Writing from Home

Glorious Lemon Curd

It’s official – strawberry season is really, really here. This year the berries from the Camarillo-Oxnard area are large, succulent, tasty. You won’t need any sugar with these lovelies.

However, you might want to top your berries with some lemon curd and a soupçon of whipped cream. Lemon curd is the perfect foil for the berries – sweet and tart at the same time – and the smooth cream is the finishing touch.

I first made lemon curd using a recipe from Didi Emmons’ wonderful book, Vegetarian Planet. Today I hauled out the book to check  the Sweet Potato-Tortilla Pie recipe I’m planning to make later in the week, and was inspired.  OBTW, if you like vegetarian recipes, and I haven’t already given you a copy of this book, let me know. I found it at a Jamba Juice in Bakersfield lo these many years ago, probably around 1997, when it was published. It remains a favorite.

But, back on subject … don’t buy the stuff in a jar. No, no! Make your own. It’s easy. And you also get to lick the pan. (Slurp. Eyes close. Glorious!)

Lemon Curd

Whisk together in a heavy-bottomed pan:

    4 eggs and 1 c. granulated sugar

Then whisk in:

     2/3 c. Meyer lemon juice (actually you can use any lemon juice, but we like the Meyers)

Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture is hot and begins to bubble, whisking constantly. Cook about 5 minutes more, until mixture is thick.

Remove from heat. Stir in a bit at a time:

    2 T. butter and 2 T. lemon-infused olive oil

Transfer to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, laying the wrap directly on the surface of the pudding. Chill.

We use lemon olive oil from The Olive Vineyard. It’s wonderful stuff.

This Week in the Kitchen, January 28, 2012 Edition

Our shopping in LA netted us some good finds. I have two pounds of Plugra unsalted butter and a pound of artisan European-style butter, a bag of Demerara sugar, and a pound of whole wheat elbows from Whole Foods. We bought pistachios galore, fresh brats, extra sharp cheddar, and spinach-cheese ravioli at Trader Joes. I see whole wheat mac-and-cheese in my future.

Sunday

It’s a cold gray day (39˚ F, cold for us). With a bowl of grapefruit, oranges, and tangerines, and a slice of cinnamon raisin toast under … er, make that over … my belt, my thoughts turn to dinner. I’ve got an eggplant that needs using, and I’m jonesing for comfort food … and meat.

Aha! Inspiration strikes. In the freezer is a bag of mixed ground beef, ground pork and mild Italian sausage. Meatloaf – just the thing! That with a small Table Queen squash, couple of small baking potatoes, some spinach, and the fine loaf of olive bread I picked up at Trader Joe’s yesterday  will be dinner.

 For lunch, I’ll get Hubby to make his eggplant gratin. I never get tired of it. (He did make it. And get this – after I finished my lunch, the cat licked my plate! Never knew she liked marinara sauce.)

When we bake meatloaf, we cover a rack with foil, poke holes in the foil, and rest the meatloaf on the rack in a pan. That way any fat cooks out and drains to the bottom of the pan. We also like to top the meatloaf with barbecue sauce. This one we learned years and years ago from friend Gerry, who makes the best meatloaf ever. We generally add some dried minced onion and garlic, salt and pepper, no fillers.

Spinach is simple. Soften chopped shallots in butter or oil. Add spinach, stir and fold, until spinach is soft. Add a little salt and pepper – voila!

Monday

Today is pasta day: the cheese and spinach ravioli from TJ’s and some of our fresh tomato sauce from the freezer, along with fresh shiitake mushrooms. Top with grated parmesan -- delish. For the guys, we grilled a sausage on the side.

Tuesday Dinner with Friends

Tonight is easy. I bought a lovely hunk of chuck roast last week. I’ll brown that and then braise it in red wine. Then I’ll roast onions along with some of the free potatoes and carrots I scored with the roast. I have a great big bag of green beans from Charles Drew that I’ll blanch and finish with a little butter and toasted sliced almonds.

