colleen’s hot dish

When Tony and I bought our house, we knew it needed some TLC. The backyard flora had been allowed to grow wild. The wall colors included shades of vomit and bruise.  The windows and appliances looked like they’d been around since the house was built in 1948. And, with its powder-blue tile, chipping grout and leaky toilet, the master bathroom was in rough shape. We had a feeling revamping that bathroom was going to be a massive undertaking, and we managed to put off doing anything about it for almost three years before finally hiring a group of contractors in June to do a complete remodel.

We’ve worked on enough smaller projects around this house to know that nothing ever goes as smoothly or as quickly as planned. When our sales person assured us that the renovation be finished in five to 10 days, it was all I could do to keep a straight face. The contractors were no worse than most, but there were several missteps and surprises along the way, and sure enough, SEVEN WEEKS later we finally have a shiny new bathroom. Here’s how it all went down.

Week 1: Demolition begins. The carpenters find a chimney (!) behind our shower and discover that the floor joists are completely rotted and need to be rebuilt.

Week 2: Sub-floor is in and the bathtub is installed. Framing for the pocket door is up. Old drywall is cut away and huge holes get punched through the wall into our kitchen by accident. New drywall is put up. Old hallway closet door is replaced. Kitchen holes remain.

Week 3: Floor and wall tile goes up. Sink/vanity and toilet are installed. A new light fixture is put in place upside down. The superintendent working on our bathroom gets into a drunk driving accident and breaks his arm in two places.

Week 4: Painters apply wall and trim color. A new carpenter replaces the baseboards and door trim in the hallway, frames out the pocket door, builds the shelves, hangs the mirror and medicine cabinet, turns around the light fixture and patches the kitchen wall holes. A 1/2 inch gap remains where the tile doesn’t meet up with the door trim.

Week 5: We discover that the sink has been leaking, the water has pooled and mold is now growing inside our vanity cabinet. Tile guys fix gap between tile and trim. Electrician installs our light/fan, our outlet and our switches. Painter touches up pocket door and sloppily applies black paint to the trim in our hallway.

Week 6: I apply lovely wall decals, switch out the cabinet hardware and bring in some additional storage. Tired of looking at the dirty, dusty sink, toilet, tub and walls, I scour the bathroom from top to bottom.

Week 7: Vanity is replaced and shower doors are installed. Some of the paint still needs to be touched up in the kitchen and the hallway, and I’d like to get some new accessories, but otherwise…Fin!

That’s seven weeks of Tony and I sharing one bathroom on the opposite side of the house; seven weeks of having strangers in our home when we’re not there; seven weeks of keeping the dogs on lockdown in the spare bedroom while the contractors were working; seven weeks of the whole house getting covered with drywall dust, grimy fingerprints and dirty footprints each time any work was done; seven weeks of finding creative storage solutions for things like extra towels, sunscreen, lotion, peroxide, etc.

Was it worth it? You betcha. But I’m so done with home improvement for a while.

Below is a list of 100 food items every omnivore should try, or so says British food blogger Andrew Wheeler of Very Good Taste.

I’ve eaten 42 out of the 100, and I only ruled out four foods on the list. (Fish so poisonous it could kill you? No thanks.) A few of my all-time favorite foods made an appearance here, and I put those in bold and italics.

I thought this was a really cool idea. It introduced me to foods I’d never even heard of and gave me a whole list of things I’d love to try. (Epoisses? Heck yes!)

Want to see how your results stack up against mine and other people on the Internet? Here’s what you do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Sometimes food doesn’t ask much of you. A paper-thin slice of salty prosciutto requires no preparation or adornment. Heck, you don’t even need a fork to enjoy a perfectly ripe pear or a  handful of crisp, cold carrots or a wedge of sharp cheddar cheese.

