Back in Action...

I left the blogging world behind for a time.  There were other things going on in my life.  Things that needed to get sorted out.  Priorities decided upon.  One of those priorities, a major one, is writing.  While I have exchanged my CNA position at the VA hospital for a new one there as a cardiac telemetry technician (an improvement in nearly all ways), I plan on eventually making my living as a writer.  That means it is high time to jump back into the blogging multiverse.  I'm hatching plans (shhh - it's all very hush-hush - if I tell you more I'll have to kill you, and all that...) while working on an outline for a cookbook and an urban fantasy/horror novel.  I know that's an odd pair of projects, and I suspect that food will seep into that novel.  Other potential projects include gathering my poetry into book form, and a book about martial arts/culture.  Did I mention I'll be helping my wife put her words onto (digital) paper, too?  Oi.  It's going to be busy, but fun.

This blog has stood dormant for some time.  I'll be dusting things off, re-organizing, and fleshing it out.  I've already added some links, off to the right, and eliminated a couple I knew were no longer working.  The picture on the header is of an Uzbek pomegranate-and-onion salad I made a while back.  Quite tasty, that. My wife and I have plans to enter the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest and the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger Contest this summer.  We've got a couple ideas for burgers, already, and need to start testing them in the next couple of weeks, but we have to wait for the 4th of July to find out what the lists of mandatory ingredients are for the Bake-Off, before we can make firm plans there.  In the meantime, we are going to attend our first Portland Preservation Society meeting next week.  Other things in the works will be reviews of some recent cookbook acquisitions and profiles of some of the international food shopping options in our area.  I hope to see you here.

The Portland Preservation Society...

The Oregonian, the greater Portland area newspaper, recently published an article, "Fare Trade: Portland Preservation Society gathers once a month to swap prize preserves", about the Portland Preservation Society, which was celebrating it's first anniversary recently.  Founded by Brooke Weeber and some friends, the group members meet monthly to swap jars of homemade preserved goods of all shapes, sizes and varieties.  It's free to go - people bring up to five jars of whatever they put up, to trade - and looks like great fun to my wife and I.  The next meeting is at 7PM, July 3, at Union/Pine, 525 S.E. Pine St.  We have lots of ideas for what we want to take to the meetings, in months to come.  Hopefully, we'll get a good crop of quinces from our tree this year.  I'd like to make another batch of paradise jelly, as well as some other Middle Eastern preserves I've got recipes for.  I'm thinking we'll cook up a pot of Peach Chutney with Dried Cherries and Rosewater for next week. Recipe and pictures will appear later in the week, with news (and pics, hopefully) about the meeting next week.

Back in the Saddle Again.

For some time, my wife and I have been busy with quite a few other issues, and we really weren't writing all that much, while our cooking had become pretty much a bare bones affair.  Things have gotten better, and I find myself returning to both kitchen and computer with renewed vigor.  Enough that I am researching a cookbook idea and the process of developing a book proposal.  The next couple of years should be pretty interesting and busy around my home...more, much more, to follow!

Chocolate Adventure Contest 2012!

It is upon us again.  Time for Scharffen Berger's annual Chocolate Adventure Contest!  Last year it was cupcakes.  I entered three recipes, but didn't win.  Pretty sure I didn't go far enough outside the box, though my co-workers at the hospital certainly enjoyed my efforts.  This year's theme is sandwich cookies, so I am again consulting with my wife, Gina, in an effort to come up with the best ideas we can.  Time will tell.

Chili Powder...

I'm making fajitas and frijoles borrachos tomorrow. I decided to make myself a batch of homemade chili powder instead of buying a commercial brand. I went the easy route with ground spices. I did put the oregano in a grinder, since I was only able to buy the whole dried leaves. This makes a large batch. It can easily be cut by half, or even to a fourth of the recipe, if you don't use a lot of chili powder. A hot chile such as Cayenne can be added to the mix if you want the heat. I prefer to leave the heat out of most of my spice blends and add it as desired to whatever I am cooking. Heat can be added easily - it's much more difficult to remove it.

