Saturday, 3/5/2011

Today I was at the Fauntleroy UCC women's retreat all day at the St. Mary's on the Lake Peace and Spirituality Center.  The guest speaker/facilitator was Jane Kurtz, an award winning childrens' author.  She led the group through several creative writing exercises, which I loved.  The first one of the day was my favorite.  She started by reading us a poem titled "Where I'm From", written by George Ella Lyon.  Jane then invited each of us to take 15 minutes to write our own poem, beginning with "I am from..."  I don't know if I am done with mine yet, but here it is, as it stands at this moment.

Where I'm From

I am from
chocolate, for medicinal purposes only
from keys, sharp & flat, black & white
from songs, solo, duet, & family quartet
from rainbows, dancing, beautiful, and full of promise.


I am from
purple- lavender & lilacs, fragrant & fresh
yellow- sunflowers & gloriosa daisies, bold & bright
red- scarlet runner beans & geraniums, private & poised.

I am from
Pinecrest, the house on the lake
from hours spent floating in the sometimes chilly lake
from talent shows, always fun & silly
from rousing games of pinochle- bid, pass, trump, YES!

I am from
a family- a mother, a father, a brother
grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends
from tickles, hugs, laughter, and love
from Ben & Katie, meant to be.

I'd love to hear what you think of this poem.  I'm sure I haven't written one since high school.  

Oh, and I suppose I should talk about dinner too:)  After the retreat, we were invited to Lyn's house for appetizers and drinks.  I wasn't sure what or how much was going to be served, and thought it might be a while before it was ready.  So, I stopped at McDonald's for a quick burger before going.  I'm glad I did.  There was plenty of food for all, but it wasn't my kind of food.  Lyn served smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers to spread on bread, a toasted mushroom spread on bread, seasoned cashews, and brownies.  The cashews were delicious, but I feel a couple handfuls of cashews is enough for anyone at one sitting:)  Even though the food wasn't my cup of tea, I had the most wonderful time with the women of my church.  What a compassionate group of people.      

Wednesday, 2/2/2011

We tried a new recipe tonight that we all loved!  I got it from the Cook's Country magazine years ago and finally gave it a shot.  The recipe would feed four just fine if you serve it over rice.  We did without the rice tonight and ended up with just three servings.  Here's the recipe:

STIR-FRIED BEEF WITH SNOW PEAS AND CASHEWS

Note: Put the raw flank steak in the freezer for 15 minutes to make slicing easier.  Working with the grain, cut the steak into three long strips, then cut each strip across the grain into 1/8-inch-thick slices.  Serve with steamed rice. 

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds flank steak, cut into thin slices (see note above)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 pound snow peas, stem ends trimmed
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup unsalted roasted cashews, chopped

Directions: 
1.  Combine steak and soy sauce in medium bowl, cover, and refrigerate while preparing other ingredients.  Whisk hoisin sauce, water, and pepper flakes together in small bowl.
2.  Heat 2 teaspoons oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking.  Add half of steak, break up clumps with wooden spoon, and cook, without stirring, for 1 minute.  Toss steak until browned around the edges, about 30 seconds.  Transfer to clean bowl.  Heat 2 teaspoons oil in skillet until just smoking and repeat with remaining beef.
3.  To now-empty skillet, add remaining 2 teaspoons oil and heat until just smoking.  Add snow peas and cook, stirring once or twice, for 2 minutes.  Clear center of pan and add garlic and ginger.  Cook, mashing garlic mixture with back of spatula, until fragrant, about 45 seconds.  Stir garlic mixture into snow peas, then toss in steak.  Whisk hoisin sauce mixture to recombine, pour into pan, and cook until thickened, about 1 minute.  Stir in cashews and transfer to platter.  Serve.