But sometimes food makes you work. Artichokes, for instance. With their thick, sharply pointed leaves and fibrous choke centers, artichokes almost dare you to eat them. Shallots are another example of high-maintenance cuisine. To get to the sweet center of a shallot, first you have to pry away layer upon layer of papery peel, which clings tighter than a pair of too-small Spanx after an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Ahem. Could you guess that I served Braised Baby Artichokes and Shallots for dinner tonight? The recipe called for the artichokes and shallots to hit the pan at the same time, but next time I’d put the shallots in first to let them get super caramelized.

Dessert–Sara Moulton’s New Wave Zabaglione–was a bit of a pain too. Because I use my KitchenAid almost exclusively for mixing, I don’t have a hand mixer. Which means that I had to stand over the hot stove whisking this custard by hand while the egg yolks, sugar and wine thickened and became velvety smooth.

I intended to top the zabaglione with ripe summer apricots, but hard little stone fruits I had were disappointing to say the least. To coax some flavor out of the less-than-perfect apricots, I had to apply some heat. I cooked the fruit up with cardamom pods, a pinch of salt and a little agave nectar, finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. It worked like a charm.

I’m not going to lie: cooking can be a chore. But hard work pays off, and that certainly proved to be true in my kitchen today.

I intended to spend time online scouring Etsy for wall decals (so pretty!) to help me decorate our newly renovated bathroom (details to come later on that never-ending project). But somehow I got distracted and many mouse clicks later, I wound up discovering Wordle. I’m completely smitten.

July was an extraordinarily crappy month, and I’m still somewhat bummed out. I can be a little (read: a lot) obsessive, especially when things are not going my way. So, in an attempt to take my mind off my worries, I’ve spent quite bit of time in the kitchen with Sara Moulton’s cookbook, indulging in some culinary therapy. It turns out that bad mood = good food. Who knew? Here are some of the results:

Hors d’ouevres

Smoked Salmon and Salmon Roe on Crispy Potato Pancakes with Horseradish Cream and Pickled Onions–Wow. I left out the salmon roe (because: yuck!), and there was still a lot going on in this recipe. I liked the smoked salmon, potato pancakes and horseradish, but the picked onions were really weird.

Meat

Veal Francese–Again, I skipped the veal and used pork instead. It was tasty, but not earth shattering.

And this concludes the meat section of the book. Some of my favorites were the Mini Meat Loaves, the Indian Style Shepherd’s Pie and the Slow Roasted Spiced Baby Back Ribs. Yum!

Pasta

Short Ribs Ravioli with Tomato Sauce and Ricotta Salata–For a recipe that takes two days to make, this should have been the best ravioli I’d ever eaten. It wasn’t. The braised short ribs were wonderful, however. Next time, I’d serve them as a stand-alone dish.

Crispy Broccoli with Capellini in Broth–The last time I made this, I didn’t care for it. I don’t know what I did differently this time, but it was delicious. This recipe took about 15 minutes to make, and it beat the pants off of the ravioli above.

That wraps up the pasta section of the book too. The Spring Spaetzle was the best of the bunch by far.

Light Lunches

Tomato, Basil and Cheese Tart with Pancetta Crust–This tart is a bit fussy to make, and it looks super fancy. I liked it, but not nearly as much as the Tomato Pie from the vegetarian section of the cookbook.

This one was the final recipe in Light Lunches. I fell in love with the Grilled Eggplant Wraps with Lemon Aioli, Feta and Mint and the Spicy Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Cashews.

Vegetables and Side Dishes

Roasted Lemon Potatoes–I could roast potatoes in my sleep, but it never occurred to me par-boil them first. What a great idea!

Couscous Tabbouleh–Tabbouleh is one of those things I don’t make very often because Tony doesn’t like it. But this is a perfect easy, healthy lunch or side dish, and I really should think about eating it more often.

Desserts

Butterscotch Bread Pudding with Coffee Sauce--Holy. Cow. This was so flippin’ good; it took all of my willpower not to hoover down the entire thing in one sitting. Okay. That’s a lie. I have no willpower when it comes to dessert. I actually had to dish this out into single servings and hide them from myself in the freezer, where they are calling my name right now. Mmmmmm!

