The McArdle Family Chili Cookoff

We were thrilled to have one of Nathan's sisters, Jenny, and her husband, Brandon, visit us the weekend before Thanksgiving. We love any chance to have Eleanor spend time with her relatives. She's growing so fast, we want everyone who loves her to get to spend time with her at each stage, (especially those difficult stages.-Take all the time with her you want. I'll just be over here far away).

This visit was a particularly fun one because we tested out a game (Rapid Recall) during her nap and had a McArdle/Brooks chili cook-off.

The final four looked surprisingly different.

Photos by Jenny McArdle

Shown here in medaling order:

Nathan's Southwest Cowboy Chili courtesy of my birthday gift from Jenny, the Nom Nom Paleo Cookbook (top left)

Jenny's Pumpkin and Chicken Chili (no idea where she got the recipe from-I think this one is it, but she substituted some ingredients) (top right)

Brandon's modified Alton Brown Pressure Cooker Chili recipe (bottom left)

And my exotic Kangaroo Meat Chili [Original recipe from the Edgewater Cookbook (our neighborhood fundraiser cookbook) but with ground kangaroo meat instead of beef]. This is a somewhat similar recipe. (bottom right)

In order to pick the winner, everyone ranked all four dishes in order of their favorites and the ultimate winner was the one with the most points. Even though he didn't even rank his own first, Nathan's was a hands down winner. The broth was so velvety delicious that even when we ran out of beef by dinner, I still poured myself a bowl of broth.

I gave myself a last place vote because I was completely turned off by the kangaroo meat. Raw, ground kangaroo has a very fishy smell, which, though it was covered by the chili ingredients and didn't bother anyone else in the group, did me in. I just could not get behind it. I will say it completely mellowed by the next day.

Just a Minute: August 2013

August was a learning month for me. I had to learn to let go as Eleanor started daycare, I learned that I really can't prepare for Leisure Games by myself anymore, and I learned that Miley Cyrus has a lot of tattoos. I try not to watch her somewhat disturbing video, but that song is so catchy.

reading...I just finished the fourth book in the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. They are incredibly good. A lot of people were probably turned off from her later novels because her first one, Into the Woods, didn't ever solve one of the mysteries. Her later ones tie up all the loose ends, however, and they keep getting better and better. This one, Broken Harbor, left me incredibly unsettled for days afterward. I don't want to give anything away, but it was so well-written that the details of the book stayed with me.

listening...A Ghost in My House by Lucy Schwartz never gets old no matter how many times I listen to it.

adjusting...Eleanor's first day of daycare of August 26th. It was awful. But only for me. She was her usually sunny self, happy when I left her, happy when I picked her up again. It's never going to get easier, I'm told. Preschool, grade school, high school, college. Every time I say goodbye to her as she stands on the brink of a new precipice, I will be a mess. Sigh. Having a kid just tears you open and exposes your tender insides to the world.

Photo by Béatrice Peltre
via allabroadbaby.com

cooking…I have made numerous batches of Oatmeal Carmelitas this month. It seems they go over well for every occasion. As this is the beginning of zucchini season, I broke out my favorite zucchini recipe, Cherry Tomato, Zucchini, & Goat Cheese Clafoutis, while Sarah was here, and I plan to make it again at least a few more times this fall. 

New Fruits

We took Sarah up to Devon Avenue the other night for some Indian food. After dinner, we walked around so she could get a feel for Chicago's version of India (not all that far off, really), and stopped at a few of the grocery stores up there that we like. I found SIX new fruits that I haven't tried yet, so we had ourselves a strange fruit tasting last night.

From the top middle, winter melon, a Forelle pear out of South Africa, guava, jack fruit, dosakai, and a burro banana.

The dosakai tasted like a tangy cucumber (almost pickle-like), the winter melon was the blandest melon I've ever had, and the jack fruit was everyone's favorite and truly almost the weirdest fruit I've had yet. Its deep yellow fruit had the consistency of meat, but its flavor was somewhat like a mango. The guava was lightly fruity, but the hard seeds were difficult to get used to, the pear was very nice with a good flavor and firmness, and the banana was terrible! I decided to pan fry it so it really ended up just tasting like french fries. Looking it up later, I should have let it ripen because it's supposed to be a very lemony banana flavor. I think I'm going to have retry this one with a ripe one.

Also, as I typed this, I had a tasty plumcot that I just picked up from Trader Joe's for breakfast.