Thursday, 9/9/2010

My company's annual picnic was this afternoon.  I signed up to bring a main dish to the potluck, because there always seems to be an abundance of dessert and only a few main dishes.  Not wanting to cook, I decided to pick up Thai food from Buddha Ruksa on the way to the picnic.  If you live in the Puget Sound, are open to going out to eat in West Seattle, and you like Thai food, you need to check out Buddha Ruksa.  The food is delicious, the staff is very friendly, and the prices are really reasonable.  Anyway, today I picked up an order of Crispy Garlic Chicken and an order of Phad Prik Khing--stir-fried fresh green beans, tofu, bell pepper, and kaffir lime leaves in curry paste.  When it was time for me to take Katie home from the picnic, I was thrilled to find that there was enough of both dishes to take home leftovers for dinner.  Score!!!

Tonight, I heated the Phad Prik Khing up in a small saucepan and microwaved the chicken.  Ben and I finished those plus the remainder of the Hot Mango Chutney Cashew dip, from his mom's birthday party, for our dinner.  We thoroughly enjoyed our meal:)  Katie was not OK with the spice of the Thai food or the dip, so she ate a hot dog dipped in ketchup.  I think she enjoyed her meal too;)

Saturday, 8/28/2010

It's party day...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!!!

It is my mother-in-law's 60th birthday today.  Ben, Spencer, and I are throwing her a big party along with her friends Chris and Larry.  They graciously agreed to let us hold the party at their home in Oregon City, Oregon.  Thank you Chris and Larry!  After a delicious coffee cake breakfast, the three of us took off to run errands and prep for the party.  Katie got to stay behind for some Grandma time.  Maybe I should say, Katie stayed behind so that Grandma could have some Katie time:)

Our first stop of the morning was JaCiva's for the birthday cake--chocolate cake, chocolate mousse filling, and butter cream frosting.  Spencer forwarded a photo of the napkins we purchased for the party to be used as cake decoration inspiration.  They did a fantastic job matching the colors and overall floral theme.  The cake was quite yummy, although, I did eat too much in the end.  I planned on sharing my large corner piece with Katie, but then she wouldn't eat a bit.  So, I ate the whole thing by myself.  Later, Katie really did want cake and insisted on sharing it with me.  Yes, I ate a lot of cake tonight.  And yes, I had it with vanilla ice cream too. 

Once at Chris and Larry's home, we arranged flowers, decorated, arranged tables, washed potatoes, stuffed peppers, chopped rosemary, sliced citrus fruits, prepared appetizer dishes, and got ready for the wine and cheese tasting.  We were busy!  For the first two hours of the party, we served appetizers and had a blind wine and cheese tasting activity.  Yesterday we shopped for wine and cheese at New Seasons Market, located not far from Jennifer's home.  Ben did pairing research ahead of time and took his list of 10 wine and cheese combinations to the store.  He and Spencer did their best to pick out the right cheeses first.  Then, they talked with a wine steward who helped pick out the right wines to pair with the cheeses at the right prices.  After the wines were selected, the cheese expert was back from her break and helped tweak the cheese selections a bit.  In the end, we were under budget on wine and cheese and super pleased with the service we received.  Just so you know, if you buy a case or more of wine at New Seasons Market in one purchase, you get a 20% discount.  That is huge!

For the tasting activity, we covered the wine bottle labels and numbered them.  I made the cute covers:)  The cheeses that complimented each wine were cute into bite sizes and piled in front of the bottles.  We made a large poster that listed the wines and cheese in random orders.  If the guests were interested in participating in the activity, they could take a stab at guessing which wines and cheeses they were tasting.  I am very proud of myself for guessing 8 out of 10 wines correctly.  Unfair advantage you say?  Nope...I left Ben alone for his research and didn't pay any attention to the wine steward while he recommended the wines.  I'm just that good ;-) We purchased a wine glass for each person who said they were coming.  I made personalized tags to circle the base of each glass.  With 28 adults expected, we did our best to avoid wine glass confusion.  I think it worked well! 