Ruth Moulton’s Spice Balls– With cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, these are like flat, crispy gingersnaps (Why are they called balls? I have no idea.) and would make fabulous Christmas cookies. It felt
a little odd to be eating such a holidayish cookie in the middle of summer though. Luckily, the dough freezes well, and it’s currently hanging out in the freezer with the four two remaining dishes of bread pudding.

Breakfast and Brunch

Breakfast Sausage--I like Alton Brown’s recipe for breakfast sausage better, but this was a close second. I served it with homemade habanero applesauce. Heavenly.

The universe may be disappointing me lately, but at least I’m eating well. Here’s hoping things start looking up in August.

So, I’m pretty darn impressed with myself. This Independence Day I participated in the awesomely named Melon Run and finished the 3-mile race in 29 minutes, 22 seconds–my fastest-ever time for that distance! It’s a good thing that I’ve been doing all that running, too, since I’ve also been stuffing my face with foods like these:

Meat

Loraine’s Green Chile Tamales-I admit, I did this recipe the cheater’s way. Instead of the masa harina/lard mixture, I made plain-old polenta. And instead of steaming the the tamales in corn husks, I baked them wrapped in parchment paper. Despite my inauthentic shortcuts, this turned out really well-especially the braised pork.

Rosemary-Scallion-Crusted Rack of Lamb-When it comes to luxury entrees, I’d choose crab legs or lobster over fancy meats like lamb or beef tenderloin any day. Tony’s a much bigger fan of red meat, and he thought this was delicious, so I’m taking his word for it.

Japanese Beef Fondue-This is an at-home version of the shabu-shabu I had in Hollywood. It was pretty good, and the poaching broth was amazing.

Vegetables and Side Dishes

Herbed Spaetzle-Spaetzle might be my new favorite food. I really need a spaetzle-maker, though. Forcing the pasta dough through a colander is a messy proposition. But the five minutes it took me to inhale the spaetzle made up for the 20 minutes I spent scraping dough out of the holes of my colander afterward.

Desserts

Three Citrus Flan-Remember when I said that I couldn’t make caramel? Well, I still can’t. So, I had to improvise by melting some raw sugar and agave nectar. It was brown. It was sweet. It worked. Flan and its cousin creme brulee are two of my all-time favorite desserts, but until now I’d only ordered them at restaurants. Having a really good flan recipe like this one in my repertoire could be dangerous.

Karen’s Mango Streusel Tea Cake-This cake had so much potential. I love mangoes, and I was all prepared to love this cake, but it let me down. The cake itself was a little dry–I think that may have been my fault for slightly overcooking it. But it was skimpy on the mango, which was the real disappointment.  If I were to make this again, I’d use at least three mangoes and dice them instead of slicing. I think that would take this cake from okay to outrageous.

Breakfast and Brunch

Southwestern Egg Bake–This is my staple breakfast casserole recipe. Although I’ve been making it for years, I don’t think I’ve ever followed the original recipe to the letter. I usually just throw in whatever fillings strike my fancy. I’ve yet to come up with a bad combination, and that includes the original.

That’s it for now. I’m running out of recipes in most of the sections, except for the desserts. I’ve still got plenty of those to make, which means that I’d better start planning to run another 3-mile race very soon.

I am not a laid-back person. I tend to be quick tempered and anxious, focused and really driven. I expect a lot of myself and everybody else. I’m easily bored, and I like having clear goals. For me, it’s not about the journey; it’s about the destination. I think these perfectionist tendencies have helped me become decently successful (but not always content).

It’s this same competitive nature that led me to try Bikram yoga back in February. One hundred minutes of strenuous exercise done in 100-degree heat? That sounded hard. And if there’s one thing that us Type As like, it’s a challenge.