Steven's Chili Powder

8 tablespoons Pasilla or Ancho chile powder
4 tablespoons New Mexico chile powder
4 tablespoons garlic powder
4 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground Mexican oregano

• Mix all the spices together thoroughly in a bowl.
• Store in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place.
• If the New Mexico chile powder is unavailable, California chile powder or paprika can be substituted. Similarly, conventional oregano (Italian/Greek) can be substituted, though the flavor will be different.
• Makes almost two cups of chili powder.
  

A New Year...

2011 was...challenging. Lots of ill health, melodrama (family, friends, and work alike) and not a lot of time or inclination for blogging. Its done and gone now, though. Can I get an 'Amen'?!

Time to start putting fingers to keyboard again. I've seen my cooking really evolving, simplifying, these last couple of years. We were watching something on the Food Network (what else?) when one of the chefs said something about how a lot of new chefs would come up with these zillion-ingredient, ultra-complicated recipes...because they could, more or less. That burned. Not that I'm a chef, but I feel I am a pretty good home cook, and...I was guilty. Some recipes require quite a few ingredients, especially SE Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern/North African/Central Asian food, where lengthy ingredient lists can be pretty common. So I have begun simplifying my cooking. In all honesty, its improved my cooking quite a bit.

Our son has been down in SoCal keeping my mother company through the holidays, which are tough on her since the loss of my father. That usually just leaves my wife and I for meals. With all the stressors weave been experiencing we haven't done very much full scale cooking. Tonight, though, was another story. I had been thinking of making some Arroz con Pollo, the good old fashioned chicken and rice, and looked at a couple of recipes (one Mexican, one California Rancho). I kinda' tinkered at first, then ended up making bigger changes. I'm calling the final product Arroz con Pollo y Verduras. Or Rice with Chicken and Vegetables. Nowhere will you find canned green chiles and Monterey jack cheese. Instead, I made a coating for the chicken of extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, herbs and spices. Dumped the marinated chicken into a hot skillet and let it develop a wonderful crusty, caramelized surface. Next came lots of vegetables - chunks of onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery and cauliflower. Sear those, toss 'em in the big pot with the chicken. Deglaze the skillet with some white wine. Dump that in along with some basmati rice, chicken stock, a few tomatoes and their juices, a couple of fresh bay leaves. Let it all cook until the juices have been absorbed. OMG good! Better than I had hoped for. The secret, I believe was a little chile heat and the bit of malt vinegar I added to the reducing wine. The dish had the faintest tang from the vinegar and a slow, mellow heat that built up. I made a ton for the two of us, so I am happy when I think that we have a ziploc bag-full in both fridge and freezer...

I've Been Quite Remiss...

...in posting on any of my blogs. We were quite busy these last few months, though. Since I last wrote on here my father passed away; our son went south to spend some time with my mother, so she wouldn't be alone for the holidays (including what would have been my parents' 49th anniversary in mid-December); we moved from Woodland, Washington (YES! AT LAST!) to Beaverton, Oregon; my wife and I have wrestled with several injuries and illnesses; I moved from the ICU at the Portland VA Hospital up to the Surgical Ward; and a partridge in a pear tree...

Things are finally sorting themselves out. The move was very costly, but has put us in a better position: its a much better house, but costs less per month, and shortened my commute from about 70 miles roundtrip to about 24 miles (or 13 if I carpool with a friend in her car). Additionally, my VA Disability payments increased and my health care is now completely covered. We're closer to friends, and the things we like here in the Portland area. We love the house and the property (its on about two-third's of an acre, with mature fruit trees, shade trees and conifers, as well as some (overgrown) woodland landscaping. The lilacs and rhododendrons should be pretty this year. The shift at work has reduced the wear-and-tear on my back, while making me more active, so I have lost close to 20 pounds in about 3 months.

I did find time to enter the 2010 Chocolate Adventure Contest with three separate entries, so I am eagerly (and impatiently) awaiting word on the winners, which is coming soon (I think...lol). We've been cooking, and exploring local food haunts. I enjoy writing, and have realized the lifestyle I'd like to have has that as an important facet, so will be much more active on my blogs from here on out.

The Rest of the Previous Post...