Thai Curry Stew

For having no concrete plans this weekend, we kept very busy. The weekend included a number of projects, including a trip to Lowe's for some wood (and a freeze out on the way home as we transported it all in our tiny Kia). We did a little cleaning, some painting, and Nathan even built a mini carpentry shop in our hallway. (As if my nighttime trips to the bathroom aren't already perilous enough, now I must skirt the sawhorses and jutting ends of 12 foot boards on my way to the loo.)

Nonetheless, we still made time for eating some tasty dishes. On Saturday Nathan and I created the following recipe, which is based on one from Bon Appetit called Kerala-Style Beef Stew. Unfortunately, that one was just odd, and apparently we aren't really all that enthusiastic about beef stew. However, we liked the broth, so we started with that and added in some matching vegetables.

Thai Curry Stew

4-6 skinned, de-boned chicken thighs
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 Serrano chilies, seeded & chopped
1 quarter inch knob ginger, minced
1 t. tumeric
1 t. black pepper
1 onion, diced
4-6 cups chicken stock
2 chayote squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
2 c. peapods, sliced
2. c. carrots, julienned
1 can coconut milk

In a large pan, brown the chicken thighs in olive oil. When both sides are browned, remove from pan and set aside. Add a bit more olive oil, the garlic, chilies, and ginger and cook for one minute or so until fragrant but not too brown. Add tumeric and black pepper and cook another minute or two. Add onion. When onion is translucent, add chicken stock and cubed chicken thighs (insides of the chicken will still be somewhat raw). Bring to boil.

When stock boils, turn it down to a simmer and add chayote. Cook 10-15 minutes, add peapods and cook 3 minutes. Add carrots and coconut milk at end, cook 2-3 minutes until carrots are just cooked. Serve.

Don't let the chayote intimidate you, it's much easier to work with then most squash (doesn't seem to get mushy as easily), and the taste is a really great addition as it tastes less starchy than a potato. 

He Loves Me

I told Nathan a week ago that I had gotten him a Valentine's Day gift "just in case he wanted a heads up so he could start thinking what to get me." I offered up the idea of getting me a cookie bouquet, but after he researched it, he said "no way was he paying $70 for some awful cookies." Instead, he had decided he was going to make me Valentine cookies, macarons, in fact.

I thought he was crazy to tackle something so daunting as his first ever attempt at making cookies, but he was set on it. I had gotten a cookbook on macarons from my mom for my birthday, so I handed the book over last week. He studied up every night, made his grocery list and did the shopping for them last weekend. He had originally planned to make them on Sunday, but we couldn't find almond flour and powdered egg whites, so they took another day to locate.

Each night Nathan continued to study the recipe and directions, while our kitchen counters have been covered in all of the preparations since Sunday. He tackled the lemon almond cream filling on Tuesday night, accidentally making a double batch (good thing it's tasty on all sorts of things) and using every bowl in the kitchen.

His plan was to make the cookies on Wednesday night, but then he had to work late, so they became the Valentine's evening project. Last night he came home early from work, had his snack, and got down to work.

He mixed and scraped vanilla beans, blended and even added food coloring to make them pink.

Then he had to pipe it out into disks and bake it in the oven at multiple temperatures. Once the cookies cooled, he still had to pipe in the filling. Overall the whole macaron making process was a multi-hour project, but the finished product was delicious!

Nathan was disappointed that some of the cookies ran together in the oven and didn't look perfect, but I loved them all.

Getting Ready

For the past couple of years, we've been throwing a Burns' Night celebration. I have never really thought about how much preparation one takes, but this weekend I made a list of all I did so far and what is to come, and I was incredibly surprised to see how long it was.

And the party's not even until next weekend, so I haven't even started preparing any of the six courses!

My sister, Emily, designed the invitation, menu, and poem layouts for me!

Here's some of my fancy party preparations from last weekend:

Sort out soup tureen and ladle for first course
Iron and fold napkins
Wash and iron tablecloths
Iron flags
Make table runner and iron
Find Nathan's kilt and wool socks
Count out silverware settings
Polish all silver
Order haggis and oatcakes
Buy Scotch
Place order for pork shoulder
Print menus and Ode to Haggis
Write Immortal Memory Address
Order centerpiece
Write shopping list

Amazingly, I still had plenty of time to finish a book, paint the armchair for the baby's room, make cookies, go out for a lovely Chinese dinner with my husband, and make scones too! I never feel this organized.

