Cooking: Mushroom, Spinach, Pea Fettuccine Alfredo

Not wanting the mushrooms in the fridge to go bad, I asked the hubs if he wanted fungi pizza (what I wanted) or fungi pasta. He said we had pizza already too many times and so Fettuccine Alfredo on the menu. I ran to Trader Joe's and bought some shitake mushrooms too. 

I had watched Jacques Pepin cook a Swiss chard, mushroom, and hardboiled eggs gratin and followed his cooking method of sautéing the mushrooms and greens first (only he didn't throw them both in the pan but cooked them separately before layering into his gratin dish). And I didn't make a béchamel, but cheated and bought a container of Alfredo sauce.

Cecilia had also given us some fresh lemon thyme sourdough, and hubs commented that she does a good crumb. And the next day was clay.

I had been glazing all morning and was yearning to have my hands dirty with mud and remembered I wanted to make some bud vases, and so the afternoon was enough time to cut out the slabs and then score and slip them together. My afternoons are sort of like a great pottery throwdown in that there's this time constraint where I have to stop cleaning and refining my leather (if it's even allowed to get to that stage depending on the humidity and the temperature) greenware. I like this classical Greek shape and can't wait to make more of these little slab vases.

Sunday happened to be St. Valentine's Day, and I was hungover from drinking the whole bottle of Chardonnay the previous night. Whenever I've partaken of too much alcohol the night before, the morning after of a sumptuous breakfast gets me through. And so I made Ina Garten's Herb-Baked Eggs.

Weekends maybe because they are such a pleasure are a blur because my afternoon was just a dog walk and a trek to the Asian supermarket for fresh chow mein noodles, and last night's dinner was my mashup of a Valentine's Day and a Chinese New Year feast. I took out the Trader Joe's mini pork bao and honey walnut prawns (I was delighted to discover them in the freezer section and liken it to the delight I used to have when seeing new merch at World Market).

I couldn't find the regular Mapo Tofu recipe I usually turn to, and so I just devised a sauce of all the Chinese condiments and spices in my Asian drawer--soy sauce, chili oil, black bean chili paste, oyster sauce, sesame oil, Sichuan peppercorns, Shaoxing wine, and Chinkiang vinegar and could smell the 5 spice in one of them. Short cuts are A-okay because the mini pork buns were delicious and had the proportion of doughy to savory I liked, but I'm gonna pass next time on TJ's honey walnut prawns, which have too little resemblance to the same dish ordered from a Chinese restaurant.

I used to hate Valentine's Day as a child being the only Asian in my elementary classroom in the 1970s. I would get the fewest number of valentine's in my shoebox fashioned into a V-day postbox, and six or seven of those valentines would be of Eskimo kissing or a Japanese girl in a kimono. I didn't have the language to say to my classmates, you white people suck. But it was definitely an example of white supremacy culture and micro aggressions that to this day make me feel like a professional imposter.

And now's it's the Monday President's Holiday, and I'm off to a new adventure. But here are my favorite Shirley Chisholm quotes to inspire.

“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”

“Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society because that talent wears a skirt.”

“At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”

“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.”

“Be as bold as the first man or woman to eat an oyster.”

Cooking: Chili con Carne

Valentine's Day is this weekend, and so on his warehouse store run, hubs got me two bouquets. But the flowers I think are just as much for him. When I first met him, the only decoration in this condo were the two bouquets of flowers he bought each week at Costco in a giant vase.

I wished I had asked him to get ground beef from Costco because I'm in the mood for hamburgers, but knew that there was ground meat of some sort in my packed freezer even if we were out of ground beef. The hubs and I both had our own late afternoon meetings yesterday, but I knew the day before to cook the next night’s dinner. I thawed American Wagyu beef that I had bought a 3-pack of on a lark. When I had previously made Wagyu hamburger patties and barbecued them in a charcoal grill, they shrunk to almost half in size because they're so marbled (picture too lots of flames and flare-ups), and so I also took out the beef chorizo chub I had in the fridge as well as the Fresno and half a Jalapeno Chile peppers I had left.

