phew

today i put all that food out there. then left. after all that work and time and thought and care. hmm. feeling kinda sad that i don't get to see it get in their mouths... to see their reactions. that is the hard part. now i just have to go to bed, almost just as anxious as during the cooking process... because now comes the waiting for the feedback.. and it is delayed feedback and ugh. i hate waiting.

in the meantime, here's for those that are prone to drooling: the menu (and quantities, ok- so i'm bragging a little about what came out of this kitchen over the past few days)

- 17 pounds of orzo pasta salad: cherry tomatoes, cukes, parsley, feta cheese, a roasted tomato vinaigrette- three trays of romaine salad with marcona almonds, manchego cheese - 2 quarts of "three mustard" vinaigrette (for the salad)- 1 quart of roasted tomato spread with pine nuts- 2 quarts of white bean and roasted garlic spread with basil pesto- toasted pita with salt and parsley- 24 loaves of flatbread topped with herbs and spices and YUM!- three trays of fig/carmelized onion/gorgonzola crostini- two big bowls of melon salad with lime and mint sweetness...

i guess i just have to trust my tastes, my sensibilities and my style and hope that everybody eating tonight "got it". maybe i'll wake up tomorrow and be famous! ha.

my first customer!

at pizza night this week i got a sorbet customer! she loved the watermelon sorbet so much and wanted to serve it at a dinner party this weekend. so i whipped up another batch. how cool.

it has been so amazing for me to have this blog.. it is so fun to look at all the posts and see a record of what i have been cooking and eating. and even more fun to watch all of y'all eat the stuff that i have so much fun making- and love it!

thanks for all your support- it is really satisfying to get to be so creative, so all over the map with the things i like to do and to get such nice feedback.. and a special thanks to mama laums- who has let me completely take over her kitchen with my projects.

and i guess this means i am selling frozen deliciousness! ha!

fig flatbread

and this one- figs and carmelized onions on the flatbread. yum.

flatbread factory

i get to cook for this huge party this weekend. there's gonna be about 150 people at an event for the cincinnati entertainment awards in theatre.. so i am pretty busy. decided to just go all out and make all my favorite things. #1 being my flatbread.

(it has been suggested of me recently that i have too many "favorites", diluting the meaning... hmmm, i hate people that limit their faves. what do you guys have to get excited about!?)

this flatbread has followed me out west and back, perfect accompaniment to a cheese plate, good for snacking as an appetizer, adds something special to a bread basket.

and it is super easy- and very time consuming:

4 c. flour

1 package quick rising yeast

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 1/3 c. water (125-130 ish)

blend it all in a food processor, or with your hands. knead, then let rise.. covered. after about an hour, or when the dough has doubled, punch it down, cut into 8 pieces and let stand for about 20 minutes. roll out as thin as you can and brush with milk. top with whatever you want, and some salt and pepper. it bakes at 375.

some toppings like i use are: a dry mix of capers and olives and peppercorns, also the bravas salt that i use on everything, and sesame seeds. salt and pepper is good, if you are going to be dipping.

figs

the first time that i can remember having a fresh fig was in walla walla. toma brought some to work after a trip to pike's place market in the early fall. toma was always going around and getting me into stuff that i wasn't into yet. and i was hooked.

when i found myself in seattle in late august, i bought a pint of fresh figs for the ride home and a pint to share with jim and claire. they love them. we had those in the bar with cheese and a special balsamico. there isn't any "special" vinegar laying around here, but this will be a yummy bite!

watermelon sorbet

this is the other one: pureed watermelon, simple syrup, mint and lime juice.

green grape/ pernod sorbet

so many peeps came out for pizza night last week, that i'm making two sorbets. it looks like too much sorbet... well, there is just no such thing. so this is sorbet #1. and it has come out of the white gazpacho trial... that grape business has been on my brain ever since. i would say that the flavor of this is haunting.