And I think it’s time to make a pecan pie with brother Harry’s beautiful pecans. This Pecan-Fig Pie recipe is one that Hubby made a few years ago for Thanksgiving. That was the year I broke my ankle. Janice took over the scallion crepes and hoison sauce and sides, hubby grilled the ducks and made the pie. Even through pain meds, it was a delightful dinner.

So, three years later, I finally get around to making this pie. And the brandied whipped cream. Ummmm. It’s at least as good as I remembered.

Wednesday

Wednesday is always a bit of a letdown after a hectic Tuesday evening dinner. I started the day by roasting a butternut squash. After it cooled, I made my second batch of Molly O’Neill’s Squash Soup with Cumin. You can’t miss with this recipe, from “the wednesday chef” blog. And check the current post there:  Maria Speck’s Artichoke Tart with Polenta Crust. Oh, oh – may have to make!

And there’s another sign of approaching spring – asparagus is in the stores at a reasonable price. I also got some ground lamb, so we’ll have “Slipper Burgers” from Steve Raichlen’s Barbecue! Bible. The lamb is spiced with grated ginger, ground coriander and cumin (I roast seeds and grind my own), minced onion and garlic, and a minced chile. Tonight I’ve got a big fat jalapeño; it will do, although I prefer to use Serrano chiles. I also splurged on a ripe red tomato. I’m making cheeseburgers for Adam, too.

Hubby will grill the asparagus – just snap it, bathe in olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and cook over direct heat. Crispy, savory, delicious.

By the way, have you noticed how huge hamburger buns are these days, even whole wheat ones? I’ve started buying round whole-wheat dinner rolls. They aren’t split, but that’s minor. They sure fit a 4 or 5 ounce burger much better.

Thursday

Yesterday’s soup became today’s lunch, along with leftover burgers. It’s grey and cloudy outside, although not cold. A hearty lunch with hot soup seemed just the thing. And I do love cumin.

Tonight we’ll have Green Shawarma Salmon. I was reminded of this recipe in conversation with Zach, who took us to a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch last Saturday. The chicken shawarma was quite good. This recipe, with all that cilantro, sounds delicious. I’ll only need half the marinade, as my piece of coho salmon is just under a pound.

Along with the salmon, hubby will grill zucchini slices until they are sweet and tender. Salmon, zucchini, asiago cheese bread = dinner.

The strawberry guys are back in town, and I have a half-flat of berries to enliven our morning fruit bowls, or just to eat. They are so sweet – no sugar needed.

Mac & Cheese Friday

Market day in our little town. The citrus guys have tangelos – tart and tasty. Charles has asparagus for $2/bunch and the biggest Butternut squash I’ve ever seen. This one weighs 4 pounds 7 ½ ounces and is bigger than the coffee pot!

Today is mac and cheese day, using this recipe – Beecher’s World’s Best Mac & Cheese. I have whole wheat pasta, cheddar (regrettably not Beecher’s) and gruyere. I’m making a big dish – a whole pound of elbows, 14 ounces of cheddar and 2 ounces of gruyere, plus more for the top. And of course we’ll have grilled asparagus.

So many mac & cheese recipes. Which one next?

Slacker Saturday

Hubby is off working at the latest Habitat house and Adam has gone off with friends to see a movie and do Lancaster. I’m thinking pizza.

But what did Hubby have for lunch at Habitat? You guessed it – pizza. Baked potatoes and guacamole and roast beef sandwiches will have to do.

Wine Tasting, LA Style

Friday evening Hubby and I attended a Bordeaux wine tasting, put on by Wally’s Wine and Spirits. The tasting was held in the Petersen Automotive Museum, located on LA’s “Museum Row on the Miracle Mile”. Its address is Wilshire Boulevard, but tonight we entered through the museum’s parking lot, on South Fairfax.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First of all, our tickets to this event were a Christmas gift from our sons. How fun! So we found a lovely B&B, Cinema Suites, just a block down Fairfax from the museum. And, as a bonus, a little farther down Fairfax is Little Ethiopia – think a dozen Ethiopian restaurants in a couple of blocks. There’s even a Vegan Ethiopian place.

