For some strange reason I was in the mood for meatloaf last week. It's strange because I've only eaten it a handful of times in my life, and I'd only made it once before. Still, that's what I wanted so that's what I made. I decided on this recipe from (where else?) epicurious.com, because I had some bacon to get rid of (plus I love bacon). The recipe had gotten very mixed reviews, but the results were great - even though I put twice as much ketchup in the mixture, as the recipe called for (I always have to make a mistake in every recipe I follow). Mike, in particular, loved it. I'm recording it here so that I can find the recipe when I want to make it again.

Also last week I made Lemon Rubbed Chicken Legs with Garlic & Rosemary, also from an epicurious.com recipe. It was also delicious and very quick and easy to make. The sauce had a very intense lemony flavor which Mike and I loved. The only down part is that the sauce was pretty fatty - with all the oil and rendered chicken fat - but the chicken is very tasty even without it. Mika wasn't fond of the rosemary, but Camila really dug it. It's the sort of dish that I'd like to make again.

Continuing my project of cooking International Food, in recent weeks I've made Californian and Chadian food. Pasta, short ribs and even duck were part of the former's menu, while the latter featured a delicious roasted chicken and an ever-present peanut stew.

Last night I made my first stir fry. Ever. Really.

I had meant to try one before, I had bought the sauces, but for whatever reason I never got to do it. Then a few days ago I found the jars of stir-fry sauce I'd bought at the supermarket (probably over a year ago, they don't have an expiration date, and by God I hope they're still good!), and decided to use them. That's my new plan: either cook international recipes or recipes that use up the ingredients I already have at home. Come to think of it, this is not really a very new plan - and it's not one that works particularly well. Yes, I use up ingredients, but I buy new ones to make the new recipes, so that it becomes a huge food cycle. At least we rarely eat the same thing twice - if that's a good thing.

Anyway, back to my stir fry, I can't believe how easy it was. I sliced some thin-cut pork cutlets (I'd have bought chicken, but it wasn't on sale, and I almost only buy meats on sale now), stir fry them on some oil for a few minutes, I removed them, dumped out the fat, and then stir fried some broccoli, celery and snow peas for a couple of minutes. I returned the pork, added the sauce, and voila! That was it. The results were pretty good. Of course, I only ate the pork, which was a bit tough (I will try chicken next time) and a bit bland (next time I should salt it, rather than rely purely on the sauce), but mostly good. The sauce (Kikkoman Stir-fry Sauce), was very nice - somewhat reminiscent of teriyaki, but not as sweet. It gave a good flavor to both the veggies and the meat. Mike liked that the veggies were still crunchy. Camila ate a tiny bit of pork and broccoli, but she didn't complain later that she was hungry, so I guess that's all she wanted. She hates food with sauces, but I just told her there was no sauce on the pork. She can be pretty clueless sometimes.

Mika didn't eat any of it - she was doing her homework and didn't want to be disturbed by dinner. She ate some grapes (88c lb at Safeway this week!), and I guess that was enough.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that making a stir-fry is very easy, and I should plan to make it again in those nights when I don't have much time to cook. I'll probably try chicken next time, see if it's more tender, but I liked the thin pork cutlets because they had very little fat to get rid of, maintain their shape, and were incredibly easy and quick to slice up. I'll also try new veggies next time (though my kids only like a limited amount of veggies): some mushrooms, some red peppers (for color if nothing else), mini-corn, if I can find it at the supermarket, etc.

Yesterday, we had some friends over to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birthday. I decided to have a tea party, and the following is the menu. One of my friends is vegan, so I got a couple of vegan treats for him - which ended up being the stars of the table. Here is what I served:

-Harrods No. 14 English Breakfast tea
I got this at the London airport last year, and I was quite happy with its full, balanced taste. A good black tea.

-Chicken Salad sandwiches
-Tomato & Avocado sandwiches

on vegan whole wheat bread, with hummus. They were good, 2yo Jaime loved them, but I thought they tasted too much of hummus. Next time I'll try to use less (maybe only spread it on one slice of the bread)

-Trader Joe's Mushroom Turnovers

-Iced and plain Rolled sugar cookies
in heart and Darwin fish shapes (see below). I wasn't thrilled about the taste of the cookies, but they held their shape beautifully - great for the skinny legs of the Darwin fish.
The icing recipe was great and I'm posting it next.

