Oops

Well, in spite of my ambition to post everyday during NaBloPoMo, I missed yesterday. Truth be told, I was too busy stuffing my face with food and talking and oh yes, enjoying an 85 degree day. Actually, I was doing all of those things and spending quality time with one of my best friends and her lovely partner and their adorable son. So it really was a great weekend.

But seeing as this is a food blog, I need to tell you about a very delicious dinner that we had. The first night I was there, Karen took me to a real favorite of mine - Real Food Daily. This is a vegan mecca with two locations, and is a place where Karen and I have shared many delicious meals. Looking at the menu was a real challenge because it is huge and everything sounded incredible to me. It is very overwhelming to be a vegetarian and to be used to having one, and at the very most two, options in a restaurant - and then to suddenly have 20-30...well, it just made my head spin. I was craving something light and crunchy, so I opted for a salad which sounded great. Black beans, rice, salsa ranch dressing, guacamole, greens. What's not to love, right? I opted to add in some grilled tofu just for a little more protein which is a good thing because, in spite of how the salad sounded, it was really just a salad. Lots of lettuce and very little of everything else. I even stopped the waitress because I thought she had brought me the wrong one but no, I just mis-ordered. If the tofu hadn't been in there, I would have left the restaurant hungry. Oh well.

Last night was a very different affair. We went to Nancy Silverton's Pizzeria Mozza where there is a one month waiting list for tables. Karen and Kerry knew the inside scoop and we arrived there right at 5pm and were able to sneak three seats at the pizza bar. I had a similar menu coma to the previous night, although not everything was vegetarian - it just all sounded so damn good! They have about 15 pizzas on offer and enough various other salads and appetizers to make me glad I was there with two friends. I won't bore you with the play by play - I'll just give you the highlights.

White Bean Bruschetta - I have made many a white bean dip in my day but this one was a wonder. I don't know if they just let it spin forever in the food processor or added a lot more olive oil than I do, but the texture was exquisite. Totally melt in your mouth and perfectly seasoned. They had made a little well right in the middle of each toast and poured in about a 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil and exquisite balsamic vinegar, so in addition to the creamyness of the beans, there was the silky oil and the bite of the vinegar. Awesome! Plus they got the texture of the bread just right - crunch enough but easy to bite through. Something I have not yet perfected.

Pizza - It's a pizza joint so the pizza should be good, right? Was it ever. The crust was crisp and airy at the same time with lots of air pockets and a perfect sprinkling of salt so that getting to the end of each piece was actually the best part. We ordered a white pizza and one with brocoli rabe and olives. I am actually not a huge cheese fan, so I was a little worried about the white pizza, but it was finished with such a light hand that it was actually my favorite of the two we ordered. I loved the bitterness of the brocoli rabe contrasted with the salty olives and the creamy cheese in the other. Suffice it to say that I ate too much pizza which is a shame because I didn't save enough room to gorge on...

Butterscotch Budino - I'm a little bit at a loss for words on this one. I think that Bon Appetit ran a recipe for this and I think it is her recipe. If so, I need to immediately have a dinner party so I can make it. It was, without question, one of the best restaurant desserts I have ever had. Think light butterscotch mousse topped with perfect caramel, creme fraiche and sea salt. It was a generous portion and I was so mad at myself that I could only manage two bites. Next time, I will have one slice of pizza and one budino all to myself.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I know I just had a weekend away, but here comes another one. In just a few minutes, I am heading to the airport to get on a flight - by myself - to sunny L.A. One of my very favorite friends lives there with her lovely partner and their little boy who I have not met. Karen is a college friend and really the only person I have stayed in touch with these many years. I am so excited to leave the rain, excited to have some girl time, excited to meet another little boy to fall in love with, but I have to tell you - right now, I am so excited to sit on a plane and read trashy magazines.