We checked into the Cinema Suites, where we’re staying in the “The Small Room”. This is at the back of the house, and has an attached bathroom. The house itself, right on S. Fairfax, is fairly large – living room, dining room, foyer, kitchen, mud room, office, and two bedrooms on the first floor; two bedrooms plus the owners’ private suite on the second floor. The other rooms are all named after iconic film stars – Marilyn Monroe, Carol Lombard for two.

I don’t know how to describe the architecture, but I was impressed by the curving tile stairway with wrought iron railing. The living room, to the left of the foyer, is sunken. The décor is eclectic – lots of antiques and lots of Asian pieces. It’s entertaining and not in the least intimidating. We felt at home right away.

Once settled in, we walked up the street and scouted the museum, then down the street to find a restaurant. We chose Messob for several reasons. First, I was hungry! Second, the restaurant has been open since 1985, surely a recommendation. Thirdly, the middle part of the restaurant has the traditional Ethiopian seating around woven pedestals on which the food is served. This lent a touch of authenticity. And it turns out the other customers already in the restaurant were repeat customers. Aha!

The dish of the night was a finely ground beef with spicy chiles. The dish is traditionally eaten raw. Our server offered half-cooked, half-raw, and we accepted. The raw was much superior – the chiles are delicious! (#4 on the menu) Hubby had lamb stew, and that was good as well.

If you’ve never been to an Ethiopian restaurant, then you should know that there are no forks. You are served sheets of spongy Injera flatbread – tear off a hunk, and use it to pick up a bite of food. It is delicious. Our mains came with tomato couscous, delicious salad, and a homemade cottage cheese – also delicious. All this was served on a large round platter on a large round of Injera. It made a beautiful picture. And, yes, I should have taken that picture. Too hungy.

(Disclosure: I’ve only been to two Ethiopian restaurants, and the other was in Cape Town, South Africa!)

Now fed and happy, we stopped by the Cinema Suites to freshen up, and headed to the Petersen Automotive Museum. The appointed hour for the tasting to begin was 7. We arrived 15 minutes early, and were directed to the second floor. Here we found a whole host of people, and joined the good-natured line … only to find out we were in the wrong line.

The first order of business is to check in and get a wrist band. Once we finally found the right line, all went smoothly. Clearly the other folk in attendance knew what to do – and to get there a bit earlier than we.

At 7 p.m. the “doors” opened, and the crowd whooshed down a ramp and into the tasting room – a very large tent erected on the top deck of the museum parking lot, with a floor of interlocking rubber “tiles”. In this very large tent, there are four long, long rows of tables, covered with white cloths. To the right as you enter is a set of tables where you pick up your glasses. So we do, along with some literature.

One of the pieces of paper is the price list – you can buy futures at Wally’s for all the wines here tonight. But there is nothing to relate the wines on the list to the positions where they are being poured. So … when in doubt, punt.

We walk down a row of tables, reading the placards at each place. There are some people behind the tables to pour the wine; people are helping themselves where there is no one to serve. By the time we turn to walk back up the next row, you can’t get close enough to the tables to read all the placards. We join one of the longer lines, and are rewarded with a taste of a Grand Cru red. At a few tables at the far end, we find a section of Sauternes. And Barsacs. Oh, yum.

The noise level keeps rising, and more and more people arrive. Hosts arrive, find their places behind the tables, and begin pouring tastes. There are tables dotted here and there with bread and cheese, a few grapes. Janitors constantly troll the venue, sweeping up any stray bit of trash and emptying trash cans.

People-watching is the order of the day. There is any number of young men in suits, but there are also those more casually dressed. The costumes of the women are more eclectic, ranging from jeans and jackets to frilly dresses to suits. The astounding thing to me is the number of women in high, high, high stilettos.

I did encounter one gentleman who seemed to be serious about his wine. He had brought his own glass; a Burgundy glass.

