A Few Sweets

We have had a few sweets in the last few weeks.
My son and I made a cake for my wife's birthday. We had a bag of Ghirardelli’s dark chocolate with raspberry squares leftover from some get-together, and we were not going to eat them by themselves, so we crushed them and put them as the center layer of the cake. Turned out really well; even looks good as a topping. We did the same with the cacao dark chocolate with caramel on another cake. Now I wonder what else we will think to put as filler . . . is it too late to use the Halloween candy?

On National Blueberry Pancake Day we made blueberry pancakes with a sweet

addition. I had some leftover white chocolate chips so I dumped them in the batter and the flavor of the blueberries and the chips was a nice find. Yeah, it jacked up the calories, but when you’re celebrating something so important as Blueberry Pancake Day, you have to celebrate full tilt . . . and below is my son's evidence of a tasty treat . . .

Any fun or curious sweets you've made . . . ?

Chicken Tortilla Soup for the Soul

I’m finally learning how to use a calendar and on Thursday I noticed that the next day would be my parents’ anniversary. Man, what a party we would be having if Dad was still with us. I called Mom.

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“My schedule is open.”

“It’s your anniversary.”

“I know.”

“Your 50^th anniversary.”

“I know.”

“You’re coming over for dinner.”

“Okay.”

I called my sisters and Mom’s best friend Carol Sue and we had ourselves a little party.

Since I had made some tortilla soup, we decided to have the soup and some carne asada. I simply made it easy and grilled some from Vallarta. It turned out that we didn’t even need it . . . the soup was that good.

I base my cooking on recipes and always tweak them to my taste, which I think is good for all of us to do. Here is the recipe:

3 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomato (pureed)

1 bay leaf

6-10 cloves of garlic (chopped)

1 medium onion (chopped)

Teaspoon ground cumin

Teaspoon crushed red pepper

Half a bundle of cilantro (chopped)

Combine the above in large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer. Add chicken and a few handfuls of crushed corn tortillas and simmer until you think the flavors have melded. I let it go a half an hour at least. Most of the time I make the soup in the afternoon then serve it a few hours later for dinner. It just sits on the stove and melds away.

Chicken Marinade -- this time. I always change it up.

Tequila

milk

dry white wine

thyme

pepper

oregano

cayenne pepper

smoked paprika

This time I did a quick marinade with the above. I simply dumped differing amounts into a gallon zip-lock and mixed it about. I normally do about a tablespoon of the spices. I used the dry white wine because I had a little left over from a recipe. I used a double dose of the smoke paprika (I have so much left over from a recipe), but I think the marinade and the grill really mellowed it giving the soup a nice depth.

I grilled the chicken and then jerked it, using two forks to pull the meat apart into nice stringy chunks.

I’ll add more water, tomato, broth, chips, depending on taste and thickness—that’s how I cook. It is more about feeling than following steadfast rules.

I eat the soup with a dollop of sour cream, chopped green onion, chopped cilantro, and some extra chips.

It's good. I know Dad would love it . . . miss you Dad.

Valentine's Lunch

So my little one is finally giving me a nap. He is unfortunately creeping into his brother’s realm – he gave up the nap at 14 months and would only sleep seven-eight hours a night – not straight through though – oh we will have none of that. It was sidewalk chalk-time out back at two in the morning. I think we got past sixty different shapes: bell, ampersand, rectangular prism . . .

Enough of that: So I took my Valentine to Shamshiri in Glendale (122 W Stocker St Glendale, CA 818.246.9541) on Tuesday. We know the owners; our boys are in the same school. My bride had the Chicken Kabob and I had the Bareh (lamb) Kabob (pictured). It was a treat. The meals here are so tasty and fill you up . . . and they are under $10. It is such a great place for lunch. A quite mellow setting where my one year old sampled the rice, pita and humus . . . he liked it.

When we want a Persian dinner, and I want to devour their chicken salad, we go to their restaurant out in Thousand Oaks, Darband Grill (868 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 ( 805) 449-1323). It’s pretty close to the Civic Arts Plaza, so if you are going to see a performance, don’t forget about the tasty meals down T. O. Boulevard. They have belly-dancers on the weekend. My ten year old only wants to go when it is belly-dancing time . . . so he can dance!

Thank you Farhad and Rossana for the great food and wonderful service.

Chili Bowl

This pic is some of the stuff I put into my salsa that goes into my chili, that we will see if it is good enough to win an ad hoc chili contest this Super Bowl weekend. I think we have five entries. If mom wins again!!!

