The Nest Lounge: Red Robin Bar

We came into Washington, DC very late last night and the hotel restaurant was closed so the staff (so nice!) walked us over to this lounge located in the hotel. It was surprisingly great. Hotel food, I have found, is generally offers sub-par food but at the Willard InterContinental, it's very very good. My colleague and I decided to split an ahi tuna burger with fries because we both dislike going to be on a full stomach.

The sandwich was awesome. The chef split the sandwich for us and put it on two plates so that we wouldn't have to fuss and make a mess, which I did plenty of while eating. The tuna refused to stay between the bun. It was thoughtful of them to do so particularly since we didn't specifically request it. The tuna was thick and cooked to perfection. A very good sized sandwich. I'm glad we shared. The wait staff, very nice. The sandwich was $15 without tip. I would eat here again, for sure.

Tea -- Drake Hotel

Celebrating 10 years of friendship!

If I haven't already made it clear, me encanta Chicago. Chicago is a fantabulous city, enhanced by my amazing friends. Chicago is home to a laundry list of greats: food, hot dogs, people, neighborhoods, baseball, restaurants, architecture, history, art, live music, comedy, culture, museums, weather (yes, even the weather), and tea-time.

At 10 AM, I'm on the phone with Camish.

Me: Susie's made reservations for us to have tea at the Drake?
C: What?! Imagine the "Wha'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" tone with her right eyebrow raised, eyes looking down her nose, and one hand on her hip. The classic Camisha move was in full force. You mean like what the Brits do? Skeptical but game she inquired, What do I wear?
Me: The classic tea outfit, of course. Jeans, t-shirt, flip flops. I laughed.

We arrived for our 1 PM seating, the lobby infused with the scent of tiger lilies, my favorite flower. The menu is fixed except for the tea. I had Darjeeling, while the troublesome two had wild blackberry and ginger peach. Once again, I set aside my vegetarian ways to fully experience tea-time.

We gave those trays a once over and were skeptical. How could those dinky little sandwiches with no crusts (top plate) and three slices of banana nut bread and currant scones (2nd plate) possibly fill up the 3 biggest eaters in Chicago-land. We dug in, all the while being regal and refined.

I started with the tomato and cheese on white bread. It was good, very good, in fact. Then I went for the ham and asparagus sandwich, which actually looked like sushi because it was rolled. It was better than the tomato/cheese. My favorite, hands down, was the roast beef on wheat, which had very tasty mayo. In between the savories, I dipped down to try the scones, which were excellent. Personally though, I just loved the savory and would have preferred to have more it than the sweet, which says a lot considering how much I adore sweets and butter. Much to our surprise, we were stuffed before the dessert plate came out but that did not prevent us from chowing down even more! The flavors are so wholesome, so satisfying, and so rich that you become incredibly full though everything is rather small.

We ate, chatted away, laughed, took a break, ate some more, made fun of the woman seated next to the fountain who took her tea a little too seriously by wearing pearls and a big ol' hat (think Queen of England), and bemoaned the fact, and I mean bemoaned, that our group was incomplete without Sam, the fourth friend in our circle. We raised our glasses to her.

Camisha was so smitten with our activity she couldn't stop talking about it; she's a convert and has developed a whole theme for her daughter's birthday. As she said, "If this doesn't put a little bourge in Morgan, I don't know what will!" It was such a memorable and fun way to spend the afternoon. Every time I think about tea, I can't help but smile. We''ll alway have this memory.

Tea at the Drake is about $35/person, including tip. While the tea was great, Susie swears by the one at the Peninsula Hotel, which is also slightly less expensive. On Sunday tea (at the Peninsula) commences at 4 PM, a little late. Try Saturday! Reservations are not necessary.

cr, sb, y sg vosotros amo.

White Castle -- Chicago

Dare I say it? I ate White Castle at 3 AM on Saturday morning and it was so good. You see all that food? A mere $8. We had a mini burger, chicken rings, and onion rings. White Castle is a Chicago institution, like In 'N Out Burger is to California. The little burgers are a perfect size. They're even smaller than the McDonald's burger. Perfect for little tots.

