A couple of weeks ago I bought organic celery at the Farmer’s Market – it came in a bag. I left it out on the table that afternoon, in moderate heat. By the evening it had completely wilted. Or had it? Had it been like this all along? I must confess that I’ve never seen such flacid celery in my life – not that I’m a celery connoisseur or anything. Weird.
Author: marga (Page 86 of 114)
A year or so ago I saw some pictures of hard-boiled eggs in cool shapes on Craigslist. I decided I wanted to make some for my kids. The instrument apparently used was a sushimaker, so I got one (thanks Ebay) and then for one reason or another I didn’t do anything with it. I finally tried it some time ago and it sort of works. The key is using a small enough egg that fits, putting it when it’s stil warm and flexible, and then cooling it down. Alas, the egg usually breaks anyway and the shape doesn’t last for long out of the mold – but my girl still liked it.
I reported some time ago that Joaquin Deli, our favorite sandwich place in San Leandro was being sold. The place is in escrow until June. The new owners are planning to keep the deli open, and the current owners will train them and pass their recipes along. So hopefully nothing much will change. We do love their sandwiches.
Meanwhile, Kolbeh, the Mediterranean restaurant which opened briefly in the space that used to be occupied by Casa Maria #2, has been revamped as a taqueria aptly named Taqueria. As I reported, that had been the original intention of the owner. I haven’t been there yet – it just opened yesterday – but I have missguivings about the whole thing. There are already two good taquerias in the immediate neighborhood (Los Pericos and Pedro’s) and I don’t see a need for another one. Still, there is some hope for Taqueria. The place looks nice, and if the owners decided to go for a California approach to tacos and burritos (i.e. high quality and fresh ingredients and healthy choices) it could work. I will at least give it a try, so that I can report back. But if you try it before I do, please feel free to comment here.
A few weeks ago we had our friends Victoria and Geoffrey over for dinner and I made a Bulgarian meal. I had never cooked Bulgarian food before (thus this project) and I was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I thought it could be. I was very surprised to find out that Bulgarian food has quite in common with Californian food, in particular its emphasis on local, fresh and seasonal ingredients. Bulgarians are particularly fond of vegetables, and its cuisine (which is a relative of both Balkan and Ottoman cuisine) features many vegetarian main dishes. As I have several semi-vegetarian friends, it’s good to know where I can find recipes they may like.
My menu and comments are available at http://www.marga.org/food/int/bulgaria/
This recipe for a “base” for ice cream contains 2 ingredients and 1 preparation step. Still, I managed to mess it up on all counts. The results, however, where very interesting. This has to be the smoothest, richest ice cream I’ve ever tasted. There isn’t even a hint of iciness, it’s all velvety softness. It reminds me of the ice creams that are served in tiny scoops accompanying other sweets at fancy restaurants. Indeed, I think it would go superbly with something crunchy – perhaps toffee crumbs -, though given how sweet it is, something non-sweet may be a good idea. The taste was quite nice, though a bit too sweet. But if you like condensed milk, you’ll like this ice cream.
The original recipe called for combining 2 cups of light cream with 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, mixing it well and putting it into the ice cream machine.
I couldn’t find light cream, so I used 2 cups of heavy cream instead (thus the richness of the ice cream), and I didn’t read the instructions well so I used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Finally I poured each ingredient into the ice cream machine, but realized my mistake and stopped to mix them. The original recipe is supposed to turn a very light ice cream base, clearly mine didn’t.
Just earlier today I visited the Chevys’ website to find out when the San Leandro restaurant would be opening. I’m not a fan of chain restaurants in general, but I can’t resist Chevys tortilla chips and beef fajitas. Now I will have to.
I just learned that 8 workers were fired by Chevys for skipping work to attend immigration protests. That is an affront against every immigrant who proudly stands for their rights in this country. As an immigrant, I don’t want to do business with any company that shows so little respect not just for its workers, but for immigrants in general.
I hope that other immigrants, and other Hispanics will join me on boycotting Chevys.
I made this recipe for red-wine pot roast with porcini a few nights ago and I have to say I wasn’t impressed. Granted, I used portobello mushrooms instead of porcini, as they didn’t have any of the latter at the supermarket, but I think the problem was actually with the celery. Perhaps I used too much celery, perhaps the problem was that the celery had wilted (in a very strange way) after an afternoon left out of the fridge, or perhaps it was the type of celery (I’d bought organic celery at the farmer’s market). In any case, the sauce tasted too much like broth. Mike liked it, I didn’t.
Today is my birthday (yay!) and my friends Victoria and Penelope got me a great (and very appropriate) gift of yummy, exotic foodstuff. They went shopping to the Euro Mix Deli in Oakland, a place I’ll definitely have to check out. Their comprehensive gift basket included:
Gia Russa Artichoke Bruschetta Topping from Italy. Haven’t opened it yet 🙂
ZerG
When I make burgers I like going beyond the traditional and trying different variations. Oftentimes this means stuffing them. Stuffing them with blue cheese and goat cheese have worked, but my latest attempt at stuffing them with mozzarella cheese and green garlic was less successful. I based my recipe on an epicurious recipe for Veal burgers stuffed with mozzarella cheese. Alas, I used ground beef instead of veal, green garlic instead of green onions and thyme instead of sage. The result were burgers that were good, but not special. The devil may indeed be in the details, but somehow I don’t think so – so I don’t think I’ll try them again. Plus Safeway’s sale on 7% ground beef is over so I won’t be buying ground beef for a while.
This is an incredibly easy recipe for ribs with BBQ sauce, it makes delicious, succulent ribs with little work. I got it from All Recipes.com. I’ve used both country style ribs and spare ribs for it, and I’m sure it’d work just as well with every kind of ribs. I’ve always made it with two bottles of BBQ sauce (my favorite is Jack Daniels) though I think next time I’ll try using just 1, adding more water and boiling it down afterwards. As it is, there is too much BBQ sauce left over which seems like a waste. The original recipe is for 2 1/2 lbs of ribs, but I use it for whichever size package of ribs I buy.
- a slab of ribs
- 1 tsp. salt
- black pepper to taste.
- 1 onion, qurtered
- 2 bottles BBQ sauce
- water
Salt & pepper the ribs. Place them in a large pot along with the onion. Cover them with the BBQ sauce and enough water so that they are submerged. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Remove the ribs and boil off excess water from the sauce.
Oil the grill and preheat it for high heat. Grill the ribs, basting and turning frequently, for about 20 minutes.
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