For some reason, my comments were deleted when I posted the link for the Chocolate Adventure Contest. I entered a couple of years ago in a last minute, spur-of-the-moment decision that unleased a weekend of insanity on my home. Actually had some contact with one of the judges afterwards, who indicated I'd narrowly missed out on placing with the semi-finalists. I was pretty pleased, all things considered. It was my first contest. Had good intentions last year, but let time get away from me. This year, with the cupcake theme, I've been consulting with my wife, Gina. She's more of a baker than I am. I've got three working recipes. Just have to get ingredients together and start baking. I'm going to be tormenting my coworkers with a lot of cupcakes in December, I suspect. Contests are fun, and what do most people have to lose. Might get lucky and win some prizes...

The Chocolate Adventure Contest!...

Blackberry Lemonade...

...is really tasty! Ran across a recipe for it a couple of days ago. We had a jar of fresh squeezed lemon juice (from a SoCal friend's lemon tree...she shipped us a box earlier this year) in the freezer and some blackberries, and I just had to make some. Thoroughly muddled blackberries, water, lemon juice and simple syrup, mint optional. Yummm...

I Realized the Other Day...

...while viewing the changes a friend had just made in her blog's layout that this blog didn't really feel like it fit me that well anymore. I wanted to use it. Meant to. And yet I wasn't. So I've decided to change things. The whole "Sun Bear" thing just doesn't work for me. It'll just be my kitchen from now on. I love to eat and cook food from all over the world. I'll be wandering far-and-wide here, I hope, looking into food that interests me. Feel free to come along, to drop by and break bread with me. We'll explore foods both familiar and new. Food is something that we can all share with one another. Food defies man's foolish boundaries...

Who Would Have Thought...

...a well-browned two-egg omelet with onions, pickled banana peppers, some hot sauce, and garlic-and-chive hummus all rolled up in a flour tortilla would make such a tasty sandwich?

Late Night Cookies!...

Gina almost always makes the cookies in our home (as well as the cakes, brownies, and fudge). Her gingersnaps are to die for. Tonight, though, was one of those rare occasions where I decided to bake a batch of cookies. Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies, to be exact. And they were GOOD!

I found a recipe for them online a while back, but we never got around to making them. Tonight seemed like a good night for it. Here's our adaptation of the recipe...

CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE COOKIES

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1½ cups sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2-ounce bar unsweetened chocolate, melted
2½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream shortening and cream cheese together.

Add sugar and mix well.

Add milk, vanilla, egg and melted chocolate and mix well.

Add dry ingredients in thirds until well blended.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Haven't Been Blogging...

...for months now. I just didn't feel like it. Its been a rough year. I had bouts of pneumonia and pleurisy, and shingles. Perenially tired. Financial worries. PTSD issues that I'd managed to dodge for quite some time caught up to me. Things are looking a bit better now, and I'm feeling happier and a lot more optimistic than I have in a long time.

We'll be moving down into the Portland Metro area at the end of the month. That'll take a big chunk of time off my daily commute, plus save on wear-and-tear on the car and fuel. We expect to cut our rent by several hundred dollars a month, which will translate into paid-off bills and money in savings. We'll also have much easier access to services for our son, friends, shopping, and entertainment. The breadth of ingredients available in Portland is awesome, and being closer will be great. There's a huge variety of restaurants, as well.

I've done a lot of cooking and eating and shopping for food over the last six months. I'll write about some of it in the weeks to come.

I Got High Marks Tonight...

...for dinner, from my wife! It was a Mediterranean trio of dishes influenced by the Islamic kitchen: an Andalusian-style stew of chicken with extra-virgin olive oil, flat-leaf parsley, garlic, crushed peppercorns, sliced lemons and cinnamon; roz bil shagria (better known to us as rice-a-roni) flavored with chicken stock, onions and flat-leaf parsley; and a salad of shredded zucchini with raisins, toasted pine nuts, garlic and dried mint, tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice. It was good. And I've been told I'll be making it again...

A Chilly, Wet Evening...

Warm and filling seemed a good choice. I made a big pot of Iranian bean-and-noodle soup. A thick pot of white beans and egg noodles, onions, turnips and Swiss chard, flavored with fresh scallions, cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, and tarragon, along with a little turmeric. A little yogurt, at the end, to add a little creaminess. It was just what was called for on a night like this. The tarragon was a substitution for fresh dill, and it seemed a good choice, as the Iranians use an anise-flavored basil.

Pasta with Seasoned Butter...