Sometime this week I will:

Buy groceries/supplies
Whip honey butter (tonight or tomorrow night)
Prepare Angel Food Cake (Wednesday or Thursday night)
Make Vanilla Custard Sauce (prob Wednesday night)
Make Chocolate Scotch Cake (prob Thursday night)
Mix up the Drambuie Vinaigrette (Friday night)
Boil and mash turnips (Friday night)
Boil and mash potatoes (Friday nights)
Pick up the pork shoulder (Friday on the way home from work)
Season pork shoulder for overnight marination (Friday night)
Clean the house (I've assigned this one to Nathan)

The Cookie Fairy

One of my goals on my life list was to take cookies to a nursing home, but when I tried that last year, I was told in no uncertain terms that they couldn't accept strange food from strange people because that was a health risk to their patients. I'll still try to meet that goal sometime, but it becomes a bigger goal because I'm going to have to make friends with someone at a nursing home in order to bring them cookies personally (that's still allowed).

In the meantime though, I wanted to do something nice that was related to this goal. A few of our neighbors are older (one just turned 92!), so I thought it would be fun to make a batch of cookies each week (or month, I'm not going to be a stickler about how often I do it) so that I could take a few to the neighbors.

This weekend I made some Oatmeal Carmelitas (though I used more chocolate chips and more nuts than this recipe), which are pretty much the best cookie bar ever invented. You should definitely make a batch tonight. SO GOOD.

I wrapped them up in individual largish servings and dropped them off with a handful of neighbors. It's pretty hard to walk quietly up a wooden staircase when you're six months pregnant, so I'm not sure this Cookie Fairy went completely undetected, but it was nice to think of their pleasure upon discovering their cookies as I munched on the remaining cookie bars.

Just a Minute: December Edition

reading…Reading is slow going for me now that I'm well into the pregnancy. I barely get a few pages in before I am completely snoozing. One book that has managed to keep me awake longer than most is The Chaperone. It's set in the '20's and is a story about silent film star, Louise Brooks and her chaperone from Kansas.

watching…Saw 5 Year Engagement and Silver Linings Playbook while my sister was here. I really enjoyed both. Silver Linings Playbook was one of the few movies I actually watched in the theater this year, and it was totally worth paying full price to see it. Quirky and at times super awkward, it was a really good story without being too sentimental, so I think even Nathan would have enjoyed it.

listening...to Christmas Time in New Orleans by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and reliving our warm weather Christmas last year in Savannah, especially after our atrocious slog home through snowstorm Euclid (really, we're naming snowstorms now?). There's really nothing like Billie Holiday to get you in the seasonal spirit.

sewing...Now that my Christmas projects are either done or too little, too late, I can tackle all the cute little baby things I want to start making. Perhaps this, and this, and this, and maybe even these. 

baking…Well, just before Christmas I made some Orange Oatmeal quick bread, some Chocolate Scotcheroos (minus the sugar, still completely delicious), English Toffee, and Sugar Cookies. This weekend, I made a batch of super gooey brownies for my neighbor's 92nd birthday and homemade Honey French Bread. I think I might start being the "cookie fairy" for all the neighbors once a week, since one batch should easily cover everyone-hope no one is making a New Year's Resolution against sweets.

making...We are slowly but surely getting the baby's room ready. I'm collecting art for the walls, planning shelving to go around the top of the room, getting supplies to paint our armchair so it matches (Am I crazy?-I'll keep you posted. I think that's going to be an early 2013 project), cleaning out what used to be the craft closet, and buying tiny dresses to fill the newly empty craft closet.

Just a Minute: November

Boy, November flew by!

Image from Amazon

reading…Just finished This is Where I Leave You by Jonathon Tropper. A bit like mixing The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen with High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. A little heavy, but the end wasn't a downer and the narrating voice was great which made for a quick, enjoyable read.

cleaning…When we were at my parents' over Thanksgiving, we took a stab at cleaning out some of our childhood/high school belongings. I ended up dragging my CD collection back to Chicago to sort through it. I have a rather embarrassing plethora of movie soundtracks (Does anyone even remember the movie Go? Well, I have the soundtrack, among many many others.) and a rather large stack of country music, including no less than 12 Garth Brooks CDs (oh, Lord, I even own his Chris Gaines oddity). One thing my sisters and I agreed on as we went through our piles of things is how painful it is to think of all the money that those many ceramic Disney figurines, CDs, or teddy bears represent.

Image from Amazon

listening…I bought Holidays Rule from Amazon this week because they had it as a $1.99 special. It's pretty good. Among my favorites are I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by The Civil Wars and What Are You Doing New Year's Eve by The Head and the Heart. It's a good mix for background party music.