Mine is not a ground beef kidney bean chili (which won a few years back at my sister's house. Dear sister put all the chilies on the same plate! and by the time the ringers (guests . . . from across the street) got to the last chili (mine) and, of course they ate them in order, my chili was cold and a mix of all the other juices and wayward bean, and thus my bitter cold defeat . . . sisters, uhhhhh!

Well, that was years ago and who even remembers things that happened on Saturday October 4^th, 2003 in Canyon Country around 7:35 pm on flimsy paper plates . . . really.

So my chili has grilled chicken marinated in spices and tequila, Italian sausage grilled in the case to keep some snap, chili beans and my fruit laden salsa. Today’s salsa, it is always different, has the typical tomato, onion, cilantro, green onion, and peppers, but this time the bell, jalapeño, and serrano peppers have been grilled and stripped of the skin, and this day’s medley has nectarine, apple, and mango . . . the mango is perfect. . .

And here is to the chili being the same, if not better . . . for all to enjoy, . . . of course, simply to enjoy . . . nothing to do with putting little tokens in a jar . . . nothing at all . . .

A Tip of the Day: If you are making guacamole, today (Friday) really should be the last day to get your avocados. You don't want to rush to the store on Sunday and only find green rocks. . . .

Sweet Irony . . . and Cupcakes

So irony rears its sweet head. After a little exchange on my blog about red velvet, I end up at my wife’s friend’s cupcake shop, Dot’s, in Pasadena, www.dotscupcakes.com and the best picture of the lot has a big Red Velvet sign on it . . . and my one year old Nicholas being spirited around the shop by the owner, Hyo.

We stopped by to pick up dessert for my mom’s square dancing gang. She wanted something special to thank all the wives for lending her their husbands to teach her how to dance. She not only ordered two dozen for their post-dance dessert, but she went ahead and gave out a four-pack of minis to each couple as a thank you gift . . . what a sweetie.

Let’s see, we left with such wonderful flavors as mint-chip, maple-bacon, apple pie, fleur de sel, chocolate toffee, strawberry shortcake . . . but no red velvet . . . commenter marlync.

Thanks Hyo for the wonderful treats . . . now my mom’s dance gang is worried that their desserts simply aren’t up to scratch . . .

Want Some Fake Egg?

For some reason we call Real Egg from Costco 'fake egg' even though on the carton it says Real Egg and is made with real egg. It is not a real egg in a shell; obviously that is the reason we call it fake—it’s something blended up in a carton. So now for breakfast we have ‘fake egg’ and ‘fake sausage’, Morningstar sausage patties not made with any beef or pork or offal of any type but with grains, and Trop50 the orange liquid that is not orange juice but an 'orange juice beverage' and now is 'fake juice.' So the conversation is:

"Do you want some fake egg?"

"Sure."

"Fake sausage?"

"Yeah."

Hold up the bottle. "Fake juice?"

"Okay."

Not really an inspiring morning. It might be the most important meal of the day but it is starting to feel a bit disingenuous, and I don’t know if that is the best way to start a confident, uncompromising, take no prisoners, be the best you can be, authentic day . . .

Well, at least for the scramble the onion, garlic, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, and whatever else is in the crisper is real . . .

Let’s start this blog again. Nick, my one year old, is giving me ten minute to ninety minute naps and what the heck, it is time to talk turkey. I roasted two of them last Thanksgiving and they both came out . . . edible. Isn’t that the barometer of cooking. It is like flying . . . any flight you can walk away from is successful and any meal you can keep in your stomach . . . the same.

This is the year of family, friends, and food . . . to hell with the elections and dragons and women in skinny jeans that make their asses look anything butt! Oh and Dance Central 2, my ten year old cannot get enough. When he comes in on a Sunday morning before seven and asks if he can go “work out” with the Xbox, yeah it is the year of the Rodeo, the Zombie, and the Club Can’t Handle what he’ll be steppin’.

My wife and I gave as Christmas presents the following: An invitation to Jim’s Kitchen at Cafe 7000. We gave out one of a kind aprons to about twenty people so I guess they are twenty of a kind, and bottle of wine and oregano – seems like oregano is going in all my cooking these days—but the best thing is we have invited friends and family to pick a meal and come over for calories and conviviality.

So not only am I working with Weight Watchers’ recipes a few times a week, since Christine is on the program, and I am in a Gourmet group that meets about once every four months to try things beautiful and bizarre, but I am cooking for others every few weekends and giving is what it is all about, whether it be home cooked meals, one of twenty of a kind of aprons, new under ten dollar Trader Joe’s wines, unsolicited advice, botulism . . .

Hopefully this blog will show what a forty-three year old nestcock can cook while hangin’ with a one year old, a ten year old, and a twenty-nine year old.