Category Archives: kitchen

January 4, 2010 · 3:01 pm

Juicy!

While my boy Nick was staying with me over Christmas, he asked if I knew anything about juicers. Well, as a matter of fact, I went research-crazy over juicers a few years ago, and I wound up choosing one of these babies (grabs a L’equip pulp ejection model from the cupboard and plops it on the counter). I love it. And oh, look, I have a bowl of organic fruit from Mile High Organics. How handy. Let’s get to juicing!

Nick went to work on an orange, four tangerines, and an apple or two. It made for some lovely looking juice, and while I cleaned the excess pulp into the compost bin, he put that juice into my blender with a banana. The resulting drink was delicious, if outrageously sweet.

Fast-forward a few days. Nick is gone, I’m home working on my etsy shop, and a late-night infomercial for a food emulsifier comes on the TV. I look it up, and the online reviews indicate that it’s a piece of crap. But it gets me to thinking about a Vita-Mix, and the friends I have who’ve bought and love them. They are WAYWAYWAY out of my budget, but…

A few years ago, I burned out a blender. It was the second blender I burned out in just a few years, and was in fact one of those Bullet jobbies that is supposed to be All Powerful. A blender which I had selected, in spite of its relatively small capacity, because I had just burned out a standard kitchen blender. Yeah, well, fat lot of good that did me. A pair of dear friends (big shout out to Tim and Erin here) did me right by buying me a new KitchenAid blender for my birthday (and in Empire Red, no less). My first chance to use it was at my birthday party. I wanted to make some slushy drinks, so I poured in the drink ingredients, a bunch of ice cubes, and, because I know how difficult it is for blenders to get through ice, I turned it on High. Within seconds, the ice was pulverized to Very Very Very Cold Water. My slushies were not slushy. Dang, this blender has some POWER! I don’t think I’ve used the High setting since then.

And that got me to thinking: I wonder if my regular ol’ KitchenAid blender would emulsify fruits and veg the way the Vita-Mix can? While I’m sure the Vita-Mix has abilities that surpass the relatively simple blending of fruit, I could save HUNDREDS of dollars if I keep it simple!

I remove much of the pith from two oranges, and toss them in the blender. Add 1/2 of a banana, peel removed, and 1/4 of a bell pepper. Turn it on. Blend blend blend! Look, it’s making… well, that’s kinda thick, actually. I add water. Hey, look! That looks like JUICE! Or, seeing as how it’s opaque (I didn’t remove ALL of the pith), it a least looks like liquid. It’s an unfortunate flavor (note to self: do not try to sneak a green bell pepper into your fruit juice) but it worked. And I don’t have to clean two appliances.

Whee!

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*Blender photo courtesy of KitchenAid

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Filed under food, kitchen

July 15, 2009 · 10:19 am

Ketchup

What did the big tomato say to the little tomato? Hey, ketchup!

So here I am, probably a month since my last post, and where has the time gone?

I haven’t sewn anything since the last post, although I’ve managed to score some more vintage fabric yardage with which to make more dresses, to add to the stock of items in my etsy store. It’s only the actual SEWING OF THE DRESSES that I haven’t gotten around to. But I keep futzing with the pattern I drafted, or rather, I’m futzing with it in my head. What I need to do is futz with it on paper, and get the “final” pattern cut already! Perhaps I should add the Wild Ginger pattern drafting software to my Kaboodle list! Drooool. For myself, I bought a few new patterns: Simplicity 3673, Vogue 8555, Butterick 6582 (which was NOT on sale, and I rarely—if ever—pay as much for a modern pattern as I did for that one, but I didn’t want to wait for a sale and JoAnn was still out of stock, so I had to get it from Hancock and here it is two weeks later and I haven’t done a thing with it), and McCall’s 5382 for which I also bought a lovely Hawaiian-print fabric with which to sew View A. Of course, I already have plans to alter the dress with convertible straps and a contrast fabric, a choice forced by the just-a-bit-less-than-required length of that Hawaiian-print fabric that was left on the bolt.