Image from fellowfellow

loving…This wreath. I adore it. I bought a huge square boxwood wreath at a thrift store this fall, but I haven't tackled adding anything to it yet. This makes me want to try. I could definitely make this work.

making...I'm nearly finished with the stocking stuffers. I think watching a good two movies while hand-sewing should finish them off. Maybe when they're done, I can get started on some fun baby projects. First order of business, baby pants from a pattern my sister gave me this year.

Image from King Arthur Flour

baking…I made some dried cherry and pistachio biscotti this weekend. I used my usual recipe, and just added about a cup of pistachios and a very large handful of dried cherries. Though I was a bit disappointed in how it turned out (a bit crumbly for some reason), Nathan assures me he loves it. I think perhaps I cooked it too long during its first bout in the oven. Our oven is so temperamental. I sort of secretly hope it dies, so I can justify getting something awesome. But then again, our microwave will have to die first and our refrigerator has some incredibly frustrating crisper drawers, so maybe the oven will need to live a lot longer...

My Husband the Scavenger

List of things Nathan ate off of random trees/bushes/vines in Italy

Yes, he was stealing tomatoes off someone's
vines, but in his defense there were a number
of tomatoes just rotting on the vine.
I don't think they'll miss the ones he took.

1. Olives
2. Pomogranate
3. Tomatoes
4. Olives
5. Persimmon
6. Grapes
7. Olives (He was truly in denial about how bad they taste fresh. He kept telling me that maybe this one would be ripe. FYI: It doesn't help.*)
8. Orange

*Did you know that no olive tastes good right off the vine? They are all terribly terribly bitter. Olives must be fermented or cured to be edible.

How to Cook Without a Recipe

Some people think that it takes some sort of talent to be able to make a meal without going by a recipe, but I'm going to tell you the secret. It doesn't take talent at all. The key to throwing a dish together without a recipe is starting out small.

First, start by using recipes. That's how you learn amounts of ingredients to use in the future, things that go well together, and flavors that meld. Using recipes helps you learn what 2 tablespoons of olive oil look like in a pan and how much salt it takes to flavor a dish.

Read up and research. You can find a recipe for anything and everything online. And even better, you can read up on all of the hints from other bakers and cooks who have already used that recipe. Often these hints and suggestions come in handy on other recipes down the road.

Notice and remember interesting and unexpected complementary flavors in recipes and at restaurants (mango & chili, nutmeg & cheese, balsamic & dijon, ginger & lemon, bacon & well, everything). These are the touches that will make your meals taste extra special.

Go off recipe. When you make something, make notes about what you liked and what you didn't like. The next time, leave out the red pepper flakes or add extra lemon juice.

Experiment! This advice might be intimidating, but tasting as you go means that you can control how the dish turns out. And if it bombs, it's honestly not a big deal. Don't experiment before important events or when you're having guests, of course. You want this to be fun, not stressful! Again, be sure to make notes or even write whole new recipes so you remember for the next time.

Talk to others. Ask about ingredients you've never used, talk to people about their favorite techniques, ingredients, or dishes, and ask for advice on things you've had trouble doing.

All photos from my instagram @hannakinsey.

Ingredients You Probably Don't Have in Your Kitchen But Should

Almonds
Not only are they great to snack on when you just need something crunchy, but they're a tasty addition to pretty much any baked good. Plus, sometimes you can even grind it up really well and add it to flour if you're running a little short for your recipe.

Capers
Capers come in a pickling solution, so they keep practically forever in the refrigerator. Do not make Chicken Picatta without them, and they add a great zing to pasta or potato salads.

Cream
Not only do you never know when you might need to whip up a chocolate ganache, but there's really no substitute for being able to add cream to pasta sauce for an amazing depth of flavor. An unopened carton can last a surprisingly long time (I've managed to keep it for a month at least before, though don't count on that during the summer.)

Dark Chocolate Chips
Like with the cream above, you never know when you might need to whip up a quick batch of ganache to use as frosting, cookie or ice cream topping, or truffle center, not to mention nothing is better in chocolate chip cookies than Ghiradelli's 60% cocoa chocolate chips. Nathan also eats these frozen by the handful, so I try to have them on hand for a quick chocolate fix.

Kosher Salt
Especially during grilling season, I prefer this to sprinkle on grilling meat or seafood because the bigger flakes adhere better and last through the whole cooking process better.