-Vegan orange poppy-seed cookies
Very, very tasty, recipe to follow

-Trader Joe's Apple Streudel
This vegan dessert was delicious, a little bit on the sweet side, but with a great flaky buttery (but made with no butter) crust. Vegan or not, you should definitely try it.

-Birthday Cake!
What's a birthday without a birthday cake? My friend Fanny brought it, she made it from scratch, and it was delicious. We sang the birthday boy "Happy Birthday", the kids blew the candles and devoured the cake.

And that was it. We watched the beginning ("Nace la Tierra" or "The Earth is born") of "Érase una vez el hombre", a French series, translated into Spanish, that I watched when I was a kid. This cartoon series records the history of human kind from the beginning of the earth until the 70's, when the series was made. The series is not always historically accurate, but it's a great introduction for children to history. The beginning is particularly good as it shows the evolution of mankind from a cell to a human being.

Katrina read a book on the history of the universe to the children, and Fanny read parts of a biography of Darwin. Mike played the Monty Python universe song, and everyone had fun and learned a little bit about Darwin. Alas, the kids (the oldest being 7 1/2 yo) can't quite understand the theory of evolution yet. I didn't learn it until I was in college, so I can't fault them for that.

Marga's Party Recipes

I found this cookie icing recipe at allrecipes.com. It's really good /once you alter the proportions/ of the liquid & corn syrup. It produces a creamy and glossy icing that dries out beautifully.

Ingredients

• 1 cup powdered sugar, packed
  
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. milk
  
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup
  
• 1tsp. vanilla extract
  
• food coloring
  

Mix the sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Beat in the corn syrup and vanilla extract, until smooth and glossy. If the icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.

Divide the icing into small different bowls. Add a few food coloring drops and mix well. Bush on top of sugar cookies. Let rest for 15 minutes to harden.

Marga's Best Recipes

I was having a tea party, and of course I wanted to make scones. But I wanted to make vegan scones, because one of my guests is a vegan. I'm not experienced enough either as a baker or a vegan cook to transform a regular recipe into a vegan one, so I went in search of a vegan scone recipe. I found this one at allrecipes.com and decided to give it a chance - though the reviews did warn that the results resembled more a cookie than a scone. Indeed, they did, even though I didn't use *any* of the soy milk and water the recipe asked for.

As cookies go, these were delicious. Chewy, full-flavored and just yummy. Some of the best cookies I've ever made, though probably with a flavor more suitable for adults (the kids all went for the glazed sugar cookies). In any case, I'd make them again even if I didn't have vegan guests coming over. The one change I'd make is reducing the margarine & sugar somewhat (you will probably have to reduce the liquid as well).

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 4 tsp. baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  
• 3/4 cup margarine
  
• 1/2 orange, zested & juiced
  
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
  

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Oil two cookie sheets.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add the margarine and work until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the orange zest, juice and poppy seeds and mix well.

Scoop dough into cookie sheets (about 1/4 cup or 1-ice cream scoop sized) - the cookies will spread a lot, so make sure the scoops are far apart from each other.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Cool before serving.

Marga's Best Recipes

For years I have been reading, in the craigslist food forum, about how wonderful this epicurious.com recipe for Mahogany Beef Stew with Red Wine and Hoisin Sauce was. But for one reason or another, I never made it. Until this week, that is, when the muse struck me and I decided to finally give it a try. It was just as advertised, great, with deep flavors, a little bit sweet, but not too much. Mike liked it, and so did our 5 year old guest Aegea (who seems to like my food more than my kids do). I served it with the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend that I will write about on my next post.

Marga's Best Recipes

Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend is a blend of Israeli couscous, orso, baby garbanzo beans and tiny red quinoa grains. Israeli couscous predominates. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was cheaper than the bags of pure Israeli couscous. Most importantly, my kids love it, and I think it's probably marginally more nutritious than the Israeli couscous by itself.

