was a kid having dinner at my great-grandparents' house....and that kind of nostalgia and comfort was exactly what I was going for.

Here's the recipe if you want to check it out. I replaced the wine with sherry. IF this sounds good to you, just try it some time. You will thank me.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Cordon-Bleu-II/Detail.aspx

Is it possible to add ingredients in the middle of baking?

I'm baking banana bread. Those bananas on the counter were looking mighty ripe, so I pulled out my favorite cookbook, The Not-Srictly Vegetarian Cookbook and found the recipe. To be fair, I really wasn't paying enough attention. Generally when I cook from a recipe I am very careful, but since I had used this one before and I knew it was easy, I wasn't too worried.

The recipe (like many in this particular book) ,called for maple syrup or honey instead of sugar, but I wanted to use brown sugar instead. I used half a cup instead of a whole cup, because bananas are already sweet. It also called for grated lemon or orange rind, but that was optional. Since I still have lemons, I just zested one. I didn't have a whole teaspoon of cinnamon left, so I increased the amounts of nutmeg and mace that I used. Oh, and I used two cups of regular flour and one cup of whole wheat flour...I have a lot of whole wheat flour, and any time I can get rid of some I am happy. After mixing it thoroughly, I stuck it in the oven and started working on dinner.

Twenty minutes later, I happened to glance at the recipe, and "oh crap!" I forgot the baking powder. So I pulled the bread pan out of the oven and proceeded to add baking powder. The outer edges had just begun to bake, so mixing it in took some doing, but the rest of the dough was still pretty moist. Anyway, now I'm waiting to see how it all turns out.

When Life Gives You Lemons...Make Lemon Meringue

My friend Turner says it's hard to go wrong with Lemon Meringue. The filling can turn out runny and the meringue can be a little flat, but it will still taste delicious. Growing up, my family used to drive up to my Grandma's house in Santa Rosa (about a 2 hour drive) on a Friday night, and when we got there, she had often prepared some kind of delicious treat for us; apple strudel, bread pudding, chocolate bread pudding, rhubarb pie, or lemon meringue to name a few.

Lemon Meringue, like Key Lime Pie, is not something I would have ever thought to order at a restaurant. When I crave something sweet, I usually lean towards chocolate. However, in our backyard, we have a lemon tree in a whiskey barrel. Last year it produced 9 lemons, but this year it was weighed down by about 30, just waiting to be picked. But what do I do with that many lemons? It's not exactly the type of fruit one sits down and eats. So, after wasting an entire lemon so I could put a wedge in my beer bottle, I knew I needed to do something great with these lemons.

I found a recipe online called "Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie" at allrecipes.com. After looking it over, I stressed over the pie crust. Most crusts I've bought from the store were too salty. Then I thought about making one from scratch. That didn't sound fun either. Then, I started thinking about lemon bars, and it occurred to me that lemon meringue would taste good with a graham cracker crust. I've used prepared ones before, but I prefer a homemade one, so I found "Graham Cracker Crust I" also at allrecipes.com.

The crust was easy enough. Instead of 1/3 cup of sugar, I put in 1/4. I am all about lowering the sugar whenever possible, and since Graham Crackers are already sweet, I didn't think it would matter much.

Making the lemon filling was quite a task. I zested the lemons with the fine side of a cheese grater, and used an old ceramic hand juicer my grandma had made, to juice the lemons. I forgot to remove the seeds, so I ended up fishing around with a spoon in a cloudy measuring cup to get them out. In the meantime, my oven was preheated to 350 degrees.

The lemon filling was quite a task. I had used the prescribed 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, but it seemed to me that my filling was taking an awfully long time to get thick. Finally, I got impatient and dumped in a little more cornstarch. That was a bit of a mistake. Usually when I use cornstarch, I mix it in with a little of the liquid first to get it to mix in smoothly. In this instance, my filling was suddenly filled with little lumps that wouldn't disappear no matter how hard I stirred it. But, the good news was it had finally thickened up, so I poured it into the graham cracker crust.

My meringue was a little flat. The recipe calls for 4 egg whites, and although I kept whipping them and whipping them, when they finally formed stiff peaks, they still didn't reach the height I was hoping for. But, I continued on, and spread the meringue over the top of the filling.

I popped it into the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes (or until meringue is golden brown). When the timer went off, it was not golden brown yet, so I punched in another five minutes, and that did the trick.

So, Ashley and I had dinner, and afterwards, I invited Turner over for pie. After the first bite, we were all in agreement that it was freaking amazing. The crust was awesome. I hadn't chilled the pie, but it tasted great warm, and since I had thrown in that extra cornstarch, it was set perfectly.

A couple weeks later, I did it again. This time I didn't add extra corn starch, but I did use one extra egg white and one extra tablespoon of sugar in the meringue. This time the meringue was tall and fluffy. We ate it warm again, and it was slightly runny, but after chilling it, I noticed that the lemon filling had set just fine. Either way, I think it works, but if you do plan on serving it warm, I would use maybe an additional half a tablespoon of cornstarch, and definitely use the extra egg while and sugar in the meringue.

All in all, I'd say the recipe itself is pretty sound. I'm making it again this afternoon.

Let Me Set The Scene For You

I've just come home from a long day at work. Maybe I'm a little pissed off about something. Or perhaps I just need to re-energize. One thing is certain, I have been dreaming of cooking all day. I guess you could call the kitchen my safe haven. When we have company, my hub is generally in front of the stove where I can see everyone. But getting back to the present, I turn on some music...maybe a little jazz to calm me. With my recipe sitting on the counter, I begin to collect my ingredients and pull out my pots and pans. IF the stove needs to preheat, I'll turn it on.

Once my recipe is set in motion, I am in a groove. I pour myself a glass of Chianti and sip it contentedly. If the recipe doesn't require a lot of fussing, now is a good time to make a few calls. My friends and family are accustomed to talking to me while I cook. And when the recipe is done, hopefully Ashley has come inside and is ready to eat, so the food won't get cold.

By the time we eat, all the worries of my day have gone away. My enthusiasm for living has been renewed, and I am like a new person. Maybe it's partly the wine, and maybe it's being home, but I like to think my cooking has a lot to do with it.