Winter is Here

In case you are not from around these parts and don't put up with our lovely Pacific Northwest climate, allow me to tell you what fall looks like in Seattle. September is usually lovely and warm. The days are shorter but it feels like summer which is lucky seeing as our "summer" doesn't start until July 1st. In October, the leaves turn mostly yellow and we get a few of those incredible cool and crisp fall days you folks back East experience. Around the middle of the month, the temperatures start to dip and it starts to rain. Halloween can almost be a guaranteed rainy and cold night. I have lots of childhood memories of having to wear a jacket and a hood over my princess costumes. Maybe that's why I don't like to dress up on Halloween anymore.

Sometime around the beginning of November, just after we change our clocks back to standard time, some huge windstorm - accompanied by lots of rain - rips through the area taking all the changed-color leaves of the trees. And that is the end of fall. We're done, it's officially winter. Rainy, cold, and dark.

Up until very recently, I was taking all the pictures of my food outside. I know next to nothing about photography but I have read on numerous blogs that the number one enemy of food photography is your flash. It makes the food look greasy and artificial. I have been avoiding reading my camera manual and learning how to actually use this beautiful and intimidating thing but, as you can see from the above photograph, the time has come. I will actually be traveling this weekend (more on that tomorrow) and my main source of reading material is going to be that manual. Hopefully my photos will improve next week.

In the meantime, I have a recipe for you. In the two and a half years that I have been cooking for my clients, they have only ever requested repeat meals a handful of times. This is one of those meals. This will be a winner, no matter who you make it for - even people who don't like eggplant. The whole dish can be made up to a day in advance, or just parts of it can be. I have made this dish perhaps more than any other in my repetoire, and although it comes from a very reliable cookbook, I have made significant changes to the recipe over the years. The version below includes those changes.

Eggplant Rollatini with Capellini
Adapted very loosely from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Serves 4-6

In my experience, it is best to use eggplants that are as long as possible. It is better to have slices that are too thick than those that are too thin. If in doubt, buy a little extra eggplant since there will no doubt be slices that don't end up working out.

For the sauce:
1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 28 oz. cans whole Italian tomatoes, crushed with your hand,
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the rollatini:
6oz. capellini or angel hair pasta
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup shredded provolone or mozzarella cheese
3 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil
3 lb. fresh eggplant

For the sauce: Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onion and a healthy pinch of kosher salt and saute until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and saute, stirring often, for 3 more minutes. Add the tomatoes and the juice left over in the can and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 30-40 minutes. (Can be made two days ahead. Cool completely, cover and refrigerate.)

For the eggplant:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the top (stem end) off each eggplant. Cut into thin slices - somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 inch. Don't make them too thin or they will burn. Place the slices on baking sheets and drizzle each side with olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes per side. The eggplant should be staring to turn brown and beginning to soften when you decide to turn it over. Once done, remove slices to a rack to cool completely. (Can be made one day ahead. Stack the slices in a large container, cover, and refrigerate overnight.)

For the pasta:
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the capellini and cook, stirring frequently, until al dente - 2-3 minutes. Drain and immediately add the olive oil and cheeses. Stir well, until pasta is well coated with cheese. Set aside.

To assemble:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a 13 x 9 baking dish, spread 1 1/2 cups sauce over the bottom of the pan. Have the eggplant slices, the noodles, and the basil right in front of you. Place an eggplant slice on a work surface. Using your fingers, place a healthy pinch of noodles on the rounded end and sprinkle with a little bit of basil. Roll the eggplant up and over the noodles and place in the baking sheet, seam side down. Repeat with the remaining eggplant, noodles, and basil. Meanwhile, reheat the remaining sauce over low heat.

Cover the baking pan and cover with aluminum foil. (At this point the dish can be assembled one day ahead and refrigerated.) Place in the oven and bake until heated through - 20-25 minutes. Spoon warmed sauce over each portion.

Cowgirl Cookies

If you are a frequent reader of food blogs, you will often see sentences along the lines of this...