I keep eating meat. It's a phase, I think. It's kind of like the rebellious teenage phase. I just need to get it out of my system. I think White Castle did me in.

Adesso -- Chicago

Chicago is a fabulous place to visit, eat, and just be. The people are friendly, nice, and down to earth. In contrast, I found that people in New York don't really make eye contact with others. Another reason why I love Chicago is that during the summers you can eat outside in the evenings in shorts or a skirt, and not worry about getting cold. In the Bay Area, that's definitely not the case except during a heat wave or under a heat lamp which is not the same.

On Saturday afternoon, I met a friend that I hadn't seen in seven years for lunch. Funny how life works. While we lived and worked in the same city for 2 years, we never ran into the other. In any case, we met at a small but very cute restaurant in the Lakeview District of Chicago, just south of Wrigley Field. It's a cute hip area.

We sat outside because the weather was a fabulous 75 degrees with no humidity. Truthfully, I really wanted humidity. I kind of miss it. Over lunch we caught up on our lives and what each had done. He had a chicken arugula salad with Parmesan cheese and I had the mushroom and goat cheese frittata with a salad, which was one of the specials for the day. I enjoyed my frittata but I don't think it was better than the frittatas I've made. In fact, I would argue that it was probably too egg-y, and didn't have enough mushrooms. But over all it was good.

For dessert, we shared tiramisu made at the restaurant. Of course, after ordering it, I remembered my lactose intolerance. The tiramisu was excellent. We had tried to order wine but the restaurant was located across the street from a church and there is an old city ordinance that doesn't allow restaurants to sell alcohol if that's the case. However, you are allowed to BYOB, which is true of the other restaurants in the vicinity. After 4 cups of decaf, I was completely caffeinated.

We probably spent 2+ hours and I never once felt rushed. I would definitely eat here again.

West Indian Food -- Brooklyn

On Friday, we had lunch with our client on the 1100 block of Nostrand Ave in Brooklyn between Long Island Ave and Lincoln Road on the even number side of the street. Can't remember the name of the place but the food was just amazing. At lunch they have a buffet where you can select from at least 20 items, everything from goat curry to chicken curry to jerk salmon to BBQ chicken to sweet potatoes, and so much more. I was completely overwhelmed. This is not what you call vegetarian friendly but I really wanted to relish and experience West Indian food in its entirety so I ate meat. It was so worth it.

After getting a play-by-play on all the dishes, I got a little salad (not West Indian), sweet potatoes, goat curry, and beans and rice. It was amazing. Deliciosa. Then I noticed the salmon on my client's plate and was bummed, but he kindly shared a piece so my momentary anxiety on having missed out on some thing special dissipated rather quickly. In total, my lunch with a bottled water was under $6! The amount is determined by weight.

I'm Indian but didn't know what West Indian food was. Actually, I still really don't. I'm much more familiar with the North/South distinction which I could write a dissertation on. But I know that in Trinidad, Guyana, and the Caribbean in general, there are lots of Indians. In fact, I learned that Guyana's population is 50% Indian. So West Indian food seems to be a combination of classic Indian dishes like curries mixed with traditional Caribbean food like sweet potatoes, plantains, etc. I know I'm not describing all the nuances so I dare not go further.

It was so worth it to set aside my mostly vegetarian ways to eat well.

Morimoto -- Manhattan

It was restaurant week so my childhood friend made reservations for us to enjoy lunch at the Iron Chef's restaurant! It's sort of funny because she actually lives very close to me in California but her work brought her out to Manhattan for the summer, so it was totally awesome to enjoy NYC with her in a new place. I was particularly excited about this restaurant because I love the Iron Chef show on the Food Network Channel. He always makes fabulously creative food.

I decided to opt for the pre-fixed sushi lunch (which isn't terribly creative at all). The lunch which usually goes for $35 was $25 and very generous. The meal started with a mixed green salad and miso soup followed by the 6 pieces of spicy tuna roll and 8 pieces of nigiri, including eel, salmon, tuna, yellow tail, tuna, shrimp, and two other pieces of nigiri I can't remember. All of it was delicious.

Our brownie dessert was pretty good though I think I could make better brownies. But it was nice to have something sweet after all the salt.

