Sushi Class

A week or three before all of my hospital/dome food drama, we set about to have some fun with C & J.  See, a while ago, C and I embarked upon an Italian cooking class at a smaller establishment and had a great time mainlining cheap white wine and trying to show off knife skills (me, ahem) and generally being the only people in the class with personality and a desire to learn (that was all C -- I was too busy with the wine). 

Anywho, we decided to try and add boys to the mix and since we all love sushi, why not take a sushi cooking class!?

As J was quick to point out, very little cooking was involved in the sushi course. As in none. It was really a sushi rolling course where we learned about how to cook rice, but didn't really participate. We also learned how to cut fish, how many colors should be a part of your sushi roll, and that if you want good seasonings for  your rice, you'd better find yourself a Japanese grandmother or you are SOL. 

While the more studious among us made the most beautiful wares (C's spicy tuna rolls above left), and Chef Beef was busy trying to entertain the obviously overwhelmed and alone girl at the end of our bench. I was basking in an earful of snark from the class pet, J "The Engineer" Sushimaker (seen above contemplating that hand roll with serious distrust). Seriously, it was probably more fun than any sober cooking class had a right to be but we were all tired little tunas when it was all over.  Tired little tunas lugging home two pounds of leftover sushi...

I think what we all can agree on is that sushi costs a lot and thats O.K. because its ridiculously hard work and requires a skill set and patience that is not really possessed by our little tuna posse. But we were glad we tried it.

The Little Muffin Under The Dome

You know what has fallen out of fashion in dining? Domes. You know why? They make your food all sweaty if they aren't taken off right away. And who really has time to polish all that silver. Well, I found a place that has solved at least the second problem. Its called the Hospital and its on my top ten places of 2009 "Where NOT To Eat" (complete list to be published in November or something). 

Ahhh, the Hospital where beeping, crying, and gagging are all the background ambiance you might need. Trying to finish that sandwich? They are going to need that arm to take your blood pressure so you can just forget it. Wanting to eat? Naaah. Testing of blood comes first, that is if you can even get enough sleep so that you aren't too nauseous 

to eat in the first place. 

Then someone comes to nag you about whether or not you've ordered breakfast yet. Miss 2 meals? Meet your nutritionist!

Now hospital food has come a long way. My hospital had  a menu....A MENU! They said it really helped them to eliminate waste because folks could just order what they wanted like room service. And while its an improvement (I think) over how things used to be, the food was still not fantastic. And part of the issue was the domes.

Now these domes were plastic. And these domes seemed to always cover A. a bread product or B. the "warm thing" (often those two were the same). Since nausea was a big part of my life at L'Hospital, I centered my meals on things like toast and cereal and tuna melts... though I did sadly venture into a taco salad one evening. But I digress. Does whole wheat toast really need a dome? It didn't keep the toast warm, instead made it chewy enough to be barely ingestible. And the muffin... the muffin came the morning I was due to be let go. Chef Beef and I got a big laugh out of the little muffin under the dome. 

Seriously, most of the people at the hospital were very nice and I wouldn't want them to feel bad about the food. Except for the nurse who teased me about eating tuna melts. And the evil phlebotomist. But thats another blog post for another blog....

Pinxtos and Pointe Shoes

Not last Friday but the Friday before, I asked C to go to the ballet with me. The Pacific Northwest Ballet was nearing the end of their run of Swan Lake and so off we flew to see swans in formation and daring duels. The ballet was good -- certainly not their best performance, but entertaining nonetheless.

Our deal was that C was to take care of dinner beforehand (though really I made her sit through a stodgy ballet AND made her pay for dinner, so really who got the better end of that deal?). She suggested Andaluca for their small plates (pinxtos/tapas). Tapas is really a perfect pre-show option since its no fun being full in a theater. There are pinxtos/tapas joints sprining up all over Seattle, but Andaluca has been around for a while. (The last time I had tapas, I was in San Francisco with Mrs. Mikey at the legendary Cha Cha Cha and what I mostly remember is not ordering shark but having a lot of fun. About a year later, I was back home in Montana and the horse shoer was talking about visiting San Francisco and going to Cha Cha Cha -- I would never have guessed he had it in him!)

It was quiet at Andaluca early on a Friday night (later we learned that evil road construction was most likely to blame). I had studied the menu intently beforehand and peppered C with my selections which she graciously agreed to. Our first two courses were really interesting and savory. The first, a potato croquette, was light and well seasoned with a crisp outside and not too oily. The second was a lamb meatball which was actually an egg coated with lamb mixture. The egg was perfectly cooked and served sliced in half beautifully. The meat was enhanced by the richness of the egg yolk, but since we each got half, it wasn't overwhelming.

Our second round (courses 3 and 4) were both quite yellow (and unfortunately my photography of that course was a little blurry despite only having 2 glasses of Cedar Green Sauvignon Blanc under my belt...thats C's delicious Granacha in the first picture.) During the second course, I first tried a heavily spiced chicken skewer with Marcona almonds which was tender and salty. The second bite was a small serving of the paella alongside a fat prawn. Each of us thought both the chicken and the paella were salty, but since we ate them in the reverse order, neither of us felt the same about the second thing we ate. Saffron and Tumeric were wealthy in the second round and though wonderful, I would say that round was probably our least favorite.

