Cooking: Chile Rellenos

As if attempting to cook my husband's pot roast dinner of his youth for a Sunday supper weren't enough (which turned out just okay), I also cooked Chile Rellenos for Mexican Monday.  Very labor intensive.  First I roasted two Anaheim and two Pasilla chile peppers and fried tortillas to make chips to embellish my dish.

After I roasted the peppers, I peeled off their black papery skins and removed the seeds and membranes after slitting them open.  I took out a block of Monterey Jack cheese, frijoles, red enchilada sauce, and chorizo leftover from huevos ranchero the week before.

I then layered the beans and salsa roja in the glass baking dish on which to lay the stuffed peppers on.  I also took two eggs out and separated the whites from the yolks.

I cut the cheese into smaller blocks and then stuffed them into the peppers along with leftover chorizo.  I used 3 toothpicks to skewer the peppers over the cheese and chorizo.  I had also turned my oven on to preheat it to 350 degrees.

Next I whipped the egg whites as stiff as I could get them and then folded in the yolks.  I then submerged the stuffed pepper into the beaten eggs.

And then the frying.  I heated a half an inch of vegetable oil in my cast iron pan and kept it at medium high heat.  The oil needed to be hot enough to hear a sizzle when I slid the stuffed pepper in, but not so hot that the egg batter golden browned too soon to burnt.  It's especially tricky turning the peppers over to its other side--a spoon helps and you can spoon hot oil over the egg batter to help it along.

We were pretty happy with how tasty the chile rellenos were, so happy that we ate them before I could take a picture of the completed dish though here's a shot before I submerged the tortilla chips in the sauce around the peppers and before they went in for 30 minutes in the oven to melt the cheese and crisps the tortilla chips some more.

Weekend Cooking or....Unblocking My Creative Rut

I've been depressed and in a midlife crisis for the past year and half that I haven't wanted to quilt, hand build, weave or embroider.  I have crafted a little, but not my usual extensive whirlwind of making with clay and textiles.  However, those creative muscles are slowly getting flexed, and I've been getting back into crafting, especially with the help of cooking.  This weekend, I marinated chicken thighs in buttermilk, salt and hot sauce...

 ...simmered legumes and beans, roasted an eggplant, squeezed lemons, decanted jars of tahini, mixed and sipped a lime rickey...

 ...which turned into a tasty lunch of bread, dolmas and hummus until I had a hangry and menopausal temper flare up...

 ...but then calmed down enough to finish lunch and make the baba ghanoush and the 5-bean salad and then go do ceramics the next day with a friend to later return home to start supper by making a simple tomato salad with just heirlooms, salt, balsamic and basil...

 ...and dredging the buttermilk-brined chicken thighs in a flour mixture of chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning for the sage, a little salt and lots of coarse ground black pepper before frying it...

...and while the fried chicken finished cooking in the oven, I peeled potatoes and boiled them with garlic before mashing them with heavy whipping cream, butter and lots of chopped scallions because I make mashed allium potatoes...

...and it was a very pleasing dinner because of a super crispy fried chicken skin which the hubs also complimented me on...

...however, I was still fervently wanting to create culinarily and while drinking my wine with a neighbor, mentioned an overwhelming wish to cook a fish stew but didn't think I could the next evening because I had a late afternoon meeting to which she suggested that I prep the ingredients the night before--genius--and so I chopped fennel, celery, and leeks and mentally planned a trip to the gourmet grocery shop for seafood broth before going to bed...

...but like an idiot, while grocery shopping before my meeting, I didn't sensibly look for the box of seafood broth at the seafood counter and instead was in the canned fish aisle, grabbing bottles of clam broth.  No matter, I got to caramelizing the aromatics in butter and olive oil and pureeing tomatoes and garlic in my blender before combining with the clam broth and the wine I was sipping and letting it simmer on my stove for a good hour and a half before adding a combination of frozen shellfish (mussels, shrimp, octopus, calamari) and Pacific rockfish...

 ...which made for a beautiful tasting dinner of bouillabaisse, lavishly buttered artichoke bread and lots more glasses of Albariño.  Of course, I shared my seafood meal with my neighbor who proclaimed it "so good."

Ceramics: Kimono Commercial-Decal Mug

I made this mug from reclaimed dark clay and am infatuated with the color of this clay body.  I had painted with white underglaze a dot on which I knew I wanted to affix a decal.  I've also been playing with different handles and made this one to resemble brass knuckles....there's text on the other side saying, Oh I fancy!