Lemongrass
You really can't make any sauces taste authentically Thai without lemongrass. It also adds a really nice flavor to stir fry, and don't even think about Tom Yum Soup without it. Usually you can find it in the produce section of the grocery store, but luckily we can get it already chopped and frozen from a local Asian grocery store.

Lemons/Limes
Fresh lemon or lime juice is much more flavorful than bottled. There are a ton of ways to use slices, zest, or the juice of lemon or lime. Just to name a few, we throw them in with fish and vegetables on the grill, add them to pitchers of water when we're sitting outside on a hot day, use lemons in Chicken Picatta, and limes with black beans or mango salsa. They keep very well in the fridge so you really just need to use them within a week or two of buying them. (I do have bottled juice as well, but only as a backup if I need more than I can get from the fresh lemons or limes I have on hand except when it comes to lemonade-just use bottled juice and throw in some lemon slices.)

Good Olive Oil
While it is not cheap, there are some things that justify using a really good olive oil. For one, any homemade salad dressing tastes much more amazing with good olive oil. My favorite is hojiblanca, which has a peppery bite to it. Yum!

Fresh Parsley
If you keep it either completely dry (wrapped in paper towels) or with the stems in water, parsley will stay fresh a few weeks. Fresh parsley really makes a difference in everything from lemon vinaigrette to pasta salads, chicken and fish dishes.

Pine nuts
Pine nuts can be pretty expensive, but you don't have to use a lot in any dish. One cup of pine nuts can go a very long way (I store unused pine nuts in the freezer). First of all, you absolutely cannot beat the taste of fresh pesto. There has never been a jar of pesto that tastes even half as good as homemade. It's really easy, and you can freeze it into multiple containers so you have enough for just one meal at a time. (Freezing the pesto doesn't change the taste at all.) Also, pine nuts are really great as a substitute for regular nuts in cookies or toasted and thrown in a salad.

Shallots
There are two dishes we make relatively often that require shallots. One I've mentioned recently, and the other is a citrus salad with a warm vinaigrette from the In the Kitchen with Rosie cookbook. Even if you don't have a go-to recipe that calls for shallots, however, I find myself using them when I make fish or even vegetables like spinach or green beans. They have a slightly sweeter, more delicate flavor than an onion. That difference is really noticable, which is why I don't just use onions instead every time.

Sparkling Water in cans
I've started drinking La Croix instead of soda for those times when I just really need the fizzy burn, and I've noticed how handy it is to have sparkling water on hand for other things. Flavored or unflavored, you can use it to make pretty much every mixed drink tastier. Plus it keeps for practically forever as long as it's unopened. Sometimes I substitute this in for the water in lemonade, and it's delicious. But best yet, Pimm's Cup is my current summer afternoon adult beverage of choice, and you can't make it without it.

Images (via flickr) from left to right, beginning in top left corner:

Roasted California Almonds; Capers; cream is good; Blueberry Papaya Cucumber Juice and Chocolate Cake with Ganache;
kosher salt; Olive oil, lemon, both Golden; Lemongrass Stalks; Olive Oil;
Parsley; Toasted Pine Nuts; Mixed Shallots; La Croix

My Favorite Summer Cocktail

This vintage English cocktail is the most delicious, refreshing summer drink that, to my surprise, includes gin! What really makes this perfect is the cucumber, so don't leave it out.

Pimm's Cup

3/4 c. gin
1/4 c. Pimm's no. 1
1 lemon, cut into half slices
1 orange, cut into half slices
1/2 cucumber, cut into half slices
1 c. strawberries, cut into small chunks
2 large sprigs of mint, muddled

Add just before serving:
2 cans of sparkling lemon soda (I used La Croix Lemon and added a few tablespoons of sugar)


Add all to a pitcher and stir well. Let steep for an hour, and then add the sparkling lemon soda. Serve with ladle so that you get all of the fruit bits in your glass too. If you have any Pimm's Cup left over, cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and reuse it later in the week. Time only makes it better. Just add a bit more gin and lemon soda before your next pour.

New Fruit

I tried a new fruit this weekend. Now I can add the guayaba to my list. Had sort of a banana-y texture and flavor, but with a fruity element too. Kind of a passion fruit flavor, I think, (though I haven't tried a real passion fruit yet, so that's not scientific.)
 

Forgive the blurry photo. People were staring at
me taking this photo, and I felt self-concious. 
The little yellow things in the front are the guayaba.
They're about the size of golf balls, but really soft.