Eventually we drift to the row of tables that are pouring wine from St. Emilion. This is the part of Bordeaux that grows a lot of merlot. The Grand Cru on offer is smooth, fruity, and delicious – drink now wine mostly. We go down the row. Then it’s back to the other side, where the wines are definitely more complex, with more Cabernet, and will benefit from several years in the bottle. And finally, back to St. Emilion once again.

The whole thing is pretty chaotic. I’m accustomed to small group tastings where the wines are introduced, described, and savored. This is a free-for-all.

After a couple of hours, we turn in our glasses and wander a bit through the first and second floors of the museum. We see the Batmobile, the Grease car, wonderful racing cars of yesteryear, all bright and shiny. It is a relief to leave the roar of the tasting room behind.

Eventually we walk back to the Cinema Suites, through the cool evening. Tucked into our room, we relax and read for a while. In the night it begins to rain. Somewhere near us there is a tin roof, and the sound of the steady, soaking drops is amplified. Ping! Ping! Soothing.

We rise late, after 7. The weekend breakfast cook is in the kitchen, along with her daughter. There are bowls of wonderful fruit everywhere. She cuts us a cantaloupe and some pineapple. There is coffee, and I make tea for me. We ask if she does poached eggs. There is some confusion about boiling eggs, but nce we get the idea across, she offers to try. So we coach a little bit, and end up with two nicely poached eggs on whole grain toast. Yum. She even poaches an egg for her daughter. New skills!

The rain stops just before we leave. We’ve a morning of shopping ahead, then lunch with our boys. On our way home this afternoon, we chased a rainbow.

This Week in the Kitchen – January 21, 2012 Edition

I’ll start with a picture of a lovely sunrise earlier this week, then one of the butt chicken we were cooking at the end of last week’s post. It was delicious. Hubby rubbed it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some of the tagine spice friends gave us. It was delicious.

In fact, it was so delicious that we ate lots of it. There wasn’t enough left to make 2 cups cubed, so I didn’t get to make the sesame chicken bibimbap after all. I guess next time we’ll do two chickens!

The leftovers did make --along with some good stock, vegetables, brown rice pasta, a teaspoon of sesame oil tossed with the pasta, and reconstituted dried wild mushrooms -- a good pot of soup for Tuesday’s lunch. And gluten free it was.

Slacker Sunday

I talked Hubby into making pancakes for breakfast. We had just enough sausage gravy left to make a savory delight. Gravy on pancakes – I know this is a foreign concept for many. But I grew up eating gravy on pancakes. And my sausage gravy, made with bulk sausage and wonderful homemade stock and maybe a pinch of sage, is divine, if I do say so myself.

As for dinner, I’m slacking again – burgers, eggplant gratin (one of Hubby’s specialties --- he uses an Ina Garten recipe), and grilled zucchini. I lined up the ingredients, Adam helped to shape the burgers and cut the cheese (cheeseburgers, or course!) and Hubby did all the work. Eggplant is sooooo yummy, especially with tomato sauce and cheese.

Slacker Monday, too

I’m on a roll here – fresh brats, grilled onions and peppers. While Hubby did the heavy lifting I finished off a bag of mixed green vegetables from the freezer. The fresh bratwurst from Trader Joe’s is delicious – and it’s cheaper there than in my local market.

But next time I think I’ll freeze the sausages before shrink-wrapping. They came out of the shrink-wrap looking smushed, but plumped up on the grill just fine. We made sausage sandwiches using the leftover (whole grain of course) burger buns.

Adam and I made peanut butter and banana ice cream today using a recipe from epicurious.com. This is a really different recipe – no eggs -- usingcornstarch for thickening the “custard”. The mix tasted wonderful. The ice cream was quite rich, but something was off about the texture. Next we’ll try just-plain-banana ice cream.  Adam wants to make ice cream every week. I think maybe every other week is better? (O, my waistline, not to mention my arteries. What is it that young folk don’t understand?)

