wordless wednesday

no sense

what part of this makes any sense?

i own a mr. coffee sp3 which i probably bought 8 years ago, probably for $14.99 at target

i broke the carafe last week

i can buy this for $13.73 on amazon, but its white, my coffee maker is black

or i can buy the upgraded version of my coffee maker for $6.94+$9 shipping or $16.93 through amazon

my dilemma is

MY COFFEE MAKER STILL WORKS!

buying a white carafe would bother me aesthetically, even though my coffee maker doesn't sit on the counter, the price is absurd, i might as well get a new one, spending $$ on a coffee maker when mine is fine bothers me, and i don't know if this upgraded one is better than my old one, plus if i kept both machines, it would take up precious cabinet space

and another thing, why wouldn't you offer a black carafe when you sell a black coffee maker with a black carafe?

funny how i cringe at the thought of spending $17 for a new coffee maker and how it was so easy for me to buy golf shoes, a pair of linen pants, and 4 cookbooks over the weekend

so today i made coffee with a glass and a spoon... i put a glass where the coffee pot should go and used a spoon to basically push the button so coffee will come out.  it worked out pretty well; however, i must stand there while my coffee is brewing so as not to overbrew my coffee

am i just being ghetto?  frugal? or just unreasonable?

lemon bundt cake

i've always wanted a bundt pan, the dense cake with a browned yummy crust around every piece is just heaven, but i'm awful at greasing and flouring pans so something like a bundt pan just doesn't appeal to me... it would come out broken or not attractive due to flour clumbs, but then i saw an episode of the martha stewart show and i decided i needed a bundt pan.

so of course, i had to get the nordic ware 60th anniversary bundt pan and TADA! it came out ridiculously easy, it came out pretty and i was extra careful in buttering and flouring the pan

i could have dusted the top with powdered sugar, but i'm out of powdered sugar and i didn't want to pull the blender out to make powdered sugar

i could have glazed the top which is typical of bundt ckes, but i didn't want something too sweet\

i decided to try out SQIRL's blood orange and vanilla bean marmalade which i got at artisanal LA and thought this would be perfect

the lemony sweetness of the cake with the tart blood orange and slight hint of vanilla was the perfect combination.

lemon bundt cake

adapted from allrecipe's glazed lemon bundt cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup almond milk

zest of 1 lemon

melted unsalted butter and all-purpose flour, for prepping the pan

Preheat oven to 350`.

Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.  Set aside

Cream butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. 

Add eggs one at a time.  Stir in vanilla and lemon extract. 

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture, alternating with the milk, and finishing with the dry ingredients.  Stir in lemon zest.

Pour into prepared bundt pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Invert onto wire rack and cake should come out easily.

wordless wednesday

shepherd's pie

 i love shepherd's pie, the first time i had it was about 3 years ago... and the person who introduced me to it was one of the first people i met in my running club, he lost his battle with cancer a few months ago which is why shepherd's pie is even dearer to my heart.  the version i shared with him was made with lamb and flavored with guinness, what more could you ask for?

shepherd's pie is hearty and it doesn't take a long time like most hearty dishes

i was trying to figure out what to do with the cauliflower in my fridge and i know plenty of people do a mashed cauliflower to be fake potatoes, so i thought shepherds pie with cauliflower AND potatoes!

   

honestly, the finished mashed "potatoes" didn't look that great in the pot, there was a bit more texture to the cauliflower no matter how much i mashed, the cauliflower florets went right through the holes of my potato masher, that's okay, it still tasted wonderful, and i usually prefer my mashed potatoes with texture anyways

start with mushrooms, onions, and thyme

this was good enough to eat, and i did!

meat and potatoes, yummy!

shepherd's pie

1 lb small potatoes

1 head cauliflower florets

1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream

1.5 tbsp unsalted butter

1 lb ground beef

2 yellow onions, chopped

1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced

fresh thyme, chopped

1 tbsp all purpose flour or cornstarch

1 cup beef broth

salt

freshly ground pepper

Parmesan cheese, grated

Bring a pot of salted water to boil for cauliflower and potatoes.

Brown ground beef in a large skillet on medium heat, about 10 minutes.  Set aside ground beef on a plate and drain excess fat. 

Saute chopped onions until transluscent, about 5 minutes on medium heat.  Add mushrooms and thyme and saute until mushrooms are cooked.

Add browned beef to pan along with beef broth and all purpose flour or cornstarch to deglaze the pan of any browned bits.   

Season with salt and pepper as needed.  Transfer beef mixture to a casserole dish.

Preheat oven to 350`F.

Add cauliflower and potatoes to pot of boiling water.  

Boil for 15 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.  Drain.  

Put potatoes and cauliflower back into pot and add heavy cream and butter.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mash until desired consistency, adding more cream as needed.  Adjust seasonings as necessary. 