Lots of seeds, which I ate. It was a little odd, but not bad.

Comfort Food

Mmmmm...

    This is my absolute favorite meal. No matter what time
    of year, when I last had fish, or how much time I have to
    prepare dinner, I jump on the chance to have this for
    dinner. I've made it enough that's it's really fast to make
    now, but I will warn you that there are three steps which,
    on your first attempt, can make this seem time consuming.
    A good blender is a must. And the lemon vinaigrette is the
    best part, so DO NOT skip it.

    I think this recipe is originally from Giada, but I got it
    from my upstairs neighbor.

Orange Ruffy with Radicchio,
Cannelini Beans, and Lemon Vinaigrette

 Time: Approximately 30 minutes total
 Serves 2-4 people

Ingredients:
1-2 heads of radicchio*
3 shallots, finely chopped 
1 can* cannelini (white kidney) beans
1/3 c. fish broth or water


4 light fish filets (Orange Ruffy, talapia, etc.)
salt and pepper
flour
1-2 tablespoons butter
                       

            

           

       Vinaigrette:
             Juice and zest of 2 lemons
             2-3 garlic cloves 
             salt and pepper
             1/3 c. olive oil
             large handful of fresh parsley

 If you use a vegetable peeler for lemon peel (which I do), then you probably only need to do one lemon. Throw whole strips of peel, juice of two lemons, whole peeled garlic cloves, and 1/2  t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper into the blender and blend well. While blender is on, stream in olive oil. Stick a finger in and taste. Add more salt and pepper or lemon juice if needed. Throw in parsley and blend one final time. Set aside.

Thinly slice the radicchio. In hot pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add shallots, and cook
until translucent. Add radicchio. Stir occasionally. Cook until wilted with some browned edges.

While radicchio is cooking, pat filets dry. Salt and pepper both sides lightly. Coat well in flour. In another hot pan, add in a pat or two of butter and add two filets. Cook thoroughly, approximately 3 minutes on each side.

Add 1/3 c. fish broth or water (I've used both. The broth gives it a bit more flavor, but it's hard to find in the store. I made and froze broth-in 1/3 c. increments-that I made from crayfish shells, but when that ran out, I've just used water.) Add cannelini (white kidney) beans to radicchio, and cook until warmed through.

Layer plate with radicchio, fish, and then top with lemon vinaigrette. Really great with greens on the side, noodles, orzo or Israeli couscous.

*We really love the radicchio layer, so I usually use 2 small to medium heads of radicchio and 2 cans of beans with a splash more broth/water.

99 Fruits but a Bitter (Melon) Ain't One

Weak joke, that title, I know, but JayZ's voice keeps singing that in my head as I researched my list of fruits I've tried, so I couldn't come up with anything better when it came down to it.

Paw-Paw (Tried in Athens, OH)-Good.
Sweet and pulpy. Kind of like a bland peach.

When I created my Life List, I added the goal to taste 1,000 fruits. It's totally doable because there are thousands of different varieties of many fruits like mangos, apples, grapes, and even watermelons. The biggest problem I'm realizing that I will have naming them all is that so many are represented in grocery stores under their basic name. For example, when you buy grapes, cherries, peaches, nectarines, or plums (just to name a few) in the grocery store, you have the possibility of getting a range of varieties depending on the season. However, for some inexplicable reason, grocery stores vary rarely even mention the variety.

Apples are one of the few fruits that are actually sold by variety, and that's why they are one of the better tasting fruits in grocery produce sections. Because they're sold by variety, they can charge higher prices for the ones that are more difficult to get to market (example: Honeycrisp) because people will pay more knowing that the brand tastes better than those that are cheap and easy to transport (example: Red Delicious). For some reason, this has not yet advanced to other fruits.

I'm actually pretty ashamed to admit that the thought really never crossed my mind before that I was eating different varieties of peaches, nectarines, or plums (among others). You'd think that I would have realized that the variety was the reason that sometimes my stone fruits were delicious and sometimes they were terrible. Still, better late than never! Hopefully, being more aware of the varieties offered in stores will mean that I buy less awful fruit in the future.

Here are a few of the odd fruits I've tried since setting my goal.

Dragon Fruit (Tried in Korea)-Not great.
Didn't have much flavor. Light sweetness, a little grainy.
Might have been overripe.

Yellow Melon (and Dragon Fruit)-Good
Tasted like Honeydew

Loquat (Tried in Jeju, Korea)-Good
Sort of a sweet/sour tiny orange. Annoying amount of seeds.