Though the instructions say to cook it with 1 Tbsp of butter ( I guess to make it more buttery), I always omit it without any adverse effects. I do the same with regular couscous and other grains, why have added fat if it's not needed? Once you have the water boiling, it cooks in 10 minutes. So it's a great and easy side for stews.

Reviews of Food Items

I first went to Elmer's in 2007 when we went to visit my in-laws in Washington state. We liked it, so we stopped there last November when we went to visit them again. What follows are my updated reviews. You can find the original review here.

Elmer's - Springfield - 11/09

The kids had their usual chocolate-chip pancakes ($4 for 4 small
pancakes). This time we had them share one portion and they barely
finished even that. We also knew better than to order two full
breakfast entrees (they are quite big) so instead we ordered the
Hazelnut pancake combo ($9.50, comes with your choice of meat and eggs)
and a side of potato pancake ($3.30), this was enough for Mike and I to
be satisfied but not stuffed. The potato pancake was once again good,
though it needed a bit more seasoning. The bacon was great but I was
somewhat disappointed with the pancakes. I was hoping that they were
stuffed with ricotta, but either the cheese was completely absorbed into
the batter or the batter was made with it, as there was no ricotta to
taste. Without the cheese, the pancakes were rather dry; they were
nice in those bites that had hazelnuts in it, but too plain in the
others. I would not order them again.

Service was good, the restaurant was nice and clean and I'd stop there
again ­ just order something different.

Elmer's Restaurant
3350 Gateway St
Springfield, OR
(541) 726-1261

Elmer's Grant Pass - 11/09

We stopped here for lunch and, once again, we had a pleasant experience. I was unhappy to find out that in Oregon it's against the law to serve burgers cooked less than well-done. Well done burgers are dry and tasteless, so I opted not to have one that day. Instead I went for the NW Cheese Steak Sandwich ($10), which I had with the optional onion rings ($1 extra). It was a good choice. The pot-roast sandwich was very good, the pot roast actually had a grilled flavor to it (probably the peppers) and the cheese was neither skimpy nor overwhelming. I was very happy. The portion, in particularly when coupled with the onion rings, was also large enough that I could save half for later. The onion rings, on the other hand, were somewhat of a disappointment. They were cut very, very thick and the gritty batter needed more flavor. They were also too oily. On the plus side, there were plenty of them.

Mike had the BBQ chicken sandwich ($10). He was happy that the chicken breast was an actual breast, not some reconstituted heresy. He liked the BBQ sauce and was all in all pleased. He also had the onion rings and was not impressed.

Camila had a cheese sandwich ($4) which she liked. I tasted it and it was plain (and therefore dry) but tasty enough. Mika had the cheeseburger ($4) and she was very pleased with it, she thought it tasted great (but she's no gourmet, she likes the ones at her school cafeteria quite a bit). The burger was served plain (as it should be, kids are picky!) and it was large enough that she could not finish it by herself.

For dessert we had the sundaes and we were disappointed in them. Mika's sundae had the triple berry topping and she found it quite sour. Camila's had plain chocolate syrup (rather than fudge) and it was just OK. I wouldn't order them again.

Elmer's
175 Agness
Grants Pass, OR
(541) 474-0740

Elmer's Medford - 11/08

Our one dinner at Elmer's was perfectly fine. I had the flat iron
steak, which I think came with a perfectly acceptable clam chowder.
It was perfectly cooked medium rare (which means towards the rare side
of medium rare), and quite tasty. It wasn't particularly large (for
once!), but still a good deal at $14. My only complaint is that it
did not have the consistency of a flat iron steak, it was more like a
sirloin (but a well cooked sirloin).

Mike had the small chicken salad ($10) and was happy with it. The
veggies were fresh and he liked the dressing. The kids shared a mac &
cheese ($4), which was definitely large enough for both of them.