We had quite a few appetizers to choose from.  Chris prepared stuffed jalapenos and a fresh veggie dish with a Peppercorn Parmesan dip.  I made a Hot Mango Chutney Cashew dip, a Spicy Lemon Veggie dip, and roasted elephant garlic.  Ben blanched a pound of sugar snap peas to go along with the veggie dip.  We served sliced french bread baguettes to spread the chutney cashew dip and roasted garlic on.  The dip recipes and peas I made are included at the end of this blog entry.

For dinner we made Pollo Pibil--citrus spice marinated chicken, roasted potatoes with rosemary, and our standard household spinach, mandarin orange, and goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side.  For the salad, we ended up using about a pound of spinach, 1 1/2 small cans of mandarin oranges, and a 1/3 of a pound of crumbled goat cheese.  Follow the imbedded link for the chicken recipe, previously posted on this blog. The potato recipe will be at the end of this blog entry too.  

At the end of the day, we feel like we threw a great party.  The guests enjoyed themselves and Jennifer had a wonderful time.  It was a lot of work, but TOTALLY worth it:)  

Jennifer, Spencer, Katie, Ben, and me

Here are the recipes:

HOT MANGO CHUTNEY CASHEW DIP- from my friend Taran


Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese
2/3 cup sour cream
3-5 tsp curry powder, depending on preference
1/2 cup hot mango chutney
1 cup chopped cashews, divided

Directions:
Mix together all ingredients, saving 1/4 cup of the cashews for later.  Spoon into a serving dish and top with the reserved cashews.   Spread on slices of french bread baguettes or similar bread. 

Notes: I doubled this recipe due to the high number of guests expected.  With the amount of food available, we ended up taking home one recipe worth of the dip.  I'm not complaining, but it is worth mentioning.  It is a rich dip. 

SPICY LEMON DIPPING SAUCE- from Alton Brown's cookbook "I'm Just Here for the Food, volume 2.0"

Ingredients:
2/3 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
Zest from one lemon, chopped fine
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, red pepper flakes and tarragon.  Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

Notes: This really is a spicy dip.  The spice hit on the tongue is a bit delayed.  The recipe calls for 12 ounce of sugar snap peas.  I have found that you will end up with 2-3 times more dip than you need for 12 ounces of peas.  So, either have more peas available or make a smaller batch of dip.  

SUGAR SNAP PEAS- also from Alton Brown


Ingredients:
Heavy pinch kosher salt
12 ounces of sugar snap peas, trimmed and rinsed (approximately 4 cups)

Directions:
Bring 2 quarts of water and the salt to boil in a 4-quart saucepan, covered, over high heat.  Add the peas and cook uncovered for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.  Drain the peas and immediately plunge into ice water.  Drain and set aside.  The actual time of course will depend on the peas.  These aren't big ole green beans, and few things are as awful as limp sugar snaps.  So stay right with them as they cook.

Even if the dip is perfect and the peas are dead on, the dish will fail if the peas are wet.  Once they've chilled down, dry them well or the dip just won't stick...and that would be sad. 


ROASTED POTATOES WITH ROSEMARY- from the Safeway brand Produce Stand fresh rosemary package

Prep time: 10 minutes--for one batch;)
Bake time: 25 to 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 pounds small (1 1/2 to 2-inches) red skin or White Rose potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt, course type preferred
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Scrub potatoes, dry well and cut in half lengthwise.  Pour olive oil into a rimmed baking sheet into which the potatoes fit comfortably.  Heat in oven until oil is hot, about 3 minutes.  Swirl to coat pan and place potatoes cut side down in hot oil.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until cut side is golden brown.  Remove from oven, turn with a spatula, sprinkle with rosemary and toss to coat.  Serve immediately.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Notes: We made approximately 9 pounds of potatoes for the party.  Thankfully, Chris and Larry have two ovens.  With two full baking sheets in each oven, the potatoes were ready in 30 minutes.  Be warned, the oil heats up quickly in 450 degrees and starts to smoke.  Keep your fan running when you open the oven door to reduce the risk of a smoke detector going off.