Tuesday Dinner with Friends

5 pounds of chicken thighs, 5 pounds (less 2 small ones) of potatoes, 2 cups plus a dozen more garlic cloves,  two sticks of butter, 1-3/4 cups of cream, a bit of reduced-fat milk, a cup of red wine, a cup plus of olive oil, two dozen Brussels sprouts, fresh thyme and rosemary, salt, pepper. This is what was left.

Actually, I exaggerate. There were two chicken thighs and three hearty servings of mashed potatoes left, and enough sauce to douse them all liberally, as well as about ¾ cup of garlic-infused olive oil.

The main course was 40 Clove Garlic Chicken from The Stinking Rose Restaurant Cookbook. It was … in a word … delectable. It was worth peeling all that garlic … even with my trusty peeler it took a while. And I’m still finding flakes of garlic skin in odd places on the countertop.

But the fat content is Paula-Deen-worthy. Next time I think I’ll make the Chicken Cacciatore instead. But once a year, I will make this dish. Maybe sometime I’ll even get to taste it at the restaurant, eh?

So, have I already enthused about roasted Brussels sprouts? Too bad. Preheat the oven to 500 F. Trim the sprouts and cut them in half. Toss them in a bowl with olive oil and water (3 T. olive oil a 1 T. water for 2-1/2 pounds of sprouts). Arrange the sprouts cut side down on a baking sheet, and cover tightly with foil. Bake 10 minutes. Remove the foil. Bake 10 more minutes. If you think you don’t like Brussels sprouts, you should try these. Thank you Cook’s Illustrated magazine.

I’m not doing very well with the food picture thing. I get caught up in the cooking and serving (and maybe having had a glass or two of wine doesn’t help) and forget the pictures. Perhaps if I park the camera next to my place at the table, I’ll remember?

Wednesday

Yesterday I scored another half-flat of coastal berries, big and luscious, so our fruit bowl this morning was mostly berries. A Cara Cara orange, a Navel orange, a Valencia orange, a banana, and a Satsuma tangerine were the finishing touches.

Today I sorted the freezer in the bottom of our refrigerator. I pulled out two containers of homemade tomato soup to make room for my duck fat. The tomato soup, made last summer during tomato season, was better than I remember, or perhaps it’s just that it’s winter and fresh tomatoes are a distant memory.

The soup, with whole-wheat-tortilla-and-cheddar-cheese quesadillas, made lunch. (Trader Joe's has great whole-wheat tortillas. And corn tortillas, too!) Our non-stick griddle is showing signs of wear, so we’ve ordered a new one, a bit bigger. The new one is Calphalon. We’ve had good luck with our non-stick Calphalon stock pot, and the reviews for this particular griddle were fantastic.

I also found in that freezer a bag containing 12 ounces of Ahi tuna, so we’re having a perennial favorite tonight – tuna with teriyaki sauce. The sauce is equal parts sugar, dry sherry, and soy sauce, with a few rounds of fresh ginger thrown in. Boil until reduced by about half. Hubby will grill the fish, sometimes a tricky proposition with Ahi – it’s easy to overcook it.

The Zojirushi is making sticky rice (Cal Rose) and there are shallots softened in butter waiting for the baby spinach. The house smells of teriyaki sauce -- soy sauce and caramelized sugar and ginger – ummmm.

I’ve taken the fish out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature before grilling. One hour and counting.

Thursday

The plan for today is to cook a tri tip and make some cheese sauce for cauliflower. Hubby will rub the tri tip with Magic Dust and grill it direct. My job is to get it thawed in time! Magic Dust is one of our staple rubs, along with Steve Raichlen’s Memphis Rub. (Don’t forget – run to the computer and buy Steve’s Barbecue! Bible.)

We’re headed to LA on Friday to attend a Bordeaux tasting, our tickets a Christmas gift from son Zach. The tasting is at LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum -- we get to taste and muse as well, ogling all the classic cars. We will enjoy our evening.

But I bet you’re wondering why we’re cooking a tri tip right before we leave town, aren’t you? On Saturday, we’ll do some shopping, enjoy lunch with our boys, and head home – tri tip sandwiches for dinner!

