use real butter

Can’t think. I’m tired and there were so many pictures and observations from today that I wouldn’t know where to begin. So I won’t just yet.

But there is a recipe…. because it is my dad’s birthday today. I think most people associate birthdays with cake, but I associate birthdays with noodles per the Chinese tradition.

My dad is the CEO of the house and my mom is the CFO. Dad likes management speak, because he was a manager as well as an engineer. When I was in college, they sent me a check for my birthday one year. My father told me, “I have authorized Mommy to release some funds for your birthday present.” What a hoot.

goofing off with dad at kris’ wedding

at my college graduation

When I was growing up, Dad insisted that the family eat dinner together at the table, no TV. There were many evenings when Mom, Kris, and I would wind up buckled over laughing at my dad. He would smile and inform us, “You know, I manage a division of a couple hundred people and they all do what I say. But you three have no respect for me!” The last part would be drowned out by the deafening roar of our laughter. He was usually a good sport about it. Because he was outnumbered 3 women to 1 man in the house, Dad was always the butt of our jokes.

dry chinese noodles

an assortment of vegetables

We eat long noodles on birthdays for long life, but we always told Dad that he would live a loooooong time because he’s mean. It’s a joke. In my family, we laugh a lot and we yell a lot (even when we’re happy). We love each other very much and we also drive one another insane. If you can’t laugh at yourself, best not to venture into our family’s brand of Crazy.

slicing flank steak

green onions and garlic

Despite the prediction that Dad’s longevity is proportional to his disposition, I made some noodles this evening to celebrate his birthday. I want him to live many more healthy and happy years so he can continue to dispense priceless advice. For instance, when I was boarding the plane to go to college he told me, “Don’t touch boys.”

adding sesame oil to the beef

the pan fried noodles

Dad and I live our lives very differently. We have different priorities, politics, interests… but he stood behind me when I decided to quit my job at Clusterfucks R Us over the highly unethical behavior there, he never questioned me about why it took so long to defend my PhD, and he has always called me his little girl - even today.

sautéed vegetables

mixed with the beef

When my parents visited last month, I was recovering from my appendectomy. After a couple of days watching me barely able to amble about the house, my dad told me that he felt bad about my past year. He said he knows that I, like him, am very (hyper)active. He told me that he couldn’t imagine how frustrating it must have been for me to be sick so often and for so long. Dad isn’t the most empathetic guy in the world and so his words nearly brought me to tears. We are so different and yet, I am so obviously his daughter.

He told me this evening that he had a very nice birthday and that he can’t wait for me to visit in the spring so we can go fishing and sailing together. Yes, we’ll go sailing and fishing and we’ll cook together. Happy birthday, Baba.

birthday noodles for dad

Stir-fried Beef Noodles

8 oz dried Chinese egg noodles
vegetable oil (a few tbsps to 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup snow peas, trimmed
1 head broccoli, florets of
1/2 cup straw mushrooms or shitakes
1/2 cup baby corn
1/2 cup bamboo shoot strips
salt to taste

1/2 lb flank steak
2 stalks green onions, trimmed and sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
4 tbsps soy sauce (or more if you want more sauce)
2-3 tbsps sesame oil
1-2 tbsps corn starch

Boil the Chinese noodles according to the package instructions. Drain the noodles and set aside. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok. If you want slightly fried noodles, then just use a few tablespoons of oil. If you want crispy fried noodles, use up to 1/2 cup. Add the noodles to the hot oil and let fry until golden or just crisp. Flip the noodles over to fry the other side to desired doneness. Remove noodles from the pan and set on plate. Slice the flank steak against the grain at an angle. Mix the flank steak slices with soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Set aside. In the frying pan, heat remaining oil (you want about 1-2 tablespoons) and sauté the snow peas and broccoli until they turn a rich green color. Add the mushrooms, corn, and bamboo shoots and continue to sauté, seasoning with a little salt to taste. Remove the vegetables to bowl and set aside. In the same pan, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil and add the garlic and green onions. Sauté until fragrant and add the beef. Stir-fry until the meat is pink and add the vegetables. When the meat is just done, pour the mixture over the noodles and serve hot.

That phrase is the first sentence I learned in Spanish way back in high school, from a bunch of friends who took Spanish. I took French, see. So when I headed down to South America to do field work for graduate school I was all, “Guys, I don’t speak a lick of Spanish.” Well, except for por que tu eres un taco grande? Everyone assured me I’d pick it up.

