cook: more vegetables in the mezze repertoire

While on a return trip home, I stopped for dinner in Santa Cruz. I wanted Mediterranean and therefore dined at Ibiza. I ordered the lamb plate with a dollop of Muhummara and decided that I had to learn to make that spicy dip. The bright yellow pickled cauliflower was my favorite, and of course, anytime I can eat a cabbage salad, I will. I loved the balance of all the flavors and eating rice instead of pita bread. The charred broccolini and microgreens were a boon to my required vegetable intake.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law went with me to the county fair though I also went to the fair the day before with two other clay friends. I soaked garbanzo beans, boiled them to make hummus. The cauliflower only needed to be washed and cut into small florets for pickling while the eggplant, bell peppers and jalapeno were to be roasted for the spicy dip.

 

I also mixed 2 cups of self-rising flour with 8 ounces of Greek full fat yogurt to make pita bread. Took one of the dough balls to cook on a hot cast iron pan. 

The peppers and eggplant were roasting nicely under a high broil and let the skins blister and blacken enough to make it easy to peel, and I felt no need to cover with plastic wrap. 

 

For the cabbage salad, I sliced half a small head of red cabbage on the mandolin and plucked herbs like parsley, dill and marjoram from the garden. I tossed the shredded cabbage in a dressing of mashed garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.

 

Love a colorful and...

sturdy salad. Crunchy salad done, I then peeled the roasted vegetables.

 

I had already blitzed the chickpeas and eggplant into hummus and baba ghanous, respetively. Time to pulse the red bell peppers with walnuts, Aleppo pepper, cumin, and pomegranate molasses for the spicy dip.

I read online that the pita dough could be refrigerated and "baked" later, and into the icebox went the dough balls

Lunch for one ready!

  

But prior to eating, food storage of hummus, baba ghanoush, muhummara, and feta cheese.  

Fast forward to the next day, I cooked saffron rice and off to the fair with family. On our return home, I griddled the pita bread and heated the lamb before setting out all the dips.

I had leftovers for quite a few days and added leftover zucchini fritters to lunch the next day. 

Okay I've upped my Mediterranean skill set with a few more recipes and couldn't be more pleased.

cook: key lime coconut boxed cake mix

At the grocery store on clearance was this box of key lime (one of my favorite flavors) coconut cake mix plus the branding was so pretty (because I'm a sucker for beautiful marketing), which I bought. Like a box of Lego blocks, which I once opened at Toys R'Us to show a nephew how packaging can mislead the consumer on its contents, there were 3 packets--glaze, cake mix, coconut. I find key lime pie to sometimes be too cloying, and so cake sounded like a lighter and more appealing alternative. You merely beat 2 eggs and a 1/2 cup of oil before adding to the dry cake mix. Curiously, the batter was green.

 

I also didn't know when I bought the cake mix that it was one of Chrissy Teigen's production line of baking mixes called Cravings. At the box's suggestions, I toasted the packet of coconut flakes before adding some of the toasted coconut to the batter. The batter tasted pretty good, promising a good cake.

 

And because I've had this bundt cake pan for years and don't use it nearly enough, instead of baking as cupcakes or a sheet cake, I went for a 1950s-60s style dessert. I made the glaze a bit too runny, and because I like pretty, I grated lime zest and added lime wheels for decoration.

 

And oh my gosh, I forgot about the reserved toasted coconut to further embellish the cake.

 

Kind of messy, but t'was delicious. I liked the green color too, and a slice was perfect with hot tea. However, I want to bake my next cake from scratch, and since I just bought a bag of lemons, I'm thinking the lemon cake from Preppy Kitchen and then frosting it with his recipe in the piping style of Nothing Bundt cakes.

cook: bodega breakfast sandwich

While in a hotel in Monterey, I made a breakfast slider with a biscuit, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle sausage. Loved the spicy sausage and was inspired by the sauces at the breakfast bar--jalapeno ranch and red chile aioli. At home, I mixed ground pork (leftover from cooking Imperial rolls), pork chorizo, and chipotle sauce to make sausage patties. On a split Kaiser roll, I laid cheddar cheese and pickled jalapeno on both halves of the bread and then baked in a 350 degree oven to melt cheese until bubbly. In the meantime, I fried a sunny side up egg. Laid the chipotle chorizo sausage on one half with drizzles of sriracha mayo and the egg on the other half.

Did it again the next day and added pickled red onions.

 

Oh my gosh! Even better.