My over-the-range microwave had a stroke, a fact that I mentioned on Twitter. Minutes later, as I was looking up prices for a replacement, a friend (@fruitlady) tweeted back that she had her old over-the-range sitting in her garage, and I could have it if I wanted. Let us now all praise the magic of Twitter, and the kindness of friends. Friends who offer up their microwaves, and other friends (@jgamet, @ekwoman, and @gogobigred) who offer their services and maintain a sense of humor while uninstalling the old and installing the new-to-me microwave. Complete with a late-night trip to the hardware store only to NOT find all of the bolts I needed, which required a second day of instally goodness when I did get the right bolts. New microwave in its native environment:

I made a dairy-free cake for the lactose-intolerant host of a 4th of July party, and it wasn’t half bad. I subbed coconut oil for the butter in a cocoa cake recipe that didn’t call for any milk in the first place. Filled the layers with cherry jam, and topped it with a meringue frosting which involved no milk, butter, or cream cheese. The cake was a little dry in my opinion, but I don’t know if that was a result of the fat substitution or of my high-altitude cooking adjustments.

I tried to make the cake a little patriotic, although the blue is more “baby shower” and less “field of stars.” I also wore my stars-and-stripes Chuck Taylors, a red, white, and blue Mickey Mouse t-shirt, and our host, an ex-cop, taught us a little about gun safety:

I took my mom to a Rockies game for her birthday. She enjoys baseball, but hadn’t been to a pro game since she last saw the Dodgers… at Ebbets Field. I believe she was 6. The weather was perfect, the company (we went with friends) was lovely, and the Rockies won the game 1-0. Mom described it as “like an amusement park, but without the sticky rides.” Which I think is a good thing.

Nick came out for a weekend visit, which nearly didn’t happen as his dog-sitter went missing before getting instructions regarding Ringo’s new medication. The dog sitter finally reappeared, but not until after Nick had missed his flight, and United cancelled both Nick’s arriving AND departing tickets, forcing him to buy them all over again, at last-minute prices. I cannot thank him enough for shelling out what he did just to come see me, and it was my great pleasure to make an airport run that night. As a result of all of the flurry and stress, we decided to skip the camping trip we’d anticipated, and instead spent a relaxing weekend loitering over coffees, floating in the pool, watching DVDs, and generally giggling.

Today, I’m back to a bit of jewelry making (a specific project, but I’ll try to get new things posted to my store soon) and thinking about what it will take to get my place in “guest condition” if Dave and Jessi decide to stay here for the duration of their upcoming visit to Denver. There are a few flies hanging out in the kitchen, a small offshoot gang from the swarm that has invaded my yard as a result of my next-door neighbors penning their dogs in their back yard 24/7 and then not picking up after them.* Yech. The fly trap is reaching maximum capacity, and stinks, so old-fashioned flypaper may be my next experiment.

*Every time I thought about reporting them to Animal Welfare, they would coincidentally clean up the poop. Additionally, the wife’s father is a cop in this town, and I wonder if anything would actually come of a warning or if it would get “taken care of.” I know it’s a health hazard, so I sent a message to the landlords. Even if they can’t do anything about it, they should know.

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Filed under fashion, friends, jewelry, kitchen, romance, relationships, sewing

March 25, 2009 · 12:27 pm

I’m just wild about saffron

It’s only Wednesday morning, but my dinner tonight (and last night, and the night before, because even though I am a foodie, it is THAT good, but three nights is my limit, and besides, I’ll have run out of this pasta) will be tagliatelle tossed with broccoli and a saffron cream sauce. Because I begin with a prepared sauce base, my prep time is cut dramatically and the most arduous task becomes waiting for the water to boil.