While it was all very very good I have to say it wasn't anything that I hadn't experience before, in terms of quality, which was excellent. The ambiance was, of course, very New York. At our 2 PM seating the place was hopping. The bathrooms were unlike anything I've experienced before, with heated and adjustable seats. There were so many buttons, I didn't know what they were for. And the downstairs bar was something reminiscent out of Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Or at least, I could imagine it being that way.

I was happy to have done it, and would do it again, even if I had to pay more.

Food & Travel

These last few entries are out of order. In my excitement to get entries out, I completely forgot to write about Sankaku Sushi & Noodle before Rae. In any case, I've been traveling for work since late Tuesday afternoon through Sunday evening. That's a lot of meals out. I generally eat 1-2, may be 3 meals out a week, if that. Working out won't be an option though the hotel apparently has a nice facility since I had to choose between taking a laptop or my running shoes. The running shoes were sadly left behind.

In any case, after 2 7 AM mornings, and no breakfast or lunch on Tuesday before my flight, I was ravenous when I arrived at SFO. I was determined to eat well. I walked by Klein's deli (though I later picked up a garden salad for the flight) and Guava Java (a definite no), and found Sankaku in the United Terminal. I recently read that sushi is one of the most healthful things you can eat while traveling but was reluctant to try sushi at the airport. Instead, I opted for a salmon bowl which came with a nice piece of salmon over a bowl of rice. Very simple and tasty. At $9.50, a good deal compared to other less tasty options.

Rae, Philadelphia's 30th Street Station

So, I haven't posted in some time and it's because I was traveling to New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago for work this week so I couldn't cook. Instead, this week, I decided I should report on foods and restaurants I've tried out while away on my travels.

On Wed. afternoon we met clients at Rae at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. Rae is this cute uber modern restaurant attached to the station itself so if you're waiting for your train; it's a good place to have drinks, meals, or snacks. The sides of this restaurant are large sheets of glass from which you can people and car watch. It was poring out so it was nice not to have to step out of the station to get to the restaurant.

We arrived a t 3:30PM. A little too early for dinner so we shared a Caesar salad, had coffee and iced tea, and munched on this hor dourves table that was available to patrons. It was AWESOME! A variety of cheeses, fondue, breads, crackers, fruit, marinated figs, and salamis were served. The marinated figs, I hadn't tasted anything like them. They were amazing. The service was friendly. I recommend this place if you're taking the train to/from Philly. The dinner menu looked a little pricey but the food I saw other people eating did look delicious.

It was a good thing my colleague and I ate those snacks. While we returned to Manhattan at 7 PM we didn't get back to our hotel until 9 PM because of the steam pipe incident at Grand Central Station. Our hotel was only a few blocks away and since every street was blocked off we had to walk around in a rather large circle to go the mere 5 blocks we would have otherwise!

Blueberry Scones

I just adore scones but don't love that they don't taste so good when I've purchased them in stores, restaurants, and coffee shops. They're dry, too sweet, hard as rocks, and not fluffy. Having wanted to make scones forever, I decided to forge ahead after a friend shared her recipe. Plus, Sunday mornings scream scones with a nice cup of coffee or tea. The recipe, like my friend, is kick-ass, and I think I hit a grand slam in preparing them. They were perfect -- slightly crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside, and just perfectly sweet. The home was filled with the smell of butter and blueberries. What a way to wake up!

I've made low-fat scones and lived to blog about them. I shouldn't have. They weren't nearly as good. Not even close. The fat is what makes a scone successful. And if you use good fats, then a scone isn't nearly as unhealthy as one would think.

Ingredients
-3 cups flour
-4 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-8 T butter

Cut butter into the dry ingredients listed above (until coarse, you want little chunks of butter the size of peas). Stir in wet ingredients listed below:

-1/2 cup sugar
-1 large egg, beaten
-2/3 cup buttermilk (I used low fat only because that was the smallest container available, otherwise I would have gone full fat)
-1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Stir until just mixed. Divide dough into two parts, and pat each into a circle. Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes until brown.