What I love about the kaiser roll is its circumference—big and plushy enough to contain the runny egg and not let too much yolk to ooze out. If ever called upon to cook breakfast at an Airbnb with friends, this is the meal I'm making.

clay: functional food art (toast and avocado and hard boiled eggs tic-tac-toe)

Clay Body: Laguna's Bmix 10 (Smooth)

Underglazes/Glaze: Amaco yellow underglaze; Leslie chartreuse underglaze; Duncan kelp underglaze; Leslie medium brown underglaze; Satin Clear

Method/Firing: Hand build/slab/Cone 5-6

There's a crack in the toast board, but it's already entered into the county fair as one of a grouping entitled "Games Preschoolers Play." I don't expect to win a prize, but I'm proud of it and just want to show it off.

cook: chicken gravy and biscuits

My neighbor, Cecilia messaged me the night before that she was going to bake biscuits, and so I ran to the grocery store the night before. I bought proteins to cook and eat for the week.

The morning of, I went to the herb garden and started chopping shallots and garlic.

Not sure why I decided to chop shallots instead of onion, but this article will explain when I've time to read it when best to use each allium. I browned the ground chicken and then sprinkled flour into the frying meat.

 

Then added chicken broth to turn the roux into gravy, which needed some richness, and so I added a bit of heavy cream. Chicken gravy done.

  

Cecilia's biscuits were done.

 

We enjoyed a fine Sunday breakfast, but now I've chicken gravy. And so the plan is to bake a small batch of biscuits to eat the rest of the gravy though I could also just cook mashed potatoes for one and consume the leftovers that way. I cooked that salmon with a Trader Joe's fettucine alfredo a couple nights ago and made a salad. I had hoped to have leftovers for a Niçoise salad--nope the salmon was that good. Luckily I've honey smoked salmon for that lunchtime meal as well as another Yukon gold potato and some celery for a salad.

clay: functional food art (waffle and berries tic-tac-toe)

Clay Body: Laguna's Bmix 10 (Smooth)

Underglazes/Glaze: Amaco Yellow; Western Pumpkin; Amaco Red + Coyote Blush; Leslie Marine Blue + Leslie Deep Purple; Satin Clear

Method/Firing: Hand build/slab/Cone 5-6

I consider this pot functional as it is not just for looking, but also a game for preschoolers.

I haven't been cooking much and am trying to eat breakfast in addition to lunch.

Less time cooking has meant more time for making. The tic-tac-toe game with waffle and berries was a lot of fun. And I was happy to dig into my box of neglected underglazes.

 

I thought I was not going to overglaze and fire this cone 10 clay in the gas kiln, but a too full kiln and a looming deadline made me resort to an electric kiln firing. And all the little playing pieces, because I decided to adhere a clear satin glaze, necessitated stilts. Luckily, I got to fussily place my tic-tac-toe bits onto stilts on a top kiln shelf.

The moment of truth....

 

At work the next day, I unloaded the electric kiln and you see my success at the top of this page though I had to use a Dremel tool to grind off sharp poking bits and touch up with acrylic paint. In the meantime, Zan unloaded the gas kiln. I made the plaster mold for this casserole dish, and she and a student burnished and added handles and used a combination of Cone 10 glazes of Coleman Red and Dark Blue. 

 

I fell in love with May's cups of Coleman porcelain with celadon glaze. And so summer, if I throw Cone 10 clay, pretty much by myself at the wheel, just practicing without observation even peripherally.

cook: potato leek soup

I'm still eating for fuel more than for fun. My lunch below is what I call a California Niçoise: a Yukon potato and celery and scallion salad dressed with just mayonnaise, lemon juice and a bit of Dijon mustard; edamame; Castelvetrano olives; boiled green beans; leftover broiled salmon with herbs; and a hard boiled egg.

I think my palate quickly became accustomed to simpler flavors, and cooking sure became easier.

Recently, hubs came home with a huge crop of leeks. What he thought were garlic shoots turned into 10 pounds of leeks. He said he wanted me to cook a potato leek soup instead of Colcannon. And so I obliged. I rinsed a lot of dirt from the leeks, the green leafy tops of which I boiled for 30 minutes with a tablespoon of salt, a huge bunch of lemon and English thyme, garlic cloves, and pepper. That was it! And the scent fragranced my condo as I was chopping the white and light green roots, the garlic, and the white potatoes. With the stove turned off and the broth cooling, I sauteed the chopped leeks in more than the 3 tablespoons of butter called for in the recipe. Once the leeks softened, I poured in the strained leek broth, garlic and potatoes and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

I had leek broth leftover. I borrowed Cecilia's immersion blender to puree the soup and unfortunately burned myself as well as drop a glass jar of the soup I was giving to Cecilia. I kind of gave up at that point.

The soup, however, was fucking delicious and because I used a lot of butter, no need to add heavy cream or even milk, nor the lemon juice called for in the recipe. So delicious that I plan on cooking the rest of the leeks for more soup with the pound of potatoes I have left.