"You have got to make this."
"Stop what you are doing and make this."
"It is imperative that you make this."
"This is the best (fill in the blank) you will ever eat, so make this."

I have to admit, the rebel in me immediately decides, no I'm not going to make this. Maybe I would have if you hadn't insisted, but now that you did I won't. So there.

Keeping the above sentiment in mind, I am going to try and not use any of the example sentences on my blog...after today. These cookies? I would very strongly suggest that you make them very soon. I realize they don't look like much and truly the ingredients aren't all that sexy, but somehow through the magic of baking, they turn out to be the most perfect mouthful of deliciousness. Oats, cashews, and butterscotch chips - certainly not what I would pick in my ideal cookie (there would be lots of chocolate in that one), but every single person I have made these for goes crazy over them.

I don't know how these Cowgirl Cookies got their name, but they are from the most delightful cookbook. I have waxed poetic about Holly B's Bakery before here and I just have to say again what a magical place that bakery is. It is tiny and perfect. You walk in and will, without a doubt, want to try everything. Not just try but "eat it all up like cookie monster", as my older son is currently fond of saying. I have owned her cookbook for years and treasure it as much for the stories about her family and life on Lopez Island as I do for the amazing recipes.

On the ferry to Lopez last summer, I realized that we were parked right next to Holly as I was trying to wrestle my baby out of his car seat. She gazed at me with that wistful look of a mom of boys whose boys are grown.
"Your boys are beautiful," she said, "I have three of my own."
"Oh, I know," I said. "I have read and re-read your cookbook from cover to cover."
She seemed really happy about that.

Cowgirl Cookies
Adapted from With Love and Butter
Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies

This recipe calls for raw cashews which are unsalted and unroasted. They can be a little hard to find (Whole Foods and natural food stores carry them). Because I didn't have them this time, I just used the roasted, salted ones I had on hand and didn't add any additional salt. I also chopped them into small pieces rather than leaving them in half.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
1 cup raw cashew halves

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the center position.

Cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix, then add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine thoroughly. Stir in the oats, butterscotch chips, and cashews by hand.

Using a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop the dough onto the cookie sheets, 1 inch apart. Flatten each cookie slightly with your thumb. Bake 5 minutes, rotate the pan, and continue baking 4-5 minutes. The cookies are done when caramel-brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

How My Business Works

I've written here about how I became a personal chef and I've written here and there a bit about my clients, but I realized I haven't described the nuts and bolts of my little business.

I currently have three permanent clients and one temporary one. They are all couples and I cook for them on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Before I had my second son, I cooked for them on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, but my older son took two longs naps a day until he was 2 years old and went to bed every night at 6pm and woke up around 8. Those days are no longer and while both my boys nap at the same time (which is the ONLY reason I can even keep this business going), I have a lot less free time to cook. Two days a week it will have to be until we have more preschool in place.

For each meal, I bring them an entree and usually two sides. Occasionally there are other components to the meal (like chutney and raita if I were making Indian food). Tuesday is the day I bring the "treat". Everything is made 100% from scratch and is all vegetarian. I would say about 25% of the time the food is vegan, but the "treat" never is.

I cook everything in my kitchen and divvy it all up into plastic containers. I get everything as ready as it can be and deliver it to their homes with a handwritten note explaining the night's menu and any last minute prep the food needs. Some nights it is as easy as popping stuff in the microwave and tossing a salad, other nights something will need to go into the oven or a little more prep will be involved. On my next visit, I pick up all my empty containers - I have quite a collection!

Because the meals I make are fairly involved, I use Mondays and Wednesdays as prep days. I almost always bake on Mondays and I will do any prep work possible in advance, even if it is just chopping vegetables. I find (and this is good advice for dinner parties too) that any little thing you can do in advance, from making the salad dressing to taking the leaves off parsley, will make your food prep the day of that much easier.