I did pick up some Spanish, all with an Argentine accent. That got me a lot of funny stares when I flew across the Andes to Chile for work on a field project with Jeremy and a team of astronomers. When Jeremy met me at the airport in Santiago and we caught a cab, he was amazed while I chattered away with our driver in my Argentine Spanish explaining the geophysical research project I had been working on for the past month. Jeremy speaks Spanish. When he saw me off at the airport in the US, the only new Spanish I had learned was No me molestes! and Chupacabra (from an X-files episode).

When I say Jeremy speaks Spanish, I really mean that he knows a lot of Spanish, but the guy hardly speaks much in English and even less in Spanish. He actually *thinks* before he speaks. That’s why when he finally says something, everyone listens. It’s usually something quite good. But me, I run my mouth all the time and let my jabbering find its way around until I say what I wanted to say. I don’t hesitate to speak. Same goes for my Spanish.

Despite my crappy command of the Spanish language I did surprisingly well communicating with the locals. I attribute that to my crappy Chinese. I’m well practiced in the art of getting semi-complex ideas across using a 3rd grade vocabulary. You should have seen me asking where I could find birthday candles at the grocery store in Pisagua, Chile [where can I find a small light that you place on a cake which is served on the day someone is born?]

So the other day I was thinking about how bad my Spanish has become (rather, how much worse) and I said aloud to myself, “Por que tu eres un taco grande?” Mmmm, tacos. It had been an age since I last made shredded beef tacos (and I had this giant sack of limes to finish off). I got on the shredded beef taco kick after going to an awesome Taqueria on Mission and 24th in San Francisco with a friend of mine who had grown up there. He told me if I ate Taco Bell, he’d beat the crap out of me. Ha! I could *so* kick his ass. But the memory of their amazing shredded beef tacos still lingers in my mind.

beef eye of chuck, limes, garlic

the marinade

I tried to reproduce these in graduate school, but I think when you work on a PhD, you become incompetent at everything you do (including the PhD). It’s worse than chemo brain, I tell you. I always used beef chuck and shredded the beef in the food processor using the dough blade. Somehow, a light bulb went off in my head this time… Why not READ the recipe carefully?

the beef cut into strips

into the ziploc

Beef eye of chuck is not quite beef chuck as I knew it. Dude in the meat department was all “That is not the right cut of meat in your hands, you want this instead.” I did look it up for shits and giggles because I like diagrams of animals and the names of the cuts of meat (and how the Brits have different names than Yankees do.) Being a Coloradoan, it’s my sworn duty to loathe Texas, but when it comes to Beef, Texas knows what she’s talkin’ about.

pour the beef and marinade into baking dish

add beef broth

Right, so the recipe said I could grill the beef or bake it. Grilling it won’t result in shredded beef, just fajita-like strips. I opted for the baked version because I am all about the slow-cooking and the falling apart of cheap cuts of meat. The original oven time was just over an hour. When I tried to shred the beef, it felt tough, so I let it go another hour in the oven. Much better.

shred it

ready to serve

After shredding the beef, I mix it in with the juices and serve it on lightly fried fresh corn tortillas with lettuce, guacamole, salsa, whatever you want, really. I highly recommend queso fresco instead of cheddar. Since all of the grocery stores in Boulder conspired to NOT HAVE queso fresco, I grated some feta which actually worked out nicely (not as creamy, but nice, smooth and salty). Of course, the first store I set foot in when I was visiting Grandma in California had GIANT slabs of queso fresco on display. *sigh*

Jeremy loves these shredded beef tacos. I, myself, feel like dancing while I eat them. They are THAT happy-making.

pile it on

can’t talk… eating

Shredded Beef Tacos
slightly modified from Tejas Tacos in The Border Cookbook

1 1/2 lbs eye of chuck (which is NOT beef chuck roast)
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsps vinegar
2 tbsps fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tsps ground cumin
1 1/2 tsps chili powder
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup beef stock
salt to taste
~ 24 corn tortillas
lettuce, queso fresco, salsa, guacamole, etc. (for toppings)

Trim the fat and cut the beef into 1 inch thick slices. In a ziploc bag, combine the oil, vinegar, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, and garlic. Place the meat slices in the bag, seal, mix it around and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Bring the meat to room temperature. Place all contents from the bag in a baking dish with the beef stock. Cover the dish and bake for 1 1/4 hours (I baked it for 2 1/2 hours) at 350°F. Let the meat rest for 10 minutes and then shred it with forks or process it quickly in a food processor with the plastic dough blade (I prefer the forks method). Salt the meat to your liking. Fry the tortillas lightly in a little hot oil. I like to double the tortillas and stuff them with shredded beef, lettuce, cheese, guacamole, and salsa.