The dough is very sticky so I would flour your hands when you pat down otherwise you'll end up with a lot of dough on your hand, like I did. Don't be tempted to add any more liquid even if you think the batter is dry. It will come together, especially if you use frozen blueberries and they start to thaw a bit. Adding more liquid will just make the dough that much more sticky.

Enjoy!

My Babies

My tomato plants are growing so fast! The one you see above is just one of six seeds I planted. 5 of 6 germinated. Not bad. I held out hope for the 6th one but it's a no show. I got a rather late start due to delays so I decided to go with a variety that would produce fruit rather quickly, which left me with the early girl variety. This tomato has a very short growth period of 52 days versus the typical 80 plus. I'm not convinced because my babies still look rather runt like. It's been 2 weeks since the seeds germinated and 3 weeks since planting. Every morning I walk out on to my front porch waiting to see them bursting. I need more patience!

Vanilla Cupcakes and Chocolate Frosting

Cheers! Toasting our 14 year friendship!

What do you do when your very good friend comes into town? Well, I made the food that we bonded over when we first met. In our case, lots chips and salsa (we were the reason Tostitos and Pace Picante saw higher than usual earnings during those years) and boxed cake fueled us through late night study dates, rants about all things Italian, and 80's music marathons.

For our reunion, I decided to take it up a notch and make cupcakes from scratch because anything from a box no longer makes the grade, unless you're in elementary school.

I made vanilla cupcakes and frosting previously (December 2006 recipes) but given our predilection for chocolate, I decided to go for a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. The frosting was amazing. Not too sweet, not too stiff, and tasted like true chocolate. Home made frosting is the opposite of anything Duncan Hines produces.

While I thought the frosting I made in December was good, it is even better now. Partly, it was the addition of chocolate, but mostly I think it was the weather. In December, though I whipped the heck out of the frosting, and I mean beat it for a solid 7 minutes, I just could not get it to be lightly and fluffy. And while I live in a relatively mild climate, it makes a big difference. Today, in the middle of a heat wave, the frosting came together so quickly. I couldn't believe butter could be so airy!

Ingredients for Frosting
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (let sit on counter over night)
-1 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
-1/4 cup cocoa powder (use unsweetened)
-2 T milk
-1 tsp vanilla

Preparation
Beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. Add powdered sugar, cocoa, milk and vanilla, and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, if not longer.

Yields enough frosting for 12 cupcakes very very generously. Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for a week or frozen indefinitely.

These cupcakes were really very good, made even more sweet by sharing with a friend who knows you so well that no words are necessary to feel understood.

Fettuccine with Sauteed Peppers and Parsley

I was totally appalled by the Italian food I had at lunch. In fact, it was so bad that after two bites, I threw it out. Authentic Italian food really focuses on vegetables which is something that some Italian restaurants really neglect, instead focusing on gobs of cheese and too much pasta. In Italy, vegetables are often the focus, as they should be, because they are so abundant.

So I came home to take the offensive taste out of my mouth. Really, I made this dish because a friend was coming over for dinner, and as usual, I decided to make a guinea pig out of her. This dish was really good, has few simple ingredients that you would most likely have in your fridge, and takes fewer than 3o minutes to bring together. I just love love love dishes that come together so quickly. It's also colorful, healthy, and so pretty to boot!

The parsley is key because it really brings the dish together, and it's a good recipe for using a lot of parsley so you don't have to feel about letting any go to waste because most likely, you won't! You really cannot have enough parsley in this dish.

Once again, this recipe comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
Serves 4
Cooking Time: 30 minutes or less

Ingredients
-4 large bell peppers (red, yellow, and orange, or all one color)
-4 T olive oil
-Salt and freshly milled pepper
-1 pound fettuccine
-2/3 cup chopped parsley
-Freshly grated Parmesan, optional

Preparation
Heat large pot of water for the pasta. Meanwhile, cut peppers into strips about as wide as the fettuccine. heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat, then add the peppers; give a stir, let them sit for a few minutes, and stir again. Continue cooking this way for about 10 minutes. The peppers should caramelize along the edges, soften , and yield their juices but not lose their sins. They will smell sweet. Season well with salt and pepper, add a ladle of pasta water, and turn the heat low.

