Life Begins at 30

Serve with butter, salt and meat

I love finding very strange translations for instructions. You see them a lot on assembly instructions for products from another country. The other day I bought some frozen arepas from a Mexican grocery store The arepas are from Colombia. Here are the instructions, typos and all:

Instructions for cook:
1. For fast consume defrost in microwave for 3 minutes.
2. A day after remove from freezer
3. Gil on the grill at 400 C
4. If desired, serve with butter, salt and meat

Chicken Pox Parties Back in Vogue

A Pox On Your House? Please Call! / Chicken pox parties may be back in vogue

Indeed, although the idea of deliberately exposing children to virulent diseases at parties may seem like a trendy, New Age kind of approach to disease prevention, it harkens back at least 350 years. Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1689-1762), wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, discovered in her travels that the scourge of smallpox, which had been so devastating in western Europe, had been largely contained in present-day Turkey due to the practice of deliberately infecting children with small quantities of the smallpox virus.

Shipping Soon -- New Knives

With my Christmas money, I decided that I was going to purchase myself some new knives. Though it may not seem so on the surface, this was a momentous decision. Scoot close to your computer, and I will tell you why:

I, the grown up, thirty year old, completely independent, living in San Francisco woman was subconsciously waiting until I get married until I allowed myself the luxury of having great knives!

For the past several years, I have been using a set of serrated knives that I bought at the State Fair for $20. My friend Jen and I watched one of those demos where the guy cuts through everything, and we were suckered in. But I digress ...

This decision to not have great knives was completely subconscious. I love cooking and every time I am in my kitchen, I would curse my knives - they became an obstacle to enjoying being in the kitchen.

If it had been anything else in my life ... a ripped piece of clothing, a broken piece of electronic equipment ... I most likely would have replaced it quickly. But this was different. Knives are something that I associate with marriage and wedding registries. Every newly married couple that I know (and believe me there are quite a few of them) has a butcher block full of gleaming shiny new knives. Instead of just fixing the problem and purchasing them, it was almost as if there was something I had to overcome first.

I got over it by making fun of the whole notion to myself:

"Don't worry Jen, just because you are (gasp!) buying knives for yourself doesn't mean you will never get married."

"Buying knives? What's next? Turning into a spinster with 30 cats?"

You get the idea.

I have a feeling I am not alone. How many of you did not have a really good set of knives, or a complete set of plates, or a decent pot or pan until you got married? How many of us have subconsciously put off getting major appliances or a nice set of wine glasses, thinking that we will register for that when we get married?

So if you are single and independent, do me a favor: Sometime this year, buy yourself something that one would usually register for. A nice set of towels, a toaster, a really great skillet. The time is now. And it feels really great.

Tomales Bay, 1.17.04

We took the weekend off and drove to what is fast becoming a favorite place -- Tomales Bay. It's only about an hour from here, but it just feels like a world away. We filled our couple days there with exploring, relaxing. Jason took a lot of naps, I read a lot. It was a wonderful, rejuvenating weekend.

Some highlights:

> The chorus of frogs that sang us to sleep at night.

> An egret alone in a bay, allowing us to get close to him by kayak.

> A bright carpet of undersea plants and animals. Visible during the low tide.

> Baby lambs dotting the hillside.

> A swing waiting for us on a beach we reached by kayak.

> An entire weekend of bright fires in the fireplace.

> Two dozen oysters slurped at the site where they are harvested.

> Winning a backgammon game bet -- and a free car wash.

> Cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery.

> An entire town sold out of fresh bread by noon because the one main breadmaker had taken the week off.

> A rambling drive there and back through rolling hills and farmland.

> Sea Lions poking their funny heads out of the sea to say hello.

Please take a look at our photos -- they tell the story much better than I do.

ENTER PHOTO GALLERY

OK Gross

Micro Touch Trimmer Commercial

Back Hair Anyone? This commercial made me laugh a lot when I saw it ... Luckily for you, it's on the Website!!!

I don't think I object to the product so much as the commercial!

Black Beans & Green Rice

We're the type of people who talk about our next meal while we are sitting at a meal. So this morning, we went out to grab a quick breakfast and talked about what we were going to have for dinner. It wasn't as crazy as you'd think -- I wanted to figure out if I had to purchase anything while out.

"How about beans and rice," I asked.

We had been out and eating just a lot of food lately, so something basic like beans and rice sounded great to both of us.

I have tried to put my recipe together below. I am not great at doing recipes because I wing the amounts. Where possible, I have tried to the best of my ability to approximate the correct amounts. Hopefully, this will give you a good idea of the general process. I hope I lead you in the correct direction!

Also - both of these could easily be made into veggie dishes -- use veggie broth in the rice and salt/olive oil in the beans.

Black Beans

approx 1/4 cup of pancetta, diced
2 tablespoons diced garlic
2 tablespoons diced shallots
1 cup black beans
chipotle in adobo, pulsed in a blender, to taste (approximately 1-2 tablespoons)

Heat a medium sized pan over moderate heat and add pancetta. Allow pancetta to brown. Remove pancetta, and set aside on a plate with a paper towel.

Drain off some of the fat in the pan, but not all. Lower heat. Add diced shallot. Allow it to soften and then add diced garlic. Cook until soft. Do not allow it to burn.

Add approximately 6 cups water, and the black beans. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat.

Cook until tender. This will depend on the age of your beans. Mine took about 75-80 minutes. If you run out of water, add warm water to the beans. When tender and most of the water is soaked in, remove from heat and add in pancetta. Stir in chipotle in adobo to taste.