Since I tend to be busy prepping on Mondays and Wednesdays, our dinners those nights are a little simpler. Last week I was glancing through one of my favorite cookbooks, Real Vegetarian Thai, looking for a curry paste recipe to send to Beatrice at Ginger Beat. I love this cookbook - it is written by a woman who spent two years in Thailand while in the Peace Corps, and all recipes come with some kind of back story and lots of thoughtful tips. I decided to make a quick rice noodle soup with some lemongrass stock I had in the freezer and a salad with this incredible dressing.

The dressing comes from the New York Times and it tastes exactly like that perfect one you get at sushi restaurants. It is incredibly simple to make, it makes a lot, it lasts for a week in the refrigerator, and it is so nice and thick that it can also be used as a dip. I can also imagine it spooned over tofu, or even over soba noodles. It is so good, I was tempted to eat it straight from the jar - a desire I have never experienced for salad dressing!

Before the recipe, let's talk about miso. There are several different types of miso - white being the most mellow in flavor. It is often kept in the produce section of your grocery store, or where you would normally find tofu. You will end up buying more than you need for this recipe but, if you keep plastic pressed directly on top of the miso once it is opened, it will keep for a year in your refrigerator. And you will want to make this dressing again!

Miso Carrot Sauce
From The New York Times
Makes 1 1/4 cup

The salad I made for this dressing had butter lettuce, thinly sliced mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes, and chunks of avocado.

1/4 cup peanut or grapeseed oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tbsp. white miso
1 tbsp. dark sesame oil
2 medium carrots
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and cut into coins

Put all ingredients into food processor and pulse to mince carrots. Let machine run for 1 minute, until mixture is chunky-smooth.

Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Fattoush (Pita Bread Salad)

Continuing on the Moroccan theme, how about Fattoush? Fa-waht? you may ask. Fattoush is an amazing salad whose star ingredient is pita bread. The version I make has some of the same ingredients as a Greek salad (tomatoes, olives, cucumber, feta cheese), but the flavor is more complex due to an incredible condiment called za'atar.

Za'atar is used throughout North African and Middle Eastern cooking and the ingredients and their quantities vary slightly. The one I make uses fresh thyme, sesame seeds, and sumac. Sumac is a powder make from a ground dried berry and it has an incredible blood red color and slightly sour yet fruity flavor. The three things together taste incredible - piney thyme, sour sumac, and nutty sesame seeds - and it is not unusual to see it stirred into olive oil for dunking bread and vegetables into. In this recipe, you sprinkle it over pita bread halves that have been brushed with olive oil, and put the bread in the oven. The smell is of baking bread, nuts and a bit of sour. Yum.

Once out of the oven and cool, the pita halves get broken into irregular pieces and, eventually, tossed into the salad. The longer they sit in it, the more tender they get so if you don't want a lot of crunch, allow the salad to sit for half an hour. Want more crunch? Serve it right away. You can always make extra baked pita to dip in your baba ghanouj.

This recipe originally comes from Gourmet Magazine, but I have streamlined it significantly. They tell you to marinate olives for several days and then use the marinade for a dressing. Instead, I just use Kalamata olives and make a very simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. If you live in the Seattle area, you can find sumac at Market Spice in the Pike Place Market. If not, you might be able to find it at Whole Foods (either in spices or in the bulk section) and you can certainly order it online at Penzey's.

Fattoush (Pita Bread Salad)
Serves 8-10

For Za'atar:
2 tbsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted
2 tsp. ground sumac
1/2 tsp. salt

For Pita Toasts:
4 6-inch pita loaves with pockets, split horizontally
Olive oil for brushing
2 tbsp. za'atar

For Salad:
4 hearts of romaine, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 seedless (or English) cucumber, halved lengthwise, cored, and thinly sliced
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
3/4 lb. feta cheese, crumbled
3 tbsp. za'atar
Juice of one lemon
Olive oil

Make za'atar: Stir together all ingredients in a small bowl. (Za'atar keeps, chilled in a sealed plastic bag, 1 week.)