Add salt to the boiling water and cook pasta until al dente. Scoop past out and add it to peppers, allowing some water to drip into the pan. Raise the heat and toss the pasta and peppers with the parsley. Plate dish and add cheese.

Open Open Open

Is what I was saying at 5:45 AM on Saturday morning in front of a Starbucks.

You see things that are subconsciously understood but then you're confronted with it. I was waiting for my mint tea to cool down when I noticed that staff were stocking up on muffins, etc. and they were coming out of an ugly brown cardboard box covered with plastic. Where else are their treats supposed to come from. I know that Starbucks doesn't make these items from scratch and they're probably manufactured at some plant in some unknown location that I've never been to yet their website claims to buy their baked goods from local suppliers. But then why does every Starbucks more or less have the same set of baked goods? Perhaps there's a new definition of local that I missed!?

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (CDS)

If you can believe it, I made 110 of these and still have strawberries left! These aphrodisiacs look amazingly beautiful yet are completely effortless to make I swear. And it is SO much fun. It's pure joy. I found myself completely engrossed in the strawberries and chocolate. I caught myself smiling and actually feeling giddy about making something so easy yet fancy enough to 'wow' people.

Before the dipping started, we narrowed the pool of strawberries down looking for size (large, of course!), shape (not too deformed), color (bright red not dark red), blemishes (not terribly bruised) etc. After all of that, I came to the conclusion that none of it would even really matter because the chocolate would hide most of the flaws. Probably the most important quality was the bruising because that affects taste.

Then there was the dipping technique. I took to dipping the strawberries straight in to the chocolate when I started out and when the chocolate became less, I tried dipping it side ways, and twirling it around in a circle like a ballerina in the 2nd grade who's trying to say in her circle but some how manages to pop out of it. The long of the short is that no technique or skill is required. The results are fool proof.

Unlike commercially made chocolate dipped strawberries, mine were delicious. The strawberries were flavorful and the chocolate adhered to the strawberries so that every single red-liscious bite had equal parts chocolate and strawberry.

Have you ever noticed that the chocolate on store bought strawberries is too brittle and chunks of it come off when you bite in to the strawberry? Now, that's a waste of perfectly fine chocolate. Commercially made CDS' use dark chocolate which tends to be really quite hard at room temperature, more so if it's been chilled.

In high school I made chocolate covered bananas and I found the dark chocolate really difficult to work with, and quite frankly, the bananas didn't taste very good. It was utterly disappointing. A few months ago, I saw Ina Garten make these treats on her show, Barefoot Contessa, on the Food Network Channel, and was inspired to make them again. The thing that caught my attention was her use of cream and how it made the chocolate stay liquid-like even after the chocolate is removed from the heat.

Try this recipe -- I think you'll be super happy with the results.

Serves as many people as you want
Cooking Time: 5 minutes to melt chocolate

Ingredients
-1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
-3 T heavy cream
-Strawberries (long stemmed if you can get them)

Preparation
Melt the chocolate and cream together in a bowl set over simmering water until just melted. Stir and remove from the heat. Dip each strawberry in the chocolate and set aside on waxed or parchment paper to dry.

Notes
I made the mistake of storing them in containers. While they tasted fine, they looked like they were sweating so the strawberries will not be as attractive. I don't know why but the 'sweating' kind of made me think of when you first hold hands with the person you're interested in, your heart's kind of racing, and your hand starts to sweat. It's kind of like that.

Anyway, I digress. Store uncovered and eat within the next day or two. Using hand picked strawberries especially means that the shelf life is short.

I quadrupled this recipe and there was enough chocolate to cover 110 small to medium sized strawberries, and there was still chocolate left over. Now, that's a problem I can deal with!

Strawberry Jam

The strawberries shown above are only a fraction of what was picked. Making jam did not significantly reduce the amount of strawberries we had. After hulling what I needed, there was still a fridge full of strawberries. I still have a freezer full of strawberries so if anyone has any ideas please let me know about them. Recipes for strawberry margaritas or daiquiris would be fun!