I didn't add salt to this recipe. The pancetta is plenty salty and if you serve with the rice, there is going to be salt in the chicken stock.

Green Rice

2 1/4 cups chicken stock
1 cup brown rice
1/3 cup chopped greens. This can be any type of greens you choose. I have used parsley, sage, carrot tops, spinach, green onions -- whatever you choose. Chop them in a food processor to get them very fine
1/4 cup chopped toasted pumpkin seeds (toasted pine nuts are a good substitute if you don't have pumpkin seeds)

Bring chicken stock to a boil. Add brown rice. Cover and lower heat. Cook for approximately 30-35 minutes, until tender and all liquid is absorbed. Uncover and remove from heat. Stir in pumpkin seeds and greens.

Serve rice and beans side by side in a bowl.

Here's one for the "Well Duh" column

Yahoo! News - Farmed Salmon Loaded with Chemicals, Study Finds

OK - I knew that farmed salmon did not have the health benefits of wild salmon, but it's amazing that they are saying that it's bad enough that we should only eat it once a month.

Farmed salmon taken from markets in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Paris, London, Oslo, Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto had the highest levels [of toxins], and the researchers said consumers should eat no more than one-half to one meal of salmon per month. A meal was eight ounces (one-quarter of a kg) of uncooked meat.

Random Interesting Links

THE RECIPE WITH THE WORLD'S MOST VAGUE INSTRUCTIONS
Pork Chops, by James Beard. 1956

THE SITE THAT IS SATISFYING THE VOYEUR IN ME
Other People's Grocery Lists
This site is perfect for someone like me who would never touch someone's germy grocery list if I saw it in a basket or (gasp!) on the ground somewhere. But here, I can view to my sanitary heart's content!

A VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE THAT I READ TODAY
Chronicle: Intel, HP chiefs warn that US needs to improve education system

PHOTOGRAPHS I WISH I COULD TAKE
foodlover.com
Check out his food photography!

A WHOLE LOTTA WAYS TO PROCRASTINATE
Yahoo Picks of the Year

PICTURES OF MY DINNER ON MONDAY NIGHT
http://fogcity.blogs.com/photos/spices_ii/

January Rain

At this moment, I should hate the rain. It's the rain that caused the damage to my car above. The white plastic bags are covering up a completely smashed windshield. Note that there is no driver side mirror - that was ripped off by (I believe) falling debris during a wild storm we had yesterday morning. So, in general, this storm has been a royal pain.

But how can I hate the rain when it gives me the views of a magic wild storm from my window?

RAIN PHOTOS

New Year's Feast

For the second year in a row, Jason and I rang in the new year alone making a new year's feast. My feelings of geekiness for being so content with this plan were quickly overshadowed by happiness to be sharing such a great time together.

I decided that it would probably not do our relationship any good if we shopped together. New Year's Eve + San Francisco + Whole Foods + Sick boyfriend did not make for a good shopping prospect, so I ditched the boy at home and fought the crowds on my own. The store was a complete frenzy with people -- enough to drive anyone crazy. I just kicked back and tried to go with the flow. It's funny what decisions you make while the store is so crowded -- I would buy one thing vs another (ie., bagged spinach vs bulk) because I was standing right in front of it, and it was too difficult to get to what I really wanted.

Duly stocked up, I made my way home.

Jason came over later, and we began dinner with a martini and crab cakes. We had seen some good friends early this week, and they were talking about making crab cakes -- that planted the seed in my head.

Crab Cakes (adopted from this recipe, but greatly modified)

1/2 pound lump crab meat, picked over
pinch salt
cracked fresh pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 lightly beaten egg
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
red chili flakes
1/3 cup panko or bread crumbs
lemon wedges for garnish
italian parsley for garnish

In a bowl, combine all ingredients except for the parsley and lemon wedges. Form into 4 patties, about 1/2 inch thick. Combine the mixture gently but thoroughly. In a skillet, over moderately high heat, heat enough olive oil to lightly cover the bottom and a pat of butter. Wait until the foam subsides. Add the crab cakes, and cook for approx 4 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown and crisp. Serve with lemon wedges and parsley as garnish.

Delicious!

At about 9.00 we decided to start the rest of dinner -- a simple risotto and scallops a la plancha. There is something wonderfully meditative and satisfying about making a risotto. I was the designated "stirrer" and Jason scrambled around to deal with the rest of the meal. The risotto was: Mushrooms, peas, spinach and parmesan. Nothing special, but wholly delicious and satisfying. We have made a couple mushroom risottos in the past few months, and I keep striving to make it taste mushroomy enough -- it's a bit of work to make it strongly mushroomy. I think we solved it this time by using 1 oz of dried porcini, soaking them in 1 cup of warm water, and using that mushroom water in the risotto. We then chopped up some of the soaked porcinis and added them to the fresh mushroom mixture. I also finally realized that my expectation of the mushroomy taste is, I believe, a false expectation that had to be modified -- we get so used to that artificial mushroom taste that is in dishes (ie., mushroom soups from the can) that we don't really know what a true mushroom taste is ...

The scallops were prepared from a recipe the I use from Mark Bittman's book "The Minimalist Cooks Dinner" and is very simple. You do nothing more than toss scallops with crushed garlic, small amount of olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt and pepper. Let sit for 5 minutes and then cook in a dry pan - about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. I love them prepared this way.

I was really thankful for being able to ring in the New Year paying homage to things that I find important -- good food, home, love, companionship. I hope that you all celebrated in an equally joyful manner.

Happy New Year!