use real butter

I’m in California now, wrestling with the suckiness of what hotels claim to be “wireless” connections… my ass. I can’t transfer any of the photos I shot today (yet). But I need to get this post off because I’m blogging each day for NaBloWriMo! Luckily, I planned ahead and have a recipe ready.

[Edit: With the help of my remarkable guy, we have photo-age! Thanks, Jeremy!!]

at denver international

puffy clouds between colorado and california

My visit with Grandma is a bit of a special one, I mean more than usual, because my mom and aunt are here too! Sort of a three generation girls’ weekend, so to speak. We are celebrating Grandma’s 87th birthday because she is teh cool.

the three most important women in my life today

For dinner, we went to Pan Tao. I had always been there for dim sum in the past, but my mom had the salt-pepper fried pork ribs on the brain! When we walked in, they led us to a standard table for four. My mom exclaimed in Chinese, “Oh, this table won’t be big enough for all the dishes we’re going to order!” I laughed - just HOW much was she planning to order?! We convinced her that it wasn’t humanly possible for us to finish whatever number of plates we required to cover the table - in the end we ordered 4 dishes that were phenomenally good. We still packed up leftovers.

salt-pepper fried pork ribs

seafood and tofu clay pot

pea sprouts

dry cooked e-mien

I’ll get I got those pics up eventually (damn you, weak and crappy hotel wireless!) but for and now you must suffer my recipe for the evening. I didn’t bother bringing my external flash, so I had to use the internal flash. I am messing around with it to improve the quality… I may have found a neat solution! More on that later.

making use of delightful citrus

simple syrup: sugar, cinnamon, and lemon

I grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia where typical summer jobs for my friends included fife and drum corps, dressing up in period clothing (i.e. dreadfully hot colonial garb), or serving fries and/or ice cream in Colonial Williamsburg to thousands of tourons. I didn’t dig on the whole colonial scene. Part of being a local is acquiring massive disdain for the tourists meandering through your town. What I came to love (only after leaving for college) were some of the terrific foods that were tied to both tradition and region. Southern Virginia has an interesting intersection of Southern, Colonial, British, and just plain White Trash.

if possible, i like fresh squozen lemon and orange juice

syrup is ready and smells quite heady

One of my favorite discoveries was wassail. My dad made this out of the Williamsburg Cookbook one chilly evening (really, it wasn’t chilly by Colorado standards, but I’m sure half of Virginia thought they were going to die of the cold). I loved it for the fruity, heady flavor - or so I thought. I think I was hammered because it doesn’t take much alcohol to knock a fifth grader on her ass.

i love my automatic juicer

cheap and boozy red wine - woohoo!

You can use canned or frozen juices if you like, but fresh orange and lemon juices taste better to me. I know some folks say you should only use a wine in cooking that you are willing to drink. I tend to go for the cheaper reds (a cab will do) like Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw) because you alter the wine so much in this preparation that it wouldn’t really be decent to do it to a bottle of fine wine that cost a small fortune.

pouring the orange juice

i buy small cans of pineapple juice because i hate to waste the big cans

I really do love this hot, spiced wine punch despite being a total lightweight when it comes to alcohol. I make it every year to be sure that I love it. Yup. I love it. It is the perfect party drink for winter and I like to serve it to guests when entertaining. If I drink enough of it, I might even don a colonial style dress with the cute little doilie-esque hat thing and run around singing (screaming) carols to (at) my neighbors! Not really… I mean, not the dress thing - the singing is a very real possibility along with some most excellent cussing because I do that when I get liquored up. Good times!

adding syrup to the heated booziness

wassail! (means “be healthy”, not “let’s get plastered”)

Wassail
The Williamsburg Cookbook

1 cup sugar
4 cinnamon sticks
3 lemon slices
2 cups pineapple juice
2 cups orange juice
6 cups dry red wine
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup dry sherry
2 lemons, sliced

Boil the sugar, cinnamon sticks, and 3 lemon slices in 1/2 cup of water for 5 minutes and strain. Discard the cinnamon sticks and lemon slices. Heat, but do not boil the remaining ingredients. Combine with the syrup, garnish with the lemon slices, and serve hot.

Thanks to everyone who made recommendations for good authentic Chinese restaurants in the bay area! We’ll definitely check a few out and if you haven’t written in, but have some suggestions, I’m more than happy to hear them :) You guys ROCK.

I’m listening to the veep debate and I think I just threw up a little in my mouth…

Okay, it’s still NaBloWriMo! I’ve got a few last autumn shots to post because I’m sick of processing and seeing little yellow leaves on my screen (not out my front door though).

brilliant ground cover

red and green look so much better together in nature than in fashion

mooooooo

majesty

A few months back I spied some cute square muffins at Peabody’s. I made a mental note that those would be great for distributing quick breads and other baked goodies. The reason I love small servings or individual servings is because I like to give the stuff away. These pans would be ideal.

So I’m rushing through Target the other day, not finding what I was looking for and then - I found the other thing I wasn’t looking for but wanted (this must be the dream come true for the people who layout floor plans in big box stores). There were two of those square muffin pans and I grabbed them.

a fundamental shift in geometries, but it’s still good

I test-drove the pans with some chocolate chip banana bread this afternoon. Worked like a dream as long as I didn’t fill more than 3/4 of the wells with batter, but it’s probably better if I stick close to 2/3 full.

This evening while we were giving Kaweah a much needed bath, the neighbor kids came over to say hi. They are two of the coolest kids I know. The oldest one is ten. She is more mature and responsible than most adults in this country - and yet she is still a kid. Amazing. She offered to help Jeremy wash Kaweah while I ran upstairs to grab some banana bread for them. The little one is just cute as can be.

now don’t eat all of those before dinner

saying bye while kaweah (who only has eyes for banana bread) gets toweled off

We took another plate over to our other neighbors before high-tailing it home for dinner. Dinner was gooooooooood. I’ll post that in the next week.

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.