I searched online for several jam recipes when I came across this one that hails from Santa Maria, CA which is known for producing high quality strawberries so I decided to go with it. Jam is so easy to make. It's a one pot process and requires very little effort. I don't know why more people don't make jam themselves. It tastes much much better than commercial brands and is better for you. Actually, it's probably not better for you but the use of real sugar is a plus.

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
-8 cups hulled strawberries
-8 cups sugar (used 4.5 cups)
-Juice of 2 lemons (used 1 lime since I didn't have lemon)

Preparation
1. Clean and hull enough strawberries to make up eight cups of cut strawberries. Throw into a large pot and stir in sugar and the lemon juice. Consider the pot too small if more than half the pot is full of strawberries.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn down the heat to keep the mixture boiling but watch it carefully as it will bubble up and, if the heat is too high, boil over. You do not want this to happen because the jam is extremely sticky. Hence the need for a large pot.

3. Boil the strawberry mixture for between 30 and 60 minutes (for me, this was about 45 minutes). Skim the bubbles off the top if enough form to cause problems. What you are looking for is the liquid to come off the spoon slowly instead of draining off quickly. It will be obvious when this happens. My jam became quite thick.

Notes
I don't think it matters so much if you use lemon or another citrus. It's not for the flavor but to help preserve the color, otherwise the strawberries may become very dark. So while the taste will still be excellent, its appearance may be slightly off putting. I only had 1 lime which was not enough for the quantity I made. I bet orange juice would be really nice.

Watch the sugar. This recipe, as most others do, calls for 1 cup of sugar for every cup of fruit. Really, I think it depends on how sweet the fruit is. In my case, the strawberries were really sweet so I only needed to use half the sugar. Like when adding salt, it's better to start with less and add more until it's just right. Start with half the suggested amount and increase with 1/2 cup increments. With 4 cups of sugar it was sweet but still slightly tart. The additional 1/2 cup made it perfect.

As the jam maker and perpetual taste tester, I actually didn't like the taste of the jam. Perhaps I had tasted and looked at one too many strawberries in a short period of time. I was kind of disappointed. The jam just didn't taste the way I thought it should but that's the fun part of cooking. Food can taste good even if it's not what you expected. The lesson learned is not to have ideas of grandeur...well, actually it is to have reasonable expectations of the food tasting good but not to be so set in your ways as to know what it should taste like before you've tried your food, if that makes sense. Having made this connection about my thought process, I had two pieces of toast and spread my jam on it, and I have to say it was really quite amazing, especially since I spread butter on my toast too!

Frittata with Tomatoes and Feta

So happy to not be looking at strawberries!

I fibbed. I'm not going to write about the jam recipe. Still too close to home. After hulling what seemed like an endless mountain of strawberries Saturday morning, I was only too happy to make something quick, easy, and tasty for my kind hosts. It wasn't hard to twist my arm -- anything with goat cheese is a big plus.

While the flavor was mild, it was delicious. The ingredients are simple, wholesome, and healthy. Even the picky host thought so and he's a discriminating critic let me tell you! Again, this recipe comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Serves 4 to 6
Cooking Time: 15 minutes prep, 15 minutes active

Ingredients
-6 eggs
-Salt and freshly milled pepper
-1 bunch scallions, including an inch of the greens, finely sliced
-1 garlic clove, minced
-1/4 cup chopped parsley
-1 T chopped marjoram, plus extra for garnish (used 1 T dried oregano which the recipe called for if marjoram was not available)
-1 T each butter and olive oil, or a mixture (used olive oil exclusively)
-4 Roma tomatoes, halved, seeded, and diced (skipped seeding)
-2 ounces feta, thinly sliced (used crumbled goat cheese instead)

Deborah's Preparation
Beat the eggs with a few pinches of salt, then add the scallions, garlic, and herbs. Preheat the broiler.

Heat the butter and oil in a 8 or 10-inch skillet until foaming. Pour in the eggs, lower the heat, and distribute the tomatoes and cheese evenly over the top. Cook until eggs are set, then slide the pan 4 to 6 inches under the broiler and brown the top. Instead of inverting the frittata, slide it onto a large platter, keeping the top side up. Garnish with additional marjoram.