Chayote (Tried at home/Cooked in Thai dish Nathan made.)-Good
Tastes like a mix between an apple and a potato.
Image by Stephen Crout, The Obsessive Chef

My Favorite: Biscotti

Biscotti used to be one of those baked goods that were so intimidating I never even contemplated making it, kind of like cannoli, petit fours, or macaroons. I'm not sure why I finally tried it, but it is surprisingly easy to make, very tasty, and much cheaper than anything you can buy in stores or coffee shops. (Also, dipped in chocolate, they make very impressive Christmas gifts for people.)

I regularly make this biscotti at our house because Nathan likes to have something small to eat in the mornings while he drinks his coffee. And there's nothing better suited to coffee dipping than biscotti. This recipe is very easy to tweak. Sometimes I add pecans and chopped dried apricots, sometimes lemon zest and pistachios, occasionally dried cranberries, walnuts, or almonds. For a very special treat, dip plain ones halfway in melted dark chocolate. (One bag of dark chocolate chips should cover a whole batch of biscotti with very little leftover.)

I am sure I originally found this recipe online, but it's been a few years, and now I can't find it again to give proper credit. I've tweaked it a bit too. This is the base recipe, but you can add any of the ingredients I mention above, just throw those extra ingredients in at the end before you form the dough into logs (except the zest, put that in around the same time as the eggs).


Almond Biscotti  
 (Don't forget: T=tablespoons, t=teaspoons)

3 1/4 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1/3 t. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
10 T. melted unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks)
3 large eggs
2 T. vanilla extract (make sure it's pure, not imitation)
1/2 t. almond extract (don't increase this amount or it will taste bitter)

Sift the flour, b. powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, extracts, and eggs together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to large bowl gently, blending gradually. Optional: Mix in 1 c. almonds,other nuts, or dried fruit.

Form two logs, one per biscotti pan. Bake in 350º oven until golden, about 40 minutes. Cool logs. Cut diagonally with sharp knife. Return biscotti slices back to oven on cookie sheet for 12 minutes or until lightly toasted. Turn over and toast for 8 minutes on remaining side.

See? It's actually pretty easy; the most time consuming part is the baking time, but I've started these at 9 pm before and still headed to bed at 11, no sweat. You can see why I have two biscotti pans; it certainly cuts down on the baking time. You can bake one log at a time if you only have one pan. You can even bake the loaves on cookie sheets, but I've found that the dough spreads too much if it doesn't have the sides of the pan to stop it. Not really a problem exactly, it just means your individual biscotti slices will be very long and thin and everything will take less time to bake.

My Favorite: Kitchen Tools

 

 Totally odd post, I know, but I really really love my mango splitter, so you must be informed of this love, and while I'm at it some of my other useful lesser known kitchen tools. I decided to go with a baker's dozen just because I was having a hard time narrowing it down and a baker's dozen just seemed so apt for a kitchen post, right?

First, of course, the aforementioned mango splitter (lower lefthand corner). Fabulously useful. One of those one shot tools that is actually well worth owning if you make mango salsa as often as we do. It takes a wee bit of practice to be able to pick up a mango and choose correctly where to cut it, but after awhile you can identify the slight indention that tells you where the pit lies. This cutter leaves very little flesh on the pit and cuts the mango evenly into two large pieces. I recommend peeling the mango after cutting because it makes it less slippery. Also, you should know that this works slightly less well on the smaller variety of mangos you occasionally find in the produce section, so don't buy those.

Above the mango splitter is the ever-useful mortar and pestle, which was once an anniversary gift from Nathan. It's a nice marble one that has a lovely heft to it and has survived its share of knocks and tumbles. I firmly tout that there's nothing that adds better depth to a dish than freshly ground spices, and it's really satisfying to grind them to a powder with the little mortar (plus you get to feel a bit like a mad scientist).

For bigger spices like cinnamon and large amounts of peppercorns, I turn to my spice grinder (top left). Yeah, sure that may be sold as a coffee bean grinder, but it is fabulously useful in grinding my spices. I would certainly recommend buying a separate grinder for spices than the one you typically use for coffee beans because your coffee may end up tasting like cinnamon (yum) or tumeric (seriously yuck).

I really only use my biscotti pans to make biscotti, but you really can't make biscotti taste as good without them, so in my opinion it's another one of those one use tools that really are worth it to own. Still, I think these pans would be great to make some interesting shaped cakes or brownies if I ever have the urge.