Friday Footnote

There are four slices of tri tip left. So much for that plan.

This Week in the Kitchen, January 14, 2012

 We were driving out the gate last Sunday just at moonrise – couldn’t resist snapping a picture or two.

The first food picture you see is the kale gratin from last week’s post. The kale was very tender, but the taste couldn’t compete with the Italian sausage and goat cheese. I think I’ll try this again – once without the sausage and once without the goat cheese, in each case making the sauce lighter by omitting the butter and just shaking up the flour with the milk. Kale is wonderful stuff, especially in soups. Anyway, that was Saturday.

We started this week with Sunday dinner at Gerry’s. Hubby grilled the lamb chops, rubbed with olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkling Herbs de Provence. I made Panzanella, a delicious bread-and-tomato salad, from a Kitchen Parade recipe. It’s really not Panzanella season, but I did have those heirloom tomatoes from Trader Joe’s, so …

Tom showed up with a layered ratatouille in the manner of Julia Child, and it was delicious as well as pleasing to the eye. For pudding, Gerry made tiny tarts filled with mincemeat or lemon curd, using C4C to make the gluten-free crust. If you haven’t yet met Thomas Keller’s C4C  gluten-free flour, check it out here. It is now one of my kitchen staples – beats Pamela’s mixes any day. Gerry’s still struggling with rolling out the C4C piecrust, but we’re working on it.

 

Monday will find us with a pot of beans and ham, limas in this case. I have a ham bone for the pot, and the beans are currently softening. I generally use the boil-5-minutes-rest-an-hour method, with a generous dollop of Kosher salt in the soaking water. The beans absorb the salt, and little seasoning is required after the beans are rinsed and cooked with fresh water or stock.

 I like to add finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery, softening them first in a little olive oil. Today I have a superabundance of duck stock, so I will likely dump some of that in the pot in place of water. I like to bring the pot to a simmer and then put it, covered, in a 225 degree oven. The beans cook at a slow, even simmer. I credit Cooks Illustrated (March-April 2008 issue) with the soaking and cooking methods – great magazine. America’s Test Kitchen – thank you for all I am learning.

Today I will also make the meatballs for Poblano Albondigas, which we will enjoy later in the week. And I’ll make the marinade and rub the racks of ribs for tomorrow night. Or maybe I won’t do that until tomorrow!

Tuesday

Today marks our first adventure into the Stinking Rose Restaurant Cookbook  – baby back ribs! Garlic in the marinade and roasted garlic in the barbeque sauce - whoowee.

The ribs went into the marinade this morning and into the 275˚ F oven this afternoon. Latterly the kitchen smelled of garlic (of course) and of the vinegar in the barbeque sauce. Heavenly.

This morning I baked a butternut squash and pureed it with a bit of milk, butter, and cumin. It’s a beautiful orange, and contrasts with the green rice, an old favorite Frugal Gourmet (yes, the disgraced pedophile minister guy) recipe. I’ve given all his books away, but found a recipe on the internet that purports to be his. Lots of parsley (a wonderful bunch that I bought last Friday at the market that has been decorating our kitchen counter in a mug of water), spinach, and scallions are what make it “green”. It is served topped with grated parmesan.

The ribs finished with 15 minutes at 500˚ F, emerging brown and crispy. They were good, I must say, with the tangy barbeque sauce and crunchy crust, although my favorite rib recipe is still this one at epicurious.com.

Wednesday - Today is a day off!

I get a day off when either:  a) I succumb to the pizza gods and order in; or b) Hubby cooks. Tonight he’s cooking – crab cakes. This is one of his many specialties. He makes his own Bay Seasoning, and prefers baking the cakes to frying them. This time he’s using a recipe from a recent Bon Appetít. You can find it here at epicurious.com. We’re finishing off the final few leaves from our glorious bunch of parsley. The stems go into the compost bin.

I am cooking a few green beans to go along with – I bought ready-to-cook organic beans so all I have to do is blanch them and finish them.