My Preparation
Since I didn't have a skillet that could go into the oven, I used the stove top method. Let the eggs set, about 5 to 7 minutes, may be longer. Usually, I use the spatula to pull the edge of the eggs away from the side of the skillet. If I see brown, it's ready to be flipped. To flip, firmly hold plate over skillet and flip quickly, and slide back into pan. Some egg will leak. Don't worry about it, it happens. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

I also sauteed the tomatoes in a little olive oil to soften them because I wasn't sure if the stove top method would cook them enough before the eggs were done. After softening the tomatoes, let them cool before adding them to the egg mixture.

The key to getting the eggs right is the heat. You don't want the heat so high that it cooks the outer part before the insides have finished cooking. Try medium heat or lower.

Strawberry Picking

Excited to be in the fields.

1 hour later with 20 lbs of berries!

Well, I finally did it. I went berry picking and it was so much fun though I have to say we went a little nuts and purchased way too many strawberries. I know, 20 lbs! What were we thinking? That's exactly it, we weren't. As we were picking, the sun fried every single of one our brain cells and prevented any logical, rational thought from occurring about what we were going to do with our brood. We were deceived because they looked so tiny in our boxes. When we rang up, even the clerk couldn't believe it.

In this area of California there are many variety of strawberries. I'm not sure what variety we were picking but they were the more "homely" type, the kind that don't look amazing but are full of flavor and taste amazing. Once you taste one, you over the look the flaws. Then there is the Watsonville variety which are deceptive because they are large and nicely shaped, and really quite handsome but have poor flavor. The Watsonville variety were not available to pick because we weren't in Watsonville but they were for sale at the stand but a taste test verified that the one's we hand selected were indeed the best.

Anyway, as soon as we got home I was online looking up every single strawberry recipe you could possibly imagine because I could not think of ways to use all the strawberries. There aren't lots of recipes that call for large quantities of strawberries. Eights cup of hulled strawberries, 4.5 cups of sugar, and 3 hours later, I had a pot full of incredible strawberry jam (recipe to come tomorrow). My fingers are stained pink because that's how many strawberries I cut up. Sadly, the fridge is still stuffed with containers of fresh strawberries. What's a girl to do?

If I see another strawberry in the next year, it will have been too soon!

Steamed Artichokes

Aren't these artichokes beautiful? I'm not sure the pictures do them justice -- they were huge! I love artichokes. They are in season for such a short time and they're divine fresh though you can get good quality canned ones these days. This morning, I steamed them and we ate them without anything. They were delicious as is but the traditional way is to eat them with melted butter.

Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes inactive

Preparation
Always use a stainless steal knife and pot because iron or aluminum foil will discolor artichokes. As you work with artichokes, rub cut areas with a lemon (not sure why). Deborah Madison says to do this and since I didn't have a lemon, I skipped this step. Cook artichokes with 2 tsps each of flour and olive oil which helps them keep their pale green color.

Clip the thorns from the leaves, slice off the top third of the artichoke, and trim the stem so that it can stand upright, removing as little as possible from the base. Give them a good rinse, pulling the leaves a part to flush them out.

Set the artichokes upside down on a steaming rack over boiling water. Cook until a leaf comes off fairly easily when you tugged, approximately 30 to to 40 minutes, depending on the size. If you plan to serve them cold, run them in cold water or dip in iced water to stop the cooking process.

I do recommend eating them cold, it's quite refreshing on a hot summer day. I'm off to berry pick now!

Galette Dough

I forgot to give credit where credit is due. The leek and goat cheese galette and the dough come from none other than Deborah Madison, my favorite chef, and her cook book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I ADORE this book. It has the best recipes and everything tastes amazing. This dough recipe is no exception.

This recipe is easy and the results are nothing short of amazing. The crust is flaky, buttery, light.....

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients
-2 cups all-purpose flour or whole-wheat pastry flour (I used all purpose)
- 1/2 tsp salt
-1 tablespoon sugar (for savory galette, I used 1 tsp)
-12 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
-1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water as needed

Preparation
Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together in the a bowl. I'm kind of stickler for keeping things cold, so I put the dry ingredients in the fridge for 30 minutes before using. Cut in the butter by hand or with a food processor, leaving some pea-sized chunks. I place the butter in the freezer for 10 minutes to make it really cold and firm. Sprinkle the ice water over the top by the tablespoon and toss it with the flour mixture until you can bring the dough together into a a ball. Once again, I found that I needed more water than the recipe called for, say about 3/4 cups.