Well, challenge might be an understatement. During the first class, I wanted to die, and I could not understand why anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to such torture. But I wasn’t about to let ol’ Bikram get the best of me. So I went again. And again. Pretty soon I was attending classes twice a week.

It did get easier, and I noticed the physical benefits right away. By simply being able to finish the class without embarassing myself, I knew I was getting stronger and more flexible. Although I never really bought in to the idea that yoga quiets your mind and lets happiness into your soul, I’m finding out that there just might be something to that hippie crap after all.

Driving home after class last night, exhausted and completely sweaty, I thought to myself, “Dang. I feel good.” And I realized that I’ve been feeling good a lot lately. Six months ago, I had chronic neck and back pain, was prone to insomnia and generally stressed out. I can hardly belive it, but most of those problems have magically disappeared. My muscles don’t ache, I’m sleeping better, and I’m so much more relaxed and less on edge.

I still wouldn’t consider myself easygoing, but maybe I’ll get there eventually–probably at about the same time I’m able to do this:

I’ve got about a million recipes to share, so I’ll just get right to it.

Hors d’oeuvres

Crispy Zucchini Sticks with Olive Dip–This beer-battered, fried zucchini made my entire house smell like a truck stop diner, but it was SO worth it. I’m usually not wild about mayonnaise-based dips, but the olives and lemon juice completely alleviated that gloppy mayo-ness that I hate.

Mushroom Rolls–You can’t go wrong with an appetizer that freezes well and features mushrooms, cream cheese and truffle oil. Plus, the bread-as-pastry idea is genius.

Miniature Goat Cheese Cakes–These were like little savory cheesecakes. So good, but the crust was kind of weird; it didn’t really stick to the cakes very well. Next time, I’ll bake them sans crust.

Poultry

Turkey Burgers with Tomato Corn Salsa–I don’t have too much to say about this one. It was a burger; it was good.

Meat

Roast Beef Tenderloin with Cornichon Tarragon Sauce–Since I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma,  I won’t buy corn-fed beef if there’s any way I can avoid it. (I’ll spare you the details, but trust me: feeding corn to cows is bad for their heath and for yours.) So I’ll happily shell out the extra cash for grass-fed. Well, maybe happily is a strong word, but I do prefer to think of eating meat as privilege. I also think that with food, like with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Okay, let me end that mini-rant by telling you that this $30 steak tasted like…well…like a $30 steak. It was superb.

Veal Scaloppine with Pesto–True confession: I can’t bring myself to eat veal, so this recipe was actually made with pork. It was pretty good, but the pesto I made with basil from my garden was the star of the show.

Fish and shellfish

Sofrito Clams with Prosciutto–In the past few years I’ve grown to like shellfish more than I ever had previously. But not clams. The wine/tomato cooking liquid was really delicious, but otherwise I did not enjoy this one at all.

Seared Sea Scallops with Celery Root Puree, Parsley Oil and Lemon Caper Brown Butter–This is probably the most upscale recipe so far, and I felt very chefly while I was cooking it. The parsley oil was kind of a pain, and it didn’t really add much to the dish, other than looking pretty on the plate. But everything else was fabulous. I especially liked the celery root puree; it tasted like a really interesting version of mashed potatoes.

Carrot “Fettuccine” with Spicy Shrimp–This is one of my favorite seafood dishes so far. Using carrot shavings in place of pasta is another ingenious idea.

Tequila Lime Shrimp with Mango Salsa and Cumin Chili Chips–Okay, I know I just said the last recipe was one of my favorites, but this one is too. I made the chips with flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas, and I think they came out even better. I overcooked the shrimp a little, and it was still wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that I might have to make it again this week and get it right this time.

Fontina and Prosciutto Stuffed Wonton Ravioli with Porcini Sauce–I’m the queen of using wonton wrappers to make ravioli. I’ve done pumpkin filled, meat filled, straight-up ricotta, etc., and all of those were perfectly fine. But the addition of fontina and prosciutto takes this ravioli from so-so to so damn yummy.

