Ugh

I already wish I didn't do this. I remember when I was a kid I once kept a diary for a little and then one day I read back and I wanted to shoot whoever I was who wrote that. Oh yeah.

Oh my god, and I have the worst taste in my mouth

This morning when I got here I was all excited by this nice fresh craft service table, but then the bloggosite wouldn't upload pictures and stuff and it turns out this isn't what I want to eat at all. So now breakfast and lunch and pretty much dinner have passed and I haven't eaten anything but a little bit of some shit way long ago I can't remember and it's been a really horrible day and I tried to order sushi from Seamlessweb but I already had an account and it asked me a hundred ways for my password and my mothers maiden name and how it could help me, but wouldn't actually let me do the food order so now I am PISSED. And I have a really bad sicky headache and everything has been fucked and everyone is making it worse for me and now I just found out I probably have four to six more hours to go. And getting food just seems too angry making. So I was gonna get a roll with shrimp tempura and cucumber inside and spicy tuna and avocado on the outside and an order of vegetable tempura. I have been craving veg tempura and that roll sounds like pretty much my favorite combo of all sushi rolls and then after I didn't get to order I read some WHIFFY reviews? What?? The fish was whiffy. Worst.
And I got sad news about my mom today.
And then happy news about my puppy.
:(
:)

How to eat a peach

In less than a week I will be my usual unemployed, food-obsessed self and I will have all kinds of recipes and ideas and food events happening. But for now I can just think about them so here's what I'm thinking... back to the ideas list. There are a few updates, one of which I came up with this weekend in a half napping semi-unconscious sick all weekend stupor. Grilled pizza with burrata and peaches and pesto and prosciutto (and probably some mint). Yummmmmm! I'm in a huge peaches thing because they're so good right now, and if you live close to Gelson's on Riverside and Laurel Canyon you should buy as many of them as you can possibly think of something to do with because they're better even than the farmers market or anywhere I swear. I have made peach pies, peach salads in many different forms, have been eating raw peaches like a tree monkey and clearly I plan to use them in ham sandwiches and on pizza and in white sangria and on a same family note, I have a plan to make a nectarine, mascarpone and candied ginger tart in a gingersnap crust. What if I had peach sangria and peach pizza and nectarine tart all in one meal and then threw in some fried chicken just to balance it out? Would that be overkill or would you come over? Or would you pay for all the ingredients and let me make it at your house?!?! (hi mama :)

My favorite girls, and a drink

When my lovely Sugie was here a few weeks ago I made these drinks because I'd been thinking of trying something like this and there is nobody better to try out a new drink idea on than Sugie because she is my biggest fan and loves me and almost everything I do and also because she loves alcohol and it's hard to imagine a booze concoction I couldn't get her to drink. Even if it was really bad I think I could just say it was five daquiris and she'd probably love it.

Fortunately, these were really good and I didn't have to get cranky thinking she was just patronizing me. Worked out for everyone, eh?!

Drinks
Makes two

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
large knob ginger
1 large english cucumber, roughly chopped
Hendricks gin (or another if you prefer)
limes
mint and / or candied ginger for garnish, if you'd like

Put the sugar and water in a pan, chop the ginger roughly, skin and all and add to the pan. Stir to dissolve sugar while bringing to a boil. Once boiling, let boil for three minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and let steep for 20-30 minutes. Strain and chill.

In a food processor, pulse the cucumber, skin and all until it is very pureed. Strain the juice and discard the grainy leftovers.

Add ice to two glasses and pour in a good bit of gin, as much as you'd like. Add the simple syrup, cucumber and lime juice to taste and stir. Garnish with mint and / or ginger if you fancy.

Note: We ended up using the leftover ginger simple syrup in tequilla drinks, rum drinks, poured over watermelon with lemon.... yum. Very versatile and very delicious.



On an entirely unrelated note, but also involving girls I favor, this is Keely (Loopy, Sloopy, Sloops, Tucker, Tucker-kins, Monkey, etc...). She is staying with my parents while I'm in New York and has been going to work on the construction site all week trying to enforce a no power tools policy, but not really succeeding. She has managed to charm the pants of of pretty much everyone though with her winning personality and impeccable behavior, and I have to say, I'm absolutely busting with pride. Busting!! Today, it appears she has gone to the beach and gotten sand all over her face but nowhere else. She is really good about doing that shake move and getting all sand and water completely gone instantly, but I guess maybe the part that she can't get to mobilize is the smooth face skin so all the sand stayed and I'm glad because it makes for a cute picture. She played with a chocolate lab at the beach and now her grandma is trying to teach her a new trick but she's not liking it very much. I wonder what the trick is!?! Thanks for the pictures and puppy update, Mama!