The last 3 dishes came out together and included dolmas, a paquette filled with guava and creamy cheese, and a cauliflower gratin. The dolmas were delicious, though I have never liked dolmas as much as I would like to and this time was no exception. The paquette, however, was a revelation -- rich, salty, and sweet inside a nice crunchy phyllo pastry. The gratin was the surprise of the night. I had been reading about a cauliflower gratin somewhere else that week and thought to myself, "wow, what a waste of ingredients just to eat cauliflower" but seeing it again on the menu made me think that maybe folks were onto something. It was amazing -- perfectly spiced and creamy served with crunchy bread.

Though we ran out of time for dessert, I am sure it would have been fabulous. I am totally sold on the pinxtos way of grazing through a menu and will definitely visit Andaluca again soon.

Chicken Pie

When I saw this recipe for Moroccan Chicken Pie, I thought I was in heaven. But it seems that Moroccan food might be best left up to the Moraccans. While the pie turned out beautifully, its seems that either recipe or implementation was flawed because it was like being hit in the snoot with salt and spices. At best I would call it over-wraught. At worst, near inedible.

I am the sort of person who can read a list of ingredients and 80% of the time will know if a recipe is going to work for me. The two instances where my instinct routinely fails are Casseroles and ethinic foods whose spices I am not familiar with.

I LOVE Moroccan food. When Chef Beef and I started dating, one of our first vacations was to Calgary, Alberta. We took a beautiful drive up for Labor Day and wended our way about the city. One night, we decided to take advantage of the local casino, located in the Olympic Village. While he opted for the craps tables, I took out a few dollars and played the slots. I happen to be pretty damned lucky at slots and ended up winning about $200. So we decided to go to dinner. How we selected the Sultan's Tent is still a bit fuzzy, but to this day it is still one of the best meals of my life. Since dinner had become essentially free, thanks to my winnings, we opted for a 7 course "Sultan's Feast" featuring everything from Tagines to Briouts (pastries filled with savory filling). It might be time to head back to Canada...

Things I didn't know about Eggs

I took this picture while making deviled eggs for a party back in January (are we a little backed up on blog posts? nah...).There are things I didn't know about deviled eggs then that I do now. Let me share those.

• Use old eggs. New eggs are harder to peel. In this picture, the white egg is old and the brown eggs are new. The white egg was the only one that was easy to peel.
• Anne Burrell's technique of letting the eggs boil for 1 minute, then sit for 13 minutes exactly, then shocking them in cold water DID result in perfectly cooked eggs; BUT
• Deviled egg recipes do not scale up 1 to 1. Say if you are supposed to use a half a cup of mayo for 6 eggs, that doesn't mean you should use an entire cup for 12. Yours truly didn't know that and for her party had runny icky mayo eggs. And I LIKE mayo. Deviled eggs are just one of those things you have to taste the whole way through adding and adjusting because otherwise, they just aren't worth the work.
  

I don't have a picture of the finished eggs because they were that bad. The beginning picture is much better to remember them by.

Asparagus Season

Here in Washington State (and countless other places of course) it is asparagus season. When I was young, my mom and I used to cook up some hard boiled eggs and sizzlean then jump into the car with Bunny the mastiff and drive down to the banks of the river. There we looked for asparagus. It was hard to find with all the other reedy plants around. We stopped to play in the water and even carved our names into a tree. Those days with my mom are still some of my fondest memories (I had a silver coat! Rad!) and I think of her every time I eat asparagus. Which is admittedly a lot.

I found some big fat asparagus at the store this week. Chef Beef and I were in the mood for a quick dinner so I found some lean top loin steak and assigned him to the grill. (That is his fire roasted garlic butter on the steaks -- its a secret process I know nothing about)

I cut the asparagus (2 bunches) on the bias and sauteed it in about 1TB of olive oil for about 4 minutes. I then added minced garlic (4 cloves) and steamed for another 2 minutes, then added pine nuts (1/4 cup) for another 2 minutes browning everything off. Here's how it all turned out. Fast and supremely good.

California Junk Salad and Baby Showers

In March, I flew down to California to throw my friend A's baby shower. I spent a day making food to freeze for her first week home from the hospital -- a gesture that she appreciated but one that her husband was pretty unsure about. As for the shower itself, I decided to have that catered -- both because I was tired of cooking but because I also lack the ability to make tea sandwiches.

See, the last baby shower I went to prior to this one was also in California. I was recruited to help set up and I did so gladly. But sometimes being in other people's homes with other people's tools and other people's rules turns out badly. I actually got fired from making tea sandwiches because they weren't uniform enough. The kicker is, I know how to cook...but I am sure I left a lasting impression otherwise.

The Brownstone Cafe in Fullerton catered A's baby shower and it was very nice. My co-host must have been eating tea sandwiches for a week afterwards, though.

Anyhow, while I was working away in A's kitchen creating frozen lasagna, meatballs and sauce, and enchiladas, I sat down for lunch with a cold Starbucks iced mocha and had a junk salad. For me, junk salads are simply those that contain what I want to eat and nothing else. This one contained heirloom tomatoes, avocado, and cucumber -- in March! Gotta love California.