Make pita toasts: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush rough sides of pita halves with olive oil and sprinkle with 2 tbsp. of the za'atar. Arrange halves, oiled side up, on 2 baking sheets and bake in oven until crisp and pale golden, about 10 minutes. Cool on rack. Once cool, bread into irregular large pieces. (Can be made one day ahead. Store in ziploc bag.)

Make salad: Place lettuce, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, pita toasts, feta cheese, and the remaining za'atar in a large salad bowl. Drizzle generously with olive oil and pour the lemon juice over. Toss the salad and taste. Add more lemon juice as needed.

Moroccoan Food and My Dad

My dad is a retired doctor - an oncologist to be exact. He had a private practice for over 30 years and worked incredibly hard the whole time. The patients he had tended to be incredibly ill and he lost so very many of them to incurable cancers. He also saved a lot of them, or extended their lives beyond what they could have hoped for.

When I tell someone who knows him (a former patient, family member of a patient, or someone in the medical community) that I am his daughter, they unfailingly tell me what a wonderful man he is. I know. He is a great dad too. During my entire childhood, he worked very long hours, but it never seemed that way to me. He was very present when he was home, so it seemed that he was around a lot more than he actually was.

I worried a little about him retiring. Being a doctor, a good doctor, was so much a part of him and I wondered how he would transition to a life without that identity and with a lot more free time. I needn't have worried. He and my mom have been incredibly active and busy basically since his retirement party. He took birding classes, joined a softball team, joined a cancer survivor support group (yes, he has also been a patient), and he and my mom have traveled all over the place. Last year they went to Austria and Germany on one trip and Italy on another.

Just last week, they left for Morocco. They are going with a tour group of sorts (an active tour group), but this was still a big step for them. Morocco is much more foreign than the other places they have traveled - except for Turkey a couple of summers ago. They were very excited to go but apprehensive. I can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures. A bonus of their trip is that they opted to start in Madrid - a place they had never been. My dad was an art history major (unusual for someone who is pre-med), and had never seen the Prado Museum. His favorite artist is Goya and there are some of the most incredible examples of his work in the Prado. My dad is five years post-op from his cancer and is incredibly healthy. It makes me very happy that he will see those amazing paintings and get to see Morocco.

In honor of their trip, I decided to do a Moroccan style dinner last week and at the heart of it was this amazing soup. It's called Harira Soup and, among my many cookbooks, I have several recipes for it. The one I chose last week turned out to be my favorite yet. It comes from a marvelous cookbook called World Food Cafe, which is also an incredible restaurant in the Covent Garden are of London. Randy and I ate several meals there and I was always torn as to what to order (it is all vegetarian). World Food Cafe is owned by a husband and wife team and the husband just happens to be the Photographer-in-Residence for the Royal Geographic Society. The cookbook's photography is stunning and the recipes reflect their travels all over the world.

Harira Soup
Adapted from World Food Cafe
Serves 4-6

This soup is very easy to make but it does require a fair amount of chopping. Look at it as an opportunity to practice your knife skills! Like most soups, it tastes even better the next day, but will most likely be very thick. Add water as needed as you reheat it. You can also do some things ahead of time, like chop the celery and carrots (potatoes will discolor and onions will get too stinky), and measure out the spices.

Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. saffron or tumeric
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tbsp. paprika
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 large red potatoes, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup dried green lentils
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes in heavy puree
2 cups vegetable stock
Water as needed
1 14 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 oz. vermicelli (or angel hair pasta), broken up
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat and toss in the onions and a healthy pinch of salt. Saute the onions until soft. Add the garlic and stir for three minutes.

Add the parsley, ginger, black pepper, saffron or tumeric, cayenne, paprika, and coriander, stirring to prevent sticking. Add the potatoes, carrots, celery, lentils, and tomato paste. Stir well and add the tomatoes, stock, and enough water to cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, adding more water as necessary to make a thick soup.

Add the chickpeas and vermicelli and cover. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Pour in the lemon juice and add salt to taste.