BBC

I want to enter a brownie baking contest. Do they have that? Does anyone know about doing something like that? Shelley, that seems like something you might have some knowing about. Or should I do my own?????

What a nerd

Oh god, I can't stop, oh well. So I keep a running list of ideas of stuff I want to make. Like if I see something in a picture or magazine or blog that I don't really need a recipe for or maybe want to try to find a recipe for later or make up my own recipe. Or something. Here's how it looks right now:

prosciutto wrapped watermelon with bel paese cheese
Blackberry ice cream with dark and white chocolate chunks
Stuffed pizza

Grilled pesto salmon
White sangria
Quiche
Grape goat cheese crostini


Savory tomato pie
Frozen grapes with chili sugar
Avocado halves with crab and corn salad
Pretzels
Pressed sandwich
Ham and peach sandwiches
Garlicky shrimp tacos with chunky avocados


Shrimp scampi with pappardelle
Fishermans rice!!!
Corn and shrimp fritters or pancakes
Cinnamon rolls with pineapple and raisins
Peach pea corn butter lettuce mint salad

It all has an organization in my mind which I would never bother to explain. But yum, right? Mmm hmmm.

After dinner dinner and drinks

Ok, I'm going to stop now, this is the last one for today I think. We had a barbecue earlier this year when it started to get warm and this isn't even what we had. I don't even remember what we made for food, wait oh yeah, we had Tabasco butter shrimp (that's one of 'em on that michelada) and ribs and maybe fruit salad and potato salad maybe? And apple tarte tatin, fancy Ashley. And Maggie made cinnamon toast ice cream, it's all coming back to me now. But we didn't take any pictures of that stuff. But then later, waaaaay later, we got hungry again and someone (Eric I'm sure because it involves white american cheese) dug around in the fridge and there were hot dogs, the big Hebrew National beef knockwurst ones, white american cheese, pumpernickel bread, mustard and sandwich stacker pickle slices. So we split the hot dogs and grilled 'em and put the other stuff on and made some entirely delicious sandwiches.



Michelada
makes 1

ice
mexican beer, I like sol or pacifico
4 big dashes Valentina hot sauce (or another kind of thickish Mexican-y one)
4 big dashes Maggi seasoning
2 big dashes Wosterchire sauce
1/2 lime
kosher salt

Rub the lime around the rim of the glass then dunk the glass in the salt. Fill the glass with ice and add hot sauce, Maggi and Wosterchire and lime juice. Add enough beer to fill the glass. Mix. Shrimp garnish optional and not recommended.

The Place

In Guilford, Connecticut there's a place called the Place. Two years ago I was in New York in the summer by myself and my friend (the same guy who won't answer what he ate at the meat shop, you'll see) told me we gotta go check out this place The Place. So at 9:30 on a Saturday morning we met at Grand Central and took the train for two hours to New Haven. Somehow, we didn't figure out that you can't really get there from there and ended up with some sort of fairly ridiculous cab / renegade beer run situation, but we did finally make and hell yeah we did. Yee haw. Look at the pictures, they make me giggle, it's a little giddy-making. (What the hell, why is this a big link? Is it?)

They dip this corn in a huge blackened pot of melted butter that's sitting on the fire

Hot cocktail sauce doused grilled clams

Menu. So cheap!!

After that we went for lunch at Pepe's in New Haven for abeets. And canolis and Italian ice from another place.

My cousin (Sugie!!) and I were driving to Groton Long Point for the weekend last summer and the drive took a LOT lot longer than it should have because oh, you don't go on the 95 on the weekend ever but I'm from California so I thought it would be a good idea (fun!) to rent a car and drive instead of take the train and nobody told me, so I got really cranky and pissed which can happen so fast and unexpectedly with me (poor Sugie) and then I realized it was about lunch time and OH HOORAY WE'RE NEAR THE PLACE. So that was two years in a row and now it's summer and I'm in New York and I haven't gone to The Place and I leave next Thursday. Charlie? Charlie!!

Aforementioned Maggie's Birthday Donut Cupcakes (but actually mentioned after this cause that's what blogs do)

I got this recipe from chockylit's cupcake blog http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/2007/09/doughnuts-and-coffee-cupcakes/ and I was so excited by the cute picture so I made them and it is one of the things I am most proud of making ever. I definitely should do that again. The cupcakes taste like a fluffy cake version of cool sweet creamy coffee and the whip cream is so perfect to dip the donuts in it's like eating a lot of desserts at once. Have you ever made donuts fresh? It's one of the really worth it things to make, there is no donut anywhere that would compare to one that just got cooked in your house. Its a completely different thing.