Top casserole dish with mashed vegetables and spread evenly. 

Top with grated parmesan cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy.

on-on

waffles eats waffles

Waffles

nickname: grumpy

male

5 years old

purebred chinese shar-pei

does not like sun, rain, wind

jumps into the bathtub when he decides its time for a bath

enjoys all things food including shrimp, strawberries, salads, fish, korean pears, prime rib, homemade yogurt

favorite food - grandma's fuzhou fish balls

buttermilk blueberry waffles with blueberries on top

molasses cookies

i love molasses cookies!

this is a great recipe that doesn't require butter or too many eggs.

i found the recipe card stuck in a book and unfortunately i did not note the source of the original recipe.  it was stuck in my best recipe book (1999 edition, one of my favorite books) with their molasses cookie recipe but its definitely not from that book, i think the last time i made this recipe was 5 or 6 years ago

molasses cookies

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup molasses

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

granulated sugar, to roll cookies

Preheat oven to 350`

Mix sugar, egg, canola oil, and molasses until combined.  

Mix in 1/2 of the flour.  Add remaining flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.  

Shape cookies into 1-inch balls (they fall apart if you roll them, so just pat them into ball form).  

Roll in sugar to coat and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  

Bake for approximately 12 minutes.  

Cool on wire rack.  They will harden as they cool

Makes 36 cookies

is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?

valencia oranges

hass avocadoes

blueberries

grapefruit

strawberries

potatoes

corn

broccoli

romaine lettuce

mint

so my original plan was to cancel this week's box, i had way too much leftover in my fridge right now, i'm talking 5 zucchinis, cauliflower, 2 heads of lettuce, broccoli, 2 bunches of cilantro, sage, thyme, basil, oregano, mint, potatoes, avocados, and who knows what else is in there...  but i got excited, way excited, NO ZUCCHINI, first of the season blueberries and corn.. so you see what I did...

and now i realize...

THERE'S WAY TOO MUCH ORGANIC PRODUCE IN MY FRIDGE!!!

i've decided no matter how wonderful my box will be next week, I will say no or maybe I could get the fruit only box... NO! but I always finish my fruit and im sad that i have no fruit left on monday/tuesday... sad to say, this is honestly my biggest dilemma in my life, how to finish all the produce in my fridge strategically... plus my crisper drawers are seriously packed in so tight, its like opening up my completely crammed closet full of clothes... so as much as i don't want to, i will say NO

on another note, i miss yoga... i NEED to go back, its been almost two whole weeks and i need my bikram.. 

semi-wordless wednesday

i've been meaning to post these eggs i got at the farmers market last Thursday because it was my first speckled egg and i got excited, but of course, i never got around to it, then i realized my last post was last wednesday, so i have to write something...

so instead of bombarding you with pictures again.. i will leave this as my semi-wordless wednesday and play catch up throughout the week...

i will add, i was extremely excited when i got my produce CSA box this morning

csa delivery!

this week's small mixed box

gala apples

navel oranges

strawberries

zucchinis (of course!)

fava beans

broccoli

red leaf lettuce

potatoes

(farmers market basket recently acquired from anthropologie)

cilantro

my carryovers from last week

i carried over most of my cilantro from last week, so now i have two bunches of cilantro

3 zucchinis + 3 more = 6 zucchinis

cauliflower

lettuce

 2 butternut squash (acquired almost two weeks ago from the farmers market)

why so much carryover?

i'm fine when i alternate the small box with the regular size box, but then i like the regular box options better that week so i end up 2 or 3 weeks of regular and this leads to carryover and my current predicament.. also, my favorite box  is the valley and they don't offer this in the small size, i've requested to add the small valley to their offering, so hopefully i will see this in the next few weeks. 

today's lunch was some kind of wonderful

i'm trying to kill my leftovers basically,

i killed the rest of my butternut squash ravioli that i froze last week, sauteed a zucchini and smothered it in my lamb ragu.... the sweetness of the butternut squash that finds its way to peak through the heavy red wine and tomatoes sauce...

i was expecting to eat a mediocre lunch of leftovers, but it was a "week in review" lunch

here i go again

a bad blogger indeed... instead of trying to play catch up... i did consider back tracking and blogging about each thing over a series of days.  i would probably fail at that too... 

i decided to show you  instead this is what i have been up to, although this is a collection of camera and camera phone, but it doesn't matter as my photography skills are awful anyways... you think with all the blogs i follow and all the pictures i see, i would have learned something...

easter dinner - steamed mussels in a white wine sauce with rosemary garlic crusty bread 

my coworker gave me dates, i never had dates, why are they always dried?  does anyone eat them fresh?  

 if you know me, i'm a fan of ina garten and have watched all the episodes many times and decided to put these dates to good use!