green grapes soaked in pernod, lemon juice, syrup, star anise and thyme for a few days. took out all the anise and pureed the grapes with the liquid. strained and churned. the grape is so refreshing and making me think of all those who will be starting harvest soon! this would be really great with super ripe sweet chardonnay grapes. the pernod and anise give it the haunting part, depth and mystery and i love it.

wedding yum yums

and its all gone.
after a wonderful party at a beautiful lodge in an amazing park...
magical night.
much love to the happy couple!

the cake, part 2

the cake is done! waiting for a flower arrangement for the top.. i am pretty happy with how it turned out, can't wait to watch them cut into it! now i am going to shave my legs, paint my fingernails and put a dress on.. gah!

suz's cake, part 1

dear oldest friend suz is getting married tomorrow! i apparently love to get involved with a friend or family member's wedding dessert once every year or two, just to keep my feet wet in the land of fancy pastries.. the nice thing about this one is that i am only making a little cutie for them to cut into. for the photo album. they "don't like cake". i'm suspicious.

took the day off today to bake the cakes and get all the other jazz started.. so far, so good! there is a tall, 9" round and this cute 6" guy for the top. a lemony white cake layered with a raspberry puree and lemon mousse. the whole thing will be artfully (i hope) decorated in buttercream tomorrow.

i can't imagine how these guys are feeling! i have to admit that i have been feeling a little anxious about my end of the project, with the pressure of trying to make new cake loving converts and with the pics and whatnot... but they are in for a much bigger day! i have baked lots of love and happiness and adventures into this cake, hope they can taste it..

aww. sentimental latenight post.

limoncello mint sorbet

this one was soooo refreshing. sugar, water and limoncello cooked. added lots of lemon juice and some fresh mint. cooled and strained and churned. been working on the rest of the bottle of limoncello this week with mint and fizzy water. a dangerously good summer night around the block with the dog kinda drink.

bun!

i have been missing walla like crazy these past few days. don't know what it is, but something is in my air.. mostly those nights of going to pho sho, having an order of the chicken wings, some bun, a tiger beer and some sake.. so i tried to recreate the bun here. this came pretty close... better than any version i have had in these parts, for sure.

cold rice noodles, nuoc cham: garlic, jalapeno, chili paste, water, sugar, fish sauce and some lime juice. carrots, bean sprouts, cukes, cilantro, basil and more lime juice squeezed over top. i made a peanut sauce for the fried tofu: ginger, garlic, jalapenos, fish sauce and coconut milk.

a nice cold salad after seeing the movie julia, julia. this has kind of sent me into a tailspin... thinking about cooking, blogging and what i am doing with all of it. about how i NEED to get to traveling and eating and all that jazz. hoping the movie will sink in for me in a peaceful way, in a motivating way and maybe get some direction for this ship...

fennel ice cream

this treat made its debut at pizza night last week. a big hit. really sweet vanilla up front and some herbally, green anise at the end. the cream tasted so light with those flavors.

3 c. heavy cream and 2 c. milk got to enjoy the company of two bulbs of fresh fennel. after soaking for a day, i warmed the milk with 1 1/2 c. of sugar and some vanilla bean. after heating, i tempered the milk into 8 yolks.

the warming of the fennel made it taste less sharp and fresh, so i soaked two more fennel bulbs in the ice cream base for another day.

meatnormous

there was talk of us all heading down to a steakhouse tonight. when the girl says she wants steaks, you just do it. but we were hot and sweaty and lainy came in on that truimph with a bag full of ny strip steaks and some short ribs, so we fired up the grill and got to business. much better this way cause i could feed tucker some bites. grilled some summer squashes and some onions, marinated the steak in balsamic and oil with salt and pepper. out of habit. the short ribs got tossed in balsamic, worchestershire (sp?) and pepper. who knew that i really wanted a steak too. delish. and we ate outside. and tucker is still looking at me like i got something for him. beggar.