wanted
Okay, the news that some of you have been waiting for…

Jeremy was recently offered the position of site director for the largest moving radio dish in the world. Not bad for a 35-year old junior faculty in astrophysics. Good on ya, m’ dear! The nature of radio telescopes is that they need to be in radio quiet zones to peer deep into the bowels of the universe. This means that all of the major radio telescope facilities are located in - The Boonies. In this case, we are talking about West Virginia. CU Boulder came back with a retention offer. That means the university said, “We like you, a lot. Please stay. We will offer X, Y, and Z.” Decisions decisions…

colorado sure is beautiful…

Jeremy sent his response off yesterday. We shall remain in Colorado, so don’t be getting your panties all in a wad or anything. I am incredibly proud of Jeremy, who is not only one hell of an astrophysicist and scientist, but he is also my Super Hottie Boy. Now I can tune my tele skis!

query
I am West Coast bound again and I need a huge favor from folks in the Bay Area. Can you recommend some really good authentic Chinese restaurants in the south bay (San Jose, Milpitas, Cupertino, etc.)? Dim sum, dinner, all of it is fine - not so much upscale as just really damn good. Americanized Chinese food ain’t gonna cut it because I will be with Grandma (and because that stuff is nasty anyway). Thanks so much in advance!

NaBloWriMo
It’s National Blog Writing Month (October, for those of you who don’t flip your calendar until the 15th of each month… me included). The big thing on the blogs is to write a post per day and get a thing of lip balm. I have so many random lip balms and chapsticks and blistex’s all over the house, in jacket pockets, the cars, my ski bin, our backpacks, that I don’t really need another - but I *am* going to attempt to blog daily because 1) it’s fun and 2) I like this better than being showered with those damn pink ribbons reminding us of Breast Cancer Awareness month… I’m *aware*, believe you me.

I won’t be posting a recipe a day. I think that would make me go quickly insane(r), but I will try my best to have some oddball observations, photos, or other goodies up daily.

the food
I noticed that I had a slew of sweet recipes in the last several posts. September was really screwy for me, my stomach, and my cooking (or lack thereof). Now that the weather has cooled down, it is safe to ship chocolate and other confections around the country to friends and family. I’ve had baking on the brain. That probably isn’t a problem for most readers since people seem to go for the sweets more than savories, but I like savories. I like lunch and dinner - even for brekkie.

great northern beans, chicken, onions, celery, green chiles, garlic, spices

Yesterday smelled like fall in my kitchen. I made a lovely beef stew and a pot of white chili - things I wouldn’t touch in the summer months. Since I will be chillin’ with Grandma in California, Jeremy and Kaweah will spend some QT together at home. Kaweah’s meals are pretty straightforward. And while Jeremy assures me that he can cook his own meals, I know that he will function more effectively if there is good food available.

sauté onions, garlic, celery, and chiles

We were first introduced to white chili at a restaurant in South Pasadena where the volleyball team would always go after a match. Jeremy liked it so much that I found a random recipe online 15 years ago and made the dish to warm his tummy in the cold Ithaca winters. It isn’t my favorite recipe, which is probably why we haven’t had it in years. Since I was cooking food for Jeremy while I would be out of town, it was time to drag out this old favorite.

add beans and chicken broth

It is an easy recipe. If you can get your hands on roasted hatch green chiles, do so. The flavor is greatly improved there. If not, canned will do. I think it might have been 5 years since I last made this dish. In that time, I have decided that some of the original recipe steps are stupid, so I made some adjustments on the fly this time to improve the consistency and flavor. Obviously, fresh ingredients are much better.

spices

The look of delight on Jeremy’s face was worth making a recipe that I am indifferent to. He has no clue what we’re eating from day to day - especially lately while he’s been in triage mode at work. He got to eat the bowl that I shot, but the rest is reserved for later this week while I’ll be noshing on Really Good Chinese Food.

great with blue corn tortilla chips and some jack cheese

White Chili

1 lb. chicken breast, cubed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, diced
4 roasted hatch green chiles, skinned, deseeded and diced
(or 1 small can of green chiles with liquid)
3 cans Great Northern beans, drained
28 oz chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan. Sauté the onion, garlic, celery, and green chiles together. When onions and celery are soft, add the chicken and sauté for a few minutes. Pour in the beans and the broth. Bring the contents to boil and season to taste with salt and pepper and add the rest of the seasonings. Reduce to simmer and cook for 30 minutes until the liquid thickens to desired consistency. Serve with jack cheese and tortilla chips.