Our two breakfasts at Elmer's were just as good. The kids loved the
chocolate chip pancakes, which they'd had the previous year. Each
portion includes 4 medium-size pancakes, so be smart and order one for
two kids. I liked the pancakes quite a bit as well. My first time I
had the caramel banana french toast, which was delicious. There is
just so much sugar I can take, however, so I wasn't close to finishing
it, even with some help from Mike and Mika. My second time I went for
the potato pancakes with bacon & scallions. I can't say these are
delicious, but they are satisfying. I'd definitely order them again,
and I wish it wasn't such a pain for me to peel and shred potatoes,
otherwise I'd make them myself. My only complaint here is that there
wasn't enough sour cream. I had the pancakes with a side of bacon,
and the bacon was very nice and meaty. Once again, however, I
couldn't finish the whole plate. Both times Mike had some sort of
skillet, which he declared to be fine. He's never very excited about
these breakfast dishes, however.

So I suspect that we'll be going back to Elmer's on our next drive
through Oregon.

Elmer's
2000 Biddle Rd.
Medford, OR
(541) 772-2000

Original Review

Road Restaurant Reviews
Chain Restaurant Reviews
Restaurants Beyond the Bay Area

-Cocina Poblana in Jack London Sq. showed me once and for all that I don't like moles.

-Messob, an Ethiopian restaurant on Piedmont Ave. was OK, not worth a second visit.

- Misty's Grille / Character's Lounge: The restaurant at the Red Lion hotel in Medford, Oregon. We went there because we were staying at the hotel (the cheapest place to stay in Medford, bid $50 in priceline) and we were too tired to go anywhere else. It sucked.

-Applebees in Salmon Creek, Washington, is among the worst restaurants I've ever been in my life. It was definitely the worst burger I've eaten in many years.

-Black Angus in San Lorenzo provided me with a decent steak and a disappointing dessert - and a long wait for the kids' mac&cheese.

More soon.

I got a package of DEEP brand HomeStyle Masala Paratha at Santos Spice Products in San Leandro yesterday. I'm quite pleased with it. The parathas are pretty flaky and don't taste frozen, plus they are very quick to make (just heat for 2 minutes on each side). They are a bit spicy, but not overly so, and nicely seasoned. They are nowhere as good as the parathas available at some restaurants, but I think they're pretty good for a frozen product.

A couple of months ago I got a message from the Amazing Taste company asking me to review their spice mixes. I got them in the mail soon after, but for one reason or another, I hadn't gotten to try them until now. Tonight I made pork chops with their seasoning for pork, and I was very happy with the results.

The seasonings (the package doesn't specify what spices it uses) gave the pork a grilled flavor, even though I had cooked it in the George Foreman (where I grill during the winter). Both Mike and I liked it quite a bit. My only concern is that in addition to spices, the package contains a lot of other ingredients: rice flour and tapioca starch (I imagine they are there for volume), caramel and dextrose (for color and sweetness?) and soy lecithin (an emulsifier, to prevent the seasonings from coming off?), among others. I tend to prefer spice mixes that only contain spices.

One package was enough for 8 pork chops, rubbed on both sides.

Another thing I liked about the mix, is that it allowed me to make dinner quite quickly. I usually either dedicate hours to cooking, or make something quick like frozen ravioli. This was a good in-between.

I gave the chili spice mix to my friend Desiree, and she also said she liked the resulting chili very much.

I still have a couple of more envelopes to try with other meats, and I'll review them as I try them.

Food Items Reviews

I made this tonight, from an epicurious.com recipe. I used tri-tip steak instead of tenderloin ($3 lb vs. $11lb at Safeway), and the steak came out very nice, tender enough and tasty. That said, I'll probably not make this recipe again (unless I have some hoisin sauce I need to get rid of), because while good, it wasn't special enough.