tomato gazpacho

so there's a guy that comes to our shop and takes all of our food and coffee waste to his farm for compost. i love that we do that, even though this time of year it is more difficult- the stuff starts composting while it is still here waiting to be picked up- ugh. the other night when he was coming through he brought in a beautiful basket of garlic, squashes, tomatoes, and cabbages. all stuff that was grown on his farm, fed by our waste. full circle stuff that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and connected and hungry.

i took the basket home and stopped by the dirty knees garden for some supplemental freshness. gathered some really great peppers: green bell peppers, some jalepenos and white bell peppers. a few zucchinis were just begging to come home. and there will be an eggplant so soon! i can't wait for that. the cherry tomatoes are like candy!

the gazpacho turned out really great. in my mind, you can't really mess it up if you start with the good stuff that tastes like sun and heat and is juicy! threw in some fennel chunks from other projects. 2 big cukes with their seeds out and chopped up smallish. 6 big tomatoes chopped and then i did some fancy french business and pulled this trick called tomato concasse with another 6 tomatoes.. removed the skin and seeds and smashed them up in the chopper for tomato juice. probably more work that its worth, but hey. street cred. two green bell peppers and two white. a jalepeno and a handful of garlic cloves in the chopper with some red wine vinegar. a sweet onion chopped smallish. some fresh basil and parsley. a dash of olive oil and then of balsamic. lots of salt and a bit of sugar and some pepper.

the fun thing about gazpacho is that there is really no order of operations. like in making hot soups- none of the starting with the fat, then the mirepoix, adding whatever else needs a saute, adding any flour, deglazing, stock, etc. you can just throw things in till you get it where you want it. and that is fun. this one is on the green and yellow side of the color spectrum with nice crunch and zing and acid and a little heat.

pool party picnic (3 Ps) fennel!

best fennel salad ever. picked up a few bunches (sounds like i'll be making vanilla bean and fennel ice cream for this weeks pizza night) and couldn't resist making this salad. as inspired by what's for dinner? fennel bulb sliced, tomatoes, kalamata olives, red onion. this time i added some cheese- manchego. dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lots of s & p. some purple and green basil and some of the fennel leaves..

the cheese wasn't all that necessary or noticeable- and i don't usually do it. but maybe next time fresh mozz or some feta would be nice. creamier and chunkier.. the crunch is my most favorite texture and this salad is great on a pile of greens too. it gets real juicy from the tomatoes and is beautiful, fresh and a little salty for summer.

it was really great to spend a hot hot hot day at a pool. we stopped floating for a bit in the afternoon for a wonderful lunch of cold salads. all the other stuff we ate is in the next few posts. there was a really good cold watermelon too and ice cream cake from graeters for pammie's birthday. happy birthday, pam!

3 Ps- guest chefs

uncle phill made the delish fruit spread. i heard him saying something about neufchatel cheese, amaretto, chocolate. i couldn't heard it all because of the sweet crunch of green apples covered in the goodness.

auntie leigh made the black bean, tomato and avocado yum yums. i could eat this all day. three of my most favorite things together.

3 Ps- instead of subway

there was talk of going to subway for a party sub for the pool party.. with me around? insult. but this is my ode to the cold cut. a whole wheat wrap, some boursin cheese, turkey, bacon, cukes and red pepper. all rolled up.

3 Ps- slaw

i like throwing all the rest of the jazz into a slaw. already had red onion, cukes and bell pepper. always use the bagged broccoli slaw. it is the best and lives a long life, even when covered in dressing. for crunch and salt, sunflower seeds. toasted almond slivers for health and i just use a toss of whatever dressing in the fridge needs to get on with it... this could be my version of something "semi homemade". sierra lee.