Coffee Cupcakes

from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit (sadly, closed now, but still such good reading)
19 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dark roast coffee grounds
1/2 cup strong brewed, dark roast coffee
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and coffee grounds in a bowl.
5. Measure out coffee and milk together.
6. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
7. Add about one third the coffee/milk mixture and beat until combined.
8. Repeat above, alternating flour and coffee and ending with the flour mixture.
9. Scoop into cupcake papers about two-thirds to three-quarters full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes. Note that these cupcakes will shrink slightly when they cool).
10. Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Tip: Be careful when adding the coffee/milk mixture to the batter. If you add it too quickly the mixture will look curdled. Add small amounts and beat well to incorporate.

Whipped Cream

3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar

1. Whisk cream on high speed until soft peaks form.
2. Add sugar (more or less depending on your taste) and whip until thick.

Doughnuts

9 ounces whole milk
1/4 ounce envelope active dry yeast
17-1/2 ounces white bread flour (not all-purpose)
3 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 ounces superfine sugar
2 teaspoons fine-grain salt
2 large eggs
2 cups peanut oil
superfine sugar for dusting

1. Warm milk over low heat until it is ay body temperature. It should feel neither warm nor cold when you touch it.
2. Measure the flour into your mixer’s bowl. Rub in the yeast with your fingertips until it disappears in the flour.
3. Rub in the butter until its a sandy texture. Rub in the sugar and salt.
4. Using the dough hook attachment, turn the mixer onto the lowest speed. Add the eggs and milk. Mix for 2 minutes.
5. Turn up to medium speed and mix for 6-7 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
6. Gently remove the dough from the bowl with the help of a plastic bowl scraperonto a lightly floured surface. Form into a ball. Place into a lightly floured bowl and cover with a lint-free towel and set in draft-free spot to rise for 1 hour.
7. Gently remove the dough from the bowl with the help of a plastic bowl scraper onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into two equal portions with your scraper. Gently roll out to about 1/2 inch thick, turning and using flour only as needed.
8. Cut out doughnuts and their holes using a circular cutter and a large pastry tip, respectively.
9. Set on a lightly oiled and floured baking pan with sufficient space between each. Cover with a lint-free towel and set in draft-free spot to double in size or for 45 minutes.
10. Heat the peanut oil in a high-sided, 8″ diameter pan to 350 degrees. Using a slotted spoon gently add about 5 doughnuts to the oil. Allow them to fry on one side until golden, about 45 seconds. Flip and repeat on the other side. Remove doughnuts onto a sheet pan covered in paper towels to drain. Continue in the same fashion with remaining doughnuts.
11. Roll drained doughnuts in the sugar. Eat.

Yay I'm a blogger too!

This is exciting but frustrating. Why isn't this blog stuff more easily customizable? There aren't enough fonts and size options and adding stuff in different places, what? Maybe my already blogging friends can help me out, surely this gets better.

But the point is now I get to take pictures of my food too and show it and talk about it to people who might care (Sugie?). Lunch dinner breakfast snacks pizza hot dogs brownies dinner pie yum yay. I can't wait. Unfortunately, I just ate my lunch and I didn't take any pictures of it, so this picture is from the website. Go food stylist. It wasn't very good, mostly because I asked for extra sour cream and instead of any at all they sent none so I had black beans and red rice with no garnishes, oh my god. That sounds like something I wouldn't eat for fun in a million years but it looked good so I got it and then... no sour cream. So yeah. Eh.

Last night I had pork nuggets with jalapeno jam and chicken liver mousse with cracklins and something forgettable with feta cheese and a delicious delicious lobster and crab roll with mustard and celery and no pickles even though I asked for them and there were onion rings that felt like biting into an oniony tasting piece of veeeeery thin glass. Crunchy. And dessert. We did have dessert but I sure can't remember what. Because we also had wine and beer and tequilla and bourbon and rye. Before dessert, so there ya go. Oh!! DONUTS!!! HAaaa. That's funny. I don't even really like donuts, I just think the name bagadonuts is funny and food related and a play on words haha but we actually did have fresh made donuts with cherry sauce. Eh. The donuts I made to go on top of the cupcakes (Maggie's birthday!) were better. I was just thinking maybe I should cater still shoots instead of what I do now. So I'm in New York so I won't be cooking for a week, but I'll take pictures of the food I find and talk about it and the cooking will start when I get back, I'm very excited. Maybe in the meantime I can dig up some stuff I've cooked in the past and taken pictures of. Fun.










My friend just ichatted me this. He was just there. Did he eat this? He wouldn't answer...