It’s a quick-and-dirty homemade version of the heavenly Tagliatelle Gamberetti that I had at Parisi. Tagliatelle tossed with shrimp and zucchini, with a touch of saffron and cream. Mine is… well, without the shrimp or zucchini, and a derivative sauce, it’s a completely different dish that is, at best, inspired by Parisi. But I can’t afford to go to Parisi every night. :)

Tagliatelle (Cav. Giuseppe Cocco, $3.99/package at Valente’s Deli in Westminster, CO)
Five Cheese Sauce (Dell’ Alpe, $5.49/jar at Valente’s Deli, and believe the staff when they warn you that it’s thick)
White Wine (Chateau Ste Michelle Chardonnay; it was the only bottle of white I had in the house)
Saffron (Santini, either Costco or World Market)
Broccoli, chopped (organic, part of my delivery from Mile High Organics)

MEASUREMENTS ARE APPROXIMATE

Bring a big pot of water to a boil. In a separate saucepan, place 1/3 cup cheese sauce, 1/4 cup white wine, and a pinch of saffron. When the water boils, drop in 1/3 of a package of tagliatelle and set a timer for 5 minutes (the package says 4, but I live at altitude). Put the saucepan over medium-low heat, and put the broccoli in your microwave steamer* and zap for 4 minutes (again, altitude). Stir the sauce and the pasta every now and then. Everything should be done at just about the same time, so drain the pasta, toss in the broccoli, and top with sauce. Yum!

*You don’t have a microwave steamer/rice cooker? Really? I would be hobbled without mine. You can usually find them in Ross/TJMaxx type stores for anywhere from $5-$8.

Aprons

To make up for the previous long-winded posts, here’s a very brief one.

I collect a lot of things. Today’s post shows you, my sewing- and cooking-interested readers, my collection of aprons. As an added bonus to a frequently-overlapping segment of my readers, most of them are vintage. Click on the image to be magically transported to the flickr set that describes them all.

Another pie.

If you weren’t aware: Friday was National Pie Day. Yeah, I know, you probably had to go to the office anyway. It’s not FEDERAL HOLIDAY Pie Day.

Anyway, me being me and all, I figured that I’d better make a pie.

Someone I follow on Twitter wished that it was INTERnational Pie Day, so I thought it would be a good time to attempt the cà phê sữa đá pie that I’ve been kicking around in my head. Cà phê sữa đá is a Vietnamese espresso drink, made with condensed milk and served over ice.

Sweetened, condensed milk. Mmmmmmm. Doesn’t that just beg to be a pie?

The recipe was easy to figure out. The crust had me baffled for a bit, until I decided to go with a chocolate cookie crumb. Sort of a mocha sữa đá. :)

Okay, preheat the oven to 425° while I mix up the pie filling. Fill the pie crust, and pop it in the oven. 20 minutes in, decide that it’s smelling awfully near-done-ishy, and check my notes for my planned cook time. No, 40 minutes. Hmmm. 30 minutes in, decide that it’s really smelling done, and then realize that I’ve heated the oven to 425°. Yeah, that’s exactly what I set it to. 425°. Except, that’s not my PIE temperature, that’s my Puffy Pancake temperature! I bake PIE at 350°! Yikes! I pull the coffee-colored pie from the oven, but it’s a coffee-friggin’-pie in the first place, so I really have no idea how browned it is or isn’t. I whip up the merigue, top the pie, and put it back in the oven (at 350°) to finish it off.

Verdict: It’s not burned, but it is very caramelized. There is a LOT of sugar in condensed milk (44%) so this is now a sticky pie. Not corn syrup sticky, but sticky toffee pudding sticky. The flavor is pretty darn good, though. A pleasant espresso top note which quickly fades to the caramelized bottom end, but the caramel tastes neither burned nor “too” sweet. I couldn’t taste the chocolate cookie crust at all. When this one is polished off, I’ll try again, with the proper temperature. I think the recipe shows great promise!

Amy asked for pie photos, but here’s the deal. Most of my pies lately have been topped with meringue, so they all look the same. Here’s a random photo of one of my pies, and you can pretend it’s a photo of whichever one you wanted to see: