Indulge Like You Mean It

Close to the end of a weird and exhausting week, I found myself having dinner with two hella fine ladies at a super romantic restaurant in the heart of Orange County. Let's not beat around the bush here. My friends & I were seduced by a professional... charming, talented, and capable of pleasantly obscene combinations of flavors, this man was entirely successful in catering to our complete delight.

Two words: Cinnamon Smoke

Cinnamon smoke, bitchez.
Beginning presentation of the cinderella pumpkin bisque.

Sophisticated girls often appreciate a delicate and assertive kind of attention. The kind of attention you get when the chef comes to the table to introduce himself and his romantic establishment; the kind of attention when the chef offers to prepare your dinner so it includes a little bit of everything on his impressive menu; the kind of sweet attention you get when the chef serves you seven courses of the most amazing and seductive food on this side of the Mississippi.* Jason Petrie, of Pinot Provence,  I can't thank you enough for one of the most fabulous food experiences of my life.

Cinnamon smoke demo, at our table. Geek out like you mean it.

So dang delicious, so dang outrageous! When I asked him about the cinnamon smoke, swirling around the bacon, trapped in the champagne flute, he offered to do a demo for me! (I was wondering if it was smoked cinnamon, like smoked salt) He waited until we had thoroughly enjoyed our cindarella pumpkin bisque, house made yogurt experience - so we could fully experience the highly educational cinnamon smoke experience, obvs.

I realize you can barely see the smoking contraption, so I'll tell you how it works (as far as I can tell, having watched a table-side demo). Torch pieces of whole cinnamon, which have been placed in a small contained area, in front of a fan, funneled directly to an attached tube, making it possible to smoke some dang cinnamon, in a controlled fashion. Aromatic seduction. Yes, please.

Seduction, you say? Look what happened next.

Shut the fuck up, I know. They're not truffles from China; they're not truffles from Oregon; they are black truffles from France y'all. Jason Petrie is serious. At this point, I was completely enamored with the whole experience. Between the three of us, we shared an entire one of these truffles. I'm not even sure how to classify shaved black truffle... is it a garnish? It is a damn showstopper, whatever it is! Warning: it's about to get pornographic. Food porn, y'all, don't be rude.

"wild mushroom risotto
organic carnaroli, roasted wild mushrooms, parmigiano-reggiano"

yes y'all, risotto is sexy.

I love the way JP loves food.

Frankly, I can't help but feel like both the cinnamon smoke and the French black truffles happened partly because we are three totally lovely women and partly because we weren't shy about enjoying amazingly delicious food. Girls, take note. Boys, don't let JP steal your gf.

I have to stop here. Save room for the main course - I haven't even mentioned JP's black truffle, pork belly sausage yet. That man is so talented, it's criminal.

*It was so difficult not to swear in my description of Jason Petrie's restaurant. It's just entirely too classy for me to trash it up like that. Full disclosure: it's so good it made me swear out loud during my seven courses, in between courses, and after dessert. Yum.

Fancy Pants!

Check out SDD's new fancy pants over at Four Corner Foodies. I have been invited to join their fabulous group of foodies & bloggers, because they're so dang sweet.

The launch of this delicious website is for the benefit of Florida Wine Fest 2012. FWF is a 501c3 and they raise money for children's charities. 99% of the money raised is given back to the charities which is rare for any non-profit.  Winefest has 1 paid staff person and 400 volunteers! It's a massive machine and has been aiding kids in Sarasota/Manatee area for 25 years. Winefest has been classified as the top three winefests in America and if you are a foodie it's an amazing festival to attend.

The festival is April 12 - 15, mark your calendar! I am hoping to attend, so maybe I'll see you there!

Bachelor Life

Dang, the other day I felt like a total bachelor... for a couple reasons. Reason #1: I was eating dinner alone. Reason #2: I had garlic bread & Sierra Nevada IPA for dinner. Immediately after the garlic bread, I had a Theo chocolate almond bar... the salted almond, dark chocolate bar in the hot pink wrapper. I ate the chocolate so quickly, I couldn't technically call it dessert. Garlic bread, beer & dark chocolate for dinner. Bachelor status.

To all my fellow bachelors, you can make dinner with only 5 ingredients & actually feel pretty accomplished. A baguette, garlic, butter, beer, and chocolate. The dark chocolate is an excellent source of antioxidants, which could mean nothing... or could mean everything! and ultimately, you have a legitimate buzz at the end of dinner and no hangover in the morning (assuming you drink water appropriately).

Homemade garlic bread is like homemade croutons, and if you don't know what that's like, what the fuck have you been doing all this time? Ultimate comfort food. Mmm Mmm Mmm. So, 2 recipes in 1 here, y'all. Recipe #1: Garlic bread. Recipe #2: Cut garlic bread into crouton-sized pieces, and you have croutons. Impress any child you know with this trick.

Impress your company with your croutons.

Garlic Bread

• Fresh baguette*
• ~ 1Tbsp room-temperature butter** - you're choice, salted or unsalted (hopefully you always have room-temp butter on hand, because you keep your butter in a butter dish on the counter like every other person from the South - it makes toast a much more delightful experience)
• 1 clove garlic
• Sea salt
• Fresh Italian parsley, if you want to feel fancy

*If you're a bachelor and you're making this for yourself, half of a small baguette will do (a small baguette is usually 10-12"). If you're anyone else, not eating dinner alone, this recipe covers 6" of whole baguette, so double or triple appropriately.

**Substitute olive oil if you're making croutons.

Preheat oven to 350 (can be made in the toaster oven!). Cut baguette in half, lengthwise. One way to determine the "freshness" of your baguette is whether or not it is pre-cut. What I'm tryin' to say is your baguette better be fresh.

Mince the garlic like you mean it. Combine the garlic with the butter. If using unsalted butter, I recommend a few grains of salt. Nothing crazy... the garlic is gonna take care of the crazy.

Spread garlic butter on the 2 cut halves of the baguette. Pop in the oven. Wait 7-9 minutes. The garlic should be hella fragrant.

Parsley & freshly grated Parmesan make everything fancy

Enjoy your garlic bread with beer. The beer will make the bread taste better, and the bread will make the beer taste better. Win win.

Miso Delicious

Early autumn basil is in abundance and the fragrance literally seduces me every time I walk by. Earthy, calming, and refreshing. Yes, please. It's totally lovely.

What is a girl to do when there is no Parmesan in the fridge and no pine nuts in the pantry?!

Dang girl, get creative. Use some of that amazing, miraculous miso paste that's always in the fridge, and make some crazy good, vegan, pro-biotic, earthy pesto without all those fancy pants ingredients!

Miso Basil Pesto
(Luna Circle Farm, as published in the book, From Asparagus to Zucchini)

• 3 cups basil leaves
• 2-3 large garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2-3 Tbsp miso (mellow variety is best)

Puree everything in a blender, food processor, or with a handheld immersion blender until a thick past forms.

Makes 3/4 - 1 cup. You may need to add salt to taste if you're a crazy salt fiend, which I am, but I think it's SDD without it.

It's beautiful y'all, in more ways than one. Miso delicious love.

What A Pickle!

My great grandmother used to tell me I was going to turn into a pickle. I guess she thought I ate too many pickles. She probably just wanted me to stop eating all her pickles but I don't know when to stop. Story of my life! If they weren't so dang delicious, I wouldn't have this problem.

I am still settling into my new kitchen, slowly re-acquiring all my kitchen supplies & gadgets from the old storage unit on the east coast (ask me how you can contribute to the kitchen supply shipment fund!). Meanwhile, beautiful friends of mine gifted some of the most beautiful deep, dark red Swiss chard my way, and I knew I finally had to make this brilliant recipe for pickled chard stems.

 

Luscious

I modified the recipe a little, ate all the pickled chard stems (my friends helped) with a quickness, and then pickled sliced cucumber in the same brine! After I ate through all the cucumbers (in one sitting), I pickled sliced beets in the same sweet sweet brine. I'm dirty like that.

I have to preface this recipe with a quick story: I am currently teaching a cooking class - how to prepare and cook in-season produce, and we made fresh salsa. It was totally fantastic, but the students I had that day are super anit-tomato :( C'est la vie.

Fresh tomato salsa & corn, avocado, basil salsa

The tomato salsa was super juicy. The recipe was simple: tomatoes, fresh-squeezed lime juice, cilantro, red onion, garlic, jalapeño, and salt. With so much extra juiciness, the salsa was slightly unappealing and hard to eat, so I strained the liquor out, but then I couldn't just pour it down the sink -- what a tragic waste that would be. Tangy, sweet, spicy... it would be oh so delicioso in some kind of crazy pickle concoction!

Sweet & Spicy Pickled Swiss Chard Stems

• 1 large bunch of chard stems, leaves mostly removed
• 3/4 cup unfiltered apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 rounded Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 jalapeño, sliced crosswise, pith & seeds removed
• Approximately 1/3 cup salsa liquor

Rinse the chard stems well and slice into batons to fit into whatever glass container you're using. I don't have any Mason jars, so I used a Pyrex storage container.

Blanch & shock the chard stems prior to pickling. This will give them a longer shelf life in the refrigerator if you're not canning them. I reserved 1/2 cup of the boiling water, post-blanch, for the pickle recipe.

Combine the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and coriander in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt.

 Stack chard stems in your clean glass container and cover with brine. Add the sliced jalapeño and the salsa liquor.

Allow to marinade in the fridge for at least 24 hours, in a sealed container.

Last step, invite me over when they're ready. You might actually want to double the recipe if you are going to share with me (or any other pickle lover). They are completely fabulous right out of the jar and they're utterly brilliant in a salad.

Succulents Steal My Heart

My own personal dreamboat

These adorable little guys are from the Saturday Irvine Farmers Market, at the corner of Bridge & Campus. The succulents booth must make a killing from suckers like me!

The little ones in the bottom right corner of the box are called "baby toes" & the little fatty pink gordito on the top, second from the right is called "pork and beans"!! Shut up, I know. The baby in the top right corner is like a little fractal explosion, and the little grayish guys are pretending to be mushrooms, obviously. I have to tell them to stop being so cute all the damn time. It's distracting.

Not to mention that they are all trying to propagate in the coolest ways... and they're totally the opposite of fussy. They're so dang cool. I <3 succulents.

Maple Apple Pancake

 

Pretty much a slice of heaven. Imagine a pancake and custard and apple pie all together, in the same hot pan... it's indecent.

side shot. oh baby!

Brand new to southern California - new job, new life, etc. etc. - I am beyond lucky to have a supportive network of family & friends to help me through this mind-blowing transition. Mostly, I don't have a place to live, and I'm depending on a few super outstanding, fabulous people to let me sleep on their couch, use their shower, hog up space in their pantry and fridge -- so, in other words, I'm a big fat freeloader.

Somehow I have to compensate for the fact that I take up space, otherwise who's going to want to have a girl like me around?? As per usual, I go the route of culinary seduction. This pancake has saved my ass more than once. There is a reason my doggy is named after this culinary delight.

Maple Apple Pancake

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature if possible
• 1/4 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp kosher sea salt
• 1.5 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 large, firm eating apple (Fuji, Gala, Pink Lady, etc), peeled, cored & thinly sliced

Heat the oven to 425°F.

Combine the eggs, flour, cream, maple syrup, and salt in a blender. Blend on high to combine well.

Melt the butter in an 8-inch (measured across the top of the pan) heavy-duty ovenproof nonstick skillet (such as an omelet pan) over medium heat. Add the apple slices and sauté until soft and slightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Whiz the batter in the blender again until frothy, about 30 seconds. Carefully pour the batter into the skillet (coax a few apples back to the center of the pan with a heatproof spatula), let the skillet sit for just a few seconds, and transfer it to the oven.

Bake until the pancake is puffed, golden, and set, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the skillet and let the pancake cool for a few minutes in the pan (it will deflate)*. Slide a flexible spatula or two under it and transfer to a cutting board or plate.

Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar or confectioners’ sugar and a little cinnamon, cut into wedges, and serve warm.

Many years ago, when I would spend hours poring through cookbooks and cooking magazines, I found the above recipe in Fine Cooking. I knew right away, it was worth keeping. It's practically made of magic.

*This is usually the point at which I try to grab the handle of the pan, forgetting that it's been in a 425 degree oven, and burn the bejeezus out of my palm and fingers. Please be aware of the consequences of your actions.