The berry vendors are back. I passed them this afternoon as they were setting up on the corner. Well, actually, I didn’t pass them – I stopped and bought half a flat (6 “pints”). These are huge, beautiful, succulent strawberries. Our morning fruit bowl is going to be excellent tomorrow – strawberries, blackberries, oranges, clementines, and, for Adam, the last Kiwi fruit until Friday’s market.

Thursday

I’m in using-up mode. There are some bits of things in my refrigerator that cry out to be used, among them the last bit of gourmet plum sauce. This calls for pork chops, and I have a hunk of pork loin in the freezer that will be perfect.

This I will cut into thick chops, and then I will brine the chops for an hour or two in a 16:1 water-to-kosher salt mixture with just a bit of raw sugar added. These chops are moist and tasty; never dry, thanks to the brine. Hubby will rub them with oil, salt and pepper, and cook them over direct heat on the grill.

For those of you who haven’t been here, we are on our second natural gas grill since we moved to this house in 2001. This one has five burners running-back-to-front, an ideal configuration for grilling indirect; a smoker box at one end; a rotisserie which we rarely use; an infra-red burner intended for the rotisserie but which is ideal for crisping duck skin when we do butt-chicken-style duck. Come see us – we’ll cook for you!

To accompany, I have the red chard from Friday’s market. The thin slices of tender stems I will add to shallots softened in butter, and braise for about 10 minutes with a little stock. Then we add the leaves, cut into ribbons, and cook until wilted. Finally we finish the dish with a few raisins and toasted pine nuts. (The raisins and pine nuts come from our market fruit purveyor – delicious.)

Friday

Today is another easy day. I unearthed a container of Bolognese sauce in the big freezer, and with the spinach-and-cheese ravioli I scored at Trader Joe’s, we’ve got dinner! And it’s really easy because Hubby is the pasta cook. All I have to do is warm the sauce, put together the cheese grater, and set the table. Hurray!

This morning we went to the local farmer’s market. The fruit guys had Cara Cara oranges, my absolute favorite orange. And of course they had kiwi fruit, grapefruit, and Satsuma tangerines, too.  I scored some purple potatoes, a discounted pint of grape tomatoes, a beautiful head of cauliflower, a lump of ginger, some zucchini, shallots, and a bag of baby spinach, among other things like limes and eggplant from Charles Drew, and a couple of red onions from Moessner Farms.

The big hit of the day, however, was this: persimmon chips. The fruit guys, having a lot of soft, ripe fuyu persimmons, had sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. They beat fruit leather all hollow! I bought a little bag and wandered around the market, offering anyone I knew a taste. They were so good, I went back to buy more.

Saturday

A recipe in my daily email from Fine Cooking magazine (and thanks, Deanna, for the subscription!) caught my eye – Korean Bibimbap with Sesame Chicken. It’s made with leftover cooked chicken. And it sounds delicious. This is just the recipe for christening my new wok (more on that later).

So tonight I’m taking it easy once again, while Hubby grills a chicken beer-can style. We’ve come a long way with butt chicken since we first came across it in Steve Raichlen’s Barbecue! Bible.  By the way, if you don’t own this cookbook, run right away to the computer and order it – you can get it used from sites like abebooks.com.

Some number of years ago, our first beer can chicken wobbled on the grill grate, precariously balanced on a half-full can of beer and the ends of the drumsticks. We liked the result so well that we bought a pair of rudimentary stainless steel “beer cans”, basically a heavy receptacle on an octagonal base. These we used for several years. Then our friend Janice, who finds the absolute best gadgets, bought an updated version, like the one on the left in the picture.

We were so impressed, we opted for new beer cans – one like Janice’s and an updated Steve Raichlen version – the one on the right. The best thing is that these catch most of the drippings, so there’s less mess on the grill and lovely jus to add to the stock, after the fat is removed.

So the Poblano Albondigas soup gets pushed into next week. But the meatballs are already made, waiting in the freezer.