Vegetables and side dishes

Magda’s Cauliflower–Meh. In terms of fried vegetable dishes, the crispy zucchini sticks put this one to shame.

Mashed Potatoes and Mashed Potato Cakes–C’mon. How could these not be good?

Perfect Hash Browns–I made these tonight and they were indeed perfect. Starting with a cold baked potato seems to do the trick.

Grilled Potato and Corn Salad with Chipotle Mayonnaise–I’m usually not a fan of potato salad (see gloppy mayo above), but this is by far my favorite.

Couscous Tabbouleh–Very nice. And a good way to use up the herbs that are threatening to take over my garden.

Desserts

Jiggly Orange Wedges–Sara can call these whatever she wants, but they’re basically Jello shots. Ick.

Mango Ice–I’ve never been able to make good granita at home; it’s always too chunky. This one wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.

Breakfast and brunch

“Onion Soup” Omelets–I was pretty skeptical about this one. Although I like carmelized onions, and I like omelets, I doubted that they’d taste great together. I was pleasantly surprised; it really worked.

Serrano Ham and Manchego Cheese Roulade–Wow. I’ve made this a few times before, and it’s always incredible.

Holy crap. If you’re still reading this, you’re a champ. I’m all caught up now, so hopefully my next post won’t be quite such a novel.

I’m writing this post on my new, tiny EEE PC, and I just had to tell you how hard it rocks. It fits in my purse and weighs less than the last Harry Potter. For the past day or so, I’ve been carrying this thing with me all around the house–just because I can.

I’ve never actually had a computer of my own before. Sad but true. When I was in college, simply connecting to the Internet was a project that required a free phone line, a modem and possibly a witch doctor. I don’t really know, because I did all of my writing and other computing on a word processor. (Yes, I really am that old.) For the first few years post-college, I was so poor that buying the good toilet paper seemed like a luxury, and purchasing a computer was out of the question. By the time I was in better financial shape, I’d shacked up with an IT guy, and it was just easier to make one of his PCs into our PC.

So now that I have MY laptop, even the most mundane tasks are making me giddy. I know should be writing about more Sara recipes (I have been cooking them, I promise!), but for now, it’s back to setting up my bookmarks and choosing wallpaper images. Eee!

For the most part, my kitchen tools fall into two categories: 1) those I wouldn’t want to live without (knives, KitchenAid mixer, coffeemaker) and 2) those that sit lonesome and idle, collecting dust in the cabinet.

My ice cream maker definitely is part of the latter category. Sadly, this appliance hasn’t seen much action since Tony gave it to me four or five years ago–a gift which, I suspect, was for him as much as it was for me.

Since the hot weather seems to have arrived in full force (Already. Ugh.) and since so many commercially prepared ice creams contain the dreaded high fructose corn syrup, I really have no excuse not to make ice cream at home. So, here’s my first attempt at summery frozen confections. Hopefully, it will be the first of many.

Spicy Chocolate Gelato
adapted from Scharffen Berger

2 cups organic 1% milk
1 cup organic half and half
1/2 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In medium saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk the half and half with the agave nectar, cocoa, cornstarch, salt and cayenne. Scrape the cocoa mixture into the hot milk. Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and bubbles a little at the edges. Stir and cook for a minute longer.

Strain through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a clean bowl and cool. Cover the surface of the mixture with plastic wrap and chill overnight. (If you just can’t wait that long, you may also set the bowl over an ice bath and stir the hot gelato mixture frequently until cool).

Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream maker. (If you’re unlucky enough not to have an ice cream maker, you can make this into puddin’ pops by pouring the chocolate mixture into Popsicle molds and freezing.) The mixture is thick to begin with and may take less time than average in the ice cream maker. Mine took about 15 minutes. Makes one scant quart of ice cream, which is about eight four servings in my house.