Delicious food from Sri Lanka, including mulligatawny soup, a lamb curry and a pretty western dessert. Find them at:

http://www.marga.org/food/int/ceylon/

Once again, here is a list of the spices I have at home, so I don't go buying s/t I have when I need it. What I know I don't have is:

-Onion Powder
-Cumin seeds
-Ground nutmeg
-Saffron
-Garlic salt

What I do have:

Herbs

Herbes de Provence
Oregano
Parsley
Rosemary
Rubbed sage
Sumak
Tarragon
Thyme

Ground Spices

Allspice
Cinnamon
Cloves
Coriander
Cumin
Dill
Garlic powder
Ginger
Mace
Paprika
Sumak
Turmeric

Seeds & Berries

Anise
Cardamon pods
Coriander
Fennel
Fenugreek
Nutmeg
Poppy
Sesame
Star anise
Sweet basil

Salts

Celery
Kosher salt
Table salt
Sea salt

Peppers

Cayenne
Crushed red pepper
Black peppercorns
Indian red chili powder
Piment d'espelette
Red pepper flakes
White peppercorns

Curries

Chicken masala
Curry powder
Mild curry powder
Garam Masala
Madras Curry

Spice Mixes

BBQ
Cajun
Chili powder

Other

Arrowroot
Bay leaves
Cinnamon sticks
Cloves
Cream of Tartar
Dried chilis
Dried tamarind pods

The Caribbean Recipes website has changed formats & style - and seems to have more recipes than ever. I just checked it out for Antiguan and Curacaoan recipes I'm planning to make this week. Anyway, if you like Caribbean food, this is one site to check out.

I posted already about the Darwin fish cookies in my entry for the Darwin Day Tea Party - but I just uploaded the photo to my computer and I want you guys to see what a good job we made.

It was Mike's idea - we found a drawing of the Darwin Fish, which we then enlarged in the printer, cut, and then laid on the cookie dough. With a knife, we carefully cut around it.

The picture is not one of our best - those were eaten - but I'm still very proud of it, and of Mike for thinking about it.

A couple nights ago I made Curacaoan Beef Sate for dinner, and I needed a peanut sauce to go with it. Alas, I couldn't find a recipe for a Curacaoan version of such sauce (though later, when it was too late, I found one at http://www.recipeisland.com/blog/recipe-island/curacao-recipes/peanut-sauce/), so I looked for an Indonesian peanut sauce recipe. I decided on this one, because it was very simple and it didn't require any exotic ingredients. I further westernized it by getting rid of the pepper (hoping that my kids would then eat it, which they didn't after all). Though the sauce wasn't as layered or delicious as it would otherwise have been, it was pretty addictive - I couldn't resist sampling it every time I went by the stove (hey, I just made it for my family). I'd definitely make it again if I needed a mild peanut sauce for whatever reason.

BTW, I halved the proportions from the original recipe, and it still made much more peanut sauce than we could eat at one or two sittings. If I was going to make it again, I'd halve the recipe once more.

Last night I made Pork Chops With Banana And Bacon, an Antiguan recipe. Of course, I've now added the recipe to my website, as part of my international cooking project, but I wanted also to blog about the banana-bacon chunks because the combination was absolutely delicious.

Basically, all you do is cut a banana in large chunks, lightly saute some bacon, wrap each banana chunk with a slice of bacon, put them in a skewer, and broil them (or grill them) for a few minutes. Wow!

I think they'd go great as a side to any dish, but also as a small breakfast treat. Try it!

For some reason that I can't quite remember, my aunt Gladys gave me, quite a few years ago, the metal/plastic egg beater that belonged to her and my grandmother (Gladys never married, so she lived with her mother until the latter died). I don't know how old it is, it was probably bought during one of their more recent trips to the US, in the early 1960's, though it could be older.

It's a simple tool, an eggbeater like most others - though this one has plastic beaters. All the other ones I've seen have metal ones. Of course, plastic is not as sturdy as metal, and this one has a broken piece. It also has rusting metal. Still, 50 or 60 years later, it still works perfectly.

I don't know if I've used it since I got it, at least a decade ago. When I moved to this house, I put it on the top shelf of a kitchen cabinet (the one I can't reach without standing on a chair). Whenever I've had to beat eggs, I've used an electric mixer or a whisk.

Yesterday, however, Camila and I were making flan together, and the recipe called for four beaten eggs. I didn't want to use the stand electric mixer for that, and yet I knew we weren't going to get far with a simple whisk (Camila now insists on doing everything, but she still doesn't have the skills to do everything well) - so I took it out. Camila had never seen one before, and I know it would interest her.