The parchment paper you see in the pans is super useful to have on hand for practically anything in your kitchen. Not only does putting it in/on your cake pans and cookie sheets make clean up so much easier, but you can use it in making patterns for sewing and other crafts and as a disposable surface to save wiping up. Also, you can mimic the fancy bakeries by cutting this into squares and using in as muffin liners for baked goods. I haven't tried this, but I should. Actually, I'm pretty sure I just used up the last of my muffin liners, so in fact, I will be trying this.

Below the parchment paper is the difficult-to-find-in-stores garlic twist. It's kind of ridiculously expensive right now, but I cannot emphasize enough how useful it is to have. We use it for both garlic and fresh ginger; it takes seconds to mince three cloves of garlic and then even less time to clean. The cleaning part is what makes this hands-down better than a garlic press. I believe so firmly that this is worth having that I have given it as a gift in the past though every time it has been met with puzzled and dubious looks. Still, I persist.

If I had to use only one knife for the rest of my life, it would definitely be a  7-inch santoku knife (it practically already is the only one I ever use already). It's the perfect size to tackle anything in the kitchen without feeling like any second I'm going to chop off one of my fingers. Perhaps if I had better knife skills, this would change, but better knife skills don't seem a likely development so I will continue to turn to my favorite knife.

I use my kitchen shears for everything from cutting parchment paper to snipping herbs to trimming the fat off of meat. Sometimes even in preparing the same meal (though I end with the meat and always wash them very well after).

I actually grew up with this cake tester in our kitchen, so I asked for it when I had a kitchen of my own. It sort of reminds me of a oil dipstick, but I am reasonably sure that it's only use has ever been in the kitchen.  Using a metal cake tester, as opposed to a toothpick for example, makes it easier to see if your batter is set, and it's reusable so you're saving on waste. Sure this is another of those one use tools, but it doesn't take up any extra room.

A mini whisk is a surprisingly handy tool to have around. I find myself searching for it when I'm making small batches of batters, when I'm making mixed drinks, and when I just need to mix the salt and baking powder into the flour quickly before I add it to the wet ingredients.

We got the silicone muddler for a wedding gift, so we've really only had this a short while, but it is turning out to be a go-to kitchen tool. I use it for everything from squishing berries for toppings to actually muddling drink ingredients. The little waffle pattern on the bottom makes it very effective in squishing things.

I use my fine cheese grater for grating cheese, of course, but also for grating carrots for my tuna fish salad, and nutmeg (and less successfully, cinnamon sticks).

Finally, last but not least, I use my flour sack towels for everything in the kitchen. I tie them around my waist to use as an apron, use them as my surface for dusting raw fish or chicken with flour and spices, and even use them as actual towels occasionally.

There you have it, an immensely long post publicizing my love for kitchen tools. Like I said, odd, but hopefully helpful. Did I miss any tools or gadgets you can't live without?

*All pictures by me at night with the flash on, so forgive the poor quality. Perhaps I'll get around to replacing these with better ones, but it's about as likely as improving my knife skills. So. Well, don't bet a finger on it, I guess.

Quick(ish) and Different

Sometimes when I feel like our dinners are in a rut, Nathan and I break out the Fish Tacos. They're the perfect thing to remind you that summer's not too far away, and it's definitely a nice change from the usual go-to meals.

It doesn't take much work to make them because it's mostly just chopping vegetables. We like to add in tons of vegetables-tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, onions, and avocados. We also make a sort of cabbage slaw to go on top of everything. 

The cabbage slaw consists of nearly half of either a red or a regular cabbage, depending on my whim, sliced very thinly.
I add:
3 T. chopped cilantro
4-5 green onions (including white parts)
1 chopped jalapeno
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t cayenne
2 t. vinegar
1/3 c. olive oil
2 limes, zest and juice

Most of these measurements are a complete estimate, so feel free to add less or more of anything as you go.

We use any light fish we have on hand, which usually ends up being Tilapia. I break the fillets up into large chunks before breading them (but you could leave them whole fillets and let people break them up themselves after they're cooked), salt and pepper each, bread it in flour, and saute it in a pan with some olive oil or butter until it's lightly browned on both sides.

Serve when fish are fully cooked with all the fixings and tortillas. (Or just mix it all together on one plate McArdle-style).

It's Finally Here!

It's here! The long-awaited day of the year that every good Chicagoan looks forward to with excitement. Paczki Day! (Which this year just happens to fall the day after Casimir Pulaski Day, another Chicago tradition.)

Yum.