I wasn't sure if I was going to add additional Mexican chili and Chipotle chili powders because I wasn't sure how hot the fresh peppers were. They were hot enough but as I tasted my cooking throughout, I added what was left of Frank's Red Hot sauce and a little more cayenne power for more heat. Good thing I bought sour cream on my coffee run at the grocery store that morning. I sautéed the onion and then added the meat as well as chicken and vegetable broth I had left and a carton of beef bone broth as well as a can of diced tomatoes with green chile and garlic powder since I forgot to chop garlic. I also added the boiled pinto and kidney beans I had cooked earlier. And then let it all simmer down until 2/3 of the liquid was evaporated.

The chili looked almost done, and so I put it in the fridge for the next day. After a full day of reading and writing and Zooming and emailing students and talking to administrators and running the tasks of a school library turned into a learning distribution center and then a later afternoon social sciences council meeting, it was time to cook that chili down further for the beans to break down and thicken its sauce with its starches. Next time I gotta remember to add beer to the chili. Hauled out the fixings and chopped scallions and cilantro--those fresh herbs plus the Frito corn chips, shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream--make chili delicious for me.

I had given a bowl of the chili the previous night to a neighbor who said she had never eaten chili with Fritos before and to which I sent her a pic of a Frito pie I found on the internet: a single serving package of Fritos split open on which to spoon chili. And she asked that's a thing? Sure is, and maybe next time I'll cook a chili mac or a tamale pie when I make chili.

But last night it was just a comforting couple bowls of chili eaten with a cold bottle of Filipino beer. 

Sewing: Hand Quilting

I finally hauled a couple of craft bins into my closet and unearthed this UFO, a quilt I had pieced improvisationally from a kimono my friend Bob gave and likewise started hand quilting without guide lines. I temporarily abandoned it because I was unhappy with its wonkiness, but now after having put it away, I’m liking it. I can see that I was trying to channel Gees Bend into this make and can see the charm in the attempt.            

And so last night, I added even more lines of hand stitchery. And then this morning, I tried to buy a box of chocolate covered cherries and packs of Hallmark valentines, but the clerk was taking way too long with a customer who was buying a slew of stuff, and so I ditched. Instead I crafted almost tiny homemade valentine cards to go with boxes of tiny conversation hearts.

And I just saw somewhere that today is National Pizza Day. Hmmm....

I still had mole sauce from our mole chicken a week ago, and so this time I defrosted and then roasted a couple of pork shoulder ribs to try and use more of it up and eat up the last of the Oaxacan refried beans. I also had great fun browsing and shopping Grocery Outlet, where I found Mexican rice and Elote corn in the frozen food section.

I enjoyed it because I love pig, and hubs ate it even if it was not his favorite meat that was sauced. Plus I've enough leftover for another meal this week. On the ceramics front, I've so much bisque ware from the kiln that I spent my Saturday morning and afternoon glazing pots. Fingers crossed that I'll love the new glazes I bought from Coyote. I'd been neglecting sewing and quilting, and so that became my Sunday plan with the Kansas City Chiefs playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the background. 

What sucks about Super Bowl Sunday during a pandemic is the lack of choices in snacks brought together by a potluck: spinach and artichoke dip and crostini or french onion clam dip and potato chips, nachos or queso fundido, pigs in a blanket, cheese and charcuterie platters, beer cheese and pretzel bites....only room for ONE when there's only two of you in a small household and your partner is not big into appetizers. And so I opted for buffalo chicken wings and celery with blue cheese ranch dressing, and instead of a beer, I made myself a Bloody Mary, my usual pickled salad in a glass. 

 

I love all kinds of hot sauce on my chicken wings, but I kept it simple this time with Frank's Red Hot and took out Louisiana sauce just in case. And Puppy Bowl was on my television screen:)

And an afternoon of sewing and walking the dog was soon followed by dinner while watching Kansas City lose to Tampa Bay. I sauteed cubes of chuck beef and chopped onions in garlic oil (leftover from my Pancit Palabok). Hubs had brought home a turnip given to us by Joe from Lebanon (Joe from Italy gave us broccoli rabe). I'd never cooked, nor tasted a turnip before. But I had heard it can sometimes be part of a beef and root vegetable stew. 

And so I chopped celery along with the turnip and pulled out carrots too for the stew.

I had sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of flour onto the frying beef to brown and add fond to which I then added leftover chicken and vegetable broth as well as a box of beef bone broth to boil down and thicken. I also added garlic powder as well as Old Bay and smoked paprika. Once the gravy was reduced to my liking, I added the vegetables knowing it would get more liquid and would again need to cook down the sauce as well as tenderize the vegetables. I also didn't discard the leafy top of the turnip, figuring it was like collard greens and could be added to the stew for the last few minutes of stewing.