ina garten's date nut spice bread

 my first csa box with zucchini... an announcement of spring in my book 

zucchini pancakes adapted from david tanis' book heart of an artichoke

chicken piccata over angel hair - i haven't made chicken piccata in 6 years.. i learned to make chicken piccata for an ex-boyfriend since it was his favorite dish... and it fell out of my rotation along with him and while its good riddance to the boy, this recipe is back

beautiful baby lettuce from my csa box 

panko crusted chicken with a sesame dressing 

short ribs i picked up from my meat csa (i did join a meat csa!) 

my new toy, the one i have wanted since 2007, and i love it! 

my first try at homemade pasta, this is supposed to be tagliatelle...  

braised short ribs over homemade tagliatelle & maple roasted sweet potatoes 

my recipe for coconut cupcakes - cupcakes are an adapted version of ina garten's recipe and frosting is my own rendition of cream cheese frosting as most recipes are way too sweet for my taste or call for too much butter 

second try at pasta... i think i was born to make ravioli 

butternut squash ravioli in a brown butter sauce - one word... AMAZING

asparagus and sweet pepper goat cheese frittata 

best thing about frittatas, i get to use up whatever is in my fridge

 grapefruit and avocado salad over beautiful baby lettuce - i even skinned the grapefruit which is not easy.. i ended up eating more grapefruit than putting in my salad... the creaminess of the avocado and the tart of the grapefruit was a wonderful combination

rigatoni with ground lamb ragu & mint

zucchini bread... may i add i'm a bit tired of zucchini coming in my csa box every week for 5 weeks... and guess what's coming tomorrow?  zucchini!

easter sunday

i dragged my slightly sick self out of bed to go to the hollywood farmers market.... went to the atm to deposit a check and get some cash which so happens to be the location of my city's sunday farmers market... well it was empty, so i automatically assumed the hollywood market was closed as well for easter or at least running on empty vendors... WHY?  finally, when i decide to go..

well, maybe next weekend, although next weekend, i plan on seeing thomas keller @ the festival of books, so i doubt i'll be able to make it...

and so today, im sitting @ home, i want to make coconut cupcakes, no cream cheese or buttermilk... i want to make molasses cookies, no ginger (what happened to my ground ginger?), tiramisu?  even worse.  everything i want to make, im lacking something... and so, i sit here... nothing to do..

who are u? julia child?

so i've always loved to cook, but i haven't been cooking a lot or not cooking that i want to do because i was in the biggest loser contest at work... so i think i'm making up for it these past couple weeks now that the competition is over, so my coworker asked, "what is going on with you?  who are you?  julia child?"  but its just im trying to make up for 3 months of non-cooking and baking...

i switched to the small csa box the last two weeks and there just isn't that much variety... the produce is still awesome, but the box is so much smaller.  i definitely don't have enough fruits to last me through the week, but i still go to the farmers market, so im okay with supplementing.

this week's box included carrots, sweet potatoes, zucchinis, gold nugget mandarins, strawberries, romaine, avocado, and broccoli.  i've never cooked sweet potatoes before and zucchini is fairly new to me.  and never cooked and fairly new to me is why i love the whole csa concept

i did make sweet potato oven fries last night when i made my favorite roast chicken, the zuni roast chicken, i've made the zuni roast chicken at least a hundred times, but this time, the skin on my chicken was amazing!  this is the first time im using a pasture raised chicken and not some commercial industrial raised bird... what a difference it made in my bird, it was always amazing, but i never had such amazing skin... it could also be experience.  although i did realize my fairly new silicone pot holders do not work well with a cast iron skillet in a 475` oven, i think the handle burns through the silicone a bit as i was having a bit of trouble or i've lost some muscle and can't manage to lift a cast iron skillet with a chicken out of the oven, but i'm thinking the handle was really hot so i was having some issues..

i ate all my oven baked sweet potato fries waiting for the chicken to finish, but that's okay.. the fries never made the plate, i ate right off the baking sheet...

i tried my hand at macarons, black sesame macarons to be exact, i ran into a few issues and i don't think it is picture worthy, but this is my journey, so maybe i'll be able to improve on them... 

i made my own almond meal, well i didn't want to overgrind so it got stuck in my piping bag tip since i only have a few tips and the tip i was using was a very small writing tip... i pulled off the tip eventually and just blobbed it down onto the parchment... can i add, i've rarely used a piping bag and this was my first time at making meringues... okay enough with the excuses... not exactly the prettiest little things, but hey, it was my first time

i had the most awesome texture of the cookie/meringue part... crispy on the outside that separated and gooey on the inside... the only issue was my filling was off and way too sweet, i even my coworker who grew up in europe try it and he agreed i got the texture right, my filling was too sweet... i think the cookie/meringue part is the hardest, so im super excited that the first time, i didn't do so bad

i will keep practicing and keep searching for some good macarons in the area so that i can do some research =)