Press it into a disk and refrigerate for 15 minutes if the butter feels soft. I refrigerated for 2 hours because I really don't want the butter to melt.

The key to flaky pastry is making sure there are chunks for butter in the dough so be careful not to over process if you're using a food processor. I find that 7 1-second pulses is just about right. Don't get too concerned about the number of pulses. Just take a look at it to see what size the butter chunks are. If they're pea sized, you're golden.

Deborah does not use the parchment paper method -- she just flours the surface of the counter. I think it could probably work but I used the parchment paper method, but only one piece so that I could bake the galette on the parchment. Roll out the dough on parchment and lightly flour the rolling pin and the top of the dough. You shouldn't have any sticking issues.

If you don't use parchment, flour the counter and roll dough into 14 inch irregular circle about 1/8 inch thick. Fold into quarters and transfer it to the back of a sheet pan or a cookie sheet without sides. Unfold it. It will be larger than the pan until you fold the edges over the filling.

So simple. Your friends will be impressed.

Leek and Goat Cheese Galette

Before

After

Having made a dessert galette with success, I thought I would try my hand at savory one. Friends were coming over for a good-bye dinner (so sad!) and I wanted to make a dish that would show them how much they mean to me. I also wanted something that you can't traditionally get at a restaurant (at least not any I've been to) and I wanted to try my hand with leeks. I've had bad experiences with leeks in the form of poorly made leek soup so I wanted to see if I could put them in my good graces again. I think I did!

I was a little worried because yet again I was going to make guinea pigs out of my guests. I always do this -- try something brand spanking new. Why? Isn't there etiquette about such activities. As much as I want my guests to enjoy their meal, I think it's a lot of fun to be as surprised as the guests. Since this recipe had nearly 2 sticks of butter, there was no way my arteries could have possibly taken a practice run!

Leeks are a milder than onions and don't cause the same outpouring of tears. While you can replace leeks with onions where a small quantity of leeks are required, in this recipe leeks must be used. If it's possible, this crust was even more amazing and delicious than the crust for the rhubarb and strawberry galette though the dough recipes were similar. The crust was like puff pastry, really light, crispy, flaky, and golden. Not sure why it turned out better. Perhaps I didn't work at the dough so much? Not sure.

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course, more if you serve as an appetizer.
Cooking Time: 5 minutes for dough, 30 minutes for leek mixture; 25-30 minutes oven time (It took me 45 to 50 on the lower 3rd of the oven)

Ingredients
Filling
-6 large leeks, including an inch of the green (enough to get 6 cups thinly sliced)
-3 T butter
-1 tsp chopped thyme (substitute 1/3 tsp to 1/2 tsp dried)
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-1/2 cup cream (I left this out)
-1 egg beaten, reserving 1 T
-3 T chopped parsley or 1 T chopped tarragon
-1/2 to 1 cup soft goat cheese to taste, about 4 oz.
-1/2 tsp salt

Preparation
Thinly slice and wash the leeks, you should have about 6 cups. Having a food processor helps a lot but is not necessary.

Melt the butter in a medium skillet. Add the leeks, thyme, and 1/2 cup water. Stir over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the leeks are tender, about 12 minutes. Add the wine and continue cooking until it's reduced, then add the ream and cook until it just coats the leeks and little liquid remains. Season with salt and plenty of pepper. Let cool 10 minutes, then still in all but 1 tablespoon of the beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of the parsley.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough for one large galette (14 inches with 1/4 inch thickness). Spread the leek mixture on top, leaving a 2-inch border around the edge. Crumble the cheese over the top then fold the dough over the filling. Brush with the reserved egg and bake until crust is browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove, scatter the remaining parsley over the top, and serve.

To shorten the baking time, you may need to move the galette to the middle rack but I like using the lower 3rd because it guarantees that the bottom gets nice and crispy too!

Notes on the dough will come in a separate entry.