And instead of putting a potato into the stew, I made it a mashed potato with lots of cream and butter as a less sharp counterpoint to the other root vegetables and to act as a vehicle for the gravy..

Both the hubs and I tasted the raw turnip and liked its mustardy flavor; he said he would add the vegetable to his garden next year. And I plan on figuring out other ways to cook it.

Weekday Dinners

My refrigerator is packed with leftovers: quiche, a bratwurst with a bit of cabbage, rotisserie chicken, and chicken curry (using said roasted chicken) and thawing meat (a rib eye cap steak, chuck beef, ground pork, and a boneless pork rib). Sadie loves the rotisserie chicken with her kibble, and I love it in a Cobb salad.

I marvel that I had all the ingredients, prepped and ready for a cold dinner on a Monday evening after a long work Zoom meeting.

On Tuesday, I decided to use up that ground pork. I saw a recipe in my stack of papers for Vietnamese meat balls and rice noodles, but I had also the makings for a childhood dish of Pancit Palabok.

 

This was my second time ever cooking this dish. Previously, I used a different spice packet that was the Pamanang brand instead of Mama Sita's. The Pamanang definitely had more of that tinapa or smoked fish flavor, but I'll be sticking to Mama Sita's, the taste of which is more reminiscent of my mom's dish. And I think I previously called it Pancit Luglug which is exclusively a Pampangan dish. This turn around I knew to cook the time-consuming corn starch noodles first by soaking it in water for 20 minutes or so and then breaking them up as best I could before boiling them for 15 minutes or so and then letting them sit in the warm water for 30 minutes. I separated the noodles with my fingers when I drained them. I also peeled the shrimp and boiled the shells to make a broth to combine with the spice packet. I chopped onion and garlic and scallions after making the broth. And fried garlic and crushed pork rinds. And hard boiled eggs.

Closer to dinner time, I sautéed the onions and garlic and pork and then added the spices and msg diluted in shrimp broth. The gravy wasn't dark enough, and so I added dried annatto powder to make it an even more vibrant orange red. Since I had made this dish three weeks ago, I still had calamansi in my refrigerator. I've a Filipino neighbor, Cecilia who was jubilant that I was cooking one of her favorite childhood dishes too. I laid the noodles into a casserole dish and then spooned the pork gravy over the noodles generously. I sliced the shrimps in half and laid them over the sauce and sprinkled lots of crushed chicharrones and the fried garlic and then laid the quarters of two hard boiled eggs atop and sprinkled scallion. Lastly I sliced the calamansi into halves and nestled them into the rest of the ingredients. I like dishes to look beautiful and colorful.

And not only was it visually appealing, this Pancit Palabok was very flavorful. I may try making it again without resorting to the shortcut of an Oriental (the archaic use of that term on the packaging cracks me up) gravy packet.

Ceramics and Cooking: a Butterdish and Chicken Curry

I think I might have mentioned that I was pretty dissatisfied with the last couple butter dishes I made. And so I remade it a couple weekends ago, but it was so wonky that I took it apart this past Saturday. And had to trim down the parts in order to make them straight.

Friends have told me they find the wonk charming, and so hopefully there's enough wonk in this latest iteration to add cuteness but straight enough to be functional.

And my new dish, not cooked for years, for Saturday night supper plus my goal of shopping my pantry was chicken curry. I followed the directions on the package of Sadaf curry powder I bought at the Middle Eastern produce market--the spice is more brown than the yellow I'm used to and had a hint of bitterness. The directions also called for more than the 3 small chicken thighs I had, and so I added cauliflower and carrots and green peas left in my freezer and veggie bin. I should've added celery to my curry, but I did use up the last of the basmatic rice in my grains drawer. Mission accomplished on not wasting.

I also topped the curry with more green: scallion and cilantro. I've a little bit of Sadaf curry powder and maybe a bottle of Madras curry in my spice drawer, and so I see another Indian curry dish in my rotation. I also have in my spice drawer biriyani and chicken tandoori. Maybe next month I'll cook Indian cuisine again, but in the meantime, we've at least 2 more servings of chicken curry leftover.