OK, don't freak out

You cook it I cook it is under-going construction. A major renovation. Re-thinking. Back to the drawing board. It's been fun posting my dinner for three years, but I have a better idea, and hopefully, I'll get my crap together and run with it.

Sweet Things

I've had two requests lately to do a post on sweets. The thing is, sweets have never been my strong suit in the kitchen. I mean, I only own 3 measuring cups and one of them lives in the cat food bag.
That's not to say I don't like sweets. I LOVE sweets. They are the downfall of my diet, and I very often log extra miles on the treadmill because of them.
But here's the thing: when you're not good at making something at home, why bother? Famous 4th street makes the best cookies I've ever eaten. Cupcakes: don't get me started on Brown Betty. If I bake, it's typically a fruit pie, or a simple cake like Edna Lewis Busy Day Cake or the French Yogurt Cake, both of which are known for being fast and simple.
So, here's a sweets post. If I was awesome at baking, what would I be baking right now, at the end of the summer/beginning of fall, on these lovely windy gray days?
Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting, at Smitten KitchenPeaches are amazing right now. Deb from Smitten Kitchen does them in a new way, without being overly complicated.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake, at Simply RecipesOne of my all time favorites.

Lemon-Ginger Cake with Pistachios, at Epicuriousenough said.

Chewy Amaretti Sandwich Cookies, at EpicuriousI love love love marzipan, and love love love amaretti cookies.

Apple Tart, a la Pioneer WomanNow this is the kind of thing I can do without measuring cups!

Tres Leches Cake, Pioneer WomanI will probably make this soon, since I have a lot of sweetened condensed milk around from making Vietnamese coffees.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chunk Cookies, at Tasty Kitchenoh dear God can someone please bake these for me?

Clambake

Layer: onions, potatoes, corn, sausage, clams, mussels, shrimp, lobsters. Pour in a beer and cover.
Cook on high for 20 minutes, until steam is escaping from the lid. Turn down to medium and cook 15 minutes. Break up the lobsters, pour everything onto the newspaper covered table and gather your friends. Eat standing up with bread, melted butter, lemons, and ice cold beers.

Lobsters...

are coming. Happy Labor Day.

When life gives you watermelon..

Eat all of the watermelon until you're completely sick of it. Seriously, watermelons are big, and in a household of just 2, you are really tired of watermelon by the end, well, tired of the fruit anyway.
Yesterday I made watermelon rind pickles. While these weren't traditional in my family, they're definitely a southern thing! I remember having them once when I was about 12 at a picnic, and again when I was in college. This was only my 2nd attempt at making them myself, and this time, I USED A RECIPE (stop the presses), and they're perfect.


Step 1: process the rind. Remove the red fruit and the dark green peel, leaving the rind as thick as possible. Cut into 1" cubes, although, next time I'm doing 1" x 3" sticks.

Step 2: brine overnight. Mix a lot of water (ok, so it's KIND OF a recipe) with 2 tablespoons salt and 4 tablespoons sugar, plus a pinch of cinnamon, some coriander, some fennel seed, and some clove if you have it (I didn't). Stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved (warm water helps), pour in the rind. Use a plate to hold everything underwater. leave overnight.

Step 3: soften. Drain the brine and rinse the rind pieces in cold water. Put them in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5-7 minutes.

Step 4: pickle. Drain the rinds and toss them back into your pot. Add: 1 cup sugar, pinch of cinnamon, coriander, fennel seed and some clove (if you have it), 2 cups water, and 1 cup cider vinegar (additions: thinly sliced oranges or lemons). Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-7 minutes.

Step 5: jar. Remove the pickles (we can now refer to them as pickles) with a slotted spoon (and the fruit if you used any) and put into jars, tupperware, whatever. (you can also properly can them now if you like).

Step 6: Create syrup. Boil down the remaining liquid until it's reduced and sticky, 15 minutes or so. Pour that into your containers to cover the pickles.

Step 7: Chill.

Then you can eat them! or give them away! or if you're a canner, store them for however long you like! (if you're not a canner, these will keep for a month in your fridge)

My lunch obsession

OK, so I have a thing about lunch. I HATE lunch food. I mean, a couple of times a week a salad or a sandwich really hits the spot. In the winter, I like soup about once a week. But what the hell do I eat the rest of the time? I am just not one of those people who can eat the same thing every day. And truthfully, I'm not actually that hungry in the afternoons anyway.

Then I found out about Bento Boxes.

Bento Boxes are traditional in Japan for lunch or takeout. Similar to Indian tiffins, they have separate little compartments to keep foods separate, so you can carry sweet stuff and savory, and they all get stacked up together so they're easy to transport. In Japan, they often cut things into fun shapes for kids, or dye the rice to make things more colorful!No, I do not carry a bento box to lunch. That's too much food for me in the afternoons and would take way too long in the mornings. But looking at crazy bento box lunches inspires me to try different things for lunch, take something different everyday, and to try and work in as many colors and tastes as possible.

I love to look at the flickr group here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bentoboxes/

(If you're wondering, a typical lunch for me consists of some combination of at least three of the following: yogurt, fruit, a handful of nuts or some peanut butter, raisin toast, salad with cheese or tofu or chicken, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, granola, rice.)

Taking a little help from the store

I hate that phrase. Rachel Ray uses it a lot. But this time, it's pretty applicable. The fish in the photo is macadamia-crusted. It was amazing with the tomato-olive-lemon topping I made, and I didn't do a thing. Whole Foods did the work for me, the macadamia nuts were finely ground and had the texture of coconut, and best of all, this mahi mahi was the same price as the mahi mahi that wasn't macadamia crusted.

I just put the fish in an almost-dry sautee pan, just a little oil, for about 3-4 minutes on each side. That's precisely the amount of time it takes to sautee some zucchini and probably more time than it takes to make couscous. All in all, 15 or 20 minute summer dinner.