3 Ps- potato salad

love making potato salad. this one is red potatoes, boiled and cut/mashed. hard boiled eggs. bacon, of course. a sweet onion, chopped up. and the dressing was GOOD. in the chopper, a jalapeno, a clove of garlic, some cider vinegar, some mayo. s & p, lots of smoked paprika.

basil float

i'm not cooking today. but check out this float! basil gelato from this week's pizza party (- there is some leftover! come and get it!) a basil syrup and some soda water.

basil syrup: drop the basil leaves real quick in boiling water. get them right into ice water and then squeeze out the water. put leaves and simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, dissolved) in the chopper. put it in your lemonade!

basil gelato: 2 c. milk and 2 c. half & half and 1 c. sugar and 1 vanilla bean, scraped. heated and tempered into 8 egg yolks. i used tons of basil. blanched and chopped it too, and mixed it into the ice cream mix. i strained out the basil right before churning, but there was still a hint of green and some specks. i would like to shoot for more color next time, maybe blanching the leaves in the milk?

the gelato has a nice vanilla taste up front, then you get that herbal fresh basil green part at the swallow. as a float, it is all sweet basil and creamy. yum.

and i am really thinking so much about the article from yesterday, you all should read it for sure. i like the way michael pollan writes and i really like that it is about women and food and entertainment and health and the different ways that food/cooking/eating plays out in our lives.

two of my favorite parts (am i allowed to put these on here?) are about how julia child is flipping a potato pancake and she says that it is about your convictions. and that the only way to learn to flip something is to flip it... love that. reminds me of getting omelettes drilled into me on my first sunday brunch shift. and love how its about courage and just going for it..

and then the part about how the cooking shows (and life) stress the quick results of cooking and not the pleasure of enjoying the process or the eating.. i am under the impression that julia was able to show both on her show that happened in real time. i like thinking about her. that she was 6'2". ha. i can't wait to see the movie, as i loved the book about her life. i listened to it on tape on my way home across country and was so taken with everything about her.

brunch!

sunday brunch with my favorite couple. and i got to pick today. i have wanted to try nectar, they had a good brunch there once and we need to be branching out of the neighborhood. i have always had an enormous respect=intimidation for julie frances, and haven't made it to this spot (had a wonderful dinner once upon a time at aioli).

so we headed over that way. we peeked into nectar and noticed that it looked pretty deserted, while the cute place next door had some folks eating outside and people coming and going. hmm. but there was a sign out front, so we went in. there was no one to greet us at the door, and after waiting a minute, we decided to seat ourselves at a table in the front window. thought we'd be helping them out with making the place look occupied. and turns out there were some other customers there, behind a wall. hmm. so we sat there for a minute, there was definitely someone cooking in the kitchen, we could see her. so we pulled out the paper and dug in. of course, i called the magazine- the main article being by michael pollan and about food. after realizing that i had gotten thru the start of the mag, and was getting into the main article- and we still hadn't heard a peep from anyone working there, i suggested that we leave. how strange.

we were a little irritated on the way out, i wanted to yell something snarky, like "THANKS!" but i kept quiet. obviously something strange was happening. maybe when i am feeling VERY patient, we will try again. although, hungry and patient are not usually things that happen to me coincidentally.

and then we stumbled upon the best brunch ever. walked right next door to annabel's and were able to score one of two tables out front. turns out we sort of know the girl who waited on us, charming and happy and covered in beautiful tattoos. we got coffee and jen had some berry iced tea. the menu was great, all the things that you would want to eat if you wanted to make yourself brunch and happened to have croissants and lots of fresh fruit and cheese and eggs. i couldn't decide because i was so happy about it. the place is decorated with colorful food photos, from travels with bette, it says on the menu- charming charming charming. i think jenna and i both wished we were named bette right then.

i ordered corn cakes with blackberries and bananas. jenna got lox, which she loves but feels she must gamble on because it is so often not delish at honey. and timmy got some egg "love" and i was so into my cakes that i have no idea what the love was. but it came with a croissant and fruit. the pancakes had the fruit mixed in, soooo good. soft grit of the corn, there was a honey/orange zesty marmalade on top and some really fresh fruit on the side. whoa. we were all so happy. and then i had to go pee after coffee and there was a world map and gerber daisies in the bathroom. i am such a sucker for that shit. annabel's wins.