As I said, it works perfectly. What an easy, quick way of beating eggs! After we were done, I thought I should buy a new one (though they're about $13 at Amazon!, my friend Cynthia recommends looking for one at a thrift store, and I may still do that). I'm actually afraid of using this one - not just because it's rusting - but because I don't want to get it any more broken. I feel as if I had borrowed it, rather than inherited it, and I have to return it in as good condition.

It's not as simple as that, of course. I also have my grandmother's old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook - that book that I perused so many times as a child. And I have their recipe book, where Gladys or Granny hand wrote so many recipes. I've thought about cooking from those books - trying to make that delicious sponge cake with lemon frosting, the white cake with chocolate-dulce de leche frosting, or the chocolate-mint cake, which along with pies, were their signature dishes when I was growing up. I haven't been able to do it. Granny has been dead for 30 years, Gladys died only 2 years ago, however, and I still can't think of her without falling into a well of tears. Perhaps using their stuff, cooking their food, is too strong a reminder that they're no longer here. I want to cook their food, but for them - and I never did, and I will never be able to do it now.

In addition to the eggbeater, I also have the kitchen timer that I grew up hearing ring at their home. I've started using it because all the other times I've had, have broken. It's good that I use it, right? It might get stuck otherwise. It hasn't broken in 50 years, it's not going to break now. Right?

A couple of days ago, the girls had to stay home from school, and we decided to bake a cake. I had found a recipe for a Curacaoan chocolate cake, and I thought I'd make it as part of my Curacaoan menu. Camila, however, wanted to make the lemon cake recipe which appeared in this month's issue of High Five magazine. She loves the magazine and wants to do all the activities.

So with Camila wanting to do the lemon cake, and Mika wanting to do the chocolate one, we had no recourse but to do both :-) Fortunately they were both fairly simple to make and both recipes made just enough cake for an 8x8 cake pan.

We all worked on the lemon cake recipe (recipe below), but Mika made the chocolate cake recipe ALL BY HERSELF. Yep. She read the instructions by herself, she measured the ingredients by herself, and mix them in by herself. It was her first time alone, so she can't really be faulted for misreading the instructions and mixing in the water and vinegar with the cocoa and sugar before she put the flour, and so forth. All in all, I think she did a good job, and the cake tasted great. It was pretty dense and chewy (not in a good way), but I don't know if that was because of her mistakes, or because this turned out to be a vegan (no eggs) cake. In any case, she thought there was nothing wrong with it.

The kids actually did not like the perfectly baked lemon cake. I think the problem was the strong olive oil flavor it had. I thought it was quite good - but I can understand little kids not liking it. I'm not copying the recipe precisely for that reason.

We didn't have any frosting for the cakes, so I whipped some cream and use that. Alas, we couldn't wait so we put it on the cakes when they were still too warm! Later the girls, all by themselves, decided to decorate their cakes with chocolate chips.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I received a few packages of Amazing Taste seasonings to try and review. Last night I made rotisserie chicken with the Malibu seasoning package. I rubbed it both under and over the skin of a full chicken, which I then cooked to perfection :-)

I was not as fond of this seasoning mix as I was of the one for pork. The chicken was tasty, but I wasn't completely fond of the taste. It had that sort of artificial flavor that store-bought rotisserie chickens have, maybe it was the preservatives in the spice mix. Mike thought it was pretty good, however.

I probably would not buy this seasoning.

Today, Lotti and Vienna came over for tea (our fourth tea partner, Regina, has unfortunately moved to NY - we miss you Regina!). The house was a complete mess, so I spent much more time cleaning up than cooking - but I still wanted to have something yummy to go with the tea (that English breakfast tea I bought at Harrod's in the London Airport). What I served were simple things:

-Chicken salad sandwiches
-Sugar Cookies
-Scones with butter & strawberry jam.

The only new recipe was that for the scones, and they were fairly easy to make and quite good. IT wasn't the definitive recipe for scones, however, which is why I did not copy it here.

I've been looking for tea cups at Thrift Town, a great thrift store, and I've bought three so far. I hope I can find more :-)