The "simple" theme is still in place. Tonight, we had a simple dish of pasta, cheese mini-ravioli, tossed in a seasoned butter sauce and topped with a little more grated Parmesan cheese...

PASTA WITH SEASONED BUTTER

1 pound pasta, cooked according to package directions
Seasoned Butter Sauce -

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 small shallots, peeled and minced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• A pinch of dried sweet basil
• A pinch of cayenne pepper
• Salt, to taste
• A spoonful of the water from cooking the pasta

Grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. About 8-10 minutes before the pasta has finished cooking, melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the extra-virgin olive oil.
3. When the butter and oil are hot, add the minced shallots and garlic, sage, black pepper, sweet basil, and cayenne pepper and stir, to mix well. Begin sauteing everything, stirring periodically. Reduce the heat to medium-low if the shallots and garlic are browning to quickly.
4. When the pasta is finished, add a spoon of the cooking water to the sauce and stir well.
5. Drain the pasta well and add to the seasoned butter. Toss thoroughly and serve, topping individual servings with the grated parmesan cheese. Makes 4-8 servings, depending on appetites.

Cooking Dinner (KISS Method)...

Gina's not feeling well, but neither am I, so dinner needed to be something simple. Here's what I came up with. I listed the onion as optional because I forgot to cut it up and put it in the stew...lol. Thing is...we didn't miss it. Include it if you want, but it was still super-flavorful and savory without it.

EASY SOUTHWESTERN-STYLE BEEF AND HOMINY STEW

1½-2 pounds beef round steak, thinly sliced across the grain
8 cups canned, drained hominy
1 27-ounce can mild green chilies, chopped
2 14.5-ounce cans petite diced tomatoes
1 large onion, peeled and chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 cups beef stock
1 cup dry red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Grated Cheddar, Monterey jack, or jalapeno jack cheese, for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a large pot or Dutch oven, mix well, and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until the meat is tender, 45-60 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Garnish individual bowls of stew with grated cheese. Serve with hot, buttered flour tortillas.

Easy Creamy Thai Pumpkin & Coconut Milk Soup...

I'm sick and Gina's ankle's been hurting pretty badly. Yes, we're a fine pair right now...lol. So meals have been SIMPLE. Today is drizzly and gray, a day for soup. And between the two of us, we put together this soup, made mostly from cans, some of the sweet soy sauce and curry pastes I've always got hanging around, and some basics...onions, garlic, ginger, etc. Its quite yummy, not very traditional (from what I can tell...most Thai recipes leave the pumpkin in cubes), and we're serving it with toasted bagels...but it'll hit the spot. Good, comforting, and quick.

EASY CREAMY THAI PUMPKIN AND COCONUT SOUP


2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, peeled and minced
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 1-inch piece of fresh or frozen ginger root, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons Mussaman curry paste
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar
6 kaffir lime leaves
1 30-ounce can pumpkin
1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sriracha hot sauce, to taste

• Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or other large pan over medium heat.
• Add the minced onions and garlic, grated ginger, and curry paste to the pan.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the mixture becomes aromatic.
• Add the stock, sweet soy sauce, sugar, and lime leaves to the pot. Bring to a boil.
• Add the pumpkin and stir until fully integrated. Return to the boil, reduce heat to low and let simmer 10-15 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk and stir to mix. Bring nearly to the boil.
• Season to taste with salt, freshly ground black pepper and hot sauce. Serve.

Makes 6 good-sized servings.

Satiated...

I love good gyros, schwarma and doner kebab, but reproducing them at home...well, that's another story. Gina was wanting some meat today, and when I dropped by the grocery store, there were a couple packages of very thinly sliced beef top round on sale (30% off). I snatched them up. I coated the meat with my Turkish-style baharat, and marinated it in a simple mix of vegetable oil, onion, garlic and a little salt, that I put through the food processor 'til it was almost liquified. Sadly, it was too late in the day to cook the meat on the grill (I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for grilling in the dark), but it cooked quickly and well in the electric skillet, with just a little bit of oil. We ate the meat in pita bread, with shredded cabbage, and a sauce I made from labnah (a tasty, sour Arab cream cheese, made from yogurt), tahini, garlic, cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, and some spices. The sauce was tasty to begin with, but really made the sandwiches pop. We are very pleasantly full...dinner was sooo good!...and we have enough left over for another meal.